Farewell to Next Dimension Games

WFB 1000 point tournament at NDG from just 2 weekends ago.

Today Next Dimension Games announced they were closing their doors. I started helping out there in October - initially just painting up their scenery and then progressively working towards building the miniature hobby within the community, and eventually volunteering to take on their event schedule.

My friend Aaron Schmidt of Horror Show Miniatures teaching the nuances of working with green stuff.

Our hobby community at NDG had a lot of ambitious hobbyists, so I brought in local sculptor Aaron Schmidt to demonstrate sculpting with green stuff and he did a 2 hour presentation. I had started a rotating Tuesday board gaming night, and I ran a 1000 point WFB tournament. I had plans for many more events and classes, but it wasn't to be.

Zombicide Survivor painted by Ken Aponte.

Slowly but surely, people were starting to find the store, like Ken Aponte who came in to play Zombicide on the first Zombicide Game Night we ran. He bought Zombicide: Prison Outbreak that night, and a few days later came in to show off the survivors he had started painting. Before we knew it, he became a regular fixture like so many others were becoming, but it was too little too late I guess.

Ken Aponte and Nick Powell playing Super Dungeon Explore on one of our Tuesday Game Nights.

Over the months that I was at NDG I made friends with gamers and hobbyists and I hope they continue into the future. I'd love to revive the roots of 2ndCityWarzone by hosting regular gaming at my house with some new blood, and I swear I miss the days of owning my own store. I've learned a lot in the last 20 years since I had Adventures Unleashed in Buffalo, particularly from my years at GW, and think I could create an environment the gamers would really take to with engaging events. Maybe I might strive to make that a reality? Its something to consider.

In the meantime I need to focus on AdeptiCon in the immediate and Broken Contract in the months to come as I work towards launching a Kickstarter. So much to do and so little time.

For those looking for a deal. Next Dimension Games announced this:

As a thank you to everyone who has supported the store, we will be opening up the store this next Monday 3.24.14 and Tuesday 3.25.14 for anyone looking to pick up something at a great sale price. everything will be on sale for anywhere from 25% off MSRP or better.
This sale will be for all on hand merchandise.
NO special orders will be taken.
We will be open from noon - 8pm both days.
Thank you,
Nate

RIP Next Dimension Games. We hardly knew you.
-Nick

A Weekend of Gaming Part 2 - WFB 'Its How You Use It'

Next weekend, Saturday March 8th is a small friendly tournament at Next Dimension Games using Adepticon's 'Its How You Use It' WFB Tournament guidelines. For those that don't know, the 'Its How You Use It' format is 1000 points, which in WFB is generally considered - "not a lot".

One of our regulars at NDG, Josh Raymond, was looking to get in a warm up game to see how his Warriors of Chaos might fare in the 1000 point arena. Originally we were going to play the game at NDG, but I couldn't swing the bus fare, so he graciously offered to make the drive out to my place.

Now its important to note that the last time my Tomb Kings hit the tabletop was 2 years ago at Adepticon's 'Its How You Use It' tournament that year. My knowledge of 8th Edition is pretty abysmal and I felt really guilty making Josh stand around for an hour while I made my army list and asked him a million questions. Finally, after muddling my way through making my list I was ready to go. I would be fielding a Tomb Prince, a Level 2 Liche Priest, 19 Skeletons with Hand Weapons and Shields, 19 Skeletons with Spears, 10 Skeleton Horsemen with Spears, 3 Carrion Birds, and 2 Screaming Skull Catapults.

The ensuing conflict was surprising to say the least. Early on in the game Josh charged through a forest into my Skeleton Cavalry on my flank with a unit of Chaos Warriors and a Chaos Gorebeast Chariot.

My Cavalry draw a combined charge through a forest. I ultimately lost the combat but it left his big unit of Chaos Warriors wide open.

Meanwhile my Skeletons with Hand to Hand Combat Weapons and Skeletons with Spears glared vacantly towards the oncoming Chaos Warriors. My Cavalry were quickly destroyed, but left a perfect target for my Skeletons with Hand Weapons as you can see the tempting flank in this shot.

These two units made a lot of 2" moves this way or that way to always be in the idea position to deal with Josh's forces.

To reduce the threat to my own flank, I hurled Screaming Skull after Screaming Skull into Josh's exposed units and Chaos Warriors and Gorebeast Chariot (proxied with a normal Chariot) fled the scene allowing my Skeleton Warriors and Carrion to beat up on the Chaos Warriors.

Catapult view of the fleeing enemies. You've got to love "Skulls of the Foe".

 Multiple times the Chaos Warriors, Gorebeast Chariot and Chaos Hounds were forced to panic and were kept at bay consistently the latter half of the game. It was a hard day to be a Warrior of Chaos.

