Stu: In this post a gaming buddy Dustan, talks about his current project - painting a set of HeroQuest figures for gaming with his young son.

Way back around 1989 Games Workshop and Milton Bradley got together and produced HeroQuest. Set in GW’s Warhammer Fantasy world it recreates the adventures of four Heroes who battle the minions of the evil wizard Morcar (Zargon in America). I decided to paint up this set as something to play with my son who is turning six soon. This is the fourth set I’ve painted, for some reason they always seemed expendable when it came clearing out the cupboards, now it’s out of production I wont let this one escape me!

HeroQuest is a game for 2-5 players and comes with 35 miniatures, 15 pieces of furniture, 20 doors, a large game board and a host of cards, counters and dice. The rules are brief and simple and the quest book contains 14 Adventures. There is no system for creating dungeons as you go however a blank game map was supplied and later an adventure design kit was released.

The board consists of a grid of floor tiles with fixed walls, rubble tokens would block access to some areas to help change the shape of the map. In later expansions overlays were used to radically change the map by adding grassy caves, chasms and other special features.

The Heroes (Barbarian, Wizard, Elf and Dwarf) move around the board with 2d6 movement and are able to search for treasure, traps and secret doors. Combat is resolved using a special set of combat dice, the number of dice thrown in attack or defense was dependent on the combatant’s stat lines.

Searching for treasure allows the players to draw a random treasure card which could be anything from potions, gems, gold, items and even traps or wandering monsters. Each quest has an objective for the Heroes to complete, if they failed either by leaving the dungeon or being killed the Evil Wizard claims victory.

The game is not without its flaws. These issues were addressed by the later GW release of Advanced HeroQuest, which sadly is a little to complicated for casual play. HeroQuest’s flaws are:

• It’s designed more as a board game rather than an RPG it seems to suggest the Heroes  are competing against each other for treasure, this is of course dependant on your players.
• The random movement distances can really slow down this game, particularly if you are a low roller.
• Due to the use of equipment and treasure playing cards expanding the game relied on MB releasing expansions.

Despite this HeroQuest is a good gateway game and I hope it will encourage my son and later my daughter into the hobbies that have permeated my life.

There are many resources out there with new quests, printable tiles and house rules. I have included a few of my favourites to get you started.

• Ye Old Inn - Build your own set with complete scans of all the card components and rules
• HeroScribe - Mapping tool for quest building.
• Old Scratch’s HeroQuest Forum - Dedicated forums, some of the 3d dungeons are neat.

In the next post I’ll show you my work on painting the Heroes and furniture.

I recently borrowed a copy of Wings of War: Famous Aces from my mate Griff because I was curious to see if my four year old son CJ would be interested in playing it. As CJ will happily play a number of the Cranium range of board games (Zooreka being a favourite) that involve standard card and dice mechanics, I suspected he could handle Wings of War which is entirely card based.

In Wings of War you dogfight various WWI single and double seater aircraft. The game supports any number of players (although 5-6 players is a practical limit) who all act simultaneously. Each aircraft is represented by a card which you move around the playing surface - which can be any flat, clear tabletop. Each aircraft only has three basic statistics: the amount of damage they can receive before being shot down, the deck of cards they use for movement, and the deck of cards they use when firing their machine guns.

The real beauty of the system is the way the decks of cards work. The various planes use different movement decks which reflect the historical flight abilities of that plane. So for example tri-planes like the Fokker DR-1 which were very maneuverable have a set of cards that give you quick side slips and sharp turns, while planes like the Albatross D-III tend to have a smaller set of more graceful movement cards. The various movement decks work well to give each plane a distinctive feel while gaming. Famous Aces comes with four distinct movement decks which enough to give you a fair range of planes to fly.

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I recently ordered some 28mm sci fi weapons from Hasslefree Miniatures on a whim. The vague plan is to use them to try scratch building a Necromunda Scavvie warband, and maybe just random sci-fi figures in general, which was the same reason I lalso picked up some sci-fi heads from Pig Iron Productions..

