What is best in life?

Crushing your wife at Munchkin Conan and hearing her lamentation!

We played another game yesterday, just my wife, son and I. My daughter was busy watching tv or something. This game was at my wife's insistence.

The boy actually won the game, and I was in last place and willing to leave it there. But no! Someone had to beat me. So we continued play. As we both got up in levels I came up against a high level monster. My wife had a card in her hand that gave it +10. I was down by 5 and then I saw it. I had a +3, one use only item and noticed that the monster gave an additional +2 to one use items. That coupled with the fact that I was the warrior class and won all ties allowed me to win the encounter and beat her.

Here is a link to a youtube video of Wil Wheaton playing a game with Steve Jackson that goes over the rules pretty well. It's a little long at 29 minutes.

And Dale of Dales Wargames turned me on to Munchkin Land, some great podcasts of Munchkin game play. Always interesting and funny.

I've been meaning to post here but actually have so much to post about I'm a little bit paralyzed by the amount of stuff.

I've gotten in a bunch more figures but am concerned that I photograph them right, I don't want to hurry and give you a bunch of crappy pictures with a good camera, like I did with the BUM stuff.

I'm finally sorting myself out in the Loa campaign so that should be heating up again and I think I have some inspiration for painting in doing some figures from the Caesar Adventurer set. Hopefully I can get my act together this week.

I've been cleared to start exercising a little and it has been killing me. My abs are doing okay but it feels more like 2 years than 2 months since I've had a proper workout. I ran 1.25 miles today but it felt slow and heavy. I also have been having weird anxiety dreams the last few nights and actually woke up this morning thinking it was Monday. All this from a guy who doesn't have a job.

So I've gone off my diet a bit and am relaxing with a little wine and this update to you my friends. Hope all is well with you and filled with fun toys and games.

Winner of the 40K-ish views giveaway

There were five entrants into the giveaway. I used the list randomizer from Random.org here.

In order the contestants were:

Maverick Collecting
Anne
Kaptain Kobold
Tim
Uncle Brian

I input them into the randomizer:

and hit the Randomize button:

So Anne is our lucky winner!

Ironically it one of my rarer moments of fastidiousness I threw out the packaging from the prize you sent me. So you'll have to contact me with your info. Sorry.

Thanks to everyone who entered and hopefully I'll have something grander, or at least with a wider appeal for the next one.

Welcome new followers:

Dreamfish. You have no blogs in your links, but by your comment I'm guessing you write Realms of Miniatures and are the creator of the Modular Gaming Table.

Jonas M from Conflict of Interests a great blog with beautiful figures and scenery and interesting battle reports of the competing side for the ones by Dalauppror.

Maverick Collecting has three blogs. Small Scale World, Airfix Figure List, and Old Soldiers Never Die...They Just Trade Away. Good resources for IDing and trading figures.

40K-ish views giveaway

Hi All,

For some reason I've been having a hobby block of late which has manifested in not posting as frequently as I'd like. I've noticed that I get a large spike around the days that I post which dries up to my lull amount of hits after about 2 - 3 days. Don't get me wrong, my lull hits are higher than I could have imagined at the start, but I've raised my expectations.

On to the giveaway:

I am in possession of some 1/72 Western figures from BUM that I will never use. Frankly I paid too much for models that I don't like and I'd rather give them to a loving home than try to kid myself that I am happy with them. The main problem with these sets is that there are zero real reviews of them. They fill a niche that is under represented, but they don't really fit the bill.

I have one of these.

I have two of these.

I have one of these.

So as you can see I have one each of sets 0104 and 0105 and two sets of 0101. As you can see I paid about $10 per box but I recall paying almost as much on shipping, not reading ebay carefully bites me every time.

Here are the contents of the boxes.

21mm to top of the head, really?

For me everything is just too small. 21 - 22 mm to the top of the head for the figures is just way too small for me. Especially when the IMEX figures I'm using are at the other end at 25 - 26mm. The buildings seem undersized even for the small figures. To me they seem more like 1/87 scale. I'm no expert but some of the figures are taller than the doors of the buildings. To me that is no bueno.

So as you can see I was really disappointed. A missed opportunity here by BUM.

That being said I think that there are those of you out there that won't be put off and will do a great job of painting or using these sets.

So for 1/72 aficionados I will hold a prize draw for these.

