post-apoc

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Majesticon Day 2: Zona Alfa

Posted by Comrade on September 17, 2021

Posted in: Posts. Tagged: 28mm, club, game night, narrative, post-apoc, sci-fi, skirmish, zona alfa. 9 Comments

The second day of our mini-game con kicked off with a morning session of Zona Alfa. Astute readers of this blog may recall my general infatuation with Stalker-inspired gaming, and that is what Zona Alfa delivers in spades. The game was released in January 2020 and Comrade’s Wargames got its grubby paws on an advance copy to read and review.

I was pleased to return to Zona Alfa for this session — and to incorporate some exciting elements from the new supplement Kontraband.

I designed our session as a cooperative scenario that tasked four groups of stalkers with traveling the length of the infamous Khimbruk Road deep in the anomalous Exclusion Zone. There were a several points of interest along the road, and each crew also had its own unique goal that they could work toward.

The road, as you might imagine, was fraught with both threats and potential rewards. Only the hardiest crews would survive to reap the benefits and return home with packs bulging with salvage.

Zona Alfa and Kontraband both use a system to generate random bad guys and loot when players interact with “points of interest” on the map. We had 7 such points of interest on our map, each corresponding to a particular Good Thing or (more likely) a Bad Thing.

The first firefight erupted when John sent his commandos tiptoeing up to a leaking chemical tank. Turns out it wasn’t just a chemical burn he was risking…

A swarm of nasty rad bugs surged out to attack the crews. Thirty years ago their descendants might have been locusts and cockroaches skittering around the irradiated ruins of the Zone, but today they were fearsome chitinous monstrosities that had to be dispatched with brutal prejudice.

While this was happening, Paul’s tunnel scavengers hoofed it to the roof of a nearby outpost and looted another objective marker — drawing the attention of a nearby band of raiders in the process! They popped out of cover and began pouring automatic weapons fire into the unlucky crew! We’re not alone, comrades!

Nearby, the crews noticed a swirling, pulsating energy field that seemed to warp the laws of physics. This could only be an Anomaly — one of the enigmatic hazards that frequently occur in the deepest reaches of the Zone. At great personal risk, the crews moved in to explore the Anomaly.

Well, they didn’t die! That much is certain. Will they sprout vestigial third limbs a few weeks from now? Perhaps. Only time will tell.

The crews continued to battle their way down the pockmarked asphalt of the Khimbruk Road. The presence of enemies ebbed and flowed as points of interest were searched and bad guys dispatched. Rad bugs continued to be an ever-present threat. Thankfully, Vince’s warband was comprised of medics led by a doctor, so there was a limited supply of first aid on hand to keep the injured on their feet.

By turn 6, the warbands had nearly crossed the entire length of the tabletop and had achieved their individual objectives. Remarkably, nobody died — though we had several close calls that required med-kits to patch up warriors in the heat of the moment.

Special props to Vincent’s sniper, who scaled a tower early on and provided pinpoint fire support throughout the game. I doubt the outcome would have been quite so favorable if not for the guardian angel watching over them from above.

As with our previous game, we planned lunch at the conclusion of the game. I had prepared a Russian-themed meal to reward the stalwart Zone explorers. Hearty dark rye bread, gigantic dill pickles, and cold salami — a fine spread to be eaten whilst squatting in the dirt at the end of the Khimbruk Road. Давайте есть, comrades!

Zona Alfa: Kicking the Hornet’s Nest

Posted by Comrade on January 31, 2020

Posted in: Posts. Tagged: 28mm, battle report, post-apoc, sci-fi, skirmish, zona alfa. 1 Comment

The gang got together earlier this month for our first game of Zona Alfa, the new Stalker-inspired post-apocalyptic skirmish game from Osprey. (Click here to read my review of Zona Alfa.)

What started out as a simple introductory game quickly swelled to a two-on-two team slugfest, as players signed on with their scrappy crews, lured by the promise of illicit salvage in the eponymous Exclusion Zone. I rode herd on this motley assemblage as impartial (some would say sinister) gamemaster. I was pleased to get such a robust turnout for this game. Here’s a goofy photo as we prepared to brave the dangers of the Zone.

Zona Alfa draws inspiration from the crumbling, abandoned Cold War industrial heaps that you might find in the hinterlands of Eastern Europe. Players muster crews of stalkers, scavengers, and mercenaries and pit them against similarly motivated bands on the battlefield. But the Zone itself plays a huge role in each game … Zone hostiles can appear at any moment, and the very environment itself can suddenly erupt in violent fashion.

