Busy Me

I needed to take this picture and make this post to make myself feel better. I was thinking that I didn't have much to show for my summer holidays. Now that school has started again and life is extremely busy, I wanted to feel that I hadn't frittered my summer away. So, I gathered all of the minis that I had built and the few that I had painted together for a photo op. Now that I see them all together, I can see that I built a lot of models this summer. I only painted eight spearmen, but now I have lots to paint over the coming winter months.

I've made a commitment to myself that I will spend an average of an hour a day on hobby this winter. Since I work one night a week and on Saturdays I'll have to make up for those times on other nights. It will be tough when hockey starts (both playing and watching), but I think I can do it. I have been puttering away on my High Elf army for two years now and I'm committed to finally finishing them.

Hopefully, there will be lots of posts to fill you in on my hobby successes in the coming weeks.

On a Roll

I tweeted last night to @FBRoundup that I would put some of my hobby doings on the blog tonight.  So here it is.

I've been on a bit of a roll lately.  I bought a load of Warmachine stuff and decided to roll through it and build it all, then prime it so that I can paint it whenever the mood strikes. With school starting soon and working a second job, time will be scarce and I want to be able to jump into painting whenever I feel like it.

With the help of a YouTube tutorial, I magnetized my PoM heavy warjack kit.  Now I can use the beast as either a Templar or Vanquisher depending on my list.  I didn't bother magnetizing the Crusader parts, because I already own a Crusader and can't foresee needing two of the things in one list.

Templar

 

Vanquisher

I put some big magnets in the shoulder sockets.  I had to use a full sized 1/4" drill bit for this.  I didn't trust my full sized drill, so I did it by hand and have the chewed up fingers to prove it.

I didn't have enough magnets, so I cut out some pieces of sheet metal and green stuffed/glued them onto the ends of the arms.  It's way cheaper and it seems to work as well on a model of this size.

Finally, I put some smaller magnets in the end of the arm and the weapons.

It didn't actually take that long and I'm pretty happy with the results.  I just need to figure out how to paint the smaller bits that won't be on the model when I prime it.  I'm thinking about white gluing a magnet on the end of a piece of dowel and sticking the pieces on there to spray and paint.  I'll let you know how that works out.

I also built a Reckoner last night.  This model is super heavy.  It's like one solid piece of metal.  It's also one of the least inspiring models I've had the dubious pleasure to build.  The model is not very posable.  Aesthetically the model is just a stumpy little spud that really doesn't get my juices flowing to paint it.  However, if you can use that beat stick effectively, he will earn a place on the painting docket.

I also built some Bastions and was experimenting with some homemade desert bases.  More on that in a future post. 

Meanwhile, Back At The Ranch

It's been a while since I posted, but I've been pretty busy the past couple of weeks.  I know teachers are supposed to have all sorts of time in the summer and that's usually true for me too.  However, this summer I foolishly went and got myself a summer job for the month of August.  So, I've been training and working lots of hours the last couple of weeks.  I found that my house was eating all of my money and not leaving very much for my hobby and my fun, so I had to do something about it, hence the job. 

I managed to finally finish painting the Man Cave and getting the Fathead decal up on the wall.  I'm pretty stoked about how it looks.  I shampooed the carpet yesterday to try and get the previous owner's pet smell out of it.  Early indications are smelling good.  Now I have to move my table back in and get comfy.  I still have a few decorations coming in the mail and I am on the hunt for some more furniture to finish off the room, but it's moving forward at least.

In between working on the house and working at my new job, I did managed to paint up eight more spearmen.  Spearmen were the first fantasy models I ever painted.  I painted 20 of them for my army when I started two years ago in 7th edition.  That was enough back then, but now in 8th edition, I find I need a whole lot more, especially when playing larger point games.  So, I bought two boxes of the little bastards.  I have built one box and now painted half of them.  I guess that means only 16 to build and 24 to paint.  Oh, God.  I don't know why, but I hate painting these models.  It is going to be a struggle to get the little blighters done.

Since I now have a job, I felt I owed it to myself to do a little internet shopping.  I have been aggressively expanding my Warmachine Protectorate of Menoth force.  However, with work and the house, I really haven't had time to build or paint any of it.  I did start working on the Bastions the other night, so hopefully I'll have some WIP pictures for you very soon.

My Discovery of the Day

I believe I found this site through Twitter, but I can't remember exactly.  I followed a link and ended up on the Painted Legions website.  This is a site for commissioned miniature painting, but also includes a fair set of painting, modelling and basing tutorials.  There is not a huge number of them yet, but hopefully, they will continue to build their library.

The tutorials that are there are pretty good and detailed enough to be able to follow yourself.  I recommend giving it a look.

Oh, and their logo looks like the Ottawa Senators logo.  If you're a hockey fan you'll see it right away.

Games Workshop Annual Report

I spent some time this morning looking through the Games Workshop Annual Report.  Now, I do not profess to be an accountant or business guru.  I can simply read and make inferences.  I'd like to jot down a few of the things that jumped out for me upon a first read of the report.

Sales and Profits are Down

Total sales for GW were down nearly 3% from last year.  Most notable were Australia (down 11.8%), UK (down 6.3%) and North America (down 4.8%).  It appears that the rage quit in Australia has really taken its toll on GW sales in that continent.  I'm sure the massive sales that were being done by UK online retailers did not help their numbers down under either.  We may be looking at one of the main reasons for GW changing its terms of trade for UK online retailers.  I speculate that a combination of competition and the poor economic climate in North America (especially the US) led to those sales drops.

