'TINK TINK TINK' goes the Blacksmith's Forge in Guildball

Hello there wargaming lads and lovelies and welcome to another fun blog-isode of Wargamer Ramblings!  I hope you’re doing well in your hobby time and you are making some good progress.  Now that things are settled and calm here I’ve been making some good work on my forever growing and changing line up of models.  That’s not what we’re talking about today however, nay verily instead let’s follow-up with the next guild in Guild Ball that’s relatively new, and that are the Blacksmiths!  As usually here be the cards.

So like the Farmer’s Guild they are currently available for pre-order in a faction start box made out of the same type of plastic it appears.  You get the 6 models, a goal post, a Blacksmith ball (which looks kind of cool if you ask me), and a forge terrain piece.  Right now it looks like the MSRP is going to be sitting at $50 USD, so you can get a full team for a decent price point.  Whether or not this is how Steamforged is going to progress with all of their future teams/models I’m not sure but it certainly seems to be looking that way.  So far in the roster there are 8 model choices to be had

The current box set line-up

So let’s talk about how the team generally operates, because as I mentioned before it has a couple of elements that make this team stand out amongst the others.  First off you will notice that two model types are missing: the captain and mascot.  Neither are present, but the former will not go missing for long.  What the team has instead are two types of models, Masters and Apprentices.  Second as of now there are no Union models available for the team, so you can only play with a pure guild team (personally I love that as I tend to run pure guild teams when I play).  Back to the model types, the team has to have an even split between the two, so 3 Masters and 3 Apprentices.  Additionally when you choose your team you pick one of the Masters to be your captain.  This model gains +0/+2 Influence and their Legendary Play takes on an additional effect.  Let me go on as to why this is pretty awesome stuff.

The Guild symbol and concept art of Alloy

So in other guilds you have 2 captain models generally right?  So one could argue that because of that your overall team strategy is largely affected by this decision.  Sure you could argue that you can have all kinds of team comps out there but ultimately you still have this binary (for now) decision to make about how the team functions with this captain.  The Blacksmiths currently have a range of 4 Masters, which mean there are 4 different option points for captain.  Your strategy, limited in other ways, are not going to be wholly limited by just 1 or 2 choices, but 4!  Need a captain with some speed boost? We have you covered.  Going for a more defensive, hold the line approach? That’s a potential as well.  A captain that puts all the suckas on fire?! WE GOTCHU FAM!  Essentially it means that when you make a team you have more captain options than the other guilds and that's always a good thing.

The physical embodiment of RPG "hold all my swords"

Which leads me to my next point moving on to the Apprentice models.  Most of the Apprentices have an ability that plays off of their Master being on the team and within a certain distance.  The one exception is Ferrite and Iron, Master and Apprentice respectively, which have the inverse where Ferrite gets a bonus being near Iron.  So this relationship between the models means that you will generally want to select the pairs in order to get the most benefit from them.  Now that’s not to say that you can’t take odd pairings if you wanted to, but you would lose out on some crucial and cool abilities by doing so.  For example if you take Alloy with his Master Hearth, then when you’re in 6” you get a benefit chosen from a list (i.e. 2” melee zone, +1/+0 Kick, or Anatomical Precision).  That seems pretty integral to Alloy as a player, so without Hearth you miss out on some abilities you could use for great benefit.  Overall it seems to get the best out of your Apprentices you need to match them up with their Masters.

Upcoming releases

To be honest I am going to avoid getting into too much detail about the stats and specific characters play with the Blacksmiths because I feel like just the guild itself being the way that it is can be enough to chew on for now.  Yeah there are some pretty good interactions between models, but the guild structure itself is interesting enough for me to talk about now.  Like I said, you have some flexibility in some builds with the Masters but some restricting options with the pressure in taking matching Apprentices.  It’s like Steamforged took the core of the nature of being Blacksmith as their concept for the team: like iron the team is malleable when being forged but rigid in its ending properties. 

So that's it for now, hopefully it has been a good chat with you all.  Until next time folks take care and happy gaming. 

P.S. This article was originally written back in October and reviewed today.  As a result some things have changed with the Guild, though I'm not 100% sure what (I think new players and whatnot), so keep that in mind!  Cheers!

