Koyote

Of course. When we finally start this thing up again, you will certainly be missed.

Even though I know that I'll never use all of the models in game play, it's been fun seeking out and painting a model for each Freelancer in the TNT rules. The Mad Roboticist is one of the three new Freelancers found in the Absolutely Dangerous expansion. Eugene (Mad Roboticist) For my Mad Roboticist, I wanted the model to look eccentric, a bit bedraggled, and not too" techie" I wanted a model that is identifiable as a post-apoc mechanic or technician, but I also wanted it to look out of place in a Preservers warband. I chose 'The Doctor' from Brigade Games Miniatures' Post-Apocalyptic model line. The model's short stature, clothing, top-hat, and ponytail checked off the 'eccentric' and 'bedraggled' boxes. The bag suggests that he's a man who works with tools (it's hard to see from the angles in the photos, but sticking out of the bag is a pair of pliers and a saw), but it's not enough to identify him as a roboticist. To distinguish him from a post-apoc doc, I replaced the weapon in the model's left hand with a robot's arm. If you weren't familiar with the Mad Roboticist's fluff, you might not guess his profession, but if you are "in the know" it should be obvious enough to pass muster.

Officer Barker (Officer) and Officer Tibbs (Officer) Even though my Peacekeepers don't wear uniforms, I want the warband to have a loosely uniform feel. Working towards this end, I gave each a matte black firearm and painted their clothing and armor using a limited palette of colors. After finishing Quartermaster Abraham and Tank, I realized that Officer Tibbs was the only model without an article of green clothing, so I repainted his undershirt green.

Quartermaster Abraham (Quartermaster) and Tank (Tactical)

One more WIP Peacekeeper. This one is another model from the Pulp Figures' Americano Mercenarios pack

I painted a reinforcement for the Peacekeepers. They call him... Mister Tibbs. Officer Tibbs (Officer) The model is from the Americano Mercenarios pack, made by Pulp Figures. The next two models on my Post-Apoc workbench are a Quartermaster and a Tactical. The first model is Big Kris, made by Footsore Miniatures. The model needed a little something, and since it's supposed to be the Peacekeepers gunsmith, I added a backpack to carry his tools and extra ammo. You can't see the backpack from this angle, but you can see the greenstuff straps. The second model is from Brother Vinni's Nuclear Sandlot model line. It's a wonderfully dynamic model, but since it includes some very thin resin components, parts of the model are extremely fragile. The model slipped from my hands and dropped a couple of inches onto my table. The fall snapped both the ammo belt and bi-pod. I was able to pin and glue the belt back together. If you look carefully, you can see the greenstuff I used to cover up the repair. The bi-pod was a lost cause. In hindsight, the legs of the bi-pod are so ridiculously thin, it was foolish of me to try and use it in the first place. Unless you are painting this model purely for display, the bi-pod will eventually break. I replaced the bi-pod with a length of wire that I shaped with needle-nose pliers and two tiny discs of greenstuff.

The Absolutely Dangerous expansion introduces three new Freelancers, the Mad Roboticist, the Party Bot, and Little Cuties. The latter are homicidal children's toys. Below is my take on the Little Cuties. I used a old Malifaux Outcast Stolen model. The SMG came from a Reaper Miniatures weapons sprue. Lil Mae 3000 (Little Cutie) In the US and Canada, the Lil Mae 3000 was the 'must have' Christmas gift of 2066. Like most electronic toys, the life sized, robotic porcelain doll was manufactured overseas, but unbeknownst to both consumers and western intelligence agencies, the robots' CPUs were produced by a thrice sanctioned state-owned manufacturer controlled by a hostile foreign power. On the eve of the End War, ten thousand Lil Maes stole away from the closets, nurseries, and play rooms where they were stored, and under the cover of darkness, made their way to electrical substations and power plants. The damage caused to the North American power grid by the child-sized saboteurs was considerable. The body count of first-responders and repair crews sent to the damaged facilities was truly horrendous. After sabotaging or setting fire to the targeted facility, the Lil Maes would lie down and appear to deactivate themselves. When fire personnel or repairmen arrived, the giant dolls looked out of place, but the first-responders had more pressing matters to concern themselves with.... until the Lil Maes sprang to life with stolen kitchen or utility knife in each hand. Most of the Lil Maes were destroyed by the waves of missiles that laid waste to much of the continental US and Canada. Those the weren't vaporized in the nuclear cataclysm were compelled by their programming to find a shelter and concealment and then shut down. In the centuries that followed, intact Lil Maes were salvaged and reprogrammed by Preserve groups and robot enclaves to serve and scouts, assassins, and saboteurs.

