Time Management

Hello friends, family, fellow war-gamers, and welcome to another musing day at Wargamer Ramblings.  I've had some time over this past weekend to consider things about the hobby and I wanted to share my thoughts with you.

It's about Time Management.

Gone are my days when I could spend hours upon hours doing hobby related things.  With marriage and my current employment I don't have as much perceived free time to do what I used to do.  Of course I can't (and won't) give up the hobby as it is too important for me.  Yet if I don't do something related to it, I get antsy/depressed/angry.  It's my source of stress relief.  Cathartic in a way if you will.  These days I get a bit annoyed if I can't do my daily painting, and that happens sometimes.

How I feel most new dads react on a daily basis

So what's a man to do?  Well like many before me and many after me you just have to find the time if you want to keep engaged in the hobby.  Now I'm not saying that you need to dedicate hours and hours because let's be real, that isn't going to happen.  Sure you might find a weekend day where you don't have anything planned, your wife doesn't want to do anything, and you've got that time then yeah you can take advantage of it.  Day to day though life just gets in the way and you've got to find the time whenever you can.

I've seen many people sell off models, "quit the game," or other similar things because the demands of life temporarily get too intense.  Makes sense, I've seen a lot of new dads do this.  New kid, lots of change, huge responsibilities, and that must mean you have to sell that Ork/Space Marine/Khador/etc army.  I disagree.  One selling point for most of this hobby is that our models generally, with some exceptions, will last a long time.  It's an investment really, spend X amount here and you will likely be able to play in Y years with the same models.  Ultimately the stress of life makes it seem like you have no time and cannot do the hobby at all, but that doesn't mean it won't change and you will have that "time back."

The face of a man who sold his army only to find out he now has more time to play

That's what I'm discovering for myself.  Sure I might not be able to paint for 6-8 hours/day like I used to as a single bloke.  What I do now is paint for the 1-2 hours I can before the wife comes home and dinner is ready.  Do I get whole 10+ man units done in 3 days time?  Nope.  What I do have is some release from the pressures of my job and reality while making some kind of progress in the hobby, which is better than no progress at all.  Also as a side note I think it has made my painting skills improve as I am taking more time than I would before.

I am getting all mah skills improved, aww yeah

I think it's just the worse for a fellow wargamer to feel as though they can't do the thing they love anymore because of time, and it's worse when they rid themselves of all the work they've done assembling/converting/painting/etc only for time to pass and within a year they are accustomed to whatever it was and miss the void they have created.  I want to encourage you reader if you are in that boat to hang on, maybe assemble one model if that's all you can, do a layer of paint, whatever it is, but hold on to the thing you love!  Time marches on and eventually you will find yourself in a new situation, with more time maybe to do more of what you love.  Even if all you can do is paint a layer of iron on one model while rocking a newborn to sleep, eventually you can do two layers/models.

You'll get more time, in time, so it's all good

I hope that encourages you out there fellow war-gamer if you are stressed out about time and life, and all you want to do is hobby stuff.  Get creative, dedicate that time, and you'll come to appreciate it.  I know I have.  Have a good one everyone.

Paint-update

Good morning folks and welcome to another update here at Wargamer Ramblings.  It's been a bit since I've been able to regularly post.  I blame real-life and work, why can't they leave me alone to do these hobby things?  Ah well.



The almighty Lord Exhumator Scaverous!

I'll be honest with you dear reader.  I've not been doing well keeping up with my painting in terms of taking pictures and making sure I go over every step like I wanted to.  I wanted to detail what I did when I painted my models in case you liked any of my ideas.  Unfortunately when I start painting I have a tendency of zoning out quickly and I 99% of the time forget to take pictures at all.  Then I remember that I wanted to after the fact, and I'm left sitting with models in various stages of completion.

So instead I will talk a bit about what I've done/learned/tried out.  We'll see how that works

I'm more pleased with the brown in this manner than earlier

I've found that my original basecoat combination didn't work as well as I wanted it to.  It was nice but I didn't quite get that shade I was looking for.  So now I've found that if I do a layer of a really dark brown, followed with a Vermin Brown (I think XV-88), a couple washes of Agrax Earthshade, finally a drybrush of this concrete-beige that I cannot remember the name of.  The end result is that I am really pleased.

I've also changed some of my techniques for the blue glow in that I have started using Minitaire Plasma Glow for the wash.  Since it's a Ghost Tint (candy) it has a different texture and effect but after trying it out on a couple of jacks/glows I've got to say I really like it.  I've also used it as a way to get some of my cloaks done in a quick and easy fashion. 

