January 28, 2019

Guild Ball: Free Cities Draft 'Cutlass'

The eighth Rookie from Steamforged Games about the Free Cities Draft Rookies is 'Cutlass' for the Blacksmith's Guild.

Find out how 'Cutlass' missed out on the Fisherman's guild and ended up with the Blacksmith's, click HERE

The final standings were:

January 25, 2019

Guild Ball: Free Cities Draft 'Knuckles'

Continuing on with the seventh Rookie from Steamforged Games about the Free Cities Draft Rookies is 'Knuckles' for the Fisherman's Guild.

How is 'Knuckles' coping at the Fisherman's guild, click HERE

The final standings were:

January 23, 2019

Guild Ball: Cook's Minor Guild Official Release Date

It was announced today to retailers and Steamforged Games "Pundits" that the release of the Cook's Minor Guild to the Butcher's will be on March 15th, 2019.  Retailers and Local Gaming Stores can now go ahead and start taking pre-orders.

Let's hope all goes well and there are no shipping delays like to the Navigator's that caused them to be damaged at sea.

 The Cook's will be released on March 15th
Alternate 'Wellington' will be available exclusively from your LGS!

January 21, 2019

Guild Ball: Free Cities Draft 'Layne'

The story of the sixth Rookie coming from Steamforged Games about the Free Cities Draft Rookies is my boy 'Layne' for the Butcher's Guild.

Find out how 'Ox' takes a liking to this young lad by reading it HERE

The final standings were:

Weekly Chronicle 2019 #3

It was another bad week in the painting department for me this week, and it looks like it will continue that way for the rest of the month.  I'll be heading out of town next weekend for a week, and nights this week look to be busy too.  Maybe tomorrow night I may be able to finish off the model that has been sitting on my painting station.

At least this past week I did make up for it with a few games.  I was able to get in 3 games of Guild Ball, and quick game of Destiny in.  It has only been 4 games of Guild Ball in so far this month and I am a little behind schedule of my goal of 50 games played for the year.  Missing out on a tournament last weekend has cost me a few games, but I do have a lot of events scheduled for the year so i should still be able to hit my goal......but....we still also have a lot of other games we need to try and squeeze in this year also.  I have not touched X-Wing this year so far and it is just over two month's till AdeptiCon where I will be playing in an event there.  Depending on how work goes today, we may be able to squeeze in a game tonight.

Models Completed: 0

Games Played: 4

January 20, 2019

Battle Report: Guild Ball 1/20/2019 Butcher's vs Blacksmith's

My son and I are swapping out Guild's playing each other and it has been a little while since my son last played his Blacksmith's Guild (with his switch to the Hunter's Guild), but this afternoon he decided to throw them down for a game against my Butcher's.



 Ox
Princess
Boiler
Boar
Shank
V Gutter
 Furnace
Anvil
Hearth
V Cinder
Alloy
Sledge



I elected to receive the ball (since I heard that is the best thing to do with the Butcher's) and proceeded with my usually opening move.  One change to this is that 'Boiler' was able to pick up the ball and did  successful Kick back to 'Ox' for some early Momentum.  Butcher's took an early lead Turn 1 2-0 with a Taken Out on 'Alloy', but the Blacksmith's came back and Taken Out 'Boar' at the beginning of Turn 2 to even up the game 2-2.  It was now time to kick it into high gear...Butcher's followed up with Taken Out's on 'Anvil', 'Sledge', 'V Cinder' and 'Furnace' giving the Butcher's a 10-2 lead.  The clock then expired for my Butcher's during Turn 3, but not before 'Boar' could come back onto the Pitch and finish off 'Alloy' for a 12-2 Butcher's win.

January 19, 2019

Battle Report: Guild Ball 1/18/2019 Navigator's vs Hunter's

I need more and more Guild Ball practice, I have slacked off so far starting off 2019 in playing and painting (way behind in the painting department) so last night my son and i got in another game.  Instead of always Butcher's vs Hunter's, we are alternating to give each other practice vs other Guilds, at the same time learning some of the things the other Guilds can do.  Since i just played the Navigator's the other  night, I decided to try them again vs the Hunter's.

