So,
Last week Robert over at Drunken Samurai Painting Blog, pitched me an idea for a big game that he would like to do sometime next year. It is sort of a top secret game but what I can tell you, it will require a few tanks in 28mm and use the Bolt Action Rules (I'm not going to spill the beans just yet). So with that said, I needed to start picking up a few vehicles. About two months ago, I started selling off all my 1/48th scale armor kits and started to switch over to 1/56th vehicles to be more in line with 28mm figures.
One of the kits I picked up was the Rubicon Models Tiger I Ausf. E tank to replace my Tamyia Tiger. I love the Rubicon kits and have a few now, so it was a no brainer that I would have this kit. In fact I was so excited that once I got home, I built up the kit! Now with this secret project, I knew I was going to need another Tiger, but after talking to Robert, I decided to pick up the plastic Tiger from Warlord Games this past weekend.
So last night I had some free time, so decided to build up the second Tiger to see how it matches up to the Rubicon kit. Now I have to say, if your in the market for a Tiger model, either one of these great kits will work and you will be satisfied with the results. I will be reviewing each kit below, but hear me on this, both kits are very well done and I really can't say which one is better than the other.
So first up is the cost of each kit:
Warlord Games Tiger = $32.00
Rubicon Models Tiger = $37.00
Now you can get both of these kits cheaper if you go online, but these are the suggested prices for both.
Next up is assembly, the Warlord kit gives you two plastic frames, while the Rubicon comes with three plastic frames. Each kit took about 45min to put together. Now the Rubicon kit allows you to build three different versions (early, mid or late variants), while the Warlord only allows you to build a late version. The instructions for both kits are easy to follow and pretty straight forward if you have ever built any sort of model kits in the past.
Now it is worth noting that the Warlord kit comes with zimmerit paste already sculpted on, which the Rubicon has none.
Another thing you get with the Warlord kit is a commander figure, while the Rubicon kit dose not come with a commander. Now this is not a big deal, but it is always nice to have a figure to add to the tank. On the Rubicon kit, the tracks have no real detail to them but the Warlord kit has actual track detail (you can see the track links and such). Once again its a minor issue, but not it was something I noticed when I assembled the kits.
Overall size of the kits is pretty good, but the Rubicon kit is just a hair larger than the Warlord kit. I noticed it with the gun barrel sizes, the Warlord kit is shorter than the Rubicon kit (and we all know barrel length is important, sorry!). But overall you could easily run both of these kits together on the tabletop in the same platoon without seeing an issue.
One other thing I would mention is that the detail on the Rubicon kit seems much crisper than on the Warlord kit. I am talking about the molded on detail like the tow cables and track equipment rear deck detail. Its minor and once the model is painted it will not be an issue. Both kits do come with decals, although the Rubicon decals are the same ones you get with the Panzer III & Panzer IV kits, would have liked to seen a different set of decals. The Warlord model has a generic set of German numbers and cross' which is nice.
So which one is better? Well I don't know, both kits have their strong points and low points, but as I said at the beginning of the post, these are very small issues. With saying that, I like the Rubicon kit much better since I have the option to build three variants as opposed to one version. But I think I will be buying another Warlord kit for our super secret project since the Tigers would have zimmerit on them and I do not want to green stuff up the Rubicon kit. I hope this little review helps you with deciding on a Tiger to purchase. Stay tuned for painting these big kitties.
TK
Here is my little section of cyber-space dedicated to my hobby of war gaming. I will post thoughts, ideas, reviews and what ever else my mind can come up with.
Thursday, September 22, 2016
Monday, September 12, 2016
Operating on the DB&AJ Railroad.
Well,
This past weekend we took a trip out to CA for a Dierks Bentley concert at the Irvine Meadows amphitheater on Saturday night. Well I got an email from a friend Bill Meyer inviting me to play trains on his HO DB&AJ RR, which is a freelance layout depicting the Santa Fe railroad in the Fullerton area mid 1980's. I have been helping and operating on Bills layout since the mid 1990's.
