Category: Blog Page 49 of 51

Brain Damage and Games Exercise

On 2nd November 2016

2 1/2 years ago I suffered some brain damage, and since then my games have taken on much more meaning. They are one of the few things I can still do with friends. Im a fan of the bigger chunky games that take time to play and I’m just getting into playing solo games. All these mean I have to concentrate and act as a kind of exercise for my damaged brain.Games provide me with a chance to socialise, & provide health benefits. The theraputic value of this also helps with my depression.

Getting run over has really changed my life, and my whole aim of things now is to try and get me back into a position where I can work again. But having the issues I have currently, it’s not looking likely to happen anytime soon, which is shame, because for all I complained about work, I did enjoy feeling useful and doing something that contributed to society.

So yeah, games help me, but for various reason, I am not getting to play many games lately, and I can tell because my mental abilities are slipping and I find my ability to concentrate less. So I am not getting the brain exercise I need, and thus I am going to have to make a bigger effort to get to things like Newcastle Gamers so that I can give my brain the workout it desperately needs.

I am, money depended, going to be entering the Kill Team tournament at the Warhammer 40,000 Open Day on Saturday, but it’s very money dependent!

What I am Modelling

This past week and a bit I have decided to clear up some of the models on my painting table that have been started and not finished. I started by finishing off the Blood Angels Tactical Squad to form a basic Kill Team, they are now done and dusted.

I then moved onto the Blood Angels Terminator Librarian, and he was actually a lot nicer to paint than I had expected him to be. And I finally based a Word Bearers Contemptor Dreadnought

I am currently working on a Scout Squad that’s for Lost Patrol, a Word Bearers Jump Pack Chaplain and a Word Bearers Veteran.

What I am Reading

I read White Dwarf, but other than that I haven’t been pick my Kobo for over a week now, which is simply down to how drained and tired I have been feeling.

I have been listening to audio books when I paint still, I recently finished the Damnation of Pythos, a book which in my first reading of it, was ok, not amazing but ok. But after listening to it as an audiobook, my opinion of it worsened, and I now have to agree, it just feels out of place in the series.

What I am Playing

I played in a long afternoon playing Horus Heresy on Sunday, however opposite me on the table was Christian and his Mechanicum, so I spent most of the afternoon removing models without doing any damage to him at all, really need to figure out a better way of dealing with the Mechanicum.

I have a plan involving combining a Reconnaissance Squad with Sniper Rifles and a Heavy Support Squad with a Lascannons. I have bought some Lascannons when a friend did a Forgeworld order a while ago, but he keep forgetting to give them for me. But I have a promise from him to give me them at the Open Day on Saturday.

What I am Backing

I had backed Pretending to Grownup, a card game from Jason Anarchy of Drinking Quest fame, it’s an excellent looking game with some really cool looking art from Megan McKay.

And in a nice surprise, Quatermaster General 1914 arrived with me on the 31st, meeting it’s October delivery date, only had a brief look at it, but everything seems quite cool and I look forward to playing it.

What I am Spending

It’s coming up to Christmas, so too much, I have bought a few gifts for Lindsay and Megan as most of my nephews and nieces presents will be coming from the John Lewis account we put money into every month and the £200 of High Street Vouchers we have saved towards. I also have my nephews Max’s birthday coming up and I have paid for his birthday present.

That’s not to say I haven’t spent money, I did but myself the Burning of Prospero and then traded with a dude on Facebook for an extra two squads of MKIII Space Marines to add to my Word Bearers.

In a spate of depression I also placed a Forgeworld order and am now the proud owner of a Mhara Gal Tainted Dreadnought, which has reduced my money for the rest of the month.

A Relaxing Trip

By michael

On 20th October 2016

In Blog

To help celebrate my birthday, myself, Lindsay and Megan booked up a nice weekend away at a lodge in Otterburn. My plan had been to chill out and play games all weekend, the girls proffered the idea of visiting some places.

So Friday morning we feed and watered the animals and set off to spend a few hours in Rothbury a picturesque little town to the north northwest of Newcastle, where we had a nice little walk along the old fashioned ships and finally having some lunch in a little cafe. After this we set off to Otterburn and our lovely little lodge for the weekend.

And it was a really nice lodge, nicely decorated with comfortable furniture and best of all a hot tub! We had pizza that night and played Joking Hazard a game I backed on Kickstarter from the team behind the Cyanide and Happiness comic and it was a pretty good little party game.

The next day we drove up to Alnwick where we wandered round the market and Megan bought some mead from the Lindisfarne Mead shop. We had a nice dinner at the Dirty Bottles smokehouse and then went home via Barter Books, who to my dismay did not have an RPG section! That evening we had hot dogs and played a game of Munchkin Gloom.

The Sunday was dedicated entirely to games, starting out with with a nice game of Firefly Fluxx, after a lovely fried breakfast lovely prepared by Lindsay and Megan. Then we cracked open our copy of Tokaido Collectors Edition, another game we Kickstarted, the first one that we as a household Kickstarted together. We got it back in June, but it was only completed recently when we got the missing parts we needed. That was a fun game, which I won, but only because I decided to play as the game designer Antoine who wins all ties!

Then we moved onto Munchkin: The Nightmare before Christmas, a game which we had to import from America because USAoploy don’t publish their games in the U.K., but we enjoyed this version of the classic, I would have won, but Lindsay and Megan ganged up on me, wasting all the cards they had to mess with other players which then allowed Megan to win because there was noting Lindsay could do to help me stop her.

After lunch, Megan wasn’t feeling too well so she sat and watched some David Attenborough whilst me and Lindsay played Thunderbirds with the Tracey Island expansion, which is one of my favourite games. We managed to win that one, but it was close, another couple of turns and we would have lost because of of the missions was going to be so difficult to achieve.

