Tag: Company of Legends Page 1 of 2

Company of Legends March 2022

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On 31st March 2022

In Blog

The past weekend it was Company of Legends, our twice yearly Horus Heresy Residential weekend that Edge of Empire run.

It was fun but exhausting, and I love doing it.

We managed to pull it off successfully, i always worry that I am less organised than I need to be, but Graham and Chris as usual were amazing.

I got to play four games over the weekend, with my Questoris Knights army list below

+ HQ +

Seneschal. Questoris Knight Crusader: Meltagun, Occular Augmetics, Stormspear rocket pod, Thermal Cannon

+ Troops +

Scion Auxilia
. Questoris Knight Armiger Talon: Armiger Thermal Spear, Dreadnaught Close Combat Weapon, Meltagun
. Questoris Knight Armiger Talon: Armiger Thermal Spear, Dreadnaught Close Combat Weapon, Meltagun

Scion Auxilia
. Questoris Knight Armiger Talon: Armiger Thermal Spear, Dreadnaught Close Combat Weapon, Meltagun
. Questoris Knight Armiger Talon: Armiger Thermal Spear, Dreadnaught Close Combat Weapon, Meltagun

Scion Martial
. Questoris Knight Paladin: Bio-corrosive rounds for its heavy stubbers, Occular Augmetics, Questoris Battlecannon

Scion Martial
. Questoris Knight Paladin: Bio-corrosive rounds for its heavy stubbers, Occular Augmetics, Questoris Battlecannon, Twin Icarus autocannon

+ Fast Attack +

Scion Dolorous
. Questoris Knight Gallant: Bio-corrosive rounds for its heavy stubbers, Heavy Stubber, Occular Augmetics

+ Heavy Support +

Scion Arbalester
. Questoris Knight Dominus: Occular Augmetics, Plasma Decimator, 2x Twin-Linked Siegebreaker Cannon, Two Shieldbreaker Missiles, Volcano Lance

My first game was against Rob on Friday night, and his Mechanicum, which I lost, was in fact tabled.

My next game was the first main game of the day which I played against Ozzie and his Emperors Children and Mechanicum, I lost that but at least wasn’t my tabled!

My third game of the weekend saw me face Mark Frost and his daemons at long last, allowing him to claim the grand slam of beating all four Edge of Empire hosts with the army.

But I held my own ok I think.

My final game of the weekend saw me face off against Henry and his Emperors Childrens allied with Imperial Milita.

That was my most successful game, I did alright, but losing a couple of knights to an Assault Squad with Melts Bombs cost me the game.

The traitors won the weekend, probably because I was playing for the loyalists.

It was an awesome weekend and I cannot wait for September.

What I Am Modelling

With Company of Legends, not a lot got done!

I did have a build session on Tuesday night and got a bunch of terrain for my 15th table built. This is stuff from the Charadon which is going to supplement the Imperium terrain to make a full tables worth.

I then finished painting my Space Marine Primaris Supressors to add to the Ultramarines army.

At the same time I painted up some Thermo-Pipes.

And after that started work on an Ork Kommandoes Kill Team.

And I painted a Thermo-Exchanger Shrine at the same time, also for the Imperium box.

At the same time, I painted up some referees for Blood Bowl.

And late last night I finished off a Deredeo Dreadnought I bought at Ardhammer in January, although I think the guns are recasts, the actual Dreadnought seems fine, but the guns are just not quite right.

I am gonna keep it, I only paid £10 for it, but I need to keep a closer eye on things I buy at secondhand sales.

So what’s coming up next week?

  1. Corpse Grinder Cult x 15
  2. Blood Angels Primaris Lieutenant, Librarian in Phobos Armour & Assault Intercessors x 8
  3. Orruk Weirdnob Shaman
  4. Death Korps of Krieg Medusa x 2
  5. Morg N Thorg
  6. T’au Empire Breacher Squad x 10
  7. Fafnir Rann
  8. Ork Terrain
  9. Khorne Blood Warriors x 10
  10. Sicarian Infiltrators x 10

What I Am Reading

I have yet to pick up a book this week 🙁

But I have been listening to The Wolftime by Gav Thorpe which is really good.

What Video Games I Am Playing

Not a great deal just a daily game of Halo Infinite for the most part to get the points.

What Tabletop Games Am I Playing

Other than those at Company of Legends, none.

What I Am Creating

Two more battle reports were published, issues 22 and 23!

