Thursday, 12 February 2015
More Plast Craft!
These containers need more touching up than the buildings will. Hopefully I'll get a day free next week to do them. The containers are a lot bigger than I thought, which is cool.
Wednesday, 11 February 2015
Plast Craft Games Terrain
These aren't finished yet, this is just the masking, airbrush and assembly stage.
Despite this being SUPREMELY easy to assemble, I made a big mistake by getting two key components switched around. They are not easy to take apart again!
I painted eberything in part, then assembled afterwards. I need to go back with a brush and tidy all the edges up and pick out the odd detail, but I'm happy with the speed and overall look
1 day painting challenge
Had about 7 hours free the other day, set myself the challenge of painting my Warcor and his drone before I had to go out
Monday, 9 February 2015
Moto.Tronica board
Don't worry, I don't play on the floor. My gaming table just hasn't arrived yet
My first project of the newly spacious Airworks Studio was to build all my Moto.Tronics sets
I intend for this to be my travelling board, as I'm tired of building boards only to see them deteriorate when they are transported around.
I think you'll agree, it looks pretty nice.
Thug life.
Cleaning the Painting Room, and gaining a Gaming Room!
The time had finally come to stop putting off the cleaning of the painting room
And now I have a newly ordered painting desk, and room for a gaming table!
Silhouette Marker basing tutorial
First, I take a sheet of hex plasticard (all my aleph troops are based this way). Then I glue the bases face down into the bottom of the hex card, using superglue
I roughly cut the bases into individual chunks with a craft knife
I then carefully shave them down until they are flush with the base edge
I use green stuff to fill the gaps along the edges
When that's dry, I line the markers up, and draw their edges with a pencil
I don't want to add any height to the markers, even a few mm, so using a steel rule and craft knife, I cut a groove for the markers to sit in, so the base of the marker will be glued directly to the supplied base.
I glue the markers in place, then mask them off ready for painting.
I paint the bases to match my army.
Finally I remove the masking tape and cling for the finished product. Please note, I had a little mishap with these, I used a new masking tape which was...a little too clingy, and it's kind of ruined the S1/S2 marker. Lesson to be learned, check your stuff.
I roughly cut the bases into individual chunks with a craft knife
I then carefully shave them down until they are flush with the base edge
I use green stuff to fill the gaps along the edges
When that's dry, I line the markers up, and draw their edges with a pencil
I don't want to add any height to the markers, even a few mm, so using a steel rule and craft knife, I cut a groove for the markers to sit in, so the base of the marker will be glued directly to the supplied base.
I glue the markers in place, then mask them off ready for painting.
I paint the bases to match my army.
Finally I remove the masking tape and cling for the finished product. Please note, I had a little mishap with these, I used a new masking tape which was...a little too clingy, and it's kind of ruined the S1/S2 marker. Lesson to be learned, check your stuff.
Customeeple Silhouette Markers Review
Customeeple Line of Sight Markers!
Overview: All hail N3 personified in acrylic form! Line of Sight, or Silhouette markers, are one of the big changes in N3. Previously, a dynamic or large model had a distinct disadvantage over a similarly sized but less excitingly posed equivalent. The Gorgos, for example, was a beautiful model, hampered by the fact that it towers over everything. Well no more! N3 introduced silhouette markers. Now all units have a silhouette value, which means, in gane terms, they always occupy a cylindrical volume, as wide as their base and as tall as their silhouette. In times of doubt, players can replace their models with their silhouette markers, and if line of sight can be drawn between any point of either silhouette, then the model can be seen. Simples! For reference, at present Warsenal and Bandua offer their own versions, whilst MAS and Antenocitis workshop have some on the way. Customeeple offer their set of LoS markers, but they come with a little something extra...
Specifics: The set corresponds to all of the silhouette values available in the game. Instead of having 7 templates, however, the silhouettes which share the same base size, are marked on the same token. So S1 and S2, for example, are both 25mm wide, so they both are marked on the 25mm token. The set includes a 55mm base and token (S4,S7), a 40mm base and token (S3,S5,S6) and a 25mm base and token (S1,S2). It also includes an SX marker (more on that below). The markers are available in blue, green, yellow, magenta, orange, transparent, or smoke transparent. I opted for Magenta
Price: The set is €6.95 (approx £5.19/$7.88) by comparison the Warsenal set is $12 (€10.60/£7.90) and the Bandua set €14.95 ($16/£11.16), so is therefore the cheapest on offer so far (note the Warsenal set follows the same 3-base format, whereas the Bandua set is 7 different tokens)
Shipping to the UK was €10 and arrived in 5 working days.