If I remember correctly, he is now on his 115 operating session and he can host at least 6 operators with one playing as Dispatcher and the rest being either Road Crews or Local Switcher crews. There are about 25+ jobs to run during the session and takes about 3.5 hours for each session. Now I have operated many times in the early days and at that time we did self dispatching, meaning we just ran trains in order on his Job list.
But now Bill is using a true Dispatcher (who sits in another room all together separate from the layout) and track warrants issued by the dispatcher. Meaning you must use a radio to call the dispatcher to get a track warrant to operate on certain sections of the layout. I will confess, I was rather flustered by operating like this but it does make it feel more like the real thing. With saying that, their is a lot of paperwork to fill out and waiting around to actually operate. At one point I got to sit and wait for a local crew to clear the main for about 15minutes. Like I said, it felt very much like the real thing.
The nice thing about the layout is that Bill is always adding new things for his operators to challenge them. Bill uses a Waybill system that tells you where everything needs to go, this session he has added Blue Flagged cards that say Do not move Unloading, which is something that real railroads use when cars are not meant to be moved, the really railroad would fire you if you moved a blue flagged car, Bill just would make you buy him a Pint afterwards!
He has also added Re Spot cards, which means you can move the car, but have to put it back where it was at. These little things make the layout much more realistic and fun to operate. Most operating layouts do this, it was just new for Bill's layout.
All in all I had a great time operating on this layout and I am lucky that Bill still invites me whenever I am in the area. For all of my non Model Railroading friends, picture operating a layout like a game, except that the playing pieces are HO cars and locomotives. If you ever get a chance to operate, take the chance and do it.
TK
This past weekend we took a trip out to CA for a Dierks Bentley concert at the Irvine Meadows amphitheater on Saturday night. Well I got an email from a friend Bill Meyer inviting me to play trains on his HO DB&AJ RR, which is a freelance layout depicting the Santa Fe railroad in the Fullerton area mid 1980's. I have been helping and operating on Bills layout since the mid 1990's.
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| A few U boats that I got to run this weekend. |
If I remember correctly, he is now on his 115 operating session and he can host at least 6 operators with one playing as Dispatcher and the rest being either Road Crews or Local Switcher crews. There are about 25+ jobs to run during the session and takes about 3.5 hours for each session. Now I have operated many times in the early days and at that time we did self dispatching, meaning we just ran trains in order on his Job list.
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| Extra 6378 West bound. |
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| Extra 2866 Sweeper train |
He has also added Re Spot cards, which means you can move the car, but have to put it back where it was at. These little things make the layout much more realistic and fun to operate. Most operating layouts do this, it was just new for Bill's layout.
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| The Colton CA ATSF station I made for Bill years ago, I am the Station Agent! |
TK
Wednesday, September 07, 2016
Band of Painters Sept Installment completed!
Well,
My first installment of the Band of Painters challenge is completed and below you will see the efforts.
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| 248 Points, 1 Spinne Walker and 6 Veterans |
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| Spinne Mechpanzer |
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| 6 Veterans, 5 with Assault Rifles! |
So I started assembly on September 1, paint followed on the next few days and they were completed on Sept 5. I like how they turned out and look forward to filling in the ranks in the following months.
TK
Thursday, September 01, 2016
Band of Painters Challenge - Month One
Well
Today we start our four-month paint challenge called the Band of Painters which will focus on four of us building new Bolt Action/Konflikt 47 armies. As I mentioned I am building a Late War forces and will be focusing more on the Konflikt 47 army first.
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| 248 points for Konflikt 47 |
So here is my first batch of 248 points of models:
1 NCO with Assault Rifle (Veteran)
4 Infantry with Assault Rifles (Veteran)
1 Infantry with Rifle (Veteran)
1 Spinne Light Panzermech (Veteran)
That's it, 248 points which will be pretty easy to paint up.
TK
Thursday, August 18, 2016
Big Time Painting
So,
A few months ago, my friend Jeff up at my local game store had a few larger (54mm) scale model on his paint desk. I asked where did these come from and he said Andrea Miniatures, which is a company that does larger scale figures for display. Jeff showed me their website and I was totally blown away by what I found.
