The tales of heroic victories, disheartening losses, moments of inspiration, and of moving little plastic toys around on a table for a couple hours with other grown men. Come on in and make yourselves comfortable - you're in the captain's house now. *none of the images, models, videos, etc. are backed by Wyrd, Games-Workshop, Privateer Press, etc. we're a couple of dudes in a basement who still play with toys, don't sue us please!
Hey hey hey! It's your favorite blogger here to talk to you about the dangers of goal setting - if you set em, more than likely you are going to complete them!
So, what have I been motivated to complete since my last post here a little over a week ago? I HAVE A PICTURE FOR THAT TOO.
I did a thing in the bottom right over there and completed (to a tabletop standard) a couple of models from a range that I have never painted before. I did this by getting my Alchemist team completed for Guildball in time to go and get some gaming in at the beach against some buddies of mine from Atlanta.
Here is some photographic proof that I can indeed complete models in a rather quick fashion should I so choose to do so!
I really enjoyed playing Guildball over the weekend. It is a refreshing change of pace from the types of games I was playing before in that you can get it done in a little over an hour in most circumstances. These games that I was playing were learning games, and as such they were all more geared towards helping me along with the game system and learning the niceties of the system. I played against both an Engineers Guild team and a Union Team. I lost all three games, but as the weekend progressed it was closer and closer. The final game I managed to score 6 to his winning 12 points. Other games before this I had failed to score a single point with my team either time.
I really am enjoying Guildball, but I definitely need to get more practice in with the team that I have and - of course - pick up the rest of the Alchemist models that I don't already have. Which of course will lead to grabbing more Union team members, a Union team, and then grabbing another team after that as it snowballs out of control. But that's ok! Who gets into tabletop games and doesn't have that happen to them over the course of their gaming life?
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In other news, I have postings about the news! That's right folks, I have just a few items of business that I would like to bring to the attention of the model loving public.
First, the birth of the Skaven Pestilence Battletome and all of the delicious wonders that entails:
I have not broken down and purchased the Virulent Horde yet, but man alive that is a good looking box set if I have ever seen one. I am not a huge fan of getting another Plague Furnace, but the thought of just about everything else in the box set makes it well worth basically getting a Furnace and a catapult for free an ok prospect. I am giddy with excitement over this release, for fairly obvious reasons I think. I love my Plague Rats almost as much as I love gaming in general, so these are near and dear to my heart as a Skaven player.
The other Age of Sigmar news that has my blood and creative juices flowing is the grand entrance of the Sigmarite Cavalry, and the hints of Stardragons coming to their aid soon. These models, while pricy, are some of the coolest things I have seen. I really dig the whole vibe of the crossbowmen armed cavalry, I think they are probably the best looking of the bunch with the axes coming in a close second.
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Anyway, this is all I have for you today. Look for the ever increasing tide of Clan Festerscar to make a reappearance on the Realm of Ghur, and for more painted Guildball models to show up on this page in the near future! Until next time, dear readers, happy gaming!
Katalyst is the one who will break the secrets of life everlasting. The same might not be true for those that he is across from on the pitch.....
Hope you are doing well. Its been a good bit since my last post, so I am happy to be back entering your eye holes once again. Not much in the way of gaming lately, as school has started to pick up again. A couple of friends got together to play a couple of rounds of Splendor, but other than that it has been a draught of tabletop gaming. Gotta love Alabama.
What does this mean I have been doing? I must have done something if I am writing a blog post, right? Well, my dear intrepid readers, I have been working on painting up some Skaven for the past couple of weeks. I just thought that I would take the time to go ahead and post them up here.
I have started experimenting with P3 Paints, and I have to say that I do adore them now. As I start to get more comfortable with painting in general again - I was off the horse for about 6 months - I will start to experiment with some of the more advanced painting techniques; wet blending, two brush blending, I may even try my hand at some nonmetallic metals. Who knows! I am really getting back into the painting aspect of the hobby thanks to the guys over at Garagehammer and some of the amazing work done on the Age of Sigmar Facebook pages. I will probably make a return to painting some Malifaux models in the near future as well, as I have more than a few models left to paint for that game system.
