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! :)

Old Bloggers Never Die

Nope, I'm not dead yet. :) Trying my best not to fade away, either. I'd say it's therefore time for a little bit of updating.

After staying busy throughout October, my family and I then hit a rough patch at the start of the current month. Nothing too dire, mind you, but stressful enough to kill most of my hobby and blogging motivation for the past few weeks. Normally painting is a great relief for me but I was in too much of funk to even pick up a brush for a while. Fortunately everything seems to be working out for the best now and I've started to get my hobby-groove back. Yippee!

Thus with the will to paint having been restored I finally got down to business and began working on my Sea Dog for the charity auction Project: Orange Crush (Hunger), part of Foodmachine 2011. (You can see my original post about getting involved here if you like.) I finished painting my pirate this past weekend and I'm really pleased with how he turned out. I had planned on keeping this under wraps until the auction goes live but I'm simply too excited to wait that long. Therefore I'm going to hold off from showing any further photos for the time being, though I cannot resist presenting at least one shot of my contribution to the effort. I'll have plenty to say later on about painting the miniature and the project itself, but until then here's the first look at my Sea Dog:

While painting my pirate I also spent some time thinking about the hobby in general and what I would really like to be doing with it. To help me out I reconvened my war council so as to determine the best use of my hobby time. After some discussion concerning various army projects and the different game systems with which I've been experimenting, it became apparent that I have not adapted to my new environment and instead I have continued on as if I were still living in a hobby wasteland. Despite moving more than six months ago to a much more gamer-friendly city, I have been slow to take full advantage of these new opportunities.

Once again I had allowed side projects to take precedence over my painting time, neglecting what I had initially intended to focus upon after moving to Asheville. While I am still very keen to get deeper into Dystopian Wars, Infinity, Malifaux, and Flames of War, there is just no way these other games can compete locally against 40k with regard to the availability of opponents and the potential to play games on a regular basis. I was starved for gaming in Charleston, yet now it would be no problem at all for me to play a few games of 40k every week should I choose to do so. I have been dissatisfied however with the state of my armies for quite a while and so, in order for me to get back into proper 40k-gaming form, I have decided to rededicate myself to working on my Raptors Space Marines.

Ideally I'd like to have 1500 points worth of Raptors painted by the end of this year. From there I will continue to expand the army with the goal of having significantly more painted in time for the release of 6th Edition. I always feel like I'm caught flat-footed whenever a new edition comes out and so this time around I want to be prepared as much as possible by having an army I'm happy with painted and ready to go as soon as the new rules drop. And in the meantime, if all goes accordingly, I'll have something I can take to the FLGS so as to enjoy these waning days of 5th Edition. That's my plan for now at least and I'm starting off by painting a squad of sniper Scouts.

The last thing I want to mention for this update is that starting tomorrow I will be doing another little giveaway for those of you Following my blog. I'll most likely post the details sometime tomorrow night (November 24th) though I'm not exactly sure when due to it being a holiday and the potential for post-turkey lethargy. At this point I just want to give everyone a heads-up in case you're interested. It's going to be a simple random drawing so all you'll need to do is check in occasionally to find out if you've won.

Okay, that's it for now. I hope everyone is doing really well... happy painting and gaming!

Charity Painting Opportunity

Hey, I'm back! Sorry about going MIA from the blog the past couple of weeks, I've been really busy with family stuff and all that jazz. No time for gaming, blah blah blah... let's get on with it! :)

A few minutes ago I was flipping through the new issue of No Quarter Magazine and right away noticed mention of the upcoming Foodmachine 2011. The idea behind Foodmachine is to encourage Warmachine and Hordes players to organize a bunch of events between November 1st and January 2nd as a type of food drive, the entry fee to play being canned food for donation to local food banks. Participants in these events are allowed to purchase "Cheats" for use in their games by bringing along more canned goods. The more you donate during the event, ever more powerful cheats become available for use. All the details about this charitable cause, rules packets, and info about the various cheats can be found by clicking the link already provided.

