April Games

There were quite a few games played through the First Quarter of the year... though most of them were Warhammer Underworlds - which is fine, but I was thinking I needed to try and play some OTHER games as well... with some other people! 

So I decided to try and to establish a semi-regular Game Night on Fridays. Previously, I had been thinking I might try making it out to Skirmish Game Night at the Warhammer store on Fridays, now that the weather was getting better. So the plan was kind of to do this on alternating Fridays - which coincided with when Shannon and Kevin had their respective kids...

Wednesday, 3 April 2024

Started the month off with a game that WASN'T Warhammer Underworlds!

Our friends Ryan and Andy came over to play Wingspan! We broke out the new Fan Art expansion (just a set of cards with different art). It was supposed to be for Amanda's birthday, but since she was going to be out of town for her birthday, I figured we might as well crack them open NOW! 

Some of the art was cool... Some of it was... okay... did I need to buy this...? Probably not... but I did, so I guess we'll play with them from time to time...? 

Friday, 5 April 2024

Our first Friday game night of the month (and... year, I guess...) 

Shannon brought along Tokaido, which neither Amanda or I had ever played, and I'm not sure Kevin had either..? Each of us played a traveller on the "East Sea Road" in  Japan. Taking in the panoramic scenery, buying souvenirs, eating food, meeting people, visiting temples, and such. 

It was okay. I'd play it again. Not going to buy it myself. 

 

I played Hiroshige - who was very good at collecting panoramic thingies? Painting them, I guess... I did okay. Didn't once get to visit a hot springs!? 

Amanda played a food blogger or something and started with WAY MORE MONEY and got cheaper meals. She won. 

Afterwards we played Castles of Mad King Ludwig.

I love this game. It's one of my favourites. You get to design mad castles. They always end up looking alarmingly similar to the structures I spent so many hours drawing on graph paper as a kid. 

Sunday, 7 April 2024

Sunday we were back to playing Warhammer Underworlds! 

We started off with a game set in Shadespire (only using boards from Shadespire/Nightvault) 

I wanted to try out the freshly painted Sons of Velmorn with their own Rivals Deck on (Katophrane's Reliquary board). Amanda wanted to play Elathain's Soulraid again, still just using their own Rivals Deck (on The Cursed Oubliette). Nic was playing Grashrack's Despoilers with a Nemesis deck using Break Neck Slaughter (on The Ruptured Seal). And Orion was playing the Sepulchral Guard with a Nemesis deck using Rimlocked Relics (on The Cursed Oubliette)

Orion, once again, just trashed all of us, scoring 23 Glory Points!? I did... okay... scoring 15, Amanda wasn't too far behing me with 12, and Nic (who was tabled in the second round) only managed to score 9 Glory. 

For our second game we played in the Beastgrave

I decided to change things up and broke out Wurmspat with a Nemesis Deck using Break Neck Slaughter Nemesis Deck (on Pool of Fangs). Amanda continued with the Idonth Deepkin but switched to Cyreni's Razors, just using their own Rivals Deck (on Hive of Sacrifice). Nic tried out Sons of Velmorn with own Rivals Deck (on Ravaged Hall). And Orion continued to use Sepulchral Guard with the Rimlocked Relics Nemesis Deck (on Abandoned Lair)

I took Wurmspat because I knew there was a fair chance I'd have to duck out a bit early to get to my book club. I thought I'd just suicide charge them at... whoever... but after the first round it looked more like Amanda's warband might get wiped out (by ME!?), so I suggested she could play my warband when I had to leave. 

Later Amanda reported to me that both her Thrall AND Fecula survived to the end... but, again, Orion scored 23 Glory... Nic scored 10, Amanda scored 9 and the Wurmspat scored only 7... 

A brief description and a few more pics of the game can be found here:

Warhammer Underworlds: Battles in Shadespire and the Beastgrave

Sunday, 14 April 2024

The Following week Nic and Orion were back for some more Warhammer Underworlds! 

The first game we played was set in Shadespire (because I wanted to used my fancy new Soul Refractor terrain bits. 

I played Skabbik's Plaguepack, Amanda played Elathain's Soulraid, Nic tried out Da Kunnin' Krew, and Orion played The Chosen Axes with a Voidcursed Thralls Nemesis deck. 

Nic one this game... I think it may be the FIRST game they've won!? 

For the second game we played in the Deathgorge - as I now had FOUR boards for that setting, having just picked up Wintermaw the day before!

For this one I played the Thricefold Discord. Amanda went back to her roots and dug out Morgwaeth's Blade-Coven (and the Paths of Prophecy Nemesis deck she'd cobbled together). Nic played Da Kunnin' Krew again and Orion played the Thorns of the Briar Queen. 

