Warmachine - The Final Door is Slams Shut.

It's been about a year since my last game of Warmachine, so MacSver and I dusted off the models for a game. The forces were Khador (MacSver) against Cygnar (myself).  We lined up:.

Khador:

• Kommander Sorscha Kratikoff
• Juggernaut - Heavy Warjack
• Destroyer - Heavy Warjack
• Assault Kommandos
• Widowmakers
• Man-O-War Shocktroopers

Cygnar: 

• Commander Adept Nemo
• Ironclad Heavy Warjack
• Lancer Light 'jack
• Firefly Light 'jack
• Journeyman Warcaster
• Charger Light 'jack (bound to Jr)
• Black 13th Gun Mages
• 2 x Stormcallers

It was to be a straight battle across the Crystal Fields.

Timing Isn't Everything

You can't fault my timing. With a new Games Workshop prices rise and a change in editions on the horizon, what better time to take up 40k?

The reason for this is simple. Arabiansquire is old enough to be a club member in his own right (for the last year actually) but with the club running on Saturday mornings it's not always convenient for me to go. The lad's been dropped off a couple of times on his own and he's played away, roping in a willing participant for his own rules "system", but I've always felt it would be better if he could join a game other lads are playing. Happily there has been a influx of "new blood" to the club in the form of some youngsters all (not surprisingly) playing 40k. So last Saturday I dropped the wee lad off armed with our meagre collection of Space Marines for a lesson on how to play. He had a great time playing  independently with folk close to his own age and was full of enthusiastic chat about the game and his new friends. If ever there was a nice example of how tabletop gaming is a fun, social activity compared to online gaming this was it.

I'll just have keep this in mind as I trawl open my wallet for more Space Marine gear...

Looking Forward to 2011

If I was doing this whole thing properly I'd be review the past year first, but I fear turning into a pillar of salt for looking over my shoulder so we'll just plough on regardless into 2011.

The aims for the the coming year will split into 2 categories - Game Play and Gaming Practice.

Game Play

• Warmachine: in the last 6 months I've managed  to start (and paint) my main Cryx army and have only half a Death Jack to paint to have all my models painted up. Well almost. I've put my name down for a league at the new local gaming store, Worlds @ War, in Livingston, Scotland which has slightly brought forward the purchase of another (Mechanithralls) unit by a couple of months. No big deal. Oh and I did also buy Cygnar battle group (& proxy additional forces) but they aren't on the painting list yet.
• 20mm WWII: This is the biggy this year. I've already managed to pick up a selection of Airfix 1:72 figures and scale vehicles (mostly on the cheap) and this year sees the glue and paint hitting the plastic and the results hitting the table.
• Gladiators: Having started a Gladitorial School RSBS solo campaign I aim to play a months gametime each month.
• Songs Of Blades and Heroes: A much delayed (due to Warmachine) campaign has been in the offing for months now - I hope to get my skaven into action this year in an extended run of games.
• 10mm Dungeon Crawl: I need to finish off the10mm Dungeon pack I've started and get some good old fashioned crawling done.
• Projects: I've a few half finished projects left over from 2010: Sci-fi tunnel complex, modular spaceship, Racing Pods to name just 3. I will be aiming to get these finished in the first 6 months of the year, or at least before I start any other projects.
• Modern/Zombie/Horror: After making roads into this last year I hope to continue with a few more painted mini's.

Gaming Practice:

• The Second Great Scottish Clearances: It's sad to say, but I have had to finally agree with Mrs AK. that the Arabian Towers Hobby shed is too full of "stuff". I'm going to have to take that tough, heartbreaking journey to ebay (and in some cases the charity shop) to make the space more habitable. On the up side this'll hopefully bring in some cash and assuming that the British Goverment don't start an new hobby tax (best not joke, actually) this'll help balance the books.
• Open Accounting: which seemlessly brings me onto my second grand plan. Although I try to keep costs down I've never been brave/bothered enough to keep note of what I spend on my hobby. Some stones are best left unturned as they say. Well it's time do bring out the lifting gear and tip this mighty menhir over this year. In an attempt to see what the true cost of gaming is I'll be keeping a running spreadsheet of comings and goings. What's more I'll be airing this dirty laundry in public with a linked page from the top this blog. Here's hoping that I don't end too many months with my head in my hands muttering "Oh no, what have I done. The wife'll kill me!"
• Playing more games: This isn't just a bid to wrack up the hours spent rolling dice. To get full "Value For Money" the gaming resources need to be used, so I'll be looking to play a variety of games to get the most from my figures. To start off I've joined a league at the local store which will force me to play at least a game of Warmachine each month. Good start.
• Bought v Painted ratio: Which start of year list would be complete without this old chestnut. I think I did OK last year but without having accounted it I can't be sure how well. So this year I'll be keeping a note of that as well in the accounting page.

