Welcome

This welcome is for Shelldrake who has just signed up - thanks for doing so. I am guessing that Shelldrake is a minis fan of broad tastes, which is always a good thing in my view! Thanks very much for signing up Shelldrake - highly appreciated that you have done so!

Breadth is one of the strengths of Pulp City in my view; the game combines elements from so many influences (and every games has its influences, of that there is no doubt), so ultimately there is potentially something for everyone.

Which brings me on to ask this wish-listing question to any fans of the game and/or minis line out there:

Other than the stuff known to be coming up, what would you like to see for Pulp City? In minis? Rules? Whatever?

Feel free to comment your answers!

Hallowe'en Madness 2011

The first inaugural Hallowe'en Madness Battle Report. Pictures taken by Rob and me. Yes, the Resource totals are a little off, but that had a negligible impact on the outcome.

Click on the pages to embiggen them.

And the result? A draw! Tune in next year for Hallowe'en Madness 2012!

ARC (Sub-faction)

Click on the picture to make embiggenified.

Despite finally finishing Guerilla in July, I have yet to post my ARC minis collectively, so being long-overdue, here you are.

The ARC are freedom fighters to some, militant paramilitaries to others. Opertaing out of the abandoned Pulp City Zoo they have been known to work alongside both Heroes and Villains around the city, all the while pursuing their own agendas. Their leadership is currently formed by the sometimes-conflicting ideologies of Guerilla and Dr. Red - will a third prominent ARC member rise to destabilise that unsteady status quo?

The ARC (rear row, left to right):

• Apebot: inspired creation of ARC, Apebot has forged a close bond with Virus beyond the limits of its basic programming; a real engine of destruction.
• Dr. Red: tactical and strategic mastermind; rival to Guerilla; wild bomb-throwing enhanced primate.
• Guerilla: ferocious leader of the revolution; an able fighter at range and close quarters.
• Silverager: ARC's truest dichotomy - brilliant engineer on the one hand, while within the venerable ape rages a veritable furious beast.

(front row, left to right):

• Virus: master of electronics, and Apebot's most able handler.
• Chimp Chi: master of secret Eastern martial Arts; Chimp Chi has rumoured affiliations with the fabled Way of the Fist & Blade.
• Howler: the most human-culture assimilated member of ARC, Howler spends time away from his team enjoying the opportunities available; gun-wielding action hero.
• Le Murtiple: arrived in Pulp City from the jungles and cities he terrorised in South America; stealthy self-replicating saboteur.

Mini Update

Painting has stalled this month. I had a good month in September, finishing/painting 13 Zombies as well as Moonchild/Moon Coyote and Loup Garou II, for a total of 16 minis for the month all told.

This month however sees me yet to complete anything, and having had very little time for painting. Worse still, when I did do some minis-painting I dropped a mini (Riposte) meaning repairs were and still are required.

Therefore the Painting Challenge currently stands with the following minis left to paint or complete:

• Hadrons - base colours and some shading done and a little highlighting here and there; very much stalled.
• Riposte - base colours applied and some washes; mini dropped and repairs still needed.
• Arquero - base colours, some washes, some highlighting.
• Ra'Leigh, Aquarius Warlord - base colours applied.
• Pulp Monster - assembled (as seen), but next stage if gap filling etc.

Pulp Monster Project Log (1)

Just like the stalled(!) Hadron Project Log, I thought I would start a Project Log to show any progress I may make with my Pulp Monster models.

The first picture shows a size comparison shot with Giant Hadron and Sgt. Bale!

The usual instruction to click on the pictures to embiggenicate them.

Obviously I have assembled the model, and created a base to mount it on (a recessed blank from Fenris Games, plastic-card for the main texture, sand to fill the remaining gap soon). So the first stages are complete. Cost me buying a brand new compass/circle cutter as I lost my original one somewhere in my recent house-move.

I selected parts that I hope will both fulfil by desire for a vaguely Ulthar-styled Monster, that can hopefully pass as an aquatic Beast (no doubt from ocean depths, whether from Earth or an Ulthar colony), or if not an Earthly or Ulthar creature, that could be considered otherworldly, an example of an arcane Elder menace.