It would be nice if you were a follower of the blog, but just leave a comment that you are interested and I'll put your name into a hat. I'll give it until Tuesday morning my time and then select a winner. Then I'll post the lot off to you.

I'm not sure whether to cross post this on benno's as I feel like a lurker there rather than a full member. But if you are a member there and think that the forum members might like to know you can tell me that as well.

Have a great weekend.

Check out this game table.

Hi All,

  I seem to have hit my yearly April lull. Just having trouble organizing my thoughts and my games. I decided that buying more figures might help. :p

 I just wanted to give some support to Alex from Realms of Miniatures and his Kickstarter Indiegogo for his Modular Gaming Table.

From the Indiegogo page for the table.

If you haven't seen it, check it out. I only wish I had the talent to build and or design something so cool.

I was trying to pace myself with posts and then my wife got sick late last week and kept me up all night with her fevered delirium. It basically knocked my even more on my butt and I started getting the "woe is me feeling. I'm hoping today to snap out of it and get on with my projects and chores. I'm even beginning to feel optimistic about being able to run in the race I signed up for this Saturday. Although I'm still a little worried that I'll over do it.

Anyhow, giveaway and pictures of recent largess will be forthcoming.

Welcome to three new followers:

Andrew Saunders of Loki's Great Hall, fantastic painter who is currently doing two giveaways. He has just added a whopping 60 followers to his blog. That's how it's done.

Jiaqi of Toy Construct and five other blogs I didn't know about. To be honest I haven't had a chance to really look around too carefully, sorry. But it looks like a good mix of topical stuff and general hobby info.

Tartar Sauce. Sorry I don't see a blog in your links, just sites you follow. I also don't recognize your avatar. So if you have a blog, just send me the link.

Off to wash dishes and do the shopping while I listen to the news of the day, screw assholes who bomb stuff. Not much else to say about that.

Chronicle of Loa - 987

In the Spring of 987 the countries of the Loa peninsula made ready for war. Armies were replenished and more mages hired in Eskelin, Kurinthia Malohad, Riata and Zamba. Heroes also emerged in Eskelin, Riata and Sortium. All nations chose to keep the mercenaries they had but not hire new ones. (This is mainly because the named units were already hired and I felt like keeping track of these special companies and dove tailing with the Talomir Tales campaign was going to be an issue. I need to work out a more generic or Loa specific list.)

Eskelin and Malohad declared war on each other but Eskelin was the aggressor and invaded. Being the more mobile force Malohad easily otscouted Eskelin and won a major victory. The Eskelin Mages were wounded and for Malohad one Level 1 mage was wounded and the Level 2 mage deserted.

Spring 987

Summer 987 saw Barylistan split their forces to invade Eskelin while defending against an invasion from Zamba. Malohad took the initiative from Eskelin and invaded their northern province.

Summer 987

After a drawn out battle Malohad was victorious over Eskelin with all but one of their mages deserting or wounded. The Eskelin mages and hero were also wounded. Barylistan's invasion of Eskelin was uncontested, and Zamba was repulsed at the cost of a wound to the Barylistani mage.

In the Fall of 987 war swept across the peninsula as never before. Malohad continued its holy war against Eskelin while Kurinthia sought to reclaim its province from Barylistan who now held it. Sortium woke from its slumber to attack Demeskeen while Riata thought it would pillage Barylistan while it was occupied fighting Kurinthia. Barylistan gave up pursuing its war with Zamba to defend itself on two fronts.

Fall 987

Kurinthia defeated Barylistan and regained the province it had lost to Eskelin. One level 1 and the Level 3 mage were injured in the battle. Barylistan was more successful in holding off the invasion from Riata. One level 1 mage was injured but the hero left the service of the realm in disgust. Malohad routed the Knights of Eskelin. Both the Malohad leader and the Captain of the Black Company (Alfred Badenhorst) were wounded. And in the final battle of the season Sortium lost  a close battle in the invasion attempt of Demeskeen. The Demeskeen mage saw too much of battle and deserted but the Sortium hero was enticed to stay. In the aftermath of the battles Eskelin, Riata and Sortium sued for peace.

Winter 987

During the Winter the High King of Riata died, some say of shame, others of poison in his mead. But the spring would see Riata riven in civil war. Kurinthia decided better of war with Barylistan and sued for peace. ( I forgot that Zamba and Barylistan were technically still at war so I will recheck that and write it into the Spring turn of 988. Barylistan had seized initiative and then basically handed it back by not following up.)

