Warhammer 40,000

So those that have been reading my blog should know that I am no great fan of Games Workshop. I used to be, mind you, I used to be a huge GW fanboi. I went from a small rogue trader force of beaky marines and a handful of eldar and squats, to owning 10+ armies going across every GW miniature game they made. In face I still own forces for necromunda, warmaster, battlefleet gothic, epic, and mordheim. That is besides the armies I own for 40K and WFB.

And then in the last few years, GW went from being a great game company, to being a delusional miniature company. Oh, they make (for the most part) amazing miniatures, but their heads are so far up their bums that they are pretty close to seeing their own tonsils.

All that being said, they did manage to create two amazing IPs. I absolutely love the world of warhammer fantasy, and the 40K universe. I simply do. That is why I still own so many miniatures. Going back to the beginning, 40K really was my gateway drug. There was nothing out there like it and it evoked this amazing imagery. It really has only gotten better as time has gone on. It is why I haven't kicked GW completely to the curb so far.

Case in point, I recently played Relic's Dawn of War II game. I have to say, for the most part, the PC games for GW's IPs have been pretty good. Relic does RTS's right, and the original Dawn of War was fantastic..and actually still going due to modders and the like. Well for some reason I just wanted to hop back into that world and I unexpectedly found that DoW2 was still going strong. I got in a half dozen games of Last Stand and had a ball playing.

That just feeds right into my love of 40K, so pretty soon I was looking over my models and reading the 7th edition rulebook in the hopes of playing soon. I'm actually going to be reaching out to friends soon who have either given up on wargaming, or who perhaps have never given it a try, and see if they wouldn't mind learning the game. They don't need to invest anything because I have plenty of armies. But I've found I just want to play. I want to put myself back into that universe.

Specifically, I've been really drawn to my orks. How can you not love orks. The 3rd edition book they got was brilliant. It was the first time GW had actually gotten my interest in orks. In rogue trader and 2nd edition, they were just too silly. Here was this dark universe and you had these clowns running around. But then in 3rd edition, the red noses and fuzzy wigs were tossed away and out came these brutal killers that loved to fight. It was fantastic. I've been smitten with them ever since. Sure, they still have their comical side, but now it is combined with a stone cold raging brute which makes them so appealing. And finally we have some great vehicle kits as well. The whole visual theme for them is amazing.

So here we are, stuck between not wanting to support a company that turned to the dark side, and yet wanting to romp around in the universe they created.

Do you even Waaaagh! Bro?

So the giant task of cataloging my collection continues into its second month. My wife's patience is waning. :)

I have about a third of it replaced into my office. I'm also not cataloging everything, just the mini collections really. Although I'm not sure if I'll do the D&D stuff or not. I have so many minis for that, dating all the way back to 70's grenadier sets to the first two Bonez kickstarter minis from Reaper. God help me if there is ever a fire in my house.

Anyways, I did recently tackle my ork horde. All said and done, it gets pretty close to 400 minis for my orks. I should really get to assembling the rest of them. Here they are:

Of course the poor boarboyz have no actual place in the army now. Boooooo. And I don't actually own any kommandos...so that will probably need to be fixed at some point. But every other unit that currently exists, I have. I do have a friend that has a small ork force, mostly made up of Mantic marauder minis...so he'll probably get some of the extras from this list.

So with the orks down, they get added to the high elves, the dwarfs, and my Brits and Germans for Bolt Action that are cataloged. Next up is the Space Wolf army. Shouldn't be as big, and I'll probably be able to get in the Necrons the same day.

I do need to start looking into a nice paint organizer for my desk. I want a nice tiered one so that it is easier to find what I want.

So no playing anything unfortunately. I have been working on my D&D 5th ed campaign, you know, just in case I find people to actually play one day. This would probably all go faster if I just unplugged my computer until it was done. :)

New Year, same gamer

Wow, I missed a whole month. And really, no excuse for it. That said, I've been busy.....busy reorganizing my office. I had a goal. I was going to catalog my GW armies....everything I had for each one, built, unbuilt, whatever. And then my wife said, "Why don't you just clean out your whole office?"

Silly me, I tried. Just to give you a sense of scale, my office resides in my basement. It roughly is about 1/6th of the total size of my basement. It has two full sized desks, a 5 shelf book rack, two wall shelving units, a built in closet, and then a side closet.

The contents of my office were able to cover over half of my remaining basement space. It really is quite something to see. While models did present a large portion, apparently I have been hording RPGs for even longer. Five editions of D&D material makes quite the stack (or stacks). Plenty of trash is also moving out, which will help. Also, there will be a good portion of models and games that are going into the "for sale" or "for free" bins.

I also found floppies and disks for games over 20 years ago. Doom anyone?

I had two weeks off for the holidays and I was able to empty and clean about 98% of the space. I still have a little left to do (and hope to finish tonight). Then I get the great task of organizing and putting back everything...while recording it all.

