It’ll be a little vague, but here’s the AAR on my most recent WHFB  battle: 2000 dwarfs (me) vs. TK (my arch-rival Vince):

My dwarf army list:

• Lord with runic weapon and armor
• Thane with Battle Standard
• Runesmith with two dwarf dispel scrolls
• 20 Longbeards, CSM
• 20 Warriors, CSM
• 20 Warriors, CSM
• 10 Quarrelers, CSM
• 10 Thunderers, CSM
• 10 Miners, CSM
• Cannon w/Engineer
• Cannon w/Engineer
• 7 Trollslayers (just to use up some points)

My opponent (based on what I saw)

• Tomb King on a Chariot of Fire
• Hierophant (Icon Bearer)
• Some hero-level BSB
• 3 chariots
• 10 light cavalry
• ~20 skeleton warriors
• ~20 heavy infantry
• 4 swarms
• Bone Giant

From left to right, I went Warriors, Trollslayers, Quarrelers, Longbeards w/Lord, Cannon, Warriors w/BSB, Thunderers, Cannon.  My plan was to use the Cannon in the center to shell the giant (or the Trollslayers or tooled-up Lord as backup), the Quarrelers and Thunders to whittle away the infantry blocks and just hold up against the two cavalry units which are reputedly pretty lightweight.

Yeah, it didn’t go that way.

Vince ran the chariots up one flank (the warriors) and the cavalry up the other (the cannon).  The swarm took out the trollslayers (ignomiously) and then the giant rolled up on the central warrior unit with the light cav behind as my longbeards were hit by the skellies on the front and the chariots from behind.

And the central cannon exploded on turn two, despite the engineer re-roll.

All told, a crushing defeat that will go in the Book of Grudges.

The holidays are always a particularly busy time for me, between work and hosting the family gathering (both of which can only be described as inevitable).  I’m glad I got through the last of Skaven miniatures before then.  Those skaven were actually some of the odd miniatures that were part of the large lot my wargaming club liquidated a while back.  Having sold most of the really valuable pieces, I was left with the odd bits to do as I please.  So I have sprues of skaven and skellies and Mordheim mercenaries kicking around the worktable right now.

So while my worktable is covered in wrapping paper and gaming sessions get bumped by family dinners, here’s where my hobby brain is, at least.

I sometimes talk about the three-point-switch of hobbies with me: terrain, miniatures, roleplaying games and how I really only seem to work on one of those things at a time.  Right now the switch is set on “miniatures.”

It’s my turn to put together the next Warhammer Fantasy Battles campaign for my gaming group.  Last campaign was sparsely attended, but we seem to have a few more people coming back into the fold.  I’ve been looking at the “1999 point” campaign rules that the RTT did last year.  1999 points means you get a regular-sized army but without the Lord and Special options you would have at 2000.  That means more basic troop types, which always appeals to me.

My D&D campaign has grinded to a halt, which always happens around the holidays.  Hopefully it’ll get back up to speed in January.  I still peck away at my One Page Dungeon, although not having a group to run it is not inspiring.

As I said earlier, my hobby switch is currently set on miniatures.  I’m lacking the space for building terrain right now, and I’ve got a pretty good reason not to.  I haven’t talked about it much here (for several reasons) but there’s at least a chance that I could be moving in the next year or so.  My place of employment is under a financial crunch (like so many other places) and I have to realistically be looking for work elsewhere.  As usual my timing stinks; I didn’t move when it was easy to sell a house, and now I’m thinking of moving when it is hard to.  But that’s the way it goes.  As a result, I don’t really feel like adding to my terrain lot because most of that stuff probably won’t come with me in the move: it’s large and heavy and fragile and frankly easy to replicate.

Instead I’m pulling out old miniatures or stuff that is left over from the lot my gaming group liquidated, like the Skaven, and painting them instead.  The writer of the “Pokeminis” blog on the blogroll is from the DakkaDakka boards and his goal has been to paint all the miniatures he owns.  I don’t know if that is realistic for me, since I mostly paint in 60-90 minute batches every evening or so, but I think I’ve found a painting style that works for me and allows me to make decent headway without getting discouraged.  In addition I’m doing that “frugal” thing (and after Dave dropped “a Year of Frugal  Gaming” someone has to take up that standard).

So I think for now you’re going to see more painting miniatures, mostly me bopping around from project to project, and the occasional After Action Report for Warhammer in 2010.

Skaven Clanrats

Well, they are done.  I managed to paint them really in three days: priming and doing some basecoating the first day, finishing the basecoating the second, and dipping the third.  The two days painting were just the painting hour I have every evening.  And the dipping was done over my day off today.  All told, pretty good.

Here’s the Skaven Clanrats, about five hours after being dipped.

Skaven Clanrats WIP

As you can see, one clanrat lost his shield while being shaken.  I’ll have to superglue it back on.  The miniatures also show the glossy effect from the stain; I’ll need to spray them with matte sealant next.

Skaven Clanrats WIP

I was asked to show how the dipping works, including pre- and post-dip pictures.  So here’s the pre-dipped, strictly basecoated Skaven Clanrats by Games Workshop.

I haven’t discussed it much here, but I’ve been playing consistently in a quasi-map campaign throughout the year for Warhammer Fantasy Battles.  I haven’t discussed it much because I’m losing.  And badly.

Why, you ask?  Because the rules state two things both of which are biting me in the backside.

1. Every time you lose, your army shrinks by 3d6*10 points
2. You must continue to use the same special character in each battle

So, now I’m down below 2000 points and I’m still shackled with a ~500 pt. Mannfred von Carstein, or as I like to call him, “Lord Voldemort.”  Mannfred miscast no less than three time the last time I played, the final time garnering me the big “hand of Chaos snatches you and kills everyone around you” option.

