Weekly Summary for week ending 9/15/18

House work continues, but I move this upcoming weekend, giving me a deadline for when I'll be back to normal gaming.  The above picture is a good sign of the state of my hobby collection for the moment.

Games Played

• Played in a session of Mutant Year Zero run by Rob.  I am playing an Enforcer named Lug who is basically the perfect bruiser.  I didn't get a chance to use my abilities in our game though, as we talked with a matriarchal-ish group, then returned to the ark to discuss options for dealing with the new group.

New Arrivals

• September issue of White Dwarf.  Who doesn't want new stuff to read?

Miniature Assembly/Painting

• Nothing, unfortunately.

Reading

• Finished No Quarter Prime #6.  The last issue ever!  It was really interesting to read all of that information about the Crucible Guard, however.  Very much work it if you are interested in the faction at all.
• Read the rules to Blitz Bowl.  I tried teaching Blood Bowl to my brother some time ago, and he complained the game was too complicated (as if!).  I figure this would be a good one to look into, in order to see if it's simpler, but still keeping the flavor.  It seems like it will do a really good job, so I borrowed a rulebook to check it out.  Something I may get in the near future.
• Started the Stormcast Eternals Battletome.  When Age of Sigmar 2.0 came out, I grabbed this, figuring I'd see some details of one of the factions in the game.  Still a lot to read here, but VERY interesting so far.

Weekly Summary for week ending 9/8/18

Another slow week on the gaming front, as we are still doing work on the new house.  I am still going to find time for a little gaming though, have no fear!

Games Played

• None!  I expect next week I will get at least a game of something in.  I spent my normal gaming days this week up at the new house, spackling and sanding.

New Arrivals

• August issue of White Dwarf.  It has been.... well, several years since my last White Dwarf, and I was curious how the issues looked now.  I have to say, the material for the cover is amazing, and makes the magazine FEEL much more impressive.  The content is also really good, I have to admit- this issue had a lot of content about Adeptus Titanicus, which I appreciated, and the battle reports included were a very enjoyable read.  I may grab the next issue as well, and see if I continue after that.
• The Realmgate Wars: Volume 1.  After reading the Age of Sigmar core rulebook, I am at least a little interested in the setting and the game.  What better way to satisfy wanting more information about the setting?  Getting some of the fiction, of course.  It's a hefty book that should give me something to read for a few days.

Miniature Assembly/Painting

• Pretty limited this week- I started filing one of the Cryx heavy warjack kits (the Malice/Corrupter/Reaper one).  Did not get too far, however.  I know some people magnetize these kits, but I can't decide if I want to do that.  I own a single (metal) Reaper, and can't really see a use for another.  I don't own a Corrupter, but they have never been great.  I'm considering just assembling this as the character warjack, Malice, who I also don't own, as it would be a fun addition.  I'll think about it a little more before I continue with the assembly work.

Reading

• Finished reading the Adeptus Titanicus rulebook.  This looks extremely interesting- a bit meatier than I was expecting, which was a pleasant surprise.
• Finished reading the Kill Team rulebook.  About what I expected, which was perfectly fine.  Eager to build some Kill Teams!
• Finished reading August issue of White Dwarf (mentioned above).  Overall, pretty good.
• Started reading No Quarter Prime #6 (Crucible Guard issue).  The last issue of No Quarter!  That is sad news, but like almost all issues of their in-house magazine, it has been very interesting.  I love reading the background/fiction for the factions/themes covered in NQP, and hope that their increased digital presence carries this forward.

Weekly Summary for week ending 9/1/18

I've seen other blogs do this (like The Old West Chronicle), and I figured writing up a weekly summary might be a good way for me to collect my thoughts/accomplishments/random gaming things for the week easily.  We'll see how I like it after a week or two of it.

This week was a bit slow on the gaming front, as I focused on house-related things.  I finished the settlement for the house on Thursday, meaning I'm a homeowner for the first time in my life!  There's already so much I need to do, but even with that, I still found time for some gaming related things.

Games Played

• Ticket to Ride: Two games with my wife and two of our friends (Megan and Christian).  I came in 2nd the first time, and 3rd the second time.  Christian won both games.  The second game, I wanted to see what happened if I tried to block all the east-west routes in the central of the country (all the small 2 or 1-train routes).  I blocked them all off, except for the one that was a double route.  Doing so didn't seem to hinder anyone.  Clearly, this is not a good strategy, at least for this iteration of the game.
• Star Fluxx: One game, teaching and playing against Christian.  I don't particularly care for Fluxx- it is far too random to be enjoyable at all, but he wanted to try some lighter games, and I figured it's a good fit for that criteria.  I got the cards in my and that I needed to win, but Christian knew, and was able to play the card that switched our seating positions, taking my cards and board state.  I had one turn to stop him, didn't draw anything useful, and he won.
• Odin's Ravens: Two games, teaching (and learning) and playing against Christian.  I won the first game, using my Loki cards to great effect.  He won the second game, as I got to the second to last spot, but didn't draw what I needed to advance.  This is my first time trying this one, and I have to say, I really enjoyed it.  Seems like a game my wife would enjoy, meaning it's something I'll have to consider picking up in the future.

New Arrivals

•  Tiny Epic Zombies.  I did an unboxing post here.
• VS System 2PCG: Spider-Friends.  An expansion for the non-collectible VS 2PCG card game.  I have opponents for this game finally, so with luck, I can finally get in some real games of this. 
• Privateer Press mystery box!  Mine ended up being Retribution.  Guess that means I'm starting a Ret army (after my Minions... and Cryx... and Cygnar... and Mercenaries... and Legion... and Skorne... armies are done).  I may, however, assemble this a bit faster to play against BK and his upcoming mystery box.
• Kill Team rulebook.  Rob bought the starter box, which is awesome, and I'm excited to play, but I wanted to have some time to assemble my own Kill Team, and it makes for an extremely fun modeling opportunity.  So... yeah, I'm going to read up on the rules myself, so we have a couple of people prepped to play.

Miniature Assembly/Painting

• Finished assembly of my Swamp Horror for Hordes.  He'll be a nice addition to my Rask battlegroup if I play Will Work For Food (Overtake plus a meaningful strength plus good range?  Heck yes).  It didn't go together quite perfectly though- I'll have to green stuff around his mouth piece to create a better join.

Plastic Terrain Bundle [Song of Ice and Fire Miniatures Game]

This was a KS-exclusive add-on, that basically gave you a set of the different plastic terrain choices they were offering during the campaign.  It came in a quite large box:

And has everything nicely packaged.

Per the campaign, the contents are:

• 1 Trees Set
• 3 Hedges
• 3 Palisades
• 3 Stakes
• 2 Ruined Walls
• 1 Low Wall
• 1 Bog
• 1 Weirdwood Tree Set
• 4 Corpse Piles
• 2 Plateau

So for simplicity, I'll just follow this order to show the pictures.

Tree Set:

 

Hedges:

Palisades:

Stakes:

Ruined Walls and Low Wall:

Bog (this is flat on the board):

Weirdwood:

 

Corpse Piles:

And the Plateaus:

If I listed more than one of something up top, but didn't take a picture that OBVIOUSLY had more than one of the item in it, the duplicates are identical (for example, I have two identical plateaus).

The terrain is really nice, and the colored plastic will make them look quite nice on the table until they can be painted a little (really, just a little drybrushing would probably make these look amazing).  As a miniature wargamer, you can never have enough terrain- although this is a great set of stuff to help ensure I have some interesting tables to fight over.  Great quality, good size, and quite a good amount.