Khador and the Beast.

Hey..

So its been another busy month of hobby the highlight of which was the Salute event. I have been to many of GW's GamesDays but this was my first Salute and it was awesome. GamesDay is just a big Games Workshop advert, don't get me wrong I am a big GW fan but there isn't much there to get excited about. but Salute is like being inside nerdvana. If you are into gaming in general then this show really is awesome, there isn't much in the way of actual gaming, there are participation games but they are not a big part of the show. There are some big demo games going on that some clubs (normally of the historical variety) put on and these are normally very big. The main reason to go is the retail side, there are stands from the big retailers, games designers, sculptors, big companies, small companies basically anything that you can buy for any game is there and its a great opportunity to pick up those hard to find things. The club ran a 40K game this year and its defiantly something I would like to do again.

Lich Lord Terminus

Hobby wise I have managed to get a few things done in the last couple of weeks. First on the list is a new caster for my Cryx Warmachine Army. I actually bought this guy about a year ago and assembled him but then put him to one side to focus on learning one cast more in-depth, so after playing Deny as my main caster for a while I thought I would paint him up and give him a run out. Terminus is a big model and was a real pain to put together. I used my faithful Green Stuff and Superglue method, it's tricky but effective. it basically involves using a small amount of Green Stuff on one side of the joint before applying the Super Glue, the combination of the two makes joints rock solid, the trick is getting the joint to take as Green Stuff and Glue can be a bit slippery on initial contact but when that sucker takes it isn't going anywhere unless the model takes a dive from the table. Even if a joint does break in this fashion its easy to fix as the Green Stuff moulds around the joint making reattachment easy.




So following on with the Warmachine theme I finally got round to finishing the Khador starter box. The box comes with Scorcha a Devastator and a Juggernaut. I also started on the unit of Man-O-War Shock Troopers. The Shock Troopers will be going in my final 35pt list no matter what as the models are fantastic and one of the reasons I started a Khador army in the first place. I have a final 35 list and luckily managed to purchase all the models I needed in one go at Salute. Most of them are stuck together and I think will give them a run out soon even though they wont all be painted. I want to see how they roll, I am going for a fairly standard Winterguard deathstar list using Epic Irusk as my main caster. Troops will consist of a full unit of Winterguard with all the attachments standing behind the Man-O-War. The Winterguard will be able to shoot through the Man-O-War due to one of Irusks abilities, when anything gets close the Man-O-War smack them, they will be supported by the Devastator. This leaves me with 9 points..... This is a nice Juggernaut sized hole but I am still undecided if thats what I will put in. I have a few other units lying around that I could put in, I suspect I will go with the Juggernaut to start with. However if I drop Devastator, and make a couple of other tweaks I might be able to get my Conquest in...... mmm.

Man-O-War Shocktrooper

Khador starter set

And finally I added a Beast of Nurgle to my fledgling Nurgle Daemon army. This guy will walk along with a unit of Plaguebearers and Charge a unit first to take all the Snap Fire before the Plaguebearers charge in.

Beast of Nurgle

So next up work continues on the forces of Khador and adding units to the Nurgle Daemons which are not that far from completion, I just need to finalise the army list.

Until next time...

colossal Colossals

Hey Folks,

The hobby station has been a busy place in the last few weeks or so, mainly as I have lots of "things" coming up that I want to get models painted for and also because the pile of stuff to get done seems to be getting bigger.

Ultramarine Scouts

The first thing I finished this week was the Scout squad for my Ultramarines, these guys sit in the Landspeeder Storm and either go for a vehicle that's giving me trouble or hide somewhere whilst a unit of Terminators deep strike in to deal with the enemy before they grab an objective. In the first couple of games they performed really well and I am very happy with them. This leaves me with just the Predator to paint to complete the list I am using in the 1500 tournement at the club.

