Showing posts with label Anima: Tactics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Anima: Tactics. Show all posts
Sunday, August 30, 2009
My Wargames
A little review I did of one of my two miniatures wargames, Anima: Tactics. Who sadly are not showing up to PAX to do anything this year.
I find it amusing that VOR and Anima: Tactics have so little in common. VOR is an army game, AT a hero combat game. VOR has army books, AT has cards for miniatures. But I think what they both have in common that I love is that neither is super expensive and neither has a lot of sitting around doing nothing. In VOR you alternate activiation and quickly have a turn to do something besides defend. In AT it works that same way while also having reactive actions to decide on like dodge or counterattack during your turn (and sometimes special abilities).
In addition to possibly doing more reviews of Anima Tactics sometime I'm also thinking of doing a review of VOR and the Shard force. Anyone interested in that?
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Terrain: Play mats & craft store bought terrain
It is surprising to a lot of people how many good terrain pieces can simply be bought ready to go for cheap from a craft or hobby store. If you've got a small budget this is the way to go!
Fabric stores often have on discount weird or exotic fabric types that work great as play mats for wargaming terrain tables. Most won't even need any changes done to them. Honestly when you see playmats from "terrain stores" they're often buying the exact same fabric store mats and marking their retail price up by as much as 4 times! When if you go into the fabric store you'll usually find them on discount. The ones I've picked up I generally picked up at 60-75% off discounts which is a HUGE savings. Not to mention I like seeing stuff in person and having the instant gratification of walking out the door with it.
Not enough players who want some decent tabletop terrain consider hobby and craft store pieces. Your friendly local game store probably doesn't carry model train supplies, but hobby stores often do and many of the items you can find are perfect. Bachmann trains for instance has a lot of trees and vegetation making material which is perfect for any scale of gameplay. See in this video where they are being based and put to use by Terranscapes:
Your local craft store might require more work to find something in the correct scale for 28mm wargaming, but you should be able to find it or modify it without too much difficulty. The extra nice part is that the terrain pieces sold at a craft store tend to be on the very cheap end. Woodland scenics sells a lot of very nice terrain making materials mostly intended for use in school projects or modeling. I've bought some of their trees before and they work very nicely as cheap tabletop terrain throw-downs. You can go a lot further in making elaborate designs with some of their other materials and best yet for those of you new to making your own terrain is that they have a lot of instructional materials as well. Another one in the "love-it but won't admit it" category is Lemax collectables. A lot of these aren't in the correct scale for 28mm gaming, but a fair amount of them are. Gravestones, vineyards, and crypts can be found in the correct scale and they go a long ways towards making a very realistic setting. Plus when can't it be fun to detonate a traditional halloween or christmas display in a fantastic battle of miniatures wargaming?
Fabric stores often have on discount weird or exotic fabric types that work great as play mats for wargaming terrain tables. Most won't even need any changes done to them. Honestly when you see playmats from "terrain stores" they're often buying the exact same fabric store mats and marking their retail price up by as much as 4 times! When if you go into the fabric store you'll usually find them on discount. The ones I've picked up I generally picked up at 60-75% off discounts which is a HUGE savings. Not to mention I like seeing stuff in person and having the instant gratification of walking out the door with it.
Not enough players who want some decent tabletop terrain consider hobby and craft store pieces. Your friendly local game store probably doesn't carry model train supplies, but hobby stores often do and many of the items you can find are perfect. Bachmann trains for instance has a lot of trees and vegetation making material which is perfect for any scale of gameplay. See in this video where they are being based and put to use by Terranscapes:
Your local craft store might require more work to find something in the correct scale for 28mm wargaming, but you should be able to find it or modify it without too much difficulty. The extra nice part is that the terrain pieces sold at a craft store tend to be on the very cheap end. Woodland scenics sells a lot of very nice terrain making materials mostly intended for use in school projects or modeling. I've bought some of their trees before and they work very nicely as cheap tabletop terrain throw-downs. You can go a lot further in making elaborate designs with some of their other materials and best yet for those of you new to making your own terrain is that they have a lot of instructional materials as well. Another one in the "love-it but won't admit it" category is Lemax collectables. A lot of these aren't in the correct scale for 28mm gaming, but a fair amount of them are. Gravestones, vineyards, and crypts can be found in the correct scale and they go a long ways towards making a very realistic setting. Plus when can't it be fun to detonate a traditional halloween or christmas display in a fantastic battle of miniatures wargaming?
Monday, July 27, 2009
Terrain: Plaster - Hirst Arts
So when it comes to making terrain to play with out of plaster, Hirst Arts is the first and last website you should go to. Bruce Hirst is the primary artist selling plaster molds for terrain making, most places selling plaster molds or plaster terrain are doing what they can to copy from him. Go direct to his videos page and you can see exactly how it is done along with some other extra helpful stuff. His videos cover how to use plaster molds, how to use resin in them, how to paint, painting lava, and best of all how to make water features.The basics are you buy a mold, poor wet plaster into it and let dry, then you have super detailed building blocks for making a sturdy building of whatever you like.
In addition to the buildings you can make with blocks from his mold (My buildings are pictured to the right), he also has a wealth of information on how to do other terrain effects and general hobby advice. Whether you are looking for sculpting techniques,creative tabletop monsters, creating realistic water fountains,
making colored windows, dead trees, tips for painting futuristic models and a lot of other tips and tricks then Bruce Hirst's site is the one to visit. I have to give an extra special notice though to his river sections, they're just amazing and create the most realistic water you could ever want to play on.
For the Anima Tactics players I have to recommend all the Gothic molds Hirst has for evoking the setting really well. Shard or other sci-fi game players could do really well with the Schematic Mold which I have my building pictures of above and to the right. Though I'm eager to see a Neo-Soviet player make good use of the Pipe Molds and create an impressive Soviet chemical factory.
Have I convinced you to have a look at his website yet?
This just about concludes the series I had intended on tabltop terrain. If you got anything else I should add, a different series idea, or whatever please leave a comment.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Terrain: Sculpting materials
In general it is a bad idea to make an entire terrain project out of these materials, but they can really help you get exactly what you want. The obvious idea is that you use them to make your terrain project look the exact way you want. The reason not to use them for the entire project is that they're rarely sturdy enough nor economical enough.
Sculpting materials that I've seen used a lot are:
I won't include foam for the same reasons I won't include wood or metal. People who use blue or pink foam a lot insist it is a sculpting material. It isn't. You can sculpt them by taking parts of the substance away, not by shifting its mass into a different shape. Besides I've already covered them in an earlier blog post.
Green stuff and Brown stuff are both forms of Kneadatite sculpting materials usually used by miniatures modelers. Some people because they're familiar with it use it on a large scale for terrain projects as well. This stuff is expensive though, don't waste it like that! Also, these materials are designed for being very finely sculptable... not for supporting heavy weights. Your finely sculpted terrain project may deform when heavy weight is placed upon it. But if you want to do something small with a lot of detail, like sculpt a miniature flower for the terrain scene you could use this just like you would with sculpting miniatures.
Brown stuff is very similar to green stuff with slightly different properties. Advanced sculptors use it in conjunction with green stuff when sculpting models. Most importantly all forms of Kneadatite are mildly toxic! Always wash your hands before touching your eyes, eating, or handling babies.
Clays and polymer clays. The big difference is that clays harden by drying out and polymer clays are designed to harden by baking. How much time do you need to complete your sculpting project? While these are used a fair amount, I recommend only using them on a limited basis because when they harden they also shrink and deform small amounts. On the plus side they can be fairly cheap (especially compared to green stuff!) and are very sturdy for storing or playing on.
