I still have a little Kaiju stuff to work through, though without an event to run the game at anytime soon, I'm mostly just painting to break up other gaming projects.
Lead Capes - A Superhero Wargames Blog
Friday, March 15, 2024
Miniatures Finished: EDF XIII
Tuesday, March 12, 2024
Superhero Media: X-Men Origins Wolverine
Some in the (surprisingly large) Superhero Miniature Gaming "community" question why I consider things like Transformers, Dragon Ball and Kaiju as part of the superhero genre, when, strictly speaking, they're not. Well, it's because considering them as part of the genre makes for interesting thought fodder. Considering the destruction wrought by a superhero fight through the lens of Shin Godzilla, for example brings up different elements than only taking Age of Ultron into account will. Now let's flip that, and consider why Origins Wolverine is barely a superhero film in any way that counts. The film is a by-the-numbers b-grade action film more in the vein of Commando than anything else, with a handful of elements cribbed from the comics and mashed into place so that they bare little resemblance to their starting points. Hell, they let Will.i.am play John Wraith, who thought that would be a good idea? Basically, Wolverine, the only character most people cared about, murders his way through a list of celebrity death matches with a threadbare plot hanging off. It's not shocking that Origins Wolverine was bad, it's shocking that it was a massive hit in spite of how bad it was.
Probably the biggest problem I have personally with Origins Wolverine is that it received such a backlash from fans that the planned Origins Magneto was canceled and we got First Class instead, which chickened out on what would have been at least a conceptually interesting film. Look it's easy to say that Wolverine can't carry a whole film, but Logan proved that to not be true. It's easy to say that the opening credits sequence should have been the entire film, but that kind of thing is typically composited by contractors rather than the director or writers. What we're left with is a not very good film that made enough money for the studio that we ended up with another decade's worth of X-Men films, for good or ill. For all my Australian readers, you really should watch Origins Wolverine again, just to see, of all people, Asher Keddie as one of the Weapon X scientists in a few scenes, doing a passable American accent. It made re-watching this just about worth it for me and broke up the slog.
Friday, March 8, 2024
Drokk the Law!! - Part VII
Friday night at the Nunawading Wargames Association means Judge Dredd Miniatures Game! For something that I wasn't really considering as having legs, we're starting to get a few games in a night and some favourite gangs are solidifying. I finally got to run my mate Andrew through a game (yes, there's two Andrews and they're both "Andrew W" so it's not helpful sorry) and let's just say it was a lot more dynamic than the teaching game last meeting.
Andrew (the new player) chose my Street Gang to take on Sam's Apes in what turned out to be a real slog of a game. I don't mean that in a bad way, just that it was one of those games were some models seemed to have supernatural luck in not getting killed. The street gang dominated the early game thanks to lucky shots with the Missile Launcher taking out three of the four Gorillas in quick order; with only one ape with Spit Gun left, things looked bad for Sam.
Then, however, things turned. With his last ape on top of a building in the centre of the table, Sam started picking off some Punks with surprisingly accurate shooting, leaving Andrew the task of having to throw his gangers at the damn dirty ape for the remainder of the game.
The game ended at turn six (turn limits are something we're working on adding to missions and six seems like a good number) with the last Ape still on the table somehow, but the game clearly went to the Street Gang, even if they couldn't close the deal.
Next up, Sam and Andy decided to see how the Ape Gang fared against the Justice Department. As the Judges still best represent the idea of an "elite" gang in the game, with some of the best armour, weapons and mostly being made up of Heroes. I was playing Dragon Ball Super Fusion World with Andrew, so didn't catch much of the game, but I got filled in later. The Judges pulled out a win thanks to being able to arrest the Apes and having close combat weapons. In Judge Dredd, each model has access to the "Fists and Feet" close combat weapon if they're not equipped with anything else, which can deal damage, but actually boost your opponent's armour.
Unlike Necromunda, Judge Dredd lacks a cheap melee weapon option, so starting teams, like ones we've been playing with, can't tend to afford every piece of equipment you may want them to have. In an ongoing campaign, this seems like something players would remedy, especially as money cannot be kept between games, you have to spend or lose credits as they come in.
The final game was between Andrew playing my Renegade Robots (now painted and with a few list tweaks) and me finally getting to try out my Mobster list, which has been built for a few months now. Andrew won as most of my plays didn't work out and I was lacking any real ability to punch through the armour of the robots, but the variety of the Gangsters is something I want to come back to as the possibilities for list building are pretty tempting. For now, I simply don't have much free time to write gangs, so we'll see how we go the next few meetings.
Tuesday, March 5, 2024
Superhero Media: The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Look, I was born in 1986 and started reading Spider-Man shortly thereafter, so I have never lived in a world where Gwen Stacey wasn't dead (until Ghost Widow came along, but that's a different story). Simply put, I have waited my entire life to see Gwen die on the big screen, so that moment in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was really great for me the first time out, even if the film wasn't the best. What drags the film down is the continuing Richard Parker story elements from the first The Amazing Spider-Man, which don't add much to the story and almost seem to be from a different genre. Like, when did Richard have the time and money to build a secret science lair in an abandoned subway station, if he had to go to Norman Osbourne for funding to genetically engineer super spiders? Given that Spider-Man is supposed to be the first superhero in the setting, I'm not sure how many "Lair" contractors would have been readily available.
