Last of the June Games (and Other Stuff)

And that's June...



Not playing nearly so many games as we did in the first month of Covid... but still... not bad, considering!

For more details, check out the Game Plan 2020 - Q3 (which includes a bit of a look back at the last three months!)


Tuesday, 23 June 2020

I took Keira to the dentist and orthodontist Tuesday.



On the way downtown we ran into this gaggle of awkward adolescent goslings out for a wander with their co-op daycare group.



Not sure if it was more of a case of Geese leading the goslings about, or the gosling shoving the geese about...?

The Dentist was on broadway. It was 8:30 in the morning. I thought - it's nice out, there's no one around, I'll sit outside and wait on a bench - no need for a mask right now. 9am wannabe-white-gansta-dude sits down on the same bench as me, no mask, shouting into his phone, dropping f-bombs. There were FIVE other EMPTY benches in plain view... WTF!?

Five minutes later ANOTHER dude comes and sits down with his coffee on the bench perpendicular to mine - at the end closest to me - so close enough I could have kicked him in the shins. It's like people have zero idea what's happening in the rest of the world... or can't read a graph... or blissfully unaware of the 100 new cases in the last week - a small number compared to other parts, but quadrupling the number of active cases in the province... There's a definite "it's over" or "it passed us by" vibe going on here.


Wednesday, 23 June 2020

It was Work-In--Progress Wednesday...



Here's what was on my workbench... Mostly the same junk as the previous week, but with a few new additions (can you spot them!?)

(Hint: one of them has already been finished and posted!)



Partially repainting a few of my own T'au Pathfinders so Finnegan can make use of them. They were originally green. I thought I'd add some purple in a camouflage pattern so it could mix with his troops. I was experimenting with adding a third colour (orange) but I'm not as happy with how that looks...

Finnegan ran his Wednesday D&D game in the afternoon.


Thursday, 25 June 2020

On Thursday I actually played some Kill Team with Finnegan....



Remembered why I haven't played Kill Team in so long... Necromunda is so much better of a skirmish game for the 41st millennium... the weird thing is NECROMUNDA CAME OUT FIRST!?

You can read a full report of the action - and see all the pictures here:

Loor Uv Da Loot!


Friday, 26 June 2020

FAMILY GAME NIGHT



WE played a game called Dogs. Keira picked this up a few years ago at the ToonCon auction and... we never really got around to trying it out. To be honest, at first glance, I TOTALLY thought it would be kind of lame... I mean you're running an Animal Rescue Centre? What? But we were looking for a new game to try out and I knew this was still languishing, untied on Keira's bookshelf and I wanted to do something Keira would be interested in and I figured she'd be pretty keen to try this one out... So we did... And, y'know What?  It's actually a pretty darned good game! There is some set collection, some serious resource management, a little bit of worker placement. Yeah, we all really had fun with this!



This was my animal Rescue Centre at the end of the game.

I would TOTALLY play this again.


Saturday, 27 June 2020



In the afternoon Finnegan ran his regular Saturday D&D game. He gets pretty animated at times!



in the evening I ran Wrath & Glory. We've been using a mix of Webex and Roll20 because, for some reason, the last two weeks we've had some players that simply cannot see or hear each other...? I could see and hear all of them... but players could not see or hear each other and, not aware the others were talking, would all be talking to me at once!? This mix of things seems to be working, though.



I drew some maps for the game and scanned them in at the last moment and figured out how to hide/reveal parts of the maps to the players. It looks grey above (because this is the GM view) but the greyed out areas appeared black to the players.

The game had a pretty epic conclusion - after spending some time rummaging about the bad guys lair,  the fuzz showed up... not just regular enforcers - these were highly trained mercenaries that has murdered the local enforcers, and had replaced/were impersonating them. They were SUPER bad ass and two of them could have easily taken out the whole group. Given how badly these guys were sneaking around - and how much time they were taking - I wouldn't make sense for less than half the force (6 of them) to show up.

I kind of expected them to flee at this point - they were smart enough to realize they were dead if they fought them... but also realized, if they left now, the group would probably pack up and leave and cover their tracks by burning it all down (Which IS exactly what they would have done... with pretty disastrous consequences for the entire neighbourhood!)... So Woody, playing Ivan, decided to use his acolyte's special ability and drop the name of their inquisitor and demand that they desist... Hardened mercenaries... superior numbers... vastly superior firepower... work for some serious badasses that pay well, but they would not want to disappoint... I decided to set this task at "Difficult" DN 7 (DN = Difficulty number = the number of successes they need to roll to succeed at the task - 4s and 5s equal one success each, 6s are two successes. He used a glory point to throw in an extra die...

