A detailed account of my various commission/hobby projects.
Random – Check this out, the Good Day Ice Cube refers to in his song is January 20, 1992. Todays marks Twenty-two years since Ice Cube had that amazing day. Check out this link on how this guy figured it out.
Make Today a Good Day.
There's some more interesting obsessive fan info listed in this article as well.
Warhammer 40,000 – Finally I'm into the interesting models that make up this Tyrant's Legion commission. The character models and command squad all have a unique look which means I don't feel like a factory worker cranking out the same part every hour.
Of course that being said most of the basic paint is exactly the same as the line troopers. Being character models I do spend a little extra time on the highlights and detail work since they should theoretically be on the table for longer than the basic troopers. (That being said they are still guardsmen so a massed volley of bolter fire still turns them into red mist ...)
Warhammer 40,000 – I can understand why you see so few fully painted guard armies on the tabletop. With this commission I'm seeing how it can get to be overwhelming. With the kits my client used for this infantry there are only two or three variations in the sculpts which means each "squad" looks essentially the same. I feel that it's important to point this out as otherwise it looks like I'm just picking up the same post from the last few squads.
So yes these might look like the same models but I assure you this is a new group and I'm nearing completion on this army. I'm hoping to be able to snag the completed army from him to take some group shots when it's all said and done.
Warhammer 40,000 – Yes sir more Imperial Guardsmen made their way to my painting table this week. These are or the more official variety with a head swap of course. Talking with my client he plans on using these models as conscripts and/or gun encampment crew. They have a different look than the great coat models that make up the rest of his force and as such I need to do something a little different, yet keep them similar enough that they look like the fit with the rest of the force.
First up as always with this army I prime everything dark grey and follow it up with a grey basecoat. For these models I chose to do a red and white shoulder pad. I imagine it would designate a different rank or squad than the great coat models which have a 3 panel pad. After blocking in those colors I add the metallic bits and do aa heavy black wash. This bring out the details and gives the basic shading to each model.
Magic the Gathering – Lately my go to midweek game of choice has been Magic the Gathering Commander. My play group has settled on this format for the ease of entry and the randomish nature of playing with 99 unique cards. It makes it easier to acquire what you want for your deck because you only have to pick up a single copy to fill out your deck. In a way is puts a soft cap on the inevitable escalation of spending more to compete (not really because everybody still spends just as much it's just less likely you get hosed by the same cards when a deck only has one of them) which is typically circumvented by tutor effects that make decks run fairly consistently. I enjoy the format and maintain about five decks that I rotate between.
However, I own a ton of Magic cards. Anyone who has ever played the game can attest to picking up a booster or two when you're grocery shopping or going to a store draft or release party and opening a bunch of packs. You inevitably wind up with a ton of cards that don't fit in the deck you want to run or just aren't that great. As of late I've resisted the temptation to buy packs as often as I used to and instead save that money and just buy the singles I need. Odds are you spend about the same amount but instead of getting a bunch of extra crap you just get what you need/want. This new habit doesn't have the same lottery thrill of opening packs but it also doesn't have the inevitable disappointment of opening a pack that is all garbage.
The question is what do I do with all these cards. I could go through and price them out and try to sell them for close to actual value on ebay. Which takes a ton of time and may not pan out as I hope. I could just put up random lots to free up shelf space ... which will result in an overall loss. So neither of these options are very appealing to me and I have a bunch of boxes and binders that sit on a shelf ... What am I to do?
The idea of going back to playing 60 card constructed isn't thrilling to many of my group either because they don't have a large collection or feel that other players "spend" more to win with a 60 card deck (of course the idea that someone might be a better deck builder than the complainee never crosses their mind but whatever). So I have a bunch of decks that sit around in addition to the binders and boxes ... sigh, what to do?
The answer my friends is simple I'm going to build a cube. WTF is a cube? Well a cube is a selection of cards that you put together "booster packs" from to run a limited format typicall a draft or sealed deck. Putting together the cube is going to be a ton of work and will involve some investment in sleeves and building a special box to house it but I feel that this will be a more rewarding experience than trying to sell these cards off. It will solve several of my problems including being able to play regular magic again, skill testing my group and being able to have more unique experiences when we play cards.
