The other side of the two-player box for Relicblade is the Adversary. Specifically, pigmen, a take on the barbarian. The box includes two copies of three distinct sculpts, with enough weapons to make each one unique. To help keep track of them on the board, each one got a different color for their shoulder pads.
Pigman (two swords)
Pigman (stabby)
Pigman (halbard)
Shield Pig (cudgel)
Shield Pig (axe)
Pigman (axe)
While I like the models well enough individually. I must admit the Adversary side of the two player starter has a lot less character than the Advocate. On the other hand, the Adversary has more models outside the two player starter to choose from, so maybe it evens out.
I first saw Relicblade at Adepticon this year. It quickly caught my attention, and after a few minutes of talking to Sean Sutter, the game designer/visual designer/sculpter/studio model painter it became clear why. The whole things oozes singular authorship. Plus it’s a straightforward fantasy skirmish game, which evoked the days of playing D&D, but as a pure miniatures experience. I bought it without a real demo, just a few minutes explanation of the mechanics.
Questing Knight
I finally played my first game recently. The mechanics are pretty simple — each model gets a certain number of Action Dice, which can be spent to move, attack, etc. To attack you have to roll to hit a target number, then make an opposed roll against their armor to do wounds. If a model runs out of wounds, it goes down but has a chance to recover at the end of the turn. Getting attacked while down will finish you off, but you can’t attack a disabled model while it’s engaged with another model. Getting isolated will get you killed, but stick together and you just might survive.
Cleric of Justice
The two-player starter pits a party of adventurers against a group of barbarian pig men. There’s something of twist, though, as the cleric is not only some kind of dragonkin, but he can summon a Spirit Hammer, represented as a separate model that can be activated alongside him.
Spirit Hammer
We played the Pack Yak scenario for the first real game. There’s a mobile objective (the Pack Yak) which one player is trying to get across the board. Whoever has the most models engaged with it at the end of each turn gets to move it down (or across) the board.
Thief
It ended up being a really tight and enjoyable game. I got the Yak nearly all the way across the board before finally being overwhelmed. A turn or two of bitter fighting at the end let the pig men break away with the goods.
Wild Elf Druid
The suggested board size is only 2′ x 2′, which makes for an intimate game. It also doesn’t take much terrain to fill it up. The Seeker’s Handbook has a bunch of suggestions for spice via terrain and neutral monsters. The simple mechanics means there’s a lot of room to play around with scenario-specific rules.
Cave Bear
The two-player starter doesn’t seem to be available any more, in favor of single player faction bundles of models and the rulebook. The big downside is that the 2-player starter came with a deck of upgrades (and relics!) which seems like it’s basic to the game, and isn’t currently available in physical form. On the plus side, PDFs of the deck are quick cheap.
Cave Bear (base detail)
Hobby wise, I went for bright colors to go with the cartoony aesthetic. I’m especially proud of the bases. I got a flagstone green stuff base stamp from Happy Seppeku a while ago, but haven’t done much with it. Here I put random blobs down on the bases and stamped in the flagstone. After painting, I surrounded it in AK Muddy Ground and static grass. It gives a really nice ancient road effect.
I’m looking forward to playing more Relicblade, and picking up more models.
I got this model way back when in the original Reaper Bones Kickstarter. He’s been on the shelf, assembled, biding his time for several years. I decided to use him as a test model for the Dust Mythos Cthulhu monsters. But then I got impatient and painted them all at the same time.
Reaper Giant Cthulhu (with Cultist for scale)
This model is seriously huge, and mostly a solid, heavy, chunk of PVC. So far he doesn’t have any game purposes, but he does like to supervise my hobby desk.
Big monsters are nice and all, but you need some little guys, too. Fortunately, the Lilith’s Coven starter box is all that. Dust’s starter boxes are a nice value. For $65 you get three units, a neoprene mat (2’x3′, so half a standard Dust game), dice, and some terrain (cardboard and plastic). The only problem with it is if you want a second copy of one of the units, it’s harder to find the value.
Lilith
Possessed Lilith
Lilith is the hero in the box. She comes in two models, because she switches to a different profile once she’s been wounded.
Cultist leader
The cultists are next. I first tried to paint them with a different scheme than the studio models, with deep green robes. Partway through I decided I hated it and started again. I’m quite pleased now with how the robes came out, with just a hint of red in with the black, giving it some depth.
Mi-Go
The Mi-Go are the last unit in the box. Like everything else it comes pre-assembled, which makes it difficult to paint the inside of the one with closed wings.
Tank Trap
Ammo Crate
Finally, the plastic terrain. It’s simple, but a nice bonus. The crate came pre-colored, so I just weathered it up a bit.
