Octopus Overlords

Guess I shouldn't tell you that Hepcat got his shipping noticet today then...

And our Dearly Departed Friend Hepcat is pretty damn excited about that shipping notice, too.

hentzau wrote:Guess I shouldn't tell you that Hepcat got his shipping noticet today then...

Oh, I saw. Made me even more frustrated (but happy for Hep).

Started assembly tonight. Be careful with those clippers, cowpokes. They don't give you much room between the sprue and the model. I've already clipped a substantial amount from the side of the brim of my lawman's hat. Also, that piece on the lawman's gun that attaches to his arm? The little knob on the end isn't just sprue, it actually fits into the arm as well. Now I have a hole in the back of my lawman's arm. Gonna need to do some fillin'.

This is about two hours work:



I still have 3 sprues to go. Four more stranglers, two more night terrors, and the Goliath.

All of these models are a bit of a pain to put together. The stranglers tentacles are unique to each strangler, so don't mix them up. The sprue join is right next to the tab that goes in their shoulder, so you have to do some trimming before you get a good fit. Also, those little teeth on the mouth of the strangler hurt while you are holding the shoulder pieces in while they dry. The night terror wasn't too bad to put together, but there are a lot of gaps.

If you want clean fits for your parts, keep your xacto handy. You'll want to clean off the parts before assembly.

And I definitely need some super glue accelerant. A large part of the time spent is waiting for the glue to finally cure enough that I can move on.

Want to give this a whirl tomorrow night. We'll see how much I can get done tomorrow after work.

Thanks for the tips. Any problems with the getting the heroes mounted to the base? In looking at everything on the sprues, I couldn't tell if their feet were flush enough to provide a good grip of if I should assume that it's going to take some futzing.

I'm very nervous about the stay-puttedness of the heroes. There's not a lot of surface to adhere to, nor are the feet very flat. I trimmed the flash off of the feet and flattened them as best I could with an xacto knife but I still have my doubts.

Not sure I know a better way though. The feet are too small for pinning, which is what I would normally do in this situation.

Ok, you've confirmed by buddy's suspicions then - that was the first thing he thought of when he was sizing up the figures.

And I just snapped off the leg of a void spider while clipping it off the spruce. Grr. Well, that one's wounded.

Another tip (that I confirmed this morning before work). Above I mentioned making sure you get the right tentacles with the right strangler? Well, Flying Frog certainly didn't make it easy on us to accomplish this. On the sprue, you have the strangler body, and right next to that in the same "cell" is the arm for the strangler. Then above it, in another "cell" is two tentacles and the tail. Well, the tentacles and tail that is directly above the strangler body does not go with that strangler, but the strangler next to it and vice-versa.

I had thought I just mixed them up when I was clipping out the parts last night, but no, I checked this morning and they don't correspond. You would have figured it out when you got going, but I thought I would save you some frustration.

I'll be honest, it would really take a good concept to have me back a FFP game on KS again, particularly at the amount of money I backed this one. No shipping yet and the promise of difficult assembly does not make me a happy guy. Not only that, but with the shipping being so slow (I'm not convinced mine will make it before Thanksgiving, which sucks), I have my doubts about getting the many extras within a year.

Hate to be gloomy gus, but it sure sucks to see everyone else get this and be left out!

Just think about all the helpful tips and advice we'll all be able to offer when yours finally shows up. Yeah...that's it.

But I'm with you on the KS thing. I think I'm burned out. As much as I like the freebies and stretch goals, it's getting harder and harder to justify participation at my historical levels.

When it comes to Kickstarter especially, freebies ain't free.

Glad people are finally getting their hands on this. I'm waiting to read more impressions of it after several plays. I might be convinced to pick up a starter box if it comes with enough stuff to feel mostly "complete", though the iffy mini assembly has me hesitant.

In other news, my wife and I had a kickass game of Arcadia Quest yesterday. That is a game I am 100% happy with my KS backing and all the extras I received (all fully shipped within 2 weeks of the start of US shipping).

First game went really well, and was really fun. Two player game, with a marshall and a gunfighter going into the mine in search of black stone. My gunfighter, armed with pistol and the old lantern, had a really hard time holding the darkness at bay. By the time we made it to the final room, I had a couple of wounds, the marshall had a couple of wounds, and then we drew this:



It did not go well. I was out of grit, so no re-rolls. Thanks to the darkness cards we had drawn, the strangers were at +2 attacks (for a grand total of 6!!!) and the void spiders had +1 defense. Plus all monsters were doing +1 damage per hit, thanks to the dread cards. The Marshall dropped first to the stranglers while I was blasting away at the void spiders. Using a revive token, we got the marshall back on his feet, but just in time to see me drop. Then it was the marshall against waves of bad guys. He took out all of the stranglers, but in the end the void spiders just overwhelmed him.

Great game, can't wait to play again!

EDIT: Oh, and you need a really big table to play. We used up the biggest chunk of a 4x6 table for this.

Looks great (wish I could get mine)! Did you notice any board warping at all? I had some problems with that (minor ones) with other FFP games in the past.

