Precinct Omega

Infinite Dark - Design Blog 4 - First Playtest

Early playtesting isn't like playing a game.  It's work, not fun.

There's no mission, here.  No scenario.  There isn't even another player on the other side of the table.  This is just me moving stuff around and going "OK, so what if...?" and trying to see how it would work mechanically.

I've had to cut away a lot of early darlings.  Currently, 3-dimensional space is an almost-total bust.  I tried a lot of ways of doing it and, technically, some of th...

Your support at work!

I splashed out on a sci-fi special effects pack and put it to work enhancing a video to explain movement in Horizon Wars: Zero Dark.  It's because of my patrons that I can do this sort of non-essential, value-adding stuff.

Sorry about the voiceover guy.  There just doesn't seem to be anything I can do to get rid of him. ;)

Gamemat.eu Terrain Progress

A quick hobby update, this weekend.

Stefan was interested in what I was going to do to modify the Gamemat.EU terrain and, as a dedicated reuser of overlooked rubbish, I'm using old plastic straws, kebab skewers, cotton bud sticks and cardboard.

I've also finished the initial zenithal highlighting on about a third of the terrain. I want to get it all to this place, then it'll be time to dust off the airbrush!

I plan to actually return the terrain to a sort of pale gold no...

Gamemat.eu Discount Code

If you felt moved by my recent review to get some Gamemat terrain, patrons can use the discount code EVENT10 to get 10% off any order.

I'm going to try to solicit more discounts and similar for patrons from partners for whom I do reviews and features.

Fireside Chat #1

YouTube really doesn't help me out when it comes to picking good thumbnails.  There's probably a secret to it.

Anyway, as the last effort I made to do this was a bust, I gave it another go with more primitive technology and - after a long, long wait for processing - it seems OK.

Hope this all makes sense.

Zero Dark: Alternate Red Force Secondary Actions

When playing the simpler missions in Solo or Team mode, you might find that cautious moves provide something of an "easy button" solution that means the Red Force never or rarely activates except to move around.  Intelligent positioning of your heroes can mean that they sneak in, grab the objective and extract without every so much as taking fire.

Now, this is all intentional on my part but, once you've done it a couple of times, you can find those missions a bit... dull.  And...

Gamemat.eu MDF Terrain Review

As I got hold of this huge set of MDF terrain from Gamemat.eu, and it's going to start appearing in lots of videos and photography for Zero Dark, I thought I'd do a review while I was at it.

I have to say that, for £65/$75, it strikes me as being extremely good value.  I don't have a huge collection of MDF terrain, and there are some very sophisticated and clever kits out there, these days.  This stuff is pretty simply and straightforward but has enormous flexibility and, not...

Gamemat.eu Supporting Zero Dark

The guys at Gamemat.eu have helped me out with new scenery and mats to illustrate Operation Nemesis.

These photos show the new mats and the pre-painted resin industrial ruins terrain set.

I will be making use of these for demos and photography for new publications, but in due course I will be giving at least some of this stuff away.

This, by the way, isn't everything I got from Gamemat.eu. But the rest will need more work. There will be a full review and detail...

A Range of Reapers

By chance, I find myself working on a selection of Reaper minis. One is a reward for a patron. One is a suggestion from another patron for a special character for Operation Nemesis. Three others are minis I just happened to be painting for a review article for my friends at Tabletop Games UK. And the last three are extras I got given by Reaper to include in Operation Nemesis!

Of these, this is my favourite so far: the IMEF Bulldog. Still very WIP, obviously, but I thought you guys...

Badges of Rank

You may have noticed that I recently re-branded the Patreon tiers a bit and sorted you all into Elites ($2), Heavy Elites ($3) and Defence Mechs ($5).  I thought you'd like to know that FB Group members are Grunts.

Anyway, I'm going to order some badges as shown in the picture above.

If you win a monthly mini draw, order anything from my website or are otherwise due to get something from me in the post, I will include a badge for your relevant level of support.  If you w...

