Workbench Update – Recent Random Pictures

For the past two weeks I have had little time to hobby, and I think my lack of blogging shows that.  Real life things have been getting in the way, including prep for an interview I had yesterday.  The only real hobby progress I’ve had is the slow work done on the Soul Warden, the last of my Dragyri Warband models.  He probably should have been done a week ago, but I was just too busy.  Anyway, here are some random shots I’ve taken recently of various hobby-related things.  After posting this, I’ll go write a little report on last night’s Malifaux game with Scott and get back to painting the Soul Warden.

Speaking of the Soul Warden, here he is.  The body is all done, so I just need to finish the head and the staff.  Hopefully I’ll get him done tonight or tomorrow, and as soon as the Dragon Forge bases arrive I’ll get them completed and get all these Dragyri properly finished.

And speaking of finished models, here is one of the display cases at Meeplemart.  Steve agreed to let me keep a few of my crews at the store, which is good for both of us.

On the one hand, Meeplemart gets a demo crew or two for the store to use (yes, I’m fine with people using my miniatures as long as they take care of them), and there’s a visual representation of products he sells.

And on the other hand, I get to show off my painted models and I don’t have to lug them around with me everytime I want to play at Meeplemart (which is where I do all of my miniature gaming right now).

It’s a win-win situation.  Next week I’ll be bringing my Heavy Gear Blitz! models to the store as well, and I’m sure my Dark Age warbands will end up there as well.  Until I start playing elsewhere again (like at Andrew’s or my place, like we used to), I will likely continue with this.

Speaking of playing at Meeplemart, here are some shots of games played there recently.

Here is how my game against Andrew ended last week.  You can find the report at Tale of Gamers.  That’s right, I only had 7 models remaining, but thanks to the random scenario and a whole lotta luck at the last minute, I somehow managed to win.

Here is a shot from this week’s game betwen Andrew’s Lizard’s and Steve’s Tomb Kings.  Hopefully Andrew will throw something together about the game at ToG, but if not, it was a 1000pt game.  Steve is still learning the rules, but has an awesome-looking TK army that is displayed in the store.  Hopefully he enjoyed it enough to get some more TK models painted so we can see them tabled again, at higher levels.

And here is a deployment shot from my game against Scott.  You can see my Ortegas down at the bottom, and Ramos up at the top with some of his construct friends.  I don’t think I’ll write up a true report for this game (due to time I’d like to spend on other posts, and because I don’t think Scott wants another table-wipe report made up ), but I’ll get some highlights up at ToG ASAP.

Well, here’s my short-term plan in regards to my workbench:

• Dragyri Soul Warden (nearly there)
• Dragon Forge bases (in transit, will just work on the ice ones)
• Abuela Ortega (primed)

After these are done I will be flipping between the Khaliman Republic (Alkemy) for our next ToG starting May 1, and the Outcasts (Dark Age) so I can get this game on the table.  Plus, of course, anything else that I get distracted with…like those Dead Doxies for Malifaux that I almost picked up last night, but had the willpower not to.  Yet.

Oh yeah, one last picture.  This is my 10 1/2 month old son, trying to tell us that we shouldn’t let him watch TV, because he’s impressionable and might mimic what they do…

Thanks for reading.

Game Plan 2012 – March Update

Well, now that it’s March I feel this is a good point to stop and say, “Hey Justin, how’s that Game Plan 2012 going?”  So, let’s take a look at how 2012 is stacking up for me, hobbywise, shall we?

First, my original goals for 2012, as posted on December 14, 2011, and how they’re looking:

1. Clean up my room: Pfft, hasn’t happened yet.
2. Man Cave: Not even close.
3. C&C Ancients in 3D: Only marginally closer than I was back then.  This project has been put on hold.
4. A Call to Arms: Fail! Never made it past playing that first learning game with Andrew.
5. Reboot Malifaux: Success! We are currently playing this every Tuesday, and we wrangled Scott into the game as well.  See Tale of Gamers for more.
6. Reboot Heavy Gear Blitz!: I’ve painted my army, so it’s just a matter of getting Rob and Andrew to work on theirs, then play.
7. Reboot Warmachine: Other locals play this, but I am only slowly working on that Cygnar army.  Very slowly.
8. Battlestations!: Other than being highly interested and painting up some robots, this hasn’t gone anywhere either.
9. Pulp: Not yet.  I think this has been replaced by Old West, but you never know.
10. Leviathans: The game hasn’t been released yet! Grr!
11. Keep it Low Key: Well, I haven’t gone and spent a tonne of cash on a single game yet, other than about $100 on GameCraft Old West buildings.  My updated plan for 2012 sort of follows the KiLK idea…but cheats it a little…

