The Twelve Days of X-Mas - Day 8

So checking back I apparently started attaching paint to my Nameless team, the Wakadaisho Wave-Riders, back in November. Today I finally finished them off, bar numbering which will be a minor Day 8 job.

After quite a bit of work It's nice to have them all finished to a decent standard and that's all my Dreadball stuff to date fully painted! So more PPs for 2014 and a second finished project, as much as this one has been on and off on that count :)

I-Phone shots I'm afraid as I can't find the charger for my camera, though they've come out well enough and I'm sure it's just run off somewhere obvious I haven't looked yet.

As previously mentioned the Strikers had some alignment issues on the hex bases but in some ways it might be a bonus in terms of them actually fitting next to any other figure!

The Hitty Guards and Jon Doe are pretty slim by comparison. JD looks somewhat static compared to his less All-Star compatriots and the most Zoidburg :)

Obligatory team shot with the Spawn looming out of the background. Rather looking forward to giving these guys a run out, hopefully in the Enfield Gamer's upcoming Champions League. Not sure what the pre-game snacks might be :)

The Twelve Days of X-Mas - Days 6 & 7

Merry New Year!! (love that film)

After a less than  productive day Monday I pushed on yesterday to finish my fledgling Klingon fleet which I shall be claiming as a last gasp completed project for 2013. Not sure that there are any others to claim, not too bothered either, as regular additions to Dreadball, my definite game of 2013, stymied that one but there you go.


Not really bothered to review the year more than I already have other than to predict that 2014 will see more skirmish and miniature / hybrid boardgaming with a very definite minimum of figures purchased, though plenty of paint.

Meanwhile here's the fleet, coming to a table near you in 2014 :)

The Neg was pretty much the last off the line. Have to admit that I didn't particularly like the look of  it when I picked it up, big gold lump (who knew Klingons went bling!), but the re-paint has been quite dramatic. Tried to keep things simple and quieter, overall I'm pretty pleased with her.

Similar story with the Vor'Cha twins. Painted them as one with for slight variations in scheme that hopefully is evident without being too loud. Took their lead from the Neg and the trio look good together.

Have to admit that the K'Tinga / D7 models are my favourites and  I continued the retro theme for the K'Tingas, one vaguely Red Baron and the other a touch more subtle. I like them rather too much!

Finally, various obligatory group shots. I can almost hear the Kirk-esque / Klingon action soundtrack in the background. I'm tempted to learn a few choice phrases to utter during games but that seems like a lot of effort for something I can "ad-lib" as and when necessary :)

Otherwise prep and construction today before Sherlock returns!!

The Twelve Days of X-Mas - Day 4 & 5

Evening all,

Fairly lazy weekend BUT the deck clearing has paid off as paint has been applied to figures, in this case all vessels of the Imperial Klingon Empire. Nice paints, they were are all pre-highlighting and a wash of Baal Red and pretty much nothing else.

So that's the B'Rel, particularly pleased with the "feathered" wings and a pair of Old School'd D7s. The K'Tingas are following on nicely, with variants of the B'Rel scheme, to leave a pair of Vor'Chas and the Negh'Var to fit somewhere in between. One and a half PPs a piece feels about, hopefully all sorted for New Year.

Elsewhere I joined Mr C and Rich for the 3D IMAX mega-edit of Desolation of Smaug on Saturday night. I was highly entertained and re-enthused for some SAGA / Mordor action. All those Orc figures that have been staring at me for so many weeks may actually see something happen to them sooner rather than later.

Oh yes, I also pledged for HeroQuest 25 on Lanzanos, simply couldn't resist. I'm sure 2014 will see me needing to purchase very few figures....... Myself and Rich were having a chat in the queue Saturday about what actually qualifies as a "pure" wargame or boardgame versus all of the hybrids that seem to be populating KickStarter so heavily these days.

A thought for another post :)

The Twelve Days of X- Mas - Day 3

So, Day Two, as Boxing Day involved stuffing my face with roast ham, though I did at least go for a run first!

Day Three, today, was a bit of a lie in and chores to clear the decks for action. Action itself comes in the form of Firefly - the boardgame this evening round at Rich's along with Mr C and Ian. In short there's an awful lot of cards and tokens to take in but a set of simple and intuitive mechanics that keep things flying along at a shiny pace.

Name of the game is running round the 'Verse doing jobs, legal, illegal or immoral to recruit crew and soup up your Firefly before attempting to complete the super-job for that session. A good crew and plenty of kit is essential to see you right as you plot you course through troubled time and space.

