Harold (of Nurgle)

o/

I hope everyone had a good Christmas and will be enjoying their New Year's holiday. Most may have today and tomorrow off, whereas some (like me) won't. Actually I only have to work (or rather be at work) today. As I wasn't here last week (when arrangements for working today were made),  I was out of sight and out of mind. So I'm the only one here in my department. The options given last week while I was in Florida were use a vacation day (I used the last of mine last week) or be dragooned into inventory today (ugh).  EXCEPT, that was all planned out last week.

So when I arrived this morning to find electricians tearing out the ceiling in my office to replace the light fixtures, I had to hunt around to find my supervisor (who was about to leave) and he sent me to the guy in charge of inventory.

'Nope, we have too many people already, we don't need you. Don't you have a vacation days left?  No? Well, go and hang out in your office and we'll come find you if we need you, I doubt it though.'

Which is why you find me blogging away...Happy New Year folks! lol. Normally I update this on my morning break, however today is nothing but a 'break'. Now as exciting as that was, I doubt you're still reading or you thought 'TL;DR' and just skipped to the picture below, and...uh, yeah, about that.

Warning: Looking too long at this guy may cause nausea...

One of the gifts I received this year for Christmas was the Nurgle Chaos lord. Its a WHFB mini (on a fancy resin base from which a strighori vampire-turned-chaos fury was recently removed), and is made of plastic. It has just as good of detail as a FAILcost mini, yet is in an infinitely better material. So why GW continues to use FAILcost is beyond me.  Anyways, when I received the Red Corsairs, they came with a healthy sized Daemon contingent. However the new CSM codex ommitted the generic daemons, and so they'll now function as allies, and Harold here will lead them as a...herald.

Seriously, what did you expect?

According to the fluff, plague bearers whom are born from those who fall to Nurlge's plagues. However those poor souls with strong constitutions, and whose bodies resist Nurgle's plagues for far longer than the average joe, result in longer incubation times resulting in an exalted plague bearer who is birthed into a Herald. That's how the fluff explains it.

However this being chaos, I'm sure there's more than one way to create a daemon. All followers of Chaos hope to one day achieve the immortality of daemonhood. Most that do, are the champions of the traitor legions and blessed as such they can thus lead their lesser minions for an eternity of destruction. Well, in my guestimation, Harold was a mortal commander who led his unit into Nurgle's thrall, and for this act was granted 'apotheosis' into a daemon. Rather than a daemon prince though, Harold was raised him up to be a Herald (Nurgle is known for his sense of humor...), and thus rather than the leader of a vast warhost, Nurgle has doomed him to an eternity in middle management.

Edit: It looks like I'll be finishing out 2012 with a game of 40k against my Arch Nemesis: Screech and his vile legions of...something. Huzzah!

In the beginning, there were Eldar EVERYWHERE!!!

...and in the end, not so much (they are a dying race you know...lol).

Exodites and Pirates, ready for war.

The enemy gathers...

So last Saturday, RTVoril and I set out for another grudge match (at least they seem like grudge matches even though in all the time we've known one another, this was only our third game). I took my Exodites with some Corsair allies using the Forgeworld list, and he brought his Cabal of the Black Primer.  Crusade scenario with 4 objectives (all of which rolled a '5' on the mysterious objective chart) and playing short table edge to short table edge (why can I never recall what that deployment is called?).

I deployed as you can see above in pretty much blob formation, while all he deployed were three Ravagers spread across the back field (which made the Corsairs' Vyper crew very nervous) and a squad of jet bikes on his left. He failed to steal the initiative, so it was my go.

Turn 1.

The Farseer cast fortune on the Dragon Knights (wraithguard) and guide on the Vyper, and then the Eldar made a general advance towards the objectives on the other side of the table, sticking to cover where possible, while the Guardians held in the woods. In the shooting phase...I think I'll more or less quote a recent battle report I saw on the Fourth Company Librarium: 'they inflicted no casualties. It was kind of depressing and I don't want to talk about it.'

The Exodite version of the 'jet bike' is so much prettier I think...

In response, the Ravagers took potshots at the Dragon knights, however they were in good cover and only lost one of their number, The jet bikes turbo boosted into my backfield and in doing so, passed over a squad of guardians, inflicting enough casualties to cause them to break and run despite the warlock having embolden. 

Turn 2.

The Guardians thankfully rallied, and the entire footslogging horde made an about face to unload on the jet bikes while my Autarch got into position to charge them. A key thing to note is that on the other end, the Farseer rolled box cars on his roll for Fortune on the Dragon knights AND still took a wound. This was to be a critical failing! He guided the Avengers though they really had no targets. 

Unleashing a vast onslaught of shuriken and lasblaster fire, the horde managed to kill just two jet bikes, WTF? They were the 'important ones' with the caltropes, or whatever they're called.  Super Fly (my Autarch on the griffon) then charged the jet bikes, killing two for no return wounds, broke and summarily ran them down. First blood went to the Exodites! And then...

Man those friggin' Venoms have a lot of firepower!

