Confessions of a Lapsed Gamer; Basing your minis, or keeping them upright.

Erish appeared out of nowhere just as they pulled up to the Kristofori mansion.  She did not look at either Gisha or Guthlaf, rather she was watching the house.  In the windows they saw iridescent flashes of colour and heard resounding booms.  ‘Death magic is being used there’ she said.  The small woman looked over her shoulder and hissed at Guthlaf, ‘You should have let the Elf kill the woman when she had the chance.’

One of those things that I have wanted to talk about is basing your minis but it is difficult to see where to start as there are so many choices in the bases as to the size, shape, and what you want to put on them.  In complete transparency, basing is something you should think of early on in the care and painting  of miniatures, but I don’t.  Very few are planned from the start with this covering or that.  Even painting the edge of the base can be an afterthought for me.  I do try to base units the same but considering that some units were painted in small batches, well, there are some variations in some units.  My OCD is suppressed through force of will and the passage of time.  I am still a bit bemused when my dwarf spearmen take to the field and the commander has a sandy base and the unit is flocked.  I’m not going to change it.  Basing can be as nerve wracking as figuring out the colours you want to use on that mini.  Is it going to be a desert or woodland, swamp or dungeon?  I have said, I tend to leave it to the last, but not always.  The Tristan mini sculpted by Dennis Mize got her desert base through sheer happenstance as I’d tried a sand and spackle mix to fill the base in.  It worked but not by design as the filler was not even across the base.  Luckily…  

On the other hand, Tianalise was planned from the start to be a swamp.  Looking at one of the old Chessex Lipped Hex bases bought on Amazon a couple years ago, I got the idea of building a little diorama on it.  It was a fun little project that I got into.  She was painted first and then the base was given a coat of Vallejo flat earth.  Then, after gluing the painted skull on one end and a tuft of Army Painter swamp grass, it was filled with UV resin mixed with a drop of Army Painter’s ‘Military Green’ wash.  On a side note, they DO NOT MIX but I think that it turned out okay.  If I had to do it again I would get some of the coloured resins.  It took a bit to get the resin to harden properly but once it did I liked the effect.  Next on I do a base like this, I will consider putting some other things in the ‘swamp water’.  

While writing this I noticed that the Reaper Miniatures, and most of the non-Citadel ones, were far more thoughtfully based.  Part of the fact that they are not part of an army and base uniformity is not that much of an issue.  I did start just painting the base without more than putting in lines like the mini was on pavement or flagstones.  There are also some of the biggest flops of basing too.  The “Highlander Heroine” for instance looks a bit silly on the base that I put her on.  She was supposed to be walking a narrow path bounded by snow.  It was not my most successful base.  You have to keep in mind that not everything will make it from your brain to the minis.  The ideas though are the important things really.  Sure, it looks off but I learned some lessons from it.  Take your time, build up the ‘snow’ slowly, you can go back and touch it up if you need to. I think that the snow on the Daredevil base looks good but I had to start somewhere.  

The shape of the base is not really important unless you’re going to be building a ‘rank and flank’ army.  I do tend to use  Round bases for moderns and scifi, square or hex for fantasy.  It is not a hard fast rule as I have made exceptions.  I would recommend lipped bases as they are quite nice especially if they come with a good high lip that I can use to make a more diorama base.  The convenience of having the lip is that it is a great way to stretch your modeling skills and make a plain mini look better.  The ones who don’t have more than a rim will still help with keeping the basing materials in place while the glue dries.  Flat top bases are still nice and can make for a really impressive base if you take your time.  I also like to use flat bases, especially thin ones, to make loot/objective markers.  

When first working with mini basing you should have some basic materials like sand, flocks from railroad modeling (they come in different colours), static grass and perhaps tufts of static grass, adhesives like white glue, and any other thing that you like such as weapon bits or shields.  Going to the model railroad section at Hobby Lobby or Michael’s will yield some ideas.  Sometimes, the idea of a nice diorama base may be far more satisfying.  Especially if you are using bits of oher kits on your base.  A rather plain old plastic Citadel witch elf looks far more interesting when you add a High Elf shield to the base.  By the way, I press-molded the shield in a mold of blue stuff with a bit of two part epoxy putty.  That was a failed experiment to replace discontinued shields but it worked well for me to make bits for bases.   The loss of a bit of detail on the shield boss isn’t really that noticeable when you put a nicely painted mini with it.   

One of the best ‘custom’ bases I have done is ‘Innkeeper Sophie’, from Reaper, in the original white Bones plastic and despite all the work I did with a new No. 11 knife blade I could not get it to stand upright on her molded base.  SO I took a few thin strips of wood (ok, coffee stirrers), a lipped hex base and some thought (along with some brown wash) and, Bob’s your uncle, the idea was in my head to make an actual wooden floor for her to stand on.  I carefully cut Sophie from the casting and put her on the base after I had her painted up.  It looks great and took maybe an hour to get it together.  Yeah, I will do it again but I will first prime the base, measure the planks better so there is less of a gap at the lip and stain the wood more.  I think it looks good.  Always keep in mind that if it looks good, well, it is good.

Many don’t know that GW created ‘slottabases’ as a way to save money on the alloy they used for their early minis.  It kind of revolutionized the whole idea of basing.  By using a tab rather than an integral base it allowed the modeler to put their minis on just about anything that they wanted to.  The modeler could make dioramas without hours of cutting and filing the metal off the feet and with less chance of ruining the minis.  With the advent of the huge amount of hard plastic minis, GW now uses flat 32mm bases.  Now don’t get me wrong, unslotted flat bases are easy to work with but they can get boring after a bit, unless you build an entire unit.  

So, there you go, a ramble about basing.  As always there is the admonishment that you paint, and base, your minis the way you want to and don’t let anyone tell you different.  Sure some games demand that you use this size base or that size, but are the game ninjas going to appear and take your stuff?  If you game with someone who is traumatized by how your stuff is based don’t play with them.  You don’t need that kinda negativity in your life.

The waspish form of the dying woman looked very little like the beautiful young noblewoman that Guthlaf had ‘saved’ from the necromancer months ago.  She was gray of skin and was surrounded by a nimbus of dark and forbidden magic.  Her raised undead minions clustered before her and were keeping the Clerics of the Hooded Lady, Lukan Makdal and Javiga at bay as their mistress dealt with Gisha and Eresh.  Guthlaf was on the stairs at the feet of this new necromancer bleeding heavily from his head, downed by a lucky shot from an archer hidden in the clutch of zombies.  ‘I am Magda Kristofori!  I rule the dead and will have my revenge!’  The zombies she had raised surged forward intent on finishing the Clerics.  Gisha fell to a magic bolt and Eresh was hard put, deflecting one directed at her.  Suddenly it was over.  Guthlaf stood with a groan and grabbed the leg of the woman.  She screamed as the magic was stripped from her.  She pulled a wicked copper khopesh from her girdle to kill her tormentor.  Magda was too slow as the man slashed her throat with his scram.  Guthlaf jumped back and fell down.  ‘Gisha…’ he growled.  In a flash the dying woman’s body burst into flames.  The zombies fell with their animator dead.  

