Brawl Arcane 28

Intro

So It's not Saturday, it is Sunday and already after my daughters classes finishing and our routine being disrupted I've fallen out of the nice little groove I had carved out for posting on this blog.

I wanted to find some time to write up some lore for my recent entry and accompanying models for the #eyetoadchallenge being ran by @entertheweald but work was draining this week and I didn't have the head space for creative writing. 

I'm a bit sleepy today as I was up fairly late for me (2:00am!) last night playing pauper EDH with some very cool people I haven't had the chance to connect with in real time before. @hollowbodies_13 kindly set this up and if you like pauper EDH check out this post Pauper EDH with details as there will be another next month!

Right now I'm listening to B.E.D from Baxter Dury. Great artist, check him out!

Brawl Arcane 28

I discovered Brawl Arcane 28 around the end of April beginning of May after listening to it's creator being interviewed on the 32 podcast.

Brawl Arcane 28 was developed by Brett or @quarantine_miniatures. If I recall the interview well (which I doubt I do as my memory is fucking shit) I believe Bret talked about trying to create an accessible game which could easily make use of models people have lying around and a simple chess board. This approach to accessibility can also be seen in the mechanics he has applied, such as using a 1' board with a grid system for movement as well as the straight forward simple to learn but with scope to master rule set.

I would definitely recommend checking out the rules which can be found here brawl-arcane-28.

A Finite Take

After listening to the interview, reading the rules and checking out the discord group Brawl Arcane 28 Discord I was inspired to build something for this game. My wife and I love to play games however we have pretty busy and tiring lives (I love my kids but seriously they can be exhausting at times) and so having an accessible and cool looking game which we can play in like 30 minutes or so was very appealing. 

Most miniature projects I start never really feel truly finished, there is always opportunity to either flesh out a warband, add more terrain to a setting or write up some more lore. I really like this as it means I constantly have ideas or avenues to explore but also sometimes it kind of feels like I have tons of half finished projects floating around.

With Brawl Arcane 28 I decided that I wanted to take a finite approach to this project and that really excited me although even writing this now I'm actually thinking that I should do a better job with creating some cards for the different magic disciplines and also remembering that I still need to source a box to store everything in... so even with this finite is not so finite.

The Miniatures

I settled on creating models to use with five separate magic disciplines. This would include one wizard and three minions for each so fifteen models in total which seemed reasonable. 

I had actually picked up a box of blacklist fantasy miniatures Blacklist miniatures from a kick starter ages ago (I can't even remember why I originally bought them) and decided these would be the base for the models. I had thought about kitbashing some bespoke models but I felt like that would take the project outside of the scope I had committed to. Equally the models I found in this box I thought suited some of the magic disciplines quite nicely and so it was a win win.

I decided that I would take quick approach to painting the models as well and utilized the slap chop approach along with picking sections out with metalics. Even with this fast approach I was quite happy with the aesthetic I was able to achieve. 

Below you can find each Wizard and it's minions:

Metallurgist with Automatons

Blod Mage with Blood Imps

Draconic Magus with Drake Spirits

Necromancer and Undead

Green Witch and Forest Dwellers

The Board

I just realised I'm writing this blog out of order as I built the board before the models as the board actually inspired the basing choice for the models. This was the first time I had used coconut coir and fuck me... what a game changer, especially with some static grass sprinkled on top *chefs kiss* for sure.

As previously mentioned for the board you could easily use a chess board or even just some paper with a grid drawn on however I had been inspired by all of the awesome stuff I had seen people building in the discord and I had an itch to start tinkering with some terrain techniques I hadn't used before.

I ordered some 12" x 12" mdf board (I think I went with 12mm thick) using one as the base for the playing arena. I then opted to split the board into a 10 x 10 grid meaning that each square is just over an 1" x 1" which suits the models I chose to use quite well. Thinking about this now you could really easily make a travel version of this game if you scaled it down to 15mm or 6mm (see what I mean about most projects aren't finite...). 

I cut some foam into squares(using 5mm foam board) and began to weather them by tearing and smashing them with balled up tinfoil, glued them to the board with some strong PVA and then added gravel as well as a skull.

I wanted to try and give the board the feeling of a cemetery or gated courtyard. After quite a bit of googling I found some that worked really well. They are from Renedra.co.uk and you can just the fences or a fence gate combo. 

I glued these to the sides of the mdf board with super glue and then primed everything up with foam safe spray paint.

After this I: 

• Painted everything up, mainly building up layers of colour by dry brushing craft acrylics over everything.
• Washed it in blacks and browns.
• Added moss effects.
• Used PVA to fix coir and static grass into the sections where I had placed gravel.
• Added some larger stones.

As I've said this project really boosted my confidence in building a realistic setting for my miniatures. The thing that astounded me the most was how relatively simple and quick everything was. If I could do this on a 1' x 1' why couldn't I expand that out further?

Now that I had the board complete I moved on to the line of sight blockers. I don't have any jigs or anything for cutting foam with a foam cut (and actually only have a small hand held one my wife bought me for Christmas) so I opted to craft some large pillar like rocks.

I did this by hacking and texturing with tinfoil then priming and dry brushing as well as added some little details here and there.

With these complete I moved on to selecting and painting the model I detailed earlier in the post.

Playing the Game

My wife and I have played this game quite a few times now and we are beyond impressed with the freshness each game brings. I think it is quite fitting that Bret went with a grid approach to the board because the level of strategy which can be applied is pretty great adding to this the narrative scenes which evolve from game play really capture the imagination and create a very nice game which is quick and straight forward to play.

Outro

If I have anything that I would like you to take away from this post it would be two things:

• Seriously check out brawl-arcane-28 it's a great game to have as an option on your shelf and I think it will be one that accompanies us when we holiday in the UK as it is pretty easy to transport.
• Don't be scared to try new techniques when it comes to crafting terrain (I mean trying new things is good general advice regardless) and if you've never crafted anything picking a project which is kind of finite with a definitive outcome and one that has structure and focus is definitely a great way to go.

I'm very much hoping that I find some time next week to sit down and write so that I am able to offer something based off the models I built for the eyetoadchallenge but lets see! If not I will most likely add another terrain entry based around my fantasy board which is pretty much complete now.