Khorne to the Curb

Battle report time! I was up against Chaos again this week, but in the form of Chris' Khorne Bezerkers. Last time we played it was fairly close, and fielding the new Helldrake this promised to be a difficult affair! I did however have a couple of new tricks up my sleeve..

In my last game against Louis, I borrowed a drop pod off Bam, and it worked ok considering the scatter was well off. So I decided to treat myself to one... along with a second Storm Talon! Chris had bantered that his Helldrake would 'bend the Storm Talon over' so when I showed Chris the two of them I mentioned he'd be having a threesome. His look was priceless! Just had to make sure my dice would do me justice... Yoinks!

2000 points, Crusade, and Dawn of War deployment.

Looking at Chris' force, the Daemon Prince and Helldrake scared me. Daemon Princes can be taken down by mass bolter fire, but I'd planned on using rhino's so would either have to disembark to take care of it and then be left open to attack or counter it with my termies and captain. The Helldrake I could take care of, however I knew even in one turn of it being alive its Baleflamer could do a lot of damage. The Bezerkers themselves were Chris' weakness as these were his only two troops choices, so taking these out would stop him from capturing objectives. Kharn was in one of these units, but I'd taken plasma cannons to take infantry and rhinos out. My dreadnought in drop pod would disrupt part of the enemy battle line, and rhino's wait for the right time to surge forward and capture objectives late in the game. 

This was deployment, and on the first turn my Land Raider was immobilised. This meant the termies had to come out and look to assault asap. My Rhino on the left flank was blown up and I lost three marines from the explosion, so they took position up on the left most objective. The Daemon Prince came down but I couldn't ground him to charge, so had to try and charge some bezerkers whose rhino I had managed to wreck. Failed! I then got charged by the DP and Khorne Bezerkers, pain! I managed to take out half the bezerkers and took two wounds off the DP but lost my captain and termies. 

The helldrake came on, and as predicted, its baleflamer did pain. Wiped out my devastators with plasma cannons, and also a tactical member from a nearby squad. Just over 200 points killed in one fell swoop! Luckily, my Storm Talons came on (surprisingly reliably) and the first shots with an assault cannon took it down, almost blowing a Khorne Rhino up. Payback! I couldn't have this surviving too long, it would slaughter my troops! 

Wrecking both of Chris' rhinos meant exposing his troops, and the unit with Kharn was heavily fired at. I managed to Kharn out with a couple of Krak missiles by a Storm Talon and whittle the squad down over two turns. The other Bezerkers moved back to hold the objective, and after Chris had wrecked my Rhino I advanced carefully firing as much as I could.  The Vindicator took out 7 of the 9 marines, but the two survivors held fast as I tried to blow the Vindicator up. Going into hovering mode, the Storm Talon unleashed its firepower and tore the vindicator apart.

The game ended 10-2, but going into turn 5 Chris lead 5-4, and it was a hugely close game. Chris' lack of troops meant destroying two units stopped him from capturing objecives, whereas I took three tactical squads and broke one up into combat squads, giving me 4 scoring units which was well worth doing. The predator didn't do a whole lot, managed a couple of hull points on one Rhino, and took a couple of Bezerkers down. What it did best though was attract enemy heavy firepower, surviving 4 shots from a demolisher cannon and numurous lascannon shots from an obliterator. 85pts well worth it! The Storm Talons worked a treat, although I'll rarely use both again in this sized battle. The Termies and Captain stopped the Daemon Prince from running rampage, who was promptly gunned down by a disembarked Tactical Squad. I love boltguns! 

Great game in all, close til the end and Chris is really starting to get the hang of his army. He does need to be a little mroe aggressive, but thats something that will come with experience. 

Now, a quick word about projects! In less than two weeks we have the all dayer, and I've got about 6k of Evandalists I want to field but some work to do first. I've got two chaplains to build/convert, the biker and a running one, I've just got my ratling sniper to convert into a Squat to use as Telion (will explain more when I cover this) plus a limited edition Boarding Captain that I swapped the Games Day BA Captain for. I've got an old school jump pack I may use for him and the chaplain, and it looks amazing on him, so we shall see!

