More Numidians WIP

Since the cat is out of the bag, I may as well post my WIP photo of the new Wargames Factory Numidians here. I will post more comments and a full review when I'm done. Tonight (Wed.) is game night, so probably not til Thursday.

Click for larger pic (as usual):

Some Assembly Required

I've continued prepping more figures. Usually this is the stage I hate, so while I've been in some sort of mood for it, I'm just going to take advantage. So I prepped up a unit of 10 Renegade Celtic cavalry to round out my previous list of figures I require for Historicon.

I've also prepped 1/2 of the Spanish scutarii I have. I picked up a cheap back of Old Glory figures in the flea market at Cold Wars, so figured I would round that out with a pack of Crusader scutarii and two commend packs. This will give me two units of 24 figures. I've got to admit, the OG figures actually look pretty decent. I'm impressed. Sadly, these shouldn't really be high on my list of painting priorities at the moment. But I'm anxious to see how they'll turn out when they're done.

I'm going to prep some figures I'm doing for someone else (on commission) and then I should be done for a moment and getting down to some serious painting.

I may have a few surprise figures appearing sometime soon, as well...

The "WFB metagame"

Someone recently started a thread at Warseer regarding collecting army lists to counter Daemon armies. On of the first responses stated:

"Well, what you are describing is known as the metagame, and is very influential. In MagictG, it´s the usual game: Someone comes up with an unbeatable new deck. Everyone copies the deck, and suddenly the tournaments are full with these which always win. As a result, people develop an anti-deck that is specifically tailored to beat this one deck but doesn´t stand a chance against anything else. In the end, a tournament list looks like this:

45% Killer Decks
45% Anti-Killer Decks
10% Bystanders
(Okay, maybe I exaggerate a bit here...)

I´m surprised this concept seems to be new to Warhammer players? If an army list dominates the tournaments, then take something with you that helps against it!"

And:

"Learn to play the game properly, most armies are effective when used right."

Which trailed off into the topic of list tailoring and I completely lost any enthusiasm for reading further.

But I think those points above nail it. WFB has become a "metagame" of list writing, where what's actually going on down on the tabletop is far far less important than the list you make. Lists have always made a difference to a certain extent, but with the system's increased reliance on special rules and "killer combos," the game has effectively become Warhammer Fantasy Listwriting, rather than Warhammer Fantasy Battles.

I haven't been to the local WFB night in a while. Today I'm free and will be heading up there. I figure I've lost enough with the same balanced, "combined arms" Empire army, and figured I would write a new list that may actually stand a chance. It started with the brace of steam tanks, the arch lector and three mages. I initially added some infantry, but then realized that having actual rank and file guys was more of a liability than anything else, and removed them...

...and that's when I felt any and all will to play the game drain from me...

So I will be heading to the local game store to socialize a bit, and maybe bring some figures up to clean & assemble for the next modeling/painting project while I BS with the guys a bit.

The only gaming I've done in the past two months +/- were two fairly fun games of WAB and FoG. I should be itching for a WFB game. In fact, I am . Just not WFB in its current incarnation. I'm dying to play some tabletop games. But as I stated above, I can't get past that engineering involved in writing an army list. And if I don't optimize my list to the one or two "builds" that's most efficient, there's almost no point in putting the figures on the table.

So I'm going to continue painting, and getting in games of WAB when I can, and maybe give FoG another shot. Also thinking about trying to dig up some interest (teach non-miniature-gaming people?) some DBA or MoW. But for now -- and I don't know how long -- WFB just generates far too little enthusiasm for me.

I like pushing little toy soldiers around on the table and rolling some dice -- not accounting.

Law of the Instrument

Gauls and Germans: "When all you've got is a hammer, everything looks like a nail."


WAB Day


Our first WAB day didn't really get off the ground. Of about six people we were trying to get together, there were just two of us that actually showed. We talked gaming stuff for a while, and played our 1000 point battle pretty quickly. It was my Gauls vs. his Romans. My cav was almost immediately swept away by two small units of Roman cav. My infantry rushed forward as fast as possible, trying to engage & sweep away the legions before the cav had a chance to turn around. The legions kept backing off, and after I made contact I learned why: they were all raw recruits. The big (heh heh) surprise was facing an elephant, though -- but I suppose that explains the cheap infantry. I managed to not only survive the elephant, but he stampeded back into some redeploying legion.

