“What is a Veruzian anyways?”

Well, I am!

Veruzia (also spelled Verussia) is a nation. Specifically, an “imagi-nation”, which is a fictitious country. It runs in the vein of Ouargistan, Syldavia, Cagliostro, etc. The exact term for this, be it imagi-nation, Ruritanian romance, or even just plain worldbuilding is irrelevant. What is perhaps more important is where Veruzia originates, because I did not create it.

You see, Veruzia did not start out as a country for wargaming:

It began as a digital nation on a Minecraft factions server.

https://wiki.piratemc.com/Verussia

If you have any great interest in the digital history of Veruzia then please read the attached articles. Some are out of date, others unfinished, and a few biased, but taken together they paint a decent picture. It is my hope to one day knit together the information available in a better manner.

“Why Veruzia?”

Piratecraft is not a roleplay focused server. Rather, the specific combination of plugins it had encouraged immersive behavior. If you give players the ability to form factions, build ships, and siege each other’s claims, then it is almost an inevitability that great national epics will unfold. When the siege plugin ceased working many of these stories stopped, though I will note with hope that in recent months a replacement has begun development. In my prime there I lived through the story of Veruzia. It was not a tale where we were the victors, and certainly not the heroes. At the time I was disconnected from many of the higher-up decisions and mistakes which led to our wars, all I knew is that one day all I had worked to build was bombarded into rubble over hours. While the cannons roared we huddled beneath Pallidavia, conversing between the muffled explosions above. Because of how the siege plugin worked, if you logged off or died then the attackers could pillage your constructions further, so we had to wait and listen to the British guns. Did I say British? Yes, I did. The British Empire remains the oldest and largest force on the server, somewhat ironic considering the pirate theme. It was their presence which lent that imagi-nations feel to much of Veruzian history. We weren’t just fighting a fictional realm of Elves, we were a real nation who signed unequal treaties with the British and rattled sabres at the diplomatic table. Mind, there was also a nation of Elves we fought against. They did not follow the rules of war.

You may have gathered that I have an interest in history if you have glanced at some of my other posts. I enjoy more than just colonials, the Golden Age of Piracy and the Great War hold equal if not larger places in my heart. Veruzian history resembles all three periods. There were squabbles over who could settle where, bombardments of cities, new technologies and collapsing nations. I saw firsthand what happens when a bellicose empire is laid low and reshaped into a republic. I lived through the treaty of Versailles in miniature. If you cannot see why that might stick with a person you can stop reading here.

“How is Veruzia?”

Not well. Most of the players have moved on or been banned, so I find myself as the last man standing after almost a decade with the crew. Sometimes I see another show up, briefly, once a year or so. Even I don’t play the server very often anymore. When Veruzia was in its heyday I was not a major factor, and when I became a major factor it was due to being the only one left. We were never the most popular crew, and we certainly gave a fair share of headaches to the administrative team. But Veruzia took me in and never asked for any more than what I was willing to give. The crewmates put up with my occasionally insufferable banter and they complimented what I built even when it paled in comparison to what they made. When the wars started we were in it together, and when the last cannons roared we all felt the consequence. Sometimes I feel a deeper connection to Veruzia than I do my own homeland, strange as that may sound.

My end goal for the moment is to make a few Veruzian miniatures and a couple extra posts outside of the regular schedule, nothing exceptionally special. Having a wargaming force based off of a Minecraft faction is certainly original if nothing else, and I do enjoy an underdog. Is how David Helber feels when thinking back on Ouargistan? Do fictional nations normally inspire this level of nostalgia? I definitely have a long way to go before I can hope to resemble the Major General, that’s for sure.

Veruzia might have been a bit of an authoritarian, saber-rattling, tinpot mess of a country, but we defined those years on the server. When we were forced out of the cratered Veruzian continent the victors tore down Pallidavia to build a new city. It would never be finished or inhabited, the drab buildings forming an endless sea of similarity. But even in the copy-paste town that replaced our shattered capital a monument has been erected, breaking the monotony. A monument to Veruzia.

Viva Veruzi!

Fellgore Ravagers: Week of Kill Team

 Kill Team!

The first beastman I made was the Gorehorn, who is standard out of the box. I might swap parts of his pistol around to make it a true autopistol, but otherwise he is ready for painting.

This is the Vandal. His simplicity is something I am very pleased with. The Imperial icon held in his hands and the hammer are supposed to give the idea that he rips down shrines for their gold, not caring what they may represent. That one scene from The Book of Kells with the Vikings and the gold is what I'm going for, if you know of it.

This was supposed to be the Gnarlscar, but the first attempt came out wrong. This is the second, and I was still unhappy with the arm compared against the body, though the leg pose is an improvement. I scrapped the original for parts, but I think I will iterate on this version later. Knowing when to quit is a good skill when it comes to conversions to keep from burning out. The first Gnarlscar would donate parts to the next model's cape.

