“Do you think that I count the days? There is only one day left, always starting over: it is given to us at dawn and taken away from us at dusk.”

~ Jean-Paul Sartre

Hello, stranger! As mentioned in my Spiderfang review, I’ve taken a break from writing on Age of Sigmar recently, but I’ll allow myself the indulgence of banging on about where I’m at, what I’ve been up to and what’s next for Plastic Craic.

Ready? Let’s go.

What have I been up to?

Well aren’t you a sweetheart for asking! I’ve been writing a few guest articles on MCP for the legends over at Goonhammer – make sure you check out their coverage on that great game:

https://www.goonhammer.com/author/plastic-craic/

I’ve really enjoyed painting the superhero models: the clean lines are a refreshing change from the superfluous skulls ‘n’ buckles junk adorning a lot of Warhammer minis, the bright pallet automatically looks arresting and the ruleset is both incredibly balanced and hyper thematic. Maybe it’s because I’m not as invested, or maybe it’s because it’s based on a richer and more developed IP, but when gotcha moments happen in Marvel, they feel epic rather than frustrating.

Great fun.

AOS-wise, the FOMO got me and I jumped on board for Summer Smash in Geelong. Sitting at 4-0, I was playing for the event win on Table 1 in Round 5, but it was a bridge too far for my Big Waaagh and I was splattered by Joel Graham’s Buffkhaon list. Congrats to Joel G for deservedly taking out the 46-player event, back to back victories at Summer Smash for that man!

My goal was to rack up some decent Masters rankings points (which I did) and have a big weekend on the piss (which I did). The Friday night was one of those random ones that takes its own direction (ended up at a stand-up comedy show and acid jazz concert), and all I will say about the Saturday night is that it ended up escalating beyond all expectations. Major thanks to my teetotal amigo Jayden who drove me around as I got progressively more coherent and charming.

Worth a mention too is that I officially dropped from the Australian AOS ETC Team, and Clint Mallet has stepped in to take my spot. The uncertainty over intercontinental travel continues to hang over everything, and I decided that seat on the team deserved to be filled by someone who could commit to travelling wherever and whenever, as opposed to my own original commitment which was to travel to a specific place and time (which was of course rolled because of COVID).

Good luck to Clint and the rest of the team, and I hope for you guys that you get the opportunity to represent in 2021.

What else is new?

The AOS FAQ was a pathetic failure. There’s no point in going over old ground, but Goonhammer have written up a round-table discussion on it, and your boy Heywoah has systematically ripped it apart. There’s really not much more to add, so I won’t dwell on it any further. I certainly don’t feel energized to spend more time and effort writing about it than they did delivering it.

In the world of AOS blogging, pour one out for Rune Axe Wargaming. Gabe is a superstar and his series of Masters interviews a couple of years back was a big motivating factor for me getting into this game. I just wanted to read more writing like that, and there didn’t seem to be many people doing it.

I’m not shocked that Gabe has decided to switch over to podcasting – his blog posts have been infrequent for quite a while now – but it’s still the end of an era. Gabe mentioned that the audio format is easier both to create and consume: having done both, I agree that it’s far simpler to flick on a microphone and start talking than it is to write coherently, and what’s more you can reach a broad audience who want something in the background while they’re driving or painting.

If anything, Gabe going electric has made me more motivated to keep on bashing away at the keyboard. As I said to Gabe, you can’t really switch on a podcast when you’re on the crapper at work, so the written word still has its place. I wanted to have Age of Sigmar articles to read as well as to listen to, and other than Rune Axe in its heyday I couldn’t really find them, so here they are. But make sure you catch Gabe’s podcast too.

What’s up next?

I’m attending the 70-player Vic GT event coming up in March, which I’ll be covering with my trademark Power Picks and Coolest Lists format. Sharp-eyed readers will notice that these articles are a piece of piss for me to “write”, since 80% of it is copy pasta from my generous contributors, leaving me only to write a fawning (or passive-aggressive) introduction to the author.

The reality is, I’m enjoying taking a break from writing, so although Plastic Craic isn’t going anywhere, I will be likely to post only sporadically for another month or two.

After Vic GT is wrapped up, I’ll probably take another step back from competitive AOS, leaning into some local casually-competitive campaign stuff, plus Marvel Crisis Protocol and Star Wars Legion. I’ve delivered strong results at every AOS event I’ve attended this season, so I’m hoping that I’ve already secured a spot for Masters which takes place in August. There will be a lot of water under the bridge between now and then, and the intention is to lean back in for the lead-up.

A couple of shorter-format articles I do intend to publish over the coming months are:

• Vic GT: Power Picks and Coolest Lists
• Top 5 Warbands in AOS (Underworlds and Warcry)
• Broken Realms: Destruction Focus
• How the Sons of Behemat FAQ works (or doesn’t)
• Mercenary Gargant list tech

I’ve also got a few longer-format articles I want to post, which may have to wait until after the next General’s Handbook, with rumours swirling that a new edition is also not far away. These include:

• Taking a knife to a gunfight: Combat armies in a shooting meta
• Dynamic imbalance in wargaming

But in the meantime, please do keep an eye out for the articles above, and I hope everyone can keep their chin up through COVID. It tentatively seems that the vaccine rollouts are giving light at the end of the tunnel for those of you who have been through some dark times, and the sunlit uplands of face to face gaming are just around the corner.

You’ve got this.