Year: 2017 Page 5 of 8

8th Has Landed

By

On 21st June 2017

In Blog

Wow, and it’s good, I mean really good, yeah it’s a whole bunch of new books to buy, but that’s parts and parcel of gaming, sometimes editions change and your books need replacing.

I attended the midnight launch party at Battle Bunker, I arrived promptly at 9pm and brought a nice big chocolate cake I got from Costco especially, and that went down a treat.

I started the night with a game against Harry Scarr of the Dark Artisan, which he had put up on YouTube here.

It was a fun game full of lots of cinematic movements, Harry already had his Indexes so I used his for the first half of the game and then switched over to mine after midnight when we were able to collect ours.

Favourite moment of that game was when his Bloodthirster leapt out of the sky and wreaked my Stormtalon in one swoop.

Then I played another chap and his Tyranids, and for the life of me I forgot his name. Anyway this one was just a 1000pt game, which I lost, but not by much. My Stormtalon make mincemeat of his gaunts.

My third game was against Jacob and his Night Lords, this game was my least favourite, but only because his list was very samey, mostly Raptors and a couple of squads of Havocs, Chaos Space Marines and some Warp Talons. This time we used a Maelstrom mission and I won on the cards, but my army was just about wiped out by the end.

The dude was a cool guy and nice to chat with, but the army had very little variety to it, so it was not as fun to play against as I would have liked.

On Sunday, Lindsay needed distracting from Father’s Day, it’s not a good day for her and she likes to keep busy. I jokingly suggested we go to Warhammer World, and she decided that we would actually go!

So we set off reasonably early and we arrived in Nottingham about 11:30, which allowed me to go and buy Necrosis the Undying aka the Nurgle Chaos Marine Sorcerer, which I really prefer the look of compared to the Malignant Plaguecaster that comes with Dark Imperium. I resisted a Death Guard t-shirt, but did buy a pot of Elysian Green paint so I could follow Duncan’s Death Guard painting guide and a Nurgle badge for myself and a Chaos star badge for Lindsay.

I then tackled the weekends special Mk X burger, which was a 6oz beef burger, a 6oz minted lamb burger, 4oz pork burger, pulled pork, pulled beef and two sliced of melted mozzarella. Sounds nice, but it really needed a sauce, because it was served just as is, not even any sauce in the pulled pork. Was still nice though, but the chips weren’t the nicest.

After that, me and Lindsay decided to have a game of 8th where I would introduce her to the new edition, she took 1000pts of Space Marines and I had 1000pts of Orks.

She wiped the floor with me, and she enjoyed it which is what counts, we did make a few mistakes, for example, I assumed that vehicles were the equivalent of relentless, they aren’t, and I forgot about Heroic Intervention, but we did ok.

When we were leaving I had to stop her buying an army, she wants something that’s got a small model count and a reasonably uniform colour scheme, so she was looking at Grey Knights. But I recommended she take on the Primaris Space Marines out of my Dark Imperium box.

What I am Modelling

I finished off my Tartaros Terminators for my Word Bearers with this last Squad, which has a Chainfist, Reaper Autocannon and a Power Sword and Volkite Charger on the Sgt.

At the same time I did these I also painted up a Primus Medicae as well. I love this model, but for some reason I found this one a tad more challenging to do than the one I did for the Ultramarines.

On Monday I decided to build the Xhipon which I have decided to give to the Word Bearers, and this took no time at all to build, so I then turned my attention to the Mastadon.

That was a challenging build but I got a few subassemblies built which will allow me to paint the interior as well. Dryfitting makes it looks like it’s going to be a bitch to put together tough, and I am sure the green stuff will have to come out.

On Tuesday I got the Mastodon and the Xiphon primed, which allowed me on Wednesday to start putting colour on them.

The Xiphon took me not very long at all, that was a dream to paint, I think the transfers took the longest time. I still have to do it’s base, but I am very very happy with it.

I have gotten started with the Mastodon, I am doing this a section at a time, so that I can get it done as good as my skills will allow. I started with the top front plate and that has come together quite well, looks really nice painted up, and now I am working on the Command module. I have painted the interior of one side of it, whilst the other side and the floor have been painted with Leadbeltcher and washed with Nuln Oil.

I have today finished up Necrosis the Undying, at first I was unsure of the Death Guard Green colour and when I first put it on started thinking that perhaps I should have stuck with Deathworld Forest, but once the wash went on it, it really made it pop.

It was a lovely model to paint, but he does seem a little small compared to the Plague Marine models from Dark Imperium.

What I am Reading

I have started on The Crimson King by Graham McNeil, but I haven’t gotten very far into it.

I recently finished The Unremembered Empire as an audiobook, and once again I am struck by new insights into the story, simply by listening to it, instead of reading it. Most enjoyable story, and with that finished I have been listening to a few short stories now, currently I am on with The Seventh Serpent also by Graham McNeil.

What I am Playing

I played my first game of 8th edition Warhammer 40k on Wednesday with Megan. I used the leaked photos of pages from Index Imperium 1 and Index Xenos 2 to put together 500 point lists for Space Marines and Orks.

And it went quite well, the game was much quicker, a lot more free flowing and very brutal. My Space Marines consisted of two tactical squads and a Captain and they didn’t do very well against Megan’s Orks, she had two big squads of Boyz, a squad of Grots, a Runtherd and a Warboss.

All in all my first game impressed me a lot and left me looking forward to playing more games on Friday at Battle Bunker, which I spoke about earlier.

What I am Backing

A couple of things have caught my attention, but I am not backing them yet.

Although this week was a good week for deliveries. We got the second copy of Tokaido Collectors Edition, which it looks like I am selling to Rhi for the Board Game Cafe she is hoping to set up.

And Kingdom Builder Big Box 2nd Editor came. This is a weird one, I have the Kingdom Builder base game, and I enjoy that a lot, so when they put up the Kickstarter for the third expansion, Marshlands, I decided to go for it. I backed that at a level which gave me the expansion, in an empty big box with the three Queenies and the 200 settlements which were a unique shape for each colour.

But then shortly after they launch another Kickstarter for the fourth expansion, Harvest, which of course I backed, but this came with a revised Big Box, and I opted to have Marshlands delivery delayed so that I got them both together in the empty big box.

