Zombicide: Rue Morgue in Milwaukee

In December two "big" things took place. The first thing that took place was that my girlfriend's copy of Zombicide: Rue Morgue came in the mail (Epic! I know.) The second thing was that my girlfriend and I moved to Milwaukee.

As the name 2ndCityWarzone might imply, this blog was born of gamers in Chicago. Originally, there were several of us who regularly blogged. Then the herd thinned further and further as interests and responsibilities changed, and in some cases people moved away. I've kept the torch going the longest and here I am, typing a post for 2ndCityWarzone while sitting in the Riverwest neighborhood of Milwaukee in our new place. I'd love to see some of the old guard in Chicago pick the torch back up again so I feel more like a guest blogger than a poser, but I don't have faith that will happen.

One of the first things to get unpacked and set up were my display cases and miniatures, because that's important; in part to make sure everything survived the journey. There were a couple of repair jobs necessary after the move, but nothing significant.

Since getting to Milwaukee I've had the pleasure of getting the grand gaming tour from my old boss at Next Dimension Games, Nate. He's shown me every cool gaming store, hobby store, and comic book store that sells games in pretty much all the nearby suburbs. It was very nice of him to do that and I can't thank him enough.

With the big move I haven't done a lot of gaming. I went back to Chicago once and met with some of my Broken Contract play testers to try out a new demo scenario and just hang out - but that's been it for gaming. I did get my first Broken Contract casts in the mail, so that was very exciting for me.

These models are Officer Hickley, Trest the Gen-Mod, and Talla Kellerman the Technician.

I'm working on painting them now - slowly but surely.

Officer Hickley with some paint on him. He's like 1/3 complete... Unless I change him completely, of course.

I still have a ways to go, but he's coming along. I've also been working on a ton of scenery for the game and have been doing a whole series on it on the Broken Contract design blog.

Model's eye view from within my futuristic "FerrumSky Iron Mine" terrain board.

Long story short, I really want to change my lack of game playing here in Milwaukee, so I created an event on MeetUp.com to try and meet some new people here in Riverwest who might be into gaming. To that end, I'm hosting Zombicide: Rue Morgue at Fuel Cafe this Wednesday night at 7PM. If you're from the Milwaukee area and follow this blog, or just stumbled across this post on BoLS blog feed, feel free to come out and play some Zombicide. I'm really looking forward to playing some games, meeting some people, and playing the new game. The changes are subtle but interesting and Zombicide is always a good time. Hopefully people come out.

Thanks for reading!
-Nick

Wreck-Age, Broken Contract, Zombicide, and Orks

Wreck-Age commission for an upcoming box set.

Its been months since I updated this blog. That's not to say I haven't been immersed in a multitude of hobby activities, but I haven't had a lot of time to document them. I had a little free time tonight and figured it was about time I broke my silence. Here's a smattering of what I've been up to.

More Wreck-Age commission work.

A couple weeks ago I got a call from Anton/Hyacinth Games letting me know he had a bunch of stuff he needed painted quickly and might I be interested in taking a look. I said, "Sure." and wandered over to his place - he only lives 6 blocks away. They've been quietly working away on a number of projects over at Hyacinth and these models are just a taste of what they have going on. 

That last pictured Wreck-Age tent from the back. 

I had a week to complete the models during my free time and I went a day over my deadline. These things happen right? These photos are missing the final tent, which I completed while Anton was waiting downstairs in a car to pick them up, so I never snapped a shot.They were painted to use for the box art, so I'm sure they'll post up some much fancier photos of them soon. wreck-age.net

Broken Contract uprising art by Geng Gendall.

Arguably the most involving aspect of my hobby life right now is trying to get my own miniature board game off the ground called Broken Contract. Its a sci-fi western themed board game for 2-8 players. It involves contracted workers being pushed to the brink by their corporate overlords, and their struggles against the hired security officers these overlords employ to keep the rabble working. 

Officer Hickley. Sculpted by Tim Barry.

The first model sculpted for Broken Contract is done, sculpted in 3D by Tim Barry. I can't wait to actually manufacture this guy and paint him up. The Kickstarter for this new board game is coming September 1st. In the meantime, if you want full details go check out my newly updated What is Broken Contract? page.

Me, dead in the dirt while zombies feed on my entrails, on the 4th of July.

I think everyone knows that the Zombicide Season 3 Kickstarter is going on right now. We're pretty excited about it here and my partner, Lisa, backed the KS and we check every day to see what new cool stuff we have coming. Lately I've been playing as much Zombicide as 40K.

40K never really disappears off my radar no matter what else I've working on or playing. I did try an experimental Dark Angels list last week to see if I could build a semi-competitive list for the upcoming Beef and Wing Tournament in Buffalo (Note: As a 21 year vegan that name always makes me cringe no matter how "Buffalo appropriate" it is.) As per usual, I got slaughtered, but I want to try it again. What I really want to start playing games with this year, are Orks, and a bunch of Ork Boy legs are sitting on my painting table right now. Of course, the last time I put paint on them was the week before the Codex was released and I just haven't had the time since then with the Wreck-Age commissions and Broken Contract stuff. So that's a smattering of what I've been up to the last few months Thanks for reading!

-Nick

Zombicide Game Night at Next Dimension Games February 11th, 2014

On Tuesday February 11th I'll be running a Zombicide Game Night at Next Dimension Games using Guillotine Games Zombicide Gaming Night Kit #1: Cars, Food, or Guns.

On the 11th all you need to do is show up and play, no experience necessary (its a very simple game). The Zombicide Gaming Night Kit's come with exclusive miniatures and dice as prizes for you to try and earn. It'll be a fun night of gratuitous zombie killing and an easy introduction to a very cool game.

The scenarios run about an hour and a half (unless you go buck wild and get yourselves killed right away) so we'll shoot to start at 6PM so we can try and get two scenarios in.

Reserving a spot is not required but it would be helpful. If you can't get to the store at 6PM, let me know because I can arrange for you to join in late in the game if needed. We can accommodate 6 players in a single game. If more sign up we might have to track down another copy of the game.

If you're wondering what the exclusive miniature is, its Kyoko:

Head over to the Facebook Invite or to Chicago Wargamers and sign up.

-Nick