Raggy's Gaming Adventures

Once again I missed out on the Thursday gaming session as I had a friend over, but with any luck I will be able to drag Lindsey along this week. The big news really was Salute 2011 which was a great experience. I picked up some free minis, including the gorgeous Orcs that Mantic were handing out. I think they will be the next thing I start to collect once I have caught up on the backlog a little. I met up with a load of friends and we spent most of the day wandering round and seeing what was on offer. I didn't pick up nearly as many things as I'd have liked but I did sell off a LOT of old figures and got some Coat D'Arms paints and some of the lovely Ironclad Miniatures' Grubs (Brits and Yanks) I am hoping to paint them up fairly quickly so that I can justify picking up the others. They are quite a bit larger than the ones Shieldwall did in the past which is a shame as I still have a few of those knocking about. After Salute on Saturday, there was more gaming to be ...

Thursday's Gaming session saw another two games of Mansions of Madness and it looks like this week coming I will be having a go as keeper! I am looking forward to it but given my total ineptitude with GMing, it could go pretty badly... we'll see. I have also recently discovered Go. It is a game I have wanted to try for a long time after making the mistake that I am sure a lot of others make of thinking it to be the same as Reversi. Having had a few games on my Android, I already enjoy it a huge amount more than Reversi, there are some really complex interactions possible that surprises me considering how limited similar games like Draughts and Reversi are. It is almost more like Chess or Shogi despite the lack of vaiable piece powers. I think the ability to pass and come back later and the theoretically unlimited pieces make for a more long-term game that has a more strategic element. On the painting front... not a great deal of progress, I am still working away at my Empir...

Well it has been a couple of months of bills and poverty. So in light of this, I have been driven to try and purge my collections, hoping to scrape some cash together in time for Salute as there were a few things I had hoped to pick up there. So far I have raised a decent sum on PayPal through eBay and a few listings on Warseer and UKCord. Unfortunately taking the money out of PayPal is stupidly expensive so it is likely to stay there and get spent on eBay or mini sites direct... possibly on BoardGameGuru for Agricola, Thunderstone: Dragonspire or 7 Wonders. Still I have plenty more to sell and will hopefully take a large chunk to Salute's Bring & Buy. If anyone is after Lizardmen (the 1st ed ones), Epic Tyranids/Marines or Imperial Guard stuff (Tanks, Catachans, Storm Troops) then gimme a shout, I will try and get some of the stuff listed on the For Sale blog entry in the coming weeks but time is precious. A lot of this stuff got picked up from a Friend's where I had st...

Well the last week has been a bit manic, but has had a healthy amount of gaming mixed in. I was able to make it to Epsom and got a chance at long last to get a game of Shogun. I have to say I enjoyed it a great deal. The game is an interesting light block wargame. The 'cube tower' works well both mechanically and thematically, although there can be issues with it being knocked. There are rules to handle this but for the most part it is better to keep the tower on a separate table to minimise the possibility. The game is a lot simpler than it initially appeared to be. We took a little while to get going as we were all new to the game but we quickly worked it out and once we had got in the swing of things, the game moved along at a fair pace. This is a very thinky game, there are a lot of elements that need considering and planning, however the mechanics are simple and quick to learn. Saturday saw my RPG group get back around the table for the first time in a looong time for...

Well after having spent far too long stuck at my parent's place looking after my mum, I have finally made it back to relative normalcy. Thursday night I went along to the Epsom Games Club for the first time in far too long and sat down to my first game of Mansions of Madness, the new product by Fantasy Flight Games. The first thing to say about it is that the characters are taken from Arkham Horror and I LOVE it when they do this for games in the same setting, it really helps ease you into the system even if the rules are quite different (as is the case here). There are some rules questions here and there that has demanded a fair amount of errata on the FFG site. Overall this is a great light RPG, with cluedo elements, and tonnes of theme. Following on from that I was back at Epsom for the Saturday session for March. This was a bit of a mixed bag. I arrived late but was able to join a game of Olympus, a game I hadn't heard of before but a lot of fun. I wasn't even close t...

Yup not much gaming or painting or fun of any sort been happening what with one thing and another, mostly Sutton Council trying to screw me. So why am I posting? Well I decided it was time to take some more snaps of the old painting station to show folks: The gaming station in all it's glory... lots going on here! Militia!!! - And what is that turquoise paint for? Zombies!!! Yep I am slowly working my way through the hordes, these are the last of the metal monsters And these are the majority of the plastic zombies Finally we have a few Steeds to bulk out my Knights of the Silver Skull. The horse on the left is a painted example. All my previous steeds were black (I'm lazy) so these new ones will have a little more colour variety to mix it up a bit... it's gonna take forever! Well I hope you enjoyed your visit to my painting station, I am off to the Espom Gaming Club tonight so hopefully some tales of new and exciting games to follow shortly! - Raggy, sign...

Well I have been away for the last week and a bit in Birmingham with my Fiancée's family, learning to drive and playing the occasional game. It was a great week and I am now back at work feeling much better for it. Nothing much else to report as it has been a couple of weeks since I last went to the gaming club or got any RPGs or Wargames on the table. I suppose the biggest news is that I have gone back to painting. I had a long period where it just wasn't clicking and I found the whole experience very frustrating and unpleasant as I was left unable to do anything to my satisfaction. I ended up limiting myself to a few pieces of scenery and priming minis... well I ran out of primer and got bored of scenery so I have cautiously re-entered the world of painting actual figures. I am however already suffering from ADHD... I am still working my way through zombies, so many zombies... and then I find some half painted dwarves... I LOVE the dwarves from the Skull Pass box. I thin...