Painted Addiction

Mass Invasion

2012-01-28T21:01:00.001+13:00

Today was a battle of Vikings vs the horde of Koreans. That was my 11 Battle groups against 16 (maybe more). I went back to my standard list which I started out playing originally when I first got the army. I took the initiative and chose a river, road, gentle hill and a step hill, Mike took a gully some broken ground. My idea was to get lots of terrain on the board so I can get use to moving my Vikings and playing a few different strategies. Rather than the normal line up and run forward approach.

My opponent (Mike) a veteran player was a great help with explaining some rules and pointing out options as we went.

The Battle line take up there positions (We made a mistake on the position of the river as it needed to be closer to the end of the take, but it made for an interesting battle)

Some close ups of Mike’s army

My Vikings steam up the battle field. while the mob of Thralls protect the camp and I then break off two of my battle groups to take on the right flank and join up with my faster moving medium foot.

My Irish allies wheel out to protect the left flank, while my main battle line gets peppered by shooting from some cavalry, which also deals out damage to my light foot archers.

I get in close and begin to get shot up a bit thanks to the second row archers.

Chaos in the main line as I units go charging off after the Cavalry and my light foot archers get in the way.

My slow moving heavy foot get out flanked and into al sorts of trouble but hold there ground for a stupid amount of turns.

MY Vikings get all the way across the table, as Mike’s cavalry keep evading my charges. Then my boys start eating into Mike troops, but by then my right flank has gone and my mob of Thralls are entering the fight ….for a shot time anyway.

Then just as I’m really starting to get into taking out some battle groups, Mike breaks and routs my left flank and takes the win on points.

It ended about 11 to 6 on points, so a convincing win by Mike. I did work out quite alot of rules, and got some good pointers on my army list from Mike, so with a little bit of alteration I think I’ve now got a really good solid list. So hopefully I may actually win a game sooner than later.

Oh …. to win a game

2012-01-27T17:23:00.001+13:00

So I thought I’d actually start keeping a log of the games I play this year, mainly to tack what I play and how many games I actually get to play over the course of a year. Being a bit of a Magpie gamer (D6G podcast quote) I thought it would be interesting, as I actually have no idea what last years numbers would look like. So I cranked up an excel spread sheet, and low and behold several hours later it’s grown a life of it’s own.

So as you can see I’m going to end up tracking all sorts of things, including the board games I play. As they are already starting to appear regally in my gaming session.

The real thing that surprised me was the number of miniature game I now have …17, and that's not counting several others which I have the rule books for but no models.

Then there’s the number of games I’ve won this year… a big fat Zero. lol

Maybe this weekend will change that and hopefully the dice God will smile on me without any ritual sacrifices.

If only I had sidewinder missiles

2012-01-25T13:39:00.001+13:00

A story I came across from last year. If only I could mount a sidewinder missile and the systems on my car, now that would be fun.
_______________________________________________________________

Subject: Top this for a speeding ticket...

Two British traffic patrol officers from North Berwick were involved in an unusual incident, while checking for speeding motorists on the A-1 Great North Road .

One of the officers (who are not named) used a hand-held radar device to check the speed of a vehicle approaching over the crest of a hill, and was surprised when the speed was recorded at over 300mph. The machine then stopped working and the officers were not able to reset it.

The radar had in fact latched on to a NATO Tornado fighter jet over the North Sea , which was engaged in a low-flying exercise over the Border district.

Back at police headquarters the chief constable fired off a stiff complaint to the RAF Liaison office.

Back came the reply in true laconic RAF style. 'Thank you for your message, which allows us to complete the file on this incident. You may be interested to know that the tactical computer in the Tornado had automatically locked on to your 'hostile radar equipment' and sent a jamming signal back to it. Furthermore, the Sidewinder Air-to-ground missiles aboard the fully-armed aircraft had also locked on to the target. Fortunately the Dutch pilot flying the Tornado responded to the missile status alert intelligently and was able to override the automatic protection system before the missile was launched'.

Viking misery

2012-01-23T20:35:00.001+13:00

Well my new Viking list suffered two defeats yesterday in a row. Both games were played against Chris with some proxies armies at 800 pts (He was using my unfinished Egyptian army, hence the strange pictures). Back to the drawing board I think with the list. Or maybe I just need to figure out a few more tactics.

