Two Hour Arrival

I have been jumping for joy the last couple of days as the first batch of games that I'm interested in trying out this year arrived at the beginning of this week. Yippee! Here's what showed up at my front door from Two Hour Wargames, along with descriptions of each game from the company's website as well as from the books' back covers:

5150 Star Army

JOIN THE STAR ARMY! It's not a job. It's an adventure!

Yeah right, whatever. Okay, listen up kid. I'm not going to sugar-coat it for you. The Star Army is hell. You're the first to arrive and the last to leave. What do you really do? Well let me tell you son...

In 5150 Star Army you're a Platoon Leader trying to keep your men alive while completing your missions. Make that you're trying to complete your mission and if your men stay alive that's even better. You're the tip of the Gaea Prime spear and your enemies are many. The Empire is hungry and growing and that means you're always at war. As a Star Army Platoon Leader you'll be fighting other humanoids, alien races and things that don't fit into either class. Their faces may change but the enemy is still the enemy and you have a job to do.

So go do it soldier!

5150 Star Army is a man to man skirmish game where one figure equals one man, alien, or vehicle. Start off with a squad and soon you'll be playing platoons and companies. 5150 Star Army can be played solo, same-side with everyone against the game mechanics, and of course head to head against your friends. Includes a player friendly campaign system. Rules cover infantry, vehicles, Bugs, and much more. Playable with any figures, any scale, this easy to learn yet tough to master game is perfect for the casual or battle hardened gamer.

You don't even feel the bumps anymore, too many jumps for that. Damn, the soldiers are getting younger and younger or maybe you're just getting older? The green light flashes and you run your final check. All's good and you brace for touchdown. Bam! The door drops and your squad piles out immediately coming under fire. The last thing you remember is...

STAR ARMY. It's not a job. It's an adventure!

Larger Than Life: The Game of Pulp Adventures

SO WHAT ARE THE PULPS?

It's spaceships, jungle lords, and Nazis, Lost cities, underwater adventure, and maybe even a hard-boiled detective or two.

It's about heroes moving from scene to scene at breakneck speed. Hot on the trail or maybe a step in front of the bad guys. It's clever cliffhangers that leave you wanting more.

But mostly it's about the story.

And that's what drives Larger Than Life. In LTL you step into the story and become a Larger Than Life Hero. LTL moves you from scene to scene each with a different challenge. Complete your challenge and move to the next scene. Fail and you're whisked down another road that leads to who knows where. But if you stick to it and if you're lucky you'll complete all the challenges and that'll get you what you wanted from the beginning, a shot at the "Big Bad." The Big Bad, the Evil Genius, or the Villain... we prefer to call him the Yin to your Yang because without the "Big Bad" there's no story.

And it's all about the story. Welcome to the world of... Larger than Life!

Adventures in the Lost Lands

TAKE THE SHOT.

You hear the whispers. Giant creatures from the dawn of time alive and walking the earth. Dinosaurs! How can it be? As a hunter you have to find out the truth so you follow the rumors to this God-forsaken corner of the world, Lemuria!

You've spent days and large sums of money in tracking the Beast and now it's come to this. Your bearer trembles as he pulls back the branch giving you a clear view of the Beast in all its splendor. As you steady your aim it turns, looks you in the eye and at that moment you wonder... who's hunting who?

Adventures in the Lost Lands introduces you to a world like no other. A world of giant creatures and prehistoric men where you can:

Be a Pulp Era hero exploring Lost Lands and searching for valuable treasure. Lead your tribe of primitive cavemen in a fight against other primitive tribes. Be a modern day big game hunter who travels to a prehistoric land that time forgot. Command a Victorian Era expedition bent on discovery and conquest. Be a dinosaur, not only a dinosaur, but THE dinosaur, as you take on all others for supremacy. Or command a squad of WW 2 GIs blasted into a strange prehistoric world while on maneuvers in Louisiana.*

In Adventures in the Lost Lands you can do all this and more. We've included a number of linked scenarios forming a campaign which can be played solo, cooperatively with all players on the same side, or head to head against your friends. It's all up to you!

So have a seat, give the rules a read and prepare to enter a world like no other, the world of dinosaurs. But just remember one thing... who's hunting who?

*Really? Louisiana? Yep, it's a long story.

+++++

Phew! When I started typing all of that out I didn't realize how long the description for those games would turn out to be. I'm therefore going to refrain from sharing my first impressions about each of the games until my next post. For now I'll just say that although I did not know what to expect from these games beyond what I've learned reading 5150 battle reports and suchover at Mik's Minis, I definitely did not anticipate just how different these games really are from the type that I normally play. This is my first encounter with the rules mechanisms found in Two Hours Wargames products and it looks like they could take quite some getting used to, though I have heard positive things about them once they become familiar to you. I'm really excited to try these games out even if it means stepping somewhat out of my usual gaming comfort zone. Hmm, that actually sounds like it could potentially be a lot of fun and a good way to shake up my hobby routines.

Okay, that's it for tonight. I hope everyone is doing well on this whackiest of days, Leap Day. So until next time, happy painting and gaming!

Lord Carver WIP

Well it looks like this month's painting challenge that I set for myself is off to a bad start, on hold for now and likely to be pushed back to later this year. Sorry about that. I'm waiting to hear from my LGS about whether or not the rest of the Cygnar guys that I ordered from them are going to arrive anytime soon. Otherwise the only progress I've made so far was in successfully tracking down my missing box of Stormblades. So yeah, not good really.

