Friday, December 29, 2017

2017 Year in Review and a look ahead...

Hey Everyone!  The year is coming to a close and a new year is about to arrive with abundant blessings from Papa Nurgle.  If you haven't seen the Nurgle reveals head over to the community site to check them out, especially the video from the Warhammer Community Team.  As typical at the end of another great Hobby year, I want to take a look back and make share my hopes for the year to come, but instead of focusing on releases I wanted to look at it all from a Community standpoint!




Wednesday, December 27, 2017

Weekly Hobby Update : 12-27-17

Hey Everyone!  I hope your Holiday season is going well so far and that you have had a lot of hobby over the past week.  The year is quickly coming to an end and if you have been following my Hobby Update posts you know that I am in the running for the "Hobby Hero" award as part of the Rend 4's club event season.  It has been a very tight battle between me and gentlemen by the name of Dan who has pushed me to keep up with him as the deadline of Dec 31st. looms.  I am also very pleased that the new shirt for my local club, Ligonier Legion, arrived this past week and I cannot wait to wear it to the next club day!


Friday, December 22, 2017

Age of Sigmar Holiday Story Time: A Sigmas Carol

Merry Christmas everyone and Happy Holidays!  Today I wanted to bring you something a bit different to hopefully bring a bit of festive cheer.  It is very much outside my comfort zone, but it was a nice exercise in writing for me and I hope it is a good read for you as well.  Grab some Cocoa and a plate of cookies as you read my take on a Classic Tale of "A Christmas Carol" set in our favorite place, Warhammer Age of Sigmar.  I present to you, A Sigmas Carol".


Wednesday, December 20, 2017

Weekly Hobby Update : 12-20-17

Hey Everyone!  The year is almost over, but with the cold weather, that means the time for games and painting is in full force for most people.  My club has had some great attendance at our past few Club Days with everyone working on their armies and projects going into the Holiday season.  Most are anticipating having, even more, models to paint after Christmas so they are trying to wrap up what is on their table currently.  I am no exception and with the Rend 4's Hobby Hero award coming to a close in a few weeks I am working toward closing the gap between myself and the current leader.


Friday, December 15, 2017

Life Lessons and Wargaming: Continuous Improvement

Hey Everyone!  Today I will be continuing my series on "Life Lessons and Wargaming".  The point of this article series is to look at the little lessons we learn throughout life and how we can apply these to our Wargaming hobby.  In today's article, I plan to talk about continuous improvement and wrap up my thoughts and hopefully persuade you to go after your goals and use all those lessons you have learned throughout life to help you become better hobbyist and gamer.  I might return to this series in the future, but today I will place a bookmark on it here.

Wednesday, December 13, 2017

Weekly Hobby Update : 12-13-17

Happy Wednesday everyone.  The snow seems to finally be hitting the country around where  I live which means plenty of time to get some Hobby time.  My "Great Aelven Rebasing Project" has slowed down a bit as I am waiting for more bases I have ordered to arrive, but thankfully there is plenty of other Aelves needing my attention.  Not to mention the games that need to be played!


Friday, December 8, 2017

The Rend 4 Club's Winter 2017 Tournament

Happy Friday everyone!  Today I wanted to cover a recent one-day tournament I attended hosted by The Rend 4 Club based in Northeast Ohio.  The event was held at their local store, Battlegrounds, in Ravenna, Ohio*.  The store had an excellent set up with their product centralized between two separate rooms for Board and Card games on one side and Dedicated, specially built tables for Warhammer on the other.  The shop was about a three-hour drive from my home, but I was joined by my good friend Aleks for the trip and a day of great games as we represented our club, Ligonier Legion Wargaming.


Wednesday, December 6, 2017

Weekly Hobby Update : 12-6-17

Hey Everyone!  Welcome to my 100th blog post!  I don't know if that is an achievement or not, but it is fun to say nonetheless.  I have had plenty of Hobby over the past week and with the madness of the Holidays coming up I am doing my best to squeeze in as much time to complete all my projects while enjoying the fun with family and friends.  Also, Tomorrow is the last day to take The Big Community Survey put out by the Warhammer Community team.  It is a good chance to submit your feedback to Games Workshop and have a chance at a gift voucher as well.  Be sure to take a few minutes today if you can to complete the survey.