Customer Service: this order arrived in the same batch as the marker box, please read the excellent customer service they gave me in that review.
Quality/Durability Standard, well made Customeeple acrylic. I do have one minor quibble...it's not really magenta. To my mind, it's really more red. I had bought it to match the violet/magenta scheme of my Aleph stuff, but in fairness there is no other colour available that matches any better. Warsenal do a 'purple' which is not listed as fluorescent, however the tokens still look cool.
Usefulness silhouettes are a big deal in N3. The whole game works on LOS, and this is thetool for LOS. Therefore, whether you photocopy the silhouette pages from the rulebook, or you invest in a set like this, they will be joining your weapon templates as something you use often.
Now, the SX marker. I'm broadly a supporter of the new silhouette rules, they are more fair and easily determined. However, the moment they were announced I feared the following scenario
Player A's Aelis Keesan wants to shoot Thrasymedes, Lord of Visual Examples
Player A: can I see him?
Player B: I dunno, I'll use a silhouette marker
Player B: nah, he's safe
The SX market prevents such shady practice, or worse, accusations of such practice when you've done no such thing. It has grooves to fit a 25mm, 40mm and 55mm base. Simply place it around your models base to note its position on the table. Replace with your LOS marker, then place your model back in its original position. Genius.
There is one final feature worthy of mention. The rules specify a 3mm by 3mm area as the minimum area you must be able to see to claim LoS. Each marker is covered with 3mmx3mm squares to make this fairly easy to determine. I believe the Warsenal version has a grid which fulfils and identical function.
Summary This has clearly been well thought out in regards to the rules and the practical applications of them. They are inexpensive and fairly essential nowadays. I just wish there was a purple one!
Overview: All hail N3 personified in acrylic form! Line of Sight, or Silhouette markers, are one of the big changes in N3. Previously, a dynamic or large model had a distinct disadvantage over a similarly sized but less excitingly posed equivalent. The Gorgos, for example, was a beautiful model, hampered by the fact that it towers over everything. Well no more! N3 introduced silhouette markers. Now all units have a silhouette value, which means, in gane terms, they always occupy a cylindrical volume, as wide as their base and as tall as their silhouette. In times of doubt, players can replace their models with their silhouette markers, and if line of sight can be drawn between any point of either silhouette, then the model can be seen. Simples! For reference, at present Warsenal and Bandua offer their own versions, whilst MAS and Antenocitis workshop have some on the way. Customeeple offer their set of LoS markers, but they come with a little something extra...
Specifics: The set corresponds to all of the silhouette values available in the game. Instead of having 7 templates, however, the silhouettes which share the same base size, are marked on the same token. So S1 and S2, for example, are both 25mm wide, so they both are marked on the 25mm token. The set includes a 55mm base and token (S4,S7), a 40mm base and token (S3,S5,S6) and a 25mm base and token (S1,S2). It also includes an SX marker (more on that below). The markers are available in blue, green, yellow, magenta, orange, transparent, or smoke transparent. I opted for Magenta
Price: The set is €6.95 (approx £5.19/$7.88) by comparison the Warsenal set is $12 (€10.60/£7.90) and the Bandua set €14.95 ($16/£11.16), so is therefore the cheapest on offer so far (note the Warsenal set follows the same 3-base format, whereas the Bandua set is 7 different tokens)
Shipping to the UK was €10 and arrived in 5 working days.
Customer Service: this order arrived in the same batch as the marker box, please read the excellent customer service they gave me in that review.
Quality/Durability Standard, well made Customeeple acrylic. I do have one minor quibble...it's not really magenta. To my mind, it's really more red. I had bought it to match the violet/magenta scheme of my Aleph stuff, but in fairness there is no other colour available that matches any better. Warsenal do a 'purple' which is not listed as fluorescent, however the tokens still look cool.
Usefulness silhouettes are a big deal in N3. The whole game works on LOS, and this is thetool for LOS. Therefore, whether you photocopy the silhouette pages from the rulebook, or you invest in a set like this, they will be joining your weapon templates as something you use often.
Now, the SX marker. I'm broadly a supporter of the new silhouette rules, they are more fair and easily determined. However, the moment they were announced I feared the following scenario
Player A's Aelis Keesan wants to shoot Thrasymedes, Lord of Visual Examples
Player A: can I see him?
