Harbor Dice Con 2019

So if you live in the Western Washington area, and are into Warhammer of either flavor, you may have heard about all the activity going on down in Aberdeen.  We've got something of a booming Warhammer community.  And as such the last two years have seen a lot of events happen right here on the harbor.  So, I have decided to lend a little PR power to my friends over at War Byrd Battle Labs.  They are hosting an event in December called Harbor Dice Con 2019.

     Harbor Dice Con 2019 is a massive 80 person tournament and convention being held in Ocean Shores, December 7-8, and convention badges are $10.  To get in on the tournament with convention badge included, its $75 dollars and spaces are limited,  last I checked they were down to about twenty, so register soon if you want in on the action.

     This isnt just great for geeks and gamers here on the coast, it's good for everyone as a whole.  I believe events like this can help us build up our community, and introduce new people to little corner of the world we have here.  So please, consider this a holiday gift to me; go play and have fun at Harbor Dice Con 2019, duke it out at the Merey Slaaneshmass tourney, and maybe you'll even see me there.  Catch you then, and Happy Holidays!

A Disappointing Armies On Parade

     So I busted my tail to get my Orks painted in ti.e to make a board for Armies on Parade this past Oct. 19, and got a fair bit done.  Sadly, due to illness and other personal issues, I wasn't able to complete my display to a level that really shone.   But I still wanted to go and participate anyways.  I loaded up my van with miniatures and my half finished diorama, and set out on the hour-long track to the closest Games Workshop store to my locale.

     I was sorely disappointed.  When I arrived, the manager dismissed that I had a board I wanted to enter, even though there weren't enough entries submitted.  A bit hurt at beginning rejected, and listening to the store's manager and several regulars chatting all about proper way to pronounce GIF, and swearing frequently, I decided to leave.

     All of this left me thinking about how each of our experiences in gaming culture really are determined by the community we have around us.  Our choices of where to play, who to play with, and what games we play are all decided by those who are visible in our local community.  I was watching an episode of Voxcast with Duncan Rhodes as the guest speaker.  He recounted the tale of when he was first getting int to the hobby his father took him to one of the Games Workshop stores, and he got to see different paint jobs for the first time.  He looked at the metal effects on a Rhino on display, and asked the clerk how that effect was done, to which the clerk replied, "well, drybrushed obviously."  He still remembers to this day how that felt and for a long time would not ask for help in his painting because of that rude comment.

     As then we move into the holidays, I would compel all my fellow hobbyists to remember when you first started, and always be a warm and welcoming influence within your community, and honestly, that little bit could change the world.

     

Sahuagin Sushi

My 8 and 7 year olds joined in our campaign last night for a short guest appearance, and they had a blast battling Sahuagin on a ship.

They had so much fun, in fact, that they were talking about it all morning, and when my wife and I looked down at the table, where I had left all my minis and board, we found some interesting hieroglyphs;

Doggone Good Minis

So I eager awaited the arrival of the postlady today, as my kickstarter reward for the Dungeons & Doggies campaign was delivered.  I did a short unboxing video to try it out.  I know it's awful, but I don't care I posted it anyways.

Please be kind in your comment, and I'll try and add more video content to the site once I get the whole thing more streamlined.  Catch you all later.

It's Nice to See Some Chaos Love

So, in Warhammer 40000, there are some old and well established armies that have been in sore need of an update.  Think of the Eldar, Dark Eldar, Tau, and Chaos Space Marines.  Prior to 8th edition, these armies hadn't seen a huge improvement in any significant way, with many HQ and elite options still being resin-only casts or even metal.  This is a problem for sales.

You see, no one wants to purchase miniatures that look ancient for a brand new army.  They want them to look as cool as all their other miniatures.

So to get to the point of my article, it's been nice to see the new chaos space marine miniatures in the Blackstone Fortress and Shadowspear boxes, and with other hints at updates to more of the range with the rest of the Vigilus campaign.  It feels like Games Workshop might care about keeping their player base, not just adding new people.