Friday, December 1, 2017

Life Lessons and Wargaming: Failing to Succeed

Hey Everyone!  Today I will be continuing my series on "Life Lessons and Wargaming".  The point of this article series is to look at the little lessons we learn throughout life and how we can apply these to our Wargaming hobby.  In today's article, I will be exploring both the Success and Failure you will encounter while working toward your goal.  Expect to encounter both of these concepts as you grow and work towards your goals, but you must never let failure discourage you and never being afraid of success.

Even one of the greatest players of the NBA failed regularly

Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Weekly Hobby Update : 11-29-17

Happy Wednesday everyone!  We are fully into the Holiday season now and I hope you are finding plenty of time to work on your Hobby.  I finally began getting back into my Hobby grove last week and I am trying to kick it up a few levels this week to carry me through to the end of the year.  I am happy to say "The Great Aelven Rebasing Project" is in full swing!  Soon my Aelven forces will be marching to war in The Mortal Realms!


Friday, November 24, 2017

Interview with Neil Larocca of Rend 4

Hey Everyone!  Today I am happy to bring you another interview with a community leader, Neil.  Neil runs the Rend 4, Age of Sigmar Club located in Northeastern Ohio and has really done well creating a friendly group to share and support hobby with the clubs page on Facebook.  I was lucky enough to get to know Neil on Twitter before finally meeting him at Adepticon this past year.  He participated in the Coalescence event I held at my local club and I will be attending his first club tournament in only a few weeks and I am excited to meet more members of his local scene.  If you are in Ohio be sure to look him and the club up!


Neil winning a well-deserved prize at Coalescence 2017

Wednesday, November 22, 2017

Weekly Hobby Update : 11-22-17

Hey Everyone.  Hope your hobby week has been going strong!  I have finally managed to get over my painting lull I have been in the past few weeks thankfully as my Adepticon Army is going to require quite a bit in the very near future.  Speaking of Adepticon, registration happened this past Friday and events fill up fast.  I signed up for the Age of Sigmar Grand Tournament as well as the Team event.  I am also assisting Paul to run the Narrative event on Thursday which will be a real treat.  Currently, the event is full but waitlisting is never a bad idea, expect more info on this event as we draw near!  It feels good to have my Hobby Train back on track again and some of the motivation was due to the start of the Firestorm Escalation League we kicked off at my local club this past weekend.

If you are in one of the countries that celebrate Thanksgiving I wish you happy feasting and hope you get plenty of time to get some hobby in as well.


Friday, November 17, 2017

Life Lessons and Wargaming: Don't Focus on the Outcome

Hey Everyone!  Today I will be continuing my series on "Life Lessons and Wargaming".  The point of this article series is to look at the little lessons we learn throughout life and how we can apply these to our Wargaming hobby.  In this article, I wish to explore the idea of not focusing on the outcome.  You may think back to my original article where I wrote extensively about visualizing your goal and wonder why I am now telling you to not focus on it.  At first, it can seem that way, but visualizing your goal and not focusing on your outcome are two distinct things.

Focus on the climb and not the view at the top

Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Weekly Hobby Update : 11-15-17

Hey Everyone.  I hope your hobby has been going well this past week.  Mine hasn't been as fruitful as I would like with painting and gaming, but despite that I have been busy building lists, reading through warscrolls, looking at points, and diving into some other community projects that have really taken center stage in my mind and hobby.

Friday, November 10, 2017

Interview with Mike of Steel City Sigmar

Hey Everyone.  I recently got to sit down and chat with a local Community builder Mike from one of the local clubs I belong to called Steel City Sigmar to talk about his experiences building the Age of Sigmar Community in the Pittsburgh Area.  The club is one of the bigger groups in the area and if you have seen me around Adepticon or Nova Open you can often find wearing the clubs shirt on one of the days.  Mike is a man after my own heart as he has really involved himself in building the community for Age of Sigmar to connect the separate groups in the area and it was a pleasure to sit down and chat with him about his experience creating the club.

