Pulp City Supreme Edition On Kicktraq

My regular blogging across all 3 of my minis hobbies blogs has been interrupted by the Pulp City Supreme Edition Kickstarter. We now have 13 days remaining (after which normal blogging service will resume!), and I thought I would take a moment to link to Kicktraq.

Kicktraq is an independent site which looks at KS projects, and shows data such as number of backers, amount of pledges, number of comments per day and so forth. It aggregates much of that data to compile 'Hot Lists', and Pulp City Supreme Edition (click for Kicktraq link) has featured at several times on the Tabletop Games Hot List.

If any other bloggers are interested in supporting the Pulp City SE Kickstarter, even if you are not backing it, please think about showing off the Kicktraq mini chart and linking to the Pulp City Kicktraq page (click for link), as doing so may help promote us on Kicktraq, and push on to further success!

Pulp City Supreme Edition Kickstarter - Launching January 30th

I posted about this on Pulp Citizen, but since I am directly involved with Pulp City thought it fair to post here too! Hope any readers of the Eclectic Gentleman Tabletop Gamer don't mind!

The Pulp City Supreme Edition Kickstarter is on its way, and we plan to launch in a few days time - January 30th, at approximately noon EST (USA), or 5 pm UK, 6 pm central Europe.

The core goal is aimed to allow us to get the new Pulp City SE book published, as well as new cards for every existing mini in the range, plus a fair few new ones!

The game has evolved from its original pdf version, through to the printed Guide published in 2010 which refined the pdf version, to what we are looking to launch this year: Pulp City Supreme Edition.

2010 Guide

Pulp City SE is designed to make for faster playing games, and to be more 'friendly' to casual or new players, but without losing the depth of the previous incarnation - no easy feat, but we think we have done it! In the old game things used to slow down a lot as soon as more than small handful of minis were in play. this time we think that players can still play at the old game sizes (Encounter Levels), but can more easily play with more minis if they so choose.

There will be stretch goals of course, and as this is a minis game, you can guess that some will be minis! There have been some hints on the Facebook page, but suffice to say, the more successful the project is, the more we can unlock.

The new Starter Sets will be launched within the Kickstarter. 4 brand new Supremes: Heroes Tekkna and Wildman; Villains Aurelius and Anansi), and 2 new sculpts of old favourites (Ace of Wraiths and Nuke)

There will also be a Kickstarter-exclusive sculpt of John Grimmsham, nefarious Leader of the Grimm. Of course, as he is a Leader, he will need reinforcements with models to lead...

2014 Pulp City Supreme Edition

If things go really well we are looking to add some more big guys to the line-up - more Powerhouses!

And we have a few other cool ideas for stretch goals if we get there; so hopefully something for everyone.

Hopefully I will have some more updates in the next couple of days.

2014 - The Year Ahead

2014 kicks off and time to lay out my blog and hobby plans for the year ahead.

First things first though, which is a big thanks to everyone who Follows, who reads and most of all those who Comment on my blogs; all feedback is greatly appreciated.

Last year I planned to paint at least 48-50 minis and painted 63 (click for the summary post); good result. I actually painted a couple more as 'exchange' minis, but in hindsight, that could have been two more in to my total so no 'mini exchanges' for me in 2014 or possibly the next few years.

Last year I planned to post around 180 blog posts and hit 160. The year before was 158, so maybe that is around my natural rate of posting, around 3 per week across all 3 blogs.

So what does that mean for my blogging and hobby activity pans for the year ahead?

Painting minis and gaming is key. I'd like to paint at least 50 minis again. The reason why I have not upped that target is that I have nine months of a demanding course ahead of me on top of full-time work, so I need to be realistic. I think 50 is manageable amid that, although the target in an ideal world would be over 80 minis based on what I would like to have painted (ideal/unrealistic 2014 equals: 36+ Anima Tactics; 14+ Pulp City; 13+ MERCS; 7+ Malifaux; 5+ Batman Miniatures Game; 4+ Zombies; and 4+ Freebooters Fate).

Blogging will follow accordingly, so 150+ posts seems reasonable after the past couple of years.

