Distractions - Lord of the Rings

At some point, rebasing all the English Civil War, I kind of decided that I should rebase ALL of my Hordes of the Things. If been doing some of them here and there for some time - GW figures got rebased to, theoretically, use with Warcry or Age of Sigmar. Generally, I feel like they'll all be more useful on individual bases. On Hordes of the Things bases they can be used for Hordes of the Things. On individual bases they can be used for SO MANY OTHER games - Song of Blades and Heroes, Savage Worlds, Dragon Rampant (I know, they COULD be used in Dragon Rampant...), Frostgrave, assorted role-playing games... You get the idea... 

Where did I start...? The Lord of the Rings stuff!? 

Why?! I don't know... Maybe because those drawers are in the top right...? Because I was looking through them all and realized there were two full Dragon Rampant forces right there!?

WHY am I suddenly re-basing HotT fantasy armies when I was working on English Civil War stuff...!? I don't know... the ADHD happened, I guess. 

Technically, I'm NOT currently rebasing these. I've stopped. I have a moment of clarity and wondered what the fuck I was doing and finished up the last few I'd started and stopped for the time being! But I wasted spent so much time on this over the last week, I thought I'd share some of the progress/process.

Based individually, THESE, ones have an additional game they could be used in - the Middle-Earth™ Strategy Battle Game from Games Workshop - for which MOST of these were originally make. I have no great urge to buy or play the Middle-Earth™ Strategy Battle Game... but I COULD!? 

(Considering the Core Book is $75CAD and each of the Army Books are $75, that would be $150 just to get the rules and model stats to play... so... that is NOT going to happen... Y'know, unless I find a used copy at the Symphony Book and Music sale for $5... like I did for Warhammer 40K 6th Edition!) 

three drawers of Lord of the Rings miniatures. Most of these were bought over a decade ago... When I was still playing Hordes of the Things on the regular. The idea was to build Lord of the Rings armies for Hordes of the Things, and base extras individually to use in games of Savage Worlds. Also, around the time, I think I was reading the Hobbit and Lord of the rings with the kids and probably watched the Special Edition DVDs with them... 

ALL of the miniatures I picked up used off ebay (or... maybe a few I got in trade...?) and paid a fraction of the cost to buy them new. I looked up GW Middle Earth miniatures the other day - to see what they cost, y'know, just in case I NEEDED to get any to fill holes in the armies I was trying to build and - Sweet Jiminy! - they are not inexpensive! IF ever I need anything else, I will be turning to ebay again! 

(The packages of Characters/Heroes are $40-$70 for 2-4 heroes, generally half mounted, half on foot! I mean, that's kind of inline with the rest of GWs minature lines. The Generic plastic foot, on the other hand, are still some of the least expensive GW minis $55CAD for about 24 models) 

Primarily, while rebasing these, I was thinking of Dragon Rampant and how these figures could be cobbled together into units and fielded as a warband in that game. It is the only game I'd use these in with proscribed unit sizes - and the one I'll be discussing most here. 

ROHAN

Drawer #1 - Rohan

This one is MOSTLY re-based, but still needs a lot of miniatures to be painted to be fielded as a force in Dragon Rampant. 

I will have seven, more or less, useable units (once they're all painted) 

• 1-2x Elite Riders @6 points
• 3x Heavy Riders (+mounted missiles) @5 points
• 1x Heavy Foot @4 points
• 1x Light Missiles @4 points

A total of 35 points... HOW will I field them as a 24 point warband... not sure just yet..?

Possibly:

• 1 Elite Riders @6 points
• 3x Heavy Riders (+mounted missiles) @5 points
• 1x Scouts @2 points

That would be 23 points. Maybe I could add "Hatred" or "enchanted weapons" to one of the units to make it 24...? 

Elite Riders -  Théoden - King of Rohan, Éomer - Marshal of the Riddermark, Gamling - the Royal Standard Bearer and three Royal Guard knights. 

The second - unpainted - batch of Elite Riders contains Théodred, Prince of Rohan, Éowyn, and four more Royal Guard knights. 

When I get to painting any more of these, I'll probably focus on Théodred, Éowyn, and two more Royal Guard knights. As I'll probably only ever be fielding ONE unit of Elite Riders with one (or more) of the characters leading them. 

 

Stuff I didn't get to rebasing - largely because I didn't have enough 40mm round bases on hand. This will make one unit of Heavy Riders (+Mounted Missiles). I thought I'd call them such because they all have a fair bit of armour and shields with swords and/or spears/lances and every one of them has a bow and quiver... 

I had thought of separating them into Heavy Riders - the ones bearing their swords and spears, and Light Riders - the ones shooting their bows. Then noticed the ones bearing the swords and spears also had bows and quivers across their backs... so... calling them ALL heavy riders with missiles. 

Need to rebase these, and paint up two more such units. 