Well, watch this space...

A Lesson in Warmachine

Cryx advance downhill
towards the invading Cygnar

Today Arabiansquire and myself headed to the Battleground Livingston gaming club. The wee lad has been quite taken by the miniatures of Warmachine and has was very keen to learn how to play. He had an introductory few turns last weekend in the Arabian Towers hobbyshed, but this was the first time he's controlled his own force. We went with the Cygnar and Cryx battlegroups for simplicity.

I don't know how much more we'll play this at the moment. At still under 9 years old he's already been playing tabletop games with me for over a couple of years so he's used to learning turn phases, numbers of dice to roll, etc but the beauty of Warmachine is his downfall. Even with the few number of models in the basic battlegroup box, the amount of options and tactics are a bit beyond him for the moment. The game does have a recommended age group 12+ so it's not that surprising. I'm sure we'll have the odd game in the future as the whim take us/him, but with so many other games I think we can have more enjoyment playing something that doesn't demand so much advance and complex planning. There's plenty of time...

The Cygnar Charger brings the Cryx Defiler
underfire.

Away but not forgetting

Cycling @ Loch Katrine

Well not many updates in the last week, mostly due to tye fact the family have been on a short break up the road to the Trossachs (in Scotland). I did taken some Superhero stuff as a bad weather contingency, but thankfully the weather held out, so it wasn't needed.

So just a quick "cheap" post to keep things running - a workbench WIP photo. As you can see here (and from the last few posts) I'm making a push to get my Warmachine figures painted up. Out of the batch I have there's only a Death Jack, Bloat Thrall and large unit of Bile Thralls left to go. After that I'll take a bit of time to order the next figures and enjoy painting something different.

Initially it should be some (near) modern figures, but you can see form the picture that I've some 10mm dungeon occupants which need finishing. Especially as Pendraken have just released an expansion pack! Oooooooh. Nice.

Nearly there

So close. Finally, on the 3rd attempt, everyone in my RPG group managed to get round the table at the same time this week. As the grand finale of Warhammer's "Death on The Reik" was looming we wanted everyone at the session to see the end out. So rather predictably we ran out of time and the final half sessions worth will have to played out next time. I suppose at least there will be time to spend all that XP before they go home.

Trying to get this adventure concluded is reminding me of the Sir Lancelot attack in The Holy Grail - it's taken an inordinate amount to time to get here and there is a rediculous amount of hacking and slashing once the moment comes.

The evening had 2 battles in it, which is where the time went. We have 4 players running 6 characters at the moment so when the opposition are added in they can take up some time, especially as a few of the PCs have multiple attacks. The final main battle was had (pictured top) in the lab. Which brings me onto my first topic - the use of themes in the gaming environment.

*****SPOILER ALERT******

All the way through the Inner Bailey area of the castle the players have been entertained, confused and intimidated by some of the bizarre and imaginative encounters set in the castle. The final main battle happens in a mock-up of Frankenstein’s lab complete with monster. Now while this is a cool setup and was capable of throwing some choices for the players, after all the off the wall encounters this was summed up by one of the gang mid description as "Oh, this is Frankenstein’s lab". A nice setting for a battle, with a certain amount of familiarity, but in this case I couldn't help but think that it was slightly out of kilter with the rest of the castle and perhaps an anticlimax.

Now I know some of you will just say, "You're the GM, if you weren't happy with it you should have changed it", but the thought hadn't occurred until the scene was being played out - so too late. Having not written the adventure myself the change in flavour at the end passed me by on reading.

The point of this is really just the thought - if you are designing a close series of encounters, be they chaos, forest, subterranean or urban try to keep the feel of the series throughout for a more satisfying experience. You can change it for the next set.

Six Month review

Six months into the year it's time to see how I'm doing on my start of year pledges.