So how do you build a cube? Well from what I've read online is you want about 540 cards with an even mixture between the colors and a dash of special lands and artifacts to draft as well. The cards can be whatever you want as you're essentially building your own "set." There are a ton of articles on the format as well as other resources to help you decide what the best way to put together a cube is. I guess one of the primary concerns is having a decent mana curve among all the colors to keep them balanced out.
I'm going to post articles about my selections once I narrow down my selections in each color and keep updates on my progress. This of course is a side project that I'll squeeze in between my painting and terrain projects as I know most of my readers prefer those types of article instead of Magic focused ones.
Warhammer 40,000 – This beast is finally done. Massive models like this are tricky because it's much more difficult to hold it in place when you're doing the detail work. Edge highlighting took forever because I had to space it out so I could keep my arm from getting fatigued.
Having seen this in action on the table I'm not super impressed with what it can do. Once it's on the table it's pretty impressive but in the game I saw it in action it didn't come in until turn 4 or 5 and at that point it was able to take out a titan but the damage had already been done by the super heavy that started on the table.
If GW ever makes a true plastic kit of this I'll be first in line to pick one up just for the coolness factor.
Review – With the crazy cold snap and snow storm that hit Michigan this week I've been cooped up and trying to catch up my my blog posts. I recently finished up the next two books that have been released as mass market paperbacks for the Hourus Heresy series. As a futile stand against the new larger format books I refuse to buy any of them until they are released as mass market paperbacks. Which means this review is probably way past the time when it would be relevant.
Anyway because I like talking about what I've read here's my review:
Angel Exterminatus is a really good read. I've always been a fan of the Emperor's Children and the books continue to show just how sick a depraved the third legion has become. Spoiler Alert: Fulgrim becomes a daemon prince in this one. I'm not sure I love the way it happened but the overall result was pretty sweet. Oddly enough the focus of this book was focused primarily on Perturbo the primarch of the Iron Warriors who suffers from more but-hurt feelings than the rest of his brothers and as such tries harder than any of them. It's funny that his personality type closely mimics those you run into at some game stores on a regular basis. In fact, my favorite scene in the book is the one which literally portrays the Iron Warriors as power-gamers a nice throw back to the old third edition Chaos Codex (mmm ... 9 obliterators).
Betrayer is also a great read penned by my favorite Black Library Author. Spolier Alert: Angron gets the same treatment in this book as Fulgrim did in the last. This book also showcases what a complete d-bag Lorgar is. I mean yes he's become a bigger bad-ass and he fights a Titan but he's still a weasely little bastard that is manipulating everyone to his whims. It's interesting the way the Horus Heresy novels have shown that it wasn't really Horus but Lorgar that started the Heresy and all the other Primarchs were manipulated by the Word Bearers. (I'm not sure if this is supposed to be a subtle jab at the religious zealots of our own time or not ... but you could read into it what you want or just enjoy the story).
In all there have been few of the Horus Heresy books that I haven't been able to enjoy (Unless it's written by James Swallow...in which case don't touch it with a ten foot poking stick) and so long as the keep releasing the smaller size paperbacks I'll keep reading these.
Review – CritSuccess finally delivered the Life Counter ring that was part of their Dice Rings by Aarron Kickstarter. I have to say it was worth the wait. The ring is a chunky double band with a wave washer in the middle so you can click the dial to the correct numeral. The construction is similar to the standard dice rings they produce so the quality is very nice. It does take a little while to get used to the rings as the edge is straight and not a rounded comfort band like my wedding ring. This aside they do wear nicely and work as promised.
I'm looking forward to getting some games of EDH in soon so I can use the ring to track my life. Although with my current Orlos deck I might be breaking 100 life fairly quickly so I'll have to come up with a way to track that as the ring will only go up to 99.
While wearing it around I realized that the ring is also useful for tracking other things such as using it as a turn counter during tabletop games, or a wound counter for a multi-wound model. The possibilities are quite numerous and having it always available on your finger makes it very handy.
Random – Happy New Year! Once again with the new year it's time for some new resolutions. I didn't do so hot with mine last year other than limiting my "new" hobby purchases and "cleaning" out my game room. I'm still working on the later and slowly ebaying away stuff that doesn't interest me anymore and getting it into the hands of someone who does.
