I'm Back!

I have finally returned to Saskatoon from my month-long trip to Europe which was, honestly.... too long... 

I'll probably post some stuff about that here and on the Art Blog and maybe on the Bike Blog... once I have the [checks phone] nearly 5000 pictures I took over the last month organized...!? This may take some time!!!

In the meantime... 

Yesterday I rode out to the Dragon's Den and picked up the new Hedonites of Slaanesh battletome and Ciaphus Cain and Jurgen set they were holding for me... then pedalled further out to the Warhammer store to pick up this month's free miniature... which is a 40K beastman.. which I have a Kill Team of... and can be used in Blackstone Fortress should we ever return to playing that!?

(Oh, and the day before I'd picked up the smaller, soft cover Warhammer 40,000 11th Edition rules... which, unfortunately does NOT include the force building rules...) 

I am looking forward to getting back into some HOBBY STUFF  over what remains of the summer (before I go back to school in the fall!) 

I think the first order of business will be READING THE RULES FOR BLOOD BOWL - so I can actually play and have a clue what I'm doing in this league I signed up for!?

Next will probably be working on the Tzaangor Warflock Spearhead and finishing up the Fiends of Slaanesh that have sat half-painted for YEARS!? They've suddenly become a priority because they are the only element of the new Hedonites of Slaanesh Spearhead Army that I don't have painted - the rest I not only already have - but they're all fully painted!! (The "leader" of the group is the Thricefold Discord - the Warhammer Underworlds warband! I am thinking of re-basing them, so that they match the rest of the hedonites army... I may have to do the same with the Seekers of Slaanesh. 

There are some other fantastical things Id like to work on... maybe finishing up a few more elements from the Warpflame Cavalcade - in particular the Lord of Changer (greater daemon of Tzeentch) and the Herald of Tzeentch on Burning Chariot. Partly because both are daemons (and because Daemons of Chaos is STILL a faction in 40K 11E, I thought I'd focus on getting ALL my Daemons painted and using them in any games I get to playing with Vera!). Also I want to finish the Chariot because a few months back there was a Chariot Racing mini game in a White Dwarf that looked like fun and I'd like to try out... 

And... after visiting the French National Army Museum (and picking up the new Armies of Italy book, just before we left) I've kind of been feeling like I would like to work on some World War Two stuff... whether for Bolt Action or... whatever...? In particular, I'd like to finish up the few French that I have (because National Army Museum, but also new Bolt Action: Armies of France book being released this fall...) - and the Italians. I also had this idea of fielding a troop or two of little early war French tanks (Probably Renault R-35s - because I can get a full platoon of them from Die Waffenkammer for less than a SINGLE tank from Warlord Games (and support a small Canadian business!). But I also feel like BEFORE I buy any French tanks, I really need to finish all the French stuff (which is really just a sniper team, an anti-tank rifle, and a few casualties) AND all the Italian stuff... (two tanks, an anti-aircraft gun, a forward observer team, and a squad of Askaris) AND maybe all those early war British tanks I bought (10 TANKS! 5 Matildas and 5 Cruisers) 

Game Plan 2026 - Q3

Before we get on with the plan for Q3, let's take a quick look back at Q2...

(Note: I have been in Europe for most of June - hence the lack of posting/updates/games being played. At SOME point will post some pics of the vacation. Stay tuned for that! Not a lot of GAMING related content... but a bit of history/military history related content that could be inspiration for some wargaming... maybe...? It certainly got me thinking about a few different projects - Bolt Action French and revisiting Great War Projects - including Vimy!)

2026 - Q2 In Review

GAMES

I planed to play some games...

I played some games!!

According to Board Game Geek, I played: 

• Sagrada x5
• Retro Loonacy x3
• Blood Bowl: Third Season Edition x2
• Carcassonne x1
• Castles of Mad King Ludwig x1
• Wingspan x1

Total: 13!

Not a LOT of games... but a few more than the eight games we played in the First Quarter of the year! So... maybe things are looking up!? 

Warhammer Quest

I expected we'd be playing the Nemesis campaign for Warhammer Quest: Cursed City for a good chunk of the Second Quarter (and if we managed to finish the Cursed City Nemesis campaign, there was Warhammer Quest Darkwater!). In the end I just couldn't get motivated to paint the things I needed to play Nemesis before heading to Europe, so... no games were played!? 