So then what? Well, I've got a few new priorities, or shifts in priorities as the case may be. Part of my focus will be working on a D&D campaign and forming a group to play it. If I am lucky, my search for players will turn into the finding of a group and I can just play instead of DM. But I'm not lucky.

Then, I have three games I'm going to focus on. Spartan's Planetfall will get the starter set finished and ready for play. Warlord's bolt action will hopefully get some progress as well. And then Kings of War will be played. I have armies ready to go for that one and the local community needs to keep growing. Gotta play publicly if that is going to happen.

Oh, and I need to reach out to some friends and reconnect. As you get older, it gets harder and harder to maintain friendships. Life gets pretty full and you can't expect everyone else to do the work. So I'm going to make the effort and build back that area of my life.

Hopefully, my next update will contain the words "I'm done with my office!" It will also be interesting to have an actual total to the number of GW models I own. Maybe I could open up a store....

I'm not dead yet...

Just horribly busy. Sorry for the lack of updates recently. I've just been swamped and haven't had much hobby time at all. Perhaps once the holidays are over, I'll be able to get into the swing of things.

There has been some movement. My wife secured me an organizer unit that is basically a wooden version of the plastic container I bought a few months ago. She even supplied me with the plastic bins to go in it. The plan is to put as much as the rank and file models into those bins and store them in my hobby garage area. That will allow my vast shelf space in my office to be used for large models that don't fit in nicely.

Also on the docket is a purchase for a large amount of magnets so that I can put it on all of my figs. Which is a lot. So that will be done in stages. First up will be the fantasy armies that I use for Kings of War. After that, I'll start on my 40K armies.

Oh, I did buy the new starter for Gates of Antares. Been reading the book some...but again, not a whole lot of time towards it. So no review in the near future I'm afraid. But down the line somewhere...I can see that.

I almost played in a flames of war tournament, but my wife scheduled an out of town trip on the same weekend.

I'm also still awaiting my abyssal army from Mantic. Getting pretty near the end of November and no word yet. They need to get in gear.

I will say that I've been playing Vermintide on my PC quite a bit. That is very time consuming. We are talking about 30 minutes for a single run, with maybe a 60-70% chance of success. Fun game, but they need a lot of work on reward balancing. Still, it is fun to play with my friends, so that will stay on the radar for a while.

Star Wars battlefront is out, and I have played a few games, but quite frankly, I'm a bit tired. I need to be on my A game to play that and right now, I'm somewhere on the E to F level.

Mostly that is due to the weather. You see it is cold outside...which means it is colder inside. Which means one of my cats is constantly sleeping on me at night because she refuses to keep her sweaters on. So I don't sleep as well. Darn cat.

And that is basically it. I did try to get some friends together for D&D about a month or two ago, but just couldn't grab enough of them. I really miss that game. Maybe one day.

King of War, that's me baby!

So I forced myself to hit game night this week to help support the KoW movement in my area. My dwarfs were already packed up, so a quick visit to easy army builder, and I had a 1000pt dwarf army all worked out. Grabbed some dice and a tape measure, and I was good to go.

My opponent was also a new KoW player, just learning the game, and he threw down with some goblins. Talk about your classic match up. We were both using GW models, so it really looked familiar on the table.

Neither of us were rocking any magic items in our lists. I brought:
War smith
horde of ironclads
regiment ironguard
troop of xbows
troop of rifles
cannon
iron behemoth 

He brought:
king of chariot
shaman
regiment of sharpsticks
regiment of spitters x2
regiment of fleabag sniffs
regiment of trolls
sharpstick thrower x2
slasher

I was quite outnumbered and more than a bit worried. We rolled up the Loot mission, and luckily I got to go first. For the most part, I ran as fast as I could towards the loot counters. Terrain slowed some of my marches though. Cannon shot missed. (I'll say now we screwed up and added a -1 penalty for long range)

His turn, he did some shooting, putting a marker here or there, but otherwise, just moved up as well. (Also, no pics again, sorry...was more concerned with playing than with photographing)

My ironwatch moved up to threaten two counters, while my ironguard moved up across from his trolls and sharpsticks. My iron behemoth hung back a little and belched on the trolls for a few hits. My other shooting was concentrated on his slasher and I actually waivered it.

His trolls charged my ironguard and his sharpsticks were just in the flank and hit them as well. Now my behemoth was close enough to block the slide move. But a look at the rules showed us an unclear answer, so we pushed the behemoth back to allow the sharpsticks to get in the slide, he gains the first loot counter with that charge as well. His king on chariot charged my horde of ironclads. Shooting went towards the cannon. He rolls a 10 which would route my cannon, but my war smith was there so he had to roll again...and another 10 pops up. Ugh! My ironguard though stood like a boss against his trolls and sharpsticks, as did the horde vs his king.

