BMG: 4Ground "Shipping Container (B)" Terrain

Yesterday I spent the morning working on some terrain for my miniature games, and one of the pieces I was working on was the Shipping Container (B) from 4Ground.  I have heard really good things about the terrain from 4Ground, and this is the first item I have built from them.

A few months ago, I was eyeing their Gothic City line to be used in the Batman Miniature Game, and I was holding off on the purchase.  Part of the reason for the hold off was the cost and shipping from the UK, but when I noticed some of their line at GenCon last Sunday, I had to buy a few of their pieces.

What drew me to the 4Ground line of terrain is that they come fully painted.  I really did not want to spend time painting up all the buildings and I am still not that good with my airbrush.  A lot of the BMG players use TT Combat terrain, but that is unpainted MDF.  Yes, the cost is a bit more, but it does save me a lot of time.  Maybe in the future I will add some TT Combat, but recently Muse on Minis is also coming out with pre-painted terrain for BMG, I will have to see what Muse on Minis has to offer before I purchase any TT Combat.

Anyways, back to the Shipping Container (B).  The assembly of this model actually took me a little longer than expected.  I was thinking 1,2,3 and it was done, but it turned out to be an hour later and the container was finally completed.

Painting Points: 10*

* assembly time

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Daily Chronicle: Hidden Forest Gaming Terrain

On our drive back home from GenCon this past Sunday, my friend and I realized that we will need a bag for our new Arena Rex gaming mats.  Previously when I was looking for mats for our Guild Ball Pitches, I came across a company called Hidden Forest Gaming, they produce 2D gaming terrain, mats, and they also sell bags individually.  We looked on their website, and sure enough they sold a 30” bag for $10.

When I got home, I took a look at their site so I can order my bag and I had decided to look at the terrain they had for sale.  I already use Broken Egg Games 2D terrain and scenario zones, but Hidden Forest Gaming had their snow terrain on sale, a bundle for $35.00.  Since I also own a snow based mat, I thought it would be cool to have some matching terrain.  While I was at it, I also decided to add their scenario zones, flags and objective set to my order.

All I can say is that the prompt shipping of my order was awesome.  Their website had said they would be away until August 8th and orders would ship afterwards (I was in no rush), but I had received an email this past Monday night that my order was going out for shipping.  Yesterday afternoon my package arrived and I promptly set it up on the table to prepare for the evenings battles.

I really like the houses that were packaged in with the terrain, with my Broken Egg Games terrain, it does not come with these.  It is nice to change up the battlefield occasionally so I do not get bored with the game.

I just want to say, in all honestly I do prefer 3D terrain over 2D, but for the ease of storage and transportation (taking my mat and terrain to a local game store), the 2 D terrain works great.  Plus you do not need to worry about your models falling over when they are placed on a hill.  I can take all my terrain, stack them up together and they all go nicely in a small container on my shelf.

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Battle Report: Arena Rex 8/8/2018 Ludus Magnus vs Legio XIII

Last night my son and I got to play Arena Rex for the first time and we were going to take our time and learn the rules and the game mechanics.  The other day I had assembled the two Starter Sets that I had picked up at GenCon, and now we were ready for battle.

I was playing the Ludus Magnus Starter Set with ‘Marcus Furius’, ‘Micon’, and ‘Infelix and my son was playing Legio XIII with ‘Aquila’, Gaius Pallidus’ and ‘Ban-Luca’.

Our Arena was bare with terrain, the only piece of terrain we were using was one Lethal Hazard, a Pit.  As I mentioned above, for this game we just wanted to go through the rules and mechanics of the game.

Scenario: Munus

A classic match evolved from funeral traditions, the Munus is a standard combat between equally matched cohorts.

Deployment: Cohorts deploy in base contact with their controlling player’s arena edge.

Cohorts: Both players bring cohorts of equal value.

Restrictions: None

Victory Conditions: The last player with models remaining in the arena is the victor.

As the fans of the Arena wait for their Gladiators.

The cohorts are both deployed and ready for battle.

‘Infelix’ is the first casualty of the Arena.

