Krohmus Guard Space Marine Chapter

 Behold, the Krohmus Guard Space Marine Chapter. I recently took everything out as I wanted to see how much repairing I'd need to do but luckily, theres nothing too major. Few missing weapons/backpacks, not much else.

I'm not sure how many points I have in total, but they're not far from the 10k mark. Notable parts include...

Battle Company

Adeptus Stormwing

5 Dreadnoughts

3 Lascannon toting Predators

20 Legion of the Damned

Its all painted to at least tabletop standard but theres still a lot to do to finish models off, and theres always the temptation to add to the army too. Knight, new Command Land Raider perhaps... So many options... another being adding a second Battle Company. Yeah I'm starting to get that nuts!

Obviously the most recent additions are the Assassin Execution formation from  the boxed game but I have two already so not sure if more than one of any kind can be used but the new models will probably take the place of the old, which means I may sell the old ones and have more cash to invest into new models. I'm quite possibly selling my Imperial Guard force too, its only about 1000pts so will see what I can do with that.

Theres definately something about getting the army out though, will need to get some fixing done soon as this summer I'm hoping to work out everything I have and use it in a game, gonna be a big one! I'll be updating the background of my army soon too, how it works, some history etc. 

Where do you guys think I should head next? More scouts? I've got another ten Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield Terminators here I may paint up, perhaps a first company too? I think I'll go crazy!

Warhammer World Open Day... TITAN! SIGISMUND! GUILLEMAN! ORDINATUS!

Finally, we get to see Sigismund, Roboute... and a Titan. 

First of all credit to Lil Legend Studio who is at the Warhammer World Open Day at this moment in time uploading pictures, go follow him for more and hes an amazing commission painter to! Less words now, heres pictures!

So what do we all think? Guilleman looks quite regal, Sigismund looks bad ass, the Ordinatus, I just want one to make other things out of... and the Warlord... Wowser! Chaos Knights too!

Space Marine Command Tanks + Update

Well, talk about feeling like a stranger in your own house!

Yes folks, its been a while since an update has taken place on this very blog, but theres been a lot happening. Unfortunately not enough hobby wise! But rejoice, for there has been some goings on. 

First of all, as a huge Space Marine fan I'm gibbering and foaming at the mouth over these new additions to the Astartes.

Behold the Command versions of the Rhino and the Land Raider.  The pintle mounted plasma guns intrigue me, but the thing I like the look of the most is the Graviton gun on the Land Raider. I'm hoping its a grav cannon, that'll be an awesome addition to the tanks armament and I'll be scooping one of those up!

I actually started to put together a box of the new tactical marines earlier this year, but so far only have this guy painted up to some sort of standard. He was used in a little tourney I participated in a couple of weeks ago which I'll have more info on in a bit. I've got another 5 marines built but so far no paint on them either. 

I did get my grubby shovels on this too. I'm still yet to play or build any of the models but I've always been an Assassin fan so felt this was a needed purchase. The quality of the board and models is stunning, and I'm intrigued that its also one play too. When I've had a few games on my own and with people, I'll share some thoughts!

Its been a while since I've played 40k, so when I heard that the Crow Valley Crusaders in Cwmbran were holding a nice little tournament I had to get down there for it. 1500 points per army, 3 games played over the day. I didn't really hope to win or anything but I did want fun as I'd been missing the game a little. 

My first game was against Ultramarines, and a player called Shane I believe. My first turn went pretty well, taking out 4 of his fivce devastators, two centurions and a few other marines. He hit back hard though and we got bogged down into a game of who can make the most armour saves. And for the first time, I actually won that stand off! Such a close game though and if the game had finished early I'd have lost but was able to grab the relic and get a win. Thats better than expected already!

My second game was drawn and lo and behold, it was Mike! Yes the same Mike that myself and Alun has had some run ins against, this time against his jetbike heavy Eldar army. Another stupidly close game but this time edged by Mike claiming my objective and being unable to get to his. As always though we had a lot of fun, and much blood was shed! His Fire Dragons saving 11 hits from a heavy flamer toting Dreadnought only for my thunderfire cannon to flatten them in a devastating bombardment. Damn those Dire Avengers though!