Even though I have only successfully accomplished ONE of my initial goals, the first two months of 2012 has been pretty positive hobbywise.  I have gotten a lot painted.  A lot more than ever before.  Off the top of my head, I’ve finished entire crews for Heavy Gear Blitz, Malifaux and Freebooter’s Fate, plus a handful of other models for Warmachine, WHFB and 40k (technically).  I’m pretty proud of that, and I hope to not only continue the good work, but increasing my productivity a bit more.

Here is my updated Game Plan 2012:

1. Clean my room/Man Cave: With my brother giving us my nephew’s old bedroom furniture soon, I might have to actively get cracking on this dual-project.
2. Sell old models: I have a lot of stuff I don’t use, or plan on using again.  It’s time to make room and get back some cash for it.
3. Keep it Low Key: Well, I’m not planning on ”Going Big or Going Home” with any game systems these days.  However, I am cheating this a bit and going more the sampler platter route, picking up starters for multiple games.  See below for my monthly plan.  While this is a bad idea in general, because it means I’ll have even more games, and less time to play each one, I like this because I get to paint different models for different systems, and cover a variety of colours, schemes and styles.
4. Paint! Paint! Paint!  I want to keep the painting going.  I’m hoping any vacations or whatnot I take this year don’t derail my current productivity.
5. Blog less, blog better: Like I said in my recent post, I’m not going to post daily, but rather try and make my posts heavier, fuller, more meaningful.

I’m not going to cover things like Battlestations! or C&C Ancients right now, as I don’t know if they’re coming off the list, or just moving around.  So the above points do not necessarily make up the newplan, just add/alter it a bit.

Here is what I’m thinking about covering as my main projects over the next few months:

• March: Dark Age.  I’m going to pick up a starter box this Tuesday (likely Dragyri).  I’ve applied for the Legion, and if I do join I’ll get a second starter (Outcasts?) to run demos with.  If I can wrangle other players beforehand, I would also consider Forsaken as my second army to show the game with.  But Dragyri is my main choice (namely the Ice Caste dudes, which I chose before the Ice Caste got their current popularity).
• April: Urban War.  Like I said in an earlier Miniature Temptations post, I’m drawn to this game.  I’ll pick up Junkers and Viridian starters, and hopefully join the Legion to demo it as well.  There are enough non-starter models that interest me, but not enough to overwhelm me.
• May: Hell Dorado.  Heh, even if I can’t convince anyone to get into this with me, I’m going to pick up a Westerners starter and paint it up.  I love their look.  And I should have realised it before, but they would make great proxies for Imperial Armada in Freebooter’s Fate.
• June: Dark Eldar.  We (as a group) might get into 40k in July.  I’d like to get my Dark Eldar battleforce early and get a head start.  I’m going to start with this box and only expand once they are finished.  I won’t make the same mistake I made with WHFB, even Empire in our Tale of Gamers challenge.

Anyway, that’s the plan.  That doesn’t mean these are the only games I will buy, paint and play.  I guarantee we will continue to play Malifaux regularly.  We (Loy, Andrew and I, specificaly) will learn Freebooter’s Fate.  We will play Warmachine/Hordes, Warhammer Fantasy, etc. etc. etc.  I will paint stuff for all of these games, as well as continue my various other projects.

I am an ambitious guy, especially when it comes to my Game Plan.  We will check back in in May or June, and see how things have gone, and what has changed.

Until then, keep reading for updates on all of my various projects, and see where this hobby takes me.

Thanks for reading.

Slowing Down the Blogging

Late last year I started blogging a lot more than I had earlier in 2011.  As I gamed less and spent more nights at home, I got more painting done, and my interest in miniatures (over board games) returned.  And starting in early January of this year I actually got to posting on the blog every single day.  This lasted for well over a month, nearly two, actually!  I was hoping to hit 2-months’ worth of straight posting, but it sort of fell apart on Monday, and now I’ve missed two days in a row.  Phooey!