PO-TAY-TOS! Or how the good ol' Farmer's Guild looks on the pitch.

Good day to you my fellow wargamers and welcome to another day in wargaming!  I hope things have been going well for you all.  I know it’s been a bit busy on my end here, I’ve been working on a couple of projects myself which hopefully I can share in the near future with you all.  Enough of that though let’s get in on today's topic: the Farmer’s Guild for Guild Ball!  As with the other guild chats here are the cards you can download if you need to!

“So why talk about the Farmer’s now, they’ve been released for a little bit?  In fact why haven’t you talked about the changes to Season 3 with the other guilds?”  Those are great questions!  Moving on!

A quick description I found from Google

Ah I’m kidding!  To be honest I didn’t have time to go over all the changes, and while I know there have been some significant player changes across the board I just never got to a point where I could read about it all AND put posts up about it.  Now things are different and I’ve been given the suggestion to talk about the new guilds so here we are today!  A little late to the party but whatever, let me give you my impressions!

The Farmer’s Guild is exactly what it sounds like, a group of farmers.  Since they are a newer guild they do not have the range of players that other guilds have.  Whereas the veteran guild have about 12 players, the Farmers have 6.  1 Captain, 1 mascot, and 4 players.  They have access to 2 Union players, Benediction and Grace, so there can be some variety but if you are like me like pure guild lists then well what you see is what you get.  I like to think of this as a personal side guild I might use from time to time for variation’s sake.

"Aye I can play da foosballs yes."

The box set comes the whole team and a goal post, but it’s made of plastic similar to the Kick Off! Box, which for some is great and others it’s meh.  I’m in the latter crowd, I personally prefer the metal models but if the plastic is sturdy and won’t bend easily then I think I can get over it.  The set comes in at an MSRP of $50 and is a full team.  So overall not a bad place to start, but because it’s a new guild you really don’t have any growing room right now.

Gonna need some more pumpkins I believe

So my initial impression of the guild is that they are going to be able to pull off some tricks because of their whole use of Harvest markers.  All of the models have some kind of interactions with these Harvest markers, either putting them down or consuming them to gain some kind of benefit.  Additionally they seem to have a lot of aura based abilities, being able to buff each other simply by being around.  This is reinforced by the character plays generally not having extended ranges, most simply being either self or 4” with a couple that go beyond that.  So as a team you might need to stick around each other to some degree in order to gain maximum benefit. 

First impression, quite right

Those benefits are pretty nice however so you might not worry about being near each other.  Grange, the captain, has a 6” aura that when friendly Guild models make a pass they get +1/+2” on their Kick stat (das a nice buff).  Grange has the added benefit of stacking Crowded Out penalties as well, giving an additional -1 to the die poll when applicable.  Harrow will heal his teammates within 6” 2hp per turn before conditions are resolves (against those Alchemists it might only prevent poison damage).  Finally Bushel gets an ARM buff for being around Harrow.

All those Harvest markers preciousss

As far as Harvest Markers go there are a lot of options you can use once you plant your eggplants around the field.  Bushel can gobble up a potato and re-roll all failed Kicks for this turn, which is great since she is the team’s Striker.  Windle can consumer a pumpkin in order to get an extra influence point but also +2 on his TAC stat.  An interesting side note is that you can use this to bump up his influence past his max of 2, and coupled with Berserk you can potentially squeeze out 6 attacks if need be.  Interestingly enough his character play, Snack Break, not only heals him the next time he takes someone out you gain an additional VP.  So in an unlikely scenario you could potential win with 4 knockouts if you timed it all with using Windle to finish people off.