Heading north to Kislev, Troll Country, or maybe Norsca. Regardless, they decided the deserts of Khemri were not for them.

All told, I played a solid game. My memory of WFB tactics is still solid and I made sure to make his charges difficult and to take advantage of his own exposure which helped win me the day. Though, my fighting skill was pathetic. The only thing that saved me was my constant use of charging two facings at the same time. It wouldn't have been enough though if it wasn't for my Screaming Skull Catapults which honestly won me the day. They started off slow the first couple turns, but later in the game the scored direct hit after direct hit absolutely punishing his lines. It was glorious, but not easily repeated. It just happened to be my day in the sun.

I really appreciate Josh coming over to get a game in. It reminded me that I genuinely miss playing WFB and that I should play it more than I do. two years between games is far too long.

-Nick

Shameless plug, if you haven't checked out the blog for the miniature board game I'm developing, go check it out. Its called Broken Contract.

New Scenery at Next Dimension Games

Back in October Next Dimension Games commissioned me to work on their store terrain. This is a smattering of what I've been working on.

One of the first pieces I worked on was a pair of Imperial Bastions. I don't have any pics of those today, but I did photograph the servo-shrine piece that comes with it.I put more time in than maybe I should have. All of the lenses are gemmed, details like skulls are picked out and highlighted, and I even did caution stripes on the base and some bird poop,

Here's the servo-skull that hovers up above it.

Here are some classic crates dating back to the 2nd Edition 40K box era. You can see liberal use of weathering powders on the pallets.

Tank traps done up very similar to the ones I use on my own tables. You can see a bit of the Manufactorum in the background.

This is the inside of said Manufactorum and uses the Manufactorum kit, a Moonscape crater, and an Urban Barricade and Wall, all from GW. You can see a WIP Shrine of the Aquilla in the background.

As a parting photo, here's the top of one of the two Sky Shield Platforms I've done up for them.

There's plenty more where that came from. I didn't picture any of the work started by other staffers that I've gone back and completed/updated. Stop in the store, check it out, play games on them!

Next Dimension Games 2934 N Clark, Chicago, IL.

-Nick

Next Dimension Games

A month ago I was enlisted to help out with the gaming tables at Next Dimension Games in the Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago. They've only been there a few months so you may not of heard. I wanted to take a moment to talk about Next Dimension since they're a new store and have an excellent selection of stuff.

They made the conscious decision to focus on miniature war gaming and board games and those are their two strongest sections. The store itself currently sports 18'x4' of war gaming space, and two 4 seat painting/board gaming tables. The dedicated painting table has 4 hobby lamps (one on each corner) complete with built in magnifying glasses. Most evenings that I've been in the shop people seem to like the communal painting environment they're trying to foster.

Speaking of community. One of the regular daily discussions in the store involves ways to try and develop the community in the store for a variety of games outside of the obvious big guns: Warhammer and Warhammer 40K. The owners have brought in Infinity, Bolt Action, X-Wing, WarmaHordes, Malifaux, Wreck-Age, Anima, and others and they genuinely want to draw in and build up those communities. There are thousands of dollars in product spread across these games and plenty of space to play them if you invest in the models. If you already play one of these systems they could really use people like you to come in and act as advocate for your favorite system by running demos or a small narrative event that people can jump in on.

 If you're more of the board and card game type, they have an extensive selection covering your strategy games like Settlers of Catan, Dominion, and Small World, to card games like Gloom and Fluxx, to dungeon crawler type games like Level 7, Sedition Wars, Castle Ravenloft, and Descent. They just got in the Season 2 Zombicide games which I'm pretty excited about myself.  

One thing that is very important if you're going to come in to paint or play is that you support the store. And this can be said for any store you play at, whether its Games Plus, Draxtar, Dice Dojo, Cat and Mouse, or the Chicago Battle Bunker. If you want stores to provide services like game nights, cool events, and the like, you absolutely have to spend money in the store or else your favorite hang out is going to vanish. There is nothing more frustrating for a game shop owner than counting a near empty till at the end of the night while you pack up the models or game you were playing with, listening while you bragged to all your friends that you scored your stuff off Ebay for next to nothing. I get it, we're all struggling and hobbies cost money that we can't always afford, but the humble gaming store is the hub of your gaming community. They can't stay afloat without you, and they're there to help facilitate you finding gaming space, gaming friends, and gaming advice. We all should treat that with the utmost respect. I know I try to.

If you haven't checked out Next Dimension yet, or if its been a few months since you did, you should pop in and check it out. The space is constantly evolving because they want you to come in, have fun, and of course spend some money while you're at it. I think they're a great addition to the Chicago gaming community.

-Nick