Archers. I have four more, and along with two spare warriors with spears, could make a unit of twelve and be called Light Missiles... but that likely won't easily fit into a warband... so I might just use the ones already painted as Scouts and not worry so much about EVER painting the rest of the Archers... unless I ever decided I NEEDED to do and entirely dismounted force for Rohan... Y'know... for the Battle of Helm's Deep or whatever... But that would require buying a few boxes of Rohan warriors. 

MAYBE someday if I EVER get all the stuff I have painted AND I get REALLY excited about Lord of the Rings again AND start playing a LOT of games with these... MAYBE then... 

More of the foot that are painted. I have enough for one unit of Heavy Foot. 

I have an assortment of characters that could lead the unit. Éowyn is painted (showen above), but I also have dismounted versions of Théoden, Éomer, and Gamling to paint up. I suppose, IF ever I was to put together a dismounted warband of Rohan Warriors, I could group a few of the heroes into a single unit together and call them Elite Foot (Reduced Model Unit - if there was, say, three of them... removed on for every two damage dealt to the unit...?)

ISENGARD

Opposing the warriors of Rohan, I have a force or warriors of the Uruk-Hai/White Hand from Isengard. 

You can see how the original Hordes of the Things army was organized here:

Last of the Uruk-Hai Foot

These are almost all painted and would just need rebasing (I know, I can play Dragon Rampant with them AS IS... buuuuuut....). IF (when? if we're trying to be more positive...?) I get back to working on Lord of the Rings stuff... I'll probably focus on PAINTING the warriors of Rohan to finish up THAT force, THEN rebase these... 

What these COULD be fielded as:

• 1x Elite Foot (Missiles) @8 points
• 3x Heavy Foot (offensive) @6 points
• 2x Heavy Foot @4 points
• 1x Bellicose Foot @3 points 
• 1x Light Missiles @4 points
• 1x Lesser Warbeasts (+ranged attack?) @6 points

For a total of 47 points (FORTY-SEVEN!)

Or possibly it could be fielded as:

• 5x Heavy Foot @4 points
• 1x Bellicose Foot @3 points

for 23 points... 

I'll discuss the options below... 

Somehow I have TWO Saruman miniatures!? 

(actually I know exactly why I have two... at the I was buying these, they were very cheap to pick up off ebay and I often got TWO of most characters - ONE that I could put on a Hordes of the Things base, and a second to base on a washer and use in skirmish games - Savage Worlds is what I would have been using then - or role-playing games, if ever the opportunity arose...) 

If Saruman were to lead his troops in battle, directly, I figured I could represent him as Elite Foot (with Missiles). Elite foot because he's wearing some pretty heavy Plot Armour and can deal some serious damage against anyone with MAGIC! Also the Missiles represents him being able to throw fireballs, or whatever... He could either be a single-model unit (on his own) or a Reduced Model Unit (of three with Gríma Wormtongue, and whoever that other guy is) or just a regular six model unit with the three spare Uruk-Hai warriors I have in the back, there... 

(I don't know if Saruman is that bad-ass in battle... see Notes on Lord of the Rings below...) 

Uruk-Hai Warriors with crazy pike-like-things. They were "Spear" in Hordes of the Things. I would call these Heavy Foot in Dragon Rampant. Heavy Foot have an ability called "Wall of Spears" where they basically form a shield wall with spears poking out increasing their armour against foot attacks (but not shooting?). I have two full units of twelve... plus another half of a unit. 

I may, when rebasing these, cut the pikes down a bit, so they fit in the drawer standing up. It's always irritated me having to lay models over on their side inside a drawer, where they can slide around and bash into other models. I coudl even shorted them up enough to look more like halberds (as I've done with the one in Saruman's unit, above)

Two and a half units of Uruk-Hai warriors with sword and shield. In Hordes of the Things, these were "Blade". I was thinking, for Dragon Rampant, I could call these Heavy Foot (offensive) - Offensive heavy foot lose the "Wall of Spears" rules and their attack value becomes 4+... but at a cost of +2 Points per unit! 

I had thought the six additional Pike could be have their pikes shortened to look like halberds and added to the half unit of sword and shield warriors above to make a third full unit of 12 Offensive Heavy Foot... or just mix them in amongst the three units...

THEN I got to thinking, maybe I could just mix them ALL together - Five units of twelve each with six pike and six sword and shield and just call ALL of them Heavy Foot! This is probably what I will do...

Uruk-Hai Scouts. In Hordes of the Things I called these Warband. In Dragon Rampant, they will be Bellicose Foot. 

Archers. They were "Bow" in Hordes of the Things. I don't have quite enough to field them as Light Missiles... I could try and track down four more of these, but that might mean getting them as part of a lot that has more than I really NEED...  Alternatively, GW sells packs of four Uruk-Hai with Crossbows that could be added to this unit to make it twelve... OR, for now (or, rahter, when I ever rebase them and start PLAYING with them) I can just use four of them and call them Scouts. 

