You can find me at THE CLEURB!

In New Zealand yesterday it was Waitangi Day, a national holiday where we celebrate having a day off work. There is a bit more behind the celebration but since this is not a blog about NZ politics the less said the better. I managed to convince my wargaming-widow (wife) that since Waitangi Day was midweek we should treat it like any other day and I should head to work (and play games!).

My main objective was to get a couple of games in with my Ides Of March list(s), with both Sean and Victor volunteering to take on the eIrusk and Man-O-War challenge. Wayne and Casey rolled out the Hungarian Assault Guns and T-34/85 Battalions, whilst James strapped on his six-shooter and played a couple of games of Legends Of The Old West as other games finished. 

Both of my games were very enjoyable and have given me a little more reason to get the list painted. I am 100% un-convinced about its lethality, however I cannot see why that should stop me from looking at giving it a run. Part of me is however wondering if I should look for some other options for casters, although eIrusk's ability to let models pass through each other and giving most of my army Tough is pretty damn useful!

Nemo3 with a proxied lightning force (Sean) vs a very unpainted Khador force - 4 weeks till Ides, not a problem!

Both sides close in

Big scrum in the middle - I managed to win leaving Nemo in the sights of a boosted Destroyer

James and Victor setting up for some LotOW action

Another big scrum

Action shot of Casey (and Wayne). Casey's T-34/85 horde running into Wayne's Hungarians

T-34/85 firing line!

Zyrinis holding their own on the left flank

Victors Skorne - this is a really nice looking army up close!

First turn advancing towards each other

It was looking so good for me... and then Victor crushed my Demo Corp freeing his Immortals up to win the game!

Long Weekends are for Hobby Time?

This past weekend was a long one thanks to Auckland Anniversary Day. Being the eternal optimist that I am I was hoping that I would get a few things done

• Get the base colours on my 10 Khador Man-O-Wars
• See The Hobbit, Skyfall and Jack Reacher
• Get in a little X-Wing
• Take some photos of the T-34 army I am meant to be painting for the website over the course of next month
• Move a small pile of top soil so that I can turn 20 square metres of stones into grass
• Look after my son whilst my wife went off to a concert and a movie

If you seed it, they will grow!

And in typical Chris style, I achieved about half of it seeing The Hobbit (which was good - no Two Towers but a good way to start the trilogy) and Skyfall (I like the Bond reboot, but I miss some of Bond's cool gadgets with the exception of the "invisible car from Die Another Day which I truly hate to this day!). Obviously I managed to spend a great amount of quality time with my son, who pretty much single-handed stopped me achieving any painting this weekend - I think I can put that down to a combination of teeth starting to make an appearance and me looking for other things to do rather than painting. However I did manage to get my back yard sorted out with a pile of soil moved, grass seed sprinkled and watered. I considered this a major achievement as I do hate gardening.

However it does mean I am in bad shape for Ides of March coming up in about 6 weeks. I have decided to take a list of things that I want to paint rather than things that will work on the tabletop as a way to get me to paint these units.

Supreme Kommandant Irusk
- War Dog (painted)
- Juggernaut (painted)
- Destroyer (painted)
 
Man-O-War Bombardiers - Leader & 4 Grunts
Man-O-War Demolition Corps - Leader & 4 Grunts (painted)
Man-O-War Shocktroopers - Leader & 4 Grunts

A messy painting desk (dining room table)

My theory is that Irusk giving Tough out to the infantry and allowing them to walk through each other will make a fairly un-maneuverable force a little more spring. We are also playing Deathclock so not having to move or shoot a heap of figures should make life a little easier. In the one test game I have played I did learn how squishy Irusk is though and need to keep in mind that his job is to lurk well back and let me spam AOEs from the Destroyer and Bombardiers. Now should I fail to get all these bits painted I might need to come up with a fallback list, but that can wait a few weeks. Ideally though I will get the Man-O-Wars done as that will just make me feel good to have them knocked off, leaving me with a couple of units of IFP and a Winter Guard "Deathstar" as my big units of figures to paint.

Of course I do have 21 T-34s and an extra 21 turrets to paint next month so perhaps I should start thinking of my contingency plans sooner rather than later!