Hobby Foo

Hi Folks

Well its been a while, not sure why. As the weather has been very good lately I seem to have been spending a lot more time outdoors and riding my bike (trying to shift a bit of weight pre-wedding). Talking of weddings, that seems to be taking up some time too, especially the dancing lessons. So whats been happening?

I have recently competed in the Hemel club 40K tourney and had some good results. It was 1500 pts and I was using my Marines along with a Knight.

The first game was against Ricks Nids, it was unfortunate but I think his army was perfect for the Knight which pretty much chomped through everything. The Sternguard also took out a few of the big hitters with their poison rounds and it was a very one sided game. Nids don't really have an answer to the Knight apart from keeping it engaged in combat but I took out the horde units pretty early on.

The second game was against Lee's Marines with a Knight. The armies were pretty much a mirror and as you can imagine it was a close game with me winning 4-3. The Knights just walked around the board taking out units but in the final turn I managed to knock out his Knight and then grab one of the objectives for the win.

Third was the Imperial Guard fielded by Alex, he had an amazing round of shooting knocking off 5 of the Knights hit points and it was a bit brown trousers time for me. I managed to knock out all the threats with my Devs and Marines and the Knight did enough damage on his troops before being taken out to allow me to take the game on objectives. It looked more one sided that it actually was when the game finished and Alex gets the glory of being the first person to take my Knight out.

Jim's Eldar were next and I was worried about his mobility and the firepower of a few of his units that could take out the Knight pretty easy. If that happened I was easy meat. It was the home and away mission so I made a solid firebase on my end and then sent the Knight and couple of units after his. I managed to take out his tanks pretty quick and thought I was home and dry but then his Jet Bike mounted HQ guy flew in on my base and basically smashed me up. In the end I had Jim's objective but not my own but with First Blood as well I managed to scrape a win. The Knight was vanquished in this game as well.

In the final group game I had Keith's Tau to contend with. I was more worried about Tau I think than most of the other armies due to their high strength and accurate guns. In the first few turns his Riptide was ripping through my army and putting lots of damge onto my Troops choices. Of course my Knight was doing the same. I actually did something on purpose in this game that paid of really well, I sent one small squad of Sterguard to take out his Riptide. I hoped that Keith wouldn't see them as a threat and they managed to get within 24" and put on a couple of wounds with poision rounds. Keith then shot them and I managed a couple of cover saves and in the next turn they Sterguard managed to finish off the Riptide. After that the Knight munched most of the other stuff and I hung on for victory.

In the first knock game I played Joe and his Orks. Going second in this one worked really well, Joe spread his massive army out over the width of the table, so I castled up in one corner and basically blew him away. This put me through to the final.

In the Final I faced up against Rick and his Nids again, the first game was a slaughter for me but I knew that had nothing to do with Ricks ability or army, it was all about scenario and it would be again this time. The scenario presented us with 5 objectives and I knew I would struggle and early turns proved this as I just could not get Ricks flyers down and his Mawlocs ripped me a new one. As the game progressed I was starting to make inroads into his army and the Knight really played a big part, the only way I could win was to try and kill all his troops and Warlord and scrap the win, well it nearly worked. I managed to kill all the troops but just could not get his Warlord. In the end it was a draw, I had First Blood and Line Breaker. Rick had Kill The Warlord and Line Breaker. The tournament pack gave Kill The Warlord as first tie-breaker and so Rick walked away the champion. Rick is great player and plays his army very well, I think I was lucky the first time and I knew this game was going to be hard. I think I did well to get it to a draw myself but was always on the back foot with the scenario just like Rick was in our first game. Well there is always next year.

I really like this army, I think if I could change one thing I would drop the Las Razorback and try to get a couple of Drop pods in for the Sternguard. 

I am in two minds on the Knight, it can totally dominate a game and it can go down very quick. In the first game against the Nids they didn't really have anything that could take it out so it was always going to be hard for him to win (especially with the scenario). Maybe 7th will change things. I still love the model though and I would love to have an army of them just because it would look so awesome, but I wonder how much I would use them if they are just going to crush everything. I have been on the receiving end of some of those armies that are just going to kick your ass and its not a good game. There isn't much point in playing if the other person isn't going to enjoy it. i'll wait till 7th drops to see how that affects the game, but on the other hand four Knights would just look awesome so I might do it anyway. I think overall the balance is right but if the opponent doesn't have an answer to it then it can cause trouble.

