Random Updates: Curses! Foiled Again... Plus a Cyber Samurai!

Well, it looks like I might have to run Stewie and his green companions.  I was called out on a post for the event so it's time to take another look at the US list I was considering.  All in all, it is a very basic list.  An inexperienced 2nd LT with a minder, three inexperienced infantry units, and Stewie... plus a medium machine team and an engineer squad with two BARs and a flamethrower.

Yep, very basic.

To be fair, it wasn't this bad before.  I originally had just inexperienced squads with a bazooka, plus Stewie.  Then I saw that the engineers can take a flamethrower, and things quickly escalated.  Add another couple of BARs just to make them really ridiculous.  Drop the bazooka like a bad habit and slap in a cheap MMG...  It's so ridiculous that I really feel like I need to run it. LOL

And as for the Cyber Samurai... he would be another mini from BrushFu Studios.

The front view of the mostly finished cyber samurai... still need to finish up the base, plus add some other color to his right hand.

Very clean print that needed almost no clean up.  The only negative thing I can say about this mini is the sword was bent when I received it.  What's that?  Which sword?  Oh... the one that broke of when he did a kamikaze leap out of my fat fingers at the floor.

And the back view of the same.

Unfortunately the material was extremely thin and the floor won the day, but I still like how he looks.  I'd thought about clipping off the rest of the hilt, but it has a nice, ornate feel to it so I decided to leave it on instead.  What's it supposed to be?  Who knows, but it works for me!  Overall, another figure that I really recommend from BrushFu for the printing, and I'm looking forward to working my way through the rest of my order.  Until next time...

Bolt Action: The Return of Stewie... Or Is It?

I just found out that we are having another Bolt Action Combat Patrol tournament!  The one and only other time that we have played this format was waaaaaaay back in July 2019.  There was supposed to be another one last year but, well... COVID.

You know how it is.

Thankfully that is now somewhat in the rearview mirror (fingers crossed!!!) and we are getting together for another combat patrol!  I jokingly mentioned bringing Stewie and was told that people would be disappointed if he wasn't there so there you have it.  I started list building right away, working around Stewie as the center of the formation with a good sized number of supporting infantry.  This would let Stewie draw the heat while the infantry did their job.

This sounds great on paper and in thought, but I was having one problem with it; it felt really bland.

I like playing the US in Bolt Action, but they do have some limitations that I wish there was an easy way around.  The lack of an LMG in their formations has always seemed like a pretty serious handicap IMO, and the fact that the only anti-tank the US uses consistently is the bazooka.  Now this is historically accurate, I'm not questioning that, it's just from a playing prospective it doesn't feel like a lot of spice there to make things more interesting.

Days went by and people started asking if a tank of some kind would be common in such a small list, and one of the organizers immediately piped up that most people would most likely be fielding one.  Which got me to thinking, maybe I won't field any.

And thus the Die Panzerjager was born.

With grinding gears and screeching tires, I have decided to field a small force of German Grenadiers instead of dear old Stewie.  This force consists of one leutnaut with a minder, four six-man Heer grenadier squads, one chaplain, and one flamethrower team.  In addition, two of the grenadier squads are equipped with LMGs and all of the squads are carrying two single shot panzerfausts.

This is the concept sketch for my flammenwerfer 41.  I don't think I'll be able to order one and have it arrive in time so I'm just going to take a chance and sculpt my own!

This gives me two squads that can lay down nine shooting dice out to 24", another two that can lay down six shooting dice, plus the whole force has a total of eight single shot attacks against any vehicles I might encounter.  On top of that is the flamethrower team which I think will throw in a psychological effect beyond the damage it might be able to do, and the fact that no one would expect me to be fielding a completely different army.

How will it fare in the tourney?  No idea!  Heck, I don't even know if I'll be able to field the list since I won't get the minis until the 23rd and the tourney is on the 10th.  That gives me some time, but given how little hobby I've been able to squeeze in lately, it does leave me a little nervous.  Just to be on the safe side, I'm going to have the Green Machine available as well in case I need to do a last minute switch.  Fingers crossed I won't have to!  Until next time...

Random Update: Brush Fu In Color!

For the first time in literally weeks, I picked up the brushes and did some painting.  I've wanted to do something with the minis that I bought from BrushFu Studios on Etsy but time just hasn't been on my side until this weekend.

I'm really happy with house these minis turned out and I'm looking forward to tackling the other ones.  The details on them are very good and the prints are clean as well.  There were a couple of spots where there was the odd bump where the resin had been attached but it was easy peasy to clean them up.

From the left, we have a mini that I picked up to be an apprentice for a Frostgrave warband.  She has a fun vibe to her and I really want to build on that with the wizard (who I already picked up) and the rest of the warband.  They will probably be over the top but that's what makes it painting fun!

Next there is a hardened member of either my Core Space crew or my Five Parsecs from Home crew... or maybe both!  I was thinking that he would be the captain but I'm a little on the fence with it.  I mean he looks like he should be the captain, which makes me want to make him another crew member instead.  I've got more to go with him so I'll have to see who jumps out once the rest are done.

Finally there is a female civilian I picked up for Core Space.  I can see her as some kind of informant the crew needs to get information from, or possibly rescue before the Purge overrun the location.  Either way, I'm happy with how she turned out and I can't wait to paint up some more of the minis!  Until next time...

