Hendybadgers Hobby Update - June 2012

As some of you may have noticed, I haven't had a whole lot of hobby related things going on recently.
So I thought I would give you all a little update about where everything stands.

BLOG

There are LOADS of things lined up for this blog in the next few weeks.
Reviews - Merchantman and Warship ships from Ainsty Castings, Pirate buildings, Sea Dog and Sea Prince ships from Games of War, Judges, Punks and Robot gangs from Judge Dredd by Mongoose Publishing, GW Temple of Skulls and more.

The 'Win a Hendybadger' winner will be announced very soon. Just waiting on one more vote to come in.

ToaTS is almost at 100'000 hits. What an awesome landmark! When I started I never expected it to get to this point.
And how do I thank all of my wonderful readers, followers and viewers?
With an AWESOME GIVEAWAY! Over £70 worth of minis!
If you want to take part though, you need to be a follower of this blog using the box under the tags box on the right>>>>>>>>>>>>

An unboxing of Mantics Warpath starter set thanks to PJ at Shades of Chaos

New Pulp City battle reports. Maybe even some in a 'comic book' style

Any new news I like the look of and several other bits and pieces inc my own painting progress

EVENTS

I will be running a couple of Pulp City demos in the next couple of weeks at PAW and the Giants Lair in Plymouth. Even have a demo booked with the awesome Warhammer Joey/ The Joey Berry

PERSONNAL HOBBY

A lot has changed in my life over the last few months. Our first child, odd working hours, Mrs Badger now being on unpaid maternity leave etc.
This means that I have a whole lot less hobby time and hobby funds that I did this time last year.
So, what am I doing?

I want to use my precious time and money on my all time favourite game. Yeah you guessed it - the Supreme Pulp City

I have a few PC projects on the go.

Scenery - 
I now have 2 Urban boards that I want to finish off. Maybe give the buildings a lick of paint.
Planning a couple of Industrial boards including a large canal.
Also want to do some weird and wonderful boards like you see in comics. The moons surface, jungle, city park, docks etc

Models-
I have 4 main goals. To Collect, Build, Play and Paint every Pulp City mini.


I now have all but the elusive June Summers reporter (do you have a spare or know someone who does?) Some will have doubles as well due to a painting aim.
All but 5 of those are now made.
About 75% have been used in games
Painting sort of deserves its own headline

Then there are the soon to be released Monster Rules. I am collecting a range of 4"+ minis from several other companies to use with this new addition to the game.

Painting -
Before now I have painted around 40 minis in 5 years of gaming. The first 25 were flat colour Tyranids and not much happened since.
I saved my pennies and invested in the new GW paint range and painting guide. Over the last few months I have also collected all of the extra painting guides in White Dwarf.
Time to teach myself how to paint properly! (any hints and tips are welcome) Not just dry brushing and washing for me anymore.

The Pulp City painting has a couple of side projects.
1- One of each PC mini in an original paint scheme
2- All of the scenery
3- The Pulp City Avengers - Heroes  inspired by Marvel supers (3-5 are doubles from painting project 1)
4- The Pulp City X-Men - Villains inspired by Marvel supers
5 - Pulp City Marvels - Any that don't fit into the X-Men or Avengers themes.
6- Monsters from a range of different companies

OTHER

Soon I will play testing for a tabletop game. But that's all I can say at the moment.Shhhhhh........

So that's that.........
Hope you all enjoy reading Tales of a Tabletop Skirmisher in the future!

Hendybadger awaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

I AM THE LAW! Judge Dredd First Impressions

A couple of days ago PJ from Shades of Chaos and myself tried out the Judge Dredd minis game from Mongoose Publishing.

After reading the basic rules, which are really easy to pick up, and a couple of the advanced rules we decided to try out the intro scenario in the book called 'The Barko Brothers' (All in the FREE PDF)
PJ started with 1 Judge and I had 4 Punks. Although I used my apes as a stand in.
We tried to copy the scenery as best as we could.

The game play is very simple.
In each turn you activate each model separately. They then have 2 actions. You can Move, Move and Attack, Shoot and use a models of weapons Special action. They can be mixed any way you want. Including using the same ones twice.
As my Punks advanced across the board, the Judge managed to gun the down as soon as they appeared.

PJ then suggested we try again with the Punks playing abit more defensively.
When an enemy first appears in front of a Judge, there is a great little rule. The Judge HAS to tell the model they are under arrest by using a Special action before they can attack. This is unless the enemy has attacked them to start with.

When a criminal is told to surrender you roll a Will check. Each player rolls a D10 and adds their Will stat. The highest wins. If it s the Judge, the criminal is removed from the board but not killed.
If the criminal wins then they don't have to take another one of these checks for the rest of the game and can act normally.

This second game ended with the Punks taking down the Judge in a deadly firefight down a narrow alley.
A shooting attack is very similar to the Will check D10 + Shooting stat v D10 + Agility stat. Any shots that have rolled higher than the defenders Agility total cause damage.
It did take 3 of them to finish him off though!

We then decided to try out a full on game. Judges v Apes. The book says you start with 350pts but to make things a little simpler we went for 375 to fit in rounded models without too much equipment.

After the first couple of turns, most models were in decent positions to attack.

The apes actually managed to take down a Judge again. Massed firepower again.
They didn't do too well after that. The Gorilla Gangster and Sniper Orangutan were arrested and a Chimp was killed.

Both the Judges and the Apes then closed in on each other.

At this point I decided the Gorilla in a dress should charge in and we could try out the Melee attacks.
The rolls are basically the same as the other in the game. Each players rolls an amount of D10s in their profiles and adds their Melee stat. The winner is the highest and each high dice causes damage.

