Happy New Year! What’s in store for 2016

Happy New Year 2016! Everyone.

 

2015 started off really good for me in hobbying/gaming, had a dry spell half way through, and then really picked back up late in the year with my resurgence into Warmachine/Hordes.

 

The other day I wrote my 2015 Year in Review and I was quite amazed with the games I did and did not play. The 2 games that I thought would see little time, saw the most, and the 2 that I thought would see a lot, saw very little.

 

So today we work on our goals/objectives for 2016.

 

First off I would like to say, that I am going to try and be very reasonable with this list. Cycling in 2016 is still going to take away a lot time for me to get in gaming/hobbying. I am on a local race team for the year and I will have a lot of weekends where I will have to attend an event. So we try and squeeze in our gaming/hobbying in between.

 

Second, years ago a friend wrote a blog post asking what kind of gamer are you in order. Gamer, Modeler or Collector. I have always thought of myself as a Collector/Modeler/Gamer. I enjoy the collecting of the different armies, followed by the painting of them and finally getting to actually pay games with them. I still see myself as this way.

 

Let’s start:

 

Bolt Action

 

As I mentioned the other day and last year. Between my son and I we have 3 fully painted armies. Getting in at least 1 game in 2016 would be 1 more than 2015.

 

Painting Goal: None at the moment.

Gaming Goal: Play at least 1 game.

 

Dungeons & Dragons (Rolepaying)

 

Roleplaying games take a lot of commitment on a weekly basis. I honestly do not see myself getting involved with another group unless it is planned to be a short session.

 

Warhammer 40K

 

No plans at all for completing any more armies, the prices from GW are too ridiculous for me.

 

Painting Goal: None at the moment.

Gaming Goal: I can see myself possibly getting in a few games.

 

Warmachine/Hordes

 

Now this is the one that I see will take up most of my time in 2016. If the year continues as it ended in 2015, it should be a good year. The big question is hopefully my son will not get burnt out on Warmachine/Hordes. As long as he stays interested, I see myself staying interested. As I mentioned the other day, I love the sculpts from Privateer Press. So even if the gaming is down for the year, the plan will still to be to collect and paint.

 

Painting Goal: Tough to say. I use a Painting Points system each year to track my painting progress. Not sure if I will put a number for a goal, but maybe a collection of armies. I am in the middle of painting my Gatorman Army, after the Gatorman are completed to at least 50 points, I will probably move onto my Trollbloods or continue on my Khador. My Khador Army for Warmachine is “my” army. That is the army that will be played most and I would like to try and collect all the models for Khador. So that will be my goal, to at least own every Khador model. Getting them painted will be a different story. Any ‘new’ armies for Warmachine/Hordes, unsure at the moment.

Gaming Goal: I would love to say 52 games (average 1/week, which may be doable) but let’s be realistic. Let’s shoot for half that. 26 Warmachine/Hordes games played for 2016.

 

X-Wing

 

I really want to get back involved with this game, realistically if I concentrate as much time as I have planned for WM/H, it may be unlikely, especially since we are ow behind on quite a few of the Wave releases. Plus the game has always been a ‘meta’ game with the latest releases.

 

Painting Goal: Not applicable.

Gaming Goal: I am going to shoot for at least 5 games played of X-Wing.

 

Events/Conventions

 

This is a new topic for 2016. I always enjoy attending conventions, more for the comraderie with other players than ‘winning’ a tournament. When I lived in Chicago, it was always AdeptiCon each year. Living in Arizona, attending AdeptiCon gets a little costly. We already have 2 events planned for 2016. Las Vegas Open in February, PP Lock & Load in June, and I am going to look for one possibly in the Fall (maybe Warmachine Weekend).

 

So to keep it simple, it looks like 2016 will mostly be Warmachine/Hordes and attending some Events/Conventions.

 

Time for some modeling!!!

 

2015 Year in Review

Well once again it is that time of year where us gamers do a recap of our accomplishments (or non accomplishments) from the year.

 

I had pretty high ambitions for 2015 when it started out, but then the weather warmed up and my Cycling started to take over my life (and health…losing 90lbs from cycling). Cycling 3 times a day made it hard to get any other hobbies in for the day, then on the weekends it was usually going out riding with a group for longer rides which took up most of the day and throwing in some out of town weekend Tours.

 

2015 started out with my post “What’s in store for 2015“, so I will be using that original post and we will review how the year has went.

