The agony of choice.

Last night saw the return of Relics to the LGS and, having played a thoroughly enjoyable game, got me thinking.

Salute is this weekend and I plan to pick up Dystopian Wars as well as some terrain for Infinity. How can I ensure that I spend time on all the games I want to play.

One option that has come to mind is to spend 4 week slots playing a certain game; focusing all painting time to that game. This could encourage me to paint whilst stopping that staleness that can sometimes arise when you are spending weeks on the same thing.

What does everyone else do to keep their focus fresh?

#peerpressure – or how do you choose what to play?

In my FLGS 4Tk Gaming on Tuesday nights we regularly run some form of organised play; be it a league or a tournament. We have recently finished a 9 week long league for Infinity the Game and, after a short break will be starting at the end of the month an 8 week Journeyman League for Warmachine/Hordes.

This is fine although sometimes you get so sick of playing the same game week after week that you can’t wait for it to end. When it does though the immortal question arises.

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO PLAY?

This is a question that I asked today and was met with the response I would give if someone asked me, ‘Not bothered’.

How do you choose between Infinity, Warhammer Fantasy, Relics, Warmachine, Malifaux, Uncharted Seas, Flames of War. They are the first choices that spring to mind without putting too much thought in and that;s without Dystopian Wars that I intend to pick up at Salute.

The first thought is to play something diametrically opposed to what the last organised event was. Finished a sci-fi skirmish game, give me a fantasy game with blocks of troops filling the table.

Maybe someone could create a random item generator app where I type in the names of the systems I play and it picks one at random; either that or I put the names into one of my many hats.

How about you, how do you decide what to play? Answers below.

Club Night @4Tkgaming 10/01/12

Last night saw my second game of Warhammer Fantasy Battle in around a decade and featured a crushing blow to my fledgling Lizardmen force. I played a 1000pt game consisting of:

• Saurus Scar Veteran, Aura of Quetzl
• Skink Priest L2
• 15 Saurus Warriors
• 8 Cold One Cavalry
• 12 Skink Skirmishers
• Razordon

The long and the short is, I lost fairly badly including my cavalry not getting to do anything after a nasty charge from some Ogre cavalry. It started to turn my way a little with David, my opponent, getting some crappy rolls but in the end it was a steep learning curve.

The outcome is that the list had nothing that could really deal with multi-wound Ogres once the cavalry had gone. Plans for a Kroxigor or some Temple Guard are in the pipeline.

Out the back room there was a group playing the Wings of War boardgame.

What I didn’t need to happen when I am struggling to find the funds for the Journeyman league is to be introduced to a really fun game that uses models I wouldn’t even need to paint. If you ever get a chance to give it a go then do, the basic rules are incredibly easy to pick up and it was an immense amount of fun.

#Warmachine #Hordes Journeyman League – Thoughts and Doubts

There are only 3 weeks now until my LGS 4Tk Gaming starts its slightly modified, running for 8 weeks rather than 6, Journeyman league. I mentioned the league back in September but we are only just getting round to running it after our Infinity league.

For this league I have opted for the Searforge Commission  contract from the Mercenaries book. This means to start with I have to use Gorten Grundback, Driller and 3 Gunners – the contents of the old starter set.

I had already purchased 2 of the Gunners back in September and have now built Gorten and the Driller so just one more Gunner to go – hopefully picking him up tonight from a Searforge player with one spare.

Gorten and Driller

The trouble I am having is with the outlay that this league entail in such a short space of time. The contents of the Gorten starter are only 8pts so after week one I need to add 7pts to make it to the 15pts required. This will be Thor Steinhammer and a small unit of Horgenhold Forgeguard – in total about £32. Week 3 sees the jump to 25pts and I plan to include Brun and Lug, a 9pt unit, but that is another £25 and I am unsure how I feel about spending that much money in such a short space of time, finances being what they currently are. There is a week respite till the jump to 35pts where I will be adding an Ogrun Bokur, a model I already have waiting to be painted, and a Wroughthammer Rockram to go with Thor who is thankfully only £16.

I have no qualms paying to play my hobby, just a little uncertainty about the outlay in the timescale (oh, and the fact I need to paint).

Details of the basing and painting scheme in the next post along with some feedback on how the list plays hopefully.

Club Night 27/9/11

Tuesday has been and gone and that means another night of fun at 4TK Gaming, my LGS, has passed me by.

Last night saw me having an Infinity game against a Yu-Jing opponent which was quite a close thing but he allowed himself to be pinned by a pair of Crazy Koalas which gave me a chance to move up. One thing I discovered is that I hate the Forward Observer Guided Missile Combo. So much in fact that I am thinking of adding it to my Nomad list in readiness for the upcoming league.

Once my game was over I helped introduce a new player to the game and after a few turns of killing opponents due to good ARO rolls I think he decided he liked it.

