Ahrrrrr ….. BattleCry 2013

Models Painted, terrain painted, dice, tape measures, rule book, army lists, food. Check .. All packed and ready to go …check.

Drinking Scotch … CHECK

I’m ready for BattleCry Field of Glory 2013 tournament. 

So the real question is how are the Dice God’s going to treat me this year, or is that beat me this year. Only time will tell. I’m aiming to do as good as last year, which was only one win in four. I’m using the exact same Viking list as I did last year.

It’s only a small tournament of 8 players, with the draw already been decided for the first match's. I’m up against the Later Hindu Southern Indians first up which will be very interesting and hard game. A shooting army versus my Melee army.

Tournament Sponsored by

Legion of Everblight Gargantuan - Archangel

Oh dear … it’s getting closer, I see Wayland are taking pre-orders of the Archangel. What is a guy to do..? I mean being a dragon collector and all, I’m not sure I can resist this monster model.

I haven't played WarMachine or Hordes in a very long time, even thought I’ve got shelf loads of models. Hmmmm …at $167 it getting up there.

I will resist, and think of how much new terrain that money could buy…..

Drone

I got started on my first Drone for my Combined army tonight after varnishing the Cascuda. So still managing to get in an hour a day doing gaming stuff.

The Big Bug

My goal of trying to paint for an hour a day has turned into more of doing gaming stuff for an hour a day, whether it’s army list building, modelling or painting. Which seems to be working out well for me and the boss (the wife).  So I got a bit more painting done tonight, the Big Bug is really starting to look like a bug, as soon as I added the yellow eye he just cam alive. Really looking forward to getting him on the table and seeing what he can do.

Waitangi Day rambling

Waitangi Day today, here in New Zealand so a public holiday in the middle of the week. (Whaooo) So basically a day to tidy up around the house and get some painting in. I’ve failed on my hour a day painting schedule so far this week. But I have managed to get two more shelves built for the garage to hold terrain and models nicely out of harms way. Along with purchasing a nice table lamp to use in the lounge when painting. So I’ve got no excuses now.

I’ve also been tracking my games this year, as I did last year. Already this year board games are getting well used, with the wife still very keen on playing board games. So I foresee a great year of gaming to come both in miniature and board games.

Dust Chronicles–Issue 4

For anyone who doesn’t know about the Free online magazine for Dust, they have just release there next issue. Lot’s of goodies and inspiration.

http://www.dust-chronicles.com/

Painted Challenge

With the up and coming Campaign for infinity, I’ve been trying to get some painting done every day. My aim is an hour a day. So far this week I’ve managed at least half an hour a day. My main challenge at the moment is lighting at night. If I move into the lounge to paint (to keep the wife happy) my one lamp just isn’t cutting it. But other than that I’m slowly getting my painting mojo back. Here’s my latest stage on my Cascuda, I’ve just got him sitting on the base for the photo. Still a long way to go on him, but I’m liking how he’s turning out. He’s going to be a beast to travel with, cant wait to get him on the table for an actual game

Big bugs are always Better

Big bugs are always better when they are painted. Got a little bit more done on the Cascuda tonight.

Cascuda

Getting stuck into painting the big bug Cascuda tonight. Talk about a chunk of metal. A challenge to paint simply because of its size and weight. Just a bit more shading on leaves on the base and that will be done. The Cascuda itself doesn't look to flash in the picture at the moment but it should come up much better once I complete the base coat of colours.

The Bugs are back

Yesterday I played my first Infinity game for some time, so I was rather rusty. I busted out the bugs again (Combined army). With the plan of trying a few things to build my list for the Campaign we will start after the Battlecry tournament in a few weeks.

Phil had got all his building together with some customisations, the set looks awesome, even unpainted. Along with Gath’s scratch built terrain the table was looking pretty good. The game itself was a testament to how evil dice can be. With me rolling and failing 13 unopposed  shots. Then with a bit of assistance from Gath on some tactics and some dice rolls that went my way I managed to complete the mission and win the game…. by the skin on m teeth.

I also played a FOG game in the morning in another epic battle against Mark. We tried out the mountain terrain choice which was interesting to say the least, especially when most of the terrain ended up on Marks side. We ended the game after about 7 turns, with Mark on 6 points of 11, and me on 8 or 13, which ended up with me in front on the percentage, not sure how that translates into win/losses in the points system.  That's something I’ll need to read up on. Either way our armies are well matched and it’s always a hard fight.

