Month in Review - February 2020

Well, back again, and I have a lot to cover.  It's been a busy month one way or another, so let's jump straight in to the recap.

20 more down...

Painting - It's been more Stonecast Eternals this month.  The theme for the #talesofinstahammer challenge was Monster, so, the real obvious choice from my planned list was to paint up all 3 Celestar Ballistas to theoretically deal with all the big bads running about.  I didn't want to just paint them up, so I figured I'd knock out a unit of Castigators too, because that would give me access to the Hailstorm Battery battalion.

Who needs machine guns when you have these?

Castigators.

Along with the theme of Monster, the secret challenge was Duel, and I thought that I could cover that by painting up Garrek's Reavers and Steelheart's Champions, as the opposing warbands from the original Shadespire box, but Red Dead Redemption 2 ate up a huge amount of my time and I only got Steelheart's Champions done.  To cover that, I painted up the special store birthday figure Larissa Shadowstalker, as she is pretty much a Monster Duellist.

Steelheart's Champions.

Larissa Shadowstalker

I also ended up painting the Lord-Arcanum on Gryph-Charger because my Lord choice for the challenge won't be done until June, and it gives me a suitable leader model to use in the meantime, seeing as I have enough stuff painted now to play some small games.

Lord-Arcanum on Gryph-Charger.  Looks impressive, bit squishy in reality.

Looking at my planned list, I've already finished 890/2000 points, plus the extras I've done over the last 2 months which is another 800 points (go me!) so, hopefully a full/tournament sized army isn't too far off.


I've also managed to completely clean up, assemble, base , add spears if applicable, and prime my Footsore Vikings for my SAGA Age of Vikings list, so I'll have to move on to the next project now.


I've also gotten back into gaming this month after my sojourn to Linlithgow, and spent yesterday gaming at Common Ground Games after Sarah finished work.  We played two games of Age of Sigmar, with the same lists both times, Stonecast vs. Cities of Sigmar at 1000pts.

You don't get much SCE for 1000pts...

I had the Lord-Arcanum on Gryph-Charger, a Lord-Ordinator, 2 x 5 Sequitors, 6 Castigators and 2 Celestar Ballista, and Sarah fielded a Freeguild General, Sorceress, 2 x 20 Darkshards, 10 Bleakswords and 20 Freeguild Greatswords.   I felt severely outnumbered.  And outgunned.

The first game was a basic affair, we didn't bother with Allegiance Abilities or Magic Items or any of that, just the core stuff to get a handle on the rules, seeing as the last time we'd played was when the AoS rules originally released.  I'd been a stand-in at a tournament since, but had fudged my way through that on my opponent's advice.

Sequitors

Stars of the show were the Celestar Ballista on my side, and the Greatswords of the Freeguilds, both doing pretty horrific casualties, those zweihanders are deadly.  We finished up with the Cities army being wiped out to a man, mostly from Ballista shots (and it would have happened quicker if I'd set up both in the Lord-Ordinator's bubble).  The second game, we added in the Allegiance rules and stuff.  The Cities spread out a bit more this time, but I knew to focus fire on those Greatswords.  The game ended up the same as the first, with the Ballista whittling down the superior numbers of the enemy.

We then changed over to Dragon Rampant, and, aptly, played the Into the Valley of Certain Death scenario, apt baptism of fire.  I had some Elite Riders, 3 units of Belicose Foot and a unit of Light Missiles with the Sharpshooter upgrade.  Sarah had 2 units of Elite Foot, a unit of Offensive Light Foot and 2 units of Heavy Missiles with the Weighty Projectiles downgrade.  We fudged through it with my new knowledge of Lion Rampant, but had to pack up before the game finished as the shop was closing. Ultimately, we had both managed to get one unit  off the table, destroy one unit, and complete our quests. 

Needed more terrain in hindsight.

In other news, we also went to the Vapnartak show at the start of the month.  most of my purchases were books for a change, picking up Too Fat Lardie's Dux Britanniarum and the Raiders supplements (plus cards), Lucid Eye's the Red Book of the Elf King, along with cards and figure from the bring and buy, and the Age of Ravens sourcebook for Clash of Empires from Great Escape Games (didn't realise it was a sourcebook...)  Other purchases were 2 Knight figures from the bring and buy (the one that Footsore sent out with the Age of Crusades book) and the metal Champions and Command for the Oathmark Goblins.  Final purchase was some Teutonic SAGA dice for when the army is done.  Sarah picked me up a set of Nordvolk Armed Villagers from Westwind as some generic Dark Age standers by, as well as Peter Cush... Van Helsing from Wargames Illustrated, purely to sate my disapointment that the Viking one was sold out.