Narrative gaming is the heart and soul of Zona Alfa. For our games, we decided that the crews had heard a rumor of an abandoned supply truck parked in the shadow of the Khimbruk Electrochemical Combine, located about a mile inside the perimeter of the Zone. Surrounded by the decaying detritus of the derelict factory, the cargo truck promised a payday of salvage, loot, and more. Here’s a look at the objective.

It’s just right there, for the taking. Yeah, right…

I created some basic starting crews for the players, and then we got started. We set up a 4×4 foot table, slightly larger than the 3×3 size recommended in the rulebook, due to our surplus of players. Each side alternated by activating one figure, performing actions, and then passing play to the opposing team. The first couple of turns were focused on learning the basic game system and moving out of our deployment areas. But before too long, the players got close enough to begin exchanging some ranging volleys of automatic rifle fire as they slipped through the ruins.

We placed three hot spots on the battlefield, in addition to the main mission objective, for a total of four focal points for game action. Hot spots (and the mission objective) trigger Zone hostiles when figures get close enough (typically within 6 inches), but Zona Alfa includes a mechanic to allow players to toss bolts or rocks to trigger hot spots from up to 18 inches away. This is a mechanic that come straight out of the Stalker video game, and it gives players the chance to exploit hot spots from afar and then watch gleefully as their opponent dealt with the ensuing bad guys.

The first hot spot yielded a pack of wild dogs that had spent a little too much time digging through the radioactive slag pile behind the electrochemical plant. They were a ghastly bunch, snarling and covered in bleeding sores. Dan’s troopers paused in their advance and expertly gunned them down.

From there, the game developed into a series of running gun battles as the players lobbed grenades and laid down overlapping fire to cover their advance. John’s crew triggered the next hot spot and was able to take cover in a ruined building as a mob of giant rats scampered toward them.

Here’s another look at the battlefield a couple turns into the game.

Lawrence found himself pinned down by accurate fire from Mark’s band of mostly rookie snipers. He kept his guys in cover and advanced slowly, but Mark was able to toss a bolt and trigger a hot spot, which sent a mob of horrifying zombies shambling down the street towards Lawrence’s dangerously exposed leader.

We found that the rules for Zone hostiles were satisfying but not overly oppressive. This was probably because we were playing at Zone Threat Level 1, the “easiest” setting in the game. As you get closer to the Zone’s enigmatic center, the threats become much more dangerous. Near the perimeter, the Zone hostiles were just a nuisance. But those zombies definitely tied up Lawrence’s leader for a good portion of the game!

Elsewhere on the battlefield, savvy players were using the distraction provided by the Zone hostiles to move forward and secure other objectives. When a figure searches a hot spot, the player rolls randomly to see what has been uncovered. Often it’s salvage worth cold, hard cash outside the Zone, but occasionally you’ll run across equipment or other gear.

Here’s John’s hardened scavenger moving in to search a decommissioned air compressor next to a derelict pumping station.

Likewise, Dan wisely looted this rusted generator, stripping off any useable parts and bagging them up to be hauled back to civilization. His exploration roll resulted in an anomaly — a strange electromagnetic (or was it supernatural?) disturbance that, in this case, disintegrated his hapless trooper. Better luck next time, comrade.

The final clash of the game came when Dan’s crew approached the supply truck during a lull in the fighting. As his poor (doomed) trooper crept closer, the bandits that had been hiding in the rear of the truck sprang their trap, dropping the tailgate and coming out with AK-74s blazing. This was the result of a particularly potent roll on the Zone hostiles table. The bandits took out the trooper, then began blasting in all directions as the other crews closed in.

As the players began to strategize a way to neutralize the scavengers, Dan took it upon himself to deliver the coup de grace. His leader climbed onto the catwalk of the nearby electrochemical factory and tossed a grenade right into the midst of the bandits. Problem solved, comrade.

After that, we tallied up our loot totals and performed the after-action stuff for crew members who had been knocked out during the game. Zona Alfa has a nicely developed campaign system where players can track the acquisition of loot as well as the inevitable degradation of your crew, as repeated forays into the Zone start to take their toll on even the hardest soldier. Best to dismiss such unfortunate souls from your crew and bring on fresh recruits, if you want my advice.