 

Bolt Action

 

This was a game I had thought was really going to see the gaming table a lot in 2015 (with having 3 fully painted armies and models to add). I had ranked this game as a Top 2 for me to play in the year. As you can see in my Sidebar, I played 0 games of Bolt Action. BUST

 

X-Wing

 

X-Wing was predicted to be my Top game for the year, with pre-painted models and games only lasting about 75 minutes, I thought for sure this would be played a lot. I started the year with a pretty decent start, playing 7 games…..then nothing. Not even the new movie got me re-excited for the game. I also personally feel that Fantasy Flight Games started releasing their Waves a bit too fast for me. I enjoyed it when the Waves were not one right after another and gave you sometime to collect the models. BUST

 

Dungeons & Dragons

 

With the release of D&D5E in late 2014, I got really excited for this game and jumped back into role playing. My oldest and youngest son both joined me and we found a weekly gaming group. We did finish the first 2 official modules for D&D5E. Then the group wanted to play an alternate universe that did not interest me so the roleplaying stopped.

 

The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game

 

Like with X-Wing, this game started hot for my oldest son and I, then died on me. We managed to play 8 games for the year.

 

Warhammer 40K

 

I had rated this game farely low (3 on a scale 1-10) for being played in 2015. The first 4 months of the year that changed. I managed to get in 8 games, paint a few models and we started a map based campaign. Then as I mentioned above, the weather got nice and I stopped all gaming from April-September.

 

I really do like W40K 7th Edition, but GW’s prices are extremely high, and I feel there are too many codexes out now for all the different variations you can have in the armies.

 

Warhammer Fantasy Battles / Kings of War

 

As I predicted with a score of 1, Fantasy did not see any gaming time for me, nor any interest.

 

Warmachine/Hordes

 

This one I had scored it a 3 and that depended if the bug bite to play again. Well in September for some reason that bug must have bite me pretty hard. Warmachine got me back into gaming for 2015. Since September I managed to get in 7 games and this month I was able to paint up 32 models.

 

My son and I are also registered to attend the Las Vegas Open for Warmachine in February, and we are also signed up for Privateer Press’s ‘Lock & Load’ in Seattle in June of 2016.

 

With Warmachine/Hordes, I enjoy the farely low model count in the army (takes less time to setup a game). PP does a nice job with their Steamroller Rules each year with different scenarios, and with ‘deathclock’ the games are played pretty fast. For some reason, I really really enjoy the sculpts of the models, especially Hordes and I enjoy my time painting them.

 

Thinking this game may be a bust, it turned out to be a late hit for me.

 

Flames of War

 

Just like Bolt Action, another BUST for me with 0 games played.

 

Legends of the Old West

 

I still had no inclination to play an Old West game in 2015. I scored it a 2 and it received a 1.

 

Beyond the Gates of Antares

 

I gave this game a score of 7. I was pretty excited to see a sci-if version of Bolt Action and I really thought I may get into this game. The official rules were released late in 2015, and I did NOT purchase them. A lot of locals did purchase the rulebooks and starter sets. For now I am holding back, maybe I did not jump into it because I actually played some W40K this year (and still have plenty of armies for W40K).

 

That’s about it for 2015. The year started off really strong and is finishing really strong (with a hiatus in between).

 

Stay tuned on Friday January 1st when we find out What’s in store for 2016!

 

W40K: Black Templars ‘Land Raider Crusader 1’

The first of my three models that I need done for the Broadside Bash this April is now completed.

This is the first Land Raider Crusader I have for my Black Templars army, I am thinking later this year I will probably add at least one more. I need to have two Land Raiders Crusaders in a Black Templar army, for theme.

Up next will either be High Marshal Helbrecht, or my Vindocator replacement model.

Black Templars Land Raider Crusader

Black Templars Land Raider Crusader

Black Templar Land Raider Crusader

Painting Points: 10

Broadside Bash: April 25th-26th 2015

The past few weeks I have been searching the internet for a Gaming Con for my son and I attend this Spring. I came accross the following events: Kingdom-Con, Kublacon, Gamex (Wizard World Vegas was also in the mix for my middle son to meet Norman Reedus), the problem with Wizard World is, it is the same weekend as Kingdom-Con.

 

With these events only 2-3 months away, I have been patiently waiting for a list of scheduled events so I could request my vacation days and book our hotel room. Coming from Chicago, helping to run events at AdeptiCon and playing in events, I guess I have become spoiled in the way they run their event and have their schedules posted as soon as they can so everyone can make arrangements. The three cons I have mentioned above still do not have all their events posted.

