Rath-Torhan Craftworld

The Final Post

2010-11-11T22:39:00.002Z

Hi all, firstly a big thank you to everyone who has followed this blog over the last year.

As work on my eldar has ground to a halt for the moment (darn Warmachine niceness), I have started a slightly more generic hobby blog covering all my wargaming projects, and any other random stuff I choose to drop in.

So please check it out at http://anythingworthdoing.wordpress.com

Happy gaming!

Richard

Its all Dan’s fault

2010-11-04T11:55:00.001Z

And this time I’m not just talking about Warmachine. You see young Mr Currey came up with an idea earlier in the year. This idea was for a group (a club if you like) to bring very active individuals from gaming community together to do stuff outside of their clubs.

A club for the dispossessed and overly enthusiastic of us; who want to do stuff beyond our own local communities. Dan’s enthusiasm being infectious, it wasn’t long before there was a Facebook group, a club, a blog, and an event. Thus, the Legion of Snake Eyes was born!

So what is Legion? It is a group of gaming activists, a group that will hopefully enable us to run and do stuff we cannot do alone. A good example is our first event, Where Sleeping Gods Lie. This is not a project my home club would be interested in, however by banding together, myself and two other activists can run this.

Where is it? Everywhere! Although we are in theory a UK based group, there is nothing to stop us having members in other countries.

Who can join? Anyone over 18 years old, if invited. Being a bit of an old boys (and girls) club, membership is by invitation only and only to individuals of good standing in the community. In practice, this means if we like you, you can join.

In short, Legion is there to enable like-minded gaming activists to do what they want to do.

Cool huh?

Where Sleeping Gods Lie

2010-11-02T10:13:00.001Z

There is a legend. To the east of the Iron Kingdoms, even east of the Iosans, lies a great desert. Among the sands lies a forgotten city, all but consumed by time, all but erased by history. At the centre of this forgotten place lies a ruined temple, and buried depth in its vaults is a tomb.

Made of baked sandstone tougher than the finest steel, untouched but the march of time; this tomb is unmarked save for one small inscription. In one of the most ancient languages of Caen, it spells just one word. That word is Nyrro.

I’m proud to announce myself and a few other familiar faces, now draw together into the Legion of Snake Eyes, will be running a Warmachine Campaign Weekend on the 26/27th February 2011 at Triple Helix Wargames in Westbury, Wiltshire.

The weekend will have six narrative driven games of varying sizes as the players try to unravel the mystery of what happened to one of the Iosan gods.

On one side, the undead Priests of Nyrro have enlisted Khador and Cyrx allies. On the other, the mysterious Seekers have drawn the Retribution of Scyrah and Cygnar into the fray. All around other factions have gathered for many reasons, some to settle old scores, others to simply make a profit.

Each player will require a 15 and 25 point army list; plus an additional 5 points of units or solos. You will not be using both lists at the same time so they can include the same models (but do not have to). The additional 5 points must make a legal force when added to either army list.

Players can bring any faction (from Warmachine or Hordes), but both lists must be from the same faction or charter.

Tickets will be £20 for the weekend. To register contact loseclub@gmail.com.

The full pack should be available by the end of November.

Oh well, I lost…

2010-10-22T00:50:00.001+01:00

But, it was really really close! Last night (writing this in the wee hours of the morning), I finally got my first game of Warmachine in, and I have to say it was really good fun!

My opponent, (an old friend who have corrupted to play) was using 15 points of Cyrx including Asphyxious, a defiler, a deathriper, a ripjaw and a reaper. Unsurprisingly the stormsmiths lasted until someone blinked at them, however my two jacks where great, although the Iron Lich all but destroyed my Centurion in close combat (he is very nasty).

On the last turn I threw everything left at Asphyxious (including a super charged Thorn) and he still had four damage boxes left. Unfortunately, the payback on Nemo hurt quite a lot. Still, great game that went right down to the wire. And Dave was very happy because (a) he has maintained his 100% win rate playing Warmachine and (b) it was his first win against me in any system for 13 years (not that anyone was counting).

However next time will be closer still as I get my head around the system and hopefully get some more models finished!

On a vaguely related note, I can now announce that the Legion of Snake Eyes (more about that another time) will be running a Warmachine campaign weekend entitled “Where Sleeping Gods Lie” in the new year (hopefully February). Anyone familiar with the old Dark Stars Warhammer 40000 campaign weekends will recognise the format; although we are planning something a bit more polished and far more narrative driven. More details to follow later.

Shocking News

2010-10-20T17:03:00.001+01:00

Right, it is done. I officially have enough stuff painted to play Warmachine, specifically my new Cygnar army. So what’s done? Well, first of all I’ve got two warjacks, a Centurion (the big beat stick) and Thorn (the little beat stick). No ranged weapons on these two in a shooty army but we won’t worry about that.

Second up, my warcaster, Commander Adept Nemo and his Squire attachment (to give the old man more magical niceness). And finally, three Stormsmith Stormcallers because there wasn’t quite enough squishy things.

This makes a grand total of 16 points. Hooray! One point over with one day in hand!

I’ve been musing over the next steps for this force (which I’m pretty sure won’t work as it is). I think to get to 20 points, I’m going to add the Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team because whilst also being squishy, they also have a silly amount of special rules.

For 25 points, I’ll probably add a Firefly to work with the Stormsmiths (and the Storm Tower that also needs to be painted); all for extra zappyness! Have to admit, the General Adept Nemo Tier list also looks mighty tempting.

Anyway, there you go; slowly making progress.

I May Have Been A Bit Rash…

2010-10-14T23:42:00.001+01:00

OK, firstly, its been a while since my last post on this blog. They are some good reasons for this which I may or may not cover during the course of this ramble.

Next Thursday, I have a couple of good friends visiting for a game of Warmachine. This is obviously not earth shattering news (unless you can’t believe I actually have friends); however it has set a deadline for painting some of my Cygnar.

Why? Well, I’m one of these crazy people that insists on painting every single model before playing with it. No game seems as real or excites my imagination without little PAINTED toy soldiers on a table with nice scenery. This is unfortunate as it takes me ages to paint anything.

I could blame the crazy job that leaves me travelling around Europe all the time, or the family which with young kids is also very demanding. However those would just be excuses. The truth is, I’m a slow painter. My steadily deteriorating eyesight doesn’t help and neither did Halo: Reach (excellent game by the way); but even still, it takes a long time for me to paint anything.

This is where deadlines like tournaments are great. The only reason my Blood Angels, and in particular the latest addition, a Typhoon, were finished was because of A Small Matter of Honour and Calnage.

The aim is to paint little and often. So, by next Thursday I’ll have 15 points of Cygnar painted and finished. Hopefully.

For the record, I have started tonight by painting the kitchen…

In other news, myself and a couple of conspirators are planning a Warhammer 400000 campaign weekend next year under the working title “Lost Stars”. The emphasis will very much be on a fun style of gaming and it will probably use a 1500 point doubles format. More details will follow once we’ve actually got organised.

In the meantime, if you like 40K doubles, there are still tickets available for the GCN South Champion of Champions tournament, being hosted by Spiky Club in Reading on the 14th November. Cruise over to their website if you are interested!

Carnage at Calnage

2010-09-27T14:47:00.001+01:00

I have a soft spot for the Warhammer 40000 doubles format. In most doubles tournaments I’ve attended the worst competitive urges (my included) have been blunted by working in a team. So, I was really looking forward to Calne Gaming Club’s annual 500+500 tournament, Calnage. It did not disappoint.

