[unofficial weekender] Hiding in the bushes

[sundancer 43723xp 1]

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First time visitor to OTT? Then please introduce yourself in the New Member Thread and look around in the Project System. Then come back and read on…

https://www.beastsofwar.com/forums/topic/introduce-yourselves-new-member-thread/

https://www.beastsofwar.com/project/

Read all of this before you start as it will save you any trouble later.

First thing you must do is make your “pledge”. It can be anything gaming related, big or small, and you don’t even have to finish it. No, in here, happiness is the road. Have fun doing whatever it is, but it is not a race. Accompany your work with pictures or we might think you are do something sinister and just using us for cover.

You are also presented with a few questions. It is to get the conversation started. Try and keep your answers ‘conversational’, no text speak, and certainly no “basically”. This is how we all get to know each other better. While you are here feel free to tell us a story, show a picture, joke, tales of love or woe, or just add your own little bit. This is the whole point…in here it is just us.

If you have never taken part before we may bark and bite, but we also like a cuddle! It is all done in the best possible taste and it is character building. feel free to give as good as you get.

A few other things to note: NO RELIGION & NO POLITICS! Glasgow pub rules are in effect. If you need to make a better point then it is fine, but don’t take the piss. And always keep it civil. This includes no philosophy, no home computer culture wars.

Play plenty of music to go with your work. Loud and through proper speakers. Write us a playlist of things we might not have heard before.

Now, after all of that there is only one ‘real’ rule in here and it cannot be broken: NO DICKS! (Exceptions may be made for little fighting men with little plastic/resin/metal wieners)

And don’t forget the highlights of the weekend: The Weekender on Friday and XLBS on Sunday. And the little show that is The Hobby Hangout over at twitch.tv

If you fancy to see some nice WIP pictures go to the WAYPN thread https://www.beastsofwar.com/forums/topic/what-are-you-painting-now-2025-edition/

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Question of the week:

• What is your favourite solo play system for any miniature wargame? And how do you stop yourself from cheating?

And now back to the show.

[sundancer 43723xp 1]

Pledge: finish the PaintComp entry (nearly done) and paint some more minis that are primed.

I have no answer this time because I’m really curious what you lot use if and when you play solo games.

Music:

[pagan8th 13366xp 2]

Pledge. More painting. Probably 0200 Hours, or maybe Traitors Toll.

I have tried Silver Bayonet and had minimal success. Also own Five Parsecs and more recently Forgotten Ruin.

Only Played Rangers of Shadowdeep as coop, but plan on trying that solo as it was good.

When I have tried more, I will voice an opinion.

I have several solo/coop boardgames and the best of those is Journeys in Middle Earth (app driven). Also like Eldritch Horror although that takes a long time and often fail. Mansions of Madness not bad either.

As for stopping myself cheating, that’s simple… if you cheat you are only cheating yourself… i don’t cheat.

Often in RPG’s when I’m a player and the GM forgets to make us save against something, or doesn’t inflict enough damage… I correct him.

[limburger 22083xp 3]

Today’s hobby was a visit to https://spellenspektakel.nl/
It was great to see how wargames were taking more floor space.

The depressing bit was seeing the things the 40k tournament used for their terrain.
I thought the cardboard L-shaped terrain was an unfortunate incident somewhere, but I got the distinct impression that the terrain had been deliberately designed to be that flat and boring.

What made it even more odd was that there were two tables for Legion games that were filled with pretty terrain. There was even a trader selling 3D printed terrain that appeared to be the source of the painted terrain on one of the tables.

I did see a demo of ‘Test of Honour’, which meant I now have one more game on my list of things I want to own. The mechanics reminded me of ‘Bolt-Action’ with a twist.

I probably would have bought a few #MAWM bits, but then I spotted Asmodee booth with Shatterpoint at #FireSale level of pricing. As such I am now the owner of the starterset, one extra dice set and 3 squad boxes for the grand total of less than whatever that starter set costs. They also gave away a few boosterpacks for the starwars cardgame, but I suspect that’s a carefully designed ploy to trick people into buying into that game.

@pagan8th and you haven’t had a fellow player scream at you for telling the GM an enemy attack ought to have done more damage ? 😉

// —
Solo rules ?
I’ve been keeping an eye on wargames that have them, but I have yet to try any of them.

Port Royal is another game that has solo rules as part of the core rulebook, which is really nice.
I think the various *grave games are also playable ‘solo’ as the rules do feature third party monsters that makes thing interesting even if you don’t have an actual human opponent. ‘Corespace’ and ‘The walking dead’ have those options as well.

