WELCOME TO FACTIONS FALLOUT:
ROAD TO GOONHAMMER OPEN!

EVENT DETAILS

Goonhammer Open UK March 2025 – Leicester

When: Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd March 2025

Where: De Montfort Students’ Union, Campus Centre Building, Mill Ln, Leicester LE2 7DR

Overall Coordinators: Scott White, James Grover, Liam Royle, Zach Cox, John Rees, Evie Moriarty

BOOK TICKETS

RULES PACKET

MEET THE MEAT TEAM

DOM WESTERLAND | JESS GIBBS | JUSTIN TALSMA | ANDY DOUTHWAITE

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DOM WESTERLAND (They/Them)

Playing as: THE DISCIPLES
Crew Name: The Hostile Takeover

Emerging from a protected underground vault at the foot of the Welsh valleys, Dom Westerland handles errata and external playtesting at Modiphius Entertainment. When not squinting at a computer screen, they enjoy playing fast, close-range, and aggressive factions, which is precisely why they decided to play the cunning Disciples.

DOM - Week ONE

Even bloodthirsty Raiders need somewhere to lay down their head after a long day of raiding. The Hostile Takeover, my Disciples crew, has one goal: take Galactic Zone for their own and shack up in Vault-Tec: Among the Stars. Prime Wasteland real estate if there ever was one.

The story of two Nuka-World crews fighting over the park gave me an ideal way to add some flair to the model bases. My old Pack crew found themselves donating some uh… parts to make the bases sing. No arm too mangled, no foot too bloodied - We’ll take them all! Probably best to leave the poor Scavver on the base of my Tormentor. They seem to be having a bad day.

While putting together the models, I considered my crew composition. 250 Caps vanish quickly if you’re greedy, so I decided to save buying any Upgrades until last and began by purchasing a solid core of Grunts. In the Dev Office, we have long seen the Handmade Rifle reign supreme due to Suppress, but I dunno… the Pack player in me just wanted that little extra bit of real stopping power. Enter six Scavvers, three with Hunting Rifles and another three with Ranger’s Hunting Rifles. Plenty of Pierce to stop my rivals in their tracks.

However, it wouldn’t be a Disciples crew without some Handmade Rifles, hence, both Butchers are armed with them, allowing me to soften up a target for my Hunting Rifles or lock all but the toughest Power Armor with Suppress in a pinch. Rounding things out is my Tormentor Vee Tee. I entertained giving them a Precision Hunting Rifle for a while, but I ended up with the .44 Pistol and Machete. Adding the Gunslinger and Fire and Move Perks gave the Tormentor a comparable range to the Rifle, but with the added movement from the aforementioned Fire and Move.

Finally there is the color scheme. Disciples traditionally go for a dark color scheme, but it would only be correct for a group of folks hankering for a spot in a comfy Vault to adorn themselves in the finest blue and yellow threads. Well, back to the painting table and then, the battlefields of Nuka-World itself!

DOM - Week TWO

Everything is better when you experience it in a Vault, or so the saying goes. I believe that goes for clothing too. Frankly, the denizens of Fizztop Mountain will need something of a color scheme glow-up. Out go the belts and edgy masks and in come yellow and blue Vault jumpsuits, a cheeky grin, and a set of all-American family values.

The first picture you’ll see below was the crew after one layer of color. I kinda wanted to get these guys done quickly so I could get them to the table as quickly as possible. This led to a painting method focused on highlighting the blues and yellows, but little else. This was where I wanted the focus to go when looking at these minis — the areas which, in any other Disciples crew, would’ve been drab.

Then came the details. Bases were painted right on top of, to look like they were fighting inside of a Vault. Nothing a few layers of paint can’t fix! The end of the process saw the most detailed work. Those masks on the Disciples looked like they were in need of a Pre-War dash of some ‘can do’ attitude. Some miniature size Vault Boy faces felt perfect. We’ve got a close up of one of them in this blog. Ain’t he handsome? A quick drybrush of red and the Crew is done! They’re all here! All I need now is an opponent!

DOM - Week THREE

BATTLE REPORT #1: HOSTILE TAKEOVER VS. THOSE DRUG-ADDLED CRAZIES

WHEREIN OUR HEROIC HEAVIES HIT BACK VERSUS HORRENDOUS HORRORS!!