Steamforged's concept inspiration confirmed (jk)

Last bit I wanted to go over was one particular model, and that’s Jackstraw.  His stats are overall low, his run/charge is at most 4” and he starts off with 3 TAC.  Kick has nice range of 8” but only 2 die (3/10” near Grange when passing).  His playbook has 3 columns, with at most 1 damage but tackle and knockdown results are easy peasy to get with 1 and 3 hits respectively.  The part that interests me is that he interacts with Harvest markers the most in my opinion.  At the start of his activation he can teleport to a marker or friendly goal-post within 4”, and is placed base to base.  At the end of his activation he can teleport 4” to a Harvest marker.  Once per turn and for 1 influence he can do that during the turn.  So in a turn he could move all over the pitch, and since he’s placed in base to base he can be positioned around as needed to do whatever he needed to.  I think how I’d use him is to teleport on a cabbage, knockdown someone with 3 hits, and then teleport back 2 pumpkins to relative safety.  You could do the same with stealing the ball too, go on the eggplant > tackle ball > teleport on the yam > pass the ball > teleport to the corn.  He’s one of those easily misunderstood if you looked purely on the stats, but I bet he’s a lot of fun.

hahahaplshelpI'mlonelyhahaha

So that’s it for my initial impression of the Farmer’s Guild.  I’d be interested in playing against them as the Morticians and seeing how that matchup goes, but I think they wouldn’t be a bad side guild either.  Next time we’ll talk about the Blacksmith’s Guild as they are the newest and some dare say are the currently most unique guild out there.  We’ll talk about it some more later, but until then happy gaming and smooth painting folks!  

Hobby progress update time!

Hello and welcome fellow wargamers!  It has been a hot minute since our last post and topic of discussion so I apologize if you’ve been waiting.  If not then that’s all right too.  I hope everyone has been doing well with their hobby path and I wish you many successes.  So let’s dig right in shall we?

A lot has happened since the last post, most of it has been pretty rough in regards to work but I’ve changed back to my old shift once again so that means more time to do hobby things on the regular!  Even though my other shift had a lot of open times with the rotating days off I find myself being able to do more if I try to get a couple hours done each night instead of binging 8 hours once a week.  So that has been exciting as of late.

The winner of the Gencon cosplay parade in my heart #tingle4life

One thing that has been pretty major is that Gencon 2017 has come and gone and this year just felt a bit lackluster.  It being the 50^th anniversary I suppose I expected some more pizazz but instead the crowds were huge (in fact they sold out of badges before the con) and the general feel of the events were more mercantile than gamer.  Still had fun but it just didn’t have the same feel as prior years, something shared by the rest of the regular crew we have.  I personally had a hard time trying to rush so much crap in that I forgot to just enjoy my time, but once I slowed down I think things started to sink in a little bit.

Still don't know what this is.

This year I think I kept my cool in terms of buying into new games completely.  I did pick up some Skarrd for Dark Age and I also tried to snag as many of the con exclusive I could.  I saw that the Privateer Press booth was looking a little sad compared to other years, though I didn’t visit it until day 2 or 3.  I didn’t pick up any Grymkin (I mean I could just Malifaux instead) but I did grab the Rolling Bones Goreshade exclusive, so there’s that.  I think the only new game I really got into was Heavy Gear Blitz.  I’ve seen some videos on Guerilla Miniature Gaming’s YouTube channel and I’ve been wanting to try out a more action type of mecha game.  So they had a deal with the started set with two factions, the Northern and Southern forces, I figured why not? 

I did get to demo CMoN’s upcoming Game of Thrones game, A Song of Ice and Fire, and I have to say I am excited about it!  It even became my first Kickstarter project I’ve ever backed.  It had a lot of those elements that get me hooked into a game, and it reminded me of what would happen if a WHFB style game were updated with modern rule philosophy.  The models look great too and while I’m usually not a fan of pre-assembled models the quality of the demo pieces changed my mind.  So I backed up the project and I look forward to when they are rolling out.

House Lannister wrecking the Starks like a bawss

As far as personal projects go I’ve been taking this time to assembly everything I’ve had, including some older kits.  I’ve assembled all the Heavy Gear pieces (I think it was a PVC type plastic, so that was odd), Algoryn Hazard Suits and Liberator Tanks, some Guild Ball pieces, the Dark Age Skarrd, and some 40k kits I’ve had laying around.  In the near future I’ll be cleaning the metal and resin pieces to get started on the forever long painting queue.

Me looking for Skarrd models that don't exist yet like an idiot

So that’s what’s been happening on my end, hopefully things have been better on your end and hopefully I can get back to some regular articles coming in.  Until next time gamers take care and happy gaming! 

