Battle Report: Under the Martian Yoke - Sneak Past

 

We have been following some plucky survivors of the Martian invasion of 1938.  Things started out pretty good for our little band of heroes.  However, last game things took a dramatic turn for the worst!  As they tried to hole up in a nearby corner store, a Martian Tripod ambushed them and quickly downed the whole party!  To make matters worse, their farmhouse base was over run and their stash was destroyed!  Everyone went hungry and got some sort of injury from the encounter! 

Now, they find themselves deep in Martian territory and on the run.  As they sneak through the forested area, they run across some Martian sentinels and need to sneak past.  

Thankfully, it wasn't winter yet.  Even though, the darkest parts of night were still chilly.  Luke blew on his hands, but the tingling in his right hand was not going away.  He was starting to think it was more than just the cold.  

Annie and Tommy were hunkered up together trying to stay warm.  Luke and John had laid down their jackets, but the two were still mostly sleeping on the ground.  Luke knew that could drain your body heat real fast.  They did not dare to make a fire to ward of the chill.   

John had tried to keep a watch, but he was swinging his gun at every shadow.  Luke got up and relieved him as soon as possible.  Luke had never seen John act so hysterical.  He kept pacing around and swinging his pistol around wildly.  It was only a matter of time before he was going to accidentally fire, and that would bring the Martians.  The man settled himself by a tree and quickly fell asleep.  

As the first pink of sunrise glinted on the horizon, Luke got everyone moving.  They were out of food, out of water, and had no protection from the elements.  The Martians were crawling all over the area.  They had to get moving and find some fresh supplies or they would never make it West.  

The small group headed out, using Annie's map as best they could in the pre-dawn light.  As they cleared a patch of trees, Luke caught a glimpse of movement.  He quickly signaled everyone down, and they went silent.  Annie's good eye bulged as she tried to see what Luke was gesturing at.  

A flash of red metal in the pre-dawn light, the rustling of leaves.  It Luke to like like a mini-tripod, just about man-sized moving through the undergrowth.  It hadn't spotted them, and if he had his way it never would.  The survivor's watched for a long time as it shuffled and shambled around the area.  It did not look like it planned to leave.  The only option was to try to sneak past it.    

The Survivor Band

Right now, our plucky band is 4 survivors.  I am using Copplestone Casting gangster range for the miniatures.  

The back left is Handsome John.  He was a criminal archetype who ran for the hills to survive.  

Activation    Aimed    Suppression    Fight    Brawn    Brains    Nerve  Exp

5+/2                6+        3+                    4+        8+            9+        7+        4

- Cool Customer 

- Body Injury (+1 to Grit tests)

- Fear the Dark - If in a Dark Place and alone, must take a Fear test

- Pistol, Knife, Canteen of Alcohol

- Duck and Weave- Shooting attacks have a -1 TN when he has moved.

Next is Tommy Wilkins.  He is just a kid, but survived when a building fell on his family.  He managed to dig his way out.  

Activation    Aimed    Suppression    Fight    Brawn    Brains    Nerve      Exp

3+/2             9+                8+               6+          4+        7+          5+ (6+)       8

Pitter Patter of little feet, Fear of Enclosed Spaces

- Improvised Fight weapon, Satchel, Good Shoes 

- Shellshocked 

The lady is Annie McCall is a devout believer who is struggling to process what is going on.  She was part of an ambushed evacuation, and forced to flee. 

Activation    Aimed        Suppression    Fight    Brawn    Brains    Nerve      Exp

6+/2              7+ (8+)           5+                   9+        8+          4+         3+            8

Pray, +3 Experience

- Pistol, Map, Bandages, and Knife

- Eye Injury

Finally we have Luke Goodson who is the leader of this little band of survivors.  He survived when he was suddenly knocked unconscious.

Activation    Aimed    Suppression        Fight    Brawn      Brains    Nerve    Exp

5+/2              7+           6+ (7+)                    4+       8+          9+        3+       8

Do As I Say, Do Not Be Afraid

- Knife, Flares, Empty Canteen

- Nerve Damage

- Had water last game thanks to a Canteen

In addition, their stash was taken out and they were not able to scavenge after last game.  They are all suffering deprivation.  