Now that all the tutorial missions are done, I am going to be moving to a new schedule, Wednesday will be Imperium and Saturday will be something else.

I am kinda thinking the first something else will be a Horus Heresy very small Zone Mortalis game.

What I Am Spending

I did manage to pick up Watchmen: Ultimate Cut in 4K from the Microsoft Store for £3.99 which is awesome!

Also when at the North East Model Centre on Thursday, I bought another Painting Handle!

Schedule Sucks Still

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On 21st September 2021

In Blog

Well my schedule is complete balls right now, it’s all over the shop and it’s really doing my head in.

I know I need it to function well, but I am having issues asking for what I need to actually keep to a scheuldule.

Lindsay’s meeting schedule is now going on the family calendar but sharing an office means I can’t do certain stuff when she is in those meetings.

The doctor has offered some great advice for helping with my sleep, which is helping to a degree, but I also need to get the days sorted out.

I dunno, guess I don’t have much else to say really.

What I Am Modelling

I started the week with a the HQ models and the MG34 MMG Team for my Bolt Action early war Germans.

I then painted up the Cultists from the Blackstone Fortress Escalation expansion.

I then began work on a Fire Raptor for the Heresy Death Guard, I have had this model for so long, originally it was intended for the Space Wolves, but plans changed.

I also managed to paint a Hexmark Desyroyer, which I must say, is the nicest model in the new Necron range.

And finally I painted three Necron Warriors that came with Imperium, this is a second set, and I have another still to do.

So what’s up next?

  1. Necron Canoptek Wraiths x 6
  2. Mechanicum Magos Macrotek Enginseer & Servo-Automata x 4
  3. Flesh-Eater Courts Crypt Flayers x 3 & Crypt Infernal Courtier
  4. Death Guard Lord of Virulence, Blackstone Fortress Plague Marines x 3 & Poxwalkers x 6
  5. Skitarii Marshall
  6. Thousand Sons Terminators x 5 & Ahirman
  7. Blackstone Fortress Negavolt Cultists x 6 & Rogue Psykers x 3
  8. Stormcast Eternals Judicators x 10
  9. Ork Nobz x 6, Warboss & Painboy
  10. Death Korps of Krieg Infantry Squad x 10

What Am I Reading

I published the review of In the Shadow of Deimos by Jane Killick and you can read it here.

Haven’t read much else this week, but I have started listening to Godblight by Guy Haley.

What Video Games Am I Playing

Playing a little bit every day, played a little bit of PUBG, some Flight Simulator and finished Halo 2 Anniversary.

I have now stated on Halo 3 and have made a decent way though it so far.

What Tabletop Games Am I Playing

I played through two solo games of Warhammer 40,000 to create the battle reports for the Imperium playlist.

The first video was published on Friday and you can see that in the Creating section.

What I Am Creating

The Vlog for Company of Legends went up on Thursday.

And on Friday the first battle reports for Imperium was released.

And look out for a new episode of Edge of Empire dropping shortly.

What I Am Backing

Still just backing Rawr! Velociraptor! at the $11 level to get the Greatest Hots album.

What I am Cooking

I managed to make a filling for a cottage pie on Saturday, but that wiped me out for the weekend 🙁

  • Mood:- Funny Tummy
  • Caffeinated Beverages Consumed:- 8
  • In My Ears:- Crocodile Rock – Elton John
  • Tabletop Game Last Played:- Warhammer 40,000
  • Video Game Last Played:- Halo 3
  • Book Last Read:– The Patriot List – David Guymer
  • Movie/TV Show Last Viewed:- Archer
  • Current State of Projects:- Canoptek Wraiths, metallics finished, just starting on the carapaces.

It’s Creeping Close

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On 17th September 2019

In Blog

Company of Legends is now less than two weeks away, so here is nervous as owt Michael for the next two weeks as he gets everything ready for it and finishes painting the last of the new scenery.

Also I did an interview with The Imperial Truth about it, so expect to see that soon!

What I am Modelling

It’s been a slow week, mostly been dealing with other stuff but I did get one model painted, X-102 from Combat Arena.

I also primed my 1000pts of Legio Custodes for the Adeptus Terra Zone Mortalis Challenge, it’s not a lot of models really, only eight in fact.

Right now I am working on Sector Slytherin with Megan, the Ruins just need a wash on some pipes, the Manufactorum needs its final details and the Adminstratium is about 60% done and should be finished tomorrow.

