2017 Year in Review

This was another good hobby-filled year. So here is a summary of 2016 for me.

T'au Empire (Warhammer 40,000)
I took my T'au to the Harvester this year. While my Index army didn't have too much success, it was fun. Let's hope they get a good codex in 2018. At least I have some newly painted battlesuits.

James' Necrons (Warhammer 40,000)
I guess you could call this a commission. Something I did for my brother so he could attend the Harvester of Souls with us. We will see what kind of codex will come out for it in 2018.

Censers & Tocsins (Nurgle Mortals - Warhammer: Age of Sigmar)
This is an army I have been trying to keep up on with painting. Compared to last year's summary, I only had some built, and none painted. My goal with this army is if I build something for it, I paint it, before building the next thing. There will definitely be more to come for this AoS force.

Forthammer Clan Throng (Dispossessed - Warhammer: Age of Sigmar)
I have had a ton of fun with this army. I took them to the Las Vegas Open, added some cool conversions, and am running them in a campaign, which is still ongoing. I have more on the painting table for these guys, so I am not done with them yet.

The Klad Barag (Dispossessed - Warhammer: Age of Sigmar)
This deserves its own entry here because I consider it quite the achievement. Still not 100% sure what I will use him as, but he will be a proxy for any big dude I want to run in friendly games. Perhaps not tournament legal due to being a proxy and all. I do plan on taking some better photos of this guy and sending them to White Dwarf. Let's hope something comes from that.

Forgesworn Eternals (Stormcast Eternals - Warhammer: Age of Sigmar)
I haven't really added anything to this army, just got completely caught up on painting. Lately nothing has really stood out for the line to get me to want to add here. At least with being completely painted, if I do add anything, I will be inclined to immediately paint it. Like my plans for my Nurgle dudes.

Tempest's Eye Rangers (Grand Alliance: Order - Warhammer: Age of Sigmar)
I only have a couple things here for the army, for now. They are only really ever intended to be for some Grand Alliance army, rather than a start of Freeguild. I would like to paint them this coming year.

Song of Blades and Heroes Stuff
For my favorite non-Warhammer fantasy skirmish game, I have added a lot of Reaper BONES minis to it here and there. And I made some nifty ruins for it as well. But most of all I am still slowly working on the Song of the Deep Empire campaign supplement for it. More on that in the coming year.

And that sums up the year. Lot's of fun projects, and of course, lot's of plans for 2018. Stay tuned.

Song of the Deep Empire - Playtest

Over the weekend I had some friends stay over for the solar eclipse. We were lucky enough for our town to be smack dab right in the middle of the line of totality so we got to see the entire eclipse in all its glory. So to celebrate this wonderful celestial event (which some weirdos mistakenly predicted to be an apocalyptic event), we played out another apocalyptic event in the making:

Again, I am absolutely kicking myself for not having taken any pictures of the battle in progress. But I can at least give a little report on it. My friend brought several pre-painted D&D minis from his own collection and we hammered out a themed 300 point warband:

Left to right: Incubus Warrior, Elemestra, and Naga Warrior

Jake the Savage Slaver and his 5 Slaves

This faced off against a Deep Empire Rise:

Top left to bottom right: The Bride, Lord Mo'clor'rath'kritlor, Karkarion Warrior, 2 Spikeshell Warriors, 2 Naiad Warriors, Naiad Piercer

I had just finished painting these guys before he came over. They certainly set the tone for the entirety of the Deep Empire. I will do a quick report of painting bones minis: I certainly love it. It is true that they do not need to be spray primed. I just coated them with a some of Reaper's brush on primer, and they painted like a dream after that. The bottom 3 of course are not Reaper bones, but are from Mantic's Kings of War range. I bought a small kit of them off of ebay because they could fit the deep empire very nicely. As for basing I just used a mix of spackle(filler), sand, and paint. The idea is a marshland theme. For the grass tufts I used a very creative method found here.

Dried grass tufts being made from a really cheap paintbrush I already had.

Anyway about the battle. It was a lot of fun, and got really intense. His Gorgonites got beat out in the end though, and part of the failure was due to the encroaching waters, which is sort of the idea. The waters are intended to make the campaign an uphill battle for the participants. However I did figure something out: placing D6 water tiles onto the table each time a Personality activates is way too quick. The waters came up fast and after a few turns the board was pretty well flooded. I will be reducing that likely to D3 water tiles per Personality activation, or even just each time the Deep Empire player begins a turn, bring in D3 waters. This is why we are experimenting with this. He did have some cool moments though, like his Incubus Warrior leaping from building to building, and the slaves surrounding and taking out the Karkarion Warrior in a mass of naked bodies.

I would like to get some more of my Deep Empire models painted before I get the chance to play again.

Song of the Deep Empire - Encroaching Waters

I have been doing some preliminary writing for a set of scenarios and campaign for Song of Blades and Heroes. The idea is about an ancient evil from the deeps of the oceans rise up to flood the surface, destroy civilization, and recede again. The mortal races of the surface are tenacious, and always rebuild. Prompting this to happen every thousand years or so.

It is a campaign, minimum 2 players, and each player builds a warband that grows as the campaign goes along. But one player takes the role of the Deep Empire, trying to ensure the Rise happens. Other players make groups of adventurers (trying to stop it), treasure hunters (the Deep Empire is ancient, and bring a lot of relics of the past with them), or mercenaries, among other ideas. It's really up to the players how they would involve themselves in this.

I am still working out the campaign paths, scenarios, and story, but I have one idea I really do like that gives the Deep Empire an edge over the other warbands.

Encroaching Waters
All models in a Deep Empire force has the Aquatic special rule and have to pay for it, no exceptions. While this can make Deep Empire models a little more expensive, it works out because every time a Deep Empire Personality activates, water features begin to appear and spread across the game board. These water features generally may be about 3" to 4" square, and of course they will have no effect on Deep Empire models, but for the surface dwellers, it can be quite a drawback to have to move and fight through them.

So let's make some encroaching water tiles for use during a game.

I started with a display pocket. These are thick flexible pieces of clear plastic used to mount signs. So one of these provides 2 sheets when you cut off the edges.

Next I taped one of the sheets to a wooden board to hold the sheet tight. I also put a paper underneath with the basic 3"x4" squares drawn so all my water pieces are sorta around the same size.

Using my trusty hot glue gun, I write out the outlines of some water pieces.

Then I continue to work on filling the pools in with hot glue, doing an inner boarder on one, then moving on to the next while it sets, and so on.

Continue until all pieces are filled in completely.

Once the sheet has cooled, cut them out with a decent pair of scissors.

I think they work well enough to convey shallow waters. They are small enough to fit in or around most pieces of terrain. Usually water features are more elaborate, but these are designed to be put down during gameplay.

I first tried making them and painting them blue, but I decided they looked too fake and stood out too much. I realized the clear option was better so you could see the colors underneath and they would blend in with the map better. Besides, shallow waters are not blue.

As you could also see I have a selection of aquatic themed BONES minis for this project. That was intentional. I will do infrequent updates as this project comes along. Maybe even a battle report!