The Slayers roam the Underworlds

  It's been a while since I posted anything about Shadespire and I figured it was about time.  In fact, you'll see another one next post!  But I wanted to get to this one first since there's a story behind it. 

  I have a good buddy coming down to visit at the end of this month.  This guy got into the hobby with me at the same time (we were opponents for much of our developmental years) and he even ran a game store for a little while.  Our love of miniatures gaming goes back all the way to my beginning, and it's kept going (despite his having no time or opponents to play where he lives now).  His visit is for other reasons, but we also plan to get his dice-rolling and mini-pushing muscles back to work. 

  When I was up to visit him many moons ago, I bought the Shadespire box set from his LGS.  We opened it up and checked out the models and it was awesome!  Months passed before we could get together again and we pulled that game back out to give it a go.  He LOVED it!  The models were fantastic, the rules were simple, and the gameplay didn't take entire weekends to enjoy.  With that, he returned home to pick up a bunch of the warbands himself. 

  Knowing that he was coming down to visit soon, he called me and asked if he could crash on my couch and also for advice on how to build a good Fireslayer deck for Shadespire.  Dammit!  I helped him with some ideas (this is a game I'm not actually bad at, unlike most of our other games) and then pulled out my models with the plan to get them painted.  He'll have the deck, but he won't travel with models for obvious reasons...If he reads this (and I doubt that he does), the surprise will be ruined.  But I am hoping to surprise him with a painted warband to use when he gets here. 


The Chosen Axes

   This warband's strength is in defense.  They gain glory points by standing on objectives and they become tougher when doing so.  They get 'inspired' by defending their treasure horde (in the form of objectives) and hit really hard just when you think they'll do nothing but stand there.  They can be vicious if played right. 

  

  Their weaknesses are in speed and requiring so many ploys and upgrades to really become effective.  Poor placement of the boards and objective markers can make their plight much more difficult, and faster bands like Skaven and Reavers can simply outrun them.  But some proper planning and powerful ploys can even the field quite easily.  

  The models are awesome!  They are wearing very little in terms of clothing and armor, but the detail in their weapons and helms is insane!  Better yet, I enjoy painting flesh (one of my hobby strengths) and these models are rife with it.  I didn't want to paint them to look like everyone else's slayers, and I also wanted these to be usable in other fantasy games (like D&D) since I don't have many dwarfs left in my collection.  So I chose a more 'realistic' color scheme.  

  My son has already used these dwarfs to great effect, so I'm curious to see how my buddy's deck works.  Hopefully he doesn't beat us too badly (and vice-versa)...  Let me know what you think and, as always- 

Happy Hobbying!

300 and a Primarch!!!

  This is my 300th published post!!!  I'm so excited as I never imagined that I would make it this far.  I do have to admit that I should have reached this point about three years ago, but I haven't been very disciplined.  But hey, this is a hobby blog about a hobby, so whatever!

  I do want to take this time to also send a huge THANK YOU to my 'loyal readers', or followers in blogosphere terms.  While this isn't a paid channel or even an 'influencer' job, it's still very awesome to have people show me in their blog rolls and have the patience to read my ramblings.  So again-

https://postmuseapp.com/say-thank-you-to-your-followers/

  Now that the gratitude part is out of the way (with more 'thank you's implied throughout, I promise), let's get to the plans I have and the actual point of this post:

  If you've been following this blog for any amount of time, you know that it's about my hobby and games with my family and a few friends.  It's not limited to Warhammer 40,000, but that certainly seems to be the dominant theme.  And that's because it's my second-longest game after Dungeons & Dragons.  Unfortunately, D&D isn't really a blog-worthy subject, so I fall back on the grimdark.  But there's only so much I can do with batreps on this site.  To support that point, my son and I have played a half-dozen games since the last batrep I posted and even more that the computer messed up before I could post.  It takes a long time and really hampers the enjoyment of PLAYING THE GAME when we have to stop every few minutes to take pictures and then write some notes.  Now I'm not saying that I've abandoned the batreps, but maybe there's a better way.