An erstwhile peaceful evening in the grounds surrounding Massachusetts’ premier beverage-based theme park was shattered by the ring of gunfire as the mechanised menace of the Wasteland Raiders rolled into town. This writer is thanking their lucky stars that the brave guys and gals of the Disciples were there to show these insidious invaders a good old fashioned American how-do-you-do!

As the battlelines were drawn, it was clear that key battlefield areas would require seizure by any means necessary. The delightful Disciples decided on a dynamic plan to dodge a power-armored foe carrying a Flamer, intending to claim an early kill on a Grunt before dispersing to the four winds. Even after an ingenious pincer manoeuvre that locked the crew’s heat-packing rivals, disaster struck as three Disciples were sent back to Fizztop Mountain by a crippling Missile Launcher shot!

Despite these devious blow by the villainous Raiders, the Disciples were in it for the long haul. Deciding to concede territory control, the Disciples changed their tack to reduce their enemy’s numbers. By the end of the game, both sides had managed to claim two Rounds each, resulting in a draw! With the residents of the Galactic Zone reduced to a pile of smoking boots and a lonely twosome, the Disciples headed home to clear the sound of rocket bombardments from their ears.

JESS GIBBS (SHE/HER)

Playing as: THE Pack
Crew Name: THE PACK

Jess first came into wargaming through painting and never got much further than that. When she manages to get a force to the table, she likes to play complex factions with lots of moving parts, which she lovingly refers to as ‘gangs that do Stuff™’. While they are not classically in her lane, Jess is interested in the buffs coming to the Pack. Having already played the Disciples during testing, and a fair amount of Operators since, she felt that the Pack was a natural evolution.

DOWNLOAD JESS’ CREW SHEET

Jess - Week One

While most of my colleagues descended into a flurry of activity; carefully cutting models from their sprues, dry-fitting arms to torsos, and generally enjoying the wonders of miniature building, I did what I always do: I opened my spreadsheets.

While I will not share the exact content of the sheets' varied tabs and cells, I will share what they resulted in: Four possible Pack lists, thirteen Perk/Upgrade considerations, and two hard decisions.

After a few hours of to-ing and fro-ing, I made my choice. While some of the other lists had more interesting Perk choices, I decided to go with the list I felt best utilised the Pack’s specific playstyle, one that could leverage their recent buffs to the greatest extent. It focuses heavily on short-ranged weapons, like Sawn-off Shotguns and Pipe Revolvers, that can quickly rack up injuries and Harm… provided I can get my units close enough. And come in close they do, with every unit in the Crew having the Sprint Perk. It will be down to my colleagues to stop my glorious charge! With that covered, let’s get to the list.

The metaphorical top dog of my crew is the mighty Alpha, equipped with a main upgrade Automatic Handmade Rifle and the Four Leaf Clover Perk. These upgrades should turn my already potent Leader into a damage-dealing powerhouse, which will come in handy when it comes time to face the Wasteland Raiders. With Fast, Storm, and my choice of Suppress or Maim this guy should provide me with a lot of flexibility as games go on.

The far less metaphorical top dog - Top Dog - stands alone, wielding a Predator Grenade and Sledgehammer. I spent a long time debating whether taking one Top Dog was the right answer but finally settled on doing just that. Though in a perfect world, I would take two but I can make better use of my Caps with only one.

There are five Scavvers in this list, three armed with range upgraded Sawn-off Shotguns, and two with the ever reliable Handmade Rifles. These Scavvers are the bread and butter of my Crew and where most of my points were spent. Storm weapons really benefit from ranged upgrades, and while you can’t repeat Perks in the list (unless they are innate) the same is not true of weapon upgrades. Will the 3 upgrades be worth the model I lost to accommodate them? Only time (and a lot of plastic bloodshed) will tell.

To round off my list (and pump up my numbers), I will be fielding three Wasters, all packing Pipe Revolvers. While these units are rarely going to hit, I hope that their Piercing weapons can push a few units over from 2 Harm to an Injury… or at least capture an objective or two!

All in all, I think my list is well-placed to explore what makes the Pack so special. Tune in next week to see how I’m going to paint these beauties. Until then, it's me Jess, signing out.

(Ow ow owwwwwww! It’s a wolf howl. Cause we’re the Pack. Owwwwwww!)