‘Micon’ pushes ‘Gaius Pallidus’ into the Pit and to his death.

‘Ban-Luca’ spears ‘Micon’ into the Pit, to his death and victory for Legio XIII.

The game was a really good learning experience and I really enjoyed how the game plays.  The one item that was hard for me to wrap around was that there was no Rounds in the game.  Each model takes alternating Turns which keeps the game really flowing.  As we got down to one model each, then Last Man Standing kicks in, for me personally (in this game) that got a bit boring as both models were just dancing around in circles trying to push the other into the Pit.  As I stated “in this game”, normally you would have more terrain features setup in the Arena and have may more obstacles that you can push your opponent into.

The plan is to play a few more games with the same 3v3 Starter Sets, but next time we add some more terrain, maybe another Pit and some Columns.

I think once we get back from NOVA Open at the end of the month, then these models will start to hit the painting table, I should have more of our models assembled that we can play with as I get these painted.

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Privateer Press: Mystery Box Revealed

Last week I had mentioned that Privateer Press was offering Mystery Boxes, a $242 value for only $59.99 and that my son and I had decided to take the gamble and order one box.

The main factions that my son and I play are; Cygnar, Circle, Khador, Minions and Trollbloods, we also have quite a few models for Skorne, Protectorate and then I have some unpainted Cryx sitting on a shelf that has never been played.  So we were really hoping for one of the 5 main factions that we play.

Here is what we got...

So we ended up with a Cryx Mystery Box.  Am I disappointed? a little, but not too bad.  I would rather get a box of the models that I do not have than a box with all duplicate models I currently own.  From what has been posted on the internet so far, my son would have been happy with a Cygnar box, he could have used a ‘Hurricane’ model.

Here is a breakdown of what was inside our Mystery Box:

Battlegroup: 

Bane Witch Agatha

Reaper

Slayer

Deathripper

Colossal:

Kraken/Sepulcher

Heavy Warjacks:

Corrupter/Reaper/Malice

Bonejacks:

Nightwretch

Ripjaw

Accessory:

Cryx Token Set

All in all the models are pretty decent.  I will be adding the Colossal and Slayer to the existing Cryx models we currently have and then I think we may have a decent playable list.  I am not going to get fully invested in Cryx, I think with the models we just received and what we currently own, it will be enough to occasionally throw them down on the table top.

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BMG: Gothic City Terrain (First Purchases)

As I mentioned in this past Monday’s post on my GenCon review  I came across the 4Ground vendor area and I had to stop and look around for some of their Gothic City line of buildings.  I have been meaning to purchase some of their buildings since AdeptiCon back in March, but with 4Ground being a UK company, I knew shipping would take awhile and honestly I just never got around to ordering any.

The main reason I have been looking at 4Ground is that their building are all pre-painted MDF, all you have to do is snap the pieces out and glue them all together.  It will save me a lot of time getting the board up and ready.  A few months ago I had already purchased a gaming mat from Frontline Gaming (City Mat) and a few barricades from Miniature Market, all I needed were some buildings and then I can finally get in a demo game of BMG.

The selection of Gothic City was pretty slim at GenCon, I am not sure if they just did not bring as much (though the other lines they carried took up most of their vendor space) or they were just already sold out by the time I was there on Sunday.  I purchased what I could, which was 3 buildings and 1 container.

As I build each Gothic City building, I will try to take a few pics during the process and get those posted also..  I am hoping that this weekend I may get some time to actually start building these.

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Arena Rex: Let The Battles Begin

In yesterday’s post about attending GenCon on Sunday, I had mentioned that I am now vested in the game called Arena Rex.  Arena Rex has been around for quite a few years now and started off on Kickstarter back in 2013.  Each year, it seems like there is more and more interest in the game.  I first came across Arena Rex back at AdeptiCon 2017, my son and I walked by their vendor booth and I had thought the models were very nice looking.  At the time I was still vested in Bolt Action and I knew I still had a lot of Warmachine/Hordes models to build and paint, plus we were just getting into the game of Guild Ball and I was not able to get into another game.  At this years AdeptiCon 2018, we came across the game again in the vendor area, but once again “not enough time for anymore games”.  It had turned out that my friend TJ had bought into the game and purchased a Morituri Starter Set, so I was still considering it.  Fast forward a few months and GenCon is approaching, as I mentioned yesterday I originally had no plans on attending, but once I did, I decided to look into Arena Rex again (knowing they were going to have an area setup in the Vendor Hall).  I knew Arena Rex makes a gaming mat for their game, so if I was going to get into the game, I wanted to have a mat and it would be easier to pick it up actually onsite.

