Not much painting today (or recently)

So, my original plan was to get in a game or three over the holiday season, and get some painting done as well. I figured that, with the addition of a bunch of Blackbane's Raiders, I would finish up a full unit, add to my painted percentage, and generally round out the year on a good note.

So, today I headed down to Games Plus, a bit south of the in-laws, for some hobby time, and possibly a game.  I did not get nearly as much painting done as I had hoped, and I did not get in a game at all.  But the time was well-spent, since I helped talk a couple of guys into splitting the two-player starter for Hordes, and walking them through a rough outline of the rules.

So, Games Plus should be picking up a couple of new players - one Circle and one Legion.  IIRC, Games Plus plays on Saturday, and I told the guys that there are games played on Wednesday nights at Unique Gifts & Games, and on Thursdays down at the Dice Dojo.  And I told them about some of the groups that are out there, so hopefully they find a welcoming community here in the Windy City.

I did get some done - my Blackbanes are all assembled, I got some base colors onto the Revenant crew, and I did a little work on a very long-neglected unit of Bane Thralls.  As an added plus, I finally broke down and picked up a couple of nice brushes, instead of the cheapies that I have been using for all these years.  Hopefully, they will serve me well.

Adventures of the Ghost Fleet

So, my Terminus list (such as it is) has been just a general "I take Terminus, and some stuff from his tier list, and let's see what happens."  Tonight, I got to field a full unit of Blackbanes and two crabjacks, without resorting to proxies.  Yes, I lost, but it was fun, and it was darned close.

My T4 Terminus list went up against a T4 eVayl list:

eVayl
Angelius
Ravagore
Scythean
x2 Harriers

Full Legionnaires
Full Spawning Vessel
2 Spell Martyrs
1 Shepherd

The game was pretty straightforward - he did not want to be within 9" of Terminus, and I wanted him to be.  For a good chunk of the game, I had the upper hand - he came close to wiping out the Revenants, but could not seal the deal by killing the quartermaster.  He did some damage to Blackbanes, but I managed to bring the unit back to nearly full strength on the granted ability.  My feat did great - something like 7 or 8 souls on Terminus, which let me do a lot of damage on the following turn.

But, that huge cache of souls and focus let me get greedy, and Terminus wound up in an exposed position, and he managed to pile enough damage on him to kill him.  I made the first tough roll with the Lich Lord, but not the second. 

I like the Ghost Fleet list, but I definitely need some more practice with it.  And I need to start painting my figs, though I did work on putting some stuff together.  Now, it's off to read NQ 45, and read through some of the Urban Adventure for the IKRPG.

Not much lately.

That whole holiday season pretty much puts a crimp in my gaming.  I have gotten in another couple of games with Terminus (both losses, sadly, though both were also close games, and a lot of fun), and even a couple of games of Malifaux.

I'm wrapping up the year with a few more additions to my unpainted forces - I finally have a unit of Blackbanes Raiders, and I added another crabjack. I might add another pistol wraith, or possibly something else in the next couple of days - I like to support the local game stores when I travel, and it justifies my bringing some of my gaming stuff with me when I visit over the holidays.

Another go with Terminus

Still playing around with Terminus, mainly because he is big and stompy and generally fairly tough.  Plus, who doesn't like a flying lich lord who lives to eat souls?  So, on this occasion, I tried out the Terminus tier list I have been running:

Terminus
3 Slayers
Skarlock Thrall

full Blackbanes
full Revenant Crew
Rengrave

My opponent was running a Gators list:

Bloody Barnabas
Blackhide Wrastler
Bull Snapper
Ironback Spitter

Wrong-Eye and Snapjaw

Full gatorman posse
Totem Hunter

He won the the roll, and chose to deploy first - gators toward the center, Wrong-Eye and Snapjaw guarding his left flank.  The totem hunter held the right, and named the Revenant Crew as prey.

I set up fairly quickly, with the jacks guarding Terminus, the Blackbanes on my left, and the Revenant crew mostly on the right, with the quartermaster tucked safely away.

He advanced fairly cautiously, but in almost complete safety, thanks to Swamp Pit.  Granted, shooting is not a big part of my Terminus list, but having it shut down completely is a little annoying.  I advanced, but not quite as cautiously. Terminus cast Malediction on himself, and camped the rest of the focus.

Next turn, the Totem Hunter zipped up, and leapt into the middle of the Revenant crew, killing precisely zero of them.  I think he hit one, but I made the tough roll.  That left the Totem hunter in a bad position.  More gator advancing into swamp pits, and Wrong-Eye and Snapjaw kept rolling up on the flank. 

On my turn, I killed the Totem hunter by piling a whole bunch of undead pirates on him.  Terminus moved up, feated, and started trying to kill things, hellfiring the gators and trying to hit Wrong-Eye with his breath weapon.  The gator warcaster lived, so I piled on attacks from Blackbanes (who advanced through an obstacle to get to him), but I could not seal the deal.

That was the turn where I lost the game, too.  I over-extended myself, in my zeal to kill Wrong-Eye (and remove both him and Snapjaw from the flank, making my life ever so much easier.)  Barnabas moved up, feated, and put a serious hurt on Terminus and a jack.  I could not recover in time, and while I tried to salvage it on my turn (by killing the Blackhide, and some other stuff), I could not risk the free strikes to get to Barnabas, nor kill enough to stop him from clearing a path to Terminus and killing him with the Ironback on the following turn.

The good thing about losing is that you get to learn from your mistakes. 

That's right.  I can't leave Terminus right in the front, low on focus and souls, and in range of a wrastler and Barnabus' feat.  Bad Idea (tm). 

Goals, 2013.

So, in another blog, the question was posed, "What are your goals for 2013?"  It's generally a little early for me to think about goals for the next year - I like to enjoy a small period of inebriation and over-eating before I indulge in any introspection, so I typically post my goals in early January.

Now, the goals listed in that other blog are all good ones - grow the player base, run more events, paint more.  I plan on doing all of those.  But, last night, I decided on another one.

In 2012, I wanted to hit the point where I could play a legal, 35-pt (or higher) army for every faction, contract and compact.  No problem.  I think I can actually do 50, although some of them are some pretty nasty stretches to get to it.  (Shae should never have that many 'jacks.  Never.)

My 2013 is equally audacious.  I want to have one of every warlock and warcaster in the game.  (Not including alternate sculpts, though I may try to pick some of them up.)  That way, I can run a "Who's The Boss" tourney.  I have over half of the warlocks/warcasters already, so it's a doable goal.

Any progress yet?

AdeptiCon is now two days closer.  What have I gotten done so far?  Well, it turns out that not everything for Malifaux was assembled.  I have a Willie the demolitionist model that is still sitting in his box. I need to get him put together.  I have managed a test scheme on two of the metal gamin - I hope to have at least one of them finished later today, and possibly even based, if I can find some base elements that I bought some months ago for another project.

Not much has been done for Warmachine.  I had to strip a bunch of the models, and had to get them and onto their new bases.  It does mean that I will have to buy a new pack or two of blank bases, since I pretty much destroyed the old ones in the process.  They are almost stripped, and I hope to be reassembling and priming them later today or tomorrow, so that I can really get to work on them.

Drew some more concept sketches for the display board as well.  Need to finish my army lists and what not before I actually build too much of it, in order to make it look nice.  Hope to start on it before Christmas though, so I actually have a lot of time.

Time to get painting!

So, there is about 136 days until AdeptiCon.  I'm currently signed up for the Malifaux by Gaslight, Iron Arena, Wm/H Hardcore, and Blood, Sweat and Tiers.  I'm starting to look at lists, and making my painting queue, because otherwise, it is not going to get done.

For Malifaux, it looks like I need to paint about 20-30 models, tops.  And that would give me several different factions, and a fair choice of crews within those factions.  Not a problem.  Some of the models I want to use are already started, and unless I decide to build something around a man named Sue, I do not have to buy anything, so everything is already here, assembled, and primed.  Score!

For Warmchine - I have definitely settled on a faction.  I need to do some fairly serious painting, since virtually nothing for any of the lists that I am considering is painted.  (Actually, I think two of the 'jacks are done.  Not a big help, actually.)  Nor do I even own everything in at least one of the lists that I am looking at running.  I should have everything by the end of the month, or mid-January, at the latest.  I hope to have what I have on hand painted by then.

Oh, and I need to build a display board.  Not for a contest or anything, just for rule of cool.

Time to get cracking, I guess.

Terminus, take two

Another day, another test spin with Terminus.  This time, I tried Terminus at the FLGS, where I got to play against eThags and some shredder spam.  I was running:

Terminus
3 Slayers
Skarlock Thrall

full Blackbanes
full Revenant Crew
Rengrave

Kenny was running eThags and 19 shredders.  19 shredders!

He won the rolls, and basically ran as many toward me as he could, with eThags shedding fury in the process.  I advanced a tad more cautiously - 19 shredders is an awful lot of beasts, especially on feat turn. (As an odd note, this is the second time in a row using Terminus where his feat did basically no good - stupid soulless Legion beasts.)

eThags and the shredder rush slows down a little bit - a full run will put them at charge range, and he really, really, really wants to get the charge off.  The skarlock and Terminus immolate a few shredders, with an assist from Rengrave.  Lot of pirates and Blackbanes run up, and basically turn themselves into undead tough speedbumps.