(examples of difficulties "Challenging" - DN5 - jumping between carriages on a moving train in a bliszzard or noticing a disguised listening device in a dark room... "Difficult" - DN 7 - swimming against the current with a broken arm or synthesizing a cure for a Drukhari poison... so... "Difficult" is PRETTY DAMN HARD!)



Boom! Seven successes!

What made this even MORE spectacular was how Woody had been rolling SO POORLY - like, ALL NIGHT! so many ones... it was insane, so NO ONE expected this to work...

The Enforcers stopped dead in their tracks... looked at each other for a moment... the first one said; "I guess we'll just have to KILL ALL OF YOU and ditch your bodies in the sump..." (there was a brief moment of tension) but then one of the other enforcers said; "ARE YOU FRAKING KIDDING!? IT'S THE INQUISITION- WE ARE DONE FOR!!" after a brief argument, the enforcers told the acolytes to "just go" - being a bit of a compromise - They weren't going to kill them - but they were going to ensure their employers were able to get out as well...

This was clearly not ideal so Christian's character Basileus - the psyker who doesn't actually believe he's a psyker... (it's... a long story... the short version is he forgot that he's a psyker - something to do with memory wipes that didn't quite work and he sincerely believes he's just a very convincing speaker and can "read people" really well... all the abilities telepathic) - decided to start angrily shouting at the enforcers reminding them of the consequences of defying the Holy Ordos of the Inquisition (using the "Terrify" psychic ability).

The ability has a DN of 5 (it was made harder by the fact that he was lightly wounded - so DN 6)



That's ELEVEN successes. additional sixes beyond what is needed to succeed at the basic test can be used to "shift" - which makes the thing you are doing more effective in some way - so he had two shifts...

Thos enforcers turned around, ran out the door, got into their armoured car and drove off, never to be seen again...

That's pretty much where we had to end it for the evening. Hopefully next week they'll be able to finish up the investigation!

Sunday, 28 June 2020

Did a bit of this and that in the morning and afternoon... In the evening...



Amanda and I played Terraforming Mars! We only played with Prelude (and our fancy new dual-layer consoles)



I played Ecoline with Martian Industries and Ecology Experts. In the end I'd taken the Gardener and Builder Milestones as well as the Landlord and Thermaist Awards - the Thermalist award was a bit of a coup, as Amanda had funded it!



Amanda played Helion with Galilean Mining and a Metals Company - SO MUCH TITANIUM!! And then she got that card that made each of her metals worth one megacredit (or... whatever the money is called?)!

When we totalled up the points for Awards and Milestones - we were dead even. She had piles of points squirrelled away on cards - but I had a LOT of Cities surrounded by Greenery on the surface of Mars and just squeaked out a win with all of that!

Woo!

This was our 29th play of the game. I suggested to the kids they should join us sometime this week for play #30!


Monday, 29 June 2020

We had planned on playing Blackstone Fortress again on Monday... but then decided to take a break for a couple of weeks - Amanda has a series of videos she wants to get caught up on and Mondays seemed a good evening to do that. I'm okay with the break. I really want to finish up the Cultists and Zoat - and the other explorers! Maybe a week or two will give me a chance to do just that.


Tuesday, 30 June 2020



Finnegan had a D&D game going on.

Amanda decided to dye her hair.



So we thought we'd play a quick game of Carcassonne while she was waiting for the colour to take.



The game took longer than the colour to take, so she had to take a break and go rinse it part way through.



Back to the game.



I don't know if it was the chemicals from the dye affecting her brain, or if she was just distracted by running off to rinse and dry...? But I totally won this game... like.. by a LOT! One of these days she'll really figure out farming and I'll never win a game again...


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Well... You can see some of what's coming up in the Game Plan 2020 Q3...

tomorrow I'll probably be posting a couple pictures of three more Imperial Fist Marine Scout and a bit of an intro to the campaign we've got going on this month!

Fabius Bile

All the cool kids are cranking out their brand new Fabius Bile miniatures - just released 9 days ago - so I was feeling under pressure to get MINE done! Well... not really... it was just a cool miniature and an easy unit/project to just DO and be DONE and move on to ALL THE OTHER STUFF!!!

Fabius Bile was the chief Apothecary of the 3rd Legion (Emperor's Children). Learned a bit about him listening to the Fulcrum audiobook a few months ago - so when they announced a NEW version of his miniature, I said; "What the heck... He might be a fun alternative warlord for the Noise Marines of my Chaos Space Marine force (I mean, some of the Noise Marines I built used some old "Bile's Creations" as the main body - to which I added sonic blasters!)



Fabius Bile and one of his Surgeon Acolytes.

