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Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Kickstarter Games... SOON

I know I mention Kickstarter games every once in awhile on this blog.  Several of them are getting CLOSE.  Here are a couple of updates, mainly because I had to read through a million comments to figure out when things are showing up.


Masmorra: Dungeons of Arcadia...

This game is supposed to have production and factory packing complete by around the time this post goes up.  At that point, things get shipped to distribution hubs throughout the world and then into my greedy hands.

Arcadia Quest: Inferno...

This game is actually at the same point as Masmorra.  It should be finished production and prepping for shipment to distribution hubs this week.  It looks like I'll be getting Masmorra and Arcadia Quest at about the same time.  That's actually pretty awesome since all the Masmorra heroes can be used in Arcadia Quest.

Rail Raiders...

This game is waiting for a production proof to be completed.  Once that happens, production goes into full effect with distribution hub shipping shortly thereafter.  Honestly, I'm kinda meh on this one.  The game looked ok, but I mainly got it for the miniatures.

I am not a patient man.  These things need to hurry up.


Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Star Wars Destiny - Hangin' with Grandpa


I am so ready for this game to properly release.  I think the official release date is Thursday, but I'm not going to be able to make it to the store to pick anything up until Friday evening.  As I've mentioned, I was fortunate enough to be able to participate in a store's pre-release event.  I was able to pick up one of each starter and 11 boosters.  I definitely need a second of each starter and more boosters to have more options, but I was able to put together a pretty decent deck with what I have.


Here's the list as it stands right now...

VILLAIN DECK - HANGIN' WTH GRANDPA

  • Darth Vader
  • Elite Kylo Ren
Battlefield
  • Emperor's Throne Room
Upgrade (8 cards, 8 dice)
  • 1x Force Choke
  • 1x Force Throw
  • 2x Immobilize
  • 1x Kylo Ren's Lightsaber
  • 2x Lightsaber
  • 1x Mind Probe
Support (2 cards, 0 dice)
  • 2x Power of the Dark Side
Event (20 cards)
  • 1x All In
  • 2x Block
  • 2x Close Quarters Assault
  • 2x Deflect
  • 2x Dodge
  • 1x Feel Your Anger
  • 2x Intimidate
  • 1x Mind Trick
  • 2x Nowhere to Run
  • 2x Take Cover
  • 1x The Power of the Force
  • 2x Use the Force
As you can see, I have lots of single instances of cards in this deck.  The general wisdom seems to be that you want your characters, your battlefield, 10-14 cards that add dice, 10 or so cards that affect dice and the remainder as cards that grant synergy to your deck.  My deck only has 8 cards that grant dice, which is on the low side.  I also have too many dice impacting cards.  Overall, it's oddly effective.  I've only played 6 games, but I've won 5 of them.  I realize that this is in a non optimized environment where few people have many cards, but it's encouraging.

I'm so excited to play more games.  This is such a great game.


Monday, November 28, 2016

Eldar Harlequins


Have you ever run across something that you had no real intention of buying, but that the deal was so good you couldn't pass it up?  That's totally what happened on Saturday.  I was at my local gaming store playing some 40k Kill Teams using some Skitarii models.  After the game my opponent and I were looking at the various products given that the store was running a 25% off "Black Friday Weekend" sale.  He mentioned that he like the Death Masque box, but really only wanted the Deathwatch side.  "Want to split it?".  Yup.  Yeah...  so now I have these guys sitting in my to do queue.



At full retail, the above would work out to 187 USD.  Add in the plastic Eldrad Ulthran that is currently only available in this box and the value is more like ~215 USD.  My buddy took the core rule book, but I kept the campaign book that includes the unique units and formations for the models in the box.  I'd value that at around 5-10 USD based on eBay pricing.  All told, I spent only 60 USD.  I'd consider that a huge win.  If I build the larger vehicle as a Voidweaver, I'm pretty sure I can put the two unused riders together as additional Players.

This Eldrad model was also included.  I'm not entirely sure what to do with him.  I'd sell him on eBay, but there are a couple of Buy it Now auctions going for 6 bucks.  Totally not worth it.