The shredder rush begins in earnest, though a ridiculous number of my undead make their tough rolls.  One lucky pirate made something like three tough rolls in a row, as eThags tried to kill him.  Obviously, this is a turn when eThags pops feat, and, at the end, I am down almost all of the Blackbanes (lost incorporeal when making free strikes, and totally worth it), and more than half of the revenant crew.  On my turn, I get back my revenant crew, and decide to just go for the assassination, since eThags is within charge range.

Terminus charges over 5 shredders (man, do I love flight!), and, thanks to his big honking sword of death, combined with Malediction, drops the blighted ogrun with focus to spare.

This one could have gone very badly for me.  Kenny concentrated a bit too much on the undead, and I made a lot more tough rolls than I had any right to make.  And, to be honest, if Terminus had failed to kill eThags, it would not have mattered what else I did that turn - eThags would have eaten my giant undead killing machine.

Relic Knights update, AdeptiCon too

So, despite my initial misgivings, I went in on the Relic Knights kickstarter.  The kickstarter ended a while ago, but they finally have the full pledge manager up, and I put in my pledge.  I had made more than I had expected for some of my old gaming stuff, so I went in for more than I probably really needed to have in order to play the game.

The final tally is going to be the Black Diamond, Speed Circuit and Noh sets, plus a couple of the extra bells and whistles.  I thought about picking the Paladins or Corsairs, but went with Noh as a third choice because they have fewer figs. I think the total is only about 70 figs or so anyway, but for some reason, 70 seemed more reasonable than 75 or 80. 

In other news, I managed to register for AdeptiCon next year.  I registered for a couple of Warmachine events, and the Malifaux Gaslight league.  AdepticCon requires everything to be painted to at least 3 color standard, and fully based.  I have 155 days to get everything done.  I think that, since the Hardcore is 1 army list only, I will not be using my Minions - Carver can fare very poorly against Lylyth lists, and Barnabas, while it counters Lylyth pretty well, is too pillow-fisted to deal with Gargossals and certain heavies.  So, I have to choose another faction, make an army or two, test them and paint them.  Plenty of time.

And paint some Malifaux figs as well.  Hopefully, my painting queue is kept to 100 figs or less.  But I have a hard deadline, and I intend to make it.

That did not go well

Hooray, another Vassal batrep - because I am too lazy to go paint right now*.

Got in another Vassal game last night against Clexis again.  We went with battleboxes, mainly to keep the game short.  pDenny versus pKaya, and it wound up being a short game.

pKaya has some nice movement shenanigans available to her, and a really high Def.  pDenny has a lot of arc nodes, and an ungodly feat.  But it was an ugly game - I just could not hit the broad side of barn, even on the turn when I popped pDenny's feat.  You would think that, with boosted dice, I could hit a 9 at least half the time, right?  Naah.

I called it, when it got down to a crippled Slayer (with left arm remaining), a crippled Deathripper (movement left, nothing else), a crippled Defiler (just movement), and pDenny, versus a wounded (but not badly) pKaya, an Argus, and the Feral.  We tried a couple of theorymachining, just to see if I could survive another turn and win, and pretty much any victory condition for me relied on dice rolls that were much less likely than a horse winning the Kentucky Derby after dropping dead in the starting gate.

Fun game, as always.  I can't say that I learned much from it - I think my dice (well, Vassal dice) just were not on my side last night, and there is only so much you can do about that.  I did not bank on a lot of luck for anything that I was doing, just getting average dice rolls, and, for the most part, they were not forthcoming. 

I"m not blaming dice, per se, but when you have a couple of turns of "OKay, I have Focus 7, need to hit a 16 with the arced venom, I need 9s.  I boost, miss.  Buy another one, boosting.  Miss.  Okay then."  there is only so much you can do.  I got outplayed for part of it, and, I think, on average rolls, I still would have lost, but it would have been a much closer game.  As it was, he had me cold, and we both knew it.






* Actually, this is not true.  But I registered for AdeptiCon yesterday, and I want to spend a day or two thinking about army lists before I jump into a painting project, so I am not doing much painting until then. 

Terminus the beatstick

Great scott!  I forgot what a beatstick Terminus is!

I played a game on Vassal last night against one of my local players.  Clexis (as he is named on the forums) has been trouncing me on a fairly regular basis with his Skorne, but he is thinking about branching out to Circle when we start our next journeyman league.  So, he was trying some Circle, and I was testing an idea that I had for Terminus.  No scenario, just a straight-up bloodbath, and we both wound up running tier lists.

He had:
pBaldur
Megalith
Woldwarden
Woldwyrd

Druid Stoneward & Woldstalkers (x2)
Sentry Stone and Mannikins
Shifting Stones (x2), one with Stone Keeper

I was running:
Terminus
3 Slayers
Skarlock Thrall

full Blackbanes
full Revenant Crew
Rengrave

The board was pretty empty - enough terrain, but not too much. A couple of forests (as though pBaldur cannot make his own), some obstacles, etc.  I won the roll, and elected to go first.  I made a wall of slayers, dropped Terminus behind them, and flanked with Blackbanes on one side, and most of the Revenants on the other.  The quartermaster and the Skarlock stayed by Terminus, and Rengrave hung close by.

pBaldur took the middle, flanked with the two units of Stonewards.  The contructs were as far forward as possible, as were the shifting and sentry stones.  (Quick note - his army made Terminus' feat basically useless.  Only four living models.  $(*$&$ constructs.)

I spent my first turn basically running everything forward, except Terminus, who cast Malediction on himself and charged, but could not quite get close enough to target one of my Slayers.  Clexis advanced his stuff, though not nearly as recklessly.

It was getting late, so I did not take notes on this, but basically, there were a couple of turns where I would advance through the forests that Clexis kept spamming with pBaldur, and he was picking off Blackbanes and Revenant crew left and right.  I would get the revenant  crew back, and I was making enough tough rolls with Blackbanes that my losses were only a couple of models per turn.  Plus, the Vassal dice roller hated him.

Eventually, he gacks a slayer, and has put some serious hurt on another one.  And left pBaldur within 9" of Terminus.  Terminus flies over everything, and basically pounds pBaldur into the ground.  pBaldur only had 2 fury on him when Terminus charge, and the first attack did a whopping 18 damage.  (The dice loved me last night.  Buy lottery tickets now.  Or prepare for the end of the world, as you choose.)  It took a few hits, but once Terminus based pBaldur and starting slicing, average dice would have ended it.

It was a good game - heck, a great game.  We were talking on Skype, so there was some trash talk going on, and some random complaints about Legion, which is odd, because neither of us were playing Legion.

I need to get in more games via Vassal, and choose something for AdeptiCon.  I'd really like to go to a tourney and actually have a fully painted force.  I could not quite swing it for GenCon, but I got passably close; if I start working on painting an army again, maybe I could make it happen this time.

Playing hooky

I should be running.  I should be writing for NaNoWriMo.  I should be painting. (Please note - things like laundry, dishes, cleaning, etc did not even come close to making the list.)  Instead, I am playing hooky from those things, and trying to input my collection into Forward Kommander.

So, at the moment, here are the following stats:

Cygnar: 3 models, 33% painted
Cryx 17 models, 52% painted
Protectorate 0 models
Khador 1 model, 0% painted
Retribution 5 models, 0% painted
Mercenaries 13 models, 23% painted

Circle 9 models, 66% painted
Legion 14 models, 42% painted
Trollbloods 24 models 12% painted
Skorne 21 models, 4% painted
Minions 1 model, 100% painted

Total models is just over 100, so I have barely begun.  This is going to be a good weekend project.  Or longer.

ETA - just found a little quirk in FK.  Had it open on two machines (took the laptop down to the basement.)  Managed to delete everything that I had entered, more or less.  I'm thinking that I will just build an Excel spreadsheet instead.  Much easier in the long run.

Curse you, NaNoWriMo!

Okay, so I haven't said anything here in a few days.  I blame NaNoWriMo for that - I'm behind on my word count, and trying to get caught back up and ahead.  Pity the words here won't count.

So, for my October painting, in the "Tale of Warmahordes 2012" challenge, I finished this:

Woldwarden (9 pts).



I noticed a couple of slight touch-ups that I need to do, but really, I could base and seal it today.

I had a stalker that was almost completely finished on the 30th, and then, when looking at something else for reference, came across a pic of someone else's stalker model. With the legs attached differently. Instead of confirming that mine were correct, I tossed into the pine-sol. The good news is that (1) I had it assembled correctly, and (2) it's still assembled, but now I have to repaint it.

According to the Google docs file that is keeping track of such things,  I have painted 95 pts for the year, and used one of my "Get Out of Painting Free" cards to date.  I wanted to gain it back last month, but failed. 

I should get some painting time in today, once I get at least 2000 words written.  As I said, I am behind, and trying to catch up and get ahead, since the end of the month gets crazy, what with the whole ritual of turkey sacrificing and scooping the innards out of some innocent gourds.

