Von Unaussprechlichen Kulten AAR

Today, my brother and I finally got together and played some Strange Aeons. Because we haven't played for a while, we decided we'd rather start new campaigns. Because that would take so much time and we had cults already made (but never played with), we decided that we should play a game of Von Unaussprechlichen Kulten (VUK) instead. It is a beta-testing version of game that derives from Strange Aeons, but it is a lurker vs. lurker type. You can get your copy here.

His Death cult has met my Dagonites on a graveyard.

His cult was made of:

Magus
Cult leader, with light vest, .22 pistol, bowie knife, meat cleaver and a double barreled shotgun.

Congregants:
Cult leader, with .22 pistol, bowie knife, light vest and a double barreled shotgun
Conglomerate
Conglomerate

Cultist:
Maniac, with meat cleaver

Two cult leaders give him the ability to nominate all of his cult at once (Cult leader nominates other leader and a maniac, other leader nominates conglomerates)

I went for a different approach. I had:

Magus
Fishman Demagogue, rainment (a thing that gives 6+ save that I forgot to use!)

Congregants:
Fishman
Fishman
Hybrid, with a club and bolt action rifle
Hybrid, with a club and a shotgun
Hybrid, with a club
Cultist, with a torch
Henchman, with bowie knife and a double barreled shotgun


We've rolled for "Chained coffin" scenario. We set up the graveyard, placed the 7 graves we rolled for and deployed. He won the first turn and moved forward, 2 conglomerates made it in base to base with 1 grave. In my turn, I could only nominate demagogue and 2 others. I've moved demagogue to one grave and one fishman to other.

In their next turn, Death cult's conglomerate manged to dig out a chainned coffin already! He started dragging it down towards his deployment zone for safe opening. On my turn, I also rolled 6 (would have found a coffin), but was auto changed to 5. A restless spirit emerged from grave and haunted my poor cultist with a torch, scaring the living hell out of him!
My brother spent next turns to open the coffin (found the scrolls) and massacring my cult. I used my turns searching 2 more graves and removing casualties... In one grave, there was another spirit (again, after I rolled 6 -.-), in the second, I found some valuables that I traded for money (Resource points).

I think it is useless to fully describe how we played, as I got no pictures.The game ended after he massacred my team. All 8 of my cultists were removed as a major injury (needs to roll on major injury table which can end up in death, phobias, injuries or even gives you a free skill or makes you hate the one who did the injury!). In his cult, his magus and one of the conglomerates survived. Maniac was removed as a minor injury (comes to play next game unchanged) and the rest were major.

He rolled injuries first. Conglomerate rolled full recovery, so he will play next game normaly. Cult leader rolled and after recovery, he now hates fishmen that gave him such a horrible scars!
When my turn to roll came, I started with my Magus. If he'd die, I would have 2 options. Another model with command could become a new magus, or if I'd have enough RP, I could buy another model with a command skill, to be new magus. Well, with my luck, I rolled and old immortal fishman demagogue died. I had no other models with command in my cult and not enough RP to afford another such model, so my club scattered and Innsmouth people no longer treathen Death cult's exsistence.

For fun, we rolled some more and I got two cultists with leg wounds, two cripples (one action instead of 2), one fishman would now be scared of being touched, henchmen would fear everyone in enemy's cult and little cultist got a full recovery.

Quite unexpecting turn of events on my side! Maniac and conglomerates literally cut trough my team. Fishmen had some chances, the rest were just there to feed the wretched madman and undeads!

Now I'll have to make a new cult and he will just keep on playing with his. I will go with Dagonites again. The reason is, I still got trust in them and well, I just got my fishmen and hybrids to play with!

Cheers,
Mathyoo

I was about to take some pictures, but decided against it, as we dont have any models painted :P. The game ended so badly, as you could see, that I've decided to write about it!

Black cat bases unboxing

Hello,

so, my Black Cat Bases parcel has arrived and I was busy basing and cleaning them yesterday. All the packs came with lipped 30mm bases, but I've decided I'll continue my 25mm slotta bases trend and have used those. 

Everything came nicely packed in blisters. I got loads of them now and I would be completely satisfied with 2 or even 3 miniatures per blister...but well, I can always "throw them away" (by which i mean store them for "sometime later").

Below is a picture of a blister, they're mostly all the same. This one has a deep one typing in it :P.

I have also got a nice little cat free with my order. I am not a collector, but it made me a bit sad I won't be able to get the rest of them! The compan being BCatBases, cat makes the sense. And I am more of a cat person myself, so that was really a nice move. I got no use for it yet, but it can wait.

As for the miniatures themselves, I am pretty satisfied. They are around as good as TAGs, if not better. But I am just painting Hasslefree-Mantic Grant so my estimates my be under the influence of what I found to be THE MOST DETAILED miniature I own :P. So,. considering the price the sculpts are really decent for what you pay. I have noticed, however, that werewolf (comes with separate lower body, upper body and 2 different heads) can't be put together too smoothly and I will use greenstuff to make it a bit bulkier in its waist and to to fix it a bit as it looks okay from one side and totally missed from the other. This could be my problem gluing it, but just to let you know. I've also noticed many figures had traces of releasing gel (oil?).  I always wash my miniatures, but thats the first time I've actually saw the stuff!

