The rest of "Sedition Wars: The Battle of Alabaster" -- Unboxing (pic heavy)

Welcome back, droogs!

Thanks for sticking with me during this period of infrequent postings. As summer yields to autumn, I feel more centered, empowered and inspired. I think that bodes well for "Dispatches" and for my hobby activities in general.

I don't want to veer too far from my topic tonight, but I do want to say Tracey and I have had some wonderful times recently. After a recent visit to the pain clinic, she felt good enough to actually go out to a restaurant for a meal. We went to the IHOP near our house, where she hasn't been in at least a year. The manager and staff always ask after her when I go in to pick up food for us, but her return there caused quite a scene. All the servers who know us came over for hugs, and Pam, the manager, actually cried. Which made me tear up. Nothing adds to the flavor of stuffed French toast with blueberries like fresh man-tears.

And there's nothing to make you feel like a success as a man, a husband, as a human being, for your beautiful wife to be looking into your eyes and tell you, "You are a good man." Wow.

Now, on to the unboxing:

For the "Sedition Wars" kickstarter, I plumped for the Biohazard level, plus the terrain pack, the THI suit, and all the characters with their strain-infected versions: Dr. Susan Ridley, Ramirez, Niven Banks, Hexen Phaedrus, and the crew of the Calamity. Well, the Calamity crew doesn't have strain-infected versions, but you know what I mean.

So here's the tidy little box these wave 2 minis came in.

While many people are unhappy with the material the Sedition Wars minis are made of, I think Brian Roe wrote a nice analysis of the materials. You can read what Roebeast had to say here and here.

Essentially, it takes paint well but moldlines are maddening and difficult to deal with. I'm going to keep that in mind as I work on them.

There's also a growing thread on Frothers about the slight stature and apparent shrinkage in scale of some of the plastic minis. The multitude of voices there will give you a better perspective on this issue than I can at this stage (although I certainly reserve the right to chime in later.)

On the non-minis front, this wave included cards and the instructional painting DVD:

The remainder of the Biohazard product comes in one big blister pack.

The terrain pack comes in its own separate retail-ready box. It's nice to have the diagram on back detailing its contents. (That's one complaint I do have about a lot of kickstarters: no packing slip in the box. I want to be able to quickly verify that what you think you sent me is what you really sent me, and that that matches up with what I requested.)

So here's the terrain:

Crates, barricades, teleport controls, security terminals, life support
terminals, havok guns, necrocysts, exocysts, gestation vents, macrophages,
spore engines and three each of male and female corpses. 

Narrow standard doors.

Wide standard doors

Airlock doors

Section doors

And all the add-ons come in their own little bags to keep their myriad parts together. That's another thing about these Sedition Wars minis -- it seems like everything is multipart. It's like buying from IKEA, in that I don't care if it's a flyswatter, if you buy it from IKEA it's gonna come in two parts with an Allen wrench.*

The Calamity Crew

Dr. Susan Ridley

Ramirez

Niven Banks

Hexen Phaedrus

THI Carapace

Once I get these minis unbagged and separated out, I'll get you better, clearer photos, and hopefully some size comparisons to other minis as well. I can't really work on them at the moment without the real risk that the tiny parts will vanish forever.

So that's it for today. The Empire of the Dead: Requiem level I pledged at should hopefully be shipped in a week or so, and the Zombicide Season Two and Toxic City Mall expansion should also ship soon. So more on those later.

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

*I'm sorry that I can't remeber what comedian said this originally. I'd love to credit him or her.

In Her Majesty's Name and other goodies arrive

I was remiss a week or so ago in documenting the arrival of figures from Ainsty, which I had ordered through the Weird Wild West indiegogo campaign.

I had backed them for just one figure (Vampire Hunter Abe Lincoln) but once the fulfillment stage was reached, Ainsty )which had purchased the line) decided to give more than was pledged for. Unfortunately, the first package to me was lost in the international mail, but I finally received them a little over a week ago. In addition to the Abe Lincoln figure. I also received a Vampire (who reminds me of the monster from "The Vampire of London"), and a Native American woman.

Additionally, I received my order from the "In Her Majesty's Name" nickstarter from North Star. Like many in the States. I placed my order through Lon Weiss at Brigade Games. I ordered the Servants of Ra pack. Stretch goals I got included the Master Criminal (Moriarty) and Jack the Ripper. The Ripper figure comes with this giant steampunk claw, which many must've agreed with me was totally inappropriate for the Ripper. Nobody with that claw is going to be disassembling a body with surgical precision or disappearing into thin air. Luckily, North Star made an alternate human arm holding a knife/scalpel available for purchase. I hope to find another use for that claw at some point.

The packaging for these minis is GORGEOUS. The boxes are actually multiple-disc DVD cases, and the cover inserts are really sharp, featuring those masterful Kevin Dallimore paint jobs. Inserted behind the cover was a nice, printed index card-sized cheat sheet with the stats for the faction. Very nicely done.

