And now for something completely different.

So, on one of the various forums which I frequent, a discussion has started on the old Steve Jackson game, Car Wars.  Car Wars was a great little game initially, which, over a decade and some, grew to encompass not just cars and motorcycles shooting at each other with machine guns, but trikes, buses, helicopters, airplanes, boats, hovercraft, tanks, and eventually even nuclear devices. 

Part of the discussion has been largely a complaint about how hard the old system was, with too many trick ammunition types, a near-constant use of laser-guided rockets and ramplates, and so on.  I will concede that, at a certain point (Tank Wars?  Really?) the game got a little silly, but in my experience, while rockets and ramplates were fairly common, they were not broken.  (I will also concede that both could have benefited from minor tweaks, but that is a far cry from decrying them as broken.)

Anyway, I'm happy that the game will be coming back, sometime later this year or early next, I believe.  I like a little bit of vehicular combat in my gaming rotation, and, while I am generally quite happy with Warlands,  I always enjoyed the vehicle construction process for Car Wars. parts of it were clunky and odd (like, say, tires counting against the maximum chassis weight), but, in general, it worked.

Anyway, cleaning out the basement got me thinking about it, since I found a goodly chunk of my old Car Wars stuff.  Maybe I will see about teaching my son how to play, and pushing some Micromachine cars around a map, making machine gun and laser noises.

A random thought on terrain

About this time last year, I posted about some mountains that I had built.  I got some nice comments on it, and at least one was along the lines of "I don't think I could do that."

And, today, I was reading through a thread on a zeppelin docking tower on the forums. It's a truly impressive piece, and obviously took a lot of time, but what struck me was the number of comments along the line (again) of "I could never build that."

theproffet (who built it) said in one of his posts, "Im trying to encourge people to build there own stuff, not just quit and feel sorry for them self. this defenetly isn't my first building and the only way you learn i by doing."

The reason this really jumped out at me is because, just the other day, I picked up a copy of "Great Model Railroads, 2013."  My son really loves trains, and I am currently in the process of getting ready to tear down his existing layout (a simple 4' x 8') and make a new, considerably bigger one.  So, it's mainly an ideas book, looking through to see what other people have done.  At the very end, on the last page, is a quick viewpoint article.

It's titled "You, too, can build a great model railroad," and the main thrust of the article is exactly this defeatist attitude that I have been seeing.  The author states that it's not rooted in the belief that the speaker does not currently possess the skills, but rather, that they never will. 

I build (and have built) a lot of terrain over the years.  What stops me from building things like the zeppelin tower is primarily a lack of desire and time.  I am reasonably confident that, if I wanted to build something like that, I could do so.  But it would not be my first try at building something, and frankly, I don't think my first attempt at houses were exceptional; except perhaps in the sense that, with a small amount of effort, they were easily reclassed as "ruins".  Or possibly, "garbage."

My first attempts at painting were bad.  Very bad.  Random blobs of red and blue and yellow and orange and purple, all on the same miniature bad.  I have improved somewhat since then.  Not as much as I would like, but enough that I am no longer ashamed to have my stuff on the table.  Now I just need to work on my speed, and see if I can work on the backlog before I pick up a bunch of stuff come spring.

Huh.

Looking over the blog stats, apparently someone arrived at my blog by doing a google search for "reaper sophie was bad enough" - who knew?

Wow, I'm slacking.

I'm blaming that massing GenCon series for nothing being posted in the last couple of days.  That, and I did not have much to say.  Tonight, I have three quick things:

First, I have started putting together all three of the colossals/gargantuans together.  At the same time.  At least I did not toss all the bits together into the same bag or anything.  The mountain king is certainly recognizable - the chains, whelps, etc are not on, but the majority of the model is in place.  The hyperion is a torso and legs - I will put the arms on tomorrow, but the shoulder pads of doom and the extra vents & assorted bits will probably remain off for a while.  And the wold wrath is a distant third - parts are trimmed and cleaned, but nothing glued.  I hope to have legs & torso tomorrow.  None of the three will be fully assembled until they are painted.

Which brings me to point two. I am finally going to break down and get an airbrush.  I got to try the Grex airbrush at GenCon, and I really liked the pistol grip.  I think the big honkin' 120mm based models are telling me that they need an airbrush.  So, I'm going to have to play with them unpainted for a bit until I can pick it up.  (I know, I know - me, play with unpainted figs?  Quell horror!)

Third - if you are a fan of Reaper minis, or are a GM, go check out their current kickstarter.  It has 40 hours or so to go, and it is currently just past the $2 million mark.  I'm not telling people to join in because I am worried that they will miss the goal or anything - but if you GM a fantasy game, and you can swing it, the $100 Vampire level is going to give you almost 200 miniatures.  I'm trying to keep my total on it to under $200 - but there is the clockwork dragon, and the undead one, and the figure case, and the . . . .

