Game Plan 2025 - Q3

Half way through the year! It's time to take a moment and look back at the previous quarter and maybe do some planning (or guessing at) what I might do over the next few months! 

Q2 in Review

Here's what I'd planned for Q2... and how it went... 

(you can find the original post here: Game Plan 2025 - Q2)

Q2 GAMES

I played 18 games in the Second Quarter of 2025:

• Warhammer Quest: Cursed City x10
• Advanced Song of Blades and Heroes x5
• Bolt Action: Third Edition x2
• Warhammer 40,000 (Tenth Edition) x1

Below is a bit of a breakdown of what I'd planned and how it went. 

Warhammer Quest

This had been going extremely well through the first quarter... I expected we would continue to play through the second... The only question was; Would we finish the game in the second quarter? Or would we STILL BE PLAYING!?  I had figured it would take a MINIMUM of seven more sessions to complete the initial campaign in Cursed City (but it seemed more likely to take eleven or more). 

In the end we played almost weekly and got in TEN games of Warhammer Quest: Cursed City this quarter. We will definitely finish off the initial campaign in the next few weeks or so! Woo! 

Role-Playing Games 

I had wondered if we might get the in-person Soulbound game going again... 

We did not... 

I did, however start a NEW campaign on Tuesday evenings... The Campaign for Ravensflight - initially the plans were to use Five Leagues from the Borderlands for the campaign system and Advanced Song of Blades and Heroes for playing out the tabletop skrimishes... in the end I dropped the idea of the using Five Leagues from the Borderlands and just made up my own scenarios that narratively followed on from the previous one... it was kind of more of a "role-playing lite" series of linked skimish adventures... but was fun! 

After only five sessions, the leader of the expedition died along with Finnegan's main character (the wizard! after he'd already lost one of his characters in the first encounter!?) and we had considered a hard reboot of the campaign and made up some new characters but then got busy doing other things. It was a lot of fun! I would love to get something like that (or some other role-playing game!) going at some point. I'd initially thought when we're done Warhammer Quest: Cursed City... But my interests seem to be shifting elsewhere. 

World War Two - Bolt Action, etc...

I thought FOR SURE I would be playing a LOT of Bolt Action through the Second Quarter. I wasn't so sure we'd keep playing Five Men at Kursk or Five Men in Normandy, but didn't rule out OTHER games! 

Previously we'd be mostly playing games set in North Africa - and a few smaller ones in the Pacific Theatre of Operations (partly due to availability of mats to play on!). As Orion was ordering a Hungarian army, I expected focus to shift to the Eastern Front as well! 

I ended up playing Only playing ONE GAME in April (which I never even got around to posting a game report for), and NONE in May, and then only ONE MORE game  in June!? 

Other Warhammer Games - Age of Sigmar/Underworlds/40K

I hadn't written all of these off entirely... I mean, I WAS still playing Warhammer Quest, so some part of my brain was still interested in the Age of Sigmar setting...

I DID get in one game of 40K and even before that I had also hoped I might get to painting a few more Eldar..?  or maybe a few of the Emperor's Children...? Possibly pick up the new Astra Militarum codex and reorg all those armies to be ready for action...?

At the beginning of May, Orion travelled to Calgary to play in the  - a World Championship of Warhammer qualifier event with two or three Golden Tickets up for grabs! She did not win one of those, but came back feeling inspired to play Warhammer Quest again!! But I didn't end up playing a single game... 

With the release of the new setting for Spearhead, I even got thinking about playing that again! So far, I have not... 

Board Games 

I was really feeling that I was missing playing a lot of the board games we'd played in the past... and hoped to play more... but realistically I wasn't sure if I'd have the time or energy to organize and play regular board games... AND play Warhammer Quest every week... AND play Bolt Action (or other miniatures games)... AND write up game reports... AND paint new miniatures for Bolt Action (or other miniatures games)... AND possibly organize and run a role-playing game... 

Though we had talked about playing Terraforming Mars a few times, in the end we played no board games this quarter...

Solo Miniature Games 

At the beginning of the quarter I was still feeling it would be fun to continue the current solo games... 

Paras in Normandy

Pulp Adventure

Five Parsecs from Home

and still hoped I'd get around to trying out Devilry Afoote... 

But as with board games... What little time I ended up playing games, I was actually playing games WITH people, so found it hard to fit in some additional solo games on the side! 

Q2 MINIATURES

Ooof! I did NOT get nearly as much done this past Quarter. In the first Quarter I managed to paint 199 x 28mm foot figures, four mounted and TEN tanks and other vehicles... This quarter I painted less than a third of that! 

It was clear at the beginning of the quarter that my focus was mainly ONE thing... 

World War Two - Bolt Action

This seemed to be where things were mostly focused for the forseeable future. I had been working on forces for the desert war in North Africa and the Pacific. 

I'd acquired a BUNCH of tanks to play in the sand and hoped that would be the primary focus for the Second Quarter. 

What I did end up assembling and painting was... 

• 1x German Spotter
• 3x USMC Forward Observers
• 2x Chindit Anti-Tank Rifle Crew
• 2x Japanese Anti-Tank Rifle Crew
• 4x USMC War Dogs and Handlers
• 19x Fallshirmjäger

But during this period I pick up another 55 WW2 infantry and four more vehicles!? 

• 10x Fallschirmjäger Squad (Tropical Uniform)
• 10x Gebirgsjäger
• 4x USMC War Dogs and Handlers
• 3x USMC Forward Observers
• 3x 1940 French Casualties 
• 7x 1940 French Weapons team crews
• 4x Afrika Korps Pak 36 light anti-tank gun and crew
• 2x Chindit Anti-Tank Rifle crew
• 2x Japanese Anti-Tank Rifle crew
• 1x Death Korps of Krieg Engineer (Free Miniature of the Month)
• 10x WW2 Gurkhas
• 6x Fallshirmjäger Weapons Teams
• 1x Chi-Ha Japanese tank (Q2) 
• 1x Vought F4U Corsair
• 1x Stug III
• 1x Stug III

Warhammer Games

Age of Sigmar/Underworlds/40K/Cursed City/Soulbound

I did finish Torgilius the Chamberlain - the only mini I needed to finish for Warhammer Quest: Cursed City! (other than two Mysterious Object markers!) 