Finally before bed we played a few rounds of Love Letter, which is always a favourite, me and Lindsay did want to play Carcassonne Star Wars Edition, but Lindsay wasn’t taking in the rules so we ended up not playing, which was a shame, I would have liked to have played more games that day, but the girls had a pace they wanted to play at. But we did have plenty of dips in the hot tub though!

Megan was sadly quite sick through the night, so we ended up leaving a little earlier than planned on the Monday to get her home quicker so she could recover for her trip to her Nana’s down in Oxfordshire.

On Tuesday I was due to play a 2500 point game of 40k but annoyingly the car decided to break down on the way to club, we did manage to get the car moving again before the RAC dude came out, and he found a fault on the booster pressure sensor, but the garage aren’t too worried about it, but we are taking him in next week to get looked over anyway, hopefully it’s just a one off, one in a million fault that won’t reoccur.

What I am Modelling

Got my Millitarium Tempestus Kill Team ready to go. I went with the Kapic Eagles colour scheme because I actually quite like it and it’s easy to do following Duncan’s painting guide. I am seriously thinking of entering it into the Warhammer 40,000 Open Day Kill Team Tournament. I figure it will keep my busy, and not spending money, for much of the day, and I might actually stand a chance as not many players use the Millitarium Tempestus and thus they have a little bit of an unknown factor to them.

My list consists of the following

+ Troops (95pts) +

Millitarium Tempestus Scions (95pts) [2x Tempestus Scion (24pts), Tempestus Scion w/ Hot-shot Volley Gun (22pts), Tempestus Scion w/ Plasma Gun (27pts)]····Tempestor (22pts) [Bolt Pistol, Close Combat Weapon]

+ Fast Attack (100pts) +

Taurox Prime (100pts) [Taurox Missile Launcher (20pts), Twin-linked Autocannon]

The Scion with the Hotshot Volley Gun gets Relentless as an Indomitable Specialist, the Scion with the Plasma Gun is a Guerrilla Specialist and takes Preferred Enemy and one Scion with a Hot Shot Lasgun gets Sniper as a Weapons Specialist.

Hopefully this small elite team in the comfort of a Taurox Prime will manage to do some damage.

I have also started to paint up a Blood Angels Kill Team as well, but I will talk more about them next time.

What I am Reading

I have finished Ahriman Sorcerer, which was quite good, I liked how the story built up to the battle, but I was disappointed with the deaths of the characters who has supported Ahriman in the first book, it felt like they got very little in terms of appearances before they were summarily gotten rid of.

I have also been listening to some of the short stories around the Drop Site Massacre as I have been Modelling, stories you forget about like Strike and Fade, Veritas Ferrum and The Phoenician, and I am currently listening to the Crimson Fist, which I enjoy as Alexis Pollux is one of my favourite characters.

What I am Playing

A lot more than I have been of late, other than my trip to the lodge this is what we played.

Last Saturday night, me, Lindsay and Megan played a game of Bohnanza, a really cool game by Uwe Rosenberg, which is an old favourite of ours. It’s all about planting, selling and trading beans to make money, trusts me it’s better than it sounds. As usual Megan dominated the game, winning with 40 coins to my 24 and Lindsays 22.

The next Sunday, whilst Megan was at her sisters with her parents, me and Lindsay took a trip to Consett Tabletop Gaming Society, which meets on every second Sunday of the month. There we played a game of Ticket to Ride on the United Kingdom map, and I got bested very convincingly by Lindsay.

Then we cracked out Secret Hitler and we had 8 cracking games of this incredible hidden roles game. In the first 4 games I had the same Liberal card for all of them which cracked me up so much at the beginning of game 4 we had to redeal the role envelopes.

As when playing with Drew’s print and play set, I had an amazing time, it really is a game that gets your pulse racing. In one game we had passed 5 Facist laws and 4 Liberal laws and failed to elect a government 3 times, so we had to pass the first law from the top of the deck, unbelievably and statistically unlikely, it was a Liberal law wining the game for the good guys, but that game really did have my heart pounding.

The game went down very well with the Consett guys and I can certainly see them buying a copy for their collection.

What I am Backing

At the moment I am backing another project by my old friend, Sliced Quarterly. The stories in t you can read online so you get to try before you buy and they really are some very interesting stories and ways of telling these stories.

What I am Spending

A lot less this week, simply because I have put money into Christmas presents, like an awesome Lego train set for one of the bairns. I did pick up another set of Lascannons to go with my Blood Angels Devastator Squad that Lindsay bought me for my birthday, so I can equip the whole squad with Lascannons and have them sit back and fire off laser death shots!

I also picked up as a birthday treat to myself a box of Blood Angels Assault Terminators, these guys are going to be equipped with Thunderhammers and Storm Shields and form part of my Archangels Orbital Intervention Force, I have a squad of standard Terminators already, so I am going to add another squad of Assault Terminators but give the second squad Lightning Claws.

An Obsession on my Birthday

By michael

On 5th October 2016

In Blog

Today is my 34th birthday, which isn’t cool, I can clearly remember my parents turning this age and I don’t want to be an age I can remember my parents being!
But that aside I am hoping it’s going to be a nice day, Lindsay, Megan and I will be this evening going to visit my nana before heading to either Coop Chicken House or Nando’s, where we will be joined by Paul.

And because it’s my birthday I wanted to share one of my obsessions with you, Carcassonne!

Carcassonne is my all time favourite board game, now I know it’s simple and unsophisticated, but I love it. It’s got very quick gameplay, it’s easy to learn and has a good amount of player interaction, it doesn’t give you too much analysis paralysis, but at the same time does require thought and strategy.

The base game has just over 70 tiles, which you place on the table to create a landscape of the ancient French walled city of Carcassonne and its surrounding countryside, which you then deploy Meeples onto which help score you points. I am not going to go into detail about the rules, why would I need to when you can see the excellent episode of Tabletop in which it featured below!

