Workbench: Breaking Out The Astro Granite!

A friend of ours had come over for game night a week ago and while looking for something to play asked "What's Blood Bowl?"

I told him it was a fantasy football game with miniatures and he said "Okay, let's play."

Now all of this would have been fine if I had played the game within the last... oh, twenty years maybe?  Unfortunately the copy that I have is the second edition of the game (long before blocking dice were even a thing) and technically it actually isn't even mine.  Even so, having someone actually ask me to play... well, there was only one thing to do; download a copy of the most recent Living Rulebook.

For those of you that might not know, Blood Bowl was first created by Games Workshop ages ago.  They have had it meander into and out of their store as they revive the game for a bit before letting it disappear again.  In this case however, Blood Bowl never did just fade away.  Even when GW wasn't supporting the game, there was a very strong community still supporting and even growing the game.

Eventually GW seemed to realize that this thing that they created all those years ago was still alive and kicking so they brought it home so to speak, releasing the latest edition in 2016 with some minor changes but largely embracing the latest version of the fan supported/created Living Rulebook.

Needless to say it was fairly easy to find and print up a copy of the latest rulebook online.  Next I decided to "tackle" the board.

The latest edition of the game bumps the base size up from the traditional 25mm base to a 32mm base.  I don't know the official reason but it does seem to allow for more dynamic poses, plus they added a hole to the base so that you can put the ball onto the ball carrier's base.  The old copy that I have won't allow for the larger bases but it is made of not-so environmentally friendly Styrofoam.  The really sturdy stuff, not like you'd find around a burger at the drive thru.

As you can see, it's not the most eye catching thing.  In fact some of the marking are almost impossible to pick out so I decided it was time to start painting.

The first step was a coat of dark grey followed by two more coats, each with a lighter shade of grey.  This made the field easier to read but since I'd already gone that far it only made sense to take it the rest of the way.

The latest edition of the game marks off the wings on the sides of the field so I marked these right onto the board and I just had to pick out the logo.  I mean seriously, it would have been wrong to just leave it grey!  I also picked out the sidelines and end zones... well, just because really.  And I was going to stop at this point but... well, I might as well paint the end zones too, right?

And there it is in all its glory!  I could have tried to do labelled team end zones but I'm not quite that crazy; blue and red will work for me.  This also matches up nicely since the plastic minis from the game are blue and red.  Of course the orcs are blue while the humans are red which really makes no sense but what can you do... except paint all of them too!

No, I haven't done that.

Not yet anyway.  It still might happen, but we'll have to see how busy I am this weekend.  Ideally, I think I'd like to push around some Antares or Mars Attacks instead but time will tell.  Oh, and I still have to make the block dice too.  Time to dig up those wooden cubes I've got lying around...

Random Updates: What?!? It's Been How Long Since I Posted?!?

Wow.  I had no idea it had been this long since I updated.  Things have been pretty busy for me as I'm still cross training at work.  To pull the curtain aside a bit, I work for a steel fabricator as a draftsman and for the past month and a half or so I've been cross training in the shop.  Normally I had access to a computer during the day so I can write up a post during lunch time.  Being downstairs though means no computer hence the dry spell.  The blog is not done as I still have more random bits of hobby and such to spout into the interwebs but things might continue to be a bit slow until about mid January.

Even with this long term lull, I've actually noticed some serious spikes in the number of views that I've been receiving which is awesome.  Of course looking at where the traffic is coming from... I'll just say that people take the Sin City part of the name to heart and leave it at that.  So for those of you coming here looking for gaming related stuff, awesome!  Glad to have you here and I hope that you check back once things get back on track (aka I miss my desk and I can't wait to finish my cross training).  As for the people coming here looking for... well, other things... hope you enjoy the minis?

As for what's in store, I've been able to squeeze in a tiny bit of hobby over the past few weeks but most of my time has been focused on changing around my hobby space.  My wife told me that I should just turn what was going to be our office into my room so I've been working on getting things in order on that front.  Lots of shifting stuff around plus unpacking still more boxes of random stuff uncovering all manner of things (I had forgotten that I owned a respectable sized Ork army for 40k).  

I'd mentioned before that I found more of my Traahiri mercenaries for Antares and now I've added some transports for my Sulia mercenaries.  Not entirely sure if they are the right size to count as a T7 but that's what I'm counting them as for now.  Just need to get some paint on them and order some large flight stands then they'll be good to go.

As for other games, I've got some paint on my Mars Attacks ruins and I'm pretty happy with how they're turning out.  I haven't started on the minis themselves yet but in time...  I'm also interested in revisiting the Terminator Genisys miniature game as well since I just heard that the next Terminator movie is due out next year but with James Cameron running the show again.  Just need to grab a tracked Hunter Killer and I'll be all set... for now... mwah ha ha ha haaaa!!!  Oh, plus there is still Wrath of Kings lurking in the background.  I have the solid core for three armies in that game and the rules look interesting so I've got to give it a try sometime.  Ya know, in all the free time I seem to have.

On roleplaying front, things have actually been moving along at a steadier pace.  My wife, daughter, and I are part of a semi-regular group and we've been having a blast with it.  I've even managed to collect most of the minis for the party since we are currently dragging around half a dozen NPCs as we try to find a way out of the Underdark.  Most of them don't even have an active part in the session beyond dialog but I really wanted to have them all.  Kind of like Poke-Mon, just gotta get them all!

And so that's a quick synopsis of what's been happening for the past month.  Once I get back to the office things will get back on track but until then please bear with me.  Until next time...