Wednesday, 2 July 2014

The Wednesday Gallery

As my Malifaux crew last week was a significant pile of reinforcements for Ramos's crew I thought that the gallery this week would have somewhat of an industrial feel.

I've done Steampunk a lot recently (and that's no bad thing of course) but I think we'll go with something a bit more Gothic this time...pretend it's 'diesel-punk' if it makes you feel better, lol.

As usual if you have no interest in females of the Gothic variety hanging around abandoned warehouses and bits of machinery then just don't scroll down.....

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Here again? Off we go then.....

Thoughts and comments are (as usual) most welcome.

Hawk Wargames Newsletter #34

Every-one likes sneak previews, right? There's some other stuff as well.....

Welcome to our 34th Newsletter

This is a full and packed newsletter – with a few new exciting things to talk about!

Sneak Peeks for Resistance Start Today!

The designs for all the Resistance units are now complete! Throughout July we will be previewing images of all the remaining new models via Facebook and Twitter. The first 12 days will be sneak peeks of the new models and the following 18 days will contain full images of the new units. We will not be showing the Technicals/ Heavy Technicals as we have previewed those previously, although some of these new units may have been spotted at shows we have attended this year...

Don't forget to check out our Facebook page each day in July to see the latest pictures and comments on the first expansion race for Dropzone Commander. There will also be another exciting announcement on July 31st, so be sure not to miss it!

So without further ado...

Now Available: The Hawk Wargames Official Tournament Pack 2014

The Dropzone Commander tournament scene has been going from strength to strength over the last year, from our open days and tournaments at conventions such as Gen Con and TempleCon, to fan run events all over the world!

With the growth of the tournament scene, we feel the time is right to introduce an official Hawk Wargames Tournament pack to help organisers plan their events and offer some never before seen scenarios specifically created for tournament use.

This tournament pack also includes a new scoring system which takes into account both Victory Points and Kill Points to determine the victor of each game. This points system rewards the victor for winning the scenario but also rewards tactical play by awarding bonus points for destroying your opponent's force with minimal casualties. After all, if you only ever achieve pyrrhic victories, you won't have much of an army left for future battles! The official Hawk Wargames Tournament Pack can be downloaded for free here >

Coming Soon: The Hawk Wargames Open Weekend and Tournament

Following on from the success of our last Open Weekend and Tournament in January (our largest to date), we are proud to announce that we will be running a second Open Weekend and Tournament on 13th and 14th September 2014, in Croydon, South London (the same venue as our previous event).

This two day tournament will cost £25/player and the Open Weekend is free to attend, so do bring along friends to watch and look around at the models we'll have on show (including Avenger, our 3m long 10mm scale Strike Carrier!) We will also have the Escape Pod for sale and some exclusive pre-releases available in limited numbers!

To book into the 2 Day Tournament or to find out more, please visit our site here >

And (if you have Facebook), you can join the events page for the Open Weekend which can be found here >

Hawk Wargames at Gen Con 2014 and our Gen Con Tournament

Hawk Wargames will be running a tournament again at Gen Con 2014 although this event has completely sold out! Dropzone Commander tournaments are always very friendly events so we encourage those of you that could not get a ticket or just want to see what one of our tournaments looks like, to come and visit the tournament on Friday 15th August in Hall C, location Yellow, 21-24. The tournament pack for this event is now available here >

We will also be running an open gaming table on the Hawk Wargames stand throughout Gen Con so feel free to bring your armies with you if you fancy a casual game with fellow DzC fans (use of this table will be informal and first come, first serve). You can find us at Booth 2617!

30mm Ares Now Available

Our 30mm scale Collector's Edition Ares is now shipping andavailable to order from the Hawk Wargames website >

This fantastic model is fully poseable and is the first model available in this new range. Don't forget to head to our Facebook page and tell us which of our models you would like to see added to our 30mm Collectors Range next!

Finally, here is our latest short story... we hope you enjoy!

