Different Games - Different Mindsets

Bit of a mixed-bag post this one...


Gothic - Reinforcements
Managed to print out 3 Sword Frigates and 2 Dauntless Light Cruisers. Painting started obviously. This will remain on stick until the majority of the painting done to avoid splatter on the clear (x-wing) sticks - probably not too far away.

The idea with these is to run 2 squadrons of 3 swords providing the weapons batteries to remove shields, then the Dauntless will swoop in with the front Lances to make damage.
Should also be fairly fast in and out hopefully.
See how that works out on the table. 


Also started working on some name banners for the ships.

[a wee update 2018-12-21] New ships almost done. They now just require a little white paint dot on the engines and they're boxable... which need new ship cradles cut into the foam.

Additionally, all the ships in the fleet are getting a little more colour. i'm going the white-based yellow/green that i had previously splashed on the ordinance bombers/fighters.
All the small ships (escorts/light cruisers) are now yellow-prow'ed.  All the 'serious' ships are just getting a few panels here and there.

Still on new BFG stuff; a game buddy mentioned thunderhawk ordinance models. so i modelled some up and did some test prints.  Actually, i've since printed out all the batch but am yet to desprue them (which is fiddly and boring)... and they need bases printed.

The larger print is a 250% scale test just to check the model is ok. The smaller blobby prints are actual size. they're ridiculously small but are at least vaguely thunderhawk-esque blobbys.



Outdoors
Sydney weather at the moment is a fricken mixed bag. Storms, beating sun, torrential rains, occasional cold spells.

Despite routinely getting pummelled more that absolutely necessary the coffee plants are getting bigger. The lower, older leaves are pretty weathered (usually removed) but the tops are proving resilient enough to the climactic stupidity. Really over Sydney storms at the moment.

Hang in there guys. 



[2018-12-13]
Just an observation i made while driving home after playing BFG last night.

As gamers or game enthusiasts we often partake of several different games to various levels of fanaticism during our 'careers'. 

As i've mentioned before i tend to prefer games with Alternating Activations (aka AA)  (i.e. Epic, HGC) over UgoIgo games (i.e. BFG, WH40k).

For the non-gamers (i can only assume you're a fellow amateur coffee farmer... or lost... welcome):
Alternating Activations: The player moves one unit/model/formation and then the other player moves one unit/model/formation. The players alternate moving u/m/f until there all u/m/f have moved. This concludes the turn. Commence next turn.
UgoIgo: One player moves all their u/m/f one after the other. The other players then moves all their u/m/f. This concludes the turn. Commence next turn. 

I actually contemplated briefly what chess would be like as UgoIgo... probably very stupid. White goes first... move, move, move, checkmate... game over.

Anyway, we were playing BFG and discussing list composition and something i was wondering about at the time - due to my Epic origins - was activation count. It later occurred to me that in UgoIgo activation count (the number of separate formations or units on the table) makes far less difference (especially) in BFG, and the role it plays is far different.

This is, in hindsight, fairly obvious. My driving reverie was more about the adaptation of mindset between games, rules, mechanics etc.

In AA we sometimes use smaller/less vital units to stall to make the opponent 'play out their hand', but this is pointless in BFG. This creates a 'con' of lowering the amount of fire being used by any single unit.

When it's '...Igo' all of my ships move, shoot, launch ordinance etc. There is no need (or possibility) to stall.

In BFG you actually have a nice advantage in that a single ship can target multiple enemies.
Having multiple ships allows you more adaptable positioning, the possibility of splitting enemy fire, reducing your damage .

Bottom line, i should probably try to better 'empty the cup' and review my fleet list.

[much later 20190704:  interesting vid re early war gaming here. and funnily enough chess variants... ha!]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-seIA9tukDs

Until next time...

BFG Asteroids - a small build project

Making some asteroids for Battlefleet Gothic. 

There were a bunch of excellent celestial phenomena at the Newcastle event a few weeks ago (only saw the pic as i couldn't go) and i've been meaning to make some for a while. 

Just using up leftover material as much as possible. Three 'bases'-worth for starters.

A few steps later these have developed a bit...

After some initial assemble i hit them with some black spray paint (which pock marked the styrofoam interestingly - will leave some of it there) and then some texture paint.
The white is acrylic filler 'paint', making some pocked areas smooth and smooth areas rougher. Mainly covering construction holes, rough joins, glue patches and gaps.

Nowhere near finished, but rushed to this stage (sans filler) for a FLGS evening game...

