Mark: You know I really can't think of a title.

Over the last couple of weeks I've been looking over the various pieces of legislation regarding starting and running a small business, which has put a bit of a dampener on my hobby mojo or to be more precise my anything fun mojo, hence my lack of posting. Legal documents are really boring, I don't know how people can make a living pouring through them and remain sane.

To try and get back into painting I poured over my mountain of unpainted miniatures and started painting whatever took my fancy and pushed some paint around, what follows are the results.

Reaper Gray Maiden

Reaper Rogue

GW Stormtrooper/Karsiken

Next weekend I have an inter club 40k Doubles Tournament against the Darling Downs Wargaming Club, this will be the first of what we are hoping to be a series of events involving my local club Kingaroy Wargamers and our neighbours from the Darling Downs. So it will be a mad rush for me to get a couple of Predators and a Character painted before the weekend (one of these days I'll be prepared before a tournament, honest).

Until next time .......

Mark

Mark: Arrrrr......

Picture from Paizo

 I've picked up and started running the first part of the Skull and Shackles Adventure Path (AP) the Wormwood Mutiny for Pathfinder RPG by Paizo, so there hasn't been a whole lot of painting being done of late. The AP has a great premise with the characters waking up, stripped of their gear, and press ganged into service on a pirate ship under a brutal captain, but after running the first session it became apparent that the first section of the AP, while well balanced and makes sure the spotlight is shared amongst all of the player characters,  it is very monotonous and quickly becomes rather boring. I've re hashed a couple of things and I'm going to allow players to take 10 on most tasks which should speed things up and reduce the likelihood of  them being whipped by the first mate for not completing their allotted tasks something that can very quickly kill a character.

I don't want to give any spoilers of what's to come for my players but Richard Pett has lived up to his reputation of a man who writes brutal modules, and I can see a lot of places where a party wipe will be all too easy if I'm not careful in how I run things, it does have a cool story though.

I was planning on assembling/converting all of the NPC's and creatures but after realizing that there were just shy of 100 of them I decided to go with the paper mini's from Paizo. They don't have the same feel as a metal or plastic mini, but they are a lot cheaper and, the artwork is far and away better than I have seen on their paper mini's in the past. I did however manage to one Pirate done before I went with the Paper versions.

The Paper Cut Pirates ( yeah they're that mean)

As far as gaming on the table top goes I've had a couple games of Mordheim, where nothing really exciting happened until the last game where we played Ambush from the '02 annual, there were 6 players, Having the highest warband rating I deployed in the center of the table and the objective was for the other 5 players to steal the wyrdstone my hero's were carrying. At the end of the game I had 2 miniatures left on the table, a crossbowman that was a couple of levels up and therefor difficult to get to and my Warlock that I had hidden out of the way so he didn't get singled out, apparently people aren't fans of fireballs and flaming swords, I really don't know what the problem is. I was lucky and only lost 1 miniature in the post game working out of injuries. It was a champion so it does sting a little but I have enough cash to replace him. I also had a game of Fantasy against Travis last week, I really need to find a way around the Super Slann with the lore of life, T7 Saurus and, Regenerating Temple Guard really are hard to dent.

Until next time .......
Mark

Mark: Its an Elemental my dear Watson

Earth Elemental

Yet another week with not a lot of time spent painting, but I did manage to get this guy from Rakham's Confrontation line ready for my Pathfinder RPG Campaign. I was hoping to show some WIP shots of my Baneblade that I'm painting up for ANZ Wargaming's March challenge but I ran out of paint while base coating the behemoth, (miniature just doesn't seem to be the right word for it) and I probably won't be anywhere near my LGS during business hours any time soon to pick any up.