This would have left me needed in to but the first two expansions but that was no issue. But the project overran, by quite a bit, something I expected, Queen Games have a reputation for late delivery of projects. But last month out of the blue we got a message from Queen Games telling us that by the end of May we would have put games, and we were all being upgraded so that we all got a complete 2nd Edition Big Box!

Now that’s awesome, plus for them it made sense logistically as now they only had one product to ship instead of several variations. Anyway the end of May came and went and I was lucky enough to bump into the head of Queen Games at the UK Games Expo and when I asked about the delays was assured that the shipment had only been delayed a short while, I was even given their email address so that if I didn’t have it in the next fortnight I was to email them to let them know.

True to their word, it showed up within the fortnight, and it’s not a bad package. I have now got 200 standard edition settlements I don’t need, because they sent them along as well strangely. But I do have one niggle, the insert leaves a huge gap between where the settlements go and the top of the box, meaning that if I turn the game on its side, those settlements will come out of their slots and mix all together! So I will be putting them in to baggies.

I love Kingdom Builder, it was a very worthy recipient of the SDJ and I really enjoy playing it, and having the complete Big Box it allows me to donate my copy, which includes all three Queenies to Rhi and her Board Game Cafe.

What I am Spending

I spent a bit more than I wanted to this past couple of weeks. In addition to Necrosis the Undying, I bought Index Xenos 2, a pot of Death Guard Green, Wound Markers and Command Dice.

Oh and I visited the North East Model Centre where I picked up Dark Imperium, and a bottle of primer for my airbrush as I am almost out.

Mood: Sore
Caffeinated Beverages Consumed: 5
In My Ears: Good Enough by Dodgy
Game Last Played: Tokaido
Book Last Read: The Crimson King by Graham McNeil
Movie/TV Show Last Viewed: Orange is the New Black
Current State of Projects: Mastodon, about 1/2 finished.

Post Expo

By

On 11th June 2017

In Blog

This past weekend, myself, Lindsay and Megan went to the UK Games Expo, which the third biggest tabletop games show in the world behind Essen and Gencon.

It’s a weekend I save for and look forward to all year, and this was the first time that Megan would be visiting for the whole weekend, previously she had only been able to go on a Friday once before. So we were looking forward to this a lot, I have been for the past six years and Lindsay has been joining me for the past four.

This year we travelled down on Friday morning to arrive in time for the show opening at 11, and this year collecting the tickets went so much smoother than last year, yeah there was a queue and annoyingly there was no distinction between people collecting tickets and people buying tickets, but we were only waiting for less than 10 minutes, which was brilliant really.

I then made a beeline for the Hawk Wargames stall and purchased for myself the show only Athens Class Light Cruiser, just in case they ran out like they did at Salute, and Lindsay and Megan bought us a show t-shirt.

I then left to go to the Games Workshop seminar on the new Warhammer 40,000 where I got to see the first preview of the Space Marine Repulser and Chapter Approved, and it was nice to be one of the first people to see something. I also got to have a quick chat with the lead designer of 8th edition Pete Foley who advised me on a new tactic I can use when it drops. He said that when I unload my troops from a transport, have the transport then charge the unit I wish to attack so that it soaks up the overwatch.

There was also a question from a lass about if GW will be making more efforts to have the game appeal to more women, and that was something that Andy Smille, was able to answer, and answered well. GW are looking to develop more female models, but the process takes at a minimum two years, and the results of the project are only starting to come to market now.

After the seminar Andy sought out the lass who asked the question and then took her to the bar to discuss the matter further and it was something he felt very passionate about.

After that I returned to the hall and meet up with Lindsay and Megan where we looked around until we went for our lunch, which we enjoyed in the car. We finished up in time for the John Kovalic seminar, which was a lot of fun. 

I love Dork Tower and am a big fan of Munchkin so it was great to hear a bit about he came to be involved with the game. During the seminar he drew several pictures and I was lucky enough to get one he drew of Cthulhu, which he signed and that’s going to get framed and put up in the games room. After the seminar he also signed my copies of Munchkin Deluxe and the Munchkin 2010 Holiday Edition, both of which had already been signed by Steve Jackson.

We then returned to the trade hall and continued to look around, but about 5:30 Megan had a bit of a panic attack so we decided to go to the hotel and check in, after which we went to Toby Carvery for some dinner.

We then went back to the NEC and went to the Hilton, we couldn’t find any space for open gaming, so we went to the bar. At the bar we bumped into Lynne and she introduced us to Donna Prior and she is a really cool and interesting person. So after a lovely night full of awesome chat we went back to the hotel and slept.

On Saturday I was playing in the Dropfleet Commander tournament in Hall 3A, which was a lot of fun. I took a UCM fleet with a Tokyo as my flagship, and an Avalon. My list was very burn-though heavy. But I learnt a lot about the game and how it’s played and figured out how I want to change my fleet a bit.

We all got a UCM dog tag that was different to the one given out in the Kickstarter and I won a collectors edition of the Dropzone Commander rulebook. And I managed to destroy a shop by ramming it which was an epic movement. I won one game, which was my opening game, and ended up in 5th place, and then lost to the lad who came second, and finally lost my last game against another UCM fleet.

Between games, mine were quite short, I got myself to the trade hall where I tried out a few games, principally Dark Souls and Batman the Board Game.

Dark Souls was awful, it was so so so very bad, it simply drained all the fun out of the room and then some. From what I understand it replicated the grinding of the video game perfectly, but that’s not what I want in a dungeon crawler. It’s a dull game, not very imaginative and is really not worth the time if your life to play it. A shame as it has great minis, but that doesn’t make up for bad rules. I am told that the expansion material coming later in the year will fix a number of the issues, but that’s all Kickstarter backer exclusive, so not really gonna do it if you are silly enough to buy this at retail.

The Batman Board Game was much better, Monolith are behind this one, and you can tell, they have done their best to stay loyal to the IP and have some great minis. It’s still a bit rough, very much a work in progress, but I can see this being a great game when it’s finished. That goes to Kickstarter in February.

Whilst I was playing Lindsay and Megan went to Birmingham, Megan felt that the Saturday would be too much for her anxiety to cope with, but when they were travelling back to the hotel, Megan was really brave and decided to go back into the hall and purchase the two Fluxx games we wanted, Chemistry Fluxx and Math Fluxx, which they were successful at doing, and I am so very proud of her for doing that.