...bad things happened. It started raining Dark Eldar. With the Hellions and four Venoms (not the Treeborn though) dropping into my backfield, they then proceeded to unleash hell! Many guardians and Avengers fell to this firestorm and the Ravagers, also seizing the opportunity of the Farseer's failure, all fired into the Dragon Knights, killing three of them! It was not pretty...

Turn 3.

The 'Hand of God' prepares to remove the dead...

Objective seized!

Reeling, the Farseer managed to fortune the Dragon knights and DOOM! the Hellions. The Dragon knights gunned down one Venom, and everything else hit the Hellions, wiping them out.  The Knights/Farseer then charged the survivors of the wreck and conveniently left one alive who didn't flee, sparing them the next round's shooting. Super Fly also charged a venom but failed to kill it.

In return the Dark Eldar Trueborn still didn't show, while the rest of the venoms continued to blaze away inflicting many casualties and popping the Vyper. The Ravagers, also gunned down Super Fly after the venom he was attacking simply flew away.

Turn 4.

This squad popped a Ravager,boosting morale just before things turned really ugly.

Things were looking pretty grim at this point, and the accursed Corsairs tried to negotiate with the Dark Eldar, in hopes of trading Exodite lives for their own. The Dark Eldar however just grinned and continued to pull the trigger. A Ravager and two Venoms went down and their crews were attacked variously by the, Dragon Knights, Farseer, Corsairs and Guardians. Two Guardians fell to overwatch, finishing another squad off. The Corsairs remained locked in combat, while the other Dark Eldar survivor broke and ran from the Farseer. Somewhere in there the last of the Dragon Knights fell and their Warlock as well.  The jet pack Corsairs also pulled back to consolidate the hold on the Scatter laser squad's objective.

The Trueborn finally arrived, and proceeded to paste the Guardians with the scatter laser and the nearby Corsairs, though the few ragged survivors held. Meanwhile the Corsairs finished off the kabalite warriors they were fighting and consolidated back into the trees.

Turn 5.

You can make it!

The farseer, now in the open and all alone, fortuned himself and then made a run for the last two Pathfinders still hiding in the trees. Speaking of the Pathfinders, they didn't do a whole lot, it seems that they suffer from Aurora Scout syndrome (grrr...). The Scatter laser squad glanced the Trueborn's Venom twice, but it passed one flicker field save. and that was pretty much it right there. I had a few lasblasters left here and there via the Corsairs, but they're worthless against Venoms. Never thought I'd be wishing for regular Shuriken catapults.

The Dark Eldar then gunned down the fleeing, Farseer, the few remaining corsairs hiding in the trees, and the Trueborn's Venom wiped out the scatter laser Guardians, while the Trueborn themselves cut the jet pack squad down to just one Corsair (who held).

Turn 6.

Not a whole lot left...(note: there are 2 pathfinders in the trees on the lower right of this photo.)

I rolled a 1 and thus didn't get tabled. Whew! Counting things up, I had first blood, he had line breaker, both Warlords were dead (still don't recall who his warlord was, or when I killed him), and nobody had any objectives at that point. So it came down to victory points, and with just three models left on my side, there was no point in even bothering to count them up. The Dark Eldar had a clear victory.

It was a fun game though, and again many thanks to Neverness for taking all of these photos for me! I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah or (insert your holiday of choice here). This Friday (snow permitting, its currently rolling across the country) I'll be heading to Mom's for the week, so you'll all have to survive without my internet rambling for a full week.  It'll be hard folks, but I'm sure you'll somehow manage...

;-p

Christmas Presents!

o/

This weekend, Eldar of all sorts took to the table in what was a brutal and bloody battle. I was going to make a battle report on that this morning (and save this post for later in the week), but our combat cameraman was unexpectedly waylaid by Hobbits, and no pictures have arrived yet. No matter, will get to it in a few days...

That's a lot of WHFB for someone who doesn't play WHFB...

Tis' the season and all, and I've both received and given toys for Christmas (lol, i recall as a kid dreading growing up as that would no longer mean toys for Christmas...). At left you can see what I've been generously given thus far (and with maybe one exception, is likely to be the extent of this year's 'toys' allotment).

RTVoril gave me the Ciaphas Cain Omnibus. While I've already read that its been a while, and having just finished the best of hammer & bolter it'll keep me entertained during my lunches thru the holidays. Besides, this time of year and the current shopping frenzy, i don't want to go anywhere near a bookstore...

Murl gave me gift cards both for Christmas and a much belated birthday present (gift cards are always accepted btw) and so along with some paint (I always need paint), I got the watchtower. I was telling Screech that I'm still not sold on getting an Ork flyer. So rather than get something I'll use once every 2-3 months I got the tower. He threw his hands in the air and laughed at me saying: 'oh, so instead of something you'll use once in a while, you got something you'll never use?'

Damn it, I hate it when that boy's gotta point...

It'll be painted as the 'castle' to be defended by my little contingent of Stirlanders, not that I ever use them or even have a fieldable army. In reality it just means that at we'll least have some actual WHFB terrain now when playing Mordheim. Which means I'll use it almost as much use as a bomma of some sort. Speaking of Screech, he gave me the other two boxes there. The Chaos Lord will be used as a herald (the painting of which was already started) to lead the Daemon contingent that came with the Red Corsairs, and I just recently gotten some more Catachan arms to make more beastman IG. Thus I had been hunting on a good deal for some more ungor. Well there's no better deal than that!