But lately I’ve been thinking, perhaps I should post less frequently, and make the posts that I do put up more meaningful.  Quality over quantity, and all that.  I don’t think that too many of my posts have been that meaningless, but I’m sure there are enough that went up that didn’t need to.  Just daily fillers, and the like.

Now that I’ve effectively stopped the daily post, I think I’ll do that.  I might get into the habit of posting certain things on certain days, like “WIP Wednesdays” or “Workbench Update Sundays,” something like that.  We’ll see.

Regardless, I won’t be posting every day anymore.  For now, I’m going to post when I have something a bit more important to say or show off.

I still encourage you to Follow my blog, and to come by when you see that I post (like on the TGN blog network), of course.

I’m going to go back to painting, and see if I can come up with something interesting to write about Tuesday’s Freebooter’s Fate game with Loy, or the Malifaux game with Scott.

Thanks for reading.

Naggaroth Blood Bowl League at Meeplemart

Now, I don’t play Blood Bowl, and I’m not planning on joining the league, but I thought I would help spread the word about it, as it’s starting this coming week.

The Naggaroth Blood Bowl League begins Tuesday, February 7th at Meeplemart, here in Toronto.  You can find more details on the Meeplemart announcement page here, or on their facebook page.

All I can say is that the guys playing are a good bunch, and if you like the game and want to get into a league, check it out.

(Hopefully I’ll have a post related to myself ready later on )

Thanks for reading.

Goodbye, 2011. Hello, 2012.

I had already made a Game Plan 2012 post, but I felt that writing something tonight might help encourage me to be more active on the blog.  I’d like to write more than I did last year, a small part of being more productive this year.  So let’s start.

I’ll start by saying that 2011 was a year that saw extreme happiness (the birth of my son, Aidan-Grey), and ended with extreme sadness (having to surrender my cat, a part of our family for three years and our first ‘baby’, to the Humane Society).  Other than this end-of-year family tragedy, I’m happy with how the year went.  And how can I not, having spent 8 months off of work on pat leave with my son, and having played and bought a tonne of board games!?

Anyway, back to the hobby and all that.

I’m not going to go back and alter my Game Plan for this year just yet, but I think I already know of a few things that might change.  I did not add that overall I would like to complete more projects, play more games, and bring my ‘pile of unpainted’ down to some sort of manageable level.  It’s going to be quite a challenge to do this last bit, more than the others.  But with the right attitude, it can happen. 

One thing I’d like to add as well, at least in the short term, is a submission to the Shell Case Shorts writing competition.  I don’t so much ‘follow’ blogs as check the TGN blog network daily for interesting posts, so I happen upon a bunch of different blogs that I tend to enjoy.  Today the shell case announced the competition, and I’ve recently been wanting to get back to writing fiction based on games.  I used to do it regularly for board game AARs, and I even have half a story written as a draft here on the blog for Fortune and Glory, which I may or may not finish (hah! so much for completing projects ).  So, if I can find some time in the new couple of weeks, I’ll give that a go. 

I’m also going to look into sprucing up this blog a bit, adding links and stuff, following other blogs and all that.  I think that might also help me get more posts up.

Anywho, I’m going to take a break from reading my last Star Wars novel (see posts in the Books category), which I didn’t get to finish by the end of 2011, and work on some minis right now.  Maybe I’ll even get enough done that I can take pictures and write a post tomorrow about it all! … Maybe.

p.s. wondering why there wasn’t a Plays of the Week post this week?  Well, with the whole cat incident and the baby getting sick, I had to forgo the final gaming night of the year, which sucks on so many levels.  I’ll just have to make up for it this first week in 2012!

Game Plan: 2012

Sure, I have a hard enough time planning a week in advance, but I’m going to give this one a try.  You know, the old New Year’s Resolutions: Gamer’s Edition.

This list is in no particular order.

