Planetfall - Relthoza - Core Helix

 Back in June I determined the paint scheme I would use for my Planetfall Relthoza models, as well as how I would redo my Firestorm Armada models for the same faction (but I will keep the space cloak look I used before). They are 10mm in scale. Here is the first batch of the two Core helixes I have painted and nearly finished them last year but had a few details of them to complete.

Here is the company paint scheme on the back of the box they came in. I got fairly close.

New paint scheme is primed black with rough coat of Folk Art Green Forest. Dry brush of DecoArt Hunter Green and lighter dry brush of Necrotite Green it accentuate the edges. Then detail of Craftsmart Plum with a light brush of Craftsmart Pink Blossom on the Plum and a highlight of Color Factory Sky Blue on the engine exhaust/weapon/crew systems. I applied Army Painter gloss varnish over the purple organic looking areas of the model to make them look more alive and creepy. Base was painted DecoArt Burnt Umber and drybrushed DecoArt Yellow. Lichen was added to the bases to give that alien world look.

First up are the 32 Jabri drone swarms. There are six variations of bases that were made making a group of them look more imposing and random.

Twelve Namasic light walkers.

Two Varic specialist walkers.

Four Salamas medium walkers. 

Two Visith heavy walkers.

Two Yayiss sky pod for transporting the Jabri drone swarms to the battlefield.

It was fun painting them during free time and will continue painting them for the enjoyment of doing so. No idea if I will play the game but I can use them for Horizon Wars. Perhaps can use them in Battletech: Alpha Strike if they come up with a system for creation of home built units.

Cascadia

Cascadia is a 1-4 player game where players attempt to make a their own ecologically balanced environment more robust than their opponents. The game is modestly priced, takes less than an hour to play, and has simple rules but great depth of strategy. No two games will be alike.

I saw that this game had great reviews and highly rated on the Board Game Geek list for family and abstract games.

Players start with a random starting area made up of a three hexes piece. Each hex has different solitary or mixed terrain as well as solitary or mixed animals (bear, elk, fox, bird of prey, fish). Enough face down wilderness tiles are chosen so that there are 20 per player and four of them are revealed. Then four wildlife animal token are drawn from the bag and placed below the wilderness tiles as pairs. This forms the active selection area. A nature leaf token is given to each player. Then a random scoring card for each animal (out of four possible ones) are drawn and placed on the board for all to see.

Each turn, the first player choses a wilderness tile and the wildlife token below it. They place the tile connected to their existing ecology and then the wildlife token is placed on their ecology on a hex matching the animal depicted, no more than one animal per hex. Wildlife tokens placed on a hex with a nature leaf symbol means that player receives a nature token. If the player plays a nature token before drawing wilderness hexes and wildlife tokens they may choose any hex and token, not just those that are paired, or may put aside any number of wildlife tokens and replace them from the bag. Play then proceeds to the next player.

Once all players have gone, the right most hex is discarded and the right most token is put aside with replacement hexes and tokens placed on the board. The set aside tokens are then placed in the token bag. Play continues like this until there are no more tiles to fill the active selection area.

Points are gained for completing scoring objectives for the animal cards, for numbers of hexes in size for each wilderness type (and bonus points for the most of any particular type amongst players), and nature tokens.

There is a very interesting flow to the game as you are building your own ecological area and the choices must be made from the hexes and tokens in the active selection area as well as your own ecological area. I played two solo games and I would like to try this with two, three, and four players. There is also family and intermediate scoring cards for getting introduced to the game as well as with younger players. I think this will be a standard one to bring out once I teach more of my friends to play it.

Battletech Alpha Strike Box

What brought me back to Battletech after 26 years was the Alpha Strike ruleset. Now they have a starter box with a star (5) Clan mechs and two lances (8) Inner Sphere mechs. The cost of these mechs alone is is worth the cost of the box.

The back has the list of what is in the box.

The primer is based on the ilClan era, the current setting. The rules are well organized and easy to go through to pick up the basics of the game before picking up more mechs and the Commander's Edition of the Alpha Strike rules.

There is also a short story in the ilClan setting, the mechs, support cards, and Alpha Strike/Mechwarrior cards.

The two sided reference card is handy for new and old players to the game.

The box set also comes with terrain with various sized buildings, trees, objective markers, and tokens.

The buildings look good on the table and go together very easily with no glue required. 

With some other terrain you are on your way to a filled battlefield and years of enjoyment.

Pulp Cthulhu

Pulp Cthulhu is a rule setting for running investigators through 1930's adventures in a world where H.P. Lovecraft's fiction exists. Unlike the Call of Cthulhu setting, investigators have a better chance of surviving their encounters with the mythos, hence the over the top cover of the rulebook. You do need a current copy of the Keeper handbook to play as not all the rules for the game can fit in this publication.

I enjoyed the changes in this ruleset and think it would be perfect as short adventures as a break from more serious setting games.

There is lots of adversaries and adventures that can add a little pulp in regular Call of Cthulhu games as well, consider the below group of formidable foes. Gadzooks!

Looks like lots of fun, in a scary kind of way.

A Gaming look back on 2022 and looking forward to 2023

2022 was another year of not being able to get together for games as much as I would have liked. Hopefully retiring will be able to increase the number of games played of all genres: RPG, Board, Miniature.

For miniature and RPG games read, I got through 11: Battletech: Alpha Strike, Call of Cthulhu (Starter Box, Investigator's Book, Keepers Book, Keepers Screen & Adventures, Keepers advice; Pulp Cthulhu Book), One Ring (Starter Box, Main Rulebook, Screen/Rivendell), and Rangers of Shadowdeep.

Role Playing games played were only four: D&D 5E Eberron (3) and One Ring Starter (1).

Solo boardgames played were a whole lot. Epic Tiny Dungeons, This War of Mine, and over one hundred of Marvel Champions. Going to continue to play more Marvel Champions and some of my GMT games. 

Boardgames played in a group were 52. In order of most to least games played of them are: Crokinole (19), Marvel Champions: (2p: 3; 3p: 2), King Domino (4), Wingspan (3), Carcassonne (2), No Thanks! (2), Seven Wonders (2), Terraforming Mars (2), Unstable Unicorns (2), 1989, Dice Throne, Great Western Legends, One Small Step, Puzzle Competitive Game, Robinson Crusoe, Settlers of Catan, Space Hulk Death Angel, Splendor, This War of Mine, and Villainous.

For computer games, twelve were played solo of Terraforming Mars and eighteen in groups: Terraforming Mars (15), Carcassonne, Dominion, and Splendor.

Only twenty miniature games were played. They are listed in order of the number played: Star Trek Alliance (7), Malifaux: Hamelin (6), Battletech: Alpha Strike (3), Bot War (3), and Baines Nebula (independent playtesting space fleet combat). 

For miniatures painted there were 264 painted: eight for Batman Miniature Game, 53 for Battletech, 10 for Bot War, 105 for Enlightened Dystopian Wars, five for Malifaux, and 58 for Relthoza Planetfall. I want to paint more Battletech, Malifaux Outcast and Arcanists, and finish off the Relthoza Planetfall models.