Weekend painting update

I'm slowly making progress on the big pile of minis I have, those from before and those I was shamed into buying from the Reaper Bones kickstarter.  If nothing else having a huge pile of minis staring me down gives me something to use up the paint I bought a couple years ago.  I have to admit I do enjoy doing it, especially when I can also catch up on podcasts.  I can only listen to podcasts when driving or painting, any other activity and I can't focus on what people are saying.

I figured out a decent way to get the paint to mix, dropping in some hematite discs and fitting the paint into into my drill for a nice little spin really picked up a lot of the lumpy ones.  I also figured that painting on the Bones material is doable but you can't mix down the paint with water - just paint right from the bottle.  Also next round I'll probably paint all the shadow areas with some black when I'm doing the base coat, because unlike on the primed figures, the dark wash really beads up and away on any areas of Bones plastic you might have missed.  Nothing like having white peeking through to spoil the illusion.

Anyway the first two pictures are finished minis* that I posted before. 

Axe guy

Barcephalus the Elf.  His boots are not so very red in real life...

The second two are minis that are not quite finished but that are coming along pretty nicely.

You never call meeeee...

Yes those are purple hulk pants

*washed, drybrushed, based and sealed with dulcote.  Yes that is marjarom in with the rock dust.

In which a long awaited package arrives at my door

When I got back from our family camping trip there was a small parcel from Finland at the door.   My copy of the Lamentations of the Flame Princess hard cover book had arrived.  I can't recall when I signed up for this on the Indiegogo campaign, but it was a while ago.  I hadn't worried about it however because I had faith that the book would be done well and I would get a quality product.  And it is a quality product.  It is very nice to look, has nice pages, good binding and even sports a lovely ribbon bookmark.  And the art is very nice - and weird - but it all works very well.  It even sports handsome and useful tables on the inside covers.  At first I was a bit bemused because it was a small book (8.5'' x 6'') and I guess I still think in terms of the large format hardcovers.  However after only a short perusal I find that I kind of like this smaller format for a hardcover.  It is light but solid and it fits nicely in your hand.  Here is a photo comparison with the DCC rule book - which is a monster.  I would not want to take the DCC book out for a stroll or anywhere I didn't have a table to support it, but the LotFP book I would slip into a pocket and pull it out at the drop of a hat.

LotFP hardcover and adventure supplement.

Fits well in the hands, has a solid binding and includes a nice bookmark.  Quality product.

Report - Zombie Risk

So Zombie Risk works pretty darn good as outlined.  We played a 4 player game using those rules and it was noticeably more fun fighting the zombies and attacking each other via proxy than simply fighting each other directly.  There were suitable amounts of hatred for other players, but it was a little less personal. There were many more moments of cooperation and rooting for other players than you would get in a typical game. It was fun to use familiar game mechanics in a new way to quell the growing zombie hordes.

The infection on a 1 mechanic was really good and a lot of fights took a sudden turn for the worse when a player's units converted to zombie units mid fight.  It was also good that the infection cards only dropped two units into countries as this limited the attack dice at first and made these skirmishes more tolerable, but made it all the more dramatic when it happened that fallen armies were infected.  The game started out a bit slow and at first the zombies seemed to be a bit weak and it was a concern that players wouldn't be able to get their cards each turn for lack of targets.  However as the zombies gained new units after each player turn, and also the 'infection' cards caused outbreaks and conversions of player countries, it soon became apparent that these zombies were getting to be a real problem.  Slowly the zombie faction spread and soon there were heroic fights just to knock the zombies down a country or two to prevent them from getting that one extra reinforcement next turn.  By the time that players are turning in card sets for higher numbers of units, the zombies had very large hordes in place to counter.  There was a real sense of survival horror and fighting against growing hordes that came with these mechanics.

There was a lot of option for strategic manoeuvring and for player diplomacy, and since everyone had vested interest in the zombie faction it was a much more interactive game than I remember regular risk being.  I am sure that a strategic co-operation in the early game would make it pretty easy to wipe out the zombie faction, but the player self interest in controlling territory seems to be a decent counter to that.  It is good that the zombies only receive one attack per turn and then the two infection cards as it prevents them from being used too aggressively against a single opponent or for a signal purpose.

The players suggested that it would only be fair to have some sort of 'cure' mechanic where zombie forces that rolled 1 on a loss would turn into humans again.  I am not sure this is a good idea but it was a popular request all through the game.  I suggested that perhaps if the zombies lost on a 1 against a roll of 6 the zombie could be cured - making it a more rare occurrence.  I would consider this as a house rule of the house rules I guess.