Sternguard

I am using a full 10 man Sternguard unit in this army so I painted up a box of the new models as I didn't have any with Grav-Guns so it was a good excuse to get a box. Its a great kit, you get so many options and left over bits for other units which is awesome. I suspect I will get another box at some point so I have a unit of 10 that all look the same. The new ones have the cloth on the legs where the old ones don't and the OCD part of my brain wants them to all look similar.

Sternguard Squad

Kings Champion

I also took part in the Lord of the Rings Throne of Skulls event recently. It was always one of my favorite games and I haven't played it in a long time. The ToS events for 40K etc can be a bit competitive but LotRs isn't like that at all. I didn't do very well in the end but thats just the fact that I am out of practice, it was a really cool event and will defiantly go next year. I took the Dwarves this time just because it was well painted, I had to get a couple more models for it but otherwise just went with it as it was. I think next time I will go a bit more Hero heavy.

Optifex Directive

Also this month I have managed to get most of my Convergence of Cyriss done  for Warmachine, I have a couple of lists that I like so once I finish all the models for those two lists I will put them aside for a bit. The final model I need to paint for them is their Colossal which I picked up at Salute.

Modulator and Corollary

Enigma Foundry

I also picked up the new Ork walker the day it came out. Unusually for me it was straight out of the box and onto the painting table. You could assemble it as either a Morkanaut or a Gorkanaut. The Mork version is more tank busting but can have a Kustom Force Field. The Gorka is more your big smashing monster. I went with the Gorkanaut as I think its damage output is a lot better. Take a big Mek as a HQ and give him the Force Field and he can go inside to give it some protection.

The new Codex is out soon and there are some nice new units and models so that could interfere with my painting schedule for a while.

My backlog of models seems to be building up again, but its not a bad problem to have.

And finally - one of the kits I picked up at Salute was some of the new Malifaux plastics, I intend on playing the game at some point but the models are so nice I grabbed some just to paint for the time being. This was the first - A Rotten Belle.

Rotten Belle

Until next time...

Like a Bolt from Salute, with some big guys too.

Hey Folks.

Its been a busy month on the hobby front, in some ways good, and in others not so good, but not so good in a good way.

This month saw the annual event that is Salute. This sees thousands of gamers go to the eXcel in London to gather and do all things gaming. Its a great event with lots of tables of various games and retailers selling everything under the sun gaming related (this is the good). This means that I went with a bunch of cash and came away with very little cash (the not so good). However I swapped this cash for a bunch of cool gaming stuff (the not so good in a good way).

Mortar. 

The first of my purchases was a Bolt Action army. This game has become very popular at the Brighton club and I have been intrigued by it, I am slowly becoming a big fan of WWII games (maybe this is an age thing). I went for the Germans as they have the coolest tanks by far and regular readers will know by now that I am all about the "cool". After opening the box and savouring that new box of models smell I pulled out the tank, stuck it together and slapped some paint on it. I haven't even done a list yet I just wanted to get the tank painted. First list will be in the region of 750pts I think, start small and build up. The one thing I am struggling with is all the different weapon options but that will come over time. I am going to get all the models stuck together first so I can get a few games in whilst I paint them. Army list wise I have no idea what I am doing so am just going to make something up and go with it. I have played a basic demo game and I really like the mechanic of picking a dice out of a bag to determine who moves the next unit as it adds a very tactical dynamic. Some of the models for the game are excellent, not GW standard but good and I am looking forward to having a game. As well as the tank I have stuck together and painted the Mortar and the Machine Gun. The basic troops you can play with just stuck together, but you can't really stick the artillery stuff together as it makes painting it tricky so I have done these first so I can play with them and not have models falling about all over the place. Its a basic tabletop paint job, nothing I have put a massive amount of time into.

Hetzer

Machine Gun and Mortar Teams

The second of my purchases was a new Malifaux crew and the 2nd Ed rulebook. I have wanted to have a go at this game for a while and the 2nd Ed rules are supposed to be a bit easier to get your head around. The models are really nice, Wyrd have just started out with plastics and they have done a cracking job on the sculpts. Once the Bolt Action stuff is done I am going to stick them together and get some paint on them. The quality of the models is excellent with lots of detail and as you only need a few to have a game I can spend a bit of time on each. I went for the Ressurectionists purely because I liked the look of the crew, the main guy is a very flamboyant undead pimp basically and his crew is a bunch of undead hookers which makes for some interesting models.

