PP's Unexpected Package

When I got home from y part time job today I had a package waiting for me. I received a shipping invoice from PP on April 1st but couldn't remember ordering anything so I kind of disregarded the email. I have also been so preoccupied with the flood in the basement and getting everything taken care of that I completely forgot about the email. Well when I picked up the package I was even more confused by the size of the box and the weight of the package.....I certainly didn't order this much from PP recently. Lets look at what we received shall we?

Completely forgot I pledged War Chest!

Coinage!

 

There you have it my little surprise from PP. OK off tot he store to play some trolls.

Templecon '14 Recap

Templecon '14 has come and gone and it's time for the wrap up. This years Templecon was a little on the bumpy side for me but more on that as we go.

My initial plan was to leave my house around 1pm to head out to Les' place. I was going to play a game with Adam before Les got home and we packed up for the ride. Well mother nature had different plans as we were getting hammered by a snow storm here in Central New York. After bouncing around different options he elected to try and leave around 7:30-8pm after the storm had passed. My drive to Les' (about 70min away) was a bit of a nightmare but we made it got the car packed and headed for Warwick. We got into RI between 1-2am and met up with some friends in the lobby. We got a sec to catch up Northblade and Chadi from Canada (had the good sense to leave a day early) and out of town Team Spite members John (Moz), Zack (z1g1), and Jeremy. I ended up heading to bed sometime around 3:30am with the vague recollection I told Les to get me in the am I'd stand in line at the PP store with him.

Day 1

Well the morning came and there was a knock at our door at 6:30......Les all bright eyed ready to roll. Being a man of my word I grabbed a quick shower and headed down to the gaming hall to get in line. We were the 9th and 10th people in line and none of us had an idea what was going on sale. There was speculation that Vengeance would be available but that turned out to be false. They opened the store at 9am and started the assembly line in motion. You were only allowed one of any items so I grabbed an extra floaty CoC heavy kit for Northblade and he picked up an extra trollkin sorcerer for me and we just swapped after paying. I also picked up a gatorman bokur and swamp shamblers box. Directly after the PP table Broken Egg was set up selling trays. I initially fought the urge to buy one but ended up doubling back and picking one up (good call). The PP store sold out of nearly everything by the end of the morning except for Butcher3 and maybe one other item.

Plummer and Shick running register at the PP store.

I really didn't do much day one since I figured I had three full days left to game (bad call). I walked around a far bit that first day and did a lot of watchmachine. A couple guys were playing in the 50pt special forces event so I stopped by to watch them play a bit.

Yes, John, those Kayazy passed another tough check

Nick rocking the Team Spite colors

I did manage to get one Iron Arena game in again Mr Chris 'gdaybloke Miller. We have tried to get a game the last few years and it finally came together.

'Gday setting up his very nicely painted Ret

 

Friday night Les and I headed out to Longhorn for dinner with Trevor and Jay from Chain Attack (Jay was in one of our rooms), Chilly Winters from Texas, and out of town Team Spiters John, Zack, and Jeremy. After having a few drinks with dinner and belly full of steak and potato I ended up calling it a night around midnight. My initial plan was to get together with Jaime and a few people to play some drunken Zombicide but my body had other ideas so off to bed.  

 

Day 2

 

Friday am brought about the PP keynote address. All in all nothing too groundbreaking or amazing but still cool none the less. Looking forward to more info on the troll minis show in the presentation and the "something really awesome" Will Shick mentioned trolls would be getting instead of a beast pack.

 

Against my better judgment I decided to organize a team and try to play in the marathon that is the team tournament. Team Plan B was formed consisting of myself, Les, and Nick. John, Zack, and Jeremy also formed a team and tried to get into the tourney via the standby list. Well Team Spite got shut out of the event with our two teams being the last two out of the event. We ended up playing out our own team event with Les playing Jeremy (Jeremy Wins), Nog playing Moz (Nog wins), and Zack playing Nick (Zack wins) for an out of towner Team Spite W.

 

After this I grabbed an Iron Arena Game with Chadi from Canada. It was a fun and loud game ;) It was at this point however that things started to turn for me. I could feel the convention plague setting in and was only hoping it wouldn't bee too bad. I headed to the room early that night and just hung out in bed. I ended up having a really nice chat with Les and Chain attack Jay about the keynote, the con, and the state of the game in general. The chat was cut off when old man Les started snoring in the middle of the conversation signifying it was getting late.

