Tabletop Day at Tabletop Nation

Today is International Tabletop Gaming day, so what better place for a day pass to be spent than playing Bushido at TTN!


I turned up at opening time with many other eager gamers to see what Wayland had instore for us... and we weren't disappointed... 20+ participation games including several with the developers! My mates at JAG were running several games including Bushido, Carvevale, SAGA and Dystopian Wars, and after a quick catch up with some old friends it was time for some hot Bushido action....

 

Battle 1 vs Brian's Cult: 35pts

 

We played the escort scenario, Sakura and Ikiryo, a big scrap erupted on the bridge between the Kairai, Itsu, Bushi and Akimoto. One Bushi was zapped with Ikiryo's stink eye, but Kato had moved too far forward and was hacked apart by Itsu with ease!

 

This marked the end of the Cult as Ikiyo rolled badly to stink eye Itsu, and was dispatched with a swift swipe hehe. It was then a simple matter to hold up the Kairai as Sakura sprinted up field... Victory to the Ito :-D

Battle 2 vs Jon's Savage Wave

 

 

Jon wanted to try out an Oni force so three big red badasses faced off against my Ito. The ogres sprinted upfield, Bobata takig the lead with Zuba and Waka flanking him... Big B swung his bell and crushed a poor Bushi flat! It was time for Itsu to do his thing and with some epic dice he managed to one shot Bobata hahaha.

 

 

This joy was short lived as Zuba got the charge on an exhausted Itsu and returned the favour... hammering the offending snake lover into a pancake :-(

 

His legacy of poison, combined with a heroic dice storm from Akimoto was enough to see off the Oni. This left Waka, who was dancing with the surving Bushi to little effect, until i was able to channel a lot of kii into him and buff some dice to finish him.... Victory to the Ito :-D

 





 

 

 

Hahaha poor Bobata! Itsunagi to the face!

 

 

 

Poor Itsunagi... Zuba smash!

 

 

A great day was had, i had some time to check out the other games the JAG boys were playing; Canada Steve and Martin were clashing on the high seas of Dystopian Wars... as i left it was Martin's British in a bad way to Steve's Frenchies! Chris and Martin were looting and pillaging with SAGA, the dark age skirmish system. I have played this before a few times and may visit it again in the future... Chris mentioned a crusaded era version being put into production which really sounds interesting.

 

 

Hopefully another event like this is on the cards soon, and the Relics Expo is coming up in May which im very much looking forward too.

 



Butcher's Block: Midas Tier 4 Part 4

Finally finally finally painted my 2nd Road Hog haha, had him in a box for 10 months and blitzed it last night. No more Farrow until my order arrives of 2 more Razor Boars, 4 more Bonegrinders and 6 more Slaughterhousers :-D

 



Bushido Battle Report: Ito Clan vs Cult of Yurei

On wednesday night at the Bunker, myself and my mate Shape (Dont ask!) played our first game of Bushido. We used starter boxes of Ito and Cult of Yurei and fought the Idols scenario:

 

 

 

Cult of Yurei Setup - Shape has done a cracking job painting these!

 



Ito Setup

 



 

 

 

Turn 1 - Both forces adavnce upfield, the more support role characters like Kato and Sakura focus to gain more kii for the coming battle.

 

 

 

Turn 2 - Battle is joined around the Idols, two are contested by Temple Bushi as Itsunagi and Akimoto more on to engage the oncoming Kairai.

 

 

 

 

Turn 3/4 - The Cult gain control of Akimoto, and Itsunagi is forced to kill him before he can kill a Temple Bushi controlling an Idol! the Ito were hacking down kairai on several occasions but the unstoppable undead were rising up again!

 

 

Turn 5/6 - Disaster strikes! The Mannaquin controls Itsunagi after a school boy error by me, he then kills a Bushi which enables the Cult to capture a Idol off me. My last Bushi is killed with the end of turn 6 but i still control one Idol earning a draw haha!

 

 

 

 

We had a great time playing this and had a small crowd watching the action throughout, we made a few mistakes on subsequent reading of the rules again yesterday such as order of second actions and how long the mannaquin is in control of a victim and what it can do whilst under control but thats what playtime experience is for.

 

 

We have arranged a rematch for next week which should be smoother and quicker to fight!



Butcher's Block: Midas Tier 4 List Part 3

Quick update, 4 bonegrinders done, these will be mixed in wth another blister packs worth to make up two minimum units worth in the list.

 



Warmaster Cob's Battle Day!

I'd promised Jacob a few games when we had time, and he could have one of his friends over to play too. We decided to play Relics as he was most of the way through painting his army and was itching to put them to the field against my Nuem:

The Boys have deployed their Orcnar and i have my Nuem

 



 

 

Turn 1: Our forces ran forwards to meet the enemy head on!