Jamie Foxx's Electro is generally considered one of the weaker points of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and he doesn't add much to the plot, but I do like the character in of himself. Sure, the picked-on and downtrodden Max Dillon is a bit much, but once he's powered-up, it makes for a very visually interesting fight in Times Square. Hell, I don't even mind Electro's dubstep inspired theme music, which a lot of people still seem to complain about for some reason? I said in my reviews of the Rami Spider-Man films that I probably wouldn't be going back to them anytime soon, for the Amazing films however, I may come back sooner, as I really enjoyed seeing them again this time around. Yes, they're not as good as the MCU films or Into the Spider-Verse, but sometimes you want a hamburger instead of stake tartar, you know? I hope these films aren't forgotten, as there is a lot to enjoy here, even if they aren't the best the character has seen.
Friday, March 1, 2024
Miniatures Finished: Cosmic Girls
Strictly speaking, the title should be "Cosmic Women", but I wanted to go for the song reference. You should know what I'm about by now.
Monica Rambeau: AKA Photon, Captain Marvel and many other names, of course I had to do Monica in her Nextwave outfit. Monica Rambeau, leader of the Nextwave squad, lies all the time. Heroclix
Hawkgirl: As a fan of the Justice League animates series, I had to get around to painting a Hawkgirl at some stage, going for colours from that programme, of course. Heroclix
Ursa: One day, I'll get my hands on the Zod, Ursa and Non from Superman II, but until then, this version, reminiscent of Last Son of Krypton, will do nicely. Heroclix
Captain Marvel and Boots: I was looking for a miniature of Carol Danvers in her Captain Marvel costume when I found this version with bomber jacket and "Rosie the Riveter" pose and just had to have it. As it so happened, I also had a "spare" cat from Reaper, so Boots got to join in on the fun too. Heroclix
Jewel: I'm not sure that I'd ever really have any in-game use for Jessica Jones' superhero identity, but I kept this figure from a job-lot and it was pretty fun to paint after doing a lot of dark colours on a commission job. Heroclix
Tuesday, February 27, 2024
Superhero Media: The Venture Bros. - Season 4
For those handful of tragic nerds that read my blog, season four of The Venture Bros. gets the deep lore going with a look back at the formation of The Guild of Calamitous Intent, as well as expanding the origins of several characters, slowly peeling back some of the layers of mystery that exist in the setting. However, by far the best decision Doc Hammer and Christopher McCulloch made with this season was increasing the role of Shore Leave, a one-joke character of cringy gay stereotypes that is somehow the funniest person in every scene he's in; even if his only line is "Sphinx!" Part of it is the vocal talent of Doc Hammer pushing into almost offensive territory, only to loop back to pastiche and that many of the "worst" lines are delivered whilst the character is blowing away ranks of goons. Interviews with the writers tend to indicate that a lot of the script is improvised, and watching some of the ensemble scenes, I can believe it, but it really works because McCulloch and Hammer are so in-sync creatively that everything fits together, even the conversations about how "sad" a stripper's breasts are.
Are you watching this series yet? Seriously, get on it, the DVDs are pretty affordable and it pops up on AppleTV every now and then. I'm starting to lose track of how many friends I've induced into The Venture Bros. fandom by slipping it on at the end of a Movie Night or as a party was winding down, even when I jumped in mid-season and spent the next hour explaining to drunk people why Captain Sunshine's butler was asking Hank to smear lube on his thighs and buttocks. In many ways, The Venture Bros. is the victim of timing, being a little too early for the streaming boom and too late for 1990s late-night cult animation. Trust me, if the programme was on Netflix and tagged in suggestions for people watching Rick and Morty, it would be huge. So until such time as The Venture Bros. gets the love it deserves, get those DVDs, block out a weekend and take a journey into the ever strange, sometimes repulsive, but always compelling world of Hank and Dean. There are no apologies for being what it is or how good it is, so it's only fitting that the last words of this season are "Fuck you!"
Friday, February 23, 2024
Drokk the Law!! - Part VI
Battles in the nightmare undercity continue! Wait, that's Necromunda, we're playing Judge Dredd, whoops. Apologies in advance about the number and quality of pictures in this entry (or lack thereof, rather), I very cleverly forgot my phone and had to rely on other people to take some shots. Speaking of other people, Andy and I finally got someone else playing, Pitor, who took the helm of my Street Gang against Andy's Street Gang.
You know something I've come to notice happening a lot when I teach miniature wargames, skirmish games particularly? People learning the game seem really risk-adverse, hugging cover and popping off shots with a low likelihood of success, rather than pushing up the table and actually getting to grips with the rules. As an experienced and, if I may say so, pretty damn good, player of this kind of game, I can find this lack of willingness to really engage with the game pretty frustrating. Although the hobby is my livelihood and has been a lifeline more than once, I am well aware that wargaming just isn't important in the grand scheme of things. There is more to the hobby than many think, but it's nothing more or less important than any other hobby.
Teaching games are really important to the hobby, they help us grow communities and share our favouite rules, and I have spent a lot of my life teaching games at various events and club meetings, as well as just at work. But it can be frustrating as people durdle around and drag things out longer than is probably necessary to get to grips with the rules. I remember a demo game of Necromunda taking all day because no one would risk breaking cover, so it was all 6+ shots than rarely did any damage. Anyway, I also finally got to play my Lone Vigilante!
In a quick game against the Apes (played by Sam), Bubba Feet dodged around the table and got a few shots off before he was surrounded and bought down with Spit Gun fire. The only major change I feel I need to make for Feet is giving him a melee weapon instead of Grenades, but otherwise it played basically exactly as I suspected. It's challenging having such a lack of activation priority, which is great for me as I'm pretty good at this style of game to begin with. In fact, I think this was the first game I actually lost since coming back to play Judge Dredd after so many years.