Antiquity Campaign- Round 2

The Campaign Map after 2 rounds

Hail Caesar play continues with our ongoing Antiquity Campaign.

Again the participants are :

Rome (Rome)
Syracuse
Sparta
Macedonia
Persians- Achaemenid
Rome (Byzantium)


My Sparta played Jeff's Romans this week. and it typical Spartan fashion we won the battle but lost the war. In this case I broke his 50% threshold first so the game ended and I won the game however the points tallied up for the campaign scoring in terms of unit losses and objective points Jeff came out on top. Thats what happens when you have a few of expensive units and alot of cheap ones and lose the expensive ones.  Final Score 25 Byzantium, 23 Sparta.  Syracuse, in a or macro campaign, in which moves are based on your game scores- not whom you physically played that week. Took the Spartan Capital, so I had move it. I did take 4 other territories...we will how it goes in Round 3!

The Liebster Award

I've never been one for these chain letter type awards that go around a couple times a year, but they do  often turn up a good blog I have never seen before. Since I was given this from my favorite blog from down under (NZ not AUS)  That'd be the humbly named  Scott's War-Gaming. I would be sorely remiss if I did not reciprocate.  Scott and I despite living worlds apart have near identical interests..and from what I read, I am sure he and I would game regularly if we lived in any kind of proximity to each other. 

The timing here is good, while this year is low point in blogging for me, I havent really been following the gaming scene in the last couple years and my project output had been minimal due other interests, work and my kids taking up more and more of my time. As a result I just don't find the time I had 5 or so years ago to work large armies etc...(I am struggling to get one Ancients Army painted) I find myself painting random fantasy pieces..(as I enjoy the painting) and playing Lord of the Rings...skirmish games are where its at for me these days, with LotR SBG being Rebranded the Hobbit SBG..and playing in all 3 LotR events at Adepticon this year...this will most likely be a Lord of the Rings Blog for the next 6 months. We've still got our Ancients Campaign happening, and I look forward to trying out some Bolt Action when I get a chance, Like anyone as time goes on my Hobbies and direction change. Anyway I guess what I am trying to say is, while the games might change the Hobbies still there for me..so while its been a slow year..I expect to be picking things up bit really soon.

As for the Liebster Award, thanks for the nomination Scott, and I'll reciprocate to some fellow bloggers some who I know quite well and whose own blogs may have fallen off like mine but could come back at anytime, with any and all things gaming related, and they'll be good.

As part of receiving this award I am to pass this on to five other bloggers, (I'll list the criteria at end)
whose blogs I enjoy......(no particular order)

#1 Cursed Treasures-  My pal Tim out of Phoenix, Az. Tim was the author of the Legends of the High Seas book for Warhammer Historical and I met him thru Adepticon and my fandom of the game. Tim is righteous dude and we share similar interests in gaming from Pirates, LotR to WW2 gaming . Tim
is a great painter and gets into some other genres I've only been able to muse about like Old West and Pulp Gaming.

#2. Little Green Monsters  is my friend Aarons blog, Aaron is one of  our club night regulars and could be sculpting professionally if he wanted to and it paid the bills...he is a green stuff master, and while is output is sporadic his sculpting and conversion work on various WFB models is very well known around the scene here and worth a look. He's also has several bad ass FoW armies winning best appearance for his  early Soviet Army at last years Adepticon.

#3 Fist Full of Seamen. Ive spoken to this fellow on the Lead Adventure forum a couple times about our shared love of Pirate Ships. My friend here ( whose name is escaping me)  is the master, period of 28mm Pirate Ship building and converting. His gigantic fleet of ships is awe inspiring. (please go thru his archives to see all his ships.) He runs massive games on giant tables at these unknown Pirate events, that I have never heard off, that lie out the realm of GW organized gaming, and in the straight up Historical gaming camp.  I was invited to one of these events in Kansas City but could not attend, the blog lists the author as being in Wyoming, so I am not sure where the fellow actually is but like a good pirate he keeps his location well guarded.

#4 Belched from the Depths - if you're into old fantasy miniatures, like I am and have been collecting them for 35 years..then you will want to check out "Spooktalker"'s blog. Like me he apparently has lots of what I have sitting around in dusty boxes from a lifetime of collecting, but his stuff is all masterfully converted and painted. Probably one of my top five painters on the Lead Adventure forum (which is saying alot) and he wasnt even in last years Lead Painters League. Give it look , especially if you are into retro D&D, OSR gaming, you will be pleased.

