Clearly its a magic standard...

...cause how in the hell else would he be able to hold that up, much less actually fight while holding it?

Probably going to have to pin these...

lol, due to a brief respite in temperatures (preceding this heatwave) I spent two of my evenings this week out canoeing.  That, combined with another distraction (of the female sort) means that next to no time has been spent doing anything hobby related. However most of this week coming (not to mention right now) its going to be so hot outside that only fools would spend time out there voluntarily, which bodes well for painting...

Stay cool & hydrated!

I tabled Nidzilla with Footdar, no war walkers required.

End. Of. Post.

lol, well no, I'll give ya the highlights.

Yes, I'm recycling photos today.

I took the Exodites out to Morristown just for the hell of it yesterday. I figured they'd land on the table, die, and then we could get an early dinner. The first problem with that plan was the realization when I got there, that I'd forgotten my squad of skeeters (Swooping Hawks).  After a few moments of 'oh shit' I asked if rogue.trader.voril had anything in his pile of DE that I could borrow. Luckily he did:

Harlequins.

I never used them before but with 8 including a shadowseer, death jester and a few fusion pistols available, I loaded them up with harley's kisses and was set. Round one, I gotta bye (for a fluff ball army, that qualified as: winning!).

Round 2: Nidzilla.

Great.

Hive Angel has kicked my ass with his nids more time than I can count (my Eldar included) and so I was set to die. Spearhead/auto-tie mission, nids got to deploy/go first. He had a tyrant, 2 carnies, two of the ones that pop out of the ground (primes as I recall), and 2 infiltrating broods of a dozen genestealers each.

Superfly!

Turn 1) he came straight at me, in return the combination of getting quickly into shuriken range  along with guide and DOOM (the game winner), plus a charge by Superfly, and all the stealers and 1 carnie were wiped out.

Turn 2) one giant bug popped out of the ground dead center in my army and shot something that tore up a gardener squad. The remaining carnie charged the dragon knights and the tyrant charged (but didn't wipe out or break) the pathfinders. In return there yet another DOOM and guide combo set for the bug that popped out of the ground. The combination of almost my entire army shooting at it and the harlequin's needing 6's to wound (and thus rend) meant that it died. Meanwhile superfly with his laser lance charged and dropped the 2nd carnie, saving the dragons.

Turn 3) big bug #2 pulls the same stunt finding itself in almost the same location and the same untenable situation, and as such my shooting and its subsequent death are almost a carbon copy of its predecessor in turn 2. Meanwhile the tyrant charged and killed superfly.

Still only have one knight fully painted...

Turn 4) the tyrant was all alone, but out of range of most shooting, and the Dire Avengers having recently blade stormed were high tailing it for the enemy objective. The dragons fired & injured the tyrant, but not much else happened.

Turn 5) the Tyrant charges and kills of the dragon Knights and their Warlock, and its summarily DOOMED!  and while another squad was guided. The Avengers, still enroute to the objective turned face and I said they were going to blade storm and...

...he said: 'don't worry about it, I'm just going to take him off of the table."

VICTORY!!!

The next round saw me face off against Screech's Thousand Sons. Pitched battle/annihilation. Having faced my army before, he all but completely ignored his psyhic abilities along with the combination of a few really tough units won out over my horde of cheap and flimsy ones.

The only vehicle in my army.

No matter, I tabled nids' without war walkers and only minimal casualties. I'm a happy man! (and probably in the market for some Harlequins...)

Stay thirsty my friends...

o/

If any of you have read my Dark Heresy posts you may recall the grandiose exploits of my adept, the (as he says) Living-Saint Boris Sevastopol. Whenever mentioning Boris, I need to also mention his most famous (read that as: over used) one liner:

"I am on the cusp of divinity!"

