The Nerdsletter: The Saga of 2022 (April 2022)

Hey everyone, Clay here (obviously). Today I am going to break down just how my 2022 has been going, and what changes will be happening going forward. There has been…a lot of shit in my life as of late. In fact, the reason I am doing this as a written post instead of a video is because when I tried to do this as a video it came out to nearly an hour long and a mess of rambling distractions.

Also, this blog / website is going to be getting a lot more use, more on that in a bit.

Now, I am going to try to break up all the things that have occurred in 2022 in the past (checks notes) 3ish months by thing. The major thought I want you dear reader to keep in your head is that most of these events happened simultaneously with each other. While I have broken up each event / saga into its own part, keep that in mind. All this shit was happening intermixed with each other.

Just a warning. This post gets long. Like…really fucking long. Holy shit its just…long.

January and the Burnout Issue

This is most likely the simplest thing to go over. At the tail end of 2021, I started to realize I was mentally and physically exhausted. I was, in a word. Burned out. I even put out a Nerdsletter Video at the time detailing it, which you can view here:

Now, thankfully, as I took time off into February I started to feel better and more creative. Energy started to return, and I started to plan out new videos and things. However, everything that happened next put an absolute stop to most of this.

The Saga of My Teeth

During the month of January I noticed I was starting to have some cold sensitivity in my upper right back teeth. It was minor, and only seemed to trigger when I drank ice cold water. Food, pressure, heat, none of that caused any pain or bother. However, as I got into February the sensitivity got worse, and worse, slowly and surely. By mid Feb, room temp water would cause the pain, and the pain itself got worse. I knew that I had an appointment with my Dentist for a teeth cleaning in late Feb, so I figured I would tough it out till then and have them look.

The day of that appointment came, and I went in to have the dentist look at it and clean my teeth. By this point, cold foods as well as pressure was starting to cause pain flareups, and I was stressing out because of this and all the other things happening at the time. The news was not good.

While all my wisdom teeth have come in and are not impacted or screwy, the upper right one had broken. Further still, the molar directly next to it had a cavity so large it was irreparable. I was going to have to get both teeth removed. And my dentist flat out told me that he did not remove wisdom teeth, and I would need to see an oral surgeon.

That next monday, I called the surgeon he referred me to after verifying it was in my dental network, and they proceeded to warn me that the earliest they could see me was MID APRIL. Turned out, this surgeon was one of the highest rated ones in my city, and was insanely popular. They then told me they would put me on a list for a call if a sooner appt opened, which I did. 20 minutes later, I got a call that they could see me that Thursday, so I took it.

My wife comes with me at this point, as we both know she will have to drive me home most likely from the surgery. We get there, and I am so stressed (I hate the dentist, for the record) that my blood pressure is through the roof AND I am visibly shaking, even though mentally I was fine. I just wanted to get this over with. It did not help that my tooth issues were getting worse.

The surgeon comes in for the consult, takes one look at my blood pressure, another look at me, and simply goes “We are gonna have to sedate you for the procedure, you clearly are not cool with this.”

They setup the surgery for the next week on Friday. In the week between my consult and that surgery the tooth got worse, and by the time I reached the surgery I was so over it that my blood pressure and everything was normal. Now, I wanna be clear, I have never been sedated prior to this, and I am nearly 40 years old. Here is what the entire process was like for me.

They strapped me in, hooked up the IV, started the sedation drip. I closed my eyes, heard them say they were gonna numb my gums, felt the injection of the numbing agent….and next thing I know they are saying “Ok you are done!”. NOTHING IN BETWEEN. Apparently, it took 20 minutes and no issues to remove both teeth.

After the surgery I spent the next 3 weeks, basically most of march, letting my mouth heal. Thankfully it went so well I had no pain, no swelling, nothing. If it wasn’t for the bloody gauze I had to change out after the surgery and the very visible missing teeth I would have almost not believed they did ANYTHING.

I am of course fully recovered now. But as I said, this is not the only thing that happened to me these past few months.

The KO / Age of Sigmar Saga

So lets go back to January. End of January I get my tax info and file my taxes. I get enough back that my wife gives me the go ahead to spend some on some Warhammer, and I decide (after a ton of research, and we will get to that) to buy into Kharadron Overlords for Age of Sigmar. I contact a guy I have used in the past who runs an online store to get some pricing. He tells me to send an official order, so they can have it on file and once I get paid they can ship it. So I did.

I got my money the next week around Feb 8th, and pay for the order. Now, one thing I want to mention here is that the order had an Estimated Ship Date, of Feb 22nd. I figured this was a placeholder, as they had setup the order without me paying and it would make sense to set a ship date super far out to prevent it from going out before they got their money. No biggie. However, the very next day I get a confirmation of payment with the statement of “We are just waiting for things to come in from Games Workshop!”

I quickly ask “Wait, you had to order things?” as this had not been told to me. Turns out, that Feb 22nd ship date was NOT a placeholder. That was the date they expected to get all the items I wanted in…but they did not bother to explain that. And every time I ask for updates going forward from this point, I get little joking updates.

Eventually the order does ship…on Feb 26ish. And it gets delivered 2 days before my Dental Surgery. By this point? I was so miserable and unhappy from everything that had been going on I didn’t even care. The entire process, combined with everything else had just sapped me of any joy I had of getting my order. They were placed on my shelf in their boxes. They are still there, waiting, along with 2 Gunpla kits.

But we are NOT DONE YET (jesus this year so far). Also, I will explain why I am on Age of Sigmar now. Don’t worry, we will get there in this giant ass mess.

The Rent Hike, Job Hunt, and Moving Saga

And on we go back to the start of February. My apartment allows me to renew up to 6 to 7 months in advance, so I figured I would contact them, get the rate, and possibly setup a renewal as my lease was up in September. Mainly to lock in a good low rent, as they always increase my rent. Generally $50 a month when I renew, that’s the USUAL rent increase.

Oh how I wish it was only $50 a month.

I contact them, and they get back to me….and they inform me due to the prices of every apartment complex in my city, they would want to increase my rent by $200 a month if I renewed. Further still, I only had that rate till May, as the summer was going to be ANOTHER rate hike. Now, to understand how rough this would be for me, I currently am the sole income source in my house. My wife had been working retail, but left back in 2019 to pursue some personal projects, and then by the time she was ready to re-enter the retail work force…COVID hit. And because I knew that we could afford to live without her working, I kept her home and did my job from home as well.

But now? That $200 increase would be doable…barely. Like, we are talking going to eating ramen every meal doable. It was just gonna break my income. So thus, we were left to figure out what we were gonna do.