DOWNLOAD JESS’ CREW SHEET

Jess - Week TWO

Each week, we have set ourselves a few hours to paint out units and get them table-ready. While this has been sufficient for most of the gangs in this office league, the same cannot be said about The Pack. When well-painted, these models are a gorgeous mix of rich colours and interesting textures. As a notoriously slow painter, these models have done nothing to help me in terms of speed.

Over the last week, I have decided to take my time with my models, and work on them bit-by-bit, presenting to you as I go. It can take a long time to get a Pack model ready, so get ready to buckle in for the ride.

Step 1: Base Coating and Zenithal

The first step in almost any paint scheme is to give the models a good base layer and - if you have to kit for it - a nice Zenithal highlight for some easy lighting later down the road. While I am more than happy with the priming process, a rather nasty wind has stirred up by the time my models have dried. Not to be disheartened, I moved forward to Zenithal my models by constructing a small cardboard shield just outside the office to hopefully buffer myself (and my minis) from the gale. This worked rather well, though did leave some models being a little more thickly coated in white primer than I had hoped, but such are the risks of trying to paint anything in the UK.

Step 2: Picking a colour scheme

I am a sucker for an autumnal pallet, and while it may not always be the most vibrant of hues I feel with the right paints this scheme will fit right at home on the pack. To test this theory, I grabbed one of my scarves and got to work blocking out major colours. After trialling a few things in the light I ended up going with a main colour of Green with highlights of orange and red.

Step 3: Picking even more colours

Even after picking out a generalised colour scheme, there were a lot of other fillings that these fine models needed. I took these on a case-by-case basis, mixing in other shades of green and pulling out some metals in one of my personal favourite paints: vallejo oily steel!

Step 4: PICKING MORE COLOURS

Even after all this the models still have a lot of detail remaining, so I start blending in more oranges, red and even add in some purples.

Step 5: For Future me

And with that we have caught up with my painting progress so far, check in next week for another progress update along with some of our games (here is a sneak preview).

DOWNLOAD JESS’ CREW SHEET

JUSTIN TALSMA (He/HIM)

Playing as: WASTELAND RAIDERS
CRew Name: Those Drug-Addled Crazies

Lured from his fetid den with the promise of fresh spreadsheets and a spare Adobe key, Justin Talsma handles the schedules for the Product Design and Development Department here at Modiphius. He also occasionally helps develop some games.

When asked to elaborate why he chose Wasteland Raiders, the hulking pen-pusher grinned evilly “I have always had a special place in my heart for Area of Effect attacks in wargames, and when Dom created the list for the Raiders, I realised I could stuff it near the brim with AoE - I was hooked.”

JUSTIN - Week One

Greetings folks, it is I, Justin Talsma, humble scheduler and occasional developer. For the league, I’ll be previewing the Wasteland Raiders from the upcoming Fallout Factions Core Rulebook, which is due out very soon! Having received a pair of sprues hot off the presses, I've been very excited to get stuck into them.

Before we start cutting things, my crew needs a name. As a fan of abbreviations, I thought I'd go with the T.D.A.C. or Those Drug-Addled Crazies, to you and me.

One of the main features of the Wasteland Raiders is, of course, power armor. Not that nicely preserved stuff the Brotherhood wears; ours is homemade and crudely welded together. My Leader will naturally be armed with the finest of these suits. As tempting as it is to arm him with the almighty Minigun, I’ve chosen to go for something more versatile: a .44 Revolver and Machete. Shooting twice a round and having a reasonable dice pool in melee is too good to pass up. That, and Pierce is a rather excellent Critical Effect.

As we’re using the C.O.M.P. kit (coming to a tournament near you soon!), I find myself with access to Perks at Crew Creation. Though blessed with a perfectly acceptable 3 Health, I feel my Boss needs a bit of extra survivability. As they will be devouring the most Chems, I purchased the Party Boy Perk, allowing me to remove 2 Harm every time he consumes a Chem.

With the advent of the Companion supplement, it would be rude not to bring 3 of man’s best (if somewhat mutated) friends: Mongrels. At 10 Rating each, these decidedly vicious boys are a bargain! With Sprint, they’re also great for tying down enemies in melee or piling on those already engaged for extra dice.

With 75 Rating spent, it’s time for Champions. Our Wasteland Raider Champions come in two district flavours: Those who have been able to cobble together some power armor, and everyone else. To represent this terrible inequality, and to showcase one of my favourite weapons in the whole setting (until Dom nerfs it), I've decided to arm one of them with a Missile Launcher: 5 dice with S5 over a 6-inch bubble - what’s not to love!

