Huge Game and Tabletop Day Update!

So its been a wee while, but I've been a busy chap! Had some work to do and other personal projects to get on so blogging took a wee backseat, but here we are on the cusp of a Tau release, and I'm zogging excited for it! Here though, is my main gaming activity from the week before and tabletop day! What? You don't know what tabletop day is? Pfft!

First of all, myself and Morgan decided to have a nice huge game of 40k, and in a small amount of time. Challange! Our armies are below! I believe we had 4500 each, would have been more but Morg forgot a few of his characters so some trimming was needed.

Heres the table before we deployed, nothing too fancy as we wanted plenty of room, but to still make us think tactics. 

After a couple of turns, my flyers storm the board and cause trouble. Morg wastes almost an entire armies worth of shooting trying to take them out with no success! 

Its a close game throughout, Land Raiders are blown up, characters kill the enemy and are in turn defeated in combat, it was immensely gratifying seeing so much on the table. 

My terminators devoured a couple of grey hunters units, rhinos and a dread before they were finally stopped, and Morgan did eventually take out my Stormraven. Arjac was killed by my thunderhammer toting termies, but a huge bloodclaw pack were rampaging in my deployment zone. This was an epic game fair dues! We hurriedly counted the victory points to see who had won...

15-20 to Morgan, I had a feeling he had the edge but he insisted it was me who was winning, but what a game. We had so much fun playing this, my shooting edge wasn't quite enough as when Morgs wolves got into combat they were hard to stop, although I had some success in Morgs deployment too in combat. We both got to try units that don't get used much, Morgs bikers, and my librarian, who I really enjoyed using! I even remember to use his powers ha.

 Now onto International Tabletop Gaming Day, held last Saturday. The day before Owain and Morgan came over to mine and brought some games with them... first up, Risk!

This edition was Space Risk, where even the moon is up for grabs by your troops. Morgan controlled the game for the first half, although my forces were still considerable Owain was banished to the moon, needing a specific card to be released and exact revenge. As myself and Morg built our forces up, he went to go onto a major offensive against me but I had a 'Cease Fire' card with prevented him from attacking me, score! I then went on the offensive and took over a lot of his countries. Owain however on the last turn took the initiative and invaded the Earth like the Red martian he is! He took over many of my countries, but I managed to fight back valiantly. The game ended, and we totted up the final scores.... 

I'd been pipped by one measely point! It was Give a Ginger a Hug Day also, but I wasn't so sure after that haha. It was a great game though, my first time playing Risk and hopefully not my last! 

Next up, we played Chaos in the Old World. What a sexy board this is! Bam had arrived at this point, and we all fought for which Chaos god we would become. Morgan took on the mantle of Khorne, Owain as Papa Nurgle, Bam became Slaanish, and I sneakily became Tzeentch. 

I started slowly, as Morgan and Owain battle for the lead. Bam stayed ahead of me for much of the game not far off the others. It finally occurred to me what I needed to do to win. In the last turn I ruined two areas and got enough turns on the dial to win. Unfortunately, so did everyone else. If everyone has a victory on the dials it would be judged on the victory points. We counted up and finally, I'd managed to jump ahead and steal it on the final turn in the name of Tzeentch! A great game, I really enjoyed how every Chaos God has to level up in different ways. Nurgle through corrupting towns, Slaanesh through corrupting the nobility, Khorne through butching the others, and Tzeentch through playing magic cards and warpstone tokens in each ot the towns. This is a great little game, and it makes me want to play the Horus Heresy game even more!

For now, thats it. I'll have another update detailing this weeks game, where me and Alun took on the benign Adam and Chris' Chaos forces. I've also been working on objective markers for the Tredegar Reavers first campaign day, where I designed the certificates and campaign pack while member Jacob came up with the story and rules. Should be a cracking day as I'll be using the new Tau! I've got a riptide ordered along with the codex, and hopefully I'll add a few more pieces too. Keep an eye out for those!

