2014 Review or What I did or Did not do!

Okay,

First off I have been absent from the blog for the past two months dealing with the loss of my father in-law. He passed away about a month and a half ago and it has been rough on my wife. My in-laws live in California so we have been making many trips out there for the past two months. So hence the reason for the lack of blog posts and the lack of any gaming. Life sometimes has a way to mess up the best laid plans. On that note lets take a look back at what I have done this year.

You can see the original post here.

X-Wing
Well I have only played a few games of X-wing this year and one of the games was a multi-player game with Robert, Jerry and Mike.The game was great and we all had a blast, although Robert was the only one doing any sort of damage with Han Solo and the Falcon! But sadly after that game, it never got back onto the table. It seems that we all love the game but just never have time to bust it out and we play other games. Now as I write this Robert and I are getting together tonight for New Years and we are suppose to play some X-wing. Funny we ended last year with games of X-wing as well.

 Flames of War
So Flames of War was pretty big again with me getting in twenty five games this year. I also painted up three armies this year (US Airborne, German Stug G and Jagpanter lists) and played in my first Shifting Sands event. It was a good year for FoW but I did notice that by game twenty I was starting to feel like i needed to shift gears. I had to take a break from the game because I was getting to wrapped up in it. I started to get upset with myself and becoming angry as I played and thats when I knew I need to take a break. I still love the game, just need a break is all.

Pulp Alley
Pulp gaming has always been one of my favorite eras to play and I have been painting a few figs a year now. With the release of Pulp Alley I found more time to acquire and paint up Pulp models. I got in a bunch of games of Pulp Alley this year and I will continue to play this game. Mike has also been bitten by the Pulp  Alley bug and we are talking about doing a short four game "Movie"/campaign so expect to see more Pulp Alley this year.

Legends of the Old West
So this year I played in a LotOW tourney at Adepticon, I was won the Best Sportsmen Award and I missed out on the Best Looking Award by one point, which was my point that I voted for another guy. One thing that Adepticon did was fuel my need for 4Ground old west buildings, the tournament had them and I fell in love with them. I sold my Arnica resin buildings to fund buying the 4Ground stuff. Well I have about 6 buildings and they look great. On the figure front I got a set of the Magnificent Seven set from Gorgon Miniatures. I also this year was able to pick up a few Black Scorpion miniatures to add to the collection. But other than one game that Robert & I played after Adepticon, no other old west games happened. But all in all I was pretty pleased with LotOW this year.

Bolt Action
Gathering in the Desert saw the first and only Bolt Action event run here in the valley of the sun. We had about 18 players and it was a huge success. I did a lot of terrain work for the event and did add a few units to my armies. The weekend right after GitD, saw another Bolt Action event run by the local Warlord reps and I was excited to get a chance to play as a player. But the local rep knew anything really about the game or how to run a event. In fact I only got to play two games out of three because a odd number of players. Needless to say, do to the poor running of the event I lost all interest in playing Bolt Action. In fact I didn't even want to talk about Bolt Action, I was that bummed about the game. I will say that my interest is coming backand in July while on vacation I picked up two boxes of Perry Miniature DAK figures. Robert and I will be doing some North Africa in the up coming year.

Empire of the Dead
Just like the dead asleep in their graves, so was this game. I had high hopes to get this onto the table but it never happened. Once again, there is only so much time to game and choices need to be made, so EotD sleeps awaiting the day to climb out of its grave (or tabletop!).

Saga

Well the plan was to get Saga onto the table and as of the last few weeks, it has been played. I have about four games under my belt as of today (played two games against Robert earlier today). I have dusted off my old WAB army vikings and pressed them into Saga service. The last time my vikings were out of the box was about 5 years ago, so it is nice to be able to use them again. Within the last few weeks I have purchased Saga dice (Vikings and Anglo Saxon) as well as a Gripping Beast Anglo Saxon Warlord and plastic box of Saxon Thegns. Today I picked up a box of Bondi troops from Wargames Factory to add to my collection of Saga Vikings and Saxons. The good thing is that we are having a few people jump into Saga, so we will be getting Saga out onto the tabletop in the coming year.

Black Powder
Well our group of gamers did two Black Powder American Civil War games last year and we all wanted to get more of it onto the table in 2014, but we were only able to get in one game this year. I also wanted to get my Confederate Brigade painted up and I have to say that it was an epic fail. Robert and I were talking about that today at lunch and we are not sure why it hasn't been played more this year. So the plan is to get my army painted for 2015 as well as a few other items for Black Powder.