The pose is similar to the original model, but being a much lighter multi-piece plastic model, it is much less chunky and the litheness of the figure and equipment gives the overall model a bit more dynamism. Of course, it also gives the model a bit more fragility! But I guess that is par for the course with GW these days!



He wears a coat made of flayed skin. Usually it's portrayed as being all one colour. I guess if you wanted to spend some time and bleach it all and make it all one colour... but Fabius Bile is a singularly evil individual - deeply psychopathic - I wanted mine to look a little more raw and nasty - and skin comes in different colours!

I read somewhere about Nazis keeping tattooed skin of Jews killed at concentration camps and thought I'd include some tattoos on Bile's coat. There are two, but I wasn't as happy with them as I was expecting to be, so I stopped at just two...



Even included some T'au and Ork Skin! and a little bit of blood spatter... part of me feels like he needed MORE... but I was a little afraid of going overboard. I never know when it's too much until it's too late! That's the problem with these not inexpensive models - they cause some anxiety about really not wanting to fuck it up!



The kit includes a Surgeon Acolyte. I had to do him on a slightly different base because he's busy plucking bits out of a fallen marine that is deeply buried in rubble... Which wouldn't really work with the Sector Mechanicus, Sector Imperialis, or Necromunda bases I've been using for the rest of the Chaos Space marines. so I tried to make it at least look like it was urban rubble, rather than dirt. Probably should have had a couple of pieces of wire sticking out that could have been painted to look like rusted rebar...

Why do I think of these things AFTER I'm finished...

Ah, well...



Fun little addition to the force. He doesn't really DO much - other than take the first bullet - not much better than a cultist... except toughness 4... because clone fathers enhancements. I think while he's still around he gives a bonus to enhancement rolls when Fabius is doing his Buffing Chaos Marines thing... because, of course, that's something you do ON THE BATTLEFIELD rather than in the lab back at home... I guess, fluff-wise, the enhancements are short-lived drugs that might wear off before they GET to the battlefield...?

I debated somewhat about what chapter to make the marine victim. Ultimately went with Ultramarines in hopes that I'll eventually get to play some games with my friend Aaron - who has a burgeoning force of Ultramarines... though they haven't seen any use (or fresh paint) in some time!


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

The June Wrap-Up of Games and Stuff...

Also have the Archivist on the workbench - the new Zoat miniature from Blackstone Fortress: Dark Alliance. And more Blackstone Fortress miniatures... and more Chaos miniatures... and... and...

Also planning to kick off this little narrative 40K campaign with Finnegan this week. Initially we'd planned to do it with Kill Team, but I'm now thinking just Combat-Patrol-sized games of 40K - they will play FAST!

Game Plan 2020 Q3 Plans

Damn, are we done another three months!? Feels like it's been for-EVAR since I made the Q2 plan... but at the same time it's like... "Wait, what? We're HALF WAY THROUGH THE YEAR!? WTF!?" Lacking the usual markers of the passage of the months - working up to year end dance recitals, dress rehearsals, recitals, etc... I feel totally adrift in time and space. It doesn't help that that which has defined me for the last decade and a half - The Homeschooling Dad - feels like it is suddenly, very abruptly coming to an end! Keira has decided to enrol in high school in the fall and, while finnegan continues to do school AT home, he has been in a very structured online program the last couple years and is VERY self-directed and needs very little help from me...

Of course if people continue to give zero fucks about social distancing or any other pandemic precautionary measures like they are doing, school may be cancelled again by the fall and Keira may be back to homeschooling...

Anyway....

Looking back at the Q2 plan...

5x5 Quarterly Challenge

I had planned on playing the following...

Wrath & Glory
CHECK! Just got the last one in under the wire! Got started a little late, but have been going solid on Saturday nights for the last month with no sign of stopping! Only two games where a single player was missing.

Blackstone Fortress
CHECK! - We played THRITEEN TIMES!!! Really having a lot of fun with this!

40K
Ehhhhh... Not-so-much... This was put on there when I was thinking there STILL might be a chance of playing in Battleforce Recon... and that would have been four games in ONE DAY - and I'd likely have played at least one or two games the week before to try out the force!

Other Skirmish Games
Whoopise... We did get in ONE game of Kill Team... but that was it!?

Five New Games!
CHECK! - We played three of the games we picked up in the ToonCon2020 auction - Castle, Fauna, Legendary Encounters: A Firefly Deck Building Game - and Dogs, which Keira picked up at another ToonCon auction...? Maybe in 2018...!? (or earlier!? the one that Amanda missed). We also tried out Machi Koro (which was gifted to use by Other Tim who was clearing out in preparation for his move)

We also tried out Tuscany, a few times!  Keira got it for her birthday in May. It was new but it's kind of just an expansion to a game we already have and played before..

