Gaming at Home in Nagano

I'm going to get to play some 40k this weekend and I don't even have to travel for it! A friend of mine is training up for the Mongolian Bike Challenge and as training he is biking all the way here from Ogaki. That's something like 180km if I'm not mistaken! He called me this morning at like 6:30 when he left and I acknowledged his departure with a groggy "Grhughrlllr gu huh." This should be a great time! I love the terrain I have but I haven't gotten to use it much as I live far out and have few visitors. He actually put most of it together for me and this will be his first time to play on it.

I think I'll throw my aspect warriors against him. If we do a second game I'll probably give him a Seer Council list. Since I don't own the Dark Eldar allies I wrote my current Council list with I'll put something else together, probably including Shining Spears and Warp Spiders.

This ought to be a really great time. I'll post about our gaming during the week, most like.

Welcome to Wargaming 2013.9.21

The Welcome to Wargaming WiJ event was absolutely amazing. Everything from the hall to the tables to the players to the food to the prizes--just fantastic. I'll let the pictures do most of the talking this time, but even if each picture said 1,000 words they would fall short of telling what a great event it was.

Happened on this beauty while we were stuck in traffic.

Here are many of the tables just before we started rolling dice. We showed up late because the gate house was full of people and the guards were apparently not in much of a hurry (it's a military base, so everyone has to be signed in). I didn't finish getting pictures because games got started as I was snapping off shots. Had to rush to get my army out.

I thought Necromunda was going to be played on this table, but maybe it was Judge Dredd that got some time on it. Maybe someone from the group can correct me if I'm wrong.

Here's a huge and beautiful table for a game whose name I forget. In my blog list you can find a link to these fellas' blog. Their painting is just gorgeous, but my photos are taken from too far away to do them any justice.

 In the following two pics you can get the gist of how my first game went. I ran a list where I just crammed in all my aspect warriors, rangers and guardians. Well not all my Rangers. I have 29 of them now, but only 10 are painted. Anyway, it was an experimental list with much less long-ranged firepower than I'm used to bringing. My opponent was playing an experimental GK list with a very low body count, however, and my numbers and offensive power proved too much for his force. I didn't really have an MVP unit, but my Dragons, Scorpions, Rangers, Spiders and Spears all performed admirably. His MVP was easily Draigo. He ate a lot of shooting and broke my Dragon unit's Morale. His contending MVP unit was probably the Storm Raven. It wiped a 5 man Spider squad and seemed like it planned on bringing even more pain elsewhere on his next turn.

His GKs were beautifully painted. Traditional silver and Inquisition red, but you could tell he put the time in to do it up right.

Notice the conspicuous lack of Warp Spiders. Yeah, Dakka Ravens hurt.

Second game was against Tyranids. My opponent chose my competitive list rather than my experimental one and I got out my Forgedar. It's a mech list with a lot of S6 and S8AP2 shooting. In hindsight it was a worse match-up than even my first game, but again my opponent was an awesome guy and we had a good game of it nonetheless. He actually almost won anyway despite how tough a fast, shooty, mech army is to fight with a Nid list like his. When it came time for the dice to stop rolling he had his objective and I didn't have any. I won just barely through secondary objectives, but not through any forethought of my own. I wish I had close-ups of his Nids. They looked fabulous.

There are some things in reserves, but this is it for the most part.

Wine, beer and food all day with the entry fee. I don't eat while I play because I worry about my figs, but I did indulge a little in the drinks =)

We had a surprise special guest at our event! Through a fairly roundabout way, one of our gamers/organizers found out that Steve Parker, BL author of titles such as Gunheads and Deathwatch, lives in Japan. Well he was kind enough to come to our event, sign some books and sort of just hang out and chat. He's a really cool guy and an excellent conversationalist. It certainly helped kick off the Wargamers in Japan events.

As a side note, we raffled of that chainsword he's holding and I'm incredibly jealous of the guy who got it. He's one of fellas from Giant Hobby in Tokyo. Head on out to their shop if you want to see it. Or you know, I think you can order one from the internet.

And that was the first event we've held! Definitely a huge success and a start to something really great. There are going to be a lot of other awesome game days in the future and I hope to see even more of the Japan gamers at the next one. Thanks to everyone who put so much into making this event fantastic.

