The start of (another) new project

So I was visiting Dragon's Lair in Odense yesterday, with my girlfriend, when I stumbled upon a grand clearance sale of all things Kings of War. And, well, here's the end result of that haul:

So I guess that it's fair to say that I'm starting a couple of new armies in the near future.

The above was only £35 (retails at around £210) and as fate would have it I had long been considering getting myself some Mantic miniatures for fantasy wargaming - just so that I could join up with the budding crowd of GOB-28 players and easily could convert others to a more fun version of Warhammer Fantasy etc.

So, now I have some 50 Elves, 58 Orcs and around 95 (more) Undead awaiting assembly and paintjobs... I'd say that's quite a fair amount to get going for GOB-games and possibly even for some playtest purposes in the future when I start work, in earnest, on a fantasy mass-battle game that I've had kicking around.

But... yeah, I'm still stunned at the volume of plastic I got home for next to nothing!

Excitingly busy!

This is just a quick post to regain the momentum of continually blogging my various geek-adventures. Unfortunately, I'm not exactly used to take photos of the stuff that I'm doing, so the images are going to be a bit of a mish-mash of others photos and stockimages.

So, let's start from the beginning then!

Cuthberts Lament

Last weekend I had the great fortune to play a good friend of mine's Viking scenario for Lion Rampart. The scenario was a raid against a saxon village in order for the vikings to recapture Cuthbert, a poor Saxon who they believed gave them good fortune at sea!

The game itself flowed very well and the scenario was quite interesting in that we were two players on each side and each of us had our own private scenario objectives that we had to take care of. Mine was to make sure that Sweyn, that swine, didn't make it back to the longboat as my character Torbein (!) wanted to be Chief instead of Sweyn. Luckily, Cutberth managed to take care of Sweyn for me and Torbein managed to kidnap Cutberth back to the boat - and Sweyns men managed to capture his sister whilst Uther, the saxon turncoat, managed to make away with his wife. Not exactly the best of days for this saxon - but a great day for those gathered at my home to play the scenario.

You can read a bit more about it here.

VoldCon
This weekend I then attended VoldCon, a small boardgame convention in Fredericia. It was hosted by another friend of mine and around 35 people turned up throughout the weekend and played boardgames till they dropped.

My personal favourite gaming experience for the weekend were the games of Empires of the Void that I managed to host during the weekend - only to learn of a great, and free, expansion to it called Key to the Universe which I've just finished cutting out and getting ready. Whilst I liked the initial game, there were somethings that I felt was lacking quite a bit unfortunately. These seems to have been tidied up and fixed with this expansion, so I'm looking forward to giving them a try as soon as possible.

The other game that I found really interesting was called Warfighter and it is basically a solo/co-op wargame of sorts where you have to fight your way through a couple of locations to reach your end objective with a squad of soldiers. The mechanics are quite simple, but interesting and the cards really managed to deliver theme and flavour by the truckload - so much so that I'm considering making a pimped out version of it (if I manage to get a copy for myself), with miniatures and terrain. It might just end up being a 2015 project.

Other things
Work has been quite busy as of late, so there's really not much to show from the paintdesk; the few things that I have made still need some more work and are not ready to be shown to the internet till next week. Mainly I've been working a bit on Fantasy Nebula and been painting some miniatures as well for that game. I'm hoping to get cracking on Fantasy Nebula in earnest (and find a new name for it!) later this month.

However, I'm slowly getting more and more in the mood for some Fireteam Andromeda gaming, will need to see if I can round up a voulenteer or two and hopefully get a fully fledged battlereport going. Fingers crossed!

Getting into a painting-zen

Here's me then, trying to get the hang of actually updating the internet about the ongoing hobby-stuff that I'm currently working on. How other manage it with a full-time job and a big family I'll never be able to understand; it seems to me to be a bit of a hassle sometimes... but I guess it's just about experience, persistence and other tences. Ah well, back to the grinder!

It is still not my second nature to take pictures of everything I do in my hobby-life, but today I happened upon something that will - at the very least - make those pictures that I do take a whole lot more interesting to look at. Ladies and gentlemen may I present to you...

