Hobby - Adepticon-bound

 With the opening of our borders and the removal of MIQ (finally), it looks like I will make Adepticon this year. I am scheduled to fly out to the USA on Tuesday evening and the first five days of my trip will be at Adepticon 2022 at Schaumberg, Chicago.

Two years ago, in March 2020, I was due to fly out to Adepticon the night New Zealand closed its borders and went into its first lockdown. That year Adepticon was canceled, as it was last year. But now it's back and thankfully it looks like I'll be there.

This year it is hosting the first US Golden Daemon in about eight years and I can't wait to see the entries. It is also bigger than before spread over two hotels linked by a shuttle. The event has attracted great support from vendors.

So I'm looking forward to "nerding out" for five days. I have 8-9 hobby classes lined up and plenty of time to frequent the vendor hall. I'm looking forward to seeing the great army displays the tournaments attract.

Can't wait! Hi World - I'm back!

Hobby - Metal Casting of Models

 Great little film showing the early years of the hobby

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=lA6LCGONW1o&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR073hJkhPL0xJHVzDzpEk4Ay1MW8nrPeau-jkMcOm62d86pAwNM6jCs9ms

Still using lead rather than that new fangled pewter

Hobby - Finished War Mammoth

A couple of weeks ago I came across the CMON "A Song of Ice & Fire"  War Mammoths which appeared to be the ideal size to fit on a KOW Monster Chariot base of 50x100mm.

Over the weekend I painted and based one of the two that comes in the box. It is a very nice model with good crisp detail.

I'm looking forward to trying him out on the table in coming weeks.

Hobby - Ogre Mammoths and Lancastrian Longbow

 Over the last week I have been getting on with a few projects that I am keen to get done over the next few weeks.

The first is to add a Mammoth to my KoW Ogres. I have the two GW Ogre monsters but both are on scenic bases and both are far too large to use in KOW. So to that end I purchased a box of the CMON "A Song of Ice & Fire" War Mammoths. You get two in a box for the wonderful price of NZD 90 incl post from Amazon.

I've based mine on a Monster Chariot base - 50x100mm - and started to paint it. They are very detailed and sturdy resin models. If everything goes to plan then I'll get it finished in the next week or so.

The other thing I have been doing is painting some of the Perry Miniatures "War of the Roses Infantry". I purchased two boxes which has given me 66 Retinue Longbowmen. These are been split into three groups - 24/24/18 - and are now being painted.

The intention is that they will give me three Lancastrian retinues that I can base - 22 elements - as opponents for my WotR Yorkists. 

Twenty plus years ago, at the Warlords, we fought a number of refights of the major battles in the conflict. My intention is to organise another series of these refights for later in 2022. Given the price of Perry plastics it is very easy to buy and paint up the required figures. 

In this case I have painted them in the liveries of Somerset, Northumberland and Exeter and will look to buy/paint some more as needed.

KOW - Sisters of Sigmar Regiment (Foot Guard in Kingdoms of Men)

 The first Games Workshop figures I bought was the Sisters of Sigmar box released for Mordheim. That must be back in 2000 by my reckoning.

After 20+ years I finally got around to painting them!

Over the past couple of weeks I have built and painted enough Sisters to create a 20 woman regiment. These are truly lovely sculpts and an absolute joy to paint. Obviously they are all metal.

The unit is full of all the various sculpts that came with the Mordheim warband - all the Superiors, Novices, Sisters etc.

I've kept them on the 20mm bases to preserve the value of the figures, given they are bloody hard to get these days. Still have about 10 unpainted figures but most are characters rather than rank and file.

At the moment the intent is to use them as Foot Guard with 2 handed weapons in my growing Kingdom of Men army.

KOW - Ogres vs. Forces of the Abyss in Pillage

A couple of weeks ago I lent my WHFB Ogre Kingdoms army to a local player who was involved in an updated Warhammer Fantasy tournament. 

Citadel Maneaters repurposed as Siegebreakers

After getting it out I thought how easy would it be to port into KoW. So last week I racked up the models in movement trays and "voila" a new army to play.  

Lliam brought along his FotA (some small changes after his fight with my Varangur) and we rolled up "Pillage" with five objectives. Three of these were placed in the corners with two in the middle.

Hobby - Flagellant Unit

 As noted here a couple of weeks ago, I have no real active projects I am working on at the moment. However felt like I should have something on the painting desk so dipped into various cases of shame and pulled out 20 old metal Flagellant figures. 

These were a unit I was going to add to my WHFB Empire army but then....you know...the Old World was destroyed. As a result the figures got chucked into a box.

Last week I started painting the figures and here is my finished unit:

There are a limited number of sculpts (about 6-7) so you get some repetition across the unit.

I was trying to achieve the "Mad Medieval German Zealot" look so they are painted in pretty drab colours - tans, beiges, browns and khakis.