I'd planned to get started on the last few things I need for Warhammer Quest: Cursed City - Night Wars... the Fell Bats and Radukar the Beast!? I did BUY Radukar the Beast and I've had the Fell Bats assembled and primed for a while... but I did not get them painted 

I'd hoped perhaps that painting stuff for Night Wars might be expanded again into larger Age of Sigmar forces...? Maybe paint up some of the other Soulblight Gravelords when I work on these few things...?  That hasn't happened, so far.. .

If we'd gotten Soulbound going again, I'd hoped that might get me working on some of the Chaos foes that could be encountered - primarily the Disciples of Tzeentch, but also Skaven and Slaves to Darkness... alas... 

I DID start working on the Emperor's Children - reorganizing some of the things I already have and assembling and priming the Champions of Slaanesh I bought at the end of the First Quarter 

I did rebase 18 Noise Marines onto 40mm bases (as that's what they're on now!?) and I did paint up two new Noise Marines to finish up one unit. I have another four to finish up to complete the other two units. I also finished up an odd Possessed Heretic Astartes!

Unfortunately I also picked up a Chaos Daemons Combat Patrol box and Radukar the Beast, which has kind of put me back in the red to end this Quarter. 

Other Games

I did acknowledge that there was always the possibility that I could decide I needed to paint stuff for something else entirely... Thinking the most likely possibilities would be for the Solo games - Sci-fi stuff for Five Parsecs from Home or Pulp Adventure stuff....

In the end I painted a few things for the new role-playing/skirmish campaign

• 1x Wizard
• 1x Halfling Assassin
• 12x Assorted Fantasy Characters

and some random Mutant Plants... 

Painting progress and game playing dropped significantly over the second Quarter. Part of it was because it's spring and other things were going on... part of it was... "family drama", I guess you could call it... that put a LOT of things on hold. 

so... for the next three months... 

GAME PLAN 2025 - Q3

What to do in the Third Quarter...?

I feel like interests are shifting and Warhammer 40,000 might return to be a focus for the Third Quarter!?

GAMES

I will probably play some games... likely continuing what I've been doing for the last quarter/year so far... with some slight shifts...

Warhammer Quest

It has been a lot of fun playing this with Amanda and Finnegan! In the Third Quarter we will definitely finish off the initial quest in Warhammer Quest: Cursed City and then likely move on to working our way through Warhammer Quest: Cursed City - NIGHT WARS! 

I haven't even opened the Night Wars box, let alone read any of the content, so I have NO IDEA how long that will take... I imagine it won't take 30 missions like the first quest did, and could possibly be finished up over the summer (by the end of Q3)!

After that...? 

I really like this format of play and Amanda, Finnegan and I have been having a lot of fun playing through the campaign. We have a few options to continue on... 

There is still Silver Tower we have not played through. I still have to finish a numbe r of minatures for that one, but that could likely be finished by the time we're done Night Wars... 

There is also Blackstone Fortress! Amanda and I played through the initial campaign back in 2020/2021 and carried on playing some of the adventures in the Annual and the Dreaded Ambul campaign. I still have the Ascension, Deadly Alliance, No Respite, Traitor Command, and Escalation expansions to play through!!

OR we could maybe take a break and focus on... Role-Playing...? 

I have a feeling, if we finish Night Wars before the end of the Quarter, we might return to Blackstone Fortress! I checked with Finnegan and Amanda and both seem interested in that. 

Role-Playing Games 

As mentioned above I had a lot of fun playing that rpg-lite skirmish adventure campaign and I'd like to revisit that (or SOME kind of role-playing game!) But I'm not sure I'm going to be able to get that going on while still playing Warhammer Quest (and other games!). 

With a renewed interest in Warhammer 40,000 my thoughts have returned to Wrath & Glory and the possibility of starting up a campaign (or two!?) either online or in-person (or BOTH!?)... I've suggested maybe I could run a few one-shot adventures for players to try out different archetypes and Tiers over the summer and then maybe in the fall get an ongoing campaign going. 

World War Two - Bolt Action

Despite the slow down in games and painting in the Second Quarter, I do hope things will pick up again in the next quarter. I have an idea for a skirmish campaign involving some of Orion's Hungarians - when she gets enough done - and then I imagine there will be a lot of campaigning on the Eastern Front with them! 

Warhamer 40,000

At the tail end of the Second Quarter the 40K bug caught me again and I've been busily working on Emperor's Children and assorted other stuff, while listening to 40K audio books. I got in one game (with my Aeldari, versus Orions Space wolves...). Despite that disaster, it's got me thinking about 40K again. 

I'm not sure exactly where that's going to take me this quarter. I do not love matched play.... so I picked up the most recent Crusade book (for playing narrative campaigns) and am hoping we might get to play though - or at least start - a campaign over the summer. I want to finish up enough of the Emperor's Children to play with them! Amanda said she might be willing to play some games, so I might need to figure out a force for her. 

I could also see giving Combat Patrol a try...? It's a smaller game similar to Age of Sigmar Spearhead. 

Other Warhammer Games - Age of Sigmar/Underworlds/Soulbound/etc.

I STILL haven't written all of these off entirely... I mean, I'm STILL playing Warhammer Quest, so some part of my brain is still interested in the Age of Sigmar setting at least somewhat!? 

Some people on the discord were talking about playing Spearhead again - and I could see trying to get in a game or two. 

I feel completely out of the loop with what's going on with Warhammer Underworlds these days... There have been a few new decks released and I have not picked them up... 

Board Games 

WOW! I have missed playing board games... but with all the other games going on each week - each requiring some prep beforehand and a game report after... I'm not sure I'll have the TIME to play any board games... 

Solo Miniature Games 

It would be fun to continue the current solo games... 

• Paras in Normandy
• Pulp Adventure
• Five Parsecs from Home

I's also still LOVE to try out Devilry Afoote Campaign I got all set up for...

AND I continue to have SO MANY IDEAS about other campaigns I could play... 

I'll just keep those in my back pocket for now, in case any of the current active in-person campaigns Im actually playing with others fizzle... 

MINIATURES

What will I get up to PAINTING the next few months...?

