Holiday update

The holiday period passed quickly and well in our household. Here in the Southern Hemisphere the Christmas and New Year period also coincide with our summer break, so I have had a few relaxing weeks off from work to spend time with family, friends and gaming.

I haven't managed to get as much miniature painting done as I would have liked, mainly because work around the house has taken up most of our time. We have managed to get through a fair bit of DIY over the break, including building a section of a retaining wall, adding extra railings to our decks, and repainting and repairing some metal around our house. In addition, we also replanted the garden and cleaned our a couple of spare rooms (including my gaming wardrobe of wonders), which were really big jobs.

I am pleased we got this work done while the weather was good. We also got away out of town for a few short breaks which was brilliant, including New Years Eve in the Wairarapa and a few sunny days in the Hawkes Bay.

The beautiful Hawkes Bay of New Zealand

However I did managed to get in some good gaming time as well of many different varieties.

My Radlandz gang still lies unloved and unfinished (I'm sorry guys - you're next I promise) on the painting table, but as my buddy Dale organised a game of Dystopian Wars over the break, I busted my arse over a couple of days to quickly get a unit of 5 Zhulong interceptors painted for my Chinese Federation force.

Two of the five Zhulong Interceptors

It was a great game, which you can read all about here. It has gotten me excited about the upcoming release of the new 2.5 version of the rules, which should only be a couple of months away.

There is also nothing like a deadline to help with the panting, and while I still need to go back and finish them off, the Interceptors were a fun and simple unit to paint.

A Chi Long Class Assault Flyer is escorted by two Zhulong Interceptors. Note the different in the red between the two units.

I also added an additional layer of highlighting to the red, which I think really helps the model shine and lifts them on the tabletop. The other models in the fleet have a much duller red with a Agrax Earthshade over them, so a job for the future is to go back and repaint them a little so that they all match.

Over the break my gang and I also played a bunch of brilliant board games, including Cuba, Scythe, Terraforming Mars and Agricola. I am a fan of Euro style games which strong themes, so these were right in my wheelhouse.

This game has such beautiful and evocative art work

I also picked up and played some of the Doom 2016 game for the Xbox. While I haven't played much of this yet, the time I have spent on it has been great. It'll be something to get back into when I need some soothing demon murdering to help me relax after a week at work.

Role playing-wise we concluded the main story of our epic Horror on the Orient Express campaign for Call of Cthulhu. Although the good Dr Ambler survived, not everyone did. While we stopped a great evil, the price was very high.

Next weekend is also our annual Kapcon role-playing game convention. This is one of the highlights of the gaming calendar, so I'm really looking forward to it. I'm running a couple of low prep systems this year - Maze Rats and Death of Legends - as the organisers are a bit short on games. There is definitely a fantasy theme in my offerings.

Such a wonderful game

With all this going on, as well as getting ready to go back to work, means that while things are busy, it is also a great time to be gaming. I better get back to it!

New beginnings

So far 2016 has been a pretty crappy year for me for a number of reasons.

Gaming in its broadest sense has been one of the things which has helped to get the through. It's a way to express my creativity, experience cool stories, and hang out with my friends.

As part of getting through this year, I have decided to set up a wee blog to record my thoughts and ideas about my hobby of choice. It is purposefully going to be low stress, so I'm going to aim for a post a fortnight, with posting occurring more or less frequently as life takes me.

In terms of what it will cover, my interests are pretty broad, so expect all kinds of tabletop gaming (war-gaming, role-playing, board games) and video games, as well as occasional forays into related film and other media. Basically whatever takes my fancy.

In case you are wondering about the title 'High Ambition - Low Skill', it sums up my general approach to gaming, particularly painting miniatures, at which I'm generally a bit rubbish. However I'm always keen to learn and get better, and maybe this blog will help.

My first proper post will likely be about my project for Radlandz, an exciting skirmish-level war-game being developed by my friend VomKrieg.