Stage 1

Stages 2 + 3

What I've done is that I've followed this video's guiding principles here, and I started airbrushing the areas I wanted to use the Ghost Tint on.  So I started with Minitaire's Raven Black, followed with a  45 degree angle of Coal, and then hit up the spots I wanted to be bright with Skull White.  Then a nice layer of Plasma Glow and boom!  A gradient shaded cloak with a nice color I'm pleased with.


Stage 4 and I like this shade of blue

Finally I've been utilizing some of the GW technical paints and weathering powders from Secret Weapon.  I've used them before in the past but it's the weathering pigments I always found to be tricky.  I've primarily stuck with using the blood and oxide technical paints and I've not have any major issues.  Even if you're not a fan of Citadel paints, these two are definitely solid choices to get that extra bit of detail in easily.  The weathering powders well...we'll see if they end up being used right or not.

I used a lot of weathering powder

So that's about what's been going on paint-wise.  Over the past couple of weeks I've managed to finish off Scavvy, 5 of the chicken jacks, Erebus, and I've started working on the Skarlock, Pistol Wraiths, and Withershadow Combine.  Hopefully I'll be able to finish those soon and share with you my results.  Until then happy gaming everyone!

Warhammer 30k? Is it something worth getting into?

Good afternoon wargamer friends and welcome back to another set of musings.  Today I wanted to open up my thoughts to you all about my subconscious desire to start a 30k Legion force.  I'd like to hear your thoughts about the matter but here's what has been going on.

Since GW made it relatively easy (and cheap by their standards) to start a 30k force with the Betrayal at Calth game, you see a lot more people are willing to start looking at 30k with more serious intent.  I've seen many a established Youtube channel post up about their forces they are starting (Guerilla Miniature Games, MiniWargaming, etc).  Combined with the Horus Heresy novels and the full support of Forge World there are many ways to get a solid 30k force on the table now.

What you get for 150USD painted up as Word Bearers

I mean let's be real for about 150USD in the BAC game you get 30 Tactical Marines, 5 Terminators, 1 Praetor, 1 Chaplain, and 1 Contemptor Dread.  Wow.  I've not seen a deal like that since...well...I can't remember to be honest.  Considering that a 10 man Tactical Squad is 40USD and you get 3 of them, why you've already made up the comparative cost.  Not to mention that Terminators are 50, the 2 character equivalents are about another 40, and the Contemptor Dread is I think 70~ estimate you are saving about 130USD.  Once again, wow.

No wonder people are starting 30k armies these days, the start-in cost compared with the 'traditional' method of the entire model set coming from FW it is ridiculously easy (and a hell of a lot more cheap).  One could easily get 2 box sets and scour eBay for a third Contemptor Dread and you have a great starting force.  If you didn't want 60 Tactical Marines then I am sure you can get a set of the upgrade/conversion kits from FW to get your chosen unit.  Will you be able to get away with buying nothing from FW?  Depends on the level of dedication and work you want to put into the models, but if you're like me then you will eventually get some FW stuff.

Horus himself.  If there's ever a reason to want to get into 30k: Primarchs.

I want to talk about some of the rules for a second as well.  I've not mentioned it on the blog, but I tend to really like FW rules.  I like them not because I think they are more balanced (though I tend to think they are better than base GW rules) but I like them because they tend to a) make more sense and b) are full of flavor.  I have read over the different Legion rules for a few days now and I've been enjoying it.  The rules appear to reflect the different nature of the Legions which just resonate.  Not only that but to help differentiate between the MEQ vs MEQ that is pretty much 30k, but each legion get their own special units and Rites of War (sort of like a formation in 7th ed. from my understanding).  Nice!

Is this the start of GW having some good ideas?  Maybe?

So is it worth getting into?  I can't really say one way or the other.  On one hand I can see the appeal and believe me the temptation is quite real.  On the other hand I think it will depend on the community to give it to longevity it needs to be a solid investment (though you could always take them for a 40k army I believe).  With the board game that came out I think it's safe to say that people will be taking a more serious look into it than the wistful daydreaming it has been when it was solely FW.  I know for me if I can find a way to make it affordable then who knows...maybe Iron Warriors...Space Wolves...Alpha Legion...one of them might end up being a new army. 

Happy gaming out there you all.

Lazy Saturday Game Time

Hey all folks, it's been a hectic week for me and I hope it's been good for you all!  Over the weekend pSam came down from Wise to get a couple games in so I took some pictures and figured I'd talk about how things went down!

