Little and Large and everything in-between.

Hey Folks.....

Well its been a while, real life got busy for a bit. I still managed to get plenty of hobby in though. The last couple of topics have been about Warmachine and a few weekend I participated in my first Warmachine tournament, I have participated in many tournaments over the last ten years or so but never Warmachine. It was 50pts with Deathclock and as mentioned in the last entry I had never played either so wasn't expecting to place well and honestly winning one game was my target.

Well in the first game the pressure of the clock got to me straight away and I played like an absolute muppet. However it seemed that my mistakes actually affected the way my opponent played, plus he had a massive army and clocked himself out, so game 1 win and object achieved. I lost the next two mainly due to unfamiliarity with my opponents models and just not really knowing what to do and then I won my last game with a classic Buthcher3 Assassination. In the end I placed 8th out of 16 which for my first 50pt timed event I was very happy with.

I think for the next one I will stick with the same lists with maybe a few tweaks based on my experiences at the weekend, that way I know my own lists better and can concentrate on the things I needed to do better, but it was definitely a fun day.

Khador Demolisher

To my shame I had to play with some unpainted models just purely because I just didn't have the time to paint enough to get me to 50pts. I did a Demolisher though as you can't really play Warjacks that haven't been stuck together and it would have been a nightmare to paint after sticking to together. Looking at the Khador army on the shelf I realise that I have a lot of Jacks for them but as a faction I very rarely play more than one Jack in a game.

On the 40K side of things I have been painting some more Daemons, mainly Tzeentch. I was going to stick pure Nurgle but it did lack a little something so I am looking to add a unit of 9 Screamers, a unit of Horrors and a couple of Heralds. I have finished the Heralds and Screamers already and am starting on the Horrors. I have a scheme that is nice and easy to paint and actually looks really good. To make the heralds I purchased the Tzeentch Chariot kit, this kit is great purely because of the options it gives you. With two boxes I have made a Herald on Disc, a Herald in a Chariot and I will stick have enough bits over to make an Exalted Flamer Chariot and Exalted Flamer on foot. I think thats great value and they are fantastic kits as well. I also picked up the new Greater Daemon of Khorne. I take one of these to each game I play with Daemons just incase one of my Heralds gets the Power that enables me to summon Greater Daemons. As I normally have a GD of Nurgle on the table I tend to summon the Bloodthirster, they can fly around and are more mobile than the rest of my army - plus they hit like a freight train. The new plastic kit really is awesome and I hope that they other Greater Daemons will be just as good when they are released.

Herald in a Chariot

Screamers

Greater Daemon of Khorne

Inquisitor Thanorax

I have also painted an Inquisitor model for 40K. If you flip over to the Wynnjitsu page you can read all about him there.

We have also had Salute since I made the last entry, Salute is the biggest War-games show in the UK, if not the world. The really cool thing about Salute is that you get lots of vendors selling stuff that you can't normally get in a regular gaming store and you get to see models, games and accessories that you would never have otherwise known about. Some guys at my club in Brighton have recently been talking about doing some historical gaming. We are currently looking at a couple of options. I have some Hail Caesar models and we have played a game of that and found it very enjoyable but we also wanted to try some American Civil War. I was up for this bit wanted to try something a little different so we have opted to do this in 12mm. I have wanted to try something smaller scale for a while and whilst at Salute we found Kalistra Miniatures. They do some cracking 12mm ACW models and you could buy a basic army set for £40. I snapped some up and have painted one stand just to see how they look and I think they look great. The beauty of this scale is that it is relatively quick to paint and they look fantastic on the tabletop.

ACW Union 12mm

ACW Union 12mm

 As mentioned the other game we are playing at the moment is Hail Caesar, I have now painted up one unit of troops and a single stand of Cav. I stuck some other Infantry to bases just so we could get going with the game. We just played the starter set on a 4x4 to get a grip of the rules but I think it will be better played on a 6x4 with a bit of scenery on. It looks like one of those games where the movement and table tactics are more important that the actual fighting bit, hope to get some more games in soon.

