Homebrew Scenarios for County Road Z

I picked up County Road Z and have been enjoying it. It’s a fun mix of skirmish, base management, and zombie killing madness (which I’ve done some battle reports for). The book has quite a bit of scenarios, but I’ve found a lot of them need special terrain items to make them work well. However I’ve noticed a clever way of presenting some of the special rules as individual scenario elements. So instead of presenting the scenario rules as survivors need to explore this building to get Item A, which will in turn allow access to Location B for Loot Y. It’ll tell you to the survivors can find Item A. You then go to a section detailing Item A which will have generic rules for accessing another location. Essentially you begin to see these can be pulled out and plopped into other scenarios pretty easily.

By RAW, you start out with shoddy equipment and I haven’t really found a way to improve my weapons and gear without spending a lot of resources and base space scrambling to make stuff. And the rule scenarios highlight gaining rare gear and weapons. So I decided to use those common scenario elements to make my own mission.

I’ve whipped up rules and have them in the Downloads Section. It’s a simple scenario where the survivors try to hit up an old sporting goods store. Maybe they’ll get lucky and find some rare equipment, but more likely be able to get some plain, standard weapons. They could try to bust the doors in, but might be more stealthy getting a code to the door locks from the neighboring house. Or maybe even take keys to the door from the old security guard that oddly seems to still be patrolling the area as a zombie. Either way, will be fun to document my plucky crew as they try to level up their gear and weapons.

Painting Marvel Crisis Protocol – She-Hulk

I’m going the route of fun characters for my Avengers list. The superhero lawyer, Jennifer Walters, aka She-Hulk, was a model I wanted. Sadly, seems the group think around She-Hulk is she’s underpowered for a 6 threat. However I love the character and certainly wanted a high threat roster member for those upper limit crisis missions, so She-Hulk was going to be part of my team.

As most of my MCP stuff, I’ve been leaning heavily into Vallejo Xpress contrast paints and using their acrylics too. With a slapchop base of grey primer, drybrushed white, I worked on sections of the jumper using Gloomy Violet Xpress.

I then gave Jennifer Walters  a base of Troll Green Xpress which really provided a wonderful look.

Her jumper was a little tricky. I first gave a pass with Templar White Xpress, and then followed up with a thinned Sky Grey. The creases and folds in her jumper I defined further with did a 1:1 of Sky Grey/Pale Grey Blue. For her hair I used a 1:1 mix of Lizard Green/Black Lotus Xpress

I put some more attention on the girder and went with a base coat of Copper Brown Xpress.

I did a final pass over her jumper with White. I thinned it some and dappled it on with a coarse brush. 

For She-Hulk’s skin I worked in highlights using a mix of 1:1 Troll Green Xpress/Uniform Green. I shifted to a final highlight of sections just using Uniform Green acrylic paint.

The final bits were using various paints I have to touch up sections of her base. I used some orange colors to add a rust effect to the girder. I also used a red brick color to some of the base to provide a little contrast. I finally used a thin wash of sepia ink on some base sections and GW Ratling Grime contrast for other parts of the base.

Overall I really liked the look I got for She-Hulk. I forgot the cardinal sin of painting white being you basically use every other color for a base coats, washes, and shading other than actual white. Instead, best to use white as that final drybrush for highlights. But in the end, I think she looks pretty good and ready to smash up baddies for my next MCP game.

Painting Marvel Crisis Protocol – Luke Cage

Like probably every other MCP person out there, I’m working on filling out my Avengers roster. But I wanted to get some folks that could do double duty and work with a Defenders list. I have a soft spot for Daredevil and the street level heroes, so thought Luke Cage, aka Power Man, would be a good choice. 

Going with Vallejo Xpress contrasts and paints, I put a base slapchop coat down using a gray primer and white drybrush. For the jeans I put down a coat of Storm Blue Xpress. Quite honestly, I just left it with a single coat. The coverage looked great giving the mini a faded jeans look.

For his shirt, I put down a coat of Imperial Yellow Xpress, then a coat of Deep Yellow paint. I still wanted a deeper tone, so I gave the shirt a final wash of Amarillo ink.

To give the shirt a little depth, I used a 1:1 mix of Transparent Yellow and Deep Yellow. I then put down some final highlights of Deep Yellow.

Luke’s skin got a base coat of Smoke. It’s a really dark brown that I love. For the belt and bracers, I departed some from the classic comic look and went with Beige for a leather look. The skin, bracers, and belt got a final wash of thinned Army Painter Strong Tone.

I painted his boots Black and gave his skin some soft highlights of Beige. With that, the model was done.

I deviated a little with only Vallejo paints, using some GW contrast paints for the girder and cement cracks. Also looking at a lot of the previous pics, you might get the impression the skin is too shiny. And if using inks and certain washes that can also give minis too much of a shine. However I wanted to demonstrate how well a good coat of matte varnish helps. Just a single coat and it completely softens the paint job, ending up with a great look. Sweet Christmas, I can’t wait to get him on the table.