Confessions of a Lapsed Gamer; Esoterica or How Do You Maraud?

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Confessions of a Lapsed Gamer; Pulp Fiction or the Great American Legendarium

Jimmy Kring stood under the street light at the corner.  He was a big man.  Over six feet tall.  In the Great War the Army was hard put to get uniforms that would fit him.  Now, the War was in the past and he was just a palooka looking for his next paycheck.  Usually from breaking some bones. It was cold and wet from the early fall rain.  The kind of cold that seeped into your bones and stayed.  The wan light did nothing to brighten his disposition.  He felt old and his last job for Nikolo made him sad.  Used to be, beating some mook half to death was just another day, like getting something from the icebox.  Now his hands and shoulders ached from the exertion and damp chill didn’t help.  Lenny the Shrew was not a bad guy but he owed Niki and you never should owed Nikki nothing unless you was ready to feel some pain, Jimmy thought to himself.  The wife gave Jimmy all the money she had to keep Jimmy from finishing the job.  Who knew that the Shrew was married?  He sighed, ‘I’m getting too old for this.’ he muttered to the empty street.  The light changed and he was just about to start across, looking forward to a bit of hooch and his bed, when he heard a voice, low, husky,and feminine that stopped him in his tracks. ‘Hiya, Jimmy.  How’s tricks?’  The Dame had found him and the night got suddenly colder.

Reaper’s Post Apoc Hunter, Monster Fight Club’s Combat Zoners A

Reaper’s Mercury Flyers, Theris Vinsom and Asanis

I wrote a couple years back about imagination and wanted to continue that thought for a bit.  I have always been  an eclectic reader and enjoy talking about the different things that I enjoy.  My parents, may God bless them, gifted me, for Christmas of ‘75 or ‘76, with a collection of Doc Savage novels collecting stories written in the 1930s for Doc Savage Magazine.  I loved the stories for all their raw power of man and machine.  The impossible near death and incredible escapes.  I had long been reading science fiction from my father’s collection and the books started a lifelong love of the old adventure, fantasy and Sci-Fi/Fantasy stories.  That love had bled over into the games I play as I enjoy just about anything that pits a person and their wits against opponents.

Reaper Female Pilot, Cowgirl Ellen Stone, GW’s Serpent Priestess and Totem Warrior from Mordhiem

The impact of pulp fiction on the gaming world cannot be overstated.  Well, I would go larger and say that the impact on American, and in some ways world, culture has been immense.  Pick something and I will show you how it can be traced back to the Pulp world.  If you do any research on the genre you’ll be shocked and amazed with the names of the authors that were, well, pulpy.  When doing the research keep in mind a couple things; if you are easily offended or can’t put a subject in its historical context, stop now, as here there be dragons.  It has a lot of violence, sex (though most stories are far more understated than a number of Modern books), socially different situations that are out of place in this oh so modern age.  So, there, you’ve been warned.  There are a number of games like Pulp City, Pulp Alley, 7TV Pulp and so on that are those bare knuckles of Detective stories, or the wild Adventures around the globe or fight against ancient horrors as a sword wielding barbarian or modern investigator of the occult.  Most are small forces of a few models and played on a small area.  So it is usually a quick game that will allow you to get a few games in on a rainy afternoon.  

Reaper’s Nightslip, Sentinal, 3d Printed Captain America and Ritterkruez

So, what do I like?  My first thought is Swords and Sorcery type games.  As you already know, I have a large collection of Heros, Villains and henchmen to put forces together.  The rulesets out there are great for this genre; A Song of Blades and Heroes from Ganesha Games, Swordplay (free!) from Two Hour Games, and of course; Mordheim from GW.  Just to name a few, but there are many more out there.  Just keep in mind that that woman in a chainmail bikini is just as deadly as that guy in full plate and you’ll be good.  Source material can be more than just Conan but Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories, the Witcher and so on.  Good stories that make for great gaming.  I could do an entire blog on fantasy pulps alone.

GWs Barbarian Prince, Reaper’s Nadia of the Blade, Hasslefree’s Lenore, GW’s Wizard from Heroquest

I also like, as you know, the Post Apocalypse games like TWD and so on from the zombie genre but also This is Not a Test and Across a Dead Earth.  Though I tend to like the time right after The End rather than decades/centuries.  Xenos Rampant has a section on the post apoc setting, in fact if you go and look on DriveThru RPG site there are a number of rules set for most of the types of ‘End of the World’ types.  I have to tell you that I don’t have a lot of minis for the non-zombie type games but will use the living from the zombie games and some of the fantasy monsters to represent monsters/mutants.  Perhaps I should invest in some of the minis designed for those games.  Like Fallout.  

Reaper’s Rex, Mantics Rick and Shane, Reaper’s Hans Post Apoc survivor

(My mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives. – Hedley Lamarr)

I don’t have  many ‘Gangsters’ or ‘Cowboys’ for those sort of pulp games in my collection.  I do have some singles that could be used though (leaving Swords and Sorcery and Sci-Fi out) in adventure games.  You should look to use what you have.  I have a number of Mesoamerican minis from Warlord’s ‘Mythic Americas’ game that I can use.  They will also be augmented by the small number of GW’s Amazons from Mordheim.  So, I can do an ‘Indiana Jones’ type game.  By the same token I could use some of the BattleTech minis as ‘Mad Scientist’ support along with a nice (Ancient) GW Techpriest playing the part of mad scientist.   The point I am making is that if you have a large collection of minis and you can make these ‘Pulp’ game work with minimal problems.  Yeah, you may have to use some as proxies but then isn’t imagination part of the ‘gaming experience’?

GW’s Techpriest backed up by two robots from FASA’s BattleTech

I thoroughly enjoy writing stories for the games I play.  They are small moments in the ‘lives’ of the characters that I have roaming around in my brain housing group that sometimes needs to come out.  Jimmy Kring is a new one that came to me while working on the body of this blog.  I picture an older guy, probably a war veteran (WWI) who was down on his luck and now, in the early 1930s, is an enforcer for a mobster.  He is in his early 30s and is not happy with his lot in life.  Then he meets Bella, the Dame in Red and Gus the Gent.   

Hasslefree’s Kitty, Maya, Copplestone Casting’s Not Lara Croft, Hasslefree’s Ekaterina

Confessions of a Lapsed Gamer; The Long and Short of it

Guthlaf struggled to his feet.  He looked at the dead Slayer and snorted.  He heard a grunt and looked at its author and froze.  The dwarf maid looked at him with a smirk on her full lips.  Her blue eyes focused hard on the man.   She stepped down from the dwarfbox she’s been standing on and hefting her axe stepped towards the man.  ‘Not often you a Slayer killed that easily’ the dwarf said.  ‘He should have kept to drinking and not picking fights.’ was Guthlaf’s taciturn response.  She grimaced at the comment.  ‘Take it outside Bodil!’ the Publican said.  ‘Think before you do, Bodil Tokesdottir.’ Guthlaf said.   

