30K, Epic style, Part I : Nostalgia

Brothers against Brothers

The first wargame *battle* I played was the original Space Marine. Me and my brother got the boxset I believe for Christmas. We already had Warhammer but other than a few skirmishes (we were poor and building armies took forever when you could afford two blisters a month!) never played a big game. This bothered my father and he went to the Valet d'Coeur (in those days the only gaming store of Montreal, and what a store it was) and asked the guys for something "we could play straight out of the box". What we got was Space Marine, a massive box with LOTS of figures and tanks, and buildings, and even better you could easily assemble the infantry and play even if nothing was painted. Le Valet d'Coeur even provided a "in house" French translation at no charge! Those two weeks of Christmas break were freakin' awesome!

A Wargame in a box!

We played a lot of games in our basement; me and Gabriel always completed each other very well. He's but a year younger than me, so we used to like the same stuff (we still mostly do), but we never argued over the factions. He loved the Joes, I was a Cobra guy, I liked the Decepticons, he was into the Autobots, etc. (yes, he was something of a goodie two shoes). And so, naturally, after reading the rulebook, Gabriel picked the side of the Emperor and I gladly accepted the role of the "traitors". In those days we knew very little about the fluff, and nothing about the Chaos taint of the traitor. I just saw Horus as a classic power hungry warrior who rebelled against his (weak) leader and mentor. You know, "make the Imperium great again". And the traitors had way cooler names and colours! So we had a lot of fun trash talking each others; I never played the loyalist trash, and he never played the rebel scum. While we painted very little of it, a few tanks, a couple of infantry stands, we played a lot! Sadly we lost most of our Epic stuff maybe two years later, after a small fire in our basement (caused by the other brother, the much younger one) and never played again.

Last year Greg, a fellow Canadian from the blog Fawcett Avenue Conscripts  started an Epic 30K project. I spent the whole tournament drooling over his stuff and by the end of the three months the itch had become a full blown scratch and in between flashes of 1991 Nostalgia I knew I had to start a project of my own (I find one of the great thing about the Challenge is the inspirations it gives you to start new project, although both my wallet and the girlfriend would strongly disagree with this statement). So I contacted Greg, and he gave me some very good pointers and I started collecting what I needed to get the ball rolling. My plan was always to start the project with this year's Challenge, and here we are...I also have a ulterior motive for this project; my brother Gabriel now lives in Japan but he' supposed to come back to Canada late next year. I intend to surprise him with a complete, painted, Epic game. Imperials vs Traitors, brothers vs brothers, just like the good ol' days.

Next post, we look at rules, figures and of course the most important question : which Legions to paint! Stay tuned!

LeafGrave

Ruins are the Cathedrals of time

So last Fall I'm minding my own business when I see on Facebook an add for a Halfling kickstarter. The company who produces the range is called StoneHaven Miniatures (never heard of them). The concept art is quite fun, and I do like my Halflings (play one in our Warhammer RPG campaign). So I I push the "Follow" button. And as the campaign advances they keep coming up with more awesome concepts, it tickles my nostalgia D&D button and...yeah you know where this is going...I cave in, lost my mind and went for the "Completionist" reward. Yep, the whole range. Some 50 Halflings + a few mounted ones. It was at the time my first real big Kickstarter pledge. So as is often the case in my case, I now have figures, and I need to find a game to play with them!

Just an example of the concept art, figures now in possesion

The figures were all individuals and in my eyes didn't fit at all in a big battle "Warhammer" type game. Fortunately, I've been looking at doing some fantasy skirmishes for a while; projects that are faster to paint, and easier to play on a whim with a friend or two. I figured the Halflings would provide the first side, the "good guys".

After hearing about it for months and months I figured FrostGrave would be a good pick. The Halfling Kickstarter came with all sorts of mages, archers, etc. so it would fit well. But I also got Songs of Blades & Heroes, just in case.

