Hi everyone :)
You might've noticed that it's been a little quiet on here recently. That's because I've been focusing on getting my twitch channel off the ground! It's been pretty labour intensive, but I'm delighted with the progress it's made in the 3 months since I started, and I thought I'd take a breather to let you know what I'm up to over there. After that, I'm also going to talk a little about my plan for this blog. As you can see from my stream schedule above, I'm currently doing 6 streams a week, with a bit of a variety of content so that (hopefully!) I can offer something to a lot of different people. If you head over to my channel you can see some of the recent streams, and you can also follow or subscribe to be notified whenever I go live - twitch.tv/GoblinSquireCreations. I do a lot of miniature painting on my streams, with my Tuesday stream dedicated to painting Reaper Miniatures, and my Thursday stream focussing on small companies which are making miniatures. The Wednesday 'Hobby Hangout' doesn't have a specific agenda, I just put some chilled out music on and paint whatever I'm working on. It's a chance just to hang out together and have fun. I also play games on my streams, with a League of Legends stream on Wednesday and Baldur's Gate on a Friday. I'm pretty new to League of Legends, so I call that stream 'Noob Learns League of Legends', but Baldur's Gate is one of the games which defined my childhood so that's a massive nostalgia trip :) Finally, my Saturday morning stream, 'Coffee, Chat and Minis' is just that - rather than focussing on me painting it tends to be conversation around miniatures, and nerd culture more generally, between me, chat and often a guest. All my streams are really chilled out, friendly and positive, and I look to encourage individuals and build community. So that's what I'm up to over on my twitch channel, so what about this blog? Well, I'm planning to start writing blog posts again, with the intention of publishing one a week. They'll be on a variety of miniature and mini-adjacent topics, but will tend to be things more suited to the written word than video. Thanks for sticking with me this far as I've talked about what I'm up to! It would be awesome if you wanted to check out my twitch - twitch.tv/GoblinSquireCreations, but if this blog is more of your thing then it's great to have you here too :)
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Hi everyone :)
I was lucky enough to win a miniature from the 'Shattered Hell' Kickstarter from Crippled God Foundry, and I thought I would do a video unboxing and review. At the time of writing there are 8 days left of the Kickstarter, and you can find it at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/crippledgodfoundry/shattered-hell If you want to check out their other stuff, head over to https://www.crippledgodfoundry.com/ Hi everyone :)
It seems like at this time of year there are a lot of themed months to encourage us to be creative. We've just come to the end of October, when programmes exist to encourage us to draw/paint/art everyday. As we're now into November, we're at the beginning of NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. Broadly speaking, NaNoWriMo is an initiative to encourage people to write 50,000 words of a novel throughout November. For those interested, that's 1666 2/3 words a day (I assume you're not meant to do exactly the same amount each day!). For more information, check out https://nanowrimo.org/. I've decided that this year I'm going to take inpiration from NaNoWriMo, but do my own thing. To be clear, I have nothing against NaNoWriMo, and if you're undertaking it I wish you the best of luck! It's not that I don't want to write a novel either, I actually have some ideas which have been in my brain for a long time. The issue is simply that having another thing on my plate in the form of novel writing would, I feel, be counterproductive when I already have things I feel like I'm not dedicating time to. For the month of November I've decided to dedicate some time to writing in the form of supplements for D&D and other TTRPGs, which is something I managed to spend time on early in the year but have really struggled to finish in the last few months. I've set myself the goal of releasing a supplement each week of November. That sounds like a big ask, but I have ideas in a variety of levels of completion which I need to actually get out there. They're not doing anyone any good incomplete on my computer! As I mentioned above, I have nothing against NaNoWriMo or any of the other creative themed months. They can work wonderfully for some people, but I know others who have felt an unmanageable amount of pressure. My interpretation of these initiatives is that they are designed to inspire and nudge rather than smother with pressure, and if you can find a way to make them work for you then go for it! I would encourage you to find that inspiration without feeling the need to stick to the letter of the principal if that doesn't work for you :) I'll keep you updated with how it's going for me, and I'd love to hear from you how your NaNoWriMo or other project is going, whether you're doing it traditionally or not!
Hi everyone :)
No matter which way I look at it neither gluing nor glueing seem right, but I'm going to stick with gluing! As I've mentioned elsewhere, unfortunately my health hasn't been great recently, and I haven't been able to paint nearly as much as I'd like. In the absence of painting I often turn to preparing miniatures, primarily gluing them together. I have a lot of Games Workshop miniatures coming across my painting desk soon, so in the last few days I've put together around 50 of them. Here is a small selection of them:
Now I know that for a lot of people gluing together their minis is their least favourite part of the process, but generally I actually find the process quite relaxing. While I'm not painting, gluing feels like I'm still achieving something, and I can do it pretty much anywhere and anytime. Essentially I don't need to be sitting at my desk while I'm not well.
