Not Quite Dead

Note that if you don't like the miniatures of wolves, you can also use proxies. There is a topic with link to more dynamics wolves here, on the French-speaking forum and, if you plan to buy Nordheim, you'll get the tiles for the wolves. That means you can focus on another KS exclusive, if you'd like to get the Vanir Valkyrie, for instance. Note that the Vanir Valkyrie may be played as an antagonist as well as a player-character, if that's the kind of stuff you're looking for.

Hi, @iso250! If I was to get two of them and two only, I'd take the Black Dragons and the the Giant Wolves. Here's why: For the Black Dragons, it's only for aesthetic reasons: they are in my opinion amongst the coolest miniatures of Conan. They look great and that should be enough. For the Giant Wolves, it's because they are used in the expansion Nordheim. Sure, you can replace them by hyenas, but some players were disappointed when they realised that that KS exclusive was used in an official expansion. Another way to find out which expansion is the best would be to investigate through the official scenarii, in order to see which miniature is used the most often.

I've finally managed to read the third tome of the Bragelonne edition of Conan. That fine edition contains all the novels of Conan written by REH, in the order of publication, and following Louinet (a French Conan scholar) it's as close of the original work as it can be. As @Ol' Grumpy and @Rhell pointed it out, it's quite difficult to establish a top three of these novels, but here's some thoughts about three novels I really enjoyed. I really liked Xuthal of the Dust. Sure, the novel is flawed. The Conan girl*, Natala, isn't much more than the icing on the cake, une potiche, as she would be called in French. Her most frequent line is "Oooh, Conan" (with an afraid, whining tone). Yes, the inhabitants of Xuthal aren't very noticeable opponents, and it seemed curious to me that so much of these dream-people attack Conan on sight. It would have been better in my opinion that they just don't care about his presence. Yeah, the kinky action comes a little out of the blue, as Thalis herself does, but it's not beyond suspension of disbelief, I think, and the rivalry between the two girls to get Conan attention is a way to make the story move forward. But anyway, that novel is epic. It features an antique nation, gifted with advanced technology, that has been living as recluse for ages. As they have found the means to fulfil very easily every and each of their desires, they are now weak and live meaningless, hedonist lives. It made me think about a mind-blowing novel by Richard Matheson, When the waker sleeps (1950), although this story is entirely different. I think that this description of the people of Xuthal already shows ideas that will be more explicitly be told by REH years later (in Beyond the Black River or in The Red Nails, for instance). As often in REH work, the story seems to be a parenthesis worthy to be told in the routine of the barbarian (his mercenary/plunderer/pirate life), but this time what happened just before (the defeat of Almuric) matters, because this backstory explains why Natala who isn't an adventurer is sticking with Conan and why they are in such a difficult situation when the story begins. As they aren't really out of trouble at the end of the story, this contributes to the impression that Conan is living outside the stories told by REH, that he's not only a character summoned for a story meant to be sold, but that the novels are part of a greater, yet untold and maybe unthought story. I really enjoyed its setting: a lost, dying city in the desert isn't only an exotic background (I've come to think that I like such destinations much more than Aquilonia or even the Border in REH's work, even when they are only pasteboard decors, caricatures rather than believable constructions), it's also a thrilling place with so much narrative potential! And REH exploited it quite well with those dead-seeming people, a place that seems both inhabited and deserted, and its slithering shadow. I loved it. What's more, that story features one of the rare antagonists that are a real threat to Conan. And, finally, Natala is maybe not the potiche she seemed at first sight. She did more than being taken captive, moaning, and getting spanked by Conan. Well, maybe that's enough comment for one day. I'll come back for some thoughts about my two other picks another day. Thanks for reading. If you want to comment and share your thoughts about Xuthal of the Dusk (or any novel to your liking), it will be most welcome. Have fun reading REH! It's what matters the most, in the end. --- *often similar to a Bond girl, don't you think?

Thanks, @Primeval! If you can manage to find/quote the source, I'd be delighted to learn more about him.

I haven't met that fellow in the novels by REH yet. Is he a character added by the comics? Or an invention from Monolith? Anyway, I really like that miniature. It took me definitively more time to paint it than for my players to kill it, but I enjoyed every bit of it (that is, painting it, not getting it killed, you silly). What do yours look like?

Don't forget to paint their shirts in red.

Not as far as I know.

