I finally bought a display cabinet

 o/

It's already filled with a random smattering of favorites, of which only the Grot Spee, Baby Squiggoth and Exodite Autarch on the griffin are likely to see any actual future in-game use. 

I've always wanted one, but they're usually quite expensive and take up a fair bit of my little house's limited space. However and old friend of My Beloved Wolfy whom I'd never personally had met until this purchase was selling one for a mere $75 and I pounced on it! His parents had stored it at his house during a move and never retrieved it. He himself had never used it for anything and it never made it back to them or their estate sale. 

It's solid wood and as you can see it also has a mirror back panel and interior light. the boxes on top are full of My Wolfy's mementos that I don't have the heart to go through/look at right now, as well as the hat she wore at our wedding and a few Halloween decos (her favorite holiday).

The Jasper

o/

Late last year My Beloved Wolfy and I made a rather expensive (for us) Impulse buy, and on a Kickstarter no less. We bought ourselves a new dining room table. Most people right now are thinking so? That's gaming related how? Well. It was a Jasper, meaning its not only a dining room table, but a game table as well!

WIP: this is as far as I got Friday evening before calling it a night.

Unlike most kickstarters that I've backed, this one only ran about a month late on the estimated delivery time. Part of that delay was due to feedback on a short run of prototype tables, several of which were damaged in shipping. Resulting in a redesign of their packaging. Yeah, I'm okay with that sort of delay. From what I understand, as soon as the project was funded (in approx. 9 minutes!), mass production started!

3.5' x 5.5' of no dice rolling off of this table's surface gaming space!

The tables' manufacturer is a small custom game table manufacturer in Jasper Missouri. Previously, they built the Duchess game table which I would have liked to have gotten, but couldn't afford at the time. Their other tables are laughably out of our reach, but we splurged on the Jasper.

You'd never know this was game table if we didn't tell you.

Aside from a few inquiries from Wolfy along the lines of where the fuck is MY table?!?, the wait for this KS was mercifully short. It took a week or so to find a home for our old dining room table (Florida, though we're only trucking it as far as Knoxville). We disassembled that, and I lugged its dreadfully heavy parts into other rooms for temporary storage. Thus, with our dining room cleared, I started assembly Friday night. 

Removable cup holder optional location #1: on each corner of the short table edges. 

The instructions were nigh on fool-proof...ha! I bested that theory in no time at all! Mistake #1: 'No honey I don't need any help, I can do it myself.' Followed immediately thereafter by mistake #2: trying (in futility) to get the incorrect bolts into what I thought were their allotted holes. 20 wasted minutes later....and I realized my mistake and it was fairly smooth sailing from there. 

Removable cup holder optional location #2: the middle of the long table edges. Regardless they don't ever need to be on the gaming surface!

Plenty of room for an X-Wing map,
whilst having a 1/3 of the table top for lists, tokens, etc. 

Well, enough rambling: its built! Looks great! is solid as hell, and the finish matches our chairs perfectly! Neverness is slated to come over this evening for the table's inaugural game. So look for a battle report from one of us soon.

My never used Kill Team map. Could probably move that table section to the center and still have 2 side-by-side games going!

a standard Battletech map sheet is about the size of the KT map, but even my over-sized hax map fits perfectly (something I made sure to of when I printed it off some months back).

After some deliberation, we rotated the table 90 degrees for a better fit for the room. Here it is, all set up for 40k vs. Neverness who is currently enroute.

My first game with the new CSM codex

o/

I had a good long weekend with my Dad & Grandparents. Some painting was done in the evenings, but I'll save that for another post. Instead, I thought I'd give my initial thoughts on the new CSM codex learned from a game vs. Hive Angel last week.

First up, the HQ's:

Starring Centurion Niro, in his battlefield debut!

 I wanted to try out the Dark Apostle (chosen mini on the left).  As a fluff Bunny I really like the idea, but on the table he didn't fair too well. Hive Angel really doesn't like the idea of challenges (get over it pal, I have 2 CSM armies that are required to issue and accept them). Thus my Dark Apostle challenged a BA Sgt., waylaid into him with his power maul, only to have the Sgt. make his armor saves and then kill the apostle with a powerfist.

FAIL.