OK, so it's not exactly building a house from the ground up or anything, but I find something quite satisfying about creating something which was previously in pieces. These minis are sufficiently easy that it's calming, and still give me the satisfaction of completing something.
I did specifically say above that I *generally* find it quite relaxing. It turns out that their are definitely miniatures which try my patience! I had a few of these ghosts (Nighthaunt, I believe) and they were definitely not zen...
Here is a sample of the build instructions. Note the warning on the left...
So these miniatures not only have many, very fiddly pieces, but the connective surfaces are hard to see! Putting these together seriously tried my patience...
Not only is it hard to see the connective surfaces, you have to attach each piece exactly right because many of them connect to multiple parts. That means that if one attachment is off it is likely impossible to build the miniature as intended and you end up in the realm of converting the miniatures just to make them work. I imagine you have essentially no chance is you have issues with your eyesight or your hands aren't steady. Of the around 50 I put together, though, only three were like this. A few others had small parts, but at least it was obvious where they needed to go and they weren't structurally vital! For the most part I still found the experience positive, but I will have to be sure that in future I carefully select the miniatures I'm going to build while I'm away from painting :)
Hi everyone :)
An exciting announcement today - I'm starting to do some work with Mushroom Gaming! Mushroom Gaming are a small games company based in the UK. They've created great games like Fishy Tactics and Rabbit Rummage, and have many more games planned for the next few years. Equally importantly, from my point of view, is their ethos - that gaming be accessible to everyone. My role is going to be looking after marketing, with a particular emphasis on community building and social media, so check out the Mushroom Gaming social media channels now and I'll see you over there soon :) I do want to say a little bit about my reviews of Mushroom Gaming products on this website - they were written long before I started working with them and, indeed, began talking about working with them. My reviews were and are impartial, and in no way related to my work. Check out Mushroom Gaming at www.mushroomgaming.com Hi everyone :) After the recent one-off Blood Bowl match I played (you can check out my match report here), I was really excited to build a team of my own. This morning I set about making the 'Orsome Ogres' - I figured that qualifies as a clever team name if you're an ogre :p One quick side note - As you can see from the image above, this wasn't quite as simple as sitting down with a single book - to make the team I needed the Blood Bowl rulebook, the Spike! Almanac and Spike! Issue 8. That's £39 worth of books in addition to the base game (£70). I get that Games Workshop are a company who need to make a profit, but £109 before getting any miniatures is very steep. I was lucky that I got a lot of that as a gift, but it's fair to say that Blood Bowl is not a cheap game to get into. Playing OgresWhen you build a team you are given 1,000,000gp. This sounds like a lot, although it soon starts to disappear when you start buying ogres for your team! Although ogres are the focal point of the team, it is actually comprised of both Ogres and Gnoblars. Ogres are big, violent brutes, while the Gnoblars are tiny creatures capable of little more than filling out the team! The big choice I was faced with was how many ogres to select. Technically you can get 5 ogres with your starting money, although if you choose to do that you can't afford any spare Gnoblars when they are inevitably killed and you can't get any re-rolls or fans. I took what I think is the safer option and selected 4 ogres and 12 gnoblars. Given that you can field 11 players at a time, that means I have 5 spare Gnoblars. Both Ogres and Gnoblars are somewhat...well...inept, so the 2 re-rolls I picked up could definitely be life savers! Each allows a single die to be re-rolled for each half of Blood Bowl played. To be honest, half of the time taken building the team was writing all the skills in for each player! All the players have a number of skills, although not all are positive... Ogres have the 'Bone-Head' ability, which means that every turn they have a chance to stand there and do nothing, while Gnoblars are officially 'Disposable'! In case you're feeling particularly observant and notice that my team value isn't the full 1,000,000 and that the numbers don't quite add up it's because Gnoblars are so rubbish they don't even count towards the team's value. Once I'd figured out all the mechanics of the team I had a bit of fun with the names :) I'm really excited to get playing with my team, and I'm also looking forward to finishing painting my minis. I need to get them to the point where I can tell which mini is which player so that I know which one to swear at when they drop the ball :)
Hi everyone :)