Board Game Geek says:
Players begin with a ship, and travel from planet to planet, hiring crew, purchasing ship upgrades, and picking up cargo to deliver (jobs) all in the form of cards. Some crew and cargo are illegal, and can be confiscated if your ship is boarded by an alliance vessel. Travelling from planet to planet requires turning over "full burn" cards, one for each space moved. Most do nothing, but you can also encounter an Alliance ship, have a breakdown, or even run into Reavers. Completing jobs gets you cash. First player to complete the story goals wins.

The publisher,  says: In Firefly: The Game – based on the popular Firefly television series created by Joss Whedon – players captain their own Firefly-class transport ship, traveling the 'Verse with a handpicked crew of fighters, mechanics and other travelers. As a captain desperate for work, players are compelled to take on any job — so long as it pays. Double-dealing employers, heavy-handed Alliance patrols, and marauding Reavers are all in a day's work for a ship's captain at the edge of the 'Verse. Firefly: The Game is a high-end thematic tabletop boardgame from Gale Force Nine (GF9) and the first in a series of tabletop hobby board games and miniatures games from GF9 set in the Firefly Universe.

Everything is there from the show, characters, kit, ships and missions. Starting off easy you need specific equipment and skills for the big scores, and could happily play in that mode without the bigger mission arc.

If you're even vaguely a fan then this is an AWESOME game, even if you're not it's very good indeed. SHINY :)

The Twelve Days of X-Mas - Day 1

Merry Christmass to one and all!!

Across the holidays I have twelve days off work and as always a plan / expectation / hope of painting up a big bunch of figures and playing a load of games.
This time round I shall be concentrating on Dreadball, Star Trek and prepping up stuff for the Star Wars EotE campaign, so mainly sci-fi type figures.

To that end one of my gifts from today were a selection of Hasslefree's Special OPs Modern Troopers, who I've been eyeing up for sometime. Going to paint them up as Mercs and temtped to put them on clear bases, just as long as I can work out how........ :)

In Space, no-one can....

Turn 8 - KHAN!!!

....can hear you hack up snot balls! (Delightful I know)

With the Oddleg / Mr C household being a haven of man-flu its sort of impressive that we managed to scrape ourselves together for a game of STAW but somehow we managed it.

Playing next month's Wizkids Organised Play scenario (he made me Rich, honest!) Mr C took a couple of Valdores and a Prateus, he's addicted to mines don't you know. I worked out a four ship fleet of two K'Tingas and two D7s just because I wanted to try something different than all the three ship fleet builds I've seen. I deliberately picked captains with non ACTION text abilities as well as Khan Singh, just cos I'm a sucker for Wrath of Khan.

Avoiding spoilers we sorted the scenario stuff out in turn 1 and then set about blow the smeg out of each other. This mainly involved me sweeping around the starboard side of the planet a la wedge while the girly space elves ran away and attempted to hid behind their mines.

During the initial pass the dice went all one way, Klingon, not necessarily a good day to die just yet. To rub things in the first Valdore was down to one hull point and the second picked up to Criticals, both Warp Core Breach.

With both fleets pulling K-turns Khan pretty much settled the matter by managing to inflict four Criticals on the already smoking Valdore. After that it was moping up and home for tea.

With admittedly biased dice it was difficult to really assess the fleet but plenty more chances to run them out I'm sure. Time for a spreadsheet, a manly warrior like one that all Klingon warriors would be rightly proud of :)

Turn 1 - slow drift

Turn 3 - hide & seek

Turn 4 - flying wedge

Turn 5 - disengage

Turtle Soup?

Evening All,

Tuesday night at Enfield Gamers was our last club night of 2013 and with the Spirit of the Season in mind Ian's Judwan Land-slid me....twice.......in a total of about 15 rushes.

My dice didn't help too much but then I did also make some dumb-ass moves, something of a habit against Ian. Several of my lads ended up rolling around for several rushes at a time, which is sort of impressive against a non-Slam team.

Twice, across the two games, I went for a Dash and failed, whilst also getting smacked in head several times by a ball launch. One of these came from failing to pick up the ball from DB1 but another couple of times it was all down to a few tactical Feints. One feels that most of these events were somewhat avoidable!

While my Gaurds did their bit in laying the Slam the Jacks simply didn't turn up for the party. My Coaching rolls being distinctly random didn't help otherwise. As such even beginning to challenge the Jud score-rate just wasn't happening!

Not horrifically unhappy. Learnt a few bits and recognised that some nights the dice just aren't with you. Ian's well known for keeping them to himself :)