Amanda won this one... but I wasn't too far behind!  

A brief description and a few more pics can be found here:

Warhammer Underworlds: More Battles in Shadespire - and DEATHGORGE!

Friday, 19 April 2024

On Friday Shannon and Kevin were back for the second of our hopefully regular bi-weekly game night! 

We started with Robo Rally... because Amanda was in San Fransisco... and she does NOT love the game. 

Shannon was in the lead for the first bit, but then ran off a conveyor belt into a pit after misjudging the direction her robot would be facing. Kevin and I got close to the second marker and ended up blasting each other a few times - not because either of us were playing particularly aggressively... it just kind of turned out that was. I ended up taking more damage (5!) and Kevin had gotten turned around on a conveyor belt and was being carried off in the other direction, so I powered down and repair, thinking he wouldn't be turn around quick enough to get to me... He DID get turned around and came back very quickly... and caused me some anxietly but then the conveyor belt carried him off the board when he turned the wrong way... 

My robot made it to the third marker just as Shannon's was getting to the second and Kevin was still struggling near the first where his replacement robot appeared, again, I was a little anxious he might come over and blast at me with his laser or try and push me away... but he didn't.. Just not that level of cutthroat competitive, I guess! 

Which I am totally fine with, generally, I'd much rather play with people that are chill and don't do dick moves just to fuck with other people when it becomes clear they can't win or whatever... but in Robo Rally... I've kind of always played with people where anything is legit and fair and kind of... EXPECTED! I mean we're racing. If he could have pushed me into that pit or just one space off of my planned moves so I just drove myself into the pit, or onto a conveyor belt which could carry me off the board, I would respawn at the previous marker and it would suddenly be. a real race again! 

Usually in Robo Rally I spend my first few registers turning back and forth, so I end up following others when I finally move off the start space... and shoot them in the back with my laser all the way to the next marker! Because this was their first game, I did none of those kind of dick moves or purposely try to push anyone off their programmed route... it happened, but not on purpose! 

I LOVE Robo Rally. I haven't played it in SEVEN YEARS, though... Largely because Amanda has no interest in it... 

Afterwards, we played a quick game of Century: Golem Edition. 

Kevin ended the game by taking a sixth point card, but Shannon won! 

Sunday, 28 April 2024

On the 21st Amanda was still in San Fransico and Nic and Orion were getting they're hair done... but on the 28th everyone was back and looking fabulous... so we played some MORE Warhammmer Underworlds! 

In the first game Amanda played Cyreni's Razors, Nic played the Crimson Court, Orion played the Sepulchral Guard, and I played the Thricefold Discord. Orion won, with, like, 19 Glory!? But this was probably one of the higher scoring games for all. No one had less than 13 Glory!?

In the second game Amanda played Magore's Fiends , Nic played the Crimson Court, Orion played the Hexbane's Hunters, and I played the Thricefold Discord. Orion won again. Again with 19 Glory!? The rest of us did.... less well... 

And... that's it for this month... 

Not so many games played as the last few months, but I'm not about to complain. In total I played:

• Warhammer Underworlds x6
• Castles of Mad King Ludwig v1
• Century: Golem Edition x1
• RoboRally x1
• Tokaido x1
• Wingspan x1

So far this year, I've played FORTY-TWO games of Warhammer Underworlds!?

The Warhammer Underworlds Warbands I played this month were:

• Thricefold Discord x3
• Skabbik's Plaguepack x1
• Sons of Velmorn x1
• Wurmspat x1

Warhammer Underworlds - Blocked Hex Terrain Project

Didn't do a Work-in-Progress Wednesday post this week as... well... I hadn't done any work this past week (other than finishing up the three undead for Cursed City). Been having some health issues and feeling a bit down... Hopefully this next week will be better! 

Something arrived in the mail this week, though, and I thought I'd share a bit about that.... 

Now, if you've been following along, you are no doubt aware that I am a little HYPER-fixated on Warhammer Underworlds at the moment. I've played forty games so far this year!? Also, I have discovered that I really do like playing with terrain bits sitting in the blocked hexes! I have some that Games Workshop produced for Nightvault and Beastgrave (here and here and here - and there is still more to paint!). But they stopped after that and so I don't have any specific things for the Harrowdeep, Gnarlwood or Deathgorge settings... So I thought I'd make my own... some reefs for Harrowdeep? Log piles for Gnarlwood? Heaps of snow and ice for Deathgorge. 