Warg Riders. Only ever got two of them done and called them "riders"... or... Maybe "Beasts"...? Here, they could be Light Riders, or Lesser Warbeasts (with missiles). I kind of need three more... 

I do have these... This was the only time I really got burned on ebay. I was sure I checked the picture, and, though they were in rough shape, all the parts were there to assemble them back into a full unit of six... but when they arrived there were three of the riders arms and five of the wargs legs that were missing, AND when I went to complain, the listing had vanished as the seller had deleted their account!? I might try, at some point, to cobble some sort of warg legs and arms for the riders together - to make a unit of six warg riders... but that seems like a lot of work and is really, REALLY low on the priority scale.... 

GONDOR (and others) 

The third box is a mix of Warriors of Gondor and others from the Lord of the Rings, mostly "Good" guys.. 

Elements of The Fellowship... two of each... because... REASONS?!

(as I explained above, they were very cheap to pick up off ebay and I often got TWO of most characters - ONE that I could put on a Hordes of the Things base, and a second to base on a washer and use in skirmish games, if ever the opportunity arose...)

In Hordes of the things I had a base of Aragon, Gimli, and Legolas to use as "Hero" and Gandalf the White (with Perragrin Took trailing along behind in Faramir's old armour he wore as a kid) to use as a "Magician" element. 

As Saruman above, these could be mixed together in a variety of combinations to be used as Elite Foot (with Missiles - either to represend Gandalf blasting things with magic, and/or Legolas' bow!) 

MORE of the Fellowship - ANOTHER Gandlaf, Gimli and Legolas (and NEARLY finished Aragorn) and a swarm of the hobbits in various gear and poses!? 

I also have mounted versions of Aragorn and Gimli and Legolas - could be Elite Rider - Reduced Model Unit... WITH MISSILES (@8 points!) 

Oh, and a mounted version of Gandal the White... missing his staff... 

For Gondor, I really only have these... Aragon the King on foot and small groups or archers and foot warriors... This is from one frame of plastic Warriors or Minas Tirith. IF I bought a box of Warriors of Minas Tirith ($55CAD, currently), it comes with two such frames totalling 24 Warriors, which would give me eight more of each - making three units of twelve - One unit of twelve archers (light missile) and two units of heavy foot (with an even mix of spear and sword armed warriors)...

But that would only make three units totalling 12 points.... I'd probably need to pick up, at least a box of Knights - which would only be a fourth unit, for another $53, for 6 more points... I guess I could add in some of the fellowship above and just call them Elite Foot without the missiles... alternatively, If I really wanted them to shoot, I could call them Light Missile (Sharpshooters, Reduced Model Unit)? 

That force could look like:

• 1x Light Missile (Sharpshooters, Reduced Model Unit) - Gandalf and Pippin @6 points
• 1x Elite Riders - Knights of Minas Tirith @ 6 points
• 2x Heavy Foot - warriors of Minas Tirith @4 points
• 1x Light Missile - Archers of Minas Tirith @4 points

for 24 points.... 

How likely is this to happen? Not-so-likely-at-all... for one, I'd have to spend upwards of $100 (maybe less, if I found some used ones in not-so-bad shape on ebay)... but I don't really HAVE an opponent for them!? So... If I get to painting the rest of these, it will probably just be to use them in smaller skirmish games.

Also have these... Not sure if this is Gondor... or some earlier dudes...? 

and these - a broken captain and a catapult crew... with no catapult1?

Oh, and Boromir and Faramir on foot... I guess they could be fielded together as a Elite Foot - Reduced Model Unit...? 

MOUTNED Boromir and Faramir... well... TWO of Faramir... again could be fielded as Elite Rider - Reduced Model Unit... (hey, that would negate the need for a unit of knights!? If I wanted a small group of Minas Tirith foot warriors and ALL THE HEROES) 

(Nevermind that Boromir was dead before any of the rest of The Fellowship made it to Minas Tirith...) 

Oh, and mounted Aragorn the King... He could join the other two brothers above if we wanted to do some serious RETCONing or "What Ifs...?"

OTHER STUFF...

Dwarves. Could be organized into a unit of Elite Foot and a unit of Scouts... which is ridiculous to even think of, because I'm not about to run out and buy any MORE LOTR dwarves to fill out and entire warband. I guess they could be organized as those units to be ADDED to any of the forces of good above.. 

Elves of Middle-Earth. Galadriel, Eldron and one of his sons (Elladan or Elrohir, I'm not sure which it is...), and four Galadhrim archers... (one of which might be Haldir...?) 

Six of them could be cobbled together to make a unit of Elite Foot (with Missiles) for 8 points and added to any of the above forces of Good... There is next to NO chance I will ever put together a force of LOTR Elves... 

