Thursday, December 25, 2014

When a Few Armies Need to Move House ...


We've been spending the past couple of weeks packing and making ready for the big move, which will happen in the first week of January. And to make things worse, it's a 2-part move! The new house is not quite ready, but I've already sold my current one, and need to vacate soon. So I'm moving to the in-law's place for a couple of months, while most of my stuff goes into storage. Then, sometime in March, I move again to the new place.

Anyways, timing mishaps aside, it's really interesting to go through 10 years of stuff - books, music, wargames, clothes, junk, etc. I gave away/trashed a whole bunch of stuff, and got organized a lot too! My daughter's boyfriend is the proud recepient of 13 years worth of White Dwarf, including some really old '90s vintage ones (including the issue that announced the release of the Eldar Falcon tank - awesome issue), as well as stacks of '90s vintage Wargames Illustrated.

My long-delayed bitz organization exercise was forced into action, and I can now proudly boast a few stacks of nicely organized bitz boxes. It's amazing how much less space is need when you get organized!

Anyways, as the picture above shows, my wargames stuff is almost all ready to go. In fact, as of writing, I'm done packing my wargames stuff, except for the bulk of my Ravenwing which is still at Hobby Forge, and my BFG fleet which is at Wira Games.

Rulebooks for 40k, Fantasy, FoW, WAB, Grand Manner, Napoleon's Battles, NPOW, General d'Brigade and all kinds of other rules, plus codices, army books, Ospreys, unopened boxes, boxes of WIP projects, all kinds of other wargames-related kits, hobby materials, tools etc, all fit nicely into 3 large boxes.

Painted armies are packed in various army carrier bags and cases. For my frequent trips to and occassional games down south, I have 2 Eldar armies ready for action in a Sponge Bag + tool box. Another two Thousand Sons armies are also ready for action in another Sponge Bag + tool box combo, just in case I need a break from the Eldar cheese.

Three FoW armies are neatly packed in the awesome FoW army bag. The giant GW figure case is now filled with all my painted IG infantry - Brandenberg, Catachan AirCav, Necromunda-based militia, Denerair Highlanders - my guess is about 250 figures. Also in the giant case are 11 Leman Russ, 7 Chimera, a Hydra 2 Hellhounds and a Devil Dog.

The large padded plastic bin that I normally use to transport the AirCav now contains the 6 AirCav flyers, 2 other flyers (Dark Eldar, Ravenwing), a Shadowsword, a Baneblade, 2 Basilisks, a Manticore, a Wyvern, 3 Leman Russ, 3 Vypers, 4 Land Speeders and other assorted stuff. Another large tool box carries 2 Baneblades, a Shadowsword and assorted Thousand Sons, IG and Eldar vehicles that didn't fit anywhere else.

That was tiring work, but it is fun to go thru your old toys once in awhile.

Keep them dice rolling. I'm trying ...


Friday, December 12, 2014

Eldar Truimphant!


 In these dark days of heavy transition, my hobby's taken a huge hit. All at the same time, I'm taking on a new job with lots of travel, moving house and trying to get the new house ready in time.

I'm in the midst of packing my stuff, so the Denerair project will be put on hold for awhile while things get sorted out. In the meantime, I do bring a couple of my armies down with me on some of my business trips. Last week, the Eldar had the privilege of meeting Chris' Imperial Guard in a short and sharp battle.

Eldar won this time round, and there were a couple of amazingly funny moments. The Swooping Hawks made a deep strike landing in the mon-keigh backfield, just haywire grenade range of the rear of a Leman Russ. I had lined up all kinds of anti-tank firepower against that tank, but just tried my luck with the Hawks anyways. The haywire grenade missed, landing harmlessly in the ground and shorting some xeno-ants. So the Exarch decided to show his guys how it's done, raising his Hawk's Talon, squeezing out 3 shots, scoring 3 hits, and glancing the mon-keigh steel giant 3 times, knockng it out. Talk about luck.


Another time, my heavily damaged flyer (1 hull point left), came under heavy fire from a Leman Russ Exterminator and a Knight, but managed to jink its way out of trouble. Then a nearby veteran squad opened up with autocannon and plasma, and the shots sprayed harmlessly into the air. Until the squad meltagunner raised his fiery weapon, took careful aim, allowing for maximum deflection of a jet heading at more than 600 knots, and fired. The melta shot hit the flyer squarely in the center, ripping out its innards and turning it into an incandescent ball of fire. Talk about lucky shot!

Anyways, that was tons of fun. Losses were pretty heavy on both sides, as is usual with my southern games. Next, the Thousand Sons will probably make the trip.

Keep them dice rolling ...