"A Dash of Immersion" - Dashboards

 Reichbusters: Projekt Vril is a fast and furious game 

with lots of weird science, witty one-liners, 

and heroic moments set during World War II. 

It is late December 1944 and, on the face of it, 

history has unfolded as we know it, 

but that could be about to change.

- Board Game Geek

Another Friday, another Art of Caesura!

We're deep into the Wolfenstein-esque miniatures board game Reichbusters at the moment but today, instead of painting one of the goodies or baddies of the game, I have painted something (a few somethings) that are (as Vince and Tom would say) orthogonal to the action: it's the player dashboards.

I know, I know, dashboards may not be the most exciting thing in the world, but I actually really like them. Having played a bunch of games that don't have dashboards (Warhammer Quests of various flavours, Hellboy, Elder Signs etc. etc.) and then a couple that do (Zombicide: Green Horde and Reichbusters), for me they only add to the game. 

Yes they are useful from an organizational perspective - keeping mounds of loose cards and tokens from cluttering the whole play area and often avoiding those "have I already used that skill?" moments. But for me, dashboards can go beyond just adding utility to the game. 

They can also be useful from a mechanical perspective. I really like in Zombicide how you literally have slots representing each hand and your body where you can hold readily accessible items. You then have several slots that hold the cards vertically (in the z-axis, as in, one end of the card fits in a slot that holds the cards upright off the surface of the dashboard) which represents your back-pack. You can store whatever items you want (provided you have space) in your backpack, but you have to use an action to go rummaging in your backpack as they are less readily available. 

The Zombicide dashboards also incorporate an experience tracker, which provides a really clean way to keep track of the hordes of zombies you're destroying to see when you next "level up".

Having not yet played Reichbusters, I can't comment with any authority on the utility of the dashboards. I can speculate that like Zombicide, they have a large central area for the character card which will list unique hero actions as I understand. The slots off the to right with the stars in represent skill slots I think and, the two slots with guns are likely your active weapons (your hands). The 4 slots with the crates, I assume, are for other items. 

A nice ergonomic, lifestyle consideration is that all the slots (bar the large central one which doesn't have an enclosed "top" so cards will be easy to slide out that way) have indented side-edges which will make the tokens really easy to pop in and out.

Anyway, in addition to organization and utility, dashboards can add to the immersion aesthetically, and that is where these Reichbusters dashboards really shine! I love that the bombastic logo is front and centre - for me it wonderfully hearkens back to action movies of the 80's or pulp books or comics. The rest of the dashboard is all realistic dings and scratches. I used those to influence my painting - I wanted them to look like a scrap of metal that a Reichbuster might find (or more likely tread underfoot) in Castle Wewelsburg. 

I truly went to town on these ones! I sprayed them Leadbelcher over a black primer. Then I carefully painted the logo with Contrast Snakebite Leather. I was very tempted to paint the other words and symbols with different contrast paints but wanted to keep it muted, so managed to resist. 

Then I went ham with my enamels! My general plan was to use Streaking Grime splodged on randomly, Dark Brown to deepen the deep scratches, Rust Streaks for built up dirt and grime mainly in the corners, and Decay Deposits to weather the "Busters". I then used mineral spirits and many q-tips to take some of the enamels off and move them around to look more natural.

I then set them aside for a few days for the enamels to fully cure and then gave them a bit of a dusting of Stormhost Silver - mostly around the logo and some of the other edges. 

Ah-HAH! Maybe dashboards can be exciting after all!

See you right here next week on The Art of Caesura!

Gaming: Starcraft II: Legacy of the Void

Reading: The Lies of Locke Lamora - Scott Lynch

Next Week:

Lovely vril...beautiful vril...