Our first game was against two marine players; one sporting three assault units plus scouts, the other with two units of attack bikes and a tactical squad. We played the classic ‘draw’ scenario, Capture and Control and both placed our objectives on the left of the battlefield. Unfortunately they stole the initiative and we suffered a bit in the first round of shooting, losing both Typhoons. In response, we did pretty much nothing. From this point, we were surrounded with assault marines and attack bikes closing in on all sides. Our only chance to threaten their objective was lost when my scouts arrived on the wrong side of the table. From then on, it was a desperate fight to keep our own objective which we did, scoring a surprising draw.

Game two, was Seize Ground against Mike and Caesar’s very mobile eldar. Some how, most of this game degenerated to a missile slinging match with the pixies eventually getting the upper hand. However it was too late and we had solid control of two objectives, with the third contested.

Game three, and Necrons. At this point I must say I have a poor record against Necrons at combat patrol level and I raised at eyebrow at seeing the Destroyers and Immortal, and especially the Scarabs. This Animation mission was going to be a problem. On turn two things looked pretty poor when Dave’s Chaplain, Combat Squad, and Razorback all disappeared under concentrated Gauss fire. To follow that, my assaulty combat squad got bogged down in Scarabs; not good. Then everything changed in turn four, with my Sanguianary Priest and Combat Squad free of the Scarabs; and two live Typhoons, I boldy said “I’ve had enough, we’re winning this game this turn.” Our opponents (and Dave in fairness) were a little shocked and continued to plan their counter attack using two tomb spiders. The Typhoons removed one Necron Warrior squad, my combat squad removed and ran down the other one, and that was that, game over as the Necrons phased out.

Our big wins had put us on the top table against Spiky Club’s James Karch and David Richardson, with Space Wolves and Imperial Guard. The normally very civilised James, had four sick Thunderwolves of doom (shame on you James), however that was less of a issue than the scenario. We started in one of the quarters, and had to escape from the opposite short board edge. Simple (ish). First turn started well with my scouts escaping immediately and the Typhoons putting large holes in David's infantry platoon. Unfortunately the Thunderwolves got stuck in the following turn removing the Ultramarine’s Razorback, and David plucked both Typhoons out of the sky. Leaving them to their fate, half of my Blood Angels scampered way.

In a excellent display of combat prowess, the Ultramarines cut down the puppies and began the long walk off the board. In the end, it wasn’t enough and David and James got a well deserved win, and with it first place in the tournament. Much to our surprise (especially considering how pretty James’ Thunderwolves are) the Dead Presidents won Best Army.

All in all a fantastic tournament!

P.S. And happily we also managed to pop down to Triple Helix Wargaming in Westbury on the way home where I got even more Warmachine stuff. Yippee!

Return of Commander Dante

2010-09-09T11:05:00.003+01:00

A couple of nights ago I got around to playing my first Warhammer 40000 game in about three months. Unusually, my opponent suggested playing at 2000 points. Given the general chaos surrounding my life at the moment, I happily agreed and then thought (at the last minute), err what am I going to take?

A few super busy days at work made the decision for me and out came my 1750 ASMOH Blood Angels list with a couple of minor changes, and a 225 point special character (because he was already painted).

When I finally rolled in to muppets (late of course), my opponent was waiting with a Chaos Space Marine army which had two special characters, Kharn and the big man himself Abbadon. The scenario was annihilation with spearhead deployment; and unusually for me, I took the first turn and deployed everything.

So how did it go? Well, the Chaplain/Dante tag team were incredible in close combat, although not quite good enough to take down Abbadon in one round. Dante’s Hit & Run capability could be extremely useful in the future and this game it saved him from a couple of combats I didn’t want him involved in. Kharn died very quickly to melta weapons (once separated from his bodyguard) and Baal Predators can chew though normal Chaos Marine squads. The Blood Talon equipped dreadnought was simply rude, eating a unit of marines in a single round of combat.

In the end it was a very convincing win, although in fairness had my opponent’s heavy support arrived earlier things would have been messier for me. Anyway, great game! I almost feel inspired to paint more stuff…

The Dead Presidents ride again

2010-09-04T23:44:00.001+01:00

As some of you might be aware, myself and Dave OJ (of OJ Science fame) are ex-chief muppets from the Sad Muppet Society (the finest wargaming club in the world). In three weeks we’ll be attending Calnage, a 500 point doubles tournament based on the Warhammer 40000 combat patrol rules. Rather than take the frankly silly lists we tried at Winds of War, we are going for two classic Space Marine armies, Dave’s Tyranid hunting Ultramarines, and my Blood Angel’s successor chapter, the Order of Sanguinius.

Here’s what we are taking:

Ultramarines 7th Company (Dave OJ)
Ultramarine Chaplain (digital weapons, meltabombs)	115
Tactical Squad: Space Marine Sergeant (power fist, combi-flamer, meltabombs), 9 Space Marines (flamer, missile launcher)	210
Razorback (twin-linked assault cannon, storm bolter)	85
Land Speeder Typhoon	90
	500

Order of Sanguinius, Blood Angels Successor Chapter (me)
Tactical Squad: Space Marine Sergeant (power weapon), 9 Space Marines (melta gun, missile launcher)	190
Razorback (twin-linked heavy bolters)	55
Scout Squad: Scout Sergeant (power weapon, meltabombs), 4 Space Marine Scouts	95
Sanguinary Priest (power weapon, meltabombs)	70
Land Speeder Typhoon	90
	500

Will it work? I don’t really care, however it should be fun!

UPDATE: We’ve had to re-jig the to allow for the lack of painting time, so goodbye Ultramarine scouts and hello Cassius.

The Big Blue Guy

2010-08-03T14:21:00.001+01:00

Well, my first Warmachine model is finally finished. I’ve tried a couple of new techniques on here including the non-metallic gold (instructions can be found here), glowy spell rune effect, and the arcane energy effect (completely copied from the Cygnar Faction Book).

Anyway, here it is…

Just to burst my bubble, my better half just shrugged her shoulders, and described him as a big blue guy. Still, this Centurion is done so that just leaves a huge pile of other stuff to paint. Hooray!

Cygnar Army List (or the stuff I have to paint first)

2010-07-29T09:19:00.001+01:00

Well, I can safely say the best way to build a… less than effective army (for any system), is to go for the models you like best first. So I’ve done exactly that with Warmachine. To stop me getting distracted, my wife has told me (in no uncertain terms) that I am not to even think about Hordes until this lot is painted. Seems fair enough.

So here’s my first 25 point Cygnar army list, based around warcaster Nemo. The approximate plan is to shot or zap anyone soft and squishy; and supercharge the warjacks to hit anyone harder on the head with a big pointy stick (pointy sticks are good). However to main objective is to learn how the game works before diving in with both feet.

I hope it works although I’m fully expecting it not to…

The Professors
Commander Adept Nemo	(6)
- Centurion Heavy Warjack	9
- Thorn Light Warjack	8
- Squire Warcaster Attachment	2
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team	4
Journeyman Warcaster	3
3 Stormsmith Stormcallers	3
Stormsmith Warcaster	2
	25

In addition to this lot, I’m also working on some Warhammer scenery, minus the frilly bits. This will quite acceptable as Warmachine (or generic fantasy) scenery.

Just need to find some time to paint now…

Time To Go (almost)

2010-07-26T22:27:00.001+01:00

As some of you might be aware, amongst my other jobs (work, husband, father, etc), I am president of the Gaming Club Network (GCN). This organisation represents over 80 table top gaming clubs in the United Kingdom, playing all sorts of games from Warhammer, Warmachine, Flames of War, to Colllectable Card Games and Board Games (more info on this fine organisation can be found here).

Anyway, three years ago I put myself down to succeed Mike Sharp from Oxford Gaming Club as president; and for the last two and half years I’ve really enjoyed working with the organisation and our member clubs.

