Friday Rucht Hour: Challenge Accepted

Not long ago (about half an hour ago, actually) I just read Mik's throwing down of the gauntlet. So, here's my taking up of it. Friday Rucht Hour on Friday.

In my earlier post, I showed off some minis and gave a quick and dirty battle report. However, now I'd like to take some time to just showcase the Lair of the Astromancer. We saw it a little bit in the after action report, but I'd like to do a more proper review of it here.

Overall, I was pretty pleased with this product. It is quite pricey, weighing in at 80 dollar and change. Also, it is a Games Workshop product, and there are people who are opposed to buying their products.

The model itself is mainly two large pieces which you glue together. Now, Caveat Emptor, the two pieces of this terrain model did not match up perfectly evenly. More on that below. The top of the tiled roof is in two pieces. The observatory and the tower on which is rests much be assembled as well. If you wish, you can leave the observatory dome off and put on a parapet. Or, like myself, assemble both and switch them out as needed. I haven't assembled the parapet yet.

Pros: 

• The model is basically one very large piece which is quite solid. You can transport it easily by just picking it up with one hand. It won't fall apart on you.
• The terrain piece is fully three-dimensional and meant to be appreciated that way. What I mean by that is there is no "front" to the terrain. As you can see from the pics above, you could place it with the walk way out front or the skull stone out front. It truly is meant to be appreciated from all sides.

Cons:

• It's 83+ dollars. 
• Here's my biggest problem with it. The hard plastic material that it's made from. The plastic mold that came in the box did not match up, leaving a gap in the mountain. I'll have to fill it in with putty. What's more - putting the plastic in boiling water did not seem to make the model bend so that I could get both pieces flush. After all is said and done, I was okay with it, because it's a problem that can be remedied. However, it's definitely a problem some would find egregious. 

WFRP; the F is for FATE

a fighter, a halfling, a priest, and an archer walk into a bar...

With two sessions under our belts I'm a bit late to posting about our recent roleplaying endeavor; FATE rules in the world of Warhammer Fantasy. The more and more I think about it, the Warhammer Fantasy world is my ideal stomping grounds for a setting. It's got magic, but on the PC side of the table it's very limited and keeps its mysticality quite well.

The fantasy staples and tropes are all in there with extra spice thrown in with a few setting-specific details. The world in and of itself is definitely gritty and definitely dark and sinister, so there's lots of room for intrigue and gray areas.

Using FATE under the hood, well that's just icing on the cake. There's a few systems out there I've played lately that appeal to me, but FATE is near the top of the list. We're using the Swords of Algiers sourcebook (do you see what I did there?) which just helps to expand on all the wonderful fantasy goodness within.

The party above is a good mix starting with the Kislevite on the far left, a "veteran of a thousand battles" type soldier who is slowly coming around from being a mere sellsword to a defender of the weak. Next to him is my character, a sneaky spy/thief who talks and eats rather than fights. The fellow in the brown robes is our Priest of Sigmar with the distinction that he goes way beyond giving sermons and has legitimate divine healing powers. Lastly, on the far right, is the party's archer (and capable swordsman), an ex-military scout forced on the run due to a series of false accusations and a misunderstanding concerning the death of a nobleman's son.

These four are in the employ of a shadowy benefactor that sends them on covert missions presumably for the well being of their home, the city of Altdorf. Their secrets and skeletons in the closet are safe as long as they are able to keep delivering on their tasks.

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!

Dwarf Ranger

Huzzah, an actual mini for Mik's Minis in 2010! I had said I had a fig on my work desk that just needed basing, and well here he is. I had picked up some of Gale Force 9's snow flock a couple of weeks ago to use for my Viking project, so I thought I'd try it out. I know you can use detergent or whatever, but it was kind of an impulse buy.

Since we actually have had some snow, a rare thing around here, I thought I'd combine the two. Indoors, when I applied the GF9 to the fig's base I wasn't too thrilled, it looked like he was standing in salt, but looking at these pics, it's identical to real snow.


The fig itself is from the defunct Rackham metal line and was one of the Tir-Na-Bor Dwarves. This fig, like the others, is nothing short of amazing. The detail and style put into these is great and I hope my meager paint job can convey this and do the fig justice. Simply put, it was a fun figure to paint, and kind of hard to screw up when you're done because it already looks so good!


It was tricky to paint much so green but in different shades...