 
Windfinder
Wander
Azimuth
Ebb
Fathom
Horizon
 Theron
Fahad
V Minx
Seenah
Chaska
Hearne




I elected to receive this time to try and build up some Momentum with passing and setting up my players where I'd like them to be (near terrain).  It all started off pretty good for my Navigator's and then it all when downhill when 'Fathom' missed her Goal (grant it, it was on one die).  From there the Hunter's were just beating up on the Navigator's and I believe was losing 7-0 (from Taken Outs) when my clock expired.  I knew I was going to lose on the clock since it is still a learning process with the Navigator's.  With the new OPD that was released this week, I was able to have an extra 5:00 minutes added to my clock, but my opponent would gain 1VP after every Activation I take.  4 Activation's later the score was now 11-0 and I had 39 seconds left on the clock.  It was time to get a moral victory.  'Fathom' went for another Goal run from just coming back onto the Pitch.  She spent 1 Momentum for a Heroic Play to Dodge 4", then Charged 'Chaska' and wrapped with a Momentous Double Dodge and Dodge and to put her within Kick range.  She was still engaged and lost a die, but I used Bonus Time to put it right back.  This time 'Fathom' was able to score and the Navigator's lost 12-4.

January 18, 2019

Daily Chronicle: Warmachine Weekend is now Warfaire Weekend

The other day the Facebook Page for "Warmachine Weekend" changed names to "Warfaire Weekend" and a lot of people were asking about this.  After this past "Warmachine Weekend", it was announced that Carl who has been running it from the beginning was letting go of "Warmachine Weekend" and there was a new team taking over the duties.  Chris and Gonzo stepped up to plate and will now be running "Warmachine Weekend", well actually "Warfaire Weekend".  Last night at 8:00 PM EST, Chris and Gonzo held a Facebook Live Q&A session to answer anyone's questions and explain a little bit about "Warfaire Weekend".


In the picture, the first thing you may notice (besides the name) is that date of "Warfaire Weekend" will be November 8th-10th.  The past few years the event has been the first weekend of November, but it looks like for 2019 it will be the second.

Onto the name change.  Having a fresh start for the event, Chris and Gonzo thought it would also be a perfect time for a name change, the name change was mainly for legality issues over the name "Warmachine", but also they will like to expand the event to include multiple game manufacturers and not strictly just Privateer Press.  They did say that in now way will they be dropping anything related to Privateer Press, just wanted the option to expand.

Currently they did not mention exactly what new games are coming to "Warfaire Weekend", but they are in talks with manufacturers on bringing the games.  First if possible they would like the actual manufacturer to run the new games, then if needed they will ask for volunteers.  Sounds like a good plan to bring new/more vendors into the weekend.

So depending on what events will be happening at "Warfaire Weekend", this event has now been added to my calendar as a "maybe".

Guild Ball: Free Cities Draft 'Nomad'

The story of the fifth Rookie coming from Steamforged Games about the Free Cities Draft Rookies is 'Nomad' for the Engineer's Guild.

Read about how 'Nomad' makes his way to the Engineer's HERE

The final standings were:

January 17, 2019

Daily Chronicle: Announced "NOVA Open 2019" August 29th-September 1st, 2019

The other day I received one of the semi-monthly newsletters from the NOVA Open and in real big letters it had said that the room block was 80% sold out.  For the heck of it I decided to log into my NOVA Open Store account just to see if anything was there.  All of last years events have been removed and there was a note stating that on February 1st, 2019 they will be reactivating the site.  I also noticed under my account settings that I had $15 available in store credit, I then proceeded to login with my son's account and it showed the same, $15 credit available.  These credits are on our accounts because last year we signed up for an event and then changed it for another event, the credit difference was placed into our accounts.