 

Turn 2: The Paenitentiam ruin the Unmman unit as an Eiotan mashes up a Dedicatus!

 



Turn 3: The Orcnar grind down the Nuem

Turn 4: The Nuem are on the ropes as the last few fall :-(

Victory for Warmaster Cob and Griffin

 

 

...And in now way did they gloat!



Butcher's Block Midas Tier 4 List : Part 2

Work continues on the new piggies, Midas and another Razor Boar are ready:

 

Midas

 

 

Razor Boar 2

 





Butcher's Block: Midas Tier 4 Part 1

With the release of Gargantuans, and the new Farrow Warlock Midas, i have begun to paint up a new 35pt list that is a tier list, and still linked to my existing army. These two beasts are the start of my new forces:

Boneswarm

Razor Boar 1

 



 

 

 

 

More of this to follow soon, i have most of the new models required already undercoated and washed so they can be speed painted out very soon!



Unleashing the Ito: Part 10

Satoshi is ready! Ito do and dusted till the next release in april yeah boi!

 

 



Gargantuans: Musings of the Pig Gods

Well Gargantuans has hit the shops now and i eagerly devoured reading my copy as much as possible yesterday afternoon! Unlike colossals, this is a full book with a good number of releases for each faction. There has been a lot of discontent from Thornfall players who have felt let dow with only getting 2 releases each pact, but this largely died away when full spoilers were shown of Midas.

Although i have a Skorne army aswell as a Farrow force, its the pigz that are my main army and first love in the game, and its the two releases for them that has me most interested in the book:


Warlock - Midas
Lesser Warbeast - Razorboar


Midas is a Bonegrinder Warlock, he utilises the powers of dead flesh to power his magics, and is really quite good at it. A solid but unremarkable stat line and an average Fury of 6, but its his abilities that make him:

Butchery; Living warbeasts killed OR removed from play in his control area grant him a bone token that can be exchanged for fury for later turns (See Feat!)

Curse; That wonderful ability of tartarsauce can now be used for bonegrinders, its mainly there to raise his Fury to 8 for spell casting but could turn normal bonegrinders into mini doom missiles at a push i reckon.

Soul Food; a pseudo blood boon that works off destroying an enemy warbeast, you either cast a spell of 3 or less OR cast the destroyed beasts animus. This combined with butchery and his dismember means that he should be wailing on beasties where possible. He has Calamity and Battle Lust as spells which combined with curse turn him into a proper engine of destruction vs beasts!

E.G: Curse a beast, calamity that beast then charge in with battle lust and convert three bone tokens into three more fury to give you an effective MAT 10 PS 15+5D6 charge with 5 more 15+4D6 hits if needed, then you'll gain another bone token after killing the beast... at dice -5 he's up for taking on gargantuans me thinks hahaha

Midas Tier list is also quite special, he gains usage of the Gatorman Boneswarms and as a T4 benefit he starts with a free beast of your choice that is destroyed... Free Warhog! Free Road Hog! this is a massive benefit, most tiers get you 2/3pts, this is up to 9pts! early game having a dead beast lets your bonegrinders cast its animus already so you can be getting free charges for fury managment etc, late game its another heavy to put down with the feat hehe. given that you can get T4 in a 15pt game it can really tip battle in your favour as you are playing with nearly 10 more points than your opponent.

All this brings us nicely to his feat.... Return all destroyed warbeasts in his battle group to play within 3" of Midas, they cant be forced this turn but can activate but ones killed this turn cant activate. midas can also spend fury points to heal damage to himself and the battlegroup but its not compulsory. I see this feat in two ways; Alpha strike and blocking. For Alpha striking i
wont be healing the beasts as Midas will need his fury for spells, and its all about getting him into a good position to drop a few heavies down for a wamping run on the enemy caster. On paper his beasts have a low threat range, but on feat turn they effectively get a 20" range with Midas charging up field and the feat placement before there own charge... via Massacre! The much maligned warhog animus has a key roll in this army shock horror.

For blocking, you need a good spam of razorboars to return, and then charge off at enemy models to block return movement against Midas, this is more for scenario play and doesnt appeal as much as the alpha strike doom lolz, Farrow play to the mad charge/crazy speed style that appeals to me and Midas lets me play how i like with lord Carver but more sneakily, he doesnt have the killing power but has far more shennanigans to try out.

Since my usual carver lists have no slaughterhousers or bonegrinders in them, its like i get 5 releases this book with a caster, 2 beasts and 2 units!


Now to a new list, we play mostly at 35pts so this is the list i will be rolling out very soon:

1 Midas +5

4 Razorboars 8pts
1 Boneswarm 4pts
1 Road Hog 8pts
1 War Hog 0pts

6 Slaughterhousers 6pts
6 Slaughterhousers 6pts
4 Bonegrinders 2pts
4 Bonegrinders 2pts
4 Bonegrinders 2pts

1 Targ 2pts


Its quite beast light compared to my usual lists, but midas has the spells for powering infantry quite well so im looking forward to the challenge! Im also virtually painting up an entirely new army, my style and abilities have evolved so much since i finished my army over a year ago that i dont want to dumb it down to that level.

