Templecon '14 Recap

Templecon '14 has come and gone and it's time for the wrap up. This years Templecon was a little on the bumpy side for me but more on that as we go.

My initial plan was to leave my house around 1pm to head out to Les' place. I was going to play a game with Adam before Les got home and we packed up for the ride. Well mother nature had different plans as we were getting hammered by a snow storm here in Central New York. After bouncing around different options he elected to try and leave around 7:30-8pm after the storm had passed. My drive to Les' (about 70min away) was a bit of a nightmare but we made it got the car packed and headed for Warwick. We got into RI between 1-2am and met up with some friends in the lobby. We got a sec to catch up Northblade and Chadi from Canada (had the good sense to leave a day early) and out of town Team Spite members John (Moz), Zack (z1g1), and Jeremy. I ended up heading to bed sometime around 3:30am with the vague recollection I told Les to get me in the am I'd stand in line at the PP store with him.

Day 1

Well the morning came and there was a knock at our door at 6:30......Les all bright eyed ready to roll. Being a man of my word I grabbed a quick shower and headed down to the gaming hall to get in line. We were the 9th and 10th people in line and none of us had an idea what was going on sale. There was speculation that Vengeance would be available but that turned out to be false. They opened the store at 9am and started the assembly line in motion. You were only allowed one of any items so I grabbed an extra floaty CoC heavy kit for Northblade and he picked up an extra trollkin sorcerer for me and we just swapped after paying. I also picked up a gatorman bokur and swamp shamblers box. Directly after the PP table Broken Egg was set up selling trays. I initially fought the urge to buy one but ended up doubling back and picking one up (good call). The PP store sold out of nearly everything by the end of the morning except for Butcher3 and maybe one other item.

Plummer and Shick running register at the PP store.

I really didn't do much day one since I figured I had three full days left to game (bad call). I walked around a far bit that first day and did a lot of watchmachine. A couple guys were playing in the 50pt special forces event so I stopped by to watch them play a bit.

Yes, John, those Kayazy passed another tough check

Nick rocking the Team Spite colors

I did manage to get one Iron Arena game in again Mr Chris 'gdaybloke Miller. We have tried to get a game the last few years and it finally came together.

'Gday setting up his very nicely painted Ret

 

Friday night Les and I headed out to Longhorn for dinner with Trevor and Jay from Chain Attack (Jay was in one of our rooms), Chilly Winters from Texas, and out of town Team Spiters John, Zack, and Jeremy. After having a few drinks with dinner and belly full of steak and potato I ended up calling it a night around midnight. My initial plan was to get together with Jaime and a few people to play some drunken Zombicide but my body had other ideas so off to bed.  

 

Day 2

 

Friday am brought about the PP keynote address. All in all nothing too groundbreaking or amazing but still cool none the less. Looking forward to more info on the troll minis show in the presentation and the "something really awesome" Will Shick mentioned trolls would be getting instead of a beast pack.

 

Against my better judgment I decided to organize a team and try to play in the marathon that is the team tournament. Team Plan B was formed consisting of myself, Les, and Nick. John, Zack, and Jeremy also formed a team and tried to get into the tourney via the standby list. Well Team Spite got shut out of the event with our two teams being the last two out of the event. We ended up playing out our own team event with Les playing Jeremy (Jeremy Wins), Nog playing Moz (Nog wins), and Zack playing Nick (Zack wins) for an out of towner Team Spite W.

 

After this I grabbed an Iron Arena Game with Chadi from Canada. It was a fun and loud game ;) It was at this point however that things started to turn for me. I could feel the convention plague setting in and was only hoping it wouldn't bee too bad. I headed to the room early that night and just hung out in bed. I ended up having a really nice chat with Les and Chain attack Jay about the keynote, the con, and the state of the game in general. The chat was cut off when old man Les started snoring in the middle of the conversation signifying it was getting late.

