Silva Towaa and Moar

Some motivation for you my fellows!  Happy Wednesday (or whatever day you guys are reading this, except Tuesdays, they can go rot in Hell).  Hope all of you are doing well!  Today I have lots of talk about Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower - nothing crazy like a review or anything, just some quick thoughts on it.  I'll also be discussing the future of my Skaven and my Bloodbound, as well as some of the plans for my other armies - INCLUDING A FLASH SALE!

Let's go ahead and get started on this amigos, and see if we can keep moving forward!

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Silver Tower.

This is a game that, quite frankly, has been one of the best purchases I have made in a long time.  For $150, you get 51 models, plus an entire board game!  $2.94 a GW model?  Uh, yes please.  Plus a board game, that's actually quite an exciting time!

Quest for the Amulet of Chamon in #warhammerquest #silvertower featuring a big win for the players! Great way to spend the evening!

A photo posted by Patrick O'Leary 🇺🇸 (@patrick_r_oleary) on May 28, 2016 at 9:45pm PDT

 I mean, our group has REALLY, REALLY enjoyed this game, probably more than any other board game that we have played lately.  AND as an added bonus, a couple of people from our gaming group have bought AoS models to use in the game, which means they are one step away from buying into AoS itself!  Truly, a win win for the community here in Atlanta.

As of this writing, we are 5 pieces into the campaign.  All we have left are the shards of Life, Fire, and Light to collect.  (Yes, the piece of light is the tutorial game.  Yes, we died.  Horribly).  I have been playing as the Fyreslayer Doomseeker.  Our group has evolved with their characters into a mostly chaotic group from there.  We have a Dark Elf Assassin, an Exalted Deathbringer with Impaling Spear, and a Slaughterpriest with the sword and hammer.  Tonight we will have a replacement for the guy with the Slaughterpriest, so there will be a new hero.

The game plays great, and each of the trials is unique - which makes its awesome for replayability.  My personal favorite trial has been the quest for the piece of Azyr and the piece of Ghur.  Not to get into the story too much, but both of those quests feel very much like they should, and if you are a fluff-nut like I am, then the story coming to a head in both of those is very satisfying.

After 5/6 hours of work from about 4 people, managed to get base coats down on all of the Silver Tower models and get first round of highlights on to about 80% of them. Another couple days work from myself and these will be fit for table top! Managed to snag a game in of course! Great game! #ageofsigmar #silvertower #warmongers #warhammerquest

A photo posted by Patrick O'Leary 🇺🇸 (@patrick_r_oleary) on May 30, 2016 at 10:09pm PDT

We all gathered together to try and get a good bit of it painted, and - as the caption states - we managed to get basecoats and highlights on just about everything from the box!  Which was awesome, because now everything looks pretty good on the table already.  These models just eat up the paint, they are a breeze.  Some of the best models in a long time (so since the last AoS release basically).

Disaster finally strikes! After 2-3 games going easy on us, my group stumbles into the realm of Death and gets ambushed by the Guant Summoner. nEedless to say, we didn't last very long. #ageofsigmar #warhammerquest #silvertower

A photo posted by Patrick O'Leary 🇺🇸 (@patrick_r_oleary) on Jun 4, 2016 at 9:03pm PDT

I highly recommend picking up the game.  The only complaint I have, and that our group has had, is that the beginning of all of the trials feel very similar, and not a lot happens until you get into the thick of the various trials.  From that point on you feel like you are completing the quests in unique ways, facing the myriad challenges with wild abandon.

11/10, would buy again.

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So, on to the second point!  What am I working on currently, and how will we continue to move forward?  Well, dear reader, that is an excellent question!  

I am finding myself more and more at a hobby cross roads.  I have always believed that one should have a couple of main games that they play and enjoy with people all around them.  However, that has - over the course of many moons - turned into a plethora of games that I no longer play or have the desire to even look at in some cases (Uncharted Seas you sad, wonderful game - RIP).  So I have many, many models.  

