Awakening Ynnead

First Test Game of Rumored 6th

2012-01-20T06:00:00.000-08:00

Tuesday night I played against the ineffable Col. Dracus and his Chaos Marines. He's already written his version of the report here, but I have pictures! I took my nids and we decided to play a test game of this rumored PDF. We played 1250 points because we knew we'd have to look up a ton of things. Here's some pictures of the game, and what I learned. I took the pictures on my 3DS so excuse the blurriness.

We played a standard mission type. I figured I would dominate the objectives game with my masses of troops choices. I should have put the spawned Termagants over by the third objective. It wouldn't have made a difference in this game, but in a closer game it could have made the difference.

He massed up prepared to advance.

My Trygon arrived via deep strike and was shot by the Berserkers. It took two wounds and charged them in the same turn.

...aaaaand then it took a powerfist to the knee. Trygons don't even have knees!

The Berserkers got killed by my T-Fex and Prime, but then they killed the Fex and the Prime got shot to death. I almost got tabled, but I still had a lot of objective points. You can see the lone Termagant hiding behind the hill.

In the end, I lost. For most of the game I was in the lead on objective points, but the fact that at the end you get double what you currently hold is what did me in. If that hadn't done it, the kill points would have. We didn't even total them up, but I'm quite sure he won on those.

Here's what I learned:

*Tyrannofexes can now hit stationary tanks on a 2+. I immobilized his Rhino on the first turn. It would have been a wreck, but the -1 modifier for being a tank saved it.

*Going first is important. The opponent hasn't moved yet so you get a bonus to shooting. Night Fight will be a commonly selected stratagem for those going second.

*Cover only being a 5+ is rough. Sometimes I could get the 4+ by having less than half the squad visible, but it means a lot more casualties.

*Having your own MCs get shot up easier isn't good. Strategies are going to have to change, I think the missile launcher will still be king.

*Dropping the Doom into the middle of a ton of troops isn't a good idea when they can use defensive fire. If you're going to drop him he has to be supported. *Post Edit: The Mycetic Spore is immune to defensive fire. The Doom would have been alive.

*Having more control of your reserves is excellent. I loved being able to pick where my Genestealers came in (I had them outflank).

I also learned that the rules need some serious editing and polishing. I like them and I like the ideas that are taking place here. If this is a fake, can we get the guy who wrote them to publish his own rule system?

6th Ed Rumors, What It Means for Tyranids

2012-01-16T07:00:00.000-08:00

I've read through the "leaked" PDF and FAQ, and I am of a mind that it's legit, a draft that will be edited and cleaned up but largely unchanged. I won't go through my reasons why I think so, but I will state why I think Nids will finally pull their faces out of the digestion pool and get to chompin' everyone. Here's what I've found:

Positives:

+Only what covers the base counts as the body. Those of us with huge Harpy conversions (like mine) or other beasties have major problems with LoS. Now it's a lot clearer, and we'll have less arguments. Furthermore, dense terrain will help hide us.

+With the changes to WS, Deathleaper and the Swarmlord will be hitting on 2s, and many troops will need 6s to hit back.

+No more missiles causing ID on Warriors. They'll take two wounds instead, though S10 will still insta-gib them.

+Reserves are more controlled. You can get the Doom down earlier more reliably. Lictor's Pheremone Trail is actually useful as it functions even when they're off the table.

+Genestealers have Move Through Cover, which means they'll reliably get where they're going at a quick rate.

+Along those lines, with running being doubled movement, it is quite possible to get our assault troops into CC by the second turn.

+With much of our troops having Fleet, that means charging 16".

+In CC, No Retreat wounds are divided, not suffered by each unit. So when you've got a swarm of Termagants and a Tyrant in combat, the Tyrant won't have to save a bajillion No Retreat wounds. Plus it can be negated.

+Objectives. You get points every turn for holding an objective. It's really easy to throw a horde of spawned Termagants on an objective and camp them there all game. Furthermore, you can't hold an objective while in a transport. That means the hardest part of playing against Mech, getting them out of their shiny metal boxes, is already done for us.

+Infiltrate and Deep Strike. From what I read, you can assault after deep striking. Lictors can deep strike anywhere without scatter. However, you must beware of defensive fire.

+Nids need terrain, and there are stratagems that let you practically rewrite the battlefield.

+The Tyrant can now leave Tyrant Guard. I'm not sure when you'd need to, but options are always good.

+Hormagaunts can choose to use Fleet and run up to 16", or use Bounding leap and charge up to 18". They are faster than Beasts and cavalry while running, though their charge is slower.

+Harpies now are far more useful, and you'll actually get to use those spore bombs now.

+Pyrovores get a 3" boost in their range, and can use their flamer in close combat. It ignores armor saves in CC as well!

+Trygons can assault after deep striking now, just watch out for defensive fire.

+The Doom now inflicts two wounds per point that they failed the leadership test by, but no longer fires in the opponent's shooting phase. This is better because most of the time, the opponent just moved out of the 6" bubble.

+If you're in a transport, you can only shoot out 18". No more getting splatted by Mech Guard autocannon spam!

Negatives:

-S10 will cause two wounds to anything with T6.

-They can run us over with their tanks. Tank shock isn't a joke anymore.

-You can't stretch a big conga line of Termagants out to claim multiple objectives. One unit per objective.

-No more blocking off table edges. Reserves are simply placed within 6" of the edge.

-The Mawloc can't deep strike into CC anymore.

Interesting tidbits:

*You will likely need to model special Termagants and such to serve as squad leaders. I think a simple spike on the head should suffice.

*Blasts work like they did back in 2nd edition. I am not sure if that makes you more or less accurate. My guess is more.

*There is mention of a transport called a Cerebore. Are nids finally getting a proper transport?

*There is also mention of a terrain piece called a Weathered Bastion. It's not a regular bastion, it's old and tattered with reduced armor value. Possibly a new terrain kit? I'd put money on it.

As you can see, the positives outweigh the negatives. I may be doing a test game on Tuesday, I will report on how Nids fare with these rules.

The Best Games You're Not Playing

2011-12-21T12:24:00.000-08:00

Would you like to get over $100 worth of games for a fraction of their price? I've been a longtime Humble Indie Bundle fan, but this latest bunch is by far the best I've ever seen. When the bundle first came out, I thought it was an amazing deal and the best bundle they'd done up to date, but they've added even more to it and I just had to share.

Here's the official introduction to the bundle, with plenty of nerdy memes:

First off, let me review the games. They are:

Gratuitous Space Battles: This game does away with all pretenses of story and just jumps straight into the explosions. You don't actually control the ships, you design them, program them and then watch things blow up. The challenge is winning a map with the minimum size fleet possible. You have to build your ships to fit a role, while programming them to match that role. Like 40k, deployment is key.

Cave Story+: I've just started this game, but it is a platformer/RPG. It plays like Castlevania or Metroid.

Jamestown: A space shoot-em-up but takes the alternate history premise that the New World is actually Mars. You play as Sir Walter Raleigh fighting the Spanish and indigenous Martians.

Bit.Trip Runner: A platformer/rhythm game. Your actions in the game influence the music. This is a hard and frustrating game, but still addicting.

Super Meat Boy: One of the more famous Indie games out there. It's a platformer that once again is maddeningly frustrating at times, but gives you a real feeling of elation when you conquer a level.

Shank: I haven't played this one yet but it's a sidescroller beat-em-up.

NightSky HD: I haven't played this one yet either but it's a sidescroller platformer where you control a glowing sphere with unusual abilities.

The above games were the Bundle as it first appeared. Just yesterday they added the contents of the third Indie Bundle if you pay more than the average. Those games are:

Crayon Physics Deluxe: It's a simpler version of LittleBig Planet. You use crayon drawings in a full physics engine to solve puzzles. You can create your own levels. Every level has multiple solutions, some far more complicated than others.

Cogs: A sliding puzzle game, but set in a 3D steampunk environment. The puzzles play over a variety of 3D surfaces.

VVVVVV: The most maddeningly fun platformer of the bunch. You can't jump in this game, instead you reverse gravity. There's only three buttons to the game; forward, back and flip. Despite this the game is extremely difficult, incredibly frustrating and extremely fun. The soundtrack is a fun, peppy chiptune score that gets stuck in your head.

Hammerfight: Possibly the most bizarre game among the bunch. You control a flying ship with a weight at the bottom. Flipping the mouse around swings the weight like a ball and chain. You fight through various levels against giant bugs and such. Of the ones I've played it's my least favorite, but it's not a bad game.

And Yet It Moves: A platformer where instead of jumping or flipping gravity, you rotate the entire level. This is a tricky mechanic and requires a bit of practice to get right. The art style is like torn paper, everything has rough deckled edges.

Yet that's not all. In addition to all these twelve games, you get the soundtrack to each one. The soundtrack to VVVVVV alone is worth the price, but there's quite a few good ones among this. Bit.Trip Runner and Super Meat Boy stand out, but there's many others.

So how does it all work? The Humble Indie Bundle is a pay-what-you-want deal. If you beat the average price, which currently is $5.18, you get the bonus games as well. Even if you just play one or two of the games it's worth it. All the games are cross platform, Windows, Mac and Linux. Portions of the funds go to charity, and you can split up the payment as you wish. All games are DRM free, and you can activate most of them on Steam if you want.

The bundle will only be up for six more days as of this posting, and then it's gone forever.

What are you waiting for?

Commissioned Lugft Huron

2011-11-17T06:00:00.000-08:00

I painted this one on commission, my patron being Col. Dracus. His Space Marine chapter is a custom one, called the Celestial Lions (so that's not technically Lugft Huron). The colors were chosen by him, as seen in this post. He's going for a really unusual basing scheme which is why I didn't do the base for this one. Be sure to check out his work on his blog, linked above. His basing scheme is to make them look like they're in a palace.

The color is similar to the Astral Claws. He wanted the broad flat blue areas to be reminiscent of blue marble. This was one of the trickiest things to figure out how to do. The eyes were also really small and I had to do them twice to get them looking in the same direction.

To weather the flamer I used Tamiya weathering powders.

Here's a closeup of the banner. Dracus named the Celestial Lions' chapter master Gaius Magnus. I almost had to stop myself from writing Gaius Baltar on the banner.

Frequent Internet Spelling Mistakes: Pour vs. Pore

2011-11-14T06:00:00.000-08:00

This one has been building up to a slow boil. Goatboy's post on BOLS yesterday finally drove me to make this post. Folks, when you say you were "pouring over the new Necron book" you are not doing what you think you are doing.

This is pouring:

This is what happens when you pour over a book:

This is poring over a book:

If you didn't know the difference, go ahead an pore over my other spelling and grammar posts. If you use it wrong again, I'll pour you a nice glass of hemlock.

Secret Weapon Miniatures: A Review

2011-10-31T06:00:00.000-07:00

As a preface to this review, this encounter took place a few months ago. I am just now getting around to writing about it. The product mentioned below seems to no longer be available from their website, but I would assume the same quality from their other products.

I ordered the Secret Weapon Miniatures Infected Village bases for my Mordheim Skaven warband. I ordered two sets since Skaven can get up to twenty guys in the warband. The shipping was timely and inexpensive.

Image courtesy of http://blog.secretweaponminiatures.com/

When I got them I was impressed by the quality. They bases have a nice heft to them, they're not flimsy at all. They stand slightly taller than a standard base and the edge is not bevelled (more room for detail that way). I had to do a minimum of trimming flash and washing to get them ready to go.

As I was cleaning the bases I noticed that I had only 19. I double, triple counted and emailed MisterJustin and told him I was short one. I had already worked out which of the ten it was I was missing and was prepared to show him which one, expecting only to receive the missing base. I was surprised when I received an email back saying that he was sending me a full set of ten!

This is a great example of customer service. He responded to my email promptly and sent the new bases out without delay. I recommend Secret Weapon Miniatures if anything for their customer service. They have a wide variety of products, not just bases. They've been adding a lot of terrain lately as well as creative additions to terrain like buffalo skeletons. I will certainly be buying from them again.

Two Blogs That Need More Followers

2011-10-18T06:00:00.000-07:00

Forever Alone

First off I'd like to thank Zero over at Hive Zero for his contest in the which I was the only entrant! So naturally I won. The contest was to send in your best painted Blood Angel model (no vehicles). I submitted my Brother Claudio. The contest ran for a whole month and I was the only entrant? How many people play Blood Angels? In the words of Gob Bluth, "Come on!"

The prize is Death Angel, the Space Hulk card game by Fantasy Flight Games. He has another copy, so follow his blog for updates.

The second blog I'd like to plug is a new one by one of the guys in my area, Col. Dracus. He is in the process of creating a homebrew Space Marine chapter using various 3rd party add ons to create a really interesting chapter. His basing scheme is one of the most unique I've seen. I'm currently painting a Forgeworld Huron to serve as his chapter master.

Don't let these blogs be Forever Alone.

Harlequin Shadowseer

2011-09-19T06:00:00.000-07:00

Here's a Harlequin Shadowseer that I did on commission. This one was hard to paint. There's a lot of detail and the finecast was full of bubbles that I had to fill in. There's about a bajillion gemstones on it as well as the freehand pattern on the leg.

Warhammer+Minecraft

2011-09-05T10:20:00.000-07:00

My incomplete Lustrian Temple

So I've been playing a ton of Minecraft lately. I would love to try the multiplayer out, to build something huge with a dedicated group. What I'd like to do is build cool Warhammer Fantasy/40k type things, and perhaps even hold pvp battles in them.

To that end I've been experimenting with running my own server, though I want to wait until 1.8 comes out so I can get the new biomes and such.

If I did start a multiplayer server with the purpose of working together to build something Warhammer related, would there be enough of an interest to do it?

I would intend to keep the server free to join but with donations optional (running a server isn't free).

A Quick Late 'Ard Boyz Report, Nids Take Third

2011-08-29T06:00:00.000-07:00

I brought my Nids to 'Ard Boyz this year and though I had to borrow from two different people, I still don't think my list was as tight as I would have liked it. Here's what I took:

Parasite
Doom+Pod
Hive Guard
3xVenomthropes

10 Termagants
Tervigon
10 Termagants
Tervigon
10 Genestealers

3x Spore Mines
3x Spore Mines
30 Gargoyles

Trygon Prime
Tyrannofex
Tyrannofex

Looking back I think I'd rather have another Tervigon and two more Trygons instead of the T-Fex. However, the Gargoyles+Venomthropes is a golden combo. If you string them out right, you can still get the cover save while still moving full distance. The formation looks something like a T.

Anyway, my first game was up against the other Nid player in the store, from whom I borrowed the Venomthropes. He has an all-drop list. He managed to drop a pod of warriors in behind my lines and nearly killed my traitor, but only because he whiffed his rolls pretty bad. I didn't kill his traitor either and got a minor victory. Had he killed mine I would have taken a minor loss.

The second game was up against Orks. Ed from LATCS was running a Battlewagon army. For some reason he put everything except his Lootas in reserve. That sole fact allowed me to win the game. I advanced with everything and on his turn two realized there's no point in going after his objective as it was only worth one point as opposed to the other quarters which were worth two. Ed's army came in piecemeal but even then I couldn't stop all his battlewagons. I don't think I killed a single one. However, I did slow him down. His Lootas were also on fire, rolling a 3 on their D3 every time and hitting well over 50% of the time each time they shot. They took out my Hive Guard, put 5 wounds on a T-Fex and killed a Tervigon. We only got to turn 4 (two horde armies will do that to you) and I held my objective plus the center one while contesting his. If he had started on the board there's no way I could have stopped him in time. That netted me a massacre, however if the game had gone on I'm sure I would have lost.

The third game was against Chaos. The game was pretty rough and tumble and I had a hard time killing his vehicles. I may have killed one. I immobilized his Land Raider with a lucky hit from a Broodlord but couldn't finish it off. He killed a lot of my stuff and I got a minor loss.

In the end I took third. I ordered a Ruins of Osgiliath terrain piece as it's a cool piece and could be used in Fantasy or 40k, plus Mordheim.

I learned that I'd rather have the extra Trygons and another Tervigon as my HQ. I also learned that I'm going to need at least two more boxes of Termagants, not to mention at least two boxes more if I get the third Tervigon.

Painted Lictor

2011-08-04T07:05:00.000-07:00

For this guy I did an experiment to speed up my painting. Instead of mixing each layer of highlight individually, I created batches and bottled them so I can use them again. Furthermore I reduced my highlighting layers to three for the carapace, skin and claws. Normally I do about 7 for the carapace, 5 for the claws and 4 for the skin. Some models get more layers (like my Malanthrope), but to speed things up I wanted to push how few I could do and still get good results.

The carapace isn't as bright as normal, and I may add one more layer back. I may have to use a slightly different technique as well to make the blend better.

Tyrannofex Conversion

2011-08-01T14:30:00.000-07:00

After months and months of sitting on my desk it's finally done. I picked the Carnifex kit as my prize for Fantasy 'Ard Boyz Prelims and intended to make a Tyrannofex, so I've had it on my desk since April. I found this conversion very difficult. The hardest part was the upper carapace. I used Instant Mold to make the cannons.

Originally I was going to have his claws gouged in the ground like a Biovore for support, but I couldn't bear to cut the claws off at the tip. I like them too much.

All I have left to do to finish the Tyranid range is the Doom of Malan'Tai and a Tyranid Prime. If I beat GW to the finish line it will be a sad day, as I am a slow worker and the book has been out for a year and a half. Next on my workbench though is a Skaven Mordheim warband!

Let's Talk Boardgames: Settlers of Catan

2011-07-19T11:48:00.000-07:00

Image from www.amazon.com

Settlers for me is like that one band you discovered in high school that no one else had heard of. Then all of a sudden everyone got into it and now they're not cool anymore. I discovered Settlers when my college roommate brought it back from Germany. We played it in German (with none of us speaking German except my roommate) and due to the game's simplicity, had no problems learning and playing.

Then it seemed like EVERYONE knew about Settlers and it started appearing in English. I started to lose interest mostly due to burnout. However, I also consider it to be my first hipster moment. Recently however, I've started to rediscover what it is that makes this game so popular.

Gameplay is simple yet strategically deep. The board is a random set of hexagons, each representing a particular resource. Numbers between 2-12 are assigned to each so the board is different every time you play. The objective is to obtain 10 victory points before anyone else (expansions raise this to 12). You gain points by building settlements, cities and roads. On a roll of a 7, the robber can shut down a tile and steal resources.

Trading resources is an encouraged, and certainly necessary part of the game. Resources can then spent to expand, or upgrade your settlements into cities. You can also purchase development cards which allow you to bump the robber, give you free roads or other improvements.

The rules are very simple. I was able to learn despite all the components being in German. This is a game you can get your non-gamer friends to play. There are three expansions for the game: Seafarers, Cities and Knights, and Traders and Barbarians. Each adds a new level of play. In Seafarers, most of the board is unknown and is revealed as you explore. In Cities and Knights, you must defend Catan against barbarians while improving your cities internally. I have not played Traders and Barbarians, but it allows movement on roads and various other scenarios.

The game supports 4 players, but also has a 5-6 player expansion (you'll need one for each further expansion, so it does get a bit pricey). For your first expansion I'd recommend Cities and Knights. Seafarers is good but Cities and Knights has a lot more depth. Learning this game is much less intimidating than Agricola or Dominion. If you've never played a Euro-style game before, this is a great place to start.

I Cheated On Purpose

2011-07-06T11:37:00.000-07:00

One of the guys in our local group, IGJames, is getting ready for the Broadside Bash. He's got a reputation for being our most hardcore tournament player. You can hear an interview with him on the Life After The Cover Save podcast (strong language warning). Anyway, as part of his preparation he's been playing against people with his 1850 tournament list with all kinds of handicaps. Some of these handicaps include the opponent having extra points or getting to go first. I challenged him to a game but I would be allowed to cheat. He knew up front what I was doing and part of the game was him trying to catch me.

That's a cheetah, in case it's not obvious.

The first thing I did was make my list over points. That's an easy one to get away with in a pickup game, but if the tournament organizers are on top of things it's harder to get away with it in a tournament setting. For the rest of the game I found it really hard to cheat, but here's what I did.

I was playing Eldar. I deployed about 16" in, instead of 12". I fudged my movement with my vehicles, moving them from front to back, or bumping them forward a few inches after I moved them. As I started taking casualties I would simply "forget" to take morale and pinning tests. He reminded me on most of them but I got away with a few. I accidentally forgot to allocate wounds, but he caught me on that one. It never came up but with my Rangers I was planning on not rolling to wound if I rolled a 6 to hit, and just feign confusion over the rules. I tried cheating with the dice, picking up failed wounds and calling them successes. That one is only easy when the opponent isn't watching. Another guy who didn't know the conditions of our game came up and watched our game which made things more difficult for me. I still got away with quite a few things, but it didn't make a difference. Every tank I had was gone by turn three. My Farseer (with a fudged statline) survived until turn 5 but got destroyed finally in close combat.

From this I learned that it's really easy to get away with minor cheats like dice rolls and statlines in Xenos codices. Please note I am not justifying cheating. If you cheat you are a Scumbag Steve as pictured above. It's very easy to say, "Oh yes, my Farseer is T4 and has base 2 attacks" when you know he doesn't. Should your opponent question you, just feign ignorance and say you confused him with Eldrad. Feigning ignorance is easy to get away with but it only works once.

I think where cheating is the most damaging is in a tournament setting. Sometimes games hinge on a single dice roll, and having that little extra cheating edge can make you win when you shouldn't have. When prizes are involved, people are more willing to bend the rules in their favor.

So what can you do if you suspect your opponent is cheating? Do you review every statline and question every special rule? If you do that you'll slow the game down too much. What do you do?

In my opinion the best thing to do is be familiar with all codices. Know what your opponents can and can't do. Also, don't take your eyes off the table. If he's rolling dice behind a big LoS blocking piece of terrain, just move over where you can see them.

How else can you deal with cheating in a tournament or a local pickup game?

Using Instant Mold

2011-06-23T12:20:00.000-07:00

Vacation is over. Back to work. I recently purchased some Instant Mold from CoolMiniOrNot and am thoroughly impressed with it. Below you can see the first piece I did.

It's pretty good! The only thing you need to be aware of is that air bubbles can get caught in fine details. Watch out for that. You can mitigate it slightly by the way you put the green stuff in.

You can also make two part molds. This is a little trickier. What's this image above? You'll see soon!

It's really simple to use. The thing to remember is patience. Don't peel the mold off while the GS is curing, and don't peel the mold off while it's cooling. Let it cool normally. I'm not sure if you can put it in the fridge to speed things up, but don't peel it off early or it will deform.

This is going to be a vital tool in my conversion arsenal. Anyone who does a lot of converting should have some of this. It's not expensive and opens new doors of conversion possibilities.

A Hilariously Ignorant Review of Space Marine

2011-06-03T08:48:00.000-07:00

Have a read and get in on the nerd rage!

You'll note that he's updated it (addressing the torrent of nerd rage) and the update is longer than the original article. I think what he was trying to say is that gameplay elements are similar to Gears of War, but even in his correction he still insinuates that Warhammer is ripped from Gears.

Frankly this guy doesn't know what he's talking about, it's further evident when he says Harvest Moon debuted in 2005. It came out on the DS in 2005 but the franchise is far older than that. I remember playing it in 1999 on the 64 and according to a two-second Google search it first came out in 1996.

On another note, people in the comments should avoid the ad hominems. Let's be a good example of our community and stick to refuting his inaccurate assumptions.

The LATCS Event, Tyranids Win!

2011-05-31T09:00:00.000-07:00

On Monday the LATCS Podcast guys hosted a tournament (sort of) at Battlegrounds, our local store. I say sort of, because the prizes were not dependent on your placing in the tournament. There was an entry fee of $5 which put you in a drawing for several prizes. I hadn't played a game of 40k in over two months due to all my Fantasy preparations, and the events of the 'Ard Boyz semifinals left me soured on over-competitiveness so I decided to just take a "whatever" Tyranid list. That meant I took whatever I had painted or mostly painted, or even just converted.

Here's what I took. The tournament was 1500 points.

Parasite of Mortrex

2x Hive Guard
Doom of Malan'tai (I used my Malanthrope)
Mycetic Spore

11 Termagants
Tervigon
10 Genestealers + Broodlord

Harpy
30 Gargoyles (I borrowed these)

Tyrannofex (I used my Barbed Hierodule)

The missions were a bit unusual. Each game had 5 objectives and what are called "Destruction Points." For every 200 pts killed, you get one destruction point. It doesn't work like victory points in that you have to kill the whole unit; if you kill one model from a squad its points add into the Destruction Point total. It's an unusual system and I have mixed feelings on it.

The third facet of the missions was the secret objective. With this one, you drew a secret objective out of a hat and tried to accomplish this during the game. I really liked this idea, it was a lot of fun.

My first game put me up against the frakkin' toasters, the Necrons. The Tyrannofex took out his Monolith on the second turn and pretty much sealed the game. The Doom didn't show up until turn 4 and then proceeded to mop up with his blast. I won although it was not a large victory.

My second game was against Deathwing. I have been playing against Deathwing for a very long time so I knew exactly what to expect. He was running an all-foot Deathwing list. We all know how much Tyranids love foot lists. I tabled him, the first time I've tabled someone in a very long time and got all possible battle points.

My previous victory gave me enough points to contend for first. I was tied in battle points with the other Tyranid player. His list was a Mycetic Spore list with everything capable of arriving via Deep Strike. The final scenario screwed with Deep Strike in that you always scatter even if you rolled a hit. Mycetic Spores mitigate most of that problem, but it kept some of his units away from mine a bit longer than they would have otherwise.

The battle was a hard-fought bloody combat. I had more shooting than him, and we both had the Doom of Malan'tai. His killed a few gargoyles and mine killed two of his pods instantly so he was up to 10 wounds immediately. My gargs and the Parasite charged him and finished him off in one round. My Doom chased down some scattered Warriors and took a few turns to finish them off. He had a Trygon Prime in my flank that was chewing up my units. I fed it Termagants for two turns but then he got my Tyrannofex. I charged a mass of Termagants into it boosted by the Tervigon's Adrenal Glands and Toxin Sacs and nearly killed it.

In the end I held more objectives and my opponent got more Destruction Points, while neither of us got our secret objectives. So we tied for first place.

I like the scoring system that they used though I think that they could have used a bit more mission variety concerning the 5 objectives that were used every round. As it was I think it was a great success for the LATCS Podcast's first event. It wasn't the most competitive of tournaments, but it wasn't supposed to be. I had fun and learned a lot about Tyranids. I also got some Black Library books as a door prize.

'Ard Boyz Semi Finals Results

2011-05-23T06:00:00.000-07:00

I went down to GMI games in Riverside for the 'Ard Boyz Semifinals. Here's my list and how the games went.

Grey Seer on Bell
Grey Seer on foot

BSB
Plague Priest with Furnace
Engineer with Doomrocket

45 Clanrats with PWM
30 Stormvermin with WFT
10 Stormvermin with WFT
50 Slaves

5 Gutter Runners with poisoned slings
5 Gutter Runners with poisoned slings

HPA
HPA

My first game was against Daemons. He had Fateweaver, a big block of horrors and a big block of bloodletters, plus two units of flamers. I have never played against Daemons before and my opponent was really cool and helped explain what everything was and even offered me useful advice on what to do. With the wonky Kill Points in the scenario I was massacred, but if it had been victory points the game would have been a tie.

All win/losses in that round were Massacre/Massacred. The kill points saw to that as giving up 8 for a rare choice is ridiculous.

I was against Warriors of Chaos for the second round. My opponent only had two level 2 wizards, plus Archaeon. We advanced and I had him tabled by turn three thanks to my magic and shooting running amok. I grabbed the Fanatic on the first turn with my Slaves and passed my strength test. They spent the rest of the game getting away from the action. He was a pretty cool guy as well and I learned that Warshrines are nice if you roll well. I got a Massacre with full battle points.

For round three I was on table three. Have a look at what my opponent brought:

I've got me a tower, it seats about infinity so hurry up and bring your Slann Shack money! *

Yes, that is a cardboard tube representing the Folding Fortress. It doesn't even have a roof. My opponent told me that it has 10 stories. He said he was going to make it 12 stories but he didn't want to be cheesy. I wish I was making that up. This is sketchy rules wise, as the Fortress says it has to be the same size as a Watchtower building, or a similar scratch-built structure. This is scratch built but it's twice as high as a Watchtower.

His army had 148 Skinks plus a dozen heroes in the tower with two Slann, both with Becalming Cogitation. They had poisoned Javelins and the flaming banner. He also had the dagger that causes Fear in Skaven. Then he had four Stegadons outside the tower. His whole plan was, "Come at me bro."

I considered holding back and simply playing for the draw. However, I had to get a massacre if I wanted to place so I decided to try and destroy the building either via Crack's Call or the Bell. If I could destroy the building I would probably win by a landslide. If I couldn't destroy the building I was in for a world of hurt.

I advanced everything and after turn 1 I seriously considered turning back and simply playing to a draw. I decided to persevere, weathering the dwellers and the fiery darts of the adversary. Turn two I rolled a 14 on the Bell and my hopes went up but I failed to destroy the building as I rolled a 3. On turn three I rolled a 14 again and this time rolled a 6! The fortress went crumbling down and killed both Slann and 1/3 of the skinks. That still left a sizable amount, even after getting doomrocketed.

At this point it took us about an hour to determine how to place the unit. The Skaven FAQ clears it up but he insisted on being within 1" of my models. The confusing thing was that I had charged them with my Furnace but we decided that they were not in combat because they have to abandon the building which would remove them from combat. It was a really sticky rules situation.

At that point the game took a major turn for the sour. After disagreeing strongly on issues for about an hour everything was tense after that. Because we had taken so long to decide what happened we only got to turn 4. I didn't break his big unit so I wasn't able to get a massacre. I got a major victory and got 6th place.

If I had charged the HPA into the Skinks I may have broken his unit, come to think about it now as I look at the picture below. That's how they came out of the building. Hindsight is always 20/20. Furthermore if he had a proper watchtower I would have had A LOT more models alive.

I got me a Slann Shack, it's full of fail and it just set sail!*

*To be sung (spoken) in the voice of Fred Schneider from the B-52s if that wasn't clear.

Who Says GW Is Losing New Gamers?

2011-05-04T16:30:00.000-07:00

It seems that the 40k blog network is raging about how GW is dying and the evidence is that every time they go to their LGS, all they see is Warmachine/Hordes gamers and Magic players. This then constitutes solid proof that they are right, and we as the internet collective audience are to believe them implicitly, feel sad for ourselves and sell our collection at Rogue Market.

Let me tell you a bit about my local gaming scene. We have a fast-growing scene. We've added lots of new players since our store moved into a larger location. Some of these ended up dropping the game after a few months but others have stayed on and expanded their forces. In the end, we're gaining more players than we're losing. Even our Fantasy players have increased. We're almost at the point that we need a bigger store.

There is not a single WM/H player at my store that I'm aware of (and I've been gaming at that store since near its inception). They sell the product, and it used to be given equal billing to the GW stuff, but it's now been moved over to a smaller section while the GW section has expanded several times. Perhaps there's some embittered ex-GW fanboy who buys the stuff but he must stay in his basement* struggling to glue together those metal paperweights because we never see him.**

Now that I have that irrefutable data, I need to go e-rage on some forum.

However, the plural of anecdote is not data.

*We actually don't have basements out here. Stupid earthquake codes and all that. How am I supposed to get my nerd credibility rating?

**Did I come down too hard on PP players? Good. I meant to.

Fantasy 'Ard Boyz Report!

2011-04-17T12:52:00.000-07:00

On Saturday I played in the Fantasy 'Ard Boyz tournament. Here's my list:

Grey Seer on Bell, Potion of Toughness

Grey Seer, Power Scroll, Foul Pendant

Chieftain BSB, Enchanted Shield, 4+ ward save

Engineer w/ Doomrocket

Plague Priest on Furnace, Plague Censer, Shadow Magnet Trinket, Dragonbane Gem

50 Clanrats

50 Slaves

50 Slaves

30 Stormvermin (Storm Banner)

40 Plague Monks (Plague Banner)

5 Gutter Runners (slings and poison)

HPA

HPA

Doomwheel

I wanted to take a third HPA but I don't have the model. The Doomwheel has always performed well for me despite what the Internet says, even though in the second game it nearly killed my HPA (he passed all his Regen saves). I took some advice from Rhellion and improved my original list. I disregarded some advice to mixed results. I took the plague censer and though it did put a wound on an big goblin spider thing, I don't think it's worth it. I didn't take warpstone spikes on the HPAs and it would have come in a lot of use in the first game. This list was unusual for me in that it has very little shooting. I did that because of the wonky scenarios.

During the course of the games, my plague furnace got charged by a lone pegasus Paladin with Heroic Killing Blow. He only hit once, and of course rolled a 6 to wound, taking it out in one shot. The Monks then pounded him into the ground in revenge, following through to a unit of bowmen, wiping them out, then charging into more knights, but the game ended before we could see the results. My Monks also took out an Arachnarok spider in one round. I never managed to get the 13th spell off, my power dice were always really low. The one time I tried, I used the Power Scroll and rolled a perfect straight which still meets the casting value, but it was dispelled.

Now it's on to the semis, I am going to re-evaluate my list and work in a frenzy this next month to get ready.

Magnetic Screaming Bell Painted

2011-04-14T06:00:00.000-07:00

At long last it's complete! I have not painted the Plague Furnace options yet, but that's coming down the pipeline. Here's the link to the tutorial on how to magnetize the Screaming Bell/Plague Furnace.