Mike with a club shirt he made for Dan of AoS Shorts

Wednesday, November 8, 2017

Weekly Hobby Update : 11-8-17

Hey Everyone!  It has been an exciting weekend of Age of Sigmar with Blood and Glory happening over in the UK where they had some exciting announcements as well as Holy Havoc happening over here in the US.  Twitter was full of great armies and games being played!  While I was not fortunate enough to be attending either of these events my friend Matt was running a one day Age of Sigmar Narrative called Fawkes Hunt at his house which really made for a great end to the weekend.


Friday, November 3, 2017

Life Lessons and Wargaming: Self-Discipline vs. Self-Control

Hey Everyone.  Today I wish to continue my series on "Life Lessons and Wargaming".  The point of this series is to take lessons we learn throughout life and how we can apply them to our miniature wargaming hobby.  We often will learn these life lessons and put them to use here and there, but often these lessons are universal and can be used to improve every aspect of our life, including on the tabletop.  The topic for this post is the difference between Self-Discipline and Self-Control and how to use both of these life tools to improve your hobby as well.


Wednesday, November 1, 2017

Weekly Hobby Update : 11-1-17

Happy November everyone!  I hope you had a ghoulish All Hallows Eve as well as a great Parade day for Age of Sigmar Armies on Parade this past Saturday.  I ventured out with my Harvest Sylvaneth and came away with a few awards myself.  I got to spend the day chatting with some local friends and gamers while playing Warhammer Underworld: Shadespire so, all in all, it was a good day of Warhammer despite a few critiques I have for Armies on Parade overall this year.


I also want to give a shoutout to the Neo's and gamers at the Realms at War 2017 even that happened in the UK this past weekend as well.  My Twitter feed was overflowing with amazing pictures from the Narrative event.  Check out the Hashtag #RAW17 on Twitter to see all the fun! 

Friday, October 27, 2017

Armies on Parade 2017 - The Sylvaneth Harvest (Complete)

Hey Everyone!  Today I wanted to show you my completed Entry for Armies on Parade 2017.  This weekend Hobbyists from around the world will be heading to their local Warhammer or Games Workshop stores to participate in Age of Sigmar Parade Day.  Last year was my first Armies on Parade as it was also the first year of my local area having an official Warhammer Store outside of Friendly Local Game Stores (FLGS).  I took my Stormcast Eternals on a pretty simple Display Board with a raging river running through and due to fan vote I was able to take Gold and it has driven me to reach outside of my comfort zone and push myself past last years efforts to strive for Gold once again.


Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Weekly Hobby Update : 10-25-17

Happy Wednesday everyone.  It has been an exciting few days with the release of Warhammer Underworlds Shadepsire this past Saturday and Twitter and Whatsapp have been full of wonderfully painted units from the game and some excellent conversions as well.  If you haven't picked up the game yet I highly recommend it and if you want to watch some games played to get a feel for it before dropping the cash there are plenty of videos on Youtube by various people going through games step by step.  There is also a few Facebook groups popping up now as well that are great to join to see peoples hobby and games played.


I also wish to give a shout out to Rhellion who is setting up streaming for games as well as the possibility of playing opponents using cameras and online streaming to bridge players together.  It promises to be exciting and I have been enjoying seeing his idea come to fruition.


Friday, October 20, 2017

Life Lessons and Wargaming: Goals and Purpose

Hey Everyone!  Today I wanted to start a new article series about lessons in life but applying them to our hobby of Miniature Wargaming.  As we mature in our lives we discover little bits of knowledge that we carry with us through our time here on earth.  Some simple while others grander in nature.  Often times we are taught these lessons by a Parent, Close friend, and sometimes through hindsight.  What I find interesting about these lessons is how they can help someone improve their quality of life if the lesson is applied correctly and how they can be applied to every part of one's life.  This includes Miniature Wargaming.

What can The Terminator tell us about success in Miniature Wargaming?

Wednesday, October 18, 2017

Weekly Hobby Update : 10-18-17

Hey Everyone!  I wrapped up my Army and Display for the upcoming Armies on Parade coming up in a few weeks and decided to begin painting up a few extra models I had around instead of diving into another army right away.  Also with Shadespire out this weekend, I am working on my paint schemes for that as well.  I might stick with my current schemes as they are for my full armies, but an idea put out via the Shadespire Whatsapp chat by Ben Johnson was to paint two versions of your Shadespire force.  One standard and the other for when the models are inspired. I believe I am going to do this for at least one of the armies at the start of the upcoming Leagues I am running for the release of the game locally.