Because I was so late getting out of the tournament we ended up changing our dinner plans, so we just went back to the hotel and had a takeaway, I had a burger with mixed kebab meat and chips.

On Sunday we went back to the trade hall and we made our last purchases, I got a Khorne t-shirt from Forgeworld, a copy of 7 Wonders Duel from Eclectic Games, some Blood Bowl transfers from Tritex Games, Sherif of Nottingham promos from the Dice Tower and a few dice from the Dice Shop.

I introduced Lindsay to Luchador and she loved it so much she bought a copy, which the designer autographed for her.

About 2pm mine and Megan’s feet started to kill us, so we decided at that point to end our Expo and return to the hotel, where after a brief rest we went to a smokehouse for our tea. The food there was quite nice, but I preferred Dirty Bottles in Alnwick. I had brisket and pit beans, but the one thing I really disliked was the fact that they had no sugar free drinks, not very good for a diabetic.

Anyway after that we returned to the hotel, which was that night a lot quieter, many of our fellow guests had been exhibitors and they all seemed to have checked out that day, that was ok, we just sat in the breakfast area and played a game of Ticket to Ride Rails and Sails which Megan won by 2 points.

On Monday we returned home, via Warhammer World, where we stopped off at Bugmans Bar for dinner.

We have already booked our hotel up for next years UK Games Expo, this time at the Ibis Styles, which is right on the NEC and considerably closer to the action.

What I am Modelling

Before Expo I painted up six members of my human Blood Bowl Team, a Blitzer, Thrower, Catcher and three Linemen, which add to my Griff Oberwald and Ogre and give me the beginnings of a team I can play with.

This week I finished off some Word Bearers, this time a unit of five Tartaros Terminators with a Plasma Blaster and a Powerfist on the Sgt. Alongside those I also painted up a Praetor in Cataphractii Armour from the Betrayal at Calth box.

Once they were done I then built and painted up a Commissar and a Lord Commissar for my Millitarium Tempestus, I need one for my 2000pt list for next weeks midnight launch of the 8th edition of Warhammer 40,000.

I have now moved on to the last five Tartaros Terminators for the Word Bearers, this squad equipped with a Reaper Autocannon and a Powersword on the Sgt.

What I am Reading

I couldn’t sleep one night and ended up staying up all night and completely finished off Consorts of Heaven, something I find myself able to do with Jaine’s books.

I have now moved onto The Crimson King, although I will admit to only having just started it.

What I am Playing

Bar the games played at Expo, I have only played a game of Chemistry Fluxx tonight which Lindsay won.

Was nice doing something chemistry related again.

What I am Backing

We backed Untold, we had a good look at it during the Expo and we were quite happy to continue backing it, and it’s now funded and the campaign is over.

What I am Spending

Probably too much! With the launch of 8th Edition Warhammer 40k I have ordered 3 of the 5 Indexes, both Imperial ones, and Chaos, plus the two Forgeworld books, a Combat Gauge and Maelstrom Cards. I will be getting Dark Imperium soon, but I will be putting that on the credit card I think.

I also bought a Space Wolves Contemptor Dreadnought at Warhammer World, along with a Chainfist and a Heavy Bolter for it.

At Expo we bought quite a bit, but I have already mentioned most of that.

  • Mood: Tired
  • Caffeinated Beverages Consumed: 6
  • In My Ears: Songbird by Fleetwood Mac
  • Game Last Played: Chemistry Fluxx
  • Book Last Read: The Crimson King by Graham McNeil
  • Movie/TV Show Last Viewed: Bones
  • Current State of Projects: Word Bearers Terminators, red compete, shoulder pads glossed, metallics next.

Down But Not Out

By

On 31st May 2017

In Blog


It’s been a few weeks since I have posted here, I have had lots of family drama which has taken up a lot of my time, and that’s just making me feel crap.

So I am not gonna talk about that at all, and instead concentrate on good stuff.

———————————

How good does 8th edition look, seriously with every single thing that I see, I get more and more excited about it. It looks like the game is going to become a lot more fun and allow it to be something that can be won in the game itself and not at the list building stage.

The starter set looks amazing and the Death Guard models are simply beautiful, and yeah, I will be getting it.

Not entirely sold on the Primaris Marines though, I mean they are growing on me, especially the Dreadnought, that looks amazing, but I am still a bit unsure about them. Obviously when I get them I need to decide what happens with the, do they become part of my Blood Ravens or my Blood Angels, I am swaying more towards my Blood Ravens as they haven’t had anything new for a while.

———————————

I am off to the UK Games Expo on Friday, and I am really looking forward to it. This will be the first time in five years that we haven’t stayed at the Travelodge at Birmingham Airport, instead we are at the Castle Bromwich Holiday Inn Express which is about a 15 minute drive away from the NEC. 

The plan is to leave home at 6am and get to Birmingham in time for the doors opening, I want to grab the Athens Class Light Cruiser from Hawk Wargames to add to my UCM fleet for Dropfleet Commander. 

And of course I want to get to the seminar with Games Workshop for a Q&A about 8th edition.

What I am Modelling

I have gotten out of my hobby stagnation and gotten on with painting quite a bit.

I first off concentrated on getting some stuff done for my Word Bearers who were a little bit neglected in terms of stuff they had available to them. I started off with some Tartaros Terminator units which had sat neglected on my desk for a few weeks.

These were pretty easy to finish off once I put my mind to it, so now I have a unit of 5 Tartaros Terminators, with a Heavy Flamer and Sgt with a Volkite Charger and Power Axe.

At the same time as working on them I got my Praetor Tribune for them done, a wonderful model, which I love to bits and was an absolute pleasure to do.

I also needed to paint up a Chaplain for a game I had against one of my Podcast listeners, so I quickly painted up the Betrayal at Calth Chaplain. And that didn’t turn out too badly.

I then turned my attention to the Gal Vorbak, now these models I found quite intimidating and they really didn’t seem like they could be batch painted, so I got the red armour done and then did them one by one. 

Once I had the first one done, they didn’t seem too bad, it was just a case of not rushing it, taking my time and studying the pictures on the Forgeworld website for reference. I ended up going with a Skaven style flesh for them, using Ratskin Flesh as the base colour. This game the flesh an almost inhuman aspect to it, and I think it works quite well. My original plan was to use skin with purple washes to make it look tortured, but my first attempts at this, looks a bit off, so I abandoned that idea.

