Unboxing Darkhammer’s Undead Samurai

Posted on January 14, 2014 by Quirkworthy

Following on from yesterday, here’s a look at the first of my Darkhammer goodies. I’ve started with the same one they started with: the mounted Undead Samurai in the middle of the picture below. Oh, and before we get started, I bought this direct from Darkhammer themselves via their online store. All worked fine, though you should note that they (like Figone) only post every so often. It does say this on the site, but just in case you hadn’t spotted it and wonder where your models have got to…

Darkhammer figsBefore we examine the model itself, it’s important to look at how it’s packed. After all, it’s got a long way to travel to get to me and I want it to arrive intact. As you can see, it’s a bit like the old party game pass the parcel.

Undead samurai 1On the outside is an illustrated wrap showing a moody photo of the bony fellow himself. Slide this off and you have a plain brown wrap that seals the top of a heavy tray. Inside this tray is a bubble wrap bag, and inside this bag is second bubble wrap bag. Inside this are the various components of the model itself – inside ziplock bags. So I’d say that was pretty well protected.

Undead samurai 2And here they are. Note that the main horse body was taped to the base. On the flip side were the yari and sashimono, also taped to the base for safety. I’m not sure if this was cunning forethought or lucky happenstance, but the yari was slightly too long to be entirely protected by the width of the base – but the pouring tag for the base gave just enough room for the whole length to be firmly taped to the underside. A nifty way to get finely cast pieces across the planet.

Undead samurai 4Dobbin isn’t feeling well. Not at all. A faithful old warhorse he may be, but this undead lark is playing merry hell with his shiny coat. I’ve places the two separate legs into position here (just slipped in, not glued) so you can see the general shape and the fit. The rider’s bum and upper legs are moulded onto the saddle. His lower legs, torso and so on are separate. This gives him a solid seat in the saddle where he needs it, and room between his lower legs and Dobbin’s flanks where he needs that. Much more convincing. If the animated dead can be convincing.

The horse is well rotted and well detailed with various bones sticking out from his mouldering coat and exposed muscles. He’s not fully skeletal, nor does he look fresh enough to call a zombie nag. He’s really a skeleton with a few stringy bits left attached. Don’t worry, the crows will have them polished off soon enough.

A close inspection of this picture will reveal the only broken piece in the whole assembly – the last couple of vertebrae in the tail. As he’s dead, I don’t really see this as an issue. I could stick the bit back, ignore it or add some hair to the tail. Hair often survives reasonably well on bodies, and he has a bit of a mane left so it wouldn’t look out of place. Either way, nothing to worry about.

Undead samurai 3

The rider himself is a fully armoured samurai. His lower legs have rotted to bone as have his arms, but his face is hidden behind his menpo (demon mask), so you don’t see the skull. There’s no mistaking his current state of health though.

The sculpting is gorgeous and the level and type of detail reminds me most strongly of the old Confrontation undead models like Cerberus or their own Scavenger skeletal cavalry. I’ll have to dig some out and see how they look side by side and, if you’re very good, I might take some photos so you can see what I mean 😉

Casting is clean throughout with sharp detail (and plenty of it). There are slight mould lines and some casting blocks to remove, all of which is fairly normal for resin models. Zero bubbles or miscasts as far as I can see. I don’t see anything unusual in the amount of cleaning to be done here.

I’ve not tried to build it properly so I can’t comment on all the fittings. However, the few bits I have put together (like Dobbin’s legs) fitted very well.

Overall, I think this is a great model. Prices depend on whether you pay the full whack or manage to snaffle one of Darkhammer’s periodic deals. Personally, I’m happy with what I paid and have even ordered some more models (including some duplicates to tinker with) since these arrived. I suppose I can’t really say fairer than that.

Posted in Review | 8 Comments

Darkhammer Miniatures

Posted on January 13, 2014 by Quirkworthy

I thought I’d show you some of the new toys I got recently.

Darkhammer figs

Darkhammer Miniatures themselves are a relatively new Chinese (I think) company with only a small line so far – when I ordered these they were the entirety of their offering. They now have one more and a set of concepts for more rank and file sort of figures. They also say that they’d like to do a game at some point.

As these are rather detailed I’ll look at them one at a time, starting tomorrow. That way I can take the time to show you the quality of sculpting and casting up close.