This shipment didn't include the Osprey rules -- Lon says they'll follow in a couple of weeks. Even without having seen these original rules, I've already pre-ordered the next volume, "Heroes, Villains and Fiends," via Amazon. Current release date says Nov. 19.

I love reading rules, but I don't expect these to supplant Empire of the Dead in my affections. There's a warmth and intuitive feel to EOTD that I love. I fully intend to use this faction with the Cult of Sutekh supplemental rules that Doc Warlock wrote.

I really like the way these turned out. The poses are dynamic, the integral bases aren't bulky, and the mold lines are minimal. There is, however, a lot of flash, as you can probably see even in my subpar photos, but I'm sure I can make short work of it all with an X-ACTO knife. (Accept as read my usual excuses for poor photos -- shot on an iPhone 4 with one house lamp and camera flash while balanced on my lap, etc. etc.)

As for how I would use these with Drew's rules, Ahkenaton makes an exemplary human-form Eternal holding a khopesh (sickle-sword). The next figure, Professor Abir, is an officious-looking Hum-Natir, or cult leader, followed by a Mummified Priest usable either as an Eternal or a tomb guardian. The femme fatale figure Sairah, Professor Abir's beautiful daughter, could also be a cult leader, or perhaps the human form of a female Eternal.

The remaining seven figures are all cultists, Acolytes in Drew's rules. I'm very happy with this faction and will likely purchase some of the others.

Oh, and while I know I seldom, if ever, mention the various chibi minis out there, it must be said that I go all SQUEE for the models. I don't own Super Dungeon Explore from Soda Pop, but I do have the metal miniatures of the original heroes from the game and the kobold dragon priest. I also picked up the Princess Ruby promo they released when the Caverns of Roxor expansion was released. Well, they just released their Gothic Horror supplement Von Drakk's Manor. They again released a promo mini -- a succubus -- but sadly she's only in plastic this time. Still, she's adorable, and here she is in her unpainted glory:

That's it for this time. Back to the boards, everyone, and I'll see you across the table soon!

Zombicide tokens

As per Jake's request, here are both sides of the sheet of double-sided tokens. Most of the items are identical on both sides, but there are a few differences. Police cars on one side are pimpmobiles on the other. Solid doors on one side are depicted on the other as if they've been shattered by brute force.

Click on the pics for a closer look.

Zombicide unboxing (picture heavy!)

'Cause it's the THRILLER, thriller night! (That song's been running through my head since I went to my P.O. Box.)

Zombicide is here! One of the many advantages, I guess, of living so close to Atlanta means that my copy of Zombicide from Guillotine Games and Cool Mini or Not arrived in my mailbox the same day I got the email notifying me it had shipped.

Here are my unboxing photos of the Abomination level package. (Some of the items won't ship until next year, and the T-shirts were hung up in customs so will ship after Gencon.)

Here are the three special characters. Zombified versions will ship in the second quarter of 2013.

Dave the Geek:

Nick Walker:

Sorry for the reflection of my hand!

El Cholo:

Note the plastic slider for the character cards in each of the boxes.

And here are those character cards.

Here's the signed lithograph of the box cover art, suitable for framing:

Here are the extra walkers, fatties and runners from the Kickstarter stretch goals:

Here are extra Walk of the Dead alert mini-cards, and they are hiding the extra Abomination:

Dice! Read pips on both black and glow-in-the-dark:

Now the actual box set itself. This is what people who didn't join in on the Kickstarter will get when they purchase the game:

Let me say this box is strong. I don't know what's woven into this box, but I'd hate to be hit with one and, in an emergency, you could probably chock your car tires with it on a hill in an emergency.

The tiles and tokens below seem to be made out of the same material. They're going to be durable and hold up very well to the rigors of play.

Map tiles:

These sheets are thicker than a U.S. quarter and feel stronger than flat-pack furniture. Great job, CMON!

Double-sided tokens:

Mini-cards, regular dice and more plastic sliders for the survivors's cards:

The survivors (and the Abomination):

And all that zombie goodness!:

Here's a close-up from one of the trays (a runner, a fatty and a female):

For any of you who were worried about the strength of the plastic in which these things are molded, all I can say are allay those fears. This is not the bendy plastic we've seen before. It's stronger than Clix, it's stronger than the figures in Flying Frog's Last Night on Earth or A Touch of Evil. It's good stuff. I've only made a cursory examination of the individual figures, but there's been no flash and, while there could be mold lines somewhere on some of them, I haven't found any yet.

This is even better than I expected when I supported their Kickstarter. And there's still more goodness to come with the other extra characters I bought. Like the zombie virus itself, Zombicide is the gift that keeps on giving.

I can't wait to see how these paint up!