Let the New Year Begin! (Finally)

The only thing in our shipment I really (secretly) cared about.

So we moved into a house. It's awesome for a lot of reasons. One of them, not gonna lie, is finally getting our (my) stuff.  In our express shipment, there resided a bag full of minis, most of them handpicked for their need of paint, as well as a selection of brushes and paints, plus a bunch of other games and books. I realize that's a heck of a run on sentence, but I think it illustrates the point.  Basically, the pallet contains methods of entertainment beyond watching reruns of soccer games, and the genesis of my gaming both for the year and in Japan. 

Last year was the first time I set goals for hobby. This year, I want to do the same thing, and this seems to be an appropriate time.  Rather than being a completionist, accomplishment driven thing though, I'd like to view this as what I'm trying to get out of playing games.  I mean, I'd love to paint 1000 models, win all the tournaments, and get a game published, but let's all just have some fun, K?

So what are these goals?  Well let's see...

Hobby Goals for 2013!
- Take more (and better) pictures of my models!
            In the past, taking pictures consisted of finding the best lit place in the house and snapping a few pics.  If you look closely, you could count how many cutting boards I was using in the background.  What I'd like to do is work up a decent background for both sci-fi and fantasy models.  Add to that some kind of lighting set up and a tripod, plus a little photo editing and I'd call that a win for the coming year.

-  Get at least a little painting in 3 nights a week.
               It doesn't have to be a lot, but I know that a little bit of consistency goes a long way in making progress.  Obviously, this can't be a super hard and fast rule, as the ball is going to get dropped every once in a while when life happens, but keeping painting at the forefront of things would be a plus.

- Model, paint, and base all my Word Bearers.
                Or at least all the ones that I have in the bag.  That's something like 3000 points.  It's a lot, but if I can be consistent and set intermediate goals, I have confidence that I can set a new painting goal before the year is out.

Not gonna lie, surprised this made it in one piece.

Gaming Goals for 2013!
- Plug into the local gaming scene.
                 So this is the same as last year.  I need to stop moving or something.  All the guys seem pretty cool, so I don't expect any problems with this one, but it's important.

- Author and play a map based campaign and a narrative campaign.
                This might sound ambitious (if it doesn't, I assure you that my vision is ambitious), but again I think this comes down to consistency and focus.  I have a vision for what I want the campaign booklets to look like and how I want the campaigns to feel, but the success of actually running it depends on cooperation from external sources.  What would I deem a success?  Enthusiasm from people.  A few months' long run.  Challenges being thrown out via email.  That would feel good.

- Diversify my gaming base.
              I played a lot of 40k last year. Like a LOT. Particularly percentage wise. I would like to move the emphasis towards playing lots of different things, particularly the huge assortment of board games.

A Return/I Really Think So

The more things change, the more I am pretty much the same dude.

I am a few weeks removed from the previously mentioned hiatus.  I am many miles removed from what I began to think of as home.  Life, or at least mine, tends to have its various chapters punctuated by changes in physical location.  Based on the length of the previous plane ride, we're in for a doozy.

Yes, we are now in the Land of the Rising Sun.  We are still working on a few minor details like "finding a place to live", but we are settling in slowly but surely.  Despite all the newness, I've still managed to find the time to recon a local gaming group.  After hearing an ad on a 40K podcast (clutch timing by the The Independent Characters.  Thanks guys!) for the exact area we were moving into, I reached out via email and was invited to join the group on the following weekend.  I had a good time and have since been back one other time.

The group seems like good guys and their is a solid contingent of 40K players, so I imagine my standard gaming fare won't change so much as to be recognizable.  However, there seems to be quite a few games on offer, including Mordheim, War Machine, and various board gaming, so the dominance of 40K over the last year of dice rolling seems unlikely to continue.  Of the sixty or so tabletop games I played this year, all but two of them were 40K, so given the chance, I'd love to branch out some more in the upcoming year.

