Some Samurai & Year in Review

I finally finished off a couple units of Ashigaru that I had started quite a while ago.  These are all from Kingston Miniatures.  I'm going to be taking a break from painting up my Samurai army as I'm tired of looking at them for now. I'll probably put them aside for a few months.

Miniatures

My miniatures painting this year was rather dismal compared to last. I had set my self a goal of getting 350 figs painted this year, alas I didn't even make it to 200.  A large part of this was due to work being incredibly busy this year. Unfortunately 2013 doesn't look any better. I was able to at least a couple of my goals completed or advanced.  Probably the most noteworthy things were, I was able to get 3 fleets painted for War Rocket and get a number of bases of Ashigaru painted.  For 2013 my goals are:
1. War Rocket - complete the remaining fleets - the Valkeeri and the Pirates (Pirates are on my painting table right now).
2. Paint up at least one of the Forgeworld models I have.
3. my 15mm sci-fi alien faction and find a set of rules that I actually like
4. more 15mm terrain
5. 15mm NK Egyptians for Impetus (which I've actually started painting)
6. 28mm Samurai for Impetus - I'd like to get the Ashigaru all completed
7. I've decided to do a project based on Robotech using 1/200 models. I'm presently in buying mode so it may be a while before I start assembly and painting.

Note: I'm not setting myself a specific number of figs to paint this year.

Boardgaming

Overall this past year I played 30 different games with 87 matches played. My top 5 games played were:
#1: Dominion- 12 games played
#2: Commands & Colors Napoleonics- 9 games played
#3: Elder Sign- 7 games played
#4: Arkham Horror- 6 games played
#5: Pandemic & Settlers of Catan- 4 games played

Breaking down the number of games played by manufacturer:
#1: Fantasy Flight Games- 7 different games
#2: Rio Grande Games- 6 different games
#3: GMT Games- 4 different games
#4: Z-Man Games & Wizards of the Coast- 3 different games
#5: Mayfair Games- 2 different games
#6: Days of Wonder, Gale Force 9, Worthington Games, Clever Mojo Games & Academy Games- all one game each

I didn't play as many wargames this year as last, mainly due time constraints due to work and my main opponent becoming busy also. Hopefully this year I can find a solution to this problem.

Good bye 2012, hello 2013!

Alien Frontiers

Last night I got in a couple games. First up is Alien Frontiers by Clever Mojo Games.  The objective is to deploy colonies on a newly discovered alien world.  You use various means to collect energy and ore to build rocket ships and colonies, while getting a hold of alien technologies.  Overall it's a pretty simple and fun game. As you can see from the box cover, the theme is very retro sci-fi which is what peaked my interest in the first place.

Next up was a game of Dungeons & Dragons: Wrath of Ashardalon by Wizards of the coast.

This one is like the previous two games: Castle Ravenloft and Legend of Drizzt.  It's probably the best of the 3 games and you don't need the other games to play this one.  In all 3 games, the players can go from level 1 to level 2.  I'm not sure why Wizards of the Coast didn't have the games have some sort of progression: Castle Ravenloft level 1-2, Legend of Drizzt Level 3-4 and this one level 5-6. This game competes directly with FFG's Descent which allows players to progress.

Merchant of Venus

I picked up Merchant of Venus (Fantasy Flight Games) last week when I popped down to Mecca (Sentry Box) and I took it over to a friends place last night. The game is a redo of the original and comes with 2 different games: the actual original revamp and a new reimagined version.  Needless to say, you can tell its a Fantasy Flight Games boardgame: it has a TON of pieces. The game has a player fly around and discover new planets while making money buying and selling goods such as Glorious Junk, Designer Genes and the Finest Dust.  As you can see the game is slightly tongue in cheek as you can buy upgrades for your ship such as Fuzzy Dice, a Fancy Spoiler and a Zen Paint Job. It's a pretty fun game and only took us about 2 1/2 hours to play.

My next fleet for War Rocket, the Pirate Fleet, came in today and I'm looking forward to painting these up. I'm also basing up a couple units of Ashigaru and I should be starting my Egyptians pretty quick.

War Rocket Extras

Been a while since I've posted up anything.  I picked up some generic rockets from Shapeways to use as transports and other civilian craft.