Posted in Review | 13 Comments

Game Design Theory: Playtest In Parts

Posted on January 11, 2014 by Quirkworthy

In general there is a tendency to think of playtesting as simply playing the game lots of times. This is an important part of the process, but I think it’s only part of the story.

Playtesting is a complicated subject when it comes to unravelling best practice. For today I’ll look at just one small aspect that I think it is easily overlooked: trying to see the wood for the trees.

Most games are quite complex assemblies of many sub-units, each of which needs to work on its own as well as a part of the whole. Once they’re all working alongside each other it can be quite difficult to decide which bits are working properly and which need more work. You might know that something isn’t right, but what is it?

My normal practice is to try out different parts of each design in as much isolation as possible so that you can see more clearly how individual elements function, and then tweak them so they do what you really want them to do. The challenge here is that many parts of an interlocked design don’t really do much on their own. That’s when you need replace other parts with vanilla stunt doubles to clear away some of the noise that might obscure the workings of whatever bit you really want to look at if everything was in place with all its variety.

Once you have got a couple of pieces working, run them alongside each other and see how they work. Building up gradually like this gives you confidence in a solid design foundation. If you add one thing at a time and that breaks a previously working game, then you know where to start fixing stuff. Yes, there are exceptions, but this is a better start than most.

For example, I’ve started working on DreadBall Xtreme. So far I’ve been looking at a number of aspects of the game play itself, but I’m not currently concerned about the way teams are picked (which is very different in DBX) or the actual stats teams have. So, I’ve been using a datum human team on both sides to play the games. This enables me to see how the teams interact and the game moves back and forth because of the Rush structure, card play, traps and other drivers for that aspect. Obviously players with different stats will change this, but the core will be there and will do what I intend because I’ve had a chance to see if operating by itself (as far as possible). Similarly, when I designed the first DB I played it many times without cards, coaching dice and so on. I wanted it to be a fast and fun game without any frills and so played it till it was. Then, when I came to adding chrome, I knew the foundation was solid and that I was adding a cherry on top.

Another example of the same sort of approach is my current work on Eternal Battle. At the moment I’ve just finished a third version of the action/initiative/turn mechanics. I wrote one version that I was quite happy with, then an idea for a different approach popped into my head so developed that to see how it compared. I liked that too, so which to pick? This third version is a hybrid of the best bits of the first two and is my favourite of all three. Throughout this development I’ve been assuming that every dice roll succeeds half the time, giving me a reference point when I develop stats later, and also giving me a standard background against which the ebb and flow of initiative, actions and turns can be more easily seen. This lack of other variables getting in the way has allowed me to see what was going on and understand the value of the subtle differences (and issues) with each iteration.

Over the years I’ve seen a lot of troubled games in various stages of development, and in many cases the issues the game was having could be most clearly seen when some of the other systems were taken out of the way. I assume that some clever fellows do all this in their heads, but for me I like to see the working parts dismantled and laid out on the bench in front of me. I’m not smart enough to imagine that level of systemic isolation in the abstract, or perhaps I’m just lacking the confidence to say I’ve done it without seeing for myself. Either way, this is what works for me.

Posted in Game Design Theory | 3 Comments

Deadzone Unboxing

Posted on January 8, 2014 by Quirkworthy

I’m sure there are several of these online already. This one has me rambling on about stuff too 😉

Posted in Deadzone | 12 Comments

First Saturday Of The Month…

Posted on January 3, 2014 by Quirkworthy

…and so we’re off to Foundry again tomorrow to play God of Battles. As ever, if you’re local and fancy a game then feel free to pop along. I’ve been challenged to a 48 point battle, so I’ll be doing that some of the time, but there are always people on hand to show newcomers the ropes and run an intro game if you fancy one.

Look forward to seeing you there 🙂

Posted in God of Battles | 11 Comments

…And Hello 2014

Posted on January 2, 2014 by Quirkworthy

So what’s coming up? Or, more accurately, what’s in the plan today? I say that as things changed last year between plan and execution and there’s no guarantee for 2014 either.

 

Gaming As Work

The first and only really solid project in terms of a 2014 start is DreadBall Xtreme. We’ve already kicked about a bunch of ideas and some sculpting has been done. At least, they’ve made a start. This should be first out of the gate with a Kickstarter sometime early in the year. More blood, more mayhem, more DreadBall!

