May Games

Another round-up of the gaming shenanigans I got up to this past month...  

Friday, 3 May 2024

Got things started off on the first Friday of the month with some Stone Age! 

I have to admit... I don't LOVE Stone Age... I don't hate it or anything... but it's not my favourite game and there are dozens of 4-player games I'd have rather played... 

So I wasn't trying all that hard... But somehow I won... by, like, quite a bit!? I'm not entirely sure how that happened...!? 

Friday, 10 May 2024

I'd arranged to play a game of Warhammer Underworlds at the Warhammer Store on Friday with a fellow named Dan that had contacted me through Board Game Geek, after finding this blog... I showed up really early and ended up starting a game with John the manager of the store, thinking we might get through it really quick before Dan showed up...

He played with his Sons of Velmorn and I played Skabbik's Plaguepack.

We were only part way through when Dan showed up... but Orion was also there and offered to walk Dan through a game (which, honsetly, was probably for the best, as Orion is SO GOOD at keeping track of everything that is going on in a game... I can barely figure out what I'm trying to do most of the time!) 

In the end there wasn't enough time for a second game, so we agreed to try again some other time. 

There are a few more pictures of this game, along with a brief description, here: 

Warhammer Underworlds - Skirmish Fridays at the Warhammer Store

Sunday, 12 May 2024

Sunday Orion and Nic were back to play Warhammer Underworlds again. 

For out first game we played in the Deathgorge. I brought out Skabbik's Plaguepack again. Nic tried out the freshly-painted Skinnerkin (which I had just finished the day before). Amanda wanted to try something totally new and selected Mollog's Mob. Orion played the Chosen Axes with a Rimelocked Relics Nemesis deck! 

For out second game we played in the Mirrored City and everyone kept the same warbands, except Orion who switched out the Chosen Axes for Hexbane's Hunters.

There are a few more pictures of this game, along with a brief descriptionof the games here: 

Warhammer Underworlds - Back on Sundays

Tuesday, 14 May 2024

I've been wanting to play some MORE Warhammer Underworlds - and more two-player games! I love the four-player games Amanda and I play with Nic and Orion most Sundays... but it's really meant to be a two-player game and you can get away with stuff in four-player games that just won't work in a two-player game. 

Orion had been talking about getting a regular game night going at the Dragon's Den on Tuesdays again and now that the weather's nice, I really have no excuse, so we agreed to play on Tuesday night and try to make it a regular thing and get other people out to play. 

I showed up a bit later than I'd hoped and only Orion was there, so we started a game. I played Skabbik's Plaguepack against Orion's Crimson Court. She beat me 14-4... 

Later Dan and Sean showed up and they played a game. 

After their game I played against Sean. He pulled out Ironsoul'd Condemnors, so I dug out Magore's fiends - BOTH of us had nemesis deck built around Tooth & Claw... except Sean knew how to play his warband with that deck and just beat down the fiends 19-4!? 

(In my defence, I will point out there were THIRTY people in that back room playing games - most were playing some card game... and it was REALLY loud... so loud I could barely think, let alone read cards and figure out how to use them together to do something useful in the game!) 

There is a bit more of a description of the game and a few more pictures here:

Warhammer Underworlds - Tuesday at The Den

Friday, 17 May 2024

In the late afternoon I rolled out to the Warhammer Store to play some Warhammer Underworlds.

I got in two games with Sean with my freshly painted Zondara's Gravebreakers. The first I played against a Void-Cursed Garrek's Reavers. The Second I played against his Hungering Parasitic Mollog's Mob! Both were VERY close games (and SUPER FUN!)... and I was just playing with a Rivals deck against some very-well-thought-out nemesis decks! 

Orion was also there and got in a game with John.

There are a couple more pictures and a bit more description at:

Warhammer Underworlds - Skirmish Fridays at the Warhammer Store AGAIN

Afterwards I hurried home for Game Night at our place! Normally it takes 40 minutes to ride to or from the Warhammer store... this trip took an HOUR!! SO MUCH WIND!!!

Shannon and Kevin couldn't make it, but Other Tim and Treena stopped by and ran us through a game of Wrymspan - which is kind of like Wingspan... but with Dragons... 