So since I wrote the above paragraph I have played my last group game against Tom and his Imperial Guard. It was a really tough game which I was on the back foot from right from the beginning. We were playing the Relic scenario which I haven't played before, I had a plan against Tom's Guard and then I let the scenario change my plan to the extent that I screwed myself I think. Tom played really well and his army is brutal. My original plan was to get the Terminators into his back field to take out the big guns but instead I put everything into trying to get the Relic and Tom just sat there an blew me away. I nearly pulled off a draw towards the end but Tom's rate of fire was just too much and he took the game 6-0. I like playing Tom, our games are always really good fun and always end up going to the wire. Top two form the group go through to the Quarters and I should be in second, so will see who I have to face next round.

Also released this week is "Death from the Skies" the new GW book with updated flyer rules, this came a bit out of the blue but I instantly went out and purchased another StormRaven to add to my Ultramarines army. This will look really cool flying about with the StormTalons and also gives me lots of flyer options with the Grey Knights as allies. When I paint it I will do my Forge World StormEagle at the same time.

I also stuck together all the models from the Flames of War starter box game. The models are pretty cool, the detail on the infantry is awesome for such small models and the tank kits are also really great. I have painted up a few of the German tanks and a couple of squads of the infantry and I am really starting to like the look of them, they are also very quick to paint, I found that doing some base coats with a wash and then a highlight was enough to make them look good. the tanks need a bit more attention but with the camo scheme I used (based on the advice in the stater set) it still only took a couple of hours to get four tanks done. My mindset with these models was to get them done quickly to a good gaming standard, not spend ages on making them look awesome.

Zee Germans

At the Brighton club day this month we decided to have a bit of a Warmachine Colossal bash. Several of the guys have managed to get Colossal's painted up so we thought the best thing to do was to have a big four player game featuring all of them, so 70pts a side each with two of the mighty machines. Michael and I took to the table with Mercs/Cryx and we faced off against Andy with his Menoth and Achilles with his Cygnar. Three objectives were on table with one of them disappearing after the first turn. I made a brave alpha strike with the Kraken on the Menoth beast after the Merc Colossal had knocked a few boxes off with its guns. It was a brave move which would have been game changing but after the dust had settled the Menoth Colossal was left with one damage box, this allowed the Menoth Colossal to take out much of the Cryx army in its own turn including the Warcaster. Eventually the Menoth machine went down which left the Merc Galleon to take on the rest of the Menoth army and the Cygnar Colossal.

The Galleon is a beast of a jack and managed to take out the Cygnar caster and knocked the Cygnar Colossal down to its last couple of damage boxes before the unbelievable happened. A lone Merc Trencher with nothing better to do walked up to the Cygnar giant and with an un-boosted attack stabbed the giant machine with a stick, he must have hit something important in the foot of the machine as it proceeded to fall over in a heap and the Mercs found a new hero. The winner came down to the last dice roll of the game, Andy needed to do the Merc caster 18 damage which meant rolling three 6's on three dice. Andy tool the dice in hand and rolled....6......6..........5..... cries of anguish erupted and the game was won by the Cryx/Merc combo. It was an awesome game and playing with all those huge models was very cool.  

The Colossals add a really nice new challenge to the game without being too overpowered, I think PP have got the balance just right, they are awesome against infantry but can still be taken down with some heavy jacks or a charge from some Weapon Manager infantry. 

Below are a few pictures from the battle, they are a little blurry as the light isn't fantastic at Gambit HQ.

The Kraken and Galleon line up

Kraken and Galleon target the Judicator

Judicator and Stormwall

So whats next? Well I have lots going on at the moment, firstly I need to finish the Ultramarines Predator and an Ageis Defence line, this will complete my 1500 Ultramarines list for the Hemel 40K tourney. After this I have a whole pile of stuff to go through, sticking the Makifaux crew together might be next so I can at least try and get a few training games in. Warmachine wise I have a whole bunch of Khador stuff waiting as well as some Skorne for Hordes there is also an Ultramarines StormRaven and StormEagle waiting....... plus the new Daemons stuff coming out next week. 

What I could really do with is some extra days in the week...... 

Until next time...