Note the shield of one of my deceased Skaven on his base...

Going back to Mordheim, one of the gifts I gave to Screech was a painted handgunner for his Reikland warband. He's got two of them, and one of the two rolled 'the lad's got talent'. and I can never tell which is which. To be honest the damned things are disgusting to the point that they make Telion look bad! In general My rats run as fast as possible & from cover to cover in a desperate attempt to get into close combat before getting gunned down. Anyways, at least now I'll be able to tell the difference between the character and the scrub.

I also have another WHFB mini to be given as a gift. While I prefer not to show who's getting what before they get it, I have no idea as to when I'll be seeing Madival, other than it'll be sometime after Christmas. So as this is my Christmas post, it's been posted here.

I hate undead armies, probably because I hate zombies...

 Anyways, this guy didn't come out at all as planned. This is the driver from the corpse cart. However he was obviously not intended to be glued to a base, so no amount of weighting could keep him upright with the torn corpse on the end of his spear. Its a shame as that corpse was why I chose this model, it's tattered uniform was going to be painted in the colors of Nordland which is the army of his usual WHFB opponent Bob...oh well. Given my complete lack of green stuff skills, i couldn't hide the seams on the sides of his cloak. Makes me wonder if they're photoshoped out of the box art...

I figured he'd make for a good Necromancer but in painting him I realized he's actually a vampire with fangs and an armored breastplate. Meh, those two things aren't too noticeable, so could easily be used as either (especially as I already have 2 Strigori for him in varying states of disrepair).  He's painted in the colors of Sylvania prior to its annexation by Stirland and while a simple addition, I rather like the arm coming out of the ground. I didn't have any skeleton arms, so its obviously someone recently deceased. Or rather as a Necromancer/Vampire would see it: 'here comes one more recruit for the cause...'.

Exodite Shuriken Cannon WIP

Mornin,

Well, still flush with my Ork victory last weekend, I thought I'd stick with the Xenos & see if I could get back-to-back wins. A tall order I know, but worth a shot. I rarely use my Orks, and their wins are even rarer still. My Exodites are pretty much in the same boat, although Rogue.Trader.Voril is coming over to the tri-cities this weekend, and that's an easy win for anybody (...snicker...). So my odds look good...

Eww, look at that mold line!

When pulling out all of my futuristic Elves to make a list of Exodites allied with Corsairs, my last Guardian heavy weapon platform kept falling apart. It was only just kinda stuck together/dry fit. However that's rather annoying as every time you touch the model the gun falls off.

 Thus it became this week's painting project.  These photos were taken just prior to inking which darkens/dirties the model up considerably No, 'dirty Eldar' is not an oxymoron, its an Exodite. That mold line (or two) doesn't scream at you like it does in the photo, but will have to be remedied anyways. Cameras seem to add mistakes to minis like they add pounds to people.

What's the Exodite translation of: MOAR DAKKA?

My other two guardian platforms (EML & scatter laser) are in more or less the same exact pose, gunner & all, so with thus one I tried to make it look a bit different. Not only does the gunner have a different arm (holding a gun rather than pointing with the thought of 'shoot that one Mr. Warlock?') but I angled the cannon on the platform as well. There's not too much you can do with these, but hopefully it makes it a bit more dynamic looking.

While I ought to have made this a bright lance as my Exodites have a woeful lack of anti-tank weaponry (at least beyond the 12" range), I'd rather use the Farseer's 'guide' power on either the Dragon Knights (Wraithguard) or Avengers. So I opted for the cheapest option with this squad, as much for variety as anything else.

Hopefully I'll have this finished up this evening.

Green iz BEST when fightin' da oomies!

o/

I brought Da Long Wayz Dezert Groop down to the shop  for a game this weekend. Da boyz do need to to give a good krumpin every now and again. I tweaked my list to include the mega tank (no I still don't have any grot tanks, deal with it) as with the sudden demise of Morristown's game shop I could go for more of a fun list as i wouldn't be playing a tourney. Generally I just make a list for the weekend and would bring the same army to both shops. Turn out was light as it was just myself and Screech. Though Neverness did show up a little late and graciously offered to play combat cameraman, and for that I'm grateful as it was a glorious victory for Da Groop!

1500 points, short table edge to short table edge, Relic scenario with it being placed atop the Aztec-like pyramid at the center of the table (which just seemed appropriate). I had Orks, no allies, wiv da Ay-jis duhfense line and (still WIP) quad gun, vs IG/Tau also with an aegis line though no quad guns. You'll note below that some of the IG are in a bastion, it was just terrain that was already on the table when we got there. Below are some of the characters involved...

I know nuffing, NUFFING!!!

This is SHULTZ!!!!, my new slaver and Da Eleet Grot Mount'n Duvishun's standard bearer Kalashnikov, they were amongst the first to die. Despite this, da duhvushun was instrumental in securing victory as some mountaineering was required...

