Summer Slowdown Continues

Miniatures blogging time, and gaming, have both slowed considerably. Nothing wrong with that, really. Just a lot of other things going on.

I've been working on a few small commission items, but haven't painted much of anything for myself.

I picked up both WAB2 and WFB8, have glanced through both of them but haven't really immersed myself in either, let alone play any games. At the moment I'm a little indifferent to both. That will probably change at some point, but right now I'm a little distracted.

I have worked on a map for the upcoming Warhammer Empire campaign, Treachery and Greed. It should look something like this:




Next week is the annual "Grovers Grilling Cheese Fest" hosted by one of my friends from the local gaming group. I haven't been playing any games with them lately, so I am looking forward to an afternoon of gaming and cooking out.

I'm in the middle of a slow reading of "Alexander to Actuim," by Peter Green. I had previously read "The Helenistic Age" and wanted more. (Where is the underline function on the Blogger editor???) I've also been considering getting the computer version of Fields of Glory, just to squeeze in a little gaming action when I get a few minutes.

I've been doing some other non-miniature painting and other art projects as well. Mostly just for fun, and just a little profit. A couple are public art projects (one in progress, another in a couple months.) A few of the personal-amusement pieces have also ended up in a small local gallery, and I'm hoping to get a few more in another gallery soon.

Last week was the 6th anniversary of meeting my soon-to-be wife. We've been working a lot on the upcoming wedding (just a few months away!)

So that's my personal and gaming/painting life, for what it's worth. Once some of the summer activities and wedding cool down, I've got several painting/gaming projects in a holding pattern -- we'll see which one lands first.

Origins 2010

I drove down to Origins in the morning, picking up my co-pilot on the way. After discovering the parking lot I had mapped to was full, we drove around a bit (in confusion) trying to find another spot and unfortunately picked a garage by the Arena. We have the plan for next time, however, for making use of the loading docks.

Before lunch we wandered the massive vendors hall. I ran into a few people I wanted to say "hi" to but not all (nor even most) of them, unfortunately. I could have used a few more hours to really wander around and look at everything. A lot of interesting stuff...





I stopped by "the bitz guy" (The Game Room) booth and picked up a few small things I had been looking for. Unfortunately, none of the DoW I was looking for.

There was one place that had a ton of cheap books and 50% off old Confrontation metals. I grabbed one box of gunners for which I have been looking, but didn't have enough time to really go through it all.

So I was pretty successful in not spending money. I did, however, find something with which to score points with my fiance. She's a big fan of Michael Parkes and there are a few prints/posters she's been dying to get. At the big art booth, I thought one of the posters at the back of a stack looked familiar...


... I win.



WAB

After lunch I met up with the small WAB group organized by Ralph K. It turned out that I was the only one with a civilized army (and their opponent,) everything else being what some of the WAB-list refer to as "bog wallowers." I almost got suckered in to acting as a Viking general, but ended up coaching a couple of new players through the game using my Romans & Cimbri (Gaul list from HatPW.)

A few interesting twists before the game started. The armies were still packed up from my previous demo games, which use a bit more than 2000 points. So each side had some extra troops. Then we were put on what looked to be the smallest table (about 5' wide) with some really clogging terrain. It was interesting watching the players deal with it.


The game went back and forth for a bit, with the Romans scoring some early advantages. Both players seemed to have a good grasp on the game and tactics, however neither one of them could roll dice to save their life. Quite a few large "buckets o' dice" combats resulted in a single wound or none at all. Everyone enjoyed themselves however, including me, and the game took a dramatic twist at the end when the Roman general couldn't seem to roll anything under a 10 on two successive waves of panic tests.



There were five games going at any given time, with a number of experienced players coaching some of the new players along the way.





It's been quite a few years since I've been to Origins, and the last time I went I didn't get much time to leave the table where I was helping to teach miniatures painting.

The miniatures hall at Origins is HUGE, with plenty of space for twice as many miniatures games. With all of that room, and a large number of people wandering around, several things seemed strange to me, especially given that it was Saturday:

• Most of the games were small, and while some of them had some pretty interesting tables/boards, most were small games and quite a few were using unpainted figures. This is a big, big contrast to even the smaller HMGS conventions where there are quite a few large games, and even the smallest are usually a beautiful visual spectacle.

• There didn't seem to be much manufacturer promotion in the gaming area, and even the vendor's hall was missing a lot of "big names." I think Origins is an ideal place to promote your game & figures. I just don't understand why some of the manufacturers/publishers would pass up this great change to make an impression on so many people. So even beyond the "big names" I'm not certain why on a Saturday afternoon I didn't see even the small scale people putting on at least one table worth of demos or participation games with a big visual "wow" factor.
  

So my plan for next year is to come back for more of the weekend, and try running some games, and maybe even play in a few.