So these are fun... These are old, OLD Lord of the Rings miniatures that Citadel Miniatures (GW) produced back in the late 80s... Beorn, Boromir, Gandalf, Strider and an Elf. I had a handful of them, these are the original paint jobs from 30+ years ago! (Well, not Beorn! But he's still on his original square base!) Often I am tempted to strip and repaint these (as I've done with so many of the miniatures I still have from this era (and started to do with other Lord of Rings miniatures of the same vintage - see below)... but other times I feel like I should keep them as they are. 

At one point I also had a mounted version of the Elf and Beorn as a giant bear... and a foot and mounted version of an Easterling - that looked like a Mongol! No idea where those ever got to... 

These are a few of the models from teh same line that I did strip and prime and rebase to be painted anew... but haven't gotten to is. I think it's Gollem and Bilbo in the back and Sam and Frodo in the front. 

Also some rangers from the same line. These are some of my favourite minitures EVER! They were, at one point, used as scouts for a Brettonian army... 

Last one... NOT Citadel miniatures... But miniatures I thought I could use as Nazgûl - Ringwraiths. Two of them ARE Ringwraith miniatures - from Mithril Miniatures. The other, that I thought might be a good stand-in for the Witch-King of Angmar, is, I think, from Reaper Miniatures...? 

Notes on the Lord of the Rings

The Lord of the Rings holds a weird place in my brain. For many, many years it was a source of great shame and embarrassment. As a teen-age fan of fantasy role-playing in the 1980s, the Lord of the Rings was, like, the starting point - required reading for all. A series ALL of my friends had read (some, multiple times) and... well.. I have NEVER read the entire series. 

I am not a good reader... In recent years, it has come to light that there are neurodevelopment reasons for this, but it's hard to let go of that feeling of not measuring up and feeling so stupid for s SO MANY years... decades... 

I did read the Hobbit as a teen, it was a struggle. Eventually I got through Fellowship of the Ring, too (but I had to skip the LOOOOONG preface in the copy I had) -but then just couldn't get going on Two Towers. I've ended up reading the Fellowship THREE TIMES!? I read it that first time as a teen. Then Amanda and I read it aloud to each other at one point - before having kids - it was a thing we did... I think we started reading it (and maybe the Hobbit...?) when we heard there was going to be a new movie series, and finished Fellowship (though I can't remember if we finished Fellowship before of after the movie came out!?), but then never got around to reading Two Towers... Finally I read it a THIRD TIME to my kids, aloud, when they were very young. That time I DID manage to read Two Towers... but that was a slog... and never got to finishing up the series by reading Return of the King... 

I also don't retain a LOT of details from what I've read... so most of what I know about Lord of the Rings is vague memories from the books, a bit from the movies, and stuff I've looked up online... 

(Hence, not really knowing if it's appropriate for Saruman or Gandalf to be running around the battlefield shooting stuff with MAGIC... I guess I'll worry about it if I ever get around to playing with these.) 

I've also never read Dune - another series that ALL my friends as a teen had read... 

AND I STILL haven't rewritten my 2023 Game Plan (Q1)... I could blame Keiran for hogging the computer for the last three days... but I've had time I COULD have been finishing it up... I just... did other stuff... (like deciding to rebase and reorganize the entire collection of Lord of the Rings miniatures to use with Dragon Rampant... for no real GOOD reason...) 

Looking Back at 2022

(TL/DR; I did stuff. There were REASONS!) 

It was a slow year here on the old Game Blog... 

You just have to look at the number of posts on the blog to see that things have slowed down around here. In the past sixteen years I've been doing this, I've created between 100 and 199 post per year (average 145), this year I only managed 83...? There are a few reasons for this... 

The biggest reason for less posts on this blog, is I tried to focus on some other things - getting out and riding my bike more, and making ART more. This is evidenced by the activities on my other blogs over this past year. The Bicycling Blog has had an average of 12 posts per year, and this past year I did 36! The ART BLOG, on the other hand, has had an average of 11 posts per year, and this year there have been 187!?

Part of the drop in posts has been the drop in interest in/engagement with blogs in general. I get comment notifications every day, but at this point, 99% of those are just spam comments that I delete. I can't blame people for not reading blogs anymore... I mean, I hardly read anyone else's blogs anymore - of course, a LOT of the people I did regularly follow in the past have either stopped, or just don't post as often, and so blogs have lost their critical mass for me. If things don't happen as part of a regular routine, they just don't happen in my life. I stopped checking my list daily, when there stopped being new stuff every day, and then I just stopped checking at all!? Now I just check in when I remember and have some time - which tends to be every few months... but by then it's just do daunting to leave a comment on all the blog posts... so I often just don't... (Sorry fellow bloggers!) 

I do check social media daily, for my dose of hobby/art inspiration. I've found a few past bloggers that post more regularly there, which has been really nice. Mostly instagram. I did rejoin twitter a little over a year ago and strictly limited things to hobby and art stuff and it was a much better experience... but wow... things have gotten a little weird over there and I might delete my account again... if the whole thing doesn't implode first!? I also started a Tumblr... but I don't love that site. It seems less intuitive to navigate and interact with and I haven't really found any hobby stuff to follow there. 

