Year End Post

Here's my ego-centric and totally me-focused year end post!  Think of this as Cliffs Notes for my blog this year.

The High Points of 2011
The biggest highlight this year was the rebirth of this blog and the general rebirth of my miniature gaming hobby.  For about three years I was in "maintenance mode" and not doing much.  Actually I was playing World of Warcraft in all my free time.  I saved a ton of money, though.  Being "reborn" in miniatures gaming means you just lost a few bills to get caught up on everything.

A few happy things I didn't expect going into the year:

• My wife letting me take over the front room and drop a gaming table into it.  Pure win.
• Building up three 28mm WWII armies over the summer.  Gotta remember how I did that.
• Discovering a love for smaller games and non-GW games like Song of Blades and Heroes and a bunch of the THW games like Nuts!
• Not burning out by July

My top game in 2011 was still LotR SBG.  I played in the Gathering in the Desert.  I also played a lot of games over the year.  I completed 700 points of Elves for The Tale of Four LotR Gamers challenge.  I also filled out my Far Harad army from about 275pts to a full 700pt force.  Overall this game got the majority of my focus. I still enjoy LotR as much as I did when I first started playing it.

The Low Points of 2011
Nothing really was a low point.  There were a few duds this year:

• Infinity: Everyone's absolute favorite most best-est game of all time.  For three days.
• Heavy Gear: Blitz:  A classic game beloved of fans.  Starter set includes two rule books: one that advises you to ignore the other rule book included with the starter set.  That should be a sign of something.  Starter set was missing parts for three models and assembly of the other models has given me a nervous twitch.
• World War I:  At least I liked the rule books and they were on sale.

Other Thoughts
This section is here because I thought ending the post after "low points" was too abrupt.  I don't have many other thoughts.  I enjoyed the year, got in lots of games with good friends, and found my own gaming preferences.  Also, I was not maimed or diagnosed with a horrible disease.  Overall, this was a good year.

Here's looking forward to a wonderful 2012!  Thank you to everyone who has visited my blog this year.  I especially appreciate those who left comments.  I look forward to reading what people have to say.  Let's do it again next year.

Arcane Ruins -- Curses Included Free!

At long last sick and tired of piling things on top of my box of Arcane Ruins, I assembled and painted them.  They went together easily and painted up quickly.

Here are more pictures of it than you really want to look at:

I must warn you that there are special curses reserved in this box.  GW apparently included them for free.  Do you think I'm making it up?  Consider this:

• Shortly after opening the box and beginning my assembly, I knocked over a new bottle of liquid cement.  It rushed over my glass table like a Testor's Tsunami.  I dove on top of it to absorb the glue with my body, saving the arcane ruins. But my Sisters of Battle bases were melted!  Emperor preserve us!
• In the final stages, I unknowingly got paint from my fingers all over my Kindle.  I thankfully got it all scraped off and was glad to have avoided the problem --- until I found the paint all over my pants!  Noooooooo!
• The contents of the box exude a faint evil.  People left me alone while I painted.  But more importantly, long term exposure to this model sapped my intelligence.  You see while I left all the dolmens unglued for easy storage, I stupidly glued the main obelisk in place.  Now I can't store it flat.  The horror!

So what do you think?  Too many coincidences?  I think so.  Work with this set at your own peril.

Sisters of Battle Redux

The absence of faith is the mark of the weak.
The absence of faith is the mark of the heretic.
The absence of faith is the mark of damnation.
- extract from "The Stern Codex"

 I have been very fortunate to come across more Sisters of Battle at reasonable prices.  I found six blisters of Battle Sisters at the Chaos Orc's Superstore.  I have no idea how often they restock.  But I will certainly be watching for more deals.  My only complaint is that all six blisters had the same three poses.  

I added a few more models to round out the force.  This adds twenty more Sisters, bringing my grand total to a whopping thirty one models.  That's one full squad plus a minimum sized squad.  Fortunately I'm not planning to bring this up to a 1500 pt army, at least not initially.  I just love these models and have enjoyed painting them.  Here they are all together. I threw in some background stuff just to break up my desk top.

Here is a close-up shot of the Veteran Superior and a few Battle Sisters.

I picked up a Canoness and an Inquisitor model to round out the leadership needs.  I know Inquisitors are now under the Grey Knights and no longer with the Sisters of Battle.  But I don't care about what the books say anymore.  I just need stat lines.

So that does it for this update.  I've been on a roll with the Sisters of Battle between painting the models and reading the book. I was ready to put them aside for a bit.  But last week I found an excellent deal on Seraphim models on eBay.  Unbelievably, there was a "buy it now" price which was great.  So I picked them up.  Chaos Orc had three more for a great deal, but they lacked jump packs.  I was able to find those on eBay as well.  So now I have ten Seraphim that I can split into two 5 Sister teams (I have two leader models in the mix).  It was still a pricey deal at about $70, but that's half price!

One of the Sisters even came pre-painted.  Just check out this pro job:

Really?  I'm afraid so.

The former owner even puttied over the armor lines on the legs. Oh baby. Sexy. I got a good laugh out of this.  But she's going to take a bath in Simple Green today.

Faith and Fire

Faith and Fire by James Swallow

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I liked this book.  If you are a fan of 40K, particularly of the Sisters of Battle, then you should find it an enjoyable read.  If you didn't understand that last sentence, then stay away from this book.  You're going to be confused. I'm a sucker for the Sisters of Battle "fluff", and so I am the target audience for the book. 

A lot of people have criticized this book.  It had its problems, but nothing detracted from the entertainment value.  Sure, the plot is predictable and the characters a little bit lacking in depth. The story lulled in spots.  But overall it was just great fun and met all my expectations.  Check it out if you have the chance.



View all my reviews

Inquisitors, Heretics, PDF, You Name It

My friend, Tim, donated a lot of his old Void figures to me.  He has had them for years and never found a use for them.  I eyed them as generic Sci-Fi models in 28mm.  But as I looked these over, I thought they'd be right at home in 40K.  I know Tim uses Void minis for some of his Inquisitor-themed forces.  I hoped to do the same thing.

As I painted these minis, however, I started to feel like these models would make great adversaries in 40K scenario based games.  The looked just left of "Imperial standard."  So maybe they're a heretical sect of the Imperial Creed, or maybe they are a rebellious planetary defense force.  Some of the models could pass off as Inquisitors in their own right.  Maybe they've succumbed to chaos?  There's lots of cool ideas when you let go of Codex rules and force org charts!

Here are some pictures of the models.  I like red.  So you will see that in full force here.

This guy is probably the "big boss."  The two chicks reminded me of Death Cult Assassins gone wrong.  They could also pass off as "Mad Max" types.  At any rate I got to paint purple and violet hair, which was cool!

Here's the "spiritual leader" as I see him.  The dude with the big weapon was neat.  In 40K games, that might be a plasma or melta cannon style of weapon.  In other systems, like 5150, I think it qualifies as a "Big Ass Gun."

Some regular dudes shown above.  The guy with the impossibly huge sword reminded me of some sort of "champion."  I gave his armor a different color with red tie-ins to the main theme.  I figured he must be special to be able to carry a big sword.

So there's the group shot of the collection to-date.  I actually have twelve more to add to this.  But my Sisters of Battle just came in and I'm anxious to start those.  I'll return to these guys shortly.  These were a blast to paint and to think up little stories for them as I went.