With the Gal Vorbak done, I then tacked the Mhara Gal, now if you know me, you know I love Dreadnoughts, so doing this was both a pleasure and a challenge. I approached it in a similar way to the Gal Vorbak, in that I broke the model down into areas and once the basic red armour was done, I approached these sections one by one. And that made painting it a lot easier, in the end I am quite proud of it, a little unsure of the head but I think over all it’s pretty good.

My final Word Bearers unit that I have done recently is a Deredeo Dreadnought, and I armed this with a Hellfire Plasma Cannonade. This one was done differently to my other Word Bearers Dreadnoughts and instead of dry brushing it, I edge highlighted it, simply because that seems to me to be the best approach for Deredeos.

I still think I am going to go back and do a bit more work on it though, probably put some scripture on it, make it fit in with the rest of the army more.

The other model I got done was for my Ultramarines, I have a game against Graham tomorrow and he is bringing an armoured breakthrough, so I need to bring lots of anti-tank, and thus I need Lascannons, in this case a Deredeo with Arachnus Heavy Lascannon Battery, because he is bringing a Fellblade, so Exoshock could come in handy! This model took very little time to get painted I just seemed to be in the zone and it came together quite quickly.

I also finished off a Blood Angels Death Company Dreadnought, this had been mostly finished on my desk for over a year, so I decided to put the finishing few touches to it, and now it’s ready to hit the table for 8th edition.

What I am Reading

I haven’t read an awful lot, but I am back to listening to audiobooks whilst I paint.

I listened to Vengeful Spirit which is a really good book and listening to it, as with many books, opened my eyes to several things I missed when I read it.

I am now working my way through various short stories leading up to Unremembered Empire, currently in the middle of Prince of Crows. 

I did get hold of Dark Compliance on CD, a friend who went to Warhammer Fest managed to grab me a copy and I have already listened to it. Very good story, John French really captures the spirit of what was mentioned in the Black Books, and it’s always nice to hear from Doombreed.

I have started to read the second book in the Hidden Empire series, Consorts of Heaven, but I am very much in the first few chapters still.

What I am Playing

I have only played one game in the past few weeks and that was against Graham and his very cool Space Wolves. I talked about it on the last Edge of Empire episode so you are better off listening to that for a report on the game.

What I am Backing

Well the Creativity Hub launched an RPG based around Rory’s Story Cubes, so I had to back that didn’t I. The game is called Untold and so far it looks pretty good.

I love Story Cubes, I think they are an excellent educational toy and I have quite a number of sets of them. So of course I was going to back this.

At the moment the stretch goals have added a copy of Batman Story Cubes for everyone and tokens to play the game with. I am backing at the level which comes with Adventure Time Story Cubes.

What I am Spending
Not a lot, my being good with money is working out, all I have bought recently are my usual comics, although I did go out for a Five Guys yesterday.
Mood: Downbeat

  • Caffeinated Beverages Consumed: 4
  • In My Ears: In Your Eyes by Kylie Minogue
  • Game Last Played: Pokémon Go
  • Book Last Read: Consorts of Heaven by Jaine Fenn
  • Movie/TV Show Last Viewed: Dr Who 
  • Current State of Projects: Human Blood Bowl team, 6 players partly done.

Forgot About The Steampunks

By

On 13th May 2017

In Blog

I have had a pretty bad week, so I haven’t had a chance to do much at all. Just had my time consumed with family stuff that really is wearing me down.

What I did forget to mention last week is that Lindsay, as part of her work to improve her mental health wants to get out and do more things, and my friend Daniel was running a Steampunk event in Newcastle, and he needed someone to serve the tea. So Lindsay stepped forward to volunteer for it, and so I found myself helping her be a tea lady for the day, which she enjoyed a lot, it got her out and meeting people which is something she really needed in her life right now.

What I am Modelling

Spent so little time in the studio this week, but I did finish off the remaining ships for my UCM fleet for the Summer Invasion at the UK Games Expo, and I will be having my second game of Dropfleet tomorrow at Section 8.

What I am Reading
I have been reading Shattered Legions, I know I have read it all before but I am reviewing it on the next episode of Edge of Empire so I wanted it fresh in my memory.

What I am Playing

I had a game of doubles with Age of Sigmar on Tuesday, my Khorne army remains unpainted and it gives me great shame, I need to get off my bottom and get them painted.

Anyway it was the first time using the new Battletome, Blade of Khorne and it was rather fun, I always enjoy Age of Sigmar and this game was no different. My teammate was also playing Khorne, but unlike my pure Bloodbound army his was a mixture of Bloodbound and Daemons.

It was interesting to see how the two different types of Khorne units interact with each other and it’s given me some ideas for what I will be doing with mine, once I get the first lot painted up.

But the important thing is that we lost, my 5 man Blood Warrior unit lost 3 of them going through a Realmgate and thus were unable to kill some of the enemy, which was a combination of Ironjawz and Kharadron Overlords, and thus I couldn’t claim the objective.

What I am Backing

Absolutely nowt, I need to save my money for the UK Games Expo!

What I am Spending

This week I spent a bit too much, after my game of Age of Sigmar I decided to get the Blades of Khorne Warscroll Cards.

I also really like the Gore Pilgrims Battalion, so I decided to get another Slaughterpriest, but then I also quite fancied the Exalted Deathbringer with Ruinous Axe which I realised would come to £36, but I could get Gorechosen for £35 which came with both of those characters plus two additional characters, so I ended up buying Gorechosen, and I have built the characters in there today.

The only thing is I realised after I bought it that I already have an Aspiring Deathbringer with Goreaxe and Skullhammer, so I shall try and shift that along.

  • Mood: Determined
  • Caffeinated Beverages Consumed: 3
  • In My Ears: Eurovision Song Contest
  • Game Last Played: Ticket to Ride
  • Book Last Read: Shattered Legions
  • Movie/TV Show Last Viewed: Eurovision Song Contest
  • Current State of Projects: Word Bearers Terminators Stalled

1000 Votes

By

On 8th May 2017

In Blog

I don’t really talk much about politics here, and I don’t intend to change that. I try to abide by Wheaton Law in life, but in general I would describe myself as politically conservative but socially liberal.

