Special edition

Hi all,

I was one of the lucky million or so who jumped on the first Bones kickstarter - the one that went crazy and broke all records for everything, everywhere ;)  My rationale, at the time, was that it would give me a big pile of minis I could dole out to the kids as they got older.  Lo and behold, of late both the Cub and Puddin' have taken an interest, and been trolling through the big box of goodness for projects.



Cub was so chuffed with his latest work he asked me to do a blog post on it.  He took a shine to the griffon model that had been included in the set.  As he was painting it, however, he also started cooking up a back story, and soon enough, had another figure on the go as well.



The idea, evidently, is that the wizard is a shapechanger, and so both the griffon and the wizard are the same person.  Not sure if you can see in the picture, but the eyes on both are painted the same - which I thought was a rather nifty.  Used the same colour palette for both too, which was a nice touch.



Puddin's been painting as well - a mod to one of her My Little Ponies, and a bunch of mice (actually, giant rat models, but I hadn't the heart to tell her).  Moreover, the Cub has taken an interest in Middle Earth SBG Battle Companies, so we'll be heading down together to GW to get in some games.  Looking forward to it.  My long-term plans for inter-generational geekiness are finally coming to fruit  ;)

Not actually dead

Hi all,

Despite evidence to the contrary, I am not actually dead.  For a variety of reasons, ranging from being crazy busy, to loss of mojo, to flat-out apathy, I've not updated in some time - really since Christmas, as the Cub has taken to reminding me.  While geek activity has been somewhat curtailed, it's not been entirely absent, so in a bid to get the juices flowing, I figured (and placate the aforementioned Cub), I figured I'd do a catch-up post.

There's a few things I should hit from the outset, including a big "thank-you" to Ray for the peltasts I won in a give-away he ran some time ago.  They'll be painted up anon and find their way into the hoplite morph army I've been picking at for the last few years.  Thanks, Ray!

In gaming terms, most of my activity has been with the Cub.  This has mostly focused on  Bolt Action and 40k - for the latter, I suspect his stock of painted stuff now exceeds my own ;)

I've also managed to get out to the local GW, sometimes with the Cub, sometimes solo, when they have big / apocalypse games.  We're generally hideously outgunned at these events (there's a lot of Forgeworld shenanigans ;), but the eye candy is top notch.





Finally, I've fallen down the rabbit hole of MMORPGs a bit of late, having been playing both the online Star Wars (to which Cub has also taken a shine) and LotR games.  I find even when my energy is too low to paint (or at least enjoy it), I can still get something out of them.

That said, the other weekend, the local GW had themselves a birthday bash, and Cub and went.  Got in some games, did a little speed painting, and it seems to have fired me up a little.  We'll see if I can get back in the groove, and hopefully start knocking out some models.

TMtW

Rochambork

Hi all,

A rather hectic summer draws to a close.  The Cub went back to his mom's for school this morning, so it's back to weekend visits, but before we shipped him off we got down to the GW for a game.  It's the first in a while, as I've been scurrying about with work, and we've spent the last couple of weekends camping, but it was a fun one.  1000 points, my orks vs. his marines.

The field of battle - Cub insisted on a clear shot before things were deployed ;)

I took my usual boot-heavy list, while the Cub took some toys, including his Redeemer.

The orks deploy, L to R: Shootas, Sluggas, Shoots, Tankbustas.  Couple of Deffkoptas around too.

Opening turns were fairly uneventful.  He pushed forward with his Redeemer, and laid down fire with his tacs and Devestators.  I moved the boyz up, found covere where I could, and poured fire into the Redeemer.  In the 1000 point games we usually play, it often comes down to whether I can take out his Redeemer before it delivers fiery doom, and / or whether I can close the boys into shoot + charge range before the Redeemer unloads said doom.

Binky's eye view of the table.  Target #1 ahead.  Fun fact:  Puddin's favourite staff guy, Chris, can be seen in background.

Tacs move up to secure the trench.

There were a couple of key terrain features dominating the centre of the board - a massive crater, and a trench system.  While neither would help me against flame templates, they'd do the business against regular shooting.  My Mad Doc earned his keep this game (really should paint him up), but he couldn't keep up with the volume of fire forever.

Orks converge.  See that open space in front of them?  Just wait for it . . . 

Quick, into the trench!

Then, glorious day (Kaloo!  Kalay!), I got in a barrage with my Tnakbustas that finally broke through the Redeemer's armour, and the behemoth ground to a halt centre-table.

Fist pump!!  The Redeemer about to lose it's last hull point.

Cub contered by dropping a 'pod and his assault marines right in the middle of my advancing formation, backed up by his bikes

Yeah, that open space was just the right size for a Drop-pod and some marines.