However life is change, and work is demanding more and more of my time. As I also need to spend more time with my family, something else has to go. So, with some regret, I will be standing down at the GCN’s next AGM in January. I would to thank all the clubs, activists, and volunteers who have supported and helped me over the years; its been hard work, but great fun and really rewarding.

If anyone is interested in volunteering, please get in contact because I’m not quite gone yet and there still lots of interesting stuff we’re working on.

So long and thanks for all the fish.

P.S. I’m half way through painting my first warjack. Hope to get some piccies up next week.

The Rocky Road

2010-07-20T22:21:00.001+01:00

In yet another tangent in this blog, this time I’m going to talk about bases. Before you disappear, please bear with me.

Normally I use citadel sand and bits of slate to cover my bases, however in keeping with the steam-fantasy theme of my new Cygnar army (that’s a Warmachine faction in case you haven’t been paying attention) I wanted a paved effect.

As I’m far too lazy (read: unskilled) to sculpt this in green stuff, I opted to use some textured plasticard bought out of a local Model Shop. Great, however Warmachine models are based on round bases, not square ones; and I can barely cut a straight line with a pair of scissors at the best of times (I’m even quite rubbish with left handed scissors).

So the next problem was to cut a reasonable circle. Enter the compass cutter pictured here, a fantastic little device that with a bit of practice, and set to 24mm diameter, cuts perfectly sized inserts for 30mm rounded bases.

Problem solved and I have some nice paved effect bases!

The other use for the compass cutter (and in fairness, why I bought it in the first place) is for cutting normal plasticard for my eldar bases where I’m after a broken wraithbone effect. These take a little longer because I am scoring a pattern into the plasticard, however the theory is much the same.

More Coal Please!

2010-07-17T01:26:00.001+01:00

The move to Warmachine is well underway and I’ve got a fist full of toys. In the end, I’ve gone for the Cygnar faction because I love the magic/tech crossover. As I’ve mentioned before, it has a lot in common with Final Fantasy video games (I have fond memories of FFVII, having I burnt far too much time playing that game).

So what’s first up? Well I’ve definitely gone for a theme and it is not a traditional Cygnar gunline. I’ve only got one warjack at the moment plus some foot troops; and I’ve only just start getting these models together (undercoated the first batch today). So far I have to say I really like Privateer Press’s stuff. Compared to the Games Workshop Wood Elf I’ve recently put together, the PP stuff is surprisingly flash free and at least as well cast.

I’ve also being spending a lot of time reading through (and really enjoying) the main Warmachine rulebook and the Cygnar faction book. In particular, the detailed background and army entries in the Prime rulebook are great and really flesh out Iron Kingdoms world as well as giving a good overview of how each faction works in the game. The game itself looks pretty straightforward although the unit rules seem to add a huge amount of complexity. This is very much in keeping with the heroic nature of the game and quite different to the Warhammer games (Warmachine looks very character driven).

Anyway once I’ve finally decided on a colour scheme, got a couple more Warjacks, and find some time (which is the difficult bit); I will be ready to start playing. Can’t wait!

Pixies! At last!

2010-07-10T21:58:00.002+01:00

OK, its been a bit of time coming, but here is the first unit of my new eldar army. Horaay! As noted before, this Dire Avenger unit has a slightly strange configuration to help protect them in close combat (using defend, and an exarch with a pointy stick).

Unfortunately the photo isn’t great and does not do them justice (really must take photos during the day, not in the evening), however it gives a good idea of the colour scheme.

Anyway, enjoy…

Painting Inside Out

2010-07-07T23:37:00.003+01:00

Last week whilst I was out of the country (bored and in a hotel room) I started to listen to Precinct Omega Hobby Podcast. The guy running this, Robey, is among other things, is a Gaming Club Network Rep and runs his own painting business.

Whilst I’m quite a gristled hobby veteran (I’ve even won a couple of best painted army prizes) I did pick up one surprisingly useful tip which I’ve missed in all the years I’ve been in the hobby.

When base coating a model, Robey divides the model into layers, painting the inner most layer and working his way outwards. So for example on an eldar head, you would start on the recessed faceplate before basecoating the rest of the helmet. The advantage of this method is you can be quite rough with the inner most layers, tidying up your painting as you go along.

In fairness I sometimes paint in a similar way, but I don’t normal follow that exact logic. However, I’ve just tried it on a dire avenger exarch and it certainly seemed to speed up the base coating stage. This is one technique I think I’ll be using again.

The second tip is one I do anyway and is vital for my painting projects (especially at the speed I paint). When I’m painting a new army I always put together a painting guide showing the exact paints I’m using. This makes it very easy to replicate the same style and scheme time after time so the army looks consistent.

The piccie to the right shows the (in progress) guide I’m using for my new eldar army.

Finally, moving away from the painting side of the hobby, I owe my father an apology (like he is ever going to read this blog). The dice made by Blatchfords for their 120th anniversary are actually made from (military grade) aluminium. Happily as Warmachine does not require many dice, the three gold plated D6s my dad dropped round today will do quite nicely.

Bovington or (and) bust!

2010-07-03T21:32:00.001+01:00

Tanks, lots and lots of tanks that’s what they have at Bovington Tank Museum on the south coast of England and one of the premier military museums in the country. This weekend Bovington is home to Battlegroup South; a wargaming show hosted between the tanks themselves.

Mike Sharp, the GCN Area Rep for Oxford organised a demo game of Rules of Engagement (above) attached to the Warlord Games stand and showcasing their Bolt Action range. This enabled the Gaming Club Network (including me with my president hat on) to have a stand at the show. The guys at Warlord were excellent looking after us all day, so a HUGE thank you should go to them. During the course of the day, the Americans backed up by Shermans and paratroopers threw themselves into the German lines; and bounced.

Including the fantastic Battle of Hoth, Lego Star Wars game, there were lots of very high quality demo games. In particular the effort from Shepway Gaming Club was completely jaw dropping. Apparently their game is going to SELWG in October so if you are there, check it out.

A special mention should also go to the very nice guys at MCS Miniatures who very kindly helped me empty my wallet in exchange for a bit of Warmachine stuff (happily using our club discount). I still don’t have quite enough for even a small force (14 points so far…), however I will do when I pick up one or two light warjacks.

I have to say the venue itself is fantastic and an absolute must for any fans of military history. I will be back when I have more time.

If this show sounds interesting, you still haven’t quite missed it, it is on tomorrow as well (Sunday 4th July).

On a complete different subject, I thought I’d post a piccie of my mobile painting station. Yes, that is a plastic coffee cup from a (cough water pot) and the pixie is standing on the painting guide I’m building for my eldar. At the moment this Mini figure bag is full of eldar dire avengers (yes, still working on them), however I hope to get some Warmachine stuff in there soon.

Oh, and if you haven’t already found it, Robey Jenkins, another GCN Rep, has started a hobby podcast full of helpful tips even for old veterans like me. Check it out here.

Right, done blog, need to work on hobby stuff…

Robots, more robots!

2010-06-27T21:14:00.001+01:00

Well, I finally done it, I’ve defected to a game system not printed by Games Workshop. This is partly because I’ve become disillusioned by Warhammer Fantasy over the last couple of years and I really can’t face relearning the rules, again.

The other reason is because I much as I love Warhammer 40000 (tanks = good), I really fancied getting into another system. I’m really not inspired by anything historical so the search began…

After a bit of nosing, I’ve picked up a copy of Warmachine today. Why? Well some of the models are really really pretty. The rules are geared towards very aggressive, hero driven games. And finally, it has giant robots. What’s not to like?

Also as a long term fan of Final Fantasy, the Iron Kingdoms background borrows more than a little from the FF series which kind of makes it work for me. As a consequence, I shall be referring to my warcaster as Cid.

