Chaos Heralds End of Year

2013 is coming to a close, and we now beckon in a new year. Theres a lot to look forward too aswell. Tyranids, Imperial Guard, new X-wing releases and a wealth of board/card games for me yet to discover. One thing that will be looked forward too howver, is Kill Team. 

You may remember a Chaos Skaven Marine I built up a few weeks ago, well I've finally done some more using a few Bestmen bits I had lying around too.

As you can see, on two models I've used Skaven torsos, these have mutated and it makes them look a little crooked and not quite right, which for me is Chaos! 

Plasma guns seem to be the weapon of choice in a Chaos Marine list, although I haven't decided whether I'll use the Chaos Codex or Space Marine Codex. 

The cape on the shoulder looks a little odd, but I can see this guy thinking he's quite cavalier and it kind of works. 

Tails/tentacles for legs? Why the hell not, its Chaos! This was a pure experiment that I didn't intend to use but he looked pretty rad so had to get painted up. 

And this is the unit so far! Six strong, I'll perhaps take it up a little and see what else inspires me with the bits I have. I'm really looking forward to using these in Kill Team and there seems to be some interested guys at the Reavers who are up for it too. Small model count means cheaper army, and if you did want to expand its easy enough to add some bits and built it up a little.

I've got a games night to report on where I got to try some awesome games involving City of Horrors, Cube Quest and Pandemic, that'll come soon along with a couple of 40k batreps. I've also got some X-wing to chat about too as I've picked up a starter set, with an extra X-wing and Tie Fighter. Can't wait to build up my Rebels for this! 

For now though have a good safe New Years Eve and an even better 2014!

The Imperator

The Emperor class titan, the Imperator, is a beast of a war machine. Its the largest titan the Imperium can muster, and stands around the 180ft mark. When I first saw this immense beast I thought it was the greatest thing ever. Of course, looking back now having a castle on legs doesn't look quite so appealing anymore. If I were able to get into Epic I'd prefer battle companies, masses of tanks etc instead of the Adeptus Titanicus machines. This is the cover of Titan Legions, from around 1994-95.

Looking back, its bulky caste-like form looks aged, but as always theres still charm. Anyone who knows me knows of my thing for assault cannons, and the Imperator has a similar looking weapon called the Hellstorm cannon. How can that not look good? I was always intrigued by how the Plasma Annihilator worked, with its card sheet and tokens to see how powerful you could make its shot with a roll ever turn.

Why its upper middle cannon is turned sideways a little for, I have no idea. It looks bloody odd though.

And then you see updated artwork of the Imperator and the appeal comes back. The Pax Macharius Walks, by Zach Graves aka columbussage on Deviantart is a stunning representation of an older model whose concept can still stand the test of time. I highly recommend going over to Zachs deviantart as he has some amazing artwork based on the 40k universe. 

If GW ever were to re-release Epic and bring a new updated version of the Imperator out, I can see its castle/cathedral-like features being toned down a lot, in favour of a more stronghold styled base bristling with guns on a pair of heavily armoured legs. I'd love to see a new Epic happening, and with a new found respect for titans a remodelling of these behemoths of war would be right up my alley.

Alien Infiltration: Tyranids

As we near Xmas we all know that the Tyranids are right around the corner with a bunch of new releases coming out for them. Some updates, some new models, its safe to say Nid players are a wee excited  To add to the hunger of the Hive Mind heres some very old school epic models. We could be seeing new reincarnations of the Haruspex and Dactylis, but thankfully the Dominatrix doesn't seem to be making a return. Not that a new version may be cool, but theres only so many big gribblies you want to go up against!

One thing that intrigues me is looking at rumoured release schedules, Nids are followed by Imperial Guard. Might this be a good time to release a Genestealer Cult list in a digital format? 

Stealers with swords! I doubt a release would happen unless some new models are released. I can't see GW releasing a new digital codex if theres no models to support it and its only supported by conversions. It would add an interesting twist to a Nid list, limited but extremely useful firepower would make Tyranids even more dangerous. 

I've got some more posts coming soon, some battle reports, and also some new additions to the hobby... Including two new card games and X-wing! But for now, I have to go as I feel a third arm about to burst through. LIMO!!!!!

Sunday Salvo: White Dwarf, WIPs and Hobbits.

Welcome to another weekend chunk of hobby love on todays Sunday Salvo. White Dwarf was released yesterday, and theres some interesting bits in there I'll be talking about. Can I just start off with these guys though? 

These miniatures are simply awesome. I've not been interested in the LOTR or Hobbit ranges before, but these look so fun and full of character I'd love to play this scenario. I'm gonna keep a look out to see if my local GW puts on the scenario, I'll be there in a shot! 