As always, it will be likely dictated by the games I end up playing. As outlined above that will probably be Warhammer 40,000, Bolt Action, and Warhammer Quest... and possibly Age of Sigmar...? 

World War Two - Bolt Action

I could spend the rest of the year just painting World War Two stuff for Bolt Action (or... any WW2 game...) and not run out of stuff... If I COULD I'd like to finish up the following... 

• 4x  Matilda II
• 5x  Cruiser Mk1 (A9)
• 2x  Italian M14/41 tank
• Italian Colonial Troops (10) 
• Italian Breda AA gun
• 8th Army 6 pounder and crew
• Gebirgsjager Squad (10) 
• 1940 French Army Casualties and weapons teams (10) 
• ~50x Fallschirmjager  
• 2x  Panzer IV
• 2x Panther
• Japanese Army Chi Ha tank 
• 3x DAK Panzer III
• DAK Howitzer and crew
• DAK AT gun
• DAK Sdkfz 222 Armoured Car
• DAKPanzer IV
• 2x Stug III

Not sure how much (or ANY) of this is going to happen... but we can dream. I guess it will depend on how much Orion wants to play later in the summer and fall. Playing always motivates painting!!

Warhammer 40,000

I like the idea of trying out Combat Patrol - the smaller skirmishy version of 40K - very similar to Age of Sigmar: Spearhead. But they are fixed forces and I don't have the exact units required to field ANY of them... and I am loathe to BUY any more stuff at this point. 

I did end up buying a Chaos Daemons Combat Patrol last week... Partly to have a force I could try out Combat Patrol with... but also because there are rules for unbound wandering Daemons in the Armageddon Crusade campaign... and also they could be used in my Age of Sigmar Blades of Khorne army... AND, most importantly, the force is being discontinued and I wanted to get one before they all disappeared! 

In the last week I've gotten them all based and assembled and primed and hopefully within the week I'll be able to finish them all off!!

Other than that, I think the primary focus for this will be getting some Emperor's Children painted - enough to field a 1000 point Crusade Force for campaining on Armageddon. 

I MAY also end up breaking down and getting the Emperor's Children Combat Patrol, if I can find anyone else that's even remotely interested in playing. As with most boxed sets, it's way cheaper to buy the box than the individual units. The units in the box that I'd need (2 units of Flawless Blades) individually would cost $140... the Combat Patrol is $200 (which would give me two more units worth $135 - Lord Exultant and Infractors - which I could always do with more of...) 

Regardless... I already have loads of Emperor's Children to paint! 

Currrently to paint:

• Lord Exultant
• 20 Tormentors
• 20 Infractors
• 10 Chaos Terminators 

This, with the stuff I already have, would get me to about 1660 points - plenty of options for a starting Crusade force. Picking up the Combat Patrol would put me well over 2000. IF I picked up the Combat Patrol, that would add: 

• ANOTHER Lord Exultant
• 10 MORE Infrators
• 6 Flawless Blades

I think I have to make myself a deal that I have to finish at least the Lord Exultant that I already have, one unit of Infractors and one unit of Tormentors before I can reasonably buy myself an Emperor's Children Combat Patrol... 

To put together a 1000 point force of Ynnari for Amanda I need to paint 

• Yvraine 
• Ynnari Archon 
• 5-10 Ynnari Kabalite Warriors 
• Ynnari Succubus 

To expand the force, I have more Ynnari Reavers and Wyches and a Venom and other members of the Triumvirate of the Ynnead that I could paint... 

Warhammer Quest

I will definitely be painting up Radukar the Beast and the Fell Bats needed for Cursed City: Night Wars. 

After that...? I guess it depends which game we play next. 

There are Grot Skuttlings, a couple Skaven, a few Familiars, the Gaunt Summoner, and two of the heroes I'd need to finish up to play Silver Tower. 

For Blackstone Fortress there are miniatures for all the expansion campaigns I have that would need painting... 

Other Warhammer Games

I still have other Warhammer Games in the back of my mind...  I COULD see myself knocking out the rest of the stuff needed for a Soulblight Gravelords Spearhead army... (or maybe the Stormcast Eternals...?) - 

The Khorne Daemons from the Chaos Daemons Combat Patrol are all useable in Age of Sigmar... 

Other Games

Song of Blades and Heroes...?

other Ganesha Games...?

All the Solo games...?

If I got playing these again, I could end up painting stuff for them... buuuuuuut... realistically, I don't see that happening this Quarter! 

On the Workbench

It's Work-In-Progress Wednesday! Here is what is haunting my workbench these days...



There is a lot of the same stuff I've been plucking away at (brushing away at...?) for the last few weeks - with a few new additions that have snuck their way on... distracting me from my plan to finish up the Blackstone Fortress minis!



With the release of Psychic Awakening: Pariah and the updated Inquisition rules, I've gotten thinking about Inquisition Forces again - so I rebased a few minis, including these old Guard Stormtroopers, for ONE of the planned Inquisition forces! They will be Stormtrooper acolytes in the retinue of the Chesterwind sisters - Sam(anther) and Dee(ana) - Ordo Malleus DAEMON HUNTERS!

(You can see Dee Chesterwind, with her bolder and chainsword, just off to the left of the picture)

I'm a little confused by the rules, though, It seems you can only ever have ONE inquisitor in any detachment - so I'll have to build up TWO detachments - one around each of the sisters...? I guess I'll have to build a third around their mom, Jane Chesterwind, who became a Daemon Hunter after their father was killed by a Daemon!



Antother Inquisitorial force I have in the works. Finnegan picked up the new Ordo Xenos Lord Inquisitor Kyria Draxus model - because he thought she looked cool and would go along with his Deathwatch (as they are the Chamber Militant for the Ordo Xenos)... so I've assembled primed her and finished assembling and priming all his Deathwatch... They may have to step in to pick up finish the mission in The Signal Campaign, if the Imperial Fists fail... and I DEFINITELY have a plan for them to show up in the Rise Up! Campaign!



The Priority right now - a couple of Genestealer Cultist characters - who will also be showing up in BOTH of the narrative campaigns I am currently running!



