Here we go again!

 Hello fair reader,

It's been many years since my last post. My life (yours too I bet) has been tremendously complicated. The rise and fall of various relationships, the whole covid thing, struggles with alcoholism and even a duel with the dreaded cancer. Don't worry, my health is fine now (physically anyway haha) but I think it's fair to say that I've changed a lot since my last post. But what hasn't changed is my love of wargamming and hobbying. And I guess writing too. Over the last year I decided to build an Instagram account for my painting (feel free to check me out @da_brutalator) and I've thoroughly enjoyed the aspect of recording my progress throughout my hobby. And it's had me thinking about blogging again. So here we are. Originally I thought about starting a new blog, looking back at some of my older posts really makes me cringe. But it's all part of that documentation of my personal journey through the hobby that I'm after. So I guess it stays in, though I will probably archive it if I can work out how to do so. 

My waroboss Jimgor Da Brutalator and some of his ladz

So what is my aim for this "new" blog, and what do I want to get out of it? Well, there's a few things:

1) I'd like to share my painting and modelling progress for various projects 

2) I would like to explain my army/gaming ideas and document their (if any) success

3) I'd like to engage in community 

4) To record games played in some fashion (probably a written summary) 

5) I think, for me personally, it helps to have some sort of creative outlet. And like I said, I enjoy writing

So with that in mind I guess I'll explain a little of where I am with the hobby these days. 40k used to be my bread and butter. But over the years I've sort of lost the taste for it. I don't know why, though I have some ideas which I plan on writing about shortly. So I play other stuff. I've got some Fantasy, Blood Bowl, Malifaux and Magic the Gathering. I don't play AOS though I feel like I'm always ALMOST about to dive in. And lately I've dipped my toe into Underworlds which has been pretty fun. I also have an extremely healthy board game collection which I'm sure you'll hear about too.

I suppose the other big thing is I'm about to move interstate. To a city where I'll know literally no-one. And I'm planning on using gaming as a way of meeting people. So I guess that'll be interesting to see unfold.

My Squiggies

So I'll quickly just mention some major projects I'm working on and get out of your hair,

I have a pretty large 40k Ork army that's mostly painted. I love it. Orks have brought me so much joy over the years and I'm sure I'll write plenty about them. 

I'm slowly building a Nurgle Chaos Space Marines army. This is going to be a bit of a slow grow and a real labor of love. 

I play Blood Bowl and own the Black Orcs (fully painted), the Amazons (half painted) and the Necromantic Horrors (completely unpainted) 

I have 2 Malifaux crews, Perdita and Lady Justice.

The Shadow Elves from Underworlds.

I bought the Cities of Sigmar army box and will probably work on that sometime next year.

I play a bit of magic and collect the first set of pokemon cards

And fantasy... even though they killed it I still play. This is the game that holds my heart. I'm currently working on a Night Goblin army and have a Warriors army in the wings. 

Okay well I guess that's it for now. I'm thinking my first "real" article back might be a 40k Ork thing or a Fantasy Night Goblin thing. I guess we'll see.

Till then fair reader,

Keep rolling dem dice

Jimzan

New Year, New You(nits)

Helloooooooooo fellow dice rollers!

It's been quite some time. How are we all? I'm doing well. I thought with the new year I'd get back into blogging and clogging the the web with my thoughts on war gaming. So let me indulge you with a of what I've been working on this last little while and where I may be heading in the future.

First off I (somehow) managed to land a job working in a games store that sells everything from Warhammer to X-Wing to DnD to Magic to Pokemon cards to modelling equipment to various RPG's and just about every board game under the sun. Truly it's my dream job and it's certainly expanded my gaming horizons. I've been learning heaps of new games, systems, tricks and making friends. It's really swell.

