The OmniGamer

It's become something of a joke, both that I make about myself and by friends that know me well enough, that I tend to spread myself a little thin when it comes to my gaming choices.  In the typical banter among friends that one can experience at the game store or on Facebook, there has been an interesting question posited in my direction multiple times in recent weeks:

"Is there a game you don't play/have models for?"

Well, yeah.  I mean, of course there is.  We tabletop gamers live in a time of plenty, where there are more games and lines of miniatures available than any sane person could even hope to be a participate in.  But I'll be damned if some of us don't try!

Actually, ironically, my wife and I were recently discussing personality traits and characteristics as defined by a book in our collection.  In this particular version, it uses the ennaagram types (9 total), and, as you might expect, we were reading it together and trying to classify each other. To make a long story short, everyone has a combination of different traits, but my main one is Number #7: The Enthusiast.  While there is a "good/healthy loop"  and a "bad/unhealthy loop" for each one, the basic idea for the Enthusiast is "a fear of being deprived or missing out" with the defining keyword being "Anticipation", which is definitely a simple explanation of my internal struggles.  I actually, legitimately stress myself out over my miniatures.  I need to assemble this, or I need to paint those to have them ready to use, or I need to acquire these to complete this list, etc., etc.  I'm never a person who "finishes" an army, nor am I one that can be content with a paint job on an army past a couple of years.  I'm hoping that now my painting skills have plateaued enough to prevent this, but who knows?  I'm clearly a crazy person. :P 

Primarily I'm writing this post to catalog/list my sickness, with the hopes that in looking at it in a compiled format I can tempt/shame myself to makes some cuts and lessen the stress I place on myself with my toy collection.  A wise friend told me yesterday, "The more games I get into, the less of each I get to play."  It's something I've known for quite some time, but having it verbalized back at me sparked in my mind the curious thought of how I must look to other people.

Pathetic?  Spoiled?  I honestly don't know, but I do care.  

When I stop to think about it, though, how can I actually be passionate about all of it?  Why do I feel like I need to belong to or claim every different game? 

GAMES:

Warmachine:

This is my oldest game, and the genesis of my sickness.  Faction creep saw me build, paint, and play every single faction available at least once from the span of 2003 to 2011.  This is also the game that began my unfortunate backlog.  Once upon a time, I bought a model, assembled it, painted it, and played with it.  At some point I began trading on Bartertown, and I would get thrills by trading up, acquiring armies that had been nerfed or were at a downswing in popularity and then saving them for their inevitable swing back into high demand, acquiring more and more each time.  I actually haven't even played this game in a few years, having become disenchanted with the tournament mindset the game sets out to achieve.

Currently I'm sitting on a brand new Convergence army, waiting for the right inspiration to get to work on it.  A handful of other things are around from over the years (I always kept at least one model from each army I traded or sold off), but I don't really have any usable armies anymore that are assembled and ready to play.

Age of Sigmar:

Never being a Warhammer kid, I only got into Warhammer Fantasy in more recent years after reconnecting with a good friend who played it as his game of choice.  I built a small Ogre (now Ogor) army but only ever used it once or twice, and have since acquired too much of this stuff for any sane person that hasn't really even played it.  Age of Sigmar itself is very exciting to me, though, and I love pretty much everything about it.  This is one that I am very anxious to get a force together and play.  

STILL the coolest piece of art I've ever seen for a miniatures game

Warhammer 30k/40k:

Word Bearers with Mechanicum, some Dark Eldar, and Blood Angels.  Largely picked up stuff because everyone seems to play this, but the power gaming that tends to be the norm around here is definitely a turn off and honestly intimidating.  It's also one that seems empowered by peoples' negativity, and that gets old immediately for me.

Beyond the Gates of Antares:

My new favorite game to play, for sure.  My Boromites are my current favorite miniatures I own, and are spread across my workbench in various stages of assembled and painting this very moment.  I also have the two-player starter (Concord and Ghar) but I've not done anything with it yet besides put the rulebook and templates to good use.  This game isn't going away anytime soon for me.

