A week in review

Dear diary,

The week just gone was nothing special, but illustrates the several little this's and that's that comprise a not untypical week-in-the-hobby.


RIP Printer
Firstly, some sad news... my printer is cactus.
Having experienced higher than normal issues over the last few weeks/months this is not a total surprise. The heater/feed mechanism seems to be toast.
The little up!mini has given me reliable service over the last...2+ years (up to it's slightly underwhelming capabilities anyway) so I can't complain;  especially since I have finished all my main Epic armies, plus a whole bunch of other stuff as well.

I am contemplating getting a replacement and am happy just mulling over the options for the time being.
I believe there's a small capacity resin one available now (wanhao duplicator D7), as in 120x68x200 which might be nice for detailed 6mm infantry. At around the $500-800 mark it's potentially worth a look.
Alternately, there's any number of filament/kit printers; i would probably want one that can print at 0.1mm reliably, and a build capacity of 200cube would be ace as well.
Only in the very first stages of research and not really looking at anything for a couple of months at least.


Cancon 2018
Cancon lists we due to the TO last Friday; with the tournament now about 2 weeks away.

Cancon, for non-aussies, is a major gaming convention held in Canberra, our illustrious national capital. It is most likely the biggest gaming convention in the country and as far as i'm aware the largest Epic tournament or gathering in the country too with somewhere about 24-30 players.

This will be my second Cancon as a player, and my third visit in total. 
Back in 2016 i read about the event just a day or two before the weekend. As i was already in Canberra for the long weekend I decided to drop by just out of curiosity. It was there that i saw Epic being played and had one of those flashes that i sometimes get saying, "you should be doing that!" and the rest is history.


Epic Day
Epic Day happened on Sunday. Epic Day is our monthly Epic get together in Campbelltown (HOH) on the 2nd Sunday of the month. 
We had 3 players who played 2 games all up (kinda obviously) trialling our Cancon lists:
game 1: Knight Crusade vs Dark Eldar (deldar won)
game 2: Dark Eldar vs Feral Orks (orks won)

Post game it's probably fair to say that I'm kind of nervous about my list; specifically the low activation count and low AC presence. That said, as much as I like Knights, it's also kind of a token list and after Cancon i'm probably going to be hammering the Templars as my major army.

I found a review of all of the Cancon lists from a established player who suggested the list was (to paraphrase) a configuration he hadn't seen before, potentially interesting and (direct quote) "One to watch." 
Given it wasn't a straight up lambasting or ridiculed for any unforgivable omission i'm slightly more confident.
All i wish is not to come last. I'm super-noncompetitive - enjoying the factions, fluff, narrative and game session far more than a win - but coming last is totally demoralising/demotivating regardless. Human nature.

Back to Epic Day, it was really interesting watching the matches between these particular factions; with the lists very much demonstrated the theme of the factions: 
Orks - slow, hard to damage horde, 
Dark Eldar - fast moving guerrilla attacks, 
Knights - ...crappy imperial tech, not bad in close combat if you can get across the board.
That said, i did pull a win vs a similar Ork list last Epic Day so i guess that completes the rock-paper-scissors between these lists in a way.

Was a good day.


Necromunda
Haven't managed to get a game session in with my local gaming buddy as yet due to real-life. Have played a few trial/learning games, which is going well. Also got the add-on book (Necromunda: Gang War), specifically to get the 3D rules (i.e. climbing, multi-level play, real LOS etc).

I had been considering printing up some of the (surprisingly popular) gantry I'd published to thingiverse but obviously that thought has been put on hold.

This evening i decided to start putting some paint on them and so far have managed to complete the matt black undercoat phase; boring but gives subsequent colour something better to stick to.

[Update 2018-01-17: couple of washes of barbarian flesh to start the colour flowing...]


And that's about it.

Until next time...