Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu

A long-postponed project has been painting the 35 figures that came with the board game Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu. I think Jessica got this as a Christmas present in 2017. I planned to roll this out as a Halloween post, but things intervened... .


The figures are a mix of 15mm and 32mm figures. The cultists and shoggoth figures are smaller and really function as counters or currency to track the game's progress towards defeating the players.


The cultists were pretty simple figures. After some debate about painting belts, trim, and faces, I decided mono-colour was better. I was just about to pick up a linen colour and then switched to red to avoid having to explain they weren't clansmen at the beginning of every game.


The shoggoth were harder. I looked at a bunch of different efforts on boardgamegeek and eventually decided to go with my first take: slimy green with lost of eyes.


The counters scale well with each other but are notable smaller than the player-character figures.


Left to right below we have doctor, occultist, driver, and reporter. These were all painted to match their cards (more or less). The figures are nice enough for game pieces, but the detail was not well raised. The occultist (red cloak) was really underwhelming and would have benefited from a prop (a crystal ball in one hand?).


The second group includes a detective, magician and hunter, again, painted to their cards. I was happy with the trench coats--it took a lot of layering to get a decent effect.


The figures are a bit bigger than my 28mm and 25mm collections. I'd mix them in in a pinch.


Up close, you can really see how the detail on the game pieces is soft and needed a lot of help from layering and washes.


That said, they really improve the look of the game in play. Unpainted, the characters were a medium grey and the cultists and shoggoths were an awful teal colour.


A quick paint job really helps add mood to the game and makes it easier to tell the character figures apart. These figures should be a fun surprise the next time Jessica wants to play.


Up next: Gangsters and more Zeds.

7 comments:

feedmegames.com said...

I wasn't aware of this game at all. Thanks for posting about it.

Bob Barnetson said...

Any time; it's a fun Pandemic variant.

Simon Quinton said...

Nice work. It really enhances the look of the game.

Terry Silverthorn said...

They came out quite nicely Bob! When I first got the game, I was a tad disappointed that the cultists weren't the same scale due to my penchant for multi-using figures in games if possible. Painted miniatures in these 'board games' do make a difference!

Preacher by day said...

They've come up nicely! They really do add to the look of the game.

Bob Barnetson said...

Thanks guys. Yes, bigger cultists would have been a bonus but they would have crowded the game board something terrible (at least the way I play they would have!).

Kadmon said...

Great article! I've linked your work in my review of the Shoggoth models - https://alkony.enerla.net/english/the-nexus/miniatures-nexus/miniature/miniature-creature/blob-with-tentacles-in-1-100-scale-shoggoth-for-pandemic-reign-of-cthulhu-from-z-man-games-2016-miniature-creature-review