#Kemvar

[flowing-paint]

Mercs baby!

You know those days you keep preparing for and then they turn out even better than what you expected? Yesterday was one of them. But let's rewind this a little bit: yesterday I went to my friend's place to play some Mercs. It was his first time and I was so happy to see he totally had a blast! Wanna know more?

I know I've said this many times but a friend of mine was willing to get into tabletop wargaming and I offered him a Mercs demo game. This is basically the reason why I was holding back my Warhammer painting these days: I was preparing my USCR faction to be able to field two complete forces and trying to crank out as many terrain pieces I could. As it turns out I went a little short on the second goal but I was able to walk into my friend's house with two usable squads. It was USCR vs Kemvar.

USCR

Commissar

Heavy

Engineer

Behemoth

Gunner

KEMVAR

Leader

Heavy

Demo

Sniper

Shock

Assassin

Even though we didn't dive straight into the game (I'll explain why at the end of the post) we were both really excited to try Mercs because it's one of the best skirmish games to teach wargaming to newcomers: models look great, rules are easy to digest and the game plays super fast.

As you can see from the USCR heavy in the pictures above, the models are dynamic and full of detail. They're slightly hard to tackle if you are a beginner but the game provides some solid fun which is a good motivation.

Batrep. Sort of.

We decided to randomly assign the factions: I ended up with the USCR and my friend took Kemvar so I finally got a chance to see why a lot of people hate them. We also decided to place all the terrain I brought alternating back and forth but we ended up with a first game table setup which was not super optimal. The scenario: Kemvar attacking a USCR fueling station located in the middle of the table. Here you can see a couple of poor pictures.

We had containers, ammo boxes, and some road barricades but we felt the field was a little bit too open. I should have worked harder! Unfortunately, we didn’t have a nice gaming mat so, let’s say we were in the middle of the desert.

Anyways, the game started as usual with the Kemvar moving super fast forward and the USCR spraying them with relentless fire. God, that mimetic armors are good... the first turns USCR were just cycling through ammo clips with no tangible result while the Kemvars were totally controlling the field. Lucky dice rolls were helping but that sheer supremacy was fun to watch. Even from the USCR side. The Kemvar sniper was systematically breaking USCR armors but the bullets were too weak to actually do any good.

Then the wind changed: you know? When they're in active camo, those chameleons are hard to hit but when you do damage their armor they start falling like autumn leaves. It happened when the USCR heavy climbed on a shipping container and started to unleash a storm from elevated ground on the enemies with his lightning cannons. A couple of missed dice rolls for the Kemvars and the battle was over in two turns. The Kemvar leader, last of his men still standing, decided to flee leaving the USCR with a couple of dead bodies and some pretty badly wounded soldiers but still holding control of the fuel station. USCR wins.

Second Wave

As the first game was more of a learning session we decided to go on with another battle in the same setting, this time playing with the following rules/background:

The Kemvar leader went back and gathered a new squad to try again to destroy the fueling station. This time is a suicide mission: conquer the station or blow it up.

Kemvar must reverse the fueling station pump direction and blow it up.

USCR must stop them at all costs.

Maximum of 5 turns. At the end of the 5th turn, the winner will be determined depending on the current pump flow direction.

The Kemvar jumped into action, immediately trying to leverage their superior movement skills. With the USCR slowly advancing from the distance in their clumsy power armors, the Kemvar raiders managed to reverse the pump flow on the second turn. Only three turns to hold before the mission completion. The USCR group decided to split: a back support team with the Behemoth, the Commissar, and the heavy with some massive suppression fire actively limiting enemy’s movement and a fast moving front assault team consisting of the Engineer and the Gunner. With the Engineer engaged in a sustained fight with the Assassin first and the Shock later, the Gunner was free to get to the pump control console and reestablish the proper settings. Unfortunately, the USCR heavy miscalculated his line of sight when attacking an already badly wounded Shock and the Gunner fell under friendly fire that left him surrounded by enemies in a broken armor. It was the last turn when the Kemvar leader finally made his run to the console claiming his revenge for all the fallen Kemvar comrades. The Gunner was there, alone, under friendly and enemy fire, only a few centimeters away from that damn button, swearing while desperately trying to crawl to the console when a giant fireball erupted from the fuel tank, blowing away all that was left of the two groups. Kemvar wins.

Wrap up

We played two games and we had some real fun. There was strategy, last-second game-changing moves and all the good tactical aspects Mercs is known for. Even during the learning first game, it was fun to see how easy this game is to pick up. I have to admit that my friend is a hardcore boardgamer with an eye for miniature-rich ones but still, after two or three turns we had all rules nailed down. We did not use any advanced rule though. No, check that: I used some bounding because those Russians are super-slow movers but that’s it.