Next up, a Fantasy Flight release caught my eye. 

This is really different for me and something I'd love to try. Chaos in the Old World was such a great game and if this recreates half of the enjoyment I had in that it'll be a good laugh. 

Ho. Lee. Shhhhh..... Well you get the idea... A graphic novel set in 40k? They haven't done one of these in years as far as I'm aware! The artwork looks absolutely stunning, and is by Neil Roberts, more about him and his highly talented hand later however! The problem I have, is its £75 asking price. Yeah its leatherbound, but damn, I wanna read this so much without having the luxury of leather. The other release is a new version of Visions of Heresy, the first of which I have. This looks great with tonnes more new artwork, more writings from Alan Merrett, but again, the price is rather steep. £150 for this bad boy, its definately making the Horus Heresy range a very costly part of the hobby to get into. Shame really!

In terms of Parade Ground, Blanchitsu and Kitbash theres a lot to take in this month from Wraithknights and Riptides to Space Marine Dreads and some Armies on Parade from the Memphis Games Day, including the Chaos Dwarfs above who are absolutely stunning. Some great conversions in there and the display board is well done, the magma in particular really draws the eye in. I've always been a fan of the Chaos Stunties so this does appeal to me!

Neil Roberts, the artist behind the new Graphic Novel also shows this off in WD. A great follow up to an older Emperor Horus depictions from many years ago this really does a good job of updating the old art, and gives us a good idea of how FW may create the Emperor and Horus in 'miniature'. They're a wee way off yet, especially the Emperor but I will look forward to seeing them. 

So us 40k fans are 'spoilt' with two new expansions this month. Escalation sees us being able to use a 'Lord of War' in our games, so a Nicholas Cage model? No, as in Harridans, Baneblades and some other superheavies. Do I like this? I'm unsure, depends how their rules have been adapted and just how hard they are. I hope people can't just rock up to a tourney using one, and its a bit like 'Oh mind if I take a Lord of War?' thing where players are happy to ask their opponent if they mind them being used just so they have fair warning. 

Stronghold Assault sees expanded use of Fortifications, with rules and missions based on them. This interests me a little more, as something that can encourage people to build, paint and model terrain is a good thing, but again its all about how the rules work. Unfortunately, theres not much in White Dwarf to tell us about these supplements so we'll have to wait and see. I'm interested, but very unsure as to whether I'll get either. 

Onto some WIP goodness, the Bikers, Vindicator and Land Raider have all got some paint on em!

Nothings 100% done but they're all at the point where I can stick em on the battlefield. They look a little patchy and need some tidying, but my army is certainly growing! Grav guns on bikers are great, especially against large beastly things or elite infantry. It'll be great to use them in more games to see how effective they'll be. 

The raider on the left is the new addition, a Redeemer no less. Still holding a capacity of twelve this has a wee edge on the Godhammer pattern, being able to carry 5 termies and a character, and its redeemer cannons are S6ap3, which we all know is awesome against power armour!

I've also got this guy, he's almost done just some tidying up needed. Thats two newer mark Vindicators plus I do have an old one who is in a bit of a bad shape but its a linebreaker squadron if I need it!

This week, while painting I've been listening to Deliverance Lost. Fair dues I've really enjoyed it too, and its mad me absolutely fascinated with the 'Cabal'. This strange collection of Xenos agents have perked up my imagination and I can't wait to find out more about them, hopefully even seeing some miniatures when FW do the Alpha Legion. The Raven Guard are a great read too, Corax having to deal with losing many of his legion and rebuilding only for the Alpha Legion to cock things RIGHT up. I'd always heard a little about them having some mutated members but hearing about them in more detail and how they came to be in existence was really interesting, and a great idea for modelling. I've always had a thing for the Raptors too, sort of being a Toronto Raptors fan so a Space Marine chapter named the same would interest me, even if the subject is slightly different. They also fight to my playing style which was cool. I also liked the small mention of the Golden Throne when Corax questions the Emperor for advice, some nice little teasers there!

So next will be Know No Fear, looking forward to listening to that while doing some more modelling projects I've got in my head. I'm hoping to get to my local GW for a game of 40k too, I've not played for a couple of weeks and thats not good. Do I build a second Thunderfire cannon or not... do I convert a dreadnought... do I hear the pat of paws on the door? Hmm... Rats...

