Little painted peoples

Nothing much on the homefront. Been painting away and playing with my new Infinity models.
So here are a couple models recently finished that have nothing to do with that!
(A thief model from Reaper (Shadowslip) and a small Hill Giant model from who knows where...).

bean out~

Top Secret

BA Battle Report

So, just yesterday I had the chance to play a game of Bolt Action with a buddy before physio. We decided to take some pictures and well... Here it is~

1000 point Army lists to come soon (hopefully)

Turn 1, various units come onto the board. Nazi's have issues bringing units onto the board (panzer, HQ, flak 38 and a heer squad do not make it on, American HQ and bazooka mounted jeeps fail to make it)

Turn 2, Americas move up, failing to cause more than a single pin in damage. Germans reply with a sniper kill on a unit, everything comes on board

Turn 3, american air support fails to materialize while german artillery lays out a ton of pins and annihilates the American HQ JEEP leaving the team with 4 pins. The greyhound moves up and drops the German sniper team with accurate MMG and light AT fire. The panzer fires at the greyhound but it recces away leaving a nearby infantry squad to get hosed with MMG Fire and loosing a man.The Germans advance while the Americans are forced to take cover (go down).

Turn 4, the American air support materializes laying down a few pins and wiping out the German Waffen SS squad. The flak 38 opens up on the american infantry squad taking refuge amongst the dragons teeth but misses. The hellcat advances and opens up on the panzer and flak 38, ricocheting it's AT shot but managing to kill a crew member from the flak gun. The panzer misses it's shots.

The greyhound moves forward missing the panzer but managing to cause a pin and killing the adjutant in the the German LT. Squad. The German and American infantry advance.

Turn 5, the panzer fires away to no avail while the grey hound rushes up putting pins on the german MMG and making another crew kill on the flak 38. Next the hellcat moves up setting fire to the panzer with its heavy AT and putting yet another pin onto the flak 38 with its HMG.  The greyhound then flees (recce) away from a German heer infantry assault. They take control of the objective but the greyhound remains alive.

The German MMG and FLAK opens fire on the besieged american infantry squad killing one. Once more they go down (failed rally check). The American engineers move forward causing 3 kills, including the SGT of the veteran heer squad claiming the objective.

Meanwhile the German Forward observer snipes a member of an American infantry squad.

Turn 6, the objective is piggy backed to a rear squad while the unit fires on the advancing engineers killing 4 of the 5, leaving the flamethrower to avenge their deaths with FIRE! (Killing 2). Miraculously the heer stay on the board! (Moral roll of two ones!).

The hellcat managed to only stun the panzer and place a further pin on the flak 38. The greyhound crushes a unit of heer but the other escapes it's wrath. The jeep moves up depositing the bazooka team within reach of the panzer who promptly miss. The German artillery observer moves forward and kills the bazooka team like a boss.

Turn 7!

The second American air support finally comes in, wiping the panzer off the board and placing pins all about. The greyhound finishes off the Flak 38 and the artillery observer. And with that the game ends in.... A DRAW!

(The side that carries the objective market off their table edge wins the game. Otherwise the result is a draw.)

 

 

as Always, 

Comments and Criticisms welcome.

 

Bean out~

Come Fly With Me

I know I've been quiet for the last while, and things will probably remain that way for a while yet, but just to show a teensy bit of an update, here's my latest project:

A P-47 Thunderbolt for use with the optional warplane rules for Bolt Action

It's not quite complete yet as I still need to finish weathering it and then seal it, but it's 90% complete.I tried a new formula for laying down decals and I must say that it's worked perfectly: Gloss Varnish before the microset/sol decal solutions. It's wonderful when you can't see the silvery sheen of a decal on a model.

Until next time,
Keep trying new things.

Bean out~

SHAZAM!

Wow. It's been a while eh? I've been Busy busy busy, I tell ya.

I'd make excuses but I don't have any. What I have instead is NEWS. This NEWS may or may not be a cheap version of an excuse with a different title. (it is!).

first things first:
I'm engaged!

Yep, I pulled the trigger. and better yet, she, despite all odds and evidence that it was a terrible idea, said YES. So yeah, that right there is a major part of why I haven't been posting. Lots of planning and such. Vegas Weddings (we're not eloping!) seem to take a bit of doing.

Secondly, I have been GAMING!
HOLY SHIT.

