Warmachine Rekindled Redux

As mentioned in my previous post, I got in my first game of MK3 Warmachine last week. For anyone who read the previous post you know that I was trepidatious about whether or not you can, in fact, go home again. I'm here to tell you that you can. I lost the game, but it was a nail biter right up to the end. I had a great opponent whose obvious pleasure in the game was infectious and we had ourselves a fantastic game.

I had no real reason to hope that the game would go half as well as it did, but I left the shop absolutely giddy with the joy of playing again (and $100 lighter in my wallet from some new shinies).

Beyond the game itself, it was fantastic to be welcomed to the community. I got the rundown on all the local metas in town, and was made to feel that I'd be welcome in any or all of them. While there are a couple small regular groups, it seems like none of them are insular and plenty of cross play is happening.

I'm excited to have played my Swans again, and am going to be focussing on them a bit for the next little while as I attend the regular gaming nights. Once I'm all up to speed I'll probably get my Trollbloods back out and see how they do for me in the new edition.

The moral of this story is for anyone who has been out of a game, or is looking to join a bigger local scene, try it. Gamers are a friendly bunch and you already have something in common, the love of the game.

- Chris

Warmachine Rekindled

A lot of gamers started with Warhammer, but that wasn't my story. Sure the first thing I ever bought and painted was a Fantasy paint starter set from GW, but I never played the game. The first game that ever grabbed me hard, and got me putting models on the table was Warmachine way back in the days of MK1. I participated in the play test for MK2, and then played that for years but eventually, as all things do, it fell by the wayside. Newer, shinier, more innovative games game along and drew me away. Part of that was because of my group's focus on skirmish level games, which Warmachine hasn't really been in a long time, and part of it was simple burnout. 

Years passed and I played a lot of Malifaux and Guild Ball, and dabbled in Infinity, Marvel, Bushido, Dark Age, Wrath of Kings and others and even spent a year playing a lot of Heroclix. The whole time I was searching for a world that would pull me in the way that the Iron Kingdoms had, and a game that would entertain me the way Warmachine (and later Hordes) had.

The release of MK3 caught my attention but by then my regular group had moved on and away and I thought my chance had passed me by. Recently though I discovered that there is a small but passionate community playing at one of my local stores and with that, I was back in. I've got a game coming up tomorrow, and once again I'll be flying the Cygnus in battle for Cygnar learning to play my favourite game all over again. 

I'm going to be the first to admit that I'm trepidatious. I have powerful and important memories of playing hundreds of games of Warmachine during my young adult hood. I made friends, I learned the real value of sportsmanship and most of all I got to explore exciting stories and adventures on the tabletop and in the fiction (some of which is genuinely good). Chances are that it won't be as good as I remember, it never is when you go back, but I'm still excited to get back to the table. 

I'll report back with the outcome of the game, and some impressions of Mk3 once it's all said and done. Who knows, maybe you can go home again. 

-Chris

First Steps and 2017 Goals

Hey all,

Welcome to the blog.

This is my first time doing a blog but I wanted to set up something a little organized to track my hobby goals for this year. Hopefully this will keep me focussed on completing my goals and give me a chance to share what I'm working on with anyone who is interested in following along. I am a bit of a magpie gamer, I play CCGs, minis, RPGs and board games, basically anything that catches my fancy so I'll be using the blog to keep track of the games I'm trying, probably with some reviews along the way. Thanks for coming along, let's have ourselves some fun.

A couple of the games I am playing pretty regularly and will focus a lot of the content here around are: Magic (cliche though that is), Guild Ball, Marvel Universe Miniatures Game and Warmachine/Hordes. I'm also open to any suggestions from my readers. If there is something you want to see reviewed, painted or played, drop me a line. If it's interesting, I'm happy to try anything once.

 Time to get down to brass tacks. What are the hobby goals I mentioned?

• Paint at least one mini a week. This might come from any of the games I enjoy but I'll be posting pictures as I get them done.
• Play more games. At least once a week I am planning to get a game in with one of the members of my local gaming group. I'll try to post up some battle reports, match reports or just general discussion about the games as I play them.
• Build one piece of terrain per month. I've been playing various minis games for years and am getting a little bored with empty tables, or playing around coke cans and various bits of detritus standing in for scenery. I'll be putting together, either from scratch or from a kit, one piece of terrain a month as well as painting it for use on the table. This is an entirely new area of the hobby for me, so expect some growing pains but it should be even more fun for that. 

That's about it to get us started but please drop me a comment below and tell me what games you like, and what goals you've set for yourself this year.

-Chris