Truth be told, I'm least satisfied with the Seer. His mantle color is too similar to his fur. I tried making one a cool gray while the other is a warm gray, but that didn't work. I may go back over it, but probably not. Sometimes I just want to be done, especially when I have 100+ Slaves/Clanrats/Stormvermin still in the painting queue. His handlebars don't quite fit around the yoke, so i have to file them down a bit to make him fit better.

I'm the most proud of the Bell itself. It's a great bronze color and I'm proud of my ectoplasmic fade on the clapper.

The base is also pretty boring but the model is so big you can't really see it. It's also usually surrounded by Clanrats so it doesn't matter to me.

Fantasy 'Ard Boyz Skaven Rough Draft List- Need Input

2011-04-11T06:00:00.000-07:00

Here's what I've come up with so far. This is a rough draft for Saturday and I'd like some input based on the missions and what I've got.

Lords:

Grey Seer on Bell
Potion of Toughness (I find he gets chopped up on the first round of combat, this should help with that)

Heroes:

Engineer with Doomrocket

Plague Priest on Furnace
Level 2
Plague Censer
Ironcurse Icon
Shadow Magnet Trinket

Chieftain- BSB
Great Weapon
Talisman of Protection (the 4++ one)

Core:

50 Clanrats
Shields
Full Command
Poison Wind Mortar

30 Stormvermin
Full Command
Shields
Storm Banner
Warpfire Thrower

51 Skavenslaves
Musician

6 Giant Rats, 1 Packmaster

Special:

40 Plague Monks
Full Command

3x Jezzails, Sharpshooter

5 Gutter Runners
Slings and Poison

Rare:

Hellpit Abomination with Warpstone Spikes

Hellpit Abomination with Warpstone Spikes

Doomwheel

Plagueclaw Catapult

Total: 3000 Points

This list isn't ideal, but it's based on what I have. I am flexible on some of the things I can bring. Here's what I have in addition to what's listed that I can use to tailor my force.

Engineer/Grey Seer (on foot)
Warlord/Chieftain
Plague Priest
Extra clanrats/slaves (can adjust any unit's numbers, possibly create a new one)
10 Stormvermin
Warp Lightning Cannon
At least 8 Rat Ogres
Bunch more Giant Rats
Warpfire Thrower/Poisoned Wind Mortar

I'm worried that my clanrat and plague priest units may be too large. I may shrink the Clanrats down to 40 and the Plague Monks down to 35.

Hopefully I'll be able to focus this list and have a solid one by Saturday.

New Necron/Tau Leaks?

2011-04-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

I don't usually post this kind of stuff but I haven't seen anyone else picking up on this. I won't quote my source just yet until I see the usual rumormongers post it.

Anyway, here are some updated Necron Rumors.

Necrons will be getting some new plastic kits.
Warriors will be different, but still the same.
Destroyers will be modified from how they are now, but still familiar.
There will be some all-new never before seen models.
Tomb Spyders will be changed, but still somewhat the same.
Flayed Ones will be different than they are now.
Gauss weapons will work differently than they do now, but still have a similar mechanic.
Some stuff is better, other stuff is not so great.
They'll be released either this year or next.

And here's the Tau ones:

Some of the guns will be similar, but some will be different.
Kroot are still in.
Vespids still suck.

Caution When Assembling the GK Termies

2011-03-30T06:00:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned before, I got to build the GK Terminator/Paladin set for my LGS. I finished them up this afternoon and here are some warnings and notes on assembling them.

First off, the instructions are flat-out wrong on several cases. The instructions tell you certain torsos go with certain legs but they're wrong. The fiddly bits on the front of the torso such as purity seals, chains and bones get in the way on certain pairings. Furthermore at least one of the arms doesn't fit properly on the body at all with the shoulder pad and Storm Bolter. You should glue all the torsos together front to back, then test each one individually with the legs to see which go best together.

Also, be sure to dry fit! It will help you make sure your arms are glued properly if you know which ones fit where and in which poses. GW's figures are getting more and more complicated (which is good aesthetically) but it makes modeling a bit more difficult. Always dry fit before gluing.

Also you're allowed to take two heavy weapons per 5 guys but the kit only has one heavy weapon arm (I'm pretty sure it didn't anyway, now that I returned the leftover sprues I realize I didn't really look through the extra arms, but I'm fairly confident that there's only one). It would be very easy to convert a second out of a leftover Storm Bolter arm, but it's kind of annoying that you have to do so.

Now for the good. There are a ton of options. I believe that every single close combat option is on the sprues (yes, there are 5 pairs of Falchions). There are also a ton of leftover bits. If you're creative you could probably get another box of regular Terminators and convert them up into GKs (you'd be short shoulderpads but there's enough leftover heads, weapons and tilting shields to make up for it).

Also, these kits are packed with detail. You will be very busy painting these guys.

Building the GK Paladin/Terminator Kit

2011-03-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

So in addition to the Dreadknight, I get to build the GK Terminator/Paladins. I'm going to be building them all differently for proper wound allocation shenanigans, but I just wanted to show you all how much stuff comes on the sprue. These sprues are packed with bits, and every item is covered in detail. Remember a while back when Space Hulk came out and we were all blown away with the level of detail and character on each Terminator? It seems like the GK kits are the scions of that style. I'm going to start building them tomorrow, here's what I'm thinking:

1 Apothecary
1 with Psycannon
1 with Incinerator
1 with Force Stave
1 with Banner

I really want to use the Falchions though, so if anyone can make a better suggestion for me on how to build them that would be appreciated. This is mostly for display purposes so competitiveness isn't really the issue here. Also if you have any questions about what's on the sprues let me know.

Oh, and for magnetizing purposes it should be pretty much like magnetizing your standard Terminator.

The Difficulty in Magnetizing a Dreadknight

2011-03-22T10:47:00.000-07:00

I got to build the Dreadknight for my LGS. While building it, I considered magnetizing the weapon options. Since it's not mine I didn't do it, but if you want to do it for yourself there's a couple of major difficulties. It's possible but very difficult. Seems like a lot of GW kits these days are like that.

First off there's only two gun bodies with three options. You have to magnetize all three barrels and ammo feeds which is a chore into itself. Then you have to magnetize the gun body onto the arm which is complicated as illustrated above. The servo arm locks into the gun, which in turn runs through the ammo feeds. This is not a task for beginners.

Fortunately the hands are easier. Make sure you set the magnet inside the arm before you glue it together. It includes two right hands with three options. It is possible to just magnetize the fingers on so you can use all three options. I didn't glue it in because the hex arrangement fits pretty well without a magnet.

There's a piece that I can't identify. I read through the instructions 3 times but I couldn't find where piece 75 (in the middle) goes. It's not listed in the extras like the included purity seals and Terminator Honors. It looks important. If anyone knows please let me know.

I would love to paint this thing up for the store but there's no way I could do it in a reasonable timeframe. So tonight it leaves my hands but if you have any questions about the sprues themselves I'll be glad to answer them. I might be able to get ahold of the GK squads, both the power armor and termies.

Old Stuff Day

2011-03-02T06:00:00.000-08:00

Here's my links for Old Stuff Day:

Brother Claudio from Space Hulk. One of the finest minis I've painted and without a single comment.

The correct plural of codex. One of my most viewed pages yet so few people do it right.

My Barbed Hierodule. My first appearance on the Tuesday Top 10.

Painting the Blastscape. Quit whining how it's vacuum formed and paint it properly.

The Malanthrope. One of my favorite FW models, and painted quite nicely I might add! Excuse the bad photography, I've gotten better.

A humorous look at the comment section of a famous wargaming website. Some of the jokes are a bit dated but it's entertaining nonetheless. One guy thought the post was real and quoted my fake rumor without linking back to the source or even giving credit. LOLs were had by all (except for him).

My first Fire Prism! I've had that model for a long long long long time, back in 2nd edition and I finally painted it. It was the first vehicle I painted in my 40k renaissance. Now if I could just paint the rest of the stuff I bought back in 2nd...

Getting Two Models From One Kit

2011-02-28T06:00:00.000-08:00

We all like to get the most model for our money. A recent trend with GW kits is a multi-kit, a kit which can make several models. Examples include the Fire Prism/Nightspinner, Screaming Bell/Plague Furnace, and more recently the Plagueclaw Catapult/Warp Lightning Cannon.

In some cases it's easy to magnetize the two kits like the Prism/Nightspinner, or difficult to magnetize in the case of the Bell/Furnace. But in this case with the PCC/WLC I figured I could go beyond magnetizing it and actually split the kit into two models. There are several pieces that the kit shares to make this difficult, but with some creativity it's easy to overcome.

As you can see, I removed the Warpstone counterweight. This is the most obvious shared part of the kit, as well as the two metallic collars for the Warpstone. I replaced it with the head of a standard from a Plague Monk kit, some jewelry chain and an old plastic gear I found laying around. I wrapped the chain around a brass rod, stuck the gear on then fit it in between the struts. I don't think it would actually function in real life, but that's the beauty of Skaven creations, the more slapadash they look the better they are. If you're wondering how it fires, and other science facts, just repeat to yourself, "It's just a game, I should really just relax."

This has nothing to do with the conversion, but I head swapped two of the crew members with Plague Monk heads. It's run by Plague Monks, they wouldn't wear gas masks. They embrace the plague! I had to shave the neck a bit to make it fit, and it's slightly larger than it should be but I don't care. It's a walking rat-man, realism is kind of a moot point. I left the armored crew member with a gas mask, I figured he's the Skryre representative who does all the complicated runnings of the machine.

Here's a close up of the gear/chain assembly.

Now I have left over the entire cannon assembly. I'm technically missing the support bar which is the firing arm of the catapult, but I don't think the cannon needs it aesthetically. I just have to mount the cannon on something, convert some crew and I'm set. I'm considering mounting it on the back of a Rat Ogre, or building a frame out of sprues. With Fantasy 'Ard Boyz coming up I may end up taking both models which means I'd better get to work on it. Stay tuned!

Tyranid Harpy Conversion

2011-02-11T06:00:00.000-08:00

After months of this thing sitting on my desk it's finally done. The most difficult part of this conversion was trying to make matching left and right venom cannons. I'm still not satisfied with them, maybe I should have mounted them on the wings. Oh well. I'm not going to do any more work on it though.

Literary Influences on Warhammer 40k

2011-01-26T16:18:00.000-08:00

Here's a selection of books that have greatly influenced the Warhammer universe that we know and love.

Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien: This influence is more evident in the Fantasy universe, but 40k still has the archetypical Men, Elves, Dwarves and Orcs in space.

Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe: This series of 4 books (and its coda, Urth of the New Sun) is set in the far future. Technology is stagnated in this series and the world is dying. The similarities seem superficial, but the terms Wolfe used were borrowed heavily by 40k. Though none of the terms are coined words (Wolfe likes to use archaic terms for things), it's no coincidence that many of them appear in the 40k universe. They include Carnifex, Lictor, Autarch, Zoanthrope and Terminus Est (the name of Typhus's flagship). There's even mention of a weapon which suspiciously seems like a power weapon.

Dune by Frank Herbert: Now we're getting into the heavy influence. There's enough here for a whole post dedicated to this book alone. To begin, there is a guild of Navigators who guide ships through interstellar flight. The word lasgun comes from this book. Later on there is a God-Emperor. Thinking machines are prohibited. At one point, technology and mankind become stagnated. I haven't read this series in a while so I've probably missed many similarities, this is merely what I can remember.

Honorable mention goes to Starship Troopers. I haven't read it but from what I hear it's got some similarities.

So what are some other books that have obviously influenced the game that I need to put on my reading list?

All images from Amazon.com

Wishlist for 40k 6th Edition

2011-01-12T06:30:00.000-08:00

So we're probably a year and a half away from a new edition of Warhammer 40k. I know it seems a bit early to start wishlisting but I have to do it before all the rumors start kicking around, which I recall the 5th edition rumors starting about a year before it came out. Besides, political pundits are already discussing who's going to run for president in 2012 (and have been since November of 2008), so I'm not really all that ahead of myself. I haven't really considered the ramifications of some of these things, that's why I'm putting it out there; to get some ideas on whether these things are good ideas or not. Don't get me wrong, I'm still enjoying 5th edition but there are a few changes I'd like to see in the upcoming years. In no particular order:

1. Bring back the Move stat. I really don't think a lithe athletic Eldar should move at the same speed as a Necron Warrior. I think they should keep running the way it is but one of my biggest pet peeves from the 2nd to 3rd edition transition was ditching the M stat.

2. Shooting at multiple targets. Vehicles should be able to shoot at multiple targets. It's always bugged me that a Leman Russ with anti-personel sponsons has to fire the sponsons at the same target as the anti-armor turret. On that same note, a squad with a heavy weapon shouldn't have to fire its small arms at the same target as the lone heavy weapons specialist. Give them a -1 to hit or something, but let differently armed models split their fire. Under the current rules, artillery crewmembers can shoot at a different target, why can no one else do the same?

3. Transports. I'm not making any wishlisting here but several Internet personalities have suggested that transports will not be quite as kingly as they are now. We shall see if they are right.

4. Vehicles. Back in the old days there were all kinds of crazy charts for each vehicle and even a clear template that you held over a vehicle and rolled to see which part was affected and stuff like that. I don't want to see a return to that but I think I'd like to see structure points on certain vehicles, or perhaps a modified damage chart. I haven't really thought this one through, so it might be a really bad idea.

5. Building rules. Nobody uses the rules properly these days. Some people treat them as impassible, tourneys like the Nova treated them as just LOS blocking objects, you could move freely through them. There's a reason for that. A building can really break the game. With a bastion in the enemy's deployment zone suddenly those Long Fangs are now in an AV 14 transport and can fire at will while you have to crack their transport first. In 4th edition the buildings had an AV but you could shoot at the occupants, who recieved a 3+ cover save. Weapons of S8 or more would strike an occupant as well as cause a hit on the building. Back in 4th, cover saves were a bit harder to come by so this was really good. A proposed idea would be that you could shoot at the occupants with a -1 to hit penalty, as well as they get a 3+ cover save. This gives the occupants some benefit so buildings aren't just a fancy terrain piece, but also limits their power. You should also be able to assault the occupants of buildings, like in Fantasy.

That's all I can think of now. Let the speculation begin!

Stormvermin with Converted Standard Bearer

2011-01-10T06:30:00.000-08:00

I finished this unit up the other day. I converted the standard bearer to hold the standard from the Island of Blood guy's back. I just cut out the handle on the old one and replaced it with a matching cut on the new. It's not perfect but it was quick and I think it looks pretty good.

Look, the drum is a ginger!

I decided not to rust their weapons because I figured Stormvermin would be more likely to take care of them.

Getting these guys to rank up is a challenge. They've got shields, tails and halberds. My solution is to use my ersatz Stormvermin to help not take up so much space. I took the Island of Blood clanrats that have helmets and armor and am painting them up like Stormvermin. They're considerably smaller and far less detailed but the idea is to intersperse them in a normal Stormvermin unit so they help it rank up. Plus a Stormvermin box is like $50 and IoB clanrats are cheap. I'm going to use some plasticard to beef up their spears so they look more like halberds (though in WHFB the aesthetic difference between spears and halberds is not entirely clear). If anyone raises an issue I'll just say that they're juvenile Stormvermin that are replacing previous casualties.

WHFB: Watchtower Rules Query

2010-12-29T14:05:00.000-08:00

My most recent game of Fantasy saw us roll the Watchtower scenario. Now, Skaven have two ways to destroy buildings and I was equipped with both. On the first turn I rocked the building with Crack's Call, destroying it. The rulebook fails to provide an answer for what happens if it is destroyed, we assumed that it still counts as the main objective. However, since it's now a ruin you can have multiple units in it, so it's not as simple to determine the victor.

To resolve this we decided that if one side had the ruin with no enemy units touching it, it would be a win. If there were an enemy unit "contesting" the objective (touching it) we would go to the secondary victory conditions provided in the rulebook which were victory points.

So is this the best way to resolve the problem?

Poisoned Wind Mortar

2010-12-20T07:00:00.000-08:00

This was another exercise in speed painting. Due to having two children, one of them a fussy baby, my painting time is drastically short. The aforementioned Sanctum Imperialis represents a few weeks of working in bits and pieces. This one I got done in three days, once again working a few minutes here, a few there. Skaven are really nice for speed painting because it's easy to get good results quickly.

I'm sort of pleased with the glassy globes, I could have done better if I had put more time into it. I think I need to make the clouds a bit more irregular, but as is I think it's good for a speed paint job.

Sanctum Imperialis

2010-12-16T06:00:00.000-08:00

Here's the Sanctum Imperialis I built and painted as a commission. I added a custom third story balcony complete with battle damage.

Swarmlord WIP

2010-12-09T06:00:00.000-08:00

Here's my current Swarmlord. The arms are magnetic so it can be a regular tyrant if I wish, I customized the tail to make him stand out a bit more and that weird double-tail thing in the codex picture doesn't do it for me. I'm still not satisfied with the swords, I think they need some detail or more hollowing, I'm not sure which. I'm open to suggestions on that.