That then got me thinking... My plan for 2019 was to skip over the NOVA Open this year, with a family vacation two weeks later and hopefully SteamCon USA a month later, I thought another Con may be too much.  I really do not want to leave that credit to go to waste, so I went back to the newsletter and click on the link for the Hotel block and chose my dates, Thursday-Saturday nights and it came back that no rooms were currently available.  I then had read on Facebook that they may try and open up some more rooms if they can.  Just before I went to bed for the night, I refreshed the screen on my phone and now it had showed my room selection as available, I went ahead and booked my three nights (if we end up not going, I have 72 hours before the event to cancel my room).

Now my son and I need to decide on what events we will want to play.  We are leaning towards something a bit different for this event.  Most of my trips this year I am signed up for Guild Ball, the one's my son can attend he will be signed up for Guild Ball and Batman.  Last year we attended NOVA Open strictly for Warmachine/Hordes, that may be an option for 2019, but the NOVA Open is one of the largest conventions for Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game with some of the best scenic tables in the game.  If the schedules stay the same like last year, we are looking at playing in the Doubles event for MeSBG on Friday, and the Singles event for Bolt Action on Saturday.  Yes Bolt Action, after we get our game in June for D-Day, we may have the itch to play again, it will be nice to use NOVA Open to change it up a bit from what we are playing through out the year.

We shall see come February 1st when the NOVA Open Store goes live and we can get a look at the schedules.  If something interferes with one of our options, we may swap it out for X-Wing (or if they shock us with new events like Arena Rex).

January 15, 2019

Guild Ball: Regional Cup Organized Play Document Updated 1/15/2019

Steamforged Games just announced today an update to their Regional Cup Organized Play Document, this OPD is used for all standard Guild Ball tournaments.  There were two changes made to the document, the first change was more of a typo correction, and the second change has to deal with clocking out.

The first change just clarifies that the clock needs to be paused at the end of the Activation Phase and when the End Phase begins so that players can resolve damage from conditions off the clock.

The second change deals with clocking out.  Prior to the change, when you clock out (run out of your 45:00 minutes) you then proceed playing the gaming on 1:00 minute Activation's, when your 1:00 minute expires (or your Activation ends), your opponent is awarded 1VP.  Tracking the 1:00 minute was a hassle and you usually had to call the TO over to do this for you.  The change now is that you get an extended 5:00 minutes to complete your game and your opponent is still awarded 1VP each time you end your Activation.  I actually like this change because some of your Activation's can take a bit longer than just 1:00 minute, so if give you a little playing room.

To download the new Organized Play Document and read about the changes on Steamforged Games, click HERE.

Battle Report: Guild Ball 1/14/2019 Navigator's vs Alchemist's

Here is a little change in pace from our normal Butcher's vs Hunter's games that my son and I usually play.  Last night my son thought I was going to be playing my Butcher's again and he decided to try out the full Alchemist's Guild in Season 4, but I decided to throw a curve ball and break out the Navigator's Guild that I just received earlier in the day.

Seeing how I really did not look closely into the Navigator's Guild, nor read through much of the Facebook Group, I decided just to play the 6 that comes inside the box set,


 
Windfinder
Wander
Azimuth
Ebb
Fathom
Horizon
Midas
Naja
Crucible
Katalyst
Venin
Vitriol



I elected to kick off with the Navigator's and chose 'Horizon' to do this for me, with his 5" Dodge, I thought he would be a good choice for a first turn goal.  Well, he failed at that, 'Horizon' was able to Tackle the ball back, but being engaged he was down a dice for Kick, meaning his base Kick of 2 just went down 1, I still need a 4 and it was re-rollable, but 'Horizon' missed the first shot.  Alchemist's received the ball from the scatter and did a Kick to 'Midas' who used the Momentum for a 4" Dodge.  Once 'Midas' activated he went for his Goal run and succeeded in scoring the first Goal of the game with a Screamer, Alchemist's 4, Navigator's 0.  The ball kicked out to 'Fathom' who had a full stack of Influence, luckily she had Full Speed Ahead granting her 0"/2" MOV and a free Sprint/Charge so she Charged 'Vitriol' so I could get the added 1/2" I needed for a Goal.  'Fathom' was able to wrap on her card I took the Momentous Dodge Dodge that I wanted and then she proceeded with Acrobatic to get even closer.  'Fathom' took the shot and matched 'Midas' with a  Screamer for herself, the score was now 4-4.  Alchemist's then did quite a bit of damage on 'Horizon' leaving him with 1 HP left, but he was also Burning and Poison, so he was going to be Taken Out in the End Phase and the Alchemist's were up 5-4 ('Horizon' only grants 1 VP for Taken Out).

