Proof, once again

I said that I finished it the other day, and indeed I did.  Here is a bad pic, which is some form of proof.   (For a loose enough definition of "proof," at any rate.)

Yes, today is the last day of the month.  I doubt that I will finish anything else tonight, but it is possible.  On the other hand, I picked up a couple of cans of primer yesterday (I wanted white, had to settle for grey), and got everything that I had trimmed and assembled on Saturday primed.

Plus I primed a couple of Malifaux figs.  I might prime some more of them tonight, and some of the MERCS.  I am thinking that I will start with painting either the Silurid or Witchlings Stalkers for Malifaux, and the USCR for MERCS.  Won't have anything from those lines done before GenCon, but that's okay with me - I am going to take them and hope to learn how to play, nothing more.

I have been putting some paint onto the battle cricket, and I really should get all the rest of the Retribution stuff assembled and primed.  And yes, last night, I caught myself wondering if the Galleon would be at GenCon as well - my pirates could use a giant stompy.

At least something got done.

First thought - when you post that you are going to go off and prime things, you should probably check first to see if you actually have any primer.  I did, but not much, so I did not prime nearly as much as I wanted to.  (I actually have several cans of black, but I wanted to prime stuff in white tonight.)  So, I primed a few figs (ten or fifteen - mostly Warmahordes, but I primed six Malifaux figs, and I might start them tomorrow), and decided to do a little painting.

I need to take a pic - right now, it's drying in a spot where taking pics is simply not practical, but I finished a Swamp Horror.  That means that I have at least 5 points for the month (for the challenge), and I can simply add it to the list of things that I painted in July, but never posted to the finished thread, thus gaining back my GOOPFC (or whatever the Get Out of Painting card is called).

I spent some time this evening reading through the MERC book.  It looks interesting - I'm not entirely sold on the card movement mechanic, but it might work.  I'll have to finish reading through it, and try a game, though probably not until GenCon.

Adding some games.

So, I'm going to ignore the tourney that I "ran" yesterday.  The less said about that, the better.

When I got home, there was a happy little package waiting for me. It held the following new toys:

MERCS:
Rulebook
All CCC (primed grey) + Cards
All KemVar (primed grey) + Cards
Five FCC models (2 Housemembers, Boomer, Liason, Housemaster) + Cards
All Sefadu + Cards
All USCR + Cards

Malifaux:
Samael Hopkins
3 Witchling Stalkers
Sonia Criid
3 Silurid Slaves
Zoraida
Bad Juju
Voodoo Doll
Bishop
Viktoria Sword Mistress
Viktoria Bounty Hunter
Lady Hammerstrike
Johan
3 Ronin

Dystopian Wars:
Empire of the Blazing Sun Starter Set
Federated States of America Starter Set

Looks like I have some light reading to do today (MERCS rules), and I'm heading down to prime some miniatures here in just a few minutes.  I have some of the MERCS and Malifaux figs to prime, plus a bunch of Warmachine figs that I got put together yesterday.

On a (semi-related) note - reading through the new Colossals book, coupled with recent trades, has made me change my mind (a little).  Originally, I was going to take only my minions with me to GenCon, and nothing else.  Now, I will take a small Malifaux force, a MERC force or two, my minions, and my Retribution.  I hope the Hyperion is available, and if it is, I want to use it.

Hooray for tangents!

So, over the past couple months, I've been hemming and hawing about divesting at least some of my GW stuff.  I want to keep at least an army or two around (for both 40k and WFB), mainly because, if my wife winds up with a new job, I am almost guaranteed to find a GW group anywhere we go.  Finding a Warmahordes group can be a bit more work.

So, my Tau were on the chopping block.  (I'm keeping my 40k Orks, because they are almost always fun, and Marines, because they're pretty vanilla, so easy to learn if or when I get into a new edition of rules).  My Tau army was big.  Apocalypse game big.  Half a dozen devilfish, a few hammerheads, some XV88 broadsides, close to a dozen crisis suits, and a whole bunch of infantry.  I broke it up into two lots - for a while, I was thinking about keeping part of it, just in case.

Lot #1 netted me some Retribution.  A fair amount of Retribution.  Another Phoenix, a gorgon, a griffin, some mage hunters, some riflemen, some invictors, plus plenty of other random bits & bobs. 

