Painting: Wasteman - Cybjorgs

A while back, prior to the DZC escalation league, I painted up my Wasteman Cybjorgs. Here is how I did it:

Paints mentioned are from the Vallejo Game Colour range unless other indicated.

First the models were given a good overall undercoat using Halfords Matt Black. Once dry the areas of skin were given several coats of Tan (72.066) to provide a consistent coat.

Next the skin areas on the models were drybrushed several times with Dwarf Skin (72.041)

Then the skin areas were lightly drybrushed with Elf Skintone (72.004)

Next the areas of skin were given a liberal coat of Army Painter Soft Tone. Now I don't usually use Soft Tone opting to use a darker wash more, but for these Cybjorgs I didn't want to lose too much of the skin tone I had already built up, but I did want to darken the folds in the skin, and I feel that soft tone worked well.

Once the soft tone dried I mixed Pale Flesh (72.003) and Elf Skintone (72.004), then drybrushed it all over the skin areas

This picture covers a lot of different stages:
The metal areas were painted with Chainmail Silver (72.053), then washed with GW Nuln oil before painting with Silver (72.052)
Tubing was painted with GW black, & Cold Grey (72.050) then washed with Army Painter strong tone
The wires were painted with Bloody Red (72.010), Electric Blue (72.023) & Sun Yellow (72.006)
The weapons were painted with yellow then Sun Yellow (72.006), then Moon Yellow (72.005)
Their tongues were painted with red and their sensors with Bloody Red (72.010)
Weapons were painted with GW black

The guys on the left and in the middle were painted similar to the guys above:
The metal areas were painted with Chainmail Silver (72.053), then washed with GW Nuln oil before painting with Silver (72.052)
Tubing was painted with GW black, & Cold Grey (72.050), then washed with Army Painter strong tone
The shoulder pads, "cups" and weapons were painted with GW black

The guys on the right was my first attempt at NMM, not the greatest but I was relatively happy with it and too lazy to strip to start again - more practice is needed for sure.
Starting with Cold Grey (72.050), then attempt at Stonewall Grey (72.049) before highlighting with Dead White (72.001)

In this final picture you can see that the areas around augmented parts have been painted red to reflect the scarring. This was a mix of Squid Pink (72.013) & Bloody Red (72.010). This was initially too bright and looked like fresh wounds which isn't what I intended so I drybrushed Elf Skintone (72.004) over it.

I then drybrushed the black areas with Stonewall Grey (72.049).

I added hazard lines to the "crushing claw" of  then dabbed Gory Red (72.011) over the "teeth".

Finally I varnished them with Matt Varnish (70.520)

Miniatures: Wasteman KS

So this week, I'm taking a small break from DZC and I am looking at the miniatures that came with my Wasteman Kickstarter (KS) pledge.

The Packaging

My Cybjorgs (Left) and Lunar Coalition (Right) posse packs came in their retail packaging (minus the dice).

The packaging is a large blister that just pops open at the back (similar to Hawk Wargames), however I didn't realise this until after I had cut the top off one of them.

The blister contains 5 models, 5 stat cards for the models, 5 bottle caps to mark activation, 5 bases, foam, and an inlay sheet with details to the thunderchild website. There will be dice in the retail sets, it's just at the time of dispatch Jason hadn't received the dice.

My add on to the KS was some Hazmatadors. These came in a plastic bag with the relevant stat cards and bases.

As with any good KS there were freebies and in this case my freebies consisted of Radical Trevor, Lowbot, Bagman, and Xam. Again these came the relevant stat cards and bases included in their plastic bag. Radical Trevor also came with his own bottle cap


The Models/Building the models:

Usually I would have two sections in a miniatures post one for how the models look and the other on how they go together but as these are mostly single piece models there is no building so I'll cover the usual aspects of "building the model" here.

Cybjorgs: Four of the five models are single piece, the fifth consists of two parts: body and weapon arm.

These are hefty pieces of metal; very reminiscent of early GW models. It makes a nice change to have such a heavy model in my hand.

The detail is really good, this is my first experience of Thunderchild Miniatures and I am very impressed.

I did, however have some serious mold lines on the two larger models, which took some time to remove. Also there was a large tag of metal on the drill of the fat one which I couldn't remove however due to it's positioning I will paint it like a hunk of flesh.....unless that was Jason's intention in which case it's brilliant!

Lunar coalition: 5 single piece models. Much like the Cybjorgs, these are detailed and have a good weight to them. They had very little flash to be removed.

Hazmatador: Three single piece models. These are light metal models, but again nicely detailed. Two of the models didn't have any flash to be removed however the third guy on the right had a large mold line on the first which needed to be removed as well as some flash under the arm.

Xam, Lowbot, and Bagman: Single piece light weight metal models with a good level of detail, and little to no flash.

Radical Trevor: For a single model he's got a bit of weight to him, which as I've mentioned is a good thing. Radical Trevor has lots of detail about him and I can certainly see him becoming a centrepiece for people's posses. With no flash to be removed.

Wasteman - the wait, the rules and a game or two.

