It’s been something of a weird week so far and whilst I have quite a full update for you I haven’t done any painting at all. That’s not to say I haven’t managed to get in a reasonable amount of hobby time, just that none of it has involved a paint brush. But it has involved quite a lot of prep work so that I should be able to start on some painting next week. I could have broken things down a little and done less prep but got started with some painting but I just felt that it would be better in the long run if I did all the prep up front and then just played round with the painting. This has all been because the new Dystopian Wars ‘Hunt for the Prometheus’ two player starter set has arrived and I wanted to get all the models cleaned up before doing any painting.
But before I get into the hobby update I wanted to have a bit of waffle about the game. Now I want to say right up front that I haven’t played the new version and I haven’t even read through any of the rules or supporting material yet. All I know is that now that War Cradle have the IP they have moved the background so that it ties in with Wild West Exodus and give a more global feel to its squad based sister. I have been a really big fan of the previous version of the game and had backed the failed kick starter, let that be a lessen to anyone backing a Kickstarter, they can go wrong. So I’ve been waiting for this new version to come out. As far as expectations go I’m not worried about the change to background and think it’s a good idea to use the same IP for multiple games. But there is one thing that the game has to deliver and I’ve not yet checked to see if it’s in the rules. That one thing is the exploding six. What I do know at the moment is the exploding six in its original form isn’t in this new version as it uses custom dice, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t there in spirit. For me this is so important because it means even the smallest model on the table has the theoretical chance to kill the largest one on the board. Granted you would need to roll a ridiculous number of consecutive six’s but the chance is still there and that is what makes the original game so good.
Now I’m going to digress a bit and point out that buying the new version without know if the exploding six is still in the game isn’t as much of an issue as it may sound. The reason for that is that I still have the rules for the original game. So there is nothing stopping me using the new models with the old rules and just enjoying the game in its original form. And this is something that can apply to any game you want. I really like Guild Ball, although I haven’t played for a long time. Now that it is out of support I can still play it’s just that there won’t be anything else coming my way. I’m sure there are lots of other games out there that have gone out of support but that doesn’t mean you can’t keep playing them. There was another Spartan Games space based game that whose name I can’t remember that is obviously now out of support but still has thriving online community with fan rules being added so there are lots of things out there if you want to keep them alive. I really like that as it means that as long as some is interested in a game it can continue to survive.
Now then on the hobby front it’s all been about the cleaning up and building the ships that come in the starter set. I didn’t think it would take me very long but I was very wrong on that front. On the Commonwealth side, although I’m still thinking of them as Russian, there are a lot of turrets and generators that need to be cleaned up. There are then about thirty ships to build for both factions. Most of these are very detailed plastic kits and three resin models. I’ve only been working on the plastic kits and haven’t quite managed to get them all completed yet. Having said that I’m nearly there so I will be able to get them finished and start on the painting next week.
As for the rest of the box I’ll go over everything in there when in a future update but just as a teaser here is a look at the box and its contents.
That’s it for this week. Next week is going to be spent working on these guys with my goal being having everything ready for a game when we come of out of lockdown. We might not be able to meet up straight away but I want to have it ready so that if anyone fancies a game I will have everything ready. So until next week, keep safe, look out for friends and family and I hope to see you all again next week.