Navigator's won initiative for Turn 2 and I elected to take it.  'Wander' my Mascot was near the open ball and flew 1/2" to pick up and Sprinted/Flew over to 'Horizon' who was able to re-enter the game on my opponent's side of the Pitch, I kept 'Horizon' at a safe distance, but yet close enough for a Goal run.  'Wander' successfully Passed 'Horizon' and I received my much needed Momentum.  Alchemist's were out of range to get to 'Horizon', so 'Crucible' elected to do some damage on 'Fathom'.  Now it was time for 'Horizons' redemption and this time he successfully scored his Goal and the Navigator's were up 8-5.  Alchemist's tried to Kick the ball out the 'Midas', but with where the ball scattered, 'Fathom' was able to intercept the ball.  'Venin' engaged 'Fathom' but was not able to do much to her and left the ball with 'Fathom'.  'Fathom' then decided to take her chance for the game winning Goal.  'Fathom' Acrobatic out of 'Midas' melee range, but she was still engaged by 'Venin' and 'Vitriol' so that meant 'Fathom' was down 2 dice on the Kick bringing her to 0 dice, but the rules state you always have 1 dice.  'Fathom' took her shot on 1 dice (grant it was re-rollable) but she didn't need it and scored with a 5 for the game winning Goal.  Navigator's 12, Alchemist's 5.


Guild Ball: Unboxing 'The Navigator's Guild: Tales of the New World'

It has been just about two months since I placed my order for the 'The Navigator's Guild: Tales of the New World' back on November 22nd through a US website on the West Coast. and finally yesterday my package has arrived.  Originally it was suppose to land in the US early December and shipped out mid December (in time for Christmas).  Delays kept on pushing out the date, and being lost at Sea did not help either (it turns out the US actually ships products by boat in the US from Florida to California).  Florida is where the container originally arrived and then they had to make their way to some of the West Coast distributors (which went by boat), then when it arrived, they did not have the correct paperwork from Steamforged Games and had to wait for SFG to return to the office due to the Holidays.  So finally yesterday afternoon around 3:00 PM, the USPS delivered my package.

Inspired by their captain's leadership, the men and women of the Navigator's Guild revel in unorthodox play, creating opportunities to score with sudden bursts of speed and agility. Even in adversity the Navigators are a challenge, turning terrain to their advantage or utilizing powerful abilities after suffering attrition from the enemy team.

Contents:


  • Windfinder
  • Wander
  • Horizon
  • Fathom
  • Azimuth
  • Ebb
  • 6 Stat Cards
  • 1 Ball Token
  • 1 3D Terrain Piece
  • 1 Goalpost
  • Tokens & Health Dials for All Players



The detail on their plastics is getting much better from when they originally started with the plastic Kick-Off miniatures.  Since all the new plastic models are "colored plastic" they officially do not need to be painted for tournaments (per the OPD, but some events like AdeptiCon may require it), so my Navigator's are in no rush to be painted and will be trying them out unpainted.  Do I "hope" to have them completed this year, "yes", but we shall see (in a bit of a painting slump at the moment).

January 14, 2019

Daily Chronicle: Announced "GenCon 2019" August 1st-4th, 2019

Yesterday afternoon tickets for GenCon 2019 went on sale to the public.  When I wrote about my plans for 2019, I had mentioned attending GenCon once again in 2019, like I did in 2018 just for Sunday.  Majority of GenCon is geared towards the RPG and TCG gamer's for organized events, though there are still a few of the miniature gaming companies running events and I thought spending $110 for a 4 day ticket and the price of hotel would be a bit too much for me. 

