I’ve been quite the last couple of days. The creative bug came over me and I painted the triffid minis!
After doing a test mini, I streamlined the process by having a gradient from just three colours. Which speeded up the painting production line.
So that’s the triffids are “table ready” for using in Last Days.
Now all I need to do is work out is what the collective name for a group of triffids is!
After the first update to the stats I got some further feedback. Which raised some good points. So I’ve included once more the feedback from Facebook below, but not the feedback/comments from the first update (you can view them easily enough if you click on the link).
Please also remember that my inspiration source is the 1981 BBC tv series adaptation of the book. Although where there are gaps that need filling I use the resources linked to in the original post. The aim has also been to try and keep things rule light as possible while getting the triffid theme over.
I need to think about the spawning rules, and if they need changing from the core rules, and see how things feel. I do like the points raised. So once I can play test these with my friend there may well be a future update covering this.
The fire weapon doing double damage, see what you mean when I reread the Head Shot trait. Hopefully fixed that.
I have added stats for a triffid gun now. The disclaimer below really does apply to this.
On the first aid front, yep not thought that out enough. I think for this to work medical supplies needs to be something that can be equipped from the start, and used in game with the interact action. If used this way it’s gone and can not be used again. One and gone so to speak. I’m thinking a cost of 2 scavenger points to add medical supplies to a character.
Please note: These stats have not been play tested. I repeat have not been play tested. They are my initial thoughts, and a work in progress (this is the third interation). They are likely to change once I get a chance to play test them.
To Do (still):
▪ Play test this!
▪ Come up with campaign additions to cover a character becoming blind if they survived an attack and got hit on bare skin.
The source I used to help with the Triffid Gun stats is this link.
I know I should be finishing the stat update for the triffids. But hear me out. I started painting the triffids instead.
Basically what follows are notes for me so I don’t forget what I did. All paints used are Army Painter.
Despite painting the base coat of all the triffids, I decided to do just one to completion to iron out any kinks in the process.
The base coat for the stem of the triffid is deep yellow and white mixed together (equal parts). I think this when dry works very well, and gives me the colour I wanted on the stem in the middle.
I then used Pure Red, Lava Orange and Phoenix Flames for the layering/gradient. I didn’t go straight from one to the other when painting. I would mix equal parts of the previous colour with the new colour first and do a layer of that, before moving onto the new colour. I’m not too happy with how the “flower” front came out. It’s too solid one the red, and needs a bit more orange coming through.
The base of the triffid is Wet Mud, with the bit around the prongs Wet Mud mixed with equal parts white. And the prongs are ash grey.
A diluted Green Tone wash is applied. I like the green tinge the stem takes on. And I think it has really worked wonders on the lower half.
Once dry I super glued the triffid to a base. The I flocked the base. For once a little glue sticking flock to the triffid bottom works in my favour and makes the whole thing look better!
1 triffid down, 20 more to do!
At the weekend for some reason I got it in my head I wanted a Finn Lego minifig with the now infamous First Order helmet with the bloodied hand print on it.
Naturally that isn’t something Disney or Lego are likely to sell.
So I did a quick Google to see if anyone was selling a custom figure. Instead I found a post/video showing how to do it myself using a toothpick and red paint.
I just needed Finn as a First Order trooper. Ok technically any First Order trooper would have done. But not for me. So eBay helped out by allowing me to purchase Finn in his First Order uniform. Which arrived this morning.
I then dug out a First Order trooper and removed its helmet. Then using a toothpick, and the Army Painter Zombicide Glistening Blood paint that I had, I painted on the infamous bloodied hand print on the helmet.
Which I think has come out looking quite good.
Yesterday I did finish off removing the supports from the final 6 triffids that Duncan printed for me.
I’ve now primed all 21 triffids ready to be painted.
After doing some research in how to paint the triffids. Which was mainly looking at triffid pictures from the 1981 BBC tv adaptation. I have a colour scheme that I will be using (just waiting for the Army Painter Wet Mud paint to arrive). At the moment I’m looking at tutorials on layering/blending because that’s the main technique I will need to painting the triffids.
Lastly the Alien miniatures arrived from Thirsty Meeple this morning. I just need the alien egg/face hugger pack to arrive.
