Long time no words right? What can I say? I’ve been trapped in the deep dark Mines of Bill Paying Work, and a bit distracted because you know – life. What a bastard that is right?
But now I’m back though, and here to ramble on about my new indie game hyper focus – Omen Tide. Lovecraftian horror, religious sects and slabs of leviathan flesh mixed with card based gameplay is the name of the game here. Omen Tide is a small scale – 3 minis on a 16″x16″ board – skirmish game centered around leading your little cult to victory over your buddies little cult. There are a few things that got me immediately obsessed with this game – the small board size, the low mini count, and a unique in the wargames space setting.
If you follow my Instagram or read some of my past posts, you know that I’m a terrain building fiend. Given the opportunity I’ll jump head first into building terrain I definitely don’t have the room to store. Thankfully Omen Tide isn’t a big space hog compared to a lot of other games with it’s 16×16 board size so storage is way less of concern here. It’s what all the cool kids call a “diorama skirmish game” these days, much like Necropolis28. Another benefit is that at this size you can more time adding details and really refining your terrain, instead of getting caught up in the sometimes slog that bigger terrain projects can be. Small board, big on details.
I was lucky enough to find one of those Homesense-style wine mom motivational wall hangings with an inset of just over an inch to act as my board. It’s 16 by 18, but I’m going to use those extra 2 inches to store tokens, scenario relevant minis and probably shells when playing.
My initial idea was a cemetery being reclaimed by the sea, something I’ve had stuck in my head for a while now, but once I started working with the space I realized two things – it wouldn’t be that playable and 16×16 isn’t as big as you’d think it is. So i opted for a more open board – a raised cliff that has a path leading down to a beach area with an outcropping of rock in a far corner. I’m planning on making a wooden walkway (ruined of course) that can be used to join up that outcropping (and placed elsewhere if the mood strikes) to allow a bit of modularity. Also I really just like making little wooden structures. I feel they have a large capacity for easy detailing and bringing a board to life. Plus, who doesn’t love working with popsicle sticks?
I did some gap filling where the big shell meets the cliffs to integrate it a bit better using ripped up toilet paper soaked in mix of mod podge, water and grout powder. I don’t actually know if the grout powder does anything, but it makes me feel like I’m really doing something when I add it to things. Also alchemist vibes and I’m all about that. I forgot to take pictures of this step so just imagine a gloopy paper mache mess and me poking it into little corners and gaps. As I made far too much (as usual) I used some in the beach area to add some ground variation so it wasn’t completely flat. After this dried I busted out the classic Black Magic Craft black mod podge technique (the man, the myth, the legend!) to seal the foam and give it a bit of a harder shell. Shell because, you know…Omen Tide. Anyways, moving on.
Related – I learned as I was typing this that I’ve been saying paper mache wrong my whole life. It’s actually Papier-mâché, and a French term. Being Canadian I probably should have known this already, but let’s blame the education system or something for that.
Next up was texturing the beach aka throwing sand around and making a mess. Seriously, I got sand everywhere. But it looks great! Well, “great” for plain sand. I went back and used some Vallejo Sand Texture paste in select spots as well to build up a bit of volume where it makes sense.
Now that it’s all built and textured up, I’m going to give it a black base coat using some cheap acrylic paint and then get to dry brushing to everything pops followed by an oil wash to finish things up. I’ll be leaving the shells unpainted as I love the coloration on them and having some distinctly organic and natural elements incorporated into this is going to be a great look I think.
Grab the free beta rules for Omen Tide here and start gluing shells to your miniatures. It’s cathartic or something.
Scott
Drunk in a Space Hulk 