This leaves two sets of Sector Sanctoris Ruins and the three Imperial Sector buildings to do.

What I am Reading

I finished The Bone Desert and it was a really good book, very enjoyable, so thanks Robbie.

Then I read One, Untended by David Guymer and that was also a pretty good read, lots of action and a great short story.

I have also quite quickly devoured Realmslayer: Blood of the Old World, really loved this, once again Black Library just Knock it out of the part when it comes to audio dramas, plus Brian Blessed just embodies Gotrek.

What I am Playing

I haven’t played anything this week, for shame, but I am playing a game of Adeptus Titanicus at Battle Bunker on Wednesday.

What I am Backing

Nowt right now, but I am looking out for project 100!

What I am Cooking

Still not been capable of cooking, apart from putting sausages in the oven, but I wasn’t able to take them out and finish them 🙁

What I am Spending

I bought a few things for Company of a Legends, but that’s not my money so not a huge great big deal!

We got the chocolate bars, which have been subsidised by one of our generous sponsors, we got Twix Xtras in both milk and white chocolate, and Snickers Duo, I also got the required lanyards, photo frames for the certificates, just got coffee to buy now.

For next year we have purchased some Hive Walls from GameMat.eu, two sets of them so that we can offer Zone Mortalis games on two 4×4 tables, I also got a set of Necromunda Bulkead Doors to compliment these as well.

For myself, I finally ordered Kill Team Elites, also Palanite Enforcers, their dice and cards for Necromunda and a few Space Marine Heroes from Series 2.

Heresy Weekender Planning

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On 22nd August 2017

In Blog

I started putting the first touches to the Heresy Weekender this week, the first thing I addressed was the biggest complaints, which were poor coffee and unpainted armies.

For the coffee we will be taking along a Tassimo machine and be offering people Costa coffee from that, it does mean we will have to charge for those, 50p for an Americano and £1 for a Latte. I don’t drink coffee so I hope this will suffice, and of course we will still be offering instant coffee for free as well, because I want to give people the option. And the instant coffee and tea will still come from Ringtons, so it has a North East favour to it.

And for painting we have introduced a 3 colour and based minimum painting standard, I understand that some people felt their immersion was spoiled by unpainted armies being on the table and I totally get that.

We didn’t want to put off players, because people do have different demands on their time, whilst for me, I have all the time in the world to paint, I know people who are teachers working 80 hours weeks, and have kids, so finding time to paint for them is a struggle.

But the people who came spoke, and the majority wanted painted armies, and they are after all, the people we put the event on for.

We also looked at the points levels, for the past two years we have done 3500 points, but this year we have decided to drop it down to 3000 points. Gregg of The Imperial Truth runs his events at 3000 points and they work really well, it still allows people to bring the nice big toys, but will help us with timekeeping. Oh and we have abandoned the sideboards in favour of a much simpler thing, just allowing people to bring two different lists.

Not sure if we are doing doubles again, this is fun, but it did take a long time and some people didn’t have as much fun for various reasons, we still need to discuss this however, because doubles can be a lot of fun. It’s something up for discussion anyway.

At Raid on Angstrom XI Graham trailed a possible way to run the campaign, based on the Shadow Wars system. The biggest issue we had this year was that sorting out the results and the narrative outcome took a long time, and having set missions let people slip into tournament mode a little, so hopefully this will work and resolve the issue. If that doesn’t work we do have a plan, but it will take a lot more work, as we will be basing it on a tree campaign system.

We also want to introduce some more environmental effects to give the tables a bit of personality, still figuring out ways of doing this, but I think we can manage something, I have seen a few good ideas in the Warhammer 40k Open War Cards.

I am also sending off Megan’s mum to a local butcher, Bolams in Sedgefield to see what price we can get for the meat we need, they sell meat sources from local County Durham farms and we are after all trying to give the event as much of a local flavour as possible. We are charging a bit more this year, so we may as well see what we can to put some of that into the food and improve its quality.

Some of the extra money is going to be used to hire tables, so we can have a uniform flatness to the table without a ridge interfering with the mats, and also allowing us somewhere to eat. The venue has less tables than they did last year so it’s now at the point where we need to hire them, plus it looks a lot better and a bit more professional.

It’s still six months to go, but the sooner I get the organisation dealt with the easier it will be in the long run, this includes a few under the hood changes to the Edge of Empire website which will allow us to sell the tickets and take your money.

This week I need to get sorted with working out the final budget and seeing what we can do to make it an amazing weekend for people.

