Gaming on a budget – The Challenge (Part 3)

In the third part of my “Gaming on a Budget” article Im going to look at Bases with a view to getting some further down the line to unify my team.

A good set of characterful bases can make or break a unit or team in any game and getting the right ones is a very difficult thing to achieve.  There are so many producers out there who make them; Outpost, MicroArt Studios, Fenris Games, Bases4War, Model Display Products, Wyrd Miniatures, and the list goes on……

Today I’m going to look at the options available for my Fisherman’s Guild Team.

Firstly there are a number of options, shapes, sizes and styles to consider.  You can buy square bases, round bases, hexagonal bases, oval bases and “cavalry” bases which are pill shaped.  Guildball uses round bases so that makes that decision easier.  Straight out of the box my Fisherman’s Guild team were supplied with the correct size of base for their miniature in a DS style.  What does this mean?  Well there are three styles of bases to choose from:-

DS Round Profile Base – image credit to Fenris Games.

DS Round means a quarter round lipped base with a flat circular recess area on the top for the insertion of a “topper”.  Many companies such as PRODOS and SteamForged use bases of this type.

Chamfered Profile Base – image credit to Fenris Games.

Chamfered means a base with a slightly slanting edge which can help in identifying miniatures because you can use them for Team numbers and Names, especially useful in Necromunda and Blood Bowl etc.  These are the standard GW Warhammer 40K base.  They can come with a flat recess on the top to insert a topper some do not.

Straight Profile Base – image credit to Fenris Games.

The last option is a Straight Profile base.  These bases do not come with a recess or any kind of edge.  Base toppers look very much like this.

My first option is my go to guys for bases Fenris Games. They make resin bases in all the styles discussed above.  I have used them before (for the Sulaco & Sulaco Hive bases for my AvP) and can heartily recommend them.  The options here for my Fishermen are:-

Darkmere Swamp

Lost Shores

Oddly neither of these are really grabbing my attention as a set of bases.

My second option are Bases4War.  I’ve also used these guys to produce my Battlefield Debris DS Round resin bases for my Cybertronic forces in PRODOS Games Warzone Resurrection.  They shipped quickly, were cheap and did free UK shipping so again they come well recommended.  The option I could go with here is:-

The Deck

My fear in using these bases is that my Fisherman team would look a little piratey but they’re not a bad option.  I prefer them to the Fenris Bases so far.

My third option is MicroArt Studio who are based in Poland.  I’ve never used these guys before but they came well recommended by many people.  An issue here is timing.  The company website says they only get two visits from the postie a week so I could order on a Monday and not get my stuff dispatched until the Friday (not allowing for manufacturing time).  Also the extra time taken in delivery is a factor as they will take significantly longer and probably accrue additional; postage costs.  The only option I feel really matches anything like the feel I’m looking for my Fishermen is:-

Wood

These are nice and look like a ruined jetty or pier.  They could suffer the same piratey issues as The Deck from Bases4War.

My next option for bases are Model Display Products.  I’d not heard of these guys before I posted on the Guildball Forum but having a taken a look at their website I was quietly impressed and could see why they were being discussed.  They had some nice bases I might be interested in for other projects but in terms of options for my team one stood out at a first glance:-

Dock/Quayside

I quite liked the wooden effect, like the deck of a ship or pier/jetty (which seems to be a theme for sea/marine flavoured bases) but wasn’t too keen on the cobblestone bases as part of the set.  If I wanted cobblestones there were other ranges I’d choose.

Outpost were one of the options I picked up from using the Guildball forums.  Some people had recommended them but I think they are resellers of others bases rather than producers in their own right.  I had heard good things about Outpost from Hairy Gamer Tris and Gareth Mosely so figured I’d give them a crack.  Aside from previously discussed bases and styles the only one that jumped out at me as being a viable option was:-

Hit the deck!

They sound interesting but unfortunately I cannot see any images for them as they’re out of stock.  I think I may like them but its whether they’d suffer the “too piratey” problem of The Deck from Bases4War.

Its certainly a tough one for me and of course I could always do my own bases?  I could make some flocky grassed bases with lines painted on them as I would have done for Blood Bowl or could make some nautical/marine themed bases.  I don’t really have many ideas for doing this myself at present and Im struggling for base inspiration.  If any readers of this blog have done some home-made Fisherman’s Guild bases then please let me know and post a comment with a picture.