Remnants of the shoota mob move to engage the Librarian

A great and glorious barny ensued, with flame templates countered by sheer ferocity and buckets of dice.  Some fun moments saw Cub's Librarian terminator surrounded by the remnants of a shoota mob:

Feel free to whistle the theme from "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" here.

And Warboss Binky lay waste to most of a tac squad:

Binky SMASH!!!

When the girls came back to check on us, the orks were pulling ahead, but it could have gone either way.  Cub still had an assault squad and some devestators, and I was down to a shoota mob and a few rump ends, with lots of open field to traverse.

Marines noticeably absent from the ork side of the table.

Although, the Tankbustas do seem to be missing here . . . . 

We decided to Rock-Paper-Scissors it, and old age and guile won over youth and enthusiasm.

Fun game, and a really nice way to end the summer with the Cub.  I'm finally starting to get some painting juices flowing - I managed to put together the figures from the Age of Sigmar box set, but haven't touched a brush in months.  Here's hoping I get some minis turned out over the next couple of weeks.

FMB

IG Conflict 2: The Sprog Strikes Back

Hi,

Hard back at work, but thought I'd take a minute to post an AAR of the second game vs. the Cub, this one down at the local GW.  This one was bigger, 1000 points a side.  I took my warboss, a painboy, a couple units of 20 shootas, a couple of units of grots, a maxed-out unit of tankbustas, and a unit of deff koptas.  The Cub had a full tac squad, split, a 5-man tac squad, maxed assault marines, a razorback, 3 bikes, and a landraider redeemer, aka, priority one.

A few more boys painted up this time.  The horde grows.

For simplicity's sake, we used the same scenario as last game, rolling 4 objectives this time around.  I won the roll to set up / go first, and spread the boys out.  The plan was to concentrate fire on the Redeemer with the Deffcoptas and Tankbustas, and hope to smoke it before it could bring it's very scary (twin flame templates that wound on re-rollable 2s, and ignore all cover and armour saves in my army) to bear.

The Cub, not being anybody's fool, opted for a "shove the big scary thing down Dad's throat" approach, piling the redeemer straight forward, with the bikes and jump squad trailing in support.  Oh, and he had a combat squad with his Very Scary Chaplain inside.

Twin uberflamers, twin-linked Asscannon, twin-linked multi-melta.  What was I thinking when I got him this thing?

I moved into rokkit range, and unloaded everything on the Redeemer, hoping to remove the threat before it could become a real problem.  18 rokkit shots later, 5 of them twin-linked, I had removed one (yes, one) hull-point from the beastie.

On his next turn, Cub jammed the beast forward again.  This is where the game started to shift a bit from our last one.  I pointed out to Cub that the terrain right in front of the Redeemer allowed a more direct route, but posed a risk; it was possible his Redeemer might get stuck on it, and be unable to move.  Cub thought it out, and decided he wanted to take the risk to bring his flame weapons to bear.

It simply will not die.  Not the Chaplain, though, he died easy.

At which point, he inevitably rolled the "1", and immobilized his Redeemer ;)

We then had another conversation about what to do with his squad inside.  I told him he could deploy them, and either shoot or assault, but not both (as they were packing rapid-fire weapons.  He opted to assault, but was promptly blasted by overwatch fire, and then I think failed the assault roll.  At any rate, he was left with a sole veteran sergeant who opted for the better part of valour.

On my turn, I unloaded the coptas and tank-bustas on the Redeemer again, doing 2 more hull points (not enough to kill it!), and sent one of the two shoota squads after the razorback.  The Nob was packing a Big Choppa, and S7 on the charge was enough to pop it.

No more Asscannon for you!

On his turn, the Cub unleashed the destructive power of his fully armed and operational Redeemer on my poor shootaboys, killing 11 with one flamey salvo.

No cream can deal with this itching, burning sensation.

On the right, Cub sent in his Assault marines against the un-toasted shootas, but not before we had a little conversation about overwatch.  I reminded him of what had happened to the Chaplain's squad earlier.  I also pointed out that I could only shoot overwatch once, and that he had a perfectly disposable, *cough*, I meant, serviceable veteran sergeant just hanging about.

Cub used the Vet to soak my overwatch fire, and THEN sent in the marines, who performed quite credibly.

They fight almost as good as orks.

On my turn, I sent the rest of my toasted orks over to help out their buddies, and the whole thing turned into one of those multi-round grind-fests.  The orks eventually won, of course (of course!), but it did take a few rounds.

Just keep swinging, just keep swinging . . . 

