Review of 2019

Okay folks,

Time to look back at 2019 to see how I did with my goals. For the most part 2019 was a good year and I feel that I got a lot accomplished. So lets take a look:

Fantasy

AoS - So, the purchase of the AoS box set never happened, in fact I don’t even think the box hit the shelves of my local store. I had hoped that GW would release the one new figure in the box, but that never happened either. I did play a couple of games with Robert, but for the most part, AoS was not a high priority this year.

Frostgrave – Never hit the table, was mentioned that we would like to get it on the table, but nothing every happened and it seems that it’s a dead game.

Shadspire – I was able to completely paint everything for Shadespire, each expansion I bought I got painted. We got in a few games, fun was had, but that was it. I did take it out to play much more and has now gone onto the shelf.

Warhammer Quest – never hit the table again this year, after my brother and sister inlaw moved back to GA, I stopped hosting games. I tried to see if any of my local friends wanted to play, but no one wanted to commit to the game (other then Robert). So back on the shelf it went, I did not even want to paint anything more either.

LotR – Well I ended up trading a Blood Angels started set for the new LotR game, read the rules, pretty much the same but different and also got the Battle Companies book this year. Talked with a few people about playing, built a few models, painted a few models, but no game play as of yet.

Sci Fi 

40K – Well I had a starting box of a Blood Angel army, assembled figures, bought the codex and command cards, but did nothing with it. 40K just doesn’t do anything for me anymore, I still love the universe, but the game itself just is blah to me. So when Matt was looking at trading off his LotR box set, we swapped armies. I was happy and Matt was happy for about a week then sold off the army! LOL

Necromunda – I bought a Van Saar gang, painted it up and played a few games, I completely painted up my Death Ray Designs set as well as a bunch of scatter terrain for the game. We played a few games and talked about starting a campaign and tried to get at least one more person to play, but nothing more happened with it. Necromunda is best played in a campaign setting then one off games, but that was all we could get played.

Kill Team – Wow, this game has been hot with Robert and I, I think we have well over a dozen games now and only feel like we barely scratched the surface of the game. I have at least Six kill teams, Tyranids (aka Genestealers), Genestealer Cult, Rouge Trader, RT Chaos, Chaos Cult and Death Watch all painted up! Robert and I both love the game and will continue to push this around in the new year. I am planning on doing yet another new kill team, looking at three, Necrons, Plague Marnie’s or Dark Eldar. It really depends if I can find the big starter sets. Kill team does a few things for me, one it is a skirmish game with a few figures, two is played on a smaller board. So, its pretty quick to get new teams and terrain to the table, it also is in the 40K universe so it’s a win for me.

Speed Freaks – Robert and I got this to the table a few times, we each have gangs painted and love the game, it’s a great beer and pretzel sort of game. I got two vehicles painted as well as all my terrain done for it. It’s a great game and is small enough to play a few games a night, once again its set in the 40K universe so that’s a plus!

Space Hulk – Well I got all my figures for the game painted this year, took me a while to paint the bugs, but I finally decided and committed to getting them painted. Now everything is done, but I have not put it on the table, just never had time for it.

Gaslands – Well this has been off and, on all year, I have amassed a large collection of cars (38 to be exact!) and Robert gifted me the new rulebook. I ran a game for our buddy Mike and he became hooked. I have built a few gates and am in process of painting them now. More cars will be modified, and more games are a going to be played. (This week for sure) So Gaslands will be a huge push next year.

Modern/Historical 

Flames of War – Well this was a big surprise, we have played a ton of FoW games this year and I started a Mid War Russian army! For the longest time I was on a break from FoW, but now its something that I am wanting to play more regularly. I see this being played a lot in the new year and as I expand my Russian army.

Bolt Action – I started off the year working on my IJA army which is now all painted, got in a lot of games and have a lot of fun with it. We are talking of doing a Operation market Garden campaign in the new year, so I see Bolt Action being played more this upcoming year.

