Weekly Summary for week ending 10/20/18

Late, once again. I swear, I'll get back in the right schedule as soon as I can!

Games Played

• Arkham Horror: The Card Game.  We played The Pallid Mask, and I was Ashcan Pete. BK gave a description on his blog. Basically, we lost :(
• Settlers of Catan.  This was actually the reason I didn't post this blog on time, as this game was running into the late hours of Saturday, throwing me off.  Anyway, we went to a friend's house, and played the "Caravans of Catan" scenario from the Barbarians and Traders expansion.  I managed to get my roads and settlements decently around the center of the board (the oasis), which helped get me the longest road, and added points for my settlements and city.  I ended up winning.  Megan was close behind, and had I not won, she was in very good shape to do so herself.

New Arrivals

• New Monsterpocalypse starter (Defenders, specifically)!  I can't even explain how excited I am about this!  Let me get this on the table already!  For a bit, I'll probably have to use my old models, just because these are resin, and on clear bases, meaning I'll need to do some work, and will want to paint them before gluing them.  I REALLY need to get back into painting!
• New Minicrate!
• X-Wing 2.0- I have the new Core Set, and the Scum Conversion Kit.  I figure I'm the only player in our group with a good chunk of Scum ships, only makes sense for me to run them for now.  Seems pretty interesting, and I'm super eager to play this, as well.  A likely candidate for our upcoming gaming trip.
• Maori Wars from Legion Wargames.  Battling against foreign invaders, the Maori were outnumbered and outgunned.  Should be an interesting game.  I'm a big fan of asymmetric warfare in game form, and this is a situation that definitely fits.  Great looking components.  Don't know when I'll play :(

Miniature Assembly/Painting

• None, unforunately.

Reading

• Finished October White Dwarf.  They are doing a very good job with these, making them interesting enough to want to read!
• Finished Cibola Burn, part of the Expanse series.  As the pacing increased, the book got more and more interesting.  I can't wait to read the next one!
• Finished Beasts of Chaos Battletome.   Seems pretty good.  I own exactly zero applicable models.  I just wanted to see how the mechanics looked for a non-Order army.
• Finished new Monsterpocalypse rulebook.  A few differences from the previous game, all in the interest of action and simplicity.  Movement doesn't cost Action Dice, in general, which means stuff is going to get around the table more.  No more spending Action Dice in the power up phase.  No more Crush rule.  Fewer triggers.  Seems to have a lot less unit buffs from your monster, from the monsters I've seen so far.  I can't say any of these are bad (some are great).  I just need to play it and see how I like it.
• Finished X-Wing 2.0 rulebook.  Pretty similar to 1.0, but enough changes to make it a brand new game.
• Finished Kobolds and Cobblestones rulebook.  This one seems to have some serious issues.  I'm not sure how it would actually work on the table, I have to admit.  Pretty low priority to try it out, too.

October MiniCrate arrived! [Warmachine/Hordes]

Got something fun in the mail today!  What could it be?

Oooh!  The new MiniCrate from Privateer Press!  I can't actually remember which one I'm getting, so despite the frequent spoilers and articles, these actually still manage to be a surprise when they get to me.  Let's have a look!

Two miniatures??

Let's look at the included cards, so we know what we are getting.

 

Very cool.  Alright, onto the miniatures.

And of course, they look great.  I'm really excited to get the current run of these miniatures.  Many, I can't use yet, but man they look great.

Weekly Summary for week ending 10/13/18

Back to a regular gaming schedule!

I want to make mention of the blog of a friend of mine: Massively Miniaturized.  Once upon a time, my friends and I ALL blogged.  For a long time, it was just me.  However, finally, one other returns to the world of blogging...

Anyway, please check it out!