While going through the magic bin the other day, looking for a right arm for an old Chaos Raptor, I found a bag of Dwarf Rangers and it got me thinking.  I had the epiphany, as it were, these were the second edition of the old Regiments of Renown Bugman’s Rangers AND with the allegedly forthcoming ‘Return to the Old World’, that I should talk about the armies and warbands I have collected over the years for that old chestnut of a game called Warhammer Fantasy Battles.  I still get a laugh at those who burned their armies, smashed them or otherwise pissed away all the time, effort and money that they put into them.  But then, it’s their stuff so, you do you.

Clansmen with Hand Weapons and Shields

They were not the  first army I collected for WFB (it was the Empire) and I enjoyed playing them.  My intention was that, if I bought Dwarfs, it would be with the idea of painting and collecting the minis rather than building an army.  I have always had a sort of soft spot for them since I read about the  dwarves of Tolkien and their diaspora after the fall of Moria to the Nameless Horror.  Still, I didn’t have a thought of playing more than dungeon crawls with the little buggers if at all.  The first ‘unit’ I bought was not really a unit at all and was  meant to only be an Allied contingent for the Empire Army.  It was the 4th edition and you could put dwarfs in the human army as they were part of the Empire Citizenry.  I saw the rather bland plastic box with its 10 mono-pose dwarfs plus shields on the shelf and said ‘that’ll work’.   They were rather boring to paint and about the only thing in the box that caused interest are the shields.  They would stand somewhere on the battlefield guarding a flank or the engines of the army.  Somewhere along the line though I got bit by the  Dwarf Army bug and that one unit would become the largest single army in my collection.

The minis for the army comes from two main sources; Marauder and Citadel.  Marauder was a company spun off from Citadel in 1988 and reabsorbed back into the company in 1993.  They didn’t change the tabs so you’d see them until the migration to plastics in the 2000s so you still could see the origins of them.  The Perry Brothers, Ally and Trish Morrison along with other luminaries were the main designers of the ranges and it shows how much they knew the setting and how they wanted the race to look.  Some, the ‘Imperial Dwarfs’ were more of a historical looking group, the ‘Norse’ were, well, Vikings, and the clansmen had a more unit specific feel while the ‘Slayers’ were just crazy.  All are represented in my army.  There were some types in the army that could, and perhaps should, have been larger units but for various reasons did not buy enough to make a unit.  The Marauder Hammerers and Long Beards were hard to come by so they ended up in filling out other units.  I would buy a small unit of Long Beards from 2004.  Nice minis but a bit too, well, generic

Longbeards

What drew me to the Dwarf army is that they are a solid infantry based force with plenty of support like the Thunderers (handgunners) and cannon.  Add in a gyrocopter and you have a pretty good army to put on the table.  Though I have a Dwarf wizard 3rd edition, after the release of 4th Edition that would change and you didn’t have any ‘magic’ in the army rather magic runes for various effects.  Other than the magic, the various editions saw very little change in the Dwarfs while other armies would change drastically, and our Stunty little friends would remain that solid infantry army.  Heavily armed and armoured they put paid to a number of ‘unbeatable’ armies at the local.  Being a Marine Grunt that really appealed to me.  

If there is one thing that did change in the Dwarf organization is there are no spears for the Dwarfs.  It is probably the only weapon that is not allowed after the 4th Edition.  Why?  Well, I am of the opinion that the rules for spearmen allow them to fight two ranks deep and with the other stats, like armour saves and so on, Dwarfs are very tough to shift.  I think that was done for the sake of ‘balance’ but the minis are nice and I do have a 20 dwarf unit.  Mostly Marauder.  You can really see the difference between the Citadel and Marauder dwarfs in this unit.  The spearman on the left of the pic is Citadel and on the right is the Marauder.  The command group is largely Marauder.

Dwarfs are innovative people and they also were, in the Old World at least, the first ones to develop gunpowder weapons.  The Thunderers of the Dwarfs did not quite replace the crossbow, but they were working on it.  Their handgonnes would knock an armoured knight off the back of a horse or the equally well armoured heavy infantry off its feet.  Also the cannon and organ gun would be fielded anytime I was taking the Dwarfs out.  Not all the Dwarf support weapons are black powder, there is a bolt thrower as well as the all powerful Flame Cannon.  Plumping that baby down on the table and everyone moves away.  Probably the one thing that would surprise players of rank and flank games is that the short guys had air support.  Gyrocopters are rare but I have examples of the first two generations of them.  One is painted and the other is in the queue.  

A short look at an army and most of the units in that army.  Sometime I will get some of the individual minis out to show off and talk about.  Am I still painting them for the army?  Yep.  Will they see the table in a new WFB game?  Maybe.  There is an incredible rush when you rout and run down cavalry with your slow army of walking tanks.  My Dwarf General alone could, and did, wade through Orc, Elves and the Empire like some Dwarven demigod of War.  His armour of Gromril and rune encrusted axe made many a brave player avoid him at all costs.

Confessions of a Lapsed Gamer; Obsession or Who’s Been Sleeping in my Head?

‘The Incubus is a scout mech, this one is green and yellow, you will have to get some simulator time as well as some training on the actual machine before you will be confident to take it into combat’ The chief tech said to Bronwen.  She chuckled at that.  ‘I hear that you Spheroid Freebirths like the Timber Wolf or the Hellbringer’ he continued.   ‘Can you replace the Large Laser with a Gauss Rifle?’ She asked the Chief.  ‘Sure but there will ammunition feed issues.’ He answered and then added, ‘the Mod 2 replaces the laser with a PPC.’ She considered that for a moment.  Finally she said, ‘Let me get the modification done on this one and I’ll take for a spin on the range.’  The Chief was taken by surprise but nodded, ‘I’ll have it done by tomorrow morning.’  ‘Thank you, Chief.’ Bronwen said with a grin and walked away.  The Chief Tech watched her go and then said, ‘Spheroids.’ and shook his head.

I have become obsessed with Battletech games and miniatures from Catalyst Game Labs.  It is one of those games that has been in my brain housing group for years and after the facelift of the game by CGL it has caused me to NEED to buy every minis I can get my hands on.  It reminds me of when the Dark Angel sets and blisters came out, in the days of yore before the advent of the Primaris, and I had to have every one.  And I mean. Damn. Every. One.  From the smallest scout to the largest assault mech I need, NEED, to have it.  This is a danger that gamers have to deal with when playing and collecting.  Most of us are a bit obsessive when it comes to this sort of thing.  I know that I will never game with some of these mechs for a myriad of reasons but that does not mean I should not have them sitting on their shelf in glory beside those I would always take. 