Having a flick through the Prime rulebook, I have to say I’m very impressed. Privateer Press have produced a top notch full colour rulebook with some fantastic artwork. I’m aiming to have a proper read of this and the <@£$%” faction book, this week before going to Battlegroup South next Saturday to buy some toys.

On a completely different subject, I’ve also managed to do a bit more painting so I now have two dire avengers finished! I’ll upload some piccies once the finished the squad, however it may take a while…

Hobby On The Move (and cool dice)

2010-06-20T22:53:00.001+01:00

Like many people, I travel a lot for work. This is not helped by the fact my office is a 1000km away from my home. Although some of my free time away tends to be taken up with business stuff, I also spend a good portion bored in hotel rooms (normally updating my blog, reading, etc).

To try and make a bit more progress on my eldar (it is painfully slow at the moment), I’ve put together a little painting kit to haul around on my travels. This is based on the rather excellent Feldherr MINI case which fits very nicely in the bottom of my laptop bag.

This little lot went over to France last week which was great, but the big thing will be to take it to Sweden this coming week. Unfortunately this means getting through airport security which could be entertaining.

Of course all this said, my kids gave me a new book for Fathers Day(Unseen Academicals by Sir Pratchett) so that might go instead. Oh, and I must remember to ask how Sweden are doing in the World Cup (according to my Danish boss).

On a completely different subject, Blatchfords (the prosthetic limb people) celebrated their 120th anniversary this weekend. As part of the festivities the guys in their machine shop made some steel dice, and thanks to my father, I have two of these special D6s. As far I as can tell these are perfectly weighted.

Ideal as leadership dice for my Blood Angels. Unfortunately the chances of getting ten of these in teal for my eldar is slight to say the least!

Campaign Weekends

2010-06-17T20:32:00.001+01:00

On the way back from Birmingham Games Expo a few weeks ago, myself and Dan Currey (from Bracknell Forest Gamers) got talking about past events we really enjoyed.

Whilst tournaments are enormous fun, all the events and gaming moments that really struck in our minds were campaign weekends.

To put this into context, both Dan and myself are veterans of the Warhammer 40000 hobby and have run loads of tournaments and club events over the years. However, some years ago we were also heavily involved in several of Games Workshop’s Dark Stars campaign weekends, all but writing and running large parts of the Sabbat Crusade and Medusa V events at Warhammer World; plus running several spin off events in other parts of the country.

With the twists, turns, heroes and villains these campaign weekends supplied moments we treasure even now. Whilst the Tempus Fugitives have taken the mantle at Warhammer World and have been running some great events of their own, we both fancied returning to this type of narrative event; despite the huge workload to do one properly.

So far I have a story outline typed up and an idea of the factions involved. The format will probably take something from the doubles events we are running and we will add some new units into the pack(although not too many). Rather than a computer generated map (like the one above from the Sabbat Crusade), I really like the idea of using a physical campaign map so that will be another difference.

Anyway watch this space, hopefully (real lives allowing) we can get something together!

The Dead (Imperial) Presidents

2010-06-09T23:08:00.004+01:00

Myself and follow Dead President, Dave OJ, actually managed to chat about our 1500 points doubles list last night (just after a game as well, a draw if anyone was interested… ok probably not interested). So based mostly on the models we have, this is what we came up with.

Will it work? Probably not. However there are enough interesting and different types of units to keep us both entertained which is the main point of the exercise. Anyway without further ado…

The Order of Sanguinius, Chapter of the 4th Founding

	Reclusiarch (jump pack) Honour Guard (sanguinary novitiate, two flamers, power weapon, jump packs)	155 190
	9 Tactical Space Marines (meltagun, missile launcher), Space Marine Sergeant (power fist, storm bolter) Razorback (twin-linked heavy bolters)	203 55
	Vindicator	145
		748

Ultramarines, Chapter of the 1st Founding

	Ortan Cassius, Master of Sanctity	125
	Dreadnought (two twin-linked autocannons)	125
	9 Tactical Space Marines (flamer, missile launcher), Space Marine Sergeant Razorback (twin-linked heavy bolters, storm bolter)	170 50
	Two Land Speeder Typhoons	180
	Thunderfire Cannon	100
		750

We will use this for two of the events we are attending, however Calnage in September is 500 point combat patrol doubles event, so we have no idea what we are planning to take, apart from one Blood Angels Typhoon (because I need to paint it!).

Oh, and if anyone is interested in attending, details of the Sad Muppet Society’s very fun doubles (its not a tournament) 40K tournament are available here.

Putting (Cocktail) Sticks Up Elf Bottoms

2010-06-09T00:32:00.001+01:00

Firstly, apologies to anyone who is reading this post expecting something else...

Anyway, time for an update on my Eldar project. Despite needing a bit of green stuff, I’m rather chuffed with my prototype Dragon Knight (cough, Shining Spear), and together with his two squad mates they are ready to be undercoated.

Unfortunately there are only three of the right type of Cold Knight head in the box, so the Exarch is going to have to wait until I’ve got some more Cold One Knights before I can finish him. I also want to do something special with his helmet to make him stand out a little more (he already has a Dire Avenger Exarch body which is a good start).

Luckily, my sons have been conspiring with mum in Games Workshop(bless them), so I’m under strict instructions to wait until after Father’s Day.

The final Cold One from this boxset has been converted into my first normal Guardian jetbike. To beef up his shuriken catapult (it is supposed to be twin-linked after all), I’ve added a second top loading ammo clip. Happily this guy was easier to convert than the Shining Spears which is just as well, because I have another seven to do.

This brings my back to the title of the post. Before undercoating each rider to mounted on a colour-coded cocktail stick to make painting easier, and to make sure each rider is matched to the correct mount. If I get the chance, I’ll post up some photos before I start painting these chaps.

And before I sign off, my final modelling project is a Typhoon for my Blood Angels. Apart from a moulded shoulder pad (only had one Blood Angel shoulder pad left, typical), there is nothing too usual about this model; except for the magnets used on the flying base (and gunner). I’m hoping this works ok because I want to use the same system on my eldar tanks because it will make them so much easier to store and transport.

Double Trouble

2010-06-04T21:44:00.001+01:00

Although I am not attending many tournaments this year, myself and ex-Chief Muppet, Dave OJ (of OJ science fame) have planned to do a few doubles tournaments.

First of these was Winds of War back in February, where we came a very respectable (and surprising) second, using Tau and Tyranids.

To follow on from this we are planning to do a tournament organised by our local club (the infamous Sad Muppet Society) in July, Calnage on the 25th September, and then the GCN Champion of Champions tournament later in the year.

Instead of the frankly bizarre army we used at WOW we are going to be going for Blood Angels and Ulramarines, nicely tying in both of our latest projects.

Rather annoyingly, this means I’m also going to be painting one more new unit for my Blood Angels, a Typhoon Land Speeder, for Calnage which uses the combat patrol rules.

However the other two events will use the GW doubles rules, two 750 point armies making one 1500 point army using the standard force organisation chart (see the piccie).

More details to follow once the Dead (Imperial) Presidents have actually decided the armies we are taking.

Here Be Dragons

2010-05-29T18:07:00.002+01:00

I’ve been playing a little bit today. Although I like my jetbike conversion, I had already decided on something a little different for my Shinning Spears (sport bike and laser lances seem a recipe for disaster in my humble opinion).

OK, in fairness, quite a few people have used the Dark Elf Cold One Knights as the basis for Exodite Dragon Riders (cough, Shinning Spears), so after much trawling through the interweb, I’ve tried to combine all the best bits from those conversions and add my own take on the idea.

There are a couple of concessions to practicalities, for example keeping the cold one knight legs and trying to limit the conversion to two or three kits, but I’m pleased with the result so far.

