May review and June goals

May's over, still going slow.

D&D is back on track, I'm doing the DM-ing and I'm loving it. Social interactions are my favorite, and we'll have a big battle with a scorpion monster as well next session.

MAGUS has picked up, with the adventurers delving ever deeper into this version of the Underdark. Is the end in sight? We'll see.

Warhammer weekend done and published. It was very nice. After all the practice games I got in beforehand, I am now completely warhammerless due to a severe lack of time. Perhaps I'll get back on track in June.

On the hobby side, I did manage to complete a bucketload of Sigmar models as well as a squad of 10 guardsmen, which was about what I expected. I have more stuff in progress, which I should finish in the first half of the month. Then I'll paint more guardsmen, of a certain variety. That's all I got planned at this point, let's see what else I'll manage to sneak in.

M.A.G.U.S. - Monster village

Roll for initiative! Monsters climb out from under the rocks and assault the party. They are brutish, well armored, and wield monstrous weapons that break bones and cause bleeding.

Painting a Chaos Rhino and Land Raider in Word Bearers colors

Ready to rumble!

Dungeon of the Mad Mage: Undead and giant scorpion monsters... all in a day for the Legends

Due to real life issues, I'm back as GM and Groin is back as a player. Alright, let's make this awesome! 

We ended up last time with Zyn spirited away (and now we know why) and the party split, with Solid facing a hole where the tiefling sisters jumped in. He jumped in as well, no questions asked, landing on a spider altar and 3 praying ghosts ahead. The tieflings made for him to be silent, as they explored the cave. But then a giant scorpion monster attacked, cutting off one sister and dismembering her. Solid tried to talk to the ghosts, which attacked. The rest of the party got down the slide just in time to take a banshee scream to the face, instantly felling Szivem.

Painting Blissbarb Archers

Ah, these models. I decided on beginning on my slaaneshi forces this year, with these footsoldiers for starters. And let me tell you, I hated them at first. Assembly is very fiddly, with dynamic poses as you would expect with newer GW miniatures, and very fiddly little pieces, also as you would expect. I initially wanted to do some conversions on the second box of minis, but completely gave up on the idea after seeing the sprues. Instead, I decided to use different skintones for some variance. Then, when I started painting them, it hit me that they have a lot, and I mean A LOT of details, of different kinds, spread all over the miniature. So I gritted my teeth and did the basecoats. But then, with all the details picked out, I was amazed by how well the miniatures look. Unlike the Daemonettes which are just ugly, these gals and guys present well toned muscles, bare feet, bondage gear, and barely covered bodies. I fell in love.

Word Bearers vs Iron Hands, 07.05.2023

By the final game of the weekend, everybody was pretty tired. My opponent forgot his army at home (though I hear it would have been beautiful) and threw something together using whatever our gracious host could offer. NGL everything had a thick layer of dust on it. Still a cool list though, of firstborn Iron Hands. When was the last time you saw Assault Centurions on the field?

Word Bearers vs Word Bearers, 06.05.2023

Third game: mirror match against more sons of Lorgar. Time to show who's the real Apostle of the Dark Council! And it turned out to be the most back-and-forth, close game, with measurements down to the millimeter.

 I hid due to the Defiler across the field, ready to pounce. Good thing too, as the opponent went first.

Word Bearers vs Astra Militarum tank company, 06.05.2023

My second game was a lot more relaxed. I faced a tank company made up of a Baneblade, a Shadowsword, a Leman Russ Tank Commander and 3 regular Russes, accompanied by a command squad and a psyker. The list was absolutely ill prepared for this dense table we got to play on. All the Russes went into reserves.

Word Bearers vs Chaos Daemons, 05.05.2023

My very first game during the event, started on Friday at 10PM. Keep this in mind while judging my in-game decisions, and also while judging the pictures taken at lamp light.

I hid from all the psychic shenanigans and flamers.

Warhammer Weekend 05-07.05.2023

I received the invitation for this event some time in autumn, so I had ample time to negotiate the weekend. Once that was done, I started training - most of my games lately were training with the chosen list. And oh boy, it was difficult. The restrictions were: Arks of Omen, true highlander (even troops and transports), no named characters. The list I came up with was pretty bad, generally speaking, given the number of losses I suffered. However, it did well at the event. Read on.

Painting a Lord of Pain

I was about halfway done with two squads of Blissbarb Archers when I started on this guy. As the painting process and color scheme standardized, I distilled it into painting tips - and that's why the Archers are still described step-by-step. But here's what you can expect from all that.

Word Bearers vs Thousand Sons, 03.05.2023

The final training game before the Warhammer weekend, facing Magnus and a LOT of Rubric marines.

Painting a commission D&D half-orc barbarian

My first commission strictly based on a model picture the client provided.

April review and May goals

April is over, and after the early successes in the field of hobby, things took a slow turn as real life hits again. This should all blow over in a month or two... anyway.

D&D took a hit, as we went to see the Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves movie instead of playing once, then had to postpone a couple of sessions. At least the movie was great, solid 5 out of 7. Some new developments there coming soon, stay frosty. 

MAGUS also went slower, with barely one session during the month. Perhaps we'll pick up in May, but I don't expect much.

At least I got some 40k games in, practicing for the grand Warhammer weekend coming up in just a couple of days. Woohoo! I might retire the Word Bearers after that, as I'm getting bored with the same army composition.

On the hobby side, I did manage to WYSIWYG and fully paint my Word Bearers army list, which was my primary goal. I almost finished the portion of the new-ish Sigmar army I began in February, again a big win. With all the slow periods, I'm very behind schedule on the 1 miniature/day goal, so I took on some Contrast-level commissions for MAGUS. Expect to see a bunch of goblins and kobolds soon.

In May, I want to finish all my currently started projects, including some commissions, random miniatures and Sigmar-y stuff. If I manage to chew through all this (questionable, given how the month is looking out), I'll either start on more Sigmar, or maybe some Imperial Guard, or maybe go back to daemons. We'll see.

Dungeon of the Mad Mage: Magic Academy of nobody wants to live

After last session's debacle (which was quite some time ago IRL - we went to watch the D&D movie instead of playing last time), we started by making our way back to Waterdeep. We bought some diamonds to feed the bard's resurrection spell[1], and brought the sorceresses back to life. After a good night's sleep at the Zhentarim HQ, we crawled back into the dungeon, only to find the academy denizens out in full force. So they found some bodies and decided we were too much trouble. And decided to fight us. Us. Zyn and the Legends. Sigh. Literally nobody wants to live down here.