I've seen that there are laser cut wooden (or plywood or MDF) hexagons of various different sizes available on Amazon for not-totally-insane prices, so I thought I'd try and pick up some of an appropriate size to use as a base... Finding an appropriate size, wasn't as easy and straightforward as one might think it should be. 

The Hexagons on the board are 50mm from flat edge to flat edge, about 58mm from point to point, and each of the edges are about 29mm . A lot of the listings on Amazon were just listed as "60mm" with no diagram or description of WHERE that measurement was taken... flat edge to flat edge? point to point? along one of the edges!?

Posts WITH diagrams weren't much help either... 

A lot that did have diagrams looked like this!? At first glance it seemed like they were suggesting it was 6cm (60mm) both from flat edge to flat edge AND point to point...? That's... not how Hexagons work!

I did notice, on closer inspection that the lower arrows did NOT go all the way from point to point... so... MAYBE this was... accurate... -ish...?

But then I noticed IN THE SAME LISTING as the for the above 60mm hexagon, they had THIS diagram for their 40mm hexagons!? If these "40mm Hexagons" were, indeed 40mm along the edge, then they would be BIGGER than the "60mm Hexagons" in the same listing that were show to have been measured flat edge to flat edge... sort of... maybe... 

So I decided THAT seller could clearly not be trusted with any measurements... 

Another seller had THIS diagram for their 50mm hexagon!? JFC, WHAT!? How do they not see that those two lines are NOT THE SAME LENGTH!?!?

In the description of the produce it even claimed the dimensions were 50mm x 50mm x 2mm.... WTF!? 

NOT HOW HEXAGONS WORK

Math is hard, I guess...?

I did find another seller that had this diagram, which was much clearer... but theirs cost 4x what the others were selling things for... and I just did not want to spend THAT much money on a little project that I didn't really NEED to do in the first place... 

Also, though... which is it? 2" or 50mm...? I mean, they are CLOSE, but not exactly the same?!

And then I found this one... and it described the hexagons as 50mm ( I think) and had an actual picture of a ruler next to it and that was right - as I mentioned, edges for a Hexagon that is 50mm from flat edge to flat edge would be about 28mm along one of the edges... The only problem was it LOOKED like a plywood... but was described as MDF...!? I decided I didn't care if it was MDF and went for it anyway (They were also marginally cheaper than most of the others)! 

Three weeks later (which was this past week) they arrived!

Maybe it's a super thin veneer over an MDF core...? 

And they happen to be the PERFECT size! 

So hopefully, at some point, I will be posting some scratch-built terrain bits for some of the OTHER Warhammer Underworlds settings... Probably Deathgorge first, as piles of ice seem like they'd be the easiest to knock out quickly! 

Warhammer Quest: Cursed City - Radukar the Wolf and Kosargi Nightguard

Radukar the Wolf is the Vampire Lord who rules the city of Ulfenkarn, and, presumably the ultimate nemesis in Warhammer Quest: Cursed City (I haven't read through the rules or campaign books yet!?). The Kosargi Nightguard are his undead Ogor bodyguards...

Radukar the Wolf and Kosargi Nightguard

These have been haunting the edges of my workbench for nearly three years now, since I bought the game! I did a bit her and a bit there on them from time to time, but recently they were looking close enough to just finish off with a concentrated session of working on them! 

Yes, they're not a Warhammer Underworlds warband, that I had been trying to focus on... but it WAS also muy plan to try and finish up the Warhammer Quest: Cursed City miniatures by the end of the year, so that we might be able to play throught the campaign over the Holidaze in December (or even start earlier... if they got done earlier!) 

(Also, Cubicle 7 has announced Ulfenkarn: City at the Edge of Death to be released sometime this year, and is billed as a comprehensive city guide for running Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Soulbound games in the legendary Cursed City! I WOULD like to get playing Soulbound... I DO have all these miniatures...)

All the Cursed City stuff, so far... I have Radukar and his two Kosargi guard and Watch Captain Halgrim, and the Ulfenkarn City Watch/Grave Guard all finished up... I still need to do all the Zombies and bats and some lesser vampires and a necromancer and some a couple of other larger beasties to finish up the baddies... 

I have yet to paint ANY of the Heroes... Mind you as I get closer to having enough of the antagonists done and thus close to being able to play, I'm sure I'll be pretty movitated to finish them up! I have three that are mostly done... 

Adding in the Sons of Velmorn and the Sepulchral Guard and I have quite the little force of Skeletons! 

Back to Warhammer Underworlds stuff after this...? Maybe... Or maybe I'll knock off those three heroes! (I do have a feeling it will probably be the golinses next, however...) 

40K - Deathwing Knight

This is the Miniature of the Month from Games Workshop for April 2024! I have no idea why I painted it up before ALL THE OTHER THINGS!? I guess it was something different and relatively easy to do! 

