Epic Encounters: Local Legends - Berserker

 Steamforged Games makes products for use with the 5th edition of Dungeons and Dragons. These come under several flavors, but most fall under the Epic Encounters line.

The Local Legends are smaller, focused sets.

I snagged the Berserker package from Amazon for $16.80, but SFG has it on sale themselves for $9.99 for Black Friday-Cyber Monday. Please note that the Amazon link is an Affiliate Link, and I make a small commission at no cost to anyone who buys something through it.

Packaging is good. The box is solid. The figures are separated in their own plastic container inside the box. The product consists of four miniatures, a map, and an adventure bit.

The central figure, the Berserker, comes on a 50mm base. The base includes some sculpted stonework and some surrounding material, sand or dirt, depending on how it is painted up. The other three pieces are identical, being three swords out of smoke. This works in plastic as it's not top-heavy.

For its actual retail price, it's fair. Four plastic miniatures with a map and an encounter set for $24.99, but it's a non-GW bit, and the actual value of the set will vary tremendously depending on what you're using it for.

The models are all one-piece, which saves time on assembly. Some manufacturers, like Games Workshop, Archon Studios, and Wyrd, are committed to making models with as many pieces as possible, requiring the assembly of tiny parts. Here's an open-up-and-play.

The models may also serve different purposes. The swords, for example, would make great stand-ins for a Spiritual Weapon in D&D games. It's a shame that they didn't make different weapons, which would allow for a wider variety of uses, as the weapon takes on the deity's preferred weapon in the game.

From SFG website: 

The Berserker himself is an interesting design, with partial plate mail and two massive swords. His 50mm base means he can either be a big old human, or some variety like half-orge, half-giant, or if painted differently, a goliath or other humanoid.

From SFG website. Note that, unlike the blades, this isn't a 'clean' shot, and SFG could do better with the background. 

If I could ask for something from the company, it's to have the bases use a sculpted design or no sculpted design. The Berserker, for example, has a partially sculpted design. Why not cover the whole base? Why not have the floating swords have the same design on their base?

My preference for miniatures from a company is that if I go to the company's website, I will see a painted version of the model from all sides. That is not the case here. On the website, you will find the individual models but no sample paint jobs. 

This is a shame, as I like using such illustrations for ideas on what to do or what not to do. It also gives me an idea of what some of the things on the model are. Like, are these steel boots or just regular boots? I appreciate I can paint it however I want but I like examples.

The 'adventure' itself makes no sense. Not that the map is bad. It's fine. It's a small arena-style map where the characters enter from one end and the Berserker is at the other. There are even some interesting mechanics to give the players some options in dealing with the Berserker based on their observation of him.

Now that's not why the adventure makes no sense. Rather, the adventure makes no sense because the Berserker is a CR 25. Those blades? He summons them, but they are a CR of 1/2. Useless for a CR of 25. There are several ways that they could have handled this, ranging from making him something like a skill challenge to providing several stat blocks for both the Berserker and the blades.

Also, not sure why they talk about him having a minotaur helmet as well, there are no horns on the helmet, and no indication on any level that it would be a minotaur helmet.

That's a small complaint overall, though, as you're not necessarily buying this for the singular written encounter but for the miniatures. The maps and the encounter are a nice bonus.

My own take on the pack is below. Note, I didn't base the models past the sculpted base as I suspect this will be a one-and-done bit.

Tomb Guardians Hobgoblin With Sword

Tomb Guardians Miniatures - Hobgoblin w/ Sword
 
Unpainted 28mm Resin D&D Miniature (some assembly required)
 
Sculpture: Bobby Jackson

https://www.tombguardians.com/product-page/hobgoblin-w-sword
$8.00 for Metal
$6.00 for 3D Resin Print

Hobgoblins have long been a low-level fantasy staple in games like Dungeons and Dragons. But in terms of miniatures, they do not enjoy the popularity of others like goblins or orcs.

Asking around on the Reaper Forums, I discovered that Tomb Guardians Inc does a line of Hobgoblins. They also had a sale around the Christmas Holiday so I put in an order for two sets.

I'll be reviewing them individually here.

There are a few things I think Tomb Guardians gets right.

The first is that their website, while simple, is easy to navigate.

I also appreciate that they showcase the model painted from various directions so you can see what's on the model.

Bobby Jackson is an well-known sculptor in the field. It's a simple pose, a hobgoblin to the side with a sword. No shield. He's armored in half-plate.

If you have several of the sculpts from the hobgoblin line, you'll see that we are in the 'digital' asset field now. By that, I mean, say, Bobby has sculpted a skull. A skull that's actually bigger than the hobgoblin's actual skull so it's not a human skull but it's also not big enough to be an ogre's skull, but that's another thing.

Anyway, you've got a skull. You can now just re-use that asset wherever you need a skull. Same with things like pouches or bags on belts.

It's not a problem, but if you have multiple figures, you'll start to see these bits and wonder which ones are just duplicated from other bits already sculpted.

The bases are thing and only cover the footprint of the model itself. This means that they don't stand on their own very well and for maximum stability and to reduce handling, should be rebased. Note that could be a problem unless you're just putting the whole model on another base. 

In terms of what Tomb Guardians is selling, they note that they're selling resin and metal. Note from their last Kickstarter that wasn't offering metal, only resin, "We are fortunate that our design portion of the project has been completed and master of each miniature have been created and painted. However the production molds, production and distribution portion of this project has not."

Production models people.  Production molds. 

I do not appreciate that 'Resin' is not indicated as a resin cast. It's a resin 3d Print. Resin 3d printing on the home side has come a long way. Gone are the days of simple miniatures that have to be 32mm just to see the details. Some of these resin prints you'd never know were printed.

But it takes a certain level of skill and printer to do that.

Tomb Guardians has neither. 

This picture indicates a lot of pitting damage. This happens when you don't know how to remove supports from a model.

Note if you try to do removal after the model is cured, you run the risk of breakage as whatever resin Tomb Guardians is using is fragile. I found this out when I shattered a few of the bottom portions of the miniatures while removing the attached base so I could rebase it.

Note here you can tell that even the sword itself has these nubs and marks.

Some famous painters note that they like 3d printing because they don't have to deal with mold lines. I'd love to hand them one of these miniatures and ask if they prefer supports in the fire and other fragile places or mold lines. 

