The Giant’s Lair

Rejoice, rejoice!   

Good news people, your prayers have been answered and the Gods have finally smiled on the South West of England.  This Saturday will see the grand opening in Plymouth of ‘The Giant’s Lair’ the South West’s Premier Gaming Venue.

From the venue's website: 

Opening 1st of October 2011

The open day allows players and potential players to check out the Lair and to see what all the fuss is about.
Throughout the day we will be running:

• Apocalypse sized 40k madness
• Warhammer monster mash up
• Space Hulk missions on giant 3D board
• Demonstration games of WWII tank battles
• Talisman board game bash
• Tables set up to come and play on
• Raffle where you can win some great prizes
• Membership sign up with the chance to win a massive replica sword!
• Spot prizes on the day
• Food and drink available in our bar and kitchen area 

Come and get involved in the mayhem or just pop by for a coffee.
Open from 0900 onwards.
We can't wait to see you at the Lair.

Having been for a sneaky look around last weekend, I can confirm that it is officially awesome with loads of purpose built gaming tables, a bar and even a working toilet.  If fact, I would give it my seal of approval, if I actually had one.

You can look at some of the photos of the Lair being prepared on the book of faces, and you can find directions here.

 

Anyway, make sure you get down there this Saturday for the grand opening, and make sure you tell them Frugal Dave sent you!

Happy Gaming

Exeter Legionary

As regular readers know, there’s nothing I like better than getting in a car and driving up a dual carriageway for an hour to spend all day in a cattle shed with like-minded gentlemen before driving home again.  This weekend was no exception as I journeyed to the frozen north (Exeter) to participate in, and bring a bit of class to, the Legionary 2011 wargames event.


In fact, before we go too far, don't forget you can still win a copy of the latest Unseen Lerker magazine featuring my own article on Frugal Gaming, see the last post for details.  But hurry, you only have a few days left!

Anyway, this was the third year that I’ve visited Legionary, and it’s the third venue in that time.  There were a few criticisms of the layout last year for gamers (I didn’t participate in the tournament so I couldn’t say) but this year the venue was pretty good.  It was in an agricultural auction house on the outskirts of the city, though was nowhere as bad as you may imagine.  The large open space meant that all the gamers were in with the traders which created a good atmosphere and lots of people were wandering over from the trade stands to watch the games being played.

As with previous tournaments, I met plenty of people.  This included two of my Exeter twitter chums; Domonet and Wartrader (both well worth following) who turned out to nice guys rather than murderous psychopaths, which is always the risk of social networking.  Domonet and Wartrader were running a demonstration game of Infinity which looked very interesting, but I’m currently afraid of taking up another game system as I’d probably end up selling a kidney to fund my ridiculous gaming addiction.  But if you’re on the lookout for a new game then check it out and let me know what you think.  Of course I would be remiss to not give a big plug to Wartrader’s business; so have a look at that as well.

I also met James, who had made the epic journey from Surrey to compete in the competition (for my American readers; Surrey is a separate state, east of London Island, two timezones East of here.  Everyone there speaks like our Queen Elizabeth and drives around in Rolls Royces Automobiles).  It also happens that James’s wife had to travel to Exeter that weekend for work, but I’m sure that's just a coincidence.  James mentioned that he reads this blog (Hello) so I knew he was a man of taste.  As it turned out he also a great looking Warriors of Chaos force, which was one of the nicest painted armies I’m ever seen with my own eyes.  I’m sure that my pictures don’t do it justice, so take my word for it that his ‘Amy Winehouse’ champion conversion was superb. 

"They tried to make me go to the Realm of Chaos, I said 'No no no...'"

The bring and buy stall was well stocked and most things seemed to be reasonably, priced apart from the obligatory £100 copy of Space Hulk.  As it turns out, I did end up buying an original copy of the 40k Rogue Trader rulebook.  This was a bargain and was bought purely for nostalgic reasons, it was the first gaming product I ever saw and it opened up a whole new world to me!  Looking back over the badly rendered Space Marine drawings and crudely painted miniatures would have brought a tear to my eye if it wasn’t for the fact that I'd just sold my soul to Satan to learn to paint like James.