Chances are pretty good that these models will get assembled soon, but not actually painted right away.  I'm not sure what to do about the color scheme.  The studio samples tend to be ridiculously complex.  I want something a little simpler.  I'm not looking to spend hours and hours on each model.
More to come.

I'm still anxiously awaiting Star Wars Destiny's release this coming weekend.


Friday, November 25, 2016

Black Friday Shopping + SW Destiny

With any luck I'll be out doing some Black Friday shopping as you read this.  In addition to the normal stuff I'll need to buy, the gaming store I usually go to is having a more or less 25% off everything sale.  That's too good to pass up.  The overwhelming majority of gaming stuff I'm interested in NEVER, ever goes on sale.

Wish me luck!

Oh, and more Destiny stuff soon.  The game is absolutely amazing.  I made a blue villain deck that is making me very happy.  A week from today is when I'll be opening a full booster box.  My expectation is that I'll write a long post about what I get.  I'm really looking forward to having more cards.  The starter plus six boosters from the pre-release event was a total tease.

Thursday, November 24, 2016

Hobby Thanksgiving

Happy Holiday Everybody!  ...at least in the US?  Anyways, today is the day we think about being thankful.  From a hobby standpoint, I'm most thankful that my chosen hobby is centered around community.  I get to meet new people all the time, which is a pretty nice thing.

Talk to everyone tomorrow!

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Heralds of Ruin Kill Teams Review...


I met up with a few new friends over the past weekend and  we all played a few games of the Heralds of Ruin Kill Teams rules for Warhammer 40k.

Here's the link...  http://heralds-of-ruin.blogspot.com/p/kill-team-rules.html

It wasn't without it's flaws, but I chalk that up mainly to not having fully read the rules and having built a sub-par kill team.  I did what I normally do in these situations and just grabbed a bunch of models that were fully painted, with no thought to how they'd perform.

I had a Necron Noble (sort of like a lesser Lord), 5 Immortals, 5 Warriors and 2 Canoptek Scarabs.  My opponent had a very well painted Imperial Fists list featuring (I believe) about 10 Marines with a mix of Sternguard, Vanguard and regular Bolter Dudes.  One guy had a Heavy Bolter.

We played at Showcase Comics in Swarthmore, PA.  I can't speak highly enough about this store.  We were able to fill two full 4' x 4' tables with matching terrain.  Here are a few action shots...





I ended up losing in a fairly overwhelming slaughter.  This is the first time in a long time I can remember Space Marines feeling like this unstoppable force.  It was difficult to put a wound on them and when I did, my opponent kept rolling 1-4 on the Injury chart.  Only a 5-6 kills a guy.  I, on the other hand, took more wounds overall and rolled far more high numbers for Injury.  Even with my Reanimation Protocols, I lost more than half my force and had to take Rout checks.  Necron Ld values are 10's across the board, so I stuck around and lost when we hit the end of turn 6.

Overall, it's a very fun version of the game.  My main take away is that I need to completely rebuild my list to add a variety of options.  I think that AP 3 is the magic you're looking for.  AP 5 might as well be AP -.

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Star Wars Destiny Review...



I participated in a Star Wars Destiny pre-release event over the weekend.  I'm sold.  100% sold.  The game is amazing.  It's everything I liked about Magic, with nothing I didn't like.

A couple of quick thoughts...
  • It's pretty hard to get "mana screwed".  You get two resources at the start of each game round, and these stick around if you don't use them.  In that way, if you need to play an expensive card and you're not rolling resources, the worst case scenario is that you just save up for a round or two.
  • Alternating activations make the game go super quick.  Most card games require you to just sit there while your opponent plays out his entire turn.  In this game, player's alternate performing actions, with most actions taking mere seconds.  I don't think I ever had to wait more than 30 seconds for my "turn" to start again.
  • Opening packs is awesome.  My first pack had Admiral Ackbar in it.  That was cool.
  • The tokens really aren't that bad.  FFG tends to go token mad, but you really don't need that many for this game.
  • Card collections are easy to manage.  I suspect that the dice collection is going to become an issue.  I'm going to have to seriously consider how to properly sort the dice.
  • A full play set is two of each card.  That's a lot easier to collect than Magic, where a full play set is four of each card.
  • You'll only ever need one of each location card.
  • A full play set of character cards depends on the price of the card.  As an example, First Order Stormtroopers are 7 points.  I can fit 4 in a list, so a full play set for them is 4 cards.  A full play set of Admiral Ackbar cards is 2...  1 to play with and 1 for the second die you'll need to play an elite version.

