Sending our love down the well

    Prairie Game Expo starts on October 5th, I am hoping to go set up Don't Look Back for some demos during the day. (It's too spooky to play at night!) With the trees finished, I went to work on my Annis Hag that I picked up from Sentry Box this summer.

    Killers have three qualities, MO, visage and trait. MO is how the Killer moves and is set up on the board. Visage is how the players react to the killer and traits are special rules, usually for how they attack. Mutilated is one of the visage which fits the Annis Hag perfectly. There also is ethereal, so I'll have to take a look for any spirits I could use. 

    

    Killers can be randomly rolled up or there are several pre-made in the rule book. In the new Core Rules, you can create your own Killer as well as let a player control the Killer. I haven't looked into the new rules much, maybe I will create a narrative setting with it's own killer! That is one of the reasons I picked up the new rules. 

    For the most part, I have all the terrain I need to play, but there is one plot (scenarios are called plots) that has the players preform a ritual at a well to summon an evil spirit killer. They, of course, instantly regret pissing off ancient evils and need to gather items to banish the ghost. Well, now I have a well. 

More like a pool for the Annis Hag

Killer Party!

Max beside the well

Max summoning the Old Ones.

    I'll probably paint up some more killers and some fences and bushes to add more variety to the board. As well as pick up a game mat to make sure everything stays flat.

Painted: 86 Troops, 4 Mounted, 8 Monsters/ Vehicles, 12 Small Terrain, 2 Large Terrain

Purchased: 195 Troops, 22 Mounted, 1 Monster/ Vehicle

Next on the Hobby Desk!

    I was a bit out of sorts when I finished off these projects, I wasn't exactly sure where to go next. I settled on painting up some of my Warcry Slaves to Darkness warband as some of the new additions are just primed. This was before forming a solid plan for DLB.

Arcane Cataclysm, Grave guard, Merry and Pippin! Oh my!

     Before the long weekend, Rachel and I scheduled a trip to Saskatoon to visit one one Rachel's nursing friends. Nancy has two kids, both of which we haven't seen yet! So we all went to the zoo together. It would have been smart to actually take some pictures of the zoo, but you know, toddlers and exotic animals makes me forget. 

    Fun fact, the Saskatoon zoo has zebras which were seized from some farmer. Looks like he only got a fine of $2,800? Yet the province payed $120,000 to take care of them properly? Like how do you smuggle zebras into the middle of the prairies and why!? Sure, he could have painted some horses. Miniature ones.

    We also had a stop at Dragon's Den, well, two stops, as I couldn't make up my mind if I wanted to pick up more miniatures. And the answer is always yes, just don't go looking at all the miniatures I still need to paint.

    Dragon's Den had their 3rd Edition Age of Sigmar sets marked down 40%, basically I get one half of the box for free. This box has Vanari Dawnriders and Tzaangors Enlightened on Disc, which I might trade/ sell as I am mostly interested in the foot troops. I was informed that the Tome of Champions 2020 had co-op/ solo rules, so the Tzeentch could be painted up as adversaries. 

    I played WarCry on saturday night with James, he is in a narrative campaign that I have been playing in. He was hoping to play Kill Team, I mention, like everytime that Kill Team is talked about, that he should check out Acolyte. What's Acolyte? Why it's a campaign setting which you are an acolyte with 3 followers, to start with, doing all the dirty work for an Inquisitor. It is heavily inspired by Rangers of Shadowdeep. Also solo and co-op, for those wanting to learn the rules to Kill Team without the pressure. Anyways, I traded some Sisters of Battle for the Hand of the Archon. 

    I also found a local selling some grave guard and Merry and Pippin in armour for a good price. There! Now I should be set for several more winters worth of painting. Oh, I am also changing the point system to just a model count, that way I am just painting and not pushing myself to paint specific items.

Painted: 86 Troops, 4 Mounted, 7 Monsters/ Vehicles, 11 Small Terrain, 2 Large Terrain

Purchased:195 Troops, 22 Mounted, 1 Monster/ Vehicle

Next on the Hobby Desk!

    As I mentioned before, I think I will be preparing for October, making a bit more terrain for Don't Look Back and painting up some killers. 

Can't see the axe murderer through the trees

 

    Started out with pizza wedge shapes, then moved to more circular bases, which I prefer more. These foam boards might need some hard MDF glued to their back so they don't curl so much, as extra glue doesn't seem to help. Planning to purchase a 3' X 3' game mat soon, these might turn into play mats for my daughter if I can't figure out a solution.

Focus on the cute toddler, not my super warped boards

    Last year, I flocked a large amount of cheap Christmas tree from Micheal's, which like most terrain projects, got shelved immediately after I finished half of it. I find that I am super pumped by the project while creating terrain, but the mess and clean up makes it tough for me to get started. It's much easier to paint miniatures at a desk.