The next stage will be gap-filling with Green Stuff; I had hoped to pick up some GW Liquid Green Stuff for that purpose, but my local store was out of stock when I went today. Missed sales? Therefore poor stock control? A post on a whole other tangent there.

Blood Watch (Sub-faction - updated)

Click on the picture to embiggen.

With the recent painting of Moonchild/Moon Coyote and Loup Garou II, and guessing it may be a few months before further Blood Watch are released, I thought an update could be in order as with the The Coven update yesterday.

The Blood Watch are guardians against the threat of the Necroplane and other arcane evils. They are dark defenders, creatures of the night, and men and women empowered by occult forces.

The models above are sufficient to field a Level 9 Blood Watch Team.

The Blood Watch (rear row left to right):

• Loup Garou II: fast and brutally powerful; requires Moonchild to be present to be be fielded as Blood Watch.
• Sgt. Bale: ex-special forces soldier turned arcane-empowered supernatural hunter.
• Six Feet Under: enslaved in Hellrock, the Necroplane's terrible prison, Six Feet Under is a man from another world determined to spare this Earth the same fate as his home world.
• Zombie Wolf: (Minion) Hoodoo's guardian; is this Loup Garou - a former enemy - turned to serve Red Riding Hoodoo?

(front row, left to right):

• Moon Coyote/Moonchild: support Supreme, fast and mobile.
• Blood Rose: the last of her kind, the Blood Watch's healer and source of mobility - she can teleport them across the field of battle.
• Red Riding Hoodoo: New Orleans voodoo practitioner, and mistress of ancient rituals.

The Coven (Sub-faction - updated)

Click on the picture to make bigger-er.

Since I do not expect any more Coven releases for a while (but they will come, I am sure!), I thought I could afford to take time to do a Sub-faction update.

The Coven are the antithesis of the Heroes of Heavy Metal, yet can be compared with their own corporate headquarters across Golden Plaza from Heavy Metal's base. They utilise scientific and arcane resources in the pursuit of their aims.

I have enough here to field a Level 7 The Coven Team.

The Coven so far (left to right):

• Twilight: shadow thief, shadow shooter.
• Rook: bruiser and bodyguard. Offers decent area denial capability.
• Francis Gator: bloodthirsty swamp-dweller offspring of an occult dabbler and a swamp devil. Tenacious low-Level brawler.
• Loup Garou II: true 'combat monster' in every sense. Fast and brutally powerful.
• Moon Coyote/Moonchild: support Supreme requiring Loup Garou II to be present to be fielded in a The Coven Team.

Welcome

Welcome to Follower #84 of the blog. This welcome goes to Alex Hood, and as ever I have to say a big thank you for taking time to sign up. I only hope that I repay the interest with things of interest. So again, thanks Alex Hood.

Starting the Pulp Citizen was a useful diversion for me, following a difficult life event. Since then it has grown into creating acquaintances with folks I would not be able to be in touch with without the medium of the Internet. More than that, it has allowed me a small measure of involvement in helping in a little way to help develop my favourite tabletop minis game. So in all, spurred on by people visiting, Following and commenting, the Pulp Citizen has rewarded me a lot. cheers guys.

Coming Soon!

Just like when TV and movies have trailers - ha-ha!

Welcome

This latest 'welcome aboard' is a hearty shout-out to AoM. I can only surmise from a quick glance at AoM's profile that he or she is a minis fan with eclectic tastes - nothing wrong in that then!. As always it is a privilege and a pleasure for me to see new names signing up as Followers, and it is also a helpful spur to continued blogging; so cheers to AoM, cheers to all the other Followers who signed up, and cheers to anyone who happens by.

On other business, I have started to acquire more bits and bobs for the swamp Tokens, so hopefully more on those in due course. I had hoped to get some painting done today(Riposte), however I got side-tracked so that did not happen. On the plus side, I finished the upcoming Battle Report (look for a post in eleven days!), and I finished a bit of non-gaming but gaming related writing that I had been working on for a few days. More on that when I can or cannot say more.

