board game sets

Killer Kickstarters: Rum and Bones Second Tide

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You lucky scurvy dogs you! It looks like two massive miniature board game Kickstarters are wrapping up in the same week. So I hope you sent your wallet and credit cards to Davy Jones locker when you had the chance. Because Cool Mini or Not is known for taking your loot faster than a drunken den of thieves.

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This is the expansion to last years successful Rum and Bones Kickstarter. Designed by Michael Shinal and is for two players only (the box says for 4 but it seems they still want you to split into two teams) and the game pits two pirate crews against each other as they battle for control of the enemy ship without losing control of their own.

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How are these classic nautical battles simulated you ask? Simply use everyone on your crew as cannon fodder (don’t worry you have an endless amount of these dim witted deck hands) while 5 actually useful pirates jump in and out of the fray destroying and slaughtering everything. If this sounds like some weird Indy video game you downloaded drunk recently then…yes you’ve got a good grasp on how it feels to play.

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Second Tide will include two new pirate crews and their respective ships, along with new cards and sea monsters. Also included is an option to purchase an update for the original game.

As is CMON style there are a ton of stretch goals and exclusives that you can only get through this Kickstarter.

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This was painted by BigChild Creative to show how the finished miniatures could look. Unfortunately us mortals will simply have to try our best when painting and attempt to not drool over all the pictures.

Theres still time to pledge (even if the Kickstarter is over they will accept late pledges for a time) if your interested. The game will be hitting retail later this year for those that want to wait for the reviews. You can also check out the original Rum&Bones to hold you over until the Second Tide release. So grab your grog, put on the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack and start plundering.

Click here to check out the Second Tide Kickstarter

Killer Kickstarters: Rail Raiders Infinite

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Howdy everyone! Killer Kickstarters is a new segment that will showcase current Kickstarter projects that feature awesome miniatures and talk about the people behind them. All featured projects are still open (at the time of posting at least) so if you like what you see, you can click the link on the bottom to pledge. Let’s kick (pun intended) things off with a Kickstarter that has that old timy space western feel.

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Rail Raiders Infinite is the newest game by Soda Pop miniatures. It’s an old fashion western train robbing game. Except the train is a spaceship…and the law enforcement are bots…and there’s a bunch of laser guns.  So team up with your fellow outlaws and then back stab them for the loot. Because this space train ain’t big enough for all of you.

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If your not familiar with Soda Pop minis, they’re a board game publisher that specializes in chibi miniatures. (Chibi is an art style that makes everything kind of small and cute) They’re a fairly large and successful company so if you don’t pledge it’s pretty much guaranteed that you’ll still get the game, and possibly for a lower price. But let’s be honest, this kind of Kickstarter isn’t about making a small time funding dream come true. It’s about all those glorious stretch goals

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The base pledge is $50 and anyone who buys miniatures knows that this is an impressive haul for that amount of money. Be aware some of the bots are only available to those who purchase the expansions but it’s still an impressive amount of things to paint. On top of that there looks to be a pretty fun game underneath all that plastic. image

As you brawl your way across this galactic space train you draw cards to place loot, law bots, and gain weapons and abilities. Then you’ll show down against opponents (bots or other players) by rolling 5 dice. The person who can form the best poker hand will win the duel. And of course there will be multiple ways to get a few aces up your sleeve. You are all outlaws after all.

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The art and components of the game look to be Soda Pop’s standard high quality production. And it includes plastic tokens and custom die, which is always a nice touch for a board game. There’s also more stretch goals to be unlocked so the game looks to get even bigger.

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If your a board game player and you love nerdy references to double dollars and certain bounty hunters than I would suggest checking out Rail Raiders. And if your a lover of chibi miniatures it looks to be a good deal for a train load of minis. You can go to Soda Pops Kickstarter page to learn more about the game, see video reviews, and even get a print&play to try it out yourself. Just hurry because this bounty is only good for another 30 hours.

See You Space Cowboy

 

Click here to go to Rail Raiders Infinite Kickstarter page

Painting Mice and Mystics Lily

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My apologies for missing yesterday’s WIP post. It was in part due to the exciting news that Lily is no longer a Work In Progress but a finished piece and the next in our Painting Mice&Mystics series.

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Lily is my personal favorite of the tiny heros you can play as. She doesn’t appear in the game right away but shows up in later scenarios to save the day.

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The bases will be left unpainted from now on because I’ve decided to rebase all the pieces after they’ve been finished.
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Sorry about the shadow of the phone. I’m saving up for a nice light box but until then the awkwardly lighted pictures will continue :p
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The cape is done with a glazing technique. That means I watered down the original color and slowly added more layers. For the final layers I added a little white and yellow and a dark green wash in the folds.

Im very happy with the progress that I’ve made with blending, glazing, and building leatherwork. If I look back at older pieces, I can see the two brush technique really improving with each piece. The Two Brush Technique is where you take two similar shades of colors, paint them side by side and use a 2nd brush to blend the middle together.

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The bow and arrows are birch tipped with red leather straps and feathers.
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The white wood makes the red feathers really pop! It also helps break up the red and green and help keep the piece from the dreaded Christmas look (something you risk anytime you put red and green together)

I also was given the great idea of painting Lily’s bow in Birch by a friend. Never painting that kind of wood before I did some research and I came across a great article by Dagger & Brush. If you haven’t checked out this blog yet, but you love war gaming, you should definitely head over there. I’ll include a link at the bottom to the Birch tutorial. It’s easy to understand and has some great example pictures of the technique. Although his came out a very realistic Birch while mine is probably a step above camo, I’m still really happy with it as a first try. I hope to try more weapons and armor in unusual materials more often.

Here’s a link to the Dagger and Brush guide to painting Birch