Da boyz iz back in town!

 o/

My assembled Kill Team Ork Kommandos:

Honestly, they really are beautiful sculpts!

As I've sold off my KT rules and tokens, these will instead be folded into my Ork army's scant infantry forces (increasing it by almost a third)! The only speshulists built were the rokkit launcha boy to round out my Tankbustas to an even dozen (+ bomb squig), and da snipa which will serve as a big shoota since his gun is already a big shoota with stock, scope and flash suppressor added. 

I also modified the sluggas with the horizontal muzzles that made them look more like giant flat-head screws rather than gun barrels-seriously what the hell is up with that design? Are da boys stealing shuriken ammo from da panzies now? I think not...

Oops! I forgot to add in the mouthful of grenades. Oh well...

....annnnnnd I'm broke.

Well, not really. However my buying new toys budget is frozen for a bit as at this point I have so many new minis to build and paint that I don't even know where to start! I perused the new KT rules and was so thrilled with the updates that those plus the tokens and dumb movement tools are on eBay with one bid and almost a dozen watchers! It'll be good riddance to them. 

Rules aside, there's still a metric ton of plastic in the box and having seen the built minis and terrain at the FLGS where I bought these, I'll definitely be hanging onto those!! I'll probably build those minis first now that I think of 'em...

After spending a bloody fortune, I came back a bit later for a game of X-wing with Frankie. Here's a few highlight pics rather than a bat rep, as being a week after playing, I don't recall all of the details specifically. That said it was my first win against him. A good thing too as he was starting to feel bad for me...lol. 

My wily opponent looking pleased as Chewbacca and the Wookie commandos aboard his YT-1300 The Red Kraken waylay into my Scoutmaster 3000 in turn two. 

A truly uneven contest though I did take a good chunk of the Kraken's shields out in one volley much to Frankie's surprise.

Turn 3, it died. Not sure but think this is only my second use of this ship and I don't think I liked it the first go 'round either...

My Y-wing, down to it's last hit point instructs Frankie on the fine art of blocking and thus avoiding getting shot for 2 turns or so, much to his annoyance. 

That said it did blow up, but only did so shortly before the Kraken itself also went BOOM! Up until this game he starting to believe it was invincible I think as I'd previously only inflicted minimal damage to it.  

Down to his last, shieldless X-wing and just a little shocked at how good my StarViper was (it was still undamaged), Frankie's last X-Wing bolted off of the table, escaping to fight another day!

New Toys

My recent arrivals: Imperial Mud Troopers, a single Republic Clone, a lone Gamorrean, and a smattering of minis from Diehard Miniatures. 

Ah yes, its that time of the year again. The annually occurring bout of me buying all kinds of random minis in under the premise of: I want it! Usually, this spending spree is centered around all things 40k. This year however, not so much. 

Or rather, not at all. 

I'm kinda over 40k to be honest, with even the impending onslaught of new Ork releases failing to catch my fancy. I did put my name down on the list in one of the local FLGS's for the new Kill Team boxed set. 

However GW's inevitable supply scam shortages, means they likely won't get enouh for everybody who wanted one. That coupled with the apparent need to buy an additional $50 book for the full set of rules means that I think I'll take a pass on that as well. 

Besides, Battletech and X-wing are really the only games that I play these days anyways, and even those two are sporadic at best. Instead I seem to have crossed the line into primarily a mini painter, rather than a gamer. 

The WIP Pizza Cannon

The majority of my recent purchases you might have noted, have been for Star Wars Legion; a game that I'm still not keen to learn to play. I sure like the (mostly 3D printed) minis though. My small (250pts +/-) of Rebels is almost complete with just the pizza cannon above remaining to be finished.  

Opposing them will be the Mud troopers pictured t the top, as well as an occupier assault tank (I'm sure half of the folks who follow that link will be too distracted to return, but whatever) though I have yet to purchase that model. They'll clock in at about 300pts or so (I think), not that it really matters. 

I've also purchased more tanks for Battletech (who will get their own post on my TBAGers blog), as well as minis for a probably stupid revisitation to both the Beyond the Gates of Antares and Heavy Gear game systems. Oh I'll probably paint 'em up, not holding my breath for any actual gaming. 