Shaking off the 40k rust with 8th edition

Good morning wargamers and welcome to another post up here at WR!  I hope you all are doing well as usual and the dice have been in your favor.  Today I wanted to talk to you all about my first game of 8th edition!  Now that GW has released the rulebook, the indices, and the starter set it has been a great time to get back into the game.  Joining me in my first foray into the game is my buddy Wells who is still a wee lad in wargaming and this is his first game of 40k ever!  So let's roll some dice!

Getting our deployment on

So to make things easy we decided not to worry about making lists or anything like that and we just went with the Dark Imperium boxed set.  Wells being the houseguest got to pick which force he wanted to try and he chose the Death Guard, leaving me with the Primaris Space Marines.  We ended up rolling for one of the Eternal War missions and ended up with Front Line Assault deployment and the mission was the Scourge.  I didn't have any easily available method to mark the objectives so we settled on each objective being worth 2 points instead of the 1-4.  We deployed and I had Wells go first as I wanted him to move up the field a bit before I started gunning his troops down.

Turn 1

We deployed up and the first turn was not as exciting as I hoped.  Wells moved the Pox Walkers into the building with the Lord of Contagion and Noxious Blightbringer.  The rest of his force stayed behind cover preventing me from shooting him as I had no LoS.  As a result I ended up moving my marines around to get a better shot off and into position to gun down those zombies!  As a side note I derped with my Inceptors and instead of flanking them like a good general would I was like "lol they so good, stand out in the open!"  So his sorceror just smited the crap out of them.  Fun times.

Turn 2?

The Pox Walkers were getting gunned down with the two Intercessor squads laying the bolt rifle shots into the massive horde.  Here's where I started to notice something.  Well had this ridiculously uncanny ability to roll 'Disgustingly Resilient' saves.  I would cause 8 wounds, he'd save 5.  I would get a couple hits in on his character, he'd roll 6's.  It was unreal but kudos to him.  Eventually his zombies were able to get a charge in and tie up a Intercessor squad for combat.  My Hellblasters moved out of cover with the Captain to secure the objective out in the open with a Lieutenant securing my far right side.

"Bro it was a prank, we killed the zombies for YouTube! See the camera?!"

Now things were starting to get a bit rough for me.  Keep in mind this whole game Wells had stupid luck with DR.  The zombies?  Dead.  His Lord of Contagion though? Untouched and ready to mingle.  His Foetid Bloat-Drone? Took 10 wounds, and his DR saved 6 of them.  Inceptors? Smited.  Plague Marines? Coming ever so closer.  My face?  Priceless. The Lord of Contagion massacred the Intercessor squad and had hungry eyes for the Lieutenant, who did not last long either.  Things were not going so well for the Primaris marines at this point.

That damn drone!

While Wells' kept chewing through my troops on the left, the right side was not doing much better.  My Hellblasters, Captain, and Lieutenant who long abandoned his objective to help the men were stuck, and I repeat STUCK in combat, trying to take down the stupid drone.  Oh and Wells' plague marines came up to join the fun too.  Meanwhile my Ancient tried for a last ditch effort to pull a victory.  If the game ended here at turn 5 I would have secured enough objectives to win the game.  However.  Turn 6 came and with it death followed.

My last hope for a W

Wells was able to secure enough objectives to win victory and the Primaris marines were forced to concede the field licking their wounded pride in the face of the might of the Death Guard.  Victory to Wells!

