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Kimera Models – Lokaris III + Thoughts on Fallout: Second Edition

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Sorry for the interruption in the regular weekly updates last week. I was working on Lokaris and just didn’t have anything interesting to show off so I figured it best to wait. Between Daylight Savings, work being exhausting and exasperating, and multiple things breaking in my condo this week, its been a pretty miserable week. The last couple of years have been tough here in the States anyway. It just feels like everything is bleak at times. Thank goodness for escapes like our hobby!

As far as Lokaris goes, I’m slowly building him up and painting sections that might be hard to access before adding more pieces onto the model. With this in mind, I focused on the left side of the model which didn’t have its accessories added to his belt yet. Mr. Lokaris has some interesting accessories including some tusks. As always, I did some photo referencing and of course, what kind of tusks do you see on the internet mostly, elephants and walruses. Walrus have very “clean” tusks so not very interesting. Instead, I went for elephants which have a mix of patterns on them. He also has a very interesting skull which looks like a demon’s skull, attached to a handle with a metal chain. At first, I thought, I should paint it bone, but the more I looked at it the more it looked like a Warhammer Nunchuck to me so that’s how I approached it. It looks pretty cool in the end, I think.

The front of him is really starting to come together now which is rewarding to see. I’m looking forward to seeing what else I can accomplish on this guy. I’m really taking my time and trying to do my very best work as I want this to be my best large scale miniature yet and something I feel good about taking to MMSI in the future as well.

Working on this miniature made me realize it would be nice to have one more painting handle for smaller miniatures, just in case I want to have two projects on the go. I don’t really want to take Lokaris on and off the base if I don’t have to, so I thought why not pick up another Citadel paint handle? I hadn’t realized that GW redesigned it quite a bit since I bought mine years ago. Here’s a look at them side-by-side in a fairly unimpressive picture.

While I can appreciate the sleekness of the new one on the left, my thoughts based on just initially holding is that it feels kind of weird and like there isn’t a great place to hang on to it. I look forward to actually trying it out at some point in the nearish future and seeing if it grows on me. Otherwise, I may be riding the old one out for as long as I can or maybe trying a different brand of paint handle in the future. We shall see.

Modiphius finally started teasing some of the changes coming to Fallout Wasteland Warfare: Second Edition and it was a lot more substantial than I was expecting. I’ve been a big fan of Fallout ever since I first tried it a few years ago and while I wrote that it needs a new edition a while back, I’m surprised by many of the details they’ve shared. I watched the video a week ago so my memory might be a little hazy now but hopefully I’ll get most of the details right. It is still early and there’s a lot that we don’t know yet too so my opinions might change over time. Finally, I want to preface my thoughts by saying, that I know people are working hard on this game and I want to see Fallout be successful for Modiphius because I really enjoy it, but (you knew there had to be a but), I’m not very enthused with the changes they’re making which I shall explain.

So perhaps the first place to start is that First Edition of Fallout took a Swiss Army knife approach to wargaming. It tried to do everything. There are scenarios, campaigns, modes to simulate having your own settlement, modes to simulate exploring a vault or the wasteland, and a Battle Mode (which is your standard 1 vs. 1 tournament style game). It was a lot and maybe even too much for new players to easily comprehend. Since Fallout Factions has been released and it is now the go-to 1 vs. 1 game now, Second Edition is nearly completely focused on solo and co-op gameplay. That makes sense to me and I completely understand this small modification.

What I wasn’t ready for is that Second Edition is going to be a campaign based game and there are no plans to make individual scenarios for the new edition. There are TONS of scenarios in First Edition, almost more than a person can hope to play in a decade of hobbying. Its awesome and something I love about the game. The only other game that I know of that is even comparable is Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game and I think the number and variety of scenarios are a real strength of that game as well. So it is surprising to me that they are not going to keep making new scenarios in the new edition. The campaign is going to be based on a hex-map system which will resemble the video games, I’m guessing. You spend a lot of time traveling around the Fallout world in the video games so I understand why they might think this is a good direction. Until I know more, its hard to fully judge this idea, but I do know that I would have preferred at least some new one-off scenarios. By not doing this, they immediately got me thinking about sticking with First Edition.

One concern I have about the new campaign system is that it is focused on creating random scenarios for you. There is something like this in First Edition, which I haven’t gotten to try yet, but hope to one day. Creating a system to do all this work for the players and for the designers makes a lot of sense, but at the same time, I have my doubts that it will be as good as hand-crafted scenarios are. Maybe AI has permeated my thinking too much but it feels a bit like that. If they create a system that can do all this work for them, Modiphius can create the new edition of Wasteland Warfare and leave it alone for the most part while they focus on Fallout Factions predominantly. I think Factions probably sells more models (even if you can use them all in both games) because more people want to play a 1 vs. 1 game than a solo-focused wargame as well so this move doesn’t seem like it is a good sign for the long-term future of Wasteland Warfare to me, but then again, I am a glass half-empty kind of person and I might be totally wrong in this regard.