SSU IS-48

So I finally got my tank finished today and ready for battle. My first attempt at the hair spray method for weathering was a success. I sure with a bit more practice I’ll get better at it. But I’m pleased with the outcome and will definitely be trying it out again.

Wings of War

My Wings of War planes turned up today. I managed to get a really good deal on them from good old eBay. So 19 planes to get me started ...LOL .. Probably wont need any more for some time. Should be good for some large battles. Already have plans for some low level dog fighting amount mountains. It also gives me a reason to buy some WWII battle ships in 1/200 scale.

Field of Glory 2.0

A drive though the rain to start the day gaming over at Mark, with a drive past the annual Kumeu Classic car show. Lots of old classic cars cursing around.

Having registered for the Battlecry tournament again this year, it was time to get some practice games in. I ended up deciding I’d take my Viking again, since I hadn’t finished up painting my Egyptians and they are pretty soft and squishy.

Now that we all have our FOG 2.0 rule books, we could really nut out the changes and get a good refresh of the standard rules, so the games took a bit longer than normal.

The first game we played in the desert with lots of terrain. The layout ended up forcing us to fight the battle at one end of the table which suited me.

A little bit of shuffling of my line, and some luck in my manoeuvre checks got me around the soft sand terrain and into a half decent battle line.

From there on it was pretty much a straight march towards each other.

Things went my way pretty much from the start, with my dice rolls making most checks and above average rolls on every else. Mark had the exact opposite and couldn't make a cohesion check to save himself. So I rolled over all of his battle groups with little resistance. We did make a mistake with Mark’s Heavy Chariots not breaking off after the combat, but that wouldn’t have changed the game by to much. As I killed his Inspired commander and a troop commander. It was a good refresher on rules, even if it was very one side game.

The second game was played in the desert again, but with a much more open battlefield. Mark tried a flank march to see how that worked. It got me to centre my army in the middle of the table more than I normally would have. This time Mark’s dice rolling was back to normal and his skirmishers worked really well for him. I was on the sharp end of them, and learnt a few things about how weak my unprotected troops really are to shooting. It was a pretty even game until the second turn were I doubled down(snake eyes) on two battle groups and had them both break. We even came across a situation were two fragmented battle groups fighting each other both broke and ran away because of things happing around them at the same time.(very rear I think, but all possible). The game ended pretty quickly after that as my line fell apart and I failed lots of cohesion tests, with Mark wining this one well and truly.

So another great day gaming and some things to think about, and even maybe a change to my army list….maybe.

More weathering

Got the next stage of my white wash weathering done tonight. With a layer of thin white paint over the tank then some Vallejo brown shade wash thinned down. Made a few mistakes with the wash softening the paint underneath. The paint moves and tears because of the hair spay underlay, so a soft brush touch is required. But managed to cover them up.

More tanks

My IS-48 turned up on the door step today.... (about bloody time, must have ordered it three or four times and kept having the order cancelled) Anyway, I'd been planning to try out the hairspray effect with a winter white wash for some time. So I through on a couple of transfers from an old 40k sheet I had lying around, then a coat of gloss varnish....wait for it to dry, then a layer of hair spay. Once that had dried, a simple white grey airbrush coat over the top. Then bust out an old tooth brush,a dab of water and start rubbing away the paint. So this is what I ended up with so far. Still lots or work to go, but a nice start for my first go at this technique.

Attack Helicopter

I finished up my SSU attack Helicopter tonight, just need to finish up the base to complete it.

Viking bashing and board games

Another hot summer day bought about the fist club meet of the year. I rolled out the Vikings once again in preparation for Battlecry 2013 Field of Glory Ancients. The game was about me learning how much I hate really long spiky sticks...aka Pikes. I held my battle line together pretty well, but with most of my guys rolling at one down it wasn't to long before things went wrong. Especially when my hard as nails Huscarls rolled snake eyes and went from rock steady to a bunch of running pansies. So I was pretty well bashed over in that game.

Then later on in the evening I played my first couple of games of Settlers of Catan. We were only player the two player version which was fun, but I think with 3 or more players it would be a lot more fun with all the trading that would go on, so looking forward to getting a multiplayer game in.