My third and final game was against Byron, who was using Dark Angels. His first turn went well as he killed my Thunderfire Cannon, Missile Launcher Devastators and Lascannon armed predator. I almost wept! I did manage to get back in the game though, I blew up his land raider with a single meltagun shot and my storm talon came on to down his nephilim, and the game swung back and forward until I just managed to wipe him off the board. Another user of centurions and they were pretty effective in this game as Byron managed to get closer to me and use those devastating grav cannons to full effect. Really close game though but a second win!

As the results stood at the end Mike and Scott had won, both using Eldar and I finished in a rather good 5th place out of 11. The best bit though was every game was close and every opponent was fantastic to play against. Having not played for a wee while its always a bonus to come back and play three games in one day, all of which were immensely fun. I need more 40k!

Lastly from a couple of weeks ago a game of Xwing myself, Bam and Louis played at club.

With Scum coming out (which reminds me that I'll have to show off my repaints at some point) we now have three factions for three player games. Louis took Scum, I took Rebels and Bam took the Imperials.

It was an edgey game with all of us worried who'd make the first move, Louis splitting his forces to attack both me and Bam. As our forces reacted we ended up in a fierce firefight and left Louis after a couple of his headhunters were blown up. His Slave One was unmolested and by the time me and Bam had finished slapping each other it was easy pickings for Louis. I was wiped out first, then Bam. Really good game though and the dynamic is much different to a regular two player game of Xwing.

The new ships coming out look great too, already eyeing up a K-wing, Hounds Tooth and the Kirhaxz Fighter. Hopfully some more news on when they'll be out will arrive soon.

Anyways thats the end of this update, hopefully the next won't be so far in advance!

Love Your Gaming

So last weekend was that time of the year everyone gets a little soppy and loved up, and for me it was no different. One of our fellow Welsh clubs, the Crow Valley Crusaders, once again had another Longest Night event. open for 30 hours people could come in and out as they like to game, or be mental and stay the entire time.

As a wee tribute to Valentines day however I made a nice wee heart, despite the terrible luck I have with them I still love rolling dice!

Obviously a couple games of Xwing was on the cards, and once again myself and Gav did battle. 150pts say 4 large ships, including 3 YT-2400s and a Falcon do battle. Fair play the game looks so much better played on a proper mat! I managed to edge Gav in this game, and so he sought revenge.

In the rematch I wondered what else I could fit into 150 points. Xwings... oh five rookies come in at 105 points... that leaves enough room for... an Ewing! I gave it a few upgrades and we got into the battle. The first turn we could fire one of my Xwings was destroyed but in retaliation all my other ships fired at Keyan Farlander in his Bwing and blew him up. Gave struggled a little from there on although he did kill Corran Horn and a couple more Xwings before I wiped him out. I really had fun with this list and can see myself trying it out again!

Some of the guys at CVC were busy building their purchases from the Heresy Weekender, Chris painting up this lovely Iron Warriors Deredeo Dreadnought. I'm still unsure if I like the model, but it is growing on me. Chris also got the event model which I'll get some pics of soon and some of the other stuff I saw being built/painted was awesome.

 

To finish our visit off myself, Gav and CVC Chairman Byron sat down for a game of Catan. This was about my 5th or 6th game and I'd yet to do well, so didn't expect much but a good old laugh. Yet, I actually won! I'm not entirely sure how but I pulled it off, and happily agreed to another game. At which point Byron absolutely brutalised me and Gav! I don't think I came fourth and there was only three of us playing! All in all though a great visit to the Crow Valley Crusaders, if you're about the Cwmbran area they're well worth a visit, especially when the pizza order goes in!

Back to Monday and it saw myself and Bam playing a 150 game with as many ships we could fit in. Dirty bastard got a shuttle in there! My dice rolling was terrible in this one and a rare smile on Bams face made an appearence as I gave up after losing 4 ships and only killing one of his. Eugh!

I also played against Louis who was using Scum and Villiany (from what we knew of the rules anyway) and I edged him for a win. I think when the proper cards are available (which is hopefully out by this time next week) Lou will pick it up more and be a lot more deadly. 