While we didn't play all the 40K and Killteam/Necromunda games, we DID play THIRTEEN GAMES of Terraforming Mars, though! As well as seven games of Azul and five games of Carcassonne and five games of Splendor (including one with each of the four expansions included in Cities of Splendor)... So... through we didn't play the five games I chose for the challenge, we definitely played more than five games at least five times each... so, I think the 5x5 was covered...


Here are ALL the games I played in the last three months:

Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress x13
Terraforming Mars x13
Azul x7
Carcassonne x5
Splendor x5
Wrath & Glory x5
Viticulture Essential Edition x4 (with Tuscany Essential Edition x3)
The Castles of Burgundy x3
Century: Golem Edition x3
The Hanging Gardens x2
7 Wonders Duel x1
Castle x1
Fauna x1
Legendary Encounters: A Firefly Deck Building Game x1
Machi Koro x1
Dominion (with Dominion: Intrigue) x1
Ingenious x1
Power Grid Deluxe: Europe/North America x1
Railways of North America x1
Kill Team x1
Dogs x1

(I know, I know... June isn't over... we COULD end up playing another game or two in the next two days... but we're looking at generalities here and, in general, the last three months have been pretty good for game playing!)

Events

I had speculated that it was unlikely I would be attending any events due to the Pandemic. I was correct.... No events were attended.


Painting

I was king of all over the place at the end of March - with everything looking so... uncertain... There wasn't so much of a plan as a general intention to paint some Chaos stuff (Space Marines and Daemons) and some Blackstone Fortress stuff and maybe some stuff for Necromunda and Kill Team. I didn't get all of the stuff I was thinking of done (not so much of the Chaos or Necromunda stuff... but I did get some stuff done for Blackstone Fortress and THREE Kill Teams!)... but I still think I did pretty good on the painting, all things considered...

Q2 Painted
1x Amazon Hoplite
25x Imperial Guard
1x Penitent (for Blackstone Fortress)
8x Traitor Guard (Blackstone Fortress: Servants of the Abyss)
2x Nega-Volt Cultists (Blackstone Fortress: Servants of the Abyss)
2x Chaos Beastmen (Blackstone Fortress: Servants of the Abyss)
1x Chaos Space Marine (Blackstone Fortress: Servants of the Abyss)
1x Rogue Psyker (Blackstone Fortress: Servants of the Abyss)
1x Traitor Commissar (Blackstone Fortress: Traitor Command)
1x Chaos Ogryn (Blackstone Fortress: Traitor Command)
2x Ogryn Retinue Characters (Brogan Brothers) for Blackstone Fortress
1x Ogryn Pit Fighter for Necromunda
1x Gellerpox Infected for Kill Team Rogue Trader
1x Eversor Assassin
1x Vindicare Assassin
1x Inquisitor Gregor Eisenhorn
1x Inquisitor in Terminator Armour
1x Death Watch - Watch Master
1x Death Watch Space Marine
1x Grey Knight Brother
1x Genestealer Patriarch
3x Grey Knights
1x Grey Knight Terminator
2x Imperial Fists Scouts
1x Master of Possession
2x Greater Possessed
13x Kreuger's Unvalids
1x Little Robot Thingie from Space Hulk
2x Chaos Space Marine Raptors
1x Necromunda Hive Scum
29x Genestealer Cultists (for Finnegan)
12x Kroot Warriors for (Finnegan)

1x T'au Commander in XV86 coldstar Battlesuit (for Finnegan) 

2x Imperial Navy Thunderbolt Fighters (wee ones for Aeronautica Imperialis) 

2x Fabius Bile and Surgeon Acolyte

125 total...?

Acquired
1x Inquisitor Gregor Eisenhorn
3x Plague Marine miniatures (Blackstone Fortress: No Respite)
6x Poxwalker (Blackstone Fortress: No Respite)
1x Traitor Commissar  (Blackstone Fortress: Traitor Command)
1x Chaos Ogryn  (Blackstone Fortress: Traitor Command)
1x Arco-flagellant (in trade from Orion)
2x Imperial Navy Thunderbolt Fighters
2x Imperial Navy Marauder Bombers
3x Ork Air Waaagh! Dakkajets
2x Ork Air Waaagh! Fighta Bommers
2x Fabius Bile and Surgeon Acolyte
1x The Archivist (Zoat from Dark Alliance)

25 bought by me... but then there were...

109x Mantic Space Orks (gifted from Other Tim)
15x Burnaboyz (gifted from Other Tim)
2x Warboss (gifted from Other Tim)
1x Mantic Ork Warbuggy (gifted from Other Tim)

More details can be seen on the 2020 Painted Versus Purchased page.


Q3 Plan

5x5 Quarterly Challenge

Five games...

Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress
Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Wrath & Glory
#New40K
OTHER GW/40K games (Necromunda, Kill Team, Aeronautica Imperialis)
(Some other To Be Determined Board Game?)

Amanda and I seem to be going strong on Blackstone Fortress - Monday evening has been set aside as Blackstone Fortress night and we still have Traitor Command, Escalation, No Respite, Dark Alliance to play through (and Ascension will likely be released in the next few months!) - so no reason not to keep it on the list

So excited that I FINALLY got a role-playing game going - and even MORE excited that it's with such a great group of guys - most of whom are my very favouritest people to play with - EVER - that I haven't played with in years! ...and Jon... who only doesn't fit into the aforementioned category because I've really only just met him recently... I hope this game continues and doesn't just die (like every other RPG I've tried to run...) so I'm keeping Wrath & Glory on the list too!

#New40k - Warhammer 40,000 (9th Edition) - I'm guessing it will be out in the next few weeks - definitely by the end of the quarter - and Finnegan's been showing some interest in it, so I'm hoping over the summer I can get him to at least play a FEW games with me. I'm excited about there actually being scenarios DESIGNED to be played with smaller forces, on a smaller table, in a shorter amount of time. Maybe I'll even be able to talk Amanda into dusting off her Drukhari or Sisters to try out the new rules!

I know I had OTHER SKIRMISH GAMES on the list last quarter and it didn't really happen (a single game of Kill Team, and NO Necromunda) and I'm not sure why I think it will this time... but I'm putting  back on that list... might be Kill Team... Might be Necromunda... Might be a bit of both... I do have a little campaign planned - which Finnegan is definitely excited about - and we'd PLANNED to play it with Kill Team, but after our recent game... I'm not so sure about Kill Team). I might expand the scope to also include Aeronautica Imperialis - as I'm really hoping I'll get the Ork Dakka Jets finished SOON and we'll at least try it out with THAT!

And... Board Game... I have no ideas what game we might want to play five times. I mean, there are PILES of games I'd love to play dozens of times * each * over the summer... Maybe I should just say Azul - as I know I'll have no problem convincing Amanda to play THAT!


Events

I find it very unlikely that I will be attending any events this quarter. I saw a note on the Hunters of the Warp page that an 40K event was going ahead in Manitoba in July... Perhaps the organizers of Battleforce Recon will be moving ahead with that...? I don't know... active cases of Covid-19 have QUADRUPLED in Saskatchewan in the last week or so as things open up and there is a general sense that it is "over"... I don't know... It's like no one knows how to read a graph around here or has paid any attention to what has been happening in other parts of the world - or even other parts of our own country!?

I'm just hoping at SOME point over the summer we can expand our "bubble" to include a few board/miniature gaming friends and get in some games - face-to-face - with... y'know... OTHER people (not that I MIND playing all these games with Amanda at all - quite the contrary - it's been a LOT of fun!)


Painting

If I had to pick what I was going to paint over the next three months RIGHT NOW - here's what I'd say I'd do (so... these will be guidelines... and I may paint some of these... but I'll probably paint some others stuff as well... and not get some of these done...):

Blackstone Fortress - First I'd like to finish up the Cultists and Explorers for Escalation (Including the extra Cultists of the Abyss I picked up!) There are also Poxwalkers and Death Guard from No Respite, The archivist (the Zoat from Dark Alliance!) and likely the Giant Spindle Drones from Ascension.

Chaos Space Marines - For the Emperor's Children force I have two Obliterators to finish up, Fifteen Noise Marines, ten or eleven Chaos Space Marines, and a handful of Chaos Terminators and cultists... There are also a few older Death Guard and the Malignant Plague Caster I picked up for a HQ unit to lead the detachment. Shouldn't be TOO onerous... though the Noise Marines are a bit of work - at least the way I'VE been doing them!

Grey Knights - I think there are about ten to finish off - they're about half painted. Maybe a couple Terminators. Two Rhinos to finish off.

Daemons - I have a few Seekers, Fiends, and the Infernal Enrapturess to finish up for Slaanesh (and a Start Collecting Slaanesh sitting in storage - but Amanda won't let me have them until I finish the basement). I also have a few Bloodcrushers to finish up for Khorne.

Stuff for Finnegan - I have a few things I'm going to knock off for Finnegan in anticipation of playing some Kill Team and #New40K with him this summer - including a Kill Team of Death Watch and a handful of T'au (six Battlesuits, half dozen Fire Warriors?).

Knights One is ALMOST DONE - just a little push on it might finish it off! the Eldar Wraith Knight is pretty close as well... then one more Imperial Knight and we could have some serious mech battles...