Boromites are cooler than whatever faction it is that you like

Infinity:

This game... I don't know.  I really love it, I think.  This game suffers, for me, from being very complicated.  There are a lot of details to remember for this game, even just in what you can and cannot do, and it requires a lot of focus.  As evidenced here, I'm spread too thin to be any good at it!  It's only so much fun, both for me and for my potential opponent, if I'm sitting there trying to figure out how to do things for the whole game.  The models and the background are phenomenal, though.  Currently sitting on sizeable forces for both Aleph and Haqqislam, and a bit of Ariadna as well.  I have struggled with trying to make myself get rid of some of it but I can never make myself do it!

Dark Age:

This game is like a sickness, for me.  I really love it.  This game has maybe my favorite story/background of any miniatures game that I play, and it has amazing models all-round.  It's doubly difficult for me to rid myself of any of it because I'm a Legion member for the company produces it (CMON), and they pay for the time I spend demoing or running tournaments or whatever with more toys!  I have... well, I have a lot of it.  Stacks.  Boxes.  Wanna play some Dark Age?

Outcasts gunna wreck ya

Wrath of Kings:

What a damned cool game this is.  Also made by CMON, this is a more army-sized fantasy combat game where Dark Age is the sci-fi skirmish.  I Kickstarted this one, and actually have a nearly-fully-painted army of Nasier, as well as a work-in-progress Teknes army.  I will hopefully be playing a lot more of this game, I'm just waiting for the hype cycle to come back around on it and have my friends want to it play it again.  This kinda replaced Warmachine for me for a time, as it feels similarly sized on the tabletop.

"Fall of Oni's Bane"

Marvel Universe Miniatures Game:

Made by Knight Models, the game itself is a little goofy but the models are the 12 year-old comic nerd that lives in my heart's dream.  We've actually been playing this a bit, with intent to play more soon.  

My most recent project: Mr. Magnet Man

Batman Miniatures Game:

The other side of the coin to the Marvel game, but with much less super powers and more tactical decision making.  I'm sure we'll get back to it, but Marvel has taken its place.

Pulp City:

A unique super hero miniatures game, I picked up some of the models and the rulebook in a kickstarter.  Still haven't managed to play it, but we likely will really soon to see how the rules differ from the Marvel game.  If they're much better (which they kinda look like they will be), we'll use the Marvel miniatures and characters and mix them into this game's ruleset.

Relic Knights:

Kickstarted this, and actually managed to get rid of a lot of it because no one else was really interested.  I kept my stuff for the Paladin faction and the Speed Circuit faction, and would love to actually have a reason to assemble and paint and play it.  Maybe someday.  ;)

GorkaMorka:

After a short-lived stint of a local revival of this game last year, my work schedule got in the way of us maintaining it and it kind of died. I'm still itching to get back to work on my Diggas because the modeling aspect of this silly game is just so much fun.  Check out some previous blogs for my crazy vehicles.

Just... mayhem.

Arena Rex:

I really should just buckle down and paint my stuff for this beautiful game.  A couple of good friends are all about it, but I've just never managed to latch on to it.

Judge Dredd:

I love Judge Dredd as a character and a comic book.  I have some of the models and the rulebook, but I've never gotten to play it.  That kinda sums it up. 

Bushido:

Models look awesome, I love samurai/Japanese culture stuff, and the game is a small commitment in terms of it being skirmish with a handful of models for each side.  I picked up a few models for two different factions and the rulebook on a whim in a clearance sale, but I've still not gotten to actually play it.  Really want to, though.

Guild Ball:

I only have a simple starter box for the Alchemists, but I am extremely curious about this game.  It seems like it might be amazing.  And I'm not even a sports guy. :/ Unfortunately the only other person locally who's invested *also* picked up Alchemists, and way more of them than I have, so I need to find a new faction.  Maybe Union?  (See how this addiction works?  SEE!?)

Lord of the Rings / The Hobbit:

I'm a fantasy nerd.  Can't be helped.  I enjoy collecting these as much as anything else, so they're really in the list on a technicality.  I'm hoping to play it with my sons at some point when they're a little older though, as the ruleset is pretty simple.  Plus GW is bringing it back as just the "Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game" so I'm glad I've kept it all!  

Wasteman:

I've written past blogs about it, but I picked this up largely out of the inspiration it gave me in its creation.  The brainchild of a single man (all rules, art, sculpting, etc.) the game is super goofy and 80's, which I just love, so I bought into the kickstarter.  Actually haven't really gotten to play in any significant way yet, as only one person I know cared enough to also pick it up.  Very much a small, "indie" game.