Anyway on to the resolutions:
1.) FINISH THEM! – I swear this is going to be the year that I get these damn marines done. I have everything in place to make this happen I just need to make time to get them done. I'm relooking at how I'm going to go about dividing them up as the ten man tactical squads seem to have forced me to stagnate on the project. I might just try and get all the vehicles and bikes done first and then move on to the marines. In the meantime I'm not going to put anything on the table that isn't complete, I'm hoping that this handicap will encourage me to focus on my own stuff.
2.) Near Future City – This is so close to done I can taste it. With the cold weather my airbrushing activities are severely limited but I'm going to get all the detail work done on this and have them primed so as soon as warm weather hits I can get these final few buildings finished.
3.) Super Dungeon Explore – I love this game. I resolve to get the models for the game painted and play at least 5 times this year. In a related resolution I plan on getting all the chibi stuff on have painted and assembled. If I can get more than 5 games of the standard games in I'll look at writing some house rules for the chibi stuff.
4.) Judge Dredd – This game fell by the wayside after a few sessions. I'm not exactly sure why ... it seems that right around the time it was catching on my group started fixating on 40K again. I have several gangs that are in tabletop shape and I have some others that are in the works. By midsummer I resolve to run a 4 week campaign of this game with fully painted minis on the Near Future Board.
5.) Zombicide – This game is fun but I've yet to play more than a single mission of the core game. With all the expansions in my possesion I feel I need to play this my resolution is to play at least one mission from each expansion before the end of the year.
6.) Malifaux – I need to figure out what I want to do in regards to this game. I love the models, setting etc. But I don't know that I want to invest in a new edition ... my hesitation is due to the fact that no one I know plays the game anymore. Since I don't have time for Henchmaning at the moment there's no organized play in my area that I know of ... so I'm left with the decision to hold onto it and hope things change or sell it off and write it off like I did Warmachine/Hordes. I resolve to make a decision before the end of the year.
7.) Helldorado – I'm not as heavily invested in this game but it falls in a similar category to Malifaux. Great game, cool rules, great background however there's not a ton of interest with my current gaming group in this game. The few guys that invested in it haven't been able to play regularly so it hovers in a limbo. I resolve to get at least 2 games in with this this year.
8.) Deadzone – With the kickstarter in hand I have some work to do. I resolve before the end of the year to get this assembled painted and play at least 4 games.
9.) Relic Knights – IF this delivers before the end of next year I resolve to get my factions assembled and to play at least 4 games. I'm hoping the final rules will be multiplayer friendly (or at least easy to house rule) as my best chance of getting these games in is to play some 4 player games.
10.) Kingdom Death: Monster – I'm hoping there are no further delays on this. IF it delivers in Q2 as planned I want to get the survivors assembled as well as the monsters in the core game so I can play a game or two of this before the end of 2014.
So there you have it my 10 gaming resolutions for 2014. Some might be a bit over ambitious and some might be a little under ambitious, but I feel that if I put my mind to it I can make this stuff happen in 2014.
What are your gaming goals for 2014? Please share in the comments section below.
Warhammer 40,000 – Twilight Ravens Completed Chapter Project Status Update: no where near completion. I made some huge strides in getting this done but ultimately I didn't get it done. It's a bit of a bummer for me as I was really hoping to get this done this year so I could focus on some new stuff.
In addition the amount of stuff I have to paint just increased pretty dramatically with an influx of Christmas goodies I now have (6) drop pods, (1) landspeeder, (2) Squads of "Iron Hand" cyber marines, (3) more Centurions, and some Vanguard Vets that will need to be assembled and painted. I think with this influx I can play almost any combination of units available in the Space Marine Codex or at least one of almost every entry. The only thing I'm missing are the anti-aircraft rhinos which I'm not sold on as of yet due to a lack of aircraft in the games I've played.
That said I did complete a ton of stuff including (3) Space Marine Armies, (1) Imperial Guard and a bunch of Malifaux crews this year. It just turns out none of it was my own stuff.