Archers from Eridani Light Horse, Wolf’s Dragoon’ Zeta Company and the Dragoons Beta Regiment

If you look on the shelf you’ll see those Mechs that will always be in the forces I bring to the table.  Those like the Timber Wolf and the Atlas.  The list will change as more Mechs get released like the Incubus (IS designation; Vixen) as well as the Bushwhacker.  They don’t have to be the most effective or powerful units, sometimes looks are more important to me.  I like to have multiple copies of the same types I like.  Do I need 4 Timber Wolves?  No, but a Heavy Star of them are impressive and the same with the Atlas!  Battletech allows you to organize your minis the way you want.  As long as you and your opponent are in agreement on ‘Balance’.  How do you achieve balance?  You can use the BV value on the record sheet.  Agree to an amount of points and work from there or you could just say bring what you have.  

Timber Wolves from Wolf’s Dragoons, Clan Wolf and Unk Mercenary Unit

I think that this is why BattleTech has an enduring presence in the gaming world.  As it is entirely flexible to match the players’ wants.  Not just within the ‘Classic’ game, which is more of a ‘skirmish’ game, but within the more ‘Tactical’ Alpha Strike, and the Role Playing Game of ‘MechWarrior’.  So, coupled with the excellent minis, you have a game that will cover everything short of a grand battle that would force you to change from the 1/285 scale.  Through the force packs and expansion boxes there are a huge, and growing, amount of mechs that, depending on the era, you can play and essentially ‘mix and match’ units to build the sort of force you want to put on the table.  I do want to make a mention of the ‘salvage box’ additions; Single mechs with cards to add to your forces, make new ones or just collect, but you’ll never know what is in the box till you open it.  I bought a few from the Clan Invasion release and regret NONE of it.  

Crusader, Atlas, Bushwhacker

CGL just opened up the kickstarter for their next expansion; ‘Mercenaries’!  From all the previews it looks like a bunch of mechs but also ground vehicles and VTOLs.  So there are going to be rules for such things.  So we are almost to the ‘full’ rules from the big rule book ‘Tactical Operations’.   I think that we just need the full infantry rules yet.  Yeah, there are some Elemental rules from the Clan Invasion box but there are other types of Grunts from the Great Houses the Inner Sphere to put into your forces.  Would be fun to watch an infantry unit take down a mech or two.  

Finally, I wanted to share the enthusiasm built up in my head about BT and I hope not to come off as too pushy about it.  I get that not everyone is into big robots and their ancillary forces.  It is part of what makes this hobby work.  You may not like a game, looking at you AOS, but love the minis.  And if you want a mech but don’t like the pose then there are always .stl files out there.  CGL is ambivalent about 3d printed mechs so there you can find the esoteric mech that you have had dreams about driving.

Confessions of a Lapsed Gamer; The Old World or the Lessons of a Hot Stove…

Recently I was listening to a YouTube video about the rumoured  push by GW to resurrect the setting of the old Warhammer Fantasy Battles.  After listening to it, and then a couple more, the question was posed on most of them, would you buy into the ‘new’ game of WFB?  I had to sit and consider the question, probably far more than I should have, and put together some thoughts on it.

But first, a history lesson; In 1983 GW came out with its first game that was not licensed from another company.  They were already marketing D&D, Call of Cthulhu and so on, but this was their baby ‘Warhammer the Game of Fantasy Battles.  It had positive reviews and so, Ansell, Halliwell and the venerable Rick Priestly (beloved by all) would continue the development of this mass battle ‘rank and flank’ game.  It would be a hit and would keep GW, and its miniature line Citadel, on a path to become the 900 pound gorilla of the game world.  By 2015 though, Ansell would be at Wargames Foundry, Halliwell had stepped away from games (he would pass in 2021) and the Venerable Priestly (beloved by all) would be at Warlord Games.  Those who would be running the show at  GW pulled the plug on what had, in this commentators opinion, a rather bloated and complicated ruleset that had put me off.  Many of us had hopes that they would do something likerein in the rules, streamline them, and make the army books less about nice pictures and more about the game.  Such was not to be.  

Bretonnian Knights

What then will the new game look like if it does come to fruition?  Would the ‘new’ game have a return to the old minis?  Well, those molds are still good and there are enough of the older minis still in the catalogue, and when they can be available, to make viable armies for some factions as they were fairly untouched in the great purge of 2015.  There are no Tomb Kings, so they (I like to say with a chuckle) will need to be resurrected as well as the Brettonians, the Wood Elves, and the Forces of Kislev.  I know, I’ve seen the pics of Bret shields and all the fashion plates on the Warhammer Community site.  I did not play the Brets and have no real interest in them so I am a bit apathetic about them.   Along with that, to recreate the Empire forces you need to get the Knightly Orders back, another victim of the Purge, with all those trappings, great cannons, mortars, et al.  I know what you’re thinking ‘you just want the old game back’, sure isn’t that what they’re trolling?  I mean, GW wants a lot of the customers that were lost in the End Times to come back.  

Wood Elf Mage with Warriors

What will appear is a guess but I would think that they would go out of their way to tie it into AoS somehow.  Perhaps, as some postulate, it will be a related game like the 40K/Horus Heresy thing.  Who knows, but I would like to see if some of the older minis would appear in new forms like the Beakies from the Age of Darkness box.  If there is a positive to a return to the Old World it would be that the minis will all be in the same scale!  Wouldn’t that be nice?  If you look at the minis from the 80s, and remember WHFB was created in the 80s, none of them, even in the same lines, were to scale.  Yes they are close in most cases but some were, well, wonky.  I have to say though that the minis from this period are some of my favorites to paint and game with.  

Bretonnian Foot

So where are we at?  Am I going to play it if it actually appears?  I doubt it.  It’s the attitude that I have towards the ‘fantasy division’ of GW.  Sure, they will probably be making some nice minis but the cynic in me says it will be more of a money grab than a quality game.  Remember they are not a game company.  I will have to see the actual mini test shot, not just the CAD stuff they’ve shown so far.  Besides there has been a lot of water under the bridge and I think most of us old guys have moved on to other things.  A shame really as GW had a chance to revise the game in 2015 to get out of the corner they’d painted themselves into and could have done something sooner to revamp the game.  I think too that AoS failed to appeal to us because of the almost cavalier attitude of GW.  The initial rules for AoS made me feel that way.  

Well, there it is.  There is an old adage about the hot stove being the best teacher.  I can’t bring myself to get excited over the ‘Old World’ as it will probably be more about the money than making a fun and playable game.  Yes, I am far too cynical but the HH:AoD is a good box and a pretty good value so perhaps there is a positive that could happen.  So, I am going to say I am 95% sure I’m not going buy it.   

Confessions of a Lapsed Gamer; Marines on Parade or Showing Off.