The gameplay of Zona Alfa was easy to pick up after a couple turns. We loved the simplicity of the activation system, and how the Zone hostiles system scales with the overall Threat Level of the game. Basically, those same zombies will be a lot more menacing when you encounter them at Threat Level 3, instead of Threat Level 1. Overall, the mechanics were best described by one of the players as a “toolkit approach,” where the author provides a solid core rules engine with the implicit idea that players will tack on house rules and put their own spin on the game as time goes on. Despite being a casual playgroup, we were still able to punch a few holes in the rules as written and find some loopholes that could be exploited. Again, that’s easy enough handle, but groups should discuss their expectations and approach at the outset, to ensure a fun experience for everyone.

We all agreed that Zona Alfa is a superb catalyst for building terrain, painting up some fun, tacti-cool squads of Cold War antiheroes, and playing out some pitch-perfect adventures in the Zone. We’ll play this one again soon!

ZONA ALFA Review: Get in the Zone, Comrade

Posted by Comrade on January 7, 2020

Posted in: Posts. Tagged: post-apoc, review, sci-fi, skirmish, stalker, zona alfa. 2 Comments

ZONA ALFA, the new skirmish wargame written by Patrick Todoroff and published by Osprey’s beloved “blue book” imprint, is a peculiar and delicious take on post-apocalyptic tabletop gaming. Inspired by the crumbling visuals and moody storytelling in video games like STALKER and Metro 2033, ZONA ALFA provides a toolkit for players who want to recruit a crew of men and women forged in the crucible of the Cold War, equip them to explore the enigmatic Exclusion Zone — braving the otherworldly anomalies and inhuman adversaries therein — and hopefully see them return to their favorite watering hole with riches and stories to tell.

Osprey has kindly provided Comrade’s Wargames with an advance copy of ZONA ALFA, which will be published in late January 2020. This review will touch on what you can expect in terms of tone, setting, and gameplay. I’ll also sprinkle in some photos of games I’ve played in the Zone over the years.

On a personal level, I’ve been enamored with STALKER-inspired wargaming for more than a decade. I’ve followed Todoroff’s blog, the aptly-named Stalker7, for most of that time. The unique aesthetic of this style of gaming is inspired by the decaying urban and industrial landscape you can find in real-life places like the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, where detritus from half-remembered Eastern Bloc facilities and bunkers lies abandoned, often reclaimed by vegetation and punctuated by supply caches and cast-off military equipment. Tabletop games set in the Zone are heavy on exploration and risk-taking, and you can be assured that the places you choose to send your crew will certainly be populated by horrific things that need to be dispatched with terrible prejudice. The rulebook is peppered with short, two-sentence lore snippets, dripping with Soviet fatalism, that hint at the dangers and wonders of the Zone.

Truly, the milieu that Todoroff has captured in ZONA ALFA fires the imagination in a way that few other post-apoc settings do.

It’s also a hobbyists’ dream. I’ve spent the last decade gleefully collecting any 28mm figure wearing a gas mask, reasoning that it will be only a matter of time before they, too, get tapped to go on a Zone run. ZONA ALFA doesn’t have a dedicated miniatures line, and Todoroff encourages you to use whatever figures you wish in your games. Personally, I’m enamored with the pitch-perfect offerings from Lead Adventure Miniatures’ The Last Project line of post-apoc scavengers, as well as the gritty near-future troopers available from Pig Iron Productions. Likewise, the Zone offers an opportunity to tackle all manner of terrain projects, from crashed helicopters to ruined buildings to rusted machinery.

From a gameplay perspective, ZONA ALFA offers a toolkit approach best suited to friendly, narrative-style skirmish games on a 3×3 foot table (or 4×4 for larger games). Players build “crews” composed of scavengers, trespassers, adventurers, loners, killers, explorers, and robbers and then send them on daring runs into the Zone. They’re nominally opposed by one or more competing players, but more often than not the players will find themselves squaring off against “zone hostiles” — NPC enemies spawned at various points on the battlefield and controlled by a basic AI system. Avoiding, defeating, or exploiting these roving packs of horrors create some of the more innovative gameplay elements in ZONA ALFA.

For your crew, individual models are rated based on their experience level: rookie, hardened, or veteran. Obviously you’ll pay more to recruit a crew member with more skill, but in general players should expect to field between 5 and 10 figures in a typical crew. ZONA ALFA is meant to be played WYSIWYG (“what you see if what you get”), and the wargear rules are streamlined to support this — no fiddly point costs for red dot sights or climbing ropes. Just choose your figure, note his experience level, and fill out your (initially limited) slots for weapons, gear, and skills.