• Every Game without enough food = +1 TN for Brawn and Fight (Max 10)
• Every game without enough Water= +1 TN for Brains and Nerve (Max 10)
• Every game without enough Scrap= +1 TN for Shooting and Grit (Max 10)

Oh dear.  This is going to be rough! 

Scenario

I followed the process for setting up a scenario as outlined in the main rulebook.  We rolled up the Running From Danger scenario, but Annie used her map to move it to Sneak Past.  Perhaps less dangerous and still thematically appropriate for the situation.   

The survivors had a restless night out in the wilderness after their hide-out was destroyed by Martians.  Therefore, they got up early to try and head westward.  This scenario will take place at dawn!  That might help our heroes sneak past the Martian foes.  

For complications, we rolled Dangerous Terrain.  Any terrain we enter could end up being "Dangerous" on a die roll. 

Lastly, I rolled up what Martian foe the group had to sneak past.  Oh dear, and 8.  I hope it is not another Tripod all ready!  Thankfully, it was not a Tripod.  However, it is still a Martian Whip Drone.  Those are still pretty nasty, especially with my team all messed up at the moment.  

Set-up

This will be played on a 36 x 36 MU board with each MU equal to 1 inch. 

This time, I wanted a very "rural" board.  I.e. no buildings.  Just trees, rocks, hills, etc.  After all, the survivors just spent the night out in the elements.  They were forced out of the small bit of humanity they had been in last game.  Therefore, lots of trees and the like.  

We placed the Whip drone, and then the survivor's decided they were going across East to West.  

As usual, I won't go over every turn but try to give you a high level overview of the action.  

The Game

The survivors cautiously move forward, with Annie and Handsome John trying to keep the Whip Drone in their sights.  

Tommy manages to bolt ahead.  Luke, takes a slow and steady approach through the underbrush.  It is slow going, and fate seems to be with them as the Drone stays still or moves away from them.  However, some failed Activation rolls keep raising the Danger Level. 

Tommy makes a break for the board edge, but the Whip Drones turns at an inopportune time and sees the kid.  It immediately starts to scuttle rapidly his way!  Tommy tries to get away as fast as he can, but he is hampered by the undergrowth.  

Handsome John moves up to get a shot, but fails his secondary activation roll!  The Martian Whip Drone is right behind Tommy!  At this point, a second Whip Drone enters the table at the survivors deployment zone!     

Tommy barely manages to get across the board as he barely passes a Dynamic Movement test thanks to his good shoes.  The Whip Drone was closing in, but gets distracted by the other humans out in the open.  Unfortunately, the sun is now fully risen and LOS is at maximum.      

Handsome John takes several shots at the Whip Drone after Tommy.  They ping off its armored shell, and it seems unphased by the shots.  In return, the Whip Drone charges Handsome John, and the Martian machine makes short work of him.  He is quickly Downed and made Unconscious and Possibly Dead from the attack.  That raises the Danger Level immediately! 

Luke managed to easily make it across the board.  

Annie is the only one left standing.  She slowly skulks through the underbrush as the Whip Drones begin to search the area for more prey.  The last survivor and the Drones play a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse for a few turns as she tries to skulk away without catching the drones attention.  They close in on her hiding spot..... but she is long gone.       

However, things get more complicated for Annie when a Martian Feral arrives on the scene.  It sees her and slowly plods her way.  Thankfully, it is far away from her current location.  

She is almost home free when a cadaver trooper, a Gunner; stumbles out of the woods near her.  It fires at her, but the shots go wide.  Annie passes her fear test, and keeps going.  

Thankfully, none of the other Martian creatures are able to locate her.  She darts away to safety as the Gunner fires blindly into the woods for a few seconds, cracking trees with its heat ray.  However, the woods soon grow silent again.  

Post-Game

Well, three of the four survivors made it.  Handsome John goes down again!  This time, the Whip Drone managed to mangle one of his legs pretty badly.  At this rate, he isn't going to be handsome any longer!   

