Plan for what is difficult while it is easy...

...do what is great while it is small - Sun Tzu

I wasn't that organised for club day today and it was all a bit random! I wound up having a test game against Tank for our club end of year event in a few weeks - mostly for us to try out a list each for Late War Flames of War - something we haven't played in ages. I planned to blog it but forgot to take any photos and, as it turned out, that was a happy accident. Suffice to say that Tank's dice were simply appalling and while he fought bravely, his Shermans went down to my StuGs in a bit of a screaming heap.

So instead, I watched some games of Black Seas (and it does look fun but no! I will resist!) and played another hilarious game of Aeronautica Imperialis. We played a both sides "bomber escort"game and both sides singularly failed to protect their bombers. The Orks got exceedingly close to their target but didn't quite make it.

But I did finish something! 

I got the Squat rebased on a Necromunda base and finished up the details and highlights. He looks pretty good and was a lot of fun to paint. Victoria Miniatures does make some lovely models indeed.

Planning for 2020
Having said that, because I haven't been painting all that much lately, I decided to try and do something else productive instead. I've been thinking about what I'm going to do in 2020 and decided that step one was to find all my part-completed projects and maintenance and clear those out before I go down any more rabbit holes. And this is what that looks like:

That's covering....most of a 6x4

But McZ, you say, a lot of that looks painted. Yes, dear reader, it is. But much of it needs some serious TLC. The basing and transfers on my 653 Schwere Panzerjager Abteilung needs work and there are a lot of repairs that need doing to my StuG Abteilung. And small numbers of bases that need redoing in my Sperrverbande will also get me up to full size Grenadier platoons. And I'd like to finish tidying up my Pacific War Australians and play them in MW. There's knights that need finishing for KoW, Deathwatch to do and some cars to take on Gaslands in 2020 as well.

That's not even all of it either. I've got some terrain inbound to add some more scatter to my Infinity board and some more elevation on my FoW board. I've promised myself I'll clear out the drawer of shame and find homes for all that too.

I've enjoyed Pooch's model of setting himself a bunch of tasks and completing them over the year. I think I'll try the same with the projects - I'm thinking I can package up all of these into groups and try and finish one a month in amongst gaming and RPGing.

Next Time
Some actual content. That isn't me just pontificating. Promise.

November Workbench

It's been a pretty busy week, mostly prepping to start running a 5e DnD Curse of Strahd campaign for the lads. I'm really looking forward to it but I'm taking the opportunity to prep more seriously than I did for our last 5e campaign.

Strahd looks like a really interesting campaign as it's not a straight dungeon-crawl and allows for a nicely constrained open world. I really like the thread of a plot that runs through it that's generated by the DM before the campaign even starts as well. Our group is also trying to be more role-play-y which I am super excited for and definitely suits the campaign and the setting. One day, maybe, I hope to be able to run a 5e Dark Sun campaign but in the meantime, Ravenloft, my other favourite setting will have to do. And if this one goes well, which I hope it will, I'd really like the party to carry on with these characters. There's a charm to being able to do that.

I have been doing a little painting this week on the side although nothing all that serious. I've started on a Squat model I got from Victoria Miniatures as a bonus when I ordered my Permitted Abhumans. I've just got most of the basecoats and initial washes on at this stage but he's coming along nicely.

I've just realised that unless the new Inquisition list really adds something special for Acolytes, I should rebase him as the Squat Bounty Hunter for Necromunda. Probably should have thought of that earlier...

The other model I've been working on is for one of our RPG groups upcoming games in 2020 - blogger Pelarel has picked up Warhammer Fantasy Role Play 4e. We've played earlier editions a few times but 4e looks like it might really have kicked it up a notch in playability, which is cool.

The last round we played I was a Wood Elf Mage, a character that felt a little bit out of place in the pre-Age of Sigmar Warhammer Old World. I did enjoy the wizarding though so have decided to go a bit old school / a bit new school as part of trying to get more role-play-y.