...and looking ok already. 

Should be able to whack another coat of texture paint on it this evening then do some washes and shades over the weekend.
The connecting sticks need solid (as matt as possible) black. and the black bases will get some dry brushing and paint speckle.
Finally, the edges of the bases will have a coat of 'thunderhawk blue' (or approximate equivalent) to more easily denote the bounds of the phenomena.

Just as planned...

As usual pics are a little disappointing, the greys and brown are a bit more nuance than the camera depicts. Should look fine on the table. 

Until next time...

Dungeon Crawler in Space - Blackstone

Something different.

I think it was... two weekends ago, GW's Blackstone Fortress came out. Picked up a copy.

Hadn't heard about it until a few days before the release date but really piqued my interest.

Blackstone Fortress (from here on out, aka 'BSF') is a dungeon crawler game (exploration and challenges) rather than the typical balls-out battle game.

So there is combat (hex based system) but it is fairly concise; and working with individual models rather than squads, which can make it a bit quicker (as was/is Necromunda) and with fewer (weapons) options (and what options there are, are listed quickly on a character card). Additionally, rather than commanding generic, massed squads of dudes (and all the different load outs possible within said group), you actually have characters, and primary idea here is to improve and upgrade them over the course of the campaign.

There's a total of 8 playable characters, and another facet of the game's appeal is that it deals with the (to date) marginal factions within the imperial system (rogue traders, mercenaries, ecclesiasty etc). As with Necromunda (which focused on hive gangs) BSF adds new characters (and models) to shuffle round the board; rather than the ubiquitous imperial guards, marines, orks, chaos... ad nausium.
That's not to say that those can't/don't make a showing at all (esp chaos)... but... new stuff.

That said, i immediately found myself wondering... "what would a Marine play like?"... aka a deathwatch-esque character.
Easy enough to fluff in; solo Marine sent on a quest by his chapter to retrieve a holy wingding lost during an inglorious defeat eons ago... blahbity blah blah.
So i whipped up a character card, then put together a model.

He's definitely not from Imperial Fists, so am still working out a custom chapter name. maybe... "hunter's spear"... "angel's spear"... (yhay, new chapter project). Thinking of doing a tiny variation of colour somewhere but not sure where yet.

Nothing fancy paint-wise, just model on the table.
I noticed that the marines i already had (being quite old now) are really short compared to the other models out of the box. Marines are meant to tower over regular humans, and my old school ones were looking up to everything but the spindle drones and ratlings.
So, this is a primaris marine (guaranteed to tower imposingly), put together from multiple models out of the 3-pack box. Plus some bitz-box leftovers (mainly the weapons).

[update 20190116: the model has since had a touch of 'screaming bell' highlights in line with the new fleet colours]

So far i have been playing the game with unpainted models (the baddies are grey plastic, the goodies are red plastic - intended to stand out esp for non-hobbiest) but hopefully this project will kick start some painting for the rest of them (after a long hiatus on painting).

[...looks promising]

 yhay, done. just a couple dozen to go.

size comparison.

iconed up.

skull... hello i'm part of the command structure.

angel spear... why not...


[turns out their fleet gets a reasonable show in.]


[later 1]
momentum holding... barely...

and i also managed to blat out the ur-ghuls, which were actually super-easy, being all organic and artsy.

also; all the models are going to be going on on clear acrylic disks... so a bunch of disks ordered. 
i'm only ever likely to use these guys within BSF setting so can make use of the board art rather than tooling around with basing.


[later 2]
Bases arrived and painted models transplanted. bit shoddy but will do the job.

not overly happy with the spindles but affixing those tiny end points directly would be too fragile. The marine's pose is a bit weird (foot placement) so had to chock under the front foot with some offcut clear. shouldn't be noticable it on the board. 
BTW the small bases are 20mm not 25mm (what the supplier makes), marine on a 30mm, and also have a 40mm.

Finished off the kroot. Moderately happy there - not perfect but board-worthy.

Chaos Marines also approaching completion. 

Chaos Marines done. As usual the photos don't really do them justice... should work on that i guess.

I decided to go with a 'warplock bronze', rather than gold metallic highlights. In part cos i like the colour, it's a little creepier, and in part cos i'm out of gold.

Not sure which models will be on the tables next... possibly negavoltists [yep]. Will probably try to keep a group of hostiles and one character thing going. Adds variety to an otherwise boring process.