Shaso R'myr (or however that's spelled). I gave this as a present to Screech for graduating high school some years back (god it makes me feel old to say that...) and I was never able to replicate that dry brushing color. Though I did try on  my old Space Wolves to no avail. I forgot about R'myr's flechette discharger...that was a costly mistake.

My beloved old warbuggies. These only took part after I realized I had forgotten my Big Mek 'Fix-a-flat'. That said, they not only survived (minus one hull point) but made a good nuisance of themselves, especially to the Fire Warriors.

Anyways, to da krumpin!

Da boys deployed in a line (with a Deff Kopta, and Da Masta Cheef and his boys in da short bus outflanking due to the 'master of maneuver' warlord ability). Da Grots deployed in da fort (aegis) while the IG hid behind their aegis wall and the Tau settled into the woods.

these sections are the same approximate length as the aegis.

 In typical ork fashion (speed freaks especially) turn one was a direct frontal charge of vehicles with gunz blazing (to little effect) and da grots left da fort to start scaling da pyramid to get da relic.  In return, as is typical of the Tau/IG, nothing moved aside from R'myr and his crises suit bodyguards. First blood was da green trukk, and da stupid basilisk dropped an earthshaker round taking a hull point off of a Kan, and killing several grots including SHULTZ!!! and Kalashnikov. The grots didn't care though, they didn't like those guys much anyways.


Turn 2 saw da grots getting close to the top of the pyramid, while da deffkopta and da short bus arriving, one on each flank (again, gunz blazing and doing nothing). Da unpainted boys hopped out of da red trukk and charged da crises suits and were all but wiped out, with the last few getting run down. ...sigh... I remember when choppas actually were worth something... Da oomies also popped da Armorcast looted wagon and some shoota boys along with it.

Da oomies/Tau put a wound of da deff kopta and blew up da short bus. Despite his boss pole Da Masta Cheef and his boys were pinned with 2 rolls of 11! Pinned and staring at a basilisk and veterans in point blank range they were screwed. But then...da oomies made a mistake! Dey charged da boys!!!

I have no idea why (and later on Screech realized this was a mistake but it was already too late). Overwatch fire from the orks actually killed a few on the way in too. The vets were wiped out for the loss of just one ork and better yet, they were no longer pinned!

With confusion raging in da oomie backfield, I continued my armored push on my left, while the right was pummeled by Tau firepower. Da green trukks boys (what was left of them) were able to charge da crises suits and break them, and run them down. Meanwhile the kopta popped the hammerhead. Da grots also siezed da relic!

Firing a broadside looks cool, but (as usual) didn't accomplish much...

At this point it was starting to look like a rout. Da Masta Cheef split off to take out da basilisk while da boys went for da other vet squad (later wiping them out) and da fire warriors broke from shooting. Da kopta would later charge and wipe them out as well. Seeing his demize, da stupid oomie commanda had his team's lascannon fire & blow up Da Grot Spee purely out of spite! Bastard! The Valkeryie also arrived and suddenly it was the skies over Baghdad! With tracers blazing into the air and hitting nothing!

So unfair...and da looted wagon went BOOM!

Da grots almost had the relic back to da fort and I found myself with the good problem of running out of targets. Da Cheef meanwhile entered da bastion to get da oomies on da roof who were awaiting the valk for an EVAC.

Wiv da relic secured, da Cheef (who was oblivious to this fact) punched through the roof hatch, to find nobody! Da oomies had gotten into da valk and were getting away! He shot at it kinda like that scene in Star wars where Slave one flies off from Cloud City (except da oomies were shootin' back!).

All in all it was a good krumpin' of da oomies, after what initially looked to be another, typical reenactment of Pickett's Charge (for those not in America and have no idea what that reference means).  This is the first time I've won the relic scenario. The last time the orks tried this scenario resulted in 3 kans and a furioso fighting on top of the relic, and when the the boys arrived, the relic was little more than dust...

All in all everything either worked well, or it just didn't matter (i.e. Da grot spee and killa kans which did next to nothing but move around).  Still have no idea as to what Screech was thinking in charging da pinned boys as that kinda spelled his doom. I suppose da Blood God took hold of him or something.  It was a lot of fun though and once again my thanks goes to Neverness for taking all of these photos for me.

Victims Eternal

Mornin,

So, as one would expect given all of my various (if not endless) side projects, I'm having a lot of fun with the 6th ed allies system. The latest allied contingent that I'm adding to that list are Eldar Corsairs. I now have a copy of Forgeworld's Doom of something unpronounceable but starts with an 'M' and am rather liking the Corsair list within.  They ally the same as Craftworld Eldar and can ally with their Craftworld (or in my case Exodite) brethren.

Kindova shame really. I had 10 of the FW Corsairs which I was using as Swooping Hawks, but thoroughly disappointed with them, I had sold 5 back well before 6th ed was released. Had I known allies were coming I may have kept all of them.  No matter, the jet packs are an option not a requirement. So for about $2 a model, I managed to get eight 2nd ed. guardians with lasguns (now lasblasters) to use as Corsairs. Currently they're slow boating their way here from England.