All images copyright of Games Workshop where applicable

Saturday Salvo: Xwing, Chaos vs Imperum Marines

So the weekend is here, and I've got a nice chunky post for you all. I took a visit down to Cwmbran a couple of days ago, met up with one of the fine men of the Crow Valley Crusaders who sold me a Vindicator and Land Raider Redeemer for a very nice sum. They've both been undercoated and will be worked on in the next couple of weeks! While there I popped into GW, and got to watch a good game of 40k between Tau and an Imperial Fists and Aurora Chapter force. The Tau's gunline proved too much and the Riptide caused a lot of damage. Great fun to watch though. I also picked these guys up, and combined them with parts from the new Tactical Squad and Sternguard box sets.

Grav-guns ahoy! Two Grav-guns and a Combi-grav, should prove deadly and as they're so quick they can quickly advance and pour deadly fire into the most heavily armoured infantry the enemy can muster... or big buggers like Riptides, Greater Daemons and Wraithknights... after playing Alun a couple of weeks ago and decimating his Bloodthirster with them I needed to purchase! Also, my Chapter Master is pretty much done too so thought I'd take a better pic of him. 

I'm still not 100% on the flames but happy enough to not redo this guy anytime soon, as he looks good on the tabletop and thats what matters for me! When my greenstuff skills get much better I may go back then and redo the sword but for now I'm sure he'll get plenty of kills. 

Also got some better pics of my Skaven inspired Chaos Marine, who I've now based. Doesn't look too bad if I may say so myself, so will probably get a squad done to see how they look combined. Plus with the amount of conversion ideas I'm getting a small force may slowly come!

Last Monday at club I also got to have a quick game of X-wing, so heres some pictures! Jason has become a big fan of this game and has most of the ships, but we kept things simple for my first game. 60pts each would mean about 3 ships for me and about double for Jase. 

I took a prototype pilot A-wing, which proved really useful even though I didn't expect much. It took some hullpoints off a tie fighter in the first turn and proved difficult for the tiefighters to lock onto because of its speed. I lost an Xwing but was able to take all the tiefighters out with the A and Xwings. 

I really enjoyed the simplicity of the game, and the second guessing of movement and what abilities to use. Do you focus to survive or lock on to try and take the enemy down, or use a special ability to shake someone following you? So nice having only two phases, moving and shooting. Means theres less to forget!

Next time I'll try the Imperial forces, see what its like having all those tiefighters to control! Perhaps see if I can try a larger game too, as this only took about 45 minutes! Ideal for having a series of quick games, switching sides or even linking them together. 

The models are also really cool, well painted and look really good on the table. Jase also had the cool gaming mat you can see in the pictures, and with the size only being 3x3 you can easily fit it onto most dining tables, which means gaming is easier to come by! Can't be a bad thing at all! 

So coming up soon will hopefully be painted bikers, Redeemer and Vindicator. Hopefully I'll do a few more Chaos Marines too using Skaven and Beastmen bits, just to see what I can come up with. We'll be having an alldayer in the middle of December so I cannot wait to get some gaming done then, see what we can come up with!

Rats and Bolt Pistols.

So far, my hobbying in 40k has been all Space Marines and Tau. Well the other day, I fancied cutting some plastic up and making something more... well grotty and dirty. So this, is what I came up with

Yep, we've got a Chaos Skaven Marine! Although the obvious direction would be Nurgle, I'll be keeping undivided as worshipping one God doesn't interest me. Will this be the start of something bigger? Quite possibly, as I've got some ideas for other units. I've always fancied doing some beastmen based Chaos Marines too, so a feral wild warband could be due. Rat Ogre Obliterators come to mind and making weapons is always good fun, plus it'll make me learn how to use green stuff a lot more too. 

At some point on the weekend I'll have a larger post coming with a small game of X-wing to report on, and some recent purchases. Cheers for reading and any thoughts please share=]

Codex Inquisitor and Batrep vs Daemons

Can it truly be? Has the Kev of Immense Size managed to prise his filthy paws from writing up business stuff and off the black smooth plastic of the Xbox 360 controller? Yes he bloody has! Things have been a little hectic lately, and when I've had free time its either been spent on the streets of Los Santos or attempting to get a life's dream off the ground and into full blown mode. Before I get into a battle report though, a few things first! 

A Better World opened up in Merthyr Tydfil (althought better known locally as Mordor Tydfil) in the last couple of weeks and is an amazing little gaming/comic book shop. Paul, the guy behind it all is also hoping to come to club soon to get into gaming, and we're only too happy to help. If you're in South Wales go visit!

This is also coming out in a little over a week, but why am I bothered about it? Well, conversion possibilities for a start! We've all seen in Blanchitsu the focus on Inquisitor style warbands (which I still think is some sort of marketing strategy for a possible Inquisitor boxed game) and I'm incredibly tempted to get this to be able to add Inquisitors and hopefully assassins into my Krohmus Guard.

So onto the MAIN EVENT OF THE EVENING!!! 

