Some potential projects

The real world continues to inconveniently time consuming, and impeding my ability to spend all my time on random hobby projects. The tedious and complicated way our house move is happening continues to soak up vast amounts of time, but the little windows of delight in our new home show that it will all be worth it in the end.

I am actively champing at the bit to get to some hobby projects. It goes without saying Infinity is high on the list - that hasn't changed. But what else is catching my eye?

There's a pretty big Underworlds scene up here, and I do have a couple of warbands painted already. I do need to find the new edition cards I have somewhere. The matter is slightly complicated by my not having the current edition box for boards and tokens and whatever, and budget currently precludes fixing that.

But it seems likely I should be able to get a few games in once I've found the decks, and if I have fun with that, I'll look to get the latest set.

Quite a few people are also playing Age of Sigmar Spearhead. For this, I do have a whole Spearhead in the Skaventide box - but it's unassembled and unpainted. That's a slightly more chunky hobby project than "find a few things", but I do at least already own everything I need to do that. I've got both of the Spearhead scenery and board sets, too.

I'm getting quite excited by Heresy, as lots of other people are. A little audit of kits has shown that bits and pieces of other abandoned projects comes to about 800 points or so, but is heavily lacking in troops. One box of Heresy Tactical Marines would get me to a small playable force at about 1,000 points or so.

But I have no finished models! This feels like a good "get a couple out, get them done, then paint another kit" type project. If and when I've gotten everything else done and ready, I can grab the tactical box as my reward.

 

I am wavering on Old World, readers. While I have a bunch of Bretonnian kits, what is bringing me joy is the idea of Empire of Man. But I am definitely not in a place to be buying a huge new army.

Conveniently for me, the TSN Arena has put together some rules for playing The Old World at 500 points. This seems eminently more achievable as a goal for the Bretonnians, and perhaps once that's done, I can switch my focus to Empire?

What do you know, Malifaux is releasing a new edition! I was just getting into the local scene as part of a Slow Grow campaign when Covid hit - my last game got cancelled right as lockdown hit for the first time.

I haven't found anyone playing locally, but there is a pretty thriving national scene. I can't see it being too challenging to get some paint on my crew, grab the new cards once they come out, and sign up to a small event.

And finally, the low bar. This bit of resin from Fenris Games is intended for my photography set up. Once I find it, cleaning it, undercoating it, and painting it up with some simple techniques will be a pretty simple win to get something done.

These are a whole lot of projects. My current thinking is very much based around trying to set aside the time to get one pretty hefty hobby project done a month. I definitely have too much on in September, but I'm looking thoughtfully at October or November for being able to maybe start doing something that isn't unpacking boxes, or sorting things to be sold on eBay.

Having the space, both physically and metaphorically, is the reason we moved. I'm looking forward to being through the work that gets us there.

Peach Con - General Event Thoughts

On Sunday, my wife and I went to Peach Con in Derby. This is a small convention in a school cafeteria organised by Peachy Tips. The event is in its second year - last year seems to have been more of a Patreon meet up, while this year has graduated to a good sized small convention.

This was the main hall, with a good mix of demo tables and vendors. There was a painting competition in a side room. I also heard later about a quiz being held in another side room, and the corridor to the main room had a table with free teas and coffees.

There were a good number of games to try out - from the Games Workshop games you'd pretty much expect, to Baron's War and Team Yankee.

While I saw Team Yankee's launch, it never took off locally to me while I was in London, so I've never seen a game of it played. It was interesting to see a full urban table and an awful lot of miniatures for it engaged in a big battle.

Trench Crusade also had a table there. Sadly, I didn't manage to find the time for a demo outside of times it was already incredibly busy.

Warlord was also there with a pretty big historical table, though I think it was a display rather than an active demo.

Similarly, there was a table for Relicblade that I think Exit 23 had bought.

Battletech also had some representation - I think Alpha Strike by the cards.

Of the Games Workshop demos available, I decided to take a photo of this amazing Bretonnian force.

The Tabletop Smithy had this Ork Furby, that was deeply disturbing...

This post has already gotten long enough. I'll be posting more on Peach Con, hopefully later this week. I saw a few cool previews or releases I'd like to talk about, and they deserve a dedicated post or two...

Old World Campaign Day - Battle 3 - The Finale

 

The final battles of the campaign were the undead trying to take the town - but they had a limited time to do so before the sun rose and the vampires got significantly weaker. The games were doubles game, and my ally was running a powerful Blood Dragons list, using some custom rules written by the organiser for this event.