 

I first started to look into Kingdom-Con in San Diego, CA the weekend of April 23rd-April 26th. Just this week they started to list a few events. Warmachine events (which I am no longer interested in) and The Broadside Bash, a 2 day GW GT Style Tournament for Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40K. At this moment I do not feel like I am ready for a 2 day tournament (been looking for smaller 1 day events and other events) and possibly to have some more time to try other games. But I decided to keep the Broadside Bash on the list.

 

I then decided to look at Kublacon up in the San Francisco, CA area over Memorial Day weekend. Their website is a little bit more up to date and had a lot more events posted. They had listed for that Sunday a 3 day Warhammer 40K RTT at 1500 points. I thought this would be perfect for my son and I. Unfortunately the event was still listed as ‘proposed’. I then contacted the organizer of the event and the miniature coordinator for Kublacon, and they both informed me that there was a scheduling issue for the event and it does not look like it was happening….so much for going to Kublacon then….I probably could have found other things to do that weekend there, but I really wanted to get in some Warhammer 40K.

 

Next I looked at Gamex 2015 out in Los Angeles also over Memorial Day weekend. At this point on their website, the events are very limited and there are no 40K events listed yet. I also contacted the gaming group who usually runs the events out there, at this time they did not have anything planned.

 

Now we come to Wizard World Vegas…. plus side I could have had a free hotel (timeshare), downside was the price to enter Wizard World, especially for the main reason we would be going which is the photo-op and autograph session with Norman Reedus. The VIP package for Norman Reedus is $350.00 plus an additional $150 for 2 more tickets for my other son and myself. $500 just to get into Wizard World. I went to plenty of them back in Chicago growing up (back in the day when it was still for the comics and DC/Marvel would actually attend these events), nowadays its more for the celebrities and a giant vendor hall.

 

I thought about still attending Wizard World Vegas (instead of the other three) and then just look for a gaming con in the fall. There was not really much coming our way this Fall either. So this morning I elected that we would be attending Kingdom-Con in San Diego and that we will be playing in the Broadside Bash Warhammer 40K Tournament. I know I am going to get ‘whipped’, but I am going to play with the mentality to ‘just to have fun’. Hopefully once they release the full schedule of events, we can also find things to do on Thursday afternoon and Friday.

 

I am really hoping that I am going to enjoy Kingdom-Con, I really do miss AdeptiCon have only been back twice since moving to Arizona 10 years ago.

 

“Just going to go to have fun!!!”

 

 

 

W40K: Black Templars ‘Stormraven Gunship 1’ Complete

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I started working on my Stormraven Gunship for my Black Templars army. A little bit of painting last night and some more today, and my flyer is completed.

 

I think for ‘table top quality’, it came out alright. I am still not happy with how my decals look on ‘black’, and I should have tried something a little different with the windows (yes I got lazy and just decided to prime the windows black). I probably should have tried a drybrush on the windows instead of hard edges.

 

Since the model is of decent size, the photos did not come out as well as I wanted (the model did not fit well inside my light box).

 

It’s done, it can be played with, time for the next model.

 

Assault Cannons

 

Lascannons

 

Plasma Cannons

Painting Points: 10

W40K: Black Templars ‘Stormraven Gunship 1’ WIP

Slowly this week I have been working on a Stormraven Gunship as an addition to my Black Templars army. I really like the fact that I can assault from the vehicle, and I thought it would be a cool looking flyer to add to the army.

I am hoping to get it all completed tomorrow (Saturday), but I thought I’d share some of my work in progress photos.

Magnetized Weapons

Magnetized Weapons

 

Warhammer 40K Gaming Board (Secret Weapon)

The past week I have been debateing about what kind of gaming board I want for my garage. I currently have the original Games Workship grass mat, and a brown 6’x4′ felt mat, but I do not have anything really for Warhammer 40K.

I’ve been debating between a black felt mat, Frontline Gaming Mat, GW’s new 40K realm of battle board, and making my own board from pink foam. Pink foam is very hard to find here in Arizona, but I came across a 1″ 8’x4′ board last night night. So today I had decided I was going to go the way of the pink foam board and just make my own ruined board, then I came across the Secret Weapon Miniatures website and they now make gaming tiles in 1’x1′ pieces and you get 24 tiles.

You can choose between ‘Forgotten City’, ‘Rolling Fields’, ‘Scrap Yard’, ‘Urban Street-Clean’, and ‘Urban Street-Damagesd’. I really liked the way ‘Urban Street-Damaged’ looks and decided to order this board.

All orders over $150 included free shipping which was plus. Hopefully we’ll get the tiles next week and I can start getting them painted.