Now what makes it my obsession, well I own all of the expansions for the base game, that’s right every single tile official tile made for the game over 40 different expansions, though I don’t own the individual release of River II owning it inside Count, King and Robber, nor the Spielbox release of The Cults which I already own through again in Count, King and Robber and Cult, Siege and Creativity.

I even went so far as to pay extortionate sums of money to buy the Die Kornkeise and La Proxada, expansions which are very hard to get hold off, and in the case of La Proxada only 72 of them were ever made.

My Big Box of Carcassonne is rather full as you can see from the picture, Lindsay got me my first copy as Big Box 4 back in 2012, but since then I have replaced it with Big Box 5 in order to get the Wheel of Fortune expansion and the full set of Meeples for Pink and Purple as 7th and 8th player sets. I have a German version of Big Box 5 because unbelievable it cost £32 to buy it and ship it to the UK, whereas buying it here would have cost me £65, so naturally I went with the cheaper option, especially as the game is language independent.

Lindsay and Megan know of and tolerate my obsession with this game, and even allow me to have a few of the variants, those being the Winter Edition, My First Carcassonne (for when I have child guests of course), Hunters and Gathers and Star Wars. But their tolerance only goes so far, in 2014 Hans im Glück, the original publisher, decided to retire the original artwork and relaunch the game with a r refreshed look for a new edition. Now I own the base game in the new edition, but Lindsay and Megan have forbidden me from buying it’s expansions in the new artwork as well. I get where they are coming from, I don’t need the same expansion twice just because it has new artwork, but the obsessive in me is really torn by it, I feel like I “need” the expansions on the new art work, and that probably why it’s sensible I have Lindsay and Megan to look after me.

With the imminent release of Temples in Japan at Spiel next week, it will be the first new expansion in the new artwork, and that’s going to be the real test, am I willing to mix the new and the old together!!!

What I am Modelling

A slow week on this front, I bought a Furioso Dreadnought so I could begin to build an Angels Blade detachment for Blood Angels based around a Blood Angels Demi-Company, so I built that with a Frag Cannon and Power-Fist with built in Heavy Flamer and a Magna-Grapple.

What I am Reading

I just finished up the short stories in Ahriman: Exodus which lead into Ahriman: Sorcerer, and I must say, I am less impressed with those than I was with Ahriman: Exile, but I think it was the protagonist I had issues with. He seemed far too whiney for a sorcerer of the Thousand Sons, too much about how he hated Ahriman when in fact it was he who made many of the choices which put him in the positions he was in.

But the one story amongst them that did stand out was The First Prince which is also available as an audio book, and that’s mostly because it was the first appearance of Be’lakor in 40k literature and he is a very interesting character with motives all of his own, unrelated to those of the Chaos Gods.

What I am Playing

Noting really, most of my play has been restricted to iPad, and that has all bee Ticket to Ride using the India map which is fast becoming my favourite map in the game.

What I am Backing

Another one with only a little bit of time left on it, but it’s Quartermaster General 1914 by Ian Brody and published by PSG, a game set during World War I using the dynamic and quite innovate card mechanic found in the original Quartermaster General. I had a chance to play this at the UK Games Expo in June and it’s quite good, all the Strech Goals have been busted through and it’s already in production, shipping to backers this month! You can back it from £35 and if you are lucky enough to be going to Essen next week you can pick up your copy then for £40 (the extra fiver is because it’s being air freighted from China).

Anyway gontake a look it’s got 2 days left on it!

What I am Spending

A little too much again!

I bought the Spiel 2015 card for Carcassonne, to keep my collection up to speed, it’s taken me almost a full year to get hold of this tile.

I also bought two dreadnoughts, a Furioso one which I have already built and a standard one which I have yet to build, both are destined for my Blood Angels Demi Company formations for the Angels Blade detachment.

Oh and I got the How to Paint Genestealer Cults book and the Datacards for Genestealer Cults, the Datacards as it turns out are another one of my little obsessions but that’s for another day.!

Feeling Broke

By michael

On 29th September 2016

In Blog

I had a horrid time at a local tournament a week gone Sunday. The tournament itself was run amazingly by Harry of Mackem Productions and he did a great job putting it together, but my not having played much 40k this year whilst I concentrated on 30k has seen me fall out of step with the local meta.

I took my friendly fluffy Iyanden army, which I won’t lie, has two lots of Wraithguard, a Hemlock Wraithfighter and a Wraithknight. But one of those Wraithguard are footslogging, and the Wraithknight is armed with a Suncannon, so it’s not that scary.

But what I had, including D weapons was so far out of line with what I came up against. My first game, against another Eldar army, lasted three turns, my Wraithknight coming off in turn one as it got shot to death by a Heavy Wraithcannon Wraithknight, and I simply removed other units in single swoops as Fire Dragons and Scatter Laser Jetbikes killed off my units one by one systematically.

My second game was a lot more fun, I played against my friend James, the eventually wooden spoon “winner” and we had a very good evenly balanced game which saw us mostly wipe each other’s armies out evenhandly. We ended up drawing, but had the game gone on another turn, his Imperial Knight would have made mince meat of my Wraithknight.

My third game saw me take on Chaos Daemons, this game lasted a lot longer, but with a Daemonic Incursion detachment with a Warpflame Host of 7 Flamers it was a really tough list. I did alright against his Chaos Space Marine allies, but I couldn’t touch the Daemons, and a Daemon Prince charging into combat against Dire Avengers is just hard to watch.

My last game saw me take on Eldar again and at this point I just lost the will to play, another Wraithknight, more Fire Dragons in an Aspect Host and plenty of Windriders with Scatter Lasers. Put it this way, I was scooping up units away with a dustpan metaphorically and only managed to kill three Jet Bikes all game with my Hemlock.