Why, oh why?

So, I used to keep track of my collection via ibodger.  Well, that's gone now, and so I am currently doing a complete inventory of everything I have and putting it into Forward Kommander, since I do not have any device which will run the War Room app.

Unfortunately, I am not seeing a way to display and save my collection from Forward Kommander, which is what I really want to do.  I want to make a giant list again, and have it somewhere, so that people can ask me to bring specific models, and so that I know what I have at a fairly quick glance.

Maybe I should do some more poking around before I inventory the next hundred models or so.

A random thought on terrain

About this time last year, I posted about some mountains that I had built.  I got some nice comments on it, and at least one was along the lines of "I don't think I could do that."

And, today, I was reading through a thread on a zeppelin docking tower on the forums. It's a truly impressive piece, and obviously took a lot of time, but what struck me was the number of comments along the line (again) of "I could never build that."

theproffet (who built it) said in one of his posts, "Im trying to encourge people to build there own stuff, not just quit and feel sorry for them self. this defenetly isn't my first building and the only way you learn i by doing."

The reason this really jumped out at me is because, just the other day, I picked up a copy of "Great Model Railroads, 2013."  My son really loves trains, and I am currently in the process of getting ready to tear down his existing layout (a simple 4' x 8') and make a new, considerably bigger one.  So, it's mainly an ideas book, looking through to see what other people have done.  At the very end, on the last page, is a quick viewpoint article.

It's titled "You, too, can build a great model railroad," and the main thrust of the article is exactly this defeatist attitude that I have been seeing.  The author states that it's not rooted in the belief that the speaker does not currently possess the skills, but rather, that they never will. 

I build (and have built) a lot of terrain over the years.  What stops me from building things like the zeppelin tower is primarily a lack of desire and time.  I am reasonably confident that, if I wanted to build something like that, I could do so.  But it would not be my first try at building something, and frankly, I don't think my first attempt at houses were exceptional; except perhaps in the sense that, with a small amount of effort, they were easily reclassed as "ruins".  Or possibly, "garbage."

My first attempts at painting were bad.  Very bad.  Random blobs of red and blue and yellow and orange and purple, all on the same miniature bad.  I have improved somewhat since then.  Not as much as I would like, but enough that I am no longer ashamed to have my stuff on the table.  Now I just need to work on my speed, and see if I can work on the backlog before I pick up a bunch of stuff come spring.

Random IKRPG thoughts

Okay, so it's not technically miniature gaming, but since (1) the Iron Kingdoms RPG is based entirely off the Warmachine/Hordes games; and (2) the combat system really calls for miniatures; and (3) it's my blog, and I'll blog what I want to, blog what I want to. . . sorry, flashback to an old song there.

Anyway, the first thing is the character creation mechanic.  Chose an archetype, choose a race, choose two careers, and you are basically done.  Making a new character is a fairly simple process, and it's a good thing, since combat can be quite vicious, what with mighty characters swinging around weapons, boosting attack and damage, and all that.  You don't have many circles in the life spiral (damage track, just like in Hordes, and very similar to the damage grid in Warmachine), and one good hit can really ruin your night.

Combat is pretty simple as well, though I say this coming from a WM/H background, plus a really extensive RPG background.  IKRPG combat is at least a couple of orders of magnitude easier than Chartmaster (I mean, Rolemaster) or Hackmaster. 

So, I like the game.  I like the background, I like the core system. . . I just didn't care too much for the intro adventure. But, it's an intro adventure, so really, I should not ask too much of it, right?

Ran the intro on Friday for two guys from my normal RPG group and two guys from my WM/H group on Saturdays.  (Actually, both groups are small enough that they really aren't "groups," but I can't think of any good word for a gathering that small.)  My RPG guys had played the adventure before, so I tried to ensure that the WM/H guys got to chose characters, take the lead, etc.  Not always as successful as I would have hoped, but they seemed to enjoy it.

It seemed to me that everyone got along well enough as well.  Granted, only one session, past performance is not indicative of future results, your mileage may very, ask a paid professional, do not attempt, blah blah blah boilerplate.  Anyway, I think everyone wants to make a pirate crew, and go from there.  I hope so - I have been jotting down some ideas, and looking through fluff (in the TT game and in both editions of the RPG), so hopefully everyone actually does want to play.

More later, but it's been a long day, and since I have blown out the jack o'lantern and turned off the porch light, maybe now the little extortionists-in-training will leave in peace for a bit.

Quick morning post

Just a quick one this morning, though I hope to have a longer one sometime this afternoon or evening.  Anyway, as a reward, yesterday my so nand I went to a train show - model trains, where people have set up layouts, and are selling old (ie, used, sometimes abused) stuff.  The son is really into model trains, and I like working on layouts, which are basically wargaming terrain that never actually suffers the abuse of being played with.

Anyway, for some time, I have been looking for a cheap, O-scale steam locomotive.  (Warmahordes players know why.)  To date, I have had no luck.  Or rather, I have found plenty that would work, but I just did not want to pay $40 or $50 for something that I would have to convert and would only see play in a fairly small group of scenarios.

But yesterday I found a nice O-scale loco and tender for only $12.  So I snapped it up, and tonight I plan on making some sketches and working out how I can fit it into the Iron Kingdoms milieu.  I have the loco, I have the plasticard, and I have the superglue.  I can rebuild it, better than it was before. Better, faster, stronger.  Or something like that.

Belated post from yesterday

So, no post last night, because we were playing the IKRPG.  More on that on another post.  And soon.  Anyway, yesterday was a banner day for adding to my collection of gaming stuff.

First, I got the first bit of swag from some of the kickstarters that I have backed.  The Reaper Bones stuff I am getting in one massive shipment sometime in late spring.  The Traveller one has been pushed back to January or so, due to printer delays.  The Relic Knights one has yet to send out the final survey for rewards, so late spring 2013 for them, I expect.  And, while the Ogre kickstarter has been delayed to early January, I did get my "I made Steve Jackson work on Car Wars" shirt yesterday.  So that was cool.

Second, I got a copy of Super Dungeon Explore, and the new No Quarter.  Not in time to really read the adventure in it before running IKRPG, but enough time to flip through it.  Anyway, I added however many figs come in SDE to my collection.  Someday I'll paint them.  Honest.  Really.  Trust me.

Third, I finished up, and dropped off, a full Space Hulk basic board, made from Hirst Arts bricks.  The recipient was a bit preoccupied with something else, but I'm going to be getting one of the new 40k sets out of it, which is going to add another 50 models or so to my collection.  I might try to swap the Marines for Chaos - I have scads of marines already, but no chaos.  It's not my "go-to" game by any means, but it's a steady fall-back if I ever need it. 

Last - I have some terrain projects that I want to wrap up soon.  I want to get them done, and get them gone - so that I have money for some more Malifaux figs, and some Warmahordes stuff that I have had my eye on for a while.

Hooray for terrain?

So, the terrain that I am trading is almost done - that's tomorrow's project.  I've started painting again, though I am probably only going to do some low-hanging fruit and finish a minimum unit of Man O'Wars or something.

Not much to post - just trying to get back in the habit of doing so again.

Motivation, but almost no painting

I have been spending a lot of time in the basement lately, working on stuff, but very little of it has been painting.  While I have worked on a couple of models, I haven't actually finished anything.  Instead, I have been pouring the plaster for one of the starship corridor sets from Hirst Arts.  And one of the Star Wars sets.  And parts of two more Star Wars sets.  Plus about four other molds.

Or, put another way - I have been pouring something to the tune of 16 to 18 molds, twice per day.  Or more.  I've pretty much lost count at this point.  But, the starship corridor set (aka Space Hulk board) is almost done - I want to have it done by Friday morning, so that it can get out of the house.  (It's trade for one of the new 40k box sets.)  Then I start work in earnest on assembling the Star Wars sets - they are actually harder than the Space Hulk one.

And yes, I am going to get something painted for this month, though it won't be much.  Bubba probably won't be done until the middle of next month.  But, soccer is winding down, as are some other activities - so I will have Saturdays free once more, and can start losing with my various armies again.

No motivation lately

Well, there are a lot of other reasons that have kept me from painting lately, but the biggest has probably just been a lack of motivation.  It's bad, but I just haven't been able to actually play much of anything lately, and since I haven't been playing, I haven't been able to work up the gumption to go downstairs and paint.  Need to break that streak, and bad.

So, how's that painting working out?

Not so well.  I haven't been managing to average 45 minutes per day - too many interruptions going on.  I have gotten some painting time in, perhaps half of what I would like.  Bubba is . . . well, I'm getting sick of painting those rocky bits, let's put it that way.  Every time I pick him up,  it seems like there are even more of them to paint than I remembered.  If I ever do another one, I will use the airbrush on the rocks, not the skin - there is probably twice as much rock area as skin.

My Rail crew figs are all assembled and primed, with the exception of Willie.  I might try to get him together today.  That's progress, of a sort.

I might get some pics later tonight, once more stuff has been painted.  Otherwise, feel free to post derogatory messages or something.