My behemoth was looking down the flank of his sharpsticks and just rolled over them, taking the loot counter from them. My guard crashed into the trolls, sending them on their way as well. The horde countered into the king and barely did anything. With my cannon gone, the slasher was in range of my xbows and his fleabags had taken a loot counter behind it. My warsmith tried to shoot the slasher but missed, so I had no choice but to shoot it with the xbows sending it off thankfully. My rifles were in poor position on the left side now that combat was engaged, so they started to shift towards center.

His king bounds in to smack my horde around some more, and his fleabags turn around with the loot counter and start making their way back to his board edge. His shooting didn't do too much, nor his wizard.

My guard charged a spitter regiment and sent them packing while the behemoth swung around with the hopes of eventually hitting the fleabags. My horde again hit the king, putting some wounds on him and waivering him. My warsmith moved up to get just in range of the fleabags, hit them once, and then waivered them! My xbows whiffed and the rifles moved to support the horde.

He moved his king back to hopefully get a TC charge against my horde, and give his throwers a chance to do some real damage. His other spitters fired on the guard doing nothing. His wizard, now blocking the center loot counter from my horde, blasted them, but they stayed put despite the large bolts sticking out of them now.

My guard had a long charge on his king, so they took it, slamming into his flank and crushing him. The behemoth moved up and flamed the fleabags, but they hung in. The horde charged the wizard, but only did two wounds, leaving him standing there.

He shot into my horde, getting them up to 12 wounds, but still they stayed. His fleabags moved away, but the loot counter slowed them down.

Last turn, I had to kill his wizard to claim the center loot, or route the fleabags to remove his loot counter. I shot the fleabags with everything I could, but they did not route. So now it was up to the horde...charging into the lone wizard, smashing him with 5 wounds, and then rolling a paltry 3 for the nerve test, one less than I needed to route him. The wizard held back the tide of ironclads and kept them from the loot.

His last turn could not see him gain another counter, so he focused firing on my horde and finally dispersed the dwarfs. Game ended in a tie.

All in all, a great game. Right down to the wire. Two dice rolls that go my way, and its victory for the dwarfs. But alas, the sneaky goblins hold on, battered, but still kicking.

We did screw up a few times, but for the most part, played the game correctly. We discovered the long range penalty goof about half way through the game. The one piece we are still mulling over is when do you nudge other units to make room for charges. The printed rules and FAQs are not real clear. The mods on the forums are very direct with their opinions, but they really need to update the FAQ to match it.

Had a great game though. Was very fun. Reminds me of when I started playing Warhammer. My gaming group is starting a league next week. So hopefully will draw in even more players. Now I just gotta decide on which army to bring. Till next time.

Did you see that warpstorm?

So yeah, hit a rough patch there. It is not quite done yet I'm afraid, so we'll just have to play things by ear for a while. That being said, I have actually been doing some stuff. One of these years I may even photograph what I'm doing.

So lets recap shall we:

1) still doing the D&D Encounters. I did have to skip one week due to the rough patch, but otherwise have been going steadily. In fact, the last time was quite enjoyable. Mr. Brag about My Character wasn't there and wow, what a difference did that make. Other people could actually talk and joke a little. Also, there was a father/son combo at the table. That was really nice too. I think D&D is a great family game. I've always enjoyed playing with my kids. I just wish I could get my wife to try it. Oh well. Oh, and I even painted a model for it. I decided to switch my character around (which you can do in Encounters) and decided the table needed to be graced with a fully painted model. It isn't golden deamon worthy by any means, but it is far better than the pre-painted ones that most people seem to use. Sometimes it makes me want to bust out some of my old Ral Partha lead minis. So listen up gamers, take some pride and buy a good model for your character, and paint it up right and proper.

2) I've been keeping an eye on the new 40K Tau releases popping out. Some really pretty stuff. Too bad I'd need to take out a loan to get any of it. Also, GW sells out of the Tau battleline terrain set before it even releases?!? Whose stupid idea was that GW? Brand new product, and you don't even have enough stock to make it to release?? Your models are pretty, but your business actions make me want to kill you. You guys are giving lawyers a run for their money.

3) Alright, I'll be honest....I've also been playing Neverwinter this past weekend. They had this small event where it was really easy to get XP for your characters, so I made sure a few of them reached level 60. I could have been painting or some such....I know....but I really like the game, and it was fun. Although I did burn out on it a bit...so it is taking a trunk seat for a while.

4) Malifaux - that is right...Malifaux. Some friends of mine have dove in after the death of WFB. I let one of them run me through a teaching game. I've looked at the factions and models...but so far have avoided making an actual purchase. Seems interesting....jury is still out though.

