Month: September 2016

Feeling Broke

On 29th September 2016

I had a horrid time at a local tournament a week gone Sunday. The tournament itself was run amazingly by Harry of Mackem Productions and he did a great job putting it together, but my not having played much 40k this year whilst I concentrated on 30k has seen me fall out of step with the local meta.

I took my friendly fluffy Iyanden army, which I won’t lie, has two lots of Wraithguard, a Hemlock Wraithfighter and a Wraithknight. But one of those Wraithguard are footslogging, and the Wraithknight is armed with a Suncannon, so it’s not that scary.

But what I had, including D weapons was so far out of line with what I came up against. My first game, against another Eldar army, lasted three turns, my Wraithknight coming off in turn one as it got shot to death by a Heavy Wraithcannon Wraithknight, and I simply removed other units in single swoops as Fire Dragons and Scatter Laser Jetbikes killed off my units one by one systematically.

My second game was a lot more fun, I played against my friend James, the eventually wooden spoon “winner” and we had a very good evenly balanced game which saw us mostly wipe each other’s armies out evenhandly. We ended up drawing, but had the game gone on another turn, his Imperial Knight would have made mince meat of my Wraithknight.

My third game saw me take on Chaos Daemons, this game lasted a lot longer, but with a Daemonic Incursion detachment with a Warpflame Host of 7 Flamers it was a really tough list. I did alright against his Chaos Space Marine allies, but I couldn’t touch the Daemons, and a Daemon Prince charging into combat against Dire Avengers is just hard to watch.

My last game saw me take on Eldar again and at this point I just lost the will to play, another Wraithknight, more Fire Dragons in an Aspect Host and plenty of Windriders with Scatter Lasers. Put it this way, I was scooping up units away with a dustpan metaphorically and only managed to kill three Jet Bikes all game with my Hemlock.

After the tournament I feel like a broken man when it comes to 40k, I am just that far behind in the meta, I don’t know what to do to catch up. I like fluffy armies and taking the most powerful broken units, well it’s something you won’t really see me do. But I have to do something, i don’t mean it like as in I want an army that will curb-stomp all others, I just want one that can stand on its own and get me mid table finishes at tournaments.

People keep saying I should go back to my drop pod Space Wolves list and play it as Blackmanes for the free drop pods, or throw in some Wulfen or Thunderwolf Cavalry, but that would to me, feel like the first steps on the road to power gaming.

Anyway it’s something to think about I guess.
What I am Modelling
Trying to get back my hobby mojo, I am going to be playing some Kill Team at the club, so I am building two 200pts kill teams, a Millitarium Tempestus one and a Blood Angels one.

The Millitarium Tempestus one consists of five Tempestus Scions, with a Hot Shot Volley Gun, Plasma Gun and a Tempestor with a Bolt Pistol and Chainsword, and accompanied by a Taurox Prime with Missile Launcher and Autocannons.

The Blood Angels kill team is the example squad from the Kill Team booklet, I have added a Blood Angels upgrade sprue to give the Space Marine kit just enough Blood Angels stuff to make it cool. It’s my first time using the new Space Marine kit, I haven’t had to buy a Space Marine kit for some years and I have to say it’s pretty good as kits go.
I have also built a Blood Angels Terminator Librarian, well it came packaged as a Deathwatch Terminator Librarian, but they were the same price and this came with a Deathwatch Upgrade Sprue I can add to the bitz box.

What I am Reading

I finished Praetorian of Dorn, and I have to say wow, what an ending! It’s a brave book, changing something somprbipusly fundamental about the fluff, it kept me reading right until the end.

I also read Ahriman:Exile by John French and I also really enjoyed that book, it was quite interesting to see Ahriman on the back foot, not sure of himself or his direction, but I very much enjoyed the book and have no moved on to the short story collection Ahriman: Exodus which so far is a little slow going, but I expect it will pick up.

What I am Playing

Got three games of Kill Team in the other night using the Millitarium Tempestus. The first game I played against Tyranids, with three Tyranid Warriors and six Genestealers, and that game went quite well, he deployed quite spread out which allowed me to keep my team together hopping in and out of the Taurox taking out the nids one by one.

