Getting a game in again after a long time.

So last night was the first time playing in a very long time. I had the pleasure of playing with my "pusher of plastic and tears, who you love to hate, or hate to love." In other words the gent who works for Comic Book Heaven, Bishop. Bishop and I have a good report so games are always fun. It's been over nine months since I played last and was pleased to find that it's like riding a bike. Soon Eldar were dying and unfortunately so were my necrons.

Still it was a 40k game in all it's glory and made me miss table top games of that nature - A lot. So now I've gotten a little shot in the arm again. Around the corner is the Battle for Salvation Grand Tournament at the Palisades Mall. Maybe you'll see me there... ;)

Going to work a little more on the pieces I thought I had finished painting, need to redo the basing on my troops, and a little cleanup of broken items. Here I go again though, no need to stress about the perfection of the army, only gaming with what I've got!

So now to sit down with the army and see what's on the list "to do" and set some time aside to do the work. I've realized that setting aside even an hour on my calendar helps get things done personally and professionally. Looking forward to sharing the "to do" list here and how to keep it going.

Personal life abound

If last week was a person in one hand it held a wand of rainstorms and in the other a wand of happy-dance... What an up and down. I spent some time doing leather work and getting my paints lined up to finish those Chosen.

However this weekend, I'll be kicking back and hitting up The Battle Standard in Manchester, CT for a relaxed weekend of gaming and hangin...

Until that post I leave you with this exceptional speech from the author of the Sandman comics... Remember to keep making art, no matter what goes on!

http://www.upworthy.com/6-ways-to-make-sure-you-dont-hate-your-life-and-actually-enjoy-it-and-stuff-5

WIP - Oh Red, how thee vexes thine skills...

Lookin' Red!

I  got a great gift from a long time friend of a good number of Chaos Space Marines, and finally got a minute to sit down and get started past the base coating. This is where I'm at after three layers of paint, and it finally coming together.

What I didn't do was take the countless pictures prior to this stage, and that is probably a happy mistake, because they were atrocious. It turns out that when painting red expect the paint to go on very, very bright, then dull out significantly on drying. By taking a little longer to wait between coats I saved myself a lot of headache.

On the reading list - Dark Apostles, Disciples and Creeds oh my!

Wait, they're over normal limit on skulls there...

So after a seriously generous gift from a friend I've gotten a good number of Chaos Space Marines to ally with the 'crons. However who are these fiends? Why can regular space marines get skulls on their armor and not get in trouble the same way the chaos space marines do? Why do they have things growing out of their armor, and how is it that they appear to be molded to it? Off to get some research done...

I went through the full Black Library and as often happens was quickly overwhelmed. To narrow down I found the Word Bearers to be one of the more interesting chapters of space marines. So on the reading list right now is the Dark Apostle, Dark Creed, Dark Disciple series. The kindle comes in handy for reading on the train and anywhere I can.

Now I realize why those skulls aren't "Imperium approved" and there's some spooky merging of armor and soldier... creepy... Any recommendations on "must" Chaos reading?

What the... Where have you been?

So where in the hell have I been?

Life... - but you know what? These got gifted to me, and you know what? They need paint, and playin' and when I went into the thought process of who'd be assisting the crons in a little bashing? Some Word Bearing meanies came to mind...

So, the next project, the next set of updates? Blood for the Blood God kids!

Keeping up with the news - RSS reading

(Source: Wikipedia)

While there's no great updates on my hobbying it doesn't mean I don't keep up with what's going on with the industry, my friends and peers, and general news for my hobby interests.

There's a million feeds, a million updates, so many that going to each site would take immense amounts of time. So how do I keep up? Mainly Rich Site Summary (RSS)  feeds, and slick tools to skim the content. A great many tools have come out to date. Feedly is probably the best collector to date, with addons/apps/plugins getting the rest of the skimming then reading done.

Let's take a look at some of the tools.

