Heroquest - 25th Anniversary

I don't mind that Doctor Who is celebrating 50 years. It always seemed so established that it was just waiting for milestones to be checked off.

But has it really been 25 years since Scott and Charlene walked down the aisle to the heartbreaking tunes of Angry Anderson? Yes, it has: Scott and Charlene from Neighbours are now celebrating their Silver Wedding Anniversary, and if that doesn't make you feel old, here's another:

It has been 25 years since I saw this commercial on telly, and knew what was going at the top of my list to Santa*.

*Yes, that would make me 10 years old at the time. Yes, I still believed. I have a vivid and magical imagination. Go and watch The Polar Express and stop looking at me like that.

Let's just dwell on that memory:

• Christopher Lee is narrating. Because of course Christopher Lee is narrating.
• Why does the child with the Broadsword card sound like Clive Owen?
• The player line-up doesn't match the ones of my experience (several family members dragged to the Boxing Day table, humouring me, dozing off or just complaining loudly)
• I think the 'Fire of Wrath' caster's voice is about to break.
• At the end, the kid in the DM chair becomes a monster (making it the most accurate disclaimer ever added to a commercial).

I still have my trusty Heroquest set (plus Ogre Kingdom expansion), although most of the furniture has been pillaged for spares, and some vandal has daubed all the miniatures with a crude enamel paint.

However, I now learn of a Kickstarter campaign to create a Heroquest 25th Anniversary Edition that looks absolutely cracking. I've never been led down the crowd-funding games route before, but at around £55, I might very well be tempted by this.

For no other reason that to atone for my very first paint job...

"What have we become?"

Wood Elves, ready for tournament

Hi all, Hope you are all well.

Here is my painted Wood Elves, ready for a tournament in December.

Hope to see you all soon.

Offboot 9 - The Dice Strike Back

I haven't kept a close track of how many Offboots there have been. But I do know it was high time I took part in one. After all, no point in having a chaos army if it doesn't go a-chaosing. 

This is what you get if you look for images of Offboot on Google.

I managed to take advantage of a paid work trip to steal a march up to MK, home of the Woff and Off Boots, and challenge the mighty hoards of General Kasfunatu to a swift 1600 point bout. Once we'd eaten a pleasant but dubious curry, partaken of the delights of Egyptian Laser Chess and soaked in the hot tub for three hours, anyway. Not that swift, really.

Warriors of Chaos

I immediately forfeit any claim to be using my own army. Ryanair baggage restrictions just couldn't hack a tub of minis, the cheap sods. Luckily, Kas has all the chaos troops you could possibly imagine, so I put together a list very unlike what I actually own. 

Demon Prince of Khorne (Acid blood, firebreath, wings)

Exalted BSB (horse, banner of improved battle results, shield)

Chaos Horseror (level one lore of Death, horse)

10 Horse Marauders

10 Horse Marauders

5 Knights (ensorcelled weapons)

1 Slaughterbrute (linked to the DP)

1 Chariot (the only Counts As model, played by a warshrine)

So it's a mobility-themed army, the very opposite of my massy blocks of troops back home. 

Vampire Counts

Kas had a number of premade armies, and having helped me build mine up, randomly rolled to see which one he got. I breathed a sigh of relief when he didn't score the Ogres, but it turned into a fatalistic groan when he drew this lot instead: - 

Vampire General (level three, relatively killy upgrades that include reducing enemy leadership)

Vampire BSB (comparatively naked Vampire with banner of better battle resolution)

2 Banshees (to take advantage of that reduced leadership)

28 Ghouls (to carry the Vampires around in)

5 Hexwraiths

5 More Hexwraiths

Another 5 Sodding Hexwraiths

Well goody. Goody goody gumdrops. Gummy gummy hexwraiths. Bah. I have precisely two units that can hurt them, maybe three if the wizard gets some missiles. This should be unpleasant.

Anniversary Gift

Last weekend was the 3rd Anniversary for Mrs Stylus and myself. According to Ancient Lore (wikipedia), the third year is the Leather Anniversary, so it would be normal to expect some kind of belt, or wallet, as my anniversary gift...

... but seriously, what use is a belt or a wallet?

That's about as close to gaming as I get these days, but I'm hoping for a 'Woffnaissance' (or perhaps a 'Re-Boot') in the new year.

Code Magpie

This weekend I partook in a 40k version of a WoffBoot arranged by Reinbowarrior.

My army of choice was Daemons, still reeling from the unlikely generosity of GW by allowing to have two armies for the price of one, I was determined to get some additional use from them.

I had, prior to the weekend, played 4 games of 40k in its current incarnation. Prior to that I remember a couple of games on the floor of Amen court with Kraken, which must make it about six or seven years ago!

My first game, I had been leant Reinbowarrior’s elite Terminator only deathwing – they beat his own Tyranid force.  For my second game, I took a large contingent of my own Nurgle forces and took down the Dark Angels showing them a beating they had never seen before (I had a lucky storm of chaos roll which made the librarian’s head explode, and a herald of knorne taking his place, in turn one). My third game was an abysmal offering from Tzeentch against ‘nids. I setup badly, misplayed the rules for combat and powers (both to my deficit) and got utterly trounced. Finally I took Khorne, and once my units had deep struck in had done enough damage for Reinbowarrior to concede the game (although time also played a part)….  So having won 3 of 4 games (or 2 of 3 with daemons) I was feeling buoyed for the campaign.

Double the tentacles, quarter the price

Wibble wibble.

Okay, I didn't actually count all the tentacles. But I'm sure I'm giving the official Mutalith Vortex Beast a run for its money. I'm helped in this by the twin facts that it can't run, being a model, and it costs far too much.

A Game of Cards

Winter is Trumps

General Kas was over for a few days last weekend. And so began a new era in the dark tales of our mutual nerdery, once I'd introduced him to the local Science Fiction Bookshop. It has an epic level basement full of comics, movies, GW products and FF board games.

Of course, we got carried away.

Woooo! Board games!

Despite calling itself George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones The Card Game, I suspect he did very little to develop it. Other than write all the fluff, I suppose.

Miscing in Action

Been a while! Only a year ago, this blog thrummed with the preparations for the summer Woffboot. How the times change with the size of our families.

The gorgeous summer weather in Sweden inspired me, as it always does, to stay indoors with my back hunched over a stifling table of paints. Besides, I felt I couldn't let August go by without some painty blogging.

With no particular project on my mind at present, I did a round-up of random models from the many cupboards and bags of my collection, and came up with a very assorted bunch of models.


Things you don't expect your wife to say No. 1

"Oh, you've finally painted that eagle I bought you."

To which the only possible rejoinder is "Actually, *nerdy snort*, I think you'll find that's a warhawk, *snork snork*."

Some joker killed its parents, now it's a masked vigilante.

For now, I've left the rider off, because I don't like the model very much. I mean, he's held on by vines? That magically grow on the back of the hawk? Really, it's scarcely plausible. I can't paint something that breaks my suspension of disbelief so casually. Plus I can't find the head in my bits box.


Golden Oldie

Nice Beaver Man

Bonus points if you know exactly what it's meant to be. I don't. Some kind of centaur otter, maybe? An Ottaur, if you will. A Ral Partha piece from the mid-80s, I believe, this and its two sword-wielding brethren were my brother's.