Lot #2 (which I put up once I talked myself into it) will be gaining me (once it arrives) a load of MERCS, a couple of Dystopian Wars starters, and a bunch of Malifaux figs.  MERCS and Malifaux are new to me, but, as I keep looking at my unpainted pile of lead, skirmish games keep looking better all the time.

Post mortem, round 3

Wrapping this up with the third, and final, loss of the day.

Round 3

Opponent: Aaron, playing Khador

Army: 2Vlad
Behemoth
Juggernaut
Spriggan
Doom Reavers
Kovnik Joe
max unit of Winterguard Infantry
5 Man O'War Shocktroopers

Reinforcements: Don't know, as they were not placed on the table.

My army: Blindwater

Bloody Barnabas
x2 Blackhide Wrastler
Bull Snapper
Swamp Horror
x3 max Gatormen Posse

Reinforcements: Wrong-Eye and Snapjaw

(Technically, I was a point down, as I was for my Thornfall.  I could have put in my Swamp Gobbers -  just didn't think of it at the time.)

Scenario: A flag too far

Yeah, we were going to kill each other on this one too.  Melee-centric armies, meeting toward the center?  This would be bloody.  I won the roll, and had him deploy first.  He set his up pretty close to the center, as did I.  First turn, he advanced, with the Doom Reavers running forward, and the Behemoth taking some ranging shots, which did nothing.

Bloody Barnabas Swamp Pits 3 times, then charges forward.  I run gators up, chanting for the +1 Def and Terror.  Wrastlers run up, Snapper runs up along the flank, and the swamp horror runs up as well.  The end of my first turn looks like this:

Anyone see the mistake here?  I sure didn't.  Not at the time. 

On Aaron's turn, the Behemoth advances, takes a couple pot shots, doing next to nothing.  Spriggan moves up, winterguard move up.  2Vlad moves up a bit, feats.  Doom Reavers charge, including Barnabas, who is caught with no fury on him for transfers.  Doh!  (Cue Mr. Rogers voice: "Can you say, 'That was dumb', boys and girls?  Sure, I knew you could.")

Doom Reavers tear huge gaping holes in my front line.  Barnabas survives, but with only 4 health remaining.  Several doom reavers fall to other doom reavers - occupational hazard, and a small price to pay for the number of gators that they killed.

It comes to my turn.  Board position is terrible.  I go ahead and place Wrong-Eye and Snapjaw, and activate them first.  That way, I got to use them.  Wrong-Eye advances, takes over a couple of winterguard, manages to kill one of them that way.  Snapjaw charges up, and eats a couple of the troopers.  No big deal, really.  Bull snapper charges over and eats one of the doom reavers, then goes torpid. One unit of gatormen activates, tries to eliminate the rest of the doom reavers, and does so.

It's time to go big, or go home.  Yep - gator tossing is where it is at.  Wrastler grabs the other, in an effort to 2-handed throw it toward 2Vlad.  I can still pull this off, but now I pretty much have to do an assassination.  I hit.  I fail the throw.  Yep, I can roll lower on 2d6 than 1d6 when I need to.  (Looking back, I may have tied.  If so, I could have thrown - the target need to beat the roll, not tie it.  More on that below!)  At any rate, a failed gator toss is not good.

I look for a few minutes.  I have more than 35 minutes on the clock still, and really, if I can't pull off the assassination, it's doubtful that I will be able to win.  The armor on the Khador jacks is too high for my poor pillow-fisted gators.

Ah-ha!  I see a possibility.  One of my gators is in the way, so I activate another posse, and charge it, killing it.  Huzzah?  The second wrastler activates, moves up, and throws Barnabas at 2Vlad, then casts Rise on Barnabas.  Risky, since Barnabas could have been hurt by the throw.  Fortunately, he isn't.

Barnabas feats, knocking 2Vlad down.  I charge in, and start doing some damage.  The bonus to Def from Might of Kings doesn't matter.  Unfortunately, I fail to kill 2Vlad, leaving him with 3 boxes.  He stands up, and kills Bloody Barnabas.

(Several models are out of place, because we had started to pick up before I took this pic.)

Lessons learned: Know the throwing rules better.  Really. 