He brought his Skorne up against my Scavvy battlebox.  I was facing up against Naaresh, a Bronzeback, and 2 Cyclops Savages.  I had played Sam and some Skorne before so I knew from the beginning I would have to do something about that Bronzeback.  We set up the table and I favored a deployment towards the center with a Ripjaw off to the side.  Sam deployed slightly to his right but kept everyone close together. 

First turn I made sure to move on up and put Death Ward on Scavvy, Sam moved up and started his upkeep of Lamentations making sure for the rest of the game I was keenly aware of its area of effect.  For my next turn I moved my Ripjaw on my right up some more in an effort to cause Sam to redirect a beast to it, or ignore it and let me arc spells through.  My other Ripjaw went up to the center obstacle and was in prime position to arc some stuff up.  I forgot to allocate focus to my Leviathan and so I was only able to get 1 shot off to a Savage, though the one shot did manage to cripple his body.  I arced Icy Grip onto his Bronzeback.  Sam charged my Leviathan with his Savage and he charged my Ripjaw with his Bronzeback.  The Savage barely plinked my jack but my poor Ripjaw was gone.

On my following turn I noticed that Sam had ran his beasts pretty hot, the Savage was full and the Bronzeback had 4 fury on it.  Naaresh could only leech 1 point off of his beast in his next turn...hmm...So I did a throw and tossed the Savage away and then I hit the now-not-in-melee Bronzeback with telekinesis to look straight at Naaresh.  Oh and moved him a couple inches closer. Muahahahaha! The Savage frenzied and being knocked down could only move towards the Bronzeback.  Then the Broneback...the beast I was counting on to fail...to frenzy and charge Naaresh...made his damn threshold check! Expletive language!  Ah well.

The rest of the game was a lot of cat and mouse mechanics and movements.  I was able to keep his Bronzeback from doing a lot with Icy Grip and my remaining Ripjaw made sure he couldn't move at all with Vice Lock.  My Leviathan was sort of stuck in that position where he needed to shoot but Sam kept him in melee (didn't help that he had a crippled melee arm either).  Eventually Sam went in for the assassination with Naaresh and even though he failed to kill me the charge turn, he did the second go around.  Scaverous couldn't deal enough damage on his own to counter-assassinate and therefore lost the game.

Next Sam and I tried our hand at 9th Age.   We were pretty excited to get this game in because we both had fantasy armies that were collecting dust otherwise.  We took to the field 2000 points and I brought my Dread Elves and he his Undying Dynasties (read: Dark Elves vs Tomb Kings).  I realized we didn't have access to decent fantasy terrain so we just used some Warmahorde zones as hills and forests.

Honestly I don't think I can give a play by play.  Sam ended up winning by 200 VP's but we learned a lot of things about our armies and the rule set.  For one terrain plays very differently than it did in WHFB 8th.  Also I found out that even though I am cognitively aware of tactics I am to do with the Dread Elves (i.e. flank with certain units, movement, etc), I found out that I am going to have to practice more.  I was too aggressive and my deployment a bit awkward so I ended up losing some serious units.  My Dread Knights with the attached Prince however?  Amaaaaaaziiiiiiiiing.  They alone made sure I didn't lose too hard.  Sam I think learned about the importance of kitting his characters with some magic items as well as the rules in general.



Overall it was a really fun day and it was good to get in a league game followed up with 9th Age.  I am going to have to really crack down on the rules for our next match up because in retrospect I would have done many things differently.  Ah well, I hope you all have had a good week and until next time happy gaming!

What I think of...Ripjaws

Hello and welcome again to another thought piece reviewing my initial thoughts regarding this little warjack.  Just like my last Cryxian analysis I have to toss out the disclaimer that I am in no way an expert on Cryx, or Warmahordes in general.  So take what you will with a grain of salt, these are just my newbie thoughts.

Cryx light jacks are quite synonymous as the chicken jacks due to their appearance and also their ability to be spammed (though not many casters I know of take more than 2-3 at most).  Most of them share the same state line as being high SPD, high DEF, low ARM, lower number of hit boxes, and slightly below average stats otherwise.  Not all Cryxian light jacks have it, but all the 'chicken' jacks do have Arc node and when combined with their cheap point cost it is not hard to see why you tend to see 2-3 in each list.

The Ripjaw is what I see as the most melee aggressive of the chickens.  It is armed with a Bone Saw with a meh P+S but I took these guys for the special attack/action.  For one they come with Armor Piercing meaning that against a Khador jack I would be hitting at straight dice damage, and since this rule is attached with the weapon it can be used on the charge (aww yiss). The second ability is interesting, Vice Lock, as it cannot advance as long as the model stays in my melee range and takes a -2 DEF.  