• Handsome John - Leg wound 

The other three all manage to score 6 XP for surviving and making it off the board.  Luke and Annie decide to bank their 14.  Tommy goes for an Agility skill.  

• Tommy earns Jump Back as a skill

 That will be useful to keep him mobile and out of close combat. 

Luke choose to look for a new Hide-out.  Annie and Tommy both go scavenge for supplies.  They did not scout for Martians, but none seemed to find them in their tents.  Luke manages to locate an abandoned store front for the group to take over as a hide-out.  In the future, they can try to scrounge what is left in its stores before heading out.  

Annie goes out and runs into more Martian searchers.  She is barely able to avoid them, and is lucky to get away unharmed!  She doesn't find anything in her search.  Tommy uncovers another survivor lurking in the woods.  However, as Tommy calls out to him, the shadowy figure flees back into the darkness.  

The group nets no new resources for their trouble! The Martians are too thick in this region of the countryside, they will have to keep moving. This is going to be another cold, hungry few days for the survivors as their rations were completely lost when the Martians wrecked their last hide-out! 

• Luke is -2 Food, -2 Scrap, and -1 Water
• Everyone else is -2 food, -2 scrap, and -2 water

One more scenario without water and folks are going to die!     

Conclusion:

Things are starting to get a bit desperate, and we are only half-way through the campaign! One more rough scenario and it is all over for my little band of survivors!           

Luke helped John sit down in a chair.  The man had managed to drag his way along, and Annie stumbled on him while out scavenging.  Her bandages and a prayer got him moving again.  It was enough to get him back with the group.  

Using Annie's map, Luke located another store, something called Cooper's Corners.  Not much else there, but a field and a burned down house.  The place had all ready been ransacked.  He was confident they could find some rations inside but someone had clearly gotten there first.  All the easy items were gone.  However, it was enough to not have to sleep on the ground in the woods again.  

John winced as Annie checked the bandages and tightened them up on his wounds.  Luke wasn't sure how long they were going to be able to call him Handsome John.  His body had taken a beating and now he had a bum leg.  John pulled out his canteen and took a hit of his alcohol, and offered it to Luke.  He took a swig. 

"This isn't gonna help us?" Luke sighed as he wiped the dribbling from his chin, "We need food and water."  To punctuate the point, his stomach growled at the mention of food.  

John shrugged, "Well, I need it.  My whole body hurts."  

Annie pulled out her map and showed it to the group, "Nothing much around here, at least not on the map. We should decide if we are going to stay here or try to move-on?" 

John nodded at Annie's cross around her neck, "What does He think?" 

Annie scowled, "I haven't been talking to Him too much."

"Well, hopefully he can rain some Mana down on us like the Israelites!" John laughed but it changed into a wracking cough.  He grab his leg and grimaced. 

Luke said, "Probably shouldn't be doing much laughing right now."

"Yeah well, right now that's about all I got.  Got no food, got no water, and got not a lot of hope either.  Besides, laughter is the best medicine right?"  

The little group lapsed into silence.  There wasn't much else to be said. 

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On The Painting Desk: Heroquest- Kellar's Keep

 

I am back on the Quest. After a brief detour for some Persian Chariots and some Roman Gladiators, I am back to Heroquest.   My loyal readers will recall that I picked up Kellar's Keep and wrote a quick review of it.  Therefore, before I can get to playing it I need to paint up all the models for it.  Thankfully, it is not as intense as Against the Ogre Horde as far as models go.  

Kellar's Keep is focused on saving the King and his army from being besieged by Zargon's forces.  The besiegers are tribes of Orcs and Goblins along with the occasional henchmen and the forces of Dread.  Therefore, the miniatures in this pack are basically re-treads of some of the sculpts from the Core box.  You get 8 more orcs, 6 more goblins, 3 more Abominations, a wooden door and an iron door.  Not that much to paint really.  

As usual, I am planning on painting them all up with my Speedpaints.  I am trying to match my Core set for the most part.  To do that, I start by undercoating them all with Grey Seer spray.  Then, a dark grey wash, followed by the white drybrushing.  This has become standard practice for my Speedpaints as it yields strong results.  