• Finish the Dog Soldiers project. Done. Not played it yet though. Funny how that happens. It's still in my plans though so watch this blog. 
• Song of Blades and Heroes warbands. This project is pretty open ended, but for the sake of accounting - Done! Swamp Themed and Skaven warbands have been done, with enough figures added to make a diverse goblinoid group. A rake around the shelves has a beastman themed group in the waiting and I've a nice collection mini's for a forester themed warband. 
• Modern Civilian Warbands -Nope! 
• Zombies. For #3. - Like #3 again Nope! 
• Doctor Who. With the new series there seems to have been a renewed excitement. Some new "not"-figures have been bought and I really should at least put some paint on some of them. 
• Card Stock Buildings. This has expanded to my Lunchtime Project section. So far Lunchtimes have produced several card stock buildings and ruins, half a Sci-fi tunnel system and the beginnings of a cheap (and supposedly quick) palisade. More on these in later posts.

 AOB: Stuff thats emerged or to be levered into the next 6 months

• The 20mm World War II bandwagon has started to roll. Not a priority really this
•  year, as the instigator of this whole sorry affair (Halo_star*) has no doubt done less that me. But it's there now all the same. 

• Warmachine. Not blogged about this yet, as it's sitting precariously on the edge of the todo shelf, promising to re-create the sticky bun scene in Young Ones episode "Bambi". Members from my RPG group (plus others from Lothian Gamers) have decided to take up Warmachine, and I've been swept along in the novelty of playing a game where I'll already have opponents! When that battle box finally hits the workbench I'll expand on it. 
• HeroQuest figures. With the start of a HeroQuest campaign with Arabiansquire I'd like to get a few more figures coloured. We've plenty of orcs, goblins, skeletons and Chaos warriors but nothing else done. Once sat down this should be quite quick (famous last words) as I ink them instead of using paint. This is nice and fast leaving a childrens story book style of watercolour style colouring which I like. Once the actual HQ figures are done it qould be nice to expand this to other dungeon creatures, but it'll come down to whether I want to have them coloured in this style.
• Gladiators. Having now made an arena and bolstered my combatant numbers it would be grand to get a game of Red Sand Blue Sky in soon.

A busy time ahead then. I don't know how I'll fit it all in.

Gallery Page

As you may have noticed there is a new tab/link above. I've put in a gallery page. In reality it's just a painting log more for myself than anyone else, but it's there all the same for all to peruse.

Reinforcements arrive - with thanks

The other month I wrote a brief Skaven Warband roster post. In this article I had a minor whinge about not having any ranged troops in the warband due to cost. To my surprise and delight it received a message from Andrew who writes the excellent Kings Sleep blog, who had dived into his bits box, assembled a trio of rodents with ranged weapon capabilities and offered them to me off his own back. The packet came through the door today and I'm delighted. Truth be told my progress on this band has stalled, but the effort put in by Andrew has rekindled my interest (or more like given me a kick up the arse!) to get it finished.

So I'd like to take the opportunity here and now to doff my cap to a generous, true gent.

Sir, I salute you.

Reality Bites, Projects Put Back

Sigh. I suppose it had happen at some time - the dreaded REAL LIFE. Well the next while will be pretty busy at Arabian Towers with alterations to the house and (ironically) the Easter holidays eating up more time and space than a zombie tribble outbreak. As such my project and gaming plans have mostly been put on hold for around 4 weeks until normality strikes again. Quite frankly when I've only got brief snatches of hobby time to relax, dry brushing a squad of ratsmen is a bit of a chore and not the diversion I look need. As you may have spotted in previous RPG posts I've a new character in the game and the model for it is looking a mite ghostly, so I'll probably try and put some paint to Ranger in the next while. There will be a couple of other quicky projects, but more on them as they are done.

Happy gaming and take care.

Frugal postings

Finally managed to scribe a my first proper post to contribute to "A Year of being Frugal". The one month mark since I signed up to contribute was looming large. I've a few more practical postings in the pipeline - it's just a case of getting through the small projects and taking the accompanying photos.

Anyway have a look at it and the other fine articles (by others) and as always feel free to add to the experience.

Unleash the small child in you.

There's nothing like an enthusiastic 8 year old to get things sorted. A few home chores had meant that my son  and I couldn't make it to the local gaming club meet (which is on Saturday mornings). So with my blessing, along with the odd condition, Arabiansquire was let loose to play in the hobby shed. The previous home session where we tried a roleplaying lite turn to the gaming must have left an impression as instead of the usual huge neverending mass battle, he constructed a varied band of adventurers and a series of scenarios to play through. A few back and forth trips back to the house to check on "Song of Blades..." stats and he was away and entertained for a couple of hours. The next day I managed to join in for the last couple of skirmishes - a woodland battle and a final assault on a castle.