The next challenge (possibly tonight) will be to attack certain areas on the model with green stuff. In particular, the chainmail bits are going to be smoothed out and the spiky bit attached to the knee pad will be craved out.

Planning Pixies, part II

2010-05-25T23:45:00.001+01:00

Well, I’ve being musing and playing around with the eldar Codex and this is my first stab at a standard 1500 point eldar army list.

The choice of units here represent three things; firstly the models I have, secondly some of the conversion ideas I’ve have and want to include, and finally a particular theme I will be following for the army (which will be obvious once a few units are built).

Anyway, without further ado…

	Autarch (jetbike, laser lance, fusion gun, mandiblasters) Farseer (doom, runes of warding, singing spear)	140 98
	10 Striking Scorpions, Wave Serpent (twin-linked shuriken cannons)	260
	4 Guardian Jetbikes, Warlock (destructor) 4 Guardian Jetbikes, Warlock (destructor)	143 143
	9 Dire Avengers, Exarch (dire sword & shuriken pistol, defend), Wave Serpent (twin-linked shuriken cannons)	257
	3 Shinning Spears, Exarch (withdraw)	177
	3 War Walkers (eldar missile launchers, shuriken cannons) Fire Prism	165 115
		1498

The idea is for the Autarch, Shinning Spears, and Scorpions to be counter assault units, whilst the jetbikes and Avengers perform a short range fire support role.

There’s a lot of anti-infantry in here at the expense of ranged anti-armour capability. This could be an issue, especially against Land Raiders and Monliths which have no weak points. On the other, in my experience hitting tanks with big pointy sticks is more effective than shooting them.

Enforced Hobby Break

2010-05-21T00:33:00.001+01:00

I’m in Copenhagen this week for work, and if you think GW's toys are expensive at home, you should see the prices in DKK. Still, there's a few good game shops here (including Faraos Cigarer) and lots of stuff we do not normally see in the United Kingdom.

Whilst here, I’ve picked up a small Feldherr figure case to carry my latest painting project (and paints). It fits very nicely into the bottom of my laptop bag although I’m not sure how well this will work because I fly a lot. However I’m going to give it a try next week!

The Mini case itself is a lovely place of kit and very nicely put together with a address tag slot on the side. Mine came with two 16 figure 25mm mini trays and is the limited edition Deluxe version (pictured above).

Unfortunately it is the wrong shape to fit in my GW Apocalypse bag (I have a KR Aquilla which fits perfectly into one of the pockets). However the intent is to use it in a rucksack or one of the messenger bags I have. In either case, it leaves plenty of room for lunch or a small box with a tank inside.

If you are after something a little bigger, Feldherr do a four tray version called the Mini Plus. This will hold up to 64 infantry models and has a handle of the side. Again, good to throw into a rucksack, however the shape feels a bit weird. Up from this is the Medium case which is their answer to the GW hard case. This looks really nice, has a pocket for rulebooks on the front and a shoulder strap.

I’m also going to start re-reading "A Thousand Sons" on the way home tomorrow. Since starting this job (which involves a bit of travelling), I’ve found a good book invaluable to pass the time on aeroplanes. And unlike the MP3 player, they don’t have to be switched off during take off and landing.

Hopefully this weekend I can get to some of the hobby stuff!

Planning Pixies

2010-05-12T21:46:00.002+01:00

I’m sitting in a hotel and a bit bored, so I’ve started to think about what units I’m going to have in my new eldar army. However to set boundaries, thought I would start by deciding the units I will not include…

Eldrad Ulthran, may be the ultimate farseer and probably one of the most points effective models in the game, but I’m afraid he can not be everywhere at once (almost every eldar army seems to have him at the moment), so he is first on the list. To save the rest of the world from a rant, I shall stop talking about him now.

Prince Yriel, although not quite as busy as Eldrad, I still think Prince Yriel has too much pressing business to be in this army. And don’t get me started on Eldrad/Yriel combos…

Storm Guardians, equipped with flamers, are awesome and the backbone of my existing eldar army. As a result, they will not be appearing in the new army. To my mind there is nothing a normal Guardian can do better than a Dire Avenger, so do not expect to see any of those either.

Howling Banshees and Swooping Hawks, both of these aspects warriors have been central to my old eldar for a long time, however out with the old, so they will make way for something different.

Avatar, there is only one Avatar on Rath-Torhan, and he is part of the old army. Besides the idea of a daemon accompanying my pixies into battle never did quite sit right…

And finally, Dark Reapers, love the idea, models are ok, but they can not move and shoot. This really does not work with my playing style so they will not be included. For the same reasons Support Weapon Platforms will also not be making an appearance. Rangers would be tarred with the same brush if they could not outflank. But they can, so that’s ok.

This thankfully leaves quite a large range of units to choose from, although certain units (wraith guard and vypers spring to mind) are on the grey, waiting for new models list. This said, I have also already decided that certain units will definitely be in, including the new Fire Prism because I rather like the model.

After my Blood Angels managed to out manoeuvre both eldar and tau armies at the weekend, expect the final list to be very mobile and fast.

A Small Matter of Honour

2010-05-08T22:57:00.006+01:00

After getting home late Thursday, I spent Friday doing the last finishing touches to the Order of Sanguinius. After putting on a coat of matt varnish on the last three models, it was snow time! With a mixture of artificial snow and PVC glue to hand, about twenty models were ‘snowed’. To speed up the drying time (I wanted everything packed and ready to go Saturday morning), all the models got put in front of a fan heat for a bit.

Anyway today was the day for our club’s annual Warhammer 40000 tournament, A Small Matter of Honour. To recap, my army list is here. So how did it go?

Well the first game (annihilation mission) against Marc’s eldar was really close until the final turn when Marc took advantage of a bold move on my part, claiming two kill points from my razorback and squad onboard. Unfortunately I couldn’t finish off any of Marc’s transports in return. Just for the record, Eldrad seems to the busiest pixie in the galaxy because he seems to be in every eldar army I see these days!

The second game was against Simon’s Tyranids (hundreds of them!) playing Seize Ground. Suffice to say I should have deployed on the board to thin out his numbers a little bit. Combined with my general indecisiveness we run out of time on turn four. Unfortunately Simon (who in fairness had loads of scoring units) had two of the four objectives and easily bagged the win.

After lunch was my third game, this time using the full 1750 point army rather than just 1250. Now on table 17 I was playing Neil’s Tau. For game we were playing Capture and Control with a Pitch Battle deployment. As per normal I outflanked what I could and kept the rest in reserve.

Lucky for me, Neil Kroot’s also outflanked and arrived first, far too close to my table edge. This preceded a rush up that side of the table, trying to survive the three railguns determined to blow my vehicles apart. Once my Chaplain and Honour Guard got onto Neil’s objective and defending fire warriors, the game once decided and it was not pretty.

For my final game I faced Chris’s Dark Angels, playing an annihilation mission. Chris deployed quite defensively along one flank but moved his Chaplain and assault unit too far forward to engage my assault bikes. When my forces arrived the following turn that unit was swamped.

Having learned the lesions from earlier in the day I was far more aggressive in this game in the turn three virtually won the game on kill points. To Chris’ credit, he hung in to turn seven when he was finally wiped out.

At the end of the day I managed two big wins, and two loses, so I’m pretty sure I failed to finish in the bottom half of the results table (my aim to prove I’m not super competitive all the time).

However much to my huge delight, my Blood Angels won Best Army! Considering the competition, including Greg Bachelor's Space Wolves (pictured above), I’m really chuffed.

A big thank you should the guys from muppets for organising a fantastic event, and congratulations should go to Greg Bachelor, Ian Courtney (Space Wolves) and Rob Uter (Tau) for claiming the top three places.

UPDATE: The results are now up on the Sad Muppets' website here. I managed to finish 12th in the end and had the second highest VP total.

