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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