2019 Year in Review

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

2019 started with a "What's in store for 2019" so we will use that post as basis for our year in review.

Arena Rex

2019

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.

Well, this was a huge MISS for me (mostly in part to picking up BMG this past year).  My Painting Goal was non existent, and only 1 game of Arena Rex was played for the entire year.

Batman Miniatures Game

2019

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.

This one was a huge change of events and probably received the most time from me in 2019, at least in the Painting aspect of the hobby.  My Painting Goal expectation was not even to get a Team completed, well I far exceeded that and painted around 100 models for BMG this past year.  I also managed to play 24 games of BMG which is much more than I had expected. Although the last 2 months of BMG has taken the back burner with the release of 3rd Edition, and currently I am not sure where I stand with the game.

Bolt Action

2019
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.

This was another MISS for me and nothing was ever done with Bolt Action.  In fact most of my models have been packed away in my storage shed. I really do love the era, but there is just not enough time.  I can probably say for certain this one will not make the list for 2020.

Guild Ball:

2019

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).

Guild Ball was my main priority at least for the beginning of the year and I can say I am pretty happy with my outcome.  I did not complete everything in my backlog, but I did manage a few one off’s, some new Captain’s, Rookie’s, and the new Cook’s Minor Guild were completed.

I was short of hitting my Gaming Goal of 50 games, but 40 games played of Guild Ball is still pretty good.  I also managed to host 2 events, one in February down in South Bend, IN and the second one this past October at the Michigan GT.  I did start out of the 2019 gate really good with games played, but it also has recently taken a back seat as priorities have changed.Guild Ball will definitely make tomorrows list for 2020, I just need to see how much.

Middle-earth SBG

2019

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 horses.

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.

Another MISS for me. No models painted, nor any games played this year.  I know my son is still excited for this game, but the playstyle no longer interests me.  I won't count it quite Dead yet for me.

Warmachine/Hordes

2019

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 throughout 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).

I wouldn’t technically call this one a MISS, more like there was/is no more interest in the game for me at the moment.  This will be a tough one for tomorrow’s list, it may still make the list for 2020.

X-Wing

2019
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.

I can say I really enjoyed X-Wing for 2019.  I hit my goal of 20 games played for the year (barely), but it was still achieved.  Like stated above, it was a nice game to play as a filler game, and it does not take more than 90 minutes to play.  I did try signing up for a few events, but only played in 1 game at this years NOVA Open. This is one that will still make the cut tomorrow.

Events

2019
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)

To be honest, 2019 was a really great year for Events and exceeded the above list.  In June, I did not attend the East Canadian Nationals, it ended up being too close to MuseOn Con in dates.  SteamCon USA never happened in October, so in September we attended NOVA Open again, and October I hosted the Guild Ball Championships at the Michigan GT.  I cancelled Second Wind in December in favor of attending the Renegade Open in November. 2019 saw a lot of travel to events, and unfortunately the list for 2020 will be very slim for me.


New Additions:

Aristeia!
While at AdeptiCon 2019, Aristeia! really caught my attention and thought it would be a fun game to throw down every now and then and I jumped all in.  Well it was another MISS, we played 3 games and it has since been just sitting on the shelf.

Judgement
Boy did AdeptiCon 2019 do a number on me and bought into another game, just like Aristeia! Above, it was MISS.  Models are still sitting in the same boxes as purchased and no games were played. I am going to have to look at unloading these models as I really see no time for this game.

Comebacks:

Warhammer 40000
This one really surprised me!  The past few months I got the itch to break out Warhammer 40000 again, I had told myself I was done with GW, but we seem to always get sucked back in.  One of the huge benefits of this game is that you can find models at any gaming store, and I like to impulse buy, so it is nice to walk into a gaming store and purchase a model and not just a pot of paint.  We are still getting our feet wet with the rules of 8th Edition, but I see 2020 looking really good for this game, with a new Imperial Fists army that I am currently working on, and I have my eye on one more for 2020.

Conclusion:

All in all, I can say 2019 was actually a really good year for painting models (mainly BMG) and getting in some games.  I had a goal of 110 games played, but fell short of that mark, not too bad as it was still in the 90’s.