I'm not even sure the little punk pig on the hood has rules, but he's my favorite of the ones I've painted so far!

MERCS:

Tiny little skirmish game that I've not gotten to play since it originally released years ago, but that might change soon.  At least it's fully painted!

Deep Wars:

Underwater setting skirmish game that we picked up starters for at Adepticon a few years ago, but only played a couple of times.  I like to think we'll go back to it because the models are gorgeous and the ruleset is really unique, but there are just so many other things to play.
 

 X-Wing:

I'm included this here because, as a part of my sickness, I don't want to play with any models that I didn't paint myself.  That means I repaint all of these things.  I'm a glutton for punishment.  I do love playing it, though, even if I hate the tournament mindset that a lot of people have about it.

Confetti Squadron, fall in!

Star Trek Attack Wing:

Star Trek version of X-Wing that I totally like better than X-Wing.  Yeah, I said it.  I like Star Wars more than Trek, overall, but I think the ruleset for this style of game is more fun with the way Attack Wing implements it.  Worth a note that I'm a faction purist, though, and only play all Federation ships.  I'm not a fan of the aspect in the ruleset where you can combine any ships from any faction incurring various points penalties, allowing some crazy combos which is how the tournament gamers play.  

Star Wars Armada:

Have the first wave of stuff from release, and have played it a handful of times.  It's definitely very good, but I'm just not sure that it can keep my interest.

Firestorm Armada:

I have a fleet of Terran ships that I've gotten to play once or twice, and this is basically the space fleet game I wanted.  It suffers a similar problem to Infinity, though, in its just a tad too complicated to be casual about it.  It needs some study.

*DUN DUUUN DUNNNNNNNN*

Firestorm Planetstrike:

Sitting in the boxes, one friend and I picked up starters on the cheap during a clearance sale with idyllic dreams of playing out fleet battles with Armada and simultaneous ground battle with Planetstrike, but we've never managed to make it happen.

Dreadball:

Man, screw Mantic.  Fooled me into kickstarting this game, acquired too many teams because of how they flooded the free stuff into the pledges, and then they ran the value of it in the ground and released ridiculous additions to the rules in multiple new kickstarter campaigns, outdating everything before I even got a chance to use it.  The base game itself is pretty fun, but damn did Mantic just trash it.  Plus the models kinda sucked. They even just did a Dreadball 2.0 kickstarter in the last week or so!  Never again, Mantic.  Never again.

Wild West Exodus:

Sigh.  I am remiss to even list this game, because I kind of don't want to give it any more attention for someone new.  Long story made very short, I kickstarted this game and got very involved with it, both in the sense of it taking over my hobby time and in my involvement with the community.  Turned out the owner was a horrific piece of shit.  I will never give that company another dime.  Unfortunately, the game is fun (if sloppy) and the models are really cool.  So... yeah.

Picture of the models I painted one time for a painting contest, won anonymously, then lost when they found out it was me.  Joy.

Konflict '47 (Bolt Action):

Just getting into this one, and currently waiting on the British starter box to release.  Some cool people are going to play it and I've grown to trust Warlord games, so why not? Plus I'll get to use that box of British Bolt Action soldiers I bought but then never did anything with! ;)


So I guess that kinda sums it up, aside from the random one-offs or boutique lines of miniatures that are just for collecting or proxying into a game, or board games filled with miniatures (Zombicide, Super Dungeon Explore, Myth, etc.).  I'm not sure if this has proven therapeutic, honestly.  Even just sitting here typing it I've been coming up with mental excuses to not let any of it go.

There is another aspect to this, though.  Have you ever heard of misery shopping?  It's basically the idea of being unhappy or frustrated or stressed, and then buying new things to make yourself feel better for a brief time.  There are times where my job has me very stressed, and I know I've scoured eBay or Bartertown for cheap deals on more than one occasion as a result.  It kinda feels like cheating on a diet at the time, because you know you shouldn't, that you probably won't be happy later about it... but you do it anyway.

Maybe I should just work on self control?

 
 

Tale of Wrath - Post Numero Uno

I've been meaning to write about some Wrath of Kings for quite a while, now.

For real!  I'm serious!

