It's been a while...

So I have to once again apologize for a long absence from the blog. Honestly I had invested some time and money into WarmaHordes but I wasn't really into the game. It was more of a gaming band-aid after the collapse of WFB and my departure from 40k (and Games Workshop in general). While I having but positive things to say about Privateer Press, I have never been a fan of skirmish style games. I like huge battles, rank and file armies or units battling it out for fame, glory or other more sinister motivations. I spent most of 2015 building, collecting and painting the Khador faction but I only played a dozen or so games from March through around June. Again, I love the models and clarity of the rules, it just doesn't scratch my particular gaming itch.

With all that said towards the end of 2015 I picked up a copy of Kings of War 2nd Edition by Mantic Games (written by the great Alessio Cavatore) and gave it a read after watching a couple batreps from the guys over at Master Crafted. I read through the book a couple times and dug out some of my fantasy models from storage and trotted down to my LGS to give the ruleset a try with my buddy Ken. The rules are surprisingly simple and concise. It took a little to get used to the different combat style but I was hooked. In the same way that Fantasy Flight has done with X-Wing and Armada, the rules are fast, straight forward to play but the art of the game is back on the movement phase. That movement, and out thinking your opponent, was exactly what I loved about the original WFB. Mantic has managed to get rid of all the nonsense rules that defined (and annoyed me to no end) the fantasy editions but still managed to keep the flavor of the armies. It feels to me like a true return to tactical gaming reflective of historical miniature games.

With that said it has been a whirlwind ride ever since. At the end of October I went to visit an old gaming pal in RI and played a number of games against him (he had 5 old WFB armies just going to waste). In January 2016 I became a Mantic Pathfinder. Since then Florida has blown up for Kings of War with tournaments all over the state. In March we ran Kings demos at Crucible Orlando and had nothing but success. Special thanks to the Crucible guys for setting us up very well with terrain, table space and no end of assistance. Recently I had the honor of being a guest on Counter Charge, a Kings of War podcast (interview here if you want to listen to me drone on). The topic of discussion, or the push rather, is to have a full 2-day GT event at next year's Crucible.

So in closing, I am going to attempt to restart the blog. My intent is to cover my Kings of War gaming (you can see my battle from the Dogs of War tournament last weekend here) as well as some of my other gaming and painting. Currently, aside from Kings, I am playing SW:Armada, painting some Malifaux, and painting some 30k Emperor's Children (I got em dirt cheap, so...).

I hope you guys hang with me as I try to find erstwhile content to post. Happy gaming!!

For the Motherland!! pSorscha for my Khador!

Taking a little break from Saga to throw some effort into getting my Khador faction finished for WarmaHordes.  I have quite a fair amount of Khador and I am pledging to complete the entire faction by the end of 2015.  Watch this space!

Dark ages baggage for Escort scenario!

Damn it Klaus! I am NOT pulling this thing by myself again!!

Rus Pagan warlord

New Viking Warlord stand!!

Saga!

And so it begins.

So Saga is a small scale historical miniatures game that is gaining some pretty good momentum. It bridges the gap between the perception of stuffy, pretentious, old codgers standing around a gaming table arguing the merits of Napoleon's tactics and the fast paced, bloody destruction found in fantasy genre games like Dark Age and WarmaHordes. The basic start up for an army is extremely low, around $40 if you just want to rope in some plastic models (really good plastic models, btw) or in the upwards of $100 if you want to run full metal with all the fixins. The real allure for me to this game is of course the history aspect, but more in the fact that list building is simple, and really kind of unimportant. It is the tactics and your skill at guessing your opponents actions (reactions?) that really bring it into focus as a strong strategy game. And bloody! By the Gods bloody! Many games have ended with both warbands of men and horse as nothing more than a feast for crows as the stalwart Warlords clash one on one for the decisive end.

Suffice it to say it has been a long time since a game hooked me as much as Saga has. So far I have dropped around $150 on the game and have 2 factions, with all their bells and whistles, including two Viking Longships for a homebrew set of sea battle rules we are putting together.

Press Ganger commission finished!