Over The Wire

Over the Wire is Darkson Designs' periodic newsletter featuring updates, frequently asked questions, and new rules and previews for their core games including AE: WWII and AE: Bounty. In addition it has been known to feature material for Pulp City.

I have just submitted an article I hope may make it into a future issue (watch this space if it does), but in the mean-time thought I would draw attention to some of those those OTW issues with Pulp City content.

Issue 7, Sept/Oct 2008
Including all the rules you will need to have Pulp City Supremes battle in the AE-WWII universe.

Issue 15, May/June 2010
Includes trial rules for superheroes in games of AE-WWII.

Issue # 20 April/May 2011
Pulp Monsters’ very own Beermonkey talks about Minions in your Pulp City games, and a Pulp City campaign.

Pixels/Megapixel (Vector)

First off, sorry for the dearth of new minis lately. Stuff is in progress, have no fear, but still apologies!

I painted these things up very quickly recently, after receiving them through the post from fellow gamer and Pulp City fan Hendybadger (thanks Ian!). His generosity reminds me of just how decent the gaming community is on the whole, so cheers to him for sending these my way.

As usual, click to embiggenify the pictures.

Ian had them custom-made by Fenris Games and I believe had a similarly positive experience to my own when getting custom stuff made.

Pixels/Megapixel is a weird little Resource exclusively available for Vector. Unlike other Resources it has no Resource cost; it kind of behaves like a renewable Minion, yet is not treated as a Minion card. It can be a struggle struggle to get the absolute best out of Pixels, since they are mainly about resource (note the lower case 'r' resource here) management, as well as game-management of Vector. Please find my own Vector Tactica here.

I have not used them too much myself of late, simply as I was using paper glued to round bases as representations. Now with these finished, expect to see more of Vector, his Pixels and Megapixel.

Zombies...At The Eclectic Gentleman Tabletop Gamer

On my more 'general minis hobbying' blog (the Eclectic Gentleman Tabletop Gamer), I will be posting various examples of zombies I have recently painted (to be featured in the upcoming Battle Report). I mention it here because I can see a lot of these walking dead seeing use in future Pulp City games, either as Zombies Resources (which can be fielded in heavy numbers with Necroplane Supremes) and/or as self-created Minions.

No Longer Mighty - The New Crusaders

Not much on the minis front right now as the (lower) Pulp Citizen Cave has been recently co-opted as a store-room for bedroom furniture as the main bedroom has been decorated. So the only stuff I have managed was brief and modelling base (preparing some bases for Monsters; 80 mm Fenris recessed round-shoulders as the basis) and basing up some Pixels kindly given to me by Hendybadger (more on those in due course!).

So in lieu of minis and modelling (I have been able to pitch in some writing and development bits and bobs in that time...), back to one of the reasons why Pulp City was such a big draw for me: comic book superheroes. Now in tone Pulp City probably reflects much of the tone from the big two over the last decade or so, but as I grow older, I find my comic-book reading sensibilities are actually changing so that I yearn for simpler, less gory, less sexually-suggestive fayre on the whole. And DC in particular are not aiming in the same direction. Marvel I find strangely more recognisable.

So it was with a warm smile that I saw news that one of my favourite comic book properties (see posts here and here) is making a come-back, and seemingly with a tone to my liking. The Mighty Crusaders are giving way to the New Crusaders, and it looks good to me.

It appears that the new stuff will be in digital format first, with the possibility of print collections later (if understand a source of mine correctly). So pleasing all around. Yes, purist may baulk, but I have to say this is the kind of thing I could really like, so happy times even as my other comics reading diminishes (DC for example).

Welcome

Another hearty 'welcome' going out, this time to wardy-la, who to look at his own blog links is a pretty prolific minis and gaming blogger. I know I will be Following his Level 2, A Project Too Far and The Dead Hate The Living blogs for a start.

Thanks for signing up wardy-la and hopefully you interest will be repaid. Cheers!