The Gorilla went full boar but seeing I hadn't armed him/her with a melee weapon I had a minus to my rolls. Allowing the Judge to take advantage and take the great beast down.
After that, the final Chimp decided it was a good idea to run and fight another day.

The final gangs looked like this

1 Judge and 1 Rookie still standing. 1 Judge dead.

Orangutan and Gorilla arrested, Gorilla and Chimp killed and last Chimp ran!

Overall I think that Judge Dredd is a great game.
The rules are very easy to pick up. By the 3rd game we were only looking at the , FREE PDF, rules for the stats. It has captured a great Dredd feel as well. Looking forward to out next games and trying out some other gangs and weapon combos. (Including melee weapons this time)

We are going to try out the campaign system next time as well. Had a read through and it seems as easy to pick up as the main rules but lets you add alot more to your gangs including additional members, weapons and skills as the survivors advance.

I would highly recommend checking this game out. Its already ranked up there in my top 6 games after only 1 night!

Over the next 2 weeks I will also be taking a closer look at the model range. Starting with the box sets for Judges, Robots and Punks.

What do you think of the game?

Hendybader awaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

Judge Dredd by Mongoose Publishing. A new minis game for ToaTS?

Last weekend at the Legionary con I picked up some ape minis for my Pulp City ARC team.
Then I started to look over the other minis on the Mongoose Publishing stand.
All sorts of weird and wonderful things inc Judge Dredd himself! Great sculpts as well.
I was never really into Dredd when I was younger, but for some reason these minis really grabbed my interest.

A couple of the other members of our gaming club also picked up some of the minis and then PJ from Shades of Chaos told  me about the free rulebook for the Judge Dredd game. Found >>HERE<<
Had to download that one!

After a good read through, we decided to give it a try at our local club tomorrow night. I will report back on how that goes.
The rules seem quick and easy but also a lot of fun. Plus there is a very nice campaign system which is always a draw for me.

How about a look at the sort of things included in the range? (click any pics to view larger)
First of all there is Dredd and the other Judges. Including some in HUGE armour.

And then there is the well know Angel Gang with the awesome Mean Machine!

The Ape Gang that I have started with. How can you say no to a gorilla with a shotgun in a dress?

Other playable gangs and citizens of Mega City One range from Sky Surfers to Lone Vigilante Super Heros and stampeding Fatties to Renegade Robots

There are many others that live in the city or outside of the walls. Mutants, criminals in Bat suits, Zombie necromancers and the Klegg

As I said, I started with the apes. But...........
I decided to pick up another couple of minis giving me the choice to use Super Heros or Zombies instead.
The Sky Surfers, Judge and Robots are calling to me as well.

If you like the look of all these minis then check out the Judge Dredd Page on Mongoose Publishing and keep an eye out on this blog to see how we get on.

Hendybadger awaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

Legionary 2012 is over! - Reports and Demos

Hi again readers,
After a busy few days I'm back on the blog.

Legionary is over again for another year. But it was a great day!
I know I said I was going to give a full report, but our demo table had people around for most of the day and I didn't really get to see very much of the rest of the show.
(Click any pics for larger views)

Lets start off with a couple of shots of the hall it was held in.

Compared to Legionary 2011 I think there were a lot more traders, games and even larger tournaments in the middle.

And what did we put on? (As if you didn't know already) Pulp City!
Some shots of our boards. With new and improved 'Comic Noises' and Steve's lovely pink tape measure!

I had been painting like mad for the last few days to get a fair few Supremes up to demo standard. (Although my painting is very basic at the moment)
These were set out ready for players to pick 5 Levels and try them out.

On the other side of the table was a selection of painted and non painted Supremes to show off the minis in the range.

There was even a sneaky bit of advertising for Fenris Games Bases and Sarissa Precision Buildings

As I mentioned above, we were quite busy throughout the day. LOTS of interest in the game and even 3 Bookings for demo days/nights at other gaming clubs. (More on that soon)
The guys from TAGS seemed to enjoy themselves.

So did a couple of young lads that tried as many different combinations of Supremes as they could until they had to leave.

Steve and myself did find half an hour to have a quick game between ourselves though.
Very close Lvl5 game where I only just pulled ahead with Loup Garou being the only survivor.

All in all the demo table was a great success. The show itself seemed to be a great success as well but as I mentioned, I didn't get to see much of it. Had fun though.

At event like these, no matter what your doing, you still need to find time to fit in a little bit of shopping. Whats a gaming show without new shineys?
I found a lovely range of models at the Mongoose Publishing stand from their Judge Dredd game.

The first box to catch my eye was the Ape Gang. They will fit perfectly as ARC BOOM Minions in Pulp City. Couldn't resist picking them up.

How can you say no to a Gorilla with a pin strip suit, cigar and Tommy gun and a Gorilla with a shotgun in a dress?

Looking at the rest of their minis there are some stunning pieces. Several that will work in Pulp that I will be picking up in the future.
A couple of the other from the club also picked up some of the Judge Dredd minis and then when I got home I downloaded the free PDF rules. >HERE<
Will Judge Dredd be a game game for ToaTS? (Its looking that way. I want 4 other gangs already and most minis from JD and PC can be used in both games)

Another couple of goodies I picked up were from Warmills Street Wars Range. A stunning rage of laser cut scenery.
It was a pair of small Warp Gates but I'm afraid I don't have a picture of those yet as they were a pre-release for the show.
Instead, here is one of their stunning Utility Pods

That was my Legionary 2012!

Does anyone know of any other shows in the South / South West UK apart from PAW and Legionary?

Before I go, don't forget about the 'Win Hendybadger' competition that's now been running for a week.
You can check it out >>HERE<<

Hendybadger Awaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!