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MERCS Shantyville

First off, this blog has finally hit 10,000 views! Thanks to everyone who stops by for a hobby fix. I know there are blogs out there who hit this probably monthly, but it's still a pretty cool milestone for a little ol' gamer like me. This is also my 100th post. This blog has always been something I did to simply track my hobby progress, it's an added bonus to hit achievements like this.

Anyway, lots of progress in terms of terrain. First off my buddy Mike and I had a hobby build day on Saturday. With his extensive know how and my good looks/charm we managed to get this thing built:

So much awesome...

Now when I say "we" I mean almost entirely "he," as this is his forte and I have little to no experience working with wood. We had been discussing doing something of a build last week and the topic of folding boards came up. A folding board is something I've wanted for about five years, ever since I first read about a build in the Privateer Press forums. I can't find the original link, but below is a picture of it:

I don't know who made it, but it's pretty spectacular

In that example he made the fold pretty seamless. The entire board is made up of Hirst Arts molds, which made it extremely heavy. It is semi-bare with more or less cosmetic elevation changes to add interest, but a Warmachine table is generally pretty void of terrain by necessity.

Not having much experience with wood working has kept my grand plans at bay, but Mike volunteered to put his knowledge to work. On Saturday we got a few materials and he went to town on the dead trees.

He had kept this idea as a prototype for future folding tables, trying to see if there were any snags or problems he'd come across. It seemed to go pretty smoothly and he had it done in about 4 hours time, which included going to buy materials and me distracting him as much as possible.

This thing turned out pretty sweet and is pretty heavy, which is something that comes with the territory. It's super strong, and I have no worries about carrying it around and falling apart or anything.

We made a 3x3 board, which is a good size to have as it's the most common size for the games we play. Also keeping it 3x3 lowers the weight to a minimum, as this thing is pretty heavy as it is and can take up the whole back seat of my car. It shouldn't have a problem for my trunk, though, I just have too many items in there to store this in right now.

I plan on making a Frostgrave inspired board with this and I am super excited. I'm picturing a frozen dockside city, complete with several elevations and resin water effects. I've spent a long time thinking about what I'd build on a folding table and I used to almost always picture a canal city, inspired by Carnevale boards (that game has such a cool aesthetic!), and a frozen version of that seems appropriate. It's most likely going to be composed mostly of pink insulation foam for all the layers and to keep it light. I also plan on using paint rather than flock for the snow effects. This keeps is much less messy and shouldn't rub off as much. Using an airbrush for snow drift effects and stippling on white should do the trick, and if need be I can add some extra stuff. If I can find an appropriate model it would be cool to have a sunken boat frozen in the water as well. This board can work for Frostgrave, Malifaux, and any other Fantasy based game or RPG easily so it works well as a prototype. Also shaping and sculpting stonework with pink foam is very easy so it keeps the barrier low on building skills.

Also I spent a bit of time punching out more cardboard from my Battle Systems Kickstarter and made another building. I quickly set up a MERCS table using the Shanty Town bits on my 2x3 mat from the Terminator game.

I'm still pretty over the moon about this terrain set. It works so well on so many levels - I quickly put this together with no real idea of what I wanted to make, I'd just put walls and stuff together bit by bit.

Also notice the Tail Feathers board game in the background, just got that one last week!

This stuff easily fills up a MERCS board, maybe a bit much for some but I don't see how it can cause much of a problem in a game. A few things here and there would make it more playable, like eliminating the railings in a few spots, but overall it's playable as it is.

I just love the visual interest it provides, not to mention this all packs away very quickly and is the opposite of heavy. I know that this is one of those things that should you see being played will instantly draw your attention. Terrain like this is what got me interested in the hobby in the first place, as to me the hobby has always been visuals above all other aspects. 

Another thing I had done over the weekend was get my Frostgrave warband together to figure out what I'd need to paint to finish it. I haven't seen some of these models in years as I had painted them over 6-7 years ago. They are still pretty interesting to look at and it's always stimulating to take a glance back and see how you've improved on painting over time. I've figured out that I only have to paint the apprentice and a warhound to have a finished warband, so one day I'll need to get to it. We have four or five players getting ready to jump in on this campaign, it's going to be a fun ride!

Anyway that's what I've been up to, until next time keep calm and paint on!

Battle Systems Terrain Review!!!

MERCS bounding down the street

YESSSSSSSSS!