Bubba has a chin

It's progress, more or less.  The teeth were finished enough for me to glue the lower jaw in place.  I'm hoping to get most of the rest of the rocks basecoated tonight, if nothing else.

I also have some Malifaux assembly work that I want to get done, and I have some Warlands conversions that I need to start planning out.  Hopefully, I can get in a productive hour or so tonight.

(Oh - Bubba now gets his own label on the blog.  Because he is special that way.  Sly the Wold Wrath might get one too, if I remember when the time comes.)

Holy *bleep*, it's October!

And I didn't finish a single figure, from any system, in the month of September.  I feel so ashamed.

I did work on a fair amount of things, but I think most of my time went to the Wold Wrath and the Mountain King, neither of which is finished yet.  I really need to get down the the basement more and paint things more often.

In fact, I think I am going to try and spend at least 45 minutes per night painting for this entire week.  I may not finish anything doing tat (too many irons in the fire, so to speak), but I can make some progress, and hopefully start getting back into the groove again.

Malifaux - first thoughts

It's not so much that I am late to the party with this game, so much as that I was at a different party altogether, and had no reason to switch.  But, a couple of trades left me with a fair amount of Malifuax crews, and I decided that I finally needed to give the game a try.

So, this afternoon, after family stuff was taken care of, I pointed the car east and drove for an hour or so to go try a demo.  (Yes, I live out in the middle of boofoo - so, it's not driving an hour in traffic, but an hour on the highway, doing 70.)  When I got to the store, I first took the chance to touch base with some friends that I used to play Warmachine/Hordes with - I had forgotten that they played on Saturdays as well, though I do not know how often I would be able to get there, since that is my usual day at my FLGs.

Anyway, on to the demo!  I got given the choice between Som'er Teeth Jones and Perdita - basic box sets in each case.  I took Perdita, since I have Som'er Teeth.  We didn't play anything other than a simple brawl - nothing fancy, just trying to take each other down.

Fortunately, it was a demo, so I won.  Okay, luck has a lot to do with it - Nino flipping a bunch of high cards at the piggy, and using the family companion stuff to just pile on several shooters all at once.  With the pig down, all I had to do was (1) keep my crew alive; and (2) kill gremlins faster than Som'er Teeth could summon new ones. 

Anyway, the tl;dr version is this :Had fun, won, need to paint my stuff.  I didn't talk myself into a new crew while I was there - although there was a demo discount, I really don't need to add another crew just yet.  I'm pretty sure that I have ten or eleven crews already, and almost none of that is painted.  Maybe I should paint a crew or two first, and then add something, just to avoid the "I have 650 models and nothing is painted" syndrome for yet another system.

No painting today

I did get some work time in this afternoon, and, although I did not paint anything, I did get a couple of figures primed, and worked on assembling the rail crew.  Poor Willie will be a blank base if I even get the chance to use him - I'll have to decide what I am taking in the morning.

I'm not concerned with winning, obviously - it's a demo.  I just want to take a crew or three that will be fun to play for a first-timer.  Right now, I'm leaning toward Rasputina, Sonnia, Mei Feng, or the Viktorias.

I'll take a camera, and hopefully get a few pics. I'll definitely post something afterwards - my thoughts on the game, if nothing else.

speaking (typing?) of new games, tonight was another board game night for the group.  We played a larger game of X-Wing - it would have gone better, had not the son been involved.  He's still kind of young for it, and since it was getting late, he did not like his X-Wing (with Luke, of course) to get shot at.  We called the game so that I could send him to bed, and then we got in a game of Evil Baby Orphanage. It's an odd game, but fun - constantly changing, but there are some actual strategies involved.  EBO and Wiz-War have been the big post-GenCon hits.

Quick Bubba pic

Obviously, still a WIP, but paint is still being applied to the fig.  All those $%(*&$% rocks are getting annoying though.

I really want to get his teeth finished so that I can put the jaw on him.  And I need to pop him off the base and finish his underside, so that I can get him permanently glued to the base.  That's my plan for the weekend, more or less.

Well, in addition to doing a quick 8 pt model or something ("Hey look - another Wold!  That'll do").  And assembling the rest of the Mei Feng box from Malifaux.  And priming same.  And priming the rail golem.  And putting Willie together.  And working on some other stuff.

Slacking

Yep, I've been slacking. I should be posting some pics tomorrow, but I basically lost the entire weekend (had company, plus family stuff), and didn't really do anything productive the last couple of days.  I have been reading my Malifaux rulebook, prior to this weekends first game, but really, I've been kind of a slug.

Tonight, I have been down in the basement (and am heading back there again in a minute), working on assembling some of the Malifaux plastics, and putting some more paint on Bubba.  I am doubtful that Bubba will be done before the end of the month, so I am also working on a backup item to get my 5 points in.  I'll get something done - but I need to get a lot more done.

I should have more spare time next week - fewer distractions, and getting back into a routine.  Painting is like exercising - you may mean to do it, you may talk about doing it, but really - if it doesn't occupy a set time in your schedule, it has a tendency to get dropped altogether.

Quick hit at the start of the weekend

So, I've added a few things in the last couple of days.  Now, it is actually a net loss to my overall pile of lead - I got rid of more than 200 Chronopia models, all told, and added only a fairly small amount of Malifaux.   In the mail yesterday, I got a package containing the following:

Marcus set - painted table top
Rasputina set (table top) + December Acolyte (painted badly) + silent one (bare)
Von Schill set - table top
Hamelin set - in box
Ophelia set - bare
MacMorning set - bare
Zoraida set - bare

I'm missing one card (December Acolyte) - not a big deal, since I want to learn more of the basic crews before adding extra minions.  I'll order it, along with a couple of other things, in the near future.

I also picked up another copy of the Star Wars X-Wing game.  Now, with two copies, I can play larger games - at least everyone in my gaming group can have a ship now when we are playing.  I need to get some of the expansions - probably over the next month or two.

What I have not done much of lately is painting.  I have been assembling some things, but not any real painting.  I really need to get back on that wagon again - the year is almost up, and I am pretty far behind on how much I wanted to have painted by now.

Anyway, the long and short of it is that my collection shrank by about 200 figures.  So, adding in the Reaper and Relic Knights kickstarters next year, I should be just about even.

Been quiet for a few days

That's because I was sick.  Stupid sinuses - I hate this time of year.

Anyway - my Chronopia figs are gone.  If I have anything left from that system still in the house, it is only because I failed to find it.  Don't misunderstand - I really enjoyed the system, and certainly played it quite a bit, over several editions.  (And the same goes for Warzone, the SF counterpart.)  But, I frankly need to prune systems, if I am not going to actually prune miniatures from my collections.  So, Chronopia had to go.

I'm getting a bunch of Malifaux starters - they should be arriving on or about Thursday.  I still haven't played a single game, but there is a demo on the 29th that I am hoping to get to.  Getting to the demo looks doable - it'll come down to logistics.

On the WM/Hordes front - Bubba progresses slowly.  I really need to take a new pic of him though - he's starting to look like something I would not be ashamed to place on the table.  But I haven't done much painting in the last few days.  Hopefully, I get some painting time tonight.

I also have two new terrain projects - I will be making a Space Hulk board for the local FLGS (I'll get one of the Limited Edition 40k sets in trade - that way, I have a current copy of the rules, just in case I need them, to help in my outreach efforts.)  I also am going to be building a couple of boards for Wiz War - one for me, and one to sell or trade.

I think I will also be making an asteroid field for X-Wing.  I really need to get another copy of the core rules and a bunch of ships.  I want to have two or three dozens ships zipping along the asteriods, on a star mat, by Christmas.  Totally doable.

Not much lately.

So-called "real life" has been interfering lately in my hobby time, so I haven't done much.  I haven't painted nearly as much on my Mountain King (aka "Bubba") as I have wanted to, I haven't finished some other figs that, by all rights, should be done by now, nor have I even finished stripping stuff that got dropped into the cleaner last week.  (It's Pine-Sol, and they're metal, so no harm done by leaving them there, really.)

Tonight, instead of running the RPG group (we're currently on hiatus from the Earthdawn campaign that I have been running for several years), we played some board games.  Got a game in each of Wiz-War, Heap and the Star Wars X-Wing game.  Of the three, Wiz-War was probably the favorite, but all three were a lot of fun. 

It left me wanting to build either a Death Star board (or at least a star field mat and some asteroids) for X-Wing, and use Hirst Arts blocks to make a Wiz-War board.  Time to start pouring and painting again, I guess.

Basement cleaning, con't

For various and sundry reasons, some of them even tangentially related to gaming, I have not finished rounding up all my Chronopia stuff.  I hope to do that tonight.  I had forgotten just how much of it that I had - I have pretty complete armies for four different races, and, were I so inclined, I could hunt down a couple of units and singles for a fifth one, and it would be playable as well.

But, I want them gone.  The Reaper tally is going to be north of 200 figs, the Relic Knights will probably come close to half of that.  I doubt that I have 300 Chronopia figs, but I probably have more than a third of it. 