Friday, October 13, 2017

How to connect to the wider Age of Sigmar Community

Hey Everyone and happy Friday!  Years ago when I began my hobby journey and began laying Warhammer I never imagined how it would become more than a hobby and truly a part of my life.  I cannot see any future that does not involve Warhammer and Tabletop Wargaming as a key aspect of my life.  Beyond being a healthy and enjoyable hobby I have come to realize, over the past year or so, that it is a community of so many different people.  This community is the single greatest part of this hobby.  There is no doubt that completing your latest model or army is satisfying and making a podium at a tournament is thrilling, but the best part is sharing it with the community to give it true meaning.  My hope for this article is to help you branch more and more into our community (please note this will be from my perspective in the U.S.).


Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Weekly Hobby Update : 10-11-17

Hey Everyone!  It has been a flurry of Hobby for me this past week as the approaching date for Armies on Parade draws near.  Thankfully taking a drybrush technique for the bulk of the army has paid off and I have turned out just over 1000pts for my display board as well as three Citadel Woods.  My Harvest Sylvaneth really came together quickly at a decent Tabletop Quality and I it was fun to use bright colors such as orange and yellow which I don't normally use while painting with any regularity.

I still need to base the army, but the basing will be similar to how I am making my display board so I will do that all of once instead of making two smaller batches of the basing texture paint.  There is quite a number of pictures below of the painted force.  I doubt I will get to it before Parade Day, but I do plan to add more to the army int he future to be able to field a fun 2000pt army with Alarielle at its head.



Friday, October 6, 2017

My Views on the "Required Paint Scheme Rules" Debate

Hey Everyone.  This past week we have seen a debate regarding the controversial topic of requiring specific paint schemes to unlock certain battalion rules in Age of Sigmar.  We saw precursors of this with Stormcast Eternals and Kharadron Overlords Battletomes, but the new Season of War: Firestorm campaign box has added additional bonuses to specific Free Cities from The Mortal Realms.  I want to be upfront from the beginning that I respect the debate and those debating it as arguments for and against the handling of these new rules have validity.  I feel the debate is necessary, but it has overshadowed other great things part of this release.


The extra battalions, in essence, add free formation rules for a specific set of allies with the requirement being that the army you deploy are from the set list of allies and are painted in the scheme of the Free City.  No need to pay extra points and they can be in addition to battalions you can buy normally if you build your army within an allegiance that is part of the set list of allies.  The only requirement is that your army is from specific factions and, controversially, it is painted in the colors of the Free City.

The debates have been heated in some cases and civil in others.  I have seen both sides to the argument bring valid points to the debate as well.  There is a topic thread going on over at The Grand Alliance as well if you wish to check it out.  I don't plan on going into the debate here despite what the title of the post might indicate because T.O.'s will make their call on the subject in their event packs.  Some will require the painting specifications as per the written wording while others will not.  This decision will not be a deciding factor in what events I will attend.


What has really got worried about the debate is how it has overshadowed the biggest part of this release.  When Age of Sigmar began we saw Stormcast Eternals fighting back against Chaos and saving people who managed, against all odds, to survive The Age of Chaos.  The shattered remanents of all the cultures were clinging to the thought of surviving another day, but hope grew after Sigmars triumphant return.

That hope was Season of War: Seeds of Hope campaign which was a great event that inspired a lot of exciting games as we all enthusiasm in tracking how our allegiance was doing in our respective cities and perhaps most importantly gave us something to anchor ourselves to within The Mortal Realms.  Recently we had the release of Season of War: Firestorm which is a continuation of the narrative in the form of a map campaign.  It is a great box set and I highly recommend picking one up to run campaigns for your club or gaming friends to enjoy.


