Game Report: Cthulhu: Death May Die - "Top of the Mourning"

The layout on my two foot by four foot table.

I don't normally do game reports on the blog, but with this month's flurry of Cthulhu: Death May Die painting, I thought it appropriate to make a brief mention of how playing the game for the first time actually went.

I solo-played the first episode that was included, Season 3 - Episode 1: "Top of the Mourning." In it, cultists are using a witch's ghost to bring an elder god to Earth. Specifically, they're bringing it to somewhere in Massachusetts because witches. Since the game lets you mix-and-match episodes with elder gods, I picked The Black Goat of the Woods (shown off in the last post). You can see the starting layout in the first picture. This setup required quite a bit of space, two and a half feet deep by almost three feet wide, so I needed to skew it to fit on my little folding table. The board and other bits took a long time to set up, not even including all of the cardboard-token-punching, card sleeving, and organization that I did before.

The All-American, outnumbered in a burning room!

Mr. Whisper deals the killing blow!

My chosen investigators were two of my painted mystery men: Mr. Whisper and the All-American. (In the game, they're the much less intimidating Saito and Steve.) Mr. Whisper got the "Impulsive Aggression" psychosis, which hurt him if he went a little crazy when there were no enemies in his space, and the All-American got Bloodlust, which required him to get at least two kills between psychotic breaks or he'd take stress. As it worked out, Steve only ever benefited from his bloodlust, since he always had at least two kills when it came up.

I was playing on a bit of an easy mode by having each character get one relic, but things went relatively smoothly. There are a bunch of rules to keep track of, but things started moving pretty quickly after I caught on. I managed to complete the ritual to make the Black Goat of the Woods spawn in while vulnerable, and despite a few close calls, I worked through the three stages of its health and Mr. Whisper managed to cut it down. Despite the many physical pieces and lengthy setup, the game was fun and felt pretty balanced. Playing with nice miniatures always feels good, too.

★★★★☆

Black Goat of the Woods

Unlike the Dark Spawn which came in the same box, the Black Goat of the Woods was a fine figure to paint. Another four-inch-tall Elder God from Cthulhu: Death May Die, is has a good sculpt and pose with a number of well-defined core elements to work with.

There are colors painted on this model. The only interesting bit is some new Vallejo Game Color Wash Red (73.206) that I splashed onto the arms and a couple of smaller bits. It's a very potent paint, and I'll need to be more careful with its application in the future.

With this figure done, I now have two Elder Gods ready to go: the Black Goat of the Woods and the big, sleepy Tsathoggua. I really should clear some space and get this game on the table; it would be a shame not to at least try out playing it.

Also, having painted up this devilish dude, I feel like I should find a Doom Slayer to paint up in case this fella starts getting any ideas.

Huikong

Here's another investigator from C:DMD:FotU, and he's painted pretty much like the character appears in the game art. The character is named Huikong, and his ability in the game is to mitigate attacks made against him and redirect the monsters away. I tried some different paint techniques with this one, starting with a lighter base instead of painting over black, and it turned out resoundingly "fine." I'll probably go back to my normal black primer in general, but the bright orange robe really does pop.

If you were worried, which you're not, Huikong does still count as a mystery man, as the "elderly martial arts master" is a long-established pulp trope. (Also, I don't want to add a new category to the year-in-review page.)

And if you see that little bit of dried paint around the base of the model, don't worry about it. I cleaned it off right after I saw it in the picture. DO NOT WORRY ABOUT IT.

Dark Spawn (Six of the Thousand Young)

I'm sure that designing miniatures for large-scale production is difficult, balancing aesthetics with price and construction realities. When I say that these Dark Spawn from Cthulhu: Death May Die are poorly designed, I mean that only insofar as their ability to be painted is lacking. The masses of branches or tentacles on top, along with some of the underbelly areas, are difficult to reach to apply a base coat, let alone detailed painting. In light of that, I went with a very fast, drybrush-heavy, sketchy, and dark paint scheme to hide the worst of it. This is not a great paint job, but these are not great models for painting.

All that said, these monsters are finished and perfectly usable on the tabletop, and I can move on.

Gugs

This batch of bifurcated baddies is another duo from Cthulhu: Death May Die: Fear of the Unknown. They are called Gugs. They're another striking monster design, even if I'm not entirely sure how the long, spiky tongue is supposed to work.