After the tournament I feel like a broken man when it comes to 40k, I am just that far behind in the meta, I don’t know what to do to catch up. I like fluffy armies and taking the most powerful broken units, well it’s something you won’t really see me do. But I have to do something, i don’t mean it like as in I want an army that will curb-stomp all others, I just want one that can stand on its own and get me mid table finishes at tournaments.

People keep saying I should go back to my drop pod Space Wolves list and play it as Blackmanes for the free drop pods, or throw in some Wulfen or Thunderwolf Cavalry, but that would to me, feel like the first steps on the road to power gaming.

Anyway it’s something to think about I guess.
What I am Modelling
Trying to get back my hobby mojo, I am going to be playing some Kill Team at the club, so I am building two 200pts kill teams, a Millitarium Tempestus one and a Blood Angels one.

The Millitarium Tempestus one consists of five Tempestus Scions, with a Hot Shot Volley Gun, Plasma Gun and a Tempestor with a Bolt Pistol and Chainsword, and accompanied by a Taurox Prime with Missile Launcher and Autocannons.

The Blood Angels kill team is the example squad from the Kill Team booklet, I have added a Blood Angels upgrade sprue to give the Space Marine kit just enough Blood Angels stuff to make it cool. It’s my first time using the new Space Marine kit, I haven’t had to buy a Space Marine kit for some years and I have to say it’s pretty good as kits go.
I have also built a Blood Angels Terminator Librarian, well it came packaged as a Deathwatch Terminator Librarian, but they were the same price and this came with a Deathwatch Upgrade Sprue I can add to the bitz box.

What I am Reading

I finished Praetorian of Dorn, and I have to say wow, what an ending! It’s a brave book, changing something somprbipusly fundamental about the fluff, it kept me reading right until the end.

I also read Ahriman:Exile by John French and I also really enjoyed that book, it was quite interesting to see Ahriman on the back foot, not sure of himself or his direction, but I very much enjoyed the book and have no moved on to the short story collection Ahriman: Exodus which so far is a little slow going, but I expect it will pick up.

What I am Playing

Got three games of Kill Team in the other night using the Millitarium Tempestus. The first game I played against Tyranids, with three Tyranid Warriors and six Genestealers, and that game went quite well, he deployed quite spread out which allowed me to keep my team together hopping in and out of the Taurox taking out the nids one by one.

The second game was a total whitewash, as five Ravenwing Black Knights shot me to death with Plasma.

The third game was against 15 Dark Angels scouts, who as well as infiltrating made a scout move and were able to bring down a heavy rain of fire on me, lasted three turns, but my Scions couldn’t cope with the fire, and the individual scouts charging the Taurox with Krak grenades made short work of that.
Overall I am enjoying Kill Team it’s a lot of fun and we are talking about having a Kill Team campaign at the club, which I am looking forward to a lot.
What I am Backing
There is just 48 hours to get in on Dungeon Fantasy, a good old fashioned dungeon delivering RPG, powered by GURPs from Steve Jackson Games. They have a great team writing it and the game box which is rather large ships from the EU at a rather reasonable $20, which is much better than what was originally proposed.

At the $70 level, which I am in on, you get the box containing the 5 books which make up the set, cardboard figures, dice and a map plus a GM screen with pre-generated characters. It’s pretty decent value in my opinion, and I have also bolted on a copy of How to Gurps GM in print and a print copy of the Companion which will contain the three Dungeon Fantasy PDF extras unlocked as part of the campaign.

So if RPGs are your thing, give it a look, and don’t worry if you can’t back it, there is zero in terms of Kickstarter Exclusives as its all about getting it to retail, and thus what you can back for will be in your FLGS next year.

What I am Spending

With the split between Games Workshop and Fantasy Flight Games happening, I went into panic mode and have bought a few things I was holding off buying until I had the space/money. The prices on them was skyrocketing and I couldn’t afford to hold back anymore.

I picked up a copy of Forbidden Stars, a game I have wanted for a long while but been reluctant to buy because I am not sure Megan or Lindsay would be interested in it as it’s quite a heavy game and set in the 40k universe.

I also got the expansions for Relic, Nemesis and The Halls of Terra, they haven’t arrived yet as they are having to come from the Republic of Ireland, but I am currently worrying about how they will fit on the shelves, I might have to put their components in the core game box.

While I was at it, I decided to pick up a copy of Lost Patrol that was going for a song On eBay, I remember the original game, but back the. It was Dark Angels in the jungle, not Blood Angels.

And it’s not technically money I spent, but I did swap a few rare Munchkin cards for a copy of Warhammer Quest Silver Tower from a dude who runs an FLGS in Glasgow, the cards were free for me from my time as an MIB, and obviously the guy running the store would have paid trade price for the game, so it’s not as big a value swap as it seems on the surface.
I also sold my Abaddon and Loken set, I had it from when I originally looked into Heresy and was planning a Sons of Horus army, well that is until the Ultramarines tempted me to the ways of the XIIIth. Anyway the money I made from that ended up getting spent to buy an Infiltration Cadre, so along with that Tau Strike Team from Kill Team, I guess a Tau army is on the distant horizon.

New Project Needed

By michael

On 13th September 2016

In Blog

I need a new project to try and get my hobby mojo back.

So which project should I pick up and run with???

Blood Angels – got bits and kits to make a 2000pts army of these with plenty of variety in HQ models, most of everything has a transport and it’s all about hitting hard and fast, have many of the units built up already, and a Death Company Dreadnought already finished. Megan would be helping me with this one and I have a good mix of Death Company, some Sanguinary Guard as well as standard Blood Angels.