Clean Up My Room! My first project of the year, which I can hopefully actually complete in the week between Christmas and the new year, will be to clean up my room.  That’s right, folks, I may be 28 on paper, but I’m closer to 8 half the time.  In fact, this room needs to be cleaned and cleared at some point in 2012, as my now 7-month old son will be moving into it at some point (his crib can’t be in our room forever, Susan!).  This is coupled with the next project, but I’m hoping to at least have things in here organized and comfortable enough for me while I’m still here.  Heck, you really don’t want to see this place.  Not only is it my hobby room and office, it’s the throw-all room where my wife sometimes literally tosses everything she doesn’t want anywhere else in the house, whether it’s mine or not!  No, I can’t blame her for this, I’ve always been messy.  And I don’t think it’s going to change any time soon!  But I am good at cleaning, which is odd considering how messy I let things get.  So at least I can turn this into a temporarily pretty place to work/hobby, until I move it all out into…

The Man Cave!  Yes, I believe every man worth his whisky deserves a Man Cave for himself.  A place to be free of the nagging wife, the needy children, and the chaos of the rest of the house.  Here, he can let himself go and be at peace with his mandollies.  I’ve got a large room in the basement that is perfect for just such a temple.  (Un)Fortunately it is finished in a suave 70′s style, with ‘wood’ planking on the walls and ‘wood’ linoleum floor tiles.  Yeesh.  But I guess that might actually be better than a completely unfinished basement.  I guess.  Anyway, a little paint and possible some click-laminate flooring, and I can move my desk, computer and all my shelves down there.  I’ve already started packing my books up…it’s amazing that two banker’s boxes won’t even hold all of my Star Wars novels alone…as well as my 1/6 figures.  The rest may or may not get packed when I clean my room.  Having them all in boxes might motivate me to get the Man Cave finished sooner.  Maybe.

C&C Ancients in 3D! You can find other posts on this, as I’ve already begun this project ahead of schedule.  I’ve got a handful of Roman Medium Infantry painted, just not finished or based, as well as more clipped and ready for building, and some Roman Light Infantry and Slings ready to prime.  Once I’ve organized the place I’ll get these guys back on the workbench.

A Call to Arms: Noble Armada/Firestorm Armada I’m putting these two together because I am planning to play the former, using the models of the latter.  While I like the models for ACTA:NA just fine, they do not impress me as much as those for FA do.  I’ve ogled Spartan’s space fleet models since they started coming out, I just never bought them until recently, to use in lieu of NA ships.  I know the scale is quite different, and technically the ship types don’t match up, but I’m going to make it work as best I can.  I now have one fleet for NA (House Hawkwood) and two for FA (Terrans and Dindrenzi), as well as the rulebooks for both.  While I’m sure I’ll end up playing FA, I highly prefer the NA ruleset.  Although, I do like the ‘exploding dice’ feature in Spartan’s games.

A Call to Arms: Star Fleet I hadn’t realised that this game was going to be released so soon after I bought Noble Armada.  This is okay, though, as I might save Star Fleet for later on down the road (although still in the near future).  Of course I’m a much bigger Star Wars fan than Star Trek, but I do appreciate it, and I am looking forward to this game.

Reboot: Malifaux I have to say, Malifaux is still my favourite miniatures game.  I love the theme (Victorian-western-steampunk-horror), the mechanics (Fate deck, how abilities work) and the models.  I enjoyed playing it a lot.  I’d like to get it back on the table again, and possibly demo it again.  I’ve got a few different Crews to play with, although my preference still goes to Seamus and his undead hookers. 

Reboot: Heavy Gear Blitz! Yeah, this was a short-lived project that Rob, Andrew and I started, but did not get very far with.  Sad, too, since it’s a cool game, it’s Canadian (gotta support the Home Team) and we spent a lot of money (~$100) on the starter boxes.  We got a few small learning games in, and I got everyone built, primed and some painted.  But it was bad timing for the other guys, and I suffer from the usual distractions, so that was that.  I’d like to remedy this, though, and I think if the other guys get some of their stuff together, I could get motivated.