Day 3

Saturday I woke up feeling like hell but decided to try and get into the special forces 50pt event. My two lists were:

Madrak Ironhide, World Ender (*5pts)
* Pyre Troll (5pts)
* Troll Impaler (5pts)
* Trollkin Runebearer (2pts)
Krielstone Bearer and 5 Stone Scribes (4pts)
* Krielstone Stone Scribe Elder (1pts)
Pyg Burrowers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
Trollkin Fennblades (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Trollkin Fennblade Officer & Drummer (2pts)
Trollkin Warders (Leader and 4 Grunts) (8pts)
Trollkin Warders (Leader and 4 Grunts) (8pts)
Fell Caller Hero (3pts)
Trollkin Champion Hero (3pts)

Reinforcements:
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew (Leader and 1 Grunt) (1pts)
Trollkin Runeshapers (Leader and 2 Crew) (4pts)
Gatorman Witch Doctor (3pts)
Professor Victor Pendrake (2pts)

and

Grissel Bloodsong (*5pts)
* Earthborn Dire Troll (10pts)
* Mountain King (20pts)
* Trollkin Runebearer (2pts)
Krielstone Bearer and 5 Stone Scribes (4pts)
Trollkin Warders (Leader and 4 Grunts) (8pts)
Trollkin Warders (Leader and 4 Grunts) (8pts)
Janissa Stonetide (3pts)

List one is a pretty standard style Madrak2 list. List 2 was one I played 3 time in Iron Arena games and really enjoyed. There is a ton of beef in the list and if I can play a single zone scenario against an opponent with minimal armor cracking it can be a bear to chew through. I intended to play the Grissel1 list most rounds but long and short of it I ended up playing Maddy all three games.

Round one was vs Charles aka Omnus from Removed from Play. He was playing a Vayl2 theme force with three angels. The board had a forest in the center of the board which was not great for me. Charles is a very good player and between my illness and lack of recent gameplay I wasn't on the top of my game and ended up deathclocking myself. Charles was all set to win even when I deathclocked myself so the L was inevitable. Hopefully I can get a rematch one day when I am not sick cause I think we could have had a really fun game otherwise.  

Round 2 I was paired up with Danny playing Cryx. He played a fairly standard pSkarre list. I was starting to feel worse and worse at this point and don't really remember the game too well. eMaddy survived a 12 focus Skarre assassination at the end of the round timer and we ended up with a tie. It wouldn't be a Templecon if I don't get a tie no?

Round 3 I got paired up vs Nick from my own meta. nick played his Zaal T4 theme force. The game felt like he was in control the entire way then all of a sudden I ended up tabling him and winning the game. It was at this point I decided I was going to have to drop. I never like to drop from an event but I felt terrible and was miserable. As I turned our results to Stubbs and was going to tell him I was dropping he said unless you were undefeated the event was done. So I avoided the dreaded drop but my day was over. I went to bed at 6pm and was there sweating, shaking, and coughing the remainder of the night. 

 

Day 4

 

Day four was pretty much a wash I was feeling like complete dog poo and was not up for gaming at all. We packed up out gear and got the car loaded for the right home. Nick was struggling after having a rough night of beermachine the night before. We hit a Denny's with John, Jeremy, and Zack so we could hang with our out of town brothers one more time. After getting back from breakfast we walk through the gaming hall one last time saying good buys and doing our last mini shopping. Even though I was ready to leave I am really glad I made that last pass as I was able to get one of the Zombicide season 1 minis Marvin! The CMoN booth had four of the season one exclusives and while they are not allowed to sell the minis they were giving them away with the purchase of a game. Since I have all the games already I though I was SoL but after talking with the guy he said I could grab one if I picked up one of the box of zombies. I wanted more toxic zombies so this was a no brainer. BOOM Marv is part of the crew now!

 

My new Broken Egg trollkin sized tray. I elected to go with the single 120mm tray vs the double 120mm

SDE minis

 

My ticket to Marv!

Marv!

 

Gator Alexia and two sorcerers

Templecon dice from Iron Arena and a bottle of VGC paint I picked up

The full score

 

So that was my Templecon. I am not sure I am a huge fan of the new four day con but that may just be cause I was sick for >50% of it. Hopefully next year I can avoid the plague and get some more games in and spend some more quality time with friends.

Meg Maples Painting Class

Well this post is months overdue but I had some time and said lets bang this out. Back in October (I think it was October) Mr Bell aka Northblade was hosting a two day painting class up in Toronto. This class was being taught by former PP studio artist Meg Maples. When I found out about the class I checked the work schedule, cleared it with the wife, checked with local guys to see if they wanted to come, and booked arrangements. Local gamer/paint Mickey aka DieselDM was free and he took the trip with me. We got into Toronto Friday at rush hour (great timing). We got settled into the room found some grub and laid low so that we would be all ready to roll first thing in the am Saturday.

