October Games

Wow... So the entirety of Q3 was a bit of a bust... and... Q4 did not get off to a great start either... I didn't play any games at all for the first two weeks of the month... then... 

Monday, 14 October 2024

On the holiday Monday of the Thanksgiving weekend (in Canada!) Orion stopped by to have a "practice game" for the upcoming Path to Glory campaign to try out our respective forces and figure out the full Age of Sigmar rules - which ARE somewhat different from the Spearhead rules, which we've been playing with for the last few months! 

Orion's Soulblight Gravelords just hammered on my Hedonites of Slaanesh! 

There is a brief game report here:

Age of Sigmar - Path to Glory Practice

Sunday, 20 October 2024

A week later, Keiran and I went over to Shannon and Kevin's place to play some games with them and Kevin's son. 

First we played some Carcassonne. 

it was a VERY close game... 

Then everyone else played NMBR9... (because it only plays four and I don't LOVE the game) so I flipped the cards for them. 

Keiran just LOVED the game and utterly DESTROYED everyone else... I think they had 121 points at the end... next highest score was 81...? 

Next we played a few rounds of Tinderblox. A quick little game where you flip a card and try and add blocks to the existing pile in the orientation shown on the card, using the very slippery, odd angled tweezers!?

As soon as you drop something, knock something over, or something you just placed falls over, you are out of the game. 

Keiran, surprisingly, was less good at this one!? I would have thought with all the sewing and other crafty things they do, and the accompanying precise motor skills, they would have rocked this one as well... alas, they were out on the first round for BOTH games.  

The first game the stack got CrAzY high!?

Shannon won one of the games.

I won the other (miniature painting, yo!) 

Finally we played Pirate Fluxx. I'd not played Pirate Fluxx before, but plenty of other Fluxx games, and they're all pretty much the same. It's been a while since I've played any. Sometimes it's a REALLY FAST GAME! Other times it just goes on and onnnnn.... for-EVAR... this was closer to the latter! 

Still it was good to get out and play same board games again!!!

Wednesday, 30 October 2024

After a two and a half month hiatus... I sat down with Amanda and Finnegan to work towards finishing up Warhammer Quest: Shadow over Hammerhal. 

Finnegan played the Cogsmith, Golnir Coalbeard, which he'd originally been playing, and Arvios Sunhelm - Lord-Castellant of the Hammers of Sigmar. Amanda played Vizrin Kyre - Black Ark Fleetmaster (as usual) and took on Alnaryn, the Aelven Loremaster. The four heroes blasted through "The Vile Dungeon" filled with some dank, nasty Putrid Blightkings and a Rotbringer Sorcerer! 

You can read the full report of the evening's adventures here:

Warhammer Quest: Shadows Over Hammerhal - Session Five - The Vile Dungeon

And... that was IT?! 

Once again... not a LOT of games going on... I didn't even get around to trying out Devilry Afoot - or playing a second game of Five Men in Normandy!? (I had thought of trying a quick solo game this evening... but I was just too tired...) 

This was all kind of starting to get me down until yesterday when we played Warhammer Quest. It was SO MUCH FUN! I just LOVE that format of play and both Amanda and Finnegan seem pretty committed to finish this off - and then continue on with MORE of the Warhammer Quest games! I'll need to get painting the rest of the stuff for Silver Tower and/or Cursed City - as we could very well be moving on to one of those in the next few weeks!!

Feeling a bit more positive about next month - with the renewed interest in Warhammer Quest and the new edition of Warhammer Underworlds just a few weeks off and the kick off of the Path to Glory league.. Also Brent has arranged to stop by tomorrow and try out Lost Patrol. 

Things are looking up! 

What did YOU get up to playing over the last month!? 

Warhammer Quest: Shadows Over Hammerhal - Session Five - The Vile Dungeon

It has been just over two and a half months since we last played Warhammer Quest... 

Wednesday evening Amanda, Finnegan and I sat down to finish working our way through the last few dungeons of Shadows Over Hammerhal. 