I'm pretty sure this is what Wells had in his mind

We chatted afterwards about the game and Wells seemed to enjoy it.  It was pretty easy to teach from a veteran standpoint and Wells picked up the flow with the only big difficulty being the weapon profiles, but otherwise the main meat of the game wasn't hard to grasp.  A couple of quirks I had to personally kink out because of my long standing history with 40k.  Rule-wise I felt that it still was a 40k game, but smoother.  Combat was easier to process and not only is it effective (I mean the Lord of Contagion wrecked so much) but it's not a huge debacle anymore.  A couple of things I felt were a bit odd and we house ruled it but I felt that cover was a little restricting in that you only gained it if the whole unit was in the area (we played without advanced terrain rules).  So we house ruled it that since his Pox Walkers were all obscured by the cover, not necessarily IN the area, he was able to claim it.  Yes not RAW but it worked for us and we felt that it was only fair that a model obscured by cover could claim it as well.  Otherwise the game felt like 40k, played like 40k, was fun like 40k, made us laugh and groan like 40k, and was 40k just without all the bloat that time brought to it.  I am definitely excited to get more games in and I think Wells has now been thinking about his own army.
So I was definitely pleased with the changes and it's back on my menu for gaming as gaming goes.  If you've had a chance to play 40k feel free to let me know what you've thought of the edition so far.  I've not played as many games as others I'm sure, but I've enjoyed what I've played.  Well that's it for now, I hope you all have a wonderful time with the wargaming and we shall talk again later!

Like a virgin, Gates for the very time~~~~~

Hello wargamers it's time for another article here on WR!  I'm not sure what has gotten into me lately posting articles in a short time span from each other but that doesn't matter!  What matters is that here we are together sharing our collective experiences together.  Isn't that such a lovely sentiment? Anyways let's get down to business.

I had the recent pleasure of getting in my very first game of Gates of Antares with Mike our resident Gates advocate and pusher here in our area.  Since it was my first game Mike and I decided to bring about 1000 points to the field.  I brought my Algoryn force and Mike brought along his infamous Rebel Ghar.  So not knowing what is an optimal list I opted for the following based on the rule of "aww yeah:"

• AI Command Squad - Leader 3 upgrade, Plasma Carbines
• AI Assault Squad x7
• 2 AI Squads with 2 Micro-X Launchers
• AI Heavy Support Team with Mag Mortar with all of the ammo
• Targeter Probe Shard x6
• AI Avenger Light Skimmer with Mag Light support, Batter Drone, HL Booster
• AI Specialist Support Team with Light Plasma
• 3 AI Support Teams, x2 Mag Lights, x1 X-Launcher

So after rolling off we ended up playing a Matched Mission of Hold the Line where I was the defender and Mike was the attacker.  So we set up the board and kicked off with the very first Gates game for me!

Getting the game ready

So first turn went by rather cautiously for the both of us.  Half of my force started on the field, electing to put my Plasma Support, Command Squad, a Mag Light Support, the AI Assault, and the Mag Mortar out there.  My AI Assault held the barrier on my right flank with the Mag Mortar sitting in the back with a good field of view.  My center had the Command Squad and Mag Light Support hiding behind a dense forest, meanwhile my left flank had the Plasma Support.  Early on the Plasma went on Ambush forcing Mike to advance his Rebel Ghar behind the woods to stay out of harm's way.  I did spot some of his space goblins coming up with the Mag Mortar but I rolled a 10, so I fired a soft pillow at their heads.  I'm so considerate.

Second turn things starting heating up as we started to trade off shots here and there.  My Mag Mortar ended up taking out an entire unit of Attack Scutters, which was pretty awesome!  It's like you could hear the round whistling through the air right before landing on top of their buggy eyed faces, good stuff!  My left flank wasn't doing too bad at this point, not great but not bad either.  My center moved up into the woods to get a better position while my right flank was pretty intimidating, especially since my Avenger came on to the field to counter his Command Crawler.  

"See those Scutters right there? Watch this..." - Mag Mortar team comms to AI Assault Squad

Turn 3 things started to get a bit intense.  Mike and I traded fire back and forth.  Space Goblins and Artichoke Heads dying left and right.  Pin markers everywhere!  Oh the various species of descended humanity!  My left flank started to fail on my, the Ghar taking out a AI Squad in vicious melee.  Meanwhile my right flank was getting work done.  Those AI Assault squad troopers just kept putting out the shots on the Command Crawler.  Was it going to hurt him? Nah, but I was going to keep it down!  Mike shot at my Avenger and at first we thought it blew up in one hit as I rolled a 10 for the save and a further 10 for the damage roll (but the drone survived a disruptor shot with a 1 :| ) but a quick re-read and it was just given some pin markers instead.