Lesson #2 - Don't leave Barnabas exposed like that.  Losing some gators hurt, but having Barnabas take a hit like that was risky, since he could have been killed outright, and it also put me in a really tight spot. 

Great game, again, and a lot of fun.  Aaron really wanted to see me pull off the flying gator trick, and I wanted to see him assassinate Barnabas, since I left him wide open.  I think with a little more careful placement of his Doom Reavers, he could have managed it, too.

Post-mortem, Round 2

Continuing in the same vein. 

Round 2

Opponent: Chuck Ocenasek, playing Cygnar

Army: eHaley
Stormwall
Old Rowdy
Squire

Archduke Runewood
Black 13th
Precursor Knights
Stormblades

His army is a little off - I didn't take note of it, and I think there is a UA that I am missing, or something.

My army: Thornfall

Sturm & Drang
x2 Road Hogs
x3 War Hogs
Targ

4 Bone Grinders
6 Brigands
Slaughterhousers


We had to have two lists, but we did not have to play both.  We were also told that two rounds would have reinforcements.  Since this one did not, I chose my pigs.  (I wanted to try out the reinforcements in my other list, so I left it for then.)


Scenario: Restoration.


Since he had a Stormwall, he had to predeploy it.  I won the roll again, and had him place his whole army, before placing mine.  We did forget to start the clock for deployment, but time was not an issue at all in this game.


First round, he advances, and lays down covering fire.  I advance as well.  While we are both looking to score points, we have also both come to the conclusion that caster kill is how this one is likely to end.


Round two, he advances, shoots a lot of things, really hurts one of the war hogs.  I retaliate by charging the stormwall with two of them.  I don't tear it apart - I should have, but I did not double check my cards, and forgot to aggression dial one of them, and the extra damage would have really helped.  I think I popped feat, mainly to prevent the Stormwall and Old Rowdy from getting a load of focus and beating the tar out of my poor war hogs.

Next turn, the Black 13th come up and do a number on the brigands, though some survive.  Stormblades come up and unload on the road hogs, and I think the precursor knights ran up to base the road hogs and slow them down a bit.  eHaley pops feat.


Having your order of activation forced on you stinks.  And, having to chose between moving and attacking just rubs some salt in the wound.  Astonishingly, I manage to still do some damage this turn - Targ can give ancillary attack, and I manage to do some damage to the stormblades and the precursor knights.  Rowdy gets hurt, and (IIRC), I manage to cripple the hammer. 


His next turn hurts me, but the damage on Rowdy and on the Stormwall has been adding up, and I weather the storm.  On my turn, my remaining warhog scraps Old Rowdy.  And here is where I lose the game.

Put simply, I got greedy.  I really wanted to finish killing the Stormwall.  I should have waited a turn - I had the better position on the board, and it was nearly dead.  Old Rowdy was down.  The precursor knights were almost wiped from the board, and the Stormblades were gone.  The squire is no threat, and I can deal with Black 13th and eHaley over the next turn or two.

S&D, under the Drang aspect, charges up and starts laying the smackdown on the Stormwall.  It takes a couple of swings, but I drop it.  (Yay - another angle, from early next turn)

Unfortunately, this leave S&D out in the (relative) open, with no fury on him.  Between the Black 13th, the Journeyman, and eHaley, they manage to kill him.  Barely.

So - officially, this was a loss.  But, I claimed moral victory, for having dropped the Stormwall.  And, unfortunately, after the tourney was over, we found out that Chuck had accidentally been running the Stormwall incorrectly, and so was DQ'ed.  I'm still calling this a loss, however - I lost it fair and square, and really, hanging my warlock out there was a pretty stupid move.

So, what did I learn from this one?

First, collosals aren't as scary as they first seemed.  I have faced three now, and while they are tough, I won one of the games against them, lost one (though I took out half the collosal in the process), and could have won this one, if I had not gotten too greedy at the end. 

Second - getting greedy cost me the game.  I could see victory, and managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.  Again, my fault, not his. 

So, the second game was a lot of fun, and it turned out to be a great game, with lots of good natured trash talking, and some happy BSing once the game was done. 

