2020 Year in Review

As I always say each year, the two blog posts I enjoy writing the most are "What's in store for" (next year), and the second one is my "Year in Review". 

2020 started with a "What's in store for 2020!" so we will use that post as basis for our year in review.

Arena Rex 2020 

Painting Goal: 1 model, I purchased 1 model at GenCon 2019 and would like to get it completed.

Gaming Goal: Lowering my expectations quite a bit this year, even though 0 games were played last year on a goal of 20, we are going to shoot for 5 games. 

Arena Rex was a sort of a hit and a miss for 2020. My Painting Goal was to finish a model I purchased from GenCon 2019, that did not happen, but I did complete 1 other model for Arena Rex. The Gaming was a miss, I lowered my expectations for this game, but it was lower than I had planned. I was shooting for 5 games to be played, but it ended up just being 2 games played.

Batman Miniature Game 2020 

Painting Goal: This is a tough one for me, I have a huge backlog of BMG models waiting to be assembled/painted. It is on a hold pattern at the moment till we can see how the game is, interest may pick up if we like the game. 

Gaming Goal: I am going to try 3rd Edition, so it really depends how much we like the game. If we like it, it will probably be played quite a few times (since I built a lot of buildings in 2019).

Batman Miniature Game was a "no go" for 2020. We never did purchase 3rd Edition to try the game out, with the use of all the "cards" for the game really changed the game play and I was no longer interested in playing. With that feeling, no models were painted for the game either. I really do not think this will see the list for 2021.

DCU Miniature Game 2020 

Painting Goal: A lot of the DCU models are the same models as BMG, so we have a pretty good collection. I do have some models that are DCU specific so those may be completed this year.

Gaming Goal: First we need a test game, so I can say 1 for sure, if I like the speed/ease of play it may hit table more frequently and in place of Arena Rex. My plan is to get a game in early this month so we can evaluate how we like it. 

DCUMG was so so for the year. I did paint 4 models for the game and we actually played 2 games. This one will be staying on for 2021 but in a limited capacity.

Guild Ball 2020 

Painting Goal: I still have quite a few recently released Captains that need to get completed, so I do not see myself painting any complete Guilds for 2020, but at least a handful of models.

Gaming Goal: As mentioned above, I really like the game....I am going to have a new high priority game for 2020 (see below) so it is tough which game will be my second. I have a feeling it will be Guild Ball so I will set a reasonable expectation of 20 games played. Currently I do not have any events lined up for Guild Ball, but there may be a weekend here or there where I may be able to attend one.

Guild Ball was probably the biggest MISS of the year. With my renewed interest in Warhammer 40,000 all my painting time went to that and away from Guild Ball. Then came the announcement from Steamforged Games that they were ending Guild Ball and that just put the nail in the coffin. So there was no models painted and no games played of Guild Ball in 2020 and I already found a replacement with Blood Bowl.

Middle-earth SBG 2020

Painting Goal: Once again no expectations, if anything gets done, it would be an accomplishment.

Gaming Goal: Keeping my expectations low again like last year, I think at least 1 game in the next few months before AdeptiCon so my son can refresh on the rules, and then we'll see what happens. 

2020 was not so hot for MeSBG, but the fire is still burning. I did recently paint 2 models, 'Durin' and the 'Witch King' for MeSBG and 3 games were played. Looking forward to 2021 to see what happens.

Warhammer 40,000 2020 

Painting Goal: My #1 goal is to finish what I need for my 1000 points and 1500 point lists for AdeptiCon which is for my Imperial Fists army, long term goal is to get them completed to 2000 points. My plan with the Imperial Fists is for them to be my "main" Space Marine army with which to add new models too, so the army will be growing. The collector in me likes to see other armies too, so my plan is to add another Warhammer 40K army in 2020 and for now that will be Tyranids. The reason for Tyranids is, I like the look of the models and it it something different to paint than just Power Armor. I believe with the Tyranids I am going to look into the new GW Contrast Paints for them. Going to start small with them (1000 points) and we'll see.

Gaming Goal: As stated above, Warhammer 40K will be my highest priority in 2020 but I will be realistic. I'll be getting in around 8 games just at AdeptiCon, so let's set a goal of 30 games for 2020 (I still have to squeeze in all the other games in too). 

