7th February - Guildball vs The Brother and Kings of War vs The Wife

Got a game of Guildball in with The Brother last Tuesday and I'm happy to say he enjoyed it. I had borrowed Toby's Butchers for him and of course I fielded my Morticians. It had been a while since I'd got a game of it in so the first couple of turns were a little slow and there was a few minor mistakes made, but by the end of the game we had it all down. We finished up with a narrow win to The Brother in a goalless game. I did attempt one run at goal but he managed to intercept me and get the ball away. I sent him home with my collection of Butchers to do with as he will.

Early turn two

Graves spreads some bleeds

Cosset takes down Brisket with a little help

Meathook knocks Obulus from behind

Boar sees an opportunity and puts Obulus down

The big men face off

Graves gets revenge for Obulus

Ox strips the ball from Silence

I'm really looking forward to seeing what The Brother does with his team but I'll have to wait until he finishes off the final few minis for his Caledonian Ariadna force for Infinity.

I also got another game of Kings of War in, this time against The Wife and her Goblins. Once again my opponent perhaps hadn't finished (or even started her army) but I had a few old bits and pieces from an old orcs and goblins army of mine to help this time and giving how nice her Frostgrave wizard and apprentice are coming along I'm willing to let things go. The game took place over the course of the week as we could fit bits in between so again not the best battle rep but I'll take some notes next game like I'm supposed to ;).

Abyssal Dwarf Line

Goblin Line 

Dwarves start breaking Goblin lines

Goblins make a comeback

Final combat of the game breaks the Spitters
[Ignore the dust on the Goblins ;)]

I've got two days off coming up now so I'm hoping to get my Britanan CSM and Troopers finished off and maybe start playing around with a terrain piece or two. I've also got a Dropzone Commander game planned against Toby on Tuesday and The Youngest wants a Kings of War rematch as well so hopefully getting quite a bit of hobby in.

2nd February - 31st Jan Kings of War vs The Youngest and Broken Purchasing Vows :)

The more I get done on my Abyssal Dwarves the more I've been feeling like getting an actual game in before the challenge against The Eldest Niece. The Youngest decided she was the one to step up and help me get the practice in. Now as of yet she hasn't managed to assemble her Undead force but sat down with me and built an army based off one of the Mantic boxed sets. This was going to give us a 635 point game [nice round number really ;)]. She's since built her list up to 1000 points but I think we'll need to do some research into the magic items to bolster a few units here and there.





We rolled up the straight forward "Kill!" scenario and set to deploying. Neither of us took any ranged troops so it was going to be a fairly straight forward clash of lines. Her Necromancer was unfortunately not having his best day with his Surge spell failing to really bring anyone forward more than inch or two each turn.

My gargoyles proved to be rather deadly but a change facing move followed with her only effective Surge of the game saw her mummies hit them and crush them in a single turn. They then proceeded to collapse most of my flank until finally running out of steam on the third troop I had in their path.

The centre I had more firmly under control with my Blacksoul and Lesser Obsidan Golem regiments crushing everything she threw at them. Although I did stall on the Zombies for a couple of turns.




I have to say I was really impressed with how easy the rules were to pick up and also how smoothly the game plays. I'm thinking this will be my Mass Battle Fantasy choice for the foreseeable future and I'll be looking at setting up some form of campaign to add a bit of continuing story line to the game. [I may insist on seeing some models at least partially completed first though :)].






As to broken vows, I had told The Wife that we'd (I'd) slow down on mini purchases for at least the first six months of the year. I even managed to spend the entire weekend at Cancon refusing to buy any models for myself (several for The Wife and The Daughters though, plus a few rule books and terrain for me) I finally caved when upon getting home Tor Gaming decided to have a 25% sale on the Relics store. Some Dragoons, Heavy Dragoons, a Hunting Pack, Grenadiers and an Arcanum Guard later and I can safely say I broke that vow. Luckily for me she bought slightly more pound worth of Nuem and had a good laugh at my expense :). Seeing as I had made my purchase and finished off my Angkor Heavy Mortars (and wanted a break from Dwarves for the moment) (photo to come I haven't quite managed to get a decent one of them yet) I've begun work on my Company Sargent Major and a unit of Troopers.

I also had The Brother drop round today and we got in a game of Guildball. I've been trying to organise a game with him for the last couple of months to give him a look at it but we always ended up playing something else so it was good to finally get it on the table. We had a few hiccups as I forgot a few bits and had to do a bit of flicking through the book (it'd been a while between games) but after a few turns I had it down again and it went smoothly. He walked away with a narrow win (got me with kills) and I gifted him my Butchers to call his own so I'm looking forward to see what he does with them. I'll get a report up in the next couple of days hopefully but I'm covering one of the guys anniversary weekend this week so it'll depend on how I go for time.

29th January - 26th Saga vs The Youngest

The Youngest didn't feel like board games at the Australia Day barbecue at my place, so I volunteered to play something else with her. After a bit of a brainstorm she decided she'd like to have a game of Saga. So borrowing two points worth of models from her sisters Norse Gael we setup for a Champion of God clash (Basic slaughter/victory point game).