Post-mortem, Round 1

So, I'm going to split up the tourney into three posts.  First, that way, I can try to do each battle on its own.  Second, it's a blatant attempt to pad my post count. Third, this way I can get something out, instead of sitting here, with 95% of an unfinished batrep, and having it stay that way for days.

So, Round 1, of the 50pt SR at Dragon's Refuge, in Peotone, IL.

Opponent: Ben Lang, playing Skorne

Army: eHexeris
Bronzeback
Gladiator
Cyclops Savage
Molik Karn
Aptimus Marketh

Extoller Soulward
6 Paingiver Beast Handlers
10 Praetorian Swordsmen, plus Officer & Std Bearer
10 Venator slingers

Reinforcements: Tyrant Rhadeim
x2 Venator Flayer
Feralgeist

My army: Thornfall

Sturm & Drang
x2 Road Hogs
x3 War Hogs
Targ

4 Bone Grinders
6 Brigands
Slaughterhousers

Reinforcements: Rorsch & Brine

Scenario: Outflank, Outfight, Outlast.

(NB - always take the opposing army and scenario with a grain of salt.  I forgot to write those down on Saturday, so it's only as good as my memory. )

Setup was fairly standard.  We both deployed most of our armies toward the middle, but more toward one table edge.  (MISTAKE!)  Turn 1 was fairly uneventful, as we both hurried toward the middle to start contesting control zones.

Turn 2 was where things started to go south.  We were closer to his reinforcement edge, and out popped the two flayers, which turned the brigands into swiss cheese.  Without fearless & tough, they would have all died.  As it was, they just became ineffective, which was not much better.  Molik runs up, and thanks to Black Spot (and him being Molik Karn), smacks around the slaughterhousers.  (This pic is before he does that.)

The swordsmen have run up and based a lot of things, but not attacked.  They're blocking charge lanes, mainly, I think.

On my turn, I try to clear some things up, and contest the zones.  Rorsch & Brine appear, and I manage to get a charge off on Molik, but fail to kill him.  The remaining slaughterhousers don't seal the deal either.  I start trying to move my stuff out of the way of the flayers, but at the end of the turn, it isn't much better.

I think I popped my feat at the end of turn 2.  S&Ds feat is basically a "screw you!" to Hordes armies - it reduces FURY to 1, warjacks can only get 1 focus, and no enemy channeling spells. 

IIRC, Ben used his third turn to eliminate Brine, some slaughterhousers, and consolidate his position.  My third turn was an attempt to kill as much as possible, because the game was over - I was pretty weakened, and almost all of my beasts were dead.  I looked for an assassination vector, and did not see it.  I think the end of my turn 3 looked about like this:

Long story made short - he tabled me.  I had nothing left at the end.  Wiped it clean (except for one beast), and then went for the caster kill. 

Lessons learned:
This is the most important part of the post-mortem.  If I don't learn from the mistakes, I will repeat them.  Avoiding stupid mistakes will help me be a better player.

Mistake #1 - pay attention to the reinforcements and where they will be popping up.  I had him set up first, and I could have put a lot of my stuff on my right.  It would have made his reinforcements a lot less effective - I would have been able to avoid the artillery, instead of running right up to it, and turning that flank into a turkey shoot.

Mistake #2 - Remember power attacks. I think a trample would have helped clear out the swordsmen, and made my life a lot easier.

Mistake #3 - Know your models!  I had just picked up the road hogs, and I wanted to use them.  Ditto for Rorsch & Brine.  I don't regret either choice, but I wasn't as familiar with them or their capabilities.  I did not realize until earlier today that a road hog has an effective threat of 20" with the spray.  Oops.  Should have charged something far off, and sprayed it. 

Mistake #3b - In addition to being careful with new models, make sure you are aware of the old ones.  I wasn't thinking, and chose the wrong personality of S&D at the beginning of the game.  Completely my fault.

Final thoughts - yes, I would love to blame my dice for this one.  I had some terrible damage rolls, and Ben had some truly phenomenal ones.  But the reality is that excuse will only carry to much water - I got outplayed here, pure and simple.  It was a great game, and I had a lot of fun, even though I lost.  I'm hoping that I learned something from it, however.

A quick post-mortem

Well, that went about as I expected.  I went 0-3 (though apparently that got changed to 1-2, which I dispute.  I lost that match fair and square, dangnabit!)

