Given that I spent a bunch of time yesterday talking about the Cult, I think it’s only fair I start writing about the demo crew I’ve made for them. While I could probably make a more effective crew at the demo level I’m using (300 doubloons), this one is meant to show off the major mechanics of the Cult, so my priorities when building it were as follows:

• Use a No Authority leader with a Sergeant
• Show off the Loa mechanics, including buffing and debuffing
• Have Mob and Mystic Choir play a role
• Demonstrate the Souldriver mechanic
• Make the crew act as a thematic mirror to my expected opponent

As the opposing crew is going to be the Imperial Armada’s Cazadores, the natural choice is El Fusilio.

El Fusilio Model and breakdown

I really like this model – he’s got an incredibly strong pose that conveys his character. He was also a great excuse to practice my earth tones and more natural clothing styles. I’m not as used to painting the sort of clothing people would normally wear, in part because the primary things I’ve painted for over the past several years are Infinity and Blood Bowl, both of which have a somewhat distinct painting style that just feels a bit different from what I’m doing here.

My adventures in NMM continue on his shotgun, which seems to have turned out okay. I realize that “NMM on a simple cylinder” is probably easy mode when it comes to working on NMM, but I’m approaching this as if I know nothing for every model. Sure, it means things take a bunch more time, but steady practice and properly studying and learning will no doubt make my metals look a lot better. My current process tends toward cold colors – the paints used are Black, Anthracite Gray (AK), Wolf Gray (VGC), Deep Sky Blue (VMC), Ivory (Monument), and Pale Yellow (AK) – I tend to buy paints off of people who are either exiting the hobby or who have decided to completely switch paint ranges, so my collection is eclectic and sometimes a bit weird. I also glazed an orange/brown mix into the shadows of the metal to give it a dirtier appearance.

For unifying paint colors among my various Cult pieces, I’ve decided that for these initial models, everyone is going to have a splash of bright, saturated red on them somewhere. In this case, the mask and feather were the natural choices – I may go over the shells on his bandolier with some of that red as well, but I kinda like how everything sits right now.

Mechanically, El Fusilio is a fantastic piece for the demo. He fulfills all of my requirements from above, plus the errata he received means he now has the Speedloader trait, which lets him reload his weapon by advancing. This is huge, as it turns him into a very aggressive piece during most games. He’s also the only ranged attacker in my entire crew, so he gets to act as mid-range support to the rest of the models I’m bringing.

Hobby Progress

I’ve put quite a bit of paint on some models now. My NMM practice has been going very well, even if I’m questioning the choices I made now that I’m working on a bunch of Cazador Guard and having to do gold trim along with the pretty large amount of steel surfaces. My test model is looking great and should be finished in the next painting session, so I’m within sight of my goal of two fully-painted demo crews.

For non-painting, I’ve been thinking about quality of life tools that I can develop for myself that others might want. One of the best tools I’ve found for this sort of narrative-heavy wargaming is The New Mordheimer’s Scenario List: it lets people sort the scenarios pretty well. As such, I’m starting work on something similar to make finding scenarios a little faster. The biggest hope is that I can list out all of the extra stuff needed for particular scenarios so that I can create a proper scenario randomizer based on what people have available. This will be publicly posted when it’s ready, though the scenario text is still going to be in the books (again, support Freebooter Miniatures! I want them to keep making stuff!)