Big Jim's Middle Earth Birthday Bash

So we got together yesterday to celebrate my birthday and play some Middle Earth SBG. We had 6 players broke up into two teams of 3 one playing the forces of good and one playing the forces of evil. Each player controled 800 points of models, combined with their team to make both sides have 2400 points of Middle Earth hotness!

In the end the forces of good lead by Aragorn and the Grey Company won the day, although we called it before complete victory. My favorite point in the battle was when Aragorn entourage charged in a swept 3 Mordor Trolls from the table over two turns! Here are a selection of pictures from the day.

1600 points of Mordor forces

starting positions from the good side

starting positions from the evil side

Until next time, take care!
Jimbo

Going back to Middle Earth

I've dove head long back into Tolkien's Middle Earth, Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit were a huge piece of my Childhood. My Pop Jim Sr read the books to us when we were very young, to this day they are imprinted on who my siblings and I are.

So as you can imagine when Games Workshop released their strategy battle game for Lord of the Rings to accompany the movies my Father, brother and I were stoked beyond belief. For Christmas that year it was all Lord of the Rings related gifts for the male members of the family. It was glorious, we had so much fun building models together after Christmas dinner.


By February we were already play testing a scenario to run a Kublacon in that following May. We played this scenario 3 times before the convention, with scads of our gaming friends.

It was a magical time for us, many of us were gaming together for the first time in years.

It started off very basic terrain wise, but got much more elaborate with every play test.

I will be revisiting this scenario in the near future for a redo with the newly updated rules set. There will be many pictures and post to follow on this one going forward.

Until next time,
Jimbo

Reforging a piece of my Gaming History

This upcoming weekend I will be refurbishing this ancient terrain piece from my Pop's original modular 3D terrain set back in 1983. We have always referred to it as the "Rock".

I will be removing it from the warped MDF base board, clean off the foliage on it, retexture the bare Styrofoam and remount it on a new base board that is more form fitting as a stand alone terrain piece needs.

Here are a few pictures of the whole terrain set back in the day.

Pictures of the reforging as they happen over the weekend will follow.

Until next time.
Big Jim

Space Wolves for the new Kill Team

Space Wolf team converted from the Space Marine heroes line, with custom Wolf Scout.

In the spirit of what I did with Special Operations Killzone for Kill Team 5^th ed I am tinkering with the current much improved version of Kill Team. I want to push the more narrative aspect of the game to a higher level. 

I am currently working on House Rules for a generic gear and weapons list that all teams can access as well as faction specific ones. I am also working on additional entries to most of the factions to make things more lore centric.

The first thing I have done is made a proper Space Wolves list for the new Kill Team. This list completely replaces the Tactical Marine and Scout entries for Grey Hunters, Wolf Scouts and a single Long Fang entry. This new list gives you a flavorful lore centric Space Wolves list that any Wolf Lord could be proud of.

Narrative Kill Team Space Wolves

I reimagined both the Tactical and Scout squad entries to match the options available to their Space Wolf cousins in the Grey Hunters and Wolf Scouts. This gave me a conundrum of how to handle the Grey Hunters melee weapons upgrades, as it is very common for a Hunter to carry a Chainsword or Combat Blade in addition to his Boltgun and Bolt pistol. Since having melee weapons like this gives them a clear advantage over tactical marines, I decided that Grey Hunters can all take a Chainsword or Combat Blade for the additional cost of one point, this way you can choose to take it or not. 

Since Grey Hunters don’t carry Heavy Weapons I chose to add the option to take a single Long Fang for that duty. I also limited the Grey Hunters to a single special weapon to off set this; even Heretic Astartes cannot take two special weapons they are limited to one plus a heavy weapon.

Feel free to share your thoughts and comment below. 

Praise the Allfather and pass the ammunition, until next time,

Big Jim

Soul Reapers Triumverate of Hate

I am still plugging away making good progress on the Soul Reapers rebuild project. I just wanted to share a quick pick of the character models that are done and ready so far.

Xusia on the right, Krüg in the center and Titus the Butcher on the left. I'm really pleased with how these models turned out.

I am currently working on finishing up 3 Chaos Dreadnoughts/Helbrutes for the army pics to follow in the next few days.

All archived posts republished

I have had a few requests to see some of the old Soul Reapers posts so, I've republished all the old posts from the blog, just in case there is info in the posts that would be useful for anyone.

I hope to be blogging again soon

A year without my Father

Even though last year started off with devastation it ended up being a great year filled with family, friends and growth for me.

I have learned a lot this past 12 months first and foremost is that life is short and that you must do your very best to “live” that life. I’ve found that most people just exist in life doing only what they must to get through day by day, I was doing that very thing, but there is so much more to it. Go out try new things, don’t leave your dreams untried otherwise what is the point of having dreams.

Express your love to the people you care the most about as often as possible, let them know how much they mean to you while they are here to hear and see it. Blood relation is not the only way that someone is family, you can choose the family you want with friends that feel the same way you do.

Don’t waste your time being angry its just not worth the energy, instead fill your heart with understanding, not everyone is capable of being a good person and accept them for the way that they are. If they are toxic cut them off, no one needs that kind of negativity in their life.

Have adventures, whether it be visiting a place you’ve always wanted to go or one you loved as a child to trekking out to visit an old friend to share the memories of your good times together. Also important take pictures of your adventures, lots of pictures as reminders of the great things you have done!

Hug the ones you love and hold them close whenever you can, I am a born again hugger!


Most importantly make new exciting memories with your friends, my friends and family have made this a year of laughing, loving and joy despite the loss of my father.

I will always miss my Pop, but I have to thank him for this year of discovery that he placed me on.

Cheers, Big Jim