Game Board the Saga Ends!!!

Finally the day has arrived!!! The game board is finished! It's not perfect (due to some shocking jig sawing by me) but it's my first ever go at something like this so I'm quite proud.

Here's the game board in all it's glory

Road damage detail

River section

Once finished all packed up

There ya go. I'm going to pick up a few details from Amera Plastics if they fit which I need to check. There is a waterfall section and ruined road section which I think I can cut and lay over the fixed terrain to give a few more options.

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Game Board Phase 5 The Saga Continues!

Next up for the game board is the river tiles. The most complicated section ☺. I built up the river using filler making raised banks (to hold water effect) and a flat middle. I added a couple of pebbles to the straight section to simulate a rapids type section of river.

Next up was the rest of the tile. A mixture of brown paint, PVA and sand was slapped on to create a textured surface. The banks of the river section were painted grey and made to look like rocks. Not my best effort but I think this was how I built them up using the filler. They were not true rock shapes I guess. My aim was to flock most of these anyway so hopefully it won't stand out to much. 

After this it was time to do the river bed. Now I had a choices do I go clear water so line the river bed with sand and rubble then add water effect or do I try and show depth. I went with depth so that required painting a mix of colours. I once again referred to Luke's Affordable Paint service . He now has a group which is full of people with great advice and Luke himself is always very responsive on it. The group can be found here. The general advice was lots of blues, greens and browns blended together in the terrain piece. My first attempts looked like this

Unfortunately it was pointed out that though the colours were spot on the blue should represent deeper water that the greens and browns. So with a bit more blending I swapped them round so they looked like this

After the river bed was painted it was time to flock the board so it's matched the other boards.

Next up is the water effect. As recommended by Luke's Affordable Paint service I'm using Poundland epoxy.
I needed a few packets of this (6 to be precise), you have to make sure you mix the 2 parts together other wise it gets very tacky. The corner section was a simple matter of layering the epoxy into the area I wanted. Masking tape stops the epoxy going off the edge of the board. 3 packets went on this section. The next tile had rocks in as I wanted something to break up the river and maybe a little rapids type section. Another 3 packets went on this and using the little plastic scrapper that you get I pulled the tacky epoxy around the rocks to hopefully look a bit more like water flow.

River corner tile

Close in on water effect

Straight section of river

Close in around the rocks hopefully it looks a bit like water flowing around rocks

Next post will have the board all together have a great day!

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Murder in the Midlands Prizes

Just a quick blog about the miniatures I picked up at the tournament. All prizes were donated by the awesome guys at  LostLand Games .
I picked up for best gang back story a new Across the Dead Earth gang called the Sisters of Acquisition

Apologies for these still being in blister but they require some putting together I haven't had the time yet. 
Next up for best painted gang (I was utterly humbled by this I have to say) I picked more Across the Dead Earth. I got one of the first gangs the State and some CIA dudes  from Spectre miniatures.
Last up was a prototype Drexyl  (one of the state) which I won in a Facebook competition earlier in the year.

The State ruling the F-UK

CIA agents

I love these models they are greatly detailed and can't wait to Get a gang formed.

This is an awesome model and I feel priveliged to have it. Now I have to try not to ruin it with my painting.
Have a great day folks

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Murder in the Midlands

Sunday saw the very first Across the Dead Earth tournament. (I apologize straight away I forgot my note pad so am writing this mainly from memory) Held in Stourbridge in the West Midlands it saw the intrepid entrants do battle. Six battle fields were available to fight on and four games each. Loot and kill points up for grabs, highest points wins. There were also prizes for best gang back story (the concrete jungle savages back story is here ) best painted etc.
My gang of savages was all set and on the day Rich from Dead Earth games lent me this model for SNAFU my deranged spear wielding scrapper

This is Azael, he is a miniature from Dead Earth newest offering the Shattered Crown. Which isn't even out yet so it was very cool of the guys to lend me the model his savage look certainly fits him into the gang.
There were some cracking game boards set up here is a few (including mine)

My board was a bunker in the woods type battlefield

Official Across the Dead Earth Table

As you can see great boards and all different ideas. We had a more forest type one, an airfield, a ruined city, some Industrial type gantrys etc.

The tournament was 4 games each points for loot and kills though different points for shooting and melee kills.
So the tables and opponents were drawn out of a hat.

Game One.

