Holiday and game demos

We had a week off this past week, and wandered the country doing relaxing things and catching up with friends and family. As part of this we spent a few days in Nottingham and had a little time in Warhammer World. I managed to get a little hobby assembly done, starting on the Warhammer Heroes models I have.

We managed to fit in a couple of demos. I’d also previously got a demo of Warhammer Underworlds in. So, what’s the report?

Blackstone Fortress

We got a lovely demo with me playing the Rogue Trader and Sim playing the stompy robot. Sim found it a bit too fiddly for her liking, but I loved it, and the solo play means I’ll still be able to get in a campaign of it. Firmly on my “to purchase” list.

Adeptus Titanicus

We had a stripped down demo of two Warlords blasting seven bells out of each other. Definitely a longer game, but the core mechanics are simple and easy to remember. Likely we’ll be able to justify setting up a game table and playing a turn a night over the course of a week. Will be getting more Titans and Knights, definitely.

Warhammer Underworlds

Played this one without Sim, but also been reinforced to pick this up. A well balanced game with slick mechanics and a low model count. This one is a good quick “get a game in” option.

Only managed to assemble one Marine in Bugmans in the end due to catching up with various people. Still, it was good to catch up with various folk and my hobby keen is strong!

Stay on Target - Blackstone Fortress

I’ve been looking with much interest at the recent “Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress” release. However, I’m still not up to target with my painting goals, so it’s going to have to wait. Really don’t want to buy it just to have it sit on my shelf - we’ve only got so much shelf space!

With forty something models in the box, it’ll be a while before I buy this - possibly after I’ve got Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower painted!

Daydreaming about future plans

While still not able to really do much hobby during the move, I thought I'd ponder some of the things I'm looking forward to getting into once we're settled in to the new flat.

Adeptus Titanicus

My darling wife is super excited about this, as she's always been a titan fan. We need to have a chat about who is going Loyalist and who is playing the Traitors, but otherwise I'm just looking forward to some nice meticulous modelling and painting. The game play demos I've seen also appeal, with resource management per titan, tracking sheets, and lots of lovely crunchy stuff.

Age of Sigmar

I've been meaning to get into Age of Sigmar forever. I think it probably merits it's own dedicated post at some point, as I probably need to rationalise the projects I've got and focus on something in particular. Right now, I've got Chaos, Order and Goblins, and that's probably too much. Working out what to drop is proving a challenge, though.

Warhammer 40,000

So, I love the look of the new edition. I haven't played it once. Part of the problem is, I think, playing Guard is proving to be a challenge in terms of storage space and getting stuff to a game. Originally, I'd planned to get over this by moving to a mixed Imperium force with tons of bits and pieces from all over. Unfortunately, the easiest way to get a balanced pick up game when you don't play very often is to use the matched play rules, but they've updated those rules to remove the ability to use the "Imperium" keyword to pick an army due to an assortment of abuses in tournaments. I'm left not really sure what it is I want to be doing in 40K...

Kill Team

While Warhammer 40,000 requires this big bucket of effort to get the army out, find time to play, and all that stuff, Kill Team is looking like an excellent low effort alternative. Less space to store, fewer models to paint. I hear it's pretty balanced too. Definitely one for quick games with my wife after work.

Necromunda

Basically, everything I just said about Kill Team above. Small units, I can use the same terrain for both, and you can get a game done in a reasonable time frame. It's mostly just a case of working out what gang I want to run and picking it up... I used to run Cawdor back in the day, but both Orlock and Van Saar look tempting today.

Shadespire

Again, a nice looking game with pretty miniatures, small cost of entry and minimal storage requirements. What's not to like? Once I'm moved, I'm keen to get a demo game in to work out how quickly to get it, but its definitely something I'm excited about.

Blood Bowl

The only real question is what team to get. I ran a Blood Bowl League in my school when the last edition was released. It's stood the test of time and I adore it. I still have my old Skaven metal team, but they may end up getting sold on - the new Chaos cheerleaders are tempting me towards a more fighty game than a running and passing one.

Warhammer Quest

I have Silver Tower, and the Hammerhal version also looks like it's Even More My Jam than Silver Tower is. Plenty of gorgeous models to paint up, though it's quite a few to paint in one go before you can start play, so likely to be something I do after getting one of the games with a smaller barrier to entry done first.

Aristeia!

Like Shadespire, but in the Infinity universe. I've been offered a demo game down at HATE, which I hope to fit in at some point. The base game comes with 8 models, and you need a team of 4. These are the sort of painting numbers I can feasibly achieve. Very tempting!

Malifaux

The announcement of Malifaux 3E has both excited me and persuaded me to pause on my Infinity stuff for now. The game had been suffering from bloat, and play had been dropping off a bit, too. I'm not painting anything up until the new edition drops, so I can decide whether to stick with my current faction or switch to another one. Collodi, my main master, has dropped from tournament play, which is where I get most of my games. While I realise most UK tournaments will include the "Dead Man's Hand" rules to allow the lost Masters to be played, this edition change would be the best opportunity to switch factions.

As more information about 3E comes out, I'll pull together a few thoughts about which way I'm pulled to play, and what I'm considering.

Paint job by Aodhan

Infinity

In the language of the modern youth (I believe), Infinity is bae. It's my gaming love right now, and I'm really enjoying it. ITS Season 10 is around the corner in September, and my Druze Bayram Security will be taking the field for it. Expect more photos soon of Aodhan's brilliant paint jobs.

Decisions, Decisions

I'm not pinning myself down or committing to anything until the move is done. At that point, I'll pick up some small hobby projects and start working from there. If the blog is a bit quiet, the move will be eating into my hobby time, but I hope to try and keep semi regular posts up in the meantime.