Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hey @JNA, Welcome! Your post seems to have got in rollover, but I read it via your user and see that you're interested in Firefight? It's an absolute cracker of a game and the value in the new boxset can't be understated. You can see my overview above, but basically the starter is Corporate not-space marines Vs not Blood Axe Orks. The game is very quick and sacrifices some micromanaging for speed, as is often the Mantic way. My kid likes elite synergy armies so he runs Asterians, which are not eldar, and are similarly glass ninja with big guns and jinky evasion. I really like the Enforcers, they're very straightforward, but Marauders are like elite orks rather than a mad waaagh. Generally, the dice based command point mechanic is one of the best elements, as you have to decided whether to use them for faction orders, extra activations, or countering your forces getting pinned by your opponent. It's a lot of fun, and totally hits the mid sized sweet spot. That help?

 inmygravenimage wrote:
Hey @JNA, Welcome! Your post seems to have got in rollover, but I read it via your user and see that you're interested in Firefight? It's an absolute cracker of a game and the value in the new boxset can't be understated. You can see my overview above, but basically the starter is Corporate not-space marines Vs not Blood Axe Orks. The game is very quick, igougo, and sacrifices some micromanaging for speed, as is often the Mantic way. My kid likes elite synergy armies so he runs Asterians, which are not eldar, and are similarly glass ninja with big guns and jinky evasion. I really like the Enforcers, they're very straightforward, but Marauders are like elite orks rather than a mad waaagh. Generally, the dice based command point mechanic is one of the best elements, as you have to decided whether to use them for faction orders, extra activations, or countering your forces getting pinned by your opponent. It's a lot of fun, and totally hits the mid sized sweet spot. That help?

How beginner-friendly is it?
My main wargaming place is a GW store, so any wargames outside that sphere need to be relatively easy to pick up for my friends. But GW is just so damn pricy for rules that are... Eh. (Good models, though!)

And how much terrain is recommended?

It's very accessible to new players. It's really straightforward and the new plastics are ace. I also like the fact that you've also got non gw analogous factions in the form of the Veer-Myn and Plague (and to an extent Forge Fathers, but the squats are back now I guess). Perhaps surprisingly, there isn't that much terrain needed - it's supposed to be open warfare, though you can add hills and buildings if you wish. I like a bit of scatter myself but it's not vital. That help?

 inmygravenimage wrote:
It's very accessible to new players. It's really straightforward and the new plastics are ace. I also like the fact that you've also got non gw analogous factions in the form of the Veer-Myn and Plague (and to an extent Forge Fathers, but the squats are back now I guess). Perhaps surprisingly, there isn't that much terrain needed - it's supposed to be open warfare, though you can add hills and buildings if you wish. I like a bit of scatter myself but it's not vital. That help?

It does indeed help.

Does it work well with lots of terrain, or should it be played with minimal?

Oh, I love plenty of terrain I would always pick a dense urban board any day of the week. Yes, it can totally handle it but it does add a layer of complexity. If you have existing terrain (IE 40k) it's fine but be aware that it will not translate over to Deadzone (Firefight KT) as it uses a cube based system for, well, everything.

 inmygravenimage wrote:
Oh, I love plenty of terrain I would always pick a dense urban board any day of the week. Yes, it can totally handle it but it does add a layer of complexity. If you have existing terrain (IE 40k) it's fine but be aware that it will not translate over to Deadzone (Firefight KT) as it uses a cube based system for, well, everything.

Not too worried about Deadzone-I like meatier armies!

The batrep was really cool, looks like a fun system to play.

Mr Sinister looks, well, pretty sinister! Love the greeny glowy smokey!

 inmygravenimage wrote:
The game is very quick, igougo

Here https://www.manticgames.com/news/firefight-second-edition-your-questions-answered/ they say it is alternating activations

You're absolutely right. That's a comedy autocorrect from IMHO if ever I've seen one. Good catch! Yeah, the alternate activations is one of the strengths.