After talking to my wife, we decided she would find a job, and then we would move out of the city. We figured given that everyone was SEEMINGLY desperate for workers, she would have no issues getting a new retail position. She only had to work part time. She first applied to a nearby grocery store, and found out they had walk in interviews. So the friday before I had to do my dental visit (the one mentioned earlier, where I found out about my teeth), she went to the walk in interview.

A week later, before my surgery, she was rejected. Mostly we think due to them wanting stock workers, and her telling them she couldn’t do that due to her knees being screwy.

It was also about this point, when I got my Kharadron Overlords order, that I realized that even though I now had the minis, it would be foolish to assemble them. I was planning to move in 5 months! It would be easier to move them in their boxes, same with the 2 Gunpla kits I still had yet to assemble. This realization did not help my mood or stress levels let me tell you.

We both agree that she shouldn’t try to find a job until after my dental surgery now, so we get through that, and a few days later she applies to Wawa, a local convience store chain. She gets rejected before even getting to an interview. At this point, it’s a week into March, and I am starting to realize if she doesn’t find a job soon, we will not be able to move simply due to not having the time needed to save to pay for movers, nor to pay for the OBSCENE deposits on apartments and homes people want. We are talking $1000 security deposits plus 1st months’ rent. Its insane.

Second week of March, that Friday. I have the idea to look and see if my company, which is needing more people, had any openings for customer service or data entry. Turns out, yes, we had spots open! So I get her to apply (this is the second time she has tried to get hired by my company, the first being almost 4 years ago now).

And I shit you not, this is the truth: She finishes the application online at 6:30pm at night, on a Friday. 6:33pm she gets an email, and a text, AND A PHONE CALL, all from a Recruiter from my company to call her back. It was literally 3 minutes from her hitting submit to the recruiter calling. She returns the call and discovers that we have an online hiring event happening the next week, the 16th of March, and he wants her to attend. They are doing on the spot interviews.

She of course agrees, and on the day of the interview she nails it (IMO), with the interviewer telling her “You are going to move on to the next step, and will hear from us in 2 to 3 weeks”.

So 3 weeks pass, and we hit April 6th, exactly 3 weeks later. My wife is stressing as we haven’t heard a single word, and she breaks down as she realizes that we cant move now. Its not going to be possible, as any job she gets will not give her time to apartment hunt, nor the time needed to save money. So we contact my complex, and sign a new lease starting in September, with a rent of $1023 a month (not including water, which is another $40).

She goes to take a nap to calm down…and during the nap gets a text and call from our friendly recruiter. All he says is “give me a call when you can”. She doesn’t wake up from the nap till 8pm, and we both agree that she should call around 9am the next day, as he works out of my home office and seems to be a late start.

We also both agree that it seems odd to have her call if they are just going to reject her (Which she feels is going to happen). Lo and behold, she calls, and they offer her a JOB! And her pay is nearly mine, meaning we are going to double our income! But…her start date is May 2nd, meaning we both were right, and there was no way we would be able to apartment search nor save money fast enough to move in August (which was the plan, since the lease would have ended in early September).

We made the right call, and we realize at this point we will at least have 17ish months to save, clear up debt, and find a place with cheaper rent and a more relaxed atmosphere. And probably a bigger place too! We will need a bigger one, as her position, unlike mine, requires her to take and make calls all day. And because of that she needs to be away from any real noise. Our place works for that, but it’s not ideal. A bigger place where she can have an office makes more sense.

So while this particular stress started horrible, at least THIS one had a happy ending…but this one has some other ramifications I will get into in a bit.

Age of Sigmar? Really?

Some of you have been paying attention to this blog of mine since I started it, back in May 2021. At that time, you might remember that I was completely focused on Warhammer 40k. Its nearly a year later, and I have gone through quite a bit. So let me lay out the timeline of events that lead me to where I am now, buying into Age of Sigmar, and specifically the Kharadron Overlords. I have learned a lot about what I look for in a miniatures wargame, the kinds of things that attract me to them, and why each thing prior to AoS has failed me.

When I was first getting back into Wargaming, what got me to even consider it was the plethora of Battle reports on YouTube, the VAST MAJORITY of which are Warhammer 40k focused. Seriously, finding video battle reports or discussion vids on anything outside of 40k is pretty damn hard. It did not help that I did not have much of an interest in Old World Warhammer Fantasy, and because of that I dismissed Age of Sigmar out of hand. 40k was the game, clearly. I knew very little of its lore, but I knew I liked how the models looked. Hence my eventual purchase of a Space Marine Blood Angels Combat Patrol, Space Marine Codex, and 40k Core Rulebook.

I enjoyed putting the Space Marines together, but then as I tried to get into the backstory and lore I found it…not to my taste. Turns out, 40k really is Grimdark to the point where there are no real good people, no good guys. I could barely bring myself to slog thru the lore and history in the 40k Core Book, because it was just too damn depressing. Maybe as an angry teenager it appealed to me, but now? No. It also did not help that I found that 40k seemed to attract…sweaties for lack of a better term. People who are super hyper competitive. The game itself is built to cater to those people, and the community around it just did not make me want to engage with it.

So I started trying to find something where the story and world appealed to me. I came across Kings of War, and instead of really looking into the models I figured I would start with the world! Clearly, models were not the issue (foolish of me, we will get to that) but I needed to engage with the factions and world to dig into a game. And Kings of War has that. It has actual good guys, and bad guys, and a decent world, and interesting characters! The things I felt 40k was missing. I quickly found the faction I loved, the Order of the Green Lady. Hell, I like it so much I wrote bloody fiction introducing it!

But then I ran into an issue. It’s not an officially supported faction, meaning Mantic Games doesn’t produce official minis for it. Now, for some people, this is not an issue. 3D Printing exists obviously! But after months of me digging and trying to find minis that would fit what I was after to start playing…I couldn’t locate ANYTHING that felt good. I would find 1 or 2 here and there, but then nothing that would match then, visually.

At this point, Deadzone 3rd Ed got announced, and I was like “Ok this is a skirmish game, I like that. This is Mantic, so the lore is prolly good, and looking at the model lines I like the Asterians and the Rats…. Lets dig into the lore”. So I started doing just that. And I found another universe I liked, with good and bad guys, interesting twists on classics (Asterians, for instance, are Space Elves who fight via Robot Proxies, cause why would you risk your long lived low birth rate race in a fight?!). I bought the starter, even unboxed it on Youtube…and then found that the Asterians were sold out everwhere at the time. And that the way Mantic produces minis is…not a fun thing to try to assemble.

And, as I had already learned, I liked the assembly process the most.

CRAP.

At this point I was ready to just…give up. I was hitting the point of Burnout in general as well, which did not help. Then I noticed people discussing Age of Sigmar again, and I saw a picture.

This is not the picture I saw, exactly, but something similar.

