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Miniatures Adventure => VSF Adventures => Topic started by: Agis on February 24, 2018, 10:37:29 AM

Title: Agis' SMOG: Rise of Moloch minis
Post by: Agis on February 24, 2018, 10:37:29 AM

Another splendid CMON Kickstarter, great backer support and a delivery right on time! The miniatures are simply breathtakingly good for one piece game pieces and the game play is IMO very nice, a solid 1 vs many game like Star Wars Imperial Assault.

The minis below are an experiment for me - a joined venture of Regina Matke and me. We wanted the 5 core heroes (Gentlemen / women) painted for the 1st game so we decided to split the work. The 3 minis to the left (Emma Swanson, Abigail Sutherland and Drago) are painted by Regina, while the two folks to the right (Walter Cavendish and Major Dreadful) are done by me. By doing this we finished all five minis within a week.
(http://www.adpublishing.de/Unicorn_1.jpg)
The embarrassing part for me is, Regina paints minis only for ONE YEAR! Incredible work IMO.
:)

Some days later I finished my 5 heroes, see them on my site as always:
http://www.adpublishing.de/html/victorian_sf.html
Not much of a difference, only a different approach in style!
BTW - CMON was kind enough to give two different sculpts of the feisty Miss Swanson, even with different rules! The mini above is the more heavy armed lady.
Title: Re: Agis' SMOG: Rise of Moloch minis
Post by: Prof.Witchheimer on February 24, 2018, 05:03:53 PM
Lovely paintwork, Regina and Agis, like Major D best!

Got my pledge, too. Did you already play the campaign or just Chapter One as one-shot adventure?
Title: Re: Agis' SMOG: Rise of Moloch minis
Post by: Agis on February 25, 2018, 09:47:06 AM
Lovely paintwork, Regina and Agis, like Major D best!

Got my pledge, too. Did you already play the campaign or just Chapter One as one-shot adventure?
Thanks Alex, we started a campaign and played the 1st 2 missions so far. Tuesday we'll tackle the 3rd.

So far I like it a lot.
Very similar - as far as the huge amount of counters and game preparation is concerned-  to Imperial Assault, but IMO plays somehow a bit smoother.
And the minis are just GREAT!
Title: Re: Agis' SMOG: Rise of Moloch minis
Post by: Tesla knight on February 26, 2018, 11:24:15 AM
Really nice paint job.

I'd ummed and arred about backing this one for a while. Wish I had now!
Title: Re: Agis' SMOG: Rise of Moloch minis
Post by: Zombie Ste on February 27, 2018, 04:31:06 AM
Always a pleasure to see your work! Especially given we seem to pick up the same cmon games and your work is always fantastic and a hell of a lot more speedier than my own lol.

Keep up the good work, and keep sharing the results with us here :-*

The system is great, we've played three games now (1st scenario got 2 separate play through while we learned the rules) you're right, it is a lot like imperial assault, but much smoother to run.
I felt totally overwhelmed while setting the first game up, but within a turn it all made perfect sense.
The 2nd game we played with about 50% none-regular gaming folk, and everyone found it great.
The games designers seem to have struck a pretty perfect balance between simplicity and complexity with this one and I doff my top hat to them,
Of the 3 cmon kickstarters that all landed on my doorstep over the space of a week, this one is definitely my favourite
Title: Re: Agis' SMOG: Rise of Moloch minis
Post by: Agis on February 27, 2018, 09:36:01 AM
Thanks!

Keep up the good work, and keep sharing the results with us here :-*
Will do!

The system is great, we've played three games now (1st scenario got 2 separate play through while we learned the rules) you're right, it is a lot like imperial assault, but much smoother to run.
I felt totally overwhelmed while setting the first game up, but within a turn it all made perfect sense.
The 2nd game we played with about 50% none-regular gaming folk, and everyone found it great.
The games designers seem to have struck a pretty perfect balance between simplicity and complexity with this one and I doff my top hat to them,
Sums up my impression pretty well, yesterday I played the first mission with 2 buddies from work, after 2 or 3 game rounds all was fine!

Of the 3 cmon kickstarters that all landed on my doorstep over the space of a week, this one is definitely my favourite
Hmm, let me guess, Rising Sun, Black Plague 2 and SMOG?  ;)  Same here, and yes SMOG appealed the most to me too.
Title: Re: Agis' SMOG: Rise of Moloch minis
Post by: Agis on February 27, 2018, 09:37:38 AM
BTW - We had an odd situation during the 2nd mission - "The Ghostly Curator".
 Under - Gain Insight- the movement rules for Blackmore are IMO a bit unclear.
 Quote " Blackmore activates, he will move to a random Point of Interest"

 Is he
 a) performing an agility action and moves, or is
 b) the mini directly placed on the Point of Interest? (like a ghostly teleport)

 We decided b.

 Any comments are welcome.
Title: Re: Agis' SMOG: Rise of Moloch minis
Post by: Prof.Witchheimer on February 27, 2018, 10:02:56 AM
BTW - We had an odd situation during the 2nd mission - "The Ghostly Curator".
 Under - Gain Insight- the movement rules for Blackmore are IMO a bit unclear.
 Quote " Blackmore activates, he will move to a random Point of Interest"

 Is he
 a) performing an agility action and moves, or is
 b) the mini directly placed on the Point of Interest? (like a ghostly teleport)

 We decided b.

 Any comments are welcome.

I was thinking about this one, too. In the meantime I'm pretty sure Blackmore is supposed to teleport there. It just makes more sense than anything else and nicely fits the fact that Blackmore is a ghost.
Title: Re: Agis' SMOG: Rise of Moloch minis
Post by: Zombie Ste on February 28, 2018, 01:49:22 AM
Yeah, I assumed he's just placed. Otherwise, as an ally with only a single action, he wouldn't be able to make it from one point of interest to another with a single move in most cases.
Also because you're rolling every turn, he could effectively end up strung out between 2 points and never base either if you're particularly unlucky with the dice rolls  lol
The run through of chapter 2 does say that with a little luck the gentlemen can accomplish their objectives in 4 turns, so I'd assume he should always be stood on an active objective at the end of each of his activations for that to happen... pretty sure it'd be impossible if he had to move there using agility.

On the subject of game play, has anybody had any luck as the nemesis yet?
Now we're still no further than chapter 2, and I'm guessing/hoping it gets harder for the gentlemen as the campaign progresses, but the first 2 chapters (at least) are nearly impossible for the nemesis to win, and I worry that if the gentlemen wrack up too many moloch stones and chapter bonuses, the later games will prove too much of a cake walk for them...

Is this the case? Or is it just certain scenarios are weighted more towards one side or the other?
Perhaps a better question would be; has anyone played enough games yet to even have an opinion on this? Lol

Either way I'm having loads of fun as the nemesis, even if all my plans go the dick dastardly route of failure  lol
Damn those pesky gentlemen  >:D
Title: Re: Agis' SMOG: Rise of Moloch minis
Post by: Agis on February 28, 2018, 12:39:56 PM
Well... I played mission 1  three times in 3 different groups.
2x Nemesis win, 1x Gentlemen win.

IMO the key for the nemesis to win in Mission 1 is blocking the escape route for the damsel and killing the Bobbies. Once the Bobbies are gone you can easily pick off the damsel, even cover can't help her long.

Otherwise, I can only agree, it is one of those games where you have fun even while losing...  ;)

BTW - More painted minis from Regina and me over the weekend!
Title: Re: Agis' SMOG: Rise of Moloch minis
Post by: Prof.Witchheimer on February 28, 2018, 03:57:08 PM
Played chapter 1&2, both win for Gentlemen so far but they had to work hard on that, particularly in the first mission a very close thing. Game saved by sacrifice of a bobby. Thus, yes, try to get rid of the bobbies, that certainly would help. In the second chapter gents were almost overrun by the amount of zombies, five spawned each round, two with help of the Nemesis card and Priestess Ira made sure to double activate some of them. The only game for Abigail was to be neutralized  to revive afterwards, for 3 times.  Kind of Zombicide mission placed in Rise of Moloch :)
Title: Re: Agis' SMOG: Rise of Moloch minis
Post by: Zombie Ste on March 01, 2018, 02:18:53 AM
Glad to hear other dastardly evil-doers are having more luck than me lol
We've just realised that we played the first mission wrong... we let the damsel pick up the fire extinguisher, meaning the impossible could happen and the fire went out turn one, thus giving the good guys time to fortify the station and weather the horde... doh!
Even with that though, I still managed to kill all the bobbies and reduce the damsel to her last wound, so I guess I'm not doing too badly.
Just wish I'd properly checked the mission outcomes first, as starting chapter 2 with 2 3rds of the agents effectively halved in threat level, leaves you with one hell of a steep hill to climb.

Still fleeing for the shadows, screaming "I'll get you next time!" Is a lot of fun in itself  lol
Title: Re: Agis' SMOG: Rise of Moloch minis
Post by: Agis on March 03, 2018, 11:45:19 AM
(http://www.adpublishing.de/assets/images/SMOG-RM-1.jpg)
Some more minis painted by Regina - Damon, the Damsel in Distress, Suzanne Taylor (the double of her Majesty herself) and Parvin Khan the Indian Mekamancer.

(http://www.adpublishing.de/assets/images/Unicorn_2_AN.jpg)
Some allies for the Unicorn club - Cavendishs Meka Nanny and Winston the faithful dog of Major Dreadful.
I just love the mini of the Dog!

(http://www.adpublishing.de/assets/images/Adler_and_Col_Moran_1.jpg)
Two villains/ Gentlemen from the Holmes expansion - Irene Adler and Colonel Moran. You can play them as villains or heroes!
The original Irene sculpt was IMO too busy with the way too much smoke...
See:
(http://www.tabletopencounters.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/RoM-Irene-Adler.png)
Some cutting and hole drilling  was required too get my look, hopefully you like it.

And as always more on my site: http://www.adpublishing.de/html/victorian_sf.html
Title: Re: Agis' SMOG: Rise of Moloch minis
Post by: uti long smile on March 03, 2018, 05:39:41 PM
Lovely stuff!
Title: Re: Agis' SMOG: Rise of Moloch minis
Post by: Zombie Ste on March 04, 2018, 03:20:39 AM
Excellent brush work as usual, though I must confess, the crazy smoke trails on Adler makes her my favourite mini in the set. Though it pains me to see that beautiful mess removed, you did a Stirling job of removing it all and tidying it up as though it never existed
Title: Re: Agis' SMOG: Rise of Moloch minis
Post by: Agis on March 04, 2018, 10:31:11 AM
Excellent brush work as usual, though I must confess, the crazy smoke trails on Adler makes her my favourite mini in the set. Though it pains me to see that beautiful mess removed, you did a Stirling job of removing it all and tidying it up as though it never existed
LOL, well taste is different!  lol
In a away I am just too old fashioned, I do not like NMM, Source lightning, smoke effects and all the new gimmicks around...
;)
Title: Re: Agis' SMOG: Rise of Moloch minis
Post by: Genghis on March 04, 2018, 12:16:35 PM
Some nice painting there - I'm with you on the whole removing the weapon firing effects thing, it's not to my taste. 

I did a bit of googling, but couldn't find an obvious answer - do you happen to know if these figures all an intrinsic part of a boxed game, or whether they will be available separately in due course?
Title: Re: Agis' SMOG: Rise of Moloch minis
Post by: Agis on March 04, 2018, 01:34:43 PM
Some nice painting there - I'm with you on the whole removing the weapon firing effects thing, it's not to my taste. 

I did a bit of googling, but couldn't find an obvious answer - do you happen to know if these figures all an intrinsic part of a boxed game, or whether they will be available separately in due course?
All Infos here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cmon/the-world-of-smog-rise-of-moloch?ref=nav_search&result=project&term=rise%20of%20moloch

I presume that the boxes will be available later.
All Kickstarter exclusives will not be available via retail.
And so far CMON has not sold any single minis.
Title: Re: Agis' SMOG: Rise of Moloch minis
Post by: Duncan McDane on March 04, 2018, 02:39:03 PM
Great PJ, as usual. Didn't back this one ( choices, choices ) but I'm starting to regret it now. Some excellent models...
Title: Re: Agis' SMOG: Rise of Moloch minis
Post by: Genghis on March 04, 2018, 06:33:42 PM
Thanks Agis.  Unfortunately, whilst I like some of the figures, most are a little too 'out there' for my VSF preferences so I doubt I'll stretch to forking out for any of the whole sets.
Title: Re: Agis' SMOG: Rise of Moloch minis
Post by: BaronVonJ on March 05, 2018, 08:48:55 PM
Still waiting on mine.
-J
Title: Re: Agis' SMOG: Rise of Moloch minis
Post by: The_Beast on March 09, 2018, 08:11:55 PM
...Though it pains me to see that beautiful mess removed...

Definitely a huge YMMV moment; I'd probably have said 'you could have left some,  perhaps the tail end.' ;D

The lot are a bit over for me, but your, the both of you, work IS delicious!

Doug
Title: Re: Agis' SMOG: Rise of Moloch minis
Post by: Metternich on March 10, 2018, 06:21:11 PM
Fascinating looking minis.  What scale are they ?  Seems like a lot of detail even for 28mm.
Title: Re: Agis' SMOG: Rise of Moloch minis
Post by: Agis on March 10, 2018, 06:39:44 PM
Fascinating looking minis.  What scale are they ?  Seems like a lot of detail even for 28mm.
IIRC 32mm. Same size as Zombicide.
Title: Re: Agis' SMOG: Rise of Moloch minis
Post by: Agis on April 21, 2018, 12:53:35 AM
In between painting DUST, Star Wars Legion and others, I also managed to finish the Holmes expansion for SMOG.
(http://www.adpublishing.de/assets/images/Holmes_1.jpg)
The main Gentlemen from the Holmes expansion - Sherlock Holmes himself!

(http://www.adpublishing.de/assets/images/Watson_1.jpg)
...and Holmes faithful sidekick - Dr. Watson!

(http://www.adpublishing.de/assets/images/Homes_Group.jpg)
The Holmes expansion!

And more on my site: http://www.agisn.de/html/victorian_sf.html
Title: Re: Agis' SMOG: Rise of Moloch minis
Post by: Agis on May 26, 2018, 10:51:11 AM
(http://www.adpublishing.de/assets/images/Automaton_Kali_Prof_Blackmore.jpg)
This week Automaton Kali and Prof. Blackmore.

I really like the Automaton and its backstory. A mechanical monstrosity created by Captain Nemo!

more on my site: http://www.adpublishing.de/html/victorian_sf.html


And I need some input: Is the photo OK? I used my iPhone 8 for the 1st time on a mini shown on my site.
IMO OK but a bit too bright, Apple is always applying an Autocontrast IMO, I even toned it down a bit but still some big brightness.
So - OK or not?
Title: Re: Agis' SMOG: Rise of Moloch minis
Post by: gamer Mac on May 26, 2018, 11:26:47 AM
A bit bright, you appear to be washing out some of your painting
Lovely figures though and still 100 times better than I can do
Title: Re: Agis' SMOG: Rise of Moloch minis
Post by: Agis on October 21, 2018, 08:59:33 AM
(http://www.adpublishing.de/assets/images/Nemo_and_Kali.jpg)
Nemo, Automaton Kali and a Nautilus Sailor. (The sailor is a Anvil industries mini)

more: http://www.adpublishing.de/html/victorian_sf.html
Title: Re: Agis' SMOG: Rise of Moloch minis
Post by: Bloggard on October 25, 2018, 09:21:59 AM
look fantastic to me.

are you photo-shopping that background onto a piece of black-material used in the foreground?
v. effective if so.
Title: Re: Agis' SMOG: Rise of Moloch minis
Post by: Agis on October 25, 2018, 04:01:23 PM
Thanks!

look fantastic to me.

are you photo-shopping that background onto a piece of black-material used in the foreground?
v. effective if so.
No - the background is just a printed blueish paper!
Like this: http://chestofcolors.com/hangar-18-miniatures-photo-backgrounds-review/
Title: Re: Agis' SMOG: Rise of Moloch minis
Post by: Bloggard on October 26, 2018, 11:12:49 AM
ah right, thanks.