If you're more of a painter than a gamer, however, there is another way to get involved. This year the organizers want to auction off a complete Tier 4 army, to be made up entirely from painted miniatures donated to the cause. Here are the details for this project copied from the main website:

Painting for Charity

We’re also kicking things up this year with a companion event for all the hobbyists out there. Orange is the official color of hunger awareness and so we wanted to combine that aspect of the charity into Foodmachine. Project: Orange Crush (Hunger) gives hobbyists the chance to devote their special talents to the cause.

We've drawn up a Tier 4 Shae army full of pirate models. We’re asking the community to sign up to paint a model from the army in an orange scheme of their choosing. The army will then be auctioned off for charity. Privateer Press' studio painter, Matt DiPietro, will be painting up Captain Phinneus Shae and the Commodore cannon in an orange-based paint scheme. In addition, this year's Formula P3 Grandmaster, Zach Lanier, will be painting up Dirty Meg for the army.

To participate, follow the link (here) and sign up to paint one of the models. Glue the model to a normal base but do not add any flocking. After you have finished painting it up, mail the model to Matt at Privateer Press:

Project Orange Crush
c/o Matt DiPietro
Privateer Press
13434 NE 16th St STE 120
Bellevue WA 98005

Privateer Press will be basing all the models and the photographing them in preparation for their eBay auction. Your model must be at Privateer Press by December 2nd, 2011.

+++

Pretty cool, right? I dig that our gaming community embraces these charitable causes and so I've signed up to paint a model for the army's unit of Sea Dogs. Pictured below is the smart-looking fellow that I'll be working on to help CRUSH HUNGER... um, pirate style of course:

Along with painting my own miniature, if possible I'd like to recruit some additional painters to work on the rest of the Sea Dogs that I have. Therefore if you are interested in painting a pirate for charity, but do not have any of the requisite minis that are being sought for this project, I'll gladly send you one of my own scurvy bastards by express mail. Just be sure that you can have him painted and shipped out in time for your mini to arrive in Washington by the December 2nd deadline. If that sounds good to you, go to the website's google document and sign up to paint one of the remaining Sea Dogs. Then send me an email or leave a comment indicating which of the following minis you want to work on for Orange Crush (Hunger).

Sea Dog Crew Leader

Sea Dog #2

Sea Dog #3

Sea Dog #4

Sea Dog #5

Alright, that's it for now. If anyone is interested in painting one of these dudes for a good cause, please let me know as soon as you can. So until next time... Aargh! ;)

EDIT: I will update this post as I hear from interested painters, making note of which models have been selected and which are still available. The ones chosen so far are: Sea Dog Crew Leader, Sea Dog #2, Sea Dog #3, Sea Dog #4 and Sea Dog #5. That leaves the following still available to anyone who would like to contribute some of their time to this charitable effort...

Nothing's left!

All the miniatures now have painters!

Woo-Hoo!!

Thank you again to everyone who has gotten involved, I really appreciate it!

For The Khadorland!

Originally I had wanted to begin working on my first Warmachine models today but my plans went a tad haywire. Most of the day was taken up in dealing with our basement that flooded during the night, followed this evening by my little daughter not feeling well. It's now too late for me to start on any of my hobby projects so instead I think I'll just take it easy and read for a while. I've been meaning to go back and reread the Warmachine and Hordes MkII rulebooks so maybe I'll start on them.

Therefore tonight all I have to share with you are just some more photos that I think are pretty cool. These are pictures of a large Privateer Press display that I saw at Adepticon a couple years back. It looked awesome but the only problem was that it was surrounded with plexiglass or something which made taking pictures of the minis rather frustrating. Thus none of the following photos turned out as well as I would have liked which is why I decided against posting them at the time in 2010. I guess my standards are lower now as I reason, "Eh... why not? They're still neat." But if obviously amateurish photography makes you cringe, you at least have been warned. Then again, if that were the case this blog would probably not be to your liking anyway, so why should I worry about catering to you hypothetical photo snobs?

