Kings of the North and Other Stuff

Been a long time since I blogged (shame on me).

The Space Wolves, well they got finished and did ok at the tournament, it was an awesome birthday, won 2 games and lost 1. Beat a summoning Chaos Daemon army easily in my first game, my drop pods landed right in their deployment zone and kept them stuck there the whole game as I took apart his psykers and easily whittled his ability to do damage to me piecemeal. Had the time limit not ran out I would have table him.

Second game was humiliating, a Tyranid swarm ripped me apart in a few turns, leaving only my drop pods on the field, it was mucho embarrassing, but the guy is one of the best players in the north east so I am not all that surprised.

Last game against Chaos Space Marines and Chaos Daemons was quite fun, again dropped my Wolves into the middle of his deployment zone and spent the entire game bit by bit pulling him apart, my only downfall was when he summoned a daemon prince of Khorne and he took my last objective from me.

Highlight of the game, was my Rune Priest denying Ahriman every single one of his psychic power manifestations, and then when he killed a Wolf Guard Pack Leader he immediately turned into a Chaos Spawn.

Once again Worhamma put on a brilliant event.

So what else is going on, well I am finally gonna crack open Dreadfleet and build and paint it up with Megans help.

And the biggest thing going on is Kings of the North

 

 

No One Will Do It For Me.

I have for a few years had an idea in the back of my head that has refused to go away, to organise my own wargaming event, but not just a tournament that anyone can do, but something more.

What I have wanted to put together is the Ultimate Gamers Experience, with players staying on site, playing some incredible games, having great food and basically having an amazing time.

We see some amazing events in the US and I have always thought that we can do some much better here, but we just needed to do it. Blue Table Painting put on events they call Vahalla which have influenced me greatly, and well I realised that though I wanted it, and other people wanted it, no one was interested in organising it.

So I realised that I want it, but no one will do it for me, so I need to do it myself. Well that was two years ago. Now earlier in the year I hurt my head, it still hurts to this day but it gave me time and I filled a notepad full of ideas for this event, and I have pushed onwards with it, and the guys from Worhamma got on board with me too after I surveyed the community and found out people wanted it too.

My original idea was more laid back, no real formally organised tournament's, hopefully some guests from the industry, some great terrain and some awesome food and drinks.

However we are now organising an event which is just as good, its a full weekend of tournaments and campaigns, a 2 day 40k tournament, 2 day Dystopian Wars/Legions campaign, 3 single day Malifaux tournaments, and a single day X-Wing tournament.

So Kings of the North is happening on April 17 – 19th, at Moor House Adventure Centre just outside Durham, I have paid the deposit and now have to work hard to make it happen, and you know what I think we have put together a fantastic proposition, for £66 you get two night full board, plus entry to a tournament with prizes, and we already have some amazing sponsors, Hawk Wargames, Spartan Games, KR Multicase, Privateer Press, Kromlech and a few more waiting in the wings too.

I hope people enjoy it, I know I will certainly enjoy organising it, but now already have plans for the original idea to happen in October next year as well, just gotta put the plan together for that one, already a few ideas have been written down.

Anyway I am off for the night, and I must remember to blog more often!

Man Vs. Hobby Day 11

Today I got basing and undercoating done and a little painting too, yay!

Last night I stayed up and added basing material to the models, I add it prior to undercoating because I find the undercoat helps to keep it attached to the base. For basing I use a tub which contains a mixture of bird cage sand, bird cage grit and some kitty litter. In my opinion this gives a great varied texture and is very cheap too.

This morning started off with a visit from a dear friend Chris, was lovely to have a cup of tea and a catch up.

This was followed by two hours of undercoating, for this I have always used the ProDriver Auto Spray Paint from Poundland, its good value and give a nice surface to paint on. I know other people will look down their noses at it, but when one is on a budget one works with what one can afford. Anyway it was very very hot, and I just had enough undercoat to actually do everything, then proceeded to blackout once it was all done due to dehydration.