I also picked up these two; the Daemonifuge – Ephrael Stern & Kyganil - though it seems, once again, I have missed out on grabbing a copy of the Daemonifuge Graphic Novel as Games Workshop didn't amen nearly enough and it sold out on pre-order... and they couldn't possibly REPRINT a book... maybe in another DECADE... y'know for the 30TH anniversary printing...

Goddamnit, GW, you just make it SO EASY for the haters out there with bull$h!t like this...


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Reports of Game Two of both the Rise Up! and The Signal campaigns.

Finnegan and I played Game Two of The Signal yesterday, and I'll be posting the report... oh... a couple minutes after this one...

Da Boyz will be back tomorrow to play Game Two of the Rise Up! campaign.

Game Plan 2020 Q3 Plans

Damn, are we done another three months!? Feels like it's been for-EVAR since I made the Q2 plan... but at the same time it's like... "Wait, what? We're HALF WAY THROUGH THE YEAR!? WTF!?" Lacking the usual markers of the passage of the months - working up to year end dance recitals, dress rehearsals, recitals, etc... I feel totally adrift in time and space. It doesn't help that that which has defined me for the last decade and a half - The Homeschooling Dad - feels like it is suddenly, very abruptly coming to an end! Keira has decided to enrol in high school in the fall and, while finnegan continues to do school AT home, he has been in a very structured online program the last couple years and is VERY self-directed and needs very little help from me...

Of course if people continue to give zero fucks about social distancing or any other pandemic precautionary measures like they are doing, school may be cancelled again by the fall and Keira may be back to homeschooling...

Anyway....

Looking back at the Q2 plan...

5x5 Quarterly Challenge

I had planned on playing the following...

Wrath & Glory
CHECK! Just got the last one in under the wire! Got started a little late, but have been going solid on Saturday nights for the last month with no sign of stopping! Only two games where a single player was missing.

Blackstone Fortress
CHECK! - We played THRITEEN TIMES!!! Really having a lot of fun with this!

40K
Ehhhhh... Not-so-much... This was put on there when I was thinking there STILL might be a chance of playing in Battleforce Recon... and that would have been four games in ONE DAY - and I'd likely have played at least one or two games the week before to try out the force!

Other Skirmish Games
Whoopise... We did get in ONE game of Kill Team... but that was it!?

Five New Games!
CHECK! - We played three of the games we picked up in the ToonCon2020 auction - Castle, Fauna, Legendary Encounters: A Firefly Deck Building Game - and Dogs, which Keira picked up at another ToonCon auction...? Maybe in 2018...!? (or earlier!? the one that Amanda missed). We also tried out Machi Koro (which was gifted to use by Other Tim who was clearing out in preparation for his move)

We also tried out Tuscany, a few times!  Keira got it for her birthday in May. It was new but it's kind of just an expansion to a game we already have and played before..

While we didn't play all the 40K and Killteam/Necromunda games, we DID play THIRTEEN GAMES of Terraforming Mars, though! As well as seven games of Azul and five games of Carcassonne and five games of Splendor (including one with each of the four expansions included in Cities of Splendor)... So... through we didn't play the five games I chose for the challenge, we definitely played more than five games at least five times each... so, I think the 5x5 was covered...


Here are ALL the games I played in the last three months:

Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress x13
Terraforming Mars x13
Azul x7
Carcassonne x5
Splendor x5
Wrath & Glory x5
Viticulture Essential Edition x4 (with Tuscany Essential Edition x3)
The Castles of Burgundy x3
Century: Golem Edition x3
The Hanging Gardens x2
7 Wonders Duel x1
Castle x1
Fauna x1
Legendary Encounters: A Firefly Deck Building Game x1
Machi Koro x1
Dominion (with Dominion: Intrigue) x1
Ingenious x1
Power Grid Deluxe: Europe/North America x1
Railways of North America x1
Kill Team x1
Dogs x1

(I know, I know... June isn't over... we COULD end up playing another game or two in the next two days... but we're looking at generalities here and, in general, the last three months have been pretty good for game playing!)

Events

I had speculated that it was unlikely I would be attending any events due to the Pandemic. I was correct.... No events were attended.


Painting

I was king of all over the place at the end of March - with everything looking so... uncertain... There wasn't so much of a plan as a general intention to paint some Chaos stuff (Space Marines and Daemons) and some Blackstone Fortress stuff and maybe some stuff for Necromunda and Kill Team. I didn't get all of the stuff I was thinking of done (not so much of the Chaos or Necromunda stuff... but I did get some stuff done for Blackstone Fortress and THREE Kill Teams!)... but I still think I did pretty good on the painting, all things considered...

Q2 Painted
1x Amazon Hoplite
25x Imperial Guard
1x Penitent (for Blackstone Fortress)
8x Traitor Guard (Blackstone Fortress: Servants of the Abyss)
2x Nega-Volt Cultists (Blackstone Fortress: Servants of the Abyss)
2x Chaos Beastmen (Blackstone Fortress: Servants of the Abyss)
1x Chaos Space Marine (Blackstone Fortress: Servants of the Abyss)
1x Rogue Psyker (Blackstone Fortress: Servants of the Abyss)
1x Traitor Commissar (Blackstone Fortress: Traitor Command)
1x Chaos Ogryn (Blackstone Fortress: Traitor Command)
2x Ogryn Retinue Characters (Brogan Brothers) for Blackstone Fortress
1x Ogryn Pit Fighter for Necromunda
1x Gellerpox Infected for Kill Team Rogue Trader
1x Eversor Assassin
1x Vindicare Assassin
1x Inquisitor Gregor Eisenhorn
1x Inquisitor in Terminator Armour
1x Death Watch - Watch Master
1x Death Watch Space Marine
1x Grey Knight Brother
1x Genestealer Patriarch
3x Grey Knights
1x Grey Knight Terminator
2x Imperial Fists Scouts
1x Master of Possession
2x Greater Possessed
13x Kreuger's Unvalids
1x Little Robot Thingie from Space Hulk
2x Chaos Space Marine Raptors
1x Necromunda Hive Scum
29x Genestealer Cultists (for Finnegan)
12x Kroot Warriors for (Finnegan)

1x T'au Commander in XV86 coldstar Battlesuit (for Finnegan) 

2x Imperial Navy Thunderbolt Fighters (wee ones for Aeronautica Imperialis) 

2x Fabius Bile and Surgeon Acolyte

125 total...?