Ah, sorry. This has indeed been a long day. I'll shut up now and get on with the pictures.

The display had been divided into three separate scenes, of which the Khador assault pictured above was one of them. I really like the alternative color scheme used on these models as well as the details of the overrun network of trench works and defenses, too. I've chosen as my initial faction for Warmachine the mighty forces of Khador, and since I wasn't able to actually get started on them today, I thought it would be fun to at least share these pictures of Khador minis. I hope you enjoyed taking a peek even if they were somewhat blurry or crazy looking from the flash. What can I say, it's been one of those days. :)

Goodnight!

A Lovely Iron Kingdoms Table

I don't have much time tonight for blogging as I continue to be occupied by visiting relatives. So for this week's Warmachine/Hordes post I'd like to show a picture of one of my favorite gaming tables. I saw this one at Adepticon and I have no idea who is responsible for it, although I guess it was made by someone associate with Privateer Press. It was located right next to one of their big display pieces in the ballroom where all their tournaments were held.

Okay, check it out:

Why then do I like it so much? To begin with I think it's just a really attractive table built to a high standard of craftsmanship. I wish at the time I had taken more photos of it so that I could show some closeups as the buildings and train station are all well detailed, beautiful pieces of scenery. Also the train and boxcar apparently received a similar amount of care and attention. I remember them being quite lovely.

Beyond its aesthetic appeal I appreciate that it is still a very functional wargaming table for the system for which it was created. It doesn't appear overly crowded with too many lavish terrain pieces and so it should still allow for an enjoyable, standard type of game, not one in which the table itself dominates how the game is played. While I definitely have a lot of fun playing on those specially designed, narrative-heavy tables, this one comes across to me as a top-notch, "I can play on it everyday" sort of table.

Perhaps what I like the most about the table, however, is how well it fits the background and themes of its game world. It seems to me a perfect expression of the Iron Kingdoms and very representative of that Steampunk-styled setting. Sure it would work fine for a lot of other games, but with even a glance I know where the action on the table is supposed to be taking place. I'm also impressed that this isn't conveyed by means of any overt references to in-game factions, symbols, etc. or other sorts of give-away clues.

Finally, I just think it's really neat that the table has train tracks and a train, too. I've wanted to build a table with train tracks for a long time but have not yet done so. That's a terrain feature I would like to see show up more often. Growing up my dad was into model trains so I've thought for a while it would cool to integrate a little of that into my own hobby. Maybe someday I'll get around to that... seems like it would be fun. By the way, does anyone know what scale or gauge of track works well for 28-30mm miniatures?

So that's why I think this table is so groovy. I hope everyone is having a rockin' week so far. Goodnight!

Newton's First Law of Blogging

The past month ended up being a rather slow time on the hobby front, but that's not to say I have been entirely idle these past several weeks. After fighting unsuccessfully against inertia, with regards to both hobby stuff and blogging, I decided it would be best for me to take a step back and consider what it is that I want to do with my little corner of the Internets. To that end I packed a satchel full of my favorite rulebooks along with some dice, then ascended to the top of my mountain for a period of deep contemplation and soul searching.

Reviewing the latest from Wargames Research Group

And so what did my meditations upon the great mystery of the d6 reveal to me? Not much really. I did however make up my mind about what to do with this diceRolla blog. I feel that it is time to take a more deliberative approach to updating my blog rather than the haphazard manner which I have previously employed. Therefore starting tomorrow I am going to attempt to keep a regular posting schedule and will initially aim for at least a daily post.

Early on in the history of this blog I tried to post something every day but that experience ended in disaster and tedium. With a newborn in the house there wasn't a whole lot of hobby time for me and even less time available in which to post anything meaningful, but conditions have changed since then and I'm optimistic about being able to maintain my routine a little more successfully this time around. It's probably best however to still think of this as something of an experiment as it very well may crash and burn within a matter of days. With that caveat out of the way, this is the posting schedule I have in mind:

Monday - WH40k

Tuesday - Warhammer Fantasy

Wednesday - Warmachine/Hordes

Thursday - Infinity

Friday - Malifaux

Saturday - Dystopian Wars

Sunday - Open/Misc.

