Monday, 17 April 2017

Unboxing Punkapocalyptic - Black Blood Children (Part One)

Bad Roll Games recently took their 'Punkapocalyptic' game to Kickstarter in order to fund a new faction called 'Black Blood Children'. Unfortunately for me they also had a 'basically everything we've ever made plus the new stuff' pledge...they gave it the slightly snappier name 'Wasteland Hoarder' but the principle was the same...so now I own four Punkapocalyptic factions...one of which obviously is the aforementioned Black Blood Children...

...so lets start with some background info on the Black Blood Children, then we'll see what's available for them now the Kickstarter has expanded their faction from the single model listed on the website. Given that these are the most detailed models they've released I'm going to split this faction feature into two articles so I can post four views of each model (rather than the 'front and back' I did with the other articles) without drowning you under a hundred picture feature. I'll also mention any issues I encountered during assembly.

Black Blood Children
The most successful cult around the Scrapbridge area is that of the Black Blood, a congregation that gathers in and mantains an oil refinery in almost perfect working condition and has turned it into a heavily armoured and protected settlement. They worship oil with an unsettling reverence bestowed upon them by the strange deity Tex’co. They don’t trade with the clack blood they extract from beneath the ground, as only the cult members are worthy of its blessing. Although they sometimes tried in the past to carry the word of Tex’co to other settlements to get new followers, their politics were not aggresive. That doesn’t mean that they were not fit to fight, as they were well aware that almost any other rival gang would do anything to get their oil and they had to protect it at all costs.

But the attack on their home has changed that. Now they live in constant paranoia and think the rest of the world wants to steal their resources, so they fight anyone anytime and even make “preventive attacks”. And worst of all, they have strange oil-powered machines to use against their enemies, undreamed of by any other faction.
Organization
The Black Blood Children follow a highly strict religious hierarchy.
Always in charge there is a High Priest, who controls and sees everything from their oil refinery; no one outside the walls of this stronghold has ever seen him. Below him there are the Flamekeepers, who inspire great deeds from the cult Warriors with their mere presence and carry the word of Tex’co with them. The Embers are combat-trained brothers and sisters who take the fight to the enemies of the Black Blood, equipped with weapons such as flamethrowers or chainsaws, impossible to see among other factions of the Wasteland. The Sparks serve as scouts, riding their motorbikes like thunder across the Wasteland. The Ashes are the cult base members, who carry the most basic duties and enter the fray only when it is necessary. Those they call Burnts are a completely separate case, die-hard fanatics willing to give their lives for the Black Blood without a second thought.

The 'Printer Friendly' version of the core rules can be downloaded from HERE.
The rules for this particular faction can be downloaded from HERE.

Note - The standard models come with a plain 25mm base and the Bikers in the next feature come with a plain 40mm base.

Ash, Burnt and Embers
The majority of the cults rank and file are referred to as either Ashes (The Ashes are freshly consecrated members of the organisation), Burnt (Brothers and sisters who don’t become Ashes but rather follow the path of martyrdom ready to give their lives for the cult) and Embers (Embers are the combat-trained brothers and sisters who take the fight to their enemies. They are tested and seasoned through countless trials to know if they are worthy of this honour).

Black Blood Children - Unassembled
There are a large number of models in the range with a wide variety of equipment options enabling them to portray either Ashes, Burnt or Embers (There is some cross over in equipment options). Here are views of both sides of them in their unassembled form.

These ones are equipped with the most basic of weapons...

These are somewhat better equipped...

Black Blood Children - Assembled
This model was in only two parts, these being a single body piece with a separate arm.

Another two-part model with only a separate leg to attach. It does have a relatively small attachment point to the base but given the lightness of the resin model this isn't an issue.

This one comes with both arms separate. The contact points aren't massive but the shape of the arms makes attachment simple enough though you may have to hold them in place a little to ensure they properly adhere.

The separate arms are easy enough to attach but the left 'loading' hand is a tiny individual piece that will require some care when removing from the sprue and attaching to the model...unless you're a fan of crawling around the floor looking for bits that is, lol. I really like the pose on this one...

This one was missing a piece but as I wanted to get the article done I replaced the missing left arm with a spare piece from my bitz box. When I get a replacement piece (I contacted them and they're posting me it straight away) I'll replace the incorrect arm and redo these pictures...but for now it is what it is...

I had a few minor alignment issues with this one due to me somewhat hastily gluing the right arm on without doing any dry-fitting first...so my recommendation would be to not do what I did and check the pieces line up correctly before adding glue...

They also have a pet but I'm afraid this was a Kickstarter exclusive so really all I'm doing by posting pictures of it is taunting you...sorry...

In the next feature we'll look at the Black Blood Children 'Personalities', Flamekeepers and Spark Bikers...

If you happen to have missed them you can find the other articles at the links below.
Introduction to Punkapocalyptic
Faction - Black Blood Children (Part Two)
Faction - Gangers
Faction - Junkers
Faction - Mutards

Thoughts and comments are (as usual) most welcome.

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