Highland Library Gamers
Recently, I hung out with the gamers at the Highland Library. They play 40K and are currently involved in a campaign which is similar to a Games Workshop campaign. In this campaign you have an “Immortal” who starts with (crappy) randomly generated stats. Your Immortal levels up as you play until his stats are less pathetic and more godlike.
They meet monthly, and last month I visited them and played a game with Andrew, who plays Guard. This month I had something a little more… esoteric in mind.
Behold: a Battlefleet Gothic Addendum to to the Campaign! These rules allow people to paritcipate in Gothic games without feeling like “missing out” on the main campaign.
Above, in the image gallery, the first 3 pics are of Stephen’s Plague Marines. He has a really good texture scheme for plague pustules, etc.
Next, the two gentlemen in the battle picture are Ian (left, Dark Eldar and Eldar) and Jory (right, Space Marines)
The closeup of the Kroot Shaper with wings is the Immortal of Sean’s Kroot Army. He’s using an internet Kroot list OKd by Andrew, the campaign co-ordinator. Andrew made this model back when Kroot Armies were actually GW legal out of a Kroot Shaper, Lizardmen Terradon wings, and an Ork Slugga.
Andrew’s army is up next, the Guard on the right defending against Justin’s encroaching Eldar on the left.
The Battlefleet Gothic game is the first one played using my rules. I showed Michael (left, Imperials) and Dominik (right, Chaos) how to play. They loved it and are going to consider getting fleets.
Next, Stephen’s Nurgle forces engage Trevor’s Ultramarines.
For the last battle picture, Robert’s Farsight Enclave Tau go up against Jacobs Dark Angels.
The final two pictures are closeups of Dominik’s Space Marine Honour Guard. I like his scheme, it’s very dirty, like these Marines have been in the thick of it.
Next month, expect more pics and possibly a detailed battle report!
Warhammer Fantasy Island of Blood Unboxing
Last Christmas I received the Warhammer Fantasy Battles box set: Island of Blood. Part of my master scheme to be able to demo as many games as possible. I hadn’t even looked at the box twice until I got to my new place, but now I have some time, space and privacy. Here’s my takeaway:
-First I assembled the High Elves. Fantastic models. However the join points on some of the models are on a crossguard that is less than 1 mm thick. I ruined three getting them off the damn sprue. Two were salvageable, one will have to be rebuilt with putty. Models went together with ease, but there was a little confusion on the Lothern Sea Guard Musician. I got it eventually, but an assembly guide would have been nice.
-Next I got the Skaven together. Also fantastic minis. At first I thought that I was missing something with the Clan Rats, but some of the long knives look like short spears. Once I took stock, it made sense. With some creative allocation I made all the hand weapon Clan Rats have round shields and the spear rats have triangle shields except for the champion. Some of the clan rats and characters did not want to fit into the slotted base, and required some filing.
-Then I read the Island of Blood intro book thoroughly. I had ASSUMED that, like the 5th ed 40K box, Assault on Black Reach, actual RULES would be contained therein. No rules. This is not a deal breaker. I have the rulebook and I’m not afraid to read.
Here’s the deal breaker. No stats. No army list. No Special Rules. No nothing. You need to buy BOTH the Skaven and High Elf books to play with the Army of Blood box set. That’s not cool. It’s advertised as being able to play right out of the box. Truthfully you get 95% of the way there. But this isn’t chemistry class. A 95% isn’t a pass. If you only get 95% of the way to the moon, you’re stranded in space. That’s kind of how I feel about this box set.
EDIT: I got the last 5% of the way there! Check this link. This has all the missing stats. The link is NOWHERE in the box, and Google doesn’t put it on the first page, but my friend Andy read the above and remembered this existed. So, Thank You Andy. You got us to the moon.
New Place, New Possibilities
Hi all three of you loyal readers! You may have noticed that I haven’t updated in months. I got a new job in the district where I had my old job, and I moved. BUT now that I’m all alone, I can focus on modeling to a greater degree, so without further ado, here’s a list of my current projects:
-The Antonius Project: Thanks to Lexington’s generous gift at Gen Con, I now have a Lugft Huron body and two Tyberos arms from Forge World. I’m going to make a version of Antonius to be the new Chapter Master of the Azure Flames. Perhaps there will be a story tie in.
-Dark Eldar Fleet: Currently stinking up my new apartment with carcinogens is my assembled and primed Dark Eldar fleet for Gothic. Paint scheme will be: white primer -> Ice Blue undercoat -> Turquoise Ink -> 25/75 Turquoise/Ice Blue drybrush -> Boltgun metal blades with a chainmail edging -> Purple lights details with 50/50 pink/purple hughlight, -> purple engines with watered down White wash. Should look just like the fighter counters I downloaded. Thanks to whoever Hoja is. Click below to see.
-Blood Bowl Completion: While I have a fully painted team (Konquata Monitors) and another unpainted (Grimfang Scrappaz) I am missing a few key components such as apothecaries, Bloodweiser Babes, Coaches, Cheerleaders, etc. I bought enough skinks and goblins at Gen Con to fill out the ranks and finish the accoutrements for both teams. Additionally, I have to re-do a special character for the Monitors due to him actualy being a skink, not a saurus.
That’s a lot to do! Expect the Gothic stuff soon, and mini-updates for Blood Bowl.
