MMXV - Plans and resolutions

So, what reasonable optimistic targets should this blog and its author set for the new year?

I've got a few in mind already:

• Clear out my backlog cupboard
• Document games, both with batrep here and at least one photo
• Hold some further demo events
• Detail my in- and outflow of models (how many gets completed, and how many gets purchased/sold off)
• Improve the photo-to-text ratio of this blog (let's face it, it's been sparse)
• Getting somewhere on my huge backlog of projects: 

 Firestorm Armada:

• Aquan Prime; 500+ pts of semi-finished stuff, and three times that in white resin
• Two boxes of Kedorians; Primed and battletested, but I need to nail down a paint scheme
• Unknown amount of Terrans; including the Valhalla box and a battlestation
• 8 Terquai Empire cruisers; 4 Torpedo Cruisers all but done, and 4 Assault cruisers still in blister
• Misc bits; Two RSN DDs and two Storm cruisers to be turned into debris, some old defense platforms and satelites, some civilians ships
• Incoming (in a month or so): Return of the Overseers, i.e two Aquan Heavy Cruisers, a Heavy Carrier, four frigates, and two Gunships.

 Firestorm Planetfall/Invasion:

• Aquan Prime; A full Core helix, of which one squad of Recon skimmers is finished, and two medium squadrons are all but finished
• Terran Tarxos Veterans: Too much.... still most of two of the old starters, so 10+ MBTs and assorted support... 
• Terrain; A box of paper Hawk Games terrain, one Spartan Terrainbox 1, and the stuff from the Proteus Prime box
• Incoming (in a month or so): Aquan Prime Heavy Helix (so three Tank Destroyers, a Support Heavy, a support Medium and two crystals)

        

 Dystopian Legions:

• Covenant of Antarctica from the Iron Scorpion box
• Any other CoA that pops up (any month now...)
• The remnants of my Prussians, including a Tankette, an APC and a Heavy Ironclad
• Terrain... Three ruined European houses, and what will become a North African mud house to complement the Iron Scorpion buildings.
 

Quite a backlog... And exclusively Spartan Games related.  

 

 Which brings me to my final point:

• Play more games, some of which should be non-Spartan games.... 

MMXIV - the year in review

With the year over, it's time to get this yearly review going.. (it's whats popular in the blogosphere these days, isn't it?)

So, this has been the year where I've officially stepped away from GW as a gamer (although I'll admit to painting half a model), not that I consider myself stopped playing their games, but with every year I find myself less and less interested in anything they have to offer.
I'll not go on to rant about what they do do right and wrong, suffice to say that there is a reason for no blog posts here with a GW label so far, not even Epic.

Instead, this has been the year where I've started playing Firestorm Armada seriously, getting almost twenty games in this year, which is slightly phenomenal as I've seldom got that much time for gaming, let alone painting a decent force** for a game, but which I've actually accomplished this year.
The reason I've actually got my behind in gear and done something this year is in no small part due to the launch of Firestorm: Armada 2.0 in late 2013, which took a decent rule system with some flaws and turned it into a well polished system with lots of options, and an overall balance that leaves a lot of larger games behind.
This relaunch inspired me and a lot of my clubmates to actually get our nascent fleets in order, and in a few cases start new ones, so I'm not alone in my Firestorm focus.

Inspired by this, I've also spent some time as a Spartan Vanguard, showcasing Armada at our local game store, (shameless plug: Alphaspel), generating a little bit of interest, and we're nearing the point where the game should be able to get on by its own, thanks to Orwellbo... Sorry, Facebook.

As Spartan has taken over as my main source of miniature addiction enabler, it should only be fair to mention the rest of their line up that I've dragged people in to:

Dystopian Legions :Victorian SciFi at it's best; large scale (~32 mm), nice ruleset and beautiful miniatures. I started playing a little short of two years ago, with the 1.0 rules, but this year it also got a 2.0 version, going from a small-scale platoon game to a company sized game.
The actual release leaves a bit to be desired, delays in manufacturing and a rulebook that was not really internally cohesive made the game a bit slow started, but with a FAQ released and the manufacturing issues sorted out I really think this game will take off... The new release has expanded the local player base with about 100%! (Ok, that wasn't hard, with only two to start with...)

Firestorm Planetfall : Once upon a time, back when Epic Armageddon had just started its descent into the abyss, I happened to stumble upon a small-scale game called Invasion, with beautiful sci-fi tanks and support vehicles. The game was made by a gang called Studio Sparta, and was the predecessor for what is currently known as Planetfall. I've been playing Invasion (full name: 'Firestorm Invasion: Planetfall') a dozen or so times the past years, and I look forward to the game line getting more support (and hope that the Terran MAW-09 makes a reappearance, that model really deserves some more table time...)

I've not gotten as many games in of Dystopian Legions 2.0 or Firestorm: Planetfall as I would have liked, but I played enough of both of their predecessors to be be able to recommend the games anyway, and once again I've got a decent amount painted.
A lot of my DL Prussians actually got their paint already last year, but this year I've finished up a lot of things lying semifinished, and moving forward the Covenant of Antarctica will probably be my main force.

