With our Keeper unable to prepare, we decided on a one-shot, but kept the game system to preserve the horror feeling. Enter our group, awakening butt naked, dressed only in dog tags, getting out of pods in a sterile room. We quickly pulled out the tubes connecting us to the pods, and groggily set to explore the room. We had no memories of anything, not even of who we were.
6th edition throwback! 6 player placed objectives, Slay the Warlord(s), First Strike, Linebreaker, random 10th edition terrain layout and deployment, random teams, let's go!
Note that I did have some misgivings about the open terrain and being faced with 3 Doomsday Arks, but hey, let's give it a try.
My first foray into real conversion work on ASOIAF miniatures. I got a box of Umber Greataxes super cheap, with the intention of converting them. I also decided to create a scenic tray, with a raised middle.
Time to formalize the painting of Palatine Guard as Krieger counts-as.
December is upon us!
November was kinda sad as far as diverse gaming goes, with both RPG groups canceling left and right. However, that just left more time for Warhammer! I am now really into doing narrative scenarios in 10th edition. The terrain sometimes messes us up, or the random teams or scenarios make it wonky, but it sure beats regular matched play.
Hobby wise, this time I actually kept to the goals set out a month ago. I painted a load of Free Folk and Palatine Guard/Kriegers, and I'm rounding off the year's last commissions. I should break close to even on the yearly painting goals. With the influx of nuns and other Guard models, that is still a great result, with currently 671 minis painted, with modifiers. This already beats what I did in 2024.
During December, it's more of the same. Finish the Free Folk - not all of them, not this year, but this is more of a finite project, so let's hack away at it. More Palatine Guard remain to be painted, again a finite project as I've used up almost all my Napoleonic minis in this endeavor.
I suppose this is a good place to reflect on the year as a whole as well as the next. Rumors of a 2026 Guard codex are already floating, and I just really, really hope they don't get much of a model update. That should leave me with breathing room to round out my Guard and Chaos Marines. Beyond, I might shake up my Daemon army as they are currently not very coherent, and of course there are plenty of fantasy minis to be painted. I am expecting the latest (and for a while, the last) Kickstarter mini package to come in during 2026, and so I'll continue with counting acquired (but not gifted or won) minis in my excel table. Onwards, toward net zero!
Dark Angels and Tyranids team up to annihilate the Word Bearers and Necrons. Their units may come back, ours don't. Welcome to the meat grinder!
Or at least I really hope they are the final batch, because I am really bored of painting them. But I wanted to max out the number of Tempestus Scions I can take, to 6 units of 10; and I also wanted command squad members with master vox.
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With me using Mag the Mighty in every list, plus Mance the bard, the next commission job was a no-brainer.
Inspired by an old timey narrative scenario called "Hold your gains", the defender, the Dark Angels, deploy at most 1/3 of their force in the middle. This is the single objective and only holding this matters at the end of the game.
The attacker, the Astra Militarum Scions, can deploy on both short edges. With my rather tiny force for 2000 points, I decided to bunch up at one end.
A random batch of Reaper Bones miniatures that I primed last using my airbrush. Instead of putting them away, I decided to slap on some paint. Some are slapchopped, others are fancy. A couple had a hydrophobic surface for some reason, so I spray varnished them.
For our final session in the Australia chapter: the great outdoors! Well, somebody's backyard. But just as good for an underground shootout.
We were right back in the dungeon, on our way to Huston's cabin. We passed by the cultists on the ground floor, but the aboriginals noticed us, particularly the one previously burned by Sanchez. They started howling, alerting everybody. Huston awaited us with a lightning gun in hand, and his cronies soon arrived. We could not strike immediately, and so we stalled and drank whiskey and tea, hoping that the cultists would soon go back to work. Spoiler: they did not.
Yes I went all in on the Stormlight kickstarter. Here's the first couple of painted minis, with some experiments.
Instead of our usual competitive scenario, here's this little thing:
And here's 500 points of Chaos Marines, spearheaded by my fallen Lord and his Chosen with a complement of Cultists and Rubrics. On the other side, Deathwing Knights, kitted out Gravis Captain, Intercessors and Lieutenant.
Or at least, this should be the final batch. With 32 girls completed, it was a very fun project.
October was really cool!
D&D is back, and I am freshly motivated to apply more torment to my players. If this keeps up, we might actually finish this stupid dungeon.
Cthulhu went on a campaign hiatus but I'm doing a one-shot integrated into the story instead, already stretching across 3 sessions. Still no end in sight!
Warhammer is still on, with an influx of new players. ASOIAF is also great, with a small local tournament won by a phantom player... that was hilarious.
Hobby wise, I leant into fantasy minis, including young dragons, and my own Free Folk converted and slapchopped up to speed. Next tournament I might bring my own stuff. I am now back on top of things, barely a couple days behind painting schedule. With no more purchases scheduled, I should finish on track with all the primed Palatine guardsmen and Free Folk. Movement trays are really cool, expect to see some work put into them.
That's about it, November should be centered around continuing what I have begun and wrapping up WIPs.