The Mighty Warpfire Thrower

2010-12-06T06:00:00.000-08:00

This was something I did to try and paint faster than normal. All in all I think it took me about two hours. I could have got it done quicker but I took extra time with the flames as well as weathering the metal. You can see I attempted some glow effects near the burning rat.

I think I should have mixed some gray with the green for the smoke. I'll do that on the next one.

Ezekiel, Dark Angels Librarian

2010-11-26T10:12:00.000-08:00

Finished this guy up the other day. It's a pretty old model but still a goodie. It's incredibly detailed.

Next time I do a model this detailed I'm going to wash it after priming to help pick out the details. I did that to the banner and it was very helpful.

Let's Clarify Something (40k FAQ)

2010-11-22T08:05:00.000-08:00

There's been a surprising amount of confusion on this issue with the new 40k FAQ. It comes from this question:

Q: If a transport vehicle is destroyed in the same turn as it moved flat out what happens to any embarked models? (p70) A: They are removed as casualties.

Eldar haters are just a bit too excited about this one. Allow me to elucidate.

Page 9 of the rulebook defines what a turn is. It reads, "In a complete turn, both players get a player turn, each one divided into Movement, Shooting and Assault phases..."

So that's a player turn. One person's Movement, Shooting and Assault phases.

Then it reads, "Whenever a rule uses the word 'turn', both in this rule book and in the Codexes, it means 'player turn', otherwise it will clearly state 'game turn'."

So if you move flat out in the player turn and crash yourself your passengers are destroyed.

The confusion comes from reading the FAQ without reading the original rules. This rule has always existed.

Here it is on p. 70:

"FAST TRANSPORT VEHICLES

Passengers may not embark onto or disembark from a fast vehicle if it has moved(or is going to move) flat out in that Movement phase."

The key is IN THAT MOVEMENT PHASE. You can't disembark if you move flat out in your own movement phase (not even an emergency disembarkation). Imagine it's my turn. I move flat out. If I try to ram something and wreck myself because I failed to check myself, my passengers are destroyed because they cannot disembark because I moved flat out IN THAT MOVEMENT PHASE.

Continuing my example, let's say I successfully checked myself so I didn't wreck myself. If you shoot at me in your turn, I get a cover save because the rule on page 71 says "...and has moved flat out in its LAST movement phase counts as obscured (cover save of 4+) when fired at."

Now let's say you shoot it down in your turn, I having moved flat out in my previous movement phase. My passengers are not automatically destroyed, because the restriction on disembarking only applies to my movement phase.

I hope that makes sense. Now they need to FAQ the FAQ.

They Ninja Updated the 40k FAQ!

2010-11-20T10:36:00.000-08:00

Just one little update that I could find. Here's the new one. The one new thing that I found was this:

Q: How do Independent Characters that have joined a squad effect working out if a squad is below half strength or not? (p48)

A: Independent Characters are not counted when working out if a squad is below half strength or not. The exception to this is if an Independent Character is with a Retinue (in which case he is counted when working out if the squad is below half strength).

This reminds me of the Space Wolf FAQ debacle a while back, with a complete reversal of their previous position.

Thank You GW

2010-11-17T19:18:00.000-08:00

Thanks for updating the 40k FAQ and furthermore, thanks for making it very thorough. We've actually had debates on a few of these points in my group in the past month or so. Also, no more intermingling units for mutual cover saves at the ETC!

The New Guy

2010-11-07T10:00:00.000-08:00

Updates may be sparse for a while because of my newest arrival. Please pardon the disjointed narrative of this post as I'm typing this with one hand while he sleeps on my chest. With the first one I could work on stuff during her naps. My wife was so tired that she would nap too, and we had an apartment so there wasn't much housework to do. I started this blog a few weeks after she was born, probably during a naptime.

Now with more to do the hobby will have to take the back burner for a while as I try to paint in those magical combined naptimes. As long as there's no housework to do.

Tutorial: Magnetizing the Screaming Bell/Plague Furnace

2010-11-04T07:00:00.000-07:00

Being a man of poor means, I have to stretch every gaming dollar I possibly can. Furthermore, when new editions change some units drastically change in power level. Just ask anyone who played Tyranids from 4th to 5th. Ask them where their Carnifex arms are. Mine are magnetic so I survived just fine.

When I got the Screaming Bell I was determined to magnetize it, no matter how hard it seemed. It's an expensive kit and both options seem attractive. I'm not experienced enough in 8th yet to know which is better and there is rarely a better teacher than experience, so I'm going to have to run both to find out. I tried finding a tutorial online for magnetizing this beast but there were very few, and I knew I could figure out a better way to do it than the ones I found.

This may seem like a lengthy preface for a tutorial, but this is a seriously difficult project. This is the hardest thing I've ever magnetized, even harder than the Trygon I did earlier. First off, the kit is among the most complex I've ever put together. The Doomwheel is difficult as well, but this one takes the cake. It has supurb detail but also a ridiculous amount of surfaces and delicate parts. I almost snapped several of the flame/vapor tendrils on the model while cutting them off. This is not a kit for beginners (and there's a lot of beginners getting into Skaven because of the IoB, but that's a topic for another day).

What makes this kit so difficult is that the kit shares several pieces in either the Bell or Furnace assembly. Compounding this is that most of these are key weight-bearing joins. The yoke and arches are the prime examples. The back platform being reverseable depending on what you're running is a simple fix but the arches and yoke will be the hardest part. Steel yourself, double check your polarizations and let's dive in.

Above you can see all the different components of this magnetization.

Let's get the hard stuff out of the way first. Above you see the interior assembly of the arches. The magnet is held in place with a greenstuff setting. You want to use a small but powerful magnet. This one is 1/8" wide, 1/16" thick and N52 grade. In order to get the magnets in the right place, look below!

Glue a pair of magnets to either end of the struts. Be sure that the glue has set, I usually reinforce it with a bit of epoxy. When it sets, put some greenstuff in the arches and place another magnet on either end of the struts. Widen the opening of the arches a tiny bit so that you can get the magnets in and out easily without breaking them. Shove both ends in the arches so that the unglued magnet wedges into the greenstuff. This way you know it's in the right place. Double, triple check that your bell/censer is facing the correct direction because the arches must go in the correct side. I messed up on this part twice and had to redo it.

Above you see the yoke. Take two tiny magnets, the 1/16" ones are perfect. Chop off a tiny, tiny bit of the ends and replace them with magnets. They should still be the same distance apart as they were before. This can be tricky, you should measure twice and cut once.

Before gluing the bell together, you'll need to get the Grey Seer in position. Put him together except for the hand grabbing the bell. Notice in the picture above he has the handle, do as I say not as I do. I had fitted him, glued the hand and then taken the picture. You'll need to properly fit him before you glue his hand. Drill two holes in his feet next to the nubs that go into the corresponding parts on the bell. Don't drill in the nubs themselves. Put two small magnets in.

Place the Seer on top of the bell, put a drop of glue where you think his feet are, then drop a magnet in. It will fall into the spot where the feet are. The second one is trickier because the second magnet will want to go where the first one is. Once you get both in and the seer stays up just fine, you can glue the bell together, and magnetize the Horned Rat symbol on top of both the bell and censer.

Now let's finish the Seer. Very, very carefully drill into the handle on each side and place a magnet in each one.

You can't really see it in this picture, but I drilled a small hole and stuck a bit of paperclip in each side where the handle for the Seer meets the bell. You don't need a full magnet, just enough force to help hold him in place as the feet provide most of the lift. I then filed it flat and filled in the gaps so hopefully when it's painted you won't be able to see anything.

Now let's test it out. Here's the censer assembly sans monks...

And here's the bell assembly sans Seer. To attach this to the frame of the bell/furnace simply slide the pegs of the arches into the corresponding hole. You can magnetize this part but it's firm enough that there's really no need. I didn't bother.

Now the easy part. Glue a powerful magnet on the underside of the front platform.

Put a magnet on the bottom of the brazier and the Plague Priest, be sure to check the fits and all that stuff.

The back platform is reversable. It is not a weight-bearing part so I used a weird method to get it in. Most of the weight is supported by the frame itself, I just wanted an extra bit of holding power without any visible point of contact. I put two magnets in the sides and then added a magnet on the underside of the frame as seen below.

The magnets don't have contact but they still attract each other.

To magnetize the Rat Ogre and Plague Monks to the platform simply widen the holes on the platform by a tiny bit so that you can fit a 1/16" magnet in. To magnetize the Monks/Ogre, simply cut off the pegs on the feet about halfway so you have a flat surface. Drill in a ways, then cut off the rest of the peg. The hole will be in the right place and you can widen it for a 1/8" magnet.

Here it is as a Plague Furnace, missing the extra censer thing that goes on the arch. I left if off because it's not necessary and I'd rather save it for other conversions.

Finally, here it is as the Screaming Bell.

Good luck! I'll do it for you but I charge $100 for just the magnetization, and you have to clean the mould lines. Yes, it is cheaper to just buy another kit. That's the point. I'm not doing this again.

Skaven Pumpkin

2010-10-31T09:27:00.001-07:00

The Great Horned Rat watches over this house! Too bad I couldn't make the fire green.

Zombie 40k Rundown

2010-10-28T10:00:00.000-07:00

Tuesday night we ran my new and improved zombie 40k Halloween extravaganza! It's a mix between every zombie movie/game ever and Mario Kart. And 40k. Have a read over those rules before you read the rest of this post.

We had 14 players on one 6'x6' table. We decided to have 3 escape vehicles to prevent overcrowding. As the game progressed I had to rewrite the rules to make sure the players on the edges weren't being punished. That's when I added the zombies rising from their graves in the center. All my new and improved rules are in the link posted above.

Everyone kept the game moving quickly despite having 14 players, and we were able to resolve the zombie phase by having everyone do their stuff at the same time with another player rolling for the zombies. Everyone helped move the zombies because they follow their own rules.

It was a lot of fun. I took a Broodlord and one Stealer, thinking I could just chop my way forward. It was somewhat effective, and I was in the lead at one point but I kept getting swamped so that's when we decided that the zombies scatter.

We also reduced the zombies to T3 as opposed to T4. I was afraid of being short of models so that's why I made them T4. If you run this event and are short models that's a good way to stretch them out.

The Ork Boy Tag Along was originally a guardsman with a flamer but our main guard player didn't show up so we switched it to an Ork. I think it's funnier that way.

In the end, the Dark Eldar won. Yes, the new Dark Eldar. He took Wyches and that 2D6 attacks one, and chopped along. Despite S3 versus T4 and FNP he still did really well.

One of the Ork players took out most of an Eldar team and a full IG team when they hit the 18" zone, and then he was promptly wasted by the zombies the next turn. We all had a good laugh about that.

Writing rules is hard! This isn't a serious attempt at game design, but even then it's quite challenging to make yourself clear. I'm not too concerned about balance but that was a bit tricky in designing the powerups. I wanted them to be powerful but not game breaking. I may nerf the Chuck Norris one but no one rolled it. I may create a new chart with 3D6 to make even more crazy items. The trick is to keep it simple, but fun.

If you've run a similar scenario or run mine let me know how it went. This is a living document. I need as much feedback as I can get to make this event as fun as possible. I'm going to run it again on Walpurgis Night (basically a springtime Halloween), hopefully I can get it ironed out well by then.

Halloween 40k Zombie Night, The Return of the Revenge

2010-10-27T19:00:00.000-07:00

Like all horror movies these days, my 40k Zombie adventure just keeps coming back with more sequels. But this is the reinvention of the reimagining. I updated the rules from my original version to be more streamlined and squad-based as opposed to who has the best HQ options.

Here they be. This is not exactly how we ran it last night, I have updated the rules based on feedback during the game though it still needs a bit more work.

Army Selection:

You have 75 points. There is no minimum requirement for squad sizes (so an
Eldar player could take one Fire Dragon, one Striking Scorpion and so on). Only
three of these can be "upgrade" characters, like a sergeant or an exarch, though
that model may take an upgrades allowed without counting for further "upgrades." No more than two can have "upgrade weapons" such as a heavy or special
weapon that isn't standard equipment. For example, a Space Marine player takes
3 Marines and a Scout. He can upgrade one into a sergeant with any weapons
normally allowed, and two more can have special weapons normally allowed by
their codex entry.

After selecting your team, you may assign one Universal Special Rule from the
standard rulebook to any one squad member.

For codices like SM or IG who purchase squads as groups, some math will be
involved. Divide the points cost by the squad number to get the individual
points cost of each squad member. If upgrade characters are included in the cost of the squad, you may upgrade the squad member for free.

You may select team members from any Force Organization slot except HQ. Only infantry models may be selected. No dedicated transports are allowed.

Your squad must remain in 2" coherency, and are treated as a single squad.

Setup and Objective

Set up the board with the normal amount of terrain for a 40k game. Ruins and graveyards make great terrain for this mission. If you have a large amount of players you may need to either split into two tables or widen the current table. The players should have to cross about 6' of board with enough room side to side so that everyone isn't clustered together.

The goal is to reach the escape helicopter (or truck or whatever). The first squad (at least one guy
alive, obviously) to be within embarking distance at the beginning of their movement
phase wins (so you have to survive one round before you can win). If there is another unengaged player within embarking distance you may not embark. You must duke it out with the other player as there can only be one. There should be one escape helicopter per 5 players, spread out evenly along the back board edge. Each escape helicopter is guarded by a boss zombie.

Turn order is determined randomly. Each player will move, shoot and assault, then pass to the next player. When all players have gone the zombies take their turn. There's no need for a zombie controller as the zombies are on autopilot.

Movement Phase: Players who fled from combat will automatically rally and may move, shoot and assault as normal.

Shooting Phase: You may not shoot another player's squad, unless that squad is
within 18" of the escape chopper. After that all bets are off and the squad
that is within 18" may fire at any squad that has fired on it in a previous
turn. If the closest unit is in close combat randomize non-template hits.

Zombies only ever take a 5+ cover save as they do not actively seek cover. They get this cover in all the normal fashion, from terrain or from a player shooting through another unit.

Assault Phase: You may not join another player's assault. Consolidate moves
are taken on a D3 instead of D6 (we found super killy assault units unbalanced as they can just consolidate for an extra D6" per assault phase). You may however assault another team if they are within 18" of the escape helicopter, but if they are already in an assault you may not assault them.

If your assault involves multiple squads of zombies, for simplicity's sake you don't have to say which squad you're attacking. Remove casualties from the smallest squad first (you get more powerups that way)

No one in the squad is treated as an Independent Character, treat wounds as you would for differently armed models as normal.

After all players have gone the Zombies will move.

ZOMBIE TIME

Zombies come in squads of 5. There should be about two squads of zombies per
player, deployed in a spread out fashion. Their stats are as follows:

WS2 S3 T3 A1 W1 I1 LD5 Feel No Pain, Fearless, Rending

Zombies only have two phases, the Shamble Phase and the BRAAAAAIIINS phase.

Shamble Phase: Killed zombies will respawn in groups of 5 during this phase, before rolling to move the zombies. Roll a D6 on the following chart to see where they go.

1: Starting table edge

2: The table edge to the left of the starting edge

3: The table edge opposite the starting edge

4: The table edge to the right of the starting edge

5: Scatter 3d6" from the center of the table. Zombies deepstrike like a drop pod and will move out of the way of obstructions. They will move and assault with the rest of the zombies as normal.

6: The player who is furthest from the chopper chooses a result 1-5 on this chart. Further rolls of a 6 will go to the second furthest player and so on.

Zombies moving in from a board edge will enter in line with the nearest unengaged player. Subsequent entries in the same phase on the same table edge will move in towards the second nearest, and so on.

Zombies will move 2D6 to the nearest target. All zombies on the
board move the same distance but at their own relative targets. If this move
brings them in base contact with a player squad they count as assaulting. The
poor squad then responds to their charge.

Zombies will join a current assault if they can fit. If they can't fit they will instead move towards the next nearest target.

If a player kills the last member of a zombie squad, or kills the last member of a player squad (only whomever removed the last model, doesn't matter who did all the work) he may roll on the powerup chart.

BRAAAAINS Phase: Zombies assault during their movement, we just combine it because they don't shoot. They receive +1 attack if they charge as normal. They have Rending to represent the danger of infection. If zombies win combat they will attempt to pursue as normal but will not consolidate.

The Boss Zombie: The boss zombie does not move during the shamble phase as normal. It will only move if a player moves within embarking distance of the escape vehicle, and will automatically assault that squad. If there are multiple squads that meet this requirement randomize which one it assaults.

WS3 S4 T4 A3 I2 W3 LD6 5+ Armor, Feel No Pain, Eternal Warrior, Fearless, Rending

It is of course perfectly legal to move your squad and escape in the vehicle while the other player is off fighting the boss or another player.