In my opinion, campaigns in board gaming and wargaming sound great. You get to link games together and make each scenario mean more. The campaign tells a bigger and more ambitious story which is also cool. However, campaigns are not that easy to actually finish. I find that I think I want to play a campaign but more often than not, a single one-off game is much more realistic and something I can actually achieve. To make the crux of the game, campaign-based may not be the best decision for the long-term health of the game. The main reason why I haven’t attempted a Fallout campaign yet is that I don’t quite have the miniature and terrain collection to pull it off effectively. It takes a lot of miniatures and terrain to make for varied and interesting gameplay experiences.

Speaking a bit from my own experience, when I was much newer in the hobby, I was gung-ho on MESBG and I wanted to try and paint and get enough terrain for a campaign or two. I only worked on MESBG back then (as opposed to juggling too many projects now) and unfortunately, I never got close to playing any campaigns. It takes a lot of time and work to even get close to playing. I will admit that MESBG is tougher because you need a wider variety of terrain and often a higher miniature count but even in Fallout, its not going to be easy for new players. My concern is that this new system sounds good on paper but a lot of players are not going to be able to follow through on the hobby work and the time commitment to play campaigns and will end up losing interest and moving onto other wargames or hobbies.

The developers seem to be thinking of this because they’re changing the Second Edition board size from 3×3 to 2×2 which is again a bold choice. I find this hard to comprehend because Fallout features a lot of weapons that can shoot from one end of a 2×2 board to the other. That is going to require a fair bit of terrain to make for a strategically sound battlefield, I’m guessing. 2×2 also would make larger terrain projects not work so well. Something like Astro Mart (pictured below), which is known as Super Duper Mart in Fallout, is too big to work at this new board size. A big house would take up most of the board as well. So I’m curious to see how this will work out. The rationale provided seems to be to make the game easier for new players and I can certainly see where this helps them in a campaign-based system but I’m not sure its the best direction for the game as a whole. It certainly will limit creativity when it comes to creating terrain for the game, if nothing else.

There is a slew of other changes coming to the game as well which I won’t go into much detail about. They’re getting rid of some of the dice and the range rulers, both of which I like quite well. Apparently a lot of the rules are changing for the Second Edition which is a little surprising because First Edition has a pretty solid rules set overall. It has its flaws to be sure, but its very thematic which makes it fun to play. All of the cards are gone in Second Edition as well. Of all the moves they’re making, this one is all but essential. The cards were pretty unsustainable and Modiphius had more and more trouble even making them. So I knew this was going to happen and I’m not disappointed by it.

But by and large, Second Edition seems to be removing most of the things I liked about First Edition and I’m not sure it is going to be as new player friendly as they think it is going to be. I hope that I’m wrong but for now, I’m not really planning on investing in Second Edition and they’re going to have to convince me that its truly better than First Edition to make the switch. Before this week, I was fully expecting to get into the new edition and was even thinking that maybe one day I won’t need to keep all of the cards in my hobby closet. Its funny how quickly things change sometimes! Instead, I’m thinking about trying to pick up as many of the rules and card supplements that I can grab before they go out of print. I’ve enjoyed playing First Edition and perhaps, that will be where I stay for the next few years. Modiphius can still convince me to switch to Second Edition in the future but for now, I like what I’ve played more than the sound of the new edition which is not something that brings me any joy to say.

40 thoughts on “Kimera Models – Lokaris III + Thoughts on Fallout: Second Edition”

  1. Lokaris is looking great mate. The details on his belt are phenomenal. Sorry to hear you’re feeling a little down. Just remember there’s always good and always bad in the world. There is today, there was 10 years ago and there was a 100 years ago. The trick is to focus on the good stuff. The hobby is great for that. Stay frosty mate

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    1. Thanks, mate! I’ll talk about it when I finish him but I was trying to paint someone that you or Wudu would be likely to hang out with so I must be on the right track here. I know you’re right about good versus bad. There’s been too much bad in my life lately. I can’t get into all of it here because this is a “public” blog but hopefully things will get better down the road. Its been a long, arduous waiting game thus far.

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      4. I appreciate it, mate! I will give it some thought and let you know. Most of the problems are complicated ones that won’t go away easily which is one of the reasons why I don’t get into specifics very much on here.

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      5. That’s fair mate. Sometimes just getting off your chest can help. This is coming from someone who very much struggles to get things off the chest though hehe. Typical male burying shit kind of thing but I’m trying to get better with all that. No pressure though mate

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      6. That is very true. I don’t like to burden others with my troubles though I do talk to my Dad and brother about them so I suppose I don’t keep it all in. I think I tend to look at it like I don’t want to drag anyone else down with me which probably isn’t the right way to think of it, truthfully. I should add that no pressure felt here, mate. I appreciate your kindness more than anything.