Here is my photodump for all of my recent Skaven painting.
While it may not seem as impressive a photodump as those that have come before, this isn't the full scale of work. I already have 25 of the Plaguemonks cranked out, and am working on another 12 before I move on to the command elements of the unit and my Plague Priest - whom needs to be rebased AGAIN on a 32mm base according to what they come with from GW's main site. I am not complaining though, as I think the 32mm will look great on Plaguemaster Malkk. As you can see from the last photo, I am also currently working on getting my weapons teams up to snuff again, as well as back into the new and improved color scheme of my Plague army. I think that once I have the Plague monks all done I will most likely move on to getting my clanrat units repainted. I need to come up with a creative way to make 2 units of 30ish into something like 3 units of 20. OR I need to just go ahead and buy another battalion box while you can still get them and make 3 units of 30 clanrats and 3 units of 20 plaguemonks. So many choices.
Before too long I need to get my Stormvermin brought into line with the new way of thinking, or leave them as the Asian Skaven mercenaries that they are and paint up the Katana converted models to have the same scheme as the current rats of Clan Hashiji.
Thats about all I've got at the moment. I wont bore you with my plans for the Khorne Bloodbound until I actually start getting some paint on them, which may be a country minute still. So, until next time - Happy Gaming!
Ahhh, welcome younglings - 'tis I, Sinscaptain! Back with another Malifaux Thursday battle report update, a Brewmaster spotlight (or atleast initial impressions), a project my gaming group is getting ready to work on, and some rumblings and thoughts on the Age of Sigmar for Warhammer Fantasy! Lots to get through today, so lets get started.
So yesterday I was able to snag our regular weekly match of Malifaux. Unfortunately, I have already broken the streak for taking lots of pictures, and the other members of our gaming group were occupied giving demos or playing, so there is a lack of pictures this time that is unfortunate as we had an absolutely lovely table provided by Matte to play on.
Sinscaptain's Schemes: ALitS (Revealed) and Breakthrough (Revealed)
<AUsome Friend>
Pandora [~ Cache]
+ 2-3 upgrades
Candy
+ upgrade
Baby Kade
+ upgrade
Teddy
Sorrow
Sorrow
Poltergeist
<AUsome Friend> Schemes: Assassinate and Plant Explosives
My thoughts on taking this crew for these schemes was that Fingers and a Shinobi would be able to run off and throw down some markers wherever the enemy wasn't headed, while the other Shinobi, Brewmaster, Merris, and the Boar were meant to stop any kind of schemes from my opponent, as well as go after any heads they can get.
Game went great! Since I was just learning Brewmaster and my opponent was playing his 4th game of Malifaux, we only got to turn 5 before we called it. He did manage to kill both Wesley and Brewmaster so that he earned his full assassinate points before turn 4, but not before Brewmaster threw down 6 poison on Pandora and brought her down to a single health so that she'd die to poison. I only managed to snag 2 heads the whole game, but that was about the same as Pandora and Co. Plant Explosives ended up being difficult for Pandora to get since I spread my crew out quite a bit, while I managed to sling both a Shinobi and Fingers through the middle - while laying scheme markers for LitS - and get to the deployment zone for some Breakthrough goodness on the last turn. With all of that, I managed to snag 8 points in the game to his 6 - he had 2 heads, full assassinate points, and a single explosive marker go off.
Like many headhunter games, it was more cat and mouse than anything this game, which means there usually isn't much killing. Had I been playing Collodi or Zoraida, there would have been more pulling and luring to get heads. However, Matte has been painting Brewie up to look beautiful on the table, so I had to give him a try - and I love him. Probably the most cinematic point in the game was Brewmaster and Pandora going at it, which I imagine would have been Brewmaster smacking Pandora around with his bamboo pole while she tried to summon up sorrows to defend her and attack Brewie. Overall, a great learning game for both of us. I am really looking forward to getting some more games in with Brewmaster to get the hang of him completely.