In the spirit of trying to avoid burnout this year I decided to mix things up a little and have a game of 40k instead of Mordheim. It was a thoroughly enjoyable 1750pt game, I ran my trusty Dark Angels against a Khárn/Lash mechanized list. We rolled up spearhead and kill points and in the end finished up with a 9kp to 5 result, which as cliche as it sounds was not indicative of how closely fought the game was. 3 of his 9 kp's came in the last turn (yes I lost again) and of the 16 or so penetrating hits I managed to score against his armoured units I only manged 6 results other than crew stunned, 4 weapon destroyed all on different vehicles, 1 immobilized and 1 destroyed. Despite the fact that I couldn't destroy anything, it did mean that his lead tanks spent most of the game stunned, and caused a hellish traffic jam in his deployment zone. Because of this he couldn't get any of his vehicles out of his deployment zone until turn 4 or 5 and was unable to make the most of his 2 vindicators and lash which would have made things a very one sided affair.

Over the next couple of weeks I should get a solid start painting my Marienburg warband for Mordheim,  a couple of things done to push the Dark Angles a bit closer to the goal of 1750 points painted and with a bit of luck I may be able to get the Baneblade done by the end of the month for the ANZ challenge. I've also decided that it's time to start using greenstuff for more than just gap filling, and I'm looking to start putting together some miniatures that are truly unique rather than just basic kit bashes to add some flavour to my army's.

Until next time .......

Mark

2012 Totals

Miniatures Purchased: 20

Miniatures Gift/Trade: 213

Miniatures Painted: 49

Wood Elf Points: 420

Dark Angels Points: 1245

Circle Points:18

Dark Angel's Chapalin and Friends

Here is my work for this week, I quite like the way he turned out. I was hoping to finish off the squad he runs with but unfortunately things got a little hectic towards the end of the week and I wasn't able to get them done.

I did however manage to get an earth elemental, pathfinder goblin #8 and a grey ooze finished for my role play collection.

Until next time .......

Mark

I Think I May Have ..........

I think I may have bitten off a little more than I can chew, since starting this blog four months ago I have painted more miniatures than I had in the previous four years. I have resurrected a lot of old projects and started a couple of new ones, and have found myself in a bit of a jam as I become a little overloaded coming into the holiday season. I have been working on my Circle of Oboros which was the whole reason I started this blog, working on a couple of Warhammer Fantasy and 40K army's, working on miniatures for Role Playing, looking at rules for a couple of new games, running a local wargameing club, laying the ground work for 3 tournaments and a Warmachine/Hordes campaign, participating in a campaign run by Trev from Triple Helix and starting a new job ........ deep breath ........ I have just started working on Skorne for Hordes and teaching some newer players the game of warmachine at the other local gameing club.

Warmachine / Hordes
The game has not grabbed me in the way I thought it would, don't get me wrong it's tactical, challenging, balanced and fun, but for me fun really needs to come before the rest. I will be honest I much prefer running tournaments than playing in them (I would say that I'm insane, but my shrink said I'm not) so I'm not really in the target audience but that has never stopped me in the past, I am going to keep painting and playing it just won't be at the top of the list. I'm also going to put the Skorne back on the shelf I don't have th inclination or the time to work on them along with my other projects.

Warhammer Fantasy
My game of choice at the moment, despite the problems inherent in 8th edition the fact that fun rather than competitive play is at the forefront of the current rules wins it my vote. The only problem I have is settling on an army, of late I have been spinning my wheels while working on my Ogres, Wood Elves, Skaven, VC and WOC all at the same time. I really need to settle on just one project and see it through to the end in order to get some traction and start finishing some miniatures. The Ogres have the whole new and shiny thing going for them at the moment but that is starting to wear off so I will probably start looking at one of my old faithfuls. I have a dwarf army sitting in bits at the moment as well but have so far resisted the urge to start on them as well.