The bring and buy also featured this amazing 5ft long spaceship for £30.  File it under ‘Looks cool, but I’ve no reason or space for it’.

As for my games of Warhammer; I got beaten like an incontinent puppy at a carpet factory.  I did take a few of the enemy down, racking up a few hundred victory points from each game.  My overall ranking was the same as at my last tournament (second from last) but I feel that my game has improved massively in the last few months and I’ll be expecting a win or two next year.

Yeah, next year.  I’ll definitely be back to Legionary 2012 for more, a lot of the guys from the Cross Swords club agreed that it was a great tournament and we’ll be back next year.  Well done to all those who took part in the tournament and a great big ‘THANK YOU’ to all who organised and ran the event.

Happy Gaming.

Don't get more games, get more gamers!

As regular readers know, I like to game.  I like to paint, I like to model, I like to write my silly little blog, but in the past year I have made a conscious effort to play more games.  Inevitably, like many other gamers, I have now started to look around for other gaming experiences; new games systems, new armies, bigger and more spectacular battles.  Of course, as a frugal gamer I fear the required expense that comes with these options.

Recently though, I have come across another option, which improves my gaming for minimal outlay;  I’m not getting more games systems, I’m getting more gamers.

This has come about in two ways, firstly I’ve joined the excellent gaming club here in Plymouth ‘Cross Swords’ and secondly I’ve managed convinced a non gaming friend to take up the dice.

Heavily themed, skirmish games such as Necromunda can really appeal to new players.

The benefits of joining a club are well known, but can’t be overstated.  Plenty of new players to face, lots of other armies to battle against, trial games of new systems, and even the ability to share lifts to tournaments and other events.  Of course, going to a club does have it’s costs.  Cross swords costs me £2.50 per visit for entry, a couple of pounds in petrol and the cost of a couple of drinks.  I visit every couple of weeks so the cost averages out quite well, and the idea of laying out my army in front of a room full of other players helps me to focus on getting figures painted and building the best army I can.

The second option is perhaps one that gamers rarely try; getting non-gamers to have a go.  I’m excluding those of us with children; we seem to be pressing dice into little pudgy palms before our poor sprogs can even sit up on their own.  As gamers, we can be a bit shy about telling our workmates and acquaintances about our hobby, and those of us that do will probably only mention that we ‘play wargames’  and if pushed we’ll tell them what game system we play. This is generally met with a fixed grin and a patronising nod of the head.  It is only rarely that others will ask for further details.  I do make a point of subjecting one of my work mates to terrifyingly detailed battle reports on a regular basis in an attempt to annoy him, try it, it works.

Anyway, I had the rare pleasure of a friend popping round a few weeks ago, looking at my figures on a shelf and asking me if he could try a game.  I thought it was some elaborate sting operation, but I eventually set up a couple of small scale trial games of different systems (Warhammer and Necromunda).  He really enjoyed the games and we’ve arranged some more for the future.

Gaming at a club can be great fun... and may include chocolate.

So over the last couple of months, I’ve managed to massively expand my gaming, without a huge outlay of cash.  I’ve also made a few friends, and brought a new person into the hobby.  Playing any existing games you own with new people, whether seasoned pros or n00bs, can be great fun and put a spark back into your gaming.  Give it a try and let me know how you get on.

Happy Gaming.

Building a Talos in a Week - Day Six

At last it's done!  The last lick of paint has gone on, the static grass has been added and even the talons are nice and neatly varnished.  Yes, after six busy evenings of work, I have scratchbuilt and painted a Talos Pain Engine for my Dark Eldar army in Warhammer 40k.  Tomorrow I'll be taking my Dark Eldar down to the club to join forces with Shiny and his Tau to take on some Space Marines.  I hope it does well!  I'll collect all the photos together in the next few days and put up a full step by step guide on what I did.  Until now, feast your eyes on my poorly painted beast of terror!