This game has become my main tabletop game (aside from its older brother Dark Age) that I am able to play on the regular, with our group even establishing a once-a-week game night for it.  I've been getting curb stomped with my Nasier repeatedly since... garsh, like November or thereabouts.

Hey, I'm a painter, not a tactician.  Don't look at me like that.

ANYWAY!  Our group has somehow amassed around 8 people... but no Teknes players.  Having a few Teknes models laying around from the Kickstarter, I decided to take it upon myself and become our group's Teknes contingent.  Luckily for me, at the same time the folks over at SCREWED-UP-DICE have started up a paint and play initiative focused on Wrath of Kings, called "Tale of Wrath".

So, the good-news-made-even-better-news about your interest here on P.O.W.'s focus on Wrath of King's Teknes faction is that, should you decide you want to see blogs about the game's other factions (you traitor!), they are readily available on S.U.D.'s hub page:  Tale of Wrath Hub (http://www.screwedupdice.com/p/taleofwrath-hub.html)  You could still even sign up yourself, should you want!

Okay, now, back to me.

The logo of the Teknes peoples of all shapes and sizes.

Teknes is a funny choice for me, because upon first looking at the game, they were easily tied for last place alongside the werewolf/vampire horde of Goritsi.  It's not that I didn't appreciate their fiction or their slice of the world, because on that front they're possibly my favorite.  It's that they're weird as hell.

In Wrath of Kings, each faction has a kind of... underlying aesthetic and theme.  Nasier are demon summoning, kabuki mask wearing samurai, mostly, and are aggressive individualists.  Shael Han are the Golden East, with lots of cool dragon imagery, and they are profoundly synergistic with each other in battle.  Goritsi are, as mentioned, vampires and werewolves and dark European aristocracy, lashing out with high speed and maneuverability.  Hadross are the ocean-dwelling children of the Old Ones, with anthropomorphized sharks, jellyfish, crabs, etc, ready to slow creep across the field in a dense group, take a punch to the face, and punish you for it.  And then finally, you have Teknes.  They're kind of like communist Russia, but with technology and mutants?  They're the mad scientist faction, and they wear armor, and... I don't even know.  They seem to be the median of everything else, nestling comfortably in the middle of the pack, jack-of-all-trades.  Their troopers seem decent, their specialists really good, and their leaders trying desperately to make everything else better than just decent.

Here is a good example of what I'm talking about:

Left-to-right:  A Union Worker, the C.O.R.E., and a Lineman

On the left, we have the regular trooper/infantry/grunt/whatever that is a Union Worker.  These pigmen are what I see typically associated with the Teknes faction, and what people tend to think of first.  They're cheap, they get better when they get hurt, and their leader is literally a dude named the Union Boss with a whip.  These pigmen were normal people once: criminals, "volunteers", and the like, before getting a large dose of Science.

In the middle, we have the specialist unit called a C.O.R.E., which by his being a specialist means he fits into a different slot of the army composition making him limited.  He's a funky robot who either just dropped a phat beat at the turn tables, or dissed yo momma, or was astounded by the lack of an opposing werewolf's fashion sense.  I mean, just look at that left hand!

And finally on the right, we have the regular, steampunk-armor-wearing infantry dude, simply called a Lineman.  They're cheap like pigs, but more of a defensive piece, with rules to "rescue" friendly models from engagements by moving them around.  These guys are going to be my bread-n-butta.

Oh, and there's these things as a troop choice, as well:

Floating psychic murder babies.  Yeah.

 So, like I said... weird.

I have to give credit where it's due, though, and say that the sheer originality of the Teknes is surprisingly refreshing.  Also, while I wasn't crazy about a lot of their models from seeing pictures, actually having them in hand makes a world of difference, and I think they've maybe become my favorite?  Stockholm syndrome, maybe?  I don't even know.  But now I think they're rad as hell.

So that brings us to this:

A faction starter box, and a heap more of the Linemen

Now I have to say, and not just because I'm a fan of the game, either... but I have to say, Wrath of Kings has the best faction starter boxes I've ever seen in a miniatures game.  They are affordable at a retail price of $70.00, and they are absolutely packed to the gills with models.  We're talking full field-able army at the mid-tier range (not the "intro" tier, but typical mid-tier game size).