W40K: Black Templars ‘Terminators’

Besides adding two Black Templars Marines to fill out some units last month, it has been quite a few years since I lasted painted for Warhammer 40K. With my renewed interest in W40K for this year, it is time to get some models painted.

My current Black Templars army is quite a few years old, ok, really old, so some of the models are OOP including my current Terminators unit. This past weekend I got a steller deal on a unit of Terminators. So why not, let’s get them painted and added to the army. Over the next few weeks we’ll be adding more new models for the Black Templars as we get the army ready for a map campaign I am playing in.

Black Templars: Terminators

Black Templars: Terminators

Painting Points: 10

Battle Report: W40K 2/14/2015

The second game played on Valentine’s weekend was Warhammer 40K. My son and I along with our friend Gyan just started a map based campaign to get us back into Warhammer 40K and play some friendly games. I have placed the rules and maps on www.adeptusarizona.com if you would like to follow along.

 

We started the Campaign this past Friday night, and we are currently on Turn 4. My fleet ‘D1’ was approaching the planet ‘Bosan’ along with my sons fleet ‘T1’. When two fleets invade the same planet, a game is played on the table top and the winner will then control that planet.

 

So we rolled for mission and deployment as per the rules in the Warhammer 40K rulebook.

 

Planet: Bosan

Points: 1500

Fleets: ‘D1’ Black Templars / ‘T1’ Dark Angels

Mission: Purge the Alien

Deployment: Vanguard Strike

 

I wanted to try out a new list for my Black Templars, so I had to proxy a Stormraven Gunship and borrow a Land Raider Crusader from my son’s Salamanders army. I wanted to have two vehicles that my units can assault from. The problem with these two vehicles is that use a lot points.

 

Seeing how we rolled a mission that awards 1 Victory Point for each enemy unit killed, my son had plenty of vehicles/units in his list for me to kill.

 

I concentrated first on the easier Razorbacks to pick up points at fast as possible, then I was going to worry about the larger vehicles and units. That paid off for me as the two Razorbacks went down quite quickly.

 

Once the Stormraven Gunship arrived, it dropped of a Crusader Squad that assaulted a Devastator Squad and hovered to the rear of a Predator and elimintaing that tank.

 

While my Land Raider Crusdader was immobilized, it still managed to do 2 glancing shots and 1 pentrating shot on the Dark Angels Land Raider Crusader, then my Gunship hovered closer for the final penetrating shot with it’s twin linked multi-meltas.

 

Combat was a different story. My one Crusader Squad easily took down the Devastor Squad, then got looked into combat with two Dark Angel Combat Squads. The Crusader Squad with my Emperor’s Champion and Champlain were locked into combat for 3 Turns with Belial and his Terminators. Nothing was left of the Crusaders except the Emperor’s Champion was still locked in a challenge with Belial at the end of the game. My Emperor’s Champion did manage to get 1 wound on Belial.

 

The game ended at the end of Turn 5. My Black Templars had 8 Victory Points to the Dark Angels 3. The Black Templars now control the planet ‘Bosan’ and the Dark Angels fleet must retreat back to their home planet.

 

Daily Chronicle: 1/28/2015 ‘Updated Painting Queue’

It has been awhile since I last wrote a ‘Daily Chronicle’, and since I will be heading out of town tomorrow for two weeks, I thought I’d do a quick post.

I haven’t painted anything also in quite some time and I could not leave a new month, new year unpainted.  Seeing how I recently gotten a resurgence into Warhammer 40K (even though in my New Year’s post I gave it a rank of ‘3’ of getting back into the game) I decided to paint up two Space Marines for my Black Templars army.  I needed two more guys modeled with Bolt Pistol / CCW to complete one of my units.  This past weekend I was able to find two guys at Mercenary Market held at Empire Games here in Mesa.  So I decided to quickly get those two painted up so I can have some Painting Points for the month.

I also decided to update my Painting Queue on the right side.  I made the mistake of deleting the Bolt Action items instead of sliding them down, but anyways it is now updated with a few Warhammer 40K models.  I’ll be constantly editing this section through out the year.

I am also happy that I was able to get quite a few games in this month also.  4 games of X-Wing, 2 games of Warhammer 40K and 8 games of The Lord of the Rings: TCG.

Looks like when I get back from vacation, most of February will also be devoted to these three games.  I’ll need practice for the X-Wing store championships I’ll be attending in March, plus my son and one of our friends will be starting a Warhammer 40K map campaign between the three of us so we can familiarize ourselves with the rules again.  Hopefully I’ll also be able to paint some more models next month, at least get a few assembled and ready to go.