Specialist Aniticipation

With the announcement before Christmas about GW and FW producing the Specialist Games range once again, I can't help but to have got myself incredibly excited. I understand why the range was dropped years ago, small ranges and difficult to expand meant profits were hard to come by. But where the range made its worth was being an easier and less financially demanding way to get into the hobby. It was the perfect gateway to engross yourself in the core games of Fantasy and 40k. 

My gaming history starts off with its humble beginnings in Space Crusade. My sister had started seeing someone and he asked if I fancied having a go, sounds good to me. After several games I remember him asking me an incredibly important question.

"Fancy playing a game thats American Football bu with Orcs and Elves?" 

Hells yes. 

And so my love for Blood Bowl began, along with the other Specialist Games as they were produced. I could natter about the past for ages, how Long Gone Lemmy the star player for the Crookback Critters could score in one turn until his unfortunate death in an win that felt like defeat. But this post is about the future, about what I'd like to see from the new upcoming range.  Just before we go into the Emperors Tarot however, what about the present? 

People at our club have been chatting a little about getting a campaign based game to play and Mordheim has been mentioned. Not really being able to spend money on some new bits I had a scour and remembered I still had the Dwarf contents from the old Battle of Skull Pass set. Behold the start of a warband! Its unknown when we're starting and it could be a while, but they're ready to go (although more love painting wise is needed) and as a friend pointed out, they look rather festive. White beards to come!

Sticking with a 'stunted' theme, I've also been working on these short warriors by Macrocosm, part of their Digger Corps range. I'm not a fan of metal models but these haven't been too bad to paint thankfully, and will hopefully look cool when done. They're multi purpose too, being that I could use them for Necromunda or as an Astra Militarum unit, which means I'm thinking about a custom Chimera!

So first of all, the future.

Blood Bowl. I'm guessing you've all seen the early sculpts from the Warhammer World open day right? No? Well just in case... 

I'm even more excited after seeing these! Many people are already saying 'well they'll spoil the rules anyway so whats the point'... For gods sake a beloved game in the community gets new models and already theres scepticism? I do wonder about this 'community' at times. If they change the rules then fine, whats to say they'll be worse? All I want from Blood Bowl, is a good league based format to play games, some good looking models and continued support. I'm hoping the full choice of teams doesn't take too long to be released so a league can be started with variety. A couple of members are very critical of the older models and they're not fussed on third party ones either so hopefully, this will get them intrigued. 

In terms of Necromunda and Mordheim, I want multi part models so its easy to equip them with what you want, preferably in plastic as its easier to convert with than resin, and I think importantly is scenery. Imagine a plastic Necromunda terrain set? It'll add to your Warhammer 40k terrain collection and add a few more layers to the play. Will Mordheim get love in this sense? Its hard to say as the scenery may be more restrictive as I haven't seen much in the way of ruined towns being used in the photography for Age of Sigmar, so it will be interesting to see where they go. One other avenue GW/FW should look at is that when making sets of gangs, make them so they'd work as Imperial Guard regiments too. Even more reasons for gamers to spend money on the kits will help sustain the game itself.

Epic has also been mentioned, and its a game system I never got to play but would be interested in. I would love to collect an entire Krohmus Guard Chapter (my own Space Marine chapter creation) in Epic scale along with vehicles and support. And an Imperial Guard artillery platoon please. BASILISKS! Otherwise I'm not sure what I'd like to see, perhaps a good way to integrate it into 40k and maybe even Battlefleet Gothic for campaigns? Could be an interesting take on how the narrative in 40k could work through continued games. 

Lastly, Inquisitor. I don't think its been mentioned, but surly it would be a great game to bring back but in the traditional 28mm scale. One of my favourite monthly doings is getting the new Warhammer Visions and flicking through to Blanchitsu, where a lot of the models featured would work well in an Inquisitor/Necromunda setting. Perhaps the two can be combined? Surely its likely that gangs may be purged by roving Inquisitors weary of the gangs uing Wyrds in the Underhive and enlisting Redemptionists? Possible!

So what do you guys and gals think may be incoming? Do you still play any of the Specialist Games? Feel free to post links to what you're working on, I'm always inspired by what the blogging community gets upto!