  We spend a good amount of time each week watching batreps online and this got me motivated to maybe explore that format myself.  Video batreps don't really interfere with the pace of the game and they give a great insight into the actual personality of those playing.  For example- my writing makes me sound so much smarter and cheerful than my voice actually is in real life.  I'm a trained writer (still waiting to finish something that can be published) and a skilled speaker (I've been a corporate trainer for over a decade), but I'm not nearly as upbeat as my posts might otherwise sound.  But there's an obstacle to doing video batreps that most people don't consider- I don't have a TV face!  I have a radio voice and the ability to express myself in an education and enthralling way, but I'm not pretty enough to show up on camera.  After all, I'm not trying to scare my audience away.

  But that isn't going to haoold me back.  My son and I have already played a game and recorded it on my phone and I've already built the video track for introduction and discussion.  I just have to splice all the videos together and build the actual batrep.  My plan is to load this up on the Youtube and eventually turn that into a venture.  But I'm still learning.  Plus, I don't have the professonal equipment or programs to do animations and layovers, meaning that my stuff will be amateurish at best.  Stay tuned for more progress on that as I learn and grow.

  Next comes my painting goal- "Operation Azul".  This is where I plan to get four fully-painted armies finished by the end of 2019 and culminating in my vaunted Ultramarines being painted.  So far this year, I've finished my Adeptus Custodes and a Bolt Action Soviet army for a buddy.  I'm supposed to be working on my Chaos Space Marines right now and then get back to my Ultramarines, but I've fallen quite a bit behind (hey, I'm halfway there!).  As I've mentioned before, I have other real life priorities and an excessive load of laziness to overcome.  But I'm still planning on completing this mission, even if it means having to rush a few brush strokes.  Again, stay tuned for that progress.

  On the note of promising to get models painted- my buddy bet me that I couldn't get my Primarch Roboute Guilliman painted.  That bet was made more than two years ago when I purchased the Gathering Storm III box and book.  I dragged and dragged and failed to get anything accomplished for quite some time, much to the chagrin of my buddy.  Funny enough, he had his own model and was beginning to be convinced that he would finish his before I finished mine.  In fact, we even made a bet that he would get his Primarch Leman Russ model released (40k version, not 30k) and painted before Bobby G.  Luckily, GW gave me a break and hasn't brought the Wolf Lord out [yet].  It still took me two years to get him done.

The point of this article, finally!
  Now I must disclose that I got this model finished just before midnight of Dec. 31st, 2018.  I said that I would finally finish it before this new year started and I did- with mere seconds to spare!  Below are some of the progress pics and then the finished product.  Note that the 'progress' pictures aren't at all edited, so forgive the offensive coloring and poor sizing...

Built and basecoated:

The hard part- gold and detailing:

Basically finished on the basics:

 Highlighting and basing:

The finished product:

 Close-up of the important details:

  And there we go!  I didn't get a chance to paint it to a 'display' standard, but it's still above a 'tabletop' standard and I'm really satisfied with it.  I also have to note that this model looks really good despite my lack of skills because the model is just absolutely amazing.  I remember when it first came out and I didn't like it.  The model was too boxy, the armor was too chaos-y, and the face was especially flat (by the way, I did paint the face and can replace the helmet anytime I'd like, but I like the helmeted head so much more that I just ignore the bare one).  But after painting it and staring at it for hours and hours, the model has grown on me.  Games Workshop really outdid themselves on this one.  So this model's awesome appearance is less ME and more GW.  Credit where credit is due...

  Well, that's it for this post!  Again, I want to thank everyone who reads my blog and puts up with the random rantings that often make it up.  Please advertise me to your friends and sign up as a Follower- I like to be noticed, even if I ain't pretty enough for pictures.  Stay tuned for more and, as always-

Happy Hobbying!