Things Get Opened - Dystopian Wars Covenant of Antarctica Naval Battle Group
Ladies and gentlemen, let me tell you a fantastic tale of victory. That tale is this: A few weeks ago, I finished painting not just three Tribal Class Cruisers for a Kingdom of Britannia force I want to build in the far, far future, but I finished painting all the Dystopian Wars miniatures I own!
Huzzah! It's not often I get a chance to one up a game system by painting all the models I own for it! Here are some photos to celebrate the happy occasion:
This is them all laid out in a group. From the top and moving around clockwise, there are some KoB Tribal Class Cruiseres, some CoA Diogenes ships, and a Plato Class cruise, then an FSA Lexington Class Cruiser, and some Augustas ships.
The army book! These guys aren't included in the main rulebook, being a later edition to the game, so this gives some more background to them (Which is familiar, as COA were one of the key players in most of the events leading up to the setting, in one way or another). It's got some really nice art, and some great pictures of the digital renders of the ships. Also, its an A5 book which means it's a bit easier to move around.
Stat cards! OK, I'm more excited about these. Nice stock so they won't wear out too easily, all the rules are really well presented and obvious, and they didn't commit what I think what would a major mistake in this case: If you are going to track damage and effects via tokens on the models (Which you will in this), you don't need a stat card for each individual ship out there (Which I didn't get)! One card for each type. Done. No messing around diving through a stack of stat cards.
Individual bubblewrap packages and ziplock bags! OK, let's open them and see what I've gotten myself into...
Diogenes ships! The way I painted up the last batch of CoA was pretty quick with lots of drybrushing and washing, so the fact I have to do nine with these small details hasn't phased me, which is good! I may actually go back and pick out a few more details on the previous ones when I get round to these.
Plato cruisers! Again, these will paint up quick, however I want to look into magentising weapons on things like this so that I can swap out as needed. Having said that, I don't think these ones have much in the way of interchangeable weaponry.
Regarding the casting detail. it is really nice! Previous clean up involved a quick sand of the bottom, and a slight clean up of flash around the very bottom edge. Having said that, it is so close to the 'water line' that even roughly cleaned it would probably not show up. These do have a few air bubbles, however they all seem to appear at the bottom of the ship, which won't be seen anyway, so there isn't a problem there! On my previous Diogenes ships one of them had an air bubble close to the fin. It was close enough to cause concern, but not close enough to cause damage. It was fixed with about a minute of green stuff work, and was more for a structural piece of mind than any aesthetic choice.
Big Ship! Yes, all those Dalek bump looking things are guns! And the big flat bit on top is where a small piece goes. With more guns! And the holes at the front and back? You choose the guns! Guns all around!
This is the plastic bag of mystery. In here lies all the parts that were either pointless wrapping individually and making a mess with, or would have been lost easily. In other words, someone over at Spartan Games decided to look at this box set, and hit it will common sense. Good work!
All laid out, and I start to look at the smaller ship piece on the right as if I've got a free ship! Excited me cannot find the rules for it, or even what it is caused. Perhaps it's a mispack from another army? Perhaps an experimental piece that was dropped in undetected by radical free-thought miniature packers?
No, it's the top of the big ship. I get over-excited easily... You'll also see in there the gun add-ons, the flyer tokens, and the flying units, as well as the perspex flight and dive stands at the back.
The tiny flyer stands. I'm interested to see how these paint up. Having said that, they are... questionably shaped... They seem to consist of a long shaft with a knob on the end... Not questioning that, I'm just glad I'm not painting them flesh coloured...
Guns! There is a bit of flash in places on these, but at the end of the day, it will not take much work to clean up. And they are still nicely detailed. Always fun to point them around say 'pewpewpew' a lot...
Dive dive dive! The diving template with the top of the larger ship showing. This means I have to remember to either magnetise the top section, not attach it, or... never dive the ship...
The flyers! OK, I'm not putting them together for this. The bases are ones that need to go together and stay together, and I want to keep these boxed for a while, so I don't want to risk breaking them. The flyers are rather nice though, and I just have to decided on how I want to attach them to the bases: magnets, glue, or leave free roaming...
And that's it! I'll just put the box down here, out of the way, and see who is knocking at my door...
...
...
...
Oh, there's no one there. Ah well, back to the desk, and...
Ah, dammit! OK, so it looks like I bought a big thingy as well...
It's a Daedalus Airship, boys and girls! And look, it's the wrong shape for me to make more phallic references! Actually, this was one that I really liked the look of in the photos. A giant airship loaded with firepower.
All the odds and ends seem in order... Stats card, ship, base, guns, extra guns, giant rotating domes with more guns...
...Oh yeah, and the base is GIANT! Definitely something that needs extra support to hold it up.
And here it is half-built. At the end of the day, I could not get this together with blu-tack as it wouldn't grip, but you get the idea. Air superiority!
Anyway, that's it. No other mysterious purchases have appeared just yet, so I think I'll go and paint something. Just not this just yet...
Huzzah! It's not often I get a chance to one up a game system by painting all the models I own for it! Here are some photos to celebrate the happy occasion:
Here! I'll even put them in the cabinet so I can keep them safe until I take proper photos of them!
