Secret Santa Painting Challenge 2016

Every year (for the past... I wanna say four years) the shop I work at hosts, what we call, a "Secret Santa Painting Competition," though there's really nothing competative about it.

Really what it is is an event where people enter a model for another randomly-determined participant to paint for them. They can give some instruction, or none at all. It's pretty fun and it can be a great excuse to get a model painted that you weren't excited to do, and ti's also a chance for you to paint something you never would've painted, or haven't painted in a long time.

In my case, I got to paint a Space Ork (that's right... I'm bringing back the "Space" in "Space Ork"). I haven't painted one since the early 2000s, and I even got to try out painting a checker pattern on his suspenders (the jury's still out on whether I did a good job or not).

Here are all the finished models.

Here's the one I painted for my friend and co-worker, Gopaul.

CHECK out them checkers...

Here's the one that was painted for me.

Anyway, good fun, and a great way to end off 2016. See you all on the other side.

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Update of the Rings

Just a quick little update on how my games of the Lord of the Rings LCG are going. As you recall, I'm attempting to play through all the Saga Expansions that make up the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. I'm beginning with "The Hobbit: Over Hill and Under Hill" and goddamn is it hard!

I've played the first scenario four times now, twice with each of the suggested decklists at the back of the booklet inside the box, and I've only come close to defeating the troll brothers once. How the first scenario works is thus: It's divided into three parts. The first part only requires seven progress tokens to complete it, and the encounter deck is lacking in any type of enemies, so this is pretty easy to accomplish. In fact, the first time I attempted it, I breezed past the first part on turn one.

The second part is when the trolls come out to play. Tom, Bert, and William come marching out along with their troll cave, and spell doom for my party. The threat amount they dish out is enough to make you almost lose the game (and engage you, if you haven't made it to 50 threat) if you're not careful, so to mitigate this, I engage one on my turn. The problem with the trolls is that each one imparts a special rule to all of them. One makes it so that the trolls can only be fought by one character (and at armor 2, with 10, 11, and 12 wounds respectively, this isn't easy), one makes it so that no damage can be inflicted on them while in the staging area, and the third won't allow you to play attachment cards on them.

Now, it's still preferable to engage them, because if I don't, they engage me, and that means I draw a card from a deck of "sack" cards. These cards are only bad, as they immobilize various characters (each one's different) for indefinite periods of time. This means they can't do anything until the sack is removed (at which time it's put right back into the sack deck), and these opportunities come infrequently as I've found out.

Needless to say, this is a tough scenario. It only ends once the trolls are defeated or the encounter deck runs out of cards, in which case the sun comes up and the trolls are turned to stone. That's the third part of the scenario... It just ends. So really, the meat is in the middle.

So now I've tried each of the pre-made decks twice; it's time for me to deckbuild. I want to stick with heroes and allies that were present during the age of the Hobbit, and not stray into any LotR-era characters. I've never built a deck in LotRLCG before. I'll post it up where when I do and tell y'all how it went.

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Blood Bowl!

This week sees the re-release of the Games Workshop classic Blood Bowl.

I've had a rocky relationship with Blood Bowl in the past. When I first got into it in 1998 with the re-release of the third edition (in a thinner box with a blue border) I liked it. I thought it was a fun, goofy, game that was perfect for a nerdy kid who didn't like sports. It was kind of like a satire in that regard.

Anyway, I played it, I enjoyed it, and when GW removed it from their shelves and their catalog, I was more than happy to go back to Warhammer and 40k (also around that time there would've been Mordheim, Warmaster, Inquisitor and Battlefleet: Gothic to keep my attention). Years later when I worked for Games Workshop, the era of Specialist Games was in full swing, complete with Fanatic magazine adorning the magazine rack alongside White Dwarf.

At this time people were again talking about Blood Bowl. The difference was that I couldn't muster the energy to get excited about it. Again, there was a lot going on miniatures-wise, and I just couldn't get behind the bandwagon this time around (especially with the "living rulebook." As much as I think it's cool that the community was given control over the game, I can't stand ever-changing rulebooks).

So why's this time different? Maybe because my excitement surrounding Games Workshop is at the level that it once was in the '90s. They've really been hitting it out of the park lately with their community engagement, creative supplements, innovative rules designs, and stellar models. I'd feel a bit foolish not jumping on the excitement this time around. So on that note, I'm going to paint up the Orcs in the base set in the colors of the local Canadian Football League team here in Vancouver: the BC Lions.