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!

October: Boxed Game?

Theres been speculation for some time now about an all inclusive boxed game coming out from GeeDub. Last year rumours for Blood Bowl were rife. Three teams, seperate sculpts, bit of a story... I was incredibly intrigued to say the least. But then rumours dissipated and new murmourings became visible.

Inquisitor.

Rumours for this was that GW wanted to get back into the skirmish games market, where other companies had been doing well GW had given up on its specialist games market due to poor - mediocre sales despite a cult fanbase for all its games. 28mm, 3-4 warbands in the box all sound good for a new version of Inquisitor, and if theres one thing that could back this up is that in White Dwarf we've seen hints at future releases... Matt Hutsons Black Templars having units added to it and then Space Marines coming out next? Jes Bickhams Tyranids could well be getting some love after he'd kept adding to them.... So the hint for Inquisitor? Blanchitsu wasn't in the last issue, but in the previous few months every single Blanche article was about Inquisitor warbands in 28mm. Yes, this kind of model does have great scope for conversion, so it would be a prime target for modellers... but 4+ months in a row? Surely this is GeeDub quietly introducing new people and reminding us veterans what Inquisitor is. 

What if we have been totally fooled however, and GW are doing something different?

What if the secret release turns out to be Necromunda? Its ideal for getting back into skirmish games, plus with the technology that could go into making the terrain it'd sell to 40k players too just to get their greedy mitts on some underhive terrain! Add on packs could easily work, picture this. For £70 you get a boxed game with three or even four gangs inside. Goliath, Orlock, Delaque, and Escher. Thats four playstyles and something to appeal to female demographic. You also get some nice terrain, and all the bits and counters you need to play. 6 months down the line, an addon pack comes out. Van Saar and Cawdor are included, a few more rules, and a bit more terrain. This keeps people interested in the game but also getting purpose to use the terrain for 40k gives added incentives for people to buy it. Another 6 months and you get ratskins and redemptionists and so on. 

The most likely scenario is that the Inquisitor game is released, which could also work well with expansions down the line. Myself? I'd love to score some touchdown or earn me some creds....

Rescue the Squat: Batrep.

"Thornarim nodded at his newest recruit and looked back at the target. The Chaos Marines standing nearby were so far unaware of the Squat and his scouts watching them. Thornarim and his unit had been sent to recon the area, reports of Chaos forces gathering meant a force of Evandalists and Imperial Guard were dispatched to take care of them, and the venerable old Squat had come to seek them out. He tiptoe'd over the window ledge, and noted 3 Chaos Marines in red bloodstained armour stood near a crossroads in what used to be a thriving city. The traitors were part of a patrol, and were soon moving on past the building the Scout squad were using as cover. "Shiori, They be here. We await your presence book keeper" he said into a small device. The scouts took up position in the building, weapons ready. All of a sudden the floor underneath them erupted with noise, a man screamed as bones could be heared snapping. Thornarim motioned for quiet, and slid over to a gap in the floor. He looked down and saw two Chaos Marines hold a man on the floor, his legs already seperated from his body. The man cried and babbled, then one of the traitors stamped on his head, crushing the mans skull beneath his armoured foot. The old Squat moved back gently, but heard something small fall across from him. Elrynd, the new recruit, had been looking through another gap, but as he moved away a few minor pieces of rubble had fallen off the edge and alerted the Chaos Marines that someone was above them. Three heretics presence was felt almost immediately as the bounded up the plascrete stairs and confronted the old Squat and his 4 scouts. The scouts fired off shots with their sniper rifles as the Bezerkers pounced on them, one tripped but quickly regained his balance as one sniper shot hit him in the thigh, while another was shot in the shoulder pad which did little to heed his haste. Thornarim leapt towards the third with his combat blade already drawn, dodging a chainaxe while planting the blade into the Bezerkers neck. The Chaos Marine slumped as blood streamed out of the gap between his helmet and torso armour, Thornarim turned to see how his scouts had faired. All four had quickly been dismembered by the other two Khorne worshippers, Thornarim felt confident against one, but the other had more scars across his face than a war torn world. As they lunged at him they suddenly changed direction, one fell to the floor with a gaping hole in his head, while the scarred brute slammed into the wall and collapsing it into the next room. Thornarim quickly remembered his time with the guardsmen. While drinking some of the ale the guardsmen had, some had mentioned rumours of an assassin in the vicinity. Could this be true? The halfling quickly searched for the Bezerker who'd gone through the wall, only to see him rise, dust himself off, and once again lunge at the Squat. As the Chaos fool jumped onto the Squat his chainaxe suddenly fell as another high velocity shot tore his arm off. It did nothing to slow him down as he landed on Thornarim, headbutted him and then started to throttle him with his one hand. The old scout sergeant found a large rock, and started to pound it on the Bezerkers skull. Blood starting pouring down from his wound, but did nothing to loosen the traitorsgrip. Thornarim could feel his fight quickly disappearing, his eyes beginning to fail and his breathing becoming hard. He felt himself falling unconscious, and his last sight was the Khorne Bezerker staring at him as its foreheard quickly exploded, brain matter and blood showering the room, then the world was black."