Like I said, I'm not sure how long this will last and I may want to revise the rotation as I go along, but I do feel like this will be a good start even if just to try it out. I enjoy a variety of games and certainly love painting a wide range of miniatures, so I think this schedule would be fairly representative of my current hobby interests. Also as I inevitably have a lot of different projects underway at the same time I figure I might as well make something of that too, thus making my tendency to jump around a feature of the blog. We'll see how it goes but it can't be any worse than my recent, nonexistent blogging efforts, right?

So the new era of my diceRolla blogging adventures is set to begin on the 1st of August. May it last for years and years, or until I become burned out and bored. Hmm... I give it two weeks. :) In the spirit of new beginnings I'll be kicking off a brand new 40k army project tomorrow, previewed in the following picture.

Who loves hedonism and corruption? I do, I do!

Thanks again to all my fantastic readers and the many friends I've made through our shared passion for glue and paint. If this blogging experiment works out, hopefully you'll hear from me more than just once a month. Really my main goal is to get that hobby inertia working once again in my favor, and since this blog has been such a source of motivation and encouragement for me in the past, I believe I can use it as a way of launching back into the swing of things. So until tomorrow (fingers crossed)... happy gaming and painting, everybody!

Bad Commerce: Stat Card Piracy

This weekend I bought a Mercenaries MkII Faction Deck only to discover that it is missing all the particular stat cards for which I made this purchase. In place of the expected Talion Charter cards there is instead a surplus of Rhulic duplicates. I assume someone bought two decks and swapped out the unwanted dwarves to gain an extra set of pirate cards, then returned the tampered deck for a refund. Sneaky git.

I try not to be cynical but this seems unlikely to have been due to faulty packaging or a manufacturing error. I didn't realize until much later that the box was closed with two pieces of clear tape which should have tipped me off that something was amiss. I had been in a hurry to get out of there, however, as the store gives me the creeps and therefore I did not look closely at what I had picked out. It was only when I went to open the deck the next day that I first noticed anything wrong. Caveat emptor, indeed.

Despite being on the wrong end of these shenanigans, I am kind of amused that the apparent targets of this scam were the pirate themed stat cards. It seems fitting at least. This experience isn't even that surprising based on the store's history of unmitigated disappointment. Really this just strengthens my resolve to henceforth patronize it as little as possible. The store is more than an hour's drive from home, offers no discount (but sometimes even charges above the MSRP!), and leaves me with an overall icky feeling. So much for buying locally, I'll shop online.

Now I don't want this post to be entirely negative so for some balance I also want to briefly report on some recent positive shopping experiences. First up are these great pith-helmet head swaps from Secret Weapon Miniatures that I received in the mail today. Seeing them in person gives me a whole new appreciation for the awesome sculpting job done by Col.Gravis of Col.Gravis' Praetorian Imperial Guard. I ordered enough heads to make a minimum sized Praetorian platoon but I currently don't have any plans on going beyond that. I just thought it'd be a fun side project to tinker with and add to the painting wait list. Also I think it's great that more people are entering the market sculpting and casting add-on and parts-swap bits like these heads. The world needs more bits, so I really do like supporting commercial endeavors like this. Good work guys!

The other thing I'm happy to report about is the swift arrival of a batch of miniatures ordered from Privateer Press. No surprises here, I simply appreciate being able to purchase bits and individual models otherwise only available in their box sets. I wish Games Workshop had not eliminated their own bits service and continue to hope that someday it will return. Does anyone remember an official GW explanation for why they discontinued bits sales? No matter, I suppose. It doesn't seem to have affected their success too adversely.

Alright, enough of this. Sorry about all the whining and the rather dismal photos. I've been getting in a little hobby time here and there so I should have better things to talk about soon. Also I'm gathering together the last elements needed for the next diceRolla giveaway so I'll have details on that posted soon. Bye!

