Neverness on cardboard...

o/

Now, normally I don't call people out by name, but this time I just couldn't resist. Friday I was chatting with Neverness at the FLGS (where he now works), and he was looking at the store's selection of X-wing and Armada quizzically.

NN: I just don't get it, its cardboard.Why is that fun?  
ME: Well, there are miniatures too...
NN: Yes, but most of it is cardboard. Why spend all that money on just cardboard?

Well...let's tug on Neverness' ol' heart strings a little bit shall we? lol, he's right of course, cardboard sucks! Everybody wants what's inside the cardboard (box). Who the hell plays with cardboard anyways right? Well, all of us actually. We've done it for two decades now. 

Let's take a look back to the Golden Age of GW, the olden days where GW's games, arguably their best games, all relied on vast quantities of...gasp! Cardstock? Meh, really that's just thinner cardboard!

wha...the hell you say?!?

First up: Space Hulk. You know you love this game buddy! The original, the re-release, and the re-re-release, without all of that cardboard, all you really had were some Termies and genestealers. Not much of a game there, right? Hell, I sold I.R.-Voril's re-released Space hulk game WITHOUT minis, all I sold was the cardboard!

Epic? I forgot about Epic, but it popped up in an image search and yeah, buildings, tokens, damage/unit cards...Cardboard everywhere!

Mind you all of this this was back before you youngins' had all the fancy new plastic terrain available for 40k. Speaking of...

Here it is, the boxed set that ruined me financially from then on to the present day...

40K itself! The boxed game was loaded with cardboard terrain! We used it till it disintegrated, and then ya know what? They sold us some more! Boxes and boxes of basically just cardboard, and we ate it up, hell we loved the stuff! Because we were sick of fighting around soda cans and crummy (plain) cardboard boxes...

He has that cardboard Dredd and still threatens to field it...

What else is there...oh, how bout Mordheim? Yup you guess it, cardboard ruins everywhere!

Sadly its hard to find good terrain pics for this game...

Warhammerquest, yes basically it was Fantasy Space hulk, and the same scenario.

I loved this game soooo much!

Necromunda? But wait, that was the age of plastic bulkheads, the grandaddy and forerunner of much of the 40k terrain mentioned above, right? Yes, but without the cardboard in between, all you had was a pile o' useless bulkheads.

The game that turned laser pointers into a required accessory

So, having beaten the horse to a bloody pulp on this little walk down memory lane...yeah, sorry buddy but, that argument isn't valid. So why not give it a try? Come on...ya know ya want to!

What? Ah yes, the canon argument, what wasn't in the movies doesn't count.  Well I fielded 150 points of almost entirely nameless scrubs in all canon ships last weekend, so it can still be done. Sure the Z-95 Headhunter is debatable, but then again, it looks a lot like this fighter right here, so maybe it was all canon after all...

Love ya, mean it!

Never tell me the odds!

o/

So, this past Monday, my Skaven warband the Clockwork Forage attacked some hapless Reiklanders in my first game of Mordheim in years. Starting out, we learned that I4 is great! And we also learned that we screwed up stuff all the way through as well. Hence no casualties were permanent, no experience was gained, etc.

However the highlight of the game (for me) was when The Great Horned Rat shined his favor upon the Forage as I rolled (8) 6's in a row! (while profanity was streaming from the other side of the table) I really only needed six of those as at that point the two Reiklanders that I had attacked were both out of action, I just kept rolling to see how many more sixes I could get. Afterwards I posted a query on facebook about the odds of that and the geeks responded quickly with a ‎1 in 1,679,616 chance! I wish I had that kind of luck on lottery tickets! (though I did win $4 this morning, after an expenditure of $2)

Speaking of numbers, we played Space Hulk again last night, and while the Blood Angels were wiped out again (victory was so close!) although they did manage a nice 3.7 kill ratio in their favor.

In other news. Murl had lent me his GK codex, forgot about that, couldn't find it, so he bought another, then remembered & told me to keep it (conveniently my birthday is right around the corner). He told me to try it rather than just sell off my horde of inquisitorial retinues, and after some pondering I'm going to give it a shot.

In truth, there is little in the codex that really appeals to me aside from all of the retinues (and maybe the Vindicare). However one chapter I've always liked, but felt could never be adequately fielded is the Exorcists*. Already having the HQ & Troops needs filled, I'm going to try & field the Exorcists in the Heavy Support role. For now I can borrow the primed rifleman dread & landraider crusader from the Aurora and to that I'm going to add a 5-man purgation squad with four psycannons. That will give me some good light anti-armor/MC support, and if all goes well with that I'll add in another in time. To help keep them from just looking like red & black GK, I ordered some Exorcist & devastator shoulder pads from Chapter house studios. Enough for one 5-man squad and one termie shoulder pad. I figure I'll field a single Paladin (all hail ebay) to act as a commander to the Exorcist's contingent (who will be named 'Matt Fucking Ward' in honor of his writing of the codex & his 4chan page, no warding stave though I don't think I could stomach a 2+/2++ model in my army).

*The Exorcist image was taken without permission from Lexicanum.com who probably stole it from GW who actually holds the copyright on it.

The Summer Doldrums

o/

Notta whole lot has been going on hobby-wise for the past week or so. I played a game of Space Hulk, not much else though. With me at the helm, the Blood Angels lost 10 termies in said hulk, though the Sgt. with the thunder hammer & storm shield personally accounted for a dozen or more genestealers, and the last termie standing died in a very cinematic blaze of glory. It was quite a fun little game.

On the painting front, I base coated another pair of Alpha legion marines, and finished the icon bearer (guy on the right). When i had started painting these guys, it was before I had started using washes again (see guy on the left). However they've kinda struck me as looking too bright & cartoony, especially when on the table with my Blood Eagles & Purge chaos marines.

So I hit the icon bearer with a wash in Delvan mud before adding the bleached bone dry brush layer. Followed them by some snot green touch ups & dry brushing, and the result is a more dark & sinister look, which I find to be quite pleasing. So I'll have to go back & add the wash & additional dry brushing to the already finished Alpha Legionnaires, including Arkos the Faithless. Not too much effort required to do that, so I'll try & at least get that much accomplished for this week.