Reboot: Warmachine As our WFB time died down, I started looking into Warmachine/Hordes again.  Andrew and I played this a few years back, but we dropped it for other things.  The game is still getting played locally, and I think there is even a bit of a resurgence going on.  I do have a number of models (a Rhulic force and a Pirates of the Broken Coast force), but I’m planning on selling them if I can and starting from scratch with Cygnar’s Nemo and an all Lightning-immune force.  I’ve already painted up, and nearly finished!, a Firefly light ‘jack as a tester.  I’m happy with the results.  I also picked up a Stormstrider battle engine, but it’s still in shrink waiting until I can fit it into a force…or until I want it as a centre-piece.  I had looked at a lot of different theme forces (I prefer to go by theme, or by cool-models-and-then-theme), and there are plenty that interest me (Doomreavers, Gators, Menoth’s puny troops and ballista, etc.), but I’m going to go with Nemo and the lightning stuff.  For now

Battlestations! I’d like to finally get my little campaign going for this gem of a kinda-minis-kinda-board-kinda-RPG-game.  We had lots of fun playing it a few years back, and I’ve put a bit of work into getting a Bot Wars campaing going.  This will happen, for sure, I just need to finalise some things before sharing it with the locals. 

Pulp (Fantastic Worlds/.45 Adventures) I really love Rattrap Productions’ pulp game system.  I’ve owned all of the rules forever, and have bought many of Hydra Miniatures’ retro-pulp-sci-fi models for it.  I even demo’d FW  a few times last year.  I’d really like to bring this back to the table, especially since I have so many models for it, and there are so many more I’d be happy to pick up for it.  I’m also trying to decide whether I should ‘blow up’ Battlestations! so I can use these 28mm models (instead of the 15mm it’s sized for).  I think I might, even though it’ll be a touch more work.  As for the 30′s Adventure/Gangster version .45A, I’d love to try out the new 2nd Ed. ruleset.  I started converting the Daring Tales of Adventure modules into the .45A system last year, even, but I stopped while waiting for the 2nd Ed. that I have yet to pick up. We’ll see what I do with this, or if it’ll have to wait until 2013.

Leviathans This one’s easy: I’m in!  Game looks great, sweet theme, and potential for awesome models.  Everything I could ask for.  Plus, I don’t need to paint them!  Done!  I’m guaranteed to get the core set.  From there, we’ll see if I’ll get any more into it than that.

Napoleonics Recently I’ve found a love for Napoleonics on the tabletop.  While starting my C&C Ancients in 3D! project I got into looking at C&C Napoleonics, and immediately I thought it would be awesomesauce to do the same 3Difying for it.  Well, I still might down the road, but then I also thought about regular tabletop Napoleonics.  So when Warhammer Historical had their sale, I picked up, among two others, the Napoleonic Wars ruleset.  And now Field of Glory is coming out with one!  Yeesh!  So maybe 2013 might be the year of Napoleonic gaming, in different ways and scales?  Hrm.

Keep It Low Key I tend to have this ‘go big or go home’ mentality when it comes to gaming.  I’m a collector, an expansion wh*re, and a dreamer.  These things do not go well together.  This is why I have 3 1/2 unfinished WFB armies!  What I need to do is stick to small amounts of purchases, at least until I know I like the game enough and will play it enough to warrant expanding.  This should apply to all of the above games, to be honest.  I need to buy small, play small, and go from there.  Starter sets are double-edged swords sometimes: you get just enough to whet your appetite, but you also get some stuff you don’t care for, and need to replace it with the good stuff.  Let’s look at Noble Armada starters for instance.  It has a slew of models, with a good range from Fighters on up to Light Carriers (or Destroyers), but it lacks the Big Guns.  For me, I don’t care for all those Fighters, so they’re going to stay unpainted until last, while I would have loved a Cruiser for real firepower.  Anyway…I need to stay away from that ‘go big or go home’ mentality from here on in.

Well, I think that’s all for now.  I’m sure there are some I’ve forgotten, but I can add them in later.  I’ll probably have a quick re-look at this when the new year starts and try and give a timeline for various projects.  2011 has been semi-productive (relative to what I’ve bought), but did see a good amount of miniatures gaming.  Let’s hope 2012 is more productive and sees even more gaming!

For now, thanks for reading.

Miniature Temptations – An Intro

So, I’ve already admitted that I have Gamer Distraction Syndrome.  I’m a gaming butterfly.  I’m a Libra.  I’m on TGN too much.  Etc, etc, and other excuses why I go from game to game.

I have a problem, and it manifests itself in the piles and piles of metal, plastic and resin miniatures that you can find on shelves, in boxes and even strewn across the floor around my room.  I think my wife shudders everytime she passes by.

