After meeting some mini painters and enthusiasts at work (there is quite a big group of nerds, which is lovely, including some fun painting nights), I snagged an invite to come join a burgeoning campaign of 1490 Doom hosted by the Garage Collective. We had been chatting about kitbashing, weirdo models, Mordheim and indie games so it kind of flowed out of that!
For the uninitiated, 1490 is an apocalyptic vision of late medieval society where a mysterious deadly fog, the creeping death, begins to slowly rise from the ground killing all the crops and livestock, as society falls apart. Players command a Doom Company of three survivors- your only real goal is to get to high ground away from the fog and to get to another day. It is all a bit grimdark, but also has echoes of medieval doomsday cults, millennial cults, and real life events like the black death or sustained blights that shook the foundations of society.
Published by Buer Games, who have now done a very successful campaign with minis and stuff, we grabbed the rulebook from their website. We had six Doom Companies, varying in background and composition. We decided to use the very light campaign mechanics to do a set of 6 linked games, following the scenarios in the back of the book from “The First Signs” to “The Creeping Death Consumes Us All.” Many epic moments of pseudo-heroism – in particular I remember getting blasted by a catapult in my first turn of the “Siege of Neuchatel Castle!” A great group of gamers really enjoyed the stories and moments we weaved on the tabletop.
But to play, I needed a Doom Company! I created the Order of the Shrouded Sun. Brother Melodius was gifted with a vision the day the creeping death was first sited- this was to be a plague of biblical proportions, a great flood sent to wash away humanity, and only the two most pure survivors would live to repopulate humanity. He preached that the only way out was through- all humanity must succumb to this plague, so that it could be reborn. His preachings gathered followers to his religious order, who made it their solemn duty to hasten the end of humanity, and thus it’s rebirth. This would ultimately mean even themselves…
But I would need some kitbashed weirdos! I went through by bits box and found an old set of metal Dwarf Samurai and Dwarf Warrior Monks I had picked up 20 years ago at Games Plus in a fit of madness then never done anything with. The manufacturer is long forgotten – if anyone recognizes these please let me know!
On top of these metal beauts I did some sculpting and weapon swaps from the bits box.
I started with Brother Melodious the Warrior Priest, Scion Cleft the Brute, and Brother Vibrato the Fighter:
I made a vow to myself that if any of this crew were to perish, I would build and replace them with new member- their sacrifice bringing them one step closer to their goals!
Brother Melodious got aced by a catapult during the siege, so I had to make a new Scavenger!
And for future games, I based up two more: a Knight and a Scout/Assassin (could go either way). Here you can see a bit more of the process, sculpting and adding bits over the metal minis before some quick airbrushing and painting with acrylics!
Got to meet the Buer games folks at adepticon and play on some of their boards with the friendos! It’s a fun, fast, weird game with the opportunity for some real narrative moments. Hopefully they have a lot of success moving forward!
-BS