Of course, the sad part is that I am planning on selling most of it, and some portion of it will surely wind up buying more figs.  I am leaning toward Malifaux at the moment - not because I have any dissatisfaction with Warmachine, but because (1) I am distracted by New Shiny Syndrome; and (2) I want to pretend that I am catching up on my WM/H models for a while.

I still have plans to have at least one decent 50 point list for every faction, contract and compact by the end of the year.  I think (just off the top of my head) that I still need a few things for Circle, some pirates and some rhulic stuff, but I am pretty close on those.

Basement cleaning

On a blog I read, I came across the idea of a game audit.  It's a good idea, but there is no way that I am doing one.  I have too many games that I play too infrequently, but want to keep around.

That said, in between the Reaper Bones and Relic Knights, I am going to have a lot of miniatures arriving on my doorstep in the first half of next year.  Add in my desire to grow my Malifaux and MERCS forces, and I need to do some cleaning out.

The basement needed cleaning anyway (and still does), but I spent a good chunk of time tonight looking for all my old Chronopia figs.  I like the game, like the background, love some of the mechanics, etc - but, let's face it, I don't think I have played it in close to a decade.  Certainly not since we moved to Michigan, and that was almsot eight years ago.

I found most of them, although there are a few figures still extant.  I now need to sort through and see which pieces are missing parts, and which units are complete, etc.  Then, it's put them up on the various sites, and try to get rid of them.  I won't be making much on them, but I will be gaining some serious space, which  is at more of a premium right now than extra money.

It's a disease, but I don't want the cure.

Figmentia.  Army altaholism.  Shiny object syndrome.  They all mean the same thing.

I can buy figures much faster than I can paint them.  And, I like learning new systems, playing new and different games, and generally having fun.  And, I have learned, years ago, that the best way to get people into a new game is to have two armies for it.

The problem, of course, is that two armies often arrive in the form of three or four different armies.  I started out just wanting to have a couple of armies for Dystopian Wars, just in case.  I think, at the moment, that I have at least 5 of the starter boxes.  I have something like 5 armies for MERCS, and, at last count, 5 different ones for Malifaux.

So, why bring this up?  If you guessed "Relic Knights Kickstarter," then you can give yourself a gold star.  Go ahead and go get one - I'll wait.

The good news is that I did not buy in as high as I might have initially wanted to do so.  And, they set it up so that, at certain levels, you could "sell back" extraneous rulebooks or faction starters, in order to buy some of the extras.  Even doing that, I'll wind up with enough factions that I can teach people to play.  And probably offer them their choice of several armies to boot.

The good news is that, in general, I pay for this stuff by cycling through some of the older pieces of my collection, and by making terrain.  My hope is that, by the time this kickstarter projects start arriving, I will have made a dent in the lead and plastic pile, and won't be swamped too badly by the arrival of the Reaper bones KS, plus the Relic Knights KS.  Plus any figs I pick up in trade or buy between now and then. 

One of the blogs I read just did an army audit.  I try not to do such things - I am well aware that my last game of WFB might well have been about the time that the 8th edition book came out.  That doesn't mean that I am likely to get rid of my Ogres anytime soon.  And, while I have yet to play the current ruleset of 40k, I won't be getting rid of those in the foreseeable future.  My Warmaster figs are probably safe from the chopping block, as are my Legions of Steel and my DBA figs.  My still NIB Celts and Romans are probably safe for now.  And, while I have not played FoW in several years, my Soviets are utterly safe.  And, the sad part is that I have barely scratched some of what I have.

That said, I probably will be dropping a few things fairly soon.  I have some fairly good-sized armies for Chronopia, and my Warzone stuff is moderately sized.  If I can get a decent offer for either of them, they are gone - especially if I can get either cash (to buy more stuff, obviously), or figs from games which I am currently pursuing.  

Couple of WIP pics

I might say more later, or take better pics, but for now, here's some random content:

He wasn't my first attempt at the airbrush, but he was the last thing I did before I pretty much packed it up.  I'm generally happy with the skin tones.  I do not, however, have enough control to do really fine lines, so the stones and detail will all be done by hand.  All in all, painting his skin this way was probably not too much faster than doing it with a traditional brush, but it was easier, and I think it looks smoother overall.  I am hoping to get him firmly set onto his base today, which will make transporting him easier.

The tire stacks are done (started them Tuesday or Wednesday), but the truck is still a WIP.  I'm trying for a rust effect, but the salt technique from NQ isn't working for me just yet.  I'm reasonably happy with this so far, but I rubbed to hard or something, and got down to the resin.  I'll finish this one up (and a companion truck, not pictured here), and try it again on something else.

Yet another picless update

I know, I know - all words and no text makes the Army Altaholic poor reading.  I should have some pics up tomorrow.

First up - the airbrush update.  I have been playing with the airbrush since Tuesday.  Tomorrow, I will be taking it back, a day earlier than planned.  Not because I am disappointed with it - well, not per se.  I wish I had a bit more control than the single action provides, but really, what I wanted to do was learn.  And, learn I did.  I spent quite a bit of time making lines, dots, spirals, and all sorts of random little squiggles of paint on paper.  I mixed paint, thinned it, thickened it, increased the pressure, tried low pressure - I did as much as I could in the hour or two per day that I was playing around with it.

I even tried painting a few figs.  Let's just say that my first attempt did not end well.  So poorly, in fact, that they are currently sitting in the Pine-Sol, I chose metal starships for a reason - simple, easy to paint, and easy to strip.  Good thing, too.

I have tried the airbrush on several other figures - one of which I will take pics of in the morning, maybe the others.  I'm actually rather pleased with one of them, and not displeased with the others, especially since I was trying something else, in addition to the airbrush.

Second - my final GenCon based order arrived.  I had held off for a little bit, post-GenCon, but last Friday, I put in an order for some Warlands figs, from Aberrant Games.  They arrived today, which is pretty darned good - especially since they packed them on Monday (Labor Day), and went in the mail on Tuesday.

I need to upgrade my rulebook to the current version, but now, when I combine the official Warlands figs, as well as the Hot Wheels which will have various items from the accessory packs glued onto them, and I have plenty to keep the son and I busy for a while.  I am hoping to teach him how to play on Sunday

Quick post

First, I finally broke down.  I am almost committed to getting an airbrush, but, in a rare flash of intelligence, I realized that renting one from the local FLGS for a few days (at a very reasonable price) would be a Good Idea before buying one.  It's not the same type - they rent a single action brush, and it's also siphon feed - whereas I want double action and gravity-feed, but it's enough to let me work out some of the basics before I commit.

So far, I've managed to get it up and running, although I haven't gotten much more than blotches and spider legs yet.  And yes, I've already looked up what I am doing wrong - though watch this space, especially for "HELP!!" posts.

Second, my Rail Crew from Wyrd Miniatures arrived, along with a tape measure as an apology for the delay.  The tape measure was a nice touch - not needed, but certainly appreciated.

Thinking of appreciated - I placed an order late last week for some Warlands vehicles and accessories.  They packed it yesterday (on Labor Day, which admittedly impressed me to no end), and it apparently went out in the mail today.  Hoping they arrive fairly soon, although there is nothing in it that I need to teach my son how to play the game.

August painting results

The pic is bad - I need to take a better one later today



Only managed one model this month: a Wold Guardian for one of my Hordes armies. I was hoping to finish more, but lost too much time to GenCon, and got distracted by the new shineys that I bought there.

I worked on a lot more, but did not finish much of what I started, obviously.

Moutain King, take 1

Got in a game with Mike (midwestjedi) at Unique Gifts & Games tonight.  We were trying to avoid a mirror match, so he brought Skorne, and I took the opportunity to try out one of my newest toys: the Mountain King.

I was running the following:
Jarl, Devil of Thornwood
Mountain King
Axer
Full unit of Krielstones
Full unit of Sluggers
Jannisa Stonetide

Mike was running:
Dominar Raseth
Bronzeback
Gladiator
Cannoneer
Min unit of Paingivers
Gatorman Posse (full) & Taskmaster

I won the roll, but had him deploy first - once I had placed the mountain king, who, by the way, I am currently calling "Bubba."  We spent several turns dancing around, neither one wanting to be the first to commit to a charge.  My sluggers continued their streak of being fairly ineffective - in this case, they did some damage to the posse, but Bubba alone killed as many as the full unit of sluggers,.

Realizing that the ranged game would eventually let me whittle his forces down to something that I could easily chew through, Mike charged forward with the bronzeback and the 2 remaining gators, leaving me with one lone, knocked down slugger.

On my turn, the slugger stands, and steps away, dieing to the free strike.  I use Jarl to pick off the gators, and Bubba turns and obliterates the bronzeback.  I figure that, between the general toughness of Bubba, the whelps he sheds, and the protective aura from the krielstone, all Bubba has to do is survive the gladiator.  Blood mark, plus feat, plus enrage, and Bubba dies a nasty, brutal death.

From that point on, the game is effectively over.  Losing Bubba left me with no real hitting power.  I manage to kill the gladiator - (but not until he slame Jarl - fortunately out of Dominar's control range) but the end game winds up being a lonely Jarl, running from the cannoneer, the taskmater, and Dominar.    And he doesn't run for long.