Warhammer 40,000 was huge for me in 2020. I was able to get everything painted that I needed to for AdeptiCon and then as we all know, COVID-19 hit. I was slowly painting more models for the game throughout the year and I am happy with my progress. I did start on some Tyanid models, but the Contrast Paints were not working with for me and had to go back to regular paints. I did not get too many Tyranids completed unfortunately as I was concentrating on my Imperial Fists. In regards to gaming, I did hit my goal even without attending any conventions, 38 games of Warhammer 40,000 were played in 2020.

X-Wing 2020 

Painting Goal: Not Applicable (pre-painted miniatures)

Gaming Goal: Last year I set a goal of 20 games, and I just managed to squeeze that in. I think with trying to add in DCU and possibly MeSBG, 20 may be a bit tough. I do like that the game only takes 75 minutes to play, I think realistically 6 games would be a good goal (1 every other month). 

I was right on par with my prediction for X-Wing, 6 games was a good expectations and 10 games were actually played in 2020. More than likely my expectations for 2021 will be kept the same.

Events 2020

Well 2020 will not be a good year for events for me. I am attending AdeptiCon at the end of March, but that is basically it for the year. My vacation days are very limited in 2020, 3.5 weeks will be spent in Europe over the Summer, and then another week in the Fall with my wife on a cruise. Any events I attend after AdeptiCon will mainly be just single day events on Saturday/Sundays and those will even be tough this year. There is a very loooooong shot that we may be able to attend NOVA Open again since its falls on a Holiday weekend, I will need to look at the schedule of events and see if it is worth it. 

So I predicted 2020 was not going to be a good year for events, but it was because of a planned vacation to Europe and not because of COVID-19 shutting down the World. Every event that we had planned was cancelled for the year and as of now it is not looking to good for the early part of 2021.

New Games Played 

Blitz Bowl 

Blitz Bowl is a faster board game style game of Blood Bowl. We picked this up late in the year just to have something to play in an hours time. I am liking it a lot since it uses the same models as Blood Bowl. We managed to get in 7 games with this late pickup. 

Blood Bowl 

Just like Blitz Bowl above, Blood Bowl was a late game pickup for us this year. At the end of November, Games Workshop released the newest edition of the game with an all new starter box, and since we just started Blitz Bowl, I thought it would be fun to grab Blood Bowl. We only played through 1 full game to learn the rules and 1 game of 7's (less models/smaller Pitch). 

Painting Points 

Painting Points were not as good as the previous 3 years, but I still managed 200+ Points. Even though COVID-19 had hit and a lot of people were stuck at home painting, I was really busy, so at the end of the day I did not feel like sitting down to paint. Another reason was all the events being cancelled. Usually I sit down to paint models I want to play in an upcoming event as a motiviation, well obviously that motivation was not to be had. So it was not a great year, but it was not bad either.

All in all 2020 was not too bad considering dealing with COVID-19. Honestly most people would think that I would have gotten in more games played, but THANK GOD my real job was keeping me busy all year long. Tomorrow we shall see what will make the list/expectations for 2021.

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Weekly Chronicle 2020 #52

We are now in the final week of 2020.... thankfully it is almost over!

As I have previously mentioned, my gaming has come to a stand still for a few more weeks, but I was able to get another model completed this past week before 2021 arrives.

I honestly know I will not squeeze out another model before 2021, but the time I have this week I have been touching up some older Morannon Orcs for MeSBG.  My oldest son shipped them back with my middle son and I took a look at them and was that pleased.  Hopefully they will look a little better when completed.

Stay tuned on Thursday when we cover "2020 Year in Review".

Models Completed: 1

Games Played: 0

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MeSBG: 'Witch-King of Angmar on Fell Beast'

Merry Christmas Everyone!

I really did not think I would get another model completed before the end of 2020, but with yesterday being Christmas Eve and I took the day off from work, I sat down in the morning and started painting the 'Witch King on Fell Beast' for the Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game.

This model has been sitting in it' box since we first picked it up a little over 2 years ago when it was released at the NOVA Open and I thought it was finally time to get him done.  Instead of always playing Good vs Good, I do not occasionally mind throwing down with Evil, so this would be a fun addition.

Too make it a little easier for storage, I did magnetize the flight stand to the miniature and the base itself.

Witch-King of Angmar on Fell Beast

Witch-King of Angmar on Fell Beast

Witch-King of Angmar on Fell Beast

Painting Points: 5

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Weekly Chronicle 2020 #51

Not really much to report this week, with my oldest son now spending a few weeks in AZ, the gaming is at a halt.

