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.

The Touch of Nurgle

With two of the DnD party away and the DM wanting an early night, game night was a non event. No problem I will just make up for it on the weekend with some war-gaming. Nope, Grandfather Nurgle has been let lose in my household. Wife, child, baby and myself have all taken turns of role playing a plague victim.

But on a positive note related to gaming, Carlos from mechanical warhorse sent me the good news. That my Dystopian Wars tiny flyer fuel counters were finished and were in the mail. I can not wait to try them out.
More good news he wants to add the design to his catalog, I hope to soon see waves of enemy tiny flyers using these.

I have been looking on the interwebs for some turning templates for Dystopian Wars but haven been able to find what I have been looking for. There are a few sellers but they just don't look Steempunk. I drew these up and sent them to Carlos at Mechanical Warhorse for fabrication.

Some photos of my attempt to paint my Kingdom of Britannia Brunel class Mobile Airfield.
I don't think the glass roof looks quite right.

What I've been up to.

So about a year ago a work mate invited me to play a  game of Dungeons and Dragons. I hadn't rolled a dice in anger in a long time, and had never played a pen and paper RPG before. Within a couple of months I was knee deep in rule books and gamer pod casts, the gamer bug had bitten me hard. I turned back to my old 40K addiction only to find out that two editions had passed me by since I last played. My 2nd and 3rd edition Orks were looking a little dated so a new army was in order. The Imperial guard had always appealed to me but after a quick price check I decided that the new army had to wait. 

In my online travels I discovered that table top gaming had flourished  in my absence. 

Warmachine once a obscure game that no one played was now massively popular as well as a bunch of other games I had never heard of. Infinity, Flames Of War, Dust, Games Workshop even had a new Lord of the Rings game. But the game that entrapped my imagination was the Steam Punk world of Dystopian wars. While playing the V1.0 rules it became apparent that the tiny flyer rules were horribly flawed, all was forgiven upon the release of the V1.1 rule book. The only thing that bothered me was having to keep track of the fuel status of the tiny flyers with dice, I wanted something a little more pimp.

I heard of these guys Mechanical Warhorse while I was listening to these guys 11th Company Pod cast.

So I drew up some designs with my newly discovered Auto-Cad skills and Emailed them to Mechanical Warhorse. Carlos has just sent me a  picture of the prototype I think it looks good soon I will be tracking my  tiny flyer fuel usage in style.

And So It Begins

The Best Laid Plans?

So among other things I am a Gamer. Gaming is not the sole defining aspect of my life, but it is something I  immensely enjoy. Having played PC and console games since I could afford to purchase them and having had a on again off again love hate relationship with table top war-gaming for the last 20 years. Has left my psyche scared with gaming pop culture references.

Why I Decided to Start This Blog?

I sent out an Email to my DnD group asking the usual, who was in, same time and place as last week.the subject "Of Dice and Men" in reference to the fact that the party had been unable to coordinate our schedules for the last couple of weeks. The subject soon turned to the fact that Of Dice And Men is the best name ever for a blog. So despite the fact that my very clever and original idea turned out not to be so original I decide to start a Blog anyway.

Random Throghts and Activities.

I guess this blog will act as my soap box as I ramble incorrectly about my gaming habits, successes losses hopes and dreams. Lately I find my gaming time is seriously constrained by my two sons, wife and a real life grown up job. I still endeavor to to get in a weekly session of DnD, scheme some time away for a game of Dystopian Wars and then there's that 40K Ork army I have in the attic & 6ed just came out.