They have been based on a pretty bland gravel and grass (Woodland Scenics Burnt Umbre Fine Turf). This matches what the rest of the army is on. I thought about multibasing but I'm hedging my bets on what happens with "The Old World" and these being tabbed metals.

The plan is that these will form the start of some kind of Brothermark/Kingdoms of Men forces.

Really happy with the unit given it is 3-4 evenings work.

KOW - Varangur vs. Forces of the Abyss in "Control"

On Saturday Lliam and I got to play our first KoW game against each other in 4-5 years. He had his Forces of the Abyss while I used my newly updated Varangur. 

Rolled up "Control" for the mission. Each of six sectors worth 1 point with the exception of your opponent's central sector which is worth 2 points.

The FotA started with US21 while the Varangar had 18. Lliam had 12 drops to my 11.

Fallen and Succubi Slog It Out

In terms of terrain I selected 10 varied pieces and then randomly placed them using die rolls. LLiam chose to go on the far side of the table.

FotA had two Gargoyle units on the base edge and the two regiments of Succubi up on the deployment line (between which is the Temptress) On the hill are a Lower Abyssal Horde, marshalled by a Efreet and a Chroneas at the base.

From the far end of the table you can see the rest of the FotA forces. Two small units of Tortured Souls, the Abyssal Horsemen Horde and the Well of Souls

So I went in with a plan for this army of it working in two mirror image battlegroups. And immediately threw it out the window the first time I deployed it 😊

Instead of what I had envisaged, I split the army into three groups - fast chaff wing on my right (2x Horse Raiders, 1x Snow Fox), an Infantry centre (2x Fallen Hordes, Lord on Frostfang, Magos) and cavalry wing on the left (Korgan Regiment, Frostfang Horde, Lord on Frostfang and Snow Foxes). 

My thinking was predicated once I saw where Lliam had put his Tortured Souls. I thought that these two units had the ability to remove any of my chaff units and I needed these to grab sectors. I also felt that my cavalry wing could win the left of the table.

My Cavalry wing sitting on the hill, Snow Foxes behind.

Fall in centre with Lord and Magos. Chaff on flank

Lliam won roll off and chose to go first. He pushed forward with everything staying outside my charge range. I countered by pushing my chaff forward in an attempt to outflank the FotA but managed to lose a unit of Horse Raiders to a flank charge by the Temptress.


With the rest of his second turn Lliam charged one unit of Fallen with Gargoyles and parked the second in front of the other Fallen. He also charged the Frostfang Cavalry with Tortured Souls while putting the other unit in front of my Korgan. 

To me this was the key moment in the battle. In my Turn 2 I was able to remove both Gargoyle units and both Tortured Souls. This then heavily swung the mobility advantage to the Varangur. It also equalised the US of the two armies at 17 each.

My central Lord charged the Chroneas inflicting some damage on it.

The following picture shows the centre at the end of Varangur Turn 2. Lord in combat with the Chroneas, Raiders and Fallen facing off against the Succubi Regiments. At the top you can see the Lower Abyssals have moved to shore up the FoTA right.

Varangur are feeling happy with the current battle state.

Hobby - Adepticon-bound (hopefully, anyway)

 Tickets for Adepticon 2022 went on sale today. In August last year I managed to book a hotel room at the Renaissance Schaumberg where it is being held and in December booked flights.

Today the tickets for each of the events went on sale and I scooped up 7 out of the 8 painting classes I wanted. Not bad given most were sold out in 3-4 minutes.

I've managed to get three airbrushing classes plus two on painting faces....so pretty stoked.

Obviously, the pachyderm in the room is our border situation. When the flights were booked (and as currently advised) they are slated to be open with MIQ self-isolation. However they have since delayed the opening of the border with Oz.

Hopefully, I'll be able to venture out of our cave. 

Easy Army - Nothing As Queer As Folks (KOW)

 Over on the KOW Fanatics FB group there is currently a post complaining that all the latest content from the Clash of Kings 2022 update hasn't been uploaded to the Easy Army list builder.

Some context. Easy Army is a list builder for Mantic Games maintained by a community volunteer. There is a free version available as well as a paid version ($2/month, $20/year) which gives extra features. One of those extra features is access to a version that is updated with new material sooner. Others include different save (and I believe share) options.

So you can use use the list builder free of charge and, in conjunction, with the free digital version of the rules, play the game for nothing, list build etc.

The debate at the moment is that this is not enough. There are sections of the community who believe that access to to all aspects of Easy Army should be free and that the volunteer who creates and maintains the service should not have any features behind a paywall.

To me, this is a choice issue. If you want the features - and think they add value - then you pay for the service. If you don't think they are worth the cost, you don't. But to expect them for free....well, let's say I don't share your world view.

In a game where you can easily drop $20 for a single figure, the annual cost for Easy Army seems a relative bargain.