Looking Back at 2019

well...

I set out a LOT of things to do in Game Plan 2019... some of them I got done... others, not so much... I kind of revisited the plan in October with the 2019 Q4 Plans... some of those things got done... others...

Here's how it all rolled out..

Board Games

Challenges

10x10 Family Challenge

At the beginning of the year we collectively picked ten games that we all agreed to play ten times - all together, as a family...

I tried to convince everyone to select games that they liked, and/or wanted to play MORE - to either learn it better or just because they really, really enjoyed it, and tried to stick to shorter games that didn't require a full day commitment. I really tried to stay away from and "Should plays" games that I feel like I "SHOULD" play because I invested a lot in it or I really like the IDEA of the game....?

We settled on:

Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress
Terraforming Mars
Splendor
Century: Golem Edition
Castles of Burgundy
Shadowrun: Crossfire
Sentinels of the Multiverse
Race for the Galaxy
Abyss
Power Grid Deluxe

Things started off well enough... we got a few games in... after a few months it was becoming painfully obvious that Finnegan just wasn't into it - he'd play the games when I suggested them and felt beholden to play them - because he HAD said he would - but he played them with zero interest or joy and basically played in such a way as to END the game as quickly as possible - regardless of the outcome or anyone else's fun... So I told him not to bother. We changed to "rules" of the challenge that it had to be a "majority" of the family. Then it became "as long at me and Amanda" when Keira complained that "how come Finnegan doesn't HAVE to play!?" and I was all, like, you don't HAVE to either - NO ONE forced you to do this!? GAH!? By half way through the year I was viewing them, pretty much as PERSONAL Challenges - though Amanda playing in, I think, all of the ones I recored, and Keira played in MOST of them... and Finnegan joined us for the occasional game.

In the end, of these we managed to play:

0x Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress
12x Terraforming Mars
11x Splendor
15x Century: Golem Edition
6x The Castles of Burgundy
0x Shadowrun: Crossfire
4x Sentinels of the Multiverse
8x Race for the Galaxy
6x Abyss
5x Power Grid Deluxe: Europe/North America

As fall rolled around it became painfully clear that we weren't going to get through all of them - it was starting to look like there were a few we just might not play AT ALL!!? So I more or less decided to abandon the 10x10 challenge and tried to focus on a 5x5 challenge for the final quarter of the year (and resolved to just stick to 5x5 Quarterly challenges from now on!)


Q4-5x5 CHALLENGE

Hellboy: The Boardgame
Castles of Burgundy
Shadowrun: Crossfire
Race for the Galaxy
Abyss

Hellboy got on there because I knew we'd be getting it for Xmas and our plan had been, since we kickstarted it a year and a half ago, that that is what we'd do for the holidaze this year - play through a bunch of the scenarios. Three of the others were ones we were CLOSE ENOUGH to finishing off 10 games that I put them on there in hopes of finishing off at least HALF of the 10x10. Shadowrun: Crossfire... well... that's Keira's game and she SAID she still really, REALLY wanted to play it... so...

Of THOSE, what we actually played in the final quarter was...

3x Hellboy: The Board Game
4x Race for the Galaxy
1x The Castles of Burgundy

So... STILL didn't get in ANY games of Shadowrun: Crossfire, or any MORE games of Abyss...


Personal Challenges

In addition to the "Family Challenge" I decided to set a few more, personal, gaming goals... this is where I snuck in a bunch of "Shoulds" - Games I felt like I SHOULD play more of... and for the most part failed...

GMT/COIN Games
Phil Eklund Games
Kill Team
Warhammer 40,000 (8th Edition)
Wrath & Glory (RPG)

barely got any of these done...

I did play over 10 games of 40K, a half-dozen games of Wrath & Glory, three games of Kill Team, ONE Phil Eklund game (High Frontier) and NOT ONE GMT/COIN game!?

Despite the moderate success of the Family Challenge and the mostly failure of the Personal Challenge, we did get in a LOT of games this year... According to Board Game Geek, this is what I played:

17x Warhammer 40,000 (Eighth Edition)
15x Century: Golem Edition
15x Necromunda Rulebook
12x Terraforming Mars
11x 7 Wonders Duel
11x Splendor
8x Race for the Galaxy
7x Patchwork
7x Warhammer 40,000: Apocalypse
6x Abyss
6x The Castles of Burgundy
6x Wrath & Glory
5x 7 Wonders
5x Power Grid Deluxe: Europe/North America
4x Castles of Mad King Ludwig
4x Marrying Mr. Darcy
4x Sentinels of the Multiverse
3x Call of Cthulhu (7th Edition)
3x Dixit
3x Hellboy: The Board Game
3x Nations
3x Retro Loonacy
3x SET
3x Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team
2x Cthulhu Realms
2x Deep Sea Adventure
2x Kingdom Builder
2x Monarch
2x Perikles
1x Anomia
1x Carcassonne
1x Dominion
1x Epyllion
1x Exploding Kittens
1x Firefly Fluxx
1x High Frontier (Third Edition)
1x Just Desserts
1x Mysterium 1
1x Nature Fluxx
1x Nautilus
1x The Pikeman's Lament
1x Princes of the Renaissance
1x Ra
1x Railways of the World
1x Scythe
1x Small World
1x A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying
1x Twilight Squabble
1x Unstable Unicorns

183 games I played in total... a good chunk of them with the family. We set out to do a Challenge to play 100 games with the family... and a further 50 games of my own. I may not have played EXACTLY what I planned... but I got in a few enough games!

And this doesn't even include all the Role-Playing Games the kids played (I only log the games I play!). For almost the entire year, Finnegan ran a weekly RPG game on Saturday afternoons. It started off as Dungeon Crawl Classics, then over the summer he wrapped that up and started a D&D 5E game in the fall - which has, just now, come to a conclusion.... sort of... He's starting a NEW D&D5E campaign in the new year... in, more or less, the same setting - his own world... but a few years later...? In addition to the Saturday game, he's been playing in a campaign on alternating Tuesday evenings, and for the first half of the year was playing in ANOTHER D&D game in the tabletop games club at the local high school - while running a Star Wars: Edge of Empire game for the same club on a different afternoon. Since September, he's been running the D&D game on Wednesdays after school.