I had no idea what the hell that was, but my brain was screaming THIS IS AWESOME. So I started to dig a little, and discovered what Age of Sigmar was all about.

By now, however, I had figured out exactly what I had wanted with a miniatures game. Let me lay that out before we continue.

• I wanted models that I liked the look of, that were interesting to assemble, and that I would want on my shelf. Painted or not
• I wanted a world where there were good guys, or at least not raging racist assholes. Sorry 40k but you uhhh you got issues.
• I did NOT want to have to hunt for minis myself. And I wanted something supported.
• I wanted a game that had a community not purely focused on hardcore competitive play

Age of Sigmar fit literally all these things. I spent a few weeks watching a ton of Age of Sigmar battle reports, from channels like Seasons of War, Guerilla Miniature Games, and Miniwargamer.com learning about the different factions and things. I chatted with friends of mine about the various factions, and researched the actual miniatures lines.

I ended up finding 2 factions that visually interested me: Cities of Sigmar and Kharadron Overlords. I bought a KO ebook, and read it, and enjoyed it. I found the dwarves to be very interesting, and realized that the model I had seen was one of theirs. With the help of a friend (who shant be named) I got ahold of the Codexes for both Kharadron and Cities…and read them literally cover to cover. No, seriously. Where I could not even begin to care about the Space Marines and barely had touched my codex, I CONSUMED the KO and Cities ones. It was also here where I discovered the concept of allied armies, and all that jazz, and learned that Cities had an option (Tempest Keep) where you could actually bring in KO units and treat them as full on Cities units. DOPE.

I ended up finally settling on KO for one simple reason: Lack of choice. I know, seems odd, but with Cities I kept bouncing between choices. Did I want Anvilguard and their creepy hydra? Do I want classic dwarven might? Do I want a mix? Do I want Greatswords? What do I WANT! ANALYSIS PARALYSIS GO!

KO was MUCH simplier. BOATS. Give me BOATS. ALL THE FUCKING BOATS!

I actually WANTED to assemble, and even paint, the KO models I had seen. And that was when I finally dropped the money for, no joke, exactly 1k points of KO (at least by 2nd Ed AOS standards, KO doesnt have a 3rd Ed Battletome yet).

What did I get?

I got a Start Collecting Box, which contains a Gunhaular, 3 Endrinriggers, 5 Thunderers, and an Endrinmaster. I then also got a second Gunhauler, a Frigate, and an Aetherkhemist. 1000 points, and a fully playable army under Barak Urbaz (Gunhaulers are Battleline under them). My next purchase will be an Ironclad, which will bring me straight to 1500 points.

Everything I have seen of AoS, overall, has been positive, unlike a lot of the vitriol I see around 40k, nevermind 40k’s competative obsession. And it helps that both KO and Cities are actually, for the most part, “good guys”. Sure, the KO trade with some…dubious people, but hey, coin is king am I right? They at least have honor.

What comes next for Terminally Nerdy?

And finally we reach the end of this madness. Its April 10th, 2022 as I write this. And I am sure you are curious where the hell I am, and where the hell I am going, after ALL OF THAT.

Well, first and foremost, I am getting back to content creation. But not in the way I have been these past 2 years. See, with my wife working from home and being on the phone, we run into an issue: privacy. We both will be working in Healthcare, and there are legal issues surrounding privacy. Because our hours will be different (me ending work almost 4 hours earlier then her) I cannot safely record anything really, as there is a risk of protected information being picked up. Nevermind my voice being picked up by her system! I can listen to stuff with headphones on but thats it, even with her in another room (which she will be). The only times I would have to work on videos now would be the weekends. When we are both off work and spending time together!

I have spent most of this weekend considering this, and finally came to the conclusion that it might be best to go back to what I used to do, which is writing. You are going to notice in the coming weeks a bunch of reviews going up on this site. These are older reviews that I wrote back when I had a previous blog (now gone) that I saved, and I figured I might as well start “seeding” this blog with that sort of content.

Further still, there will be more hobby stuff going up here. Pictures of Gunpla kits put together with reviews on them, musing about Age of Sigmar as well as fiction around it, all that jazz.

I am not going to lie either. Youtube has gotten to be a pain in the proverbial ass for me. Writing scripts is the easy part of making those video reviews, and I write them as if they were written reviews TO BEGIN WITH. I am not going to remove the channel, as I may end up making occasional VLog type videos there, but by and large?

My work is moving back to written. It just makes more sense. Now, that may change a bit down the road when we get a new place, depending on how it feels there, but honestly I may just stick with this. My fanbase has never been large, honestly, and now a days I dont have any real hope to become a “Youtube Content Creator”. All I want to do is write, and enjoy my time in this hobby now.

Hell I wrote this entire post while waiting in queue for Final Fantasy 14 dungeons to pop! Oh god 6.1 is coming out in like 2 days HYPE I am so ready for that. New adventure!

So expect my future reviews, first impressions, nerdsletters, all of that to end up here. You can follow me on twitter, or just setup an email subscription if you want to get notified when I post. Or just visit occasionally! Its all the same to me really.

And if you actually got this far? If you read this entire thing?

HAM SAMMICH. I will not explain further.

Thinking bout Hobby Stuff

This post will most likely be a bit more rambly, a bit more stream of consciousness.  I am sure all the bots who keep liking my blog posts will enjoy reading this and liking it.

I am constantly tempted by GW models.  I cannot lie, they are pretty badass.  But the online community makes me hesitant.  Thankfully, one of the few people I have found here in my area that I chat with on occasion basically confirmed that we don’t have a Nazi/Fashy problem in our area.  There is apparently one dude who you never wanna talk Star Wars with for the usual reasons, but beyond that people are pretty chill.  That’s good to know.

The more I think about what I want out of the hobby of Wargaming, the more I start to realize I was going about things in the wrong way, for me.

See, when I think about it….I don’t really care about playing any particular wargame.  Sure, I would like to push my little plastic men, for whatever game I play, around and roll dice.  But I don’t really care if I never do.  Part of that of course is the entire pandemic, with new variants coming out and the threat of infection (yes I am vaccinated, and wear my mask when I go out, and will be getting a booster when I can) looming above my head make me not want to go out in public spaces on a whim.

The other part of that, however, is that what I really want out of the hobby, as weird is it may seem, is that I just want to build and collect.

When I put my Combat Patrol together, I had a blast.  It was frustrating at times, sure.  These are tiny ass miniatures and I have giant shovel hands, and I was (And still am!) really proud that I put them together!  I got, what, about 20 total space marines, and a tank.  And then I sat down and…had zero urge to paint them.

Why was that, I wondered?  I did paint 2 of the space marines.  Posted pics of em here and on Instagram and everything.

I am not against painting.  I want to paint.  But I also…don’t really care about the space marines.  This got me to thinking about why.

