Terrain: Trash piles

I want my cyberpunk board to look worn down and slummy. So I've been meaning to do some trash piles that would also add some easy detail to my various post apoc boards.

TTCombat makes some excellent and fairly cheap resin kits with 'backyard scatter'. But it would be too expensive to make the amount of bases I would like.

So I've taken some Green Stuff World blue stuff and made molds of the resin bits, then I've cast extras with plaster. This is super duper cheap and you'll get 5 kg for 12 Euro. And so I had extra trash cans and garbage bags quickly.

Glues the bits to thin plastic card and cut them out.

Detailing
I base coated the piles with grey spray and picked out some different details on the bits. Then I gave the piles a heavy layer of brown wash.

Then add extra details to the base with printed news papers, torn up toilet paper, pieces of black plastic and shredded cork pieces.

'

 

Terrain: Blue Dragon Clan Temple

Whenever possible I like to have a quick look in thrift shops, second hand stores, flea markets and the like. I've made so much cool terrain from toys and other bobs found for cheap these places.

Long before Reality's Edge was even out I found the base for a cool triad temple / night club. On a lot of my cyberpunk terrain pieces I've put some gang tags for the Blue Dragon Clan, so I went with blue for the temple.

First pictures on the finished pices and below some words and pictures of what I did with it.

A jewelry box

I think originally this was a jewelry box of something like it. Made to look like a big temple with removeable roof.

I started by pulling out some mirrors that were on the inside. The top wooden piece was around 4 cm thick, but with a saw I was able to remove 1,5 cm of that.

As seen above there are nice carvings around the outside. Took my small hobby saw and made some 28mm sized doors in both the long sides of the building and removing some of the fences.

To get some texture on the roof I used some xps insulation foam for putting underneath floor boards, it comes with a nice currogated look.

Last I sacrified an Ikea cork plate for protecting a table from hot pans. I had just the right thickness to fit as a stair on both sides.

Painting
The paint hob was really quick. I used one color of blue on the dragon carvings and pillars. Used another blue on the roof. Grey spray on the rest of the outside and some grey and blue details on the inside of the building.

Then I gave the entire thing a heavy layer of brown wash, as I always do.

Ghost Archipelago: Ulterior Motives

Ulterior Motives is the best addition to Frostgrave. I haven't used any of the other stuff from the Spellcaster magazines, so the Ulterior Motives deck is turning out a bit expensive - but I'm happy to support one of my favourite writers.

Since my first set is all covered in snow. For the Ghost Archipelago it was time to build something different.

Blue Stuff press molds
Green Stuff World sells excellent blue stuff for making quick press molds of bits. I made some from old lizardmen shields (only had a few in the bit box). Use legos to make a better mold and save blue stuff. Then I used greenstuff to make a bunch of shields, for details on my ulterior motive pieces.

Archway
Cut some cork sheet (table heat protectors are cheap) and cut out some brick sized pieces. I then drilled a small hole in each piece and drew a wire through them. Bend it into shape and tied the wire to a 40mm base.

I added some easy details to the archway with a few old dwarf horn instruments (ugly bits for infantry, excellent for terrain). Put some of the shields I made on each side.

Arcana Disc
Back when doing my Roman RISK GSW donated a nice greek rolling pin. I made a 50:50 play-doh / miliput mix and rolled it onto a 60mm round mdf base. Then I added some shield symbols and greenstuff shields. I've hade the alien skull for ages, figured it would make a fun little detail.

Statue
I've already wrote a post about the statues I made from old lizardmen. A couple square bases glued together and a grey model on top. Here's more words on the statues.

The Pit

This one was fairly easy and quick to do. Went to Google, searcher for 'dungeon pit', printed an image and glued it to thin cardboard. Then used some of the cork bricks around the edge. It's hard to photograph, but looks very nice on the table.

Sarchophogus 

I already have a bunch of these stone caskets. Old Heroquest furniture and one I build myself. But they don't really fit the setting well either. Again using cork, I've cut out a good shape and a few layers. 