Have some fun and go through the sidebar and see what I did each month and what I posted. It's like having a year in review at your fingertips anytime you want.
Review – I've never heard of the game Cathedral before opening in up on Christmas day. That said I was pretty impressed with the box and the contents. The gameboard and pieces are all nicely stained pieces of wood as such this game would look very nice on a coffee table as a conversation piece.
The rules are fairly simple players alternate placing thier buildings on the board attempting to claim space and deny your opponent areas to place their pieces. The first player to put all their pieces on the board wins. If neither player can play all their pieces the player with the least number of pieces left wins.
It feels a little like chess and a little like Blokus, while feeling unique from either of them.
I played a few games with my wife and she really liked the game it was simple and easy to play. It only took a minute to explain the rules and we played eight or nine games the first night we tried it. So I can honestly say this is a good strategy game that can be played with just about anyone.
Warhammer 40,000 – Dark Angels you seem to have no end. One of my regular clients recently provided me with some more models to paint up for his Dark Angels/Marine Equivalent force. It sounds like his goal is to have a complete Deathwing, Ravenwing and I dunno ... Plainwing force with all the options from either book that he may want to use. He also seems to be following the "Rule of Cool" by looking at a unit entry and deciding if it's a modeling project he wants to undertake rather than just picking the most broken combos to make (although there's probably a bit of that as well)
First up is a Ravenwing Command Squad, with this one he designed some custom weapon mounts that he had 3D printed. The look like a grav gun and a melta gun mounted to the front of the bike. He then made some twin linked bolters that he has the riders holding. The way he explained it is this way he has all the options he might want WYSIWYG on the model. This makes sense to me as it saves cash and provides unique looking models. Hopefully his opponents share my opinion.
Paint on these is fairly simple, block in the base colors, wash with black, brown or green then go in to highlight the details.
Next we have his take on the Legion of the Damned. These are a weird unit in Codex: Space Marines that represent the ghost riders of the Imperium: Hellish flaming marines that appear in times of need. The flaming skull thing wasn't up my clients alley so he decided to do a fluffy representation of them as remembers of the Fallen. Dark Angles that were sucked into the warp during the Heresy who may or may not be the true loyalists.
Going with this idea he asked me to paint them in a Pre-Heresy color scheme without the red bolters that are featured in the rest of his force. I always thought the Pre-Heresy color was black and repainted to green post heresy however my client insists that it was actually a really deep green that was almost black. The customer is always right so I went about crating a really dark green for these models.
Warhammer 40,000 – This week I've been working on tanks and defense lines. These are more elements for the Tyrant's Legion commission I've been grinding through. Even with a simple three color scheme it does take a while to paint up these tanks and I was surprised at how quickly I went through a pot of black wash.
As with all the models in this force my client requested a simple three color scheme with some custom decals. The models were supplied "ready to prime" and he doesn't seem concerned with the amount of mold lines and flash that he left on the models ... sigh. (Note to self: avoid your obsessive need to fix everything and stay on budget)
To start I primed everything with a dark gray duplicolor primer, followed with a basecoat of dark gray paint. To add some interest to these tanks I came up with a simple design that matched the shoulder pads of the troopers in the army. To paint this I used some masking tape to mark off the area to be painted and applied the red stripe. Once that dried I reapplied the tape and painted the white line with a light gray foundation paint. After painting the metallic bits I went in and applied a black wash to everything. This weather the paint and filled in all the hatch lines and made the rivets stand out.
The next step on the tanks is to go back in an pick out any details like the skulls, scrollwork and laurels. At that time I'll also further weather the gun barrels with a bronze to show where the muzzle burns and carbon build up happens.
Also in the que this week is a defense line. This fortification seems to be a staple in most armies to help deal with flyers and provide your static units with a reliable source of a cover save. Painting on these follows the same steps as the tanks detailed above. On the rear of these walls are some strange panels that I'm guessing are some type of light or tactical display. Based on this assumption I painted them to match the other monitor screens in the force.
Finally we have some mobile gun encampments. These are not a GW piece and as such my client uses them for a variety of things from thud guns to thunderfire cannons the simple nature of the piece fits with the look of his army and serves multiple purposes. Painting followed suit with the above. I'm probably going to apply a decal to the front of each of these to add some more interest to the relatively plain front of the carriage.