All the while the guy has been VERY involved with playtesting new Four Against Darkness adventures and rulebooks for Ganesha Games....



Oh, yeah. That's Finnegan's name there in print as official play tester and provider of helpful comments. (Proud Geek Dad Moment!).

So he may not have been participating much in our challenge - but he was still playing a LOT of games... just more role-playing games... and with his own friends!


Board Game Afternoons

I had hoped to get some regular board game afternoons going on Saturday afternoons... But that just didn't happen... for a variety of reasons. Mostly because I'd planned to play the games downstairs in the new game room (while the kids were playing role-playing games in the kitchen) and... well... the Game Room renovations just didn't get finished.

Next year I'd at least like to get a Game Evening going on Fridays!


February Game Weekend

I did plan and run a Game Weekend in February. Originally I'd planned to run Kill Team campaign weekend... but then I finally got my mitts on Wrath & Glory and I was SUPER STOKED to play that... and so I ran that instead... unfortunately I ended up having WAY TOO MANY players - would have been a GREAT number for a Kill Team campaign... too many for a role-playing game marathon!!!


ToonCon/Fall Game Weekend

As per the last few years, I had planned to run a game (or GAMES) at ToonCon in the fall... but early in the year, after my Game Plan was decided, the organizers of ToonCon decided not to DO ToonCon this year and made plans to move from the fall to the spring (too many other things going on in the fall!)

So I decided to host a fall game weekend myself. A number of people had indicated that the (Canadian) Thanksgiving weekend would potentially work for them, so I began preparing... the Short version of a long story: Didn't Really Happen.


Role-playing Games

I'd really hoped to play more role-playing games this year...

The KIDS sure played a LOT of Role-Playing Games - or at least Finnegan did!

I started out the year in a Call of Cthulhu game that my friend Bruce was running. But I ended up dropping out of it - there were just TOO many players... and... I just didn't love the system... For all of it's failings, I like the Savage Worlds Cthulhu a lot better...


Painting

I had different plans at different parts of the year... some I managed to complete. some were hopeful wishes that were abandoned in favour of OOH! SHINY!! Regardless of the success or failure of each plan I DID get a fair bit painted this year... maybe not as much as previous years, but still, quite a bit. there's a whole PAGE devoted to what I did - with links to each page where I posted each of the painted items:

 2019 Painted Versus Purchased

In short however I painted...

PAINTED

28mm Foot: 408
28mm Mounted: 14
28mm Artillery: 0
28mm Big Beasties/Vehicles: 10
Titans: 1

Micro Foot: 3
Micro Mounted: 23
Micro Artillery: 0
Mirco Tanks/Vehicles: 13
Micro Mechs: Micro Titans: 0

Terrain
Little Bits/Markers: 142
Ruined Bits (Walls, Rubble Piles): 0
Buildings: 0
3'x3' Tiles: 0
2'x2' Tiles: 0
1'x1' Tiles: 0
3-D Dungeon Tiles: 0
Movement trays: 16


PURCHASED (or otherwise acquired - gifts, trades, etc.)

28mm Foot: 707
28mm Mounted: 15
28mm Artillery: 3
28mm Big Beasties/Vehicles: 32
28mm Super-Heavy/TITANIC: 8
Small Terrain Pieces: 79

Micro Spaceships: 10

Micro Foot: 0
Micro Mounted: 0
Micro Artillery: 0
Mirco Tanks: 1
Micro Mechs: 5
Micro Titans: 5

DISPOSALS(Traded or Sold)
28mm Foot (painted): 0
28mm Foot: (unpainted): 0
15mm WW2: Loads


The bigger failure was in the acquisition department... I bought WAAAAAAAAAY more than I should have... More than I could paint... more than I really even have ROOM for anymore!? A LOT of them were "TOO GOOD DEALS" that just couldn't be passed up. Others were things I figured I should GET NOW BEFORE IT GOES OUT OF PRINT!

Definitely need to reign that in and just get some stuff PAINTED next year!!!!


The War Room

didn't happen...

I was supposed to have cleaned out the basement, did some renovating, added some lighting, built some bookshelves, etc, etc... I did clear out the room... sort of... and dismantled my old, gigantic gaming/hobby table... but that's as far as it got... maybe next year.... This past week I DID do some work on the drywall in the stairwell LEADING TO the game room...? There may be hope yet!


I Hope YOU all had a FABULOUS year of gaming and doing all of the other fun-but-not-so-gamey things that you do. Do let me know in the comments what the highlights were for your year!


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

We've played another game of Hellboy that I hope I'll get a chance to do a game report for - and we'll probably get in another game tomorrow, hopefully. I have been painting up a storm the last few days, perhaps I'll post a few pics of the stuff I finish up in the next few days.

Until then...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

December 2019 Games - Part Two - The HOLIDAZE

Part The Second...

It kind of felt like the holidaze officially began on Saturday, 21 December (covered in Part One)- as that was the last scheduled activity for the year (Keira's last dance class and Finnegan's last D&D game in the campaign he's been running since September). But we're starting with the 24th...


Tuesday, 24 December 2019

Amanda's last day of work for the year. They always let everyone go at noon, but Amanda ALWAYS stays a couple extra hours to get "just a few last things done!"?