Also I'm currently reading the book Ghost Riders, meaning my (unrelated to that theater) Bolt Action army may again see a ray of hope of reentering the painting queue

Oh don't worry Neverness, I haven't opened the eBay 40k flood gates yet. Selling off vast swathes of my 40k forces, painted and otherwise. Though I can't say that the idea isn't under any consideration...

He's blue steel & sex appeal!

Yeah, sorry Smurf fanbois, this post isn't for you. To the devotees of Slaanesh however, read on...

Sure, he'd prefer to kill the minions of the corpse god as much as any other traitor marine, but going by his tabard of recently flensed Ork's hide along with Ork skulls on his base, clearly any opponent will do. 

To be honest, I actually just sold off the bulk (meagre as it was) of my Children of Torment chaos marines just the other day. The hideous amount of detail on every sculpted surface makes the notion of painting them in bulk something of a nightmare in my opinion. 

From this angle, you can barely see the pink armor. 

But there it is. Curiously it all goes nicely together. 

Already having two painted chaos marines (that Helbrute is now gone btw), I painted this one up this week (and just when you though I'd given up on painting 40k minis...). That leaves me with my aspiring champion, cultist champion and flamer gunner left to go. They, along with my already painted cultists are enough to make a nice looking Kill Team. I could squeeze another cultist in there actually, but folks want too much for em on eBay, and hell they're only 4 points so the absence of one isn't really worrisome. 

Here you can see them as they're being blinded by the glory of Slaanesh!

Originally I was painting each marine with their armor trimmed in a different metallic color, because Chaos. Conveniently, having three of them, it'll now be easy to differentiate which kill team specialist is which. 

It'll do till I get him something better. 

Next up though I think I'm going to work on some cavern tiles as I have 6 of the primed and ready to go. Also my father-in-law got Frankie's lightsaber working...without really doing anything, but the kid is thrilled so it's all good. Speaking of, Ultrasabers finally contacted me today after 19 days of silence, by basically repeating their last email which I had already answered but they apparently failed to actually read. 

As such, I pretty much told them to go to hell. Schmucks.

Silver Drakes update!

o/

Only five got painted before I ran out of steam...yeah that sounds about right. 

In response to last week's rant post, Siph kindly offered to send myself and Neverness each one of the new Primaris Lieutenants at the UK price + shipping rather than the exorbitant price of ordering one directly here in the USA. Curiously I didn't think the Lt. in question would be available till October, though Siph has already painted one up. Not sure how he has accomplished this little feat but...the Relictors are renowned for their little heresies, so I'll just chalk it up to that (btw Siph, it looks great!).

As such, I thought it a good idea to unearth my Silver Drakes and take stock of the meager force that said Lt. will be leading. Currently, my Silver Drakes total a whopping 8 minis. Five painted with my KT comms. specialist having his stalker bolt rifle reduced to a standard model this past Saturday. With so few marines, I need basic grunts more than I do a superfluous Lt. with grandiosely modeled Stalker Bolt Rifle.

His original gun.

Speaking of: scope, no scope, drum magazine or curved...they're all standard bolt rifles in my book. GW's paltry attempt to add spice to an otherwise bland lack of options for these minis upon their initial release holds no water in my opinion. Besides stalker and auto-bolt rifles aren't that great anyways.

KT 'combat footage' from what seems like ages ago...

Sarge got a new, 32mm, textured resin base rather than his ginormous original one (can't have him outdoing his forthcoming superior officer now can we?). These remaining three are now primed and awaiting paint. I ought to be able to accomplish that in a reasonable period of time, though painting here of late seems to be a struggle, with little accomplished beyond priming the bare plastic/resin/3d printed masses.

Raptors we are not!

The basic grunt next to sarge is enjoying some fresh air (or hell just air in general) following his 18-month sojourn in the simple green (I don't know why it's always 18 months...it just happens that way). Currently I'm out of mechanicus grey which I need for the bolt rifles, so I had to order a bottle off of ebay as every FLGS in the region is currently closed due to the predations of Papa Nurgle. But I suppose I can get these started in the interim...

The whole Silver Drakes chapter. (Gulp!)

I HAZ SPESS MAHWEEN!!

lol, sorry, but when it comes to buying a Funko Pop Marine, I think 'lol cats' speak is appropriate. I sent pics of this to the gang, Hoss, Screech and Kushial were amused, Neverness, not so much. 

I think the lack of a bobble-head option is a missed opportunity...