Brewmaster.
A Gremlin from beyond the misty mountains, Brewmaster has risen in prominence among the denizens of the Bayou for his many variety of Moonshine that he brings with him. His loyal band of Drunken Kung Fu masters follow him out of sheer alcohol dependence and loyalty. Many of the other Bosses know that to stand against the Brewmaster would be foolish, as their own boys might turn against him in order to get some of the Brewmaster's glorious 'shine.
This guy is dual faction Gremlins and Ten Thunders with key words "Gremlin" and "Tri-Chi", which is what all of the models from the Closing Time box set are at this point. Brewmaster is an amalgamation of control master and condition distribution master. His main condition is of course poison, which he can dish out a kegger of to everyone at arms length. He also has means to reduce the enemies effectiveness with abilities to make negative flips to all duels for an enemy. His upgrades give him a slew of other options for dishing out conditions and ending the effectiveness of enemy models through paralyzed.
I really think that the main focus of a Brewmaster crew is to shut down an enemy and make sure that your models can get where they need to go so that they can complete schemes and strats while the enemy deals with negative flips, poison, and paralyzed. This makes him a master that, from now on, probably wont see action in many of the killing strats (reckoning, headhunter, or collect the bounty) just because his crew really isn't as good at dealing strait damage to people. They are great for running around and having schemes, but for the most part I think that killing still belongs firmly in the camp of Ophelia for my Gremlins.
For what to take with Brewmaster, I will probably always take Fingers and Apprentice Wesley - being able to come back from death makes Wesley invaluable, while Fingers is a premier scheme runner and can hold his own against those that would take him down. He is a little steep in the SS department, weighing in at two and a half piglets in cost, but I think that he is well worth the cost. Other than that, I really do enjoy the Moon Shinobi, who can deal a respectable amount of damage with the right modifiers since they make all negative flips positive flips and vice versa. Merris was a great addition to the crew for her Flaming Bottle attack and the fact that she can discard a card to drop a scheme marker. However, I may drop her and definitely the Wild Boar in favor of taking Sammy LaCroix with Brewmaster's fourth upgrade and then having left over SS in the cache. I will have to give that a try the next time the schemes look like they would favor something like that.
Like I said at the beginning, this is a very cursory first play through thoughts on Brewmaster. As I play him more, these thoughts will become more refined. I have to master the path of Brewmaster after all.
As we wrapped up our game yesterday on Matte's gorgeous Secret Weapon Miniatures Tablescapes with Angry Mojo Games Graveyard MDF Terrain my girlfriend expressed an interest in building her own table, and had been for a few days. At this point, we began to map out everything that we needed to make for this table - which was decided would be a detailed Bayou board (as it could be home to my Gremlins and most of my Neverborn models, but that is just a happy coincidence)
So, we set about making plans. It will be a 3x3 board, perfect for Malifaux or getting skirmish games of Warhammer Fantasy in. It will have about 1/3 of the surface covered in water (and thus severe terrain for Malifaux). We will build tree bases, stilt buildings, huts, a broken down airboat, alligator nests, and other such swampy things. We are all extremely excited to get to work on it, and I am sure that both Matte and myself will be posting many updates concerning our table in the near future. Below are some images that we really liked and will use as inspiration.
And finally, to wrap up this post, something that I hold near and dear to my heart:
WARHAMMER FANTASY
WHF is near and dear to my heart. When everyone else wanted to play with Bolters and Chainswords, my imagination was captivated by the ideals of wizards literally pulling comets down from the heavens, ratmen swarming over the Old World, giant lizard people riding atop dinosaurs, desperate men firing round after round out of their muskets at advancing undead legions, all while mighty heroes ride their massive beasts of war and hurl eldritch blasts at each other as they close in to strangle each other with their bare hands if need be.