I had some RIDICULOUS luck - in the third round I ended up gaining SO MANY extra turn coins, that I basically played a whole extra round... and a half!? By the end of that round, I'd filled my board and there was a  whole other round to play!?

so I mostly did exploring to gain more eggs and tuck more cards and cache more food... 

It also just happened to work out that I won most of the round end goals... 

So, I won... by quite a bit (but not by as much as I imagined when I'd filled the board by the end of the third round...) There was no masterful strategy involved, I just got insanely lucky with some of the draws and stuff... 

Afterwards, Other Tim showed me how to play a very-quick-playing game called Lacuna. 

Sunday, 19 May 2024

We didn't get to play our regular Warhammer Underworlds games on Sunday  because Keiran was in a musical! They played Jason in a production of Falsettos, put on by a local company called Stand Out Productions. They have been working very hard on this for the last few months! It was really exciting to finally see!!!

Friday, 24 May 2024

No Warhammer Underworlds this week as we were out at a show at the Persephone Theatre! (a drag show - that Nic was in!) 

Sunday, 19 May 2024

AGAIN, no Warhammer Underworlds - because Nic and Orion were busy... and... Amanda and I just didn't get to playing a game, I guess...? 

Friday, 31 May 2024

Finally made it back out the the Warhammer Store for some Warhammer Underworlds! 

My first game was against John, the manager of the store. He was trying out his freshly painted Daggok's Stab-Ladz and I played Grombrindal

Afterwards, I finally got in a game with Dan against his Skinnerkin, which, I think, he was trying out for the first time..? Despite not even LOOKING at the cards since I last played two weeks earlier, I won... but... lots... because Zondara's Gravebreakers are just nasty. I love them. You can just concentrate on doing your own thing and can score a LOT of points, just digging holes with the Zombies.  

I may or may not do a brief game report of the evenings shenanigans... Maybe tomorrow... 

Was definitely fun to see more people coming out to play Warhammer Underworlds! There were three games going on at one point! 

Afterwards I rushed home for Game Night a my place! Keiran had been asking about playing Mysterium for a while. It's a cooperative mystery-solving game. 

One player is a ghost who gives clues to the rest of the players (who are psychic mediums), in the form of cards with bizarre art on them, to help them solve the ghosts murder... 

This is the end game - the players trying to figure out who the murderer is from the selection of suspects, locations, and possible murder weapons they'd already successfully deduced.... the failed... we lost... 

We've apparently played the game five times now. The last time was 2019. 

And that's it... 

It kind of felt like it was ramping up to be a busy month... gaming-wise... then it ended up being busy with other things... 

Maybe next month... 

Grombrindal, The White Dwarf - FINISHED!

 In addition to Glaurio Ven Alten III, I finished up Grombrindal, The White Dwarf this week! 

Grombrindal, the White Dwarf. 

This was one of those minis that felt like painting it went on and on and oooooonnnnnnnn.... Everytime I THOUGHT I was finished, I'd turn it round and realize, nope I'd forgotten this little detail or that... eventually I had to just say, Nope... that's all I'm doing... I'm calling this done. 

Grombrindal's back

There were rules for Grombrindal in ALL THE GAMES in the 500th issue of the White Dwarf magazine (Age of Sigmar, Warcry, Warhammer Quest, and Warhammer Underworlds). I'm MOSTLY interested in the Warhammer Underworlds (at the moment) but will at SOME point this year get playing Warhammer Quest and I would like to play Warcry... (all the hubbub about the NEW EDITION of Age of Sigmar has even gotten me thinking about playing THAT again!? though the rules on this card won't be relevant as they are overhauling all the stats and stuff, again...) 

(I momentarily had a panic when I went to take the above photo and I COULD NOT FIND THE WARHAMMER UNDERWORLDS CARD!?!? It took some searching, but the card was located... everything is fine now... relatively speaking...) 

Grombrindal in the Deathgorge. 

I am hoping to try out playing Gombrindal in a game of Warhammer Underworlds Tomorrow evening at the local Warhammer Store! Stay tuned for a game report. 