The last purchases were for Warmachine, I picked up the new Butcher (because he is awesome) and the Convergence of Cyriss Colossal, its rated up there with the best Colossals so it will be interesting to see how it performs. I think it can work well in a 35pt list unlike some of the other Colossals so I am looking forward to getting some use out of it.

Behemoth

Painting wise this month has been very productive and mainly features big hitters. for Warmachine I have finished of the Behemoth Warjack and the Gun Carriage Battle Engine. Behemoth is a great Jack with two guns and some heavy hitting fists that halve the AR value of anything being hit. He is pricy, I think the most expensive Jack there is (bar Colossals) but as I very rarely play more than one Jack in a Khador list it isn't too difficult to fit him in. The Gun Carriage is a model I have wanted to field for a while. Out of all the Battle Engines it probably one of the better ones and will look really cool in a Winterguard based list.

Gun Carriage

At the club I play at in Hemel we are starting a 40K tourney soon that will run over a couple of months. I was going to take the new Daemon army but thats an 1850 list and the tourney is 1500. I am not so sure that the Nurgle list will work so well at 1500 so what to take? I have my Ultramarines or Grey Knights but how to make them a little different and add something new.... how about a Knight? GW just released the new Knight model, at first I wasn't going to get one but I had a read of the codex and the background was really cool so I made the purchase and OMG the kit is fantastic. I assembled the kit in stages basically the skeleton on its own and then painted that and the armour plates separately before sticking them on. Once I finished it I just sat and looked at the model for a good five minutes, it really is a lovely model and although pricy its well worth it and I am seriously considering buying another three or four to make a full army of them. It took me a good solid twenty hours to paint I think but it really is worth putting in the effort.

Until next time...

Nurgle Completion

Hey Folks...

So after all my moaning about my inability to finish something, I have actually finished something!!!! My Nurgle Daemon 40K army is now finished to 1850 points, now of course no army is ever finished but I have a fully painted 1850 points to start with. I suspect there might be some changes after a few games but the whole purpose of this army was to have something a little different and that looked awesome on the table.

Last week I actually got to put in on the table and general opinions were that it looked awesome, so job done. But was it any good? Well in its first game I played against some Space Wolves, in the early turns I was getting a spanking but then somehow I managed to pull it back to a draw. So what did I learn?

1. Plaguebearers are crap. They are only good at getting in the way of things, although they are surprisingly good at knocking out vehicles with their special Plague Sword rule.

2. Ku'Garth is awesome. I actually started him in reserve but I think next time I will start him on the table. He has one thing that Daemons lack and that is some shooting, an AP3 pie plate with desent range should be on the table turn 1. The risk is that he gets shot up but with decent setup and his stats he should be safe.

3. Plague Flies. Undecided as yet, they got to do one charge, lost and the then double sixed their instability and left the table.

4. Beasts. Very good, they pretty much munch through anything and 4 wounds is very handy.

5. Soulgrinders. Not sure yet, they did ok but nothing special.

6. Helldrake. Amazing, but then what else did you expect?

All-in-all I am happy with it as an army and I think it will take a few more games for me to fully get to grips with it.

Here are a couple of pictures of my finished Helldrake, it uses the Forge World Plague Drone model at either end and the body of a Tyrannid monstrous creature, i really like it and think it fits in with the theme of the army.

So what else has been happening in my hobby time? I have actually decided to go to an event this year in the form of the GW Throne of Skulls Hobbit tourney (used to be LotR). I used to be a regular at GW events but it actually all got a bit too competitive for me. Maybe its an age thing but the armies that started turning up weren't really what I would call a proper army, they were just find the most powerful thing and spam it to death. I don't like to play that way, if thats your bag then fine it just wasn't mine so I stopped going. With the Hobbit game however you can't really do that, you can make powerful lists of course but I think the mechanics of the game allow everyone a fair shot. SO I have delved into the cases that were sitting in the back of the cupboard and dragged out my LotR figures.