The Eldar Titans Seriously, they're not that detailed... The big one is half done!? What am I waiting for!?

Imperial Guard? I've had a hankering to get to work on the Valhalllans (and maybe finish up some more of the Tallarn) - likely spurred on from reading Ciaphus Cain the last few months.

Necromunda!? Still have LOADS of Necromunda minis to finish up - entire gangs of Van Saar, Orlocks, and Goliaths and piles and piles of Hive Scum and Ratskins and others... Be nice to get some of that done and start playing again!?

Kill Team Additions!? I have lots of ideas for Kill Teams... and I love the idea of Kill Team... I just don't love the game so much. We'll have to experiment with using Necromunda with regard 40K minis.

Aeronautica Imperialis Finish off stuff!


Other

Planned Purchases

This weekend the last of the Psychic Awakening books - Pariah - is to be released. Along with it are two sets of miniatures - Lord Inquisitor Kyria Draxus and the Daemonifuge – Ephrael Stern and Kyganil of the Bloody Tears. I was planning to pick up the book and both sets of miniatures, but Finnegan decided HE should have an Inquisitor to lead his small force of Deathwatch and would like to pick up a copy of Lord Inquisitor Kyria Draxus for himself - I said there was no sense in both of us having one, so he could have the one I asked for, but I could paint it for him. Of course as we were looking at them, Keira started mentioning that she always liked the ideas of having some Battle Sisters (and already has Harlequins) (Ephrael Stern is a Sister of Battle and Kyganil of the Bloody Tears is - or was - a Harlequin)... but I wasn't about to give up THAT pair...

#New 40k - I have a feeling this is coming up in July sometime. I'll pick that up too and give it a try.

House of Blades - the new Necromunda book covering Clan Escher - was originally slated to be released in Q2, but with the worldwide pandemic going on and things shutting down at GW, it's now to be a Q3 release.

Warhammer Quest Blackstone Fortress: Ascension. Not sure if this is a Q3 release - but given that they announced it a few months ago, I imagine it will be.

I, of course, have loads of other stuff already to paint, so I'm hoping that there won't be any other stuff I really feel I NEED to get!

One other thing I was thinking about, though... As Keira briefly showed some interest with Stern and Kyganil, and has been crazy into Supernatural (the TV show) lately, I thought I might try and lure her back in with a series of narrative games featuring a pair of Ordo Malleus DEAMON HUNTERS - Sam(anther) and Dee(Anna) Chesterwind... (Sam and Dean Winchester are the main characters in Supernatural and they are Hunters - that hunt all manner of supernatural creatures - demons being one of the most common of their foes!) I was looking at a few options at ArtelW miniatures....

Oh, there are other things on my "Wishlist" but I have pretty clearly established prerequisites for each.

For example, I'd like to pick up a Keeper of Secrets - either the new plastic one, or the Forge World one... but I've told myself that I have to paint ALL the Daemons I have before I can pick that up to lead them.

I'd like to get a Chaos Knight (either a Desecrator or Rampager) - to finish off a Super Heavy Detachment of Chaos Knights... but I need to finish the two knights I already HAVE (one is Chaos, the other is Imperial).

Closet-Megalomaniac-Planner is already envisioning mass air campaigns with Valkyries carrying drop troops that have to get to a specific hex to be able to drop them as reinforcements for the ground scenario and bigger play areas and... and... but I have to FINISH all the aircraft in the box set AND play a few games before I buy ANYMORE Aeronautica Imperialis stuff!!

There are others... but all require I FINISH stuff - like, entire collections of what I already got - so I don't imagine I'll be buying TOO MANY more miniatures (beyond the few aforementioned special character figures) at any point in the near future...



Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

A wrap up of Junes games.

Maybe a painting update?

LOOR UV DA LOOT

Kroogrz Log
Sturdayt For n Wun
Da Grotz iz gon an lawnchd da rok inna-owda-spayz. We go from Zonk. We go to New Werld.
It iz cowld. Sleep beknz. 

Uruk Kreuger took his Unvlaids and headed for new horizons. Launched on an Ork Rok, they lurched though the depts of space for centuries, until, finally coming into the path of Necromunda. The Ork ROk was blown apart by orbital defence systems, but a few chunks fell in the Ash Wastes, and from there The Unvalids decided to care out their own domain....

Finnegan got pretty excited about 40K again - so I thought I best strike which the iron was hot and get a game of Kill Team going on!



He wanted to play his Average Joes Genestealer Cult... and wanted to still play on Necromunda... So... The Unvalids are on the move!



We thought it would be best to play a simple, quick scenario - just to remind ourselves how to play - and we picked the Lure of the Loot scenario out of the Kill Team Annual 2019. Both forces are trying to nab some loot in the centre of the Kill Zone. WE decided the loot was parts both sides required for some sort of special project - or at least the Average Joes needed if for some special project... the Unvalids just thought it looked shiny and the baldies wanted it so it must be something good!