Again, I'm not a football fan, but I am a Vancouverite through-and-through, and I don't get to paint much orange. I'm going to wait and see what their High Elf models look like if/when they release them, and I'll paint them up like the Seattle Seahawks (the other half of my family is made up of Seattleites. Not to mention the name "Seahawks" just screams High Elves), so I can rep teams from both sides of the 49th parallel. 

Not to mention a good reason to get into the game is the inevitable league that will spring up around this game. Campaigns and leagues are really my favorite parts of the hobby. 

I'll keep you updated on this project as well.

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The Nightmare Kingdom Cometh

(Still workin' on my AoS Slaanesh force, don't you worry...)

When I went to Kippers Melee in Nanaimo, BC a couple weekends ago a friend won a copy of the Warmachine 2-player starter set in a raffle. He's a bit apathetic about Warmachine/Hordes, and so agreed to trade me the Cryx half of the set for a Harlequin figure (score!). Now I've been playing Warmachine since it was first carried in games shops here in Vancouver, and while I focussed mostly on my Cygnar stuff in those days, I always had Cryx in my back pocket.

When I get into a miniatures game I always look for two things: An army closest to an elf archetype (Legion of Everblight and Retribution of Scyrah eventually fit this description), and/or an army closest to the Chaos archetype (that is, demon-worshipping barbarians), and while Cryx aren't exactly "demon-worshipping barbarians" (that would probably be the Orgoth in the Iron Kingdoms (IK) world), they are the most sinister of the IK factions. I'm very excited to potentially be working on a Cryx force.

All the bits that're fit to Cryx!

When MkIII came out for Warmachine and Hordes this year, I wanted to jump into it with my Legion of Everblight force because I played them the least out of my factions in MkII, but my gaming group was knee-deep into Kings of War at the time and one thing or another kept preventing us from really diving into MkIII. Now the impetus has died down, and I don't feel as pressured to just jump in and rev up to 11 with the game.

Warmachine/Hordes is a complex game; there are a lot of moving parts, and for a casual gamer like myself it can feel a bit overwhelming. With this little project I want to slowly work on this Cryx force and play games with my painted stuff (a novel concept in the Warmachine/Hordes gaming scene), before expanding it bit-by-bit. This is the dream of every veteran miniatures gamer. We have a tendency to jump in and buy box after box of stuff, overwhelming ourselves. This way I can treat MkIII like it's my first time experiencing the game. Anyway, more will be covered on this here blog. Stay tuned!

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They're taking Carmin to Isengard!

I'm still working on my Age of Sigmar (AoS) stuff for the Las Vegas Open (LVO) in February '17, but I'm a gamer, and like many gamers I'm often swayed by ideas or thoughts that come into my head. Recently I'm tugged towards Middle-Earth.

I work in a games shop, and as a games shop employee I have to be tuned in to what's happening in the gaming world. It seems that within the last year or more Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) has been shaking up its Living Card Game (LCG) line, starting with the acquisition of the Legend of the Five Rings (L5R) property, and continuing on with their separation with Games Workshop (GW), and the ending of Warhammer 40,000 Conquest and the final death of Warhammer Invasion. This got my attention and gave me an opportunity to take a look at my own LCG collection and take inventory to see what's missing, what needs to be acquired, and what needs to go.

At around the same time I've been taking another look at The Hobbit Strategy Battle Game by GW. This is spurred on by a friend's desire to give it another go after he re-watched The Hobbit movies. Of course, I don't want to take away any time spent on painting my AoS stuff, so what's a Lord of the Rings (LotR) nerd to do?

I'm going to give the LotR LCG another shot. I remember it being hilariously difficult to complete the quests when I first gave this game a go when it came out. However, I'm willing to give it another shot, this time taking my time and putting my paltry deck-building skills to the test. I'm going to use the LotR Quest Log (note: you must be logged-in to FFG's community site to view the link) and keep track of my progress and, most importantly, not get frustrated when things go poorly.

All the boxed expansions I own, to say nothing of the monthly
adventure packs!

Anyway, I have a lot to work through, obviously, and I'll make periodic posts about it here as well in case you care about that kind of thing. I'm going to start with the Hobbit expansions, then go on to the Lord of the Rings expansions (which are still ongoing). Then, depending on how I feel, I'll try all those adventure packs that have you play through the "behind-the-scenes" bits of the War of the Ring.

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From One Army To The Next

Been a while since my last post. What's been happenin'?