There is bound to be more Deadzone too, though quite what that would be I’m not sure. There is all the KS stuff to release before I do anything else.

Most importantly for me as a designer is Eternal Battle. I’ve not got a date for this yet, but it will be 2014. Part of the uncertainty is because I’m using a tech platform that I’ve not used before and which offers some exciting possibilities as well as a big challenge in changing my workflow (always a bit alarming). Either way, it’s conceptually a massive project and has been going on for years. Partly a culmination of my recent design thinking and partly new directions. It will be nice to be able to share it with everyone 🙂

There are several other projects, though none have solid dates yet so may all happen in the next few months or slide into 2015. Hard to say. I’ll revisit things as they firm up rather than promise things that may not happen.

 

Gaming As Play

The goal here has to be to try and fit more in, between work. Luckily for my sanity I’m very much enjoying the Eternal Battle stuff I’m working on and so that almost counts as play (even though it is actually work). That plus God of Battles are intended to be a core for my own gaming anyway, and so the lines are rather blurred.

I also need to make this the year I get back into painting properly rather than faffing about the edges as I have been doing. There are work reasons for this as well as play, so again it’s blurred. The perils of work and hobby being the same thing. Again.

Stuff in the Ebay piles really needs to get Ebayed rather than sitting about in the way. I asked at my local club but got no bites, so it’s off to the great jumble sale in the sky. It’s a pity that the whole Ebay process is so dull.

 

Quirkworthy

The biggest task here is to keep posting new stuff while I try to catch up with the old. This is a massive time sink, which I shouldn’t really do. However, I am going to so will just have to make it work. You can expect more of the same, plus (fingers crossed) some more Gaming As Play stuff as well. Once Eternal Battle gets closer there will be a lot on that, plus support for it when it comes out.

 

Watch This Space

Probably the biggest thing to do in order to achieve any of these things is reorganise my schedule. I can’t make more time, but I can make better use of what I’ve got.

All told, my crystal ball predicts another very busy year in the offing, with all sorts of fun gaming projects. If you’re not already a subscriber I recommend you click to sign up (top right) so you get all the posts hot off the press and can join in the discussions while they’re fresh.

All the best!

Posted in Random Thoughts | 16 Comments

Farewell 2013

Posted on January 1, 2014 by Quirkworthy

Well the time has come again for the traditional retrospective. How did things go in my last year of gaming?

Generally very well, I think 🙂

 

Gaming As Work

Mantic ran two Kickstarters of games I designed: Deadzone and Mars Attacks. With 4,300 backers for one and 2,700 for the other I’m pretty pleased with them both. Of course there are niggles – there always are – but overall I think they came out pretty well. Actually, I don’t think I’ve ever worked on a project that I couldn’t afterwards think of a way we could have done better with more time, money or simply the old 20/20 hindsight. So some learning points here and there, but no major disasters.

Originally we’d planned to squeeze DKH4 into 2013 as well, but in the end there simply wasn’t the time to give it the treatment it deserved. That’ll have to wait a little while yet. Still, we have done some of the prep work and the current plans are rather exciting. I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of that.

DreadBall hasn’t gone away either, with (I think) everything that was promised in the Kickstarter now having been delivered (plus work started on DBX). Speaking of timings, Deadzone actually started being delivered early!

Unfortunately, my own projects for Quirkworthy have suffered in the time I’ve been able to devote to them. Most notably (for the tip of the iceberg that I’ve mentioned in public) is the delay to Eternal Battle. This is just a matter of the time it has taken me to get the work for DreadBall, Deadzone and Mars Attacks done. That said, I’ve recently begun to make some more headway on EB, and the last game we played was quite exciting 🙂

 

Gaming As Play

I’m still being rubbish at getting stuff painted. I’ve done a very small amount, which is better than nothing. Still a long way top go there though.