I ordered two baggies of Squad Support Weapons and two baggies of Sci fi Human and Halfling guns from Hasslefree. They arrived promptly and well packed in a bubble wrap envelope. Nothing was damaged or required straightening which is good considering the distance they had traveled to reach me in New Zealand.

In the photo above you see a couple of the white metal sprues as I took them out of their baggies. There was a moderate amount of venting spikes on both of them, but they were all easily flicked off with an Xacto blade. There were no prominent mold lines, but I did spend around five minutes per spure taking the weapons off and tiding them up with a needle file.

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Following on from an earlier post I couldn’t resist picking up some Pig Iron Kolony Rebel 28mm heads from Scrap Dragon in Australia. They arrived late last week, so here’s a quick review of them.

I ordered two packs, and each came in a small baggie containing two copies of the white metal sprue you see in the above photo. In each pack you get twelve of the basic gas mask wearing heads, plus two each of the four ‘command’ style heads for a total of 20 heads per pack. Possibly ordering two packs was a bit of overkill, but they’re so cheap - working out at less than $1NZ per head it seemed a shame not to!

The heads are well cast with a reasonable amount of detail on them and I expect them to paint up well. There’s some fine mold lines to clean up, but sensibly no mold line crosses any face. Scale wise the heads are a touch smaller than related plastic 40k heads from Games Workshop. This second photo shows two Pig Iron heads compared to plastic GW Cadian and Catachan heads.

Personally I find the Pig Iron heads to be an acceptable match to the GW plastics. In fact I intend to use these metal heads to convert up a Necromunda Scavvie warband from various GW WHFB and 40k plastics. I think it’s a nice touch that the heads are fairly bare around the back (most of them simply have a strap) as it gives you options for converting on helmets or hoods. For my Necro scavvies I do intend to add tattered green stuff hoods, which I should be able to do without having to cut anything down.

Here’s another shot just to show you the head scale on a GW Cadian and Catachan bodies. I’ve left the arms off so the head/torso ratio is obvious and, given that we’re dealing with slightly oddly scaled 28mm sculptures, the heads looks fine. If anything the slightly smaller heads actually make the over-sized GW figures look more realistically proportioned in my opinion.

So in summary I’d happily recommend Pig Irons sci-fi head ranges to any 28mm converter or sculptor out there. They’re excellent quality and the price is perfectly acceptable given the quantity of heads in each pack. On a related note I’d also happily order from Scrap Dragon again too, in fact my receipt came with a 5% discount coupon code of my next order, which is a excellent way to guarantee return custom!

Anglian Miniatures are a UK firm producing 28mm scale metal figures. Their first range is for the Spanish Civil War which seems like a rather niche theatre to work in, however each to their own!

I recently picked up their MOR2 and MOR4 packs of Moroccan Nationalists because the fez and turban wearing figures would be excellent for the Pulp Egyptian/North African setting I game in. So here’s a quick review of these packs.

They arrived in two baggies inside a bubble-wrap padded envelope, which is understandable given the small size of my order. One hopes that larger orders are boxed however as this isn’t the best method of shipping metal figures via air mail. Several of the figures required some careful bending to get their weapons straight after unpacking.

The figures themselves are excellent, with no flash at all and mold lines that are barely visible. They could be painted straight out of their bags, however I’ll probably file a few of their metal plates down a touch during basing. The figures themselves don’t come with bases from Anglian, in the photos you see the standard Games Workshop bases I use for all my Pulp figures.

Sculpting wise they’re very well done with plenty of detail like ammo pouches, bed rolls and slung rifles. Their poses are all quite naturalistic and believable as you can see in the photos. There’s also a nice mix of action and more static poses in the MOR2 set, with a couple of gentlemen reloading while the others fire.

The MOR4 pack includes two prone figures firing a light machine gun. I grabbed this pack really because of these gents, although the other two ‘tank hunters’ are fine figures too, one of which is armed with a crowbar!