Warhammer 40,000
40k hasn't received much love from me over the last couple of years, but I can't deny that I still love the miniatures. I have shown the results of my work with the guard in a previous post but I have been working steadily on my Dark Angles as well touching up some old work and starting on some additions as well. The other projects I have worked on recently include CSM Word Bearers, CSM World Eaters, CSM The Reborn (pg21 CSM) , Dark Eldar, Craftworld Eldar Blood Angles and Space Wolves. This is another case where I am going to have to sort out my priorities and find a single project to work on, at the moment I am leaning towards the Dark Angles but I have a soft spot for the guard as well.

Role Play
I have a lot of fun GMing a Pathfinder RPG campaign, at least I did while I could find a large enough group of players. With the release of the Beginner Box that may be changing There has been a lot of interest generated by the simplified rules. It also means less miniatures to build and paint due to the reduced beastery, with the added benefit of the cardboard pawns that come in the box that cover all of the monsters in the book. This will free up a bit of time to spend on other projects, as much as I would prefer the miniatures.

The Clubs
Other than the time spent at the venue the clubs don't take up a whole lot of time, things can get a little stressful dealing with the various issues you get between people that deal with each other on a regular basis. This wouldn't be much of an issue in a larger club but we quite often only get 4 or 5 people at a meet which means everyone is in close proximity and dealing with everyone else in the room. To date we have been able to sort things out relatively quickly between ourselves. Unfortunately rumors have been surfacing that there is a bit of a feud between the two clubs in the area, Kingaroy Wargamers which I have a hand in running and the other club that can't seem to settle on a name. Now that I am working in Kingaroy on Fridays I have started droping in having a chat and helping out a couple of guy's that have recently started playing Warmachine and Hordes. Unfortunately know one I have spoken to knows what this feud is about, I am sure it is simply a misunderstanding and could be sorted out quickly if I could find someone that knows what the issue is.

Tournaments and Campaigns
Each year I organize a Warhammer Fantasy tournament called Tricksters Blade and this year will be no different, I am also running a 40k tournament in mid January in order to catch the locals who are off at University and Boarding School during the year. I am planing a Warmachine/Hordes tournament for late next year that might go by the title Movember Melee if I can pull everything together. And I'm putting a Warmachine/Hordes campaign together as well, this won't start until our current Warhammer Fantasy campaign comes to an end sometime next year. The Claw and Iron campaign pack is available on scribd for anyone who wants a look.

Well I think I have rambled on for long enough now and I am impresed if you have made it all the way to the end. I am hoping this will be able to help me get my head together and sort out which projects I want to work on which should in turn increase both turnout and quality of my painting. Here's to future succeses.

Until next time

Mark

Pathfinder Beginner Box in Review

I don't normally do this sort of thing but it has been a long time since I have been this excited about a release, I am a pathfinder RPG fan boy after all.

Box Contents:

• Getting Started sheet
• A set of 7 dice in bright red. d4, d6, d8, 2x d10, d12 and a d20
• 4 pre-generated characters a Fighter, Rogue, Wizard and Cleric eack based on one of Paizo's iconics
• 4 blank character sheets
• Hero's Handbook
• Game Masters Guide
• 3 A4 pages of cardboard cut out pawns with plastic bases
• 2 sided battle mat with one side blank and the other with a dungeon
• A page of adds

The Important Stuff:

The Hero's Handbook; contains a simplified character creation section that includes rules for 3 races Dwarves, Elves and Humans. 4 simplified character classes the Fighter, Rogue, Wizard and Cleric each up to level 5, along with a simplified set of Skills, Feat's and Equipment. After the character creation section there are rules for combat that have the more complex ideas stripped out, like attacks of opportunity and combat maneuvers like trip and bull rush.  There is also a fun little choose you own adventure style solo adventure, that introduces new players to the basics of the game and to the story telling methods used to in role playing. I was sceptial of the value of this mini adventure, but after playing through it definitely has its merits. I also discovered that I can roll these dice as poorly as I roll any others.