(If you DO have a social media account where you share your hobby stuff, let me know where to find you in the comments!)

A lot of other big things happened, outside of gaming.... I turned fifty and the day before, Russia invaded Ukraine - triggering all sorts of deep trauma of growing up in the 80s - raised by parents where were very involved in the anti-nuke movement and being HYPERAWARE how very close we were to utter annihilation in a nuclear war at any given moment - the popular media of the day didn't help! It was so bad, one of my core beliefs became "fuck it, who cares, probably not going to survive to adulthood" So many bad decisions were made based on this core belief. I think somewhere deep down in my brain it's lived on all this time... so imagine my surprise when I suddenly realized I had an ADULT CHILD (Finnegan turned 18) and I turned FIFTY!? WTF!?!?! I swear I was a teenager last week!? 

Finnegan also finished high school and started university! Runs two weekly D&D games and has just started posting videos about his D&D campaigns (they aren't four-hour live play-throughs - it's kind of animation... sort of... and, like, eight minutes long. You can see it here: The Goat Saga on YouTube) 

Keiran starred in their first musical and been very involved in school activities.

Amanada's just been CrAzY busy at work, and if that weren't enough, was teaching SIX different yoga classes on top of a full-time job!? 

GAME PLAN 2022

What I HAD planned to do last year can be seen here:

GAME PLAN 2022 - Q1 

GAME PLAN 2022 - Q2 

GAME PLAN 2022 - Q3 

Extra Thoughts about 5x/10x Challenges

GAME PLAN 2022 - Q4

50 Miniature Games 

I had wanted to make 2022 the year of getting back into miniature gaming. The plan was to play at least ONE miniature game every week of 2022 and post a game reprt of said game. I thought it MIGHT be possible. The previous year I'd played nearly fifty games (Warhammer Underworlds x22, Kill Team x10, Necromunda x6, Age of Sigmar  x4, The Silver Bayonet x2, Dragon Rampant x1, 40K9E x1, Warcry x1) and 51 the previous year (Blackstone Fortress x23, 40K8E x8, 40K9E x8, Hellboy: The Board Game x5, Necromunda x5, Battlefleet Gothic x1, Kill Team x1), so why shouldn't I be able to do at least 50 this year...? 

That totally DID NOT HAPPEN... 

GAMES PLAYED

5x5 (Quarterly) Challenge - 10x10 (Annual) Challenges 

The past few years these quarterly challenges had worked out okay and I totally even managed to pull off a 10x10 challenge - it worked out better if I didn't define WHICH ten I'd play for the year in January, because there was no telling where my interests would have gone by the end of the year. I figured the same model would probably work for this year... 

It did not. I just didn't play enough games overall... I didn't even make it to 100 games in TOTAL. The previous two years I played OVER 200 games. 

Here is what I DID end up playing this year:

1. Terraforming Mars x11
2. Wingspan x11
3. Carcassonne  x10
4. Warhammer Underworlds: Direchasm x10
5. Azul x8
6. Five Tribes x8
7. Wrath & Glory x6
8. Quebec 1759 x5
9. Stone Age x5
10. Splendor x5
11. Andean Abyss x2
12. Dresden Files Accelerated x2
13. Hellboy: The Board Game – Deluxe Edition x2
14. Warhammer Underworlds: Harrowdeep x2
15. Wizard Kings x2
16. Angola x1
17. Bananagrams x1
18. For Sale x1
19. Kingdom Builder x1
20. Marrying Mr. Darcy x1
21. Mutant Crawl Classics Role Playing Game x1
22. The Silver Bayonet x1
23. Space Base x1

So a total of 96 games were played this year. 

I guess if I looked at the top ten played games and expressed the games played as a percentage of 10 i got through 78% of a 10x10 challenge... a passing grade, I guess... a solid B (story of my life - "If only Tim would APPLY himself...") 

Wargaming Birthday Bash/February Game Weekend

Also just didn't happen. I played a few boardgames with the family... that's it... 

Next year...? I don't know... I've had thoughts... Don't know if it will happen... Might be too late.

TOONCON

There WAS a ToonCon this year. I did not go. The provincial mask mandate had ended and while some businesses and organizations continued to require staff and patrons to wear masks - for at least a little while, most did not. ToonCon had no mask mandate and the province was in a huge spike in Covid cases... so I decided not to go. 

Every year it's been a bit of a "Do I REALLY want to go do this...?" I didn't LOVE large gatherings of people BEFORE the pandemic began - too many people, so much noise... I had an okay enough time, but was UTTERLY EXHAUSTED by the end of the weekend, and NOT always a "good" kind of exhausted. 

I told myself that the games I ran were promoting the games, and getting more people playing the games I love could only be a good thing and it would be an opportunity to meet some new people that I might be able to play games with in the future. But, taking an honest look at the games I've run at conventions over the years, I don't know of ANYONE getting into a game because they played it with me at a convention, nor have I gained any new friends because of them... so... maybe I won't even bother with these in the future, even IF the pandemic ever fizzles out (which it is showing no signs of doing in my neck of the woods, despite pretty much EVERYONE's insistence that it is "over")

OTHER EVENTS

Nope. 