Celts

Celt Geneal

Celt Cav

The Warmachine league continues at the Hemel Club. I am proud to say that I am currently on top of the rankings being the only play to be unbeaten at the moment. I have played all my games with Butcher3 and, unsurprisingly, won them all by assassination. You may think this is pretty cool, the downside is that I don't have any scenario points as I have not won any games on scenario, this means if I lose a game the players that have only lost one game generally have better scenario points. So I guess I just need to keep winning.

And finally - A new Space Marine codex has been released much to everyones surprise. Along with this an accessary sprue has been put out for each of the main chapters. As a devote Ultramarine player I grabbed on of these an painted up a new Sergeant with the new bits.

Ultramarine Sergeant.

Until next time...

Khador list number 2.

Hey Folks...

So in my last post I wrote about the first 50 point list I am going to use in an upcoming tournament, here I will talk about the second.

The first list used a caster I am familiar with, this one uses a caster that (at time of writing) I have never used. I have seen him used and the Butcher Unleashed is brutal. Without any shadow of a doubt Butcher III is one of the hardest hitting casters that exists. With a massive POW stat, Weapon Master and a feat that gives him all his Focus back there isn't anything in the game that isn't going to die when smashed in the face by him. Whilst the first list was all about attrition and combos this list is delightfully simple, its all about getting the Butcher into range of the oppositions caster. Butcher III has a massive threat range and many spells to support him in killing things and the list is built around getting him to the point where he can assassinate.

I will use Beast 09 as his Jack, whilst the fluff part of me doesn't want to (because Beast 09 is the personal Jack of another caster) the fact that he is fairly self sufficient and has Thresher for clearing out troops and charge lanes for Butcher means he is a good Jack for this army.

The rest of the list is a support act. I have put Malakov (junior Warcaster) in the list for a couple of reasons. I haven't used him before and he looks interesting, it means I can run another Jack without using the Butchers Focus and he also has a cunning little trick. If he is hit with a ranged attack he can pass the damage off to a nearby model. If I keep him within 2" of the War Argus he can pass of damage and then the Butcher unit can make a vengeance move, this means the Butcher can move 3" closer to the opposing caster.

The rest of the army is there to clear charge lanes, Widowmakers, Greylords and Greatbears. The Shocktroopers are to provide a bit of cover to these units early game. With two Jacks, the Greatbears I have units that can take Jacks and these units along with Widowmakers and Greylords can deal with Infantry.

I am really looking forward to trying this list out and am hoping the Butcher is as bad ass as I think he is.

Kommander Zoktavir, The Butcher Unleashed - WJ: +4
- War Argus
- Beast 09 - PC: 11

Kovnik Andrei Malakov - PC: 3
- Demolisher - PC: 9
Iron Fang Kovnik - PC: 2

Iron Fang Pikemen - Leader & 9 Grunts: 8
- Black Dragon Officer & Standard - PC: 2
Great Bears of Gallowswood - Volkov, Kolsk, Yarovich: 5
Greylord Ternion - Leader & 2 Grunts: 4
Widowmakers - Leader & 3 Grunts: 4
Man-O-War Shocktroopers - Leader & 2 Grunts: 6

Return of the Khador, 50 points and fighting.

Hey Folks.....

I have put my name down for a Warmachine tournament in May and its actually my first ever Warmachine tournament. It will be a challenge for a couple of reasons: -

1. Its 50 points - I have played zero 50 point games.
2. Its Deathclock - I have played zero Deatclock games.

I suspect I won't do that well, but thats not the point. I haven't played a lot of Warmachine lately, I fell a bit out of love with it. I decided to try and use a Convergence of Cyriss (CoC) for a year, but after a few games I just wasn't enjoying using the army. Honestly it was keeping me awake at night trying to figure out what was wrong with it and how to change it. When something game related is keeping you awake at night its time to put it down for a bit. I'll come back to CoC in the future but for the moment I need to play something else for a while.