Now a little back story, when I was much younger, I used to go to my local shopping center/mall and visit a store called The Military Shop in Lakewood CA. I remember that they had tons of models on display and a ton of Historical miniatures on display (as well as a few nude miniature models too). I would spend hours looking at all the models and dreaming of being able to paint just like those.
So when I saw these Andrea Miniatures, I was transported back to my younger days of youth. So I told Jeff that I would order a model to try my hand at painting one of them. Jeff told me, that painting these models helped him immensely with his painting and that I should give it a go.
Well after looking through the online catalog, I settled on a very iconic figure, another from my youth, their 1930 Adventurer, which has a strange resemblance to a certain Doctor Jones from a certain set of movies. (Okay lets just admit it, its Indiana Jones!)
So after plunking down just this side of $30.00, I awaited my figure. It arrived the following week and I took it home to inspect my new purchase. The figure is 54mm and was rather nice with very little flash on the figure. The only issue was his whip, it was a cast piece of metal and was nearly broken already, so I knew I would have to replace that.
As you see from the above picture, it would need some assembly but it all went together perfectly. The nice thing is they give you a little instruction booklet for assembly and painting if you have never worked with metal figures before. Only reason I mention this, is that a few of my none gamer friends wanted this same model, so the instruction booklet would be perfect for them.
I was not happy with the way the model mounted to the provided base, the red mark on the above picture was were one foot attached to the base. I added a pin to his other foot and drilled a hole to mount him there as well.
You can see in the first above picture the model all mounted up on the base, minus his whip. I forgot to take pictures of how I made the whip, but basically it is two pieces of floral wire wrapped together and then bent to desired curves. In the second picture above you can see the size of the model next to a few 28mm models (the scale I usually work with). He is a much larger figure that's for sure.
I primed everything in a flat white and then decided to start working on the base, I wanted to start with something easy first! One thing I kept telling myself was to take it slow, I am a pretty fast painter, but I really wanted to take my time on this whole kit, the base alone took me well over two hours to do! Why you may ask, well you cant see it, but there are 6 different colors on the base and I use a couple of washes, I waited until each one was completely dried before starting the next color.
So once I was done with the base, I tackled the man himself. After priming white, I mounted him onto a piece of balsa wood to make it easier to handle while painting. I started on the face since that would be the real focal point of the model and that this was a very recognizable figure. I will admit, I painted the face about 5 times until I liked what I was doing. The first couple of times it looked like crap and I started over, but once I got a nice smooth base coat down, I started in with washes and lighter tones of flesh colors. The face really drove me crazy doing because I wanted to get it right. Also Jeff came over one night, and said, "You know, its not going to paint itself" and that comment spurred me onto getting the model finished.
Once I got over the hurtle of the face, the rest of the model painted up rather easily. One thing that I really like about this model was the highlighting on his jacket, the detail really pop and for some reason I just dug painting it!
So after about two and a half months, here is the completed model!
I have to say, this was a real challenge for me and I think my painting has gotten much better, at least my brush control has. I am now looking forward to my next model from Andrea Miniatures and I am leaning towards a certain Hollywood Pirate form a certain set of movies, but we will see. I would highly recommend these figures for any level of painter and if you are not interested in painting, you can even order the models all assembled and painted up for you, so take a look at Andrea Miniatures.
TK
A few months ago, my friend Jeff up at my local game store had a few larger (54mm) scale model on his paint desk. I asked where did these come from and he said Andrea Miniatures, which is a company that does larger scale figures for display. Jeff showed me their website and I was totally blown away by what I found.
Now a little back story, when I was much younger, I used to go to my local shopping center/mall and visit a store called The Military Shop in Lakewood CA. I remember that they had tons of models on display and a ton of Historical miniatures on display (as well as a few nude miniature models too). I would spend hours looking at all the models and dreaming of being able to paint just like those.
