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The long wait is over.

Papa JJ returns.

Let the internet burn!

Secret Project Revealed

I am very excited to finally reveal to the diceRolla community the results of a secret project that I've been working on for most of the past year. Sorry to have kept so many of you in the dark about this while all the behind-the-scenes stuff was going on, I thought it would be more appropriate to keep quiet until everything was in place. So it now brings me incredible joy to introduce you to my newest gaming and painting buddy, Oswald Montgomery Jones!

Little Monty!

Ozzie (or Monty for you fans of The Simpsons) was born earlier this week on Monday and then my wife and I adopted him on Wednesday. Hopefully this explains at least somewhat why I have not been blogging as much as I used to. I've been rather preoccupied these last couple months. ;) With all that we had to do in order to become eligible and qualify for the adoption, I've had less time than usual for hobbying and blogging, though that was certainly a trade-off I was more than happy to make.

We'll be staying just across the border in South Carolina for the next couple of weeks as we await the legal authority to travel across state-lines with our new baby. During this time I don't have a lot to do other than taking care of Ozzie and our now three year old daughter, Cassidy, who is by the way very happy to be a big sister. :) Therefore I'm optimistic that I'll be able to post a few more times over the coming days about some of the gaming that I managed to squeeze in recently. Also I have with me a small stack of wargaming rulebooks to read, so if everything goes alright I might be able to review a couple of them as well. Of course I'll likely be delirious from a lack of sleep but that's never stopped me before.... Here is what I have on hand to help pass the time:

5150 - Star Army

Larger Than Life

Adventures in the Lost Lands

Strange Aeons

Von Unaussprechlichen Kulten (BETA)

Fear and Faith

Pulp City

Heavy Gear Blitz!

Songs of Our Ancestors

If anyone is particularly interested in hearing more about any of these games, let me know and I'll put it (or them) at the top of the list for examination and discussion. I've already started testing out Strange Aeons and so far I'm thoroughly enjoying the game. It feels like it was written especially for me as it hits all the right buttons, being a skirmish-level game based on the Cthulhu Mythos, and I suspect that it will become a big part of my hobby life once things settle down again. Therefore I'll likely start the reviews with Strange Aeons unless someone would prefer me to begin elsewhere.

Okay friends, that's it for now. If you want to check out the beginning of what promises to be a cool series about another secret Mystery Project (and one that is actually intended to benefit fellow bloggers too!), you can go check out Thor's blog Creative Twilight. Here's the link for that: Mystery Project WIP. So until next time, happy painting and gaming!!

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!