Keep tuned for more details, not just on my stuff but also some of the club members who I'm bugging to send WIP piccies of their mini's.

BLITZ!!!!!

I know what you did, you read the title of this post and said it to yourself in the same way I said it as I typed it. With much volume, aggression and love. We all know 'Blitz' means one thing, and that's Blood Bowl. I have an incredibly squishy bit of my heart dedicated to this game, so when a new member suggested playing something imagine my smile when he accepted my challange of a game. YES!!

We'd both taken Humans, alhough I did have my old Undead team but I couldn't remember their stats so well so went with my Mordheim Raiders. Edmund also took Humans, so this would prove a pretty close affair. Humans are well known for being one of the most tactically sound teams in the game, being able to do a litle bit of everything. Depending what team you play against, you should be able to do a little of the other. Against Wood Elves? Barge em round and slap em til you have numbers then overwhelm them by stomping down the pitch. Against Dwarfs? Use your speed to keep ahead of them and try to pick one or two of them off by ganging up on them. They can do it all! This would prove interesting then!

 

I managed to score reasonably quickly and put Edmund on a bit of a backstep. I'd taken one of his guys out early, but he'd taken an apothecary and brought him back. Buggers!

 Then it starts to get crazy... Edmund rolls dice like he's playing Orcs or one of the other brutal teams, and starts to flatten my defence!

 I lose 5 people in total, 2 of which completely died! I was able to score another two touchdowns however before I lost all these, and the game finished 3-0 to me but Edmund had done plenty of damage and looked more than content! A good game, plenty of laughs too!

 It was awesome to get the old team and pitch out again, hopefully some of the other guys will be interested in playing a few games, Louis already has mentioned about getting his bunny girls out, so it seems my team will gawp around looking at scantily clad women playing football!

 Throwers Eye View.

Look at these braggards. Rough, violent, and probably all drunk on rum while hassling the wenches at a local serving bar. Yep, Huw's brought the pirate game back up!

I'm not entirely sure what went on, but I should be playing either next monday or the monday after, shall see! Looks like a laugh, although mutterings of Huw making bits up were heard and chortled about.

I remember Iain robbing a bank, Andrew had to back stab Bam, who then killed his treacherous foe, and Mike couldn't get to shore for ages, I think for bad rolling for rowing!

I'm not sure if Bam said one of his secret missions was to capture a ship, but I don't think he was able too being the other side of the board. You'd wanna steal on of these sea-faring beauties though, they look awesome!

Louis and Chris also played some 40k, Chaos vs Chaos. I didn't really get any pics of this game though, but I think Louis won against the Khorne Bezerkers. I want the Chaos players to pick their Chaos God and represent him in a 4 way all on all battle, I think it would look awesome!

Enter the Chambers.

How do you start a post about two subjects that are a huge deal? Not only have I hit 100 posts and 13,000 views for my blog, but what better time to post an interview with one of the most influential people in the history of wargaming, and especially Games Workshop, Andy Chambers. I've been a huge fan of Andy's work since first looking in White Dwarf. From his tales of the Piscina campaign, the various specialist games and codices he's written to his entertaining rivalry with another of the GW legends, Jervis Johnson. 

"Hello Andy, thanks for taking the time out to answer these questions, its greatly appreciated. What are you currently up to in the worlds of Tabletop, Roleplaying and Videogames?

• Hi Kevin, currently I’m working as a freelancer on a number of different projects for myself and other people. I’m writing 40K-related fiction for the lovely folks at Black Library. I actually just started the third novel in a trilogy about Dark Eldar but I’ve also been doing short stories and novellas for them as well. A little company called Fun to 11 was good enough to put my card game ‘Flame War’ up on Kickstarter and that won it’s funding so it’s now been published. I’m working on a WW2 tabletop fighter combat game called Blood Red Skies which I hope to get published next year. This year I’ve undertaken a fair bit of sub-contract work through Alessio Cavatore’s Riverhorse Games so I was working on early drafts of Fantacide for Architects of War and wrote a Soviet supplement for Bolt Action from Warlord Games.