She won the toss and began with an aggressive move with her dog unit (Irish special warrior choice). I was playing around with some different unit size compositions in this game and met her charge with my large block of warriors who not only cut her dogs down at the loss of four of there own went on to take out the trailing group of hearthguard behind them and finish up with still two of the original twelve souls on their feet.

It was at this point I was subjected to some very well used Irish Champions (single model half-warlord type units) and some very nice use of her battle board with both Champions being used to great effect cutting down swathes of Viking warriors while seemingly shrugging off blows the would fell lesser men. While I eventually managed to pull one of them down with a warrior unit her other champion not only survived an attack from one of my hearthguard choices but only left one of them standing.

My Berserkers did there job taking out her six man hearthguard block but unfortunately they were wiped in the combat as I was going to swing what was left of them (if any) into that surviving man to try to bring him down.




Not letting herself focus on any one section of the battlefield this time The Youngest also kept a unit in reserve and was able to completely stall my flanking attempt with relative ease.




It was only in the last turn of the game I was able to grab my victory using my warlords "bodyguard" (read sacrificial) unit of warriors to charge in and take out her favourite champion (with use of Valhalla giving me an additional eight dice versus some poor rolling from her) and a last action charge of warlord on warlord (though I may have managed to "Side by Side" my warriors into the fray as well).


It was a great game with a close finish and it really did come down to the dice on this one. She had been getting her US Ariadna stuck together over the last week of her holidays so I'm looking forward to her getting them finished off and getting some Infinity in with her in the upcoming year. The Eldest has been getting a few bits and pieces in herself and has decided she wants her own Nomads for Infinity rather than relying on mine so I picked her a few bits and pieces up down at Cancon.

Going to be hopefully getting together with The Brother soon to put on a demo game of Guildball for him and I'll be handing my Butchers guild over to him if he enjoys it.

28th January - 24th Visit to the Australian War Memorial

I'm afraid I didn't get a lot of photos of anything while at Cancon (read that as none I meant to take some of the amazing tables but just never quite managed to pull out my phone) I did however get some shots while at the War Memorial.

Gallipoli Landing Boat

Barrel from captured Amiens Railway Gun

A couple of bi-planes, I'm afraid I don't know a lot about these but you've got to admire the fact that people were willing to not only fly but fight in these.

You may be able to spot
The Brother and The Uncle in this one

You might be able to spot myself and The Uncle in this one

 Got quite a few shots of the Mephisto 

(WWI German A7V tank)

Bullecourt

Dernancourt

Lone Pine

Un-exploded German WWII bomb

I got a game of Saga in against The Youngest on Australia Day so I'll attempt a write up of that in the next couple of days I'm having to adjust to being back at work after a whole four days away ;).

21st January - Painting Update

Well I've been pretty busy getting a whole mess of nothing done :). While that's not entirely true, we've been playing through our new wave of board games, on the war game front I've not done an huge amount.

The Wife and I played a game of Relics finally. Her Nuem up against my Britanan, I haven't got any photos as it was mostly un-assembled models none of which was even primed. Enjoyed the game and after reading through the 2nd edition beta rules on the web site I'm interested to see where they end up but I like the direction they seem to be taking. I followed this up with a game against The Youngest and her Vaettir. I lost both of these games but it's spurred us all onto getting this glued and primed.

On the painting front I've managed to finish off my gargoyles for my Abyssal Dwarves and I've moved on to my Angkor Heavy Mortars. 

Gargoyles

WIP Mortar teams

The Current Force [I may need a bigger light box ;)]

Halfbreeds, another set of Lesser Golems, the Greater Golem and my Slave Orcs to go. But I'm thinking the Britanan will probably hit the table next and possible the remaining couple of figures for my Nomad and PanO forces for Infinity so every one in the house has a full 300 point force ready for the upcoming Beasts of War online campaign once it launches.

Heading down to Canberra this week end for Cancon with The Brother and The Uncle so looking forward to that. I'm also entering my first tournament on the Monday with the Saga: Southern Fury Grand Melee so looking forward to getting a few games in with some different people and seeing how I go.

7th January - Quick Hobby Update

Just a quick one before I head off to work today. I've got a few shots of the last couple of Antenocitis Workshop Forward Base buildings and a shot of my Cracked Earth Studio buildings.

The Forward Base Buildings:

Hab 8 - Recreation Centre

Hab 5 - Workshop + TAG Bay

Hab 9 - Armoury

[This will look more impressive once I get the gun inserts painted and in the cabinets :)]

And the prepainted Cracked Earth Terrain:

They are slightly modular with the sphere in cog on the tower and the water tank & one of the chimney stacks being removable from the inn. I'm definitely going to be picking up the ruined building they have on offer and possibly one or two other bits as well.

That's about it for today, I've started painting up the rest of the gargoyles for Kings of War so I'll hold off with the pics of the completed unit and just put them all up when they're done.