GW is still profitable.  Through cost cutting and streamlining their business GW profits only slipped slightly.  GW still made a pre-tax profit of 15.4 million pounds (just over $25 million USD).  GW is not a huge operation by any means.

Focus on Hobby Centres

A large part of the CEO's Commentary focused on Hobby Centres.  GW has introduced systems and programs to improve manager recruitment and performance at their Hobby Centres around the world.  GW wants to make the Hobby Centres the place where they grow their business.  The CEO states that most people find out about the hobby through word of mouth and they want to push the process with their Hobby Centres. Customer service is also a push for all Hobby Centres.

Oh, and GW has discovered Facebook.  All Hobby Centres will get their own Facebook page so they can better communicate with the local gaming community regarding events, etc.  Better late than never I guess.

Finecast

Finecast was a big move for the company.  The CEO's Report contained nearly a full page on Finecast.  GW felt that with metal, "the optimum level of quality with that material has now been achieved."  So, a combination of higher quality (in detail and sculpts), the inexorable rise in commodity prices, and their experiences with Forge World, led to the change to Finecast.  The process was two years in the making.  GW claims a 97% quality rate in the changeover.  I have no idea what standard they were using to measure "quality".  

In short, this was a major initiative for the company and consumed major resources.

Warhammer Fantasy

The previous edition of Warhammer was under performing in sales, especially compared to 40K.  GW was not getting a good enough return on the investment in product development in the Fantasy system.  This may explain the slow pace of army book releases and new miniatures during 7th.  Fantasy wasn't paying its way!  The launch of 8th edition was meant to redress the balance between 40K and Fantasy.  The CEO states that GW will "continue their support for this revitalised game system".

Well, that's what I noticed.  Let's face it, a teacher on summer vacation has too much time on his hands.

Warmachine Crowd Sourcing

I just finished a minimum unit of Exemplar Errants for my budding PoM force.  The Errants are the first thing I have painted outside of the battle box.  I am going to be looking for bigger battles in the near future as the little battle box games have run their course.  I'm ready to learn how units work and interact with other models on the board.

That's where the crowd sourcing comes in.  I have very limited experience with Warmachine in general and PoM in particular.  I'm going to list what I have and have anyone that actually reads this blog let me know if there is anything absolutely essential that I don't have yet. I've just been buying stuff willy nilly off of eBay. I'd kind of like to focus my spending on what I need. 

I am planning on sticking with pKreoss for a little while longer until I've got him figured out, then I'll probably get into the eFeora that I picked up.  I have a fairly aggressive play style.  I am also a read and react kind of player rather than mapping out everything turns in advance.

Current Holdings:

Casters
pKreoss
eFeora

Jacks
Avatar of Menoth
Crusader
Crusader/Vanquisher/Templar (magnetized heavy jack kit)
Repenter
Revenger

Units
Exemplar Errants - max unit

Solos
Exemplar Errant Senechal
Vassal
Vassal Mechanik


Lost in Postal Limbo
Choir of Menoth
Exemplar Errant UA

Well, drop me a comment if you can offer me some guidance.

WHFB 8th Edition: One Year Later

I was sitting around listening to HeelanHammer's retrospective on the first year of 8th edition last night.  It made me think of that time last year when I was watching the Beasts of War videos and my mailbox for the new rule book.  Then, I was stuck waiting for the club to start up in the fall in order to get a game in.  Meanwhile, Australia had decided to rage quit before I had even played the darned thing.

As I've mentioned before, I am not a long time Warhammer player.  I was actually one of those people that walked by the Games Workshop store and sneered at the "nerds" hunched over their painting inside.  It wasn't until almost two years ago that I embraced my inner nerd and took Warhammer out for a spin.  Mike, otherwise known as FBRoundup, lent me the first Horus Heresy book and I dug the story.  I dabbled in 40K for a small game or two, but the aesthetics of the game didn't appeal to me.  Mike is a missionary on a mission to convert the world to WHFB, and he pointed me in that direction.  I loved the minis and picked the High Elves and am still painting that damned army to this day.

While I loved the minis, I must say that I hated playing 7th edition.  The fiddly mechanics and the byzantine movement/charging rules gave me a headache when I played.  I reluctantly played when Mike asked.  I much preferred to stay at home and paint the minis.  I predict that if 8th edition had been in the same vein as 7th, I would be playing Warmachine/Hordes now instead.

I love the flow of 8th edition.  I love the more intuitive way the rules work.  Much as Dan Heelan said, the rules generally make sense if one puts some common sense toward it.  Of course it has it's problems.  No rules set survives being played unscathed.  But generally, I picked up the rules and nuances of 8th much faster than I ever did 7th.

I also like the fact that due to magic or a giant melee, the game's momentum can swing wildly during the course of a game.  A player is rarely out of the game until the very end.  I also like the magic phase and how it can lead to those wild swings of momentum.  I like the fact that the game has gone from preplanning your phases and an emphasis on estimating distances to risk management and adaptation to a given situation.

I find that to play 8th, you need to take the whole thing with a pinch of salt.  There is always the possibility that you will be Dwellered/Purple Sunned/etc. in the first turn and you just have to laugh it off and realize that as in real life, bad things happen to good people sometimes.

In conclusion, I am very, very pleased with 8th edition and credit it with keeping me in the hobby and playing the game far more often.  To those rage quiters, change is hard, but usually worth it in the end.