Now from my reading I do like FrostGrave rules, but I'm not really a fan of the setting; mostly because I'm a lazy fuck and I don't feel like creating a whole winter theme terrain collection. Also, I don't like to base my figures for a particular game, and so the winter basing style didn't appeal either. Now of course nothing stops me from using the rules to another setting, which is exactly what I'm going to do. So what kind of terrain I have a lot of? Woodlands, that's what (I play French and Indian Wars). So LeafGrave, the abandonned ruined city in the middle of an old forest, was thus born.

You might remember in my last post I found the perfect terrain kickstarter for it...

Now, as usual, I don't like to create exact forces in advance, but rather to paint enough troops to allow me to pick and choose later on. Which is what I'm going to do with my halflings. So I'd like to paint at least 20 figures to start, with a few mages available, as well as fighters, archers, etc. And if I end up prefering Songs of Blade & Heroes, I can still use the same setting of course.

In the coming months, for the Challenge, I will concentrate on the halflings, but I will also need a second warband to face my little men. I'm thinking Goblins...although I'm open to suggestions. Anyone?

Halflings getting prep up for LeafGrave

Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, Part VII - The Reckoning

A horse never runs so fast as when he has other horses to catch up and outpace

Yes, the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge is back for it's 7th year (I know, time flies). Better and bigger than ever, with 100 participants!

And this time, I'm ready! No house move, no health issues, nothing to stop me from reaching my goal of having my best challenge to date. My target is 550pts, which is basically my record, but I really hope I can break that glass ceiling! And I'm paint starved, really, having spent most of the last few months working on the house and such.

I've always been a bit lazy in the Challenge preparation, doing some but never enough and preferring to keep painting like a dumbass while the Challenge start date loomed large. But this year I've really step up my prep game.

In the coming three months, on the Fantasy and Sc-Fi side of things, I've identified three main projects I want to work on.

1 - Finish my second 28mm Sci-fi outfit; it's a small project, around 13 figures so I can play some skirmish Sci-Fi games. I'd like to start with this and get it out of the way fast. I just finished gluing them and they are in the priming room. I'll show the complete force at the same time, and I'm not telling!

2 - The Halfling bonanza. In a fit of crazyness, I funded two Halfling projets this year! The Westfalia Halfmen army and Stonehaven's Halfling Adventurers Miniatures . I received Stonehaven offering first and most of them are reading for painting. I, ahem, bought the whole freakin' range, so that's a lot of little guys! Not sure I'll paint them all in the Challenge but I'd like to have enough of them to play some skirmish games. Should I have enough time (I doubt it very much) I'll start the Westfalia ones.

The first twenty odd StoneHaven Halflings; clean, glue sand, prime, repeat

3 - The 30K Epic project (and accompanying duel). Last year Greg from Fawcett  Avenue Conscripts used the challenge to start an Epic 30K project (and it was epic), and influenced me big time. I've been wanting to do Epic for quite a while and finally took the plunge and amass enough figures to keep me painting for a few months (I think). This should be my main project for the next three months. To keep things even more interesting, I entered into a 30K side Duel with four of the maniacs from the Challenge asylum;

Rules: Most points of painted miniatures in any scale 

Prize: A painted single 28mm 30k or small formation of 6mm 30k figures from the defeated participants

All the vehicles are primed, glued, based and ready to be painted.

Do I have a chance to win? No, I don't think so! But it's going to be a lot of fun nonetheless. Greg is a 30K freak as are the other guys, and it should be fun to see what they all come up with.

4 - There's a 4...kinda. I'm leaving room to add a few Oldhammer pieces to break things up. Probably some Chaos Knights and Nurgle Champions who've been sitting on my painting table for way too long.

And of course, I intend to participate in at least a few of the Bonus theme rounds...

January 8th - Armour

January 22nd - East

February 5th - Terrain: 'Home'

February 19th - West

March 5th - Character(s) and/or Scene from a Movie, TV program, Book or piece of Music

In the coming weeks I'll discuss my 30K and my "LeafGrave" projects in more depth. And then we are off to the races!