Other additions to the hoard this month include my Oathmark Goblins from the Nickstarter, one set each of infantry and the new wolf riders along with a metal wolf rider champion and the limited release foot model, as well as the big wolf resin miniature, and my copy of the deluxe edition of Rangers of Shadow-Deep (IT IS AN ABSOLUTELY LOVELY BOOK!) I also picked up one of the 2nd issues of Mortal Realms, as I wanted a set of Banshees to keep on bevelled bases for Shadespire (I put the first set I had on lipped ones).  I got a set of Squigs and 2 boxes of Squig Hoppers from Sarah for Valentine's Day to finish off the NightGoblin list I have planned for Age of Magic (the second box of Hoppers was extra, but lets me build 2 units of warriors and one of hearthguard) Sarah also picked me up the 4 metal Tribal characters for Frostgrave: GA in the Northstar flash sale, along with an Ancient Guardian.  Final purchases this month were a couple of Underworlds warbands (Zarbag's Gitz and Ylthari's Guardians) before they go out of the cycle.

Finally, some real world news...  I am starting a new job on Monday.  No more night shift after almost 12 years doing the same thing.  Still working about the same amount but, it will be during the day from now on.  The hours are great around the kids, and I'm really looking forwards to getting to the club on a more regular basis now and finally pushing about all these figures I've been painting over the years.  On a more serious note, I'm hoping it just picks me up in a more general sense and stops me being such a recluse.

Actually, I'm hoping my new work schedule has a positive effect on my hobbying in general, and whilst I still dabble most days, I find it bitty.  I'd like to get a good routine (which is admittedly a lot easier when your day off wasn't already half way done by the time you finish work and get a sleep) and maybe focus more on smaller, quicker turnaround projects, than big armies.  I've even considered dismantling the massive paintstation to make space for a smaller more focussed area.  Time will tell.

Anyway, enough waffle, that's been my month, and hopefully I'll be back soon with more gaming exploits or painted minis.

Cheers,

John

Glasgow Games Gathering report

So Sarah and I headed west today to the inaugural Glasgow Games Gathering in Glasgow (funnily enough) this morning.  Spur of the moment decision but a mostly enjoyable excursion.  The venue was easy to find, located a couple of minutes off the M8, and there were a few parking spaces left on site when we arrived around 11ish.

After paying at the desk, and getting our raffle sheets and hand stamps (right hand only because tattoo) we made our way inside.  The show is contained in one large hall, housing all the traders, demonstration and participation games.  The hall was well laid out, with plenty of space to manouvere around the various stands and tables.  The raffle sheet that was handed out was a clever marketing ploy, with stickers being handed out for a £10 spend at a vendor, or taking part in a game.  There were 5 spots in all, 2 for each, and a central spot that could be either.  I thought that this was a good idea, and I'm sure the traders would agree, and probably helps to boost sales and get people involved.  Admittedly, I will very rarely play any demo or participation games at shows anyway, but we were leaving before the draw, so it wasn't really a concern.

One of our first stops was Lesleys Bits Box who had a number of special offers on Warmachine stock.  £3 a blister or 10 for a tenner was too good to pass up, so we rummaged through both the boxes of them and came away with 20.

The benefits of Faction ADD...

Bit of a random selection, but considering it was all less than the price of buying Naaresh alone, I can live with it.  I've got the Minions models ready to play Disciples of Agony, so I just need to get some Skorne beasts and Paingiver Beast Handlers painted up.  There was a large selection of half price boxed sets too, but a cursory glance suggested they were mainly metal kits, and they don't scale too well with the newer plastics.


Other modest purchases were Ariovistus, Germanic Chieftan and Vercingetorix, Gallic Celt Chieftain from Warlord Games along with a couple of Army Painter colours to replace stuff I've been using up on my Vikings, and the Godsworn Hunt warband for Warhammer Underworlds.

I felt justified as I'd already painted the Skeletons.

And that was it as far as spending money went.  I could have easily bought more stuff, but, as I'm trying to hold back, I was ok with what I got.

My only real issue with the show was the heat, which, from experience with Carronade, is made so much worse by the fact that there is a swimming pool on site.  Obviously it is way beyond the event organisers ability to do something about it at the same venue, but I'll know to dress more comfortably when I return next year.

We didn't hang around for lunch, so I have no idea on the quality/cost of food at the venue if any, although I did see vending machines in the main entrance.

So yeah, good wee day out, kudos to the organisers, and my 4th show of the year, so I get to knock that #hobbyresolution off of the list.