So.... Jason stopped by the KS comments thread. Apparently I'm in the last 20% of the US shipments (he estimated 80% done by now) and that they were still waiting on a cargo of games to be delivered from the dock, due to some work stoppages and dock-working strikes of some sort. So... yeah... that's great.

Hopefully mine is coming soon and I won't have to wait for that other cargo. A guy from Cinci got his shipment notification, so I am surely next!

I could send you the unopened set. Then you could put it together. And send it back once you get yours.

Deal?

Really feel for you, Bael.

Did they explain the shipping / order fulfillment strategy?

Oh well, I've got to be Zen about the whole thing, considering it is not exactly "high stakes" that I get this before Thanksgiving. I've just had some fairly stressful and disappointing serious things going on, so I hoped to have something easy and stupid go right to "balance the scales." I'm sure it will get sorted out soon. Hopefully my shipment is in their warehouse and not stuck on the docks (which could be days/weeks of delay).

There was an official update that just went out. I feel for the RoW crowd. If I am frustrated by my lack of shipping notice, their shipping doesn't even seem in sight.

Took a solid 4 hours to assemble the models from one base set. The clippers made quick work of the sprues, but putting the models together was indeed a bit of a challenge. My buddy likened it more to putting together a model car than assembling miniatures and without question, dry fitting everything is necessary to succeed. I also laminated the HELL out of all the character and location cards, so they're bullet proof now.

Not really sure how I'm going to paint the figures with the temperature so damn cold now. Might need to head into the garage and hope for the best because they all need a coat of primer.

I have to believe there are going to be people out of their minds over assembling those miniatures. My buddy is is pretty crafty and it took him a bit to figure things out. And yes, there are tons of gaps. I have some milliput I'm going to experiment with and see if I can seal some of them up, but I'm not going to be fanatical about it.

Smoove,

Do you not use brush-on primer? I gave up the spray stuff after testing out some Reaper HD black and white primer paints and I have not looked back. They go on much smoother than the spray variety and can be used in any weather or temperature. I highly recommend it. Similarly, I switched to the brush on varnish. I use a hard to find model-specific glossy by a company called something like Vallejo. But I just use that standard liquitex brand matte varnish and it works just as well. Again, these are any temp and easy to use in the house. I also like their coverage much better (although, yes, it is quite a bit slower than spraying multiple minis in one go).

Still no shipping notice. It looks like only me and a guy in Indiana left out of the US backers in the KS comments section. I guess somebody had to be last on the list.

By the way, thanks again for the clippers suggestion. They have been fantastic. I still have 12 more to glue together. Planning on doing that tomorrow morning.

Any thoughts on storage? I did the other box, and the big model is not going to fit unless I flip it upside down and have it rest on it's wings. I'm thinking of just sitting it on top of the boxes for now. Not sure if I want to go down the path of getting a separate container for storing the models.

TheMix wrote:By the way, thanks again for the clippers suggestion. They have been fantastic. I still have 12 more to glue together. Planning on doing that tomorrow morning.

Any thoughts on storage? I did the other box, and the big model is not going to fit unless I flip it upside down and have it rest on it's wings. I'm thinking of just sitting it on top of the boxes for now. Not sure if I want to go down the path of getting a separate container for storing the models.

I had to use the separate container method for several of my games and it works pretty well (for example, Caverna and Mansions of Madness). Yes, it takes extra space and you have to remember to grab both boxes, but it isn't too bad. Or, you could always go the tackle box route - get a large tacklebox or tool box and put everything into it (with map tiles this should be pretty easy). This is how I store and carry around my copy of Descent.

baelthazar wrote:Smoove,

Do you not use brush-on primer? I gave up the spray stuff after testing out some Reaper HD black and white primer paints and I have not looked back. They go on much smoother than the spray variety and can be used in any weather or temperature. I highly recommend it.

I've tried the brush on primers and I have a strong preference for the spray cans - it really is the speed and the fact that it puts on a super thin, even layer. If I'm to believe the weather, there might be a few days in the next week where we climb back into the low 50s and I can hopefully bang out a bunch. I'm at the point now with miniatures that if I don't start speeding things up, I'm going to get buried under a few hundred of them. There was an Army Painter intro kit on Amazon Prime for $23, so I picked that up as I don't own any of their paints (just quick shades) and it came with a really detailed painting guide that seems to have good advice for painting large groups of figures. My goal really is just go get them table ready, so I need to focus on speed. But between work and the weather, this is possibly the worst time for me to be dealing with figures.

Smoove_B wrote:

baelthazar wrote:Smoove,

Do you not use brush-on primer? I gave up the spray stuff after testing out some Reaper HD black and white primer paints and I have not looked back. They go on much smoother than the spray variety and can be used in any weather or temperature. I highly recommend it.