Sad Avenger Panda

Turn 4-5 my left flank made me sad.  Let us imagine this: you are the Algoryn.  Your race has fought the Ghar countless times.  You know them, they know you.  Should that slow you down? YOU WOULD THINK NOT! Apparently 1 pin marker was enough to keep half my army down, down, down!  Granted it also made it difficult for Mike to advance, but at this point he had already secured the left objective.  The center was being fought after but with the troopers in the woods and my right flank supporting the center it was not looking good.  The Mag Mortar did some work and blew up a Tectorist, take that metal detector!  The Command Crawler was starting to move again though as Mike kept passing command tests...

The slowly dying left flank

Final turn Mike ended up pulling the victory as the Command Crawler assaulted the terribly pinned down AI Assault squad.  They just kept taking hits after hits and finally they couldn't do it and abandoned the objective.  Still I managed to hold off for as long as I could and I think over the course of the game we had some good moments of "oh geez now what do I do?"  Also for my first game I didn't think I did too shabby myself.

The right and center, stand strong my troops!

So now that I have my first game in what can I say about Gates of Antares.  Keep in mind this is my first impression for you salty spittoons out there that get defensive easily!  I enjoyed the game and I had fun playing.  I think the differences between the factions stem from minor differences that have a great impact in practice.  The d10 system was pretty easy to adapt to and the concept of how to take tests/apply modifiers was quickly grasped.  There is a lot of intricacies in this game and I think that once you start getting past basic mechanics there is a lot to be had.  In some ways that can be a turn-off because of how easily complicated this game can get if you are not careful.  It's not Infinity level of complexity however so it has that going for it, but I think that if you are not prepared you can get overwhelmed easily.  Like the abundance of different ammo types and probes and drones and rules, while awesome when picked apart (Scoot ammo not only sounds cute and fun but also pretty useful to get people out) can be like whoa...dat's a lot.  Still I had fun and I like the game enough to keep playing and invest more time and money into it.  Is it a perfect game? Not at all (I mean have you seen the book design?).  Is it worth your time?  I think it has some strong potential.  It's the stuff I love about Bolt Action with all the stuff I like about Sci-fi and what I want in a war game.  

So there we have it!  My first foray into Gates of Antares and my proverbial virginity lost.  Now I just need those Hazard Suits to call me later and tell me how pretty I look in the dark.  I hope you all are enjoying your gaming and until next time folks play well and play fair!

Ah yes what a delightful surprise of a post

Good morning wargaming fans and welcome to another set of ramblings!  I hope you all have been faring well since we last spoke and so I've got some time on my hands to bring you all up to date with recent projects and happenings.  It's been a pretty busy time for a lot of folks with a certain game dropping a new edition and bringing the hype along with it.  So let's chat some!

So it's no big secret of surprise that Games Workshop has dropped 8th edition and it has been making some positive waves in the community (mostly positive)!  I for one am really excited about it, like really really excited.  It's the first time in a loooong time that I am actually excited to play a game of 40k, and that's been some time.  In fact I went out and started collecting more stuff for my Death Guard to get myself ready.  The wife and I were doing some project stuff, she painting her Retribution for Warmachine and I sat assembling 2 Helbrutes.  I'm excited that Helbrutes might actually be useful again, the marines can be manly marines, and I CAN SUMMON DAEMONS!  Aww yeah baby summoning daemons is back and I've got 20 new Plaguebearers to put together for the glory of Nurgle!

It's not just my own army that I am excited for, but others as well.  My friend Sam runs Tyranids and now it seems like they are the scary, nasty, massed horde army that they should have been.  My friend Josh over here just started Astra Militarum and I think his forces with the new changes will benefit greatly (I've heard tanks are nastiness right now).  My platonic life partner Mike has been flirting with the Necrons again (I mean have you read Reanimation Protocols? Nasty!), and Clayton right here has been painting up his Lamenters.  It's a good time overall for 40k players, and I'm excited to get into it in the near future!

Meanwhile on the Warmahordes front things have been taking a hard backseat.  I'm not sure what is going on over at Privateer Press or the community but I've just lost a lot of the appeal the game had.  Maybe I'm getting older and I want to just relax, or maybe it's Mk 3 just not living up to the hype, or the hardcore tournament mindset and WAAC mentality of the community, but I just haven't felt the spirit of Warmahordes.  I've actually been trying to sell off my Menoth army and have been selling it off piece by piece.  I'm mostly getting rid of them because a) I prefer the playstyles of my other 2 factions, b) I feel like the old soul of Menoth has been removed with Mk 3, and c) it's a pretty friggin huge collection taking up a lot of space.  I'm not quitting the game per se, but it's a low priority for me right now.

