LEGO Thursday: Giant Green Dragon!

A bit of shenanigans during a mid-game break...

Updates 'n Such

Thanks to Lego Thursdays, I know there will be a post a week at the very least from me, however I'm used to having a post a day (or two). I have been quiet relatively speaking here and the pic above may indicate as to why.

You know my video gaming habits, I wait at least a year to play a title, that way it's a fraction the cost and there's enough reviews out there for me to make sure I'm not wasting time or money. I loved the first Assassin's Creed game though it was a bit repetitive. When the sequel came out, whoa, that took that ball and improved it by tenfold. Well I just played, devoured, and finished up the mini-sequel to Assassin's Creed II, Assassin's Creed Brotherhood.

The sequel was better than the original, this follow-up was equally better than its predecessor. This is a good game, a fully interactive Rome is at your fingertips with a framework of a clever storyline and plot twists galore. It has a great voice cast, the gameplay is spot on, and it's visually stunning. I was immersed in it and before I knew it the game was over, but it wasn't short by any means. Frankly I left a lot of the side missions by the wayside, I could keep playing this one for a while, but I had bigger fish to fry.


Red Dead Redemption has everything Assassin's Creed has, but more of it. Oh, and you're a cowboy. There are times riding around on your horse you just stop and look around at the scenery, which has been beautifully captured and rendered. It is the most open world experience you can play without the uninteresting modern world of thieving autos in a grand fashion (though both games are made by the same folks).

I picked the above pic because currently in the game I'm trying to collect some cougar skins and they keep eating me alive! Plus, that's not a rendered image, but an in-game shot. This is a hard game to talk about, if you know about the game, you've already played it. If you've already played it, you know how awesome it is. I'm a bit let down as to the time period because it's fairly modern, 1910, I would have much more preferred a pre-electricity cowboy timeline. I also think they missed an opportunity with the weapons and could have named them for the actual historical firearms that they were, not just saying "Cattleman's revolver", "repeating rifle", and the like. This of course is nitpicking an otherwise flawless game.


It's not all videogames however. As you know we play a monthly Deathwatch game, it just started up actually. But we also game on a weekly basis with a slightly different group of players and mostly it's miniatures or boardgames. Every now and then the pendulum swings to roleplaying games however.

We're going to play a fantasy RPG using one of my favorite set of rules, the FATE system. Something we've done a lot with in the past. Within this framework we're going to use the Warhammer world as the setting.

This is a fairly old and well established setting, it's been around longer than you think. We're going to play something similar to 40k Dark Heresy agents, set within the human-centric Empire. As you can see from the borrowed pic on the left, I'll be playing a Halfling "entrepreneur" roguish type.

Thanks to the character creation session we had last night, I've got a lot of great hooks and background tidbits to work with. That's the good thing about FATE, everyone plays off of the input and idea of the group.

Well, that's about it for a quick update. I didn't even mention the new Blood Bowl team I've started playing!

Garden Update: Mid-June

Heya, it's Father's Day as I type this, though it's not going to post 'til about week later. That's the way I roll, I queue up posts and stuff yo. Anyway I was poking around in the garden today, keeping everything in order and had to snap some pics.

The garden's doing great, everything has not only bounced back since the hailstorm in April, but most of it is growing with a vengeance! There are a couple of plants that haven't really taken off, but everyone else is making up for it.

Strawberries are blooming...

First cucumber sighting...

Cayenne peppers are coming in...

Jalapeños, regular variety...

Jalapeño Gigantes, and they are already living up to their name...


I have good-sized hands, I can palm a regulation basketball (not bad for a short guy) and as you can see here, these are some seriously stout jalapeños. These are the gigante variety, and frankly I could've left them on the plant for a bit longer, but we're cooking burgers tonight and it would be nice to slice these up as toppings. First harvest of the season!

Hot Banana Peppers...

Red Bell Pepper (left) and Pablano Pepper (right)

My two tomato plants and squash on the far right...