[Digressions Complete]

The Game plays OK solo (a main reason i like it) as the baddies are controlled at least in part by dice role 'AI'.

Aside from that, not a lot of other hobbying recently; no printing, bit of BSF (this), bit of writing, that's about it.


Back to BSF briefly...
This is the Character Card i slapped together for the Marine... homebrew only, entirely unofficial. 

The dice stats are basically copy/paste from the robot card. Nominally attached to CLARION (ship).
[update 20190321: agility state has been upped from d6 to d8... they're meant to be faster, stronger better than baseline humans.]

weapons...
- powersword; copy/paste from chaos lord, also same as the inspired eldar character
- bolt pistol, same as chaos marine bolters but degrades quicker at greater range
unique actions...
charge *: allows a move and attack as one action. technically the hostile units can do this, though this could be explained as a combination of individual AP actions.

unique abilities...
apex training *: when attacked (close combat) gets an immediate counter attack.
metabolism: critical success can negate a grievous wound. robot has this.

inspiring *: one of the biggest changes. this Character doesn't collect inspired token (also means no rerolls which is a definite downside) but gives earned token to other characters (as nominated by the marine player).    the character has no inspired state.   this was partly to avoid making a double sided card. additionally, the hostiles only have 1 state. additionally, it's probably not too hard to fluff that marines are always inspired for combat (especially since you can get disco cards to buff regular characters to perma-inspired anyway).


the items marked with * are all unprecedented modifications (i.e. everything else is pretty much taken from existing rule-set or other character cards).
'charge' and 'apex training' reflect the character's hardcore combat experience.

i have used the character a few times and found him not to be especially overpowered. he's ok in close combat of course, but relatively slow compared to eldar/kroot, whcih means that getting him up there is part of the challenge of the character (much the same as the RT character in hindsight). pretty much a close combat version of the robot.


[update 2018-12-14: i dropped the card over at boardgamegeek on the BSF forum. generally response is positive so obviously nothing too crazy on the card.]


Until next time...

Dry Docks

Again, i haven't been doing a lot in the hobby sphere. Occasional small projects in passing.

With some more Battlefleet Gothic action pending both locally (exciting) and in NC it was about time to get my BFG situation finalised.

Have generally had a bit of difficulty finding a box arrangement i like for the ships. The whole stick on the underside makes it a little more complex than normal (i.e. than Epic).

A couple of weeks ago i noticed that Aldi had their art/painting boxes back (yhay) and got a couple more (actually i remagnetised all the Epic Chaos troops into one of these new (bigger) boxes as well... there's something else i did).

I also got one of the alternate shape (tall) boxes, thinking it might be suitable for BFG...

Turns out it was...

Bit rough in places, but had to recycle material from previous attempts where possible as not a lot of spare foam around. It works; the ships are solid (enough) and protected; just don't flip the box over.

And with tonnes of space for stuff below. Marker box, stand corral, and plenty of room for... snacks. (Do they still make those 'space food sticks'?)

And seems compatible with the stick poke issue...

Fleet
True, there is only enough room for these ships (could add another cruiser and some escorts if needs be) but in generally this is probably going to serve my level of interest in BFG. i'm absolutely not interested in 'collect them all' or 'what can i print next' like i did with Epic. so unless i find there is some single 'must have cruiser' (just 1) that i absolutely need to add, this is my fleet.

Yes, there was also a marine 'ship' previously. This has now been relegated to the 'in progress' box. Overall the ship was too large for the intended Strike Cruiser and far closer to a battle barge. Might end up as a dedicated Epic Space Craft... undecided. The 2 Gladius Frigates are also anomalous with the Imperial Navy Fleet (belong in the Marines Fleet) but can stay for now.

Not sure what i'll do if i get the Chaos fleet running, might make another insert tray and reuse the box... dunno... not likely to happen in the immediate future anyway.


Markers
As well as ships, BFG uses dice, tape measures and markers.

I had previously printed out some stuff, have printed some new, collected and finished it all off. It's far from great work but will do, because i care very little.

These are the Fighter Ordinance markers...

These are the Bomber Ordinance markers...

A comparison of the two; they are different...

And Torpedo ordinance (with dice) and Blast Markers.

The torpedoes are (as demonstrated) about 2 dice wide, which is what we used in all my games so far.
Both of these are fresh prints, as are the arc templates.

Reminds me, i also rescaled and printed some Eldar Fleet Fighters and Bombers for a game buddy in NC. Made a couple of extras for the 'in progress' box as well, just in case i want to get some tricksy pixies someday.


