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| "He made his fortune for himself and the guild back during the Century Wars, creating weaponry..." |
This 30mm metal model of the “Guild Ball” Engineer Team Captain, Ballista, is made by “Steamforged Games Ltd” and can be purchased, along with Salvo and Velocity, in the Stockport-based company's Engineer Starter Set. Incredibly well-sculpted, the Century Wars veteran is absolutely covered in all sorts of tools, pouches, leather strappings and armour; all of which required careful, time-consuming brushwork with a variety of paints.
Luckily, unlike a number of his team-mates, the club skipper's three-piece figure did not prove too tiresome to assemble, and, once the super-glue had dried, was quickly treated to a double-layer of "Citadel" Abaddon Black. All of the Defensive Midfielder's armour, tools, quarrel shafts and chains were then painted using a combination of Ironbreaker and Nuln Oil, whilst his leather trousers and gloves were treated to some "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna and “The Army Painter” Strong Tone Quickshade.
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| "We are strange bedfellows. Untrusting of each other, dismissive and always looking to gain political capital..." |
The Guild ball player's crossbow was predominantly 'picked out' using the "Citadel" Layer, Doombull Brown, his large apron was painted with "Vallejo" Iraqi Sand, and his bolt shafts 'picked out' with "Vallejo" Heavy Red. These areas were then appropriately washed in more Strong Tone Quickshade and "Citadel" Carroburg Crimson. Finally, the Figeon's brass screws and bands were highlighted in Gold, and somewhat sparingly shaded with “The Army Painter” Strong Tone Quickshade.
Having not fielded the Engineer's Guild, I can't really say how well the Lord Artificer plays on the pitch. But his "Deadbolts" alone would suggest he is a "Guild Ball" player to be feared, with the attack both pushing its target 2 inches "directly away" and triggering the "knocked-down condition", as well as causing 3 damage. In addition, the Captain has, amongst others, the Character Trait "Tough Hide", which means that any "enemy plays that cause [him] damage" are reduced by one point.
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| Cybermen WIPS - The Cyber-Leader and three of his Cyber Legion have been undercoated |
The very first of my "Salute" purchases this year was the "Doctor Who: Exterminate!" boxed rule-set by "Warlord Games". Described as a "fast-paced tabletop miniatures game" which features "two of the Doctor’s most ancient and relentless foes – the hateful Daleks and emotionless Cybermen" clashing together "as they seek to to fulfil their own nefarious ends", this was my must-buy of the wargaming show, and just as soon as the Excel Exhibition Hall opened, I had one of these firmly in my hands.
Admittedly, my motivation for wanting this 'starter set' was to get hold of the twelve "easy-fit plastic Cyber Legion Cybermen" and "Time War Daleks", rather than its numerous (Recruitment, Adventure & Battle) cards and sixteen-page rules booklet. But having scoured through the contents, and read its "Guide To The Time Vortex", I have started building, basing and painting the first of the nine Cybermen and two Cybermat Swarms I need to use for the game's introductory scenario: A Meeting Of Metal...
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| A unit of Bloodletters attempts to invade Nurgle's kingdom for the glory of the Blood God |
Great finish on the engineer, that's a very quick start on the cybermen. Look forward to reading the Batrep
ReplyDeleteThanks Dave, I've actually done a few more Cybermen since posting the above ;-) I thought it was about time I did something with my "Age Of Sigmar" minis as they're all I've predominantly painted over the past few months.
DeleteNice work on the Ballista mini mate. :)
ReplyDeleteI really do need to start painting my Alchemists....
Cheers Leon. Ballista has taken a while to complete [blush]. I look forward to seeing your Alchemists, as I may well get a third team once I fill out my Union and Engineers to a full side.
DeleteWhat an industrious fellow you are, Simon! Unfortunately, even though I was champing at the bit to get some of new acquisitions based, Sunday required that I do 'chores', so no hobby time.