You know what's better than 2 Raiders and power armor? Why, 3 of course! As tempting as double Missile Launchers are, I have heroically resisted the urge and instead gone for what the office describes as a “Crounching* Raider Hidden Flamer.” This takes the form of a second power-armored Butcher with a Flamethrower and the Hidden Perk. Being able to pop up on the enemy’s side of the field is well worth the 4 caps, and should go some way towards mitigating the Flamethrower’s very short range.

With a significant amount of my Rating spent, it’s time to grab 2 Scavvers with Short Hunting Rifles; a great way to get more Pierce in the crew. Combined with the punch of our AoE weapons, it’s a versatile combination. I round out the crew with 2 Psychos with Molotov Cocktails and Baseball Bats. I want even more AoE in this already fairly explosive crew of Raiders, and I’d like to be able to offer the Mongrels some melee support.

And there we have it. A 250 Rating Crew made from one (and a bit) Raider boxes. Luckily, the C.O.M.P. kit also provides us with a chem budget, which my Boss’s Personal Stash Perk will be able to make the most out of.

*Editor’s Note: Normally I would correct this spelling, but the word ‘crounching’ made me laugh quite a bit, so I’ve elected to leave it in. Sorry, Justin

JUSTIN - Week TWO

Welcome back folks! Today I’m going to be painting my Wasteland Raiders. Now to be clear, this is my weakest discipline. I just about know how to drybrush. But lucky for me, there are plenty of folks on the team with enough knowledge so that they shouldn't turn out like those *redacted* in that ‘thin your paints’ meme.

Luckily, our office was thoroughly stocked with Two Thin Coats paints from last year's Factions launch event.

First things first: undercoating! Standard black for the Grunts, Dogs and Champions.

I'm trying to go for the whole rusted armor look, so started with Dry Rust Brown, then drybushed Noble Steed Brown, Platemail Armour, and Spartan Bronze to give it that badly rusted scuffed look.

On a side note, if you're wondering why only two of my power armored raiders have rebar shoulder pads, let's just say it's very windy outside of the office. Trying to find 4 little gray patches of rebar on grey tile and weathered tarmac proved beyond me. Do your basecoating out of the wind, folks!

Finally, a bit of Sanguine Scarlet splatters on the blade and armor to give them that rusty blood splattered look that’s all the rage.

The 2 Scavvers and 2 Psychos got a black basecoat and drybrushed anything metallic looking with Plate Armour and Dwarven Iron. I then started painting their clothes with Noble Steed Brown, but found that they look well brown. Instead I went for a Hellspawn Red as a base, then drybrushed some Sanguine Scarlet on there for good measure. Once that was done, I painted all the straps with Doom Death Black (the most metal of paint names) and drybushed the metal with Spartan Bronze. Dwarf Flesh was used for any exposed skin and then followed by gallons of flesh wash.

One of the things I'm rather proud of are the flames on the molotovs. Having never painted a flame in my 26 years of playing with miniatures, I was pleasantly surprised how Skulker Yellow, Frantic Orange, and Sanguine Scarlet turned out rather nicely.

And here they are: Those Drug Addled Crazies. I might come back and paint the bases, but that's me for now.

Tune in next week for their first outing! Will the Mongrels last a single turn? Will my Psychos hit a single thing with their molotovs? Will the rebar ever return? Stay tuned to find out!

JUSTIN - Week THREE

BATTLE REPORT #1: HOSTILE TAKEOVER VS. THOSE DRUG-ADDLED CRAZIES

Now, I am a fan of a hyper-detailed, blow-by-blows interspersed with witty asides and the odd outraged howl at a particularly bad dice result. But my boss (and editor) informs me I have to do something called - checks notes - ‘work (?)’ while in the office, so I’m sticking to a more rapid-fire blow-by-blow, so buckle up!

My opponent this week is Dom whose ‘Vault Dwellers’ will be knocking my drug-addled crazies about the place. Dom is an old hand at competitive games (just don't mention REDACTED) and I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve won against them, so this should prove fun… or at least entertaining to read while they make my models eat dirt.