Using a fairly basic set of techniques I was able to get these models table ready in just one session of painting which helps to keep the project on budget and on time. Next up for this one is a mass of 60+ infantry troopers and special characters.
Kickstarter – Holy Crap! A Kickstarter delivered early this must be a Christmas Miracle. I arrived home to find this massive brown box on my porch last week. I didn't get a chance to dig into it until now but after opening it up look what I found.
Deadzone Box Set – The box is huge. I'm impressed with what they were able to fit into this box. I'm not sure that this will be the same as the general release but the one box held EVERYTHING for the (4) factions included in the Strike Force Pledge. It sounds like there is still some additional stuff that will ship later with part two.
Anyone who put together the original Super Dungeon Explore minis with be familiar with the massive amount of baggies with models and parts sealed together. At first glance it appears these models have unique pegs that will only fit certain holes. Nifty for the board gamer kind, kind of a pain for the modeler.
These are not polystyrene plastic models so you'll need to use super glue to put them together, plastic glue won't work. (One of my biggest pet peeves ... if you call them plastic models plastic cement should work ... they really need to call them something other than plastic).
The rulebook is nice and in full color. It's a little thin but at first glance it seems to cover the fairly simple ruleset and gives a good introduction to the universe.
Faction Starters – Tons of baggies. 4 Decks of Cards.
Terrain Sprues and Game Mat– Lots of good stuff here. It's a little light if you want to build full scale buildings but to create the paintball style layout pictured on the box it works. For the 2'x2' playmat you have in the box you should be able to do some interesting stuff. I'm looking forward to playing with the connectors to see it I can paint it and still keep the lego-like quality of the system. (Based on past experience with the Pegasus Platformer kits I doubt this will be possible)
The overall quality of Mantic stuff is pretty consistent, for the most part you know what you're getting yourself into if you've ever bought anything else from them. Not quite GW quality but then again not quite GW cost either. You're either a fan of this stuff or not there's not much room for fence sitting.
Personally, I hate Mantics base system and really wish they'd use something other than a disk of plastic on the models base. If you want to use any fancy resin bases the size will be off by a little and you'll have to figure out how to remove the models from that chunky base.
I'm looking forward to digging into this game in the future and putting up a full review of the rules and some battle reports once I have some time to spend with it. (At the moment I have my hands full with commision work and don't have time to get deep into this)
It all looks positive and the rules seem simple enough that in a few years my son will be able to play the game with me. Or some simple version of it.
Warhammer 40,000 – On the table today are more models for the Tyrant's Legion force commission I'm working on. This is essentially a three color minimum job with a wash and custom decals. The models were supplied to me "assembled and ready to paint" which is a state that can vary significantly from client to client. I guess everybody has their own idea of what that means...
Anyway pretty simple color scheme consisting of gunmetal armor with white, black and red detail work. I've found using a dark gray primer works best for this job it puts down a solid base that is easy to cover quickly with a single coat of paint. To start I overcoat the model with the gunmetal color and then go in and block out the details with foundation paint. Once that's all blocked in I do a black wash and let that dry. The next step is to go back in and do a simple highlight picking out any details that got lost in the wash.
Once everything is dry I begin applying the decals. I use a laser printer water slide paper to print these. It works much better than the ink jet version as you don't have to seal it and the toner won't bleed like ink does. The only issue I have with the paper is it is very thick so it takes a bit of work to make the decal lie flat. Mircosol and Mircoset do wonders to help but it's still more work than a commercially printed decal. The other issue with the decal paper is you have to meticulously cut close to the edge other wise it won't lie flat on the shoulder pad. Once the decal is in place and smooth I apply a coat of gloss varnish. I've found that if I do this while the decal is still moist the liquid in the varnish helps it soften up while it sets. If there are any issues with the edge showing I'll go back in and paint the edges to blend them in.
With this custom color scheme I've been able to crank out these models fairly quickly and my client is thrilled with how they've turned out. The trick with any large project is figuring out a system and sticking to it. For tabletop quality focus on how it looks at arm's length, if it looks good you're done and move on to the next model.