Infinity, Warhammer 40k, Bolt Action. I have been gaming a lot in recent months. And that's just the mini gaming. If you remember (provided you actually read this before now) I'm a member of the Sarge! program for Warlord games and thusly I've been running quite a few games since I got started on that this past November. At least one game every other week. My Americans are getting consistently ass-wooped each time I throw down, which, I'll admit, is WONDERFUL. I often don't loose in mini-games and it's great. It's really brought me back into the fold of gaming and I'm slowly regaining my old skill. I'm currently 12Wins-4Ties-16Losses with my army and I have reinforcements on the way in. This makes me happy.
Infinity wise, I've been playing against a few buddies and I've been pretty consistent with my wins/losses. Against all but one, I'm a winner. Against Evil... well.... I'm 3 losses, 2 ties and a single win. Accursed Yu-Jing (chinese sectorial) and their mass MSV. To be fair, he only really plays against me so he's tooled his army to take down my poor ol' Ariadna and it's mass camouflage. Due to this I am now, AT THIS VERY MOMENT, working on my Pan-O in an attempt to actually use technology and all the neat toys the game has (I WANT MULTISPECTRAL VISORS TOO, GORRAM IT!).
It also doesn't hurt that I got in on the pre-order for the Operation: Ice Storm box, and that my girlfriend FIANCE now plays Nomads.
As for 40k, I've been working on... GASP, a SPESS MAREEN army. This is a big deal for me as, in the 22 years I've been playing 40k, I have never, ever played space marines, or at least no the good ones (I loves me some Chaos marines...). As a result I am creating my own Chapter, because of course I am, called the Conquerors. It is 100% lovingly ripped off from Robert E. Howard's seminal work, CONAN, and is therefor AWESOME. I'm sure, in some following posts somewhere, sometime, I'll detail what I've done and go through the creation of my chapter.

Due to all of this Mini-Gaming, I've also been PAINTING. (le gasp!)
Mostly, I have been painting Bolt Action (lots of Germans for Maqy.... friggin germans...) with a little work on my 40k. My Infinity models have only been primed, though I've added some to their numbers (Isobel McGregor from the Dark Mist pack, some Yuan-Yuan drop troops, an S.A.S. specialist, and a few others for my Ariadna), and they are on my current "To-Do" paint table. In regards to my Spess Muhreens, I've constructed about 1800 points so far, and have them at various levels of primed as I haven't decided on a colour scheme just yet. Probably something black and red as, unless the upcoming Space Wolves codex is awesome (omg... ROCKET CHARIOTS!!! and BABY THUNDERHAWKS!!!!!), I'll be using the Iron Hands Chapter Tactics (6+ feel no pain, It Will Not Die on characters and Vehicles) because it's wonderful fun.

Tomorrow, I even have my first 7th edition game lined up at 1000 points against my buddy Harris and his Blood-Wolves Marines (He pretty much uses Blood Angels and Space Wolves. Werewolves and Vampires.... Can you tell he's a Horror fiction writer? He's actually a published writer, with a few novels up on Amazon. All include Vampires. The man loves him some Vampires.), so that'll be good times. If I can wrangle the Fiance into taking pics, I'll maybe even put a Battle report up here.

And then there is the 2nd Edition AD&D campaign I've been running and the Legend of five Rings campaign I've been playing in, and the OTHER group that... well... they play RPGS... though in the 5 months I've been playing they have changed games 7 times. Apparently this is par for the course with them. ugh...

On Top of ALL OF THIS, I'm also in talks to open up a business in the upcoming year, and still going through Physio (physio two times a week, kinesthesiology once a week and acupuncture once a week), so Yeah, there you have all my reasons for being Busy Busy Busy and not posting here.

As things are not exactly slowing down, but I AM becoming used to the new pace, I'll hopefully be posting a little more regularly... or at least not with 5 months in between posts.

until next time,
SPACE MARINES (in 1000 point bites)

Bean out~

I Must Break You: Dragõe TAG

Time for a little Infinity Love. Recently my brother, in a spurt of wonderfulness, bought me the Dragões TAG for my Pan-O forces. This was a most welcome gift, and not just because it was free (though that helped! Thanks bro!)
First, it finally gave me a chance to build one of the humanoid styled TAGS from the infinity line. To date I had only build the Maghariba guard spiderbot thing, and it was exciting to work on such an awesome looking figure.
Secondly, I like building larger models. They may require a significant amount of pinning thanks to being large and metal (in the Dragões case, it required ALL OF THE PINS), but the joints are generally larger and easier to access, and allow for a much more satisfying final product.
Thirdly.... IT'S GOT A GIANT DAMN CANNON! BOOYEAH!

Seriously, it's an awesome figure.