2500 pts High Elves vs. Skaven

This battle actually occurred a week ago.  I  am sometimes a little lax on the blog update thing.  I'll do my best to remember what exactly happened.

 This was only my second time playing Skaven.  Our local Skaven player doesn't play often and doesn't run any of the filth, so this was going to be a learning experience.  I was warned ahead of time that Ken was bringing a hard list and I warned him that I wanted to try out my dragon for the first time.  I knew that taking a dragon would not be an ideal choice due to the inevitable warp lightning cannon, but I really wanted to put that bad boy to work.

Lists:

Skaven:
Warlord on Bone Breaker, Warlock enhanced weapon, Talisman of Preservation
Greyseer, Warpstone Tokens, Power Stones
Plague Furnace, Plague Priest, Dispell Scroll
28 Plague Monks, Full Command, Plague Banner
Chieftan x2
30 Stormvermin, Full Command
50 Clan Rats, Full Command
25 Clan Rats, Full Command
40 Slaves, Musician
4 Rat Ogres
Warp Lightining Cannon
Hell Pit Abomination
Doomwheel

High Elves:
Prince, Moon Dragon, Enchanted Shield, Vambraces of Defence, Crown of Command
Noble, BSB, Banner of the World Dragon
Mage, Level 2, Sigil of Asuryan, Lore of Death
Mage, Level 2, Silver Wand, Opel Amulet, Ironcurse Icon
20 Archers, Musician
20 Archers, Musician
21 Spearmen, Musician, Banner
21 Spearmen, Musician, Banner
Great Eagle x2
21 Swordmasters of Hoeth, Musician, Banner, Banner of Sorcery
5 Dragon Princes, Musician, Banner
Bolt Thrower

Ken deployed in a pretty spread out manner, which suited me just fine.  Also, he placed the furnace on the far flank.  If he had placed it centrally, I would have had a world of trouble dealing with it.

I deployed centrally and tried to keep my force fairly tightly together.  I have found in the past that I spread out too much and even with the great movement of the elves, I leave a few units hanging in the wind.  Also, we have mostly been playing 1500 point games at the club due to time constraints and it was difficult placing so many units and not blocking myself in. 

Ken got first turn and promptly cast Warp Storm, I think it's called.  It is the spell that grounds flyers and gives a -1 to shooting.  This threw a spanner in the works for me.  I found that I had two eagles that were deployed in front of other units that could only move 2".  This created a terrible bottleneck and left me basically sitting around for a turn.  The dragon was pooched as well, because he couldn't get out from behind the troops in front of him. I really wanted to get him into the A-bomb.  Ken shot at the Swordmasters and pulled a rank off of them.


My turn one was uneventful.  My magic was either ineffective or dispelled and my shooting did nothing to speak of.

Turn two saw my Swordmasters get into the unit of slaves and wreck them.  The slaves did nothing back and even with steadfast blew up in my face, luckily not doing too much damage to the squishy elves.  The A-bomb got within a couple of inches of a unit of spearmen, so I charged it to save the impact hits.  The dirty little elves actually did a wound on the ugly beastie and the A-bomb squished a fair few elves, but they were left with a couple of ranks so were steadfast and held.  The dragon got in behind the A-bomb for a charge next turn.

Lucky for me, Ken's magic didn't do much this turn and he used the cannon to shoot at my bolt thrower instead of the dragon.  In retrospect, I'm sure he would do that differently if he could do it over.  In my magic phase I got spirit leach off on the chieftan in the unit of Stormvermin and killed him dead.   Shooting again did nothing.

Turn three saw the Dreaded 13 spell make an appearance.  Ken cast the spell on my unit of arches that my fire mage and fled to.  The spell went off irresistibly and turned the whole batch into Clan Rats.  I was very "disappointed" at this point.  Ken also got the doomwheel into the flank of the dragon before he could charge the A-bomb.  His cannon again targeted the bolt thrower and did nothing.

The Swordmasters charged the Stormvermin and after seeing the beat down on the slaves, Ken chose to flee, while I restrained.  The doomwheel did a wound to both the rider and dragon, but misfired and couldn't get a good lick on the unit.  The elf did nothing to the wheel, but the dragon smashed it flat.  Amazingly, the spearmen held out for another turn and did another two wounds!  They also had a rank left so were still steadfast and held even after the beating they were taking.  In the magic phase, Spirit Leech took out the Plague Priest on the furnace.

Turn four saw the A-bomb finally finish off the pesky spearmen and turn to face the dragon.  The Rat Ogres charged the remaining unit of spearmen.  Their hero challenged the mage and she wisely went to the back where she wouldn't be dead.  The spearmen put the hurt on the Rat Ogres and made them run away.  The Stormvermin just kept running.  The clan rats only managed to take a wound off of the eagle and it stuck around.

Magic for me did nothing this turn as Spirit Leech was dispelled and I didn't feel like blowing my last mage up, so didn't force the issue.  The died, but had eagle held up the big unit of Clan Rats so the Swordmasters could get the charge in.  The Swordmasters took a big chunk out of the Clan Rats with minimal losses in return.  The Clan Rats were steadfast, however.  The dragon finished off the job the spearmen had started and killed the A-bomb after taking another two wounds.  Shooting again does nothing.