 

You're well known by many as one of the more influential people to have worked at Games Workshop, helping to craft games like Warhammer 40,000, Space Marine and Titan Legions etc, What was it like when you first joined Games Workshop? What was the atmosphere and the people like?

• Very small and a little Kafkaesque at times. The first GW studio when I started working was in a place called Enfield Chambers in the centre of Nottingham which was a distinctly Victorian-looking space which was one side of a quadrangle overlooking a tiny courtyard. There was ‘eavy metal (as was) sales and management on the bottom floor, miniatures designers and writers on the second, artists and paste-up (physical paste up back then, with glue and scalpels) on the top. I shared an office with Jervis Johnson and he proved to be the nicest man in the world. Jez Goodwin and Richard Halliwell (the original designer of Space Hulk) were both just down the hall, along with Bill King (of Felix and Gotrek fame) who was the first real writer I’d ever met. I learned a lot very quickly.

Come 14 years later, you part ways with the company. What were the reasons for your departure?

• Personal.
  
  
  

When you left, did you feel you had done all you could achieve at the company? After you ended your tenure at GW Which of your creations were you most proud of?

• Hmm, that’s a difficult one because you can always achieve more. Nonetheless I’m proud of what I achieved while I was there and the entertainment that it’s given to others. The project I’m proudest of all about was Battlefleet Gothic as I’ve got a bit of a thing about space ships. BFG was fun because it was a chance to do a whole game from ground up; rules, miniatures, background and art. Have to say that the Armageddon campaign was also amazingly cool to be an instigator for, and that working on Chaos, Orks, Tyranids, Tau, Necrons and the Skaven made me proud because people responded so well to them – although none of those are my creations.

 

After leaving Games Workshop you joined Blizzard and worked on computer games, was there a different mythos between working on tabletop games compared to videogames?

• There’s a lot of similarities but there’s a lot of differences too. Videogames are a lot more multifaceted than tabletop games – you don’t just need art, for example, you need animation, lighting, effects, environments and sound to bring that art to life on screen. That makes them a lot more complicated to create so the team size is a lot bigger and communication becomes the key challenge. I have to say that having worked in the videogames industry I am just awestruck by the amount of passion, dedication and professionalism that goes into creating games you all too often play over a few evenings and then discard.

One of the things I used to love about Games Workshop, were some of the specialist titles, three of which you wrote, being Necromunda, Battlefleet Gothic and Gorkamorka. How does it feel to you about Games Workshop concentrating on 40k, Fantasy Battle and Lord of the Rings? Do you think there is room for these games to make a comeback in the future?

• I think with Space Hulk and Dreadfleet GW have shown some willingness to meet player desires for new and shiny things. The concentration on the big three is a purely pragmatic business solution from GW’s point of view to having finite resources to apply. From a personal perspective it makes me sad as I think the games you mention did a lot to expand the universe in interesting ways. Fortunately Fantasy Flight Games, Cyanide and Relic have all done good things with the GW license over recent years so there’s still hope for stuff outside the norm.

Do you still keep up with the games you worked on? For example, have you tried the Sixth Edition of Warhammer 40,000? If so, how do you feel about the direction Games Workshop has taken?

• I generally pay attention to the chatter and read reviews but I’m usually too busy playing my own stuff or work-related games to game. Personally I like what I’ve heard that in sixth there’s been a conscious move away from the tournament-centric approach of fifth. Tournament rules are great for established players that want to test their skills but they have a distinctly chilling effect on the fun factor of a game in my experience. I’ve always felt that its better for a game to be first and foremost engaging, enjoyable and approachable for new players while the chess champions stuff can always come later.

Starcraft II garnered a lot of critical acclaim, do you feel like there is a lot of difference in terms of how the media perceives videogames compared to tabletop games?