Desperate struggles of average men in the face of terrifying odds armed with nothing more than a shred of armor, cloth, and maybe a half rusted sword against foul daemons of the warp and massive tidal waves of greenskins always seemed more moving then armies of super humans with nuclear warhead bullet machines mowing down X, Y, or Z. That game was always about the lighting fast mobility of tanks and bikes clashing with each other in huge explosive collisions and titans blasting each other from across continents - but this is about Warhammer Fantasy.
I have 2 Skaven armies - a themed Asian Skaven army that is WIP and an almost entirely Plague Skaven army. They were the first models of any that I willingly and excitedly painted. I had named characters in my army that I had come up with. I scoured around to find old metal models in FLGS to complete my army, or converted up models to match my mental image of what they should look like. Long story short? I love Skaven and I love fantasy.
And then End Times came out. Nagash, Glottkin, Khaine, Thanquol (woo!), and Archaon. All in a line. Gorgeous models and ridiculous rules abound. Exciting times for all, and an apparent revival of Fantasy.
And then Boom. All gone. CNTR+ALT+DLT.
You can imagine how this made me feel. Then rumors swirling about huge simplification of the rules, removal of whole factions, armies maxed out at 50 models, ROUND BASES, and other things.
This is not what I signed up for. I signed up to push units of 60 puss riddled rats down my opponents throat while cackling gleefully and shooting my own models with guns that were just as likely to blow up in my face.
I have been salty to say the least.
However, I have been swayed, mostly due to Matte talking me off the ledge repeatedly, to maintain cautious optimism for the future of my gaming love. Malifaux is my main game - I would be lying if I said otherwise. But Fantasy was my first car. It didn't run all that well, it smelt kind of stale, and it's been used and abused for 30 years before my time, but it made you happier than anything else. It is all warm fuzzy memories and good friends and simpler times. So, here are the rumors that I have read that actually sound like they could be slightly true - gathered from various sources around the interwebs.
++SALT SHOULD BE USED++
Age of Sigmar wont be 9th edition, it will be a set of Skirmish rules that are meant to get people into the game.
The box is supposed to be Empire/Holy Knights/"Good Guys" vs some amalgamation of Chaos - some say there will be daemons, some beastmen, others say just Chaos Warriors.
There are rumors that this will feature round base fantasy models that can go in skirmish formation, loose formation, or blocked up like we currently know with all sorts of benefits/set backs for each of these formations.
Rules - or atleast 4 page starter rules - will be available for free online as a download when Age of Sigmar releases. Personally, I think this is the most BS. I saw the pictures of GW's website, but I am still not going to believe it.
All factions will still be playable to some extent.
There will be an ungodly amount of releases for something along the lines of 6 weeks - supposedly - with the Big Rule Book coming out at the very end after everyone has spent all of their money on Age of Sigmar stuff.
Alternate Rumor states that Age of Sigmar IS 9th edition, and we will see this game scalable up to army level games.
A lot of people are saying that this will be similar to an upscaled Lord of the Rings game that GW made/makes.
As of this morning, new models have been spotted for the Age of Sigmar starter box
And with that bombshell, I hope you all have a great day.
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!
So, with this lovely Monday holiday, I thought that I might try and get some hardcore hobbying done after my adventure to Treefort Games.
First off, Treefort games was awesome. Met up with a Spartan Vanguard after introducing a friend to tabletop gaming with a quick game of Firestorm Armada. Thomas - the Vanguard - taught me how to play Uncharted Seas with my Shroud Mages against his Elves (which I lost after 15 turns of madness - we just had to keep going), and then begin a game of Uncharted Seas against my friend who had watched the previous game.
After all of that playing, I thought that my fleet really could use some awesome paint on it, so I decided to start painting today... 7 Hours and the rest of Season 1 of Boardwalk Empire later, I have finished painting my fledgling Shroud Mages fleet.
So, in total I have a Battleship, 3 cruisers, 6 frigates, 3 destroyers, and a Ripper Submarine completed for my fleet of Shroud Mages. Next up hopefully will be some Darkness Cruisers, Heavy cruisers, or a Beacon platform :D until then, Tarum et clama dimit belli canes!