Here’s to 2020! and Happy New Year1

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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".

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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.

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2018 Year in Review

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

2018 started with a "What's in store for 2018" so we will use that post as basis for our year in review.

Guild Ball

2018

Painting Goal:  This is a tough one.  I would love to say to be able to complete every Guild Ball model that I have so that all Guilds are completed.  It is doable since I currently probably have around 40 models left to complete.  I have the new six for both the Farmer's and Blacksmith's, the second six for the Brewer's and the remaining are for my Mortician's and Union.  I do have a few one off's left (Smoke and Lucky) and I am wrapping up Skatha for my son's Hunter's Guild.  I think realistically I will shoot to complete the Farmer's, Blacksmith's and Brewer's (along with the few one off's).  This will give me some room for some of the new Minor Guilds that will be released in 2018.

Gaming Goal:  Here we go, I always want to be able to play more games each year, but real life always gets in the way.  I prefer the collecting/painting over the gaming anyways (hence the reason why I have every Guild for Guild Ball), but the plan for 2018 will be to concentrate on two gaming systems (Guild Ball and Warmachine/Hordes).  AdeptiCon 2018 is coming up at the end of March (coincides with the end of my first painting quarter) and for Guild Ball I am signed up for the AdeptiCon Championships on Friday, and the Homelands Cup on Sunday.  Here's my problem, I have yet to play in an official event for Guild Ball, all my games have just been friendlies.  So that is my goal for 2018 is to play in more Guild Ball events.

Painting Goal:  This past year turned out to be a pretty decent year in painting my Guild Ball.  I started the year off strong, had a lull, and then kicked it right back up recently.  Unfortunately the second six Farmer's nor my Union did not get completed, but I did finish the Blacksmith's, Brewer's, Mortician's and my son's Hunter's.  Steamforged also added some new Veteran models to existing Guilds so i wanted to get some of those completed.  The Minor Guilds that were released this year, Ratcatcher's, Falconer's and Navigator's did not see any paint on them.  Stay tuned tomorrow to see where they fall on my list for 2019.

Gaming Goal: Guild Ball gaming did not start off as strong as I had hoped for in 2018 and actually swapped out events at AdeptiCon.  The gaming stayed slow for me until this past October with the release of Season 4.  Season 4 really got me excited for the game and I finally attended 2 Guild Ball tournaments.  Before the release of Season 4, I had only played 3 games, my total for the year is now 32 games, that is how much I have been enjoying Season 4.

Warmacine/Hordes

2018

Painting Goal:  I still have quite a few models in my backlog for Warmachine/Hordes (mainly with Trollbloods), but I need to concentrate 2018 on my two main factions, Khador for Warmachine and Minions for Hordes.  In those regards, the backlog is not too big.  I have a few Units and Warjacks that I need to complete for Khador and there are some new models coming out for Minions at the end of this month that will take high priority in my painting queue.  Let's not also forget the new Minions 'Dracodile' that will be posted tomorrow.

Gaming Goal:  For the past year I have been telling myself that I am going to try and play in the 'local' (40 miles one way) WM/H league in South Bend.  I have yet to play in that league.  It runs for 5 weeks, then they take a week or two off and start back up and continues through the year.  The first session for 2018 will be starting up shortly.  If I want to remember the rules for WM/H, I have to play more (as with Guild Ball), so I will try and finally play in some of the league sessions when I know it does not interfere with any vacations.  On Saturday at AdeptiCon my son and I are signed up for the WM/H Team Tournament, so I need to make sure I know what I am doing.

Painting Goal:  I did really good in the beginning of the year painting my Warmachine/Hordes models, all but one of the Minion models were completed and I also did some work on my Khador army.  There are still a lot of Warmachine/Hordes models in my backlog though and we shall see when they get done.

Gaming Goal:  I still never attended the "league" down in South Bend, but I did play a lot of WM/H for me.  Playing in events at AdeptiCon, NOVA Open, Michigan GT and the occasional casual games with my friends saw me playing 38 games of WM/H last year.

Events

2018

I enjoy attending events through out the year (when once again life doesn't get in the way) and the funds are available.  Not always to compete in events, but just also hanging out and getting in some friendly games.

