It Came from the Lightbox: TAG Raid

I’ve been making huge progress on getting TAG Raid!

I channeled my enthusiasm for Infinity into trying to get the box fully painted, and I’m almost there!

I’m currently slogging my way through the Scenery Pack (which honestly has felt like a HUGE chore) and the Stoorwurm; that’s as fad as I’ll take it for now. I’ll still have 2 more Megabeasts (which I’ll paint if I ever get the game to table) and the Morats (which I’ll paint after I “solve” how I want to paint the new Morat sculpts) to finish.

I missed the hunters when I painted the Nomads and Ariadnan forces, so I had to catch them up when I did the Minerbots and Van Zandt (hence the updated photos).

It Came from the Lightbox: Combined Army

In getting ready to head to NOVA, I realized I had a few unpainted gaps in what I planned to bring, so I filled those… and then kept going a bit further. I still have more OCF to paint before I have the entire sectorial painted, but at this point it’s just Exrah (blocked while waiting on a replacement bit to find its way to me from Vigo) and alternate loadouts.

Battletech Mercenaries Kickstarter

I generally abhor loot posts, and try to refrain from making them… but this is a pretty substantial haul and I’ve been waiting all summer for it so I’m pretty hyped. It does feel nice having a big stack of toy boxes.

(A few of these boxes have been in the heap for a bit, I’m counting them as part of the haul.)

It Came from the Lightbox: Cyberpunk RED: Combat Zone Arasaka

That’s kind of a mouthful of a post title.

As with Dead Man’s Hand, I’ve neglected to post my painted Cyberpunk minis because I’ve been meaning to post about the game itself and the things I like about it. Haven’t gotten around to it, though, so here we go.

These are the Arasaka minis. I thought I’d try the Vincent Knotley style of painting – contrast, then a couple of highlights. It came out fine, but honestly GW Basilicanum Grey followed by GW Black Templar? I’d get the same results and faster by just painting a normal acrylic black.

It Came from the Lightbox: Dead Man’s Hand

How is it I haven’t posted these before? Probably because I keep meaning to write up a post about why Dead Man’s Hand is the platonic ideal for what I want out of a minis game…

I’ve been working on DMH for a couple of months: I’ve painted up a couple of posses for it:

These are Lawmen:

These are either Outlaws or Desperados as one inclines:

Cowboys, but more to supplement either the good guys or the bad guys as needed.

Mountain Men:

“Legends of the West” – Lee Van Cleef (“Best of the Bad”), Jonah Hex, Calamity Jane, some guy who I think looks like Kris Kristofferson (but I think is actually from some Aussie Western), and a Preacher.

Lotta dogs on the terrain sprues, so I had to do a cheeky multibase with my two puppers.

Also spent about a month grinding out some terrain for it. The town’s mostly done: need to paint some livestock and figure out some trees for it. Its name:

Since taking these photos I’ve gotten some furniture painted for the interiors.

I’m pretty happy with how it’s come out.

It Came from the Lightbox: Red Hand Coven

I posted up the rules for these (blood)suckers but not the photos.

So, I went to NOVAOpen 2024

II went to NOVA!

I got there Wednesday, without too much heartburn and only spent about 15 minutes finding a place to park in the Escher-esque hellscape that was the hotel parking garage*. Checked in, chatted with folks, ate dinner in my room.

Thursday I did play in the Infinity tournament and had a blast. The Infinity space probably had the worst (or second-to-worst) ventilation of all of the gaming rooms (by dint of smallness), but it was objectively excellent nevertheless. My air quality monitor reported CO2 levels that were “might as well be outside” and “better than your basement gaming space” for the entire duration.

Just look at that: the red spikes are my drive in to and out of the District. In between is the hotel and Infinity space!

Three good games, executed badly: I only finished all three rounds with one of my games, which isn’t ideal, but I did enjoy all of them and I hope my opponents did, too. My slate went Morats, Invincible Army, Morats.

Obviously I felt great about the space and was ready to sign up to play on Friday as well, but as soon as my third round ended I realized I hurt. Tournaments are physically quite demanding, and I’d forgotten that. And although the point kind of had been to exhaust myself cramming as much Infinity into the NOVA weekend as possible, I don’t think that’s in the cards any more for me… so I decided to head home after Thursday’s event. And, once I started thinking about seeing my wife, my buttsniffers, and sleeping in my own bed I couldn’t get out of there fast enough.

Shopping was minimal! I didn’t need much!

I bought some really nice from Baron of Dice that feel great in the hand and to roll and I think gave me a really great distribution of rolls throughout the day. I’m a convert!

I got a few paints: I’ve had trouble finding Skavenblight Dinge, and grabbed some bright pink speedpaints. I also got a dropper of the Monument titanium white that’s become a kind of cargo cult thing locally (verdict: it’s actually really good! but the bottle is absolute trash!).

Briefly considered some Steel Rift but having some partially painted from two years ago at home kept me from making that mistake. Might have gotten something from Catalyst, but I (FINALLY) got my address verification email for the Mercenaries Kickstarter, and that inoculated me against that. Was ready to make a poor spending decision on Warcrow but talked myself out of it when I realized the bundle was either a really bad deal or the book was insanely expensive (or both).

So: no new minis. I did hop online and, full of renewed vigor for Infinity order a couple of boxes to flesh out my Shasvastii and Morat options. (No need to agonize about paying full MSRP vs online discounts: nobody on-site had them: only Warsenal had any Infinity, and that was just a token selection).

That’s all! No other shopping (good on me)!