It is time to cut them down, dust out the cupboards, cull the herd, etc.  I have the following that is all going to be looking for a new home soon:

• Firestorm Armada - Terrans (Stripped)
• Firestorm Armada - RSN (Stripped/unbuilt)
• Firestorm Armada - Relthoza (Unpainted)
• Firestorm Armada - Dendrenzi (Unpainted)
• Firestorm Armada - Misc. (various)
• Guildball - Alchemists (everything but Compound from the line, all but 2 painted)
• X-Wing (I don't even know, I really just want to put all in a box and get rid of it)
• Malifaux - Lucius (unopened)
• Malifaux - Lady J (built, unpainted)
• Malifaux - Ten Thunders
• Misaki Box (unopened)
• Metal 10T Brothers (unopened)
• Samurai (2 assembled, 1 on sprue, unpainted)
• Malifaux - Misc (Again, just want to box and get rid of it)
• Age of Sigmar/9th Age/Kow 
• I have a box of misc. Dark Elves, nothing spectacular, mostly Corsairs that are not assembled and some other bits and bobs.  I would just want to pretty much give this away.
• Warhammer 40k
• This is an oddball for me.  I have a lot of Chaos Stuff, but none of it is very exciting.  I am just looking to get rid of this so that I can justify - in my mind atleast - starting fresh into a game that I have abandoned for so long.  
• I also have vanilla Space Marines that have some Black Templars painted up among their number.  I could be convinced to get rid of these too.

For all of these, just ask me what I have through email (olearypr@gmail.com) and I can send pictures and hash out prices.  I am looking to get rid of a lot of this, so I can't imagine asking more than around 50% Retail for any of it.  

I'd be willing to look for some trades as well, including the following:

• Imperial Guard - Catachans a plus
• AoS (ordered by level of desire)
• Skaven
• Khorne Bloodbound
• Tzeentch Daemons
• Savage Orcs
• Uncharted Seas (ordered by level of desire)
• Ralgard
• NEW SCULPTS Empire/Humans
• Elves
• Sky Pirates
• Dragon Lords
• Anything else would be a case by case basis.

As for things that I am actually working on, besides flash sales, I am just working on painting up more rats for the Rise of Empires in the Age of Beasts Campaign.  I have been slacking lately, and then with Silver Tower popping up all of my painting time has been sunk into that.  For this month, I would like to actually finish my half done Plague Censer Bearers and all of my Warlock Engineers and Arch Warlocks.  IF I get that done, then I would be happy to finish up my Stormfiends and get my Verminlord built.  

On the NEW 40k front, I would love to start building a Catachan force.  Something totally unique from all other armies I have collected.  Plus, I should probably play a good guy at some point in my tabletop escapades.   

Looking forward to writing to all of you again in the near future, hopefully with some painted models and empty shelf space!  Until then, happy gaming!

Weekly Update #2

Hey All!

Been a busy week of tabletop thanks to the long weekend and not much homework.  Last Sunday I had the pleasure of going and meeting up with a local Spartan Vanguard at Treefort Games.

Before we met up, I taught a friend how to play Firestorm Armada with the RSN and Terran Starter boxes minus Battleships, which resulted in a bloody draw - but with the surrender of the Terrans to my mighty RSN after it came down to a pair of wounded RSN cruisers and a third crippled cruiser against a pair of Terran cruisers and a handful of frigates.  Good game overall but he wasn't sold on the space ships.

Then I broke out my resin colored Shroud Mages fleet and played a whooping 15 turn game against some elves where my frigates chased down a battleship and stern raked it for atleast 5 turns, my battleship unloaded broadside after broadside into cruisers that wouldn't die, and then finally Elves rammed wounded Cruisers and took Shroud Mage Cruisers as prizes.  In the end, I really enjoyed my first game of Uncharted Seas, and will definitely play again.  In fact I liked it so much I bought a Ripper sub, and then on Labor Day took 8 hours to paint my entire collection of Shroud Mages.

Of course my friend wanted to try a game of Uncharted - he used to play a Pirates Game - which he taught me.  But now he has his eyes set on some Imperial Humans to paint up and play (although he says IF he decides to play) We tried to whip through a game where he took over the Vanguard's Orc Fleet, but we just didn't have enough time to get through it before closing - although it started out with a trio of Shroud Mage Frigates steaming up to a cruiser and rolling a crit to knock 5 AD off of his Port Broadside....