Easily my favorite and most recommended is paper mache or Papier Mache for my french speaking wife. Basically made from paper and glue. It is cheap, sturdy, and doesn't deform while it hardens. The trick is not letting it deform while it is still wet! But you can add a lot of things to paper mache to make it harder initially. The same things you add to your mache can also be used to change the texture. Right now I've been experimenting with adding different kinds of sand to the mix because they give a different texture. Once dry it takes paint readily, after all it is made from paper and glue right?
Here is an example of how you can use it and the size of projects that can be made from it:
Sculpting materials that I've seen used a lot are:
I won't include foam for the same reasons I won't include wood or metal. People who use blue or pink foam a lot insist it is a sculpting material. It isn't. You can sculpt them by taking parts of the substance away, not by shifting its mass into a different shape. Besides I've already covered them in an earlier blog post.
Green stuff and Brown stuff are both forms of Kneadatite sculpting materials usually used by miniatures modelers. Some people because they're familiar with it use it on a large scale for terrain projects as well. This stuff is expensive though, don't waste it like that! Also, these materials are designed for being very finely sculptable... not for supporting heavy weights. Your finely sculpted terrain project may deform when heavy weight is placed upon it. But if you want to do something small with a lot of detail, like sculpt a miniature flower for the terrain scene you could use this just like you would with sculpting miniatures.
Brown stuff is very similar to green stuff with slightly different properties. Advanced sculptors use it in conjunction with green stuff when sculpting models. Most importantly all forms of Kneadatite are mildly toxic! Always wash your hands before touching your eyes, eating, or handling babies.
Clays and polymer clays. The big difference is that clays harden by drying out and polymer clays are designed to harden by baking. How much time do you need to complete your sculpting project? While these are used a fair amount, I recommend only using them on a limited basis because when they harden they also shrink and deform small amounts. On the plus side they can be fairly cheap (especially compared to green stuff!) and are very sturdy for storing or playing on.
Easily my favorite and most recommended is paper mache or Papier Mache for my french speaking wife. Basically made from paper and glue. It is cheap, sturdy, and doesn't deform while it hardens. The trick is not letting it deform while it is still wet! But you can add a lot of things to paper mache to make it harder initially. The same things you add to your mache can also be used to change the texture. Right now I've been experimenting with adding different kinds of sand to the mix because they give a different texture. Once dry it takes paint readily, after all it is made from paper and glue right?
Here is an example of how you can use it and the size of projects that can be made from it:
Friday, July 17, 2009
Terrain Projects: basing
The most important skill for making terrain is having a good eye for finding stuff to use. But the most important part of your actual terran making is selecting a good base. The base is very important to the playability, but most importantly it is the main determiner of durability.
Without a good foundation the terrain project is not going to be durable for play, storage, and transport. On Metal or Resin terrain pieces you might get away with not having a base, but for everything else it is just about essential.
Here is a video which shows off some wood based terrain and the natural rocks and things it can support. In general (but not always, varies on type) wood is sturdy at thinner proportions than foam and gives support to heavier structures but it isn't as sculptable.
All good bases I've worked from have either been metal, wood, or foam. Avoid the temptation to use plasticard or cardboard. They're sturdy but they also warp too easily. Good metal bases are hard to come by unless you have friends in a metal shop as they can often get you scrap material that is perfect for it. If you're not a professional metalworker, stay away from making your own!
That leaves Wood and various types of foam. There are a lot of ups and downs to both and even more when the varieties of wood and foam are taken into account. My preference is for wood because I have more of the tools to work with wood and I like to avoid the toxic gasses that are produced when heating foam. This is really a preference thing and the majority of tabletop I know of is made from foam.
This plus some good air circulation is what you need for scupting foam properly:
Let me stress it again, don't work with heated foam in a closed off room. It isn't good for you or anyone else who has to breath vaporized foam.
Aside: Here is the second part in case you want the link
If you don't have the tools and the materials already for more advanced foam or wood work then you're mostly going to be buying flats. You can go to a home supply store (i.e. Home Depot) and buy large boards of foamboard (foam with plastic on the sides) or your local craft store (i.e. Michael's) is likely to have a good selection of wood flats (mostly Balsa wood, but also some others). A good hobby knife or box cutter is usually enough for these to get the correctly proportioned base you want and need.
As a general rule of thumb when putting things on your base start with the largest things first. Doesn't matter if you're building ruins, basing figures, or wilderness scenes. Full buildings and fortresses, then trees and boulders, then smaller plants and rubble, etc. It is easiest to work form largest detail to smallest.
P.S. Here is a series of 5 youtube videos on making a set of foam hills by Blue Table Painting.
Without a good foundation the terrain project is not going to be durable for play, storage, and transport. On Metal or Resin terrain pieces you might get away with not having a base, but for everything else it is just about essential.
Here is a video which shows off some wood based terrain and the natural rocks and things it can support. In general (but not always, varies on type) wood is sturdy at thinner proportions than foam and gives support to heavier structures but it isn't as sculptable.
All good bases I've worked from have either been metal, wood, or foam. Avoid the temptation to use plasticard or cardboard. They're sturdy but they also warp too easily. Good metal bases are hard to come by unless you have friends in a metal shop as they can often get you scrap material that is perfect for it. If you're not a professional metalworker, stay away from making your own!
That leaves Wood and various types of foam. There are a lot of ups and downs to both and even more when the varieties of wood and foam are taken into account. My preference is for wood because I have more of the tools to work with wood and I like to avoid the toxic gasses that are produced when heating foam. This is really a preference thing and the majority of tabletop I know of is made from foam.
This plus some good air circulation is what you need for scupting foam properly:
Let me stress it again, don't work with heated foam in a closed off room. It isn't good for you or anyone else who has to breath vaporized foam.
Aside: Here is the second part in case you want the link
If you don't have the tools and the materials already for more advanced foam or wood work then you're mostly going to be buying flats. You can go to a home supply store (i.e. Home Depot) and buy large boards of foamboard (foam with plastic on the sides) or your local craft store (i.e. Michael's) is likely to have a good selection of wood flats (mostly Balsa wood, but also some others). A good hobby knife or box cutter is usually enough for these to get the correctly proportioned base you want and need.
As a general rule of thumb when putting things on your base start with the largest things first. Doesn't matter if you're building ruins, basing figures, or wilderness scenes. Full buildings and fortresses, then trees and boulders, then smaller plants and rubble, etc. It is easiest to work form largest detail to smallest.
P.S. Here is a series of 5 youtube videos on making a set of foam hills by Blue Table Painting.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Quality Terrain from Random Stuff
If you're going to build your own terrain then the first skill I recommend developing is a good eye. There are lots of things all around you that can be used to make great terrain projects. If you look in my boxes of standard terrain making materials you'll find a lot of things that I just picked up.
Sticks of the right proportion can be used to make great trees or tree stumps. Tiny gravel scales to become large rocks and small rocks can be used as boulders. Got Cotton? String it out and use it as fog on your battlefield. Collect some lichens and use them as alien plants. Terrainaholic on youtube has a lot of videos where he just uses stuff he has laying around or finds on car trips.
Why do those pieces of bark work so well as rocks? Shape and texture, that is what you're really looking for. If you're in the miniature wargaming hobby then you shouldn't be afraid of painting things and a lot of stuff that doesn't work initially works well after you put a coat of paint on it. Sometimes the gravel rocks you find might not be the right color for frozen tundra glacier rocks... so why not paint them? It might seem odd to paint rocks the color you want, but it can work really really well.