Alternative 40K Scenarios

2010-05-06T23:28:00.004+01:00

I had a bit of a brain wave last night (these things happen when I’m bored in a hotel room), and thought it could be interesting to tweak the standard Warhammer 40000 scenarios using new deployment options and objectives.

Here are the two variants I’ve come up with. They are designed to be used with the scenario designer in the main rulebook (page 86) but will (intentionally) favour different types of army.

First up is a new mission (page 90 in the main rulebook)…

King of the Hill

Both forces are converging on a vital objective. Who ever can take and hold these objective will rule the day.

Victory Conditions

Before deciding deployment zones, an objective is placed at the centre of the table (a hill or building is perfect). After this objective is positioned, deployment of the forces begins, as described in the type of deployment being used.

At the end of the game you control the objective if there is at least one of your scoring units, and no enemy scoring units within 3” of it. As different objectives vary in shape and size, it is important to agree at the beginning of the game where this distance will be measured from.

Second is a new deployment type (page 92 in the main rulebook)…

Poles Apart

Both armies are positioned at extreme range. As they move on the objectives, a confrontation is inevitable.

The table is divided into four corners.

The players roll-off and the winner chooses to go first or second. The player them chooses one of the short table edges to be his own table edge. He then deploys his force within 24” of one of the corners on his side of the table. His opponent then deploys within 24” of the diagonally opposite corner.

Deploy any infiltrators and make any scout moves.

Start the game! Once deployment has finished, the player that chose his deployment zone first starts game Turn 1 with his first player turn.

Each of these should work with the existing missions and deployments. I hope this will inspire players to mix things up a little. Any feedback gratefully received.

Medic!!!

2010-05-04T22:22:00.001+01:00

Next weekend is the highlight of my gaming year. On the 8th May is the Sad Muppet Society hold their annual Warhammer 40000 tournament, A Small Matter of Honour. Anyone who has been reading this blog will probably already be familiar with my Blood Angel’s successor chapter, the Order of Sanguinius, and my long journey to get them ready for this tournament (too much work, not enough painting time!).

However the good news is that I’m almost finished! So without further ado here are the last three models…

The last few details on these guys will be finished Friday night once I’m back from Denmark (leaving stupidly early tomorrow and still haven’t packed).

I’m also really happy to get a medic into this list because I’m always liked the concept behind them since they first appeared in White Dwarf 102.

Once these are finished, I can start back on the eldar!

I’m I Really That Much of a Geek?

2010-05-04T21:55:00.002+01:00

Well in short, yes. I have a talent (or habit) of tinkering with technology just a bit too much. Thankfully for the sanity of my better half, and the well being for my bank account, this curiously is not all consuming. This said over the past weeks I’ve started using a few interesting pieces of software…

Stickies

If you are anything like me, you’ll probably have a hundred pieces of (normally random) information and ideas spinning about in your head an any one time. These short notes use to end up either on my whiteboard, as post-it notes, or hidden in Outlook.

Stickies from Zhorn Software (wasn’t he a baddie in a bond film?) is a nice little piece of software that helps keep all this information together and so far has proven invaluable in the three months I’ve been using it.

Opera

Bored with Internet Explorer? Well there are lots of alternative net browsers out there. For a long time I had been using Mozilla Firefox as my main web browser but I switched over to Google Chrome at the beginning of the year. Chrome is great and I love the minimalist interface however I had a few issues.

So a couple of months ago I downloaded Opera and I have to admit I’ve been pleasantly surprised. It is a little bit slicker and more powerful than Chrome (for example, it has a built in mail client), however it has a similar interface, which on a laptop makes the best use of the available screen space, plus I really like the speed dial feature.

Boxee

Computers are fab, however if you want to watch videos (from say, BBC iPlayer), you probably want to watch it on a nice big TV, from a comfy sofa. At this point the normal computer OS (Windows, Linux or whatever) is a bit rubbish.

This is where a “10 foot interface” come in. As the name suggests, these are designed to be operated from 10 foot using a traditional remote control. Windows Media Centre which comes with Vista and Windows 7 is the most common software of this type, however they are many others.

Boxee is particularly interesting as it ties in a media player (with a very pretty interface) that uses internet sources heavily (to identify stuff as well as , with an element of social networking and integration with services like Twitter and Facebook. Considering this software is still at Beta stage and I’m running it on a really old laptop, I’m impressed.

Even more interestingly, Boxee have teamed up with D-Link to come up with some hardware, the Boxee Box to run Boxee on. If nothing else it is visually very cool (although completely impractical but never mind) and the remote is very clever.

Windows Live Writer

And lastly, today I downloaded Windows Live Writer. This is a dedicated application for writing blog posts (I’m using it to write this post). I’m sure there are plenty of other (better) alternatives, however this is an improvement on writing posts using Blogger’s web based tool.

Better still, I can use it offline and write whilst flying or on the train which is fantastic from my point of view because I do a lot of travelling.

Best of all of this software is freely available online! Anyway, normal hobby related service will resume shortly…

End of line.

New Eldar Tanks

2010-04-27T19:14:00.005+01:00

As part of Games Workshop's new Spearhead release (in the next White Dwarf), the eldar are getting two new tanks; the Night Spinner and a new version of the Fire Prism.

Despite using the Falcon chassis, the new turret design is a radical departure from the previous Forgeworld and GW models. The closest thing I've seen is the old Forgeworld Scorpion design.

Do I like it? Well, I'm undecided. When I first saw it, I thought the Night Spinner was great, but the Fire Prism looked very over the top. A day later, I've decided the Night Spinner guns look a bit small, but the Fire Prism I think I like. Hopefully without the antenna on top, it should look a little sleeker and more similar to the type II Forgeworld wave serpent/falcon kits (both of which I have, and will be in the new army).

However I certainly think this kit will be on my shopping list when it comes out. As an aside, I'm also really happy to see GW adding new units to ranges in between codex and army book releases again. I think this gives dedicated collectors something to keep their interest between different editions of their armies and is a very good idea.

Salute 2010

2010-04-24T21:17:00.012+01:00

Well, just back home from Salute 2010 and it has been a long day (I was up before 5:00am this morning). I have to admit, from my point of view there was lots and lots of interesting stuff, but nothing I actually wanted to buy, so I managed to come away with just a handful of models for the new eldar army.

However among the many stalls (too may lovely toys), maxmini.eu from Poland looked particularly interesting and had some beautiful miniatures and conversion bits. I will be investigating further once their webshop is switched back on (I think the whole company came to Salute).

A huge thankyou should go to all the Gaming Club Network volunteers (from Chelmsford Bunker, Leeds Owl Nights, Oxford Gaming Club, and Phoenix Gaming Club) who came along to demonstrate Flames of War, Rules of Engagement, and Black Powder; and to Battlefront and Warlord Games for letting us come along.

Here's a handful of photos from the day, starting with one of the new GCN stands with Phoenix Gaming Club's Black Powder game in the background...

Mike Sharp's fantastic Rules of Engagement game board, here with some Germans sneaking toward the US Airborne Infantry...

And finally, one of the other participation games that caught my attention, Lego Clone Wars...

Oh, and before I forget I'm in White Dwarf this month! Together with a far more interesting article penned by Gareth Williams about the Chelmsford Bunker club.

More toys

2010-04-21T10:36:00.014+01:00

It has been some time coming, but here is my double (quad) autocannon dreadnought. Brother Daniel. He was converted using the land raider lascannon sponsons so except modifying the guns, he was pretty quick to make.

And one of my objective markers...

Still need to finish three more models but almost there. Roll on Operation Snowman in May!

And now for something slightly different...

