Son of Worst Pictures Ever !!!!

And here is (apparently) Maharbal. I really need to get a Camera with a Macro lense.

Puck drops in minutes, cheers for now.

Go Canucks Go !!!!

Worst Pictures Ever ?

Here is my likely last attempt to use my Cameraphone for blogging. Thankfully Ella is coming over this weekend and owns an actual camera. But I promised proof none the less, here you can see Mr Barca himself at an early stage in my baseing technique.

Punic HQ complete

Well I just put down the brush on the HQ requirement of my Field of Glory army. I made three bases, which is all I really see myself needing, if I do go for a 4th HQ it will likely come with an allied force.

The first one you have already seen, is a generic Punic commander with appropriate Carthaginian cavalrymen accompanying him. In hindsight this base (and all the others I entered in the painting comp, sigh) has way, way, way too much static grass, but if you account for my clumsiness this problem may resolve itself.

The first of the new ones is a Corvus Belli Numidian Cavalry Command blister painted up to with the commander in Punic skin tone and his attendants representing Numidian veteran cavalrymen. This will be field or troop commander who will likely run the odd flanking maneuver and hopefully pulling off a decent Maharbal impersonation. I figure the subordinate commander is the guy overseeing the reconnaissance missions so he might as well bring the best people for it with him. Bonus part of painting these guys as such is I can paint another blister up entirely as Numidians and use them as an allied HQ, not only would they look distinct enough to avoid confusion they would also save me 5 points. Sweet.

The final base took months, I guess it's my centerpiece and I definitely over thought ever step of the way. Stepping back and putting down the brush was a huge hobby epiphany for me. In all honesty I have been poking at this base since the Comp. And that was before Thanksgiving, Canadian Thanksgiving !!!! (October 11th this year), and I still have to wait for their glue to dry before I even start basing them. For these guys I pulled out all the stops. Top of the line White and Black horses, seasonal and stylish Gallic noblemen as bodyguards and I even greenstuffed up an Eye patch to make the man himself, Hannibal Barca. Or failing that (in situations not specific to the 2nd Punic War) they can easily jump in as another one eyed Punic General, (Regulus? Too soon?) and stand out from the other 2 chaps. The greenstuff was a pain, it but almost worked.

Pictures to come tomorrow when there is better light, but it's after midnight here in Southwest Canada, so good night for now and take care.

2010 Year in Review

So a little over a year in and the often neglected blog is still alive, a fern on the balcony watered weeks apart yet somehow slowly blooming. As the name of this blog implies I didn't at all expect it to last this long, but 13 months later it is still here. Clocking in at 43 posts that's an average of 3.3ish per month, that's a bit more than I even thought I was posting. As a plumber in the service end of the industry, I never know how late I will be working, always start before dawn and often have issues with hand fatigue/injuries that stand in the way of painting and/or more cerebral brain functions, but with my newly founded 3.5 D&D group neither of those attributes will be required so there is likely to be a flood of D&D content once the group gets rolling.

With a years worth of hindsight comes some introspection and here is some of the more positive aspects of blogging and some areas I would like to improve on.

Things to improve on and about this blog:

• More posting.
• More painting.
• More gaming.
• More scenery.
• Going to add some product reviews.

Things that make me love this blog:

• The motivation it proved even though I went until December before I found a gaming group, this is key cause even though I was basically gaming in a vacuum it still was a blast.
• Finding and enjoying other blogs from gamers worldwide.
• The sense of community with other bloggers with similar interests worldwide.
• The hits I get from the oddest places. Hola Columbia !!!

Sure I didn't finish the Carthage army in a year, but I didn't rush it, painted better than I thought I was able and quite surprisingly entered a painting comp !!! Sure I only got a couple of games in and none of them were of even normal size, but I did play some sweet new boardgames and have a new D&D group on the go so all in all it was a good year.

Goals for next year are to keep adding to the Carthage army (maybe some Spanish troops would be in order), and start another army. I have narrowed it down to two choices, a Late Republican Roman army that I may model up as the 9th and 10th legions, or a Middle Republican Roman army as an in period pairing for my burgeoning Carthaginian army. Tough call but all three of the those armies can share a lot of troops (ie: Numidians, Gallic Horse, Spanish), and I can easily see myself having a Roman army from both periods. To be honest I want a Roman Army from almost all periods. Cost and availability may be a the deciding factor.

All in all a great year and an even better start.

D&D 3.5 game 1

Ahhh..... that warm comfortable feeling of a game you haven't played in years, like sliding into a nice warm bath (with a bottle of Malbec, and {Canada's sexist D&D player} Mandy Morbid), or playing a sport your competent at with a team at your level against drunken toddlers.

Played the first session of the new D&D campaign tonight, went far better than any of us were expecting. Sure we didn't get into a fight but that is due to the PCs having brains, reconning the enemy and setting up an excellent ambush. Two dice into our next game, the trap is sprung and orcs are getting stabbed in pairs if not dozens.