My regular opponent (Vince’s Brettonians) are basically rolling over me with small, powerful heavy cavalry, and I lack the “umph” to kill them.  Basically I’m at the point of hoping he doesn’t kill more than four skellies in close combat in hopes that between three ranks and outnumbering I can autobreak him (but never run him down).   Counting on “not losing badly” is no way to win Warhammer.

As a reprieve, the final battle is a siege battle and the army lists are getting a boost in points, and you can redesign your army list (still stuck with Mannfred, though).  I can count on facing nothing but cheap peasants with bows in the final showdown, which is fine because my plan is to run several skellie-powered siege towers up with Mannfred and a couple of other heroes replenishing the stock via Invocation of Nehek and Summon Undead Horde.   Vanhel’s Danse Macabre will also get the towers there more quickly as well.  I’ll see if I can round up pics of the final battle, but I’ll warn you I use a lot of proxies because I lack a decent sized VC army.

I’ve had all I could take of the cutesy Christmas theme and snow falling.  I’ve gone to a more traditional theme.

Skaven Nightrunners

I have to admit that the transformation between basecoating, dipping, and then matte finishing is nothing less than magical, but I do suspect that the effect only really works with warm, natural colors (like these guys).

Anyways, I’ve done ten Skaven total, and my “bop ’til I drop” tendency is moving me towards other miniatures.

As I mentioned in my last post, I’m cleaning out my attic and am looking through about a half dozen boxes of old RPG’s I stuffed up there years ago.  It has gotten to be time to get rid of some of this stuff, so I’m going to sort through and see what I want to go.

I’m doing in this real time, blogging as I go.  As a final note before the break, if you see anything you like, let me know.

Pandemonium, Stranger Than Truth! A friend gave me Pandemonium about a decade ago telling me he thought it was cool.  I looked over the main book, figured it was non-playable, and stuck it on the shelf. I don’t even think I opened this book up.  Stay or Go? Go

Shadowrun, Shadowrun Second Edition, Seattle Sourcebook, Sprawl Sites I really liked Shadowrun’s fusion of fantasy and cyberpunk, but the game never really took off in my gaming group.  The “heist” RPG’s always seemed to get bogged down in planning.  Somewhere in a box is third edition.  Stay or Go? Go

Villains and Vigilantes, Super Crooks & Criminals, The Dawn of DNA, Most Wanted Vol. 1 I had a weak spot for supers RPG’s, and the Jeff Dee and Bill Willingham art is cool, but I never liked random power games.  In retrospect I might enjoy the challenge more now. Stay or Go? Stay

Over the Edge Oh baby, this was the wall-breaking surreal RPG, both in terms of setting and rulebook.  You can look at a lot of the indie RPG’s and see this game’s fingerprints all over.  Stay or Go? Stay

Vampire the Masquerade, DC by Night, The Succubus Club Even more than Over the Edge, VtM was very groundbreaking when it came out and totally transformed my college gaming group.  D&D and Champions, both of which were action-oriented, were set aside for intense roleplaying sessions.  It also brought in a lot of people, most of them women.  Unfortunately one of these women had a boyfriend who didn’t like the game and wrecked it.  Years later it hasn’t aged well in my opinion.  Stay or Go? Go

Car Wars Division 5 Set 2 Oh yeah, there will be a few wargames in here.  This was part of a late Car Wars relaunch.  Never played it.  Stay or Go? Go

Cyberpunk 2020, Pacific Rim Sourcebook, Hardwired, Greenwar, Solo of Fortune, Solo of Fortune 2, Protect & Serve, Chromebook, Dark Metropolis Cyberpunk 2020 was another early 90’s favorite but suffered from too much extra gear being added on.  Now the technology looks outdated by 2009 standards.  And why didn’t anyone envision wireless internet? Greenwar is a real gem, with the PC’s manipulating the stock market. Stay or Go?  Go

Werewolf the Apocalypse Vampires with all the angst being about pollution instead of being horrific blood-drinking monsters.  Never played it.  Stay or Go?  Go

Deadlands, Deadlands Hell on Earth Deadlands got a boost from the Savage Worlds RPG.  This is the original, a post-apocalyptic /western mash-up sequel to Deadlands.  Stay or Go?  Stay

Star Trek the Roleplaying Game, Star Trek III Sourcebook Update, Ship Recognition Manual: The Klingon Empire, Ship Recognition Manual: The Federation, The Triangle, The Orions Book of Common Knowledge, The Orions Book of Deep Knowledge This is the original RPG for Star Trek, the three-volume set.  I slowly built up this collection for years, trying to track down most of the books FASA made before going under.  I have a lot of sentimentality for this game–memories of a teenager playing roleplaying games for the first time.  Stay or Go? Stay

Well that was the first box, and a little larger than the others.  More as I go along.  If you see a “Go” item and you’re interested, drop me a line and I’ll make you a great deal.

I thought that as long as I was putting up Christmas decorations at home, I’d do the same here on my blog.  I’m hoping that my shipment of Numidians from Wargames Factory will arrive soon and I can get started on trying out the basecoat-and-dip on those.

While I was up in the attic pulling down boxes of Christmas tree lights and ornaments I saw about four boxes of roleplaying games that were consigned up there a few years ago.  I’m thinking I might go and pull some of them down, sort through them, and see if there’s any that I want to sell on eBay.  A lot of them came from my “compulsive RPG buyer” phase and most have never even seen a game table.  But we’ll see and if you’re interested, I’ll post the auction link.