Gaslands – Building a car
The car growled along hard. A quick look in the rear-view mirror confirmed Dino's worst fears - he wouldn't be able to shake off the scavengers in this terrain. A strange feeling of calmness overcame him. With routine he checked the armament of the car and put his semi-automatic within reach.
Suddenly the car slowed down and with the handbrake pulled, it turned on the spot, but was carried onward by the centrifugal forces and for a few more meters, until it came to a full stop. The scavengers, visibly irritated by this manoeuvre, had in turn halted and lined up opposite to the freelancer.
"Nobody has to get killed, man! Just give us what you got and we'll drop you off at Rutherford's nearest garage." their leader shouted.
Three vehicles, Dino thought. A cross-bike, a buggy and the leader's car. That wasn't fair.
"Give up freelancer," the leader repeated his warning, "you can see there's three of us."
Three against one. That really wasn't fair. They should have brought reinforcements, he thought, stepped on the gas and raced towards them.
And with that, a warm welcome to Gaslands! Most of you have heard of this small but fine set of rules from Osprey Games, which is played without miniatures, but with toy cars instead. Well, I'm not a car fanatic, but I like good stories, I like to be creative and I have a passion for fast, dynamic games. So this is just what I get with Gaslands.
In the rulebook, I noticed especially the campaign section in the back. You start with 30 cans and continue to upgrade your car or team during the course of the campaign. But before it can start, it needs a car first. In my supermarket there's a small area with Hotwheels at the checkout and I grabbed one. This Copo Camarro was the basis for freelancer Dino's car.
Cancelled events and getting by in the current situation
Quite the weeks behind us and surely some interesting times ahead. I had to take a time out until last monday, as I was bed-bound for over a week. Work in the meantime was quite different, as many took the option for home office and almost all of the events were cancelled due to health concerns. So a lot less interaction with other people.
And those concerns spread out into our hobby as well. A lot of smaller and midsized events were cancelled, and even large one as the Adepticon. Games Workshop re-scheduled the huge preview they had planned and will provide it in an online variant. So far, Salute stays stubborn but I guess that the government or venue will take care of that (and they are waiting for that to happen due to liability issues). The way they went through with Hammerhead this weekend seemed unwise to me as well.
Any how, I'm sad that these action have to be taken, but I am rather safe than sorry. So I'll take a raincheck and will visit events after this whole thing has sorted out. In the meantime, I am pretty sure most of you have a pile-of-shame and some kind of hobby-related backlog, that is the perfect activity for the upcoming weeks of quarantine, isolation or other precautionary measurements. Either shop at your local gaming store or preferred online shop of your choice, stock up on primer and paints and get it going.
Testing 3D printing services
For the Adeptus Titanicus project I already got into 3d printing and had some terrain printed for gaming and base purposes. So far I only had access to a FDM printer, that my buddy has in his mancave / lab.
I have my eye on additive manufacturing and often come across that topic on work related tours, as in the last few years at Formnext. At these there were quite a few resin printers and samples showing miniatures and action figures, much closer to the needs of a wargamer. Resin printers are a bit more difficult to run and in the consumer field, the printing area is rather small so only works for smaller prints / pieces and is quite time consuming.
Oldhammer Khorne Berzerker
We have the undivided squads set with Chaos Terminators and regular Chaos Space Marines. Let's take a look at some Chaos Space Marines with a dedicated mark of a chaos god. And of course that has to be the mark of the most powerful of them all - KHORNE!
There are multiple ways to do so, you could give the mark to regular CSM, choose a chapter devoted to the Blood God or go full in, with the renegades of the World Eaters. Back then, they were not yet Khorne Berzerkers, but "regular" very frenzy CSM of the XII legion.
These Worldeaters (sic) got a mono-pose plastic kit, and depending on which year we're looking at different metal miniatures.
Lollis, Titans and the White Dwarf
Let us start with a serious topic. Health is such a valuable good and many of us take it for granted. DKMS has developed a lolly, that makes it pretty easy to get yourself registered as a donor for blood / bone marrow cancer. You can order the lolly for free, follow the instructions, send in the swap to get registered. Easy as that.
Adeptus Titanicus – Manufactorum Imperialis Terrain set
With the Manufactorum Imperialis Games Workshop released this month the third terrain plastic kit for Adeptus Titanicus.
Titans, pirates and the weekend
Busy week - published my review on the Nemesis Warbringer kit yesterday and completed the pictures for the upcoming review on the Manufactorum Imperialis terrain kit for Adeptus Titanicus.
Adeptus Titanicus – Nemesis Warbringer Titan with Quake Cannon
Quite the eventful month for Adeptus Titanicus. Games Workshop released a new supplement, Shadow and Iron, along with a newly arranged starter kit for the game itself. But among the novelties are beside a Psi-Titan the Nemesis Warbringer Titan with Quake Cannon in AT-scale.
With the Nemesis Warbringer the role of a dedicated Titan Hunter was introduced to the lore of Warhammer 40.000 recently. The pattern was first shown by Forge World in 2018 and has no direct predecessor in the older lore. Yet, the Warbringer is described as being in service during the Great Crusade and fought against Titan-sized Xenos constructs and later on during the Horus Heresy.
Weekend Update and January White Dwarf
My vacation is over, work has me back, so the overall output was a bit more relaxed compared to the week before. Last year, when the Rohan buildings were released, I was in touch with Games Workshop, so that I could a larger review on the new buildings. Unfortunately the Stronghold sold out unexpectedly quick and it took a bit of time to find an alternative. Long story short, in addition to the single Rohan House and Palisade & Watchtower kit, a batch of houses arrived from Radaddel. Thanks to both of them, now I can get started.
Because that was the reason, I didn't already do the review. I wanted to cover as much of that multi-purpose awesomeness that I think this kit is. And that will probably take the most time to handle the input and agree in my mind, what I am gonna build from the pieces.
Kick-Off 2020
As promissed, instead of closing the year with a summary, I want to look ahead into 2020 with a proper Kick-Off.
I could begin with the usual new years resolution, setting unrealistic goals like not buying any new miniatures before the others are painted and such. But I want to focus on activities that are fun, that are pro-active. And as such, I want to have a good time in 2020. The goal is not necessarily to have a better time, but to keep on having a good time with(in) my hobby. As pictures speak more than words, more of this: