Black Swarm of the Congo

[gauntman]

My 2nd chapter in our ongoing game of Strange Aeons.

The heroes travel by riverboat into the dark Congo where they seek to solve the bizarre murders which have plagued the local tribes for weeks.





News of their arrival has spread and little do the heroes know, the villanous La Loup Garou (the French rogue Legonaire, Rougue Threshold Agent) awaits them with his Tcho Tcho tibesman (x2 Henchmen).  La Loup has learned the secret of controlling insects from the Tcho Tcho and has been using this power to steal and kill from the locals.

Mr. James and his men debark from the boat, leaving Griffin the rifleman on the bridge to cover their movement through the jungle.







The heroes take their time positioning and leaving the boat providing La Loupe pleanty of time to advance his tribesmen and swarms.



Just as Mr. James and his lucky civilian sidekick begin to debark the forces of La Loup Garou attack from behind a large outcropping of rock.

The surprise is on La Loupe though...Mr. James tricked the villain into entering his rifleman's kill zone.



The heroes rifleman takes an amazing first shot between the rocks avoiding La Loupes underlings and kills the villan dead.  Losing La Loup, the leutinant skill is gone allowing the heroes a definate advantage.  They are able to route the 4 swarms with some difficulty.  

The Tcho Tcho Tribesman with the blowgun moves to shoot the heroic Mr. James while he faces the deadly swarms but is also killed by another single shot from the deadly rifleman.



Soon all that remains is a lone Tcho Tcho tribesman armed with a venomous snake.  He charges and knocks the heroes civilian sidekick unconsious and dies in a hail of 45 rounds from Mr. James.



With La Loupe and his band routed, the team searches the area and discovers another map piece.  And again, I find myself frustrated by defeat and the devastating power of the heroes Rifleman.  Swearing vengance on my sons.  I return with anewed vigor to painting my large group of armed cultists.  Just wait... just wait.....    

[D@rth J@ymZ]

That Mr. James sure is pernicious and deleterious! 

[gauntman]

That Mr. James sure is pernicious and deleterious! 

Wow! I consider myself somewhat literate.  I actually had to look up those words...

Yes...I will have to pull out some real nasty beasties soon.  It's hard to take out a Threshold Character model.  Especially one with Light Bodyarmor and a Lucky Statue. 

I have some Scrawny Ones, a werewolf, a mummy, a shoggoth and an unpainted Nightgaunt.  I wanted to use a powerful Lurker in the last game but couldn't due to the Scenario we rolled.  I had to field a force larger than the Threshold team.  I thought having a Rogue Lurker Agent might be enough but that Threshold Agent with the Rifle sniped my key figures.

[Uncle Mike]

Great stuff! Keep us posted!

[ZenWired]

Very nice 

Looking forward to seeing more. But... any chance of getting larger images next time?

[gauntman]

I seem to have issues linking larger pictures from Flickr.  I'll see what I can next time. 

[Ramirez Noname]

Hi gauntman,

Like the report, and I checked out your Flickr phots - nice

Who makes the "swarms"?

Next episode ?

Ramirez

[gauntman]

Hey I figured out how to link larger pics...!!!

Hi gauntman,

Like the report, and I checked out your Flickr phots - nice

Who makes the "swarms"?

Next episode ?

Ramirez

Thanks Ramirez

They were actually very simple to make.  I made them out of Sculpty ( a type of baking clay found in most hobby stores).  I took an bent paperclip to create a wire skeleton, did a rough swarm shape, and afixed it to a washer base and baked it. 

Then I went back an added a finer textured layer of sculpty with a dental tool or pencil point and baked it a second time.  They came out wonderfully. 


Encounter Markers & Swarms pulp 28mm by parsonm2, on Flickr

There are plenty of great models out there for many things. Some things are so simple and easy/fun to make it's a shame to spend a bunch of money on them if you have a tight budget.

I beleive I made both these out of Sculpty too.  A Shoggoth and a Swamp Shambler...


CUstom Shoggoth made of Sculptypulp 28mm by parsonm2, on Flickr


CUstom Swamp Monster made of Sculpty pulp 28mm by parsonm2, on Flickr

I've since reworked the and painted the base on the Shambler though...

[widgren]

i like em

[Ramirez Noname]

Hi gauntman,

Yeap, I have to agree with Widgren "I like 'em"

The swamp monster gets my vote and I may have to visit my local hobby shop this weekend for something to sculpt with - something I have never done before 

Thanks

RMZ

[Anatoli]

Super stuff, reminds me that I really need to find some way to play with my own Strange Aeons boat!

[tobia henson]

Very very good!!!!!

[einarolafson]

  I like your Congo game, very nice idea with those swarms. The little Cthulhu idol is fantastic.

[gauntman]

Thanks, I just threw that together with some green stuff.  They're easy to make...the worse they look the more "alien" they are.

[fanfavorite]

Thanks, I just threw that together with some green stuff.  They're easy to make...the worse they look the more "alien" they are.

... yeah, very true.