Turn five saw the Stormvermin run off the table without ever seeing combat.  The Clan rats took another sh*t kicking from the Swordmasters, and after a good leadership roll and subsequent reform,  were still steadfast, but not by much.  During the magic phase, the Dreaded 13th struck again.  Ken rolled a mitt full of dice including those gained from a warp stone.  He rolled five sixes!  My unit of spearmen were devastated, but not removed.  My caster survived to fight on.  Ken rolled poorly for his miscast and ended up smashing most of the rest of the Clan Rat hoard and a bunch of the Greyseer's unit.  The Greyseer rolled over 3 and lived to fight on as well.  The Rat Ogres rallied and turned to face the Dragon Princes that had been shadow boxing with the furnace all game.

In my turn, the Dragon Princes charged the Rat Ogre unit and did well, but alas, I couldn't pass an armour save to spar my life and lost three models.  The Swordmasters cleared out the remaining Clan Rats from the hoard, and the dragon charged the Greyseer's unit.  However, the furnace was trundling toward that combat.  The mage and her few spearmen swift reformed to face the furnace.  I cast five dice at Purple Sun and got it off irresistibly.  The sun went through the furnace and a bunch of the Plague Monks.  We were unsure how to handle the furnace's test for the Purple Sun.  After consulting the rules, we decided to use the stats of the crew.  If we did this wrong, I'd love to hear how it should be done for next time.  Anyway, the furnace went poof and so did a chunk of the monks.

We called the game after the end of turn five due to lateness and that fact that it was mostly a cleanup operation after that.  This was a very fun game with the momentum swinging widely several times throughout the game (as often happens in 8th).  I know Ken and I made lots of tactical errors, but that's all part of the learning curve.

Storm of Magic and Wrath

The past few weeks have seen a couple of new books have been released for two of the more popular wargames which just happen to be the two wargames I play.

Storm of Magic

First, Games Workshop released Storm of Magic.  I've read about this expansion in White Dwarf, heard about it on various podcasts and have actually taken a look at the book.  The book itself is very nice.  There are lots of colour illustrations and the physical construction of the book is very clever.  The cover opens up just to the right of the spine in order to show off the nifty spinner on the inside cover.

From what I've read the rules for Storm of Magic sound interesting enough.  Lots of monsters and crazy amounts of magic brought to bear in order to capture and keep arcane fulcrums.  But, here's my problem.  The book is just shy of $60.  It's not a very big book and the rules only take up maybe 20-30 pages.  The rest of the book is filled with "scrolls of binding".  So, essentially the book beyond the first quarter of pages is a giant bestiary.  $60 is a lot of my hobby money to spend on some fancy pictures of monsters and their stat lines.

My second problem with SoM is the fact that the game is centred around massive monsters.  While this may seem great, I am relatively new to the hobby and to play this game would necessitate purchasing several relatively expensive monster models that I would only use to play SoM.  What happens (as I expect it will) when after the initial buzz wears off, people don't really want to play SoM very much anymore?  I am left with a bunch of monsters sitting on my shelf.  Frankly, I'm not that impressed with the monsters so far and can't see myself buying them just for the pleasure of painting them.

At this point, I think I'll be giving SoM a pass.  The think is, I don't play Warhammer enough to need a different variant.  I play a maximum of once a week and regular Warhammer is fine to fill that few hours.  I wish they would just get back to publishing army books in a timely manner.

 Wrath

 Wrath is the supplement/expansion for Warmachine.  I'll be honest when I say that I'm not sure how this thing works.  I am very new to Warmachine and I'm not sure what the point of the new book is.  I've been told that Wrath doesn't contain any new rules, but merely new fiction and models and their stats.  I've explained in an earlier post that fluff doesn't really float my boat.  So, I wonder if I need to spend the $31.50 for a bunch of stories that I may or may not read.  That's three ebooks that in my opinion are almost guaranteed to have better writing and stories than a game manual.  It would be great to be able to check out the stats of the new models for my faction and the other factions as well.  But, that's a lot of money for that peek.


In short, I'm undecided on Wrath.  Unfortunately, I was not able to have a look at it at my "local" hobby shop that stocks Privateer Press ("local" is two hours away).  Hopefully, a local player that has more money to spend on hobby than I do will pick it up and I can get a good look at it before I make my decision.

Menoth vs. Cryx

I had another battle box game last night at the club.  It's been a while since I've played Warmachine, so it took a while to get back into the rhythm of the game.  We both have been playing WHFB for the last month or so and we both wanted to move all of our models and then shoot and then fight. We also had to keep reminding each other that pre-measuring was not cool.

Mike decided to try and see how his little devils would do on the flanks.  Against this I kept my 'jacks in a fairly small group in the centre of the field.  During the course of the game, we both learned that you have to be careful when putting your 'jacks out on the flank.  Warjacks don't do too much if you can't put focus on them.  It's also easy to over extend yourself.

Mike managed to do some minor damage on my Crusader before the big fella smashed the little devil (I don't know what they're called) to pieces in one turn.  His heavy then made a combo attack on my Revenger and toasted him when he rolled triple sixes for damage.  I could say that I sacrificed the 'jack for strategic reasons, but at best it was a murky plan in my head.  With the heavy occupied and the two little devils out on the flanks I popped my feat and then shot up the middle and behind him with my Repenter and set Denny on fire.  I will admit that I rolled well for damage and I almost toasted her that turn.  Then when the next turn started the fire got Denny for sure.

It was another learning experience.  My willingness to run up the middle and force the play left Mike's light 'jacks out of position and forced him to react.  I'm not usually that type of player, but I thought I'd take a sip of the page 5 Kool Aid.

If Canada Post can ever find my Choir of Menoth then I can start to play some bigger games.  Hopefully, the next report will be of one of those games.

