2012 ends and 2013 begins.

237 Dice, and my gaming, has been put on the back burner for quite a while now. At least it seems like a long time. I completely chalked off November in order to participate in NaNoWriMo. But some really bad shit decided to happen to me in real life in the middle of October which put paid to all my gaming for the foreseeable future. So all the painting I planned to do while taking breaks from writing in November and painting in December has not happened at all (it means that my Menoth army will not be fully painted by the time January rolls around).

But now that things have settled down a little, and Cross Gaming Club not opening up again for a little while yet, I have  got back into a gaming mind-set. So to begin with, let’s end 2012. Stats please:

Warmachine/Hordes

P - 66  W – 18 D – 0 L – 48

Infinity

P – 4 W – 0 D – 0 L – 4

Malifaux

P – 5 W – 1 D – 0 L – 4

Overall

P – 75 W – 19 D – 0 L – 56

So, it’s not quite the 50% win ratio I wanted but it’s an improvement (it’s still all about the playing and not the winning) on the 2011 record. The longest win streak was two (2) and the longest losing streak was fifteen (15) – thankfully not the famous twenty game streak of 2011. I would like to say that some of the losses, especially on tourney days, did go down to tie-break situations so I was marginally short of a few more wins. However, a loss is still a loss.

I have also, finally, got round to playing Malifaux and Infinity. Both have been fun, and I have put the effort of getting my Morat force (most of them anyway) and Viktoria crew painted. I am also happy, and sad that I steered clear of Bushido recently. It looks like a really fantastic game which is being tweaked to be better. The minis look awesome and the people playing the game sound like they are really having fun.

Painting wise, I haven’t gotten any better when it comes to technique and style, but I have improved on my patience in front of a painting table. As it stands at this moment in time, I have over 66% of my main armies fully painted and based.

So for 2013:

I’m hoping to be involved with Infinity and Malifaux bit more in 2013 by taking part in the clubs Infinity campaign and attending the Malifaux tourneys being advertised on the Wyrd forums.

As for WarmaHordes, I want to concentrate on my Menoth force a bit more. This was something I had planned back in October by wanting to constantly use the casters that I haven’t used that much. I started to utilise eKreoss and eFeora a lot for the UK Masters, ETC and for a handful of one day events after that. To start off the year in I wanted to field the High Reclaimer and Vindictus a bit more, but that was before I made a few purchases. In order to cheer myself up from my personal life, I bought Intercessor Kreoss and a Judicator. Naturally, with the new Kreoss, I would want a unit of Vengers. Which is totally new for me as I have never fielded a cavalry unit before. So, horses will be my main thing for the first couple of months of the year along with squeezing m new Colossal into an eFeora list.

I will continue to attempt to churn out fully painted minis at the same rate as the third quarter of this year. I want to be able to have finished my Menoth army (only another 43 models to go) before I start up on something else.

I have started to pick up my paints again just now so hopefully I’ll have the Judicator and horsey Kreoss and his horsey friends finished before the club opens up again in January.

I cannot wait to get back to the table top.

No game, some gain.

So, my second game of Malifaux this Tuesday night didn’t happen. But I did watch a game in action between Neverborn (Zoraida) and Outcasts (Viktorias). I watched as the Outcast crew that Luke played was pretty much what I was hoping to use. With a extremely unlucky control hand in his last turn, things got quite ugly for Luke. Still it was interesting to see the mechanics of the game again and watch how crazy the Neverborn Stitched Togethers are with Collodi and Zoraida.

Once I got home, I put my Malifaux crew to one side and pulled out my Combined army. I had actually forgotten why I picked up this starter set in the first place. But as soon as I started to glue them together, I realised that they just looked like bad-assed mofos. The Morat Vanguard and Datuzari models just look completely solid. I think this is what all front line troops should look like. The question is: am I going to make them look good. Probably not. The Charotnid looks super cool and sleek and the Malingos suitably creepy, while my Speculo Killer looks sexy. Possibly a bit more than the Viktoria model with the dual swords. I should have a bit of time on Sunday to work on these so they can be presentable on the tabletop.

I have also just realised that this is my ninety-ninth blog post which means that the next one will have to be special. It should include something like a highlight reel or best bits, but it will most likely be full of bloopers.

Excitment. Annoyance. Mehness.

I’m going gaming tonight without my carry case. Brilliant. I’ve been playing a lot with infantry heavy armies for Hordes/Warmachine over recent months so taking a carry case has been pretty normal. But tonight however I have packed my six (6) minis into a much smaller case which happens to fit in my bag/satchel.