Acquired
1x Inquisitor Gregor Eisenhorn
3x Plague Marine miniatures (Blackstone Fortress: No Respite)
6x Poxwalker (Blackstone Fortress: No Respite)
1x Traitor Commissar  (Blackstone Fortress: Traitor Command)
1x Chaos Ogryn  (Blackstone Fortress: Traitor Command)
1x Arco-flagellant (in trade from Orion)
2x Imperial Navy Thunderbolt Fighters
2x Imperial Navy Marauder Bombers
3x Ork Air Waaagh! Dakkajets
2x Ork Air Waaagh! Fighta Bommers
2x Fabius Bile and Surgeon Acolyte
1x The Archivist (Zoat from Dark Alliance)

25 bought by me... but then there were...

109x Mantic Space Orks (gifted from Other Tim)
15x Burnaboyz (gifted from Other Tim)
2x Warboss (gifted from Other Tim)
1x Mantic Ork Warbuggy (gifted from Other Tim)

More details can be seen on the 2020 Painted Versus Purchased page.


Q3 Plan

5x5 Quarterly Challenge

Five games...

Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress
Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Wrath & Glory
#New40K
OTHER GW/40K games (Necromunda, Kill Team, Aeronautica Imperialis)
(Some other To Be Determined Board Game?)

Amanda and I seem to be going strong on Blackstone Fortress - Monday evening has been set aside as Blackstone Fortress night and we still have Traitor Command, Escalation, No Respite, Dark Alliance to play through (and Ascension will likely be released in the next few months!) - so no reason not to keep it on the list

So excited that I FINALLY got a role-playing game going - and even MORE excited that it's with such a great group of guys - most of whom are my very favouritest people to play with - EVER - that I haven't played with in years! ...and Jon... who only doesn't fit into the aforementioned category because I've really only just met him recently... I hope this game continues and doesn't just die (like every other RPG I've tried to run...) so I'm keeping Wrath & Glory on the list too!

#New40k - Warhammer 40,000 (9th Edition) - I'm guessing it will be out in the next few weeks - definitely by the end of the quarter - and Finnegan's been showing some interest in it, so I'm hoping over the summer I can get him to at least play a FEW games with me. I'm excited about there actually being scenarios DESIGNED to be played with smaller forces, on a smaller table, in a shorter amount of time. Maybe I'll even be able to talk Amanda into dusting off her Drukhari or Sisters to try out the new rules!

I know I had OTHER SKIRMISH GAMES on the list last quarter and it didn't really happen (a single game of Kill Team, and NO Necromunda) and I'm not sure why I think it will this time... but I'm putting  back on that list... might be Kill Team... Might be Necromunda... Might be a bit of both... I do have a little campaign planned - which Finnegan is definitely excited about - and we'd PLANNED to play it with Kill Team, but after our recent game... I'm not so sure about Kill Team). I might expand the scope to also include Aeronautica Imperialis - as I'm really hoping I'll get the Ork Dakka Jets finished SOON and we'll at least try it out with THAT!

And... Board Game... I have no ideas what game we might want to play five times. I mean, there are PILES of games I'd love to play dozens of times * each * over the summer... Maybe I should just say Azul - as I know I'll have no problem convincing Amanda to play THAT!


Events

I find it very unlikely that I will be attending any events this quarter. I saw a note on the Hunters of the Warp page that an 40K event was going ahead in Manitoba in July... Perhaps the organizers of Battleforce Recon will be moving ahead with that...? I don't know... active cases of Covid-19 have QUADRUPLED in Saskatchewan in the last week or so as things open up and there is a general sense that it is "over"... I don't know... It's like no one knows how to read a graph around here or has paid any attention to what has been happening in other parts of the world - or even other parts of our own country!?

I'm just hoping at SOME point over the summer we can expand our "bubble" to include a few board/miniature gaming friends and get in some games - face-to-face - with... y'know... OTHER people (not that I MIND playing all these games with Amanda at all - quite the contrary - it's been a LOT of fun!)


Painting

If I had to pick what I was going to paint over the next three months RIGHT NOW - here's what I'd say I'd do (so... these will be guidelines... and I may paint some of these... but I'll probably paint some others stuff as well... and not get some of these done...):

Blackstone Fortress - First I'd like to finish up the Cultists and Explorers for Escalation (Including the extra Cultists of the Abyss I picked up!) There are also Poxwalkers and Death Guard from No Respite, The archivist (the Zoat from Dark Alliance!) and likely the Giant Spindle Drones from Ascension.

Chaos Space Marines - For the Emperor's Children force I have two Obliterators to finish up, Fifteen Noise Marines, ten or eleven Chaos Space Marines, and a handful of Chaos Terminators and cultists... There are also a few older Death Guard and the Malignant Plague Caster I picked up for a HQ unit to lead the detachment. Shouldn't be TOO onerous... though the Noise Marines are a bit of work - at least the way I'VE been doing them!

Grey Knights - I think there are about ten to finish off - they're about half painted. Maybe a couple Terminators. Two Rhinos to finish off.

Daemons - I have a few Seekers, Fiends, and the Infernal Enrapturess to finish up for Slaanesh (and a Start Collecting Slaanesh sitting in storage - but Amanda won't let me have them until I finish the basement). I also have a few Bloodcrushers to finish up for Khorne.

Stuff for Finnegan - I have a few things I'm going to knock off for Finnegan in anticipation of playing some Kill Team and #New40K with him this summer - including a Kill Team of Death Watch and a handful of T'au (six Battlesuits, half dozen Fire Warriors?).

Knights One is ALMOST DONE - just a little push on it might finish it off! the Eldar Wraith Knight is pretty close as well... then one more Imperial Knight and we could have some serious mech battles...

The Eldar Titans Seriously, they're not that detailed... The big one is half done!? What am I waiting for!?

Imperial Guard? I've had a hankering to get to work on the Valhalllans (and maybe finish up some more of the Tallarn) - likely spurred on from reading Ciaphus Cain the last few months.

Necromunda!? Still have LOADS of Necromunda minis to finish up - entire gangs of Van Saar, Orlocks, and Goliaths and piles and piles of Hive Scum and Ratskins and others... Be nice to get some of that done and start playing again!?