Day 3

Saturday I woke up feeling like hell but decided to try and get into the special forces 50pt event. My two lists were:

Madrak Ironhide, World Ender (*5pts)
* Pyre Troll (5pts)
* Troll Impaler (5pts)
* Trollkin Runebearer (2pts)
Krielstone Bearer and 5 Stone Scribes (4pts)
* Krielstone Stone Scribe Elder (1pts)
Pyg Burrowers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
Trollkin Fennblades (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Trollkin Fennblade Officer & Drummer (2pts)
Trollkin Warders (Leader and 4 Grunts) (8pts)
Trollkin Warders (Leader and 4 Grunts) (8pts)
Fell Caller Hero (3pts)
Trollkin Champion Hero (3pts)

Reinforcements:
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew (Leader and 1 Grunt) (1pts)
Trollkin Runeshapers (Leader and 2 Crew) (4pts)
Gatorman Witch Doctor (3pts)
Professor Victor Pendrake (2pts)

and

Grissel Bloodsong (*5pts)
* Earthborn Dire Troll (10pts)
* Mountain King (20pts)
* Trollkin Runebearer (2pts)
Krielstone Bearer and 5 Stone Scribes (4pts)
Trollkin Warders (Leader and 4 Grunts) (8pts)
Trollkin Warders (Leader and 4 Grunts) (8pts)
Janissa Stonetide (3pts)

List one is a pretty standard style Madrak2 list. List 2 was one I played 3 time in Iron Arena games and really enjoyed. There is a ton of beef in the list and if I can play a single zone scenario against an opponent with minimal armor cracking it can be a bear to chew through. I intended to play the Grissel1 list most rounds but long and short of it I ended up playing Maddy all three games.

Round one was vs Charles aka Omnus from Removed from Play. He was playing a Vayl2 theme force with three angels. The board had a forest in the center of the board which was not great for me. Charles is a very good player and between my illness and lack of recent gameplay I wasn't on the top of my game and ended up deathclocking myself. Charles was all set to win even when I deathclocked myself so the L was inevitable. Hopefully I can get a rematch one day when I am not sick cause I think we could have had a really fun game otherwise.  

Round 2 I was paired up with Danny playing Cryx. He played a fairly standard pSkarre list. I was starting to feel worse and worse at this point and don't really remember the game too well. eMaddy survived a 12 focus Skarre assassination at the end of the round timer and we ended up with a tie. It wouldn't be a Templecon if I don't get a tie no?

Round 3 I got paired up vs Nick from my own meta. nick played his Zaal T4 theme force. The game felt like he was in control the entire way then all of a sudden I ended up tabling him and winning the game. It was at this point I decided I was going to have to drop. I never like to drop from an event but I felt terrible and was miserable. As I turned our results to Stubbs and was going to tell him I was dropping he said unless you were undefeated the event was done. So I avoided the dreaded drop but my day was over. I went to bed at 6pm and was there sweating, shaking, and coughing the remainder of the night. 

 

Day 4

 

Day four was pretty much a wash I was feeling like complete dog poo and was not up for gaming at all. We packed up out gear and got the car loaded for the right home. Nick was struggling after having a rough night of beermachine the night before. We hit a Denny's with John, Jeremy, and Zack so we could hang with our out of town brothers one more time. After getting back from breakfast we walk through the gaming hall one last time saying good buys and doing our last mini shopping. Even though I was ready to leave I am really glad I made that last pass as I was able to get one of the Zombicide season 1 minis Marvin! The CMoN booth had four of the season one exclusives and while they are not allowed to sell the minis they were giving them away with the purchase of a game. Since I have all the games already I though I was SoL but after talking with the guy he said I could grab one if I picked up one of the box of zombies. I wanted more toxic zombies so this was a no brainer. BOOM Marv is part of the crew now!

 

My new Broken Egg trollkin sized tray. I elected to go with the single 120mm tray vs the double 120mm

SDE minis

 

My ticket to Marv!

Marv!

 

Gator Alexia and two sorcerers

Templecon dice from Iron Arena and a bottle of VGC paint I picked up

The full score

 

So that was my Templecon. I am not sure I am a huge fan of the new four day con but that may just be cause I was sick for >50% of it. Hopefully next year I can avoid the plague and get some more games in and spend some more quality time with friends.

It's On Like Templecon Y'all!

Got this in the mail today! All I need to do now is get my clothes packed, Pick up a bottle of Rowan's Creek bourbon and figure out which minis (and games: Zombicide maybe WWX posse) I'm bringing and its on y'all!