Now I'll just make my way back to my desk to begin on a new project. But wait, is that... it couldn't be... No!
Oh no! Evil Me must have snuck out and purchased some more Dystopian Wars so that I can never say I finished all the miniatures. Curse him, and the evil effects he has on my wallet! I blame him for all my miniature purchases! Oh well, while it's here, I should probably do an opening blog post...
So let's see what we get in the box, huh?! That'll be a good pretence for rummaging through the resiny goodness!
Hmm... I see cardboard, bubblewrap, paper, and resin in plastic. I guess I was kind of hoping there would be some sort of tray or something with everything laid out in in. But it's not exactly necessary for this, and the pieces that need to be protected get decent protection from the bubble wrap.
This is everything emptied out in a nice pile. Let's have a bit of a dig to see what's in there...
Templates and tokens! OK, I'm not actually that excited about them. Knowing what it is possible to do now with these kind of things, tokens and templates really need to be high class for me to open a box and make a big deal of them. There isn't anything wrong with them, and the card stock and graphics are great. And these are needed for the game, and there are an awful lot of them. It's not a downside getting these, and I'm happy I don't have to make them myself, but I'm also eyeing off substitute tokens as well, so these may not last too long when I eventually get around to playing the game.
Stat cards! OK, I'm more excited about these. Nice stock so they won't wear out too easily, all the rules are really well presented and obvious, and they didn't commit what I think what would a major mistake in this case: If you are going to track damage and effects via tokens on the models (Which you will in this), you don't need a stat card for each individual ship out there (Which I didn't get)! One card for each type. Done. No messing around diving through a stack of stat cards.
Individual bubblewrap packages and ziplock bags! OK, let's open them and see what I've gotten myself into...
Diogenes ships! The way I painted up the last batch of CoA was pretty quick with lots of drybrushing and washing, so the fact I have to do nine with these small details hasn't phased me, which is good! I may actually go back and pick out a few more details on the previous ones when I get round to these.
Plato cruisers! Again, these will paint up quick, however I want to look into magentising weapons on things like this so that I can swap out as needed. Having said that, I don't think these ones have much in the way of interchangeable weaponry.
Regarding the casting detail. it is really nice! Previous clean up involved a quick sand of the bottom, and a slight clean up of flash around the very bottom edge. Having said that, it is so close to the 'water line' that even roughly cleaned it would probably not show up. These do have a few air bubbles, however they all seem to appear at the bottom of the ship, which won't be seen anyway, so there isn't a problem there! On my previous Diogenes ships one of them had an air bubble close to the fin. It was close enough to cause concern, but not close enough to cause damage. It was fixed with about a minute of green stuff work, and was more for a structural piece of mind than any aesthetic choice.
Big Ship! Yes, all those Dalek bump looking things are guns! And the big flat bit on top is where a small piece goes. With more guns! And the holes at the front and back? You choose the guns! Guns all around!
This is the plastic bag of mystery. In here lies all the parts that were either pointless wrapping individually and making a mess with, or would have been lost easily. In other words, someone over at Spartan Games decided to look at this box set, and hit it will common sense. Good work!
All laid out, and I start to look at the smaller ship piece on the right as if I've got a free ship! Excited me cannot find the rules for it, or even what it is caused. Perhaps it's a mispack from another army? Perhaps an experimental piece that was dropped in undetected by radical free-thought miniature packers?
No, it's the top of the big ship. I get over-excited easily... You'll also see in there the gun add-ons, the flyer tokens, and the flying units, as well as the perspex flight and dive stands at the back.
The tiny flyer stands. I'm interested to see how these paint up. Having said that, they are... questionably shaped... They seem to consist of a long shaft with a knob on the end... Not questioning that, I'm just glad I'm not painting them flesh coloured...
Guns! There is a bit of flash in places on these, but at the end of the day, it will not take much work to clean up. And they are still nicely detailed. Always fun to point them around say 'pewpewpew' a lot...
Dive dive dive! The diving template with the top of the larger ship showing. This means I have to remember to either magnetise the top section, not attach it, or... never dive the ship...
The flyers! OK, I'm not putting them together for this. The bases are ones that need to go together and stay together, and I want to keep these boxed for a while, so I don't want to risk breaking them. The flyers are rather nice though, and I just have to decided on how I want to attach them to the bases: magnets, glue, or leave free roaming...
And that's it! I'll just put the box down here, out of the way, and see who is knocking at my door...
...
...
...
Oh, there's no one there. Ah well, back to the desk, and...
Ah, dammit! OK, so it looks like I bought a big thingy as well...
It's a Daedalus Airship, boys and girls! And look, it's the wrong shape for me to make more phallic references! Actually, this was one that I really liked the look of in the photos. A giant airship loaded with firepower.
All the odds and ends seem in order... Stats card, ship, base, guns, extra guns, giant rotating domes with more guns...
...Oh yeah, and the base is GIANT! Definitely something that needs extra support to hold it up.
And here it is half-built. At the end of the day, I could not get this together with blu-tack as it wouldn't grip, but you get the idea. Air superiority!
Anyway, that's it. No other mysterious purchases have appeared just yet, so I think I'll go and paint something. Just not this just yet...
Wow there's a lot more in that box than the cover picture makes out to be!
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