Painting Challenge pt. 2: The Basening

So during SNL (reeee-ruuuuunnn!) and Almost Live (What? No 206 tonight?) I managed to get the basing done for my figures.

Chaos Warriors

Chaos Warhounds

Knights and Marauders

I think I've settled on a color scheme, and I will be implementing that in the coming weeks. I actually think I'm going to start with my Hounds and then do the marauders. I think I can get those done the quickest (they're also the least interesting).

I'll throw an army list up on this site on Monday-ish, and I have my first game with the new army book on Wednesday. Following that will be my thoughts, and a slim battle report.

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Aannd... GO!

My clock says midnight... Gentlemen, start your brushing!

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Painting Challenge pt.1: The Introducening

Papa Nurgle has blessed me today, folks. I'm not super-sick, but I'm just sick enough to be a little out of it. This couldn't come at a better time, because I have quite a few project to catch up on, and there was a show that I was supposed to go to tonight, that I now have to think twice about. Oh! Could you not hear the sarcasm there? We, as a digital society should really think about using a font for sarcasm. I'm sure this will alleviate much of the destructive discourse on the Internet these days.

Here are the pictures of my force for the 50-model paint challenge that I'm partaking in:

The Whole Shebang

The Warriors

The Knights and the Marauders

The Wolves

Alright, so that's all I have the energy for right now. You'll see these models progress throughout the month of February (starting this Sunday). Before I go, here's one of the other 50 models that are being painted up:

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P.S. I bought my tickets to Gen Con and I booked my hotel in Indianapolis!

And So It Begins

The dread legions of Chaos emerge from the cloying mists and begin their inexorable march down through Kislev and into the heart of the Empire.

Knowing what you know about the speed and frequency at which I paint, you (my faithful audience) are well within your rights to speculate upon which specific madness has gripped me. Is it the dreaded mind funk; A condition that inflates one's ego to mammoth proportions? Or is it the horrid Pfeilmann's headclamp, which renders the sufferer immune to reality?

Either way I'm attempting to paint 59 models by March 10th (and, in a couple cases, I use the term model somewhat lightly considering that two of those "models" are a Daemon Prince and a Chaos Warshrine).

The reason for this insanity is twofold:

1) I have a 2999pt. Warhammer tournament I've signed up for on March 10th; for that I need to paint 5 Chaos Knights, 32 Chaos Warriors, 10 Marauders, 10 Chaos Warhounds, a Chaos Warshrine, and a Daemon Prince (the old Greater Daemon of Slaanesh, now used as his/her lesser form).

2) A couple of friends and I are undertaking a painting challenge that entails each of us to paint 50 models faster than the other throughout the month of February. I was originally going to put my 56 High Elf Lothern Seaguard up for this challenge, but in a moment of lucidity (must be Pfeilmann's headclamp after all. No lucid moments occur to an unfortunate soul in the grips of a mind funk), I decided that it might be tantamount to hubris to attempt to paint 115 models by March 10th.

So this post is the momentous one that not only begins my Warhammer tournament journal, but also begins the preparatory stages for the paint contest (the contest will have me painting the Chaos Warriors, the Marauders, and the Warhounds. Everything else will have to be finished either before and/or after the contest). Keep your diseased eyes glued to this website for more information in the coming weeks regarding some army building articles, some battle reports from test games, and blurry cellphone pictures of my mound of plastic and pewter.

May the titillating caress of Slaanesh keep you in rapturous ecstasy.

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P.S. It appears this madness has gripped me just in time (oh, Slaanesh, you devious dog, you!) as the new Warriors of Chaos are beginning to leak through the cracked tubes of the Internet.

Kickstarters To Rock To

I'm gonna pull on your coat for a bit here, and give you the low-down, Brown on some interesting stuff happenin' on Kickstarter and Indiegogo.

1. Beyond the Gates of Antares

Rick Priestly's new game. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a Rick Priestly fan. I pledged to this. You should to, so we can play together when it comes out (*Note: Does not include plane tickets to play together).

2. Mummy: the Curse

New "New World of Darkness" game. Mummy's have never interested me, but the World of Darkness interests me greatly, so I pledged to this. I would've liked the name "Mummy: the Wrappening" better, but that's why I'm not a games designer. I'm terribly excited by this game.

3. Drake

A local (Vancouver, BC) development that I got a chance to playtest/consult on. It's lots of fun, and a pretty unique (surprisingly so, considering the ubiquity of its subject matter) concept for a wargame.

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Nappy Hew Jear!

Sadly, I will not be going to Lock and Load this year. This will mark the only year out of the three (so far) that they've been running it, that will lack my beaming face, and 40% win record. I enjoy this convention so much, that on the first year I had fallen to my knees on Yesler way and cursed at the gods above that Lock and Load shall never lack for Carmin.

However, this year I have bigger fish to fry: GenCon 2013.

I've been wanting to go to GenCon since I first heard about it, and this year—thanks to me being good and paying off all my credit cards— I finally have the means to go. 

On average, Lock and Load costs me $800 (Canadian, duh!) to attend, and while I had no compunction against this in the past, I think that this $800 would be better spent at North America's largest gaming convention instead. 

There are so many thing I want to do. I've never been to GenCon before. I feel that perhaps the best move might be just to go and walk around, and not commit myself to anything for fear of missing something else, but I know such luke-warm actions could cost my experience dearly. 

I'm entering the Dark Age tournament for sure. Dark Age is one of my favorite miniatures games (definitely top 3), and I won't miss a chance to test my skills in the unforgiving arena of a tournament. 