To get my Corsairs going, I painted up my chosen HQ choice this week, the Void Dreamer. I figure, as small a contingent as I'll be fielding, there's little need for the Prince to be bothered helping out his mud-slogging cousins. Instead one of the bridge-crew flunkies will lead the way. Void Dreamers are halfway between Farseers & Warlocks stat wise, and in the fluff are often the Helmsmen/Navigators of the Corsair vessels. So yes, like Star Trek, all of the important crew members leave the bridge to go to the planet below...

I got this old Farseer again from ebay for $10 or so, shipping included. His base is caked with glued on sand which was disappointing as I'd be basing over it, but I wasn't inclined to fight with cleaning it all off. Given that he's the navigator sort, I wanted to paint him to reflect that in some way, so opted for a black helmet with white gems representing a star field. Curiously, the gems alter their positions as he navigates the ship thru space, however only the Void Dreamer knows how they do this...

He Also has one hellova big sword slung across his back! I could just give him the standard old Witch Blade, but what good is wounding on a 2+ when it hits no harder than a right hook? Instead I'll have it be a Void Sabre, which confers +1 strength and has rending. So at least once in a while it'll be a worthwhile weapon. 

As always, I like to make up some fluff for my various units, and so while it'll have no real bearing on their use in game, I came up with the following :

Ben Franklin & Longshot are both inquisitors in my rarely used GK horde.

I've started some base coating of the corsairs with jet packs, not much to look at though right now. They're just black & purple...like a bad bruise, which is kinda fitting as they see themselves as 'victims' anyways...

12 SOLID HOURS of Battletech!!!

lol, not quite but close...

My ragged survivors...

Hive Angel came over Saturday and we played a very large battle which, we as usual didn't finish out because after 12ish hours we'd had enough. We did stop for dinner at one point, didn't try to rush, etc. , still makes for a long game though. I took a lot of photos and he took copious notes meaning give him a week or so and he ought to have a battle report up on his blog.

Of special note was my infantry company. Going for maximum units, two platoons ended up without transports. Thus they spent the ENTIRE time running across the desert, while carrying LRM launchers, and no doubt smelling 1st. plattoon's BBQ encampment ahead of them (such torture). As such, while never shot at, I would imagine that there were many losses suffered due to exhaustion, dehydration & heat stroke. They must've really fucked up somewhere to deserve such harsh treatment, that or they have a very harsh commanding officer...

Listed below is my TO&E for all of my inner sphere minis. I used everything (Legion of the Rising Sun) barring the 2 heavy APCs & the Catapult. Also, in case its difficult to read, the black hexes represent non-existent units within the lances.

Eventually, it'll be a slightly under strength, combined arms battalion.

It was a good game, much fun was had and much carnage was wrought. Can't wait for that battle report!

So do you celebrate a Liebster with a lobster dinner?

I'll eat the taters and maybe the garnish, but otherwise that lobster died in vain...

Boy I hope not, I really don't like lobster and that's an awfully expensive dinner that I won't like. I did have fish sticks last night though, does that count? Probably not, fish sticks are at best just mediocre...

Anyways, as you've no doubt already surmised, I 'won' a Liebster award compliments of Da Green Skins (cuz dems knows dat Green iz BEST!). Thus, I send many thanks for both the nomination and compliments posted on that blog. Now, what is a Liebster you ask? 'Liebster' is German for 'favorite' (at least as far as I can tell), and I have no idea where/when this started (but I'll assume it was somewhere in Germany), and its essentially the internet blogger's version of an 'atta boy' or pat on the back, etc. I first heard of the Liebster a year or so ago, and didn't much care for the concept for no other reason than I didn't get one. Well, now I have and think its pretty friggin'cool!

Such glorious hypocrisy!

With any such award/recognition there comes a bit of  responsibility.  You must link back to whom nominated you, and nominate 5 other blogs with less than 200 followers (two of my nominees below are in question I'm afraid as their followers aren't listed). Those with more than 200 are apparently already well known enough to be 'above' a Liebster, and will have to vie for a Bloggie and/or a BOB (and good luck with that as you're league with he likes of Postsecret who like BoLS got so big that he had to buy a domain).

Perusing my blog roll, it was kinda hard to single out just five (and I hope these aren't limited to gaming blogs as my list isn't), but I did so and thus (drum roll please) would like to nominate the following blogs (in no particular order) for a Liebster as well. Welcome my friends to our hallowed ranks (though considering the talented folks listed below, I'm still somewhat at a loss as to how I made it here...).

The Kingston Lounge. While not a frequent poster, when a post is made it is definitely worth the wait! The photography is stunning, the history of the photographed sites intriguing, and the hopes to have said sites restored to their former glory somewhat idealistic, but it leaves you hoping they are anyways (this one's follower count is hidden btw).

The Galactic Empire. Wow! And I thought my hobby was sometimes tedious...but still, how cool is it to be making your own CGI Star Destroyers and Federation star ships! And only 10 followers? WTF?!?  It also amuses me that he refers to the minute details on his ships as 'greebles'.