At this point, you might be wondering where I am going with all of this so I will get to the point.  I am not unhappy that this debate has arisen as I see both viewpoints, but respectfully do not count myself in either field.  What I feel is being missed and being overshadowed by this debate is we now have real cities in the realms once more.  That is what I choose to focus on as it is driving my hobby more and more.  Those who are debating and choosing which side of the fence they sit have every right to do so and I respect the arguments both sides are bringing as they all have a validity since Matched Play is a very large part of our Community.  However, I hear very few voices talking about the importance of these cities and what they bring to the lore of Age of Sigmar.


In 8th ed. Fantasy people proudly painted their models as Reiksgaurd, Saphery, and Barak Var to name a few.  Not everyone did this and many players chose to make their own schemes from a city created by their own imagination, but people rallied their army around places within the lore.  I had a large army of High Elves from Ellyrion, famous for their horses so I almost always added some cavalry to my forces for example as I felt a connection to that place in my mind.  There weren't additional rules at that time so there was no need to worry about a debate such as the one going on, but some of us still wanted to anchor ourselves to a specific city and feel connected to this fantasy world.

The World That Was is gone, but now we have The Mortal Realms.  Instead of Altdorf, we have Greywater Fastness.  We have The Phoenicium to replace The Shrine of Asuryan.  We have places of importance that will anchor our stories and narratives and we have wanted it since the release of Age of Sigmar.  Now we can establish Cities in the Realms as well with tools to help us build our own Free Cities, granted without additional layers of abilities.  Some of the greatest Hobbyists in our Community have been embracing this with their armies for quite some time and I hope to begin building my Free City soon as well.


To Wrap up my thoughts I worry that things such as "Generating Your Free City" and all the Cities now established within the lore will be lost in the shuffle.  It is a great time to be in the hobby and an even better time for Age of Sigmar as we finally begin diving deeper and deeper into parts of the setting that really give it character.  I hope as the debate settles we will see more and more focus from within our community on these cities and what they each represent as more is revealed about the setting we all know and love.

Until next week, Happy Hobbying!

Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Weekly Hobby Update : 10-4-17

Hey Everyone!  This past week has been full of hobby, and gaming (and painting my deck) so as usual here is my current hobby and recently played games.  This past Saturday was an Age of Sigmar Club Day at one of my local clubs.  We played Skirmish and a few rounds of 1000pts matched play using the scenarios from GHB2017.

It was exciting to finally get my freshly painted Blades of Khorne on the table and they had a good showing overall and I learned a few lessons on playing the army as well.  The army wasn't built with a competitive focus, but with a few tweaks and additions, I could turn it into a more competitive force.  I really enjoyed how the army played and the level of synergy and positioning required to do well it is safe to say they are much less forgiving than my Stormcast Eternals.  It looks like I will be busting out the Ulthuan Grey again in the future.




I was finally able to begin making headway into my Armies on Parade force as well.  I picked up a Rustoleum Camouflage Spray Paint (Earth Brown) to prime my force after hearing it recommended numerous times on Tabletop Minions Youtube Channel.  After the primer dried I can see why it was it has been suggested so often.  It has absolutely no shine and considering its use for painting Camouflage it should not have been a surprise at how Flat it came out.  It is great stuff but is limited in its color range at the moment.



I plan to work on the army at least a few hours a night as I only have 21 days to complete it all before the big event.  I have a feeling the display board will take just as many hours as the army to complete, but a deadline is the best motivation!



Don't forget to tune into Warhammer TV on Twitch this weekend to watch the Age of Sigmar Grand Tournament Final Stream.  It promises to be exciting games to watch as well as seeing the Twitter Feeds fill up with Age of Sigmar goodness.  It should help motivate me to get a lot of work done on my Sylvaneth I am hoping.  Until Friday, Happy Hobbying!

Friday, September 29, 2017

How to Build your Free City

Hey Everyone!  The Warhammer Community team released an article earlier this week on generating a random Free City (Check out the original article here).  The concept really captured my imagination so I wanted to dive into creating a randomly built Free City within Age of Sigmar using the Charts from the Article as well as various other tools online.  I might even paint up a hero or unit to represent a city in the future, but my current project is taking up all my time so a side project like that will have to wait for a bit.

