Last year I went all-in on a single game; this year I let my omnigamer flag fly and tried a bunch of new systems: Bolt Action (Combat Patrol Tournament) Firefight (Tournament) 02 Hundred Hours (GMed game) Blood and Crowns (Learning game) Pros and cons to this approach. My schedule was unquestionably over-ambitious (which I knew going in), and I wouldn’t do two tournaments across two new-to-me systems again—it’s just exhausting, especially over successive days. Read the rest →
WIP recipe: Prime with Vallejo Russian Green Basecoat uniform with Vallejo English Uniform, leaving a little green under creases Paint straps, packs, and other “secondary” fabrics with Vallejo Pastel Green Wash boots with Vallejo Smoke Paint rifle with Vallejo Beige Brown and Vallejo Metallic Black Wash everything with 1:1 mix of Citadel Agrax Earthshade and Contrast Medium On prominent areas of the uniform, brighten the fabric back up with Vallejo English Uniform Highlight (very limited and prominent) crease edges with 1:1 English Uniform and Vallejo Green Ochre Highlight secondary fabrics with Vallejo Pastel Green Wash boots with Nuln Oil Detail helmets with Vallejo Reflective Green Fine details: Cups (Brown for late war, white with blue rim for early), Canteens (Green-brown), Binoculars (Black) Read the rest →
For an inveterate omnigamer, I was actually pretty focused last year: I spent the winter building, painting, and playing Horus Heresy, leading up to an excellent Adepticon. For most of the spring I focused on some 40k 2nd edition-styled Ultramarines in anticipation of 10th edition. It was a fun project! Unfortunately, 10th felt hollow on arrival and isn’t much better now. I might use those models for some Oldhammer down the line, but 40k’s half-assery left me sour on the whole GW catalog. Read the rest →
There are a lot of reasons you might want a lower barrier to entry for a tabletop game. If you’re a player, you want a player base in your area–you want to be able to get a pick-up game, and you want it to be pretty easy to get your friends onboard. If you’re a designer, you might like more people to be able to enjoy the thing you made. Read the rest →
No human being is so far from the light of God that they should have to use these spray paints. You may be at the FLGS for paints and you may think, “Hey, this is pretty cheap” or “I have reached the stage in my hobby life where I don’t want to give money to GW” or “Army Painter is the only line with the right color in stock.” The problem is that you will definitely get more value out of simply doing nothing and not spraying your miniatures with Army Painter Colour Primer Matt Black, because then you won’t have to immediately dunk the miniatures in isopropyl alcohol and scrub the shit out of them to remove chalky, uneven paint substitute. Read the rest →
After years of cobbling together an army (and an edition change in between), I played five rounds of narrative 30k at Adepticon 2023, and they were some of my favorite games I’ve ever played at an event. The Phyrix campaign struck a nice balance of narrative chill and quietly elegant structure. Tables were varied, beautiful, and well thought out—you can get a sense from the pictures. Players formed opposing lines of Loyalists and Traitors and paired off informally. Read the rest →