Tyranids – for almost two years I have had this Tyranid army sitting on my shelf, I have the Start Collecting box built and primed, the Hive Tyrant is just about finished off, plan is to paint it up as Leviathan. Sitting on the shelf I have a Wrath of the Hive Mind box, a Tyranid Swarm box, two sets of the Tyranids from Deathstorm, Genestealers from Space Hulk and the Genestealer Cult from Overwatch.

Word Bearers – I have enough models and kits to build a 3500pts army, mostly based around a Pride of the Legion/Primarchs Chosen force from a Betrayal at Calth set. Plenty of Dreadnoughts and some Gal Vorback, Ashen Circle and Lorgar in there. For this one I would need to buy three Rhinos and a Dreadnought Drop Pod. I already have painted up a Company Champion and a Contemptor Dreadnought.

So what do you guys think I should do???

Not Enough Sleep

By michael

On 6th September 2016

In Blog

Struggled to get to sleep last night, ended up not sleeping at all. Not sure what it is that’s got me lacking the ability to sleep, but it’s been the same the past few nights, and it’s meaning I sleep in far too late in the mornings. I got a quick two hours in this morning and was up and about by 10am, not that I would say I was functional, but a sugar free caffeine drink saw me through.

Sometimes I think half the issues I have are because of all the medication I am taking, I mean here is a photo of my pills for the week, and it’s no wonder I rattle when I walk.

This week I did take delivery of Grifters and Coup G:54 Anarchy, two games I backed on Kickstarter from Indie Boards and Games. Now I am going to admit, I have an intense dislike of Travis, the man behind the company, he is rude, arrogant and treats his backers like they are an inconvenience, especially when they catch him out in a lie. That said, his last two cycles have been vastly improved and games have been delivered with minimal of fuss. Hoping to get both of these on the table as soon as I can, and hope they aren’t added to the list of perpetually unplayed games.

What I am Modelling

Got my Word Bearers Contemptor Dreadnought with Twin-Linked Volkite Culverins finished, and I must say I am rather proud of the model, this is that standard I hope to go forward with for the Word Bearers. Let’s just hope I can keep it up.

What I am Reading

Got a few more chapters of Praetorian of Dorn read and I am enjoying it so far. Still reading Facebook and Twitter too much instead of a book though.

What I am Playing

Stupidly still noting, it’s like I keep wanting to play, but then I don’t. It’s something I need to deal with because it’s really damaging my mental health, games really engage my brain and not having a job means that my brain does need challenges. It doesn’t help that Megan hasn’t been so good in the days, nor that we are currently running up to Newcastle every night to make my nana her tea, but I desperately need to play something, even if it’s only a small game of Fluxx. Perhaps I will try and convince Lindsay and Megan to go to Newcastle Gamers this Saturday after we see my nana.

What I am Backing

Right now I am backing, in addition to Cognition #1 and One Night Ultimate Alien, Luke Slotts Year of the Nightingale, a Bahá’í inspired album of music celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Bahá’u’lláh. Now I know many of my friends don’t put much stock in religion, and that’s perfectly cool, you won’t hear me trying to twist your arm into believing, besides as a Bahá’í I am forbidden from the practice of proselytism, but I find the music of Bahá’í artists tends to be very soothing and lovely. Besides Luke is a lovely chap, when he played a performance at the Newcastle Bahá’í centre a few years ago he spent the night at my house and he was a brilliant and kind guest.

At this time the project has fully funded so I am looking forward to getting my digital copy of the album next year.

Anyway here is a video of his performance in Newcastle for you to enjoy.

What I am Spending

It’s the run up to Christmas, so my spending has gone up, as I purchase a few presents here and there for Megan and Lindsay. I also treat myself to a Pop vinyl of Spyke from Munchkin, mostly for the card, but the character will look nice in my man cave. And I may have purchased the Kill Team box, but the Tau in it will not, I repeat not become the basis of a new Tau army!

Oh and I couldn’t resist a Squirtle Squad t-shirt from Qwertee.

See you on the flipside guys

Secret Hitler Has Arrived

By michael

On 1st September 2016

In Blog

On Tuesday my copy of Secret Hitler arrived, its a hidden identiy game from the guys behind Cards Against Humanity, I spoke about it in my last post. And boy was I pleased with the result, its absolutly amazing.

I got the version that came with the nice wooden box, and that is nice and hefty, ok so the catch and the felt on the bottom could be better, but the box itself is brilliant. For some reason I thought the wood colour would be darker, more like a cherry wood, but its cool as it is, the inlaid logos are lovely to just feel with my fingers.

Inside the wooden box, is the game box, which is quite long for a small game, but this is beacuse the legislative board are single boards as opposed to ones which fold up to make the box smaller. This means they are always flat and its this kind of attention to detail which convinced me to back the game in the first place, and those boards have lovely foil in them as well so they really do pop.

The cards are printed on very good card stock, not sure of the core, and I ma not going to tear one apart to find out, but I suspect its black core card. The biggest highlight for me are the two plaques for the goverment positions, those of Chancellor and President, they are both solid wood blocks with the instructions for each role on the back.

They could have made the whole thing with much cheaper components, but they didn’t they spalshed the $1,479,046 they raised back in December, and it shows.

I can’t wait to get a group of 5 together to play this game, becuase the PnP version is good, so the physical; edition is going to be a bit better still.

What I am Modelling

Not much, I just really seem to have lost my mojo, I did a bit of edge highlighting on my Word Bearers Contemptor Dreadnought tonight, but I suspect I need to do something to get my mojo back.

Last time I was in such a position, I built and painted a 1850 Space Wolves army in a month, perhaps I need a project like that to get back into the swing of things.

What I am Reading

Too much of forums, Facebook and Twitter, I find myself getting angry with people on the Internet at the moment, especially with people who have been calling for a ban of the burkini, or demanding that Caster Semenya be reclassified as a man for her races.

Anyway stuff like that is dragging me away from reading books, I did get started on two chapters of Praetorian of Dorn, and I have put a few more serious science fiction books onto my Kobo, but I must read more!