For the Newer Greater Good (pics)

And so the Greater Good return. Flyers, new kits, and the model thats getting everyone talking... . the Riptide.

I've grouped together all the pics I've found so far, and I'll share my thoughts on them.

So the two flyer variants. Not sure really how I feel about these, they carry the aesthetics of the piranha while the curvyness remids me a little of the spitfire and other such aeroplanes of that era. Rumours have it that the bomber drops plasma bombs on the enemy while the other takes on enemy flyers. Interesting, but not a must buy so far. 

Pathfinders however, ARE a must. A new kit has ten in a box, with some drones including a larger one. This means that the maximum of eight in the previous codex has been changed, and fingers crossed, you no longer have to take a devilfish for them. I shall be saving for these!

The broadside looks good, and if rumours are true then it can be upgraded with skyfire, which makes them a much more attractive prospect.  It'll be nice to see which other options they have too. The crisis suits themselves don't look too different, but now come in a box of three. I'm pretty sure this works out cheaper than before. Can you believe this? Its only a saving of £1.50 but its a saving!

A new Commander Farsight model, this has a great look to it and he looks a little larger than the normal crisis suit. 

Ah the Riptide. This huge beast looks, quite honestly, amazing. Gameplay wise it sounds exciting, and I just love how big this thing is, it towers over everything in the on picture! £50 isn't cheap, but hopefully it'll be a nice enough model to warrant this price. I really want to see how it looks next to a GK Dreadknight. 

Needless to say this is my other essential purchase. My aim is to get the pathfinders, riptide and codex on release. This should make my force around the 1500pt mark and mean I can get some good games underway. Onwards to release date for the Greater Good!

New FW Necron Release

I'll be the first to admit, I'm not a huge fan of Necrons. I can see the appeal, but its just not something that makes me look and want to collect them. Forge World have however released some new Necron bits that will most likely tie into the imminent release of the new Imperial Armour book. First up, is the realm of battle board featured in a past White Dwarf.

Now fair play, four of those slotted together looks pretty awesome, I'd love to battle em on there! I sort of reminds me of some of the Lizardmen temples that had been seen many moons ago in foreign Games Days and such. The other new release is the Night Shroud Bomber.

How much better does this look with the side blades? Such a better look than the normal variant, it almost looks like a weapon you'd expect to see on Stargate or some othe scifi adventure. I'd always disliked how the cockpit was open, so this is another aspect that holds much improvement in my eyes.

Well done FW, some likeable Necrons!

Mugs and Mini's... Winner!

First of all. thank you to all my new followers on the blog and especially to the people who sent in their pictures.  I'd like people to keep sending pictures in if they have some so we can have a gallery of our mugs and minis! I've had some great pictures, with some lovely models in them. So without further ado... lets have a looksie!

Chris Benner sent in this looted Dark Eldar raider, great piece and I think its been suitably Orkified!

Adam Such was a gem and sent in two pictures. 

"My fiancée painted this as a special treat for me when I was at work, I was absolutely 

speechless when she showed it me...only her 4th ever miniature painted and the detail 

is perfect, even free handed some lovely leopard spots. In the style of joey berry 

 I even gave him a nickname...stewie "griffon". Fair shout, Adams got a great fiancée,

you keep a hold of her because that Griffon is lovely. Just keep buying her lots of paints!

And speaking of Adams other half, here she is with her own entry!

"A picture of the high elf Mage I painted for my fiancée ;)
 
Notice the ring of flames he's standing on (he says fire lore is best as there only 

really Mages if they make things go boom lol) 
I enjoy painting and a lot of time and effort went into this as I know the pleasure 

my partner gets from well painted miniatures. I hope you enjoy this as much as he did! :D" 

I can safely say that mage looks cracking fair play, I can see a lot of jealous blokes wishing their other 

half painted would paint them some mini's as well as these!

