Pegasus Hobbies Technobridge

The Pegasus Hobbies Technobridge is a good, cheap way of getting terrain on the table. It is easy to assemble and really easy to drybrush paint. All I did was prime black and drybrush with dollarstore gunmetal. Its usable for many scales but the box says it can fit a "dirt pirate" aka 40k Landraider.

Barricades

Usable for small scale games, these barricades were simple and effective to paint up with dollarstore paints. Games I will use them for are: Horizon Wars, Planetfall, and Gaslands to name a few.

If you look carefully you can tell where these barricades came from...Ticket to Ride. I got a transparent set of trains for participating in a tournament several years back and had no use for them until now.

If you didn't know what they are, you would think they are prefabricated concrete blocks.

Generator or Barracks

This generator or barracks was painted with dollarstore paints and can be used for multiple scaled models. It was made from a cookie container and the two antennae were interesting items that my spouse was recycling.

Missile Silos or Factory Exhausts

This terrain can be used for a variety of things: missile silos for small scale models, exhaust ports for larger scales. It was painted with dollarstore paints.

It was made from new items from my spouse's work that they were not using anymore.

Administration Building

This administration building can be used in games of models of various scales. It was painted with dollarstore paints.

It was made from a plastic package for some tech related item and unused items from my spouse's work.

Colony Building

This colony building is useful for many scales but primarily it is for smaller scale games, 2mm to 15mm. It was painted with dollarstore paints.

It was made from a car light bulb plastic cover and some unused items from my spouse's work. It just shows you can make terrain from interesting castoffs.

Terraforming Mars

Terraforming Mars is a great boardgame for solo or up to five players. It has many actions that can be taken, depending on the resources that you collect and spend as the game progresses. The objective is to have the most victory points after Mars has reached 14% O2, +8 degrees Celsius, and nine water areas have been placed. There is good reason why it has been in the top 10 on the BoardGameGeek website for some time.

It was over a year since I last played it and got it out because it is playable in solo mode. I have tried three games as a board game and five in the computer version through Steam. Its been great every time.

Above and below is the results of the last game I played where I achieved the requirements on the 12th generation, the last in a solo game with the prelude expansion. I have all of the expansions but so far have only tried the prelude one.

I have participated in the Terraforming Mars big box kickstarter that will be able to contain all the expansions I have gotten as well as including 3D printed hexes and metal resource cubes.

Ultra Tiny Epic Kingdoms

 Ultra Tiny Epic Kingdoms is a nice little strategy game that can be played solo and for up to five players in 45 minutes or less.

You start with a card of the Fantasy faction you represent randomly and it gives the benefits you receive at each tech level. You also start with a random terrain card and two army cubes that you place on two different regions on your card. 

Each turn, you place one of the grey cubes on an action (patrol, quest, build, research, trade) and other players can either do the same action or collect resources. The next player has to do another action that is available as so on until all actions have been used. The action card is then and all actions become available again.

In a solo game, there is a random faction that is your opponent and they conduct random actions. If that action is taken, you go around the compass until one is available. The compass is also used for the move army action and explore action, so you know where to move them. The strength of the solo opponent is determined by how many armies 

The game ends when someone has placed all seven of their armies, the sixth level of building is reached, or their faction's fifth level of research is reached. 

I played three solo games and only won the third one, so its a good challenge if there is just yourself.

Uncharted Seas - Wharf and Jetty Pieces

 The Uncharted Seas wharf and jetty piece set is good for seafaring terrain, in particular for making interesting scenarios. I can easily see it used for an "attack the port" with an opposed boarding to take the McGuffin, or having the attacker attempt to catch the defender in port with command rolls to get the crew back from shore leave IOT activate squadrons and move away from the jetty. 

The wooden docks are nice and wide. I can see me using these more than the other half of the set. 

The stone jetties are thinner. The tower is for the harbour master.

Here is a configuration with the wooden jetties.

Here is a configuration with the stone jetties.

Uncharted Seas - War Tower

The War Tower is an imposing fortification that can be used by any faction. It has options when purchasing to use in a battle: blank, cannon, mortars, or ballista. Unfortunately the package did not have a ballista insert so I will use the blank one for now. It was painted with various dollarstore paints, paint pen, Privateer Press Paints, and GW Agrax Earthshade wash. 

Iron Dwarves - Chainmail Flagship

 The Chainmail flagship for the Iron Dwarves is the same size as the Forge battleship but has some extras. They are slightly faster, more hull and crew points, have an offensive ram, longer range fore guns, rear turret, and rockets that have the chance at depleting more crew from the enemy. Same paint scheme as the core Dwarven ships. 