So last year in September I pitched in for my first Kickstarter, the amazing terrain from Battle Systems with a post apocalyptic theme. I was floored with their City Block and took the plunge almost immediately. Then they revealed the Shanty Town add on and I was in even further. It was a perfect offering for what I've been looking for in terms of modern/futuristic terrain for several games, most notably MERCS, but also for The Walking Dead Kickstarter that should be coming in soon.

My first attempt at a simple building

I eagerly opened the 20lb box for all the cardboard goodness. I was pretty amazed at how much fit into such a small package, there's plenty of terrain just in the core boxes alone. Then there's all the free stuff, the add ons and scatter terrain they fit on almost all the sheets. It's definitely got value, but most importantly it's an easy way to have great looking terrain for any board without the time and skill needed to devote to either scratch-built or unpainted terrain.

More coverage with experimentation

I began by making very simple builds just to see how the various pieces worked. I didn't pop out a good portion of the pieces as I didn't want to have tons of stuff not built and have to rummage around later to find them. There are so many things that add even more realism to the board like furniture scatter terrain, different types of stairs and crates, and even dilapidated walkways. I hardly touched the Shanty Town stuff as I wanted to make more complex buildings and walkways with it.

I opted to try filling out the regular street mat as it seemed to be the easier one to quickly fill out. It doesn't require as many floor tiles as they are printed on the mat, and the squares provided a quick guide toward my build. The greatest part about this mat is that you can build so many different layouts, an incredible testament to the creators' planning. You can make the floor parts into pavement using their roof squares, you can use a floor panel to cover the roads to make bigger interiors, and if you have enough stuff you can make the entire mat as an internal building! I really want to make a cool mansion using the walkways, as an entirely interior MERCS game seems really unique (not to mention other games, like Zombicide or Walking Dead, to make a Resident Evil type of board!).

Full coverage of the 2x2 mat

Here you can see I added quite a bit more stuff, including a wrecked-out building on the bottom left and a small type of outpost at the top. I probably spent a few hours building it at most, but this included opening, studying and popping out the terrain - I anticipate getting very quick at building these in the future.

So much awesome, it's better than anything I could make and much faster

It's like Legos for terrain and it can get dizzying with the amount of options you have. Once you get into it your imagination runs wild with the possibilities. I kept everything fairly standard, but I already see myself making some really cool stuff now that I know how it works all together. 

The fences provide quick ways of LOS blocking while pieces like the Park Bench and Barricades add tons of flavor you don't normally see on a board

I got a total of 3 different mats, a regular City one, a mat that looks like a Desert landscape and one that is a transition between the two. If I include my Deadzone 2x2 mat I can make a 4x4 table if needed and definitely can fit these on my 3x3 mats. The sets go extremely well together, as their different visuals create a lot of interest together while having several qualities shared between the two.

Air Condition Units provide easy cover on roofs while adding in a realistic touch

Although I don't have any pictures of it I did create a house using their Suburban House add on that fits well enough in games like Malifaux as it has a certain aesthetic that can fit in on Western boards (as long as you don't include the garage). I wasn't fond of it when it was first revealed during the project run, but an image of a fully built house on the desert mat had me sold.

This is an incredible build by the creators to show its versatility, the house easily fits into Malifaux

 Waiting almost a full year for this stuff has been agonizing, but regular updates and nearly daily responses to the comments section gave me full confidence on receiving their product. I had already researched their previous Kickstarter projects and saw that they had a great reputation already built. They always had timely updates, responded to almost every individual question and put out their stuff in a timely fashion - something that not many Kickstarters are able to achieve. This time was no exception and arrived within a few weeks of the projected delivery date. Delays are always expected but this one exceeded my expectations.

These stairs are not only impressive visually but provide great function as you can stand miniatures on every step

I may be performing MERCS demos in October and plan on building up a few layouts for them. This stuff makes it easy to transport and build on arrival with some planning. I'm able to transport this stuff in a small container should I need to, and I'm pretty sure I'm able to get more efficient with it in the future.

Cat for scale

One of the main reasons why I love this stuff is how easily you're able to add elevation into your games with it. Elevation is one of those things that gets ignored when building tables, as in a lot of rules sets it may not be elegantly handled and creates issues while playing (I'm looking at you, Malifaux!). However is a lot of modern to futuristic games, notably shooters, elevation is key to creating an interesting game. A simple slight adjustment to floor levels alone creates visual interest, but also can change how you approach movement in a game. Interiors are another point of contention for gaming, but I love going into buildings for shoot outs as it creates a whole different dynamic to how you attack. One minute you're safe, another a model pops out to shoot you point blank range! And with this stuff you're able to access every single level with ease. This was something I found lacking with TerraClips, a similar product I've talked about a while back, where although you're able to create multi level stuff it's not exactly locked in place and stable. This stuff stays in place very well and is very strong, I have full confidence in my models being on the roof.