I have always enjoyed tools such as this as it leaves it up to Luck, Fate, or whatever you wish to call it.  The fun of finding out what you might get is a thrill in and of itself, much like opening a random pack of Magic The Gathering Cards I feel.  I don't play Magic The Gathering anymore, but I still buy a blind pack from time to time for the fun of what I might get (hopefully Elves).  After you have the basics from your randomly generated city you can them craft its story in as much detail as you wish.  With the Cities being set within The Mortal Realms almost anything is possible.

To begin building the city we can use the charts from The Warhammer Community Page's Article.  We will also need a few D6 as well to use the charts.  You can roll physical dice, but if you are wanting to build a Free City along with me you can use this Random Dice Generator here.

To Begin we need to generate our Free City Name.  First, we Roll D66 (using 2d6).  My dice came up 52 so I will begin with "Bale".  Secondly, we roll D66 again and my result is 25 so my Free City is named "Bale Port"!


Next, we need to generate a bit more detail about our new City "Bale Port".  First, we will see what Realm or Realms we will be settled by rolling D33 (roll 2d3).  My Result came up as 5 and 6 so it looks like "Bale Port" will be a Twin City.  After 2 more rolls on the chart, Bale Port is a Twin City between the realms of Chamon and Ghur.  Second, we need to see how large our new city will be so we roll a single D6.  I toss the die and get a 5.  It seems "Bale Port" is a decently sized City.  Last we should find out who lives in Bale Port so we go to a single D6 once again and roll it D3 times.  I rolled a 4 so there will be three races making up the sum of the city's populace as I get a bonus roll due to the size of my city.  I roll a 2, 1, and 3 which gives me Aelves, Humans, and Duardin which seems a pretty typical cast of characters.


After we have the basic Census of "Bale Port" generated it is time to add the exciting and strange details about our city that we can use to expand upon within our Narrative.  Since I am City Sized I will add 1 to my D6 roll to a maximum of 6 for the Number of Distinguishing Features my City contains.  I roll a 2 and add 1 to give "Bale Port" D3+1 Distinguishing Feature of General Novelty which gives me D3+ 1 Features.  I roll a 4 on the die and then add one for a total of 3 Distinguishing Features

To find out my features I go back to D66.  I roll 25, 52, 46.  "Bale Port" will have a Kharadron Overlords Trading Port, a Notable Freeguild, and a Relic from The World That Was.  Not a bad selection at all.


Next, we need to find out what our city looks like on paper.  We could draw out a map or simply let your imagination dictate how everything is laid out.  However, for our purposes, we will use a City Map Generator that was shared by Runebrush over on The Grand Alliance Thread about the article.

The City Map Generator is located here and after we adjust a few settings we can randomly generate out the city.  Since I have rolled a Twin City I will be making 2 maps to fuse together.

 

Now that I have a layout for my city I can begin to see where my Landmarks might be at and begin crafting my story, but before I dive into Bale Ports Narrative I must first find some colors for Bale Ports Flags!  Once again I decided to go to a Random Generator for Colors to see what fate has in store for me.

The Color Scheme Generator I used can be found here.  I let the colors generate a few times and eventually locked on one I liked and proceeded to generate a few more times to find something suitable for my needs.  The colors are a bit dark, but I can work them into my narrative quite well.


So we now have everything our city might need except its story.  Why is it here and why is it still here?  Who are the major players and their motives?  How does this Twin City rely on each other for survival?  Now is the time to answer all these questions and the real crafting can begin.  Time to put on my NEO hat and get to work.

"Split between the Realms of Ghur and Chamon is the City of Bale Port.  Each Sector was it's own Hamlet without a connection until the Relamgate was discovered and they merged into a single thriving City after the Realm Gate Wars in what was known as The Seeds of Hope. 

The Chamon Sector was founded by the Dispossessed Clan Guinnieson who lost their Mountain Hold during an assault by Tzeentch Daemons.  Despite their defenses, the Daemons found their way into the hold where they began melting into Molten Lead, filling the entire hold and eventually solidifying.  Clan Guinnieson has held a Grudge against Tzeentch ever since and developed a grim nature even for Duardin.  This sector is also home to a Kharadron Overlords Trading Post which offers support in defense as well as trade.  The Trading post is maintained by Clan Guinnieson and sees various Skyports coming and going.  Its reinforced structure offers a safe harbor from the Copper Storms prevalent in the area for their vessels.