What I am Playing

Because Lindsay was unwell Tuesday night I never got the Durham Raiders and with the next two weeks being dominated by looking after my nana whilst my cousin is on holiday, i won’t be getting any war games in, I will try to get something in on Sunday, but I may have left it too late to arrange a game.

I will however play a game with Megan in the daytime tomorrow!

What I am Backing

This week I backed Ultimate One Night Alien, yeah I know it’s not the worlds most sophisticated game, but I have the rest of the Ultimate One Night games as well as Ultimate Werewolf Deluxe and I do enjoy these games. Though I do confess Ultimate Werewolf Deluxe rarely gets a run out as I don’t often to get to play games in groups the size of what it needs and even then, Lindsay and Megan prefer the one night version and make thier feelings on that very clear.

Anyway the One Night games are a favourite when we go to Consett Tabletop Gaming Society and have lead to several classic moments, my favourite still being when Lindsay declared that Megan couldn’t be a Werewolf becuase she and Emily were, though I may have gotten the names wrong there. Its a game that gets a gaming session started and gets people in a good mood, and at the end of the day thats what counts isn’t it.

Its up on Kickstarter until the 28th September, so take a look and if you fancy it, go back it.

What I am Spending

I got my PIP this week so I have spent a bit of money, I paid for entry to the Durham Dakka Warhammer 40,000 tournment, hoping to take my Adeptus Mechanicus, but the Space Wolves will be a back up if I don’t get those painted up in time.

I also paid Harry of Mackem Productions for the work he will soon be doing on my Harlequins from Death Masque, as I said, I don’t think I could do them justice so I am handing them over to him to paint in the Veiled Path scheme from Warriors of the Laughing God, simply because I think it looks amazing.

One thing I have done when not in a good state of mind is spend some money I didn’t need to spend, I don’t know why,. but for some reason I purchased another copy of Deathwatch Overkill, I already bought it when it came out in March so why I would buy another copy is a loss to me. It really worries me when things like that happen, I am like my mother, when I am down and depressed, I spend money, usually money I can’t afford to spend. I belived up unitl this Tuesday that I had it under control, but clearly I haven’t.

Lindsay and Megan are normally pretty good at spotting when I am in a funny turn like that, but in this case it was missed, it’s possible it happened while I was in Cardiff as that’s where the shop is I ordered it from, but I did manage to sell it for not too massive a loss to a guy at Durham Raiders.

Headaches and Diabetes

By michael

On 27th August 2016

In Blog

It’s been a slow week, not much has happened at all and I haven’t done very much at all. The weather can’t make up its mind, one day it’s miserable and raining cats and dogs, the next it’s far too hot for me to do anything.

But the one constant thing about this week has been a stabbing constant headache, they started Tuesday and have continued since, I would go and see the doctor, but they will probably blame it on my diabetes.

It’s quite annoying really, every little thing I need medical assistance with, the doctors blame on diabetes, I know it’s a serious disease and I ought to take it far more seriously than I do, but when everything that can go wrong is said to be because of diabetes it’s gets a bit dull.

“Doctor I have been stabbed”, “Well that could be your diabetes” “Doctor I have been throwing up after eating some questionable meat yesterday” “Probably the diabetes” “Doctor my foot fell off”, well actually the last one could be diabetes, but you get my point. Given that I had a head injury when I got run over a couple of years ago, it’s quite irritating when they ignore that as a possible cause of any of my neurological issues.

I did actually get some success with the doctors when my new one decided that the last doctor diagnosing me with CFS could have been premature, so she ordered more blood tests and found I had undetectable levels of Vitamin D, which is probably because I am usually in too much pain to go out much and the sun kinda burns, when I go outside, plus there is nature and stuff. Anyway I now get monthly injections of something and a lovely tasting Vitamin D pill three times a week that honestly doesn’t taste like old feet.

So back to the headaches, and yeah I am not sure what I am gonna do about them, it could be a caffeine related. I haven’t had a cup of tea in about a month, but that caffeine has been replaced with that from cans of Pepsi Max, so I tried having a caffeine free day (so long as Tango Sugar Free doesn’t have caffeine in it), and was I wrong, the headache was just as bad, but then j got hit by a headache of caffeine withdrawal, something I haven’t experienced since the last Nineteen Day Fast I actually participated in, diabetes means I don’t take part in the fast!

Anyway so I currently have no idea why I am getting these headaches or what to do about them, if they are still here on Tuesday I will reluctantly make an appointment to see the doctor, even though it know they will try and blame them on diabetes.

What I am Modelling

Currently I have a few too many projects on my desk, the headache means that it’s been rather difficult for me to do much work, though I have managed to do a little work on a Contemptor Dreadnought for my Word Bearers, it’s going to be armed with two twin linked Volkite Culverins, simply because I think they are such a cool weapon. I airbrushed the majority of the model Mephiston Red, then washed it with Nuln Oil, then doing a little tidying up with Mephiston Red again. After this I dry brushed it with Astorath Red, Ryza Rust and finally Hexos Palesun, which I think has given a nice set of red armour, and this is a scheme I will replicate for the rest of my Word Bearers vehicles.

What I am Reading

I finished Angels of Caliban, which I quite enjoyed as it reached it conclusion, it had the civil war really come to Macragge and showed that Lion El-Johnson really is a ruthless general. The focus on the Dreadwing of the Dark Angels was also pretty cool and got me wondering how this could be represented in the game, but I had to stop myself there because I am not starting another army, I don’t have the room!

I then digested two short stories, Blackshield by Chris Wraght which was very cool and introduced to the fiction an interesting character from Betrayal, as well as giving us an insight to why some Astartes would become Blackshields.