The model I used for Boris was the overweight Friar Tuck-like model that's carrying a keg from the Bretonnian men-at-arms box (except that he was also armed with a laspistol). While Boris has been on hiatus for quite a while (its a lot of work to act like a delusional, sociopathic & highly paranoid madman) I replaced his model with a Mordheim Witch Hunter. The Witch Hunter mini has a great sword (known as the Blade of Sevastopol) which is about as grandiose as Boris' ego.  As such, the old mini had his laspistol replaced with a shield, and the round base with a square one. Thus he has now returned to the realm of WHFB in the following guise:

He is now fulfilling the role of a Warrior Priest (which in a sense, isn't all that different from his adventures in DH) in my Stirland Army. I painted him in Purple (1) to help him stand out in the crowd of green & yellow & (2) purple, while horribly under used in my armies, is actually my favorite color. Given however his grandiose past life, I didn't want him to just be some unknown schlub by the name of Boris in my Stirland army.  So, while he bears no physical resemblance to the Dos Equis guy, I came up with this for him:

They say he’s the legitimate heir of a Border Prince.
Tilean mercenaries, pay him for their services.
He's cooked the finest meal, the Moot has ever known.
Joseph Bugman seeks his advice on brewing beer…
...and he's slept with more women than every other man in his regiment…combined!

He is...the most interesting man in the Old World!

I always drink, and when I do, I prefer Zan Zigg.
Stay thirsty my friends, stay thirsty...

Delusions & grandeur indeed! I didn't want to use the actual name 'Dos Equis', so I went looking for a German translation of it as the Empire is more or less German themed. Dos Equis translated into English is two (Roman Numeral) XX's, in recognition of the brewery opening it's doors in the 20th century. German translations that I found were either:

Zwei Zehner (2 10's) & Zwanzig (20)

I ran it by Neverness to see what he thought of the idea & he liked the sound of zwanzig better with the slight alteration that I used above.  That said, I'm sorta tempted to instead call it 'Zig Zag' or (to steal the name from the Heavy Gear universe) 'Zagazig' as either way that's probably the closest you'll get to walking in a straight line after drinking a keg of the stuff...

The Poor Bloody Infantry...

o/

When playing Classic Battletech, one of my favorite things to use (though never effectively) is conventional infantry. Generally when building out a force for a game, usually a mech lance or so, there's invariably 100 or so points left over with no easy way to use when increasing the mech pilot's gunnery/piloting skills. This is what led me to start using infantry, as 'filler' for these unused points. However I started taking APCs & IFVs and soon the infantry was soaking up large swathes of points.

One base = one foot platoon.

It is a game after all, and I do indeed have a history of wasting points for nothing more than my general amusement. A simple platoon of motorized laser infantry has the ability to reach out and annoy somebody. That doesn't allow for any tanks, however APCs & IFVs, aren't really tanks per se...

Also rather than buy actual CBT infantry, I use some old EPIC Imperial Guardsmen. Let's face it, when they're that small does it really matter what brand they are? They all kinda look the same, and besides, that explains why I always give them laser rifles.

 ...snicker...

Here of late, as we start playing CBT again, I've been using my lone Maxim IFV which has lots of variants, is fast, well armed & armored, but kinda pricey point-wise. So I went looking for a cheaper alternative. In that, I more or less have failed (and in all sorts of ways).  Looking thru the Record Sheets: 3039 PDF, I saw that there are now a multitude of standard 10-ton APC variants. Some ways back, as we were gtting out of CBT, I had bought some micro-armor Rachetenjagdpanzer 2s from ebay to use as APCs, but never got around to it. After some digging I found them, added some plasticard with holes punched in it (used a nail for that) to their front glacis' to represent the various missile launcher types, painted them up, and now they're ready to go forth and die!

Painted in the FRR's 3rd Hussars Reg.

To my knowledge, no model was ever made to represent the 10-ton APCs (essentially a rhino, with the motive options of tracks, wheels or hover) hence my using an off brand set of minis. I think they're intended more for fluff than actual use. Indeed, verse the pricey maxim, three tracked SRM2 APCs offer slower speed, shitty armor, a huge reduction in offensive armament, and all for the savings of about 200 points. However I can add in a 'fire support' APC mounting an LRM 5  (pause for laughter) in lieu of an infantry bay using up those saved 200 points. As you can see, I have 2 of those fire support APCs for when I want to waste even more points...

