Crucible 6 General Thoughts

So these last few weeks (particularly the weekends) have been busy.  Travel to NYC.  Crucible.  This was the first weekend where I didn't have anything other than the normal OT to do at work.  It afforded me the time to get a trial game in of Shadow War Armageddon with my buddy Sanjay.

I have started painting a bit more.  Mostly focusing on my Kings of War stuff but already I feel the allure of wanting to prep a specific team for the new Necromunda game.  I guess I'll write about that some other time.  But yes, Crucible 6 came and went.  It happened at the Park Inn by Radisson in Kissimmee, FL.

It was a smorgasbord of gaming of all types ranging from all things GW, Kings of War, WarmaHordes, Bolt Action, Guild Ball, and a ton of board games.  The Firelock Games folks were there to demo Blood and Plunder as well!

I need to get better at taking pictures of events but you can go to the Facebook page for the Crucible folks if you want more pictures of the area.  I ended up staying one night at the Park Inn (I had reserved my timeshare up in Orlando), and thought it was good for the price.  It isn't a super fancy hotel but I didn't expect it to be.  But the convention rate definitely made it attractive as an option.

I was very happy to find out that the guys are switching the dates for future Crucible events from the spring to the fall.  This year we'll get a Crucible 6.5 in October.  It works out great as it takes the slot Feast of Blades used to occupy.  Though I do wonder if the newly announced SoCal Open put on by Frontline Gaming will cause similar issues to what Adepticon caused.

So I myself participated in the Friday doubles tournament and then got to at least play in 3 of the 5 matches for the narrative play on Saturday and Sunday.  The doubles tournament was far more competitive than I thought it would be but I guess I will anticipate it a bit better in the future.  The narrative was a ton of fun and while I was never able to field my 1850 point list (the whole reason for wanting to play Necrons), the army performed well.  I'll do a couple of writeups for both of the events in the future.  I'll include a few pictures I took of my games while at the convention.

The tables were great.  I loved all the terrain and would highly recommend the narrative to anybody wanting to have good fun while throwing some dice.

Well That Was Quite Some Time...

Hrmmm, two posts in a row when I apologize and write about how long it has been between posts.  No good!  I was listening to some random podcast a week or so ago and someone mentioned that it was always a bad idea to try and dive into new year's resolutions after new years day.  I guess they mentioned a myriad of reasons why it was potentially a doomed venture but stated that it was better to aim for your birthday or really any other month of the year to get started.  I guess I'm going to try and use my recent birthday as a spring board.  Unofficially I'll "start" my resolutions come February, but I'm already undertaking quite a few of them semi-successfully.

That said...

Here are some of my resolutions pertaining to the hobby for 2017 February and on:

1.  Get 4 games of Warhammer 40K/Age of Sigmar/Kings of War/Frostgrave/other miniature game per month.
2.  Paint 1 unit (Warhammer 40K/AoS/KoW) or 1 war band (Frostgrave) per month.
3.  Attend 1 tournament every 3 months (helps with #1).
4.  Post 1 blog post per week.

Pretty simple eh?  The way I see it I should be able to do the stuff above at the very least.  Yeah, the bar was set pretty low but I guess it is only to help me feel more accomplished.  Gotta start somewhere, right?!

Luckily I'm already well on my way to painting up my Centurion Squad for Warhammer 40K and my Brute (i.e. Minotaur) squad for Kings of War.  I also attended a tournament at a local game store this past Saturday where I got 3 great games in.  Here's hoping I can continue to make good progress on everything else!

Nearly 2 Months...

Dang!!!

hah, I don't expect anybody to be reading but it is funny how things work out.  I guess when I last posted I was prepping for BeakyCon.  That tournament came and went...and then I was going to focus on both Frostgrave and Kings of War.

Hobby-wise I feel I have been getting to do quite a bit, but not nearly as much as I would've hoped.  But luckily it hasn't been in vain.  I have managed to get quite a bit done around the house, tasted some delicious beer, knocked a few things out at work, and have spent a lot of good time with my beautiful wife!

So that said, I'm going to try to get back into the swing of things.  I guess a few general updates (that will be detailed in posts to follow).

BeakyCon 2016

As I mentioned earlier, this event came and went.  I had originally hoped to go at least 1-4 or preferably 2-3.  Ultimately I ended up going 1-3-1 but towards the tail end of the tournament I had one very lack luster matchup.  In general, this tournament was actually quite fun and there were some good guys.  That said, it was a reminder that maybe I don't have that "killer instinct" to try and get max points.  I do like bringing "middling" army lists as they offer the most dynamic matchups.

In general I am in a bit of no-mans land.  I like playing friendly games but hate getting smashed when I bring a "friendly" list against a "hard" list.  But if I want to play in tournaments I *NEED* to play far more games than I normally do.  I guess time will tell which way I end up going.

As a total aside, I have really been wanting to run more events.  I'm not sure if this area suits me though.  There are plenty of players and they are all very friendly...but I'm not quite "in" with them either.  Like I'd honestly like to host a mini-convention or event at a local hotel and even give stuff away...but I'm not sure anybody would even appreciate the effort.

Frostgrave

I met up with a few guys that are excited to play the game.  With my buddy Sanjay moving down to the area, I'm hoping to get him involved just to simply be able to play at home.  I have thought about hosting "Frostgrave" night at my local FLGS/dork store, but I know it is quite a commitment to guarantee that I will go every week on that night to host games.

I guess for now I need to just start playing games and make sure I have enough models for 2 (maybe 3) warbands.  It is always easier when you can use another player's models to learn a game.

Kings of War

I had my first game of Kings of War since some massacres I experienced early on.  I brought my Beastmen (aka The Herd) army and it performed amazingly well.  Granted, I think my opponent went easy on me but it let me better understand what worked best in my army and what I could shift around.  I have built up quite a few models and want to post pictures on here.  I will try and post a batrep of the game (my memory may fail me a bit)...but in general I think this game is great.

Age of Sigmar

I am definitely in quite a pickle.  I drove my wife down to south Florida to go to a concert and while she was there I took some 40K and Warhammer Fantasy models to a GW store just in case I could find a game while she was at the concert.  I ended up meeting a cool guy named Mike who showed me the basics of AoS.  I actually had a ton of fun and with the release of the new rule book giving points values, I could see myself playing even more.  The game plays on a much smaller table in most situations and while I don't know how much terrain is necessary to balance things, it does seem like yet another option to play with friends.

I have plenty of fantasy models, so that isn't the problem.  I just need to make sure to get my Kings of War army ready to go (again, the tournament scene beckons)...but then rapidly start setting up my Age of Sigmar stuff.

In general just wanted to put some thoughts down.  Football season starting up may slow my progress but I'm hoping to host people to be able to play some wargames while watching foosball on TV.  Got the kegerator cooled and ready to go!