Oh and tickets go on sale on the 11th September.

What I am Modelling

I have built some Ad-Mech stuff this week, I spent my Saturday night building a pair of Kastelan Robots and their Cybernetica Datasmith, all of which were rather decent models to build, so far I have enjoyed building each of the Ad-Mech kits, and I have built one of them all now.

I also built a Tech-Priest Domius which I bought this week as well.

I have done some painting on the Inceptors and they are now about 80% done, my painting mojo has been quite suppressed this past week.

What I am Reading

I finished listening to Sons of the Forge and yeah, the second half was just as muddled and bad as I remember when I read it.

The biggest issue it had is that it’s simply got too many characters for such a short story, too many threads that don’t get fully explored properly, and there are too many cliched tropes in play.

Really a quite poor book, and it solidified my opinion that Nick Kyme is not one of Black Library’s better authors.

I then listened to the Eagles Talon, a book I really enjoy, the whole Imperial Fists undercover and sneaking round a ship I find quite cool, when I first listened to it, I was still deciding on what Legion to build, and this almost made me go with a Recin Squad based Fists army, but I hate painting yellow!

I also finally got round to listening to The Heary of the Pharos, which was originally published as The Dark Between the Stars, but was hastily retitled because they forgot to check the title wasn’t already in use.

I am not a big fan of Laurie Goldings writings to be honest, but this was pretty good, it being set in catacombs underneath the Pharos meant that they were able to do great things with the sound effects in order to create an atmospheric audio drama.

The story fills in a lot of holes about the run up to Pharos and really should have been released prior to that, but I suspect it may have been a victim of the poor organisation that was going on at Black Library during the period in which Pharos was published. Plus it kinda links in with the Scythes of the Emperor stories that were written by Golding as well, which are set 10,000 years later.

My only complaint is that Dantioch didn’t sound right, if anything he sounded, healthy and we know that he is not a healthy man.

I have now started listening to Pharos itself, and I do enjoy that story.

What I am Playing

This week I played in the Raid on Angstrom event that Graham organised, and it was a lot of fun, very well organised and really cool. I took my Word Bearers and played with Lorgar for the first time, using a Primarchs Chosen army.

My first game was against Steve’s Primarchs Chosen army of Raven Guard with Corax. It did not go well for me, I was wiped out pretty quickly, my Gal Vorbak deep struck only to be shot to death very quickly. Lorgar did smash some face and took out an entire Terminator Squad himself, only to be shot to death by two Plasma Predators, and in general in went very badly for me. But the game was an awful lot of fun, despite it being very one sided.

My second game was much the same, but against the Iron Hands, the mission requires I deploy everything on the board and could only hold in reserve units like fliers and Drop Pods, so my Gal Vorbak has to footslog across the board.

Was a very tough game and my Xiphon just refused to come into the game, my Spartan was killed very early by a mixture of a Drop Pod Leviathan and Laser Destroyer Rapiers.

The rest of my army suffered at the hands of a squad of 10 Volkite Culverin Heavy Support Marines and three Quad Mortar Rapiers.

In my last game it was a complete reversal, we played Suicide Mission and I had to stop Johns Raven Guard getting into my deployment zone.

My army did really really well, my Volkite Contemtor wiped out a squad in the first turn and I did a lot of damage to a Mor Deythan Squad.

John just kept rolling 1s and 2s, I felt really bad for the guy, whilst I couldn’t do any wrong, my Gal Vorbak came on and smashed face, Lorgar wiped out a unit of Attack Bikes by himself and then he and his squad of Terminators ate through two Contemptors.

In the whole game I lost a single Terminator, a Single Gal Vorbak, my Chaplain, a Rhino and two Tactical Veterans! I like winning, but I don’t like winning like that.

In the end the Traitors managed to edge a win in the campaign and I think both me and Graham were very happy with how it played out. Given us lots of ideas for the Weekender.

What I am Backing

A project that has had me keep looking at it again and again is Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction, a special double issue of Uncanny Magazine featuring stories, poems, essays and art by creators who are disabled. Disability and sci-fi is something that interests me a lot so this is right up my street.

They have some great creators on board and I am looking forward to the production of this awesome issue.

Ogrezine still has a day left to run and has smashed right through all of its stretch goals.

What I am Cooking

This week I cooked a Tex-Mex inspired chilli, I made this mostly to the specifications of the Chili Appreciation Society International which means it was a chilli without beans or tomatoes, I did break the rules slightly and put in a couple of onions but I think it needed it.