I was using the Gallic list from Hannibal and the Punic Wars. I'm actually painting/playing mixed Gauls & Germans from a bit later, but I like the Punic list better than the one in the rulebook. I'm really only taking three troop types anyway. But the big difference in this game was the mixed weapon rule. I've previously used the older list, and getting the benefit of throwing spears really helps the barbarians. This is good, IMHO, as it decreases the reliace on characters to help win combats.



Painting Plan


My plan is to bring the Gauls & Germans ("The Hammer") to Historicon. I'll use them in the doubles. If there's a medieval division (and it's bigger than Cold Wars) I'll also bring the Burgundians. I'm hoping John runs the medieval division again this year, as last year's multiple point value event was a really good time. If the medievals don't happen, then I may just bring The Hammer.

Over the weekend I assembled & primed about 70 German (Foundry and BTD) infantry. Normally I'm a 2-part epoxy guy. I hate having to repair painted figures, and CAsuperglue has never worked too well for me. But I've heard rumors that the new Gorilla Super Glue. So I tried it out on their shields and spears. I hope it holds up. I just didn't have the patience required for the slow cure time on 60 figures using epoxy.

I also cleaned pieces for 9 Wargames Factory figures to use as slingers. I haven't assembled them yet, but at least the plastic aleviates the epoxy vs. superglue dilemma.

Next all I need is 10 more cav. My choices are more Foundry Germans, Renegade Gauls, or order & try out a box of the Wargames Factory plastics. I'm still undecided.

So that's my goal for the next 2 months +/-

• 70 Infantry
• 9 Slingers
• 10 cavalry

No problem, right?

Numidian WIP

Other things came up today and I didn't spend the time I thought I would on the Numidian cavalry, but here's a shot of where they're at now. I need to do their tunics, shields & weapons, and the bases.



I've also tried out some new (to me) image editing software. I've been used to Phnotoshop from school and work, but I'm not going to spend that much on something for casual home use. I've been struggling with the GIMP, which is a freeware alternative. But the interface and some of the functions are just really horrible.

On the advice of a friend, I just installed Paint.net:

http://www.getpaint.net/

So far I'm pretty happy with it, as far as a basic image editor goes. It seems very intuitive, especially for someone used to Phnotoshop, but easy enough for someone who's never used an editor before.

One More Day

Painting

Tomorrow I may have some photos to post. I've mostly been painting other people's figures lately, but I've managed to squeeze in some Numidian cavalry for myself that I'd like to finish tomorrow. I've also had quite a few other things (out of town visitors, non-miniature projects) going on lately. And the weather is starting to warm up here, so I've been off on a few bike rides.



WAB Day

Next week a few friends are getting together for a small WAB day. Just 1000 point armies, but we should get in a few games against different opponents. I usually prefer larger games, but we're hoping to get some new players into the game. I was contemplating Romans, but I think it looks like I'll do Gauls with some German allies this time.



Game Night?

Back when I was still in school, before moving back to Cleveland (Ohio) a friend and I used to drive to Cleveland (about 45 minutes away from where I went to school) on Friday nights for a game night at another friend's house. There were usually about 4-6 of us playing a big game of 40k at the time. It was usually a long night of toy soldiers, laughs, beer and pizza. I think we all got sick of 40k, but it was still time well spent with friends.

So I've (unfortunately) lost touch with them, but I'm thinking of trying to start a Friday game night at my place. Maybe just once a month to start. We have a regular WFB night at the semi-local store, so I'd like to try some different games. I'm thinking of maybe WAB, Man-o-War and possibly DBA. Also beer and pizza. And laughs and good times.

I don't know of much gaming going on in Cleveland east of the Crooked River (the Cuyahoga.) There are no game stores on this side of town (in fact, all of the Cleveland game stores seem to be huddled within a few miles of each other!) and West Siders are notoriously fearful of coming to the East Side. This could be a challenge, but who knows...

First, I need people. Otherwise, it's just me sitting around on a Friday night playing with myself. o_O

Pimpin the minis

One of a few submissions I made to the Wargames Factory "Liberty & Union League" has popped up. So time for some shameless promotion...

http://wargamesfactory.lefora.com/2009/04/24/armoured-swiss-infantry/page1/

As I state in that entry, I've also made a separate submission for unarmoured infantry.

I don't know if it will get anywhere, but I like the concept of newer, inexpensive medieval pikemen that can also be built as halberdiers. The plastic figures would be ideal since there are a number of pike based medieval armies that require boatloads of them. I'd love a Swiss and/or Flemish opponent for my Burgundians (as well as a few more pike for them as well.) :D

The only comparable metal figures I know of are:

Old Glory: Inexpensive, but not great quality.
Foundry: Decent figures, but a bit dated, especially for the price.
Mirliton: (Old Copplestone "spearmen.") Similar to comments re: Foundry. Very limited number of figures (5).
Front Rank: (See my previous entry.) Very nice figures, but all in the same pose.