I'm not sure how much tourney play I will be doing but plan to hit the iron arena. If you want a game hit me up. I should be rocking either a blue/white or blue/black Team Spite shirt

Looking Back/Looking Forward

Hello all the first of the year has come and gone so I suppose I should do the obligatory year in review. I'd first like to say thanks to those that stop by from time to time and see what I am blabbering about. I haven't done a good job blogging this year (really bad the last part of the year) and I appreciate those that stop by and occasionally leave a comment.

I would have to say 2013 was the year of the kickstarter addiction and one of procrastination. I have continued to work on my beloved troll throughout the year and have picked up a few other projects but never really made much head way with anything. I think some of this was due to the "oh new shiny" syndrome of kickstarters and the other (probably largest contributor) was my lack of actual game play. I feel like I got more game in the first half of the year and this lead to me being more productive and to a larger number of posts. I'd say the highlights of the hobby year would be Templecon and the two painting class I tool in Toronto......what’s that? Oh right I never wrote about it :/ I plan to do my write up soon....I promise.

2014 will be the year of the fulfilled kickstarter and the continued growth of the Kriels. Most of the kickstarters I was expecting to receive in late 2013 have been pushed to early 2014 so here is the list:

-Rivet Wars (maybe tomorrow!)
-Wild West Exodus (by the end of the month?)
-Mega Mat (early Q2 2014)
-Kingdom Death (missed the KS but got in due to a last min deal should be late Q2 2014)
-Wrath of Kings (middle/late 2014?)
-Warmachine Tactics (late 2014?)
-Relic Knights (?)

I have Templecon 2014 looming around the corner and I am really looking forward to catching up with friends from out of town. I don't intended to play a ton of tournaments but will play in one or two. While I am not planning on going crazy with tournament games it doesn't mean I don't have a painting goal and I will post on this early next week. I am hoping to play some demos for my upcoming KS releases and maybe pick up some items I didn't add to my pledges.

Ok so there is the mandatory wrap up :) Hope y'all had a great year and hopefully you will be hearing from me far more regularly this year. If you're going to be at Templecon hit me up and maybe we can grab a game in the Iron Arena or a cocktail in the bar :)

Kickstarters Do Come True!

Those of you that follow along know I went a little off the deep end with kickstarters at the end of last year/beginning of this year. Some of the projects have been on a pretty major delay (looking at you Relic Knights) but the other day when I was napping I received a glorious package from the FedEx guy.

 

 

 According to my FedEx tracking email here is 13lbs of gaming good just waiting to be opened.

First item out of the box is Zombicide: Toxic City Mall (TCM). This requires a copy of season one or season two. This set has the new zombivor version of the original character as well ad four new character with their zombivor versions. This set introduces the new toxic zombie to the game!

Item number two is Zombicide Season 2: Prison Break. This is a stand alone game but can mix with TCM as mentioned above. This comes with six new characters and their zombivor versions and introduces the berserk zombies to play!

Here is set #2 of kickstarter exclusive characters and zombivors. I missed out on set #1 from the first kickstarter and I am really bummed about that. Despited being bummed about set #1 I am pretty excited to have my hands on set #2! At initial glance there are some really cool characters in the set. the characters are Brad (Dirty Harry), Thaissa, Kirk, Aunt Rose, and Ralph. I think on my first initial scan Brad and Rose are my favorites but not quite Nick (current favorite).

Here are four additional characters I added to my kickstarter.

Zombie Dogz! At three actions a turn and last on the ranged priority list these little fellows are SCARY!

Mans best friend. New companions for your characters. Looking forward to trying these out.

 

Gotta get some cool extra dice right?!?

 

The entire haul.....for now :) This was just wave one of shipments. I have an additional 10 (I think) characters coming with wave 2!

 

It is currently a work week so no gaming at this time but I am hoping to have a game or two next week with a buddy. I will breakdown the sets at a later time and give y'all my take on the new mechanics/characters after I get a little table time in. OK time for this guy to head to bed have a great day all. 

What's in Your Heeeaaad, in Your Heeeeaaaad.....

Zombie, Zombie, Zombay ay ay oh....

