What did Santa bring you?

Merry Xmas everyone!  I hope everyone had a great holiday season.  Only 3 more days left and we'll be into 2011 which hopefully will be bringing me more motivation to paint some figs.

I hope everyone also got some great loot from Santa this year.  I personally am very happy with what I scored.  I'm a very difficult person to shop for, so it's always great when people can get me stuff that I don't already have.  So this post I want to dedicate to my latest painting project which is finished and what I got for Christmas.

So of the late I haven't been much on playing the classics, ie: 40k, Fantasy, Warmachine, or FoW.  I've quite gotten into a game called Uncharted Seas.  It's a fantasy naval battle not unlike Man O' War.  I've pick up two starter fleets, Dwarves and Orks.  I just finished my Dwarf fleet.  Here are some of my pics.  I'll be posting the Orks next.  Just getting to start them after the new year.

 So this is a snap of the finished fleet.  It's a battleship, 3 destroyer and 6 cruiser.

A closer look at the battleship

A destroyer

and lastly a cruiser

So now it's time to show off what I got for Xmas.  Let me say again how I love the stuff I got this year.  It's almost all stuff that I'm gonna use on a daily basis.  So the first thing I'm gonna show off is this Arkham Horror expansion that I got.  This game is a favorite among the gaming group.  We just love to play this game but when you put all the board and card expansions together, this thing becomes MASSIVE and quite overwhelming :).

Next, my friends Melissa and Adam got me the Seafarers expansion for Settlers of Catan.  We've been playing thing game quite a bit lately and getting the expansions is only gonna insure that this game stays in rotation. 

One of my most favorite gifts this year.  My lady got me this awesome coffee press.  I used it this morning too and I must say that it does make a better tasting cup of coffee when you make it this way than with a drip.  This thing will get a ton of usage.

So this is a bottle of beer that came with a gift card to Binny's that was my secret Santa gift at work.  Oh how Santa knows me well.  Haven't opened it yet, but I'll be drinking this thing during New Years Eve.

This here is a stocking stuff that my girlfriend got me.  Not sure what it's supposed to represent but what the hell, I'll read it and maybe I'll glean some hidden gem from the mind of Charles Shultz.

This by far is one of the coolest things I was able to procure of the winter holiday.  I got this from a White Elephant gift exchange at a Christmas party.  It's a set of shot glasses with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on it.  Love it!

Another expansion for the Settlers of Catan that my woman got me.  Can wait to try this one out.

I got a set of dice for the Arkham Horror game.  I'm glad the lady got this for me as I was eyeing this set of dice for our games of Arkham Horror.  Another gift that will see much usage.

The final two gift my girlfriend got me are also awesome.  The first is a Shadowrun sourcebook called Feral cities.  Covering many of the overrun cities of the Awakened World.  I've been waiting for this book to come out so I can add some of these cities to my campaign.  The last gift is a book reading lamp which, according to my girlfriend, I needed desperately as to not keep her up while I read and she tries to sleep.

Well that's it for now.  I hope everyone had a great Xmas and that you like my dwarf fleet.  Look forward to an exciting new year of friends, family, the Bears in the Superbowl and some great gaming!

Xmas Time!

Well Xmas draws near and I'm drawn to thinking about what I asked for on my wishlist which coincedentally is all boardgames. I'm not sure when I drifted away from RPG's and table top wargaming. I mean, I've always enjoyed a good boardgame on the occasion but of the late I've really been putting in the overtime with games like Settlers of Catan, Last Day on Earth, the revamped Talisman, Arkham Horror, Cash and Guns, Robo Rally, etc, etc, etc.

It makes me think that maybe it's the group I've been playing games with every once in awhile. Seems like it's board games with a smattering of Shawdowrun, Eberron, and Vampire. Don't get me wrong I'm not complaining about the quality of my geek time. I'm just making an observation.

Or is it something else. I was chatting with my buddy Stu the other night about how we kinda fell away from table top wargaming and he's in the industry for God's sake. For me I think it's because I just don't have a solid group of players anymore. Though I will say that I have definitely moved away from 40K and such. I'm liking the square bases more lately. Uncharted Seas has captured most of my attention. I do likes me a good sea battle from time to time.

So I guess back to my original statement...wishlist...I'm looking over my list again and it's mostly expansions for Settlers, Empire Builder which is a railroad game that uses crayons and a map. Another Arkham Horror expansion and the latest version of Warhammer Fantasy Battles. It the old days this list would've been miniatures galore. What's on everyone else's list? Maybe I need new ideas?

On another side note, anyone try that Kinect yet? I'm still up in the air with this contraption. I hear good things. In reality I've read good things. Let me know what you guys think. If I don't post again soon, I want to wish everyone a Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year.

Away a long time

Well, seems like I've been neglecting my blog for far too long. Life just has a way a pushing these little projects of mine aside. This time (I know I've said this before) I'm going to make an effort to keep this going.

Well what's new...picked a few new games...Starcraft 2, Blood Bowl: Legend...wait for it....dary Edition. Starcraft, what can I say. Classic! Not much are as far a new but the story was fun to play and I just can't hate this game. Still love playing with the crew multiplayer. Some new units and some old units gone. I miss the Wraiths in multiplayer.

Blood Bowl. In my humble opinion another classic. If you love the board game then you'll like the computer version. There's a real time version to the game that I haven't tried yet cause I'm scared that I might like a real time version of this turn based game. One day I'll brave that option and see what the hubbub is. All the races are there. I'm digging some Norse beat downs though I did get my ass handed to me by a Lizardman team the other day. The multi-player was a little confusing to figure out but once I did it seemed to flow real nice especially with trying to play with a comrade.

Picked up a new Droid phone awhile back. The Samsung Galaxy S Captivate. I must say that some people have labeled it the iPhone killer but I personally feel that it doesn't take much to kill the iPhone. It's a 16gb phone with an upgradable microSD slot up to 32gb which give you a total of 48gb. That in itself is a Sonic Kick to the iPhone. The apps are there in the Droid Market. I really haven't found an app I couldn't get on the Droid, though I'm not the tech junkie that some of these yahoos are. I must say that I do loves me the Captivate.

RPG front...let see...started using the Obsidian Portal sight which is a fantastic tool for GM's. Created a page for my Shadowrun campaign that allows me to post updates to the players without having to worry about if I sent the wrong email to the wrong person. Allows me to jot down notes that I can access where ever there is an internet connections. There's an adventure log for the players to edit so they can keep track of what they've done in their campaign. Just a lovely tool if you're a GM.

Well that's all so far. I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving if you celebrate it. Gonna be heading to a friends house for orphan Thanksgiving where I think Cash & Guns and Creationary are on tap for entertainment. Maybe some Win, Place or Show. Creationary, if you haven't picked it up is a friggin' awesome game especially if you love Legos. It's basically Pictionary with Legos. How awesome is that? Anyways Happy Thanksgiving everyone!