The plan was to head over to my folks for the afternoon. We've always kind of done Xmas on the 24th - opening presents and all that - since I was very young. I think it was because they wanted to sleep in on Xmas morning... For years I didn't celebrate Xmas at all, but once you have kids... grandparents can be relentless... and you have to pick your battles... so we started celebrating along with them. somehow the tradition, for a while was Xmas eve at my folks... then Xmas day at my sisters... AND THEN they'd all come over to our house on Boxing Day... well... after going shopping for Boxing Day bargains... that only lasted a couple years before it was decided it was TOO MUCH! So everyone stopped coming to our place... then we stopped going to my sisters and all that remains is supper at my folks... which turned into snacks and hanging out and doing a puzzle and getting a few gifts... So that was THE PLAN, anyway...



But then this guy got sick and started puking. At first, when he was just feeling a little queasy, he suggested maybe he could just stay home and the rest of us could go... but then he started puking and up came his breakfast - Now Finnegan has a HUGE breakfast of oatmeal every morning - which contains a very large amount of carbohydrates for which he has to take a LOT of insulin (being Type One Diabetic) unfortunately, puking can cause a lot of trouble when you've just taken a lot of short acting insulin and then suddenly don't have the carbs on board for it to deal with. Blood-glucose levels can drop quickly and they did - like, to dangerously low levels. for a brief moment we thought we'd be heading to Emergency (the first time we'd have had to do that for this reason!) But then he managed to get some Powerade into himself and the blood sugar level crawled back up into not-so-panicky zone and we decided to stick it out here.



Meanwhile, Amanda had come home and My mother and sister bundled up all the food and presents and brought them all over here! Family gift exchange took place on the boy's bed - who was starting to feel better...

My mom and sister didn't stay long. They went back to my folks and had their meal and did a puzzle. We ate some of the food they brought over and then spent most of the rest of the day watching TV and movies (finished off Supernatural Season Three and... watched a movie...?)

Wednesday, 25 December 2019

Had our own little gift exchange and the kids opened a few things Amanda's folks had sent.



Our Xmas haul. The Hellboy stuff was our collective gift to ourselves. Last year when we kickstarted it, we agreed it would be the only gift we got this year and that I would only open it when it arrived (earlier this year) so I could paint some of the miniatures. The Warscryer Citadel and Wrath and Rapture were from my folks (I'd said get ONE for Xmas and ONE for my birthday... but then they just gave me both NOW!?). CO2 was also from my folks - sort of for all of us. Amanda got the Terraforming Mars expansions from my folks. I got Amanda the 7 Wonders Duel expansion (Pantheon). and Pax Transhumanity Bios: Origins...? Well, they weren't really an Xmas gift - they just happened to arrive this past week and it FELT like a gift to myself, so I included them in the pic...

Finnegan also got a few things - the Expanse Role-Playing Game and The Expanse: The Board Game. He'd expressed interest in the series and the role-playing game a few months ago (when Dragon's Den Games was having it's anniversary sale!) so we'd pick that up for him... he seemed... less than 100% enthusiastic about recieving them... He was VERY excited about the pack of Graph Paper my mom got him!? (He's been playing - and play-testing - a lot of Four Against Darkness lately...)



He's what came in that big Hellboy Kickstarted box... or... at least... the FIRST of the TWO big Hellboy Kickstarter boxes. I haven't even painted HALF of the miniatures yet. I did sort it all out and figured out which were needed for the stuff that was THEORETICALLY for the CORE BOX - as OUR "core box" included the regular core box plus two or three kickstarter excuse expansions and a pile of extra minis!?



On the afternoon of the 25th we played our way through our first game of Hellboy.

You can read more about that here:

Hellboy - Game One - Eviction Notice

Later, in the evening, I played a few games with Amanda. She wanted to try out her new Pantheon expansion to 7 Wonders Duel



We started with just a run through the base game - because it's been a month or two since we last played... and more recently we've played regular 7 Wonders... so I thought it would be a good idea to play a game of Duel to remind ourselves of the rules and mechanics and how it all worked.

She utterly crushed me.

Seriously, she had ALL FOUR of her wonders built before I even got ONE done! Somehow I pulled it out of the fire enough with some last minute military and a PILE of money to make it Not-Quite-A-COMPLETE-Disaster... but she still won 63-54... It was very well played...



Then we tried with the new Pantheon expansion. It was really interesting. Added a whole lot of new stuff to the game - which DOES make it a fair bit longer as there is a lot more to think about and do...

I ended up winning with a Military Victory just part way through the Third Era...

Amanda was kind of annoyed by this and called it "anticlimactic"! She'd expected the pantheon to play a MUCH larger role in the victory. It did play a bit of a role in my victory. If I HADN'T won with military though, she would have won by a landslide - she had gods that gave her a pile of victory points and I think all of the grand temples were ones that she should have collected up and scored another 21 points for the three of them alone...


Thursday, 26 December 2019

The day started off with a trip to a medical clinic with The Boy. Would have gone the day before by all but ONE in the entire city was closed and they stopped taking walk-ins at noon because it was so busy. And it wasn't really EMERGENCY level of concern at that point, so...

After he got home I headed out to Dragon's Den Games for their annual Boxing Day Sale.



Here's what I hauled home from that...

Do you see a theme developing...?

(It's "CHAOS" - I'm kind of working on a Chaos force based around Slaanesh - daemons and maybe some Emperor's Children Chaos Space Marines, some Cultists, and backed up by some Chaos Knights.... I'm not buying any NEW Knights! Just modifying the ones I picked up last year and haven't even completed!?)

(wait... was it last year...? Or the YEAR BEFORE!?)

Later in the afternoon we sat down to play a SECOND game of Hellboy!

Finnegan also brought home a pretty HUGE pile - his was ALL D&D, though. three or four (or FIVE!?) books and a half-dozen packs of monster/encounter cards.



We all played the same characters. This time we were rescuing a missing agent from Rasputin's Ghost! You can read more about that here:

Hellboy - Game Two - Perils of the Job



In the evening Amanda and I played Terraforming Mars - and tried with her new Prelude Expansion. I can see why it's so popular... I've read a lot of comments that people "will not play without it"... I liked Terraforming Mars just fine... I like Prelude, but I wouldn't say that the base game is now, somehow, unplayable without it!?