Just checking in. It’s been more than a couple of days since the last post. So I thought I’d put up a still here post.
Yesterday I teased folks and my friends I’m actually playing the game with, with a “current state of play” screen shot of my reserve.
I can now reveal one of those blurred out birds from yesterday’s tease. Mainly because I played it this morning. Naturally my other cards are blurred out.
Yep I’ve played a Raven. It was in my starting hand. But I needed to get another bird out before hand so I can start making use of it. I also need ideally some sort of tucking cards thing going on. Round one for me has been about setting this up and some sort of engine around it. The following rounds are all about exploiting this little engine and making it more powerful.
This current game is making good use of the 24 hour time limit to take a turn. Don’t get me wrong I enjoy playing Wingspan with friends when we are all online at the same time and play is more or less real time, and banter etc is happening via a discord channel or messenger.
However that’s not convenient for everyone. So that we could include one of our friends in a game we started one with everyone playing committing to check in and take their turn once a day. I’m usually checking in to see if it’s my turn three times a day. Game play is naturally slower, but it’s inclusive. Although having to wait so long to drop the raven on everyone was excruciating.
I made the mistake yesterday of putting the The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (BotW) card into my Switch yesterday. The thinking was I’d get any updates installed so it’s ready when I get round to it.
However no updates were needed! And it went straight into the game. Several hours later.
BotW is a beautiful game. Nay stunning. So easy to get lost in it.
So instead of working on the alien stuff for Last Days or updating the triffids based on further feedback, I was exploring the high plateau on Hyrule.
But I do need to get back to this stuff. I now have some of the Aliens Another Glorious Day in the Corp models on the way. Plus I’m toying with the idea of basing the terrain on Hadley’s Hope. I do have a map of it from the Alien RPG. It’s just working out the best way to recreate it at an affordable cost.
Oh the post title? The later is the message I was expecting Jonathan to post once he saw I’d played a raven.
Last week Asmodee Digital and FFG (both part of the Asmodee Borg Collective) released Arkham Asylum Mother’s Embrace (AAME) on the Switch and other consoles.
Naturally this post will be looking at the Switch version of the game. So when I discuss things like graphic quality or other platform specific things they will not apply to the other platforms AAME is available on. Oh and I’m playing it on a Switch Lite.
AAME is set within the Lovecraftian Arkham Asylum universe that FFG created with their board games and living card game (lcg). I’ve enjoyed one or two of the board games, like Elder Sign, Eldritch Horror and Mansions of Madness 2. But the co-operative lcg Arkham Horror didn’t appeal to me, so I never bought it or played it. As for the whole Lovecraft Cthulhu theme with the elder gods, cultists and 1920/30’s setting it’s something I can take or leave.
Upon first loading up AAME I’m hit by the loading times. I’ve not timed it, maybe I should, but it does seem slow and take an age.
But as I navigate the menu, select my investigator, and start a new game, the cut scenes and starting in front of a house take me back to the early 1990’s and the “classic” MS-DOS game Alone in the Dark. That vibe just gets stronger as I start to walk around and explore.
If you ask Nathan the graphics aren’t much better than those of Alone in the Dark either. But in reality the 3D models may not be as good as those on other platforms, and feel more PS3 level at best. However they were more than serviceable and didn’t detract me from the game and getting sucked into the story.
You start AAME with the initial investigator that you chose at the start, but you are soon recruiting others into your team as you work through the chapters that make up the story.
During the game as you explore the location that the current chapter is set in, you can investigate certain parts of the room signified by a bright dot when far away, and a magnifying glass when up close.
Sometimes when you investigate an object you have a choice of options you can take. Chose the wrong one and the mythos clock goes up by one. If the mythos clock hits the top it resets, and forces all your current investigators to do a sanity check that if they fail will give them some sort of negative condition. But it’s not always guess work, if you gave a relevant investigator in your current team you get a clue as to the right choice to make.
I like that at the start of each chapter you select the investigators you want to take on that mission. Those left behind get rested and heal back up from any conditions they have from failed sanity checks.
One aspect I dislike about the game, and it’s done in many others too, is having captions on screen at the same time as the voice acting. I’ve read the text before the voice acting has finished. I must look at the options to see if I can switch this off. At list you can advance through it without having to wait.