Overall, I had fun with the Mountain King.  He's a great model, but the base size just makes running him a pain.  In 35 points, losing him is just too much of a blow to handle - he killed one heavy, and some gators, but he did not pay for himself, which is not acceptable.  I think I am going to try him again soon, although I may pair him with a different warlock.

Unfortunately, I did not get a chance to try Hyperion.  But I finally picked up a blister of whelps, and Ravyn for my psychotic elves, so it's all good. 

Huh.

Looking over the blog stats, apparently someone arrived at my blog by doing a google search for "reaper sophie was bad enough" - who knew?

Another three steps back

It's "Meet the Teacher" night, so I may not have any hobby time.  No hobby time means that I won't finish anything tonight.  But, that's not losing ground, is it?

No, but getting a Druid Gone Wilder, a Trollkin Kilt Lifter, and a Bombadier Bombshell in the mail today means that my playable collection gained two more models - three if a TO will let me use it for a Fennblade leader.

On a semi-related note, I currently have 4 Warlands vehicles.  Today or tomorrow, I will probably place an order that will add 4 bikes, 3 vehicles, and the bits to convert a half dozen hot wheels cars to death machines.  I think that I can finish all those in a weekend, once I have them all in place.  They won't need much in the way of detail, unless you count weathering and rust.  The rust I plan to do by undercoating in red primer, and then using the salt technique that was in NQ a few issues back.

I can't wait until school starts next week - this SAHD (stay-at-home dad) plans to gain some painting time, at least for a few weeks (until everyone catches on that I am doing it), and make headway in my collections.

I might start with the smaller collections - I will have the Warlands figs above (say, 15 vehicles, maybe), plus MERCS (30 figs at the moment), plus Malifaux (35 or so), plus Dystopian Wars (maybe 130 models, between all the fleets).  By that standard, my Ogres are a pretty small collection - 18 Ogres is almost 900 points, so that's most of an army right there.

Not that I am dropping my Warmachine stuff, by any means.  I need to keep painting at least 5 points per month, after all.  That's got to be at least one model, and I really should go after those low-hanging infantry units, like Immortals and  Men O'War - both are more than 75% done, so I should be able to knock those out in short order, if I have to.

Not much progress today

The wold guardian is almost done.  I have some highlights and touch-ups to do, plus the basing.  With any luck, I will get that done tomorrow, although real life is going to try to limit my hobby time.  I would be working on it now, but I have to wait for a wash to dry before I can work on anything.  Worked a bit on the men o'war, but not sure if I will get them done tomorrow or not - again, that pesky real life thing going on.

Going to be working on a big terrain project soon, most likely.  It's destined for trade - and the trade will most likely wind up being for GW stuff.  I don't know if I should work on my Ogre army (which really needs rounding out in the special and rare unit categories), add to my Skaven (which, though numbering 70 or 80 models, may not break 500 points), or just wind up with the new 40k box set (which will be out before I get the project done).  I don't really need the marines, so I could always swap them for the Chaos, and start a third 40k army again.  Actually, I really just want the cultists - surely I can use them for Necromunda or something.  I have time to figure it out, thankfully.  And change my mind a few times in the process.

Over on Kickstarter, there is a Relic Knights one going on right now.  It looks interesting, but I am going to probably have to pass on it.  First, I really don't need to add another game and miniature line right now - GenCon and the Reaper kickstarter have been bad enough, setting my painting queue back by four or five years.  Second, I spent a fair amount of cash between those two things, and, while I could probably justify the Relic Knights, it's currently either that or an airbrush.  And third, I really do not need the grief of trying to explain some of the models, and the Soda Pop girls, to the wife.  Reaper Sophie was bad enough.

I am probably going to pick up some Warlands figs, however.  Warlands is a happy little game, set in a post-apocalyptic future, a la Mad Max.  I've had the starter box for quite some time, but did not play it until GenCon.  It's simple enough that I can teach it to my son, it has explosions and cars, which he will love, and I really only need to pick up weapon packs and some matchbox cars.

That's it for now - pizza is in the oven (late snack), the gin & tonic is mixed, and I am going to try and get through a bit more of the Malifaux rulebook tonight.  At some point, I am going to want to play that game.

That Reaper kickstarter

is going to be the death of me, I swear.  I think the final tally is over 240 figs; although I did increase my pledge to also get the figure carrying case.  That gives me about 7 months (plus probably a bit more) to clean out some of my massive store of miniatures.

No pics at the moment, but I am hoping to finish at least one wold and three men o'war before the end of the month, for the monthly painting challenge.  I have also started working on the Some'r Teeth Jones box set for Malifaux, and on some Dystopian Wars figs.  The Wold Wrath is primed, although final assembly will come after some of the base colors are on.  The mountain king is as assembled as he will be for some time, because (1) he needs some green stuff work, though not much; and (2) I am planning on using an airbrush on him, at least for part of it.  The hyperion is stuck as well - waiting for greenstuff and an airbrush.

Speaking (typing?) of airbrushes, I am waffling between several different ones.  I am hoping to get to the FLGS on Thursday and try out an airbrush that they have there; it will help cement my decision.  I may have to play a game of WFB to justify using it, although I will take some Warmachine or Hordes stuff, like, say, the Mountain King and the Wold Wrath, just to. . . a-hem, "demonstate" what kind of things I want to paint.  Besides, my Ogres haven't actually been played but the once, so I suppose I should try them out again.

My collection grows

But not for a few months.  I bit the bullet, and pledged to at least the vampire level of the Reaper Bones kickstarter.  It's currently (as I write this) at 229 models - which is, to be honest, less than what I will eventually be getting.  Fortunately, it (probably) won't be too much more than that, and should top out at less than 250. 

And, as an added bonus, I won't be seeing most of it until March of next year, if not a little later.  That gives me some time to work on clearing up some of the backlog. 

Yeah, like that's going to happen.  I might be making a deal tomorrow for some more figs - the Warmahordes player in me says to push for the big stuff, but after playing Mordheim at GenCon, and flipping through my WFB Ogres book, I wouldn't mind picking up a few models from the Evil Empire.  (Due to the conditions under which I am likely to be operating, I probably will not have access to the MERCS, Malifaux, or Heavy Gear lines.  Mores the pity.)

The Wold wrath, hyperion, and mountain king are all at least legs & torso.  Most of what I am going to assemble prior to painting is now assembled.  I will begin green stuff work tomorrow or Sunday - the Hyperion needs the most, I think, but the mountain king has some rough spots that would be improved with liquid green stuff.

Wow, I'm slacking.

I'm blaming that massing GenCon series for nothing being posted in the last couple of days.  That, and I did not have much to say.  Tonight, I have three quick things:

First, I have started putting together all three of the colossals/gargantuans together.  At the same time.  At least I did not toss all the bits together into the same bag or anything.  The mountain king is certainly recognizable - the chains, whelps, etc are not on, but the majority of the model is in place.  The hyperion is a torso and legs - I will put the arms on tomorrow, but the shoulder pads of doom and the extra vents & assorted bits will probably remain off for a while.  And the wold wrath is a distant third - parts are trimmed and cleaned, but nothing glued.  I hope to have legs & torso tomorrow.  None of the three will be fully assembled until they are painted.

Which brings me to point two. I am finally going to break down and get an airbrush.  I got to try the Grex airbrush at GenCon, and I really liked the pistol grip.  I think the big honkin' 120mm based models are telling me that they need an airbrush.  So, I'm going to have to play with them unpainted for a bit until I can pick it up.  (I know, I know - me, play with unpainted figs?  Quell horror!)

Third - if you are a fan of Reaper minis, or are a GM, go check out their current kickstarter.  It has 40 hours or so to go, and it is currently just past the $2 million mark.  I'm not telling people to join in because I am worried that they will miss the goal or anything - but if you GM a fantasy game, and you can swing it, the $100 Vampire level is going to give you almost 200 miniatures.  I'm trying to keep my total on it to under $200 - but there is the clockwork dragon, and the undead one, and the figure case, and the . . . .

This! Is! GENCON!

(Cause it certainly was madness.)

Okay, one more GenCon post.  That's it.  Probably.  After that, we got back to posts on how I don't paint, how I often lose, and probably some random complaints about the size of my collection.

One of the PGs took this video on Thursday morning, from the demo area (right by Big Blue), as the hall doors opened to the general public.  Follow the link to watch, and see how quickly the crowd for the IKRPG grows.

Hey, look - it's a mob!

(Tried to embed it, but the blogger kept choking on it.  Meh.)

The haul.

As promised, the final post is a full accounting of everything that I picked up during the course of GenCon.  Let's get started, shall we?