I've also been seriously considering Infimity and Malifaux, but not gotten started on either of them. I've printed the Infinity 3d edition rulebook, so I'll probably give it a read-through if nothing else, and I really need to get my Hoffman box for Malifaux painted up as well, especially since his plastic incarnation has been released.

Malifaux is one of the games I've been seriously eying over the year, it has a nice combo of fast to play, different mechanics, and general weirdness (Victorian cyborgs? Yes please...)

A bit rambling, but suffice to say, 2014 has been a fairly good gaming year, and while the first half of 2015 looks like I'll have to concentrate on painting instead of gaming, it should leave me with a lot of things painted to try out on the table...

Stay tuned for some actual resolutions for the new year!

** Which reminds me, I need to do a proper fleet listing for my Armada fleets, both Terrans, Aquans and the minor fleets, but I do know that I've managed to paint ~2200 pts for my Aquan fleet, with a lot more lying around not even started...

Recap

Last post I set myself a optimistic list of things to do in a week....
All in all, I managed about half:

• one game of Armada (a loss, my Terrans vs Avalons stealthy Directorate list, with Stealth or cloak or both on everything bar the Drones)
• one game of Planetfall against Xenon Fire, trying out one of the Scenarios from Proteus Prime book 
• all but completed my Dagon, just the final few highlights and a coat of varnish and it's done.
• not only decided on colours for my FSP Aquans, but got a squad of mediums halfway painted as well!
• most of my two Aquan starters got assembled as well, only the Terquai and the buildings are still unassembled.

I've since kept working on the Lamana mediums,with their attached designator tank, and prototyping the bases, and as of writing this I'm all but done with all four:

A week of work

As I've got some hobby time coming up, I was thinking of making some kind of task list:

*Play at least one game of Armada
*Play more than one game of Planetfall
*Play a game of Legions
*Finish painting my semi-finished DL Prussians
*Finish my Aquan Dagon and Terquai Torpedo Cruisers
*Assemble my FSP Aquan force
*Determine a colour scheme for FSP Aquans and Terquai

A tall order, but Letty's let's see how much I can manage....

Hobby overload

So, October in review:
+Played my first game of Legions 2.0 (with my Prussians)
+Got a decent game of Armada in, against Terrans nonetheless
+Assembled my Iron Scorpion set (word of advice, don't try to rush the automata assembly, it takes a while and some patience)
+Got my DL Black Wolf crew assembled (to be used as Elites for my CoA until something else is available)
+Slapped some paint on my DL Prussians, my lancers are about halfway finished and the APC is only missing some final highlights.
+(Spent a weekend gaming in 1:1 scale)

That being said, I'm way behind, especially now that my half of a Platinum Planetfall set has managed to reach my hobby cupboard as well...
So next week I hope to have some better progress, as I'll have more hobby time for a few days.

Metallic arachnids on the horizon

Finally I've got my shipping notification for my copy of the Iron Scorpion boxed set for Dystopian Legions!
I've been watching the Spartan Games community lately, to find any info regarding the new rule set, and it is shaping up to be a decent successor to DL 1.0.
Concept-wise it is a fairly big shift, and while it is announced as a platoon-level game I'd say it is nearing company-level force sizes (whereas DL 1 was a bit more low-level, if nothing else due to higher level of detail in the mechanics )
At this point it's mostly conjecture, though. Until I've played a few games I'll withhold further comments.

At my painting table a decent amount has happened, my luftlancers has had their smoke plumes painted and washed, my stormwagen has had its interior painted, everything washed, and is undergoing highlighting, and my ruined farms (very nice plastic kits from Warlord Games) finally have some sand on their bases.

Photo evidence:

Stormwagen:

WIP luftlancer:

WIP ruined farm (with artillery grenadier for size):

Overview of my current WIP paint table:

Schedules and plans

So, as suspected, this past few weeks has seen little hobby activity (there is a reason for the blog name..), but some has been done (believe it or not, but a few minutes here and there does give results):

• A Prussian Tankette has both been both block painted and washed (sorry, 'toned' I suppose it should say, as I used Army Painter Strong Tone). These small Ironclads really pack a lot of detail into a model smaller than a normal car, scale wise. Some detailing and a Prussian Scandinavia flag somewhere and it will be ready for sealing!
• My Prussian Stormwagen got most of the block colours painted, I still need to decide on the colour of the interior...
• My Luftlancers at least got started. After their performance last game I'm not sure they deserve paint, but I guess getting dragged down and wiped out by British line infantry should count as an accomplishment of some sort...

As can bee seen, I've focused on DL figures for now, both due to the fact that nice, large areas to paint lend themselves to the "15 frenzied minutes here and there" painting style I've relied on lately, but also due to the fact that Dystopian Legions 2.0 should hit the shelves soon! I'm personally waiting for my copy of Iron Scorpion to turn up at my local postal provider, but until I have some Covenant of Antarctica to assemble and paint my Prussians gets some well deserved paint applied.

With any luck I could try a first game next weekend, or at least get an unboxing blog entry posted...