Snotlings. Warhammer 40K 2nd edition. Part1.

Next weekend me and a friend will play warhammer 40K 2nd edition, that is if we both can keep away from the “plague”.

In the list I have my old and trusting shokk attack gun. In 2nd edition you are feeding it Snotlings. So I have a week to finish 3 bases of the little critters.

I decided to go with round 40mm bases instead of square ones. I have nothing against square ones, I just find round to look better when all other models are on round bases as well.

Be creative and explore!

The way I have designed Kuggköping it is meant to present different obstacles that can be tackled in different ways. The game should be viewed more as a jigsaw puzzle where you need to use the tools at your disposal to solve the upcoming challenges.

In the game you will try earning cards by preforming different tasks. These cards will then be used to pay for abilities that will be key in completing your game.

The different combinations of enemies, enemy faction, missions, cards available and deployment changes how you will approach the game. The ide is that every game you play will be different.

In the last game where 2 of my brave characters charged headfirst into a swarm of rats only to fall in battle, it was more about taking out key targets and completing the mission with brute force. Even if this failed in the end, it was the best approached that I could come up with.

In this game, with 1 less character on the board and facing a completely different enemy and mission, my approached must changes.

I don’t have the strength to challenge all enemies. So, I need a different plan.

In Kuggköping most things will be determined with how much recourses you have. Over commitment is something to watch out for. Even if your hand is looking pretty the cards needs to last all game. My last game is a perfect example of this. Where I over committed, and my explorers got hurt because of it.

In this game I will try to put up damage dealing smoke screens on one side of the board and then try to engage the big enemy on the left. Hopefully I can draw the attention of the enemies on the right side to go through the smoke, dealing damage to them in the process. This will most likely require all my recourses.

So, after that I need to be very carful and try to collect as many new recourses as possible that I can until I can finish the mission. I can’t finish this particular mission until turn 6, when I need to make a sacrifice in the well in the middle of the board. But the longer the game carries on the more aware the enemy’s will be of my presses and there is 2 hard hitting enemy’s hiding out of sight that most likely will come closer to me with murderous intentions.

This game will be more about avoiding the enemy’s, collecting recourses, and hitting key targets if I have the strength to do so. So very different from my last game. In the last game it was more a hack and slash kind of an approach and in this game, I need to be trixy.  

And that is all that I require of any skirmish game really. To solve problems with the tools on hand. The smoke screen was not designed to be used as a weapon. But in this game, the way everything has been unfolding it will become the weapon I need. And I love that. I love the fact that I can create something that can surprise me. And that I can use different things in different ways to different effects. Discovering combos hidden within the game that I didn’t consciously put in there.  

I know that I am running the risk of sounding like a self-righteous prick when I am celebrating my own creation. “Look at me and my awesome game that I created”, right? But that is not my intention or point of this post.

You can play this game yourself all for free with now downsides, other than it will require some of your time to learn and play, it will not cost you anything and worst case is that you simply won’t enjoy it.

Download

Or better still I hope you feel inspired to create your own game. To create something, fall in love with it and feel liberated from the consummation trap you might be in, is awesome. Making something all by your self and see it work as intended is a great feeling, and I can’t encourage you more then to go and try creating something for yourself. Great things are not always made by others. Sometimes it is made by you. Anyone following this blog is most likely creative in some aspect or another.

So, start to create, make that game that you wished you could buy, be self-righteous when it turns out great and then tell me and the world all about it 😊. A game doesn’t need an extensive rulebook, it doesn’t need a gaming table, artwork, stories. It can be as simple as you like, or as advance as you wish.  That is truly the point of this post for anyone making it this far, an encouragement to be creative and to explore.

Kuggköping, new game size.

So I started setting up Kuggköping for a game on a 2x2 table. But straight away it feels to small. 


Even if I would restrict some of the ranges it still felt bad and I could not play through the first turn because of the bad feeling. 

I still wants to bring down the size so that the game becomes more accessible. I played around with 2x3 and that felt much better.


Then I thought of the killteam board I got in one of the killteam boxes. It is 22.5”x29.5” . So a little smaller than 2x3 in size. But it felt like a nice compromise. 

