Friday, July 25, 2014

Wrythhold update

Well I am long overdue an update.  No excuses, I have been gaming every week, I just haven't posted anything - sorry.

Painting - I finally bought some Model Air paint for my cheap as chips airbrush - I'm a convert!  All I have done so far is do some basic work on my second Wraithknight which will be my Warlord when using the Iyanden supplement.  I am very happy with my early work and look forward to improving as I practice and add to my colour range.  There were a few things I should have done differently but as long as I learn from those mistakes its all positive.  I have not produced a lot of finished models in the meantime though I have found some new enthusiasm so will remedy that.

RPG - So we played through a lot of Deathwatch but myself as GM and the guys playing all wanted a change.  I think the system is great for short bursts.  Run through a single story arc between a longer term campaign.  After 3 months of consistent weekly gaming the player characters were advancing really slowly and for a bunch of guys who have years of D&D type leveling under their belts it feels like very slow progress.

So we went back to Pathfinder.  I did some research and bought the first part of the Wrath of the Righteous Adventure Path.  It drops the level 1 players right into some serious action and paces encounters, role playing and xp really well.  I think its the most the players have been enthusiastic about a rpg campaign for a long time.  Cody is as usual his go to sword n board human Paladin, Stu is a human Warlock and Aaron has surprisingly hung up his spells for a human Fighter swinging two handed weapons.  They are all good aligned and have their characters working together really well.  As they near the end of the first part of the campaign I asked if they wanted to play a Deathwatch story before going onto the second book.  They declined and want to carry on straight away, can only be a good thing!

Warhammer Fantasy - I haven't played a lot of Fantasy at all as the local lads love the round bases(as do I).  I am looking at a couple of easy additions to my Daemons with advice from Joel.  My VC sit neatly on display in a new cabinet in the gaming room though won't see any table action until we do another Stone Falls narrative game.  I am looking at a lot of Dark Elf stuff though that will be a gradual project, though I have a pretty solid plan of the visual look I would want to achieve.

40K - My go to game!  Since my last post we have had a new edition.  I don't think it has impacted too much on the way I play, but I do play Eldar... the changes to jink have made my Wave Serpents more durable though the balancing snap shots have reduced the firepower a little.  With all the twin linking I can still roll 6s though so not a biggy if it tones them down a bit.

From always taking a Farseer in my army for the last 5-6 years I now don't bother at all.  The changes to psychic powers, the psychic phase and lets be honest - all the twin linking in the Eldar anyway means I have been using an Autarch a lot or if I want my Wraithguard objective securing a token Spiritseer.  I have been playing against Cody's newly reinvigorated Grey Knights a lot so with all their Warp Charge spam whats the point trying to cast your own powers anyway.

Within the last week we have played a handful of 500 point unbound games.  Variations of this could be my new favourite way to play and build armies.  The tactical objective missions are perfect for this style of game over a 4x4 playing area and they don't take too long to get through.  Also very encouraging if you want to paint up a small force without too much commitment.

I am signed up for Call to Arms in Wellington so it will be nice to see how other players are approaching 7th edition.  It is a very 'vanilla' restrictive comp and I am disappointed we cannot use Forge World units - so the Hornets have to stay at home :(  No Knights either even with the nerf to D-Weapons.  Lets see if anyone go Daemon farm crazy - haven't had to deal with that yet.

Random games - I had the chance to play Deadzone from Mantic last week.  It is a very good game with a lot of potential and I hope to play a bit more before committing to any purchases.  I have had a handful of games of X-Wing.  A fantastic game with top of the range quality, like all things Fantasy Flight create.  I only have the starter and have bought Cody a B-Wing and got a Tie Advanced for myself but even with that small collection you can have challenging games.

Comic Books - This is presented as a Wargaming'RPG blog but my other hobby which I am more passionate about is comic books.  With a lot of changes coming up in the Marvel books I read and in my opinion the high quality of storytelling in today's Comic books I would like to share my views so expect to see something soon.

Feel welcome to suggest any content you would like to see here whether it be of a gaming or comic book nature.