More Iron Dwarf ships will arrive in the mail so a future post will feature them.

Iron Dwarves - Kraken Submarine

 The Kraken submarine for the Iron Dwarves prefers to ram enemy models and carry no other weapon. Its Hull Breaker MAR means it gives Holed Below markers more easily. The Iron Ram MAR means it reduced enemy ram dice against it by half. Even though it is a smaller model than the Belcher, it has more DR and CR. This was fixed in the second iteration of their models. They were painted the same way as the core models, although the water was painted with various dollarstore blue paints and a gloss applied to it to give it a watery sheen. They are deployed in squadrons of one or two models.

It has the same submerged rules as the Belcher and other submarines.

Iron Dwarves - Belcher Submarine

The Belcher submarine for the Iron Dwarves is able to slink under the waves and deliver a short to medium range flame weapon that can give fire markers to enemy ships. Same paint scheme as the core Dwarven ships, although the water was painted with various dollarstore blue paints and a gloss applied to it to give it a watery sheen. They are deployed in squadrons of one or two models.

When a submarine goes under the surface, two submerged models are placed and a way to identify which one is the actual submarine and which one is real. That way an enemy must either be lucky when destroying one or destroy both submerged models to guarantee its demise. If not, the submerged submarine gets another submerged models. Also when surfacing, the submarine model may face any direction. Submerged models must still remain in command distance from one another.

Iron Dwarves - Armoury Troop Carrier

 The Armoury Troop Carrier for the Iron Dwarves does exactly what it says, gets crew to enemy ships to take them as prizes. They come in squadrons of two ships. They have less powerful broadsides and less ram than the cruiser. They do have one more crew point and the Tough Crew MAR, which makes it harder for opponents to score hits against crew in boarding actions. Painted in the same way as my core ships. 

Iron Dwarves - Anvil Heavy Cruiser

The Anvil cruiser for the Iron Dwarves is a very upgraded version of the Hammer basic cruiser. The addition of the turret, higher damage/critical/hull/crew ratings, tougher ram, more firepower for the short and long broadsides makes this ship one of the most expensive heavy cruiser. They are slightly slower than the Hammer class.

It is painted the same as my core Iron Dwarves. I only have two of these and they can either be in squadrons of two to three models or used as variants. Since the only standard model in the medium class category for the Iron dwarves is the Hammer cruiser, only one of the Hammer cruisers can instead be the Anvil even in a squadron of three Hammers.

Iron Dwarves - Background and Core Models

In Uncharted Seas, the Iron Dwarves ruled the old world once through their technological dominance and skill at waging war. Eventually civil war divides the dwarves into three factions: Delfdran, Venvalder, and Kullorian. They distrust magic, due to a faction that encouraged the best workers to leave for new lands with them who became the Shroud Mages which occurred in the height of dwarf power. All dwarven ships do not depend on the wind but are slower. They also have higher than average critical rating making devastating hits against them harder to come by.

With their background in mind, I wanted to keep the paint scheme basic, consistent, and looking strong. I started primed black. The wood was painted dark dollarstore brown and drybrushed egg yolk dollarstore yellow. The metal armoured hull was painted dark grey, drybrushed grey, and lightly drybrushed light grey. for the steel parts I started with PP Cold Steel but it sas not only taking too long but also was not able to be applied to the smaller bits without getting on the areas around it. I then switched to metal ink pens that I rediscovered I had, for the steel and bronze parts. Lastly I applied GW Seraphim Sepia to the entire model. The background description notes that fleets generally have individual markings in white to tell ships apart but I have decided not to do that.

Here are the basic small, medium, and large classes of ships that came in the starter boxes. From left to right Mortis class frigate, Hammer class cruiser, and Forge class battleship.

The Mortis is more expensive than many other races frigates, mainly because of the turret for 360 degree fire. They can be deployed in squadrons of two to four models. 

For the frigates I used PP paints to better distinguish the different squadrons if they got near one another. I have 16 of these.

The Hammer cruiser is cheaper than many races cruisers because they have no other weapon besides their broadsides. They are meant to aid the frigates and battleships and get between enemy squadrons. 

I have six of these, deployable in squadrons of two to three.

The Forge battleship is very slow but the addition of forward and aft weapons, and one of the most brutal broadsides in the game they are great for the finishing blows after the cruisers and frigates do their job. 

I have two of these and they are deployed in squadrons of one.

More Iron Dwarf ships are forthcoming.