Nevi: Hello you lovely people. Firstly, yes the letter p on my keyboard is still broken, so please feel my rage every time I have to copy-paste (give me strength…) it. And secondly, welcome to hopefully a regular return of the monthly hobby round-up. Here we’ll talk through what we’ve been painting and playing (video and analogue games) in a given month with some pretty pictures.
Painting
Nevi: This month saw a lot of additions to my Warhammer 40,000 Death Guard army. If you’ve been following us on Instagram (which you really should), you’ll have seen me bolster my force with lots of Terminators. The Blightlord were a joy to paint, even if it meant basically treating them like characters and working on them individually. They have loads of details and each one could basically sub in as a Chaos Lord in Terminator armour, which is really cool as I now have an awkward number of eight to fit in a five-man squad. I’ll get onto it in the Playing section but man I wish they were more exciting on the tabletop.
George: My hobby January got off to a flying start, or should I say flying finish? Adding the final touches to my Corsair Voidscarred team ‘The Dawn Treaders’ for Kill Team. I’d been racing to finish them before Christmas but the last few basing bits and powerswords eluded me. These were the first models I picked up for Kill Team (back in 2022!), alongside my Fallen Dark Angel legionaries. The sheer amount of detail scared me off a bit and easier projects kept jumping the queue ahead of them. Very pleased with how they’ve turned out and I’m glad I held off as I think my painting has definitely improved since I first got them.
Taking their place on my hobby bench are the Agents of the Inquisition. My local game store, Comics, Games & Coffee in Chichester is running their yearly ‘Copper Grot’ painting competition. I was over the moon to win their unit category last year with my Kroot Farstalkers. This year I’m going for a John Blanche inspired grimy weathered look – this band of weirdos making their last stand on some hellish forgotten world. I’ll be cracking out the oil washes for that grimy effect, something I experimented with for my Sisters of Battle. With assembly done, I’m now in the proces of painting them as brightly as possible to contast against the dark grime to come later.
Tabletop Games
Nevi: I only managed to get in one game in January which was a continuation of a Warhammer 40,000 Crusade at my local games club (shout out to Wharfedale Tabletop Games and Rowan for crafting the campaign). I have sporadically participated in the campaign with my Death Guard army, The Terriblis Rusticae helping the Ruin faction destroy the local sector.
In my single game, I took on the Necrons in an extremely close game in terms of model count but that had a massive swing to the Rusticae when it came to points. I’d never fought the Void Dragon before and he was a beast. He smashed through my new Predator tank like it was nothing and the best way I could deal with him was to kite him around the board and focus on scoring points. As I eluded to before, I wish the Blightlords were a bit better on the tabletop. They looks cool, but don’t really do very much damage and feel like they die too quickly as well. I’ve got my fingers crossed they get some love in the Codex.
George: I love the colour scheme of Nevi’s Deathguard, seeing that tide of rust sweep over the board looks fantastic – a neat twist on their usual putresecent greens and whites. Orange is clearly a popular colour as my own orange minis made the table this month. The Cosairs went straight off the painting table into my first non-combat patrol game of 10th edition 40k. The real reason I got them ready was for Kill Team. I played my first game on the new terrain set for Season 3, ‘Bheta-Decima’. Set on a decaying ocean rig, the board is a series of raised walkways above an ocean zone minis can’t stand in and obscures shooting.
I’ve been playing this edition of Kill Team for a little over a year and I’m in love with the system. I wouldn’t call it a quick game as it can take anywhere from 1.5-3hrs but I love that every model plays a part. There’s no wasted hobby effort on chaff troops whose only job is to stand on a back objective or screen a charge. Even the lowliest guard rifleman can pivot a game with their actions. While the rules are fiddly, once you’ve got your head around the line of sight system, it’s a really tight game where smart positioning is crucial.
When my most regular opponent moved with his Tempestus Scions to Wales, at the end of last year, I’ve been trying to get more people into Kill Team at the store. This snowballed a bit and this weekend (3rd Feb) I’m running an introductory event to the game. The aim is to get all the people that have shown an interest and maybe played one or two games, more confident with the rules. The plan is to run 3 rounds of matched play tournament format games with a few fun narrative rules sprinkled in. I’ve got a sheet of achievements players can try and complete over the day and there will be a leaderboard with a champion from each team competing for the most kills. Bit nervous as I’ve never run an event like this before. Hopefully everyone will come away having enjoyed themselves and learned a little bit more. All three types of table will be in play from the scrap ruins of Octarius and the corridors of the Gallowdark to the new gantries of Bheta-Decima.
I’m now realising just how packed a month January was. I also played my third Star Wars: Legion event, and I somehow managed to win it! My second event with Yoda and Padme leading a bunch of clones. It’s a popular archetype at the moment in the wider meta and with good reason. You get a ton of tokens to ensure your dice are reliable, the clones hit like a truck and Yoda, the wizened little goblin he is, is can play to the objectives like nothing else in the game. Looking forward to the next event in the series, Padawans in Portsmouth VI in April. Plenty of time to get some practice with a new list – Obi-wan & Commander Cody are the likely candidates to lead it.
It wasn’t all miniatures, I recieved a copy of Imperium: Horizons to review for the March issue of Tabletop Gaming Magazine. Early spoilers it’s good! It’s rulesy and the set up and pack up is a pain but the game itself reminded me of some of my favourite aspects of the Civilization video game series. It’s a deckbuilder / tableau builder hybrid all about assembling an engine that churns out victory points. Now that sounds like it should be a very dry eurogame affair but somehow it manages to give you a real sense of narrative even as you’re crunching the puzzle of its many systems.
Video Games
Nevi: For Xmas, I got Persona 5 on Switch. Persona 4 is one of my all-time favourite games, so I’ve been excited to sink into the world of the Phantom Thieves, and I haven’t been disappointed. Persona 5 is exactly what I wanted it to be with the swishy menus, crunchy turn-based combat and engaging story. I’m only a few hours into the game and enjoying the first dungeon but having it on Switch means I can dip into it for short bursts.
Nevi: My New Year’s resolution, of sorts, is to focus on a single game at a time. As part of this, and the fact that I don’t realistically at the moment play many games, I’ve cancelled all my game subscription services. So no more Playstation Plus, Xbox Game Pass or Nintendo Online. Not only does that feel like a massive financial burden off my shoulders but I’m looking forward to just playing games I actually own. I have Yakuza 3 – 6 (A series that stole Gav’s heart) sitting in my library waiting for a chance to shine, AI: The Somnium Files that I was excited to play but got shelved and loads of other titles that I bought and ignored. I think a lot of people talk about their backlog and how daunting it seems. Well this year, little by little I’m going to try and at the very least not add to mine (very aware that Persona 5 is like a 60-hour-plus game). It is one of the games industry’s biggest scams that we all own piles of games we’ve never touched. I made a little video about the fear of missing out a few years ago so it is about time I took my own advice.
Thanks for reading. You can check out Gav’s article on Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising or our 2023 round-up.
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