Nostalgia Pangs

With Adepticon under way, I decided to tune in and catch some of the upcoming reveals. The Games Workshop reveals left a lot to be desired, and honestly there’s nothing there that really got me excited for new things.

I guess that’s good for my wallet, but I do miss the days where new releases were really exciting and left me eager to play the game some more or make me want to pick up a new system. I guess this could be attributed to the fact there was no Old world in the mix this time and I’ve pulled back a bit on the other Games workshop games, (aside from Bloodbowl and Horus Heresy). The Solar Auxilia stuff was nice, but since it’s nothing that wasn’t expected, I’m not chomping at the bit to pick up the turrets.

So I decided, on a whim, to have a look what Steamforged games had cooking for Warmachine. For a good while, the majority of the games I was playing were Warmachine, and it’s the only game I’ve ever played enough to participate in tournaments. But I had pretty much distanced myself from Warmachine for a good few years with the arrival of Mark 3 and the slow disappearance of any sort of group who was playing it locally. I finally parted ways with my collection just before my move as I just saw it as dead weight to try and transport it with me (and since most of it was metal, it was quite some weight too!).

What I found while watching the stream is there’s somethimg about the style and setting of Warmachine that really does call to me. And seeing that there are players playing it locally here in some of the local discord groups, I might just be getting the urge to once again raise the banners of Khador and pick up a box for myself to dive back in, especially as it was, for a long time, my favourite tabletop game.

Anyway, just a short post of some recent musings as I still await the arrival of my hobby things….

Until next time 🙂

Strategic Relocation

It’s a been a little quiet here lately. Over the last few months there’s been far less hobbying whilst I gather my things together ready for a long relocation from the UK to the US. There were many thoughtful moments of what will I try to carry on the flight and what I will commit to the waves and just hope it survives the journey; and trying not to think just how many pieces it may arrive in…

I did decide to carry my entire Tomb King collection with me. Not only does this allow me to jump straight in to games, it’s also my most completely painted collection.

I had signed up for a local discord to the area a month or so before to scope out the gaming scene ahead of my arrival, and was pleased to find it was pretty active. On my first week here, I managed to get a game scheduled, and played a most enjoyable 2v1 game; The orcs and Goblins teaming up with the Tomb kings against a High elf force.

But what that does mean is I have nothing to paint. Or… I didn’t. I caved quite quickly and picked up some Solar Auxilia models to have something to work on while I await the arrival of my collection. As of right now, it’s a battle force with an extra command squad. Enough models to take some time, but in game terms we’re only looking at about 600 points at a stretch.

Since my paints are in the box on the waves too, I bought a small army painter starter set to get some time painting in too. This does limit the colours I can use, but it’s been nice working within those restrictions, and I’m already thinking how I’ll use my other paints when they arrives to work on top of these base colours… Only a few more weeks to wait…

Until next time 🙂

Monday Night Bloodbowl

Monday Night is Bloodbowl Night!

Or well…it was. It’s been a moment since I have played consistent Bloodbowl. Honestly, with the announcement of a new edition, there’s been less enthusiasm from me to get a game of bloodbowl going, I may as well wait for the new edition.

But one things for sure, I am excited for those Tomb Kings!

But what of current games? Theres a new league started recently. I have signed up for it, bringing back the Pocket monster team for another outing (will Black Shuck finally meet his end this season!?) And brought out another rookie team; Papa Nurgle’s Pathogents!

Firstly, I don’t like Nurgle. I don’t really like the aesthetic of Nurgle in any iteration it has been brought out in, but they have staying power. I was suggested to at least try them out because they’re much hardier than the other teams I tend to field and I have an amazing ability to just be absolutely crushed in bloodbowl. The dice tend to not stay on my side for longer than a half.

While I don’t think I’ll follow every game this season with the Nurgle, I certainly may give some updates time to time of how they’re fairing for me. So far I’ve had them on the table once, being completely overrun by Elves losing 3-0. Nothing too bad in terms of damage, though one Rotter died in the process. I just need to grind down some teams and gain some SPP and maybe the team could get more fun… Maybe in my game tonight against the orcs…?

Until next time!

Weekend Update 1

As often comes to happen, life gets in the way. So I missed some posts I had wanted to make (generally keeping to my previous formula of my Monday bloodbowl and my Wednesday showcase of old paintings) due to generally being tired out from the heat (alright, it’s nto THAT hot, but I don’t do well in the heat) and work in general. So here’s this weeks updates in brief;

Monday night is bloodbowl night.

Monday saw my usual outing for a game in the league. This time it was my Necromantic team Vs High elves. I wasn’t too confident going in to this one. I know my opponent is a very good bloodbowl player and, well, it’s elves. I tend to struggle against the high agility teams. Not to mention the pile of inducements I was giving him!

First half started well, I maintained some control of the ball, and dice seemed to be in my favour. At first at least. What started off well soon turned in to some full on elf action and whule the game was very enjoyable, it ended in a 4-0 loss for me. Pesky elves.

As the league is slowly starting to wrap up and I still have many more games I need to somehow squeeze in, today I had a second Bloodbowl game. This time it was my Khorne Vs Wood elves. More elves! I again expected another loss. I’ve not really played wood elves before and I know them to be very tricky to pin down. And since I’ve not necessarily done well with the Khorne so far, I figured this might be a quick game. And it was a rather quick game in that it was oiver a lot quicker than my usual games.