This was the first time I've bought something from Shapeways.  The selection of rocket-ships is substantial so I had lots to choose from.  They weren't cheap and unfortunately Shapeways uses UPS and I can't stand UPS.  The material I had selected is really light and the ships are all one piece. I can safely say if I had a choice painting this material or painting metal/resin, I'd choose metal/resin as it's not as grainy and something I didn't expect, the Shapeways material is really absorbent.  I gave the 3 identical rockets a wash and they soaked it right up.  Regardless of the bad points the selection of rockets was excellent and they're all comparable in size. Here are the painted figs:

Presently I'm slowly grinding through 2 units of Ashigaru with yari and I should be done them in the next few days.  Then I'm going to switch over and start on my 15mm Egyptians (for Impetus).  I need a break from looking at Ashigaru.  I've also got a War Rocket Pirate fleet on the way.

War Rocket - Zenithian PArt 2

Couple days ago I finished the Class 3 & 4 minis for the Zenithian fleet. First up is the Class 2 saucers.

Next is the Class 4 followed by a pic of the Class 4 with one of the Class 1 saucers.

Presently on my paint table are 2 units of Ashigaru, I'll probably be quite a while painting these.

War Rocket - Zenithian Fleet

Been a while since I've posted anything due to work being extremely busy.  Today I finally got some figures done.  This is my third fleet for War Rocket, the Zenithians. These are from Hydra Miniatures and are 9 Class 1 and 3 Class 2 rockets.

On my desk is a pair of Class 3 rockets, a lone Class 4 rocket and yet another batch of Ashigaru with Yari.

More Ashigaru

Today I finished off another couple bases of Ashigaru with Yari.  These are all from Kingsford Miniatures.

Up next I have a few character miniatures to paint and I have to construct my army for the upcoming HOTT campaign.  Also on my table is some building ruins that I hope to finish this weekend.  After that I have a Zenithian fleet for War Rocket to paint.

Edmonton International AFV Show

Today was the day of the Edmonton International AFV Show at HMCS Nonsuch.  Below is a few of the pics I've taken.  Check out Terry's blog http://miniature-mayhem.blogspot.ca for more and better pics.

The last pic is one of my favourites.  They had a section for 'works in progress'.  It's really interesting to see all the after market pieces that each modeller adds to their model.

One of the organizers is a friend of mine and he was rather disappointed with the model turnout (they had about 31 less models than last year).  Maybe next year if some of our group can enter some models (I'm looking at you Kevin!).

Plaguebearers

Been a while since I posted up some figs, so tonight I finished off a unit of 24 Plaguebearers.  All are GW figs.  They actually turned out better than I thought they would.  The bases didn't turn out as well unfortunately.

Up next I have a number of ruined buildings and a couple more units of Ashigaru with yari.

1989: Dawn of Freedom

Recently I got in a couple games of GMT's new game: 1989: Dawn of Freedom.  The game is about the fall of communism in Eastern Europe.  It plays very similar to another one of my favourites, Twilight Struggle. The biggest change is probably the power struggle mechanic.  When a scoring card is played for a country, instead of just scoring controlled territories, there's a fight between the two factions to see if the Communist player can maintain power in said country. It's a neat mechanic.  The only down side to the game probably is the names.  It's a lot easier to say "I control Italy" as opposed to "I control Szekesfehervar".  Components are of course top notch.  I'm looking forward to getting in many games.

Inca Empire

Last night I had a couple friends over for some lighter board gaming.  After a few games of Dominion and Carcassonne, I pulled out Inca Empire by Z-Man games.  The game took us about 2 hours to play (none of us had played it before).  The object is to accumulate the most points (mainly through the conquest of territories and construction of various things such as cities, garrisons and temples) before the arrival of Pizarro.  The game is a reasonably unique one for the ones I've played.  Players accumulate labourers and use them to do pretty much everything. Each player also has a small number of cards that can affect any of their actions.  Overall it is a pretty light game.

Assorted Terrain

Last night I finished some pieces of terrain for my 15mm gaming.  First up is 3 pieces made using a set of ruined building corners from Games Workshop.

