Some Gates of Antares work and random musings on playing games

The reason I don't play a lot (and paint more I guess) is that setting up time for gaming is much more difficult after you get kids (mine are 2 and 5 at the moment). Anyway I do get to play occasionally especially in the winter. I recently joined a gaming club of maybe 50 people in Helsinki with a lot of tables and terrain, so setting up games is a little easier now than before.

I used to play 40k and I still kind of like it, but for a very casual player like myself the pace of things and the lists are just a little too much.

About 2 years ago it started to feel like a burden to keep up with all the new books, formations and whatnot. The last 4 or so games of 40k felt like there's no point to go through the trouble. You know, you have to set up a date a few weeks beforehand, set it up with your family also. Then you go to wherever it takes place and pick up your miniatures off the table for two hour. The last game I faced an army of grey knights with 2+/4++ saves with a CSM army, which had a single meltagun and nothing else with penetration powers :)

The same thing happened to me with Warmachine/Hordes some 10 years ago. I think maybe games requiring skill and commitment just don't suit me...

Rick Priestley's Beyond the Gates of Antares, is currently the game in which I put almost all of my limited gaming time. Gates of Antares is Still quite new and the games are smaller (at least for now). The guys I'm playing with are taking it very casually, which suits me perfectly and even though I get trashed almost every time, it's different from 40k in that I get to blow stuff up too.

Here's some pictures of my Concord army for BtGoA

C3M4 unmanned drone tank

X-Howitzer

Some Basic troopers

A Scifi jungle bungalow from Sarissa (which I bought from warlord games. This is supposedly official Antares terrain or sumfing like that)

All the white guys and gear were done with an airbrush and the blacklinings were done with Nuln Oil. I originally used army painters dark tone for the black linings, and I try to stay away from citadel paints because of the stupid pots they come in. In this case I had to make an exception, because Nuln Oil is so much better stuff. Army painter dark tone did not flow properly and I kept messing up the lines. Nuln oil instead flows like a dream. It is so much easier to make sharp lines with it. The visors are just painted black with a coat of gloss varnish.

I still have some unpainted concord (that's the faction in the game, that these white dudes represent) miniatures, 30 or so + another tank. I also ordered some 20 miniatures for another faction, the Freeborn. Haven't begun painting the freeborn yet and am still thinking about the paint scheme. They are pretty high tech so I think it will be black or very dark grey with some OSL stuff or freehand on the capes.

What I know I won't do, is paint them with the official studio scheme. There's nothing wrong with the official studio scheme, and I really can not explain why I don't want to use that other than I usually don't use official schemes.

Really hope Antares will become a popular game. It's still quite new so can't be sure, but I like it and hope it will soar so that I get to enjoy it myself for a long time (or until it becomes too hard for me and I have to move on again).