I've tried the brush on primers and I have a strong preference for the spray cans - it really is the speed and the fact that it puts on a super thin, even layer. If I'm to believe the weather, there might be a few days in the next week where we climb back into the low 50s and I can hopefully bang out a bunch. I'm at the point now with miniatures that if I don't start speeding things up, I'm going to get buried under a few hundred of them. There was an Army Painter intro kit on Amazon Prime for $23, so I picked that up as I don't own any of their paints (just quick shades) and it came with a really detailed painting guide that seems to have good advice for painting large groups of figures. My goal really is just go get them table ready, so I need to focus on speed. But between work and the weather, this is possibly the worst time for me to be dealing with figures.

I put my family at risk and prime in my basement. I do open up the door when I do it though. I'm a rebel that way.

Spray primer is acceptable, I guess, but I have yet to find a spray varnish that did not put "flecks" and snowy stuff on my figures. For me, the speed of spraying is negligible, as I can't focus on painting multiple figures at the same time. So I prime a bunch and by the time I am done with the last one, the first one is dry enough to paint. I guess if I was going to do multiple groups of the same model it would be easier to basecoat all of them at the same time, overcoat each color, and then do individual detail work.

My garage stays about 50 degrees even when it is cold, so that seems like a viable option for spraying. Put them inside a cardboard box and spray into the box to prevent the mist from going everywhere. That should be fine. Once sprayed on, you can transport them into the house to dry (which is one problem with the low temps) as all the chemicals should have dissipated by then.

Since I have no delivery date in sight for SoB, I might focus on painting my Arcadia Quest miniatures. Chibi figures are both easier and harder - the details are not as fine but they require more paint and better shading to look good.

Finally finished gluing them together. Swamp of Death



Click for the big image.

Slowly starting to pimp out my SoB set. I bought some of the wonderful money cards that were posted on BGG, and bought a cheap set of poker chips to use for XP (if the game really catches on with us, I may go the custom printed poker chip route.) Yesterday I ordered a bunch of dark purple "gems" from Amazon...the ones that I liked that also had prime shipping only sold in 3lb bags. So I think I'm going to have WAY more than I need.

If anyone wants any of these gems, I'll be happy to send you some. Just let me know.

Now. Need to find a bunch of small, card sized saddle bags to let folks keep their findings in...

Played 1 3/4 missions of Shadows of Brimstone on Saturday. We had to leave despite the boss and mini-boss still standing in the shortest mine ever -- the last party was found on top the pile of bones just after entering the mine, and the next room was the boss.

I really like how the theme and campaign options intertwine. I was the shotgun killing machine Marshall Dingo, and nicknamed hepcat's Indian Guide the "Tainto." Since hepcat was pretty toasted by the end, he wasn't able to resist. Lawbeef ran the Preacher who kicked ass and looted for the Lord. Seppe was our lucky Saloon Girl of all-trades. I like how the game balances out XP for pretty much doing anything useful. Searching for loot? Get XP for that. Healing or buffing nets XP as easily as combat. Combat itself was a pretty easy to understand -- roll to hit, then either roll for damage (player offense) and roll to evade (player defense). We missed a few rules making it a bit easier, but then also missed out on the recovery and loot after battles.

After seeing the items and town options, I can see SoB having legs for the long haul. I expect some pretty significant player customization support, with hepcat's money card arriving just minutes before I arrived to play.

Really enjoyed playing the whiskey toting preacher. I'm certainly down for more.

Think I'm going to give the rules a re-read having gotten a game under my belt.

Also, Seppe's TNT was epic.

Yeah, going to get this to the table tonight...

Preacher traded some of that Whiskey to Tainto for a Holy Cross +1 combat. With the Holy Book +1 combat and shockwave spell, he's amazing in clearing swarms in hand to hand combat.

Zarathud wrote:Preacher traded some of that Whiskey to Tainto for a Holy Cross +1 combat. With the Holy Book +1 combat and shockwave spell, he's amazing in clearing swarms in hand to hand combat.

Nice! The "wade into groups of enemies and then assplode" tactic seems to be his thing, and with the low iniative he can choose his spots if he doesn't get swarmed.

Now he just needs some kind of armor because his physical defense sucks (5+ I think?).




Also interested in trying a "Nun with a Gun" build.

The sudden swarm in the first room in:


The resulting Preacher body count (and a side bag full of whiskey!):

Well, this continues to suck. No notice, no word. Last in the pile.

It all looks very good and I'm heartened by the early impressions. I just with I could form my own.

But don't think I'm going to let the comment that Hepcat was toasted by the end slide. Did you tell him that just because his character has a saddlebag of whiskey, that doesn't mean he has to keep swilling it!

Well, Tainto did end up swapping his magic Holy Cross for 2 Whiskey and $100 cash.

Hepcat doesn't drink to be in character. He drinks because he is a character.

I got my shipping notice! Should be here right before Thanksgiving on November 24!

Zarathud wrote:Hepcat doesn't drink to be in character. He drinks because he is a character.

Now that, is a great tag line. He should have that blazoned on his family crest!

Also, get him to come back! I suggest a new screen name of Tainto, given the circumstances.

Congrats, Bael! You're in for some fun gaming.

Had a great game last night. Really need to write it up...