At the end of the day, you should avoid Tomb Guardians. When I contacted them about the poor quality of their prints, they agreed and offered to replace the figures in metal. Over a month ago. Which hasn't happened. And when asking Paypal for a refund, I was told that I'd need to send the original figures back. I can't even do this as I've thrown several away due to damage.

You have better options out there, even for Hobgoblins, and when a company misleads the buyer as to what they're buying and does not follow up on their own agreement to replace the miniatures that they sent out, well, no, you cannot support them.

Tomb Guardians Hobgoblin Boss

Hobgoblins have long been a low-level fantasy staple in games like Dungeons and Dragons. But in terms of miniatures, they do not enjoy the popularity of others like goblins or orcs.

Asking around on the Reaper Forums, I discovered that Tomb Guardians Inc does a line of Hobgoblins. They also had a sale around the Christmas Holiday so I put in an order for two sets.

I'll be reviewing them individually here. 

 https://www.tombguardians.com/product-page/hobgoblin-boss

First off, Tomb Guardians are doing something right. The website is straightforward and, simple, easy to navigate. The prices are low, especially for something labeled 'resin'.

The miniatures on the website have painted versions with multiple angles. I like it when companies do this, as it allows a potential buyer to see the whole image instead of just a frontal image. The paint jobs are also high-level, so they give the miniatures some pop.

So good work in terms of presentation.

I made my order, and the turnaround time was good.

That's when I noticed the problem.

Tomb Guardians are not selling resin casts.  They are selling 3-D resin prints. Nowhere in any literature on either their website or Kickstarters have  I seen mention, actual mention, that they are selling prints.

Worse, they have zero quality control when sending the figures out.

When you're a smaller company, you need to make sure to treat the customer right. Word of mouth is vital. One of the things that should mean is a Quality Assurance Program that validates that you are not sending obviously damaged products to the end user.

I am not an expert in 3D printing. However, I have owned multiple machines and made prints at home. It is a process.

One of the problems that you can have is verticle lines. Depending on how bad they are, they will be visible after layers and layers of paint.

In this figure, the axe on one side suffers from it to such a degree that the waves were still visible after five layers of paint and washes.

One could sand the lines away and hope you're not damaging the product, but again, it depends on how deep the lines are.

One of the most straightforward solutions for anyone printing at home is to throw the miniature out, adjust your settings, and print again. A humanoid figure on a 3D machine is cents per figure.  Let me repeat that. Cents per figure.

Whoever did the prep work on this miniature also did a terrible job of removing supports. There were numerous pits and damage throughout the figure's cape and other areas. This is annoying for a few reasons.

If you enjoy painting miniatures and wonder what professional-level painters think of 3d printed miniatures, one of the things they say as a positive is that because the miniature is not cast, it does not have any mold lines.

Folks, I'd have preferred mold lines. With mold lines, some sandpaper can do wonders. With broken supports? With supports that have been taken off that have damaged the model? You either need to do a lot of repair work or try to incorporate it into the figure painting itself.  

I'd have needed a lot of fine greenstuff work for this model to cover the holes and then sandpaper it to get it even. Or I could have painted the cape as battle-damaged. These would be extra steps.

Those professional painters I spoke of? Their enjoyment of 3d printed figures comes from NOT having to do extra work. Not doing MORE work because whoever did the post-processing either needed to know what they were doing or didn't care what they were doing.

There was another type of 3d printing artifact on the skull on the front of the figure.

I'm unsure what the figure is made of in terms of 'mixes'. When people print at home, they often mix resins and use an additional resin that has some flexibility or some that improve durability.

I know that this figure is brittle. 

Not that long ago, Reaper Miniatures minimized the bases on their metal models. As they initially started off with metal models, Tomb Guardians also minimized the bases. This was a cost-saving measure. Metal is expensive. No need for large round metal bases. However, this means that stability is not great.

So I pulled out some high-end clippers to remove the base so that I could just put it on its own base without building up a layer of flock or material.

It snapped the leg at the shin when I did that.

Now, if you're selling 3d prints, there are options. When Reaper moved to their 'Bones' material, they increased the base side for improved stability. So increasing the footprint and the amount of resin used to improve the base, perhaps even giving it a scenic base, is one option. The cost to the company would be minimal since it's a 3d print.  

The other option would be to off an option to sell the figure without the base. This would allow end users to quickly base the figure on any type of base they wanted.

So... the miniature suffered almost every 3D printing issue that a figure can suffer.  Waves, unprocessed parts, broken supports, and it's made of brittle material. 

On top of that, nowhere on the Tomb Guardians page does it say they're selling 3d prints. If they were stating that, I might not have ordered in the first place.

My recommendations to Tomb Guardians? First, replace every single use of the word 'Resin' with '3D-Printed'. Every single instance of it. 

Next, I'd ensure that whoever was doing the post-processing knew what they were doing. Resin miniatures in the human-size range are cheap. Literally cents. If you have something you think is salvageable but not suitable for consumers, put a new product line on your page, "Damaged Prints," or something of that nature. Do not send bad prints to your consumers.

Next, I'd put an option in the shop to not have the bases attached to the figures. By selling 3d files, you have more options than selling an actual stocked figure. Use those options.

The website uses old reviews, many of them of their metal figures, to promote their quality. This is bad business, and they should cease doing it or indicate clearly that the reviews do not apply to the 3d prints.

Tomb Guardians Inc has a long way to go before I'd trust them with another order.

Privateer Press and Mark III

So things don't happen in a vacuum.

On one hand, Privateer Press announces a policy to handle online discounters to grow the hobby.

On the other, they shortly announce the upcoming release of a new edition of their core game lines, Warmachine and Hordes.

I can imagine someone waiting off on making a purchase after the discounts going away, deciding that they were going to buy X, Y, and Z, and then seeing this and throwing their hands up in the air.

The two are interrelated on all levels. Trying to push through more gamers with the hopes that showing they are 'serious' about stopping online discounting to get more material through the front door of local hobby stores so that 'players' are brought into the game.

There are already a lot of people talking about the new edition.

I'm optimistic because I hope it can fix some of the problems with the game.