Finnegan played the Cogsmith, Golnir Coalbeard, which he'd originally been playing, and took over Arvios Sunhelm - Lord-Castellant of the Hammers of Sigmar. Amanda played Vizrin Kyre - Black Ark Fleetmaster -as she has throughout the campaign, and also took on Alnaryn, the Aelven Loremaster.

Because it's been so long I kind of forgot.. a LOT of things... a lot of rules... and even what had been happening in the previous session!? I did have notes... but I missed things (and didn't THINK to read the previous session's battle report!) I assumed they had FINISHED the Halls of Blood, which Amanda, John and Maygan had been playing through... but looking back now, I've realized they'd had to stop part way through the last battle and had NOT finished fighting the Flesh-Hounds in the last room... They hadn't really NEEDED to go back to that last room, they'd found another way down... also, I'd put four or five Flesh-Hounds in there instead of the silly trap that was supposed to be in there... and... the Flesh-Hounds were a bit much... 

So this session we just started back in Cinderfall. Vizrin Kyre visited the Rift Market, along with Alnaryn. Kyre acquired a Twisted Charm, but Alnaryn did not find anything. Golnir Coalbeard had little money to spend, so he went gambling, hoping to make that money into MORE money... instead he walked away with a magical Heartseeker Ring! Lord-Castellant Arvios Sunhelm went to the Guild of Certified Thaumaturgists and bought himself a Seer's Philtre. 

Having stocked up and rested, the four returned to the dark dungeons below Hammerhal - only to find their way blocked by a house collapsing on the entry way they'd intended to use! The Lord Castellant quickly conamdeered some workers to clear the rubble away! This would take some time, so the bunch of them had some more time to look for supplies that might aid in their exploration. 

This time Vizrin Kyre and the Loremaster visited Bougren's Bountiful Bazaar. This time it was Alnaryn that walked away with an Excavation Charge and Kyre walked away empty-handed. Golnir Coalbeard found himself engaged in a drinking contest... and passed out drunk after the first pint!? 

Eventually enough rubble was cleared away, they were able to return to the tunnels and chambers beneath Hammerhal...

Returning to a section they'd noted two expeditions ago, the area smelled of rot and putrefication. the wall were covered with a thick layer of pustulent ooze and the floor writhed with giant, bloated maggots. The air was filled with fat buzzing brownish-yellow flies... 

The first two rooms they entered were empty, but in the second the discovered a secret passage that led to the lair of a Rotbringer Sorceress! 

The two aelves took down the Sorceress' Blightking bodyguard! 

The Rotbringer Sorceress herself was a deadly foe, though... the Fleetmaster was overpowered by her noxious emissions! 

the Lord-Castellant joined the Loremaster in the Rotbringers sanctum and purged the putrid servand of Nurgle... but before she could be struck down, she called out for aid! 

Three MORE Putrid Blightkings rushed out of the next room. They were too late to aid the Sorceress, so they were determined to avenger her! 

They were as vicious as they were vile and har to take down. 

It took all the group to take them down! 

After finishing them off, the four investigated the two rooms; the Rotbringers workshop and the room the other Blightkings had come from. In the latter they discovered a hideous, rotting alter to Nurgle. The Lord-Castellant decided it needed to be destroyed! In the process they all contracted the Rawblight (counting as a Grievous wound, blocking one of their action slots!), but also in doing so, discovered and aritifact of Ghyran - the Seeds of the Everroot - which had magical restoritive powers! 

Down at the other end of the dungeon they discovered more Blightkings in a room with fleshy walls! 

The three charged Alnaryn, nearly overpowering her!

She held them briefly at the doorway while the Lord CAstellant shouted orders for all to fall back around him. 

They drew the Blightkings out into the hall where the Fleetmaster and the Lord-Castellant could engage them in melee, while the Loremaster and Coalbeard could stand behind blasting them with firearms and arcane bolts! 

Eventually they took them down, one-by-one! 

The final room on this level was the worst yet! They found two more Blightkings sloshing around in a room absoloutely FULL of bodies and part of bodies or both man and beast in varrying degress of rot and putrefaction! 

The Lord Castellant initially held them at the door

Until Kyre was able to slip in and finish off the last of them. 

At that point the four heroes, once again, retired to the surface streets of Cinderfal. They visited their good friend Brother Bargo of the Chapel of the Shattered Blade and he was able to cure them of the Rawblight. 