Blitz Bowl: And It Turned Into A Blood Bowl Blitz... Blood Bowl Blitz...

Yes, there is a difference between Blood Bowl and Blitz Bowl but it fit the lyrics.  And as for the differences?  Well, that's what this is all about!

That said, in full disclosure I haven't played Blood Bowl since the 1st edition.  I've often thought about picking it up again, but it's always felt like one of those games that you really need to be part of league to get the most out of it.  Even with that in mind, I once again decided to take a look at it and found it just as tempting as ever.

The concept just sounds hilarious to me.  Fantasy races meeting on the field of "battle"?  Just love the concept but as I started digging more into the recent edition I quickly encountered my long time enemy; time.  The reviews that I saw said that a game of Blood Bowl typically takes two to three hours to play.  If a game is fun, then that isn't much of an issue, but finding a block of time that vast to sit down and play a game...  it's just not so easy anymore.  Life, ya know?

And that's when I stumbled across Blitz Bowl.

With an official play time of 30 to 60 minutes, that's a lot easier to fit into life as we know it and having finally been able to play a game...  yeah, I'm glad that I went for the Blitz instead of the Blood.

With only three stats for each figure plus possibly a special rules, the rules are very easy to get your head around.  And it also doesn't feel like it's just trying to be a fantasy version of football.  There are enough differences that I really enjoyed the game play because it felt like I was playing something different, if that makes sense.  The miniatures are really nice as well.  All of these are multi-piece plastic minis from Games Workshop with their own unique sculpts and they live up to their normal reputation for quality.  I mean really, you can say all you want about the company and their games, but they do still make some very nice miniatures.

Only a few turns in and the stunties are already kicking my butt!

As for the game that we played, my friend Deuces took the dwarves (since they were blue... he likes the color blue...) while I fielded the humans.  Well, "fielded" might be too strong a word but he stomped me into the ground with a sudden death win (a sudden death win happens as soon as you are beating your opponent by 10 or more points).  And even though he royally trounced me, I'm really looking forward to getting this one to the table again in the future.  It's a great mix of sports, strategy, mayhem, and wackiness that puts it solidly in my wheelhouse to have a good time, and I'm already looking at purchasing more teams to get trounced with!  More on this one in the future, but until next time...

Random Updates: BrushFu, Badger Games, and Erehwon Assembled!

Last week was a big one for hobby, not because I was able to get a lot done, but because I had a lot delivered!  First off was an order I placed a while back with BrushFu Studios on Etsy.

My perusing of Etsy started in the beginning of the year, after I got Core Space.  I was looking for cyberpunk style miniatures and Etsy has a good selection of them available.  I stumbled across BrushFu Studios and liked what they had to offer but unfortunately they were taking a break at the time.  Still, my hobby was slowing down at the time anyway so I added to my cart and just let it sit there until they were back.

When they did open back up, BrushFu was right up front with the fact that they had a lot of orders to fill and to expect orders to take three weeks to ship.  I was in no rush and I really appreciated the honest about this so I went ahead and ordered.

Fast forward about two weeks and I received a shipping notification, and then the minis themselves a couple of days sooner than the USPS predicted.  I haven't had a chance to really start working on them, but I did check them all out and even gave them a wash to I can start work on them.

From what I have seen, the prints are very clean and crisp.  There are a couple of thin strands from the printing but they will be easy enough to clean up before I get to painting them.  All told, I had ordered ten minis.  Three of those came with bases attached but they threw in eight cyber bases as well which I wasn't expecting.  All in all a good shopping experience and I've already got a bunch more minis queued up in my shopping cart for my next order from BrushFu.

About the time that package showed as shipped, I started see people posting about the Stargrave Nickstarter coming in which got me wondering if might might arriving soon.  I tried to log into the Badger Games website but couldn't remember my password and the system wouldn't let me reset it.  A couple of quick emails to them, and they had it sorted out then my package of goods was sitting on my doorstep!

I don't have pictures of these sets, but I did take a quick look at each of the sprues and man are there a ton of options!  Lots of heads, weapons, and various little gribblies, plus the Nickstarter comes with a sprue of gnolls and cultists for even more options.  Looking forward to getting these into the que at some point and fleshing out my options for Core Space and Five Parsecs From Home.

Last but not least, I even managed to do a little bit of actual hobby! Ages ago I started buying miniatures for a couple of Warlords of Erehwon armies using the now defunct Runewars figures.  I'd made a bit of headway before I was called back to the home office last year, but since then it has just been in a holding pattern.  Last night I decided that I might as well at least assemble the figures that were sitting on my table in baggies and it wound up being a pretty impressive looking horde.

Of course I still need to paint them all but at least now I have a better idea just what I have which is handy.  I had been thinking about getting some more of the crossbowmen and scouts but I'm thinking this is good enough, especially since this isn't including all the spearmen I have as well.  I also did some quick math on the points and just these figures were just shy of 1000 points (minus the wizard and priest at the front, and the standard bearer and musician which don't have stats).  Adding in the leader, champion, spearmen, and rune golems to the mix and it's gotta be around 2000 points which should be more than I'll ever need... in theory anyway.  Now I just need to paint them... along with the Nickstarter...  and the printed minis...  Oh boy...  I think I better start painting again soon!  Until next time...