Icons
I have attempted to print some box icons (Aquila and Naval Icons) but after 6+ failed attempts i think the box is going to go unadorned. Probably for the best if it's going to be used for multiple fleets, also i only have one active fleet anyway, hence one box. Fricken printer.
We are current in a cold, rainy weekend before entering a heat wave filled summer apparently. Fricken printer.
One last attempts... and... nope... Fricken printer.

[A little later]
I persisted with the printer over the weekend (after cooling down sufficiently) and after another 2 or 3 failed attempts i was able to clip the job down sufficiently with wedges and shims to get it to hold in place for long enough to finish.


Until next time...

Hobby Adjacent - Coffee

While i did set up this blog as a diary (motivator) of my hobby progress, sometimes the enthusiasm for strictly nerd hobby stuff waxes and wanes.

I do also like other stuff. Amongst other stuff is... coffee.

For a while now i'd wanted to try growing coffee, and some(substantial)time ago even ordered some potentially sproutable seeds off the interweb. These entirely failed to sprout.

A few weeks ago we were at a nearby nursery where i spotted some coffee plants and decided to get one.

Had a look at the instructions. decided to pay attention to some, ignore others:

prune plants blah blah blah... 

something something frosts blahbity blah...   

make your own home made coffee; woohoo!

sum takeaway: make short blacks and ice coffees

and put it in a spare pot....

It looked like the plant was handling the situation (didn't wilt, whither or spontaneously combust). Then i changed my mind and decided to try putting one coffee plant on each side of the upstairs pergola. So went and got another one and worked out what size pot i'd put them in....

New pots - now with added textureness (c/o parklea markets for the locals). Should be enough room for them to grow into. Plus also not be so tiny that the soil fries the roots - we're approaching summer and have already had one heatwave day.

So i potted them up downstairs to avoid soil and mess on the pergola, and then carried them up to the pergola.

These suckers are HEAVY and also very difficult to get a decently grip on (being round, wide, and no hand holds).  At a guess they may have been somewhere in the 60-80kg range (but my weight guesses are typically poor).

After a week sitting up there i decided that they would end up (water) marking the floor too much even with dishes under them so back downstairs they went, where they now guard the stairs. Additionally, we had a very typical sydney-summer storm with some crazy high speed winds that whipped the plants about more than was desirable. [yes, i actually paid attention to the label part that said 'protect from strong winds']

Will look at making a temporary greenhouse for them IF they manage to make it through to the colder months. And yes, I'm aware that it doesn't get cherries for 3-5 years...

If you were to bet on my chances of actually tasting a single homegrown bean as being 'slim' i'd say you were being optimistic.

Anyway, at THIS point in time i think this makes me the most successful coffee farmer in my lineage, definitely on this block of land, also of anyone i know, and possibly on my street.

And if that doesn't scream SUCCESS i don't know what does.

Time for a celebratory latte.

[Later]
It occurred to me that a temporary greenhouse for a 2-3 meter tree would be a big ol tent. The aim is to keep the trees at a maximum of 2 meters tall (including pots). So plenty of pruning.

I did see some picture on the internet supposedly of a bonsai coffee tree, beans and all. May have been a different variety though.

Until next time...

Dice Ready for Launch Captain

I was able to make it Newcastle where i was lucky enough to get not one, but two (relatively) introductory games of Battlefleet Gothic played.

Both games were Imperial Navy (me) vs Chaos Fleets.

First game was against the resident BFG guru and had mixes of cruisers and escorts at about 500pt.

Second game was Cruisers and Escorts vs (Chaos) Battleship and Cruisers (with our guru pretty much DM'ing for us) with a point limit of about 1000pt.

Being familiar with x-wing the concept of continued momentum was not as novel or weird as it might be to some. Familiarity with '80s era' GW games, plus multiple (but casual) read-throughs of the rules meant there weren't too many whatThe moments, though there were obviously bits that needed clarifying (escorts lurk in groups only, shields come back once you move out of blast marker areas, etc, etc, etc).

Generally, i'm not a huge fan of UgoIgo games but there was enough interaction as the 'defending' player to keep the Ugo interesting (saves, to brace or not to brace, everyone does ordinance etc) until the Igo.
Probably more importantly (and this might just be an effect of beginner-level...ness) but the resilience of the ships in generally meant that from turn to turn you weren't necessarily losing half your army/fleet in casualties, and although you might have taken some hits you still had formations available to then counter (i.e. going 2nd wasn't an immediate death sentence).

