The I-Took-A-Month-Off Update Post

 

It wasn't really planned but it ended up working out that way. No particular crisis, just fell down the priority list in a busy month. I do plan to do more here in November and December to finish the year strong. 

That said last night was our 3rd Halloween in this house and years 1 & 2 we had all of one trick-or-treater each year. We do live out in the country a bit and the houses are spread out and there are no street lights so we just assumed that was normal. Then last night we had at least twenty! So it almost turned into a crisis. Had to pull some reserves out but it ended up OK. We do a lot of outside decorating so maybe that has some kind of cumulative effect and it finally came together this year.

The Temple campaign continues - I stopped posting about it here but we have not stopped playing. I will start catching up on session reports next week and link over to the Obsidian Portal report for each one as reading the players' take each week has been a lot of fun. I do love having a steady, regular campaign with a real commitment from the players so it's a good thing right now. 

I have picked up some new RPG stuff - rulebooks and supplements here and there. The revised Necessary Evil set came in, as did the anniversary edition of Night Train for Deadlands so the Kickstarter stuff is feeding that need but I am trying to maintain focus and not get distracted with other games.

We haven't been playing much in the way of miniatures lately but of course that hasn't stopped me from reading rules and acquiring figures. Last month the big 40K focus was all the new Blood Angels stuff  so I am amassing a nice new pile of Primaris Blood Angels that I will be working on for the foreseeable future. I've decided to treat them almost as a separate new army - combined with the Primaris stuff I already have - and see what I can do using that mindset. More on 40K stuff next week.

My dissatisfaction with the current state of 40K in general did send me off down a seemingly inevitable path: Exploring One Page Rules and Grimdark Future. This is a set of rules (and figures) that have been developing for around 5 years now as a lighter (and cheaper) replacement for 40K. The basic rules are free, the army lists and builder are free, and the bigger Advanced Rules document is all of $4.99. The rules are solid, the army lists re-create every 40K faction (including Knights) and add some new ones as well and they also have 3d printer files for a bunch of alternate figures for these armies too.

Now I admit the OPR/GDF fanatics showing up in every damn 40K group or forum over the last few years had me rolling my eyes on an almost daily basis. When someone in a 40K forum asks about a particular army or rule problem they have encountered I don't need three people telling them to  go play OPR games - it got to be really irritating and I think it's bad behavior to evangelize one game every time someone mentions a different game. The answer to every 40K rules question is not "go play Grimdark Future" and this habit amongst some of its players put me off of the whole thing for quite a while. 

But ...

Seeing my Space Marines losing units this codex ... seeing my Orks losing units to Legends ... knowing my beloved Grey Knights are rumored to be getting a revamp next year, and then seeing the Blood Angels losing multiple unique characters ... I felt like I had to take a look at other options. Having done that now I have to tell you that it is a very very good option indeed. I won't get too into it here but I will talk more about it next week too.

Oh look they decided to combine the 4 books I bought a few years ago into one and add in the minor powers as well - maybe I'll pick it up down the road.

Now besides the 40K and 40K-adjacent stuff I also got into a WW2 mood and decided to revisit my Flames of War stuff. I had been working on a North Africa Mid War setup with British, Americans, Germans, and Italians, but I just wasn't feeling it. With a couple of books about Soviet tank units sitting on myself I started looking at what I had and ended up working on T-34s and KV-1s for a mid-war eastern front army. It looks like I have enough Germans to make a decent opposing force for them as well but getting the Russians built and painted is the priority right now. It's going to take some time but the numbers are still smaller than most of my 40K armies so I'm going to prioritize it and see how much I can get done in November. 

I also picked up the new 3rd edition rulebook for Bolt Action. Haven't read it yet but I have some starter sets sitting around and for this game I want to focus on the Pacific option and finally build those Marine and IJA forces sitting on the shelf now. This will probably come after I get the FOW stuff at least built and basecoated so it may be next year but reading the rules and sketching out a force for each side will give me some non-paint work to do. 

Boardgame-wise I picked up the 40th anniversary (!) edition of Axis and Allies which I will likely manage to play sometime soon. Other than that I added a few wargames that I likely will not get to play anytime soon but hopefully that changes. The occasional eBay deal plus GMT's annual Fall sale plus some of their P500's fulfilling now as well mean I have to find some new shelf space this month. It's not a terrible problem to have but it's a still a problem on some level.

So there's the catch-up talk - steady RPG time, continued work on old miniatures while checking out some new stuff and some new wargame stuff as well. More on all of this next week!