My Necromancer (Warlord) was mounted on a 40mm base and stands taller than my hearthguard cavalry, but it felt a bit wimpy to be a counts-as Necromancer on a Beast, so I transferred the model to a larger base and gave him a "pet". The model is still no Dieter Helsnicht (old school Warhammer fans may get that reference), but I feel that the larger base and zombie bear better represent the model's improved stat line and stays true to my 'cursed forest' theme. The zombie bear is the Haunted Bear from Great Escape Games' Dead Man's Hand model line. Below is a shot of the Haunted Bearl from a different angle.

It turns out that Absolutely Dangerous is not the newest TNT expansion. The Big Book of Scenarios! is the newest. LINKY I've been waiting for a long while for this release. It includes one of my submissions to the scenario contest, the Interrupted Ritual. The Big Book of Scenarios is packed with 20 scenarios written by some of the best fans in the world. Created as part of the This Is Not a Test (TNT) Scenario Community Challenge, these scenarios in this book were deemed the best of the best and are now ready to challenge your warbands. Featured scenarios include: Rad Roach Roundup (First Place Winner) – Charged with rounding up a settlement’s food supply, players have their warbands wrangle ornery rad roaches into their enclosures. This is easier said than done as warbands have to be cautious as combat can overexcite the roaches. The Preacher (Second Place Winner) – This scenario is a treasure hunt with a rad zombie twist. Warbands must survive the irradiated undead to loot the corpse of a fallen preacher. Rumors say there is a powerful relic stashed away with the dead clergyman’s holy book. Wasteland Bases (Third Place Co-Winner) – Not one, but five separate scenarios where your warband must find a base, build it up, and defend it; all the while attacking enemy bases. With plenty of options for customization and rules for resource gathering, this fun campaign brings a near real-time strategy game feel to the TNT wasteland. The TNT Tribal Campaign (Third Place Co-Winner) – This thematic campaign is a clever set of five warband specific scenarios featuring wasteland tribals, either played with a tribal warband or featuring the tribals as recurring foils for the warbands. In this campaign your warband delves deep into tribal culture by appeasing the wasteland spirits through sacred rights, protecting refugees during a forced migration, and even stopping ritual sacrifices. Eight Other Exciting Scenarios – Great for one-off gaming or easily inserted into an ongoing campaign, these scenarios contain assorted of fun wasteland activities like battling deranged cultists, raiding a underground vault, stalking through bat-haunted ruins, and much, much more! All this and more can be found inside!