In 988 I hope to expand the palytest to include the income rules and also try out some characterization of the leaders of the various nations. My record keeping is still a shambles but I'm getting it slightly under control.

Again, this is all book keeping that needs to be done in a standard  game of RRtK, the rules I'm testing have added no extra work thus far. They have only simulated combat and I think work pretty well. I'm wondering if Eskelin should call upon the faithful to help them withstand the tide of invasion from the followers of the Black Moon.

And here is a quick tutorial of how I changed the texture on the Talomir Map. Quick and dirty, how I like it.

Click for full size

Happy Birthday Loki (and other news)

In order to shamelessly get an additional 5 entries in the giveaway I am posting a link to his giveaway here.

I also received my prize from Anne's giveaway, The Zvezda Ashigaru-Yari (PSR link here).

I'll also be doing a giveaway soon, as I have already passed 40k views and want to share the wealth as it were.

This giveaway is very specific and may not be to everyone's taste. I'm hoping to find a good home for these. But more on that at another time.

I also hope to get my act together for getting on with the Chronicles of Loa. My injury and rehab have been leaving me feeling kind of wore out most days and I'm just not up for much.

In the realm of techno geekery I hope to give some more tips/ self rationalizations for dynamic templates and perhaps wax poetic about my latest trials and tribulations with Microsoft.

For those of you paying attention, Ray Villa was the winner of the poll for "Approved Blog Whore". There were more voting irregularities than Tammany Hall. We started with four votes and a 50 - 50 split, that went to 3 votes for Villa and finally down to 2 by poll close. It was all just for fun anyway. Ray's choice as to whether or not he even chooses to bestow the honor. Of course you could just steal the image from here and award it to yourself.

Welcome to Andrew Saunders of Loki's Great Hall, probably the fastest link back I've ever had. I haven't even finished writing this post. Another talented painter who competed in the Anologue Hobbies painting challenge. N. American Indians are some of the most recent posts but I also saw some Saga tournament stuff that looked fun.

Fladnag the Beige (I finally finished something)

Well, here he is in all his glory, perhaps the first figure I've ever considered finished.

Fladnag the Beige.

Excuse the slightly off camera angle.

Not to be confused with his cousins, Gandalf the Groovy or Gandalf the Grey. Fladnag is a very unassuming wizard who likes long dungeon delves and casting the Icy Finger of Death in large battles. He prefers Dwarven Ales to pipeweed and collects the excreta of large sea mammals for use in his potions.

Here is how he progressed.

Colors used

As you can see, I had primed him grey and then color blocked him. Okay but boring. Lets try a wash to get some shading, shall we?

Now we know he's not a king.

Brown Wash all over, Flesh wash on flesh, Burnt Umber ink in hair.

 Wow, that sucks. It looked like I had literally dipped him in shit. To me all the color difference was obliterated. But I figured I needed to add back highlights and it would look better. Or so I consoled myself.

Now I was ready to break stuff. At first I had tried dry brushing the Camel paint on the front of the robe. Absolutely terrible. I then used my 10/0 to paint on the tops of the folds in their original base color. Looks pretty bad to me.

So I decided I had to do another wash before I gave up in despair and just stripped the figure.

That I can live with.

I mixed a drop of this with a drop of water.

I think the ink didn't do all that much and that the water diluted and spread out the GW Brown wash some more. In any event it was now acceptable to me. Whew!

So then on to the basing.

The shine is from the Liquitex Matte Varnish I brushed on. before basing.

The base was dry brushed with Anita's "Earth Brown", Delta Ceramcoat "Territorial Beige", and Americana "Khaki Tan". Then PVA diluted 50% with water and some Woodland Scenics fine flock, followed by straight Alene's tacky glue and some Heki #3360 Static Grass.

So he is done. Hooray! And I just read that I am the winner of the Zvezda Samurai from Anne's blog giveaway, yipee!

Although I did not end up gaming on March 30th we did play two games on Easter Sunday. Munchkin Conan and Life. This was with the whole family so the four of us sat down at the table and spent a couple of hours together, it was fun. My wife even admitted that Munchkin Conan was fun, although I was accused of selectively remembering the rules to enable my win.

Welcome to Michael Awdry of 28mm Victorian Warfare, excellently painted colonial stuff.