WE both picked the same Scouting Phase option - the one where you get to move 20% of the team before the first turn -  and had to roll off to see who got to do it. It was the Genesstealers.... and then, basically, the WHOLE FREAKING KILL TEAM got to do that AGAIN as part of their faction's special rule! So they all surged forward towards the loot!



The Orks had the initiative on the first turn, which was unfortunate, because they weren't within charging range of anyone yet - and that they ONE THING they're kind of good at... but moving up meant THEY'd be in range of the Genestealer Cultist's charges! But they went for it anyway - even if the Genestealer Cultists DID charge them, the Orks were likely to survive - and still hit back pretty HARD!



There were more than a few Genestelaer Cultists that just elected to sit back and shoot, however!



Others did charge it, where they could have the advantage of numbers.

 

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

It didn't hit nuffin.... but it sure wuz fun ta shoot!

(no, really, like... ALL GAME... There is ZERO reason to take anything but orks with Sluggas and Choppas - it's really ALL they are good at... Charge and fuck shit up!!)

 

Sneaky Genestelaer Cultist tried to make off with some of the Loot! But, good ol' Uruk Kreuger was a Blood Bowl Star BLITZER and he weren't going to let some puny little three-armed freak run of with the ball... er... LOOT! He snipped him good with the Kippurs of DOOM!



More Orks joining in the brawl!



Urrrr! Oi gots yooz!



BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

It didn't hit nuffin.... but it sure wuz fun ta shoot!



The field of battle, getting thinned out a bit...



AT the end of Round Two Rub Furd was Shaken!

Ah... morale in this game is the WORST.

 

Heavy's blasting away at each other. Boomchakka Gurnard makes a grab for one of the crates of loot.



Unfortunately the Genestealer Cultists actually KNOW HOW TO SHOOT their heavy weapons... and that was the end of the Loota...



And then at the end of Round Three, Rub Furd rallied... but EVERYONE ELSE was shaken...

There is a real problem with the morale system that kind of gives a huge advantage to smaller, high-point-cost Kill Teams over cheap-like-durt, more numerous teams... I'd kind of forgotten about that....



At a certain point you just end up with half - or MORE - of everyone's team just standing there staring at each other not DOING anything... and the one or two lucky ones that rolled a one, plugging away at those standing still for the turn, point-blank-like.

Actually, I'd forgotten about quite a bit! I don't know how many times we found ourselves saying... "No, wait, that's not how it works... that's Necromunda we're thinking of... " And then it became clear why we haven't played this in AGES! Compared to Necromunda... it kind of blows...

We'd had a whole campaign planned out for Kill Team, but now I'm not sure I'd even want to play it out. We are thinking we may just use a mash up of Necromunda and Kill Team - basically using Necromundas rules - with all the kill team stats... there are a FEW differences and shifts we may have to make... but I think it will work SO MUCH BETTER for what we had in mind...


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I got an End of June Games round-up I'm working on... and the Game Plan 2020 - Q3 plans (along with a look back at how the Q2 plans worked out...)

Things most likely to roll off the workbench next... Fabius Bile, the Archivist (the Zoat from Blackstone Fortress), Blackstone Fortress Cultists...? Maybe some Ork Dakka Jets...?

STILL MORE June Games (and... Other Stuff)

One week left in June - and, indeed, in 2020-Q2! Guess I better look back at my Q2 plans and see if there are any games I need to quickly play in this last week to finish up any goals! (And maybe start making plans for Q3!

Tuesday, 16 June 2020



Another morning ride with Amanda!

For anyone interested in knowing a bit more about the lovely lady in so many of these photos, the union that Amanda is a member of recently did an article about her:

ASPA Member Highlight – Amanda Plante

(and though they didn't give me any credit, I took half the photos in that article!?)



She did the 8Km loop to the south bridge... and then I carried on for a bit of a longer ride to the North Bridge.



Just to give you a sense of where that is... the lower loop that I did with Amanda was about 8Km. I did about 40Km. It had been raining the last few days and so I decided to stay (mostly) on paved tails within the city.



Some new signage I noticed... presumably people were seeing the sign and just stopping in the middle of the road to look and see if they could spot some... the new addition to the signage leaves a bit of a mixed message, though... I mean.... are automobiles supposed to just HIT any wildlife that cross this road now? Because...  NO STOPPING!?



Some more new way finding signage along the trail, which is really nice. In fact reading the sign I saw that there was something labelled on the legend as "Meewasin Mowed Trails" through the Northwest swale. So I thought I'd check this out... If it was grassed it might, at least, not be muddy like a dirt trail would be.