Respawns:

Should your squad be destroyed, you may respawn in your turn no closer than 6" behind the
furthest player, but it can be anywhere on the board (as long as you are 6" further away from the choppa than the current furthest squad). You lose all upgrades and powerups earned during their previous lifetime. If you wish you may play a new team. When you respawn you may roll on the powerup chart. You may voluntarily suicide your squad at any time to respawn, but if you do you may not roll on the powerup chart.

Powerups:

If you kill the last member of a squad (zombie or player, this also includes killing the boss zombie, and also includes wiping them out due to Fearless rolls) you may roll 2D6 on the powerup chart.

2: Zombie Bile: You are treated as the only target for the next Shamble Phase. If two or more players have this then the zombies will move to whomever is closer of those players. If another player is in the way of the zombie movement, the zombies assault that unfortunate unit as they just happened to be in the wrong place.

3: Banana Peel: In your next turn, you move as if through difficult terrain.

4: Ork Boy Tag Along: An Ork boy has decided to join you for some reason. He is armed with a pistol and a choppa and is treated as a member of your squad for all purposes.

5: Duct Tape: Whether it's a chainsaw taped to a kayak paddle or a duct-taped-over-under gun, you may give one model either +1 attack or +1 shot per turn. Permanently. Until you die.

6: Chainsaw: The ultimate zombie close combat weapon. One model may be equipped with this item. Requires 2 hands. Hits on a 2+, and if it hits instantly takes a wound (no saves or FNP) off any zombie in close combat. If you roll a 1 the chainsaw has run out of fuel and is discarded (but any hits you got in this round still count, if you roll a 1 and get a reroll it does not run out of fuel unless you roll another 1).

7: Medpack. May be saved, one use only, you may carry any number of these. You may ignore one suffered wound.

8: Shotgun: There is no better tool in an zombie invasion. One model is armed with it, and that model does not need to have a ballistic skill. The shotgun has a range of 6" and hits on a 2+, instantly taking a wound off a zombie with no FNP or cover save applicable. It is an assault 1 weapon. If shot at a player it is treated just as the Imperial Guard version of the shotgun.

9: Super Mushroom Speed Pack: You may carry up to one of these in your squad. When activated all members in your squad may add an extra +1 to all their movement, which includes movement, running and assaulting. The squad's initiative is also increased by 1 for that turn.

10: Defibrillator: Counts as a Medpack but may be used to bring back one model in your squad who has previously died. If that model had multiple wounds only one is restored.

11: Sweet Aviator Shades: In the next Shamble Phase, zombies will ignore your squad for the purposes of the closest target.

12: The Blessing of Chuck Norris: Your squad receives the blessing of the Great Red Bearded One until the end of their next turn. Your squad may reroll all rolls they make (if they already have a reroll they can reroll that reroll as Chuck is that awesome). All shooting counts as AP 2 with no cover allowed and all assault counts as power weapons.

If you are the furthest player from the board edge, you may add +1 to your roll. You may roll the dice before deciding whether or not to add the +1. You may also switch out any rolled result for The Blue Shell. If you pick The Blue Shell you may move the player closest to the escape vehicle back D6" away from the vehicle. If they are in close combat, the whole combat moves with them. If your roll on the powerup chart is because of a respawn, you may not select The Blue Shell.

Okay, that was a long read! Tomorrow I'll post how the adventure went. Have a read-through and let me know if I missed anything or any suggestions you may have.

WHFB: Don't Forget!

2010-10-25T06:00:00.000-07:00

The most difficult thing for me right now in Fantasy is remembering all the stuff that's going on. I played a game last night in which a highly annoying unit of 30 White Lions with a BSB and level 4 Life Mage just would not die. At one point I got them down to 4 models, but the mage just used Regrowth and got them back. I could have slowed this down but I made a crucial mistake.

I forgot that even if you don't have any casters you can use power dice in your phase to dispel effects. I could have been using that to shut down the Throne of Vines so that he could have cast fewer spells that round. So if you run out of casters, make sure you make the most of it and dispel what you can with your power dice. You only have to meet the base casting value which for Throne is 8. If you're a Dwarf player you especially cannot forget this.

On a side note, Life magic is proportionately better the more expensive and elite your troops are, which makes it perfect for High Elves.

I also forgot that the Storm Banner affects fliers. He shouldn't have been able to fly his eagle around but I completely forgot that. It didn't matter as I chopped it up pretty quickly. I also did all my shooting before remembering to check if the Storm Banner ended. It did, but if it hadn't I would have had to redo the whole shooting phase.

It might be helpful for me to write a little cheat sheet so I can remember things like "ring the Bell" or "Storm Banner is up" and such like that.

Also, we had a Temple of Skulls and I had a Warlock Engineer get up to S6 and 3 wounds before he got greedy and was sucked into the warp. Too bad he never got to fight, but his Doomrocket took out tons of guys.

In other news I've got a huge backlog of commissions. I'm working on two Venomthropes. After that I've got a huge pile of Dark Angels tanks. Furthermore, my second child should be born sometime this week. Busy busy busy!

Island of Blood Command Groups

2010-10-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

Here's the command groups for the Island of Blood. There's a lot of pictures and the weather outside was partially overcast with winds so the light was constantly changing. I was too impatient to wait so the photographic quality is not my usual standard but since it's Skaven we'll just blame someone else for casting Howling Warpgale outside.

I don't know how this guy can hold his standard up.

I particularly like this musician model. I painted the rat a light gray because it reminded me of the Grey Seer on the Screaming Bell, so this is kind of a parody of that model.

I need to figure out a way to make the markings more visible with the black and white. I may need to designate a circular space or something.

The hardest part wasn't the quartered scheme but making sure the runes were in the same place on opposite sides.

I used a touch of a verdigris wash that I mixed myself on the bronze bells (and champion helmets).

I've only painted a few of the rank and file troops.

Completed Doomwheel

2010-10-18T06:00:00.000-07:00

Of all the models I have ever painted, this one was possibly the most complex. There are so many surfaces, inside and out that make this a difficult model. I had to pretty much paint everything separate from each other. I'm still not satisfied with the base, I need to add some stuff to it as it is kind of boring.

I considered rusting up the blades but I kind of like it as is. I can always go back and add it.

I'm also not satisfied with the banner. I may end up redoing it later.

Interior detail. I tried a glow effect on the eyes. It came out better than my other attempts but I still need practice with the technique.

Frequent Internet Spelling Mistakes: Horde vs. Hoard

2010-10-11T09:30:00.000-07:00

Here we go with one of the most frequent mistakes. First off, this is a hoard:

And this is a horde:

Now if you're hoarding hordes, that's horrible. Don't be a horde hoarder. And don't mix the two up.

Images shamelessly stolen from teh Interwebz, the Ork army is from Dakka and it is pretty great looking!

Bowie In Space?

2010-10-08T06:30:00.000-07:00

So while the entire blogrolls of FTW are clogged with people posting and reposting the latest Dark Eldar rumors and such, the latest batch from BoLS featured a character named Duke Sliscus the Serpent and described him as "Bowie in space," This is the first thing I thought of when I read that:

But it all still leaves several questions. Can Bowie settle down on one army list or is he always making ch-ch-ch-changes? Is his Fantasy army Goblins? Does modern love get him to submit his lists on time? The list goes on. What else would Bowie do in the grim darkness of the far future, besides re-invent himself every decade?

Vendetta With Aquila

2010-10-06T09:30:00.000-07:00

This Vendetta was another commission. This is the first IG vehicle I've ever painted. The client requested tabletop quality with an Aquila on the wings, leaving the colors up to me. I didn't build it (you can still see some mold lines), just painted it. The canopy is also a bit crooked as the pilots are a bit off, but the client said he'd fix it.

I went with the blue and gold because I had accidentally bought a pot of Necron Abyss and figured I might as well get some use out of it. I highlighted it with Royal Blue and Ultramarine Blue (another accidental wrong color). The Aquila is Shining Gold with Burnished Gold highlights. By the way, don't try and paint gold over blue without some kind of basecoat. I should have basecoated it either Iyanden Darksun or Tausept Ochre. It took about 4 coats to get the gold on right, and it still is patchy in places if you look up close, though it looks fine at tabletop distance.

I didn't use a stencil, I just freehanded the Aquila. You can see that the left side is slightly different from the right. Were I going for a higher standard I would have corrected it. It was very difficult. I'm no stranger to freehand but this goes down as possibly the hardest I've done. A lot of the difficulty was the symmetry and the fact that it's such an established symbol. It probably needs more pinions but I couldn't really fit them. The other thing that made it difficult as I said before was the fact that it took many layers to get the color on. If I ever do another freehand metallic on a strong surface I'm going to be sure and do a proper basecoat.

Review: Gamescience Dice Part 2

2010-09-27T10:00:00.000-07:00

Continued from Part 1:

Now, are they actually balanced? I did a completely non-scientific study of my dice. I made 1,000 rolls each on both my old Chessex dice and the new Gamescience dice. I'm loath to publish my results because they are pretty non-scientific but here they are. The rolls were made on a hard surface. I picked 5 dice at random out of my pool for each roll.

Chessex Results:

1: 15.8%

2: 17.4%

3: 18.2%

4: 15.2%

5: 16.5%

6: 16.9%

Average roll: 3.499

1: 15.5%

2: 18.1%

3: 13%

4: 16.3%

5: 19.2%

6: 17.9%

Average roll: 3.594

So it would appear that the Gamescience dice roll higher and the Chessex roll lower but closer to average. This is where I think my results are flawed. I don't know enough about probability to say if 1k rolls are enough to really determine an average. And if the Gamescience dice do indeed roll higher, am I an unethical gamer if I use them and I know they roll higher? Am I a total nerd if I made 2k rolls to see if my dice really are biased?

In the end most gaming rolls are made on a felt surface. I probably need to redo the test on a felt gaming board but I really don't feel like doing it again. Furthermore, when I roll my dice I try and bounce them for best results. I also own a dice tower and I wonder how the results would be there. So I don't think I can count these results. Further tests are needed.

Final Verdict, the Bad: The sharp corners of Gamescience dice kind of hurt my hands and they're a bit bigger than the usual dice so it's hard to pick up a big handful of them. The clear non-inked ones are hard to read (if you buy the clear get inked) sometimes. They're more expensive than Chessex dice and are not sold in bricks.

Final Verdict, the Good: They don't go bouncing every which way when you roll them or when they fall on the floor. Also, this will sound really stupid but I feel more confident rolling them, that I know if I get bad dice rolls it's because of probability not because of flaws in my dice. The greatest plus of all is that if they are truly statistically even, that should outweigh all other considerations.

So for anyone who knows more about probability and statistics than I (which isn't much), I'd appreciate you weighing in.

Review: Gamescience Dice Part 1

2010-09-24T09:00:00.000-07:00

For this review, you will need to do some extra reading or it may not make a lot of sense. About two months ago I bought a set of Gamescience dice after watching this video and this video. Oh, and while you're at it read this famous thread, this too provides the necessary context.

Have you done all the required reading? No? Well here's the summary. The normal dice you use such as the Chessex and GW dice are flawed because they are tumbled. The tumbling process removes the mold line but it also causes the dice to favor one side meaning that yes, your dice do hate you. Dice with straight edges will give you more statistically even results. Casino dice are the best probably, but they're heavy and super expensive. Gamescience dice are a good solution, they're way cheaper than casino dice but will roll statistically even.

But seriously, at least go watch the two videos. It's about 20 minutes total but worth every minute. The guy is very interesting and explains his case well. I tested out his claims that normal gaming dice are flawed and he was certainly right on that. All my D&D dice had horribly uneven surfaces. My Chessex brick has problems all over when you look up close.

Here lies the tale of my dice. After watching those two videos I quit using my Chessex brick that I've had since I was 17 in favor of the Gamescience dice. Did I magically start winning games? Did I miraculously pull out those sixes when I needed them? Well...no. If your dice are average you shouldn't really notice anything. Not to mention with the laws of probability you will still have bad dice games no matter what dice you use.

Indeed, I still have bad dice games. My first game of WHFB was the absolute worst dice I've ever had in my life. I didn't succeed in doing anything (failed all charges, failed all to wounds or if I did they passed their saves, failed to cast anything, miscasted on the first roll, etc) until about turn three or so at which point it was far too late. I have had good dice rolls (in a later game) in which my champion needed to pass three armor saves at a -1, I rolled two sixes for the armor and then rolled a 6 for his parry save. However, it's always the really bad and the really good ones that stand out. We don't remember the average rolls.

In all, I'd say my experiences have been quite average. For dice that's a good thing.

Now the dice come with a bit of a blemish from the casting, it's similar to a mold marking where it's been cut off the sprue. The website says to take it off with sandpaper but it didn't work for me, it scratched the surface. I used a very sharp exacto blade and that took it off just fine. As I said before, all dice are born with these but since Gamescience dice are not tumbled you have to get rid of it yourself. It's small enough that it won't affect the roll (it's on the flat surface, not the edge).

They are sold both inked and non-inked. The non-inked ones are cheaper but you'll have to ink them yourselves. I used my Micron pens and they worked great.

Coming up on Monday is part 2 in which I reveal the statistic results of the Chessex and Gamescience dice. Stay tuned!

Review: Battlefoam X-Board Travel Display

2010-09-20T09:00:00.000-07:00

I had the chance recently to paint up the Battlefoam X-Board Travel Display. The image shown above is directly from Battlefoam's website but below is how I painted it.

First, the good. This is an efficient way to get yourself a tournament display board. It is modular so you can have the hill in the middle or on the edges. It packs up into a backpack sized case (included) and when put together it is very sturdy.

Now the bad. The texture on the board is rather poor. If you've ever looked up close at the GW Realm of Battle board, this is nothing like it. The cliff isn't very realistic. It can be kind of a pain to put the clips in that hold it together, and it's even more of a pain to take it apart. Furthermore, the flock rubs off every time you take it out of the bag. Even if you're careful it still scrapes off the edges.

So if you want a tournament display board but don't want to build your own, I would recommend this. Even though the texture is rather poor it will be covered up by your models. As long as you're not constantly taking it in and out of the bag the flock should be fine (I would recommend not flocking the edges though).

Even if you have the gumption to build your own, I would say that this board is a great starting point. You can certainly add a lot to this board and the fact that it snaps together and apart is a big plus. While I was painting it I imagined placing ruins on the hills and sculpting a few craters in the flat area. Of course it may not fit in the bag anymore depending on how you do it.

A few notes on how I painted mine: I tried to match my client's bases as closely as possible. The flock is the same that I used on those, I don't like the radioactive green grass I see everywhere. I tried to go for more natural patches of grass as opposed to a bunch of green blobs.

Island of Blood Test Models

2010-09-15T09:00:00.000-07:00

I decided to make my first painted Skaven models be the champions from Island of Blood. It would be a good way to experiment and try to speed up my usual routines since I have eighty of the rats to paint.

I primed them with the Army Painter Fur Brown. I then basecoated and did one layer of highlights on the silver metal only. I then washed the whole thing with Devlan Mud. Afterwards I highlighted the gold and the bronze. I picked out the eyes and added the rust on the blade. It really didn't take that long and it certainly looks like a dirty rat man.

The hardest thing was letting go of my normally meticulous style and making concessions in quality for speed. But the nice thing about Fantasy is that only the front rank has to look good, the rest just have to look unified.

Frequent Internet Spelling Mistakes: Rouge vs. Rogue

2010-09-13T09:00:00.000-07:00

We're back with a very important clarification. Without further ado, here is a Rouge Trader:

This is Rogue Traders:

Er, wait, this is also Rogue Trader:

Let's not get them mixed up now, shall we?

One Island of Blood Complete!

2010-09-07T06:00:00.000-07:00

I have built 40 clanrats and I have many, many more to go. I still have one IoB set to finish and then I'm going to need Skavenslaves so that's even more. Some of the rats in this set might make good slaves but those shields are pretty stuck on there, and who gives their slaves shields? They're supposed to die. I may buy a box of Night Goblins to use as slaves and mix them in the unit.

I have also decided to just keep all my stuff on one blog. Like Chicago Terrain Factory responded, "Better to have one active blog than two slow ones." Only 20 people voted in my poll, and I know I have more readers than that but I had a 3/4ths majority on keeping them together.

Also, I'm approaching 100 "followers." When I hit 100 I need to do some kind of giveaway.

Chipped Metal Tutorial

2010-09-03T06:00:00.000-07:00

I got an email from a reader asking me how I did my chipped metal look on the Master of the Ravenwing.

I also used this technique shown in the Stompa yesterday. It's super easy. Simply take a piece of foam, for small models use a bit of foam that comes in a blister, for bigger ones you can use a bit of foam from a transport pluck-n-pull or whatever they call them.

Tear it at an angle. You want it to be a bit jagged but not too much or it will be splotchy. Test it out on a piece of paper or something first. Then, just dip it in your paint starting with Boltgun Metal. Wipe it off on the paint pot so that you don't have too much on the foam. Then dab it on the edges where metal is likely to chip. Be sure to rotate and move the foam in different directions or else all the chipping will have the same pattern. When you're done dab a bit with Chainmail, then a final dabbing of Mithril Silver (each one uses progressively less paint just like a highlight).

