Gaming Update 1

After the massive gaming drought in January, February (with a brief interruption) was much more like a usual hobby month: Gaming, painting, podcasting…it was all there – and I even managed to squeeze in a visit to the Hammerhead wargames show.

Gaming
It was really good to get some gaming in during February.
It was great to get started with minis gaming, and especially with such a great game as Song of Blades and Heroes. It was the first time that we’d played this game at club and I was very pleased to note that it went down very well – another game is planned for next month.
On the boardgame front, probably the best game I played in February was El Grande. This was a Speil des Jahres winner back in 1996, and playing this again now (the first time for about 18 months) I can see why. It was a really close 5-Player game, with eventual victory being snatched by a single point.
It’s a fantastic area control game, well worth a look if you haven’t played it already – I really must add it to my collection at some point.
Finally, to celebrate the fact the Ex Illis seems to be rising, phoenix-like, from the ashes of Bastion’s demise, I played my first game since Christmas. However, it seems that it doesn’t matter whether I play games with dice or not…I still lost…twice…
Painting
I actually managed some painting during the month of February!
I mentioned that I had played Song of Blades & Heroes…well I managed to both buy and paint a Dwarf Warband for this game
Podcast
On the podcast front, I finally managed to get the first episode of the year released, and there then followed a couple of false starts, not helped by work and domestic commitments.
As this update goes to press, Episode 72 is in the process of being edited together, and there are 3 shows currently planned for March release.
Purchases
I must admit, having said at the start of the year that I was going to limit my purchasing severely this year, February did see quite a few gaming purchases.
First up was the new reprint of Liberte by Martin Wallace, published by Valley Games.
According to most people who are asked, Liberte is one or Mr Wallace’s best games, and since (as you may know by now) I am a big Martin Wallace fan, this was a ‘must buy’.
And keeping with boardgames, I also bought the first two army reinforcement packs for Summoner Wars: Grungor’s Charge (Dwarves & Goblins) & Rukar’s Power (Orcs & Elves).
Rather than add completely new armies to the game, these packs add new units, thus bringing a whole new aspect to the game as you can now custom build your armies from a multiple selection of units and heroes.
Following on from my playing of Song of Blades and Heroes at the start of the month, I decided that I needed to get a Dwarf Warband (just in case we were going to start a campaign later in the year!)
My favourite Dwarf sculptor is Kev White, so I paid a visit to the Hasslefree Miniatures stand at the Hammerhead Show to pick up a few figures.
Their selection of feudal Dwarves are fantastic, so I ended up getting 10 figures to start with (including a Troll Slayer, which doesn’t quite fit in with the rest of the group) and then got two figures thrown in for free – a most excellent result!

And continuing with the SoBH theme, with some fear over whether our game for Salute will be ready in time, I made some more arrangements for a possible alternative. I really like 40mm figures, and Spartan Games Heroes of Myth and Legend series of models was ideal. I’d previously picked up (and painted!) several 40mm Skeletons from Graven Images, and then bought the Greek heroes from the Spartan Range, plus a ‘King Aaetes’ figure in order to create a ‘Jason and the Argonauts’ game. I was unsure as to whether I had enough skeletons, and since Stafford Games are currently selling off this range of models, I decided to pick up a couple of packs. At £5 for 3 40mm figures, these are pretty good value – I certainly wouldn’t pay full price for them!