Happy 2013!

Fireworks in Sydney Harbour tonight

2012 Reflections

As 2012 comes to a close, I reflect on the Man Cave year which had very high highs and some corresponding lows at times.

Comrade James entertains a rare 'Lady gamer' at our Dark Ages demo game at CANCON 

It started off relocating north about 800 kms, and having my 'Wargamer Dad' article published in WI291 (here). This has now leant itself to me having a regular column in the Campaigner e-magazine which is quite the honour and I'm looking forward to that continuing on into 2013.  We then ran a Dark Ages participation game at CANCON in late Jan (here) which was a great experience and a lot more work that I had anticipated.  I certainly appreciate the effort required a lot more now!

Blood Bowl continued to be the big game for us both this year. Right Stuff competed in his first ever tournament with the Blood Bowl National Championships in Jan, peaking in the top 10 (of 56 coaches) at Round 5 and finishing up with a 3:1:1 record (here)   He followed this up at the Eucalyptus Bowl (Australia's largest tournament) and then the Canberra Cup in July where he came 7th out of 16 coaches with his Slann team.  This year he also played in the local ACTBBL - first in the Rookie Division and then in the Minors league with his Norse team Oddinn's Champions.  Mixed success but lots of fun and lots of great opponents in the league- thanks guys (here)

Right Stuff beating some Dwarves at the Blood Bowl nationals

For myself I painted up a Khemri team in a Chinese theme, the Terracotta Terrors, which came second in the FFields' "Team Too Cool" competition (here and here).  I followed this up by taking said Khemri team to the Eucalyptus Bowl, where I  won my first ever tourney prize as Best Sunday Coach (here) - pretty awesome and nobody more surprised than me!  Otherwise my blood bowling has been restricted to Right Stuff beating the pants off me more often than not in the Man Cave Stadium.  I also painted up a few other bits and bobs this year , including some cultists (here) and other pulp/horror figs which was a bit different and a lot of fun.  

Unexpectedly award winning - the Terracotta Terrors

This year I made a new wargamer friend, Alan aka Dux Hormunculorum, who introduced me to SAGA, a fine brewery in Sydney and got me back into Dark Ages gaming.  Accordingly a number of treats showed up under the tree including all the SAGA rulebooks plus Norman and Irish warbands.  Looking forward to our next beers and games Alan!

Beers with a new buddy

Life events included an amazing year at work in a position I have aspired to for over 20 years, I resuscitated a stranger on the side of the road, said a sad farewell to my beloved beagle Banjo, and Right Stuff gave us quite a scare recently in hospital (all is well now thank goodness).  Pleasingly we all survived the predicted  Apocalypse, and I was also honoured to become a Godfather to my nephew - so Gamer Lad Ver2.0 is on the cards a little down the track!

Next year will see a relative hobby Dark Ages for me as I go farther afield for an extended period.  Coincidentally, Comrade James is moving back to our home town, enabling him to take up a gaming mentor role, and thus Right Stuff can continue playing in the local BB league.  Thanks so much buddy, it means so much to both of us.  So 2013 will be grim in terms of hobby stuff and blog posts, and I wont be able to visit and comment on everyone's blogs as I like to do, but I'll be looking forward to all the catching up later on.  

Thanks to everyone for their support in 2012 (during which we passed the amazing 'blog milestones' of 400 followers and 200,00 hits) .  The Man Cave wishes you all a safe, happy and healthy 2013!

See other Man Cave "Years in Review" here

Bumper crop of Christmas Goodies!

Santa (and his many helpers) were very kind to me this year.  Actually it was the being together with all the family and still feeling full 2 days later that was most awesome, but lets face it - our inner kid (and not so inner - we play with toy soldiers right?) still loves pressies right?

Cutting to the hobby related stuff, Santa got us a family ticket to see the Hobbit in 3D and we went yesterday at the first session of opening day.  We really enjoyed it, the departures from the book made sense to me and worked well, and it was done in a lighter tone than the Lord of the Rings.  Reminded me of an Indiana Jones movies actually.  Well done and highly recommended.

On the Dark Ages front my recent SAGA adventures saw me score very well: All three SAGA rulebooks, a box of Plastic Norman knights plus a set of crossbowmen to complete that army, and the newly released Irish Warband starter set from Gripping Beast.  Lovely Jubbly!

And the big surprise this year was my combined 40th Birthday and Christmas present from Comrade James: Battlefront's 'Open Fire' Flames of War starter set and the new book 'Normandy Battles'

He is a sneaky one that Comrade James, knowing that I have secretly wanted to do 15mm for years but with no opponent and an aversion to collecting terrain in a new scale.  Now that he is coming back to live down the road, we can get a good campaign going.  I will be very interested to see how the lad goes with this - I have no doubt he will play it but think his heart will be with Blood Bowl and games like that for awhile yet.  Still, he has already claimed the German force (grrr...) and having watched 'Kelly's Heroes' and the like, I think he'll enjoy it. Thanks James - awesome pressie!