I ended up making a force wielding villain deck featuring Vader and Kylo Ren as my characters.  It was a lot of fun and I look forward to getting more cards and being able to properly build a deck.  The game doesn't come out until 12/1.  Sigh.  Soon.....  Soon...


Monday, November 21, 2016

The Thousand Sons

Ok...  let's face an ugly truth.  For many people, Warhammer 40k has become an unplayable mess of power balance issue and fractured rules.  I don't have the actual value, but I know it costs well over 1,000 USD to purchase a comprehensive rule set, reflecting all units and rules.  That's crazy.  As such, I can't really justify purchasing any 40k models right now.  I just can't see buying models for a game that I feel is unplayable.

...which is why releases like this are so frustrating.  GW is putting a number of new plastic kits for the Thousand Sons.  It looks like they're becoming their own faction.  The models are amazing looking and I'd love to buy them, but without a viable rule set, there is just zero point.  I'm far better off spending my money on something I can actually play with.

On to the models...

First up are the Tzaangors.  These are basically the same...  'race' of critters from the Age of Sigmar Silver Tower board game.  From a fantasy perspective, 'Gors' are basic Beastmen.  In 40k terms, Beastmen are considered to be Abhumans...  not exactly mutants, but close.  Tzeentch Gors...Tzaangors.  I'm guessing that they're basically the Cultists of the Thousand Sons army.  They look to all be armed with chainswords and maybe autopistols.  There is another picture with ten of them floating around, but they're all equipped the same way.


Next up are the Rubric Marines.  It's nice to see these guys have plastic models.  I've always said that if I ever go Chaos, I'll want a legion of the Rubricae marching to battle.  I absolutely love the one dude with a flaming Tzeentch icon coming out of his helmet.  I'm counting one Sorcerer, five flamer dudes, one assault cannon dude and only three basic bolter dudes.  That's an odd configuration.  I'm curious to see their rules.


This next unit is huge.  I believe they're called the Scarab Occult.  They're wearing what looks like a Tartarus variant pattern of armor.  Equipment wise, I'm seeing what I expected to see, but the terminator sorcerer is a nice surprise.  He looks amazing.  I hope there are good weapon options with this kit.


Last up are the Sorcerers.  I'm guessing that they come in a three pack and can be used either in a unit or run as separate independent character models.  I love the dude on the disc, but I'm not entirely sold on the others.  The one on foot takes the term "beakie" to a whole new level!  The floating guy looks to have Raptor claws.  I'm wondering if he also has a jump pack.  It's hard to tell without seeing the pack, but I'm guessing not.


Finally, and not pictured here, I know there will also be an amazing looking plastic Ahriman model.  I've seen some pictures floating around, but GW hasn't announced him yet as of me writing this.  I'm sure I'll post a new picture.

Stay tuned until tomorrow when I'll be talking about my experience playing in a Star Wars Destiny pre-release event over the weekend.  Hint...  it was a metric ton o' fun!


Friday, November 18, 2016

Star Wars Destiny is HERE! OMGWTFBBQ!!!!!


I am so excited that this game is finally here.  I'll be attending a pre-order launch release tonight.  I paid for a Kylo Ren starter deck and can purchase up to 6 packs...  which I will DEFINITELY be buying.

This is gonna be me...


SQUEEEEEEEE

Seriously.  This game looks like so much fun.  I expect that I'll be writing up a proper review over the weekend.