One of my favorite tricks that I use for basing figures and making terrain is gathering my own Talus. People can pay $10 for a little plastic store container of talus material that isn't as good as what you can find in your concrete driveway or parking lot. Where the concrete pavement has cracked you'll find small bits of sandy and rocky material that can be sorted for all kinds of diferent sizes of Talus. Water Glue it on, and if you don't like the color paint over it.
Sometimes a little bit of cutting or assembly will get something of the right size and texture to a good piece of terrain. Here is another video from Youtube channel "Wargamepainting" that makes excellent "dead trees".
Work on it and share with everyone what you've found that is easily available and works to make great terrain or figure conversions.
Sticks of the right proportion can be used to make great trees or tree stumps. Tiny gravel scales to become large rocks and small rocks can be used as boulders. Got Cotton? String it out and use it as fog on your battlefield. Collect some lichens and use them as alien plants. Terrainaholic on youtube has a lot of videos where he just uses stuff he has laying around or finds on car trips.
Why do those pieces of bark work so well as rocks? Shape and texture, that is what you're really looking for. If you're in the miniature wargaming hobby then you shouldn't be afraid of painting things and a lot of stuff that doesn't work initially works well after you put a coat of paint on it. Sometimes the gravel rocks you find might not be the right color for frozen tundra glacier rocks... so why not paint them? It might seem odd to paint rocks the color you want, but it can work really really well.
One of my favorite tricks that I use for basing figures and making terrain is gathering my own Talus. People can pay $10 for a little plastic store container of talus material that isn't as good as what you can find in your concrete driveway or parking lot. Where the concrete pavement has cracked you'll find small bits of sandy and rocky material that can be sorted for all kinds of diferent sizes of Talus. Water Glue it on, and if you don't like the color paint over it.
Sometimes a little bit of cutting or assembly will get something of the right size and texture to a good piece of terrain. Here is another video from Youtube channel "Wargamepainting" that makes excellent "dead trees".
Work on it and share with everyone what you've found that is easily available and works to make great terrain or figure conversions.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Terrain: Metal, Plastic, and Resin. Mostly Resin.
So when it comes to Resin, Plastic and Metal terrain... don't try making it at home.
Cutting, Welding, Molding, etc with metal is a dangerous procedure you need expensive proper equipment & training for. If you're not a professional don't even think about it. If you are a professional you don't need tips from my blog.
Plastic is less dangerous but a whole lot more difficult & expensive.
Resin is also expensive, but I can see some reasonable exceptions. Hirst Arts makes some rubber molds that are good for use with resin making kits. These are small parts that could also just be made with Plaster. Resin doesn't break as easily as plaster does when it is thinned out because it is more flexible. If you start casting plaster you can learn a little bit about it, but in general leave Resin casting to the professionals.
The Miniature Building Authority makes pre-painted Resin buildings that can be played with immediately. I've only recently found their store and haven't seen any of their product yet in person. Armorcast makes a variety of materials from Resin and Metal and I can strongly recommend their products that I've tried so far.
As you can see in the video though their resin and metal products almost always come unpainted. This is a plus or a minus depending on how you want to see it. A lot of quick parts like you might buy at a toy store are very poorly painted and you can do just as well even if you're half-blind painting your own. You also have the opportunity to paint them the way you want them to look.
So what would you do with them if you were to buy one from a place like Armorcast? Well you'd want to paint it so it isn't one solid color without detail.
(Optional Step) If you're going to paint it in high detail I recommend you clean it first. Small impurities and oils are attracted to resin and can easily be cleaned off with a little dish soap and an old toothbrush to get into those nooks and crannies. Let it dry for 24 hours. Now this is the critical part is to not handle it with your bare hands as you'll get those oils you just cleaned off back onto it. Handle it with plastic gloves and prime it and don't touch it with bare hands until you have a coat of paint on it. Skin oils will stick to a good paint primer as well so remember to only handle parts that have a coat of paint on it. For an ever better practice try not handle it at all until it has its finishing coat on it.
As a general rule of thumb I don't use my high pigment paints for miniatures on my terrain pieces. It is simply a waste of expensive paint for something that doesn't show the detail. If you're working on a large terrain piece with moderate detail then use some cheap craft store paints. My preferred brands for terrain are Americana and Folk Art because they have a good pigment count for the cost. When I'm doing high detail on exquisite terrain pieces like Armorcast I'll go ahead and hit it with my minis paints to make those fine details really noticable and crisp.
This is a good video showing of a painted Armorcast trench set.
Some of you are very daunted by anything that needs painting because you don't feel you can paint. But I've seen people legally blind who can paint well with a couple simple techniques. Any kid can learn how to put paint on a brush and stroke it across a surface. The only two techniques you need to make that look awesome are wet brushing and dry brushing. Wet brushing is simply using a clean, but extra wet brush with your paint to allow it run to or pool in recesses naturally. You can use a dry brush or carefully use a corner of paper towel to clean up excess moisture. Getting some good practice at just those two techniques is enough to make any painting project look awesome.
Same as with your miniatures resin (Not Foam!) painted Terrain is best protected with a finishing coat of Matte or Gloss. These can be sprayed or brushed on depending on your preference. If you're not a fan of a lot Object Source Lighting (OSL) or Non-Metal Metal (NMM) then you'll want to use a low glow Matte or High Gloss to get the proper amount of shine and reflectance on your terrain. High Gloss really gives crystal and some metals that proper gleam they should have. Just bear in mind that gloss does not photograph well at all. So the more gloss it has will make it photograph worse even if it looks that much more awesome on your tabletop. So do you want it to look better in photos or on the playing table?
Below is Armorcast's showcase of painted terrain pieces which may hopefully help to inspire you.
Cutting, Welding, Molding, etc with metal is a dangerous procedure you need expensive proper equipment & training for. If you're not a professional don't even think about it. If you are a professional you don't need tips from my blog.
Plastic is less dangerous but a whole lot more difficult & expensive.
Resin is also expensive, but I can see some reasonable exceptions. Hirst Arts makes some rubber molds that are good for use with resin making kits. These are small parts that could also just be made with Plaster. Resin doesn't break as easily as plaster does when it is thinned out because it is more flexible. If you start casting plaster you can learn a little bit about it, but in general leave Resin casting to the professionals.
The Miniature Building Authority makes pre-painted Resin buildings that can be played with immediately. I've only recently found their store and haven't seen any of their product yet in person. Armorcast makes a variety of materials from Resin and Metal and I can strongly recommend their products that I've tried so far.
As you can see in the video though their resin and metal products almost always come unpainted. This is a plus or a minus depending on how you want to see it. A lot of quick parts like you might buy at a toy store are very poorly painted and you can do just as well even if you're half-blind painting your own. You also have the opportunity to paint them the way you want them to look.
So what would you do with them if you were to buy one from a place like Armorcast? Well you'd want to paint it so it isn't one solid color without detail.
(Optional Step) If you're going to paint it in high detail I recommend you clean it first. Small impurities and oils are attracted to resin and can easily be cleaned off with a little dish soap and an old toothbrush to get into those nooks and crannies. Let it dry for 24 hours. Now this is the critical part is to not handle it with your bare hands as you'll get those oils you just cleaned off back onto it. Handle it with plastic gloves and prime it and don't touch it with bare hands until you have a coat of paint on it. Skin oils will stick to a good paint primer as well so remember to only handle parts that have a coat of paint on it. For an ever better practice try not handle it at all until it has its finishing coat on it.
As a general rule of thumb I don't use my high pigment paints for miniatures on my terrain pieces. It is simply a waste of expensive paint for something that doesn't show the detail. If you're working on a large terrain piece with moderate detail then use some cheap craft store paints. My preferred brands for terrain are Americana and Folk Art because they have a good pigment count for the cost. When I'm doing high detail on exquisite terrain pieces like Armorcast I'll go ahead and hit it with my minis paints to make those fine details really noticable and crisp.
