Cancon Trip 2019

Not much in the way of hobby the last week or so, but the wife, Arwen and myself headed down to Canberra for CanCon 2019 over the weekend. Jen and I have been using it as a yearly holiday for ourselves but this year took down the youngest to see what she thought of it.

As usual we detoured over to the Australian War Memorial, but this year we added the National Museum and checked out the Rome City and Empire exhibit currently on loan out there. I have to say it was an exceptional display.

CanCon itself was great and I snapped a few photos here and there of some of the nicer table layouts.

I've got a few things on the go at the moment, ranging from my ongoing Tyranids to a mass of Zulus to be followed by some colonial British. So hopefully I'll have something more hobby or game related to post up soon.

1914 vs The Youngest

Arwen and I finally managed to get a game in of the 1914 rule set from Great Escape Games. Her Belgium force may not be quite done, but she was far enough along we could finally get some minis on the table and see how the game played.

The game play is based around the management of command tokens and morale tokens. At the start of each turn you allocate your command tokens across the various battalions of your force, then use them to activate your units as required. As a unit activates the difficulty to reactivate them is increased each time. This can be further increased as they come under fire and begin to take morale tokens.

By the end of the second turn we'd got our heads around the mechanics and both really enjoyed the game. I did manage to win the game at the end of the fifth turn having taken two of her battalions off the table, but it was quite a close game. The use of the cavalry as a bluffing/scouting mechanic was also quite a nice touch which led to a couple of tense moments for both of us as we stumbled upon the others' actual regiments. We'll be getting another game in soon hopefully and I'll try to organise a more detailed AAR.

1914 German Brigade Completed

Ended up finishing them off this morning. I think they look rather nice now they're all finished off. Arwen did end up falling a little behind, but it's too be forgiven as she's doing a final push on the study for her learners permit. She is at the point where everything but her guns are primed and ready to hit the bases so the current plan is for a game on Sunday.

1. Completed cavalry

2. Completed dismounted cavalry

3. German Command

4. Field gun sections

5. Finished German WW1 Brigade

6. Infantry Battalions 

7. Infantry Battalions

I've read the rulebook a couple of times and it seems to be a fairly simple set of rules, just have to wait and see how it plays once it's on the table now.

More 1914 German Progress

I've managed to keep up at least a few hours of work each day for the last few days and things are progressing nicely. I've finished off the infantry except for a coat of varnish (the weather hasn't really been cooperating for a rattle can), the artillery just needs a wash and a touch up (and to be glued down) and I've made a fair start on the cavalry stands. Not sure if I'll get too much more done today but I'm hoping to be able to have them done and on the table by Sunday.

1. Wash down on infantry

2. Alternate view

3. Machine gun section

4. WIP on the artillery

5. WIP on mounted cavalry

6. WIP on unmounted cavalry

7. Finished infantry and machine gun section

8. Alternate view infantry and machine gun sections

I toyed with straight static grass at first, but after the first I ended up mixing up a couple of fine flocks (dark and burnt green) as well a little static grass for a bit of depth. They may not be the most finished of projects I've done but from a table top view I quite happy with result.

Progress on 1914 Germans

Not a hugely exciting update today. Spent a fair amount of the day painting. I haven't started the cavalry yet but I've made a decent dent in the infantry, finishing off all the main uniforms, flesh and made a fair start on the webbing.

1. Bases and uniforms

2. Flesh blocked in

3. Started on webbing

Arwen didn't get much done as she was rather engrossed in her new book, though she has finished off her bases and seeing as she approached things a different way has begun to glue down her Belgians.

Hobby "Challenge" for Great Escape Games 1914

My youngest and I purchased some 12mm World War One armies for Great Escapes Games 1914 towards the first half of last year. We decided that while I was on holidays we'd set aside a few days and get it out of the box and on the table. Yesterday saw the beginning of that "challenge".

1. Everything checked off ready to go

2. Putting down some texture

3. Ready for priming

4. Arwen falling behind.
(She did catch up most of the way)

5. Primed 

6. Base colour down

7. Base Highlight

I haven't undercoated with either white or a rattle can for a while now, but for sake of ease I went with it for this project. The bases are done with a Reaper Volcanic Brown base and a Reaper Harvest Brown as the highlight. 1914 is designed to represent the more flowing parts of the early and late war rather than the more commonly known trench based aspects of the war, so I'll be finishing the bases off with some static grass and tufts. I've got a few more stands to highlight starting today, then I'll be making a start on the infantry.

Warhammer 40k & Age of Sigmar vs The Brother

Headed north for a couple of games against my brother today. Started off with a game of 40k bringing the newly painted Trygon onto the table and then managed to squeeze in an introduction to Age of Sigmar.

The 40k game saw my Tyranids come up against his Necrons. While the final score saw me without a point to my name the game itself was much tighter than that would have you believe. I've come away with a few tweaks to try with my force and a larger disliking of reanimation protocols and quantum shielding :).

The forces square off

Trygon tunnels behind enemy lines bringing a unit of Warriors

My first attempt at a Genestealer charge

A whole mess of 6s on the overwatch shots

Trygon gets stuck in

2nd attempt a a Genestealer charge

A much better result for me

Trygon still sits at the back tying up half the Necron force, this is the moment when I discover the more damage I do the easier it is for the Quantum Shielding to save the Necron warlord.

Broodlord holding his own despite constantly re-animating necrons

A rather depopulated table leaving the Necrons holding all four objectives.

After packing up the SciFi we quickly set up for Age of Sigmar with my brother lending my his Khorne force while he took his.... I can't remember the new name for them but basically Ogres on woolly rhinos. I did manage to sneak a 6 to 2 win on this one, but we both found a few things we'd played incorrectly in this one which may have narrowed the margin.

Not a bad way to spend a Saturday really. Hoping to get another game in before I have to go back to work depending on how things flow over the next week.