No painting was neither done last week, but I am taking the available time I have to build some of my models.  I ended up building my Elven Union team for Blood Bowl, and some models for MeSBG (mainly Survivors of Laketown and some Elves from Thranduil's Hall).

Models Completed: 0

Games Played: 0

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W40K: Imperial Fists 'Primaris Techmarine I'

Good news for me, I was able to get another model completed before the end of 2020, not sure if another model will be squeezed in, so this may be the last (I will probably spend most of the rest of the year getting models assembled for 2021, if some of my orders arrive).

I picked up this 'Primaris Techmarine' a few weeks back and quickly assembled it for my weekend gaming trip to Wisconsin back in November.  Now it was time for the model to hit the painting table.  With the points of the 'Leviathan Dreadnought', I think it will be making my lists quite often, so this 'Primaris Techmarine' is a perfect addition to help keep him alive and an added benefit of +1 to hit.

Primaris Techmarine I

Primaris Techmarine I

Primaris Techmarine I

Painting Points: 2

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Weekly Chronicle 2020 #50 (X-Wing, Blood Bowl, MeSBG)

I am going to have to say that this past week was not that bad.  I did not get a lot painted, but I did at least sit down and paint and complete a model, 'Durin' for MeSBG.

Then for gaming, we played three games over the weekend.  We started Saturday off with a game of X-Wing, recently there was another points update for X-Wing along with which ships are Hyperspace legal, and most of my Scum ships were removed, so we elected to play an Extended game.  It was nice to finally bring out some of the older Scum ships as I sure missed them.  Scum took the win over the Rebels wiping them out and only 1/2 damage to a Kihraxz Fighter.

When we finished with X-Wing, we laid out our new Blood Bowl Pitch for our first game of Blood Bowl 7's.  We are planning on starting a small League (in-house) after the New Year playing 7's, so this was more of an exhibition game to see how it plays.  With the smaller Pitch and less models, the game does the play faster and the greater chances of scoring.  My Skaven defeated the Humans 4-1 in this game, although I dd forever lose one of my Skaven rats forever to Death.

On Sunday it was time to break out the models for a game of MeSBG.  It has been a long time since I last played this year (9 months) so I was a bit rusty again with the rules.  Since I recently finished 'Durin', I broke out my Dwarfs of Khazad-Dum vs some Men of Gondor for a 700 point game (and we were both Hero heavy in this game).

We played Scenario 4 from the Tournament Pack which was basically kill as many models as you can and hope to survive.  You keep tally of the number of Wounds and awarded Victory Points at the end of the game.  Once a force becomes Broken, you roll a D6 and on a 1-2 the game ends, or it may continue for another Turn.

The dice were not in favor for the Men of Gondor and much better for the Dwarfs (the 6's just kept on coming).  The Dwarfs had Broken Gondor and were up 22 Wounds to 12 and then the game ended on another roll of 1 from Gondor.  I did not tally more than double the Wounds, so I scored 3 Victory Points for that, 1 Victory Point for causing a Wound on 'Aragorn' and an additional 3 Victory Points for not being Broken myself.  Khazad-Dum were able to keep the stronghold and their gold secure.

Just like with Blood Bowl, after the New Year, the plan is to try and play MeSBG at least once a month.  I have some new models on order with Games Workshop (taking a long time to ship) so I hope to change up the armies a bit through out the year.

Well this past weekend was probably the end of gaming for me in 2020.  My son is off to AZ tomorrow till after the New Year and more than likely I will not be going to our LGS for any gaming, but I do plan on assembling some models while he is gone and hopefully get some painting completed.

Models Completed: 1

Games Played: 3

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MeSBG: 'Durin'

Yes you are reading this correctly, it has been just over 2 years (26 months) since I last painted anything for Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game and it has been just as long as this model was sitting on the shelf.

I picked up 'Durin, King of Khazad-Dum' 2 years ago to add to the existing Khazad-Dum Dwarves I already add (just a little bit more strength for the army).

Now that the itch to play MeSBG has somewhat come back and looks to make the list for 2021, I thought it was time to finally paint this model up.  I thought I would just get started on him yesterday, but ended up painting start to finish.

Durin, King of Khazad-Dum

Durin, King of Khazad-Dum

Painting Points: 1

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Weekly Chronicle 2020 #49

It was another so so week for me.  No painting was completed this past week and it looks like it may be a little bit before anything gets done (my office is being used in the evenings for my sons online Drivers Ed) but I may attempt to start on a model this coming Sunday.