On the battlefield, players are encouraged to develop scenarios that challenge their crews to accomplish specific goals on the tabletop, rather than simply doing the default “kill ’em all” scenario that plague so many wargames. Example scenarios might include crossing the map to reach a crippled truck, going door-to-door in an abandoned village searching for survivors, or fueling up a generator so your crew can activate a pressure hatch and descend into a subterranean bunker.

While ZONA ALFA probably qualifies as “rules lite” (and thus, by default, wins endorsement from Comrade’s Wargames), this ruleset definitely features some crunch. With a relatively low number of figures and a fairly dangerous tabletop environment to explore, ZONA ALFA goes all in on the tactical options. Most figures have just a handful of stats, but the tabletop itself adds quite a few options to the mix. For example, there are four different levels of cover provided by terrain, plus another modifier for being elevated, plus (usually) a modifier if the model has some basic camouflage. That’s quite a bit to keep in your head, and it’s a good reminder that terrain matters in this game — a lot!

Likewise, ZONA ALFA provides rules for things that I would otherwise handwave away in a typical skirmish game. Things like climbing and jumping rarely matter much in my games, but they’re described in detail in the rulebook.

Lastly, the gear list tends toward the “tacticool,” with more than a few options that are straight out of popular video games. Again, this is understandable given the subject matter that Todoroff is exploring.

Combat is d10-based and features familiar mechanics like attacks rolls and armor saves. But ZONA ALFA takes this one step farther by adding a tier of outcomes for attacks that wound but don’t kill. The “pin” mechanic is simple but dangerous…pump a few rounds into that low concrete wall, and even if you don’t hit the guy behind it, he’s liable to hunker down for a turn or two and try to crawl into his helmet.

Taken together, you’re left with a rules lite game that nonetheless packs a lot of options into the nooks and crannies. Players who want to try out real-world tactics like moving through cover and blind-tossing grenades through doorways will find a lot to chew on. I’m looking forward to exploring the game system in more detail in our first play-through.

So far, we’ve discussed the basics of a solid near-future skirmish wargame. Where ZONA ALFA really shines, however, is how it models the Zone and its savage inhabitants. Before each game, the players jointly describe the overall Mission Objective and the Zone Threat Level, then they place one or more “hot spots” on the battlefield. These are locations outside of the scenario’s Mission Objective that provide additional opportunities for exploration and salvage. As an example: in our game, we decide that we’re going to see who can retrieve the crate of grenades from the abandoned military outpot. The crate of grenades is the Mission Objective, but we put down two additional “hot spots” which represent additional areas to explore, if the players are feeling brave.

Exploring both Mission Objectives and hot spots always triggers “zone hostiles” — everything from rabid dogs to howling mutants. To see what you get, you’ll need to roll on the table that corresponds to the Zone Threat Level of your battlefield. Once spawned, zone hostiles are controlled using a basic AI system to direct their movement and attacks. Savvy players will find ways to steer these baddies toward their opponent, leaving them free to ransack the battlefield while their opponents are blasting away at zombies and radioactive centipedes.

After a few Zone runs, you may find your guys acquiring loot and improving their equipment. The game has a well developed campaign system … with an actual victory condition for your crew! Accumulate the equivalent of 10,000 bucks, and your guys can retire to a dacha in the countryside. How about that?! Of course, a grisly demise in a forgotten patch of forest is a much more likely outcome…

In conclusion, this game is a really remarkable example of one author’s singular creative vision and his ability to bring that vision to a wider audience. I shouldn’t be surprised, really, because Todoroff is also a speculative fiction author, so he’s well versed in both creating content and hitting deadlines. Just reading the rulebook has got me fired up to build terrain (good thing, because there’s a terrain-making competition running this month over on the ZONA ALFA Facebook group).

Well, that’s my report. It’s getting late and I can hear thunder in the distance. Lean in close while the fire’s still warm, comrade. I’ll take first watch tonight.

Scrappers Game Report and Review

Posted by Comrade on November 27, 2017

Posted in: Posts. Tagged: game night, post-apoc, review, sci-fi, skirmish, warbands. Leave a comment

Earlier this month John and I had a chance to try out Scrappers, the new post-apocalyptic ruleset by Bob Faust and published by Osprey. This was actually our second run-through with Scrappers; we tried it out a couple months back and resolved at that time to try a proper campaign game. So we’ve had two outings with the game, and so we wanted to share some thoughts.