When I first started this I had a whole long list of posts breaking down different factions and what I was considering, with the intent being to play Kill Team first and foremost.  And then the new edition of Kill Team hit, and what interested me ABOUT Kill Team was…gone.  And then I found out about Deadzone, and read up on the factions, and ended up going in on that.  Leaving me with a set of space marines that I have very little interest in.

Wanna know the best part?  The factions I listed back when I started this blog?  The Tau, the Chaos Space Marines, the Tyranids, and the Space Marines?  Not a single one of those are the faction that, back in May, had me looking at 40k in the first place.

That faction was the Adeptus Custodes.  Which I avoided because, in my research on Kill Team, I discovered that they were…not the best at that and bad for beginners.  Mostly because a Kill Team of Custodes is like…3 dudes.

But as a full army?  They fit everything I had wanted.  Easy to Paint?  Yea just spray paint em gold and add some color.  Low model count?  Yea 2000 points is like 20 dudes and maybe a tank or two.  Hyper Elite warriors that are individual by design?  Yea that’s awesome.

I avoided em cause EVERYONE was like “no no they are not great for newbies”.  Mistakes were, of course, made.

Because in my heart, I always knew I wanted to be a Custodes player.  So now I sit with some space marines that I will probably never use, wishing they were Custodes!  Live and Learn.

But you might have noticed I mentioned something before I went off on this tangent.  That I had the most fun assembling these minis.  Not many people it turns out like the assembly process, I have discovered.  Most wargamers are either super into painting, or super into playing.  But actually putting these little models together?  Not something many enjoy.  I appear to be an outlier in that regard.

To go alongside that, a few nights ago now I ran across a Youtube vid by Adam Savage Tested.  It was one of those Youtube Recs, and it was him building a “Perfect Grade Unleashed Gunpla” model.  I had never heard of these.  I knew, in passing, what Gunpla was at the time.  I knew it was gundam models, and I assumed quite a few things: that it was hyper expensive, that it was hyper complicated, and you had to paint the models.

None of those for the record is true.  I ended up sharing the vid with a buddy of mine named Rich who I knew built Gunpla.  This caused a discussion that ended up with me researching Gunpla to see just what it was all about.

First, there are grades.  Perfect Grade Unleashed is the highest grade, the most complex to build, and the most expensive, yes.  But there are High Grade, which are more for newbies, and then Real Grade which are a little more complicated, then Master Grade which are larger and a bit more complicated, and then standard Perfect which are more complex and larger again.

And those High Grade / Real Grades?  Those run about $20 to $30 on average.  Master hits about $50.

Oh and they are snap fit, no glue needed, and already colored via the plastic itself.

This blew my mind.  As a kid I used to be into models, but it was always the act of building them.  Just like legos, really.  That was what attracted me to Wargaming in the first place.  You build these little dudes and then use them in a game?  That combined two things I really liked!

Now obviously Gunpla isn’t for gaming.  But its also something I could do to just…fill the want to build. 

Tomorrow, Saturday, I am hopefully gonna get a Gunpla model because, amazingly here in the US, freaking TARGET carries the damn things.  I am gonna try putting one together, and see how I feel about it.

I also came to some other conclusions while researching Gunpla

1. The Space Marines are getting shelved.  I got no interest in building up a force of em.
2. Deadzone is gonna fill my Skirmish Itch, and I am gonna go with Asterians as my faction (Smart Space Elves!)
3. I am gonna start looking at collecting Custodes for 40k, but focus on building and then painting them
4. Gunpla will, I hope, fill the itch to BUILD that I have more than anything
5. I am gonna focus on picking up things I wanna BUILD for ANY game vs stuff I wanna play with first and foremost
6. I will try to pick up one thing to build each month, and do an unboxing of it, and MAYBE a build vid (if I can manage it). This could be Deadzone / Asterians, Gunpla, or Custodes.

I am also gonna stick to my goal to only play with Painted Models…..whenever I actually PLAY.  Which I don’t see happening any time soon.  So I am not going to stress not painting any of this stuff.

This entire journey continues to be a learning experience for me.  As I learn about myself, the things I enjoy and the things I want out of it, I feel better and better.

Kinda wish my learning didn’t cost me cash but hey, sometimes life lessons are expensive right?

Till next time, stay nerdy and treat each other kindly.

A Nerdsletter? In this Economy? Its more Likely then you Think!

Hey everyone, been a while since I updated this here hobby blog but honestly I havent had much to write about hobby wise, and I was testing out the idea of live nerdsletter chats (Which were ok, but I ended up just going full back into streaming). However, I finally have a few things I want to get out there, for anyone who cares to read these bloody things!

First, lets start with my hobby progress!

If you missed it, I have basically given up on 40k / AoS / Games Workshop games. Between the new edition of Kill Team coming out and its rules not fitting what I am interested in, the absolute horror that is the fanbase for Games Workshop, and the prices of the minis, I am just not interested in touching the game any further. I am in fact even considering running a giveaway or something for my few 40k bits just to clear shelf space.

Instead, I have dived into Mantic products, which are more affordable, the player base seems more…even keeled I suppose, and the actual games (Kings of War and the Warpath Universe) are very cool and have some fun bits, such as the Asterians who are space elves like Eldar…only they fight with ROBOTS because they realize BEING A LONG LIVED LOW BIRTH RATE RACE MEANS DOING THINGS SMART. Or the Marauders, which are space Orks…only they have actual brains and are savvy as hell. Kings of War has actual good guys, and bad guys, and even neutral armies! I mean, it inspired me to write some fiction for my eventual army…although that army is on hold because getting Kings of War stuff is kind of painful at the moment. COVID am I right?

What I did do, however, is buy the recent release of Deadzone 3rd Ed, the starter. I did an unboxing right here on Youtube, and I have decided that the aforementioned Asterians are going to be my personal faction in the “Warpath” universe, which contains the games Deadzone (Skirmish Game), Firefight (more 40k in scale), and Warpath (larger scale, supposedly kind of like 40k Apocalypse).

I have yet to put any of the minis or scenery in the starter kit together, however, as I am also waiting for a chance to get the upcoming Army Painter Speedpaints, which are what I want to use for painting the Vyr-meen and GCPS that came with my starter. I have read both the Deadzone rules and Faction books, and loved everything I have seen. The lore behind the Asterians spoke to me as a mix between the Tau, the Eldar, and just an intelligent ancient race. They are elves. They are long lived, but have incredibly low birth rates meaning every death is a massive loss. To counter this and fight, they use living pilots who control robots on the field (from orbit / away from the actual battlefield) instead of risking their own lives. Its really freaking smart, and makes perfect logical sense instead of, well, whatever the hell the Eldar do (ghosts or something if I recall). Also the Asterians are actual good guys. They want to stop the GCPS from expanding, conquering, and activing more sites that hold The Plague, this disease that mutates people and only the Marauders seem to be immune to. Because of course the GCPS, the human government made up of Corporations (oh hai capitalist hellscape) is doing evil shit.