Kill Team Additions!? I have lots of ideas for Kill Teams... and I love the idea of Kill Team... I just don't love the game so much. We'll have to experiment with using Necromunda with regard 40K minis.

Aeronautica Imperialis Finish off stuff!


Other

Planned Purchases

This weekend the last of the Psychic Awakening books - Pariah - is to be released. Along with it are two sets of miniatures - Lord Inquisitor Kyria Draxus and the Daemonifuge – Ephrael Stern and Kyganil of the Bloody Tears. I was planning to pick up the book and both sets of miniatures, but Finnegan decided HE should have an Inquisitor to lead his small force of Deathwatch and would like to pick up a copy of Lord Inquisitor Kyria Draxus for himself - I said there was no sense in both of us having one, so he could have the one I asked for, but I could paint it for him. Of course as we were looking at them, Keira started mentioning that she always liked the ideas of having some Battle Sisters (and already has Harlequins) (Ephrael Stern is a Sister of Battle and Kyganil of the Bloody Tears is - or was - a Harlequin)... but I wasn't about to give up THAT pair...

#New 40k - I have a feeling this is coming up in July sometime. I'll pick that up too and give it a try.

House of Blades - the new Necromunda book covering Clan Escher - was originally slated to be released in Q2, but with the worldwide pandemic going on and things shutting down at GW, it's now to be a Q3 release.

Warhammer Quest Blackstone Fortress: Ascension. Not sure if this is a Q3 release - but given that they announced it a few months ago, I imagine it will be.

I, of course, have loads of other stuff already to paint, so I'm hoping that there won't be any other stuff I really feel I NEED to get!

One other thing I was thinking about, though... As Keira briefly showed some interest with Stern and Kyganil, and has been crazy into Supernatural (the TV show) lately, I thought I might try and lure her back in with a series of narrative games featuring a pair of Ordo Malleus DEAMON HUNTERS - Sam(anther) and Dee(Anna) Chesterwind... (Sam and Dean Winchester are the main characters in Supernatural and they are Hunters - that hunt all manner of supernatural creatures - demons being one of the most common of their foes!) I was looking at a few options at ArtelW miniatures....

Oh, there are other things on my "Wishlist" but I have pretty clearly established prerequisites for each.

For example, I'd like to pick up a Keeper of Secrets - either the new plastic one, or the Forge World one... but I've told myself that I have to paint ALL the Daemons I have before I can pick that up to lead them.

I'd like to get a Chaos Knight (either a Desecrator or Rampager) - to finish off a Super Heavy Detachment of Chaos Knights... but I need to finish the two knights I already HAVE (one is Chaos, the other is Imperial).

Closet-Megalomaniac-Planner is already envisioning mass air campaigns with Valkyries carrying drop troops that have to get to a specific hex to be able to drop them as reinforcements for the ground scenario and bigger play areas and... and... but I have to FINISH all the aircraft in the box set AND play a few games before I buy ANYMORE Aeronautica Imperialis stuff!!

There are others... but all require I FINISH stuff - like, entire collections of what I already got - so I don't imagine I'll be buying TOO MANY more miniatures (beyond the few aforementioned special character figures) at any point in the near future...



Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

A wrap up of Junes games.

Maybe a painting update?

STILL MORE June Games (and... Other Stuff)

One week left in June - and, indeed, in 2020-Q2! Guess I better look back at my Q2 plans and see if there are any games I need to quickly play in this last week to finish up any goals! (And maybe start making plans for Q3!

Tuesday, 16 June 2020



Another morning ride with Amanda!

For anyone interested in knowing a bit more about the lovely lady in so many of these photos, the union that Amanda is a member of recently did an article about her:

ASPA Member Highlight – Amanda Plante

(and though they didn't give me any credit, I took half the photos in that article!?)



She did the 8Km loop to the south bridge... and then I carried on for a bit of a longer ride to the North Bridge.



Just to give you a sense of where that is... the lower loop that I did with Amanda was about 8Km. I did about 40Km. It had been raining the last few days and so I decided to stay (mostly) on paved tails within the city.



Some new signage I noticed... presumably people were seeing the sign and just stopping in the middle of the road to look and see if they could spot some... the new addition to the signage leaves a bit of a mixed message, though... I mean.... are automobiles supposed to just HIT any wildlife that cross this road now? Because...  NO STOPPING!?



Some more new way finding signage along the trail, which is really nice. In fact reading the sign I saw that there was something labelled on the legend as "Meewasin Mowed Trails" through the Northwest swale. So I thought I'd check this out... If it was grassed it might, at least, not be muddy like a dirt trail would be.



They WERE, in fact, really nice to ride. And, unlike the grassy areas of Chief Whitecap park, not nearly so bumpy as I'd imagined.



Spotted this colourful critter when I stopped to adjust my jacket - which was strapped to my seat bag and had come loose and started rubbing on my tire.



Trail through the swale.



It was super quite out there - despite some very busy roadways surrounding it on all sides!



MURDER!!!



A lovely ride.



The forecast for the week was looking rather daunting, so I thought today was a good day to get a longer ride in - as I might not be able to - at least without getting soaked - for the rest of the week. 

In the evening...



Finnegan was playing in his semi-monthly D&D game that he PLAYS in (the other two games he's the DM)



While he was doing that Keira actually suggested WE play a game and said she'd like to play Ingenious!



I don't LOVE the game... but it's been a while, so I figured "why not?"

I lost.

Like, by a lot...

 

Afterwards, Amanda and I played game of Azul.

I lost that one, too.

Also by a LOT!

I don't mind playing it, though, because it has pretty tiles. and it's fun.


Wednesday, 17 June 2020



Wednesday is Work-In-Progress Wednesday at the Hunters of the Warp (local 40K group) so I took pics of the desk. I like W-I-P Wednesday. It gives me an excuse to tidy up the desk a bit and take a look at what I'm doing and wonder what the hell I'm doing!?

Yeah... this is "tidy"...



I've posted pictures of the completed Thunderbolts and XV86 Battlesuit, so I won't post those... but there is a lot of Chaos (like, miniatures) still on the desk, lurking behind them - Emperor's Children Space Marines and Cultists for Blackstone Fortress!