Player B: I dunno, I'll use a silhouette marker
Player B: nah, he's safe
The SX market prevents such shady practice, or worse, accusations of such practice when you've done no such thing. It has grooves to fit a 25mm, 40mm and 55mm base. Simply place it around your models base to note its position on the table. Replace with your LOS marker, then place your model back in its original position. Genius.
There is one final feature worthy of mention. The rules specify a 3mm by 3mm area as the minimum area you must be able to see to claim LoS. Each marker is covered with 3mmx3mm squares to make this fairly easy to determine. I believe the Warsenal version has a grid which fulfils and identical function.
Summary This has clearly been well thought out in regards to the rules and the practical applications of them. They are inexpensive and fairly essential nowadays. I just wish there was a purple one!
Customeeple Marker Box review
New toys! 
Today I'm going to look at the Customeeple Token Box!
Overview: I am a token freak. I want all the tokens, I want the nicest tokens. I want a token for every conceivable situation in the game. If I've got twenty guys in loss of Liutenant who go irregular whilst in suppression fire with a tinbot each and are all burnt, I want the tokens to represent it. Well, maybe not that many, but you get the picture. Up until now, my tokens have lived in a little drawstring pouch, not unlike a wizards gold coin-purse. Unfortunately, this means that, prior to every game, I must upend by 'sac-magique' and empty a ridiculous amount of tokens out, and find the ones I want. Customeeple offer a solution to people like me, a snazzy token box.
Specifics: It looks a little like a partitioned Tupperware box. In fact it's strikingly similar to a small DIY box where men with manly hands might keep their screws and washers. However, this little box comes with the option of having your faction logo etched onto it. Here, I have opted for my faction of choice, Steel Phalanx. Note you can get Faction or Sectorial logos. In my order there was also a Tohaa one for my friend, which is equally as nice.
It as also possible to buy this product as part of a faction set, with a full set of customeeple tokens, however I purchased only the empty box, as I have a treasure trove of tokens already.
It's size is 16cm x 12,25 cm x 3 cm, and is made from PVC free plastic.
Price: The box is €4.50 (approx £3.40/$5.15)
Shipping to the UK was €10 and arrived in 5 working days.
Customer Service: as previously stated, Customeeples website is very good.
However special mention must be made of the customer service I received on this order. As the shipping from Spain is no joke, we clubbed together at the...club... for this order. However, like a prat, no sooner had I placed the order, than I remembered I had forgotten the bits that another guy not present had wanted. My mistake. To compound matters, it was a few piddly bits, meaning the cost of shipping would dwarf the cost of the products were I to place a second order.
I fired a quick e-mail to Customeeple asking if I could possibly add a few bits to the order. This was Monday afternoon. On Tuesday, I got an email from Customeeple apologising as they'd missed my email and had already shipped my order. Instead, they offered to send me the rest of the bits I needed for no additional shipping, as they hadn't responded to my email in time.
The whole thing was my mistake in the first place, but Customeeple made it right for me. That's pretty awesome customer service as far as I'm concerned.
Both parts of the order arrived a week later.
Quality/Durability I mean, it's a little plastic box that looks cool. It probably is just a hardware box, with some etching on, but for a couple of quid it's a nice little accessory,
I mainly use MAS tokens, it's deep enough to fit them on their side (In fact they're a perfect fit)
In there I have 158 tokens with room for a couple more. I placed them in a little system where I know which tokens are where. If you had less, you could just put similar tokens in the separate compartments.
Usefulness I mean...it's a box. But a cool little box with my faction logo. This is nice to have not need to have. It's useful for me as I no longer have to empty out my silly velvet lined bag every time a trooper gets immobilised.
Summary Don't go and order this for the sake of it. But if you're ordering from Customeeple anyway, for £3 you may as well throw one on top, have a funky little faction logo to show all your mates who's boss.
Today I'm going to look at the Customeeple Token Box!
Overview: I am a token freak. I want all the tokens, I want the nicest tokens. I want a token for every conceivable situation in the game. If I've got twenty guys in loss of Liutenant who go irregular whilst in suppression fire with a tinbot each and are all burnt, I want the tokens to represent it. Well, maybe not that many, but you get the picture. Up until now, my tokens have lived in a little drawstring pouch, not unlike a wizards gold coin-purse. Unfortunately, this means that, prior to every game, I must upend by 'sac-magique' and empty a ridiculous amount of tokens out, and find the ones I want. Customeeple offer a solution to people like me, a snazzy token box.