I played Cheung Shin Mars with Early Settlement and Martian Industries. Totally had a Builder Theme going from the word "go". I think I snapped up the Builder Award by the Second or Third Round!? I had about FIVE cities built, before I remembered that they're really only worth points if you have GREENERY around them (snapping up the Mayor Award)! Spent the rest of the game trying to get out as much green as I could (and grabbed the Gardener Award - just before Amanda got The Planner - there might have been an f-bomb or two dropped at that point)! I also ended up with the Thermalist Prize... I ended the game with 114 points! My highest score ever... mind you it was the first time we played with just the two of us... as the same amount of work has to be done to Terraform Mars whether you're playing with two or five... with less players, each player, individually, WILL score more points...



Amanda tried out Point Lunar with Business Empire and Self-Sufficient Settlement. I swear she put out more than TWICE as many cards as me... and definitely scored about three times as many points as me from just cards. Despite all those cities and greenery and awards... I only JUST squeaked out a win, nine points ahead of Amanda's 105!


Friday, 27 December 2019 

Wow... feeling like the week was just FLYING by at this point!?

Didn't play any games.... went for a bike ride, stopeed by the library and picked up a few DVDs, watched a few episodes of Good Omens.


Saturday, 28 December 2019

Again, no games... Another bike ride. Watched more of Good Omens. Keira was feeling sick, now too! Not flu sick... just sick.. and tired and maybe a bit of an earache and spent most of the day in bed.


Sunday, 29 December 2019

well... We FINISHED Good Omens... The only time Keira got out of bed was to watch the couple of episodes of Good Omens. Went to bed early with a fever.


Monday, 30 December 2019

And... then there was Game of Thrones Season Eight.... Keira's fever was gone and her ears weren't hurting so much.


Tuesday, 31 December 2019

To start off Tuesday, Amanda and spent most of the afternoon running around doing errands... the evening we spent doing family stuff.



First we ordered take-out from Seasoned Fusion - a fantastic Asian restaurant in downtown Saskatoon with LOADS of Vegan and Vegetarian options! YUMMERS!



And then we DID finally play another game of Hellboy. There'll probably be a game report for that in the next day or two.

Afterwards we watched a few episodes of Brooklyn Nine-Nine - which we just started watching and could all agree on...

And that's the rest of our December games!

Didn't quite get to play as many games as we'd hoped this past week... but was a little hard with both kids feeling sick a good chunk of the week. The plan for tomorrow is to play games and watch movies all day! You'll have to read about that in the January game report!

Happy New Year Everyone!


Coming soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

A look back at 2019.

The (Not-So-)Necromunda Game Weekend

Generally speaking, I plan two big "events" a year. One is the Wargaming Weekend in February - which started out as my wargaming birthday bash (a one-evening/afternoon game held for local friends) but then evolved into a wargaming weekend at the end of February (closest to my birthday) and has in recent years moved to the "Family Day" long weekend in mid-february to make it easier for those that travel from Edmonton or Calgary or Winnipeg to participate. The other is a fall convention game. Originally that was Heroe's Gambit here in Saskatoon. For a couple years I went out to Fallcon in Calgary. In recent years it's been at ToonCon here in Saskatoon.

This past February I had originally planned to run a Kill Team campaign of sorts. Previous skirmish campaign weekends had been a huge success - like the Shadow War: Armageddon campaign I'd run the previous year, or the Quest for the Skull Sword Frostgrave weekend or the Ronin Campaign I'd run previously. But as the date drew nearer I was losing interest fast - partly due to problems with Kill Team - but also because I'd FINALLY managed to get my hands on Wrath & Glory and was SUPER EXCITED to try that out... so we did... and that was a bit of a mistake... I had nine players lined up for the weekend which would have been great for a marathon weekend role-playing mini-campaign using a system I'd JUST picked up and read... Everyone said they'd had a good time, but I felt like they were just being polite as I'D been pretty disappointed with how it all played out - not at all how I'd envisioned it...

So, that weekend was a bit of a letdown for me. Just to be clear, it wasn't that the players weren't enthusiastic, or did anything "wrong" - I just felt like I had personally failed to run a seamless epic gaming weekend... I know... probably unrealistic expectations... AND around the same time I learned that there wasn't going to be a Tooncon this fall! They are planning on moving the convention from the fall to the spring - I think because there were often conflicts with other conventions going on in the fall (the Saskatoon Entertainment Expo being the big one)...? So, shortly after my game weekend, I started having conversations with a few people about hosting a second game weekend in the fall.

Initially it wasn't Necromunda - it was just a nebulous idea of a gaming weekend of some kind. We'd tossed around possible dates in September or October and, much to my surprise, the (Canadian) Thanksgiving weekend seemed the most promising for all. (I'd figured Thanksgiving people usually want to spend with family and stuff...?).

Late spring/early summer I picked up necromunda, and shortly after that decided that's what I'd run! Of the seven or eight people I was talking to, a couple were definitely not going to be able to make it, but the remaining "hard maybes"... or "I'd LIKE to"s....It was four months away... I get that it's hard to commit to something so far in advance when there is so much else going on these days... (though it does make me wonder how anyone plans weddings these days - aren't those are generally planned up to a year in advance and RSVPs are expected many months in advance.... and it's the same time registration for ToonCon would have opened...?).

Nevertheless, I forged ahead!

For the last four months I've been painting like a mad bastard. I tracked down and painted up some more Red Redemptionists, and a Cawdor Gang, and a Delaque Gang, and Kal Jericho and Scabs, and some Adeptus Arbites, and some Spyrers, and helped Finnegan paint up some Genestealer Cultists and a Magos and some MORE cultists, and Karloth Valois, and an assortment of Hive Scum and Bounty Hunters and an Escher Gang, and barriers and doors, and then I scratch-built a PILE of 3-D wall sections for the  Zone Mortalis boards in the basic box...