I'll do a longer recap later, but I lost R1 to skorne.  Yes, he had good dice, and yes, I had bad dice, but my initial set-up was poor, and I paid for it.  I'd like to blame it on the dice, but I got outplayed.

R2 was the one that got changed.  There was some confusion on the rules for colossals.  I lost, and I am going to keep it as a loss, because I did not know the rules on them well enough to correct the other player.  I wear the black, I should know the rules.  Besides, I claim moral victory - I killed the stormwall.

R3 - lost that one too.  I made a mistake, and while it did not kill me, it did force my hand to take a risky move.  I could have pulled it off, but I could not get out of the way of my own dice.  Average rolls should have actually given me the game.  Didn't, but should have.

I don't want anyone reading this to get the impression that I am bitter or upset.  I'm not.  Warmachine has a steep learning curve, and yeah, I have to lose a lot more matches than I have been playing if I want to get better.  But, as I keep telling me kids - the most important thing is to have fun.  And I had a lot of fun, pushing my little metal gators and pigs around the table, groaning at the bad dice, and cheering on the good.

Tell everybody I'm on my way.

Or don't, in case they decide to leave.  I'm just about to head out the door - all I have to do is put on my shoes, find my good sunglasses, and put my bag in the van.  Quick synopsis when I get back.

My bag is packed. . . .

but I'm not ready to go.  Everything got assembled and primed (except for some bog trogs that aren't in any list I have been thinking of anyway). It's all put away (I hope - though I will be obsessively double checking it in the morning).  A few things are not put away (copy of the theme lists), but they are with my keys and wallet, so it's pretty unlikely that I will be forgetting them.

I need to remember to grab a camera.  I can't rely on Felix to document my losses.  Camera is now set with everything else.

I'm settled on one of the two army lists, and dithering between two others.  The freedom that comes with an expected series of losses is actually kind of liberating.

Almost there

So, I did manage to get quite a bit done tonight.  As of right now, only the three pig warbeasts are unfinished.  The warhog still needs one arm and his tusks (I'm going to have to pop him off his base after this weekend, in order to fix a significant overhang issue), and the road hogs still need legs, and one is missing an arm.  They should be finished by early tomorrow afternoon.

Almost everything else is primed.  Brine and Wrong Eye aren't, nor is Pendrake, but I think I got all the others. I'll need to spend an hour or so tomorrow night painting arc lines on everything, but that's actually not such a big deal.

Time for some celebratory (bad) pizza and (average) beer.  I'll save the good stuff to console me after a 0-4 record on Saturday.*


* I'm going to try for 4-0, but I'm also pretty realistic about my chances.  I'm going in order to have fun, play outside my meta, and gain experience in a tourney environment.  Winning any games is just a really nice bonus.

Mid-day update

Okay, the other road hog has arrived!  Goody.  I forgot that I had a razorback crew that still needed to be put together.  Fixed, if you want to be technical about it - the gunner lost an arm, and I need to reglue it.  Possibly.  I'm not sure that he is in any of the lists I have been planning, but it is possible.

Anyway, the kids have some new Lego toys, so I have been spending some quality time in the basement with superglue, files, and the x-acto knife.  Snapjaw now has legs and a tail - the arms are next, and the head is last.  Brine needs his tusks and shoulder pads.  Road Hog #1 has his head on straight, and his flamethrower arm is on.  The other arm has been assembled, but not yet attached.  He's still legless, which I have to fix soon.  Road Hog #2 is still in the box, but I'll start on him in a bit, when I head down there again.  War Hog has his head and one arm done, as well as his engine thingy.  He gets to stand up after my next trip to the land of paint fumes.

These are a far cry from my best assembly jobs, and are a step or three down from what I normally do.  There is a very real possibility that they will be stripped down and redone after Saturday night, but they really only have to last until then.

I hate doing it, but I don't have time anymore to do it properly.  Not before the tourney, anyway.

Tourney is coming

So, there is a tourney this weekend.  And I am planning on attending.  Yay!  It's a 50 point, 2 army list required event. Oh.  Uh-oh.  Hrm.