Maurice looked at his fellow Guardsmen.  They were all tired from their exertions but still elated that the rebellion had gone well and the lines of the rebels were already tight around the Governor’s palace.  An Arbites APC was burning just beside the gate with its crew dead around it.  The roar of the tanks came from somewhere off to the east.  They would arrive within the hour and reduce the gate and wall to ruin and then they would pull down the trappings of the Imperium and be free.  He laughed and thought about the rewards he would receive from the Commander.  His fantasy was interrupted by his adjutant pulling at his sleeve.  She must have had urgent need to and when he looked at her in askance.  She simply pointed up at the sky.  There were mere dots of red light that quickened to large falling objects.  The first smashed into the large plaza in front of the palace gate.  It looked like a water drop in shape but was massive.  Then the sides fell open like the petals of a flower and out walked giants in dark armour.  Maurice stood shocked and dry mouthed.  His adjutant stood sobbing beside him.  He ordered his troops to open fire.  It did little good.

I went into the local the other day during a tournament and was amused that it wasn’t a 40K event but one of Marvel Crisis Protocol.  There has not been a huge amount of 40k games going on lately.  So I want to talk about the game.  No, not a rant coming about GW, too many of those out there.  Rather, a love letter of sorts to the game and the changes over the years, from my perspective anyway.  

Rogue Trader Marines.

Now understand that I have about a hundred (just a guess really) Space Marines to paint from the leads of the originals to the latest Primaris.  I have said it more than once here that I prefer the metal minis to the plastic (or resin for that matter).  They will see the table top as detachments in the Xenos Rampant game rather than the game they were designed for.  Not that I am down on the 9th ed or the upcoming 10th nor any other games from GW, rather I prefer a game with one, maybe two, books needed rather than the number of books, updates and magazines.  This is a common complaint with the GW way of supporting their games.  AOS, Kill Team, et al., seem to require a library to play the game properly.  I have to say here that GWs hubris is part and parcel of the shift in the games played in the shop.

Original Tactical Dreadnoughts or Terminators

There seems like a ton of new, and newer, and some downright old games, on the tables lately.  BattleTech is one of the oldest, and the aforementioned Crisis Protocol newest and some I just have never seen before.  I would like to see some ancients/historicals played along with some of the games like Dragon Rampant or Oathmark.  I am a bit surprised that Mantic Games’ Kings of War hasn’t caught on but there seems to be a trend away from the ‘rank and flank’ games of yore.  Skirmish is the thing now with its low mini count and seemingly reduced rules.  One Page rules are neat and they have a plethora of different flavors of games to play, also mini agnostic.  Space Weirdos too.  I can go on but I think you get my point.  

Mephiston of the Blood Angels, Calgar of the Ultramarines, Asmodai of the Dark Angels

Back to Space Marines.  Using that term rather than the 8th edition’s term for the largest faction of the game.  The Primaris minis in the 8th edition box were plain and soulless just as most generic starter boxes would be in earlier 40k editions and (if I am honest) the minis are pretty useable, it’s the rules that put me off.  Looking at the Primaris from that starter box they are what they are.  Very much like the Marines in earlier edition boxes.  Oh, the second edition box!  Generic as heck.  So I am going to show off some of the Marines I have and make some pithy comments about them.  I am going to put some Chaos Marines here also.  I don’t have a huge collection and I have some in the paint queue but if you talk Space Marines you have to add them in the mix.

Wolf Guard Terminators

Rogue Trader era Marines were just adorable little pieces of lead that would be so soft that they would be easily mashed up if dropped, knocked over, or otherwise roughly handled.  From the late ‘80s to early ‘90s they are what drew me into the game big time.  Looking at those sculpts they could be a bit wacky with their scale, weaponry and overall post-punk looks.  Sometimes we would talk about how the Hell they could put their helmets on.  There were box sets at the time.  They were not always ‘force builders’ in the case of the Imperial Space Marines (RTB01) and Eldar Guardians (RTB17) as they could have been designed for a specific game like Space Hulk, the case of the Terminator box (RTB09).  The plastics of the time are rather crude and ‘flat’ but they worked.

Chaplain of the Dark Angels, Veteran Sergeant of the Ultramarines, Crimson Fist Termintors.

Second Ed; roughly ‘93 to ‘98 with the advent of army Codicii  and the lead changed to pewter with some plastic box sets started to appear though mostly it was pewter bodies with add on plastic arms and weapons.  You had to have a good deep bitz box too in order to add some personality to them.  Still it is this and the RT era that I still try to get as many minis as possible from.  This is where you started seeing Chapter boxsets.  Most of the boxes sported pics of the assembled Marines painted up as Ultramarines, there were a few dedicated Space Wolf boxes and only one Dark Angels box.  Yeah, I bought the Dark Angel’s Tactical squad without hesitation, and the Deathwing Termies… lol.

Ultramarine Captain and Company Champion

Third Ed to 7th Ed. ; ‘98 to ‘17.  Multi-part plastic Marine slowly pushed the metal castings out of the catalogue.  They are not bad actually and fit in well with the characters, most of those were still in pewter, so you could raise a force quickly for the tabletop and really did make kit bashing easier.  There was a huge amount of stuff put out in almost 10 years of revisions and new boxsets.  The Pewter gave way to the abysmal ‘finecast’ resin and all the issues with that.  On a positive note, using CAD technology we finally get all the Minis in the same scale.  The vast majority of Marines on my shelf are from this period.  I have lumped them together as there is far too much to put here as the overall look of the Space Marines really did not change much.

Sergeants; Ultramarines, Blood Angels, Space Wolves, Dark Angels

8th Ed on; Primaris, all I feel I need to say.  GW is no longer a game company.  They still make some great minis.

Somewhere in a bin or box I have about, oh, a few squads of Chaos Marines.  The oldest one in my collection is Traitor Terminator Captain, they were originally called ‘Traitor Terminators’ in the first catalogue.  They were meant, I think, to look as baroque as possible with the trim of arrows, stars and the first seen ‘Eye of Horus’.  I know there are those who would be surprised that I have painted him as a Night Lord but they form the nucleus of my slowly growing Warband.  I have a couple squads of Marines to paint as well as an OLD squad of Raptors.  

Abaddon the Despoiler, Ahriman of Thousand Sons and Cypher of the Fallen Dark Angels

I have just skimmed the surface of the nearly five hundred Space Marines I have in my collection.  It should come as no surprise anyone that they would comprise the largest of factions in 40K.  Nor should they sit on the shelf without gracing a game table occasionally.  I have been toying with the idea of talking with the other old Grognards at the Chest to see if any were interested in getting a 5th/6th edition game going. 

Aknis Hikkenlop stood before one of the giants in green.  Around them was the wreckage of the battle.  The tanks came on to plaza entered a kill zone of missles and Lascannons.  The emplaced infantry faired no better with the giants simply walking over them killing as they willed.  She felt her bladder almost void itself in her terror.  The man, if it were a man, was a good two feet taller than her and the breadth of his shoulders seemed to block out the sun.  ‘Who are you?’ she finally managed to ask.  ‘Who?’ the being answered, ‘I am the Left Hand of the Emperor.  I am Death, the Destroyer of Worlds.’