Having clear good and bad guys is rather nice, and it removes the whole “this is satire” issue that seems to be plaguing 40k at the moment.

Ok enough about miniature shit. Lets move on!

TO FINAL FANTASY XIV ENDWALKER

ITS FUCKING GOOD AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH yes I finished the Main Story Quest already with my wife. It was perfect. Wonderful. A send off to the story that the game had been building. It put to rest pretty much every threat that had existed, leaving us open for something new. The music was great. The zones were great. My wife and I had an absolute blast and we just could not stop playing, and both of us are ready to level alts and get ready for the next adventure.

The only other things I really have to go over are as follows:

Streams will resume soon. My wife is looking for a job to help with bills, and will most likely work on Sundays. Assuming that is the case, Streams will be when she is at work. Current streamed game is Persona 5 Royal, New Game Plus

Reviews will be coming once a month starting in January 2021. First up will be Grim Dawn the ARPG with all expansions. After that will be EITHER Kingdom Hearts 1 Final Mix OR Persona 5 Strikers. Depending on my mood. I aim for 12 reviews (1 a month) for 2021, with streams hopefully weekly which are replacing the Lets Play episodes. Sure, they are longer, but they are also easier for me to handle at the moment, especially since I am only streaming for about 2ish hours at a time instead of my old 4 hour streams. Its all about balance!

Anyway thats whats going on here. How bout you? I hope you, dear reader, are doing well.

Thanks for reading.

Planning My First Thousand Points of Wardens of the Twilight Grove – Kings of War

So in my last post I talked about the why behind choosing the Wardens of the Twilight Grove, and my plans for Vanguard. But I am also planning to expand that out into a full Kings of War army. Now much of this post is going to be speculation as I am using the free rulebook as well as the Kings of War Army Builder to figure out ideas, but my intent here is to think out a good intro force that I can learn with, and paint up.

Lets start by reiterating my Vanguard Force:

• Exemplar 41 (Commander)
• Water Elemental 32 (Large)
• Devoted 26 (Spellcaster)
• 2 Mounted Knights 52 (Warriors)
• 3 Foot Knight 45 (Warriors)

So, the easy things there are the Foot Knights, Mounted Knights, and Water Elements. Each of those can be purchased in a Regiment size box directly from Mantic or various suppliers (since I am using Basilean Troops specifically for the Knights). That would also give me a total of 10 Mounted Knights (Basilean Paladins on Mounts), 20 Foot Knights (Paladins on Foot), and 3 Water Elementals.

The Exemplar and Devoted howerever, are gonna take a bit more planning. In a regular Kings of War army these are considered Heroes. In order to have access to them BOTH I would need to take 2 Regiments of something OTHER THEN Water Elementals. Water Elementals only unlock things in a Horde (6 total elementals)

Further, there are no actual minis for either of these. The Exemplar is kind of like a paladin, so I will most likely search for an option there. The Devoted is like a Cleric or Water Mage, so I will be hunting for that as well.

Now, these specific boxes alone, if taken with no upgrades, will hit about 585 points for a regular Kings of War force. If I am aiming for a starting army of 1000, which seems like a good starter number to get the hang of the game, I am going to need a few things.

One thing I want are Beasts of Nature. Taking those boxes as is, as Regiments, will prevent me from taking anything else as each Regiment taken (in this case, the Brotherhood and Brotherhood on Foot are 2 regiments with unlocks) only allows for 1 Hero OR 1 Monster. I am not worried about War Engines as the Order of the Green Lady has no war engines. So with this, I can get both the Exemplar of the Brotherhood and Devoted.

Now, what I could do, is upgrade that Regiment of mounted knights, the Order of the Brotherhood, into a Horde. This gives me a Monster choice. Doing that will give me access to a Beast of Nature, and if I upgrade that Beast with all its goodies (a ranged attack, wings, and increase its attacks) that puts me at 945 points. So what do I do with the remaining points?

Well, I can upgrade the Exemplar, the Foot Brotherhood, and the Mounted Brotherhood! Giving them all Vials of Sacred Water, as well as giving the Mounted Brotherhood the Banner of the Green Lady (giving them Pathfinder) brings me right up to 995!

This means that outside of what I wanted for Vanguard I would need a Beast of Nature model, and a second box of Paladins on Mounts.

So total models needed would be:

• Exemplar Mini (Greymor!)
• Devoted Mini (Cassandra? Maybe!)
• Beast of Nature Mini (Gunther!)
• 1 Regiment Box of Water Elementals (3 Elementals)
• 1 Regiment Box of Basilean Paladins on Foot (for the Brotherhood on Food) (20 per box)
• 2 Regiment Boxes of Basilean Paladins on Mounts (for the Brotherhood on Mounts) (10 per box, 20 total)

Total Minis: 46

I think this is doable to get started, and gives me a good core list to start with and build out from, adding more elementals (apparently Greater Earth Elementals are Titans!), Woodland Critters, Druids, Unicorns, and so on! Of course this is most likely not the most balanced or competitive list, but I aim for pulling double duty with my models as well as something I can grow with. I also happen to like the models I intend to use!

Now I just gotta find a good Exemplar, Devoted, and Beast of Nature mini to plan for.

This is what the list looks like, by the way. Taken from the Kings of War Army Planner:

995 / 1000 Points

Terminally Nerdy VS The Nerdsletter 8.28.21 & Holminster Switch FFXIV

Yes, this is a double video! You get to see a dungeon run via the Trust System in FFXIV, specifically Holminster Switch from Shadowbringers AND watch me tank it AND LISTEN TO MY NERDSLETTER ARE YOU EXCITED I BET YOU ARE!

Also if you want to read the short story I wrote and talk about, you can do so at this link: https://termnerdy.wordpress.com/2021/08/25/wardens-of-the-twilight-grove-kings-of-war-short-fiction/

Also also, Have you heard of the critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV? With an expanded free trial which you can play through the entirety of A Realm Reborn and the award winning Heavensward expansion up to level 60 for free with no restrictions on playtime?! You can find the free trial right here https://freetrial.finalfantasyxiv.com/download/?lng=en-us

Topics Covered in no particular order:

The Trust System in FFXIV and what it is!
My Plans for miniature wargaming & why I am moving away from 40k
Kings of War and the Brotherhood
Who are the Wardens of the Twilight Grove
My upcoming review and Lets Play plans (Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous, Encased, and Vagrus the Riven Realms)

I might do more of these video VLogs combined with Dungeon Runs via the Trust system if you all like this. Let me know in the comments.