So when I saw these Andrea Miniatures, I was transported back to my younger days of youth. So I told Jeff that I would order a model to try my hand at painting one of them. Jeff told me, that painting these models helped him immensely with his painting and that I should give it a go.
Well after looking through the online catalog, I settled on a very iconic figure, another from my youth, their 1930 Adventurer, which has a strange resemblance to a certain Doctor Jones from a certain set of movies. (Okay lets just admit it, its Indiana Jones!)
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| Doctor Jones I presume? |
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| All laid out for inspection. |
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| I think there is something in my foot? |
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| Red mark is mounting for original figure, pin hole I added. |
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| All mounted up |
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| Size comparison, on left, 28mm Pulp Figure, on right Infinity 28mm figure. |
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| Base color for the base |
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| Base all finished up after a few hours of work. |
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| Hey I got some sun on my face! |
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| Another size comparison |
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| Getting closer to being done |
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| Are we ready yet? |
So after about two and a half months, here is the completed model!
I have to say, this was a real challenge for me and I think my painting has gotten much better, at least my brush control has. I am now looking forward to my next model from Andrea Miniatures and I am leaning towards a certain Hollywood Pirate form a certain set of movies, but we will see. I would highly recommend these figures for any level of painter and if you are not interested in painting, you can even order the models all assembled and painted up for you, so take a look at Andrea Miniatures.
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| That's a wrap! |
TK
Tuesday, August 16, 2016
Band of Painters Challenge
So,
Coming in September, Myself and three other folks are going to be participating in a little paint challenge that we are calling Band of Painters. It will take place for four months and we will each be building and painting new Bolt Action Armies as well as Konflikt 47 armies (which we will add the new units to the armies we are working on).
Each month we will be building and painting up 250 points of models, with the goal after four months being 1000 point armies. Now realistically we will be doing more than 1000 points if you add in the new units for Konflikt 47, but the main goal is to get a new army for Bolt Action first.
We are doing this with our local shop, Imperial Outpost Games here in Phoenix to help promote Bolt Action as well as Konflikt 47. As we finish each 250 point allotment, they will be on display at the shop in one of their glass display cases for the world to see.
So, what will I be building you ask? Well it looks like I will be doing a brand new German army (surprise surprise!). This army will be built as a late war army and will be a perfect fit for the Konflikt 47 army. I really wanted to do a different army, because I have a huge Crusader/Black Tree German army already, but once I saw that the Germans in Konflikt 47 get Zombies, Werewolfs and some other cool stuff, I was done, it would be a new German army for me!
So with that being decided, I picked up the new Konflikt 47 German Starter box set you see below.
So for $112.00 here is what you get in the box set:
An A5 sized Rulebook
1 Spinne light panzermech
1 Pz IV-X medium tank
24 Grenadiers
8 Totenkorp (Zombies!)
6 Pin Markers
6 D6 dice
6 Order Dice
Not a bad little set and it comes up to around 650 points give or take. Nice thing is you can add your regular Bolt Action army to this and easily get you well over 1000 points. That's the one thing I am excited about, I can now get two uses out of one army!
So there you have it, what I will be doing for the next few months, the hardest part will be to not start painting it up now! So keep checking back here for updates and if you are in the Phoenix area, stop by Imperial Outpost games to see the figures in person. We will also love to show you how to play Bolt Action and Konflikt 47.
TK
Thursday, May 19, 2016
Blood Bowl Returns!
Well,
It seems that Games Workshop is going to re-release Blood Bowl in the fall and I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas morning to arrive! I am totally stoked about this, Blood Bowl was one of the first GW games I picked up and I have a love for the game that I can't really describe. I love the game, I hate the game and whenever I find people selling teams or models I pick them up!
The rumor's have been floating around for years that GW would re-do the game, but word is getting out that the rules are pretty much going to be the same that folks are currently playing now. (Yes there are still people playing Blood Bowl at big events).
So here are a few pictures I grabbed off of Twitter this morning showing all the cool models coming out!