Warhammer Quest: Cursed City - Glaurio ven Alten III

I've been working on a few characters to try and finish them up... the first of which is Glaurio Ven Alten III, a playable hero character from Warhammer Quest: Cursed City...

Glaurio Ven Alten III

I've now finished three of the heroes. Just need one more hero and I have enough to start adventuring... well... once I finish the zombies... and grave rats... and a few other things... 

I've been listening to the audio book of Cursed City by C.L. Werner - the novel that ties into the game. I'm probably about halfway through. It's pretty interesting. I'm guessing it's meant to be a prequel to the adventure played out in the game...? The only characters from the game that have been mentioned so far are Emelda Braskov and Jelsen Darrock. The story itself is kind of almost a murder mystery involving a third party!? I'm wondering if it will end with Radukar still alive and Braskov and Darrock retreating from the city to find helpers (the rest of the characters in teh game) to return to the city with and end Radukar's rule over Ulfenkarn. 

Also wondering if Radukar and Darrock and Braskov will need to join forces to deal with a potentially BIGGER problem facing the city!?

One of the other main characters is Morrvahl Olbrect - an Amythest wizard that is maybe native to the city, who is working with Braskov and Darrock, but is an ally of convenience and seems to have his own agenda! The hard cover version of the book that was to be released alongside the initial release of the game was supposed to include a character card for Olbrect. I'd asked my FLGS to get one in for me... and they weren't able to. Of all the GW products that have been released over the last decade, or so, many of which sold out online within minutes of them going up for sale, The Dragon's Den has almost always been able to guarnatee me a copy! The novel was one of two things they were not, for some reason, able to get... (The other was a map of the Sabbat Worlds campaign) 

The Ven Alten name has been mentioned once in the novel so far - as one of the Noble families of Mournhold (which became Ulfenkarn after Radukar took over). So I am guessing that Glaurio III, here, is, like Emelda Braskov the last of his line, come back to rid the city of it's evil overlord and reclaim his own families position as ruler over Mournhold/Ulfenkarn! 

I've also finished up Grombrindal and will be posting pictures of him shortly... no pun intended... 

Work-in-Progress Wednesday - 29 May 2024

 It doesn't look like a lot has changed on the workbench... a lot of what was on the workbench last week, is still there and not much has changed.. I did paint four Picts last week and finished up the bases for five whole units of Picts.... So I haven't been entirely idle! 

The four Picts brought me to 80 28mm foot figures painted so far this year, only five shy of being in the black, in that category ((i've purchased 84 28mm foot figures). Overall, however I'm feeling pretty good. I have ONLY purchased those 84 miniatures, and while I've only painted 80 foot... I have also painted four tanks and a Scout Sentinel and PILES of little markers and bits... Shortly I should be ahead with the painting versus painted in the 28mm foot category as well, so.... feeling pretty good about that. 

I haven't played any games for over a week and a half, however, and that's causing motivation to flag, somewhat... but I should be meeting some people to play at the Warhammer Store this Friday, so... Hopefully that will get things going again! 

Here's what's on the workbench... 

 

Still working on a handful of Warhammer Quest Heroes - from all three sets (that we have!)!

Also working on a few Gryph Hounds - two of which are companions for two of the Characters from Warhammer Quest, the other is from one of the Stormcast Warhammer Underworlds warbands I have a bonus copy of... but I thought I'd do it as the same time as these others... 

Not on the WORKBENCH, per se, but I did borrow Finnegan's Warhammer Quest games (Silver Tower and Shadow over Hammerhal) and did some organizing and reading and sorting - to figure out what I do NEED to have done to start playing... Really hoping we can start playing Silver Tower sometime in June! 

Gaunt Summoner - the main adversary in Silver Tower - and a Chaos Sorcerer Lord ( from Shadows Over Hamerhal, I think...?) 

Six Tzangors for Silver Tower - including the one I finished last week (because I'm going to do their flesh differently and I'll fix the finished one while I'm at it so they are more uniform!)

MORE Kairic Acolytes - also for Silver Tower (though I think some came with Shadow Over Hammerhal) 

Eight Grot Scuttlings (one is missing from the picture!) - also for Silver Tower.