And so the scene is set! Myself and Alun teamed up in an attempt to rescue my fallen Squat sergeant Thornarim Nafni, after Shiori Kiyoshi had received a comms from him but did not get another reply shortly after. We would be fighting the vile combination of Adam and Chris as they used Plague Marines and Khorne Bezerkers. 1500 points per player, Hammer and Anvil deployment!

Above you can see deployment, I had Shiori and a ten strong unit of Sterguard in the Crusader. Below, are Adams reserves, and the pitcure below that is my Stormtalon and Aluns Inquisitor and Grey Knights. 

My Crusader took a penetrating hit in the first turn stunning it, making it unable to move. This cause my lne to slow although Erasmus Torgeaz and his fellow bikers flew up the left flank, intent on destroying the Hellbrute and swinging back in to take down the Bezerkers Rhino that headed towards my lines.

Another unit of Khorne Bezerkers were quicly upon Thornarim, and bundled him into their rhino the turn after. This did not look good! 

Kharn and his fellow Bezerkers bounded out of their Rhino, intent on butchering the Guardsmen in front of them. Epistolory Shiori Kiyoshi and the Sternguard quickly disembarked out of the Crusader, its guns taking down the first few traitors, quickly followed by Shiori focusing his mind and unleashing a blast against them, killing another two. The Sternguards guns blazed away and Kharn fell as his armour was riddled with special-issus ammunition. One Bezerker stood, but was soon gunned down by the relieved guardsmen.

As Torgeaz aims his squad for the Hellbrute, the air grew warm as a unit of Nurgle Terminators teleported just 20ft to their right. Torgeaz motioned for the squad to continue as he steered straight for the Terminators, bellowing how his axe would be their end. Their champion stepped forward to meet the Space Marine captain, his chainfist buzzing away hungrily. It caught the side of Erasmus' arm and drew blood, but Torgeaz swung his axe around caught the Terminator in the head and cleaved his helmet in two. The other Terminators now strode forward, eager to prove their dominance, but none could outmatch the grizzled Captain as he took them down one by one. 

The biker unit set their eyes on the Hellbrute who had cripsed one of their number with its multi melta, and unleashed their own melta weapons at the beast/machine. The hot stream of melta tore straight through the Hellbrute and it slumped to the grounds, horrible screams coming from within its torso. As the Bikers veered around its huge carcuss, a greater target loomed into sight, a Defiler.

Typhus and his huge number of plague zombies had shambled slowly forward, overseeing the rest of the forces were carrying out his masters wishes. The Squat would be a good plague bearer, and papa Nurgle would smile wryly as one of the rare subhumans would bloat up and become a haven for flies and disease. Suddenly, Typhus became aware of a presence, and as he turned around the air fizzled as an Inquisitor and some Grey Knights appeared in front of the Chaos Champion. Their psycannons and storm bolters blazed into the walking dead and tore most of them to pieces as Typhus immediately strode towards them. Another Hellbrute noticed the Grey Knights and started to shift its enormous weight towards the terminators, eager to spill loyalist blood. 