2010-04-21T08:15:00.015+01:00

Anyone regularly reading this blog might be vaguely aware that I am a member of the Sad Muppet Society (the finest wargaming club in the world in my humble opinion), based in little old Basingstoke. The year after we setup the club, we started an annual Warhammer 40000 tournament called A Small Matter of Honour (ASMOH). Even though I have long since passed the baton to others to run this event, it is still the highlight of my gaming calendar.

When we originally created the tournament (eight years ago) we wanted to do something slight different. So instead of the normal 1500 point armies, we went for 1750 points for our players, or as it was pitched at the time, a normal army plus a land raider. This gave players the opportunity to paint and field something in addition to their normal army and was pretty popular. So much so, there are many other 1750 point tournaments now.

After the first year, it became apparent we needed a fourth game in the day (ASMOH is a one day tournament). Squeezing in another 1750 point game was not an option, so we started the day with a 400 point combat patrol. However in the past two years we have moved to using two 1250 games in the morning follow two 1750 games in the afternoon.

The essential thing about the 1250 point list, is that it is a normal army with something taken away. Together with a tweaked force organisation chart (see piccie to the right) it forces players to concentrate on what is really important in their army lists.

Last year, I wrote a 1750 point army and then removed 500 points. This meant the list was compromised in the smaller games because I didn't appreciate how important some units were to my list.

This time around, I've developed my army list with this in mind, so it is a 'ground up' 1250 point army. This is mainly because the Blood Angel's codex has only recently come out and I've only used it at 1250 points so far, however as a side effect this list seems to work better and has highlighted the core elements in my army; the stuff I need to make it work.

The Green Tide

2010-04-20T23:13:00.010+01:00

It is a little scary. I have been in this country three weeks now and I'm not even traveling next week. Probably just as well with the Iceland thing. Anyway as a result I've been at club loads this month and I've been able to actually play some games.

This week was the third test game using my list for A Small Matter of Honour in May. This time playing an annihilation mission against an Ork Horde with 60 Shoota Boyz, two Battlewagons, three Killa-Kans, and a unit of Megaarmour Nobs, all in 1250 points. Without going into to details, suffice to say concentrating on single elements or units worked brilliantly.

In particular the autocannon dreadnought did wonders against the Kill-Kans and Battlewagons (killing both of them on side or rear armour); and my tactical squad cut though two Shoota Boyz units in close combat. The only unit I couldn't deal with was the Megaarmoured Nobs but I suspect my HQ could have done the job if they were not at the opposite end of the battlefield. In the end I won six kill points to three.

I am especially surprised how vulnerable Orks are in assault if charged, as I rate Shoota boyz as the best basic troops in the game. Still I'm sure if my opponent got the charge it would be a very different story.

Next week I plan to use my 1750 list for the first time, however I still need to finish the sergeant for my second tactical squad and a sanguinary priest. However first things first, this Saturday I'm off to Salute in London on the GCN stand and helping on a Rules of Engagement demo game.

Descent of Angels

2010-04-13T22:46:00.012+01:00

Well, I tested my 1250 point Blood Angels army tonight against "The Pinto", one of the best 40K players at our club and I'm rather happy to say they worked quite well. Matt is one of the original members of Muppets and we have played each other many times over the years. Although previously Matt did nasty things to my old Blood angels army, I'm probably just ahead on our encounters.

We played an annihilation mission with pitched battle deployment and Matt bought his Space Wolves. His army consisted of three Grey Hunter packs (two in Rhinos), Terminator Wolf Guard, Long Fangs, a Rune Priest, and a blood crazed Lone Wolf. My list was my ASMOH list which can be found here. Matt deployed centrally so his units could support one another, and I kept all of my units in reserve to take advantage of my greater mobility.

Because of (my lack of) deployment, the game really kicked off in turn three, when Matt kindly removed the main guns on my two tanks which turned up the previous turn (one of the Baal Predators and the Vindicator). In return my Chaplain, Honour Guard and Scouts managed to wipe a unit of Grey Hunters, and positioned themselves to get the second unit the following turn (which was duly cut down). Their advance was only slowed by Matt's Wolf Guard who finished the Honour Guard and Scouts. Unfortunately they cracked against the Chaplain leaving him free to chase them and move into the Long Fangs.

So in summary, the Honour Guard/Chaplain/Scouts combo ate units which the rest of my army had shot into manageable targets. The other unit of note was my new autocannon dreadnought. Despite turning up late he accounted for both of my vehicle kills (two Rhinos). In the end I won five-two on kill points and should thank Matt for a great game (as always).

My next task is to finish three marines for my 1750 point list and to read Black Tide, the latest Blood Angel's novel by James Swallow.

GCN Council Meeting

2010-04-13T12:29:00.005+01:00

While there is little to update on the hobby front (dreadnought, sergeant, medic and objectives still being painted, slowly), Friday (9th April) was a Gaming Club Network Council meeting up in Warhammer World, Nottingham. For those of you unfamiliar with the GCN, it is an association of gaming clubs in the United Kingdom, and at the moment I'm the president (obviously didn't say 'no' fast enough).

Anyway, this time around we started to plan our first show, taking over Hammerhead with co-operation with Chesterfield Open Gaming Society (COGS); rules for over 18 only clubs (modifying our children protection policy so under 18 members do not require CRB checks); and encouraging other clubs outside the UK to setup similar organisations. More information will be posted on the GCN website when Gareth (our Secretary) has written the minutes up.

If anyone wants to talk about gaming clubs in person, a couple of the guys will be are the South West Model Show next weekend, and I'll be at Salute doing a Rules of Engagement demo game on the 24th April (this should be interesting, I don't know the rules yet).

Operation Snowman

2010-04-04T11:08:00.017+01:00

I have finally decided on my army list for A Small Matter of Honour, the Sad Muppet Society's annual 40K tournament. Please bear in mind this the aim here is to do (almost) the minimum amount of painting to add to my existing army. To this end, I've got a dreadnought, sergeant, sanguinary priest, and two objectives to finish within the month. Anyway, onto the list:

The Order of Sanguinius, Raiding Force (1250 points)

Reclusiarch (jump pack) 155
4 Honour Guard (flamers, power weapon), Sanguinary Novitiate, jump packs 190

9 Tactical Marines (missile launcher, meltagun), Sergeant (power weapon), Razorback 245
4 Scouts, Scout Sergeant (power weapon, meltabombs) 95

Baal Predator (twin-linked assault cannon, heavy bolter) 145
Baal Predator (twin-linked assault cannon, heavy bolter) 145

Dreadnought (two twin-linked autocannons) 120
Vindicator (siege shield) 155

Reinforcements (500 points)

Sanguinary Priest (power weapon) 65
Furioso Dreadnought 125

9 Tactical Marines (missile launcher, plasma gun), Sergeant (power fist, storm bolter) 208

2 Attack Bikes (multi-meltas) 100

Hopefully this lot will do ok, although there is less mobility in here than I would have liked. However I didn't want to buy any more toys because after ASMOH I will be concentrating on my eldar, especially as my fantastic wife bought me a rather fab present for Easter...

Commander Dante's Retirement

2010-03-31T08:03:00.006+01:00

Every year, the Sad Muppet Society (my home gaming club) run a tournament called A Small Matter of Honour. This event is the highlight of my gaming calendar. Partly because I started the tournament, but mostly because the event always has an excellent atmosphere, and it is a chance to catch up with some friends I do not see on a regular basis. Like last year, I'm taking my Blood Angels successor chapter, the Order of Sanguinius. Unlike last year, they have a shiny new codex. Last night I played my first game with this codex and it has changed them radically.

First, the Death Company had to go. I tend to play quite tactically (if I'm awake) so I dislike elements I can not control. Before, the Death Company were kept in check by a Chaplain, but now nothing can stop their Black Rage so they are out (for not being team players). Second, all my tanks (Baal Predators, Rhinos etc) are now fast and two of them can outflank; this makes my entire army far more dynamic.