Age of Sigmar

I felt fairly certain there would be MORE Warhammer Age of Sigmar played this Quarter... again... that did not really happen, though I did join in the Age of Sigmar Summer Hobby League being run through the Warhammer Store... I was away for the first month, but it runs until the end of the month, so I may be able to knock out a Spearhead army and a few other units and get in a game or two - all of which gain league points! 

Warcry!? 

There had been some brief interest in Warcry in March... Largely because we had been planning a trip to the UK and visiting Warhammer World... and there may have been a Warcry tournament on one of the weekends we could possibly have been there... I had wondered if we'd return to it... but as the travel plans had changed... interest in Warcry faded... 

Amanda HAD even said I should go pick up the Warcry: Heart of Ghur box that's sitting on the 40% off shelf at my FLGS... but I haven't done that yet and... at this point... I doubt I will... It's probably worth it just for the terrain... the warbands included are... meh... (ANOTHER Rotmire Creed!? Aye-yi-yi....). The cards and tokens included would have been handy IF were were to start playing Warcry on the semi-regular... 

Role-Playing Games - Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Soulbound 

I'd hopped we might carry on with some more Age of Sigmar: Soulbound... I'd suggested I might try to wrap up the Champions of Death campaign and move on to something else... Like...  MAYBE a Champions of Chaos campaign!? (With even LESS Soulbound Characters!?) 

Warhammer 40,000!?  

There was a new edition released in June... But Vera, the only person I'd likely to be playing with much, ha been very underwhelmed by news about the new edition, so I've kind of written it off... for now.. 

BLOOD BOWL!?

Blood Bowl was definitely NOT on my bingo card for this year, let alone part of any PLAN... but Vera's been playing a lot of it lately (there is a pretty active local league!) and talked me into trying it out and we ended up playing a couple games in May. After the first game I thought I might pick up the rules and a pitch and a set of tokens and some dice... so I could just play using my old teams from 35 years ago... but that all ended up costing the same as the Core Box - which came with all those things AND two teams and an additional set of dice and some cheat sheets!? So... 

Board Games 

I hadn't ENTIRELY given up on the ideas of playing non-Games Workshop boardgames! Indeed we finally tried out Sagrada and got in games of Retro Loonacy, Carcassonne, Wingspan, and Castles of Mad King Ludwig... 

Q2 MINIATURES

What had I imagined I might get up to PAINTING over the past few months...? I was fairly certain it would probably be miniatures for Warhammer Quest and Warhammer Age of Sigmar (and maybe Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Soulbound...?). Things had kind of slowed to a crawl through Q1. As Q2 began, things had ground to a complete halt as the school term was coming to an end and projects were due and a final exam was looming... Things finally looked like they might pick up again in April and May... and I DID start painting and doing hobby stuff... but didn't really result in a lot of miniatures being FINISHED then dropped off entirely as we took off for nearly a month in Europe at the beginning of June! 

What I finished painting

• 3x Goblin "Cheerleaders"

What I acquired

• 12 x Bretonnian Blood Bowl team players
• 14 x Tomb Kings Blood Bowl players
• 6x Brettonnian tokens, balls, etc.
• 6x TombKings tokens, balls, etc.
• 37x Plastic game tokens 
• 1x Plastic range ruler
• 1x Plastic random direction template
• 1x Plastic throw-in template

(This was all stuff in the Blood Bowl starter box) 

So... acquired more stuff and didn't finish up a lot... 

Age of Sigmar/Warhammer Quest

I had plans to paint a LOT of stuff for Age of Sigmar and Warhammer Quest in Q2... and NONE of that happened... 

I also didn't BUY ANY of the stuff I thought I might for the game, though... so there's that! 

Blood Bowl

MOST of my hobby painting time was spent touching up old blood bowl teams (or painting ones I never got around to!) and assembling and painting the two NEW teams (and ALL THE TOKENS) I acquired with the new edition of Blood Bowl that I picked up! I didn't really get a lot of new stuff FINISHED, however... 

Other Miniatures...?