Then I ran three different games for the kids and a friend at the end of the summer (two of which were effectively play-tests of scenario ideas for this weekend).

And then I set up the Bronze Gates Campaign for the family - partly to have a game we could play together (as I wasn't running a role-playing game like I'd hoped to this fall) and partly to get some experience/practice at playing both Necromunda itself and the Dominion Campaign system - elements of which I was planning to use this weekend.

In the last few weeks I've been still feverishly cranking out stuff for the campaign weekend....



Desperately trying to finish up John's Vermyn (which he planned to use as Chaos Cultists) and some Old Ratskins (adding to the few I already had) for one of the scenarios... Maybe some more Escher Gangers if I could get some done or some gen-u-ine plague zombie figures I had (it'd be nice to not have to use generic zombies)...



and building a new custom cavern terrain tile (to use with the other cavern terrain tiles) for the aforementioned scenario involving the ratskins...



and ANOTHER huge batch of wall sections (because I'd picked up the Badzone Delta-7 tile set to set up some HUGE Zone Mortalis battlefields!) and some custom player order markers... They're just going to be plain - no time to graffiti these all up!

And I wrote out five 4-6 player scenarios (hoping that really only four would show up, but planning for six...) each with a foe to deal with (Karloth Valois and Zomibes, Kat Jericho and Friends, Spyrers, Rastkins, and Red Redemptionists),  and subplots for each potential gang, and...  well... you get the idea...

Can anybody guess where this is all going...?

Around mid-September one friend had to bail due to upcoming surgery... Of all the people I invited, he was the one person I had been fairly sure was actually coming (I mean, the dude had booked a B&B!), and, at that point, wasn't really concerned if anyone else was coming because he's super fun to play with and not only puts up with playing with my kids, he seems to genuinely enjoy it! If it had been just him, Amanda and the kids could have joined in and it would have been just a great weekend... But, as I said, in the end he had to bail.

Then, by the end of September, I was noticing it was pretty quiet on the communication front with the other potential players that had suggested they were interested, considering it was only a few weeks away. I thought I'd check to see if anyone was still available... and, one-by-one they eventually all (well, mostly) got back to me... two more dropped out... another never replied... leaving one player still planning on coming.

I was pretty much ready to throw in the towel at that point... but Amanda stepped in, knowing how distract I was about this, and she and the kids could play - that would make four players. The kids were lukewarm to the idea, but she pointed out they didn't actually have any other plans and that it's be like the other game weekends (like, we'd be eating out most of the weekend - which we rarely ever do otherwise).

Thursday morning the last player bailed...

ugh....

I think the kids, upon hearing this news, were most concerned that if I just cancelled altogether we wouldn't be eating/ordering out...

I had only a few things left to prepare for the weekend - a handful of figures to finish painting, touch-ups on the wall sections, and filling out a few cards for the antagonists... I could have gotten it done and played with the family, they'd have done that for me, even if it wasn't their favourite thing... but I fell into a bit of a malaise and kind of just stopped working on it all...


11 October 2019 - Friday Evening

Come Friday evening Amanda decided to stay late at work... since, y'know, there was now no rush to come home...

The kids and I DID order out, though (from Seasoned Fusion!). Apparently they don't deliver anymore, however, so I had to ride downtown on my bike to pick it all up. It was just above freezing. The food was lukewarm by the time I got home - but it was still delicious!

Afterwards we DID get in a few games... but not Necromunda...



Amanda, Finnegan and I played Race for the Galaxy - with the Xeno Invasion expansion. I started with the Anti-Xeno Defence Post, but by the end had a pretty solid Genes/Uplift theme going - honestly, I love having a solid theme better than winning the game... but I did actually win this one! Finnegan started with Old Earth and just started getting a mining engine up and running... when I ended the game. Amanda started with Epsilon Eridani and a mosh-mash of other cards... At least this time she participated in the war a bit, instead of cherry-picking and taking double VP every round (Finnegan learned that lesson from the last game and only had a military power of +1 by the end of the game and a HUGE pile of double victory tokens... which got him second place!)



My tableau at the end of the game. 49VP.



Afterwards we all played a round of Unstable Unicorns...



Amanda beat us pretty soundly with EIGHT unicorns in her stable at the end of the game!!


12 October 2019 - Saturday

As we weren't playing Necromunda, Amanda took the opportunity to head downtown with Keira and pick out some new glasses and do some other shopping. She also picked up tickets for the play at Persephone Theatre (which we had already seen earlier) for the kids to go to in the evening. They got back around four and we had a couple hours before the kids had to head out to the play, so we got in a few games...



First, we played a couple of games of Centruy: Golem Edition.



I was ON FIRE and totally rocked the first round - winning with 90 points!? WOO!



We played a second round, and this time Amanda kicked our butts...



I only gained 50 points...



After that we played a game of Splendor.



It was a super close game - I ended with 14 points.



Amanda had 15 and Keira had 13. Keira was pretty disappointed - she was SO CLOSE - she's never won a game of Splendor and had started to think this might be the first time! not-so-much...


13 October 2019 - Sunday

Okay... Sunday we DID actually play some Necromunda!

I HAD planned to play one game with each family member through out the day - these would all be games for our Bronze Gates Campaign...



First I challenged Finnegan for control of the Bronze Gates - the Toll crossing that gives it's name to the entire Region. I let Finnegan pick the scenario and he chose Zone Mortalis Scenario 2: The Trap. I'm not sure who was trapping whom... It went poorly for the Delaque Gangers...

afterwards I had hoped to play a game with Keira, but Finnegan and I didn't get started early enough and went longer than expected, so we didn't have time before the kids were off to my folks for the night.



while they were out, however, I played a game with Amanda!



We tried one of the scenarios in the Arbitrators section of the main rulebook - Escort Mission! A Guild Agent with close ties to how Cawdor and the Redptionists said if they would escort her out of the Bronze Gates, she would petition House Cawdor to have the One-Eyed Red Snakes maintain control of the Shrine of the Sinners Past (Bone Shrine) as there were no representatives of House Cawdor residing in the Bronze Gates at this time.