My first plan was to use Commander Dante and Honour Guard as shock troopers and build my army around that. To this end, I finished my Commander Date really quick and finished the rest of a tactical squad that I had been painting for (at least) nine months.

So, how did the game go? Well, I was fighting a small entire 'tech guard' Imperial Guard army with more plasma than... pretty much an thing else I've ever played. We played a Capture and Control mission and despite going first, I opted to keep my entire army in reserve.

The outflanking Baal Predators worked well. The fast Vindicator was appropriately scary and acted as a bullet magnet. Of course, it didn't kill any thing. The fast razorback was great, almost getting one tactical unit onto an objective. And in the end a single scout won the game by not dying, despite the number of plasma templates landing on him.

And what of Commander Dante? Well, he arrived, stunned a vehicle, watched as his honour guard were slaughtered, ate a unit in close combat, and then died to lasguns. While he certainly helped win the game, he was not decisive.

As the honour guard is more of an anti-infantry unit, I've decided to replace Dante with a Reclusiarch (a three wound chaplain). This gets me re-rolls to hit on the change (Dante missed with most of his close combat attacks) and more importantly, saves 70 points. In my 1250 point army these will go towards a dreadnought with lots of autocannons. Unfortunately that means I have more stuff to build and paint before the end of the month...

Back to Civilisation

2010-03-29T11:33:00.003+01:00

Well, I'm back from holiday, and did I get lots painted, err no. However last night (after spending most of the day building a raised herb garden for my better half), I had a monster hobby evening and almost finished my new Chapter Master for the Order of Sanguinius.

The objective is to complete him and four tactical marines for tomorrow night, when I will be testing my ASMOH army using the new Blood Angel's Codex at club. Of course, I also have to work and watch Black Hawk Down.

After that, back to the pixies...

Test Figure (version 2)

2010-03-17T09:42:00.004Z

Here's the second test Dire Avenger. I'm much happier with this colour scheme. Although is does not look like it in this photo, the bodysuit is much lighter (I'm now using Tau Ochre) and fits better with the desert background for these guys.

One of the things I do when painting a new army is put together a test card with all the colours I'm using and any mixes used. This way I can recreate the style and scheme even after a break from painting. So this is one of my next jobs.

However before I get too enthralled painting pixies, I've got to paint Commander Dante for my Blood Angels (successor chapter) in time for A Small Matter of Honour in May. Having seen the Blood Angels codex recently, these guys may be quite rude...

Colours of Rath-Torhan

2010-03-10T22:05:00.005Z

I've decided to tweak the colour scheme to make the body suit colour an ochre colour (the darker brown stood out too much for my liking). The plan is to paint up a second test Dire Avenger next week when I'm back home; in between assembling jetbikes.

For those interested, Games Workshop have started to published some new missions to accompany the new Battle Missions book. The first of these are available here. I'm also really looking forward to the new Blood Angels out next month, just in time for me to take mine to my next tournament, A Small Matter of Honour, in May.

Right blog update done, back to Father Ted...

Jetbike

2010-03-02T22:24:00.003Z

Here's the first of my new eldar jetbikes. I wasn't happy with the 'Harley' look of the normal model and wanted something slightly more sporty.

The handlebars and pedals have been moved and the rider adapted by bending the legs and replaced the head. The fuselage is modified with a starcannon and either end of a scatter laser. Had fun using the Demel which made cutting the pieces much easier.

I'm happy with the result, although the next bike will have the rider's feet (and pedals) closer to the fuselage.

Test Figure

2010-02-27T09:45:00.005Z

Here's the first test miniature! Settled on Catalan Brown (from Games Wrokshop's Foundation Paint range) for the basecoat in the end. One down, nine Dire Avengers to go in this squad.

The second unit will be a unit of eldar jetbikes and will form the core of my combat patrol army. So far, one bike is half built (they are quite heavily converted). :-)

The Void Dragon

2010-02-26T13:46:00.008Z

This rune represents the ancient Void Dragon, a terrible creature that in eldar myth almost devoured their entire race. Only Asuryan was strong enough to defeat the Void Dragon, trapping it in the webway, isolated from both the warp, and the material universe.

This is the symbol of the Rath-Torhan craftworld whose name means "Sentinels of the Void", a reference to their tenacity to endure, and watch the many hidden, ancient paths of the webway.

Winds of War 2010

2010-02-19T10:56:00.014Z

This weekend was Bracknell Forest Gamers Warhammer 40000 Doubles Tournament, Winds of War. This event has gone from strength to strength since it started and uses the combat patrol rules from 4th edition at 500 points, giving a total of 1000 points per team.
In my experience doubles tournaments tend to be much friendlier than classic tournament, and from my point of view (as a fairly competitive 40K player), it is a good opportunity to relax and enjoy the social side of the hobby.
This event in particular is quite casual and allows some whacky army combinations. After teaming up with Dave OJ last year (another former Chief Muppet), we were back again. This time, the Dead Presidents, would have his new Tyranids and my Tau. Obviously the Tau were a little worried about this arrangement which is why they all had Initiative 1 (this is the penalty for this option in the rules pack).

Our first game was against two great chaps using Marines and Eldar. Because of the scenario, my Tau (who were a bit lucky) took out the Eldar and Dave's Nids had the marines for breakfast. In game two we faced two Ork armies. Despite most of the bugs struggling in close combat, we just managed a win on kill points.

The third game was objective based and we faced a total of seven Typhoon Land Speeders on a relatively open board. Suffice to say we got a good kicking, however we did control the most objectives at the end of the game, so we got our third (!) win of the day.

Our final game was against a very pretty Necron army. Thankfully for Dave's ego, natural order was returned and we lost this game. However at the end of the day, we came second!

A big thanks should go the guys at BFG for running a great event, and congratulations to the (winning) muppet team, the two Christies.

WH40K Skirmish Scale (750 points)

2010-02-18T10:37:00.009Z

Last club meeting, two of the guys were playing a 750 point game. As a bit of background, both chaps are building new armies and are playing a series of games of increasing size while they paint stuff.

However the 750 point format in particular struck me as a really nice, really tactical, format. As a slight tweak to the system they used, the following could work really nicely:

Army Selection

Minimum one troops
Maximum one hq
Elite, Fast Attack or Heavy Support choices are restricted. You must have one of each (so one Elite, Fast Attack and Heavy Support choice) before selecting a second from the same category
No units with the 'Unique' special rule may be used

Scenarios

Play as per normal, although I think this format will work slightly better on a 4 x 4 or 4 x5 board rather than a standard 6 x 4.

Please note, this is basically a one player version of the GW Doubles Tournament format. If anyone else tries this out, please let me know how (if) it works!

Rath-Torhan, version 2...

2010-02-15T14:20:00.003Z

Okay, although it is unlikely I'm going to be painting lots of these guys for a bit, I have updated the background and colour scheme for the Rath-Torhan craftworld (here).

In between finishing the squad of Blood Angels I've been working on for 12 months (I'm a slow painter at the best of times), I've started a test figure. Unfortunately, I need to pop into town for some more paint. With all the browns I own, I still don't have the one I want as a basecoat. Typical.

Rath-Torhan arises... (again)

2010-02-13T13:00:00.005Z

Many years ago, I built an Eldar army, and developed an entire background around it. Now I'm coming to my latest project, my Blood Angels (the Order of Sanguinius), and I had loads of spare Eldar bits left, I decided to start a second Eldar army.

After playing with various colour schemes (with the help of both of my young sons), I decided against doing a Ulthwe force and came back to my first Eldar army, the eldar of Rath-Torhan.

Of course, this army would be better painted and a slightly different colour scheme...