Fate of the Nation – Saw me getting my Syrian army painted and we got in a few games. I still need to add a few more units to the army, but the local shop is having issues again with ordering items. So when I go to other stores I look for the units I need. Not a huge push to play, but at least I have a painted army ready to go.

Cruel Seas – Well got everything I have painted and ran two games with Robert and Mike, we all enjoyed it, but other than that have not done much with it. Once again, our local shop is not carrying Warlord products, so have to go elsewhere to get items. It may return to the table in 2020, we shall see.

Fistful of Lead – Got in a few games with Robert, but the big push was hosting a multiplayer game of FfoL Horror on my birthday. Painted up everything for the game and had 6 folks playing in which all had a blast playing. FfoL will be back in 2020, but I will be doing this as a group game going forward.

Pulp Alley – About all I did for Pulp Alley was back the kickstarter for the 2^nd edition book. Wanted to get it to the table but sadly it didn’t make it. I am planning on doing a group game in 2020, so at least I have plans for it, but other than that may be a sleeper this year.

Black Powder – Well, Robert and I talked about getting this back on the table and I had hoped to add more to the armies I have, but it never made it out. We have talked about doing another game in 2020, but right now its just really Robert and I working on this.

Purchasing – There were many purchases through the year from 40K to Hot Wheels. I had done a previous post about limiting the purchases in 2020, but lets be honest, that will not happen. My wife has already told me that in January we will be doing our Christmas shopping for each other, so that will mean I am buying in 2020.

So, once again 2019 was a very productive year and I got tons of models painted, games were played and plans were made.So stay tuned for 

Mars is a Lie!

Mars is a Lie!

So, a few months or so ago the Gaslands Refueled book was gifted to me from my buddy Robert. Basically, the rules had the errata and extra stuff from Time extended added to it. It was awesome to get the gift as I had the original book and could always print off the extra stuff.  

Well, another buddy, Mike W of Dagreenskins blog took an interest in the game as well. I met up with him and ran him through a game to show him all the gasoline glory that is Gaslands. He was hooked. He bought the book and went out buying cars like crazy.

With Mike taking an interest, it has filled up my tank for Gaslands as well. (Always good to have someone to play games against). So I just went out and bought about a dozen cars, which I really did not need and am planning on building a board for it. I have also joined a local AZ Gaslands FB group and Mike and I are planning on doing a Car Swap meet day at our local shop where other Gasland folks can meet up, talk shop, swap cars and play a few games.

One interesting thing that I have noticed with Gaslands is the fact everyone that gets involved goes nuts in buying Hot Wheel cars and who could blame them, at .99 cents a car its not bad spending $10.00 for a bunch of cars compared to other companies’ models. I know for myself, it is a touch of nostalgia of being a kid and playing “cars” in the back yard. What kid didn’t do this and “shoot” the other cars?  It also harkens back to building race tracks for those cars and having a great time with them. As a side note, the toy manufacture Mattel has seen an increase of sales from Hot Wheels, I am sure its because us crazy gamers are buying tons at a time!

So it looks like 2020 will see me out in the wasteland racing a few cars for the glory of going to Mars!

TK

Changing things up

So,

 I need a change here on the old blog, going for something a little different, hoping this will allow me to get excited about blogging again. One main part for the lack of posts is primarily I use my Ipad and the blogger app for IOS is not that great. In fact it sucks and I am rarely using my laptop anymore.

So I am going to try to get more content up here and see what the new year has in store. But first up lets change some things up starting with the layout and colors!

TK

Could You???

So, the other day a friend posted an idea for a New Year’s resolution/hypothetical question: Could you go a whole year without purchasing any new models for a whole year and put the money towards retirement.

His question had me wonder if I could do that for a whole year? And honestly, I am not sure if I could.  So, I asked myself on twitter about the same thing. I had a lot of responses, but one thing came through the most is why would I do that?  The main question and why would I have started me thinking about my hobby and what it has become.

