Got my Fenris bases

Got my Fenris Nags Tavern fine planking bases for my IHMN Airship Pirates company. The quality on these is exceptional. Both the pattern and the polish are of very highest quality. Only one or two of the bases had minute bits of flash that I could've possibly eradicated with a fingernail. 

These Innsmouth cobblestone bases are, if anything, even better. No flash, no visible flaws, bottoms ground evenly to a fine polish. -- I love 'em. I don't know which IHMN crew will get these first, but I'm eager to try them out.

The joy of ordering from many of the boutique miniature companies, especially in the UK, is receiving sweeties along with your purchase. I'd never had a Super Fizz Wham! bar or a Barratt Fruit Salad chew before. (Both were pretty great as sweeties go.) Above you see what I received along with the third item I ordered, some sewer manhole covers. Unlike the resin bases, they're metal and attached to a sprue. Clean, clear casts, just like everything I've seen from Fenris. 

My thanks to Ian Brumby for the great work and great service!

Incoming correspondence from The Peregrine

As I've mentioned previously, I am amazed at the connections the Internet has allowed me to make. I try not to be too starstruck, but the fact that I get to exchange messages regularly with Patrick Keith and Vicky Morgan-Keith, Brian Roe, James Wappel, Chris and Debs FitzPatrick, Craig Cartmell, Bob Mervine and other creators whose talents and work I so admire, as well as bloggers who inform and inspire me and with whom I've become friends, like Vampifan and Hendybadger, just blows my mind.

Capt. Constance Bashford of the airship The Peregrine

Well, after my post the other day about purchasing RAFM's Abney Park airship pirate minis, I sent steampunk model Constance Bashford a Facebook friend request. I was happy enough that she accepted, but then I got a very nice personal message from her about how thrilled she was to hear about someone buying the mini based on her persona. 

She, of course, wants to see it painted up, and frequent readers of "Dispatches" will know that I paint at a rate charitably described as "glacial." But I will say I am excited to add these characters to my IHMN setting, so that will urge my painting forward at a better pace.

Toward that end, I ordered some bases from Fenris for my airship pirates and some cobblestone bases for the figures from the EOTD Kickstarter. The ones I ordered were the 30mm round DS Nags Tavern fine-grained wooden planking (as opposed to the rougher-hewn Black Freighter planking bases) and the 30mm DS Innsmouth Cobblestone, rather than the slightly more irregular Whitechapel Cobblestone bases they offer. I also ordered a set of "London Foul Sewer" manhole covers. Whimsy on my part.

Given that some people who follow the Northern Path believe a bit of prophecy indicates that the Twilight of the Gods begins this weekend, Ian is offering a 10 percent discount between now and the end of Feb. 22 (midnight GMT)  if you enter the code "RAGNAROK" on checkout at their webstore.

Love you all, my friends. Back to the boards, and I'll see you across the tables soon.

It's not just spectacular, it's TENTACULAR!

OK, Cthulhu Wars.

It's Kickstarter campaign is under way now, and it's already 700 percent over its goal.

I've been a fan of the "Call of Cthulhu" RPG since, oh, Chaosium's fourth edition, and had many, many volumes for the game, including the Victorian volume "Cthulhu by Gaslight" and the modern-day "Cthulhu Now."

I also have many other Cthulhu-inspired games, including Arkham Horror, Cthulhu Dice and I'm sure many others. Unlike some Lovecraft fans, I am decidedly NOT bothered by incarnations of the Great Old One that are cutesy, chibi, plush, or any other variation of adorable. I like 'em all.

But let me say, this game, with figures by Ian Brumby at Fenris Games, looks beautiful. The miniatures, designed to work with 28mm "scale" figures like those in Zombicide or Descent, or the other Lovecraft-inspired minis Fenris already makes, capture the tortured nightmare creatures and twisted deities of the Lovecraft Mythos to great effect. The game is an investment, but the figures alone are worth it, and there are plenty of add-ons and stretch goals that will provide seemingly infinite replayability.

On the campaign's kickstarter page, there's a link to a pdf giving you a sneak peak at the game's rules.

The level of support has shattered the locks on most of the planned expansions, and we're about to start reaching the level for unlocking free Great Old One figures. Now, you do have to support at a level over $200 to qualify for the free stretch goal figures, but according to the FAQ, that can include both your purchase level and add-ons. The Cultes de Goules level at $240 does seem to be the best investment, but I don't know yet if I can summon up that much scratch in the next month. I've already promised my wife to sell some of my unpainted lead, and she'll make up the difference for my birthday in July. So maybe if I have a windfall in letting go of some of my minis that I know I'll never get around to painting, I can plump for additional monstrous evil as part of this package.

So far it looks like the only figure that is exclusive to the kickstarter are the Asenath Waite player marker, which is wickedly beautiful.