At the con
IKRPG
Level 7 (given as a thank you gift)
X-Wing
Heap
Warmachine playing card deck (given as a thank you gift)
Warlands Tire stack (won)
Miss Terious (Malifaux)
Malifaux revised rulebook
Rail Golem
Willie the Demolitionist
Metal Gamin
Som'er Teeth Jones starter set
Evil Baby Orphanage
Directorate Escort
Aquan Prime Carrier
Aquan Prime Frigate
Centurion (old metal version)
1 blister Wolves of Orboros
Cyclops Shaman
Druid Overseer
Holy Zealots blister
Gatorman Witch Doctor (x2)
Bloody Bradigan
Reeves of Orboros blister
General Ossrum
Grind
Mountain King
Woldwrath
Hyperion
Wiz War
Farmageddon
Hike
Cthulhu Flux (+2 con promo cards)
Heavy Gear Field Manual (rulesupdate)
Dystopian Wars rulebook, v1.1 (rules update)
Russian Coalition Naval battle group
Russian Coalition Land battle group

Other
Ram shirt
Ram mug

Ordered
Druid Gone Wilder
Kilt Lifter
Bombadier Bombshell

What I did not pick up
I did not pick up Leviathans or Super Dungeon Explore.  Both look fun, both look interesting, both have a $100 price tag.  I want to play a demo before I buy them.

I also did not buy the Rail Crew starter for Leviathan.  I will be ordering it - I need to check and see how long the free shipping code is good.  (They were distributing free shipping codes to people who wanted the rail crew set, as an apology for not having it at the con.  Very classy.  And, with what I save on shipping, I could add .  . .NO!  Stop!  No more!)

 I wanted to pick up some Warlands stuff, but Aberrant apparently had booth space, and then got bumped not too long before the con.  I did not get a free shipping code, but I did get a 20% discount code, good through the end of the month.

Anyway, GenCon was a blast, and, while it was expensive, a lot of it was defrayed, mainly because I sold a lot of stuff at the auction.  Don't know yet if I can manage to swing a trip next year - otherwise, I can start saving now for 2014.  In the meantime, I will need to re-inventory my Warmachine collection (since ibodger does not track all of the models anymore), and get to work learning new rules, priming figs, and reducing the pile of lead, plastic, and resin.

GenCon, Day Four

I sleep in.  I have a 10 am event that I am already planning on blowing off.  I got into a "Learn to Play Level 7" event at 10 am.  I also have the Wild Card entry into the Privateer Press Speed Painting competition at 10.  Decisions, decisions. . . . learn to play a game that I now own, or carpe diem and earn a free fig.

Yeah, like that was a contest.  I skip the run - I'll take care of it later in the day.  I get to the painting area a little later than planned, since I actually ate breakfast and loaded up the car.  I like to sit to the far left; I'm left-handed, and it's annoying to both me (and the person on my left) when we keep smacking elbows together.

The figure this time is a Man O'War.  Great.  I have been wanting to try out my paint scheme on the khador mini-jacks (okay, I know they are not technically jacks.  So what.)  I look at the paints.  Crap.  The only green is bright.  Almost neon.  Iosan green, IIRC.  Yeah, that's not going to work.

I lose most of the first fifteen minutes messing around, trying one thing after another, and getting increasingly frustrated.  Fortunately, we get a full hour.  Finally, I manage to cobble together a fairly decent approximation of the Vallejo Russian Green, and get to work.  I base the entire model, then begin trying to get the white-wash effect to work.

Not a Man O'War, but this is the effect that I am trying to get.

It's kind of time-consuming, which is not a good idea during, I don't know, a SPEED PAINTING competition.  It wasn't my brightest idea, but I figured that I could pull it off.  I am working faster and faster, the clock is ticking down, and, while I do not finish, I actually manage to get something close to what I wanted.

A bit messy, but hey, it was speed painted, right?

With custom-mixed colors, thankyouverymuch.

I obviously did not win.  I wasn't expecting to, either - but I did learn some things from the experience.  Things about having a more definite plan, about keeping things simple, and, from the guy who won the event - "Paint a base coat, paint the base, and then free-hand the fuck out of it."

Which he did.

I zip over to the consignment store, where I collect the rest of what I was owed.  I had picked up some of it on Saturday, and took my hand truck in case I needed to pick up stuff that didn't sell, but everything sold, so I did not need it.  Back to the hotel to check out, and then back to the exhibitors hall.  I got stopped by the balloon dragon.  The dragon got started on Wednesday, and finished sometime on Saturday.  A charity auction determined who would get to pop it, and a huge crowd had gathered to view the "slaying."

Unfortunately, I did not check the camera settings before the slaying began, so all of those pics turned out pretty blurry.  I did not even get to catch the final slaying, when the children in the front got to come up and help kill the remnants of the dragon.  Not to worry - Tim Thurmond (the artist who put it together) was asking everyone to send him pics or video of anything from start to finish, and he is hoping to create a pseudo time-lapse photography of the entire creative, and subsequent destructive, process.


Once the dragon was truly dead (although keen-eyed observers would see children carrying around half-inflated "souvenirs" for the rest of the day), I went into the hall to see if I could play a demo for a game that I had already purchased the day before.

I wonder what game this could be.

I knew that it mostly used the Wings of War mechanics, and though I had not played it, I was vaguely familiar with the idea.  (My favorite aerial combat game is probably Blue Max, which is, AFAIK, long OOP.)  Plus, it was Star Wars.  So, I took the part of the loyalists, and tried my best to shot the Rebel scum who were seeking to overthrow the peaceful government of the Empire.  Or something like that.

See Luke Skywalker.

See Luke Skywalker shoot a turret.

See lots of TIE fighters shoot Luke Skywalker.

The Death Star demo board was incredibly kewl, and I feel the need to build one now.  The scenario was very difficult to the Rebellion to win - they had to either kill all the TIE fighters or four of the towers. But four TIE are (roughly) equal to the two X-wings, and, when you abandon your wing-man, you die.  The empire did not lose a single TIE, and only two towers.  A dark day for the Rebellion indeed.  A lot of fun, and my only regret is that I did not ignore the (fairly) high price point for each additional fighter and buy up some extras - now I have to wait a month or so before I can pick some up.

I wandered the hall for some time - looking in on a demo of MERCS, chatting with some people, and general killing time until the raffle drawing at the DP9 booth.  They were raffling off some seriously nice prizes.  Which I did not win.  Once the raffle was done, it was back to the car, and a long drive home.

GenCon, Day Three

(I hope somebody is still reading these.  I'll have to check the dashboard at some point.)

Saturday morning.  Man, these mornings are getting earlier and earlier.  I got up, ran, got cleaned up.  Today, my roomies and I were all playing in a Mordheim tourney.  Mordheim was a game that GW made sometime during the 90s.  It's a gang fight game, in the GW fantasy setting.  You make a gang, they fight (using something fairly similar to the GW ruleset, with some modifications to make it more of a skirmish game), and they advance or die, as the dice decide.

We get over there, and bump a few hopefuls.  The event is full, and we have tickets. They want to play, but have generics.  Now, knowing now what I did then, I might have been tempted to give one of them my spot, but that's neither here nor there.

We get a quick overview of the gangs, dice off, and start to choose.  I make my choice - a rather inspired one, if I may say so.

In the front, Inky, Clyde, Pinky and Binky.

This choice annoyed one of my friends.  He wanted them too, and I beat him in the dice off.  As luck would have it, we squared off in the first game.  Now, Mordheim is largely a scenario-driven game.  Sometimes, the scenario is in your favor, and sometimes, it isn't.  The scenario in this case seems fairly even - both sides are searching the buildings on the table for a treasure chest.  Once you find it, you have to take it back to your table edge.  We can't search the first row of building closest to us, but can start searching the next row.  Roll boxcars, and you find it.  If it isn't found beforehand, it will be found in the last building.

I win the roll, run forward, search one building.  On the opposite side of the table, Phil runs forward, searches a building, and rolls boxcars.  Game over.  He can't fail to get the chest to his table edge before I can get there.  We call it, shake hands, take care of the aftermath (gaining experience, treasure, etc).  The GM tells us that we can wander for a bit - our game is over in five minutes, more or less, and the others are just getting started.  I head for the consignment store.

Where there is a line.  Remember when I said that some of the Saturday deals were phenomenal?  I obviously wasn't the only one to think so.  By the time I get in, almost all of it is gone.  I pick up a few pieces, but nothing as nice as I had been hoping to grab.  Still,  I can't argue with $7 (or so) for a NIB Centurion.

I head back, kill some time before the next round.  It's not a repeat of the first - it's a different situation.  Both armies, his and mine, have no problems hitting each other.  We just can't hurt each other.  It's getting funny, but finally I decide to bottle (read: run) before things get worse.  He fares a little better than I do in the aftermath, but it was a good decision for a campaign game.  I lose a couple of minor grunts, but make enough to replace them, and add another model.

Last game is a rematch against Phil.  The scenario frankly favors me, but I ask if he just wants to duke it out in the middle.  We agree, and have a cracking good time - his Pit Fighters mow through my Orcs like a plasma cutter through warm butter. 

This will not end well for me.

I lose, but we both have a lot of fun.  Phil gets to release some seriously pent-up aggression - his gang had barely made an attack roll prior to this point in either game.  He makes a lot of them over the course of a couple of minutes, and we both enjoy the scene immensely.