The Sunday ticket has a special price of $15 so it is not too bad to go check out the con for one day, grant it by Sunday most of the vendors are sold out of con exclusives that they bring with them, but it still is nice to walk the vendor hall.  Before I purchased my ticket for my son and I, I doubled checked with him if he was still interested in attending, no hesitation with him, it was a yes.  The last time he had attended GenCon he really does not remember as he was just a little kid back in the cons final years in Milwaukee, WI.

Here is a breakdown for ticket pricing at GenCon 2019 (only visible once you create an account and login).



It looks like so far I have been checking off my lists of events to register/attend in 2019, the only one left for confirmation of dates/location is SteamCon US 2019.

Guild Ball: Free Cities Draft 'Gaffer'

The fourth story coming from Steamforged Games about the Free Cities Draft Rookies is 'Gaffer' for the Mortician's Guild.

You can read the story HERE

The final standings were:

Weekly Chronicle 2019 #2

Week #2 of 2019 was a pretty bad week for me and nothing was really played nor did I work on any models.  I did manage to play one game of Star Wars Destiny last Monday night, but after that, nothing.  The model I have ready to go on my painting table is still sitting in the same state.

My son got sick during the week with the stomach flu, so that eliminated any Thursday/Friday night gaming,  and the weather (snow) came across Illinois, Indiana and lower Michigan which kept me driving to Fort Wayne, IN on Saturday for a Guild Ball tournament.  I did not feel like driving 2.5 hours each way through 2-4" of snow (although there were some gutsy people out there and they still had 10 players show up for the event).  Looks like my next event will not be until the Bourbon Trail Open IV on February 23rd, at least I have month now to get practice games in.

Models Completed: 0

Games Played: 1


January 11, 2019

Guild Ball: Free Cities Draft 'Edge'

The third story coming from Steamforged Games about the Free Cities Draft Rookies is 'Edge' for the Hunter's Guild.

You can read the story HERE

The final standings were:

January 8, 2019

Daily Chronicle: Announced "MuseOn Con 2019" May 24th-26th, 2019

Just yesterday afternoon after I wrote my post about attending the Guild Ball Spring Fling event this coming April, I was thinking about MuseOn Con that will be happening this May and called my son downstairs to chat with him to see if he was interested in going.  I noticed on the website (which still had information from 2018) that tickets last year for the event went on sale around mid January, so I knew I still had a little bit of time to make our purchases.

This morning I wake up and refreshed my screen on my Chromebook, low and behold, I see the following graphic image on the site.


It looks like that TICKETS went on sale yesterday evening for the event.  Early Bird pricing (1/7-1/31) is $50 and includes a swag bag, between (2/1-3/23) the price goes up to $60 but it still includes the swag bag, after (3/24) tickets are still $60, but does not include a swag bag.  When purchasing your ticket, it asks you for what primary game will you be attending, I am guessing they my be tailoring their swag bag for their attendees, or maybe just get an estimate of tables needed for their events.

I purchased two tickets this morning, a Guild Ball option for myself, and a Batman Miniatures Game option for my son.

It looks like I will have a busy Spring after all with AdeptiCon, Spring Fling and now MuseOn Con.  With attending MuseOn Con, my chances of attending the Guild Ball East Canadian Nationals the weekend after, now are probably really slim, but I heard good things about MuseOn Con and missed out the last two years, so I m looking forward to this event.

January 7, 2019

Daily Chronicle: Announced "Spring Fling 2019" April 27th, 2019

I have known about it for awhile with announcements on Facebook, but yesterday at 6:00 PM Eastern Time, tickets went on sale for the annual Guild Ball event, "Spring Fling 2019".  This was a huge event last year (I believe it holds the record for most players attending in the US at 64) and I knew this year was probably going to sell out fast too.

There were talks about the event actually moving to a hotel location for 2019, but it turns out the event will still be hosted at Huzzah Hobbies in Ashburn, VA, which by looking at the website pictures looks to be a very nice gaming store.