This is a good video showing of a painted Armorcast trench set.
Some of you are very daunted by anything that needs painting because you don't feel you can paint. But I've seen people legally blind who can paint well with a couple simple techniques. Any kid can learn how to put paint on a brush and stroke it across a surface. The only two techniques you need to make that look awesome are wet brushing and dry brushing. Wet brushing is simply using a clean, but extra wet brush with your paint to allow it run to or pool in recesses naturally. You can use a dry brush or carefully use a corner of paper towel to clean up excess moisture. Getting some good practice at just those two techniques is enough to make any painting project look awesome.
Same as with your miniatures resin (Not Foam!) painted Terrain is best protected with a finishing coat of Matte or Gloss. These can be sprayed or brushed on depending on your preference. If you're not a fan of a lot Object Source Lighting (OSL) or Non-Metal Metal (NMM) then you'll want to use a low glow Matte or High Gloss to get the proper amount of shine and reflectance on your terrain. High Gloss really gives crystal and some metals that proper gleam they should have. Just bear in mind that gloss does not photograph well at all. So the more gloss it has will make it photograph worse even if it looks that much more awesome on your tabletop. So do you want it to look better in photos or on the playing table?
Below is Armorcast's showcase of painted terrain pieces which may hopefully help to inspire you.
Terrain basics
So you want to use something that fits the scene for tabletop games than books and random objects found around the house? Then it is time for some appropriately scaled terrain. Whether you're making it or buying it, how is the terrain made?
Well the very first question is: What is it made from?
This is what you will typically find it made from:
- Resin, Plastic and Metal (Advanced, don't think of making these at home)
- Wood (Good for basing large terrain pieces, I stay away from carving or woodburning)
- Foam (Gets good detail and cheap, but has its downsides)
- Plaster (Very customizable in detail, very modular and sturdy. Also has its downsides)
- Sculpting Materials (Lots of materials, various ups and downs to them)
- Any random stuff you find (Thisis a very essential skill to enhance anything you work on)
Enjoy and Game-On!
Friday, July 10, 2009
Wargaming Terrain Intro
I've decided to start a series of blogs about creating wargaming terrain. For those of us who love the hobby and with the current economic depression this is easily one of the best times to do it. If you are laidoff you want to have fun but don't have the money to spend on your hobby. If you're employed it is a good time to strike some great deals on products you want. Also, it really helps turn the economy around the more we pass our dollars back and forth.
So to start if you do have the money I strongly recommend tabletop terrain products from the following companies:
- Hirst Arts - Hirst sells rubber molds that allow you to plaster cast blocks to build your own plaster terrain. Cast, Assemble, Paint and Play.
- Armorcast - Resin cast model terrain. Paint it and play with it.
- DwarvenForge - Modular terrain pieces that come pre-painted. Arrange on your table and play.
- Bluetablepainting - Made to order terrain. Arrange and play.
- Miniatures Unlimited - Ebay or Made to order terrain. Put it down and play.
- Miniature Building Authority - Resin cast buildings that are pre-painted. Put it down and play.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Unemployed
So I'm unemployed and playing games half the day. It's great! Unemployment at least through May has the jitters down and I'm hoping one of a few good positions I've applied for come my way. With child #3 on the way it is a good time to be relaxing at home and getting ready for the insanity of 3 CHILDREN!!!!
Dawn of War 2 was a lot of fun, kind of burnt out on the few maps it has though. More importantly I've been beta testing games that are a lot of fun. Unfortunately along with betas generally comes NDAs so not a lot of talking to be done about that either!
If you're following VOR, then the big announcement is the FAQ for 2.0 was released. Lots of new information there that I'm surprised isn't being discussed yet at bioplazm. I've been working on painting up a decent Golem army and Kirara has been greatly expanding her Growlers of late. Need to get down to basing them, but here are some older pictures I should have shown off but never did.
Anima Tactics is still looking good. I wish a lot more people played it locally, it is a shame. Hopefully when their rulebook is finally printed then the game can start picking up a lot more steam. Kirara has certainly "leveled up" with her painting of the fantastic Anima Tactics miniatures. Here is a painting of her "Konosuke" which was sold off on a commission. We got her a replacement so she'll be taking another stab at producing him with a new paint job again. The most recent stuff she has worked on has even better paint jobs than this one.
If you want to beta test Fallen Earth, then go here.
P.S. - Innsmouth Horror is coming. Then the Mountains of Madness movie.
P.S.S. - Keep your eye open on VOR, I expect another announcement sooner than melting glaciers.
Dawn of War 2 was a lot of fun, kind of burnt out on the few maps it has though. More importantly I've been beta testing games that are a lot of fun. Unfortunately along with betas generally comes NDAs so not a lot of talking to be done about that either!
If you're following VOR, then the big announcement is the FAQ for 2.0 was released. Lots of new information there that I'm surprised isn't being discussed yet at bioplazm. I've been working on painting up a decent Golem army and Kirara has been greatly expanding her Growlers of late. Need to get down to basing them, but here are some older pictures I should have shown off but never did.
Anima Tactics is still looking good. I wish a lot more people played it locally, it is a shame. Hopefully when their rulebook is finally printed then the game can start picking up a lot more steam. Kirara has certainly "leveled up" with her painting of the fantastic Anima Tactics miniatures. Here is a painting of her "Konosuke" which was sold off on a commission. We got her a replacement so she'll be taking another stab at producing him with a new paint job again. The most recent stuff she has worked on has even better paint jobs than this one.
If you want to beta test Fallen Earth, then go here.
P.S. - Innsmouth Horror is coming. Then the Mountains of Madness movie.
P.S.S. - Keep your eye open on VOR, I expect another announcement sooner than melting glaciers.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
What is an Expansion?
I start a new job on monday, yay me! This means less time and more money for gaming of course. I was hoping to have pictures of the Golden Growler up, but the contest hasn't had pictures posted yet let alone judged. When it is expect to see my most recent creation as my new mascot and avatar all of the place.
So I've pre-ordered the Mines of Moria expansion for Lord of the Rings Online. Sadly, I'm not too enthused about it at the moment. Partially because my kinship is having a lot of drama and I suspect on the verge of falling apart, but mostly just because for most classes the expansion doesn't seem like one. Turbine is behaving more like Funcom, upsetting class balance badly, giving a lot more to certain playstyles that already have plenty while ignoring what the customer base really wants while the marketing folks and community go ... oh we'll get around to fixing it this year.
All computer game developers have to understand, customers expect things to work properly right out of the box. Patches after the fact aren't shouldn't be used for fixing content, it should be used for adding content. That said I'll be there on patch day seeing how good or bad it is for myself.
Sadly I've not been able to get any games of Anima: Tactics in. The support for it at my local game store has pretty much died. I'm not sure what is going on there, a change in management it seems as one of the owners has seemingly lost interest in being involved or something.
We had our second session of Ramlar last night. I had a lot more fun GMing the game than I expected. This was partially do to the fun layout and intrigue for the Card Sharp adventure. This adventure makes a great beginning adventure for Ramlar, though they really need a better "first time" adventure for the game to introduce players to basic mechanics and such. The Card Sharp adventure I feel though is giving my two players a good feel for the setting, the races, and cultures of the world of Ramlar. I eagerly look forward to the next session of the game.