The second game was a total whitewash, as five Ravenwing Black Knights shot me to death with Plasma.

The third game was against 15 Dark Angels scouts, who as well as infiltrating made a scout move and were able to bring down a heavy rain of fire on me, lasted three turns, but my Scions couldn’t cope with the fire, and the individual scouts charging the Taurox with Krak grenades made short work of that.
Overall I am enjoying Kill Team it’s a lot of fun and we are talking about having a Kill Team campaign at the club, which I am looking forward to a lot.
What I am Backing
There is just 48 hours to get in on Dungeon Fantasy, a good old fashioned dungeon delivering RPG, powered by GURPs from Steve Jackson Games. They have a great team writing it and the game box which is rather large ships from the EU at a rather reasonable $20, which is much better than what was originally proposed.

At the $70 level, which I am in on, you get the box containing the 5 books which make up the set, cardboard figures, dice and a map plus a GM screen with pre-generated characters. It’s pretty decent value in my opinion, and I have also bolted on a copy of How to Gurps GM in print and a print copy of the Companion which will contain the three Dungeon Fantasy PDF extras unlocked as part of the campaign.

So if RPGs are your thing, give it a look, and don’t worry if you can’t back it, there is zero in terms of Kickstarter Exclusives as its all about getting it to retail, and thus what you can back for will be in your FLGS next year.

What I am Spending

With the split between Games Workshop and Fantasy Flight Games happening, I went into panic mode and have bought a few things I was holding off buying until I had the space/money. The prices on them was skyrocketing and I couldn’t afford to hold back anymore.

I picked up a copy of Forbidden Stars, a game I have wanted for a long while but been reluctant to buy because I am not sure Megan or Lindsay would be interested in it as it’s quite a heavy game and set in the 40k universe.

I also got the expansions for Relic, Nemesis and The Halls of Terra, they haven’t arrived yet as they are having to come from the Republic of Ireland, but I am currently worrying about how they will fit on the shelves, I might have to put their components in the core game box.

While I was at it, I decided to pick up a copy of Lost Patrol that was going for a song On eBay, I remember the original game, but back the. It was Dark Angels in the jungle, not Blood Angels.

And it’s not technically money I spent, but I did swap a few rare Munchkin cards for a copy of Warhammer Quest Silver Tower from a dude who runs an FLGS in Glasgow, the cards were free for me from my time as an MIB, and obviously the guy running the store would have paid trade price for the game, so it’s not as big a value swap as it seems on the surface.
I also sold my Abaddon and Loken set, I had it from when I originally looked into Heresy and was planning a Sons of Horus army, well that is until the Ultramarines tempted me to the ways of the XIIIth. Anyway the money I made from that ended up getting spent to buy an Infiltration Cadre, so along with that Tau Strike Team from Kill Team, I guess a Tau army is on the distant horizon.

Kill Team

By michael

On 17th September 2016

In Reviews

After a summer filled with releases for Age of Signar it’s nice to get back to 40k, and following Death Masque we get the return of the popular Kill Team game.

My first forays in the 40k universe were with games of Necromunda, I had a force of Enforcers lead by the corrupt Sargent Hill who liked to go into combat with a shield and power maul. The thing I liked about the game was that it was easy to start and quick to get on the table fully painted (though in my case quite poorly) and I enjoyed some awesome games with my Enforcers, small games in which every figure counted.

Kill Team is kind of like that in that you get a small squad of 200pts, which allows you to buy, 0-2 Troops, 0-1 Elites, 0-1 Fast Attack. There are a few more selection rules, namely that you need at least four infantry models, nothing with more than 3 wounds or hull points, no vehicles with a combined AV of 33, no flyers and no 2+ saves.

With a force selected using this rules, you then can play as a small band of troops doing quite cool cinematic missions lead by your heroic leader. This is a fast easy way to try 40k and may be a cool way to try out a new faction without investing a huge ton of money on a whole army only to find out you dislike it.

