Happy New Year Or 2017 - The Plan

I've just looked back through the blog and could say pretty much what I said this time last year. Something about how few posts I've done and how little gaming that there was in them. That said, it was better than last year. I was hoping for a bit of a change around this year but with my dad passing and my mum being ill and a house move, I was bracing myself for some disappointment.

In actual fact there wasn't all that much gaming going on. There was more painting than the blogs shows and I guess I will get round to posting some of that. I got more blogging done this year but not as much as I would have liked. I did get some gaming done but again, more would have been better. Lets face it, it wasn't the biggest bar to beat. The wood working projects ended with the move. The house has led to a bit of a downsize and too much of my stuff is now in the garage which is currently inaccessible. The undead got done. Some work was done of the X-Com figures and I have even managed to do a bit on them today. I have played the new X-Com but like the older one better. I got some post apocalyptic figures to do but I am not sure how far I am going to get with that this year. Bits for the Viking game and Frostgrave got done but even more has arrived. So whilst it has progressed the queue has got bigger for this. I have done a few test pieces for making a load dungeon terrain. This did not go anywhere but I did some painting of resin, plastic and metal terrain. Some 6mm Napoleonics and some work towards a Titansgrave game got done too

So on to 2017. What do I really think is going to happen? I am pretty sure that I haven't figured that out yet. Again. I am already getting that good news, bad news vibe about it, but I am hoping for the best. Again.

X-Com is still a going concern. I have been working on  this a little bit at a time. I have yet to source some of the figures for the game which is why I guess I am still going slow with this. Chances of completing this project in 2017 about 25%.

The Viking game is going to keep going. I am looking more at monsters and demi-humans and other races than I am Vikings. I have quite a few animals that I can see being painted up. I have some rat men to finish off. Not strictly on mission but they have been sitting around a while and I need them dealt with. There are also some ents/dryads that need painting. I am also going to continue working on the rules and background. This is a Savage Worlds game which is already at the 140 page mark. This is never going to be finished merely temporarily abandoned.

Frostgrave, I have a lot of stuff for Frostgrave. I can't really see me doing a game of it this year. I can see me painting some figures especially the ones that fit in with the Viking game. They are some nice fantasy figures. They fit with my Viking game stuff, mostly, ish and with my more mainstream fantasy game.

Titansgrave is going to be an ongoing project. I like the scifi/fantasy crossover. It's got a very John Carter like core but with dwarves and elves rather than Martians. I guess this is going to be a biggish project that is unlikely to get finished this year. Part of the problem is that I need to source some figures. This is going to be a project where conversions are required so should be fun. I have humans that I can use, Saurians in the production queue and some plastic orcs in a box. Other stuff is work in progress.

Blood Bowl is a new/old project. I got the new version of the game. I may even get a second set, just for the figures. I am likely to paint a few teams this year. I have about four teams to paint already. Two new two old. For the new teams I want more figures so I am waiting until I get these extra figures until I start this project.

There are a few projects that I am likely to touch on. I can imagine that I might do some 6mm Napoleonics again. WWW2 is rarely far away from my mind. The new stuff from from Warlord might tempt me at some point. I have an idea for a 15mm battle mecha project. This is still in the rules stage but I have a few ideas. I keep tinkering with my own savage worlds rule set but this is way off being complete.  This would not take much to get going. I have some super hero figures but not enough to start a meaningful project. This is likely to stay on hold for a bit too. English Civil War figures also seem on the agenda but not today. VBCW and post apocalyse still seem on the cards too.

There must be something to do with all this work. I am going to start role playing again this month. I would also like to do a bit of board gaming too. I would like to get away for at least one weekend of gaming this year and hopefully two.

We will see...

Dead Rising 4 Or Christmas And Zombies

The year is about to come to an end. Zombies, what is better than a game about zombies? A zombie game set at Christmas. Talk about senseless violence. I love the franchise nearly as much as Fallout. I think it was when I got to kill a horde of zombies with a park bench in the first game that I was sold on it. Hordes of the things that never seem to stop coming. You can pick up  practically anything and use it to club things to death. In the first game I had a kill count of over 100,000 zombies. After four days with the game I am just touching 30,000 and now, a few days later I am almost at the 100,000 mark.

Guns seem to be playing a bigger role in the game. In the first game you could count yourself lucky to get a pistol. With this game (which is set in the future) guns, even energy weapons, are much more common. This makes the zombies much easier to kill. I am a lot less likely to die.

Creating combo weapons was the focus of Games two and in three and now four, combo vehicles are the big thing. Taking a segway and a golf cart, a classic car and a ski-mobile and a go cart and an electric wheelchair for example. All good fun. A quick step to mas slaughter.

I got a copy of Dead Rising just before Christmas. I finished it three days later. It was a rocky ride but I only died about a dozen times and bear in mind this was achieved in a few days whilst I have been busy buying Christmas trees and all the usual seasonal stuff. Story line is therefore a little light but who cares when there are zombies to kill right? There just isn't enough game there to keep me happy. That said I have started it again, finished it and started it again, just to find all the trophies.

There is even a Christmas sticking stuffer. All the zombies become Santa's elf helper zombies and a few other bits. Nice but I have turned it off already.

For various reasons. the Character of Frank West, the main protagonist of the game is a character I associate with more than any other. I should probably get myself a camera.

The game is set in a place called Willamette. Oddly the same place where a lot of the action takes place in the book The Postman. It has a massive shopping mall which is odd for a settlement which is home to three hundred people.

Workbench Clean Up

I actually got to spend some time on my work bench today. I didn't get a chance to do anything practical. I had spent so much any time painting. The desk had just become a dumping ground over Christmas, that was on top of the mess that was already there.

So now it is cleaner than it ever has been, ever on the day it was first put together.

Merry Christmas One And All

Merry Christmas everyone.Hope it's a good one.

Winter, I Mean Christmas Is Coming

Although I haven't been posting much this month, there has been some work going on. Family illness has meant I had lost my work area. Due to an even greater decline in health, albeit temporary, I have got my work bench back. Yeah. Nothing good going on here. Still busy here though.  One day I managed to glue one arm on a miniature and that was about it.

I was looking around the workbench and found there was plenty of stuff hanging around part painted. Not least of which is the X-Com figures. They have become the background project when the really should be the foreground project. The plan was to make a foam tray full (36 figures) for the good guys. Mostly the required figures are soldiers, 21 in total.  I also wanted some casualties, as there is a limit as to how many figures the Skyranger will hold, five figures would be enough as once there are six bodies on the floor it's game over. The rest would be science types and command figures.

I am still looking for a good duplicate for Bradford. I am currently looking at the possibility of getting a Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart figure and doing a head swap.



So I finished the casualty figures. I think I have posted a few before but now I have the five. Some have look better than others. I like the one that has bunched up more than the others. It looks like one of the soldiers from the original game. Some have a few minor conversions just to make the legs look right. Like the other figures, I have gotten rid of the winged death's heads and simplified a lot of the extra techie stuff. A few little touches have made them look a lot better.

Then I have moved on to the zombies. Again I would never need more than five of them. Some are more converted than others. These will definitely not be in the player character foam tray. I want to keep them as a surprise.