When I wrote "What's in store for 2019" a few days ago, "Spring Fling 2019" was on my list as potential event I was going to attend in 2019.  The timing may be rough right between AdeptiCon 2019 and MuseOn Con 2019, but yesterday afternoon I decided to take my chance and try to purchase a ticket for "Spring Fling 2019".  After a delay with their Tickets page on the website, roughly about 6:02 PM I was able to get in and make my purchase.  So as of now it looks like I have plans to attend the event.  Only one other player that I know of from Michigan will be attending the event (my friend Josh up in Grand Rapids) and we will work on logistics on possibly car pooling and I am going to let him crash in my room.

I am glad I decided to jump on getting my ticket when I did, as the event did sell out in 2.5 hours (with the TO holding a few reserve tickets).

Looks like it will be a busy year of Guild Ball events.

Guild Ball: Free Cities Draft 'Champ'

The second story coming from Steamforged Games about the Free Cities Draft Rookies is 'Champ'.

You can read the story HERE

The final standings were:
  • Alchemist’s Guild - Kami
  • Butcher’s Guild - Layne
  • Hunter’s Guild - Edge
  • Mortician’s Guild - Gaffer
  • Blacksmith’s Guild - Cutlass
  • Fisherman’s Guild - Knuckles
  • Engineer’s Guild - Nomad
  • Brewer’s Guild - Flea

Weekly Chronicle 2019 #1

Well Week #1 of 2019 now has come to an end and it was not the greatest week in gaming/hobbying, but at least some things got completed.

In regards to the gaming, the only game played this past week was a game of Guild Ball my son and I played yesterday afternoon. My middle son was still visiting for the Holidays so some time was spent with him, and then on Saturday night after taking him to the airport in Chicago, I was not feeling the greatest, so the only game played was yesterday.

Painting was not stellar, but I did complete my first model of 2019 with the Hunter's Guild 'Rookie Seenah'.  I did start work on another model, but with an event coming up this Saturday, I am not sure if it will get completed.

In regards to the event this Saturday, I am still actually undecided if I will be attending, but I should probably decide soon.  I am still calculating the mileage on my lease vehicle and need to make sure I still be okay with the other larger trips I have planned for this year.  The event is a semi local Guild Ball Tournament in Ft Wayne, IN which is about 275 miles round trip.

January 6, 2019

Battle Report: Guild Ball 1/6/2019 Butcher's vs Hunter's

This afternoon I was finally able to get in my first game of 2019, and it was Guild Ball, Butcher's vs Hunter's.

I felt like playing a change today, so I went with 'Fillet' as my Captain.


 Fillet
Princess
Boiler
V Ox
Meathook
Tenderizer
 Theron
Snow
V Minx
Seenah
Chaska
Hearne

My son has been trying his standard Hunter's lineup with a change in Mascots again and going with 'Snow' instead of 'Fahad' today.


My Butcher's kicked off to the Hunter's and Kicked the ball to my far right of the Pitch, who needs the ball anyways while playing Butcher's.  I had a pretty decent first Turn, no Taken Outs, but I did quite a bit of damage to set myself up for Turn 2.

Turn 2 is where the Butcher's did all the Taken Outs, but where I just about spent my entire clock too.  I managed to get 5 Taken Outs for 9 VP and just leaving 'Chaska' on the Pitch.  The Hunter's were able to get 2 Taken Outs themselves on 'Fillet' and 'Veteran Ox'.

Turn 3 I decided to give initiative to the Hunter's, I wanted to see where my opponent was going to be bringing in all of his players so I know where my 2 will be coming in from.  Hunters brought in 'Seenah' and 'Snow' to my left and 'Theron', 'V Minx' and 'Hearne' to my right.  I then brought in 'Fillet' and 'V Ox' on my right.  'Chaska' who was left on the Pitch went first and did his Boom Box on a healthy 'Boiler' so I was okay with that.  'V Ox' Charged in on 'V Minx' and did some damage, not a much a I had hoped for, but he was within melee range of 'Theron', so 'Theron' also took some damage.  'V Minx' passed the ball back to 'Thereon' and did not do much after that, my clock had expired by now and I was giving up 1 VP each activation.  'Filet' went next and as able to get a Taken Out on 'V Minx', she then Dodged towards 'Theron' and used her remaining Influence to finish off 'Theron' for a Butcher's win 12-6.