The rules have been released on Black Library, fully updated for 7th edition for the low price of £6.99 as an ePub, or if you bought the 6th edition version, it’s a free update. For those on iOS there is also an enhanced version for £7.99.

The box set I am reviewing comes with these rules in a handy booklet, and you get a an excellent two player set which also includes a full copy of the 40k rules with a Raven Guard cover, along with a set of Space Marines Tactical Squad and a set of Tau Fire Warriors, and you get all of that for £40. And that is excellent value, its about the price of a decent board game these days and is perfect for starting out with 40k and you don’t fancy the Dark Angels or Chaos Space Marines offered in the Dark Vengeance box. The only things you don’t get are dice or templates, but in fairness these are easily acquired elsewhere.

So getting back to the game, when you build your army there is one thing you should bear in mind, and that is that when you add dudes to your team, although they may act as individuals in the game, you still buy them as a unit, so if you only want say 4 Space Marines, you still pay the price for 5 of them, so mixing and matching units can get quite hard.

The model with the highest leadership becomes your team leader and gets what is in effect a mini Warlord trait, which is chosen exactly the same way, by rolling a D6. You can then nominate three non-vehicle models to be specialists, and you can pick from one of five categories, Combat (melee orientated), Weapon (shooting orientated), Dirty Fighter (dirty tricks), Indomitable (making the model a bit special), or Guerrilla (movement orientated). When you pick your specialist you then get to given them a special rule from the category, for example in the Raven Guard kill team data sheet included in the rule book, a model armed with a Missile Launcher, is an Indomitable Specialist and gets the Relentless Special Rule, meaning he can fire that Missile Launcher on the move. Now you only get one of each speciality so no giving yourself multiple versions of the same specialist.

The book also contains six special Kill Team missions which are played on a 4’x4′ board. The missions do have slightly different rules to standard games, for example, transports can carry multiple units, because each model is a unit all of its own. And some codexs get a tweak too, for example, Chaos Daemons don’t use the Warp Storm or Daemonic Instability rules, but they do get fearless instead.

There is a nice mix of mission in there, objective missions, assassination missions, get into your opponents deployment zone, but they are all quite fun and short in length, so you can easily play a couple of games in a single session.

The book then looks at what the next steps in Kill Team could be, for example it suggests tournaments, linked games, and multiplayer games. So you can see Kill Team offers plenty of scope beyond whats in the box.

Finally the book contains Data Sheets fro two pre-built Kill Teams built from the kits in the box, one a Raven Guard squad, and the other, a team of Tau Fire Warriors complete with Drones. This is a cool template to use, but does somewhat take away from the fun of building your own Kill Team, but for people new to 40k, they are perfect.

So whats my final opinion on Kill Team, well its good, its very good, its an excellent kitchen table/beer and pretzels wargame, its dirty and quick to play. But, and its a big but, like with all Games Workshop wargames, it all depends on the players, in the hands of most of the players I know, it will be fine and fun, but in the hands of the WAAC players, it will be broken very easily, for example, taking an Eldar Hornet, which is perfectly acceptable for use in Kill Team.#

Its a great game, just be wary of who you play with!

8/10

New Project Needed

By michael

On 13th September 2016

In Blog

I need a new project to try and get my hobby mojo back.

So which project should I pick up and run with???

Blood Angels – got bits and kits to make a 2000pts army of these with plenty of variety in HQ models, most of everything has a transport and it’s all about hitting hard and fast, have many of the units built up already, and a Death Company Dreadnought already finished. Megan would be helping me with this one and I have a good mix of Death Company, some Sanguinary Guard as well as standard Blood Angels.

Tyranids – for almost two years I have had this Tyranid army sitting on my shelf, I have the Start Collecting box built and primed, the Hive Tyrant is just about finished off, plan is to paint it up as Leviathan. Sitting on the shelf I have a Wrath of the Hive Mind box, a Tyranid Swarm box, two sets of the Tyranids from Deathstorm, Genestealers from Space Hulk and the Genestealer Cult from Overwatch.

