The Best Games You're Not Playing

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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?

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!

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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.