Roman

I was just going through some of my Romans. I believe I previously discussed my experience with ordering some Foundry command packs. My first pack had two Pompey figures, Caesar was missing a foot, and there was no council. Looking through the replacement figures, it seems that one of the horses is miscast, with one of its back legs dwindling off to a point just after the upper joint.

Two packs at "premium" price, both packs had casting errors, one had the wrong contents, and the figures generally had poor sculpting. Can't say I'm fond of Foundry lately. Especially given the quality of a lot of the competition these days. At least the horses were sculpted nicely.

Ah well... to relax a bit & get ready for my trip to Origins tomorrow. :D

Origins and Loose Ends

Origins

This weekend is Origins Game Fair in Columbus, Ohio. It's about two hour drive for me. This year I'm only heading down for the day Saturday. My plan is to wander the dealer's hall, gawk a bit and then meet up for some informal & unofficial WAB games.



Treachery & Greed

We're still gearing up for the summer campaign at Warhammer-Empire.com.

After seeing some of the site members participate in a couple of figure conversion contests, a few of us on the campaign team wanted to do an unofficial contest of our own. Site members voted on a character and set of equipment, and we were given our task. Here's mine before and after painting.



The character assigned to us was "Alchemist Wizard Lord with the infirmity compensator and the etherial dissipator." The "infirmity compensator" was described only as some sort of (somewhat dangerous) exoskeleton/suit to slightly improve its wearer's physical characteristics. The "etherial dissipator" roasts enemies with "etherial" energy.


In the meantime I've been working on some stuff for the newsletters, as well as another project. I probably shouldn't do this, but a slight sneaky peeky of the work in progress...



WFB8

So the big news around town is the impending release of WFB8. I find myself less and less excited. I'm going to give it a chance, but it seems like the direction in the rules is the same as that which drove me away from 40k a few editions ago.

Rumors of "true line of sight" have led to some crazy modeling suggestions on W-E.com. Things like modeling cannons on top of tall rocky precipices. This pic was my contribution -- a new take on the longrifle sniper.




Southpark Tournament - April '10 - Game 1



I realized I never finished the reports from the Southpark Tournament in April.

The short version:

Game Three. Vs. Skaven. I win. I finish second overall.


The medium version:

It was an interesting game. Especially since I've rarely faced off against the Skaven, and have more typically been leading one. I was facing two Doomwheels, a Seer on a Bell, some big blocks of infantry and other typical ratty stuff.

I got an early advantage when I blasted the Seer off his bell right away. This was slightly balanced by the fact that Doomwheels are the perfect tool against Steam Tanks. One of the wheels didn't last long (a glorious charge of some 'nilla knights finished it off) but the other one destroyed one STank and damaged the other.

In the end, the Marienburgers were victorious, and Frank and Lucy even (finally) earned their keep and did some damage.

The long version:

I'll see if I can get around to posting some photos and more details later. No guarantees. Once I'm this far behind, a complete report is unlikely.

Summer Slowdown?

Gaming & painting continues to be a bit slow around ZeroTwentythreeland.

Social & family events, additional time at work, and wedding planning have been keeping me pretty busy.

+++

Game Day

The good news is that I did make it to my old gaming group's Game Day over Memorial Day weekend.

In the first time slot I played in a home-brewed murder mystery miniatures game, set in a 1920's town full of secrets and beset by wolves, snombies (snow zombies!) and me... I was secretly the murderer and achieved my mission to transform myself into an unholy monster. (And presumably eat the rest of the townsfolk.)

In the second time slot I ran the WAB demo game that I had hosted at Cold Wars earlier this year. It went pretty well, though this time the Germans & Gauls won. An early blown combat by the Romans, along with the overrun into the general (who then fled off the table) helped give an early advantage. The one flank where the Romans were initially doing well was counteracted by a lucky barbarian rally.

The third time slot was a big game of Blue Max/Canvas Eagles. It's been a while since I've played, but after just one turn I was back in the saddle (or buckled into the wooden bench, to be more appropriate) again. The allied player directly across from me at the start asked to be shot down quickly, as he had to leave for another commitment. My plan initially failed and he ended up tailing me right away. I quickly put on the breaks & pulled a stall, ended up above and directly behind him and shredded/exploded his plane. I took a little damage as the game progressed, but by the end I was the only one flying against 3 or 4 allied planes, while facing the wrong direction. So I bravely flew off into the sunset...

+++

Plans

The WAB game still used the WAB 1.5, as our 2.0 books only recently arrived, after about 5 weeks wait. Hopefully we can try out the 2.0 rules in the next couple weeks. If I can get some time, that is!

As far as painting, I've not had a lot of time. Mostly I'm trying to wrap up a few small commissions. I always try to get at least a little something for myself in the lineup, though. So I've got 9 Balearic slingers on the table at the moment.