So what drew me into Arena Rex now?  I enjoy small model count games that play quick.  Less time to dig out all the models and setup the battlefield and to actually play the game.  Arena Rex average playtime is around 30-45 minutes (from what I have been told), I am sure our first few games will run a bit longer as we get familiar with the rules.  I also enjoy playing games that do not have a complicated rules set, which Arena Rex does not.  I want to get into battle as quick as possible and roll some dice and see who the victor is.  I am also currently on hold with Guild Ball until Season 4 releases in October and then we shall see what happens.  I still enjoy Guild Ball, but at the moment it is a little bit more complicated than Arena Rex, that is why I probably like playing my Butcher’s Guild in Guild Ball...go and kill things.  I always enjoyed the concept of a “Beer & Pretzel” game, and I think Arena Rex may just be this for me.

Here is a description of the game taken directly from the Arena Rex website.

Arena Rex is a game of gladiatorial combat.  Battles of 3 to 6 combatants per side are recommended, and take approximately 30 to 40 minutes to play. Simple, intuitive rules offer myriad tactical possibilities.  Maneuver and arena terrain play key roles in the game along with a fatigue-based activation system that twists a traditional round structure in new and exciting ways.

Arena Rex is a miniatures line that features high quality 35mm gladiators, and encompasses not just classic styles, but much of the ancient world.  Gladiators train together in ludi; the classic styles of Ludus Magnus compete with more exotic fighters from farther afield.  Anachronisms are present and intentional -- the ability to combine the best aspects of disparate things is just as important as unity of purpose, and this is reflected in Arena Rex not just aesthetically, but mechanically.  Players can choose gladiators freely, whether for their look, their playstyle, or because of unique benefits and synergies within a given ludus. 

Getting back to my visit of the Arena Rex booth at GenCon, well I walked out of there with almost two complete factions.  Legio XIII for my son, and Ludus Magnus for myself.  I picked up the Starter Set and Faction Dice for each of these, then I added some models for both factions so we could expand to playing some 6v6 games which seems to be the size in tournaments.

Legio XIII

Ludus Magnus

I had to add ‘Leo’ into the mix, because what gladiator arena doesn’t have a lion, then I also added ‘Cato’ and ‘Ladon’ to my Ludus Magnus faction simply because I love the look of the ‘Ladon’ model.

‘Ladon’

Now comes the assembling and painting of the models.  My plan will be to first assemble the Starter Set models and get in a few 3v3 games in against my son while we familiarize ourselves with the rules.  Then I will go ahead and start to tackle the painting of the models.  As of now there are not too many official events for Arena Rex, so having fully painted at the moment is not a must have.  I do possibly see myself playing in an Arena Rex tournament at next years AdeptiCon in March, so that will be my goal for my Ludas Magnus faction.

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Daily Chronicle: GenCon 2018 8/5/2018

Late last week (Thursday) after seeing all the posts on Facebook and Twitter about GenCon 2018 in Indianapolis, IN I decided to take a look online to see how much single day badges were going to cost.  My son had to work later in the day Saturday and mid-day Sunday, so I was hoping to go on Saturday with him and be back in time for him to get to work.  Once I created an account was able to view the badge prices, it was $70 for Saturday, and only $15 for Sunday.  My plan was not to play in any events, but to go and roam the Vendor Hall.  $70 to go shopping was a bit much. but $15 was manageable for the experience.  The last time I had attended GenCon was back when it was still in Milwaukee, WI (so prior to 2002).  Since Sunday was out of the question for my son to attend, I decided to text my friend out in Kalamzoo (TJ) to see if he wanted to ride down with me for the day.  Indianapolis is only a 3 hour drive for me, so driving down and back up in one day is not an issue.  He texted back "yes" and the plan was in motion.  TJ has never attended GenCon before, so he was all OK with going down to check out the Vendor Hall.