I stopped reading X-men long before Mr. Sinister was introduced, so I know nothing about the character, but you did a fine job on the model.

Thanks for the review/batrep for Firefight. I'm waiting for my copy to arrive, but once it does I'm looking forward to giving it a go. I have a ton of models going back to the first DZ kickstarter, and it will be nice to field more than a handful at a time.

Mr Sinister looks great! Funnily enough he is also the only MCP mini on my desk I didn't built all the way to get the brush everywhere Nearly put him in the painting comp (motto: reborn), but decided for another mini.

He was quite fun as the main antagonist in the Deadpool video game (which sadly suffered from bad gameplay, whilst everything else was ace).

I really like the job you did on Mr. Sinister. I don't know anything about him... but the paint job looks great!

JNAProductions wrote:Not too worried about Deadzone-I like meatier armies!

Good to know! And if you really love a horde army, Veer-Myn are the way to go. Swarms of rats and mid range poisonous chemical spew. Love them.

Olthannon wrote:The batrep was really cool, looks like a fun system to play.
Mr Sinister looks, well, pretty sinister! Love the greeny glowy smokey!

Yeah, any game which immediately has you twitching to play again is a lot of win I enjoyed doing the smoke especially on Mr Sinister, so many thanks!

JoshInJapan wrote:I stopped reading X-men long before Mr. Sinister was introduced, so I know nothing about the character, but you did a fine job on the model.

Thanks for the review/batrep for Firefight. I'm waiting for my copy to arrive, but once it does I'm looking forward to giving it a go. I have a ton of models going back to the first DZ kickstarter, and it will be nice to field more than a handful at a time.

Most kind sir. Yeah, it's good to have a bigger spread of Mantic minis on the table.

Viterbi wrote:Mr Sinister looks great! Funnily enough he is also the only MCP mini on my desk I didn't built all the way to get the brush everywhere Nearly put him in the painting comp (motto: reborn), but decided for another mini.
He was quite fun as the main antagonist in the Deadpool video game (which sadly suffered from bad gameplay, whilst everything else was ace).

Thanks dude. He is a great one to paint, well worth the time

Gitsplitta wrote:I really like the job you did on Mr. Sinister. I don't know anything about him... but the paint job looks great!

That works for me

So, long weekend comes to an end. Some good games, a nice mix - Wingspan with expansions, Carcassonne, DC deck building, EXIT (escape room game) and some Imperial Assault even. And we did a LOT of building also:

Enforcer army for Firefight and, for variety, a ramshackle building of food stalls and shops.


I'm not a fan massive armies and painting uniforms, so finding a look for them which won't drive me crazy is hard.

Testing colours on the speeder bikes, pathfinder sergeant and Strider.

But in the mix my mental health has been inexplicably awful, really low - for no real or appreciable reason. I'm back on the upswing but it's been a bit crappy.

Still. I did manage to crank out a couple of Marvel minis also, because a finished model is a satisfying thing. First of all, the indomitable Colossus!

Obviously, I had just tackled the colours after a fashion with the custom Juggernaut, though I'd also done the old km metal version before.

A very enjoyable model to paint, I wasn't sure about the Sentinel parts but they add a great colour contrast.

And as I was mucking about with red and nmm, I decided to try another deeply obscure X-Men Villain: Omega Red.

Ah, communism and whips. Clearly, Marvel likes these things.

The whips were especially stressful as they are so fragile. But they've turned out ok.

Weird character. Weird sculpt. But looks the part in the end. I'd really to try him out with Baron Mordo, lots of bleeding to be done. And in situ:

I got some very neat modular shelves for myself. Both little miss and elder spawn have a set and I decided a treat was in order.
So May is off to a productive start, at least
Graven

I like the little shop/stall thing made out of Mantic terrain. Are the signs/awning new Mantic parts, or extras from elsewhere?

Slinky wrote:I like the little shop/stall thing made out of Mantic terrain. Are the signs/awning new Mantic parts, or extras from elsewhere?