The rest of the day was spent doing a bit more organising in the lair.  Progress going well, considering the amount of figures moving.  Cheating a bit by completely ignoring some, and I'll go back through each drawer one at a time once everything is up and away.

Getting there.

So, yeah, impromptu extra blog post (finally) and I'll have my Monthly Review for June up tommorrow.

Cheers,

John

#workbenchWednesday 27/02/19 and Month in Review - February 2019 Two for One Special.

Ok, so I held off posting up the #workbenchWednesday stuff yesterday to avoid spamming all the groups I post in two days in a row, and it made more sense to just roll both posts into one. 

The workbench is looking quite sparse today, as I'd just finished off the 15 Black Knights earlier in the week, and was only working on the Krell model as my Undead hero for the #talesofinstahammer secret challenge.  Work area looked thus -

It'll be all wight...

Multicoloured Horrors of Tzeentch

I worked away in a haphazard manner on Krell, varnishing certain areas when dry and moving onto others.  Basically to try and have him ready for the end of the month.  The style and colour scheme for my Draugr Undead is very forgiving in terms of effort and time commitment.  Or. in other words, it is really quick to do a kinda sloppy job that still looks passable on the table.  Or something like that...  Anyway, I managed to get my Vanguard challenge plus Hero done in time.  The Black Knights were a bit of a slog, really wasn't feeling much love for them, but they are done now, and tie in with the rest of the force.

Charge of the Wight Brigade.

The not quite Pink Horrors were just me testing out various transparent paints before committing to the colours for my spectral undead stuff coming up, and they just happened to be the closest models to hand already primed white.  I reckon I am going for the Turquoise (back left) as, combined with white robes should give off a Corpse Bride vibe.

I've been getting stuff assembled too, built up my first Clockatrice (Thanks Allan) for my Grymkin, as well as a  15mm Stug and Tiger from Plastic Soldier Company for What a Tanker! 

Vikings and Tanks and Nightmares, oh my!

I'm getting pretty close to having most of the stuff I already own for my #hobbyresolutions2019 projects built up, and I'm throwing in the occasional odd model too, just to keep things fresh, and, like the 15mm tanks, I only need to paint one or two models to have enough for a game.  The Hordes of the Things elements are started, so, the biggest job now is getting the Warband models cleaned up and on painting sticks.

I've also been gaming more, Warhammer Underworlds and Warmahordes, and have knocked out a few games versus Sarah's Skaven, and played into Cole's Gaspy2 Bane list on Tuesday.

The Bane of Heavy Warbeasts...

By my reckoning I've finished 63 miniatures this month, played 17 games (and completed my new opponent challenge) as well as building up a load more.  Current #hobbystreak day 59.

I missed doing an extra blog post this month, although I have done some work for it, so I'm not beating myself up too much.  I also lost some time between 2 of the kids birthdays and travelling to Belgium, so, I'll catch up with that at some point.  Plan for next month is to finish off Sam's Blighthaven Warband, do my Tales of Instahammer stuff, and crack on with the Hordes of the Things elements to get them off the desk.  I also want to get more games in before the Welsh Masters in May, and get more stuff assembled and primed.  Not sure that I'll also get the Warband army finished, but, well, it is just a rough guideline, 10 months left to get it all done.

Overall Challenge Completion is below.

Cheers,

John

Amount	Task	Completed
78	Fully Paint Grymkin (HORDES)	16	21%
152	Paint Tales of Instahammer 2000pt Death Army (AoS)	138	91%
31	Paint 15mm Tree Folk army (Dragon Rampant)	31	100%
8	Paint 10mm Taurian Army (Warband)		0%
8	Paint 8 new elements for 15mm Picts (Hordes of the Things)		0%
6	Paint 6+ pts Jomsviking force (SAGA)		0%
4	Paint 4 Shadespire Warbands		0%
40	Paint 1200pt Norse Army (Of Gods & Mortals)	1	3%
100	Play 100 Games	22	22%
8	Play 8 new opponents	8	100%
8	Play 8 Boardgames	2	25%
1	Run April Fuel Daze 3!		0%
64	Maintain blog with weekly and monthly posts	11	17%
4	Go to 4 shows or conventions	1	25%
467	Transfer flip top paints to dropper bottles		0%
12	Write 1 extra blog post per month (BatRep, tutorial, review etc)	1	8%
991		23.31%
	January, February, March	2	50%
	April, May, June		0%
	July, August, September		0%
	October, November, December		0%

#workbenchWednesday 20/02/19

Well, Belgium didn't kill me so back again  :)

Workbench has 15 Black Knights, 6 Trolls and 6 Wolves that I primed yesterday, along with Sam's 15mm Warband.  Plan is to get all the basework done on the new additions, then bust out the Knights for #talesof\Instahammer, then finish the 15mm stuff.  Not sure if I'll get around to the secret project, as I've still a blog article to do too.