Epic Irusk

For this tournament I will be going back to my favourite army - Khador. The format for the tournament requires the use of two casters, so I am going to take one caster that I very familiar with and a new one. Epic Irusk will be the first caster on the list and he is one I have played a lot of games with. He is very infantry orientated and likes the brick/deathstar type build. My only concern is the amount of time my turns will take with a lot of infantry, ideally before the tournament I will come up with a basic plan and setup so that I can minimise the amount of time my first couple of turns will take.

I see it as very much an attrition list. There are two big defensive units in there, the Iron Fang Pikeman and the Man-O-War. The Winterguard and Doomreavers will stay behind them and then pass through and unleash at the right moment. Herne and Jonne work well with Irusk, with Valachev attached they become a Khador unit and therefore Irusks Fire For Effect will work on them. They get three templates from one shot and therefore FFE will allow all these to have boosted damage. Its a 5 point investment so I am hoping that its worth it, a few practice games should help to decide if this is the case. The other question I have is regarding the Doomreavers, they hit hard but can go down easy. I am wondering if its a case of take 2 units or 0. I figure that they will be safe behind the defensive line unit I want them to be unleashed. Again it will be one of those things I need to figure out after a couple of games.

Things to paint for this list: -
1. Iron Fang Pikeman.
2. Doomreavers.
3. Herne & Jonne plus Valachev.

So this is the initial list design.

Supreme Kommandant Irusk - WJ: +5
- Behemoth - PC: 13

Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich - PC: 2
Iron Fang Kovnik - PC: 2

Winter Guard Infantry - Leader & 9 Grunts: 6
- 1 1 Rocketeer's: 1
- Winter Guard Officer & Standard - Winter Guard Officer & Standard 2

Man-O-War Shocktroopers - Leader & 2 Grunts: 6

Herne & Jonne - Herne and Jonne: 3
- Koldun Kapitan Valachev - Valachev 2

Iron Fang Pikemen - Leader & 9 Grunts: 8
- Black Dragon Officer & Standard - PC: 2

Doom Reavers - Leader & 5 Grunts: 6
- Greylord Escort - Greylord Escort 2

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...

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...

Centurions

Hey Folks

Trying to get as much Hobby in as possible at the moment. I should be moving house in a few weeks so I suspect my hobby time might get reduced for a while after the move. The bonus is that the house we are moving to is only 50ft way so moving should be fairly pain free, I also get my own man-cave too. I am hoping this will give me enough space to put in some kind of video setup so I can do some model 360 vids. But I need to fully plan out the room first.

So whats been going on? Well I have had my second and third games in the Warmachine tourney against Dave and his Cryx and Andrew and his Gators. Dave put his army on the table and my first thought was that I had no chance of winning. Dave had a couple of Units of Banes, Nyss and Goreshade ready to summon another Bane unit. He also had a couple of fast moving jacks and Tartar Sauce to get Banes back if I managed to kill any. I was using my more sensible army but looking at the sheer number of Weapon Master Banes I thought I was going to get smashed. But I always have a good game against Dave so I set about trying to do my best.

I got lucky early game, my Widowmakers shot up the Nyss and then they ran away. Dave's first charge against my Man-O-War failed to do much thanks to some bad dice rolls on Dave's part and a couple of passed Tough tests for me. The Man-O-War with a damage boost buff managed to dispatch most of the Banes in front of them and then the Winterguard hiding behind them managed to take out a few more. I feated which prevented Dave from charging and then my shooting managed to take out enough of the remaining Banes to reduce Dave's damage output to non-threat levels. It was a tense game but I played a lot better in this game, thinking about my own strengths and plan and not letting the other army freak me out into a change of plan. It worked and I also got a bit of luck. In the end it was a bit of a slaughter, I lost the Man-O-War and a couple of Winterguard, Dave was left with his caster.

I also managed to get a win against Andrews Gators winning on scenario. This was just a game of attrition, two armies grinding it out against each other and I came out ahead. The Gators are good but their model count was low and my Khador can take hits as well as dishing out the pain. The Gators were good and difficult to get rid of, but once they started falling each model lost was a real hit for the army.

