Plataea Outpost

In our family Vanguard Saga campaign, the heroes have crossed a harsh, arid wasteland and at last have reached a remote military outpost where they will work with the local garrison to undertake their mission here on the planet Elysion. 

They've also caught up with the Demeter, their trusty transport ship, from which they were separated shortly after arriving on this world. That ship is, of course, is a Warhammer 40k Valkyrie. Cheers to 40k for a wide range of models that I can use in roleplaying campaigns -- but jeers to our 3D printer, which crapped out when I really could have used a few more chain-link fence segments!

Imperial Hymn

The boys and I aren't really into Warhammer stuff these days, but this video was just flat-out awesome...

Waiting Game

I've been waiting patiently (well, not really) for my latest Evercade fix: Tomb Raider Collection 1 and the Legacy of Kain Collection. In the meantime, I've been catching up on some Warhammer painting projects and planning lots of encounters and subplots for the current Druid Cycle storyline. After years (decades) of campaigns focused on supervillain-type foes, it feels fresh and exciting to be building toward a very different kind of crisis: World War Druid Cycle!

Dune: Part 2

Dune is among my favorite novels. I love it on so many levels, not the least of which is that it's the primary literary inspiration for the Warhammer 40k universe. I'm such a Dune fan that I even adore the much-maligned 1984 movie, although it pales in comparison to Denis Villeneuve's more recent film. I'm so pleased that Dune: Part 2 is now premiering in theaters. The first part won six Oscars and introduced this story to a whole new generation -- including my own family! I can't wait to see what Villeneuve et al have in store for us in the second half!

Near Year, New Games!

Lots of great game stuff on tap for us here in early 2023. I need to challenge the boys to a rematch of Conquest of Nerath after they crushed my evil empires last week, and Nathaniel and I are both itching to get started with the Game of Thrones board game (although the real question is whether we can get Amy and Matthew interested). Both boys got lots of Warhammer stuff for Christmas (the new Astra Militarum boxed set for Matthew and the Warhammer: The Horus Heresy core set for Nathaniel) that still needs to be put together. On the RPG front, I'm almost ready to get the boys into a full-scale Doctor Who campaign using the Doctor Who Exterminate! wargame miniatures and a hodgepodge of other minis and maps. On top of all that, my niece and nephew are interested in joining us for some D&D, so I'll be creating a new campaign set in the Druid Cycle world. I guess I really won't have time to finish panting all those 3D-printed buildings...

Dreams Do Come True!

Cavill. Warhammer. Let's do this!

Seriously, what a ride! This dyed-in-the-wool Snyderbrony was feeling on top of the world when Henry Cavill showed up as Superman in the post-credits scene in Black Adam. Would that brief scene presage a return to Snyder's vision of an epic, mythological superhero multiverse? A rejection of Warner's cowardly and ham-fisted attempts to copy Disney's cookie-cutter Marvel flicks? Turns out, not so much. Cavill's cameo was his last time wearing the cape. The new creative regime at Warner is rebooting the DC cinematic universe with new actors, so Cavill is out. 

We were just talking about what might be next for our family's favorite actor (Bond, perhaps?!) when the news dropped that Cavill had found his next big project: Warhammer! In partnership with Amazon, Cavill is going to produce and star in a Warhammer series. I can't even say how many times the boys and I have chatted about which character in the Warhammer universe we'd love to see Cavill play. The Emperor of Mankind? Horus? Guilliman? Eisenhorn? Gaunt? Can't he play more than one?!

Monday TARDIS Blues

Grandfather Nurgle was the guest of honor at our Thanksgiving this year (henceforth it will be known as "That Pancake Thanksgiving"), and he continued to share his blessings on my birthday. Since we weren't in any shape to continue our Tales of the Ternion superhero campaign, I tried to get some painting done. As I'm still trying to avoid tackling the growing pile (it's now a full shelf) of 3D-printed buildings, I made some progress on my Doctor Who Exterminate! miniatures, finishing up my unit of UNIT infantry. I got to work on the TARDIS and thought I could knock it out quickly. Hey, it's only two colors, right? Well, even with careful drybrushing to get the tiny raised lettering of "Police Box" and "Public Call", I managed to screw up the "Public Call" on one side really badly. I could strip off all the paint and start the whole model over from scratch, but I also have to acknowledge that my my kids and I are the only ones who will ever see this stuff and it doesn't have to be perfect. Heck, the boys have been playing a multi-battle campaign with the Necrons against all of our other factions and half the models they're using are half-finished, just undercoated, or not even painted at all! They're having fun, and that's what matters at the end of the day. I need to learn that lesson, because I was still grumbling about the janky TARDIS lettering on my way to work this morning. Going through all the emails I missed over the long weekend, I saw that my team had chipped in to get me a Games Workshop gift certificate for my birthday. I'm going to spend it on something fun that the boys and I can all enjoy together, and not worry so much if it's painted to a "parade ready" (or even "battle ready") standard. 