Wardens of the Twilight Grove – Kings of War Short Fiction

The old man bent down to move the branch. The forest around him was dark, and the sounds of animals could be heard in the distance. The only noise nearby was that of the people following him. Gaerth, was his name, an old farm hand from Basilea. He and his charges had left Basilea for various reasons and had decided to make this journey together. Some, it was to escape a life of service. Others, it was a feeling they didn’t belong.

But all had heard the song.

There were eight people on this journey. To some place none of them knew existed for sure. A place that was named in the song they each heard. The Twilight Grove.

“Come,” said Gaerth, “the song is louder this way. I think we are nearing…whatever this is.”

One of the travellers, a young man in armor, sighed. “You ever wonder if this song is leading us to our doom? The church, well, I don’t think it would take kindly to this…” He scratched his chin, the faint shadow of stubble showing just how young he really was. “Sir Aeyrm always was warning me about temptation… but…”

The woman next to him adjusted the babe in her arms and sighed. “Thats what them priests want you to think. Or rather, don’t want you to really THINK! All I know is that when the mistress kept beating me and my son Lyle,” she gestured to the young boy following her “the song grew louder, and sadder.”

Gaerth nodded. “Aye lad. I think the song is leading us to somewhere…safe. Perhaps somewhere to belong.”

They spoke as they walked of small things. Their lives before leaving. Their hopes and dreams. Another hour passed as the darkness grew and everyone in their little band started to yawn.

“We have been travelling for a week now Gaerth.” Spoke a burly man in an apron. “I think we need to rest for the night.” Gaerth nodded. The Song was loud now. Almost painful in his head. It was joyous now, he knew that, when before it was full of longing.

As the group began to make camp, a noise in the bushes cause them all to freeze. It did not sound natural.

As they waited, the trees near them began to shake. The woman, Rosemarie, held her baby tight and pulled Lyle close to her. The man in armor, called Krinlye, drew a sword and held it in shaking hands.

Out from the trees came…a man in old Basilean armor, marking him as a paladin. The group stared. Had their masters noticed them missing and sent out a search party? Would they be dragged back in chains?

Then they all noticed the color of the mans tunic. It was not the bright blue of Basilea. No. It was purple, almost as dark as night. The knight stood silent, and next to him the bushes shook again. And a few moments later a large beast emeraged. It looked like a bear…but with the head of an owl. The group took a collective step back and this caused the knight to laugh. It broke the tension instantly.

“Oh don’t mind Gunther here! He is as gentle as can be as long as you don’t do anything foolish”. The knight spoke clearly, with kindness in his voice. “What brings you travellers out here so late?”

No one spoke. Gunther and the Knight waited. Finally, it was Lyle who simply said “The song! We hear a song! Don’t we Ma!” Rosemarie couldn’t respond. She was too busy staring at the creature known as Gunther.

The knight however, simply nodded. “Right then. I know what you seek. I heard it once, too. You seek the Grove.” Everyone in the group nodded mutely. The knight removed his helmet, reveling a head of blonde hair surrounding boyish features. He smiled. “My name is Sir Greymor. I am in service to the Grove. Please, follow me. Its not far.

They began to walk again. After several minutes, Gaerth spoke. “How…how did you find us ser?” He asked quietly. Greymor looked back and smiled “Me and Gunther here are on night patrol is all. You had reached the edges of where we keep watch, really. Wanted to see if you spelled trouble or not.” Gunther made a soft hooting noise, and Greymor laughed. “You are right, I dont think they are trouble!”

“Can you really talk to that creature?” asked Lyle. Greymor clucked his tounge and stopped. “Let me make one thing clear. Gunther is not a creature. He is a thinking being. Like you or me. You will learn such things, but keep this in mind. And yes, you will learn to talk to him and his kind too.” Gunther hooted again, a different sound, and Greymor nodded.

“Not far now! We can get you some beds and food, and rest once we arrive.”

The foliage had been growing thicker by the minute as they walked, but the group noticed that Gunther had taken the lead, and the branches and leaves simply seemed to open up in front of the group, and close back behind them. Finally, a few moments later, light could be seen.

And they walked into a huge open grove, with the sound of people. A small town, in the center of the dark forest.

In the middle of the grove stood a massive oak tree. Greymor turned, and bowed. “Welcome to the Twlight Grove. Its time to meet the Druid! Follow me.”

He lead them down towards the center of the Grove, passing small buildings and tents. It looked like any other town to the travellers, save that many of the buildings seemed to have been grown rather then built. They were clearly heading towards the tree, and Gaerth recognized it was an oak tree, but larger and more massive then any he had ever seen. Gunther and Greymor stayed quiet as they walked, and the group soon found themselves at the base of the tree.

To everyone’s surprise, Greymor walked up to the trunk, and knocked.

Lyle laughed. “Why are you knocking on the tree mister?” he asked.

Greymor smiled, and waited. And then, a form seemed to pull itself from the trunk and walk forward. The group gasped, as the form shimmered, and resolved itself into a woman with bright red hair. She smiled, and it was a motherly smile. “Well Greymor, Gunther, who have you brought today?”

“Lady Cassandra,” Greymor began, “They heard the Song.”

Cassandra’s eyes brightened. “Oh! They have come to join us! Welcome, friends, to the Twlight Grove.” She bowed, and the group stared. Minutes passed as Cassandra stood back up.

Finally Gaerth spoke up. “M’lady,” he began, “What is this song? It…has stopped since we walked in here. And what are you? How did you come out of the tree?”

“Well those are good questions to ask, I suppose!” Cassandra said. “The song, well, thats the Oak.” She waved a hand towards the massive tree. “It is the heart of the Grove, the source of its power, and an ancient protector of the forests. If you can hear its song, that means you belong here, with us. And I am a Druid, in the service of the Green Lady. It lets me wield the power and magic of nature.” Greymor nodded and added “You will find that many of us are from Basilea. The Oak’s song seems to pull more strongly from our ilk. Most of our Knights and other defenders are from there, so you will feel at home. But we are all in the service of the Green Lady, and the Grove.”

Nodding, Cassandra continued “Now, all we ask is that while you are here you contribute. Whether its farming, or smithing, or taking care of the sick and infirm, we only ask that you can do what you can. And to help protect the Grove, and the Forests, on behalf of the Green Lady. Beyond that, we share what we have.”

Krinlye raised his hand. “I was in training to be a knight back in Basilea. Do you all need people like me?” He looked at Greymor, and waited. “Aye lad! We defend the Lady’s forests, and we always need help. Anyone who wishes to provide military aid, and help with guarding the grove, you can come with me. The rest, well, Cassandra will help you get settled in.”