• The media pays virtually zero attention to tabletop games for the simple reason that it isn’t mainstream in comparison to the multi-billion dollar industry that is videogames. Really comparing the two is a bit like comparing Premier league football and crown green bowling. More money gets spent on videogames than movies these days, which is presumably why Hollywood keeps attempting Frankenstein-like collisions of the two. That being said I’ve seen a resurgence in tabletop gaming over the last decade simply because videogames are becoming so pernicious that folks seem to have decided that they still like to play something else. Fortunately specialist media on the web has done a lot to knit the worldwide gaming community a lot more tightly together and that’s something I think has strengthened the hobby immeasurably.

What tabletop, roleplaying and videogames are you currently playing? Are there any hidden gems out there you'd like to tell people about?

• Currently I’m playing; X-Com Enemy Unknown (which is fantastic, though I really want a Necromunda version of it), Borderlands 2. I play in a weekly role-playing group that’s been going for over two decades. Tabletop I’ve been playing Dust Warfare, Bolt Action, Fantacide, lots of Blood Red Skies and a little bit of DBM. For hidden gems I would recommend any of the above, plus Small World is an excellent board game I’ve enjoyed a lot and Ascension is a fun game based on deck building mechanics. For a straight card game FFG’s Space Hulk card game is good fun and worth a try.
  
  
  
  
  

You've got a huge catalogue of work written by your hand, is there any you wish you could go back and tweak or change? Is there one game you'd love to write, perhaps on a franchise that doesn't have a game written for it?

• Everything and nothing really, you learn as you go so there always changes you wish you could make but you only know what they are after you’ve done it if you see what I mean. I’d definitely tweak with BFG if I had the chance to as there’s a few core mechanics I would do differently in hindsight. I liked the Starship Troopers miniatures rules a lot but I would go back and clean up the rulebook if I could. It would be nice to streamline some of the ideas to make the rules easier to learn. Things I would like to do – a 2000AD based wargame based on A.B.C warriors, Nemesis the warlock or Rogue Trooper. Those stories were really influential on me when I was growing up. I’d also like to do an 1950’s Alien invasion game with National Guard vs the flying saucers sometime, thought I think that’s more of a board/card game than one for miniatures.

Finally, apart from your current projects, what does the future hold for Andy Chambers?

• Moving house shortly, which will be nice because I’ll have space for a games room at the new place. I’m working on self-publishing, or rather publishing with the help of partners, with Blood Red Skies and hopefully other titles over the next year or two including co-writing some Weird War 2 e-novels with Bill king. In the longer term, growing old disgracefully and probably dying in penury.

Andy, thank you again for answering these questions, it’s an honour and a privilege to be able to feature this on my wee little blog.

• My pleasure. I should really do a blog of my own but in the meantime I can make appearances in other peoples, which is nice."

And that there folks is the 100th post on this most humble of blogs. Its been an amazing run, and hopefully shall continue to be so for a long time to come. I'm hoping to get some more interviews by various people in and out of the industry, so keep a look out for those. Thanks again to Andy Chambers, a true gent and legend of our incredible community. Onwards and upwards!

Images owned by Games Workshop, Fantasy Flight Games, Blizzard Entertainment and myself.

Golden Daemon: Retro 2

Welcome to part two of my fresh series looking at some of the older Golden Daemon winners. This post is dedicated to war in all its glory... the Battle Scene. The battle scene should capture a moment in the heat of battle, comprise of interaction between the models and still be of an incredibly high standard.

This first look is at Matthew Parkes Gold entry which also won him the fabled Slayer Sword in 1995. What strkes me with this is how bright and well presented the piece is. The orky wooden outpost looks fatastic, the grots going about their business and the Runtherd starting to shout through a megaphone to get the attention. The Ork being shot by a lasgun shot still looks fantastic to this day, and is a lesson in interactivity. The other little details too, the rag over the missile launcher, little mushrooms dotted about and the grot revealing his derriere on the splattacannon all add to the overall scene that certainly helped it win the Slayer Sword.