I drew Jon. Now I was warned about Jon and his solid gang especially his leader with riot shield 😃 but never one to be deterred we started the battle. We drew the Industrial type gantry table so lots of high open gantrys not great for my melee orientated gang.
There was an initial rush for loot then one side of the board Jon's heavy and sniper pinned down my medic and scrapper. On the other side of the board my melee specialists went at it with the opposing leader and scout. The leader was packing a riot shield but I had the event card "that's not a knife" so his leader was disarmed and took down but he healed himself!!.  
Unfortunately he then sent his scout into action who had rage so got an extra dice in melee after a brutal fight my fighters were down.  On the other side my scrapper rushed the sniper and heavy  He eventually took them both down but the game ended before I could take them out.  I lost that game (you'll see a pattern forming lol)

The sniper has my medic and leader pinned

The opposing leader took down only to heal himself 😢

My scrapper downs two in melee but game ends before I could finish them off

Game Two

Next up my opponent was Rich the creator of Across the Dead Earth! We were playing on the bunker board which was made up of my terrain. Our gangs set up  and faced off the bunker in between us . Both gangs advanced, Rich got his two snipers either side of the bunker where there was quite open terrain. This forced the most of my gang up the middle of the board towards the front of the bunker.  A couple of loot counters were swiped from either side of the board but there were two counters in the bunker. The house rules allowed my gang to climb through the front Windows of the bunker as there was only one door in and out at the rear. Rich got a gang member in the rear door I got my leader through the window blocked by a wall the two watched and waited (means you can shoot during an opponents movement) my leader next turn scarpered back out the bunker with the loot. More of my gang got in the bunker (soon to be named the bunker of death). Once again melee fighters failed to make an impact after a brutal fight. We each had a couple of models down inside. Once I got reinforcements into the bunker Rich moved his last model that wasn't down off the board ending the game before I could capitalise and start taking out his downed fighters. I lost this game by only 5 points.

The gangs advance

The 2 fighters stand off in the bunker

Carnage in the bunker. My reinforcements arrived to late

Game Three

Next up was Tom on the Across the Dead Earth demo board. This board was bigger than all the others so the battle felt much larger. We set up in opposite corners and from the start I made a dash for loot (I slowly learned to get the loot fast and secured before game is over). With the larger board and my lack of guns resulted in not many shots from me till the gangs were closer. A ruined bendy bus saw most of the action and some absolutely shocking dice rolls went my scrapper couldn't hit anything with his SMG. Once again my melee fighters were hit by close range fire. Tom had snipers (I managed to make one fall down a hole in the first floor with an event card but he was ok) in the buildings covering the open ground. My leader managed to get round the side of one building and take one sniper out but was then took out. I was losing gang members fast. One of my remaining gang members made it back with some more loot and we called the game. I got a good amount of loot but Tom had good points from taking out my gang members.

My gang ready to grab loot

The crashed bus saw the hardest fight

Game Four

The last game saw me so battle with Carl (author of Hitting on a Double 1 blog) and his Wonderland gang inspired by characters from Alice in Wonderland. The game board was the airfield which was an awesome board.
Both gangs set up near the airplane  and quickly started grabbing loot. There were two loot counters on top of the plane so several gang members headed that way. My leader using his 3 actions went up grabbed a loot and ran back to the start zone. My spear wielding dude heading up on the plane to fight an enemy who had took position in the plane. They charged into combat both me and Carl then played the event card "That's not a Knife" !! So fisticuffs it was then! My fighter was holding his own till he was shot from below. Meanwhile the Wonderland Gang leader the Mad Hatter had came round near my start zone and shot my scrapper river before she could use her axe. The leaders of both gangs then faced off with close range shotgun blasts. My leader lost. He was avenged by another gang member shooting from the planes wing who as he was out in the open was then gunned down. I had one member left who had grabbed some loot away from the main fight. My start area was surrounded by the Wonderland Gang but I managed to get the final loot counter back and end the game. This game was a massacre to be honest!