The first game I lost when I went into terrain with lots of heavy foot and got shot to S#@$% (I should know better) The second game I also got shot to S#@$ again by lots of light troops and I just couldn’t catch them with all my heavy troops. I did learn a bit today with playing my formation a bit different from my usual. We came across a few different confrontations that bent the mind trying to work them out and struck the frustration of the FOG rule book.(Which has a really bad index) I still need to brush up on the finer parts of the FOG rules as I’m rather rusty. Still, even with losing it was a fun day as usual.

Steampunked

2012-01-19T15:32:00.001+13:00

My first week back at work has been hectic so not alot of painting going on. But I have been listening to the Boneshaker audio book on my drive to and from work.

It’s my first steam punk style book that I’ve read/listened to. Quite a bit different from my usual Black Library books I normally read.

The atmosphere in the story is just awesome, zombies, airships and colourful characters. I’m only half way through it, and already I’m looking forward to the driving home or to the office, just to find out what happens next. I’d recommend it even without finishing the book. I’ll definitely be reading the next few books in the series.

It’s got me inspired to look into some steampunk stuff so I went youtubing to pass some time while waiting for servers to do there thing and came across these to clips – a good bit of Steampunk

Swedish Swine vs Viking might

2012-01-14T20:44:00.001+13:00

Another great club day, even if I only made if for one game. I rolled out my mighty Vikings against Jason’s Swedish in an 800 point game of Field of Glory Ancients.

My usual battle line was long and mighty, Jason deployed his Swedish in an unusual formation with some kind of plan, that much was obvious, but what the plan was I had no idea.

I ran my light foot archers in and about peppering the enemy light troops until they fragmented them and sent them running after some super dice rolling.

Then the battle lines closed in for the big crunch, with my right hand side of the battle line having to separate and begin the long slow swing in due to the Swedish begin mainly deployed on the left hand side of the battle field. I did manage to tease Jason’s Knights out of formation and they clashed heavily with my tough as nails Huscals, which ended in a stand off in the first round of battle.

A few more turns of pure brutal melee and my Feeman and Huscals began to break down, then one battle group actually broke and ran after some poor dice rolling. They were quickly run down and total annihilated by the knights.

Once the Knights were through the rest of my army started to crumble when my General was killed as well. Jason’s Swedish Swine taking the win easily in the end over the not so mighty Vikings.

Another great game and the rules are starting to come back to me quickly, I’m even considering entering the up and coming Battle Cry tournament.

P.S. pictures aren't great as I took them on my mobile.

Rust and Weevil

2012-01-13T17:36:00.001+13:00

After 5 days away with family relaxing it means back to the grind after this weekend, as my holidays end come Monday. Its been a great holiday with lots of board gaming, several great miniature games, lots of painting and relaxing. I even got to finish a book. I’m no speed reader, so novels normally take me awhile. So I managed to finish “Forged by Chaos” by C.L. Werner, which I really enjoyed. The dark elves portrayal in the book I thought was just superb.

After playing around with the Vallejo pigments just before I left, I kept my eye out for some things that were all rusted up, and snapped a few picks off to use as reference material. Now I just need to learn how to replicate them.

I also came across these little fella’s, almost sat on them on a bush hike when I stopped for lunch. I believe they are a type of weevil. Thought the colour scheme was pretty cool, not sure what I’d use it for, but I’m sure I’ll find something in the future.

Looking forward to gaming tomorrow.

Heavy Gear in the Mud

2012-01-07T16:41:00.001+13:00

Today I’ve managed to get my first unit of Heavy Gear models finished before I head off for a week long break with the wife. So no gaming or painting for me for the next week.

I’ve gone mud crazy with my Vallejo pigments. It was alot of fun, and I’m pleased with the results. I’ll be carrying the theme through into my next unit as well.

Star Craft – Game 2 & 3

2012-01-06T20:33:00.001+13:00

Today has been one of the awesome days where things just start off right and just get better. After getting my models in the post this morning I managed to get in two games of Star Craft the this afternoon. First game was a four player and the second one was a two player game.