Whereas Centurion Niro, of the Tyrant's Legion (more on that below) did nothing more than send his cultist minions on a grueling forced march. From short table edge to short table edge, and straight into the enemy guns.

Note the cultists in 'Cadian camo'.

With the cultists added in as troops (albeit with very limited options), I'm thinking that I can resurrect my Tyrant's Legion army idea. As you can see at left, I fielded 40 of them, the 20 from the DV box, and a blob of 20 beastmen IG who had the mark of Nurgle. While 'fluffy' CSMs feeding cultists into the enemy guns doesn't win games when objectives need to be taken. So I'm going to need to have at least one unit of power armor troops.

That said, the cultists held up well under the onslaught with 2 units breaking at the end (sealing my fate). But with just 6 survivors out of the original 30, that can be forgiven. The other 10 were with my lord, fearless, and cut down to a man. Leaving Niro on his own at game's end.

I rather like the Helbrute's D3 chart, and now see why it can't have extra armor (i.e.: it doesn't need it). It was also rather novel to have them advancing behind my rhinos and predator without fear of them killing those vehicles. Speaking of the Predator, while a 'dakka pred' isn't too effective against MEQs, I hadn't at the time of the game really read the codex all the way thru. Having now done so, I' think I'll be upgrading it with the Warpfire Gargoyle (which the turret sorta has already).  That ought to give it a bit more punch...or at least be a bit more annoying to the enemy.

My 'Plasma Death' havocs got a nice little bump in the form of the Mark of Slaanesh and the icon of excess (FnP on the plasma Havocs is nice!!!) and giving their champion a combat familiar. While he lacked a power weapon of any sort (and his squad the extra CCW), slinging 5, i5 attacks a turn was fun! He was the only one of my champions to win a challenge, however the gods were not impressed and he got nothing for it. 

So, I still need to play around with it, but I'm not really seeing a need for any major purchases for either CSM army (which is good). Maybe some spawn as I don't have those models, but's really it. No Dino bots and stupid looking dragons for me.
 

On a different note, I found that there is ample room to rotate my game table 90 degrees to allow for all the deployment options. Previously one end of the table was up against the wall. Its a little tight though, so it might not be feasible for any of my opponents who have the 'Bulky' special rule...

;-p

Cell phone cameras & TLoS

o/

This came up a few weeks back & has really worked rather well ever since. Indeed its become the norm @ my house.

Usually in games, photos are taken for either battle reports or what looks to be a rather cinematic shot, like this:

This looks like a long walk into a lot of Blood Angel bolter fire...

However as you can see in the background of that photo, there's a wall. Yes right up against the table. You see my game room isn't big enough to allow for us to walk all the way around the table, so on one side, determining TLoS has always been kindova pain in the ass. Usually the player being targeted has to kneel down & see if they can see the enemy gun that's trying to shoot them, that or whomever is shooting will come around the table to do the same. Games @ my house are fun & friendly, so this isn't really an issue. However recently Murl (who gets full credit here) instead just pulled out his cell phone, placed it behind his tank turret, and snapped a shot. Like this:

Actually this is Screech doing the same thing earlier this week, and a photoshoped version of the photo taken. As you can see, the camera idea works great! I would imagine that this would also work well in a tourney and prevent a lot of arguing from a situation in which the tables are set end-to-end (which I have seen several times).

Once again, technology saves the day!

Making a few changes...

o/

Well, after the epic clash of the Deathstars from my last post, I then played Murl's Deathguard with a slightly trimmed down GK list with the grand master & god squad left unchanged. Needless to say, Deathguard, which is usually a strong army, crumpled like tinfoil in the face of so much cheese. Indeed Murl's reaction to the realization that after so many shots that he'd only wounded a Paladin rather than killed one was worthy of a Youtube upload (were a video camera available). He had been considering going to a 40k tourney in Knoxville that's only a few weeks off, but said the hell with it if this is the kind of army he could expect to see there.

Way to go GW.

So feeling like a slimeball WAAC player, I'm trading off the god squad to our local cheeseball who's (unsurprisingly) starting a Draigowing army in return for a tau tank of some sort (yeah, yeah, shut up Screech). For whatever reason I've wanted to paint one of those for going on 6 months, yet have had no urge to buy one. So that works. Besides, the Tau rumors are intriguing. I'll keep Matt Fucking Ward (reducing him in rank to just a 'mere paladin') & go back to my original retinue horde with a handful of GK in support idea, that list worked fairly decent & made for a better game i think.