Cheers! All mantic, they're from the new DZ starter, which can also be bought as the DZ terrain booster - or the extras are available as Battlezone Street Accessories.

Just touching base, really. I have finally settled on my Enforcer colour scheme or rather, how to achieve the scheme I am after. It's a little more labour intensive than I'd like but it does look the way I want. Using a test model to try out various permutations has helped anyway, first few models:

Excluding the Grogu photobomb (May the 4th, after all), we have Army Commanders and Support: Assault Strider, Enforcer Captain, Sniper, Forward Observer, and Peacekeeper Captain. Whilst it might seem a bit weird to start with the officers, it sets out in my head the variations on the colour scheme from the outset. I'm also using shoulder markings to track command dice (Orange, Double Black, Green), which seems to me a neat trick. I'm debating using the pauldron trim to also track Army Roles other than Command (Support, Specialist, Troop) - not sure on colours but Red/Blue/White most likely just now (so the Strider would get Red, the Sniper's white trim switched Blue). A further possibility is then to give one of the Pauldrons variation within the Troops, but the unit types are distinct enough and it lets me swap heavy weapons between them (and I don't want them to look like Rainbow Warriors ). Anyway, aside from drybrushing the bases, and maaaaayyyyybeeeee a little more scorching around the flamer's nozzle, they're basically done. I'm not going to spend hours obsessing as I've got a full army to do:

I'm not looking forward to all those panel edges. Still, they'll look the part. Not 100% on how I'm going to do my Pathfinders (Scouts) but the beginnings of the scheme can be seen in the regular and sergeant that are built (back left and right corners of pic). I imagine I'll keep it fairly simple.

On another note, decided that at least part of my deep doom over the weekend was simply not having seen my nerd-brethren in forever, so beer and suchlike has been arranged for next Friday. Huzzah!
Graven

Good shout on the pauldron colours to track game mechanics, doesn't look out of place amid the overall scheme thus far.

If you've got bunch of these guys to do and they're mainly flat panels, I'd maybe have a look at applying your basecoats with a makeup sponge... sounds odd, maybe, but I picked it up from a tutuorial while doing a bunch of Clone Troopers and it works a treat. I used a white prime, black ink wash then white sponging, which keeps the panel lines nice and dark while giving a coat free of brushstrokes over the armour. I don't see why the same method wouldn't work for these guys, and it's a much faster way of getting basecoats down on large, smooth, flat areas. If you want it, I'll see if I can dig up a link to the video I got this from, which possibly explained it better than I just have!


Colossus looks sharp too, really striking.

Paradigm wrote:Good shout on the pauldron colours to track game mechanics, doesn't look out of place amid the overall scheme thus far.
If you've got bunch of these guys to do and they're mainly flat panels, I'd maybe have a look at applying your basecoats with a makeup sponge... sounds odd, maybe, but I picked it up from a tutuorial while doing a bunch of Clone Troopers and it works a treat. I used a white prime, black ink wash then white sponging, which keeps the panel lines nice and dark while giving a coat free of brushstrokes over the armour. I don't see why the same method wouldn't work for these guys, and it's a much faster way of getting basecoats down on large, smooth, flat areas. If you want it, I'll see if I can dig up a link to the video I got this from, which possibly explained it better than I just have!
Colossus looks sharp too, really striking.

Now I've used make-up sponges for weathering, but not the base coat. I take it you "dab" rather than "wipe" the colour on?
Oh, and thanks for kind words re: Colossus.

Yeah, basically you want to dab parallel to the surface, with a good covering of moderately thin paint on the sponge, going over areas multiple times to build up stronger coverage and pre-highlights. Here's the original tutorial vid, which is for Legion Clones, but I imagine Enforcers are fairly similar in broad terms:

Awesome stuff. I really like the Colossus he was always my favorite

Paradigm wrote:Yeah, basically you want to dab parallel to the surface, with a good covering of moderately thin paint on the sponge, going over areas multiple times to build up stronger coverage and pre-highlights. Here's the original tutorial vid, which is for Legion Clones, but I imagine Enforcers are fairly similar in broad terms:

Spoiler:

Interesting Mr Bond.

