What's on my table 2/27

Greeting folks!

Bob here with some ruminations and pictures of what hobby stuff I have been into. Bolt Action has been lodged front and center recently so I have attempted to harness that energy into painting and it has happily born fruit. Check this out folks,

Paras after flocking. Had to go back and dry brush the fatigues because my dumb ass forgot that step on all of these....

All of my infantry completed barring some base work. The weapons teams are on the painting table at the moment

Good progress on the French infantry. 2 squads left then the support weapons.

That's right folks, I have been a model of completing projects of late. If I keep this up I may just screw up and finish an army of two (stranger things have  happened)! The Americans and the French have been getting the love at the moment as they are the smaller of the 3 armies I have. The Germans will be next after I get the French infantry and American support weapons done.

This past game night I managed to actually play a game of 40k (will wonders never cease?!). This was my first use of the newer Dark Angels book since it was released. When I say 40k has dropped off locally, I mean it has dropped off locally as to be non existent on any given night. Here are some highlights of the game. It was a Crusade mission with 5 objectives. My opponent, Screech, ran a vehicle heavy Guard list. We agreed on 1750 points for the game.

Flyers: still wrong as hell in 40k.

End of the game shot. I had 2 models on the board but managed to win off of objectives!

Final score of the game was me:8, Screech 5. In the end it boiled down to me having models on objectives at the end of the game and having killed all of his infantry except 1 squad. This was a fun game with the usual amount of head scratching at rules and crap dice rolls. I lost a Terminator squad to a miss hap and that hurt a bit. It had been a long time since either of us played. I really don't know what to think of the game of 40k anymore. It still works, but good lord is it clunky compared to other systems (Bolt Action in particular).

So there you have it gentle readers. I hope to start into a semi-regular routine of posting again, but we shall see. Happy gaming!

Bolt Action action

Hey folks, Bob here with some updates on the hobby front. I am happy to report that after a lull Bolt Action is picking up again! I have managed to get in two games per night at the last two game nights! The first round was against our local big cat enthusiast finally managed to actually put some arms on his infantry and get a game in. We played two 750 point games with the vaunted superiority of the late war grenadiers and German armour falling to the guts and glory of US airborne and the humble Sherman tank.

No, that isn't some strange pipe. It is our dice cup/macro cannon. That face in the middle is the face of  getting your ass whooped and your Panzer IV not doing shit and dying to a Sherman 75mm and a 57mm at gun. Photo courtesy of Da Masta Cheef

Fire and maneuver

That's right folks, one shot one kill. 

My second set of games were a lighter affair. Our newest player, Mike, wanted to get a game in with his newly built US forces from the D-Day Firefight intro box. We decided on a 500 point game with me bringing my early war Germans. I decided on an all infantry force as armour takes up a lot of points at that size of a game (and it wouldn't have been fair). While I won both games, a lot of that was due to rather poor dice rolling on Mike's part and two airstrikes that didn't mange to do much and a "1" result that wound up in my favor. Mike's enthusiasm for the game wasn't dimmed however and he plans on expanding his forces soon. So really big news as well on people picking armies. Our long time hold out finally picked an army! After over a year of vacillation it will be Imperial Japan for our longest hold out.

Our local armies are as follows:

Blitzkrieg Germans (me), French (me), 2 US airborne (one of them me), British paras, late war German panzergrenadiers, Imperial Japan, DAK (coming soon hopefully), and 1 US army with another coming soon as well, and a Weird War force of Russian Aardvarks.

That is all for now, folks! Happy gaming!

Warhammer: Total War update

Warhammer Total War Empire Campaign Video

So the good folks over at Creative Assembly released another video and I have a few comments I am fully hoping they steal, again.

1. For the love of Sigmar start the major factions out with more than 1 city/town. And there had better not be a big difference from the starting strength of the good guys vs the bad guys. but I willing to bet pennies on dollars that the bad guys will start with more than the good guys. in the video it says the Empire starts with only one city, complete bull hockey. notice the difference between where the two factions are in the videos. Orks have stuff all over and the Empire has two provinces, way too big of a difference to be balanced. (i know its not the same turn)

2. Hopefully the good guys have real "diplomatic" options on how to convince the other provinces to join them. Hopefully similar to Empire with the British and the American Colonies. if not that I would like to see the provinces under siege from 1 major enemy army (that never actually takes anything) and that defeating that army and/or settlement will unlock control of that whole province. What I inferred from the video is that if you are the Empire you will spend way too long conquering the lands that are already supposed to report to you, when diplomacy never works for you. but again I am willing to bet that your allies get nommed before you can talk them into joining you or they straight up declare war on you and you just have to conquer them like anywhere else. It was turn 71 in the video and they only had 7 provinces and no diplomatic expansion; while the enemies had grown exponentially via violent measures.