2018 will be very similar to my plans for last year with a few subtractions and additions.  

For the last couple of years I have been starting out the year with the Las Vegas Open, well this year I will not be attending.  There is no organized play for Guild Ball this year, so the only interest would be Warmachine/Hordes.  With AdeptiCon only two months later, I am flying my son out for that.

AdeptiCon in March, as just mentioned above, this one is a must.  Now that I am in the Midwest again, this is a 'must' attend event for any gamer.  Registration opened up early December and my son and I are all signed up.  This year I also decided to book the hotel onsite in case we have any late night gaming (though I'll probably be tired).

Vacation plans will once again get in the way for the Summer months (at the end of May I will be going back to Arizona and moving my oldest back with us to Michigan), so the funds for June will then be limited.  Muse on Mini's throws a Con that same weekend we will be driving and then there is Privateer Press Lock & Load in either June or July.  Lock & Load would be very fun to attend, but the airfare for two to Seattle will get pricey (along with the hotel room).  I try and attend events where I can still drive where gas is still cheaper than airfare.  We shall see about Lock & Load, but my hopes are not high for this one.

Now comes the Fall/Winter and there is a quite a few I would like to attend, once again funds will limit our choices along with dates.

September has the Nova Open in the Washington DC area over Labor Day Weekend, this one is reachable by car for us and is an option.  I have never attended the Nova Open, but here that it is a really big event.

October is the Michigan GT in Lansing.  Mainly it is for Warhammer 40K, but over the past few years has branched out to other gaming systems.  Last year I was signed up for the WM/H Tournament, but a totaled van kept me from attending.

November has Warmachine Weekend in the St. Louis area (just a 6 hour drive for us).  I really feel this will be the year my son and I will finally attend the Warmachine Weekend.  I also have some friends from here that will be attending and I enjoy the 'fun' types of events that they run.  I am just not happy with the lack of information (and late information) they provide on their website.  I like to plan my events well ahead of time (so I can schedule the time off), and it took them forever to get a listing of events up on their site.  Besides that little issue, I have high hopes for this event (especially if we do not attend Lock & Load).  More than likely it will be one or the other.

Now we come to December and this past year it was the first ever SteamCon USA in Chicago.  Steamforged Games recently asked social media for any other locations that people are interested in.  So we will have to wait and see for this one.  If by chance it is again in Chicago, we are most definitely there (as long as there is some time gap from WMW), if it is in any other city we will need to see how far that drive and costs will be.  I also have to take into account my son will probably have a job working weekends, so I have to plan these accordingly where they will not interfere too much with his work schedules.

I missed on two events listed above for 2018.  I attended AdeptiCon, NOVA Open and the Michigan GT.  I missed out on Warmachine Weekend and SteamCon USA.  One event that was not on my list was GenCon.  I actually made it to GenCon this past year for one day to do some vendor shopping.

My son and I were scheduled to attend Warmachine Weekend, but the LACK of event information really put a bad taste in my mouth.  Waiting until the week of the event to post any rules is ridiculous.  Then my son was not able to get that weekend off, so I decided just not to go.

Steamcon USA was also missed this past year.  I had thought it may be taking place in December like in 2017, but they had moved it up to October.  I already had a family vacation planned for October so there was no way I was going to be able to do both..... next year.

Other Games On The Radar

Malifaux

2018

The game of Malifaux has always intrigued me even though I have never played the game.  I really do like the look of the models.  There is a group in South Bend that plays every Tuesday night so I know there is a local following (although this past year at the Michigan GT all the Malifaux events were cancelled due to a lack of registrations).  I think if by chance I do get into this game, I need to stick just to one Faction.  I will need to control the collector in me.  One drawback is that my son never really had an interest in this game, so that may keep me from playing.

Nothing happened with Malifaux for me in 2018, though I was tempted twice at AdeptiCon and GenCon.  Looks like Malifaux will be removed from any future list.

Batman Miniatures Game

2018

I am just throwing this one out there for now.  My son plays this game and he is playing it Friday at AdeptiCon while I play Guild Ball.  I am intrigued by Team Arrow so you never know what will happen.  Unlike Malifaux above, I do not think that anyone locally plays this game.  So it's a complete opposite from above.  No locals but my son loves it and with Malifaux it has locals but not my son.

