Taking Some Time Off

I'm busy getting married today. I'll be taking a bit of time off doing married guy things. Be back to writing in a week or so.

-EV

The Nomad Shuffle

A few days ago, before the terrain frenzy began, Demitra delivered me a batch of Infinity minis I had ordered through him. I got another set of Alguaciles, a pair of Moderators, and a Mobile Brigada miniature, this one toting a HMG. I managed to get them painted in the last few hours, as I hoped to bring them to gaming night tonight, along with my new terrain and gaming mat. I'll try to remember to snap a picture of the game(s) in progress, and give a quick overview of each. I tend to get wrapped up in my games though, so no promises.

Now I need to convince my cohorts at the game store to mark arcs of vision on minis' bases, as it gets very frustrating trying to guess what a model can and cannot see. I'll try to communicate this nicely, as it seems people haven't really gotten that far into painting their dudes. Demanding that they start with their base is a bit... arrogant and demanding.

Here's hoping tonight goes well.

Terrain Tuesday

Well, the task of slapping together some more terrain has come to an end. I glued some ballast down, spray primed everything, and then laid down the real colors.

The Dust Tactics crates were just sprayed over with silver spray paint and then gone over with Tamiya Smoke. I figured that they wouldn't spend as much time outside as the chemical tanks, so I opted to make them look dirrty, but not so much rusty.

The tanks on the other hand are constantly exposed to the elements, so they needed to look as grungy and nasty as I could get them. A base coat of Warplock Bronze brushed over with Leadbelcher did the trick. I'll have a proper looking industrial site soon enough.

While I was in the middle of putting all this together I found that I had run out of wood glue. This stuff bonds amazingly well and holds the ballast I use to texture my terrain firmly in place, so this would not do at all. Off I ran to Michaels to refill my supplies.

While there I found some boxes. They were perfectly shaped to become some gigantic power sheds or something along those lines. No matter what they looked like buildings. I snatched two of them up, some hardboard rectangles to make bases for them, and some tiles of wood about the right size to become doors.

When I got home I assembled everything and rooted around my apartment. Eventually I found some GW cavalry bases to glue to the top to look like vents. I grabbed a couple of the plasticard tiles I have laying around and glued them to the doors I had created. Once dry it was ballast time, and then outside.

I found that I had a can of Army Painter green spray paint laying around from when I put together my Skaven army, so I decided that I wouldn't have yet another entirely metallic piece for my table. I hosed them down, douched up some of the areas with my usual rusty look, and voila! Yet another piece that jams up vision nicely. I'm still wondering if I should wash them with something to make them look beat up and to bring out the detail. I'll have to ponder that at work. I wasn't able to use any of these pieces terrain in my game against Demitra today since they were still drying, but I should be able to throw them down on the table tomorrow.

4x4

My newest creation.

No, today I really couldn't think of a title, so that's all you get.

I ran out to the fabric store today. I have come to the decision that if I'm going to bring terrain to play Infinity on to the store, I really ought to bring something to put it on. To that end I found this 100% recycled plastic felt. Feeling eco-friendly, I approached the counter at which they cut up said fabric for you, and I asked for a price check. Turns out the material was on sale for $2.99 per yard! Joy!!! This was a sign. reaching into my pocket I produced the stack of one dollar bills I had scrounged. Ten of them. The material, which was also the closest match to the color I paint my terrain, was affordable and just seemed to beckon to me. The right color, the right price, the right material. It was meant to be.

Since fabric is sold by the yard, I would have to do some chopping. I went ahead and got two yards of the stuff. After handing over the correct amount to the cashier, I practically skipped out to my car. I had a gaming mat.

Nothing quite like when a plan comes together.

When I arrived home I grabbed the nearest at hand tape measure, as well as a Sharpie, and set about measuring and marking. Next, the scissors. Unfortunately my scissors are... quite dull, and had a bit of an issue slicing through the felt, but perseverance paid off and I got through the trim down.

I laid my terrain down on the square and came to a horrifying realization. The terrain didn't match! The drybrushing just made the hills look too different. Now I needed a new plan.

I marched off to my room and grabbed the paint can from which I got all my drybrushing paint, and walked outside carrying it, the felt, and a paintbrush. after laying down my newly cut felt square on the porch, I set down my can of paint, took off the lid, and dipped in the brush. Wiping most of the excess off, I began dabbing the tip of the brush against the felt. This produced little spots all over the place, though at a glacial rate. I resolved that, no matter the time investment I would accomplish this mission. On hands and knees I dabbed and dabbed, for half an hour, and then finally stood up.