I took the right flank to, with the plan of using my ghostly stuff to hold up some scary units on the flank, while the Blood Dragons were planning on charging into the rows of Empire infantry.

I brought my wolves up into the outriders, who managed to cut them down quite effectively.

Meanwhile, my bats, which I'd planned to send flying over the enemy lines to take out the war machines, either got charged by a big block of infantry and smushed, or enchanted to not be able to charge, which did not go well for them.

The Blood Dragons were doing terrible things over on the left flank, taking advantage of the event rule that let them form lances...While the Empire knights had gotten caught up in some massive zombie hordes...

The grave guard and spirit hosts swarmed over and destroyed the outriders.

Meanwhile, the banshee tried to hold up the steam tank, but instead got discorporated. Whoops.

The spirit hosts pushed forward to lock up the demigryph knights.

The undead started to push into the town as the demigryph knights desperately tried to get away from the ghostly swarms.

Meanwhile, the big block of Empire infantry swung towards the blood knights and zombie horde...

The Empire infantry block crashed into the undead lines, cut down swarms of zombies, and pulled down a couple of blood knights. The impact was too much for the undead, and they crumbled away as their magic stopped holding them together...

At this point, the game ended, and we narrowly hadn't taken the town, and overall in the campaign, the Empire had narrowly swung back to win at the last moment.

All in all, this was good fun. I definitely made some bad decisions from not knowing the game very well, but it reassured me that I enjoyed playing the game and it was worth continuing to try and get my army together.

The end of eternal January

 

Well, I'm done with January. And also January is over. I had a pretty productive hobby month, finishing up a few models that have been on my paint table for a good while. This Lyran lance means I've definitely got enough models to try Battletech when I'm inspired to.

I am a little behind on "buy less than I paint" right now, down to a Made to Order box of Blood Bowl Halflings and Blue Giant Studios ending a few product lines. But six painted, twelve bought isn't too catastrophic, and is easily recoverable. If I can finish Agent Dukash and the goblins I've had on and off my desk for a whole age, I'll be back to neutral.

Getting back into painting Infinity was pretty darned great. Getting Oktavia painted and playing a game with her was a really positive vibe. There's a small amount of stress to be painting miniatures that I'm likely to use soon, which I'm not liking and will likely avoid in future. I've got an Infinity tournament next weekend that I'm currently planning on playing Combined Army at. I'm starting to consider shifting to playing one of my mercenary factions for a while until I've got the core of Combined Army painted up to take the pressure off.

I also managed in the last week to get another quick pass of undercoating done. The Anathematic, Rindak and Dartok are now ready for painting. I'm not sure what I'm going to pick up and paint next - I'm thinking I want to get a bit of volume painted, so I really need to go with what's enthusing me in the moment.

I also got back to HATE at its new venue, which I really like. It's a little harder for me to get to and needs a little more planning to reach. But I've had a couple of games there now, and I'm looking forward to more. I've also missed being able to get food at the venue, and have appreciated being able to get dinner there.

The Old World campaign day was also a great success. It confirmed to me that I like the Old World game, and that the effort to put my miniatures together and paint them won't be a waste. I'm not going to be doing quite as many events this year, but this and the upcoming Infinity tournament in February is a nice start to the year while I have the time.

Old World Campaign Day - Game 2, Dungeon Delve

 

Casting back to the Warhammer Old World campaign day, the second round was a dungeon delve, as the heroes searched for vampires as they slept to try and destroy them. I was one of the GMs, running the monsters from a the random tables our event organiser had written for us.

There were a bunch of effects that turned up, like having a trooper wandering off alone, or having someone jumped by the vampire once their coffin had been discovered. It was a pretty rough scenario that was hard for the heroes to win.

A bat swarm, in particular, was a really rough opponent for the players, especially as extra zombies kept turning up while they were held up. In the end, the players managed to find the vampire's lair, but their heroes were wounded enough and their warband had lost enough troops that they weren't able to over-come him, and the vampire was able to slay his pursuers.

As the event organiser totted up the number of Imperial heroes and vampires slain, we moved on to the third game of the day - the large finale battles...

Old World Campaign Day - The First Battle

 

The other weekend, I attended an Old World campaign day organised by a member of our club, who was kind enough to loan me his Vampire Counts army to play. The theme of the campaign was Empire against Vampire Counts.