I decided to start off with the Orcs.  Per the last time, I made use of Malignant Green as the flesh color.  From there, I used the Graveyard Grey for their armor to give that cast iron look.  I spent some time looking through my paint colors.  I did not want to duplicate the Red and Blue tabards I made for the past group.  Instead I used  Zealot Yellow, Cloudburst Blue, a Purple, and a Absolution Green.  Finally, I used a combination of Pallid Bone and Runic Grey on the weapons.  When it was all done, I washed them in light tone, and painted up the bases with Runic Grey and a black rim.  

Ready to be spray varnished, I took them outside the next day and gave them a spray.  One problem, I didn't use my matte varnish.  I accidentally sprayed them with Grey Seer again!  FETH IT ALL!  I had to go back in and start over again with half-painted dudes.  Thankfully, it was much quicker to fix than the initial paint job.  Here they are again, this time properly matte varnished......

They ended up usable.  The lesson here kids is always double check before spraying and focus on what you are doing.  I was thinking way too much about some work stuff and paid a heavy price for my negligence.  

Here they are mixed in with the original Orcs from the Core set....

  ..... they mix together just fine.  Perhaps the new ones are a tad darker?  That took me over 100+ HQ models painted this year!    

Then, it was time to go onto the next batch, the Goblins.  I have not really enjoyed painting these little dudes.  Something about them just bothers me.  I started with the same Malignant Green flesh as the start.  Then, it got a bit tougher.  I wanted to keep some of the Magic Blue from the originals, BUT I did wanted them all to look unique.  No duplicate paint jobs.  I had to go back and look closely on what I did last time.

Not much to say about these little guys.  I used Magic Blue as a unifying part of their clothing.  Then, I used a variety of colors to finish them off, mostly natural tones.  I used Crusader Flesh, Hardened Leather, and Sand Golemn.  For metallics I mostly used Runic Grey or Graveyard Grey.  I sprinkled a few  Metallic Speedpaints in for good measure and a bit of the glitter.  The bases were standard Runic Grey with a black rim.  

For the Abominations, I had to go back and re-read how I did them from the last time!  I didn't recall.  I did the same basic steps.  I painted the plates Wizard Orb from my basic Army Painter sets.  Then, I used Absolution Green on the flesh of the model to give a somewhat two-toned look.  For the fins and eyes I used Zealot Yellow.  The loincloths I used different colors to again try to be able to differentiate them.  The weapons were Runic Grey, Hoplite Bronze, and Pallid Bone for he blades, again with each being different to help identify unique Abominations in game.  Then, it was standard basing.  

The last thing was to paint up the two doors that came in the set.  Nothing fancy.  One is off wood and the other is iron.  These represent where some missions begin or end.  Therefore, I want them to be somewhat unique from the other doorways in the game.   

Oooooohhhh, spooky. 

Here are the old "in with the new'!  I mixed up my Core Set and my Kellar's Keep all together to see how they looked.  Not a bad mix-and-match if I do say so myself.  I always get a bit nervous trying to go back and recreate a color scheme instead of doing it all together when the memories are fresh.  

So, still to do for the year are an Anglo-Saxon army and the Return of the Witch Lord for Heroquest.  I have to admit, not having to assemble the models makes these Heroquest models pretty quick, fun, and easy to paint!  We'll see what comes out next! 

Until next time! 

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Battle Report: Under the Martian Yoke- Holed Up for the Day

 

It has been a while, but I wanted to revisit the solo-campaign I had started for Under the Martian Yoke.  We have been following our plucky survivors of the Martian assault.  You may recall, that in this world, the Martian Invasion of Orson Welles in 1938 was real!  The East Coast of the United States was soon devastated by the invaders.  Our unlucky band managed to survive the initial invasion and have now been left to survive in the blasted remains of the Martian controlled territory.  

Luke had heard them moving around all night long.  He and his companions had gone out into the night to search for food, water, or anything else they could use.  They had slunk out of their cozy farmhouse and went searching.  They couldn't see much in the darkness, but it seemed safer.  The Martian had been active in the area.  He had seen Tripods moving on the horizon, and heard the strange hooting of their war horns in the air.  