THE BOARD

So, here we have a moment or two to talk about Fallout: Faction board. Today, we are using a mix of terrain provided by the talented Evie Moriarty and a few resin pieces we had lying around. As you can see, the board is quite busy, which is how it should be. To quote James Hewitt: “When you think the board looks too full, place one more big piece and you're done.” Factions is all about slinking between cover, popping off shots, and getting into vicious scraps. Hanging back and exchanging shots just isn’t it.

CHEMS, GLORIOUS CHEMS!

No game of factions is complete without chems (stay in school kids!). With a chem budget of 20 caps each, we tick some boxes on our sheets and share them with our opponents. Dom selects the classic combo of Psycho, Rad-X and a Stim-pack. With my awesome discount of 3 on all individual chem purchases thanks to my leader’s Personal Stash perk, I acquire 2 doses of Psycho, 1 Jet (woo-woo!) and a Rad-X to get real high on.

The Scenario

We will be trying out Scenario 8: Escalation from the upcoming C.O.M.P Kit. Without going into excruciating detail, my objective is to be within 3” of as many objective tokens by the end of the round while starting somewhat too close to each for comfort (6” in this case). Once the objective tokens are laid out, we roll off to see who deploys first. I win the roll and we lay out search tokens. We then roll to see who gets the Cappy and Dom wins (CURSES!). At this point, search tokens are laid out and it is onto set-up!

The SET-UP

I decide to set my gang up in a position where my power armour can make a decent break for the central tokens, though Dom getting first turn in the subsequent roll will scupper that slightly. Still, nothing ventured and all that. I find myself a bit clustered in places, but with the monopoly on AOE it shouldn’t be too much of an issue.

Dom sets up in their zone making good use of their control bubbles to frustrate the placement of my hidden Crouncher (yes, I wrote that on purpose). With the majority of their crew clustered near their leader (I sense shenanigans afoot!), I place my flamer behind a nearby shed, close enough to get in but not in a position to get shot to bits on Round One.

With that all done, let’s roll dice and shoot raiders! I have a feeling we’re gonna run outta raiders real fast…

ROUND #1

As is tradition, Dom opens up by shooting my dog (Crackle) with their leader. One dead dog later, panic ensues, but all hold strong (gotta love that Natural leader perk). Their leader slides back, making full use of their Move and Fire perk before ordering the entire gang to scatter with a Get Moving. My flamer is suddenly pinned down from all sides making it impossible to get out.

With the majority of the gang scattered, the missile launcher goes off and turns 3 gangers into dust before legging it towards the nearest objectives with a Get Moving order. Some swift footwork later, with a dog and a Psycho on the objective, I’m feeling good.

Dom blows one of my Psychos away, spooking a dog. I retaliate by shooting the Butcher, pinning them down with a dog and advancing a Scavver to better range. The Butcher backs up and pops a Psycho (the drug), before backing up with Move and Fire. The Psycho in the middle lobs a molotov and wounds the top Butcher on a lucky crit. Dom retaliates with handmade rifle fire and harms them. I rummage with a dog. Snake eyes! It's very sad but no chems for me. To make it worse, Dom blasts a Scavver with a hunting rifle, taking them out and causing the Psycho in the middle to leg it while the final Scavver loses an activation. I move my suppressed Scavver in a bit closer to claim the objective while Dom starts beating up my flamer and lands a harm. I pop a Jet on Senior Rocket Launcher, rummage and pop my Ploy to get some psycho-jet for later.

Sticky Fingers fails again and I get a Rad-X and a Nuka-Cola. Dom pops their Ploy to get a Second Wind and chops up my flamer. Dom’s leader wounds the flamer too and piles on the harm.

I pass to claim the token. The mighty crouncher is soon to be dead so there's no real point in activating them. Out of models to activate, Dom passes as well.

After removing tokens, we work out our points. As I hold the most objectives, I get 5 and Dom gets 0. They do, however, win a consolation prize in the form of removing one of the objectives. This could drastically change the balance of things. They remove the central objective, leaving me with a lot of open ground to get shot in if I want to nab the others. It's going to be harder to get those points but - hey - such is life.

ROUND #2

Deciding I’ve never liked that Felicity person, I lob a rocket in its general direction. No kills but maims all round! I move to end up near an objective. Dom’s Butcher shoots my dog - again! - suppressing the hell out of it and harming its mutated little face. They do the same to my raider, murdering the Scavver hugging the centre. My Leader pops a Psycho and turns the Scavver in front of them into confetti with their revolver.