Next I got a few upgrades for my game room this Christmas.

First off are new stools on wheels. Its amazing at how hard these were to find for under $75 a piece. However Lowes came thru in the end, having them @ $30 each. Previously I was using my old & new desk chairs, and while comfy (more for one person than the other), they took up too much space. Especially if you didn't really want to sit down. The stools are low enough to roll under the game table if they're unwanted/in the way, yet still comfortable to sit on for the duration of a game.

Next up was an improvement in lighting.

The ceiling looks black when you aim the camera directly at a light...

The combination of blue walls, and only a ceiling light with a single bulb led to a running joke that we were always 'night fighting' at my house (take a seat Mr. Necron Stormlord, your little party trick is old news here). However yesterday we installed a new ceiling fan that Mom gave me. Now having three bulbs, the lighting in there is dramatically improved. Not to mention the fan will help move the air around when its hot in there during summer (though that could be a detriment when Murl and/or Neverness start communing with Nurgle after eating some Chinese food as happens from time to time...).

I suck at learning new games.

o/

So, Murl & I have been trying to wrap our heads around the rules to Heavy Gear Blitz with mixed results. The rules for the game itself are only about 20-30 pages in the rule book, with the rest of the book, being devoted to army lists, fluff, pretty photos, etc. However the way that its worded is very...cumbersome? Unclear, confusing, non-user friendly, I don't know its just not sinking in with me. Murl is connecting the dots better than I am.

Now admittedly I'm not good at learning a game by just reading the rulebook. I do much better if I can watch something get played several times, and then read the rulebook & it all kinda clicks, however it's just the two of us starting the game cold so that's not an option. That's always been one of my quirks, like learning to find my way around when driving. Dad drove me from my house to grandma's countless times as a kid, but until I actually made that drive myself, I never really knew how to get there, I just kinda recognized stuff along the way.

Primarily (though by no means exclusively) over the years I've played GW created games, and I've gotten used to their writing style. The online gamer community loves to scream about GW's ambiguities, but after trying & failing repeatedly to figure out Heavy Gear, I've really been given a proper appreciation of the care that GW puts into writing its rules. Murl describes it as reading like a technical manual in some ways, and we all know how much fun those are to read...

The game does have its merits though. I like the fluff (I have most of their RPG books which are in the same setting & provides an inordinate amount of background material), I like the minis (like my hover tanks above), its relatively small scale needing only a handful of units to build an army, and it strikes me as much more realistic (at least as much as hover tanks & piloted walkers can be).

For example:

What does a recon unit do in 40k? Well, it probably has some cool fluff & in-game gets to infiltrate, or a scout move and/or outflanking, regardless of race/faction. In Heavy Gear recon units (usually Gears) are smaller, lighter, faster, and have primarily just defensive weaponry that are only used in desperate situations. Instead they're primary use is to act as forward observers and/or provide target designators for rearguard fire support units, as well as providing ECM/ECCM (electronic warfare) support friendly units while disrupting the enemy's efforts. Those abilities/qualities also vary greatly by which particular recon vehicles in a unit are used, of which there is a bedazzeling array of variant vehicles (just as there are for the other battlefield units).

Yeah, that kinda sounds kinda like the modern battlefield. Hell, the option of electronic warfare is probably one of the best variations from 40k, which doesn't even mention it. Best you can hope for in a 40k parallel to Heavy Gear's recon units is a Tau marker light.

Another problem I'm having with the game is the endless array of acronyms. ABM, AGM, MRP, LGPL, LLC, HGM, list seems endless. They are listed out as full words in the back of the rule book with their stats, but to quote a rebel pilot from Star Wars 'There's too many of them!' The listing of the weapons stats are pretty simple to use, but the perks & flaws of equipment, not so much. Everything has a stat card, and these acronyms are used to make everything fit onto said card. Now I know one day it'll all make sense when we get used to the game, but combined with the clunky writing style of the rules, it makes for a frustrating nightmare scenario for a new player.

