Yes, Another Year-End Post You Must Read!

With three days remaining, I'm going to call it. The year is done. This means it's time for yet another year end post. I actually enjoy reading these kinds of posts, so I'm doing one of my own. It's good to summarize what I did and how things played out.

At the start of the year I posted my focus and predictions for 2012. Let's see how I did.

My Focus for 2012

Focus: Don't buy more models before the last batch is painted.

Actual Result: Total bust. I went nuts this year, buying into every game in sight. I have even more unpainted miniatures than I did in 2011. With two Kickstarters shipping in early 2013, a top secret project also coming in 2013, as well as all my existing unpainted lead I'm bringing into the new year, I'd say I'm screwed. Hello, my name is Jerry and I have an addiction.

Things I Wanted to Get Done in 2012

Dust Tactics: Nope. Never played that game again. But Dust Warfare released and I played three games of it and bought a few new figures to go with what I already have. Which are unpainted. See above.

Terrain: So I did make an attempt at more terrain this year. I picked up a bunch of 15mm WW2 terrain.... just in time to stop playing Flames of War and start up on 28mm Bolt Action. I'm so embarrassed. My towering genius is showing again.  I guess I can give myself a point for effort.

Warmahordes: Can I just drop this? Why do I keep talking about Warmachine and Hordes like I'll ever play it again?  Is there a pill I can take to fix this? I made a token effort then lost focus. But those Privateer Press models are soooo sweet..... maybe next year!

15mm and Skirmish Gaming: At last something I carried through on!  Hooray for me! I built up three 15mm fantasy armies, two15mm WW2 armies, and bolstered my 15mm Sci Fi forces. I even did a micro armor force. So it was a good year for going small. As for gaming, almost everything I played all year was skirmish sized.

As for other predictions I made at the start of the year, I took a few pot shots at GW because it was easy to do. In fact, I don't think I was too far off the mark, at least for my teeny tiny world of gamers. Most of my local group has sworn off 40K, and we all consider The Hobbit Game (hey they stole my title! I'm getting my IP lawyers on their asses!) to be priced out of our reach and not the game we want to play.  In the wider world, things are of course much different.

But the only world that counts is mine.  Just wanted to clue you in on that.

Things I Said Good-Bye to in 2012

In the spirit of every year-end retrospective, I'm going to look back on all games that have "died" last year. It's like when USA Today recaps all the out of shape in shape guys from the 50s who croaked during the year, only with games.

This won't take long.

Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game: This game left me breathless, especially if I tried to speak the entire proper name. I played in the Fifth Gathering in the Desert tournament in February, which was supposedly to be the last one. During this time, GW released new army books and removed the Legions of Middle Earth book from the game. Crap move.

The new books demonstrated that whoever put them together did not know the game or its players.  We got to meet new armies like the "Walkers of Rohan" for players who wanted to muster the Equinophobia-him. I am now a proud owner of an expensive Far Hard army whose main troops are the "Ball-less Warriors of Harad." There are doubtless other fancy new armies, but I couldn't bear to read more. Even worse, I bought all the books.

I could go on, but with the insane prices of buying into a new force and a new army construction that requires those expensive models to use what I have I'm confident in saying LotR SBG is dead to me.

Flames of War: It got a new edition this year. I built a new tank company for it this year. I realized I just don't like this game this year. I don't know what it is about it. It's not the scale, not even multi figures per base. I can't put my finger on it, but I don't like the game. I'm done trying to figure out why. I'm just not going to put another dime into it. I'll keep it around and maybe play an occasional game. But good-bye FoW!

Summing Up

This was an unfocused year for me. I painted a ton of stuff, played a bunch of new games. But I didn't have the "big project focus" of other years. I think, like a lot of others, the figurative death of GW games left a hole in my gaming. LotR SBG had been my go-to game for years before, and with it's demise so early in the year I drifted around searching for my next "go-to" game.

If anything,  feel like 2012 was a transitional year in gaming for me. 

As for the blog itself, I'm pretty okay with it. I kept up a good posting pace, just falling short of my goal of one post per week. I did try a few new things, like book reviews, which were a dud. I got the coveted and extremely rare Liebster Award (thanks again, Tim and Mike!) That seems to have increased traffic if not followers.

I'm excited for 2013, as I am for every new year. I wish all my blog readers the very best in the new year and every year after. I appreciate every comment and am really happy when I make contact with other gamers in the big wide world.

Merry Christmas and Thank You, Santa!

Santa was good to me this Christmas. And here I thought I had been naughty all year.

Blood Bowl Wood Elves

Blood Bowl has been a side project I've been putting off for a while. I played a game of Blood Bowl about six months ago and liked it. While I found it confusing, I did think the game is exciting and fun. So I decided to buy into the game and pick up my own team. I found a lot of different teams for sale, with some really cool character to them. I was struggling to pick one, originally leaning toward a human team of all nuns.

I was at my local game store when I found someone playing Blood Bowl with beautiful models from Greebo Miniatures. I immediately knew this was going to be my team. They are the Silvania Team, ostensibly for the Elf Ball game. I suppose they can represent a number of different teams, from Amazons to any of the Elves. Since they are supposed to be Wood Elves, that's how I'll probably play them.

While I loved the models, I hated the assembly. They were needlessly difficult to put together, with lots of microscopic bits. These are true 25mm scale, so they're not big. Now imagine having to glue a tiny hand onto an equally tiny wrist. Now imagine doing so with stubby, cigar shaped fingers.  It was hell. Then the arms kept popping off. Eventually I had to use green stuff and super glue to make things stick.  What a pain, so much so that I doubt I'll add on to this team like I originally planned.