Rough Ridin’ with Daemons
Been a bit busy breaking in my new laptop. I did some research on Epic strategy with Lost and the Damned, and most lists contain traitor Rough Riders. Was going to just bu regular Guard Rough Riders when I realized I had a bunch of Daemonic Cavalry from the old Chaos sprue. So, I sawed the Chaos Space Marines off and replaced them with Beastmen to fit in with the rest of the army and be more fluff-worthy. After all, Rough Riders are not as good as Space Marines! Here’s three formations, dedicated to Khorne, Slaanesh, and Tzeentch. Nurgle didn’t have old cavalry. Oh well, I got more where this came from if I need it.
So far, my Lost and the Damned contains:
-Four formations of Cultists, with Demagogues (Dark Wanderer, see previous Epic post)
-Four formations of Mutants, with Demagogues
-Four Stands of Chaos Space Marine Aspiring Champions (to swap out)
-24 Land Transporters (third party, from Brigade Models, will add chains, spikes, etc.)
-12 stands of all 5 types of Lesser Daemon
-One of each Greater Daemon
-8 stands of “Big Mutants” (Old Chaos Minotaurs and Trolls with Gothic Imperial Masts that look like laser pistols in their hands)
-36 square bases with the old shield-and-axe Beastmen that count as Plague Zombies (dedicated to Khorne)
-3 Hydras (to be chaosed-out)
-Two Lords of Battles
-Three Khorne Doom Blasters and One Khorne Deathdealer
-One Slaaneshi Questor scout titan
-Four Slaaneshi knight titans
-Four Imperial Guard Bombards, modded into Nurgle Plague Engines (in progress)
-2 formations of 4 Defilers from Otterman (looks just like the 40K defiler!)
-4 old Cannons of Khorne (counts as Undivided Hellfire Cannons)
Now all I need is some Tzeentch flyers and Silver Towers, possibly scratch built as regular ones are rare.
Edit: DERP! Rough Rider formations contain SIX STANDS NOT FOUR! I’ll get the other stands done in a bit.
On My Plate: 4-9-12
Recently re-mounted my old whiteboard, and I realized how many dang projects I have. Here’s a re-hash so you can pity me.
-Azure Flames: YES, they’re back! Low priority, but I still have to make a Kor’Sarro Khan stand in, add another Scout Bike, and start the Antonius Project, making Antonius my Marneus stand in.
-Orks: Gotta paint some lads!
-Imperial Guard: Low priority, but I’d like to make a 1500 pt. Creed list and paint it up.
-Warmachine: On hold, pending possibly getting out of WM entirely. I love the minis, but hate the way the game is going: toward even bigger things.
-Epic Marines: Still have to paint almost 9 companies, plus tanks, Navy support, and the Reaver Titan.
-Epic Orks: High priority is to finish the 3000 pt. list. Then, just paint lads!
-Epic Lost and the Damned: Thanks to Lexington and a few ebay auctions, I have a good host of infantry and daemons. Now, I need the more exotic things such as Daemon Engines and Chaos Altars. A lot of this might be scratch-build.
-Gothic Dark Eldar: All built, and ordnance is printed and laminated. Now I need to paint. I’m thinking Teal with purple running lights and boltgun metal blades with a Mithril Silver highlight.
Necromunda: Need to choose a color scheme for the Delaques, paint my starter gang, and then paint all of the other misc. gangers.
Blood Bowl: Gotta model some cheerleaders and Coaches for the Scrappaz, possibly some Bloodweiser Babes, Apothecaries, etc. Then, paint the Scrappaz. Also, I bought the old “Astrogranite” styrofoam Blood Bowl board, so I’m going to create, print, and laminate custom End Zones for the Scrappaz and the Monitors.
Epic Eldar: ON HOLD.
If Lexington could just shoot me now that would be great.
New Epic Army: The Cult of the Dark Wanderer
So it seems that Epic Beastmen are pretty easy to find on ebay. As a result of several auctions I’ve impulse-bid on, I now have the start of a Lost and the Damned army for Epic.
The above custom demagogue base forms the fluff for my army: The Cult of the Dark Wanderer. Yes, it’s blatantly ripped off from Diablo, I admit that. But it’s a great theme.
Now the more pertinent question: why would I want to collect the hardest army for Epic to collect? BECAUSE IT’S THERE.
Dark Eldar Escorts
16 escorts separated into five different makes, three of each (except one that gets four). Currently though, the one with the engine on top has only one, as I’m waiting for one more ebay auction to complete the other two.
As you can see, each escort has two magnets, just like the cruisers. The weapons also have two each. Now once the auction arrives, I’ll only have to drill 4 more holes and then the fleet is BUILT.
By the way, I have a new secret project or two. Details next!
I’ve been bad: New Dark Eldar fleet for Gothic
So I’ve been a bit busy at work. Recently, I was bad and bid on a great Dark Eldar Battlefleet Gothic fleet. I won. I won too much actually, winning the five cruisers shown above. I planned to sell two. That didn’t happen, so I had to buy more escorts to compensate (currently shipping).
It was painted terribly, so I stripped it (and gave myself a chemical burn with paint thinner.) I then thought: hey why not magnetize it? It can’t be that hard.
Then I did the math.
108 holes to drill, 108 magnets to use.
*sigh* I’d better get to work. Next: Escorts!
Love Letter to Grendel
BOLS posted this guy’s website, but I need to do so as well. He’s been keeping a modeling blog since about 2000. He has a lot of excellent looking projects. Check him out:
Edit: Looks like Grendel took his site down. Balls.
Grimfang Scrappaz Complete!
‘Ere’s da Scrappaz, ladz! Job’s a good’un!
Next: finishing the LIghtguard.