Adepticon

Well Adepticon was a huge success for me as well as the event itself. After a two year hiatus I made it back to the Windy City and had a blast. I played in the LotOW tournament, helped run the Legends of the High Seas game as well as ran the first ever Bolt Action event. I also played in a Gladiator game run by my buddy Merle as well as a Chariot racing game. I also got to hangout with friends and just soaked up everything that was Adepticon. One thing that I realized this year is that I am enjoying helping out more than playing in events. More on that later.

Gathering in the Desert
After five successful Lord of the Rings events and one successful Bolt Action I have decided to hang up my organizer hat. This decision was not made easily and I have had many discussions with the rest of the GitD crew. A few major things brought us to this decision, first up is my commitment to Adepticon 2015, which I will be helping out with next year. I will be assisting and running a few games while out there. The prep work is quite extensive and this will keep me busy right up until I fly back to Chicago. Secondly I am writing a new book and this is also eating up spare time, so no chance to organize. So what does this mean, well it means that GitD will be slowing down on events. We still plan to do some smaller events, so stay tuned.

So whats on the horizon here at Cursed Treasures? well here are a few things:

Saga - As I stated above, Saga will be getting a lot of play in the new year with figures purchased and headed to the paint table.

AWI - American War of Independence will be coming to the table this year in 15mm. Mike & I are going to be doing some Black Powder games in 15mm and we have already purchased the figures from Blue Moon via Old Glory Miniatures. I will be doing colonists while he takes the evil British. AWI will also be on the table in 28mm with Muskets and Tomahawks. I was talked into running a few demos of it at Adepticon. I will also be getting a few of the new Indians from Wargames Factory to do some French and Indian wars in 28mm.

Pulp Alley - Well once again I am running a game of Pulp Alley at Adepticon so there will be more games played here in the valley. I am also working with David Phipps (the author) to write some scenarios for him on his future project for the game, so you will be seeing more of that here. All I can say is it involves a certain person named Vlad the Impaler.

HEROIC - This is the new rule set that I have been working on since Adepticon and on the 2nd of this month I send off the manuscript to start editing and proof reading. So I know there will be some re-writes as well as playing some games, so that will keep me busy.

Flames of War - For Christmas I got a British WW1 army from Robert, so I will be getting those painted up so we can switch gears and start doing some WW1 games. I also would like to start collecting some Fate of the Nation models for the modern conflicts. Not really planning any new armies for WW2 right now, but I will be adding stuff to current armies.

CAV - Well a bunch of guys got into the kick starter and Mike gave me 8 models to paint up. The plan is to start playing this in 2015 and I have already painted up the eight models and now just waiting for the other guys to get there's up so we can play. 

So there you go my plans for 2015. I am sure that I will be doing more in the New Year, so stay tuned I am sure it will be an interesting year for gaming.

TK

Road to Adepticon 2015

Road to Adepticon 2015

 So,

They say " It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your front door. You step onto the road and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to." Well, that is me for next year at Adepticon, somehow I have been talked into running a few more games. But honestly I enjoy helping this great event out. So once again I will be traveling from the Valley of the Sunstroke to head to the Windy City once more.

So what will I be doing next year? Well I have two major things I will be running, one with a good friend and the other on my own. First up is a large multi player game of Legends of the Old West called, Showdown at Tandywine Gulch. The other will be demonstration games of Pulp Alley.

 So the LotOW game Showdown at the Tandywine Gulch is going to be run twice and Merle Delinger and I will be providing everything for the game. That means we will both be contributing at least 10 posses (5 each), so that means Merle and I will be doing some painting. Terrain will be provided by Merle and is mostly all 4Ground old west buildings. I am planning on doing a mine as well as a cemetery. So I will be showing the work here on the models and the terrain for the game, so stay tuned.

 The other game I will be running is Pulp Alley, this is a Pulp adventure game that I wanted to get to Adepticon this year but time ran out. But next year I will have either a multi player demo game using the newest supplement, Vice Alley or I will be doing a scenario from the Perilous Island supplement. I will have some special cards to hand out at the game that you will not be able to get anywhere else. So if you love Indiana Jones, come take a look at the game. Once again I will be showcasing models and terrain here on the blog.

Also while at Adepticon I will be helping out in the Historical room and lending a hand wherever it is needed. So there you go, a look at things to come, I of course will be posting up other projects, so stay tuned.

TK

A Town on the Rise

So,

As I mentioned a few posts ago, I fell in love with the 4Ground Old West buildings at Adepticon I knew I had to have a set. So after I sold my remaining Arnica Buildings at last months Gamers Garage Sale I purchased the first four Old West buildings from Architects of War online store.