Specifics: It looks a little like a partitioned Tupperware box. In fact it's strikingly similar to a small DIY box where men with manly hands might keep their screws and washers. However, this little box comes with the option of having your faction logo etched onto it. Here, I have opted for my faction of choice, Steel Phalanx. Note you can get Faction or Sectorial logos. In my order there was also a Tohaa one for my friend, which is equally as nice.
It as also possible to buy this product as part of a faction set, with a full set of customeeple tokens, however I purchased only the empty box, as I have a treasure trove of tokens already.
It's size is 16cm x 12,25 cm x 3 cm, and is made from PVC free plastic.
Price: The box is €4.50 (approx £3.40/$5.15)
Shipping to the UK was €10 and arrived in 5 working days.
Customer Service: as previously stated, Customeeples website is very good.
However special mention must be made of the customer service I received on this order. As the shipping from Spain is no joke, we clubbed together at the...club... for this order. However, like a prat, no sooner had I placed the order, than I remembered I had forgotten the bits that another guy not present had wanted. My mistake. To compound matters, it was a few piddly bits, meaning the cost of shipping would dwarf the cost of the products were I to place a second order.
I fired a quick e-mail to Customeeple asking if I could possibly add a few bits to the order. This was Monday afternoon. On Tuesday, I got an email from Customeeple apologising as they'd missed my email and had already shipped my order. Instead, they offered to send me the rest of the bits I needed for no additional shipping, as they hadn't responded to my email in time.
The whole thing was my mistake in the first place, but Customeeple made it right for me. That's pretty awesome customer service as far as I'm concerned.
Both parts of the order arrived a week later.
Quality/Durability I mean, it's a little plastic box that looks cool. It probably is just a hardware box, with some etching on, but for a couple of quid it's a nice little accessory,
I mainly use MAS tokens, it's deep enough to fit them on their side (In fact they're a perfect fit)
In there I have 158 tokens with room for a couple more. I placed them in a little system where I know which tokens are where. If you had less, you could just put similar tokens in the separate compartments.
Usefulness I mean...it's a box. But a cool little box with my faction logo. This is nice to have not need to have. It's useful for me as I no longer have to empty out my silly velvet lined bag every time a trooper gets immobilised.
Summary Don't go and order this for the sake of it. But if you're ordering from Customeeple anyway, for £3 you may as well throw one on top, have a funky little faction logo to show all your mates who's boss.
Customeeple Panic Room Review
Customeeple Panic Room!
Overview: I think it was Campaign Paradiso that first introduced the objective room scenario. Subsequently, ITS 2014 and the N3 Rulebook scenarios have utilised a central objective room, and I'll eat my hat if ITS 2015 doesn't have at least one scenario that uses one.
Specifics: Customeeple offer the Panic Room. Micro Art and Warsenal both offer their own objective rooms, this is the most simplistic on offer, and also the cheapest. It's 8"x8" and has four narrow gate doors as is standard. It has the option to be sent with an extra floor, which can act as a roof, therefore allowing you to play with both a roof and a detailed interior. I did not opt for the second roof, as I don't like to play building interiors, and I mainly wanted this piece purely as an objective room.
Price: The basic panic room is €12.95 (approx £9.70/$14.60), which goes up to €14.95 (approx £11.20/$16.80) if you opt for the second floor. Compared to warsenal's command bunker (€53/£39.90/$60 minimum) or Micro Art's Objective room (€20/£15/$22.60), that's a bargain in my book. If you play ITS, it's likely to be an essential terrain piece, but you don't use it in every scenario, therefore I'd be looking to spend as little as possible, so under £10 sounds great to me.
Shipping to the UK was €10 and arrived in about 3 working days.
Customer Service: The website was well laid out and easy to navigate. Where a product has options, such as colour or faction, there is a simple drop down menu to select your preference. The website is in (good) English as well as native Spanish. The website also has assembly instructions for download, which is extremely helpful
Quality/Durability I transport my terrain to and from my LGS, so I try to avoid anything that might be vulnerable during transport (especially the way I drive!). The building is made from 2.5mm mdf, and is laser etched on one side.