Jumped into the YouTube Pool

Welp, decided to go with the rising tide of streaming and videos. Enjoy blogging and still think I’ll be putting up written reviews for things that strike my gaming fancy. But I can’t deny that the days of the written blog are waning. I still enjoy making gaming content and likely focus more on documenting my bench and tabletop time with videos going forward. My first effort is linked below.

28mm Rural Shack Terrain

Picked up a copy of County Road Z (CRZ) on a whim and now full of piss and vinegar to do some zombie games. Much of my terrain for 28mm is urban buildings and such for Zona Alfa. While a few ruins look ok, thought I’d need some intact structures for my table too. I ran across Atomic Laser Cut Designs and really liked some of the stuff they have for zombie games. Their shotgun shack looked perfect for CRZ.

The kit comes flat packed. And the MDF sections were pretty easy to pop out from the sheets.

The doors are a pretty clever design. There is a hole in the main floor, and top sections that fit into the door frame. Since the doors have tabs on them, this makes a kind of anchor point for the doors so that they swing freely, but stay firmly in place.

I will grumble some. While there are no instructions, the kit is still pretty intuitive to assemble. However I found the foundation section was a bit of a puzzle. There are protruding parts of the foundation that stick out for the front porch and back deck. Make sure you place the foundation section that has a tab cut out facing the rear of the building. This allows a smaller section that fits in that slot, serving as a base for the rear deck.

The structure walls are easy to drop in. Mind you the upper door sections can be a tight wiggle to place, but doable. Overall the pieces fit well and didn’t need any sanding. Pretty much fit into slots with no fuss.

The roof is designed to fit in two sections. One for the main building and another that fits over the porch. It’s nice to be able to take off the porch roof, but the main roof design has a little overhang. Found it best to remove the main roof first and then pull off the porch roof if needed.

Overall the scale looks right on target for 28mm. I’ve plopped down a Reaper Miniature to give some idea of scale. The building also has window frames that add more texture to the outer walls. I was just so excited to take pics, I started doing so and forgot to put them on when I snapped some photos. Overall, happy to have picked this up and having a playable interior is just icing on the terrain cake. Great kit for 28mm wargaming.

Painting Marvel Crisis Protocol – Ms Marvel

Continuing my painting efforts to finish an Avengers roster, I veered towards doing fun stuff and worked on Ms Marvel. I love the character and for any comic nerds, highly recommend checking the title out. If you want a lighter superhero book that’s just fun, Ms Marvel has got it in spades.

As I’ve mentioned before working with contrasts, I’ve leaned heavily into the Slapchop method. For Vallejo Xpress contrasts I’ve found you can get away with just a white drybrush over gray primer.

I stuck with Vallejo paints all throughout. For her uniform tunic I went with Xpress Mystic Blue and her sleeves, leggings, and scarf Xpress Velvet red. Especially for the Velvet Red, I just love the deep tones you get as shading right from the pot.

I highlighted her uniform with 1:1 with Vallejo’s Xpress Mystic Blue/Ultra Marine, and a 1:1 Xpress Velvet Red/Carmine Red. The uniform piping and lightning bolt I gave a base coat of Desert Yellow and then a coat of Transparent Yellow to brighten it up some.

For her skin, I put down a base of Beige Brown. I used Gold for her bracelet. It’s a little bright but figured once I got a wash down, it would darken niceley.

After the base skin parts were painted I then gave her a sepia ink wash, including her bracelet. As final skin highlights, I used Orange Brown. For her hair I used Smoke and highlighted it with Beige Brown.

The last bits were for the base. Just some copious drybrushing for the concrete barrier and curb. I gave the manhole cover a quick cover of contrast paint and called it done. Gonna be fun to see her on the tabletop.

Toy Truck Terrain for Marvel Crisis Protocol

Walking around my local Target I saw some toy trucks that grabbed my eye. Battat Toys has the Driven Micro Fleet line that seemed the perfect scale for MCP. I snagged a box for about $20 USD and eagerly took it home to figure out how well they’d match up with my minis. I was happy to say they look pretty good.

There seems to be a few choices with one set being a road roller, truck, and platform crane. While another had a tow truck (with car), dump truck, and forklift truck. I wanted something to fit for some construction terrain I was working on, so I picked up a box with a dump truck, backhoe loader, and crane.

I took a few pics with a MCP car to give a comparative scale. Overall I think they look good with the truck and crane about size 4. The backhoe loader was maybe closer to size 3. Unfortunately the truck trailer section is open. I might think about having a removable debris pile so minis can properly plop on top of it.