Cat for lulz

I hardly touched any scatter items that were included as I concentrated on items that added the most bulk on a table. The ones I did build were pretty incredible in their design considering they're all made on two dimensions. I was particularly surprised at items like the dumpsters and the park bench, they help create a more lived in space for such a small item. My only minor issue with the dumpsters and the big crate are that you will have to use glue if you want their lids to stay on, which I'll eventually do. It's not major at all, and some will want to keep the lids off, but for someone like me who's not planning on keeping them that modular will have to add more work into it. For the most part, however, you're not going to need glue at all. The stairs are really snug when put together, something I worried about when I first saw them. The stairs that came with the TerraClips system were a nightmare for me, as their fit was not good at all and kept coming apart while I was building them. These ones not only look better but fit so well that I just leave them in the box without any glue and have full confidence that they will never come apart.

If you're familiar with making card terrain at all then you'll realize that using a marker or pen on the edges will help enhance the look of the terrain significantly. I had purchased some decent artist markers in preparation of the build for this reason. I've mostly used black and brown, with some maroon and blue for some parts. This greatly improves the look and hides the fact that it's all made of cardboard for the most part. A lot of the parts like walls actually match their edges well enough that it's not entirely necessary to use the markers on. I'm sure that you can make them look even better with it, but I didn't find it to be distracting on the walls or lighter pieces of terrain like the AC Units. On some scatter it was completely necessary to elevate the terrain, like the lookout post (not pictured), crate or the park bench. You'll mostly find that on the darker pieces you'll want to use your marker, as the lightly colored card edges will stand out most with those.

Some decent lanes of fire for the FCC House 9

Of course I had to pose some miniatures on this stuff, it just begs for it.

I love this stuff!

Overall I expected this stuff to be the bee's knees, and it did not disappoint. It should be available for retail purchase on their web store by the end of September, I highly recommend getting some yourself if, like me, you find your terrain priorities getting pushed to the back burner due to time and other hobby needs (like thousands of unpainted minis!). They come from the UK, so shipping may be an issue, but it's one of the few times I find it worth the extra price. Soon they'll have another Kickstarter for their Sci-Fi line, I'm sure it will fit in nicely with the Urban sets. Once I build more layouts I'll post more pics!

MERCS Terrain WIP - Novus Design Building

Hey all!

So I've recently done some work on the Novus Design building I featured a while back. I also bought another one of those buildings between now and then. I said it before and I'll say it now, I love these buildings.

This is the state it's at right now. I sprayed it black with rattle-can primer so I wouldn't take all day and waste airbrush primer. I then took a light olive color (can't remember the name) and mixed it with Wolf Grey. I messily airbrushed it over the black. Then I took Cold Grey and sprayed the ground. 

It still needs plenty of work but I was amazed how in essentially an hour it became playable. Of course I had to pose my little toys in it.

I also couldn't help setting up a quick table. In the back you see the other Novus Design building, one that's more standard in design but still very cool. I don't know what color I want to paint it yet, but after working with this one I know it should be a breeze.

Due to the large footprint of the buildings not many more terrain elements are necessary to fill the table. Some crates block long lanes of LOS, and some scatter provide cover for vulnerable approaches. With this set up the road becomes a valuable lane to cover or bound through. The center becomes a close range firefight with hardly any covering fire to support without being close up, and the opposite table edge becomes a race to get there first. I think it would be an interesting fight with this set up, although elevation isn't a huge element outside of climbing on the crates.

The great thing is that you can shift the buildings around to create some vastly different set ups. Since they're essentially just a series of walls you don't lose any playing surface. A closed off building that's, say, a foot squared means that the foot of space is unusable. With these buildings you block off long lanes of LOS but the game opens up once you enter them. For the price they are a great bargain and look awesome.

I believe they were designed with WWII games like Bolt Action in mind, but they're generic enough to fit in most games of that scale. I know this wouldn't look out of place in both Infinity and 40k, and I wouldn't feel weird about using them in Malifaux. 

I think I'll keep the base/ground colors fairly dark so it helps blend into the mat's surface more. Although they're obviously different colors they don't look out of place together. I usually brighten up my paintjobs with some highlights but I think I may leave these buildings more muted and muddy.

