Showcase Sunday # 9 – Imperial Fist Tactical Squad

Happy Sunday Everyone!

Hope you all had a great weekend!

For this week's Sunday Showcase, I thought I would start the showcasing of my Imperial fist army. I will only be going piece by piece, because I am really not sure how far I will be able to showcase... seeing as I need to try to get through 52 of these. We will see!

Just to get things started, I will show off my first completed squad, my Imperial Fist Tactical Squad. I will usually run them as a Veteran Tactical Squad in Age of Darkness games, or a standard Tactical Squad in regular 40k.

The pieces are all Forgeworld, which of course are a joy to work with. I tried to add as much variety as I could to the posing.

The scheme I used for these were very basic, I started with a coat or three of Lydan Darksun, then basically just highlighted it with some extreme highlights with bone. I then just blacked out the black parts, and did some subtle highlighting to that.

I also tried to do some subtle weathering, there will definitely be more in the next squads. 

Let me know what you think!

Thank you,

-Rob-

Fun Friday # 8 – Holy Heck, X-Com 2!

Happy Friday Everyone!

Hope everyone is feeling good, gearing up for a weekend!

For this Friday, I am going to talk about the game I have been playing the heck out of.... X-Com 2.

30 hours in, and going strong. Heck, I haven't even beat it yet. I am just enjoying it, playing though and enjoying myself.

Before anything, let's talk about what X-com actually is. X-Com is a series of games revolving around alien invasion. It involves fighting off waves of baddy aliens who are gross, and bad, and clearly want to enslave the world. You are responsible for stopping them, and pushing them off earth.

I got my start in X-Com: Enemy Unknown... and it was a whole new thing to me. Enemy Unknown was the reboot of the original series, and was a turn based tactical squad game. There were also some base management mechanics, but the game itself was all about the tactical turn based gameplay. I put hours and hours into this game, struggling to get the right combination to ease my path to victory. It can be a very unforgiving game, but when you get that victory it is so sweet.

 

Now, X-Com 2 is an awesome continuation to this series. Many of the mechanics are similar, but there are a ton of tweaks that completely change the way the game is played. Keeping your squad in cover and in concealment is extremely important. Also, the enemies in X-Com 2 are particularly unforgiving... made worse by the armor mechanic, which reduced the amount of damage you are doing.

To make things even worse, there is a count-down timer till the end game... so if you do not interact with the main story enough, you can lose the game straight out. The trick is, of course, to let it get close, before doing something to reduce the time.

I would highly recommend this game to anyone who is interested in turn based games, squad tactical games, shooting aliens in the face games, or even just games where you get to sneak around and break things.

This is the type of game I will be playing for years to come.

And with that.... have a great weekend everyone!

Thank you!

-Rob-

Wednesday Weekly # 8 – Getting Some Pigment!

Happy Wednesday all!

This has been a productive hobby week!

I got to play some more 13th Age on Friday, and the more I play this system, the more I like it. If feel so streamlined, so build for adaptation. I love how in depth you can get with your characters... how much connection you can develop. In this latest adventure, I met a scary dragon man (PC), was pushed through a magical sigil teleportation system, and nearly choked to death on smoke. I took part in a bloody bar fight that left a huge dude dead, and myself and dragon man covered in blood. Overall, I think it was a great session.

Now, on to the model related side of things. I was feeling inspired yesterday, so I sat down and base coated my librarian and apothecary. I also got some good paint on my Emperor's Children Contemptor. I struggled with not be fully happy with the way the paint sat on the models, but I kept at it, and think I found a way I like. My trick is a light white point right where the light would hit the model, and hit it with a lighter pigment to make it pop. I have posted up my Contemptor, and my Apothecary, because they showcase the effect pretty well for what i was going for. 

The last thing I got completed was I got the Plasma support squad and Cataphractii teams primed, and ready for paint. This project continues forward!

Thank you!

Have a great rest of your week!

-Rob-

Showcase Sunday # 8 – Emperor's Children Contemptor

Happy Sunday everyone! 

Today I will be showing off a contemptor model I finished several years ago, as a part of a DIY chapter of space marines I made up. I have since let that group fall to the wayside, but noticed that the scheme for the most part works for my Emperor's Children force I am working on. Am I going to update the scheme at all for this model? Probably not. I am happy with how it looks, and don’t want to mess anything up. So.... for now, this is how it stands.  

This model is equipped with a Khares Assault Cannon, and an inbuilt Plasma Blaster. It is also built on a scenic base with a bloody dire avenger helm on it... because, you know. Blasted Xenos. 