PAINTING

This was the least productive year for painting in the fifteen years I've been tracking this. By, like LOTS... On the plus side, this year also saw the lest acquisitions. 

Only looking at 28mm foot figures (by for the most common miniatures I own/paint), over the previous 14 years that I've been tracking painting, I've painted 9586 28mm foot figures - an average of 684 per year. The most I painted in one year was ten years ago in 2012 when I painted 1231 28mm foot figures. Over the previous 13 years that I've been tracking purchases/acquisitions, I have acquired 12906 28mm foot figures, an average of 992 per year. The most I acquired in one year was also 2012 when I acquired 2470 28mm foot figures!? Seriously, WTF was I thinking!?!?

By contrast, this year I only purchased 80 28mm foot figures, but only managed to paint 57. And the majority of the ones I painted were NOT the ones I PURCHASED this year!? 

Here's what I DID paint this year.... 

28mm Foot

Q1

• 1x Gug
• 7x Napoleonic French Naval Officers and Crew
• 13x Regency Monster Hunters
• 1x Vivandière
• 1x Horror
• 4x Magore's Fiends
• 4x Drepur's Wraithcreepers
• 3x Wurmspat
• 5x Hrothgorn's Mantrappers
• 4x Mollogs Mob
• 4x Xandire's Cursebreakers
• 2x Kamu No Oni
• 7x ECW Highlanders
• 1x ECW Musketeer

Year Total: 57 

28mm Mounted/Smaller Beasties

• 1x Lifeguard Cavalryman
• 1x James Graham, The Marquis of Montrose

28mm Big Beasties/Vehicles

• 2x Great War British Tanks
• 1x Oni No Akuma

Little Bits/Markers/Tokens

• 3x Treasure/Clue Tokens
• 1x T'au Rocket Pod Thingie
• 3x Warhammer Underworlds: Beastgrave Terrain Bits
• 1x Bushwakka's Trap
• 1x Porta Potty
• 1x Disapproving Hand Spell Effect
• 4x Furniture and stump

Total Bitz: 14

The above stats ignore other scales, as they are dwarfed by the amount of 28mm stuff I have. This year, I DID manage to get to painting a BUNCH of the micro/"epic" scale miniatures I've acquired over the years, which partially accounts for why I painted so little 28mm stuff. Here's what I got done:

Micro Foot

• 33x Imperial Guard
• 60x Ork boyz 
• 4x Ork Commanders
• 1x Chaos Sorcerer
• 5x Chaos Space Marine
• 81x Orks

Total: 181 Mirco Foot

Micro Mounted

• 1x Killa Can
• 4x Warbuggies 
• 4x Warbikers
• 4x MOAR Killa Kans
• 1x Skullmaster, Herald of Khorne on Juggernaut
• 5x Chaos Space Marines on Steed of Slaanesh

Total: 19 Micro Mounted

Mirco Tanks/Vehicles

• 10x Leman Russ Tanks
• 2x Gorgon Heavy Transporters
• 1x Xoxigar Pattern Shadowsword
• 4x Morkanaut (or maybe Gorkanaut?)
• 10x Trucks
• 1x Leviathan Command Vehicle 
• 2x Daemon Engines of Khorne
• 5x Emperor's Children Landraiders
• 3x MOAR Ork Trukks 
• 1x MOAR Daemon Engine of Khorne

Total: 39 Micro Vehicles

What DID I acquire this year...?

I bought two Kill Team box sets (despite STILL not finishing ANY of the stuff from the previous two I purchased last year), Warhammer Underworlds: Nethermaze, four warbands for Warhammer Underworlds, and 8 old metal Harlequins off ebay - to fill out a small contingent of Harlequins in an Aeldari force (after picking up the 9th Edition Aeldari Codex) 

Other than the Kill Team boxes and Nethermaze, I only bought ONE other boardgame this year (Stone Age). I did pick up a few sets of rules for miniature games (that I have yet to play); the new edition of Lion Rampant and Xenos Rampant. 

There were a LOT of VERY TEMPTING THINGS that came out in the last year that the ADHD (OOH! SHINY!) part of me really, REALLY wanted to get in on... but I somehow managed to NOT buy! So, there's that... 

The Warhammer Horus Heresy box set was SUUUUUPER tempting to buy... and I didn't... and STILL haven't (despite there still being a copy sitting in my FLGS!!). What's kept me from buying it (beyond the fact that it would be ridiculous to do so, given how much I've gotten painted this year) is that the rules are basically a throwback to pre 8th edition 40K, which is just not my thing... what still keeps me interested is COOL MODELS, and the fact that I could probably paint them all fairly quickly, being mostly ONE COLOUR and all.... and having read a few of the Horus Heresy books, it would be super fun to play out some of those engagements... AND most of the guys that got in on the game, locally, are the fun guys to play with... Fuck, I hope someone just buys that box and removes the temptation... 

