Doin' the Hobby Thing

I played a few games of Snow Tails during board game night this week. I was apprehensive, since I generally don't like racing games, but this one was kind of enjoyable, as long as you could keep your left and right sorted out. It's a light, filler game and we played three games in probably an hour and a half. It had that Carcassonne feel, where once you finish a game, you want to dive back in.

I had a great time with my D&D campaign; getting that off the ground. The first session went as planned, although it dabbled in a few forbidden fruits of role-playing, especially railroading and deus ex machina. I was walking a fine line. I think it went well though, and like learning grammar, once you know the rules, you can occasionally break them. One of my pitfalls in past adventures is leaving things very free form, where you don't know where to focus as a player. I don't have time for that labor intensive style any longer. I'm making things as clear as possible this time around, including a blog synopsis that includes everything the party needs to know in the context I'm intending.

I didn't play 40K this week, but I painted models. I didn't bother documenting the two new chimeras and three melta gunners, since it wasn't anything new or interesting. I do have a project coming up, however, that should be worth checking out. I bought a bunch of chimera bits from Forge World and plan to build a cool chimera for my army's hero, Al-Rahim. I picked up extended track guards with headlights, a heavy flamer turret, a vehicle commander, and an alternate back door. Orr at the store gave me a very cool extended coms bit for the chimera as well. I'll be playing pimp my chimera when the parts arrive in a few weeks.

I'm also eying Leman Russ alternates at Forge World. I really hate the Leman Russ. It's a stubby little World War I style tank. I understand the whole 40K background of lost technology and the gothic feel, but this vehicle has never inspired me to want to own one, or use one. Part of it is my armies theme based around artillery, but mostly it's the model. That may change, however, as I've fallen for the Mars Alpha Pattern. It's a bigger tank with a larger back end. It looks especially good with the Vindicator turret. The Vindicator is not actually very good, but I also discovered the Ryza pattern Leman Russ turret, which solves the stubby barrel problem with the tank, another complaint. These may be in my future. I'll probably get three Mars Alpha patterns, one with the Vanquisher turret (tank commander) and two with the Ryza Leman Russ turrets.

Mars Alpha Pattern with Vanquisher Barrel

Ryza Pattern Leman Russ Turret