Just Pictures

This week has taken a toll on me... ugh. No time for words, just pictures. AdeptiCon. Have fun.

Resolutions Are Stupid

First off, let me start by saying that I'm done with doing these monthly updates on my resolutions for the year. I'm bored with it and don't have the time to waste. I'm sure I'll mention whatever hobby or gaming stuff I work on, so doing what would basically be a monthly recap seems pointless. I've decided I don't want to squander any precious time documenting my progress on the more personal goals, without which I should no longer be compelled to do these dumb First-of-the-Month posts.

Secondly, I had no idea how large of a project my wife started while I was away for the week. The house is truly in chaos. I'm looking forward to the end product, but right now it seems overwhelming coming immediately after all those days on the road and at AdeptiCon. I'm so enthusiastic and charged up right now about gaming and painting that I want to dig right in. Instead I am going to need to use that as motivation to get the house once again in order. Until that time, however, I do not foresee being able to get much of anything done concerning my favorite little toy soldiers. Even my AdeptiCon review stuff will probably have to wait a while longer, and for that I am sorry. What I will do though is keep posting a few random photos when I get a chance to sort of whet the appetite for eye candy. I know some of these are blurry but I think they're still cool enough to be worth checking out.

And finally, once the house is no longer in such a crazed condition, I probably am going to be throwing out all my old project plans. Even though I don't like constantly starting over, one lesson I've taken from AdeptiCon is that I should only work on those things about which I am passionate. This is a hobby, after all, not a job. I was really inspired by my gaming experiences over the past week or so and I feel like a lot of the mental blocks that were obstructing me have been lifted. All the projects I had going on before I left for AdeptiCon still appeal to me and I hope to get them done as well, it's just that I might be wandering somewhat from my previous notions of how and when they would be accomplished. I certainly have my 40k mojo back, so expect to see some progress once again on that front. Even though it's quite early in the process, to get a sense of the direction I'm going in you can check out a new blog (yes, another one) I started just for this project, which I'm calling the Stonecutters Guild. It will be the dedicated online home for my own Simpsons-themed DIY chapter of Space Marines, the Stonecutters.

Birthday Skorned

I mentioned about a week ago that my family gave me some pretty cool gifts for my birthday, including a variety of gaming items and miniatures. I wrote last week about how touched I was by the Daughters of the Flamer box and the warlock blister from my wife and on behalf of my own little girl, but that wasn't all by far! Pictured above is a complete 35 point Skorne army for Hordes given to me by my wife, with only a minimum of selection input from me. There's even an extra warlock in the form of Archdomina Makeda to give this force additional flexibility! She started off by giving me the Warpack for Valentine's Day, then got the rest for me over the following few weeks. To round out the army, my wife included a pair of Minions blisters, the Totem Hunter and a Swamp Gobber Fob Bellows crew. I'm particularly pleased with the faction-themed items as she tracked all of them down herself and I'm a sucker for these types of things. I forgot to include the Skorne paint kit and a blister of Praetorians, but everything else made it into the photo.

The rest of my family also got in on the Hordes-action and decided to add Trollbloods to my collection. In total I was given a Trollbloods Warpack, a Pyre Troll, a Fell Caller solo, a full unit of Pyg Bushwackers, and an Alten Ashley model. This means I've now got more than 25 points worth of yet another faction! They also gave me the Trollbloods paint kit and a set of Trollbloods tokens so I should be all ready to go with them.

I am very grateful that my family would go out of their way to get me such cool birthday presents. Even though I did help out by providing some ideas, I really had no idea that I would be receiving this many awesome new toys. I am still quite shocked by it all! I anticipate being very busy this year painting them. Also it is fortunate that my birthday didn't come a month earlier or else I might have ended up with a lot of Games Workshop stuff right before becoming interested in the Privateer Press games. Good timing, indeed! As it stands now, however, I benefited greatly and now have a huge jump on my Hordes collection. It was an awesome birthday and I had lots of fun with everyone, so again, thank you!