The Transmorgraphical Landscape-o-Matic! (Patent Pending)

Okay, so it doesn't look like all that much, but I'm pretty happy about the end result. It came about when I was doing the usual commute back from work and was contemplating how I could make this here blogging/updating process easier for myself (because even though I tend to moan about it, I do enjoy sharing my stuff on the web).

One of the things that I thought of was that I often found my pictures to look a bit rubbish what with all the paint-bottles in the background and all. That and I also wanted something a bit more gradient background in general to showcase my miniatures on.

So I had a scrap of foam-card lying about that I had already been painting a sky backdrop on a couple of months ago and then I had an ephinany; paint one half as a small bit of land and keep some of the sky on the other half - then do a single half-cut of the foam-board and voila, instant backdrop that is not a hassle to store or set up!

A Swordmaster for an Arabian-themed faction.

With this I can then easily set it up on my painting area of my table (where my best lamp of the house is also located), snap some photos that looks slightly better than before and then easily pack it away when I need to do some actual painting.

Speaking of which, I'm currently on a bit of a fantasy-bender when it comes to painting miniatures. I have a whole slew of various miniatures that I'm working on for a game that I'm also working on. So far it is just called Fantasy Nebula as it takes the base-rules for another skirmish-set I was writing and places it in a fantasy universe instead.

A Templar and Sergeant for a more European-themed faction.

I'm hoping to hit some sort of Mordheim and Necromunda hybrid game, with all the usual campaign shenaningans of those games - but hopwfully also with some more checks and balances to keep it from spiralling out of control as the two mentioned games had a tendency to do. I will, of course, keep you posted on developments on the game (and I'm guessing a play-test version will be in the works soon enough).

And to help my playtesting I've started on not only one but five different warbands that I'll most likely showcase as soon as I've managed to write more about the game than just some few scattered notes here and there - you know, when there's actually something that a person could read and actually decipher!

Anyway - thanks for reading and I'll update you, at the latest, next week!

Random musings #1 - The Rise of the Consumer-Games

So having passed the dreaded seventh day mark of any blogger I figured I'd better get going and write something again. Not so much because I fear for losing whatever audience I have, but rather because I made myself a promise (or resolution, if you will) that I should really write more in this new year - there's only one way to get better at something, sheer repetition.

However, luck would also have it that I've been mulling over a topic as of late that I'd like to present to you - the wargamers out there - the rise of the Consumer Game!

What do I mean by a Consumer Game? To me it is a very specific method of promoting your wargame wherein you actively encourage people to always buy new miniatures, new books, new stuff and even more stuff for them to have an equal footing with their peers down at the club where they are usually played. Some also refer to them as Boutique Games, because of the beautifully sculpted but extremely expensive miniatures; I've also seen them referenced as Coffee-table games as they can usually be played on an area similar to a coffee table.

But, to me, these classifications both miss the mark of what I feel these games really are - Magic the Gathering with Miniatures; a collectable game that you need to do all the work for yourself, with only a single driving force - money. They are wargames, as such, but are driven by corporate entities whose sole purpose is to create games that can be sold as a complete package for maximum profit. Games Workshop is the worst such example, but the wargaming community is slowly flooded by the likes, with their overly specialized miniatures, set-piece-combo-rules and what have you. It's not a hobby, it's a product disguised as a hobby.

I'm not going to argue it that much; money makes the world go 'round and if you want to make it in this world of ours then you need to make some yourself. I'm fine with these companies trying to earn a buck or two - but I do feel that in their drive towards earning said buck, then they make games that are ultimately soulless and neither fowl nor fish. They have all the trappings (miniatures, terrain and dice) of a normal wargame, sure! And they do look fancy and great on display - but when you actually start to play the damn thing then it all goes wrong.

There's little joy to be had from a game that you lost before you even got to deployment. In my eyes, almost all of these games could be played on a squared off board, 8 by 8 squares and that would have all of the effect of what the miniatures and terrain actually do in these games. Manouvering and tactics are out the window as soon as you deploy your troops; at the very instance the deployment phase is over you know whether or not the game is lost - and the rest is just going through the motions.