Kickstarter galore

Bob loses saving throw vs. shiny with a penalty of -5. Bob takes 2d8 damage to the credit card

My credit card has been mostly immune to the Kickstarter craze which has has gone crazier in the last year, it seems, at least in the RPG/miniatures/boardgame world. Now I'm not saying I'm better than any of you (in fact I'm a weak, weak man), but rather that the purchase of a house and it's accompanying fees made me unable to partake in the great 2015-2016 Kickstarter Orgy! Well, almost, if not for a project...or two. 

But this september...this september? Damn, shit is getting real! Indeed, it seems everyone wants my hard earned money this Fall. I'm contemplating joining in 4 projects, which is probaly too much...right? Right? Anyways, all are funded, so this post is not about convincing you to join me into further debts, but rather just to share should any of you see something you like. 

• The first is Giants Adventurers by StoneHaven miniatures. Stonehaven is a small outfit I knew nothing about not long ago but which managed to convince me to join their Halfling kickstarter last Fall. I went completely bonkers for their fun concept art and went with a completionnist pledge, basically buying sight unseen the whole range, a little over 50 of them small little barefooted fellows. Their style is very old school D&D adventurers, and has a nostalgic charm to it. I received the figures a few weeks back and they are just awesome. I'm in love with the range, really! (more to follow on my plans for them). I was also very impressed with the customer service, updates, etc. of Stonehaven. Now, I do like to reward competency so...they are working on a range of big (huge) giants. It looks quite promising, and the contrast of going from painting Halflings to painting Giants from one year to the next weirdly appeals to me... 

• Second project, Greenskin Wars, is pure Oldhammer goodness, from Kickstarter veteran, Oldhammerer and sculptor extraordinaire Diego Serrate. Those of you on Facebook Oldhammer pages probably know Diego, who's very active and has created all kinds of Oldhammer inspired range from Space Orks to Realm of Chaos warriors. Diego is on a personnal mission to cause financial ruin to all Oldhammerers, and now runs what is I believe his 4th Kickstarter this year alone! This time, and it does hit me right in the feels, he's briging a range of Oldhammer inspired goblins sculpted by the legend Kev Adam. Part of these were previously available from Crooked Claws miniatures, but a lot is new. Including my own favourite, the Feral Goblins (I'm a sucker for Forest goblins). 

• Then, Ancien Ruins, a nice resin terrain offering from Worldsmith Industries. Normally I avoid buying unpainted terrain, because I'm lazy and I prefer to spend my time painting miniatures than terrain. However this particular set appeals to me because a) I like the asthetic of ruined ancient greek terrains, and b) it fits perfectly in an upcoming project of mine; LeafGrave (i.e. Frostgrave but set in an ancient city in the forest instead).

• and finally, Kev White does Matt Dixon, a kickstarter by well known manufacturer Hasslefree Miniatures. The project is a range of often scandily clad women warriors, imagined by Matt Dixon and sculpted by Kev White. Actually every figure is offered in 3 options; naked, pin-up and winter dressed. I'm attracted by the aesthetic of the range, especially the very 60s-70s "exploitation" look of the pin-up, and some of the figures come with awesome beasts like a triceratop and sabertooth tigers. Definitely not SJW friendly!

So 4 awesome projects, almost running simultaneously...

Another hobby this summer...

A garden is a sanctuary

Been quite busy this summer working on the new house (I moved late May). The house contains both a painting room and a gaming room for yours truly in the basement (yes, I'm very lucky Laurie loves me...and is afraid of spiders, thus abandonning the basement to me!) and I've been working on both. Being a completionnist I'm not showing pics of the house...yet, as there is still much to do. 

But I did start a new hobby; gardening! My previous townhouse had but a small patch of land, which allowed me to learn the trade with few consequences, but this place has a big backyard! The previous owners did a truly great job with the garden, so I just improved on it. It was a lot of fun and, dare I say so myself, it looks freaking spectacular! If you had told me just 10 years ago I'd spend many week-ends gardening...

So yeah, I'm showing off!

Probably heresy to my american friends, but not a patch of grass to be seen!

Blue Hibiscus

Our Cherry tree

Pink roses in full bloom

Very little painting done this summer, although I did spend the little free time I had on prepping miniatures. I should be ready for the Analogue challenge and the cold, bleak, garden-less Canadian winter!