I can't wait to get a game of MERCS with these, it's a really cool addition and really gets you immersed. It can fit in well with the MERCS fluff as an area in the Lost Margin, where the FCC House 9 members reside. I imagine using the scenarios with objectives to represent data drop zones with opposing squads trying to intercept them, or a place for the Ambush scenario for the FCC to stage against a KemVar last stand. 

If anything painting this has gotten me aching to get more MERCS stuff done! Also reading Sync's blog gets me pumped. You should check it out, it's a great place to see another MERCS fan's work. Maybe one day I can get off my lazy butt and paint my whole FCC squad and my other stuff so I can do a proper demo!

Terminator Genisys Mat and Novus Terrain Building

Just thought I'd share this recent purchase with you folks!

It's a 33"x22" mat for another miniatures game that works perfectly for MERCS. It's a tad smaller than usual but it's not a game that's going to change dramatically because of that, especially when they have scenarios on a 2'x2' square as well.

I also have a building from Novus Design. It's a decent footprint on the board but it's very open so movement isn't hindered drastically, just LOS. It should create some interesting approaches as it can turn very close quarters combat fast if you're near it. I think it makes a cool centerpiece and works perfectly for objectives. I plan on getting a second one that's a bit smaller so that there are two buildings in the center.

The mat itself is a cool enough design, but it's literally littered with skulls. The great thing is that it's not noticeable unless you're really close up, but it kinda takes you into a different setting. Granted, it's appropriate for Terminator, although really why are all the skulls around in that world? Do Terminators evaporate ribcages?

The road portion also seems a tad on the small side for MERCS, but that's negligible as roads vary in size anyway.

Overall I highly recommend the mat for MERCS games. It's cheap (about $24 on Amazon) and easy to transport. The dark colors will help your models and terrain stand out. Also, good luck finding mats that will fit the 3x2 size, you're more than likely putting out 2 2x2s and having to have funky deployment zones.

As for the Novus Building, I think it's perfect. Granted you're going to be doing a lot of clean up. I mean A LOT. Bits of mold are actually embedded in the model, and there's some flash but it's nothing you can't just leave alone. It is terrain, after all. The entire building is one piece so there's no assembly, but there are some walls that are a bit thin and can break if you're not careful. Really though, for it's cost it's awesome and creates a war torn battlefield with no effort on your part, you'll just have to paint it.

MERCS Table

So over the weekend I got to clear out a lot of stuff from the hobby room that it's been storing for a few years. After marveling at how much more space I had I got the urge to put together a quick MERCS table for no reason!

The boards themselves are from Dust Tactics, a game I bought relatively recently from a bazaar for a steal. It turns out that six of these boards are very close to the measurements for MERCS, with only a few inches on each side short - nothing that is really a difference. The industrial side works very well for the game, and that's one less thing I need to paint!

There are a few items still needing paint to be tabletop ready, notably the containers, barriers and dumpsters. It's not something on my priority list right now, but once I get a chance to paint them they shouldn't take too long.

I have it pretty densely packed when compared to the average MERCS player's tables, at least from what I've seen online. I think that people use way too few terrain pieces and make incredibly open boards. When you only have a few huge lanes of fire it doesn't encourage a lot of flanking maneuvers and I would imagine it just turns into a long range shootout. Not many people would weather the storm and risk running out in the open - I tend to be one, mostly because the position advantage is usually worth the risk, but also it's boring to sit back and just outroll someone.

With this amount of terrain aggressive maneuvers are encouraged, while verticality is also emphasized. You can climb on the containers to gain elevation and coverage, however all it takes is for the enemy to climb as well and suddenly you have no cover! I made the building in the middle taller to block cross lanes to keep elevation from becoming one sided - without it really it's whoever can get their men up first can hold the whole field. There are plenty of pieces to snap to but with the angular nature of the field being flanked is a dangerous possibility. There are probably only two long lanes from the opening break but they cover a limited amount of field, so it still leaves the possibility of suppression and overwatch but doesn't make it break the game - something that open terrain definitely favors.

But for the most part, a lot of terrain just looks awesome.

Pack Rat Complete!

Before the holidays I completed the Pack Rat model. At first I didn't like how it was going, but once he was done and I got some good photos of him I ended up loving it.

I feel like I'm improving my brush on NMM but still have areas to improve on. I also need to figure out a better way to mark the arc lines on the base. They look fine from the pictures but I can see they aren't exactly right from a bird's (or player's) eye view.