Thursday, November 17, 2016

Dungeons and Dragons


This just happened.  Well, it actually happened two days ago.  Thanks, Amazon.  Hopefully I'll be joining a group looking to start a campaign soon.  It's been about a decade since I played this game.  I understand that the current edition... 5th Edition... is pretty good.

I'm optimistic.  It's nice to be optimistic about things.

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

WargameExclusive's "Totally NOT Tau" Models

I know I posted yesterday about playing a Necron Kill Team, but I think I'm going to start a background project building out a Tau Empire Kill Team also.  Why, you ask?  Because of this guy...


Seriously...  this is the most tough looking Tau dude I've ever seen.  His name is probably Shas'vre Ba'dass or something similar.  They label him as "Squad Leader Ghost".  He's obviously supposed to be a Stealth Shas'vre.  It's a $20 model, which seems totally reasonable for something with this level of detail to act as the Leader for a kill team.

There were a couple of other pretty solid options on the site...  which I'm going to link to before I forget.  They have a regular website AND an eBay store...  the latter being how I've bought from them in the past.  eBay just makes everything easier.



This one looks to be a Tau Empire themed Culexus Assassin.  I've thought about running a Culexus in the past, but wanted to stick to the Tau theme.  This will work amazingly well.


They also have some bikes that would work well as Eldar bike stand-ins.


I'll probably put an order in once I decide on a Kill Teams list.  The site has a ton of other really cool looking models from a variety of factions.  They have some pretty amazing looking Adepta Sororitas and Adeptus Mechanicus models that I'd love to own.

Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Heralds of Ruin Kill Team Rules


I'm going to be playing the Heralds of Ruin Kill Team rule set with some new friends I met at a recent Age of Sigmar tournament.  I'm really looking forward to it.  There are a ton of different factions that don't quite line up with the regular GW Codexes.  As an example, there is a Tau Empire kill team list, but there's also a Kroot Mercenaries list with some units that don't normally exist in 40k.

I'm going to give Necrons a shot, mainly because I already have them painted up.

Here's my Kill Team...  hopefully it'll perform well.  I may have to make some changes.  My give me a reason to finally assemble the box of Tomb Blades I've had sitting around forever.

It's currently a Noble, five Immortals, five Warriors and two bases of Scarabs.  I'm thinking that it'll be pretty durable and the Scarabs will be able to rush forward into cover to take out threats while the rest of the army trudges forward.


Monday, November 14, 2016

Good Upcoming Movies

This isn't exactly hobby related, but there are some upcoming movies I'm somewhat excited about.  It seems that for the last couple of years, all of the "geeky" movies have been Marvel Cinematic Universe movies.  Sure, we got a Star Wars movies, but it very much felt like a part one with more to come sort of situation.

These look like solid movies that AREN'T Marvel movies.




Thursday, November 10, 2016

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Election 2016

Ugh.  So, I tend to write these posts a day or two ahead of time and then have them set to publish at 4 in the morning on the following day.  As I'm writing this, it's 6:45 EST (that's GMT-5 for you non Americans) and most of the polls are still open.  I have no idea who will be president.  By the time this post is published, we'll all know.

I hope you read this and our happy with the election result.  I'm anxious.  I feel that Trump embodies everything that's wrong with America.  I hope he loses.  I did my part and voted for a candidate I felt has the experience and temperament to run this country.  I didn't really agree with any of the candidates, but abstaining is not a choice.  I had to vote my conscious and vote against the candidate I felt would damage my country.

Back to regularly scheduled, mindless hobby content tomorrow.

Tuesday, November 8, 2016

Newish Age of Sigmar Terrain

GW has a couple of pieces of Age of Sigmar up for preorder right now.  I know that the Balewind Vortex is a little older and is being repackaged, but I can't remember whether or not the Magewrath Throne is new.  I really like the look of the Throne.  The nice thing is that these are both only 15 USD each.  15 dollars is sort of throw away money in the grand scheme of this hobby.  I'm seriously considering picking both up to jazz up my hobby table.  Even if I don't use the rules, they'll look nice.