But why is there then such a surge of these games? I mean, except for it being rather like printing money, then there must be something there that the hobbyist would like to get in on. I'm guessing that it is because of the percieved low buy-in on said game; Warmachine had long claimed that you could buy a starter box and be able to play the game and have fun - which is similar to saying that you could by a squad of Space Marines and have fun playing Warhammer 40.000; a highly theoretical kind of fun because there's little tension in having two squads of Space Marines fight each other. It mainly comes down to the luck of the dice. Even though I don't mind a bit of luck to win the day, then there's a time and place for everything. And without "access" to the rest of the miniature catalouge then how much fun is a game of Warmachine then? If all you have is the starterbox, then you're disadvantaged before you've even started the bloody game!

It would appear that the main selling point of these games is the fact that you have fewer miniatures to paint in order to get a game in - which is perfectly understandable, but also a bit of a false promise. Because people seem to think (or at least a lot of the people I've talked with seem to think) that if they can't paint to the Golden Demon standard of the packaging of these miniatures, then they're not going to paint them at all. I've lost count of the number of Consumer-Skirmish-Games that I've seen being played with unpainted miniatures with the justification always being "I'm just going to try..."

And who can blame them? If time is at such a premium, then why are you going to spend your minimal spare time on painting up miniatures that are going to be out in the next edition or just won't work at all in the current edition? But then, why keep playing a game where you can't just use any miniature that you'd like and still have a fun game?

I guess I just don't get it, mainly because I'm much more of a story-telling gamer or an old-school wargamer that thinks wargaming should be about gaming war. But when all that is available for skirmish games are these overly specialized combo-building game, where you are looking to utilize specific synergy combos in your armylist to win; it becomes a game of mechanics and thus, in my opinion, it loses its soul as a wargame.

Personally I find this trend rather disheartening. Which incidently coincides with my other resolution - make more games. If you don't care for a trend, then try to buck it. So that's what I'm going to do; buck the trend and make logically progressing skirmish and battle games for science fiction and fantasy. Fingers crossed!

A new year looms and a wargamer waffles

So, I've finally gotten around to have a bit of a sit-down and write a few thoughts on this here blog of mine of what I want to do, hobby-wise, in this new fangled year of our lord - 2014.

First off, I'd like to finish off an old project that has waxed and waned a lot over the last couple of years - a complete book on the The Employment War, which will include armylists, campaigns, narrative ideas and, perhaps most importantly, a new set of rules.

I know that I've already got one set of rules to my name, but for a long time I've had a bit of a burn out in regards to those rules. It's not that they're bad or that I dislike them - far from it! It's just that they're of a style that I don't care too much for these days. It might seem weird, but I actually feel that they're a bit too fiddly and hit an odd spot for me, as a gamer.

Let me be quick to state that I'll not stop supporting Fireteam Andromeda because of this, far from it! The plans for an updated edition is still in the pipeline for the new year! It is just that I don't really play it much myself anymore. I've found other pastures and that means that I'd like to venture forth and see what they'll bring.

Which, in this case, means a greater focus on the narrative aspect - and thus also fluff - of science fiction wargaming. And in doing so then I figured I might as well have a go at creating a game that gave way for more characters, narratives, heroes, villains and what have you. A sort of gateway between the 'pure' wargame that is Fireteam Andromeda and something akin to a very light RPG of sorts - whilst still being a wargame as I know and love them.

Thus, that is what I'll attempt to direct all of my creative energies towards in this new year of ours. It also means that the recent interview with me might have to change a bit, because Rosetta has to be moved to the back burner once more. Why? Well, I've got a whole other rant in that regards, but let's just keep it at stating that I've found it beyond difficult to figure out what to do with skirmish games as they are neither fowl nor fish - and until inspiration strikes, then I've decided to let it simmer a bit over the perverbial stove for just a little while longer.