Spiggan

Model wise I have put together a couple of new casters (pVald and pButcher) and made a start on the Warjack Drago. I also put together Gorman de Wolfe and Eyriss, I used them for the first time in a game in Brighton and really liked them, they may have to find a space in more of my Khador armies. After these guys I will probably leave the Khador for a while, I am still after a Behemoth and War Wagon so if I see those models around I will pick them up. I did manage to finish my Spriggan although he is yet to take the field in anger.

 I continue to work on the Flames of War starter set Germans and have completed the command section. I have also painted up a couple more Bolt Action models, again completing my German commander unit. I also put together my first infantry unit and they are on the paint station ready and waiting.

Bolt Action German Command

Centurions

GW released the new Space Marine codex this month, so I picked that up as well as a box of the new Centurions. I didn't like these when I first saw them but the real models are better than the pictures. It took a while for me to decide how to arm them, the Grav Cannons seem the obvious choice but I wasn't sure about them, but I think I will give them a go and see how they get on.

German - Conquest

Hey Folks...

The first game of our club Warmachine tourney happened this week and I managed to field my newly painted Conquest.  Needless to say that "newly painted model" syndrome hit and the big bugger didn't do anything.

Conquest

Having been off the hobby for a while with my shoulder injury I really felt rusty. I thought my 35pt Conquest list was a real winner but I played like a complete noob. I did have a chance to win the game as my Conquest had three chances to hit and kill the opposing Warcaster but he managed to miss with each swing.

Looking back at the game I don't think Irusk is the best caster to use with the Conquest, Fire For Effect is a good spell but Irusk cant really get anything else out of the big boy, I have a few candidates for my next caster which can utilise the Conquest so I have them ready to be painted up. I think the first one I will try with him is the Butcher, nice simple run and hit stuff. I think his buffs and feat will work better with the Conquest. Irusk is a finesse caster, the Butcher - not so much.

This month I also managed to paint up my IronFang Officer and Standard, the rest of the unit currently sitting in their box waiting to be assembled.

IronFang UA

As well as the Warmachine stuff I have been painting up some WW2 models of various scales. I have always had an interest in WW2 and have been reading up on it more and more over that last few years so I thought I would try out some WW2 gaming which I haven't ever really got into before.

German Infantry

A while ago I bought the new Flames of War (FOW) stater set, for the money its really good value. You get a bunch of models infantry and tanks for both the Germans and Americans plus some scenery, dice etc. Its a game I have looked at but never really liked the look of due to the infantry models, but the more I have looked at it the more I fancied having a go. I watched a few videos on YouTube and liked the look of it so I thought why not. The starter set isn't that expensive so if I don't like it, then I haven't wasted too much money. I painted up some of the tanks a while ago and now I have finished my first unit of Troops. This is one of the basic German infantry units, the beauty of 6mm is that you don't have to spend a massive amount of time on them to make them look good. I found that a basic paint scheme and then a wash with a basic highlight is enough to make them look pretty good. I also painted one of the big artillery pieces. I am looking forward to getting them on the table, one of the other guys at the club has the same set, so he is painting up the Americans so we can play our first game. I also picked up one of the "Army Books", these focus one one particular period or operation and give army lists for the forces that fought during that time. The first book I got was the one focusing on Operation Market Garden, there are two books, one looking at it from the German point of view and then the other from the Allies perspective. As well as the army lists there is a lot of interesting info on the history and people that were involved. They are well worth a read.

Pak 40

On the WW2 theme I have also picked up the rule book and some models for Bolt Action. This is a 28mm WW2 game and is very popular at the club I go to in Brighton. You don't need a massive amount of models for a decent game and the models do look very nice. I am in the middle of painting up my first German officer as a test piece before assembling the units and planning out my first 1000 points. Warlord actually have a 1000pt German Starter army that actually looks pretty cool so I might just invest in that.

So to finish off here are another couple of pictures of the Conquest. So whats next? Well I have a couple of new Khador casters to paint, also a couple of Warjacks in boxes namely a Spriggan and the character Jack Drago. I will also be aiming to finish off the rest of my Flames of War Germans so we can play our first game. The Bolt Action Germans will also get some attention purely because I really like the models.