Curiously, the laser etching goes on the inside of the building. The exterior detail is made by a sheet of thin plasticard shapes. You kind of have to align these by sight and glue them to the undetailed side of the mdf. This is not the easiest thing to do, but with a little patience it will look fine. I would also recommend using a craft knife to clean up the edges of the plasticard, as it is pre- serrated. The floor comes in two halves, and fits neatly into place, with two small indents to help locate the doors.
When assembled, the building looks smart and professional. I treated the mdf with knotting fluid (liquid shellac would do the same job) prior to priming, so the mdf didn't soak up any paint or warp.
One minor quibble, part of the assembly are four very small corner pieces that hold up the floor pieces, if you decide to use them as a roof. These are very fiddly and difficult to attach, and three broke off the first time I transported it. However, it would be a simple job for even an inexperienced modeller to replace these with slightly larger and more sturdy triangles, which is what I intend to do.
Usefulness If you're playing ITS, you're probably going to need one variant of the central objective room. Equally though, so far the majority of missions don't use a central objective room, so for me I don't want to shell out a ton of cash on something that is used infrequently. Cost is relative, as our friends in the US will have a more expensive affair if ordering this, but for me, the cost/practicality balance here is just right. It's not super fancy, but neither is it overly plain, but at 1/4 of the cost of the warsenal one. An added bonus is that you can sit the floor on the corner-tabs to make this a flat roofed building for use in games that don't use an objective room, so it's usable outside of its primary function. For my use, it needs to look cool and stand up to the rigours of transportation, which it does (the aforementioned corner-tabs aside). In short, it does the job at a price I'm happy with, with the added bonus that it looks the part, too.
Summary I'm very happy with this purchase. Terrain can get expensive with Infinity, and this is a simple, but well thought-out piece. Not as cost-effective for the US players, a steal in the Eurozone. For us Brits, I recommend clubbing together and putting larger orders in if possible
Overview: I think it was Campaign Paradiso that first introduced the objective room scenario. Subsequently, ITS 2014 and the N3 Rulebook scenarios have utilised a central objective room, and I'll eat my hat if ITS 2015 doesn't have at least one scenario that uses one.
Specifics: Customeeple offer the Panic Room. Micro Art and Warsenal both offer their own objective rooms, this is the most simplistic on offer, and also the cheapest. It's 8"x8" and has four narrow gate doors as is standard. It has the option to be sent with an extra floor, which can act as a roof, therefore allowing you to play with both a roof and a detailed interior. I did not opt for the second roof, as I don't like to play building interiors, and I mainly wanted this piece purely as an objective room.
Price: The basic panic room is €12.95 (approx £9.70/$14.60), which goes up to €14.95 (approx £11.20/$16.80) if you opt for the second floor. Compared to warsenal's command bunker (€53/£39.90/$60 minimum) or Micro Art's Objective room (€20/£15/$22.60), that's a bargain in my book. If you play ITS, it's likely to be an essential terrain piece, but you don't use it in every scenario, therefore I'd be looking to spend as little as possible, so under £10 sounds great to me.
Shipping to the UK was €10 and arrived in about 3 working days.
Customer Service: The website was well laid out and easy to navigate. Where a product has options, such as colour or faction, there is a simple drop down menu to select your preference. The website is in (good) English as well as native Spanish. The website also has assembly instructions for download, which is extremely helpful
Quality/Durability I transport my terrain to and from my LGS, so I try to avoid anything that might be vulnerable during transport (especially the way I drive!). The building is made from 2.5mm mdf, and is laser etched on one side.
Curiously, the laser etching goes on the inside of the building. The exterior detail is made by a sheet of thin plasticard shapes. You kind of have to align these by sight and glue them to the undetailed side of the mdf. This is not the easiest thing to do, but with a little patience it will look fine. I would also recommend using a craft knife to clean up the edges of the plasticard, as it is pre- serrated. The floor comes in two halves, and fits neatly into place, with two small indents to help locate the doors.
When assembled, the building looks smart and professional. I treated the mdf with knotting fluid (liquid shellac would do the same job) prior to priming, so the mdf didn't soak up any paint or warp.
One minor quibble, part of the assembly are four very small corner pieces that hold up the floor pieces, if you decide to use them as a roof. These are very fiddly and difficult to attach, and three broke off the first time I transported it. However, it would be a simple job for even an inexperienced modeller to replace these with slightly larger and more sturdy triangles, which is what I intend to do.