Afterwards Golnir returned to the gambling dens, only to lose his money. Alnaryn returned to Baugren's and acquired an Amulet of Mist. Vizrin Kyre visited REd Yugol's Reverie, but was unable to learn anything of their future from the enigmatic soothsayer. Sunhelm visited the House of Venargo and found an interesting item - the Spectral Eye! 

At this point we called it a night, but are determined to forge ahead next week on Tuesday or Wednesday - on of those evenings we will play, the other we will watch some more of the new season of the Legend of Vox Machina! 

There are really only two (maybe two and a half?) sections to explore. 

Oooh! I should try and finish Tzarketh, Bane of Law, to use as the Chaos Sorcerer behind all this corruption and chaos beneath Hammerhal!

Work-in-Progress Wednesday - 30 October 2024

I just finished up all the miniatures for Lost Patrol... so what's left on the workbench!? Not a LOT... I moved a BUNCH of stuff off into storage boxes - kept NEAR the workbench, but not ON the workbench, just to help me stay focused... 

The main thing I guess I'm working on are the miniatures for Crypt Hunters (the slightly-less-deadly, Age of Sigmar reskin of Lost Patrol!) I'm hoping to knock these out quickly (like in the next few days...?) and get back to regular Age of Sigmar things... 

the Castigators were made in this nice gold coloured plastic... There was a part of me that could see not painting the miniatures if you were just a board gamer... 

The Conrasting Blue of the Nighthaunts was nice... Unfortunately, unlike the Stormcast, they did NOT have sculpted bases, just regular black slotta bases... So they'd have looked less pretty if left unpainted... Not that I was ever not going to paint them... 

The Path to Glory League being run through the local Warhammer Store starts this Sunday... I'm not sure I'm going to make it out for this first game day. 

I've kind of flip-flopped on what army to use for this first campaign. I'd settled on Hedonites of Slaanesh - largely because I didn't need to paint a thing for it (other than the endless spells...)... but then actually looked at the rules for all of them and what I had that I COULD build... and then decided I needed to do a completely DIFFERENT Hedonites of Slaanesh army that seemed like WAY MORE FUN! But that would require painting 15 more mounted seeker cavalry... and I started in on them... and then I had a practice game and broke another slickblade seeker - just getting it out of the cabinet!? So when it was announced that, for this league being run by the store, games had to be played IN the store... and I'm just not feeling like transporting the Hedonites there every week for games and then having to repair these dainty little models that break... 

So I starting thinking again, and, despite the fact that I could totally run Blades of Khorne if I painted ONE UNIT of Blood Warriors... or Sylvaneth if I painted up 15 Tree-revenants (which are super quick and easy to paint...), I settled on Slaves to Darkness... which I have next to NOTHING painted for... but seemed like more fun and the minis seem a bit more beefy and able to be transported without TOO much damage!?

So that's what else is s on the workbench... 

Mostly Darkoath riders... and the Chaos Ogors - which I'm not sure I'd include in the Paths to Glory army... they're just there for FUN! Not sure I did any work on the Riders, I did do SOME work on the mounted warlord and the Ogors this past week. 

Oh, and the Chaos Lord on Daemonic Mount has made her way back onto the workbench... (which I forgot to include in the picture above). While she is ostensibly the leader of the host, I'm not sure I'll end up using her as the General of a Path to Glory army... I feel like I'd probably use a Sorceress or Darkoath Warlord...?

Oh, and the Chaos Sorcerer/ess (which I ALSO forgot to include in the picture above..!?

I MAY yet switch gears AGAIN and assemble and paint some Chaos Knights instead - so they force can be led by a Chaos Sorceress!  

There are also a few Warhammer Underworlds warbands skulking about that I'm hoping to finish up by the time the new edition is released - just 2.5 weeks from now!!

Hoping to return to playing Warhammer Quest this evening - with just Finnegan and Amanda - to finish off Shadows Over Hammerhal! 

WHAT IS EVERYONE ELSE WORKING ON THIS WEEK!? 

Lost Patrol Miniatures

 I finished up the last of the miniatures for Lost Patrol last night.  