 

Building a Talos in a Week

Hi all, a bit of a strange one this week.  Last night while at the local gaming club, I was having a game of 40k with Shiny.  After we'd finished (I got beaten.  Twice) we were asked if either of us fancied a game next week, as it turned out we decided to team up.  To cut a long story short, we now both need to bring our 1000pt forces up to 1250pts.  To go some of the way towards this I decided to knock up a Talos for use in the game.  Of course, this means that I now only have a week to build and paint a Talos from scratch (as well as the usual hectic mix of, you know, real life and stuff).  Agh!

Here's my progress at the end of day one.  It's a mix of chaos spawn, giant parts, odd Dark Eldar pieces and bits from a 1:35 WW2 German Sturmtiger kit:

There's plenty more to do, I'll update again tomorrow.

Happy Gaming!

PAW 2011 - Plymouth Wargames Show

The fantastic participation game presented by Cross Swords gaming club.

As you may have guessed from my incoherent ramblings on this blog, I’m not the best Warhammer player in the world.  However, I do enjoy the game so I decided to enter the local tournament which ran last weekend; the Plymouth Association of Wargamers annual show, (also known as PAW 2011).

After writing and submitting my 1000pt Army list a few weeks ago, I tried it out against Lawrence's Skaven and proceeded to lose at every opportunity, I wasn't filled with confidence.  We decided to take a trip to the Cross Swords gaming club to meet a few other gamers from the area and so that I'd recognise a few faces at the tournament.  Everyone at the club was friendly and we had a great night, we'll definately be going back for some more.

Goblin on Goblin action (mine are the ones being flanked)

Feeling a bit more positive about the whole thing, I went along to the tournament.  To cut a long story, slightly less long, I played all six of the scenarios from the rulebook over the weekend, reporting the result of each game in my twitter feed. 

Shortly before the army was eaten by a dragon.

Of all those games, I only won one; by crushing my opponents Chaos Sorcerer General in the first turn of the game with my Rocklobber (it was the Blood and Glory Scenario, so I instantly won!).  I’d had the first turn so my opponent didn’t even get a turn.  He didn’t look mightly impressed, but I got him a cup of tea, and we chalked it up to experience.  We wrote up our scores and then carried on the game as if it was a normal pitched battle.  Which he proceeded to win.

Goblins about to get eaten, again.

Alongside the gaming, there were a large number of traders present, as well as the bring and buy stall.  Obviously I did my best not to spend too much money, though a couple of small purchases were made, which I'll tell you about in future posts.  By far the most impressive sight of the day was the participation game put on by Cross Swords, which involved a huge castle being assaulted.  The photos don't do justice to the scale of the model and I'll direct you all to some better photographs as they become available.

This castle was huge!  Constructed from Hirst Arts blocks, it must have taken months to complete.

Overall it was a great weekend, I saw some great armies and met some great gamers.  From a Frugal perspective, it was also a success.  For £15 I had two days of gaming against a range of opponents as well as the opportunity to talk about the hobby and discuss painting and strategies with the others who were there.

Oh, just in case you were wondering, I came came 23rd out of 24 players.  Better than I expected.

Happy Gaming.

Von's Adventures in eBayland (and Elsewhere)

I'd like to take this moment to refer you all back to this post of Dave's from last year, in which he talks about how to make loadsamoney on eBay.  I'm following most of Dave's tips, albeit not quite all of them; in particular, the starting and reserve prices for my items are curiously similar to the final prices of things I recently purchased, meaning that (if we're going to get technical here) my moment of weakness actually cost me nothing.

On that note: the moment of weakness.  I am, technically, not breaking my resolution involving no new figures until everything I own is painted, since the Dark Elves and Tyranids are no longer mine to paint, which left me with a grand total of twelve Skorne to worry about.  Like last edition's army lists, my resolution drifts forlorn on the breeze, to be looked back on with fond memories and bitter regrets, until an opportunity arises to redefine and reimagine it in the cause of nostalgic entertainment and something resembling innovation.