Release the Kraken!!!!!

So it's 2013 and Christmas is done. I managed to have a few days off over the festive period and finished off a few models and started some new projects to add to all the others that are on the go.

Recently I have been really getting into Warmachine, it's one of those games thats easy to learn to play, but to really master it and get good at it takes a lot of time. My Cryx army has been expanding nicely over the last couple of years and has just got a big boost in the form of the Kraken. The latest expansion to Warmachine - Colossals adds giant Warjacks to the game, these machines are huge and powerful but do rack up the points meaning the rest of the army will be a little light so you still have to be careful how you play it and it isn't an automatic choice. However, the model is just too awesome not to play on a regular basis. When I first saw the model I wasn't instantly taken with it, but once assembled and a bit of paint thrown on it I have come to really like it, especially when it smashes face and takes out other Heavy Warjacks in one go.

I have also painted up a new Warcaster for Cryx army - The Witch Coven of Garlghast, you can see from the picture below the sheer size of the Kraken next to the Witch Coven.

Also this month, also in a way influenced by the Warmachine Colossals release I have started looking at Khador as an alternative faction, at the moment I just have the starter set as I wanted to paint up a couple of the models first to see how they looked. The Conquest which is the Khador Colossal is one of the best model releases of 2012, so I am going to build a Khador army so I can get one. This will be a slow burn project and I will build/paint when I have some down time or fancy a change from other projects. So this is the first model completed, the test piece really. 

And finally this month I finished of some more Nurgle Daemon models, I am not really sure what I am going to do with these, maybe build my 40K Daemons up a bit, or maybe diverge into a Chaos Marine/Daemon army. I really like the look of these, the models but also the paint scheme and I want to use them somehow.

Until next time... 

Wraith Engine and "the list".

Hello all...

I found myself in a situation, that most hobbyists have experienced at some point, where I have so many projects on the go I am in danger of not finishing any of them. So many ideas, so many models that I felt I was drowning a bit and not really getting anything done. Especially with the new 6th Ed of 40K out, the potential for new armies and projects racks up. So I decided to use a method my girlfriend uses for such a situation and one that I mocked her for - I made a list.

The idea of the list is to write down the things I have half finished for various armies and actually get them done before moving onto something new and buying more models. For example I am two Mournfang, two Ogres and an Ironblaster away from finishing my Ogres at 2400 points. Of course no army is ever finished and I will get more for them but this will give me my basic 2400 list and it will all be painted. I have a Cryx Wraith Engine that I got, built and then half painted before moving onto another new idea and it has sat on my table half painted for months. I started a Grey Knight army and then moved onto something else. So, I have made a list of the things I am going to paint first and I will get those done. Now painting something because you have to often leads to resentment of said model, so I am going to alternate. The club is going to Salute next year to run a game and as part of this I need to paint some Grey Knights, so I am going to alternate between a model on my list and some Grey Knights, this also means I will get to paint that Grey Knight army that I have bought already and has sat around in boxes since release day.

So number 1 on the list was the Cryx Wraith Engine. I managed to get one of these pretty much on release day and eagerly stuck it together and undercoated it. I based layered it and then it sat there for months looking at me. Once I had done my list and got cracking with it I was done in a couple of days and now I have a Wraith Engine to use in games, and it was all down to the list. So to my girlfriend - I apologise for all the times I mocked you for list making (don't think she reads this so I won't be getting any "I told you so's").

So on to the model, I wasn't too keen on this when it first came out, but it has grown on me and now I have one all painted up I actually really like it. I went for my basic Cryx scheme that I have used on the rest of the army. After a black undercoat it was dry brushed in Boltgun and then over brushed in bronze. The armour was painted in a dark Grey and highlighted with a lighter Grey, the whole model was then given a Black wash. After this had dried I did some highlights on the silver, painted the cloth parts Brown with a Bleach highlight and then washed the whole thing is a watered down Green wash. I think it looks pretty good and fits perfectly with the rest of the army, now to go crush some hobby.

Until next time....