If you know me, you’ll know I love warband-sized games with 5 to 20 figures per side. They’re perfect for a weeknight evening, and they’re also a great excuse to paint up a handful of cool new miniatures — without having to commit to a full army’s worth of models. In the past, I’ve had great luck trying out compact, tightly produced post-apocalyptic tabletop wargames, so I was excited to give Scrappers a try.

As with similar titles from this publisher, the game is a sleek volume, light on the fluff but heavy on the crunch, with lots of replay value packed into the core rulebook. Warbands are composed of individual figures — typically humans, mutants, synthetic robots, further defined by various faction traits.

Unit creation is entirely customizable, with a strong affection for WYSIWYG gameplay (no invisible turbolasers or hidden rocket launchers, please). I have a pretty sizable collection of post-apocalyptic and sci-fi miniatures, and I’m pleased to say that I could get them onto the battlefield with Scrappers.

John and I put together a couple basic warbands — both from the Freelancer faction, which is the generic catch-all faction that represents all of the mercenaries and raiding parties that lurk in the hinterlands, competing for scrap. There more specific factions, such as the all-mutant Gamma Lords and the half-life warboys who make up the Sons of Entropy.

I took this game as an opportunity to drag out my brand-new double-sided plush game mat from Cigar Box Battle Mats. I had received it in the mail following their Kickstarter just a few weeks prior, and was eager to give it a baptism by fire. Here’s the setup.

Pretty crowded! In Scrappers, gameplay is tightly focused on the basic “treasure hunt” mission, where both sides are competing to retrieve scrap tokens from the battlefield. I jokingly referred to Scrappers as “sci-fi Frostgrave,” but the characterization is apt. I find this type of focused gameplay to be very refreshing, and it makes pre-game setup easy. Here are the loot tokens we distributed around the battlefield.

After going over the rules once more, we got underway.

Now’s the point where I explain how Scrappers has *a lot* of rules. Seriously, this is the sort of game that has two full pages of text to describe the mechanics for climbing, jumping and falling. It is extremely tactical, with lots of overlapping rules for both figures and their gear. This allows for lots of customization during unit creation, and lots of rich, unique campaign play — but it also leads to plenty of rulebook flipping, particularly during those early games. This is most decidedly not a rule-lite game — just something to know before going in.

As our game unfolded, John and I both saw immediately how the d10 dice resolution system in Scrappers keeps both players engaged at all times. The game uses alternating unit activation coupled with a unique initiative system. Dice rolls are always opposed — you are never rolling against a static number, always against an actual opponent, even for something as mundane as a climb check. That’s fun and engaging.

In our game, we both sent our figures creeping into the ruins to try to secure the scrap tokens. Small firefights erupted throughout the battlefield as our guys spotted each other and exchanged fire.

Here’s one of my veterans, Lieutenant Shashlik, exploring a rusted power conduit. Wonder what scrap he’ll come up with?

In Scrappers, each scrap token has the possibility of generating a random event (based on a big table in the rulebook). The dramatic moment when you roll for a random event is definitely one of my favorite parts of the game. It adds a lot of unpredictability to the game, and of course random weird stuff is one of the hallmarks of the post-apoc genre.

The wide-open nature of unit creation allows players to min-max and create virtually any sort of character archetype imaginable. In John’s case, this meant a deadly sniper who seized the high ground early on and began picking off my figures one by one.

In my case, custom unit creation yielded SN0-C4T, a quadrupedal combat robot who could scale any piece of terrain and blaze away with his integral auto-shotgun.

We traded fire for a few turns until a rad storm blew in and began saturating our characters with radiation. By that point, I had lost a few figures and gained a few scrap tokens, so I wisely decided to quit the field rather than risk irradiating my warband. And SN0-C4T was about to tangle with Ashford, John’s hulking mutant warrior, so it was probably better for me to just flee.

John “won” the game, but during the post-game loot checks, we found that one of my scrap tokens was actually a force shield — a powerful artifact from before the worldwide collapse. So I actually scored more loot, though I’d have to spend some of it re-equipping my guys who lost their gear.