The title says 'Dwarf Ranger' and thanks to the massive slab of a sword, made from a precious green stone, I went with the name 'Jade'. There's a backstory about Dwarves named Jade carrying around large, 'final fantasy' style swords in my book that goes way back, but I'll spare you the details. Anyway, I whipped this character up as part of a Savage Worlds game we played, set in the world of Warhammer Fantasy.

It's really two great tastes that go great together. The richly detailed world of Warhammer Fantasy gives players and GMs a lot of room to kick around in, then add a great system like Savage Worlds and you've got a pretty sweet setup. We only played the one game, but I'm hoping for more, especially since I painted up a fig for it! Also, since it's the Warhammer world, there's a hint of a plot twist that the sword might actually contain a vein or two of Warpstone...

Games Day 2010 Miniature Revealed

Here's a first look at the 2010 Games Day miniature

"The 2010 Games Day miniature is a wonderful Warhammer Chaos Sorcerer sculpted by Dave Thomas. Resplendent with tentacles, skulls and a book of forbidden lore, it oozes character." -Games Wokshop

The Beards are Back!

The Dwarf Throng

The absolute pièce de résistance of all the new loot I have recently assimilated has got to be, hands down, this very large Dwarf army for Warhammer Fantasy. You may recall from a while back, we had wanted to kick of a WHFB game, but it fell kind of flat unfortunately. Well, since this has fallen in my lap, I'm going to do something with, even if it's nothing besides just completing it. Now to actually game with it...that'd be great.


Slayers

This army, what parts are finished, was very well painted by Marc, you can tell he really took his time. Slayers have always been some of my favorites, and here we've got a block of about twenty. If you add in some Rackham Plains Dwarves, including a musician and standard bearer, I might be able to get it up to twenty five strong.


Bugman's Rangers

This unit rocks, plain and simple. You can still get their brewing leader, Josef Bugman, but I don't think his Rangers are available any more, making them extra cool. The pics don't do these justice, those banners are made from balsa wood and attached using twine to look like ropes. These guys will see tabletop action all the time.


Miners

No, they're not under eighteen years old, they dig in the Earth for gems and metals. This unit of metal Miners have a lot of character to them and an almost cartoony, Rankin Bass kind of look to them. I don't know much about their abilities and effectiveness.


Hammer Time

This unit of Dwarf Hammerers will eventually bear a Dwarf King Alric in the front ranks, the model of this king riding atop a shield carried by two bodyguards is too cool to pass up. Again, all metal models, there wasn't a plastic one in the whole lot.


Slayer King and Master Engineer


Old versions of the Anvil of Doom and the Throne of Power


Rare choices; the Flame Cannon and Gyrocopter

A battery of three cannons with crew and a bolt thrower

I add to all of the above my one unit of Dwarf Warriors and an unfinished (but assembled) unit of Quarrelers. I also have a couple boxes of Ironbreakers laying around too, but I need one more box of command for them. As you can tell, I'm in dire need of core troop choices though, especially if I want to field all those cannons!

I also have a ton of Rackham Dwarves I picked up on clearance a while back. As you know, these are great sculpts and hard to come by nowadays. I don't know how they'll fit into the above army, but using them in roles such as Thanes and Runesmiths seems likely. They're too nice to sell off or let collect dust though.

So, this all is exciting news, but does bring up a conundrum; I'm not going to be able to do both a Traitor Guard army and a Dwarf army, even if given the next year or two. I am so close to having a proper WHFB army, I need to put my focus and energy in that department. I already have not one, but two proper 40k armies, it'd be a shame to start a third one when I have all these great looking Dwarves laying around. Dwarves 1, Traitor Guard 0.

WHFB Incoming: Chaos and Dark Elves

The Dark Elves

Hot on the heels of making more room for new stuff (and the additional five Blood Bowl teams) the miniatures keep on coming. Here I'll detail two Warhammer armies I also picked up from my buddy Marc. They're not completely painted, but that doesn't matter too terribly much. As cool as it is to add these to the collection, for the time being I've simply inventoried them, and boxed them up together in cold storage.

A rough look-through shows units of Witch Elves, Swordsmen, Corsairs, Crossbowmen, Harpies, and some guys with big axes (Executioners?). There's also a pair of Bolt Throwers with crew, a unit of six Cold Ones, and a whole slew of heroes on critters. These include two Witch Elf looking characters, one on a Cockatrice, the other on a Night Mare. There's also a stout looking general on a Griffin (don't know if that's still legal) and finally, a good ole dragon rounds out the army. All in all, a good sized force.