Its not specifically stated where the exit ramps are on the basic APC, the rear or sides I would imagine. However in a galaxy as large as CBT's, I'm sure that there are tons of local variants. Given that the model used is rear engined, I painted an exit hatch on the front facing of the SRM2 APCs, so that the missile launcher can provide covering fire as the infantry dismount. That of course does lead to the issue of having almost stationary infantry now blocking the APC's path, but whatever. They're not meant to be effective anyways, they're just for fun.

Going Green...

...cuz GREEN iz BEST!!!

Sadly, that's all in this post that'll reference da boyz. A week or two back I started another bout of what I like to call 'recycling'. Recycling is where I sell off gaming stuff I no longer want/use via ebay, so that I can afford to buy other gaming stuff that I do want to use (this method renders the incessant price hikes somewhat irrelevant, though it does mean that my collection is slowly reducing in size). So far its just been random odds & ends (and I do have quite a lot of that), however the (non-Red Corsair) CSMs, and most of the Inquisitorial Horde (minus the Illustrious Forestry Service) will probably go with the remnants getting reorganized.

With the rumors of chaos cultists on the way, and the fancy bases of the Corsairs (vs. the plain ones on my renegade IG) I plan to trim the old CSMs down to just the already painted 'pretty ones' and will then fill in the roster with the IG. Oh, and I'm not selling any vehicles either, they're just too expensive to replace.

Likewise the Matt Fucking Ward, Fucking Gav Thorpe & his purgation squad, Coteaz and a few of my favorite Inq. minis will stay (including Ben Franklin), but most of the rest will go. I think I'll be using the old beret styled storm troopers as the Inq. horde instead. Indeed, there are about a dozen of them I purchased from Dylan Gould last week using ebay funds that are enroute to me right now.

Last week I totaled about $100 from ebay sales & promptly spent all of it. In addition to the forthcoming stormtroopers, there are also three battlemechs on their way. The first to arrive of last week's purchases is the army book at left. I've only skimmed it, but it looks to be much better than I expected just in terms of quality. So after some thorough reading I would hope that my Stirlanders will be more properly organized for future battles.

However last week's purchases from mini funds may be the last for a bit. It looks now like I'll be heading off on vacation again the end of this coming July. As this trip wasn't planned for, all of my vacation funds were spent in Washington DC a little over a month ago. So instead my 'recycling' funds will be heading towards that instead. Its okay though, I'll never run out of toys to paint...

A few mere mortals and a soul lost to chaos

o/

I'm running a day late after taking a 3-day weekend with the family. My Dad came down for a visit as my grandmother's 80th birthday is tomorrow. Staying at my grandparents' house allows for plenty of painting time. Not all was applied to minis though as on Sunday Dad & I stained their deck. Bleh, what a job that was, as its a 2nd story deck...but enough of that, you guys want to see minis.

First up is an Amethyst wizard who's studies apparently have taken a turn for the worst...

I didn't realize how mutated this guy was till painting him...

I didn't want to paint him in the usual green of Nurgle, so I figured I'd paint him up as a misguided follower of one of the Empire's colleges of magic (and of those, the Amethysts are my favorite). This guy won't however be fighting alongside my Stirlanders but rather my Skaven. In the aftermath of our last Mordhiem game, I rolled a triple 6 on the exploration chart resulting in 'returning a favor'. That gives me one free hired sword for the next game. There aren't many who will deal with Skaven aside from Warlocks. I've used this guy in that capacity before, and as everything else in my Skaven warband is painted, I figured he ought to be as well.

Next up is the standard bearer for my Stirland Swordsmen regiment:

This is a 3rd hand model and unfortunately he leans way forward. The slightest bump sends him into a face plant, so I guess I'll have to magnetize the bases to their (future) movement trays. Its a good thing to do anyways, however this guy makes it a necessity.

...and finally, two more Swordsmen & the first two painted archers:

This brings me to 7 out of 10 Swordsmen painted (and 2 out of 12 Archers). I painted the guy on the left with a blue jacket for no particular reason, just a minor variation. As poor as this army is, these guys are only supposed to be reasonably consistent anyways. Perhaps he's a deserter from thebob489's Nordlanders or just thinks he's fashionable, who knows...