I have managed a few more “fun” games of late, which is good. With gaming being work as well as hobby, I almost always end up playtesting something that’s in progress rather than playing for my own amusement. Our regular God of Battles days on the first saturday of each month have been a help in this regard. Although I wrote it and often spend most of the time teaching newcomers the rules, I don’t think of these days as work, really. In fact, we have one of these get togethers this saturday (the 4th) and I’ve been challenged to a game, so I know I’m playing this time 🙂

Among the many other things on my to do list, I’ve been whittling away at the endless mountains of things that need sorting and rationalising. As I mentioned months ago, Hordes/Warmachine was on my “one last chance” list. As it stands I’ve not played it since, and so it is now in the repurposing/Ebay pile. Plenty more sorting left to do, and naturally I’ve managed to acquire more toys over the year, so there’s less space rather than more in my study *sigh*. A work in progress…

 

Quirkworthy

Part way through the year I wrote a post about trying out a new approach to writing this blog. I was, I said, going to aim for a post a day as an average. Well there have been gaps and double postings here and there, and I did start part way through. In the end though, the total posts for this year is 261, which isn’t a bad effort. It is also three times what I managed the previous year, so it’s clear that this approach is working much better than my previous plans. I’ll be continuing with that and perhaps I’ll get 365+ this year. We shall see. I certainly don’t have any shortage of things to write about – just (as ever) a shortage of time 🙂

Looking at the other stats, number of views, subscribers and all that jazz is also up, which is nice. The most interesting number in my stat report was that I was viewed by residents of 145 countries (up from 127 in 2012). I wonder how many is all of them, in terms of all that have the right kind of gaming community (and internet connection) and speak enough English to make this site of any interest? There are somewhere between 195-205 countries in the world, depending on how you count them, but I doubt I’d ever get all of them. I’m not sure what definition WordPress uses for country.

 

Ever Onwards

Tomorrow I’ll look a bit more at what I’ve got planned for 2014.

 

Posted in Random Thoughts | 11 Comments

DZ Blaze vs Construct

Posted on December 29, 2013 by Quirkworthy

I’m currently thinking that this is the best balance point between making BA too powerful and too ineffective. It’s still not a great deal of use against Asterian Cyphers, but they are particularly heavily armoured for Constructs, and not all will be. I’ve been using the Zombies with a similar rule that goes one worse (for the zombies) in that they always count as Suppressed. That’s because they really don’t care and don’t use cover, so it makes sense that the BA always has maximum effect. For the Constructs who do use cover and do care, it makes sense that the effect is at least somewhat mitigated.

 

Construct Models Versus Blaze Away Damage

Add the following new paragraph to the description of Construct.

The model acts as if their Aggression level was Alert at all times with one exception.  When a Construct model is the target of a Blaze Away attack they suffer damage as if they were Pinned. Note that this does not affect the success or failure of the test itself – only the application of the results.

Posted in Deadzone | 16 Comments

DZ Experimental Rule

Posted on December 27, 2013 by Quirkworthy

The subject of this experimental rule is related to high AP weapons and Tough targets.

I say experimental as this isn’t something that’s slated for a particular product. It is, instead, simply something that has been worrying away in the back of my head as a detail that needed looking at… sometime. However, several commenters have brought this topic up recently and so I thought it would be worth looking at a bit more closely now. Thanks to all of you that have made suggestions and comments.

This isn’t an official update, change in the rules, or errata. It’s just me musing out loud 😉

 

Excessive Force

This situation is typically caused by someone using an anti-tank weapon to attack an individual trooper. In these cases the individual’s defences are totally outclassed and usually overwhelmed.

Any attack that is resolved at AP3 or higher may count as Excessive Force.

If the attack’s AP is equal to at least twice the target’s Armour then the attack counts as using Excessive Force. Excessive Force attacks are resolved as if they were Irresistible.

Note that Excessive Force applies regardless of whether the AP value is native to the weapon or boosted by playing a card, using special ammo, or any other method.

Posted in Deadzone | 89 Comments

Shiniest New Toys

Posted on December 26, 2013 by Quirkworthy

During the run up to the holidays, every company known to man was busy shouting their wares at the top of their marketing budgets. Now that you’ve all had a chance to open your presents, I’m here to ask you a question: what was the best gaming present you had this year?

Now I’m not fishing for complements – you don’t need to say that it was Deadzone or anything else I wrote. In fact, that’s not going to help at all. 

What I’m really curious about is what I’ve missed; what really cool stuff got drowned out by louder voices and bigger budgets? I’m sure that I’ve missed some hidden gems, and I’m here to see whether you’ve found them and what they might be.  

So, my fellow gamers, any top tips?

Posted in Random Thoughts | 21 Comments