Hobby Room Makeover

When we moved into this house last year, there was a lot going on.  Jen was recovering from her horse riding accident, the bathroom floor needed to be ripped out and replaced down to the subfloor immediately, lots of painting, the usual unpacking and an invasion of in-laws.  With all of that going on, my man cave stayed just the way it was.  I moved in and really didn't do anything to it for the past year.  I haven't hung anything on the wall put in any new furniture. 

Well, all of that changed yesterday.  My first (of many) projects during summer vacation is to give the man cave a face lift.  I moved everything out and painted it white.  It sounds lame, but I have a vision.  I just hope I have the skill and patience to  make it happen.  I'm looking into some new furniture and some interesting fixtures to add to the cave.  I'll update as the project progresses.  Unless it looks like hell, in which case you'll never hear another word about it again.

It's Hobby Time!

Well, my in-laws have returned home and school is done for another year.  That means that it's finally hobby time again.  I had to take a bit of a hiatus based on the two aforementioned events.  Now I'm going to be painting and the man cave this weekend and actually trying to make it look like my room instead of a spare room under the stairs.

Look forward to more frequent future posts, now that the storm has passed.

Doubles Tournament

I went to a WHFB doubles tournament in Grande Prairie this past weekend.  When Mike and I were deciding what armies to take we ran into a problem.  The tournament followed the alliance rules in the Warhammer rule book.  Mike only plays bad guy armies and I only have the High Elves.  What to do.  Luckily, Mike had picked up around 1000 points of Vampire Counts a month or two ago from a guy who was getting out of the hobby.  I have never played VC before, but I was willing to give it a go. 

The tournament was 2000 point armies with each player taking a minimum of 990 points with 10 points that you could swing to one army or the other.  We played three games on the Saturday.  Our list was:

Vampire Counts	Points
31- Ghouls, with Ghast	256
24 - Skeletons, with full command	212
21 - Grave guard, with full command, Banner of the Barrows (45)	327
Vampire Count, Summmon Ghouls (15), Dark Acolyte (30), Black Periapt (15), Helm of Commandment (30) charmed shield (5)	195
Total	990

Warriors of Chaos	Points
18 - Warriors of Chaos, Standard and musician, flaming banner (10)	334
5 - Hounds of Chaos	30
5 - Hounds of Chaos	30
5 - Chaos Knights, musician	210
5 - Chaos Knights, musician	210
Chaos Sorcerer: Chaos Steed (16), Extra level (35) Infernal Puppet (35), Third Eye of Tzc (25), Lore of Fire	196
Total	1,010

Game One

Our first game was against Dark Elves and Vampire Counts.  Things looked grim early on as the scenario gave all casters access to the base spell from the Lore of Metal.  One unit of knights was removed on the first turn.  Luckily, the Corsairs ran and didn't rally until the last round, so we didn't have to deal with them.

The ghouls were engaged with Grave Guard and our GG was engaged with their ghouls.  Things were a bit of a standstill until some poor rolling on the opponent VC player's part resulted in the vampire being killed by the ghouls.  After that our GG chewed through their ghouls and flank charged their GG as the remaining knights got them in the rear.

The game came down to a combat between the unit of skeletons against a unit of Witch Elves and Shades.  The elves killed all but one skeleton.  The points of that skelly unit would have changed our narrow victory to a draw.

Game Two
Having won one more game than we thought we would, we felt we were playing with house money.  We came up against VC and Warriors of Chaos.  Their list had a vampire lord, a large unit of ten trolls and 30 or 40 chaos marauders.

Again, we got lucky.  The vampire lord miscast three times in the first three turns and blew himself up.  The large unit of marauders was drawn off to a flank by the dogs and knights which basically left a scary unit of trolls.  We had set up a pretty good trap of warriors, GG and ghouls for the trolls when we ran out of time.  We had another small victory.

Game Three
The final game of the day was against an Empire/Tomb Kings army.  It was interesting as it was our first experience against the new Tomb Kings.  Unfortunately, we ended up with the Battle for the Pass scenario against a gunline army.  We also didn't roll for Vanhels.  It was a long way for those undead to get across that table.  Also, the team were a couple and the female part of the team was very new to the game and this slowed it down even more.

We benefited from the other team's bad luck again.  The TK catapult misfired on turn two and couldn't shoot.  That gave some knights time to smash it.  Also, two of the Empire's three mortars blew up in the first three turns.  Lastly, the TK level four wizard miscast and we used the Infernal Puppet to make the miscast go to the big boom.  Bye. bye wizard.

From there it was just a matter of getting across the table.  But they were so slow that we ran out of time just as we were getting to the meat of their army.  We only got four turns in before time was called.  I don't think it would have made a big difference in the grand scheme of things, but disappointing all the same.

Conclusion
I think we finished somewhere around third or fourth at the tournament.  Not bad for my first time playing VC and us not expecting to win anything.  Our goal was actually to win best sports, but we won some games instead.  We actually won best painted.  I felt bad because I had only based a bunch of the models.  The kudos actually go to Mike.

So my first tournament in over a year and only my second tournament ever went very well and I'll be looking forward to more in the fall.

The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man's Fear

 

I read both of these books back to back, so thought it would be easiest to write my thoughts on them together.  Let's start off by saying that I really liked both of these books.  I would have to in order to read to large tomes like these back to back.  I'm not sure I love them as much as some people do.  They are not the best books I've ever read, but they are definitely in the upper echelons.