Over the past few months I've been so busy with SAGA, I didn't notice the release of TNT's newest supplement, Absolutely Dangerous. Woohoo! LINKY Absolutely Dangerous: The Big Book of Relics, Robots, and Other Deadly Technologies is an expansion for This Is Not a Test, a 28mm wargame set in a post-apocalyptic United States, where warbands fight for survival, power, and greed. A celebration of the hubris of man and the danger of technology run amok, this expansion rulebook features: Full Robot Warband Rules – Long requested and now delivered, robots now have their own full warband. Lead your metal warriors with a networked Custodian Alpha MK IV or skip a physical leader altogether and take an AI Shard. While your warband will include a lot of the ubiquitous Depend-o-Bots, you can also take towering Demo-Bots or over-gunned and heavily armored Kill-Bots, crush your enemies with the aptly named Crushinator, or take Robo-Animals for all your robot canine needs. Of course, the robot warband features unique Warband Ranks, and with all their options, robots are one of the most thematic and expansive warbands to date. New Special Rules – Robots get unique abilities called Upgrades. With over 30 upgrades to choose from, your robots can be equipped with flexiarms, hover units, tank treads, assassin protocols, and other fun and deadly options. New Freelancers – Available to all warbands, these robots bring the party. (Literally. There is a robot called Party Bot.) But your warband can also hire the Mad Roboticist to repair your wayward bots or hire the deceptively misnamed Little Cutie, a lethal robotic toy that likes to hide and murder things. New Robot Relics – As befitting their unique options, robots get exclusive relics such as the powerfully sharp plasma cutter and the shockingly potent electro-fists. New Scenarios – Six brand new scenarios are included. Hunt the reality-bending Quantum Wanderer or even field your own mini-team of robots in Robot Rumble. In Electronic Devils, you must contend with a Viral AI, and in Suddenly Cyborg, robots hide out among the warbands, awaiting the perfect time to reveal themselves. Additionally, for the first time, the iconic Die, Robot scenario first featured in Wargames Illustrated is reprinted. Finally, we have Robot Raid, a fun scenario written by Andrew R. Martin for the 2017 TNT Community challenge. These scenarios are not just for robots; they can be used to challenge any warband! New Relics – Featuring new weapons abilities like cryo, irradiate, and haywire, this book features over 30 new relics. Blast over your opponents with hover board, freeze them with the cryocannon, light them up with the tri-beam laser, or simply burn them with the Lil’ Pyro. Power Armor Upgrades – A new type of relic option, power armor upgrades let you customize that fancy suit of power armor your warband worked so hard to get. From elaborate paint schemes to extra stowage because everyone loves pockets to booster jets because half-ton armor should be able to fly like a brick.

Let's shoot for February or March.

My TNT The Dog Days of Summer campaign got put on hold, in part, because Bobby had to drop out. Jim agreed to sub for Bobby, but I got distracted by other projects and the TNT campaign got put on hold. Since I won't be going to Adepticon in 2020, my urgency to paint my SAGA Moors has drained away. I'm still putting paint on Moors, but without a deadline, I find myself easily distracted. One such distraction has taken the form of me finishing off some Peacekeepers I started in July. Since Jim doesn't have Peacekeeper models of his own, he'll use these. From left to right: Road Marshal Kane (Road Marshal), Officer Smith (Officer), Officer Wesson (K-9 Handler), and Sid (K-9)

Looks good. Just remember, with the exception of certain unit types (heroes, monsters, creatures, warmachines, etc), units must number between 4 and 12 models, so you'll have to reconfigure our unit of Warriors. The steamtank is cool, but then again, so are monsters, such as these Oni that I found on Etsy. Titan Forge Games has a terrific Dragon Empire model line with lots of east-Asian themed troops, monsters, and even war machines. http://titan-forge.com/92-dragon-empire One of these would work great as a Warlord mounted on a Beast Or if you really want to splurge...

Four words: SAGA Age of Magic.