Painting - Staying current and upping your skill

Questions came in a few times about what to do in order to get better at painting. What techniques, what videos do I watch, what brushes and paints? Certainly there are a great deal of articles, videos and other material out there offering all the advice you'd want regarding those topics. So how is this article different? This one talks about the most critical component, practice and a rudiment to practice daily,

Sure, you hear it often, and you try a few things here and there. But what are the new guy fundamentals? What can I do? Our hobby has pretty expensive practice material in metal and plastic so where do we go to step up to practice? Plain old paper.

Motivation and staying motivated

Sometimes in our lives many things may get in the way of our hobby, kids, work, family, anything really and you know what, that's a good thing. We should be people first, gamers second.

Of course sometimes life gets so hectic that we realize six months has passed and we haven't gamed, hobbies or otherwise had a solid time to play hard as well.

One thing to keep on target with playing is to schedule a yearly motivation list. Pick a forum, post the month's achievement and stick to it. January you'll do a war hammer 40k character, something that just looks great whether or not you're going to play it. February you'll do a hordes character, and so on. Just one little thing a month. Don't forget to post your results at the end of every month, it'll motivate you and your fellow board mates.

Since I like to occasionally practice what I preach I'll post at least one of my motivations and results per month, and share the process as I go.

For January it was completing my shiny new necron croissant, the infamous doom scythe. Lots of nice pics on that.

February will bring a hordes model, one I plan on entering into The Battle Standard painting contest out of CT in April. Here's where I stand with that model, just got some white primer in, which will soon coat all the pretty pieces.

So keep out there, do one coolminiornot.com entry a week, one more 2013 motivational thread or simply take a picture, upload in to your computer and save it on your desktop. Any way you slice it you'll be happy to look back at your achievements and be happy that you took out a little you time for the hobby.

Kickstarters to review

Kickstarter is without a doubt changing the world, and very much so the gaming world. If you're not familiar with Kickstarter it's a way for you, the lowly standard civilian to help chip in to get a small company or even an individual the funds they need to produce a product. Amazon checks them and blesses them, of course taking a little chunk of the pie. So what do you get? Well if you look at the different levels you can get everything from a hearty "Thank you" letter up to a whole lot of product.

So what have I dropped Kickstarter cash into recently, and/or am considering putting into?

Wild West Exodus is the first and I'm already in. It's a sci-fi western mini game that has great looking models, a good tie in comic book and a promising start with some guys getting into a new step in their hobby careers.

Go take a look: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wildwestexodus/wild-west-exodus-sci-fi-western-miniatures-game

As with any kickstarter getting in early insures getting some really good deals and a way to get started for less than normal, all you need is some patience!

The next one I'm looking at getting into once the funds become available is Jawaballs' "The Jawaballs Way: How to Paint Wargaming Miniatures"

Jawaballs is not only a fantastic guy, he's also a very talented painter who's tips are well worth listening to. He's been awarded quite a number of times and even his table top level of painting is exceptional.

Go take a look:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/793275926/the-jawaballs-way-how-to-paint-wargaming-miniature

What other Kickstarters are on your radar?

Now writing for WMD as well

I'm pleased to announce that I'll be writing for the collective blog group known in short as WMD and in long hand known as war machine miniatures and dice. They can be found at http://wargamingminiaturesanddice.blogspot.com

I ran into all of the crew and was near immediately given a club shirt to show my support of and get the advertising out there of the group.

The gentlemen and ladies of WMD showed me a great time in the recent TempleCon held in Warwick, Rhode Island. Many games were held, a good deal of painting and hobby was to be had with the group. As time goes on I will be cross posting and occasionally linking you to the site from here when a relevant post should be shared on my journey through the hobby.

Looking forward to sharing a bit more with even more people and giving WMD some 40k perspective!

See you online,
Twyg

Templecon - mini wargaming experience 2013

Running around at my first con and it's honestly one of the better times I've had in a while. People are friendly, ready to help you learn a new game or an old standby. Either way I've been up till three every morning and waking at seven to get food, then more gaming.