Just a quick update to close out this week.

o/

Not a whole lot has happened on the hobby front this week, blame the nice weather outside I guess (its been like early spring in June which is a rare treat).

Tuesday my Skaven warband, the Clockwork Forage crawled from the sewers of Mordheim to put the smack down on Screech's Rieklanders. Even better, unlike most of my wins in which I invariably end up with several permanent casualties that need replacing, only one (not so) giant rat died. I didn't bother to replace it (gotta feed the troops ya know) meaning I'm now less than 30gc away from adding the rat ogre to my roster.

Mwuhahahahaha!!!

This is the entirety of my painted Stirlanders.

On the Stirland front, I got fed up with not having any scorched brown for my bases so that I can 'finish' my minis. So I just said screw it & painted them goblin green. I originally picked scorched brown as that was the color I used on my Skaven warband's bases. However unlike the rats, the Stirlanders don't live under ground. I repainted the rims on those minis that were already flocked, and when ranked up all together & in a movement tray, I doubt the difference in color under the flock will be noticeable much (if at all).

Empire Swordsmen

o/

I finally made it to the FLGS to restock some much needed paint. I had the GW color conversion chart printed off, but they still had the old colors so it wasn't needed. So while that was good on the one hand, it was bad on the other as they were pretty well wiped out. Scorched Brown was one of the colors that they were out of, so the bases of my Empire minis are still just the color of primer. With the restocked paints I was able to get a few swordsmen painted though:

The guy in the black coat will be the unit champion.

The first one I painted was the musician, with the intent to put him with my Halberder regiment. However after painting him, I realized that I had used the wrong wash on him, and he really didn't look good with that unit. So I swapped him with the one from the swordsmen. I figure that as long as the same wash is used per regiment, then it ought to look alright in the end. Having 60 or so Stirlanders, I guess its a little unrealistic to assume that they've all been wallowing in the same mud puddle, right?

I bit ordered some swordsmen arms & skaven shields since the militia box (1) doesn't have any shields and (2) the left arms were never meant for them. Meaning ranking them up with shields is all but Impossible (whereas with shield arms its the normal situation of: difficult but doable). Originally I had bit ordered some swordsmen shields to try with the militia arms (see #2 above), but those shields, for the most part, really look kinda dumb.  However the old Skaven shields are simple wooden round shields, with their icons as separate pieces. So I just omitted the icon &  painted them in the varied green & yellow stripes. As impoverished as my Stirlanders are, I can easily see them stripping usable weapons & armor from the enemy dead. Indeed I wouldn't put it past them to have skinned & barbequed some of the furry little bastards!

By my guesstimation of the new point costs (gleaned from army lists online as I still don't have the new army book) all I need is another box of militia which will be spread across the regiments I have now, a wizard, and to just use the great sword standard bearer as a BSB and that ought to bring me to approximately 1000 points. Were they ever to see the table top, I figure I could just pair up with Neverness and his fledgling Empire army to fight against someone else. That and hope that he has some knights, artillery and some other hard hitters as I don't. I know he has a lord on a gryphon at least...

This probably came from the Warhammer RPG.

I'm not sure as to where Neverness' army is based in The Empire (he probably doesn't know either), but in looking at maps of Stirland, I settled on the small city of Leicheberg as the home for mine. Leicheberg is more or less out in the middle of nowhere now, though it used to straddle the Stirland/Sylvania border prior to the latter providence's annexation.  In looking online to see if there was any canon fluff on the city I found this map & that settled it.

Actually I looked at several of the towns in that area, but Leicheberg was the only one with a map, so it won out. An army of any even meager size will need at least a substantial town or small city to support it, and looking at the various maps of the Empire you often never know if a town is nothing more than an inn at a cross roads, or an actual town/city. I also found this blog. Its a pretty good read though it appears to be dead (which is disappointing but also kind of ironic considering...). It details an Empire army that is also set in Leicheberg, though it was during the city's apparently more prosperous days when it belonged to Sylvania. Judging by my army thus far, its safe to say that the years have not been kind...