“Abraxis, what’s our record for kills in a single volley?”
“68, Master.”
Ciaus let himself float through the neural net connecting his dormant body to the Menchit walker. All systems were preforming well, and Abraxis – his AI – was ready for the hunt.
“I think we can do better than that, don’t you? Give me a precision battle view with a movement-acquisition overlay”
The questing tendrils of his mind ran though the battle walker, solidified into a 180-degree view of a wrecked urban plaza. The view was crystal clear despite the smog and dust of battle, with everything stationary tinged dark grey.
Instantly bright blue movement flashes lit up in the grey; Scourge infantry dodging and weaving towards the static walker.
“Abraxis, set firing triggers to mind impulse. Minigun triad. Give me a count; Ascending, top right. And….begin”
He lashed out with his mind, pinpoint three round bursts changing each moving blue blur to a blue smear before it melting into the immobile grey. The kill counter to the right of his vision ticked upwards rapidly. 19.20.21.22.23.24.
“This is an inefficient use of the RX-20’s potential killing power, Master” chided the AI.
25.25.

“Damn. Missed one. You put me off my aim.”
“Apologies Master.”
“Well it’s ruined now. Full cycle, scythe fire” he ordered, lazily switching to auto-targeting with a thought.
The guns cycled up, spraying death left and right with lethal efficiency. Blurs that were once host warriors were obliterated. Where they had taken cover, rubble and flesh were churned up together. Where they were caught in the open, they simply evaporated; bodies burst open and turned to a thin red mist.
“Further threats indicated. Western approach. My Master, these are unregistered hostiles. Searching Pantheon data banks for the most prudent course of action”
“Abraxis, what is my first rule?”
“But recent encounters with these hostiles suggest that even the application of the RX-666 is not sufficient–”

“The first rule?”
“Everything burns, Master.”
“Everything burns Abraxis.”
Hulking shapes appeared on the movement scanners, three times the size of the previous enemy infantry. Even with his mind suspended in the neural connections of the walker, Caius felt their heavy footfalls. No matter. Everything burns.
“Re-load all. Concentrated fire from the Miniguns. Hold Flamethrower until half effective distance. Let them come on.”
The grey filter darkened as he saw them for the first time, hulking brutes with arms lashed to glowing blue cannons. They seemed to register his stare and paused in their thudding advance. Three of them, tri-eyed. They stopped in their tracks to regard him like a piece of meat to be devoured. Spittle dripping from un-human fangs, they charged at the walker, roaring and crushing the corpses of fallen scourge as they charged.
I am no prey-thing to be discounted so easily brutes, thought Ciaus.

“Belay previous. Full auto, let fly all, empty the tank.” He snarled.
“Let them taste the RX-666. Immolate them.”

Jets of liquid flame leapt from the walker towards the beasts. Super-heated fuel bathed them in fire. What had been bellows of hate turned to agonised grunts and wails of pain. Armour cracked and split, the alien meat inside turning black and boiling away inside its own shell.
“Everything burns, Abraxis”
In the flickering light of the destruction he had wrought, Caius smiled.

“We’ll wait for the flames to die down and echo-mark the location. They die very easily for large creatures, but Pantheon data banks should be updated non-the-less.”
“Master, sensors indicate-”
Before the AI could finish the dying flames erupted with blue light. Charged plasma impacted the right side of the hull, melting the flamethrower and sending angry red warning flashes across Caius’s vision.
“Abraxis, report!”
“Everrrrrything burns M-a--a--st--e-e-r-r”
“Abraxis!”

Reaching out in the neural link Caius probed for the damage report.

RX-666 Flamethrower: Offline.
Primary Gyroscopes: Offline.
Secondary systems: attempting to compensate. Failed.
Primary AI Core: heavy damage.
Primary servos: Offline.
Redundancies: Offline. Servos Failing.

Through a haze of red warnings and beating emergency klaxons, Caius could still make out the plaza. Heat blasted concrete and molten metal was spread over the streets, but even as the fires receded he could see something moving amongst the carnage.
Caius pulsed urgent disbelief into the mind link.
“They’re still alive! Abraxis, How are they still alive? Respond!”
“Eeeee…every….---every {ERROR} everythin-g….BURN BURNBURNssss - Everything burns Masssterrr”

Two of the beasts were rising from the heat. One had no eyes left, the red orbs cracked and burnt out. But still it rose, thick black tongue lolling out of its mouth as if tasting the air for the foe.
The other had lost one eye, but in the guttering flames the remaining two shone blood red. Half its body and most of the snout were blackened to charcoal, and its left arms hung uselessly from stringy bundles of cooked muscle and sinew.
It was the right arm that Caius focused on. It glowed bright and deadly, pulsing blue-white in the grey of his vision.
The barrel spewed plasma. Everything was in motion. The Menchit toppled backwards and was sheared in half at the waist by the power of the charged weapon.
The images in Caius’s mind turned hazy and began to swim in and out of view. Red flashing sigils were everywhere, catastrophic damage to all systems indicated.