Infinite Dark - Design Blog 3 - "As-Toroidal" Space

No, I still haven't quite solved the 3d question (or at least, settled it to my satisfaction).

But I have had another idea that at least is in the same general ball-park.

One of the challenges of using Newtonian physics in a tabletop space game is the ease with which an eager player can boost across the table, try to make a dramatic manoeuvre and, instead, find themselves flying off the table edge into deep space.

This is embarrassing, frustrating and awkward all at the same...

Millennium 0.11 - Star Marines

Sorry to have been a bit quiet, recently.  No doubt some of you were relieved to have the pressure on your inboxes temporarily relieved.

Basically, as some of you noticed, I've been trying to do something resembling more videos.  And failing pretty badly.  I am going to get back on the multimedia horse eventually, with more videos and a monthly (at least) podcast for patreons.

But in the mean time, I'm consoling myself over my miserable failure by doing wha...

The Corvid Infection

Normally, you guys get all the best stuff first.  But sometimes, there's an exception to that rule in the name of the marketing and collaborations that are key to making a one-man wargame publishing company actually, y'know, make some money.

I've been a part of the Tabletop Games UK team for a little over a year, writing occasional articles and helping to manage the site.  It's a completely volunteer-run site, and deserves better exposure, so I've teamed up with them to publis...

Spreading the Word! - #ZeroDark

New products enter the miniatures wargaming market all the time.  Keeping up momentum on Zero Dark is at the heart of my marketing plan and it's been great to see the Facebook community growing to almost 200 members, and this elite core of supporters holding firm at 40+, even after a few dropped away as Covid has started to bite on people's finances.

I know a few of you have already had a chance to get the game onto the tabletop.  If you have, or if you're planning to...

Special Mission: Easter Egg Hunt!

The dreaded Terran terrorist, Der Osterhase, has been seeding the territory where your team is operating with his terrifying "easter eggs" - a mix of deadly bombs, self-seeding synthetic combat units and chocolate treats.

Before they can proceed to their next mission, your team must clear the area of Der Osterhase's peculiar booby traps.

HAPPY EASTER!

Whatever your faith, Easter is a celebration of re-birth, renewal and the spirit of a new life that I think we feel a particu...

Infinite Dark - Design Blog 2 - "Divert power to shields!"

Well, I haven't solved the "3d space on a 2d playing surface" problem, yet.  Many possibilities, but none of them are satisfying.  They all make the game considerably more complicated whilst adding nothing in terms of entertainment.

However, on the plus side, I have made some progress in other areas of the conceptual design of the game.

Obviously, a key feature of a Precinct Omega game is the ability to customize your stats to accommodate whatever miniatures you want to ...

Experimental Rules #2 - Sentinels

Sentinels are a new sort of bogey that will feature in Operation Nemesis.  If you want to make a mission more challenging, but Hard Mode isn't enough for you, add 3-6 sentinels for fun.
Sentinels may be automated guns, booby traps or simply dedicated soldiers, dug into shallow trenches.  Sentinels deploy at the same time as the rest of the Red Force, but have a different model of deployment.  In missions where sentinels are used, they are given a deployment radius, ...

Millennium Minis

It seems like folk liked Zero Dark: Millennium as a concept, and it certainly inspired me at my weekend painting table (when I get to paint what I want). I knocked out this pair of Van Saar gangers and I'm looking forward to doing more of these. But I'm sure you, like me, love what some companies that aren't GW are doing in the grimdark aesthetic. So I've got a line of those I'm working on, too.

If you've got minis you've been inspired to paint thanks to Zero Dark ...

Zero Dark: Training Run

I know all of you either have the full rules or have the 0.9 beta while you wait for the print edition to be released.

However, if you'd like to introduce anyone to the game, demo the game at an event or just take the game for a spin and haven't had time to digest the full rules yet, then please do check out the attached Training Run.

I had hoped to introduce this in parallel with the print edition.  But now that we know this won't be available until the end of April...

Operation Nemesis - Special Characters

I'd like your suggestions.

The $5+ patrons had their say on this a little while ago and I got some good recommendations.  But as I've got room for more, I'm pushing this down to the $3 patrons too.