So, in an effort to keep this blog alive and kicking, and still have fresh material, I am going to try and make a commitment to post something once a week. I have just started college at Auburn University, so it will probably take some adjusting, but rest assured faithful readers, that I will have something up every week - probably on Wednesdays from now on.
So, to start out this tradition, here is a brief update on everything that has been going on hobby wise for myself recently.
I ventured over to Fayetteville, Georgia, this past Sunday to get some insight into my "local" hobby store: Treefort Games. I have never been to a finer establishment, and would absolutely recommend it to anyone that is in the Atlanta area and has their models on them. They are only open weekends during the fall and winter - college students are their main source of income - but they have a little bit of everything: Spartan Games, Games-Workshop, MTG, Warlord Games, Privateer Press, and more. Plus more board games than you could shake a stick at. They have something like 15 tables to play on, personal booths for RPG groups, painting tables, hundreds of terrain pieces. It is an excellent place to call your wargaming home, and I am more than willing to drive the hour and a half to get their from the prettiest village on the plains.
While I was there, I ran into not one but three Spartan Vanguards, and was swept up in a flurry of excitement. So much so that I ended up agreeing to go back this coming Sunday and enjoy a few games of Firestorm Armada with the local player base. And then this happened:
So I may have been so swept up into the flurry of Spartan Games rah-rah-rah that I purchased the old Shroud Mages starter box and a blister of Destroyers for them as well. It was marked down a little, so it rounded up to about $40, so I was extremely happy. So now I will have my mighty Shroud Mages in addition to the Terrans and RSN for Firestorm. It is a good day for naval battle systems!
Also, on some rumors and announced awesomes from Spartan Games - Firestorm Armada and Planetfall are getting new rulebooks and new models for everyone! We're talking a nice new rulebook, faction sourcebooks for the Zenian League and Kurak Alliance, and redone models for all the peoples!
On top of that, Firestorm Planetfall will also be getting a rulebook, alliance books, and models for all 6 core factions! Thats enough to make me want to save some cash money back even!
And on the rumor mill, it is said from several gentlemen that Uncharted Seas is also due for a new rulebook and models to come out as well, which can only be good news now that my Dark Ironclads will be rolling into service this Wednesday probably. Good times to be a Spartan Games supporter, as they prepare to launch themselves into a new whirlwind of releases!
On other games fronts, Space Marines are coming out next month, so we all get to see the ugly blue ducklings everywhere for the rest of the edition.
Other news from the fronts is pretty sparse. New stuff everywhere for all games. An awesome 2-player starter box for Dropzone Commander has been announced, but with Spartan Games Firestorm Planetfall inbound, it might be hard to break loyalty. I'll have to compare prices for the games when the FS:P stuff comes out.
Warlord Games has dropped some new Hail Caesar kits and some new Bolt Action stuff, and that's pretty much everything I have for you today guys. I will definitely get some pictures up of my Cerberus Heavy Cruiser and Terran R&D cruisers when I get them painted up - hopefully - on Wednesday. And the Shroud Mages will definitely be getting put together on Wednesday as well. Lots to do on Wednesday to get ready for Sunday! And on top of everything I have classes (except Wednesdays) and a football game on Saturday! So, until then, Tarum et clama dimit belli canes!
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)
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.
A lot going on today, so I will get started quickly for you, no meandering today!
Spartan Games is awesome in that they show you exactly what is going to be released 3 months ahead of time so that you can presumably pick out what you want and prepare to add it to your fleets.
September will have major releases for Dystopian Legions, Dystopian Wars, and Firestorm Armada. I don't know much about Dystopian Legions besides the fact that it is another infantry based 28mm game (bah!) so I am not that excited. I know a lot of people that will be, but its not for me.
Dystopian Legions is getting the Federated States Sergeant and Specialist, as is the Empire of the Blazing Sun.
Pretty cool looking models, but still not enough to make me interested.