Definitely get a room at your conference venue though as being able to slip to your room for a nap is a must.

I've put a number of board games in and met a great deal of gaming industry folks especially in the after hours. There's always a game going on twenty four seven in any space.

I will definitely be placing a local convention into the budget moving forward. People are always willing to help and play any game you'd like at any time. This is also the perfect place to try a new game and get tips on playing from a much broader range of people.

Here's some pictures to get scale of the amount of gaming and people.

A 35 point Warmachine admin setup

Side halls full of games

The grand ballroom with 40k in the background

More retail

My wraith in a painting contest with some seriously good competition

My borrowed Circle on the table

Even more retail

He may be feral, but he's still my moopie moo

This just in! Nerds rage over FAQ, destroy game stores!

Get the shirt!

Get that image on a shirt, from the original source.

If you've played any game we'll all agree that there's that guy, that guy who always tweaks the rules to his or her advantage, they're called "rules lawyers." If you haven't played a Games Workshop game of 40k then you wouldn't know how maddening this can be. There's a lot of interpretation in the rules, and frankly that's sometimes good. However sometimes a rule is so far off, confusing, or just poorly written that the Games Workshop team will issue a FAQ for rules clarification. Not uncommonly this will cause any number of objects to go flying in a pick up game at the FLGS (local game store), and more than a few flipped over tables. Well, ok maybe not that crazy, but you know what I mean. They can be frustrating and confusing. Ultimately you just have to remember, the game is for fun, not for cut throat wins.

So what's the latest FAQ craze sending people into blind rage? One rule to rule them all;
Source, Games-Workshop: http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m2940039a_40K_RULEBOOK_v1.2_JANUARY13.pdf

Airbrush incoming - prepping the booth

Ahh... smells like Pine Sol and Febreeze, so nice!

(Credit for the photo goes to the http://www.jobmix.com.br site)

So I've finally taken the plunge and invested in an airbrush setup. Right now it's a very simple setup, and should work fine to get started. Here's what I did purchase;

1. "Master Airbrush Brand High Performance Multi-purpose Gravity Feed Dual-action Airbrush Kit with 6 Foot Hose and a Powerful 1/6hp Single Piston Quiet A"
2. Badger Air-Brush Co Sotar 2020-2F
3. Badger Air-Brush QD Coupler
4. Iwata-Medea Airbrush Cleaner (8 oz.)
5. Iwata-Medea Cleaning Station 
6. 2x 6 foot braided hoses

So I know what you're thinking, a cheap compressor? A cheap airbrush, then a Sotar 2020 brush? Yeah, it's not perfect, however I had a tight $180 budget, so had to work with that and remember that I needed to fit tax and shipping into that price. This was a one time purchase for the time being, so I wanted to jam as much in as possible for $180. That said I had to go with a low power, no tank compressor, something that I can easily upgrade later once I become proficient with the airbrush itself. No need to go buy the brand new sports edition of a car if you're only buying your first car to drive a mile to the train station. Once you start taking trips and have some miles under your belt, then it's time to get that nifty edition. So, I'll save up and pawn this one off for a few bucks a year down the line.

Enough about that though, let's talk about cool stuff. It's cool to have a $390 airbrush at a steal for $75, it's cool to have a little compressor humming along helping you paint. It's definitely not cool to huff atomized acrylics... So what to do? Make a airbrush "booth."

“Fluff” and getting your own sources

If you’re new to the hobby you may have heard of “fluff.” What is fluff exactly? It’s the background information for a given army and there are many sources for your army’s particular fluff. One source is usually the main rule book of your game, and if your game has codices the game designers will have at least a blurb about the history or goals of your army. In the case of Warhammer 40k Games Workshop has a separate department known as Black Library which through both print and digital delivery publish a great deal of written material on various armies, specific generals and “VIPs” to their universe. They’re more often than not in a novel format, with small stories and combined collections making appearances as well. There’s a fairly large stable of authors who contribute to the library continually making new releases a bi-weekly event.