Until next time...

One Warcaster and his dog (and a horse)

Hey folks,

Ok so yet again I am very late with another post, but this time I have a really good excuse. I am a very keen cyclist and about four weeks ago I got a bit too keen going down a hill and ended up having a bit of a crash which resulted in a broken collar bone. As you can appreciate this put a bit of a dampener on my hobby time. On the bright side once I got to be able to move my arm enough to get in the painting position I had enough time off work to actually get a lot done. What I had to do was get everything out with my good army, sit down and then with my good arm move my bad arm into position with the brush (after a bunch of painkillers). Then when I needed to dip or wash the brush I would take the brush out of my bad hand with the good hand, do what I needed and then put it back. This was slow, but I had plenty of time to kill.

So I have been focusing on my Khador arm, there is a Steamroller tourney coming up at the club and I wanted to get the Khador army all painted, as I have mentioned I don't like playing with unpainted models and there is nothing like a tourney deadline to spur on the painting. I have been playing a few practise games and have come up with a list I like, this tourney actually allows two lists, so I am going to take one list that I know will work ok and then something a bit more risky.

Epic Irusk. 

My list is basically a Winterguard Deathstar and this will form the basis of both lists. Then the other bits can be interchanged.

My caster is Epic Irusk. He works really well with an infantry based army, he is not a combat caster
but a buff/support caster. He gives Tough to units and allows them to move through each other and ignore friendlies when determining Line Of Sight. He has a couple of great spells like Fire For Effect which is an upkeep that allows a unit to boost To Hit and Damage rolls for the first shooting attack they make. This is great with a Mortar or Conquest for example.

The main Deathstar is as follows: -

5 Man-O-War Shocktroopers. 
Full Winterguard + Command and Standard + (1 to3) Rocketeers. 
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich.

The tactic is that the Shocktroopers go first and use Shield Wall and the Winterguard follow behind them. The Command and Standard give DEF bonuses and allow the unit spray attacks as well as normal shooting. Jozef has some useful songs to sing boosting To Hit rolls. The unit also has combined shooting and melee abilities so can take Warjacks and Infantry alike. This unit can really lay down the hurt.

The rest of the army changes depending on my mood and what models I want to take, in the main list I suspect I will take the following: -

Juggernaut. (Irusk only needs one Jack and the Jugger is good enough for 7 points).
Widowmakers. (Good unit to knock off some Warjack boxes or to take out some Solos early game).
Man-O-War Drakhun (Able move down flanks, or go after units holding objects, adds a bit of speed and hitting power to the army that largely needs to move as one).
Winterguard Mortar Crew (Big gun with a long range and AOE, whats not to love?).

The Second list will be the main Deathstar but will feature something a bit more risky: -

Conquest (Hard hit, big and shooty, will benefit from Fire For Effect. Downside is that its a lot of points for a 35pt list. If the enemy takes it out thats 19pts from a 35pt list, thats a big hole).

So the full lists are: -

List 1.
Epic Irusk
Juggernaut
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich
Man-O-War Drakhun
Man-O-War Shocktroopers (full unit)
Winterguard (full unit) + Officer and Standard + 2 Rocketeers
Winterguard Mortar Crew
Widowmakers

List 2.
Epic Irusk
Conquest
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich
Man-O-War Shocktroopers (full unit)
Winterguard (full unit) + Officer and Standard + 2 Rocketeers

I am really enjoying playing my Khador army as they are really different to the Cryx I have been playing for the best part of three years. They were very much "run forward and hit stuff", but the Khador army takes a bit more thinking about but also has more options on what it can do.

So painting wise I have got a whole bunch of stuff done whilst I have been off, it has taken longer to do but I didn't really have anything else to do and there is only so much Jeremy Kyle you can take.

The first thing I did was get the Winterguard finished, they are one of those units that you just have to grit your teeth and get done. Models are ok, nothing exciting but once they are done its done.

After this I finished off the trusty Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich to go with the Winterguard, this veteran runs along side the unit singing his tunes to boost their skills.