I want to feature some special characters in Operation Nemesis.  These will be a mix of Bosses and Allies.  In simplest terms, if you include a special Boss in a mission and win, you unlock the right to use a special Ally in future missions.

So far, I've got four: t...

Print Edition has Landed... But...

Hi, folks.  So I got my test copy of Zero Dark this morning and it looks good, but... it does need a few tweaks to make it just right.

Whilst this is disappointing, it is also an opportunity.  Since the PDF was released, I have spotted a few minor things that I wasn't happy with, plus the fact that the purpose of bogeys' Def wasn't actually explained.

So I'll update the files, re-upload the PDF with the amendments (and everyone who has bought a copy will get not...

Monthly Mini Draw Winners!

The April Monthly Mini Draw winners have been randomly generated through the traditional method (I roll a dice).

Winner of the Premium Mini Draw was Rob Tapfield.  I look forward to hearing what mini Rob wants (last month's winner was a repeat winner and generously declined a prize, so a donation was made to our official charity, Orchid, on his behalf).

Winner of the Monthly Mini Draw was Paul Hathaway.  I haven't decid...

Cleaning Up

As I posted a spoiler on Facebook, I thought I'd confirm here that I'm working on a "stripped down" version of Zero Dark with a limited selection of pre-built heroes, the basic rules and a single mission that I'll release to you guys first and then to the world at large - hopefully to tie in with the hardcover edition becoming available next week!

This is Zero Dark: Training Run.

With the release of Training Run, I will also go back in time a bit and remove all t...

Free Hero Cards

I've ordered the Zero Dark Hero cards.  If you'd like a free pack of 10, please message me with your address.

Operation Nemesis - Mission 1

Obviously, there's going to be a lot of play-testing and suchlike going into the design of Operation Nemesis, but wherever I can, I'll share some stuff to give you guys an insight into what's coming and to get your feedback on how things look so far.

Operation Nemesis will focus, thematically, on the other side of the story from the main rulebook, looking in more detail at the characters and motivations of the Venusian mission.

A society built on strength and fea...

HTP #2 - Dice in Practice: Shooting

The best I can say is that I am getting slightly better at this as time goes on.  Stick around long enough and it may not be completely embarrassing...

I have worked out WGV discounts!

I am on tenderhooks, right now, hoping that the test printing of the hard copy edition of Zero Dark will come through my door any day.  All my fingers are tightly crossed that I got it right right time.

It took me at least three goes to get Over the Horizon right.  I still have the test copies kicking around, somewhere.

Anyway, because I've worked out how to do WGV discounts, my patrons will all get a discount code for the hard copy edition worth twice ...

Zero Dark: Millennium

I know that, when I asked about this a couple of months ago, enthusiasm for a "grimdark scifi" supplement for Zero Dark was, um, muted.  By and large, people like you who are fans of independent games and designers are unlikely to be also fans of the void whale in the tabletop wargaming room.

However, for all that I am largely unimpressed with GW's approach to game design, I am still a massive fan-boy for their universe, its mad and twisted occupants, and the mini...

Infinite Dark - Design Blog 1 - The Three-Dimensional Battlespace

My starting place for a design is always visual.  I try to imagine the cinematic version of what I'm trying to capture on the tabletop.

Tabletop wargames are necessarily cerebral affairs.  For all that we can make miniatures and terrain help immerse us, we aren't all Crystal Brush-level painters and don't all have the time to do more than yoghurt pot buildings and book pile hills.  So I try to write a game that is as immersive and imagination-inspiring as possible by tryi...

The Art of Solo Play - or, "It's not a bug, it's a feature!"

If you're in the Facebook group for Zero Dark (and if you're not, get with it!) you might have seen a recent exchange I had with a player who, in the course of five games, managed to essentially "solve" the solo game by (ab)using the cautious move rules.

So let me give you some insight into the design process that underlay Zero Dark.

Those of you who've been with the Patreon from the beginning might recall that, at one point, his "solution" wasn't possible, becau...