Dom bayonets my flamer and patches up while I sob. ‘Partyboy’ Pete pops the Psycho-Jet the crew found and blows the wounded Butcher away. Dom decides to blast the source of their torment and harms the missile launcher standing out in the open and making rude gestures. They harm them, then pin them down, contesting the top objective. The mighty Poop charges a Scavver, pinning it down. Dom’s Leader - say it with me - shoots the dog but only for a harm. Finding the Scavver, the dog just jumped to be within 14” of my Leader’s blasts him while taking his third chem of the round (shame he wasn't injured, eh?) and shoots them dead. With both sides rapidly running out of troops, the Leader plugs the missile launcher again for a solid bit of harm and a wound. With a dog left to activate, I pass.

Aftermath

Blimey, what a slaughter! All of that took the better part of 30 minutes and, other than checking my Ploy and the Sticky Fingers rules, it went quickly. It’s a shame Felicity never got to burninate folk but I really can’t complain. The missile launcher caused its usual havoc, my dogs held down points until they where shot, and my chem-fueled Leader just started blasting!

What really made this cluster cuddle into the shrieking madness was the deployment for Scenario 8. To balance the melee factions and those who love the shooty-shooty, Evie (Moriarty) split the C.O.M.P scenarios into ones that favour short-ranged engagements (of which Escalation is one) and those for long-range playstyle.

ROUND #3

Can anyone say rocket launcher? Cos I sure can. I disengage and huck a missile at Dom’s remaining two troops in front of me. Maims all round but not much else. I kiss my sweet Deathtube Dan goodbye and brace. Dom then follows their own tradition and shoots the damn dog! Poop is no more. I slog away from the objective and decide to blast doms injured butcher with party boy pete. Pierce strikes again and down they go. Dom leader retaliates and pops a cap in Dan's skull. Movement shenanigans ensue. My next move is to peg it with the dog hiding it behind the shed. Not only is Snap growing on me I kinda need him and his 10” move to hold down an objective at some point. Dom secures the objectives and the round ends with me once more in control of the Cappy.

Cleanup occurs. Dom holds all the objectives having murdered about 80% of my crew. It’s 5/10, with two pieces a side… it’s all to play for!

ROUND #4

With Cappy in hand, I charge Dom’s leader. Not the most tactical thing, but if the dog dies, it’s all over. With a mighty swing of my machete, I flub a 6 dice roll and put a harm on it. Dom disengages and shoots the dog!

Against all odds, the dog lives! Dom’s leader uses Move and Fire to camp an objective I decide to lick my wounds, patch up and go to claim an objective in the bottom centre hoping for a draw on objectives and a win for me. Dom goes in with their last grunt moves twice and contests it!

Come cleanup, Dom is in control of one objective, I'm in control of - checks notes - none. It’s the equaliser - 10/10. Humans nil, radioactive carrion eaters 15! Meat’s back on the menu, boys!

Andy Douthwaite (He/HIM)

Playing as: The OpERATORS
Crew Name: The FIXERS

Andy's wargaming experience is limited to big-name games, being primarily an RPG player. As such, he expects to be fully trounced in every game he plays. But that’s OK because he’s here for the fun of it… at least that’s what he tells himself. The advantage of this is no one will expect him to make a good move (or so he hopes). Any game that he does marginally well will be considered a personal victory. Andy will be playing Operators incredibly badly and painting them with all the skill he has, which is some. RPG minis don't paint themselves after all.

Andy - Week One

The slice and rustle of thin plastic. The inevitable catching of the cuticle as you attempt to open the box. These are the sure-fire signs that another hobby project has begun.

Well, okay, there was a small matter of figuring out my list first. And try as I might, there was no way I could take my patented (for legal reasons this is not in fact patented) double Syringer crew for the Operators.

Now if I know anything about blogging about game leagues, it’s that stats are always well-received, right? So I thought I'd break down my building process with some stats that we could all relate to:

Fingers stuck together count: 13
Times a part was dropped while attempting to glue: 9
Pieces lost to the void: 2
Replacement heads sought: 1
Arms cut to fit a pose they definitely weren't intended for: 1
Models used as improvised glue-stand for other models: 2

Firstly, the Leader's head needed to be changed for one very specific reason: Anyone firing a plasma pistol needs sunglasses, right?! With the Leader done, I turn to my Champions. Sadly, Syringers are out this season, but Combat Rifles are in. Hang on one of these poses has a grenade? I don’t have grenades… but what do I have… how bout a Nuka-Cola? After far too long clipping some of the base scenery and shaving down a bottle, I realized I could just cut the top off a different bottle and swap it for the grenade top. A change of head type, a tweak to the position, and suddenly my Champion is about to enjoy the refreshing taste of Nuka-Cola.