1. Focus vs Fury: People can hash this out all day but when you have Fury 5 war beasts and routinely have 4 fury and multiple initial attacks and animus that don't interact like spells do, yeah, it's a problem. The new edition starts off with some interesting ideas in granting all warjacks in a battlegroup an automatic focus and in providing warlocks a free fury for every dead warbeasts in their battlegroup.

2. Huge Models: Some of the huge bases, mainly in the gargantuan and battle engines, get little to no play. They have a fairly high point cost and don't bring a lot to the game. There appears to be something in the air about good things happening to fix that.

3. Unplayed Models: Privateers were an interesting option when they first dropped and some of the solos see a lot of play. The actual jacks though? Outside of say, the Galleon which isn't really a pirate model? Not so much. Now there are some 'jank' list that do have fun with say the Buccaneers but overall? This doesn't count light artillery. I've watched a lot of battle reports. I've played in tournaments. It's very rare to see something that isn't there specifically for a theme list.

4. Premeasuring: So much salt being spilled on this one. You'd think the firstborn of children were being sacrificed. I get why some like it as a 'skill'. It does add a bit of uncertainty. I've benefited from it in the past like having Behemoth charging into my Hyperion and fail the charge. I'm also terrible at measuring things with the old eyeball and while you can get around it by measuring your control area and by looking at the control zones for certain scenarios, I won't miss NOT premeasuring.

5. Theme Forces: Here's a big one. One of the things I like about theme forces are the little bonuses in exchange for the lock. But some of the more... interesting theme forces allow you to have more models than you can normally ever field. This will be a tricky thing for Privateer Press to address. If I want to take a theme force that I've already bought three units, one more then normally allowed, will I ever have use for that third unit? They'll have to tread carefully here.

6. New Battle Boxes: Huge m'eh from me. Not that it's not cool that we have new casters. Not that it's not cool that they are packing it with a ton of stuff. It's just a lot of the actual contents of the battle boxes look exactly like the original ones with a different caster. There's also a lack of mercenaries and minions. I get why on several levels. Not a lot of plastics for the minions although that is changing slowly but surely. Maybe in the far future.

7.Fiction. Ironically enough, this is one of the things I thought was pushing towards a new edition. You can only keep the storyline going so far in one direction before you have to move onto the next thing and usually that indicates some type of new edition. I personally thought we'd get some campaign rules this summer or something along those lines, like Mighty Empires. That campaign play in the No Quarter was interesting but certainly not robust enough to replace an actual summer release. Now they don't have to as it'll be a new edition.

The split between fiction going into the books and not in the core books remains to be determined. The new rule books for example, is probably going to be similar to previous books with enough setting information to get players up to speed.

The "no one safe" thing will also be interesting. I believe Privateer Press will allow people to keep playing all their models, but I'd wager that if Stryker dies in a book in 2017, all "official" tournaments will disallow that figure to match the meta. I could easily be wrong there though.

Me? I regularly play Retribution and Mercenaries with a toe dipped into Khador, Circle, and Minions so I've got my eye on several factions and will be curious to see how it unfolds..

What's everyone else looking forward to?

Privateer Press: New free rider policy

Privateer Press is a miniature company that in addition to its two flagship items, Warmachine and Hordes, also does board games, card games, and hobby supplies. 

I’m one of those weird people who sees events and then poses questions. One of those I posed recently was why isn’t Privateer Press doing Kickstarters? Well, they recently did one.

On the other hand, Privateer Press has also recently decided that they don’t like online discounters. They sent out a public memo if you will detailing that such actions were unwelcome and could harm the industry.

Sounds very much like Games Workshop to a point.

Now I buy things all over the place. I buy them from Games Plus, a FLSG. I buy secondhand from people. I buy from gaming auctions at Games Plus. I buy them online.

Some I’d never buy if it wasn’t deeply discounted.

And on some level, Privateer Press knows this because they deliberately make design choices to encourage the purchase of goods beyond a normal usable level. There are even jokes about “Doom Reaver spam” for example as the amount of models required for a “tier” list goes well beyond what is normally allowed on the table.

I understand why Privateer Press is doing this but I think it’s a mistake. Now they know their own business far more than some fat man on the internet.

On the other hand, you cannot put the genie back in the bottle. 

E-Bay and Amazon are a thing. 

Secondary markets are a thing.

Stores that continue to sell at the heavy discount and get the products later? That WILL be a thing.

And one of the online stores that quickly changed policy to adhere to the new maximum discounts? 

They were doing a lot to provide information and expand the hobby to begin with. 

And here’s the thing, remember when I said that Privateer Press recently did a Kickstarter? Yeah… all of that money the Kickstarter raised is essentially coming out of the retailers end of things. It’s huge doublespeak for do as I say, not as I do.

When Lock and Load comes up, there will be early releases. 

Again, what about the retailer? See last comment.

It’s not on the level that online retailers can push through, it’s only for a limited event, but at the same time, it is sales taken directly from retailers.

This doesn’t count exclusive only miniatures that can only be bought from Privateer Press. Currently the number of such figures is small overall but at one point included the pricey “Extreme” sculpts.

I hope that the policy doesn’t bite them in the ass. 

Some people will stop buying expensive items. They may have a threshold tolerance. For example, the new version or resculpt of Behemoth is something like $69.95. If you have a threshold of $50, buying it at the old 30% that was easy to find means you could get it at $48.97, just under your threshold. On the other hand, the new standard means you’re going to be getting hit for $62.96.

It could also cut into ‘jank’ list purchases. Something that you’re not necessarily going to run in a lot of games or indeed, outside of some tier force lists that, again, encourages you to buy excess models.

For example, if you want to run a bunch of battle mages in a Retribution army in a “Charge of the Battle Mages” tier force. Now though, paying close to full price? You might just skip that whole list. 

There will be those who say for the dedicated player that these are minor issues. That if you are playing to win, you will spend that extra money.

Possibly. 

I know several people, including myself, which have held off on making any new purchases since that announcement went into place. I have a lot of models to assemble and paint and that’s how I primarily came to the game to begin with. I don’t need to spend a ton of money on say, battle engines that I’m not going to be using a lot of.

What about everyone else? Good idea? Bad idea? 

Steam Roller Results: 11/28/2015

My not quite FLSG +Games Plus had a 35 point Steamroller for Warmachine-Hordes yesterday.