So right now these two games are just a small blip on the radar.

I did play one game of BMG at the NOVA Open with my son.  As much as he loves the game, it really does not do too much for me.  I purchased a 3x3 gaming mat and some terrain for the game also.  I know I will be getting a few games in next year to be more of a punching bag for son to practice for AdeptiCon.

Bolt Action

2018

So where was Bolt Action in my above plans for 2018.  Well originally it was going to be a fairly large part and my son and I were going to play in the Team Tournament at AdeptiCon.  But our interests has slid a bit (mainly with Guild Ball for me).  Now I still plan on keeping all my armies, will I paint anything for them...maybe...my passions change through out the year.  Will I get some games in...I really think so, especially when my son moves up, it will not be frequent, but every now and then.

Absolutely nothing was done with Bolt Action in regards to Painting or Gaming, that does not mean it is totally off my radar.

That is all that I had on my list for 2018, now here are some new additions and comebacks that I saw in 2018.

New Additions:

Arena Rex
I saw this game for the first time at AdeptiCon 2017, then again at AdeptiCon 2018 and both times the game looked very tempting.  Well finally at GenCon I made the purchase of models for my son and I.  I do not have them all painted yet, but I did do a lot of work getting terrain completed for the game.  I really enjoy this game for the quick play.  I was not able to sign up for any events at AdeptiCon 2019 coming up (they all interfered with other events), but I still plan on playing the game in 2019 and working on the models I have.  I did manage to get in 13 games of Arena Rex this year.

Comebacks:

X-Wing
X-Wing 2.0 was released in September of this past year.  Just like with the release of Season 4 of Guild Ball, the release of X-Wing 2.0 reignited a spark in for the game.  Not as much as it did with Guild Ball, but enough for my son and I to keep playing the game casually and even signing up for an event at AdeptiCon next year.

Final Thoughts
If you are still with me through all of this, I would have to say that it was a really good year for me Painting/Gaming, especially in the Gaming department.  I am usually lucky to only play 20-30 games in year, and 2018 saw a record 93 games played.  Also with all that gaming, I was able to surpass last years mark in Painting Points.

One other accomplishment I had in 2018 was hitting 200 blog posts in a year, that was a goal of mine ever since I started blogging.  2018 was a record year for me with this post being #284.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's post and lets see if anything changes for 2019.

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Weekly Chronicle 2018 #50

Week #50 has come to an end and there is only 2 more weeks left in 2018.  I think this past week was a pretty decent week for me, not really too much but not that little also.

I was able to get in a game of Star Wars Destiny on Monday, Guild Ball on Thursday and Sunday, and my son and I played 2 Rounds of Warmachine/Hordes on Saturday night (as time was running out on us).

For completed painted models, it was also a good week.  I was able to complete 6 models and I have 2 more in the queue for this week.  Completed models were: 'LE Cheese Ball', 'Veteran Chisel', 'Zombie Thresher', 'Blackheart's Grave', 'Ghast's Grave' and 'Greyscale's Grave'.

Once the remaining 2 "The Dark Harvest" models are completed, I do not think much more will be done for the rest of this year.  More than likely I will start and prep models for January 2019 and enjoy the last week of the year getting in a few more games.

Models Completed: 6

Games Played: 4

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Daily Chronicle: AdeptiCon 2019 Event Schedule Preview

One of the benefits of moving back to the Midwest a few years ago was the ability to drive to AdeptiCon each year, I've been to AdeptiCon in the beginning, a few events in the middle and 2019 will mark 3 years in a row again for me.

AdeptiCon is not until March 27th-31st, but every November before, registration for the events opens with as much information they can provide for the event (some other organizers need to take note...WMW).  Well this year is no different and registration will open this Sunday November 19th.  The good people who run AdeptiCon also give us a sneak peek at the list of events at least a week beforehand and this past weekend the site went live with the majority of their events.  You can click HERE for the event preview.

The day the preview site goes live is a happy day for most of us as we can start planning our AdetiCon weekend, sometimes there is a little disappointment if the events you want to play in overlap with each.

