Dystopian Wars: Redesigned Stat Cards for the People! Rejoice!

     I am experiencing a revival of Dystopian Wars amongst my amigos due to the updated rules and shiny new model syndrome. I was gifted the FSA Starter Naval box, so I picked up the John Henrys because I love me a big robot.

While trawling through the Spartan Games forums, I found these redesigned cards made by user Youlooklikeanail. These cards are amazing and will speed up our games substantially. I suggest you print out a set yourself.

Linky: Gotta Catch Em All

 They include the rules on the card. No more flipping the cards for the lazy. No more checking the rule book for special rules. FREEDOM, brothers!

My favorite card lists the "To-Hit" for EVERYTHING. It gets confusing mid-game, sometimes, but in my case, all the time.

WarmaHordes-style cards for tracking damage and crits. Smell ya later, cardboard chits!

Class Dismissed

Smoke Effects: Made Easy, Cheap, and Fast out of LED lights.

Want to spice up your game visually? Don't like to work that hard? Boy, do I have the tutorial for you! Here is a picture of the required materials.

++ Glue gun
++ LED Electric tealights 6 pack (found at Michael's Craft store) ~$6
++ Stuffing used for pillows or stuffed animals (also craft store) $2
++ Black spray paint (Krylon, is what I used)

The process of construction isn't really rocket science.

1) Grab a grapefruit portion of stuffing and shape it all smoke-like by pulling at it in random directions.
2) Slather hot glue all over the top outer ring of the tealight.
3) Slap the smoke cloud on top of the tealight. Hopefully, without burning your fingers.
4) Take it outside and spray it lightly with the paint. Best part is that the paint will hold the stuffing in place, so no need to glue anymore than in step 2.
5) Done.

I went dark with mine to hide the tealight. Also, I found it looked better NOT to take off the fake bulb from the LED. It somehow makes the light brighter and more flame looking, even though it is only a cheap piece of plastic. It is a mystery.

Here is the explosion from the Land Raider before it is flicked on. There is a little toggle switch on the underside. Also, one can replace the batteries in these lights, but it is cheaper just to buy more tealights.

Bonus: I took left over stuffing and Penny coins to make little smoke markers for my Dystopian War ships. They will represent one point of damage. I made these by putting stuffing in my fist and rubbing it as a child would make a sausage out of clay.

I figure that I will use the smoke markers as damage markers since I am not a huge fan of the cardboard chits. Also, it is more cinematic this way,, too. It may get too cluttered.

Class dismissed.

DIY Dystopian Wars Water Board: "The motion in the ocean"

Hey, wait a minute...what are you going to play Dystopian Wars/Naval game on? Let me show you! Cross-posted from my post at  www.sistersofbattle.org.

I am going to give you a rundown/inspiration to make your own water table for any Naval battles system. Here is a picture of the table with my Empire of the Blazing Sun fleet from Spartan Game’s Dystopian Wars.



Shopping List Estimated Total Cost ~$70

    6 ft x 4 ft of 1/2 thick MDF board
    2 shades of cheap blue acrylic paint
    roll of paper towels
    a paint roller and an old sponge
    32 oz of Pour-able Epoxy Resin
    A container to mix the resin (note: the resin will ruin this container)

All of these materials can be found at hardware store. If go to a big box store, you can even convince somebody to cut the board into three equal sized panels. The most expensive item is the resin and to get enough for a 6×4 table, it will run you roughly $32. The resin is the key ingredient to the table, so you don’t want to skimp here. Also, I suggest getting 1/2 thickness MDF board, to avoid warping from the resin and to prevent the gameboard from being bumped off a table.

First, pick a place that the boards can sit undisturbed overnight, while the resin dries. Second, lay down some tarp/plastic/newspaper to work on because this could get messy. Next, find something to prop up the panels off the ground. I used several buckets to accomplish this. I suggest doing this indoors because random debris, i.e. leaves, bugs, and etc. could get stuck in the resin while it is drying.

Now, apply your basecoat on the board with the paint roller. Allow time for the basecoat to dry. Next, to achieve a ocean-like effect, take an old sponge and stipple another shade of blue over your basecoat. You could add more colors, but I stuck with 2 to keep it simple. The resin box looks like the picture below.

The instructions are pretty simple. One exception to the instructions is to use an old brush to apply the resin instead of pouring it. My reason for this is that we want the resin to bead up in sections across the board, and pouring will cause the resin to pool up. After you apply the resin, use paper towels to gently stipple across the board to create a ocean-like wave effect. Do this softly in order to avoid creating air bubbles in the resin. Afterwards, the board will need to sit overnight. Warning, it will be ridiculously sticky and any little thing will stick to it.

Congratulations, ya salty dawgs. You now have your very own sea gameboard.

 Class dismissed.

Dystopian Wars: Rockets, Forcefields, and Robo-Squids. OH Myyyyy!

     Here is a family photo of my Empire of the Blazing Sun starter pack on my water table. I wanted bold colors for my little anime water trains. In the fluff, the boats are literally modified trains being driven by Steam punk Samurais with jet packs.

     Dystopian Wars is a naval/air/land wargame made by Spartan Games. The models are beautiful and the game mechanics are fun. I would venture to say that it is more of beer & pretzels game, than a serious, tournament worthy system. My reasoning is that it can get really random with the Exploding Dice mechanic. Roll dice, and reroll any 6s until you stop rolling 6s! It's fun, but more like Las Vegas than "The Art of War."

    
     Over the weekend, I finished up my Ika Squid and Floating Air Carrier, which have been languishing on my desk for sometime.

I hate painting those tiny planes....

     I tried my hand at wet blending the water effects on the Ika Squid's base. It is a mix of watered down GW Enchanted Blue, PP Trollblood base, and Vallejo Ivory. The squid is just GW Boltgun Metal and GW Devlan Mud.

     I was watching the episode "Blink" of Dr. Who with the wife while painting the squid. The weeping angels made her jump once, which almost resulted in my dropping my palette on the carpet!

     The squid comes with a submerged and breach token for when he is traveling underwater.