Pre-GenCon thoughts, musings, and randomness

So, GenCon is in a couple of days.  My first thought is a rather comforting "Holy $*&$!  I am nowhere near ready for this."  Seriously.  I have something like 35 items currently in the auction or the consignment store.  Many of them are terrain items (I am a licensed seller of Hirst Arts stuff - basically, I make terrain) - not all of them are done.  Most of them are very, very close - I should knock off a bunch of them tonight without much effort.  The others will take a bit more work, but should be done by mid-day tomorrow.

The rest of it is random gaming detritus that has collected in the basement over the years.  That stuff, I just have to bag and tag, more or less.  Easy peasy rice and cheesy.

I have a pretty good shopping list already worked up.  I want to go pick up Leviathans.  It's an alternate-earth, armored airships game, which sounds like fun.  It's going to be pricey, so I am hoping that it is worth it.

Malifaux is a game that I have been meaning to try.  I picked up a bunch of Malifaux figs in a trade a few weeks ago, so GenCon will give me a chance to go try the game.  I'll be picking up the core rules, and there is a new set coming out that looks like fun.  Metal railroad golem, a crazy Harry kind of guy with a wheelbarrow full of dynamite, and a spitting image of John Henry?  Yeah, I'm in on that.

Fantasy Flight is coming out with a new Star Wars spaceship game.  I'm not super-happy with the number of ships in the core box, especially at that price point, but I'll still almost sold on it, just because it is Fantasy Flight, and Star Wars.  I'll have to see it to push me over the edge.

Privateer Press is going to get a goodly amount of my money, especially if the Hyperion is out.  Or the Galleon.  I plan on picking up the IKRPG, a colossal or two, a gatorman witch doctor, and filling out some other holes in my collection.  If the 2-player Hordes starter is out, that's great, but I'll probably have to hold out on it for a while - both Circle and Legion need beefing up, but I want to plug some other gaps first.

I've been thinking about Wiz-War for a long time, but it has been OOP.  Fantasy Flight has brought it out again, so it looks like I can finally pick it up.  And, that really means that I will also wind up making a Hirst Arts board for it at some point.

I picked up MERCS in a trade a while ago (same trade as the Malifaux).  I'll stop by the booth and see if I can get a demo.  I have several of the factions already, but might pick up another.  I like the idea of buying one set of six figs, and being basically set for any game.

I'll do a lot of wandering, just to randomly see what is in the exhibit hall, and naturally I will check out the auction and consignment store.  (I'll be looking to see what of mine has sold, but also looking for bargains.)  And, if you happen to wander by the Privateer booth on Friday, or are in the Iron Arena area Thursday or Friday nights, stop by and say hi.

And hey - leave a comment here, if there is anything at GenCon that you think I should check out.  The exhibit hall is big, so I'm going to miss things.  A heads-up would be appreciated.

Hooray for GenCon registration!

OKay, so "hooray" might not be the best of terms, since it was a frustrating process ("I clicked as soon as it went live, and I am number 1836?  WTF?"), but I managed to get 7 of the 10 events that I wanted at the end of the day, and I still have plenty of time for working the PP area, and for scoping for deals in the exhibit hall.

What did I sign up for?  A PP speed painting event, a demo of Heap, Level 7 and the new IKRPG.  I signed with some friends for a Mordheim tourney, got into a LEGO Robo Rally game, and I am going to try out Warlands.  I'll probably get a couple of generic tickets, just in case I see something interesting and have some time to fill at various and sundry points.

I missed out on the Car Wars event, failed to get into a Call of Cthulhu game with my friends, and did not manage to get into any of the Wiz-War events.  Still, I'll keep an eye out on things, and add them if they open up.  And, if they don't - well, I helped make sure that the Ogre kickstarter hit the point where Steve Jackson is going to work on Car Wars as well.  Maybe both Ogre and Car Wars will be at GenCon again next year.

I did not sign up for any Warmachine or Hordes events.  I am not nearly good enough for any of the tourneys, and the Iron Arena takes only generic tickets, so while I will be playing some Warmahordes, it won't be in any tourney environment.  Still, that doesn't mean that I don't need to get some more stuff painted.

I've been slacking on that front lately.  The Boneswarm is assembled, and should be primed tomorrow.  I have 3 Man O War shocktroopers that are approaching completion, and I have a couple other models on the way.  I just need to get down to the basement and paint - fortunately, this weekend spells the end of some of my obligations, and I get some of my spare time back again.  Tomorrow night, it's nothing but the painting table, once the kids are in bed.