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  2. I’m sorry to hear you’ve had a miserable week! Living in the States right now must be terrible 😦

    Hobbying is indeed a great antitode for all the bleakness that is happening in the world right now.

    As for the new edition for Fallout, I can sympathize with your worries. And I agree with your assessment. It always hurts if something you love is changing in a direction you don’t like. The reduction in board size in particular seems to me like it might be problematic, for the reasons you mentioned.

    Hopefully they thought this through and playtested a lot!

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    1. Thanks, mate and you’re right. It is hard difficult to be here. The bleakest I’ve seen in my lifetime and we’ve got a few more years before things are likely to change much…

      I’m glad to hear you have similar concerns about Fallout. The online response has been pretty positive so far so maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about, but I remain skeptical that the new direction is going to improve the game. Ultimately, its not that big of a deal because I already have a game I really enjoy and can play already. So if I avoid the new edition altogether, it won’t diminish my hobby enjoyment any, thankfully!

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  3. Excellent progress on Lokaris Jeff, lots of great detail in each addition, plenty to draw the eye in.

    Sounds like you have a lot to weigh up with the new rules, and if you still enjoy the current set, there is nothing wrong with sticking with it, that’s why there is Oldhammer in the hobby ! LOL

    Sorry to hear real life has been tough, things change, it’s just a case of waiting out the bad !

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    1. Thanks, Dave. I’m glad to hear it as there’s certainly been a lot of textures incorporated into the miniature so far.

      What you describe with Oldhammer is my thinking too. There’s nothing wrong with not changing editions if it isn’t your thing and that may be what happens here. Time will tell!

      Some things will improve eventually and others are long-standing problems that can’t be fixed, sadly. Either way, I will persist because there is no other choice but to do so.

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  4. Super work on Lokaris; as always I love to see your progress on these big projects. I think the detailing on the green coat / cape that he’s wearing is the most incredible but everything else looks to be coming along too.

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  6. I probably said it before, but I really like the look of the belt. The jawbone is really striking also.

    Campaigns – I feel them better if I design my own vs given ones. I use the manufacturer’s as a guide but I find them too constraining. I do tie some scenarios together, but usually in battle companies.

    Don’t give up on getting Astro Mart, if nothing else it would make a great background for action shots or if you don’t like the new 2×2 boards go back to 3×3 – who is going to complain?

    FYI. Frontline Games just did a tutorial on damaged/destroyed buildings that you might find interesting.

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    1. I think the belts are really important on this miniature so I’ll take once, twice, or even three times 🙂

      I haven’t played enough campaigns to feel strongly about their design but I think giving the player some agency is wise. That keeps the narrative stronger and its hard to tie scenarios together neatly since results vary.

      I went back to look at Astro Mart and it is actually smaller than 2×2 barely so I guess it fits in the new system after all. Shows you what I know! Having said that, its something I really want, I just need to figure out how to store it as I don’t think it fits into my current closet. Of course, I do not plan to live here forever so this problem will sort itself out, eventually.

      Would you happen to have a link to the tutorial? I tried searching and wasn’t able to find it thus far. It sounds like a good one!

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      2. This is really interesting. There are urban parts of Boston in Fallout 4 where you could do this sort of thing pretty easily. I’ll have to file this idea away for the future as it would be good try when I have more storage space. Thanks for mentioning this!

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      3. Should buy the Astro Mart, you’ll regret it when it is no longer available – look at me, spending someone else’s money 🙂

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      4. This is what I meant when I said we’re all enablers to each other haha! I agree with you though on needing to buy it soon. I don’t think anything like it (which is clearly modelled after Fallout) will exist in the future, even with 3D printing becoming more prevalent.

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      6. I think the idea of a basing set just for urban rubble is excellent. I don’t think anybody else offers that and its perfect for terrain. I’ve got some MDF bases sitting around so I’ll dig ’em out and see if any could look good as rubble. If so, I just need to actually get the rubble and I’m off to the races!

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  7. Really like the new additions to Lokaris, the patterns on the tusks look really cool and add a lot of interest. I might have to try something like that next time I tackle tusks.

    I did hear the second edition was focussing on solo play, which I was surprised by, but it makes sense if they have a 1v1 game (which I hadn’t realised). I wonder if the campaign focus is because of the popularity of Rangers of Shadowdeep/5 parsecs from home etc. Seems that campaign play is becoming pretty standard for solo games. It would be unfortunate if that locked you out of the edition though, fingers crossed for some changes that work better for you. Getting rid of cards sounds great, it’s one of my less liked aspects of Star Wars Legions

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    1. Cheers, Nic! The smaller the mini, the harder it is to do, I would think, but you could get a nice effect on a 28mm-32mm. Some tusks are very dirty based on what I saw so some “splotches” would work nicely.

