I had a great holiday! Not only did I spend it with friends and family, but I asked my girlfriend to marry me and she said yes! I made a comic book about our lives together and asked her to marry me on the last page; which caught her by surprise! While I've been able to woo her into the exciting world of comic books, getting her to play any table top game has been pretty difficult. As crafty as she is, I figured she would enjoy painting or the modeling portion of the hobby, but alas, she has no interest. A much less exciting gift this holiday season was my first blister of Bolt Action minis from Warlord Games. After deciding to pick up conflicting armies to duke it out on the fields of WWII, Kraig made the first move and gifted me the first pack of lead. Kraig will take the side of ze Germans and I will pick up the Union Jack. We've both been pretty impressed by the rules but we haven't actually played any games yet. Like I wrote, the British Airborne blister is ...

I was approached by the game creators to playtest an upcoming board game, "Transylvania: Curses & Traitors" at the Gatekeeper earlier this month. The co-creator drove up from Kansas City to show some of our local guys the game and get some feedback and I have to say, I was pretty impressed. It's a steampunk horror game where players try to solve the curse of Transylvania or be turned into a monster (at which point you try to eat the other players.) The game is in late stage development and finished artwork and game pieces are being added to the game at a regular pace. I'm not sure they really needed any of our suggestions for game play, but I think Brandon and I tagged teamed on a suggestion for a re-roll rule that they liked and Scott managed to find a loophole in discarding objects. However, we broke the curve on play time by clocking in at 120+ minutes when most games last less than an hour! Game play is solid. It's a tile building/exploring map game ...

My Wild West Exodus Kickstarter box has just arrived! Now I've got the tough choice of reading rules or gluing my fingers together first. I picked up the two "army" box option with Warrior Nation and Enlightened, but I swapped everything I could for Nation models. I recently found out I'm part Ojibway Native American so I think that helped form my decision. Also, I've ordered one of the 6'x4' Megamats from Frontline Gaming's Kickstarter and I've got to figure out which mat I want. I think I'm leaning towards urban, because that's my favorite terrain type to play and make, but most of my models are grassy.

I'm going to start this off by stating that I hate painting white. I also thought motorcycles (nay, "bikes") were pretty lame in a futuristic miniatures game. There, I wrote it, but I'm going to make myself a liar.  I'm a sucker for fluff and I've got ADD when it comes to picking, painting and playing armies so it's no surprise to me that when I started reading, "Hunt for Voldorius" that I would start painting/building a White Scars army. The book is pretty good for a miniature game tie-in. It's not written to the level of an Abnett, Lanning or McNeill, but it's entertaining enough of a read that I can enjoy it as a fun page turner to immerse myself in the hobby lore. It certainly builds character for the White Scars and illustrates how each of the chapters of space knights wear the same armor but can still be distinctive. I particularly enjoy the metaphor speak of the Sons of Chogoris. Plus, you get to read how the White Scars ...

Saturday I played in a 1,500 point tournament at the Gatekeeper. I thought it was going to be a 2,500 point tourney, but that has been pushed back to November. Since my Logan Wing list couldn't be taken, I grabbed my Blood Angel Drop Pod list and headed to the store. (1 Chaplain, 1 Death Company, 7 Dreadnoughts in Drop Pods.) I knew I didn't have any scoring units, but since I was disappointed that I couldn't play the list I wanted to, I would just be stomping around for fun. My first game was against Danny - normally a Dark Eldar player who was playing his new Tau list. It was fairly typical, Longstrike, two Riptides, and the other usual Tau that make up the list. The mission had four objectives so I thought I'd just have to play wipeout - since my vehicles can't contest objectives. Danny and I got in 5 turns and when the dust settled, I got Warlord and First Blood for 2 points. Danny got Linebreaker and couldn't get near the objectives. I won on the lowest...

I've been list building for a 2,500 point tournament coming up in October. I'm either going to play my IG, Wolves or Blood Angels. Out of my armies that are in playable condition, the current meta suggests I should run IG with some Wolf allies but I detest allies so I'm going to play a pure list - I just haven't made up my mind which one yet.  My IG would be fairly standard, lots of mech, lots of troops with a sizable psyker unit that usually catches my opponents off guard. I haven't played them since 5th because I can't cast while in a chimera anymore. My Blood Angels dreadnought/drop pod army is a lot of fun, but I had an idea to field 30 Death Company with power weapons and power fists. I know they are expensive, but not much can stand up to that... except a lot of barrage weapons first turn. However, I think I'm going to try the Logan Wing list. Here's roughly what I've got on paper now. *Logan *Run priest - Jaws, Living Lig...