Confessions of a Lapsed Gamer; Reaper Redux

I know what you’re thinking.  This is going to be a rant from old Joe about money and the costs of the hobby and whatnot.  Nope this is about going onto a website one evening to see what’s new and getting out the old gift card.  What site am I talking about?  Well, you know, Reaper Miniatures!   Oh, those Reaper people.  $70 later I had 14 minis ordered (four of them FREE) along with two free bottles of paint!  Was it a good buy?  I think so.  For my money I got eight metals, five Bones Black/USA and one regular Bones.  The paints are Coal Black (sort of a very dark bluish gray) and Rudolph Red (very much a bright red) that I have used already.  Did I mention that I also got free shipping?

Why am I going on about this order of minis?  Well, I wanted to show off some of my Reaper stuff, along with perhaps some others,  and to talk about how these really are a bit of throwback to the classic stuff of yesteryear as well as some compatible stuff to todays ‘Heroic Scale’ minis.  I also want to add some commentary for those people who are new at this hobby and are a bit intimidated by it all.  There is no right or wrong to it.  Pick a mini.  Put down some paint.  Base it with what you want to base it with.  So here we go.  Reaper minis and all.  

Reaper Miniatures makes not just hundreds of minis in a number of genres but also from a myriad materials so when you go on the site, www.reaperminis.com, keep that in mind.  When you go there, look at the paints too.  There are beginner and advanced paint sets, brushes, and other accessories.  Give them a look.  I use Reaper Paints and I rather like them.  The colours are vibrant, cover well and seem to mix well with the other paints in my collection.  

Let me talk about the new minis, and some of the older ones  

ReaperCon Dungeoneer Sophie; From the ReaperCon 2022 Sophie is sculpted by Bobby Jackson and comes in three parts, the body and two wings.  Molded in Bones USA plastic.  I put her on a lipped hex base, filled that in with Citadel’s Liquid Green Stuff (though it was not so ‘liquid’ and wanted to use it before it went bad) and primed it all white.  The mini was a very straightforward paint job.  The flesh was old Reaper ‘Fair Maiden’ with a thinned sepia wash.  The plate armour is Citadel Boltgun metal, thin Vallejo black wash and then a drybrush with Citadel Chainmail.  The wings are Vallejo Bone White, a brown wash and highlighted with Reaper Sand.  I think she looks great and is ready to run through a dungeon crawl with minimal issue.

Punkinhead bugbear.  Sculpted by Jason Wiebe.  From the 2020 Halloween Ghoulie Bag.  I pulled him out to have some fun.  I forget all the paints I used on him but I am happy with the result.  It is a Bones USA mini.  No idea what I am going to use him for but he is a funny NPC idea…

Eli Quicknife and Tristan Loremistress; Both venerable sculpts from the talented Sandy Garrity.  They are just painted with a nod toward the old school with basic colours and just being neat with them.  I bought them as NPCs as I have the later resculpts by Bobby Jackson.  I think they really do look good, and in some ways better than the newer sculpts.

Then there are the two Nicoles of the Blade again part of the huge group of minis done by Sandy Garrity for Reaper.  Clearly based on the same sculpting dolly, I wonder if they are meant to be the same fighter at two different times in her life.  I painted the armour the same way but highlighted them differently.  

Talking about Blade Sisters, done by the aforementioned Sandy Garrity, I really enjoyed painting Vanessa of the Blade who very much painted herself.  The only time I even slowed was for the shield.  It is a gold sunburst on a very dark green that turned out pretty well. 

Nasithe by Julie Guthrie.  What is my fixation with little Dark Elf women?  Okay, she is more like a blonde Drow but still..  I had hoped that she would somehow be a rendition of Gisha Beloth but the armour was not right.  Oh well, she is from the War Lord line so she is on a slotted base.  Was fun and quick to paint.  

Tianalise the Bog Witch by Bob Ridolfi is one of those minis that caused me to experiment with basing.  I will be giving more details on that in another blog.  Is she a Goblin?  Orc??  Elf??? I have no idea but I enjoyed painting her.

Finally, there is the late Dennis Mize’s take on Tristan the Loremistress.  I wanted to make a kinda bland mini into something eye-catching on the table.  I painted and based her as a witch from the deserts of Mystara.  

So a bunch of minis from Reaper.  I have to say that they are all going to be on a table in a game soon.  Probably Warhammer Quest from 1995.  They are all quite good sculpts and most were a relaxing paint.  Isn’t that what you need after a long day at work.  To make money.  To buy more minis?

Confessions of a Lapsed Gamer; A Mech by Any Other Name

Bronwen was in a bad situation.  The Scout Star was successful in disrupting the raider’s landing zone but at the cost of three lost Mechs, one missing, and hers was damaged to the point where she could no longer run and keep ahead of her pursuers.  The two mechs and several tanks burning around the LZ showed the violence of the attack.  She was in the lee of one of the raider’s DropShips and the treeline so tantalizingly close.  The three enemy mechs would have her long before she would get to the cover of the trees.  ‘Damn’ she whispered.  Her comms suddenly crackled to life, ‘==lhama scout, report.’  She toggled the ‘send’ and spoke clearly; ‘Solahma Scout, Bronwen, I am the last, Wade’s dead, Koni and Lafnar are wounded, Achmed is missing.  Enemy LZ is contested but both dropships are damaged and can’t lift off.  Three mediums are still defending.  My mech is nearly inoperable.  Send support now.’  Bronwen was barely moving along the side of the building.  Her scanners showed the three moving on her cautiously.  Her comms crackled again, ‘Solahma Scout, help is on the way and will be on site momentarily.  Be prepared to mark your position.’  ‘Momentarily…’ she growled.  The scan showed the enemy mediums coming slowly around the building, they showed all the caution of those who had lived the adage “underestimate the light mech at your own peril.”  The first one came into view and her mechs arm snapped up with the gauss rifle targeting the enemy cockpit.  Bitchin’ Betty’s calm voice said flatly; ‘Ammunition depleted, ammunition depleted.’  The enemy mech slowly raised its weapons.  The second one came into view and followed suit.  Her mind registered the third further off near the treeline.  She knew they were going to take their time avenging their comrades and with the amount of red lights on her console there was nothing she could do.   She closed her eyes and prayed to her ancestors.  Then the world exploded.

So, I have bought the new box of Alpha Strike.  It is a more, well, force on force type of game with, I hate to use the term, streamlined rules and combat.  It is quite different from the main rule set and designed for a quick, okay quicker, game of Tech.  I would say bloodier too.  The box is full of Mechs, 13 to be exact, rulebook, primer on the BT universe and the factions therein.  Cards, counters, trees and, (be still my heart) buildings.  No Map sheets, AS is played on the table top!  It is very much a ‘ready to play out of the box’.  The only thing it does not have is a way to measure movement, so get out that tape measure you used years ago when you still played warhammer.