An assortment of markers and familiars for various Warhammer Quest games. Eight of these are needed for Silver Tower. 

There are also two Skaven I keep forgetting about... they're mixed in with the two Skaven Warhammer Underworlds warbands I also still have on the table... 

I haven't entirely dropped Warhammer Underworlds... As mentioned, I still have the two remaining Skaven warbands on the table.... I just haven't done any work on those in weeks. Also, as seen in the background of a few of the pics, Zarbag's Gitz and the Squigherd are still on the table... 

I did do a little bit of work on Thundrick's Profiteers this past week... 

As well as the Brethern of the Bolt... 

A small bit of work has been done on Grombrindal... 

There has been no work done on my stand-in for the Chaos Gargant... but I've moved him back onto the table, hoping I might just make a final push and finish him up so we can try playing the Chaos Gargant Scenario for Warhammer Underworlds soon! 

That's about it for this week. 

If I finish up any of these in the next week, it will probably be the gryph hounds, or one or two of the Warhammer Quest Heroes (Glaurio ven Alten III and/or the Dark Oath War Chief), or the Chaos Sorcerer Lord (even though I don't need it right away), or the Kairic Acolytes and Tzangors (keeping the momentum going from the ones I finished last week... Maybe... 

Or, who knows, maybe inspiration will strike and I'll figure out a way to fix what I'm not loving about Grombrindal and finish him up to take to Warhammer Underworlds night on Friday... or I'll push through and finish up the Gargant... Maybe both!? 

What's everyone else working on this week!? 

Or have on your workbench daring you to finish it!?

Picts Revisited

I took a bit of a break last week  (or maybe two weeks ago...? or THREE!?) to reorganize and rebase my small force of Picts. 

Some time ago I picked up a lot of Foundry Picts. I can't for the life of me remember where...? Ebay...? Maybe from Bob...? Or someone else...? I don't know... At some point later I picked up a few Black Tree Design Picts when I was placing an order with them. The only other post with the Picts label (at the time I started writing this) is from nearly a decade ago... Searching further back I found some pics from about 15 years ago (I should probably add the Picts label to THOSE posts!) 

Originally the plan had been to build a De Bellis Antiquitatis/Hordes of the Things army with them and have a few spares left over to base singly for assorted skirmish games or role-playing games (which was what I did with most things around that time). You can see the elements I did get around to completing in the Ancient Rome, Enemies, Allies and Gladiators Gallery.

Thought I never finished painting the entire Pictish army, I did use the elements I'd painted with a few of the Dark Age Irish in many Hordes of the Things games as "Generic Celtish Warrior" armies.

I have not played DBA or HotT for some time and, though I still like those games, figure I'm more likely to play Lion Rampant or Dragon Rampant and have slowly been rebasing a lot of the older HotT armies to use with Dragon Rampant (or Song of Blades and Heroes or any role-playing game...). There are some forces I'll keep based for DBA - Dark Ages armies, Greeks, and Roman, Enemies and Allies, and the Diadochi (if I EVER get to painting them!?) mostly because I could run campaigns with them - which would be a LOT of fun! 

I started this early last year with Orcs Revisited and  Dwarves Revisited (and Distractions - Lord of the Rings)

I think this is the first of the historical DBA forces I've rebased. I was back and forth about whether to base on wooden discs or plastic bases. Generally I've been doing all the fantasy forces on plastic - to match with the many, many GW miniatures I have that are all on plastic bases. And these being armed with swords and spears - like other fantasy forces... I thought I might do these on plastic... the most likely opponents for them will likely be fantasy armies... but I can't do EVERYTHING on plastic as that would get silly expensive (the wooden discs are, like, 1/4 the cost of plastic bases, and I've bought a lot of them... so.. eventually I went with the wooden discs...)

All the Picts. 

(Still a bit to paint) 

Mostly I've had Lion Rampant/Dragon Rampant in mind while reorganizing these. Here is how I think they will likely be fielded

• 3x Light Foot/Infantry (12)  @3 = 9
• 2x Scouts/Skirmishers (6) @2 = 4
• 1x Light Riders/Cavalry (6) @4 = 4
• 1x Belicose Foot/Warrior Infantry (12) @4 = 4

Total = 21 Army Points

Here's what's done so far:

All the PAINTED Picts

(about 15AP of the stuff above) 

Light Riders - the leader Leader's unit. I might change these to Heavy Riders/Cavalry... They don't really have the armour to justify calling them "Heavy" or "Elite" Riders/Cavalry... but they also lack the missile weapons that "Light" Riders/Cavalry should have (other than the three in the back with javelins).