Check It Out, I'm 33!

Today is my birthday and am turning thirty three years old, so happy birthday to me! I don't really know what to say... I think it's going to be a great year and today was an excellent launch into this new age. I've had a lot of fun today and even got in some painting here and there. I received a bunch of cool gifts including some awesome birthday gaming surprises, no less! My wife went so far as to brave a trip to the not-so-friendly local (actually it's an hour's drive away) gaming store to pick out some miniatures herself to give to me. I'm really touched by her having taken that upon herself. In honor of our little daughter, she got for me a unit of Daughters of the Flame! Hmmm, I have been increasingly interested in the Protectorate of Menoth and so this could be the start of something exciting. Additionally for my growing Circle Orboros collection she also got for me a new warcaster, Krueger the Stormwrath! I still feel shocked by the thoughtfulness of it as I now know she really has been paying attention to my hobby beyond the painting itself, not to mention the courage it took to walk into such a den of nerdiness and dorkitude. I'll detail the other gaming stuff I was given sometime soon, I just wanted to express my thanks while I'm still in the moment.

I have good news to report from the painting front, too. Tonight I finished work on Kaya which means my Circle Orboros Warpack is now done! Woo-Hoo!! I had so much painting these miniatures and even though it was only four models, because of the nature of the game, they actually do represent a decent sized chunk of an army. I therefore feel like this was a real accomplishment for me and am encouraged about the prospects of getting some playable armies painted in the near future. I plan on paining the Gorax light warbeast next, then probably some units or solos. As for Kaya, the gold ended up being a pretty big pain in the rump but ended up looking good I think. The eyes however were really tough for me to get right and in fact I think they still look sort of jacked. Her right eye looks okay but the left one is not pretty. Is there anything more frustrating than botching the eyes on an otherwise well painted figure? I'm just glad the way the miniature is posed should keep her face hidden most of the time when seen on the tabletop. I suppose they're not all terrible bad and do look better than many of eyes I've painted in the past, but I am far from satisfied with my eye-painting abilities right now. Maybe I'll spend some time searching around for tutorials on the subject... let's see if this internet really is good for something!

Second Month Slide

Hail Mars!

Woooo-Hoooo, it's March! Can you tell that I'm excited about the new month? I'm expecting great things for March, which began with a full moon no less, and I really want to make it a strong month for my wargaming hobby. My birthday is less than a week away, then at the end of the month will be my trip to Chicago. Plus I've got all sorts of great times in between with my wonderful wife and daughter so I'm starting this next year of my life happier than I've ever been before. I'm a very fortunate man and I am truly grateful.

Having said all that, I do have some unfortunate news to report. Like so many other people who made resolutions this year, I followed my good first month with a not-so-good second. February was a rough one for keeping resolutions. In the past I always thought that once a resolution was broken, that was it and there was no reason to not regress to whatever that pre-resolution condition might have been. I now have a different understanding, one which I anticipate will not be quite so defeatist and instead perhaps even encouraging. I now see that because these are resolutions to be kept for the whole year, I can still make up for falling behind in my goals. I didn't do as well as I could have this month, but that should not justify throwing out the goals themselves. I just need to do better, and it really is as simple as that. So let's review the resolutions and see how I'm doing.

1. After finishing the Dreadnought in January, the next three weeks passed without painting anything. Once I decided that forcing myself to paint those sniper scouts wasn't worth it, I was able to quickly get back into painting and was having fun again. I don't know how many hours I painted each week this month but I know I easily made up for the initial lack of painting.

2. I've thrown this one out as I no longer want to take my nascent Dark Angels to AdeptiCon. My new goal is to simply have my Chaos Marines ready to go with me should I choose to.

3. I'm not sure about this one as I do not know if my current lack of interest in 40k will persist. With further consideration, this resolution may need revision.

4. This resolution also may need to be altered to better suit my changing tastes in wargaming... seems like an Iron Kingdoms terrain set might be more useful. I'll be thinking about this more over the coming days.

