Zombicide Invader - Juggernaut Abomination

Continuing with the thought of adding more variety and challenging enemies, I started painting up this big Xeno.

A zenithal prime was the starting point from which I used my newly acquired Artis Opus drybrush.  I'm not very experienced with drybrushing large portions of a miniature and the results didn't quite match the vision I had in my head.  I think it turned out decently well, but it was more difficult than I expected.  It turned out quite a bit more 'blue' than the artwork.  In hindsight, it probably could have been done by just applying some Army Painter Invader Shader over a gray primer to be a closer match.  

After playing a few games with this Abomination, I can say it is by far my favorite.  Whenever it comes out on the board, the game strategy changes.  The drybrushing technique that led to some nice subtle transitions really has been growing on me and every time I see it come out on the board, I ask myself if I really painted that.  I'm not suggesting it is Golden Deamon material, but it looks 'different' than what I've painted in the past and I just really like it. ;) 

Paints used for this model:

Next up on the workbench:

Zombicide Invader: Seeker Workers

I've diverged a bit from the character painting to add a new threat to the heroes.  The extra activations these receive every time a Seeker card is drawn should add a little more unpredictability and danger to the game.  

These miniatures had a lot of mold lines which were a bit of a pain to clean up.  The arms and lower parts of the legs had a splitting mold line that significantly increased the amount of work to get these in paintable condition.

I was able to finish these up in a couple evenings and am fairly happy with how they turned out given the relatively low amount of time put into preparing and painting them.

Paints used on these models:

Next up on the workbench:

Zombicide Invader - Allyson

Another character without the Kickstarter bio/photo combo so here is the collected information from the Zombicide website:

ALLYSON CARDENAL, STOWAWAY – NICARAGUA

“They say be careful what you wish for. No kidding.”

Allyson Cardenal is the only individual known to stowaway on an interstellar vessel, an easy task for a self-taught computer savant. But hiding in a cargo-liner’s vast hold is a different matter than hiding from JENI, the outpost’s resident AI. She was discovered lifting food from the outpost galley, and imprisoned, pending charges from the UN civilian administration. With the current threat, Captain Connor has granted her a pardon, provided she use her skills for their mutual survival and keeps Turing, her little dog, out of the way.

Allyson is apparently a mix of various characters and the speculation in the previously mentioned BGG thread range anywhere from a grown-up Dora the Explorer (with a dog instead of a monkey) to Penny from Lost in Space (1998) to "Faith" from Mirror's Edge.  Whatever the case, her dog looks unfriendly and I like the sneaky pose.  I did run across another spreadsheet that has another summary of the various homages.

After seeing Allyson in action, I must say she is a pretty powerful character.  Her initial skill of 'Free machine action' can be kind of dull to start with for scenarios that do not give immediate access to the bot or turret.  However, she is a woman of many talents receiving a free move action at orange and free combat action at red.  Basically, she can take three actions before even starting to dig into her base 4 actions (once she reaches red of course).  Seven actions - pretty powerful.  

Paints used on this model:

Next up on the workbench...

Zombicide Invader - Gavin

Gavin is suspected to be a homage to the Zombicide artist Paul Bonner.  They do have a lot of similar facial features and given the artist is obviously associated with CMON, it seems like a reasonable conclusion to me.  My primary source of information for the homage references is from this Boardgame Geek thread by the way.

Gavin's starting skill is Ambedexterous, which I've never found overly useful.  However, he does have both yellow and red options for "+1 Die: Combat" which makes him grow in effectiveness regardless of weapon.

I noticed well into painting the miniature that Gavin is depicted in both a brown and a black jacket in the character art as well as gray or blue jeans.  I went with the original photo that I saw (with the biography) and I guess I'd do so again if I knew both options were out there.  I did darken the jacket quite a bit so it ended up looking like somewhere in between the two photos. It is definitely something I'll keep an eye on in the future...I figured the artwork was just reused for the various instances.  The pose is reused so I'm not sure why they recolored them.  Logically it is certainly acceptable for ol' Gavin to have multiple outfits, but it does add a bit of confusion if players are trying to go by the character art to keep track of which miniature is theirs instead of the colored bases.  Anyway...I'll definitely reference the physical skill card from now on and match those colors when possible.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out and believe I'm still making progress in the face department.  Close-ups don't look appalling in my opinion, but still a ways to go to achieve what I'd consider 'excellent' results.