The next entry was from Ieuan over at his Sons of Isis blog, and is well worthy of being followed! His Necrons are a treat to look at, so get yourselves over there! 

This entry is from the Tredegar Reavers own Huw, and is one of his Pirate miniatures from his very own game, 'No Quarter'. This mini was also the newest one he'd sculpted for it, its just a shame we can't see more of his pretty face! Keep an eye out for more of No Quarter in the coming months, we'll be making a video at some point to show off how it plays=]

The next entrant needs no introduction, its Joeyberry herself! She's chosen her Lizardman Slann Mage Priest and theres no wonder why. "Me and my favourite model. Tywin Slannister! Its a tie between him and Morgan Treeman but I've always loved the look and detail of the mage priest and the game of thrones theme puts him in as the winner." This is exactly what we need, more Game of Thrones themed minis!

John Burrows sent this picture with his precious! "The miniature in the photo is a Libby the Conqueror from Hasslefree Miniatures, she was the first miniature that I've ever painted from start to a finished state that I was happy with. Since she was my first ever entry into a painting competition and I was just getting back into the hobby at the time I decided to try out washes, freehand and other techniques that I've been reading about online. These techniques helped me win the competition and gave me a miniature that I was proud to have on display on my computer desk". Theres nothing better than doing a good enough paint job on a mini that makes you want to show it off, great job Sir Burrows! 

Regular readers know this venerable gentleman, its Mike, also from my own Tredegar Reavers! This was his first ever miniature from many moons ago, I think he mentioned in the mid eighties. Its nearly as old as me, and is Mikes pride and joy.

Any frequent follower of the 40k page on Facebook may recoginise the name of our next entrant, Mr. Nat Sinclair. "Attached is a rather unflattering photo for you!
Its fine, I'm a servant of chaos - I don't need to look pretty like Sanguinius :-P" Well that beard gives you the thumbs up in my book you handsome devil, great paint job too on one of Slaanesh's favoured sons!

Ah suddenly the noise of life dissipates, and the buzz of flies becomes increasingly loud... it can mean only one thing, its Nurgle Command aka Adam! He's chosen his Nurgle Sorcerer, and having seen this in person I can't say I blame him for this being his fave mini! He's done a great job with his greens, and the model is lovely. It also failed to kill my tactical squad so its good in my books! 

The beaming smile, the handsomely chiselled jaw, it can only be Templars Crusade himself. Not only could Brian not choose a model or a squad, he's sent a picture of himself with his Black Templars army, and wowser! How many of us would love an army not only this size but so well painted? I'd say all of us! If you haven't seen any of Brians videos on youtube I highly recommend going to the link above, and become inspired by this cheerful talented chap as he has some of the best videos on youtube!

Rich Chapman has had the pleasure of painting the first Primarch release, Angron. He must have enjoyed it as he chose it as his fave mini, and it looks great. This is such a stunning model, look how carefully those hard working hands hold the majestic crazed primarch. He enjoyed this so much he's looking to go all Pokemon on the Primarchs and collect them all... Can't wait to see this collection!

Another one of my Tredegar Reavers brotherhood, heres the elf boy Alun! Here he shows off his favoured mini, an Inquisitor! Its a great combo of kits and looks really nice, but I'm yet to meet him on the field of battle. Not only is Alun a handsome lad, but he's a great person to play against. Whenever we play we have a huge amount of fun, its all about the narrative when our forces collide!

And so, the moment you've been waiting for... the winner! 

Drum roll please....

Its this handsome fella! Koen Dijns, aka FearGFX and this lovely Tyranid Carnifex. I say lovely, I'd cry if this was coming at me from the other side of the table! Another one of the people you should be subscribed too on Youtube, he has some great tips on painting that you should all check out. Well done though Koen Dijns, you have been randomly selected as the winner!

If you would like to send a picture of you and your fave mini, I'm looking to collect them all and start a gallery somewhere, possibly on Facebook! When this happens I shall put a link up on here for you all. 