Combat itself is fine. It’s turn based where you get to spend a number of action points to take one or more of the actions available to the character. The action point cost of actions varies on the action and character. Plus at the start of combat initiative is generated to decide the order of characters and enemies to take their turn. Very TTRPG like.
I like the quick access to the building map, equipment screen, story summary, and the objective summary. I also like the graphic design of these to be like and feel like a notebook.
Another nice touch is the auto saving, with the option to also create your own save point. This save point within the chapter will be where you start from if you need to quit and come back later, die etc.
I’m on the fourth chapter now and I’m enjoying AAME. I love the fact it takes me back to those days of playing Alone in the Dark. And I like that Asmodee Digital and FFG have chosen that style of game play. The story, the investigating a mystery also help in taking me back to those days. It may not have the flashiest of graphics. But they do the job.
Thought I’d give a little update on the iOS version of Arena.
I raised a support call with WotC over redeeming the codes I had. Which they did respond to. You need to either use the PC/Mac version, or go to your account settings and https://myaccounts.wizards.com/code. Now this bit must be new (as in the last year) as I don’t remember WotC allowing codes to be redeemed via the web before.
So now I have some free packs and decks. Not many but some. It’s a start.
However having ground out the Colour (I refuse to use the American spelling here) Challenge unlocked the rewards as I progressed through each, and unlocked the other game formats. What it does not do is give me the free deck for having completed it, or acknowledge that I’ve completed it!
The WotC twitter support did reply to my query about this with…
So I visited the link, and created a feedback (that’s all it allows you to do) with the above screen shots attached.
In the meantime, I entered promo codes (happy I can do that now), ate, slept and other stuff.
With time to kill this morning I decided I’d check to see if I had a reply.
I want to say to my surprise there was no reply or even acknowledgement that my “bug” had been seen. But I was disappointed that there had not even been any form of acknowledgement. Which is the minimum you expect, even if it’s automated.
Naturally I voiced that disappointment via social media with the WotC Help account in a fairly civil manor.
I know the cards in this red/green deck aren’t going to be great. But they are cards none the less. Plus the challenge needs to be acknowledged as being completed so it can give me another to attempt (possibly). These challenges are one of the ways to grind out gems/coins and boosters for free. If the aim is to spend as little as possible (my total outlay so far has been a fiver on the intro booster offer) then this needs to be working.
Today Magic the Gathering Arena hit the iOS App Store.
Finally! It’s long over due on the platform. It came out on Android as an early access at the end of January.
In my opinion Arena should have been on mobile from launch, or failing that within the first 6 months of launching. I really do think WotC fumbled the ball on this. By taking so long to reach other platforms other than PC, WotC really failed to make a significant dent into rival games such as Hearthstone. And that’s despite throwing lots of money at advertising, and “buying” streamers.
So this morning after downloading Arena onto my iPad, it had to then download even more data before I could do anything but play the tutorial. Then before the majority of game modes are made available I had to complete the Colour Challenge to unlock them. Which is basically play a mono coloured deck against an “AI” opponent playing one of the remaining colours, then the final game would be against a random real opponent. And you have to do that for each colour type, before you can play Standard or Historic for example.
The “AI” opponents are more logic puzzles than playing against an AI, as the cards drawn are the same each time. So it’s basically about playing the cards in the right order.
The real player opponent was fun. However there were some uneven matchups with obviously more powerful decks, they were not mono colour for starters. I think this for a complete novice to the game could be very off putting.
Being a paper player I have collected more than a handful of Arena codes over the last couple of years. These codes unlock decks, boosters, etc within Arena. You have to enter the code within the in app store to unlock them. However it appears that in the version of Arena released today there is no way to redeem those codes. So if like me you don’t have a PC/Mac you can’t use them, hopefully they won’t expire before WotC sort this out. Which would not be cool.
I knew I’d like playing MtG using Arena. It’s MtG with a slick “modern” UI. What’s not to like?
However it’s all the crap around playing the game that WotC have with their nickel and diming players for every penny they can screw out of them I don’t like.