Things continue apace until disaster strikes! Fingers well and truly suck together, and another arm yeets itself into the void; the place where all vanishing mini parts live in peace and harmony, knowing that they've scuppered your conversion plans. But this ain't my first, second, or even third rodeo. I’ve handled tougher cookies than a simple missing arm. After a scan of the sprue, I found an appropriate sacrifice, I mean replacement. A brief glance at the instructions tells me I shouldn’t need this one for any other model, so out comes the model knife and it's time for some surgery. All in all you can hardly tell, and hopefully once there’s some paint to cover up my mistakes no one will know that I can't hold onto an arm. Except you, of course, but you won’t say anything… please?

Much cursing and sticking of fingers later, we have ourselves an entire Crew, and a little scenic personality for my champions Off and On Again. And there we have it. 3 Scavvers with Combat Rifles, 3 Wasters with Handmade Rifles, 2 Champions with Combat Rifles, 1 Leader with Plasma Pistol and Shishkebab, and 10 Rating left to spend… Okay, 1 Leader with Plasma Pistol, Shishkebab and a few Perks up their sleeve. These Operators are ready to take on the Wasteland!

Andy - Week TWO

We’ve set ourselves aside a few hours a week* to get these Crews built, painted and onto the tabletop. So this week I focused on the broad strokes, deciding on a theme and getting those core colours blocked in. But before we go any further, another piece of relatable statistical analysis for you to enjoy, or gloss over because who likes numbers:

Times spray blew away from model: 4
Swear words aimed at the wind for blowing spray away from models: 3
Tabs open for reference: 17
Straps painted: 51!!!!!
Amount of time spent cursing straps: 2-3 hours

First things first, gotta get them minis primed. I went for a matt black spray, it’s a classic for a reason. After some wrestling with the wind that did not want me to spray these models evenly, we eventually got them primed.

[Pause for drying while I get on with some other stuff that needs doing, like filling paint pots and tea mugs]

Now the minis stare at me with accusatory eyes. I have no idea what colour scheme to use. Luckily there’s a handy reference. So I go to the internet to get in-game images of the Operators, and I learn something that I'm definitely going to wish I hadn't. The Operators' suits aren’t plain. Some are chequered (more on that later) but some are decorated, almost with brocade style swirls.

Look at this swarve*** fella ready to beat your brains out!

So that’s what I’m going for. Classic Fallout colours for the suits (minus the tan because tan suits are just awful to paint) and brocade swirls. You’ll have to tune in next time to see how badly that, and my attempt to hand chequer a suit, goes.

The same process works well for the weapons as well. Each and every one will be as close to the game as I can get them.

But for now, I've just blocked out the core colours of the suits and armour. It's time to get the straps sorted. Just a quick job I think. Grab a suitably leathery brown and away we go right? Wrong! These guys are strapped, and not just in the ‘carrying lots of deadly weaponry’ way. 51 straps across 9 minis is really quite a bit. But we persevere. After much swearing and several breaks to alleviate hand cramp, we have them blocked in.

So I imagine you’re expecting some excellent quality studio perfect photos of my step by step process for getting the details in. I was expecting that too. But there was a tinsey little hiccup. I got a bit lost in the painting and maybe , slightly, kinda forgot to take photos throughout. But you can have a few photos, of questionable quality, of the finished minis and use your imagination for how we got from blocked in to here.

I started, like any hubristic painter,with the easiest thing. The chequered suit. At first I tried to pencil on the pattern and follow the lines as a guide. This very quickie proved to be damn near impossible with my cheques never quite lining up.

After several attempts at this, and subsequent repaints of the suit and a not insignificant amount of cursing my past self for making this decision I decided to just trust my hand and go for it. This turned out surprisingly well, with each square blocked in with a roughly rectangular brush. After a quick tidy up with the original suit colour where my pattern had gotten a bit overlapping but the end result is, at least from a distance, definitely chequered.