Over the weekend I released the second in my YouTube series 'Goblin Squire Investigates', in which I look at the different types of 3D printing. I'd love for you to check it out, and if you like what you see, why not subscribe to my channel? I'm really enjoying making these videos, and it's been really encouraging to hear that people have been finding them useful. I already have a few more questions which have come in, but I'd be very happy to receive some more! You can leave a comment on this post, contact me on twitter (@Goblin_Squire) or email me via the contact page of this website. In the first video in the series I looked at brush care, so be sure to check that out if it's something you're interested in! Hi everyone :) Last week I managed to play a game of Blood Bowl, which was my first proper game in many years (essentially since I was a teenager), and it was great fun. I decided that I would write up a match report to commemorate the occasion, so I hope you enjoy! I'll just say at this stage that all appropriate social distancing measures were taken. As it was our first game back after a long absence, we decided to use the line-ups which came with the teams. I would be playing the Fire Mountain Gut Busters, and my opponent would be playing the Naggaroth Nightmares. Without further ado, I'm going to hand you over to the commentary team: Pre Match"Good afternoon, and welcome to the big game! I'm your host for this evening, Barry Shineker, and I'm here with my colleague Savage Robby. We're here at the neutral Altdorf Stadium for a one off match between the Naggaroth Nightmares and the Fire Mountain Gut Busters. In any other sport it might be called a friendly, but there's no such thing in Blood Bowl! As an Ogre yourself Savage I'm sure you'll be hoping for a Gut Busters victory, but I hope you'll be able to stay impartial in your coverage" "TEAMS SMASH!!" "Well, quite. I'm hearing that despite the neutral location we have rather a rather partisan crowd, with 13,000 ogres in attendance and only 5,000 Night Elves. That sounds like a recipe for trouble to me...and, yes...sure enough, there's a riot in progress! It looks like we'll have a delayed kick off here. While the stewards sort that out it gives me time to talk a little about the weather here, and it's pretty foul. The rain has been pouring down all day, and that's going to make it difficult to control the ball isn't it Savage?" "NO CARE ABOUT BALL, STUPID HUMAN" "I think that gives us an indication of the kind of tactics we might see from the Ogre team, and they may be helped in that by the choice of referee for this match. Jorn the Ogre will be officiating, although far be it from me to question his objectivity. Well, it looks like we're finally ready to go, and I'm hearing that the Naggaroth Nightmares have won the toss and chosen to receive. Let's get into the action..." First HalfDespite the riot taking away the first turn for each side, the Naggaroth Nightmares got off to a quick start, advancing down the field rapidly, passed the rather immobile ogre team. Not only that, but the very first action of the game KO'd a gnoblar! It looked as though the fast start might be dented when an ogre strolled over and outright killed a dark elf runner, but the Nightmares were still able to score a second turn touchdown. Not only that, but their physio's magic sponge really lived up to its name by bringing the runner back to life! What had been a blistering start for the Nightmares, with a series of amazing dice rolls, starting to turn sour after the coach failed a dexterity roll while attempting to drink tea and spilt some on the board... For the most part the rest of the first half passed in an embarrassing series of fumbles and dropped balls in the pouring rain. This was exemplified by a Night Elf blitzer who, in three consecutive turns, fell over twice then dropped the ball in the end zone! There was a modicum of good news for the Fire Mountain Gut Busters, however, as the player who had been magically revived was killed again! After the rapid start to the first half, the game slightly limped through to half time, with the Naggaroth Nightmares holding a 1-0 lead over the Fire Mountain Gut Busters. Half Time"A well deserved lead for the Naggaroth Nightmares there, wouldn't you say Savage?" "PUNY NIGHT ELVES NO MATCH FOR OGRE FISTS!" "Well, it's certainly true that the Nightmares will be rather depleted for the second half. The question will be can they continue their dominance with just...it looks like they will have only 8 players fit for the second half, while the Gut Busters seem to have a never ending supply of gnoblars to fill their 11 spots! The ogre fans are looking a little restless again out there, so I hope that the team can find something to put a smile back on their faces". "HAPPY OGRE IS PUNCHY OGRE" "And, with that terrifying prospect, its time to get back into the action". Second HalfThe second half started even more quickly than the first, with a blitz action rolled on the kick off table. That meant that even though they were kicking, the Naggaroth Nightmares were able to take the first turn. A spectacular failure on the part of a gnoblar meant that they were able to run in an unopposed touchdown in their first 'proper' turn of the half. Not only that, but with another riot rolled on the kick off table both turn markers were moved back one space, so we were essentially back at the start of the second half, but with a second touchdown for the Nightmares! To make matters even worse, some of the KO'd members of the team regained consciousness and came back on to the field, meaning that they had more players than at the 'proper' start of the half. It's fair to say I was cursing my luck! My fortunes started to change somewhat soon after the following kick off, when an ogre miraculously managed to catch a fumble. What followed was a charge down the pitch...OK, it took 3 full turns for the ogre to run half the pitch, but nevertheless it was 2-1, and I was back in with a chance. Briefly...! Some more disastrous handling from gnoblars handed another easy touchdown to the Nightmares and just like that they pulled ahead to 3-1. The remaining turns were taken up by desperate attempts by the ogres to throw and kick the gnoblars into the end zone but, despite some relatively close attempts, the game ended 3-1 to the Naggaroth Nightmares Post Match Analysis"Welcome back to the studio, where I'm now on my own after Savage Robby left to join in the latest riot.