Escalating engagements

Here's what I've been up to:

The Road to War - Bolt Action Escalation Series

Starting mid March, Imperial Hobbies (Richmond B.C., Canada) will be hosting an escalation league for the Bolt Action 28mm wargame. Starting at  500 points for the month of March, each month will feature an increase of 250 points to bring players up to the tournament standard (1000 points) in May. Each event date will feature one of the possible scenarios from the rulebook. Finally, on May 25th there will be a 1000 point Tournament featuring the scenarios used during each of the event Sundays.


500 point Forces

March 16th
Scenario 1 "Envelopment"

March 30th
Scenario 2 "Maximum Attrition"


750 points Forces

April 6th
Scenario 3 "Point Defense"

April 20th
Scenario 4 "Hold Until Relieved"


1000 Points Forces

May 11th
Scenario 5 "Demolition"

May 25th
TOURNAMENT


Tournament Rules:

1. There is a $10 buy-in for tournament attendance. Payment will NOT be accepted after 12pm (noon), May 25th. No Late Entrants will be allowed.
2.  Armies must be composed of no more than 1000 points and no more than 2 Reinforced Platoons, as described in the "Armies of" army books and the main rule book.
3. Each list must be submitted no later than Friday May 23rd at 11:59pm.
4. The Tournament will multi-round, swiss style with initial players matched up randomly and thereafter by ranking for each round.Matches will be scored by Win/Loss/Draw as well as Victory Points (as determined by the scenario) and Combat Points (each destroyed unit is counted for it's requisition points by the opponent). 
5. There Will be Prizes for 1st and 2nd place as determined by ranking and points. 
6. There will be Prizes for Best Sportsman and Best Painted as determined by the players. 
7. Players must bring 2 identical Copies of their Army List to the tournament (one for themselves and one for their opponent). This must be the same List submitted to the Tournament Organizer.
8. Each Table will feature a list of the terrain in use and what effect it has on the game (if any). The
9. Terrain on each table may NOT be moved in between each match, nor during the match.
10. After each match player must fill out the Match score sheet provided.

As you can see, Busy Busy Busy.
Until next time,
Bean out~

You Deserve Victory!

Welcome back to the third part of my little rant about games. Last time I complained extensively about what I don't like in minigaming and why it's awful. Today, I want to talk about what I like and what works.To cover my previous points, I stated that I play these games mostly because I like competition and painting models. I play because I like to challenge others to prove who is better at the game in a fair and even match between two knowledgeable and comradely sportsmanly fellows. Mano-ey-Mano as it were.

I also spoke at great length about how, on a fundamental level, many games, including the "Big Two" (Warhammer 40k and Warmachine/Hordes) CANNOT be fair, just and equal due to issues in their core system.

Today I want to talk about two systems that, despite some niggling issues, have a solidly built core system that lends itself to a fair and even game that ALLOWS for equality of play regardless of a persons play style: Bolt Action by Warlord Games, and Infinity by Corvis Belli.

*Disclaimer: I do not receive money or free stuff from any company and this is all based on pure opinion. Yes I am a member of the Sarge program for BA, but I asked to join the program, I was not asked by them, based on how much I enjoy the game. That being said, if either games company wants to give me free stuff, I'm more than happy to accept it. I LOOOOOOOVE free stuff.*

On games systems and poor design

Listen up you primitive screw-heads

Last time, I talked about why I enjoy minigaming and the whys and hows of what makes a game work. Now to discuss whats awful in gaming today and he two biggest games that fail:

Warhammer 40k and Warmachine/Hordes.

That first one will shock many who know me, the second one shocked even myself.

When I play a miniature game, when I set out to combat another player, I (rightfully, I feel...) except 2 things:

1. The game will be played in good sportmanship
2. The game will be even and fair

 That's it.Let the dice fall where they may, win or lose, but I expect those two things to be true.
With Warhammer 40k and Warmahordes, I CANNOT expect those two things to be true. Both games are inherently broken by the rules system they use, which is an effect created by the companies that make them. The fault sits heavily upon Privateer Press and GW (always the curb-stomped dead horse).
Allow me to explain.

The good, the bad, and the arduous

Bow down! I need a soapbox to stand on and you just volunteered!

I was recently asked a question which, once I had a chance to reflect upon it, occurred to me to be a very poignant, and frankly difficult question to answer.
I like miniature games. I figure that is obvious to people reading this blog. I also assume that which games I like (Bolt Action, Infinity), are also obvious. But I don't think I've properly explains the why of my love of these games. To do this properly, I believe I should explain the why of what I like in miniature gaming... and what I specifically DO NOT like about many games. I think this will explain why I have not ended up writing all that much about a certain game that two of the other writers for this blog are pretty in love with (Warmachine/Hordes).

