Friday, December 28, 2007

Post-Christmas Goodies..

I did rather well for gaming related Christmas presents this year. I received some Cryx miniatures for the Warmachine game and the AT-43 Accessory set. I don't play AT-43 but the intermodal containers in the accessory set are very highly detailed, I'd almost say accurate. My plan with those is to collect more and make some manner of post-apocalyptic survivalist town out of containers and wrecked vehicles. I'll post pics when I eventually get started on that terrain project.

Also in the terrain department I received 3 plastic Pegasus Hobbies/Imex kits- Large Platformer, Large Hexagon, and the Chemical Plant. These are simply amazing resources for those who like to build Sci-fi terrain. There are so many possibilities I think I'll be delayed in using these in part by having to choose what to build.

The downside to the holiday season for me is always time. I'm no longer young and without responsibilities. The time between Christmas and New Years used to be open time. Not so these days. I'm a little bummed because this weekend a lot of my gaming buddies will be playing games. Oh well.

Still, I can't complain. I went to 4 game conventions this year, played in roughly 1 game every 1-3 weeks, and bought a lot of stuff. I'd call 2007 a successful year.

In my next post I will try and lay out my master plan for my gaming activities in 2008. Like all plans it is often useless after first contact with the enemy. The enemy being time and money..

Thursday, December 6, 2007

This Blog is Alive Again!

So much has been going on since my last post in July. I probably already mentioned it but if not, I had a blast at Dexcon.

Then I went to GenCon in August. A bunch of us went out together in a rental van. I'll call my fellow travellers Mr. N, Mr. J, Mr. S, Mr. K., Mr. K2 and Mr. H. Originally we were going to take turns at the helm of the van however in discussions on how to occupy our time I'd offered to run a good ol game of D&D 3.0. I'd generated most of their characters based on their preferences, so it was easy for everyone to just jump into the game. They apparently had a great time as it occupied the entire trip there and back in the van. Mr. J was killed by a Hill Giant but brought back from the dead. At the very end, Mr. K was turned to stone by a magical trap but they carried his statue and the treasure back to civilization. We've actually continued to play, picked up a few players and it looks like I'm back to running a D&D campaign.

Of course we also had a great time at the convention. I went crazy spending money on discounted Starship Troopers. Hey, it was buy 1 get 3 free. You don't see that often. I also took the opportunity to try out a game of AEWII, the pulp style weird WWII miniatures game. I enjoyed myself although I got whooped playing the already losing side in a continuation of a campaign style scenario. I was a speed bump essentially. I did pick up some of their miniatures and also added some more Heresy and Hasslefree minis from the Fantization booth to my collection. Towards the end I finally broke down and bought some Alpha Forge Mephalians and Hydrissians. I also picked up the new B5ACTA book and new Conan RPG rules from Mongoose Publishing. And some figures from Wyrd miniatures, and some other stuff here and there..

And then there was the SPAM carving contest by the makers of the Redneck Life boardgame. Gret game by the way.. So I entered on a whim and came in 4th place with my SPAM Sphinx. I'm guessing I may have placed higher if it had been in Redneck theme. In hindsight I should have made it a miniature golf course sphinx. Still very funny. Here is a pic:



So in September my gaming crew also got me to take the plunge into Warmachine. In addition to some local gaming store purchases to paint myself, I went in on a group order for a painting service to get us the figures and paint them. Very reasonable price and they came back looking great. They arrive the beginning of November and I think I've played 3 games with them so far. I'm a dirty Cryx player. I've got the reputation now for using the Warcaster Deneghra and stealing other players units with her Dark Seduction power. I've gotten quite good at that.

And back in October I ran another big Starship Troopers game with a fellow GM. We combined miniatures and terrain for 20,000 points of SST stuff in the game. I posted some pics and a battle report on the Mongoose forum

So many other things in gaming to talk about. More about that stuff another night.