There were a number of other fleets (and factions - orks, ad mech, marines) floating around and another table rolling BFG dice too.

I'm vaguely considering putting together a Rogue Trader fleet, mainly for the 'fluff' perspective of things. Still have some markers and effects and so on to put together (will print - if i can), but the Imperial Fleet is pretty usable as is... which is nice.

Overall impression of the game was 'positive, intend to play again.'

And as usual the Newcastle lads provided a great setting for gaming. Thanks fellas.

Until next time...

BGF Flies Again (???)

[original draft 2018-10-23]

First post in a while. There has been very little going on hobby-wise; that said i haven't really minded. Highlight possibly gluing up the AT-ST and carving a hole for it in the imperial faction box [where it now lurks unpainted, but out-of-mind]. Yep, real dull times.

Over the last couple of weeks there has been a renewal of interest in Battlefleet Gothic (BFG) emanating largely from the newcastle chaps, but i have also (via there) made some interesting contacts within Sydney's greater boundaries.

Theoretically i may make a road trip (great, cos i need more driving) up to NC this weekend [i did] and try to work out what's what with the game. Never actually played before, though it's been on the wish list forever.

Where am i going with this? 

I've got my beginner fleet of Imperial ships ready, and figured i should get the bases rounded; it's part of the game mechanics and represents a region of influence - i.e.   so it's important that they're round not square.
Some context info:  The ship on top of the stick is not in any way to scale... the actual ship sits at the base of the stick and is smaller than the diameter of the stick... i.e. it's tiny.  measurement is done from 'stalk-to-stalk' for ship-to-ship interaction. The area around the ship (i.e. the base) represents 'close enough', for something like i.e. a nuclear blast to possibly affect/damage the ship.

So, how hard could it be to chuck them in a drill of some kind and lathe them down with the dremel etc?    How hard indeed?

The problem starts with getting a good grip on the sticky-outy bit that the stick slots into. It can pop out of the chuck pretty easily once you start applying cutting/grinding pressure, also centring it is problematic (it's not entirely cylindrical).

As we can see below i was able to get a result (all the ships at the back have new, round stands except the battleship).

My issue with the result is twofold (issues with the results are twofold??   eek grammar)...
It's rough... real rough in places. I'm kind of getting a technique working but it's not a nice result, even for use with print-proxy ships. 
Aside from chips and clouding/melting i'm not getting a totally consistent diameter either. Below we can see that there's a gap between the 'arrow' on the left and on the right the 'arrow' is a bit chopped off. Basically a millimetre rim or gap all the way around. 

At arms length, yep who cares, but i need something better long-term. I've ordered some clear acrylic disc from ebay and will be chopping off the stand holder bit (neatly hopefully) and gluing them to real bases once those get here.

[Aside: bought another set of BGF dice while i was ebaying... online shopping is soooo dangerous]

Will finish off the remaining stands with the bad technique just to get me through any immediate use. [DONE]

Aside: the strike cruiser is definitely too big a scale for this collection. it's probably more battle barge size. have been looking at the 'official' models online. oh well, unlikely to get on the table any time soon anyway.


[later: 2018-11-02]
My acrylic discs arrived so i finally got around to fixing bases...

Started by chopping off the x-wing base down to the stick holder. Stack of discs at the back.

'lathed' them into submission. only had a couple of breakages (mainly due to clippering). The stick actually supported the turning which was helpful/nice (if slightly unexpected), however i was generally only applying really light pressure with the abrasives and cutter. 

dab o' superglue...  yes, my centring probably leaves something to be desired... apply arm-length rule liberally.  that said there were only two that i'd potentially bother redoing, everything else was acceptable.

viola - one fleet...

A question: Why did i turn down the side rather than chop/grind the 'flat bit' off all together?
because the little stick holder is moulded down through the flat bit. So if i were to just cut straight across it would have potentially lost the ability to hold the stick.

Just looking at them now the holders look a bit chunky. For x-wing where you have a card over the base and the base is a larger area it's not so noticeable perhaps.
If i were to redo them i might drill the acrylic disc at the centre and glue an x-wing stick directly into it. too late now... oh well. know for next time.

[minutes later: Actually the x-wing base has the little id-holding clips in it as part of the shape (pic), meaning that i can add the ship name on there rather than paint it on the base directly - and then use the bases for other ships too. I knew there was a reason.]


Until next time...