And I cant argue about the production quality of the game board it self. I think it looks good.


Now I have played 1 turn on this new size and so far everything runs smoothly. So I will try to finish the game session and see what my verdict is then.


Straightaway I did run into something interesting about why I think my game is fun and I will try to document it in a later post and explain it a little more in detail. 

Designing and converting vehicles. 40K 2nd edition

I am sitting and going through some of the books I bought for 40K second edition.

I just love this kind of freedom in the old 40K or rather that this kind of freedom was encouraged.

Come to think about it, I have no idea if these types of paragraphs is still included in the modern 40K rulebooks. If they are I salute GW. To inspire creativity and the use of imagination is a great and important thing.

I believe that it is inclusion of these types of encouragements that is one of the things that lay at the foundation of our great community. It is not all about point values, rules as written or best army list. It is also about continuation, story telling and making a narrative. It is about creating something and sharing it with like minded people.

Small seeds of inspiration can grow to big ideas. And big ideas can lead to great things.

Kuggköping thoughts and ideas

I have been thinking about Kuggköping and maybe shrink the game area from 4x4 to 2x2.


I think 4x4 works great and that size is preferred in my opinion, to creat an inspiring and immersive setup. But that means that the game take up a big space and more or less requires a proper gaming table, with a lot of terrain on it.


I want this game to be very casual and should be viewed as a solo, skirmish, pick up game with some campaign and leveling elements to it.


After an early morning, long day at work, household work and playing with my kids, there is nothing casual about standing at a big gaming table for 1-2 hours. This means that gaming is always pushed to the weekends. I want to play but I can’t bring myself to stand there when all I want to do, is to sit down or go to bed.


Playing on a smaller gaming area means that the game can be played on my kitchen table sitting down or on the second floor of my house, getting some gaming in while I am putting my daughters to bed. This appeals to me a lot, and it would fold perfectly into my little pockets of time concept.


After all this is a solo game and it dose not involve that many models. Having a small game board with a few pieces of terrain on it can be moved quite easily and therefore be enjoyed where I feel most comfortable.


This is something to ponder about and playtest.

I am sorry

I am sorry but I feel a little upset. I don’t want this blog to be a place of negativity or rants. But at the same time I want this blog to reflect my activity’s and thought about the hobby. Lately I have been busy renovating parts of my house, this leaves very little time for me to do hobby in general. 

But of course I still keep up with the latest news and activities around the community.


Lately I have been upset and this is me getting that off my chest.


It’s like this. If you feel that a company is treating you and your fellow customers poorly, not living up to expected quality compared to the paid price, stop supporting newly released products and undermining the value of that product, hyping up new releases and under delivering… and you still buy the products from this company…then you are the problem.


I am so very tired of reading and hearing of everyone’s hate toward specific company practices and later the same week also seeing the same individuals placing preorders to those company’s. 


I am not making any excuses for bad business practices or poor quality. I think any company that neglect their customers and fan base deserves to be neglected them selfs.


I don’t necessarily which bad fortune for these companies but as a customer I won’t pay for products or behaviors I feel is destructive for the community or that is not worth the claimed value. 


Just as an example I am not buying anything from Games Workshop at the moment. I am feed up with their releases, prices, poor community communications and bad game quality.


Just to be clear I am not calling for a boycott. I am simply saying this:


If you don’t like the quality of a product or feel that the price don’t reflect the expectations of that product or don’t want to support specific business practices, then don’t give that company money. That is all. If you do anything else, then you are supporting the very thing you don’t like.


Now, I could go into details about what I don’t like about 9th edition, why I think seasons is really bad for customers and products in any type of game. How dumb I think it is to simply stop supporting parts of a paying customer segment. Or anything else that bothers me. But I will stop it right here.


Stop support things you don’t like. Get out of destructive relationships and act if you want change. Stop being a victim and start being responsible. 

Pockets of time. Hobbies and children.

So here it is, the messy hobby desk for all to see.

In my last post I talked a little about those unused 10 minutes of a day, those pockets of time we all have but don’t use.

When I studied for the occupation I work with today I followed 2 primary concepts.