I play miniature games for a variety of reasons, the primary of which boils down to 4 reasons:

1. I enjoy collecting things
2. I enjoy painting and building models
3. I enjoy being social and teaching things to people
4. I enjoy competition

An Explanation and a Theory

To begin with you should all know that I'm not ignoring this little blog, despite the fact that I've been posting less and less and letting it fade into the background. No more excuses, these are the full, unfiltered reasons which are few but pertinent.
1. I've been super busy. For those that know me personally, this sounds a little silly as I am unemployed (due to medical reasons, not laziness. Though I admit I've had a lot of time to work on my xbox score...), but it's not an incorrect statement. Between Physio-therapy, doctors visits, meetings with governmental departments (which take up a full day AT LEAST), volunteering my time to teaching others, playing Xbox (and Payday 2, and Mechwarrior Online, and Neverwinter, and WoT....I likes me some video games) with my mates, my GF, and my brother, AND having a whole slew of painting projects, AND AND trying to get fit to work again, I don't have a whole lot of time to write articles for this blog.
2. Lack of support. I do this pretty much by myself. I've attempted to get others involve, but to be honest, they don't have time, or care, or whatever, to help put up articles on time, which leaves me with a work load I can't support any more.
3. Lack of game time. Barring a pseudo-weekly Sunday night roleplaying session with my chums,  don't get to play games much. You all don't want a play by play of our sessions as they are mostly about us all laughing and making asses of ourselves (as evidenced by my Star Wars character gungan gunslinger known as Gunga-Dan..... yeah.... we laughed. A LOT). If I'm lucky A friend will show up once a month and we'll play some mini games which are infinitely more exciting from a blogging point of view, or sit-in and paint. Usually it's my buddy Harry, or, on the ultra-rare occasion it'll be Richard. on those occasions you'll see content on here.

When I started this blog, it was out of boredom. I was living in the middle of nowhere, an hours drive from the nearest store or person. When you don't drive, that's very far away. When you are dealing with mobility issues due to an accident and can't really walk, that's even further away. Hence, I found myself with a LOT of spare time. I don't have that any more, and there is, realistically, every chance that I'll just one day stop posting on here. If the others post, that's neat, but it's also doubtful. Such is life.

So there you go. The full, unabridged reasons why posting has dried up. Hopefully it'll pic up, but I guarantee nothing (especially if I get this job I'm waiting on...).
'Nuff Said.

in other news, I've posited a Theory to my friends, and the more I think about it, the more it seems to ring true. My theory is simple and is as such.

The Future is made of Hexagons.

Proof I'm still here

OI've been quiet on the posting front lately, I know, but that mostly comes from health issues. It is what it is.

But I have not been inactive! I've been running many (MANY!) demos for a few games (Bolt Action and Infinity for the most part), been asked to become the official WarCor for multiple store (infinity event coordinator), continue in my Satge role for my FLGS, and I've been building more terrain, painting, and playing a boatload of Warhammer Quest (I finally found a GW game my girlfriend likes!!).

Lastly I've been dragged back into warhammer fantasy.

Busy busy busy.

So what do I have to show for it?

Ummm.... Not too much. Except this (I sculpted armour and weaponry on a stock Mon Calamari model for the Star Wars rpg I'm playing in):

He's super fat and awesome. I'm happy with it. The paint job was a bit of a rush (laying down and done in just over an hour....), but it's tabletop passable. It also allowed me to test out a white paint scheme in prep for a large white armoured army I have to paint (thanks for your patience Hojo! It'll be done soon(ish!) I swear!).

Until next time,

Being busy is not an excuse.

Bean out~

I'm alive...

I'm alive...

I have to apologize to Bean for being so quiet of late, but work and family just got me into a head space that just ate up all my spare time. However that doesn’t mean that I was completely out of gaming. I got side tracked, but with a new year and a commitment on going to lock and load this June I’m getting back into the routine.

Quick and Dirty modeling hacks

Modeling Hacks

 

We've all had those little modeling mishaps. Whether it's tipsy models that won't stand up on their own (the accursed "rock-a-byes"), a terrain piece that's curling up at the sides, or one of a myriad of other issues, these annoying little problems are often a mess to deal with and can be incredibly aggravating.

In this new line of columns I aim to address some of these issues.

Today's problem: Tipsy trees.