I didn't put any sort of flocking on besides sand and some gravel.  I'm still humming and hawing about that.  Overall I really like these pieces as they're good solid pieces of plastic. Unfortunately GW doesn't make these anymore so I've had to do some hunting on Ebay.  Today I fortunately won another set.  I could use a few more sets of these and I'd have a great ruined city table.

The other pieces I finished were 3 buildings from JR Miniatures World War 2 line.

They're nothing flashy but perfectly serviceable.  And they're heavy as hell.

On my table right now is my unit of Plaguebearers which went by the wayside as I worked on the buildings.

Stargrunt Chit Block

One of the common complaints about Stargrunt is the fact that the table may get covered in a wide array of chits.  The vast majority of chits specifically apply to units.  To this end I came up with an idea to have a small block with a magnetic strip to hold the chits.

The block is floor tile with a magnetic strip on it. The chits also have a small magnetic strip on the back of them.  The strength of the magnets is really weak and the chits can be shaken off by vigorous shaking.  I was hoping the magnetic paper would be stronger but unfortunately it wasn't. Live and learn. Regardless it will really help keeping things uncluttered and it also makes it easier to pick the chits up.

Settlers & Stargrunt

I played a game of Settlers of America on Friday.  Pretty good game for a Euro.  It's a lot longer than regular Settlers of Catan. It probably took us close to 2 hours to play.  The game has the usual collection of nice wooden bits although the board itself could be a bit bigger. Once you get your cities and rails and trains all on the board it can be a bit cluttered.

Last night Chris and I tried out a game of Stargrunt 2. Unfortunately I didn't get any pics.  As we had never played before and our game was a decent size, it took us probably about 5 hours to play.  Overall, I think this is the ruleset I want to use.  Once we got going it became easier and easier.  I didn't really find that the board got cluttered with tons of chits, which I think is a common complaint about these rules.  I've got an idea to partially aid in keeping the board relatively tidy, I'll post up a pic once I create it.  I can see how Tomorrow's War borrowed a lot from Stargrunt.  Too bad they didn't borrow how to organize a ruleset.  There are a couple wonky things in the rules, namely vehicle weapon ranges are crazy short, vehicles forbidden from certain terrain and the lack of reaction rules.  Not sure about fixing reaction but the others are dead easy to change.

Also a couple weeks ago, a couple friends and I went to Mecca, I mean the Sentry Box.  Picked up a pile of 15mm Ancient Egyptians for when I start building my Impetus NKE army. I also picked up a couple pieces of terrain and two boardgames: Hellenes by GMT and Inca Empire by Z-Man Games.

On my painting table is a pile of stuff: a unit of Nurgle Plaguebearers, a Nurgle character and a bunch of buildings (ruined and intact).

Happy Canada Day!

Teppo

Tonight I finally finished 2 bases of Teppo (Ashigaru with arquebus'). These figs are from Kingston Miniatures.

Also tonight I got some more tree bases finished and I'm presently working on a large unit of Plaguebearers for Warhamster that I won on Ebay.  After that, I've got some Daemon characters for Warhamster and maybe some more Plaguebearers that I have on the way.

Model Show!

This past Saturday I went down to the Alberta Aviation Museum to see the 17th Annual Western Canadian Regional Model Contest. Here is some of the pics I took:

There was quite a number of model cars & trucks but they weren't of any interest to me so I didn't get any pics of them unfortunately.

There's going to be a more local model show on August 25, 2012 with a focus on wheeled vehicles. Here's the website addy if you're interested: http://www.aafvms.ca/.

Rex: Final Days of an Empire

Last night I had some friends over for a couple games of Rex: Final Days of an Empire by Fantasy Flight Games. This game is set 3000 years before Twilight Imperium (another game I'd like to some day play). This game is a reimagined version of an old Avalon Hill game, Dune. The players assume 1of 6 races vying for control of the Imperial capital. The goal is to assume control of a number of key city sectors.  At it's heart it's essentially a game of conquest.  The game is pretty simple and can be explained adequately in a couple minutes even if one of your players is drunk. The game is made for 3-6 players, we had 4.  I really would like to try it with 6 as I think it should be played with 6.

Later.