Usefulness If you're playing ITS, you're probably going to need one variant of the central objective room. Equally though, so far the majority of missions don't use a central objective room, so for me I don't want to shell out a ton of cash on something that is used infrequently. Cost is relative, as our friends in the US will have a more expensive affair if ordering this, but for me, the cost/practicality balance here is just right. It's not super fancy, but neither is it overly plain, but at 1/4 of the cost of the warsenal one. An added bonus is that you can sit the floor on the corner-tabs to make this a flat roofed building for use in games that don't use an objective room, so it's usable outside of its primary function. For my use, it needs to look cool and stand up to the rigours of transportation, which it does (the aforementioned corner-tabs aside). In short, it does the job at a price I'm happy with, with the added bonus that it looks the part, too.
Summary I'm very happy with this purchase. Terrain can get expensive with Infinity, and this is a simple, but well thought-out piece. Not as cost-effective for the US players, a steal in the Eurozone. For us Brits, I recommend clubbing together and putting larger orders in if possible
Customeeple Camo Markers Review
Time for some overdue reviews!
First up are the Customeeple camo tokens!
Overview: Camo tokens have traditionally been 25mm flat round tokens, either printed, stuck to bases or 3mm acrylic. Customeeple offer an alternative, cutout acrylic silhouettes of the various camo options for each faction.
Specifics: I'll be reviewing the Aleph camo tokens set, and the Tohaa individual camo tokens. At the time of purchase, Tohaa had access to only 1 camo troop (the Clipsos). The tokens come with plain black bases, I chose to match mine to my factions.
Price: The Aleph pack is €4.55 (approx £3.40/$5.10), containing 5 tokens (silhouettes of Naga hacker, Naga sniper, Dasyu Combi, Proxy mk1 and Dasyu Hacker)
The Tohaa token is €1.10 (approx £0.80/$1.25).
Shipping to the UK was €10 I believe, and arrived in about 3 working days.
Customer Service: The website was well laid out and easy to navigate. Where a product has options, such as colour or faction, there is a simple drop down menu to select your preference. The website is in (good) English as well as native Spanish
Quality/Durability the silhouettes are cleanly cut out, no rough edges you sometimes see with laser cut products. The material is the standard coloured acetate that seems to be used across these kinds of products.
Not a criticism of Customeeple specifically, as this has been the case with all acetate I've used (either from other companies or when I've commissioned laser-cut designs for terrain), the blue acetate is a lot more transparent than the other colours. All of the other colours are much brighter and translucent, whereas the blue is almost entirely clear. So on products where you can select a colour, I'd probably opt for something other than blue
Usefulness I'll start by saying that I believe that these kind of camo tokens should become the new standard. Controversial, maybe, but here's why. This situation has happened to me a TON of times.
Thrasymedes sees a chance to pop a dastardly Kamael. This is my view of the table. Maybe it's my last order of my turn , for example. Seeing no damger, he hurtles forward to deliver the righteous pain to the wierd alien
Glory be, the dice are on my side and Thrasymedes kills the Kamael. Mission accomplished
Unfortunately, I hadn't seen this camo marker (I know Clipsos is TO camo, but for the purpose of the example I had to use what I had to hand. It could just as easily be a chasseur, scots guard etc etc) lurking on the balcony. Not because of where the marker is, but because of where I'm looking from.
In his turn, the Clipsos pops out and sends Thrasymedes to the next life. Yes, it's a camo marker and is supposed to be hidden. And Yes, maybe I could walk around the table after every skill spent to check, but my problem with this situation is that the Camoflage marker has kind of awarded itself a pseudo-hidden deployment state, where I only know about it if I remember where it was put, or I've been feverishly looking for obscured camo tokens.
I have a regular opponent who plays camo/mine spam Ariadna, and his camo tokens are (admittedly quite nice) 2p coins based modelled to match his board), and I'm forever surprised by stuff I didn't know was there.
This situation, I feel, is much fairer. Thradymedes is aware of the camo token, and he still has to deal with it if he wants to take out that strategic behemoth of a Kamael, but neither is the Clipsos going to capitalize on a situation simply because the player wouldn't have acted a certain way if he knew it was there.
Similarly, if that camo marker wasn't prone, then it's S2 in N3. You'd be potentially robbing the other player of the option of discovering the marker, where he likely would if he knew it was there
They nicely represent the silhouette of a human sized model, and could draw a players attention to requesting a LOS silhouette marker be placed for LOS checking.