I backed Fireforge Games' Forgotten World Kickstarter in September of 2018 without any plans on what to use the models for. All that I knew is that I absolutely loved their Undead models and I had to have them. I received my models a couple of months ago, but I've been busy with other projects, so until last weekend, my Undead have been neglected. My theme for this warband is a cursed forest that has fallen under the spell of a malign, enigmatic fae creature who takes the form of a gaunt, impossibly tall manlike creature reminiscent of member of the Wild Hunt from Northern European folklore. The warband is comprised of the reanimated men, elves, and even a treant, of forest kingdoms decimated by the fae creature's dark magics. The Warlord is Privateer Press' Lord of the Feast model, which I have long admired, but until now, have never had a use for. I removed the raven from its extended arm and replaced its sword with a spear. The model is almost twice as tall as a rank-and-file infantry models in the warband, so I've mounted it on a 40mm base and for game purposes, it will be a counts-as Warlord (or Necromancer) on a Beast. The Sorcerer and Warriors are from Fireforge's Living Dead model line. I have on order enough shields with the defoliated tree insignia (see below) to equip all of the warriors. The undead Treant and archers represent victims from the forest's elven kingdom. The Treant (Behemoth) was another model that I purchased without any plans for it. The manufacturer is Ultraforge Miniatures, but I purchased it for 50% off during the Warstore's going out of business sale. The archers (Warriors with bows) are Reanimate Archers from Fantasy Flight's Runewars game. Like the Warriors in the first photo, these knights (Hearthguard) are reanimated corpses from the forest's human kingdom. Their original shield insignia's were transformed by the fae creature's dark magic, from the kingdom's living tree heraldry to the symbol of the fae creature, the cursed tree. The knights and shields are made by Fireforge Games. The only thing that I don't like about the Living Dead Knights kit is that the knights' heads are a tad small. I remedied this by replacing the original heads with heads from Games Workshop's Skeleton Warriors kit. This last model, may or may not make it into my warband as a Lieutenant -Black Knight. It too was part of the Fireforge Kickstarter, and like the knights, its head seems a tad small, so I replaced it with a bit from an old GW wood elf kit. The bit, a horned skull wrapped in vines, was intended to decorate a base. I used a hobby knife to cut away the vines, and voila, I have an (over-the-top) horned skull helmet. And since this fella is dead and likely a skeleton himself, its a skull helmet sitting on top of another fleshless skull. Double skull, FTW!

Here's my newest addition to my Age of Magic Horde Celt warband, 3 Quadruped Creatures. The models come from Games Workshop's Fenrisian Wolf Pack kit. They are mounted on 40mm Renedra rounds. I used Apoxie Sculpt to make the rocks and logs. The prevalence of wolves in ancient and medieval Irish myths and history made them a natural choice for my Celt Horde. The last wild wolf in Ireland was killed in the late 18th century, but up through the middle ages, wolves were so common in Ireland that it was sometimes referred to as Wolfland.

After a few games with my Lords of the Wild, I've decided to bench my Monster. I attribute my poor success with the big beastie to my inexperience using it, but also to the fact that I rarely have the SAGA dice that I need to activate a Monster. Since my Warlord is mounted on a Beast, I don't have a We Obey to fall back on. And between my best battle board abilities and my Levy, there's too much competition for uncommon and rare SAGA dice for me use them on a Monster. With the newly freed up 1 point and an extra four bodies from my Warrior units, I'm going to experiment with a unit of 3 Creatures. The Lords of the Wild battle board doesn't have the defensive buffs that the Otherworld Creatures enjoy, but it does have some nice melee buffs and access to Animal Prowess spell should help. Fielding a unit of Creatures also gives me an excuse to use one of my favorite GW Ogre models, the Arabian Maneater. For a bit of variety, I've added to this unit an Avatars of War Ogre Khan with Great Weapon. I bought this model a while back to use as an Ogre Bodyguard for my Kislev Warband, but I never got around to painting it. The AoW Ogre doesn't have a gut-plate. Instead it has two ridiculous armored hubcaps protecting its nipples, like a backup dancer in a 1990's Madonna music video. After an hour with a hobby knife, some greenstuff, and an extra gut-plate, I transformed him into a proper Ogre. An air bubble in the cast damaged the model's nose, so my Ogre chief also ended up with a nose job.

