January Games

 So... 2024... These years all sound to me like something that's meant to be far off in the future with replicants and off-world colonies... not some shit I'm living NOW!? 

Monday, 1 January 2024!? 

Got the new year kicked off with a few games! 

Keiran suggested we play MORE Splendor! 

WE ended up playing FOUR games of Splendor! We each won one game... and then Amanda won the fourth one. 

Afterwards, Keiran and I played Set. 

Friday, 5 January 2024

I didn't play a game on Friday... I spent most of the day running out to get ingredients and then baking all day - cupcakes and then pizza... This was the day that Finnegan held his day long RPG marathon to celebrate his birthday. He turns 20 this year. (TWENTY!?!? HOW DID THAT HAPPEN!?) 

SIX players showed up most were from his two different weekly games, but two of them were friends that had moved away for university and were just back in town for the holidays and stayed long enough to play in his game! 

Monday, 8 January 2024

On Monday I played two games of Warhammer Underworlds with my friend Orion. 

You can read a brief report and see more pictures here:

Warhammer Underworlds Double Header

Saturday, 13 January 2024

Originally we'd planned to go over to Shannon and Kevin's... but it was REALLY FUCKING COLD (windchill near -50°C?!)... and we have a dedicated Game Room... and Finnegan's D&D game that is normally taking place in said Game Room on Saturday evening was cancelled... so we invited them to come over here instead 

The first game we played was Abyss. Which neither Kevin nor Shannon had played. 

I thought I'd done pretty okay, I knew I was way ahead in Lords I'd recruited and Allies... but wow... everyone else did so much better with the territories they controlled and monster tokens!? I've never seen that many points scored from monster tokens. Shannon had three worth three, three, and FOUR!?! I didn't even realize there were ones worth four, I thought they were all one, two or three!? 

Afterwards we introduced them to Hanging Gardens. 

I.. um... kind of ROCKED this one... 

So fun to play with them again... we vowed to do it again BEFORE four months had passed, like last time.. 

Friday, 19 January 2024

Friday evening, Amanda and I tried out Deathgorge. I'd used most of the Deathgorge rules when playing with Orion, but this evening we used the Deathgorge boards and objective hexes and other feature tokens and the rules around them... but then totally forgot to place any of the Available Feature Tokens... Also I tired out the freshly painted Thricefold Discord, which were super fun. 

There is a brief report with a few more pictures at:

Warhammer Underworlds: Deathgorge 

Saturday, 20 January 2024 

Orion came over Saturday and we played a few games... 

First we played a game of Warhammer Underworlds 

Then Amanda joined us for a couple of THREE-PLAYER games of Warhammer Underworlds!!

There are loads of pictures and a brief report of the three games here:

Warhammer Underworlds: TRIPLE-header! (Part One)

Warhammer Underworlds: TRIPLE-header! (Part Two)

Warhammer Underworlds: TRIPLE-header! (Part Three)

Sunday, 28 January 2024

The following weekend Orion was back... and so was her partner Nic! Amanda joined in and we played two FOUR-PLAYER games of Warhammer Underworlds!

There is a brief report and a few pictures here:

Warhammer Underworlds - FOUR-Player games!?

It was a REALLY FUN afternoon... 

That's about it for this month... I ended up playing EIGHT games of Warhammer Underworlds!! More than all the other games combined. And I'm kind of okay with that, it's been really fun. 

Next month I expect more Warhammer Underworlds... but I should also get in a few games of Warhammer 40,000 (both AT the tournament and, ideally, a few before!) and I have a couple of games of Warhammer, Age of Sigmar: Soulbound (the Role-Playing Game) arranged for the last weekend of the month! And, hopefully, we'll get in a few other games along the way! 

What have YOU been playing!? Let me know in the comments! 

Work-in-Progress Wednesday (31 January 2024)

 Here, once again, is the state of my workbench... 

The usual mess of 40K Tallarn self-propelled artillery and Warhammer Underworlds warbands... and the odd other figure... 

Nearly done the Basilisks (the big guns).. might finish off later today...? Hopefully finish up the Manticores (Multile-Rocket Launcher) by Friday...?

Two Warhammer Underworlds warbands closest to being finishes are Grinkrak's Looncourt and Blackpowder's Bucaneers...? I've done a bit of work on Hexbane's Hunters and the Skaven... but what I'd REALLY like to work on next is Ephilum's Pandemonium! 