For AdeptiCon 2019, the list of events I was thinking about were; Arena Rex, Guild Ball, X-Wing, and possibly some Warmachine/Hordes.  My son is die hard set on playing Batman Miniature Game, and his choices may be limited to either working a booth at AdeptiCon or staying back and having to work at his store.  We are going to have to narrow down his schedule this week.

I told myself Arena Rex was going to be a must for me at AdeptiCon 2019, well with the release of the schedule, that game is looking pretty slim.  Season 4 of Guild Ball has gotten me excited for the game again and will be my main concentrated game in 2019 and the Guild Ball AdeptiCon Championships is the same day as the Arena Rex Open Championships.  Arena Rex does start a bit later in the day and I could drop out after 1-2 games of Guild Ball, but my plan is stay for all the rounds of Guild Ball.  Arena Rex is also offered on Thursday night with a 3v3v3 battle and another smaller tournament on Friday night.  Both of those overlap with other events we want to to do.  Thursday afternoon will be my son's only chance to play Guild Ball, so we will both be playing in the Early Bird Open and on Friday he will be playing all day in the Batman Miniature Game, and when it ends more than likely will not want to play Arena Rex for another 6 hours till midnight.  I could play Arena Rex on Friday night, but that leave no time with my son that day.  So like I said Arena Rex looks very slim in 2019.

That leaves me with Friday and Sunday to find events for.  On Friday I am leaning towards playing in the X-Wing System Open Qualifier, I have never played in a X-Wing tournament and will probably lose right away, but like with the new rule set for Guild Ball, X-Wing 2.0 has me liking the game a lot.  I think we'll give it a shot.

So now on Sunday...most of time I cut out early and head back home, but there is a game that ha peaked my interest a little bit.  Steamforged Games for the last year has been promoting a new game called Godtear, it will actually be released just after AdeptiCon.  They are running some smaller sized beginner/intro tournaments through out the weekend and this might be something I look into on Sunday before heading home.

You may be asking what about Warmachine/Hordes....I think for AdepiCon 2019 (and most of 2019), WMW will take a back burner for me (besides a few games here at home with my son).

I still have until Sunday to decide, but my AdeptiCon 2019 weekend is looking like:

Thursday: Guild Ball Early Bird Open 3:00 PM- 9:00 PM
Friday: X-Wing System Open Qualifier 10:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Saturday: Guild Ball AdeptiCon Championships 10:00 AM - 8:00 PM
Sunday: Godtear Beginner's Draft Tournament 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM

Next Monday in my Weekly Chroncile, I will let you all what I decided on.

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Weekly Chronicle 2018 #45

This past week was a complete opposite of my previous week.  Previously I painted 5 models and played 1 game, and this past week it was painting 1 model and playing 5 games.  I wish I would have painted more, but I knew I was getting ready for my first Guild Ball tournament and I did not want to leave anything unfinished on the painting table.  What I did complete last week was 'Zarola' for the Hunter's Guild.

Currently I have 2 models up in my Painting Queue with plenty in my backlog.  A lot of the times I will re-arrange my queue based on what I feel like painting, but I think I really need to get these next 2 models completed.  I have 'Hearth' for the Blacksmith's Guild and 'Veteran Hearne' for the Hunter's Guild listed as next.  If I complete these 2 models, then both of these Guilds will be fully completed, and that is a nice feeling of accomplishment.  Then I need to think about what will be next, part of me is thinking the Falconer's Guild (starting with the 2 models that can play for Hunter's) and the other part of me is thinking to finish off the Mortician's Guild, currently I only have 8 models completed for the Mortician's, and it would be nice to finish them and maybe play them a my backup Guild.

For games played last week, like I mentioned above, it was 5 games, and they were all of Guild Ball.  I played 2 games with my son, then 3 at this past weekend tournament.  This week we will change it up a little bit and maybe add in a game of Arena Rex and/or X-Wing and possible some Warmachine/Hordes.