Well, not a ton obviously. One thing I managed to accomplish is the painting of 48 models to round out my Kings of War Chaos army (or Varangur, as they're known in the realm of Mantica) for a tournament I went to last weekend. I pretty much spent almost every free moment of time over the course of the last two weeks to finish these figures, and I did it! They're to a tabletop standard rather than something I'd enter into paint contests, but I'm very happy with them. I had to borrow some marauders from a friend as my final regiment of them wasn't ready for the tournament, but the rest of the army's done. I'll return to those final twenty figures when I return to the army and the game.

So how was the tournament then? It went alright. I came in 7th out of 8th, which was a little disappointing but then again my game results spoke for themselves: two losses and a draw. I'm not one to be too discouraged by tournament results, normally, but this time stung a little bit more because I noticed that over the last few years I haven't seen any improvement in myself as a player. In fact, during my third game I was completely confused as to what strategy to take. I started to wonder if I actually got this game at all—that is to say, if I understood it.

My opponents were great, and the organizer was dialed, and the group of friends I traveled with was great and we had a blast. I'll definitely consider going to this event next year. I'm not going to let this discouragement worry me too much, though. I've decided that I'm going to take a step back from the flurry that was these last two weeks and focus instead on the other tournament I have scheduled: The Las Vegas Open.

I've bought my ticket to the Age of Sigmar North American Championship at the Las Vegas Open next year in February. It's a 2000 point tournament using the General's Handbook Matched Play rules and I couldn't be more excited. I plan on bringing my Slaanesh army, which needs a few more painted warscrolls in order to bring it up to a playable 2000 points. I don't have a ton of time to finish it, but neither is it breathing down my neck. This should prove to be a nice palate-cleanser after furiously working on my brass-clad legions.

More on that tournement later, but for now, here are some pictures of the tournament I went to this previous weekend:

Note the borrowed marauders on the left.

Knights get double-charged.

 

Epic "boss fight" between my lord and his.

I even managed to get a 4-player game of Age of Sigmar in using my Kings of War figures:

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Spiel des Jahres Nominations

Well here they are folks!

(It's worth noting that I had to find out about this through ICv2 and not the Google Alert I set for "Spiel des Jahres"—I think we're safe from the computer takeover a little while longer)

As I stated in my New Years post, I'm gonna try and play every game from the Spiel and the Kennerspiel. My FLGS already has all the Kennerspiel games and we have Code Names, so I can get a good head start.

Let's see if I can guess, correctly, which ones will win.

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Warzone Painting Challenge

I got into a paint challenge with a bunch of randoms on the Mutant Chronicles Subreddit (Reddit? Who am I?), and I pledged to paint the Capitol starter set by the end of May. I'll keep y'all appraised.

Hell I can do it! If I never paint another goddamn thing this
whole damn month, that is!

Why do I do these things? At least it'll contribute to the 1000pt Warzone army I pledged to do in 2016.

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More Chainmail?

So, inspired by my recent article on D&D: Chainmail, and by all the single model painting I've gotten done lately, I thought I'd give myself a little project to work on. Every so often I'll take a Chainmail model out of my case (maybe two in the case of double models I have) and work on it. I seem to be able to do single models pretty quickly—and Chainmail warbands are really small—so this should be a cinch!

I'll start with the two warbands from the starter set. That way if I want to have some games with friends, I'll be able to use the two forces intended to show off the mechanics of the basic game. I'm going to leave the descriptions of the figures for when I actually have them finished, but here's the group shot:

The three white-primed figures and the leftmost black-primed
figure are members of the Thalos faction (the "gnome infiltrator"
has a busted crossbow. I'll fix it when I get to him), while the
four black-primed figures on the right are members of the
evil Naresh faction, made up mostly of gnolls!

I also have a ton of models from the Mordengard faction (dwarves), and the Ravilla faction (elves), as well as one figure from Drazen's Horde (hobgoblins, goblins, orcs, etc.). All-in-all I have forty Chainmail figures, all of which will get their time in the sun.

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About a Long-Lost Love

I want to talk about one of my favorite games of all time. It's a game that, if it was still in production, I'd still be playing to this day:

Chainmail (or D&D Chainmail, as it was known to differentiate it from the proto-D&D miniatures game "Chainmail"), was published by Wizards of the Coast in 2001, and contained some notable alumni in its production: Chris Pramas, Skaff Elias, Adrian Smith, Mike McVey, and Jason Soles to name a few—not to mention all the sculptors you'd no doubt recognize.