In the center, my tankbustas, who'd also taken a hit from the flame templates, managed to rally, and finished off the Redeemer.  They were, however, now faced with a choice.  We had 4 objectives on the board, and the game could end in the next turn.  I talked to Cub about what I was doing and why, reminding him that it was the objectives that would most likely win either of us the game.  I opted to go for one of the further objectives with the remains of the tankbustas, and redeploy my grots, in the hopes that the game would stretch out and I could eke out a win.  On his turn,Cub also redeployed his two "shooting squads" to make a play for the objectives as well.

Tac squad on the objective, grots just out of range.

Tac squad 2 on the objective as well.

We rolled for another turn, but the dice came up short.  I had an objective, first blood, and the warlord bonus, Cub had 2 objectives and line-breaker.  Win to the Sprog.

Warboss Binky is evidently more Brutal than Cunnin'.  That dead Redeemer was pretty sweet, though.

What impressed me this game was a) how much Cub had learned from the last one, and b) that he thought through what he needed to do in order to win.  He used his Redeemer as a perfect distraction unit, took the necessary steps to secure objectives, and even tried to use units in support of one another.  Didn't always work out for him, but given this is only his third or fourth game, it shows some significant growth.  Well, done, kiddo.

Cub insisted on the glam shot.

Next post will probably be painting / modelling related, and then we're likely back to the once-a-week-I-hope schedule as normalcy and the associated busyness assert themselves.

Have yourselves a terrific end of 2014, and a not-too-hungover start to 2015.

FMB

Inter-generational conflict

Hi,

Got in 2(!!) games of 40k against the Cub post-Christmas, one at home, one at the G-dub, and both were a grand time.

First game was 500 points, on our somewhat small and terrain-lacking table at home.  Guess we'll need to look into some terrain options soon ;)

View from the right flank.  I think the deffkoptas had already blown up the razorback at this point.

The game was pretty straightforward.  Cub didn't seem too concerned with the whole "capture the objectives" aspect of the game, opting instead to charge forward everything that didn't carry a heavy weapon on foot.

On the left, a mob of shoota boys and the warboss engage the Chaplain and a combat squad.  On the far left, the Shoota Nob fights a challenge with the veteran sergeant.

This led to a huge barny in the centre of the table that saw the Chaplain stand alone against a huge mob of orks, and the Warboss, for something like 3-4 rounds of combat.  Fella earned himself a paintjob.

The Chaplain who wouldn't die.

This gave Cub the time to throw some more units into the meatgrinder, including his dreadnaught.

Grist for the mill.

Meanwhile, the deffkoptas and bikes engaged.

Battle of the skirmishers.

In the Big Barny, the dreadnaught and second wave of marines accounted for some orks, but the warboss managed to get in position against the dread.

Comin' tuh getcha!

Think I might break down, and paint the 'boss soon.  Note the Chaplain at the bottom, still swinging.

Once the warboss got stuck in, the fate of the dread was pretty much sealed.

List of rejected names for the dread':  Bob, Fred, Fluffy.

The Chaplain finally went down under the green tide, and the orky survivors piled into the 'copta / bike duel.

Not long now.

Orka Vikta!

Cub's doing much better these days with game etiquette, learning to take both success and failure in stride.  He's also learning from the games themselves.  After this one, we talked about the role objectives play in determining the outcome, and based on the results of the second game we played, he'd given it some thought.

But that's for next time ;)

FMB

ROM(antic?)

Hi,

Kind of a mixed bag this week.  We took the Cub to the Royal Ontario Museum the other day, as a last hurrah before he goes back east to his mom's.  The ROM has in a travelling exhibition of Gondwana dinosaurs, including several "new" dinos only discovered in the last 20 years or so (i.e., long after my own dino phase was over).  As the cub is something of a dinomaniac, it seemed like a good thing to do.

Whilst there, I managed to sneak up to the 3rd floor to the ancient civilizations exhibits, and scored some nifty pics.  They recently renovated, and their Roman stuff, especially, is now set up rather nattily.

 From what I gather, some of the new stuff is from a family collection.  There's also some rather nifty pieces from Roman Britain, but I didn't get pics, as by that point both the Cub and Puddin' were approaching melt-down levels of fatigue.

 I did mange to sneak over to the coins exhibit, and got all warm and fuzzy looking at the successor's displays.  While they don't have any coins from ol' One Eye, they do have some rather tasty pieces for Demetrios and Gonatos.

 Interestingly, while the bio on Demitrios does mention his fame as a besieger of cities, they overlook the whole "attempted boy rape ending up in suicide by boiling" thing.  Can't imagine why.

 For Watts, self-elected dictator for life of the THMG boards and an aspiring Lysimachid general:

For Monty, of Twin Cities Gamer:

And for my own, "One of these days . . . " self:

FMB