Meanwhile Funko Pop collectors are no doubt choking on their Mountain Dew thinking: Ack! You IDIOT! You don't take 'em out of the box! You're depreciating it's (meager $10) resale value!!

Yeah what the fuck ever. Personally I think the only reason people never take these out of their respective boxes is that it makes 'em easier to dust off.

As for this one, I need to find a suitable plinth/base for it. Will then prime it black followed by dry brushing in various shades of grey (to look like stone) and then will use it as an Honored Imperium (Impeerweeum?) Kill Team/40k terrain piece.  

Another Fleeting Rainbow Warriors appearance...

o/

My right flank. All 3 of these marines (there's one far forward on the left, out of focus and in terrain) died quickly to enemy fire.

Welp, just in case anyone was wondering if any 'progress' has been made: Nope, I still kinda suck at playing Kill Team. 

A target rich environment!

The blob in the foreground is one of my scouts,
trying to decide on which target to miss...

My buddy Phil asked if I wanted to go in a 4-player free-for-all a week ago and I figured why not? Its been all battletech lately, so I was up for a little change. Skip forward to Saturday and my Rainbow Warriors...or...well, maybe just their accompanying dice were most displeased with having to earn their keep and as such put forth minimal effort. Thusly thwarting all plans of glory on the battlefield. 

Green Arrow and my scout sgt. preparing to do a sweep and clear of the ruins Noah was hunkered down in (as usual). 

When the game (officially) ended on turn 4, Bob and his Thousand Sons were in the lead, Phil and his vile Ulthwe xenos was 2nd, Noah and his Salamanders Pollywogs third and I claimed dead last. Yay. However it was early, and my Beloved Wolfy was in the midst of a board game, so we decided to play it out till the end of turn 6 just for shits and giggles. 

My team, having swept away the last of the Pollywogs, close in on a Guardian fusion Gunner (strange looking fusion gun isn't it?). However Green Arrow put his Deathwatch training to go use and dispatched the alien with 1 shot.  

Given that it no longer mattered, the Rainbows suddenly came alive, gaining 3 more KPs, along with the 'help' of Phil (he killed my scout sgt., so not that helpful...), we removed Noah from the table entirely by the end of turn 5, putting me in 3rd at the least by the game's unofficial end. Indeed, for turn 6, I took Noah's vacated seat as 3 of my 4 remaining KT members were in his deployment zone (the 4th, my up until that turn useless ML gunner was still back in my corner). 

Oh well, I had fun anyways, despite my abysmal die rolls. That said, the Rainbows haven't moved themselves up, or even into the painting queue with this performance!

Daughters of the Burning Rose Kickstarter minis assembled!

o/

Even if you're nice to these ladies, they won't be nice to you!

During the Saturday's deluge of rain, we decided to just hunker down for the day, giving me plenty of hobbytime. All that I had planned anyhow was for our buddy Hoss to come over to play a game of battletech that evening (and more on that later). As such, I got the remaining daughters assembled, and started adding skulls to their bases. 

So how is it that Anvil Industries can have the ends of their infantry's gun barrels already molded as being 'drilled out', yet GW is incapable of that themselves? 

Overall I'm very happy with my minis, castings were flawless, and they fit together superbly! I highly recommend them to anyone interested once they become available for regular sale. 

No sets of arms were the same, giving them all a bit of individuality.

I'm thinking that they'll make good stand-ins for an admech kill team, as that was my original intent for using them as 30k admech-ish militia. So I'm asking: are there any admech players out there who think that that would work? 

*****

As for Battletech, Hoss and I had a good ol' slugfest Saturday night and a battle report will be forthcoming...just not here. For good or ill, I've been wanting to move my Battletech posts over to a separate blog dedicated just to that game. Not sure why exactly, but the idea has been in the back of my head for quite some time and I finally took the plunge and set up another blog for just that purpose:

The Buffet Assault Group

It won't be updated as frequently as this blog is, but I'm think of posting at least once a month to start off, perhaps more in the future if content allows. So give it a look if you would like (I just know that Neverness is dying to, lol!), and I ought to have that battle report posted around the 1st of the month. 

Relictors Kill Team Debut

o/

The Tau were remarkably resilient in HTH...must've been the additional,
ablative layer of paint. My Relictors really need some of that!

