GenCon 2018

Welcome to GenCon 2018

Last year I broke the GenCon wrap up post into a multi-part series.  This year I'll try to do it in one shot.

First, some shout outs to: the Dog Might Games Viking Crew, the Miniature Monthly crew, Panda Cult Games, TTCombat, Ninja Division, Flying Frog, HipLein Industries, and the filthy casuals in the Council of Moo gang.

OVERVIEW: 
This was our 5th GenCon.  Which doesn't sound like a long time, but it means half a decade of travelling to downtown Indy.  It's been long enough that the years are starting to blur together a bit, and I actually had to go look up whether this was year 5 or 6.

Each GenCon is a little bit different for us.  Each year tends to compound a little bit more on the ones prior, like rings inside a tree.  There's a foundation of earlier years forming the layers of our experience, and each year we build another layer.

Early on, GenCon was about meeting up with old friends, mostly from our college days, and investigating new products, new ideas, and absorbing as much knowledge as we could about various product lines.  Since we were new to the scene, nearly EVERYTHING was new and GenCon was almost overwhelming in scope.  But with repetition, we're now looking for the deltas - the differences - from prior years and focusing more on the new growth.

Last year was a pivotal year; in 2016-2017 we continued to step away from PC games as our primary hobby and Games and Painting took on a more prominent role in our free time.  Through Kickstarter and online news venues, we started to understand the people and stories behind the companies we loved.  So, GC2017 was about meeting as many of our "heroes" as we could, and just being fanboys a bit. GenCon became a place where we were within a few feet of people we had read about, and that became a little surreal.

In the 12 months since last year's event - thanks to the classes we've taken and online groups we've joined - we've continued to build new relationships and have met more people "in the industry."  I don't mean to convey by any stretch that we're "important people" but a big change this year was that at several booths we had people recognize us on sight.  Or we would see them in the hall after hours and they'd flag us down to chat.  My point is that a big part of 2018 was about gabbing with new friends face to face, as well as spending time with our old friends, and overall that changed the tone of the event for us, in a good way.

THURSDAY:
Thursday was a shopping day.  Thanks to a huge traffic jam in Indy, we arrived later than expected, but still well ahead of the vendor hall opening.  We found our place nearest the Kingdom Death and Ninja Division booths and happily chatted with people around us.  It was apparent that everyone around us was heading to either KDM or Steamforged.

Obligatory "sea of nerds" photo. This was taken a few minutes before doors opened on Thursday.

My initial line position for the Kingdom Death booth.  A bit worse than last year. The end of the line is (I think) near the far wall.

The doors opened and we surged forward; I went straight to the KDM booth.  My line position was a little worse than last year, but I landed between two guys that I stood in line with last year.  We chatted our way to the front of the queue.  Unfortunately, the early line was full of people with shopping lists for themselves and their friends and the line moved slowly as people moved to the cash register with (quite literally) armloads of Kingdom Death.  And I mean armloads ... boxes balanced in a big heap and tumbling off the top of the stack while the person carrying them tried to use their chin to stabilize the pile. Insane amounts of money changed hands.

GenCon Kingdom Death menu.

Some beautifully painted (and based) KDM minis in the booth.

I finally got to the front of the line - about an hour and forty five later - and managed to snag a few hard to find resins (Ringtail Fox Survivor in particular).  I landed in the cash register line behind a young man and his girlfriend apparently buying everything in the store.  Nothing about their transaction was easy or fast.  They had a long conversation with the cashier about other items they may have missed.  Then they insisted every box be opened to ensure all figures were molded properly.  Then they paid in cash - in $100 bills - prompting every bit of currency to be checked, and there was a question about whether one of the $50 bills was counterfeit.  After 20+ minutes of waiting for this one transaction I was ready to give a mighty war cry and commit bodily harm upon them, but finally they were done and I was on my way.

KDM Loot:  TOP (L-R) - Dragon Armor Kit, Dark Elf Variant, Dark Elf, Sci-Fi Savior.  BOTTOM (L-R) Echoes of Death, Percival, White Knight, Ringtail Fox Survivor, Death High Whitespeaker

SoB and Broken Token Loot:  LEFT (top to bottom) Lost Army Hell Cannon, FoFo Deapth Track, Bone Eaters, RIGHT (top to bottom) Trederran Raiders, and two Broken Token Paint Racks

Dropfleet Loot:  LEFT:  Scourge and UCM Destroyers, UCM Battleship, UCM Battlecruiser.  PLASTIC BAGS:  UCM and Scourge Kickstarter Exclusives, Remnant Centurion, and Princess Liner.