Paints used on this model:

Next up on the workbench...

Zombicide Invader - Lt. Graham

 

Lieutenant Graham is the 6th and last of the 'country-flag' characters.  The four in the core set plus Massimo and Lt. Graham all have their country's flag depicted on their armor and are pictured together below.  I just find that an interesting observation that there are exactly enough for a 'normal-sized' squad and will probably use them all together in a mission or two just to see them all together on the board.

Although it isn't as obvious as some and is unconfirmed, Lt Graham could be an homage To Michael Ironside who loses body parts in various movies including Starship Troopers.  There are pieces that don't fit though as the two do not look much alike and Michael is from Canada and not Great Britain as the flag on the model suggests.  Doesn't really matter, but I find it somewhat entertaining trying to figure out who's who with the various CMON games.

All 6 flag-bearers.  Countries represented: Japan, Norway, USA, Great Britain, South Africa, Italy

Paints used on this model:

Next up on the workbench...

Zombicide Invader - Massimo

 

This is the first 'extra' miniature of the Kickstarter exclusives which can still be purchased at the Game Steward.  I couldn't find the graphic including his bio like the other characters so here are the separate text and general graphic from the very nice Zombicide.com website:

“The shades are a targeting matrix. And they make all my old movies 3D.”

Lieutenant Massimo Tocci loves battle and movies (usually all about battle) in that order. An aficionado of classic films, he’ll spend hour upon hour combing through ancient databanks and caches for cinematic documentaries on battlefields from ancient times. He’s particularly fond of 20th century films concerning the two World Wars, and often fantasizes on what just one modern soldier in powered armor might’ve accomplished on either side. That said, if he wanted to enact the ‘one vs many’ type of warfare, he certainly came to the right planet.

According to boardgamegeek.com, this character is a homage to an Italian game designer.

Similar to Umkos, Massimo has the "Enhanced Senses" skill which allows him to trace line-of-sight one extra room zone and should prove very useful in the primarily interior map layouts.

Closeup featuring the subtle hairline

Paints used on this miniature:

Next up on the workbench...

Zombicide Invader - Mission 9 - Uninvited Guests

Mission 9 - Uninvited Guests

With all of the core set painted up, it was great to have the opportunity to play a 3-player game of Zombicide Invader.  The custom SciFi terrain worked out very well.  The 3D files are available for free if you are interested in printing up some for yourself.  

This mission was picked because I wanted to take advantage of the scientist companions that I had painted up earlier.  They replaced the cardboard squares and added some nice visual interest to what our heroes were protecting.

This post will not be a lot of text, but mostly pictures of the game-in-progess.

Part of the team hung around the starting zone and kept the evacuation route clear.  The turret came in very handy to knock down the Abomination as it lumbered down the hall.

The Peacekeeper Bot brings up the rear, controlled by Mitsuki safely nestled in the starting zone.

The scientists were closely escorted down the hallway with characters on all sides.

The Xeno tanks flanking the Peacekeeper Bot and Jared are about as close as any came to even get a glimpse of the scientists making their way to the exit.

The hallway was long, but the end is near.

A couple workers pop up in one of the rooms, but were no match for the Peacekeeper Bot

Everyone made it back to the exit on the same turn without a scratch.

We played very 'efficiently' and kept our experience in check allowing us to spawn at the Blue level for 3/4 of the game.  This scenario was noted as 'Hard', but worked out quite easily for us.

Perhaps something to experiment with to add some more challenge would be to have every character start with 6 experience points.  This would get more Xenos in the mix earlier in the game as it would push the team into yellow the first time someone takes out a Xeno.  While it may sound like an advantage to start with experience, it is actually an advantage to stay in Blue as long as possible - which is sometimes too easy to do.

We had a great time and look forward to playing another scenario soon!