The chilli was made with chunks of beef as opposed to mince, and the spice was cumin, oregano, paprika and dried red chillies in a Mexican larger sauce with some dark chocolate.

Megan was very unsure about it as I prepared it and put it in the slow cooker, and she said it was a larger chocolate spice abomination.

To accompany the chilli I made some cornbread, last time I made this I made it in a frying pan which then went straight into the oven, but I no longer own a frying pan that can go into the oven, so I made them as smaller muffin style cakes.

To make cornbread meant getting some corn meal, which is not a normal ingredient in British supermarkets, you can use polenta as a supbsitute, but most supermarkets only sell polenta as a ready made solid block. Thankfully the Tesco Extra in Gateshead has a good selection of Asian ingredients and I was able to get a nice big bag from there.

The cornbread was made with some onion, green chillies and cheese in it, and went down fairly well, both Lindsay and Megan enjoyed it.

The chilli on the other hand was a different story, it was far too spicy, so next time I will use less dried red chillies, and Megan found that it had too much larger in it, so when I make it again, it will be made with half as much larger and the rest will be made up of beef stock.

Next week my meal has to be a bit cheaper so I am thinking of making a teriyaki meatloaf.

What I am Spending

Trying not to spend again this week, but I did but a cheap Adeptus Mechanicus Tech-Priest Dominus, I have up until now been using the Forge World Magos Dominus, but I really like the look of the Games Workshop model and was able to pick it up off eBay quite cheaply from a seller who was breaking up some Start Collecting boxes.

Must get round to finishing off my Ad Mech at some point.

I also finally bought the new Paranoia adventure, Troubles by the Boxload, I have been reading through the books of the new edition, I plan to run some games of this at some point in the near future with Lindsay and Megan.

Post Weekender Roundup

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On 11th March 2017

In Blog

Well the weekender was amazing, it was phenomenal, although I was looking after everything and didn’t get to play, I saw some amazing games and some brilliant armies.

It started with a huge panic, because when we arrived, there weren’t enough tables and after trying a few methods to live with the number of tables we had, Phil had the brilliant idea of looking in the marquee and we found some more tables there which we fetched over to use. Tristan whom we normally deal with the last few times has set the hall up perfectly for gaming, but he is sick at the moment and the rest of the staff didn’t know where the tables were. So we sorted out the tables but Phil had forgot the all important event packs so he had to rush off, which left me to cook the pie and pea supper, and ever since my brain injury, well cooking is not something I can really do anymore and I managed to burn the peas!

It was overall a nice night because people came along and helped us set up tables and they started playing, which was brilliant to see. People got a bit merry and although me, Phil, Graham and Adam ran around like headless chickens for a bit getting things ready, but it did calm down in the end and things started to move slowly, even though we were still repairing terrain and boards right up until quite late!

Saturday started well, the breakfast was on time and warm, strangely only one bowl of cereal was eaten, but lots of toast and Jane was had! Games got underway and these matchups were ones that we had predetermined based on fluff, so we had Space Wolves taking on the Thousand Sons, Ultramarines battling Word Bearers, Night Lords tackling the Dark Angels etc, and this went very well and worked out a bit more balanced than we had thought, the only game which looked a bit too uneven was a game between the Legio Custodes and traitor Solar Auxillia, but it wasn’t overly so.Lunch was hot dogs which we had slow cooked since the breakfast and these were well received but based on feedback we might need to provide a bit more next time for the hungry guys. After lunch was game 2, and the hour break worked out perfectly to allow Adam and Graham to work out the narrative and pairings. These games also went rather well, and I just pottered around, emptying bins, and took a quick trip to Tesco with Lindsay for a few bits and bobs we ran out of like Tomato Ketchup.

Game 3 was a doubles game and this was a bit mixed, it was a hit for some people, but other people didn’t like it, and we had one very bad match up, where there was a bad personality clash between two players, which was a shame. It didn’t get too bad, but when two of the players were having a bad time because their partners spent the game arguing over simple rules, it made me feel bad for them. This game went on quite late on into the night, with the last game putting dice down at 11pm, at which time I retired to my room because I needed to be up early to reorganise the tables in the morning.