Styrofoam04 wrote:Awesome stuff. I really like the Colossus he was always my favorite

Cheers mate, and welcome to my corner of the Dakkaverse!
Not a massive update but progress, at least:

Assault strider, with new markings. I was watching one of Sorastro's videos and he used fleshtone to highlight red, so I nicked that and rather like it.

Enforcer Captain, although actually it's a Peacekeeper helmet to give me the open faceplate so my kitbash matches the official sculpt

Peacekeeper Captain, who acts as overall army commander (until I can track down the resin one with not-lightning claws).

A bit of droidy base detail in the boy's Asterian scheme (roger-roger)

And a group shot, with a nice view of the commander's wrist blade (though I may amp up the glow).
The rest of the army now has all had its panel colours added (thanks @Paradigm for the hint!) and next Nightsade wash. So now it's just allllll the panel lining Also need to build my Pathfinders, but they've had to be stripped as there was a touch of primer shock with the grey - luckily they were primed on sprue, and as they've been stripped I'm going to prime the arms white rather than grey now instead (the torsos were primed black separately, so they're fine). May is a mad month of Mantic mayhem, it seems!
Continuing my plans to get me out my deep blue funk, I've booked a trip to the motherland: July 20th, I'll be visiting both Warhammer World and Mantic Games' Design Studio with my boys. It's a bit of a trek (4 1/2 hrs in the car) but totally worth it. Everyone has to do the pilgrimage once in their lifetime, right?
Graven

Nice work on the Enforcers. I particularly like the cockpit glass on the Strider.

Your kitbash on the Captain is inspired, and I'll have to copy it if/when I paint more Enforcers.

JoshInJapan wrote:Nice work on the Enforcers. I particularly like the cockpit glass on the Strider.

Your kitbash on the Captain is inspired, and I'll have to copy it if/when I paint more Enforcers.

Thanks on all counts. It's a dead easy conversion, I wouldn't say inspired, but appreciated

A fairly productive weekend, with more Enforcers to show for it.

Leant into the very deep blue-black for them. So, the Peacekeepers:

Love the posability of the regulars, less of a fan of the heavies - the one-handed heavy weapon should make them more, not less, posable.

Sniper Team (Sniper and Spotter), the purple trim being for my Specialists. The other Sniper, btw, is the Forward Observer (Command unit sniper) but I forgot to take a separate pic.

Engineer with Sentry Drones. These guys can hack enemy tech, which is pretty hilarious.

Jetbikes. Very Whizzy.

Easily some of the best cyberpunk style jetbikes out there.

Test scheme for the Pathfinders (scouts) along with the Pathfinder Sergeant. I really should have done his sword orange, not green, to remind me of the dice colour he adds

And the whole of the first wave, with army Commanders and Strider support. The blue is a bit richer on the commanders to distinguish them further.
That leaves about 25 regular Enforcers (a mix of standard Operatives and Assault) awaiting panel lining and visors. Then it'll be a dozen Pathfinders and the army will be done.
Not bad, all in all
Mind you, I did get a... bit of a distraction from Asmodee:

gulp. Small child not included
Graven.

Wow, your army is growing at an impressive rate - Looks good, too

Slinky wrote:Wow, your army is growing at an impressive rate - Looks good, too

Thanks man. To be fair, units get block painted so when they appear, it's like everything happens at once.

Breaking from the monotony of army building, with a building.

I was really inspired by the amazing work of DJJazzyjeff and Stevefamine here.

The tags are all Dreadball teams, apart from the Rebs Rule one, although I feel that's generic enough that it fits any sci-fi setting (there's always rebellious scum).

Bit of detailing.

And with some minis in situ. Fun to do, nice to get the various bits from the DZ3 box into something resembling a structure.