The other story, Myriad by Rob Sanders, which followed up the novella Cybernetica and picked up a thread from that which was left hanging. This story I felt was more like classic more serious sci-if, despite being a Warhammer 40k story, and it really felt extremely fun as the characters were almost strong armed into breaking their own moral code for the greater good. As well as that it had characters straight from the Skitarii codex, giving me hope that maybe we will see the Skitarii become usable units in Heresy games.

I haven’t really listened to any audio books this week because it’s been hard to concentrate, so I have mostly been listening to pod casts instead.

What I am Playing

The headache has jet me from playing much, I was going to play Forbidden Island with Megan on Tuesday but the headaches started that day and I wasn’t much good that day at all. I have played some more Pokemon Go, though less than most weeks due to a mixture of headache and few Pokeballs, though last night it was mine and Lindsay’s monthly date night, so we went to the Metrocentre, ate at Ed’s Diner and then went Pokemon hunting. I currently have saved up candies to perform about 20 evolutions, so plan to camp on a Pokestop and put a lucky egg on to do all those evolutions tomorrow.

My aim for next week however is to play at least two games of something.

What I am Backing

At the moment noting new, although the new edition of Braggart looks very tempting, it really depends on money, my hobby budget this month is going to the extremely talented, Golden Demon finalist Harry Welsh of Mackem Productions for him to paint the Harlequins from Death Masque for me, and I also need to put £50 into the conventions account, so money is tight again. Doesn’t help that I bought a 4 months supply of deodorant from Costco today either.

But it looks like my copy of Secret Hitler is being delivered to me on Tuesday, a game which I am really looking forward to get it. The production quality on it looks phenomenal, and of course I got it in the wooden box, in the few games I have played, it’s been brilliant, it’s a hidden identities game which solved issues that games like The Resistance had that I didn’t even realise they had. And even the print and play version was very nice, though it probably helps that Drew (from The Boardroom podcast) did a great job with his printing and mounting of it on good quality cardboard.

What I am Spending

Ok I bought a Dominos work lunch for me Megan and Lindsay on Thursday as the kitchen was a mess and neither me or Megan was in any state to tidy it up, but it has been a good week for not spending. I did buy two pots of paint, Fenrisian Grey and Evil Suns Scarlet because I had run out of them, and I picked up my available comic subscriptions, that being the August edition of the Munchkin Comic and the next two issues of the Marvel Ultimate Graphic Novel Collection. Oh and I got a brand new sealed copy of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 on 3D Blu-Ray from eBay for £2.99, for various reasons, I haven’t seen it yet, I know it’s going to be terrible, but hey it was a bargain!

I did see a few games in Travelling Man I am very interested in, The Networks from Formal Ferret Games and Moops Monster Mashup from Steve Jackson Games, but like with comics the price of Brexit has really set in and games that would have been £20 for example, before the referendum, are now £24 or £25 which might not seem a lot, but when your budget is limited like mine, it can be the difference between getting it or not.

Cooking Fat

By michael

On 22nd August 2016

In Blog

Moving on from yesterday post about my being down and depressed, how about something a bit more positive for today!

So here is Cookie and Megan, Cookie was my Nana’s cat, but since she had to move into sheltered accommodation, Cookie now lives with us, he used to live with us about 10 years ago, but my Nana kind of stole him off us.

So we already have 3 cats, Sweep Misty and Jenny, when Cookie came to live we use, we were told he had been done, this was it turned out, a lie. Cookie went on to have kittens with both Sweep and Misty, who are mother and daughter, one of those kittens was Maggie who is also currently living with us. Jenny is Mistys kitten from a few years later, so we have 5 related cats living with is right now.

Cookie and Megan have grown so close that we can’t separate them, at night Cookie sleeps wrapped around Megan’s head and he spends as much time as he can with her. Maggie however doesn’t like other cats too much so we are currently searching, without much luck thus-far for a new home for her, but Cookie won’t be going anywhere due to his bond with Megan.

One little tidbit about Cookie, his real name is Cooking Fat, my idiot uncle was his first owner and called him that, you just swap the first letters around, needless to say he just gets Cookie, or sometine Mr. Fat!

Anyway if anyone fancies a black 10 year old female cat who likes the outside a lot and is a bit of hard work, let me know!

What I am Modelling

At the moment I am modelling mostly Age of Sigmar models from the Storm of Sigmar set, I finished the Blood Warriors up and have moved onto the Liberators whom I am doing as Celestial Vindicators cause I love the colour scheme, not sure if I will stick with it for my final Stormcast colour scheme but this far I like it.

I am also working on some initial Word Bearers and you can see here on my painting table a Legion Champion/ Veteran, kitbashed from the Legion Champion kit, Wors Bearers heads and plastic MKIV Marines. Not pictured is a jump pack Chaplin I am working on.

What I am Reading

Books are still proving a chore for me at the moment and I am still working my way through Angels of Caliban from my Librarium membership in June. So far the book is quite good, I am halfway through it now, but I am finding the change in Zahariels motivation from the previous two Dark Angels books in the serious to be a bit hard to swallow.

I know it’s not serious Sci-Fi and just glorified bolter porn, but I do quite enjoy the Horus Heresy novels, probably because I enjoy the game so much, but it feels like the last vestige of action Sci-Fi novels that hasn’t been polluted by Vox Day and his awful followers.

Audiobook wise I just finished the Outcast Dead and Wolf Hunt. The first one is just a mess of continuity errors and a plot that makes little sense at times, in fact at one point when asked their motivation, one of the main characters replies “Just Because”.

It’s a shame as it could have offered some interesting insights into the life for ordinary citizens of the Imperium and the political ongoings in the Imperial House and with the Astra Telepathica, but instead we got this mess, but it does have a Samurai Witch Hunter which is kinda cool. Too many characters without any real development time for them, a final fight that just leaves you feeling empty because characters are there and then suddenly not there, and a real anti-climax.