Being the first time I played with the USCR I can say that they look really cool but as far as strategy goes, they’re only good at spraying the enemy with bullets. They are slow movers and even though their armor is pretty thick (they almost don’t get any wound) it breaks up really easily. The Behemoth and the Heavy have surprisingly high TN so they’re not super good at killing foes in cover. I was hitting on 9s and 10s for the whole game even from elevated position. They do grant you some good zone control because of their scary weapons though. The Gunner and the Engineer were surprisingly good at moving and shooting with the Engineer also able to get double activation once. The two of them almost won the second encounter.

The Kemvar, on the other hand, showcased all the faction strengths: they move really fast, they hit easily (even though with low strength) and they are super hard to hit when the armor is working. The Sniper always hit because of her Aim keyword but with a strength 1 bullet, she is just good at breaking armors. In the first game, she managed to pin down three of the USCR but they were in good positions for shooting anyway and the final result showed how useless the Sniper was. I don’t even need to comment on the notorious lethal power of the Assassin and the Shock: they were tearing apart USCR power armors barehanded. The shock destroyed the Commissar in two rounds by making him flying around and bouncing him on a shipping container.

Final thoughts

If you can get your hands on some Mercs factions, do it. The game is cheap, fun and easy to learn/teach and I think it’s every wargaming lover duty to spread this as much as possible. Of course, because of the factions limitations, it may not offer the same tactical depth other games show but with proper terrain selection and deployment together with balanced faction choices, you are pretty much set up for endless fun.

Last point: why didn’t we jump immediately into the game? Cause we bought Warhammer 40k Dark Imperium starter set and we were unboxing. We split the contents. I got some Nurgle love... Of course, you’re all gonna hear more on this....

.... game on!

[twothinquotes-blog]

KemVar Mercs Team, a lot of fun to paint. #kemvar #mercs #painting #miniatures #wargaming

[spitl]

MERCS KemVar FAQ v1.1

MERCS KemVar FAQ v1.1

Ich freue mich die Reihe der MERCS-Übersetzungen mit dem MERCS KemVar FAQ v1.1 fortzusetzen.

Hervorgegangen aus der Fusion der beiden südamerikanischen Energiekonzerne Kemet (Brasilien) und Varlen (Venezuela), war KemVar der erste Mega-Konzern, der 2150 mit einer Regierung fusionierte und damit zum führenden Energielieferanten der Welt avancierte. KemVars militärische Stärke basiert auf der…

[wargamesnerd]

To read, or to start painting my MERCS Kemvar or my Khador Shocktroopers…

…decisions, decisions

[flowing-paint]

Mercs 2.0 Kemvar faction pack

Just to dive directly in this new blog, here is my brand new “not-so-shiny” Kemvar faction pack from Megacon Games.

The box came with 10 minis (each one with its own card) in plastic bags. I’ll have to assemble them all and get on the juice. Paint juice. The models look awesome. And the set is really outstanding value.

Stay tuned for the finished models!

[flowing-paint]

What’s happening to Megacon Games?

I am a great fan of the Mercs and Myth franchises from Megacon Games but lately the company seems to be sailing in troublesome waters. This is just a wrap up of my thoughts regarding this matter. A little note: I’m traveling from Japan to Italy right now so I’m writing this on the plane while my son is running all over the place! Needless to say it’s going to be a really short and probably poorly organized post…

If you use to read the blog you have probably already realized I am big into MERCS 2.0 and Myth, the board game. I own 6 Complete factions for the former (Kemvar, USCR, ISS, Texico, EIC and GCC) and the full Kickstarter edition for the latter. The game mechanics are usually super easy to learn and difficult to master but also innovative and unique; not to forget the wonderful miniatures they come with. To put it simple: solid fun for all kinds of gamers.

However, the other day I was looking for “IA the foundation”, the big elementals boss and it seems like he is nowhere to be found. Megacon Games site is even worst: the last post dates back to February 2017… it’s a ghost town, together with tumbleweed and all other ‘70s far west movie shenanigans. On a quest for information, I went looking around the net and I found out that Megacon Games is about to be sold to a (yet to be revealed) “buyer”. My reaction to this finding was mixed: I am definitely happy to see these franchises will have a future but I am also scared the quality of the games may degrade. Being Megacon Games a small indy company they had the freedom to try their hand at various game systems and that’s what led us to innovative games like Mercs and Myth and big companies, living on the other side of the spectrum, usually only focus on profits. This means that each and every expansion will be heavily overpriced… I hope not to the GW levels but this is what will likely happen. Something that’s also scary is that usually “big company”=“mainstream”, again with the aim of maximizing the revenues. While I agree with the fact that Myth rules would greatly benefit of a new revision I also believe that streamlining rules may sometimes require a complete overhaul of the system eventually leading to over-simplified rules or entirely different games. I think Megacon Games made a super good job with the game mechanics, the artwork, and the miniatures and, why not, the promotion but they probably went overboard by going crazy on Kickstarter, setting too many stretch goals, eventually failing to fulfill all the requests. They probably just failed from the logistic point of view… or maybe they overestimated their capabilities as a few-men team reaching worldwide success. I don’t know. Anyway, I do really hope this deal will bring Megacon Games back or, at least, keep their games up and running. I hope at least they release a new IA expansion so I can play the Elementals as the darkness. Also, super-dope sculpture!