ReplyDeleteI will be watching for the Exterminate AAR, as Warlord are slowly eroding my resolve - whilst their human figures are a touch lacklustre, I may end up getting some of the monsters. Their Zygons are lovely - if you can say that about rubbery orange aliens - and one can not ever have quite enough Daleks...
Thanks Jez. I hope to have the Cybermen and Daleks done reasonably soon so I can BatRep the first scenario. I think I already have enough painted Zygons too, so they could be involved in another one. Sadly, the rules do suggest I need to get more boxes of Judoon and Silents, so they might take a little longer to appear on my "Exterminate!" tabletop.
DeleteLove the Guildball character and I have to confess that more than once these caught my eye on Saturday. If I have any regrets from the day it was not picking up the Dr. Who game and the Knight Models Suicide Squad box set on the TT stand - I had it in my hands too!
ReplyDeleteCheers Michael. I'm delighted with "Exterminate!" presently, it looks really good imho, and like you was tempted by the "Suicide Squad" boxed set. Brummie and PulpCitizen both make the "Knight Models" look absolutely awesome imho. Fortunately I saw that the game's villain Darkseid was £35 on his own, and his minions £35 for three - so that put me off from picking the £60 Suicide Squad set up; albeit I did succumb to "The Walking Dead" box for just £20!!
DeleteThey are Two different game systems DCU and BMG Though annoyingly one of the Parademons in the set is for one of the Teams in BMG so you have to get the set of 3 for 1 figure that I would use in BMG as part of Secret Six.
DeleteUnfortunately Batman is kind of expensive individually but Its one of those games where a Crew to play is still going to be a lot cheaper than say a 40k army. You need to shop around for figures. TT sell them more on the dearer side if i'm honest. Waylands apparently had 3 for 2 offers on it all.
Are you on Facebook? I can point you to a good trader on the BMG trade group we run and he is has the best prices.
Thanks for the clarification Simon, I wasn't aware of there being a difference tbh. I'll certainly give you a shout on FB if I decide to get into either; albeit I do own a few "BMG" and (having checked) "DCU" minis already. But as you probably know, once I get into a game, I do like to have a few minis in the painting queue ;-)
DeleteI thought "Troll Trader" was very reasonable at "Salute" with the exception of their "BMG" and "DCU" minis. But they were still a lot cheaper than the chap I usually buy from who seemed to have raised his prices considerably since I visited his stall at Reading last year.
DCU is the sort of smashy superman game which is quite quick where as BMG is street level and very tactical.
DeleteI think I'll be going for "BMG" ultimately then Simon, but I do have "DC Comics" Trinity to paint first - which I believe are "DCU".
DeleteYeah they are DCU, Which the rules are free for and also it has stat cards in the back for other BMG Figures such as Bane, Joker etc.
DeleteWell that's good to know, and encouraging that "Knight Models" are supporting the transition from "BMG" to "DCU" :-)
DeleteWell, at long last Ballista is finished. Hallelujah! You've done a great job on him.
ReplyDeleteI'm very interested in the "Doctor Who: Exterminate" game and I'll be buying it once it goes on general release. I would love to hear your thoughts on the game and I'm certainly looking forward to seeing your batrep with the Cybermen and Daleks.
Finally, I don't think you'll regret picking up Mantic's "The Walking Dead" game so cheaply. It's a lot of fun!
Thanks Bryan. By getting Ballista finished I now have enough minis for an Introductory game of "Guild Ball", so I may post up a couple of matches between the Engineers and Union in the near future. An "Exterminate!" series will certainly be on the cards soon too :-)
DeleteAs for "The Walking Dead", well that was certainly an impulse buy on account of Ronnie handing me a free roamer at the start of the show, and me being very impressed with the sculpt. I'm not sure when I'll start painting them though as "Salute" was massively expensive for me, and I have a whole lot of goodies to show off in the coming weeks.
he looks great, bas ass with a crossbow
ReplyDeleteCheers Martin. I'm really pleased with him.