I managed to get a game in at the FLGS Saturday, and was having so much fun that photos were more or less an afterthought. As such few photos were taken and of those, most were lousy. We had a 4-player free-for-all, between myself with the Relictors and a few cultists liberated penal guardsmen, Bob and his (sadly muppet free) Tau Fire Warriors, Noah and his Salamanders Pollywogs, and Phil with his frickin Ulthwe (I think) Eldar that hid in the corner, behind heavy cover all game. 

The good guys shooting the bad guys...as to which is which is a matter of opinion.

Noah and Phil are younger players, and have the ridiculously simple tactics match (i.e.: nobody moves and everybody readies themselves). Thus the 1st turn, Bob and BS'ed whilst the teenagers blazed away at one another with their fully readied teams. Noah actually started moving after that...Phil, not so much.

They're game play is very reminiscent of Screech at that age, so much so that I was calling Phil: Screech (the actual Screech wasn't present but at home playing video games on STEAM, I meant fixing software...). Noah does at least maneuver to some extent now...well, sorta. 

Mercifully, the Tau's massed overwatch supporting fire was wildly inaccurate, allowing me to make multiple charges in as many turns!

My marines used stub cannons in lieu of bolters and they really weren't any better or worse. The S:5 is lost when shooting at filthy xenos and the inability to rapid fire was a little painful, however the shortened range was of no concern in such a target rich environment and wounding marines on 3's balances out the negatives qualities. 

In the end Phil won, Noah was down to his last, shaken Primaris marine when his ride showed up (and he promptly fled the field), Bob's Tau were broken and the game ended before I could test to see if mine were broken as well. I probably got that last bit out of sequence, but the game was over and I  certainly wasn't in the lead making it a moot point. 

Tau Muppet Auxiliaries-Built and ready for action!

However Shas'Wut aside, paint has yet to be acquired...

Yeah they're not much to look at right now, especially as photographing bare metal, or minis primed with light colors wash out terribly due to the glare from the flash.

As you can see, I finally got my Tau Muppet Auxiliary Kill Team assembled. I got them a little over a week or so ago, but I had to wait to get some non-slotta bases for them prior to assembly. The slotta bases they come with leave a lot to be desired, and the tiny little tabs under their spindly little feet were best just removed altogether in my opinion. 

For those who are wondering just what the hell these are, you can refer back to my earlier fluff post on how these fit into the 40k universe (well, according to me anyways). 

I specifically requested that they all
be wearing helmets.

It took awhile to get my order set up as I placed a special order for these. As they're just 'toys' with no sense of urgency attached, I took my time and waited for Anthony at Zombiesmith (who apologized profusely when he admitted he forgot about my order), to get it all together. No worries though, despite being a small company their customer service has always been first rate, and I knew from prior special orders that such oversights on their part usually results in freebees, discounts or in this case: both!

These muppets on the other hand have kinda ugly helmets (as is
seen on the base of the one in front), so I left them bare headed.

As such I got a trio of technicians and a robot as freebees! These will be perfect for use as scenario objectives for my Muppet Kill Team. They're serve as Earth Caste Muppets and their accompanying 'drone' who presumably have wandered into harm's way and are in need of an extraction.

As for the robot, whilst there are several available, this one in particular is nowhere to be found on the Zombiesmith website. When I inquired about it, Antony just replied with a cryptic: The robots are coming... Woot! An advance release mini! I did use a slotta base for it as it's feet were so tiny I was afraid they'd snap off when removing the tab. 

Now I just need to get these guys painted up, along with everything else in my current paint queue, i.e.: the container, my Relictors (sorry Siph), and whatever else strays into view of my oh-so-short attention span.

WYSIWYG in Kill Team...

o/

In the Grim Darkness of Kill Team, Chaos Marines
once again come across as pretty bland...

Okay so, I originally made these guys to be 30k Blackshields in pariah armor with pariah bolters (i.e.: kinda shitty power armor and bolters). However after going in a different direction with my 30k army, these guys suddenly found themselves unemployed. Instead I'm thinking of just using them as chaos marines in Kill Team, but as recent turncoats like the Relictors, or the Avenging Sons' 3rd company, but their color scheme/theme really isn't my concern.

What is my concern is their weaponry. 

I like my forces to be as close to WYSIWYG as is possible (well, I do plan to run Tau 'Muppets' so there is often some ambiguity, but even their weapons are kinda obvious). So...do you think folks would be opposed to using these guys' weapons as the actual Necromunda Goliath stub cannons that they are, rather than the flavorless, generic bolters that virtually every fucking flavor of marine has? 