The whole work area needs a bit of a tidy-up!

I didn't really leave the house on Wednesday - it was pouring rain all day...


Friday, 19 June 2020

Out and about again - went for two rides. One with Amanda in the morning - short loop to the south bridge and then up to broadway, where I left her and she went to the dentist.



While on that ride I spotted this bird - at first I thought it might be heron... but I'm not so sure now...? Any ideas?



Also spotted a pair of Pelicans - which are pretty common along the river, but usually they're up by the weir - rarely see them this south.



Almost as soon as I got home, I was heading out again with Keira to make our first trip to the library in, like, for-EVAR!? I gotta tell you she was SO EXCITED!! The library withdraws has been the hardest thing for her in the whole pandemic!



More fuzzy goslings downtown..



As Friday evening is now "Family Game Night" we sat down to play "Railways of North America" (which is really Railways of CANADA!?)



Keira and I TIED for first with 82 points each! But she had $82000 and I only had $74000.... so... she won... so close!


Saturday, 20 June 2020

In the morning I picked up Warhammer Quest Blackstone Fortress: Dark Alliance and the new Psychic Awakening book - War of the Spider (and... um... the new Fabius Bile miniature...)

In the afternoon Finnegan ran his D&D game...



And in the evening I ran Wrath & Glory. We started out on Roll20... but while I could see and hear everyone... and they could all see and hear me... no one else could see or hear each other!? We reset and then woody and I could see and hear each other and Jonathan and Chris could see and hear each other... but no one else... Kept trying to restart and reset and screw around with things, but nothing seemed to work... so we set up a Webex meeting in one window and kept roll20 open in the other to use the character sheets and dice rolling app and the map I'd uploaded!

Once we got things sorted out we all had a pretty great time. Some investigating happened. There was a stake out. There was a brief combat with some servitor body-snatchers. They broke into the building they suspect the baddies are working out of.


Monday, 22 June 2020

Monday is Blackstone Fortress night! But it also kind of ended up being Work Late Night and Make Pie Night and so we got started a little late...



We kicked off the new quest this evening - the Quest for the Ritual Chamber - which was included in the Traitor Command expansion. So we really only got through ONE Exploration card - and AMBUSH! And then we called it a night. Looking forward at the things coming up this week, I put it all away until next Monday. Seems like I spent more time setting it up and putting it all away than playing... which was a bit of a let down...

Didn't even get to see the Traitor Commissar or Chaos Ogryn.... or gain any of the dataslates we are required to collect up (like "Clues" or "Ambul Spoor" in the previous quests) to find our way to the Ritual Chamber... ah well...


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Not sure if I'm going to write up this evening's game as a game report... it was pretty short... maybe I will...

Sometime this week Will be a bit of a look back at 2020-Q2 and some planning for Q3

Painting...? More Blackstone Fortress stuff? Excalation Explorers or Cultists? the Zoat from Dark Alliance!? or maybe the Ork Dakkajets from Aeronautica Imperialis? Or FABIUS BILE!!!?

The Lair of the Beast

After looking for clues in The Dreaded Ambull, our intrepid group of explorers (they've stuck together long enough that, despite the fluff, I don't think we can really call them Allies of Convenience) have determined the location of the Ambull's lair and now mount a mission to steal three of it's eggs!

To reach the Lair of the Beast, though, the explorers have to go through an Access Route of four random Exploration Cards - I used one of the exploration cards from The Dreaded Ambull expansion that we didn't get to in the previous expedition, plus three others.

Now we had THREE characters that all started Uninspired and had specific things to do to flip their card to the Inspired side. Pious Vorne had to take out three hostiles with a single Cleansing Flame action. Dorg "The Wall" Brogan had to take out a hostile - on THEIR activation - which mean one of Dorg's actions had to be to go on Defence... and not have hostiles in contact... BUT be close enough to one that could... but ideally one that would be weak enough he could take it out with a single smash of his Power Maul... And then there is Grekh. The only way Grekh gets inspired is by spending inspiration points. He's slightly more likely to get them than others - he doubles the wound value of hostiles take out during his activation before rolling the Blackstone dice (d20) to see if he gains inspiration (by rolling equal to or less than said number. So that was one of our main things to try and do in the four Access Route cards - which COULD be all combats... or ALL challenges... or any mix... Not knowing how many Combats there might be, we would want to try and do all three of these things as quick as possible!


Exploration Card One - Combat 



Off to a good start... not overwhelming number of terrifying, deadly hostiles... some conveniently groups for some Cleansing Flame!



And so that is what Pious Vorne did, right off the hop....



Ur-Ghuls burned. Card flipped. Check!



Mind you that didn't leave much for Grekh or Dorg...



WE kept repositioning Dorg and letting things charge up against him... but he just couldn't take them out!? Grekh stepped in and finished things off... but rolled too high on the Blackstone Die to gain inspiration... Killed everything... Picked up some ARchaeotech no one really needed all that badly and wandered out of there...


Exploration Card Two - Challenge... Sort of... 



Card Number Two was kind of a Challenge... I mean, it was a Challenge card... but it was really a VERY SHORT POTENTIALLY DEADLY COMBAT... facing the Ambull!



Aaaaaand it was going first!



Time to use the Clarion's Infra-Wave Laud Hailers to distract the Am-Bull!

FOR ONCE the Laud Hailers worked and EVERYONE ended up going BEFORE the Ambull!!



So how to do this... there was much debate... Since Vorne already had her card flipped, we thought maybe Grekh could use up all the Destiny Dice to have a go at the Ambull. I mean, if he took it down, he'd automatically get ONE point of inspiration (only needing two more to gain Inspiration!)



So Vorne laid down some flame and scarpered off to the escape chamber.



Grekh moved up and took a few shots at the Ambull...



He used his Warpgate Amulet AND the Antedil Orb... neither worked... so he ran for it!



Everyone else ran for it - and all made it into the Escape Chamber - BUT it doesn't leave until the END of the turn, which meant the Ambull got to go before we left!



On it's first activation it charged - and got a little burned running through Vorne's flames.

Shadowguide, who was on overwatch, took a shot and did some more damage!