Sure I could have started this past week on the Cygnar stuff that I do have, but instead I decided to hold off until the rest of the miniatures arrive. I'd rather wait and try this again in a few months, than start now but not be able to finish because half the models are on back-order. I'm actually kind of curious to see if I could do this challenge, so I'm willing to wait until I am better prepared before trying this again. Oh well… it's lame, I know. Feel free to call shenanigans on this. I only hope that regular diceRolla readers have by now become conditioned to such disappointment. ;)

So in the meantime over the last couple of days I've been painting this charming Farrow from the Thornfall Alliance for Hordes. In case you're not familiar with the model, this is the Minions warlock Lord Carver, BMMD, Esq III.

"ManBearPig is real. I'm super cereal."

Realizing that my chances of getting the Cygnar army painted this month were worsening with each passing day, I was ready to move on and start painting something else, anything else. I've had Lord Carver for about a year or so still in his blister pack and this seemed like a good time to paint him. I've got no other plans for collecting a Farrow Minions army so I'm painting this guy just for the hell of it.

I get a real kick out of this miniature. I love the pose, so serious for such a silly subject, and his cape is more than sufficiently swoopy. :) I had lots of fun painting that part of the model, though I'm considering going over it with a red glaze to knock the orange back a bit. Then again, maybe I should just leave well enough alone. Nothing wrong with it I suppose.

Swoopy.

I haven't settled yet on what I'll do once I've finished painting Lord Carver. I feel at this point, even if my Cygnar order were to arrive in the next day or two, that it would no longer be a fun experience trying to blast through painting all of them just to make the goal I set for myself. I'm content to save 'em for later. I have a few other things sitting on my painting desk that I could work on but right now none of those older projects hold much interest. I'll think it over and see if anything jumps out at me. So until next time... happy painting and gaming!

February Painting Challenge

This month my goal is paint from start to finish a 35 point army for Warmachine. I'm doing this for no particular reason, I just thought it would be fun to challenge myself a bit and perhaps shake off some of my hobby lethargy. I've had an old, metal Cygnar battle box sitting around for years waiting for some attention which will provide the core miniatures needed for this project. Cygnar is not my favorite faction as that honorific goes to the Mercenaries faction for both its Magnus themes and the Talion Charter as well. Nonetheless I'd like to see this group of minis finally painted after having held onto them for so long, and as a bonus they will make a nice foil to my own Magnus-based collection once I get around to those guys.

It looks like I'm not going to be able to get much done tonight as I only decided to do this a very short while ago. That's why for Day 1 of my February challenge I must be content with simply taking stock of what I already own and then planning how I want to fill out the rest of the army. Here's a rundown of what I have with which to begin this project:

PIP 21001 Warmachine Cygnar Battlegroup

- 1 Cygnaran warcaster Commander Coleman Stryker

- 1 Charger light warjack

- 1 Lancer light warjack

- 1 Ironclad heavy warjack

PIP 31008 Sentinel Cygnar Light Warjack

Warmachine MkII Cygnar 2010 Faction Deck

Warmachine MkII Cygnar Token Set

PIP 1024 Forces of Warmachine: Cygnar

Taken together that's enough to get started with a 15 point army, plus all the little doodads used during play and the army book as well. The faction deck should come in handy too as the cards packaged with my minis appear to be quite out of date. I also have a currently missing box of Stormblades that, once located, will add another 5 points to the army's total. Alright, I'd say I'm now off to a pretty good start with the new army.

To this I next plan on adding a Journeyman Warcaster to jack marshal the Sentinel and a full-sized unit of Long Gunners with their Unit Attachment for some extra ranged support. This brings the total to my target of 35 points and would allow me one month in which to paint 20 infantry and 4 warlocks. Right now that seems like an entirely reasonable goal for me to set, though I do have a bad history of evaluating this sort of thing. :) To give me an ever so slight amount of flexibility with my list, I would also like to paint one Hunter light warjack. By dropping the Long Gunner Infantry Officer and Standard from the list, I could then substitute the Hunter in place of the Sentinel. That way I believe I could tailor the Journeyman Warcaster to either a more anti-infantry or anti-warjack role as necessary. So with those 25 models at my disposal, here are the two 35 point lists* I could play:

pStryker (+6)

- Charger (4)

- Lancer (6)

- Ironclad (7)

Journeyman Warcaster (3)

- Sentinel (4)

Long Gunner Infantry (10)

- Long Gunner Infantry Officer & Standard UA (2)

Stormblade Infantry (5)

…. OR ….

pStryker (+6)

- Charger (4)

- Lancer (6)

- Ironclad (7)

Journeyman Warcaster (3)

- Hunter (6)

Long Gunner Infantry (10)

Stormblade Infantry (5)

So that's it. That's the army I'll be working on this month, hopefully painting it to completion. And of course I'll do my best to post regular updates along the way showing my progress. I might be able to get a little done tonight, but most likely tomorrow will see the actual start of work on this project. I'll check-in again soon but until then, happy painting and gaming!

*For what it's worth, both of these lists qualify for Tier 1 of Commander Coleman Stryker's theme force, Combined Arms. There is no benefit gained from this however as you have to include at least one unit of Field Mechaniks before any bonuses are granted. So... whoop-de-doo! :)