The lot of them. 

Marines

I was thinking Howling Griffons colours, but instead of the quartered I went with more of a disruptive/camouflage pattern. I like doing weird coloured camouflage. Most modern camouflage is visual, trying to match the colours of the surrounding terrain. Some now incorporate patterns to mess with digital visual enhancers (night vision viewers, etc). In the far future where most opponents are equipped with sensory equipment that looks beyond the regular visual spectrum that human eyes can see - or aliens that simply SEE different spectrums? Visual camouflage might be entirely useless! Hence most marines in the 40K universe not bothering with camouflage. For those that are trying to be stealthy, what will the camouflage they wear look like, what different colours or patterns be required to disrupt the what the enemy sees or otherwise senses...? who knows... so... crazy coloured camouflage. 

I did the armour in one colour/pattern and the cloth uniform they're wearing underneath in another. I was trying to echo the marines of the movie Aliens which wear mis-matched camouflage - their fatigues are grey with browns and green (not disimilar to more modern "multicam"... but their armour is more of a brown with green "woodland" patter. (And also Canadians and Americans - and probably others - that deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan initially in mismatched camouflage - I seem to recall Canadians initially deployed to  Afghanistan had tan/desert fatigues and temperate/woodland armour). Even in the far future of the 41st millenium, soldiers (even the Space Marines of the Adeptus Astartes) sometimes have to just make due with what they have on them! 

While I was at it, I painted two other scouts I happen to have - one with a rocket launcher of the same vintage as the ones included in the set, and a metal scout sniper... just because. I'd meant to do an entirely different camouflage on the sniper's cape... but it's currently only purple, because I couldn't really decide on a pattern I liked... I'll probably go back and add something at some point. maybe a blur/purple splinter pattern of some sort...? 

Genestealers

Same classic Blue/Purple pattern I've done all Genestealers I've painted in (moslty for Finnegan's collection) but with grassy bases to match the tiles of the game - rather than the industrial/spaceship interior bases I'd done on the others. 

And the Infestation Markers... 

There were also three rippers on the sprues...  so I based them individually... Probably should have saved them to use as bonus base details on larger models at some point...? 

Now to actually PLAY the game!!!

It would be nice to get in a game today or tomorrow... as I've not played a LOT of games in October and it's made me a little sad. 

On the plus side, I've got Amanda and Finnegan onboard to forge ahead and finish off Shadows over Hammerhal on their own - and we might even play THAT tonight!

If I don't get in a game today or tomorrow, Brent is coming over to give it a try on Friday. Maybe if I get the Ghosties and Stormcasts done by then we could try out Crypt Hunters as well! 

Stay tuned for some GAME REPORTS! 

(I realized AFTER posting this, that I left one of the painted Genestealers on the painting desk... so there are 12 of them that are painted... one is just missing from all of these pictures!?)

Age of Sigmar - Crypt Hunters

I recently ordered a copy of Crypt Hunters, and it arrived today. This is a little stand-alone game from Games Workshop using existing miniatures from Warhammer Underworlds and Age of Sigmar. Board Game Geek lists it as a reimplementation of Lost Patrol. 

It's... a long and convoluted story... 

Crypt Hunters

In the TV show Supernatural there are some reoccurring characters that have a webseires called Ghostfacers and whenever I read the word Crypt Hunters I hear the theme music from Ghostfacers... but with "Crypt Hunters" instead of "ghostfacers"... 

This is something new for Games Workshop - or, new to me, at least - a storage tray included in the box... 

There is even spaces for the miniatures... though I doubt I'm ever going to store them in here... I guess the Casatigators could, as I already have two other sets!? The Chainrasps, though... they're just going to be stored with the rest of my Nighthaunt forces as they are a complete unit of Chainrasps!?

This is the THIRD copy of the Storm of Celestus warband for Warhammer Underworlds that I now have. The first I bought when it was sold as a separate Easy-to-Build set of Castigators. I ended up with a second when I bought the first Two-Player Starter set for Warhammer Underworlds (which included reprints of Shadespire/Nightvault boards, the Storm of Celestus and Drepur's Wraithcreepers - another Easy-to-Build set repurposed as a Warhammer Underworlds warband). Not sure if I should do these are Hammers of Sigmar, Anvils of Heldenhammer, or some other Stormhost? 