DeleteI shall also be picking up the game for its Cybermen and Daleks and not necessarily for the rules, at some point. Very much looking forward to finally seeing all your figs together in the Battle for Rot Water!
ReplyDeleteGordon, that is precisely why I bought "Exterminate!", as I planned to use "Mutants And Death Ray Guns" for all my "Doctor Who" gaming. But having read the rules briefly, I am now keen to have a game and see just how well it captures the flavour of the TV show...
DeleteI thought it was about time to include some of my "Age Of Sigmar" stuff in a BatRep, though this one will only feature a skirmish between Plaguebearers and Bloodletters in order to encourage me to paint up more Khorne for my Chaos Host :-)
Personally Id stick with "Mutants And Death Ray Guns" as it does seems to be THE preferred `go to` system of all time lol. Kevin (friend from the club) picked up "Exterminate" and has assembled AND played it with unpainted minis and the lads kinda all gave the same verdict "meh spose so." I think this is one you`ll see raved about a lot at first, but pretty quickly (like the Terminator box game set as well) will end up not talked about and the components taken out and used for other project uses. The lads said the game felt incomplete, like it was pulling you into buying lots more components with a sort of "buy these.. and these, and these.. and you WILL have the game you are looking for" which never impresses me I am afraid. But I AM totally prepared to be wrong here, and am interested to hear what you think, once you`ve tried it Simon. So easy to love a game and fanboy it before trying it out.. but your opinion is bound to be balanced - as everything you do is, I`ve noticed.
ReplyDeleteI have a feeling though, like we did when we bought the Terminator box set, it will be just for the minis, not the game itself.
Personally Id stick with "Mutants And Death Ray Guns" - That was my original intention Hils, but the "Exterminate!" rules do seem rather fun imho. Obviously I'll post up a BatRep as soon as I play it, and if I don't like it then I at least have the minis I was actually after in the first place. I did admittedly raise an eyebrow when I saw how many Zygons you'd need for a small game - bearing in mind there's only two in a box...
DeleteI am hoping I am wrong, and that its wonderful. That`s why I would be so interested to hear your thoughts once you`ve played it. Of course, it takes many, many games to get to know a system enough to be sure either way, but an innitial idea will be interesting.
DeleteNo worries, I've almost finished my Cyber-Leader and four of his cronies. Then I'll have another four more Cybermen to finish, as well as their six Cybermats. Bit of painting to do, but I'm slowly getting there.
DeleteOh GOD they were selling the "Suicide Squad" boxed set??? Noooo, nooo.. not fair **sobs uncontrollably**
ReplyDeleteI waaaaannt it, I want it.
"They were selling the "Suicide Squad" boxed set?" - Indeed, but as I've said, some of the other "BMG" mini prices put me off tbh, and quite possibly others too, as the "Suicide Squad" boxed set was hardly selling. Now "The Walking Dead" game was really moving imho...
DeleteThe Walking Dead game seems great!
Delete"Troll Trader" had an entire rack dedicated to "TWD", Simon, and it was heaving all day long, and by the time I decided to get the starter set a lot had gone. In fact, I got the last of their deluxe mats.
Delete{{BMG" mini prices put me off tbh}}
DeleteOh I know. I just like some of the miniatures. they look so good.
"They look so good." - Oh yes, if I could afford it, I'd have come away with arms full of "BMG" minis.
DeleteI think If you can get into the game you can forgive the prices a little bit. I still pick and choose my purchases tbh. Try and grab bargains off of the trade group.
DeleteGreat job on your Engineer captain for your team. The Doctor Who game seems a hit I have seen quite a few people singing its praises on FB
ReplyDeleteThanks Simon. My fingers are crossed for "Exterminate!", but I hope to find out soon.
DeleteReally nice work on the Guild ball player Simon, I still don't really understand how the game is supposed to work with all the vastly different elements and projectile weapons, but the figures look rather nice.