Bigtank armor 1/15 Scale. Okay here's another jaw dropper! Sometimes tedious to follow given the minute & exacting detail he goes into in his construction processes (it takes upwards of a year or so in building a model...from scratch!), but the final product is simply mindbogglingly good! Honestly, the first time I saw his blog, there was a British Mk! Landship at the top & I thought "wow, that's a good photo of one of those'. It wasn't till I scrolled down & saw him behind it that I realized it was a model not a real tank! Seriously, having seen many a model vehicle in the various Smithsonian museums on this past spring's trip to Washington DC,  Big Tanks' models put them ALL to shame! Just a word of note, Google's tanslator for Polish is a bit...off, which can often make for some unintentional hilarity...

Shut Up Internet. Mark Fender is one of the hosts of my favorite podcast 'Thac0' (or perhaps 'the host' as the podcasting equipment is his). I found his blog via their forums and its a daily read. Topics are all over the place, Legos, role playing games, Lady Gaga, lately his series on how well 90's music has aged (or not) is a new favorite. Go & check him out, and the podcast (this blog also has the follower count not listed).

4th Company Librarium. I would be remiss to not have a dedicated, 40k centric, mini gaming blog in my list. However far from the 'token addition' this one is a good read. I started following this one during his series recapping the various chapters in the Badab war books and his thoughts on them. He has a very well painted/converted Executioners army among many others, and even does some commission work as well. His armies also stick closely to the fluff which (as a fluff bunny myself) is very appealing.

So there you have it. Again my thanks to Da Green Skins for the award, and again to all of my follwers/readers who remarkably find my little portion of 'teh interwebz' to be of interest.

{:-)

My Dark Apostle FINALLY won a challenge!!!

It only took four games to do so...

He might get paint after this weekend.

Ya know, I really want the Dark Apostle to work, its a fluffy unit, and I love the chosen with power maul mini which I use for it (rather than the actual 'I just got toilet papered by some rotten kids' mini GW made for it). However, it seems I'm always faced with marines of some sort (negating his AP4 power maul), or as it was yesterday, LOTS of Tyranids which have a serious lack of 'characters' to challenge.

MOAR DAKKA!!!

Another complaint, is that like IG sergeants, he can't have a bolter. Instead, if he's attached to a footslogging squad (primarily my 'Plasma-Death' havoc squad), he's useless till HTH is joined (and even then his odds generally don't improve). Instead just waving his mace in the air and screaming obscenities. The easy fix as you can see is I made the simple conversion of giving him a twin-bolter. Don't worry about how the bolt gets into the lower barrel's chamber, as this arrangement makes as little sense as that of the GK stormbolters.

I did get three games in this past weekend, and in my infinite wisdom I forgot to bring a camera to get photos of any of them. Typical. Its especially a shame as in my first game vs. Murl, we ended up with our usual HTH brawl involving 30+ models. During the game, my Nurgle lord, down to 1 wound achieved an Apotheosis! Whereas his Nurgle lord (and earlier a champion) were both 'spawned'! lol, one would ask what are the odds of that, well...it turns out, pretty good odds. It was a close fought game and ended in a draw.

My second game was Sunday in Morristown vs. Ben (who it seems I always end up playing out there). His Nidzilla vs. my CSMs. Games vs. Ben are always close fought slugfests, and this one (multiple objectives scenario, I forget which one) and this one was no different. It came down to turn 6, where my plague marine champion (my last 'troops' model) fought his last genestealer (and thus his last 'troops' model) over an objective, giving me the win. When its that close of a game, whomever won is kind of irrelevant. Its always a good game vs. Ben.  (oh, and my Apostle did nothing significant aside from making 4+ invul. saves like a madman!)

Game 2 yesterday was vs even more Nids (why is it that the CSMs are having to cleanse Morristown of Nid infestations?) Big guns never tire, short table edge deployment, and um...yeah, it was a blowout. The nids only had 2 shooting attacks, more or less making it a Pickett's charge kind of thing. He got first blood when a helbrute went nuts & charged the monstrous creature line solo, and then 2 tyrants and a carnie ganked the Plague marines. Beyond that, everything else went right for me.

I also found that tank shocking with destroyer blades gives a whole new life to the rhino, and yes FINALLY, the Apostle won a challenge killing off a Brood Lord. His boon of victory (rerolled as the first roll was an unworthy offering) was adamantium will (+1 to deny the witch). Having just killed the last enemy psyker on the board to get that, was just irony I guess (stupid, fickle chaos gods...).

With it close to 5pm and not wanting to wait to see who won the last game to go for a title of bragging rights only (and a 50/50 chance of fighting yet more nids), R.T.Voril & I decided it was 'chicken:30' (diner time) and quit the field. All in all it was a good weekend of gaming after my hiatus due to remodeling the bathroom (which came out great btw).

Return of the Greater Good...sorta.

o/

As I said a week or two back, I found half a crisis suit in my bitz box, and so I ordered the other half and painted it up last weekend. Here it is:

What's that? Looks like a plant, not a threat...

This will be my commander for my little Tau allied contingent. They'll fight alongside the Storm Wardens and Exodites. I've named him Commander Cold Shadow after a Tau story in the Best of Hammer and Bolter volume 1. In that story (written like a memoir) he used a modified stealth suit however that's not an option in the rulebook (it was a mission specific modification anyways).  It was a really good story and conveniently I read it about the time I found the suit bitz.