OK sorry about that :) I have not been able to play many games of warmahordes since heading to Rochester a few weekends ago for a tourney. I have been theorymachining gargantuans and brainstorming for a potential tourney this weekend. Since I haven't been playing WM/H I have been playing some solo games of zombicide here at home to get some gaming in.

I really have been enjoying this game since picking up at Templecon. I have played about a dozen games by myself and about 6-10 with a buddy up the street. I have not too much success so far with the game as my win percentage has ben abysmal. I have won two if my solos games and only one of our team games. I think some of the loses can be attributed to running our of zombies and I hope the new tray of zombies I got from the abomination pack will help alleviate this issue.

I clear myself a spot on the dinning room table and set up mission 10 from the rule book: Small town. I have only played mission 09 and 10 as solo since I don't wasn't to set up a 3x3 grid and the 2x2 missions seem to play pretty quickly (3 and 4 year olds love to move pieces around).

I really wanted to try out the new characters so I picked them out of the pile of cards and then randomly selected the next three. Here you can see my starting six survivors and the equipment they started the game with. El Cholo starting with the double machetes really helps the groups damage output right from the get go 

 All set up and ready to roll.

A few turns in and the survivors are holding their own...

 

The crew has picked up some really good equipment pretty quickly while doing a really good job of keeping everyone in the blue.

 

 Victory condition met! Survivors win with no casualties and little issues.

I decided to try and get all the survivors off the board via the entry point to make it more thematic.

Really not too many issues getting back off the board. My crew had a ton of damage output at this point and was really able to mow down zombie like it was their job. I have to say of the new characters I think I like Nick the best. The tough ability that he has right from the blue level is really powerful and helps correct for some "bad luck" situations. I really wish I was on this kickstarter so I could have some of the other exclusive characters from season one but alas I missed out on that one. I really would like to have the Angelina, Bruce Campbell, and Samuel L Jackson characters from season one.....oh well cant have everything.

I ended up playing the mission again the next day with only one of the new survivors and once again I was able to win easy. I am not sure why all of a sudden my games have been easier...luck of the draw, the new survivors, or that I am just getting the hang of the game better. Either way I am still having a blast playing the game and hope that my success in solo games translates to my next group game and we can finally beat mission 01 from the rule book. We may be playing it Thursday night if we can set up a group and get away for the night.

Mail Time! New Toys!

I received a package today I have been waiting for since Templecon. I have been extremely excite and I am thrilled to have it in my hands finally. Lets start off with a little story prior to getting to the pictures shall we:

If you may recall day three at Templecon was spent hanging out and playing some demos. We headed to the board game room to play a demo of Zombicide by Cool Mini or Not.

Here are Cash and Nick getting ready to demo w me and Abe (Oh Buddy!)

 

After playing the demo game I was pretty excited about the game and was seriously considering buying a copy prior to leaving. I got to talking with the CMoN guy running the booth and asked about the promo characters from the season one kickstarter. I was told they are never going to be reproduced and that unless you got them from the kickstarter or off eBay you would be out of luck.....then there was a but. He mentioned that anyone buying the game would receive a raffle ticket for an abomination pack. I was unaware what that ment at the time and he explaned it came with some of those characters and some other stuff.

 

I was pretty much all in at this point until it was said you had to be there to win and the drawing was at 5pm. Seeing as we were leaving at 3pm there was no way I could be there to win. I left the booth and head to one of the WM tables were Zack and John were playing a game. In conversation it turned out they would still be there at 5pm so John offered to head by the booth to see if I had the winning ticket at 5pm. OK back to the CMoN booth. It turned out they only had 4 tickets in the drawing for Sunday so I picked up my copy and ticket then and there. While we were driving home I received a text from John saying he was the only person present at the drawing and that I won the pack!!!! He was going to leave it with a buddy of his to mail out since John didn't want to fly home with it to Atlanta.

 

That brings us to today. After I got up from my nap I headed downstairs and saw the package on the dinning room table. Here are the sexy goodies within:

 

 Custom dice....who can't use more dice?

What's an abomination pack without an extra abomination? there are also some more zombie spawning cards.

