It just took me 1½ hr to clean up the next Jack in line... I used a totally new blade this time, and though it cuts the hard plastic just a tny bit more smoothly, it's still a drag to get a figure done.
No further Progress today, but I may try to sneak in another full-rules solo game this evening, if the kids do not act up too much at bed-time.
Tuesday, 18 June 2013
Monday, 17 June 2013
DreadBall: Blood on the Pitch!
Played a quite spectacular solo game today, my first using the full rules for Season 1.
Again, the Forge Fathers faced off against the Marauders - and they will be bearing grudges for quite some time!
Two FF (Jack and Striker) were killed in Rush 04, and a Guard joined his Ancestors in Rush 06, leaving the bearded ones only 5 players for the rest of the game.
From that point the game developed into a slug-fest, with both teams only making a few unsuccesful chance Strike-attempts, and most of the time more players in the Sin Bin than on the Pitch.
Last couple of Rushes, both teams completely ignored the Ball, and with the very last Action of Rush 14, an Orx Guard injured the last FF Jack, leaving only a single FF Guard on the Pitch for the overtime - immediately ending the game in favour of the greenskins.
The use of Cards, the Ref, and Fouls, adds, if not a new dimension, some more facets to the game, without slowing the pace in a noteworthy way - which is remarkable, as most games I've played usually slow down a lot, as layers are added.
DreadBall is probably going to be my number 1 favourite game for quick, light-hearted fun with a fellow gamer, be he/she of the board-gaming or war-gaming kind.
The downside to this new experience: I did not get any players cleaned up for undercoating today - but as the game plays brilliantly with basic teams without advancements and income, it's not that bad, only a delay before I can start developing my 'own' 'custom' team.
Again, the Forge Fathers faced off against the Marauders - and they will be bearing grudges for quite some time!
Two FF (Jack and Striker) were killed in Rush 04, and a Guard joined his Ancestors in Rush 06, leaving the bearded ones only 5 players for the rest of the game.
From that point the game developed into a slug-fest, with both teams only making a few unsuccesful chance Strike-attempts, and most of the time more players in the Sin Bin than on the Pitch.
Last couple of Rushes, both teams completely ignored the Ball, and with the very last Action of Rush 14, an Orx Guard injured the last FF Jack, leaving only a single FF Guard on the Pitch for the overtime - immediately ending the game in favour of the greenskins.
The use of Cards, the Ref, and Fouls, adds, if not a new dimension, some more facets to the game, without slowing the pace in a noteworthy way - which is remarkable, as most games I've played usually slow down a lot, as layers are added.
DreadBall is probably going to be my number 1 favourite game for quick, light-hearted fun with a fellow gamer, be he/she of the board-gaming or war-gaming kind.
The downside to this new experience: I did not get any players cleaned up for undercoating today - but as the game plays brilliantly with basic teams without advancements and income, it's not that bad, only a delay before I can start developing my 'own' 'custom' team.
Sunday, 16 June 2013
DreadBall: Back on the Pitch!
Played two games of DreadBall today, both down to basics without cards, ref, and fouls.
1st game was Basic Humans vs Marauders - my friend Ulrik played the greenskins (being a Blood Bowl vet, and this being his very first game of DB, he had a bit of difficulty adjusting to the differences between BB and DB), and as my 7 years old daughter rolled all my dice and never managed not to roll a lot of roll-ups, especially on Armour Checks, the humans won by a landslide in Rush 11.
2nd game I played solo, Forge Fathers vs Marauders. As expected, this was a very close, and very hard fought, match. Most of the game the FF held on to the ball and defended it stubbornly, and they managed to score a 2-pointer about mid-game. In the very last Rush, a single Gobbo tried sprinting 13 hexes to come in position for a 2-pt scoring attempt, but he missed his 3rd Dash, and ended the game flat on the floor.
This was the first time I tried another team than the Humans and Marauders, and I really liked the feel of the Forge Fathers - they'll probably be the 2nd team I paint up.... I consider a name like 'Fyrkat Berserkers', and painting them in Danish national colours (red and white).
I'll have to try a couple of solo games with the full rules, soon, as I think I have most of the basics memorized by now.
Tomorrow I'll see if I can get another Jack cleaned up; that'll mean I'm half way through the BioCorp Buccaneers, as I intend to name them.
