Work / In Progress

Hi all,

So, the Cub and I did get out to the G-Dub on the weekend for a game of Age of Sigmar, but being the complete muppet I am, I forgot the camera (despite having charged it and put it out in plain view, of course).  That said, pics would have been iffy anyways, since mine were mostly black primer (more on that in a minute), and the Cub's stuff is bare plastic.

We did, however, have ourselves a fun game.  We used a scenario out of the new General's Handbook, which seems to be variously interpreted across the internet as either GW's plan for Age of Sigmar since the beginning, or a desperate bid to salvage the game in face of a tidal wave of nerd rage, depending on who you read.  I suspect it's somewhere in the middle, with them anticipating the need for this somewhere down the road, but not deciding on exactly what until the game shook out a little.

The compendium is basically a resource kit for multiple styles of play.  Wanna play "throw everything on the table and bash it together"?  It's got stuff for that.  Want to play organized games with a points-balancing mechanism?  They've got stuff for that.  Want magic items?  Narrative play?  Multiple styles of campaigns?  It's in there too.  Plus a pile of scenarios, one of which we used in our game, which turns AoS from a model-bash into a proper wargame (imho).  It's also (unlike the Battletomes) pretty cheap (as are the "big book" warscroll compendiums they're releasing for the broad game factions), at around $40 Canadian, the price of a bottle of booze.

A new fave, discovered by my esteemed brother-in-law

In our game, which used one of the simplest scenarios in the book (2 objectives, control both by turn 5 to win), having something to fight over turned the game from a slugfest into something that involved a little thought.  As I've noted before, movement, model placement, and order of combat activation really matter in this version of the game.  When you're doing those things for a goal-oriented reason, it adds a whole new level of complexity to the game.  I ended up playing rather aggressively (shocking, I know), while Cub mostly played defense, and the in-game fights generally involved me trying to break units free in order to try and seize the objective on his side of the table, while he looked to tie me up, defend his side, and generally wear me down.  Both of us kept reserve forces for a reason, and made different decisions about committing them.  I ended up winning on points, as I'd destroyed more of his units, but it was kind of a jammy win, as he'd actually taken out more of my force - it was just that the damage was spread around, rather than concentrated.

The game, plus our signing up for Armies on Parade in October, has had me ploughing through the Khorne starter set.  I'm assembly lining it a little, and finished up the last of the bare skin last night, at least for the starter box stuff, other than the Khorgorath (aka big gribbly).  I picked up a Khorne Lord on Juggernaught (which is evidently one of the few things still in finecast, yikes!) and some chaos knights, and will try to get them all done in time for the deadline.  I'm doing these at what I'd think of as decent table top, and if I get through them, will likely go back and pick them out a bit more.





I've also taken the plunge on rebasing my Brets.  To be honest, I've been a tad salty about them since AoS came out, as their fate remains undetermined, and the prospect of Squatting remains real.  I'm hoping they'll eventually get a treatment like the Dwarves and Elves have gotten, but who knows.  Vanilla humans as a whole remain mostly unaddressed in the game so far, and there's hope that a Free People's book might leave room for an AoS reinterpreted Bret force.  I figure given the general direction of the game, it'll be less King Arthur, and more pegasus-riding cosmic defenders of freedom, but fingers crossed.

In the meantime, I've picked up a pile of washers, and ordered some ovals mdf bases from Sarissa for my knights.  I like AoS, the Cub seems at least moderately enthused, and rebasing them should spur me to get in more games.

That which is dead can never die.

I also had a bunch of bases come in from minibits (my usual go-to for basing stuff), and am now restocked for both the 6mm projects (SYW / Nap Russians).  I'll likely do a unit of either when I need a break from the big boys in the next month or so.

Fall term is starting up, and work looms busier than ever.  On top of all the research stuff I've been working on, I now have classes and a pile of admin to deal with.  On the plus side, I seem to have swung back to the "painting as stress reliever" stage of my geek cycle, which means I tend to be a happier camper, and get more stuff done to post here.  I'm hoping to get a game of something in with the Cub this weekend, before he heads back to his mom's for school, and will try not to forget pictures this time.