This fabulous mini is from Hasslefree and will be played as an Amber Wizard. With that in mind, I've deliberately tried to limit myself to a palette of orange, red brown and yellow, with only the grey and bone as necessary colours outside that palette. The head is going to eventually be Leopard-print (!) and I've got some amazing reference photos for yellow feathers that I'll see if I can replicate.

The Amber Wizard should be a challenging character to play in a group RPG as they are generally loners and somewhat non-conformist. That should provide some opportunity for some interesting interactions and conflicts with the other players though and give me a really clear steer about what a character would do in a certain situation.

Next Time
It's club day again. Quite what that means is anyone's guess. I might try out my 55 point army for our end-of-year Flames of War competition or Pel and I will get in a game of Zone Raiders and I'll batrep that out carefully. With a bit of luck, I might have finished up these two models by then as well.

GAMES!!

It was club day yesterday and it was a hoot of a day doing silly stuff. I played a great game of Warmachine with Tank in which he complained, well within reason, that I kept "Menothing" him. Which I did. Because that's what I do.

Tank ran his Cephalyx Operating Theatre and I broke out Kreoss2 and the Exmplar Interdiction Force. It wasn't much of a force, with Bastions and Seneschals.

The Menoth line advances

The monstrosities attack

Kreoss surrounded! 

This was where we ended - the Bastions charged from out of shot into Exulon Thexis and gave him absolutely what for! It was a close game and only thanks to a couple of poor rolls on Tanks part when his super Drudges didn't manage to kill Kreoss2. Once again, we remembered that Warmachine IS a good game.

Also, finally, Zone Raiders! McBeth and Pelarel played a game and I rulebooked for quick reference. We replayed the scenario from the quick start, but with all the rules this time, on Pel's new terrain from local NZ makers, Titan Terrain. It's lovely, BTW. Modular, cleverly designed and entertainingly detailed too.

Pink hair. Good camo. 

Sneaky ninja!  

The Reclaimers reclaiming

In a staggering reversal of the last game we played, nothing died. Ever. The lads went for several turns without doing so much as a wound until McBeth started connecting with Pel's VERY lightly armoured snipers who basically couldn't save. He also managed to save a couple of king hits from Pel's ninjas too to eventually take the win. 

It was a good lesson in army construction, model building, as well as how a few of the rules interactions we didn't have in the quick-start missions, especially how the exposed and crossfire rules work together. We did a post-game review of sorts and picked up some of the things we chose not to do - like the asymmetric missions and AI-driven on-board enemies. I think this is going to be a really interesting game once we get really stuck into the details.

I'm keen to do a full-detail batrep of this sooner rather than later but we need to have a couple more learning games to get the rules down fully. I think I would say though that McBeth walked away with the comment "a much nicer game to play than Infinity" and I would absolutely concur with that opinion. It does make me want to pick up a few other Infinity models to complement my collection though.

A few other pics! 

I've been meaning to chuck up a pic of Scotty's Imperial Fists. That yellow is amazing and the insane amount of work and skill that Scotty has put into painting them is evident.

The Shining Spears are blinded by the yellow! 

 Also, Tank and Richard (see Musings) played some Black Seas. I am sturdily resisting the siren call of the game but I will be the first to admit that it looks very good on table.

Mizzen the Mainmast! Keelhaul the Spinnaker!

Tank and Scotty also had a game of Warmachine. Scotty, using Mercenaries, managed to "Menoth" Tank again but this time he prevailed when Constance, even loaded up with souls, couldn't breach the armour of Cognifex Cyphon.

Those two Drudges did the business! 

Next Time
I'll post a couple of painted minis I think. Amzaingly while I have hammered through the models over the last twelve months, I'm suddenly staring at a bunch of primed models with no real work started on them! I'm looking forward to actually getting paint on models for a change.

Pooch's October update

Not entirely sure how another month has already gone past.... but there it is. Did I paint things?

You bet I did!

1. Paint a new 40k army (On track)

Since I finished the last of the infantry last month, this month was the first batch of tanks. I have.... many tanks to get through!