An extra tray of zombies. While this may seem like trouble I am really excited about this as one of our biggest issues has been running out of zombies and getting killed to the extra activation 

 

Now we get to the really sexy part of the abomination pack! The extra promo characters.....

 

Here is Dave the Geek aka Dr. Sheldon Cooper. He has a cool ability to make two molotov cocktails instead of one once he gets the two parts. 

Second out of the pack is Nick aka Lt John McClane. This is the first of the new characters I want to try out. He has tough as a built in ability and therefore ignores his first wound each turn.

Last but not least we have El Cholo aka Danny Trejo aka Machete. Shockingly he gets to start the game with....two machetes. How 'bout dem apples.

 

 

So here is my abomination pack I have been so excited to receive. I want to say a really big thanks to John (Moz) and Mike for sticking around to pick this up and mailing it to me. I really appreciate it guys and I have the first round next convention we make it to. Those of you that missed out on the season one exclusive and don't want to miss out on season two head over to the Zombicide season two kickstarter going on right now. They are up to nine exclusive characters right now and soon to be 10. Five of the promo characters are added to the base game when you buy it the rest you have to add on for $10. 



Undead Everywhere....

So seems like I have been over run with the undead. The undead are hitting me from two different game systems. The first is from Wild West Exodus the sci-fi western kickstarter I have been going on an on about recently. The second is zombicide which also has a KS running. I have been playing a bunch of single games of zombicide recently and also got a game in the other night with two buddies. OK on to some painting.

As you may recall the good people at Outlaw sent me an enlightened grunt so I have been banging away on him. My hopes is to finish him to day as I have a Warmahordes tourney tomorrow which will take up the entire day. Here are a few shots of the poor little guy....

While the photos aren't great I am happy with how he is coming together. Prior to receiving this mini I was really not that interested in the enlightened but I like them more and more as this guy progresses.....curse you outlaw do I really need all four factions! At this time I am calling the skin and shirt done. The metal is nearly there just need to hit a few highlights to call them finished, the pants will require a couple highlights as well. I think I am going to change the suspenders and straps to P3 rucksack tan but not 100% on that yet. What do you think?

A few more random photos from WWX before I switch over to my next undead item. These two photos appeared on the WWX kickstarter page and facebook today. The first is for the yet unlocked Wyatt Earp boss of the lawmen faction:

The second photo is of the warrior nations heavy support option the Great Elk. I have been leaning toward the warrior nation since the beginning of the kickstarter as my primary faction and this guy does not disappoint.

Ok that is it for WWX at this time. If you like what you see head over the kickstarter page and take a look at some other sexy minis. The KS has 9 days left.

Kickstarter Knock if Off!!!!

As you may have been aware I have been in lover with Wild West Exodus and have been following that Kickstarter very closely. At the current time they have a nice chunk of changed pledged and this may only go up as we near the end of the KS. I have started basecoating the enlightened grunt

Yesterday I get an email alerting me to a new kickstarter I "may be interested in" This email was from Cool Mini or Not since I pledge both Relic Knights and Rivet Wars by them. The email was to alter me to the release of Toxic Mall and Season Two of Zombicide. Those of you that check in on the regular know I fell in love with this game after my demo at Templecon and in playing it after I returned. Well looks like I will be pledging another game....thank God the wife doesn't read my blog! Curse you Kickstarter you won this one.....take my money.

Toxic mall is an expansion to the original game 

Prison outbreak is a new stand alone game

Think the bog says it all

OK back tot he Warmahordes front. Les, AKA Oxyguy, has been working with some guys from Buffalo and Rochester to try and set up a cup series consisting of three tournaments with each meta hosting one of the events. They are calling it the "Thruway Cup". Those of you not too familiar with Central/Upstate New York the thruway (I90) run pretty much directly through the state in a straight line from Buffalo in the west to Albany in the east before heading south toward the city.

I don't know all the ins and outs of the "series" but the first event will be a week from today out in Rochester. This is going to be a SR2013, divide and conquer, 42min death clock, specialists, and  a limited selection of scenarios in play. I have been playing with lists back and forth for the last few days. While I really prefer to play trolls at 50pt I think I have some solid lists ready to roll. I will hold off posting them for the time being as I hope to get a little play testing in during the week before we hit the road for Rochester.