I took the Ripjaws as a means of being somewhat synergistic with Scaverous and his Telekinesis spell.  The idea is that if I had a target that I need to somewhat lock down for a turn I could hit them with my Telekinesis, turn them completely around, and then Vice Lock them in place.  In the subsequent turn they would not be able to turn around as they cannot advance, meaning they would have to expend some other method of extraction such as a counter-telekinesis or destroying the Ripjaw.  Either way it's been useful in a couple of my games so far.  Additionally a couple of Ripjaws could easily take down a medium-large based model as they both him with the Armor Piercing attack and do tons of damage.

The major flaw besides the inherent ones with being a chicken jack (low health with low ARM) is that once I put the Ripjaw into melee I then lose out on an arc node.  With some casters that might not be a major issue but with Scaverous I think it becomes an issue.  It's something I will have to judge when I need the arc node and when I need to try and lock or chew through a model.  

Perhaps if I choose to use them as a melee buzz saw I will have to a) choose my targets carefully and b) weaken them up a bit first so that I could feasibly kill the target thus freeing up my arc node as much as possible.  Otherwise I would run the risk of losing out on a potential source of damage and an arc node, which tends to not be a good thing for Cryx.

Well that about wraps up my thoughts about the Ripjaw, as I said it's not an extensive piece considering my few games with Cryx so far.  In the future my thoughts might change but until then happy gaming everyone!

Game day 2-27-16

Goooooooooood morning Internet friends and wargamer family members and welcome to another bat-sums!  We recently had a Journeyman League day and I was able to get 4 games in, this time with a better track record than the week before!  Let's get right in.

The three boards altogether

My first game was with Bernie and his Cygnar, specifically he went a blend of pNemo and the core battlebox jacks.  He had enough points to bring the Black 13th as well, whereas I had enough points to bring....nothing.  I was pretty much stuck with my 4 models like last week, ah well.  The board had a lot of choke points which I thought would have been to my advantage so I moved my chicken's in covering positions and my Leviathan in a solid firing lane.

The chokepoints worked against me :(

Unfortunately it's been awhile since I've played against Cygnar and I forgot that when it came to ranged warfare, I was not in the superior.  With similar control ranges pNemo was able to get some extra focus from my spell casting and so was able to not only pump up the Charger but also the Lancer.  They both wrecked/crippled my chicken jacks and while I was able to knock out his Ironclad I was losing out on attrition.  The Black 13th was able to move around the side and were able to hit Scavvy for some damage, allowing the Charger with full focus to take the last 2 boosted shots needed to wreck him.  Thus giving the game to Bernie.

After 1st turn moving

My second game was with my lovely wife and her Retribution, with the newest additions being 2 Arcanists.  I was able to keep her Phoenix at bay with some of my trickery and Leviathan firepower.  I think I did a decent job moving up and staying in cover with not only Scavvy but my jacks in general.  I was able to keep her Hydra busy with one of my chicken jacks the majority of the game.  So I thought I had the game in the bag mid-way, but alas that was not the case.  I felt that the only way I was going to be able to win the game is by pulling off a magical assassination run so I moved Scavvy up the fence line to get into position.  Unfortunately I was bogged down by a wreck and ended up falling short which then led Ravyn to take the initiative and end up taking Scavvy out in her own assassination.  A win to Courtney!

Turn 3

My next game was against Josh and his Circle and he was able to bring a lot more to the table than I was prepared for.  It ended up being his original force, shifting stones with UA, Blackclad Wayfarer, and a Gallows Grove.  Josh was able to move up pretty quickly and get into a solid position about 2 turns before I could have hoped to.  Thankfully Josh messed up on his order of activation and missed out on a chance to do a turn 2 assassination (yay!).  Josh then feated and kept me from being able to charge in, but given my force selection I don't think I would have wanted to anyways.  In a way Josh seemed to be not sure what to do with his new ability to teleport all over the map and so ran Krueger empty on fury and he had his Stalker rush in via shifting stones through the tower to take out my Leviathan.  On the turn after his feat I was able to move up both Ripjaws into a clear LoS and in range of all my spells, then I popped my feat.  It was a precarious situation I was in, if I missed up on ANY of my rolls I would have lost as his Stalker could easily charge in and win the game next turn.  I wagered on tossing Feast of Worms followed with two Excarnates and thankfully I was able to hit and deal enough to win the game.  Without any fury on Krueger Josh ended up not being able to transfer and lost the game.