    That said, Season of Scenery has now ended and I find myself wanting to continue working on terrain. Spooky season is coming up soon and I want to start playing the second edition of Don't Look Back. I already have Coyote Manor and a camp site painted, would be nice to have some fences and one of the plots ( the scenarios in DLB) has a well as it's main focus. With these trees, as they would primarily be used for DLB, I was thinking of making their bases a bit more spooky, with body parts or skeletal remains. For now they are just normal forest trees.

Painted: -20 (10 small terrain)

Purchased: -43

Total: -23

Next on the Hobby Desk!

    Wow that total looks great! I am almost in striking distance of being positive for my painting. Oh wait no, I might have picked something big up....

MESBG Battle Companies - Haradrim

     After playing a demo game of Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game a couple weeks ago and Rachel showing interest in a small Rohirram battle company  I had the drive to paint up more miniatures. Battle Companies only requires 8 Haradrim Warriors, half with arrows instead of the normal 30% that other factions have to abide by. I painted up two Haradrim Raiders as reinforcements for later games. 

    Next for MESBG, I will be painting up Rohirrim for Rachel. She asked for the standard greens and browns they usually have. Once I get back to painting the Haradrim, The Betray on foot and mounted will be my focus as he is a Hero of Valour, meaning he can lead 15 warriors and gives a bonus to poison weapons. Add a Ringwraith and I would have a 300 point army, a good start.

    Researching more about the Haradrim, I found a small snippet from their wiki stating that there were two blue wizards that went to Harad, Alatar and Pallando. The two missionaries were sent to convert those that worshipped Sauron. Not much is know of their fate, but they might've founded a cult of magic. 

    This one line opens up the idea of Haradrim that fight against Sauron. Given that I have lots of Haradrim Warriors, I could paint some up that fight against Sauron's forces and thus have a narrative for fighting against Sauron's minions.

Painted: 12 (8 troop, 2 mounted)

Purchased: -55

Total: -43

Next on the Hobby Desk!

    Terrain! I sweat! I have some terrain looking things on my desk (as well as some Slaves to Darkness for the warcry narrative campaign I started) but there is terrain!

Skirmish boards

 I picked up some smaller mdf boards for skirmish games. Easy to paint up and I was able to involve my daughter, she is 3, as well.

The urban board was created using the terrain tutor's guide. In his video, he is more efficient, building 4 boards at once. Easy enough to expand upon in the future though. Down the road I'll create a green space insert for the large grey area. The other idea I had was using the back for a grass area, but not sure how it would hold up if it was always being played on the opposite side. I had the intension of using this board for Super Mission Force, a super hero skirmish game, but Songs of Blades and Heroes and 100 point Ronin game or Fistful of Kung Fu could work if I went with more of a Big Trouble in Little China feel to the game.

    The next two pictures are 2 x 2 board that are double sided that my three year old daughter assisted with, she had a creative vision that I wasn't quite picking up on. Fishing 28, a non-combat skirmish game, is what I plan to play on the water board, but add in some docks and it could fit any genre.

Water side

   

    Full thrust, a space combat game, would fit on this board, but Super Mission Force could also make an appearance too! Could start a grand story of supers fighting in outer space then land on earth only to be pulled into the water! Oooo guess I could start painting up heroclix miniatures with space/scuba suits on.

SPPPAAACCEE!

Painted: 8 (Two large terrain)

Purchased: -63

Total: -55

Next on the Hobby Desk

    Seeing as it's the Season of Scenery, I have finished my Haradrim for Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game Battle Companies. Seriously though, I will have some terrain coming soon...

Zombicide Wulfsburg - Zombie Wolves

    During breaks at work, I have been picking away at the werewolf ("Wolfbomination") and wolves from Zombicide Wulfsburg that I had picked up last year. I gave a bit more attention to the werewolf, giving him a nicer base and extra blood. With these miniatures finished, I only have the 4 heroes left to paint up.... for Wulfsburg... for the core box there are still 60 or so zombies, a necromancer and an abomination and 6 more heroes.

    With both the core set and Wulfsburg it is possible to play with 10 survivors, which would be cool if I could get that many players at the table.

Wulfbomination

21 wolves, 1 wulfbomination

The most blood frenzied wolves

Painted: 24

Purchased: -87

Total: -63

Next on the Hobby Desk

    I have been painting up Haradrim for Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game Battle Companies which are couple minutes of painting away from being complete. 

 

Gipsy Danger - Mech Attack

       This is a bit silly, but I was gifted this battle damaged Gipsy Danger for Christmas last year. I didn't want to display it like most figures I have, so I went with basing it for Mech Attack!

Craft paint for scale

    Crimson Typhoon was damaged in a one sided fight with my energetic orange cat, it will be getting similar treatment. I have definitely been looking at Aliexpress for some kaiju for these two to fight, because one scale of Pacific Rim miniatures isn't enough for me!

Painted: 2 (small terrain?)

Purchased: -99

Total: -87

Next on the Hobby Desk

    I finished painting all the wolves in Zombicide Wulfsburg, they will be getting shown off soon!