As dawn came, he knew they had to find some cover to hole up for the day.  It was too hot for them to be moving across country in the daylight.  They were not going to make it back to the farmhouse yet.  He had planned the route with Annie's map to take them near a speck of a civilization.  Just a little cluster of buildings on the map.  Not even a town.  

He crouched in the bushes and scanned the area.  The main building looked like a good place to hole up.  No sign of Martians, but the line-of-sight wasn't great in the early breaking dawn.  He glanced up and down the shrub line, and saw Tommy, Annie, and John all looking at him expectedly.  

He gave a big gulp, decide to try to look as confident as he could, and gave the signal to move out.

The Survivor Band

This game only allows you a band of 4 survivors.  Mine is made up of Copplestone Castings Gangster range.  They make great pre-war civilian figures for this.  

   

On the left is Handsome John.  He is a criminal archetype and survived by running for the hills when things went south.   

Activation    Aimed    Suppression    Fight    Brawn    Brains    Nerve

5+/2                6+        3+                    4+        8+            9+        7+

Cool Customer

- Pistol, Knife, Canteen of Alcohol

- Duck and Weave- Shooting attacks have a -1 TN when he has moved. 

Next is Tommy Wilkins.  He is just a kid, and survived when a building collapsed on his family.  He managed to dig his way out, but no one else did.  

Activation    Aimed    Suppression    Fight    Brawn    Brains    Nerve

3+/2             9+                8+               6+          4+        7+          5+

Pitter Patter of little feet, Fear of Enclosed Spaces

- Improvised Fight weapon, Satchel, Good Shoes

The lady is Annie.  Annie McCall is a devout believer, trying to process what exactly is going on.  She was part of an ambushed evacuation, and forced to flee.  

Activation    Aimed    Suppression    Fight    Brawn    Brains    Nerve

6+/2              7+            5+                   9+        8+          4+         3+

Pray, +3 Experience

- Pistol, Map, Bandages, and Knife

Last up is Luke Goodson, the leader of this little band of survivors.  He survived when he was suddenly knocked unconscious.  

Activation    Aimed    Suppression    Fight    Brawn    Brains    Nerve

5+/2              7+           6+                    4+       8+           9+        3+      

Do As I Say, Do Not Be Afraid

- Knife,  Canteen of Water, Flares

- Revolver is out of ammo and left at Hide-out

Scenario

The survivors left their farmhouse to go gather supplies.  However, Martian forces suddenly became active in the area and the group needed to get to cover quickly.  Using Annie's map, they found a small cluster of local buildings and made a break for it. 

There is 1 marker in the center of the board.  It is inside the tire store building.  All survivors need to be within 4 MU of the marker by the end of the game. The game also starts at a higher danger level.  

This game is happening at Dawn. 

Finally, there are 2 Green Gas clouds in the area floating around the table.  The game is starting at Danger Level 9!    

Set-up

The area is 36 by 36 MU with 1 MU equaling 1 inch. 

There are three buildings clustered around the center of the board with a road cutting diagonally across the game play area.  There are also scattered trees encroaching on from the board edge in the upper corner, and some groves near the house. 

The survivors decide to deploy along the west board edge nearest to the house.  

I am not going to go over every turn, but a high level overview of the game as it progressed.  It is too hard to play and record on a turn-by-turn basis without breaking some of the immersion and fun!  

This start out looking good for our little group of heroes.  There are no foes and they skulk their way towards the objective building. Tommy can run pretty freely, nd does so to get to the building.  However, things quickly take a turn for the worse, as a really poor Danger roll brings a Martian Black Dust launcher onto the scene!  Yikes!  

The Martian Tripod made a bee line for Tommy and tried to grapple him with its tentacles.  However, the kid was too nimble and managed to avoid them.  However, the Tripod also used its Black Dust Launcher on Annie and Luke.  They were quickly down coughing and gagging from the evil smoke.  Luke manages to pull himself to his feet.  