I am, slowly, making progress with the rest. I might switch track though and do something MCP (as, alarmingly, I now own them all) for variety. But I've realised that we're not yet halfway through the year and I've just hit 184 minis, so over the halfway mark there at least.
Graven

That's a really cool building. It's remarkable how versatile DZ battlezones can be. I still have quite a few leftover-- you may have inspired me to see what I can throw together with what I have.

That's nice work right there. Well done graven. I might nick that flesh tone thing as well. I've never liked highlighting red with pink. Fleshtone is a little different than that.

JoshInJapan wrote:That's a really cool building. It's remarkable how versatile DZ battlezones can be. I still have quite a few leftover-- you may have inspired me to see what I can throw together with what I have.

Thanks kindly old chap. Yeah they're great sets and can be mixed up all sorts of ways. I just love the very blade runner vibe of the accessory kit and had to lean into it.

Gitsplitta wrote:That's nice work right there. Well done graven. I might nick that flesh tone thing as well. I've never liked highlighting red with pink. Fleshtone is a little different than that.

Thanks pal. Yeah it's really effective, particularly on those superhero reds where you want almost cartoon crispness. Sorastro, Sirjohntheho, darkblades_workshop and Ashenholdart are my go-tos on insta/YouTube, loads of great content.

Right! Been busying away. This would appear to be an army!

There's some variation as I figured out ways to speed up the painting process. They're far from flawless, either, but they are an army paint after all.

So, let's break it down. First, Enforcer Operatives.

These are your SM analogues in game. Solid, elite mid range troops with decent to hit and rerolls. Generic bastards, basically 2 5 man squads, 1 with not-flamer, 1 with burst Laser which is a heavy, suppressive fire armour piercer (unit leaders have energy gauntlets throughout, the game's not-power fists).

Assault Enforcers. Decided that due their high armour piercing blades I was going melta rather than energy and bonkers osl.

Because why not.

I'm really happy with these guys. The osl is totally ott and, honestly, I think it works a treat.

Some extras:

Medic, test for the heavy support squad, and extra bodyguard units.


More generally, I'm increasingly of the opinion that the purple pauldron trim doesn't work for specialists. Might redo as a full pauldron instead. I had to prise the missile launcher off one of the jet bikes as I picked up a "bargain" unit off eBay to discover it only came with 2 (not 4) launchers. I had a spare dude so...needs must *shrug*

Also, all remaining Pathfinders now started (post primer shock):

The Snipers have GS torsos, as you get 12 sets of legs (and 14 heads) but only 10 torsos. This means I have two full squads of Pathfinders and a couple extra to stoat about with my Sergeant as bodyguards and/or swap out for Snipers. I wish you got a few more arm options for them - particularly empty right hands - but such is life. You can still build some really fun, dynamic poses. You may notice the robot DOGG drones at the back, they're actually done, but I'll add them to the overall count with the Pathfinders or I'll get confused.

I also managed to get a game of Star Wars Rebellion with the spawn.

There's no denying that Rebellion is a big investment of a game, but there's a reason: it's a massive, expansive, asymmetric experience for 2-4 players that allows you to reenact the classic saga as an entirely new narrative, taking on the roles of a few plucky Rebels or a vast, implacable Imperial force. The Empire's goal is to find the Rebels' secret base, before the Rebels achieve their goal of bringing enough planets to their side.

Covering everything from skirmish to space battle to solo operatives, it manages to capture the scope and feel of the Star Wars Saga like no other game, with 32 planetary systems to explore across its two game boards (that'll take over your dining table) and more than 150 miniatures - including, of course, a tiny death star or two to blow up planets that get in your way. The fighter models are roughly a quarter of the size of, say, X-WING pieces, but are definitely chunky and satisfying enough for board gaming. The combat system can seem a little random at times, though it allows for a few brave fighters to take on mighty capital ships.