After the battle, I head over to my next game, only a few rows of tables over.  I have had a copy of Warlands for several years, but never played it.  It's kind of a Mad Max game, where you have Hot Wheels cars (repainted and modified, of course), and drive around, shooting each other.  It's far more cinematic than real - destroyed cars can easily blow up, fly through the air, and come down a full turns move away.

The upside-down buggy was mine.  It started 11" away.  

I just missed landing on him.  Rats!

I scored the first kill, but was also the first to be completely eliminated.  Since the prizes were in descending order, I scored third place (out of three), and got a small prize.  Still, a great time and a bonus prize is better than nothing.   Looks like I need to find some Hot Wheels or Matchbox cars at garage sales this fall.  It's a fun little pickup kind of game, and good for a change of scenery and mood.

Hey, a balloon dragon.  He's done!

Saturday night was the press gang party.  Apparently, the press gang party is like Vegas - what happens there, stays there.  'Nuff said.  Good times, good times. 

After the party, I went back, hung around Iron Arena for a while, and took a few pics. 

Someone has been busy.

He wasn't the only one.

That bridge looks pretty congested.  

The Commodore will fix that problem.

GenCon, Day Two

(Still plugging away at these.)

Friday.  The recap for Friday is actually going to be pretty short.  Why?  Read on, and see. . . .

Okay, not much suspense.  I woke up, went for a quick run, got cleaned up, and headed over to the exhibit hall.  I got there plenty early, but I did not get the "I can get you in early" text that I had been warned to possibly expect.  I sat around, and basically watched the people in the area.

Like this Dalek.

And these folksingers.

By 2018, half the hall will be steampunk.

 At 10, the doors opened, and the maddening crowd rushed inside.  Word had spread that some items were already gone (IKRPG and Android: Netrunner, at the very least), so the rush was not quite as pressing as it had been the day before.  I made a beeline for the Privateer Booth.  There, I was put to work.  I stood at the demo tables, and taught people how to play, and how to defeat the bloody Menites with the forces of goodness and light (Cygnar, for those who were wondering).  Or, something to that effect.

I pretty much lost track of time.  From time to time, Will Hungerford would come by with a bottle of water, and see if I needed anything else.  I'd say thanks, take the water if I needed it, and keep running demos.  Eventually, another PG (Kevin, I think) came by and told me that I had to take a break.  I pulled out my phone, checked the time, and thought "Holy $($*&!  It's four o'clock!"  I thanked him, finished up what I was doing, handed the table over to him, and wandered the hall.  I wasn't really hungry, and I wanted to check out some stuff.  I headed over to the Wyrd Miniatures booth - I wanted to get some Malifaux things (like, say, the rulebook), and pick up the new Rail Crew figs.  Unfortunately, the Rail Crew wasn't in yet - I had been told on Thursday that they hoped to have it in on Friday, but it hadn't happened, although Saturday was a possibility.

No worries.  I wandered over to the Warstore booth, checked out Dropzone Commander, and picked up the Russian Land force.  I kind of wanted the bust of the Commander that came with it (as a GenCon freebie), and, although I wanted the naval force more, I did not see it.  I checked out the Heavy Gear stuff at the Dream Pod 9 booth, since it was next door.  I know I did some other wandering, and that was when I had my first revelation:

By 2018, half of the exhibitors hall will feature steampunk, in one way or another.

Anyway, I went back and finished my shift.  With only an hour and some to go, it flew past, and suddenly, the hall was closing, and I was packing up dice and tokens and out the door.  I stopped for one quick pic before I left.

I look remarkably chipper, don't I?

I zipped over to the consignment store, since I had a few hours to kill.  Remember how I talked about how the consignment store might have a few nice things in it?  Yeah - try several large boxes (like, moving boxes), full of Warmachine, Hordes, and Firestorm Armada figs.  On Thursday, the prices were too high.  Heck, on Friday, they were too high.  On Saturday, they would be irresistibly low.

I got a call from a friend, and it was back to the hotel and off to dinner.  A short walk away from the convention center, a fairly quick meal at a Mexican place (Acapulco Joe's) and it was time to grab some gear and head over to run Iron Arena from 9 pm to 1 am.

Again, Iron Arena was a blast. Talked to people from a lot of different places, and got to watch as they set up the "Who's the Boss?" tourney.  In the tourney, you make your army, but have no warcaster or warlock.  You get one, randomly assigned to you - the rules on the card get tweaked a little (e.g., warlocks gain focus manipulation, etc)  Obviously, to do this properly, you need to have copies of every single warcaster and warlock in the game.

Well, lookie here!

The only one missing in the end was General Ossrum.  Considering that he had been released at GenCon only the morning before, that's not too shabby.

Eventually, my shift was done, and I headed out, though not before grabbing pics of one last item.

He ain't heavy, he's my brother.

GenCon, Day One

I woke up early, went downstairs, ran a quick couple of miles (I am a daily runner, and have not missed a day in years.  Day Four of GenCon marked the end of year four - today marks the beginning of year five.), got cleaned up, ate a quick breakfast, and headed over to the hall.

First event was a demo of Heap.  Heap is the new card game from Privateer Press, for 2-4 players, aged 10 and up.  Frankly, I can't see it playing well with only 2 - the PG who demo'd it described it as "Uno on steroids."  The description is fairly apt.  Basically, you have four vehicles that you are trying to upgrade with different parts.  You place two parts per turn, and then, once everyone has gone, you start playing the remaining cards in your hand in the scrum - winner getting extra parts to add immediately to their vehicles.  (I'm giving a very condensed version here, obviously.)  When someone has three parts on all four vehicles, the game enters its final battle as soon as that turn is completed.  Had a great time, and resolved to pick it up at some point during the con.

Hurried from there to the Lego Robo Rally.  Roborally was a game from long ago, where each player controls a robot.  You get cards every turn, which you have to use to maneuver through a maze, complete with conveyor belts, crushers, pits, pushers, walls, and other robots - all of which carry lasers and shoot at whatever is in front of them.  Everyone plots their entire turn at the same time, too - so where you end up may not be exactly where you planned, when some other bot runs into you and pushes you along the conveyor belt - and then you drive forward 2 squares, and fall into a pit.  It was an expensive game, and lasted only an hour, but it was worth it.  They had some technical glitches (since it was their first game of the con), but it was a lot of fun.  I'll be doing it again.  I had to leave, due to a hard break, but I was able to stay and program in my final turn.  I ran upstairs and grabbed a chair for the Privateer Press Speed Painting competition.

 Behold, Lego geeky kewlness!

The yellow one looks familiar.

 As does that one.

Now, first off - I am not a fast painter.  I can be, but I don't generally like the results.  They seem really sloppy, I feel frustrated the entire time, and it's just not the overall relaxing, zen-like state that I can experience on a good day of painting.  But - speed painting forces me to be faster, and every time I do it, I learn some tricks that can be applied to future projects.  We were painting Menite scum, and, while I did not win, I managed to get a Wild Card slot to the finals.

From the speed painting it was a mad dash to the exhibitors hall.  There, I found out about The Line.  When the doors to the hall opened at 10:00, the Privateer booth had only a couple of VIGs present buying copies of the IKRPG.  By, oh, 10:02, there were several hundred people in line; a line which wound around the Privateer Booth, then stretched back past the Kenzerco booth, and then past the next three of four rows of booths, turned right at the Tardis, and head back toward the rear of the hall.  The line got capped, and slowly worked its way back down.  But, I got told that the line was still capped, and would be for a while.  I wandered around a bit, checked out the Wyrd booth, talked to some people, and came back to the PP line.  Wandered again for a bit.  Finally got into the line about 1 pm.  I stood in line but, when it hit 2 pm, I had to make a choice - stay in line, and possibly get a copy of the IKRPG, or leave for a "Leave how to play IKRPG" event.  I stuck it out, and walked out of the booth with a copy of the IKRPG, along with some other things.  (A full and complete accounting of what I picked up will be in the last post.  It's a long list.)  I wandered around a bit, checked out the consignment store for a few minutes, then headed back to the hotel, dropped off my purchases, grabbed my figs, and headed to the Iron Arena.

Iron Arena is a 24/7 event.  (Technically, it is 24/4 or so, but it runs through all of official GenCon.)  The idea is that you pay two generic tickets, then play games of Warmachine, Hordes, and now Heap or Level 7. and you earn "skulls," or points.  These points can be redeemed for various prizes.  You earn extra  skulls by playing different people, or people from different states, playing at various point levels, theme forces, fully painted, and so forth.  I had to judge the event from 5-9, which consisted mainly of registering new people and taking reports from old ones.  I had a lot of fun, and Stubs, who is an old hand at this kind of thing, helped me out a lot.

Once it was done, I got in a game with Andreas, from Stockholm.  His 3Vlad army just crushed my poor pigs.  It wasn't close, but it was a lot of fun.  By that time, it was pretty late, and I had to work the next day, so I went back to the hotel, vowing to return to the Iron Arena.  Some of the prizes looked pretty sweet.

 My pigs can handle that.

 Those guys might be a problem, though.

 Yep, they are.  Say good-night, pigs.