(That sounded convincing, right?)

Squats Are Back...?

Check this out and draw your own conclusions. Or maybe it's just an elaborate April Fools' joke?

Death Metal

I'm not an Astra Militarum guy -- that's Matthew's preferred faction -- but I do have a particular fondness for those mask-and-trench-coat-wearing bad-asses, the Death Korps of Krieg. First of all, their regiment sounds like the name of a metal band (side note: Iron Maiden's A Matter of Life and Death is my unofficial soundtrack for the Death Korps). Now I'll finally have the chance to get myself a box of Death Korps troopers -- pre-orders go on sale tomorrow morning!

Defense of Vigilus

I've never really been a fan of Risk, as I found games from the Axis & Allies family to be a bit more interesting, but I picked up a copy of the Warhammer 40k version of Risk for Nathaniel for Christmas. The boys had never experienced Risk in any form and found it to be a fast and fun gaming experience; meanwhile, I was pleased to see a few new tactical elements in this version, such as unique abilities for faction commanders and major and minor objectives that confer useful rewards upon completion. 

We recruited Amy for a full family game today, and it took up a good chunk of the afternoon. Nathaniel played as the Ultramarines (big surprise there!), Matthew led the Chaos Space Marines (the orange minis in the image below), I was the Orks (green), and Amy was the Genestealer Cults faction (purple). 

Matthew and Nathaniel each conquered continents early on, giving them significant advantages in reinforcements. I held a continent in the center of the map for a good chunk of time, but ended up taking hits from all directions, while Amy's poor Genestealers were gradually pushed back into the hinterlands. It ended up being a back-and-forth conflict between the boys, with Nathaniel consistently having the upper hand yet unable to deliver the knockout blow. 

Finally, it came down to a battle of two single units, one Ultramarines and one Chaos. If Matthew prevailed, he'd get massive reinforcements on his next turn and would have a great opportunity to push deep into Nathaniel's territory. If Nathaniel prevailed, he'd earn his final objective and win outright. After Matthew dragged out the moment for maximum drama (admittedly, with a great deal of help from me), they made their rolls and Nathaniel vanquished the heretics to win the game.

Above is a photo of the map from the final turn. At the top, you can see Amy pointing to her one remaining unit of Genestealers, who survived the war and may yet live on to infect civilizations elsewhere in the galaxy...

9th Edition Blues

I picked up the smallest of the 40k 9th Edition starter sets back in August and I've been painting the minis on and off for the past couple of months. Why has it taken so long? Honestly, it's been hard for me to get excited about 9th Edition, which I feel is a real step back from 8th. Even so, the starter set provides some nice reinforcements for Nathaniel's Ultramarines, and the Necrons will augment the impressive army that Matt so kindly gifted to us a couple of years ago.

I was rather pleased with the painting until I saw the high-resolution photo images. Argh! Digital photos highlight every imperfection. Well, to the naked eye, at least, they look pretty good. 

The starter set includes a Primaris Lieutenant and a squad of Assault Incercessors. 

The Necron lineup, meanwhile, consists of a Royal Warden (the bigger guy in the center), three Canoptek Scarab Swarms, and ten Necron Warriors. 

As with the previous edition, the starter set includes a battle map and a box insert that doubles as a terrain piece. It's a fast, easy way to create cool-looking, multi-level battlefields!

Here's the Lieutenant in a showdown against the Royal Warden.

My favorite aspect of any of these miniatures is the Lieutenant's awesome shield!

9th Edition does have some cool new units like the Hammerfall Bunker, but I don't have immediate plans for any more models. The boys and I are already hard-pressed for time to play our regular RPG campaigns, so wargames have taken a backseat over the past year or so.

Dare We Take the Plunge?

As I had scheduled a little time off to spend with the boys during their last week of summer vacation, I thought it would be fun for us to get into a big, meaty new game. My first though was Blackstone Fortress, a cooperative dungeon-crawler set in the world of Warhammer 40k. Even if we didn't enjoy the game, we'd get a lot of use out of the minis, whether for 40k itself or for our futuristic Shattered Realm campaign. Alas, the supply chain gods did not smile upon us, as it appeared that the game would not arrive at our remote desert outpost until after I was back at work and the kids were back in school. 