ReplyDeleteThe Cybermen look good sculpts (albeit they are the wrong cybermen). Funny thing is twenty (even ten) years ago I would have been all this game like a rash, but now it just leaves me rather cold, saw pictures on the net of the figures they have done of the "classic" Doctors and even they are failing to raise my enthusiasm, nice though they undoubtedly are.
Sorry to be such a "downer" I'm sure you will have endless fun with your new purchases which ever set of rules you plump for.
Cheers Roger.
Cheers Roger. Ballista sadly continues my trend of taking an eternity to paint a "Guild Ball" model. Hopefully an exhibition game (or three) will help you better understand the game mechanics - watch this space ;-)
DeleteI'm rather optimistic about the game, Roger, but I certainly see where you're coming from. New Who has definitely disenchanted me from the series; albeit the latest season is alright... I'm not aware of "Warlord Games" doing any classic doctors yet, are you sure its not the new minis from "Gale Force 9" "Time of the Daleks" you've been looking at? They were at "Salute" and looked awful imho.
Might have been, they were in a glass display case in a photo on someone's blog (not sure who's as I've looked at a lot of Salute pics now).
DeleteDidn't realise there was another Dr Who game out there?
It does sound like "Time Of The Daleks", as painted versions of its plastic minis were on display at "Salute". I understand that "Warlord Games" are planning to do a 4th, 9th and 11th Doctor boxed set this year, but that was it for now.
DeleteThe guild ball dude looks great Simon, having never played it I'm not sure how it all comes together but he certainly looks tough!
ReplyDeleteI was so tempted by Dr Who, but couldn't get to sit down at a demo game and ended up buying the £20 TWD bargain from Troll Trader instead. I think I'll go with the Ganesha games system instead for slowly forming Dr Who project
Thanks Andy. Tbh, I think you'd probably like "Guild Ball" as you've clearly got your head around "Bushido", and "GB" seems to be similarly complicated.
DeleteThere were some great show deals at "Salute", so I'm not surprised you picked up "The Walking Dead" over "Exterminate!"; I've not watched a bad review of "TWD", whereas "Exterminate!" is an unknown quantity currently. Plus, as I plan, "Ganesha Games" seem to have it covered somewhat with "Mutants And Death Ray Guns".
{{I think I'll go with the Ganesha games system instead for slowly forming Dr Who project}}
DeleteInterestingly enough Andy, I was sitting in bed last night sipping my cocoa, reading Mutants & Death Ray Monsters: checking out some of the finer points (like Traits/Abilities) with an eye to gauging just how easily and well this system could adapt to various genres.. and happily discovered it is more than suitable for - Post Apocalypse, obviously, but also Planet of the Apes, Terminator, Superman, Batman, Captain America, and especially Judge Dredd.. ANY superheroes actually: (and LOTS of mention of zombies - and zombies with a few nice macabre twists), and quickly realised just how versatile the rules truly are; almost like a trimmed down G.U.R.P.S. or Gamma World in many ways. But anyway, as I was reading, I thought to myself how perfectly they would work for a Doctor Who game, and as far as can tell (but I`m no expert on Who) without any conversion needed on them at all. Its like Ganesha Games sat down with this system and decided from the outset to make a generic set or rules which literally contained everything needed to facilitate all the needs of a non specific and diverse audience of users. They sure succeeded amazingly well.
I must have been thinking of the (as of yet unwritten) expansion "Mutants & Death Ray Monsters" LOL. I was actually reading Mutants & Death Ray Guns" **grins sheepishly**
Delete"Mutants And Death Ray Guns" is very evocative of "Gamma World", Hils, and I've spookily dug out all my "GW" stuff to see how easily I get some guardbots, sharkmen and fish-mutants onto my tabletop.