My squash is freaking out of control! I have a high back deck too...

In fact, this is it growing through the underside of the deck!


These are my two "accidental" heirloom tomato plants. Last year I had 'maters growing up until November, most were scrawny by then and I just let them go. They fell to the dirt, rotted, and dried up, but they left their seeds behind and just like in Jurassic Park, life finds a way.

Here you can see last year's 'maters growing through the slats

The view of the garden from the top of the deck...

LEGO Thursday: More Liberators of Shadowdale

Well here we are with the first of many, many "LEGO Thursdays". No, seriously, I've got them queued up, quite literally, until two days before the new year. For the most part, you'll be seeing RPG stuff and the like, because LEGO figs make the best adventuring parties, hands down, accept no substitutes.

I had to say "more" in the title only because some of these Forgotten Realms heroes have made an appearance here before. Some of the party has stayed the same at this point, just a costume change here and there, and some of the adventurers are later additions as characters retire or die off and new party members sign on.


Plucky Halfling Wizard!


Solemn Human Cleric from Lands Across the Sea!


Dashing Human Druid!


Gnome Inventor and Wizard!


Slinging spells, hurling insults, and throwing monkeys!

Deathwatch Techmarine WIP

Necessity being the mother of invention I had to whip up a servo-arm for my old-school techmarine. Also, my own Barter Bucket failed me and the part I thought would've been here by now never made it. As I type this up our Deathwatch game is tomorrow night, and this is the last trooper of the bunch I need to crank out.


After reading a post of Mike's a while back at Constantly Risking Obscurity, I saw there were a couple of kit-bashed servo-armed figs. I had asked and it seemed like old Mage Knight bits were used in part to make the packs.


I have a shoebox full of Mage Knight figs, but only a few of the figures that make up the 'steam punk' faction. I did have an robot-mecha thing with some cool arms that might work, but first I had to hack away the giant buzz saw blade.


As you can see I also clipped and used a LEGO piece for the pincer hand itself. In the end I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, the arm looks nimble and robust at the same time, and I absolutely love the way the ball-joint seems to mesh so naturally into the back pack. Speaking of the backpack, it was just a plain pack and I added an extra "techmarine-esque" doo-hickey on the back of it. Next up is to paint him, in one night apparently. He's technically from the Black Templars chapter, but there's really no place convenient I can show that. All right, it's time to get cracking, err, in about ten hours.

Deathwatch Marines: Specialists

Today we have two more Deathwatch characters. This time around is an Ultramarines Librarian and a Dark Angels Devastator marine. The latter is armed with an ambiguous "heavy weapon" and the former has a psychically enhanced force weapon (sword).


I used a Black Templars backpack for the librarian because it had a thick tome chained to it, I figured it fir his theme. The Dark Angel was a whole bunch of trimming and ad-hoc'ing with various bits and pieces. Hey, I used "ad hoc" as a verb!


I have no idea where I got the Ultramarine's bolter from, but I love it. It's got an extra large casing, and a scope with 'doohickey' wires. I used an Ultramarine decal on the librarian and an embossed icon for the Dark Angel. Funny thing though, the librarian was supposed to be a Blood Angle marine! Oh well...


Regular and Dark Angel-specific Deathwatch ceremonial pads


The librarian was killing me. I wanted to give him glowing eyes to represent "raw psyker power" and I wanted his honkin' big force sword to glow in a similar manner to match. I used a mix of wet-blending and dry-brushing on the sword and I'm fairly happy with how it turned out, it does look a bit better in person. The eyes, I dunno, I'm not happy with them but I kept redoing them so much I got kind of over it. Did I mention I did the wrong chapter?


Hmm, I am torn on this one. I went with a new style and I wanted to basically make him look un-40k, and un-space marine. I think I accomplished that, however now that he's "un" those things, I don't know if I like it or not. The player this figure is for isn't a tabletop gamer, nor is he all that knowledgeable in the 40k universe, so it doesn't matter, it's a "cool figure with a big gun" in the end.