So what was so cool about Chainmail? It was effectively D&D 3rd edition turned into a miniatures game. You assembled a warband of figures that generally numbered anywhere between three and seven figures, and you maneuvered and spelled the shit out of each other! It had a really innovative command system, where your commanders could issue orders to troops. Your commanders had a number of command points that they could expend to move their basic troops around and maybe even make them fight a little better. 

It had the perfect mix of casual and competitive rules and attitude that I've not seen matched in any miniatures game since. The rules were such that you could assemble a warband of synergistic models and conduct your battles in a strategic manner similar to what you may see at an X-Wing or Warmachine/Hordes tournament. But if you weren't a competitive gamer, then the sheer amount of scenarios they released—combined with the campaign that was contained in their first supplement—meant that you could play thematic games that focussed on a story.

Really, it still amazes me to this day the sheer amount of scenarios that game contained. By my count there were over thirty at the end of its run in 2003. The scenarios weren't like your typical tournament-focussed scenarios which are largely abstract, gamey, set-ups that you may see in an event's "tournament package" (though the game had these too), but they felt like these would be conflicts in a fantasy world. 

These scenarios were contained in the rulebook and over the course of four supplements. These supplements not only contained scenarios and rule updates, but new rules on environments (fighting in the underdark), new spells your models could learn, and the stats for the new wave of models. They also contained more of the ongoing story about these empires and hordes fighting over the sundered essence of the dead god of war Stratis.

Back in 3rd edition D&D, WotC wanted to focus the setting on the world of Greyhawk. In order to make a miniatures game where there were stakes to the storyline and players' victories they set the game in the Sundered Empire in the western part of the main continent on Oerth, and introduced new characters and factions. 

The models were good too. Some of them were pretty typical of the early 2000s, non-Citadel, quality that you saw among the miniatures spectrum, but it had the best range of gnolls I've ever seen. It also had the coolest owlbear. 

Anyway, that's really all I wanted to say on the subject. The game's long dead, having been replaced by the pre-painted figures and simpler miniatures game in 2003. I enjoyed that one too, but it was no Chainmail.

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Exalted Hero of Slaanesh

More stuff got painted! This time what is now known as the Exalted Hero of Slaanesh, but was once known as Sigvald, the Magnificent.

I've been wanting to paint the model since I got it when it came out for 8th edition WFB, but it wasn't until I decided that I'd assemble a display in my local game shop's cabinet that I got off my ass and finished him. I already have some Slaanesh stuff in a cabinet there, but that's for the Path to Glory campaign (which I'm still workin' on), and I can't very well have them be part of two displays! This hero will be the leader of my non-campaign Slaanesh army.

Not that you'd be able to notice from my terrible photography, but I used Wargames Foundry's Native American Flesh set to paint the skin. I plan on buying a ton of different skin tone paints just to add some diversity to the Mortal Realms. I mean, why should Northern Europeans be the only heroes and maniacs? If the Realms are impossibly large, I'm sure there's going to be a ton of different cultures floating around. No one is safe from the temptations of Slaanesh, apparently.

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Return to Western Immoren

So, unless you only get your gaming news from my blog (why?) you'll have no doubt heard that Warmachine and Hordes are getting a third edition (Mk3). This is good news, everyone! Lately I've found it hard to justify my constant purchase of every book Privateer Press releases in hardcover, as I haven't played the game in over a year (and before that even longer).

It's not that I ever thought it was a bad game, just that it had gotten too big and complex. At least for me, Warmachine and Hordes expand so lightning fast that if I'm distracted by another game for too long it's hard to come back to it and not be frustrated. Maybe it's just that I was focussing too much on the competitive scene, and not enough on the casual.

Well now I'm looking forward to journeying to the Iron Kingdoms once again. I'm not going to even attempt to summarize all the changes they've announced to the game; suffice it to say they all sound good to me. Here's a list of sources that I've read or listened to:

+ The Announcement
+ Primecast Episode 30
+ Jason Soles' 2¢

Keep your eyes peeled, and your ears pinned back, as there will probably be news coming out daily. I'll most-likely be jumping in on the Hordes end of the pool, and to that effect I've painted a new warlock

I know it's a little dark (that might be my lighting), but I had to paint him to match the rest of my force, which was painted in a drow color scheme, and was originally part of a speed-painting challenge back in 2010. I originally painted an entire 35pt force in seven sessions, and it just involved a lot of washes and drybrushing. I'm going to work on a few more models in the coming months and we'll see if I can't stumble upon some kind of color combination that doesn't look so dark. The only requirement is that the skin is black, the hair is white, and there's purple somewhere on the figure. I'm open to suggestions.