Two tables along had Rob N & Simon trying out the Discworld board game which looked rather interesting. There is occasional board game action, I have tried a few new things myself, sometimes its easier than putting together army lists and sorting minis out from case to case.

Over the way was a game of Warhammer Fantasy pitting one of my regular opponents, Dave, and his Ogre army against Phil’s High Elves. Things didn’t end too well for the Ogres although Dave was a tad rusty with the system.

Finally about the back there were 3 40k games going on. This threw me as its not normally something that appears on a Tuesday but it turns out everyone is getting practice in for the GT. I had to show my ignorance by asking what that was.

There we have it. Just a few final thoughts: No Warmahordes which is unusual. Talk between myself and Rob M of getting a few games of Relics in next week. A quick flick through the Malifaux Twisting Fates book, love the Ramos Avatar. An Infinity league in the pipeline for about 3 weeks time. I just need to find time to paint some models before it starts.

Club Night @4tkgaming 20/9/11

Another Tuesday passes me by with a night spent at my LGS. Last night had me playing a 200pt Infinity game – Nomads (Me) vs Yu Jing (Rich). Rich is new to the game and it was hard seeing every dice roll go against him, rolling high when he needed low and vice-versa .

It did mean I broke my losing streak though so I don’t feel too bad.

There was a large game of Incursion going on which was cool, I love that game, although I had forgotten to take my MI-13 down – Lesson 1: I should stick things in my case when I agree to take them.

There was discussion about us running the Privateer Press Journeyman league in the New Year which a few changes to the official rules – will keep you updated on that one. I did purchase some Grundback Gunners ready though as I am adding Searforge to my Mercs.

Lastly, on the journey home the conversation turned to painting and I realised I haven’t painted anything for ages. This is quite frustrating as I was on a bit of a roll with the ‘Try Something New’ event. Going to pick a mini tonight and just paint it – hopefully this will spur me on to getting back in a routine.

Hopefully.

Woe-locks – #Hordes Issues

Last night was an eye opener in just how much I don’t know about Hordes. I am trying to build a small Circle Orboros force up starting at 15pts.

Last week I used Mohsar the Desertwalker and some constructs which wasn’t too bad but lacked the ability to heal the things and he is so high Fury that at 15pts it was hard to keep him charged up.

This week I tried Baldur and got my arse handed to me twice. My Woldwarden got killed both games by a Legion Heavy – Scythean and Carnivean – before he had a chance to do anything.

Is it just that Circle/Legion is a bad tie up; am I just a shocking player; does Dave, my opponent; know his army really well (even if he was using a new caster); will it play better at games of more than 15pts.

One of the things I love about gaming is thinking about how to overcome these issues – a problem solving exercise. I can’t afford to throw money at it so really have to learn my army and make careful choices.

I am sure there will be more moaning and whining before I am up to speed on the game though.

Wednesday post rethink.

I realised this morning that if I get suckered in to the games I play I dont really pay attention to what is going on around me at the club.

Example, I am aware last night that Bushido and Anima Tactics were both being played but I have no idea what they were like as I was trying to remember how to play Warmachine.

I played a 15pt game using the Magnus Bad Seeds Tier from No Quarter #36 and don’t know if I like it or not. As a long time Magnus player his epic form is quite different and didn’t seem as useful. I am hoping it will work better in bigger games but if not then I will drop it as an idea.

I also played a 250pt game of Infinity against Dave and his Yu Jing. The game started strongly in his favour with his Onibawan being a beast but then some lucky rolls on my part turned it around. In the end I won 5vp to 2vp.

Maybe these posts will work if I took some photos along the way – we will see how it develops.

Club Night @4tkgaming 19/7/11

This is the first Wednesday post about what went on at the club on Tuesday and will, hopefully, become a regular update.

Last night saw some Secrets of the Third Reich going on with new players being shown the ropes. I heard that the American player had a hard time putting down the Soviet zombie horde.

Plenty of Warmachine/Hordes was in play with three tables worth of games on the go at any one point. There doesn’t seem to be one faction that dominates in the club. Cryx seems to get slightly more love than most but it depends on who is down.

Finally there was Infinity. I had one game against Dave where we decided to just use a TAG and one other mini at 200pts. My Marut and a boarding shotgun toting Achilles against the Caskuda and a Charontid. Achilles ended up getting hit by E/M which wasn’t good in a game with no engineers but thankfully the Marut saved the day with some lucky BS rolls.

After that there was another ALEPH vs CA game with Jay’s Achilles/Myrmidon/Dasyu list against 200pts of CA which went ALEPHs way.

Finally we had a go on the club 40k City board using 250pt Yu Jing vs Nomads and I got hit bad. The bike troops that YJ have wiped out one side of the board with some excellent BS rolls from their Spitfires. My Chimera earned her points back – just need to learn how to use her properly. The game was won by Yu Jing in the end. It may have been close but it was always in their court.

A good night all in all, here’s hoping for more of the same next week.