5) How could I almost forget, Star Wars Battlefront Beta! Hell yeah! Huge SW nerd here....I cursed up a storm playing that game. Very fun and frustrating. About what you would expect. I've already pre-ordered it....so the wife is going to get some ear-plugs when it comes out. 

So I've been gaming...in one way or another..which is good. But I have these thoughts running through my head pretty much all the time now on various topics. Here's another list:

1) Death of Warhammer - still boggles me. And is really impacting my desire to work on my Empire army. I do have KoW that I can use the models with...but right now KoW needs work to gain a better foothold in the local scene. And I'm not up for that right now.

2) Planetfall - I really need to get back to painting up my starter set. I really liked the game when I read it, and played a test game. I also really like Spartan games. There is also a Firestorm Armada player base, so maybe I can do some demo games for that group once I'm ready.

3) Slipping into the third slot is Bolt Action! I'm a huge fan of WWII games and this one seems to be the perfect one to scratch my 28mm itch. I really want to work on my Brits, but I really only have standard infantry and a couple of vehicles. I don't own any support weapons for them. I do for my Germans...but again...want to do Brits. It makes me wonder if my motivation is tied to the fact that I need to make purchases? Wouldn't that be awful?

4) 40K has reared its ugly head recently. Here is the thing with 40K..it was my first real mini wargame. And it has great background...and it is so easy to imagine battles and such. The reality though is that I'm quite intimidated to play it now with all the changes it has been through. Remember, old man here. That and that GW is a giant cock-sucking company makes it hard for me to commit time to it. But there still is this draw to it.

5) Which leads me to Gates of Antares. I just pre-ordered the starter set for this game. It is based on Bolt Action rule set which I really like, but is d10 instead of d6 based which seems interesting. And since it is Sci-Fi, I could maybe use my 40K armies to play this. But we have to wait a little while until it is released.

6) And rounding out the group is Warpath. I had originally been all excited for this kickstarter. But Mantic made some odd choices that really closed the door quickly on this. First off, no Marauders (their version of orks). How can you skip one of your base armies?? And honestly, the kits and such just didn't excite me. I think the two player starter combo was great....fantastic value, best of all the options. But getting that would require me to invest more..which I'm just not ready to do. So I passed this time around.

So there you have it folks. So much going on, but none of it ever seems like enough. Until next time.

Where did September go?

Wow, October already. Who knew? Anyways, what the heck have I been up to? Well, lots of talking mostly. I have continued to go to the D&D encounters games. However, I was forced to sit at a different table these last two times and my enjoyment was greatly diminished. You see, there were one of "those" guys sitting at the table. You know the type, the one that constantly brags about his character and then tries to make a joke at the end of every sentence the DM completes. Yeah, I had to put up with one of those guys for two different nights. Ugh. The up side, is that it made me reach out to some friends of mine to form up my own group again. The group is as yet still unformed due to minimum numbers not yet reached, but there is hope.

Also, I have been working on some models. There is a Flames of War tournament in November that I am considering going to, but it required models I did not yet own or that were still in blisters. So yesterday I busted out the clippers and superglue, and went to town. I got two challengers built and three universal carriers done. I then primed them all in Firefly green from Army Painter.

Not only that, but I also recently purchased a new plastic tank kit from Warlord for my Bolt Action British. I got the super sexy Cromwell tank. That was also assembled and primed. That was a nice kit. The instructions took a little bit of translating, but overall, were sufficient. Had I thought to take pics, I could have shared them...maybe next time.

So if I did everything right, I now have all of the models I need for the FoW tournament in November, assembled and primed. Also, I have a functional model to use in Bolt Action.

If we can remember properly, I was supposed to be focusing my efforts on getting my new Empire army done. So how is that going? you may ask...well not great. I have procured pretty much everything that I want. In fact, I have one last trade on the books to complete, and then I'm probably done. I did prime two models to see how they end up looking painted. However, I've been slack and haven't gotten any farther with those two.

I will say I'm really surprised that the local WFB community has pretty much given up on that game completely. In fact, I am just surprised that I'm not really seeing any support for 8th at all on the web. People are either abandoning it completely, or trying to fix the whole shebang. I think both of those options are silly. Why not just fix the last two armies that didn't get a book, and focus on Swedish Comp to help keep it all friendly and balanced? But basically, I get the feeling that I will be hard pressed to find an 8th edition opponent any time soon. That really saddens me. Why let GW kill off a great game and replace it with PoS....sorry..I mean AoS?

Lets face it, PoS...I mean AoS, is a model line, nothing more. I can't even read posts about it without cringing. All the while, 8th edition is still there. You still have the rules, the books, the models. And unlike other edition changes, you don't have something that is replacing it.

I'm all happy for KoW, because it is a good game, but it also isn't WFB. WFB does offer a different experience. My Empire army will work with KoW, but I also got a whole bunch of the models because of how they play in WFB. I want to play that army in WFB. Am I the only one?