So I've pre-ordered the Mines of Moria expansion for Lord of the Rings Online. Sadly, I'm not too enthused about it at the moment. Partially because my kinship is having a lot of drama and I suspect on the verge of falling apart, but mostly just because for most classes the expansion doesn't seem like one. Turbine is behaving more like Funcom, upsetting class balance badly, giving a lot more to certain playstyles that already have plenty while ignoring what the customer base really wants while the marketing folks and community go ... oh we'll get around to fixing it this year.
All computer game developers have to understand, customers expect things to work properly right out of the box. Patches after the fact aren't shouldn't be used for fixing content, it should be used for adding content. That said I'll be there on patch day seeing how good or bad it is for myself.
Sadly I've not been able to get any games of Anima: Tactics in. The support for it at my local game store has pretty much died. I'm not sure what is going on there, a change in management it seems as one of the owners has seemingly lost interest in being involved or something.
We had our second session of Ramlar last night. I had a lot more fun GMing the game than I expected. This was partially do to the fun layout and intrigue for the Card Sharp adventure. This adventure makes a great beginning adventure for Ramlar, though they really need a better "first time" adventure for the game to introduce players to basic mechanics and such. The Card Sharp adventure I feel though is giving my two players a good feel for the setting, the races, and cultures of the world of Ramlar. I eagerly look forward to the next session of the game.
Friday, September 26, 2008
The Political Game.
The first Presidential debate is now over so I can blog at last. I had my priorities this evening. Speaking of which if you follow this blog you should also be reading GamePolitics. Have you figured out who to vote for to preserve the right to play the games you like? Have you been playing The Political Machine to see who will win in November? It seems my games of Obama and McCain keep coming down to Ohia and Michigan, can't win without them.
I've been doing some more resurgent MMO playing lately. My wife has been playing LotRO again sporadically and I've been playing Saga of Ryzom now that it is free to play. Free is a very good price for this MMO. It had a lot of features that were very promising for roleplayers, but in the end it remains a hall of broken promises and missing content. The mechanics are neat, but grinding gets old and you can choose to do that in any game. Never the less if you like MMOs you should check it out because there are numerous features that many good MMOs should copy from it. They have a great way of avoiding the class sytem and an interesting take on skills. Their faction system has a nifty way of gaining loyalty with factions... they just need some real incentives for actually doing so. The difference between a faction that totally loves you and one that is neutral is ... nothing. None the less you can grind it for the sake of seeing numbers scroll on your computer screen. I'll continue playing it while its free but I wouldn't pay anything for it in its current state. Say "Hi" to the lonely Pilgrim guild leader Svayvti if you stop by, the last Pilgrim leader of Atys.
I had a good post-PAX match up of Anima: Tactics at my friendly local games store (FLGS). My Church force Vs. Church Inquisitors Vs. Dark side. You can see me and the dark side player going at it to the right here. However, now that I've got the Konosuke figure from PAX... I've changed my playing allegiance to Samael for the time being. People seem to be down on them but I've found they can really put the hurt on. I've had one 300 point game with them and won it handily while still learning to field a Samael force. Good things appear to be in store with this force so lets hope we can really stir up a lot of local interest in this game.
In VOR news I haven't gotten any good games in lately with Scott and to a lesser degree myself being fairly busy. There is however a new Golden Growler contest going on. My wife took second place at the last one and I'm glad in this one we won't be directly competing. She is doing a Diorama entry for the Diorama contest and I'm doing a special character entry for the special character contest. Can you guess which special character I'm going to bring to life? For a harder question guess what Kirara's diorama will be of... You can see a picture of the fantastic trophies that Merc created. Will there be more good Shard entries? Last time I was totally impressed with Balrog's Shard Axion and thought is should have won first place. I hope we get more Shard entries ths time.
On the subject of RPGs, I've got yet another new RPG to try out. This one is the Chronices of Ramlar "Revised edition". The setting is classic fantasy, but the system mechanics are very intriguing and completely oriented towards hardcore roleplaying that I like. Tomorrow they have a RPG day at my FLGS and I'll see if I can poach some roleplayers to try and get a group going. Expect to hear a good deal more about Ramlar in the future. Shadowrun 4th edition continues to disappoint and their 20th anniversary is focusing on the failed Earthdawn crossovers rather than anything truly good and original from 1st edition. Smith & Tinker, please, please don't let me down in my hopes for a good Shadowrun game. Just trust Mike Mulvihill and Jordan Weisman because they made 1st and 3rd editions rock.
I'm getting back into the swing of applying for regular employment. Some of the jobs I'm well qualified for just look too boring. Would I like to make good money working in a boring downtown job for a soda distributor or dare I hold out for something interesting but less lucrative like game testing or working for government environmental consultants? I've inquired into both and potentially may have something next week involving contract work for Microsoft. We'll see what happens. Any ways it goes, my twice a month blog schedule I have going probably won't be impacted.
Peace and Fragging Happiness to you.
I've been doing some more resurgent MMO playing lately. My wife has been playing LotRO again sporadically and I've been playing Saga of Ryzom now that it is free to play. Free is a very good price for this MMO. It had a lot of features that were very promising for roleplayers, but in the end it remains a hall of broken promises and missing content. The mechanics are neat, but grinding gets old and you can choose to do that in any game. Never the less if you like MMOs you should check it out because there are numerous features that many good MMOs should copy from it. They have a great way of avoiding the class sytem and an interesting take on skills. Their faction system has a nifty way of gaining loyalty with factions... they just need some real incentives for actually doing so. The difference between a faction that totally loves you and one that is neutral is ... nothing. None the less you can grind it for the sake of seeing numbers scroll on your computer screen. I'll continue playing it while its free but I wouldn't pay anything for it in its current state. Say "Hi" to the lonely Pilgrim guild leader Svayvti if you stop by, the last Pilgrim leader of Atys.
I had a good post-PAX match up of Anima: Tactics at my friendly local games store (FLGS). My Church force Vs. Church Inquisitors Vs. Dark side. You can see me and the dark side player going at it to the right here. However, now that I've got the Konosuke figure from PAX... I've changed my playing allegiance to Samael for the time being. People seem to be down on them but I've found they can really put the hurt on. I've had one 300 point game with them and won it handily while still learning to field a Samael force. Good things appear to be in store with this force so lets hope we can really stir up a lot of local interest in this game.In VOR news I haven't gotten any good games in lately with Scott and to a lesser degree myself being fairly busy. There is however a new Golden Growler contest going on. My wife took second place at the last one and I'm glad in this one we won't be directly competing. She is doing a Diorama entry for the Diorama contest and I'm doing a special character entry for the special character contest. Can you guess which special character I'm going to bring to life? For a harder question guess what Kirara's diorama will be of... You can see a picture of the fantastic trophies that Merc created. Will there be more good Shard entries? Last time I was totally impressed with Balrog's Shard Axion and thought is should have won first place. I hope we get more Shard entries ths time.On the subject of RPGs, I've got yet another new RPG to try out. This one is the Chronices of Ramlar "Revised edition". The setting is classic fantasy, but the system mechanics are very intriguing and completely oriented towards hardcore roleplaying that I like. Tomorrow they have a RPG day at my FLGS and I'll see if I can poach some roleplayers to try and get a group going. Expect to hear a good deal more about Ramlar in the future. Shadowrun 4th edition continues to disappoint and their 20th anniversary is focusing on the failed Earthdawn crossovers rather than anything truly good and original from 1st edition. Smith & Tinker, please, please don't let me down in my hopes for a good Shadowrun game. Just trust Mike Mulvihill and Jordan Weisman because they made 1st and 3rd editions rock.