As for mould lines, I could say there aren't too many, but still the figures demand quite some work. The metal is also very thick, so I found a bit hard to work with them (I had to chop secret mini's head and one hand off, but if you're not doing that, being a hard miniature is a bonus, i think). If you buy one of those new miniatures, with multiple options for weapons, note that a) so many choices make decisions hard to make! b) not all the choices have "pin" included and some are very hard to detach from the sprue. Again, I found metal very solid.  Then, some of the slotta tabs are too wide and need some filling. But, all in all, I am very satisfied with miniatures and a customer support. I've ordered a mad man, but I found a suitable miniature in my collection (TAG freebie!), so I've mailed if I could swap this one with some other mini and there was no problem.

Below, I've added some scale pics.

We got TAG, BCB, BCB, Mantic, BCB, BCB, WGF, BCB, BCB, Urban war, BCB, BCB and forementioned Hasslefree-mantic Grant.

A close up on first half. You can see the amazing pose of werewolf. Miniatures tend to be true 28mm, so they turned out a bit small compared to Mantic. I really like the deep ones, as I think they are pretty close to what Lovecraft described them as. The guy with lantern and a pistol had a choice for his right arm (lantern). I wanted to go with another pistol, but there is one on his belt, so I picked lantern....you know, he was searching the pyramids and he has heard a sound behind his back thing! The "doctor" is putting his gloves on, which is quite a nice idea for the pose. He will be my mad scientist.

Here is the other part. Sorry for the blurry pic. The first one is one of 3 hybrids. I am sure they will be fun to paint and I will try to blend green-grey of deepones with some skin tones. Second guy has a WW2 tommy gun, which is a shame, as I'd prefer the 1920's edition. But, well, its a minor thing. You can see another agent with sabre and Lovecraft himself. I gave him .45 colt, so he can defend himself!

There is one more writer that I got. I keep forgetting about his name, but the thing is, I gave him a hand with pen for his "weapon". I was going to paint it as a cigar and put a pile of dynamites on his base. I had some problems attaching the hand and it broke, so I'll just give him a shotgun instead!


Well, I think thats all I got to say about BCB. If I sounded too negative, its all accidental, as I think miniatures are great. Cthulhu line is somewhat hard to get and hybrids are just amazing. But some sculpts are not as good. Fisherman with rifle, that I got, for example, has no noticeable border between his boots and trousers, but I think he just needs some paint! The werewolf is also much better than expected. They sell many different variants, but I like the "leaping" one the most.

Again, I hope this helps if you were wondering how those miniatures look like!

Mathyoo

Some random thoughts

I've been away for the weekend...been busy with final birocracy regarding printing my diploma and such (which means it has to be graded now and I should be able to continue my postgraduation lessons). Just to brag a little, here is the picture of printed copies:

The nice one is for myself, I've figured it can make a nice memory :P. The rest, the ugly 3 are as good as they have to be and are for my faculty's needs.


I've spent saturday playing FOW after a couple of months. If you are into this, I've played late war, 1750 points. German pioniere kompanie, 2 pioniere platoons, 3 nebelwerfers, 5 stug Gs, 4 brummbars (a little beast!) and some AA trucks. First game versus hungarian armour was a win for me, but for high cost. Second game, versus US armored rifles was a loss. On sunday we had first slovenian international tournament. It was 19 players, 3 of those were from Croatia and Serbia. International nontheless! I got no pictures as I was busy making mistakes (i really dont play much!) and losing games. I played 2-5 versus armoured rifles from saturday (1 in 19 chance that I'd get him!) (but could win 5-2 with better last turn rolls or decisions!), second game was played versus a guy that I play with on every tournament! This time he totally trashed me and I hardly got a platoon of AA to make it 5-2 for him. Third game was a draw, and I got 3 points as I've destroyed 2 platoons and he got 1 as he killed nothing to me. I was on his objective and, given more time, I could potentially win it 6-1. But well, the bottom 3 is my usual ending place, so why end the curse! And this also gives you an explanation why Im slowly drifting towards skirmish and campaign games, hehe!

I've also taken some pictures of one nice arena 2 guys at our club made (which sees no games, its for mordeheim 28mm) and some pictures of trees covered with lichen for Brummie:

Oh, talking of skirmish games, when I've left on friday morning, mailman brought me my package from Black cat bases. Below is a picture of some Strange Aeons characters, a werewolf, some deep ones, hybrids, a secret fig and A FREE CAT! :O It says they're collectibles, 6 different by now and I was thrilled! Getting something free, even a candy totally makes my day. I like the idea that someone cares, hehe!

Well, more once I get them based and assembled!
Thanks for looking, Mathyoo

Graveyard scenery expanded! And more!