One of the games that I've been obsesed with, yet can't find an opponent to play is, "1938: A Very British Civil War" from Solway Crafts and Miniatures . Panzerkaput at Blog Spot describes it as: VBCW or Very British Civil War is an alternative history created by Messers Jones, Mortimore and Douglas and published by Solway Crafts and Miniatures. In this scenario Edward VIII refuses to abdicate triggering a constitutional crisis which divides the nation and results in Civil war. As a result instead of going to war in Europe Britain is facing a very British crisis.  This is just up my alley! British, alternate history, fighting fascists, mustaches... Basically, Edward the 8th marries his American girlfriend, does not give up the throne and the United Kingdom splits at the seams into civil war. The loyalists to Edward join up with the goosesteppers in Germany, the Reactionaries take up arms to oppose him and support Parliament, the Anglican church doesn...

Yesterday I broke out the new Praetorians and took them to a tournament at the Gatekeeper. 1,750 points is an OK limit for the IG. I can easily get my core Troop choices in the list and still have room for the usual tricks. My Blood Angel drop pod army isn't really any good until 1,850 and I had played my Wolves in the last tourney. Plus, I just picked up my favorite flavor of IG so I was thrilled to put my moustachoed models on the table! Roughly my list: CCS with grenade launchers (I'm working on some conversions.) PCS with grenade launchers 30 Man blob with flamers 1 Heavy Weapon squad with las cannons 2 Veteran squads, meltas, chimeras 2 Hydras 2 Basilisks 1Leman Russ (stock) 1 Vendetta 1 Defense line (no gun) My first opponent was a new guy to the area and he brought his orks. We played the long ways on the table and my barrage weapons were eating him up. However, we only got to the top of turn 4 and he held two more objectives than me for the win. I feel l...

Anyone who knows me, knows that most of my favorite things are British, including the Zulu Wars themed (and festooned with pith helmets) Imperial Guard army - the Praetorians. I had a Praetorian army when the Armageddon book was first released but due to a shortage of funds and mounting student loan payments, I sold them off. It was one of the worst decisions in my war gaming career. I'm known to have ADD when it comes to army selection and I regularly buy and trade away armies but losing my Praetorians was a huge mistake. Afterword, I bitched. I moaned. I whined to anyone who would listen. I loved those models. I loved to field them, I loved to paint them. I would even use my various English accents as I played them to the consternation of my opponents. It turns out, they are quite popular and there weren't a lot of the models made. Anyone with a middle-school economics understanding knows that makes these models expensive. So pricey, you could spell expen$ive with a dol...

Big Red's Pre Heresy Death Guard army from Bell of Lost Souls make me want a pre Heresy army of my own. I kind of want Death Guard too, but I'd also like Raven Guard or the much harder to paint, Imperial Fists. I'll likely just expand my Space Wolves though, because, who needs a third Space Marine army? The Horus Heresy: Betrayal book is fantastic and may be the best product Games Workshop or Forgeworld has ever put out. It's so tempting...

I won a lot of Squats off eBay! I'm going to tool them up as IG and I hope the little buggers bring me more luck than my regular IG armies. I'm probably going to have to run them as a mech/veteran list because these guys are getting pretty pricey on the auction market. Now to pick a paint scheme...

The Thor model I painted is in a painting and modeling contest and was featured on the gallery image for a couple of days. I picked up a couple of hundred likes on the gallery image, but only a few dozen on the actual image itself. While it's not my best work, it's one of my favorites. He's made from all GW bits, including the chest plates which came from an old sprue. One poster flamed me for the cork base though. He's right, it doesn't look good anymore. However, I think we'll be laughing at our airbrush paint jobs in two more years.

Needless to say, I had a blast at WargamesCon 2013. I hope I can make it again next year! I went 2-3 but I tied for 1st in sportsmanship and tied for 4th in painting!  My first game was against a heavy ambushing Beastman list. I was able to hold my own and pick apart most of his units because I was fairly mobile (despite playing dwarfs) and I could pick my fights. He nearly sacked my Anvil of Doom though, but I managed to make a lot of ward saves and never meet a beardy end. I lost my second game against a very nasty Ogre Kingdoms list. The player looked uncannily like my friend Kyle, so much so I caught myself talking to him like he was my buddy and not another player in a tournament. Along with his nasty list, he had a nasty paint job. He explained to me that he hated painting and used spray paint to get the job done. (Photo from the fine folks at BOLS.) I enjoy painting so much that I can fathom why someone would do this, but to each their own. The back story is how ...

I'm in Austin playing in the WargamesCon! This is easily the biggest tourney I've played in; it's huge!

Last weekend I played in a 40k tournament with my Space Wolves. I wanted to do well so I built just about the nastiest army that I could. I spent the better part of a week prepping my models and gluing together the components that I would need for the tourney. I made things harder on myself by choosing to re-paint my army. I've always wanted an air brush so I could mimic some of the better paint jobs I've seen on the web. After looking at a lot of other well-painted models, I found a really cool army that used a much darker shade of gray than most Space Wolf armies used. My army had actually been a much lighter shade of gray and I thought an air brush would be the ticket to getting an army done fast. After some research, I found that air brush compressors for hobbyists are expensive. The most basic models appeared to start at $150 and quickly skyrocketed from there. I did some more digging and found that there are other kinds of air brushes offered, not to ho...