You can use it with that character sheet, though. ;)

Today, a friend coming to my home took a game in order to play it with my son. Escape is a nice cooperative game of dice in which explorers must escape a temple of doom, fit for a seven years old. In order to achieve that, you must cooperate to explore the temple, find altar on which you can put green gems. The more green gems you've placed in the temple, the easier the escape of the final room. Rolling the dice allow you to discover new area of the temple, to move, to help other players, to perform actions, and so on. On the dice, there are symbols that help you to progress (torch, key, explorer), one doomed symbol that locks your die (black mask), and one blessed symbol that unlock one or two dice (golden mask). What's nice is that you can cooperate to perform actions and help people whose dice have been locked. A game last ten minutes, during which you must sometimes hurry back to the starting position, to avoid to be attacked by some unspeakable thing in the dungeon that will weaken you for the rest of the party (by taking you one die). There was an audio track with ambient sound that tells you when the danger is close to you and when the time is out. My son loved that game, and I must say I enjoyed it too. Seems that in the Big box, there are expansions, but we only played with the base game.

I have checked my map, and haven't seen anything. You are speaking of that building?

I've just finished the Swamp demon. I tried to made it following @Epaka's work. I'm not very glad with the result, as my contrast aren't that good. Epaka's miniature looks far better than mine, but... whatever! this one is done, and there are still 276 miniatures waiting to be painted, so...

...song is some kind of curiosity, as it's a patriotic song shared by rival kingdoms such as Nemedia, Argos, and Aquilonia, shortly written after the nemedian invasion in Aquilonia, and the return of King Conan on his throne. Nemedia was Acheron Now it's Nemedia, not Acheron Long time gone, old Acheron Necromancer dream in the moonlight Every mummy of Acheron Is now in Nemedia not Acheron So if you raise one in Acheron It will plot in Nemedia Even Belverus was once in Acheron Why the uprise I can't say People don't like bein' seen as prey. So we don't want back old Acheron None wants that but Xaltotun Long time gone, old Acheron, Why is Nemedia now in store? That's the work of our ancestors Nemedia (Nemedia) Nemedia (Nemedia) Even Tarantia was once in Acheron Why the uprise I can't say People don't like bein' seen as prey. Aquilonia was Acheron It's Aquilonia, not Acheron Long time gone, old Acheron Why is Aquilonia in store? That's the work of our ancestors So we don't want back old Acheron None wants that but Xaltotun Long time gone, old Acheron, Why is our Argos now in store? That's the work of our ancestors Nemedia/Aquilonia/Our Argos

Nope, I haven't, indeed. If this (from Monolith) is a soft plastic miniature: And that (from Games Workshop) is a hard plastic miniature: I can't say I've felt a difference while painting them. You can rest easy.

Ah, okay! I don't know Scythe... I guess these miniatures aren't in hard plastic, then. When I got my King's pledge, some miniatures had bent spears or bent sword (not broken ones). You can bend them by warming/colding them, like I explained on this topic. But I've observed that, over time, they tend to get back to their initial position (maybe it's because I didn't unbend them properly, but this isn't the point of your thread).

For this, I cannot help you, as I'm unsure of what you are meaning by hard or soft plastic. I haven't painted much miniatures during my gaming life, mosly plastic (Heroquest and Battlemasters) and metal miniatures (Confrontation by Rackham) back in the day. I know miniatures can be made of resin too, but the box of Conan states: "plastic miniatures". Sorry I can't be of more help regarding the hardness of the miniatures.

This is what I did.

By Asguard, you mean Nordheim, I guess. ;)

Robert E. Howard - The Man-Eaters of Zamboula Damn. I've just read that excerpt of The Man-Eaters of Zamboula, and now, for foolishly following the artwork, my Baal-Pteor isn't canon. I should repaint his skin in brown but... I don't have the energy to start over again. That should teach me a lesson, though. Well, what's done is done. And your Baal-Pteor? Have you painted this miniature following the artwork, the text of REH, or according to your fancy?

@Xaltotun: If you show us your pictures, I'll show pictures of unspeakable things I made from those mini when I was a teenage boy and when I used to convert miniatures. Goblins armed with gigantic knives! Ambidextrous Orcs! And one thousand elephants! On a different topic, here's a kinda funny video I just saw about Heroquest:

As I've finished to paint the alternate miniatures of the pirates this very week, I wished to share with you the result. What gives me the motivation to paint the same miniature over and over is to give it something special. With the pirates, I inspired myself from two great ideas I've seen on @Bawon Samdi's miniatures: different colors of skin and pirates' tattoos. So much room on these backs! It was fun to imagine tattoos of all kind. A close up to a more elaborate one, slightly inspired by the yakuza's tattoos. Here, instead of a dragon, it's a snake (far easier to paint, and consistent with the background, as that very pirate may be someone familiar with Stygia and the cult of Seth).