I met up again with Mrs. Zoxe, and the rest of the day was random hopping to specific booths.  Of particular note, I went to the TTCombat booth to pick up just a couple of Dropfleet ships to round out my collection but walked away with a bag full.  They were selling off the Kickstarter and Web Store exclusives that I'd quite possibly not see again.  We paused briefly to line up for a book signing with James S.A. Corey of the Expanse series.  We were 2nd in line and got a little bit of 1:1 interaction.  Then we hit the food trucks for dinner and then collapsed.

Autographs from the pair of guys that write under the pen name James S.A. Corey.

FRIDAY:
Up early, and attended a podcast recording session with James S.A. Corey.  This was interesting to watch - sound checks and a live interview environment - but it was apparent that the authors were uneasy and there was zero interaction with the audience.  So while we learned some things, it still felt sort of false/artificial and wasn't much different than watching a youtube video.  I came away vaguely disappointed.

James S.A. Corey doing a podcast recording. The bandannas are holding their mics. The recording went well but at points this was brutally awkward for the guys and there was near zero audience interaction.

We hit the show floor and walked the entire venue from row 100 to 3000.  Did the KDM Black Knight demo.  The Black Knight is my single most favorite KDM figure, and I'm really excited by the gameplay his expansion will offer.  But the encounter was intentionally overtuned and completely gored us in 2 rounds.

KDM Black Knight demo. In production, the terrain will likely be cardboard. One of the mechanics is he picks you up and throws you through the pottery and columns and generally smashes the place to bits.  Super fun (and deadly).

Better shot of the KDM demo.

In late afternoon, we met up with friends and walked to the JW Marriott to find an unused ballroom.  A couple of us taught an another how to play X-Wing and I gave him a core box that I had abandoned.  Someone produced a copy of Unearth and taught us to play; really enjoyed this game.  Then assembled as a larger group of old friends at a local hipster taco bar (for lack of a better descriptor) and had too many margaritas and some really excellent tacos.  Returned to the same JW ballroom to play Fallout.  We stayed until well past midnight, but had a 20 minute walk to the car and a decent drive to our bed since we don't stay downtown. My head hit the pillow at 1:30 am and we had to be up early the next morning.

SATURDAY:
Up too early and still feeling the margaritas, I skipped breakfast and we ventured down for our Q&A Session with James S.A. Corey.  This was the interactive session I was looking for and really enjoyed them.

Q&A with James S.A. Corey. This was a lot more fun than the Podcast.

We putzed around most of the day and tried to find things we'd missed on Thurs and Fri.  In late afternoon, the winners for the Shadows of Brimstone painting contest were announced, and I'm happy to say that I won the Brimstone Bounty (squad) category (!!!!).  This was the super-secret GenCon Project #1, and I'll post some pictures later on.

My minis in the Flying Frog case (mine are on the right on the wooden stand).  I'll post separately on the theme and execution of the project.

We again met friends again at the JW for after hours gaming and Dead of Winter was brought out.  We played the intro scenario, had the win condition met, but lost in the final accounting of the round due to the order that certain things triggered.  I liked this game but I spent a lot of resources at the start that I might have held onto longer.

SUNDAY:
Back for the final day.  We had no events, and sat in the gamer hall and talked with friends until about 11.  We went over for the winners of the Ninja Division painting contest, and I'm proud to say that Mrs. Zoxe took 3rd in their diorama division (!!!!).  We then wandered around and  demo'd the Screaming God expansion for KDM and really loved this encounter as well.  This one was tuned to be winnable and while I died horribly my party was successful.  We finally called the convention done and departed around 2pm.

KDM Screaming God demo. The setup is that the horde of angry antelope are stampeding and chasing you (and the boss) as you hunt.  The terrain walls move to the left 6 spaces every turn, so part of the challenge is playing Frogger to avoid hitting a wall.

Victory!  I was impressed with this; the demo served some nice future content but also required the players to use some advanced gameplay (spending survival) that normally isn't demo'd.

OBSERVATIONS and CLOSING REMARKS:

The Blizzard Booth in the back of the Gamer's Hall was a new addition. Each year this area has a few more "content" booths, which is blurring the lines between the Vendor Hall and the Gamer Hall. It's not a bad thing, just a trend I've noticed. 