I’ve seen comparisons online, and WotC are one of the meanest, less generous companies for this type of game. The in game economy is very much weighted in their favour.
Which means building up a collection and being able to build decks requires you to spend a lot of time grinding away, or spending lots of money. Neither is ideal.
Will I continue to play Arena? Possibly. Redeeming these codes is a biggie for me. Maybe a deal breaker.
The Alien movies, especially Alien and Aliens hold a special place in my fandom heart. I loved the late 80’s, early 90’s Dark Horse comics. Even some of the books are pretty good.
So with the introduction of the Evolutions and Timelines rules in the Blaster magazine (available on DriveThruRPG) it was only a matter of time really before I tried to add xenomorphs using these additional rules.
But aren’t there miniature based games already for this franchise? And yes indeed there are, like the official Galeforce 9 Aliens: Another Glorious Day in the Corps and it’s expansions (link at the end of the post). However I think Last Days has a much more flexible rule set that will allow for a great cinematic xenomorph experience.
Getting miniatures for us to use is pretty easy. And doesn’t require us to buy a game that we are only interested in it’s miniatures for. Galeforce 9 actually sell the miniatures for their game separately! It is these miniatures that will determine the various evolutions that I will spec out for use with Last Days.
How many miniatures will you need? 24 alien warrior miniatures (3x the number of tokens we’ll be using), 1 alien queen, 5 eggs (closed) and 5 open eggs, finally ideally we should have 5 face huggers. I appreciate that this will require buying multiple copies of figure packs. But at the moment these are the cheapest way to get the figures.
As you have probably guessed from the posts title this isn’t everything needed to play Last Days using Xenomorphs. There is a lot of work going into this (more than triffids). Which means it will take me much much longer to get these initial thoughts down. Despite not having finished the updated triffid stats I had to get this post written. The spawning stuff just hit me one morning and I needed it written down so I didn’t forget it.
But first my disclaimer.
Please note: These stats/rules have not been play tested. I repeat have not been play tested. They are my initial thoughts, and a work in progress. They are likely to change once I get a chance to play test them.
Setup:
During the game setup after the supply token deployment we are adding an eggs deployment stage.
The player that chose the deployment zone first will go first in deploying the eggs.
A Last Days Xenomorphs game will have at least five eggs deployed on the table.
The rules for deploying the eggs will be the same as those for deploying supply tokens with one exception. Eggs can be deployed next/near to other eggs.
“The first will always be deployed on ground level as close to the center of the board as possible. The other four will be deployed, two per player, anywhere on the table but not within 6” of a table edge, deployment zone,…”
Spawning:
For this I’m going to be using the alien tokens that you can get for the Alien role playing game (photo below). On one side you have a motion tracker symbol, and on the reverse side an image of an alien.
First we need to build a pool of tokens. To do this we will need one token with an alien queen on, and eight tokens with a regular alien on (token k in the image below). Turn them motion tracker symbol face up, and shuffle/mix up.
When an alien spawns instead of placing a miniature, a token gets placed instead, motion tracker symbol facing up. Until a character miniature has line of sight (LOS) on that token it remains a token and gets moved according to the rules.
Once a character has LOS the token gets flipped revealing the alien type to be added to the board. But this is aliens, life isn’t that simple or easy. You now roll 1d6, and half the value, rounding down. So you should get a value between 0-3. This is the number of xenomorphs that will be spawning at that tokens position. Unless it is an alien queen being spawned. There will only ever be one of them. By having a chance of zero aliens spawning we’re simulating a false motion tracker reading.
If a character is within 5ft (1 inch) of an egg it will open and spawn a face hugger. That egg can no longer spawn a face hugger. Replace the closed egg with an open egg, and place a face hugger between the egg and character.
That’s my thoughts so far. As the following to do list shows still a lot to do. I’ll try and get the triffids finished first though.
To do:
References:
Ok bit of a sensationalist blog title. And this blog post and it’s embedded video has absolutely nothing to do with board gaming!
But it is me trying some chilli noodles that were given to me by my brother.
Apparently these noodles are too hot for his wife so he wanted me to try them.
Forgot to say in the video I really liked the noodle itself.
Plus I think my brother is a little disappointed I didn’t find them too hot.