Monday, December 31, 2012

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!


Saturday, December 29, 2012

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.

Thursday, December 20, 2012

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.

Saturday, December 15, 2012

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.