#5. Chicago Terrain Factory- This is Rich's blog which has been around longer than mine. Rich has been the anchor of the Club since it moved into my basement.  Rich is also the guy that got me into Hirst Arts building. His Historical Armies are just great and have grown seeming exponentially over the last 3 years of so...He only works on Historicals these days and it shows...check out his awesome Arab Army, and he's getting fully painted units of alot of the new releases coming out (fireforge, etc) regularly. When he Chris get a chance to play in our current campaign with awesome fully painted Armies...I'll be there to take the pictures. Check out Chicago Terrain Factory for archives going back further than mine or info on his yearly (And now always sold out, Hirst Arts seminar at Adepticon)

Lastly here is the criteria for my nominees should you choose to partake

1. Copy and paste the award on your blog linking it to the blogger who has given it you.

2. Pass the award to your top 5 favourite blogs with less than 200 followers by leaving a comment on one of their posts to notify them that they have won the award and listing them on your own blog.

3. Sit back and bask in the warm fuzzy feeling that comes with knowing you have made someones day!

4. There is no obligation to pass this onto someone else but its nice if you take the time to do so.



I'll be back shortly with our Antiquity Campaigns Round 2 Map and the unboxing for the new LotR release, (err. Hobbit Release!) Escape from Goblin Town.

Bilbos Birthday Bash 2012- The Report!

Bilbos Birthday Bash 2012,  has concluded, another awesome year for what is now the only other Indy GT for LotR SBG left other than Adepticon.  It was a great weekend. I had a great time with some great company.  Final Scores are posted below I did very well for going 3-3 coming in 4th place overall due to high soft scores. I also snagged Best Appearance , Evil Army for my Angmar Army.  Top, top stuff this year, in the appearance department, most notably Jim Wappel who brought his professional touch to the event blowing everyones mind with pretty much the best stuff I've seen for the game ever. Pages of White Dwarf included. My pictures dont do it justice. He got the Best Overall appearance award, while Jeremy Williams  and I split the individual good/evil appearance trophies. In the gameplay department, Kyle Toth blew all the competitiion of the water winning over all by 40 points!..I thought my 18 point lead at the Adepticon Championships was high, well he over doubled it.

Alot of first's this year, alot of new players, new awards, catered lunch. We had seven players (23% of the field) drop out within 48 hours of the tourney, that is was huge number and a bummer the positive note is given who wasnt here, and the new players that were, I dont think 40 players is an unreasonable number next year getting back to 2011's attendance. Despite my fondness for Tim at the Chicago Battle Bunker, and the staff always courtesy and friendly. I think this event has run its course there. With tourney and the game as it stands, some other venue would be much better suited. GW offers no prize support, it was all donated or purchased from entry fees and the Bunker in its new configuration is just too crowded..Having to play a LotR tourney shoulder to shoulder with casual games of 40K wasn't ideal. Minor points of an otherwise great weekend. I'd love to see BBB become along the lines of some the popular WFB tourneys here which a two day affairs in hotel ballrooms with amenities, places to stay for out of towners, etc. The one thing I do miss about WFB, certainly not "The Game" but the quality of the Events. BBB is the cream of the crop for the system by far (now that GitD has rode into the sunset for LotR) but despite the fun time at dinner saturday night, better access to things like coffee, alcohol, food and bathrooms without the GW store restrictions would be nice.

Anyway not to sour the events of the weekend in anyway. again a great time, and everyone went home thinking about what the bringing to Adepticon and what the new hobbit movies are going bring , will know in just a month.!

If you are interested in my games and some analysis..I didnt keep track of enough for proper battle reports but my games went down like this.  Scenarios were Domination , Lords of Battle, and Reconnoiter.

Saturday

 Grey Company vs Corsairs of Umbar- Minor Defeat

Angmar vs Erebor  Major Defeat 

Angmar vs Rohan  Minor Victory

Sunday

Grey Company vs Moria- Minor Victory

Angmar vs Rohan- Minor Defeat

Grey Company vs Mordor - Major Victory

My Grey Company performed stellar, I faced a nasty Corsairs army first round, I have played them in years, and hadnt played my Grey Company in this configuration ever, or at all in over a year. It took me awhile to back in the swing, I'll chalk that first game up to being very very rusty, over the GC list in the new books at 30 models is very powerful.  My Angmar list has some good tricks, again learning them under pressure. Hadnt never used any of the new models (witch king, bhurdur or the shade) in a game before  Shade is keeper at 100 points, Bhurdur no way at 110 he's just not worth it.

while he looks awesome, another Orc Captain and 8 Warriors and another tracker would have made a much more formidable force.  Anyway that's all I have on BBB, as always props to Brent and Chris for running it and all the hardwork..I'll close it out with a bunch of pictures of alot of James Wappel's stuff and the final results.

