Gladiators

I recently picked up Spartacus, the 2021 boardgame about running a stable of gladiators. I've looked at Jugula before, and now I've heard Blood on the Sands is launching a Kickstarter imminently.

Here are my figures for Spartacus- they're non-heroically-proportioned 28mm plastic.

Here are 20mm Italeri soft plastics I painted up at the start of this year:

Most of these were painted with Speedpaints/ Contrast.

Thirteenth bloggiversary!

Thirteen years and still blogging!

My main hobby accomplishment of the year has been wrapping up my Five Parsecs campaign. I really appreciated Ivan Sorensen's ruleset and how it took me in unexpected directions. I enjoyed the inspiration for gaming and trying to weave it all together. See my reflections on this here.

Escaping the underhive

Last stand at the Innominate

At the end of last year I allowed myself to get more ensnared by GW again. I never thought I'd start painting a Space Marine chapter, but here we are.

Strike Force Justian

Veteran Sergeant

Intercessors

Having planted a flag for the Lamenters, I revisited my Pinkstone marines and they defected to the Red Corsairs. More to come of these bad boys.

Red Corsairs

Daemonkin and Master of Possession

So I've been painting a lot for 40K- and that's been a bit of a sobering wake-up, because these take me ages to paint. I've tried to reign in my worst excesses and focus on finishing a few projects before leaping into new ones.

I did a few other little pieces here and there, mostly science fiction:

Apple and Turbo Kid

Buddy

Galadriel

HP Lovecraft and LP Hovercraft

Halo Jones

You can see I've enjoyed Jon Hodgson's backdrop books.

What does the future hold?

As always, at this time of year I start to think about the upcoming Analogue Challenge. I have a lot of options to choose from.

I've really enjoyed my 5PFH campaign. I'd like to get another campaign going- probably another gaming system. I have been casting glances at the Forbidden Psalm suite...

This time last year I casually mentioned some upcoming lifestyle changes- so this is Furiosa:

40K Lamenters: Lieutenant and Apothecary Biologis

I've been enjoying painting my Lamenters recently, and have a pair of characters.

First is the 'Lone Operative Lieutenant' with a combi-flamer. This chap was one of the unique figures released for the 2023 10th 'Leviathan' edition of 40K. I did a light kitbash, changing the base, head, and adding a pointing hand to replace the second knife he was waving around (I wanted to add a pistol but didn't have a left handed one available). He's wearing the lighter Phobos armour. He is supposed to be a behind-the-lines lone operative, surviving with a scavenged Tyranid carapace strapped to his arm and a souvenir claw on his belt.

Lone operative lieutenant

Combi-flamer

Improvised armour. I think I could improve on the gore.

Second is a Apothecary Biologis. He's not a healer- he uses his anatomical and scientific know-how to inflict more efficient injuries on the enemy. Some call him a 'harmacist', or a PhD rather than an MD. He wears the heavy Gravis armour to wade into combat and collect samples. I was going to do a silver chest emblem, but the pale grey looked great so I left it. I tried to get a sloshy liquid effect in his sample canister.

Apothecary Biologis

Of course, the Lamenters don't have apothecaries. Being descended from Blood Angels with their Sanguinary Priests, the Lamenters have Calix Priests. I'm not entirely sure how the Biologis fits into this organisation, but I will find a way.

Skull-o-meter™: 11

Space Hulk: reflections

I recently finished all the 'campaign' from Space Hulk (2014), including the 'Disable the shields' game from White Dwarf #33 (Sep 2014). The photos of this scenario are below. I've dragged this out over several years against the same opponent, knocking off a few games each year. I'm very glad to have completed all these games, which I have never done despite owning Space Hulk (1989) since the 90s.

The boarding torpedo screams across the void.

The Terminators break into the hulk.

Contact! A long corridor provides no cover.

The squad advances with mutual cover...

Jammed! A genestealer rips the heavy flamer marine apart.

As the plan falls apart, the far marine makes a slow break for the objective.

The genestealers swarm!

Jammed! The sergeant goes down.

The terminator sacrifices himself to buy time.

The sole survivor lumbers toward the objective.

He holds off the xenos long enough to disable the shields.
Victory! But at what cost?

I have long appreciated the elegant simplicity of SH: the tension of blips moving on the board, and everything swinging on single die rolls. 6s to hit in shooting with minimal modifiers; simple action points, line of sight, and square grid-based movement. There have been some changes from the 1989 original but the core experience is the same*. While the Terminator player gets D6 'Command Points' to spend every turn to give them a little action flexibility, the only surprises the Genestealer player has are how many xenos each blip represents. This does sadly lead to some predictable situations where you know exactly that you are unreachable this turn.

I can't help but try to improve this venerable classic- give the 'Stealer some random cards which maybe they pay for in blips, that they could use to move extra squares or appear in unexpected places.

I put quotation marks around 'campaign' because the games are not linked in any meaningful way. Win or lose has no effect on upcoming missions, and your deaths are miraculously healed. This is another area that could be improved.

I'm tempted to dig up the Deathwing (1990) expansion which, IIRC, had a mini solo campaign.

Is it time for a refresh of this venerable game, or should it be left at peace? Can you recommend a similar game?

* I cannot recommend the Genestealer expansion (1990), the psychic and shooting rules are clunky.

40K Red Corsairs: Greater Possessed

The Greater Possessed are Chaos Space Marines who have made a pact with a daemon to possess them, in exchange for unholy power. That will certainly not backfire in any way. They are unnaturally large and daemonically mutated, their armour and backpacks fusing with their flesh and sprouting ectopic teeth, eyes and horns.

These were a fantastic pain to paint, with little details everywhere. It was difficult to parse what is bone, horn, teeth, flesh, etc. They look just right now they're done. They're big chaps, on 40mm bases.

The Master of Possession is a shamanistic sorcerer who helps facilitate these unholy bondings.

He's supposed to be floating but looks like he's skipping along. I thought about doing some green flames, but stuck with what I knew. I did try to make his leather coat look textured and interesting.

I got these a few years ago for Blackstone Fortress, and they languished in the 'too intimidating to paint' pile until now. 

Skull-o-meter™: 18