We remarked after the game that we didn’t get into close combat all — not in this game, and not even in our previous game. Ranged combat seems extremely potent, so much so that melee seems difficult to leverage without building your entire warband around it. And again, this is a WYSIWYG game — I want the game to play properly with a bunch of regular figures armed with pistols and autoguns and knives, because that’s what I’ve got in my collection. I’m not interested in building a min-maxed uber-warband just to fight in close combat.

And now, some thoughts on Scrappers from my stalwart opponent…

John’s Thoughts on Scrappers

After reading the rules I was nervous about playing Scrappers, but once I did I had a wonderful time and can’t wait to play again.

We played Scrappers following a series of stripped-down one page rulesets, like Grimdark Future and Double Tap, which leave many procedural decisions up to player interpretation and common sense. If those rulesets are sketches, Scrappers reads more like a detailed technical drawing. Before playing, I felt the rules text over-explained some concepts or dwelled on trivialities. Scrappers clearly means to handle being played competitively.

I worried gameplay would feel stilted as a result, but the game flowed beautifully. The rules supported play without obstructing us, and helped us avoid getting bogged down negotiating the gentleman’s agreements often required by looser rules.

The system for choosing who goes when leads to rich tactical decision-making. Opposed d10 rolls gave me a twinge of nervous excitement each time we rolled, which I sometimes lack in handfuls-of-d6s-style rules.

Scrappers only offers one type of scenario, hauling away scrap under fire from your opponent, but it’s a robust scenario that held up fine across both our playthroughs. A random event always occurs sometime during the first four scrap tokens recovered, maybe wonderful, maybe dangerous for the player who triggers it. That variety and uncertainty give the scrap scenario the legs it needs to carry a campaign. Rolling after the battle to find out how much loot you hauled off is simply joyful, but the trauma table can do some nasty things to your wounded models if you’re not lucky.

Overall I found the balance of risk vs. reward and long- vs. short-term benefit embedded in campaign play to be just right.

Scrappers would really benefit from trait and equipment cards. Special capabilities in Scrappers are expressed in terms of trait keywords, which must be referenced separately from where they are listed. For example, the machine gun profile lists its range, rate of fire, and damage, followed by a Directed Burst keyword, whose effects are described several pages earlier in the book. There are also several traits listed throughout the book in different spots based on the source of the trait (e.g., whether it was granted by lifeform type, faction, or was purchased, etc). I would like a tool that pulls the trait descriptions onto my crew sheet for ease of reference.

I think I will play Scrappers often, and recommend it to anyone looking for a sturdy, fast-playing post-apocalyptic skirmish wargame.

Conclusion

Well there you have it! Scrappers is a crunchy game that rewards the players who take the time to dig into the nuances of all the special rules and funky interactions. It also contains enough flavor and random gonzo weirdness to keep the narrative crowd engaged as well. We’ll play this one again soon!

Post-Apocalyptic Scavengers and Mutants

Posted by Comrade on July 22, 2016

Posted in: Posts. Tagged: 28mm, painting, post-apoc, warbands. Leave a comment

I recently completed a few figures for my collection of post-apocalyptic wargaming miniatures.

This guy is a classic post-apoc scavenger, replete with a backpack, bedroll and a realistically scaled weapon. Very refreshing after all this 40k stuff I’ve been painting! The figure is from Wreck Age and I love how gritty and realistic he is. He’s got pair of flashlights strapped to his hat and goggles over his eyes, and he’s ready to explore the depths of the wasteland and (probably) make it back alive to tell the story.

While he’s out there, our eponymous scavenger will doubtless cross paths with some gnarly mutants. Like this guy! He’s a mutant from the Savage Worlds Kickstarter, and you might recognize him from this post last month about some of my upcoming projects. I did a bit of surgery on him shortly after posting that blog, removing his stock head and replacing it with a creepy-looking gas mask head from Pig Iron.

Together with his grotesque mutated arm, the overall package is something you wouldn’t want to encounter in the irradiated ruins. It’s a super simple paintjob … just a basic olive drab on his tattered uniform, some dark flesh tones on his body, and then he got finished off with a dip in my favorite all-in-one shader/sealer/protectant: Minwax Polyshades Tudor.

There’s one more mutant in this lot, and you’ve probably spotted him in the background of my most recent game of In the Emperor’s Name. He’s a squirrelly little creature I’ve been calling Leatherhead.

Gnarly indeed!

Comrade's Wargames

Painting toy soldiers in Oregon