I actually WON a game and took control of the Bone Shrine!


14 October 2019 - Monday

On Monday I'd originally planned to run a larger 3-player game (one of the scenarios I'd originally planned for the weekend). But then Amanda was keen to play a Rescue Mission to retrieve the ganger she'd lost to me in the previous evening's game... I Thought maybe we'd get that done quickly and still have time to play a larger game afterwards.



We didn't get started with that until well after noon and by the time we were done it was supper time and no one was interested in playing games after supper - Keira is sick with a cold and Amanda had work to do on a costume she's supposed to bring along to dance class tomorrow evening... so... here I am writing game reports...


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I am working on reports for those three games of Necromunda - they should be up soonish...

2019 - Q4 Plans

This weekend I have my Necromunda gaming weekend coming up and have been working feverishly to try and get everything ready for that. Despite that, I've already been casting an eye towards what's coming next...

For the last... well... decade (or MORE!?), I've generally tried to come up with a PLAN for the year. You can see them in the labels off to the left there, Starting with Game Plan 07 (of course the labels include updates and addendum throughout the year, so if you click on one, you're likely to get the last update first and have to scroll through a few pages to find the original plan - although the last one might be a "Year in Review" post, which will usually include a link to the initial plan...). While I absolutely believe that it is always good to have a plan, I've been finding, however, that it's getting harder and harder to stick with one plan for an entire year. It's been harder to gauge what will hold my (and the family's collective) interest - hence the regular addendum! I've been thinking that, going forward, I should probably just do QUARTERLY plans.

Quarterly plans, being shorter term, seem like they might be a little more attainable. Maybe instead of doing a 10x10 gaming challenge for the year, it will be a 5x5 challenge for each quarter - so we don't have to guess which games we're going to be interested in for the ENTIRE YEAR! And painting plans for a shorter period of time

As we're already over a week into October, there are actually only 12 weeks left in this Quarter (and the year!) - and this week is going to be madhouse busy trying to finish up things for the Necromunda gaming weekend!


10x10/5x5 Challenge

Looking at the 10x10 Family Game Challenge... What have we done and what could we still achieve....? Can that be made into a Q4-5x5 Challenge...?

Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress - for reasons that will be explained later, this is just not going to happen... it will likely be replaced with another game, though...

Terraforming Mars - DONE! we've already played 10 games of this so far this year! We'll probably get in a few extra games before the year is done!

Splendor and Century: Golem Edition - we have played nine and eight games of these, respectively, and I'm quite certain we'll finish off 10 - I mean, the remaining three could all be played in an evening... so, likely won't include them in a Q4-5x5 Challenge.

Castles of Burgundy - we've played five games, have five to go, this seems a likely candidate to add to a Q4-5x5 Challenge...

Shadowrun: Crossfire - we have played ZERO games of this. It was one of Keira's choices. She says she's still interested, so I might add that to a Q4-5x5 Challenge

Sentinels of the Multiverse - One of Finnegan's choices. I really just can't be bothered with this game... probably done with it.

Race for the Galaxy - played four, six to go... it's a pretty easy game, so it could be added and be very attainable...

Abyss - played six, only four left - also very attainable candidate.

Power Grid Deluxe - also played four and have six to go... I'm not sure if people are as interested in this one. Could be this one or Castles of Burgundy...?

Hellboy: The Board Game? Not originally part of the Challenge. We Kickstarted this a last year and had planned that it would be our family Xmas gift to ourselves and that we'd spend the holidaze playing through the scenarios. Amanda did say I could open it early and look through it and paint the minis - so they're ready to go for the holidaze. THIS might be the thing that replaces Blackstone Fortress on our challenge...

Q4-5x5 CHALLENGE

Hellboy: The Boardgame
Castles of Burgundy
Shadowrun: Crossfire
Race for the Galaxy
Abyss
(and/or maybe Power Grid Deluxe...?)

Oh, and there will be at least five games of Necromunda played... I guess it could replace one of the other games on the list...? Or count it as one of the "Additional x10 Personal Challenge" items, since I'm not really going to get to anymore of those... Yeah, I've more or less given up on getting in any more games on my additional x10 Personal Challenge (Mercy Games, Eklund Games, GMT/COIN games, Wrath & Glory, etc)... Maybe I'll add some of those to next years' 5x5 challenges.

In addition to this Keira is going to be running a few more Role-playing games. I, however, am giving up on running any myself this year. It is ANOTHER thing I'm hoping to get back into in the new year!!


The Painting Plan - 2019 Q4

The painting plan for a quarter, should probably take into account games I'd like to play in the FOLLOWING quarter - to give myself some time to get stuff done - so there will be SOME longer range planning beyond simply the next quarter.

Sitting down to think about what I want to do next, I decided the priorities should be finishing up a few last Necromunda things (as I would like to get another campaign going in the new year) and getting the Hellboy stuff done - or, at least, ENOUGH of it done that we can play over the Holidaze and into the new year.

Each week I'm hoping to paint a "unit", which generally be a group of 5-10 figures that are hopefully similar enough that I can batch paint them and get them all done in a week - OR a single larger beastie or vehicle...

Painting - 11 weeks (AFTER this weekend) - 11 "units"

1 - Escher
2 - Orlocks
3 - Van Saar
4 - Other Assorted Necromunda
5 - Hell boy Heroes (Abe, Liz, Hellboy, Johann, Roger, Agent Corrigan, etc...?)
6 - 10 Frog dudes
7 - 10 Frog dudes
8 - 10 Frog Swarms (they're small) plus Giant Frog Monster
9 - Rasputin and Tentacle Monster
10 - Conqueror Worm
11 - Nazis

That should complete most of the stuff from the base game plus the Conqueror Worm expansion - and a few of the Kickstarter bonus figures. I also have the "Beasts and Monsters" for the BPRD archives expansion to do and MORE bonus figures... and the BOX FULL OF EVIL (containing the Darkness Falls and Hellboy in Mexico Expansions) should be arriving immanently with five new Heroes, an additional back-up Agent, two Boss Monsters, two Mini-Bosses, and thirty more minions! (Big Box of Evil, alone, looks like it will eat up HALF of 2020 Q1! This is the kind of planning I really need to do - it will hopefully keep me from spending on things I REALLY DON'T HAVE TIME FOR!!!! ...let alone space!)