The purple for future models will, of course, be updated.  

What do you think?

Thank you for checking it out! 

-Rob-

Fun Friday # 7 – Magic the Gathering, and the many ways to play

Hi there everyone! 

Happy Friday! 

So for today's Fun Friday, I decided I wanted to talk about something that is near and dear to my heart... Magic the Gathering.  

I have been playing magic for only about 5 years now, but I really took to it quickly. I have built a solid friend base that plays with me on a fairly regular basis, as does my beautiful wife. Now, For this Fun Friday, I decided that I am going to talk about the different formats of magic. There are several different formats, each with a different feel and flow to them.  

The first format I want to cover is Modern. The Modern Format covers all cards from 8th edition on, and as a general rule is the most casual of the formats. There are banned cards, but those only really matter in a tournament setting. I really like playing this format because the majority of my decks fit within this range. The modern format deck building limitations are pretty forgiving, you can have up to 4 of the same card in the deck (Playsets), and the deck minimum is 60 cards. The max is actually as many cards as you can shuffle unassisted. These same guidelines apply to Standard.  

The next format to talk about is the Standard Format. Standard is much more competitive because it forces the deck building to be at the forefront of your mind... you can only use the last two blocks of cards to build your decks. I have built standard decks that I really liked, but because the blocks rotate every 9 months or so they quickly step out of standard into modern. As it currently stands, I have no standard format decks. And frankly, I am ok with that. I am a casual gamer, I play for fun with my friends. If I ever move to a competitive setting (Friday Night Magic, Tournaments, Release day events) Then I will have to move into Standard. But I will never move to competitive. It sucks the fun out of the game, and for me, I would much rather enjoy the game and lose than stress out and win.  

The last format I am going to talk about is the Commander Format. Commander is a system where you have a 100 card deck, with no duplicates in your deck other than basic lands. These games are much slower, and much more unpredictable. This is also the best game format for multiplayer games, because there are many cards which affect all other players. Commander is, without a doubt, my favorite way to play Magic. The games take so much longer, but it really opens up different ways to play cards together.  

Just a little note as I close up this segment. If you are a Magic player, and looking to improve your skills, there are a few things you can do. Firstly, the Duels of the Planeswalkers games that Wizards of the Coast made are actually really great for learning all the core mechanics. Secondly, Wizards of the Coast posts all the Magic Pro Tour coverage on YouTube. Want to see some good magic? Check that out. Watching how those guys and gals play magic is.... scary. The deck combinations they discover and utilize are really something else. It will make you a better player just to observe and listen to the commentary.  

Thank you! 

-Rob- 

Wednesday Weekly # 7 - The Plog continues

Happy Wednesday everyone!

This week was fairly productive in hobby terms, I got to test out a some lists, I got to build some models, and I got to participate in a Magic Booster Draft!

So firstly, a buddy came over to help me test play a few Horus Heresy Age of Darkness army lists... and there are definitely some issue to iron out, but for the most part the Imperial Fist list mashed the Emperor's children. It could have been a variety of reasons, like the other guy playing too conservative, or it could be the 5 man toting plasma squad ripping the armor of the cataphractii. Either way, I will have to work to balance them a bit. I am hoping that the balance will be more evident in a 1500 point game.

I got 10 more models constructed! Only 45 left to go!

The first squad I got finished was my cataphractii terminators. They definitely under-performed in the game we played, but I am thinking that getting some paint on them will help the dice roll better. (Paint=Better Dice rolls, Duh!). I really like the looks of these models, the Betrayal at Calth box set truly is something special. Games workshop outdid themselves with this.

 

The second squad I got going was the MVP of my Imperial Fist force, the Plasma gunner tactical support squad. Again, a joy to build, the only thing I struggled with these models was how... similar in posture they are. I will have to use paint to differentiate the individual marines better.

Now, the other cool hobby related thing I was able to this week was participate in a friendly magic Booster Draft. Booster drafts are actually quite fun, they are great for bringing a ton of variety into a non-constructed format. You never really know what cards you are going to end up with. For example, my killer card, which I was fortunate enough to pull in my first booster, was Elspeth, Sun's Champion. She visited the field 3 times in my 8 games, and just wreaked havoc on the board. Overall, it was just a great night, loads of fun, and some good magic all around.

Thank you for reading!

Have a great week!

-Rob-

Showcase Sunday # 7 - Necrons

Happy Sunday Everyone! Hope you had a great weekend! 