Cheating isn’t an issue if the game has easy to follow mechanics for running the ‘AI’ of the enemy. The more the behaviour depends on the player working against his own team the less likely those rules are going to be fun to use.

[grantinvanman 6249xp 2]

Pledge: paint my Orks! I stumbled out of the gate with the first mob, wasn’t happy with the test figure. Back to it.

Solo games: nothing comes to mind. Sorry!

Music:

[pagan8th 13366xp 0]

@limburger the other players look at me and I just blame it on my inner GM who wants the game played right.

[limburger 22083xp 0]

I’m sure most people don’t mind it, unless you stray into rules lawyer territory which can be a tricky thing.

 

[pagan8th 13366xp 0]

Rules lawyer is when you argue about the interpretation of a rule and that is bad.

[limburger 22083xp 3]

There were a few tables which had rally cool terrain :

But there were also these atrocities:

And here’s an image that was hard to resist:

I didn’t buy all of it … but I did buy the starter set and the three squads from the Rebels cartoon series (the main cast and the pirates).  Got to make sure my pile of opportunity is filled, right  ? 😉

It was weird to see not more people buying into this game despite there being a queue for this one stand at the show, but the vast majority was focused on regular boardgames.

[zoidpinhead 12712xp 1]

Pledge:  Clear some of the mostly painted stuff off the painting desk prior to the Speedpaint pens getting delivered.  Work through the list of traders attending the Warfare show next Sunday and pick out the things I want to see/buy.  There will be a Bring and Buy stand as well so I always make a bee line for that first.  Do they have those in the shows you guys go to?

Answer : I don’t have a favourite solo play system for any miniature wargaming.  I play pretty much every system I’m learning solo when I first get the rules, either in part or just practice a particular phase I’m struggling to get my head round.  To get a good experience of solo gaming you do need a system that is specific to Solo play.  There is a good extra one in The Men Who Would Be King, a colonial set in the Osprey blue book series.  It is very short but really clear and gives a good challenge in game.  If your solo games are with a set written specifically for solo play there will be random generators to stop you from being able to predict too much.  It is a solo game so I guess if you want to cheat then you can.  I’m happy to unpick a bit of a turn and try different variations if I think there is something interesting to explore but that is a benefit of solo gaming rather than cheating as such 😀

[limburger 22083xp 2]

@zoidpinhead at the show I was today there was a dedicated section of the show that was dedicated to buying used boardgames.
The queue for that section is always insane. I’ve never checked that section for that simple reason, but it is definitely popular.

 

[grantinvanman 6249xp 0]

Picked up the new Crux Terminatus box set today; the new GW Assault Terminators are in the box. Idiotskies on eBay are trying to sell this box for 30% over retail: insane. I got mine for retail, and 10% back in store credit. Wasn’t that hard to get it.

I genuinely loathe eBay for what it’s become.

[zoidpinhead 12712xp 0]

@limburger They have a big boardgame bring and buy at UK Games Expo.  The one at Warfare, (and for that matter at most of the wargaming shows in the UK), is mostly miniatures but you will also find scenery, rules and military books, and boardgames.  There can be some good prices and I’ve done well there in the past.  The GW stuff tends to be very expensive but there is often good value to be had, especially if you are able to afford painted armies.  There were lots of 15mm ones on stalls this year, more than I’ve seen before.  Not sure if that is a sign of gamers changing scales or just churning their collections.

[limburger 22083xp 0]

or it may be folk who thought they could sell their ‘pro painted’ minis and then realised that no one wanted them … 😀

//–

There were even a few folk playing ‘Warhammer: Old world’ … wasn’t expecting that, but then GW tends to dominate anything.
OTOH … I saw two places that had ‘Test of Honour’. Did I mention that it looked like a really easy to learn system ?
To be honest the real reason I didn’t buy it was that they also had #MAWM and K’47 and Conquest and 0200 hours and the Chicago Way and Deadmans’ Hand … so my wallet started begging for mercy 😉

Knowing that there is an actual shop that sells this stuff is good enough. I might want to plan a visit once my wallet recovers 😀

 

[danlee 22595xp 0]

This week’s pledge is to work on my painting competition entry.

 

What is your favourite solo play system for any miniature wargame? And how do you stop yourself from cheating? – I don’t play any solo wargames, but I have plenty of solo board games. Heroes of Might and Magic III, Kingdom Death Monster, and Aeon Trespass are all good. I do the occasional small cheat. I play all these games for the story, and if a minor cheat stops me having to spend 3 hours or so repeating the game, I don’t feel guilty doing it.

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