Six models. Tonight I will be paying Malifaux. This will be an intro even though this will be my second game (the first was played quite a while ago). I have forgotten everything and have been grabbing little peeks at my pdf version of the rulebook here and there but will still feel like a complete noob. The models I packed are both Viktorias, Tealor, Bishop, Johan and Hamelin. I have endeavoured over the last couple of weeks to paint these, but my efforts (as always) have mostly been met with failure. Still, I just about finished (lost patience) both of my Viktorias and have started to move onto Taelor. I will try and finish the crew before I play the next game of Malifaux, which I have to say won’t be any time soon. To explain, next week I want to get my first game of Infinity with my Combined Army and then November I will be in self-imposed exile. I’m going to be taking part in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), so all of my time will be taken by trying to churn out 50,000 words in thirty days. So December will be the next time that I will be rolling any dice (or flipping cards) in anger.

I would also like to share my annoyance with my limited readership. I sold the last of my Necrons a few couple of months ago now. I was bored of them and as an army just weren’t going to cut it against the other power armies out there. Plus the wife wanted the space.
So what happens next? GW are revamping the Necron army. I had been waiting a long time (since I got back into regular gaming a couple of years back) for something to happen. A new troop choice maybe, a new vehicle, heavy weapon options for regular troops, even a new character or C’Tan would have done. But looking at the imminent releases, I am now absolutely gutted that I trimmed the fat in my model collections. I will still buy the new Codex when it is released, but I will remain absolutely gutted.
Also, I’m a little disappointed with ‘The First Heretic’. It showed Lorgar of the Word Bearers having such a clear vision, but then the book just sort of went crappy at the end and changed my view of the golden one. I did like seeing the whole Isstvan V scenario from a different angle and enjoyed the portrayal of Argel Tal. But I cannot help feeling that some of the focus was lost towards the end.

A touch of freshening up.

During the last week at the club, I took the time to watch one game of Malifaux and one game of Infinity being played out. I have been meaning to get into these games for quite a while (I bought my Combined Army starter for Infinity more than a year and a half ago), but just never had the inclination to do so. So I have dug out my Malifaux and Infinity models and will now definitely get to using them.


Please note that this has nothing to do with a 20 game losing streak for Hordes/Warmachine (maybe only slightly, VERY slightly).I have been playing the game week in week out for a long time, ever since I gave up 40k and would just like to mix it up a bit. Other players do it, so why can’t I. Anyway, it would be good to get to know the other club members who don’t play PP games.

First off, (hopefully) next Tuesday I’ll be exercising my Viktoria crew. This crew consists of the boxset (both Viktorias, Johan Taelor and Bishop) plus Hamelin (not the Master version). At the same time I did purchase the Somer Teeth Jones box, Leveticus and the Desolation Engine. I glued these all together on Sunday and will hope to splash a bit of paint on them this week so they at least look a bit presentable. It was refreshing to see a game that doesn’t need annoying dice.
Once that’s done, I’ll begin work on my Combined Army starter and other bits so that I can get a game in the following Tuesday. Maybe some time after this I'll get to work on my Yu Jing starter. I really liked the way actions met counter-actions.

I think I will be looking to spend a bit of time with each game over the next few months, but Hordes/Warmachine will still be my primary choice (I haven’t spent all that effort painting most of my Skorne army for nothing).

My Malifaux beginning...

I haven’t yet mentioned anything about my first foray into the world of Malifaux. I had a little taster in the break week previous to round 4 of our Warmachine/Hordes campaign. Having already taken a shining to the Viktorias, it seemed that I would get hooked on the rest of the Outcasts. So with my Viktorias and Som’er Teeth Jones starters boxes, I waded in.

As usual I went in a tad unprepared having not read the rulebook, only printed off the necessary pages from a pdf version I randomly found on the internet. Admittedly, it actually isn’t that difficult to start Malifaux as quite a lot of the rules make sense and I had a patient teacher. Ish, as he’s known on our club forum, started off by showing me the basic game mechanics with a one model per side skirmish. My first impression of a game that is not ruled by dice, was surprisingly good. Flipping cards in order to perform actions sometimes feels a lot better.