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Blast From The Past

So how are my new year's resolutions going? Well, not that great. Our VP total so far is 0.75 (and that's counting the first article of the year, which I will gladly do).

Hail nerdlingers!

This post I'm going to talk about something near and dear to my heart: Warhammer 40,000 2nd edition.

2nd edition existed between 1993 and 1998 and was the first version of 40k I played. I played it for two years before 3rd edition came out, and it was my favorite edition of Warhammer 40,000. When 2nd edition ended I was disappointed. I liked the wackiness and the detail that the game had, and I wasn't as ready to dispense with the psychic phase or the movement characteristic as others. However, I was a kid whose hobby was being fostered at a Games Workshop retail store, and when you game there you game with what's current. So I adopted 3rd edition and played the vast majority of my 40k games, to this day, in that edition.

Over the years I still took my 2nd edition codices and rulebooks off the shelf and flipped through them, and I still collected anything from that period that I didn't already have, but it wasn't until 2006 that I managed to get a game of it in again. From 2004–2007 I worked at the same Games Workshop that I had frequented, and a regular customer—who I had known since the days of 2nd edition—offered to indulge me in a 1500 point game of 2nd edition. I had a ton of fun, and it brought back a lot of good memories, but it never went past that one game.

Now it's 2016, and minding my own business, plugging away at the independent games shop I work at now, I am suddenly pulled into the black hole that is my friends' curiosity. Three friends, none of whom have ever played 2nd edition, are now curious to give this game a try. Of course, I am completely happy to oblige, and have generously offered my house, terrain, and rulebooks for a game that will occur this Wednesday.

This will be me and my friends.

Here's the set-up: There will be four players organized into two teams of 2000 points (1000 points each). Myself and Gopaul will control the enigmatic eldar (he will bring Harlequins), and Sam and Kiel will control the stalwart Imperium (Ultramarines and the Inquisition). We're treating the army selection a little differently than rules as written (RAW). To facilitate my friend's Grey Knights army (which has been a legit army for four editions) we're going to allow the Imperial Agents army to be it's own army instead of purely an allied force. So 0-50% Characters, 25%+ Squads, and 0-50% Vehicles. Each side will be one 2000 point force.

I'll insist that we use Mission and Strategy Cards (we'll of course be removing "Virus Outbreak"), and that the Mission Card for each side is drawn randomly. I toyed with the idea of keeping the missions secret, but "Guerrilla War" is kind of hard to do that without tipping one's hand, so we'll announce them after we've drawn them. I'm vetoing Virus grenades, but not Vortex grenades, 'cause they're fun, and Virus grenades really aren't. We'll also be using the Dark Millennium victory charts, the full psychic phase rules, and only playing four turns (not three or five as per the random table).

So what will I expect? I really don't know. The last time I seriously looked at 2nd edition was a decade ago, and while I've toyed with the idea of playing it again during that period, it's never gone further than taking the Dark Millennium box off the shelf and giggling over the psychic cards. I'll tell you a couple things, though: I'm looking forward to the psychic phase, and I am not looking forward to the close-combat phase.

As a 12-year old when 3rd edition came out I lamented that they could've done the transition better. I had this genius idea that they should've just kept 2nd edition the way it was, but use the 3rd edition close combat and bike rules, toned-down characters, and used the Warhammer Fantasy Battle 6th edition magic dice mechanic for the psychic phase and BAM! It would've been the perfect miniatures game. This, of course, is just reinforcing the fact that I hate the 2nd edition close-combat mechanics (outside of Necromunda, and Gorkamorka, of course).

So you must all be curious as to what I'll be taking. Here's my list:
Characters
1 Farseer (laspistol, rune armor, seer runes, Eldar spirit stones) - 220
1 Exarch (laspistol, exarch armor, firepike, fast shot) - 100
1 Exarch (laspistol, exarch armor, mandiblaster helmet, chainsword, shuriken pistol, fighting fury) - 59
Squads
4 Fire Dragons (meltaguns, laspistols, fire dragon aspect armor) - 112
4 Striking Scorpions (shuriken pistols, chainswords, mandiblasters, striking scorpion aspect armor) - 104
16 Guardians (lasguns, mesh armor) - 176
Support
1 Falcon Grav Tank (pulse laser, heavy plasma gun, twin-linked shuriken catapults, targeters) - 228
Total: 999

The whole shebang.