Chaos Warriors

There's also a starter Chaos Warriors army in the mix. There's not a lot to go on here, but it's a good foot in the door at least. In the back is an army general riding atop a large, two headed dragon. It will require some work, but it's pretty impressive looking, even for an older model. There's also a six strong unit of Chaos Knights, who back in the day seemed to hit pretty hard if memory serves. Last is my favorite of the bunch, it's a very old Bloodthirster of Khorne, this one has a giant dog's face wearing a large, spiked pickelhaube helmet. It's old, sure, but it exudes nothing but character, I'll have to do it justice.

This Week in Pictures

Chain Halberd!

I had to do some heavy duty trimming of some pine trees that were entangling some of my lines. So not only did I get to irresponsibly use wacky power tools, but it looked just like a chainsword-on-a-stick. I thought that was a pretty cool feature, I don't know if the neighbors I borrowed it from did or not.


Me and a Jedi chick at Free Comic Book Day


Captain Rex meets Captain Chica

I've mentioned my wife a couple of times before, especially when talking about all the square footage she has so graciously given over to my geek pursuits. She's not a gamer wife though, so it was too good to pass on incriminating photos of her geeking it up.




After this was taken my wife enacted Order 66


No, it's not me with a close shave, haha. Digging up pics online to link in a post from earlier this week I ran across this one. It wasn't what I needed at the time, so I didn't use it, but I thought it was way too cool to pass up anyway. This guy's whipped up an excellent Priest of Sigmar outfit that looks very convincing.


Reduce, reuse, recycle...and RAVAGE!

Here's a sneak peek of a SuperSystem team I have on the backburner. After looking at this pic, I'm tempted to just dip them and base them and call it a day. No, that would be too easy, I may have to give these guys their proper due and actually paint them up. Obviously this will be a nature themed super team with a hefty mix of brawlers, bricks, flyers, speedsters, and the like. Most of these are just old Mage Knight figs I had laying around, with the exception being an old GW Treeman, and a Heroclix unique Wasp. My cost here is basically zero since all of these were just lying around my odds and ends.

Jon's New Hobby

Ah yes, to see such an array as above really warms the heart, haha. I've mentioned Jon a couple times before in the posts about gearing up for some Warhammer Fantasy, he's the rpg gamer who got hit on the head and woke up one day deciding to try his hand at minis. Well, it looks like he's gone and got himself outfitted now to fully dive headlong into miniature gaming. He's got a varied palette of craft paints, which work just as well as the more expensive 'official' paints, a great hobby lamp, glues, epoxies, brushes, clippers, and of course the minis themselves; a bunch o' Wood Elves. Pics of people's work areas are always popular, so I thought I'd post his here. Rock on...

WIP: Dwarves

Warhammer Work Night

The one problem with all of these cool new, multi-piece plastic kits from GW is all the freakin' parts! Well, those on board (so far!) with our upcoming WHFB venture were present and we spent the night hanging out and putting together everything. Ray had a good idea to keep us on pace and not feel overwhelmed; first off is the 'buy and paint only one unit at a time' thing. It's much easier to paint an army when you're not staring at nine pounds of unpainted stuff, just a single box o' troops. Secondly, and I don't know how well this will work, but it's an awesome idea...for every unit painted, you're also obligated to do one piece of terrain. Too often the tables are bare or have after-thought, secondhand terrain, so I like this idea a lot. Above is a work-in-progress shot of my little corner of the table. Basically my night consisted of clipping, trimming, and gluing


Here's a shot of the fruits of our labor. Ray has chosen to go with a Vampire Counts army, his unit of skeletons (already finished, darn him!) is on the left. In the back are Eternal Guard, the foundation of Jon's Wood Elf army, and on the left is my unit of Dwarves. I wanted a full unit of twenty, so you can see I supplemented the sixteen plastic GW models with four metal Reaper figs. I should go outside and primer them, but I'm not feeling it right now, heh.


I built these forever ago. They're made with plaster Hirst Arts bricks which I highly recommend. One's a chapel and one's a squat watchtower (perfect for Dwarves). I still need to cut some roof tiles for the chapel, and obviously paint them. Once done though, I think these will be right at home on a WHFB tabletop, even though they were made originally for Warmachine.


The new GW trees kit is pretty flippin' nifty.


GW's Fortified Manor is absolutely gorgeous, it's a blurry shot, but I was trying to get a pic of Ray's new Necromancer galloping by...