Io Saturnalia!

I only missed two months of blogging so its an upgrade from last time! Yes, life has been crazy busy as usual but theres been a good helping of gaming and hobby to keep me on an even keel.

Lets see, where to start….

Back in November when my wife went out of town for a few days I shipped the four year old to Mimi’s for a night to get an honest-to-gods no responsibilities, no child to take care of, no relationship to attend to, night off. I set up a big game of Horus Heresy at the local club and it was fantastic (as was the extra spicy lamb vindaloo I grabbed on the way over from my favorite Indian place, shoutout to Curry and Kabob House)

We played an 8k game total with 2k per side. Big urban wasteland board with three objectives and Dawn of War deployment. Titans, Spartans, jetbikes, oh my! I played Ultramarines allied with my friends Stone Gauntlet Imperial Fists against Death Guard and Sons of Horus.

I mainly squared off against the Death Guard. The traitors left the center of the board largely empty and concentrated on the flanks, I lined up my Leviathan dred and Praetor with Suzerains to occupy it while my big tactical squads and armor focused on fending off the Warhound titan (!!!!) on our left.

Highlights included my DG opponent taunting me for buying a flare shield on my vehicles, failing completely to damage my Spartan with his own, then losing his spartan to a roll that would have been a glance if he bought a flare shield!

My DG friend got the last laugh though when, during an epic challenge between his praetor and my champion (who prior to this game has murdered his HQ every other game) got stomped on by the Warhound, I gleefully said the cursed words “I just need better than a 1” then promptly rolled a 1 and lost him to instant death squish!

On the right flank, the Imperial Fists mulched the Sons of Horus, slowly grinding their way through them to solidly control the right objective. My left flank was slowly pushed back however - eventually I had to resort to throwing tactical squad marines on the objective as cannon fodder. My HQ and dred occupied the vacant middle and could not be removed however.

If I recall correctly the Loyalists won a minor victory. As always, a very fun time whenever 30k is played with lots of epic moments and funny laughs.

I’ve also been getting into tiny 30k, which is well timed with the release of Legions Imperialis. We tried the system the other night at the club

I got there late due to some venue confusion (went to the wrong game store - woops) - so I just ended up fielding three Knights into a chaotic and already bloody game. It was a fun system! I like the tension the hidden orders introduce, always like alternating activations, and (once GW finishes putting rules out for everything) it has a lot of potential.

I’ll be going with a zero astartes policy and am running a pure Solar Aux force (I will absolutely do Mechanicum when they get added as well)

This is what I have done so far, everything is 3d printed. I’ll be adding some infantry next (found some cool Great War looking dudes which lines up with my head cannon for my force, an Entente themed coalition from several systems)

These tiny chonkers are next on the painting queue

Finally, as there is a community here for it, I’ve finally been convinced to try KoW again.

I’m working on an Empire of Dust army - there are currently 100+ skeletons sitting on my desk waiting for me to finish their bases so they can get stuck to them. What have I got myself into….

I got a starter set for Warcy for Christmas so once I clear the rest of the painting queue that’ll be up next, I’ve been interested in that system for some time and the terrain is aces!

Finally, I grabbed some Lorcana decks when my better half and I visited the hobby store together just before the holidays. I’d been hunting for it since release as she was interested to try it - supply took ages to catch up to the demand. We’ve played a few games - its a great little CCG - very similar to Hearthstone but with a few twists. Hoping to play a few rounds tonight to send off Christmas.

Thats all for today - I’ll be writing up a detailed LI review when I get the rulebook and want to show off the infantry I plan to print over my vacation (well…after spending tomorrow at the mechanics, car decided to throw a timing belt error right before the holidays!)

Happy Saturnalia, Christmas, Festivus, Toy Day, Life Day, Sanguinalia, Yule, and all other wintertime festivals!