I have several factions that I could take, without a problem.  Hell, I could almost take any of them, although Mercs would be one hell of a stretch.  Some are easier than others - 50 pts of Skorne or Trollbloods?  No problem.  50 points of Cryx?  No problem, but they're not going to be great armies - too many holes in my Cryx at the moment.

So, I chose a faction.  Minions.  Hooray!  The hard part is done.

I made some army lists.  Okay, that was a bit harder.  I had plenty of choice, but it's sticking too it, that's the problem.  I can overcome that.  I may dither a lot between now and Saturday, but eventually, I will have to make a choice.

But I need to finish assembling my models.  For various reasons, I did not have everything on hand and assembled, so models had to be ordered.  I have them (all save one, which I should have tomorrow - talk about cutting it close!), but I need to get them assembled.  And I want to have them at least primed, so that I can also have the bases marked properly,  I'll miss out on the fully-painted army raffle, which kind of stinks, but it is no one's fault save my own.

I'm getting close.  After tonight, Rorsch, Wrong-Eye, the posse, the last two farrow, Orrik and Ashley are all ready for priming.  (I may strip the posse instead of painting them later - I am thinking about converting them for a Maelok list - zombification is a Good Thing, right?)  Brine, Snapjaw, a war hog, two road hogs, and Pendrake all need to be finished.  Tomorrow should be fun, but I might actually get them all finished.

And, what kind of night would it be, without some sort of self-inflicted hobby injury?  I was applying a very thin superglue.  It ran.  More than I thought.  Onto my fingers.  I did not notice this before spraying the model with the accelerant.  Did you know that accelerant plus superglue is an exothermic reaction?  In other words, the superglue that ran onto my fingers suddenly got very hot as it dried.  And yes, hot enough that my finger is raw and burned.  Consider this your cautionary note for the day - forget the carcinogenic warnings on the accelerant - that stuff makes superglue burn!

Okay, some progress

Managed a little time in the basement while the kids are busy playing Lego.  The gatormen posse is now glued and ready for some slight greenstuff work (just to fill some gaps).  The GW liquid greenstuff dries fairly quickly, so the posse and the two farrow brigands might even be primed by late tonight.

The only problem is that I have started to reconsider my lists for this weekend.  Same faction, different warlocks.  Bad army altaholic, bad army altaholic!

Not enough progress

And this weekend is coming up fast.  Last night, I managed to get only 4 figures assembled - two farrow brigands, one gatorman, and poor Targ (who was still in pieces after his fall onto the floor several weeks ago).  I didn't do any greenstuff work on them, and a couple of them need it.

I was really hoping to get more done, but I just didn't.  I think I have 14 more figures that I may need to have assembled (and preferably primed) before this weekend.  I'll get it done, but some of the figs may need to be stripped and reassembled afterwards.

(Actually, I might have another one on the way - I'm missing a second Road Hog, and I think that it shipped yesterday.  Could arrive by Friday. . . in which case, I might want to have it put together as well.)

On the plus side, I have been pouring 20+ Hirst Arts molds every day, so some terrain projects are moving along, although not as quickly as I had hoped.  I'll have more time for them come Sunday.

Tonight looks busy

Got a little package in the mail this afternoon.  And yes, it was pretty little, measuring only 8" x 6" x 4" or so.  But it contains Wrong- Eye and Snapjaw, Rorsch & Brine, a War Hog, and a minimum unit of Sea Dogs.  Plus, I still have a Swamp Horror and a full unit of Gatormen to get together.  I have the feeling that I will be spending some quality time tonight (and tomorrow afternoon) with green stuff, glue, and sculpting tools.

My collection count currently stands at 814, but I think it is actually a little higher than that.  I probably won't get around to checking it (and updating if necessary) until after GenCon.  My wishlist (if current) stands at just under 1250, but it's higher than that, since I know that it does not include anything from the Colossals book or beyond.

0-2 for the day

Well, that's not going to bode well for next week.  I did not have much luck today with either Bloody Barnabas or with Carver.  Some of it was bad dice, and some of it (most of it, actually) was me making some really bad choices, or forgetting to cast animi,

I need to spend some time over the next few days putting some figs together, and poring over the cards so that most of the relevant stats are pretty close to the front of my brain.  I don't have to have to keep looking over, wasting time, to remember that my Brigands are Def 12, Arm 14, and that they chanted to get Fearless and Tough.  I should know that kind of stuff, consarn it.