January 4, 2019

Guild Ball: Free Cities Draft 'Amber'

In the Fall of 2018, Steamforged Games ran a World Wide event called the "Free Cities Draft" where each player can report on the games they played and vote for the Rookie they would like to have for their Guild.

At SteamCon UK in November, the final results were announced and today Steamforged Games is starting to release the background stories for these Rookies.  Every Friday and Monday for the next five weeks, a new story will be announced.

The first story 'Amber', can be found HERE

The final standings were:
  • Alchemist’s Guild - Kami
  • Butcher’s Guild - Layne
  • Hunter’s Guild - Edge
  • Mortician’s Guild - Gaffer
  • Blacksmith’s Guild - Cutlass
  • Mason’s Guild - Champ
  • Fisherman’s Guild - Knuckles
  • Engineer’s Guild - Nomad
  • Brewer’s Guild - Flea

January 2, 2019

Guild Ball: Hunter's Guild 'Rookie Seenah'

Well I did not get in a game on New Year's Day, but I did manage to spend the morning and get in some painting.  Late last week I received my second Black Friday order from Steamforged Games and part of that order was 'Rookie Seenah'.  I had two other models prepped for painting on my table, but on New Year's Eve I decided to get 'Rookie Seenah' ready also so I could come down in the morning and start painting.

I knew this model would not take long to complete, so it was a good model to start 2019 off with.

 Rookie Seenah

 Rookie Seenah

Rookie Seenah

Painting Points: 5

January 1, 2019

Happy New Year! What's in store for 2019


Happy New Year 2019!

One of my favorite posts of the year where I lay out my plans for 2019 and try to stick to them without swaying too far.  Last year I kept it a bit realistic and I was happy with my outcome.  With the additions of a few games in 2018, 2019 may be a bit more of a full plate for me.

As with last year, my plan for painting will continue to break down my queue in calendar quarters, I think this worked very well for me and made my queue a bit more manageable.

As of now, these are the games that are of interest for 2019, in alphabetical order.

Arena Rex

Painting Goal:  I still have quite a few models in my backlog for Arena Rex (11).  I honestly feel it may be a doable goal to have these all completed, as long as I do not add anymore to the backlog.  I think as long as I stick to the two Ludus' that I have, this goal should be completed (especially if one the games way down below takes a back burner).  Once these get completed (maybe by GenCon in August) then I may add a third Ludus.

Gaming Goal:  Currently Arena Rex for me is just a game I am playing for fun, the play is quick and enjoyable.  At least in the first quarter of the year I do not see myself partaking in any events, but the goal will be to at least play the game every other week.  I am going to shoot for at least 20 games played in 2019.

Batman Miniatures Game

Painting Goal:  Maybe the occasional one off miniature to paint, I am not setting any expectations on getting a Team completed.  I do have some models already completed painted that I can play with.

Gaming Goal:  As I mentioned yesterday, my feeling right now for BMG is just to be a punching bag for my son so he can warm up for AdeptiCon, who knows, maybe after all those games I may actually enjoy it some more.  I can see us playing a handful of games before the end of March and then I will need to reevaluate.

Bolt Action

Painting Goal:  As of now, no expectations to paint anything for Bolt Action...again that may change come June.

Gaming Goal:  The current plan is to play at least two games of Bolt Action this year.  A warm up/practice game, and then a game to be played on June 6th, 2019 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day.  After playing this game, the interest to play more may happen.

Guild Ball:

Painting Goal:  I need to make this one a bit realistic compared to what I actually want.  I would love to say to finish up my entire backlog plus any new models that are released.  Right now my backlog is at 39 models (not including the Union Guild) nor the Cook's Minor Guild releasing in February.  Main priority will be to finish the one off models to complete my Guilds, then I will tackle some of the Minor Guilds.  With Guild Ball being planned to be my main game for 2019, my painting priorities will be with Guild Ball.

Gaming Goal:  I shocked myself at the end of 2018 having played 32 games of Guild Ball (with the majority of them coming the last two months of the year).  If I want to be somewhat decent at playing the game, I cannot take long breaks in the game.  My goal is to attend a monthly tournament (if there is one in a close vicinity) and to try and play a friendly game at least once a week.  The total goal for the year will be 50 games of Guild Ball (which is very doable with the tournaments).