I'm getting back into the swing of applying for regular employment. Some of the jobs I'm well qualified for just look too boring. Would I like to make good money working in a boring downtown job for a soda distributor or dare I hold out for something interesting but less lucrative like game testing or working for government environmental consultants? I've inquired into both and potentially may have something next week involving contract work for Microsoft. We'll see what happens. Any ways it goes, my twice a month blog schedule I have going probably won't be impacted.
Peace and Fragging Happiness to you.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
PAX 2008 is over, long live PAX!
Well it has taken me a while to catch up on things to blog again after PAX. Much is happening especially with a 3rd child on the way!!!
But back to PAX. Friday night of PAX I just enjoyed the show room mostly. My personal highlights were the Turbine booth, Stardock booth, Blizzard booth, and Nintendo Wii booth. I like seeing that Nintendo is making use of the balance board in future games coming out as Wii fit just doesn't seem to do enough on its own. Now if they'd only rush out an adapter for their wireless LAN on the wii because some of us don't like the security issues of wireless or need to unnecessarily upgrade our wired routers. Starcraft 2 impresses, hopefully it isn't a DRM let down like Spore was. At the same time Stardock made a showing of the Gamer's Bill of Rights. The battle is on and I fully expect Stardock to win it, put my money down on David rather than Goliath. Customers want to be treated like respected customers and not like criminals who are all suspect of being thieves.
Best PAX party award definitely goes to Turbine and LOTRO again this year and was supported by Stratics rather than IGN. Got to love a party with catering, games, and prizes! This year our whole family got awesome T-shirts and I won a "Razor" gaming mouse. The Mouse is actually spiffy and my ability to frag in CounterStrike is slightly improved! The girls as you can see fit into their shirts very appropriately.
I also got to try out the new character classes for Lord of the Rings Online expansion: The Mines of Moria. The Warden was an interesting character class, if you like a medium range Guardian with special solo conjunctions called Gambits then the Warden class will be for you. Myself, I was instantly hooked on the Runekeeper. This is a squishy caster class with nuking and healing, both of which are very powerful. Most people's reaction will be that it is overpowered and it would be if they could do both at once. Runekeepers have an interesting new dynamic where there is a slider based on what type of abilities you've been using. Are you tending towards greater attacks or trying to heal? As the slider moves towards damage or healing you get a boost to the effectiveness of the one you're using and a reduction in the ability to do the opposite. Also the slider being at a certain position is required for some of the more powerful abilities. So yes you can be an incredible nuking mage type if needed but you're healing abilities will be inferior to just using a potion, but if the encounter needs it you can be all healer. Very interesting gameplay and very tactical by the seat of your pants, I'm instantly hooked on it.
Saturday was Anima: Tactics tournament day and was disappointing in turnout. We didn't get the proper tables from PAX, Fantasy Flight didn't show up with terrain, and only 3 of us where there in an undecorated room to play. At least we had a healthy amount of interest in spectators. I also got to purchase the RPG book in advance at PAX along with a large character Konosuke who probably won't be in stores for another month yet. I sure hope next year the tournament scene is done a lot better.
VOR on sunday was also slow but got a lot of interested people looking at the battle Scott and I were having. Only two of us playing with paper terrain, but it was fun as always! With any luck if things keep up we'll be playing Vor 2.0 early next year. Next year PAX will hopefully be even more fun, I'm always looking forward to it!
But back to PAX. Friday night of PAX I just enjoyed the show room mostly. My personal highlights were the Turbine booth, Stardock booth, Blizzard booth, and Nintendo Wii booth. I like seeing that Nintendo is making use of the balance board in future games coming out as Wii fit just doesn't seem to do enough on its own. Now if they'd only rush out an adapter for their wireless LAN on the wii because some of us don't like the security issues of wireless or need to unnecessarily upgrade our wired routers. Starcraft 2 impresses, hopefully it isn't a DRM let down like Spore was. At the same time Stardock made a showing of the Gamer's Bill of Rights. The battle is on and I fully expect Stardock to win it, put my money down on David rather than Goliath. Customers want to be treated like respected customers and not like criminals who are all suspect of being thieves.
Best PAX party award definitely goes to Turbine and LOTRO again this year and was supported by Stratics rather than IGN. Got to love a party with catering, games, and prizes! This year our whole family got awesome T-shirts and I won a "Razor" gaming mouse. The Mouse is actually spiffy and my ability to frag in CounterStrike is slightly improved! The girls as you can see fit into their shirts very appropriately.
I also got to try out the new character classes for Lord of the Rings Online expansion: The Mines of Moria. The Warden was an interesting character class, if you like a medium range Guardian with special solo conjunctions called Gambits then the Warden class will be for you. Myself, I was instantly hooked on the Runekeeper. This is a squishy caster class with nuking and healing, both of which are very powerful. Most people's reaction will be that it is overpowered and it would be if they could do both at once. Runekeepers have an interesting new dynamic where there is a slider based on what type of abilities you've been using. Are you tending towards greater attacks or trying to heal? As the slider moves towards damage or healing you get a boost to the effectiveness of the one you're using and a reduction in the ability to do the opposite. Also the slider being at a certain position is required for some of the more powerful abilities. So yes you can be an incredible nuking mage type if needed but you're healing abilities will be inferior to just using a potion, but if the encounter needs it you can be all healer. Very interesting gameplay and very tactical by the seat of your pants, I'm instantly hooked on it.Saturday was Anima: Tactics tournament day and was disappointing in turnout. We didn't get the proper tables from PAX, Fantasy Flight didn't show up with terrain, and only 3 of us where there in an undecorated room to play. At least we had a healthy amount of interest in spectators. I also got to purchase the RPG book in advance at PAX along with a large character Konosuke who probably won't be in stores for another month yet. I sure hope next year the tournament scene is done a lot better.
VOR on sunday was also slow but got a lot of interested people looking at the battle Scott and I were having. Only two of us playing with paper terrain, but it was fun as always! With any luck if things keep up we'll be playing Vor 2.0 early next year. Next year PAX will hopefully be even more fun, I'm always looking forward to it!
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
PAX is coming
PAX is coming this weekend. I'm greatly looking forward to it at this point.
Friday I'm heading straight for the Fantasy Flight Games booth and hoping to pick up a copy of the new Anima: Beyond Fantasy RPG. Also maybe a couple new early release figures for Anima: Tactics. Second will be Turbine to see what LotRO has to offer for going back to the game. I am looking forward to the expansion and maybe it can get me back into the game on a somewhat casual basis. My family will be going to the party they sponsor that evening. Also on the agenda is to scope out any good Wii games that nintendo or other companies might be showcasing. We've got like 4 games for it right now? Most of the games just don't interest, but PAX is the place where the good stuff will be shown off. Friday if possible but maybe later in the weekend I intend to stop by Microsoft and tell them that I'm a Shadowrun player waiting for them to make good on the franchise. The most recent x-box game and the latest edition of pen and paper have been serious disappointments so make this latest one something to be proud of.
Saturday I'll be helping with the Anima: Tactics tournament since I'm an official demoer. I'm hoping we have a good turn out and I really wish I could be playing in the tournament but I think it will be a lot of fun just getting the playing scene going. Maybe Cipher Dave and I can get a good game going on the sidelines though at least!
Sunday is our guerrilla VOR gaming. There will be at least 3 of us there for playing VOR and just showing people that the game is still alive.
That is a lot of gaming for one weekend and I can't wait for it to get here!