The theme of my force as a whole was an unstable vampire, Stefan Ayken van Warten, and his family and sworn retinue. The Necromancer, Cedric Thistledown, was my "point of view" character, a cowardly illusionist con artist who'd fled his university ahead of the witch hunters when his powers were discovered. Running afoul of the Vampires, he'd been able to trick them that he was a powerful wandering necromancer with his illusions. Put in charge of a host of zombies, he discovered that provided he was "deathly" hungover, they mistook him as one of their own and didn't eat him.

The first battle represented the forces of the vampires coming through a mountain pass into the lands of the Empire. We were bringing smaller forces, so for my side, Cedric had been sent to mind an idiot cousin vampire in the vanguard, while we faced some troops from Talabecland and a "mercenary" force. (Who in turn had some mercenary ogres who proceeded to fail to show up.)

The allies of my undead were . . . some Bretonnians? Their lord did look a little, umm, glassy eyed? It seemed that his wife had a bit more influence than one might expect. As the players, we agreed that the undead would keep the Bretonnians at an arms length so as not to risk the glamour they were under, so we gave the Bretonnians the left flank and the vampires the right.

The undead advanced, and in turn, the Empire advanced their landship and a unit of Knights of the Blazing Sun to threaten charges next turn. Meanwhile on the left flank, the Bretonnians and Talabecland troops were heavily engaged.

The Cairn Wraith charged the Landship, which failed it's Terror check and fled. The illusionist managed to create an illusionary pillar in front of the Knights of the Blazing Sun, blocking their charge.

Fully over-confident now, I charged the Cairn Wraith and some bat swarms into the Knights of the Blazing Sun. They held their ground, easily cut down the bats, and their victory there weakened the grasp the Cairn Wraith had on the world, banishing it.

The ghosts phased through the house to get out of the way of the knights, while the rest of the forces swung left to avoid them.

The vampire had gotten himself charged by some state troops, so the zombies and ghosts planned to charge the flank. He cut down a unit champion before offering a challenge to the Empire general.

Meanwhile the witch hunter associated with the mercenaries had gotten caught up with dealing with some brigands and was quite far back from the main fight, though his holy flames were really putting paid to my ghosts...

The zombies and ghosts charged in, and the fight tipped in favour of the undead. The vampire and the Empire general had a nail biting back and forth fight, with the vampire injured before cutting down the general. The left flank of the Empire had been thoroughly chewed through by the Bretonnians, leaving the field in the hands of the undead and their allies.

This was my first game of the Old World, and I had a lot of fun. There's plenty to learn and I need to get my own force put together. There's a couple of games still to come I'll write up in turn, but for now, it seems, the Empire is in danger...

A little paint, Old World Campaign Day, and Infinity N5 Plans

 

I'm writing this before the weekend, because I'm going to be pretty darned busy this weekend... 

The new project on the painting table are some models for the Combined Army and the Shasvastii. There's a T-Drone and an E-Drone (the Missile remote and the EVO remote), and then Agent Dukash and Oktavia Grimsdottir.

I also decided it was time to finish sorting the re-basing of this Rasyat with Boarding Shotgun, who'd been glued to his base the wrong way around. The new base has now had it's texture paste added, and it just needs a black undercoat and a Wraithbone drybrush so it's ready to get painted.

I had a little zone out moment and when I came around here's all the colours I'd got in on Oktavia. There's a few little bits that will need tidying up, and then I plan on doing a little dry brushing to add some texture and drop a few detail highlights in. Then it's just a case of sorting the basing out, and I'll have another model sorted for my Shasvastii. I'm feeling very virtuous and hope I can keep this pace up...

My Saturday is going to be spent engaged in some Old World shenanigans! Some folks from the club are having a narrative campaign day with some Empire forces fighting against some naughty vampire counts, and I've signed up to borrow someone's vampire count army to play for the day. It's in the past when this post comes out, but I won't have had time to write it up yet!

And Sunday, I'm having my first game of Infinity N5! This is just a simple game of Frontline that I'll be taking Vanilla Combined Army to. I'm going to start off with a stereotypical Charontid / Anathematic list to keep it simple. I'm running Shasvastii in the narrative campaign because I have more of them painted, but I want to try the Vanilla lists too.

So yes! A productive bit of painting, but hopefully you'll have a couple of reports of some games coming up soon as well. It's feeling like a good start to the year.