Milestones

I was working on a new report for my most recent OWS game, and doing some blog maintenance when I realized I had overlooked posting about a couple of milestones. One. The blog turned 10 years old on March 31st, unreal..It didnt seem like 10 years., then I think oh my daughter turns 10 this fall so there you go. Two..this is my 500th post!...so despite my feeling how I have slacked off so much on the blog I am averaging 50 posts a year which isnt so bad.

I figured I take the time here to talk about what I am working on and doing Hobbywise these days since I haven't done anything like that in a good while.

Bolt Action. Despite my griping about Adepticon, Bolt Action has been the only game I have played with other Adults in years so that keeps its in the forefront, the next big tournament for me is Operation Sting in the fall. Although tournaments for me have lost their luster.  I'm still optimistic and working on my  armies, I'm looking for Sd Kfz 234/3 for my  Waffen SS recon force. I thought Warlord used to have one but  now I only see the 233 (the early model) which makes me think maybe they are putting out a new one? while I am on the hunt for that, I have a whole bunch of new british I want to get to...two big squads of Gorgon  regular British infantry , plus some HQ, and Cromwell and Sherman tanks to do, that would put my Brits on par with my Germans now as far as points on the table.

Frostgrave and Otherworld Skirmish.  I've working on Fantasy models alot lately, I have several posts coming  with new figures and while I have not played Frostgrave in awhile as its more a competitive type game, I've been have alot of fun doing narrative type fantasy games using  Otherworlds Skirmish rules., My kids and I  have great time playing these games out and its always Adventurers vs Monsters in some capacity instead of  warbands facing off  ala Frostgrave, and the kids like that better -still I'd like to get some more Frostgrave in.

Fantasy Terrain. -I also have a pretty hefty Fantasy table going right now, that I am totally decking out and want to photograph, I was inspired by that epic zillion dollar Fantasy table that was making the rounds  on You Tube and a bunch of forums several months ago. The one where the guy has like 30K worth of Dwarven Forge Stuff and is paying the worlds top painters to do all his models. Despite my natural disdain for "buying your way to the top" there is no denying it is a truly impressive layout and I wanted to something similar on a smaller scale and of course, I'll have done everything myself. I have few smaller Hirst pieces in the works and am finishing my castle, that really only needs one wall section and the 8' tower and its complete, photos this summer I am betting. It wont compare to its inspiration, but it will be 1/100th of the price and be pretty cool.

Deadzone.  I picked up some Deadzone Rebels a few years back and built and painted them as I had a Sci Fi itch and I really like the vibe and look of Mantic Sci Fi stuff, I'd like to play some games on the Space Station I built using some ruleset, what I am not sure as DZ isnt really conducive to terrain other what the game is designed for. either way, I went in on latest KS from Mantic for DZ in March of 2015 and its just shipping now..I've got models for 4 different factions and a bunch of the plastic terrain so If I can find some other humans I maybe playing this a bit, I demo'd  the new rules at Adepticon and liked what I saw.

SAGA- While I still have my vikings, I about sold off or gave aways all my other historical Dark Age and Ancient models. I dropped out of trying to play Hail Caesar!, I like the game but the armies are too time and size consuming. SAGA is more a better fit for me, and while If. I got the chance I'd gladly play standard SAGA, its more likely I'll play the home brew "Fantastic SAGA" or the Lord of the Rings SAGA, I have all the materials it just hasnt happened until Aaron expressed interest in "FSAGA", as an excuse to use his insane Warrior of Chaos army or some Dark Elves he's been working on, I do have an Undead Army ready to go.

base10studios- my other "new" blog where I talk about all the miniatures and models and terrain I am selling, so far I have sold quite a bit, my Warhammer Empire army is all but gone as of this week, I am pretty thrilled with I ended up getting for it after the time I put into it. I have also moved a bunch of other items including some older custom terrain pieces, books etc, if you are interested you can read about that there.

Lord of the Rings. I haven't played any lord of the Rings in years now, the GW game is all but dead and while I still like the system, and there is talk of GW bringing it back, I am pretty much done I think, because I dont see myself buying anything from Games Workshop again. I have a pretty huge collection some of it is already going for sale, and unless I start using it everything but the things I want to display are heading to auction.

Pirates.  Still mostly packed up from the move a year ago now. my pirates havent seen any action in years, select few of the models make their way as cast extra's into my fantasy games and this Firelock Games Kickstarter has alot of interest. No I didn't buy in, but may pick up the rules if I get a chance to try it  out, I certainly have plenty of models.

That's the rundown on about everything I currently own, or least that get any type of traction around here with that I leave you with a teaser for my next battle report,  10 years on the blog, crazy.