The first thing I liked about these books is the form of the story or rather stories.  The book is written as an infamous man named Kvothe telling his life story to others.  However, there are interludes to his retelling in which another story is unfolding very slowly.  The reader only gets little glimpses of what is going on while the main character tells his story.  We only vaguely know why the main character is so famous and his story is so sought.

The other thing about these books that sets them apart from so much of the average literature out there is the depth and scope of the world Patrick Rothfuss has created.  Rothfuss' world seems real in the sense that there are legends and history.  All of the nations of the world have histories as well as stories from long ago that may be true, false or a little bit of both.  To me, this is where most fantasy novels fall down.  If the world is deep enough, you can become immersed in it and lose yourself for hours, days or weeks.  In Rothfuss' world, there always seems to be more to learn about it and that which is unsaid and unknowable.

The last thing I would like to comment on is the characters.  The characters are very well developed and none of them is cookie cutter.  Yes, you have the hero and the villain and the side-kicks, but they are not cliche while fulfilling these literary roles.  It is a good sign when you give a crap what happens to the characters in a story.

One thing I did not like about the books is the amount of time spent on some areas of the story.  An inordinate amount of time seemed to be spent with Kvothe at the University.  There were many experiences and adventures that seemed pointless and really not leading anywhere.  I was really looking forward to something different by the time the setting changed away from the University part way through the second book.  I will admit that the series isn't over and so maybe all those experiences at the University will fit into the bigger picture by the end.

So, I would definitely recommend these books to anyone who likes a well written fantasy story that will immerse you in the experience for a few weeks.  I would not recommend these books to anyone who is a slow reader or cannot stick with a book for very long.

New Toys

Yay!  I got some new toys for my PoM army.  I'm looking to get past the piddly little battle box games I've been having.  They are great for familiarizing yourself with the basic rules, but they become very boring very quick.  Now, I have to put this stuff together.  Painting will be some time in the future.  I'm a little ticked that I had already started painting my three remaining Errant Exemplars when these other four guys showed up.  I could have had them all done together.

Now I  have 8 Errant Exemplars and a Leader, a Vassal and another Heavy Jack.  I think I'll magnetize the jack so I can get maximum usage out of it.  I'm just waiting for my package from Miniature Market with my Choir and the unit attachment for the Exemplars.  I should have a tidy little force going on then.  However, I have no idea where to go from there.  Maybe a different caster to play with...

Star Wars: Old Republic

This trailer is fantastic.  How can you beat a mix of Indiana Jones and Star Wars?

A Reasoned Response to Games Workshop

I found this video on the Beasts of War site.  It is quite a reasoned and thoughtful open letter to GW imploring it to change its' business practices.  It is telling that this entreaty is from a business (Miniwargaming) that by their own admission makes most of its' money from GW products.  One can only draw the conclusion that they see GW's current practices as damaging in the long run for not only GW viability, but also for their own bottom line.

I would hesitate to think that this will make any difference to the way GW operations work however.  Corporate entities are generally slow to change and don't always act in their own best interest (although they think they are).  I am sure that GW is confident that because it basically created the industry, it is in a solid position for the future.  However, history is littered with companies that could not keep up with the times and fell by the wayside after beginning their lives as industry leaders (Atari, Commodore, Xerox, Pan-Am).

It will be interesting to see where GW goes in the coming months.  As they seek to use new technology to sell and promote their product, they make themselves more open to public outcry and criticism.  I am thinking of the flooding of their Facebook page recently.  It remains to be seen whether the big giant heads at GW listen or ignore the clamour at their front gates.

Menoth vs. Circle or Finding New Ways To Lose

I had another small game of Warmachine on Friday night against James.  James has lots of new Warmachine minis I'm sure he'd like to try out, but the rest of my Menoth force in the mail, so we had to make do with another small game.

I had expect James to bring his Khador, but he surprised me with some Circle of Orboros models.  I had only played against a Hordes faction once before and that had ended poorly for me.  But I was curious to see what the Circle had to offer.

James had two giant stone constructs that seemed pretty tough with lots of buffs to make them tougher and they could be healed.  So I decided that the best bet was to go for an assassination of his caster (or whatever Hordes calls them).  I managed to bring my Repenter within range of his caster and squirted some fire at him as he peeked out from behind his stone man.  I did a respectable amount of damage and was feeling pretty good about things, as he was now on fire as well.  That is when I got the nasty surprise that his caster could transfer his damage to the stone dude.  Let me tell you that sucked.  Now I was left in the position of having to destroy his constructs in order to have a chance at hurting him.  This seems a little weird to me, as it means there is only one way to play this game (when not using a scenario).

How did that happen?

The next turn his caster took some more fire damage and passed it on to his large stone friend. As an aside, setting things on fire is fun.  I had set caster up behind my other light jack and had given him Defender's Ward.  I was also threatening James' closest construct on the flank with my heavy.  I hoped he would go after the more immediate threat.  However, I got another lesson, when he slammed my light jack, thereby knocking it and my caster down.  Annoying, but not fatal, until his other construct was able to make a charge to my caster by a fraction of an inch and pulverize him in one smash.

I'm finding Warmachine has a very steep learning curve and  I will admit, I have not spent too much time reading the rule book.  I find that I only start looking to defend against some things once they have been done to you.  Now I know to watch for (and use) slam to get things out of the way and/or knock down things that are hiding.  I also know to make sure that charge lanes are blocked or that I'm out of range in case my guy falls down on his ass.

I only got to roll dice twice that game, but it was definitely an education.