Playing Rebellion is a big time commitment: it's at least half a day of dedicated play (our first play took 3.5 hours) but absolutely worth it. Although both space and ground battles happen (and matter), it's more about trying to influence the loyalty of planetary systems (or, you know, crushing them), rallying to rebel cause or rooting out the scum, depending on your perspective. Fundamentally, it's a remarkably straightforward worker placement game, with your leaders (iconic characters) giving you specific actions each turn, either moving fleets or performing an assigned action from a faction specific hand of options (4 that you have access to every turn, and 2 randomly drawn ones subsequently). So the Imperials will generally be sending out probe droids or building projects (Super Star Destroyer, anyone?)

Whilst you gain more leaders each turn, and so can do more, the galaxy gradually shrinks for the Rebel player, as each turn two probe droids scout out and eliminate base locations - in more mechanical terms, leading the game towards its end. So whilst having more time means more chance of the Rebels getting planets on side, the Imperial player is more likely to find them. A criticism that could be leveled at the game is that it's a political, scheming game at its heart - and is that truly the cinematic derring-do of the Classic Series? But with leaders doing key missions, like Han running to Kasshyk to help Chewie rally the Wookies or Boba Fett capturing Mon Mothma for Imperial Interrogation, it really does feel like you're enacting your own, unique Star Wars Saga. Even at last gasp, down to your final few scrappy survivors, the Rebellion can win on a final desperate gamble - and if that's not Star Wars, I don't what is. Oh, and the Empire (me) won - and after all, isn't Star Wars also about parents crushing their children?
Once the Pathfinders are out of the way, back on the super wagon, I'll wager,
Adiós
Graven

Those troopers are really coming along. I really appreciate the time and risk it takes to do the OSL. I never really figured it out myself, though I have tried on multiple occasions.

Gitsplitta wrote:Those troopers are really coming along. I really appreciate the time and risk it takes to do the OSL. I never really figured it out myself, though I have tried on multiple occasions.

Thanks buddy. TBH I went way heavier than I normally do but I think sometimes the key is to give it a lot more than you think it needs.

And, so, the rest of them (along with a bit of scatter)!

I realised that the dude I'd painted up as a Sergeant was in fact a GCPS (not-Imperial Guard) Major, which explains why he's shorter - I assumed it was just cos he was an earlier metal sculpt. But, this means the wee fella has a Firefight Commander for his GCPS, so actually it's win-win. The test model I'd painted up previously is now the Sergeant (front of pic, with the Bluer body armour that I use to indicate Commanders also). I've given him a tiny sword on his shoulder pad on a black background, as that's what a Black Command Die typically gives you

Very happy with the Pathfinder squads. I suspect I'll run them as two teams of 5 with DOGGs and assign the Snipers to the Forward Observer to make a truly lethal sniper team.

And finished off some more scatter, decided to test my freehand writing game.

Gora Endures! is the rallying cry of the Marauders (Orcs) as he's their legendary leader and the uprising, which is the plot of the current edition of Firefight, is in his name (as well as being their truly terrifying faction command ability).

The alienese is adapted from the front of the cash machine and, hey, who doesn't enjoy Slurm? It's highly addicitve!

So that's my current push of Enforcers done! I have 2 Heavy Support to build, but rather than convert another one as planned I've found a cheap copy of the old Enforcer faction booster which comes with a single heavy, as well as another medic, two more jetbikes, a squad of Peacekeeper Defenders (tough not-assault terminators) and a Enforcer Defenders (tough objective holders ). At 1/3 off, they'll be a payday treat, along with one of the flyers for the faction (also on sale), which will mean I'll be pretty much sorted for whatever. Not shabby, not shabby at all.

With 60 models painted this month, May has exceeded my April tally, which is unusual - April is, along with July, usually my most productive month - but then, a LOT of the leg work was done then for the Enforcers. Also, I don't expect the rest of this month to be especially productive, as we have the wee fella's birthday this weekend and a load of family stuff over the two long weekends, plus all sorts going on in June. Still, perhaps I've earned a rest... nah
Graven

It's not just volume graven, though that is impressive. The quality of models that you've been generating is excellent.