On the flip side, Dystopian Wars is getting the last round of First Wave upgrade boxes: a Covenant of Antarctica Aerial Support Group, a Republique of France Attack Flotilla, and a Russian Coalition Strike Flotilla. All three of theses are introducing new models into the line for each core nation. Plus they look freaking beautiful.
Covenant Aerial Support Group
French Attack Flotilla
Russian Strike Flotilla
I love the French and Covenant models. The RC is awesome, but so many people play them that it would be a disservice to the other awesome models to take any great interest in them.
Finally, we have the Kedorian Coalition, with some of the biggest models ever made for Firestorm Armada. I will be getting some of these to supplement my RSN fleet. They're too awesome not to get.
Kedorian Alliance Fleet
Kedorian Support Fleet
So there you have it folks, all of the Spartan Games September releases! But there is something else....
New Lizardmen....
Now, I normally try and avoid Games-Workshop Products, but I really do have a soft spot for Fantasy. It is one of the greatest infantry based tabletops in my opinion, and I try to get my Skaven out on the table as often as I can, unless somebody is up for Firestorm Armada or something along those lines. These new lizards are badass. There are resculpted Terradon Riders, which can also make Ripperdactyls, a box with the new Skink Oracle, a box that will make either a Carnosaur with a Sauras Old Blood, or a Troglodon. Finally, there is the Bastillidon, which can come as a ranged weapon (solar laser beams) or have an Ark that spawns swarms of snakes on its back. Either way, I have a friend that collects Lizards, so I will have one hell of a time fighting against these new dinos with my Skaven.
So that should be everything for now. I have to go dust off my Plague monks and roll out another 40 skaven slaves so I can fight off hordes of Lizards, and gather some cash for the inevitable Kedorian purchases, as well as some more Terran reinforcements. And then there is the matter of Dystopian Wars..... Until then, Tarum et clama dimit belli canes!
++Azazel, do you copy?++ Commodore Chase Philon sent the copy code back to his commander - Admrial Hewie. "Roger, sir. Orders received. I will take Destroyer Squadron Charlie and escorting Frigates on a patrol of Sector 8-Echo-Niner. Should we run into any resistance we are to attempt to take it out. If it proves too much, we are to pull out at max speed and return to Beacon 7-113 and relay our situation to you." He paused for a moment, and let a vicious grin cross his face before continuing. "Operation Pirate Bay is a go sir?" ++...........++ ++Aye, good hunting. Dante out++ Philon ran his hands through his hair, then turned to face his bridge crew. "Alright lads, you heard the Boss. Helm, plot a course and take us out." Azazel glistened in the light of the red dwarf star that was almost 3 light hours away. She led the hunting pack out towards the shunt limit of the rest of Inferno Fleet. It was a beautiful sight, watching a flotilla of hunters depart. Something primal shifted deep down in Hewie as he watched them take their final approach vectors. He knew that they would find something, and he was trusting the commodore to take care of those ships. They were deep in enemy territory now, and they wouldn't be able to fix anything major until they found another safe haven in 2 or 3 weeks... Hewie had faith in him though, and he knew that Philon would stay true to his orders. Hewie turned to face the rest of the fleet. It looked much smaller now, but the remaining cruisers, frigates, and his own battleship could take care of anything short of a full task force. Hewie smiled as he prepped the next set of raiding orders. He wished he could bring the full might of Dante down on some small backwater Terran world, but that would have to wait until the other raids were successful. Patience is a virtue, he thought cooly to himself as he imagined his full broadsides slashing through planetary defenses. Soon.......
So, as you all know, I have been kicking around the idea of starting some Dystopian Wars. Not right now mind you, but down the line when I have some more time and money, it is certainly on the list to play. However, I want to pick the right fleets to start out with... I want to do something similar to my Firestorm Armada plan - collect two fleets so that I can demo the game to people and have some variety to my playing.
Which leads me to my question... what fleets? I've narrowed it down to one for certain, but I am not sure about the other.