Sorry for the short and belated post but internet connection is largely unavailable here in the deep Tuscan countryside. I promise I’ll prepare an interesting one for next week!

... game on!

UPDATE: as I connected to post this, I found out that the deal is already done! Let’s wish the nice guys from Megacon Games all the best luck!

[flowing-paint]

NMM color recipes

NMM which stands for (Non Metallic Metal) is one of the hardest techniques in miniature painting: you try to reproduce shiny metal surfaces by using normal opaque colors. Easier said than done, this is obviously a territory where mostly pro-painters only can venture as it boils down to these three foundamental pillars: color management, smooth blending with brushes and light reflection science.

I have just started to try and paint NMM parts on some miniatures and I think I finally got a grasp on the first pillar: the colors. How do you reproduce the colors seen on Aztec gold tablets? And what about a rusty hammer? Or brass? Answering to these questions was not trivial but youtube-ing for information made me realize that all the NMM color recipies have the same scheme:

- A dark base color

- A middle color

- A highlight color

By properly blending these three colors together one can create some good looking metals. The only task then is to properly choose a color mix that is appropriate for the metal. I hereafter share with you the recipes I use for my NMM and will mention the color name when I will upload pictures in the future.

I use Vallejo colors so this should be converted if you use something else. I also encourage you to ditch any conversion table and go to look for your own color mix when you feel confident enough!

Aztec gold

Base: Scrofulous brown + a hint of Armor Brown

Middle: Scrofulous brown

Highlight: Model color Ivory

This results in a super gold, the one that you would expect when entering an ancient Aztec tomb or after opening a chest full of Pirate gold.

Use this for jewelry and high-end equipment/characters.

Cold gold (aka Kirin Gold)

Base: Japanese uniform + a hint of pure black

Middle: Japanese uniform

Highlight: Dead white

The metal that comes out from this scheme looks and feels like gold but it clearly has some kind of patina on top that makes it look a little bit “cheap”. I mean, a king will never use a shoulder strap made of this material but an Orc chief probably should. Use this to highlight sword hilts and accessories. For a weathered look, add some green/blue wash patina.

Brass

Base: Desert yellow + a hint of tan

Middle: Base + Model color ivory

Highlight: Model color Ivory

This will result in something really close to the cold gold. However, Desert yellow brings green into the equation: you can achieve the oxidized effect without the paina. I use this on Skink spears or skeleton shields as they will probably look a little bit grungy anyway.

Iron

Base: Dark sea blue + a hint of black

Middle: Base + white

Highlight: Dead white

add a surface glaze of diluted Armor brown to desaturate the blue.

This is a standard iron. It’s slightly blue-ish so it should be washed with brown. By doing this, the piece will still look like iron (and not stone) but will feel more “warm” if I may say. A pro-tip: reflection radius is really important in iron. It’s really easy to end up with a stone-looking armor if the radius is too big.

Titanium, pewter or similar alloys

Base: Wolf grey + black

Middle: Base + Wolf grey

Glaze: diluted wolf grey

Highlight: Model color Ivory

I invented this recipe and I usually perform a couple of variations here: do not use pure Wolf grey as a middle tone (is too light) but I slightly lighten the base color with it. I then use some diluted wolf grey as a glaze where the final highlight will come. Here I usually try to wet-blend the middle tone and the glaze a little bit to achieve a good gradient. This color looks really nice on the high-tech armor pads of my Kemvar Mercs but you can use it to paint some aluminium fittings or some other light metal alloy.

This is all for now. I think I will come back to post some pictures of each metal to show you the final look. Until then,

… game on!

[spitl]

MERCS KemVar FAQ v1.1

MERCS KemVar FAQ v1.1

Ich freue mich die Reihe der MERCS-Übersetzungen mit dem MERCS KemVar FAQ v1.1 fortzusetzen.

Hervorgegangen aus der Fusion der beiden südamerikanischen Energiekonzerne Kemet (Brasilien) und Varlen (Venezuela), war KemVar der erste Mega-Konzern, der 2150 mit einer Regierung fusionierte und damit zum führenden Energielieferanten der Welt avancierte. KemVars militärische Stärke basiert auf der…