For now though, thank you to everyone who entered and followed my blog, lets see what I can do when I get to 40k views!

Special Guest BatRep!

Welcome all to another battle report, this time against a special guest! If you enjoy the evil odour of the Great Unclean one, painting Chaos Space Marines in a mucky green scheme, and your best friends are a bunch of flies, you will know Nurgle Command from his blog and also his youtube channel. He's also known as Adam, and is one of the nicest guys you'll meet, especially being as he is a fellow Transformers fan!

We initially decided to play 1500, but Adam mentioned he wanted to fit a defiler in so we upped the points. More models, more fun! We rolled off for mission and got Crusade, with 4 objectives. I won first turn, but then Adam stole the initiative! Damn! Deployment in the following pictures.

Check out Adams Forgefiend, how disgustingly good is this? Adams army was a treat to look at and the battlefield looked great with two painted armies on. More of this please!

 So the first turn, Adam advanced with his force, with his defiler taking the only shot, kiling two Space Marines and making the other 3 members of the unit to run. Ouch! Knowing this would be a threat if not taken care of I tasked my combi melta toting sternguard to try and take this out and in true form they were upto the task.

I think my shooting elsewhere was pretty lacking, and caused no other damage. Killing the Defiler did however get me first blood, good start!

The Death Guard silently advance once more, the Forgefiend targetting my vindicator and taking a hullpoint off, also stopping it from moving and shooting next turn. The Deathshroud shoot at the sternguard and gun down two with their combi-bolters, but luckily Typhus' physic test was failed and saved them from certain doom for a turn.

Both of Adams plague zombies meet an end too, one in combat against two combat squads, and the other to a lot of shooting to clear them off the leftmost objective.

The Death Guard sorcerer deep strikes down next to my rearmost tactical squad, threatening my objective. If I could not get through his terminator armour I would be in serious trouble next turn when he assaults... and assault he does! Having to challange my Sergeant, I decline so I can at least try and overwhelm him The sorcerer goes first, hits, but fails to wound! After shooting him and getting him down to one wound I need to cause one more to strike him down... and I barely manage it! I get two wounds and Adam fails one of the armour saves. 

My Thunder Hammer terminators storm out of my Landraider and assault the forgefiend, wrecking it easily. They then consolidate over towards the hellbrute in an effort to clear the objective of the vile Nurgle followers.

Adam charges the hellbrute into the terminators, and with help from a weakening psychic attack which takes my guys down to ST and T 3, the combat spills into my turn where I finally get enough penetrations to wreck it. Then comes Typhus! He and his Deathshroud bodyguard swarm into my Termies, Typhus challanging my Chaplain, Orneus Gyozo. Gyozo strikes Typhus with his power fist, making the Nurgle leader stagger back for a second but then he sweeps his sythe and kills my chaplain outright. Warlord point to Adam! Both of our terminator squads take each other out, leading the dangerous Typhus free to contest the nearby objective and sluaghter the combat squad nearby. I tried to pour firepower into him but he just would not die! 

A couple of vindicator shots onto the Plague Marines holding the objective in Adams deployment zone. Over the course of the two turns however one plague marine survives and holds the objective. Yet another nurgle follower that will not die! 

Elsewhere I'm able to capture the middle objective and still control my own in my deployment zone.

The game ends and I've won 7-4. Fair play to Adam, he kept going even though his dice rolls were terrible, its not often I feel sorry for a Traitor! He is a great opponent though, and has already asked for a rematch in the near future to claim glory for Papa Nurgle. Any time, any place!  Go check out Adams blog and youtube, linked in the intro for more about his Deathguard, they really are a treat to look at and he's an entertaining fellow on youtube!

One other thing, I'll be announcing the winner of my giveaway tonight, I've had some great pictures and new followers and you'll all be in the draw, so eyes peeled!