By the way, once the paint dries on the foam if you want to reuse it you'll have to tear it anew. The dried paint drastically affects its absorption and texture.

You can also do rust with this technique but that's already been covered by many others. I have yet to decide which I prefer but once I figure it out I'll be sure to post about it.

Stompa Complete

2010-09-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

This wraps up the largest single model I've ever painted. This was a commission. The client wanted the arms and head magnetized as well as the deffrolla. The head was easy enough but those arms are really heavy and the joins are so weedy that I had to use pins. I don't even think the magnets are holding the arms. I think it's all on the pins. The deffrolla isn't magnetized at all and it's heavily trimmed so it would fit in the front. Technically a Stompa can't take a deffrolla but I do as I'm told.

I used the chipped metal look for the black (as requested, tutorial coming soon). The client actually wanted me to paint it clean and unweathered but I just couldn't resist. Chipped metal is still clean. I wanted to rust the feet and deffrolla but the client wants it to match the rest of his army so that was a no go. I did use an oil stain weathering powder on the white and other key areas because it really needed something, it looked too plain without it.

This is the first Ork model I've ever painted. It's hopefully not the last, the Ork style allows me to be more stylistic and even sloppy at times. I don't have to stress about streaks in my white as the Orks certainly don't care about that. It's hard to see in the pictures but all the streaks in the white are going the same way so it doesn't look sloppy.

A bit of advice for painting a stompa or similar sized model: break it down into smaller chunks. I painted the arms as one model each, the head as one model and finally the body. This made it so much more manageable. It's kind of daunting painting something this big but you have to eat a squiggoth one bite at a time. If it doesn't eat you first.

A Fun Trick With the Lore of Life

2010-08-30T06:00:00.000-07:00

I discovered this during my first game of Fantasy this weekend (playing borrowed Bretonnians). I am probably not the first to discover it but I haven't seen anyone else post this so here it goes. Take a wizard with the Lore of Life, and give him/her a Power Scroll. You'll need to have at least eight dice in your pool for this to work. Use two dice to cast Throne of Vines, then use the Power Scroll to cast The Dwellers Below. You have a 90-something percent chance to get doubles which gives you Irresistible Force, but you can ignore the miscast on a 2+ with Throne of Vines.

It is by no means guaranteed and you shouldn't wrap a strategy around it but it is a good combo, especially against hordes.

Kill-Team Tournament After-Action Report

2010-08-26T06:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we had the long discussed KT tournament. All in all we had some tough games and some tough lists. The format was swiss pairings, double elimination. We had ten players. Here's what I brought:

2x Hive Guard
3x Warriors+Barbed Strangler

One Hive Guard had Scout, the other FNP. The warrior with the BS had Stealth. The army had 5 models and 14 wounds.

My first match was against a Space Marines player. He had 5 Terminators with Storm Bolters and one with a power weapon. No matter how many shots I poured into him he just kept advancing. Finally I started to force some 1s and dropped enough just as they approached my lines, taking out a Warrior in the process. They failed their Leadership test and I won.

Round two saw me against IG. The player had brought thirty something guys with three mortars. He deployed out of LoS and started shooting the mortars at me right away. I had the Barbed Strangler Warrior up high and managed to get a few that way, but the Hive Guard really shined in this mission. I was able to take out his Mortar squads efficiently thus removing my biggest threats. All that remained were the flashlights. Even then I just couldn't take them out fast enough with their cover saves (they piled into area terrain). I thought the Barbed Strangler would be king but with cover it hardly mattered. The timer ran out and I won due to having killed more points.

Round three was the final round, me against the other undefeated player. He brought Orks. His list had three Lootas, one Deffkopta and the rest Shoota Boyz. This was the toughest match of them all. My dice were with me in the beginning when I dropped two of the Lootas and a mess of Boyz, but once again I just couldn't kill them fast enough. For me the game came down to a set of rolls. He had two Boyz in the open and I hit both with my Hive Guard but rolled double 1s for wounds. Then I defeated his Kopta in CC with my Warrior, and to catch it just had to roll anything but a 1. Of course, you can guess what I rolled. Time ran out and he took the win. I ended second.

Now that I think about it, it's unfair to say that the game came down to a few rolls on my part. I made one little mistake not getting my Hive Guard behind some terrain (trusting to T6) when I should have just moved. My opponent also rolled poorly on his to wound rolls, had he done better it wouldn't have been very close at all. He played very well and had a good combo of numbers, toughness and volume of fire.

I had a lot of fun and in a bit of confession, it was my first tournament after 13 years in this hobby. I hope it's not the last as I had a lot of fun trying to stay on top of my game.

Poll: Should I Start a New Fantasy Blog?

2010-08-23T06:00:00.000-07:00

So I'm going to start playing Fantasy once the Island of Blood comes out, and I'm asking all my loyal readers if I should start a new Fantasy blog and keep just the 40k stuff here. As far as Fantasy goes, I'll probably be posting batreps, and showing off my handiwork. Furthermore, I'll probably talk about speed painting as I intend to learn how to do it with my Skaven.

40k will still be the dominant aspect of this blog, it's my main game and I'm not stopping playing it. A reason to separate the blogs is that I may work on Fantasy in waves, so you'd get a few weeks with mostly fantasy, then back to 40k and so on. I could try and intersperse them but it all depends on what I'm working on with commissions and such. I also already have a sweet name picked out so that's another reason to keep them separated.

A reason to keep them together is, if you don't like reading Fantasy posts, don't read them! Suscribe to the RSS feed and simply mark them as "Read" in Google Reader. Furthermore, I don't know if I could really keep two blogs going with regular content. I can barely keep one going with at least one post a week, especially on slow weeks where I just plod along on commissions.

The poll is at the top right, go ahead and vote! If you'd like to explain your reasoning, please do so in the comments. I'll leave it up for two weeks or so until September 4th when the IoB comes out.

Upcoming Kill-Team Tournament

2010-08-16T06:00:00.000-07:00

So my LGS is hosting a Kill-Team tournament next week. The owner wanted to to KT because we have a lot of new players and he wants everyone to be able to participate. After careful playtesting we came up with some other restrictions for the tournament. Here is our FAQ/Format restrictions. It's pretty much set in stone at this point but I would still appreciate feedback for future events.

General:

Nothing with an armor value may be chosen.

Nothing with greater than three wounds may be chosen.

No unique units may be chosen (such as Marbo or Deathleaper)

Universal Special Rules must be chosen during army building (they must be on your roster).

You may not assign the following Universal Special Rules to your models (if they already come with it, that's fine): Swarms and Turbo-Boosters.

In the interest of time, models that are all going the same general direction may share the same "Run" roll, though the controlling player does not have to do so. If you do this, you must declare which models are going to share the roll before rolling.

All "specialists" (the three models with the bonus Universal Special Rule) must be clearly distinct. This can be something simple like a piece of colored tape on the base.

When splitting fire, you must declare all targets simultaneously. For example, if I have a Heavy Bolter, I can't fire the first shot and see if it kills its target before I declare the next target with the second shot. I have to state how many shots are going at each target at the same time.

Q: Do squads have to deploy together and then move off separately, or do they deploy individually just like they were their own units?

Since each model is its own unit, they don't have to start off in coherency.

Q: How do things like Orders and Exarch powers work, and other "benefits the squad" type rules?

Powers affect only models that stay within 2" of the character granting the upgrade power.

Q: Reserves aren't used in the KT scenario. What about a unit that must start in reserve such as a drop pod?

If a unit must enter via reserves, it deploys normally at the start of the game.

Q: When half the Kill-Team is gone, what if there is no model remaining on the table with a LD value?

Use the "standard" leadership of the army. Space Marines would be an 8, IG and Orks would be a 7, Eldar would be an 8 and so on. (This point is moot as vehicles are not allowed in this tournament.)

Q: What if your last models are fearless?

They still have to take the leadership test. It's not a morale test.

Q: If one of the models has the Stubborn rule, does that affect the roll to determine if you lose?

No, Stubborn only affects Morale tests, and the final roll is a Leadership test.

Q: Since you can split fire, can you assault a different model than one you shot at?

No. You can only assault models that you shot at.

Army Specific Questions:

Necrons: The Phase Out rule is not used.

Tau: If you buy a squad of pathfinders, you do not need to take their transport.

Eldar: The Skyleap Exarch power is not used.

We originally decided to take Troops only, but it was kind of dull and certain armies had major advantages over others. Then we decided to go with no vehicles after a couple rounds of telling games, one player took a Vendetta and no one could touch him. He simply moved away from everything, because he was so high up he had a clear LoS to everything. The best strategy for taking him out was to kill the troopers he had, so he just put half of them inside the Vendetta and that pretty much ended it.

We then made the armor restrictions to nothing with a total armor value of all three sides 33+. I took three dual cannon Vypers and was untouchable. I was putting out 18 S6 shots per turn. I won all my games, the worst damage I took was I lost a weapon.

Finally we settled on no vehicles but with the standard KT FOC. After our testing this proved to be the best.

I'm taking Eldar but I don't want to reveal my list ideas just yet! I've tried out a lot of combinations and I still want to try a few more.

Review: The Army Painter Spray Black

2010-08-12T06:00:00.000-07:00

I picked up a can of this stuff as the quest for a good black primer has been eluding. The GW Black primer is excellent but I was hoping for something a little cheaper. None of the local hardware stores carry black primer (they used to when I was a teenager) and the only place I could find it was at an auto shop, but the stuff was horrendous quality an would simply dust off.

A while back I tried Armory primer and that stuff was terrible. It made my guys look like they were covered in black aphids even when I followed the directions on the can perfectly. I know I'm not the only one who's had a bad experience with that brand which is sad because the price is right.

I decided to give The Army Painter a try. It is an excellent primer. That's really all I have to say. It goes on even and coats very well. It doesn't obscure detail and dries quickly. I was handling it within minutes, flipping the pieces over to coat the other side. Within a minute or two it was dry to the touch and I could move it. Granted, where I live has almost 0% humidity but that's still really fast. With other primers I can wait for hours to be able to even flip it over.

I'm considering switching my white primer brand of choice to the Army Painter. Granted, it's only a couple of dollars cheaper than the GW stuff but I'm loving the quality. Now I really want to try their colored primers. I'm already planning on using their brown for my Skaven.

Frequent Internet Spelling Mistakes

2010-08-09T06:00:00.000-07:00

I think I'm going to make this a regular feature. Here's one that's been bugging me. Note the spelling:

This is Voilà:

Note: It is very difficult to illustrate "voilà." It's a French expression which means "there it is."

This is a Viola:

It's a musical instrument slightly larger and lower in pitch than a violin.

Listen, you don't even need to include the accent, just please don't mix up your vowels. I'm not trying to be some kind of grammar Nazi, everyone makes typos. I'm trying to correct people who simply don't know the difference.

I have Selected a Fantasy Army

2010-08-08T11:50:00.000-07:00

Don't worry, this blog will not turn into a Fantasy blog. After much consternation, debate and deliberation I have finally selected a Fantasy army. This is the longest I've ever given to this thought process, as in the past I've mostly selected my army on first impressions and impulses. This time I carefully considered the models, the aesthetics, the labor costs, the army lists, and the playstyle. I thought about what I want in an army and which armies had it. So, the army I have selected is...

Skaven. What I want in an army is mobility, warmachines, and magic. True, Skaven don't have cavalry but their basic move is faster than average and they have ways of getting where they need to go. They have crazy warmachines and they have some unique and potent magic effects.

Also, with the new Island of Blood set I should be able to get a pretty sizeable army for a relatively low investment. My best friend plays High Elves so we're planning on swapping our sets so that will give me about 1400 pts for less than $100. I plan on using the Army Painter brown primer, quickshade, and GW foundation paints to get them painted as quickly as possible.

I used to hate the old Skaven models. They were pretty uninteresting and dull but with all the new kits I'm just amazed at how far GW has come. The Screaming Bell and Doomwheel kits are amazing. All the models in the range look fantastic.

So why not Lizardmen? I used to play them, and the Stegadon is a beautiful kit, but I'm concerned with how the army plays in 8th. I think I would have liked them more in 7th, but while I still like them I kind of have a "been there, done that" feeling with them. That won't stop me from picking them up later...

I looked at the other armies and while I'd consider starting up several of them I think it's good for me to play something totally different. I need to move my own cheese, if you would. I've always played leadership reliable armies (Eldar with most everything a 9, Tyranids with widespread Fearless, Lizzies with Cold-Blooded and Wood Elves with high L) so I'm going to have to think differently. I've never had strong warmachines in Fantasy before. Even though the Misfire charts are devastating, I think the carnage they wreak will be worth it.

So my first purchases will be the Army Book of course, then IoB when it comes out, brown primer and quickshade. By the way, have you seen the new IoB miniatures? I haven't seen this on any of the major rumormongering websites, but GW has been putting them out daily for a while. Here they are.

As I said in the beginning, this won't turn into a WHFB blog. 40k is still my main game (though I haven't actually played 8th yet, so that may change). I may start a separate blog for my Skaven, or I may just post pictures here and there.

The White Dwarf IN SPAAAAAAACE!

2010-08-06T09:30:00.000-07:00

This wraps up a series of commissions from a single client, though it's not the end of my queue. I painted this model in a different way than suggested, going for a more muted color scheme. The client wanted him in the rust red colors of the Adeptus Mechanicus so he could use him as a Techmarine. Originally all the areas that are black would have been Dark Angels Green since that's the client's main army, but it was beginning to look a lot like Christmas so I went with black. There's a lot of tiny little details on this figure.

"Gets Hot" Marine

2010-08-04T06:30:00.000-07:00

I made this for a local painting contest. The contest was to take a standard tactical marine and paint it. Conversions were legal, so I decided to make the classic marine from the Plasma Weapons demotivator. You know the one. I didn't have the proper right arm so I used some pins and greenstuff, as well as a metal plasma gun so he is pretty arm-heavy. I used Dark Angels colors because I'm the most familiar with those. This is going to a friend when he gets back from his overseas deployment.

I attempted glow effects but they didn't come out the way I wanted them to.

Another (small) Note on Pronunciation

2010-08-03T08:15:00.000-07:00

I've started listening to a few podcasts and one thing is bugging me. Okay, picture time:

This is Calvary:

And this is Cavalry:

Notice the position of the "L" when pronouncing this word.

Help Me Pick A Fantasy Army

2010-08-02T11:45:00.000-07:00

I'm going to get into Fantasy. I'm just having a hard time settling on an army. The new edition shakes everything up. So I figured I'd put it to the blogging community to give me a hand.

I played Fantasy back in 5th edition, I started with Wood Elves and then went to Lizardmen. I traded away all my Lizzies for Eldar and I only had like three WE models so I'm pretty much going tabula rasa here. Here's all the armies of Fantasy and what I'm thinking:

Beastmen: There's not much of an appeal to me. I think a lot of the new model kits are pretty great, but it's just not my aesthetic style.

Bretonnia: I like the idea that each knight should be painted differently, but the army in general doesn't appeal to me. Plus, I already know at least two guys who play them.

Daemons: Once again, there's no appeal for me. I don't like the theme of Chaos armies so they're out.

Dark Elves: Of all the evil armies, this one intrigues me a bit. I am slightly tempted by this one, but I'm not quite sure. They just seem too fragile.

Dwarfs: I like their warmachines but I'm not a fan of slow armies. I am pretty intrigued though by a full shooting army. I don't even know if it's a good choice, but I kind of like the idea.

High Elves: Can't play them. My best friend plays them and we have a long-standing "eternal battle." Even though we don't live in the same state anymore and won't play against each other very often, it's still a point of pride. Plus they just don't appeal to me.

Lizardmen: Now we're talking. I love dinosaurs. I really like this army but I have a couple of concerns. Firstly, I love the Stegadon model but I hear that it's not as viable in 8th now because cannons can wipe out the whole thing in one shot. Secondly, I've heard that terradons aren't as effective against warmachines as they used to be. From what I've read it's all about big blocks of saurus now and while I do want a block or two of them in my army, I also want other choices to be viable as well.

Ogre Kingdoms: No real appeal here.

Orcs and Goblins: I've never had any appeal for playing orks of any kind.

Skaven: I am slightly intrigued with them now because of all the new models and how I will be able to get them for cheap. I'm just not looking forward to painting a horde army. Plus I don't know how much I like the mutated/diseased theme.

The Empire: I don't want to play "just the humans" in Fantasy.

Tomb Kings: There's quite a bit of appeal here. I like the undead theme, and how they're a neutral army in the Warhammer world. They're also getting redone soon from what I hear, so I am leaning in this direction. I'm just jealous that the VC get better looking skeletons.

Vampire Counts: Great looking skeletons! But I don't dig this army very much, I've never been very keen on Vampires in general.

Warriors of Chaos: While I think the block of standard Chaos warriors is one of the most fearsome looking blocks in the game, it's Chaos so it's out.