What army? I have a ton of models for the game as its actually one of my favourites, this year its 600 points which is a nice level, it allows powerful models but at the cost of numbers so its a risky business. I had several main choices: -

1. Helmsdeep (Rohan Cav with Elves).
2. Goblins and Spiders.
3. Dwarves.

I actually got all the models for these out on the table, I like to look at the physical army once I have done the list, it helps me to see it more rather than just looking at it on paper. I love the Goblins and Spiders but I have taken them to a lot of events before, the Rohan/Elves just didn't look enough models. If you go for low model count then they need to have decent armour.... so Dwarves it is. They are a nice middle ground, although fairly light on numbers they are rock hard and have some great characters for a decent points cost. they also have the added bonus of being all painted. Once I came up with a decent list it turns out I needed a couple more models as some characters have been added since I last played so they have been purchased and are awaiting the application of paint. Five models is all I need to do and then the others need a bit of a tidy up and maybe some rebasing as they are approaching 10 years old.

Gorman De Wulfe

Warmachine has also been getting some love and I have added to a couple of bits to the Convergence of Cyriss army, I had my first game with them recently. I lost due to a pure caster placement on my part allowing the opponent to shoot him, my opponent would have died next turn as his caster was the only model he had left so it was purely bad play from me. I really liked them, you have to think very hard about the order you do things as they are an army that work by utilising all the other parts and not just rushing forward. On their own the models don't seem that great but when you combine them correctly they are awesome. I will defiantly be putting some table time in with them, at first I am just going to pick a couple of casters and try to learn them rather than go with different ones each time. I also painted up Gorman De Wulfe, he is neat little Merc that can help to nullify Jacks.

So whats next? Going to put 40K aside for a while after finishing the Daemons, although I have a couple of FW Mechanicus models I want to paint, just for painting them. If I do another 40K army then they might be a choice. Otherwise I want to get the rest of my Khador models finished so that they are all done, I might need another list for those. Still have some Flames of War to finish to but I have reduced the model pile a bit as I haven't bought anything for a while which is good, although its Salute next month and it would be rude not to make a few purchases right?

Chaos Sorcerer of Nurgle

Here are a couple of extra bits, in order to get the Helldrake into the Daemon army I have had to ally with Chaos Marines so I therefore needed a HQ, I went with a Chaos Sorcerer as I love this model from ForgeWorld.

Chaos Sorcerer of Nurgle and Plague Marines

And finally for you oldies out there.... we played a few games of Necromunda this month. I haven't played it for years but I knew I had got this model in one of my boxes from when the game came out that was still unpainted. I guess this fella must be pushing 20 years old... and I just got round to painting him. I think he must be the oldest model I own that hasn't been painted.

Underhive Scum

Until next time...

A Fly on the wall.

Hi Folks

So I have been away from the keyboard for a while, in a strange twist of fate I have actually had a bit of a social life the last few weekends so blog posting time hasn't been so abundant, GTA5 may have a bit to do with it as well.

As I may have mentioned (once or twice) I recently moved house. During the time leading up to this myself and my Mrs had to have the "conversation", where was my painting setup going to go? Andrea wanted this to be a "grown-up house" and as I had my own Man-Cave all gaming related objects should be placed here. I then mentioned that I like to paint in the evenings so if the painting was to go in the Man-Cave we really wouldn't see each other that much. This kicked off a long process which I believe is known as - compromise. I suggested a writing desk style piece of furniture, a bureau. this allowed me all the space I needed, could be tucked away in a corner and also could be closed up to hide all the toys when our grown-up friends came round for dinner. So here is the current painting setup.

Everything you see in the rather messy state can be packed away within the bureau and be out of sight but it actually gives you a lot of storage and space to paint. As you can see I am in the middle of my second Soul Grinder for the Daemons and there are a couple of Khador bits waiting in the wings. It wasn't a cheap option at £200 but it should last a long time and its something I'll get a lot of use out of.

So onto hobby stuff, the main hobby related thing I have been doing over the last few weeks is buying stuff, this is both good and bad. How can this be bad you ask yourself? Well, I have spoken before about my tendencies to start projects and then get half way through and have another idea and then start something else, well this has lead to me having  a large collection of unopened boxes lying around. I had actually managed to get the pile down a bit but it does seem to be creeping back up again.