Anyway, my local council, which is Labour dominated, has been doing some pretty bad stuff in the past few years, and well it’s gotten me angry, especially the way they are treating teaching assistants, whom they are sacking and making reapply for their old jobs, but with a 23% pay cut, which they say is in the interests of fairness.

So I decided that I had to stand for election to the council, so that I could do something to try and stop it. Well as you will all probably know, I am not exactly in the best health so I wasn’t able to do much campaigning, but I managed to get myself 1000 votes exactly, it’s was over 300 votes from winning a seat on the council, but I did manage to double the vote for my party.

The end result of the election county wide is that the Labour Party remain in control, and sadly it’s probably going to end up with the teaching assistant changes pushed through, though a network of Tories, Lib Dems and Independents did manage to give Labour a bloody nose by taking twenty seats off them, including the wife of the leader of the council.

What I am Modelling

Not had much time for modelling this week, but what time I have had, has been dedicated to Dropfleet Commander, getting my UCM fleet ready for the Summer Invasion.

I have completed the paint jobs on a New Cairo Light Cruiser, a San Francisco Class Trooship, two Jakarta Class Frigates, two Lima Class Frigates and four New Orleans Strike Carriers. 

Remaining on the table are a Saratoga (which is just an alternative sculpt New Cairo), a Tokyo Class Battleship, a Berlin Class Cruiser and an Avalon Class Battlecruiser. And although I don’t need it for my list, I am just painting it anyway, I also have the Atlantis Class Battlecruiser being painted up as well.

What I am Reading

I finished Principles of Angels, I forgot how much I enjoyed the book, I love its depiction of the two different sides of society in the world that Jaine created.

What I am Playing

I had a go at the Batman Minitures Game on Tuesday, I played with a League if Shadows gang.

It’s the second time I have played it, and I must admit it’s better than the first time I played it. I am still not keen on the number of tokens needed to play it, that part I still find a little clunky and old fashioned, but none the less I had a good time playing it

Will gave to get the Joker and Suicide Squad gangs I have painted up at some point.

What I am Backing

Nowt, I have absolutely noting on the go at the minute, which a rare thing for me.
Although a recent update from the Kingdom Builder Harvest campaign has said that instead of getting Harvest and Marshlands in an empty big box, I am now getting a full and complete big box of Kingdom Builder, which is very nice.

So I am going to have a spare copy of Kingdom Builder to dispose of at some point!

What I am Spending

Apart from a couple of books, I have been very good this week and it spent anything!

  • Mood: Flat
  • Caffeinated Beverages Consumed: 6
  • In My Ears: Little Child by the Beatles
  • Game Last Played: Ticket to Ride 
  • Book Last Read: Principles of Angels by Jaine Fenn
  • Movie/TV Show Last Viewed: Mystery Science Theatre 3000 – Starcrash
  • Current State of Projects: UCM Ship, bascoated and washed 

Betrayal at the Bunker

By

On 1st May 2017

In Blog

I had a great time at Betrayal at the Bunker, although I did have an unusual day.

There were 11 players so someone got a bye in the first round, which is never cool for that person, but they volunteered and so was a good sport.

I was drawn against James, an Alpha Legion player and the first mission was Shatter Strike with a Clash of the Line deployment. Now James army was a thing of beauty, really nice paint job, his combo of metallic green/blue with a matt black just looked great, was a real joy to see on the table.

Anyway, in his army, he had a Spartan, with some Tartaros Terminators, Dynat, a squad of 10 Volkite Culverin Heavy Support Marines, a Veteran Tactical Squad, a Contemptor with a Chainfist and Volkite Culverin and a Fire Raptor.

My list was, as nasty as I was willing to make it and well here it is:-

+ HQ +

  • Legion Centurion: Cataphractii Terminator Armour with Combi-bolter and Power Weapon, Combi-Weapon, Thunderhammer. . Consul: Siege Breaker
  • Legion Centurion: Cataphractii Terminator Armour with Combi-bolter and Power Weapon. . Consul: Primus Medicae

+ Elites +

  • Legion Quad Launcher Support Battery: 3x Legion Rapier, Phosphex Canister Shot, Shatter Shell
  • Legion Terminator Squad: Cataphractii Terminator Armour with Combi-bolter and Power Weapon, Chainfist, Heavy Flamer, 4x Legion Terminators, 3x Power Fist

+ Troops +

  • Legion Tactical Squad: 9x Legion Tactical Space Marines. . Additional Wargear: Additional Chainswords/Combat Blades, Bolters, Legion Vexilla. . Legion Rhino Armoured Carrier: Dozer Blade. . Legion Tactical Sergeant: Bolter, Power Fist
  • Legion Tactical Squad: 9x Legion Tactical Space Marines. . Additional Wargear: Additional Chainswords/Combat Blades, Bolters, Legion Vexilla. . Legion Rhino Armoured Carrier: Dozer Blade. . Legion Tactical Sergeant: Bolter, Plasma Pistol

+ Heavy Support +

  • Legion Artillery Tank Squadron: Legion Medusa, Legion Medusa, Legion Medusa
  • Legion Spartan Assault Tank: Dozer Blade, Flare Shield, Quad Lascannon Sponsons, Twin-Linked Heavy Bolter

Anyway so we set up and I started the game by immobilising his Spartan and destroying his Contemptor, which was great. But in came his Saboteur and he destroyed one of my Medusas whilst the Lascannons on his immobilised Spartan were able to wreak the other two.

My Terminators got out of their Spartan and killed his Volkite Heavy Support Squad, and then were charged by his Terminator Squad. My Siege Breaker did kill Dynat in a challenge, but was then killed himself, and of course I lost combat, and of course I failed my leadership test, and of course they were killed in a sweeping advance!

Anyway I managed to get a unit into his deployment zone, and I killed the Warlord, but then he had done the same thing, so we drew, if I hadn’t of forgotten about his lowly Saboteur sitting in cover in my deployment zone, I would have won, ah you live you learn.

I then volunteered to sit out the next round so that the guy who sat out the first round got to play as he had volunteered t sit out again, and I really didn’t think that would be fair. Was all cool though as Jus gave me £10 store credit, which was really nice of him.