Wood Elves: I absolutely love the fluff. A bunch of Elves who just want to be left alone. They represent nature at its most harsh and cruel. I have a problem with two things however. Firstly, I don't like the half-helmet thing some of the models have going on. It looks good on the heroes but not on the troopers. Secondly, from looking at the army book it seems that they just don't have any "punch." There's nothing that really deals out a lot of damage. No hammer or deathstar unit. Rumors speak of them getting updated so I wonder if I should hold out for that.

So if you've got any advice for me, post a comment! Tell me how 8th is treating your army and help push me in a direction.

Planetary Empires Completed

2010-07-29T08:00:00.000-07:00

I finished up another commission here with Planetary Empires. The client wanted it about 1/3 ashen waste, 1/3 desert and 1/3 agriworld. The ashen waste and the desert were quite simple, but the desert was a pain and a half. I still don't think I got it right. The tiles are double-sided so I was painting twice what you see here. The worst part about this project wasn't the painting (besides the desert areas) but the fact that even the thinnest layer of paint causes the tiles to no longer fit together. So I had to shave off that thickness either with a file or a knife. Then, I had to redrill all the holes so that the pegs would fit. The second worst part was painting 96 flags.

Terrain From Junk Giveaway!

2010-07-27T14:11:00.000-07:00

Terrain From Junk is having a giveaway of a $40 gift certificate to CSN stores. Head on down and enter!

Let's Talk Boardgames: Ticket To Ride

2010-07-26T09:00:00.000-07:00

For today's installment, I'll be talking about the most recent addition to my collection, Ticket To Ride. I own the Europe version, but I've also played the American one. There is a Märklin and Nordic Countries version as well, but I haven't played those.

The objective is to earn the most points by the end of the game. You earn points by completing destination tickets (a route from one city to another, there's a deck of cards so they're like quests) and by building lines from city to city. The longer the route/line the more points it is worth. Once a line is filled, no one else can take it so the strategy comes in choosing which routes to build and getting the priority lines first. There's also bonus points for whoever has the longest total route.

You build routes by using train cards, which you can draw. The Europe version has ferries and tunnels which make building lines rather tricky in some areas, especially around Switzerland. That's pretty much all there is to it. The game is about making choices with a bit of luck thrown in which cards you draw, though five are always face up so you do have some choice in the matter.

As for the American version versus the European version, it's really a matter of personal preference. The American map is more open and the gameplay is more simple while the Europe version gets rather crowded in western Europe, and the tunnels and ferries can make building a bit difficult at times. I like looking at the European map and seeing the names in their original languages, as they were in 1910 (the year the game takes place). I also like the added challenge of the tunnels and ferries, and if you want you can ignore those extra rules. The game plays just fine without them. There's also rules for Stations, which help you connect your routes so you don't lose points on them, especially when western Europe gets crowded.

This game is great for your non-gamer friends and family. While games like Dominion and Agricola are off-putting to my wife she loves to play Ticket To Ride. The gameplay is simple to learn but with enough challenge for seasoned veterans.

Finally, here's my ultimate strategy tip. Look at the destination tickets you are dealt, and find which ones you can complete together with the least amount of effort. Don't try and make your line like a snake, make it like a hydra, a long body to connect distant routes but with many heads to get as many cities as possible for your route cards.

New Fantasy FAQs Are Up

2010-07-23T09:10:00.000-07:00

Normally I don't post about news that anyone can get from the GW blog, but this time I've got something to say. They've put up a Warhammer Fantasy FAQ as well as updating all the armies. Furthermore, the updated questions have been highlighted in magenta.

I read some of the Fantasy FAQ but stopped after the first page because I haven't read the whole book yet so most of the changes were lost on me. It sure seems like a lot of mistakes in the first place, but we're used to that by now. What I'm really excited about though is the FAQ changes. This is an indicator that GW has mended its ways. Gone are the days where a FAQ wouldn't show up for years, and when it finally did it was missing half the important questions. At least for fantasy, they're updating FAQs. I really hope they do this for 40k as well and fix the Tyranids back. We got an indicator of this with the Space Wolf FAQ update, so let's hope!

Completed Wave Serpent

2010-07-19T10:23:00.000-07:00

I've had this guy sitting on my desk for ages. You can see it in this post from over a year ago. I based it off this Wave Serpent. To be fair, I didn't just base it, I pretty much copied it. But look, mine is green!

That's my craftworld symbol on the back door.

The hardest part about it was the highlighting. The green was easy, and the black was easy, but the midtone in the fade was very difficult. I still don't think I got it right. I also should have made my highlights more intense. In some areas you can barely see them.

It doesn't show up very well in the pictures, but I tinted the canopy purple using Akenseth's tutorial on the subject. I think I still need to either add more layers or add more dye to my mixture.

The lightning is all freehand, I did it without tape. The hardest part about that was edging the black. I started with a codex gray and then went over it with white, though in retrospect I should have used a lighter gray after, and then a white as I had to do several layers of white.

Also notice there's no guns. They're all magnetic and aren't painted yet.

The Ultimate Scale Model

2010-07-18T16:41:00.000-07:00

Something I saw on the news, a man spent thirty years making a scale model of Herod's temple. As wargamers we can all appreciate the skill involved.

Picture obtained from above link

Blog Chain Giveaway Moves On!

2010-07-15T10:26:00.000-07:00

The Blog Chain Giveaway continues! Magiler won the giveaway last and is now hosting his own. You can find his blog and the contest here. He is giving away either 5 terminators or 5 Forgeworld Plague Marines. Sounds nice!

Tutorial: Magnetizing the Trygon

2010-07-14T10:19:00.000-07:00

The body is pretty straight forward, so I won't go into too much detail, but here's how I did the head and Mawloc spines. I used 3/16" magnets for the weight bearing joins, and 1/8" for the non-weight bearing.

Note that this is not the best way to do this. I glued two magnets into the bottom part of the head. You can see some drill scars from previous attempts. I then glued a paperclip bit to the front and back of the top part of the head. I carefully bent and cut the paperclip until it touched the magnets. The best way to do this is like the way I did on the Night Spinner, making a greenstuff setting and fitting the magnets that way. My way works, but it could have been better. I magnetized the jaw in this way, and the mandibles were really easy.

The body is pretty straightforward. Be sure to check your polarities. Each side needs to have the same polarity. The left and right can have different polarities or the same, it's up to you. I make them different.

Here's how I magnetized the Mawloc spines. I glued some 1/8" magnets into the inside of the body, and sealed them with epoxy. You don't want these to come undone and rattle around the inside. The magnets are powerful enough they'll hold the spines on even through the plastic. While the body is apart, drill and glue the arm sockets. You can reinforce the insides with epoxy in case you drilled too greedily and too deep.

Guest Appearance on Life After the Cover Save!

2010-07-09T10:15:00.000-07:00

Wednesday night I had the pleasure of being a guest on the podcast Life After the Cover Save. You can get the episode from the previous link or find it on iTunes. Be aware that there is strong language, and possibly one of the greatest podcast comedy moments I've ever heard.

It was a lot of fun. I've never been on a podcast before. Normally I write so I can get my thoughts out there, but speaking it I'm afraid I sound like a pompous oaf. I'm really not. I make it sound like I never lose Warhammer games. That's not true. I've just never lost an Apocalypse game and not because of any tactical acumen, but because I have more D weapons.

I accidentally called Noise Marines "Pleasure Marines" because I couldn't remember their name off the top of my head. Oops!

The podcast itself is not a SIRIUS BIZNESS podcast. It's just a couple of guys kicking back and talking 40k. The approach is more of a comedic one. We didn't really talk tactics at all, just a lot of joking around and having fun.

Anyway, check it out!

Finally Got To Look At the Fantasy Rulebook

2010-07-05T06:00:00.000-07:00

I got a chance the other day to have a good look at my store's preview copy of the new WHFB rulebook. I didn't get to read the whole thing but I read the movement and magic rules in depth. I have to say, I really like what I saw.

I especially liked the Magic phase. It seems so unpredictably fun. I also like the random charge distance. While some despise it, there's more of an opportunity for risk-taking. Of course I haven't played Fantasy since 5th edition or so, but from what I remember it looks so much better.

I'm now thinking about playing Tomb Kings. I will have to wait though until the new army book comes out and see what happens to them. I want to play something totally different than what I normally play. Wood Elves are pretty much Eldar, except they run around and try and pew pew enemies to death with S3. Lizardmen have some of the best models in the range, but I used to play them so I kind of have that "been there, done that" feeling. Not to mention, they seem like the fantasy equivalent to Tyranids.

Let me explain that. Both have reptilian features (why does everyone call Nids bugs? They look more reptilian to me), both have cheap expendable foot troops (skinks and termagants), hard-hitting midrange creatures (warriors, saurus, kroxigors), flying things, and bone-breaking monstrous creatures. Both tend to ignore leadership (synapse and coldblooded).

Of course, dinosaurs riding dinosaurs is still awesome. I'm looking at Tomb Kings because I want to do something totally different to anything else I've ever played. Plus they'd be easy to paint. I would just have to use an Army Painter bone primer, pick out the details, and then wash it in quickshade. What it really comes down to though, is if they get some new models. The VC skeletons look much better than the TK ones, and I hope they fix that.

I still have time to think about it, I'd appreciate anyone who's big into Fantasy to give me some advice.

The Completed Ravenwing

2010-07-01T10:58:00.001-07:00

I've been working hard these past two weeks. This completes the Ravenwing commission I've been working on for a bit. At the bottom you can see a group shot, including the bikes.

Blog Chain Giveaway Ends Today!

2010-06-28T11:08:00.000-07:00

So if you haven't entered yet now's your chance! So far there's only one entrant so you stand a pretty good chance! Here's the link!

My family is going to be in town this week so I may be slow on the posting, but if there's only one entrant, then you win.

*****
Edit: We only had one entrant and he won! So....you missed out.
*****

Rethinking the Mawloc

2010-06-27T10:59:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about this guy ever since I finished up my magnetic Trygon/Mawloc. A lot of people on the intertubes are bashing this guy, and when you think about it the Mawloc doesn't seem that powerful. Sure, its initial strike can do some damage but in a 5 turn game you're only getting to use his abilities twice. However, I think there's more to it than that.

The Mawloc is the Tyranid version of the tank shock. It's one of the few abilities in the game that can move the opponent's models. You can use it to push models off an objective. If the opponent is turtling up, you can make him rue that decision with a Mawloc not only in the damage, but if you push the model into something else and there's nowhere else for it to go, it is destroyed. I may be wrong on this rule, but I think you can also push models off the table with it. This strategy can wreck an IG parking lot.

Furthermore, what other model can disappear from one side of the board and appear on the other the next turn? The eldar can zip around and cross the battlefield long ways in two turns but the Mawloc can even beat that speed (Eldar: 48" in two turns unless you took Star Engines, Mawloc: unlimited). This can come in use in the Capture and Control mission.

That said, I think that if you're going to take a Mawloc, you need to take more than one. A single Mawloc won't do much, especially if it misses. Redundancy is crucial in this regard.

These tactics and ideas are untested and unproven. Here's some questions for comments.

Have you used the Mawloc? What did you think?
Have you used more than one, and how did that turn out?
Aside from its killing power, are there any other uses?

Magnetized Trygon/Mawloc

2010-06-25T10:40:00.000-07:00

This is one of the most difficult magnetizations I've ever done. Don't get near it if you have a pacemaker, I used at least 40 magnets if not more. Here it is with no options attached:
I magnetized every option. Well, not every. The chest spike/claw things aren't magnetized. And the thorax armor plate isn't either, as I used the other for my Tervigon.

Here it is as a Mawloc. Even the spines on the back are magnetic. It gets a little tight in the chest area, I didn't realize that the chest spikes would get in the way. I should have glued those in first, then fit the magnets.

A regular Trygon.

And a Trygon Prime.

BY THE EMPEROR WHAT IS THAT

Best/laziest Tyrannofex conversion ever?

If anyone wants a tutorial I can work one up, the hardest part is the head, by a ridiculous measure. Everything else is simply painstaking.

**Post Edit: Tutorial is here.**

A Synapse Rules Query

2010-06-23T10:27:00.000-07:00

Last night this issue came up, not in my game but in another. There were two combats going on, one between some Tyranid Warriors and another involving Termagants. The player who's turn it was decided to do the Tyranid Warriors combat first. He wiped them out. Next, when it came to the Termagant combat they lost, and the question was, did they count as fearless because they were within synapse at the start of the combat?

My argument was that since the combat rules say to complete each combat before starting the next, the warriors are dead and the Termagants do not benefit from synapse.

The other side compared it to the Blood Angels where they gain Furious Charge even if they assault out of its range.

The order in which you do things is very important in 40k. Here's a similar situation that justifies my position. Let's say it's your shooting phase and I have a creature projecting Shadow In the Warp on your psyker. You choose to use another unit to shoot that creature, killing it. Now you use your psychic powers. Obviously, you can cast the power unhindered. Order of actions is very important.

What do you guys think?

Magnetizing the New Night Spinner/Fire Prism

2010-06-21T08:55:00.000-07:00

Here's how to magnetize the new Fire Prism/Night Spinner kit. While my initial impressions of the Night Spinner were poor I'd still like to give it a try. I think its real strength will be on things like Thunderwolf Cavalry.

First off, I get my magnets from KJ Magnetics. They're a fantastic supplier and from my searches have the best combination of selection and prices. The exact type of magnets you use on this project really don't matter, as you can make any type fit the setting. I just used ones that I had left over from other projects.
The first step is to glue in your mounting magnets. Don't worry about the polarity of these, they can be the same or different. They need to be flush with the surface of the plastic, so you may have to drill a little. Don't drill into your finger like I did.

Drill out a wider and deeper hole than you need on the guns. The reason for this is that we'll make a greenstuff setting, and we need room to work. I used a 3/16 drill bit to make the hole.

Now set the gun magnet on top of the mounting magnet, and place a ball of greenstuff in the setting. There's two ways to do this from here. The first is to squeeze the two together and let the GS pick up the magnet into the setting and pull it out quickly (the fast but unreliable way), or to wet the top of the magnet so it doesn't stick to the GS, press in the magnet then pull it apart and wait for the GS to cure and then glue the magnet into the setting you just made (the slow but reliable way). Here I made the setting and glued it later, but on the Night Spinner guns I used the first method. Whatever works for you.

Here you can see the magnet in the GS setting. Make sure the GS fully cures before you go around testing it. I like to add a dab of superglue to the edges just to help it stay in place.

Fire Prism...

...and Night Spinner!

Okay, now for the housing. Here I used some GS to make a setting for the mounting magnet. Make sure it is far enough back that it won't get in the way of the guns. You can actually trim off the end of the guns (the part that goes into the housing) since no one will see it and it serves no functional purpose.

Use the GS to make a setting again. Since the housing doesn't bear any weight you can use a smaller magnet. You could even just use a portion of a paperclip if you wanted. Just be careful that you test the fit with the upper portion of the turret hull on or else the housing will not fit properly.

Here you can see all the housings magnetized.

My Work Table

2010-06-20T10:50:00.000-07:00

I moved out to the kitchen table (which was not in the kitchen because of another project) because I needed extra space for this endeavor. I ripped apart my entire grav-tank collection in order to magnetize the chin guns, and then it turned out I didn't have to rip them apart. Oh well, they came apart really easily and nothing broke. I also magnetized the new Night Spinner/Fire Prism kit. Tutorials coming soon!

New Podcast: Life After the Cover Save

2010-06-19T11:42:00.001-07:00

A couple of guys in my area started up a podcast called Life After the Cover Save. It's pretty entertaining! So far there's only two episodes, and I've only listened to the first but it was enjoyable. They talk about how they got into the hobby and the stories they tell are pretty funny, and somewhat similar to how I got in. Later they cover some tactics choices in a "what would you do" type format.

I was listening to it while working on the Ravenwing. So I was listening to Warhammer while building Warhammer. I'm a nerd.

Anyway you can find it on iTunes or listen to it on the website linked above. Be aware that they cuss a few swears now and again.

Ravenwing Landspeeders

2010-06-15T14:43:00.000-07:00

Here's my latest work. It's been a while since I posted painting or modeling content. These are part of a commission.

The weapons are all fully magnetic as are the bases. I'm trying to make each one individualized, yet simple at the same time.

Blog Chain Giveaway Continues!

2010-06-14T23:17:00.000-07:00

****EDIT 6/22****
Deadline extended.
********

The Blog Chain Giveaway thing rolls on! I won a Zoanthrope and Lictor from Hive Zero. Now I must continue.

What is the Super Blog Chain Giveaway?
The fellows over at Santa Cruz Warhammer got the ball rolling in an effort to foster folks in our community reaching out and seeing what other blogs have to offer as well extending a helping hand to fellow gamers.

Want to participate?
If you want to win a prize of your own and join this Give-Away, go comment on this blog. The rules of the give-away are as follows:

you must have a blog.

you must have something worthwhile to offer up to give away for free.

if you win, you must hold your own blogsite giveaway using the same rules to pay it forward.

you must contact us with a link to your give away so we can send bloggers to your site.

you may only enter once per give away.