Overall I love this model. The pose is great, I love a good square stance for a model that's firing. There's surprisingly not as much of this pose going on in miniatures, probably due to sculpting or something. This pose gives such a sense of realism to a firefight. I also like the weapon being grounded in modern military, as I don't get many - if any - chances to paint modern military. This model only has a slight hint of sci-fi but fits in well with the MERCS universe. And credit is due to the sculptor, as the majority of the model is swapped with another standing miniature (the body and legs are one piece) yet the few items that are unique completely change the model, which is the weapon, head and backpack. The pack features tools and a fire extinguisher which help define the Pack Rat as a fixer. Another good touch was the armor placement, as being a right handed shooter he'll need protection on his left side mostly, and minimizes armor usage elsewhere to stay mobile. There's even items stashed on his helmet showing his hording nature. When I showcase the Chem Engineer you'll see that although they share the exact same bodies they will be completely unique and distinguishable.

And as always there's the red sash on his weapon to signify his membership with the House 9.

Let me know what you think!

MERCS Pack Rat WIP

Here's my latest effort:

Pew Pew!

I've worked on and off on this dude for the last few weeks. He's one of my favorite sculpts for the House 9 faction. He looks like he was plucked straight from the Terminator resistance fighters. I'd say he's about 90% done, I've just got to paint all the brown straps and pick out a few other details like the eyes or the shell casings.

I didn't realize this until it was too late, but this model isn't exactly consistent with my previous model for the faction. The House Member I painted earlier was one of the first that I did this NMM technique on, and I was very sparse with the pure white highlights. Up until last night I always kept the House Member close by for reference to keep the Pack Rat consistent. The most important step, the NMM, to keep consistent between the two is when I decide to not keep the HM close by. Ugh. Well the Pack Rat's armor is a whole lot shinier now, so maybe if I'm not too lazy I'll go back on the House Member and brighten it up a bit. Probably not. Ha!

Also in keeping with the basing theme I tried out some rusted barbed wire. It's pretty awesome stuff to add on the base. Eventually I'll add the lines on the side for the arcs and add some greenery to break up the color.

MERCs Terrain WIP Continued

So over Thanksgiving week I worked a bit more on terrain as there wasn't too much time between family visits to work on anything else. I added a bit more detail to the MERCS scatter terrain. I added rust pigments to the barrels as well as drybrushed white on the edges. After I varnish it I will add some greenery to liven up the color a bit more. It's almost done!

I also took a spare 4x2 Zuzzy Mat I had and cut off a foot to make it 3x2 for MERCS games. The game zone's measurements are a tad weird in the gaming community as most games use an even square footage in either 4x4 or 3x3 flavors, with Warhammer being 6x4. This results in absolutely no available mats for 3x2 without customization. It also results to having taped off borders on traditional tables, or imaginary lines and odd deployment zones. Most posters that were created for MERCs had a 2x2 zone for demos, which I've already got as a mat thanks to Deadzone. But full games require that extra foot of length. The official mats that you can print that are 3x2 are fine enough, but it's expensive to get printed and it usually costed at least $50 or more. My friend Reuben already printed one out and it looked well enough, but he told me how annoying it is to get the right resolution at Staples.

I never use my 4x2 mat as the previous owner bought it to turn his 4x4 mat into a Warhammer sized mat, and I never play that game anymore. So I thought it'd be better used as a MERCS mat. After cutting it I got a bug to see what it all can look like together so I put some terrain on it. I used a building from Micro Arts Studios, some of the Deadzone buildings I put together long ago, some Secret Wars containers, Dust Tactics containers, ammo crates and tank traps I got in a steal of a deal, Secret Weapons' jersey barriers and Reaper Bones' containers and dumpsters - one of the best deals in terrain out there.

Overall it looks very good and the set up seems very fair and playable. All the elevations are equal so defining ERs for the game is simple. None of it is fully painted unfortunately but it shouldn't be much of a problem to do.

The set up is also very portable. I fit all the terrain elements in one small box short of the buildings, and I have 2 more containers somewhere in my house. If I get a slightly bigger box for it it can all be transported together. The mat is also small and rolls up well enough to not be a nuisance.

In other news I got some very good deals online last week. Miniature Market had a sale for up to 90% off some items. Since MERCS isn't as popular as other games they had huge savings for their faction boxes with most being around $26 for more than 60% off! I ended up getting three additional faction boxes including the House 4 box (which I got specifically for that epic Priest model!), Keizai Waza (a faction whose models I hated at first and now absolutely love) and KemVar (a faction I've wanted since the beginning). This will amount to a good set of models for rotation in play and demos, as well as a good pool for the FCC House 9 to recruit for their Black Ops ability.

I also got a good assortment of Dust Tactics models for around 85% off. This sale was an absolute steal.

Anyway that enough for this update!