I took one of my amigos up there and for a $10 entry fee, I was in.

I brought two lists:

Fires on High Tier 4
Adeptis Rahn	-6
Hyperion	18
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution	3
House Shyeel Artificer	3
House Shyeel Artificer	3
House Shyeel Magister	2
Arcanist	1
Arcanist	1
Stormfall Archers	5
Stormfall Archers	5
	35
Will of the Nine Voices Tier 1
Ravyn, the Eternal Light	-6
Phoenix	10
Narn, Mage Hunter of Ios	3
Mage Hunter Assassin	2
Mage Hunter Strike Force	8
Strike Force Commander	2
Souless Escort	1
Mage Hunter Strike Force	8
Strike Force Commander	2
Stormfall Archers	5
	35

Now I can hear the groans at the Ravyn list.

But on the other hand, I'm a terrible player.

On the second other hand, I played only against Horde Players, 2 Troll Bloods and 2 Circle.

First game

Against a beast heavy Doom Shaper. The day previously, on Friday night, I had just played Fires on High at 50 points against Doom Shaper 3 so figured I'd go with Ravyn just for something different.

Problem is even with the dreaded "snipe, feat, go" that Doomshaper is sitting on 17 ARM with the stones. POW 10 vs ARM 17 is not a good thing.

The thing that has been cemented in my head against all trolls at this point? Shoot the stones. That +2 ARM and the no continuous effects? Yeah... I think I might have had a chance here with some better playing but overall I got a firm beat down.

Caster killed by an Earthborn using the POW of my Phoenix, which failed to kill the troll even thought it was in Ravyn's Vortex of Destruction and getting boosted damage rolls.

Second game

Against... trolls. But this list was light on the war beasts and was run by Calandra. She has a great spell, Star-Crossed. If you are within her control area, you gain an extra die on all attack rolls, both melee and ranged. The trick? You drop the highest.

It was a fun list to play against because there were a lot of light war beasts and the Storm Fall Archers, even with their RAT of 5, were able to shoot down a few of the enemy. My Hyperion was not played correctly. I'm used to having to buy three attacks and maybe kill a heavy so when the Hyperion charged into a light and splat it in like two hits so yeah, that three focus went to waste.

I had Rahn on a hill so DEF 16. War Beasts, even lights, that all have ranged attacks and can get Fate Blessed from Calandra don't care about that so in essence, I feed the opposite player my caster, which resulted in a loss.

Third game

A beast heavy game against Circle lead by  Kaya the Wildborne. I picked Ravyn as it was a killbox scenario and I thought I might be able to knock out the support staff early. She was carrying with her two Warpwolf Stalkers and a Feral Warpwolf along with druids. The player was way too cautious thanks to the whole "Snip, Feat, Go" thing. 

The caution also worked against the player in that they allowed me to get Narn and the Mage Hunter Assassin within charge range. The player decided to feat to get rid of Narn after some very bad dice rolls failed to do it the first time.

But the player also killboxed himself.

And he pointed out I could destroy the objective and Ravyn was already in the zone so... a win by scenario!

I try to learn from every game I play so I asked him why he didn't move the warpwolves into play and he was worried they'd get shot off the board.

I'm not saying that's impossible but at POW 10 against ARM 17, that would be a LOT of spiked rolls. That's assuming I hit. So if it was "Snipe, Feat, Go,", which wouldn't be necessary for Snipe as I moved the strike force up far, and assuming every shot hit, I'd be doing 5 points per hit max. A warpwolf stalker has 25 boxes. That would be 5 maximum shots. So with three wolves, that's 15 maximum shots. average dice though is going to be 6.5 or 7 so most of those shots would have plinked off.

Now mind you, if he didn't clear out the strike force, which again with berserk and lightning strike, shouldn't' have been too hard, I could potentially get off a charge and they do have combined melee attack but the POW on their melee weapons is worse, POW 9. 

So personally I think I was lucky to get that win off but I'll take it. On scenario no less.

Fourth game

Three flags on the board... ugh! I played Rahn again this time against Circle lead by Krueger the Stormlord.

I don't want to say I 'gave' this one away too because the other player won. It was a bad miscalculation on my part on how 'safe' my warcaster was behind a wall but Krueger's feat pushed me far enough away from it that he was able to charge a warpwolf into me and even camping three focus it wasn't enough.

Which in this instance was his 'golden' ticket as I had taken out his Megalith, my Hyperion was almost at full health thanks to the two mechanics, and I was sitting on 3 control points about to score again on my turn.

Assuming I didn't clock myself out. Deviations eat up a lot of time folks!

I was a little annoyed at playing all four games against Hordes because I don't feel that outside of maybe Hypnos and E2 that Retribution brings a lot against them. 

I also think that the ability to alpha strike with war beasts can often easily outpace a standard War Jack alpha strike with it's limit of 3 focus AND usually only 2 attacks.

This doesn't count the ability to transfer damage which renders the whole ability to ignore focus armor boosting ability useless.

But the players were all friendly and I had a good time and hope that I provided some entertaining to my fellow gamers.

Now in terms of what else was around? There were sixteen players including me and my buddy and while I'm not going to be able to pinpoint everything, and I should definitely have taken pictures, here's my recollection:

Khador: 2 lists each with the Butcher

Khador: 2 lists, one with EIrusk, the other with Vlad 2

Cryxis: I didn't see the lists in play, but my friend lost against E Denny.

Mercs: Didn't see the warcaster but it was Pirate based with a Galleon on the table.

Troll Bloods: See above

Troll Bloods: See above

Circle: See above

Circle: See above

Minions: Gators! I remember this one because the guy put the warcaster on a surfboard riding a bone swarm. It was highly original and well done.

I don't recall seeing any Menoth or Convergence. I was the only Retribution player. 

Shopping and Gaming

I have long collected miniatures. Often for use in role playing games. Many of those figures often belong to specific game lines though.

One of my friends bugged me enoug th actually get me into playing. It wasn't hard as several other friends were actively playing Warmachine and Hordes.

My main faction is the angry elves, the Retribution of Scyrah. I like the different design of the models, the high-tech feel of the elves and in some ways, they do remind me of the Eldar, who I also like.