Anyway, I do have some will power when it comes to buying into new systems, though.  Not much, but some.  And so this new ‘series’ of posts, Miniature Temptations, is where I’m going to discuss some of the games that have caught my attention.  Things like Flames of War, Dystopian Wars, Hell Dorado, etc.  I’ll talk about why I like them, why I want to play them, as well as what’s stopping me from putting hundreds of hard-earned cash into them. 

I should probably also list the games that I have bought into.  I’ll have to come up with another name for that series.  Miniature Bankrupters, maybe?

Anyway, look for these posts in the near future.  If I can tear myself away from the piles of unfinished stuff I’m working on, off and on.

Thanks!

Justin

Okay…so now what?

Well, after playing a 1500pt Empire vs. Tomb Kings game tonight with Andrew, we sort of co-decided that it is soon time to shelve our various Warhammer Fantasy armies, give the game a rest, move on to something new, and come back to it in the future.  Probably some time next year or so.

Actually, we had sort of decided this previously, but today’s game helped us figure that the timing of this hiatus is going to come sooner rather than later.

Now, don’t get us wrong, the game is fun.  I came to 8th Edition as a n00b, and enjoyed it right off the bat.  But, for me, I’ve run into a few problems.

• The game is big.  This isn’t a bad thing in itself, and in fact seeing a 6×4 table filled with terrain and cool armies is awesome.  But that’s A LOT of painting.  Technically half of this hobby is painting.  And for me, who likes to play more than paint, half can be a little too much sometimes.  Even with the Tale of Gamers I’ve been taking part in (or in spite of, or becuase of, I’m not exactly sure), my early fervor dwindled quickly as the amount of models I had to buy, build and paint became daunting.  Which relates to two more problems…
• In order to play fun games of WHFB I have found that you AT LEAST need to be playing 1000pts.  And even then, I long to play more.  1500 is a good number.  2000 becomes quite enjoyable.  And yet to play at these numbers, you need A LOT of models.  And that requires a lot of time, and patience, and money.  And time.  And patience.  And money.
• Also, my early excitement not-so-slowly turns into relative boredom.  Or at least complacency.  How does it go? “Familiarity breeds contempt”?  I’ve got Gamer Distraction Syndrome.   You know, what many people call Gamer ADD.  I like shiney stuff.  Not just in this hobby, but in real life.   Like I attempted to explain it in a previous post, maybe it’s because I’m Libra?  Maybe it’s because of a lot of things.  But in the end, the fact that I have three Warhammer armies, none of them finished, is no surprise to me.  It seems to be my M.O. to start, and not finish, one or more armies/projects/games/whatever.  I have two started-but-unfinished Warmachine armies from back when we were playing that.  I have five Malifaux crews, with only two of them being NEARLY finished.  I was so proud of myself back then, almost finishing stuff.  And now I was under the impression that of my Warhammer armies, my Empire army would be the One to be completed.  But, as our Tale went on, I got discouraged and distracted.  Discouraged because at times it seemed like I was the only one taking part.  Of course that’s not an excuse, but to my irrational reasoning, it makes all the sense in the world.  And I got distracted by other games (see below).

Anyway, so what does this all come down to?  Well, after a year of Warhammer, it’s time for a little break.  I’ve got a couple of little upright storage units whose slidey-bin-thingies should be big enough to hold my Warhammer armies, one army in each.  Perfect.  This gets it out of the way (but what am I going to do with all that Heroscape stuff that’s currently in the bins?!  Again, see below), but close enough for whenever I feel the need, or am asked, to bring it out again.  I’m even considering making sure everything is built and having the armies kept at Meeplemart, the FLGS that I play/shop at regularly, as in-store armies to be used by patrons.  At least that really gets it out of the way at my place.  That should make my wife happy.

Which brings up the meat of this ramble, er, post (Ooh, I never used that strikethrough..that’s fun):  What’s next?

