Dwarves In Spaccccceeee

So it's the dwarves again. I keep wandering off. There are now about half a dozen background projects that are floating around the desk which are soaking up any paint that would otherwise get wasted. A bit og priming here and a bit of tidying up there and that has just about been my day. Not including the tax return and having to do just about everything other than cooking lunch as my other half has done her back in despite having done a deal about jobs today.

Even so I have managed to get some painting done. The first coat on the dwarves is almost done and even a little bit of inking and basing is complete. With a bit of luck I will be able to finish them off and ink them tomorrow and may get them close to being finished. This would leave me just behind the curve on what I wanted to do as part of The New Cruelty, 23 figures instead of 25. If I do get them finished then I'll move onto the remaining Cultists/Raiders which would leave me slightly ahead.

In terms of the background projects and what I have planned there are a few ways I can go. Overall I would like to get a couple of projects pretty close to finished this year. These dwarf figures are part of the Titansgrave: Ashes Of Valkana project and they is a way to goes with the project yet. There are still some gaps in terms of figures I just don't have (and may have a problem sourcing) and some stuff yet to be painted. This is probably going to take up a bit of time in the next few months. X-Com is another project I want to do this year. Although I have some stuff for the project already, most of what I want isn't going to be available until September. There is also a fair amount of sci-fi/post-apocalypse crossover with the figures for all of the stuff I have planned so I guess this is what will happen in the near future.

Gearing Up For A New X-Com

I have been talking about running an X-Com game (which has become ET-Com for Extra-Terrestrial Command) for a couple of decades now. That's a fairly long run in time. So having gone over my plans for the year, X-Com is coming to be a big part of it. Now that I have a coherent idea about bad guys, thanks to Chronicle-X things can progress a bit. Obviously with it being a Kickstarter, the figures are going to take some time to arrive. However if I can work it so that everything other than the figures is ready, a few months of painting should leave me in a position where I can start a game this time next year.

The Chronicle-X package has a whole load of different aliens. The first step for this game is going to be a bestiary. There looks to me to be at least fifteen different aliens in the game and maybe a few more. As I have already acquired some figures for this game, the intention is to use what I have already. I also want some zombies. So even without any significant variations, that's about 20 different stat blocks and descriptions.

One of the things this game does not seem to handle is ship to ship combat. There is enough in the Savage Worlds rules to do most of the things I want to do in my game. There will no doubt be a few changes and some more stat blocks for the vehicles and weapons.

I have already worked on weapons for the system here, but need to work on the weapons for the aliens. I might be able to get some casts of the alien weapons. I want to do this because I want the human soldiers to be able to use alien weapons. It would be good if the company was going to do some weapon sprues but I doubt it so copies will have to do.

Whilst I love the original game, it is the updated version of X-Com that I think I am going to use as my main guide. As I am using the Savage Worlds rules, this should not be to difficult. What I want is a series of new edges that reflect the computer games. This should not be a big issue.

All of this should be fairly easy to come up with. The bulk of what I need to do is going to be background. I have to come up with details of the organisation, the alien's plan and research. This is probably going to take as much time as the rest of the paperwork put together.

Backing A Kickstarter

Today I have backed my first kickstarter. It seems like a lot of money to put up for something that I may never get but the need for this one was pretty strong. Most of my gaming mates have backed a kickstarter at some point. In the past there have a few Kickstarters that have got my attention but I have been recticent to back them.

As Kingdom Death: Monster is now worth almost twice was it went for on Kickstarter and it has become something I really want, I didn't want to miss out on another one. That said, I am less likely to play this as a board game and more likely to use it just for the figures.

After I backed it they added a few more figures, cards and tiles as extra stretch goal. It's now only a few days away from being finished. Having run over the last of the origin, these new extra goals are probably likely to be achieved as well.

My expectation for the year is that I am going to move into doing more painting of futuristic figures or least slightly contemporary with a bit of sci-fi thrown in. Star Saga and some of the 3d Star Wars terrain also might make a showing So this might be a mix and match year.