Like most gamers, I love the new shiny things that companies put out and I have done some very big purchases over the last two years. That has led to many new games being brought to the table and lots of painting to still do. But as I talked with my buddy who posted the original question, we found that we were not loving what our hobby had become. It seems that our hobby had turned into hunting down the latest greatest thing or chasing expansions for games we hardly played. This seems to be driven by most game’s companies approach to their games, limited quantity releases. This causes gamers to rush out and buy it now before it’s gone from the store shelves or companies’ websites. This is certainly great for the game companies as it helps sales for them, but as a consumer it can cause financial hardship and creates gamers some stress about trying to get everything you need to play the game.

My group certainly is starting to feel this as we seem to be not playing the same game but bouncing from game to game. Now a little history of our group, for the most part, we all played the same game for years. It started with WAB and we had a vary active group with no less then 40 armies, we played each weekend and attended tournaments and hosted tournaments. But then as WAB died (thanks to version 2) we all switched over to Lord of the Rings which once again we had a good size following and hosted and played in tournaments, but then that too died thanks to the company “fixing” the rules which lead to them breaking the game. We then moved onto Flames of War which once again, same thing as the other two systems, which when rules changes made us jump ship to Bolt Action. Now after going through four game systems throughout the years, we did not really push Bolt like we did other games (probably thinking we would be moving to another system).

All these jumps to other games sort of wore some of us out, I know it did for me. Ironically, we started playing more variety of games, then another game company started to release new versions of older games with lower pricing. We all got excited and started picking them up and started dabbling with them and of course the game company started putting out releases quicker and we started having to feel like we had to get them all. My buddy made a bold announcement that he would get every Necromunda release that came out, as myself said ai would do that with Blood Bowl. But sadly, our pocket books could not keep up with this. We also started trying to get a rotation going of what were playing, but that too was hard to keep with all the stuff coming out almost weekly.

So now, we are all pretty much trying to figure out what we are doing, hence the question to start this topic. So, after thinking about it, I want to try to not buy anything new for 2020, I want to get back to just playing a few games I really like and, in a way, put blinders on to stay focused. I have a closet full of miniatures waiting to be built or painted. I want to get back to enjoying the hobby aspect of the games I play, not the chase or the hunt. I really think this will help keep my focus and just play games, although I am sure new things will be released for many of the games I am playing, but I will try to resist and only focus on what I have. I have already started to look at projects that have been sitting for many years to be started or completed.

I can already tell this is changing my attitude about the hobby, its almost freeing really when you have to re-focus back on what’s important and what is important about your hobby. I was watching a few buddies play Flames yesterday and I was thinking about all the models I still must paint for the game, something that I have not thought about in weeks. Plus there are a few things like painting up some Command stands for my ACW armies that I need to do to add variety for the armies. So it is already working.

Now as I pointed out, there are still a few more weeks left in the year, so I could go on a shopping spree now and not have guilt for next year, good thing I do not have a lot of extra funds lying around! So it will be interesting to see what 2020 has in store, stay tuned!

TK

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Grumble Bowl 2019

So, its Monday morning after the Grumble bowl 2019 here in Phoenix and I have had some time to mull over my experience and I thought this may be the best way to document it, so let’s get started.

The Good – Well we had a Blood Bowl event at my local shop, that is awesome enough! This would be my first ever Blood Bowl tournament as a player! When I arrived, the tables were all set with GW pitches, dugouts, templates and quick reference sheets. All the boards were using the regular pitch, some boards are hard to use due to the graphics in my opinion. So, to arrive an hour early and everything was set up and ready to go was awesome! Check in went very quickly as I was early and one other person (Mike) was there. This event you had to register for the NAF and if you had not done that the organizer was getting you signed up there, once again awesome.

I got to play three games for the event and they were enjoyable, although my second game had me loose 8 players to casualties, that hurt! But all in all, the games were fun and no major issues with any of the players.