I don't mind telling you, I was pleased with the result as well as myself. This looked good.

I'm not sure when I'll be able to employ the mat, today is unlikely (I know, I'm already flaking out on Infinity after only one showing), but I have bigger concerns tonight. You see, we're having a wedding party (not so much a shower, as it's too close to the big day) and things are not quite ready to go despite it being in only three days! It's time for a pow-wow with the maid of honor to get things set for the upcoming festivities.

LOS blocking goodness.

I've also set about trying to rectify the (lacking) terrain situation. I have a bunch of junk laying around, so I gathered it up and started gluing it together. Looks like I'll have more chemical tanks in the near future. They're cheap to produce and they look good enough on the table. They also help break up line of sight nicely, especially the one on the left there.

I also have plans to raid Michaels in the near-ish future in order to grab some random bits and bobs. The wood I use as a base for my terrain is from that store, and it's cheap, so I may as well grab some more. Plus I can grab some things like little boxes and maybe even some palm trees or something along those lines. I'll be able to slap all that stuff together in an assortment of interesting ways and hopefully produce some quality terrain to help further obscure minis as they move up the board.

Oh, by the way, for those of you counting:
Exactly one month from today I'll be getting hitched. More and more weird, but not in a bad way.

Training Wheels

Demitra and I got in another "let's see how this game works" round of Infinity today. It was once again informative, and we learned a few new things. The more I read about this game and learn new strategies the more I'm coming to enjoy it. But then, I've sung this game's praises here before.

I've learned a few things about terrain in Infinity. The primary being that you should empty your terrain stores onto the board. Seriously, plunk it all down. As you can see in my illustration to the left, it is very hard to have too much terrain. I basically upended my terrain box onto the table, and it made for a more interesting and tactical game. Of course, as I have mentioned before, my terrain collection tends to leave some fire lanes open. That is to say my buildings are not terribly good at blocking up lines of fire, as they're, as Demitra put it, "Swiss cheese".

I have managed to find hope for my terrain woes on the interwebz though. At least potentially. It turns out that O-gauge shipping crates like the ones carried on ships are a great size for Infinity. I'm pretty sure they'll be kind of... huge, but if they work they work. One thing is for sure, AT-43 containers like the ones I've painted silver above are right out. They are ungodly expensive no matter where you find them, and as long as gamers with more cash than sense continue to snatch them up they'll remain that way. Curse you law of supply and demand!!!

Terrain woes aside, today's matchup was interesting. I seem to have constructed, at low point values at least, a very defense-oriented group. This irks Demitra to no end, as I have a tendancy to grab some cover and blaze away. I'll admit that this can be a frustrating tactic, but when the alternative is to jump out and get your face shot off, the turtling option really begins to shine. Having a Sin-Eater watching over me may have encouraged me to venture out of my safety zone a bit, but crafty ol' Demitra brought in a Tiger Soldier with HMG in behind my lines and opened up on my poor little Sin-Eater. He kind of died. that meant that this would be my first game without him. My HMG equipped Alguacil spun around to gun down the offender, but he simply slunk behind a statue and hid. My poor Alguacil was promptly gunned down by an enemy sniper, leaving me with no special weapons! Truly an uphill game.

I did manage to off the Tiger Soldier with my first ever use of a coordinated order, catching him in a pincer movement between an Alguacil and my Reverend Moira. Unfortunately, despite my love of the minis, the poor Reverend just doesn't look like she'll make the final cut in anything short of a jurisdictional army. Her stats really aren't up to snuff despite her ODD and Shock close combat weapon. The points dumped into the Reverends I planned to run in that army most likely would do better dumped into another Sin-Eater HMG. I'm going to have to reassess my Bakunin army. Sin-Eaters are in, Pupniks & Chimerae are in, and I will of course have to drop in a couple of Moderators in to give me some Orders...

I'll hit up Infinity Army when I'm done here.

All in all today's game went pretty well, as despite some setbacks I was able to eek out a victory. We'll see what, if anything, tomorrow holds. I'll be grabbing some felt to make a game mat tomorrow at the craft store, and I'll try to get another little skirmish in.