Warhammer 40K – More Dark Angel stuff on the table this week, my client is focusing on getting his Deathwing and Raven Wing wrapped up so I have some larger projects that need to get a tabletop paint job.
First up is a converted Thunderhawk, my client wanted to have something that he could field in an apocalypse game and didn't want to pay/wait for Forgeworld so he built this himself. From what I can tell this consists of two Storm Ravens, a Rhino, some Cities of Death bits, Dark Angel Flyer and some 3D printed parts. As with previous commissions I've painted for him he likes to design his own stuff in 3D Max and have it printed through Shapeways. He got a slightly better finish on these parts but there is still a definite texture to the final finish, not to hard to hide with the paint job but not the same as injection molded plastic.
I still have to detail out the cockpit and do the edge highlighting but I'm excited about the project so I wanted to share an in progress look at it.
've had a Thunderhawk on my wish list for ages as I really like the Forgewoeld model, however the cost to use ratio never did it for me. From what I can tell this is a pretty good approximation of the model and will work just fine in game. With paint on it it looks really sharp.
Next he sent along a Landraider Crusader that is a Deathwing Transport. My guess is he's realized that deepstriking isn't always the best option and having a way to haul slow moving terminators to where the action is is a safe plan. This model has some minor conversions to it as well mostly the addition of some Cities of Death bits to mimick what he did with his Landspeeder conversion and the details he added to the Thunderhawk.
Review – I received an interesting little game this year called Tenzi. Prior to receiving it I had never heard about the game which is rare as I like to try and keep up with any game that is out there.
The game itself comes nicely packaged in a tube with 40 dice (all D6's) in four different color combinations. The tube is a little odd as I think a bag would be better but for what it is it works. Also included in the game is a simple instruction sheet explaining how to play and the story of the creators. The story is nice as it's a simple garage packed game that caught on and got decent distribution. Two ad agency guys decided to make a game, came up with this and started selling it out of their garage is the short version.
To play you'll need to round up 2-4 players that are old enough to understand how to roll dice and match them. Each player gets ten dice and rolls them. From the initial roll each player picks one die and then trys to match the rest of his dice with that roll. First player that gets the same result on all ten dice wins. Simple right?
In practice the game is really fun (although a bit to random for some people) and I can see busting this out at gatherings and as a time killer. The basic game is easy and fast, just roll and roll until you get all ten. The extra rules include a variation where you can steal dice from your opponents if they match your chosen number. This variation gives a bit more player interaction and is my favorite.
For most hardcore gamers though you probably already have 40+ dice and can play this without buying the game. Although the dice are very nice and come in some interesting color combinations, so you might want to pick this up just for that.
I wanted to take a second to wish all my readers a Happy Thanksgiving. While gorging myself on turkey and stuffing I thought it might be a good time to reflect on what I'm thankful for (with a hobby related spin of course)
1. My Family: I'm thankful to have such a supportive family that understands my dedication to my hobby and even though they might not fully understand while a grown man plays with toys; they support my efforts and see the "art" that goes into my creations.
2. My Club: The Paperbag Warriors have officially been my gaming club since 2003 and in those 10+ years we've had a rotating cast of members all of whom bring something different to the table. Having such a great group of guys to play games with and share of love of the hobby isn't something all gamers have and I'm thankful for them.
3. A Disposable Income/Self-Sustaining Hobby Budget: Let's be honest this isn't a cheap hobby, sure the amount I spend on models and whatnot might be what someone else drops in a night at the bar it's still a significant investment. Having a good job and a booming side business via this site is what makes my hobby possible and I'm thankful for both.
4. My Creativity: I'm thankful for being gifted with the creative spark. This makes my hobby enjoyable and provides me with a good job.
5. Game Designers: Without them our hobby wouldn't exist so I'm thankful for all the creative men and women that strive to produce quality games and models to full my endless desire for the new shiny.
What are you thankful for?
Random – We've been in a bit of a clean-up mode around the house lately. The motivation to go through boxes that were packed away when we moved in a few years ago and determine the need to hold onto stuff that's been in a box for years has been strong. The garbage man is probably less than happy with me as each week I've been putting out 10+ bags of random crap. This doesn't include the bags of donations that have mad their way to Salvation Army or the boxes of stuff slated to go up on ebay. It's crazy the amount of stuff you accumulate.