To Enter:
leave a comment to this post as follows.
1st sentence, why you need the prize.
2nd sentence what you will give away on your blog to pay it forward.
I will choose the winner based on how convincing they are and what they offer to the next winner.

What’s in it for you?
The winner will receive an old school Screamer Killer. This is a classic model and hard to find. it isn't new (it's been out of print for many years) but unassembled and unpainted. I will ship it free of charge along with a 60mm round base (or a 40mm if you want it for a Tyranid Prime). Tell me the reason why you want it and how you plan to put it to use. I will choose a winner based on a combination of what you are offering and how convincing you were on Monday, June 28, 2010.

I got the Screamer-Killer a while ago and wanted to use it as a Tyranid Prime. But I just couldn't bring myself to convert it as I wanted to use the model in its normal form. So since I can't decide what to do with it I'm going to pass it on to someone who needs it.

New Blog Format

2010-06-13T11:42:00.000-07:00

Google released some new formatting options and I'm playing around with them right now so the blog may look a little weird.

On Pronunciation

2010-06-08T10:35:00.000-07:00

A recent thread on the BOLS Lounge made me think of this topic. Different communities seem to have their own way of pronouncing words in the 40k universe. Here's some common ones:

Lasgun- According to Graham McNeill, it's LAS-gun with the A as in apple. I have heard people insist that it is LAYS-gun, as in laser. I actually used to think that they were right because of the laser pronunciation, but I always pronounced it LAS because LAYS just sounds silly.

Tzeentch- I haven't heard this one mispronounced very frequently but apparently some people start the word with an X sound. It's simple to pronounce, really. Say the word "pizza" and take the sound from the double z (in Italian double z is pronounced like a "tz" and some times like a "dz"). I believe Chinese and Japanese both have similar sounds.

Slaanesh- I always pronounce it SLAAN-esh with the A as in apple. However, I've heard a couple of times people saying Slaan-EESH which doesn't seem right to me. I figure that the doubled vowel indicates stress.

Tyranids- I've heard people pronounce the Tyr as in Tyrant so they become TIE-ra-nids. I say TEER-a-nids and I think the majority agrees with me on that one.

Nobs- I've always pronounced it as in knob, but some new guys in my group say "nohb" as in noble. That makes sense actually as an Ork nob is simply short for Noble, but Lexicanum disagrees and says that it is knob.

C'Tan- K-tan. It's a hard "cuh" sound. I've heard of people saying see-tan but Graham McNeill disagrees. Think of Cthulhu. But not for too long lest ye go mad.

Any that I missed?

Edit: Be sure to check out the comments, there's some good information there.

Look At What I Found: Some Rarities

2010-06-07T09:30:00.000-07:00

A few months ago I put up a post about a game store where I used to live which kind of died out. Well, the store is still there but their Warhammer community died out (link to post). They still have quite a selection of ancient Warhammer goodies. Every time I visit my parents I make a point to see what they have.

If their community died out, then why do I bother going each time to see what they have new? Well, half the store used to be a "normal games" half and the other was the "nerd" half. The store always seemed embarrassed of its geeky clientele and so they erected a large barrier in the middle of the store so you couldn't see the nerd half of the establishment from the main area, like some kind of smoking section or unsavory media store. Anyway, I moved away and the community died out for reasons I suspect but don't know for sure, but their Warhammer stock remained.

Anyway, they turned the nerd room into the stock room. Every time I go there they have rearranged it and there's newfound goodies like some archaeological dig. This time I found some ancient models and sets.

Chaos Dwarfs!
I love how it says, "White Metal!" I'm really not sure what kind of selling point that is.
In case you can't see it clearly, that's the third edition boxed set. They had several of these.

Sometimes their prices are ancient too. You can get some things for a lot cheaper, but other things have a pricing fail- they had the old metal War Walker for $35 while the newer, better looking one was $30. I bought a biovore a few months ago for $15 which is half retail now.

I also found many, many cans of Blood Red spray paint. As you know, they don't make that anymore so I bought a few for when I get around to starting up that Blood Angels army.

I couldn't get to certain areas and there were stacks and stacks of things I hadn't seen on my last visit so I guess I'll just be surprised next time. It irks me that this stuff just sits here gathering dust. They should just offer massive discounts to let the gamers clear this stuff out.

Balancing Space Hulk

2010-06-02T13:25:00.001-07:00

So I know Space Hulk is old news, but I've brought it with me on vacation and I'm remembering how difficult the first mission is. To win, the Genestealer player needs to flood in as many stealers as possible in the northeast corner, since there's a big LOS block at the corner. The Marine player has to survive either a lot of close range shooting or brutal close combat.

What I've discovered to make the mission easier for first-time players is to simply remove the starting two blips. That gives the Marine player a bit of an edge getting into position at the corner, and though the mission still isn't easy it's more balanced.

Disappointed

2010-05-28T06:44:00.000-07:00

I had such high hopes for the Night Spinner. I was hoping it would revitalize my Eldar army but it sadly doesn't strike me as terribly effective. That said, I'm still buying the kit for the Prisms, and I'm going to magnetize it. I also intend on trying the vehicle out since I already have the Forgeworld kit and see if it really is as bad as it seems.

The biggest problem I have with it is that it's in the Heavy Support slot. There's already too much competition in that slot. Furthermore, I wish it was a Heavy 2 or something.

I really hope this isn't presaging the new Eldar codex.

/minor rant off.

Oh, and last day of school today! Man I love being a teacher.

A Kill-Team Tournament and FAQ?

2010-05-23T11:35:00.000-07:00

In a few months my local store owner will be hosting a Kill-Team tournament. We have a lot of brand new players in the area so the owner wants to make it Troops only. This will make it somewhat bland, but a single Vendetta won't dominate like it normally does. It's not the most competitive but it does allow the new guys to participate. This means we have to come up with some kind of FAQ because there's a lot of gray areas in KT.

I also want to point out that this isn't an argument about the merits of a KT tournament, it is what it is but we might as well clear up as many gray areas as possible.

As much as I love to stick to RAW (rules as written) KT is a different issue than standard 40k. In some cases I think you have to go with RAI (rules as intended).

So here's a few things I think need clarification, questions that people have asked during some of our games, and I'd appreciate it if you can come up with more problems or solutions. These are just my first impressions, I haven't thought about them in depth yet and would appreciate as much input as possible.

1. Do squads have to deploy together and then move off separately, or do they deploy individually just like they were their own units?

Since each model is its own unit, they don't have to start off in coherency.

2. How do things like Orders and Exarch powers work, and other "benefits the squad" type rules?

RAW would suggest that since each model is its own unit it would only affect one guy. That makes upgrade characters kind of pointless (and defeats the purpose of Kill-Team, where it is supposed to be about individuality). A possible solution is to have the powers affect only models that stay within coherency of the character granting the upgrade power. That way you still get the benefit but trade off your flexibility and make yourself more vulnerable to blasts.

3. How do transports work?

Since each model is an individual unit, RAW would say that only one guy can be in it at a time. However, RAI would rule that it can fit as many guys as its normal capacity, and that you don't have to embark/disembark the whole squad at once.

4. How does the Doom's aura work?

Since each model is its own unit, each model has to make its own test. This might make the Doom too powerful (though he's always more powerful on paper) but I'm not sure how to balance it. Although in the last KT game I played with him my opponent simply meched up and the Doom couldn't do anything.

5. Reserves aren't used in the KT scenario. What about a unit that must start in reserve such as a drop pod?

Remember, Codex trumps expansion. So if it says that it MUST or MAY start in reserve, it can. Units that do not have that rule cannot go in reserve.

6. What about Ymgarl Stealers? Do they have to all go in the same terrain piece as a unit?

Each is its own unit, so you'd have to clarify in which terrain each individual model was hiding.

7. When half the Kill-Team is gone, what if there is no model remaining on the table with a LD value?

I would rule that you use the "standard" leadership of the army. Space Marines would be an 8, IG and Orks would be a 7, Eldar would be an 8 and so on.

8. What if your last models are fearless?

They still have to take the leadership test. It's not a morale test.

This is what I've come up with so far, some may seem obvious but others will likely require clarification if we're going to hold a tournament. If you've got any input, let me hear it! Whether you agree or disagree please provide your reasoning.

Fixing Eldar: What If?

2010-05-17T06:00:00.000-07:00

Eldar seem to be getting weaker every time a new codex comes out. Space Wolves nullify their powers with impunity (and don't even get me started on Njal, an upstart who is a better psyker than Eldrad), IG get a fast skimmer just as good as a Wave Serpent and cheaper, Blood Angels also get a fast skimmer. Seer Councils get shut down and other armies can match the speed of mass skimmers. Aspects mostly suck, leaving Dire Avengers as Falcon upgrades to make them scoring and Fire Dragons are suicide squads.

That said, I still love my Eldar. Tyranids are just a fling, Eldar are my first and true Warhammer love. I'm positively giddy over the new Prism and Nightspinner. They are due for a new codex eventually, so here's some ideas I've been kicking around. I haven't really thought these through, so some may be imbalanced and others may not help at all, but that's what the comments are for.

I put my thoughts on some of these, in italics.

HQ:
1. What if every Farseer's first cast power were unstoppable, but you could nullify the second normally?
This would force you to choose which power is the most important to you, and I hope something like this makes it in. Foolish Mon-keigh should not be able to nullify a Farseer so easily.
2. What if Farseers could use one Warlock power per turn for free (after all they were Warlocks once)?
3. What if the Avatar could join squads and not be picked out, much like the Hive Tyrant in a Guard unit?
4. What if the Avatar could deep strike (and he'd better get fleet)?
5. What if the Phoenix Lords allowed you to take one or two squads of their aspect as Troops (I got this idea from Stelek)?
I really like this idea. It would create so many more interesting possibilities in army builds. We would need Warp Spider and Shining Spear Phoenix Lords, however.

Elites:
6. Fire Dragons are currently a suicide squad- what if they could shoot out of the rear of a Wave Serpent (and perhaps the Wave Serpent counts as open topped in a turn they do that)?
7. What if Wraithguard kept their gun as is, but with a 24" range?
I really like the idea of Wraithguard, space elf zombie robots, but that short range just kills them, seeing how pathetic they are in close combat.

Troops:
8. What if Pathfinders were an upgrade character for Rangers, much like and Exarch, that would confer new abilities on the squad? One power could be to allow him to take a shot at any member of a squad. And what if they could fire twice per turn as another power?

Fast Attack:
9. Swooping Hawks, as they are, don't know what they want. They have anti vehicle grenades and pathetic anti troop guns. What if they could do fly-by bombings like in second edition (with either the Haywire or the Frag grenades), with the number of bombs being dependent on the number of warriors in the squad (perhaps one bomb per two members)?
They used to be able to fly up to 36" and drop bombs anywhere on their path. That was fun.
10. Warp Spiders. How I used to love thee so. What if they got the flame template again?
Old school Warp Spiders were unstoppable with large flame templates and instant death. I would like people to be afraid of them again, not simply mildly annoyed.
11. What if Shining Spears were cheaper and could come in larger squads?
12. What if Vypers could come in squadrons of 5?

Heavy Support:
13. The biggest problem with Heavy Support is there's just too much competition. To resolve this, what if Falcons could be bought as dedicated transports for certain units, such as Elites?
14. What if the Fire Prism came in squadrons?
I would love this. GW gets to sell more models, and you can take plenty of tanks in the same list. You could even have the Prisms fire individually or charge up for SUPER SAYIN OVER 9000
15. What if the Night Spinner doesn't suck (I would like to see Heavy 2, large blast, barrage, S6 AP 6), and could be bought in squadrons?
16. What if Wraithlords had more attacks and could live without a psychic babysitter?
17. What if Heavy Weapons platforms were bought as attachments to a Guardian squad, like Imperial Guard (and had a drastic improvement in range/power)?
18. What if Dark Reapers had regular missile launchers?
I got into the game because of Maugan Ra. Dark Reapers are my favorite aspect looks wise, and I'd like people to be afraid of them again.

So, thoughts?

Let's Talk Boardgames: Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot

2010-05-07T06:00:00.000-07:00

Could the title be any longer? For this month's installment I thought I'd talk about one of the...odder selections in my board game collection. It's not actually a board game but a card game. A card game with loads of expansions. I'll get to that.

Gameplay:

To start off, you draw a hand of seven and lay down two cards. These two cards function like a conveyer belt, and every turn you play the top card so you must plan your game two turns in advance. In order to win you must have the Magic Carrot. There are two carrot decks, one of which is shuffled and laid face down pre-game, the bottom card being the magic carrot. You can buy carrots during the game, or win and steal them. Players who don't have a lot of carrots still have a chance of winning through this draw, though you must have a bunny to win.

There are a variety of cards to play. Some are bunny cards, you need one to win and they tend to die rather quickly. With later expansions you find yourself with more resilient and powerful bunnies. Other cards are attack cards, which range from a level one spatula to a level twelve nuke. There are virus cards which spread, specials which let you gamble your property or steal your opponent's property, along with other shenanigans, monkeyshines, and high-jinks. Most of these cards require you to have a bunny in play so keep them alive!

Pros:

The cards are rather silly. Attack cards range from a wire whisk (level 1) to nukes (level 12 and can destroy nearby bunnies) to even more ridiculous weapons. The artwork and cards frequently reference classic sci-fi franchises such as Red Dwarf and Star Trek. The creators have invented many, many horrible ways for your bunnies to die. The game certainly does not take itself seriously.

Gameplay is fairly simple in the beginning. The rules are easy to learn with the starter set. You're allowed to trade with other players which can lead to hilarious negotiations and impromptu alliances. Don't expect them to last though, they are frequently shattered when you are betrayed.

Cons:

A large chunk of cards require you to have a bunny in play in order to use the card. If you don't start with a bunny it can be discouraging to not be able to do anything until one shows up. I played one game where a player didn't draw a single bunny for the whole game. I have also had times where I finally got a bunny out only to have it killed seconds later.

There are a large number of expansions for this game. They are individually cheap but to get all of them is a sizable investment. Each one adds a new level of complexity to the game which is fun for experienced players but it makes it near impossible to introduce the game to new players in this expanded state. You then have to sort out all your cards in order to teach a new player the game unless you want to explain a lot of stuff.

Conclusion:

If I can use a 40k analogy, this game is not for the Competitive Gamer, but is the kind for the Fluffy Bunny. It's near impossible to set up a game winning strategy, a large chunk of the game is luck of the draw. Strategy mostly comes in your personal interactions; do you play it safe and be everyone's friend, or do you join in picking on the leader? A Competitive Gamer would get frustrated with the reduced amount of control while a Fluffy Bunny would enjoy the silly cards and situations, along with the personal interactions.

It also greatly depends on your group. I've played the game with lame groups and it was less fun, while with certain people the game is hilarious. I have fun with it- and I also enjoy high strategy games like Agricola and Dominion. This game really depends on your group. This is one of those "gateway games" that help introduce people to board games other than Monopoly.

Poll: Which Aspect Warrior Would You Be?

2010-05-02T09:45:00.000-07:00

If you were an Eldar, and felt the path of the Warrior calling you, which aspect would you choose first? Don't think gameplay stats and rules, simply consider the fluff. Here's my thoughts.

Fire Dragons: Burninating the countryside! These guys also get to blow up big things. If you love explosions and fire these are your guys. Of course they have the shortest lifespan of all Aspect warriors it seems.

Striking Scorpions: Stealth and brutal close combat. You also get to shoot dakka out of your face. I would lean towards this one.

Howling Banshees: If you're a dude (there are male Banshees, they're just rare), you get to hang out with all the hot chicks. Of course, everyone will wonder about you...

Dire Avengers: The standard soldier. You are basically a glorified guardian. Also, you'll frequently find yourself stuffed in the back of a Falcon just to make it scoring. Boring.

Shining Spears: You get to ride on a Jetbike and skewer your opponents. Sounds fun! I ride motorcycles so I definitely favor this aspect as well.

Warp Spiders: Jumping in and out of combat, masters of surprise. It would be a fun aspect but I'm not so keen on risking my immortal soul with each jump.

Swooping Hawks: It's everyone's dream to fly. That dream can come true with the path of the Hawk. I also lean towards this aspect.

Dark Reapers: These guys sit back, looking awesome, and rain death from afar. I like this aspect as well.

So which would I choose? Ignoring gameplay aspects I think I'd go with the Swooping Hawks. My second choice would be Dark Reapers followed by Striking Scorpions. I like the idea of flying around, dodging the enemy in an aerial dance while keeping them at range. I like the idea of taking out your enemy while he can't do anything in return. Plus, you get to fly. How cool is that?

My second choice is the Dark Reaper. It's like being a sniper with a rocket launcher and good armor.

My third choice is the Striking Scorpion. They're basically ninjas that shoot dakka out of their faces.

So what would you pick and why? Vote in the right hand column!