For gaming, we did get in a game of Warhammer 40,000 on Saturday playing with 1000 points and w were supposed to play a game of Blood Bowl 7's on Sunday....but someone did not wake up till the afternoon.  I'd like to squeeze that in this weekend too if possible, but we are currently looking at three different games to played this weekend, X-Wing, MeSBG and Blood Bowl.  After this weekend, my son will be down in AZ for the Holidays and not returning until after the New Year.

I mentioned a few days ago that I received terrain for MeSBG (actually it's AOS, but we will use it for MeSBG) and that I was hoping to start building it this past weekend, well the mornings of both Saturday and Sunday, I was able to complete all of them.

I am not sure when they will get painted, maybe some time in 2021 if I am feeling up to it.

Models Completed: 0

Games Played: 1

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AdeptiCon 2021 Officially Cancelled!

We hope that everyone is well in these unprecedented and uncertain times. It has been a challenging year for all of us. It is with a heavy heart that we must announce officially what many of you have already come to realize, that it will be impossible to hold AdeptiCon in March of 2021. The continued ongoing effects of the pandemic and the restrictions imposed by the State of Illinois mean we are unable to effectively plan and organize the logistical efforts involved with running the convention. As you may be aware, by late November AdeptiCon has already typically opened hotel blocks and launched registration and staff and attendees alike have started making plans to see old friends and begin new hobby projects. 

 Like Americans across the country, we are optimistic that brighter days are coming, but the fluidity of the situation does not allow for the firm commitments required to see AdeptiCon realized in the way we’ve all come to expect. We do not make this decision lightly and there is no group more disappointed than the AdeptiCon staff, but current restrictions along with our continued first priority, the health and well-being of our attendees and staff, makes cancellation the only option. We believe it is the responsible one. 

 To that end, we have notified and consulted with our venue and myriad partners to negotiate the necessary arrangements to cancel AdeptiCon 2021, while simultaneously securing the future of the convention for years to come. 

 We understand that this was not the announcement anyone wanted to hear and certainly not one we are happy about making. However, this decision allows us to focus fully on the future of AdeptiCon. Instead of being confined and limited by the uncertainty of current circumstances, we can focus on planning the best possible AdeptiCon 2022. It also allows us to continue the development of the Ancient Order of AdeptiCon perks and the launch of an AdeptiCon webstore that would make AdeptiCon merchandise available year round. 

 Once again, we appreciate your understanding, patience, and the unprecedented loyalty of our attendees. If you had chosen, previously, to roll your registration forward, rest assured that it will move to 2022/2023 without any issues. This has been a challenging time for the nation and while AdeptiCon thanks everyone involved in making the convention the best event in the world, from attendees to volunteers to exhibitors, we would especially like to acknowledge those of you serving your communities in the medical and first-responder fields. Your tireless work allows us to see the light at the end of the tunnel and gives us confidence that not only will AdeptiCon be back, stronger than ever, but that our country will too.

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MeSBG: New Ruined Terrain Has Arrived

I mentioned yesterday that I had ordered some new terrain for Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game, and all 3 orders have finally now come in from Amazon.

It is not MeSBG specific, but actually Warhammer Age of Sigmar terrain, but it is part of their Azyrite series of terrain.  All these pieces are ruins and I thought they would look great to represent the ruined cities of Dale and/or Osgiliath.

Azyrite Ruins

Azyrite Shattered Plaza

Azyrite Townscape

Azyrite Ruined Chapel

I am not exactly sure when I will take the time to assemble them all (in no rush at the moment), but who knows, maybe this Sunday while watching some football.

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Weekly Chronicle 2020 #48 (Black Friday Weekend)

First lets start with how the week went for Modeling/Gaming.  I did not think I was actually going to paint anything this past week, and it turns out on Thanksgiving day I did sit down at my painting table and knocked out a model.  My 'Primaris Lieutenant Indomitus' was completed for my Imperial Fists army.

In regards to gaming, we spent the whole day Saturday playing the new edition of Blood Bowl, and I really enjoyed myself (just need to be a bit faster).

Now onto the rest of Black Friday Weekend....all I can say is that I think I spent too much and will be plenty busy in 2021 building/painting models.