What's everyone else working on!? 

Warhammer Underworlds - FOUR-Player games!?

Sunday afternoon our friends Nic and Orion came by to play TWO epic FOUR-player games of Warhammer Underworlds!  

GAME ONE

I was a little concerned it might end up being two, two-player games fought side-by-side but waiting for each other to take turns... 

But with the board set up we used it did NOT really feel like that at all!

Orion brought Hexbane's Hunters (and played on the Penitent's Throne board from Nightvault). Nic brought Drepur's Wraithcreepers (and played on the Seamsplit Folly board from Wyrdhollow). Amanda played Mordwaeth's Blade-Coven (on the Frost-Wracked Ruins board from Deathgorge). I played Mollog's Mob (on the Ambernest Trap board from Direchasm - which I mostly picked so that I could use one of the new terrain bits I'd just finished painting!). It was a truly transdimensional battle royalle - with parts of all four of those totally separate locations all ending up adjacent to each other!? The Magic of the Mortal Realms is weird....

I'm pretty sure both Nic and Orion were playing with their warband's Rivals decks (the cards that are individual to that warband). Amanda played the same Relic deck she's been playing forever. I looked through the deck boxk with Mollog's cards and there was a Relic deck I'd constructed to play with the first (and only other) time I played with Mollog. There were some pretty nasty cards in there and I briefly felt like maybe I'd just pull all those cards and add back in any Mollog cards I'd pulled... but then remembered it was a Nightvault era warband and wouldn't have had enough objective cards and I'd need to add in SOMETHING anyway... and doing that while everyone else was ready to go... I said fuck it and went with what I had... how bad could it be...?

When the very first action of the very first player turn was one of DRepur's Wraithcreepers floating across the table and chopping Bat-Squig out of the air.. I felt less bad about taking the Relic Deck...  

Then Orion slapped You Stand Accused on Mollog, and I felt even less bad... 

This one is pretty nasty. There are a LOT of persistent cards out there... but most last until the end of the round... this lasts until the accused moves into the territory of the player that played it... which in a two-player games isn't so bad, you just have to leave your own territory.... 

...but in the four-player set up we were using, it meant crossing two other players territory!? With a model with only a move of 3!? (a little easier now that you can select the same model to move multiple times in a turn. 

I know I scored ONE objective card in the first round. I had one that required at least two models be in enemy territory and NOT adjacent to any enemy - and I managed to do that! 

and then Morgwaeth dashed around to grab an objective.. RIGHT NEXT TO MOLLOG (AND Spiteshroom!?). I mean, I get she has a LOT of Objective cards that score a lot of points for holding a bunch of objectives... but, really... 

So Mollog thumped her once and she was gone! Which gained me the Primacy Token for both taking out a leader. 

(We were using the primacy token because I noted a few of my Ojbective Cards were from the Direchasm set and referred to the Primacy token. I generally they gave a bonus Glory Point if you had the Primacy Token... on top of the one given from the Primacy token!?) 

At one point (I think in the Second Round?) I had an objective that required someone in the warband - other than Mollog - take an enemy out of action. The only other warband member was Spiteshroom... who only dealt one damage... I thought my best option was to charge into this mess... attack the dog - which only had one wound - and hopefully wound it and then hope that someone killed Spiteshroom! (because Spiteshroom has a reaction that, if taken out of action, explodes in a cloud of deadly spores that deals one wound to all adjacent enemies... Alas... no one took the bait before the dog went yelping away! 

Eventually someone did kill Spiteshroom... and it did deal a damage to two of Hexbane's Hunters... but not enough to take either out... 

So then it was just Mollog... and he felt a little like he was standing in front of a firing squad...

Orion got a little excited because she was able to give one of her models enough upgrades that, if she rolled enough successes, COULD concievably deal Mollog seven damage... which WOULD be enough to take it out of action! So I gave Mollog TWO upgrades that increases it's wounds by one, each... 

And then trundled over to the super-buffed axe-man and took him out with one swing of the club! 

Then moved on and murdered a few more in the Warband, before finally running for cover to just survive until the end! 

It was kind of ridiculous how good he got at the end.. 

I'd like to try and build a proper Nemesis deck with this warband, as it is one of my favourites... 