I went with dark blues, starting with a base of Heavy Charcoal (72.155). I then worked up with some mixtures of Dark Prussian Blue (70.899), Luftwaffe Uniform WWII (70.816), and a dash of Deep Sky Blue (70.844). The base red is Carmine Red (70.908)*, and the teeth, claws, and bones are Bonewhite (72.034). There was a brown wash on the claws, teeth, and bones, and the furry bits of the critters got a black wash.

*It turns out that Vallejo discontinued their Game Color Extra Opaque line of paints some time ago. This means that when I run out of staples like Heavy Red, Heavy Charcoal, etc., I'm going to need to try to find replacements. The Vallejo website is not helpful in this regard.

Fishers from Outside

Here are two more C:DMD:FotU monsters. Each of these is an oddly named "Fisher from Outside." These creatures apparently hail from one of Lovecraft's poems that I am unfamiliar with. Biologically, they make sense, at least; no crazy tentacles here. The fisher is a monoptic monoped. I did surgery on one of the two to remove the strange, wrapped tongue; I think it looks better without it.

Colors are weird combination of Vallejo paints: Heavy Kakhi (72.145), Beasty Brown (72.043), Heavy Ochre (72.150), Heavy Brown (72.153), and Bonewhite (72.034). There are a few reds on there, too, just as an accent color.

Superheroes: Mr. Whisper and Ms. Lead

I've been using a lot of reds and blues on my pulp heroes lately, so I opted for heavy greens with this duo of do-gooders (or at least do-neutralers). Mr. Whisper is a master of the sword: quiet, clean, and precise. Meanwhile, Ms. Lead (as in the element Pb) is the kind to stash a tommy gun for a boxing match. They fight crime. (In C:DMD:FotU, they are named Ikeda Saito and Agatha May, respectively.)

The picture, unfortunately, really doesn't show the colors very well. The main green is Vallejo Heavy Green (72.146), and the grey-green is German Camo Extra Dark Green (70.896). The white is Light Grey (70.990). The golden color is Brass (70.801), and the silver is Oily Steel (70.865). That's pretty much it, but I love the way these two figures turned out. The face on the Agatha figure lacked much definition moulded into the plastic, but between the hat and the mask it's mostly obscured anyway.

Rat-a-tat-tat, eldritch monstrosities!

The Unnameable

The problem with painting up a series of indescribable, unnameable horrors is that they really do all just blend together. It's a writhing mass of spikes, tentacles, and suckers--so what? And what kind of name is The Unnameable, anyway? It works better in a story like Lovecraft's than it does when you have a literal, physical miniature in front of you. If you can name the rest of these eldritch monsters, what makes this one special? It's just lazy.

And speaking of lazy, my paint job for this miniature is also lazy, even for me. Over the black primer I did a layer of Citadel Nighthaunt Gloom (contrast paint), then a wash of Nuln Oil for definition. Then, progressively lighter drybrushes of Vallejo Ultramarine Blue (72.022), Oxford Blue (70.807), and a mix of the Oxford Blue with Pale Grey Blue (70.907). I then threw on some purples and greens to give it some variety. The creature is meant to be unobservable with the five senses or something similar, so I avoided any bright pops of color; whatever this thing is, its ever-shifting appearance is all in your head. Since it's an indescribable "The Unnameable" and all.

Dhole

Another big monster from the C:DMD:FotU box, the Dhole is... almost four inches tall. Other than that, I'm not really sure what I'm looking at here, even after painting it. Some kind of alien snake, possibly with fur? The H.P. Lovecraft wiki describes them as "huge, slimy worm-like creatures, at least several hundred feet long. Because they avoid daylight and are covered in viscous goo, their features are nearly impossible to discern." Well, this guy seems a lot shorter than that, but I can believe the goo part. In any case, big monster.

Having no clue what to do with this, I just slapped down greens and drybrushed on some yellows and whites. The mouth and its three tongues are a spectrum from Vallejo's Heavy Charcoal through Heavy Blue to Deep Sky Blue. The eyes are random mixes of Heavy Blue and Deep Sky Blue. Bish-bash-bosh, throw on a wash and it's done. Not too impressive, but good enough for a random, inexplicable creature. I can see this getting used as a space monster in a scifi game.