After re-reading the rules, and also having had the guys playing read though the rules a bit as well, we managed to cover most rules correctly between all of us. So by my third game I’ve now got them down pat pretty well. (I did really screw up the rules in the first game .. oh well .. live and learn)

First game of four players was a longer game, about 4 hours with lots of stock pilling and only a few combats. Then we struck the end game cards in the third phase of the event deck (a kind of timer for the game) right before I had my chance to take the win by special victory condition. I had amassed a large number of troops and had just planed (in my head) the end game where I take over a planet and win. But it wasn’t to be.

The second game was a real head to head, with only two players you have to get stuck in otherwise you lose ground. Mike won by his special victory condition as I wasn’t watching for that.

Having played three games now, I can really say I like the game alot and I’m glad I got it. With the map setup at the beginning of the game it gives you lots of replay ability. Also the game is alot different with varying numbers of players. So that also lends itself to replay ability. It’s another game where the 2nd and 3rd games you play it gets much more interesting and enjoyable as you begin to understand the rules and mechanics of the game.

It will be a very interesting game with six players.

I have also used some of the old plastic containers from miniature boxes as token holders to try and help keep them on the table, seemed to work rather well.

I’d defiantly recommend this game to anyone that likes both board games and miniature games, it’s a real highbred one foot in each camp. And it’s alot like the video game.

P.S. The rules themselves aren’t that hard to grasp after a couple of games, the hard part is managing everything and planning out what you are going to do, which is what the whole game is about.

I’m in love

2012-01-06T11:00:00.001+13:00

Yep, that’s right, I’m in love….. with the post man… hairy beard and all.
He zooms into my life every few days, most times riding by on his motorcycle, but then on occasions he stops and delivers beautify gifts. Then rides quickly off into the morning light, Oh what a tease.

Today was especially rewarding, as 22 days after shipping, my Hell Dorado figures finally turned up (normally takes 4-10 days). I had already accepted that I’d never see them.

So hooorar for NZ Post

Amount the mass of metal was also my first model from the Tale of War miniature range. She was indented to be my Captain of my Pirate Girls but her scale is slightly larger than my Black Scorpion models, so I think she will go into my first ever diorama. (I plan to try and do one this year)

Battlestar Galactica

2012-01-05T10:26:00.001+13:00

Last night I played Battlestar Galactica board game for the first time in a six player game. Three of us were newbies and three were veterans. Darren who’s game it was set everything up, including the expansion sets and started us running though the game.

First up, I finally can appreciate all those pod casts and forums that people say Fantasy Flight games have shed loads of components. With my StarCraft board game and now seeing this , holy cow are they right. Also of course the component quality is awesome. They only negative I found (and a very small one at that) was with all the card decks and tokens in this game, you could have done with some type of tray holder to control them. I think it was a bit accentuated by the small table we were using. In the grand scheme of things it was a pretty minor issue.

It took a few rounds to get the gist of the game but by half way thought the game we all had it reasonably sorted.

It was a close fort game with two of the veterans players ending up being Cylons. It didn’t help that they were sitting beside each other. It literary came down to a dice roll. On a 7 or 8 we jump to warp and safety winning the game or we fail to jump and suffer another morale loss which would end the game and the Cylons win. ….. we roll a 3 and the Cylons win.

The game took about four and half hours with the three of us being newbies. It was quite a bit different for two of the girls (wives) who hadn’t really played this type of board game before. They both enjoyed it as did I. It will definitely be a much better game for me the second time round, with now knowing the mechanics I’ll be able to be a bit more sneaky and tactical.

A definite thumbs up for this game, looking forward to having another game sometime in the further.

Heavy Labour of Gears Models

2012-01-04T16:12:00.001+13:00

A couple of days ago I spent four hours cleaning, filing, pining and gluing. I’ve got another 3 Heavy Gears put together. Yep a whole 3 of them in four hours. Talk about a pain in the butt to put together. With 10 parts per model, that don't fit that well, and were heavily covered in flashing and mold lines. On the bright side they do look good once they are together. Oh did I mention, no instructions or even guides on how to put them together. I ended up spending a bit of time online to see what other people were doing with the way they were putting them together. So at the moment I’m unsure how much into Blitz I’ll get, I’ve enjoyed painting the models, but the two boxes of models I’ve got have been a super pain in the rear to clean and put together. I guess time will tell once I get around to playing it.