If you Follow or read this blog, but not my others, it would be great if you could maybe take some time to check the others out:

• Anima Tactician
• Eclectic Gentleman Tabletop Gamer
• Pulp Citizen

Quarter 4 & Year End Painting Review

Quarter 4 minis

So 2013 draws to a close, and at this point I am confident I can present my summary, sure that nothing else will be finished before the New Year.

I set out at the start of the year with a strong intention to paint more than I did in 2012 (click for link); 2012 was a pretty poor year. I began to change my painting style at the end of 2009, and it has continued to evolve since. That has coincided with my interest in low-model count skirmish games. Prior to that my main gaming buddy Rob and me set out to try and play with painted minis as far as possible (something we headed towards in our WH40K days). So the numbers of models I painted each year dropped (not sure of the exact totals for 2010 and 2011) to the low-point of 2012 where I only painted 24 minis.

So I set a personal target of 48-50 minis for 2013 (I am not sure I actually published the target to begin with). It took until the end of July for me to start to open up any clear distance over that target and in the end after paining Sho on the Anima Tactician I have painted 63 minis across several ranges, as well as odds and ends of scenery. A much better year than the year before!

My 2013 minis; all 63

Quarter 1 - 13 minis
Anima Tactics: 7 minis
Pulp City: 3 minis
Supers: 2 minis
Zombies: 1 minis

Quarter 2 - 13 minis
Anima Tactics: 10 minis
Pulp City: 3 minis

Quarter 3 - 17 minis
Anima Tactics: 6 minis
Pulp City: 6 minis
Freebooter's Fate: 4 minis
MERCS: 1 mini

Quarter 4 - 20 minis
Anima Tactics: 13 minis
Pulp City: 2 minis
Batman Miniatures Game: 1 mini
Zombies: 4 minis

2013 totals - 63 minis
Anima Tactics: 36 minis
Pulp City: 14 minis
Freebooter's Fate: 4 minis
MERCS: 1 mini
Batman Miniatures Game: 1 mini
Supers: 2 minis
Zombies: 5 minis

So October was clearly my best month of the year with 10 minis and February my worst (although Giant Hadron was finally finished as the only mini of that month!).

As for 2014, well I have some thoughts on the year to come...

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all readers; I hope you all enjoy a wonderful festive period.

For your enjoyment, there is a Christmas-themed Pulp City Battle Report over on the Pulp Citizen (click for link).

Batman Miniatures Game Rules Update

Knight Models have issued a free download updated rule book for the Batman Miniatures Game.

The English-language translation this time looks much better, thanks to the involvement of a couple of native speakers no doubt. This is a full update, with new layout and content. With the page count I think I will be waiting until a print version is available, but this is an excellent step forwards by Knight Models I reckon. I suggest heading over to their site and downloading this if you are interested in the game.

The Riddler (BMG)

The Riddler is my first finished mini for the Batman Miniatures game/DC Comics range of models from Knight Models.

As soon as I saw the first mini in the line (Batman, naturally) I was impressed, and when  I learned of the range I was in. I don't play the Arkham series of video games which much of the imagery and character design for this range is drawn, but I do like the minis range. A lot. So much so I can see myself collecting the loot given a chance. They have already begun to diversify the line to include DC Comics characters from outside the games (Deathstroke; Green Arrow), Watchmen characters, and other DC movie characters (some Dark Knight characters; Superman as seen in the Man of Steel), so it is an increasingly eclectic mix.

I don't know that I will ever actually play the game to be honest. The current English translation is in need of a lot of work I feel, although it clearly has a strong following among fans of the rules, and I have a much more established preference when it comes to super-powered gaming! But the minis are mostly great, although the metal is super-soft which is less than pleasing, and at least one mini (DKR Bane) is clearly out of the established scale, but they are tolerable issues.

The sculpting is exquisite in my humble opinion. Ultimately I struggled with this, simply because some parts to paint were so finely detailed. That said, I am fairly happy with the final result all told, and I will continue to add to my collection of the minis. I just expect to paint them occasionally, focusing more on other ranges I am more likely to game with right now (Pulp City; Anima Tactics; MERCS; and Freebooters Fate). Still, maybe another will be painted up before too long, just watch this space....