This next piece was by Chris Blair in 1996, and depicts a scene froma gang war on Necromunda. Whats nice about this is the Technology versus Nature theme, with the Spyers and the Ratskins fighting it out for survival in the dumps.  The first thing that struck me was the size of the piece, and helps show that Necromunda is played on more than just one level. The models, from what my eyes see, have had little conversion work done, but still interact well. The little bits on the floor look great, especially the sewage coming from the old tank and help convey how gritty and grimy the underhive is, and is highly deserving of its first place.

The third and final piece I've chosen is this little beauty. Nigal Carman decided to depict the chaotic brawling of a Gorkamorka scrap, and promptly took away first place. Its jam packed with models and vehicles, even a deffkopta is flying in on the action. Like the the second entry, this represents what Gorkamorka was all about. Orks fighting, riding around in trukks, looking for scrap and generally being insane. The base is another example of theming, with a really awesome looking 'Gorkamorka' title and the scrap pattern around the rest of the base really sets the piece off and shows the character of the orks really well. 

Hope you enjoyed these, I shall return once again with some more examples of Golden Daemon goodness!

The Dice Hurt Me.

Warning:

If your stomach is easily churned at the mention of bad dice rolling, please do not continue reading. This may cause a rift in reality and the warp inside threaten to pull you in. If you are used to such stories, like myself, read on.

Sorry about the amateur dramatics, but I've happened upon some seriously bad dice again! It was hilarious though. Myself and Louis played a 2k game in a Capture the Relic battle, Hammer and Anvil deployment. Louis was looking to christen the Chaos Codex properly, and I wanted to foil his plans! Looking at Louis'' list, I was pleased to see so many cultists as I'd taken a dreadnought with two heavy flamers to take these out. I also took Vulkan, which made both the heavy flamers twin linked. A Landspeeder with two twin linked multi meltas to deep strike next to the dread and its drop pod(which had a locator beacon) would help make these units arrive safely and in the thick of action. At least that was the plan! I also took 5 termies to support these in a forward role while my other unit of termies in a landraider followed up with a tactical squad following behind to capture the relic. The large unit of termies Louis had and the obliterators scared me, as did the forgefiend and maulerfiend (Louis wanted to try both these out, and seeing as one looked so lovely I let him proxy a flying base as the other).

So the first turn, drop pod comes on and scatters away from the chaos army. First mistake, should have aimed for a cultist squad and let it scatter to the outside of it. I then moved up the Raider and the tactical squad following my plan, while the other squads shot.I managed to kill a few cultists, who I found out were actually zombies due to Typhus being used (Huron Blackheart model) so they had feel no pain, which made them a little more resilient. The heavy flamers of the dread managed to singe a few more but was nowhere near as many as I would have loved to see burning. I think I managed a glancing hit on both the fiends, but no pens.

Louis also moved his force foward, then blew my dreadnought up with his obliterators. My drop pod survived, and I was able to bring in the land speeder and termies. The storm talon failed to show up even though my warlord trait allowed me to roll reserves... Bugger! The Land speeder landed next to the maulerfiend and the termies just behind. Raider and Tactial squad moved up again. At this point I wish I'd been more aggressive with the land raider, but ah well. The land speeder hit with both shots (reroll needed for one) and then only glanced the maulfiend. This meant the landspeeder would die without really doing anything... oh well! I shot the termies at the zombies in front of them... with only 3 storm bolter and 2 assault cannon shots I think I killed 2... not good enough! 

As you can now see, Louis wiped these out in his turn. No damaged cause by either and they die! They did soak up a lot of the enemy firepower however so I then advanced and made a bit of a gamble...

If the land raider could survive or at least take all of Louis' firepower, and have Vulkan and the Thunder Hammer termies survive they would be in a good strong position to take on anything, however only one terminator survived the tide of multi meltas, ectoplasma shots(although the forge fiend finished itself off by overheating ha) and everything else Louis could muster. Not my day! The Storm Talon showed up and missed with two frag missiles and killed 2 cultists with its assault cannons, and the other 2 tactical squads did kill a few more trying to prevent the capture of the relic by than chaos hands. My tactical squad in the centre took on 2 assaults by the chaos, one squad of chaos marines and then by a chaos lord and terminators, and survived more than one round of combat! BARELY!!! 

