As I already announced last week, for the forseeable future my Trolls will go on the shelf and I will switch over to Cygnar.

But not before I took the Trolls out for a last spin. Last weekend was the EU Masters tournament in Rotterdam, where most of the WTC players of Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden and of course Germany, plus quite a few other players met to see who’s the best player. It was a 7 round event over 2 days.

We travelled there on friday evening so that we could be ready for the games come saturday morning. We played in a bridge club of all places. Tables were set on two floors and 85ish players met to play Warmachine.

I brought the lists I had played almost exclusively the past few months, with only minor tweaks along the way.

Hoarluk Doomshaper (*7pts)
* Troll Axer (6pts)
* ...

It’s about time, I restart blogging here.

Over 18 months ago, I got back into the game, as you can see in the previous posts. I picked Trolls as my faction for a variety of reasons (not necessarily in that order).

– The models look awesome
– I was able to aquire a significant amount of models from two friends
– The whole thing came fully painted
– I liked the “in your face” playstyle of the Trolls

The whole time I argued, I’d never switch factions or buy a second faction. I didn’t want to develop faction ADD and I loathed the idea of having to buy a complete second faction AND paint it up as well.

On the other hand I said, if I were to ever play another faction, it probably would be Circle...

I don’t know exactly why posted the image, but I am glad they did. Borka will get an epic version in the next book and it will look like this:

Do I need to say anything more? This might be the first Hordes Model I absolutely have to get on release date. And its only fitting that I currently going back to pBorka and building a Family Reunion list.

A little over a year ago, Alex, Bartek and I got invited back into the hobby. We basically got roped into participating in the biggest tournament in Germany – the Heavy Metal Dayz. We had about 3 months before the tournament to re-familiarize ourselves with game and aquire the necessary miniatures to participate.

As you know, I choose trollbloods as my faction this time around. Both for me and Alex it had been about 5 years since we last played and we had never played a single game in MK II.

Ever since I started, I lost more games than I won. Way more games. Last summer I discovered IronGrudge, an Android app that lets you record your game scores. Since then I have recorded 54 games.

I won 12 of them. Roughly 22%. Not a very good margin...

So I started painting a few pulp minis in recent days. Once I have proper pictures of them, I will post them.

When I was a kid, my brother, my dad and I build a few model airplanes. One of these sets survived the past 25-30 years unassembled. And its perfect for pulp gaming:

All I now need to do is assemble that thing.

How hard can it be?

By now you should now my love for all things weird, pulpy, retro and what not. So it’s no surprise that I backed the Kickstarter Modiphius Entertainment ran for its Cthulhu RPG – Achtung! Cthulhu – in Spring 2013.

Two weeks ago the final product arrived – these two gorgeous books:

I will also get any future books (that were funded by the Kickstarter stretch goals) as a PDF.

I can’t wait to try this out.

Ironhide grew desperate. The Menites were closing in. To his right the Avatar of Menoth was lingering and terrorizing his troops. Up front one of his full blood trolls had just succumbed to a Dervish slicing him up. His champions had died one by one. Nearly all of his Kriel Warriors were already gone. It wouldn’t be long before his troops were overrun and defeated.

It was time for one last play. He send a few of the scribes towards the Avatar, to prevent the hulking machine from crushing his right flank completely. Then he spotted something through the bushes and hedges. Moving closer he saw Amon, the Menite warcaster, just standing there, his chain ball at the ready.

Madrak saw his lone chance to turn the table in this battle. He inched forward and gathered all his strength. He picked up Rathrok, heaved it over his head and threw it at Amon. The look on the enemy warcasters face was one of total suprise as suddenly a huge axe struck him dead center in the chest.

Madrak just sunk to the ground, happy to have survived this ordeal. He rallied what was left of his troops and secured the area. The Menites were retreating in complete shock after the loss of their leader.

The a...

Krul looked back through the underbrush towards Captain Gunnbjörn. The troll warlock started an invocation while walking over to him, Krul could see the faint glow of the runes. Then he felt a surge of energy go through him. Both his scope and his rifle started glowing for a moment before fading back to that rusted brown.

Krul nodded and turned to his men. Putting his scope to his eye he surveyed the enemy lines. Inexplicably the enemy warcaster had exposed himself some in the middle of the enemy formation. Not something Krul would have expected from the old man.

The Bushwhacker leader gave his men a sign and as a unit they moved forward. Coming into view of the enemy he could see them starting to realize their mistake. But before the Menites could do anything, he ordered his men to aim and fire on Severius.

Adding all their strength to his own shot, Krul carefully aimed at the warcaster and the unit let loose one giant volley.

When the smoke cleared he couldn’t see Severius anymore. What he saw was his subordinates frantically running towards their leader, their warjacks powering down and most of the troops turning away and leaving the battle field.

“I think we are done here” Krul said to his men. They turned around and walked back to their kin.

This coming sunda...

Every year in October board game fans from all over the world descent on Essen in Germany. 30 years ago the international gaming days were first held. It is the largest gaming fair in the world and in recent years well over 100.000 people come to Essen.

I first went there in 2002, and have been there nearly every year. In 2003 Alex and I first saw WARMACHINE at the fair and spontaneously bought two starter sets.  In 2004 and 2005 we helped out at the booth of Privateer Press.

Essen is a yearly fixture on my calendar, even if I skipped a couple of them. This year I actually planned my visit a little more. In recent years I started to read a few comics, either on recommendation or because I got them as gifts. So I had a look before the fair to decide which comics I wanted to pursue. Parallel to the gaming fair ComicAction is held. Comic book authors and artists are there as well as a bunch of stores selling all kinds of comics.

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to procure the top items on my list – namely the second volume of Kevin Smith’s run of Green Hornet and the second volume of The Shadow in Trade Paperback. Yet I still managed to haul about 120€ worth of comics away from the fair.

This is my haul:

2 Rocketeer hardc...

I was at the Frankfurt Bookfair about two weeks ago. First time in 13 years. I started out in publishing after high school and went every year at the end of the 90s. Then I switched careers and the rest is basically history. Now I had the chance to go back there.

In recent years the trend has been about how self publishing is this big new thing and “traditional” publishing is doomed and what not. Publishing is not doomed. Not with one bestseller after the other. Not with over 7.000 exhibitors from all over the world at the fair this year.

By the end of the day my legs were killing me, but it was worth it. I even got a massage during it – which was necessary.

For the industry, this event is about making deals. So hall 6...