I used the same greebling technique on the Shaman that you can see on my Imperial Guard Command Squad. He came with a cape of skin which has since been replaced by cables and chains to take this miniature into the 41st millennium. My initial plan was to have the miniature accompanied by a helper ratman or two because I thought he was smaller than the other beastmen, when in fact he was larger. He still needs a pistol to be WYSIWYG, though I'm not sure where it will fit in. I may place it on the base or hang it as a staff ornament.

This is the Gnarlscar design I ended up going with. The greenstuff is supposed to be hair, but I may change it to brain matter before painting depending on how I feel. The claw-hand only came in a right-handed variety, so I placed two facing each other to make it ambidextrous and strange. The head-cage is a pitchfork which fit unexpectedly well against the head.

This is the Ironhorn, currently missing his extra pair of iron horns. I adapted the Gnarlscar leg concept to this model, though I need to blend it with greenstuff and shaving before painting. I gave his gun a robot finger-worm, as it is supposed to be a better autopistol. Worms are good for guns.

These two represent the Deathknell. They will need some standing terrain to keep height with their compatriots. I am excited to try some freehand shield designs for the first time. I made sure that one had a left-handed shield and the other a right-handed one, this creates a kind of shield-formation thing at the smallest possible level.

The Fluxbray is represented by three ratmen. The middle was originally supposed to be a different one who looked cooler, but that one was of such a height as to create a distracting stair-step effect. They do all fit on the base when nudged, during photography they just slid to the left. The Fluxbray has no specific rules about mutations, just multi-knife attacks, which is why these are fairly normal rat-men. They might need a little sci-fi greebling, maybe a space-hulk style base will be enough to tie them to their fellows.

This is a Felinid. It is also a Herd-Goad. The face will need a little greenstuffing to size up the ears, and the right arm needs a lot of work. I am also considering placing some beams on the upper weight to show that it is not just floating there, but doing so will be a careful operation. The barrel has a rat and a gun, because this model is supposed to have a gun. I do not know if the rat can fire a pistol.

Here is the Mangler. I was unable to find any arms which were clawed at the scale of the miniature, so I slapped a cybernetic claw on top of the model's hand and replaced the other arm with a grafted sword. I might flip the blade's direction, I am unsure. This was a simpler conversion, though the base will have to be replaced for metal wreckage.

This is the Toxhorn, the only model which I would call entirely unfinished rather than in need of some cleanup. It needs something to be sitting on, since otherwise the pose will look wrong. Instead of a grenade it has an exhaust-port backpack which puffs out toxic gas, but the principle is close enough.

The next post will not be Kill-Team related, and it will be on Friday the 31st of January.

Ersatz Warhammer: Week of Kill Team

 Warhammer is expensive, but I am cheap.

The intersection of these two undeniably true facts creates somewhat of a paradox. It is in that impossible space where genius and madness can fester in equal measure. Take, for example, the above Kill Team. If I wanted to purchase the box outright it would set me back almost 80 Afghan tribesmen! Those ten models are worth approximately the same amount that it would cost me to get into SAGA with a full army and terrain. But for all my winging, SAGA and Colonials don't have cool chainswords. More importantly, neither have a local wargaming scene, but Warhammer does. Considering that I have been tinkering with miniatures for over seven years at this point I suppose I should actually play a wargame at some point. Thus do I proclaim the week(s?) of Kill Team. This first look will be discussion of how I try to save money and creatively fulfil myself when it comes to Warhammer.

The first and easiest way to save money is to move the goalposts of what counts as saving. The cheapest options would be paper standees or Tabletop Simulator, but both of those take away from the physical hobby aspect which is what I'm really here for. The same goes for 3D printing, with the asterisk that while learning digital modelling would be less expensive in the long run it would require effort beyond what I am prepared to put in. Using third-party miniatures would also be a great way to save money, and this is the practice which I have the least reasons to avoid. I can only vaguely wave my hands as to why I haven't already started, and please believe me when I say I fully intend to do so one of these days. But enough of equivocating, how do I intend to make a Kill Team without paying the cost of one? The first step is to have a nice and healthy pile of shame. Despite not collecting Chaos or Beastmen I already have five of them, four from Blackstone Fortress. Bulk deals like the Warhammer Quest Games are already a good start, and I was able to get both quest games at noticeable discounts over two years. Each year these bulk deals get a little less appetizing as the savings decrease, but I doubt there will ever be a point where they become a bad trade compared to separate purchases. So that's four out of ten miniatures already taken care of. It might seem foolhardy to try and save money by buying miniatures without a plan for how to make use of them, but the principle of the idea is to buy miniatures which you know are cheaper than average and then create uses for them.

