Sunday 18 August 2019

"Do We Look Like Prison Guards To You?"

"I'll make it very simple for you, Farmer. We got here first..."
This 28mm scale model of Dexter is produced by “Mantic Games” and can be found inside "The Walking Dead: Call To Arms" Prisoner Booster Pack. Sculpted to represent the "towering, physically intimidating inmate who survived the outbreak" trapped in the cafeteria of the Meriwether County Correctional Facility, the convicted murderer was fatally shot in the head by Rick Grimes whilst fighting off a mass of zombies released from A-block in Issue 19 of "The Walking Dead" comic book.

Having been supplied already assembled to a base, the figure was primed using two coats of "Vallejo" Heavy Orange, and had his prison overalls washed with "Citadel" Reikland Fleshshade. I did consider dry-brushing the man's trousers with some (more) "Vallejo" Heavy Orange, as I ordinarily do, but as with all this range's models, I didn't feel the soft detail would respond as well as I would like to my brushstokes, so I ultimately left all the garments alone.
The Voord quickly gain the upper hand over the much-slower Yeti and seize some early objectives
Dexter's heavily pouched belt was painted in "Vallejo" Heavy Brown, his vest in Dead White, and his skin in Heavy Sienna. All of these areas were then shaded using “The Army Painter” Strong Tone Quickshade. Lastly, I 'picked out' the inmate's infuriatingly 'soft' chest holster in "Citadel" Abaddon Black, finished off both his pistol and shotgun with a combination of "Citadel" Ironbreaker and (OOP) Badab Black. 

Shifting across from pigmenting prisoners to wargaming, I have played another battle in my ongoing “Doctor Who” campaign exclusively using just my collection of “Black Tree Design” miniatures and some home-made rules. This conflict saw the Great Intelligence launch an attack upon the Voord on a frozen planet and resulted in some serious close combat scraps. Fought across a 2’ x 3’ rock-infested landscape, with a pair of freezing lakes partially separating the two factions, the game initially saw the flipper-footed Voord using their quicker speed and "Water-Walk" ability to seize the initiative.
The robot Yeti batter the Voord into submission with their incredible strength and armoured fur bodies
Yet it soon became clear that the robot Yetis' armoured fur covering, and single Web-gun, was going to make them incredibly hard to shift once they got themselves into a significant victory-point winning position. Admittedly, the Voord were both lead by the commanding presence of Yartek, which  permitted any friendly unit within 12 inches to re-roll a single dice roll once per turn, and armed with knives. But it took a lot of effort to take down just one of the Great Intelligence's shaggy minions, whereas the Yeti soon started chopping down the Voord with great clubbing swings of their claws.

Increasingly low on the numbers needed to fell their opponents, Yartek's faction soon lost control of the space between the two frozen lakes at the centre of the battlefield, and before long were pushed further and further back from their goals. In the end, the sheer physicality of the Yeti saw the Great Intelligence achieving twelve victory points to the Voord's one point, providing the mysterious disembodied entity with a foothold upon Yartek's fast-dwindling empire...

18 comments:

  1. Nice work on Dexter. Can't wait to see the rest.

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    1. Thanks Simon. The rest are just about finished, so expect the next few postings to be very "TWD" lead.

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  2. I never got the Walking Death hype, it isn't really my thing, but I can't say anything bad about the models you have shown off for the game so far.
    The highlight of this post is your batrep though. I would love to read the rules you made up.

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    1. Cheers Wouter. I really liked the initial opening run of "TWD" comic book. But went off it once the zombies stopped being the threat and just background noise. "Mantic Games" though have done a top job with "TWD: Call To Arms" so expect a few more minis from the range to appear over time.

      I've been working on M.I.S.S. since I returned to wargaming twenty years ago, and actually now hope to get it published as a cheap generic rule-set which I can then support with lots of free Army Lists/genre swaps. I'll put you down as a potential play-tester if I may?

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    2. Sure, I'm happy to help out and give it a try.

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    3. Splendid Wouter, I'll be in touch once the first draft is finished - I want to do a couple of games for the Appendix :-)

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  3. Terrific work on Dexter. I did think you might have used Citadel Fuegan Orange as a wash on his overalls but Reikland Flesh appears to have worked very well. Your rendering of his overalls have a faded look to them. With Fuegan Orange they would have looked a lot brighter - perhaps too bright for what you wanted to achieve.

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    1. Thanks Bryan. I don't own any "Citadel" Orange shades tbh, as Reikland Fleshshade has always done what I wanted in the past. I did need to apply a couple of coats of "Vallejo" Heavy Orange over the grey plastic to get an even coverage though, but it all seemed to go rather well with the overalls. The rest are now finished, so they should be posted up over the next week.

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  4. Great work on Dexter Simon, the trousers work well as they look really grimy, and I can't imagine him having too many trips to the prison laundry ! LOL nice game those Yeti's are beasts in combat by the look of it.

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    1. Cheers Dave. That was the effect I was after, LOL!! I was actually a bit concerned the "Doctor Who" battle would be a bit boring as both factions were close combat heavy. But once the Yeti started punching their way through the Voord lines, it became a really fast 'pick your fights and overwhelm them' game, and a lot of fun.

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  5. Good work on Dexter. A nice read this morning to keep my mind off the pain I am in after putting my back out. Slowly getting better but still hurts like crazy so this was a great distraction.

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    1. Cheers Undercoat. There's both some more "TWD" minis and "Doctor Who" AARs to come over the next few weeks.

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  6. I'd have liked to have seen a more 'orangey' orange, mostly because I'm finding lighter/pastel colours very difficult to distinguish these days. I like the paingint but I'm still thinking it's a very iffy pose.
    Always good to hear of soeone getting a game in and I was backing the Yeti too! So - result !

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    1. Thanks Joe, I too am not that convinced about Dexter's pose tbh. I've a few games to post about - been playing loads lately.

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  7. Dexter looks ace mate. Looking forward to the others.

    Game sounded good. Would love to see what your rules look like.

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    1. Cheers Dai. The rest of the inmates are now finished, so expect the rest to be posted over the next week or so. Happy to send you a copy of M.I.S.S. to play test once its in an acceptable draft :-)

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