Copy Paper Box, Remixed

I stayed up far too late last night finishing off my new photo implement, but it's finished(ish) now and is working well.  I thought my last post was about making the box, but looking back I see that it wasn't, so looks like I need to start earlier in the process than I anticipated and that I'll have less pictures than I thought.  Alas.

US Battle Report - Piled with Pictures part 4

The tables swung wildly last time.  The Iron Dwarves held a solid advantage at the beginning of turn 5, but by the end of turn 7 the tables were level at best, and more likely in favor of the Shroud Mages.  With the ID battleship far from support, and facing the on-rushing Shroud fleet, things look to go poorly for the good shorties.  But the ID have ships in the rear of the Shroud fleet.  Can the ID support take out the Shroud ships before they demolish the ID battleship?  Or will the now dispersed ID be clobbered by the bricked SM?  All will be revealed in the (hopefully) thrilling conclusion to the most epic battle report I've ever written.

US Battle Report - Piled with Pictures, part 3

Last time in the super-long 750 point battle report it started to hit the fan.  While the fleets have engaged, the Shrouds are poised to slip around the SE island and put a temporary halt to the violence.  But will the Iron Dwarves let their prey escape?  Are the Shrouds moving to flank, or are their motives more sinister?  Lots, though not all, shall be revealed in this installment.

US Battle Report - Piled with Pictures, part 2

The first installment covered turns 1 and 2, which saw a lot of maneuvering and a little bit of action.  Now in turn 3, the gaps are smaller than ever and things are about to get hot and heavy.  My ships are poised to take the center of the table.  EV is feeding me a squadron of frigates while sending the rest of his fleet on what looks like a long flanking action

US Battle Report - Piled with Pictures, part 1

EV and I got together on Wednesday morning/early afternoon to try out the proposed Bellows changes.  I thought this would be a good time to do a blow by blow report, complete with a picture for each activation.  Though it made our game much longer than it would have normally been, and will make the reporting process much longer as well, I think it will be interesting and informative.  Whether or not we do anything like this again is up for debate, and the amount of work that goes in to this report will no doubt be considered.  Long as the process will be, getting started is the only way to make it shorter, so here goes.

The new between classes list

The new list looks an awful lot like the old list.  I'm abandoning the ID spreadsheet because tech7 already created a whole program to build fleets with that trumps any crappy spreadsheet I would produce.  I probably mentioned that I finished book 12 of Wheel of Time the other day, so that's the first item crossed off the list before I even write the list.  Speaking of lists, here it is.

Belated weekend recap

Not quite a full week later I finally have time to write-up a run-down on my trip to Fredericksburg.  I chronicled my prep work already, but I left out my route planning.  I had a vague idea of where Fredericksburg is (South), but my grasp of its position was weak enough that I consulted the maps of Google for advice.  It gave me two routes, the one that I had thought to use myself (123 to 95 South), and another that I thought existed but wasn't sure of (out to Manassass, then 234 to 95 South).  The two routes looked similar enough that I went with the one that I was more familiar with, taking 123, though the alternate Manassass route would have dropped me onto 95 a couple miles further south.  This decision would come back to haunt me.

Quick hit as a tiding-over

Being in the midst of the final week of my second summer class, time for gaming (and blogging about gaming) is a rare commodity.  I'll get caught up once class is over, but in the meantime I wanted to put a teeny something up since it's been a while since last time and it'll be a while 'til next time.  The result of this desire?  A little list of 5 things that happened over the weekend.

1 - I finally went to a Sonic.  Twice in fact.

2 - I spent roughly two hours going about 35 miles on an interstate.
3 - I finally laid hands on Strakov, and my Winter Guard Deathstar is now at full power.
4 - I "won" the "tournament" down in Fredericksburg.
5 - I got a second ID battleship which "finishes" my ID fleet. 

A full recap of what all went down is on the way, but now at least whistles have been wetted.