Out of production and secondhand kits like this one are my go-to. Ebay is the primary retailer I work with, and it's always good to keep in mind what will be hitting the market at any given time. There is often a window between then a kit goes out-of-print and when it becomes rare where it is charged at its regular price, which is almost always less than whichever kit was created to replace it. Physical stores do not markup OOP miniature kits frequently in my experience, so keep an eye out at the back of the shelf and the corner of the store. More than once I have found a treasure or two hidden behind another box. I make a point to stop at any shops I can reach while travelling, always check if the store has a second-hand section. Changes to the meta and the release of multiple-faction boxes often mean that certain factions will be very cheap for a brief period, but this knowledge is common enough that prices can fluctuate rapidly.

Now there is a problem. I have no more Beastmen models to work from. This is where the magic starts. Because what is a Beastman? A miserable little pile of plastic! In more practical terms, a Beastman is a creature with human and animal attributes in a monstrous fashion. That is something I can work with, especially since 40K lacks certain other creatures which would normally overlap into that design space. Models I already have, like the Vrykos Blood-born, can be tinkered with to serve as Beastmen Kill Team Operatives by playing up the attributes they have in common with Beastmen. They lack the physical size of a Beastman, so the rules-supported bulk will have to be filled out with either armour plating or some other implication to convince the onlooker that one of these is equivalent to a bulky Goatman in prowess and danger. The same goes for the Shaman, who is also a little less imposing than he could be. As for the blood-born, their heads will need to be swapped for something more monstrous, and of course they need a bit of grimdark technology to bring them up to code with the 41st Millenium. But once those changes are made, I think they can not only fit in with but aesthetically elevate the Beastman Kill Team.

Our list is up to eight, but we need two more. Here is where things get stranger still, for I want to try something new. I have picked up the new Skaven Clanrats kit as part of the Age of Sigmar Introductory Set (It comes with 25 miniatures and 5 paints pots for the price of 10 miniatures!) and want a crack at painting them. I do not think they are suited for the Guardsrat treatment immediately since they are not remotely multipart, which means that having them join Chaos is no great loss by my calculations. Of course, despite all of my conversion wizardry I doubt I would be able to make a single rat look as imposing as a single Beastman, even with a tactical sandbag or two. Therefore, I will use two rats to a base, or perhaps three. Stretching the typical GW understanding of miniatures can allow for more creative substitutions. Why does one base need to have one mini? Why does one miniature need two arms? Why does a miniature need a lower half? I could stack three Snotlings, give them a lasgun, and call it a guardsman! I could give a space marine one arm and have him clutching a bleeding stump where his other used to be! I could make an army consisting entirely of legless Necrons if I sculpted some sort of toxic gas for them to be wading through! The calculations may be a bit strange, (2 Rats=1 Goat?) but the idea is sound, and can produce very interesting figures as a result.

I do feel it is important to mention your prospective and likely long-suffering opponents in all of this. Remember that you are not here to give yourself an advantage. Even though I have yet to actually play a wargame I try to always keep my miniatures to a standard equivalent to their stock counterparts. If a miniature is shorter than it would normally be, either elevate it with base terrain or stick something like a lamppost on the base to bring the height up. If a model is supposed to have a lasgun, it should have something which is recognizably a lasgun. When you stretch these limits do so consistently, so that even if your units are extremely different to regular ones they are identifiable within your army as being one unit type or another. I have not always been great about doing this, but it is important to try and keep it in mind. Even so, I doubt any of my projects would be allowed within sight of a professional tournament.

I hope to have the models roughed out by my next post, after that there may be a detour.

Afghan Basing Experiements

We return to our regularly scheduled miniatures posts. 

This week has been devoted to basing. Previously I would drown a base in PVA, dunk it in a box of sand, and then slather on texture paint, several washes and a single drybrush. The result can be seen on my Imperial Ratmen and the Astropath. It looked alright, but not for the amount of effort that was being put in. The glue always took quite a long time to dry, the texture paint and washes likewise stayed wet for a long time.

The new method resembles the old one, but it should be both faster and a little subtler. Instead of large-gained sand I have elected to glue (unused!) cat litter over a base of flattened spackle. The litter is placed only in divets or large gaps of the spackle. This reduces drying time since less glue is used and also makes sure that I won't have half-dry glue clogging my paintbrush at any point, which was a problem with the earlier method. The spackle does take some time to dry, but less than before. I also think it looks better. After gluing everything down I now prime before taking other steps, to seal the spackle in. Then I apply a basecoat of regular paint, one wash, and two or three layers of drybrush which can be completed very quickly. The attached image shows my results after experimenting with different colours of primer and paint. The four on the right use two desert base recipes from this tutorial by RookieBrushes. The left four are my own recipe consisting of:

• Steel Legion Drab basecoat
• Baneblade Brown drybrush (heavy)
• Zandri Dust drybrush (medium)
• Screaming Skull edges only drybrush (light)

2 and 4 are identical, 1 had a Skrag Brown drybrush, and 3 was primed white and given an Agrax Earthshade wash after the basecoat. Overall, I think 3 is my preferred method, and the one I wish to iterate on. Less glue should be used to keep the gravel as more of an accent like on 2, but otherwise it is what I will be working from in the future.