At that, the group began to disperse. A few went with Greymor, and they would become members of the Wardens of the Twilight Grove, defenders of the Green Lady’s lands and members of the Order of the Green Lady. The rest joined the people of the Grove, growing its population and hearing the Oaks song.

But those are tales for another time.

---

Just a little introduction to what I am considering my faction in Kings of War. The Order of the Green Lady. I had the idea of refugees from Basilea as a starting point for a force, as I like their models. This then grew, as I went to bed last night, into this concept. A subset of the Order who were focused in and around a Grove, protecting it and the region around it alongside the groves Druid. Thus was born The Wardens of the Twilight Grove.

Kings of War and the Orders

Sometimes, I get a little ahead of myself.  You might be aware of that, given how much nonsense went on with choosing my Warhammer 40k Faction back when I first started this blog 3ish months ago.

You might not.

But guess what?  IT HAPPENED AGAIN!  This time with Kings of War!

As I often do I dismissed certain factions / forces without even considering them.

At the top of this was the Basileans.  But my feelings have changed slightly, and that is because of my Uncharted Empires book and the Order of the Brothermark.

Before we discuss them however, lets discuss their brother / sister theme list, the Order of the Green Lady, as they are what caused me to start looking deeper into all the factions in my book and ultimately caused me to land where I have.

I was, as I said, looking into the Herd.  They are a theme list for Forces of Nature, a main faction in the Core Rulebook.  There is however another Theme List for Forces of Nature called “The Order of the Green Lady”.  I was curious what this theme list was, as if I was going to collect Forces of Nature and the Herd, I might as well consider the other theme option for more variety.  What I discovered was a force of mounted knights, in the service of the deity known as the Green Lady, this sort of nature goddess.  So, you could take mounted knights (badass!) alongside elementals.  So then this made me curious as to what the heck the Brothermark were.

Demon Hunting Knights.  That’s what they are.  In the service of a faction of…paladins and clerics and angels?!

How did I miss these?

See, in tabletop RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons and Pathfinder, as well as CRPGs like Kingmaker, Baldurs Gate, and Neverwinter Nights, I have a tendancy to play a very specific class: Clerics.

I have a thing for playing classes with high defense, healing, and sustain.  I love the idea of being this armored warrior you just cannot take down.  And as I started digging into the Basileans and their style, I realized that this was an entire faction of that.  Heavy armored characters, cool models, healing, defensive buffs, and so on!

Hell, even Vanguard feels that way.

I also have a thing for Mounted Knights.  I just think they look awesome!  Who doesn’t love the image of a horde of knights charging forward, lances at the ready?  And demon hunting, dragon hunting specialists?  That’s dope.

Plus, let’s be real: Armor is easier to paint then fur.  One thing that was stressing me out a bit was the idea of trying to figure out how to paint 2 tones of the color brown on furry creatures (whether ratkin or the herd) as well as the various plants and things that the Forces of Nature contain.  Elementals concern me for example.

Mind you, something I have not really brought up is the fact that, simply put, painting is optional with Kings of War.  Sure, Mantic encourages you to paint your armies, but you are not required to do so officially.  There are no rules about being Parade Ready or Battle Ready, no “3 color minimums”, no none of that.  IF you wanted to play with a big pile of grey plastic and bare metal in a tournament you could.  It’s your choice.

Now I still intend to paint my guys, but the idea that I could, say, skip a wash so I could keep them super bright appeals to me.  Yes, I prefer my minis without a shade paint / wash, I like how bright they look to me in that case.  I am weird I understand that, but tough!  They are my minis and I will paint them how I like!

Also, silver and gold armor with purple and orange cloth parts?  YES THAT SEEMS DOPE!

I am going to pick up the Core Rulebook next, and decide for sure, but Basileans might very well be where I end up, with a focus on the Brothermark.  LET LOOSE THE HORSES OF WAR!

Also, seriously. Look at these official models from Mantic for the Basileans (taken from their website directly). DOPE.

I do want to add that Order of the Green Lady is also still on the table here. While the Basileans are visually stunning, Green Lady does have more overall options, and I do like quite a few units from the Forces of Nature, I am just worried about being able to really paint them. They share the same Vanguard Warband options so that doesnt actually matter too much either, so I could literally buy a Basilean Warband starter if I wanted and run it as “Brotherhood” to start.

The Nerdsletter 8/8/21 – Warhams, Kings of War, and Wild Myths

Alright so not much has gone on this week. First off, in case you missed it, here is last weeks “Nerdsletter” which was in video form, more or less.

Now that we have that out of the way! Lets talk games! First, Chernobylite. I was going to try to at least get a first impression video out on it but sadly the game makes me motion sick too fast for me to really do footage capture. So here is my little review: Its a great interesting game that takes the best concepts of Fallout 4’s Settlement building and combines them with an interesting take on survival horror / stalker esque gameplay. Discreet levels, wonderful visuals and atmosphere, both english and russian voice acting thats really solid, and as far as my 2 hours went, bug free. Runs good too! Gunplay was also fun and the story was cool. I just get motion sick within 10 minutes trying to play it.

In the world of Final Fantasy, I now have 3 classes at 80: Samurai, Red Mage, and Dancer. I really love the Samurai, and I think its going to be my primary class going forward, with Red Mage and then Dancer after it. Which is funny, considering I have both my Resistance Shadowbringer Relics for Dancer and Red Mage. The grind was real for those!

I am also dabbling in Warframe again, mostly as a grinding “turn off my brain” game. Its helpful for me to relax as my day job has gotten markedly more intense as far as workload / requirements, and I find myself stressed out more often then not.

Finally, I have started recording the Wildermyth Lets Play for my channel. I am doing a 5 Chapter Random Campaign, and have gotten thru 2 chapters (6 episodes). That will not be released at all until I have finished the playthrough AND my Patrons have gotten access to the full LP. This is how I am going to do Lets Plays going forward. Shorter games (20 hours or less), where I play the whole game, record my playthrough, and THEN upload it for my Patrons, and THEN a week or two later start releasing every episode daily till its done. This is not the most effective way as far as YouTube is concerned, but whatever.

Finally, lets talk minis!

I haven’t been in the mood this week to finish my Impulsor, nor have I had a chance to pick up the Army Painter Daemon Yellow Primer Spray (and paint). My current plan of course is to use that primer spray to base everything in the yellow, and then add the details on top of that.

Additionally, I have been researching other games. And not for the reason you might think (no I dont really care about the whole IP thing, its nothing new for me as a Gaming Youtuber).