Last week, before flying out, a lot of the guys in the chat for Belgian Masters were saying they were doing some last minute painting, so, in a fit of solidarity, I figured I'd do some last minute painting too.  I grabbed the Wanderer, 2 units of Piggy Backs and a Witchwood and got started.

I got as far as this before we left Friday morning -

Best part of 50pts and a caster in 6-8hrs...

Not bad, right?  I probably could have finished them (cleaning off the excess grass and doing the blood) but figured I'd let them dry over the weekend.

The event went well, really cool location, good food, managed to stomach the cherry beer, and finished off my #hobbyresolution goal of new opponents between the Masters and some games of Secret Hitler in the evening.  5 Game breakdown as follows -

Game 1 - Loss (was still in bed.  6am finish drinking may be the cause, but crappy sleep the days before didn't help either)

Game 2 - Child vs Krueger2 - Win.  Opponent feated thinking he was going to score, and in my turn I managed to kill his Storm Raptor, get a couple of swings on his caster, and kill his Gnarlhorn.  He conceded after that as he only had some Mist Riders, solos and a damaged warlock with nothing to transfer to.

Game 3 - Child vs Rask.  I move up, wait out the feat, and prepare to capitalize the following turn.  Screen my caster, but he oneshots a Crabbit and pulls the Child out from behind 2 heavies that were just a touch too far apart.  Cue one Skarryth coming in and making short work of her.  Loss.

Game 4 - Child vs Iona.   Wasn't the best matchup for me.  Playing into Iona of Wurmwood in Devourers Host with a large central forest.  Game was a bloodbath (if you were a Tharn) and ended with the Child falling after clearing out a Warpwolf Stalker for some points.  Loss.

Game 5 - Old Witch vs Issyria - Opponent being too aggressive with his caster gave me a decent shot at assasination top of 2.  Witch feats, blinds the solo next to Issyria, and burns through a couple of her camp.  Longfellow gets some damage on her, and crucially, I totally forgert the Hollowmen ignore the rubble when targeting her, and miscalculate the rolls and how many CRA's to make.  Don't kill her, and Sentinels and Invictors put paid to Old Witch... 

Final result 1-4 (or 1-3 not counting the one I didn't play) which is disheartening as I've been playing more recently and had a good shot into all my games with the exception of Tharn, which I think does a number on both my lists.  List changes will probably have to wait until April/May until the new Grymkin models drop.

We got dropped off at the airport Sunday afternoon, and after dumping our bags in the hotel, went for dinner with the English contingent. 

Monday was spent sitting on the terrace at the airport dojoing lists until my tablet died (was saving my phone as my boarding pass was on it) and cleaning off the grass from the Grymkin when we got home.

Not used to the lack of rain or mountains...

Tuesday was priming stuff and doing the blood on the Grymkin, before getting them into the cabinet.

Wanderer

Piggy Backs 1

Piggy Backs 2

Today has been doing all the basework on the primed stuff, and I've got the metal down and washed on the horses.  Hopefully can at least get the skin blocked in after I've been fed, and work on the bone and exposed flesh tomorrow.  I've removed the riders until the horses are done, and I might just glue them on at the end and paint them that way.

Until next time,

Cheers,

John

#workbenchWednesday 13/02/19

Back again, current #hobbystreakday44.  Workbench looks pretty static this week though -

Not even sure anything moved...

Couple of reasons for this, kids were over at the weekend, so they spent some time pottering about with their Dragon Rampant army, so, I took the opportunity to do some assembly and basing too.  Figured I'm going to try and have as much as possible cleaned, assembled, based and primed so that I only have the secret projects for #talesofinstahammer to prepare.  I'm at just over 60% of the planned stuff assembled and based for the year, and I reckon doing the 10mm Warband army will really ramp that number up.  Also, that doesn't take into account any of the stuff I already did over what I had planned.

Speaking of which, the challenge this month is Vanguard, and the secret project is to paint up a hero (or two).  I kind of scunnered myself here by painting 3 Necromancers last month, along with the 3 Skeleton Champions...  Not sure, what I am going to do this month, maybe source another Necromancer model, or a Vampire of some description.  My Vanguard unit will be 15 Black Knights using the Mantic Cavalry.  They are the restic versions, so clean-up was minimal and annoying, so I just clipped off the injection points, trimmed them, and scraped the mould lines off the front legs and face plate.  I've based them on 40mm lipped bases, so they match my SAGA stuff, and could also be used for Lord/War of the Ring(s).  