Some clarifications/qualifications to the rules:

1. Setup should be done by dealing out all the country cards (minus the wild cards) and putting units on the countries you receive - at least for the zombie faction if not for all players.  I assumed this since it's always how we played, but it's not in the official rules I had.  Once all territories have a unit, then the remaining units are placed as reinforcements in player order.  Players should take turns to place a number of reinforcements equal to the number of players and then place a zombie unit until they are all deployed.

2. Zombies get reinforcements for the number of countries they control but do not get cards or continent bonuses.

Axe guy

This guy is not a Reaper Bones acquisition but he's pretty groovy.  He is all done the with base coat and I just have to fix up his right eye, do a wash, and then lacquer him up.  Then I'll glue some junk to his base, maybe try some old oregano this time.  In the back you see a couple of the plastic Bones minis I've started on. They are a bit bendy, but then again I don't have to worry about breaking off buddy's sword or bending that dude's bow too much when working.

I haven't done a lot of painting on the Bones yet, and I am practicing on some of the old minis I had never finished along side my initial test pieces.  It is a different way to paint than I'm used to, not that I am seasoned painter by any means.  You aren't supposed to need primer on the Bones minis, but I think I'll look into options for it anyway because if you thin your paint to where it's nice to apply, it kind of beads up on the soft Bones plastic.  I had gotten into a grove with metal minis and I was used to painting over black primer because all the hard to reach spots are shadowed by default.  Painting the Bones minis, I am always seeing white bits where I missed a spot - always - I'll never get them all!  For standard dude size minis I think I still prefer the metal ones, since they are easier to prep and prime.  I find when trimming the flash on the soft plastic you can get some 'fur' going on if  you are not careful.  The plastic gets all rough and hairy.  I also find it hard to see the fine details and mold lines in the white plastic before it's painted. I think that the larger Bones will be better to work with though, they are a bit sturdier but are lighter than metal and certainly easier to put together than metal ones.  It will be fun working on the bigger pieces and I won't have to worry so much about gluing them wrong or breaking them as I would with big metal pieces.

And here's a closeup of one of the Bones minis (in forced perspective no less!).  This is my new DCC character (the previous two died).  He's an elf but his skin is blue because of a spell corruption effect.  He's pretty much done with the base coat as well and now needs a little cleanup before going for a wash.  I'm not even sure I can lacquer and dulcote these guys or if that coating would wind up cracking with the more flexible material.  I'll find out I guess.

Zombie Risk

Can such a precision machine be tuned?

Its funny how some ideas are so simple but you never think of them until you hear that simple phrase or concatenation of terms that sparks the self evident.  I was pretty much done with Risk years and years ago.  I kept a copy in hand for nostalgia, and then later on, to play with the kids.  I didn't think I'd want to play it again though.  Risk: Legacy looked interesting but it didn't look 70$ worth of interesting.

A couple days ago I saw the term Zombie Risk in a google search on house rules for Zombies!!! and immediately I realized what that there was potential for shenanigans here.  Without even reading any details I could think of ways to revive that Risk board and maybe fix some of the problems with the game, make it fun again.  It is not an accident that this synergy has occurred, Zombies!!! and Risk have much in common being games that are very popular and fun while being pretty flawed.  The universe loves them despite themselves.

I've looked up some different rules going under the label of Zombie Risk and I think my favorite are the ones that have a semi-cooperative feel to them.  These variants use one faction as the zombies and have the other factions not allowed to attack each other directly but use the zombie faction as the beating stick.

I'm going to try a few different ideas and play test this with my family.  My goal is to shorten the game,  make it more fun to mess with the other players without getting too personal about things, and to prevent turtling up and the Australia effect as much as possible.

Basic rules: 

• Set up the game as normal* but with one faction being the zombies.  I'd use good old zombie Black but what ever floats your boat.
• Every turn players play their turn and then take a zombie turn.  Players may only attack zombie controlled countries in their regular turn but are free to go after anyone as the zombies.
• In the Zombie turn you add armies for countries controlled as normal** and then make one attack on someone, and then flip two cards - placing two zombie units in each of those countries and then resolving those combats as well. 
• In combat, players who loose a combat roll with 1s convert their lost unit(s) to zombie units which immediately rise up to continue the fight.
• You win by being last player standing or the player with the most points (countries and continent bonuses) if the zombies are wiped out.

I'm going to try this basic set of rules and see how it works out.  Then adjust to suit.


update:

*Setup should be done by dealing out all the country cards (minus the wild cards) and putting units on the countries you receive - at least for the zombie faction if not for all players.  I assumed this since it's always how we played, but it's not in the official rules I had.  Once all territories have a unit, then the remaining units are placed as reinforcements in player order.  Players should take turns to place a number of reinforcements equal to the number of players and then place a zombie unit until they are all deployed.

** Zombies get reinforcements for the number of countries they control but do not get cards or continent bonuses.