Welcome

Another 'welcome' goes out, this time to Joe B. Joe is known elsewhere as Dr. Mono, and is a games designer. Most intriguingly for me as a minis fan and a comic book superheroes fan, Joe. B. has been working on a project called Superhuman, which will be a miniatures battles game. All good. I am watching the progress of that with interest, and in the meantime I appreciate the time Joe B. has taken to sign up as a Follower here. Thanks again for doing so, Joe B.

On the subject of 'other' superhero miniatures games, there looks to be potential growth in the area. Of course current offerings include Pulp City, Supersystem (3 editions so far) and Heroclix. A related offering which may be of use to gamers looking for a system to suit their tastes is Atomic Super Humans, a game intended for use with action figures, but surely useful for smaller scaled minis with a moderate amount of tweaking.

And further out on the horizon is the aforementioned Superhuman and also Power Legions from Ganesha Games (the guys behind the various Song of... games amongst others).

So while Pulp City remains my preferred choice, for other gamers with interest in the area it looks like choices will hopefully continue to grow.

Making Some "Albino Gator's Curse" 'Tokens'

Albino Gator's Curse is one of Francis Gator's Exclusive Actions. It creates an area of his home swamp on the Playing Field that lasts for the rest of the game.

Of course I could mark the area with bits of paper or what-not, but I really fancy making a few elaborate Tokens to represent the areas of terrain (which are 3 inch radius areas!).

I have cut myself some discs to size, and as an alternative have ordered some 150mm blank round-lip bases from Fenris (not quite perfect size but close enough!).

Now I have to fill up the blighters (whether I choose the discs or bases) with swampy looking stuff. I plan on making undulations and sanding the bits of ground, while filling the area with wet effect stuff. The thing is with such big areas (I plan to do several of these!) I would love to add suitably swampy decoration (without going too overboard) simply to help bolster the visual appearance.

I have some bits in my box, but was wondering if you guys have suggestions for stuff I can add. Cheers.

Welcome

A double 'welcome' this time. Thanks for signing up to skywatcher and Ambassador.

Skywatcher is a mention of the Op-For blog collective (blog here); always worth a look and glad to have some of you guys aboard.

I guess Ambassador is a fellow minis fan and so is more than welcome.

On the update front, I haven't been painting much (and I don't count decorating a room in the house as "real painting" contrary to what Mrs. Pulp Citizen may think...), but I can say I have seen the current working draft of the upcoming first Pulp City Annual which will feature the long-awaited Pulp Monsters rules, and it is shaping up very well I reckon. Add in that I can cite at least 16 Supremes and 3 Minion Cards (but maybe only 2 models/kits for those 3 cards...) in current active development, and there is a raft of stuff on the Pulp City horizon, which pleases this fan. All good.

Once again welcome aboard guys and thanks for signing up.

Perun

In every generation there is one brave Polish man who wields the lightning in the mankind's darkest hour. He lifts up the runic axe, older than the people of this land and the power of the ancient deity starts coursing through his veins. Old gods still watch over their children and stand vigilant when tides of evil rise.

The current wielder of Perun's power is a student from Warsaw whose grandfather and great great grandfather used to be Lightning Lords years ago. Stanislaw Starzynski became marked with the lightning rune when he confronted Forgotten minions sent to recover Szczerbiec, the coronation sword of Polish kings.

A pre-release at Salute, Maciej was kind enough to have one of these on hand for me, and from the moment I saw the first shots of the green (and became aware that there will be some international Supremes - expect more by the way!), I knew how I wanted to tackle him, and I don't think that changed at all during execution.

I really enjoyed painting this mini. I guess that my enthusiasm has been no doubt fulled by the recent Thor movie, and reading Thor stories in New Ultimates and Ultimate Thor as well as Avengers comic books. Marvel have their own Perun (and maybe DC also?), but this is a special mini to me. I have seen at least one other super-hero mini styled on Perun and I think this one wins hands down. I think James Van Schaik has done a stunning job in sculpting this one.

I green-stuffed what I would hope would pass for a tiny wind-swirl/cloud beneath his foot to represent wind lifting him into the sky.

Perun's game rule are yet to be finalised, but let me say that he is likely to be a true powerhouse of Nature on a par with Solar; Villains beware...