Deathwing Knight 

I don't really know anything about Deathwing Knights... I guess they are terminators of the elite First Company of the Dark Angels Space Marine Chapter (which is referred to as the Deathwing)?

It seems crazy that they were giving these away! The minatures are usually in a box set of five (plus a teleport homer and... some other little marker minaitures) for $85CAD!? it's basically a $15-16 miniature?! I guess it gets people into their stores! 

So far, I've picked up this, a Neurogaunt, and a ghoul Free Minis. Haven't painted the ghoul yet, but I probably will when I get to painting the Skinnerkin warband from Wintermaw! (Which may be sooner rather than later... as they look like they'd be really easy to knock out! I just have to try and match the skin tone to the Grymmwatch!)

Not sure when I'd ever use this Deathwing Knight...? I guess it could show up somewhere in a Wrath & Glory game, I guess!? It would probably be an NPC... not sure there are archetypes for Terminators...? But maybe there are? A marine that upgrades to Terminator Armour? Can you do that?! it's been a while since I looked at those roles. Definitely Tier 4 or 5. I'm not really interested in running games at that Tier level... so... NPC... maybe dropped in to save the day if some situation goes totally sideways! 

Still struggling to finish up a warband this week... and never did get one done last week... and feeling a bit bummed out by that - I totally thought it was a very reasonable goal... Ah, well.. I get to them when I get to them!

Warhammer Underworlds: More Battles in Shadespire - and DEATHGORGE!

Another Sunday happened and that means Warhammer Underworlds at my place!

(except that it won't this coming Sunday.. for.. REASONS!) 

As with last week, we played the first game in Shadespire - mostly because I wanted to use my fancy new Soul Refractors!

I was playing Skabbik's Plaguepack. Orion brought out the Chosen Axes (with a Void-Cursed Thralls nemesis deck). Amanda played Elathain's Soulraid. Nick played Da Kunnin' Krew. 

Orion started off with attacking the Orruks and then got ganged up on. 

Despite losing one of my minions in the first round, the skaven were pretty much left to their own devices and everyone ignored them... probably on account of the SMELL! 

I was mostly trying to score objective cards and avoid combat. I think the few objective cards I'd lose from their rivals deck when I eventually get around to making a Nemesis deck is the ones requiring killing things.. and just sneak around doing their sneaky-smelly-befouling thing! 

Not sure how well that will work in one-on-one games?

Last of the Fyreslayers... did not go quietly! 

Ouch! Skabbik being stabbed by Krookgrin... 

Ended the game with most of my rats alive. The Chosen Axes had been wiped out and, I think, only Spinefin was left of the Soulraid... who can't actually DO anything... 

I did about as well as I think I possibly could have... but Nic did BETTER! I think this is the first game Nic has won in all our Sunday four-player games!! Woo!!

I may have to revisit Da Kunnin' Krew, because they kicked butt! 

For our second game we played in the DEATHGORGE - now that I have four boards for that setting (now that Wintermaw is out!) 

I decided to switch things up and dug out the Thricefold Discord. Amanda decided to go back to her roots and pulled out Morgwaeth's Blade-Coven. Orion decided to try out the NEW Thorns of the Briar Queen deck. And Nic just stuck with Da Kunnin' Krew as they were working out so well! 

I fairly aggressively went after the Thorns. 

Da Kunnin' Krew and Morgwaeth's Blade-Coven kind of just had their own little battle over on the other side.. with a few ghosties mixing it up with them. 

I took out a few of the Ghosties... but it took all three Daemons to gang up on them to take out ghosts with two wounds... it was kind of sad... 

We did take out Varclav - with two attacks, at one point though... 

There were a few fights where the Orruks and Murder Aelves just stood next to each other having a slap-fight, but no one was able to deal any damage because they would only roll successes for attacks and their opponent would roll a crit for defence!? Like that fight between Krookgrin and Kyrae in the back corner... The fight started in the first round and they were still going at it near the end of the third round?!

I think the Everhanged did more damage to us than we did to them?!

The Heralds of Slaanesh did get their shit together enough to take down the Briar Queen as well, tohugh... 

Little fight in the corner still going on at the end of the game! 

Amanda won this one, Scoring as many points and Nic and Orion together?! I think she scored one objective from Paths of Prophecy that gained her FIVE Glory points (which was a third of the points she scored in the game)?! 

I wasn't TOO far behind... 

Good fun. This was the FORTIETH (40!!) game of Warhammer Underworlds I've played so far this year!?