Hears some pictures of my first completed Spitting Cobra,with a couple of close ups using my macro lens. I love my macro lens, shows off all those mistakes I make in full colour glory.

WANTED : The Black Hat Gang

2012-01-03T20:47:00.001+13:00

We ran our first, or should I say my first Legends of the Old West game today. It was The Black Hat Outlaw Gang of Mexican bandits that were robbing the City bank.

My Cowgirl Posse was sent into town to stop them. After a slight adjustment of my original Posse list, it was a model count of 9 versus 9. With Marks new buildings, the town is really starting to take shape and look awesome.

The basic scenario started with the bank in the middle of the table/town. I deployed half the Cowgirls along the south edge, including Madam Star (Trail Boss) and Cotton Tail Sally Jane (Soiled Dove). Then Mark deployed his Black Hat Mexican gang in and around the bank and chose the West edge as his getaway route.

I then deployed the rest of my Cowgirls along the Western edge in the trees.

The Black Hat gang got the drop and caused the local civilians to run all over the place, causing havoc as Madam Starr and Cotton Tail sneak up into view of the bank. After a couple of mistakes with rules Madam Starr comes away without a wound as we sort out the rules. We didn’t have any civilian models, so we used some of my Malifaux and Pirate models (Yep, It’s one mixed up town). So first round finish's with very little shooten as we manoeuvre into better positions and the Black Hat’s begin to take to the streets.

C.P gets tangled up in civilians as Calamity Jane scoots around the barn to get a better angle and cross fire.

The gang break the cover of the bank with there loot and start shooten everything is site.

Civilians in the way… The ruthless Black Hat murder at will as they break for it, kill a civilian as the go. Mean while several of them lay down covering fire from within the bank.

The Black Hat’s break out into the streets while the Cowgirls take cover behind the buildings as a hail of bullets are exchanged between the gangs. Amazingly the buildings suffer lots of wholes as everyone rolls up misses.

Cotton Tail (Soiled Dove) swans through the gunfire as the Black Hat’s can’t believe there eyes as she shows off a little leg. The stunned Mexicans then get a sharp shock as the Saturday Night special blasts away at the nearest bandit,only to hit the wall.

Meanwhile on the other side of the bank the Black Hat’s get stuck in, killing another civilian that gets in there way as people start getting shot up on both sides. Now that the gang and posse are so close it gets down and dirty as the six shooters come out and casualty's build up on both sides.

Cotton Tail holds her own for several rounds and keeps a couple of unlucky bandits in the bank but finally gets overpowered.

Then with a couple of the Black Hat’s handing out a few pistol whippings the Cowgirls cut there losses and retreat.

WANTED Dead or Alive
The Black Hat Gang
for Murder and Bank Robbery

The Black Hat’s escape with two bags of loot as they dropped one in the shoot out.

Using the campaign rules I rolled the results of the wounds that the shredded Cowgirl Possie took.

Madam Elizabeth Starr the Trial Boss comes though unhurt.
“Dixie Dove” Tessa Owens (Greenhorn Hero) dies from her gunshot wound.
Carmela Black (Greenhorn Hero) suffers from Madness but stays with the Posse
Caroline C.P. Stewart dies from her gunshot wound
Squirrel Tooth Alice and Rosita Sanchez both leave the possie for a quitter life.
Calamity Jane and “Six Gun” Suzie stay with the Posse
“Cotton Tail” Sally Jane takes a mean pistol whipping and makes a full recovery but suffers from a Bitter Enmity towards the Black Hat

Note: My Calamity Jane has yet to make her mark so I’ve been running her as a standard cow poker and not as the hero in the rule book.

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I’m really looking forward to the next shootout, it was a real blast of a game, and once Mark finishes up his buildings the table will look awesome. Add in some real civilian models that I’m about to order and the stage will be set for some more epic shootouts.

Pirate Girls

2012-01-02T11:25:00.001+13:00

Having finally recovered from New Years and settled into holiday mode. I’ve been reading all sorts of blogs and magazines, old and new stuff. I came across a post on Massive Voodoo blog about photo backgrounds which I really liked. I through I’d try it out, printed off a few of the backgrounds and hey presto.

Only 2 more Pirate Girls to go, then onto the Blackbeard and a few other pirate lads to make up my 15 strong pirate crew.

