What? We lost a month?!

     Wow! January came and went, and what do I have to show for it? Tons of painted models? No. Any of the projects I wanted to start finalized into a completed state? No. Any Warmachine/Hordes league games from the recent journeyman league? Nope. A greater understand of the universe and our place in it? Not really. Picked up a few new boardgames that I may or may not have needed, but ultimately am really glad that I have? Yes, that I did. Realized I may have a kickstarter problem? Hi folks, my name is Ryan and I'm addicted to coolminiornot's kickstarters, amongst others...
     So what else have I been doing?

     Let's see. I received my copy of Sedition Wars and glanced over the components without really checking it out in depth just yet. I know, it's on the list, and I'm really excited about it, but holy cow, there's a ton of stuff I'm working on. Initial impression of the game: Looks Great! The models are good, the cards look good. I love the custom dice. The box and the cardboard floor panels feel a bit flimsier than I was expecting, but they perform their jobs just fine. I imagine they went with a thinner set of floor tiles to keep both cost and weight down, which I understand. I have a week of vacation coming up next week and will most likely be using some of that time to assemble the models and maybe get a game or two in with the wife, fingers crossed. Currently listening to the d6Generation's podcast review of sedition wars (bonus to the episode is that Rick Priestly is on it discussing his new miniature wargame Gates of Antares).

     We opened up the copy of Risk Legacy that came in the mail for Christmas from the in-laws and got in our first game. I love how you can permanently affect the game based on your decisions. I almost want to pick up several more copies and store them in my closet so I can have untouched copies to break open later with new groups of friends and/or our kids some day. I hope to get in a few more games soon and get to modifying the game board a bit more. So far, we have an Ammo shortage in Kamchatka, which makes holding Asia even harder, a city in Argentina and a bunker in Ural. I plan on winning the next one. The wife's gotten a taste of how risk plays now and knows not to start off in the middle of Russia, so this time I won't feel so bad if I come after her. Look out folks, the Bear People will conquer all!

      Played a good few games of the X-Wing miniatures game from Fantasy Flight. Having a fair bit of trouble winning as the rebels, but then again I haven't broken out Wedge yet. A buddy built a great board for us, complete with marked off deployment zones and the reference sheets glued along the outer edges for easy reminding. Adds a good bit to the game when you're flying around on something that at least looks like space, and not just the dining room table. I've got my eye on some lego planets (the buildable galaxy series) to add visual elements to the fringes of our board. All in all, it's a clean system with a good dogfight mechanic. Suspend disbelief regarding 3 dimensional space for a while and it's a lot of fun that only proves to get better as more ships are released.
    And last, but certainly not least, we have Dreadball. We went from the bags of huddled plastic masses on the left over there, to 5 fully assembled teams and 2 partial games. I can't say much other than I really, really dig this game. I mostly missed out on the blood bowl craze, (love the video game though) and while I do regret that, Mantic has provided an alternate version of tabletop sports games set in the distant sci-fi, alien-infested future. I like my Dwarves, enjoy the Orx and can't wait to get my grubby little paws on the Nameless and Teraton teams I picked up from the kickstarter that release with season 2. I'm betting that once you get the game down, and have a reference sheet handy, you can get several games in within the time it takes to play one tabletop wargame. Who knows, I might even paint all my teams up and start running demos at the local game store.
     And all that doesn't even include what I've picked up so far for my homebrewing, nor did I mention my IKRPG campaign yet. But those are posts for another time. To make a long and hugely rambling story short, I am absolutely having a great time with gaming in the new year and can't wait to see what the rest of 2013 brings. I'm looking at you Privateer Press: Gargantuans, High Command, Convergence of Cyriss, Level 7 Omega Protocol, the Machinations league...