I really need to sort out some Nemesis decks for a few of my warbands! I also wouldn't mind getting some one-on-one games in!? 

No game this Sunday because Amanda is in San Fransisco! She's there for a one day workshop-confernece-thingy for work and then tacked on a few days to explore the city with a friend she's meeting up with from Ottawa, and won't be back until Sunday evening... 

Orion and Nic are both getting their hair coloured on Sunday, which I can't wait to see as I am sure they will be fabulous! 

Work-in-Progress Wednesday - 17 April 2024

 This past Saturday I picked up the latest Warhammer Underworlds core box - WINTERMAW!

Warhammer Underworld: Wintermaw

All the core boxes! 

Currently the first box from each setting holds the counters from that setting (Shadespire, Beastgrave, Harrowdeep, Gnarlwood, Deathgorge). The second box hold all the boards from the setting (Nightvault, Direchasm, Nethermaze, Wyrdhollow, Wintermaw). I could probably consolodate these bits into fewer boxes... but I kind of like the look of all of them! 

(I also picked up the first Two-Player Starter a few years back, but I threw that box out and just stored the boards and counters with the other Shadespire/Nightvault stuff...)

This was disappointing... found a stray bit roaming in the box. it's one of the Skinnerkin heads, unfortunately it wasn't a clean break - some of her hair is still attached to the sprue... Uggggghhhh... this is the THIRD TIME this year that something like this has happened. Zondara had part of her hair broken off... but I managed to glue it back - I hope it holds! 

One of Skabbik's Plaguepack had a knife broken off... 

I had to replace the whole hand - because trying to just add a replacement blade would have been tricky and probably would have just broken off again... The hand and blade were just bigger... but skaven often mutate, so... 

I'm just getting tired of having to spend extra time fixing things because GW can't figure out how to pack their spindly little miniatures in such a way that they won't break in the process of putting them in the box or transporting the box or removing them from the box. (and I am VERY CAREFUL when removing them!!) 

It seems like ever MORE of a hassle to complain and have new parts sent!?

Strangely... I haven't even assembled EITHER of the new warbands (which I almost ALWAYS do!?) 

Anyway... here's what I've got on my desk that I'm working on... 

Zarbag's Gitz... 

I thought for sure I'd be done these last week... so much for a warband a week!?

Squigherd. 

They are very close as well... Maybe I'll finish up BOTH later in the week....?

I've also done some work on a few of the Warhammer Quest: Cursed City protagonists

And some of the Warhammer Quest: Cursed City antagonists.

Even did a little bit of work on a few of the minis from one of the other Warhammer Quest games... Silver Tower...? I think...?

I grabbed out the two Skaven as there are only two of them and I'm working on two other plastic Skaven warbands, so I thought I'd work these up along with them. The Grot-thing... there are a few more of those, but since I was working on Zarbag's, I though I'd do this along with them as a test mini. They seem like they'll be pretty quick to knock out and there aren't many of them, so I may grab the rest to keep on the desk as a sidequest mini... 

The two Skaven warbands... not sure if I DID any work on these this week... but they're next up after the gobbos and squigs, so... 

I actually did a bit of work on this guy, which I honestly thought I might NEVER do... There really isn't a lot to it, colour-wise... and it's just the one... so I figured if I'm working with a colour that this guy needs (and I remember it's there!?)

I got a little distracted with starting a re-basing project!? My small contingent of Khorne Daemons were all initially put on 40K Sector Imperialis bases... and... they just look really out of place playing in fantasy settings... So I tried making more generic ruins so they wouldn't look too out of place in either setting... 

So far I've (mostly) finished up this guy... Bloodmaster, Herald of Khorne. One of the two leaders I have for the force. 

and got this one on a new base and primed said base... Karanak, the Hound of Vengeance. The other leader I have for the force!  

Still working on these... that aren't even fully painted (part of this push was to finish THESE up and then ALL the Khorne Daemons I have will be finished!!) 

I have a full unit of Bloodletters I'd have to do, and PILES of Flesh Hounds... So I should probably shelve it and get back to working on Warhammer Underworlds warbands.

Part of this was due to all the talk about the new edition of Warhammer: Age of Sigmar. I recalled the fun I'd had playing their little Paths to Glory campaign. With this new edition there will be free downloadable indexes, so I could play all sorts of small-ish skirmish games with.... well... ANY of the Age of Sigmar stuff.. 

I did like that Paths to Glory system, it was pretty slick. 

(I also have a LOT of Daemons of Slaanesh yet to paint, that I've been eyeing up lately!!) 

I wonder if I got some of the Daughters of Khaine painted up if Amanda would be interested in trying that out? 

What's everyone else working on this week?!