Mind you, my record in playing them is quite terrible but that's about 90% my fault. I tend to have issues with order of activation and not focusing enough on the inherent synergy in some of the models.

But I am getting better.

As I specifically go out to actually play the game now, I've been shopping from a few stores and thought I'd throw out some quite notes:

Advanced Deployment: They are the makers of all things acrylic for numerous games including War Machine and Hordes. My first order with them was slow and missing some pieces. When I say it was slow, I ordered some different things from about five companies at once and these guys were the second to last to ship out my goods. Mind you, that might not always be true in the future.

They're also not fantastic at communication. They didn't pack some stuff that was supposed to come with the level of order I placed and didn't reply to initial efforts. I made another order, as I was pleased with the quality, and noted that if they didn't including the missing goods, they could cancel this order, and I'd talk to my credit card company about the missing stuff.

Strangely enough that worked and that order came very quickly. So fast that all in all, I've ordered from them three times and for the templates and other stuff that they provide, I'd recommend them.

Discount Games Inc: One of my friends hooked me up to these guys. Usually about 30% off, have a fair selection of goods, including bases from Secret Weapon and CoolMiniOrNot and good turn around time on their orders with free shipping at $50. One nice thing? They also sell stuff from Broken Egg Games  So if you get that free shipping, beats ordering directly from Broken Egg.

The free shipping and discount make them a better buy in many ways that my old stand by for online ordering, which is...

Miniature Market: A very good selection, a lot of different things in the warehouse, and often a lot of sales. Free shipping on orders of $100 or more. Very good customer service and very quick to get back to you.

FRPGames: On the outside of stores I normally shop at because they don't offer free shipping and as a matter of fact, the more you buy the more expensive the shipping gets, I still shop here because they do a lot of sales. Sometimes 50% off, sometimes more. They also carry a ton of stuff.

Noble Knight Games: I've been collecting miniatures so long that some of the sets I have, I had before they were sold in the now standard 10 man units. When I finally got into the gaming aspect of it, some units were very hard to hunt down and I thought it might be possible I'd have to just buy whole new units as the prices of the individual pieces I needed was almost what a full unit with discount cost. These guys have great selection and my experiences with them have been good.

So where does everyone else shop? Have I missed any of the obvious places? Any places people should avoid in general? Have your experiences been different than mine?

Hero Forge Custom Miniature Review

Hero Forge Custom Miniature, found here: https://www.heroforge.com/ , is a company that allows you to create a miniature based on a series of selections and have said miniature mailed to you. The scale is approximately 30mm.

The fun part about the website, is that it allows you to customize your character. You can select from a variety of different parts of the character including head, hair, eyes, teeth, body type, clothes, weapons, accessories, and more. This allows for a high level of uniqueness.

There are limitations though. For example, the last time I played with the site, I could not create a character with a sword pointing down to the ground. In this picture, taken from the blog Minismith's Minis for Ebay, http://minismithebay.blogspot.com/2010/11/ral-partha-wizard-female-ogryn-and-2.html, an old Ral Partha miniature, something like Wizard with Runesword, the figure is pretty much exactly what I would like to make but in a more modern scale. Not possible.

As far as I can tell, you cannot have a character that wields a weapon with two hands either. This leads to some odd poses with characters that are yielding say, greatswords.

The current races are also 'mainstream' in that you have the following: human, elf, half elf, dwarf, gnome, halfling, half orc. The good news is that they also have the following: elemental (gensai), half-demon (tielfling/cambion), and robot (warforged). Sadly, no half dragons or half giants. You can cheat on the later thought as you can control the size of the character to a certain extent.

One aspect that is far ahead of most others, is that while fantasy may be the most popular, it does include settings for the following genres: fantasy, western, sci-fi, modern, east Asian. This allows you to cover a wide swath of characters that outside of boutique companies, are rarely covered.

My friend ordered several of these. Some of them directly for character's he's playing in a Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition campaign and others because he thought the ability to mod your figure awesome.

The miniatures were well packed and arrived sound and secure in a box with bubble wrap. Each figure was individual wrapped and no figures suffered damage in the transit.

In terms of the size compared to other companies?

In the first, we have a dwarf from Stonehaven miniatures next to an  elf from Hero Forge.

In the second, we have a crouching human next to a miniature from Wyrd, an old metal Guild Captain.

Here are my observations from painting several of them:

1. Size is fairly close to standard in the industry. As much as there is a standard.

2. Detail is soft. I'd say somewhere around a fair Mage Knight or other prepainted miniature. The more control you have over your brush, the more you'll be able to bring out those details. Some of that detail is so soft though, that you will not be doing things like drybrushing unless you have fantastic control. The same is true for washes. Without deep recesses, the wash has nowhere to go. Note this varies depending on the model. In the below, the tabards don't necessarily have a lot of detail. The cloaks have enough to make it easier with washes, layering or drybrushing.

3. Printing Artifacts: If you were to hold one of the figures and look at it under a strong light, you would see the remanents of how the pieces are created. This looks like waved texture. It's so slight though that it does not show up when brushed. Some may want to file it but that seems a bit extreme.

4. Fragile to a point. I have several miniatures from Gale Force 9 for their Dungeons and Dragons line. Perhaps due to how the dynamic poses are set, I've broken a few of them. I dropped a knight from my friend's order and snapped the blade right off. The good news is that it was a clean break and easy to repair with super glue. Now mind you, that would probably happen with metal as well. Handle with the same care you do resin figures and you should be okay.

5. Paint Adhesion: I tended to use two spray coats of Army Painter. I started with black and then over the knights, plate mail. On the wizard and warrior, I did a zenith primer of white over the black.  Despite that, there were several spots on the miniature that did not take paint easily. Note this was after I washed them in warm soapy water and used a toothbrush to scrub them.

The initial offering is strong. The biggest hurdle for casual users like myself, is price. At $25 a figure, these miniatures are directly competing with top tier brands on a per figure. On something inexpensive like Bones or a set of plastic? If you have a specific figure you want created, such as my friend did with a duelist with two rapiers and a crown, the price is worth it.

Is you just want something to paint? There are a lot of options at that price point.

As Hero Forge expands it's utility, not even necessarily in terms of detail, but in terms of variety, the value will increase. For example, if there comes a point where you can select from twenty different historical styled helmets or different types of clothing representing specific eras, people will pay more for that.