5. I'm not drinking enough water, for which there is no defense.

6. A couple of weeks ago I was given copies of the HORDES Prime rulebook and the WARMACHINE MkII rulebook which will be essential to successfully completing this resolution. Thus far I've mostly just been reading background stuff in these books, though I have recently started reading the rules for Warmachine. By the way, I really like these games.

7. I've been filling out my Circle Orboros collection, adding my first units and solos. With the help of iBodger, I was able to pick out miniatures that would allow me to field a 35 Point army and added to my collection a Gorax light warbeast, 10 Tharn Bloodtrackers (one boxed set and two blisters), 3 Shifting Stones, 6 Circle Druids of Orboros, and a Lord of the Feast. I spent on these miniature $100.93, so I was therefore pretty close to my target, though I also got to help pick out some birthday presents which mitigated somewhat the shopping I might otherwise have done.

8. I did not do well on this one and need to make healthier decisions.

9. I still am yet to play any games this year, although this should be a good month for rolling dice. I'm really hoping I get the chance to play some demonstration games of WARMACHINE and HORDES when I am at AdeptiCon.

10. This is the most important to me and is one which I hope to be improving upon daily.

That's it for the resolution review... I knew February had been a bad month for some of these and I had actually been worried about reporting on them. I probably should revise my hobby goals for the year to make sure that they accurately reflect what I hope to accomplish this year. There is really no sense in forcing myself to play with a particular set of toys just to satisfy an arbitrary goal, especially if it ends up having an effect opposite to the original purpose which was to help me stay motivated. Although I want to honor my resolutions, I see value in modifying them to keep them useful and encouraging rather than obstinately leaving them as they are and just having them go unfulfilled. Something for me to consider, at least.

I Heart iBodger

A long time ago I was an avid user of Lone Wolf's army construction software... yup, Army Builder. Just to be clear that I mean no infringement upon their intellectual property, Army Builder is a registered trademark owned by Lone Wolf Development. So with that disclaimer out of the way I can hopefully continue without fear of litigation. Even though I had not used their program for several years now, I do fondly remember sitting at my computer making list after list just for the fun of it. Unfortunately it now seems that Lone Wolf has been following Games Workshop's example and has recently swung its own IP-Hammer at Privateer Press. Apparently they did not like the fact that users of Privateer Press's forums would sometimes refer to army construction software generically as "army builder" programs and therefore asked PP to remove all such instances. They further wanted Privateer Press to police their forums in the future to prevent anymore such occurrences, as well as to educate their users regarding the legal issues involved and why "army builder" is not in fact a generic term. In order to comply, Privateer Press had to delete numerous offending threads, thus destroying significant content that had been developed by the community of gamers who used them.

I don't want to get into the legal concerns here as I am by no means a lawyer. It just strikes me as being a very petty, small-minded move on the part of Lone Wolf. I know defending one's IP is important for companies to do so as to not jeopardize their claim to ownership but in my opinion this was a really bad move on their part. Lone Wolf's own products exist within a legal grey area themselves and come extremely close to infringing the IP-rights of all the game companies for whom their software is designed to support. What's worse though is that this was brought about not by Privateer Press's actions but by those of average gamers posting at PP's forums. Considering the size of the company and the niche market that they serve, I believe this was a horrible public relations blunder on the part of Lone Wolf and has done tremendous damage to their relational equity with the gaming community. It will be a long time before I purchase anything from them again and right now do not foresee ever giving them my business in the future. I'm not going to help out a company that treats fellow gamers in such a manner.