At least that was the plan, but I managed to sleep in, but thankfully Phil had gotten up early and reorganised all the tables himself and started to cook breakfast, showing what a bloody hero he is! Games wise this is where we fell down a little, Graham and Adam left organising the narrative and pairings until the morning so the games got away a bit later than planned, and in between games 4 and 5, it took an hour to sort out, and we only allocated 30 minutes, so that’s something we have to tighten up for next time.

I spent most of Sunday tidying stuff up whilst Lindsay and Megan, who were amazing and cooked for everyone during the weekend, told me how dreamy Jason Mullins was! Game 5 actually worked out to be the worst game, I had planned an ambush game with a last stand for the losing side, but some games were over far too quickly as they were so very one sided, so I am never planning that kind of mission again, but that was the biggest disappointment of the weekend.

Getting out of Moorhouse was a huge rush as we overran our booking and as such we forgot to take the tables back to the marquee and afterwards they told us that there was a superglue spillage on the floor, so I am awaiting a repair bill for that.

I know the weekend went very well, we have had some great feedback from the survey, but there are things I need to change for next time. The biggest thing we are going to do is to extend our booking and get a couple of hours extra to set up and break down, and putting up a pasting table outside for repairs, oh and hireing tables next time so we don’t have to scavenge for tables and most importantly we can provide seating for lunch!

But we plan on doing it again next year and right now I am just awaiting confirmation that we can have the date we want from Moorhouse, and then I will be announcing that date. But just in case we can’t get it, I am looking at other venues, and also getting a van next year to make getting the scenery around a lot easier, rather than spreading it around everyone’s cars.

What I am Modelling

The early part of the week I took a bit of a break and only just got back into my studio on Thursday.

I built the Stormcast Eternals part of the Age of Sigmar boxset, and some Mighty Skullcrushers of Khorne, gonna give a bit more attention to my Age of Sigmar stuff now the weekender is done and out the way.

I planned started to paint my Gal Vorbak as well, they are an intimidating unit to paint but hopefully I will do them justice, for the daemon skin I am looking at Skaven flesh for inspiration, I want something that looks like it could be human, but slightly wrong. However, I left the Word Bearers in the car so I started on my MKIV Breachers for the Ultramarines instead.

What I am Reading

Mostly a whole lot of noting, not even an audio book, I am not happy with myself in this department.

I have read a little bit more of I am Slaughter but that’s it!

What I am Playing

At club on Tuesday I played Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shadows of the Past for the first time and it was ok. We played through mission 1 from book 1 and it’s not too bad a game. Still need to read though the rules a bit more and figure it all out properly, but I quite like it so far.

We also played an old favourite of mine from when I was a kid, Space Crusade, I played at the Imperial Fists and the dice hated me, I lost all my heavy weapons in the first villain turn and only managed to score 6 points in the whole game, whole Lindsay managed to win with 73 points after she killed the Chaos lord.

I visited Battle Bunker in Sunderland for the first time on Thursday and I have to say, it’s a brilliant venue, lots of tables, just across from a McDonalds, 25% off GW stuff and a really nice owner. I really want this place to be a success and will be playing as many games there as I can afford to.

Anyway I meet up with John to play an 1850pts game of Heresy, it was one of Johns first games so he had to pop in a Space Wolves unit to represent a tactical squad.

For my list I took as follows:-

HQ – Praetor, Cataphractii Terminator Armour, Iron Halo, Thunderhammer, Combi-Volkite, Digital Lasers 

HQ – Centurion, Jump Pack, Chaplain, Artificer Armour, Plasma Pistol, Power Maul 

Elites – Gal Vorbak Dark Brethren, Dark Maytr with Artificer Armour and Power Fist

Troops – Terminator Squad, Cataphractii Terminator Armour, 3 x Powerfist, Chainfist, Reaper Autocannon, Sgt with Grenade Harness and Power Maul, Spartan Assault Tank, Dozer Blade, Armoured Ceramite, Flare Shield

Troops – Veteran Squad, 2 x Heavy Bolter, Vexilla, Sgt with Artificer Armour and Lightning Claw, Rhino with Dozer Blade, Marksmen

Troops – Veteran Squad, 2 x Missile Launcher, Vexilla, Sgt with Artificer Armour and Power Fist, Rhino with Dozer Blade, Machine Killers

Heavy Support – Heavy Support Squad, 5 x Missile Launchers 

We rolled to play War of Lies with an Ambush deployment and I rolled to deploy first and I chose to be the attacker. But John was playing Raven Guard so after he deployed his Contemptor Dreadnoughts he then decided everything else would infiltrate, whilst I put my two Veteran squads and my Terminator squad in their transports on the board in my deployment zone and then placed my Heavy Support Squad in a ruin.