Replace the words 'Dark Elves and Tyranids' with 'Warriors of Chaos', though, and the point still stands.  Yes, I was weak.  No, I regret nothing.  Why?  Because I scored sixty classic Warriors of Chaos, the ones which are frankly cast from nothing less than pure happy memories for me (my first WFB army was composed almost entirely of them, and they were renovated into the first army I was really happy with the looks of), armed with exactly what I'd want sixty Warriors of Chaos armed with, in the appropriate numbers, and - shipping included, mark you - they cost me fifty pence each.

Fifty pence.
Each.
That's cheaper than they were when they came out, and they were pretty good value then at a rockin' eighty-three-and-a-third pence a head.  And they're primed (red, admittedly, but I can work with that).  That's about eleven hundred points, all the Core infantry I could ever want, ready for me to start painting, and they cost me fifty pence each.  Which, by the way, pretty much exactly corresponds to the fundage raised by flogging off the Dark Elves they're replacing (five hundred points worth, and fewer models!).  All I had to do was stay up for an extra hour on Sunday and snipe like I've just been given a NERF gun, a laser pointer and a roll of gaffer tape.

I was hardly going to pass that up,  was I?  Neither the chance to own a shiny new Nikon digital camera with a 5cm macro setting (the sort of thing that's just about perfect for the aspiring miniature blogger with an artist life partner who really needs to kick their online gallery into gear - and that's Hark, by the way, not Shiny, although they're both very talented people and you should totally buy paintings off them when they eventually sort themselves out to sell said paintings).

It's been a pretty good month; I've cleared out the doomed projects of the previous (failed) Frugal year, bought myself a thing that's going to improve my blogging and help us make some money by selling art, kick-started a new, cheap, sensible hobby project, and the whole thing's been zero-sum.  Even the terrain I'm working on has been gratis, having come out of the budget for (ahem)

- which I'm working on scenery for in between testing out the Cryx army I'll be ringering with at the event.

I have, admittedly, still spent some money (£3.50 bus fare and £2 admission to Dice & Decks once a week, skipping one when I was ill, and £10 petrol money plus I-think-it-was-£5 admission fees to a little mini-tournament over in Evesham, oh, and the WoW fees at £7.99), so that's still well over thirty quid in a month, which could stand to be less.  It's a good start, though - certainly better than last year.

It's drawing to an end...

This week I've been working on some gaming related presents for friends and family, so I can't post any photos of them here, in case they're watching! I'll post some photos up after Christmas so you can all see what I've been up to. Instead, here's my workbench (complete with homemade painting station) with the articles in question removed...
Meeting the Pope
Yesterday my old mucker Jackson Pope, head of Reiver Games (you'll remember him from this interview) was visiting Clifton Road Games in Exeter to demo some of his boardgames. It was good to see Jack again and we played a couple of his excellent games and had a bit of a catch up. I was very impressed with Clifton Road games, it's a little bit out of the city centre and was a little tricky to find, but I was amazed when I got in there. The staff were very friendly, the range of games and miniatures was huge and the store had a huge room at the back with loads of tables for gaming. They run games nights during the week, so I may have to see if it's feasible for me to travel up there for an evening during the week. I'll certainly pop in there for miniatures in the future, the postage on my last order from an online retailer would have covered the cost of a train ticket for me to travel to the shop and pick it up. If you're in the area, I'd recommend checking it out.

Jack has recently posted on his blog, Creation and Play, about the cost of manufacturing boardgmes, it's a really interesting article and makes good reading for anyone who is thinking of making and selling games as a business.

Making and doing and selling...
The past couple of weeks, I've been putting my modelling skills to the test by sculpting and painting Christmas decorations. I finally put a load on sale at a local craft fair and they sold quite well. I also managed to make a few trades with other stall holders. Remember, if you fancy buying any of my zombie or rockabilly related Christmas decorations, click the links on the right of the page, I promise to spend any money made on gaming or modelling equipment, thanks! If you fancy some decorations but are being Frugal with your money, I'm always up for trades, email me (through the FAQ) and we'll see what we can arrange.
In addition I've been putting a load of old bits and pieces up for sale on ebay, a few copies of White Dwarf, a couple of Judge Dredd Comics and a few other books as well, go and have a look by clicking on the 'ebay' link on the right.