Gates of Antares hasn't changed much for me, but that new book is coming out with the pretty sweet looking Algoryn Hazard Suit teams.  Mmmmm dat team.  Mmm dat suit.

Guild Ball is still a good game I enjoy playing, but with my schedule I've not had much chance to get some games in.  I think Steamforged has been working on releasing full teams in boxes instead of the 3 basic players.  I think it's a great move and the associated cost from what I can tell are fairly reasonable too.  The Farmer's Guild is up for pre-order release on Aug 18 and I must admit I don't know much about them.  I think they synergize with putting down pumpkins and eating them, at least that's how I see it.  Also the Blacksmith Guild has been teased out as being the next one in line.  I know absolutely nothing about them other than they have a dude with a huge shield and they do a Master/Apprentice style of team work.

As far as other games go they are lurking in the shadows waiting for some kind of spark to light up the ideas and drive, but for now they slumber.  I hope you all have been enjoying whatever games have been tickling your fancy and having much success with painting/assembling!  In the meantime I've got some Death Guard to prepare for battle, take care gamers!

Holy crap this dude is still alive?!

Hello there fellow wargamers and hobbyists and welcome to a long over-due post up here at Wargamer Ramblings!  Good Lord it's been so long, last year even!  So what's has been going on down here in our local community?  Why haven't I posted since December of 2016? What have you been doing?!

Well let me be real with you all.  My motivation to blog waned a lot mid-December and onwards because of my current work schedule.  I had a lot of time to catch up on a lot of modeling and painting sure, but I just didn't feel the spark if you will.  For those who don't know I work in emergency mental health and it's been a pretty heavy set of months since I started back on shift work.  It's been a hard ride and so to keep myself going I've had to scale back on getting stuff done like blogging and painting sadly.

Now that's not to say that it has stopped me from enjoying the hobby completely.  On the contrary there has been some serious motivation going to get a couple new armies started and I've been doing my fair share of reading up on new releases.  The local community has been doing some Blood Bowl as of late and historically it's not a game I'm interested in but some of the game reports have gotten piqued.  I've been keeping up with Dark Age releases and I've been watching the growing rise of Games Workshop coming back into the light of the community.  It's been an interesting turn of events these past months.

I managed to get some hardcore painting in shortly before "going dark".  As I said my scheduled changed pretty hard and so during some of the weeks where I had motivation I was able to get almost all of the Alchemists and Morticians painted.  Except for vKatalyst and vGraves they are all painted up, including my starter Butchers and Fishermen.  It was pretty cathartic to paint and I slipped off from getting it done regularly.  That's probably why I've been feeling more stressed lately to be honest, but that's another story for another time.

Also I have a confession to make (it feels like a confession because of how I've felt about the company for a long time) but I have spent money on GW products! *le gasp~* That's right, my heart has been softening and I've been eyeing up some of what GW has been making.  I've started sipping on the Kool Aid if you will.  I've been impressed with what I've seen and while I can't say that I fully trust them like I did as a wee lad, I've been able to be ok with what I've purchased.  Traitor's Legion is pretty legit, though the CSM base codex still needs a new edition, and the new White Dwarfs that have been coming out are actually worth reading.  Additionally I've been eyeing up on starting a 30k Legion force and aligning myself to the Thousand Sons.  Finally...I bought an Age of Sigmar army.  That has been a pretty big change of heart considering how I've had some strong negative feelings on this game.  I went with the Ironjawz to be exact, and my plan is for them to be undead Ironjawz raised in the aftermath of some fight in the vampire realms.  So I've managed to do some conversion work on them, but I've not been able to apply any paint just yet.

So there we have it.  Still alive, still kicking, just not typing as much as I used to.  Hopefully that will change but if you don't hear from me in awhile it's that dang work schedule again!  Until then game well, and may your dice roll well my friends.