Deathwatch Marines: Sons of Minos

For our recent Deathwatch roleplaying game I whipped up player characters for five of the six people at the table, myself included of course. We had a great mix of chapters and specialist roles, so it made painting them up fun. In this post I've got my Sons of Minos tactical marine and Biscuit's Sons of Minos apothecary.


The Sons of Minos, in similar fashion to the Dark Angels and other chapters, prefer to wear monastic-type robes. The rest of their armor and equipment are repainted in typical Deathwatch black. This includes most of the apothecary's equipment including his helmet. You can see here the tactical marine has an older MkV backpack.


Deathwatch ceremonial shoulder pads


I know I've said this before, but John over at Santa Cruz Warhammer really came through on the shoulder pads. Painted up these look great and really capture the feel I was looking for when I came up with the idea for the chapter.


The older MkV armor here has been stained beyond cleansing from past actions. This was a result on the archaic armors charts found in Rites of Battle. You can also see here where the eyes of all Sons of Minos marines glow a dark red.


Biscuit's apothecary got a bit more paint tweaking after I took these pics. It's amazing all the little screw-ups you don't notice until after the photo's been taken. This was a fun model to paint and I wanted to change it up and keep him predominantly black instead of adding in a lot of white parts. I also like the model because of the big ole, scoped bolter hanging on his hip, which just looks cool. For both of these models I used Dark Angels robed bodies mixed in with parts from the command squad boxed set.

Happy Father's Day, 2011

It's that time of the year again, here's a 'huzzah' to all the fathers out there...

Phase Two of Deathwatch Tonight

As you can see, I spent a grueling afternoon preparing for the second phase of my roleplaying group's Deathwatch campaign. Phase one of Deathwatch consisted of us carousing around as everyone's favorite power armored super-giants using the FATE system of rules. It was a great fit, and we played four sessions and wrapped up with a very episodic, season finale style cliffhanger.

Well the sun has set on those heroes, that storyline, the GM, and those rules.

We made characters a while back, which is why I had posted all of that background information on my Sons of Minos chapter. This evening we launch the first game of phase two. We'll be using the core rules by Fantasy Flight, Andy is stepping into the player's circle while T-Bone is going to take over GM duties.

I'm pretty excited about the launch of a new roleplaying campaign. We get in lots of other kinds of games; board, tabletop, minis, etc. but launching an RPG campaign is a big deal and only happens a couple of times per year, tops. Sure, we've busted out a handful of one-shot Fiasco games, which is a very fun game, but this is different.

Dirtside in seven hours!

Surprisingly Old, Surprisingly Good; Empire Builder

The other night we played Empire Builder, a build your rails across America and haul freight kind of game. I could tell it wasn't the newest game out there, something about its components and what-not, but when I went to log my game however I saw Empire Builder's date was 1980! For an older game, it was pretty good, for a thirty-one year old game, I was blown away. Also, given its date it's got to be the first "train game" of the modern age.


A lot of the same premises apply that you might find in, say, Ticket to Ride, but it's much more in-depth. You're dealt cards and they give you destination cities and what commodity that city is looking for. Get the commodity to the destination, and you get money. However, you have to get the commodity from its point of origin, which is usually far away, and everything's gotta be connected by rails to boot, which costs money to build.

The winner of the game is the first to hit a prescribed amount, usually 200-250 million bucks, with destination deliveries giving you anywhere from 5-40 million bucks per completion. Buying train tracks costs different amount if you're going through mountains, crossing rivers, going into cities, and the like. Plus, you can upgrade your locomotives to haul more freight and run faster, the whole "spend money to make money" fits like a glove.

Empire Builder only shows its age in components, the rules and gameplay hold their own to today's standards quite easily. It was fun and didn't take too long to get the hang of things. Getting the right routes and building the right rails was the biggest trick, but that's the whole crux of the game. Now I'm not going to run out and replace Ticket to Ride, which is much more accessible across a wider audience, but I'll play it again for sure.

