Imperial Reference Cogitator

Wednesday, April 29, 2020

Epic Proportions Army Pitch

Assembling The Legions...



Not bad for having ridden unused in some boxes through twenty-five years and several moves through a few states...

I am dropping some quick WIP pictures of my Epic sorting and repair work in anticipation of Dr The Viking posting an update on the Epic Army Challenge for month's end.  For the last two weeks I have been sorting tiny miniatures and studying NetEpicGold army cards in order to figure out the best disposition of my forces.  In an ideal world I would be pooling all my space marine epic miniatures into one giant Legion.  However since I'm jumping headfirst into a long discontinued game and planning to play with fan generated rules I have to be pragmatic about how many opponents I am initially going to be able to find.  Especially since we haven't left our house in six weeks and who knows when I'll be back to playing games in person.  For now, I am very fortunate to have a gaming apprentice in my son so I am shaping up this prospective army to be two separate army groups from two different chapters.


Sunday, April 19, 2020

#DadGoals

Cross-Time Caper !


All the best superhero battles occur in crowded office buildings.

My son and I got in a game of Heroclix over the weekend.  In a bit of alternate universe shenanigans it was the Legion of Superheroes versus the Agents of Shield.  My son rushed forward in the crowded office buildings confident that his usual strategy of crushing me under thrown objects would suffice against my non super-powered government agents.  However he was unaware of the Shield team's interlocking powers and buffs and his Legionnaires rapidly fell.  He came back at the end when Timberwolf took out Fitz, Fury, and Coulson in rapid fashion but then agent May saved the day in typical "cavalry" fashion.  I actually won a game against my son!!!  This is so rare it only improves my record to 2-20 vs him in Heroclix but it's progress.  More pictures after the jump...

Saturday, April 18, 2020

Epic Proportions

A Get Back Into The Epic 40,000 Universe Army Challenge


Tiny Space Marines, Attack!!


Hello hallucinatory chums!  Since painting my Dark Angels, plus some scenery, the game board itself, and mechs for our ongoing Battletech campaign were apparently not enough for my hobby butterfly, I have joined in on an Epic Army Painting challenge.  This friendly challenge is being coordinated by the excellent blog, Dr The Vikings Miniatures Games Hell (try saying that five times fast).  If you love Epic 40K in any of it's many incarnations or if you just love tiny miniatures you should head over to his blog and check it out.  There are more pictures after the jump but I will save the long story about my excitement for this project, my long time love of epic, and why these tiny space marines are Salamanders and not Dark Angels for future posts ...

Sunday, April 12, 2020

Battletech Goes Zoom!


Adaptive Battle Tactics Skill Unlocked!



Sorry these pictures are a little blurry, as you can see both my devices with autofocus were occupied when I took this picture

Friday, April 10, 2020

WIP Battletech

Giant Robots!



Green and Gold is the color scheme you end up with when your gaming group is made up of too many William and Mary graduates...



Battletech is another of my lifelong loves and my gaming group had only gotten two games into a campaign right before lockdown 2020 happened.  We have found an innovative way to keep it going which I will post on next week but until then I'm including a WIP Mech that is the current ride of one of my lance mates.  This Griffin is from the Battletech 2nd Edition box set that I bought off the off the Games/Hobby shelf of a Waldenbooks wayyyy back in 1992.  That was my first introduction to the game but I was immediately hooked and it has remained one of my favorite games and background settings, second only to WH40K.  I stripped his very old and unskilled paint job I had applied long ago and now I'm repainting him and his lance mates in the colors requested by my weekly gaming group.  Using the Dark Angels Green contrast paint, and honestly I know this wasn't GW's intent but contrast paint works great on Battlemechs.  It settles into the many recesses and skips you right to the step of drybrushing which is the heart of most Mech painting.  I used Soulstone Blue from the short-lived gem colors paints from GW for the cockpit and I really like the glossy effect that it gives.  More on the subject of Battletech to follow in the future...

Monday, April 6, 2020

Scenic Distractions IV

Can I Get A Forestry Service Merit Badge For This?

Since I stay home with my kids, on my birthday my wife gives me a day to just go out and pursue my interests kid free which usually involves trying to hunt out a new hobby shop in my region that either I have never been to before or possibly haven't been to in years.  I really lucked out this year and found a huge gaming store about 45 minutes from my house, Huzzah Hobbies.

Great Rao! The tornado swept almost all the trees off the hillside...

Thursday, April 2, 2020

Spaceships Are Not Supposed To Be This Close Together Part X

Force Ten From the Third Moon Of Endor


"Shuttle Tydirium, transmit the clearance code for shield passage"