For now I’m going to sign off and cogitate my options.  Hopefully Outpost will get a restock and allow me to view the finished Hit the Deck bases.

Happy fishing my little Guildballing friends!

Gaming on a budget – The Challenge (Part 2)

In the second part of my monthly “gaming on a budget” articles Im going to look at the Guildball miniatures from Element Games for the Fishermen’s Guild.

For those that haven’t heard of it, Guild Ball is a new medieval low fantasy based skirmish ball game made by Steamforged Games. Gamers take control of one of several Guilds, ranging from Masons to Morticians, Brewers to Butchers, with the goal of either scoring more goals than your opponent or leaving them in such a shape that they are unable to do the same to you.  As previously mentioned I had selected the Fisherman’s Guild based on discussions with friends and game developers who agreed that their style suited the way I liked to play my Blood Bowl teams – hard, fast and agile.

“Fisherman play style is all about movement and raw goal-scoring potential. They are dominant in the early game and can easily draw one or two goals ahead very quickly. However, mid to late game they need to be wary, especially if they lose a player or two.

They excel at movement and kicking the ball – they are practically all about offense. Their combo play revolves around (re)positioning and exploitation of space.

Whilst not entirely equipped with raw damage soaking defence, they instead have far subtler defensive options that focus much more on space control.”

My Fisherman’s Guild Starter Set and Kraken arrived yesterday at the Mancave and with reckless abandon I tore into the packaging ready to explore the goodies within……then I remembered I was writing this so put everything back as it was and went about it in a far more sensible and less Jase way.

Fishermen Guild

Guildball goodies from Element Games.

Fisherman’s Guild Starter Set.

Kraken, Fisherman’s Guild Expansion.

My Fisherman’s Guild Team.

Once I had managed to debox the miniatures I could see just how detailed and defined they actually were.  There wasn;t too much flash or sprue to remove from each so assembly was pretty easy.  There is a level of finesse to handling some of these components which isn’t compatible with my lack of dexterity, shaky hands and terrible eyesight.

These sculpts are so fine, and have so much detail it can be a little intimidating to a novice or out of practice hobbyist such as myself. I wanted to temporarily pin and base all the figures while painting, but some models are that slim on the ankles that it would be almost impossible to do and could cause irrecoverable damage to the miniature plus only Kraken really needed it in the end.  The only issue I saw during assembly of note were the tabs on the miniatures and the slots in bases.  The combination of these did not make it easy to have the miniatures standing steadily on the base.  Kraken would not stand up at all and not wanting to permanently mount him to a base I drilled into his foot to slide a pin in to make painting and basing easier later.

Kraken.

The Siren.

Angel.

In my haste to get things deboxed I completely forgot to take any pictures of Shark, the Fisherman Team Captain but there will be some pictures of him later!  There are a couple of schools of thought about painting miniatures, some prefer to keep components separate and others prefer to assemble prior to painting.  Not wanting to ruin a paint job with clumsy gluign and assembly I decided to assemble my miniatures first then lay down some paint.

Not being the most patient of folk I really cant stand sitting for ages waiting for glue to dry so some time ago I purchases some Superglue Activator from Army Painter and boy oh boy is this stuff good!  A quick dab of glue in the right area and hold the mini together whilst a glamorous (if a little sadistic) assistant sprays activator onto the affected area.  I now know first hand how much Superglue Activator in small cuts and open wounds can hurt.  That’ll teach me for chewing nails and fingers!

Having prepped everything I was ready to lay down some primer.  I originally wanted to throw some Barbarian Flesh onto all the minis to give their skin a solid base but I couldnt find any so I went with Matt White.  My colours for the team would be a tan leather, ice blue and white possibly adding some darker blue for accents so white was hardly the end of the world for these minis.

Primed Kraken.

Primed Siren.

Primed Shark and Angel.

Krakens coiled rope for his Harpoon, Primed.

The gangs all here!

Now the minis had been undercoated they’d dry very quickly in this heat and it wouldnt be long before I could slap some real paint on them but by this time it was quite late and glamorous assistant was demanding bed, so maybe tomorrow.

All finished, dry and ready for colour.

A good nights work!

Thats it for part 2 of my “Gaming on a Budget” article featuring Guildballs Fisherman’s Guild team.  I’ll post an update once I’ve starter the painting process or have an update to post.  I will need some bases for these guys so that may form an article later discussing the options there for me.