And before I get to far, I want to say that the folks at Architects of War store are awesome! They are fast at replying to e-mails and quick on shipping. In fact I ordered these buildings on a Saturday night and I had them at my house the following Wednesday. I highly recommend ordering from them and I will be placing more orders with them in the near future.

So back to the 4Ground buildings, I decided that I would order 3 of the basic buildings and the Sheriffs office as well as the Hitching posts set.

First set of buildings

Building #1

Building #2

Building #3

Sheriff Building

Hitching Post set

So, each building took about 2 hours to construct, the first kit took a bit longer since it was the first 28mm building of theirs I put together. I used regular white Elmers white glue to assemble them with knowing that the glue would dry clear. I decided to base the buildings and texture them since it makes the kits a bit more rugged for storage. You will notice that the buildings do not have any signs on them, I have not decided to hand paint them or use the ones on the Great Escape  Games website (these buildings are for the Dead Mans Hand game). We will see but I am leaning towards painting my own signage.

I do have to say that these are the best old west buildings out there. They are nicely pre-painted kits and they have pre-painted interiors as well. Two hours of construction and you get an awesome looking building that requires very little paint. So here are a few pictures of the finished kits.

Artizan and Foundry Figures for scale.

Interior of the first building.

Building #2

Building #3

Here is the Sheriffs Building that I really wanted while at Adepticon. I still need to base this building.

Sheriffs Office

Front Porch with Notice Board

Jail Cells

Hmm how did we get in here?

Back side of building

Well there you go, the first four building built and ready for some old west action.

TK

Gardening in the Old West!

So,

Where have I been, what have I been doing, whats going on? All great questions, well I am still here, been working on models and planning for a large game. But first up is what I was doing over this past weekend.

Well this past Sunday the wife and I went for a little hike here in Phoenix, while out I started looking at Saguaro Cactus and realized that I wanted to do a few for my old west gaming. Also while out hiking, I noticed some Ocotillo cactus and realized I could also model those as well. So when I got home I started on this project. The Ocotillo were the easiest to build, the Saguaro on the other hand took some time. I will be doing a How to articles, but for now here are a few shots of the cactus garden.

Cactus garden

Another shot of Cactus

Pegasus Hobbies cactus kits

Another set of Pegasus Hobbies cactus

Scratch Built Ocotillo

Scratch Built Saguaro Cactus

A Gorgon Miniature for scale

So the cactus are for a large game of Legends of the Old West that I will be running here in a few months as well as with a friend while at Adepticon next year. In fact your going to see a lot of old west projects here in the very near future.

 

 You see, this past year at Adepticon I was suppose to participate the Guns of April game, well due to a schedule overlap i was not able to play. But one thing that did come from me missing the game, I volunteered to help my buddy Merle run a large participation game for the following year. So my part is to write up some scenarios as well as build a 28mm Gold Mine!

So I will do a test game here in Phoenix and that means I will be adding some terrain as well as painting a few more Old West figures. So stay tuned... 

Adios Amigos...

TK

4Ground Terrain

So,

In my last post I showed off some of the items from my CA trip, three items were 4Ground buildings. The past few nights I put together the three kits. So here is a brief review of the buildings.

These 3 4Ground kits are the first ones that I have purchased and looking at the package, they seem pretty easy, oh but looks can be deceiving! First thing you have to know, these are model kits, not something you can just slap together and throw onto the table.

Looks pretty easy right?

Once I opened the package, the truth was revealed to me, these 15mm kits were going to take some time. First thing I did was review the instruction sheet and familiar myself with all the parts. I highly recommend this since these kits do have a lot of parts. Don't rush and too help, I laid out the parts just like in the instructions, that was my anal side coming out, but it helped a lot.

Lots of parts!

 This particular kit has two floors plus a attic, the ground floor took me about 30 minutes to assemble. Once I had this section completed I started laying out the next section.

Ground Floor

 The next section took about 30 min as well to assemble. I made sure that the mounting points were clear so that the next section would fit without it being too snug.

Second Floor

Here is a completed picture after about an hours worth of work.

We have a building, almost.

 The last section was the roof/attic and this took about 15 minutes to complete.

Roof done.

 Here is the completed building with some added signage that came with the kit.

Completed!

 Total build time was 1 hour 30 minutes, which was not bad. The kit looks awesome and I am glad for picking up these kits.Each kit was about $20.00 each, which is not bad and I had a sense that I actually put something together. My buddy Drunkensamuari has just about all the Battlefront kits and even though they are $25.00 you just don't get the satisfaction of building them like these kits.