All good fun, but the main point here is that the castle had been a bargain buy around 3 years ago and had never witnessed the roll of a single die until the wee lad had raked through some of my boxes and unearthed it for play. He also managed highlight a couple of mini's from an ebay job lot I bought ages ago which, when combined with a few other long lost figures, will almost make up an new themed warband - one of my 2010 pledge points. Double bonus! So it just goes to show - unleash the small child in you, dive into those dusty boxes and re-discover your once prised purchases.

Using RPG adventures to Wargame - Stage 1

Overall I have to say that the weekends experiment was fun. It definitely  felt more RPG than our normal pitch battle games. Perhaps the background story fueled this feeling. It helped that the RPG I was looking at was designed to introduce new players to D&D, so was very linear. This led to an easy set of connected encounters that could be led one to another without actually doing the roleplaying bit, which is the point. I'll looking to (skirmish) wargame here, not roleplay. Also having a small number of characters to take from one encounter straight into the next was nice. Arabiansquire enjoyed that continuity and also the smaller battles were over quicker, so the changes in scenery and opposition extended his enjoyment and attention span. He's already said he's looking forward to continuing the story next week. It won't be so easy for him this time. Surely he can't roll so many moral testing gruesome kills two weeks running???

Problems I forsee are for using regular RPG adventures and trying to follow them in a sequence of battles. Most encounters happen through the choices the players/characters have made. Without these choices the reasons for the encounters (read battles here) become strained at best. It must be said that Songs Of Blades and Heroes (the fantasy ruleset of choice with the young lad) is perhaps a bit too simple to deal with more complex interactions. It's not designed for that. I've still not managed to read through my copy of Two Hour Wargames "Legends of Araby" yet. A brief flick through would seem to have some gaming devices to put the adventurers in a situation where a battle may or may not happen. It'll have to be slightly tweeked to include the fantasy races (Stats are downloadable from the THW yahoo site) but I've really to get my reading glasses on before I can think about that. One note is that the THW site doesn't list the rules for sale anymore (although I've seen them on a pdf download store somewhere).

Another problem is there can be alot of abstact reading in RPG adventures that won't come into wargaming. Place descriptions, NPC motives, etc. I'm sure that with a bit of practice you'd be able to do an initial skim through the adventure to get the jist of it, then return to pick out the meat that you want. It's still a lot more preparation than is usual for a skirmish game (the point of which is that its quick), but I've not run a decent length set of campaign battles before so maybe no more than you'd expect.

Overall this seems like an exercise work doing. I've still a good amount of investigation to do. I suspect that my early thoughts on what the adventures will bring may change by the end. It may be that instead of following the RPG adventure to create a campaign I will be taking out the inspiration from in the pages, maps and NPC's to form a campaign.

I'll have to get reading and thinking to find out...

Out with the old, in with the new (Part 2)

Well with a new year brings a new set of gaming aims and projects. Isn't it funny (or perhaps not) that you can go from one year to the next failing to carry out the plans from the previous year and having no plans to continue them? I suppose thats why so many of us have numbers of boxes of miniatures stashed around the house gathering dust!

So to continue with tradition this years list almost has no connection to last year's list.

1. Finish the Dog Soldiers project. OK, OK I know this was on last years list, that's why I included the "almost" get out clause in the above sentence. As seen from other posts I have the end in sight for this one, and I plan to have it polished off for the end of January ready for playing.

2. Song of Blades and Heroes warbands. Last year I was bitten by the excellent Song of Blades and Heroes ruleset bug (published by Ganesha Games). It's a fun, fast and easy system to play. Perfect for a couple of hours entertainment with my young son, arabiansquire. However the figures we've been playing with have been somewhat limited to those I already have painted up for RPGing. Whilst there are a few to choose from there are a lack of opitions available to make up a more coherent warband. This is to addressed this year.
3. Modern Civilian Warbands. In previous years I've played some of Two Hour Wargames "All Things Zombie", but I have very few figures for players to use. Again bite sized small groups are needed here.
4. Zombies. For #3. You can never have too many and I doubt if I have quite enough (painted of course. I have a box full unpainted on a shelf)
5. Doctor Who. This one has come from a bit left field, but as a break between projects I hope to a least paint a couple of the Doctor Who miniatures I've been accumulating over the past few years. One day I may even have enough to game with...
6. Card Stock Buildings. This is a continuation from an un-official project last year. During my lunch (half) hours I've been slowly putting togther some fantasy card stock buildings. Not only is this good for my health (taking me away from the compter screen) and gives me some mental downtime but keeps my hobby spirits up with a bit of progress.
7. Focus. This is more an aim rather that a project, but to try and focus on one project at a time. Too many good projects are sitting unfinished and therefore unplayed. I love to play, so I need to finish them. It's quite simple really. That's why all my projects this year are bite sized SMART ones (just to use a horrible business term for a second)