In my last few gaming groups I have been blessed to be surrounded by motivated, intelligent and courteous gamers, and although only one of 4 PCs has even played a paper and dice RPG before, we seem to be off to a good start. Lots of high level tactical thinking, character intraspection and a heaping portion of desire to game right off the bat.

Needless to say I am more than a little stoked.

And you wouldn't believe the kinds of characters these guys came up with. A Svirfneblin Rogue, Air Genasi Wizard/Fighter, a human Wizard with designs on Techsmith and/or Mystic Theurge, and get this...... a Minotaur Monk, talk about left field characters with obvious depth. Sure we are starting with an ECL +3 Svirfneblin, an ECL +2 Minotaur, an ECL +1 Genasi and a 4th level Mage so game balance could be an issue, but in my brief experience in D&D (all the way back to the red box) I have found that it is far easier to just throw increasingly meaner monsters at an over powered party than tinker with the tender sweet breads of game mechanics. That being said I have to keep a nervous eye on a certain Svifneblin with 7 hit points. Game changing disadvantages make characters, never break them. Been there, loved it.

How on earth does a 30 year old man continuously spell Svirfneblin right and never get experience right once? Sigh, I think spellcheck is my DM.

Also starting a gaming group on the first Lunar Eclipse on a winter Solstice in almost 400 years of almost make me feel like a devout Heathen. Normally D&D won't turn you into a Satanist, but starting tonight....?....it might already be too late.....

Ignorant movie reviews, Hobby Synergy and further excuses?

Our world gets smaller everyday, interconnections between people and things seemingly far apart are revealed to us almost daily now. This fascinating quirk of human experience seems to exist on all scales, and yesterday a film did so for me. The dice of girlfriend/boyfriend movie selection fell as 6s right at my feet and I raised them victoriously and selected "Centurion", it seemed perfect, it was about the failed Roman conquest of Scotland, and it had Dominic West from the Wire in it !!!! Not only was I entertained, but I realised that this film overlapped into my hobby world in two ways.

Obviously I am a historical wargamer who prefers the ancient setting, but aside from that most of my hobby time of late has been spent planning a new D&D campaign. That's where this movie really shines. The historical accuracy of this film wasn't at all a motivating factor in my renting it, but I was actually surprised by how well this film did within its budget. They didn't just give a passing notice to the right hats and armour, they also had them hanging their swords and Pugios the right way, and don't worry you get to see them use both. In all honesty I get the feeling that this movie changed around an expensive table in a meeting somewhere, and there were aspects that seemed to be out of key with the quality of the cast. However the cast was astounding, Pilums in the air for Liam Cunningham as Brick, he played the part of a blooded veteran soldier to the narrow hilt of a Pompeii Gladius, his apology mid-film alone was leveling. I look forward to seeing him stab other people in future films.

Aside from the historical shopping list of cost vs realism this film was an ideal example of a well run D&D campaign. No really, bear with me. Apart from any use of magic and fantastical beasts this movie was a well tuned gaming group 2 years and 8 or so levels in. The brutal trek back from enemy lines was perfect in tone and pacing, Les Stroud would be proud. It's far too rare now to see a violent movie that attempts tension without relying solely on startling you. It's not the type of movie that is going to change film, but it doesn't embarrass itself, and remains a very satisfying action movie. You just may have to consider its gore, as the frequent and well fought swordplay often lead to realistic results.

Good movie, expect a HUGE increase in D&D posts from here on in, as well as the usual FoG craptacularism. But I can't really post D&D related home brewed content until I drop the first adventure on my hapless friends. (Que maniacal villain laugh)

Re-Animated !!!!!

I must have picked up a level in Necromancer at some point in my rather varied career path, as I amazingly managed to piece my computer back together with the parts of lesser computers. In celebration of that fact I sat down and threw together a 3.5 Dungeons and Dragons monster loosely based upon my computers recent resurrection. But feel free to reuse it to represent anything that your Campaign/Hackfest calls for, something with legs might be infinitely more intimidating.

Small Re-Animated Object
- Undead Construct

Hit Dice: 2d12 + 13
Initiative: +1
Speed: 30ft
AC: 15/13 touch/14 flatfooted
Base Attack/Grapple: +1/+5
Attack: Slam +2 1d4 +1
Space/Reach: 5/5 ft
Special Attacks: None
Special Qualities:
- Single actions only, Damage reduction 5/Slashing, Darkvision 60 ft
- Undead traits
Saves:
- Fortitude: +0
- Reflex: +1
- Will: +3
Abilities:
- Strength: 12
- Dexterity: 10
- Constitution: 0
- Intelligence: 0
- Wisdom: 10
- Charisma: 1
Skills: None
Feats: Toughness
Environment: Home or Workplace.
Organization: Pair (chair)
Challenge Rating: 2
Treasure: Neverwinter Nights save files, rare Born Against bootlegs.
Alignment: Always Chaotic Neutral

Sorry about the delay, but now that I can type on a real (ly old) keyboard I beat I will post more.