Tournament prep and general housekeeping

While I should have been learning about recent American literature this morning, I was considering what I needed to add to my bag for the tournament this weekend.  I added some smaller dice to my bag to track crew damage, as I only had 2 in the bag previously, some other small dice to mark the odd port/starboard AD reduction, a d8 for wind direction and a scatter die to mark my airship's placement and heading if it ends up on terrain, as it often does.  I found a smaller, keyring-sized tape measure that I'll stick in my bag in case my opponent comes without one, as well as a small bag of glass beads from some TCG that I'll use for activation markers.  I still need to make some wind templates, for my opponents if necessary in the immediate future, but also for my Humans in the not-so-distant future.  I also assembled a second bag of dice thinking that my friend may have been interested in the tournament, though as expected he declined, but I'll bring it along anyway just in case.  It's always better to be over-prepared than get surprised. 

US Battle Report - A Night of Two Games, Part Two

The second half of the night's double-header saw a return to form for me.  I was eager to avenge my loss, but I was a little worried at the same time.  Would my dice come back to me?  Or had I undergone a fundamental paradigm shift?  Could I no longer reasonably expect to beat expected value on nearly every roll?  Would Gorgor's dice continue to make swiss cheese of my ships?  The only way to find out was to get back to it.  I ran the same list, while Gorgor made some changes, which you can find after the break.

US Battle Report - A Night of Two Games, Part One

played two games tonight against Gorgor and his Elves.  They were both 500 points and test run games for the tournament this weekend.  I think VAtank and Kairaven were doing the same, so it was a night to work out some kinks.  I had never played against Elves before, and Gorgor had never played against Dwarves, so it was a learning experience on both sides.  My main aim here was to see how the destroyers worked, as I've been considering swapping them for a heavy cruiser.  EV called off tonight, and I forgot to borrow his smoke and fire markers, so the pictures are not as pretty as usual since I was using scraps of paper as wreck markers.  Lists, pictures, the whole nine, after the break.

Weekend Update

Destroyers are painted and the first coat of varnish is drying.  It's been oppressively hot here for the past couple weeks, but it rained earlier today so it's not quite so bad now.  On the bad side, I may have pushed my "There's no such thing as too much varnish" idea too far.  Things may look different when they've dried a little.

Ready to destroy.  After some varnish, of course.

As the end of the month approaches, so too does the time for the final wave of reinforcements.  While this slow growth experiment hasn't gone exactly like I'd hoped it would, it's been a good experience.  It took a bit of convincing on EV's part to get me to try Uncharted Seas, but having done so I find that I really like the game.  It has, for the most part, simple mechanics that are easy to learn, but still allow for depth in tactics.  The models have grown on me, are quick to paint up, and look pretty good when you're done with them.  Best of all, the models are fairly cheap and you don't need a bunch of them.  I'll do up my total investment when I do the actual reinforcement post, but I'd guess I have maybe $150 invested in the game, including the rule book, which is a low gate to entry as far as war games go.  But I should really save all the reflection for the last post in the 'series.'  In the meantime, a couple lists.

US Battle Report - The First Team Battle

I had a couple new experiences tonight at the FLGS.  We had four show up for US action again, and thanks to a bit of pre-planning we got a team game up and running.  It was my Iron Dwarves and EV's Shroud Mages facing off against Kairaven's Orcs and VAtank's Imperial Humans.  This meant it was also the first time I played in a game where the wind actually mattered.  We played 700 per player, so 1400 a side, which was another first for game size.  We nearly didn't finish before the store closed, but managed to scrape under the wire.  With fleets as big as they were, it shouldn't surprise me that I ended up with a lot of pictures, but it surprised me all the same.  Many pictures, plus all the other battle report goodies, after the break.

More new arrivals

I went by the FLGS today to pick up my destroyers.  They're both smaller and larger than I was expecting.  I'm excited to get painting them, and the cruisers I left in the primer as easily identifiable proxies, but this week is a bit packed so I don't know when I'll get the chance.  While I was there I got pButcher as well to add to my backlog of unopened Warmachine models.  I'm going to have to put a freeze on Warmachine purchases until I get them assembled and primed, and ideally some stuff painted as well.  I've been very good about staying on top of my US ships, but just as bad about getting my Khador painted.  I think it's because I have a large pile of Khador to get through, whereas the ships have come in small batches with plenty of time between additions to get up to date.  Whatever the cause, I need to get some work in on that block of minis.  Maybe when my next mini-summer break comes in a couple weeks.