Before we headed down on Sunday morning, the first thing I needed to do was work on a shopping list for the event.  There really was not much that I needed (hence my original hesitation on attending), but I still managed to put a list together.

We arrived down at the Convention Center around 10:25 AM (after parking) and headed towards the Will Call to pick up our single day badges.  The line did not look too bad until the Convention Staff told us the end of the line was down the hall..oh boy!  It was a very long line, but it actually did move pretty quickly, we were all checked in and ready to shop by 11:00 AM.  At that point we headed straight towards the Vendor Hall.

If I recall correctly, there were about 35 rows of vendors in the hall, and we started at the beginning and walked our way up and down every row.  Like I mentioned above, we were only there for the Vendor Hall so we had plenty of time to look around (5 hours, the Vendor Hall closes at 4:00 PM on Sunday).

Our first stop for purchases was at Privateer Press.  Believe it or not, I only had one small item on my list and it was for a bottle of paint in 'Eldritch Green'.  Sure enough, Privateer Press was sold out of that color.  Next to the paint racks were some novels, and I just recently heard good things about a book called "The Blood Kings" by Douglas Seacat and they had that copy sitting there.  While opening the cover looking for a price, it was also signed copy by the author, so I thought why not and went to purchase it.  At the register, I also decided to purchase a Cygnar mug for my son and add it to our collection (when I got home, I realized I was also missing Khador and should have purchase one of those too).  So my planned purchase of $4 at Privateer Press turned into $28.

Next I had to stop at a friends booth called Broken Egg Games who are based where I lived in Arizona.  There were two 4" AOE templates that I needed for my Khador Army.  While at Adam's booth, he asked "didn't you just put in a order", I said "yea, but it hadn't shipped yet".  He then told me to pull up my order and he gathered my items there for me.  Since I had already paid for shipping on those items, the two AOE's were just thrown in then.

While I was picking up my items at Broken Egg Games, my friend TJ was getting in a demo game of "Mutated", a card game that is currently on Kickstarter.  He enjoyed the game very much and will be backing it shortly.

At that point we were half through the Vendor Hall, we passed by Fantasy Flight Games (X-Wing) but did not go into their booth area.  They had a line wrapped around their area and there was nothing that I needed at the time.  I had already pre-ordered X-Wing 2.0 at my local game store.

Next stop for us was Arena Rex by Red Republic Games.  TJ wanted to get an additional model for his cohort along with a gaming mat.  Now here is also where I had spent most of my money too.  I will not go into detail on this post (more tomorrow), but it looks like I am also vested in this game now.

The time was now about 2:30 PM and we were getting towards the end of the Vendor Hall.  I knew I had to make a stop at Miniature Market still to see if they had the Batman GenCon Exclusive model.  Unfortunately they had sold out Saturday morning and I texted my son and he was a little disappointed.  I guess there is one benefit of getting to GenCon when it opens on Thursdays for purchases like this.  I also missed out on some expansions for an adult fun card game "$#!7 Happens" that my wife likes to play.

Just about done now with the Vendor Hall and then I came across a booth of terrain by 4Ground.  I looked for them on the map before we headed to GenCon and I did not see them listed, turns out they were listed under "Fabled Realms 4 Ground".  I have been looking at 4Ground recently for their pre-painted MDF terrain for Batman Miniatures Game.  They did not have much of the Gothic line available and I purchased what I could.  Like with Arena Rex, I will go into a bit more detail later this week.

Now we were headed out towards the door and there was one more vendor we walked by, Steamforged Games.  If this was last year, I would have stopped and made some purchases.  Currently at this time, I am on hold with Guild Ball.  They did have the new Falconer's Guild available for purchase, but I decided to wait on that, especially seeing how much I had already spent in the day.  Season 4 for Guild Ball will be releasing this October and I am waiting for that new rulebook and hoping it will re-spark my interest.