In truth, aside from a Gotrex & Felix  story towards the beginning (I never liked those) and 2-3 recycled stories (also towards the beginning) its actually one of the better story compilation books GW has produced. I've really enjoyed the majority of them, whereas usually its only half or so.

I have a half painted Devilfish, however I think I'm going to just get a Hammerhead turret sprue to upgrade it. Then all I'll need is a half dozen or so Fire Warriors, and it'll be a nice little contingent.  Being a lone commander, there's not much I can expect out of him, so I figured the twin-linked missile pod was the way to go.  No need to close with the enemy. The shield generator is for some survivability and the lens thingamabob on his other arm can stand in for a black sun filter and/or targeting array.

NEED MO' DAKKA!!! (WIP Pt. 1)

o/

I forgot to get pics of my Tau crisis suit that I painted last weekend, so that may be my late week post, will see how much/if any free time at home is available. This weekend was gaming free as my folks were in town and we're redoing my bathroom. As such I was out on the deck cutting tile with a wet saw & Makita till about 9:45 last night (porch and flashlights ftw!). We got off to a late start and really didn't think we'd get all the tile down, but just kept going once we got going, especially as I don't have the needed vacation days to be off this week.

Anyways, no one comes here to read about tile flooring, so instead weez will talk about Da Orks!

So what if that shoota doesn't have the range to hit anything, it adds MO' DAKKA!!!

Take dis yoo stoopid flyerz: Dakka, dakka, dakka!!!!

These are my WIP Ork quad-gun pics. With a BS of 2, it just makes sense to have an Ork gunner rather than an automated system. Looking at the sky as he is, he's kinda helpless vs. anything on the ground, so no concerns for not having any HTH swings if it gets charged. I still need to add some gubbins to fill in around the where da gunz sit inside the hatch piece, but it's looking pretty good so far I think.

Its a little hard to see, but the gunner is laying on a spare box-o-ammo that's (not so wisely) pushed up against the motor for the drive unit which makes the gun turn/swivel. Engine heat and ammo, yeah...

...eh, Orks do love pyrotechnics!

Insert 300 reference here...

o/

You know exactly what he's saying...

Yup, I made it to post #300, and all I have to show for it is this 300 photo, and the three minis below (one for each hundred posts I guess). No parties, giveaways or any of the usual fanfare that many blogs have when they reach a post # that ends in double zeroes. Oh well. Its just another post, though I was pleased to see that the blog crested the 60,000 page hits mark on my previous post, which means I've averaged about 200 hits per post (though I wonder what percentage of that number is made up of my own page views which don't count).

Anyways...

Last weekend I did manage to get some painting done, and as there has been no painting happening this week, nor will there be this weekend, I'm going to milk those few painted minis for all they're worth (Yes Neverness, that reference was for you as this post is mainly about chaos).

First up are a pair of DV cultists:

This sculpt is my favorite out of the DV autogun squad.

As I said in Tuesday's post, I think I'll resurrect my Tyrant's Legion idea, and to do so, I'll paint the cultists accordingly. I didn't see any photos of the Legion auxilia troops in the Badab books, however as the Astral Claws colors were silver & blue, I would imagine that the auxilia wore grey and blue. Having a duplicate of just about every DV cultist could get kinda bland looking, however when reversing the colors as I have above, then as a whole they ought to tie together well enough (especially those with Marks of Slaanesh, as I hear that they're into that sort of thing...).

I also finished painting up my platoon/company standard bearer for the Beastman IG. These will pull double duty as renegade IG, as well as cultists. To mark them out from the regular cultists in my first game with the new codex, I gave them a mark of Nurgle, which worked fairly well (especially when Hive Angel's heavy bolters rolled a bunch of 2s to wound!).

The Standard is made of scraps of standards belonging to defeated Imperial foes. While I'm not sure who's unit the '812' came from (doesn't matter I suppose as they're presumably dead). I would like to note the codex grey scrap of fabric at the bottom, where you can make out part of the name 'Cadia' on it...lol. When I mentioned doing that to Screech, his praise at being honored in this way was dripping with sarcasm...

So that's it for post #300. Thanks for your continued interest in my mediocre paint jobs, rants, rambling diatribes, and generally poor grammar and punctuation.

Da Masta Cheef

My first game with the new CSM codex

o/

I had a good long weekend with my Dad & Grandparents. Some painting was done in the evenings, but I'll save that for another post. Instead, I thought I'd give my initial thoughts on the new CSM codex learned from a game vs. Hive Angel last week.

First up, the HQ's:

Starring Centurion Niro, in his battlefield debut!

 I wanted to try out the Dark Apostle (chosen mini on the left).  As a fluff Bunny I really like the idea, but on the table he didn't fair too well. Hive Angel really doesn't like the idea of challenges (get over it pal, I have 2 CSM armies that are required to issue and accept them). Thus my Dark Apostle challenged a BA Sgt., waylaid into him with his power maul, only to have the Sgt. make his armor saves and then kill the apostle with a powerfist.

FAIL.

