30 November 2016

Premature Deadcembulation and the Nun Superman



I've kept going premature Deadcember painting and prep work. Here's what's new.

I found a few more skeletons to paint, three more Nightmare Legion, Kreuger from the Cursed Company, and five identical old armoured skeletons. I've decided to put some on individual bases for flexibility. I also trimmed & cleaned the bits for other 16 plastic skeletons. Not sure if I will get to those. I painted a bit too. The big guys are almost done -- the skeletal daemon and the four skeletal ogres.



I'm not a major Oldhammer collector, by any means. But as a fan of old figures, and Empire in particular, I know the rarity of the elusive Nuln Spearman. So when I heard there was one on eBay, I wanted to watch the bidding as a spectator. I follow eBay on my phone, because it's a rare example of a really great mobile app that offers a better interface than the equivalent web site. When I typed my search into the app, I was amused at the alternate "Did you mean: ...?" suggestion. In hindsight, I'm a little curious what those (2 items) are.




26 November 2016

Deadcember in November

Brace yourselves, Deadcember is... oh, well... never mind. It's here early.

 I've been putting aside undead(ish) stuff for a while, figuring I would get to it in Deadcember. What little free time I have had has been mostly agonizing over other stuff. About 11:50 pm, Black Friday, November 25.... close enough. I'm not sure how much time I will get in December, so I figured I would enjoy a little late night painting while I can.


Just base coats and initial washes on the bones. But it's a start -- an early start.


Have you ever thought that you've got some privacy... say, in the bathroom. But you can's shake the creepy feeling that you're being watched...  :(


Some day soon I'm going to need to work up a simple game where I can pit my undead against my daughter's princesses. ;)

Like some sort of Disney, Black Cauldron mash-up.


19 November 2016

Kings of War - Marienburg


I did, in fact, get to hang out with some old friends and play a coupe of games of Kings of War today! I didn't think about taking pics for the inevitable blog post until after the second game had started. So that's what ye get.

We played 1500 points, which seems like a decent size for a casual game. This time I took my Marienburg army and went with a bunch of regiments instead of all of the hordes I took with the undead last time.

First game was against orcs. I learned about their good ME score, and crushing strength. I lost (technically a draw based on the scenario, but I had almost no army left to theoretically contest the loot left unclaimed,) but did better than I thought I would after the early game seemed to go downhill for me. As much as the orcs were tough to deal with, I think the flyer (a chimera) was what really screwed me up. I just didn't deal with it very well. My cannon and mage never managed to do more than a single wound to it, it kept my knights tied up most of the game, and still managed to cause some decisive casualties at the end.

Second game was against Skaven Ratkin. More hordes. I did much better this time, though I think I owe a lot of that to my dice and my opponents dice. This time it was the Invade scenario. I did take a few pics, below. On the left I hung back and tried to soften the rat ogres and plague monks up with a cannon and mage, while on the right I charged forward, hoping to hurt his weaker troops (mostly warriors and slaves) quickly and decisively. It worked, but took a little longer than I had planned. Things went better than expected on the left. The first turn I put 5 wounds each on the two heavy hitting units, pressuring them to move up as quickly as they could while I moved back so I could get the charge first.





I was once again very pleased with the way Kings of War played. The rules were pretty clear and simple, and the gameplay fast, though everything still felt the way it should, even if some of it is a bit abstracted. Although combats usually seem to be brief, there is also a buildup of casualties that prevents the lack of casualty removal (and full ability to cause damage) from being a problem. I think the game encourages decisive action. I'm once again impressed, and admit (again) that my initial aversion to the rules is unfounded. The simplicity of the rules is misleading. It is a fun and fulfilling game. I'm definitely on board with Kings of War.





KoW: the Gateway Game, and Some Deadcember Planning

Kings of War



Holy crap, I'm going to slip in a THIRD day of gaming this year! Here's my 1500 points of Kings of War, Kingdom of Men "Multiversal Marienburgers" army. I'm starting to consider a (my) version of Marienburg as another iteration of Moorcock's Tanelorn.

I'm also going to try introducing a friend to miniatures gaming soon. We've played boardgames and RPGs together. I think Kings of War will make an excellent "gateway" game to get into miniatures. I measured everything out and, as small as our new house is, I'm pretty sure I can temporarily set up a gaming table in the dining room. So I brought up the idea, we just need to see when our schedules can work out time for a game.


Deadcember

I'm kind of getting into some of these painting themes... Orctober, Deadcember, Month of Marsh, and my own April Whatever I'm Going to Paint Giants. I totally failed at Deadcember last year (and didn't even realize that it was already a thing -- I thought I had made it up!) As with 2015, the end of the year is already a non-painting fustercluck. November has been pretty dry. But maybe I can turn it around in Deadcember? Going to be tricky...

Here's what I've got prepped: 4 skeletal ogres, 8 remaining Nightmare Legion skeletons, , an oldschool Ral Partha skeletal balrog, 10 old Citadel wight cavalry, the Lord of the Feast, my vulture-man sculpt, and I have a painted skeleton giant that needs a base. I think I have a Citadel mounted wight lord I should probably prep, too -- awesome figure.

18 November 2016

Halloween '16



Thought I would share a few photos from Halloween. (I realize this is a bit late.)

My daughter dressed in a calavera, fairy, witch, princess... I don't know, I lost track. The costume was sort of a fluid concept up until the last minute. But that's OK. She was happy, looked cute, and I can dig the free-form costuming. Besides, my own concept wasn't more than, "hey, I have this robe, why don't I get a faceless mask at the last minute."


We had fun, that's all that matters. She was really excited, skipping around the neighborhood. I tried to keep up with her skipping.


The weekend before Haloween we painted pumpkins and ceramic skulls, which ended up on the table on our front porch. Admittedly a bit hard to see them in this Halloween night pic. All three kids (aside from my daughter) who came trick-or-treating on our street got to check them out. Things have changed since I was young. Don't kids go outdoors anymore? I mean, it was a night of dressing up and collecting bags of free candy -- WTF? (Whatever. More left-over Skittles and Reese Cups for me.)


16 November 2016

Skrolk, Baggage

Some of us on the Oldhammer in the New World Facebook group did a surprise figure exchange. I painted & sent someone Lord Skrolk.



After many long years, I finally scratch built and bought some containers to put in the wagons & carts. I can't remember if I posted these before, but did these a little while ago.
 



12 November 2016

Casualty Markers

I've been using skull shaped beads to mark wounds & casualties, but I have needed some different markers to indicate larger kultiplesnof wounds and/or negative status (broken demoralized, whatevs), depending on the game being played. So...


Skulls will indicate single wounds, gravestones insicate five, and the Black Rabbit of Inlé will indicate either ten wounds or a crippling status of some sort, s appropriate per the rules in any given battle.