Enough words. Here are the pictures, beginning with the full team.  Meet "The Green Glades"

So there are 13 lucky players here. I stole the name from the Blood Bowl video game, in case any one wants to point that out. I thought it worked nicely, at least until I can think of something else. I kept the colors simple. I haven't numbered any of the players, since I'm not sure how numbering sports teams "works".  I'll do it later. Here some more shots.

These are the linemen.. er linewomen. The three models in the front row were an absolute bitch to assemble.  The others required no assembly, my favorite type.

Next are two Wardancers, which are going to be blitzers for my team. As wood elves, I don't think they're going to be hurting many things on the pitch. Their crazy poses and blue ribbons make them stand out easily.

Since I understand wood elves to be about long passes and running, I have two catchers. They are both in running poses. These models have some of the worst faces of the team and I was disappointed with that. Fortunately, the faces are out of focus in these pictures!

  Lastly, here is the thrower for the team. This model is pretty cool, but top heavy from the hawk. I should probably weight the base. This model was not too bad to assemble, but the hole for the head was too shallow. So the head kept popping off. I'm sure it will happen again next time the model falls.

There you have it. Who knows when this team will ever be played. It's not like there are games of Blood Bowl breaking out all over the place around here. But I really wanted an excuse to have this team, and so all is well!

Massive Victory for GW's IP Lawyers.... Evil Copycat Empire Destroyed!

Check out this article:

Games Workshop gets someone’s book yanked from Amazon for using the term “Space Marine”

I sort of get why GW goes after these things, especially where there's huge money involved. I also get that they have to go after everything, because they can't know what might become big. But can "Spots the Space Marine" honestly be confused with the dark future of the WH40K universe? Spots the Dreadnought. Spots the Deathwing Chapter Master.  Not really.

This is lame. GW's complaint is lame. Amazon's total lack of balls is lame. The whole thing creates a perpetual lameness engine.

Well, at least everyone at GW's headquarters is breathing a little easier now. Once again the day is saved.....

Dark Age: Skarrd Warband

I've been super busy recently, and haven't had much painting time. But I've been chipping away at the Dark Age Skarrd starter box models. These are really nice models and were fun to paint. I will say that while they were simple to put together, I needed to pin everything. Without pinning, nothing would stay together as all the joins were flush. Pinning solved the problem, but I hate to do that.

Anyway, here's what I did. I came up with a suitably evil color scheme and went to work.

I've never played a game of Dark Age, so I'm not sure what all these models represent. There are two units of three models, a big bad ass, and the obvious leader. That's about all I know at this stage. I got this war band based solely on its appeal. The poses are dynamic and exciting. The models are wonderfully strange.  Here are some close ups.

These are called Harpies, as you might imagine. I'm not sure how they function in the game, but I will say they don't wear a lot of clothing.

These guys are Buzzblades, which is a funny name since they're all carrying clubs. Whatever. These models just scream "Brom" to me! If you don't know Gerald Brom, he's an artist and the game's look and feel is totally from his artwork.

Some big mook, don't remember what this one is called. He came with an option to hold his sword upright. It would make the model a storage nightmare, so I opted for this bizarre pose for practical reasons.

This is a Grafter or something like that. She sews on mechanical bits to living things. I'm assuming she's the leader. I've tried reading her rules and I'm not getting it. Maybe when I play it will make sense.

So that's it for now. I'm hoping I will like Dark Age as I love the models. If not, these are all going to become Chaos Cultists for my 40K games.

Liebster Award

 Amazingly, I have been selected for a Liebster Award.  Since receiving this award, I've signed with a talent agency and have been referring to myself in the third person. Jerry is ready for his debut.

So Jerry must give a big thanks to Mike over at Da Greenskins for nominating him. This award comes with a short to-do list. Jerry must nominate five other blogs with under 200 followers. The idea is to share the love and raise awareness for lesser-known blogs.

Time for Jerry to make his nominations. Some of these blogs have already been nominated, but there was nothing in the rules for multiple nominations.  So Jerry is going for it!

Also, Jerry will no longer refer to himself in the third person, as his 15 minutes of fame ran out while selecting his five nominations. It was fun while it lasted.


Cursed Treasures is a blog I've been reading for years. It helps that Tim is a good friend of mine. I was shocked to find the blog had under 200 followers (but is close to it). Anyway, Tim runs some great events, has interesting ideas and commentary, and of course his miniatures and terrain look great. Well worth checking out.

Delta Vector is an awesome site. The real attraction for this blog is the in-depth game reviews. He covers a ton of different games in all scales. I generally look to this blog for opinions on a new game. Good stuff here.

10-4 Miniatures is a place I've just discovered, but I've been working through the posts. Lots of nicely done battle reports on a variety of games. He really puts time into the battle reports and it shows. He is also into a lot of different games, which I enjoy reading about. I highly recommend this blog.

Scott's War-gaming is another blog I've followed for a while. Scott posts regularly, writes great battle reports, and his figures and terrain pieces are outstanding. He's usually working on an interesting project or three, and checking out his site is worth your time.

Solo Nexus is an inspiration to me. JF has solo adaptations for a lot of miniature games, RPGs, and board games. The site is also a portal to other solo gaming sites. I've read every post on this blog, and a few of them multiple times. If you think solo games are just making two player games an anti-social experience, read this blog and open your mind.

So there you have it, five quality blogs with under 200 followers. Get clicking on those links!