Stay tuned for a few more detailed posts this week on some of my purchases.

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Weekly Chronicle 2018 #31

This Summer I have been sounding like a broken record, especially when it comes to my painting.  Once again nothing was painted this week, and I honestly think it may stay that way for a few more weeks till after the NOVA Open at the end of the month.  There are “some” models that I may get to this month, but more on that later this week.

With 24 days left to go till the NOVA Open, I have been “trying” to get a few more games in.  This past week I was able to get in a 15 point ‘Speedmachine’ game in and this past Saturday managed to play a full 75 point game, again this is practice with my lists for the NOVA Open.  I have another game lined up with my friend TJ on Thursday night and we will be playing 75 points, and hopefully I will also be able to get in another practice game of 50 points.  I had changed up my 50 point lists slightly with a new Warcaster and I need to give it a try.

With the game that I played this past Saturday, it actually marks the most games of Warmachine/Hordes that I have played in one year, at 25 games (previously in 2016 I had played 24).  I know that is not much to most gamers, but for me, that was a pretty good milestone.  With the events that I still have planned for 2018, games played of Warmachine/Hordes will be pretty good this year.

Models Completed: 0

Games Played: 2

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Privateer Press: Mystery Box Blowout !!!

Last night I was looking at my Facebook, and up came a post from Privateer Press.

We need to make room in our warehouse and are clearing space by offering an incredible deal: Get nearly $230 worth of WARMACHINE or HORDES models and an accessory (at least a $242 value) for only $59.99 (Domestic US shipping included!). Each mystery box will contain an assortment of models from a single, random Faction, and include one huge-base model.  Up to 5 mystery boxes can be purchased in a single transaction without any duplicate factions.

Supplies are limited. Offer good though August 31, 2018, or while supplies last.

https://store.privateerpress.com/mystery-box-blowout

After I read the post, I texted my son the link and asked him “Gamble ?”

With a little bit of discussion, we decided that we’ll take the gamble for one box.  I did not have my wallet with me upstairs last night, so first thing this morning I made the purchase.

Privateer Press says it will ship in 3-5 business days, and I am sure with GenCon happening this week, it may take a bit longer to receive.  I am OK with that, no rush for us.  I am curious to see what we are going to get.

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Battle Report: WM/H 7/30/2018 Khador vs Cygnar (15 Points)

Even though the game technically was played Monday night at the end of July, this is my first post for August.  I have been meaning to try out my new Warcaster ‘Karchev’ for my Khador army, and on Monday night I finally got the chance to.

I am still finalizing my list for the NOVA Open ‘Speedmachine’ event, and I have narrowed it down between ‘Butcher 1’ and ‘Karchev’.  With only 3:00 minutes per Turn, you have to play fast and I was looking for a Warcaster who can Assassinate and also survive.  So I narrowed it down to 2.  I have never played ‘Karchev’ before, so I had to see what he could do and if he can survive.  All in all, I was pretty happy with him, one drawback is his speed (being a man in a machine) he has a base speed of 4, but he can spend 1 Focus each turn to can +2” so that helps.  I still have to learn his spells a bit better and especially remember to use them.  Like I stated, 3:00 minutes is not a lot of time so you tend to forget to do a few things, and one of them was moving my Warjacks up 3” after my ‘Widowmakers’ killed a model.  I also decided to try out ‘Spriggan’ in this game, and it has been a long time since I played him, I think in this quick game he did not work out for me, the shooting really slows down the game, I need Warjacks who can get right in and do some smashing, so I think I will swap him out for 2 lesser point Warjacks.  I ended up winning the game, barely at the end of Turn 4.  ‘Stryker 2’ went in for the Assassination on ‘Karchev’ and fell short, thankfully ‘Karchev’ was camping 2 Focus and he has UNYIELDING granting him +2 ARM against melee damage.  He survived the attacks from ‘Stryker 2’ and the Turn was then over.  I gained 2 more Control Points winning me the game 6-1.  We played out top of Turn 5 and ‘Karchev’ would have then Assassinated ‘Stryker 2’.

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