 Hello,

I've been working on some trees and such for past few days. Also decided to finish my crypt. Here is all what I've done since last time (and graves templates from few posts back):

 So, we got 3 bases of two trees each, a crypt and thats actually all of it. They still need some fauna. I have also made and primed some "jungle" bases, but I'll show them once they're done. If you have the eyes to notice cookies box on the left, keep in mind it is empty and I am not a lucky man!


Lets take a closer look of the pieces. Laid-back survivor will help us with demonstration of sides. Pictures are no better than usual, so well, I can only apologize one more time!

The crypt is based on an old CD, made of cork tiles I've used for most of my buildings. It is pretty basic in shape, with some bits added to make it a bit more interesting. As you can see, it is dedicated to a Scott family. Could it be a final resting place of brave captain Scott, who got doomed while searching for the Mountains of Madness in the Antarctica? Or it is dedicated to other Scott family, who's member is well known for his interest in the misteries of occult and undead? Shall we ever know the truth, it will most certainly be posted on this page. But for now, lets just check all 4 sides of the crypt:

 The crypt is obviously of an old origins, iron cross is damaged and door look like time has gotten to them, as well. I am not satisfied with how the name came out. I've used very light grey and white, but then went over with metallics to make them appear "metal". I think it could be done better...perhaps it could use another panel.

 The side shows triangles for variety and interesting windows. Windows are made of plasticard, cut to uneven shape to make it look like I've planned it that way. The fence is greenstuff. Painted in metalics, washed with black and brown wash to give a feeling of old to it. I didn't dare try to make a rust effect!

 Below are two close-ups on front. I've painted padlock red to give it a striking contrast. I was planning to chain the doors all over, but I did it all after I've placed the doors between the two cork triangles, so it would be kind of hard to sculpt any chains (the cork parts of the crypt were done first, as I don't plan too much but rather think of the things as I go)

 Doors are made of plasticard, cut to planks an scored with wire brush. A padlock is visible better here and you can also see the twisted "metal" on the lower part of the door. I dont know why I am telling you this, but the thing is, the strip was cut too long and I've just twisted it instead of cutting. This produced a nice little detail, making door look even older and more battered.

The roof opens and thats how it looks like in the inside: 

 I was planning to sculpt some torches and make a lightning effect, but that'd be very hard to paint in such a confined place. I had to be satisfied with "tiles" on the floor. You can also see a sneak peak of the sarcophagus, that is a separate piece.

 Here is the sarcophagus itself:

 It is made of plain plasticard with greenstuffed cthulhu head and an inscription. The sides are unfortunately boringly plain. I was thinking about making some hieroglyphs but that would probably ruin it all. Besides, I was told I have to do things simple!

Thats about all I've got to show you regarding the crypt itself. Next are the trees. I went for dried look, thats why the trees are all grayish. Theyre made of wire, PVA and some toilet paper. Some of the little detailes were sculpted with green stuff. I gave them some resemblings of skulls, faces, mouth and such, to make them look kinda spooky.

On picture below, you could probably spot a skull (leftmost branch) and something that might as well be called a crabs claw.

 The other tree in the same base has a branch with horrifying  face-like features....and...ARGHHH MY EYES...is that a....tongue sticking out?

The rest of the trees are not as special, but they all got something hidden somewhere. I didn't want all the features to be too visible, but if they can't be seen, whats the point of making them?

Look, is that...an eye?

For the end...you might remember I've started scultping some more beasts a while ago. This fellow, a conglomerate for Strange Aeons players had the most progress done. I've made it shortly after posting that post, where I was mentioning it for the first time, but never got a chance to show it. He is pretty small, but was much fun. A conglomerate is just that, a conglomerate of various beasts and human body parts. I gave mine a human leg, a hoove, a human face (that has scared impression, looks like it can think separately from the creature and does not like what it has became a part of!). Then we got...well, a man's treasure, a tentacle (that fell off 2 times and i will pin it now) and a huge mouth with a tongue sticking out. It will probably get another tentacle on the other side of the body, unless I'll manage to sculpt a good looking hand.

 A closer photo:

And the monsters back:
I think you can't backstab this fella, it seems like he sees things clearly!
If you check it, each leg goes its own way...the heck? Well, a sculpting accident, but it looks even better that way!

 A hole for the hand or another tentacle on the other side:

Thats if for today! Thanks for looking,
Mathyoo

Black cat bases SALE

I saw a blogger I am following reminding people about the sale at the Black cat bases, and I've figured I might post about it myself!

The thing is, you get 20% discount for every order, regardless of size, and you get 25% for orders above 100 pounds.

If you don't know about Black cat bases, it has variety of miniatures, for post apoc games are probably most notable zombies (duh!) and killer clowns (I wanted to get those myself!). This time, I bought some "cthulhu investigators",  a maniac, mad scientist and some innsmouth figures. They also got some nice urban scenery items, useful for modern boards.

Hobbywise, progress is slow. Building some jungle (found those plants!) and leavesless (?) trees. I got more and more enthusiastic about building some buildings, but I can't get myself to paint any miniatures!

See you next time with some terrain pieces done!