Hoping your Christmases were just as great! Back to playing our in house Blood Bowl competition: "Santabowl"!

Merry Christmas 2012

Its Christmas Eve here now in Australia - a Merry Christmas to all!

Champs vs Ogres: Game 5

Team Logo of the Black Mountain Lochers

The Norse faced the Ogres of the Black Mountain Lochers today in Round 5 of the Season.  After winning the toss and electing to receive, the Norse turned over the Ogre drive after a fumbled snotling throw, then did it again on the next drive when the snotling ball carrier fizzed a dodge (love the tackle skill!) to be 2:0 up at half time with an Ogre and two snotlings carried from the field (the Ogre was killed but revived by the apothecary).

The second half saw the Norse drive up after removing the entire opposing line of scrimmage.  Norse runner Fafnir Bearclaw sprinted up with the ball but tripped over his own shoelaces on the TD line and not even his sure feet could save him.  The Ogres responded with a surprising ball retrieval, pass, hand-off combo to get into the Norse backfield.  The Northmen tried to recover with their defenders but had no luck and the snotling dodged away to make it 2-1 with 5 turns to go.

The drive was setup again with the Norse trying yet again but failing a catch and the ball was grabbed by the snotlings midfield.  The Norse cracked open the cage, killed the ball carrier and took the ball into the Ogre backfield.As the last minutes of the game ticked by, a great blitz by an Ogre prevented the Norse from scoring and the game ended at 2-1.  The Norse inflicted 6 casualties (including two deaths) and took one (badly hurt) in return.

Skill ups for Thrower Boris Surespear (Accurate), Ulfwerner Rodger the Furious (Block) and Lineman Dag the Dangerous (Wrestle) plus 60k go into the treasury and some extra fans (fan factor is now 5).

Group Bahamut

	Team	Race & Coach	team value	won tied lost	points	TD score	Cas score (kills)
	Crimson Breweries	Dwarf Lelruthus	1,840k	4 0 0	80	7 - 2	23 - 4 (0-0)
	Odinn's Champions	Norse Right Stuff & Paul O´G	1,640k	3 0 2	68	6 - 4	10 - 11 (2-1)
	Hammer of Hashut	Chaos Dwarf Big Pete	1,960k	2 1 1	54	7 - 3	11 - 10 (2-0)
	Brutle Orcs	Orc Phil W	1,720k	1 3 0	50	6 - 4	11 - 5 (1-0)
	Black Mountain Lochers	Ogre Carbrawn	1,660k	1 1 3	42	6 - 11	12 - 26 (0-6)
	Woodland Stryders	Wood Elf Grimrod	1,470k	1 1 2	38	6 - 8	3 - 12 (0-1)
	Didditon Oddrugs	Skaven Peter M	1,710k	1 0 3	32	6 - 8	8 - 11 (2-2)
	River Stir Slayers	Human ModelWarrior	1,650k	1 0 3	32	4 - 8	10 - 9 (3-0)

This win brings the Norse season to 3W-2L and into second place.  Next game looks like a tough one against the menacing Chaos Dwarves of the Hammer of Hashut, then the last game of the season against the elves of the Woodland Stryders who were division rivals in the Rookie Season.,

Happy Apocalypse Day!

It all makes sense now!

Odinn's Champs move up

Unfortunately, this week's match against the River Stir Slayers was forfeited by the Humans, but the two MVPs and winnings have helped develop the Norse team.  Coupled with the treasury contents, the extra cash (80k) has been invested in a second Ulfwerner, an Assistant Coach and a Cheerleader.  This brings all positional players onto the team (bar a second Thrower) and makes a bench of two players.  The two MVPs went randomly to Berzerker Sven Forkbeard and Thrower Boris Surespear, helping them develop without skilling up and thus keeping the Team Value down.

New team addition: Ulfwerner 'Ragnarr the Fluffy'

This result puts Odinn's Champions into 4th place in their Division of 8 teams, and they now face off against the Ogre team, Black Mountain Lochers, this Friday!