And of course I was able to begin painting, concentrating on the models that make up the Fierce Eyes Finest formation first. I have laid down a basecoat of The Fang first followed by two very thin layers of Russ Grey, then a wash with Agrax Earthshade, and then another layer of Russ Grey, its slow going, but at least the painting has begun. Tomorrow I continue to get some colour on these models and hopefully order Space Hulk and a Rune Priest in the evening.

Man Vs Hobby Days 8, 9 & 10

Due to blackouts my hobby time has been restricted as has my time to blog, however I have got some stuff done.
But first off let me start with this video that Games Workshop debuted on Monday!
I wonder what this could be, Space Hulk perhaps!!!
Monday I had to go into my doctors to be examined to make sure I wasn’t going to drop dead as a result of the blackouts, and have to have ECGs and wear a heart monitor, not good stuff. Afterwards I did accompany Megan to the Metrocentre, where we had a KFC, my favourite fast food.
Afterwards, she then splashed the cash and bought herself some stuff for her new Ork army, the Ork Mekmob and Badrukk’s Flash Gitz boxes, to add to the two sets of Stormclaw Orks that I gave her, minus a Warboss, I wanted one for my Orks. She also picked up a Talos Pain Engine for her Dark Eldar, because she is into those S&M freaks!
Tuesday, was quiet, had a delivery of some present I bought for Christmas and then I did a bit more Christmas shopping, and today I had to go back to the doctors, we think the blackouts are a result of new diabetes medication, dehydration, my head injury and the chronic fatigue, so lets see how that goes.
Anyway back to hobby stuff well I have built quite a bit thus far, got another unit of Power Armoured Wolf Guard built with their Drop Pod, and two units of Grey Hunters along with their Drop Pods and of course Wolf Guard Pack Leaders in Terminator Armour, I also built the last drop pod as well, meaning now I have built all seven drop pods.
I have still yet to strip the metal Rune Priest, and need to purchase another, but I intend to do that Saturday when I go to the Metrocentre and buy Space Hulk, which is awesome and I cannot wait to get my hands on it, also, hopefully acquire some more of the Terminators for a future Blood Angels allied detachment. Oh and some Genestealers too, you know in case I ever decide to start a Tyranid army up!
I think I am done with building for now, so tomorrow I am going to try and undercoat some of these bad boys at last, and finally begin the painting phase, and lets face it there is an awful lot of painting to do.
For this I think I am mostly going to be following the guide that was put up by Games Workshop movie star Duncan Rhodes in his tutorial video on the GW YouTube Channel. These videos I think have been utterly fantastic and have given some really great tips, particularly for unskilled painters like myself. Anyway lots and lots to do still, so lets get on with it!!!

Man Vs. Hobby Days 6 & 7, & Games with Dylan

The visit of my muggle brother has restricted hobby time, but that's cool cause I have got the chance to spend time with my amazing nephews, Dylan, Rieley and Max.

On Saturday I managed to build a Stormfang, not the best use of the kit but this will serve as my primary anti-armour and anti-air unit until I am able to add a couple of Storm Wolves and perhaps a Fire Raptor. Equipped with Lascannons, Skyhammer Missiles and the Helfrost Destroyer it should pack a nice punch.

I also managed to introduce Dylan to a couple of decent games, Castllan on Saturday and Rampage and Dino Hunt Dice on Sunday, he love them all, however I now have to play Monopoly with him tonight :-(

Castellan is a great game for kids and I really think Steve Jackson Games should try and market the game to younger kids, I suppose the small bits are an issue, but every time I play it as an MiB it goes down amazingly with kids, yeah it's a pricey game, but the components are top notch, the rules are simple and it's a great way to teach resource management and how to plan ahead to children.

On Sunday spent time watching the Great North Run, my brother Paul got an impressive time of 2hrs and 19 Minutes and did me and his family proud, well done you silly idiot!

I did manage to build a single Grey Hunter, used the torso from the Stormfang kit, and I used a Space Marine biker torso for the pilot. Again, I like to mix a few parts around so I get a slightly more unique army, and it's a nice torso, too nice to be behind a canopy!