So many models. So. Many. Models.

Now, like I said, the Linemen are my jam.  Wrath of Kings is a game with a slotted composition system, simply meaning you're allowed X number of "ranks" (points, essentially, but all models are either 1 or 2, respectively) of infantry, X number of "ranks" for leaders, X for specialists.  That's literally as complicated as it gets.  So you're able to slot in however you like, but paying heed to obvious bonuses of something like having the Union Boss on the table leading the Union Workers for the best effect.  I'm going to build primarily Linemen, with *maybe* a small group of unionized pig people.

Even just a box of infantry comes with tons of dudes AND two leaders!

Also of note, every model in these boxes comes individually bagged, making organizing assembly and storage of the remainder much more convenient (no big sprues to cut up, here).

Much convenient. Yes.

And that's, basically, an unboxing of one of these things, too.  Just a pile of those bags and a heap of bases.

And now... assembly!

Consistency is Key

Work has been slammed lately, so I've not had much time to churn out an update... I have managed to get some games played, though!

First, let's start with Wrath of Kings.

If you haven't heard of this game, go check it out at http://www.wrathofkings.com and look over some of the models.  It's an army-size 28mm war game with alternating activations and using a D10 system.  It's probably the best new game I've played in a looooong time, and the most I've been excited about a game since playing Warmachine back in '04.  The game is simple to play but has some great strategy in controlling leader models to inspire the troopers, and has stunning models all around.  You don't necessarily play scenarios (unless you want to set one up special), but you always use a mechanic when playing where each army has a Morale based on the number of models you're fielding, and the goal is deplete the enemy morale to 0.  You have missions/objectives you can select for your particular army that allow you to do a wide variety of special actions on the field of battle other than just kill everything that will drop the enemy morale as well, such as capturing placed objectives, escorting civilians to safety, having a trooper battle a leader 1v1 and survive for more than a turn, etc. etc.  It's a really fantastic and dynamic system that makes pretty much every engagement in a game meaningful and exciting.

I'm a Nasier player myself because I love their aesthetic and playstyle (aggression!), with my alternate army being Hadross (because damn if they aren't the coolest models in the game).

My buddy Andy came over to the house last weekend with his Goritsi (he plays it all werewolves, all the time, though there are options for vampires in that army as well) and proceeded to murder all of my mask-wearing warriors.  It was a close game, though!  If I'd just picked a better mission for myself I think I could have pulled it out, but we're still learning the nuances of the game and how best to play against different armies.  Lesson learned:  do not pick the mission for an honorable foot soldier to stand valiantly against an enemy werewolf leader alone for more than 1 round!  Werewolves will eat you, man.  Eat you dead.

The initial set-up:  Hold the lines!  Werewolves are coming!

You can see towards the bottom of the picture 1 of Andy's 3 objectives on my side of the board that I needed to stop him from getting.  I did not succeed.  Werewolves are excellent rock climbers, it turns out.

Just before the forces clash!

Damned werewolves.  All up in our base, killing all the things.

And now... on to da Gorkamorka!

Played one last big, multi-person game of Gorkamorka before the start of the league, and it didn't go so well for me.  I mean, it was hilarious, and a wonderful time... but my poor orks just hadn't had a hearty breakfast or something and were struggling hard.

What became very interesting, though, was having Cassandra take an early hit that disabled her ability to move... yet taking 3 more rams during the game, with the result each time on the chart of having the rokkit boostas fire and send the trukk careening d6 in a random direction!

The participants! (shot taken after the game) Oddly enough, Scott pointing inappropriately at the rock formation was an accident.  I started in the closest corner where the papers are sitting, and Cassandra ended up on the other side of table like that after being disabled somewhere close to the arched rock!

Scott's Battlewagon-that's-now-a-trukk ramming on the left, Skyler's trakk ramming on the right. 

Here you can just barely see Andy's trukk in the top middle wisely watching the other idiots crash into each other from a distance, while driving around and scooping up scrap piles.

Random movement placed the trukk there.  And then it ended up moving 6 more inches forward!  It did, however, run over one of my own guys during this move.  So that was cool.  :(

All in all, I'm really having a blast with Gorkamorka and can't wait to play more.  However, I don't believe my orks are going to make it to the field after a recent find on Bartertown...

After assembling and basing...