Crescent and Cross

 

My call of being "back from the void" seemed to be a bit premature as here I am 6 weeks later just getting to talking about some gaming. I have actually been playing some games of late, Saga and just last week some Empire of the Dead.  Its the former I am going to talk about here. Crescent and Cross is the newest release under the "SAGA" moniker from Gripping Beast. Having like the original Saga quite alot, I was sure I was I going to like C&C so when Rich asked to give me the demo I was like, of course!!. We used all his excellent figures as he is well on his way to having  gigantic Saracen and Crusader fully painted armies at 3000+ Hail Caesar level, what this means at smaller figure counts of  Saga, is you have a ton of figures to choose from. There is something to be said about picking a genre and sticking with it as a hobbyist as Rich has done. His historical only focus the last 5 years or so, shows its wisdom in having fully completed armies of early Romans, figures that work as almost a 1000 year span of Arabic forces,  and 300 years of Crusaders give him alot of gaming power across several different systems, that opposed to my gamer ADD where I have countless unfinished miniatures for various systems and havent been able to field an finished army for a non skirmish level games since I basically finished my Empire Army for Warhammer in 2009 or so.

  

On the actual game itself, if you have played SAGA you can play Crescent and Cross but there are new rules including a unique system where in order to get some of abilities, the "Virtue" that enables that power must be rolled for in game. Meaning your army has to work its way up to gaining all those killer special abilities. Arabs and Crusaders play completely different and since I was getting spanked playing the Crusaders, I can't tell you much about the Saracen mechanics other than they are very devious and deadly.

SAGA the game is quite popular in these parts and Adepticon 2015 is hosting the official SAGA grand melee here in the US as well as numerous other SAGA events. the game has some legs, not to mention for house rules as if you can make a battle board you use these rules for about any genre of gaming, flexible rule systems like that usually stand the test of time.  I've got my own Viking army I am working on since I has alot of figures from my Saxon/Viking Hail Caesar Army. total crap shoot I have anything done by Adepticon, as I for the first time ever its the middle of October and I dont have plan on what I am actually doing yet.

It is a big week around here however as our local Bolt Action tournament  Operation Sting takes place this weekend and I am in with my British Airborne. ( Bolt Action being the other game that seems to have alot of interest this season)  I should have a couple posts coming up this week on my retooled army, a practice game on Thursday with full painted armies on a full completed table ( finally!!)  and then event itself. After this weekend I can start thinking about what unfinished stuff I want to try to get on the table for Adepticon, unless I slip back in the void, who knows!

May 2014, I blinked and I missed it.

Ok wow, its June already, I had some hobby plans in May but they went up in smoke pretty quick with this wretched thing called work. I have been pretty busy of late and most I can say for my hobby efforts is the hobby fund is growing due to ebay sales and working like a madman.

What did I accomplish in May, Well SAGA seems to be the new game of the moment, fresh off my favorite TV show of the moment History Channels "Vikings' SAGA was bound to get it due from me and the gang. We had great night experimenting with rules and quickly found the game scales up quite well to larger engagement, and even other eras. Rich's gigantic Crusades era armies has plenty of players if he wants to break it down to SAGA sized warbands for Tomahawks upcoming Crusades book. I think some of guys are playing tomorrow night even, as I prepare to head off to North Carolina for a week on Wednesday.  I've been polishing up my languishing Viking /Saxon horde
into a respectable 6 pt SAGA warband. I hope to get into finishing some paint on it this summer
as we get some games in and Im looking forward to the next meet up that I host mid month.

In other game news Bolt Action is still fresh in my mind, our local fall tournament that was once
Bilbos Birthday Bash for Lord of the Rings has morphed into a Bolt Action event as GW strangled the life out of the game and it left on the side of road along with many decade old players. Most LotR guys I know here locally are now playing BA  and while well all still play the game, the thrill is certainly gone event wise with little to look forward to as far as anything new.  I look forward to some type of organized theme event as that is where that games shines maybe I'll even run that Five Armies game I was talking about 3 years ago

When it comes to current head to head play Bolt Action seems much more palpable despite some of its shortcomings its still a very fun game. I recently retooled my British list after getting schooled at the Adepticon tournament. not sinking so many points  (unecessarily I'll add) into all Veterans gave me a surprising amount of extra points and I was able to a Stuart M51A light tank to my force..I did actually build prime and base coat it this month as well.. so the month wasnt a total wash, just looking forward to getting it on the table and trying it out. Post my east coast expedition my Freelance work will slowdown a bit and  I'll get back in the swing of things..looking for forward to fun and productive summer!.