I had a cracking afternoon regardless of the results as every opponent and all the other competitors were great and we all had a laugh. I even got to meet Simon (author of Brummies wargaming blog ) who i have been chatting to a lot in the  Across the Dead Earth  group and lives about 5 mins from my house (it's a small world!) But sadly we never got to do battle at the tournament.
Things I learned were take more guns!! My melee fighters were exposed each time and had nothing to return fire. Melee has to be timed so well before you commit so making sure they at least have a pistol as back up.
Once all the games were finished and the results added up the prize a were given out. Carl took the tournament win by a large stretch  (I think the massacre from our battle certainly helped!). I won an award for the best gang back story ☺ I got a new Across the Dead Earth gang called the Sisters of Acquistion. I also won the best painted gang! (A few gangs were commission painted and one gangs owner was the judge) I picked up another Across the Dead Earth gang and some extra minis. I got the State and some Spectre CIA agents  (photos up soon).
Loved the tournament and had a good solid few hours wargaming!


Below are links to a few more (and more detailed as they remembered to take proper notes) blogs.
Brummies blog and  Carls blog.   

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Murder in the Midlands!

One week away from the first Across the Dead Earth tournament Murder in the Midlands. Pick a gang for 350pts, only 2 rare items per gang and it's all about loot and kills! Oh yeah there is also  competitions for 1st place, last place, best painted and best theme. Got my gang all sorted a version of the Concrete Jungle Savages I had already made. With the addition of a spear wielding savage!
Not nervous as its my first tournament but can't wait to meet up with other ATDE fans and hopefully give a decent account of myself.
I've wrote up a back story for the gang and it's up on the organisers blog here. Just gotta gather up the  rulebook tokens and scenery and enjoy a days wargaming

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Late night painting

Last two nights I've had a late night painting session. I've been meaning to finish off the repaint of my Across the Dead Earth engineers gang. I was going to use these in the upcoming tournament but have decided to go with my red claw gang.  I have given  them a darker colour hopefully they look ok.

Next up were the mercenary sisters Ayesha and Nisha. Two sisters who always watch each others back one packing a shotgun the other an assault rifle. 

All the miniatures are available here on the Dead Earth Games website. Lastly as they have been sitting in my shelves for agesbi decided to paint my Mars attacks scenery. I did this in a simple way but they look good enough I think?

All the scenery will look good on my new game board. Speaking of which only the river sections left to do. Bought the filler today for river so saturday night hopefully kids willing I can finish the last 2 tiles.
Have a great day!

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Game Board Phase 4!!

The road sections have been under coated! Next up is painting and texturing. 


This is one of the cracks in the road painted

Here are two pieces painted

I painted the road sections with a mixturen of sand and paint to give the road a road surface. Now I'm torn between mixing in sand with paint (I forgot the PVA which probably didn't help) and laying a layer of sand down first then painting it after it has dried.
Next came the road markings. I wanted a slightly faded look as I mostly play post apocalypse gaming. The only way I could think of was using a sponge to dab the paint on. I made up a stencil and dabbed away.






I dabbed out the road marking and it looks pretty good. The corner marking was a little tricky though.
Next I wanted a manhole cover,  I'd looked around at a few options. I went along the lone of using green stuff flat in a circle and pressing a grid down on it. I was only really happy with one that came out so added that one.


3 attempts but only happy with the top one.

The manhole cover was painted in gun metal and a coat of ink. I then stuck it to one of the road sections. With all that done time to stick road pieces to the urban game board tiles.




After a night of glue drying (weighted down with items from the kitchen much to my wife's dismay he he he) they were all sorted.


The 3 boards together

I think they look ok ☺
Have a great day folks!



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Across the Dead Earth battle Night

Tonight was games night so I broke out ATDE (Across the Dead Earth). My gang the 78th Smethwick Irregulars and the infamous Coggers went head to head to take control of a power station and hold it.

The 78th's leader sprints for the station

The rest of the gang follows

The Coggers also advance to reaching the station first

Dead Eye Dave snipes at the Coggers trying to flank the rest of the gang

SNAFU takes out a Cogger with his assault rifle

Adahy the gangs scout takes a Cogger down with his bow (first time ever!!!!)

Selene puts her sword to good use!

Adahy has to break out his sword to fight the Cogger Wall

Arlene makes off with loot stolen from a Cogger lying in the ground

The dastardly Coggers had left a trip wire sending Selene flying

SNAFU takes out an injured Cogger

Adahy wriggles out of combat and shot Wall with his bow

With only the Cogger leader standing the gang disappeared

The game went really well i didn't manage to get pictures of the Coggers leading climbing down a ladder and shooting my leader in the face (thank you medic who chased  the leader off and healed my leader). Got some lovely loot and bought from the trader an assault rifle sight and SMG stock.

Overall an enjoyable game ☺

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