Now with this preamble out of the way, let's look at my Wargaming New Year resolutions:

• Blog more - Self explanatory really; my blogging dropped off at the end of last year, as per usual. This time around I'll do a more full-hearted attempt at keep a steady pace on the blog. My main issue is the sharing-round after each post. I think I'll keep that to a minimum this year and just keep logging away instead.
• Play more - Like all other wargamers on the internet then I too want to play more games in this here new year. I've already had a game of DreadBall and GOB-15 within the first 7 days of the year; let's hope that this will keep up! I'm hoping for at least one big game per month, but hopefully more which segways into...
• Organize more - This is going to be the year where I finally get around to organizing at least one tournament (of sorts) for GOB-15 and start a DreadBall League as well as a DreadBall Cup, but hopefully more.
• Write more - Last year I released my first book in early Feburary and since then I haven't written anything worth of note. This year it's going to change and I'm going to have a crack at becoming a more competent writer - bit hard seeing as this is my second language, but so be it.
• Get on Camera - And finally, with my new camera, I'm also able to do something I've thought of doing for a long time - get on YouTube! I don't really know yet what I'd like to do with it, but having the possibility has made me think. I'll most likely end up doing a tutorial video for The Employment War and hopefully be able to make some video-bat-reps instead of some written ones.

So, that's my new years resolution. I did consider putting in 'paint more' but I've just started doing it for fun anyway (painting, that is) over the last year so I don't need much motivation in that regard. Not that they paint themselves, but I'm slowly, and steadily, getting through the lead-pile on my own accord. This means that I'm not going to have any sort of Buy/Painted tally as I've slowly stopped buying stuff on a whim - having a rather poor economy puts an effective end to those impulse buys of the past.

Right, let's end this waffle - Happy New Year everyone!

Second Rosetta Playtest and Making a Playing Mat

There is, unfortunately, only a single picture of yesterdays fight, but it sums it up rather well - the Undead were soundly beaten by a throng of do-gooders as they were about to pilfer a local bastion.

While there are no photos (too blurred, too dark) I can tell you that having this second playtest of Rosetta has reinvigorated me to no end and the science fiction edition of Rosetta is being typed up in a fury of keystrokes at this very moment! ... I mean, when I'm not typing up this here blog post that is.

To those who are wondering, then we managed to fix the close combat issue - it will still end up as a bit of a scrum as that is hard to avoid when playing fantasy battles with no other objective than thumping each others skulls in, but it is a scrum with a lot of finesse and style! Combats are not a completely static affair and units will fall back, lick their wounds and then rejoin the fray - or, if needed be, run for the hills!

We also changed some of the mecanics in regards to having fewer units than the opponent, opting to have a simple little "Pass" rule for the side with the fewer units. It serves the purpose of allowing the side with fewer units to wait it out - if they wish - and see what the opponent does. Let's see how it'll work out in a science fiction setting next time around.

Oh, and I'll try and bring a 15mm science fiction game with me to Horisont V, watch this blog for further updates on that project! Why? Well, because I want to help them out and because today I created...

This!

What you see here is a gaming mat made as per Tobi's Tutorial. For the danes out there, you can follow his tutorial to a tee, just like me - except for the fact that I bought some sort of fabric called "Børstet Halvpanama" rather than Canvas or Calico as I had read elsewhere on the web. It does the job, was decently priced and came in a delicious dark brown colour, which meant that I had to even less colouring - huzzah!

Now to see how long the static grass that I applied to it will last. And to find myself a slightly darker brown, some static grass with a deeper hue and then have a god at creating a full on forest mat rather than this partly mediterranian foresty thing I have created here. After all, this was more of a proof of concept than anything else.

A difference of scale

Yesterday, the strangest thing happened to me in my hobbylife.

After years of pestering Duncan about the glory that is the 15mm scale where I finally gave in and simply stayed on course for 28mm; lo' and behold - there comes Duncan proclaiming that 15mm is now the new black and what a wonderful scale it is... just as I'm going into full 28mm mode for skirmish gaming.