As more options in the positioning of the figures is increased, people may find something that gives them a better match. The ability to have a miniature using a two-handed axe in two hands for example.

The more specific your character need, the more specific the miniature you want, the stronger the appeal of Hero Forge.

Keep an eye out on them. It won't be long before I suspect Hero Forge will make it's money selling you the CAD's for printing at home.

How To Paint Citadel Miniatures

I'm a sucker for painting guides. I figure at the very least, I will have some nice photographs that I can use as inspiration for my own painting, or in the case of miniatures I'm painting just to fill out hordes, a paint by numbers guide so to speak.

Games Workshop, perhaps the largest hobby entity for fantasy and science fiction wargaming, often gets berated for a variety of reasons.

One of those reasons should not be making things too difficult to enter the hobby.

Now too expensive on the other hand...

The How To Pain Citadel Miniatures is a spiral bound book with the ability toe sit the book directly standing so that you can keep the book open directly while painting. This is an innovation that no other painting book has.

The book is loaded with numerous photographs of the different ranges that Games Workshop is known for: Warhammer, Warhammer 40K, and Lord of the Rings.

The art is clear and easy to follow along.

The information is easy to read and easy to follow along.

The book includes a DVD that repeats the information in the book, but with narration and someone actually performing the activity.

The use of this book is clear for individuals who are interested in the Games Workshop version of the hobby.

This isn't to say that someone new to painting miniatures won't learn.

The start of the book starts before even touching a model. This includes having the right tools and a good place to work that is both comfortable and well lit.

In terms of the models, it covers preparing the models. This includes removing product from frames, cleaning them with blades, repair work if necessary with liquid green stuff, as well as assembly with glue. Very simple, standard stuff that is good to have said regardless of who says it.

One of my favorite bits, is using a 'painting stick' with double sided tape used to hold miniatures that are then spray primed. A quick easy way to handle the priming method.

It includes a detailed breakdown of what the different pants, at the time of the writing, are.

Base Paints: High concentration of pigment allows a good base coverage. The base paint provides a foundation for future work. Not that long ago, these would have been part of the Foundation Line, a game line of paint in direct response to the excellent Privateer Press Paints.

Layer: Paint stacked atop the base paints that are meant to bring out the color of a model.

Drybrush: A new paint that I'm not aware of any other company using yet. It is thick paint that is easy to prepare for drybrushing and is easy to use.

Many of the standards for painting miniatures are here. This includes thinning you pant and using multiple thin coats to get a thicker, richer color, then just using one thick layer which may obscure details. These bits are good advice for almost any pant set from any company for any painter.

Shades: The shades are washes that darken the color they are put on. You can achieve some interesting effects by using colors that might not normally go together. One example is Reikland Fleshshade over Steel Legion Drab followed by Tallarn Sand and Karak Stone and Terminous Stone to achieve a Kahaki color.

Glazes: Different than shades, the glazes are thin color that generally have two purposes. One is to cut down 'glare' from highlights taken too far. The  second is to tint the color to whatever you're glazing it to. One of the examples is using the different glazes over silver painted chaos warriors to show their particular devotion to one of the four ruinous powers. For example, green for Nurgle or Red for Khorne.

Texture: Mud in a bottle! You slop this onto the base and it has enough material in it to present some  texture that can be washed and drybrushed for a quick nice looking base without too much work.


After discussing the different types of paint, and how to use them, the book breaks into the basics of painting, layering, drybrushing, washing, and using those techniques together. Since many of the paints are designed specifically to do one of the things, it works well.

To provide further examples, the book includes eight different groups of characters painted using the methods provided: Tyranids, Harad, Space Marines, Gondor, Orcs & Goblins, The Empire, Tomb Kings and Dark Eldar.

This is an excellent visual reference for anyone wondering how to paint one of those particular figures. For example, the Tomb Kings are given a rich coloration in gold and purple. The men on Gondor painted in this example, could be useful for Wood Elf Waywatchers.

The book closes out with a color guide taking different types of colors through the range. Perfect for sticking with an established pattern throughout an army. For example, if you want to do Space Wolves, you follow the guide for the following.

Basecoat: The Fang
Wash: Nuln Oil
Layer: Russ Grey
Layer: Fernisian Grey
Drybrush: Etherium Blue.

In some gases there are up to six steps as the final step is a glaze to mute an edge highlight.

Not covered in this volume, are the technical paints that came out after the book was done, nor the edge highlighting paints, which are based in color, on the drybrush paints, which are meant for a final highlight.

In addition to the book, the DVD covers almost everything the book does. This allows you to follow along in terms of cleaning, assembly, and painting of miniatures. The DVD clocks in at just slightly over 130 minutes.

Let me be clear. After reading the book and watching the  video, you will probably not be winning any Golden Demon awards.

You will know how to assemble miniatures.

You will know how to base coat.

You will know how to layer.

You will know how to base.

You will know what the specific Citadel Paints are and how they work: Wash, Glaze, Drybrush, Texture.

You will have an idea of how to place highlighting specific to the Games Workshop paint range and have a lot of options for how to do that.

While Games Workshop may be hated in many circles, this is a great product for someone fresh to the hobby who wants an all in one introduction.



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Figopedia: Light & Colour - Theory and Practice

Figopedia Volume 1: Light & Color – Theory & Practice

Written by Jeremie Bonamant Teboul (JBT)

120 full color pages

One of the nice things about this internet era of things, is that you can get a taste for how something may work. For example, prior to the book launch of Figopedia, there was a Youtube video. It provided a great overview of what was going to happen on Indigogo.

The campaign was well run. The updates were on a regular basis. The stretch goals were modest and met. Part of that included some lady adventurers that would be NSFW cast in resin with very fine detail on them.

The communication after the campaign were well done. The books weren’t shipped out on time. There was some item, I’m not sure if it was stickers or something, but that held things up.

Only briefly.

Biggest problem? The way it was shipped. My book had numerous scuff marks on it and I was fortunate that the miniatures were still in the package because the package was ripped open at the top due to a tear. It was a big envelope basically as opposed to a box. Bad shipping on that. Good news the minis look okay.