A win! In a stark contrast to how my games usually go, the dice gods had decided to very confidentally sway the game in my favour. I rolled so many knock outs this game it was absurd. And an unfortunate take root roll meant the treeman stayed out of the action for a very severly outnumbered wood elf team. 2-0 to me, and a huge boost to my morale this league! This monday’s game is booked still too, but another friendly coming up 🙂

Speaking of bloodbowl, since this league is wrapping up, I’m slowly starting to decide which teams I might consider running next season. Considering Chaos dwarves…

Other painting projects this week. I had the urge to paint some of my epic Pike and shotte, so made a start on a unit of the Scots Covenanters pike and musket unit.

And then, when I was too tired for details, I’ve been priming a whole lot of Epic Napoleonic. Hoping to have this bunch fully painted for when I start a campaign with a friend. This is all the stuff needed for “The action at Thuin” start to the Hundred days campaign supplement

That’s been my week of wargaming. I still have stuff in the pipeline. 5 parsecs I’m working on my crew and the terrain for the first mission. Once it’s done the weekly updates will roll out!

I never do ask, but what’s been on your work in progress table? What games have you been playing?

Until next time 🙂

Upcoming Project; Solo Wargaming

So one thing I have noticed when trying to fit as many gaming projects into my time as possible, is that as I get older, people tend to have less time to devote to a game which is going to take hours. Let alone playing it more than once in a month. This is great for games like bloodbowl, which are a fixed number of turns, and the painting and assembling of a team is a lot less than that of a full army based game.

Bad news for those looking for grand battle or epic stories. Like me.

Instead of being defeated at this prospect it has just fed my desire to look in to solo wargaming. Often times, I will be playing a grand battle of Old world, using my Bretonnians and my Tomb Kings to at least get a glimmer of the feel to get to play it, but it’s not quite the same as playing an opponent. I tend to find I’m always leaning towards one side, hoping that one will win the day so maybe making less than optimal choices for the other.

So how do I solve this? In comes games actually designed for solo play. There are a fair few games out there that have solo play options, with various itterations of “AI” that have been designed into them, regardless of how simple. Be it a “roll a dice and consult this list of actions” or a deck of action cards to simulate randomness. I plan to use my saturday uploads to delve into some of these games and see how the solo play holds up.

So where do I start? 5 Parsecs from home.

I had seen this one in passing a few times but didn’t think much of it. Generally miniature agnostic games tend to not grab me as much as others, I guess it’s just i get drawn in to the game by the miniatures. However, after watching a couple of battle report videos, I figured this one could be a narratively interesting opening to the solo wargaming effort. And it will give me plenty reason to break out some of the miniatures that sit and gather dust that I wasn’t otherwise getting to use….

Until next time 🙂

To start starting proper

It’s been a minute.

I keep meaning to get things going but then lose the inspiration to do so. So new goal is to try keep things consistent, keep the motivation to work on things.

And my solution lately has been to focus on games with solo gaming options.

Right now my attention is fully gripped with Black Seas.

Why? Well, there are solo scenarios! This certainly helps for sure but I do think the main reason lies in the fact that I have found boat games to be incredibly fun (Dystopian wars, Firestorm armada) there’s something about their mechanics that always grants a fun time.

Stay tuned, as I fully intend to get a fully painted fleet finished soon, and then it’s just a matter of recording a game!

New year, new start

So here we go, a new year, a new drive to get this working.

Throughtout the last few months I’ve found a lot of my downtime from work has been spent painting. Which is great, the pile of shame (which is unfortunately ever growing) is shrinking faster than it ever has been, The problem lies in finding the time, and the opponents, to get the models to table.

So what does this mean for the blog? Well, my new year’s resolution this year is to get the games I haven’t yet gotten to table, to table and for them to see their time in the sun.

So what needs to be played this year? let’s keep a list and see what hits the table;

The other side; I have played it, years ago, buit since then I got new factions so I think we need to see it played some more

Necromunda

Horus Heresy

Twisted miniates; I kickstarted this years ago, but never pushed to play it, let’s get it done

Bolt action; The Italians are all painted (future post?) let’s get them to table!

I think that’s them for now. I’ll update this as I find more.

Which me luck!

Sad teacup games blog begins!

For a while now I’ve wanted to find some output for my miniatures. I haven’t really had the time to play the games lately, so now and again I’d just be painting them up and then they’d sit on a shelf, or I’d post the occasional picture to my twitter feed. However, I found that this doesn’t necessarily encourage me to keep painting them as frequently as I’d like. And the miniatures are still piling up…

So in comes the blog. I plan to update bi-weekly (Monday and Friday). Mondays will be a new thing I’ve painted recently (Not necessarily a new model, just a newly painted model). Fridays will be for other things, maybe a battle report for a game I tried out finally, or just general chatter about the games I’m enjoying or looking forward to. Heck, it could even just be another recently painted model (never know, it certainly could happen!)

Between posts I may schedule some other stuff to appear, mostly previous models I’ve collected and painted up but aren’t recent, or even have some friend’s throw up some of their miniatures to show off.

Here we go…Again, as I reupload and edit this page due to life stepping in and delaying my start..