I am going to collect Republique of France. They have gorgeous models, an awesome play style with the mid range effectiveness, some of the best air units, FLYING BATTLESHIPS, and other interesting tidbits like that. Plus I love the look of all of their models.
I mean come on.... thats fantastic looking (and also happens to be the starter box)
What should my other fleet be then? Well, my thoughts were the following:
Prussians - I love their land and air models, and the no-nonsense approach to their navy models is nice in its own way. I love that they use Tesla weapons, and that they are renowned for boarding assaults. However, it is those same Naval vessels that make me think I might get bored with them. I don't want to get bored painting the ships. I love their land and air models - they are some of the coolest in the game - but I want to start on the naval side of things.
Covenant of Antarctica - Once again, their models just really get me. I love the walker models on land (I don't care for EotBS naval stuff, which is why they wont be here on this list even though they have walkers too) and they have some interesting Air choices. Their naval stuff is pretty cool, with the exception of the frigate, but I would get over that.
Chinese Federation - I know that they are only a naval faction at the moment... But they have awesome models. I really want to get into the Land and Air portions of the game, and I wont be able to do that with the Chinese, but I still put them in because I could always start a third fleet for land based operations. For instance - Chinese and French for the naval battles, then French and Prussians for land and air, eventually adding in naval units for the Prussians.... which would probably make more sense if I just added Chinese later, after two main fleets...
Free Australians - Same reason as the Chinese - they have beautiful models, but they are only naval at the moment and that would result in serious problems when I want to add land and air to the game. Even though I really like their models....
So there you have it. I am leaning towards either Prussians, even though I might get bored with the Naval vessels, or Chinese, just because their models are so damn cool. I don't know though... Any help would be much appreciated!
In the meantime, I have a game of Firestorm Armada coming down the pike in the next couple days I think, so that should be awesome! Look forward to seeing that in the near future... Until then, Tarum et clama dimit belli canes!
So, as it was pouring down rain in Arizona last night, we sat cozy in our camper, plotting electrical monopolies against each other. Power Grid is fantastic.
The rules were simple once we got a turn or two into it, and it was just good fun afterwards. Lots of forward thinking required to win that game. At one point my friend was only firing up 2 of his power plants to save resources, while I was buying up the resources - that everyone needed - in bulk to stop them firing up their power plants, and auctions were going strong for the best power plants.
2 little warnings. 1) be prepared to do a lot of math. It's just adding mostly, but when people are buying 9 coal at 3 different prices, 5 oil at 2 prices, and 7 uranium at 6 prices, it gets slightly overwhelming XD 2) the 3rd step card can get drawn at anytime, which is kinda a bummer sometimes - just a heads up.
A great game overall, and differently my favorite tabletop board game right now!
So, I figured that the next best game to talk to you all about would be Spartan Games Uncharted Seas. This was their very first game released in 2008. A game of fantasy naval combat, much like the old Games-Workshop product Man-O-War. It is a game that introduced the Spartan Games rules that can be found in all of their main products: exploding dice, range bands, and MARs. However, while this game is just as good as the other two naval based games that Spartan Games created - Firestorm Armada and Dystopian Wars - it is in the same genre as those two games, which divides the target audience up greatly. This has resulted in the recent move of Uncharted Seas to direct order only. Stores will no longer be carrying Uncharted Seas products in stock.
However, the silver lining is that the company is probably in the process of creating a new rulebook, as they have stated that "with the release of spartan scenics, we have also begun beta testing Uncharted Seas"..... But enough talk! You want to see models!
The great thing about Uncharted Seas is that it is getting much cheaper to get into. He starter kits are much cheaper then their other games, and the rules are completely free online. $50 for the ,out expensive starter fleets on eBay, $25-$30 for cheaper boxes, or a "combat pack" with 2 fleets for between $60-80. All in all pretty reasonable if you ask me. So, heave too you salty dogs, and hoist the colors! It's battles on the high seas with another great game from Spartan Games!!
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