The Grey Knights managed to evade most of the Hellbrutes blows, and planted a coupel of Krak grenades just under its torso. The first explosion did nothing and a maniacal laugh burst from within. It looked down upon them in pity as its giant mutated fist raised to deliver another blow, and the second krak grenade exploded turning its torso outwards and buckling the heretical machine. The Grey Knights quickly turned to see the Inquisitor lose his leg to Typhus, whose scythe swung through the Terminator armour the Inquisitor wore felling him. As Typhus turned his attention to the Grey Knights the Inquisitor swung his Hammer into the back of Typhus, the blow sending him spinning around and his scythe lunged intot he Inquisitors head. The blows from each force weapons taking the others lives, killing each other in one almight moment.

The Bezerkers Rhino had been wrecked, and now they carried their captive towards their lines where reinforcements laid wait. The form of a defiler was an easy target for aid, and the Chaos Marines headed towards the ancient daemonnic machine. As they did so, they were fire upon from all angles. Traitors fell as the guardsmen and Sternguard carefully aimed all their weapons at the Khorne followers, butchering them all as Thornarim was dropped to the floor. The Defiler saw the prize, and started to bound forward to capture it. 

The bikers took aim at the Defiler as its attention was turned elsewhere, the first Melta shot missing but the other hit the beast in the side. Feeling the superheated beam the Defiler turned around quickly unleashing a battle cannon shot at point blank range, killing three of the bikers and then swiped away the last with one of its gian crab like claws. 

The metal beast quickly turned its attention to the fallen Squat just as a Tactical Squad moving in to carry him. The Defiler leapt forwards to stop them but was blown out of the air as the Stormtalon swooped in, krak missiles taking out its claws and assault cannon churning into its body. The other Chaos Marines could see the battle was lost and much of their number had died. The retreated out of the building and were able to get away. Thornarim opened his eyes, feeling something wet upon his brow. Above him was a guardsman and Shiori Kiyoshi, Epistolary of the Evandalists. "Trouble?" asked the Librarian. Thornarim stared at the psyker intently, before letting himself smile. "Aye, any left?" "None that we're aware of, it looks like one unit got away that were station in that building." Thornarim spat as he rose to his feet, his body aching and cuts and bruises making him feel sore. 

"Those bastards are mine, I've got some laddies to avenge."

Club Showcase part 3

Part 3 of Tredegar Wargames Club showcase is here! This post is all focussed on Owains mini's. Owain has a blog which you can find right here! As you can see the lad has some nice looking models, so I'll let you get your eyes into them.

 Wurrzag Orc Shaman

 Severina and Sevora Devout from Inquisitor

 Adeptus Arbites

 Slaanesh Noise Marines

 Lucius the Eternal

Slaanesh Chaos Lord/Sorceror. 

Previous club showcase posts can be found here for part 1, and here for part 2.

Club Showcase pt 2

Welcome again folks, here comes the Tredegar Wargames Club showcase... part 2!

 Tomb Kings by Venerable Mike

 Inquisitor scale scratch built Techpriest by venerable Mike

 Inquisitor by Alun

 Grey Knight by Alun

 Grey Knight by Alun

 Death Company by Scout Mike

Blood Angels Venerable Dreadnought by Scout Mike.

Part one is here

Club Showcase

Welcome again folks, a nice picture heavy post today! I've recently been taking more images and making more of an effort to get better quality pictures of my models. This has two effects.... Firstly, the better looking the images the better looking my miniatures will be. Secondly, I can see more mistakes and thus it will make me be a lot more careful of my painting! Todays post however is decicated to two club members, Morgan and Louis. We've got some good painters at Tredegar Wargames Club, and I felt it was about time to capture in better detail what we have.

 Morgans Space Wold Lord

Morgans Space Wolf Scouts

 Louis' Rough Rider Character. Note added aged effect, though it looked good!

 Another of Louis' mini's, can;t remember exactly what it is though. Possibly something that accompanies one of the inquisitors? Looks great though, the parchment especially eye catching.

 Louis' Alpha Legion Dreadnought. Note the scales on the armour!

Louis painted this Space Marine Chaplain for Bam, and it looks great. Bam was a happy Bam!

Thats it for now, but there'll be a few more of these coming up soon, perhaps today, perhaps over the next few days. Keep an eye out!