The booth was popular all weekend, though there weren't any events, it was just straight up Blizzard merch and a small area to play Hearthstone.

Observations and comments in no particular order.

1. The gamer hall felt a lot more packed.  GenCon is sneaking more content in here each year (most notably, Blizzard Entertainment this year).  In years past there would be acres of empty tables where groups could sit and play a pickup game of whatever, have lunch, or just veg out.  This year you had to hunt to find empty tables. (Not a complaint, just ... different).
2. I had a lot harder time getting into the KDM demos than last year. Could be just my dumb luck, but they were very busy all 4 days.
3. The vendor hall never really got gridlocked like it has in the past, at least that we saw. Yes it was busy, yes there were lines galore, but the full-on gridlock from row 100 to row 3000 that we've seen just never happened.
4. Friends that have stayed at the JW multiple years said that the downstairs ballrooms were more occupied this year than in years past.  The bleeding edge of GenCon continues to creep and expand each year.
5. I had just a hint of the GenCon crud on Saturday but took some Zicam and thwarted it.  It's now a week later and no crud. Hooray.
6. There were fewer Harley Quinn cosplays.  Thank you.

Hot off the Desk: Dropfleet Commander UCM Frigates and Corvettes

UCM Santiago Corvettes on patrol. 

Quick post, mostly pictures.  Although I'm not fighting for UCM at Gencon this year, I'm still pressing at "best possible speed" through the rest of the project.  This morning I managed to clear up some real estate on the bench by getting all the UCM Frigates and Corvettes mounted on their pegs.  The capital ships (Crusiers, Battlecruisers, and Battleships) are also now well on their way, but that's a post for another day.

I'm pretty happy with how they came out; will thank Aaron Lovejoy at Miniature Monthly for pressing me to push my own boundaries in terms of process and color selection.  When I set out, I didn't expect to do any masking/striping of the hulls, and the (limited) weathering and engine smut that I did was also unplanned.

Once I'd done the test cruiser, it was apparent that masking and striping these hulls was entirely do-able, and actually gave some flavor of the "dazzle" camouflage schemes tried by the major navies when my grandpa was a kid.  (Although it seemed like a great idea, it was perhaps the most time consuming part of the painting process....).

By the numbers, this is well over half my fleet (11 hulls total) but by total surface it's not even close to half.

I'm not quite happy with these pictures, but they're not bad for a Sunday afternoon after I've had a double rye....  :)

Santiago: Top view.  The Reaper Misty Gray tips were painted by hand, the Reaper Rusty Red stripe was masked and airbrushed.

Reverse view.  Engine smut was applied with the Sotar 2020 airbrush.

UCM Jakarta missile frigate.  These guys were real jerks to stripe because of the launchers, so I punted and striped the bridge structure.  I liked it so well I went back and painted the other bridge structures the same way.

Jakarta front, UCM New Orleans class dropships rear.

Jakarta and New Orleans rear view.

Four UCM Toulon class gunboats. 

UCM Toulon front view.

UCM Toulon - Side view.

UCM Toulon - Rear 3/4 view.

UCM Toulon - top view.

ZPS - July 2018

July was all about Dropfleet

I'm going to break tradition and go rogue for this month's formatting.  Instead of the 4 normal categories of things rising and falling in priority, let's just ramble a little bit.  I know you'll miss the bullet points; they shall return next month.  There are basically three topics I wanted to tackle.  Gencon, Dropfleet, and more Gencon.

I. Gencon and a Retrospective.

Gencon is in a few days.  That's a good thing; I could use the time away from the office, and am very much looking forward to seeing old friends and walking the convention floor.  I'll be glad to visit some of my favorite booths and chat with people that I've developed online conversations with.  And I'm excited to be in the same room as one of my favorite authors - James S.A. Corey.

Gencon also marks the first anniversary of this blog, at least in concept if not by posting date.  There were things I wanted to write about coming out of last year's event, and this venue became the repository for those things.

It's been a good year.  Sometimes it feels like I'm overwhelmingly behind the curve in terms of project progress.  I mean, I'm just now getting to DFC (figures I bought last August).  But in terms of personal/hobby growth, it's been a big year.  I've typed about this before, but model prep (filling, moldline removal, priming) and airbrushing shading are the two biggest things I've added to my toolkit and now take for granted.  I'm still learning blending and brush control, and am looking for ways to expand how I do detail work with the airbrush.  But there are some big game-changing things I hadn't attempted - and was afraid of - this time last year.