Continuing the tradition of playing and reviewing old games, here's New Vegas from 15 years ago. Now I played Fallout 4 a couple of years ago, and I thought I'd skip New Vegas. 76 is out of the question, MMO trash. But then the Fallout tv series happened, and that's clearly the Vegas outline at the end. So I just had to play through this as well, to experience the story and understand why fans were so upset at the nuking of Shady Sands.
Well let me tell you, this is Fallout as I love it. Keeping the trend, I made a female character called Lucy. This is her outfitted with an explosive collar.
The story in short: some guy shoots you in the head, you survive and go find him. It escalates quickly.
Literally 10 years late, but we're getting there. Spoiler: this was so much better than Unity. TL;DR loved it.
A short 1000 points tutorial-ish game using simplified mission rules. I dusted off the Word Bearers against the Leviathan-box spawned Tyranid Invasion Fleet. I took my time explaining the rules and also answer the questions of friendly spectators, so less pictures than usual. But here's how it went down.
The Tyranids had first turn and advanced cautiously behind cover. I zoomed up my Rhinos behind cover towards the objectives and braced. Cultists and Legionaries hiding from the venom cannon behind the top left ruin.
I looked up some real bats for this project but I mixed a couple of pictures up.
ASOIAF tournament time! All fun and games until you find out there's only 5 players. My man EndRush decided to create a "phantom player" instead of a BYE, which was making feels bads last time. Enter Scourge Phantom. This entity would play Targaryens - a simple dragon list which I said was easy to remember and pilot. The plan was for either EndRush or myself to play concurrently with our regular tables. It went... really funny actually, given that Scourge Phantom won the tournament. Too bad I only got to play 1 game with it, due to how the pairings worked out.
Game 3 against the Phantom! Which was hilarious. However, this is Fire and Blood, which I just don't know how to play. Perhaps I should have gone with the Mag list, but giants don't do well against unblockable wounds. Anyway, either list had easy to kill animals, and both the Wolfpack and Boar got marked.
Playing against my man EndRush in this classic Game of Thrones scenario. He piloted the Phantom player at another table as I was exhausted (and high on caffeine). My list was a mix of everything that denies abilities in a Free Folk list - aptly named "no abilities please".
Never played Mag commander in a tournament, so here he is in Here We Stand. I was up against a Lannister list with Gregor Clegane sitting in the Warrior Sons. The meme was that if they failed their morale, they'd autocharge 6"; otherwise get a faith token. I played a concurrent game so I barely took any photos. Basically the Honor Guard and a unit of outflanking Raiders held one quarter each (calculate which was a better investment), and everything else rumbled for the other two.
Another batch of early 20th century investigators (with a couple of cheeky outliers).
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Still at it with the WTC style layouts. I'm never bringing another tank in this stupid game.
I wanted to repaint my own bronze trophy that I got at the nationals for a while now. When the ruling champion asked me to repaint his... well, it was time.
We met up with the guys for 2 parallel games and of course we had to make it a Tiny Thursday Tournament. Just 1 round and 1 game. I played the Lannisters but at least not against my regular opponent. Instead of the Free Folk, having just painted up the Mother of Dragons box, I played... dragons. Game Mode: A Dance with Dragons. It's all coming up Millhouse.
More things for the Dungeon. Painted as a silver dragon as described for the Forgotten Realms.
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WhizKids preprimed miniatures, a good palate cleanser in between all the nuns.
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The Aeldari are back for revenge after last week's game. Their list was very similar, while I decided to switch it up and bring the tank company instead. Note that we played on a WTC layout that was very, and I mean very, full of terrain. I literally could not move my tanks around. The two eldar wave serpents also barely left their deployment zones, but their infantry had enough movement shenanigans to not really care. Spoiler alert: this hampered my efforts severely and the game did not go well.
I had some Napoleonic infantry lying around, originally intended to be used as Conscripts. With that option gone from the codex, I decided to use them as Kriegers. I painted them in the colors of the Papal Palatine Guard.
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September went... not as I expected.
D&D is on break, due to a lack of interest. Call of Cthulhu is the new staple, with us blazing through the Australian chapter and only losing 2 investigators in the process.
Wargaming is also alive and well. I played ASOIAF, tried a new army and bought into my own Free Folk. I also played some Warhammer. The nuns are back in action!
Hobby wise, I finished my giant commission, and also an unexpected dragon commission. I just had to paint Daenerys and her dragons! Commissions will now take a sideline, as I struggle to paint my own stuff during October.
Otherwise, I primed a lot of Bones using my airbrush. I also tried some color shifting paints on Stormlight shard bearers. So more preparations, less minis finished. I compensated by leaning into random fantasy minis, animals, monsters, whatever. I also painted the final batch of Tempestus nuns. I hope to never paint that color scheme again.
With these shifting priorities, my plans were delayed. But I also got a batch of 3d prints, so new avenues opened up as well. Therefor, the immediate priority is painting up what I already have primed - some Kasrkin and other random Imperial stuff.
What I do afterwards depends on the weather. October is rainy so I might not be able to prime much. But I do want to prepare a lot. I can lean into rounding out my Guard army with Kriegers (including heavy weapons) and more Kasrkin. I can start on my own Free Folk, which will require some conversions to avoid identical models. This also requires a lot of magnets and movement tray work. I plan on doing more than just flocked trays, that's for sure. And speaking of magnets, I am in need of organizing my shelf space by producing more magnetized trays.