The Bad -  Well, as this was a NAF sanctioned event, you had to pay $10.00 to join the NAF. So this in a nutshell added $10.00 to the entry fee of $15.00, so it was now $25.00 to play three NAF sanctioned games. Now I have been a member of MAF from when it was free, but now in order to be a member you must pay $10.00 a year, which is not bad, but I still do not see the value in being a paid member of the NAF. Yes, you do get a token and two dice for your $10.00, but it can take up to 9 months for those to get sent to you. Seeing how I would only play in this tournament, I am not sure if it’s worth it.

Also speaking that this was a NAF sanctioned event, I would have thought more players would have been there, we only got 6 players! What the heck happened to all the players? Did the event being NAF sanctioned scare off folks? I will admit, when I heard it was NAF sanctioned, I almost backed out. I play these games to have fun and a good time, with it now being something that players all over the world track their win & loss record, I was expecting to see a lot of “hard core” tournament players. Maybe that is why players did not show.

One other thing that was a downer for me, is that last year what you got for your entry fee was a draw. Last year each player got a ball tray, a Beer Mug and a few other things. I was really looking forward to at least the ball tray as the store prints these on their 3D printer. But the store owner was out of town for personal reasons and nothing got made by any of the other employees (now many may not be able to use the printer, so I get it), but I was really bummed by not getting anything for my entry fee.

The Ugly – Well the lack of promotion for the event, now to be fair the store owner knew he failed on this and apologized for it several times. He has had his time split with being here in Phoenix and doing repairs to his families homestead in Montana, but couldn’t the other employees have stepped up to help? I know a few of them promote other games, but this may have been a reason for the lack of players. What happened to the community? The other thing is that we started late and this was not the organizers fault as he was waiting rather nervously for players to walk in.

So overall it was a well-run event once we got started, but I was rather disappointed in the lack of players. Other than myself, Mike and Eric, we were the only ones on time, the others showed up late (granted one was the store owner who stepped up to play as we only had 5 people). I was asked if I would play in this event again, right now I would say no, the cost and the return was not there for me. I bought a new team (two boxes actually) and spent time building, and painting and even fabricated a display board all for not. The money expended just does not make it feasible to pay all that money for little to no return when I could get in three games with the paying so much.

TK

Just about time...

So,

Work continues on my Beastmen team for Grumble Bowl 2019, here are a few pictures of some of the mutants that are on the team. For this event we are allowed to have a few players with skills chosen from the team list. So I decided I wanted to model some of the mutations.

So first up is Billy & The Goat, a two headed mutation for the team. This was a pretty easy conversion as All I had to do was file down one side of the neck of both heads to get a nice flat surface.

Billy & The Goat

A straight on shot of the two headed mutation. 

Next up  was the Big Hand mutation which I think I will name him, Big Hand! Once again this was an easy conversion, I just chopped off his hand and replaced it with a extra Crypt Horror hand I had in my bitz collection.

Big Hand in his Glory

Another shot of his Big Hand!

Next up is a mutation with extra arms, which was an easy conversion as well, I just did some filing on the lower set of arms to get them just right and glued them together.

With those few models, the team is now ready for the main event this coming Saturday, here is a few shots of the team.

White and Gold!

Team Photo on its display board

So I look forward to seeing how well the team works out this weekend, this will be my first official NAF approved event, player number 14769 ready to hit the pitch!

TK

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On the Road to GRUMBLE!!!!!

Okay Sports Fanz,

Back with a new Series called "Road to Grumble" my documentation of building, painting and playing a new Blood Bowl Team for Grumble Bowl 2019, a local run Blood Bowl event here in Phoenix

Local Blood Bowl Event at imperial Outpost Games, Phoenix AZ

Last year was the first annual event and I missed it because the wife surprised me with concert tickets for the same day. I had planned on taking my Azog Ardinals Ork team, but it was not meant to be.

So this year (September 21, 2019) I have no concerts or other surprises planned, so I should be able to attend. (crossing fingers!). So another buddy of mine (Mike of the former Dagreenskins and now Tabletopin) will be playing and he is going to paint up a brand new team for the event. So I thought why not do the same thing.