8 Down, 12 To Go

Well, I managed to get another 5 White Lions done today.  They have been almost done for most of the week.  I have been quite busy and I have been sucked in by a book.  Neither of these has helped the hobby much.  But I finally got down to the cave and finished them up. 

This now makes 8 WL thatI have finished out of 20.  I am such a slow painter that I'm not sure when I'll finally be finished the unit though.  I have some magnetizing and some Warmachine minis to work on in the meantime too.  I guess it's better than being bored.

1500 points Goblins vs. High Elves

This happened a week ago and I'm just writing about it now, so forgive the vagueness of the account.  It was also a horrific experience for the Elven side, so maybe I've blocked it out of my memory.

HE
Mage Level 2 - Seerstaff, High Magic
Noble - Armour of Caledor, Guardian Phoenix, BSB
15 Phoenix Guard, full command
5 Dragon Princes, banner, musician
27 Spearmen, full command
10 Archers
2 Bolt throwers

Goblins
Goblin hero - Giant Blade
2 Shamans
40+ Night Goblins, full command, 3 Fanatics
40+ Night Goblins, full command, 3 Fanatics
Arachnarok Spider, Goblins with bows on top
4 River Trolls

This was only the second time the I have ever played O&G and this is the first with so many goblins and the big spider.  My idea was to use Curse of Arrow Attraction and Flames of the Phoenix to whittle down the goblin units before I had to engage.  This would be a great plan if I had actually wounded anything with my shooting.

We rolled a meeting engagement for the scenario.  That sucked.

High(low)lights

James rolled 4 direct hits in a row with his fanatics, which meant he could send them continuously into my spearmen.  They also scattered into the spearmen a couple of time for good measure.  The saving grace was that they didn't do too many wounds each time.

James cast the giant template of death vortex spell and had failed to cast at first until he remembered the magic mushroom.  I couldn't get the double sixes on five dice to stop it.  I waved goodbye to a good chunk of my unit of spearmen.

Flames of the Phoenix took off 2/3 of a unit of goblins over 2 turns and the didn't run.  I beat them in combat once and they didn't run.

TSN turning point.  I forgot my plan at one point and let my Dragon Princes get charged by the reduced night goblin unit.  I did one wound with the princes.  The giant blade took out two princes and after failing several 2+ armour saves, the other three died all in the first turn of combat.  One of the saves was a reroll of a six due to a goblin spell.

Finally, my mage was high tailing it to the archers for some safety, when the spider crawled OVER the watchtower (you learn something new every day) and the four goblins on top after moving and at long range hit my mage twice and wounded on both to kill her.

The Aftermath
Well, I leaned that with some good rolling, Fanatics can really mess you up and hem you in.  I'm not sure what to do about that right now.  I think more experience is necessary.  Don't count on goblins running, even though they should.  These guys passed all of their psychology and combat resolution checks.

The biggest one was to make sure you get the cav in a charge.  I have been having trouble with that lately and I'm going to make sure I keep taking cav so I can work on making sure I get the charge. However, the trick I'm having trouble learning is getting them into a charge as support.  I find with elves, there is always lots of other units to either get in your way and prevent the charge you want or that want to get into your face first.  It's a skill I'm working on.

Oh, and roll less ones and twos.

Finecast and Price Increases

Games Workshop has been the centre of much discussion on the interwebs over the past couple of weeks.  First, the rumoured move from metal miniatures to resin was confirmed and second, that announcement was coupled with an announced price increase on some of the GW range.

Finecast looks  like a good move to me.  The GW blog today shows us some of the new minis and promises us more glimpses over the coming week.  The detail on the minis they've pictured are stunning.  This is a real move forward in the mass production of gaming miniatures.  Usually, minis of this high a standard are produced in small batches, but these will be produced in large quantities and should be readily available from multiple retailers (rather than only a handful of online sellers). 

GW has even converted some multi-model kits from metal to resin.  These models look better and will definitely be much lighter in the carrying bag and on the table, giving people even more opportunities for amazing basing.  The article even points out the sculptors may now try things that they could not do before due to limitations when it came to producing the model.  I for one am looking forward to picking up a couple of special characters I've had my eye on and I am not too fussed if I have to pay a bit extra.

Which brings us to the second reason GW has been making waves lately.  A 20% price increase on part of their line.  People have been going mental about a relatively small price increase.  My theory is that people are snapping for one of two reasons.  First, everything has become much more expensive over the past year or two and salaries have not kept pace.  People are seeing their real income drop when inflation is taken into account.  Now you tell them that not only is a tank of gas 75% more expensive and a box of cereal is 150% more expensive, you tell them that their toys are going up in price too.  Snappo!  The second alternative is that there are so many "squirrels" (flitting from thing to thing and ending up with a closet full of unopened and assembled toys)  in the hobby that they cannot conceive of a way to cope with limiting their purchases. Panic leads to fear, fear leads to hate, hate leads to frothing at the mouth and gnashing of teeth on the internet.

For me, I have a set amount of money I spend each month on my hobby and often don't even use all of the money.  I think very carefully about what I wish to buy and shop endlessly for the best price.  Price increases mean I either buy less or increase the amount I spend each month.  I guess that it will lead to buying slightly less.  I am sure this is something that GW has factored into its' decision to increase prices.

Finally, rarely do you get more for less in our world.  GW has spent a considerable amount money and time improving their technology and processes, so that they can provide truly fantastic miniatures.  I've only been in the hobby for a little over a year, but I look at the difference between older kits and newer kits and I'm stunned.  All of this costs money.  GW has decided to go the way of quality rather than quantity (see Mantic Games).  Both are acceptable, just different.  Personally, I will pay for better.  After all, this is a discretionary expense we're talking about, not the weekly groceries.

Fluff and Me

Fluff was what got me into miniature gaming.  I had borrowed the first few Horus Heresy books from  my neighbour.  I thought they were pretty cool.  Unfortunately, I didn't think 40K was very cool.  Warhammer Fantasy Battles was more to my liking though.

However, since those early days, I have not paid too much attention to fluff.  I have read a few Black Library books and generally found them wanting.  I own a copy of the Big Red Book and have only read a few pages of the massive fluff section.

I think of this subject after listening to the Garagehammer podcast. David Witek is crazy for fluff.  The man loves his stories and likes to think of the game as a movie in his head.  Wayne Kemp on Heelanhammer, also likes to talk about the fluff of a race and how his armies and conversions would fit into those stories.  I find I never think like this.

I look at Warhammer and Warmachine (the two systems I play currently) as games.  Games have rules and these games also happen to have cool little dudes that I use to play them.  The games have strategies and plans.  I can honestly say that I have never thought of a game I was playing in any other terms than the pieces on the board and the next move to make.

I guess it is nice that some people like the fluff because they are the ones that come up with the really cool little dudes that I get to paint up and play my favourite games.

The Mighty Thor

Yesterday I went to see Thor in 3D.  This was my first 3D movie and I'll express my thoughts on that at the end of the post.  First, I'll talk about the movie itself.

I was cautiously optimistic going into this movie.  The guys at Here Be Geeks thought that it was pretty good, but they had also thought Sucker Punch wasn't that bad (and it was).  The movie turned out to be everything one could hope for from a super hero movie.  I thought it was almost as good as Iron Man.  Thor has high production value,  and great special effects.  The best part of the special effects was that they were not the focus of the movie.  The effects were used to enhance the story and make the the setting of the story seem more "real".

The story wasn't Oscar worthy, but it was logical and moved along smoothly.  The story wasn't bad by any means, and was good enough for me not to notice anything bad about it during the movie or upon reflection afterwards.  The acting was actually very good and the script didn't have the actors spouting cheesy or tired dialogue throughout the movie.  Natalie Portman was cute as ever and Chris Hemsworth as Thor was acceptable.  On a side note, the dude is a beast.  This guy is built like a brick shithouse.  If you are looking to go to this movie and have some convincing to do with your honey, show her some pics of this dude and you'll have a lot more luck.

I would definitely recommend this movie to any nerd and I think most people that like a good summer blockbuster would enjoy Thor.

As for the 3D experience, I found it extremely distracting for the first 15-20 minutes.  I kept paying attention to the backgrounds and superfluous details because they were either beautifully rendered in 3D or looked so cool!  After the adjustment period, I noticed the 3D effect less and less as the movie went on unless it was something that was really amazing.

Given this, I don't really see the need to pay an extra $4 for an effect that my brain normalized within 20 minutes and distracted me from the movie before that.  I think 3D is a gimmick that really only costs movie goers more money without giving them a better movie going experience.

The Scaley Beast

I finally finished my dragon!  My wife bought the beastie for me two Christmases ago.  At the time I had only been painting for a few months, so decided to wait until I could do a better job on it.  Fast forward a year, and during Christmas break, I broke out the critter and built him.  Needless to say, the project has been a lot longer getting done than I had intended.  I found the model so large that painting it got tedious at times and I had to switch over to something else for a while.  But now I've finally fished her.

If there was a way to paint this model with the wings off and then attach them at a later date, I would definitely recommend it. The wings were constantly banging into the table top, lamp and anything else close to my painting area.  I even got one of them up into the bulb of the lamp at one point and blunted the tip a wee bit.  However, I don't see how it can be done.  The model needed a fair bit of green stuff in order to fill the gaps that were present around the wing joints and various other conspicuous areas around the model.  You can really see the difference a few years has made in the moulding technology and techniques that GW uses.

I'm relatively happy with the finished model, but there are several areas I wish had turned out better.  I am still working on blending and highlighting.  I need both more practice and more patience in equal parts.  However, Rome was not built in a day and for a year and a half in the hobby, I should be pleased with my progress.

PS.  The rider will get some attention at some point in the next month.

Game of Thrones

I just finished watching the first two episodes of Game of Thrones, the new series on HBO (US and Canada).  This series is very closely based on the novels by George R.R. Martin, the first of which goes by the same name.  I have read A Game of Thrones, but have not read any of the others.  They are very large books and very dense.  They certainly do not qualify as beach reading material.

The series so far is magnificent.  If you like your fantasy full of gory details and unending sword fights with a bunch of monsters thrown in for spice, then this series is not for you.  If you like your TV to be full of drama, intrigue and populated by characters that are deep and complex, then you definitely need to check this out.

The story is set in a fantasy world where the newish king's right hand  man has just been murdered and he has gone north to ask his old buddy Eddard Stark to be his new Hand.  This sets off a spiraling story of court intrigue and politics that is extremely complex and twisted, but not so much that you can't follow it.  The acting is superb and the series stars quite a few people that if you don't immediately recognize them from other television shows, you at least have that "I've seen them before," feeling.

I highly recommend you give this series a try.  Game of Thrones airs on Sunday nights here in North America.  If you don't have access to HBO, then there are other ways of "acquiring" the episodes after they have aired.  I think it would be well worth your time.