“EVERYTHING {ERROR-logic:-:designation ABRAXIS not found} burnsmasterburnsmasterburns–“
Abraxis, badly damaged, stuck in a logic loop.

He had to disconnect. If the walker died with his mind linked, he could no longer count on the fail-safes to get him out before complete system crash. Forcing an emergency severance, he blacked out for a few seconds, feeling his mind return to his human form.

The first thing he felt was the pain. Flooding his senses and nearly overwhelming him, even the stims in his body could not cope. His right leg was gone; his left, a bubbling, melted mess of flesh and metal.
The next thing that hit him was the smell. The acrid stench of cooked, rancid meat, burning oil and molten plastics made him light headed and nauseated. The destruction of his walker and his own body melded into a fug that clung to him.
The last thing he felt were globules of tar-black drool dropping on his face. His head lolled back in the command chair and his eyes bulged as he looked into the hungry crimson orbs staring down at him.

“Everything burns Master…{Error-pilot not found}”

Tuesday, 1 July 2014

Inspiring Steampunk Insects

Though most of my painting decisions are based on getting things done quickly I sometimes see something that inspires me and makes me wish I'd spent a bit more time on something. The following is a picture of some of my many Steampunk Arachnids from my Wyrd Games Malifaux Ramos crew...

...which are amongst many things I'm seriously considering re-painting after being inspired by this lot.

The following are by a gentlemen called Justin Gershenson Gates who has a website called A Mechanical Mind that's well worth a look at. I've selected a few that fit the theme I was looking at but there's much more on his site that's very interesting...

Thoughts and comments are (as usual) most welcome.

Kingdom Death Newsletter - Summertime

For those of you unfamiliar with Kingdom Death's models there's a good chance that some of the female ones featured in this newsletter have disproportionately large breasts and aren't wearing many clothes...if that bothers you then don't scroll down...though amusingly the one model described as 'naked' actually refers to the lack of packaging rather than the lack of clothing...

...you'll be missing some amazing work if you don't look though...

Summertime

While we continue to work like crazy on the kickstarter and our warehouse fills up with seemingly endless hard plastic miniatures, we stole a few moments to get a late June sale ready!

The King - Resin Collectors Edition
Guided by the glow of Lantern Halberds, this mysterious and ornate monster devours everything in its path. This resin incarnation is gorgeous and really showcases Thomas' talent. It does not come with any game content, nor the 100mm base it is photographed on.
Concept art by Melissa Curtin, exquisitely sculpted by Thomas David.
Take me to the King

Pinup Wet Nurse
A cheeky nod at Kingdom Death's most talked-about monster.
Concept art by Lokman Lam, sculpted by Jon-Troy Nickel.
Take me to the P inup Wet Nurse

Naked Experiment of Death
We've learned so much from producing the Wet Nurse and Pinup Twilight Knight in PVC and we are bringing the experiment to a close by offering a no-frills, unboxed, "naked" version of it. It includes, 2x PVC Wet Nurse figures, & 2x PVC Pinup Twilight Knight Figures at a very special price to thank our fans for supporting us. It will be available while stock lasts. (These are the same miniatures that were in the Experiment of Death, "naked" is merely referring to its lack of packaging.)
Take me to the Naked Experiment of Death

Pinup Forsaker Advanced Painting Guide
The second in Mr.Scott Hockley's series of painting guides has been added to our site. We decided to keep it just as raw and informative as the Architect Painting guide.
Take me to the Painting Guide

Savior Restock!
We finally got the remaining resin casts to complete the collectors run of the female saviors! These are NOT encores!

Kingdom Death: Monster

The project continues to go well as hard plastic kits are finished at a quality level I could have never expected going into this! Thank you fans and thank you backers for making this exciting and major extension of Kingdom Death possible!

If you are looking for project updates you can find them all here.

We are currently prepping another fairly large update, which should be ready sometime this week.

Availability
To the people that missed their chance to join the kickstarter, thank you for joining our mailing list and I apologize, but the game and all of the kickstarted content will not be publicly available until after backer rewards have been fulfilled. The shift from PVC to hard plastic has greatly increased our unit costs and we need to properly evaluate before we can set final retail prices and begin taking pre-orders.

We will figure out a way to accommodate new fans, but for now our full attention is focused on meeting our current kickstarter promises. Thank you in advance for your understanding and patience. ~