Dreadball Robot Team

After a very long delay after starting these Mantic plastic Robots I finally completed them. Some of the delay came about due to my lack of patience at cleaning the flash on the difficult plastic. That process seem to take so long that I actually stopped the project and put it on the back burner.

I should have photographed these on a black background instead of a DreadBall board as the photos end up very busy.
I think they will make for a great generic Sc-Fi rebel robot in any futuristic game.

A Mega City One Judge shows these rebel robots the Law.

Cheers from Brendon.

Assembly and prep mania!

I did some good assembly and primer work before the last Paint Challenge and some of those a year later are still not painted so they might just get completed this time around. However after getting the Lion Rampant rules I purchased some Perry Plastic War of the Roses sets. One of each and together they will make a very nice army. I seem to be progressing at glacial speed at the moment though. Don't be fooled by the horde in the images below.
It's taken me an what feels like an Eon to get this far.
Looking forward to getting some paint on them though.

Crossbow unit with Pavise.

Knights. Mounted Knights that is.

Lets get the Band back together. YEAH! Rock out!

Ready for a flag to wave. Might change the raised sword arm on the left though.

Dreadball Robot team and a big dude. The clean up on these is a very big SUCK indeed!

Even though I joined the initial Dreadball kickstarter a long time ago, in a Galaxy far, far away I have not painted a complete team or played a game. I was thinking these Robots though might make for a good Robot gang in Judge Dredds universe. I was also thinking that Dead Zone by Mantic might be a good place to use Dredd figures as proxies. I got a good stock of Judge Dredd figures when War & Peace had a half price sale so hopefully the Paint Challenge will see them through to completion. Hopefully variety will keep me motivated and stimulated.

Be sure to checkout the new location for the Paint Challenge. Some interesting side challenges starting to be thrown around.

Cheers from Brendon

The future is awesome (and free stuff)

I am going to yap on a bit so chill out and take in the variety of topics covered here.

As a gamer I often get excited about up and coming releases. In particular plastic figures seem to get my imagination fired up. Gripping Beasts plastic Warrior box ...Yaaaay! Parts to make Levy with slings and parts to swap with the previous plastic Vikings and Saxons. I can see a few swaps between sprues to get chain mail wearing dudes without helmets and so on. I really like plastics. Easier to store, less likely to get gamer use damage. I recently had a bow snap on my metal viking archer levy and I am sure I had some spares but you think I can find it?! I don't have those sort of mini dramas with plastics.

Gripping Beast are also releasing the last Dark Age factions for Saga with the Rus (2 varieties) and the Byzantines that previously were in a Wargames Illustrated magazine. Seeing as it is the last I wonder what period they will cover next.

Dread Ball Season 2. As a backer of the Dread Ball Kickstarter I have received a link to get a PDF version of the Season Two rules. This contains 4 additional teams. Robots, Female Humans (a rules variation for Human teams so your figures don't need to be females but the figures look cool), Bug insect looking Aliens and also hippie tai-chi pacifist grey Aliens. I am yet to play a game even though I have the first wave of stuff I got delivered back in December. The second shipment is probably not all that far away and it will contain the additional sculpts for teams I already have. I have only painted two miniatures, the referee and an MVP (88). What a slacker! I prefer to have all the miniatures that I am getting for each team so I can paint them in one batch rather than trying to replicate colours and style later. Should be a cool project painting wise.

Flames of War will be re-releasing the D-Day books soon. OK. It does not feel that long ago when I got 'Turning Tide' and  'Earth and Steel'. Possible expanded content in the new ones. They will be giving away a bonus of new plastic bases with Rural enhancements to those like me who have the books already. A part of me is bewildered at how recently many of the books get re-published. Seems a shame these books have gotten so old so quickly. Not sure if I will be getting as many of the new books as frequently as I used to. Perhaps I have some sort of revision fatigue. I am not really all that concerned but perhaps if I pool my local gamers resources we can do some sort of information sharing. You get Book A...I get Book B...copy the 1 or 2 lists that I will actually use on a table and exchange. Like the Axis Market Garden forces as an example. I really only have ever played the German Paratroopers I think. Could be other lists in there that I would consider perhaps but really that it is my main interest so the rest of the book could be unused in gaming for me.

Finally on to the free stuff. Go here to Loki's Great Hall Blog. He is celebrating 2 years of blogging. It's a good blog and Andrew often has Vikings. Give aways are a fun way to get more followers and interest on your blog. Hmmmmm...perhaps I should do one soon. Like many gamers I am certainly the collector of random miniatures and so on.