Today, I will be showcasing a small part of my wife's Necron Army.  

When we first started with this army, we were going bog standard Games Workshop scheme for painting. But.... neither of us had any attachment to that scheme. It was just... some paint on a model. So we switched it up, and moved to a blue/teal, rather than green. I would show a boatload of warriors, but I still have a whole lot to finish the conversion process with.  

So today, I will be showcasing a Necron Spyder, and the accompanying scarabs. 

The Spyder was done completely with an airbrush, metallic followed by a bit of zenial lighting in the torso and under the abdomen. Sadly, the picture that we got does not show the lighting as well as I would perhaps hope, though it is a cool shot. So far, in game, this thing is a beast, tossing out scarab bases left and right.  

Moving on to the Scarabs themselves, we have seven bases to use. Each warrior box comes with 12 scarabs, and enough bases to make 3 swarms, but I had a few extra 40mm bases floating around so I expanded a bit. I tried to make each base unique in it's own way. I wanted to make a story with each base. You will notice a smattering of bits across the bases, An imperial fist helmet, a Dire Avenger Shuriken Catapult, and some ruins with Imperial graffiti.  

Thank you for looking! 

Have a great week! 

-Rob-

Fun Friday # 6 - 13th Age - D&D for the new age

Happy Friday Everyone! 

Today, I am going to have a discussion about 13th Age. 13th Age is an RPG that was recently released from Pelgrane Press. 13th Age combines the best parts of traditional d20-rolling fantasy gaming with new story-focused rules, designed so you can run the kind of game you most want to play with your group. Created by Rob Heinsoo and Jonathan Tweet, 13th  Age gives you all the tools you need to make unique characters who are immediately embedded in the setting in important ways; quickly prepare adventures based on the PCs’ backgrounds and goals; create your own monsters; fight exciting battles; and focus on what’s always been cool and fun about fantasy adventure gaming. 

 

13th Age has so many great things going for it. I am going to go through a few of them.  

First up is the Icon Relationships. The Icons are the movers and the shakers within the world itself. They include people like the Dragon Emperor, and Elf Queen, and the Golden Drake. When you build your character, you get to choose your relationships with the Icons, building a backstory for your character. For example, I could say that I have a minor relationship with the Dragon emperor, because I was a minor member of his court. Then I could also say I have a major relationship with the Prince of Shadows, because I was a member of a secret society of thieves within the capital. Really interesting, because it gives players a place within the world.  

The next thing I want to talk about is the One Unique Thing. This ties back into the backstory of the character. The One Unique Thing is the one thing that makes your character different from every other PC. For example, my character can see a ghostly representation of his twin brother who died in the birth. This one unique thing never has an effect on game play, just on story itself. Usually a really good vehicle for moving the story, which is awesome. It also really helps bring your character to life.  

In terms of gameplay, 13th Age does skill checks completely different. Each character has a certain number of background points that they get to assign, based on their background. These backgrounds are what players use to make skill checks! For example, if my character has 5 points in a thieving background, when he decides to make a lockpick check, he would add his 5 points of background  to his check, and that would be the result. No more looking for relevant skill check. Use that backgrounds! Really make the game more streamlined.  

Now, in terms of combat, 13th age offers a mechanic called the Escalation Die. This escalation die is a d6 that, as combat goes on, goes up, and when you make attack rolls and damage rolls, you add the escalation die to the result. For example, say it is round 5 of combat. I get to make an attack roll, add the escalation die, which shows 4, plus my modifier. Bam! Needless to say, combat is much much quicker, getting back to the narrative part of the story.  

Now, the last thing I wanted to touch on was how awesomely quirky the book itself is written. There are tons of silly little things that stick out to you as you read it. Just to post an example, look at the monster reference for an owlbear, and the attacks it can make.  

 

Rip and peck: +9 vs. AC—15 damage, and until the end of the owlbear’s next turn, the target is hampered (makes only basic attacks) while engaged with the owlbear 

Vicious hybrid: If the escalation die is even, make another rip and peck attack. 

 

 

Feed the cubs: An owlbear that scores a critical hit against a hampered enemy tears a piece of the creature off (GM chooses a limb) and will subsequently attempt to retreat with the prize to feed its cubs. The torn-up enemy is stunned until the end of its next turn. 

 

I mean... come on. Tearing your arm off to feed the young? Awesome! 

Take a chance to play this game! It is awesome! 

Have a great weekend!  

-Rob-