Also haven't bought any of the new stuff for Necromuda, even though there has been a new core started box for the Ash Wastes with super cool vehicles and giant-bug-riding Ash Waste Nomads... and a few books to go along with that. Again SUPER COOL stuff... One of the things that's helpedhold me back is the fact that ALL of the miniatures I've been using in Necromuda, so far, are my OLD metal ones. to get in on Ash Wastes would mean new plastic models... which I'm not so opposed to these days as I might have been in the past, but... just not excited to MIX plastic and metal in a collection... 

I also didn't buy into the new edition of Warcry. Only played ONE GAME of the previous edition, so... It was a fun game, and I wouldn't mind playing it again... but given how much I've been playing miniature games in general, I just couldn't justify it. GW did release ALL of the stats for all the miniatures from the previous edition as pdfs... so I COULD just buy the Core Book if I wanted to get in on it... and I don't think I'd need ANY new miniatures (I might need to paint a few that I already have...) 

WHAT HAPPENED!?

Well, as I mentioned, I focused on making art is what happened.... for the most part... Making art meant lest time/energy for miniature painting. Miniature painting is what inspires me to play miniature games. 

Miniature gaming only accounted for about 20-25% of games played the last few years, so what gives with the drop in playing boardgames? I think part of that was everyone pretending the pandemic was OVER and going back to... doing other things and not having time to play games. A large chunk of the games played in 2020 was role-playing games I ran online or games I played with Amanda who had nothing better to do. That began to fizzle in 2021, and pretty much completely died in 2022 - I played more IN PERSON role-playing games this year than with the online group. 

It's been a pretty low year all around. The unending social upheaval and never-ending pandemic has really taken it's toll and, despite trying really hard to focus on positive things and make more art... I've been pretty depressed... 

Maybe next year will be better... 

I have most of the Game Plan (such as it is) for 2023 written... I MIGHT get around to posting that tonight... or maybe I'll leave it to tomorrow. 

Sorry this has been a bit of a downer... Hope you all had a better year and all of us can have an even better one in 2023! 

December Games

In December, we played GAMES!!!

It gets cold out. we're less inclined to go out... so... 

Also I severly strained my hamstring at the end of November so there were a few weeks I didn't even leave the house... 

Saturday, 3 December 2022

Saturday afternoon we played a game of Carcassonne, while Finnegan was out at work and Keiran was at an all-day dress rehearsal for the musical they were in the following week. 

Sunday, 4 December 2022

Sunday afternoon, Amanda wanted to try Stone Age as a two-player game. So we did. It was okay. Amanda soared ahead of my in points DURING the game, but I went whizzing past in the end-game scoring. It was still pretty close when all was counted up, though. 

Tuesday, 6 December 2022

Tuesday evening Finnegan was recording upstairs after work, so Amanda and I hid in the basement for a bit and played another game of Stone Age. I think the game ended up playing faster (and was a bit lower scoring) because we had a clearer idea of what we were trying to do and do it faster than the other... and that brought the game to a conclusion quicker, but with fewer points scored all around.  Amanda won this one. 

Wednesday, 7 December 2022

Wednesday evening we played Terraforming Mars. Mostly because I'd given up on the idea of getting any sort of challenge finished. Amanda had suggested Stone Age again, but I felt like playing something different. I like Stone Age... but not enough to play it three times in a row. 

Mars after 14 generations of Terraforming. 

I was playing Helion with Ecology Experts and Early Settlement. Amanda played Valley Trust with Biofuels, Aquifer Turbines, and Galilean Mining - she took Generalist and Tychoon milestones and Celebrity, Desert Settler, and Benefactor Awards. I got the Ecologist Milestone... 

Amanda won, obviously... 

Sunday, 11 December 2022

Stone Age. Again. 

Amanda won. 

By LOTS! 

Saturday, 17 December 2022

ON Sunday we were supposed to be playing another session of Finnegan's RPG - the first session of the new Dresden Files Accelerated RPG campaign he was going to run for me and my friends Neil and Jasper. As we got closer to the day, I checked in with Finnegan to see if he was ready and still interested to run the game - from the get-go I realized this was a bit of an imposition on him, being busy with his first year of University, running his two weekly D&D games, his part-time job an the library AND his side-passion-projects... and he admitted it was starting to cause him some stress having to come up with and investigative, mystery-solving campaign... 

So talking to the guys, we decided maybe I could take over and GM a game... though there was little chance I'd have anything ready by Sunday... so I suggested we try out Hellboy: The Boardgame. Everyone seemed keen on that, so it became a plan. 

Unfortunately it's been over two and a half YEARS since I last played, and, though it isn't a terribly complicated game, I thought maybe I should try playing through one of the scenarios to remind myself how to play. I can TOTALLY be played as a solo game, and I would have done so, but Amanda graciously volunteered to try playing through a game with me the night before. 