I managed to get an exploded result by firing my Lascannons from the Spartan into one Contemptor Dreadnought, but no matter what I put into it, he always seemed to roll the invulnerable saves for the other. I rolled up my Machine Killers and eventually got them into combat with a Mor Deythan Strike Squad which had almost wiped out my Terminator Squad in the shorting phase where they rerolled their misses and had rending. But when my Praetor and last Terminator got into that combat they were able to rout them which allowed the Veteran Squad to make a sweeping advance which wiped out the Squad and his Praetor.

Kaedus Nex made some excellent shoot attacks against my Praetor and did take a wound off him, but the Heavy Bolter on the Spartan eventually killed him, but it has made me decide to get a Moritat when FW eventually release that kit.

 My Praetor eventually died to shooting attacks from his Tactical squads and he was on one wound and standing on the central objective, he fell to a lowly bolt gun round.

My Gal Vorbak succeed in their reserve rolls on both turns 2 and 3, but in both turns they managed to mishap, but they did go into ongoing reserves thankfully, eventually they arrived in Turn 4 but by that time they couldn’t do much and were in an end of the table where in the turn they arrived I wiped out the opposition.

My other Veteran Squad, shot up a Tactical Squad and eventually wiped them out in close combat, but it took a while, I then wanted them to claim the objective the Tactical Squad had been on, but by the time they had wiped out the units last guy, John had moved his Terminator Squad onto the objective and I decided to have them try to take shoot to death the Tactical Squad sitting on the central objective which they failed to do.

In the round up, we both held two objectives and got Slay the Warlord whilst I had First Blood, in the rolling for points I ended up with -1 victory points after rolling a 6 then a 3, whereas John got a 2 and a 5 giving him a total of 5 points.

It was a very enjoyable game and I look forward to playing John again.

What I am Backing

What else, but Rising Sun!

I really regret not backing Blood Rage so of course I was going to back this game, and it looks brilliant. Ok so it’s a slight bit lacking on it’s perfect knowledge of the culture, but otherwise it’s looking awesome, the gameplay looks really interesting and quite involved and the minis look breathtaking.

It’s knocking down Stretch Goals like there is no tomorrow, I can see this ending up making an easy $3 Million.

If you liked Blood Rage, then certainly go and back this, or alternatively if you do’t know what Blood Rage is, back it, otherwise you will regret it.

Munchkin Shakespeare ended up funded with $295k, just $5 short of getting us a round game board resembling the Globe Theatre, but it is coming as a deluxe edition with a board and standees, and I also let my sister-in-law Jane piggyback on our pledge in order to grab herself both the main game and the Kickstarter expansion.

What I am Spending

Not a penny, I bought a parmo on Tuesday after club but that was it.

I am trying to reduce down my spending and hopefully this is a good start in doing that.

A Bunch of Thank Yous

By

On 5th March 2017

In Blog

I first off want to thank the people who made the weekend possible. 

To Adam who wrote the fluff which directed the narrative, I know a lot of people loved his s croon about the various planets in the system.

Graham who used his programming skills to write the branching method which worked out how the story unfolded.

Phil who organised the logistics of how things would work during the event, and who sweated moving around tables for the doubles.

Andrew, David and the two James, who as the remaining members of the committee helped steer us in the right direction and in a way that would benefit the community and the club.

And of course my beautiful girls, Megan and Lindsay who alongside Megan’s mum Jane, cooked the meals that were e joyed over the weekend.

These people put up with my madness, panic and worry as I worked to coordinate people and make this event work, they kept me more or less sane and I am proud to call these people my friends.

But the people I want to thank the most are those of you that came, it’s was so inspiring to see people travel far and wide to come and play five games of The Horus Heresy here in our little corner of North East England.

I will speak a bit more about how the weekend went in a few days, along with some feedback we got, but for now I just wanted to say thank you.

Almost There

By

On 3rd March 2017

In Blog

This week has been mostly finishing up preparations for the weekender. Sunday saw me and Lindsay head up to CostCo to order the cake, and pick up the crisps, chocolate and pop for the tuck shop, and Lindsay and Megan will be returning on Friday night to grab the cake and some biscuits.

