Achievements in ...

Well I am back after a little break and despite more sickness and a bunch of work stuff I have some minor achievements to talk about. During the previous week I had 5 days off work with some horrible flu-like symptoms even had some crazy fevered dreams. Twisting over a smoke covered battlefield was a maze of industrial walkways and platforms covered in crawling legions of 28mm troops. Walkways that could be disassembled and rearranged at will creating any layout of under-hive madness a gamer could think of. The image is seared in to my mind and I have begun sketching out my ideas. 

Gaming

My weekly DnD group has managed to catch up a couple of times & our quest to obtain a legendary object of great power (the Eye of Morcala) to prevent the certain destruction of the grand city Prohova continues.

Our group consits entirely of strikers Monk, Avenger, Barbarian, Mage & Ranger I have noticed we have been able to kill any group of enemies before our party of glass cannons shatters. Our one weakness is  role play especially decisions and conversations each party member has a different view when it comes to moral choices.

We were down a PC last week so the rest of us tried out the DnD next play-test this was my third session of DnD next and I think they are actually making progress. I never played a RPG before DnD 4e so its not like I have any kind of attachment to the older editions but I like the feel of the new DnD. 4e gives me the feeling of being a bad ass hero, my ranger can punish people with his bow and his dual weapon skill makes sure he can always hack his way out of a tight situation. I told the DM I have never felt like I was in danger of player death from combat. The only PC death so far in this campaign was my half ork Rogue who was killed when a whole cave fell on his head followed by the collapsed cave being flooded by the ocean. Korgul died how he lived, getting rich and with a sword in his hand.

The hit dice healing mechanics of DnD next combined with the very low hit points of the low level characters ensure the players treat every fight as a threat. Without the ability to healing surge themselves back to full health at the end of an encounter makes even a minor encounter a dangerous if someone takes a big hit or you roll low with your hit-dice then it could make an later encounter a lot harder.

Also the new rules seem to place a lot less emphasis on the combat. 4e seemed a lot like a tactical miniatures skirmish game, I do like tactical miniatures skirmish games and the combat rules for 4e were a lot of fun and seemed pretty tight, the lair assaults were always a blast. but if most of the play session is spent in combat then it tends to leave limited time for role play and the strongest facet of DnD should be the role play.

Hobby

I managed to score a copy of Hero Quest from Vinies for only $4! The set is complete and only one goblin is missing a sword, everything else besides the box is in great condition. I have begun the process of painting the miniatures something I never managed to do with the set we had as kids. (long since lost to the passage of time) Worried that my nostalgic treasure would be damaged I got some pluck foam and made a miniatures tray for the box. It worked great now as soon as I finish painting the remaining figures I will need to convince the DnD party to play a campaign of HeroQuest to see if my childhood memories are rose colored of if the game really is as good as I remember. 

One of the friendly local gaming stores went out of business I was sad to here that our town was losing one of the few stores that stocked miniatures and other hobby supply. But I was pumped when I found out that all the remaining stock would be sold at 40% off so like a hungry vulture I feasted on the corpse of the store that for years had provide access to the hobby I so enjoy as-well as providing sound advice regarding painting and modelling projects, a free place for gamers to gather and tables to play on. Some of the stuff I got were blisters of the Dystopian Wars small ships that I was missing from my KoB fleet. I have been slowly painting up. they all have there base colors they need washing and the detail added.

My Dystopian Wars fule counters for my Tiny flyers fave finial arrived, and look great. A big thank you to Carlos at Mechanical Warhorse  these are just the prototypes and he is looking at using small magnets to fix the needles in place these use some small rod. Now to arrange a game to try them out.