In other US news, there's a tournament at the end of the month down in Fredericksburg that I plan to attend.  I'll also be able to finally go to Sonic, so it'll be a two for one deal.  I need to work up 500 and 600 point lists, which won't be bad as I have them set already.  The real treat will be a 300 point 'anything goes' list.  Conventional wisdom says to bulk up on big ships and fill from there, which would leave me with something like a flagship, a battleship, and a cruiser.  I think I might go for more flexibility and speed though, maybe battleship, airship, cruiser, destroyer.  I have a bit of time to think about it, and it'll be an interesting exercise.

US Battle Report - A New Challenger Appears

Headed out to the FLGS tonight for gaming.  Despite patronizing the store since it opened many years ago, I've never actually gamed there.  It was a little odd inhabiting the area with the tables in it, but I got past that quick enough.  There were 4 of us altogether tonight, though staggered arrivals thwarted the multiplayer game I had been considering.  EV faced off against some Dragon Lords first while I took pictures and started making notes.  Then more Dragon Lords showed up, so it was time to throw down.  I had hoped to play a game against a wind using fleet, but such was not the case.  I faced off against Kairaven from the Spartan forums.  We played with 600 points, and lists were as such:

Summer "break" retrospective

I had quite a list of things to do over the 2 weeks I had off between summer classes.  Some things got crossed off that list, most didn't.  A visual representation of what I didn't get done.

US Battle Report - The Marathon Battle

Today was sorta the first day for the new lists at 900 points.  The FLGS hasn't gotten the destroyer models yet, so I'm proxying them with regular cruisers.  The FLGS also hasn't had Rippers in for a while.  EV ordered some a week ago.  They didn't arrive before we started, but they did call in the middle of the game, so EV will have them for next time.  To make up points (somewhat), he had an extra battleship.  Was this strictly following fleet composition?  No.  Did I mind?  Not at all.  He was playing 30 points down anyway, so it seemed like a fair enough trade.  Plus he was fielding all the ships he had, so we made do as best possible.  You'll also notice the fancy blue cloth and larger playing surface, both new additions.  It was a day of firsts.

US Battle Report - I Put a Spell on You

Today was the last battle at 650 before we bump up to 900 in July (provided that EV's Rippers show up by then of course).  The last couple games have been a real turkey shoot that haven't been good for either of us, but today's battle was tightly contested and entertaining throughout.  We also only had one or two rules questions, so we're learning the game better as well.  This is also the last battle on a 4'x4' board; we'll be going to 6'x4' for 900 points.  There should also be a new, blue "table" for next time as well.  So much change in the future.  In the present, things stayed the same on the list front.  Next time I'll post updated lists.

Pre-F1 update

Been a quiet couple hobby days.  Played Monsterpocalypse and (the non-Xbox Live version of) Settlers of Catan for the first time on Friday.  Also got the next wave of reinforcements, or at least proxies for them.  It's a couple days early, but I was at the FLGS.  Finally got a set of Warmachine templates so I can stop relying on my opponent having them.  Went out today to take a look at hardboard and pink foam insulation to get an idea of what I'd be spending and what I'd be getting if I go in for making some islands.  Lowe's had ginormous sheets of hardboard, but I couldn't find the pink foam.  I'll try Home Depot on Monday and compare.  Looks like costs will be reasonable(ish) and I'll be able to scratch the terrain itch.  In worse news, a week and half is all I have before my next class starts.  Haven't made any progress on the Khador, but I've gotten a bit of reading in.  The new ships will get painted soon enough, then we'll see about WM or terrain.

US Battle Report - Big Badaboom

In the new light of morning, the airship isn't so bad after all.  I may try and touch it up some, which would be easier and less demoralizing than stripping it and starting over again.  I got in varnished in time to game with as planned.  EV did a random terrain setup again.  He took 7-8 islands and rolled for each of them, including them on a 4+.  He rolled 4d6 for inches and a scarrer die for directiion then placed the island from center accordingly,  Fleets were the same as the last two games.