Superheroes: The All-American

Here's another quick investigator/mystery man from the Cthulhu: Death May Die: Fear of the Unknown box. I'm calling him The All-American, but the game says his name is Steve Wainwright. There's a long history of super-patriotic American superheroes who dress in variations on the red, white, and blue. A non-exhaustive list (beyond the still-relevant Captain America) includes The Super-American, V-Man, American Crusader, American Eagle, Captain Courageous, Fighting Yank, Captain Battle, U.S. Jones, The Eagle, The Flag, The Liberator, Man of War, Yank & Doodle, Uncle Sam, Major Victory, and The Shield. With his early football uniform, The All-American fits right in.

This is the first C:DMD:FotU figure that I've made any physical alterations to; for some reason, he was awkwardly wielding a big chef's knife in his back hand. I removed it, and it just looks like he's pulling back for a haymaker punch now. The red is just Vallejo Heavy Red (72.141) and FolkArt Imperial Red (4669). The blue is Vallejo Heavy Blue (72.143) and Craft Smart Bright Blue (402480). For the white, I used Vallejo Light Grey (70.990); it's not quite as piercing as a true white, and this formula applies very cleanly and smoothly. A Nuln Oil wash, followed by a little bit of highlighting and my normal skin technique, and the figure was finished.

Cultists, but in Green this time

The Cthulhu game miniatures included these ten (semi-blurry) cultists, and my understanding is that most of the game scenarios use them in some fashion, but I really just enjoy painting up more cultists for my heroes to punch--for justice!

Strictly speaking, these ten cultists are not monopose, since there are three poses. Thus, these tripose miniatures are nicely detailed, but not so much so that they couldn't be batch painted. I completed all of them over the course of one uneventful Saturday.

While I already have a cult in red robes (the Embers of Alexandria), I wanted to try something else for these evil folks and opted for a basically all-green palette. Over the black primer, I did a layer of Vallejo German Camo Extra Dark Green (70.896), which has seen a surprising amount of use lately. On the upper part (the veil?), I used a drybrush of Vallejo Heavy Grey (72.145), which I mixed with Bonewhite (72.034) for an even lighter highlight. For the main robes, I used a drybrush of Heavy Green (72.146), just to bring in some saturation. The gems(?) on their tassels and the bookmarks on the books are Vallejo's Goblin Green (72.030), which really is just the classic Citadel Goblin Green. The browns are Ceramcoat Burnt Umber (02025). The gold is Citadel Gehenna's Gold, and the blades and such are Vallejo Gunmetal Grey (70.863). Everything then got a wash of Nuln Oil. The eyes were given white dots because the black emptiness I originally tried didn't really work.

So there we go. More cultists. Between these, the painted elder god, monsters, and investigators, I guess I have enough painted to actually play Cthulhu: Death May Die: Fear of the Unknown, but I don't really have the inclination, time, or space to play Cthulhu: Death May Die: Fear of the Unknown right now. Maybe later this year I'll try out Cthulhu: Death May Die: Fear of the Unknown. (Cthulhu: Death May Die: Fear of the Unknown is a very long name.)

Ghasts

Here are five monopose Ghast figures from the Cthulhu: Death May Die: Fear of the Unknown game. I like the style and the pose, but I've never been a fan of groups of figures that are all the same pose. I guess C:DMD:FOTU is more of a board game than a real tabletop miniatures game, and they do work for what they need to do, but they still look pretty samey.

The paint job is a drybrushed layers of Ceramcoat Burnt Umber (02025), Craftsmart Brown (288274), and Craftsmart Golden Brown (228273). Then, the hairy parts got some Vallejo German Camo Extra Dark Green (70.896) and a light drybrush of Vallejo Bonewhite (72.034). Those hairy bits then got a light wash of Nuln Oil to dial back the bonewhite. I did the eyes as bright yellow dots, and then these ghasts were done.

I always enjoy monsters that are mostly drybrushing, because they can be knocked out pretty fast and still look pretty good.

Space Landsknecht Android

Just looking at this figure, you might wonder why I called it a "Space Landsknecht" android. The reason is because it serves the two Space Landsknechts that I painted up back in 2023. It's basically the same as the Outpost Androids from last year, but in a slightly different outfit with the space landsknecht color scheme.

Beep boop.

Tsathoggua

Tsathoggua, the Sleeper of N'kai, is not a creation of H.P. Lovecraft, but rather of Clark Ashton Smith, like any number of the "mythos" creatures that are included in Cthulhu: Death May Die: Fear of the Unknown. After all, there are only so many original eldritch things described in Lovecraft's own writings (he did write a story about Tsathoggua after Smith created it). I'm not familiar with the lore behind this entity, but it looks striking.