The Naggaroth Nightmares will be pleased with the final result, but will be just as glad that they have a long time to recover before their next match. It was a bloody and brutal affair out there, and the Dark Elves were definitely on the receiving end of the worst of it. I'm just hearing that the final decision for MVP has now been reached, and...it's gone to the physio for the Nightmares! No wonder, having brought one player back to life, and ensuring that countless others regained consciousness in time to get back on the pitch. I fear a match like this could have been devastating to the Nightmares if this were a league match as they wouldn't have been close to fielding a full side in their next match. In total seven players were dead or seriously injured, and it would have been nine but for the genuinely magic sponge and the iron will of the witch elf. Well, that's it from me. Join me next time when we transmit Blood Bowl directly into your head using the most powerful wizards in the land. What's that? My producer is telling me that that should have been the most available wizards in all the land. Good Night!"
Hi everyone :)
Today I'm going to be reviewing Xmas PileUp from Mushroom Gaming (check them out here). You might remember a little while ago I reviewed Rabbit Rummage which I had backed on Kickstarter, and this game is by the same creator. My usual disclaimer applies - I am not getting paid for writing this review. I was, however, lucky enough to play a pre-release version of this, as it is coming to Kickstarter next week, Tuesday 15th September (you can sign up to be notified on launch here). The game will cost £10. The Basics
Xmas PileUp is the latest instalment in Mushroom Gaming's series of quick and simple games, as such it is very easy to understand and get playing.
The basic concept is that you are looking to pile up the Christmas trees and end the game with a taller stack than your opponent. If your tower falls over you need to start again, so it's all about having a good pile at the end. Each player takes it in turn to roll the die, and that many trees are taken from the bag. Where the tactics come in, though, is that you can choose whether you add those trees to your pile or your opponents puts them on their's. Is it any good?
As I've come to expect from Mushroom Gaming, the game is well conceived and designed. The pieces are high quality, and the tactile experience is really good. The use of a stereotypical Christmas tree design is perfect for a game like this, as the edges can fit together in a number of ways and mean that not every stack will be identical.
The gameplay is very simple but effective. Once again, this really does have the feel of something you could play with the whole family (babies who might eat pieces aside). I found it a lot of fun to play, and it's amazing how much tension there can be when stacking small wooden Christmas trees! As with so many games, I found that the time a game takes varies based on who is playing. Much like a game of Jenga where one person spends 10 minutes inspecting the stack before making their move and another player takes 5 seconds, some may consider their pile carefully while others are rather more gung ho. There's definitely a psychological aspect of this too! With this variation in mind, most games lasted about 5 minutes, although 10 minutes was quite possible where mind tricks were involved :) In keeping with the other games in this series it isn't going to appeal to those who look for board games to provide high strategic challenge and mental workouts, but nor is it designed to. Would I recommend it?
I think that this is a very well designed and realised game, which will make a great stocking filler (or stocking stuffer if you're from the US) for any family member who enjoys light hearted board games. With delivery anticipated in time for Christmas, it could also be perfect for keeping children entertained over the holiday period.
It's possible that this says something about me rather than Christmas in general, but I find that there are always down times which can be difficult to explain to hyperactive children. I would see this working really well as a little time filler to keep guests entertained and laughing on the day. When I was a child we got presents late afternoon on Christmas Day (I know, I've lived a terribly tough life :p) so this would have been a great option to keep my brother and me occupied. It is, of course, very themed towards Christmas, which would reduce it's play throughout the year, but I think that being able to break it out each year could almost become a bit of a tradition. Hi everyone :)
Month 1 of Goblinspiration is now over, and it was so exciting to see people getting involved and painting miniatures! There was a fantastic mix of people who are regular miniature painters and those who were picking up a brush for the first time in years. The whole aim of the Goblinspiration idea is to encourage and inspire people, whether it's to try out a technique or colour scheme they wouldn't normally paint, or to try painting for the first time. There really isn't any element of competition or animosity, just encouragement. As you'll see if you watch the video above, the them for September is 'Magic', and one of the things I'm trying to encourage with this is interpreting the brief however works for you. It could be a scene of arcane magic, or it could simply be something beautiful which feels magic to you. Let your imagination take you wherever it wants to! If you do want to take part, just tweet pictures of your mini using #Goblinspiration and tag me in (@Goblin_Squire) or send the pictures to me through this website. It would be great to have you involved! |
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