Guild Ball: Art Of War Studios 'Steppers'

While watching the live stream of the Guild Ball English Championship two weekends ago, I noticed some of the players using the "Steppers" from Art of War Studios.

That Sunday morning I decided to place an order and hoped that they would arrive in time for us to leave for the NOVA Open this weekend.  Well yesterday afternoon my package arrived and I started working right away peeling off all the protective coatings off each of the Steppers.

I ended up ordering the 30mm/40mm/50mm Steppers for my Butcher's Guild, and then also did the same for my son but for his Hunter's Guild.

Weekly Chronicle 2019 #34 (Week of NOVA Open 2019)

Post #285 for 2019, what does that mean? In the 10 years I have been writing this blog, 285 posts in one year sets a new record for me (last year was 284, previously it was tough to hit 200).  There may not be that mean blog readers anymore, but for me, the blog keeps me motivated in the hobby and a good diary of the models/games I have completed and played.  With 4 full months left in the year, there is plenty more reading to come.

First, lets start off with our quick usual weekly recap, this past week was not the greatest, but at least items did get completed and a game was played.  I managed to complete my Limited Edition 'Shank' and 'Tenderiser' for my Butcher's Guild which can be played for the Cook's Guild, and we did manage to get in a practice game of Guild Ball of Friday night (which I lost to the clock to again).  I was hoping for another practice game yesterday, but that did not happen and I will have to use Thursday at NOVA Open as my practice day.

On the drive to DC and back, I will also be working on what will be hitting my Painting Queue next, I still have a lot of Batman Miniature Game models to be completed (and we will be getting more games of BMG in also to prep for the Renegade Open) and probably will occasionally through in a Guild Ball model here and there to change it up a little bit.

That leaves me to the title of this post, starting this Thursday through Sunday, it is the week of NOVA Open 2019 out in the Washington DC area and my son and I will be attending for our second straight year.

Originally our plan was to leave early Thursday morning and use Thursday as a travel day and relax when we get in around 3:00 PM until the Steamforged Games Studio Spotlight at 8:30 PM, Friday was/is the X-Wing Grand Championships, Saturday was/is the Guild Ball Regional Cup and Sunday was our travel day home with a stop at the National Archives Museum first before heading home.

Well there is a slight little change to that schedule.  Friday - Sunday are all staying the same, but we will be leaving late Wednesday night instead, around 11:00 PM and arrive at the convention around 11:00 AM for check-in.  We are then going to be playing in the smaller Thursday Guild Ball Regional Cup which Kicks-Off at 12:00 PM.  Currently there are not too many players signed up, so it will be a 2-3 round event, which getting in 2 games would be great for practice.  We will be tired after the long drive, but it should still be a fun time.  We can play our 2 games, get a bite to eat for dinner, then relax the rest of the evening.

I am trying to earn the Butcher's Badge on Longshanks (30 games played with same Guild in one year) and my son the Hunter's Badge, and we need 10/11 games by November to earn these.  With adding the 2 games on Thursday, we should then accomplish this when we play at the East Coast US Nationals in October.  Once I earn the Butcher's badge, I will then look at playing another Guild for awhile, or multiple Guilds.

I am not sure if I will have time to do a daily recap of NOVA Open this year, if not stay tuned next week then for a NOVA Open recap.

Games Played: 1
Models Completed: 2

Guild Ball: Mason's Guild Reveal 'Champ'

The final Rookie of the Free Cities Draft was revealed today, and it is 'Champ' for the Mason's Guild.  All 8 Rookies have been revealed now, with the first 4 models already released, and the final 4 models being released next Friday 8/30.

Guild Ball: Engineer's Guild Reveal 'Nomad'

Another Free Cities Draft Rookie reveal today (3rd of the week) and today it is 'Nomad' for the Engineer's Guild.

I like the stats for this model, not to over powering an seem like fun with Roulette.

Guild Ball: Brewer's Guild Reveal 'Flea'

The second model of the second wave of Free Cities Draft Rookies was revealed today, and it is 'Flea' for the Brewer's Guild.

