A year turns

Well, it certainly seems that long since I last posted anything. In fact it's a quarter of a year already.

I've not been lax in that time. My uni course is going strongly with a good 2:1 and a good 1st so far this year. That has in truth taken up a great deal of my time as I have done a great deal of research in addition to the actual assignment writing, and in order to give myself a decent amount of experience of different genres, I have read extensively to compensate for the fact that I've spent too many years reading only Black Library literature. I have another blog where I collate some of my writing, which can be found here.

In terms of my gaming, I have been a busy bee as well. Unfortunately I have not been able to play Warmachine and Hordes at all this year, a matter that I hope to address soon, nor (I think) have I played Dystopian Wars. With two sizeable fleets in the KoB and the Russian Coalition, the dream is to give this game some attention soon.

However, this section is supposed to be about what I have been doing, so, with my gaming time this year, I have entirely been corrupted by Chaos. In 40k, I have done what I have been claiming I will do for years. I have stuck to one army, my Red Corsair Chaos Space Marines. It didn't start well, with Huron's first battle seeing him turn in to a spawn. The Tyrant wasn't too pleased at this, and has refused to win most of the time since (I think I managed a single win, but I'm not certain on that). Though I must say I think I've gone for too slight a list as the main weakness time and time a gain is attrition. In truth there have been a few times where Huron alone has stood in the path of too quick a loss. I suspect tactics also play a role, but, then they always have.

The aim now is to build a secondary CSM list with a mainly Tzeentch theme. I do intend to go for quite a lot of Daemons with this, so Tzeentch will improve their Invulnerable saves handsomely. Whether it will work, I do not know.

Warhammer fantasy battles has, as always, been my first love in gaming. Where possible I have persuaded opponents to play this rather than 40k. And again, the Mortal followers have been in favour. Kalaghar is currently on sabbatical, replaced for the moment with Belloq The Evershade, Daemon Prince of Tzeentch. Named after the French Archaeologist in Raiders of the Lost Ark, Belloq is a champion of Tzeentch who ascended when he opened a forbidden casket. Currently the fluff is work in progress to ensure it doesn't include any renowned adventurers that name themselves after dogs. This army, while being mainly Tzeentch, does often include other marks. Apparently alone, I did like the freedom of mixing marks fluff wise from the last book as it struck me as more apt for the Norse/Kurgan belief system to worship the whole Pantheon rather than a single one of the four gods. However, I can see the reasoning to not permitting multiple marks in a single unit.

As the Evershade army is being honed, I am also looking at a secondary Nurgle single god list. The idea here is to allow some decisive theming as well as giving a nice unified feel. This is early days yet,  but the second battle went reasonably well for a first draft list. The first battle went dismally, but a mix of bad luck on dice rolls and trying to apply exactly the same tactics from the Evershade list meant that even despite Ben being a strong opponent with a decent list, I was already on the back foot. I would say though that the second game did give me some particularly good luck points too, so the list drafting continues. By the way, not a single Daemon Prince of Nurgle in sight here.

The next project is Daemons. Some strong eBay sales have meant I can replace the core/troops choices that I sold (as they were all old metal ones). The plan had always been to sell my old ones to finance new ones, make a profit and so be able to make additional purchases. However, I sold the old items without replacing them, but now I have rectified this and so intend to get the Daemons up and running.

Regrettably this was too late to take part in the club's badlands campaign and as such there is now no immediate rush to get them sorted.

So, that is what I have been up to lately, maybe next time I shall have some pictures, even if they aren't painted.

As a final note, I have written my first commission background story for Matt Walker at the club. If you would like anything writing, please let me know.

Cheers