Due to blackouts the girls had me stay at home rather than either go to South Shields to cheer Paul in as he finished or head up to Newcastle to check out the new Comic Book cafe, but well they have to look after my health, I suppose.

Anyway, tomorrow I plan to do some undercoating and finally strip the Rune Priest, still need to buy an additional Tune Priest however, and perhaps a Wolf Priest too.

Man Vs. Hobby Day 5

Today i have been having blackouts, possibly a combination of my Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, the sever head trauma and a change to my diabetes pill, the girls exiled me to bed fairly early.

So all I did was complete my Void Claws. My brother is coming up to run the Great North Run this weekend for CLIC Sargent, so if you want to support this wonderful charity who helped my nephew Dylan survive leukaemia then visit his Facebook page and show some support and if you can donate something.

Unfortunately my brother is a muggle, so there will be little hobby time with him around, but I hope to get Dylan playing some good board games, all he plays at the moment is Monopoly, despite me giving him a copy of the excellent Castellan for Christmas and Dino Hunt Dice about a month ago. We shall convert the child to our ways yet!!!

Man Vs. Hobby Day 4

Still a bit ill hence the late post again, but got a bit better in the afternoon so I build two drop pods and a unit of Wolf Guard. Also began work on the Void Claws, a rather tasty formation form the champions of Fenris Supplement.

Got the Space Wolves Accessories frame as well so that has been put to use in this Wolf Guard unit, and I think they look pretty cool, the parts are a little retro and do seem to have a bit less detail than the regular Space Wolves stuff but that's because they were designed for the old school Space Wolves box from the late 90s. The ornate backpacks will look really good on the power armoured Wolf Guard Battle Leader for the Grey Hunters I built yesterday, because I really think with the Mk VIII Errant Armour, it needs something really ornate and awesome looking.

The Void Claws are a fantastic little unit and their ability to help with reserve rolls will really help me out a lot, I am heavily basing my Space Wolves around drop pods, why because that's how Space Wolves should roll baby, drop from the skies and pump bolts and melta into the enemy in a crippling alpha strike. Only issue is that they have to wait a turn before they can assault anything, being only armed with Wolf Claws they can’t do any fighting in the turn when they arrive.

I am building them using some parts from a Wolf Guard Terminator set and an Assault Terminator set, again some kit mixing to give a nice varied appearance to these Sky Warriors of Fenris.

Man Vs. Hobby Day 3

Another slow day, mostly spent in bed thanks to the headaches from my ongoing brain trauma and some lovely new side effects from a change in my medication.

Anyway today I managed to build another unit of Grey Hunters and their Wolf Guard.

So here is hoping for a better tomorrow!

Man Vs. Hobby Day 2

Curse my head injury :-(

Late post because my headaches have been quite bad, so no work on the Rune Priest as it needs stripping and the nail varnish remover fumes are not so great for my head.

Anyway so I got the Bloodclaws from

Stormclaw built, which means the Fierce-Eyes Finest are now fully built.

The other unit done yesterday was a unit of Grey Hunters with a Wolf Guard in Terminator armour, also realised how I have only two Terminator Power Axes, and a need a couple more, so off to Bitz-Box I must go.

The first of seven Drop Pods was put together yesterday as well.

Today I plan to finish another unit of Grey Hunters and add basing material to the built models in preparation if being primed, now the question is, should I prime black or dark grey?

In response to a comment from yesterday, I don't have a Lord of War I want to use for the Rout for the forthcoming tourney , I had considered buying an Assault Ram from Forgeworld as they fit the Space Wolf aesthetic in my opinion, but they are banned from this tourney. I

f I were playing Orks then a Stompa would be missed, as it's amazing fun to play, not worth the points but it's incredible when it manages to blow itself up!

I suppose my complaint is more that hey, that huge Necron Obelisk is allowed in, but not say a Thunderhawk, seems nuts to me, considering an Obelisk will tear fliers out of the sky and it's pretty hard to kill.

Anyway, onwards and upwards!