Having fully returned to my hobby of choice, I had recently thought about getting the updated Army Builder software from Lone Wolf. It's by no means a necessity and in fact I remember seeing quite a few bugs showing up the last time I was an active user of their programs. It was nice having all the stats and information regarding weapons compiled onto a few sheets of paper to use while playing, but certainly nothing I couldn't do on my own. This has therefore kept me from spending some cash on something I don't need... thanks, Lone Wolf! But the other really great thing to come out of this is that I have also been introduced to a very neat phone app called iBodger. It is officially supported by Privateer Press and designed to be used for Warmachine and Hordes as an army list construction tool. Even better is that it is free! Not only does it help you put together your army lists, but also serves as a way of keeping track of one's miniatures collection. Very cool! Had it not been for Lone Wolf targeting Privateer Press and going after their forums, I might have never heard of this app and so for that I too am thankful. It's funny how things work out. One of the first things I did after getting my iPhone was look for applications suitable for gaming but I found nothing useful. I'm really glad therefore that Privateer Press saw the potential for this and is giving it their support. I'm starting to really like this company and I look forward to getting to know them better. And if you play their games and have an iPhone, go check out iBodger for yourself.

Jumping In

One of my resolutions this year is to learn to play at least one new game, which will be either Warmachine, Hordes, or Flames of War. I've been checking around the internet a little bit over the last few days to get a sense of what I might be interested in concerning these games and how I should go about deciding which to pursue. After trips to two not-so FLGS, I purchased today the Open Fire! intro box-set for Flames of War as well as a Hordes Circle of Orboros Warpack box. I'm excited to begin playing around with them even though this is probably not such a great time considering how much I have to paint over the next two months, but oh well. It's all for fun. Here are my initial thoughts about the three contenders:

Warmachine: Cool miniatures but I'm intimidated by the bulk of the metal kits. I purchased both a Cryx box-set and one for Cygnar when the game first came out but never really went any further with the game even though I thought it had a lot of potential. It looked fun, I just didn't have time for it. New rules and the beginning of plastic releases makes me think this game has a bright future. I plan on buying the new rulebook but will probably wait to see how their plastic range develops before I go too far with this game for now. I'm confident I will eventually want to give the game a full hearted effort. Right now I would go for either Khador or Mercenaries.

Hordes: The monsters and beasties for this game are some of my favorite miniatures currently in production. They just look like they would be a lot of fun to paint, though I'm a little confused about how the game plays. Fortunately a new rulebook is being prepared and should be released in the near future. I'm really excited about this opportunity to get into a game when it's fresh out of the gate. Until the new rules come out I plan on painting whatever dudes catch my fancy and have decided to start with Orboros. After the starter box I'm probably going to do some more guys from that faction as well as some Skorne figures... I love those monsters with the huge tusks! I also think a number of the Minions range for this game look fantastic, especially the Gatorman Posse and the two special Gatorman dudes. No matter what, I want to paint them.

Flames of War: I was very enthusiastic about this game when it first launched. I remember as a kid when I was first getting into historical wargaming wishing that there was a good system for representing the 20th century. With Flames of War it seemed like my dreams had come true... I loved everything about it. I mean, it's historical wargaming with awesome 15mm tanks! I had the start of two armies for fighting out Rommel vs Monty in North Africa, as well as a pretty good stack of books. But I quickly realized that it was way more complicated than DBA and I therefore had little chance of being able to get anyone to play the game with me. I was frustrated and set it aside. The last time I moved, however, I thought I would never have time for this game and threw out everything. It seems like there is now strong support for this game, even in my area. And I love the new Vietnam era figures that are now being released, so I think this might be a good time for me to revisit FoW. I do not however want to repeat my previous attempt and dive in completely. For starters I really have no idea what time period or army I would want to collect, there are just so many interesting possibilities. Thus I feel that I should be content with the Open Fire! box to familiarize myself with the game before I go any further. I am right now however very tempted to get a bunch of Nam dudes and helicopters just for the sheer thrill of painting them. That's something I've wanted to do for a long, long time.

So that's where I am with regards to my first steps into trying out some new games to play. Along with adding variety to my wargaming diet I also appreciate that this increases the diversity of miniatures to paint. And who knows, maybe it will even inspire me to go back and get more done on some old, neglected projects like my DBA armies. I believe good things will come of this.

PS - Farewell, Conan. I look forward to seeing wherever it is you go next. NBC, you can suck it!