Models Completed: 1

Games Played: 5

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Daily Chronicle: Recap Michigan GT Wamachine/Hordes Michigan Cup

I was asked by a friend of mine (TJ) if I wanted to fill in as their 5th player in the WM/H Michigan Cup (they had a late dropout) this past Sunday October 14th and I decided to fill in and play my list I just practiced with the night before. Here is a description about the Michigan Cup: This is a slightly modified version of the popular World Team Championship competition format.  This challenging format features 5-person teams squaring off after a strategic round of pairing that can be as important as the actual games! Specific rules for this event at the Michigan GT are forthcoming but will follow the structure of the official WTC.

Sunday morning I woke up early and made the drive out to Lansing, MI.  The drive actually was not bad, Lansing is only 115 miles from me so it took just under 2 hours to arrive.  I missed out on attending last year due to car troubles, so this is the first year I had attended.  The hotel was easy to find and the conference center was nicely marked so I had no issues finding the ballroom.

After I dropped off my bags and got my army ready on my display tray, I took a quick stroll around the hall to see what other events were going on.  Warhammer 40K is their main attraction so that was obviously there, they had Star Wars Legion, X-Wing, Dark Age and some other events going on.  I even saw Dave Taylor there playing Dark Age.

 Star Wars Legion tables.

Dave Taylor playing Dark Age.

After looking at the events that were happening, I checked to see if there was a vendor hall setup, they did not have a separate hall for the vendors, instead there were a few vendors around the walls in the main ballroom.  There was not really anything that I needed, one vendor did have a few WM/H items, but I think I am pretty good for now on models to keep me busy for awhile.  At the registration desk, I did see some Michigan GT dice that were black/silver/green that I thought would look cool with the Cryx army I am going to start working on, they were $10 for 10 so I decided to pick up a bag.

Michigan GT dice.

Now it was finally time to start gaming and my army was ready to go.  Our team was there just to have fun so there was no pressure to win...great, because I am not that good...LOL.

Vlad1 Khador "Jaws of Wolf" army.

My first game was against a Hordes Legion player and it has been a long time since I played against Legion, probably way back to MkI.  I lost my 'Conquest' in this game and ended up losing 10-4 in Control Points.  At least I did not clock out, the clock is usually my nemesis.  I ended up destroying 49 points of Legion and my opponent scored 83.

Game 1: Legion vs Khador

My second game was against Warmachine Cryx, no one else wanted to play against Cryx, so being the filler player I was paired against him.  Since I do not get to play many different players much, just like in Game 1 against Legion, I have not played Cryx in a long time.  My opponent Thomas was from the Kalamazoo area and I actually met him a few years ago when I first moved to Michigan, my first game in Michigan was actually against him (I knew the name sounded familiar when we were matched up).  He decided to play his 9 'Slayer' spam list, and I was actually really curious how this plays.  So for me it was more of a game of learning to see how Cryx 'Slayers' worked.  Even though I lost in Control Points 5-0, it was a pretty close game, I destroyed 76 points to his 78 and just about half of them came from my 'Conquest'.  It was cool seeing my 'Conquest' take out 2.5 'Slayers' in one turn.

 Game 2: Cryx vs Khador

Slayer hoard approaching.

With only 6 teams in attendance this year (probably due to this years requirement of fully painted armies), Game 3 was going to be our final game of the day.  Once again I was paired up against a Cryx player.  Instead of running a 'Slayer' spam, Brando was running about 4 'Slayers' led by Deneghra2.  This game was not even close for me, I was slaughtered to the last man (actually 'Manhunter').  Control Points it was 9-3, but Vlad1 was assassinated and Brandon scored like 123 points to my 35.

Game 3: Cryx vs Khador

So for the day I was 0-3, and unfortunately so was our team.  We ended up in 6th place (sounds better than last), but it was a fun day and I really glad I got to see how Cryx works.

Afterwards our team and the team from Kalamazoo decided to head to Buffalo Wild Wings for a cold one and reflect on the day....it was good times.

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Daily Chronicle: A Day of Gaming 10/13/2018

First off I need to say that this is post #200 for the year.  It has always been a goal of mine since I started this blog back in 2009 (and my previous blog in 2008) to be able to write 200 posts in one year.  I was just shy of 200 back in 2010 with 192 posts, and last year I was on a decent pace to hit 200, but the last 2 months of year I really slowed down and finished with 171.  Since I have played a lot more games this year, this helped with my post counts since I try and do a quick Battle Report after each game (I always do not, but I try).