Welcome to LEGO Thursdays

I would say 'welcome' but with the title that's a tad redundant. It occurred to me until recently that a LEGO gallery site, Brickshelf, I had been using before I started Mik's Minis still had some of my older content.

I don't have a ton of MOCs there, but enough to say, "Hmm, those should be here." So I went to the old laptop, grabbed the old photos, and they'll be resurrected in a new weekly feature.

I picked Thursday because, A) there's four letters in "LEGO", and Thursday is the fourth day, B) Thursday was the night that Seinfeld came on before it went into syndication and that was an awesome show, and C) I don't really have a 'C' because there's no alliteration with the word LEGO. I'll post at 6:16pm too, because that is today's date.

Off the bat we'll start with those files that were originally at Brickshelf, which I won't even bother posting the link to since they'll now be here safe and snug. Hopefully that'll be good for a few months worth (at one per week, sure) and maybe, just maybe, it'll inspire me to crank out new LEGO content for the future.

Of course, since Mik's Minis started, a lot of my LEGO stuff can be conveniently found under the LEGO label right here. For any kind of gamer, from roleplaying to miniatures gaming, there's a LEGO option for you. Just build it!

Mik the Blitzing Thunderhoof

It's not every day that you get professional-level, animated portraits of yourself in all kinds of different gaming genres. Or, if you're like me and are buddies with just such a person, you may. I can safely say however that there's probably not too many people in the world that have been caricatured as Chaos Dwarf Bull Centaurs!

A few days ago Bi3cuit whipped up a new Blood Bowl themed banner for the Minions of the Monster Master blog. As always, it ain't too shabby, and as I've already said...I'm a friggin' Bull Centaur! Oh yeah, bonus profile pic too! To date:

Mik as a Bolter-wielding Holiday Elf!

Mik as a veteran Mouse Guard adventurer!

Mik's Mouse Guard veteran disguised as Ash!

Mik in HALO-style power armor!

Mik as an Inquisitorial adept agent!


...and of course, one of my favorites. My "almost" zombie survivor portrait!

Lion vs. Tuna

I saw The Other Guys the, ahem, other day. It was a clever buddy-cop movie, nothing spectacular, largely forgettable, but it did have its moments. Anyway, this scene was probably one of the funniest of the whole movie, so if you don't feel like sitting through the whole thing, I've just saved you the trouble! Enjoy!

The Games of CabinCon V

More follow-up here. Above is the hoard of games that made it to the cabin, I think this is all of the boardgames. There was also a Wii and an XBox 360, but those were ancillary. Below is what we actually did play, followed by the games I personally played in parentheses. I always keep a loose track of what's being played, besides, this stuff is always fun to track over on Boardgamegeek.com. On to the games:

7 Wonders= 5 (1)
Forbidden Island= 2 (2)
Ascension= 4 (1)
Martians!!!= 1 (1)
Settlers of Catan= 1
SoC: Cities and Knights= 1 (1)
SoC: Trails to Rails= 1
Race for the Galaxy= 2 (2)
RftG: The Gathering Storm= 4 (4)
Agricola= 2
Thunderstone= 3(1)
TStone: Wrath of the Elements= 2
Who Would Win?= 2 (2)
Total Games Played= 30 (15)

We ended the cabin on a high-larious note with a couple of games of Who Would Win?. This "debate" game that is an absolute blast. Basically you have a have a deck of cards that has real and fictional people in it, two people get one card each. Then you have a deck of activities, occupations, and the like, it's flipped over and the debate begins. You have about twenty seconds (timer is included) to plead your case to your friends as to why your character/person/historical figure would win at said event. We had some great matchups, such as King Kong vs. John F. Kennedy in art and Pokemon vs. Mahatma Ghandi in cooking. Of course I thought I had the best card when I drew Stephen Hawking vs. Cleopatra...until the event was lifeguarding! Winners and losers are determined by your peer group around the room. This game is the living embodiment of what it is to be a party game.