Cheers and Good Luck from The Kiwi (Brendon)

Dread Ball Kickstarter finished

Mantics Dread Ball board game kickstarter has reached it's Deadline and is now closed. But the Mantic guys seem like a great bunch so if you send them an email quickly they may just consider your plea.
The final amount was HUGE!. Just short of $730,000 US dollars. It was interesting to see Mantic add more and more stretch goals as the pledges went up and up. Mantic also appear to be interested in what gamers have to say as they responded well to the question of....hmmm..seems likes it's a game that is fully developed and you are just securing initial orders. They took that on board and made it clear that while the game is not released yet the Kickstarter was to help develop Season 2 Dread Ball (second set of releases) and also Season 3 and so on. Sculpting and development of new teams and alternate poses for the first sets of teams.
I am happy with the scoop they managed. It meant they packed more and more bonus stuff as a reward. I went Striker with the addition of 4 teams for $50 deal. 8 figures in each team but that goes up with the bonus freebie rewards. The proposed miniature ideas look awesome as do the future teams. Sci-Fi dino team, Robots and so on. I will have to think about which teams I want in the additional teams deal...still not decided. Which would you get? The other question is which team gets painted in the mandatory 'All Blacks' Sci-Fi colour scheme?

Cheers from Brendon (The Kiwi)

 

Dread Ball Kickstarter...a few days to go.

Dread Ball. A Science Fiction board game based on a high velocity ball game. Scale 28mm.

Mantic have created a Kickstarter package for further development of Dread Ball and it does not have long to go. It is going really well and for backers (those who pledge money) the rewards are getting bigger and bigger as more and more money keeps rolling in. The basic game looks as though it has been fully developed but is yet to be released so kickstarter seems to be a way for them to generate pre-sales prior to it's release in December 2012. However the large amount of cash that kickstarter is generating for them is going towards product development for sculpts for new teams for the next set of releases (2nd Season). So far 4 teams are completed for the first season. Humans, Maruaders (Sc-Fi Orcs and Goblins), Forgefathers (Sc-Fi Dwarves) and, Verr-Mynn (Sci-Fi Rat like humanoids). I have been following the recent announcements that they make when they reach a new level of funding and it has been very interesting and creative with new team developments such as Robots, a Human all Female team, Alien teams with one being very insectoid looking. Mantic also appears to be interested in feed back and opinions from gamers. Makes it feel a little collaborative.
What is appealing about this game is the way that the basic rules of the game have been described. That it is fairly easy to pick up and play however discussion has also been around how this simplicity in no way avoids complex tactical play. In other words being clever. Reminds me of the Mantic Kings of War rules...simple and easy but this open ups more thinking about tactics as there is no "I got you" clause that super duper special rules that are very tiny and easily overlooked.......you probably know what I mean.
Of course many will compare it to Blood Bowl and why wouldn't you. But this game has many points of difference such as the board does not get reset after each time a player scores. It may well be a faster turn based game. One aspect of Blood Bowl that I must say I found a turn off was the observation of the players at my club who would report very low scores. eg. 1- 0 or 3-1. Turns out Dread Ball has a point of difference here with the score really being about the difference in goals. eg. you score 7 points I score 6.....we are separated by 1 point. A further point of difference is squares vs a hex based board. I am not hanging negative vibes on Blood Bowl at all because I know a lot of gamers who love it and have done so for many years and will probably continue to do so. However Dread Ball, while it may have some time to go before it reaches the crevices of every game club in the world may be very interesting for players as it continues to expand with League play and more teams with a big tactical variety and even cheer leaders and coach figures that have an actual in-game effect.

I consider myself a War Gamer first and foremost. I like stuff blowing up. I like armys not footballs. If I want to see sports I try and see a game of Rugby (go All Blacks). However I have taken the plunge and backed Dread Ball. It is certainly a great way to get more bang for your dollars. Will I play the game enough? Not really sure....I have enough games to play at the moment. What I will do though is enjoy painting something different to my usual toys (Flames of War and Saga). Perhaps I will sell the teams to fund future hobby purchases for a small profit. Perhaps I can start a new Kickstarter to get me finances to attend some interstate tournaments. That would be cool. :)

Anyway you don't have long to back Dread Ball if you are on the fence about it.
Cheers and happy gaming from Brendon (The Kiwi).
AYou Tube Dread Ball link...

http://youtu.be/1KiAepXe4mw