As I continue to playtest my Moors/Umayyad, I keep going back and forth on the composition of my warband. One of the units that I've been vacillating on is my levy. Crossbow levy hit harder than bow levy, but it's less costly in SAGA dice for bow levy to shoot multiple times per turn. Additionally, Umayyad levy cannot be armed with crossbows, so if I use bow levy for my Moors and Umayyad warbands, I will paint 12 fewer models. And finally, I've found only two manufacturers who sell 28mm Moorish/Arab crossbowmen models, Gripping Beast and Artizan Designs, and I don't care for either. Both GB an Artizan sell only 4 poses, so a levy unit will be comprised of four groups of triplicate poses. The Gripping Beast sculpts are uninspiring and the quality of the casts is crap. Instead of sending the GB models back, I tossed them in my box of purchases that I regret, and ordered the Artizan models. The quality of the Artizan models is better, but the sculpts are kind of thick and clunky, and after additional consideration, I decided that they don't really fit my Tuareg/Bedouin theme. After a bit of brainstorming, I realized that I still have quite a few unused Gripping Beast Arab bodies and heads, so if I could find some crossbow bits, I could kitbash my own crossbowmen. The online bits-sellers don't have what I need, so I broke down and ordered Fireforge Games Foot Sergeant kit. The Foot Sergeant kit is a great deal. Its 6 sprues have enough bits to build 48 models (which breaks down to 83 cents per model) with plenty of bits to spare. Each sprue includes enough bits to arm 4 models with crossbow, 6 models with basic hand weapons, and 6 models with spears. So even after procuring 12 crossbows to arm my Moorish levy, I have enough models and weapons to make a good start on a Crusader warband. Originally, I had planned to fill in the recesses of the crossbow bits' quilted armor sleeves with GS to match the smooth texture of Arab plastics' robes, but after looking at the assembled models, I decided that I like the contrast between the quilted sleeves and the smooth robes. Below is a WIP shot.

I did some work on my HG cav and Bedouin Warrior cav. The HG cav started out over a year ago as kitbashed Age of Crusades Lithuanian cav. It’s a mix of the GB Heavy Arab Cav kit and the Fireforge Medieval Russian infantry kit. To repurpose them I replaced their Russian heads and teardrop shields with Arab heads and shields. Now that they are (hopefully) in their final form, I used GS to fill gaps and add belts, buckles, and veils. I am going to paint the shields separate, so I’m leaving them off for now. I spent three hours on the Perry Miniatures Bedouins with a hobby knife and GS cleaning up their dreadful casts. I will definitely think twice before purchasing any more Perry Miniatures’ metals. Yuck.

One of my take-aways from my first game of AoM is that it would sure be nice to have tokens to mark units subject to certain spells. Well, it looks like a company called Historique wasted no time filling this need. 🙂 LINKY

It looks like Legendary Units will not be allowed in the SAGA Age of Viking and the Age of Crusades tournaments. There's no word yet on whether or not Legendary Units will be allowed in the AoM tournament.

Thanks, Ish. Yes, that horse is ridiculously massive. He must have stolen it from Christian Crusader. This model comes from the Victrix Chariot kit sprue. My only modification was replacing the original spear shaft metal rod, which is both thicker and more durable. It will make a terrific druid (Sorcerer) for my AoM Celt Horde warband.

I did some work on my Moorish Warlord's display base. The Warlord's base rests in a recess and is secured in place by magnets. The plan is to attach the standard bearer and musician to the base via magnets. This will make it easier to transport the models in a carrying case. The standard bearer is from Brother Vinni's Arabia model line. The musician is made from Gripping Beast plastic components. The body and head are from the Arab Spearmen kit and the right arm and horn are from the Arab Heavy Cavalry kit.

Ted, a friend of mine who I introduced to SAGA, just bought his first house. Normal people give bottles of wine as housewarming gifts. Gamers give toys. 😀 Ted plays Vikings and plans to use them in AoM as a Horde warband. He told me that he wants to include in his AoM warband a massive wolf, reminiscent of Fenrir, as a Monster. With this in mind, for a housewarming gift I ordered him the model pictured below from a 3D printer who sells on Etsy (HQMiniatures). I bought the base separately from Renedra, Ltd. The model arrived today. Its printed in resin and it turned out very nice. I posed it next to a ruler and a Victrix 28mm Viking to provide a sense of scale.