One thing I'm worried about is the general lack of focus.  It seems like many of the guys arrive and begin heading off on their own tangents, including wandering to the corner to play some MMO.  That seems an odd choice for social gaming.  I guess in this context, you need to take what you can get, but I believe a gaming group is stronger when they can be united behind a few creative ideas.  The group doesn't have to be totally homogenous, but it's a lot more fun when everyone gets behind something like a league or a campaign for a bit.

Regardless, I'm looking forward to a  bright new year and the opportunity to make some new friends.  What those will look like?  I have no idea.

The Dark Omnissiah Cometh

It seems I have had the technological touch of death recently.  Various electronics have been going down based on their proximity to me, one of which includes my laptop.  Sadly, that came at a time in which I was dragging my feet about backing up my files, so I lost a lot of my pictures, my data, and a few other bits and bobs.  Between that, the holiday season, and an upcoming move, I think it is time for Elfen Stuff Up to go dark for a while.  See you in a few months hopefully and thanks for reading.

Homemade Special

One of my biggest draws about Fantasy/40K/Pathfinder/every game ever is the possibility of an on the field avatar.  Not THE Avatar, but, rather, an idea of a character given tiny form.

With this thread of thought in mind, I and a couple of friends decided to give the homemade design process a run during our weekly gaming session.  Each of us plays the same army fairly regularly at this point.  In making a set of special characters, we though we could put an interesting twist on our standard games.  Not only would it mix up the way units interact and provide some uniqueness, but it would help us structure a narrative around the games.

Antisthenes leading his merry band

So this is what I came up with:

Antisthenes, Master of the Host   200 Points
WS  BS   S   T   W    I    A   Ld    Sv
5      5      4    4    3   5    3   10     3+

Wargear:  Bolt Pistol, Frag and Krak Grenades,
Sigil of Corruption, Gift of Mutation

Warlord Trait:  Black Crusader

Word Bearers vs. Death Wing

Special Rules:  Beseech the Dark Gods, Zealot, Demagogue,
Champion of Chaos, Magister of Rituals

Magister of Rituals:  An army that includes Antisthenes
can count one squad of Possessed Marines as Scoring.

Chaos Artefact:  The Accursed Crozius
S: +2   AP:  4  Special Rules:  Melee, Daemon Weapon, Legion

Legion:  On a turn in which the Daemon Weapon adds attacks,
roll a D3:  1: Re-roll Hits and Wounds.  2: AP2.  3: +2 A and I.

My Word Bearers have been wishing for a Dark Apostle worth being "the guy."  Someone who you look at and think, "Yeah, he'd lead a legion of psychotic zealots."  The standard Dark Apostle is a decent buy in terms of being a force multiplier, but in reality, he is only his special rules and wargear.  You take him for the Zealot rule and hope the Sigil of Corruption keeps your investment safe.  I understand him being a second to the Chaos Lord, but not really as the face of the franchise.  For the Word Bearers, something a little different makes sense. 

I'll pass on trying to take this objective.

I kicked off with most of the basic Chaos Lord statistics.  I reduced the weapon skill by one, reasoning that even if he were going to be "teh awesome", he still wouldn't necessarily be the master of blades.  I added the Dark Apostle special rules, a Warlord Trait, and went for a very minor force org adjustment.  Finally, I thought, "Time to come up with a daemon weapon."  While raking my mother-in-law's leaves, it occurred to me to make an artefact that reflected the Daemonkin table of the Possessed.  Obviously, this can be very random, but so it goes.  In his first three games of service, he's had positive results.  In the first game, he mostly did mop up duty.  A Daemon Prince on his last wound, plus a wounded enemy special character formed an auspicious pair of pelts to start with.  The second game saw him hit a timely roll against some Assault Terminators and roll a squad by himself.  The third game, against the same Deathwing army, he rolled the dreaded one.  In the end, he accounted for a total of two terminators.  He has yet to die, which, frankly, is quite surprising to me.  There have been a lot of Thunder Hammers floating around lately.  We'll see what the future brings for him.