The Game Masters Guide; opens up with an adventure that is set in the dungeon that is on printed on one side of the provided battle map. While not a major issue the adventure leaves a party of four players with less than half of the required experience to level up, so it may disappoint a few players. The book includes a fairly extensive beastery and has a lot of tips for GM's to build their own adventures. There are chapters dedicated to magic items, traps and the various conditions adventures will face during their careers which makes the book a useful reference for experienced GM's as these sections are much the same as the relevant sections of the core rulebook but are condensed into a much more practical format.

The Battle Map; has one side of the haunted dungeon flip mat produced by Paizo and the other is a blank grid surface, both sides can be drawn/written on with wet or dry erase markers and is made from sturdy card stock. The map folds up to around the size of an A4 sheet but if it is stored or transported in this manner I have found these maps are a little difficult to work with as they are prone to not sitting flat on the table top, storing and transporting the map flat can cause some logistical problems though.

The pawns; are made with quality art and are fairly sturdy, the cardboard they are made of will fray over time so it might be worth sealing the edge with PVA to hold them together. There are plastic bases provided to stand these in, but there are no where enough for all of the pawns so the bottom edge of the cardboard will become damaged after repeated swapping of bases. It would have been nice to see a larger base in the set as well for the larger creatures, but as long as a little common sense is used this should not be an issue.


The Pre-generated Characters; are set out nicely with all sorts of helpful hints printed in the margins, it would have been nice to have something like this available when I started playing as I had no idea what I was doing.

Ongoing Support; is being provided by Paizo through the beginner box section of their web store they have already posted an adventure and the rules needed to play the barbarian class along with a few new options for each of the classes included in the beginner box

Overall I am very happy with the Pathfinder Beginner Box it has everything you need to start playing and keep you and a group of friends entertained for hours, locally there has been a large increase of interest in the Pathfinder RPG singe the release of the beginner box. I have gone from struggling to get enough players to make a party to now having 8 or 9 potential players, as people who were intimidated by the 576 page core rule book are more than happy to give the game a go now.  I also have a couple of people willing to give GMing a go which will be a nice change of pace, I have been running games of Pathfinder RPG since the first alpha play-test release but I am yet to sit on the other side of the screen.

Until next time

Mark

A Technical Glitch

I have been busy on a few projects over the last couple of weeks, I have almost completed the Imperial Guard squad I started in my previous blog, I have a solid start on a couple of Ogre projects to get my army ready for an upcoming campaign run by Trev over at Triple Helix and I have managed to get some work done on my Circle of Oboros. Pictures of these projects will be posted as soon as I have a new lamp for my light box. I did however, manage to get some pictures of a couple of miniatures finished for my role play collection.

Ettin from Reaper's P-65 Range

More Goblins from Reaper's Pathfinder Range

A set of Lizards from an old GW Swarm

Things have been put on hold in regards to the 40k tournament, I may be moving for work in the next couple of weeks. While it is an exciting time it has come up rather suddenly and has put a hold on a number of plans I had for the local club Kingaroy Wargamers and well life in general.

Until next time

Mark

A Quick Roundup

After sitting here for more than a week with a serious case of writers block I have decided to just throw up a few pictures of what I have been doing over the past couple of weeks. I have a solid start to an Ogre Blood Bowl team done along with a few miniatures I need to run the We Be Goblins Free RPG day module from Paizo Publing, which should be a lot of fun with everyone playing as Goblins. I also have a Half Orc Rogue in there that I started some time ago that I finely finished.

The Front Line

The goblins most feared enemy

Goblins

Half Org Rogue

The Goblins other most feared enemy

And another one just for fun

Giant Spiders

I have a few more goblins to paint along with an Ettin that I would like to finish before my next blog post, I am having trouble settling on one war gaming project long enough to get anything finished, but now that Trev from The Triple Helix Project has kindly volunteered to run a Warhammer Fantasy campaign at the local club so I may get a few things for my Ogre Kingdoms army done.

Until next time

Mark