Anyway to the point, after cleaning up the basement I decided to reorganize the way the gameroom is set up, unfortunately I don't have a ton of options unless I start knocking down walls so it's been more of a minor tweak and move.
The location of my 4'x6' table has always been problematic as it makes sense from a space standpoint to put one of the short edges against a wall. Essentially this takes the place of where a bar would be in a typical home. The problem with that is the art of the table that buts against the wall sees little use because it's inconvenient to move models around and you miss some site lines because you can't go all the way around the table.
After busting out the measuring tape I realized that I could float the table in relatively the same area it already occupied without loosing to much space. Some of the larger memebers of my play group might have an issue getting around it but the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Besides its my house and if I can fit around it that's really all that matters.
After moving the table I realized the my shelves looked a little off balance, so I made a trip to IKEA and got another small BILLY shelf to separate the two display cabinets. This helped to balance out the wall a little better. (I'd prefer to do the full wall in shelves but the location of the closet around the water meter means I have to leave some space, my wife also didn't want me to cover the window any more than is already is ...)
With the additon of the shelf I was able to put all my rulebooks on the same wall as my models and bring my trophies out of the cabinet onto a shelf where they are more visible and centrally located.
I'm still trying to find the right place to store my terrain as the bins under the table are less than ideal. With the move however I was able to fit two barstools under the table so seating for two is possible. It still needs some work but it feels good to move some stuff around.
The long boxes of comics that I was storing under the table are on their way to ebay. I've given up on trying to get anything near their actual value and just need to get them out of the house. So if you're looking for any issues from the 80's or 90's check out my ebay auctions.
Warhammer 40K - It's about that time again when I try to organize our gaming group to play a linked campaign. I've done my research and looked through numerous reference books to see if I could find some inspiration for a setting to tie together our games of Warhammer 40K. With grand plans to write up something immersive and complex I set to work ... and then realized I don't have time to get that in depth.
Currently everyone in my group has a Space Marine force of some type, and we never really played out a full campaign the last time we tried to run the Badab Campaign. So rather than get in over my head I'm using the forgeworld books as a starting point and making up my own missions to fill in the blanks.
Below are the missions we're using for week one. Each week I'm providing the missions to the warlord of each side to delegate who will fight which mission. Named characters can only appear in one battle each week so that will help to force some tactics when deciding who will fight where.
This will act like a ladder, each battle has to have a clear winner to move on to the next warzone. If it ends in a tie the game is replayed the next week as part of an ongoing siege. Units that survived the first part of the siege will begin on the table and any additions to the force will arrive via reserves.
During the campaign if a named character is killed they cannot be used in the following week's missions.
Week One
Capture the Shuttle (1500 points) Desert Big Table (4'x6')
A shuttle carrying vital information has crashed. Both sides need to recover the information.
Primary Mission: King of the Hill - Uncontested control of the center objective at the end of the game +5 points
Secondary Missions: Slay the Warlord, First Blood
Special Rules: Nightfight (in effect first turn), Reserves, mysterious forests, Fast Attack counts as scoring and gives up 1VP when eliminated.
Set up: Diagonal 12" no mans land through the middle
Secure the City (750 points) Small City Table (3'x3')
Amid the sprawling hive you must secure a location to set up a command center.
Primary Mission: Objectives Place (6) objective counters in various buildings throughout the city, they are mysterious and have random values.
Secondary Missions: Slay the Warlord, First Blood, Linebreaker
Special Rules: Reserves, Intact Buildings AV12, firing points per model, Nightfight begin rolling on turn 3
Set-up: Standard 8" deployment
Secure the Complex (750 points) Small Swamp Table (3'x3')
Deep in the jungle swamp something nefarious is happening in an underground complex. Secure the entrance and prepare to cleanse the base.
Primary Mission: Table quarters for each uncontested table quarter held by scoring units +2
Secondary Missions: Slay the Warlord, First Blood
Special Rules: Reserves, mysterious forests/rivers, Heavy Support counts as scoring and gives up 1VP when eliminated.
Set-up: Standard 8" deployment