      Wasteland Warfare is a solo focused game (if you can believe it). Battle Mode (1 vs. 1) is not very popular. Only in Eastern Europe (Poland and Russia) where they love to have tournaments for it, if you can believe it! I can’t quite work out why it took off there and nowhere else.

      I was trying to think of a way to work a mention of Rangers and 5 Parsecs into my thoughts and couldn’t find a way to do it. I can’t help but wonder if they thought, that’s popular right now so let’s bring it to Fallout. It could be that or they wanted to reduce overall development efforts on Wasteland Warfare because I think Fallout Factions has supplanted it because its newer and there’s a bigger market for 1 vs. 1 when compared to solo. Those are all just wild guesses on my part though!

      I need to come up with a real storage/organization solution for the cards, especially because I’ll be getting more soon enough. Right now they’re in piles that I have to flip through to find what I want which is no fun at all. That is one of the downsides to cards, in my book anyway!

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      1. What size are the cards? If they’re standard size, card binders might make sense although not very practical if you have a lot. Otherwise a box with separators to group the cards by type/letter grouping (I tend to use cut cardboard slightly taller than the cards) might be best. I might be telling you how to suck eggs here given you have some card collections of your own if I remember correctly 😉

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      2. The unit, AI, and Faction rule cards are normal sized cards so I have those in sleeves currently. The remaining cards are much smaller, I think board game sized cards. Those are tricky to be able to put in a binder because there aren’t going to be pages that fit them exactly. I think the unit cards would do well in your typical nine pocket pages (which I have some, unsurprisingly!) and binder. I think you raise a good point though that having an idea of the total number of cards would be helpful here before making any decisions. Surprisingly, its hard to find many examples of how people organize all of the Fallout cards online. I’ve had minimal luck finding any examples, if you can believe it. So no egg sucking here! 😉

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      3. Ultimate Guard do something they call 14 pocket compact page which has a mixed standard card/small cards slots. I think it’s aimed at Star Wars Legions (that’s what I use them for) but might be useful for you? They have one standard slot (for the unit card) and 6 small cards slots slots (for abilities/items) per side.

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      4. That’s an interesting page layout! I’ve never seen that before. Unfortunately, the smaller cards don’t really correspond with the standard sized cards. A page that just has one or the other is better than having them combined in one. You would think it would be easier to find that sort of thing than it is.

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      5. Was worth a shot! I’ve only ever otherwise had small cards in board games so have never had to look for a binder that can fit them as they just get stored in the box. You might be able to find 3d models people have designed to store cards for fallout, and get them printed somewhere, there’s quite a community designing game storage accessories this way.

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      6. Its funny because that is exactly what I found after some intense research today while commuting to work. The only card storage options I can find are almost all designed to fit in a board game box! I am inspired, if not determined, to figure something out so I will keep on it until I come up with a solution to this problem! It was already on my radar but playing Fallout really drove home how badly I need to solve this issue.

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      8. Thank you! I’m going to have to buy it and test it to be sure but I think I figured out what to do with smaller cards, which are the problematic ones. I’ll report back in the future after that occurs 🙂

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  8. The weathering on your Lokaris model is stunning, such a wonderful project!

    I haven’t played Wasteland Warfare, but after reading your thoughts on it I might have to give it a try! I prefer solo gaming because my game group is so enthralled with 40k, the only way I can have any variety is solo play.

    Shame that they’re making so many changes to the core rules, though. It’s always tough if things get stripped out that shouldn’t. Cards (aside from stat cards) are easy to work around, but core mechanics can be challenging to lose!

    How does the game work on a display based table? I currently just don’t care if a game suggests a certain size table, I want to play on something cool looking, regardless of size!

    Keep up the amazing work!

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    1. Thanks, mate! I think you’d like Wasteland Warfare if solo and narrative play is something you enjoy.

      They’re thin on details in terms of how the rules are changing, but they did go out of their way to say a lot of rules are changing. I was expecting more of a refined set of the current rules and not a completely different approach but it sounds like that is the case.

      Your question is a good one, though tough to answer without knowing more about the display table. Most Wasteland Warfare games are 3 feet by 3 feet. There are a few 4 feet by feet games. I want to say there are some that are 2 by 2 but I might be wrong and would need to research a bit further.

      In terms of terrain, it does make shooting less effective but there are ways around that, like using more skilled miniatures who can avoid the penalties better than less skilled minis can. So I guess what I’m trying to say is that the game is fairly versatile and can work with different kinds of terrain you might have in your collection.

      Hopefully that info helps but feel free to send any other questions you have my way and I’m happy to try and answer.

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    1. Thanks, John! I was optimistic that the new edition might bring more improvements but if I ultimately end up just sticking with the old edition, that is totally fine by me too 🙂

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