Super Dungeon Explore FTW!

Greetings folks, and welcome once more to the musings of an ADD gamer. Once more (well, to stay par for the course) I will be showing off a number of different projects that I currently find myself working on. First off, as I showed in the last post, here is my finished Standard Bearer for my Bretonnian (Knights Templar) forces – Philip of Milly.

He was entered into the Armory’s Single Fantasy Miniature painting contest, and though there was a decent turnout with some absolutely gorgeous figures (Howard and Eric, they were both amazing), I was able to squeak out first place! I have to say that I absolutely love that we are starting to get more local painting contests, as it keeps pushing us all to do our best, and experiment with new techniques. It also gives me a chance to drool at some brilliant brush and conversion work, and remind me how lucky I am that the Northern California wargaming crowd really does have some top notch hobbyists.

With another painting contest down, I now set my sights on April 20^th as the due date for Scotty’s next Warmachine painting contest – this time with the theme being Warcasters. Now I am a dabbler in Privateer Press, and though I love the game, I don’t put as much time into building my Warmachine forces as I do for other systems. I love the genre, and the look of most of the models (though Khador Assault Kommados, how I despise you!) but I think my problem is the sheer number of special rules. Sure it gives the game amazing flavor, and something to distinguish it from everything else in the wargaming genre, but for me, I enjoy knowing what each army and unit can do in each game, and I can never seem to memorize everything in Warmachine. I like to know that I have lost a game because I was truly outplayed… not because I was ignorant of the plethora of special rules for each caster and unit add-on. I’m sure this gets better when you get more games in, so hopefully this will slowly fade as a liability the more games I get in.

Still, with all of that said, I do have a really nice Khador army, primarily infantry based, and painted in the color scheme of the 5^th Border Legion (drab green). Looking to build a force that I currently own, I did decide to choose a Khador warcaster for the painting competition, and settled on Kommander Oleg Strakhov – founder of the Khador Assault Kommandos (I did mention I hate those figures right?)

Actually, Strakhov is a great looking figure, and I am struggling right now with two major questions. The first is actually what I can do to make his base more dynamic. I mean really, after the swirling leaves on the Wilder from earlier this year, I have set a bar that I have to continually raise. The next question is whether to paint the Kommander in the drab green of the 5^th Border Legion like the rest of my forces, or actually go Khador red, and use him as the beginning of a new “force” within my army. Both are appealing, and I will just have to wait and see what I decide.

Alright, so up next in the gaming world (for the months of April and May) a local gamer, Don, will be running a Mordheim campaign. Now I absolutely love Mordheim, and am really looking forward to this series of games kicking off. I’ve played many different gangs in the past, but my favorite has to be the pirates – what is not to like about a gang that gets to carry around a boarding cannon! I have a human pirate gang all painted and ready to go, from past years of Mordheim action, but I decided to use this as a spring board for another army that I am very slowly working on: my Warhammer Fantasy Pirate Orcs.

Therefore I am using the standard pirate gang rules, but all of my characters will be orcs and goblins, and this will give me a chance to brush up on my Green Stuffing skills and try to build on the basic theme. As you can see here, this is what I have created so far. The goblins are the easiest, as their legs can fit standard Empire Militia bodies and arms, and there is only a little greenstuff work needed to attach the heads.

The more difficult will be the orcs, but I think these test models show what can be accomplished with a little time and creativity. I actually have a decent collection of Empire figures (to act as casualties for the bases of my Wood Elf army) so I have been taking anything with big feathers or black powder for my salty orcish dogs. (If anyone has spare parts lying around, please let me know and maybe we can work out a deal… I am definitely looking for all of the pistols and handguns for my orcs, as well as older empire militia bits for my goblins!)

Which brings me to my final musing and the reason for the post’s title. Super Dungeon Explore! No, seriously, this is a great game developed by Soda Pop miniatures that I have been having an absolute blast playing. Sure, it was a beast to assemble, and if you are only a board gamer (not into miniature wargaming) and you open the box, you might be overwhelmed with what is required of you just to play your first game. Soda Pop is obviously a miniature company first, so a lot of time and detail went into their figures, and it does take some effort to get it all looking right.

But that said, as a miniature gamer, once the figures were assembled, I knew that it would be an absolute crime not to paint these figures, and give the game the special treatment it deserves. Now to get everyone ready for some brush love, there was a decent amount of green-stuffing required, but the extra time will definitely be worth it in the end. I went ahead and chose white primer for the heroes (not sure if I will do it for the minions) mainly because I wanted the cheery bright (nay, neon) colors that the game’s artwork screams for.

As you can see below, I’ve really just begun, and this will be a project that will take a bit of time. For one, it is working in a palette of colors that I am definitely not used to (can we say the grim dark 40^th millennium!) Still, with my first hero painted, I really love how it is all turning out

Up first is the Barbarian, a totally murdering mistress of mayhem in the game, and currently my wife’s favorite character to play (hence the fact that it is the first one finished!).

Next is the Royal Paladin, and one of the most important characters in a party due to his amazing ability to heal. I really love the anime eyes!

Though this is becoming a huge project (and derailing me from finishing some of my other commitments) I really look forward to this game being totally finished. I actually ordered the Battle Foam custom trays for this game, which should be arriving on Thursday so that I can protect all of the painted figures.

My next step is actually going to be making custom 3D boards using the Hirst Arts molds and casting in Hydrostone… I really do want to go all out on this game.

Well, I talked so much about the modeling, but the game play is amazing as well. In Super Dungeon Explore (SDE) one player takes on the role of the Consul (essentially the Dungeon Master) and the other players : 1-5, take on the role of Heroes intent on raiding the dungeon and defeating the boss at the end. To destroy the heroes, the consul has access to minions and mini-bosses, which spawn from spawn points like the arcade game Gauntlet, and in the end the final boss (a dragon in the base set). Though the players can all choose to “go it alone”, the game play and difficulty make it necessary for the players to band together and work as a team. To be successful players need to focus on burning down the spawn points, and really learning how to distribute loot and potions to keep the team ready for all threats.

Playing the consul, it is your job to defend the spawn points, and keep the players occupied killing mobs so that the final boss shows up amidst a great swarm of minions, and make the job of wiping a party that much easier. As my players are starting to really get the game mechanics down, and are working well as a team, it is getting harder and harder to defeat them. Sadly, I think the main goal of any Consul should be to focus on one poor player and absolutely destroy them so that there are less heroes by the time the dragon spawns. Unfortunately this has the negative consequence of having a friend sit on the side as everyone else plays (potentially for an hour or so) with nothing to do but watch and wait for one of two resurrection items in the entire game. Still, this is something I will need to work on.

Well folks, thanks for the patience (and perseverance to finish reading such a long post)… I get a bit wordy at times… just ask my wife, or my roleplaying group!