After that game of Xwing me and Louis had a go at a game I'd have for about a year or so and not really tried except for once, Evil Baby Orphanage. Its recommended for 3+ players but as there was just me and Louis available (Bam and Gav were having a really good game of Xwing, ended up just two hull points in it!) but we thought we'd have a go just to get a grasp for when we would play it with more players.

I absolutely adore the art style of this game, the babies being well illustrated and every time new babies would come into the time stream me and Lou would laugh at the new additions. Gmae mechanics it seems ok, it didn't take long to pick up and seems to play quickly which is a benefit. Hopefully we'll get a proper game in soon and will write about it then in much more detail. 

So this next week will hopefully see Scum and Villiany appear, and I know a of the Gwent Reavers are looking to pick some ships up, so should be interesting to see a new faction join the Rebels and Imperials. Thats it for now anyways, hopefully I'll be able to post again soon!

2015 And A Huge Catch Up!

So its 2015, which means I get to say, Happy New Year! Its been a hectic time lately for me, where I thought I'd be blogging every week and posting lots of interesting things, I've been busy working and when I've got some gaming time I've been too busy enjoying it to take pictures and write up about my experiences. But heres to a catch up!

 Xmas at the Gwent Reavers means some of the uni lads are back and we get some more gaming in. Alun came back for some 40k, a 1500 pt game between my marines and his guard that we played in less than two hours and resulted in a reasonably empty board and a win for me. 

 

Some Sons of Anarchy has been played, with a ridiculoulsy close game between myself, Gav and Bam just monday. Gav had $55k, Bam had $54, and I managed to get to $52. Such a good game! My obvious highlight is visiting Caracara Studios... Ahem...

On Xmas eve I'd been looking at getting Game of Thrones on the Xbox. I'd had a go of the trial, and thought seeing as the first episode was only £4 I'd get that and perhaps the season pass. I turn the xbox on, it slowly loads and I notice a sale. GoT first episode £2 and the season pass for almost half price. Snapped that up! The games pretty fun too.

By Telltale games, its an adventure game that follows in the same veins as many of their previous games, like Sam and Max, Back to the Future etc, where choices and reactions are gameplay and the story keeps you engrossed. You follow a new factin, the Forresters that become embroiled in a brutal situation and you get to converse with characters from the show and books, all voiced by the actual actors which helps submerse you into the setting. A good pickup and I'm looking forward to more episodes!

One club day, Gav excitedly came upto the studio with Pathfinder, Rise of the Runelods. Myself and Morgan were intrigued so we set it up and randomly had a go at a scenario. ROTR is a card adventure/roleplay game, where you choose a character and begin an adventure. Our test scenario was ill advised and we were thumped. Morg read a little more into it and we'd realised what we'd done so began again but this time, from the start. Cue a couple of full days soley playing this.

I chose Seoni, a rather wild looking sorcereress whose cleavage reminded me enough of Marg Tyrell that I didn't care about her stats or any advancements. Judge the book by the cover though, cause shes been awesome to play. Her spells have kicked some ass, and shes been the reason we've completed a couple of the harder scenarios. The last one we did, beating Mammy Graug was a nightmare but somehow I managed to roll just enough on a bazillion dice to beat the mother ogres insane boosted combat stat. It really felt like an achievement too, and its made me want to play a lot more of this type of game in the future.  

Did I mention that myself and Morg love a bit of Scrabble? Not as much as I like doing this kind of thing... But we did get a few games in and I managed to pip him to the post in a couple of close games while he destroyed me in another. I did give him a beating in another so the thrashing hurt a lot less, but sometimes you just get shit letters!

Oh X-Wing, I do love you so.

As you can see, I've been doing some customising, including the Rebels YT-2400 and three A-Wings I've got too. The grey and orange has been expanded upon with Thunderhawk Blue, which has added a little of variety without getting in the way of the main scheme. 

Oh, and this finally happened.