Huzzah!

Yesterday, I managed several hours of painting.  Unfortunately, it was a room, not anything related to gaming.  And thus do my miniatures linger in some sort of primed or bare metal limbo.

I should finally be finishing up some of those pesky real-life interruptions today, and, with a little luck, will carve out a good, dedicated hour of painting tonight once the kids are in bed.  Not sure what I will be working on, however - I have a bunch of projects all sitting out at once, and I should probably just clear some of them off the table and concentrate on a few of them for a week or two - or until they are finished, whichever comes first.

The month is half over, and I am not really close to having 5 points done yet, so I need to get cracking.

Rocketry and list-building

Earlier today (or possibly late last night), I had a (very mild) epiphany: rocketry and listbuilding are, in some ways, very related activities.  No, seriously, bear with me here - there are some similarities between playing with little plastic and metal toy soldiers and lighting an extremely flammable substance in order to hopefully propel a cardboard tube with a pointed wooden tip at high speeds.

For starters, both involve lots of money.

Okay, kidding aside, here is my point.  I often sit down and, armed either with ibodger or a deck, start to build an army.  To an extent, I know what works for me and what doesn't.  I know what I can do with Lord Carver and a bunch of farrow brigands (besides lose, anyway).  I have a Terminus list that seems to work fairly well for me, although it needs some tweaking.  But, when I have a new unit or caster, I don't really know how well it will work with my playstyle and in my local meta.  I can read all the forums that I want, but until I actually put Ossyan and Hypnos on the table together, and play some games with them, I don't really know how well they work for me.  And, one game isn't really enough - you need a larger sample size to determine if your wins (or loses) are flukes, or serious problems with the list.

So, how does this relate to model rockets?  Well, right now, I have three rockets that I have been working on this week.  Two of them are relatively simple builds - an Estes Viking and an Estes Wizard - similar, though not identical to, other rockets that I have built.  I am building them mainly because they can take C motors, and are light enough to hit roughly 1600 feet with the right motor.  (As I said, I want to take advantage of a club launch with a flight ceiling higher than 1000 feet).  So, just like a Carver + Brigands list, or my Terminus list, I feel reasonably confident that, even though each kit is new to me, they are similar enough to what has come before that they will take off and fly without a problem.

The other kits - an Estes QCC Explorer - is a considerably more complicated.  It's an entirely new type of build - and, just as is the case with a new faction, or even a new unit or warcaster, it may not perform the way that I think it will.  I have build lists that I thought looked good on paper, only to get slaughtered (repeatedly) on turn 2, or were fine in general play, but could not handle scenarios.  Likewise, there is a chance that, come its inaugural launch, the Explorer will explode into a thin cloud of cardboard and balsa pieces, rocketing upward at 200 mph or so.

In other words - theorymachining is a good thing, but until the figs and the dice hit the table, no matter how good something looks on paper, you can't really know how well it will do.  You may have a pretty good idea, based on experience, but when trying something new, sometimes you just have spectacular failures.

Random podcast thought

While I like to listen to gaming podcasts while I paint, I am wondering if they don't enable my army altaholism or something. Last night, I was originally working on some Khador stuff (had a couple of lists I want to try soon, and I wanted to work on the gun carriage too), but listening to a Retribution tactica had me thinking about working on my psychotic elves for a while too.

 (Quick aside - not sure if I like the new blogspot interface when it comes to posting.)

Update

Gotta download pics off the camera, but so far today, all I have done is started assembling the stuff from the 2-player starter. And moved 6 cubic yards of dirt. Yeah, that was fun.

Probably won't be priming the full units from the starter until tomorrow night, but I am thinking about trying out Khador this weekend. Especially since a trade arrived today: a unit of widowmakers, greylords, minimum WG (yay - infantry spam!) and berserker. Plus a heirophant for my Menite scum. Between the trade and the starter, I just about doubled my khador collection.

I'm baaaack

That's right, back safe and sound from an 1800-mile (round-trip) driving experience. going to take some pics today of stuff I finished just before I left, try to assemble the figs from the 2-player starter, and do some general terrain building. That's all more important than mowing the small jungle which I laughingly call my yard, right?

How are the game stores in your area?

Over at Jestor's Mini Playhouse, there is a colorful (but PG) little rant about the various and sundry FLGS in his area. I made a comment (reposted below), but wondered what game stores are like for other people out there.

I said:

Locally, my little town has 2 game/comic stores. The first could probably get PP stuff for me, but they mainly stock Reaper stuff, and some RPGS - most of their trade is comics, and that is actually where I get my 4 color fix.