Stub cannons have no KT stats, however they're easily convertible to KT as: 18" range, Assault:1, S:5, D:1 AP:0 with no special rules. Point cost would be zero like most basic weapons, as Strength 5 aside, they're really kinda meh.

God I love this mini!

Another question would be my leader's Goliath Renderizer. I figure a powerfist would be obvious as it does look rather unwieldy, though a power maul/axe would probably be a better fit. However only the Deathwatch has access to those weapons. 

So, what do y'all think?

On a different note, My Beloved Wolfy has finally expressed interest in playing Kill Team. I was supposed to give her a demo game this past weekend, but real life being what it is, that didn't happen. So perhaps we'll give it another try one night this week instead. Curiously, she wants to play Chaos marines (but not the guys above) rather than her Fem Fa'Tau. 

She's complained many a time of her dismay at my selling off of my old chaos marines which was the first army she used. However she's taken a keen interest in the new chaos marines in the shadowspear box (well, all except for the obliterator). So there's a good chance we'll get that set. The chaos will all be 'hers', I'll probably just keep a chunk of the primaris marines, and we'll sell off the remainder to recoup some of the expense...or rather that's the plan at least, I guess we'll see...

I fielded 'Nids for the 1st time in my 24 years of gaming!

Ya know, after gaming for so many years, you'd expect that even with an entirely new force, my opponent could still expect me to field a kill team that executes it's mission with skill and finesse right? Right...to that end, my strategy was as simple as it was elegant: Get 'em!

As you're about to see, my mastery of the hive mind is meagre. However I was playing vs. WaaarghPug's orks who employed a similar strategy which I'm pretty sure also equated to: WAAAAARGH!!!

Orks vs. Nids...yeah you know where this is going. No mission. No objectives (well, kill points), and to have as much fun as possible! Its been too long since seeing, much less playing vs. WaaarghPug (years really) and we were both looking forward to the coming slugfest.

lol, can you tell where my deployment zone was?

WaaarghPug's characterfuly converted Orks, all chanting 'We're all gonna die'
at the sight of the horde in front of them...

The AWESOME is strong wiv deez boyz!

Da boss, the only sensible Ork in da bunch, bellowing orders whilst safely in the rear.

Turn 1 and my horde advances! Had I realized ahead of time that flesh borers are assault weapons, they all would have made advance moves, but oh well, one lesson among many learned. 

Skittering forward on the flank...

...and up the middle.

A lucky fleshborer round felled Pug's rokkit toting boy, but the first turn was otherwise uneventful. Here on turn 2 I've flanked him (for what little that turned out to be worth).

In the excitement to get into hand-to-claw combat, we kinda forgot about the shooting phase. Oh well, I wasn't hitting anything anyways. We also forgot that Orks can shoot their pistols in close combat, but as it turned out, they didn't need the extra firepower anyways...

Turn 3 and the Orks, had weathered the initial charge. Both sides refusing to back down, the nids and Orks continue to get stuck in...

With my dice failing me on nearly all front, little gribblies start to die in droves whilst inflicting next to nothing in return. However as my Tyranid Warrior, ineffectively sprays the ruins with living ammo (he certainly wasn't hitting any Orks or grots) he telepathically wills them onward!

Just as my genestealer grabs an ork by the throat, it takes a stikkbomb to the head from behind! Befuddled and confused by the unexpected blow, it is summarily cut down by the ork in front of it.

The bodies are piling up amongst the dice that have betrayed them.

An Ork charged my warrior, and the two proceed to
flail ineffectually at one another...

With every model fighting in close combat, the Orks start to tire, dishing out flesh wounds instead of simply killing their foes!

In a last desperate gasp of effort, the little gribblies manage to take this one boy down before the game ends on turn five.

...and in the end it was Orks: 9, Nids: 2. Ouch.

 Oh well, it was fun and despite my abysmal rolling, my team wasn't broken due to  sheer numbers rather than any actual skill on my part. Better luck next time I suppose. Still, much fun was had which is all that really matters. 

Speaking of Kill Team, our league is 'done'. Everyone's tired of fielding the same force, game after game. I would say that at least I know the rules now, but as WaaarghPug proved on turn one of our game above, he has a better grasp of the rules from one read thru of the book than I do after the whole league, lol. Yeah well, rules were never my thing...