At present, there is no way to distinguish between camo and TO camo. Players may like to:
1) mount the cutouts on a MAS camo/TO camo marker to differentiate
2) mark the bases to differentiate
3) put the flat-style marker next to the cutout marker, and inform your opponent of why you're doing that
Alternatively. Perhaps Customeeple could consider offering an etched version of the existing tokens ( similar to their nano screens) to denote TO camo
Summary An excellent product, very reasonably priced, that I now use in every game. Highly recommend
First up are the Customeeple camo tokens!
Overview: Camo tokens have traditionally been 25mm flat round tokens, either printed, stuck to bases or 3mm acrylic. Customeeple offer an alternative, cutout acrylic silhouettes of the various camo options for each faction.
Specifics: I'll be reviewing the Aleph camo tokens set, and the Tohaa individual camo tokens. At the time of purchase, Tohaa had access to only 1 camo troop (the Clipsos). The tokens come with plain black bases, I chose to match mine to my factions.
Price: The Aleph pack is €4.55 (approx £3.40/$5.10), containing 5 tokens (silhouettes of Naga hacker, Naga sniper, Dasyu Combi, Proxy mk1 and Dasyu Hacker)
The Tohaa token is €1.10 (approx £0.80/$1.25).
Shipping to the UK was €10 I believe, and arrived in about 3 working days.
Customer Service: The website was well laid out and easy to navigate. Where a product has options, such as colour or faction, there is a simple drop down menu to select your preference. The website is in (good) English as well as native Spanish
Quality/Durability the silhouettes are cleanly cut out, no rough edges you sometimes see with laser cut products. The material is the standard coloured acetate that seems to be used across these kinds of products.
Not a criticism of Customeeple specifically, as this has been the case with all acetate I've used (either from other companies or when I've commissioned laser-cut designs for terrain), the blue acetate is a lot more transparent than the other colours. All of the other colours are much brighter and translucent, whereas the blue is almost entirely clear. So on products where you can select a colour, I'd probably opt for something other than blue
Usefulness I'll start by saying that I believe that these kind of camo tokens should become the new standard. Controversial, maybe, but here's why. This situation has happened to me a TON of times.
Thrasymedes sees a chance to pop a dastardly Kamael. This is my view of the table. Maybe it's my last order of my turn , for example. Seeing no damger, he hurtles forward to deliver the righteous pain to the wierd alien
Glory be, the dice are on my side and Thrasymedes kills the Kamael. Mission accomplished
Unfortunately, I hadn't seen this camo marker (I know Clipsos is TO camo, but for the purpose of the example I had to use what I had to hand. It could just as easily be a chasseur, scots guard etc etc) lurking on the balcony. Not because of where the marker is, but because of where I'm looking from.
In his turn, the Clipsos pops out and sends Thrasymedes to the next life. Yes, it's a camo marker and is supposed to be hidden. And Yes, maybe I could walk around the table after every skill spent to check, but my problem with this situation is that the Camoflage marker has kind of awarded itself a pseudo-hidden deployment state, where I only know about it if I remember where it was put, or I've been feverishly looking for obscured camo tokens.
I have a regular opponent who plays camo/mine spam Ariadna, and his camo tokens are (admittedly quite nice) 2p coins based modelled to match his board), and I'm forever surprised by stuff I didn't know was there.
This situation, I feel, is much fairer. Thradymedes is aware of the camo token, and he still has to deal with it if he wants to take out that strategic behemoth of a Kamael, but neither is the Clipsos going to capitalize on a situation simply because the player wouldn't have acted a certain way if he knew it was there.
Similarly, if that camo marker wasn't prone, then it's S2 in N3. You'd be potentially robbing the other player of the option of discovering the marker, where he likely would if he knew it was there
They nicely represent the silhouette of a human sized model, and could draw a players attention to requesting a LOS silhouette marker be placed for LOS checking.
At present, there is no way to distinguish between camo and TO camo. Players may like to:
1) mount the cutouts on a MAS camo/TO camo marker to differentiate
2) mark the bases to differentiate
3) put the flat-style marker next to the cutout marker, and inform your opponent of why you're doing that
Alternatively. Perhaps Customeeple could consider offering an etched version of the existing tokens ( similar to their nano screens) to denote TO camo
Summary An excellent product, very reasonably priced, that I now use in every game. Highly recommend
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