The reason for my splurge is that I managed to get to Dark Sphere in London, its a really cool shop that sells everything so I bought a few bits for Warmachine and some stuff for Flames of War, I am not a massive fan of ordering stuff from the Internet, I like to look at it, a rather old fashioned view I know. Game shops are also a dying breed and I like to support them when possible.

I have been keeping up with the plan to finish off my Daemon Nurgle army by completing the Plague Flies unit bringing it up to five strong including a banner. Next is the Soul Grinder (using the Forge World model). Once this is done it just leaves me a bunch more Plague Bearers and then it comes to the final few points. Originally I was going to go for a Daemon Prince but I am having second thoughts. I need some decent air defense so I am submitting to the beard in me and going with some Chaos Marine allies so I can get a Helldrake into the list. I am, however, going to do something different with the model so it fits in the rest of the army, its an ambitious conversion I have in mind but if it works out it should be stunning, i'll keep you posted.

Epic Sorcha

I have also been painting up a few Warmachine bits on the side. I have been playing a lot of Epic Sorcha lately but using the Prime model but during one of my recent trips to an indie model shop I managed to pick up the Epic version. She is a great caster and her feat is truly devastating when played at the right moment, in a recent game Beast09 managed to totally destroy one Menoth Heavy Jack and take three quarters of the boxes off another, brutal.

A while back I also picked up the starter set for the new Convergence of Cyriss, I quite liked the look of the models and the paint scheme is pretty easy, I haven't put a lot of time into the painting them, I am just looking to get them on the table asap. I am not really sure on tactics with these chaps yet but with the battle box caster and the faction in general its all about the Jacks (Vectors) which is pretty different to my Khador which is basically a one                                                                                             Jack army.

Convergence of Cyriss

Last but not least I painted up Durgen Madhammer, I have had a bunch of Rhulic models for several years but they have just sat in a box. Whilst not the most powerful army I loved the Dwarf models and with the release of the new Rhulic colossal I decided to dig them out and give them a bit of love, I can always use Rhulic units with my Khador army as well so they have a dual purpose. Durgen is a great model with a ridiculously large hammer and also a fairly substantial gun for such a little fella. His spell list is kinda cool and his feat can be brutal but you need to build a list with these specific spells in mind otherwise he won't do too well. I would like to get some Rhulic stuff done so will do the odd bit here and there when the mood strikes.

Durgen Madhammer

So what's next? I will carry on with the 40K Daemons, they are so close to being finished and it will be nice to have them done. Not sure what to do after that, I have a bunch of Khador bits to do and some Flames of War so will probably get those bits done. Although if rumor has it then 40K Knights are about to hit so that might be worth looking into. I have always loved the back story to the Mechanicum and have been eyeing up some of the Forge World models so will be interesting to see what that release brings. 

Until next time... 

Beast and the Beast 09

Hey Folks.

Have managed to get another couple of bits painted this week. Have pretty much finished setting up the Man Cave in the new house but after taking a couple of pictures I am not so happy with the camera setup. I used to use a desk lamp, in the new Man Cave I thought I would try with natural light but the pictures don't look so good, so bare with me whilst I work on getting a setup I like.

So nothing major in this blog post just a couple of updates.

I have made many references to my hobby butterfly tendencies and making lists and I have basically failed. So my resolution this year was to finish one 40K army (the Daemons). I have employed technology in the form of an app called Wunderlist and am noting down the models I am going to paint in order, ticking them off when complete. I am hoping the application of the technological list will help.

So first tick on the list was the Beasts of Nurgle. I am using three in the army and model wise I am going to use the Nurgle Plague Toads from Forge World. They are great models and full of Nurgle flavour, although a bit bigger than the standard model I am just going to use them anyway as they just look too awesome.

Beasts of Nurgle.

 Simple models but just so full of character.

This next model isn't on the list but I actually painted it some time ago but didn't get chance to take a picture. This is Beast09, a fantastic Khador Warjack. I am trying a couple of new casters one of them being Sorcha, this is her Jack. I like to use character Warjacks for the appropriate caster as it just adds a bit of fluff.

Beast 09

I tried him out for the first time last night and he was pretty awesome, he just walked up to a Menoth Heavy and toasted it in one go with a little help from Sorcha's feat. He is very much an all rounder, he can take infantry with Thresher, he charges for free, he can boost all his hits for the cost of one focus, has reach and with a boost from Sorcha has an effective threat range of 11 inches, whats not to love?