Middle-earth SBG

I actually almost forgot about this game, that is how much I have been thinking about it recently.

Painting Goal:  No big goals for me.  An accomplishment would be to finish the models I have for my The Dead of Dunharrow army.  I believe I still have another 20 models on foot and 8 riders on horse.

Gaming Goal:  I have a feeling that this one may be a lot like Bolt Action where it may only see 1-2 games for the year.  Considering we have only played once since the release of the new rules set back in September.

Warmachine/Hordes

Painting Goal:  I own a lot of models for Warmachine/Hordes (between what I own and what my son has).  I feel that for WM/H I will still will be painting them through out the year.  I know there will be times when I want to paint something different than Guild Ball or Arena Rex, so that is when I will throw down a WM/H model to paint.  I have a lot of models that I received in the last half of 2018 for a Cryx army, and thought of a fairly quick paint scheme, so I may decide to work on them a bit.

Gaming Goal:  This is a tough one...between my son and I, we have a lot of completed models between my two main factions Khador/Minions and his Cygnar/Circle.  I opted not to sign up for any WM/H events at AdeptiCon 2019, but that does not mean I will totally be giving up on this game.  I just do not feel it will be played as much as it was in 2018.  I think it will become the occasional throw down game just to have some fun.  Goal for the year, probably a bit low, but lets shoot for 12 games (average one a month, especially with no tournaments planned at the moment).

X-Wing

Painting Goal: Not Applicable (pre-painted miniatures)

Gaming Goal:  I really like what was done with the release of X-Wing 2.0 bringing all the Factions back to a balanced playing field.  So for at least for the first half of the year I see that this game being played the second most behind Guild Ball and to prepare for AdeptiCon.  After a few months my mood may change.  Having this game and Arena Rex to counter some of the games played of Guild Ball will be a nice change.  I did not get in as many games of X-Wing since the release of 2.0 (8 games), so I will be once again realistic and will place a goal of 20 games played for 2019.

With all the above games, that puts me at around 110 games played for the year for my goal which would break my record from 2018.  Not included in these games are any card games that my son and iI enjoy playing like Star Wars Destiny.

Playing all these games will obviously cut down in my painting time.  I think it will be hard to surpass the Painting Points from 2018 and 2017.

Events

So what kind of events and I am looking at for 2019.  In my previous years, this section mainly was for the larger conventions that I had hoped to attend.  But for 2019, there are a lot of 1,2 day out of town Guild Ball events that I will be looking at also.  There is still not much info out there for the later part of 2019, but here is what I am looking at:

February: Bourbon Trail Open IV (Guild Ball)
March: AdeptiCon (Guild Ball, X-Wing)
April: Spring Fling ? (Guild Ball)
May: MuseOn Con ? (Guild Ball)
June: East Canadian Nationals ? (Guild Ball)
August: GenCon 1 Day (Vendor Hall)
October: SteamCon USA (Guild Ball)
December: Second Wind (Guild Ball)

Wow, that is quite a bit for Guild Ball, I honestly hope that I do not get burned out, but the more games I play, the better I can get.  The events for Spring/Early Summer are more of a wish list, out of the three listed during this time, reality may be attending only one.

One major event that my son and I attended in 2018 was the NOVA Open, but with the dates for 2019, it is too close to another family vacation in September, so NOVA Open for 2019 does not seem doable.

Also in November is Warmachine Weekend.  2019 marks new ownership for the Warmachine Weekend, maybe the new owners will be better prepared and start providing information for the event earlier, if that is the case and my son and I have the itch for WM/H, that event may then make the list for 2019.

As of now I am not looking into any new games for 2019, but I tend to say that every year.  There are a lot of cool miniature games out there, and it is just a matter of finding time for them all.  Spread myself to thin and then I tend to forgot how to play the other games, but when you walk the vendor halls of AdeptiCon or GenCon, it's like "I want that".

Let's see if we can stay the course for 2019.