One might pause before describing an inconceivably powerful elder power as "chunky," but Tsathoggua could hardly be described as anything else. This titan squats down, compressing his six-limbed bulk in sedate recline. There are eleven eyes across his body, six in relatively the normal position on his face, one on each knee and (primary) elbow, and one large central eye in the center of his chest. He's definitely a strange, watchful creature. Though, he does look like he could use a nap.

The paints are just a lot of browns and drybrushing. I then went with light blue irises on the white eyes to make a pop of color stand out. This figure falls into the "good enough" category, but I'm happy with the way it turned out.

(Pulp hero for scale.)

Superheros: Renaissance Man and Lady Eidolon

One of the reasons I wanted the Cthulhu: Death May Die: Fear of the Unknown game was for the included miniatures that could be made into superheroes. This gentleman and lady were my first choice for investigators to paint up.

On the left is Mike, the strongman, and my version looks a bit different from the official art. Why have everyman investigators when you can have a team of mystery men to fight the eldritch horrors instead? He turned out looking even better than I expected. I'm going to call him Renaissance Man for now (which is an old pun from the sidekick I painted up, Baroque Boy); the name is subject to change.

Wikipedia defines an eidolon as "a shade or phantom look-alike of the human form." On the right of the picture is Lady Eidolon, a pulp heroine who uses the mystical powers of the Hemotite Akinakes, an ancient Persian Dagger. She has some of the basic "vampire-like" powers without being a vampire herself.

Pulp heroes, assemble!

Amorphous Scions

I recently received the Cthulhu: Death May Die: Fear of the Unknown game that I kickstarted (for the minis) back in November of 2022; the project was successfully backed more than two years before I received it at the end of December of 2024. That's a ridiculously long wait. In any case, I cracked open the big box right away to check out the miniatures, and they're generally of good quality, both in terms of design and actual manufacture (which isn't something you can take for granted with products from CMON).

Looking at what figures to paint, I opted to start with something quick. You know you're in for something interesting when the name of the creature is "Amorphous Scion," and these little fellows more or less deliver. I drybrushed them half and half with a green side and a bluish-purple side. Depending on the angle you're looking at, it's basically either one color or the other. It's kinda nifty. Then, after picking out the teeth with Bonewhite and using the shiny new-formula Agrax Earthshade to wash the whole model, it was pretty much complete.

Superhero: Scheherazade

The superheroine Scheherazade, known to her friends as "Zad," has tremendous psychic powers. Along with telekinesis and flight, her powerful telepathy allows her to create incredibly lifelike illusions, seeming to alter the very world around her to fit the story she wants to tell. Locked in an eternal battle against her archenemy, Odyllic, she uses her creativity and willpower to overcome her foes and save the day.

This model is from the Bones 4 Kickstarter, and it is currently shown on the Reaper website "Rivani, Iconic Psychic." I really like the way her cape/cloak supports the figure to really sell the illusion of flying.

The colors are pretty straightforward, with bright red, white, and blue creating a strong heroic triad with a few grey and golden highlights.

Overall, I'm very happy with how Zad turned out, and I think she's more than ready to bring 1,001 tales to the tabletop.

Yakra the Dwarf

As a late Christmas present for a friend, I customized and painted up this delightful miniature. This is a version of Yakra (the Dwarf) from when he was a character in a D&D campaign some decade and a half ago. As you can see, Yakra has a one-eyed mindflayer head on top of his helmet, a decomposing red dragon upper jaw on his pauldron, and two spiked shields. He's amazing.

The base miniature is "Borin Ironbrow, Dwarf Fighter" from Reaper Miniatures. The right-hand shield is a Skaven shield, with pairs of spikes clipped off of old Skaven spears. The mindflayer head is an alien head from a Stargrave sprue, chopped in half and extended with green stuff. The dragon head is some skull from... a box of skulls, which was extended with green stuff; the horns are the tips of Skaven tails. There's a surprisingly large amount of Skaven on this model.

Villainous Thugs 3: Dream Warriors

You can never have too many generic thugs, and Gingerbread has rung in the new year by recruiting a few more dastardly goons to her criminal empire. These are painted in the same basic colors as the previous generic thugs, though this grey has a slightly greenish hue (Vallejo "German C. Extra Dark Green").