Honestly at this time, the stats/traits on this card do not do much for me, but I still purchased the model.

Guild Ball: Cook's Guild Limited Edition 'Tenderiser'

The last model of my Cook's Guild is officially complete.  As I mentioned yesterday, this past weekend got me the urge to try the Guild out for the first time and finish my last two models.

I am sill undecided if I will switch to them for the NOVA Open (instead of my Butcher's Guild) but I will make that decision this weekend after I get to try out my new Rookie for the Butcher's, 'Layne'.  Part of me wants to earn the BUtcher's Guild badge on Longshanks (20 consecutive tournament games with the same Guild) and I am still needing 10 games.  So I am stuck in between, part of me wants to play the new Guild, part of me wants to earn the badge.  More than likely I will play the Butcher's and hopefully get my Badge by November.

Anyways, the final model for my Cook's, Guild  is their Goalkeeper, Limited Edition 'Tenderiser' model.

 Tenderiser

Tenderiser

Painting Points: 2

Guild Ball: Alchemist's Guild Reveal 'Kami'

The first model of the second wave of Free Cities Draft Rookies was revealed today, and up first is 'Kami' for the Alchemist's Guild.

Guild Ball: Cook's Guild Limited Edition 'Shank'

While getting ready to play the Cook's Guild for the first time this past Sunday, it got me motivated to start working on my final two models for the Guild, the Limited Edition 'Shank' and 'Tenderiser' models.  These models came in the Organized Play box I ordered many months ago which had arrived after my Cook's Guild Tournament that had hosted in March.

I got my models assembled on Sunday prior to my game and applied a few coats.  Well 'Shank' is now completed and ready for the Pitch.

 Shank

Shank

Painting Points: 1

Weekly Chronicle 2019 #33

Week #33 for the year was a little slow on the painting front (2 models) and average for gaming (2 games).

Real work has been busy this month so painting has slowed just a bit, but I still managed to get 2 models completed for Batman Miniature Game, 'The Merciless', and 'The Red Death'.  I think once I get back from NOVA Open in two weeks, I will take a look at what we have fr BMG and work on my Painting Queue for them and prioritize what I want to paint.  I still have a mix of Guild Ball models I would like to get completed so those will be done in between to break up the repetition of painting BMG.

For gaming this past week, we got in another practice game of X-Wing to get ready for NOVA Open (and I am STILL undecided on my list that I am playing).  The last 2 lists I tried both netted me a victory.  Now it is a matter do I want to play Rebels or Scum.

Yesterday afternoon we also finally gotten in a practice game of Guild Ball, it has been awhile since we last played (early July) and we were going to get in a game last weekend, but then we wanted to wait for the errata to drop.

I decided to play the Cook's Guild for the very first time and went with the "Hell's Kitchen" boxed set lineup, the new errata changes for the Cook's look really good and I was hoping maybe they would save me some time on the clock.  I did manage to get the victory 12-7, but my clock still went into my allotted extra 5:00 minutes and it was getting close.  I have a fun lineup I want to try next with my Butcher's Guild (hopefully speed up the clock), and then I need to decide what Guild I will be bringing to NOVA.  I think in the mean time though, I will paint up the remaining 2 Cook's (Butcher players) to complete my Cook's Guild at 8 models (just in case I decide to play them),

Hunter's vs Cook's

Games Played: 2
Models Completed: 2

BMG: The Red Death (Bruce Wayne) [Unknown]

When I finished 'The Merciless' the other day, I was not sure if I would be able to get around t get another model painted this week, well yesterday I had some spare time (after watching the Guild Ball English National Championships on YouTube) and decided to work on 'The Red Death' since I already had the blister pack sitting on my painting table.

Unfortunately the tips of his Bat ears were broken off in the packaging and had to make do with what was there.

Honestly I am not sure how much table time this model will get, but he is marked as completed.