This Settlers of Catan variant, Trails to Rails, looked pretty cool. The board was massive, much larger than it looks here. Most of the same tenants and mechanics apply, but since I sat this one out I don't know exactly what all of the differences are.


Since I recently paid good money for Thunderstone and the first expansion, I'd like to say that it was a big hit. I don't know about "big", but it was played five times. I think part of this is because of ease of set up, and once you have the basics down it's a very easy game to play. Plus it helps that the basics aren't overly complex. I asked some of the folks their impressions and a couple of them just loved the game, a couple of others were kind of 'meh' on the issue. Having played it myself now many times I can see where its got legs, especially in a low-game environment. You'd have to dedicate playing time to it, but that's really like all games. I think it is best served as one of the primary games of a given group for a while, less so as a 'pick up' off the shelf game.


Now I did get in a game of Catan, but it was my favorite of the expansions; Cities and Knights. It's a totally different game, and I loved it. I don't know why I don't own it myself (well I do, money!) but I'd like to add a copy to the collection some day. If you've played Catan then you're probably familiar with all the expansions, and if you don't own Cities and Knights, pick it up, you won't be disappointed. Now if you don't own just the base game...go! Get it!


If you follow boardgame circles, you'll hear the name Agricola pop up, and often. No, it's not pronounced like a soft drink, but like a Roman name. Anyway, Agricola is a powerhouse of a game, with about a hundred different strategies and techniques to win. You want theme? You're a friggin' medieval farmer trying to support your growing family, come on! This game is awesome. I was surprised that there were four people at the cabin who hadn't played it, so I stepped aside and let them have at it. I think there's now four new converts.


Ah, speaking of good game, we're here looking at 7 Wonders. It's a good game, and accessible by gamer and non-gamer alike. It "learns" fast and has lots of replay value, it's a solid addition to the shelf and can be broken out even during the holidays with that brother-in-law who always looks down at you and your 'toy soldier' hobby. For me, I'm personally not quite as enamored with the game as everyone else seems to be. It's good mind you, but I'm not racing out anytime soon to pick it up. Haha, what a segue...and a pun!


I have a new favorite game, and it's called Race for the Galaxy. I will be racing out to buy this one, probably in a day or two actually. Race for the Galaxy has got it all, theme, gameplay, mechanics, style, the works. As an interesting side note I never even came close to winning, not once, but I still had a blast every single time I played. I love, love, love this game. Each turn has phases, and you're plopping down planets that produce goods, or you have robots that help you settle more planets, or you have an uplifted alien species to help acquire targets militarily. So many different ways to win, different strategies to try. Somebody should send a copy to Mik's Minis so you have good blogging karma for centuries to come. I will immortalize you with praise and song!


Martians!!! isn't the most finely tuned engine under the hood, but it is fun nonetheless. The conclusion we came to however was that this wasn't the best game considering how long it took to play and the fact that with a 20+ boardgame horde sitting just seven feet away it was too tempting to give it up and grab something else. If you are having friends over with the express purpose to play this one game for the course of the evening, you're golden. It's random and light-hearted and makes for a heck of a beer and pretzels game. It's lacking a little depth but you do at least get a whopping 100 Martian figs!


Good ole Catan, the regular 1995 insta-classic. I didn't play this version but only because I was in something else at the time. I've already droned on about this earlier when talking about the Cities and Knights expansion, so moving on...


I guess the deck-building game Ascension is going to wrap up this post. Theme is king here as the deck-building mechanic is kind of bland and the different strategic avenues are somewhat limited. But if you want a cool setting that involves a pantheon of gods, daemons from beyond, steam-punk monks, mechanica, druids, Elves, and more you will dig it. I see a trend developing in quick to learn and fun to play games, not a bad thing. Ascension falls into this particular niche quite nicely.

There you go, a bit of a wrap-up of the games we recently played. Enjoy!