Well, that's what I have coming up. I'll be starting a Dark Age tournament journal here on the blog to chronicle my ascension to power in the wastelands of Attr/Samaria. I'll also be taking part in another painting challenge at work between some folks that involves painting 50 figures quicker than anyone else. I thought this might be a great way to start my brand-new High Elf army for Warhammer. You'll see some pics of those this year too. I'm on the fence about what I want to get done for 40k (Dark Angels, or Eldar) so we'll have to see how the year treats me, painting-wise. 

Anyway. Later.

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Posting is the Reason for the Season

Hail, fair readers!

The Wargamer is going to go dark for the rest of the month and come back at cha in the new year. December is a bad time for me to be hobbying (believe it or not) because it's the time that I'm most needed at work. Yes, the life of a games shop retail clerk is especially rewarding this time of year when I need to man the cash register and bolster my knowledge of gaming so as to make recommendations galore!

Fear not, I shall be back in January with some new stuff. Heck! Next year around this time, I might even compile some "gift idea" articles. Why not? I'm qualified to do so.

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Broke and Literate

So out of that huge list of stuff I mentioned I couldn't wait for last post, I got all of it but the SAGA supplement (and Baldur's Gate, but that's 'cause the Mac version isn't ready yet). This is not because SAGA isn't a beloved game of mine, simply that I don't have any games of SAGA lined up, while I have a weekly Pathfinder game, Crusade of Fire is limited edition, and as a CMoN Legion Member I'm obliged to keep up to date on Dark Age's stuff (and this book was a long time coming to my LGS).

Oh, that and

So as you can see, I have my hands full—or rather my eyes full.

I'll keep you all updated as I get through this mammoth stack.

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Gamer's Dilemma

You know, I'm tryin' ta save money, I'm tryin' ta be good, but whether it's an obsessive compulsion or a yet-undiagnosed mental condition that only gamers have (or only those that have it become gamers), I need to take a slight reprieve from my savings plan. Alas!

I won't lose a second of sleep.

I usually like to try and make posts of substance here on The Wargamer but the buzz of three cups of coffee and a slew of new releases from my favorite gaming companies makes this kind of post seem like a good idea.

Here's what's going in my shopping basket this weekend:

1. Dark Age: Devastation

Lordy-lordy I've been waiting for this since GenCon. I prefer to buy all my stuff from my local game shop, so I had to stare at the "add to cart" button on CoolMiniOrNot's website until they finally shipped to distributors. Now, it will soon be mine, and with it, all the cool new Core army list entries to drool over. Now I hope there's more to this book than just the Core and the Cult of Mutilation, because as cool as they are, I'm not currently working on either of those factions, and I'd like an excuse to pull the book out during a game of Dark Age and use something out of there. I also hope I'm still listed as a playtester. I did do a ton of playtesting during the first round of playtests, but since then, Dark Age has undergone a management change, and I might've gotten lost in the shuffle.

2. SAGA: The Raven's Shadow

This supplement to SAGA (an instant hit with my game group) introduces four more nations/tribes/empires to SAGA (Franks, Irish, North Gael, and Strathclyde Welsh), and some new scenarios and rules including some with the use of banners! Never did I think I'd ever get as excited about banners as I am now (+1 to combat resolution is great, but what would Vikings do with them?)

3. Pathfinder NPC Codex

Pathfinder is my favorite version of D&D, but it may surprise you to know that I view D&D4 as a worthy game system in its own right. For example, one of the things I love about D&D4 is that I don't have to spend hours before the gaming session making NPCs. Ugh! Who cares? My players are just going to kill them or interact with them through role-playing anyway. But what if they need to fight a bunch of palace guards, or they need (or want) to take out a bartender? The Gamemastery Guide had some good NPCs in there, but this one has 300 NPCs in it. If I need a town guard captain, I can just turn to one of the pages, add a name and mannerism(s) and BAM! I've got a new punching bag for my players.

4. Warhammer 40,000: Crusade of Fire

Now I've gone on the record as saying that GW's new hardcover codices and army books are top notch! As someone who's been playing GW games for ~16 years (and who's also a collector of the older games and as such am familiar with the rules of previous editions), I can safely say that these are the most balanced army rules they've ever put out. I'm also a huge fan of Warhammer's Blood in the Badlands. I think I can say that this book will be as good as that one, and as such I'm excited to see it. It claims to have new flier rules, which I think are just going to be the stats for the Fliers they released rules for in White Dwarf but not anywhere else. Either way, I'm stoked for the campaign.

5. Baldur's Gate

Now, I don't normally talk about video/computer games, 'cause I don't really play them. They're fun, and cool; I just decided years ago that my gaming time (and budget) is limited and that board/card/miniatures/role-playing games are my real passion. However, Baldur's Gate is still my favorite video game of all time, and the release of the "enhanced edition" is about a week away. I have to wait until the Mac version is available, which will be later than the Nov. 30th release date for the PC, but you can bet your boots, I'll be glued to my iMac until this game is finished twice-over (once with my original human thief, and once with my half-elf wizard)

Alright, the coffee's wearing off, I'm gonna split, and I also need to figure out where I'm going to get the money to buy all this stuff. You only need one kidney, right?

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Look at what came in the mail today

A near-mint condition copy of "Realm of Chaos: Slaves to Darkness." It is the first half of the Realm of Chaos series (the second being "The Lost and the Damned"), and it features my favorite Chaos god, Slaanesh (what's wrong with me?).

So. I'm gonna read it. Good bye!

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