First there is Blood Bowl, besides the new boxed set, we also added quite a few teams, Halfings, Humans, Elven Union, Skaven, Wood Elves, now some of these are for my son and he WILL paint his teams, but I have at least 3 that I would like to get completed during 2021.

Then on Thanksgiving while painting, The Hobbit: Battle of Five Armies was playing on my TV....big mistake, this got me thinking about all of our MeSBG models and got my brain churning, then I ended up watching all 3 movies again over the weekend.  So of course I had to go and make a purchase for some Hobbit Army models for MeSBG.  I know my son still enjoys this game, so we are going to try and do a better job adding in more games of it during 2021 (while still playing Warhammer 40,000 and Blood Bowl).  To go along with new models for MeSBG, we cannot play on a bare table, of course I added more terrain that is slowly trickling in from Amazon (mainly ruins for now, I need to check my hobby train boxes for any existing trees I can use).

I am really looking forward to next month when I start working on my yearly recap and plans for 2021.

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Battle Report: Blood Bowl 11/28/2020 (Humans vs Wood Elves)

Our pre-order for Blood Bowl Second Season Edition was picked up by my son on Friday from our LGS, and yesterday was our first adventure in the game (my first Blood Bowl game in 15 years).

My son was playing a new Wood Elves team that he recently purchased and assembled, and I went ahead and quickly assembled a Humans team a few days before to have ready for this game.  The box set does come with a team of Imperial Nobles and Black Orcs, but I knew I was not going to be staying up late Friday night to assemble these.

We played a full game of 11 players each on the Pitch, 8 Turns each per Half, and I knew that since this was our first time that it was going to take awhile, I had planned on starting at around 12:00 PM and finishing by 6:00 PM, and sure enough I was right on schedule.  The goal eventually is to get these games down to about 2.5-3 hours, but that is also the reason why I have invested in Blood Bowl 7's Pitch's to speed up the game (smaller Pitch, 7 players a side, 6 Turns each).

Also in this game we wanted to try out situations where there may not always come up as much, especially with Fouling and Long Passes, and those Long Passes sure came in handy.

For the Humans first Touchdown (my team), I went for a Long Bomb Pass to my 'Catcher' in the End Zone, and the dice gods were with me as I made the Pass and Catch for the Touchdown.  Later in the Second Half I also did another Pass (not Long Bomb) to my 'Catcher' in the End Zone for a second Touchdown, but that one was to tie up the game 2-2.

It came down to the final Turn for each of us and I had another chance for a third Touchdown, my good ole 'Thrower' who was reliable all game went to pick up the ball and failed his Agility roll, it was my last chance, I just had to hope the Wood Elves had nothing going for them.  Sure enough where the ball landed, it was just out of reach for the Wood Elves to score, so the game ended in a Draw 2-2.

The game was fun, really needs to be shorter for us, it would be nice to be able to get in 2 games in this time frame.  I think next time we will try 7's and see how that plays.

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W40K: Imperial Fists 'Primaris Lieutenant Indomitus'

On Thanksgiving day playing on TV was The Hobbit: Battle of Five Armies and I thought to myself this would be a perfect time to watch the movie an get some painting done (along with getting the turkey ready).  Next thing I know that by the time the movie was over, my model was just about completed also.

Since the release of the latest Space Marine Codex for Warhammer 40,000 9th Edition, you can no longer run two Captains in a single Detachment which has hurt me in some of my existing lists, I guess Games Workshop wants us to start using some of the Lieutenant models they have released in the recent years.

As you saw a few weeks back, I finished a Lieutenant in Phobos Armour, now I was working on the Lieutenant that came inside the Indomitus box.  I am sticking to a pattern with my Character Units, my Captains and above all have a Gold right shoulder pad, with my Lieutenants I decided to go with Silver and have done the same with this model.

Primaris Lieutenant

Primaris Lieutenant

Primaris Lieutenant

Painting Points: 2

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Blood Bowl: Mats by Mars Green Meadow Fantasy Football 7's Pitch

Last week when the urge to get into Blood Bowl for the first time in 15 years, I was also looking into the NAF website on alternative ways to play the game that may speed it up a bit.  The NAF site does have a page that does exactly this and I came across a version called 7's.

Blood Bowl 7's is basically the full game of Blood Bowl, but instead of 11 players on the pitch, there are 7.  Re-rolls also do cost double and the game is played on a smaller pitch.