Until next time...

Return of the Nurgle

Hey Folks.... Its been a while since the last post, house moving is a pain and seems to take a lot longer than you think it will. I am still in the process of getting everything setup, I have a painting desk finally so have started to paint again after a long break. The man cave has been done, well the basics anyway. Only one casualty - one of my display cases door shattered on the way up the stairs, not sure what happened but it was roughly 5 minutes after I had said "I got these from Argos and they have lasted ages".

What I have done is made a decision - I need to finish off one of my semi completed 40K projects and the most advanced is my Nurgle Daemons. Its so close to completion that it won't take much to get it done. I have been playing with a few list ideas but for this army I am just going to go with what I like the look of, not going to pay too much attention to whats powerful or the latest net list.

Having looked at the net lists they seem to revolve around maxed out flying Daemon Princes with minimal troops and some allied Chaos Space Marines to allow access to a Helldrake. I would love a Helldrake in the army as the one thing my list is going to lack is the ability to deal with flyers but this is just something I am going to have to try and deal with. I will have a couple of Soul Grinders that can shoot flyers but not sure how affective they will be.

The reason I don't like the maxed out DP lists are they just look lope sided, why would an army have all the most power things but minimal troops? It just doesn't look right to me.

So this is the 1850 list I am going to start with, still a few points left as I need to decide on Icons and Gifts.

Ku'gath Plaguefather.
Daemon Prince (Wings).
Soul Grinder.
Soul Grinder.
5 or 6 Plague Drones.
3 Beasts of Nurgle.
10 Plaguebearers.
10 Plaguebearers.
10 Plaguebearers.
10 Plaguebearers.
10 Plaguebearers.
7 Nurglings.

I am going for the Horde approach as thats what I think Daemons would do, open a rift and then pile through. I went for Ku'gath as I want to use the Forge World model and its suitably impressive that it could only be Ku'garth. Plus he also has a useful ranged attack as well as being rock hard.

The flying DP can zip around and take out those hard to reach targets as the rest of the army is slow, he can also help to deal with flyers.

The Soul Grinders also have a Skyfire attack so can help out on the flyer front, the Phlegm Cannon is also good against infantry and they are good at taking out hard targets in close combat.

The Flies can run up the pitch and help to get some accurate deep strikes with icons and are also pretty good in combat.

Then lots of troops in the form of Plaguebearers. These will go for objectives, the only concern is not running Heralds to give them Feel No Pain. As the PB's lack any real damage output and with there being so many I am thinking the points spent on Heralds could be used on other things.

The Nurglings are there because I think they look cool and why not use them.

So thats the list, I don't think its going to be mega competitive in the current game which is dominated by shooting but I think as an army it will look awesome. As I mentioned before I have pretty much got all the models already so there won't be much to buy and with the paint scheme I have it won't take a lot of work to get it to the table. With the other armies I was considering (Deathwing or Eldar) I would basically be starting from scratch.

P.S.

So work has begun, Christmas has just come and gone and Santa was kind. The Forgeworld Greater Daemon model, three Plague Toads and a Plague Drone were deposited in my stocking. Also got some vouchers which meant I could purchase the extra Plague Drones and Nurglings. So I think I have all the models I need.

I managed to finish the Greater Daemon over the Christmas holidays. Plague Toads (which I will be using as Beasts) are next.

Forgeworld Greater Daemon of Nurgle. 

Until next time...

FoW (zee Germans)

Hey Folks...

Just a quick one with a picture of my finished Flames of War Germans. I don't really have the photo setup right now to take decent close ups of 6mm so here is a large group shot. This is the contents of the Open Fire starter set, I will probably paint up the yanks at some point but I have this real thing for German tanks, I think they look loads better than the Allies.

I am not too familiar with the correct terms of FoW yet but the army is basically: -

1. A command group with rocket launcher support.
2. Two units of Rifle/Machine Gun teams.
3. Two PaK40's.
4. Three Stugs (Tank Hunter Tanks).

Pretty easy to paint allow the Infantry was a bit of a grind but I really like the way the look when finished. I have my first game lined up in a couple of weeks so will spend a bit of time flicking through the rule book, I have plans on how to expand this army so will see how the first game goes and then expand from there.

Until next time...