3. Hopefully the AI is dead set on maintaining alliances or at least neutrality between the good guys. going back to the lore the Empire and Dwarves don't fight, Bretonnia and the Dwarves don't really fight. The good guys have enough going on where they don't need other good guys coming after them. at least until late game, only option situations. I could understand the little guys going after big guys but it shouldn't happen if they are at war with a bad guy faction (which should be all the time)

4. Something all total wars need to fix is the enemy's preference just to attack the player faction even while being destroyed from the other side. too many times the enemy faction sends its final army at a town while a third faction besieges their capital. it ticks me off and is unrealistic. would really like to see some self preservation come into play.

5. No "homing" enemies like the Huns in Attila or the Mongols in Medieval. hopefully the enemies growth is more along a general front expanding out, and not one that seeks out the player's faction.  with the video it seemed like the player had three enemy factions coming at him. Bretonian vamps, empire vamps and the ork tribe to the north.
Previous Warhammer Total War comments 4
for those curious on what I have said earlier here are the links to previous posts, some going way back before anything came out at all. A couple of them reflect things above. a couple of these links go back to 2013, its like I am psychic. don't tell the witch hunters. could have swore I did another one but couldn't find it.
Previous Warhammer Total War comments
Previous Warhammer Total War comments 2
Previous Warhammer Total War comments 3



sadly Warhammer Total War is about all that I have an interest in of late as far as GW is concerned so this is how I will post. Damn GW for killing Fantasy.

2016 Hobby Goals and Wishlist

Greeting good readers!

Bob here after a long hiatus to offer up some of my thoughts on my hobby goals and wishlist for 2016. 2015 Proved to be an interesting year and dare I say disheartening. Despite some interesting released from GW (Skitarii mainly) the death of Warhammer Fantasy and the ever bloated and increasingly obtuse nature of the 40k rules has really put me off of them on the whole. Yes, prices factor into it of course. The ever rising price point for new kits is very disheartening. On the positive side I managed to start to branch out into other systems and companies. I am really happy with Bolt Action and Hail Caesar. Warlord is quickly becoming one of my favorite companies. I also broke down and got some Perry Brothers Hundred Years War English archers and men at arms and I have to say that I am impressed. This shouldn't be a surprise considering it is the Perry brothers. X-Wing has also been a fun system to slowly collect and play on occasion. The last part of 2015 was rather hectic as I was finishing my last semester of undergrad. I know John has been getting ridden like a cheap mule by his work and like me has been suffering from hobby malaise.

Some action from the last game of  Fantasy I played

It was a close game, but the soldiers of Nordland proved victorious over the Tomb Kings

But fear not, hope is here. I have some very achievable projects and goals for 2016 along with a rather more focused approach to GW. So what am I planning and what are my hobby aims? First of all, having graduated has put me into an interesting position. Part of what my future employment may entail is a lot of travel for weeks if not months. This doesn't leave a whole lot of time for hobby. Depending on the length of the project and the location I am fairly well set up to bring a travel case of figures and painting supplies as well as a small army of something. So let's break down my hobby ideas by category:

Games Workshop: So I am not getting out of Fantasy or 40k. For Fantasy I plan on slowly finishing out the last bits I need for my Dark Elves, finishing my Vampires, and picking up odds and ends for Brets, Beasts, Chaos, and Dwarfs when the opportunity arises. 40k is going to be largely similar. I want to get my Eldar and Guard finished out as they don't lack much. I would like to work a little more on my Iron Snakes and Skitarii, but they really aren't high priority to be honest. If Deathwatch come out I may be tempted by them, but beyond that it will take a lot to tempt me into really starting a new army. What would like to see 40k wise (this is purely a wishlist)? Plastic Guard kits for some of the older regiments, plastic aspect warriors, chaos marines, and that is it. I am curious to see where these new specialist games go. I am really enjoying collecting my legion forces for 30k. I have a feeling this is where the majority of my GW spending will be. Betrayal at Calth is an excellent set.

Warlord: I want to finish out my early war French Army. It is very close to being done and painted (gasp!). After they are done I would like to start either a British/Commonwealth army or a late war German army to square off against my US paras. I wouldn't mind developing my Hail Caesar Romans and Gauls, but they aren't a priority. Beyond the Gates of Antares looks pretty cool and I would like to read the rules for it.

Star Wars: I wouldn't mind getting a few more X-Wing ships and Armada looks cool. Not much else to say here.

Other: I will be working on an English and French army for the Hundred Years War (Agincourt period). The Perry miniatures are just that good and I love the period.

I also have a new idea on dealing with the rather huge backlog of things that need to be painted. I want to try and rotate armies painting 5-10 models at a time. I want to try and have these done in a 2-3 week window time permitting. This of course will vary with work and other constraints. I just need to be painting. Period. I would like to have all of my armies done before I can start to draw social security.

Test model for my French Army

Have a full squad painted up now

So that is my ramble for the new year. Hopefully I will get back in some sort of spasmodic rhythm of blogging. Thanks and happy gaming!