I do have an extra rider that at one point had a flag... I'm not sure what happened to the flag... At SOME point I may get around to making a new one and then this rider could be substituted in for one of the others... 

The core of the force - three units of Light Foot/Infantry (only one of which is currently painted). When initially organizing them I thought the three of them would be 12 Army Points... alas they are only nine... so I have a few more Army Points of stuff to come up with!?

Two units of Skirmishers/Scouts. 

I could have made it ONE unit of twelve Archers/Light Missile troops... but I don't think the Picts tended to use massed missile troops and would more likely have used skirmishers... (I could be wrong, I'm no expert on Pict warfare tactics!) 

Another option could be to take these and mix them into the Light Foot units so I end up with four units of light foot and give them the light Missiles/Javelin upgrade which gives them a limited ranged attack... that would be four units at 4 Army Points and my total would then be 24...? I kind of like the idea of separate skirmishers and blocks of light infantry. 

Belicose Foot/Warrior Infantry. 

Tactically I imagine the Bellicose Foot/Warrior Infantry would be set up out front of the army and just charge straight into the enemy to disrupt their lines while the light infantry behind move up to seize important ground and then hold it. The Skirmishers/Scouts would fan out and attack/harass the enemy from the flanks! The cavalry would be the fire brigade set up rather centrally to move up to attack the enemy where the pict line was having trouble...? I have no idea if that would work. 

I have a few spare infantry. I figured I could pull the sword armed figures out and call them Elite Foot/Infantry...? At least in the fantastical games played with Dragon Rampant... They could be a small unit of bad ass warrior elites. Maybe this could be a dismounted version of the Riders (which I could call Elites as well...?) 

I also have a Chariot... I'm not sure if this was, specifically, a Pict chariot or just a generic celt one that some how made it into the force...? 

I also have a warrior Priestess. Maybe something crazy could be built around her. An Elite foot infantry unit with some of the aforementioned spares...? 

And then there is THIS guy... maybe he could be a Single Model Unit of Elite Riders in Dragon Rampant and be some sort of Heroic General...?

Conveniently it all fits into ONE DRAWER in my game room. So, no room for MORE! Just need to finish up the two units of light foot and the handful of others... 

Still a fair bit to be painted before they could be fielded (unless I did something ridiculous in Dragon Rampant and brought in the Hero General and/or Pirestess as single model elite units, or something)... (28 foot miniatures, to be precise) Not sure when I'm going to get to that? I've only painted 82 this year so far... Also, I haven't really been playing Dragon Rampant lately, haven't for a while and don't have any immediate plans to do so... Mind you, I think these would be a little easier and quicker to paint...? Maybe if I got them done I'd get motivated to play...? And there are a group of guys in town that are very interested in playing miniatures agnostic games (because they HATE Games Workshop now). 

If I continue with this, I should really finish rebasing all the Isengard Orcs - because that would give me a full ready-to-play force for Dragon Rampant (and other games!) Honestly, though, I was hoping to get back to working on Warhammer Underworlds miniatures! (and I did!) This all probably came about because I hadn't played it for a few weeks and lost focus... 

I have Ancient Egyptian and Nubians that were initially meant for DBA armies that I think I'll rebase at some point as well... 

Four Picts

Just like the title says... I finished up four Picts... 

Four Picts from Wargames Foundry. 

Not the best Picts I ever did paint... I just needed them done FAST before I ran out of steam and the project ground to a halt and ended up taking up space on the basement art/hobby table for MONTHS... 

This is really part of a larger project which I'll be posting about moments after this... but I didn't want to include these four newly painted ones as PART of that post for weird reasons I can't really articulate and barely understand myself... but here they are... stay tuned for MORE ABOUT THE PICTS!!!

(These four were needed to finish up a few units...)