Regarding Fantasy...

Im still struggling with my ideas for a Warhammer Fantasy army... Up until this morning, these were the main contenders:

Skaven - New book, new models, wide variety of units. One of my favorites, and was the army that got me playing Fantasy in the first place.

Orcs and Goblins - Crazy variety of units, always good for a laugh.

Beastmen - New book coming up looks interesting, always been a fan of the more feral Children of Chaos.

Lizardmen - Models are nice, dinosaurs have always fascinated me.

Tomb Kings - Completely reliable army, new book is on its way. Added advantage of already having a significant amount of models.

So, these were what I was wracking myself over. If I were to choose a single force, I wanted to be sure it was one I could keep working on for the year. Then DT brought this to my attention.

Looks interesting, just gotta play one game on a specific weekend. Not bad at all. Four core choices and 1 dispel scroll? Not a problem. 2500 points, fully painted? Hrm. I have a good chunk of Tomb Kings, that wouldnt take too much work to get to 2500 fully painted points... But I have none of the Special units that are useful, like Carrion or Tomb Scorpions, and with the new book on its way, I dont know how easily I could lay hands on some, or if Id even want to.

I was planning that if I went with the Tomb Kings, I was going to start from scratch with the new book. New plastic skeletons and Tomb Guard are pretty much a given, and most of the rest of the stuff I have could use an update... But maybe Ill think about going with the dead ones in 2010, and just expand on what I have instead.

New Years 2010 Resolution Stuff

2010. Interesting number, huh? I get the feeling its going to be an interesting year as well. We will see.

So, yeah. My gaming resolutions. Ive already laid out what Im wanting to do with the ol blog, but Im not going to count them as resolutions, more as goals, so I wont ding myself if I dont hold to them. ;)

First off, actual gaming: I will try to have at least one game every two weeks, whether at the bunker, my place, or someone elses place... or even if I have to drive to the mall *shudder*.

Second up, painting, modeling, and army collection: Fantasy was going to be easy, Tomb Kings are coming up sometime this year, so I was just going to hold out for them... then I got to thinking that maybe I want to do this army or that... I still havnt decided. Whichever I choose, my goal with this army will be to have them tournament legal and ready just as quickly as finances allow. All the rest of my existing Fantasy armies are going into the box, until 2011.

For 40k, my plans are a lot more interesting. Ive mentioned that I have models from ten different Space Marine chapters on my table right now.... Yeah, you can see where this is going. "I shall build a grand army of the Imperium", to paraphrase my hero Senator Palpatine. At least ten different chapters, some Imperial Guard (Cadians, Catachan, Elysians, Kreig, Tallarn), those Grey Knights that have been in hiding for a few years, and maybe Ill pick up a few more Nuns with Guns. No specific goal as far as points or model counts or anything like that. I just want something extremely over the top. Plans are to get what I have painted first, then start adding whatever I decide I want to paint.

Warmachine/Hordes: I really do want to get back into this. Im unsure if Im going to continue with my Cryx or if I want to run a different faction... Both Cygnar and the Protectorate are appealing. Khador is not so much, they are too much sledgehammer, not enough finesse. I like my armies to be a little sneaky at least...

LARPing, Roleplay, and 40k

So, first, a link to some of the props used in a 40k LARP.

Those are extremely well done, and I am gonna prolly going to be adding these in the Top Ten tomorrow...

Now, I do a fair amount of roleplaying myself, and have even joined in a LARP a few times (not really my cup of tea though), but these concern me as far as realism/safety matters. In the two I played in, they were fantasy based in a park, one used foam weapons covered with different colors of duct tape, the other used rattan (wooden) weapons. Very little chance to mistake what these were for.

Ehh, maybe Im getting soft in my old age...

As far as roleplaying, Im in an interesting group, we play Spacemaster every two weeks, and on the off weekend we have someone else running D&D. Now, the group I am in is mostly... well, I wouldnt call them power gamers, but they do seem to enjoy the mechanics of the game more then the character and world building. Myself, on the other hand, am a character player. Rules, stats, and gear are all tools to tell a story. Makes things REALLY interesting when I run the occasional game. Most people dont care too much what their character looks like, and Im asking what their hats look like and other non-essential stuff.

Im working on a new character for the Spacemaster game, my current character is extremely one dimensional (not a surprise, I basically made a 40k Ork), and if I play this new one right, everyone will HATE him. :)

So, weekend went by and I got a bit of painting done, though not nearly as much as I could have with the snow and all. The Deathwing Terminators have their base armor color done, now its detail work for them. The Ultramarine Tactical squad got a wash of chaos black, and Im going back over them with a drybrush of UM Blue... So far its looking darker then I was expecting/planning, so I might give them another drybrush with a UM/white mix.