With all that fluff out there where should you start? In 40k as mentioned before your rulebook and codex likely has some fluff, but where do you start in the Black Library? There’s a lot of information and unfortunately a lot of duds out there. First place is recommendations, ask your peers and your online community. Second would be to go through the Black Library site using their search engine. Obviously Necrons are an interesting topic for me so that’s where I started and landed on Fall of Damnos. I’d not review it as an awesome work of fiction though it’s a ton better than I could ever pull off and has a great deal of action. This is where some people argue these books have little literary value and I can sometimes agree. There are often gratuitous battle scenes outlining all kinds of gory details, not necessarily the stuff for your nine year old to be thumbing through.

You’re likely wondering why I’d knock these books for having so much violence, with taglines like “There is only war” how could I want something more tranquil? Simple, what’s the day to day life of these soldiers? What is life like for the children of the Emperor in these cities? We play out the battles every game we play and we due to some action we can imagine what a lascannon will do to a tank, down to the color of the shot. What’s up with the kids of the Imperium? Do they hunker constantly, or are they even there? Whole ships worth of people are hurtling around in space, and no one gets a rusty tin roof? Seriously? Alas, I’m way off topic, just know that most fluff novels will be akin to watching the Expendables on loop. Sometimes this is a good thing and sometimes it’s not, but that’s what you’ll get in most cases for 40k

So if you don’t want lots of action where to go next? The codex is your next best bet. You’ll get concise information regarding major battles and events and will get highlights from most of your generals. The codices are well done from GW in this way. Don’t forget the web! While some fan written content isn’t the best, others do very well at it so poke around.

Finally, make your own fluff… How? Simple if you’re an old hand at Role Playing Games like Dungeons & Dragons you know this trick. Go and name a character, for me it’s Nemesor Zahndrehk and Illuminor Szeras leading the Nihilahk from the tomb worlds that are being invaded. I play the game then go through and take the game results into a quick synopsis. While there’s a place for battle reports outlining strategy and bad luck there’s also a good open ended zone for making a narrative as you play, and more so after playing. This is one a hobby initiative attempt for this year, let’s see how it pans out.

Do you have some sources for fluff? Share em below.

Flyers, building and playing

Sixth Ed definitely has a lot of new tricks for a player to learn, one of which is using flyers, then using them well.

Here's what I've learned so far; Necron flyers (read as any flyer) are nasty pieces of work and frustrate and distract an opponent very nicely. I've learned no one spends points on defenses with skyfire. Skyfire mysterious objectives are scary business when a razorback with twin-linked lascannon rolls into town, and finally a death ray is a wonderful/terrible thing to behold.

Almost done, still have primed-only weapons.

Tactics for me include keeping Zahndrahk on the field and using his Phased Reinforcments rule to great effect getting my flyer on right away since it's essentially a twin-linked reinforcement roll. Why? Because the rule allows me to bring in my reinforcements when you get a successful reserve roll. If you're going first then it's even better, if you don't get reinforcements in then I still get another reserve roll on my turn - worth the price of admission right there for Zahn.

Once on the field the night scythe is a monster and very distracting for the opponent, something moving up to 36" on any battlefield is demoralizing especially when my fire power is stripping hull points as simple infantry (warriors with gauss), a Doomsday cannon is in the backfield dropping large template weapons from 72" away (!) and tesla is arcing everywhere.

I've not found a game type where a flyer is useless and plan to keep playing my flyers as much as possible, especially given their supremely low price to field. (100 points with a warrior squad...)

Building the Necroissant is a lot of fun, I'm the type of hobbyist who prefers vehicles to infantry painting so it's a good time all around, and makes for another post. As you can see from the photo brush strokes are at a bare minimum and there's a lot of work that goes into getting it, though much more patience than sweat equity.

I'm looking forward to sharing pics with the flyer on the field and may just pickup another as I go along.