Guardians with lasguns?! Getouttaheeeere!

Farseer

Fire Dragons

Striking Scorpions

Looks like I got some painting ahead of me. I'll post a battle report next week replete with pictures!

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Magic: the Gathering Grand Prix Vancouver 2016

Hey all!

Today I'll be at the Magic: the Gathering (MTG) Grand Prix Vancouver. It's a limited format (sealed deck)—which I absolutely love—and it's nine rounds of sweet, sweet, Magic action.

If you want to see any pictures I'll take follow me on Instagram (steelrabbit). If you want to read anything I may say in 140 characters or fewer, follow me on Twitter (@carminlive). If you want to see what others are saying then follow #gpvan on Twitter.

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O brave new year, That has such games in't

I'm not one for New Year's Resolutions—they tend to just get forgotten—but a fun activity a friend and I do at the end of every year is make gaming-based resolutions for the coming one. Now I can't remember too many that I've actually followed up on, but I figure I have a clever mental gymnastic routine to make sure that this year I complete as many as I can.

I figure if I treat the resolutions like victory conditions in a game, I'll try my hardest to complete them. I'll assign each goal a point value ("VP" for Victory Points), and then create a table that determines a loss/victory score at the end. At the end of 2016 we'll see how well I've done. It's with this thought obfuscating logic in my brain that I present the following list:

1. Blog more (0.25VP/post)
Of course this is something I say almost every post after a month or so of inactivity (the average length between posts on this blog, I reckon), but let's try and get at least four posts a month—that's one a week.

2. Paint 1000pts of Capitol for Warzone (6VP)
For as huge a fan of Warzone and Mutant Chronicles as I am I sure don't have a lot of painted figures for it. I must admit, Prodos Games makes a fine model, but some of them are difficult to paint due to excess detail (a weird complaint, I admit), or just strange casting (I still have first wave Kickstarter figures. The sculpts and castings have improved since then). I'm hoping to overcome these shortcomings and get 'er done!

3. Run a three-session Mutant Chronicles campaign (2VP)
I should be getting my Mutant Chronicles 3rd edition book in the mail in spring, and I'd love to run a small arc (or longer if my group likes it).

4. Play through the Age of Sigmar Path to Glory campaign (10VP)
Black Library released an Age of Sigmar Chaos campaign as part of their 2015 advent calendar special, and I managed to convince three other people to join me in it (one player for each Chaos god). I'd love to go from start to finish in this thing, but I've had many a campaign flop so that's why the points value of this victory condition is so high.

5. Speaking of campaigns: Run a Kings of War campaign (8VP)
This goal has a pretty high VP as well, mostly for the same reasons as the last one, but a little lower because I have so many more KoW opponents than AoS, but it's still a campaign so that could just end up nowhere.

6. Attend at least one KoW and Star Wars: Armada tournament (2VP ea. for KoW; 4VP ea. for SW:A)
This year I'm going to get into Star Wars: Armada. I'm not a huge Star Wars fan, but I am feeling the bug (probably because of the new movie and the fact that I travelled to Japan this December and watched Episodes I–III on the plane (don't judge)). I also really like the SW:A rules and have a plethora of opponents. The score is higher for SW:A because I actually have to build a fleet to play, while I have tons of KoW-compatible stuff.

7. Paint an elf Kings of War army (12VP)
From start to finish, 2000pts. I already have the models purchased and primed, I just need to paint 'em!

8. Play four new mid-level Eurogames this year (2VP ea.)
By "mid-level Eurogames" I mean Kennerspiel winners, or higher (e.g., Istanbul, Serenissima, etc.). This is one per season (and I want it to include 2016's Kennerspiel winner).

9. Play a serious game of Battlelore 2nd Edition (4VP)
By "serious" I mean a game against someone who's also played a handful of games and will give me a run for my money.

10. Just to make it an even ten: Run The Enemy Within Campaign for WFRP 1st or 2nd Edition (15VP)
This is a big one, but I have a willing role-play group. We just need the time to fit it in.

Victory Points Chart:*
0–12: Draw
13–20: Minor Victory
21–40: Solid Victory
41–82: Major Victory
83+: Massacre!
*Based on the Warhammer 6th Edition Victory Points Chart (pg. 198)

Let's see how well I've done on December 31st, 2016!

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