1st game was Basic Humans vs Marauders - my friend Ulrik played the greenskins (being a Blood Bowl vet, and this being his very first game of DB, he had a bit of difficulty adjusting to the differences between BB and DB), and as my 7 years old daughter rolled all my dice and never managed not to roll a lot of roll-ups, especially on Armour Checks, the humans won by a landslide in Rush 11.
2nd game I played solo, Forge Fathers vs Marauders. As expected, this was a very close, and very hard fought, match. Most of the game the FF held on to the ball and defended it stubbornly, and they managed to score a 2-pointer about mid-game. In the very last Rush, a single Gobbo tried sprinting 13 hexes to come in position for a 2-pt scoring attempt, but he missed his 3rd Dash, and ended the game flat on the floor.
This was the first time I tried another team than the Humans and Marauders, and I really liked the feel of the Forge Fathers - they'll probably be the 2nd team I paint up.... I consider a name like 'Fyrkat Berserkers', and painting them in Danish national colours (red and white).
I'll have to try a couple of solo games with the full rules, soon, as I think I have most of the basics memorized by now.
Tomorrow I'll see if I can get another Jack cleaned up; that'll mean I'm half way through the BioCorp Buccaneers, as I intend to name them.
Saturday, 15 June 2013
DreadBall: Boot Camp Continued
I managed to sneak in cleaning up a Jack yesterday, so 'only' 5 more to go before I have enough for a starting team. I think I'll settle for 8 players, a ref, and a ball for now, as I'm aready really fed up with trying to get nice, clean results. I can then do a player when needed through recruitment; and as we won't get the last 4 players for the 4 starting teams until later this year, I cannot make a full roster, anyway.
If all Mantic plastics are made of this sh*t, I'm not going to by many minis from them, that's for sure - I'll rather pay a bit more per figure than go through all this frustration when cleaning them up...
If all Mantic plastics are made of this sh*t, I'm not going to by many minis from them, that's for sure - I'll rather pay a bit more per figure than go through all this frustration when cleaning them up...
Friday, 14 June 2013
DreadBall: Boot Camp Prolongued.
I have both the Guards ready for glueing onto washers, but didn't do anything yesterday, because I simply couldn't bring myself to do that tedious task. Opted to watch 'The Reef' with the kids instead.
We are having the girls from my eldest daughter's school class for a delayed celebration of her 10 years birthday tomorrow, and as the forecast does not leave much hope for outdoor activities, I'll have to put the hobby stuff aside today to tidy up the living room.
Sunday afternoon, my (formerly) regular gaming pal is coming to visit, partly because of the recent birthday, and I hope that we can squeeze in a basic rules game of DreadBall. Sunday morning is reserved for searching for a new (used) car, as the Family dropship is due for inspection and will most likely fail miserably without expensive repairs/maintenance.
Monday, I hope to get back on track and get one or two Jacks cleaned and assembled. Until then, no further Progress is to be expected.
We are having the girls from my eldest daughter's school class for a delayed celebration of her 10 years birthday tomorrow, and as the forecast does not leave much hope for outdoor activities, I'll have to put the hobby stuff aside today to tidy up the living room.
Sunday afternoon, my (formerly) regular gaming pal is coming to visit, partly because of the recent birthday, and I hope that we can squeeze in a basic rules game of DreadBall. Sunday morning is reserved for searching for a new (used) car, as the Family dropship is due for inspection and will most likely fail miserably without expensive repairs/maintenance.
Monday, I hope to get back on track and get one or two Jacks cleaned and assembled. Until then, no further Progress is to be expected.
Tuesday, 11 June 2013
DreadBall: Boot Camp
Started prepping today. Got out the 10 male Human players, the refbot, and a ball.
I had expected a friend of mine to come over this last Sunday, and I wanted us to be able to do a quick tussle. When I started to put the gaming pieces (players) together, I realized that there was no way the individuals would keep their composure without the use of some kind of adhesive.
This is a BIG minus in my book; DreadBall is essentially a board game, and as such, I expect to be able to play the game right out of the box. It will be hard to convince board gamers to pick up the game when they have to be modellers before they can start playing, but, well...
As a result I used a lot of little balls of sticky-tac to secure the various arms, legs, and hands (Forge Fathers), but I had to give up on the Veer-myn, as some of the models have only a very shallow half-ball joint to position one arm by. Another weird choice, and in my book, a design flaw. Also some of the Judwan are way too flimsy to be held together without glue.
But, in other words, I have to remove a lot of gooey white stuff from the sockets for various limbs. Nice going.