Scale wise here’s a comparison shot of them against an Artizan Designs DAK German in a similar pose. The Moroccans are a little slighter generally than the Artizan figures. Their weapons are also a little more finely sculpted than Artizan’s. Overall though they’re an excellent match and the ranges will happily mix. Particularly since you’d except a Moroccan fellow to be a little more wiry than a Teutonic soldier.

In summary I’d happily order from Anglian again as their figures are very well done, so into the blog-roll they go!

I’m a fan of indie self-published games because many of the games I enjoy these days I’ve downloaded from the web for free or for minimal cost. So when Andrea Sfiligoi and Ganesha Games recently released Song of Blades and Heroes, a set of fantasy skirmish rules available for a whole $4us I picked up a copy.

On opening the 34 page PDF I was presented with a sensibly arranged set of rules scattered with fantasy black and white line art of mixed but acceptable quality. Even scanning the first few pages I was confident my $4us had been well spent. The game rules appear simple but fun and overall it seems to border on the ‘beer and pretzels’ genre of gaming. Mind you there is some subtlety involved, particularly in the way the individual figures are activated in a turn.

SBH seems reasonably well supported too, with upcoming additions (Songs of Gold and Darkness, ie. dungeons) planned and a Yahoo Group forum frequented by the author and play-testers. There’s also a freely available preview PDF which takes you through a couple of rounds of combat.

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Mark of Crescent Root Studio keeps creating excellent 28mm terrain. I already own eight of his Middle Eastern buildings and they’re superb for Pulp gaming.

Earlier this year he expanded the range to include several taller buildings with domed roofs and I couldn’t resist any longer. I ordered a couple of these new buildings last week and they’ve just arrived so here’s a quick review.

As usual I ordered unpainted buildings because they’re cheaper and I enjoy painting them myself. All of Mark’s terrain comes pre-primed and is cast in a sturdy yet light resin product. He must use some kind of micro-bead filler to extend the resin because with handling the buildings are always noticeably lighter than they appear to be. However they’re still weighty enough to stay in place during gaming.

Parts and Prep

These particular buildings consist of two large parts: the slightly raised basic building and a removable tower room. Both roofs are also removable which is important during gaming, and you’re supplied with two drop in doors for the doorways.

Prior to painting I find it’s a good idea to check everything fits well as occasionally light filing is required for ease of use. It’s also not a bad idea to spend a little time examining the doorways and windows as you may have to file off a little extra resin left from the casting process.

After this basic clean up I’ve always painted my Crescent Root buildings without any further preparation or priming. I use Resene interior acrylic house paints which bond very well with the pre-primed resin as I’ve yet to chip a building and they’ve been extensively handled.

Building Design

I purchased these buildings primarily because of their towers and domed roofs. Both these features distinguish them from my earlier Crescent Root purchases and mixing them in with my painted buildings gives the table a very nice Middle Eastern feel as shown in the table layout.

These buildings are noticeably taller than my others, mainly because their base is quite built up, with three steps leading up off the street to the ground floor. Pulp gamers will also notice the small, three windowed tower rooms make excellent “sniper nests” for your Rifle or SMG armed villains. Unfortunately there’s no way to get up to that tower room without a ladder - which means I’ll have to scratch a few together from balsa wood, or simply reuse the crude ladders I made years ago for my Mordheim table. Possibly Mark from CRS might consider creating some ladder accessories for these fine buildings.

One thing that does concern me about that tower room is that it simply rests on the walls below it. There’s no system for locking the tower in place at all which means it could be at risk from clumsy hands on the gaming table. I’ll probably end up drilling some aligned holes in the base of each tower and then applying some short ‘pins’ made from bamboo skewers in the wall below so the two pieces do lock together.

As usual I’m perfectly happy with my latest purchase from Crescent Root Studios. That’ll probably do for buildings now, although once I’ve laid them all out I notice there’s an obvious lack of fenced in back alleys. I suspect I’ll end up purchasing some of CRS’s matching Middle Eastern Walls at some point…