We just played the easy introductory scenario... It's kind of a cake-walk - designed to learn the important basic rules. Everytime I've run it the players win... 

It did NOT go well for us... Yikes. teh Boss monster - the Giant Frog Monster appeared and just kicked our asses. I was playing Abe Sapien... this is him about to be knocked out... 

Amanda was playing Johann Kraus... Here is Kraus, surrounded by Frog Monsters, a GIANT FROG MONSTER bearing down on him, and the room is ON FIRE.. this is where we called it. The writing was on the wall (which was on fire...)

It occurred to me afterwards, I think this might be the first time we played it WITHOUT Hellboy! 

Sunday, 18 December 2022

The next day Jasper and Neil came by and Finnegan, though he just didn't have time to PREPARE a role-playing adventure, figured he did have enough time to play the boardgame with us. He may even join the game that I run for Neil and Jasper. He only has to show up and role-play one afternoon a month, seems doable. 

Neil played Hellboy, Jasper played Johann Kraus and Finnegan played Abe Sapien. I kind of just ran the show and pushed around the frog monsters. 

They had a MUCH easier time of it... 

Especially with Finnegan making attack rolls like this, when Abe was shooting the Giant Frog Monster!? BLAM!! (because they'd acquired two insight tokens, the Giant Frog monsters Resilience was reduced from 4 to 2, I think...? or maybe the insight tokens are what upgraded the dice...? I don't remember... so this dealt NINE - or 7? - damage... the poor creature only HAD 20 wounds.. Abe shot him twice and then Hellboy PUNCHED him and... that was about it...). 

Fun times. Looking forward to trying running a role-playing game for these guys next month. 

Saturday, 31 December 2022

Amanda AND Keiran said they's play a game, and Keiran suggested Splendor.

I totally crushed it - ending the game with 17, Amanda took a final turn and got to 15... Keiran suggested we play again. I was very lucky... I couldn't POSSIBLY have that kind of luck again!? 

Ummm... apparently lightening DOES strike twice!? I won this game with EIGHTEEN points?! Amanda didn't even make it to 15. Keiran scored higher in the second game so they were pleased enough... They really like the game, but have only even won it on two occasions! 

Aaaaaaand... that's it... 

We played next to NO GAMES over the holidaze (compared to previous years!)... Which was kind of a major bummer... for the last decade and a half, that's kind of what we DID over the Holidaze between Xmas and New Year - pay lots and LOTS of games... I had really thought those last two weeks might be filled with gaming!? 

Part of the problem was Amanda got roped into cat sitting for almost three weeks!? Initially, there was an understanding that Keiran would help out... but then didn't... and then this last week we had CrAzY amounts of SNOW!? Which made it harder to get back and forth to the house and the snow had to be cleared off sidewalks and I couldn't even help out because I've strained my hamstring during the first snowfall in November and it just gets worse every time I try to shovel snow or walk over any kind of uneven ground - like across all the uncleared sidewalks all around our neighbourhood... So Amanda's just been exhausted and the kids are kind of into their own things... so...   

Ah well... maybe next year... 

Still to come this evening - Looking Back at 2022 and maybe Game Plan 2023 - Q1...?

40K - Tallarn Roughriders

 I have started re-basing all of my Imperial Guard/Astra Militarum in anticipation of the new 9th Edition Codex being released in the new year some time... (I had initially thought it was going to be released in December, hot on the heals of the Cadia Stands: Astra Militarum Army Set, alas...). 

Rumoured to be returning are ROUGHRIDERS!? Those daft brave soldiers of the Empire that ride into battle atop a horse - charging tanks and space marines and xenos horrors... 

Tallarn Toughriders! Recently re-based on GW oval bases (Previously, they has been on 40mm lipped bases, which I never loved the look of...) 

The plan is to eventually rebase all of the Astra Militarum onto proper 25mm plastic bases - to align with the Kill Teams... I already did the Cadians! Still have a LOT of Tallarn and Guaiacan Commandoes... and... Valhallans... 

This was kind of a test batch, to see how they look. I kind of like it... I don't know... I feel like the oval bases make them look... "Speedier"...? I have another five that are painted and just need rebasing and then another dozen or so that I could paint up for another unit or two! 

They are ABSURD... but I love them. 

Does this mean I might get back to playing 40K this year!? Maybe... I don't know... We'll see... 90% of the fun in this hobby, for ME, has always been the collecting and painting and THINKING and IMAGINING games and scenarios and possibilities. Games, especially competitive games, are almost always a little bit of a let down, compared to the fun I have imagining how they might be... 

The Goat Saga

Finnegan finally uploaded the first of a series of videos he's planning to do about his various Dungeons and Dragons campaigns. It is hilarious. Go check it out, give it a thumbs up and, if that's something you'd like to see more of, subscribe!