This is how the table looked at the end of the game. I lost 6-0, and swore at my dice more than I'd care to admit! The maulerfiend tore a building up at the end and killed four marines inside through the ensuing rubble which was a great thing to watch, and possibly the highlight of the game. It was a good laugh fair play, I just wish my dice would behave! Next time you chaos scum, NEXT TIME!!!! 

Also last night Huw set up his pirates game which is starting to look really special, and I think all the members at the club are feeling quite honoured to have Huw bring it and let us try. I'm yet to have a go, but hoping to in a few weeks.

I've left this pictures large so you can zoom in and see the details, as all of these are scratchbuilt by Huw, although one of the ships may be Mikes.

 

I believe Huw is hoping to put a demonstration game on at a wargaming convention in Penarth, so we're hoping to be in attendence for that, myself armed with my camera! 

The all dayer approaches fast too, and I've been getting some painting done. I've now got four tactical squads based, and in varying degrees of painted-ness. I managed to get another five asaault squad members basevoated up taking me upto 15, with another five to build. I also picked up another tactical squad, possibly as a fifth TS or to bulk out my devastator squad to 10 men and have a few guys left over, maybe as a command squad. Tau wise I've got another Hammerhead and a Devilfish after getting a couple of bargains so I'll try to crack on with those too! 

Slayer Sword Winner Speaks.

When news filtered through that Karol Rudyk, winner of this years UK Golden Daemon Slayer Sword, was selling his prize on ebay, a lot of different reactions flooded the internet. Some people were saddened, some indifferent, some hateful, some seemed to understand and said they would do the same if in Karol's shoes. The sword itself sold for $600 on Ebay (approx £375). I decided to look into this and was able to ask the man himself. 

"I tell you why I sold the sword. 6 years ago when I saw the Slayer Sword for first time it looked like this:

This was a beautifull, fully-functional weapon. And this was my dream to win this sword. You should know also I am sword collector and I have several unique swords like:
 

Glamdring museum collection.
Atlantean sword of albion from Connan movie .
Anduril limited edition,
Full-functional japanese katana.

And the next should be the Slayer Sword.

But when I saw the actual version of the Slayer Sword this was a sad time. This sword not look good even on wall. This is a shame that GW give the best artist so cheap shit. My sword look like ship Chinese version. They give me it in a box (shipping from China) and it looks very bed. Blade is a piece of sheet metal and you can see traces of the blade grinder.

So when I saw this I do not want this in my collection. Maybe in future I will try to buy old version. I talked about it with GW manager, but they prizes are more and more low -quality. So big company and so cheap prize. This is sad.

I hope now you understand my reasons. I don't need many but this sword does not fit my exclusive colection.

Regards,
Karol"

Does this change anyone's opinion? I understand with him, trying to win an esteemed prize not only for your painting abilities but for your collection, and after all the hard work it doesn't live up to expectations.

Thank you to Karol who took the time to get back to me, you can see much more of his work here on his facebook page.

Golden Daemon: Retro

I got into the hobby in 1994, a few months before my 14th birthday. My future brother in law introduced me to Space Crusade, and then onto Blood Bowl. I picked up issue 174 of White Dwarf and haven't looked back since. 3 months later I had my first encounter with Golden Daemon. I still remember now eagerly looking through the magazine at what Blood Bowl material it had, and there it was. This.

Roy Scorers 'Hell Fire' Dreadnought. This blew me away like very little else. The paint job screamed out at me pure awesomeness, and I've never forgotten that model since. Today, I looked up online and discovered an image of it along with a few other influential models that I had not forgotten about. I still love the way this Dread looks. The black to red blend, the bright orange highlights, I still think this paint job is ageless, and is testament to how good it is.

Another model from the same White Dwarf, Neil Thomason's Rune Priest won first in the 40k single miniature category. I had seen a little of the Space Wolves, and they held much appeal to me as a chapter. This, made that appeal much more stronger! 