I had noted the possibility of painting some World War Two stuff for Bolt Action. or maybe some Ancient and mythic Greeks for Warriors of Athena... I did START painting a LARGE lot of Partizans for WW2... but I only got about halfway with them before steam ran out and Blood Bowl came along! 

GAME PLAN 2026 - Q3

Q3 GAMES

Assuming I'm still alive... I plan to play some games...

Blood Bowl

There is a new local league starting in July and I have signed up for it! It's only two games a month and most of the people seem like good folks, so... should be fun! Stay tuned for a bit of THAT action! I imagine I'll also try to get in a few extra games - just to get the rules all straight in my head!

Warhammer Quest

I do hope I'll get to finishing up the last of the Soulblight Gravelords needed to play Warhammer Quest: Cursed City - Nemesis. Ideally BEFORE the end of the Summer/Quarter - it would be nice to get STARTED and establish a regular game night before classes begin again. I'm sure it won't take the rest of the year to play through. 

Age of Sigmar

I hope I'll be able to catch some action at the tail end of the Warhammer Stores Summer Hobby League - On Sundays there are pick up Spearhead games... Hopefully I can get some of my Chaos stuff painted... 

40K

Vera had originally been underwhelmed by the new edition, but now that they've announced a narrative campaign system, she's back in and... so... I'll probably be playing a few games of that at some point...? 

Other Games

After visiting  Musée de l'Armée at the Hôtel National des Invalides in Paris, I've kind of been thinking a lot about the Great War and World War Two again... so... who knows... 

We did get in a few board games before leaving for Europe, it would be nice to try and get that going again!

Q3 MINIATURES

I do hope I'll get to finishing up the last of the Soulblight Gravelords - which will set me up for finishing off Warhammer Quest: Cursed City AND give me another faction to play with in Age of Sigmar. 

There is also the last few things for Warhammer Quest: Darkwater... but I have a feeling I probably won't get to finishing off those until I'm done the stuff for Cursed City and and actually playing the Nemesis campaign! 

I did pledge to paint a few things for the Age of Sigmar Summer Hobby League being run through the Warhammer Store... The Tzaangor Warflock and a few others, so those might come first, as they need to be done before the end of July. 

I imagine I will also be working on some Blood Bowl stuff -  continue touching up some of the older teams and painting some other ones, new (Bretonnian and Tomb Kings) and old (Dwarves and Elves) - and there are a few tokens and templates to paint up! For the league I signed up with the Gnarly Gobbos - my old metal team that I painted 35 years ago!? I've mostly touched all of those up before leaving for Europe...  so there isn't a panic to get anything done for this (other than the tokens.... or maybe to try out other teams for funnies - and possibly get Amanda interested!?) 

IN OTHER NEWS... 

As I mentioned, I've been in Europe this past month. I have HUNDREDS of photos to sort through and organize into a few posts... Some will be here, some might be over on the Art Blog... so stay tuned for those! 

What have you been up to for the last few months?

What do YOU have planned for the next few months!? 

LET ME KNOW IN THE COMMENTS!!

Bolt Action: Armies of Italy (Third Edition)

I picked up Bolt Action: Armies of Italy (Third Edition) this past week. I'm not sure why... we haven't played for a while... I guess hope that we will play again.... someday!?

Also because the Italians are one of my favourite little armies... probably because of all of the wee little tankettes. There's a daft part of me that wants to throw together a force with two barebones infantry platoons and then just flood the table with tankettes! 

I feel like before I buy any more CV-33 tankettes, I should really finish up the stuff I already have... which... isn't that much!?

Most of the Infantry is done... 

and most of the guns and tanks are done (including both of the tankettes I currently have!)

All I have left to paint up is a single squad of colonial troops... a forward observer team (or command team?), two tanks and a light anti-aircraft gun! Not a lot! If I were motivated, I could knock that all out in a week or two!

Am I THAT motivated, though...? Probably not. I've been in a bit of a slump this last week and haven't even gotten any work done on the Blood Bowl teams currently populating my desktop! 

Ah, well... I'll get to them at some point. 