Mac Army Builder Required
As well as making decorations and gifts, I've also been keeping an eye on painting more of my Dark Eldar. Unfortunately, my inspiration is leaving me and I need to sit down and write an Army list. I'm currently building my own spreasdheet on excel to keep track as I own a Mac so Army Builder won't work. Does anyone have any recommendations? Are there are any other Mac owning DE players that have an electronic list that I could get a copy of? As per usual, email me if you can help out.

And Finally...
Alas my year of Frugal Gaming only has a month left to run; of course, the site will continue with my occasional thoughts and ramblings, and you're all allowed to join in (see this post). Over the next few weeks, I'll be looking back over my past year in gaming and seeing how I managed to get on against the Frugal Gaming goals I set myself at the beginning of the year. If you have any specific questions relating to my experiences over the year, drop me a line and I'll try to answer them in my posts!

Go go Goblins!

The last couple of weeks I've gone Warhammer crazy! Well, not quite, but I have splashed out. After playing WFB with Matt a couple of weeks ago, I've really got the bug for the game and the idea of collecting a Goblin Army started whirling in my head. I put up a half decent resistance (a week or so) then, while passing Games Workshop, picked up a plastic Giant kit and the Orcs and Goblins Army book.

Although I'm a committed Frugal Gamer (this year), I've always said that this means I'm prepared to pay a little bit more to get a quality product (link to previous post). I know I've criticised GW in the past, but the giant kit is absolutely fantastic (and ripe for conversion) and the Orc and Goblin Army Book provides a huge range of options to play greenskins. I was a little worried that by choosing to take the all-goblin route I'd be limiting myself, but there are myriad options for armies comprised entirely of the little guys. And one very big guy...

As often happens, the buying didn't stop there; I came across the GAME OVER blog run by Von (hello Von!), also based in Plymouth. It's a really nice blog, currently focusing on non-GW games, such as Warmachine and World of Warcraft, so if you play them go and check it out, in fact go and check it out anyway.

On a recent post, Von mentioned that he had a load of plastic goblins to get rid of (and a few metal ones), so *sigh* I had to get in touch and take them off his hands... This now means I have nearly 100 goblins to paint (1 big tin of green paint and 1 big brush?), I can't see them getting done until next year, but I'm really looking forward to it and looking forward to getting some games played!

My next painting priority is my 40k force, I'm still planning to have my Dark Eldar all painted by January of next year, this way I'll be able to enter into PAW 2010, with a fully painted force (and go for the painting prize!).

All this planned gaming leads me to start thinking about gaming surfaces. At present I play Necromunda on home made terrain tiles, but if I get into 40k and Fantasy more, will I need a new gaming surface? I've currently got a fold out cloth gaming surface that I put over the table and that seems to suffice, but I suppose a full size textured and modelled gaming table would come in useful...

Make sure you come and visit the site next week when I'll have big big news, it affects you all and will herald a whole new year of Frugal Gaming!

By the way, the blog currently has 49 followers, who's going to make it 50?

Busy busy busy...

Hello all!

I'm afraid that's there's not much to report this week, well there is, but there isn't much time to tell you all about it!

I've been gaming and painting as per usual, I played some more 40k this week at the Cross Swords club, as per usual I borrowed an Army and promptly lost. This time my opponent was Chris and my army du jour was Space Marines. Yes, dear reader, this week I must ask your forgiveness as I have succumbed to the filthy list that is the Space Marines. I must say that I can certainly see what all the fuss is about, lots of saving throws means that you can push them around the table with impunity. However, it does take a bit of the fun out of the game, and I must commend Chris for not slapping me in the face when after a couple of minutes of rolling dice, I managed to save every single shot on numerous occassions.

I'm getting a bit of a feel for 40k now, and I've decided that rather than initially go for a Guard army (though it's definately on my 'to do' list), I fancy something faster and nastier. To that end, I've decided to go in for some Dark Eldar action. I have since thrown a few of my old metal miniatures (from the unpainted pile) on ebay to fund this new endeavour. This serves the double purpose of clearing out the unpainted to pay for the new; roughly within the bounds of Frugal Gaming.