1) Well, I recently got re-interested in WarmaHordes.  Again, we used to play.  I ran Rhulics and Pirates.  I like the game.  I wasn’t good at it.  But I like it.  I love the models, the theme, etc. etc.  I picked up a Cygnar Firefly to test out colours for a Nemo-led Lightning-themed force.  “Got Lightning?” I might call it.  I had always wanted to do it, and then they announced the Storm Strider, and I knew it would have to become a reality.  So the other day I sat down and painted the Firefly, and after some finishing touches I’ll share it with the world.  Will I go through with this plan?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  Depending on what else I get into, I might pick up a model every once in a while and slowly work on Got Lightning? (now to be referred to as “GL?”, for no reason other than it’s silly).  I’m also eyeing the Gator Minions of the Blindwater Congregation, and the Constructs of the Circle of Orboros faction (i.e. “Sticks & Stones”…”S&S”).

2) Alkemy.  Now that you can find the sets for this game at very low prices, I’m considering picking up the cats, the faction I’ve always eyed.  I do a lot of eyeing, it seems.  Friggin’ Gamer Distraction Syndrome.  I need a t-shirt that reads, “Distracted Gamer.”  Anyway, it’s perfectly formulated for slow-grow.  I may buy the cats and the Jade Triad, to have two armies (like my friend Les tends to do), in case I have an opponent that doesn’t have an army.   But then I’ll have a lot of models to paint.  And I’ll get into the same old rut.  Yeesh.

3) Battleground: Fantasy Warfare.  I bought some decks years ago, when the game was new.  I loved the “miniatures game without the minis” aspect, as this was before I began the hobby aspect of gaming.  Might need to bring it back out and see if it can scratch the itch that shelving Warhammer will leave behind.

4) Arcane Legions.  Both Les and Andrew have this.  It’s a) something that is already owned, b) does not requires painting, and c) is similar to WHFB.  Like B:FW, it could work as a light replacement.

5) Heroscape.  Nothing similar, other than minis and dice-rolling.  But I’ve got a bunch of it, and it could work.

6) Countless other games I own.  I was going to list games that I’ve started and could come back to, or game systems or whatever.  But there are too many.  Too many, too many.

Too many, and it’s near midnight and I’m tired.  So I’m going to leave saying that, with all of the potentials and possibilities out there (one day I will sit down and list them all properly), one thing I am DEFINITELY doing in the new year (beginning January 1st, if able), is miniature-izing a GMT C&C game, either C&C: Ancients, or Napoleonics.  Or both.  But that’s a project that I will touch on more as the end of this year comes and goes.

Until then, hopefully I’ll have more to post that’s not just ramble-blambles like this was. 

Thanks for reading,

Justin

TGN and Gamer Distraction Syndrome

I can’t exactly say how many times a day I check TGN and the TGN Blog Network, but I’m going to say half-a-dozen or more sounds about right. 

Which really dangerous, since I openly admit to having Gamer Distraction Syndrome.  I used to call this Gamer ADD, but after reading a quick little update on Zac’s Gaming Blog, I’ve decided to start using his term, GDS, from now on.

And why is this so pertinent right now?  Well, even though I am in the middle of a WHFB Tale of Gamers challenge, I…

• purchased the $10 Wargods of Aegyptus rules from Crocodile Games
• have planned a Nemo-led, lightning-themed Cygnar force for Warmachine
• have gotten very interested in a Gator force for Hordes
• decided to pick up Hotz ArtWorks’ Command Gaming Mat so I can 3D-ify C&C: Ancients (finally)
• am eager to get into Heavy Gear Blitz as our mech game of choice
• have distracted myself with numerous other gaming goodies

And this is why TGN is both the boon and bane of gamers like me.  If not for their efforts I would not know about most of the comings and goings of the hobby world…which may be a good thing, considering my GDS!

But I, like many, will help support them in their fundraiser to help thank them for all of their good work!

 

p.s.  Don’t forget to check out our Tale of Gamers blog at http://taleofgamers.wordpress.com.

Bah! No Gaming = No Fun!

So this past Tuesday ended a 6-week string of Warhammer Fantasy games.  So sad!

Instead of playing we sat down and worked on our armies, in one way or another, for our Tale of Gamers challenge, which you can follow at taleofgamers.wordpress.com.  To be honest, I would have rather spent the evening playing a game, but getting my Empire Swordsmen together, and a few other units clipped, was great.  Now they’re ready to be based, primed and painted.

In fact, I think I’m going to go work on them right now…