New team

So with that said, I took a look at what team to build, a few months back I purchased the Beastmen team and figure this would be a great way to get them built, painted and onto the pitch. So with that being said, The Herd was born!

The Herd

My plan is to go for a white uniform trimmed with gold which in a way will make them look a bit angelic to me, but perfect for Chaos, it should be a nice look on the pitch, will we will see.

Markers for the team

Also since I am a modeler, I had to do up a few tokens for the game. In each of the new box sets you get a special marker for TD’s & Re rolls and one coin token for Re-rolls (or which ever one you want to use. So I decided that I liked the had holding the flaming trophy so that will be for the TD’s, I then took the second marker, took the top part of the flaming trophy off and placed the coin token on it to represent my turn marker. I had another box set of the team so I used the third one to be my re rolls but decided to add instead of the trophy or token, to add two dice to it to be my re roll marker. I am very happy how these turned out and fits for the theme aspect.

So there you go, the beginnings of   my next journey in the next few weeks, stay tuned for more updates.

TK

Tanks, Modern Age

So, about 4 or 5 months ago I picked the Tanks Modern age game up from my local shop, loving the original Tanks game, I knew I would love this one. Also my brother really loves the fast pace of the original Tanks game so this was a no brainier.


Then about a month ago I decided to assemble the three tanks that came  with the game (2 T-64's and 1 M1 Abraham tank). Still have not played yet, but one way to get it to the table would be to paint the models up and that's what I did for Memorial day 2019.

T-64's

First up was the Soviet T-64's, these two painted up very quickly, but hey, its Russian green, no camo, nothing out of the ordinary, just pretty simple really. Did some light weathering on them and they look very realistic.

M1 Abrams Tank

 next up is some American armor, M1 Abrams tank, this is the command variant and was problematic on assembly, but once assembled looks very nice. Now in the 1980's American tanks sported the MERDC color scheme of about 4 or 5 colors. Well I was not a fan, but I did find some tanks painted in the US armor green color, so I went with that, these are for Tanks, so simple was fast and easy. once again some light weathering and I called it done.

With that the base game was fully painted and ready for the battle field. After assembly I went back to my local shop to pick up a few more vehicles, at this time, nothing has come in but the next model I found, the British Chieftain

British Chieftain

This one is a two tone color that was pretty easy to paint, did some weathering and this one is complete. The only thing I would say I dislike with all the Tanks kits, is they do not give you any decals for the models. Not a major issue, but would be nice if they did.

Now after building and painting these four tanks, I am eyeing possibly starting a force for Team Yankee, rumor is that a new version is coming, so I may hold off until that hits, but I will be buying more Tanks Modern Age in the meantime.

TK

There and Back Again

It's funny how watching a movie can bring emotions and feelings flooding back again for something! It happened this weekend, and sort of took me off guard, let me explain.

As most visitors to this little section of the inter web know, I loved the Lord of the Rings game by Games Workshop. I built many armies, built many terrain pieces and ran just a few events for the game. I was a LotR Fan boy for sure with Games Workshop and the movies that came out were visually appealing too me and GW captured that in their models.

But then, like that, I was done with the game! Games Workshop did what they usually do and made some sweeping changes to the game that broke a lot of the rules in my opinion. They also focused on the Hobbit which did not hit the same level as the LotR movies and the visual appeal was lacking. I started getting rid of armies and swore off GW products and most of the guys I played with did the same. The LotR game was lost like the One ring to time.

But then Games Workshop decided to go back and revamp their Specialist Game line, starting with Blood Bowl. I watched and waited to see what would happen. Blood Bowl as well as Necromunda went back to the versions that I had played in the past. Yes there were changes, but they returned to what was familiar to me, I bought both games and much money went back to the GW coffers!

But yet, I still waited to see what would happen to my favorite game. There were rumors and rumblings but I waited and watched. Then about six months ago, Games Workshop released the Battle of Pellnor Fields box set with a whole new set of rules which were toted as being for both LotR and Hobbit. I still watched from afar.