Okay enough ranting, on a different note... Below you can see my new game room which just a week ago was my almost never used spare bedroom (it was used on average about once a year).
My grandparents gave me the tables that are under my game board for Christmas. Not only do they fully support the board (which is foam & had about a 6" overhang all the way around on my dining room table) but there's room on either side to set up the army off of the table, or put drinks, or casualties, etc. This was taken after last night's bout of Heavy Gear. My hover tanks are scattered about, along with my paper terrain.

Its so nice to finally have a proper game room, it's geekdom at its finest!

My Paint box

o/

So, I was listening to the latest Independent Characters podcast today while at work and they were discussing making room for 'hobby time' in between the rest of life (there was also a mention of b.smoove on there as well). They suggested painting on lunch break at work or something like that and Geoff asked how would you transport your newly painted minis home, and to myself I said 'duh, with a paint box'. It then occurred to me that most people have a paint table, not a box.

I have a perfectly good, old drawing table for hobbies however as a large horizontal surface, it is as usual covered with stuff (most of which hasn't moved in so long, digging through it would be like an exercise in archeology). Anyways, after spotting the box in a craft store with Mom several years back, I said I'd like it for Christmas, and indeed it was under the tree . (note: Mom has never liked gaming, so its a bit ironic that one of the most valued items in terms of contributing to it was purchased by her)

Anyways, here it is:



Anyways, its nothing fancy, probably cost $20ish. I added some foam into the slots to hold minis in place during transport. I keep the glue in a separate compartment for the occasions when it leaks, the foam absorbs it, saving everything else. There's plenty of room for paints, brushes & tools. Decal sheets and even some sprues will fit behind the removable paint pallet (which now has an unbelievable amount of gunk painted/glued onto it).

This is what I used last week when I went to stay at my grandparents, indeed it goes to Grandma's every week. I've also used it when we used to have paint nights at game shops, friends' houses, brought along for touch ups/repairs @ the hotel the night before Gamesday, or just at home. I would imagine this would work well for college kids who live in dorms (or live in studio apartments like I used to) and are pressed for space.

The Logistics of 40k

"...amateurs study tactics; generals study logistics..."

-Author unknown- (to me anyways)

So every week, we all have the same dilemma, how to transport our armies to the FLGS (or whichever venue in which you play) and back again, intact! While not often discussed, this aspect of the hobby, is as integral to gaming as is dice, miniatures, rule books, etc. There are a myriad of products out there, many work well, while some, not so much. They are all however, far better then the old days of tanks in a box with the foam from the blister packs in between (if anything), and minis in plastic tackle boxes or the old rectangular Chessex cases (which I admit to still using).

A problem with the cases produced by the various companies out there, are that they don't work together, but rather in competition with one another (as it is so with any product). Here is what I use though, some of which isn't the typical set up. Not so much as thinking out of the box, but rather thinking of other boxes...

First off, the GW mini case.

Old, tried & true, i have 4 all of which were picked up 2nd hand or on clearance. GW has since come out with newer, larger types, but they're quite pricey.

Next the Sabol cases. Whomever invented these should be knighted!

Note: there is an IG case in there, a friend is borrowing my Basilisk this weekend, and i don't have a case for the Red Trukk yet.

Third (and far from the norm), the fruit of the month club boxes!

My uncle in Pennsylvania periodically signs my Grandparents up for the fruit of the month club for Christmas, and the boxes that they come in are perfect for artillery, IG weapons teams, lootas & odd shaped minis. Army lists, codexes, templates, etc fit in above the top layer of foam. Best of all, they're FREE! (to me)

So here we have it.

I'm at a loss on the Matilda, it just sits on the seat of my truck.

So what to do @ this point? Credit for that goes to my friend Murl who spotted this little gem @ Office Depot for about $25-$30 a few years back (stickers not included).

I think its intended for files or something. It folds up for storage when not in use.


it folds out easily, and the top is a good place to set your army up, before deploying without cluttering up the game table.



Up to two standard GW mini cases will fit, but only one is needed here. Its almost a custom fit!

Next come the Sabol cases...

Again, the deep tank trays will stack up to 2 deep while on top of the GW case.

Put the top on, the fruit boxes over that and are held on by a bungee cord, and I'm ready to go!

...and it even has wheels!

There are four of these in use in our local gaming group.