Monday, November 7, 2016

Star Wars X-Wing

I ended up going to Showcase Comics in Swarthmore, PA on Friday evening and played some Star Wars X-Wing.  I really like the game, but find it hard to get more than a handful of games in here and there.  To make life easier, I picked up one of FFG's 3'x3' "mouse pad" style maps.


I picked up the one on the right.  It's supposed to be Bespin.  The left one is nice, but EVERYONE buys that one.  Now I can have people over and play on my kitchen table.  I guess I always could, but now it's a little easier.

I brought my buddy Todd along.  He's played X-Wing a couple of times, but only owns the original core set plus an IG-2000.  I ended up loaning him a few extra TIE Fighters and he flew four TIE Fighters and the Aggressor.  I realize that's not a legal list as it mixes Imperial and Scum, but it's what he had and we were playing to learn the rules.

I flew Fenn Rau, Talonbane Cobra and Zuckuss.  I didn't like Zuckuss at all and swapped him out for the second game.  I can't remember what I swapped him out for, so it must not have been very good.

I also picked up a YT-2400 before leaving.  I've always liked the ship and want to try out some Rebel options.  I've never actually seen anyone fly the YT-2400.  I know it's not great for the tournament meta, but I'm more interested in casual gaming, so that's cool.

I'm going to toy around with my iPad and see if I can come up with a cool list to use.  Showcase has a pretty big Tuesday crew.  I might give it a shot in a couple of weeks.  Tomorrow is Election Day and we're having a party to either celebrate or mourn the election results, depending on how things go.

Friday, November 4, 2016

Star Wars X-Wing - TIE Phantom

I'm going to be playing some X-Wing tonight.  I haven't completely decided what list I'm going to play, but I really want to try out the TIE Phantom.  It's a pretty cool looking ship and I'm intrigued by the cloak/decloak mechanism.

My plan is to use "Echo".  When he decloaks, he uses the '2' bank template instead of the straight template.  This gives him a wider variety of potential locations to start his maneuver from after a decloak.


FFG's site has a couple of potential builds.  They describe one as a defensive build and the other as more of an aggressive build.  I'm considering taking the more aggressive build and adding a large ship to give my opponent something to shoot at.  Echo would come in for the kill with a 5 dice attack.

Defensive Build

Aggressive Build

I'm torn on what to add.  I'd love for Boba Fett to get in on the action since it's such a cool looking ship, but I think it's just not very good.  I'm going to give it some more thought.  I'll post my thoughts about how things go later.


Thursday, November 3, 2016

Motivation Comes from Weird Places

Evidently, I'm not allowed to be mopey and take a blog vacation.  My wife asked me today if I was updating my blog every day.  I said...  um, no...  Wednesday didn't get a post.  That was the wrong answer.  So, now I have to write something.

I'm going to write about this cool Hinterlands Campaign thing I ran across on DakkaDakka.  It's another take on the war bands campaign thing.

Here's the link...  http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/706704.page


The guy did an amazing job,  Looks like it's still a work in progress, but it's fleshed out enough to use now.  I think I might try to talk my friends into giving it a try.  I really like how the missions involve running around trying to get treasure and experience.  I like that there is an option to just run away so your models don't die.  Any model that dies during a given mission has to roll on a critical wound table at the end.  On a 1, the model is slain permanently and removed from the battle field.  I like that there's a mechanism for killing models and limiting the growth of the war band.

I'd definitely recommend giving it a read.  The production value, if nothing else, is insane.

Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Hobby Malaise

Fuck, man.  How does everyone deal with hobby malaise?  Sometimes things happen that make you question whether all the time and effort that goes into this hobby is worth it.  I love painting and I love playing games, but the time and effort that goes into fostering a community is exhausting.  I'm seriously considering just trying some new hobbies and seeing if anything sticks.

I'm sure I'll always paint as a solo activity, but the gaming aspect just seems like so much work lately.  I'm really hoping that 40k gets a shake up and becomes playable again or that RuneWars comes out and provides a truly balanced play experience.  Something needs to change.