Found some lizardmen and khemri bits I've been saving in my 'for the jungle stuff' board and glued to it. Kept using the same bronze and brass colors I've used for the other bits. 

Runic stone
A super quick build. I took two different old lizardmen standards and put them on top of each other. Grey primer, brass and bronze details - wash and done.

Zombie

I painted up plenty of zombies for the core book bestiary, so it's just about picking on up to use as an ulterior motives objective. 

Reality's Edge: Sprawl bystanders

Reality's Edge need bystanders in the streets. This is a pretty cool element and I remember the author getting inspired by Gangs of Rome for this.

We've had a couple of Reality's Edge games and the bystanders haven't really done much - they're keeping their cool well. But it is awesome having civillians on a board.

My first thought was to paint up, fully detailed models, to use as crowds and bystanders. But that task would have been absolutly impossible - or at least take way too much hobby time.

In the end I ordered some train passengers from ebay. These fit nicely in size when based. My models are all over the place anyway, from true 28mm to heroic 32mm.

Took all the models, lined them up with double adhesive tape on a stick. Then used first black primer all over the models. I then higlighted with two different greys. Spraying top down on the models, for easy shadow/highlight. 

There's 100 models in the bag, with around 10 different sculpts. I sorted them out, getting one unique each single bystanders. I then sorted the rest into piles, the maximum possible crowds is around 6 - when rolling the right 'The Hitch' for a scenario. Made a couple extra crowds as well, because my regular opponent and I have the 'Iduro App'.

I glued the models in random patterns, filling out the 4" bases as good as I could. Then made sure there was room in the middle for a minuature blending in.

I added a heavy layer of strong tone to half the models and dark tone to the other half - making further differences in the nuances of grey on the crowds.

Last I found some news papers for print on google. Also added small pieces of black plastic bags. I wanted to keep the bystanders in grey scale - that's why I haven't added anything else to the bases.

Review: Zona Alfa

Osprey Wargames have been kind enough to send mne a copy of Zona Alfa - a new blue book skirmish game, out by the end of January 2020.

I've had a few reads through the book and is currently painting up the models needed to play the game. Here's my initial thoughts about the system.

Zona Alfa is written by Patrick Todoroff who's already put out the neat little cyberpunk solo game Hardwired (which I'll be playing this year). And after reading through both systems, there's a few designs elements that'll be seen in both.

Welcome to the zone - super short summary
Zona Alfa is a small scale skirmish game. Between four and ten models pr player. It's alternate activation with each model. Being an Osprey blue book it's streamlined and fairly simple. Best of all (for me) it's oozing russian post apocalypse be it S.T.A.L.K.E.R. or Metro 2033.

Layout
The book is 64 pages, comes with a good table of contents - so it's really easy to find your way around the rules. Having giving it a through reads I'm very happy with the amount of page references through out the book, making the first read extra easy. This is missing in a lot of rule systems.

I've had a few blue book now and some have been too full of material to my taste. Zona Alfa seems better rounded this way and doesn't cram too much into too little space (which makes a bad read for me).

As I've come to expect from Osprey publications there's awesome atmosphere setting miniature photos and artwork. 12 full page coloured art pieces in such a small book.

And speaking of 'setting the tone' there's some neat little fluff pieces at the begenning of each chapter. Small 'quotes' from other zone scavengers, telling small tales from the zone. I love this kind of thing - can't read them without using a bad russian accent in my head.

There's nothing to put on the layout on this one. And if you have been on hold for blue books because of size and layout - this might change that view. It did for me.

Rules
The system is d10, action point, based. You roll to beat your skill/ability level. Better soldiers have higher stats, and you roll to get below you skill level. There's modifiers as we know them to different rolls.

All models have a personal statline - wounds, combat ability and will (overall training, intelligence etc). There three levels of soldier: Rookie, hardened, veteran. They'll have 1, 2 or 3 action points depending on level.

All weapons have stats as well. Each weapon will have a different number of dice to roll and different armor penetration. So hitting an enemy is depends on amount of firepower dice from the weapon and if you're able to make the skill roll with them.

There's simple rules for making skill checks and a few standard skills. Being a better shot, being a medic, being good with explosives.

