Painting Anniversary, with Mice back on the table

A few days ago, I realized this Christmas would be my third anniversary of returning to the hobby of painting miniatures. That's important in part because my second son is just about three years younger than my first son, and so #1 was around #2's age when I painted Mice and Mystics and played through the campaign with my wife. I mentioned this to #1, and #2 overheard, and he became very eager to try the game himself.

Two days ago, we brought it out and played the introductory mission. One thing that struck me about the game is that, although there is arguably too much text leading into that first mission, the prose is all exceedingly well written. The language is clear and the structure is poetic. The quality of writing partly resonated with me because it is so much better than the writing in TIME Stories, which is sold and hyped around the premise of being a great story. Both are essentially linear, unlike something like Above and Below or Tales of the Arabian Nights, but Mice and Mystics never disappoints—except where the editors didn't fix "lead" being used instead of "led".

TIME Stories. "Deemed you apt"? Ugh. 

Mice and Mystics holds no surprises for me, since I remember the story, the enemies, the cards, and the boards, but it was still fun to share it with #2 son, for whom it was all fresh and exciting. The miniatures are OK. If I were to paint them again, I would do a great many things differently, but I look fondly on those little roaches: my first attempt with drybrushing, somewhat inelegant and yet transformative.

I have painted some 200 miniatures since, my technique improving through reflective practice and a lot of reading and YouTube videos. I took a little break from painting recently as I sometimes do, this time to play the Witcher 3 DLC (and speaking of good writing, it was excellent). On my painting table now are the monsters from the Descent 2nd Edition base set, which I picked up second-hand over a year ago. The sculpts are not inspiring: it shows that they predate the miniature-based boardgame renaissance. As with the minions in Myth, I've decided to do the common enemies in a rather quick style—ironically, applying some of the very simple techniques I learned painting Mice and Mystics three years ago. I intend to spend a little more time on the heroes, and I look forward to trying the app-driven cooperative campaign.

Merry Christmas! God bless us, everyone.