The Ghur Sector was is home to Aelves from many walks of life.  Aelves known as Wanderers Keep the sector safe from the outside preferring to stick to the wild over a walled city.  Inside the walls, the core sect of Aelves identifies as part of the Darkling Covens know as The Duskhearts.  They rule with a hard, but fair hand.  They work closely with a group of Scourage Privateers who are given free reign of the docks in exchange for their food, clothing, and if the rumors are true slaves for the unseen, but the still known Daughters of Khaine presence.  The Daughters of Khaine are more than simply tolerated however, they are the keepers of a great artifact.  This artifact is also why Wanderers have kept so close the area and offered their service.  They hold the remnants of  "The Reaper" which to the Wanderers is a legend beyond legend as it was believed to be the greatest of work by a great weaponsmith from the World that Was and during the time long lost was wielded by their ancestors.  The Daughters of Khaine and Darkling Covens also know the legend, but know that the weapon is but a shard of the great blade originally wielded by Khaine himself.

Normally these two different races would be hard pressed to live in peace, but a Freeguild of Notability occupies both halves of the city and while they don't involve themselves in the public affairs of each sector they do garrison and patrol the city as a whole and are the core defenses within the city.  The Freeguild is known as "Amala's Adamant" are veterans who held secure Greywater Fastness during The Seeds of Hope and after boredom set in shortly after setting off for more adventure.  They are who found the Realmgate connecting the cities and have been the guardians of it ever since, which helps to keep the separate sectors working in cooperation.

Despite the differences amongst the races within Bale Port, they have found a working relationship that has allowed the city to grow and thrive.  Both sectors rely on the other for support and while tensions run higher than other Twin Cities both sides offer full aid when the other comes under attack.  Both sectors also maintain a small garrison of Honor guard who resides in the opposing sector as a sign of their willingness to work together and to keep an eye on each other as well if they are being truthful.  Together they survive and together they thrive as they all shout "No City for us beyond Bale Port!"

The Banner of Bale Port

There you have it, a narrative for my generated city that is even now making me want to create a small army to portray them on the battlefield.  I really encourage everyone to try this exercise for themselves and create your own part in The Mortal Realms and perhaps inspire yourself on your next army!  If you do run through this exercise please let me know as I really enjoy seeing what everyone created or feel free to head over to The Grand Alliance Thread created about others Free Cities.  I truly hope Gamesworkshop continue to give us these tools in the future as they are fun to use and help spur our hobby forward.  Until next week, may your Free City's banner always fly and Happy Hobbying!

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Weekly Hobby Update : 9-27-17

Hey everyone!  Today I want to show you my completed Blades of Khorne army.  I managed to finally wrap up the painting last week and the basing over the weekend.  It is always exciting to complete an army and really give you a lot of satisfaction on seeing the army laid out as a whole.  I have seen some hobbyists who take a well-deserved break after completing an army to prevent burnout, but for me, the opposite effect happens and I get really excited to jump into my next project.  Thankfully I was able to jump right into my display board for Armies on Parade 2017 and keep the hobby flowing.


One of the best parts of completing a new army is getting it on the table.  Thankfully this Saturday I will be running Age of Sigmar at my local club and will be able to blood this army properly!  I really need to sit down and figure out how each unit will synergize with the army.  I built and painted this army on what I felt looks cool so I really not sure how to use the army to its fullest effect, but that will be part of the fun!  Although finding a place to display the army will prove to be a challenge.


Once I do find that space I will have plenty of working space on my current project for Armies on Parade 2017.  I only have three kits to build and the force is currently just shy of 1000pts (in matched play), but I also have three wood's to paint alongside the army as well as a display board.  It is about to get frantic in my hobby space with less than thirty days to do everything.


I really need to buckle down and keep grinding away at my Armie on Parade project.  With such a small window to complete it a missed day or two could keep me from completing the project to the level that I am aiming to achieve.  Working through a project in such a short space of time might be a future article, so let me know if it sounds interesting as a topic. Also, let me know what you have on your hobby table and until Friday's post.  Happy Hobbying!