Fallback plan? Gloomhaven. I've been reluctant to take the plunge despite the overwhelming number of great reviews. I'm not sure why. I do love coop board/strategy games, and this one features a legacy system (i.e., players' choices in and between scenarios impact how the game's narrative unfolds over course of the campaign), which should be right up my alley. Maybe I'll be more excited once I see the box -- it's quite a box, as I understand it.

New Edition...

Warhammer 40,000 has a new website, and soon also a new edition. One of the most frustrating aspects of this game (and its parent company) is the constant churn of editions. You buy a bunch of books and then, before you know it, they're all outdated. With the current (for now) 8th Edition, at least the core rules are free. From what I can tell, the rules for the upcoming 9th Edition will also be free, and codexes from the current edition will be compatible with the new one. That's a relief, but the FAQ also states that new codexes will be released for each faction, so only time will tell exactly how useful our current books will be. 

Quarantine Fun

We're trying to do our part with social distancing during these challenging times, and fortunately we have plenty of options. Over the weekend, the boys and I made more progress on our sci-fi Shattered Realm campaign, continued painting 40k models (some of which will be repurposed for the aforementioned campaign), and even got to jump back into our transcontinental, Skye-based Saltmarsh campaign with Matt's family!

Now that all the boys' extracurricular activities have been cancelled, we're been looking around for fun, educational stuff that they can do at home during the week. I have a fiendishly awesome idea...more to come in a future post...

Paint Pals

As I've been chipping away at the Adepta Sororitas painting in the afternoons when I get home from work, Nathaniel has taken to joining me. With Matthew at swim practice, it's a good opportunity for me and the little guy to bond over our shared love of 40k.

Nathaniel is proud of his improving skills, and it makes me smile to hear him chattering away about which color would look good for a particular part of the model, or how he might add a layer or wash to bring out more nuance to his work. We sit up there for hours together in the game room, plying our brushes and grooving to non-stop Fountains of Wayne. Life is good!

Contemplating Convents

As I'm working diligently on painting on my small force of Adepta Sororitas troops, I got to thinking: They need a place to live, right...?

Adepta Sororitas

I think I need to start working on a new army...

Holiday Game Action

The boys and I wrapped up another thoroughly entertaining adventure with our Toronto crew yesterday, but it was the only D&D we've played in quite a while (aside from a brief Shattered Realm episode that I managed to shoehorn into one weekend morning). With all the kids' activities, it seems to be getting harder to find the time to roll dice. Progress on our main Shattered Realm campaign is pretty damn slow, and other D&D stuff we'd like to do -- an Eberron mini-campaign is probably at the top of the list -- seems like it will be tough to pull off.

I'm looking forward to the holidays, as it will give us an opportunity to spend time together and have fun. When the kids aren't playing Xbox with their cousins, we'll dig into some of their gaming-related Christmas stuff. I'll have numerous units to assemble for the Tanks miniatures game, as both boys are now quite interested in twentieth-century military history. On that score, Nathaniel will also be getting a couple of Axis & Allies games. (I only remember the classic -- apparently now there's a whole slew of related titles.) It wouldn't be Christmas for Nathaniel without something 40k, however, so he's also getting the Space Marines codex and the Ultramarines codex supplement. We aren't playing 40k very much these days -- it's hard to find time to play anything -- but he enjoys poring over game rules, coming up with optimized units, playing through solo games, etc. Matthew, meanwhile, is more interested in Xbox than tabletop stuff, but he did ask for a 40k model in addition to the aforementioned tanks. He's going to use the model as a vehicle for his futuristic Shattered Realm hero, so it will be fun to build and paint it together.

Speaking of painting, one of the coolest gifts the kids are getting are their own customized miniatures from Hero Forge. Matthew designed Kai, his sniper from the sci-fi Shattered Realm (and the one who will be riding around in the 40k vehicle), and Nathaniel opted for Demorus, his original Shattered Realm ranger. I'm looking forward to painting the minis and helping bring those characters to life!

Aeronautica Models

I've finished building the models in the starter set for Aeronautica Imperialis, the new 40k game that simulates aerial dogfight combat. The set includes two Thunderbolt fighters and two Marauders bombers for the Imperial Navy, along with three Dakkajets and two Fighta Bommerz for the Orks. Tomorrow I'll prime them, and then chip away at the basecoating throughout the week. I picked up some great new paints at the GW store this afternoon, so I think these little guys should come out looking pretty spiffy.

Here's one of the Thunderbolts, built as a "Fury" variant with some heavier guns up front.

And now here's the same model alongside a Stormhawk Interceptor, which is at the standard 40k vehicle scale. These Aeronautica models are tiny indeed!

Watch the Skies!

There's a new website for Aeronautica Imperialis. Between this game and the upcoming release of the Adepta Sororitas army, it seems that Games Workshop is going to be getting a lot of my money this fall!