Group Bahamut

	Team	Race & Coach	team value	won tied lost	points	TD score	Cas score (kills)
	Crimson Breweries	Dwarf Lelruthus	1,840k	4 0 0	80	7 - 2	23 - 4 (0-0)
	Hammer of Hashut	Chaos Dwarf Big Pete	1,960k	2 1 1	54	7 - 3	11 - 10 (2-0)
	Brutle Orcs	Orc Phil W	1,720k	1 3 0	50	6 - 4	11 - 5 (1-0)
	Odinn's Champions	Norse Right Stuff & Paul O´G	1,570k	2 0 2	48	4 - 3	4 - 10 (0-1)
	Woodland Stryders	Wood Elf Grimrod	1,470k	1 1 2	38	6 - 8	3 - 12 (0-1)
	Black Mountain Lochers	Ogre Carbrawn	1,630k	1 1 2	38	5 - 9	11 - 20 (0-4)
	Didditon Oddrugs	Skaven Peter M	1,710k	1 0 3	32	6 - 8	8 - 11 (2-2)
	River Stir Slayers	Human ModelWarrior	1,650k	1 0 3	32	4 - 8	10 - 9 (3-0)

Priceless!

The Lad spent a few days in hospital this week with a suspected nasty- all clear now thank goodness.  During the toughest days his mental fortitude was strengthened by this very special gift (which I got out of the cupboard a few weeks earlier than intended) - a copy of the Blood Bowl novel "Dead Ball", signed by the author Matt Forbeck and dedicated to "Right Stuff Reilly- Stay on the Ball!"

Thanks so much Matt - a wonderful gift that brought a smile when it was most needed.

http://www.forbeck.com/

The Very Hungry Cthulupillar

Another edition in the 'twisting young minds to madness' series!

The Call of Cthulhu for Beginning Readers

This really tickled my fancy - cultists and Eldrich horrors...Dr Seuss style!

http://drfaustusau.deviantart.com/gallery/34469914#

Gamer Dad and the Campaigner

The Campaigner Issue 2 is now out (as a free download) including my inaugural "Gamer Dad" article.  I would really appreciate your feedback.  See here: http://thecampaignermagazine.com/issues/issue-2/

 Rankings HQ founder Andrew Galea talks to us about the company, its future, and the mad thrill of statistics. We also introduce Gamer Dad, a regular series of articles about wargaming with a family. This issue Paul tells us about how he introduced the hobby to his son, what approach he took and why. 3D printing is a fast growing field, both in the commercial and personal sectors, and has the potential to shake the foundations of how hobbyists and wargamers approach the hobby. Dylan Sale introduces us to the basics of 3D printing, what it does and how to become involved. All this, plus many more articles, opinion pieces and a whole lot more

Little Helpers

Actually I originally got these models to be a Viking Warlord's warhounds, but they kinda got lost in the painting pile during the Man Cave relocation late last year.

Here they are helping out the boys in blue.  Or perhaps they could be used to guard some lurkers' lair...

Models by Eureka Miniatures
http://eurekamin.com.au/

Pumpkinz First Match

Right Stuff and I played a game of BB7s last weekend to give his new Smashin' Pumkinz team (see here) a try while he waits for the rest of the figs to arrive (hint hint Comrade James!).  Their opponent was my slightly developed human team, the Nut Crackers.

Da Boyz on the LOS looking great in their orange and brown colours!

It was a very fun game- we hadn't played Sevens for ages and a fast moving first half saw each team score 2 TDs in quick succession on our home made board

The Orc drive to score an equaliser by Half  Time

The second half saw the Orcs receive, and Right Stuff tried to grind it out for the half for the win.  It went wrong for him, the ball carrier got sacked and scrum developed.  All getting rather scrappy when the Orcs pulled off a miracle play - an Orc thrower got to the ball, picked it up in 2 TZs, got an accurate pass out (in the same 2 TZs) and caught by a Black Orc.  A spectacular array of dice, particularly noting that there are no ReRolls in Sevens!

And so the Orcs got their grind and took a well deserved Victory winning 3 to 2.  A great start for this new team!

Batman!

A different kind of Batman: a Vampire in man-bat form!  Went for a bit of a different look with a bit of colour to splash onto the table.  Still deciding if I like it.

Like the Giant Worm I posted a few days ago here, this model suffers from balance issues and I am going to have to weight down one side of the base to account for it.  You can see why in the pic below

Nonetheless, I think its an excellent figure with a dynamic pose and great sculpting detail.
Figure is by Heresy Miniatures (have a look here)

Phantasmic!

...or the Ghost of Christmas present perhaps? A Reaper figure to inhabit my cemetery terrain.

Brushoff 2012

Every year Uncle Mike (of Strange Aeons Fame) runs a small painting competition for models from his range.  Finding myself unexpectedly short of time, I painted up what I had on hand from Uncle Mike's:

Beware the contents of the chained coffin...

Not very inspiring I know, but its nice terrain and I wanted Uncle Mike to have a range of entries for his competition.  You can find the prize winners at the Lead Adventure Forum thread here:
http://www.lead-adventure.de/index.php?topic=47564.45