All in all, Sunday's games were great fun, and the paint splurge that ensured on Monday was excellent.  I look forward to expanding my fleet and getting it to around 1500 points, which means the addition of something like 6 smalls, 6 mediums, and a flagship to my fleet, plus various upgrades to the fleet in addition to the models - this would also allow for some tactical flexibility in smaller games, and give me plenty of variety.

Anyway, thats pretty much all I have for this update, sorry for the lack of photos, hope you all enjoyed anyway!  Well until next time,  Tarum et clama dimit belli canes! 

Updates and a Battle Report

Hey All!

Sorry for the long drought between posts, but I assure you I am still tabletop gaming.  In fact, over the past two days, I have gotten in a rather large game of Firestorm Armada and a game of Power Grid.

First things first, I have to apologize for no pictures.  Both games happened to be pick up games that we not arranged prior, so I didn't take any pictures.  If you are allergic to long blocks of text, I will give a short and sweet replay, with a narrative battle report following.

RSN Forces (Inferno Fleet):
commanded by myself (sinscaptain)

Spectre Battleship (Battlecruiser really)
- x4 Interceptors flying CAP
x3 Spook Cruisers
x2 Phoenix Destroyers
x2 Phoenix Destroyers
x3 Bulwark Frigates
x3 Bulwark Frigates

Terran Alliance (Strike Fleet Templar)
commanded by my friend The CEO

Razorthorn Battleship
Ares MkII Carrier
- x6 Bombers
- x6 Assaulters
x3 Sentinel Cruisers
x4 Pilgrim Frigates
x2 Pilgrim Frigates

Battlefield was open except for 4 gun platforms ringing 3 torpedo satellites.  We made a simple rule where if you got within 4" of a satellite you controlled it.  This was to level the playing field a little bit because of any points difference.  We hadn't calculated points wanting to just throw down and get playing, so we used these platforms to offer an advantage.  They proved helpful, but not obnoxiously so.

Deployment - The RSN left to right: Spooks, Spectre, Destroyers, Frigates, Destroyers, Frigates.
The Terrans right to left:  Frigates, Cruisers, Frigates, Battleship, Carrier.

Game:

The game went surprisingly smooth at first.  The Spooks managed to ping some damage on the Carrier, and then the frigates all sped forward to try and get some of the satellites.  My Destroyers opened up on frigates and whipped them off the map.  Then his battleship moved up and scored a few points on my Spooks, but was cautious because of how badly they had hurt him in the past.  Then I moved up more destroyers and pegged him for a few points, and started to really hurt his Carrier.  I threw my battleship at it, and for the rest of the game I shot as much as I could spare at the carrier with one hull point on it.  I couldn't manage to kill it all game.  I focused so much on it that he got off a full salvo from his broadsides on his own cruisers against my frigates - crushing a squadron - and then AGAIN against my destroyers.  The highlight of the game was probably right about here, where a rolling broadside completely blew up a destroyer.  That was bad enough, but the explosion from her sister ship gutted the other destroyer with double crits - both of them decompressions in a fit of bad luck.  The game pretty much went down hill from there.  I ended up taking him down to 85-90% of his original fleet strength while he crushed most of my fleet, save the battleship once again, and a single destroyer.

Terran Carrier and Satellites

Hey All!

Finished up the last couple models I had for Firestorm Armada.  All out of models to build and paint now :-( which means some more ships are probably going to be inbound, probably around August at the earliest.  But, for the time being, here are some photos of my Terran Carrier, and the satellites.  

All in all pretty happy with all of the models :) I think up next is a 400 point increase for both fleets - Tarakian or Hawker Industry allies for the Terrans, and Heavy Cruiser, cruisers, and a Dreadnaught or Carrier for RSN.  I also think that I'll be naming fleets and coming up with a back story, because honestly that adds a lot to the game.  Instead of "that cruiser shoots that one over there..." You can say "the Dante advances on the Righteous, opening fire with forward torpedoes."  Which sounds a lot cooler.  Plus, if I ever get into campaigns it makes it a lot easier to upgrade ships and see each of them get their own personality.  Until then, Tarum et clama dimit belli canes!