Wow.... I had REALLY hoped to get some Blackstone Fortress stuff done as well - so we could play that over the Holidaze... but, if I'm going to be realistic, it seems that's just going to have to wait....? Just the stuff I already have looks like it would take another eight weeks...? So, that, with the remaining Hellboy stuff, has Q1 all wrapped up...

Maybe...

There are, of course, OTHER things I was hoping to get to in the new year!! I will probably host a game weekend on the Family Day weekend in February and/or plan a big game event for my birthday the following week. Also there will HOPEFULLY be another Battle of the Abyss Apocalypse Event  - using the NEW Apocalypse rules! - that I might like to finish up some stuff for (Keira's suggested she might be interested in teaming up with me to field an Aeldari force - so I might like to finish up the Eldar Titans - since then I picked up an additional revenant Titan, so I COULD field an entire Super Heavy Detachment of Eldar titans... of course, I already HAVE an Eldar Super Heavy Detachment...)!

So, perhaps I'll wait until the new year to plan out what I'm gong to do in the new year...

Now the Chibi Madness looks like an even BIGGER mistake than I was already feeling it was... (oh, I'll probably sneak one or two in, here and there... but I have no idea when I'll get to the rest of them... so now I can at least say to myself - yeah, I don't need any more of those....)


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

NECROMUNDA STUFF!!!

I should have an update or two with a few more minis I'm trying to finish up before the weekend, and after that there will probably be five separate game reports - on for each of the games/scenarios I'm planning to run this weekend

Oh, and some fantasy Orc/goblin blood bowl team/warband for Mordhiem or Frostgrave or whatever... but that's a whole other story!?

Fall Plans

Over the long weekend we all sat down to go over our clandars and sort out schedules for school and work and other activities and appointments and such. Looks like it’s going to be a busy fall and winter with all the extra yoga and dance and music and theatre classes lined up. Keira is taking six - SIX! – dance classes and volunteering at another for dancers with special needs! Both kids are taking Improv. Amanda and I are both taking two dance classes (Irish for me, a Burlesque Group dance class for Amanda and we’re taking a Ballroom Dance class together!)… Cello… violin… Amanda’s teaching FOUR regular yoga classes… it’s a little crazy!

We did manage to set aside a few times a week for games, though – mostly on the weekends!


GAMES

Friday Night is Boardgame night – Ostensibly a FAMILY boardgame night, but I’m not forcing anyone to play. The idea is to pick a game we’ll play on Friday evening, see who is interested in playing, if the kids aren’t I’ll see if other friends are interested. I’ve decided to further reduce the requirements for the 10x10 “Family” boardgame challenge to me (as it was MY idea) and at least ONE other family member… so it may be just me and Amanda finishing off that challenge… but whatever…

Saturday Afternoon, Finnegan is planning to continue running his D&D5E game. Currently there are SIX players (including Keira) – three guys, three girls! It gets a bit noisy when they ALL show up. 

(Finnegan is ALSO still playing in a D&D game on Alternating Tuesday evenings and will likely be involved in another through the tabletop games club at the local High School - he may be showing less interest in playing board and miniature games with his dad, but gaming is still the kids main passion - especially role-playing games and Four Against Darkness)

Saturday Night is going to be role-playing night. I really want to get a Wrath & Glory game going this fall. Keira has been wanting to run role-playing games for AGES and has amassed a pile of them (Shadowrun -5th Edition, Firefly RPG, Song of Ice and Fire RPG, Epyllion, and others) so I thought I’d alternate running games on Saturday evening with her.

Sunday Night – Skirmish Night – On Sundays I’m going to arbitrate (and play in) a Necromunda Dominion campaign for the family – starting this Sunday and running for thirteen weeks (rather than the suggested seven) - more on this shortly! I might run another one in the new year and open it up to other players.

I’m hoping to wrap the Necromunda campaign up by mid-December – right around the time all our activities will be wrapping up for the term. At that point, I’m hoping to run the family through a Blackstone fortress campaign and then, over the holidaze, I’m hoping we’ll play through a Hellboy campaign of sorts!

There will be a few evenings (or entire weekends!) where we miss the occasional game – like when Amanda and I attend plays at Persephone Theatre (we’ve been subscribers for some time). Actually, most weekends in October will be out. The first weekend is the Saskatoon International Burlesque Festival (which Amanda is involved in). The second weekend is my Necromunda gaming weekend – so there WILL still be gaming, but it will be ALL Necromunda! And the last weekend the Rosebud Burlesque Club will be putting on its annual Peek-a-Boo Halloween show over two evenings (which, again, Amanda is involved in). I’m sure there will be other things that come up… but it’s good to have some kind of a plan – otherwise NO gaming would happen ever!

For the last few years, in September, the kids and I have done a 30 days/30 games challenge. As general interest has waned a bit, I thought I’d just make it a personal challenge to play a game every day in September and hopefully the family will humour me enough to play a few of those with me. So far I played Nautilus with Amanda and Brent on Sunday (the 1st) as well as a game of Century: Golem Edition with Amanda (and then Amanda and Keira actually played Patchwork while I was making supper), and yesterday I played 7 Wonders Duel with Amanda. Tomorrow I’m heading over to Kurtis’ to play Perikles again with Brent and John and maybe Darrin. Not sure what or when I’ll get in a game today, or Thursday, but it shouldn’t be too hard to convince Keira to try out some of those little games she’s picked up over the last year or so and never had a chance to get them on the table, or try out all the different boards she got for Flash Point she picked up at the ToonCon game auction last year that are still in shrink wrap!