So, as these new models emerge, my Black legion and Crimson Slaughter forces will swell, and maybe we'll see a few more chaos armies on the table in the future.

Session 3: Two Parties Converge

Well, we added two new adventurers to our campaign this last session, and the inclusion led to some wild antics.

While our original party discovered that they're piece of parchment was enchanted to lead them in the direction of the thing they need to find, our new party members started off as part of a failed expedition exploring the ruins of Nangard. 

This expedition was led by an eccentric druid who ended up touching something he wasn't supposed to, and the forest reacted poorly.  Myriad beasts began to assault the encampment, which led the lost explorers to cut down trees and build a fortress.  This made Nangard more angry.  They've now been under siege for weeks and sent out party members two-by-two to try and find a way out, or at least find help.

The two latest party members, a human paladin and a half-elf wizard, drew the short straws, and had to venture out into the hostile forest.  The two were squabbling from the beginning, and made slow progress, until they came to a river and decided to cross.  The wizard opted to use a fire spell to fell a tree and make a bridge, as the paladin distrusted the fouled smell of the river.  This landed them in a fight with a six legged reptilian beast.  They managed to fend the creature off, and cross the river, where they met our party. 

The two groups were suspicious of each other at first, and Song of Storms disliked the human from the start, but eventually they came to a hesitant accord, and  sat to have dinner.  While they prepared for the night watch, more of the six-limbed beasts grew restless in the tree-tops, and Song had to sing them a lullaby back to sleep.

As the paladin, Terrance, slept in his personal tent, the tabaxi felt especially catty, and snuck in and for some cattish  reason, stole rings from his chainmail.  Song then fell asleep on Terry's pillow, the woke him when she clawed him in the face.  When Terry noticed the draft on his hind quarters, he demanded she put back what she stole.  Song did, but left her own flair on her work, crafting in a flower motif with a gemstone in the center.

And that was where we left them then.

This brought the whole camp to alert status

Session 2: The Ent Request

Firstly, sorry this one is late.

So, our intrepid duo of adventures last left us cradled in the arms of some mysterious tree-power, gently rocked off to sleep as they were taken deeper into the forest of Nangard.

Since then, we have had a session zero with a tortle cleric, who had a trying encounter with some kobolds on a black sand beach while sagely searching the beach for knowledge bestowed by their cosmic deity.  After an attempted distraction of tossing a half a seal carcass failed to slow them, tragedy struck.  Suffering a grievous wound in the form of spear to the shoulder, our tortle, Dana, seemed at risk of death.  But then the cavalry arrived in the form several ent-folk.  The smallest of which eviscerated a kobold, frightening off the others, leaving the wounded cleric to make a decision.  Either join their rescuers, or manage on their own.  They chose the former, and the turtle tromped off with the trees.

That's when our party met up, in a secret treant village in the woods.  They spent some time there getting supplies and learning of the threat that led the ents to kidnap them.  It turns out the forest is being assaulted on many fronts.  Theree is a Kobold invasion, a pollutant coming down the main river, and an unknown force that has violated the ancient ruins of Nangard.  The Ents needed help, and it looked to them like these characters could do that.

So now the party has been joined by a young ent named Stihl, and they are off to find the hidden ruins of Nangard.  And this session ended half way there at a well with a strange fairy creature bestowing them with a curious piece of parchment that is supposed to lead them to their destination.

Our Journey Begins

So I've started DMing a new campaign on a world of our groups own design, and it seems to be going great. Hiho adventure!

This campaign is rather unique.  One of our regulars has provided us with a massive amount of homebrew and extra content, so none of our players are standard races.  We have a tabaxi ranger, a bugbear druid, and a mentally touched tortle cleric (they made up their own god, which still somehow blesses people).  And that's just the beginning.  None of the classes they chose seeem extreme, but even those may turn out weird.  We've got material for an Urban druid, a druid of rot, and a druid of abomination.  As mentioned before, the tortle has made their own god, and has looked at a total of twenty cleric disiplines, (even a fashionista cleric),  and the rogue has even looked into being a trans-dimensional gate keeper.  For simplicity, we've gone with a milestone leveling, to keep this campaign simple, which also makes bringing in new players simple, too.