So the possibilities are endless!
In the ever changing landscape of Warhammer 40k missions, here's my first foray into Chapter approved 2025-26. Unexploded Ordnance is kind of weird, and I did not get the reading right on the first try. You can move the objectives and you get points for how close they are to the enemy deployment zone. You don't actually have to control them to score. Weird, but I like it.
So anyway, here's the Aeldari Warhost spread out across their deployment zone. And here's my scions, with some artillery support. I thought to make good use of the cover denying stratagem. Spoiler: it never came up.
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Things are happening on the ASOIAF front, but for now, here's a game where I try out Mance Raider as commander, versus my old opponent taking a new army for a spin. Surprising nobody, the Greyjoys deployed in a refuse flank. I countered them on their own flank, while also making a play for the other flank. The Greyjoys retained their ability to choose first player, so as to direct the arrival of outflankers.
Ride of the Valkyries starts playing in the background.
We started by going back a bit to the previous scene, with professor Sanchez being struck by a bout of madness. In a panic, he rushed out. Huston just laughed, reminisced about the time he and his cultists lost their minds for the first time, then prodded us to go after him, just so a flying squid doesn't get him.
After a long string of banter and a short meta discussion about where we are and what we hope to accomplish, we were spirited back into the dungeon.[1]
It's been a while since I used the slapchop method. These minis looked detailed enough to support it.
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I never imagined to play Free Folk and get pass tokens. Well, with the amount of 3+/4+ across the table, I decided to bring Mag again for the final game of A Dance with Dragons.
Mini tournament time! Here's the link, but my personal breakdown: we were 5 players, so a BYE each round. Felt bad, free crushing victories to the best players. I tried a new approach to Free Folk, with less but more resilient units. Well, it didn't really work out. Got beaten 2-1. No, I did not get a free victory. Still, every game was damn close, and I had a good time. Back to the drawing board on the lists, though.
First up, a brutal game of Banners and Butchery. The Starks deployed almost on the line. I missed my animals to hold them back, but they would have been of use trying to hold objectives.
Next up, my least favorite swingy game mode, Fire and Blood. Free Folk units can't kill anything. Except Mag, but then he gets focused down. Especially with a Ballista on the other side. But again I couldn't bring my zoo, otherwise the animals would just get marked and give up points.
At least we had regular and not in-your-face deployment, so Jarl comes in turn 2. Refuse flanks on both sides.
Two packs of Nolzur's Marvelous pre primed githyanki miniatures, as a palette cleanser.
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August is done and it went... about as expected. RPGs took a break, indeed I played nothing else but a small ASOIAF event. I'll be writing about it next week. However, we'll be starting September in force with both the Dungeon and our adventures in the Australian outback scheduled to resume this week. After, we'll be back at Warhammer as well.
Hobby wise, I finished stuff, including the entire 1920s investigators project (32 girls done total), both squads of Free Folk, and the Krieg artillery teams. Publishing soon. I also advanced on other fronts, by priming Bones miniatures using my airbrush whenever the weather allowed it.
As for September, I have a small commission of 2 giants (including Mag the Mighty). Otherwise I'll be going into painting fantasy miniatures and rounding up my remaining Guard infantry. Also airbrush prime whatever I can while the weather allows it.
All in all, the lull in hobby time is over. Games will resume. I'm ahead of schedule painting wise by 23. Let's have at it!
After last session's tough fight against the vampires, the adventurers collected all their loot and travelled back to Waterdeep to sell their treasures and upgrade their gear. While they did not find all the magic items they were looking for[1], the frontline fighters got armor and shields, better weapons and so on. With some time spent on the surface while the armorers fitted their gear, I finally had the occasion to throw some sidequests and roleplay at them.
I liked the humvee, but it wasn't quite Taurox-like enough. So I experimented with having another model 3d-printed. However, the printer kept misfiring, and I actually received 4 damaged hulls instead of 1 whole one. I decided to take it as a challenge.
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Rejuvenated after the Nationals and the break after, here I am back at it with another iteration of the giants list, this time with an added Varamyr and friends. Across the field are some old friends, and some new faces - Joffrey and the Kingsguard, and Pyromancers.
I found a cool proxy for a Taurox. Unfortunately, it needed some extra work.
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While our characters rolled through the endless plains of the Australian outback, we had an era-appropriate dinner, consisting of ship biscuits, beef jerky and canned beans.
Due to unforeseen circumstances, Archie's character sheet was missing, so the fourth player instead assumed the role of professor Dodge. Just as well, so that Archie could lie down and rest, while Dodge and Sanchez rifled through the warehouse. They found a box with the same winged symbol, containing a telescope like device and a letter addressed to Edward Ganigan, in which Robert Houston describes the object as use for short range exploration by the Yithians. Yeah we have no idea what that means, but Robert Houston was the member of the Carlyle expedition supposedly seen alive, and Ganigan is a lead we have in London.
This took a lot of thought, so bear with me.
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