In other news, I've nearly finished my Blood Bowl team and I have some Necromunda terrain that I've been working on for a while which is almost done.

The reason for all the rush this week is because I've had an Open University assignment to get in, fortunately, I'm doing a design course at the moment so I get to make models. For my latest assignment, one of the tasks was to design a children's playground, so after numerous sketches, here's a model I made to illustrate my idea:

All the best, look forward to next week's post which is my 6 month (half-way) review!

Let's go Clubbing!

It's been a good couple of weeks for gaming and painting, I've been attending the Plymouth Association of Wargamers meetings (more of that later) and I've been painting like a demon (not a Golden Demon unfortunately). I finally finished off a Necromunda gang member that I've been working on for a while. He's made from a Black Scorpion pirate, converted with an Imperial Guard Heavy weapon rocket launcher and an Empire Flagellant Banner. The rocket launcher arm looks a bit too big compared to the other arm and the grey on the weapon is a bit dull, but I'm pretty happy with the overall effect, and I'm sure he'll pull his weight on the gaming table.

I also managed to get three Ghouls painted up for my Necromunda gang as well. I run a Scavvy gang, made up from the dregs of the underhive and one of the gang specific rules is that the gang leader always gets to take a small number of 'followers' for free. In the past I've taken zombies (shuffling but with a potentially dangerous bite) and Scavvy Dogs (Rabid animals that zip around the table and tie the opponent up in close combat), but the third option is to take Ghouls who, when they take the last wound off an opponent, immediately take them out of action, which represents them stopping to feed on their prey, yummy!

Yet again, I must abuse my position of power, by putting out a big plug for Heresy Miniatures who make these ghouls. These are multi-part figures that require a bit of putting together, but the sculpting is excellent and I got the results you see above by a simple, basecoat, wash and drybrush. Highly recommended.

My Afternoon Spent in a Hut Full of Weirdos*

There are times in this hobby (as I guess there are in many others) in which you can feel a bit uncomfortable, whether it’s admitting to a co-worker (or potential partner) that you enjoy wargaming and boardgaming, or just checking up and down the street before popping into Games Workshop. However, what I find one of the most uncomfortable scenarios is the moment you walk into a new Gaming Club and it falls quiet, all eyes turn upon you... aaaaaagh! Run away!

A couple of weeks ago I popped down to the local gaming club, the Plymouth Association of Wargamers. I'd been planning to attend since I first moved down to Plymouth last year, but due to family commitments and laziness I hadn't. Anyway I had a whale of a time, I played a game of 40k, using a Tau Army that the Chairman, Orlando, kindly lent me and got resoundingly spanked by a force of Chaos Space Marines. I trotted along again last weekend (I'm a glutton for punishment) and played with the Tau again, this time against Kenny and his Imperial Guard force. I fared much better and was only a whisker away from a draw when the game ended, a really enjoyable game.

Last week, as well as all the games going on, there were also a couple of visitors, the guys that run the Cross Swords gaming club and online shop (I believe the website is undergoing a bit of work, so give them a call if there's anything you want but can't see) were set up and selling a wide range of products at a very nice discount, I believe they attend the club every month, and It's a great way to pick up discount gaming products without having to pay postage or wait in for a parcel to arrive. They were also touting for their own gaming club, which is in a pub (count me in) and meets on a Monday and Thursday night. Apparently they even play the odd game of Space Hulk, woo hoo! Did I mention it was in a Pub?

From a Frugal Gaming point of view, you can't beat attending a Games Club. You get to try out new games, trade games, try out new armies and most importantly play some games without having to buy a huge table and loads of terrain, all for the entry price of a couple of pounds. Though, on second thoughts, maybe a games club set in a pub, with a discounted games shop included, may not be so good for the wannabe Frugal Gamer...

I'd better get off and get painting my Blood Bowl team (nearly finished now), but until next time, whether it’s in a hut, at home or in a pub I guess I’m happy and proud to be a weirdo.


* No offence guys, I only used this title as I promised many months ago to do so. See here.