This batch of tanks includes two of the old metal Griffon tanks, recrewed with Death Korps mortar gunners. I got them cheap off the local trading facebook page, which I was super stoked with. The Griffon itself is basically awful, but the model totally suited the trench warfare aesthetic. Likely these will be used as Wyverns in game terms.

Looking cool!

And a better shot of the internal with the crew and stowage

But that's not it.

One of the weirder things that Forgeworld have produced is the Cyclops demolition vehicle. Simply put, it is a wee little remote controlled bomb, which hoons around and then blows up, like the Goliath or Bogward demolition carriers used by the Germans in WW2. I got it into my head that it was ideal that I had some for my trench warfare army, and what better to use as one than actually using a goliath?

Brooom broom BOOM!

A better shot to show the scenic bases

2. Create a table of terrain to support a game (Completed)

3. Make a modular piece of terrain (Not Done)
Errr.... still not done.... guess I had better hurry up with this given I have a couple of months to go!

4. Paint a naval fleet (Completed)

5. Finish something for an army I haven't used in a year, and take it to a tournament (Completed)

6. Buy a starter box and paint all of it (Completed)

7. Paint every miniature for a game I own (Completed)

8. Paint a Space Marine Hero each month (On track)
No issues here with running close to the end of the month for this guy, and in fact finished two of them!

The first is one of the models from the Space Marine Adventures box, a cool as running figure with bolter slung and knife out. The second is the truly excellent plastic Chaplain figure, a suitably imposing and impressive model to inspire my Storm Lords to victory!

That running pose is so cool!

Slung bolter!

Is that it? Heck no! You might have seen this in McZ's narrative campaign update, but I also made a Drop Pod to kick the Storm Lords out of! So iconic for the Space Marine way of war, and it's a great kit to boot. Even buying it second hand it was nice to paint, and suitably easy to actually paint (flat panel white isn't my forte however).

Doors closed

Doors open! Had to put in the hazard stripes....

9. Paint a stand alone force (Completed)

10. Update and improve a table of terrain (Completed)

11. Paint something Napoleonic (Not done)
Ok, so I need to make some serious progress here too....

12. Finish something I should have last year (Completed)

Mortywatch!
Progress on Morty continues really well, so well in fact that he now has a head, and arms! Next month will be finishing him off. I am REALLY happy with how he is coming together....

Bad photo, great pose

He is biiiiiiiiiiiig

Next month? Finishing Morty! More Krieg tanks! Another Space Marine Hero (or two). I should probably make some progress on the two categories I haven't even started too....

The Return to Frostgrave

It's been a tough couple of weeks for productive anything. The amount of work to paint an entire Imperial Guard army for a tournament has drained the painting-fu somewhat. But I have finished the last model for my third Frostgrave wizgang (see here for a definition of that ridiculous word) made up of classic GW Tzeentchian warriors and Beastmen. The Captain is the latest addition. 

The Wizgang Exec - Apprentice, Wizard and Captain

Man-at-Arms, Knight and Templar

Treasure Hunter, Tracker, Barbarian, Archers

Thieves and Crossbowdaemen

So that's the Chaos Wizgang. Super old school. If I'd been able to find the right generation of Horrors, I'd have been even happier but I do like these models.

And finally there's this little guy. I found a post I put up here in 2016 about getting around to painting him and I finally did. He's a super basic, old school Forest Goblin musician and will, at some point, come to the table as a bard in my Orc and Goblin warband. Because what is more orcy as far as music goes than a one-tone drum being hit with a bone???

Boop boop boop

Frostgrave 2 is due out mid-next year and I think we're all looking forward to giving it a blat. In the meantime, we've got some plans to play a bit with a couple of our own little tweaks in advance of the release. Amazingly, I still have one other wizgang that I'm still trying to finish - I'm retouching some Khemrians I picked up in the UK 10 years ago...

Next Time

It's club day next weekend. I don't know what's on the plan at this point but next week will be a batrep of whatever we wind up playing. It might be Warmachine or maybe Zone Raiders. Or something completely different.