With the basics covered, we went into a proper game. I think we had a 15ss game which enabled me to take the following:
The Viktorias (two hot chicks)
Johan
Taelor

Ish took:
Seamus
2 x Rotten Belles
Madam Sybelle

After breezing through the set up of the game, we began. We both managed to pick the same objective, with was a counter in the centre of the table. The game had it’s up and downs for both of us, (including me flipping a 12, 12 and 13 at one point and an ace, ace, 3 at another), but I claimed the victory in the end. I lost one of the Viktorias early on and it started to look worse when Ish resurrected on of his Belles. Taelor looks to like she can dish out a lot of damage and Johan can prove to be a nuisance. I just have to learn how they all combine together before looking into other models. I’m sure Ish was just going easy, but it was nice to win the first game. The bad thing now is I wont have another game for a few more weeks. This game was played three weeks ago at time of writing, I’m doing something with the wife this week and then there are two more weeks of the Warmachine/Hordes campaign. The campaign is also supposed to end in a big finale to. I do hope to get another game in before the year is out as I really enjoyed this one. I was particularly impressed with the alternate model activations.
For now, my new lovely ladies will just have to wait.

I haven't had the energy to write about much this week (preparing for a charity run - which was a great event this year. I managed to get my wife to beat her personal best. I'm actually a little scared to try and beat mine from 10 years ago (I don't want to know how out of shape I have got, it's already going downhill) so I am happy to help my wife with (unwanted) encouragement), but I'll give it a go.
Tuesday at the club saw my Ratskins successfully complete an Exploration Action. they managaed to get rid of all the Zombies and Scavvies and save four Settlers.
My gaming new KR Multicase arrived the next day, but I waited to the weekend to move things around. Now my Necrons have their own Double Aluminimu case, but the two Monoliths will continue to travel separately. The new case now houses my entire Menoth force with plenty of space for expansion. Taking up a bit of that empty space for the time being is my Infinity (Combined Army and Yu Jing) minis along with my Malifaux (Outcasts) minis. I still do not know how I can tidy up all the boxes of Dark Angels that are cluttering the back of my wardrobe. I have a GW case that holds a basic force (a couple of squads each of Deathwing, tactical, devastators, assault, several characters, all three dreadnoughts and a couple of tanks). I'd like to put the remaining 75-80% of the force on some sort of shelving some day, but I'll have to annoy the wife a little more by keeping them in the back of the wardrobe.
Also I'm still waiting for this month's Maelstrom order, but I'm not really impatient about it as I'm going to take a couple trips soon to Florence (wife birthday) and Samadet (visit the in-laws). I have some time to figure out how the incoming Avatar of Menoth, Knights Exemplar unit, Paladin of the Wall and Errant UA are going to fit in with everything else. So this coming Tuesday will be a couple more games of Necromunda in lieu of playing in the big, mega, massive final game that is planned. I'm just gutted I'll miss it. When I come back though, I think I'll concentrate fully on Menoth (and by the time I get back it'll be time to order more Protectorate goodness) and start messing around with the themed lists (which calls for a second unit of Zealots...) as much as I can before Hordes MKII comes out and I get to have an excuse to start a Skorne force (I've already decided that they are going to be mostly green and gold).

Phase in / painted up.

I just received my OOP Necrons today. Thank you Maelstrom Games! 20 Warriors, 3 Destroyers, 5 Immortals, 7 Scarabs and a Lord (this put a serious dent in this month’s finances – I had already spent my £50-60 that I allow myself). I will try and post some pics along side my the newer models. These models more or less came out when me and my friend ‘took a breather’ from the hobby and did a little growing up (and at that time I was strictly a Dark Angels man), which is why I don’t have any in my collection (not even the one GW attached to the front of White Dwarf). When I saw them on evilBay I knew I must have them, but really didn’t think it through. I don’t think that they’ll give me the impetus to play 40k a bit more as I’m thoroughly into Warmachine right now and would like to get the odd game of Infinity and/or Malifaux.

These Necrons actually came to me painted which is nice because, as I’ve said before, I hate painting (I really do). This little lot pushed my army up to 6792 points all in. I’m probably not going to play an Apocalypse game anytime soon, but it’s nice to have a large collection.

I did manage to sit down and paint for a few hours either side of the Grand Prix yesterday which I was quite surprised at. I put the finishing touches to my Menoth Choir and Vanquisher. They look like they’ve been painted by an elephant (I don’t care – they will certainly be eligible for tourneys that require painted minis), but at least they are out of the way. All of my ‘jacks are done (except for my Blessing of Vengeance) as well as my Zealots, Severius and Kreoss. I still have to finish my Monolith Bearer, Errants, Deliverers, Flameguard and Seneschal, while I need to make a start on various solos and ‘casters. Once that’s done, I’ll think about painting my Infinity and Malifaux stuff.