Tommy manages to get away from the Tripod and run for the building they are going to hole up in.  However, the door is locked!  This proves to be a deadly obstacle as the Tripods Heat Ray cuts into the area Tommy is in and sends him Unconscious and Possibly Dead.  The Tripod then scuttles over to downed Annie, and their tentacles put her to Unconscious and Possibly dead as well.  Ouch!  With Annie and Tommy down, Handsome John turns and starts running for it! 

A new Martian Shocker arrives on the opposite side of the town, and heads towards Handsome John.  The Tripod manages to see Luke over the building and hits him with a Heat Ray, he is knocked Unconscious and Possibly Dead.  He then targets Handsome John in the woods and Heat Rays him Unconscious and Possibly Dead as well.

That is a TPK from 1 Tripod!  Yikes!  Good thing they have some supplies in inventory!  The Danger Level ended at only 18- Yellow!   

Post-Game 

Thankfully, the survivors went into this game with 11 Food, 14 Water, and 2 Scrap.  They are going to need it!  

All of the Survivors went Unconscious and Possibly Dead, so they will all need to roll on the Injury table.  In addition, none of them can perform post-fame actions! 

• Tommy- Shellshock so their Nerve is +1
• Annie- Eye injury so +1 to Aimed Shoot rolls
• Luke- Nerve damage so +1 Shoot for Suppression shooting
• Handsome John- Body Injury so +1 to Grit tests

Ouch.  However, Handsome John ended the game running away, so they also suffer from a Psychological injury as well.  

• Handsome John- Fear of the Dark

Sadly, no one gains any new experience from this session.  This leaves everyone at this level:

• Handsome John- 4
• Annie McCall-  8
• Tommy Wilkins -  8
• Luke Goodson - 8

Oh dear, since they can not post any scouts, the Martians manage to locate and destroy the groups hide-out!  They loose their farmhouse and all their stash!  Oh no!   This is bad, as going into the depravation phase no one has enough food, water, or scrap!  They are all deprived!  They will each have the following effect: 

• Every Game without enough food = +1 TN for Brawn and Fight (Max 10)
• Every game without enough Water= +1 TN for Brains and Nerve (Max 10)
• Every game without enough Scrap= +1 TN for Shooting and Grit (Max 10)

This was a very bad outcome for our plucky band of heroes.  Can they recover next time, or are they doomed?  Only time will tell! 

Luke woke up with a start, and immediately regretted it.   His head screamed at him with a  searing flash of red across his vision.  He immediately grabbed his head.  However, the pain told him that he wasn't dead.... yet.  

He stumbled to his feet, and tripped over the great tear in the ground the Martian Heat Ray had made.  The upheaval of the earth had apparently sent him sprawling clear.  He rushed over to where he saw the ragged form of Handsome John.  A splash of water from his canteen woke him up, and he immediately groaned.  

"I don't want to go..... where am I?" then John immediately curled up and groaned.  Luke made his way to Annie, and was relieved to find her sitting up and wrapping some of her own bandages around her head.  There was a bloody mark where her left eye was.  Tommy has been buried in some rubble as the eave collapsed on him, and he frantically pulled himself out, his eyes darting.  Luke was pretty sure that if he had been completely free, the boy would have dashed off in terror, and he would never see him again.  

The small band of scarecrows managed to stumble along the edge of the road.  They had a hand on the one in fronts shoulder to guide the way.  They stumbled along, and a trip that had taken a single day the night before, took them three.  

Luke was eager to settle down in the farmhouse and pop open a can of salted pork.  They didn't have enough food with them for three days out.  His stomach was reminding him of that.  They rounded the bend in the small tree-lined road leading to their hide-out, but something was immediately amiss.  The smell of burnt wood filled the air.  

Where their old farmhouse once stood, was just a smoking crater.  A few, burned and blackened supports stuck up from a torn and soot covered earth.  The farmhouse was gone.  John let out a long, deep, guttural moan.       

Until next time! 

 

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Wargaming on a Budget- Making a Game Board

 Welcome back all. 

Many of you know that I had a long period of my life where wargaming was barely part of it.  I was locked out by cost!  This period led me to lean into something I call DIY (Do-It-Yourself) wargaming, or wargaming on a budget.  It is still a part of the hobby that I hold onto closely in my heart.  