Now that the suit was out of the way, I turned to the armour. Every model has some form of shiny metal on it. And as we all know, the wasteland is rarely so clean and tidy. So onto this goes a good helping of rust brown. Rather than cover it completely, I stippled this on with a dry brush before getting some of the shine with a nice bright silver for the edges. The same went for the weapons and everything seems to be coming together quite nicely. A few more details on the leader’s plasma pistol and we’re looking like a semi-painted team.

Now I'll let you all in on a secret. I absolutely suck at painting skin. Luckily so do enough other people that miniatures paint manufacturers everywhere have provided some handy washes to cover up our collective lack of skill. So a few appropriate washes later we have a decent-looking team, some variety in hair colour and there's only a few things left to do before I call these the Fixers done. One of those is, of course, basing. Which you may notice I haven’t got around to. I’ll get it done eventually, I swear, all I have to do is find my crackle paints.

The other is… the brocade…

Time for not so secret weapon number 2. Sharpie (or whatever off brand equivalent you can get your hands on). Silver sharpie in this case. I figured that this would be the least excruciating and hand cramping way to get some good brocaded swirls on my remaining operators. As it turns out I was sort of right. But mostly wrong. After sharpening up one mini, I wasn’t sure it quite worked. The swirls were too blocky and far too bright. So out comes the paint brush and, through gritted teeth, I begin the process of free handing the brocade. All in all I think they came out rather well and are definitely worth the hand cramp and back ache endured to get them there.

* Because we are, despite all appearances, actually quite busy **

**Editor’s Note: We apologise for the footnote. Andy has been in the Discworld treacle mines for so long he’s even started speaking with footnotes, which is actually quite impressive.

*** Editor’s Note: Yes. This is how he tried to spell suave. You see what I’m dealing with here?

Andy - Week THree

BATTLE REPORT #1: HOSTILE TAKEOVER VS. THE FIXERS

You know the drill, we start with stats for your viewing pleasure:

No. of the Fixers survived: 1
No. of Hostile Takeovers melted: 1
No. of Fixers killed by the Hostile Takeovers Leader in one turn: 2 (plus one harmed)
Lessons learned: always take the long edge

Let the scavenge begin!

The board is set and after the prerequisite roll-off, I - that is, the Fixers - have the initiative and the choice of edge. So away we go. Like the fool, I choose a short edge thinking I’m being clever: Get the objective token nearest my edge locked down, then push up the board.

Oh, how wrong I was. Dom claims the long edge and I start to wonder what they’re planning.

The scenario stipulates we start the game with no models on the board and move them on one at a time during the first round. The first few turns see us both establish a foothold. The Fixers, penned in by my choice of the short edge, claim the first objective, followed by Dom and their Hostile Takeover securing the centre of the board. Then the fun begins.

A meltdown shot from my Leader! Boom! There goes one of Dom's grunts that claimed an objective. Here we go, I think; keep them pinned and move up. Dom has other plans. Once I’ve got my troops on the board, they drop in behind with their Leader, sporting a .44 revolver, Fire and Move and death for all in their way!

One turn later, the Fixers are reeling. A Waster and a Scavver are dead, and another nursing a harm. To add insult to injury, Dom has swooped in, taken the objective marker I thought was safe right from under my nose, and got into safety again. Fire and Move, and Jet, is a hell of a drug.

All attempts to push up the right side of the board are met with gunfire and death for my Fixers while my leader and a champion go after the leader of the Hostile takeovers.

Dom, now well secure in their position, has all 5 objective markers in their possession. Ok, I might not be able to win this but I can at least gain some sweet sweet vengeance.

After a meltdown and chase, I finally take down the leader of the Hostile Takeovers as they attempt to get away with my objective token.

My one remaining champion sprints out into the open and grabs the objective. I pop my ploy for a second wind to drag it back to cover where my leader waits.

Round four begins with the Fixers in a sorry state. The Hostile Takeovers control ¾ of the board and 4 of the 5 objective markers. In a vain attempt to deny them a few points my champion steps into the firing line. Taking a shot at their max 24” range they pop one of the Takeovers grunts who's carrying two objective tokens. The rush is short lived as they take two shots from a handmade rifle to the chest in quick succession and those objective tokens are picked up by another Takeover grunt.

Try as they might the Takeovers can’t quite get a bead on the Fixers leader, and the game ends with one objective in the possession of the Fixers only survivor, their Leader, and the other four being carted back to the Hostile Takeovers vault, presumably to have Vault Boy faces drawn on them.