The smaller pitch is what kind of scared me, because the length and width are both shorter (so it is not as easy as to just "tape" the sides) and I started googling for a 7's pitch.   I then remembered that Mats by Mars makes vinyl pitches for Blood Bowl and took a look at their site.  Besides selling full size pitches, they also had quite a few choices for Blood Bowl 7's.... perfect.  I then proceeded to order the "Green Meadows".  No thanks to FedEx, my pitch finally arrived this week.

The pitch rolls up for storage, and as you can see in the photo, it does lay nice and flat when unrolled.  I like this mat so much that Mats by Mars is currently having a Black Friday Sale (code: BFCM2020) for 25% off, that I ordered 2 more, 1 in a Frozen Tundra and 1 in a Tavern.

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Weekly Chronicle 2020 #47 (Wisconsin Dells Recap)

I know I am a few days late with my weekly post, but Monday we were traveling back from Wisconsin Dells and yesterday I got busy catching up with real work.

My son and I spent an extended weekend (Thursday-Sunday) at our timeshare up in Wisconsin Dells just relaxing and getting in some games.  We packed up our Alpha Gaming table and boxed up our terrain and armies and headed to the Dells.  Since we had the points to spend on a larger unit, I booked us the 2 bedroom which also had a decent space in the living room for us to play.

After a long day of driving and shopping at Noble Knight Games, Warhammer and Cabela's we spent Thursday evening with a game of Blitz Bowl.

Friday was our first day of playing Warhammer 40,000.  The plan was to play 2 games at 2000 points each on a round timer of 2.5 hours.

My Imperial Fists got the victory in game 1, and then for game 2 we also elected to play on a chess clock with 1:15 on each clock.  Again my Imperial Fists pulled off another victory.  After a nice sushi dinner, it was another game of Blitz Bowl.

Saturday was a shorter gaming day for us.  We started the day off watching the latest Games Workshop preview show and then got the table ready for a 1000 point game.  I brought my Tau army with me and it was the first time playing with all the models for them.  The Tau managed to squeak out a victory.  We did pause the game around lunch time and headed out to town for some lunch and do a little sight seeing.  My wife and I always wanted to get a chainsaw carved bear for our house, so we stopped at Watson;s Woods (a Grand National Champion caver) and I found a bear that would be perfect for us.  He even carved in "Welcome" for us on the bears sign.  After dinner is was another game of Blitz Bowl (and final game for the weekend).

The plan for Sunday was a 3000 point game of Warhammer 40,000.  By the time we woke up and got the table ready, it was around 11:00 AM.  We set a time limit to finish by 6:00 PM so we can go for a nice final nights dinner.

Unfortunately for my son, my Imperial Fists had one heck of a Turn 1 and really crippled his Dark Angels army, it was going to be a long uphill battle for them which they could not pull off.  By the end of Turn 5, I managed to wipe out every model from his army.

So for the weekend we managed to play 4 games of Warhammer 40,000 and 3 games of Blitz Bowl.  The Blitz Bowl games were all pretty close, not so much with the Warhammer 40,000 games.

Well this week is Thanksgiving week and I do not think there will be any painting done (maybe start on a few colors) but there will be a few games played.  I am thinking another game of Blitz Bowl and possibly X-Wing on Thursday, then on Saturday we should have our new boxed set of Blood Bowl and hopefully we can walk ourselves slowly through our first game (we shall see how that goes).

Models Completed: 0

Games Played: 7

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W40K: Tablewar New Size Gaming Mats

 

Well it took FedEx forever to deliver my packages (over  a week), but yesterday afternoon my new Warhammer 40,000 gaming mats from Tablewar arrived.

Tablewar is having a 15% off sale for the month of November and existing customers can take take an additional 10% off, so with 25% off, I thought it was a good time to purchase some Warhammer 40,000 mats in the new sizes.

With the release of Warhammer 40,000 9th Edition, the board went down in size.  What used to be played on a 6'x4' mat is now 60"x44" and for smaller scale games (500-1000 points) the recommended size is 30"x44".

Frontline gaming recently released new "borders" to convert your 6'x4' mats (which I also did purchase), but I went ahead and ordered one mat in each of the new sizes from Tablewar.

I like to change up the board mat every now and then so we are not always playing on city ruins, this will do that for us.

These two mats are coming with us on our weekend trip and should be seen in future blog posts.