I've been tempted for a while, but over Xmas I finally spoiled myself (partly because my 4 Forward had disappeared) when I saw these Darksun templates from http://www.cogotwo.com/ and knew I needed them in my grasp. Delivery was quick, they're already masked off for you to paint and with some Thunderhawk Blue sploshed on they looked absolutely stunning. I cannot recommend getting some of these enough if you're into Xwing!

Lastly, we played a rather large game of Xwing between 5 players. Louis using a few headhunters from Scum and Villiany (we said he could have a go as hes hoping to get some of them when they're released so used the stats that FFG have shared) along with Bam and Josh using Imperial forces against myself and Gav with Rebels. I think there was 350 points on each side, including two YT-2400s, the Falcon, and three decimators. It turned out to be a brutal game, and came down to one Awing and a Decimator as the final two ships... pretty damn close when you consider how much was on the board! The Imperials edged it, bloody swines! Those decimators are big buggers fair play, but they're certainly not invincible! I also played a game against my nephew on Xmas day that he won, I did take a couple of pictures of the forces we used but havent got them to upload, but they are on my instagram which can be found right here!

I think thats most of whats been happening blogged about anyway, hopefully I can get back to being more regular with these posts, I want to do a more in depth look at Pathfinder, some more Xwing posts perhaps some tactics and batreps, some Necromunda things that may happen in the future and also any other games we get to play... And I'll also have to chat about Resistance.... 

But for now thanks for reading and I hope your 2015 is a cracker!

Decep'Tau'cons: Battle Report

So last club night, Shaun arrived with his Tau'formers in his personal transport. This awesome little in progress army are based on the Farsight list of the Tau forces, with all the paint schemes based on Transformers. If you don't know already, I love Transformers, and my old Tau army was based on another awesome cartoon and toy line, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles... it seems the Tau are well suited to all things good in the eighties! 

Shuans exact list I'm unsure, but he had 3 crisis suit teams, one with his Starscream warlord, 3 broadside teams, 2 with all missiles and skyfire one with railguns, all with marker drones. Also included were three Riptides. This made it 2000pts.

Above you can see Optimus Prime, Cliff Jumper, Jazz and Bumblebee, along with the soon to be riptides of Megatron and Galvatron. 

 Starscream with bodyguard, and some of the Constructicons.

When Shauns finished the army I'll be getting him in to do a nice photoshoot of his force, along with his Imperial Fists. 

Back to the batle, my list consisted of a lot of grav guns, bikes, and a stormraven with chapter master and honour guard. I also took a Callidus assassin, although the vindicare was tempting.... I was able to set up first, my bikes as far foward as possible (then scouting ahead) and everything else ready to pounce. 

In typical Kev shooting, I miss with an awful lot of dice. 20 grav shots, I only hit with half.... that shout have been one dead riptide but has three wounds left! Another 9 shots at another along with bolters from a bike squad strips one down to just one wound, and the other loses 2 wounds from my second bike squads gravs. The scouts are out of range, the assassin kills a couple of drones and thats about it. Not a good first turn!

In return Shauns firepower is tremendous. Missile pods galore, bikers die in droves and the battle looks over not long after this! I try to damage a riptide in combat, but do nothing, the Legion of the Damned arrive, kill a broadside and some drones but then in turn die themselves from loads of firepower. Shaun, I think feeling sorry for me deepstrikes his warlord and promptly scatters and rolls a one on the mishap table... which was jolly nice of him! My scouts do well holding off two crisis suits in my deployment, and the sternguard do well to survive a few turns also.

 

Stormraven turns up and gets blown out of the sky, chapter master and one honour guard surviving. Not good! I was hoping to get him in combat with a riptide, alas it did not happen. Khan however did kill the Optimus Prime riptide with his instant death sword, which was a nice moment! 

In the end I'm almost wiped out, tactical objectives not being very friendly to me, although not as unfriendly as those bloody Tau! I think a better first turn would have helped, but its tough seeing a way to beat this list fair play. I'll no doubt have to try again, I've got a challange and I want to beat it! I think the vindicare would have been a better choice, he could have stayed far back and wounded suits from afar, the callidus, while in theory could have destroyed the Tau in combat, getting into it isn't easy. Overwatch will hurt a lot! 