Man Vs. Hobby – Day 1

Today in between tidying up, as much as I can brain injury permitting, and helping to plan this new business venture, I have started out with developing a list for the tournament. Much harder than it first seemed due to the restrictions put in place by the TO.

Restrictions are only 2 detachment's, one must be a combined arms detachment or an army specific detachment and 1 allied detachment, and you can replace either with a single formation. Not great frankly as its hugely disadvantages Tyranids, Space Wolves and Orks, there are also nerfs to invisibility and the psychic powers dice pool, but they shouldn’t impact me. Dataslates, White Dwarf Datasheets and Lords of War over 400pts are also banned, so that rules out almost every Lord of War and Assassins altogether unless you use the formation. I have said it to the TO, and I will continue to say it, I hate restrictions of any kind and these feel more like we should be playing 5th.

But grumbling aside, I shall develop a plan that works, but it will be difficult to do in a way that I like, not because I am a WAAC guy but more because I like lists that are fun to play and have decent fluff.

I have also ordered a couple of the Space Wolves Accessories frames and a few paints to help me out with this, the accessories frames will give me a few little bits to add into the army to give it a bit more flavour, I already have some standard marine squads that I intend to mix with the Space Wolves stuff, so it should look quite varied.

So building and painting, well I have built a Wolf Lord, in this case Krom Dragongaze the Fierce-Eye as I also going down for Warhammer Fest in October, I may paint him up to enter into the Golden Demon, I have no hope in hell of winning anything, but it will be fun to put something in for a laugh, and as my nana says, shy bairns get nowt. Anyway, I highly doubt he will be in my tournament list, which is right now not ideal because its low points and to be competitive I really need to introduce cheese, which I don’t like at all.

I have made a start on building the Fierce-Eyes Finest, not for the tournament, but firstly, its not a bad formation and given its special rules, I can see me using it as a self contained small allied force that can concentrate on taking out a single troublesome enemy, while the rest of my army does its thing.

Anyway I have built today, alongside the Fierce-Eye himself, Hengist Ironaxe’s Grey Hunters and The Fierce-Eye’s Wolf Guard.

Tomorrow I move onto Egil Redfist’s Blood Claws and hopefully a Rune Priest.

Its Been a While & Man Vs. Hobby

Wow so I sort of forgot this blog then! Other things got in the way, not least of all a traumatic head injury, which has left me with pretty nasty post concussion syndrome and a constant splitting headache. I also managed to lose 5 weeks of memories so yeah not fun.

Oh well I shall use it for something right now and try to be a better blogger!
When Stormclaw was announced I realised oh wow there is going to be a huge number of cheap Space Wolves hitting eBay, so I decided, right that's it I am starting Space Wolves. I have been looking for a new project, I also have Eldar on the go, but the Space Wolves have a certain appeal.

More than that I am making it a challenge, between the 1st September and my birthday 5th October I shall be building a Space Wolves army. Now since I decided that a tourney for my birthday has been announced, Sunderland Slaughter 2 at the fantastic Worhamma club, seriously if you are the North East, visit this club it's amazing, also they do some amazing deals on games to buy.

Anyway, my entry at the tournament isn't paid yet, no money until Tuesday, and I originally had some concerns about the restrictions put in place by the TO. Now those who know me will be aware that any restrictions always annoy me, they often are said to be attempts to balance the game, but I tend to find all they do is introduce huge bias and they create an over competitive environment, also I really like the new styles of armies that are coming into games these days with the new supplements, dataslates, datasheets, formations etc.

A few weeks ago I played against an incredible list, it had several detachments and embodied what 7th edition is to me, it contained Adepta Sororitas, Inquisition, Militarum Tempestus, Imperial Knight, Cypher, a Shadowsword and an Imperial Stronghold. It was a 2500pt game and was full of awesomeness, my Dark Angels won the day thanks to mobility, but it was incredible fun to play against. And in a standardish game of 2000pts I played with my Orks against Necrons with a Transcendent C’Tan, got my arse handed to me, but it was fun.

Fun is the point of the game and fun is why I play, when I go to a tournament I do not go to win, I go to enjoy the games I play. Anyway that's my complaint done and dusted.