I was pleased with the Swamp Horror - most pleased than last time.  I'm trying to think of some movement shenanigans that I can use with it, most involving the reach & pull aspect.  And, on its initial road test, I was fairly pleased with the road hog.  It wasn't strong enough to crack a Cetrati wall, but setting things on fire is always nice.

Overcoming inertia

Newton, in his Principia Mathematica, wrote:

Lex I: Corpus omne perseverare in statu suo quiescendi vel movendi uniformiter in directum, nisi quatenus a viribus impressis cogitur statum illum mutare.

Or, roughly translated from the Latin: A body at rest remains at rest, and a body in motion will move in a uniformly straight line, unless it is acted on by an outside force.  Inertia is the resistance to changing that state of being.

So what? 

So, our lives have inertia too.  I fell out of the habit of painting a few weeks ago, and, having fallen out of the habit, I have to make a conscious effort to reclaim time for painting, to physically sit down, and pretty much force myself to paint.  It takes time (beyond painting), effort, and I have to make it a deliberate choice.  By contrast - I run at least a mile.  Every day.  I have done so for 1400+ days.  It is rare for me to have to deliberate when it comes to running.  For the record, I do have days where I have to talk myself into it, but most days, at some point, I change and go for a run, even if it is on the treadmill, without it being any sort of struggle or contest of wills.

I want to make painting a habit.  I want it to acquire an inertia of its own, so that, on most days, I wind up wandering down to the basement, even if it is only for ten or twenty minutes, to work on painting - whether it is actual painting, or doing all the prep work, or finishing off the bases.

Non-gaming hobby notes

Did not get to go play today - DW has been out of town on a business trip, and I thought that I should be here when she got back, instead of losing a random Warmahordes battle.

I did get to run over to a local hobby store.  Not gaming, but trains, slot cars, etc.  There, I picked up a book on wiring a model railroad layout, and a jig to align the fins on a model rocket.  Yep - those are two other hobbies that I have.  I have to indulge them from time to time, too.

The train stuff has been on hiatus for a while - I need to finish cleaning out the basement, and then I can start building the benchwork.  It's going to be much bigger than the current 4' x 8' table that the son and I have built.  It should not interfere with my gaming all that much - the kids will both be in school, so I will have a bit more spare time.  I have more problems with the carpentry and the electrical work; after all, building scenery for an HO layout is basically the same thing as building scenery for gaming, after all.

And model rockets do not interfere with gaming at all.  It's just an excuse to build something and make it go "whoosh!".  And then hike for half a mile to see if I can find where it landed.  I try to claim the whole experience as a combination of physical and mental exercise, but no - it's just plain fun.

Thoughts on someone else's posting. . . .

Felix, over at Pokeminiatures, has some advice on getting your miniatures painted.  The most recent is here.  Go over and read it - I'll wait.

Back?  Okay.

A thought on that - I try to impress upon the family that I need some time to paint.  By letting them know about it, I am more likely to actually have some painting time, which means that I am more likely to get stuff painted.

I use a very similar strategy every November, when NaNoWriMo rolls around - only then, it is "Daddy is going to be tired, cranky, and a bit stressed for the rest of the month.  Don't bug him, unless it is necessary."  The kids like it because it means more frozen pizzas and fast food.  The wife dislikes it for the same reasons.

But - if I don't tell my family that I want to get my gators fully painted by GenCon, or that I want to get a couple of DBA armies finally finished, then I have to fight that much harder to have some uninterrupted painting time.  By enlisting my family, and by making my goals fairly short-term, and reasonably limited, I am much more likely to have some extra wind at my back, pushing me along and helping get it done.

Anyway, I haven't done any painting for a few days - it happens.  Life got busy, and the basement here at the in-laws isn't really set-up for painting.  I'll carve out some time between now and Sunday, and hopefully get some more stuff finished.  I have a tourney on the 21st - by my count, one of my lists still needs 13 figures painted.  I can do that - especially since 5 of them are gators, and those guys are easy.