Duncan's wonderful little team of 15mm space brigands

Long have I been an advocate for using 15mm miniatures for the larger battlegames, akin to Warhammer 40.000 and what not. You know, that weird middleground between platoon and company game scale where a lot of miniatures is needed on a large-ish table and bigger battles are fought.

Just like Fireteam Andromeda, which isn't so odd considering that I wrote it for that specific purpose, but there are also a host of other games out there and recently both Duncan and I became rather enamored with Jake Thornton's God of Battles. We had a quick and - very - small test game of it the other day and found it to be sound and just what we were looking for in that weird battle-scale of games for fantasy wargaming.

However. For that game, we could hardly scrape together two armies in 28mm! Having, both of us, not been much for painting the larger 28mm armies required for Warhammer and its ilk, none of us had enough miniatures! Well, not enough painted miniatures at the very least. We then decided that next month we would invest - heavily - in some 15mm fantasy miniatures so we could quickly paint up our armies and play a proper game of GOB... and of course, to have an excuse to purchase new shiny stuff!

Like these beauties right here! Soon... Oh yes, soon!

All fine and well, until Duncan had the notion that you could easily play skirmish games on a coffee table in this scale. And he's bloody right! And yet, there is something here that strike me as a bit wrong - on a personal level. While I can definitely see the merits of using 15mm miniatures for skirmish games, it just ends up feeling wrong to me; mostly because I already have this huge pile of painted 28mm miniatures lying around; I feel that 28mm still can deliver more character and that I can more easily identify, at a glance, what the miniatures are capable of by simply looking at them and not having to do weird basing schemes and so forth...

...And yet, the notion is there. Settling on a single scale for these things would really make things easier on my part as for making terrain and painting miniatures. It would also mean that my limited space for storage would only be taken up by a lot of thing that could be used for a single scale, unlike what I'm currently storing. While I can easily pick up some miniatures from my Fireteam Andromeda armies and play skirmish games with them, I still don't think that I'll enjoy it just as much as I would with 28mm skirmish games; simply because of the wealth of available miniatures in 28mm.

Ah well, idle musings to get this here blog going again - it's been a bit of a slog around here as I find that writing and posting and sharing these blogposts takes up too much of my hobby time and I'm still on the fence as to how to get it all organized and more steamlined for me so that I get to spend more time doing what I like; painting and playing with miniatures!

DreadBall: The O.C. Comets vs. PharmaTech Paladins!

... As well as some stand-in Veer-Myn of which I unfortunately have no pictures of.

What can I say? I absolutely love this game! It's fast, it's fun, it's clever and it's immersive! It's an accquired taste, sure, but to me it has beaten Blood Bowl by a mile or two as far as actual gameplay goes.

It is not that I'll bash on Blood Bowl or anything like that - it's comparing appels and oranges as far as I am concerned as they are two very distinct games, with the only overlap being the general idea (fantasy sport wargame), some of the races (orx and dwarves especially) and that you roll dice. Where BB takes its inspiration from Rugby and American Football, DB instead takes its inspiration from Basketball, Handball and Speedball II - making it more about plays, moves, and the occasional jawbreaker than about maintaining a cage around the ball.

Yes, that is indeed an Marauder Guard that was taken down by a Jack, none the less!

To me, as you might have guessed, then it has really got me stoked on playing a lot of games and try out various teams, plays and tactics and what have you. Partly because it is, for now, somewhat unmarked territory with no fixed dogma regarding team set-up as well as line-ups, as well as the possibility for it to never be so.

As the die rolls fluctuate a lot, with the roll of a 6 being "wild" and thus exploding, you've set up for a game in which you can never be that sure of what's going to happen, a bit like calculated anarchy. Sure, you can play it safe for as long as possible, making sure bet moves and not pushing the boundaries - but as soon as you see that magical opening in the opposing teams line-up, then you can swoop in and complete a three-Striker-pass that will end up scoring the final 4 points - on a single die roll of 4+ - that will win you the match by the landslide! And that, in essense is what makes this game so great; you never really know what to expect!

The man of the match; Corporation Striker #3 in an earlier game - he alone managed to score two 4-pointers during a single match, needing to roll 4+ on a single die!