The other game store charges $5 to play. I can see why they do it, but OTOH, if I have to pay $5 to play, then I am less likely to drop another $12 or so on a warcaster or solo on impulse. (They also don't stock PP stuff - lots of board games and GW stuff.) In fact, if I started thinking about playing there on a regular basis, then the $260 per year that I would pay in table fees would almost certainly mean that on-line retailers would see most of my business, instead of the FLGS.

The nearby towns have one store that also charges a fee, and flat-out refuses to order PP stuff. (He said he might change his mind, if enough people were there playing it, on a weekly basis. Yarite.) The last one is nice, charges no fee, and until last week, could not carry any PP stuff. We played there, and continue to do so, and now that he has PP stuff in stock, we are buying from him when possible.

That is, more or less, a decent summary of gaming in this area of SW Michigan. If I am willing to drive an hour or so, I can find some nice stores, and the one where I have been hanging my dice is nice enough. I can deal with the store being less-than-clean (although dingy and filthy are bad), if the staff is pleasant and the store acts like they want my business. OTOH, it doesn't matter how nice the play area is, or how much stock there is - if the staff is rude or otherwise disagreeable, then I may do no more than walk in, buy stuff and leave. While that seems like a good deal for the store, I know that I buy more (sometimes considerably more) when I play and linger - and I run demos and the like in order to encourage more people to game. If I don't stay in the store, I'm not going to try and create more business for them, and may steer people to a friendlier store instead.

A gaming haiku

(Because Felix @ Pokeminiatures had done a haiku for Pi day)

Dice betray my rolls.
Painted models rarely help.
Have fun anyway.

Tinkering

Nothing to do with gaming, per se, but I think I need to do some tinkering with the blog layout, and get away from a default background. I think I may even need a cartoonish logo as well. Just because working on this will distract me and wallet from the siren song of colossals.

I paint, but. . .

not for long, and I took no pics. That is because the hard drive on the desktop has begun making sounds of impending DOOM, and I spent a fair chunk of time last night looking into options for a new computer.

And, of course, I was reminded that, not only do we have a small selection of gaming and comic stores in my little corner of Michigan, we also have very few choices when it comes to buying a smart word box for tell monkey hard brain hurty things.

Fortunately, I can take "before" pics tonight, which is basically the same thing as taking "after" pics last night.

Quick thought on 2013

Sure, sure - next year is still a few weeks away, but I started thinking about it the other day. I hope to get a lot done (gaming-wise) in 2013 - get back to GenCon, play a lot more Warmahordes, actually get some more stuff painted, get my local community active, maybe get at least all my Warmahordes stuff assembled and primed, make and sell a lot of terrain. Lots of stuff.

So, for my couple of readers out there - sometime in the next couple of weeks, I intend to post a list of what I plan on getting done in 2013. And, once you are done laughing, I expect you to post snide comments about my lack of progress from time to time. Because if I have learned one thing over the years, it's that a public declaration of intent puts a lot more pressure on me than any private goals ever will.

Non-gaming update.

So, as I said, I am doing NaNoWriMo again. I have done it every year, and, thankfully enough, "won" it every year. (Winning, in this sense, simply means that I hit the 50k word goal - easily several times, and others I had to push, pull and kick the corpse of a festering story idea over that point.) This year, I am currently ahead of schedule - I am at 7,064 words, which is 2000 or so over the "official" goal of 1,667 words per day.

It's a little behind the 2,500 per day that I want to hit, but I still have 10 hours to go, and I can generally bang out 1200 words or so between dinner and midnight, in addition to doing other things. So, tonight, I think I am going to do some painting. I've earned it, I think - especially if I can get close to 8k before dinnertime.

The advantage of army ADD

Since I haven't gotten much time to paint in the last couple of days (stupid lawn keeps needing mowing - every summer, I wonder how much it would be to turn the entire yard into a parking lot), I thought I would write about how army ADD has some advantages.

Sure, I lack focus. Sure, I don't master any one army. Sure, it gives me a giant pile of lead in the basement that sits there, lurking in the dark, slowly growing and causing the earths crust to deform in a way that will eventually result in a new fault line being created. But, it means that, when going through secondary sales locations (like bartertown or ebay), I can almost always find a great deal. Eventually, yes, I need to make more targeted purchases, but since I had planned on picking up Legion of Everblight stuff anyway, a random lot of someone else's extra Legion stuff at a steep discount is a good thing.

My Warmachine/Hordes goal for 2011 is to have a 50 point playable (though not necessarily competitive) army for every faction, including Mercs and Minions, in both system. Right now, I know I can field that for Skorne, Trollbloods, Cryx, Retribution and Gators. I think I can with Cygnar, Menoth, and Circle. Khador, Mercs and Legion all need some work, but it's certainly more doable, even if I had to start from scratch.