The new models look amazing and the fact that they have announced that they will be in plastic is great news! One source from Twitter mentioned that Humans, Orcs, Elves, Dwarves and Skaven will be the first releases in plastic. Star Players will be in resin more than likely released through Forge World. And if sales go well, there will be a second season release with even more models. The future looks bright for BB fans.
So I know I will be giving more money to GW in the fall, time to start saving my pennies for all the cool new BB stuff that will be coming out. Hmm now I need to make a Buccaneer team for Blood Bowl, hmmm...
TK
Tuesday, May 17, 2016
Legends of the High Seas turns 10!
Wow,
My little pirate book un-officially turns ten years old this month, reason for the un-official tag is that I started writing it in May of 2006. Last night I stumbled onto my original notes when I started writing and it took me by surprise that it has been ten years.
So I figured with the game being ten, I should give some background on how it came to be and where it is going. So take a seat and listen to this salty tale of pirates and plunder.
Well as a few readers know and a few folks that have the book, it all started with a the First Pirates of the Caribbean movie, but the allure of pirates started further back with me. Living in Southern California for most of my young life, I would make frequent trips to Disneyland with my family. Pirates of the Caribbean was & still is one of my favorite rides in the park. Ironically when I worked at Disneyland, I was never trained on Pirates, learned just about every other ride on the west side of the park, but never Pirates.
When I moved to Phoenix Arizona back in 1999, I joined up with my current group of gaming buddies and started doing historical gaming. One buddy of mine, Tom of Ponatowski's Legions ran a big Pirate game using rules that the group had created. It was a huge multi player game with all kinds of pirate drama going on, I loved those games.
Then in 2001, Games Workshop released Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle game. Many in our gaming group, including myself got into this game. But as I played it, I thought this would make an awesome Pirate or Samurai game. Also at this time our game group had Warhammer Ancient Battles in heavy rotation and my buddy Tom had connections with Rob Broom of Warhammer Historical.
I can't remember when Mark Lathams Legends of the Old West came out, but once I saw what he did I was blown away and thought GW had some sort Servo Skull following me around stealing my ideas for adapting the LotR game for historical uses.
Then June 2003 and the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie came out, after walking out of the theater with my wife and son, I knew I had to do something with pirates. I went home that day and started thinking of how to write a set of rules for pirates.
Flash forward to early 2005 and I finally had gotten a rough draft of Pirate rules done. In fact all these were was the Lord of the Rings appendix break down in the back of the Lord of the Rings SBG fellowship book. At this point, Tom and I got in a game of pirates using the LotR rules. Tom mentioned he was in direct contact with Rob Broom and that he was looking for authors to expand the Historical line out from WAB. So after a few brief emails back and fourth, Rob Broom asked me for a proposal on writing LotHS. I then waited. I finally got word in 2006 that I was given the contract to write the game, but I had to have it ready in about 6 months to write it. Luckily I had started with basic writing before then, so I had a jump start thanks to Tom prodding me about writing.
From that point onto 2008, I was writing and play testing the game with a small world wide group of salty dogs. Also during that time, I was put into contact with many game companies that produced pirate models off of some of the stats and crew types. Black Cat Figures, Black Scorpion Miniatures, Crusader Miniatures were just a few folks that did figures for the game. I was in nerd heaven having some of my favorite companies talking to me about sculpts for the game. Many other companies also sculpted up new pirate figures to be used for the game as well.
In late 2009, early 2010 I started working on a follow up book to LotHS and the working title was going to be called Shipwrecked. It was going to add in a few more crews, Spanish, Dutch as well as some other types. Would have more scenarios as well as more campaign elements. But that's when Warhammer historical started having internal troubles. I was told that there would be no other books for LotHS and that this could be the end of Warhammer Historical. Well the end did finally come when GW pulled the plug on Warhammer Historical. I can't go into the issues, but I was well aware of what was going on and was told to keep it hush about it.