Then they came out with an Army list book for LotR and a separate army book for the Hobbit, I noticed and I started to wonder, what if? Then most recently they released a Battle Companies book for the game which is about developing your own hero and characters and playing smaller games. But yet I still waited.

Then this past weekend, the extended version of the Fellowship of the Rings was on cable, I stopped what I was doing and was drawn in to watching it. And as i sat there watching it, the love of the books, movies and more importantly the game came flooding back. I remembered that I still had lots of un painted models in the closet of shame and after the movie went and dug them out and started working on a few.

First up was Radaghast the Brown which GW did a sculpt for LotR but was never seen in the movies (I dislike the one in the Hobbit, he is a wizard that they make out as a buffoon!)

Radaghast the Brown GW style

 I figured painting one model would scratch the itch and I would be good, but like the pull of the ring on men, I could not stop with but one model. After working on this model, I pulled out 8 Morannon Orcs. I had just recently did a few rusted out cars for Gaslands, and I thought why not use the same paint technique on them.

8 Morannon Orcs

While I was waiting for the paint to dry, I took a look through my unpainted box and saw the Nine Nazgul on foot. I had forgotten about them and I was drawn to them as they are drawn to the one ring. So Nine kings of men landed on the paint bench!

9 Nazgul waiting for the wash to dry!

 I had forgotten the power of these models and while the washes and paints dried, I decided to look at some reviews of the new version, I also tweeted out and messaged a few friends that have the new game. Everything I was hearing was making me see that GW did go back to the core of the game that I enjoyed. I then watched a few youtube videos that confirmed what friends said and the minor changes were not that big of an issue.

So now, as I sit here writing this, I am planning on picking up the rules and LotR army book and will look to get it back to the tabletop once again. So it would seem I am coming full circle wit the game and look forward to working on more LotR models. And since hindsight can be so damm clear, I am missing the armies that I sold years ago. As it will cost more money and more importantly, more time to get those back.

So here is to looking forward to many more adventures in Middle Earth!

TK

Great Train Show 2019 Phoenix

So,

This past weekend I attended with my HO modular club (AZMR) the Great Train Show at the Phoenix Fairgrounds. This show used to be called the Great America Train Show and when I lived back in Southern California I used to attend with my old club Orange County Modular Railroaders. Yes after years of being out of the hobby of Model Railroading I came back to it a few years ago.

The new club (or group of guys as we are not really a club) set up a 36'x36' layout to run trains on. Our group likes to run long trains and when I say long, I mean 80 plus cars! This layout set up had us running much smaller trains as dictated by the length of sidings.

Right side of layout

Left side of layout

As some know, I am working on (very slowly) a switching layout in my game room, it is really a point to point layout, so if I want to run trains in a larger layout I attend and operate on the groups layout. Nice thing is I am able to use locomotives that would not work on the switching layout due to size here.

Southern Pacific Railroad is my favorite and I model the time frame in the late 80's to 1996 when the Espee was merged with the Rio Grand Railroad. With that being said, one of the most iconic Espee Locomotives is the SD40T-2 Tunnel motor. When I used to do model railroading 20 years ago, no one was making this locomotive except in brass. But Athearn did finally release one and as soon as I heard about it, I knew I had to have one.

SP SD40T-2 

Also another iconic locomotive that was all the rage back in 1996 was the GE 39-8B (or as Espee designated them as GE 40-8Bs). My buddy Rick had an Atlas unit for sale so I bought it from him to add to my mainline road power.

Cotton Belt Dash 8

 Now one thing that you will notice is that both locomotives are very clean, this was not normal for the Espee as they rarely ran the locomotives thru the wash racks. now I intend to dirty up the Tunnel motor, but the GE unit will remain as it is as I am representing when it was first delivered.

The show was good, not as good as they used to be, but still not bad. It was busy on Saturday and Sunday saw a smaller crowd at the Fairgrounds. I got a lot of folks complimenting my train I ran as all but the Locomotives are weathered really well like the real things. In this day of ready to roll equipment, most model railroaders are not doing anything to their cars or locomotives to make them look weathered. It leads to a very toy like appearance as most buildings are weathered and the trains are not. So while my train looked beat up by the weather, it stood out from all other trains being run that weekend.