This Dire Avenger Exarch was also by Neil Thomason but won 1st at the 1995 Golden Daemon. The thing that struck me, was the banner and how different it was. Its a very moody peice, and looking back it reminds me of how the Eldar fought the Necrons, like the female character thinking back to those times in a very evocative way. Whether the Necron/Eldar history was developed then I'm unsure, but its a cracking model.

What Roy Scorer's Dread did for me and Space Marines, Ben Jefferson's Wraithlord (although I think then it was a Dreadnought) made me look at the Eldar in a new way. I still love this paint job and it jumps out at me just as much as it did back then. 

Looking back, the models that I loved back then haven't aged much at all today. This isn't far off 20 years ago, which speaks volumes for just how well these guys have done. I'll be doing more of these in the future, not just some of the older models but perhaps some of the more recent ones too. Til next time!

Monday Night CHAOS.

So last night we gave the new Chaos Codex a go. Louis and Chris, to avid Chaos followers (feel free to spit in the heretics faces ha) played me and Bam. Louis took Abbadon, Sorceror, two cultist squads, and three two man obliterator squads. Chris took Kharn, bezerkers, Daemon Prince and Termies. Not sure if he had another troops unit, but its all good. Bam had three dreads, captain, and three tactical squads, and also two drop pods... one for a dreadnought and one for the captain and tactical squad. I took Tau. Yep, against a new codex and I took an army I'd used only once before, interesting! I too 3 battlesuits, inc Shas'O, 6 man stealth team, 2 fire warrior squads, and a hammer head. 

This week long time member Jacob mentioned he was bringing some terrain up, imagine our faces when it was all painted and looked awesome! New terrain means awesomeness. We rolled for terrain, mission and deployment. Crusade and the normal deployment was the way, and me and Bam won which side and first turn... needless to say we took the side with more cover!

I didn't get as many pics as I'd have liked, due to playing and forgetting too. Perks of getting old! First couple of turns was quiet, except for me and Bam getting first blood for Chris' Terminator squad trying to deepstrike in front of my battlesuits, scattering onto terrain, then getting lost in the warp on a roll of a one. Yeah! I concentrated blowing up the rhinos to make the Khorne contingent footslog while bam dealt with a daemon prince, who are now nasty pieces of work. It killed all but a sarge of a tactical squad, a dread tried to save him but got blown up, letting the seargent stick his power sword where the warp don't shine(it was on its last wound, phew!)

My stealth team deepstriked in, as I didn't see anywhere good for them to deploy via infiltrate, and then did exactly the same as the Chaos Termies. ARGH! All for the greater good I guess, swings and roundabouts! 

Bams Captain and tactical squad got beaten by abbadon, cultists and two obliterators in combat, we both managed to down most of the bezerkers, and I'd not lost a fire warrior. Thats a first! We had to stop early as time was getting late, but I think we were in a decent position. Kharn would have been amongst my lines if he could have survived a whole turn of everything I had shooting at him, including a hammerhead. We had one objective and first blood whereas the Chaos side only managed Warlord. A win for the Tau! It was a good laugh, and I think both sides made some mistakes here and there. Pity we couldn't finish but ah well!

Mike, has a new ambition to be a God. So he's started by sculpting a mountain. Ha crazy man, should be good though, will look awesome having such height on a table. 

Projects for me shall soon consist of revisiting my Space Marines to start work on the 2 chaplains I want to do, one on foot and one on a bike. I have some of the parts so will get cracking soon. I'm also thinking of building a Master of the Forge Dreadnought... but I'm daunted! Adios for now anyways!

Chaos Codex Flick Through.

Thought I'd do a little video flicking through the new Chaos Codex, I don't go too indepth, but its a quick peek into how the book looks. 

I also mention the post before subject about the slayer sword... Enjoy!

Slayer Sword... for sale?

But theres only one. This years Slayer Sword winner has put the esteemed prized up for sale here on ebay.

Is this acceptable? Does it de-value the prize at all? Hopefully the artist himself will speak out and tell us why he is selling the Slayer Sword.

Too Stealthy for some and BatRep

So, an update at last! Been over a week, but a busy one. Not so much hobby wise, although partly so. As we're getting the club through the transition we've had a couple of setbacks, regarding GCN status. A little more time and money and we'll be applying soon, score!