Here is another kit

Third kit

 

All three kits

All in all I really love these kits, at first I was not hip on the laser burn marks on the kits, but on the ruined kits they seem to work. I know I will be picking up a few more of these kits in the near future to add to my 15mm terrain collection. I highly recommend these kits, but be warned, they are model kits and will take some time building them, but the time spent is worth it.

TK

The Spoils of War, I Mean Vacation!

Well,

Another vacation is in the books and that means I spent a ton of money at California Hobby Shops. For the last three years now, my wife and I have vacationed with Robert and his family in Seal Beach CA. Each trip Robert and I get away from our lovely wives and families to do a little shopping of our own. Here is the haul from this year.

The total haul, about $400.00 worth of stuff

So the first store we hit was The War House, which has been around for ages. I first visited this store around 1988 or so and I think it is still owned by the same owner. This is a great little shop that seems to have a little bit of everything if your willing to sit and dig through items. There are old figures and merchandise covered in layers of dust and it feels like I am always on an archeologist dig while shopping there. Its funny, but I enjoy uncovering long lost items that I have not seen in years. Whats amazing is that most items are still priced like when they came out originally!The other great thing is that he still continues to bring in new items and I found this little set of books beneath a pile of old Flames of War boxes. So I got the D-Day slip covered books for $85.00. Unfortunately I did not find anything else on my shopping list, but I was happy with this find.
 

Score, two books I was looking for!

Our next stop was the World Famous Brookhurst Hobbies, a Orange County staple for many years. I cant remember the year I first visited Brookhurst, but they were on Brookhurst Way just before Garden Grove Blvd. The shop was tiny and was next to a hair salon shop. Well I always bring a ton of cash and a big list of wants when I visit Brookhurst, this time was no different.

First thing I picked up was two boxes of Perry Miniatures Afrikacorps. Now I resisted buying these since I have a ton a Artizan DAK figures and these guys are way too small. But since no one around here carries Artizan, I finally decided to build up some Parry DAK. Robert has two boxes of Desert Rats so I will have something to fight against that is the same scale.

More DAK!

Next up is a box of Plastic Soldier Company Panthers for my next FoW project. I was looking at buying at least 3 boxes of the new PSC Panzer III's but either they were sold out or did not have them yet, so I settled for Panthers.

Big Kittes!

Next were two Jagdpanthers for my Jagdpanther company I am working on. I wanted these two boxes because they come with a ruined building that I can use for terrain.

More Hunting Panthers!

Next is a box of Panzer IV/70's for my Panther project. Since I could not find a few other blisters I was looking for, I picked this box up to ease the pain of the blisters.

More Tank Hunter!

Next on the old shopping list was some 4Ground buildings. I was looking first for some 28mm old west buildings first, but they did not have the ones I wanted. So my second choice was 15mm buildings for FoW. I had picked out three nice buildings when Robert came up to me and said I should get the ruined buildings. Robert has a huge collection of Battlefront buildings, but what we were missing was some ruined buildings. So I picked up three ruined buildings in 15mm.

Building#1

Building #2

Building #3

Now besides hitting the hobby stores, the wife and I hit a Barnes & Noble since I forgot to bring a book to read while down at the beach. So I shot my brother a text and asked for a good book recommendation, he recommended The Accidental Time Machine by Joe Haldeman. It is about this guy who accidentally creates a time machine that can only go forward in time in increments of 12, first 12 seconds, than 12 min, 12hours, etc. A good read but the ending was a bit flat, but I would say it was a 7 out of 10. It was perfect reading for the beach and I finished in about 2 days.

Opps I created a Time Machine!

 The last item my son bought for me, knowing that I am a gamer, he found a large rock dice in one of the local stores on Main Street in Seal Beach. He told me if anyone gives me crap about my dice rolling, I should throw this dice at them or their models! LOL.

Big A$$ rock Dice!

So that was my haul from this trip to CA, I spent about $400.00 bucks on most items that I can not get here at home. Which leads me to a small rant about shops here in the valley.

It amazes me that I can always find what I am looking for in shops in CA as opposed to here in AZ. Most shops here in the valley have stopped carrying FoW since they can't keep up with all the items that Battlefront carries. I get it, what I would like to see is my local store actually order items in for me. I have tried many times to order from my local store but have had numerous special orders go missing. Heck I even order other items other than BF items to have them never come in. Whats the deal? Heck if the War House can get new Fow Items, why is my local store not getting them?

So in the end I will spend my money with folks that carry or can order the items that I am looking for. So if my money goes to CA so be it, I wish I could do that here at my local shop, but oh well I guess thats the way it is. Rant over.

TK