In the red, blue, purple, black and white corner is the KROHMUS GUARD! In the... well, very odd entity of warp thats all over the shop, the EVIL DAEMONS OF ALUN THE ELF-RUFFIAN!!! Bit of a big game too, as we're both using 3000 points, yes, THREE THOUSAND! points playing the Big Guns Never Tire on a Vanguard deployment.

Alun won the dice roll and wanted me to set up and go first. I didn't have much terrain, so using the Techmarine with the thunderfire cannon I boosted the only ruins in my deployment zone and formed a strong firebase there with Devs, TF Cannon, Tactical Squad and the Scorpius Relic Whirlwind (proxying the normal WW as one, wanted to try it out) among these simple ruins. The Bikes set up on the dz edge, and the Vindicator covered my left flank.

Alun responded with plaguebearers on his objective, blood letter units in the centre, bloodthirster and juggernauts on my left flank. On my right flank behind a building was a Keeper of Secrets and a Daemon Prince. Finally Alun placed a soulgrinder in the middle. Ouch! Nightfighting for first turn!

Looking to get First Blood I bring a DP down and shred a bunch of bloodletters, but its not enough. Theres not a lot to happen due to nightfighting but I do take a hullpoint off the soulgrinder and stun it and also take a wound off the keeper of secrets. Finally the vindicator launchers a shell into the three juggernauts and kills two outright. Score! Aluns forces move up and he conjures some despicable spells upon himself, but thats about it for his first turn. Well, he does pretty much destroy my tactical squad with his Daemon Prince but thats to be expected! 

In my next turn I launch more fire into the Daemonnic lines. Daemon Prince loses a couple of wounds, the BloodThirster is taken down to just two wounds by the gravguns on the bikers who then charge in, lose two of their number but finish him off. The Vindicator kills several of a bloodletter unit, the whirlwind finishes off the Soulgrinder after I rolled four hits, two sixes to penetrate then blowing it up with Alun failing his Invulnerable save. That thing scared me so to see it die was awesome! My Chapter Master and Daemon Prince do battle, I forget orbital bombardment AGAIN but do kill the beast even though I lose two wounds. Aluns reinforcements begin to appear, materialising all over to support his army. 

The Lord of Change appears, and starts using its trickery. Luckily it cannot move and will be targeted next turn! Bloodletters spill into my second tactical squad in drop pod on the left flank, and I have 4 left. I do manage to whittle them down though so I may have a change. The last juggernaut exacts revenge against the vindicator by wrecking it and some daemonettes run onto the objective in the central position after appearing nearby. My response, as so often is, SHOOOOOOOOOT!!!!!

My biker captain charges into the last couple of bloodletters and instead of using the power axe I use his base initiative attacks to try and kill them... and he does! Last three members are saved. The other bikes spin around to kill th last juggernaut, and do so, the grav gun taking its toll on the red beast. Daemonettes and Terminators clash, with the daughters of Slaanesh gaining the upper hand. My Chapter Master wanders into the combat that now includes a keeper of secrets but is mortally wounded. The last termie breaks from combat and runs back 10". The Keeper of Secrets then attracts not handsome egotistical men or beautiful women, but bullets and laser beams. He soons slumps to the ground and disappears.

More Daemons appear but each is met with controlled bursts of assault cannon fire, frag missiles and bolter rounds as they're all cut down. Bikers move onto the central objevtive, giving me two while I'm able to finish off the plaguebearers thanks to the Thunderfire Cannon, two storm talons and the last three marines of the left flank drop pod unit. Theres another Daemon prince appearence who is brought down by two overwatching Krakmissiles, and the lone termie is able to deal with another lone daemonette in a slow combat. Horrors are dismantled by the Legion of the Damned, Whirlwind and tactical squad on my ruins and the battlefiel finally grows quiet. 

The Krohmus Guard have wiped the Daemons from the battlefield. I'd somehow tabled Alun! Score wise its about 10-2, which clearly deserves a fistpump! No doubt what won it for me was target choice, making sure I brought down what was most lethal like the juggernauts, bloodthirster and Keeper of Secrets key targets. The Keeper of Secrets took a beating too, starting with an extra wound and having FnP made it a machine! The Whirlwind performed awesomely well, D3+1 shots if not moving was devastating, especially ST8ap3 blasts! The Thunderfire caused a lot of damage, as did my faith in boltguns. It was nice to have my dice perform reasonably well too, Aluns wasn't bad but mine were just much better! I'm sure there were plenty more moments that had us both laughing but my memory is horrific lately.

At club Jase has got himself X-wing so I'm hoping to try that out soon, otherwise I'll see what new conquests the Krohmus Guard can claim for the Imperium!