I'd really, REALLY hoped to be DONE the Marines and Genestealers from Lost Patrol before this arrived lest I get completely distracted by THIS game and Lost Patrol fall by the wayside before I ever get around to playing it... 

Alas... SO CLOSE!!

I was distracted this week and didn't quite get them done... partly by that Chaos Lord in the background of that picture above... 

... and partly by the sudden need to reorganize ancient Greeks... AGAIN, for some reason!?

I'll probably assemble the Chainrasps, but will try and push through the Genestealers and Marines... 

Work-in-Progress Wednesday - 23 October 2024

 Kind of been ALL OVER THE PLACE this past week... vacilating between wanting to finish up a Hedonites of Slaanesh Daemonic Cavalry Horde... or dropping everything and doing a Slaves to Darkness Cavalry Horde. Before sliding into an indecision spiral, I decided to start on a small batch of miniatures needed to play a new (to me) game... and then feeling overwhelmed by all the boxes of stuff on the shelves SURROUNDING my workbench, I decided to finish off a massive re-basing project to clear at least ONE THING out of the room! 

Over 100 anceint/mythical Greeks rebased. Some had been individually based on washers, others had been on multi-figure bases for DBA, which I realized I was just never going to get to... (though after watching the finale of Dimension 20's Crown of Candy - where they were using itty-bitty almost micro-scale miniatures to play out a large battle... I wasted an entire afternoon researching 1/200 scale ancients and trying to figure out how much it would cost to put together a few DBA armies with that!? Aye-yi-yi....) 

So then I started another batch of Greeks (and AMAZONS!) that I needed to finish rebasing... and then there are many hundreds more that could be based and painted...

For now I'll try to finish these up in the coming weeks, just to have a thing that is DONE FOR NOW (the painted ones) and maybe have a few that are based and primed and ready to go, should I feel like I NEED TO PAINT ANCIENT/MYTHICAL GREEKS NOW!!! 

(it happens)

I might actually paint a few individuals, just to complete a few units (for Dragon Rampant!) 

There are also a few WW2 figures in that batch - for Five Men in Normandy - which I HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN ABOUT!?

What is actually ON the workbench this week...?

Marines and Genestealers for the Lost Patrol - the infestation tokens are actually DONE, but I thought I'd wait until the rest are done and post pictures of them all together! This will probably be my top priority for the week... because it's a limited number of things that are mostly done and I'll have a whole new game that I can theoretically play... and a SHORT, fairly EASY game that can be set up and played very quickly! 

My very nearly painted Chaos Lord on Daemonic Mount made her way back onto the workbench to join Tzarketh... to further tempt me back to working on Slaves to Darkness.... 

The Slaves to Darkness Darkoath riders and Chieftan are still there... not a lot of work was done on them this week... 

Slowly plinking away at bits of the Chaos Ogors.

Still three Warhammer Underworlds wartbands hanging out... waiting to be finished... 

Two of the three Hedonites of Slaanesh Endless Spells... 

Two Chaos beasties... Khorne Khorgorath and Darkoath Wilderfiend

Uggggghhh... So much Blades of Khorne stuff... taking up so much real estate on the workbench and NOT being worked on... I think it might be time to move these off... 

I did start working on a new terrain piece... the base, at least... 

I've also been working on some markers for the Hedonites of Slaanesh army - some of them will be control markers. Others will be markers to denote which units are "Euphoric" and which are under certain spell effects... Probably don't need QUITE this many... I'd misunderstood how the Euphoic thing worked and realized that only THREE units can be Euphoric at any time... 

As I mentioned, I'll probably puch to finish the Marines and Genestealers... then...? I think maybe the Ogors, because they're so close to being done and kind of fun...?

I have a feeling as excited as I am about Slaves to Darkness, I may be resigning myself to sticking to Hedonites of Slaanesh for this round of Path to Glory and all the Seekers and Hellstriders may be back on teh workbench presently! 

WHAT IS EVERYONE ELSE WORKING ON THIS WEEK!?