Fury Road - Inspired Car

I'm not going to post a review of Mad Max: Fury Road here, but I will say that I saw it twice in the theatre (unheard of for me, I am not a fan of going to the theatre), and I think it's easily one of the best action movies I've ever seen. And the vehicles in the film are, as you would expect, crazy and amazing.

I have played quite a few games of Axles & Alloys, but I only have one modified Hot Wheels car I can call my own. After seeing the cars of Fury Road, I was inspired to get a few more and paint them up to look appropriately post-apocalyptic. Here's the first one.

Saga Irish: Half Way

With all the new excitement at the local club around Saga (hooray!), a bunch of the guys are building Saga forces. Unfortunately, like most other places, the preferred scale at the club is 28mm. So I decided to put together a 28mm Irish force so I have something to play with!

I chose the Irish because they have a few interesting things going for them that other teams don't: first, war dogs. In the game, the dogs count as Warrior units, with the added ability to move through rough terrain without penalty, so they will be very mobile. Second, the Irish can field Curaidh, which are champions or lieutenants to the Warlord. Each Curadh figure counts as a unit unto itself, but with better combat stats than an individual Hearthguard. 

The figures I got are from Gripping Beast, the "official" Saga miniatures line. The figures themselves are a bit of a mixed bag. The casting is good, but the sculpts are sometimes great, sometimes not so great. On a few of the figures, the hair is just a semi-spherical lump with dimples poked in it, and some of the figures' hands are pretty undefined - the thumb might be just a paddle sticking out the side of the hand, and the fingers aren't separated. Also, the poses of some figures are pretty uninspiring - the Warlord that came with the warband is in a really strange pose, with his right arm sticking straight out and up, and his head kind of leaning into his armpit. Not sure what's going on there. I ordered a set of Scots command figs along with the warband, and I used a couple of them for my Warlord instead. Unfortunately, that pose is mirrored in one of the Hearthguard figs.

For these guys, I decided to paint the shields freehand, rather than using transfers. I don't think the result is quite as nice and clean as I would have had with transfers, but I find that miniatures with shield transfers all end up looking a bit samey, and I wanted to do something a bit different with mine.

Anyhoo, here are the pics. I have my dogs and handler out front, the warlord in the centre, and a unit of Hearthguard with an associated Curadh on either side. Still to do: a unit of 8 Warriors and a unit of 12 Levy.

Zoom in to get the full details.

Perilous Island: Blood Sacrifice!

With their feet finally on dry land, the Okkulten Forschungabteilung and The Shadow moved inland, both groups intent on discovering the secret of Perilous Island for themselves. After only a few days of exploring, cries from the jungle brought Black Sascha and The Shadow to a clearing, where a shipwrecked sailor was about to be sacrificed to the dark gods of the islanders! Both teams sprang into action, hoping to snatch the sailor for their own purposes.

Irma, with an okkultentrooper and a friendly native guide, stake out the left flank.

Black Sascha, with two more troopers, gets ready to go ask the witch doctor in the center some questions. Gertie and two of the she-wolves get ready to run up the right flank towards some Perilium they spotted there.

In the middle of the clearing stands the strange altar, with the shipwrecked sailor surrounded by fire!

The Shadow and his men get ready to rush the altar.

One of The Shadow's mooks tries to climb up the roots of a giant jungle tree and get to the crate stowed there, but falls to his death in the attempt.

Irma and her boys rush for the altar, but The Shadow is too quick - he leaps over the flames and grabs the sailor.

Meanwhile, Black Sascha and Emma have words with the witch doctor.

The Okkultentroopers exchange fire with The Shadow and his men, while Gertie and Inge dig Perilium rocks out of the ground.

Irma and the native guide move up to where they can annoy Andre as he wrestles with the mysterious remains, while their trooper runs up to the edge of the fire to shoot at The Shadow.

With the sailor and the mysterious remains in hand, The Shadow's team regroups at the giant tree.

Sascha, Gertie, and the rest of the F.A. move in cautiously, but nothing they do seems to faze The Shadow or his men.

A giant scrum develops around Andre, but he shrugs off every attempt by the three She-Wolves attacking him.

At the end of the day, The Shadow remains in possession of the main prize, turning his back in contempt on everyone who tries to shoot him off his perch!

Another fun session of Pulp Alley. Bryan had terrible dice luck in the first half, but the tables turned in the latter half and I wasn't able to do any damage to his people. I had a card in reserve that would have allowed me to snatch the Mysterious Remains from Andre if I could have just knocked him down, but it wasn't happening. Bryan played well and nabbed the Major Plot Point right away, so fair play to him: dice aside, he had the better strategy!

We didn't end the game with any new pages of the Professor's journal, so we are no closer to moving on to the next stage, but maybe that's best - the scenarios in this section are harder than previous, so more experience wouldn't be amiss!