BattleTech is an interesting game, not just being about big stompy robots and a very different way to play from most other skirmish games.  How is it that a game that is over 40 years old is still able to find new players as well as causing old gamers to have long conversations about the Inner Sphere, the Clans, the fluff, all the weapons and the Mechs themselves?  I’m not going to get all detailed about the game turn or any such game mechanics but they too are different from other games.  I want to talk about the Mechs themselves and the ones I like to push about the table.  With that said, keep in mind that there are four broad categories of Mechs; Light (20-35 tons), Medium (40- 55 tons), Heavy (60-75 tons), and Assault (80-100 tons).  There are also three and four legged Mechs but they are not going to appear here as I don’t game with them.    If there are any sort of questions you have or if I pique your interest you should look at the Battletech Wiki or Sarna.net for more information, OR drop me a line.

Let’s talk about the Mechs in the Box.    Only the IS ‘Wraith’ and the Clans ‘Pouncer’ are new.  The rest are either reposes, essentially new sculptures, of previously ones seen in other boxesets before this one.  Means little to me as I like all of them.  For the IS, the Atlas (Assault), Warhammer and Archer (both Heavies)  carry a hard punch while the Phoenix Hawk, Wraith, Blackjack are solid Mediums that can, and will, support the heavies and pressure enemy mechs.  The two Lights, Locust and Wasp, are not meant to stand and fight but to scout and spot.  All together that will make two, four mech, Lances from the Inner Sphere.  For the Clan Star, five mech unit in the Clans (consider it like a tank platoon), is a bit more problematic as there is a Warhawk (assault), a Timber Wolf (Heavy) along with two mediums (Pouncer and Nova) and a light (Fire Moth).  Not as flexible as the IS force in the box but a good mix to make a combined Star that will handle most missions.

Did I mention that there are cards in the box?  Well, there are a ton of them.  You get the now ubiquitous Mech Pilot cards and the unit cards for the Mechs in the box.  (If you any of those Battletech expansion boxes and kept the AS cards you have also expanded your mech forces for AS! Shame on you if you threw them away!)    A note on the unit cards; they cover different variants of a base mech.  For example; there are two sides to the card, on one side is the Prime or Base version and one the other side, depending on the box it comes from, a different version.  So can use a number of variants of the same mech.  I can field three Timber Wolf with three very different weapon packages.  I rather like that.  The Unit Cards also are coated so you can use dry erase markers on them.  I recommend you get some sleeves for them though.  You also get something rather neat in the form of Battlefield Support Cards.  How do they work?  Well, they are abstract forms of ‘offboard’ artillery support or aerospace support.  It add a facet of warfare that is missing from the main BT game and fits well in the AS game.  Support can be a game changer in the much different game of AS.  Keep those cards! Then there is the terrain in the box.  Buildings!  Many, many buildings.  FIFTEEN of them!  Small and medium sized.  Very nice, indeed.  Oh, there are trees, twelve trees that can, and should, clutter up your battlefield.  

So, there you go, a quick look in the box and some commentary.  Catalyst Game Labs has put together another winner here in my opinion.  Look, you get two full Lances of IS mechs and a full Star of Clanners.  All for $70~.  If you have a local game store go and check it out.  If you don’t have one, you can find it on Amazon, Miniature Market and many other online stores.    Highly recommended.

Bronwen opened her eyes, ‘I’m not dead’ she realized.  She heard another explosion and looked up to see the closest enemy mech burning with the second one moving away and searching for the killer of its partner.  The second mech turned to run but died as the hard round of a gauss rifle slammed into it, tearing through the guts of the mech and exiting out the front.  It did not explode but simply fell over like a puppet with its strings cut.  The third mech was burning too and she saw a green ball of energy scream out of the treeline to hit it again.  She looked to her right to see who had saved her.  She froze in place.  The breath was squeezed out of her lungs and her eyes widened and jaw went slack. Her bladder threatened to fail.  She felt a terror that could only be caused by one Mech.  Like a beast of ancient myth the Atlas strode into the LZ without pause, an avatar of Death.  Standing 16 meters tall and massing 100 tons it’s sheer bulk was enough to make the most hardened warrior quail.  The gauss rifle on its right side still smoked.  The face, painted like a grinning skull, looked at her.  She wanted to run.  She almost pissed herself when she saw that face.  The comm crackled, ‘Star Commander, your mech is badly damaged.  Please leave it and join the survivors of your command on the trail behind me.  We are going to ambush the raiders here.’  She almost jumped from the cockpit to the ground just to get away from the Atlas.  Running up to where she could see Koni waving.  Lafnar’s head and one side were covered in bandages.  Koni herself was glassy eyed from shock.  She sat down next to the woman and waited for the recovery vehicle.  Bronwen smiled when the Atlas stood still and launched a salvo of long range missiles.  The only welcome the raiders would get in that LZ would be a cold one.

Confessions of a Lapsed Gamer; 2022, the year that was and wasn’t

Bronwen Shennong was not tall, slender or anything that the Clan held as the ‘perfection of the MechWarrior’.  She was short, stocky and looked more like a Hausfrau than a Warrior of any sort.  It caused four Clanners loitering around the front door of the training building to snicker when they saw her.  The fifth stood back away from the group, quiet, sullen, looking like she’d rather be anywhere else than here.  ‘Good morning, isorla’, sneered the ringleader of the group.  ‘Good morning, Gavin.’ Bronwen sneered back.  She pushed past him to enter the building, setting her hand on the door handle.  ‘Come back here, stravag, and attend me.’ Gavin said.  Bronwen was unmoved and without turning said, ‘Attend?  Not today as you are powless, mechjock.’ The last two words cut deep and the Clan warrior in a fit of anger made his first mistake and, stepping forward, grabbed Bronwen by the hair. 

2022 has been an odd year to say the least.  Painting and modeling along with gaming seemed to be a bit more difficult at times.  For me, well, it was a tough work year, we got COVID, I broke my arm, got a wicked case of bronchitis, and just generally felt old and lacking in ambition.  Minis got painted, based and sealed as always but not at the rate or level that I’d like.  To go along with the slow painting, I did not game as much as I would have liked.  Ah, well, it’s about the hobby not the HOBBY, I guess.  As always I did not count any minis I did for anyone else.  I was way late on those too but Rowan did appreciate them.  I did get to paint a huge dragon…

It was the year I painted my first 3d printed mini for my collection, though I did paint a few for a friend of mine.  Of course, the first one is a Space Marine.  A Chibi Ultramarine is what every collection should have.  ‘22 has seen the writing on the wall about 3d printed minis becoming THE next great thing.  Some companies are jumping into the idea of selling the rule sets and letting the consumer acquire their minis from a printer.  Some are fighting the idea tooth and nail, defending their IP to the hilt.  I think that it’s interesting to see that there are some folks who still cast metal minis and the newer thermoplastic mold machines will see non-styrene minis become more and more available.  Brent over at Goobertown Hobbies (on YouTube) did an entire episode on how they work and that they can make as good a mini as any other technique.  (I recommend the channel to anyone)  I still prefer working with metal minis though and some are still putting out new minis.