The new rules that allow moving a model that's already moved - and even activating a model that's already charged as long as all the other models in teh warband have also charged is a HUGE help to warbands like Mollog's Mob... Though I realized if Stalagsquig stays on the table... it would be impossible to keep moving and hitting with Mollog after a charge, because Stallagsquig CANNOT CHARGE... luckily someone took out stallagsquig early in the game and, despite HAVING the card that allows me to bring back Stallagsquig, I elected NOT to!!!

In the end I won the game with 13 Glory points. Nic and Amanda weren't too far behind, both with 11 Glory Points. Orion was just a bit further behind with 9. 

GAME TWO

For our second game we switched things up a little bit. Orion decided to try out the Crimson Court and I busted out The Wurmspat. 

I'd been looking at the Generic Rivals decks that came with and thought the Seismic Shock deck looked really interesting... It's all about casting magic and holding objectives and... it obviously would work WAY BETTER with one of those Stormcast warbands that are ALL WIZARDS, I thought it might work with a warband with a tough wizard like Fecula... 

The inspriation had come from reading through Seismic Shock the evening after playing games the Previous Weekend - with Wurmspat! I figured it would work REALLY well as part of a Nemesis deck mixed in with a few of the Wurmspat cards that really help out the Wurmspat, which discarding a few of the Seismic Shock cards that were less helpful (or objectives that were a bit harder to score)... but I didn't do that before the game and didn't really have time to do that when we were starting the game... so I tried to play with just the straight Seismic Shock Deck...

This... was a mistake... 

I used the Ambernest Trap board again, Amanda took the Pool of Fangs board (also from Direchasm). Nic took the Chamber of Genesis board (from Harrowdeep - and I kept humming the "Under the Sea" song from the Disney movie The Little Mermaid - which I don't think I've ever even SEEN... but somehow have heard that song enough that it got stuck in my head!?). Orion selected the Cursed Oubliette board (from Nightvault). 

Again, Nic started things off by having one of his Wraithcreepers float up and stab one of MY fighters... luckily, Sepsimus was a little tougher than batsquig... 

The other three warbands really went at it hammer and tongs. 

Whereas I kind of just stood in one place DESPERATELY trying to get Fecula to cast a SINGLE spell so I could score the ONE scorable Objective Card I had... cast more spells than any other warband... I case ONE successful spell... her generic spell attack that dealt ONE damage... and gained ONE Glory Point in the first round... Honestly I probably would have done much better if I'd just let Sepsimus and Gulgoch go NUTS and just KILL THINGS... 

In the second round I had a new set of Objective cards... unfortunately ALL THREE required that ALL my fighters be on Objective tokens (and ALIVE!) at the end of the round... before the round started I did some calculation and realized I COULD make it happen... if everyone survived...  But then on the first turn, Morgaeth jumped onto this Objective marker...  The one I needed to Sepsimus on!? And then everyone followed her over there!? 

So... that plan was kind of fucked... 

Morgwaeth was taken out... I can't remember who did it... I don't think it was Wurmspat... but Sepsimus DID charge into the vacant spot and, with the aid of Fecula, took out the Prince - leader of the Crimson Court! Of course, THEY scored an Objective card for me taking him out... so... didn't help much. 

Apparently that was where I stopped taking pictures... 

For the third round, Fecula stood still and zapped at Vellas von Faine... and was able to score ONE MORE Glory for one enemy being the target of my attacks for a third and subsequent activation in the same round... (only because Orion was using all her other fighters to chase members of Morgwaeth's Blade-Coven around the table and score other objectives...) 

I ended the game with 3 Glory Points... 

Orion won this one with SEVENTEEN!!! (which is what the Thricefold Discord scored last weekend!?). Amanda's Morgwaeth's Blade-Coven wasn't too far behind at 13 Glory and Nic had 7... 

I'm still convinced it Seismic Shock could work with the Wurmspat as a Nemesis deck!

Amanda's decided maybe she'd like to try out some other warbands and asked if I had a copy of the Crimson Court... I guess that will be moving up the To Paint List order...

It was a totally fun afternoon! And fun to finally play Warhammer Underworlds with Nic. 

Orion just got a BUNCH of older Warhammer Underworlds stuff in a trade with some dude in Regina, so it will be interesting to see what she and Nic bring next time! 

Warhammer Underworlds TERRAIN!?