I do need to consider what focus I will take next, however. I'd like to start hosting more games at the game club(s), at my place, and at conventions. Although I've got some other projects I'd like to move on (Successors, Carthaginians, etc.) I'm thinking that since I've got a decent start on the Romans anyway, I should just push ahead with bigger and better battles in the civil & Social wars of the first century BCE.

Although the new WFB is out soon, I'm feeling a bit "done" with the game for a while. I will pick up the rules. But my will to paint more Skaven has been sapped before it even got charged up. I'm more in the mood for expanding on the Empire troops, though I'm still not "excited" by WFB at the moment.

Magnetizing Bases

Below is a quick diagram I did to show how I magnetize my carrying cases/boxes, movement trays and figures' bases. (Click to enlarge.) I've started to change from galvanized steel for the top of the movement tray to "paper steel" (I got mine from Renaissance Ink.) It's easier to work with.

I've also switched from basswood bases and chipboard/basswood movement trays to plastic, since the plastic is more dimensional stable, so everything's not warping so much with changes in temperature & humidity.

Slow Painting

I've been a bit busy lately, distracted with other things and what little painting I've done recently has been mostly for other people.

But I did manage to squeek in another small unit of Spanish caetrati. I've started on a few other small projects. Hopefully I will wrap up one or more of them in the near future!


(I just noticed I never finished the throwing spears on these figures! I'll have to go back and touch them up a bit...)


Still waiting impatiently for WAB2 to show up here.

Changes

Maybe it's a nearing-mid-life-crisis. Maybe just stress. Maybe a few other things.

I'm giving some serious thought to going back to painting on commission and other artistic pursuits full time. One of those "others" would be toy soldier related, as I'd like to take a stab at sculpting (for myself) for a bit and see if I can get good enough to make a serious go of it. I've got a few other ideas I'd like to pursue as well. Maybe I'm just daydreaming...

Painting Color Tool

I think I posted a couple of online color tools previously, but I don't seem to have them easilly tagged in the blog. I just found a new (to me) one so thought I would share it, along with the two previous tools. (And add a new "Color Tools" tag.)


http://www.colorblender.com/

http://kuler.adobe.com/

http://colorschemedesigner.com/


((edit))

While I am at it, if you'd like a good image/photo editor but don't want the cost associated with professional tools like Photoshop, I recommend Paint.Net:

http://www.getpaint.net/

"GIMP" is another alternative. I haven't looked at it in years, but I thought that Paint.net's interface was much easier to learn and use (for beginners and those experienced with other software alike.)

Southpark Tournament - April '10 - Game 2

Southpark Tournament - April '10 - Game 2


I forgot to take starting pics of the game, so here's a bit of an in progress shot. I also forgot to indicate that Karl Frank and Lucy (his dragon) are in the midst of the enemy in this pic.



My opponent was the ringer Warriors of Chaos army, which had massacred its Dark Elf opponent in the first round.

He a Nurgle Lord in a unit of knights, a Khorne hero on a juggie in another unit of knights, a Tzeench disk riding annoyance, and a Slannesh caddy in a chariot. In addition there were a couple untis of marauders, a unit of dragon ogres, and a couple units of hounds as screens.


Right out of the gate I had horrible luck with my cannons and did nothing the first two turns. That allowed all of his fast troops to take out two of the cannons and jump all over my line.

I moved many of my troops up, some as bait to try to draw in some charge material for the STanks. Unfortunately, he set everything up on one side of the table, most of which went down after I had deployed my entire army. So I did have to spend a few turns "redeploying" and sending one STank on a bit of the "scenic route" to combat.








My militia charged the dragon ogres but failed to break them. ;) Here you can see everything in the distance converging on one of the Steam Tanks.

You will also notice a distinct lack of Karl Franz. After completely missing (again!) the Nurgle Lord for two turns his dragon finally finished the lord off. However, I still managed to lose combat due to numbers and banners. Needing a 9 or less to stick around, Karl rolled 11 and ran... but nor very fast. Only about 6" on three dice. So he got run down by the pursuing knights.

The marauder cavalry dance around a bit and annoy my knights in the foreground for the moment.




With Karl gone, the rest of my forces are swept away and it all comes down to the two tanks. The second one joining in the combat with the first. The first is destroyed, but in the process the chaos knights and dragon ogres are taken out. Somehow I managed to not wound the Khorne lord. By the end of the game it was him and some of the marauders beating on the tank, but not enough to destroy it by the end of the game.



My opponent was thrilled to have scored 10 hits with S3 marauders and horses in the last round of combat. The tank had only three wounds left. Sadly, my dice were also OK (well, only at this point) and it made all its armour saves.


So round two resulted in a minor loss for the Empire. The chaos player was just shy of getting a solid victory. Thank god I managed to take down at least a couple of high value units/characters.