Have you guys played a list like this? What tips would you have? 

Dead of Winter

My love for board games has been increasing over the last few months. Being able to play different games brings variety, and it keeps things fresh. Do I miss nhot have a few weeks of 40k? Very much so, but there are some amazing board games out there, as evidenced by the Sons of Anarchy review I recently published and many other games we've played. From Risk, Gloom, and Firefly to Cards Against Humanity, Dominion and Carcarssonne, we're spoilt for choice.

At Mondays club night, Gavin mentioned he was bringing along a recent purchase called Dead of Winter. Myself and Louis had a little look to try get a rough idea of what it was about when we realised we'd seen it before. Counters, the board game cafe based in Pontypridd, and who had a delightful room at Dragondaze, had this there. The guys from Counters were raving about it, saying that its their current fave game to play so we started having high expectations. Disappointment, we did not get.

Theres a wealth of tokens and cards to the game, along with some location cards and the main board that houses some of the cards and the colony. Theres a good number of survivor and zombie counters, and we quickly found Bill Murray and Danny Devito. Oh and Madonna... I'll talk about her later. We got set up and began to play. 

You elect one of your two survivors to be your leader, and place them on your player cards. Here you house your dice, equipment and secret mission. Each player draws a secret objective, some of which can be betrayal cards. These give you your personal mission as well as a team one, and influences how you play. Theres some narrative to game too, as the Crossroads mecxhanic comes into play. When a player takes a turn, the player to their right draws a crossroads card. These are event cards that are either triggered through certain survivors being in play, locations being visited, or are instant. Many of them have options too that give you a benefit but can lead to negatives too and create more longevity for the game.

As we played, I gained a couple more survivors, a good thing as my personal mission was to have the most and complete the main objective. Louis however quickly overtook me with 6-7 survivors, which in turn means more mouths to feed or fuel to keep warm. The Crisis cards keep you on your toes, and can stall your main aims. Not only in the first turn did we have to feed the colony but we had a food crisis and needed to find one food for every person, we barely passed but lost morale due to not enough food being available for the colony. Its difficult to complete fair play! Moving to locations means you get to search for items, but the more you search the more noise you create and the more chance zombies will come looking for you, its another great mechanic that has a nice blend of gambling and chance to find the right items but potentiall lose a member of your survivors. Items that can be found range from food, fuel and medicince, to weapons and equipment. One of my members gained a cook book which allowed me to add a food counter to the colony every turn. Weapons are also found, a Sniper Rifle allows the player to kill a zombie at any location, and things like baseball bats and shotguns allow the killing of two zombies for one action. 

Even though new survivors can be picked up, sometimes you have to kill some off in order to meet the needs of all. The Waitress, who reminded of Madonna, was an easy sacrifice. The truck driving Rod however, was not! Louis with his many survivors was now beginning to make it difficult to feed everyone, so Gavin mentioned that Dead of Winter allows you to 'Exile' a player. This means all of his group can only be found at locations and not at the colony, and therefore no longer need to be fed. I had three members left, and Gavin had two, so it seemed to be a wise decision. Louis now had to change his personal objective to an exiled one, so it would be to either survive in the wilderness or stall us from winning. As it turned out, we all lost in the end! Well... Kind of. We'd managed to get the main objective of killing 9 zombies, but our morale was dropped to zero and we lost. Then Gavin showed his personal objective showing that he'd won his by completing the main objective and by having 2-3 medicine in his hand. Sneaky sod!

 Frustrating, but I can't wait to have another go, hopefully with a couple more players to the maximum of five, it was great with just three of us but with five there'll be more chances of finding items we need, as well as more mouths to feed!

So after just one game I can safely say its a cracker. With the many different survivors, objective and crossroads cards theres a lot of life to this game, and with how sometimes you'll be playing co-operatively or against each other depending on what your personal objectives are you're never quite sure if you should trust someone. This brings a great element of randomness that boardgames do well with. I heartily recommend this to anyone, even if, like myself, you're not a zombie fan. The zombies are on the outside looking in, its your fellow survivors you should be more weary of!