There comes a time in every geek's life when he gets a box in the mail. And by "box", I mean "Freaking huge box full of more toys than you can shake a fist at". For me, this happened Tuesday, and it's taken a couple of days to shake down, sort out, and otherwise come to terms with Geekmas.
You may recall several posts back, I mentioned that my interest in Cryx, Warmachine, etc. was waning. After considerable thought, and a chance comment by someone with whome I'd just completed a trade on Bartertown (Norseman, a gaming buddy from TBay, who sent me Tau), I decided to unload my Cryx. ALL my Cryx. Which meant everything made for Cryx, aside from some of the newest infantry and solos. Plus, you know, more Cryx.
What I got in trade was this.
1. Pretty much all the brettonians I'll ever need, want, or otherwise conceivably be associated with. In the box was 2-3000 points worth, including some of the cooler pieces like an extra Trebuchet, the King on a hippogriff, knights galore, enough Pegasus knights to form the RAF, etc. I might trade some for a few of the more obscure units like a relique, but at this point, I'm more or less in a position to paint heraldry until I die.
2. Around 2000 points of Canadian 3rd Division for FoW. The initial plan was to raid these guys for their lend-lease units, notably the Shermans, for my Soviets, and then flip them. However, after a couple of days of caressing the models, muttering "precious" to myself, and eating live fish, I'm starting to wonder if that's what's going to happen. Things became even more complicated last night, when I played a 1500 point game against the C3D at the Dueling Grounds. That's them across the table.
They're cool. I like the figs, and they have some nifty options - including a few that are unique in the game. This may end badly, given I already have a Soviet "to-do" list coming out my ears. While the Shermans are still destined for lend-lease (see my discussion of new years's projects below), the rest of the army might just have to stick around.
3. More Tau. This is one of those "rainy day" projects, but the fact is, I've had a thing for the Tau since they came out. I've always wanted to do a Tau infantry Horde - a metric crapton of fire warriors, Kroot, and Pathfinders backed up by suits. Now I can. This will end up as a modelling project (because really, until the cub is old enough, am I really going to spend my limited gaming time on 40k?). The geekmas box contained a ridiculous number of crisis suits, weapons, a tribe's worth of Kroot, and some odds and ends (krootox, a model I've always loved).
4. Odds and ends for my growing, but unpainted 40k orks. This will likely be the Cub's unspoken legacy, given he likes to play "pew-pew" with them, and the little buggers are sturdy enough to hold up to it. Unlike the Tau. And yes, I learned that the hard way. Among the odds and ends, I'm including a Baneblade.
Yes, a Baneblade. That's it on the bottom right, the big black sucker bigger than the infantry company box beside it.
Way back in the dawn of time when I lived in St. Johns' was married to my first (now ex-) wife, and had an ork footslogger horde for 40k, I began construction of a centrepiece model for my army, a battlewagon, natch. It never came to fruition, as I found that while my converting skills were up to par, scratch-building was not part of my geek-fu. But now, I have the Mother of All Tanks to convert up into an orky monstrosity of doom. Time for a manga-esque "squee!!" of delight.
It's taken a couple days to shake all this down (having spent most of December either working my ass off or driving to other people's houses, I'm currently taking a few days of belated holidays). My wife woke up yesterday to find me knee deep in boxes, happily sorting my bits and bobs into their new homes, and periodically stopping to cook up army lists and cackle. Everything is now sorted, and tucked away into it's appropriate box. Which leaves me with the happy question of what to do with all of this crap ;)
While random painting has it's moments, this is going to be a busy year, which means a little planning is in order. I suspect my hobby efforts to date will be focussed on three things, FoW soviets, my Brettonians, and Dystopian Wars. So, in order:
a) FoW Soviets. My loving, understanding, and irredeemably sexy (new) wife was kind enough to give me a company box of Kazachy for Christmas (that's cossacks for you heathens out there). It comes with company command, two platoons, and two Tachankas (which were nifty little horse drawn machine guns, FYI), These guys, coupled with the Shermans I just picked up, and a few other bits and bobs (like the extra cossak platoon I have in my to-do box), will lead to the of the following 1750 point FE Soviet list.
HQ M4
10 M4
10 M4
3 platoons Kazachy w. 2 Tachanka
3 SU-152
Short mortars (82mm)
3 platoon Arm. Transport, flame-thrower
I'm not convinced this is a national tournament level competitive list, but man, it will be fun to paint and play. It has 21 Sherman M4 lend-lease tanks (which I am growing to love in game - in terms of value for points, they rock), 15 large bases of cavalry (which are fantastic for assaulting anything without armour, and can dismount in a pinch to form a defensive infantry blob), 3 of the nastiest mobile artillery Soviets can get, a cheap pining unit, and a nifty, mobile, flame-thrower and MG toting support unit. I'm pretty stoked about this.
b) Brettonians. I'm currently participating in the WFB painter support process at www.warseer.com, and am working toward the following list:
General: Lvl 3 prophetess (life), warhorse, crown of command
BSB: Paladin, enchanted shield, shrieking blade, Bwarhorse
10 KotR, musician, standard
12 Knights Errant, musician, standard
20 Peasant Bowmen, musician, standard, braziers
I've posted some pics of these as the list grows, and will continue to do so. Next up is the Prophetess and a couple more knights to round out the KotR bloc. Once the first 1000 points are finished, I'll add a couple of trebuchets, a unit of Pegasus knights, a unit of grail or questing knights, and whatever else I can fit in - ideally some skirmishing archers and a damsel, though the points might be tight.
c) Dystopian Wars. This is sooooo going to happen. For those of you who have not been anywhere near the geekly interwebs of late, Dystopian Wars, is the newest offering from Spartan Games, the people who did Uncharted Seas and Firestorm Armada. The latter game nearly caught me, but sanity intervened, along with a growing determination to limit geekly expenditure (ideally to the point that my habit becomes self-funding). DW, however, looks pretty much tailor-made for me. It is steampunk - in the pseudo-Victorian, Jules Verne sense. It is an integrated land-sea-air battle game, which nicely jibs with my growing appreciation for large-scale (vs. skirmish) games. It's a third generation rule set, reflecting the lessons learned from Spartan's previous two lines. Finally, I just got myself a geekly windfall.
For some time, I've noticed that my Paypal account seems to be bleeding money - regular payments to Blizzard (the people who do World of Warcraft). It's taken a while, and a number of customer service calls, but I was finally able to determine that Blizzard has been regularly biling me for an account that was supposed to have been cancelled years ago. Consequently, they will be refunding me around four years of payments. Which means I have a nice little nest egg for geekly pursuits, including getting into DW.
While my favourite model to date is the French battleship, the French are not a core option in the game (they won't be a full faction release in either the first or second wave. What I've decided to go with are the Empire of the Blazing Sun - essentially, the Japanese and their co-prosperitors. I love the look of their ships, especially the battleship and air fortress, they have a giant, pagoda-topped spider walker land leviathan, and from what I can gather, one of the best air-combat capacities in the game (I like fighters). It'll likely be a month or so before these are purchased and delivered, but keep your eyes peeled.
So, there you have it. Geekmass and New Years resolutions all in one post. I hope you all had a fantastic holiday, and I wish you the best of the new year.
TMtW
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