Turn 3 or 4 I'm not sure which

My last game of the night was a mirror faction match against Mychaela's Cryx.  She was able to bring a Warwitch Siren and a Skarlock in addition to her other models.  I was able to get into a good position with my Leviathan and before Mychaela was able to take advantage of cover I managed to start hitting her jacks for damage.  I wanted to play it more safely this game and mostly we ended up trading damage on our jacks.  Mychaela moved up a Nightwretch to arc Curse of Shadows up on Scavvy,  In response I moved him into melee with the Nightwretch and in position of concealment giving me an effect DEF against ranged and magic to a nice solid 20.  A venom spray put Scavvy on a timer as his health ticked away, Mychaela moved the other Nightwretch into combat making it more difficult for me to just walk away.  I used the Leviathan to throw the more healthy chicken off of Scavvy and walked away, allowing me to draw a bead to eDenny and take out her remaining hit boxes for another win.

Overall I think I did pretty well for myself considering that I won 2 games out of 4.  I think playing the long game with Scavvy is the way to go for now and I have to be careful about my placements when using him.  Hopefully next League week I'll be able to bring some more to my force and maybe pull more wins in the future.  Until then happy gaming folks!

What gets me into a new game...

Hey everyone and welcome to another set of my ramblings.  Today I'm taking a more introspective look at the hobby for a couple reasons.  It's been a hectic week and I've not done a lot of painting as much as I would have.  Instead I've been spending some time doing some video game stuff and getting my WoW fix on.  I did manage to paint up the iron parts of Erebus (more detailed post coming later) but for now I started to think about what gets me into a new game.

I find that taking time to think about these things helps me stay grounded in the hobby.  It's quite easy to get lost when you think about it.  Hell starting a new game can be daunting, starting the right new game can be even more challenging.  Then when you start to think about what it takes to start one up it's quite a lot to take in.  First you find the game, learn about the game, see if anyone else plays it, pick a force, get the rules for your game and force, read the rules, keep reading, assemble models, play a game or two, read some more, read online about lists, paint models, and so on.  Throw on the cost of the models/rules/game and holy bajeezus how do people even start this crap sometimes?

How I feel when someone tells me ALL the rules at once

It's a lot like why people paint/don't paint, it'll be a personal reason in the end.  So instead of coming up with the ridiculous amount of what-ifs I'll just talk about my personal reasoning.  Of course that's not a simple 1 reason answer either.

See I like playing these games primarily for three reasons.  The first is that as I mentioned in my previous posts it's a big source of stress relief and community connection.  If my friends are playing a new game I'm more likely to start it up.  Hell that's why I have Bolt Action, it's literally the only WW2 miniatures game I have any interest in.  95% of that is because I have my crew of friends who play it and it's been a fun experience.  It's also a factor in not getting into games also.  The big reason I've not collected a Malifaux crew or started up a Firestorm Planetfall invasion force is because I would be the only guy on the block with them.  I mean sure I could get into those games but it doesn't seem like I'd be getting any games in.

Gencon brings the community together like this, great stuff :D

The second reason is that I have a pretty active imagination as I am sure most of us in this hobby have.  So I really get into the background of games and I just daydream about what battles look like in real-time.  I can't count the number of Warhammer 40k novels I've read or the articles in various magazines over the years that share some aspect of the lore in these games.  I get invested in this background information and it has a big draw for me.  I get my Grimdark fill from 40k, my spell-slinging from Warmahordes, and my sci-fi cyber from Infinity.  Usually if I am able to start day dreaming about the game's lore then it's a good sign that I would want to get into the game.

I can daydream about this picture all day long

Finally we have the good ol' mechanics being a primary reason to get into a game.  No one wants to play a dull or lifeless game, we play because damn they are fun games!  Now for me sometimes a quirky mechanic will get my interests going.  The Malifaux cards, Infinity using d20's, MERCS with their cards, Bolt Action's order dice, and so on are some examples of mechanics that are different enough to keep me interested.  It doesn't have to outrageous or complicated for me to want to play, it just has to be solid with a lot of opportunities and options to explore.  Rules that are written hastily with a lot of open holes for abuse are not my particular cup of tea (some 40k codices come to mind coughGreyKnightscough).

Quirky mechanics like cards instead of dice can do it for me

So ideally a game with solid and fun mechanics, played by my friends, and is mentally interesting are the ways to get me to spend my money on your game.  What about you, what gets you going for a new game or keeps you in the one you play now?  Leave your thoughts and happy gaming!