Be a good friend and help classmates if asked and work a little harder than everyone else.

The last part was simply achieved by staying 30 minutes longer in school than everyone els.

I very early realized that I was nothing special. What I mean by that is that I was not smarter than anyone else or was borne with some extraordinary talent.

All my classmates, my good friends and colleagues could also be considered to be my competition. When we all graduated we where all going to apply for the same jobs, looking for the same opportunities. So how could I make sure that I was one of them that got a job in the end? Specifically if I wasn’t anything special in terms of talent or smarts?

I simply had to have more experience, more experience equals more knowledge. So I stayed in school 30 minutes longer than everyone else.

30 minutes longer every day translates to 10 extra hours every month or 15 extra days in a year. I basically got 1 month extra education.

Now I often stayed longer each day but that’s beside the point.

So, fast forward to my current life. I have a full time job, a house a wonderful family a bunch of dogs, tons of obligations, need to do’s and have to do’s. And on top of this I have my hobbies.

The time when I could do whatever I want whenever I want is over for a time.

But I still find time to do hobbies, between job, family, renovations and stuff. And I mainly try to use the unused pockets of time we all have.

All adds up in the end, 10 minutes a day, equal 70 minutes a week. More then an hour of hobby each week will take you a long way (if it is effective time). With all that said, I mostly have time for more than 10 minutes a day.

So, back to my messy hobby desk. In order get most of my hobbie time I managed to find during the weeks everything needs to be ready for me when an opportunity for hobbies arises.

This means that I don’t have time to set things up each painting session and it also mean that putting things away when am done is sometimes (or most times) not an option.

I do a little art, a little warhammer and a little gaming each day and I have made my setup so that I can just go and create as soon as I get free time, no start up time, just sit down and go.

I am lucky enough to have a big home with a lot of space where I can dedicate an entire room for creativity and fun.

This room is opened for all in my family (that explains the chaotic mess the room is in at the moment). Me and my oldest daugther mostly sit together painting and creating and this is some of the best experiences I have ever had . It is also pretty great to be able to shut the door and keep all the sharp knives, paints and scissors from the youngest toddler.

But it haven’t always been like this. I did not always have this big house or this big room.

My very first job as a graduate was as a traveling consultant. That meant I was pretty much living in a suitcase during the weeks.

But despite that I still managed to do my hobbies.

This case is my “little friend” (#scarface) and it have traveled with me many times over the years. And I still use this case from time to time, even in my big home, despite my dedicated hobby space.

Having it with me upstairs keeping my kids’ company while they fall a sleep is a great time to get some hobby time in. And being able to put everything away easily from curious fingers is a must when the children are small.  

The great part about this case is that everything is ready to go. I open it, put the jarl of water on the table, place the hobby matt and start painting. Once hobbies time is over it is equally easy to put back and pack up. It is a great solution if you can’t have a dedicated hobbies space or is always on the move.

My point is that most of us can do hobbies if we want to. Regardless of most life situations, there is always a way to optimize and plan your time so that those small pockets of time can be used as effective as possible. And all those small pockets of time adds up in the end.

Now just to be clear, I waste a lot of time also, I spend too many life hours of my phone each year (before bed, after bed so on and so forth). I don’t want to come across as one of those “success coaches” that screams that you have to grind harder to be a more effective machine. I am quite opposite to that. I believe that you must find a flow to things in order to stay health. Forcing your way through life will most likely burn you out.

All I am saying is that we all have unused time and 10 minutes is better than 0. And in fact, 10 minutes is a lot of time if it is used well.

I many times come across posts about people that is waiting for their first child or that they needed to move to a smaller apartment. Trying to sell whatever armies because they think they won’t have time to spend on the hobbies. I hope this post reaches some of you and that it inspires you to keep the things in your life that makes you happy.

Having kids is a wonderful thing, yes you will have limited time to spend on your toy soldiers, but it is not the end. Especially if you have pockets of time that you still haven’t unlocked. All you must do is to adapt and find the best way forward. Forcing yourself to stop with interests and passions is only going to give you grief and regrets.

Hope this gives some inspiration to someone in need of it, and if not, you must admit, it is a pretty cool hobby case 😉 .