Now many folks have asked about why I didn't just put out the new stuff I had written for Shipwreck on my own. Well there were two main reasons, first, the computer I had written it on had a melt down and I was not able to get the files recovered from it. Secondly and more importantly, I was done with thinking about and writing about pirates! I wanted to move onto other hobby projects and after the let down of not getting a second book, I was just done with that chapter of my life. You see writing a book and getting it published was a bucket list thing for me, so I can cross that off the list.
So what now of Legends of the High Seas? Well I wish I could say that GW is going to put it back into production, but alas that is not the case. But what I have been thinking about is starting to re-write Shipwreck and make it available here on the Ole Cursed Treasures blog. Why the sudden shift you might ask? Well that's a good question that I had to ask myself. While out with a Robert, Jeeping in the desert, Robert asked me, "So, what do you want to do hobby wise?" Well I after spending a few days to think on it, I want to play pirates with my rules! (as well as a few other games).
So my plan is to start writing up a few lists, working on a few Pirate models and finally getting around to building me a proper Caribbean town to play said pirate games on. I want to get back to having fun with my friends and possibly dragging a few of them back into pirate gaming. I think enough time has passed for this old salty dog to head back to sea with the other bilge rats!
So last night, I painted up a few X marks the spot tokens as well as pulled out all my pirates from there little container homes. It seems I still have a ton of Pirates that need paint! So stay tuned folks, there will be more LotHS content coming along. now I must get back to digging out all my pirate booty and press ganging a few fellow gamers back into the Pirate Kings services!
TK
Tuesday, April 26, 2016
State of Gaming Locally
So, been seeing a trend that I wonder is just not limited to
here in the Valley of the Sun. From my little perspective, it seems that
miniature gaming is on the down side of popularity. It seems that card and board
games are on the upswing.
Let me explain why I think this is the case. At my local
shop (Imperial Outpost) out of the ten or so game tables, you would see a plethora
of miniature games being played. Everything from 40K & Fantasy to Flames of
War and other miniature games. Heck it used to be hard to get a table due to
all the miniature games being played. But in the last few years I have seen a
decline in games being played in the shop.
Now, certain companies have not helped with this either by
changing up their rules or discontinuing rules. Some companies have also raised
prices to a level you would think you were getting solid gold figures instead
of plastic and resin. And before you say it, there are many companies that have
raised their prices, I can think of three companies that have product on my
local shops walls that have suffered from price creep.
So I wonder if this has caused the miniature gaming
community to look for alternate games? Has the miniature player base had enough?
I don’t know, it is just that I am not seeing the same level of gaming activity
like I did in the past.
Now part of the problem may be with games like X-Wing and
Attack Wing, while these are miniature games, they really are not. Yes, you
have miniature ships, but its more about the cards you have. I watched a local
tournament recently, and I was shocked at just how many cards most players had.
And listening to players talk about tactics, it was more about what equipment
card you needed to make a certain ship be unbeatable. It was more about the
cards that the miniatures.
And speaking of the miniatures, they are great and well
painted. That may be one reason in regular miniature gaming. The ships are pre
painted and ready to go out of the box. I overheard one young player (17 – 19 years
old) say the reason he got into this games was that he could not paint, he sold
off all his 40K stuff to get into X-Wing. In fact, one time when my buddy and I
were playing the Spartan game Halo, we had many people walk up to the table and
ask if the models came out of the box painted like X-Wing. You should have seen
the looks we got when we said you had to assemble the models and paint them, it
was like we threw a sunk at them.
Maybe that’s the problem in decline in miniature games, the
time commitment to building and painting. I have noticed that the younger gamer
(younger than this old 47-year-old man) that they do not have the attention
span to commit to painting a whole army or project. Perhaps that is the allure
of other games. Another store here in the valley had a ton of Magic players,
while the store owner was a huge miniature gamer. He often told me that his
customers had no money and little time to buy and paint miniatures. But man,
they had money for the latest Magic card release and man they could shell out a
ton of money for snacks!
Board games are at least trying to keep miniatures alive,
you are seeing more board games that are coming with actual miniatures. Games
like Zombicide and others have entered the market to take their place in the
board game world. But these are really more board games than miniature games.