There's critical succes and critical failures on roll, which is always nice in a game with modifiers and skill levels. And a critical succes will also give you an extra action points, which I know from Reality's Edge can make all the difference to a game!

Shooting and pinning
Sticking to cover seems to be the way to go in this game. There's some heavy modifiers for staying in cover and being camouflaged. But when a model is hit it will likely go out of action. If it survives or applies a medkit, it'll get some pinned counters.

These take actions to remove - so if you a rookie, you'll be out for a few turns. Making for some interesting choices when building a team. Will you go for veterans with lots of action or rookies for lots for firepower.

Scenarios
The book comes with a few scenarios and a mini campaign. But really what this does is provide a simple frame work for easily coming up with scenarios of your own. Build a battlefield make a few quick objectives for why your crew is there.

Each game takes place inside 'The Zone'. An area that's filled with danger and riches. You'll choose how deep you go into The Zone. The nearer the centre, the more hot spots will be there. Hot spots is where the real gold is, the riches and the great items. But at the same time they will spawn monsters. Deeper in the zone? More treasure, but way more dangerous monsters!

And you won't bee needing a lot of different stuff. You'll really only need 6 critters, 8 zombies, 4 humans, 2 mutants, 1 large mutant - and you're covered for random encounters.

AI
The rules offer super simple rules from the randomly spawned enemies. Enemies always spawn and act as a group and will try and take out the nearest enemy first. You cannot loot a hotspot before you've taken out the enemies spawning there.

Combining the nature of different action points per model, a limited number of game turn and randomly spawned monsters - you'll really find yourself prioritizing while on the battlefield. Because you'll not be able to get around to do everything, The Zone is too dangerous and you'll have to choose. For this reason the rules will also work fairly well for solo play without any real adjustments.

Campaign - making a team
The book introduces a super simple way of building a team. You choice a team value based on combined action points. A standard game is 12 action points per side. The leader takes up 3 action points - leaving 9 points to be used on rookies, hardened or veterans. For simplicity (and fuck micromanagement) you then choose armor, gear, guns and skills from all available normal stuff. No price counting or anything like that - is matters little anyway.

I like this as it goes very well with a using WYSIWYG models from your collection.

Items
There's a nice collection of weapons classes, armor and items to choose from. Both standard gear and rarer stuff you'll have to find in the zone. There's plenty of one use items - that needs replenishing. There's also cool stuff like binoculars (which let you inspect hotspots and affect the dangers within). Scopes for rifles, to help take the camouflage bonuses away from enemies and so on.

Soldiers have equipment spaces depending on gear (load carrying vest) and rookie, hardened, veteran type. So they can't bring everything with them into The Zone.

Experience and factions

After making a team, if playing a campaign, you'll get experience points for your team - that you choose how to use. You can freely upgrade the dudes you want, building the team you want, not being depending on rolls. Experience can be used on skills, veteran level, stat increases, equipment space etc. And you can spend money to gain the same effect.

The standard goal of a campaign is to earn enough money in the bank to get retired, kick back and enjoy some vodka. But money won't come easy as grenades and medkits are one use - and really need to be replenished after a game.

There's six factions to choose from when building a team, all inspired by the factions you'll meet in a game like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Each faction will come with a small advantage when starting and offer different bonuses after each game - but you'll also have to pay taxes to them. Come out without any loot? They'll take taxes from that pension fund you're making.

Final thoughts
I love the s.t.a.l.k.e.r. and Metro PC games. I've read the Metro books and Roadside Picnic. I've been playing LARPs and Airsoft games with the settings. And been intrigued by the Chernobyl disaster and the Exclusion Zone for years.

I had no intention of getting Zona Alfa. Because I felt This Is Not A Test could easily work it's post apoc magic on a post soviet setting.

But I'm very happy with this book. For the kind of gamer I am, it does something with my interest in a game to read the right setting in the rules. It inspires me. And Zona Alfa really captures the style of those games.

Blue books are cheap, and this Osprey Wargames title is the best I've read. I'm really looking forward to entering The Zone. You should as well.

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