WIP: Spitting Cobra

2012-01-01T21:58:00.001+13:00

I started on my first Heavy Gear Blitz model today. Thought I try an air brush technique and practise my air brushing at the same time. Which turned out pretty good after a few blunders. Started with a black undercoat then zenith light source with white and then over that with red.

I then pulled out my Vallejo pigments and started going crazy after flicking though a Tamiya Model Magazine and seeing some awesome weathering on some model tanks.

I’ve ready notices a few pink spots that I didn’t get enough red paint onto. Definitely going to need to get a lamp for my spray painting area in the garage.

2011: The last post

2011-12-31T18:33:00.001+13:00

Well what a year it has been, insane disasters all over the world, including close to home (Christchurch Earth quakes), a new addition to the family (nephew). And of course lots of new games and toys.

My last modelling for the year was working on my Street Wars guard towers and also finally getting around to redoing the lava pools I got from War Gamma. My first attempt was really bad, so I re applied another undercoat and started again. This time using my air brush and then ink layers. They are coming along nicely, still needs another layer of inks, but almost done.

Looking forward to getting into a few new gaming in 2012, Hell Dorado, Dark Age and Heavy Gear along with FOG Napoleonic's. No to mention a few board games along the way.

Now it’s time to go party and have a fair few scotch's (Wife’s Driving…Whaooo).
Have a safe and Happy New Year.

Frozen Waste Lands : WIP part 3

2011-12-29T22:32:00.001+13:00

Started working on the skull for my frozen waste lands today. It’s starting to come along, with the first layer of snow. Slow process having to wait for the PVA glue to fully set before doing the next layers. The board is really starting to take shape now.

StarCraft

2011-12-28T18:53:00.001+13:00

Today was gaming day, So I turned up at Mark’s for some Legends of the Old West. But after seeing my StarCraft board game, it was just to much goodness to resist. Even though I hadn’t gotten to read all the rules, we started up a game with three players. (A space for Will once he turned up later on)

So for the first two rounds it was spent on learning the basics of building, moving and orders etc. About round three Will turned up and got the short end of the stick, not knowing as much as we did and having to pickup the rules and from where Mark and I had gotten him to on the board.

I shot off a couple of pic’s during the game, to show what it looks like. In the end Mark won with all his resources, only after a draw with me on conquest points.

We screwed up the combat to begin with, as I was skip reading the rules as we went, but for the most part we got things right. I thought it was pretty good for our first game, and I really enjoyed it. (rules blunders aside)

I’ll reserve my overall rating of the game for now, but out of the gate I enjoyed it alot and I have no dought that Will is going to master it far to quickly :-). The box and component quality is awesome. Its my first Fantasy Flight game, so I don’t have a lot to compare it to. I’d defiantly agree with the other reviews out there on the quality of FF games, just awesome. I can see that there will be a few board games appearing over the coming year.

Will’s revenge came swift and fast in a game of Infinity late afternoon. I made my typical mistake of spreading my forces out to much and forgot a few rules. I really , really hate flame throwers. (I think I need some in my force). So I lost yet another game of Infinity. But on the bright yellow side, my security fences looked pretty darn good on the table, even in there unfinished state. Looking forward to getting the rest of the set done and on the table.

Lock’em In

2011-12-27T16:21:00.001+13:00

I got some more work done on my Security Compound from War Mill this afternoon. It’s the first time I’ve tried any MDF terrain, and so far I’m liking it alot.

I based coated the fence bits in grey primer, then masked off the top grill of the fences and air brushed on a couple of layers of light yellow. I then cut the radio active symbol out of a thin bit of plastic from some packaging and used that as a mask and air brushed over it with red.

I wasn’t trying to get the symbols all the same or even in the same place, I wanted a bit of a random rush job look, as if it was done in a hurry. About half way through I broke a small bit out of the stencil, which actually made a nice change in the pattern and let the red bleed a little.

I’ve still got the gate, towers and processing unit to go, so now that I’ve got the colours and pattern sorted they shouldn’t take to long. I’m planning on doing a bit of weathering and rust over the top once I get the rest of the set to the same point.

Looking forward to some games tomorrow.