Right Space Wolves, I have acquired a nice pile of plastic, though I still have more to get, including a few more drop-pods, but this pile shall arise as the Sky Warriors of Russ, The Rout, the Vlka Fenryka. Still working out the list, the original plan was 2000pts but with the tournament being a mere 1500pts it needs reworking a lot. So tomorrow I start, I am also cleaning the house for our landlords annual inspection and developing a business plan for a new venture that a friend and I are looking into, but plan to being building a few of these guys at least, and shall update this blog daily with my progress.

For Russ! For the Wolftime!

Recommendations of Good Board Games to Play

So a few people have been playing games since Christmas, and unfortunately these are not good games, Monopoly and Cranium are bad games, very bad games. Ideally they should never be played.
So I have compiled a short list if some good basic games, any of these are great games, and far better to play than Monopoly. You can buy them from Travelling Man in Newcastle or Beanie Girl Store in Stockton, as well as from various online stores such as Northumbria Games and OG Games.
Most of these would be considered designer board games and I have tried to limit myself to games which have a TableTop episode, but I wanted to make sure that I covered some of the fun and reasonably easy to at games, also I had to own them cause I can't talk about games I don't own can I!
Anyway to my friends who still think Monopoly is the height of board games, take a look at some if these, and if you want to try them, let me know and I will set up a game night.

Ticket to Ride

Brilliant game full of strategy and tactical thinking with a little luck, you can only take one action per turn, what do you do, it's so light hearted but so deep at the same time. Be one of a group of travellers attempting to traverse as many railroots in early 20th century America, or if you prefer you could buy the European, German or Nordic version.

Pandemic

An incredible cooperative game where you get to cure a set of nasty plagues and work to cure them before they get out of control and doom the world. Requires a lot of team work as more often than not the game will beat you.

Carcassonne

A personal favourite of mine, a tile placement game where you build up the countryside and cities of medieval Carcassonne. Can be brilliant fun and allows for some brilliant strategy, and has lots of expansions to allow you to grow the game from simple brilliant fun, into a fiendishly complex game.

The Settlers of Catan

The ultimate gateway game of resource management, often described as German monopoly, but it's easier to understand, has a good mix of luck and strategy and keeps players in the game right to the end with a chance of winning. About as mainstream as this list gets, also Wood for Sheep!!!

Takenoko

Set in Imperial Japan, and it has a Panda. You act to satisfy the demands of three characters a gardener trying to grow bamboo, a panda trying to eat said bamboo and the emperor who wants his garden all pretty like. Sounds complex but is really simple, luck plays a big part but it's sweet and beautiful.

Forbidden Island

A reimplementation of Pandemic, cooperative, simple, easy to learn easy to play, great artwork, some great components and it comes in a tin. The island is constantly changing and the game us still quite quick and everyone stays involved. Also quite cheap.

Love Letter

Just 16 cards and a few red cubes but what a game! It's all about getting as close to the princess as possible, and it's not a game if luck as it appears to be, but rather one if deduction. It's charming, it's cheap and has more strategy than it initially appears to have.

Dixit

A beautiful and creative game with some lovely bunny pieces, brilliant for kids. It's about interpreting images and trying to give a little clue so others can guess what you are thinking, but you don't want everybody to know! Simply put this is the most beautiful board game I have ever played, the Germans should be worried, the French did good!

Munchkin

I am a big fan, if you have enjoyed any kind of fantasy based RPG then you will on the floor howling in laughter, if you are a fantasy virgin, you are still gonna love this game. There is a lot of luck involved but overall it's a lovely silly game and one of my all time favourites because it is just so much fun, also I often get to be the biggest Munchkin!

Bohnanza

A fun little game where you get to grow and trade beans to earn money, unusual in that you cannot under any circumstances rearrange your hand. It's a great game with lots if variety and the designer really knows his stuff, as one would expect from the mind of the guy who designed Agricola and Le Harve. The final score is always close and you are always in with a chance right until the games end. Just be careful not to overplay it.