So back in March I backed this 32mm post apocalyptic gang warfare game on Kickstarter (KS) at the pledge level of:

Brawl

-2x Posse Packs of your choice 
-Full colour Rulebook 
-Deck of M.A.D cards 
-Radical Trevor the Kickstarter Exclusive figure 

With the intended delivery of November. The creator (Jason Fairclough) kept us well informed throughout the months and then in November announced delays due to personal and supplier issues. In December Jason announced that only the models, rulebook, unit cards and MAD cards had been received but the bases, tokens and dice hadn't. So instead of delaying the items further Jason started shipping. And the wait began....

...and I waited, while Facebook filled with pictures of received pledges...

....and waited as more people got theirs and those people who first received theirs posted on Facebook  their painted models, and posted battle reports...

...and waited. In this time I learnt that I'm quite impatient. Getting frustrated by the lack of parcel, slowly becoming a petulant teenager again (instead of the 30 something I actually am) "I don't want it anyway!" "It's going to suck!" " you're not my real mum!" Well maybe not the latter.

Then it arrived; I opened the box with an uninterested casualness and was greeted by the perfect explanation to the delay.

My two posses were in retail packaging (minus the dice); a very pleasant and unexpected surprise (previous backed KS from other companies have just sent the items in clear plastic bags), the KS freebies were in their own bags with stat cards, my add ons were also in their own bag with their cards and the rulebook was wrapped in a plastic bag with the shrink wrap M.A.D. cards (Beautiful B-Movie style random event cards; more detail below).

The effort in the packaging was impressive and I finally, truly, understood the cause of the delay in shipping - of which I humbly apologise for my impatient attitude.

After a quick inspection of the models (a more detailed post on them in the next few weeks), I started perusing the rulebook...which, I feel, is a work of art! Beautifully crisp photos, and great illustrations. The rules are wonderfully simplistic (more details on that to follow); written amusingly tongue in cheek and peppered with gaming references. Which makes for an enjoyable read.

Now as with every first edition, the rulebook isn't perfect (sorry Jason). There are spelling and grammar mistakes (not that I'm in any place to comment), as well as the biggest bugbear to the gaming community: lists not in alphabetical order. But these are small items, to me anyway, and in no way distract from the rules themselves.

Which ties me nicely to the rules:
Wasteman uses D10, which is a change from D6. (Especially since "All quiet of Martian front" company Alien Dungeon collapsed leaving me with lots of D10 in my collection for a redundant game). Wasteman is recommended to be played on a 3x3 board, with points of around 500 or 1000. Each figure has their own stat cards and I believe all models in the Thunderchild miniatures range now has them.

Example of Cyborgs unit cards

There are 5 activation's a turn (individual models or combat group (models grouped together with the same items)); with each model/combat group having their own number of actions points to be spent. Now you can use the bottlecaps that come with the posse packs to mark which models have activated.

Action points (AP) can be spent moving, hiding, shooting, or using a skill.

Movement
A set movement value for everyone, unless certain skills are bought.

Hiding
Self explanatory - making the model harder to hit.

Shooting
A simplistic case of weapon power vs armour table. There are adjustments for scenery, distance, and even when you have already taken damage. Which leads on nicely to damage.

After a successful hit you then roll on a damage table where the effects can range from simple reduction in AP to death! Random chance in the wasteland!

M.A.D Cards

Talking of random chance; the M.A.D cards. You build a deck of 20 cards and each take 5 of your choosing. These are cards with different effects that can be played at any part of the game.  From healing members of your posse to abducting someone for a turn...yes the wasteland is a random place

M.A.D. Cards - with rules covered to prevent copying...

That's the rules at the core. Further to the core rules there are rules for weapons, armour, skills, special effects and character/syndicate creation.
This does result in a little flicking between pages to understand what does what, but who doesn't have to do that with a new game?!
That said I have created a spreadsheet (which be found on the facebook group), with Jason's permission, with all the details for quick reference. As well as producing a rudimentary character creation sheet which shows all the details in one place.

So as an overview the rules are simplistic and easy to play. To the point during my first game I was able to advise the required dice roll to my opponent when armour and weapon power was announced.

How does it play?
So in light of the above my friend (Grum) and I decided to put it into action and we played two games:

The first game started on a 2x2 board, playing the "brawl" mission and using an official posse each (Grum used Militia and I used Cybjorgs); as such points were less than 500. With scatter terrain littering the battlefield. We were on top of each others posse within 1 turn, quickly gunning each other down. Result: Cybjorg victory.

The second game was on a 3x4 board again playing the brawl mission, but with 750 points. I used the Cybjorgs posse in addition to "4 chaingun brutes" (Mantic deadzone plague troopers). While Grum used his "brotherhood of steel" (based on the Fallout group, using the lunar coalition syndicate rules and dreamforge eisenkern valkirs models). In addition we also introduced M.A.D. card's, although we randomly selected ours. Grums brotherhood were tooled up and absolutely destroyed my Cybjorgs. But using the mad cards resulted in some random but amusing events. Result: Brotherhood victory.

Both games were played within an hour, which reflects how quick this game is, especially using Brawl, which is very good to use to get to grips with the rules before trying the other missions which have other aspects.

You'll have noticed that with 1 victory each, a deciding game is required in the future!

Wasteman commeth

So my wasteman KS arrived today!

Lots of goodies inside, I'll be posting a full review of the contents in the very near future!

Watch this space waste fans