Welcome to Wargaming Weekend - Back at Craftworld My'house

Well I'm back home after an astonishing and astonishingly tiring weekend. The Wargamers in Japan event, Welcome to Wargaming, was a huge success with a lot of attendees. We had people playing napoleonic games, Space Hulk, Magic: The Gathering, Necromunda, Warmachine and some other stuff I'd never seen besides 40k. We had people representing from the US, Japan, France, Scotland and Italy if I recall, and maybe even more. We had a raffle with some cool figures and a really good-looking chainsword prop by a company whose name I forget. My friend (and gracious driver) also won the first place prize for the tournament. It was judged on the most fun opponent and I couldn't think of a more deserving individual. Steve Parker gave him a signed copy of his new book Deathwatch as a prize. What personal message did he request, you ask? "You look sexy in power armor!" Hahahah

There were a lot of great figures on the tables and even greater people playing them. I'll be blogging (read, bragging) about it this week. I got some pictures, but I'll borrow better ones from some of the guys in the group and share them. Luckily this is just the first of many events there will be. I'll be posting about others to come, so if you know anyone in Japan who wants to game and just doesn't know where to go for it, it is far from too late to get in on some really awesome events. Let them know and let's keep building on the great momentum we've got going.

Wargamers in Japan and Details on our First Event

Here is the official logo for Wargamers in Japan. It's hard to call it a group as that would defeat the purpose of the thing. Really it's more like a confederation lol. It's a group of all the 40k groups in Japan that we can get involved. So far we have groups in Zama, Atsugi, Yokosuka, Yokohama, Chima, Saitama, and Tokyo. I'm trying to get the Nagoya guys involved as well and hope to get them in on the meetings soon.

It's an open group and our basic philosophy is the more people, the more gaming, the more fun we'll all have. We have lots of people already involved who are all into a lot of different kinds of gaming.

The first event is scheduled for September 27th, 2013. We're definitely going to have tables for 40k, Fantasy, Bolt Action, Space Hulk, Necromunda and some historical war games that I know nothing about personally. There are details and Facebook contacts in the group. Please feel free to get in touch with us if you are in Japan and want to game or if you even know anyone who is moving out here and could use some community support for gaming or even getting adjusted to the country and lifestyle.

Wargamers in Japan: Stuff and Things In the Works

Got some awesome plans in the works with Wargamers in Japan (join the FB group if you haven't yet)! Basically we're looking at putting together events with the intent to draw together some of the localized groups across the country. Big events quarterly and small gatherings more often than that.

The first big one will be August and will feature lots of different games. Board games, demos and 40k battles for sure! I'm really excited about all this. Looks like we have a lot of very fun gaming ahead of us!

I'll be posting about events regularly, so bear with me if you don't live around. Or better yet, help me spread the word =) Especially if you have a friend in Japan who just doesn't realize there are people to play with.

Happy 4th of July!

Happy Independence Day!

There aren't many Americans near me so I'm going to be heading to Tokyo to see some friends and eat BBQ at the Bashamichi Tap Room. I think there are five of those Tap Rooms and each one is different. I've only been to two, but really I only care about the one that serves American southern style barbeque. The guy that cooks it all is a big jolly guy and obviously loves everything about making and serving delicious food to people. The beer there is fantastic too.

In the day I'll be getting some gaming on. I'm not exactly sure what I'll be running though. Eldar, of course, but there is just so much great stuff in our codex that I'm torn any time I write a new list. I've got 30 Rangers these days and something I've been trying to figure out is a list that works well with that many static units. At 600 points I think I've got it, but any higher than that and I'm not so sure. You start to need heavy weapons and mobility a lot more. I'll keep mulling it over. I think there must be a way to do it well.

Anyway, I hope everyone celebrating has a safe and happy weekend!

Hiking in Nagano: Reference Photos

I meant to post this during the week, but I just wasn't able to get to it. Last weekend I went hiking with a friend of mine in the Nagano mountains. I take a lot of pictures anywhere that I find good textures, scenery, wildlife, buildings...even and maybe especially decay, as getting things to look real on the tabletop means making them look like they're breaking down naturally. So here are a number of great shots that I'll be referring to later when I'm working on terrain and bases.

A lot of it is plants which I find endlessly fascinating for modeling. It's just so hard to make them look real. Density and texture is an issue. So is mixing in variety and using materials you can paint easily. Other photos are of things like old wood and broken buildings because I think it matters a lot that you know where things should be broken and how they ought to lay or hang when modeling these things.

I had a great time getting these samples. It might be some time before I get around to using them, but maybe they can help someone else until then. I do really suggest taking your own though, if you don't already. I think it helps train your eye and judgement.