Fat, Full and Happy

2011-12-25T21:15:00.001+13:00

The phrase I coined some years ago after a huge Christmas dinner, lots of drinking and catching up with family and friends. This year is no exception, with an additional nephew in the mix this year it was another great get together over the last couple of days.

Have a Fat, Full and Happy Christmas.

It’s Present time

2011-12-24T10:04:00.001+13:00

One of the great things about being married to a Norwegian girl is they celebrate Christmas on Christmas eve. Which means we get to spread Christmas out over a couple of days, so twice the amount of food and drink.(What a hardship :-) Anyhow this year I put in my orders in for a few board games, since I have lots of miniatures that need painting. I thought it would be good to try out something where I don’t need to do anything other than open the box and learn to play. After lots of looking around online for games and in the local stores, I put my Christmas wish list together with several different games on it. I ended up being sent off to get it myself as the boss(the wife) was to busy finishing off her Masters Thesis to submit before Christmas. (Another hardship that I must endure … shopping for toys ) After looking around at the local shops which have limited games, I ended up getting Starcraft.

Starcraft the Board Game

Now I just have to wait until tonight when the family comes over to open it.

God Jul (Merry Christmas in Norwegian)

Frozen Waste Lands

2011-12-22T08:09:00.001+13:00

I’ve been chipping away at my frozen wasteland board over the week. I re-did the edges around the mountain with a plaster mix and put the first layer of git sand down last night, it’s already looking far better with that square edge gone.

I also discovered a couple of old dragon ornaments that were used for tee light candles which were about to end up in the bin. Thankfully my wife thought I might be able to use them (it’s only taken 10 years to train her … lol). So my next couple of terrain projects are now sorted. Thought I put them together with the large dragon and make a large alter or throne. The pots where the candles went will make nice pools of lava or acid.

Whaooo, last day of work for the year, which is the best part of today.

Vikings vs Carthaginians

2011-12-19T22:11:00.001+13:00

After not playing FOG for several months and getting the bug again after our FOG Napoleonic's game last week, The Hung Over One (Mark…LOL… serious hangover he was) and I thought we would bust out the troops in an 800 point game on Sunday. It turned out to be an epic all day battle, with some mind bending re-learning of the rules as we went. We started mid morning after messing about with lists and making sure we had the step-up the table all correct, as per the rules. Straight off the bat Mark had most of the terrain in my half, which is no good for my Heavy foot troops, which is almost all my army.

It started out pretty much even, with the Cathy’s moving up and holding position on the far side of the open fields, mean while this gave my Vikings time to move about. Somehow I managed to rearrange my line and move past most of the open fields causing me grief in the deployment.

Then it was a bit of cat and mouse as our light troops picked away at each side trying to cause someone to break or inflict enough to do some damage. We blundered a few rules as we went, but corrected ourselves as and where we realised.

Then we did the whole over think the rules bit, and got ourselves lost in rules as an entire battle lines clashed, with all sorts of overlaps all the way along the main battle line. After lunch and lots of rule reading we figured it out.

Vikings vs Carthaginians

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In the end I managed to break enough of the Carthy’s to take the win, just as several of my mighty Huscals were on the edge of auto break due to loss of numbers. (Which was a first for me, as there cohesion was untouched, I just kept failing on the the death rolls and losing stands, but making the cohesion tests every time)

Hail to the Dice God’s… I think they were laughing too hard at Mark and his hangover to lend him a hand …LOL.

It was an epic battle, taking all day with us re-learning the rules. But who cares how long it took or who won, it was fun, rolling dice and pushing toys around the with mates. Now that's what it’s truly all about. Roll on Christmas with more toys and lots more games.

New Blog look

2011-12-19T08:29:00.001+13:00

I’ve gotten sick of my old blog look and decided it was time to change things around. So far so good, although my HTML skills are now a bit old so running into a few small issues with the template I’ve used. But I should be able to sort them out.

A couple of random pcis from the weekend’s game of FOG, one I get eh template sorted I’ll put up the rest of an epic 800 point game.

Crazy small world

2011-12-15T18:26:00.001+13:00

Now that's an impressive lot of detail

A friend of mine sent me a link to this video, puts my attempt at a gaming table to shame. Then again I’ve only spent a couple of hours on it not 500,000 hours.

And then there is this …. I want one

3D printer