Iron Empire Mecha WiP and some Carneval in action

I have some family visiting which has slowed down the painting... quite a lot!  But, on the flip side, I've been able to get in an initial game of Carnevale... so that's a bonus!

Here you see the Mecha in the Iron Empire Cream and Purple colors... at least that's the colors of Iron Empire in the Swelterverse!

 I've been painting the bits seperately as the final posing will make a lot of areas practically impossible to reach... the range of viable poses is quite large with these kits.

A lot of Secret weapon washes helping out with the weapon glows and so forth... note the Mummy Pilot and the Egyptian Death Mask!  Scary!

 On to Carnevale!  Our first game pits the classic foes .. Vatican vs Strigoi.  Were still fumbling around with the rules but the game seems very evocative and fun...


Some thoughts so far:

The rules are a little hard to follow and a little confusing in places like... its not always completely clear if an AP (Action Point) cost is a replacement for another AP cost or an additional AP cost.

I'm also unclear why the final health box has a penalty listed when it appears that checking the final box should take a model out of action... odd to have a -2 penalty to action performed while dead... not undead... just dead.

*Update*  We figured out that we were reading the health chart wrong...DOH!  There is no postmortem penalty !

 It is interesting that a lot of abilities are available to any faction but really are tuned to a specific faction.  A lot of choices are available... even if many of them are silly.  I think like that... and once I understand the synergies it might make more sense why some choices, which currently appear to be silly, might be fun or effective to make.

 I am a little concerned about the Inquisitor in the Vatican faction, who looks a lot like Marilyn Manson, seems to be a vampire without the undead trait... or maybe a demonic entity... he certainly doesn't appear to be human 1.0.

I do like all the focus on theatrical maneuvers and water stuff... like how to drown ... accidentally or... on purpose... how to hold the head underwater until the bubbles stop.... not sure how it works precisely but it's very detailed!

More on that... after we play a few more rounds!

*Update*  After finishing the first game we think the Vatican is a strongly designed faction... The Cross Bearing Deacon in particular is very powerful and makes the faction largely immune to morale effects.  The Inquisitor and Executioner are also pretty spectacular in their effects and the whole force has an intuitive synergy that is really significant.

The Strigoi are less intuitive, although they have strong signature special effects, the synergies of the faction are less obvious and require more tactical forethought that the Vatican does. 

We got a lot of basic stuff wrong but, by the time we finished we had most of that sorted and things began making a lot more sense.  A couple of more practice games will tell the tale... and I'm really looking forward to playing some of the other factions...

Santa Ork and a Street Level View of Greystone Village

 Orks were one of my two original 40k armies... a dubious honor also shared by the Harlequins. I'm such a Xenos fanboy!  At any rate... I had a Santa Ork character, actually a Madboy with a Santa hat/suit and a 'sleigh'... really the original plastic GW Battlewagon... dolled up with some christmas type decorations and some sacks full of toys

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Santa Ork!  "He comes to TAKE DA TOYZ!  AHA!"

Although that venerable figure, sans the sleigh... which I gave to a friend and fellow Ork Warlord when I left for Japan in the mid 90's, remains in my collection it has been returned to the Madboy unit as a new Santa Ork emerges!

  This guy is from ArmorCast and is an old skool hunk o freakin metal... the detail took a bit to sort out but is full of character and will make a great commander for a new sleigh.... I'm still settling on what model the new sleigh will be based on but there is a lot of unbuilt plastic and resin in the "Projekt Ork" boxes... more on that later!
















Today is also an experiment in video... a street level flyby of the Greystone Village.   I blame Greggles for that and you can too! :)




In spite of my one true talent... technology destruction... I managed to get a video on the page.. woot!  Of course I completely failed at any sort of editing but... a challenge for another day!  Thanks for the push Greg!  More videos in future.

There is a lot on the table at the moment. 

Deep Cut Studios mats and Tabletop World Village Progress

 I got a couple of tubes in the mail yesterday from Deep Cut Studios with some really cool looking cobblestone print vinyl game mats.

 I was pretty jazzed to see them so I pulled out the TTW buildings and slid them around the mats just to see how it looked.

 The mats are thin vinyl but seem waterproof and scratch resistant.  I got two 4x4 mats... this one with streets and one that is entirely cobblestone.  I'll use each or both of them depending on the setting.  I like the freedom of the cobblestone only print but this street layout is pretty appealing as well. 

The edges of the mats do not lay flat even after putting books on them overnight.  I imagine I'll have to use some tape... thats probably a good idea anyway as a heavy 'lean in' across the table might unseat the whole business and create a model shattering launch event!

The street/grass gets that haphazard but organized village feel.  Lining up the buildings so that their doors open in logical areas just feels more organic.

 I realized that, although I've painted several TTW buildings recently I'm really only about Halfway through the pile.  I also noticed that I have somehow not yet painted up an example of the Townhouse II which has a very cool covered second story gallery.  Chop chop!

 I've been keeping an eye on Zuzzy to put out a textured rubber cobblestone mat without the grid overlay because I thought I'd miss the ground texture.   I'll still get one I think but these are ready to play right out of the box and the smooth surface makes sliding things around much easier... so I'll probably use these most of the time and add them to my 'away' kit.

 Here is a birds eye view of the painted village to date.

In the painting que there still remains 1x Townhouse I, 2x Townhouse II,  and 1x Townhouse III.  Townhouse II and Townhouse III are large buildings which will add interest to the skyline and fill out this mat nicely.