The book itself? Gorgeous. People talk about food porn all the time. This is miniature porn. If you like looking at well painting miniatures, this book is right up your alley. The miniatures are identified in both scale and company. For example, there are many from Figione but there are others from companies including Games Workshop. The painting on the cover? That’s a modified Games Workshop Eldar walker.

The book is not a step by step in that the author doesn’t grab one figure, prime it, put a color on, tell you the color, shade it, tell you the color of the shade, and so on.

Rather, he provides ideas on how color works. It’s a bit technical in some areas but the biggest thing I got from me, is to push the paints further then you might normally. He does this by providing information on the different parts of light and color.

For example, how does light fall on the miniature? Is it falling from an angle? Is it all around light? Is it directly overhead? Each way that light is cast provides it’s own highlight and shadows and must be followed throughout the whole miniature as such.

Another aspect cover, is how light hits different shapes. Large flat shapes versus folded cloth for example.

In terms of idea, he hits the following: Hue, lightness and saturation.

He does this by discussing how to make colors ‘cool’ or ‘warm’ and how to harmonize them.

He does this by showing how to take the opposite color to darken a color while retaining a richer color. For example, to get a deep rich red, add green. I’ve seen the advice before but there are more examples here and it’s clearly demonstrated.

One of the nice things, is that while there are is no single walk through, he uses the same model to discuss different aspects several times so you get to see how each of the theories applies to the same figure with vastly different results. Want to see how the figure looks when it’s ‘cool’ or ‘warm’? It’s there. Want to see it when the painter has harmonized it? Done.

In this way, the making the reader think about how the figures are painted, not just the use color a, color b, color c, it is more of a workbook for the reader. It’s more of a “here’s WHY you paint it this way as opposed to just paint it with these colors.” For some people, that’s a good thing. After all, what if he used Citadel paints and all you have are Vallejo’s?

No, instead, it’s take this red, darken it with green, lighten it with yellow, pay attention to where the light is falling, how the light is falling, how much light is falling, and don’t be afraid to have extreme highlights and extreme shadows but only in those spaces where they are needed and no further.

It’s not an inexpensive book. It’s overall value may depend entirely on what you bring to the reading. But even if you just read it for the art and the ideas, you may be motivated by the miniature porn to push your own painting skills a little higher while motivated to do so. For me, it was a worthwhile purchase and I will be supporting any future books done in this manner, although with more feedback to the author to ship in a box or better padding.

Those interest in the book and it’s website can go here.

Review: Reaper Bones Zombies (5 from Kickstarter 2)

As a backer of the second Reaper Bones Kickstarter, I've been going through my pledge. Some monsters that I don't think there are enough of, are zombies.

Games Workshop, for many of their army lines, have great generic figures. Their zombies are terrible. Mantic on the other hand, has some great zombies but you might not need that many in a horde.

Thankfully Reaper is here with some zombies.

These zombies have been primer with the Army Painter Necrotic Flesh. It provides a nice solid cover. Almost too nice! It'll bleed through paint placed on it and might require multiple coats. The good news is that it goes over the Bones material with no muss and no fuss. I used a hair dryer to quickly dry it off and get painted.

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I decided for humour sake more than anything, that I was going to paint these using the Zombicide Paints. There are three sets. The paints are a little odd. They require thinning and a gentle hand when getting paint from the stopper. It's like you put pressure on and nothing, nothing, nothing, and bam, a huge blob of paint that you have to scoop back into the bottle.

Another reason I wanted to use the zombicide paints on zombies? Keep it to a limited pallette.
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The first thing I did was use a 'toxic shader' to try and force myself to view the details on the figures. The toxic shader was thinned with a little standard Liquitex acrylic thinner. I was surprised by how purple the color was.

Seeing some of the details, I made a few mental notes. In most cases, it was a layer back onto the base color and then a layer mixed with another lighter color to bring out some more details. At the end I decided why not and used the glistening blood effect. It's a neat little paint. It's semi-transparent and gets a nice effect.

I apologize for the quality of the photos. My bad is shot and I'm painting while lying down which means I don't have access to better light and well, I was never good with taking photos in the first place.

The zombies are a nice group. The shuffling gait they have is well captured. The turned in feet for example, are a nice touch. The crouching lurking vibe? Solid.

The only thing I would like to see more of, are well, wounds and perhaps trophies. The only one I saw with a wound was the young lady and that's on her neck and appears to be from a straight cut.

Overall I'd say most of these can fit into almost any campaign setting and are a solid buy for someone looking to bulk out their zombies.

Review: 77239: Skeleton Guardian Spearman from Reaper Miniatures

I was briefly at AdeptiCon this year. I went to check out the vendor hall. Several companies, including Scale 75 and Games and Gear, were there. , I wanted to save myself shipping and handling charges as I order their products through +RK Berry .

Reaper Miniatures was also in presence. I backed their Bones 2 Kickstarter and received my figures. I noticed that I made a mistake on my order, and have been trying to work with Reaper to correct that issue.

Because of that error, I did not have all of the new figures produced for the Kickstarter. So while at AdeptiCon, I picked up several packs of the skeletons.

Skeletons are one of those miniatures where I can always use them. You can paint them up in different styles to represent different fallen Empires or paint the bones themselves different colors to represent different types of monsters.

This guy comes in a nice three pack. That's a link to the Reaper image itself.

The figures are tall, long boned. There are some mold lines and the Bones material is a little more difficult to remove if you're not careful. I say this because there isn't a lot of resistance to the material. Push to hard and you'll cut right through it.

I didn't bother. They were for table top play so my worry was minimized.

The details are a little soft. This is most noticeable on the edges of the spear and around the shield itself.

The figures are also 'bendy'. In pictures to follow, you'll note that it's the same figure, but the stance is slightly off on each. I used a lot of hot water to get the spears into something resembling 'normal' and could probably have done more work on that later.

The good news is that the material is soft. If you want to do conversions with bits, especially Games Workshop, that tends to provide overage of such? You won't have any problems. I wouldn't recommend anything metal though unless you're going to have that weapon in a downward position.

For me, the good news is that they have what I'll call 'Old School' aesthetic. A belt, but not dozens of belt pouches. A buckle, but not dozens of bands. A weapon, but not covered in chains or other miscellany.

I primed it with Games Workshop Imperial Brush on Primer. Did not have great results. The bottle wasn't mixed enough despite much shaking. I glued them onto the round bases that I received with the Reaper Kickstarter.