So I ended up taking a nap on the comfy chair, and woke up just in time for the next round.
And as luck would have it, I was drawn against James again! And with such a small pool of players, it was certainly possible, but I just rolled with it.
The game was Blood Fued on a Vanguard Strike deployment, so we set up, I won the draw and went first, I thought I had most of the board covered with my Medusas and Quad Mortars, but he then infiltrated his Heavy Support Squad on the far edge of the board right across from my Quad Mortars, and just out of their reach, but not out of reach of the Volkite Culverins.
Of course his choice of units was Tanks and well, I got pretty slaughtered, he seized the initiative and everything went downhill from then on, I quickly had to make a leadership test on my Quad Mortars which they failed, but that did win me a spot prize of some Sylvaneth dice which was cool.
But yeah I just couldn’t do a thing that game, and his Heavy Support Squad just sat across the table and obliterated everything on that side, while his Contemptor ripped apart my Spartan, at the end all I had left was three Terminators. My opponent played that game very very well.
In the end results, I got special mention in the painting, but Mike took that award with his beautiful Mechanicum army, but I did get Favourite Opponent which got me a free shipping voucher for Forgeworld, which I will put to good use at some point soon.
I had a really good day, very enjoyable and I am looking forward to the next event he puts on. 
What I am Modelling

This week I needed to paint a Primus Medicae, I had built and under Coates it but gone no further, so I pulled it out of the to do pile and got one with it.

I mostly followed the painting guide for Brother Lamentarios which is an excellent guide for painting a slightly off white, and it looks really good on the model.

I also built the UCM ships I need for the Dropfleet Commander tournament, I have now got a Tokyo, a Seattle, New Cairo, Saratoga, Avalon, San Francisco, 2 Jakarta, 2 Limas and 4 New Orleans, and I plan to prime them tomorrow.

What I am Reading
I finished On Basilisk Station and I have to say I rather enjoyed it, at times there was a little bit too much explanation of the technologies that perhaps could have been condensed a little, but overall it was a good book.

It delivered what it said it would, which was Hornblower in space, I may read the other books, but they are on the future reading pile for now.

In the meantime I have moved onto Principles of Angels by Jaine Fenn, who you may recall is the author who brought me back into fandom, and it’s a book I enjoyed a lot when I first read it, and it feels good to read it again.

What I am Playing

Apart from the games at Betrayal at the Bunker I had a practice game against Graham at Durham Raiders on Tuesday, I was supposed to be playing the Batman Miniatures Game, but Graham’s opponent dropped out, so I stepped in to play him.
That game also ended with a loss to me, we were playing Tide of Carnage and we each ended up with a scoring unit in each other’s deployment zone and one in no mans land, but Graham had destroyed more of my units.
It was a fun game, but it makes me aware of how limited your options are at 2000pts, wish we had been playing 2500pts at least to be honest.
What I am Backing

I am still backing Gloomhaven and that’s going to fund tonight, it’s raised quite a bit of money so far, and I really think it’s a game me and the girls will really enjoy and get a lot of value out of.

I am also backing Ember: Mage Nights, which is the fourth Ember campaign, and it’s supposed to be the final one, but I quite fancied the spell cards it adds to the game, to complete my collection.

The creator is also looking into options for us to get boxes to store all of the cards from all of the expansions as right now there are quite a lot of cards for the game, but no box big enough for all of them.
What I am Spending

With my £10 voucher for Battle Bunker, I bought some Bloodletters for my Khorne army for AoS as It meant I only needed to put in £3.50.

I also bought the UCM Command Cards for Dropfleet Commander, so I have all I need now for the tournament, just gotta paint them ships!

  • Mood: Tired
  • Caffeinated Beverages Consumed: 6
  • In My Ears: Push It by Salt n Peppa
  • Game Last Played: Pokémon Go
  • Book Last Read: Principles of Angels by Jaine Fenn
  • Movie/TV Show Last Viewed: The Expanse
  • Current State of Projects: UCM Ships Built, Tartaros Terminators stalled

8th Looks Good!

By

On 25th April 2017

In Blog

This evening I watched the live Q&A about the 8th edition of Warhammer 40,000. Well I watched it a bit later as I had to go to the pharmacist to pick up a prescription for Megan.

Anyway there is a lot in there to look forward to, it’s getting the Age of Sigmar treatment which is cool. Now a year ago I would have been horrified at such a thought, but now I look forward to it, why, well AoS is probably the best tabletop war game out there, ever since the Generals Handbook was released. 

The three ways to play and introduction of points was the moment that AoS went from being a bit of a mess to being an amazing game. 7th edition kind of killed my love for the game, the gap between armies was just huge, and some of the formations just made the game unplayable if you weren’t prepared to spend a small fortune. The arms race was just not fun.

And of course right now they are leaving Horus Heresy alone, so I will be able to continue to enjoy that as it is, but we will see what the future holds for that.

But right now I am really excited for what 8th edition will be, Jus at Battle Bunker is already planning a midnight launch and I am gonna be there for it!!!

Meet Lorgar

By

On 24th April 2017

In Blog

This week, I was strong armed into getting a new Hamster, I was quite upset after Sweep killed my last hamster Tyrannosaurus Rex that I didn’t want to get one. But my thinking that our rabbit Gandalf deserved a companion, had the girls in a panic, I had already picked out the rabbit and was going to call him Angron, Eater of Cables.

Anyway so on Wednesday I was dragged to Pets at Home where we picked up a lovely little Syrian who I have named Lorgar, Bearer of the Word. She is a rather nice little one, with very little fear of us and she is partial to apple and cuddles.

On Saturday it was the 10th annual Record Store Day so me and Lindsay popped into town to see if we could pick up a few of the new releases. We had a list of what we wanted and we got all but one of them. Lindsay picked up Laura Marling Live at York Minster, the Moana Picture Disk and Barbie Girl by Aqua. I got the Porcelain Remixes by Moby. We really wanted Your Love Alone is Not Enough by the Nanic Street Preachers, but that was sold out by the time we got to the three record shops in Newcastke city centre. Windows nicely put in a band to entertain us whilst we were in the queue which was great, Reflex had no entertainment and their queue was much longer, but they had staff checking that what you wanted was still in stock, so that way you knew it wasn’t a waste of time to be in that queue.

What I am Modelling

All I have done this week is build Varag Ghoul-Chewer, I haven’t otherwise picked up a paintbrush or tool at all.

What I am Reading

Again I haven’t read too much at all this week, just a little bit more of On Basilisk Station.

