On line army builders

In my ongoing series on hobby resources this post will cover on-line army builders.  I'll start off by saying that I'm sure there's a bunch that I'm missing, so any and all comments to point me in the right direction would be much appreciated.

In Her Majesty's Name

This is yet another set of skirmish rules, though these are Victorian Science Fiction.  There is a fair amount of buzz about this set.  Jonathan, of The Inevitable Spark, has been, oh so gently, pushing this game.  From what I've seen I'm interested and it's a low bar to entry.

The cover looks awesome.  Steam, zombies and carnage.

Year of Rules (continued)

The year of rules is over.  It was, officially, 2012.  Having said that, I'm still exploring some new ones and two that I've got my heart set on were recently on sale.

I'm looking forward to both sets of these, as much as I've enjoyed Hail Caesar.

2012 In Review and 2013 Plans

How's that for an inspiring title.  I love seeing what everyone else plans for the year, and how last year's plans panned out (or more often did not).  Since a large part of my keeping this blog is to keep track of my hobby, I also look forward to seeing what the last year held for me.

This was the biggest accomplishment of the year.

Fanticide by Alien Dungeon

There is yet another miniature skirmish game coming our way.  This seems to be the flavor de jeur, probably due to the recession, but who knows.  Games like Infinity and Malifaux show the popularity of skirmish games.  They don't require very many miniatures, though usually lots of terrain.  The minis are, generally, expensive but beautiful.

The cover doesn't do a lot for me, but look at those names on the front there.

Truthfully, the market is saturated.  So why am I even bothering to bring up another one?  This is why:

 The rules have been developed and written by Rick Priestly, Alessio Cavatore, Andy Chambers and Ernest Baker.

So, yeah.  Sign me up as interested.  Those are some high powered names right there.  I'll definitely be following the development of Fanticide with interest.

They also have a Facebook page and a blog.

Since I typed this up they have also added a Kickstarter campaign.  I'm not sure if I'll support this one or not.  It will be a great way to get the rules/cards for less than retail.  You can also get good deals on armies if you are interested.  If nothing else, they have most of the information on the game in one place, on this page, so it is a convenient place to find everything in one long scroll.

Dux Brit arrives

Dux Britanniarum from TooFatLardies was released this last week.  I'm still waiting for my hard copy and cards (and free miniature) but I was able to download the PDF and have a read through.  Here's my initial thoughts.

Dux Britanniarum Pre-orders up

The latest game from TooFatLardies is finally up for pre-order.  Dux Brit is a game covering the period following Rome's retreat from Britain and the invasion of the Saxons.  It fits nicely in the period between Hail Caesar and Saga, for me.  It also comes with a really slick sounding campaign system, which I'm hoping can be modified for other game systems.

Four month plan +

There's a lot I want to do this year, since I'm trying everything that catches my fancy for twelve months.  I've called it the year of rules but I'm also dabbling in scales, mediums and genres.  The only real rule I have is that all of my gaming activities have to be games.

This year I'm deliberately being a gaming magpie.

Year of Rules - Gruntz 15mm Sci/Fi

This is the Year of Rules, one new set checked out every month.  The Rules set for May is... Duh!  Duh!  Duh!  Gruntz!

The cover of the PDF rules v1.0.

One read through and a couple of solo practice games down and this is what I think...

Monthly Retrospective 2

Another month down and not as much to show for it as I would have liked.  Still, I like to take a look back to catalog the progress; it helps me to keep motivated.

I only got twelve models painted.  That's way below my, frankly tiny, goal of twenty.  Even if I add in the models from last month it doesn't average out to 40 in two months.  So, a bit of a failure there and it makes me somewhat sad.  On the other hand, I finished my Haradrim army for Lord of the Rings, so that is something to celebrate.  I'll hit them with some matte varnish this afternoon and be done with it.  This actually slowed me down because I didn't have another project queued up to work on.  I'm still doing conversion work on my Elves and I'm still assembling the Celts.  So, lesson learned.  Have projects ready to go on the paint table.  Second lesson:  paint consistently during the month.  Not exactly ground breaking, I know, but there you have it.

Saga

Another purchase in the Year of Rules line.  The candidate for March is ...  Da, da  da!.  Saga!  Oh wait.  I gave it away in the title.  Never mind.

(The picture probably detracts from the surprise as well.)

I haven't had a read through of the rules yet.  I'll do an in depth review once I have a chance to read them and bang them around a little bit.  Really I just wanted to talk about Architects of War (link here and also on the sidebar).  Normally I'm not a fan of only having one distributor, but Architects of War were fast and easy.  I put my order in last Friday.  On Saturday I got a confirmation email and it was delivered to me yesterday (Monday).  This is great service guys.

The book came in a box, wrapped in paper and padded with more paper.  The book was then sealed in a zip lock bag.  So, no chance of water damage and the box would have had to have been destroyed to get to the book.

Now, I bought the book as part of a bundle with a set of Saga dice.  I'm not at all happy about the prices on these dice, but that is not Architect's of War's fault.  Their deal gets the dice for a little bit cheaper, so I went for it.  This is my only complaint.  There was no where on the order form for me to specify which dice set I wanted.  This isn't a huge deal because I received an email from them asking me which set they should ship.  A real email from a real person.  It was nice to interact with someone that way.  I expect to see my dice soon; I'll let you know what I think of them then.

Prompt service, lightning fast even, and careful shipping.  All you can ask for. I don't know why I always buy stuff on Fridays, it usually delays things.  (I actually do know, it's pay day, duh.)  The service on this order was just phenomenal.  This was my first experience with this company but I'm looking forward to doing business with them again in the future.

The year of rules

This is the year of rules.  I'm laying down the law...  No, not that kind of rules, I kid.  I realized that I had made a decision which will affect my wargaming this year, and therefore my blogging, but that I had not shared it with you.  This seems a little perverse, and not in a fun way, so I'm aiming to rectify that.

For years I have played GW games.  This was driven by several factors.  Availability, good IP, model quality, opponents, rules standardization.  I came into the hobby through Warhammer.  I picked up LotR when an enthusiast moved to town.  I never got into 40k.

 Now let's be clear, I've always wargamed, from when I was itsy bitsy.  I remember the fall of Saigon.  I was three years old, sitting on my parent's floor.  The helo's were pulling people off of the roof of the embassy and I was playing with my father's Civil War game.  I had the little dudes lined up and the artillery was taking great chunks out of them, as represented by my chubby little fingers.  So, one of the iconic events of our age and I don't know if I remember it because of the images on the TV or the little plastic playing pieces.

I am not saying these are the same figures, though they look this good in my memory.