Here are a few more shots of trains being run on our group set up:

My locos together working the mainline.

A GP9 Rio Grande unit

ATSF Steam Locomotive

Amtrak out this weekend

So there you have it, another one of my many hobbies that compete for my pocketbook and more importantly, time.

TK

WW2 German Armored Reinforcements

So about two weeks ago after a game of Bolt Action, Robert & I were talking about some of our projects that we needed to finish up for our German armies for Bolt Action.

I had 4 vehicles that needed paint, so I decided that I should finally get painting on these. So first up was a Warlord 251 with PAK 36 and a Rubicon Hetzer. For the Warlord kit I went with a very simple strip pattern over a German Yellow (Middlestone) color. The Rubicon kit was a bit more time consuming as I did an Ambush scheme.

Left side

Right Side

Ready to Ambush

Just an FYI, these are all hand painted, I did not use my new airbrush on these. The 251 painted up pretty quickly, but the Ambush scheme took me about 3 hours of paint time to do. The hardest part is doing the dots and trying to make them random. Human beings love patterns and trying to do a random pattern is very hard.

Next up was a Rubicon 250 and Stug G from Rubicon as well. The 250 got a variant of the German three color scheme that I sponged on as I wanted it to look like the crew did it in the field. The Stug G was a simple two color scheme that I copied off of a 15mm Stug I did for my FoW army years ago.

250 NEU

This kit included crewmen

Stug G

Simple scheme

15mm vs 28mm

So there you go, four new vehicles for my 28mm German Bolt Action army, these took way too long to get to the paint table, but now they are ready for action.

TK

Shadespire Underworlds

So at the end of last year, Robert & I got to try out Shadespire Underworlds, as he picked it up and been wanting to try it out. Well we both loved it and with that I decided that I need to pick it up myself but all I could find was the second season of Underworlds. So I picked that up as well as a few expansions. And at Christmas I received the first season.

So here are a few pictures of the completed figures for the game, I just have to say I really love painting up a few figures at a time. First up are the Stormcast and Cursebreakers, I really do not like the way GW and most folks paint their Stormcast models, I do not like the Gold and blue scheme. So for mine I went old school Middenheim colors of Red, White and Steel, a very White Wolf scheme. I have played with the regular Stormcast models and they are absolutely rock hard. 

Stormcast & crew

Next up are the Chaos Reavers, these were fun and easy to paint because they half clothed. I also went with a new basing color scheme that looks nice for a blasted wasteland look. I have had a couple of opportunities to face this band and  am not too impressed by them. But then again they were going up against the Strormcast.

Chaos Reavers

I picked up the Skaven set for my son, as he really loves playing Skaven. I have not tried playing them yet and honestly have not looked at the cards yet, but I have them now.

Skaven

Much like the Skaven, I bought the dwarves for my brother to play and these models were quick to paint up, the toughest part was their hair as it has two washes on them. I have played these Dwarves once and they are very different then the Stormcast. They are all about capturing objectives and looking for gold.

Half naked Dwarves

So I am excited about this faction, the Nighthaunts and used a similar paint scheme that Robert used on his AOS army. The models all have great character and I may be playing these guys in the very near future.

Nighthaunts

I have the Night Goblins on the paint table now and I am working out a trade for the Skeletal force, as they look cool to play and to paint up. So ther eyou go, my dive into Shadespire Underworlds.

TK

2019 Fortune Cookie Goals

2019 Fortune Cookie Goals

Okay, so time to set down some goals for my hobby for this year, as always, it’s a great way for me to see what I did not do. Maybe it should be 2019 Fortune Cookie Goals. So here goes:

Fantasy – Well I plan to continue playing AoS and I have decided that I will focus on learning the rules better as well as understanding my army, the Flesh Eaters. And as of writing this, GW has announced that a new box set is coming out to feature Skaven and Flesh Eaters! Hopefully that will mean cards for units and a updated army book! The new box set looks like more of what I have already except for a new Abhorrent King model, but I am sure there will be cards included. I have already reached out to a local Skaven player about swapping out my skaven stuff for his Flesh eaters stuff.