In additions to ridiculous notions about fielding swarms of tankettes, I wouldn't mind picking up a THIRD squad of Colonial troops - just so I could field a full platoon of them! I also wouldn't mind picking up and building and painting the Camionettisti - Sahariana AS42 Squadron! And I'd be lying if I said I hadn't spent WAY TOO MUCH TIME checking out Great Escape Games Italian Alpini and daydreaming of a COMPLETE SECOND FORCE of Italians in continental uniforms for fighting Frenchmen in 1940 or Russians on the Eastern Front...? 

That would be SILLY, though! And as anyone who's followed this blog for any amount of time with know, we don't do SILLY things around here!! 

Why is everyone laughing!?

I'll probably end up picking up the next two army books as well - Armies of the British Commonwealth in July, and Armies of France in October. I didn't pick up the ones of Great Britian or the United States. I figure any of the "British" forces I have could be covered by the Armies of the British Commonwealth. 

May Games

In May... I played games...  

Wednesday, 6 May 2026

Vera was in town and suggested we try out the new version of Blood Bowl. She's been playing in a league. I've not played since the late 80s... (but I DID use one of the teams I still have from the 80s!). It was good fun! you can read about all of the ensuing shenanigans here:

Blood Bowl - Gnarly Green Guys versus Shitsberg Stealers

Friday, 8 May 2026

On Friday, Amanda invited some friends over to play Wingspan. It has been nearly two years since I've played Wingspan. Amanda played it a few times last summer with some other friends... but the last I played it was June of 2024! 

Thursday, 28 May 2028

Vera was in town, so we got together for another game of Blood Bowl. I'd been hoping to have the Tomb Kings done by the time she was in town again... alas... 

I ended up playing my Hammertown Tiger-Rats Skaven team against her Mi’ami Daggfins Dwarf team. 

On their very last turn of the game, the Tiger-Rats ran in a third goal winning the game! 

Friday, 29 May 2026

On the final Friday in May, Kurtis and Tania came over to play games. They suggested Castles of Mad King Ludwig, which they've been playing a lot of lately... I have not played it in over two years!? I do like it, it's a lot of fun... 

I came in second last, but I had fun making a castle, so... 

Amanda mentioned we hadn't played a lot of games lately, but we'd picked up Sagrada a while back. Kurtis said he'd never played but had always wanted to try, so we played a game of that as well.. 

I did even less well in Sagrada, coming in dead last... 

And that was it for May!! Not a lot... but more than the last few months! 

Gnarly Green Gobbos - "Cheerleaders"

I've been torn about what to paint next - brand new teams? old teams I never painted? touching up old teams that were painted, but need fixing or that I have a few extra minis I can finish up to add to the teams!? I've been doing a bit of all three and getting nowhere... So I've tried to focus on touching up the Gnarly Green Gobbos and painting (or RE-painting) a few extra minis I have that I can use with the team. 

The first I've finished up are a trio of female goblins that I'm using as cheerleaders. 

Goblin "Cheerleaders" 

These were the original cheerleaders I had for the team, when I was playing 35 years ago. They are old, early 80's, pre-slotta Citadel miniatures. I think they came in a pack called Goblin (or Orc?) Villagers. Some years ago I stripped the original paint off and planned to repaint them as orc/goblin villagers or camp followers... but I never really got around to that... So now they're back to being Goblin "Cheerleaders". 

They kind of look thoroughly unimpressed. I have two stories that could explain this... 

First they're the girlfriends of players on the team and are entirely unimpressed with their shenanigans and know that after the game, should they survive, their boyfriends all going to be going out and drinking with their friends and getting rowdy and in no way be able to come home and help out with the family or pay any attention to their girlfriends... 

The second, and, I think more likely, is that if we go with the idea that all fantasy orc/goblinoids are asexual/non-binary fungoids that grow from spores... These are just regular goblins dressed up in drag and pressed into service as "cheerleaders" and thus they are grumpy because they don't get to play and feel like they're being made fools of, dressed up like the cheerleaders of the other non-fungoid, humanoid races...? 

Wasn't even sure if there was a game benefit to having Cheerleaders, just felt I needed to get these done first... because I think they are hilarious. 