They WERE, in fact, really nice to ride. And, unlike the grassy areas of Chief Whitecap park, not nearly so bumpy as I'd imagined.



Spotted this colourful critter when I stopped to adjust my jacket - which was strapped to my seat bag and had come loose and started rubbing on my tire.



Trail through the swale.



It was super quite out there - despite some very busy roadways surrounding it on all sides!



MURDER!!!



A lovely ride.



The forecast for the week was looking rather daunting, so I thought today was a good day to get a longer ride in - as I might not be able to - at least without getting soaked - for the rest of the week. 

In the evening...



Finnegan was playing in his semi-monthly D&D game that he PLAYS in (the other two games he's the DM)



While he was doing that Keira actually suggested WE play a game and said she'd like to play Ingenious!



I don't LOVE the game... but it's been a while, so I figured "why not?"

I lost.

Like, by a lot...

 

Afterwards, Amanda and I played game of Azul.

I lost that one, too.

Also by a LOT!

I don't mind playing it, though, because it has pretty tiles. and it's fun.


Wednesday, 17 June 2020



Wednesday is Work-In-Progress Wednesday at the Hunters of the Warp (local 40K group) so I took pics of the desk. I like W-I-P Wednesday. It gives me an excuse to tidy up the desk a bit and take a look at what I'm doing and wonder what the hell I'm doing!?

Yeah... this is "tidy"...



I've posted pictures of the completed Thunderbolts and XV86 Battlesuit, so I won't post those... but there is a lot of Chaos (like, miniatures) still on the desk, lurking behind them - Emperor's Children Space Marines and Cultists for Blackstone Fortress!



The whole work area needs a bit of a tidy-up!

I didn't really leave the house on Wednesday - it was pouring rain all day...


Friday, 19 June 2020

Out and about again - went for two rides. One with Amanda in the morning - short loop to the south bridge and then up to broadway, where I left her and she went to the dentist.



While on that ride I spotted this bird - at first I thought it might be heron... but I'm not so sure now...? Any ideas?



Also spotted a pair of Pelicans - which are pretty common along the river, but usually they're up by the weir - rarely see them this south.



Almost as soon as I got home, I was heading out again with Keira to make our first trip to the library in, like, for-EVAR!? I gotta tell you she was SO EXCITED!! The library withdraws has been the hardest thing for her in the whole pandemic!



More fuzzy goslings downtown..



As Friday evening is now "Family Game Night" we sat down to play "Railways of North America" (which is really Railways of CANADA!?)



Keira and I TIED for first with 82 points each! But she had $82000 and I only had $74000.... so... she won... so close!


Saturday, 20 June 2020

In the morning I picked up Warhammer Quest Blackstone Fortress: Dark Alliance and the new Psychic Awakening book - War of the Spider (and... um... the new Fabius Bile miniature...)

In the afternoon Finnegan ran his D&D game...



And in the evening I ran Wrath & Glory. We started out on Roll20... but while I could see and hear everyone... and they could all see and hear me... no one else could see or hear each other!? We reset and then woody and I could see and hear each other and Jonathan and Chris could see and hear each other... but no one else... Kept trying to restart and reset and screw around with things, but nothing seemed to work... so we set up a Webex meeting in one window and kept roll20 open in the other to use the character sheets and dice rolling app and the map I'd uploaded!

Once we got things sorted out we all had a pretty great time. Some investigating happened. There was a stake out. There was a brief combat with some servitor body-snatchers. They broke into the building they suspect the baddies are working out of.


Monday, 22 June 2020

Monday is Blackstone Fortress night! But it also kind of ended up being Work Late Night and Make Pie Night and so we got started a little late...



We kicked off the new quest this evening - the Quest for the Ritual Chamber - which was included in the Traitor Command expansion. So we really only got through ONE Exploration card - and AMBUSH! And then we called it a night. Looking forward at the things coming up this week, I put it all away until next Monday. Seems like I spent more time setting it up and putting it all away than playing... which was a bit of a let down...

Didn't even get to see the Traitor Commissar or Chaos Ogryn.... or gain any of the dataslates we are required to collect up (like "Clues" or "Ambul Spoor" in the previous quests) to find our way to the Ritual Chamber... ah well...


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Not sure if I'm going to write up this evening's game as a game report... it was pretty short... maybe I will...

Sometime this week Will be a bit of a look back at 2020-Q2 and some planning for Q3

Painting...? More Blackstone Fortress stuff? Excalation Explorers or Cultists? the Zoat from Dark Alliance!? or maybe the Ork Dakkajets from Aeronautica Imperialis? Or FABIUS BILE!!!?