* I’m a simple suburban bumpkin. I expect there to be parking spots and for cars to go into those spots. By the time I left, it was a chaos of vehicles shoved into spaces (not necessarily parking spaces): cars double-parked across multiple motorcycle spaces, cars just parked behind other cars, a Tesla SUV just shoved between two pillars it was able to squeeze between (I think the driver had to get out through the trunk). I was more than a little freaked out by the utter anarchy of it all.

So, I’m Going to NOVA Open

My household remains COVID-cautious. We socialize outdoors and, when indoors outside of our home, we mask up. I’ve been to my FLGS to game twice since I ran the Old Dominion Disagreement in Feb 2020 (both times in the last six months) and both times I had serious concerns about airflow (which is why it’s only been twice).

I love NOVA. It’s my convention, the one I get to go to. I’ve been to all of them (well, not the first cook-out one that was less formal – but all of them since the one at the Dulles Convention Center). The last two, though, I’ve only stopped by for a few hours to tell myself I’d been there and do some shopping.

I’m reasonably confident that the air flow is going to be better at the hotel than at the store, I’m going to be there anyway, and I’m going a little nuts. So: I’m going to play at NOVA this year. I’ve checked with my buddy who’s running Thursday’s ITS, who gets my situation, and he’s OK with me showing up playing a game and deciding the vibes (aka air quality, crowding, etc) are bad and peace-ing out.

I’m not planning on that, though: my hope is that vibes are great (air is OK), the N95 isn’t too oppressive for 8 hours, and so on. If that’s the case, I’ll be able to get through the day. In fact, because I really want this to work, I’m packing models and lists to play in Friday’s Narrative tournament as well, in case at end of day Thursday I think it’s a good idea!

Because I have major anxiety about finding parking (listen: entering the District is really fucking stressful if it’s not a thing you do often), I’ll actually heading out and checking in Wednesday night. I think it’s better setting myself up for success to avoid having to get up early, drive into town (in traffic) and find parking immediately before diving into the thing I’m going to spend all day doing. And, because it’ll be helpful to know I have a place to duck into, unmasked, to eat if I need it, I won’t be checking out until Friday… so if playing Friday is in the cards I’m set for that, too.

I’ll probably be less social than normal; it’s going to be a lot of time masked and if being anti-social in the evenings means I’m more likely to get to play in the events during the day: that’s a worthwhile trade-off. But just in case I’ll be bringing TAG Raid with me, too.

Dead Man’s Hand – Red Hand Posse

I’m overdue to post about my Dead Man’s Hand and my esteem for it (my current state is “this is as close to The Perfect Game as it gets”), but: later.

Instead, I’m going to post some draft house rules I wrote up to put the Dracula’s America Red Hand Posse models I just finished painting. I’m underwhelmed by the Dracula’s America system, but I like these models: they’re cool, slouching, sinister. I’m also compelled to Weird Up any normal game, so here we are.

The Red Hand Posse

Faction Abilities

“He have always the strength in his hand of twenty men”

Characters labeled (V) are Vampires. They gain +1 HtH (included in the statline). Face cards may only be used in relation to Vampires. If a Vampire wins a Hand to Hand contest, they may take a free Recover action for each point of difference.

“Being stronger, have yet more power to work evil”

As Cowboys – Tough as Old Boots

Characters

#CharacterWeaponHitsNerveShootHtHRep
1Broodsire (Boss) (V)Pistol52++1+16
0-1Carpathian GuardPistol, Handweapon43++104
0-2Broodkin (V)Pistol42+0+13
2+Fledgelings (V)Pistol, Rifle, or Repeater44+0+12
0-6ThrallsPistol; up to 1 may have Rifle or Repeater36+-1-11

Action Cards

J♠ – “He can be as bat” – Play at the beginning of the activation of one of your Vampires. Each Move action allows them to move 20cm and ignore any intervening terrain or vertical movement.

Q♠ – “…and man is weak” – Play during the activation of one of your Vampires on an opposing character in LOS of that Vampire. Move the opposing character 10cm as if it were your own. The Move may not be made to fall off a roof or other piece of terrain or move off the gaming area. OR this may also be used to cancel an opposing character’s Duck Back Reaction if made in LOS of a Vampire (activation is still used).

K♠ – “…of cunning more than mortal” – Play when one of your Vampires declares an Interruption. Your Vampire may react as if their Initiative card were the Joker; there are no restrictions or limits on their Duck Back movement during this interruption.

A♠ – “Multiplying the evils of the world” – Play at the end of the turn if you still have a Vampire in play and an opposing non-Vampire’s character has been taken Out of Action earlier in the game. Place a new Thrall under your control as close to the location of the OoA character’s location as possible.

Commentary

  • These haven’t seen the table yet, so they’re all theoretical.
  • I don’t know how I feel about just lifting the Cowboy Tough as Old Boots rule – it’s kind of exactly what I’d like them to have, though. Might want to make it somewhat better, but limit use to Vampires.
  • Obviously, I want to tie as much as I can to Vampires because they’re cool.
  • Stats are all lifted from the Desperado faction: trading the ability to take Shotguns for the +1 HtH bonus for Vampires. The thought being that these guys shouldn’t be running up to you and blasting with both barrels… they should be running up and snacking on people.
  • That +1 HtH bonus is probably not high enough. HtH is extremely swingy and maybe they need more to tilt it to make up for pushing engaging in it.
  • Actually pretty satisfied with the face card abilities. Won’t know if they skew stronger or weaker than other face cards without getting them on the table, but they feel flavorful and right.
  • The only reason that Carpathian Guard option is in there is because one comes in the box for these guys