Giving Spectre: Operations a try
Depending on how you count, giving this game a try is years in the making. I've stumbled across Spectre Operations in 2016, when I saw the booth on Salute in London, and covered their miniature range in review the same year. But the rules or setting really caught my eye, on Crisis a year later, in 2017, when I saw the gaming table build by Ivan / ThreadHeadz on Lead Adventure and recognised it at the show.
8th Rhein Main Multiversum 2022
Nidderau is back on the schedule! This weekend (we've been there yesterday) the Tabletop Club Rhein-Main hosted once again after a break the 8th Rhein Main Multiversum.
This time, due to the circumstances, the Rhein Main Multiversum was not as a convention but as an open gaming weekend (so without traders) to accomodate any (possible) restrictions and so on.
August 2022 review
August is over, we're in the last third of 2022. Let that sink in.
I was at RatCon 2022, a roleplaying convention not far from me. It is part of the Ulisses Con Tour and covers multiple pen & paper role playing games, organized partially by the hosts or gamers themself. There are a variety of rpgs available and played, but The Dark Eye / Das Schwarze Auge is the most prominent. From time to time, the RatCon included smaller tabletop side events, but due to the health requirements and organisational conditions, this wasn't the case this time. Yet, I was able to get my hands on an old Armalion blister (with miniatures sculpted by Werner Klocke) and the RatCon event miniature (3d printed in dark grey resin). The next event of the tour will by DreieichCon from 19. - 20. November 2022.
We even met some folks from Asgard Aschaffenburg and are really hoping for a soon return of the Tabletopia event (last one was in 2019).
Prelude to Rhein Main Multiversum 2022
The Rhein-Main-Multiversum returns in September 2022 after a two year break.
Dino’s July 2022
To say that July was hectic would be the understatement of the year. First of all, I lost my job, then within two weeks I found another, better one. In between, I tried to catch up on all the private stuff that was left behind during that time.
One could think now " That guy doesn't paint at all!". But against all expectations I even managed to paint more than in the previous months. The first mini has set a small milestone with its completion.
Moors of Iberia – Camel Cavalry
With the majority of the moors being ordered from the Outremer Kickstarter, it is time to look at what I am missing. As I mentioned in the article, I wanted a cavalry unit to stand out, and of my ideas was to use camels instead of horses.
Why camels? Well, obviously something different than regular horses. As the Moors in Iberia, especially the ones in the set time frame of this project (Almoravids and Almohads) were Berber Dynasties. And as an old time Age of Empires fan, Berber Camel riders. Yet, there are only a few miniatures out there, and to put it mildly, they are not the best looking. As camel riders weren't part of the Kickstarter I had to look elsewhere and so I did.
As the majority of my Crusader miniatures are Perry sculpts, I looked up their store. Unfortunately their Crusader Arabs didn't cover camels either ... but other ranges did. For example the Sudan range, had these interesting looking Beja warriors on camels.
The Sudan range even had interesting riders to replace the Beja, the Baggara in different variants, with long robes and fitting head gear. But I went for the MA15 Bedouin Command and MA16 Bedouin Cavalry. The miniatures come with separate mounts and riders, so good baseline for a conversion.
Dino’s June 2022
A little more than half a year has passed and finally, FINALLY I received four brushes and three pots of Lahmian Medium from Battlefield Berlin. Sounds strange? But it actually happened.
Somehow I don't seem to have much luck with my orders lately and the matter does leave a sour taste. Since then I have asked what the status is and I was told that there will be a shipping confirmation as soon as the order is on its way. After more than half a year of trust for an open order, I would have expected something like a small thank you, even if it had only been something like a ballpoint pen.
The Barons War 4 – Outremer (The Crusader States)
Almost 800 backers support the of Barons War Outremer campaign and pledged nearly 95,000 GBP towards this goal.
So, why did I participate in this campaign? I talked about it here - Spanish Crusaders vs. Moors. I am looking for miniatures for the Moors on the Iberian Peninsular, even though as the Muslim Warriors of this campaign aren't a 100% perfect fit (being more about the Ayyubid of the Middle Eastern regions and not Almoravid or Almohad of Northern Africa / conquered souther Spain), but should still be "generic" enough, to make it work with some minor tweaks here and there.
Mortal Gods – Veteran
Ha! I finally managed to finish painting up the Veteran of the Corinthians. I admit, so close to the end of the month I hardly believed it, but two undisturbed evenings later I brought my usual color scheme to the mini quite quickly.
June 2022 Review
That's halftime for 2022 already. A bit unexpectedly - at least for me - the last weeks were filled with a lot of Horus Heresy content.
Why was that unexpected? Well, I do plan ahead and do some (at least rough) scheduling for the content road map for the blog, to tie in articles, prepare the content itself and such. I was aware of the Horus Heresy release, and initially my plan was to cover my own 30k content in Adeptus Titanicus to go along, but I was provided by Games Workshop with some of the novelties, and I covered those instead, pushing the other items back in the schedule.
Happy coincidence, the featured legions of the boxed set are Imperial Fists and Sons of Horus, both faction I was already set on for before the announcement and release of this kit. And I even chose the exact patterns, of Mk III for the Fists and Mk IV for the Sons of Horus.
This meant, I covered the Age of Darkness boxed set, with an unboxing of the starter set itself, detailed reviews on the content, like the impressive Spartan Assault Tank, and further coverage like the Liber Astartes and Liber Hereticus. But we're not finished yet, there will be a sum up along with a community interview.