Good, but not quite good enough.  Watch for improvements.

II. Dropfleet Commander.

As the Kenny Rogers classic says, "you have to know when to hold them, know when to walk away, and know when to run."

The big Dropfleet push (GC Project #2) started strong, and as the month started I had a really good feeling about it.  The test piece (shown above) looked great, model assembly went well (except for the Battlecruiser) and I was about to pop my knuckles, roll my neck, and crank out a lot of little ships.

But weekend before last, I hit a point where I was mapping out the remaining work against remaining days and coming up short.  Shortly after, I realized I was starting to make trades in quality for the sake of schedule.  "Oh, I'll just skip this, it'll look okay."  Ack, not the situation I wanted to be in.

I have a ton of money wrapped up in the DFC fleet.  I really didn't want to drop back and punt (whoa! Zoxe used a sports metaphor!) but I really didn't want to be unhappy with the result.  The direction I was going was perhaps "above average" in terms of DFC ships I see on google search results, but I knew that I was capable of better.  And as I said, I was looking for shortcuts that were becoming too tempting.

The voice in my head said that I should drop out of my DFC event at Gencon but it took a few days for me to say it out loud.  But, once I admitted it, it gave me the creative freedom to go back through the ships I thought were "done" and do some additional work, fixing things and pulling out details that I'd otherwise have overlooked.  It's also allowing me to take some risks and develop some additional skills instead of just assembly-lining them through.  Are they pro-level?  Oh, heck no.  But I'm far happier with the results I'm seeing.

Get Ready.

III. Getting Ready for Gencon.

There are a lot of google results for "how to Gencon" so I won't replicate that level of detail here.  Sure, the event is an unwieldy beast, and we certainly have our own recipe, but there's really no "wrong" way to do the event.  Instead, I'll share a few personal steps:

1. Take your vitamins.  'Con Crud is an illness that's real.  Between all the unwashed masses you'll be rubbing against, late nights, crappy diet, and various forms of nerd stress it's easy to compromise your immune system.  I think I've been sick after at least the last 2 of 3 Gencons.  This year, even though we drive, I'm treating it like one of my work trips to the airport:  multivitamins and extra sleep in the days prior, and vitamin C throughout.  (I'm not a doctor and this is not medical advice, just do what makes sense for you).
2. Stay hydrated.  We bring water with us each day and buy more there.  This is a little crude, but if you haven't had to pee in awhile, ask yourself why.
3. Don't eat the food in the convention center.  We bring healthy snacks to grab throughout the day.  When it comes time to find an actual meal we go to the food trucks - there will be two areas where they congregate and they'll rotate each day.  I can't say that the food trucks are any cleaner than the convention center, but the food can be lighter (less "cafeteria-ey"), tastes better, and getting some fresh air won't hurt you (really).
4. Make dinner reservations.  Preferably somewhere outside the radius where the nerd hordes will pillage.  Sit down, have a real dinner and an adult beverage or two with friends.  You might be thinking you need to be rolling dice 23 hours a day, but just stop and pause and enjoy the weekend for what it is: time with people like you.  Indy is a great city that supports the 'con like few other places, step outside and enjoy it.

WIP: Dropfleet Commander Battlefleet and Battlecruisers

I'll cut to the chase:  The past week has been pretty busy in the Zoxe Shipyards.  I've worked through all the basic assembly for my intended fleet list, plus a few alternates should I decide to change the list around between now and Gencon.  I've primed the ships that I assembled earlier this year, and partially painted a test cruiser to confirm colors and process.

Test piece: airbrushed cruiser, accent panels, and accent stripe.  More detailing will follow, but this cruiser established the processed for the other large ships.  I'll do a separate how-to post later, but wanted to share the WIP.

Battlecruiser parts, dumped straight out of the bag and assembled.  Only one of the hull sections in the left (lower and center) are used, depending which primary weapon type you choose.

Ugh. The Battlecruiser aft hull section had some monstrous flash and goop that apparently blew out one side of the mold.  Look at the tip of my knife and note how goopy  the model is.

Reverse view showing thee correct geometry.

The Battlecruiser gave me some issues.  Strictly speaking, I don't need it for my list (I'll likely run a Battleship instead).  I went ahead with assembly thinking "oh, there are only a few parts, it won't take long."