Speaking of ‘Techniques’ perhaps ‘Slap Chop’ should be mentioned but, well, why?

I have been relearning D&D, Traveller and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (2nd. Ed) so I can teach the Grands.  Well, maybe not WHFRP, it is a bit mature.  I rewatched ‘2001; a Space Odyssey’ which IS the greatest science fiction movie, EVAH, and that will get the desire for a RPG in space!  (I love Star Wars, ok the first three movies, but 2001 is hands down the better movie.)  Perhaps I am just coming to grips with over 60 years on this Earth.  I will tell you this, I can’t quite bring myself to open the DBA rules.  Ain’t gonna happen.  You need a degree in theoretical calculus for that!  I have though enjoyed looking at these older rules and some of the pictures to try and get the brain fluids moving.  

So, let’s talk about the minis painted this year. I am not taking them in any order but rather how they are set up in my inventory.  As of this writing I have finished a respectable 70 odd minis from a surprisingly few companies.  Last year I painted over 150 as I did in 2020 and they came from a very diverse set of makers.  I painted minis from only 5 companies this year; GW, Reaper Miniatures, Fantasy Flight, Warlord and Catalyst Game Labs.  

GW.  Considering that I am not really playing the 9th Ed 40K it seems odd that the half of the minis I did paint are for that game with only a couple being fantasy minis.  There are 10 Necrons and 5 Primaris for the game ‘Fire Team’, a sort of Kill Team lite.  Odds and ends from the Imperium magazine like Primaris intercessors and Aggressors.  I did get a box of Blade Guard and painted them up as Deathwing to go along with the Primaris Lieutenant from Imperium.  Then there were the delvings into the Magic Bin, I pulled out an Empire Captain with a hammer and a handgun.   A fairly recent pewter casting from 2006 that I had to pull out and paint.  Then there are a couple Imperial Archers from the middle 90s that also needed to be painted.  I want to comment on the archers for a bit. They, and three more of their friends, have languished in the bin for years.  No memory of when I bought them but there they are.  Did I buy an OLD blister when they came five to a pack?  No idea. Total 37 minis.  

Catalyst Game Labs,  With their Lance or Star packs, their Salvage boxes I got really into the game is a huge way.  I painted 28 Mechs this year and loved doing it.  Most of the Inner Sphere were painted for either Wolf’s Dragoons or a slowly growing ‘home brew’ mercenary unit.  As to the colour scheme of the Clan Mechs, yes they are Clan Wolf with an exception made for the Clan Heavy Assault Star which is painted Jade Falcon.  The majority are painted using Citadel’s Contrast paints.  I think that some came out quite nice while others, well not so much.  I did get a new Atlas in the Inner Sphere Direct Fire Lance. I realized that when I buy a box I must paint everything in the box as a unit but it makes putting a unit (Lance or Star is immaterial) on the table top a bit multicolored.  Does not look right for a military unit.

Reaper.  Ya know, Reaper is always a great source for miniatures and I was surprised that I only painted six in 2022. The three Jade Fire orcs were something I wanted to paint to go with the Shaman that I really like.  The giant spiders are a quick paint job for creatures in a D&D game.  Finally, Orlath Hoarbeard.  I bought him years ago and he sat in the Magic Bin.  He will be an evil, perhaps, druid or some sort.  The last couple of years Reaper has stepped up its game to use thermoplastics that hold detail and still be affordable.  Add to that it is a company who is working hard on making all of their products here in the US.  Certainly something to add to its already high reputation.  

I finished two printed minis, a few left on the table, but I did paint the aforementioned chibi UltraMarine, but I also finished a superhero who resembles Daredevil.  I wanted him to look like either a cover or splash page from one of the old issues from the Frank Miller run of the late 80s.  I don’t know if I accomplished that but it was fun to try.  The ‘snow’ is a mixture of a white sand from GF9 and a bit of white craft paint as the ‘snow’ took on the colour underneath it.  So, I thinned the craft paint and brushed it on, once the glue for the ‘snow’ dried. 

I got the ‘Luke on Dagobah’ for the Fantasy Flight ‘Star Wars Legions’ core box done.  It is a surprisingly nice kit.  If I had a criticism it would be that it needs another set of dice and some different terrain.  I plan to get the rest of the box painted in 2023.  I have Darth Vader from the core box and another from the ‘operative’ box on the paint table.  There are a number of nice minis out there for the game from all the eras and ‘sagas’.  There is a new star wars game coming out this next year and I am not sure if that is going to be something I want to play as I just don’t want another different scale Luke on the shelf.

Warlord.  I decided to buy the Warlord Mystery box this year.  It was jammed with minis and books.  Some from the previous box but mostly new stuff.  One of the metal minis was of CSM Stanley E. Hollis, VC of the  Green Howards who won the Victoria Cross on D-Day by taking a pillbox single-handedly, a field gun with a PIAT and saving two of his men.  Tough SOB.  Great little mini.  

So there you have it 74 minis painted and added to my collection.  Far less than the last couple years but then, well, there has been a lot of life interfering with my hobbies.  I did paint up some terrain for TWD and LDZA that I can use for fantasy or sci-fi but mostly for modern apocalypse games.  I’m not sure if I have it before but you should spend an hour or so most days on something hobby related.  Prepping minis for priming, priming, basing or building terrain or perhaps reading a rule set.  

What to look for next year?  I don’t know.  I want to get ‘Xenos Rampant’ and perhaps the second edition of Lion Rampant.  I know that I will be gaming more with the grands or solo.  When I think about it, I’ve already started on for 2023 with the amount of stuff already primed and waiting on the paint table…

‘With the nonsense that went on this morning I am not sure I should have fought so hard for it’,  Star Colonel Sveta Mutola growled at Bronwen.  The commander of the training facility was a tall spare woman of 68 years.  ‘You are freeborn isorla that I was saddled with only for the teaching of Inner Sphere tactics and organization.  I should have you shot for daring to lay hands on a Trueborn warrior, even if he is an arrogant little shit.’  Bronwen chose her next words carefully, ‘For, Star Colonel?  I do not understand.’  ‘You will, my little freeborn Mechwarrior.’ Sveta said with a smile, ‘and all the Crusaders will shit themselves.’  The older woman handed Bronwen a single sheet of paper.  It read, ‘Bronwen is to be given the opportunity to join the Clan as a warrior.  Her Trial of Position will be given when seen fit.’  Bronwen gaped at her Colonel.  Sveta smiled broadly and said, ‘The Incubus mech, the green one you have the hots for is in the stands.  Go and start training on it.’