With the bulk of the army done it was time to get the Warcaster finished. I left him to the end mainly so I can get the rest of the armies colours and patterns sorted so that when I come to paint the main character I wont make any errors.

The army was actually very simple to paint, there a really three main colours (Red, Grey and Gold). Once these have been painted onto the model the areas are washed with black to add the battle grime effect, the areas are then highlighted up using the original colours. The details are then picked out to finish off the model.

So whats next? Well to totally complete the army I need to finish the Widowmakers so these will be next. After that I really want to get the Conquest done, I am looking forward to this. Then I have a unit of Iron Fang to paint and then my whole Khador collection will be painted. I think this might be the first time I have all the models for a specific collection painted. 

So now they are done I am looking forward to putting them on the table at the club tourney, i'll let you know how they get on. 

Until next time... 

Khador, Eldar and the lull.

Hi Folks.

So its been a while.... I have been suffering the hobby lull. There have been a few reasons for this but basically real life has just popped its head through the door and I have been busy with other things. But to be honest I have also been lacking a bit of hobby inspiration. Its something we all go through at certain points. I just bought a new Time Trial bike so have been spending most evenings out on the bike getting some exercise, oh and my girlfriend moved over from Argentina.

Man-O-War ShockTroopers. 

I have been painting a few things though, last time I blogged I was working on Daemon army, well that has taken a bit of a back seat at the moment. I have been concentrating on my Warmachine Khador army and have finished off the Man-O-War Shocktroopers. I love this unit, they just look so cool and one of the main reasons that I went for Khador in the first place. I have also started on the Winterguard Unit and am about halfway through them, they are one of those units that just need to be done, not particularly fun to paint, but needs doing.

Winter Guard. 

Farseer. 

The Eldar codex has also been released this month and some of the models look really awesome. Eldar were my first really serious army and I won a couple of local tournaments with them many years ago. Whilst not seriously considering an Eldar army, I purchased a box of the Wraithguard/Wraithblade models to paint up just because I liked the look of them. I have also painted a Farseer model that I had lying around. Initially I fancied doing a Iyandan army in their traditional yellow scheme but having looked at a lot of the pictures I am not keen on the yellow plus its really hard to paint. I therefore went for a red scheme. I am having a bit of a red phase at the moment, maybe future generations that study my work will call this my "red period".

Wraithblade.

One thing that had perked up my hobby juices again is a little tourney we are having at the Brighton Club. Its a 750pt tourney with Combat Patrol style army list restrictions.

No 2+ saves.
No unit character with more than 2 wounds.
Vehicles with armour no more than 33 (thats adding up front, back and one side).
No HQ's
Must have 2 Troops.
All other choices from the normal force org.

I have to say its a real challenge to build this kind of army. My first thought was Marines as I have been playing them a lot lately, plus this edition is very shooting army orientated. I did a couple of lists but wasn't feeling it. So I thought - hey, its a fun tourney so lets roll out the Orks and see how many models  I can get into 750 points. I made a list and (as usual) it meant I had to paint a whole bunch of models in just two weeks. Well it turns out that when you have a target, like a touney, its amazing what you can do. So in the last couple of weeks I have managed to bang out 18 Ork Boyz with Shootas and 20 Gretchin. Now these are not painted to a great standard, but using certain techniques they are still pretty good, a high tabletop standard I would say. But it has got me painting again after having a bit of a lull. Having the target of the tourney really helped to motivate me to pickup a brush again. I managed to get the list to 100 models and this included three Truks. After a bit of thought I did reduce this a little to get one Power Klaw into the list but the model count is still 96. For 750 I think this is pretty good and it will be interesting to see how it rolls on the table, I have just gone for sheer numbers.... nothing is too powerful I have just gone for sheer numbers.

So whats in the future. Well I am determined to get my Khador stuff finished. I have a list that I like with a solid base of core choices. This will allow me to mix a few bits in and out whilst keeping the core stable. I really like playing with the Khador army, it's a refreshing change from playing Cryx for so long. I still want to do a Hordes army and the Skorne models are sitting on a shelf looking at me ready to get painted.

Until next time...

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...