The trucks have moveable parts which I’m going to have to glue together and/or shut. I’ll likely have to give it a good matte coat of varnish before trying to paint them too. Not going to try and give them a complete new coat of paint, but rather work on weathering up the trucks to make them look a little better on the tabletop. Regardless for 3 trucks a set and a steal of a price, a good purchase if wanting some options for beefy vehicles to add to your MCP terrain.

Card Hand Holders for Solo Board Gaming

Skimming through the interwebs I’ve seen some folks excited to dive deeply into the Arkham Horror LCG and Marvel Champions. I enjoy them immensely and a common trait for both is to helm different investigators/heroes while playing. Especially for Arkham Horror, you can try to tackle scenarios true solo with a single investigator, but that can be a tall order for deck construction. It’s easier to have another “player” at the table to help with stretching limited actions out during the investigator’s phase. So commonly I’ll play these games two-fisted, playing two separate hands simultaneously.

But keeping track of cards in play and sort out which ones are in which player’s hand can be difficult. That’s why I use playing card hand holders. There are a lot of options out there from plastic to wooden ones. But do look thoroughly at products before you buy, especially if you use card sleeves. Plastic ones commonly are a tight fit and might pinch sleeved cards more than you’d like. I got a simple set of wooden ones and the slot size for holding cards is quite ample.

It makes playing so much easier having these at the table. I can keep things more organized allowing me to have more visual cues which cards belong to which hand. Also it allows me to look at what the other “player” is holding on my turns. This is especially nice for games like Marvel Champions where you have quite a bit of cards and abilities that are useful to play on other people’s turns.

So if you dabble in solo board gaming, do consider picking up some card hand holders. They are a nice addition to contribute to a more enjoyable play experience.

Null Signal Games ditching the last of FFG Cards

Netrunner has continued chugging along with the help of community support and Null Signal games. I think overall they’ve done a great job and offered lots of cool on-ramps for new players, and nifty stuff for the seasoned vets, to enjoy Netrunner. Some news that creeped out is that Null Signal games is moving forward with retiring the old FFG cards.

I can understand this reasoning. It’s a way to entice new players into the game, and help tread around legal landmines with FFG. Null Signal Games saw the need to get some type of core set out there for new players. Can totally get how another part of my old post is coming to fruition, offering alternatives to staple FFG cards. It’s interesting they are going further and completely dropping FFG cards altogether going forward as an evergreen product.

NSG has put out a lot of expansions, but I have one thing I’m hoping for in their next big core set supplement (codename Dawn), more IDs. I can see focusing on a pool of cards to offer an expansive floor for the future of the game, with lots of choices for breakers, ice, assets, resources and such. But honestly small expansions, adding a few tinkered and tested cards, can work for that. A lot of variety in Netrunner can come from simply using a different runner or corp ID. I really hope that NSG embraces that idea and offers 4-6 options for each respective faction, that we get a bevy of IDs to play with this neo core.

Regardless, it’ll be fun to see what they have planned for this year.

Terrain for Marvel Crisis Protocol – Atomic Laser Cut Designs

I’ve got a chunk of modern terrain for Zona Alfa and the core box for MCP has a slew of nice terrain, still I wanted to get a few options for terrain pieces. I stumbled across Atomic Laser Cut Designs looking mostly for my Zona Alfa and Country Road Z boards, but some of their modern building sets looked like they would also work for MCP. 

I picked up a small, generic, single story shop from Amazon. The kit is flat packed. It is pretty simple to assemble with well cut holes and notches that easily fit together.

The building comes with a front and side door along with protruding window frames. I think it would be very easy to use cardboard to fill in open spaces if needed. The doors have an interesting design that allows the door to be removed or shifted open. With a small amount of Blu Tack you could keep the door secure and prop it open while playing. The roof section can easily be removed and sits securely using tabbed notches in the walls.

The storefront sign is nice allowing it to be removed and clips onto the roof easily. I’m already thinking of some simple designs to print out and mount with Blu Tack to reflect different games I could use it for. Possibly make it “Joe’s Guns and Ammo” for zombie games, to “Cosmic Comics” for MCP games.

As a size scale it’s a little harder to nail down. For 28mm it certainly hits that look of a single story building. You can see it’s larger than a MCP kiosk but I feel strictly height-wise would straddle between size 3 and 4. However looking at some other official MCP size 4 buildings, and given the overall footprint on the table, size 4 seems appropriate.

My complaints for this kit would be that the walls are pretty sparse on details. Also the roof fits great but the notches might be too glaring. You’d have to incorporate some paint scheme to work with the roof. Note there are other building sets in their modern terrain line that have more detail like distressed walls. In general the kits are for the Walking Dead miniature wargame and seem to match that setting and scale well. However, I wouldn’t get too wrapped up in their product line names. The “mean streets” sets have nice looking brick buildings and the 3 story one looks particularly good. It seems quite high and doesn’t appear to take up that much table space for a size 5 terrain piece.