WRONG!  Two hours of fussing with a series of issues - some of them self induced, but many of them production issues. 

The biggest problem was that after trimming, the forward/top hull section didn't want to align straightly.  I glued and then broke the joint apart twice because I wasn't happy with the alignment.  By the third attempt, the amount of residual glue was crudding up the joint.  I ended up scraping it clean and then actually removed the molded-in locator tabs.  Then I used a paperclip to pin the joint.  More hassle than I expected, but it's probably stronger this way anyway.

I hadn't intended to pin the joint between the upper-fwd hull and the aft hull, but it just wouldn't align cleanly with the factory-molded alignment tabs and slots.

Finished battlecruiser.  Wider gap than I'd hoped, but it'll fill with a little bit of Vallejo Plastic Putty after I apply primer.

Here are all the ships I've assembled in the past 7 days.

The entire fleet, including the ones I already have in primer.  Test piece is in the lower left.  Test frigate is on the middle left, but will be repainted entirely.

Test cruiser, side view.

Test cruiser, side view.

Test cruiser, top view (repeat image).

From here, I need to mount all of the ships to corks, and get them in primer.  I've got just under a month to get everything through the paint booth and apply finishing touches, but I think I can get there.

Unboxing: Dropfleet Commander UCM Battlefleet Box

Another quick unboxing. I took these pictures a few days ago; as of last night I'm up to my elbows in sprues.

For those unfamiliar, the Battlefleet Box is a package deal containing oodles of ships.  They were premiered at GenCon 2017 (we obtained the very first to be available anywhere) and I'm only now removing the shrink wrap. 

This UCM Fleet Box contains:

• 1x Johannesburg or Perth class Battlecruiser
• 6x UCM Cruisers
• 8x UCM Frigates
• 3x Santiago Class Corvettes
• 1x Command Cards
• 1x Activation Cards

Said another way:  the BF box is basically DOUBLE what you get in the starter fleet, PLUS 3x Corvettes and 1x Battlecruiser, but MINUS the core rulebook, tokens, map, dice, and tape measure.  Paired with a starter box (or in our case a 2 player battle box), it's a great way to build out a mid/high point Fleet vs. buying everything separately.

Box Front, Shrink Wrap still intact.

Box Back, with some possible builds.  The Battlecruiser, Cruiser, and Frigate hulls are modular allowing the builder to choose the exact role/stats desired.

Box OPEN.  The stack of sprues on the left and right are the same:  1x Frigate and 3x Cruiser per side.  Center Top are the bags for the Battlecruiser, and a separate bag for the 3x Corvettes.  Bottom center are the Activation and Command cards.

A quick break for some bullet points.  Bullet points are cool.

• Each UCM Frigate sprue can build up to 4x Frigates, but only 2x of any single type.
• Each Cruiser sprue can build just 1 Cruiser of any configuration.
• The Bag of Corvettes (which is a fun thing to type) contains 3 hulls, no assembly required (just trimming).
• The Battlecruiser comes in several pieces and requires assembly.
• Cruiser and Frigate sprues are plastic (Zoxe recommends Tamiya Cement for assembly).
• The Battlecruiser is resin and will require superglue.
• The Corvettes are also resin but require no assembly.
• All of my sprues looked great, though one Corvette had a void in the center of the hull.  I filled it with Vallejo plastic putty; if I were building for a contest I'd need to complain and seek replacement as I did lose some minor details.
• I didn't take pictures of the individual Cruiser and Frigate sprues.  They're identical to the ones previously shown HERE.

Anyway, more pictures....

Stickers for the bases, clear posts for the bases, and quick reference stat cards and assembly sheets for Cruisers and Frigates.  The Stat cards and Assembly sheets are the same as what comes in the 2p Battle Box.

Battlecruiser and Corvette bags.

Santiago class Corvettes come fully assembled in resin. Shown here untrimmed straight from the bag.

SPRUES!!! GLORIOUS SPRUES!  Ahhh, I love the smell of Tamiya Thin Cement in the morning.

Unboxing: Dropfleet Commander UCM Battleship

Assembled ships:  UCM New York top, UCM Beijing bottom

I feel like I've been neglecting the blog the past couple of months since most of what I'm doing I'm (for GenCon) not posting about.  Here's a quick post while I'm enjoying my morning coffee.