Word Bearers – I have enough models and kits to build a 3500pts army, mostly based around a Pride of the Legion/Primarchs Chosen force from a Betrayal at Calth set. Plenty of Dreadnoughts and some Gal Vorback, Ashen Circle and Lorgar in there. For this one I would need to buy three Rhinos and a Dreadnought Drop Pod. I already have painted up a Company Champion and a Contemptor Dreadnought.

So what do you guys think I should do???

Not Enough Sleep

By michael

On 6th September 2016

In Blog

Struggled to get to sleep last night, ended up not sleeping at all. Not sure what it is that’s got me lacking the ability to sleep, but it’s been the same the past few nights, and it’s meaning I sleep in far too late in the mornings. I got a quick two hours in this morning and was up and about by 10am, not that I would say I was functional, but a sugar free caffeine drink saw me through.

Sometimes I think half the issues I have are because of all the medication I am taking, I mean here is a photo of my pills for the week, and it’s no wonder I rattle when I walk.

This week I did take delivery of Grifters and Coup G:54 Anarchy, two games I backed on Kickstarter from Indie Boards and Games. Now I am going to admit, I have an intense dislike of Travis, the man behind the company, he is rude, arrogant and treats his backers like they are an inconvenience, especially when they catch him out in a lie. That said, his last two cycles have been vastly improved and games have been delivered with minimal of fuss. Hoping to get both of these on the table as soon as I can, and hope they aren’t added to the list of perpetually unplayed games.

What I am Modelling

Got my Word Bearers Contemptor Dreadnought with Twin-Linked Volkite Culverins finished, and I must say I am rather proud of the model, this is that standard I hope to go forward with for the Word Bearers. Let’s just hope I can keep it up.

What I am Reading

Got a few more chapters of Praetorian of Dorn read and I am enjoying it so far. Still reading Facebook and Twitter too much instead of a book though.

What I am Playing

Stupidly still noting, it’s like I keep wanting to play, but then I don’t. It’s something I need to deal with because it’s really damaging my mental health, games really engage my brain and not having a job means that my brain does need challenges. It doesn’t help that Megan hasn’t been so good in the days, nor that we are currently running up to Newcastle every night to make my nana her tea, but I desperately need to play something, even if it’s only a small game of Fluxx. Perhaps I will try and convince Lindsay and Megan to go to Newcastle Gamers this Saturday after we see my nana.

What I am Backing

Right now I am backing, in addition to Cognition #1 and One Night Ultimate Alien, Luke Slotts Year of the Nightingale, a Bahá’í inspired album of music celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Bahá’u’lláh. Now I know many of my friends don’t put much stock in religion, and that’s perfectly cool, you won’t hear me trying to twist your arm into believing, besides as a Bahá’í I am forbidden from the practice of proselytism, but I find the music of Bahá’í artists tends to be very soothing and lovely. Besides Luke is a lovely chap, when he played a performance at the Newcastle Bahá’í centre a few years ago he spent the night at my house and he was a brilliant and kind guest.

At this time the project has fully funded so I am looking forward to getting my digital copy of the album next year.

Anyway here is a video of his performance in Newcastle for you to enjoy.

What I am Spending

It’s the run up to Christmas, so my spending has gone up, as I purchase a few presents here and there for Megan and Lindsay. I also treat myself to a Pop vinyl of Spyke from Munchkin, mostly for the card, but the character will look nice in my man cave. And I may have purchased the Kill Team box, but the Tau in it will not, I repeat not become the basis of a new Tau army!

Oh and I couldn’t resist a Squirtle Squad t-shirt from Qwertee.

See you on the flipside guys

Secret Hitler Has Arrived

By michael

On 1st September 2016

In Blog

On Tuesday my copy of Secret Hitler arrived, its a hidden identiy game from the guys behind Cards Against Humanity, I spoke about it in my last post. And boy was I pleased with the result, its absolutly amazing.

I got the version that came with the nice wooden box, and that is nice and hefty, ok so the catch and the felt on the bottom could be better, but the box itself is brilliant. For some reason I thought the wood colour would be darker, more like a cherry wood, but its cool as it is, the inlaid logos are lovely to just feel with my fingers.