 The Red Death

The Red Death

Painting Points: 1

Guild Ball: Second Wave Of FCD Rookies Available For Pre-Order

The second wave of the Free Cities Draft Rookies are available for pre-order of Steamforged Games webstore.  Unlike with the first wave (available right away), today's announcement is for a pre-order with a shipping date of 8/30.

The four Rookies available are: Champ, Flea, Kami and Nomad.

Daily Chronicle: 2 Weeks Until "NOVA Open 2019"

NOVA Open 2019 is only 2 weeks away and the only practice we have gotten in recently was for X-Wing, and I am still undecided on my list.  Back when I first announced NOVA Open 2019 in January, our thought was to play Bolt Action and Middle-earth SBG.  We have not played a game of MeSBG since last year and Bolt Action never made their schedule of events.

Last year we went and played Warmachine/Hordes all weekend, seeing how we have not played that game much (at all this year), we had signed up for this years NOVA to play Guild Ball and X-Wing.  At least with Guild Ball we started the year off really strong and attended events for the first four months of the year, and now with the recent errata release on Monday, the excitement is coming back.  X-Wing 2.0 came out late last year and we have been occasionally playing that game to keep the rules fresh (nearing on 20 games for the year) so we thought that would be a fun event to play.

So our schedule for NOVA Open weekend is:

Thursday Evening: Steamforged Keynote
Friday: X-Wing Grand Championships
Saturday: Guild Ball Regional Cup

Now we actually have to get in some practice games of Guild Ball over the next 2 weeks and finalize my list for X-Wing.

BMG: The Merciless (Bruce Wayne) [Unknown]

Well I did manage to get a model painted this week (not sure if there will be more, but we'll see).  On Monday afternoon one of my shipments arrived of more BMG models, yes more!  In this shipment was a blister of the "Dark Knights", I especially wanted this pack for 'Merciless', so of course I had to open the pack up and get to work on this model.  I was cautious on how I wanted his blue metal armor and had some ideas in my head, and after several test colors on my test model, I came up with a solution.  I decided to mix blue with silver metallic and then do a blue wash.  I am actually quite happy on how he turned out.  One thing to note is the base, Knight Models shipped me all 30mm bases and this model is supposed to be on a 40mm, so I had to dig out one of my spare WM/H bases.  It will be interesting to try out this model with the possibility of doing 12 blood.

 The Merciless

The Merciless

Painting Points: 2

Guild Ball: New Errata v4.2 Just Released! (August 2019)

The new errata for Guild Ball v4.2 just was released on the Steamforged Blog, you can read about all the changes HERE.

It is going to be a busy evening updating all of my cards.

Weekly Chronicle 2019 #32

So Week #32 was another average week for me regarding painting and gaming.  5 models were completed last week (2 for Guild Ball and 3 for Batman Miniature Game) and I was able to get in 2 more practice games of X-Wing for the upcoming NOVA Open.

I played a X-Wing list that was really happy with last night, but I think I have 1 more list that I would like to try out before I make any decisions.  If I do not get a chance tonight (more than likely not with next section of news) then hopefully this Thursday night.

That now leaves with the big news coming from Steamforged Games later today regarding the new errata for Guild Ball coming out.  More than likely I will be spending my evening getting all the cards ready for printing, and from the SFG blog post, it sounds like there will be a lot of changes.

Once those changes get released, my son and I will need to get a few practice games of GB also before we leave for NOVA, it has been awhile since we last played and need to get refreshed again.

I am not sure how much painting will get done this week, I am expecting and order to arrive today for BMG ad then I will evaluate everything and see what kind of queue I want to work on, may be just spending the week getting some models prepped.

Games Played: 2
Models Completed: 5

BMG: Black Orchid (Susan Linden) [BatB]

The final model from the "Justice League Dark" blister is up next and that is 'Black Orchid' (Susan Linden).  This was more of a "let's just get it done" model for me so that way the blister pack can be completed.  I think at 70 Rep, there are probably a lot better Free Agents available for The Brave and the Bold to select over 'Black Orchid'.

 Black Orchid

Black Orchid

Painting Points: 1