This campaign got off to a roaring start.  Having to coupe with the death of their parents, the Tabaxi, Song of Storms, and the Bugbear Moses, the two are stuck with a difficult decision.  Adopted sisters, they have heard from the local community, of which their father is something of a folk hero, that their parents' deaths are highly suspect.  They went to bed their first night deciding to travel to the north and seek long distant relatives.  Then came the first watch.  A critical role of the DM, myself, ended up bringing a barbarian war to the gates of the great city of Ventrilius and destroying the party's family home.  This almost ended our adventure prematurely, except the party was kidnapped by trees in a haunted forest to the south of the West gate.  It's been very epic so far.  And that's where our first session ended.

Next Saturday should be another night of adventure and intrigue

On A Painting Frenzy

So, just to toot my own horn a little, the last week has been quite a busy week painting.  Having just picked up the Blackstone Fortress game, Warhammer Quest Silver Tower (finally), and adding to my Tzeentch demons, I've painted almost forty miniatures in the last seven days.

Any of you who know me know this is huge.  I'm a master procrastinator, and getting prices painted to completion is not my strong suit.  So to get even one mini fully painted in a week is awesome for me, but forty is ridiculous.  And I hope to keep on this kind of path for as long as I can.

Have any of you found a new drive to complete some paint jobs?  Any plans to show off your pieces at the shop?  I'd like to hear about them in the comments.

Prices Going Up!

So, after some early rumours, then confirmation to our favorite local retailer Game Freaks, we now know that there will be price hikes to Games Workshop's product line soon.  Things like paint pots and start collecting boxes will all see an increase, and an unfortunate casualty is the big boxed sets, like Tooth and Claw, or Imperial Knights: Renegade have been pulled from the web store. 

Also, much of the 2018 run of Kill Team has sold out online.  Will these value boxes get the axe, too?  Let me know what you think in the comments.

Dropping the Ball

So, months ago I heard about something that got me all fired up and my blood pumping.  A really cool new product was coming from Games Workshop, made to help new players ease into Warhammer 40,000, and to help established players grow their collections of two different armies at a measured pace.  This product would also help teach these players painting and gaming techniques, and answer questions they may have about playing.  This product sounded awesome.  It was called Warhammer Conquest, and was subscription based magazine that sent minis, paints, brushes and the magazine to your door each month, or to your local Games Workshop store.

I keep writing about Conquest in the past tense because here we are, months later, and there isn't even a whisper of when it will come to the US.  In fact, the only news I've been able to read on it is that a Spanish edition will be sold in Spain this month.  I've even heard rumours that it may tank.  And this depresses me.

It depresses me because I'm really excited about this idea.  Warhammer 40000 Conquest is totally a gimmick I would buy into.  I collect every army in 40k, and there are times I would love to just follow along with a laid out tutorial.  I have a brother that I would love to gift with a subscription to the magazine.  But I can't.

Which gets me to the crux of the article, Games Workshop kinda dropped the ball here.  They made a huge deal out of the magazine for a little while, got everyone hyped up, and then essentially told us, "sorry, you can't have this."  Even though we really want it.  It wouldn't have been hard to just wait to release it to their whole audience at once, instead of this weird staggered rollout.  I know there will be a few of us die hards that as soon as it makes it to the US will grab it up going, "finally!", myself included.  But most will look at it and just not care as much now.
Its lost it's impetus.  And that pains me, because I'm a real 40k addict, and I always want them to do well.

So, I hope that despite this kerfuffle that Conquest will succeed in making it stateside soon, and it will be successful, until then, hold on mini model makers, and hope for the best.