I started out with one of the 2 Guards, as they are the bulkiest, and I have not removed mold-lines for almost 2 years. So, with no current practice, and ever-dwindling eye-sight, I wanted to do the easy tasks first.
Easy? By no means! That Guard might be the worst mini I ever had to prep for painting. Not because it's a bad sculpt, but bvecause of a combination of not-so-accented details on the armour with possibly the worst material I've ever encountered in a gaming piece. This 'hard plastic' is impossible to scrape with a sharp blade without making the surface all roughed up, and it is difficult to cut without the blade going astray. I ended up using my diamond needle file set, but the result is not quite satisfactory.
I don't think I'll manage more than one of these per day, lest I use too many sanity points.
To finish the models for priming, I need to get some small washers (20 mm-ish or so) to glue them onto. I could use the provided clear acrylic hex bases, but I want my minis to stick to magnetic sheets.
About the acrylic bases, btw: I had expected that the integral bases wouls snap-fit into the central cavity on the hex bases... but NOT so. The holes are substantially larger than the figure bases, so again, adhesives are required.
All in all, Mantic could have done better with this product. The plastic may be a cheap solution to keep costs down, but I think I would prefer a slightly higher price for a material more like the plastic used by GW.
You can't beat the DreadBall rules for playability, though. I haven't played a single game with the official minis, yet, but I played several test games with Blood Bowl minis on a mock-up pitch during the frantic Kickstarter days, and fell in love completely with the game.
So, if DreadBall doesn't get me back into hobby gaming, nothing probably will...
I had expected a friend of mine to come over this last Sunday, and I wanted us to be able to do a quick tussle. When I started to put the gaming pieces (players) together, I realized that there was no way the individuals would keep their composure without the use of some kind of adhesive.
This is a BIG minus in my book; DreadBall is essentially a board game, and as such, I expect to be able to play the game right out of the box. It will be hard to convince board gamers to pick up the game when they have to be modellers before they can start playing, but, well...
 |
| The task at hand. More daunting that you would ever imagine... Blurred pic courtesy of bad lighting. |
But, in other words, I have to remove a lot of gooey white stuff from the sockets for various limbs. Nice going.
I started out with one of the 2 Guards, as they are the bulkiest, and I have not removed mold-lines for almost 2 years. So, with no current practice, and ever-dwindling eye-sight, I wanted to do the easy tasks first.
Easy? By no means! That Guard might be the worst mini I ever had to prep for painting. Not because it's a bad sculpt, but bvecause of a combination of not-so-accented details on the armour with possibly the worst material I've ever encountered in a gaming piece. This 'hard plastic' is impossible to scrape with a sharp blade without making the surface all roughed up, and it is difficult to cut without the blade going astray. I ended up using my diamond needle file set, but the result is not quite satisfactory.
I don't think I'll manage more than one of these per day, lest I use too many sanity points.
To finish the models for priming, I need to get some small washers (20 mm-ish or so) to glue them onto. I could use the provided clear acrylic hex bases, but I want my minis to stick to magnetic sheets.
About the acrylic bases, btw: I had expected that the integral bases wouls snap-fit into the central cavity on the hex bases... but NOT so. The holes are substantially larger than the figure bases, so again, adhesives are required.
All in all, Mantic could have done better with this product. The plastic may be a cheap solution to keep costs down, but I think I would prefer a slightly higher price for a material more like the plastic used by GW.
You can't beat the DreadBall rules for playability, though. I haven't played a single game with the official minis, yet, but I played several test games with Blood Bowl minis on a mock-up pitch during the frantic Kickstarter days, and fell in love completely with the game.
So, if DreadBall doesn't get me back into hobby gaming, nothing probably will...
Monday, 10 June 2013
DreadBall - almost there!
Yesterday I finally got a grip, and started assembling (with blu-tac) the miniatures contained in the first 2 shipments of my DreadBall Kickstarter pledge.
I even figured out a paint sceme for my purestrain male human team, and the refbot and I shall start prepping the first few minis, and a ball, this week, real life permitting.
All in all, I seem to be on the track to rekindling the spark, so expect updates, if not on a regular, then at least a more frequent basis.
I even figured out a paint sceme for my purestrain male human team, and the refbot and I shall start prepping the first few minis, and a ball, this week, real life permitting.
All in all, I seem to be on the track to rekindling the spark, so expect updates, if not on a regular, then at least a more frequent basis.
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