Monday, February 15, 2010

Already Stumbling

So it appears that my big plan for getting on some sort of painting kick has already been foiled. Despite engaging in all of the necessary preparatory steps, including braving the cold to do some priming, I'm not going to be able to even make round 1 of the Lead Painter's League. My inability to recognize conflicting plans meant I forgot that I was going to be gone the rest of this week on a trip to NYC. So that means 5 fewer painting days, which I desperately needed.

What makes this an even greater bummer is that this season of the LPL has been subjected to a new rule forbidding entrants to join in later rounds. Unlike year's past, unless you can make the first round, you can't participate. Hopefully I can use the ongoing LPL as a backdrop for my own painting, and thereby stay motivated, but we'll see how that goes.

Thursday, February 04, 2010

Res on Res

Played a 35 soulstone game of Malifaux last night, for my third total game and third total loss. I'm recognizing a trend here. The conflict featured Seamus (me) against McMourning. Making use of some of my newly acquired figures (notice the significant uptick in "models purchased") I fielded the following:

  • Seamus
  • Copycat Killer
  • Mortimer
  • 2 Rotten Belles
  • Zombie Punk Samurai
  • 3 Canine Remains
That's only a total of 28 soulstones spent, leaving me with a hefty seven to add to Seamus' cache of two. In my prior two games I've seemed to cycle through my soulstones quickly, and in batches, so having a healthy reserve available to me seemed like the best idea. Although I could have afforded another model or two with those extra points, I'm still not convinced that my plan wasn't a sound one.

I flipped an Annihilation mission while my opponent had recon. Schemes were the Resurrectionist one for me vs. "An Eye for an Eye" for him. Ultimately the game was a draw, ending after the sixth turn in a 0vp to 0vp tie. But it really wasn't much of a tie with only a wounded Belle, nearly dead Seamus, and the Copycat Killer left in my force, against a wounded Necropunk, a healthy Sebastian and Convict Gunslinger, a wounded McMourning, and a freshly summoned Flesh Construct. I realize it's only my third game, and both my opponent and most of this gaming group are veterans of synergistic games like Warmachine, but I just don't seem to be catching on to this style of miniature gaming. Fortunately I like the models and setting enough that I haven't just packed it in yet. But, of course, I am only three games in . . .

Monday, February 01, 2010

Blogging in the New Year

True, we're now more than a month into 2010, but tardy is better than being a complete no-show. The last month has seen me tinkering substantially with the blog, creating yet another layout and appearance, but has also seen me more regularly playing games than I have in quite some time. As the summary in the left column shows, I've averaged about a game a week this year and have another game of Malifaux scheduled for Wednesday night.

What I haven't been doing, as usual, is painting however. I've resolved to address that failing as well, and to help spur me towards this goal I'll be participating in the Lead Adventure Forum's "Lead Painters' League". I'll let the link to the site take care of the explanation.

Since getting a minimum of five figures painted each week will be a chore, especially for me, I'm determined to plan out at least the first half of my entries, gather those figures, get them assembled and primed, and start painting asap. I know I'm not required to have a new entry for each week, but cranking some figures out is the whole point of this exercise.

So, my planned entries for the first five weeks, taking advantage of the bonus points for the themed rounds (Conan for round 1, zombies for round 5), are:

  • Round 1 - 5 mixed barbarians from the Chronopia Sons of Kronos and Celtos Gael lines
  • Round 2 - Uncharted Seas dwarf battleship, 2 cruisers, and 3 destroyers
  • Round 3 - 5 classic Citadel miniatures chaos thugs
  • Round 4 - 5 Marvel superheroes (undecided which) repainted from the Heroclix line
  • Round 5 - 3 Reaper undead hounds and 2 Wyrd Rotten Belles for my Malifaux Resurrectionists


Now, only the Uncharted Seas ships have even been assembled from this list, so I've got plenty of work ahead of me - starting tonight!