What I am Playing

I was supposed to play Arran at club on Tuesday but at the last minute something came up for him and I was unable to arrange another game in time, so I didn’t go to club.

I did get a game of Carcassonne Hunters and Gatherers in with Lindsay today which was nice, I won by a small margin, my tactic of getting small amounts of points from small rivers really paid off for me.

What I am Backing

Still backing Gloomhaven, that’s got a little over a week left to go.

I have also pledged for a book called An Atlas to Time, Space, and Bonfires which is a Sci-Fi anthology of 21 original stories. It looks interesting but I am going to do a bit more research into the creators, I worry still with sci-fi still, I don’t want to end up backing projects favoured by the puppies.

What I am Spending

I have spent most money this week on food and takeaways, it’s been a very very lazy week and I have been feeling very under the weather, so I have ended up having pizza, fish and chips, Burger King, Shawarma and parmos!

I have also bought a Citadel Skirmish Case, I needed a small case to transport my Dropfleet Commander Models to the tournament at the UK Games Expo and this case will be perfect for that. I have ordered it from Battle Bunker so it was 30% off RRP which was brilliant really.

Fourth and Final Day at Eastercon

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On 18th April 2017

In Blog

Oh I was so shattered when I was woken up by a hug from Megan this morning, I don’t remember going to sleep at all, I had struggled trying to synch my Kobo over the hotel WiFi, instead I had to do it using my phones personal hotspot, because I wanted to download a few books I had bought. 

But I crawled out of bed and made my way to breakfast, although this morning we were sent to a different room for breakfast which we had mostly to ourselves for the time we were there. It was a little annoying as this room had a little less choice than the main breakfast restaurant, so I didn’t get my watermelon or pineapple with my breakfast, or a bagel, but it was still quite nice, going to miss having a nice large breakfast in a morning.

We then went back to our room to begin the process of packing up our stuff, and we took the bag with our food and snacks and the games we had brought to the con to the car leaving only our suitcases left to pack.

I then decided I wanted to attend a panel called Populism and SF/F, but there was a safety issue in the main hall, so I ended up as an unofficial gopher telling people they couldn’t go in the hall and that the panel was delayed for 15 minutes. I had decided to switch to that panel specifically because Tej Turner, whose reading I had attended last night was on it, and I think his, I assume rather left wing (based on his book) views would contribute towards an interesting panel, that and the panel description made it clear that it wasn’t favouring one side of the political spectrum but rather looking at populism from both sides, really appealed to me.

Anyway eventually the session was cancelled as they couldn’t fix the issue, and there wasn’t a room available to reschedule it, so I was a little disappointed, but you know what it’s unavoidable, these things can happen sadly.

So I just wandered to the Fan Lounge where I read for a bit, Megan and Lindsay were in Science Fictional Pub Signs, so once they were out of there we headed up to the room to get our stuff and pack the car, once we were done with that we checked out and pleasantly surprised to find that the car parking charges were not £9 per day, but £9 for the whole event which was awesome!

We then just hung around in the Fan Lounge until lunch time, when I had a really delicious Thai chicken and prawn noodles, whilst the girls had Thai vegetable red curry. Then I headed off to my last panel which was UK in 2024, which was a group who were looking to bring WorldCon back to the UK in, surprisingly 2024.

And it was interesting to see the ideas that they are talking about, it’s sounds very very good. They are looking at three venues, Liverpool, London and Glasgow, and Glasgow seems to be the favourite, of both the working group and the attendees at the panel. 

We then headed to the closing ceremony which was cool, lots of applause and the recipients of the Doc Weir award were very worthy, I saw them being quite busy and involved all weekend.

We then hurriedly exited the hotel and made our way to the car, refuelling at a Morrisons up the M42, and then headed home, stopping twice along the way for the toilet and arriving home about 7:30pm when we ordered pizza.

I was meant to record with Graham that night, but I was utterly shattered so we rearranged our recording time to Wednesday.

Overall, I had a great weekend, I am paying for it today, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself and will have managed to book up a hotel for Follycon next year.

  • Mood: On top of the world
  • Caffeinated Beverages Consumed: 7
  • In My Ears: Scream by Michael Jackson
  • Game Last Played: Pokémon Go
  • Book Last Read: On Basilisk Station by David Weber
  • Movie/TV Show Last Viewed: Legends of Tomorrow 

Third Day at Eastercon

By

On 17th April 2017

In Blog

I woke up far too early today, Megan woke me up after she was woken up by the sunrise, we forgot to close the curtains! So I dragged myself out of bed and we we t down to breakfast, where I managed to fill myself up a bit better than yesterday.

I then had a Lemsip before I headed off to my first event which was What Kind of Convention Do You Want To Run, which has given me some ideas about doing a small con, a proper con in the North East that’s not just a dealers room and cosplay as most events here in the north east tend to be.

After this I meet up with Lindsay and Megan whom had been to Mental Health and Super Heroes, which they tell me they enjoyed, and we went along to the dealers room because they wanted a Dublin 2019 ribbon, and I had a chat with the folk at the table. I forgot to mention that yesterday they had talked me round into attending OctoCon on my birthday weekend in Dublin, so yesterday I booked a flight and hostel for that, and I was told today that I have booked a rather nice hostel. Sadly I could not afford the hotel it’s being held at.

At this point we split up again, Lindsay and Megan went off to attend a Metal Clay Crafting Workshop they had been really looking forward to, whilst I went to the Eastercon Site Selection to find out a bit more about Follycon, next years Eastercon and vote for the 2019 Eastercon site.

Although Follycon looks amazing, I don’t think I am going to be able to go to it for more than a day visit, we are struggling to find a hotel room that will house us. Being a trio, makes things more difficult, but the Travelodge has yet to release its rooms so if they are a good price then it might work out for us. 

It’s hard going away when you are a group of three, with me and Megan being disabled, it’s normally impossible for us to be able to afford two room. But anyway I digress.

Then we had to two bids for 2019, one being a joke bid, Con-Fusion which would have been in the International Space Station and one for Ytterbium which won and will be held at the Park In Hotel in Heathrow. They have a low income membership which will be nice for me and Megan, but we are going to be waiting until after World Con in Helsinki to decide on what we do in 2019, because if Dublin wins it’s WorldCon bid, we will be going to that, and Ytterbium would be out of our budget sadly.