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Weekly Chronicle 2020 #46 (X-Wing/Blitz Bowl Recap)

I am pretty happy with how week #46 turned out.  I was able to get one model completed for my Warhammer 40,000 Imperial Fists army with a 'Primaris Lieutenant in Phobos Armour' and my son and I got in quite a few games over the weekend.

On Saturday we started the day off with a game of X-Wing where I decided to fly Scum with two 'Firespray' ships which I have not done in a long time against (one of them being 'Boba Fett') against four T-65 X-Wing ships led by 'Luke Skywalker'.  I managed to take out at least one T-65 but I lost 'Boba Fett' early on (rolling 8 blanks on defense on 3 rolls is bad) so it was an uphill battle.  I do like that list and will be trying it again next time.

When we wrapped up with X-Wing it was time to learn the learn the game of Blitz Bowl.  As I mentioned yesterday, our first game took us some time to finish with my Humans losing to the Wood Elves.  I then decided to try the Elven Union cards (proxy with Human models) and was able to get the victory over our forest siblings.

Most of our items are all packed for our trip this week, but we opened up Blitz Bowl for one more game yesterday afternoon just using the Humans and Dwarfs from the box.  I elected to try out the Dwarfs for this game.  This game was tight the whole time and it came down to the very last play of the game and my Dwarfs just barely got the victory 16-14, it was a lot of funny and we are getting to the point that we do not need to reference the rulebook much either (which is  good thing).

No painting is going to get done this week with the two of us leaving for Wisconsin Dells early Thursday morning, but when I get back I have a couple models I want to paint next for my Imperial Fists.  I have another 'Primaris Lieutenant' from the Indomitus box all ready to go on my table, and I just recently purchased the new 'Primaris Techmarine' that I think will be painted at the same time.

There will be gaming this week though.  Some games of Warhammer 40,000 (not sure how many yet as we are going to be trying 2000 point games along with a big 3000 point game) and we will be mixing in games of Blitz Bowl in the evenings.  It will be a good week, I am going to try and remember to take some photos this week for a weekend recap.

Models Completed: 1

Games Played: 4

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Blood Bowl: Pre-Ordered Season 2

Well I actually bit the bullet yesterday and ordered a copy of Blood Bowl Season 2 from our local gaming store down in South Bend, IN.

I kept going back and forth, "should I or shouldn't I" and made the "yes" decision.  By the time I made this decision a few of the other items I wanted they were already out of stock for the pre-order.  Luckily come 1:00 PM I was able to jump on to the Games Workshop site and grab a few more items.

Blood Bowl Season 2 Box Set

The core game is the Season 2, 2 player box set that comes with 2 Teams, 'Imperial Nobles' and 'Black Orcs'.  Not sure if the 'Black Orcs' will ever see the Pitch, but the 'Imperial Nobles' most definitely will.

Special Play Cards

The Special Plat cards re used to have some fun with the games and can even up the odds when playing against a Team that is over powering.  These cards are not needed for a regular game of Blood Bowl, but I thought we should have set "just in case".

Treeman

The 'Treeman' can play for either the Wood Elf or Halflings, and since my sons main team will be the Wood Elves, I was able to get one of these ordered for him.  In all honesty, I wanted to order the model just for 'Akhorne the Squirrel'

Akhorne the Squirrel

Along with all the new items for pre-order, I also ordered another Team for myself, the 'Eleven Union Team'.  I like passing in Football games and the Elves can pass the ball.  I wanted to order them so I can have a different kind of playstyle.  It will be fun seeing these guys go up against the Wood Elves on the Pitch.

Elven Union Team

I am really glad I made the decision to order the above yesterday.  We ended up playing 2 games of Blitz Bowl yesterday and the game is exactly what I expected and wanted.  Our first game took us some time to get through as we were still learning the rules, but our second game took us exactly and hour (and I know we can speed that up a bit too).  We ended up splitting the 2 games, a win/loss for each of us.

Although Blitz Bowl is fun, I can see myself in the future wanting a little more depth in the game (when time allows) and that is what Blood Bowl is for.  The full 11 player game of Blood Bowl may occasionally take too long, but there are variants out there like 7's (7 players on a smaller Pitch) that I see us playing more frequently.  Instead of a 3 hour game of 11's, maybe just a 2 hour game of 7's.

Well our new items do not get released till November 27th, so I still have two weeks of waiting.  Until then, more games of Warhammer 40,000 and Blitz Bowl.

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