There's a kickstarter exclusive digital art book, but it's part of each pledge level. Add-ons that are exclusive to the kickstarter include the custom dice, the signed art prints and the Cthulhu T-shirt. They're all nice, but they haven't set me to drooling. Maybe I won't have to spend everything, including our rent money, after all.

However, the concept art on one thing just blew me away. There are counters in the game to mark the opening of gates, but there's a 3-D model for the gates that is available for an add-on that floored me. It was truly a "SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY" moment for me. If the models turn out half as good as the concept art, I'll be so happy.

I managed to get in on one of the early-bird Cultist levels.We'll see if I have to abandon that and up my commitment.

I have some steampunky goodness to share with everyone later this week, so make sure to check back here at Dispatches from the Rim.

Back to the boards, everyone, and I'll see you across the table!

The latest in my largely uninformed opinions

There's a lot going on in the gaming world right now, and lots and lots of electronic ink is being spilled on various sides of multiple issues. In the off-the-cuff, top-of-the-head, shoot-from-the-hip kind of coverage you've come to expect here at Dispatches from the Rim, I am going to give you my feelings on some of these issues.

-- Games Workshop is curtailing Internet sales of its minis except in its own online store. In North America, its trade account policies are spreading from the U.S. to Canada. At least, that's what the documents seem to be saying. I haven't worked in retail in years, and I was never at the "dealing with trade accounts" level anyway. Their policies seem pretty draconian to me, and I wonder if their short-term gain is going to hurt them in the long run.

Because of these changes, MiniWargaming has decided to close its online store. This makes me sad, but I was not a customer of theirs. They are running a big closeout sale, so that might be worth looking into. I'm sure others are contemplating similar actions, so I wish these shopkeepers well in their deliberations and decisions.

-- Another closure I just learned of was Dastardly Designed Games, which was until recently The Armchair General, makers of the steampunk wargame When the Navy Walked and the hilarious skirmish game It Came From Beyond the Still, also known as Aliens vs. Hillbillies. Owner Robert Adams stated on the various company blogs that, because of a lack of customer interest, the game company will close. The two new books he had in the pipeline for ICFBTS will appear on Wargame Vault as pdfs and print-on-demand products. I'm glad of that, as ICFBTS III is "From Reel to Real," which brings the world of B-movies into the game.

I'll be sad to see this game no longer being developed, as Robert has a great imagination. He says he's likely to keep the blog going, and I hope he does.

-- Google Reader is being shut down. This sucks. I love Google Reader and use it all day, every day. Let me know if you've found a good replacement RSS aggregator. I just hope this doesn't mean Blogger is next. Guess it's time to learn how to use tumblr.

-- Now the good news: Ed the Two-Hour Wargames guy has added two 28mm minis to his store. These are ones I've wanted practically FOREVER, and I've been bugging him about at last one of them for YEARS. Longtime fans of THW will be familiar with Carolee, the THW girl. She was the "poster girl" for THW and had some very attractive poses in a sexy black outfit carrying a sighted pistol. She also appears as an NPC on a special card in the Risks and Rewards game aid deck for All Things Zombie.

Ed's long sold a 15mm version of Carolee, but now a 28mm version, sculpted by Richard Deasey,  is available. He's also made available an older Patrick Keith mini, which was called Trixi the Recovery Agent. The Trixi mini previously played the part of Suzi in the THW gameplay examples. So she's available again, in the THW store. (Trixie was also one of the "relic" rewards in Patrick's recent kickstarter for his Bombshell Babes.)

Here are the painted versions on the THW store site.

-- Just heard today that Kevin Adams, lord king sculptor of all things gobliny and orcy, was seriously injured in a knife attack Wednesday by three men when they invaded his home to rob it. They demanded jewelry, according to the website of the Nottingham Post, and Kevin suffered "significant injuries to his face and a cut to his shoulder," from what is presumed to be a kitchen knife. Police were still seeking witnesses to the late-afternoon incident. An Apple iMac computer was stolen during the incident, the report says.

Ian Brumby at Fenris Games has been doing a great job of keeping everyone up to date on this (he provided the above link as well), and he and others are looking to produce new minis, sell some of Kevin's sculpts, or outright just make donations to help Kevin with the expenses of his recovery. More manufacturers are banding together in this cause as events go on, so I would say check with Ian for the latest and how you can help.

James Herbert

Rick Hautala

-- RIP: The horror world lost some notable lights this week, authors James Herbert and Rick Hautala. They were 69 and 64 years old, respectively.

More as it occurs to me, folks. Also, again this week, there was no "welcoming Wednesday" post because, even though readership is slowly increasing, we're holding steady at 38 official followers of the blog. So thanks, everybody, for keeping it real, making it fun, and for keeping it real fun for me to share this hobby with all of you.