I finished up a few more of the little terrain bits I picked up ages ago. For both Nightvault and Beastgrave, Games Workshop released little terrain bits that could be used for blocked hexes (and maybe hazard hexes?). Some bits directly matched bits on some of the boards, others were more generic. 

four more of the bits I finished up. Not the greatest painting I've even done.. but they are DONE and I have so much to do, I can't get too worked up about it... Calling them done and moving on! 

I'd previously finished two of the bits from Beastgrave and had them handy to use in a game the previous week... so I worked on a few of these in between other things I've been working on all week and managed to finish them off. 

(there was a fifth one I finished... but forgot to bring downstairs.. I'll probably have a few of the others finished up in the next week or so, so I'll include it there. 

While they're fun to throw out on the table for Warhammer Underworlds, they could easily be used as generic scatter terrain in any other minaiture tabletop game. 

Still chugging away on the Asatra Militarum self-propelled artillery... and at least a half-dozen Warhammer Underworlds are being painted in fits and starts - Grinkrak's Looncourt being the closest to being finished now... 

I played a couple of FOUR-PLAYER games of Warhammer Underworlds over the weekend... should have a brief report of that action up tomorrow! 

Warhammer Store!

 So a Warhammer Store opened up in Saskatoon. I think it opened in late November or the beginning of December...? Somehow I didn't even find out until the end of December!? And the person who told me wasn't even a Warhammer player!? She just happens to work at the library branch nearby and had spotted it and when we were out at a show she happened to say; "Hey... Warhammer...? Is that a thing you do...? Because there's a new store near where I work."

Sure enough, I looked it up and there it was... in the University Heights Suburban Centre... almost as far as you can get from my house and still be within the city limits... almost... Now in the summer I ride out that way all the time (to visit the Northwest Swale (for bridwatching... and.. just for an excuse to get out for a ride) But in the winter, that's a bit of a ride... 

Most of January has been BRUTALLY cold - like -40°C windchills (or sometimes even -40°C without the windchills... or windchill dipping into the -50°C range). I did not go anywhere I didn't HAVE to... But today it was kind of nice out (I think it got all the way up to -3°C!?). So I thought I'd roll out there for a little visit. 

It was a nice bright day. Often bright days in Saskatoon in the winter means brutally cold! But today was bright and warm (relatively speaking). 

Though the store is twice the distance it would be to get to Dragon's Den Games - my usual FLGS.... almost ALL of the ride was on off-road multi-use trails. Like, 95% of the journey... and... when I finally got there... 

THERE WERE FUCKING BIKE RACKS OUT FRONT OF THE STORE!?!?! In the middle of this suburban hellscape for parking and strip malls as far as the eye could see in any direction (and you can see a LONG WAY when there is nothing but surface parking and the occasional strip mall) there were bicycle hitching posts in front of EVERY STORE!? Not going to lie, I did NOT expect that... and I can't tell you how BIG of a DEAL that is for me - as a guy that doesn't own a car and generally gets about by bicycle! 

I honestly felt like this might be a last resort store... but damn, rock star parking instead of having to find a dodgy pole a block away that some car might just back into... I'd ride the extra distance (and pay a bit more money for THAT!). 

The only downside was I arrived at 3:05... and the store is closed from 3-3:30 every day (which is not listed in the Hours of Operation on google or on the store's facebook page). While a little inconvenient for me, I was actually really excited to see this - that the corporation that runs the place actually understands the limitations of Human Beings... especially stores where there is just ONE PERSON working all damned day. I worked in retail a lot in my younger days - often in a store where I was all on my own for 8 hours and it was just "take a break when you can" and no bathroom breaks for you for 8 hours! 

At least it wasn't -50!!

Okay, I DID have a reason to go OTHER than to just check the place out... I never was able to track down a copy of Zarbag's Gitz - the first Goblin warband for Warhammer Underworlds - and getting back into it I discovered they did a second Goblin warband for Gnarlwood... and I wanted to get one before they all disappeared! I noted that both Dragon's Den and Amazing Stories were sold out of them... and the Warhammer Store had one... so... 

Work-in-Progress Wednesday (24 January 2024)

Since I take the picture(s) to post on my local 40K group's facebook page... why not start sharing them here...?

I AM actually doing some work on the Astra Militarum (Tallarn) self-propelled artillery units I need for the 40K tournament in February - just 24 days away!!! 