Not too sure about that. These figures are 'tall' and the bases added a lot of height. In addition, I have this far away dream of one day using my figures in Reaper's skirmish game Warlord, and they use square bases. Still, the price was so inexpensive if I want more I should be able to afford it.

I then mounted them on some blocks with blue tack. I don't have to touch them that way and there is less chance of rub off. Because I have the Games Workshop complete miniature paint case (or at least the last one before the Technical Paints and the Hard Edging Paints came out) and bending is a problem due to back issues, I find the Games Workshop case easy to access so used them with one exception, an Army Painter shader.

For these I tend to go with 'layering'.
1. Mid Tone: Something that isn't the brightest or darkest color I'll be using for the part in question.
2. Shade:Often I'll use a wash to darken parts of the figure.
3. Layer: One or more layers that are progressively lighter and occupy less space on the miniature.

Bone: Zandri Dust
Clothes: Steel Legion Drab
Spear: Dryad Bark.
Metals: Boltgun metal. (For some reason I have a lot of the old metallic range.)
Leather: Mournfang Brown
Base: Charadon Granite (this bottle will soon fade from the world, one of my few remaining Foundation GW paints)

Bones: Army Painter Soft wash.
Clothes: Reikland Fleshshade
Spears: Agrax Earthshade
Metals: Nuln Oil
Leather: Agrax Earthshade
Base: None

Bones: Highlight 1 Ushabti Bone, Highlight 2 Screaming Skull
Clothes: Highlight 1 Tallarn Sand, Highlight 2 Kraak Stone
Spears: Highlight 1 Gorthor Brown, Highlight 2 Baneblade Brown
Metals: Highlight 1 Ironbreaker. Highlight 2 Runefang Steel.
Leather: Highlight 1 Skrag Brown, Highlight 2 Deathclaw Brown
Base:Highlight 1 Dawnstone, , Highlight 2 Terminus Stone

Due to their 'clean' nature and lack of various pieces of bric-abrac, these were a quick paint job. If I wasn't having some health related problems, I could probably have knocked this out in under an hour. I might also have went with some more highlights and might have tried to age the metals a bit more.

The Skeleton Guardians weren't available from the Reaper's webstore last I looked, but was available to view here.

Is there something else you'd like to see mentioned in future reviews? A scale shot with the figure next to other figures? More WIP?  Different style of paint jobs? I know the camera work leaves much to be desired so if you have a site with some good tutorials, lay it on me.

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Reaper Dragons: Shadow and Wood

Still painting away on the Reaper Kickstarter Bones. The first image is, I want to say a Shadow Dragon. I painted it up pretty much as a black dragon. It's a nice large figure that if I had any more huge sized bases, I would have put it on one. Detail is fairly good, but this is usually true for the larger Bones figures.

Middle picture is just a scale shot. The shadow dragon stands well above 28mm while the Green is a little under, but wings may make it up that far. The dwarf is another Reaper Bones minaiture.

The last one is actually a metal miniature. He required a little prep work as you have to glue his arms and wings into the base. I also threw him onto a round lip stand because I thought he could use the support thanks to the wings and arms going on. Assembly was fairly easy and didn't require any green stuff but I'm sure I could have added some.

Glad to see Reaper making metal miniatures again. I have a few others that I'm getting ready to work on in various stages of prep but that gets back to the whole problem of having too many miniatures from backing several kickstarters at once and then several of them showing up at one time. It's a good problem to have mind you but sometimes I feel a little indecisive about what I should be working on.

For example, I've got a few lizard men in various stages of completion. These are more Bones figures from the Reaper kickstarter that I'm not actually doing anything with but just had them out when I was painting some other green stuff or priming stuff. I need to figure out my gaming priority as January is half over and I'm still flipping back and forth between different sets of miniatures.

Anyone else have that problem? You backed a kickstarter, like Drake for example, and are like, "Man, I'm going to paint all the dragons!" and it shows up and your like, "Later. I'm going to paint all the dragons later."

Glacial Devil by Center Stage MIniatures

The Ice Devil is another figure I was glad to paint up. It doesn't have a lot of belts, buckles, skulls, or other things hanging around it. It's some neat insect design with a single weapon. The skull on the base is made of green stuff that I stamped out from my Happy Seppuku kickstarter.

The miniature was very clean in terms of mold lines and flash. In terms of assembly, the miniature comes in five pieces. The tail, each arm, and skull, are all separate pieces. The arms fit into the slot fairly easily and provide you with a little leeway in terms of how you assemble it. I put it the way I did so that it could lean against the body and have another contact point for the glue.

In terms of assembly, the only 'bad' thing about it? It comes with a 40mm base. That base he's on in the picture? That's a 50mm base. In addition, the feet are so wide spread, that even on that larger base, I couldn't cut the base to accommodate the tab, so I cut the tab off. This might not have been a bad thing overall, but the feet are raised on that tab so as you might be able to tell from the picture, I couldn't remove all of the base. Mind you I could have worked on it so more but there's that whole lazy thing going on over here.

The figure is sculpted by Federico Genovese who did several miniatures for the 28mm Demons and Devils Kickstarter as well as other miniatures for Center Stage MIniatures prior to that.

This brings me up to 23 miniatures for 2014 and January. Let's see if I can keep it going.

Kagunk Reaper Ogre Bones Miniature

Another miniature done from the Kickstarter from Reaper Miniatures for their Bones line. This is Kagunk, an ogre chieftan miniature. He's done up by Tre Manor and like most of Tre's miniatures, has a ton of detail to him.

We have the numerous straps. We have the pieces of steel plate over the chain mail. We have the various pieces of leather with the numerous studs. We have a horn, and a series of skulls.

For those with a ton of patience, it's a great piece and can really pop when someone who appreciates it takes brush to it.

 The shield is another huge piece. In metal, it's quite heavy. In Bones, it's light. The detail is still very good though. Even the feet, which normally tend to sink into the base, seem good to go here.

On Amazon, they have the Bones version for $3.07. Bad news? The s&h is like $4.00

In metal, the same figure will run you $15.94 but has free shipping.

I can see a few uses for Kagnunk ranging from ogre, to ogre champions, to hill giant. He's just that big.