Friday I'm heading straight for the Fantasy Flight Games booth and hoping to pick up a copy of the new Anima: Beyond Fantasy RPG. Also maybe a couple new early release figures for Anima: Tactics. Second will be Turbine to see what LotRO has to offer for going back to the game. I am looking forward to the expansion and maybe it can get me back into the game on a somewhat casual basis. My family will be going to the party they sponsor that evening. Also on the agenda is to scope out any good Wii games that nintendo or other companies might be showcasing. We've got like 4 games for it right now? Most of the games just don't interest, but PAX is the place where the good stuff will be shown off. Friday if possible but maybe later in the weekend I intend to stop by Microsoft and tell them that I'm a Shadowrun player waiting for them to make good on the franchise. The most recent x-box game and the latest edition of pen and paper have been serious disappointments so make this latest one something to be proud of.
Saturday I'll be helping with the Anima: Tactics tournament since I'm an official demoer. I'm hoping we have a good turn out and I really wish I could be playing in the tournament but I think it will be a lot of fun just getting the playing scene going. Maybe Cipher Dave and I can get a good game going on the sidelines though at least!
Sunday is our guerrilla VOR gaming. There will be at least 3 of us there for playing VOR and just showing people that the game is still alive.
That is a lot of gaming for one weekend and I can't wait for it to get here!
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Gaming, Politics, Working
Woo Hoo!
I'm still unemployed and gaming. I've had one interview and have another one soonish here. Honestly until August is over I don't care if I have a job or not though, it is great just being able to get up in the morning and see my children happy that I'm here and have some time to game or do other things going out and enjoying life.
So in case you haven't noticed, there is a political election going on here in the U.S. Have you been to Game Politics? Apparently the last game Obama played was Pong. I find it amazing that using a crackberry is enough to create generational appeal. But at least all the virulently anti-fun politicians didn't make it through the primaries. No word yet on what the last game McCain played was, the Political Machine wouldn't count though. No, these issues aren't too serious on my list of voting issues but you needed a good distraction from all the regular political news right about now right?
Another local player (Scott) and I have been giving VOR the old beatdown. I've certainly had fun playing with some new figures that I haven't been able to play with before. Lately we've been giving vehicles some beat down, you can see one of our vehicle missions pictured. The results of which are over on the bioplazm forums. Between VOR, Anima, and Arkham I've just about given up electronic gaming. I've taken the time to be the latest campaign on the second Galactic Civilizations expansion and created the Pharon and Golem enemy races in honor of VOR.
My wife and I played Shadowrun 4th edition at a game store recently. I've been very critical of it but hadn't given it an actual play. I had fun in that it resembled Shadowrun but I found it full of a lot of unnecessary mechanics changes and downright annoying changes to the story or "fluff" of the game. This next weekend I'm hoping to get a good old game of 3rd edition in, I still keep hearing about other old 3rd edition players who don't like the new edition either.
The reason I expect to be able to play 3rd edition is because I'm going to the Dragon Flight convention in Bellevue, Washington to demo Anima: Tactics. I was going to do it for my friendly local game store, but I also got accepted into Cipher Studious (the manufacturers of Anima: Tactics) program for Free Agents. Which means I'll be helping with demoing the game a lot locally, helping with conventions and tournaments and in exchange I hope to get some interesting little rewards to show off on the blog here someday. Just today I demo'd the game to 3 guys who were in the game store and hope to get a regular game night actively going. This weekend I'll be demoing at the Dragon Flight convention and I'll be having some games at PAX. Since $40-$50 is a full army for this game, there is no reason not to pick it up if you're already playing other war games.
I'm still unemployed and gaming. I've had one interview and have another one soonish here. Honestly until August is over I don't care if I have a job or not though, it is great just being able to get up in the morning and see my children happy that I'm here and have some time to game or do other things going out and enjoying life.
So in case you haven't noticed, there is a political election going on here in the U.S. Have you been to Game Politics? Apparently the last game Obama played was Pong. I find it amazing that using a crackberry is enough to create generational appeal. But at least all the virulently anti-fun politicians didn't make it through the primaries. No word yet on what the last game McCain played was, the Political Machine wouldn't count though. No, these issues aren't too serious on my list of voting issues but you needed a good distraction from all the regular political news right about now right?
Another local player (Scott) and I have been giving VOR the old beatdown. I've certainly had fun playing with some new figures that I haven't been able to play with before. Lately we've been giving vehicles some beat down, you can see one of our vehicle missions pictured. The results of which are over on the bioplazm forums. Between VOR, Anima, and Arkham I've just about given up electronic gaming. I've taken the time to be the latest campaign on the second Galactic Civilizations expansion and created the Pharon and Golem enemy races in honor of VOR.
My wife and I played Shadowrun 4th edition at a game store recently. I've been very critical of it but hadn't given it an actual play. I had fun in that it resembled Shadowrun but I found it full of a lot of unnecessary mechanics changes and downright annoying changes to the story or "fluff" of the game. This next weekend I'm hoping to get a good old game of 3rd edition in, I still keep hearing about other old 3rd edition players who don't like the new edition either.
The reason I expect to be able to play 3rd edition is because I'm going to the Dragon Flight convention in Bellevue, Washington to demo Anima: Tactics. I was going to do it for my friendly local game store, but I also got accepted into Cipher Studious (the manufacturers of Anima: Tactics) program for Free Agents. Which means I'll be helping with demoing the game a lot locally, helping with conventions and tournaments and in exchange I hope to get some interesting little rewards to show off on the blog here someday. Just today I demo'd the game to 3 guys who were in the game store and hope to get a regular game night actively going. This weekend I'll be demoing at the Dragon Flight convention and I'll be having some games at PAX. Since $40-$50 is a full army for this game, there is no reason not to pick it up if you're already playing other war games.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Seattle Gaming
So laid off in Seattle has been a great opportunity for gaming. I've played 3 complete games of Arkham with my wife so far and we purchased the Dark Pharoah expansion for it which has made it a lot better and more interesting. The biggest thing is just not repeating Arkham Encounters like we used to and having a lot more interesting ones to really stir it up. They did a great job of balancing the basic game with it.
I've also gone back to playing Galactic Civilizations II on the computer since my Tabula Rasa accoutn expired. I've progressed a ways into campaign play for a change and I am enjoying it.
I made a road trip up to Vancouver B.C. that was a lot more difficult than expected. Actually got a grilling going across the Canadian border and had it easy coming back. Makes me really curious how many border incidents there are though. It is one of the biggest borders in all the world and easily one of the quietest too. Last time there was serious cross border action was the war of 1812, so why all the paranoia? Anyways I got to meet Skuzzy and discuss lots of wicked stuff about the future of VOR: The Maelstrom. One of these days we WILL throw down dice and a serious conflict will ensue.
I also got to have a good Union versus Shard play session with "Scott" yesterday. You can read a full Battle Report on the Bioplazm forums.
Now we're working on Anima: Tactics which I've yet to play since moving up to the Seattle area. There is definitely plenty of interest at the local game store though and I will likely demo for the game if I have time between my VOR playing projects and actually working.
Speaking of work, I've got plenty waiting for me to do up here since moving.
I've also gone back to playing Galactic Civilizations II on the computer since my Tabula Rasa accoutn expired. I've progressed a ways into campaign play for a change and I am enjoying it.
I made a road trip up to Vancouver B.C. that was a lot more difficult than expected. Actually got a grilling going across the Canadian border and had it easy coming back. Makes me really curious how many border incidents there are though. It is one of the biggest borders in all the world and easily one of the quietest too. Last time there was serious cross border action was the war of 1812, so why all the paranoia? Anyways I got to meet Skuzzy and discuss lots of wicked stuff about the future of VOR: The Maelstrom. One of these days we WILL throw down dice and a serious conflict will ensue.
I also got to have a good Union versus Shard play session with "Scott" yesterday. You can read a full Battle Report on the Bioplazm forums.