Also scattered about the table are an assortment of other things; A few Warhammer Underworlds warbands, a few Heroes and villains from Warhammer Quest: Cursed City, and varied and sundry 40K and other sci-fi minis. 

Among the Warhammer Underworlds warbands, Hexbane's Hunters, Domitan’s Stormcoven, and Blackpowder's Buccaneers are most actively being worked on, but also present are Ephilim’s Pandaemonium, Skittershank’s Clawpack, and Shadeborn are also present... I did assemble Cyreni’s Razors recently, but stored them away with Elathain's Soulraid in the "on deck" boxes nearby to paint together when I get some of these others done... Oh, I think The Exiled Dead are still lurking about on the table... but I should really shuffle them off as I likely won't get to them any time soon... 

Should I make this a regular thing...? 

What's everyone else working on!? 

Warhammer Underworlds: TRIPLE-header! (Part Three)

In our final game of the afternoon... we played a second Three-Player game of Warhammer Underworlds! You can see the reports of the other two games here: 

Warhammer Underworlds: TRIPLE-header! (Part One) 

Warhammer Underworlds: TRIPLE-header! (Part Two) 

In this game Orion and I decided to switch things up again. Orion brought Hexbane's Hunters out again and I tried playing the Wurmspat. 

I can't remember the order in which they were chosen, but Orion selected the Ambernest Trap board from Direchasm, I took the Penitents Throne from Nightvault, and Amanda went with the Chamber of Gensis  from Harrowdeep! 

Orion started things off by sending doggos after the Wurmspat... or perhaps they're one of those dogs that are just attrached to the rankest smelling stuff - and when they find it love to roll around in it!? 

The Wurmspat have all these fun Cycle cards that can go into play and persist for some time. This was especially fun to play as Both Amanda and Orion had been looking at my cards and noting that they were not that fast and were calculating how far any of my fighters could get... then I played this BEFORE my first move and all those calculations went out the window... 

And, BOOM, suddenly Sepsimus was on an objective and stabbing at Morgwaeth with his Blighted Spear... Oh, I'm pretty sure he missed... but it caused some discomfort seeing that large blobby mass move so quickly across the board! 

And then the ganging up started... 

Dogs moved up to chew on Sepsimus' rotting feet while Hexbane blasted him in the back with his blackpowder pistols! 

and ALL the Blade-Coven rallied to Morgwaeth's Defence! 

Fecula moved up and zapped spells at the doggo (as Hexbane was just a bit out of range!) 

Ghulgoch charged in and shoved the snek-lady off an objective marker... 

Then he turned his attention to Morgwaeth who'd moved up onto an Objective marker, having shifted Sepsimus off of it. 

I think Morgweath took out Sepsimus and Ghulgoch charged on past her to fight the Witch-Hunter, because there's nothing Gulgoch hates more than a witch-hunter... Well... bathing... Gulgoch probably hates BATHING more than he hates witch-hunters... but it's a CLOSE second place. 

Unfortunately Ghulgoch was also taken out leaving only Fecula... 

I kind of hoped the other two would get busy attacking each other at this point and FEcula could just stand back and I'd shuffle through Objective cards to see if there were ANY I had a hope of scoring. I DID have one that would have given me one or two IF no one bothered to enter my territory before the game ended... 

But apparently Amanda drew one that she could scored if she was on an objective in enemy territory and the one in MY territory was closest, so Morgwaeth sprinted across the board to seize it... There was no way Fecula could possibly take her out (as she now had five wounds - thanks to Great Fortitude)... but I think Fecula DID manage to take out Kyrae... who may have been down to one wound and a little zap of a magic attack finished her off...? 

Morgwaeth's Blade-Coven won this one with thirteen points. Hexbane's Hunters had ten... 

I ended up with only seven... but that's kind of a WIN for a Nurgle warband (seven being the sacred number of Nurgle!)... so... Yay...?

I think the Wurmspat has a lot of potential (and I LOVE the miniatures), if I could edit the deck with some fun stuff from my binders full of cards from Shadespire-Nightvault-Beastgrave-Direchasm-Harrowdeep-or-Nethermaze.... Or maybe I should be looking for a Rivals deck that would work well with it and make a Nemesis deck...? That seems to be the way things are going... 

Although Orion just got a HUGE pile of older Shadespire/Nightvault era stuff in a trade with some dude in Regina... so maybe she'll be okay with playing with Relic decks...?