Inside the wooden box, is the game box, which is quite long for a small game, but this is beacuse the legislative board are single boards as opposed to ones which fold up to make the box smaller. This means they are always flat and its this kind of attention to detail which convinced me to back the game in the first place, and those boards have lovely foil in them as well so they really do pop.

The cards are printed on very good card stock, not sure of the core, and I ma not going to tear one apart to find out, but I suspect its black core card. The biggest highlight for me are the two plaques for the goverment positions, those of Chancellor and President, they are both solid wood blocks with the instructions for each role on the back.

They could have made the whole thing with much cheaper components, but they didn’t they spalshed the $1,479,046 they raised back in December, and it shows.

I can’t wait to get a group of 5 together to play this game, becuase the PnP version is good, so the physical; edition is going to be a bit better still.

What I am Modelling

Not much, I just really seem to have lost my mojo, I did a bit of edge highlighting on my Word Bearers Contemptor Dreadnought tonight, but I suspect I need to do something to get my mojo back.

Last time I was in such a position, I built and painted a 1850 Space Wolves army in a month, perhaps I need a project like that to get back into the swing of things.

What I am Reading

Too much of forums, Facebook and Twitter, I find myself getting angry with people on the Internet at the moment, especially with people who have been calling for a ban of the burkini, or demanding that Caster Semenya be reclassified as a man for her races.

Anyway stuff like that is dragging me away from reading books, I did get started on two chapters of Praetorian of Dorn, and I have put a few more serious science fiction books onto my Kobo, but I must read more!

What I am Playing

Because Lindsay was unwell Tuesday night I never got the Durham Raiders and with the next two weeks being dominated by looking after my nana whilst my cousin is on holiday, i won’t be getting any war games in, I will try to get something in on Sunday, but I may have left it too late to arrange a game.

I will however play a game with Megan in the daytime tomorrow!

What I am Backing

This week I backed Ultimate One Night Alien, yeah I know it’s not the worlds most sophisticated game, but I have the rest of the Ultimate One Night games as well as Ultimate Werewolf Deluxe and I do enjoy these games. Though I do confess Ultimate Werewolf Deluxe rarely gets a run out as I don’t often to get to play games in groups the size of what it needs and even then, Lindsay and Megan prefer the one night version and make thier feelings on that very clear.

Anyway the One Night games are a favourite when we go to Consett Tabletop Gaming Society and have lead to several classic moments, my favourite still being when Lindsay declared that Megan couldn’t be a Werewolf becuase she and Emily were, though I may have gotten the names wrong there. Its a game that gets a gaming session started and gets people in a good mood, and at the end of the day thats what counts isn’t it.

Its up on Kickstarter until the 28th September, so take a look and if you fancy it, go back it.

What I am Spending

I got my PIP this week so I have spent a bit of money, I paid for entry to the Durham Dakka Warhammer 40,000 tournment, hoping to take my Adeptus Mechanicus, but the Space Wolves will be a back up if I don’t get those painted up in time.

I also paid Harry of Mackem Productions for the work he will soon be doing on my Harlequins from Death Masque, as I said, I don’t think I could do them justice so I am handing them over to him to paint in the Veiled Path scheme from Warriors of the Laughing God, simply because I think it looks amazing.

One thing I have done when not in a good state of mind is spend some money I didn’t need to spend, I don’t know why,. but for some reason I purchased another copy of Deathwatch Overkill, I already bought it when it came out in March so why I would buy another copy is a loss to me. It really worries me when things like that happen, I am like my mother, when I am down and depressed, I spend money, usually money I can’t afford to spend. I belived up unitl this Tuesday that I had it under control, but clearly I haven’t.

Lindsay and Megan are normally pretty good at spotting when I am in a funny turn like that, but in this case it was missed, it’s possible it happened while I was in Cardiff as that’s where the shop is I ordered it from, but I did manage to sell it for not too massive a loss to a guy at Durham Raiders.