As with the best lists there will be unexpected extras depending on what crops up, usually as a result of my Roleplaying, to be fair. But I'll handle (and post) those as I come to them.

Wish me luck.

Out with the old, in with the new (Part 1)

 Well, it's getting perilously near the end of the year, and through all the chaos of the preparation of Christmas a wee glance back over my shoulder at the gaming year past and a gaze forward are always welcome distractions.

I'll start with the year past. On a different board somewhere at the start of 2009 I drummed out my marching orders for the year. I had decided to follow the example of a blogger on his quest of A Year of Frugal Gaming and try and concentrate on the piles of stuff I already had in my hobby shed.
The list went as follows:

This year I want to concentrate on a few long boiling projects without adopting any new ones (well I can dream)
Projects for 2009:

1. Paint the THREE main characters for my RPG group - they've been sitting base coated and fleshed since last July for crying out loud!!
2. Paint the 5 werewolves & create a farm house to play the Two Hour Wargames "Dog Soldiers" minigame.
3. Start playing TwoHourWargames 5150 ruleset
4. Create open ground terrain for play (Trees, bushes, etc)
5. Create a modular dungeon terrain set.
6. Create Necromunda style terrain with the bits of polystyrene & platformer build sets I already have.
7. Paint all the Heroquest style orcs, zombies, skeletons, etc for Heroquest and Dungeon crawls in 5. above.
8. Build & paint the robot/terminator/necron force for battle
9. Build tanks, etc to bulk up my Catachan force (not necessarily for 40k)
10. Paint up an extra Necromunda gang or 2 (I already have one to touch up the battle scars so not too much effort here).

Funny how looking back at these reminds me of some of the bold visions of the future in Tomorrows World. Also how quickly plans and priorities change. Plans #3, 5, 7, 8, 9 & 10 just never happened. So much for sticking to my guns!

A lot of my time/enthusiasm was captured by my RPG group. I am currently Hosting/GMing the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying (1st Edition) classic "The Enemy Within" campaign. So I managed to get the PC group finished and painted a couple of other figures for a D&D game (tick pledge #1).

Scenery took up most of my time, as it turned out. Some outdoor trees (tick pledge #4) and some indoors fantasy decor to go with the "flexible" RPG room spaces constructed from box files. I also managed to cobble together so Sci-Fi terrain (tick pledge #6). The thing about generic terrain/scenics is that you never seem to have enough, so to have actually done some constitutes a victory in my books. No doubt more will be slowly forthcoming in the next year.  But I'm leaving that for part 2. Just to finish off my generic fantasy terrain list is a small town of cardstock buildings I'm constructing. They will feature in future posts without any doubt.

That just leaves my Dog Soldiers Project. I'm just going to miss the year end deadline here I fear. A box file based cottage has been made, and 5 werewolves have been painted. The barn/garage is in the process of construction (see next post) and the squaddies are undercoated. Do-able but most probably a January finish. The whole sheebang will be up here.

Next years pie-in-the-sky plans will be in part 2...

Blog beginnings

Huzzah - another wargaming blog I hear you cry.

Well yes, I can't deny it (the evidence is (hopefully) being updated before your eyes. The more the merrier I say.

I thought I'd start one up and here I am unexpectedly faced with my first post only a couple of clicks into the creation process.

It is a blatent tool for focusing my gaming mind and hopefully providing a few moments of distraction for others. My painting skills I rank as average and the time I get to spend on my projects varies, so don't go expecting huge armies expertly painted in a couple of weeks. I feel, however, that I am in the same boat as a large number of gamers with a job, family and chores vying for time and attention.

In the end it's a case of enjoyment over perfection. Maybe one day I'll be able to bring the two closer together...