I have always intended to play both a Sci Fi and Fantasy Wargame. For Sci Fi I have obviously gone with 40k. I like the design of the minis, the lore, and all that jazz. But Age of Sigmar is kind of….eh. I like the Orruks design, and thats about it really. And as I have delved back into the hobby that is Miniature Wargaming I have realized that my interests have changed slightly. Back in May when I first decided to get back in, I figured my interest would be Play, then Assemble, and then finally Paint.

But thats not what has happened.

Rather, I find myself enjoying Assembly, then Painting, and then yea I want to play but….I kind of want to collect things first.

Because of this interest shift, I find myself wanting to like the look and lore of my minis / army more then how they play. And realizing that, combined with my general dislike of how the Age of Sigmar designs stand, caused me to rethink that game. Then I saw a tweet by Mantic Games about their new upcoming Halfling and Salamander minis for Kings of War. I wrote a bit about the Kings of War vs Age of Sigmar here, but as I have delved into both the main Kings of War game and the skirmish game, Vanguard, I have found myself drawn to it. Firstly, I love MANY of the armies and minis. Not just one faction at all, but like…most of them! Its actually hard for me to say “This faction, looks wise, is my jam” because A LOT of them are!

I mean, just look at these!

Riverguard Dambuster

Nightstalkers Dreadfiend

Rhinosaur Cavalry Regiment

Dwarf Steel Behemoth

Veer-myn Tunnel Runner Formation

Those are all from different armies, and all look badass. This makes me want to assemble and (poorly) paint them.

The rules are also pretty interesting. Vanguard is pretty damn cool (I have read the free rules they have online), and the main Kings of War game is more classic WHFB with regiments and the like then Age of Sigmar. But even then, Kings of War by design is also minis agnostic. You wanna play with a weird mini you found on the Reaper site or one of your Games Workshop ones or something else? As long as you clearly tell your opponent what it is, go nuts. 3D Print your army if you care to. As long as they are based properly (and they have this whole Multibasing rule where you can basically build a diorama out of your unit, its wild) the rules dont care.

I am thinking I am gonna get into at least Vanguard, maybe for one or two factions, and build from there. And given the cost (seriously, Kings of War is way cheaper then GW) it will let me build out a bit faster then I first thought.

No, I am not abandoning my Void Breaker 40k Space Marines. I am gonna collect them too. But for a fantasy game, I am definitely leaning towards Kings of War / Vanguard. Hopefully there are a few players here in Orlando. But if not?

I am happy just to collect, build, and paint if nothing else. And thats good enough for me.

Till next time, thanks for reading everyone!

The Kings of War vs the Age of Sigmar

UPDATED April 2022: See this post for my updated feelings on AoS cause boy howdy have they changed – https://termnerdy.wordpress.com/2022/04/10/the-nerdsletter-the-saga-of-2022-april-2022/

As I plan to paint my 40k Combat Patrol, my thoughts turn to Fantasy games.  I have been planning to play both a Sci Fi game (40k) and a fantasy type miniatures game.

Honestly, up till today, I figured Age of Sigmar was pretty much the only fantasy game option outside of Warmachine / Hordes.

And then I saw this tweet by Mantic Games, the creators of a game called Kings of War, and I was curious.

Now, as far as Age of Sigmar goes, it seems like a good game!  Really it does!  But there is one slight issue….I am not a huge fan of the minis design.  They seem fiddly, spindly, and in some cases bland.  Sure, the Orruks are cool but most of what I like the look of tend to be the monsters and not the rank and file.  Which is bad when you need to collect o so many models and paint them!

As I browsed the Kings of War site and its range however, I found tons I liked the look of.  There are Frog Riders, giant Lizardmen, angry Rat Swarms, demons, undead, and more!  Elementals as well!  Just lots of really cool looking minis.

Course, the other major issue is whether or not there is a player base in my area, but turns out there is at least a Facebook Group specifically for Floridian Kings of War players.  Hell there is even a Skirmish game for Kings of War called Vanguard, so if I wanna play small scale Warcry / Killteam styled games, I could.

Finally something I have to consider, is the simple fact that Kings of War, cost wise, seems a bit cheaper then Age of Sigmar.  Given that I am already giving GW money for 40k, giving another company some support so they can make cool games and minis also doesn’t seem too bad.

I am gonna do some more research and maybe read the free Kings of War and Vanguard Rules (you can download em) and see how I like it.  It definitely is more old school Warhammer Fantasy in style as well, with rank and file and regiments and all that jazz.

A lot of what I need in a miniatures game has to do with lore and visuals to be quite honest.  I need to like what I am putting together and painting, and I need to enjoy fielding them on the board.

I am not sure AoS is gonna fit me in that way.

Visiting Campus Cards and Games in Orlando

While I don’t have a typical Nerdsletter this week simply due to the fact that nothing major has been occurring in my life, I figured I would write a little bit about my first visit to one of the FLGS in my area, Campus Cards and Games. Now this store has 2, yes 2 Discord servers, one devoted to Age of Sigmar, and one for 40k. And today, the 26th, the store was running a 40k GT.

After I took my car in for service, I decided to stop by all sneaky like, and peek into the store! As no one in the discord has ever seen my ugly mug I was pretty sure I could pop in, look around, and pop out before anyone cottoned to who I was.

Around 10am I popped up. The outside of the store is nothing special. Its across from one of our “private” colleges Full Sail (where they film WWE NXT!) and near a Geek themed bar called The Geek Easy. Once I walked in one of the employees greeted me, and I was fairly impressed. While there did not seem to be a lot of product, I imagine it was due in part to the tourney. The front half of the store had around 8 to 10 (I cant recall exactly) 40k setups and all were filled. Further, down a short hallway with vending machines was an entire back play area that had 2 more tourney games going, a big ass monster poster of the Sword Coast, and some banners of the various Magic the Gathering Mana Symbols.

Two things that I was very pleased to see, however, was a sign requiring masks inside the store even now (when Florida is claiming COVID is all over and everything is fine…its not) AND a sticker proclaiming the store to be an LGBQT Safe Space and to report any harassment or hate to the staff. This was good to see. The other store I visited recently, Coliseum of Comics, had employees running around without masks, and were no longer requiring them in store…which makes me nervous. I may be officially vaxxed now but I am still wearing a mask. Take no chances!

The store had a cozy feel yet also felt large enough to house the 20+ people that were running around for the tourney. I made sure to not really interrupt anyone, although on guy who I recognized from the Discord gave me a fist bump (Hi Viking) before continuing his game.

When I finally get ready to play I think I will have a good time here. The discord has been very friendly, and the atmosphere in there was really good! Everyone was kind, I heard opponents making sure their adversaries didnt miss things (like a guy reminding a sisters player of his special abilities, even during a tourney), and stuff like that.

Was a bit dark in places though, despite the huge windows. Could have been the fact that we had storm clouds though.

Anyway, that was basically all I did this weekend! Till next time.