 

Saturday morning we hit the free breakfast in the hotel and headed over to the local college where the class was being held. I am nut sure exactly how it was arranged but Northblade got one of the art studios for the weekend for us to use so the space was nice. The class had between 20-25 students of different skill levels but many were very good. Due to the size of the class Meg would people up to her painting station in groups of 5-8 people to demonstrate a technique and then seen them back to do their best. The major draw for me was to learn and watch two brush blending. We were all given a Nemo1 resculpt as out test mini.

 

 

 Training session

 

Mickey working on his beloved Swans

 

Northblade fighting the urge to eat his paints :)

 

I typically prefer black primer but Meg likes white and when in Rome

Base colors. I have wanted to try out the Mirewatch scheme from an old NQ Guts and Gear article  and finally pulled the trigger and gave it a shot. 

 

 End of day one (front)

 

 End of day one (back)

 

So as day one drew to a close this was the state of my Nemo. The day was long and a tab bit frustrating. The technique, while making complete sense, was more touchy and difficult than expected. I went through bits of extreme frustration with my miniature and actually rebasecoated a few section different time to make a second and sometime third attempt. I was pretty discouraged with my mini by the end of class and was sick of looking at the old man. After everyone packed up their supplies we locked up the room and headed out to Dave & Busters for some much needed dinner and drinks.

 

Upon arriving at D&B we were told it was a two hour wait for a table so we just flooded the bar area and took every chair they had. This was a really nice time as we had time to mingle in small groups and get to know some of the people in the class a little better. I had some time to chat with Meg about painting and some future projects like Kingdom Death (man she has some crazy ideas there). Around 9pm Meg was ready for bed and Northblade took her home. Most of the class left at that time but a few of us weren't ready to all it a night so we continued to BS, have some drinks, and ruin a first date (you know who you are ;). Big shout out to Charles who was my partner in crime for the night and while everyone took off hung out and partied with me until I don't know maybe 2am? (can't remember).

 

I was pretty burnt out on painting the next morning and didn't have the same enthusiasm as day one but after grabbing some breakfast we headed over to the class room. When I left the class room after day one I was pretty discouraged with my Nemo but I guess sometime away really helped this as when I sat at my station day two I no longer hated my mini and could see some positives. Day two I did the blending on the blue sections of Nemo's cloak and a few details here and there. I wasn't able to sit and focus for long stretches as day one so I just listened to Meg's lessions and mingled most of the day.

 

 

 

While not 100% at the end of day two here is Nemo as we packed up and called it a weekend.

 

I have to say the class was very informative and I'm glad we made the trip. Meg was cool and very helpfully and the class had a lot of quality painters that were fun to be around. We had a lot of laughs and learned some new techniques so it was a very successful weekend from my point of view. Due to the nature of the weekend I didn't have as much time to catch up and BS with Northblade as I would have likes but them the breaks, eh? I will leave you with some photos of the sample minis Meg brought along with her.

The First of Many

Over the next 2-6 week the Cave is expecting multiple packages as many of my Kickstarters are going to start shipping. The include (in expected order) Zombicide season 2, Wild West Exodus, Rivet Wars, and Relic Knights. I cannot decide which I am looking forward to the most but right now I think I am leaning toward WWX seeing as I am thinking about building my own table (more on this later).

While not from a Kickstarter I did received two packages the other while I was napping. Let look at the goodies shall we?

My first box was from Privateer Press and here are the contents:

I haven't unwrapped this beauty yet but as you can tell it is the Butcher3 limited edition box set. I have loved since I picked up black and white copy of Prime a decade ago (good God where does time go). When I saw the new Butcher I had to have him and since I am a sucker for all think "limited edition" or "exclusive" I had to have it.

The rest of the box was a classic mauler, the new Gencon Booze mini (to go with the Kiltlifter and last years minis), and a the web excluse pHaley (more on her at a later date)

My second box was from good Mr Larsen at www.discountgamesinc.com my favorite online retailer. This was part of a pre-order I place about a month back.

Here is a second fell caller, a second thumper crew (for Gunnbjorns theme), and an exemplar errant UA

 

Next up a pretty Menoth battle engine

Last but not least the pre-ordered item: Warmachine: High Command. The only thing that would have been better is Hordes: High Command :) I have been really excited about this game and cannot wait to take it for a test spin. I am trying to line up a game night next week with some buddies to kick the tires and see how she plays. OK that's all for now time to hit the sack. The next few weeks should be really geektastic with all my new toys coming. Updates as they arrive.