A while ago, I had a short post about how to Wargame on a Budget to make a board look good.  I want to go back and revisit that idea.  Lately, I have been playing games of Games Workshop's Kill Team game with the True Crit Gaming Guild.  Thankfully, one of our members managed to get in good with the local GW Rep and get us some good resources to start, but we soon outgrew the couple of boards we got from them.  Therefore, we needed some more 30 x 22 inch boards for our Kill Team group!  

I decided to step in to create some terrain for myself, that I could share with the group on game day.  I actually started this process by using a 6x4 city terrain mat from Cigar Box Battles.  It looked great, but was much bigger than what we needed for a game of Kill Team.  I also used one of the group Project Social days to make a reasonable set of DIY "futuristic city terrain" out of found materials and printed accessories.  

Amazing what some cheap big box acrylic paint, styrofoam, printed images, and a good mat can do!

However, I wanted to try and build a quick and easy board for Kill Team that was modular and called back to the Gallowdark/Space Hulk boards.  However, I wanted to do it all with found materials only.  Today, we will take a look at the first major step in that project, we are going to make the 30 x 22 inch game board.  

The first challenge was that Kill Team used a 30 x 22 inch game board, when a standard sheet of Foam Board or similar display boards were 28 x 22.  I am not a conspiracy theorist, but I am almost 100% sure the size difference was not an accident.  Therefore, I had to hunt for an alternative base.  I managed to find it with a big box of corrugated cardboard. 

I traced out the size I wanted, and cut two pieces of 30x22.  Why two pieces and not just 1?  Well, corrugated cardboard will warp.  Therefore, to prevent warping, I cut out two pieces and glued them together with simple adhesive.  This was to just give the board some additional strength.   

Those of you old grognards out there will probably recall an old article G-Dub did called Cardboard City.  This was around the time of the first Cityfight Codex.  Well, that article had a great tip for using cardboard.  

To cover the unsightly edges, you needed to cover them with masking tape!  Brilliant.  That is the next step of our board! 

Once that is done, now comes the fun part!  Time to detail!  Go out and find a whole bunch of boxes from cereal, oatmeal, and various other products that use that thin cardboard.  You know the stuff!  

Cut this out into a variety of small squares and shapes you like.  Take regular adhesive and glue these all over the top of your board.  In addition, find any other fun little items that strike your fancy such as straws, tongue depressors, sand, sprue bits, bits of screen, whatever!  Go crazy!  Use these to detail the board by gluing them to the playing side of it.   You want to make it look like more than just a flat piece of cardboard.  However, you want to put enough on, but not too much.  You don't want it to get in the way of putting your terrain on top, just enough to give your piece of board some texture and favor when you paint it.  

Once all of that is done, you are ready to paint.  First step is to give it a simple undercoat of grey primer.  This can be any old primer since you are not trying to make a detailed piece.  No need to use the expensive stuff you use on miniatures here!  Give it enough coats so the colors from any original packing material does not show through the primer.  

Once it is primed, you can go about giving it some rough coverage.  The easiest way is to either use spray paint or some cheap big-box acrylics.  It works best if you use a color that is a bit darker than the original primer.  Then just slop it on messily and let it dry for a few hours or overnight.  Then, go back and highlight the texture pieces with a lighter color than you used as the primer, again just using cheap, large brushes and big-box retailer acrylics.  

Now that those two steps are done, you are ready to move onto some detail work.  Again, no need to do anything fancy here.  Just use cheap big-box brushes and acrylics to paint out some details to make the base board POP!  Some red here, some green there, a splash of metallic colors on some sprues, etc.  Enough to give your board some character, but not overshadow the terrain or the models you are going to put on top of it.  

Congratulations, you now have a 30x20 play board for your games.  It is just big enough where you can easily carry it around and store, with just enough detail to make it look good.  If all goes according to plan, this probably took a weekend or two.  Plus no one else has a game board like yours! 

Next time on Wargaming on a Budget, we will start to build some simple walls to put on the board for quick and effective terrain!  Keep the materials you used for this project, as you will be using them again for the next phase!         

Until then! 

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