PAINTING

For the next five weeks, I’m going to be concentrating on painting up miniatures and terrain for Necromunda – for use in both the Dominion Campaign and the Necromunda gaming weekend I am hosting over the (Canadian) Thanksgiving weekend in October. I’m hoping I can finish up my Escher, Orlock, Van Saar and Ratskin gangs, as well as a gang of Chaos Cultists for John (made up of Mantic Games Vermyn) as a pile more walls.

After the Necromunda stuff is completed I’m going to start work on the Blackstone Fortress figures and Hellboy figures.

That should keep me busy enough – but I do have a few other projects lurking in the wings that I may do a little work on from time to time; I have TWO Imperial Knights that are very nearly finished and, darnit, I woud REALLY like to just have them finished off! There are nearly a dozen Imperial Guard vehicles – many of which are assembled – that I’d like to get painted over the fall/winter, even though I have no immediate use for them either. Those Eldar Titans… A bunch of Epic stuff… some other 6mm stuff (modern)… and much, much more… stuff I’ll work on when I need a break from the main projects.


Coming Soon to Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

A painting update of an assortment of odd and sundry items.

News and background for the Necromunda Dominion Campaign I’ll be running with the family this fall.

MORE Necromunda stuff!!!

June's Games

We didn't play a LOT of games in June.



Part of that was because Amanda was away for half of it - left for the states on the 15th and is just getting back today (Canada Day! 1 July 2019). Also Amanda got SUPER busy at work and we didn't even see her much the first two weeks when she was, theoretically, still here...

Also... other things... lots of activities wrapping up for the term. Lots of bike rides going on...

It FELT like we were kicking it off right... played games on the first and second...


Saturday, 1 June 2019



In the afternoon, Finnegan wan his game of Dungeon Crawl Classics.



Om the evening Amanda and I played a game of Century: Golem Edition.



I just could not get it together... ended up with 68 points...

And Amanda played a really good game and ended up with 90!!!


Sunday, 2 June 2019



Me and the Grrrlz sat down to play a few games of Splendor.

 

The first game Amanda rocked it. got her 15 and I had only 7... and Keira only had THREE!?



Second game I seemed to find my form...

 

I ended the game with just 15. Both Keira and Amanda were very close - each with 11.


Saturday, 8 June 2019

And then it was Saturday before any more games were played...



In the afternoon, Finnegan ran his Dungeon Crawl Classics game... Keira bailed and instead decided to go to one of the Knowlympic events at one of the branch libraries on the other side of town... She says she hasn't been having so much fun in the game lately.

In the evening our friend Shannon came over for Quesadillas and Games!



While I was cooking, the Grrrlz played Splendor. I'm not sure who won that one...



Afterwards we all played Power Grid Deluxe - but on the European side.  It was a fun game. Both Amanda and I powered 17 cities in the last round - but I had about 50 more Elektros than her at the end (the tie breaker) Shannon and Keira were just behind with 14 and 16 respectively!


Tuesday, 11 June 2019



One Tuesday Leanne and Taotao came over. Leanne had business to take with Amanda, so Finnegan and I decided to teach Taotao how to play Dominion..

It's been a LONG time since we played Dominion, so it was really fun to pull it out and give it a go. We just played with the base game and one of the pre-generated sets - maybe even the very beginner set.. I ended the game with 51 points, Finnegan had 40 and Taotao had 15... which seems far behind, but I'm certain it was much higher than we scored in OUR first games!!!

Saturday, 15 June 2019

This was supposed to be Free RPG Day. I mean, it seems like it was in other places. We went down to our FLGS (Dragon's Den Games in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan!) only to discover for the first time in... over a decade... there were no Free RPGs to be had!!! Apparently the copies their distributor received were damaged and they wouldn't send them out to anyone.

Booooooooooo!

There were a couple the kids were really looking forward to - Keira was super stoked about another Dungeons and Doggies adventure as well as the adventure for Kids on Bikes (another game she's picked up). Finnegan had been planning to pick up the Dungeon Crawl Classics adventure...

Usually they also have a sale going on to coincide with the celebration... I'd been waiting two weeks to go in a pick up all the necromunda stuff... But no sale (I think Al game me a bit of a deal on it all anyway...)



yeah.. ALL IN!!!



Finnegan did host his usually Dungeon Crawl Classics game... or... maybe they played Four Against Darkness... I can't recall... Keira also didn't play this week and instead - after saying good-bye to Amanda who headed off to the airport - we went out to another library event at the OTHER end of town...


Saturday, 22 June 2019 



The kids and I partnered up with Other Tim to play in the Strange Bedfellows 40K Team Tournament



Keira's Asuryani Force



Other Tim's Asuryanit force



My own Asuryani Force!



Finnegan sorting out the Drukhari he was playing. These are minis I've painted for Amanda, but since she wasn't in town and the Drukhari seemed a better fit that Finnegan's Orks, that's who he played.

 

 Keira and Other Tim battling against some Adeptus Astartes...

 

Finnegan and I battling against some MORE Adeptus Astartes..

You can see a full report of the ensuing shenannigans and all the fabulous looking armies elsewhere on this blog:

Strange Bedfellows 40K Team Tournament

And... that was about it... We talked about trying to get in some games over this past weekend - the Canada Day long weekend, here in Canada! But it just didn't seem to happen...

I guess Jack did stop by on Saturday to play Four Against Darkness with Finnegan... but those aren't games I play in so I don't really record those...

Maybe over the summer things will pick up a bit...?


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Termagaunts... yes, Termagaunts... They have nothing at all to do with Necromunda... It's... a long story.

AFTER THAT we'll hopefully be getting to some Necromunda stuff... or maybe a whole pile of Eldar Guardians for Keira and more Kroot for Finnegan!