DeleteAs you rightly say, the mutations etc seem to work extremely well for super-heroes too, so it does appear to be quite the perfect PDF for such genres :-)
Deletehats interesting, I did the same (got out of bed, trudged downstairs into the hobby room and fished out Gamma World.. we have a PFD which we printed out and bound, long ago). Like you was looking for similarities. I`d forgotten just how cool the original was. I`d also forgotten that gamma World was massively influenced by the even older Metamorphosis Alpha.. you know, the one set in that HUGE continent sized dead space ship.
Deleteoh what is wrong with me.. meant PDF
DeleteI must confess that I've not heard of "Metamorphosis Alpha" before, Hils, I'll have to have a look at that one, as that sounds like a great premise for a game or three.
DeleteOh "Metamorphosis Alpha" looks awesome Hils!! Hopefully my Amazon copy will arrive this week ;-)
DeleteI'm also gonna try out Jez's WotC for Dr Who as well, so hopefully it will encourage him to finish it ;-P
Delete"Hopefully it will encourage him to finish it" - Surely he's got some "Doctor Who" BatReps to post first, Andy, I've been waiting for what seems like ages for him to post a Dalek AAR ;-)
Deleteme too :)
DeleteOOo "Metamorphosis Alpha" you will LOVE it. Imagine this VAST continent sized space ship (with many VAST `dungeon` like levels) crammed full of people.. like an ark. All the inhabitants in long, long, long, hyper-sleep until they arrive safe at their new planet. A new start, a new life. Only it all goes wrong. Imagine waking up centuries late, in a dead ship (only life support still working), floating in space. Things have mutated into hideous mutation monsters, the plants all want to kill you: what went wrong. You have to try find out, try find working terminals and somehow decipher what happened, only the journals are all at the bottom of the ship, past the most dangerous levels..... and you have to survive in this `living ship` with cannibals, and zombies, and dinosaurs, and mad servo droids, and robots and....... oh Simon, you are going to have such fun with this game.
ReplyDeleteI personally prefer the original game rules from the early 1970`s, but the 2nd edition (and later) does at least clean things up a lot, and I suppose makes it all more usable. I just like the original because I like all the early 70`s D&D material best (RuneQuest, Tunnels and Trolls,Traveller, ODD, etc).
Thanks Hils, I've bought it for the fluff rather than the rules, so hopefully it'll arrive soon, and I can see how I can adapt it to some "Mutants And Death Ray Guns" :-)
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ReplyDeleteLooking forward to seeing what you do with the new Who stuff, and what you think of the game. It has Daleks, that's all I need to know lol ^^
Oh, and check out the new article over at the game cupboard Simon, I think you may be interested in the rules mentioned there.
Cheers Steve, I've certainly got an open mind ref "Exterminate!", although I'll doubtless play a few "Doctor Who" games using "Mutants And Death Ray Guns" before I've finished painting my Cybermen/Dalek forces up for the opening scenario of "Exterminate!".
DeleteI forgot to mention that I've added your blog into my Reading List etc manually, as it doesn't seem to have 'carried over' to my Layout despite my being a follower.
Deleteoh wow, thank you so much. That means a lot Simon :))
Deleteoh and, I replied to that massive cool long comment you left on the cupboard.
DeleteNo worries. I'm not sure why Blogger didn't automatically do so. Although it does seem to have similar issues with Jez's "Carrion Crow's Buffet" too.
DeleteSpotted your even lengthier reply on "The Game Cupboard" ;-)
Deletelol ok mate :))
ReplyDeleteand yeah, same thing with Jez`s blog, for some reason I simply CANT get it to save to favs over at the cupboard..
Guildball bloke looks great! All the time spent picking out the details was worthwhile imo.
ReplyDeleteAlmost pre-ordered the Dr Who game, but think it'll be better to live vicariously through you. I do like those Cybermen though!
Thanks Dai. Hopefully Ballista will be getting some tabletop time real soon. I should have the first of my the Cybermen posted next week, with some Dalek WIPs too. I'll let you know my thoughts on "Exterminate!" as soon as I've played it :-)
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