It turns out you can hire up to six cheerleaders for 10,000 gold each (or temp agency cheerleaders for 5000gold?). As far as I can tell the only game effect they have is give you a +1 to the cheering fans roll, when the Cheering Fans Kick Off Event happens (a result of 6 on the 2d6 Kick-Off Event roll), which, if won, you count as having on additional offensive assist on the first Block Action performed in your next turn...? 

Is it worth it...? for a shot at a bonus on ONE Block Action, about 14% of the time a kick-off happens...? I don't know... I have my doubts... I'm probably going to hire them anyway! 

Blood Bowl - Elf Team

I have a plastic Elf Blood Bowl team that came with Dungeon Bowl (1989) - like the orcs and human plastic teams that came in the second edition core box (1988), they are mono-pose and you could only tell which position they played by the colour-coded bases. I thought I should FINALLY get around to painting these minis that I've had squirrelled away for over three decades! 

I'd originally started painting them in a dark green uniform - ALL with blond hair - But I'm just going to prime them black and start over. I was thinking I might just paint these up as an existing team, just so I don't have to think about it too much... Elves probably aren't going to be my go-to team, these will strictly be loaners (or... maybe Amanda will play them!?).

So I was considering the classic Elfhiem Eagles... but then... WHICH version of their colour scheme!? 

(Image ©2026 Games Workshop, used here entirely without their permission for the purposes of review)

The current ones are in an orange and purple uniform and... not going to lie, one of my favourite colour combinations...

(Image ©1989 Games Workshop, used here entirely without their permission for the purposes of review)

This is as they were also depicted in the Blood Bowl (Second Edition - 1988) Star Players book (which came out in 1989)

BUT.... on the cover of the Blood Bowl (Second Edition - 1988) rule book... 

(Image ©1988 Games Workshop, used here entirely without their permission for the purposes of review)

They are depicted in PINK - with white pads and gloves... and some red and yellow accents! And... I kind of LOVE that... 

I don't know about that all blond hair, though... I may have do deviate from that a bit... or not... we shall see! 

In addition to the plastic mono-pose minis, I also have a few metal ones, which I will also do in... whichever scheme I decide upon! They can be the captain and alternates or whatever... 

Blood Bowl – Third Season Edition!

So... I did a thing... 

I just kind of happened to be in the vicinity of Dragon's Den Games yesterday afternoon while running errands, and... 

This just kind of ended up in my bicycle bag... 

I had a lot of fun playing Blood Bowl last week with Vera and it brought back a LOT of fond memories of playing Blood Bowl Second Edition back in the late 80s/Early 90s.... And the game seems to be taking off here and I already HAVE teams - including a few that still need to be painted - that have been in the PILE OF OPPORTUNITY since the 80s/90s!!? 

So I'd looked into just basics I'd need to play the game - the rule book... and a pitch to play on... and the set of tokens... and a set of dice... and all that added up to the same price as the new edition's core box, which was still available at my FLGS (Dragon's Den Games!) which includes the rule book... and a pitch to play on... and the set of tokens... and TWO sets of dice... and TWO COMPLETE TEAMS!? 

It is bonkers how much better a deal the core boxes are!?

What have I gotten myself into... 

Some of the aforementioned minis I still have from the 80s/90s... There are complete Dwarf and Elf teams there. The skaven are painted, but I really need to touch up the bases. In fact, MOST of the teams could do with a bit of touching up, lots of paint chipped off from many, MANY hours of use back in the day (and probably rough storage and many, many moves had a bit to do with their current state!)

Some of the paint jobs aren't great and there is a temptation to strip and repaint the lot of them... but they have... "character" and nostalgia is holding me back from just stripping them all... 

Also the basing was pretty sloppy... that I MIGHT redo! I'm not really sure what size to put them on, though... Currently anything that isn't HUGE goes on a 32mm base. But I worry that putting some of these on a 32mm base will just emphasize how much smaller they are that the current minis, and so I'm kind of leaning towards not rebasing - or rebasing onto new 25mm bases (or maybe 28mm bases...?) 

While I have enough teams to host a small tournament, there are a couple of new teams I wouldn't mind picking up - the Halflings and the Nurgle team - just because the miniatures look like they'd be really fun to paint. I am absolutely NOT buying EITHER until I have painted all the stuff I have and have played a few games with them!!