Wolf Hunt is a lot better and sets up a later novel a little bit as well, which is cool and I will eventually pick up that plot strand in time. It really should have been part of the Outcast Dead as it resolves the huge continuity error and ties up all the loose ends, but I suppose a short story to tie it all up is better than noting.

What I am Playing

I meant to have a game of Forbidden Island with Megan today, but my head has been hurting something rotten and it’s really hot, so I ended up having a three hour nap instead. Was a bit disappointed in that to be honest as its been a while since I have played a game.

I am also playing some Pokemon Go, I just reached Level 20 yesterday. It’s a hard game to play when you are stuck in the sticks, my village has just one Pokestop and it’s a bit of a walk away for me, so I frequently run out of Pokeballs to catch all those Weedles and Rattatas

What I am Backing

At the moment on Kickstarter I am backing Cognition #1 Mirror, Mirror. It’s a comic written by the amazingly talented Ken Reynolds, an old school friend of mine and illustrated by Sam Bentley. I backed the Issue #0 and quite enjoyed these steampunk stories of a steam powered robot with a human soul and a demoniacally possessed mouse from Victorian England.

Go ahead and give it a look, plenty of the pledge levels allow you to get issue #0 as well and the artwork is sublime.

What I am Spending

Not much this month, I have been a bit short on money having overspent in Cardiff when the good folks at Firestorm Games had a price too good to ignore for a deal with both Deathwatch Overkill, Death Masque and the Deathwatch Data Cards!

WorldCon and My Dark Place

By michael

On 22nd August 2016

In Blog

This weekend was MidAmericon II, this years WorldCon and I really wish I could have been there. Next year it comes closer to home, to Helsinki in fact, but I still can’t get there.

Since I feel ill and had the accident, well I haven’t been able to work beyond the occasional day demoing games, and that doesn’t really pay the bills. I am left dependent on ESA and PIP, I am in a pretty bad way, so I do get the maximum amount of money I am entitled to, and Lindsay is on a decent wage for the North East. But I am still left with very little at the end of it, and things like WorldCon are simply so far out of my budget, even when they are in Finland that it’s unreal.Despite a year of planning, I tearfully had to accept that I was never going to get to Helsinki, it was a hard decision to make, but even if I saved like a trooper, stopped buying books and models, I would struggle to afford to eat or get membership and enjoy myself after transport and lodgings were paid for

It lead me to a dark place, which was one reason I gave up blogging for a while. That coming on top of my Nana’s health deteriorating rapidly, Kings of the North collapsing and the resulting fallout, and my needing to take my diabetes a lot more seriously, left me so very low. I don’t think I let on to the world too much, but I spent a lot of time crying over what a disaster my life was.

Thankfully I have the love of two amazing women in my life and Lindsay and Megan pulled me out of the pit, they cleaned me up and got me through the darkness for my sisters wedding, which I was still not mentally prepared for how difficult it was going to be. When I left home my sister was barely 12 and I guess I have never really accepted that she grew up, despite her having a child, until her wedding day. She looked radiant and has become an amazing young woman, and that kinda knocked me back a bit, I just wasn’t ready for it, but she is all grown up and married now. I just wish we were closer, I love her and all, but we have lived a long way from each other for so many years, that our relationship is just not as close as I would like it to be.

After that I had the UK Games Expo, which I was only able to attend for 2 days this year, and I loved every minute of it. I worked one day and I was a plain punter the next, I wish I had been there for the whole time, but I had to transport my Nana back to Newcastle after my sisters wedding. Being there was amazing and I really wish I got to do more events like it, I saw people who I rarely get to see, and Lindsay always wonders why I somehow being the social butterfly with lots of friends at gaming events, when it’s usually her. I guess it comes from my time as an MiB where I did a lot of networking and volunteering at events, normally I am very shy and socially awkward but games people are my people.

Anyway when we returned from Birmingham, via Warhammer World of course, the three of us sat down and decided that we needed to get to conventions more, especially seeing how much I come alive at them. And we weren’t talking about the glorified market places that make up the majority of conventions in the UK, such as those ran by Showmasters or MCM, we wanted to do proper conventions. So we of course had to keep the UK Games Expo on the list, and we decided to add on EasterCon, the British SciFi convention, something I had not been to for 15 years now. There are others I would have like to have gone to such as Novacon, but my budget will only stretch so far.

It means putting £50 a month away into savings which will really stretch my budget a lot, but it will be worth it in the end, I know it’s not WorldCon, but it’s still the kind of event I love, discussing and enjoying the kind of literature that makes me so happy, it’s by no means a consolidation prize.

I guess things got dark for me because Helsinki was something I had my heart set on every since they launched their bid, I went to LonCon3 as a games demonstrator and it’s probably one of the great highlights of my life, so I was hoping to replicate that joy and fun in Finland. But I have to learn to live within my means more, I am no longer and MiB so those doors no longer open to me as they once did, so I have to be more domestic in my ambitions and desires.

But that said there is the bid to bring WorldCon to Dublin, I am on the volunteer list, and I should really help make that happen by getting the word out in the north east more, we have plenty of Sci-Fi fans here after all!

But in general the past few months have been a bit of a wake up call for me, I need to essentially reboot my life, I need to get out more, despite my mobility issues (though Pokemon Go has helped with this a little), I need to read more, I used to devour 2 or 3 books a week, now it takes me 3 weeks to read a single novel. I need to create more, I am not a good writer but it does get the juices flowing and I enjoyed my initial steps in podcasting, I need to look after my body more and try and get a bit of the weight shifted. But most important of all I need to get my head properly in a place where I can handle life and the stuff it’s been throwing my way of late, I want to think my health situation will improve, but I have to stop getting so down and self-destructive when it doesn’t happen.

So that’s me, signing off and that’s where I am at, I am better than I was, but still not 100%.