I had intended to do the Customised Lego Minifigs Workshop, but I needed a rest so ended up going to the room for an hour instead. After that I meet Lindsay and Megan in the Fan Lounge for lunch where I had a hot dog, which if I am honest was the worst value meal I had, it cost me £5.50 for a hot dog which was chunky, but smaller than that you get in CostCo.

Then we all headed to a panel we were all looking forward to Curing Disabled Characters in TV, which is something that really annoys me and Megan, it did segway a little into representation of disabilities on TV, but it was still good and informative.

Although I didn’t get to ask my question as we ran out of time, I wanted to ask how the panel feels about the curing of disabilities and representation, so in effect is the cure, wiping out disabled characters and robbing us disabled folk of relatable characters in our stories.

We then returned Megan to the room as she needed a rest, whilst I went to Disability and Conventions: Pragmatism and Idealism, which is a subject area I am very interested in, especially for things like Company of Legends. It was a good panel and I learnt a few things on how I can work to improve the things I do run, which is always good.

I then meet Lindsay and Megan in the lobby and we headed over to Resort World for food, we ended up deciding on TGI Fridays but annoyingly they had a 35 minute wait and no chairs available for us to sit on, so we ended up in Nando’s where we sat within 5 minutes.

Me and Megan split a medium Full Platter between us, and I had Peri-Peri Chips and coleslaw on the side. It’s nice to eat in the fan lounge, but I think we were all in need of a break from the con, it was Megan’s first time out of the hotel in two days!

I had then intended to attend a panel called Genre, Fanfic, and Community and that looked really good, but I noticed on the schedule an author reading by Jaine Fenn and Tej Turner. Now Jaine is the author that pulled me back into fandom. During racefail back in 2009, I posted a passionate post about how representation was important and that authors had a duty to ensure that books represented our communities which are not racial homogenous, and how we should be uncomfortable at the silence of writers and fans of colour, not the criticism the community received from them at that time. 

I am. It gonna say it was a particular important post or one that should have been noticed, but it’s how I felt about the whole mess, I had observed it unfolding and developing and I couldn’t keep my mouth shut anymore. Well I got viciously attacked for that opinion by various people, all of whom were male, white and American and the way that I felt after that kinda had me walk away from fandom for about five years. It’s why when gamergate came along, I ended up walking away from that community, even though I recognised how the campaign of hatred and nastiness was utterly wrong and simply misogynistic bullying. I was a coward then and wish I had, but at that time I was still recovering.

I was then in 2014 working as a Man in Black for Steve Jackson Games, and was asked to work demoing Munchkin at Loncon 3, which I leapt at the chance to do. I still wanted to attend a WorldCon and figured, I can ignore the book stuff and just concentrate on the games (seriously I honestly thought that!!!), anyway on the Friday night I was in the games tent at the end of the evening I was playing in a large game of Werewolf and I was eliminated quite early on, so I stepped outside the tent into the fan village and sat down in the library area which had been filled with books provided by publishers, mostly pre-publication copies. Anyway I sat down in the far corner and sat on a book, and I picked it up and found myself looking at it and without thinking, I spent the night reading that entire book, cover to cover, and I was engrossed, I actually didn’t move from that spot until I had finished the book at 5:30am on the Saturday, yeah I spent the night in the fan village, at some point security had missed me and I was locked in.

It took me over 6 hours to get through the book because it wasn’t long after the car accident where I got my brain damage, and it was the first story that was new to me that I read after that accident. To sum it up I was in a pretty bad place at the time, WorldCon was a bright spot which did a lot for my mental health at the time, because I was struggling to adjust to these new limitations my body had, WorldCon was a baptism of fire for me, I found my new limitations and capabilities, I then tried to push further and after struggling with reading even the simplest of books before this, to be able to sit and digest a book in one sitting as I did often as a teenager, well it gave me hope that not everything about my body would be worse, that my mind, although dulled, could still function and deal with stuff the way it’s supposed to.

Anyway the book was Queen of Nowhere by Jaine Fenn and on my return home to the North East, I sought out the rest of the Hidden Empire series and downloaded them all on to my Kobo and well, that’s how I returned to the fandom and ended at Eastercon this year. I kinda wanted to tell her this after the reading because I was fanboying so hard, but I chickened out and returned to the room instead. But Jaine, if by some chance you read this, well please know you will have my eternal gratitude for being the women to bring me back home where I belong and your books will always have a special meaning for me, especially Queen of Nowhere. And seeing as the story she wrote was the origin story of Bez, the character from Queen of Nowhere I found it extra awesome. I also found out she has a Patreon so I will be subscribing to that once I get home.

The reading by Tej was also really good, it was a really interesting character, and his writing is really quite interesting, I think Lindsay in particular will enjoy his work, and I now own both his books, they are uploaded to my Kobo now.

When I got back to the room I found Megan recovering from a panic attack. She had thought someone was trying to break into the room. So I felt mega guilty for having gone to that leaving her in the room alone.

We managed to get calmed down and talked her round to joining us to watch Plan 9 From Outer Space, but I managed to get the room wrong and took us into the end of the recital by Thomas Bloch and Pauline Haas which was beautiful.

Anyway by the time we realised we found that they had changed the screening from Plan 9 from Outer Space to a Transformers film, and the unexpected change of plans followed by the extremely loud noises of the film caused Megan to have another panic attack, so we got her into the Fan Lounge where we got her calm, and she decided that instead of going to listen to some filk or go play some games, she just wanted to go to the room, so we did that.

She has been so brave this weekend and tonight has been the first time her anxiety caught up with her in a big way, normally she freaks out at the thought of spending a short time in the presence of a single person she doesn’t know, so how she has managed to get through 3 days with 900 odd people I don’t know, but I am incredibly proud of her.

At this point we retired to bed whilst I spent too much money on new books from the Kobo online store and struggled to connect to the hotel wi-fi so I could sync my Kobo.

At some point I feel asleep and didn’t wake up again until 7am when Megan hugged me.

  • Mood: Exhausted but so very happy
  • Caffeinated Beverages Consumed: 7
  • In My Ears: Lucia Di Lammermoor by Gaetano Donizetti
  • Game Last Played: Pokémon Go
  • Book Last Read: On Basilisk Station by David Weber
  • Movie/TV Show Last Viewed: Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice Ultimate Edition 

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