But for now... Remember these guys?

What the... where did they go?

Ah! There they are, bloody stealth suits! Anyways... remember these? Well, I wanted to get another three for a full unit, and I had recently spoken to Jacob who sells some models at the club occasionally. I asked him what Tau stuff he had, and he mentioned a few stealth suits, and a hammerhead somewhere. The hammerhead failed to materialise unfortunately, but the stealthsuits were there.

A few he said! 9 will do nicely, and all for the princely sum of £15. He also gave me some drones and a bag of Tau weapons, score! So, in two hours while listening to the Thousand Sons audio book, I basecoated all 9 of em! Thats progress methinks. Still a lot more to do, and with all the lines the highlighting really takes a little while to get done, but its worth it. I also picked this guy and the other two Dark Vengeance bikers off Jacob...

But why you may ask? And you'd be right too. Am I doing some Ravenwing? Well... No. Never been a fan of Dark Angels, but this model... I see potential! I'm gonna have a crack at converting him into a Chaplain on a bike. I'm unsure about how to add a crozius, so will be looking at that and I was also given a helmet from the venerable dreadnought off Bam, along with the pictured Dreadnought Plasma Cannon. More score! Plenty of things to get cracking on with, I've already taken the iconography off that I don't want on the bike so its ready for chopping. Do I take the arm off and go for a talon-like powerfist? Or go with a custom crozius? Options...

Also I got my first game in a couple of weeks! Being Chairman at the club does mean that playing happens a little less, but its something I'm fine about. This week I play Alun, who visited back from university. I made an allround army, mainly of stuff I fancied taking. Rough list...

captain and 5 marines on bikes, 5 cc termies in land raider, 2 tactical squads, scout snipers, vindicator, predator, and my chaplain dread. Alun took 4-5 units of storm troopers, a unit of GK termies, Coteaz and another character, whose name eludes me. And to top it off, 3, yes THREE.... Vindicare assassins. Ouchen! 

Big Guns Never Tire and Hammer and Anvil!

Against a lot of infantry, my predator would not do an awful lot, as it was equipped with lascannons. It was to hold back and add fire against a unit I was targetting while claiming an objective. Bikes, TS, and dread on the right, LR and TS on the left, then Vindicator and SSnipers in a central role. Alun stole the first turn, and almost wiped out the snipers and telion. Assassin took out the vindicator, but luckily my LR survived... for now! All of his units had storm bolters, but did little as most were out of range, missed, or failed to wound. Predator fired at the termies, 3 hits, NO wounds. Yes, 3 ones. ARGH! However, the dreads plasma cannon scattered and went from hitting one to 4. 3 dead GK termies! 

 

So may land raider and predator are blown up, scouts finally wiped out, but I carry on looking to claim objectives. Termies deepstrike down behind the enemy, and do damage to a unit holding an objective in aluns deployment zone. Bikes charge forward into the termies but do little damage, and are all butchered after two turns. Not good, but I do like using them! Assault termies wipe out a character and a unit. then move centrally to threaten objectives. Plasma cannons take their toll on Aluns infantry, although his assassins are hard to wound. 

We went all the way to seven turns, and it was really close. While I killed a lot of infantry, Aluns Assassins had blown up two of my heavy support vehicles (which give bonus points in this objective), had first blood and warlord. I, had one objective, and killed his warlord. As we went into the last turn I needed to deny him an objective and capture it myself to win. And.... it didn't happen. His last couple of terminators managed to survive and hold the objective while I couldn't get him off. So close! Final points were 5-7 to Alun, a really good game fair play! Good to see him and his elvish looks back at the club, although hopefully he wont be back too soon... HA! 

We've got our next all dayer confirmed too, November 11th! If you'd like to come let me know in the comments or take a look at the Tredegar Reavers website, as we'll post news when we know more. 

Adios for now, hopefully 9 finished stealth suits by the weeks end, which will make two full squads of 6! Now I just need path finders for some markerlight goodness!