Antiquity Campaign Round 1

The Campaign Map after one round of play. Stars are number of Armies in individual territories.

We started our antiquity campaign using Warlord Games. Hail Caesar rule set a few weeks ago, a sick day today gave me the time to get this map posted.

Again the participants are :

Rome (Rome)
Syracuse
Sparta
Macedonia

Persians
Rome (Byzantium)

Totally quasi historical based on time frame around the Peloponnesian Wars. Syracuse and Macedonia were the big winners on Tuesday scoring close to 30 points a piece while the rest of us scored less than 10 points. My Spartans looks to Syracuse in a game that seem close until it broke open huge for Rich around round 4. it was all downhill from there.

Arnor Vs Angmar- BBB 2012

 Finally got my entries for this years Bilbo's Birthday Bash completed. This year the format is presenting 2 -600 point armies , One good, One Evil in 6 games over two days. I've already shown you my Arnor / Grey Company army awhile back, but here is the whole set up with Angmar half.
I chose one display for both, after racking my brain with alot of ideas that would include time I didn't have, so I've modified this years big Hirst piece I did with the box that used to house the Skirmish Dungeon (which has grown much larger than this)  All in all I didn't paint too many new models for this years Angmar entry, Buhrdur, the Witch King, some more Orc Trackers and some more old metal orcs that's about it. I'm throwing in my Shelob and my 1985 Gollum back into the paint contest this year and see how they do. Looking forward to next weekend as this always a great event. I dont have high personal expectations, in fact I haven't gotten a chance to even play my final version the Angmar Army, just going to roll some dice and have fun and look at all the awesome stuff people bring out.

Adepticon has some event changes for 2013 for LotR, the Team Tourney this year is being restructured as a partnered singles event (which was the original format) which should be pretty cool given the lower model counts with the new rules, I may even squeak out that fiefdoms army I've been talking about for years..its all modeled up and primed (more of less) I'd just have to paint it.

We were all hoping we'd see some of the Hobbit new release this month, no idea how thats going to change the game but as its now Decemeber, I'll guess we will find out soon enough.

On with the picture show, I'll have full BBB write up post event.

Reaper Kickstarter Locks in

Yup this is what $100 got you when it was all said and done, WOW.

While I doubt any of you haven’t heard about Reapers Epic Kickstarter  that  concluded in late August and blew expectations out of the water bringing in almost 3.5 Million dollars. They recently got the software configured to organize all the orders.  The Kickstarter standard survey wouldn’t suffice here so it took some time to get all the details ironed out.  I ended up going in for $180 with options on my initial $100 pledge.My full order was: 

Vampire pledge level x1 $100
 W/ Options

-- Figure Case x1 $25

-- Red Dragon x1 $10

-- Hydra x1 $15

-- C'thulhu x1 $10

-- Undead Giant x1 $10

-- Mythos Monsters x1 $10

The big pay off here will be if the plastic versions of these miniatures are up to snuff, I have heard good reports of the quality of these. Considering I have well over 100 metal Reaper figs, I do expect them to be lesser quality but lets hope its solid, The success of this entire project in the end will boil down to the quality of the figures..I guess we shall see this spring.

Hail Caesar! Fall Campaign

Summer has turned to Fall for our next Hail Caesar Campaign.  With our homebrew rules defined.
a new map in order, armies being built and itchy dice we are now just working on an agreeable date to start, which I am hoping is Oct 16th.  The participants are Syracuse, Rome, Sparta, Macedonia, and two different Persian lists: The Seleucid Empire, and Achaemenid Empire.

Again our quasi historical re-imagining of the Peloponnesian War. Not sure on everyone else's army status, (other than Chris and Rich are fully built and painted) while the rest of are in some build phase. Time is my worst enemy of late, I hope to be losing the proxies of at least the full army by the end of the month. If you want to read more about the campaign join up on the blog forum (link on the left) activity has been slow of late but once we get going on this it certainly will pick up alot.

I'll of be doing our bi-weekly updates here on the blog. Ok back to trying to paint some Angmar!.