DropFleet has had a tough year.  I'm no expert on Hawk Wargames, but the gist of it is that after the DFC Kickstarter, the company struggled to make the transition from fulfillment and back to regular operations.  That meant that Dropzone Commander (their original ground-based skirmish game) as well as DFC got somewhat neglected.  Store shelves were empty, and planned product releases (including the Battlefleet Boxes that we bought last year at GenCon) were delayed and deferred.  TTCombat bought the line and is doing their best, but progress has been slow.

All that to say this:  it's been hard to find DFC stuff at times; items randomly go out off stock and there's few details on restocking. 

So, several months back, I noticed that the Scourge and UCM Battleships were restocked at the TTCombat Web Store.  It's based in the U.K., but I had to have them and put an order in.  Despite best of intentions, they remained in the blister packs until yesterday.  (Note:  They're still hard to find in the U.S., so my delay really didn't cost me much.)

With that out of the way, here are some pics:

I was somewhat surprised to see how they were packaged. When they say blister packs, they MEAN blister packs.

Package contents.  Model, stand, stickers for the stand.  There are bits (nose and guns) to make one of three configurations depending upon your mission.

I set out to assemble the New York class first (carrier variant) but found a molding error on the NY's nose piece in the first blister.  Here I'm showing the difference between the two blister's contents.  Note the missing geometry where my finger is pointing.

Another shot of the low-fill NY nose.  Since I wasn't intending to build two NY variants, I was actually ok (the Beijing uses the other nose provided), but I did notify TTCombat of the error and got a fast and friendly response.

Here the Beijing is partially trimmed and almost ready for assembly.

A few assembly notes:

1. No assembly instructions are included but they are available online.
2. This kit is entirely resin, so you're using superglue and NOT (not!) plastic cement.
3. Mold detail was very good and the resin is more rubbery and not as hard and brittle as other companies' material (*cough*FlyingFrog*cough*).  It was easy to clip with a sharp set of cutters or carve with a sharp hobby knife.
4. Assembly was straightforward but NOT as easy as I'd hoped.  After assembling the plastic models several months ago, I was expecting very little trimming, but was surprised/disappointed to find that almost every piece needed some adjustment, in particular all the little antennae that run along the bottom/keel of the ship.

ZPS - June 2018

Caldari from EVE Online: Painting inspiration for Dropfleet Commander.

It's hot, humid, and the bugs bombard me whenever I step out the front door.  Spring must be over and it's gotta be summer! 

1. On the Table:

• GenCon Project #1 - I had high hopes of getting project GC1 done by mid-June, but it wasn't meant to be.  Between the Ikea Hellquest and a gazillion little things that needed doing before my annual family BBQ, I lost at least 2 if not 3 weeks of progress.  But, I've recovered and actually put the last adjustments on the final figure last night.  As soon as I post this, I'll put her on her base and I'll call this one done.
• Dropfleet Commander - Finally, finally, I'm going to shoot some primer on the first ships today or tomorrow for GenCon Project #2 (GC2).  I'm prepping for an event at GenCon, so I have a lot of work cut out ahead of me.  But I've come up with a reasonable Fleet List that won't cause me to build (that) many more ships.  Since this project isn't cloaked in secrecy, I'll be able to share some pictures as I go.
• Convention Planning - GenCon's events are planned and in the pipe.   PAX unplugged tickets are bought and the hotel is reserved.  ReaperCon tickets are bought, hotel reserved, and event tickets purchased.  Phew.  

2. Gaining Momentum:

• GenCon Project #3 - I don't have much hope of finishing this one but I might be able to squeak it out.  
• KDM Expansions - They're still in the box, but if I can knock out all the GC stuff, assembly of the Legacy Expansions will finally begin.
• Guild Wars 2 - It's stupid humid (heat advisories most days this week), so I've been hiding inside enjoying some PC games for a change.  I enjoy the vanilla game most, so I rolled a new Elementalist and have been working across the map.  I'd never played a Double Dagger Ele before, and have been having a blast (pun intended) with her.

3. Losing Traction:

• Gloomhaven - Not by choice.  Need to get the campaign back out and continue to play.  I'll need to hotseat some Dropfleet before GenCon, so I'm not sure we'll have the time or space to make progress.

4. Going, going, gone.

• Biking - I haven't been on the bicycle since last May.  Have been getting the itch lately (I do miss it) but my timing and the weather couldn't be much worse.