Yeah, you can use your zombies in other games, but they were made for the board
game. A certain company has started to
release special miniatures with these basic games, capitalizing on the board
game phenomena. I guess you can blame them.
So I wonder if other folks are seeing this in their neck of
the woods or is it me just going a little bit crazy (could be that!). Are you seeing more board and card games being played over miniatures? All I
know is that I will keep doing what I enjoy and that collecting, painting and
playing with miniatures.
TK
Wednesday, March 30, 2016
You want to play what?
So,
Been thinking about this for a while, so I thought why
not write something down, so here goes. Why do we gamers stop playing certain
games? Lately I have been wanting to play some classic games like Blood Bowl,
Legends of the Old West and Necromunda, but I am finding it hard to get some of
my game buddies to play.
I have noticed that with Games Workshop games, once the game
goes out of print, the interest is lost on these games. Now sometimes the game
companies don’t help this, like releasing a new version of the rules and
totally screwing up the game (can you say LotR and then the Hobbit?). Now I
understand it is hard to get new players into an older version of the rules and
its even tougher if the rules are gone all together. But what about the folks
that kept these older games?
If you invested into a game and still have all your “stuff”
for the game, why not play it still? I understand that there is only so much
gaming time available to folks, heck I only really get one day to play games
now because of family obligations. I also understand that with less gaming
time, there are many newer games that need to be played, so the older games
slowly take a back seat. My own gaming experience shows this, for a few years
Flames of War took up all my gaming time, heck it was the most played game for
me for three years running. Now I hardly ever play, partly due to my interest
level being low on it and the other part is that I want to play other games.
Is that the case then, too many games and not enough time?
Perhaps I answered my own question then. This past weekend I heard from a
friend tell me he missed Lord of the Rings, I replied that we all did in the
game group. But that’s the gist, we all still have armies and all the books, so
why don’t we play it? Maybe it is a nostalgic thing as my good friend Rob told
me, it’s as if we have moved on from certain games like you do in
relationships, I don’t know.
Now as I mentioned earlier, the game companies don’t help
with this. Take Warhammer Historical products. When GW closed this branch of
the company, there seemed to be a mass exodus from playing their games, people
said things like “It’s not supported” and “Can’t buy it anymore, won’t play it
anymore” as if that was a reason for people to stop playing the games. Once
again my personal experience is that I had a few WAB armies for the dark age
period. I had all the dark age books so I was set and didn’t care if they
released anymore books. But our group moved away from playing WAB 1 or 1.5.
Same thing for Legends of the Old West, I have all the figures I need, have all
the books and terrain, but once Warhammer Historical closed, people got rid of
their stuff.
Maybe it has to do with the community, take Blood Bowl, it
was a game that GW killed a few times but the community kept on going. They did
not need GW to support it, they just kept playing. Heck once GW tried killing
it, many other companies stepped up and kept making figures for the game. Blood
Bowl still lives on and is still played all around the world. I find it funny
that for a game has no support officially, there is ton of other companies
supporting it. Heck one tournament back in the Midwest, had over 64 players
show up to play, that’s amazing!
So where am I going with this? I guess what I am trying to
say is keep playing the games you love and enjoy, you don’t need the companies
support, just gather a few friends together and keep playing it if you enjoy
it, maybe I am over thinking all of this, time to get back to painting my toys…
TK
Tuesday, March 29, 2016
Time flys!
So,
Well, back in February, had a little event called Gathering in the Desert, which was a huge success, had a few new out of state folks, as well as some old friends return from out of state. Good mix of us locals and other than the campaign scoring, everything went off without a hitch. We will be doing GitD again next year and it seems the theme will be Normandy!
I painted up a bunch of terrain as well as figures for this years event and got my German DAK force up to snuff and feel really good about getting that done.