Ever since I pulled the trigger on the decision to go to WargamesCon 2013, I've been hard at work painting up my Dwarf army. I'm beyond excited to pit my belly-draggers against some of the best Warhammer players in the country. I'm getting close to completion with about 20 or so models left to paint. I'm giving them a fairly decent paint job, nothing Golden Demon or Crystal Brush level, but a nice paint job that I'm not ashamed of. I could just slap the minimum three colors on the model and call it good, but I'm always a believer that neatness counts. The core of my army is a 50 man hoard of scouting unit of Long beards with great weapons. These guys will set up within 12" of my enemy and charge in ASAP. My Anvil of Doom will allow me to charge in the movement phase (I still can't go first, scout, then charge) and really put a hurt on anything they run into. Here is my Battle Standard Bearer (BSB), a half-painted miner musician, and a...

The Douglas Adams joke goes something like this: The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything is 42. Which is Paradise. (Nay, pair of dice. All of the dots on a pair of dice add up to 42.) I find this maddeningly funny and clever. What's not funny is my ability to roll dice. I'm cursed. I'm jinxed. I can't do anything about it. If I need to roll 11 or less on 2d6, I'm rolling box cars. You could probably make a lot of money betting against me. I've had units of terminators fall to a fist full of "ones." I've failed stubborn leadership when victory is all but assured. Want to go first? Odd say it's a 50/50 split but I'm guessing you're going to go first. That's an awfully pessimistic view, but what can I do about it? Roll more dice! My friends joke about "Dusty Dice." Roll playing games, board games, mini games; it doesn't matter. Dusty Dice means you'll roll the wrong way....

The Imperial Guard is one of my favorite armies to collect. I've had more than one in my gaming career but I've never been very good at playing them. For a time, they were (and still are) all the rage in the tourney scene but I just can't seem to get them to work. I've tried foot slogging. I've tried mech. I've tried just about every other combo but I can't seem to win consistently with them. However, I do love painting the humble Imperial trooper. These guys are just a sample of my Valhallan IG which I'm painting up as a city fight army. There's not much different about the actual list, but I am giving all of the bases some urban rubble. I'm not too keen on the final color of the wrap/bags on the Sgt. and I think I'm going to re-paint with the standard GW color scheme. I may add some more highlights to the rubble as well so it's not so dark.

I recently found out that I'm part Ojibwa Native American and I've been doing some research on my new found heritage and all of my reading has inspired me to paint up my oldest Warhammer Fantasy army as Native Americans. I can't find much in the way of actual colors or tribal markings of the Ojibwa people, so I've picked a few natural colors as well as some red and teal to be the base color scheme for the army. I know a lot of people see the Wood Elves as Scots, Picts, or Celts, but I think the Native American look fits well with the models. I know WEs aren't the flavor of the month when it comes to gaming, but like I said before, the WEs are my oldest army and they will always have a special place in my heart.

Guess who's two thumbs, a tackle box full of dwarfs, and is going to WargamesCon 2013? This guy! I'm going to bring my BS Dwarf list. There was an update about the use of the Anvil of Doom and charging with scouts, so the list isn't as nasty as it used to be, but I think it's still a force to be reckoned with. Now, I've got to get cracking on painting a giant unit of longbeards with great weapons. In fact, I'll be putting in a lot of hours at the paint desk making sure that every model is painted and ready for the battle. The tourney organizers haven't released the format of the games or scenarios yet, but I do know through their press release that the WHFB games will be 2,500 points. My army isn't likely to change much though, but I would like to know what I'm getting into in advance. WargamesCon is in Austin, so I'll be able to save a little on my travel expenses and stay with my sister and brother in law. Kristin found a great deal...

Here is a unit of Grey Knight Terminators that I painted up - specifically to sell on eBay. The guys at the store and I thought that they would be a quick and easy to paint unit that is also in high demand that could fetch a nice price. Kraig did all of the early work by clipping and sanding the models. I primed and painted. As a test to see how quickly I could paint, wash, and seal a good looking unit and be able to flip them for a high price - I'd consider it a bit of a failure. Even using horrible silver primer, pre-bottled washes, and keeping an eye on the clock, I don't think I can paint fast enough to justify the time and expense for the the price we got at auction. Just the time I spent on painting, we got back less than minimum wage. Factor in the cost of the models, supplies and Kraig's time sanding and we were probably in the hole. However, we did learn a lesson.

Here's a my nearly finished Blood Angel Dreadnought Librarian. I'm pleased with how the force sword looks. Also, I bought a ton of mini bricks for the base and I had the intention of basing all of the models this way... Except it took about 45 minutes to an hour to lay all of those tiny bricks... I may re-think that plan.