Whereas Centurion Niro, of the Tyrant's Legion (more on that below) did nothing more than send his cultist minions on a grueling forced march. From short table edge to short table edge, and straight into the enemy guns.

Note the cultists in 'Cadian camo'.

With the cultists added in as troops (albeit with very limited options), I'm thinking that I can resurrect my Tyrant's Legion army idea. As you can see at left, I fielded 40 of them, the 20 from the DV box, and a blob of 20 beastmen IG who had the mark of Nurgle. While 'fluffy' CSMs feeding cultists into the enemy guns doesn't win games when objectives need to be taken. So I'm going to need to have at least one unit of power armor troops.

That said, the cultists held up well under the onslaught with 2 units breaking at the end (sealing my fate). But with just 6 survivors out of the original 30, that can be forgiven. The other 10 were with my lord, fearless, and cut down to a man. Leaving Niro on his own at game's end.

I rather like the Helbrute's D3 chart, and now see why it can't have extra armor (i.e.: it doesn't need it). It was also rather novel to have them advancing behind my rhinos and predator without fear of them killing those vehicles. Speaking of the Predator, while a 'dakka pred' isn't too effective against MEQs, I hadn't at the time of the game really read the codex all the way thru. Having now done so, I' think I'll be upgrading it with the Warpfire Gargoyle (which the turret sorta has already).  That ought to give it a bit more punch...or at least be a bit more annoying to the enemy.

My 'Plasma Death' havocs got a nice little bump in the form of the Mark of Slaanesh and the icon of excess (FnP on the plasma Havocs is nice!!!) and giving their champion a combat familiar. While he lacked a power weapon of any sort (and his squad the extra CCW), slinging 5, i5 attacks a turn was fun! He was the only one of my champions to win a challenge, however the gods were not impressed and he got nothing for it. 

So, I still need to play around with it, but I'm not really seeing a need for any major purchases for either CSM army (which is good). Maybe some spawn as I don't have those models, but's really it. No Dino bots and stupid looking dragons for me.
 

On a different note, I found that there is ample room to rotate my game table 90 degrees to allow for all the deployment options. Previously one end of the table was up against the wall. Its a little tight though, so it might not be feasible for any of my opponents who have the 'Bulky' special rule...

;-p

Amber Wizard & stuff

o/

I managed to get my Amber wizard all painted up and to be honest I'm rather pleased with the result! Take a look:

I should have used a different color background...

Ya gotta love washes, they add in so much otherwise impossible added depth (for my painting skills) to a mini. A light dry brushing over that to add a touch of grime, then a few touch ups/highlights, flock, clear & 'ard coats & it was done! All told (including letting the wash dry) it took maybe 2-3 hours. Currently he lives on the shelf, as his army is living in a drawer.

On the 40k front, First off, my much maligned Aurora Snipers are boxed up, and ready to go. This afternoon they'll begin their long journey of exile to their new home in Sweden! Looking up the address on googlemaps, there's plenty of icy waters for them to be drowned in should they fail their new master as well (and perhaps that'll give them a bit more incentive...).

Also, I finally got the new CSM codex & will give them a try this evening vs. Hive Angel's headless Blood Angels. It'll probably be my last game of anything till after Thanksgiving as my Dad is coming in for a visit this weekend. Then next week I'll be prepping the bathroom to re-tile it as well as replacing the vanity. Mom will be in next weekend and stay thru till just before turkey day to do that (Mom & my late Stepfather both used to be tile contractors).  So thing's will be kinda busy these next few weeks. I'll try to get some painting in where possible, but if my content gets a little light for a little bit, you now know why.

This post has a W:L ratio of 1:1

That's 'Wizards' to 'Lasers'...yeah I know, kinda lame but I couldn't think of any other title to tie these two models together. lol, anyways...first up the wizard. I've been wanting a wizard for my never used Empire army (which means he's more likely to be zapping my Skaven in Mordheim). Picking via background fluff rather than effectiveness, I wanted either an Amber or Amethyst wizard.

The new battle wizards box would make a good model of the latter but not the former. Only really need one, so that was kind of out as an option. The older Empire wizards are one hellova collection of some god awful looking models! Whereas the new limited run FAILcost Amber wizard is ridiculously overpriced while cast in a questionable material. So perusing ebay I found the Amber wizard that rides the my Gryphon (I think) for $7 shipping included, and bought it figuring it would make a cool conversion. Here he is:

Much better looking than the other Amber wizard minis...

I trimmed out from between his legs so it didn't look like he crapped his pants and was carrying a load! Then cut & repositioned one leg so it didn't look like he was supposed to be riding something. That only sorta worked, and I wasn't sure how to fix it. So I added the Beastman skull to his base making it look as if he's awkwardly stepping over that whilst casting a spell (all but ensuring a miscast). I think it works. The sword hilt under the cloak almost perfectly lines up with that peak in his cloak as well.

FREEEEEM!!!

Next up, in light of all of the futile arguing over flyers, I finished painting my Bastion's Icarus lascannon. To celebrate this achievement, it failed to hit anything Saturday night, before Kushial's terminators thunder-hammered it's bastion into oblivion. Typical.

Oh well, the bastion is now complete at least and I'll work on getting the Wizard done for my next post.