Rambling - Wall of text.

Not quite sure what to talk about right now. It's currently 1:00 PM, i been at work for the past 5 hours thinking about my bed, and how much paint i have left to do before the big tournament.



I could talk about my last game, make a battle report out of it, but frankly, it was just some long and tedious combat phase that seemed to never ends. I mean, what fun is there to talk about an Ironblaster charging headlong in a unit of zombies, fighting for 8+ rounds before finally fleeing, helping me realize that Ironblaster can tie just about anything S4 or lower in close combat forever.

Or i could talk about an epic combat between my Mournfang and a unit of 6 Crypt Horror (Damn poison), confirming me that Mournfang > Maneaters.

Or i could talk about a current complain about my playstyle, claiming i just play one big Ogre blocks, which is somewhat true, but then i ask myself ; what really can we do about it? I mean, if we were allowed a Mournfang as mount, i'd definately consider splitting my character in 2 units, but they are forced to be footsloggers. I did try two units before, (a unit of 6 bulls, with a character, and another of 9 Ironguts with BSB + SM), but it wasnt working, and the bulls were always easily taken out. So i replaced them with Gnoblars, 190 pts of them.

I even went for 2 relatively small unit of Mournfangs (3 each). I think my list is much closer to MMU (Many Medium Unit) than Point Denial. Obviously, very little can take on the Ironguts bunker, but its much more about this unit tieing the ennemy big block, while the rest of my army clean the house around them.

Sometimes, it feels that people just want to complain when they can't manage to win against a certain army. People complain about Sabertusk (ld4 ftw), Ironblaster (OMG, best cannon ever.... for 170 pts), Mournfang (ZOMG, 7 attacks!!!! But T4 W3...) or our very tough lords (385 pts for a relatively naked lvl4? Really?).

I challenged myself to something for our next tournament(s). I'm keeping my list, but playing for fun. Yes, its a hard list to play against, and yes, i use most of all the strenght of our books (3x 1 Sabertusk, Hell Heart, Greedy Fist), but i won't complain when i face boring gunline, nor will i care much when someone put a big smile on his face when he rolls for spells and gets purple sun. I'll just accept my fate, and consider a tournament as a big chance to play many games in a short period. I have no goal (Except to have a completely painted army), nor any wish for that tournament.

On gunline topic, i had an interesting talk last night during my game and i came to wonder ; Seriously, who like to play against those? I heard an empire player tell me once that he had a gunline because he choose empire for its black powder prowess... yes. Ok. You do win tournament after tournament with the same list for the past 5-6 years, with one of the most annoying list ever (Speculum, warrior priests, cannons, rockets, etc). Everyone hates to face you, not because you are a good general, but because you have a boring list to face. Might be the Ogre in me talking, but i personally do not enjoy losing 2-3 Ogres / turns with nothing i can do to prevent this. Warhammer is about managing risk and planning ahead, not just about rolling no misfire when shooting with 4-5 warmachines. There's no challenge in that, there's no fun about that, and frankly, i'm tired of that.

On to painting. I consider myself a decent painter ; above alot of the locals, but years away from great painter. I never really try to blend (well, except that Dark Elf Sorceress i painted a few years ago), and my highlight are always so bright that from upclose, it look like clown faces. My metal is not NMM, nor metalic paint. It's rust, with something that looks like verdigris, but can't be. But i like it. I like the fact i can do just about whatever i want with my army, and in the end, be proud of it. When i looked at my army on the table last night, i realized i really like how its painted. I do want to improve my painting, but i have no rush to learn new technique, and go over something a few times until i get it right.


Warmachine.

Sometimes, i think i'm a compulsive buyer. I'm currently considering getting into warmachines. Cryx always been very interesting to me, and painting new models seems like a nice change of pace. But i'm not sure i want to get involved with a new game system. I already have enough problem switching from 40k to fantasy, i think adding a 3rd would just burn the last few cells i have left for learning new stuffs. Especially when i think about what i have left ; about 1500 pts of Dark Eldar for the most part completely unpainted (and unnasembled), 2500+ pts of Orcs & Goblin unnasembled (except the few models i posted on here). Both are project i'm really looking forward to, but not sure i'll have enough time to even get half of that done within the next year. And there's even the Necron who really look interesting (model and rule wise). So i think Warmachine is really out of the question, unless i decide someday to get a box just to paint something different, without any plan on playing the game.


Zuzzy Rubber Mat

Since our third daughter arrived, i never managed to play at our local store like i used to, after work and on weekends (well, ok, except the few tournament i can attend). So i ended up playing at people's house with their table. It's fun, its relaxing, and most of the time, we spend just about as much time talking as gaming. And i like that, the social part really makes the games enjoyable. So i started thinking about getting a table of my own. Games Workshop's Realm of Battle is very nice (even if i have the sound dice makes on it), but after looking at how much it cost, going the GW's route just seems too expensive. Battlefield in a box is nice, the river, pond and hill are all well made and easily cared for. So i looked at alternative (especially, avoiding the green cloth of death everyone have from the 90s). Last ND Open had a table with such mat (ruined land) and i had the chance to play on it. Rubber is nice, detail are impressive, and it convinced me it was a good alternative.

Looking at various theme, Despoiled Reaches really catched my eyes. Themed Terrain would work for 40k as well as fantasy, and i think with one or two ruins (for 40k), or building + forest (for Fantasy), it could be a pretty unexpensive table. GW's table, with Realm Of Battle, a few forest and a few building was roughly 600$ (with a 30% discount). Zuzzy's complete Despoiled Reaches set ends up costing less than the Realm of Battle alone, and i get much, much more than just a plastic table.

So i'm expecting to start buying/collecting/painting that in March or April (depending on shipping, and various things that can happens with a young family). Hopefully, i'll be able to be another basement gamer soon.


What else ?

Ranting like this is really good. Even when nobody reads it, you realize a few things with such discussion with yourself. For a start, i realized that i really like this hobby, and no matter how much i have left to do, there's always something new and shiny interesting enough to separate me from my money.