All your base...

I've also assembled both warbands from the Warhammer Underworlds: Nightvault box, along with a box of the snap-fit Mystmourn Banshees, 6 Fenrisian Wolves, 3 Spirit Hosts and 6 Mantic Trolls.

The Underworlds stuff and wolves were a joy to assemble, and, just when I was thinking how nice it was to be putting together nice sprued plastic kits, I started the Spirit Hosts.  They were a nightmare.  I'm sure there could have been much better keying for the strands without losing the incorporeal look.  The Banshees, Spirit Hosts and Knights are planned for my Death army, and the Wolves and Trolls for my Of Gods & Mortals force,

Carrying on with that, I've also cleaned up and based the Warlord and 2 points of Two Handed Axe armed Vikings for my SAGA Jomsvikings, and the 4 Berserkers, for my OG&M list.  These two projects are pretty intertwined, as I'll be able to get a lot of double duty from the figures and switch up lists a bit.

Started work on 2 of the 4 units of hand weapon/shield Hearthguard too.

Finally, been upping my game count too in preparation for the Belgian Warmachine & Hordes Masters this weekend.  Mostly playing Grymkin, but also dug out Baldur 2 for a practice game to see how Sarah's army handles the Starcrossed/behind a wall/Roots of the Earth (and Spiny Growth in the case of Ghetorix) skew.  Lost on scenario, but had a real grindy game, and still finished with 3 heavies on the table.  Lost Wrongeye trivially, because Incorporeal and Transference (and re-rolls) is a thing that deals with Starcrossed...

Tonight we're gonna rock you!

So that's pretty much it.  Hard weekend of drinking with added Warmachine coming up, then back to the grind to get my #talesofinstahammer projects and getting on with the 15mm stuff that is already on the workbench.

Cheers,  see you next week (liver permitting)

John

Month in Review - January 2019

Two posts in one day, wow, you lot are spoiled   :)

So, how have I fared throughout January?

Pretty good to be honest.  I'll do a quick run down of progress, then it's just going to be a huge photodump at the end for your viewing pleasure.

January 2019

First up, I absolutely aced the first month of #talesofinstahammer.  The theme was making an impact, which I'm sure you'll agree I did, and then some, and the secret challenge was to paint either a musician or standard bearer, and I did 3 of each.  Managed my group shot, and all that jazz.  Also, hit a personal best of 207 28mm miniatures painted in one calendar month.

Exact breakdown is -

160 Zombies
15 Skeletons
3 Skeleton Champions
10 Wraiths
2 Necromancers
2 Black Numenoreans
1 Lich
5 Grave Markers
1 Statue
6 Giant Rats
1 Dwarf Blacksmith
1 Barbarian Crow Master.


The upshot of this is that, not even counting the 40 half Zombies, I've painted 123/152 models for my planned Death army, and given myself playable forces for Dragon Rampant/Fantasy Saga/Warlords of Erehwon, as well as making a start on the stuff I'll need for Rangers of Shadowdeep and the first figure for my Of Gods & Mortals force.

Despite the fact most of my attention was on painting, I've played 4 games, including 1 board game (Battlestar Galactica) and faced two new opponents (Sam and Tam from the club) and keep on target with my #workbenchWednesday blog posts, as well as my article and this monthly recap.

Fully Paint Grymkin (HORDES)		0%
Paint Tales of Instahammer 2000pt Death Army (AoS)	123	81%
Paint 15mm Tree Folk army (Dragon Rampant)		0%
Paint 10mm Taurian Army (Warband)		0%
Paint 8 new elements for 15mm Picts (Hordes of the Things)		0%
Paint 6+ pts Jomsviking force (SAGA)		0%
Paint 4 Shadespire Warbands		0%
Paint 1200pt Norse Army (Of Gods & Mortals)	1	3%
Play 100 Games	4	4%
Play 8 new opponents	2	25%
Play 8 Boardgames	1	13%
Run April Fuel Daze 3!		0%
Maintain blog with weekly and monthly posts	6	9%
Go to 4 shows or conventions		0%
Transfer flip top paints to dropper bottles		0%
Write 1 extra blog post per month (BatRep, tutorial, review etc)	1	8%
	13.93%

Pretty happy with how this month has panned out, game total should rise with Belgian Masters next month, and I'll get my first show in at Vapnartak, I'm planning on cracking on with a lot of 15mm stuff too, along with my Vanguard option for #talesofinstahammer.

Ok, enough rambling, photo time!

Cheers,

John