His second activation was to FALL BACK!! So Lucky!? So... Strange!?  I guess it was taken aback by the Aeldari's acurate - and painful - long rifle fire, and that gave it pause... long enough for us to escape!


Exploration Card Three - Challenge



Espern Locarno was the leader at this time, so we took him out and shuffled them and revealed one to Amanda. This was easy-peasy! I had two questions

#1 Are you Xenos? If no, it's Pious Vorne. If yes, go on to Question #2

#2 Are you Green? If yes, Grekh. If no, Amallyn Shadowguide.

Only needed the first one...



As it was Pious Vorne!


Exploration Card Four - Combat



Last card before the Lair and... hardly anyone there!? So Grekh was on a murder Rampage, trying desperately to get some Inspiration points!



He blammed the two Spindle Drones...



He hunted down the Boreworms...



Alas... he gained no inspiration for such easy kills... and would remain uninspired as we entered...


The Lair of the Beast...



Ah yeah!



So this was interesting - the hostile groups started hidden and would not activate until revealed... so we didn't know what was where, exactly... but could do SOME sneaking about before things got really crazy and do some positioning. To succeed we needed to remove three egg counters - getting them safely to one of the escape chambers. picking one up required an action (4+) just like a search action - and then they filled one of the action squares on the card of the character that was carrying it (much like a wound does) reducing the number of activation dice it can roll (and, consequently, the number of action it could carry out in a turn.

WE figured the egg cluster that was closest to me - near the bottom of the picture above (and below...) could only be seen by one hostile group... so we could take them out and grab two of the eggs, summon the nearby chamber and get those eggs in there - then Shadow guide could sneak up as close as possible without being seen by any of the other hostiles and then SPRINT - using ALL the Destiny Dice - to get there and back in one activation...



Grekh had made a run at that first hostile group but was completely unable to do ANYTHING to any of the Spindle Drones that popped up. So Locarno - bearing the Spindle Amulet moved up to deal with them. Amallyn Shadow guide sprinted forward and summoned a Maglev Chamber.



The next turn everyone moved into position. Grekh grabbed BOTH of the eggs from the first cluster. Vorne set up some fire to give any hostiles that might pop up some disincentive to come our way.



Grekh got back to the chamber with the eggs and everyone was ready to cover Shadowguide rum for a third egg!




Unfortunately at the end of the turn, the event made a Boreworm show up in the Egg Cluster Shaodwguide was moving towards and moved out and blocked her way - so she would have to kill it (slowing her down some) before making her run for the egg and arousing the remaining Hostiles (one the second group was revealed ALL were revealed!)

She had little trouble slaying the Boreworm and made her run, grabbed the egg and made it back to the Maglev chamber!



It was clear that Dorg wasn't going to make it there in ONE turn... and the Enraged Ambull was VRY close... So Locarno ran up and smashed it with his Thunder Hammer - if a hostile is wounded by it, it is also STUNNED - and that would mean it would lose it's FIRST activation, just standing up.







Dorg slowing making his way to the escape chamber - but blocking the Ur-Ghuls from swarming in from the flank!

The first one had charged and set off a boobytrap Grekh had set on the very first turn, killing it. the Second charged Dorg and Dorg smashed it (finally flipping to his Inspired side). The other two smelling the charged remains of the first and hearing the death squeals of the second decided to just hand out where they were - both rolled Hold actions!



Locarno got out of there and Vorne burned the Ambull as best she could and then laid down some flame for it to move through once it got up and inevitably charged!






More flaming... more wounds on the Ambull - not nearly enough though!



The following turn the Ur-Ghuls went first - which was handy, because this one just bumped up against Dorg and though Dorg couldn't hit it back, the ur-Ghul wasn't able to do much to him.



The second one was still thinking about discretion being the better part of valour...



Then the Ambull got up and CHARGED!

This was actually (potentially) REALLY BAD - as Dorg could not possibly get into the Mag-lev chamber this turn as it was four hexes away - and with the Ambull being in the adjacent hex, Dorg would have to stop before getting in! Luckily most of the explorers had gone earlier in the initiative order and were all able to unload on it with Overwatch fire...



And... By the Light of the Emperor... they took it out!?



With no Ambull in the way, Dorg waltzed into the Maglev chamber and off they went!!!



And so... to see what was in the secret envelope!



At the beginning of the Quest the Sett VII facility was set up on the "under construction" side and, as there were no instruction in the rules on how it was to ever COMPLETE construction, I had pretty much guessed something in the envelope would say it's completed and what it would do ONCE it was complete



Sure enough, there was a card saying it's all set up now and it adds an extra step BERORE each expedition, where explorers with extra Archeotech saved up in their stasis chambers can go buy any of the goodies held within before heading into off on a new Expedition.



Locarno went and picked up another Mindsigil Trap (as they've come in handy)



And Grekh bought EVERYTHING at Kraav'cha-to... just because he could.

Amallyn Shadowguide actually gave up one of the things she's been carrying - just to keep one Archaeotech aside - so she could buy some Rad Maggot Salival Extract before our next expedition!



Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Tomorrow.... or... rather... later today (but after I go to sleep for a bit) we'll be playing Blackstone Fortress again and hopefully it won't take a week to get the next game report done!

I was planning on posting another June Games update on Monday or Tuesday as well.

As for painting... Well... The Cultists and new explorers for Blackstone Fortress were shoved aside by the Aaronautica Imperialis distraction - but I was hoping to finish up the Ork Dakkajets and get back to work on the Cultists... but now work on the Dakkajets have been stalled by the arrival of the ZOAT from the new Dark Alliance expansion for Blackstone Fortress (just released this past weekend) AND the new Fabius Bile miniature - and his little assistant (also just released this past weekend!)!?

Hopefully I'll find some time to get some paint on those and get them off the table... and the dakka jets... AND the Cultists and explorers in the next two weeks... because there is sure to be ANOTHER distraction the first week of July when the final book of the Psychic Awakening is released - and a few new figures with it!

Finnegan has agreed, in principle, to play some Kill Team sometime this week, now that he is officially DONE school for the term! So perhaps there will be another game report later in the week. He was suggesting he'd like to fight against Kreuger's Unvalids - because they just "seem fun"!