So, if you're interested in something similar, I encourage you to go "vote" for this entry, and the other one when it shows up.

http://www.wargamesfactory.com/BookingRetrieve.aspx?ID=50572

All Quiet... Painting & FoG

A bit quiet here. Been painting away but nothing to show for it just yet. I've been doing a bit of commission painting plus a "secret figure exchange" thing at Warhammer-Empire, so I haven't really worked on anything for myself. I assembled & primed some figures while waiting for paint to dry. That's about the extent of it. ;)

Friday night I played my second game of Field of Glory. I had late Republican Romans, my opponent had Indians.

This time we used the terrain rules from the book, and my first impression of them is that they are typical of the rest of the rules: too heavy on rules, charts and dice rolls. It seemed way too involved to me, but I'm guessing it's aimed at a more competitive/tournament environment. The end result seemed to place too much terrain on the table, as well. I even chose two "open" options for terrain. I was lucky in the terrain "deployment" though, and a lot of it ended up in our deployment areas (especially my opponent's.)

After playing two games now, I'm picking up on a few things. Light cavalry, for example, seem useless for anything but pinning other troops in place while avoiding contact entirely. Roman legion seem to be a cruise missile troop type. Spanish Scutarii aren't too bad, either. I must have been outnumbered at lease 1.5:1. I was concerned about getting flanked ans so went ahead and weighted one side, while trying to stall on the other side to prevent my opponent from hitting me. In hindsight I should have thrown all tactics aside, moved forward in a big line and blasted through the Indians (regardless of troop type I would be facing) and simply cause overwhelming casualties before the flanks could be turned. Instead I tried all manner of stupid manuver, and still blasted through anything they contacted.

The rest of the guys playing said it was a bad match up, which I understand. But something still didn't seem right with the game. By the end, I was getting the hang of the pages of charts, modifiers, etc. and didn't need to look at them half the time. But I still think the game is a bit clumsy. Ar maybe, at best, it simply "lacks gracefulness."

On the other hand, I'd still like to give it another try. If nothing else, FoG has got me in the mood for big battle type games again. As enjoyable as WAB is as a bit more of a "beer & pretzles game" (in my opinion*), I'd like to play something that feels more like a large battle.

Along those lines, I also picked up a copy of Warmaster Ancients. I won a copy of their Warmaster Medieval suppliment at Cold Wars, so figured I should pick up the core book. I've played the original fantasy version of the game, which I enjoyed, and the historical version seems to have cleared up some of the spots I had a problem with. However I have not tried it yet, and there are new rules thrown into the mix, so I'd have to play a few games before knowing whether I'll like it or not.



* OK, maybe not the best term. But it's sometimes hard to take WAB seriously, especially at 2000 points or less. Once you have larger games it does start to look and feel more like a big battle. At lower point levels, small scale gimmicks or a bad roll of the dice can determine the outcome of the game. The flow of battle seems really fragmented. Like you've got a half dozen tiny, fairly manuverable pieces, and that's it. This isn't to say I dislike WAB. I enjoy it for what it is. (And it's also a good excuse to play the scale of all right thinking people: 25/28mm.)

More WAB photos

More photos of the WAB tournaments at Cold Wars have been posted:

http://www.wabnews.com


Don walked by with the camera just in time to capture a typical moment in my second game. This is one of those moments where Duncan needed to roll 6's to hit me...

http://news.vinceshomepage.com/NEWS/RP/WABplayers_2009CW/images/IMG_2703.jpg

;)

Mini-Sculpt

The short version...

I met with the guys from Black Orc Games, who I've discovered are only about an hour away from where I live.

They have this "Mini-Sculpt" deal, which allows sculptors (including non-professionals) to have their figures cast, get some of them back and . So I brought down some thing I had sculpted in the not so recent past, and discussed casting. I also brought some of my one-off sculpts for some critique, casting questions, etc. They were very helpful and seem interested in my figures, so I may have some figures in production in the future. I'm sure I'll post more info here as it develops.

I think this is a cool opportunity for someone who's still learning & refining their sculpting. I've been away from the green-stuff for a little while, so this has renewed my interest a bit. I've had a few ideas floating around in my head, so I hope I can get some time to work on them soon.