I would still like to get Frostgrave onto the table, Robert & I really like the game, but not many of our other friends do, so I may have to come to terms that it will not hit the table, but I will still try to get it there.

Shadespire was bought and played last year and I purchased a few more expansions for it, so this will continue to be played in the new year.

Warhammer Quest will still be played this year, my goal of having almost all the models painted is almost there. And my local players are really digging playing this old school dungeon crawl game, especially when I supply it all.

I have been asked about Lord of the Rings and if I plan to get the new rules. The reality is that only Robert, my son & I still play or have stuff. The fact is I still have all my old books and a few armies left, if I do anything with it this year, it will be using the older rules in one of games here and there.

Sci Fi – Well at the end of last year I decided to get back into 40k and bought my first Space Marine army, the Blood Angels. I got as far as getting the start collecting box assembled as well as the Space Hulk terminators painted (which caused me to buy the start collecting box). So this year I want to get the game to the table, I know Robert is waiting for me to ask for a game, which may be within the next few weeks, so it looks like 40K is back.

Necromunda was another last year sleeper that took us all by storm, I see this being played more this year as well and GW announced so new models coming out as well as weapon packs for gangs. I also need to get my Death Ray Designs wall set painted, so that Robert & I can have a truly large set up for Necro and for Kill Team.

Robert for Christmas bought me the Kill Team rules, so the plan is to play that this year, I would like to use my Death Ray Designs walls for some games which fits with GWs announcement of kill Team Arena which looks like Kill team on a Necro board. So I may be buying that game when it comes out in the near future.

I also see Speed Freaks being played from time to time as Robert and I both have everything painted for it, I see this as more of a side line game or drinking game. In the same vein, I have Gaslands and would like to get this to the table this year as well. I just need to figure the rules out and start pushing it around the table.

I would also like to get more games of Space Hulk to the table, the terminators are all painted, and I need to start working on the Genestealers for the game. My problem is I need to decide on a paint scheme and stick with it, hopefully I can have a fully painted Space Hulk game by the end of 2019.

Modern – This covers stuff like Bolt Action and Flames, so with that being said there are a few things I want to get done this year. First being Bolt Action, I just finished painting my 1500 point IJA army and I want to get it to the table as well as add a few more items to the army. I also want to do some sort of campaign with Bolt Action. Robert and I just bought the Operation Market Garden book so we will be looking at doing that sometime this year.

For Flames, at the end of 2018 I purchased a Syrian force for Fate of the Nation, so I would like to get that to the table as well as get all my tanks painted for it. I also would like to include a few more items for the army as well.

I would like to get Flames of War to the table again, I really do miss pushing my tanks around my North Africa boards, so I will try to get that back to the table.

Historical – This covers just about anything not covered above. I want to get my ACW stuff back on the table for Black Powder, Robert & I both have tried BP with a brigade or two to a side and it was great fun. So, I would like to use what I have painted.

Fistful of Lead will be back on the table again this year, I will be running a few demo games at AZ Game Fair, so this should be easy to accomplish in the new year.

Cruel Seas was purchased at the end of last year, so I want to get it onto the table this year. I have the starter set, just need to assemble and paint and should be smooth sailing.

Pulp Alley is always on the list for doing, although its been missing for a few years, but I would like to get it back onto the table this year as well.

Purchasing – There are many items that I have my eye on and it looks like GW will be getting the most of it yet again, all I can say is I will try to stay focused on what I buy.  But as any gamer will tell you, its hard to stay focused with all the new shiny things coming out. But in the very near future will be items for AoS & 40K.

So there you go, my plans or Fortune Cookies for the new year, we shall see what happens…

TK