Games Played

• Played a session of Mutant Year Zero, a roleplaying game set in a post-apocalyptic future.  In this one, we planned for a potential conflict with the Singing Monolith, talking to the bosses in the Arc, and prepared to find some allies to drag into the fight.  We caught rumors of a group up north that we could try to get involved.  We'll see how that goes.  In this campaign, I am playing as Lug, a Bruiser.  I am actually pretty dang scary when I am in combat.  And definitely not, outside of it.
• Played three games of Warhammer Underworlds with BK.  He ran his Magore's Fiends warband, I tried out the new Stormsire's Cursebreakers, and my Chosen Axes warband.  Went 0-3, and I wouldn't say any of the games were remotely close.  Ooph.  Some of this was just bad play on my part.  Some was just... the Chosen Axes seem to not be good.  It's too difficult to Inspire them in a world with so many enemy pushes.  I'll probably switch to a different warband for a bit before giving them another shot.

New Arrivals

• Warhammer Underworlds: Nightvault.  I love Shadespire.  Why wouldn't I grab the next big thing for that game?  Adds magic!  And new warbands!  Oooh!
• October issue of White Dwarf.  Came with a free pack of Age of Sigmar: Champions cards!
• Kill Team: Rogue Trader.  If they would stock the original box, I would have bought that, but I wanted some new toys, and picked this up.  I can't wait to get to work on this, and may have a chance to play it next month!

Miniature Assembly/Painting

• Assembled my Stormsire's Cursebreakers warband from the Nightvault Core Set! First miniatures I've assembled in some time.  They didn't perform great... but it was just a starter deck after all.

Reading

• Read nothing, unfortunately.  Wasn't any time this past week.  Plan to read a lot next week!

Weekly Summary for week ending 10/6/18

A bit delayed.  We did the final move into our new house, then immediately went on a week long vacation.  Since I've had a bit of a gap between last post and this, this won't be a 'weekly' log, but a 'what have I done since last post' log.  I will get back onto my correct schedule this Saturday.

Games Played

• Amazingly, despite all of that, I did get some games in...
• Three games of Magic: The Gathering.  These were all Commander games against my oldest nephew, Jonas.  I went 2-1, using his decks, playing only two player games.  Two were in an airplane, one was on a hotel floor.  We tried to rope Matt into a game but he declined.  Sigh.  Anyway, I used his decks, and clearly, we have some work to do.  He doesn't quite get card synergy, or how the mana curve works.  We'll get him there though.
• Five games of Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Champions.  I'm kind of cheating by listing this, but I did technically play.  In this case, I played all the games on the app.  I had bought a starter to learn the rules, and then used the app to actually see the game in action.  Since they were all starter deck games, I won them all, then put in the few cards I have into the system.  I like the game, although I don't know that I love it.  I'm not sure I get the feel of the Age of Sigmar universe from the game..  Units and spells behave the same, you do anything when it isn't your turn... I don't know.  We'll see.  I'll keep playing it for a bit and decide then.

New Arrivals

• Twilight of the Gods: Age of Revelation.  This is the first season of expansions for the Twilight of the Gods card game.  Looks like a freaking FANTASTIC non-collectible card game, with a lot of interesting choices in the game.  I still haven't played it though.  That clearly didn't keep me from buying expansions (or at least, backing them on Kickstarter).
• A Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Champions Starter deck.  I chose Order.  For now.
• Mutants and Masterminds Deluxe Core Book.  My nephew Jonas had expressed interest in playing "Dungeons and Dragons superheroes".  This is as close as I could get I think.  If he wants to play, I'll see what I can do to get him to play and enjoy it.  Who knows, maybe my wife and brother will play too.  A man can dream!

Miniature Assembly/Painting

• Nothing.  Everything is packed up, unfortunately.

Reading

• Read the rules to Age of Sigmar: Champions.  Mentioned this above.
• Read the September issue of White Dwarf.  Good battle reports.  Makes me wish my minis were accessible so I can get back to playing again! (sooooooon, soon).
• Finished the Stormcast Eternals Battletome.  Very interesting read.  Lots of background, which was more appealing to me for the moment, and the rules for the models look fun, although it's hard to gauge that with no experience in the game.  I suspect I'll be playing them first anyway though, so definitely a valuable read.
• Started Cibola Burn, the fourth book in the Expanse series.  This is a series I quite enjoy- fairly hard sci-fi, with a lot of subterfuge, and hinted at horrors.  Got about halfway through the book, and things are picking up nicely.  Look forward to finish this next week.