Last year (2018) was a big year for me and my hobbying. I feel as though I've made some great progress with my painting. If you've read any of my other posts you'll know I'm somewhat of a Warhammer fan boy, but honestly I've always felt a bit overwhelmed and under skilled in the modelling aspect of the game. BUT!, as they say patience pays off. I've always played Orks (both Fantasy and 40k) and building a horde army is a very daunting project when you think about putting paint to brush. But with persistence, some tricks and a little self flagellation da boyz are starting to look pretty darn mean, if I may say so myself. Speaking of da boyz, late last year, OUR CODEX FINALLY DROPPED! My Gork it was a long time coming. Suddenly I have warlord traits, relics, clan abilities, statagems, new models and everything else every other douche bag army has got. And holy shit, da boyz are back in town! I won't go into my Orks now (I'll make an Ork post of it's own) but I'm loving what they can do. I've also been working hard on my Demons of Nurgle. These guys are also really cool. I'll do a post for them too but I'm trying to splice some Deathguard into the list to jazz them up a little. I've also (also) picked up a bunch of Space Marines. None of these new fancy Primaris dudes, but just the good ol' fashion fellas. Hoping to mix in some Imperial Guard in with them and build my own chapter and strike force. Stay tuned for that.

Jimgor Da Brutalator

In the mean time I've been doing the usual. Playing heaps of board games (Talisman is sick), a bit of DnD, another RPG called Red Markets. I picked up a Nintendo Switch and have been smashing Zelda and what not. I also picked up the Zarbag's Gitz Night Goblin kit. A bloke at work was telling me about Warhammer Underworlds and it sounds pretty cool. "It's like Warhammers X-Wing" is how he described it. Anyway I liked the models, figured worst case scenario they'd look nice painted on my shelf (just like the Fellowship of the Ring I never painted), and picked them up. Then GW bloody announces that the Gloomspite Gitz are coming out and of course my heart began to race. Could this be it? Is the time for me to join the ranks of Age of Sigmar finally here?

Okay, so AoS and me haven't always got along. Way back when, when I first ever got into any war gaming it was through ye olde Warhammer Fantasy. We're talking about 24 years ago. And Fantasy stayed with me pretty much through my entire life. I got into 40k and everything else but always came back to The Old World. Then GeeDubs literally blew it up. It broke my heart. I was left bitter and empty, screaming at the stars "You said you'd always be there for me!!!". It was a very Lion King time in my life. But over the years I've watched the game grow. New armies, sleek rules and (at least for Games Workshop) some okish prices. And slowly but surely my mind began to think. One night the stars called back to me. Mufasa appeared in the night sky and spoke. "Jimba my son" he said, "You should play Age of Sigmar!" And that was that. New Year, New You. So here I am staring down the barrel of 2019 and about to take the plunge. The only question is which power shall I wield in the Mortal Realms?

"Jimbaaaaah"

There are a couple of factions that immediately spring to mind. Daughters of Khaine is a big one. Dark Elves was the first army I ever started and I will always have soft spot in my heart for them. Sexy Witch Elves spilling blood as an act of worship for the the god of murder is a pretty strong selling point. I like the idea of speed and magic and a supper aggressive play style. The new Morathi model is (I reckon) one of the best GW has ever created. So yeah, Daughters is a very strong possibility. Then there's the Grotz. I already own a tonne of Night Gobbos so that's extremely helpful. I love most of the new stuff coming out too. That Loonking is awesome. Plus they're funny. I'm not the most competitive player in the world and definitely like a themed army and the Gloomspite Gitz totally have a theme. My big issue with them though is I have just done a heap of work on my 40k Orks and don't know if I could do another green horde. Night Haunt is another strong contender. They have an awesome model range that is both super easy to paint and, due to the AoS starter set, going to be really cheap to get. There's also Flesh Eaters Court. I used to play VC and always ran a Ghoul King (in fact that's where Jimzan the Everliving came from). He was a beast. I love the concept of a feral vampire. The "thing" in the night. Pretty damn cool. And then finally (and surprising to me) are The Blades of Khorne. I say these guys are surprising because I've never thought too much about Khorne. I guess it's always seemed a bit too similar play style to Orks. But in doing a bit of research on AoS these guys sound totally awesome in the fluff. I mean, post apocalyptic cannibal blood warriors? Fuck yeah! Plus I already have that Slaughter Priest that cam with a White Dwarf a while back and I imagine they'll be reasonably cheap too thanks to the old starter set. Hmmmm decisions decisions...

BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!

So these are my thoughts at the moment. As I said I'll do some other posts soon on my various 40k armies and keep you guys up to date with any hobby progress. Do you have any thoughts on where I should or shouldn't go with AoS? Am I missing something obvious? Anyway It's nice to be back. Hope you all are well and wishing you all the very best for the New Year. And always, keep dem dice rolling.

Cheers,
Jimzan