I'm not ignoring the other list - but it needs close to 40 figures painted.  That probably won't happen by July 21 - unless I loan them to Felix for a week or two.  ;)

Anoter day, another 1-1 record

Got in two games down at Games Plus today.  I got there a little later than I had originally planned, so there were already plenty of games in progress when I showed up.  Nonetheless, by standing around and talking to people, I managed to rustle up a couple of games.

First game was against Trolls - Grim Angus, Impaler, EBDT, Mauler, Janissa, full Nyss, Bone Grinders, Croak Hunter.  Swamp Pit kept me safe from the shooting, and I managed to take out some things on my feat turn.  His return stroke wasn't enough, and the gators chewed through his beasts.  The Nyss were still alive at the end of the game, but that was about it.

Second game was against Legion - eVayl, Ravagore, Scythean, Angelius, stew pot, swordsmen.  It's good to get Legion jammed down your throat from time to time - otherwise, you forget how fast and maneuverable that they can be.  I did not do nearly so well this game - I took out most of his swordsmen (though he trampelled a few), but not much else, and Barnabas died on eVayl's feat turn.

I was happy with both games - I'd probably have rather used Farrow against Legion (unless it is Lylyth), but I wanted to try out my new Swamp Horror.  It did okay - better in the first game than in the second.  It's a fun beast, but holy $%(*$& is it slow!

Plucking foam

Or something like that.  Got all my heavy minion beasts into the foam.  Well, all that I have here anyway - I have a road hog at home, and I might be picking up a swamp horror tomorrow.  And I should have room for them in the foam as well.

I'll still take my paints, just in case I cannot find a game.

Kind of sad

I brought my paints along with me, and I haven't actually done any painting on this trip.  I'll take my paints along with me tomorrow - if I can't find a game, I'll work on painting stuff. 

I'm thinking that tomorrow will probably see me add a couple of miniatures - I think I need a swamp horror (want, not need - if you feel like being technical), and there are a few others on my want list.  Probably not going to add too many figs between now and GenCon - but when I hit the exhibit floor, watch out!

I think my only gaming goal for today is going to be plucking the rest of the foam for the transport.  I have most of the stuff done, and used it earlier this week, but some of my heavies were still loose, and that needs to be fixed.  I really don't want one of my wrastlers actually trying to do a deathroll on another of my figs.

Lord Carver, the beatstick

So, I got in two games tonight with Lord Carver, and managed to win one of them.  It's a little late for a report, but a quick recap of each may suffice.

Game 1: Khador
3Vlad, a Conquest, doom reavers, cavalry - it was a fun game, but it did not look good for me for a good chunk of the game.  Fortunately, 3Vlad came charging in, and failed to kill a badly wounded gun boar - which kept him in charge range of Carver.  I pretty much ignored the Conquest for the entire game, and while it did some damage to my pigs, it did not decimate them as badly as I had feared.

Game 2: Cygnar
pStryker, Stormwall, Boomhowler, Black 13th - long, hard slog of a game.  My dice pretty much crapped out on me, but I was outplayed, pure and simple.  Better dice might have made a difference - it seems to me that, once I start trying to kill something, when bad dice occur, rather than continue with my plan, I commit extra resources to kill one piece, even when it is not as crucial to the game as something else.  At the end, Carver charged the Stormwall, and took out one side on his ownsome.  But too little, too late - and the Stormwall turned him into a small bloody smear of bacon on the next turn.

I feel more confident with Carver now - I need to get in some games with Barnabas, and more games with Carver once I have a Road Hog to play around with.

Foamy progress

Spent a little bit of time last night working on my Sabol transport.  Still need to pluck foam for about half of the two gator posses, and for all the heavies.  I should be able to finish that tonight.  With any luck, the store has power again by tomorrow - apparently, that suburb had a pretty major storm, and lots of trees came down.

Gaming while on the road

So, I am in the Chicago area for a few days.  Hoping to get in some games at Unique, Games Plus, Dice Dojo, and Valhalla.  I figure, I need to justify the space that I used in the back of the minivan, right?

All that is on tap for today is to cut form for a Sabol bag.  I really like my tool box and magnets transport system, but it is too darned heavy to use for something like GenCon.   I've had the Sabol bags for a long time, and used them before, but my Warmahordes stuff had been transported with magnets and steel for a long time.