2013 is a good year to be a Piggie!

Unleashing the Ito: Part 9

Ayako is finished! This model is what drew me to the Ito rather than the Cult as my force... its in my top 3 models of all time with Lord Carver and Wandyr the Bloodthirsty :-D

 

Next up will be Satoshi, hopefully by the close of play on sunday... then im all up to date till GCT release the next models in a few weeks time



Unleashing the Ito: Part 8

Its been a few days since my last update, life has been a bit hectic to say the least! But with a bit of time this evening ive finished Kenzo Ito!

 



Happy birthday Fanplastic Little Men!

Fanplastic Little Men is 1yrs old today haha, and what a year its been:

Twin girls are now 11 months old, 341 models painted, world wide charity painting event set up and quite a few commission works undertaken, thank you everyone who has read my blog or helped out over the last 12 months... roll on the next 12!

Unleashing the Ito: Part 7

Its been a good days painting, the Nuem this morning and now Naoko of the Ito:

 

 

This badass snake monster lady is a great model, and hopefully she's good in the game too!



Friends and Relics

Two updates today!

First is a new blog by a friend of mine, Steve August at www.canadastevesminis.blogspot.co.uk. Steve is an old mate of the Chelmsford Bunker and is a founder member of JustAboutGames, a games club based out of Tabletop Nation in Hockley.

Steve has just started in the world of commission painting so i wanted to give him a help along by sharing his blogsite with everyone who checks out mine. Its early days at the mo, but im sure he'll have lots of interesting minis and articles for us all in due time.

The guys at JAG play a wide variety of games, some well known favs and other more niche systems like Carnevale and Relics... Its their fault i have so many Nuem!!!

Speaking of Nuem, here's the latest additions to my force:

Metus Dedicatus

 

 



Unleashing the Ito: Part 6

Quick update, the rest of the range has arrived, and ive got them ready for painting:

 

Kenzo Ito and Naoko

 

Ayako Ito and Satoshi

 





Halodynes Assemble!

Ive finished my Halodyne starter set for Godslayer in preparation for a demo event at Tolehaven in Romford. Ive been asked to run through some games with the local club as the store will be stocking the game later in the month!

 

 

Demarchon - Warlord

 

Syntarch - Support Character

 



Hoplites - Line Infantry

 



 

 

 

Thats all my Godslayer painted for now, im waiting for Troll Trader to get the new releases in stock later in the month or early april and im looking forward to trying them out at the club.



2013 so far

Its a quiet night so i figured i'd go through the blog and sort out a progress report of the year so far:

I started the year with 138 models unpainted, and ive only got 66 left on that list left to go which is awesome progress i think. Ive picked up odd bits here and there along the way but im making sure this total is decreasing all the time.

Im working on my Halodyne starter set for Godslayer at the mo, i need to get this completed this week as ive been asked to run a demo event at Tolehaven in Romford in a week or so. When these are done i can then start on my Ito and Nuem reinforcements, both needed for upcoming events!

My Blindwater army was sold on when i new i couldnt make the masters in may, a shame but the needs must, and im not sure i will be expanding my spartan fleets anytime soon as other games have my prority for the time being and i have my new battleboard coming soon that has eaten a large chunk of available funds hehe

So all in all its been a good start to the year hobbywise, i'll do another round up over the summer to check how ive got on :-D

Heroes for Heroes Update

The event comes to an end at the end of march, its gone really well with several hundred pounds raised by some excellent painters from around the world.

A few that are currently on ebay at the moment:



Ayako Ito by Darren Lysenko of Flare Miniature Painting
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HEROES-FOR-HEROES-GCT-Studios-Bushido-Character-Ayako-Ito-PAINTED-/140922312535?pt=UK_Toys_Wargames_RL&hash=item20cf9fd757



The Enforcer by Tom Pugh of Cymbeline Games
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mantic-Dreadball-Enforcer-MVP-Heroes4Heroes-/321083425011?pt=UK_Toys_Wargames_RL&hash=item4ac21040f3



High Exemplar Kreoss by Tom Simms (JagerTom)
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160984674324

Knight Models: The Dark Knight Rises....

My bro is a massive Batman fan, has all the films artwork etc, so when it was his birthday i figured i'd get him one of these:

Really quick and simple to paint up and its a great actualization of the iconic Batman!



Gangnam Gwemberlies

These are my twin girls Gwen and Amberley (Hence Gwemberlies) who love the gangnam style tune! Thats jacob swanning around in the background too haha