This batch also adds another special lieutenant, Mr. Mistletoe, with a heavy anti-superhero weapon. The missile weapon Mistletoe is towing appears to be an AT4 (from a Project Z sprue). According to Wikipedia, "the AT4 is a Swedish 84 mm unguided, man-portable, disposable, shoulder-fired recoilless anti-tank weapon." Technically, it's a recoilless rifle and not a missile launcher, but honestly, I'm just going to call it a rocket launcher.

So, this brings Gingerbread's gang up to 13 members:

• Gingerbread
• Mr. Holly (Light machine gun)
• Mr. Mistletoe (Rocket launcher)
  
• 5x Flatcap Thugs (Pistol)
• 5x Fedora Thugs (SMG)

That seems like a decent-enough criminal organization for a supervillain. (This does now outnumber the next-largest specifically supercriminal group, Redcoat's gang, which has a total of 11 members.)

2024 in Review

In keeping with tradition, I painted one more model in 2024 than I painted in 2023. This means I painted 130 miniatures in the last year. Looking back, most of the progress was weighted toward the beginning of the year, with just a trickle of minis from April through December. I've had a number of other creative projects this year (including designing miniatures and terrain for 3D printing), but I still managed to hit the goal.

With no further ado, let's take a gander at what I've completed this year, including what I've selected as my Models of the Year.

• Scifi (20)
  
• Big Purple Alien
  
• Gasmask Operative
• Gasmask Operative Hologram
• Cargobot (Blue)
• Cargobot (Yellow) (2)
• Corporate Riot Guards (3)
• Prisoners with Bardiches (4)
• Prison Warden
• Inquisitorial Terminator
  
• BurnARD
• 
  Belospian with Derby
• Outpost Androids (3)
  
• Alien Horde (4)
• Large Harvester (3)
• Explosive Harvester
• Battletech (5)
• Stinger (Fusilier)
• Jenner (Fusilier)
• Panther (Fusilier)
• Rifleman (Fusilier)
• Annihilator (Fusilier)
• Fantasy (5)
• 
  Wyvern
• Mummy
• Mummy Priestess 
• Giant Boar
  
• Giant Crab
  
• Skeleton Horde (29)
• Spears (13)
• Archers (5)
• 
  Necromancer
  
• Undead Lord (Model of the Year Nominee)
• Red Standard Bearer
  
• Red Shieldbearers (2)
  
• Green Champion
• Musician
  
• Green Standard Bearer
  
• Green Shieldbearers (2)
• Corpse Cart (Model of the Year Nominee)
• 
  
  Mordheim (7)
• Marienburg Ogre Halberdier
• 
  Skaven Rat Ogre
• Skaven Night Runner
• Marienburg Halberdiers (4)
  
• World War II (6)
• British Paratrooper with Rifle (3)
• British Paratrooper with SMG (3)
• Superpowers (14)
• Fiasco
• Fiasconauts (2) 
• Agent Darwin
• 
  Caldwell
• Caldwell's Crew (3)
• Buckaroobot 
• Couture
• Umbra
• Veinglory
• Odyllic
• Heart Queen
  
• Turnip28 (24)
  
• Stiltwalker Toady (Model of the Year Nominee)
• Short Toady
• 12th Geosmin Regiment Fodder (x6)
• 12th GMPR Rootlings (x6)
• 12th GMPR Chaff (x4)
• 12th GMPR Brutes (x6)
• Tanker (9)
  
• Steed Mk 1 Tankette (Heavy rifle turret)
• Impa TAV (Light cannon)
• KGJ-7 Tankette (Machine gun)
  
• Tank crew (x2)
• 
  Line Infantry Officer
  
• Line Infantry Enlisted (x3)
  
  
• Terrain (7)
• Biggut's Fish (Fast Food Restaurant)
• Urban Residence
• Urban Shop
• Subway Station
• Bus Stop 
• Bank (Terrain of the Year Nominee)
• Urban Road Terrain Tile (2' x 3')

 

 〰 Models of the Year 〰

There were three Model of the Year nominees this year, but only one glorious undead warlord can take the prize. The Undead Lord was a great sculpt, and a simple headswap and some decorative piles of skulls really pushed it over the top, even before painting it up. This is a fun piece, and one I would be happy to bring to a tabletop again and again to menace the forces of Good.

As for the Terrain of the Year, there was really no contest. The Bank is a great combination of terrain-building techniques, with foamcore, model train ballast, and an acetate skylight alongside the 3D-printed elements that I designed. The painting turned out well, and my daughter loves playing with superhero miniatures and LEGO people on this building.

As always, thanks to all of our entrants and we'll see you back here next time! Happy new year!