Oh been painting a lot of Gates of Antares armies for my local store for demos, just finished up the Algoryans and will be working on the Freeborn next. If your wondering about GoAT, its a new sci fi game from Warlord which the base mechanic is the Bolt Action system, but with a whole lot of other rules. My buddy Mike is really digging the game and I am interested in it, but have not been wowed by anything that has come out. I am still waiting for a cool army to get behind. Right now I have a Concord force, but they are just okay, they do not wow me. Don't get me wrong, it is a good game with lots of detail, just not excited about the figures like another game I picked up.
So what's the other game, well it is Infinity! I picked up the two player set at the end of last year. A few months ago I picked up the rules and started reading them. Rob also picked up a force for the game and we are going to slowly learn the game in baby steps. We had a very basic game a few weekends ago, to get some of the core rules down. It went very well and I am now eyeing more models to add to the Nomads.
Now the Infinity models & terrain have me super excited about the game, much more than Gates. I will be picking up a few 4Ground buildings to build out a nice 4'x4' table. That's one thing that Infinity needs, lots of terrain.
This another game I am waiting for, Marvels Universe Miniature game from Knight Models. I have always wanted to do some Super Hero games, and with this game I can play the X-men. I am waiting for my local store to get the stuff in, which hopefully is this week. It also means that I will be running a few games of this at Phoenix Comic Con in June for our local shop. So I am pretty excited about this game as well.
Lastly, been on a nostalgic trip of late and been thinking about Blood Bowl. With GW announcing that the Specialist games are coming back & that Forge World showed new sculpts of BB figures. I have the itch to bust out and play Blood Bowl again. I have even been thinking of organizing a one day fun event for it. I have always wanted to do a BB event, I have been following events like Zlurpee bowl http://www.zlurpeebowl.com/wordpress_z/wordpress/ and other events. Maybe its time for me to do something about that, we shall see.
Anyway there you go, just a few things I am working on..
TK
Well, back in February, had a little event called Gathering in the Desert, which was a huge success, had a few new out of state folks, as well as some old friends return from out of state. Good mix of us locals and other than the campaign scoring, everything went off without a hitch. We will be doing GitD again next year and it seems the theme will be Normandy!
I painted up a bunch of terrain as well as figures for this years event and got my German DAK force up to snuff and feel really good about getting that done.
Oh been painting a lot of Gates of Antares armies for my local store for demos, just finished up the Algoryans and will be working on the Freeborn next. If your wondering about GoAT, its a new sci fi game from Warlord which the base mechanic is the Bolt Action system, but with a whole lot of other rules. My buddy Mike is really digging the game and I am interested in it, but have not been wowed by anything that has come out. I am still waiting for a cool army to get behind. Right now I have a Concord force, but they are just okay, they do not wow me. Don't get me wrong, it is a good game with lots of detail, just not excited about the figures like another game I picked up.
So what's the other game, well it is Infinity! I picked up the two player set at the end of last year. A few months ago I picked up the rules and started reading them. Rob also picked up a force for the game and we are going to slowly learn the game in baby steps. We had a very basic game a few weekends ago, to get some of the core rules down. It went very well and I am now eyeing more models to add to the Nomads.
Now the Infinity models & terrain have me super excited about the game, much more than Gates. I will be picking up a few 4Ground buildings to build out a nice 4'x4' table. That's one thing that Infinity needs, lots of terrain.
This another game I am waiting for, Marvels Universe Miniature game from Knight Models. I have always wanted to do some Super Hero games, and with this game I can play the X-men. I am waiting for my local store to get the stuff in, which hopefully is this week. It also means that I will be running a few games of this at Phoenix Comic Con in June for our local shop. So I am pretty excited about this game as well.
Lastly, been on a nostalgic trip of late and been thinking about Blood Bowl. With GW announcing that the Specialist games are coming back & that Forge World showed new sculpts of BB figures. I have the itch to bust out and play Blood Bowl again. I have even been thinking of organizing a one day fun event for it. I have always wanted to do a BB event, I have been following events like Zlurpee bowl http://www.zlurpeebowl.com/wordpress_z/wordpress/ and other events. Maybe its time for me to do something about that, we shall see.
Anyway there you go, just a few things I am working on..
TK
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