My Favorite Things 2018

My Favorite Things 2018

I always finish the year out on the blog with some sort of year  end commentary on my wargaming hobby. This year I thought I’d try something different, instead of toothless resolutions or lamenting my lack of posting I thought I mention my favorite wargaming related things of 2018, I may not have played a ton of games this year or go to Adepticon but I did actually do more than last couple years combined (or least it feels like it) so as we kiss off 2018 here’s what was keeping me busy this year when it comes to wargaming.

Favorite Miniatures Company:

Reaper Miniatures

Not too much of a shock if you’ve read the blog the last 12 years, they’re always in the background and always right there besides whatever else I am talking about.  I’ve been a fan, I’ve been highly irritated by some decisions thye’ve made but they’ve have persevered and have kept my loyalty longer than any other miniature company. This year I bought , built and painted more Reaper than any other manufacture, for  overall variety., customer service and turning The “Bones”  line around- I would say 180 degrees in the time between Bones I and IV. Reaper I don’t give you props enough and while you don’t get the credit in the wargaming world  like you do from the RPG world…this year I want to take the time and say you rocked.

Favorite Gaming product

Hands down, no contest. 

 Terrain Crate from Mantic Games.

 Ronnie Renton is clearly a "throw it all at the wall and see what sticks kind of guy", Mantics taken its lumps when it comes to its games , games design and its miniatures , they’ve got stuff people love and stuff people hate but there is definitely something to be said about  their ability to “please some of the people- all of the time”  in fact -they should use that as their new motto !.  Terrain Crate was a well designed brilliant idea.  I am kicking myself (no pun intended) for not getting in huge (or at all) on the Kickstarter , I was happy I got in early post kickstarter ebay scene to gobble some stuff up before it all KS releases sold out.  Now I am not sure how the Kickstarter played out for backers but for as the retail consumer on this it worked out great for me, large sets, small sets , even little one of tiny sets,. Well priced and good durable material and  nice solid , old school designs without stupid skulls all over everything….. Great job Mantic.

Favorite Hobby Accessory

Woodland Scenics Earth Colors Black Pigment- 

This stuff is my hobby mojo, black gold, magic powder.It’s been around forever I’ve used it forever and its something again I don’t mention enough. I use it for terrain painting and shading , vehicle detailing and shading  and as miniature wash and shade. A thick pigment that you can use as is or mix with water or a medium gel  to create the desired consistency, I never found a black wash on the market I’ve liked as much as any I can make from this stuff. I use their Raw and Brunt Umber pigments with much regularity too, but not as much as black…If you think my miniatures look cool..Ive used this on all of them!

Favorite Game 2018-

Another “no contest”  choice :

Rangers of Shadow Deep by Joseph McCullough

While I have not played a ton of games this year , I have picked up or at least  checked out a decent amount of games. Things I played : Otherworld Skirmish, Rogue Stars, Deadzone and even a refresher game of Frostgrave, just the other day.  Things I checked out I wish I could play but know I never will:  Song of Ice and Fire, Gaslands, This is not a Test, and Last Days: Zombie apocalypse and Dracula’s America .To finally games I bought but never played or have not gotten a chance to yet: Frostgrave -(Maze of Malcor), Star Saga,  New Releases for Song of Blades and Heroes, and Bolt Action 2^nd Edition books.  Out of all that- nothing got me as excited to roll dice as Rangers of Shadow Deep, what can I say it just clicks all  the right buttons for me AND I get to use my painted miniatures and terrain that I haven’t in used in years again..WIN/WIN

Thanks Joe.   (Rangers Ep3 ..is coming soon hopefully this year!)

Favorite You Tube “Gamer” Channel  2018

Guerrilla Miniature Games- 

I probably subscribe to about dozen or so Hobby related You Tube channels. This one kind of took off for me this year. I met Ash Barker way back in probably 2007 when he was still with GW and was visiting my local GW shop that my pal Jeff used to run. It took a while of watching the channel to realize I had actually met the guy years ago  and chatted with him about our WFB club at the time. Not sure if the fleeting personal connection  has biased me but I started gravitating to his channel more and more. As a stay home at dad, he manages to produce a mind blowing amount of content,  sure I don’t like at least half of it , but the other half I do and he’s is great at play testing and demoing games and his hobby skills are top notch. check him out and subscribe and even support him if you are so inclined.

 Favorite Stupid Idea 2018

Mantic Games – Star Saga

Mantic has to take the good with bad, another “promise you the world” , “looks awesome” Kickstarter that you’ll get at some point- long after you stopped caring . This was actually ordered in 2016!!  Shipped Dec 2017 And didn’t arrive at my door until first thing 2018..  To make the pain a little stronger- all my extras (what I wanted most ) were in Wave 2 AND didn’t arrive until just this month a year! after the initial game shipped, while this looked super cool at the time of the KS campaign, In the end  I was way less than impressed with the final components  and did even want to punch it out, after checking out the figures , I packed it up nice and sold this thing on eBay  ASAP while the release buzz was hot. The reason I call this my favorite stupid idea was I sold it to a nice fellow who paid for it and the mystery wave 2 game play items  in advance even thou I couldn’t ship it to him until 9 months later , I got a great price and got to keep the resin core figures and extra terrain I added on as an extra and still made all my money back and some…for me that doesn’t happen too often. I should backed Terrain Crate instead, no..I should just say NO to Mantic kickstarters and get the stuff retail.

Favorite Kickstarter 2018

Reaper Bones IV

Some of you might remember  I was big Bones I supporter, and I came out right away calling it “crap” as soon as I got my hands on it. And I still stand by that -the Bones I figures are crap, I cut them up use them as tokens , dead bodies , scenery whatever, some of the small figures paint up ok, many are unusable sitting in a box my kids test paint them.- they’ll never see the gaming table.  Cheap bendy plastic lacking the detail of even your average board game pieces on the market  today. All of the larger figures were ok I always said that, BUT Bones has come along way and Reaper has taken all that investment to making these figures better, The Bones figures  now at retail that were in Bones I are miles better than their original counterparts. Post Bones II and III releases have gotten progressively and noticeable better and better.  Its why I decided to take the plunge and back Bones IV, I love the designs many done by my favorite Reaper Sculptors  , Bob Ridolfi and Julie Guthrie,  This was 2017 Buy in for 2019 delivery , it my favorite Kickstarter because of regular  informed updates all thru the year with pictures of finished products and delivery looks to be on time for Feb 2019…Reaper has got the KS thing figured out.

And…That’s it for my obligatory year end post….one more Bat Rep for me this year  and I’ll be head down work mode with a big project in January, Ill be back in the new year, with more Blackbarrow, More Rangers of Shadow Deep, A new Hirst Arts project,  Frostgrave and Adepticon…see ya then .