This past Saturday, my son and I had a day of gaming here at home.  Originally the plan was for our friend from Arizona (now living in Indiana) was going to come up and join us for the day, but unfortunately he was not able to attend, and since my son already requested the day off, we continued on with the games.

First game of the day was X-Wing 2.0.  The original plan was to play a big 500 point game and give us a 3 hour time limit, well by the time morning chores (pets) were completed and the game table setup, we decided to just play a standard 200 point game in and play it on the 75 minute clock (this way is still gave time in the day for our other games).

Rebels vs Scum

My son was playing his Rebel fleet (above left) and I was playing Scum (above right) once again.  I have been really liking the Scum in X-Wing 2.0 and probably will be my go to fleet in X-Wing 2.0 (with also occasionally playing Rebels and Empire).  The Rebels had 2 T-65 X-Wings (Luke and Wedge) and 2 Z-95 ships, and for my Scum, I had 1 Firespray (Boba Fett) and 2 Kihraxz Fighters (Talonbane Cobra and Graz)

The Rebels made quick work of my Kihraxz Fighters and at one point was down 4 ships to 1 ship.  Talonbane Cobra did manage to do some damage before he was destroyed.  So it came down to the pilot skills of Boba Fett to try and defeat the Rebels.  Boba Fett took care of the Z-95's and Wedge and now it was down to Luke vs Boba.

Boba Fett vs Luke Skywalker

Boba was able to outmaneuver Luke and get a rear shot on Luke (just outside of Range 1) and damage Luke's remaining Hull point.  It was a win for Scum & Villainy.

After our game of X-Wing 2.0, we cleaned up the table, had a quick bite to eat and continued on with our gaming.

Games 2 and 3 for the day were actually Guild Ball.  Guild Ball Season 4 was officially released that day and we had an itch to try out the new rules and cards for our Guilds.  I decided I wanted to concentrate on my Butcher's Guild for Season 4 (with occasionally playing the other Guilds) and after a few days contemplating, my son decided to play the Blacksmith's Guild (his other two choices were Alchemist's and Hunter's).

Blacksmith's vs Butcher's

The first game we played it slow, no clock, so that way we can refresh ourselves on the new rules/cards and just playing in general, it has been about 7 months since we each last played Guild Ball.

Taking out 'Iron' for the win

My Butcher's were putting out a lot of damage, and I was able to win 12-0 in Turn 2 (4 Takeouts / 1 Goal).  My son has not played the Blacksmith's much and still needs more practice with them which he is planning on doing.

Our second game of Guild Ball we played the same 2 lineups, again no clock, but we decided to pick up the pace a bit.  It was just about the same outcome for this game, Butcher's won 12-2 (4 Takeouts / 1 Goal), but this time the Blacksmith's did manage 2 points.  In this second game, I managed to do a little bit more with my Captain 'Ox' than just a support piece, and he managed to get the win for my Butcher's.

Taking out 'Iron' once again for a Butcher's win.

The time now was 5:15 PM and it was time for our evening chores (feed the dogs and make some dinner), after dinner we had 1 more game lined up.

Game 4 of the day was Warmachine.  Originally I wanted to play my Minions army and play with my 'Dracodile' since it has been a long time and I would like to play with them for fun at Warmachine Weekend, but I got a text from my friend asking if I can fill in as their 5th player in the Warmachine/Hordes Team Tournament at the Michigan GT the next day on Sunday.  So I figured I better get in a practice game of the list I am more comfortable with and what I played with at this year NOVA Open WM/H Team Tournament, my Khador army led by Vlad.

Cygnar vs Khador

My son pulled out his Cygnar army he played with at NOVA and it was Stryker3 vs Vlad1.  At first I was quite shock with the amount of Infantry he had on the table, but I had a very good Turn 2 and managed to clear a lot of them off the table.

In the end it came down to my 'Conquest' colossal assassinating Stryker3.

Khador for the win

4 games in a day...wow that was fun.  I wish we could have played the 500 point game of X-Wing as originally planned, but the 200 point game was fun too and good practice.

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