Now we're working on Anima: Tactics which I've yet to play since moving up to the Seattle area. There is definitely plenty of interest at the local game store though and I will likely demo for the game if I have time between my VOR playing projects and actually working.
Speaking of work, I've got plenty waiting for me to do up here since moving.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Miniatures
Well I've finished Damien finally from my Anima: Tactics Church force. I easily think this is a new personal best for my own paint jobs.
His teammate Justina is looking to be an awesome figure as well. I'll have a picture of her when she is done.
and just to finish off this photo blog I've got a picture of the clash of the Union and Growlers diorama that we currently have on our wall.
His teammate Justina is looking to be an awesome figure as well. I'll have a picture of her when she is done.and just to finish off this photo blog I've got a picture of the clash of the Union and Growlers diorama that we currently have on our wall.
Monday, April 7, 2008
Arkham Horror and more
The Wii is good, but it lacks enough good games. Still I feel in better shape every time I play dance dance revolution and my arms are stretching out from playing Godzilla.
The craze of the moment for both myself and my wife though is Arkham Horror. A lovecraft horror board game that has more role-playing elements than most "role-playing" games these days. If you've got a small group of friends who like role-playing games or board games then I seriously recommend this one as a great cooperative game.
Anima Tactics continues being a very fun game to play when we can. The continuing sculpts are unbelievable and we've added a diorama shelf to our house to proudly display both my wife's and my own painted figures. My wife has settled on playing light forces because she likes so many of the figures and can't be made to pick just one organization. Her most recent finished model is the painted asian princess in the picture. I expect we'll continue playing this game for a long time.
LotRO playing has all but ceased but they're recently announced Mines of Moria expansion will likely get us back into the game right away. Maybe with a new high level playing zone we'll play some more again as well whenever they release the next book. My only current wish right now is to find the play time around my children to get my Captain up to at least level 25.
I'm also hoping to finish up the last few figures on my shard force for VOR and then retire them to a box somewhere for safe keeping. The last razorback growler is being worked on as well, though I expect some more Firegut growlers in the future. Rest assured I can't resist showing off pictures of painted minis.
Until then keep on playing and leave a few comments in my blog if you're enjoying any of the same games I am.
The craze of the moment for both myself and my wife though is Arkham Horror. A lovecraft horror board game that has more role-playing elements than most "role-playing" games these days. If you've got a small group of friends who like role-playing games or board games then I seriously recommend this one as a great cooperative game.
Anima Tactics continues being a very fun game to play when we can. The continuing sculpts are unbelievable and we've added a diorama shelf to our house to proudly display both my wife's and my own painted figures. My wife has settled on playing light forces because she likes so many of the figures and can't be made to pick just one organization. Her most recent finished model is the painted asian princess in the picture. I expect we'll continue playing this game for a long time.
LotRO playing has all but ceased but they're recently announced Mines of Moria expansion will likely get us back into the game right away. Maybe with a new high level playing zone we'll play some more again as well whenever they release the next book. My only current wish right now is to find the play time around my children to get my Captain up to at least level 25.
I'm also hoping to finish up the last few figures on my shard force for VOR and then retire them to a box somewhere for safe keeping. The last razorback growler is being worked on as well, though I expect some more Firegut growlers in the future. Rest assured I can't resist showing off pictures of painted minis.
Until then keep on playing and leave a few comments in my blog if you're enjoying any of the same games I am.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Godzilla and painting
Who remembers the old day of "Nintendo thumb" when you had blisters on your thumbs from button mashing all night long? Now I've got "Nintendo arm" where my arms are feeling sore from so much vigorous movement on the Wii to play Godzilla Unleashed for two evenings. But unlike the old Nintendo thumb it feels like my arms are sore from growing new muscles rather than blisters. Thanks to Nintendo for changing the unhealthy way that people play video games. My kids and wife are getting more exercise thanks to the Wii Dance Dance Revolution (DDR). Even the neighbor kids have come over during the day for dance sessions already.
The game I'm really obsessing over these days however isn't electronic, it is old fashioned paint and play Miniatures game of Anima: Tactics. Both my wife and I are playing this game and I try to get the occasional game in at the Friendly Local Game store when I can escape for a while. The models are exquisitely beautiful and we are enjoying the Anima inspired setting. The rules are also very simple, yet allow a lot of great tactical variation. The organization I've chosen to play is "Church", the figures are obviously inspired but some of the beautiful medieval imagery of Catholic church. Story wise they're based off of some of the weird medieval groups like the Spanish Inquisition. Pictured you'll see a nun, an Inquisitor, and.... a girl with wings who can fly and fight.
The winged girl and the Inquisitor are my own paint job while the Nun was painted by my wife.
I choose purple and pink and dark colors for them to represent the flamboyant clothes worn by what I consider the corrupt and decadent churches of the medeival era in Europe.
Does my painting suck? got suggestions, praise or something else? Feel free to leave comments.
The game I'm really obsessing over these days however isn't electronic, it is old fashioned paint and play Miniatures game of Anima: Tactics. Both my wife and I are playing this game and I try to get the occasional game in at the Friendly Local Game store when I can escape for a while. The models are exquisitely beautiful and we are enjoying the Anima inspired setting. The rules are also very simple, yet allow a lot of great tactical variation. The organization I've chosen to play is "Church", the figures are obviously inspired but some of the beautiful medieval imagery of Catholic church. Story wise they're based off of some of the weird medieval groups like the Spanish Inquisition. Pictured you'll see a nun, an Inquisitor, and.... a girl with wings who can fly and fight.
The winged girl and the Inquisitor are my own paint job while the Nun was painted by my wife.
I choose purple and pink and dark colors for them to represent the flamboyant clothes worn by what I consider the corrupt and decadent churches of the medeival era in Europe.
Does my painting suck? got suggestions, praise or something else? Feel free to leave comments.
Monday, March 3, 2008
Gaming update
Well I took a break from Lord of the Rings Online in December when a cousin of mine died. Haven't felt inspired enough to go back currently though I'm sure I will in the future.
I picked up Neverwinter Nights the original, a good game that I never picked up when it was all the rage because I personally don't care for D&D settings. Bioware makes quality games however and I envision spending more time with it when I have a chance.
What I've really been into is miniatures gaming again. Yes, still more VOR but I also found a new miniatures game to play for the first time since VOR - Anima: Tactics. A great small-scale skirmish type miniatures game, the rules are simple but allow for many tactical possibilities. The minis themselves are the best part having a mange/anime theme to the imagery. Both my wife and I have picked this up making it our latest "couples" game.
While we do that, we're looking at getting and setting up a Wii for the little ones. Have to start the kids out right so they can connect on a gamer level with their parents when they're older! That and if they don't get out much in the rainy weather this will allow all of us to get more exercise than sitting and playing computer games. Hopefully more developers get the idea of "active" gaming in the future.
I picked up Neverwinter Nights the original, a good game that I never picked up when it was all the rage because I personally don't care for D&D settings. Bioware makes quality games however and I envision spending more time with it when I have a chance.
What I've really been into is miniatures gaming again. Yes, still more VOR but I also found a new miniatures game to play for the first time since VOR - Anima: Tactics. A great small-scale skirmish type miniatures game, the rules are simple but allow for many tactical possibilities. The minis themselves are the best part having a mange/anime theme to the imagery. Both my wife and I have picked this up making it our latest "couples" game.
While we do that, we're looking at getting and setting up a Wii for the little ones. Have to start the kids out right so they can connect on a gamer level with their parents when they're older! That and if they don't get out much in the rainy weather this will allow all of us to get more exercise than sitting and playing computer games. Hopefully more developers get the idea of "active" gaming in the future.
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