On Tuesday I was at club where we got the clubs terrain split amongst a bunch of us to take up to Moorhouse on Friday, we figure with my Realm of Battle and terrain, plus all the clubs stuff, we can do about 16 tables, which is one more than we need, we hope it’s going to all look good.

Wednesday was the day we went to grab the non-perishable food for the weekender, off to Asda in Stanley I journeyed and managed to clear their shelves of mushy peas, bockwurst hot dogs and kidney beans. We still have to grab the fresh stuff, but that waiting until Friday morning just before we drop it off at Moorhouse, I don’t have room in my fridge to keep 9kg of mince after all!!

I have also been collecting together all the other bits and bobs that will make the weekender work, things like the iZettle, for taking card payments in the tuck shop, the camera so we can film some of the games taking place, my audio recorder so me and Graham can interview some folk for our podcast, and little things like that.

I also tonight finally sort d out all of my terrain that I am taking along, I had to remove the fantasy style stuff from the box, and thankfully once that’s removed the newly painted up stuff fits in it quite nicely. And looking though it I found one or two bits that I forgot I had, like the resin Urban and Ork barricades that Games Workshop did a few years ago.

I know it’s going to be a good weekend, we just have to make it happen!

We did have a bit of a bad day today, it’s the 5th anniversary of Lindsay getting attacked by the dog, so she really was having a hard time coping at work. In the end she had to take a days holiday, because she couldn’t stop crying. 

I hate it when she gets like that, I feel so useless, I should be able to look after her and make her feel better, but when it comes to this I simply can’t, and it really makes me feel impotent and powerless.

Some people wonder why I don’t like dogs, but when you once had to pick up bits of your wife off the carpet, lie next to her whilst she suffers through the attack all over agin via a nightmare, or she just has this sad look in her eyes when looking at the scars, then you might understand.

Thankfully the law has changed since she was attached and if it happened today the police would have the power to seize the dog and destroy it, but that doesn’t make me feel better know that it’s still alive and could turn on someone else at the drop of a hat, and perhaps they won’t be so lucky as she was.

What I am Modelling

I finished the terrain I had to do with the completion of the Void Shield Generator, the glowing orbs were done using a method that Sarah from Warhammer in Newcastle thought me.

Started with a base of Caliban Green, then drub rushed with Warpstone Glow, then dry brushed with Moot Green. The lightning was then painted in using Yirel Yellow, and the whole thing was then glazed with Lamenters Yellow before being given a coat of Ardcoat. It’s a simple method buy one which looks really well, although the lightning on mine does let it down a little.

With this done I turned my attention back to my Word Bearers and competed the Plasma Tactical Support Squad, it was. Ice to be doing one of my armies again.

I will be turning my attention next to my Age of Sigmar Khorne Chaos stuff, the Newcastle Warhammer store is doing a challenge to build and paint up a 1000pt list to play in some games in store during April, so that’s what I am going to do.

I already have the Goreblade Warband ready to go for this, to which I will be adding three Mighty Skullcrushers and ten Bloodletters to get to 960pts, so sadly I won’t be including Slambo in that list.

What I am Reading

I downloaded and read the new short story Ordo Sinister by John French which is about a Psi-Titan and its fight in the War in the Webway.

It tells a tale of Prefect Hydragyrum holding back a deamonic incursion in the engine Borealis Thoon, completely unsupported by any other elements of the Emperors forces.

The story being only some 20ish pages long doesn’t go in to a huge amount of details about the Ordo Sinister, but does give us a brief glimpse at how starange they are compared to other Titan Legions and how disturbing their Psi-Titans are.

It does kind of over exaggerate exactly how badass it is, but honestly it’s a decent little read and the way it easily fits in with the story in Master of Mankind means it’s a no brainier of a purchase at £2.49, especially with a talented writer like John behind it.
What I am Playing

This week I got a game in with Graham using my Ultramarines, I wrote up a Battle report of the game for Edge of Empire which you can read here.

What I am Backing

Nowt new, but Munchkin Shakespeare is still plodding along, and now we have a stretch goal at $275k which turns it into a Deluxe version of Munchkin complete with game board and standees. So I urge you to give it a look and back it if you like it. 

It hit £200k last night which added 4 more cards, 2 dungeons and a colouring book to the Kickstarter Expansion, for the main set, Andrew Hackard, the Munchkin Czar, tells me they are aiming for 168 cards which would be the same amount in a core Munchkin set.

What I am Spending

It’s not spending, but I did swap a rare Munchkin promo card for a Plasma Obliterator as I mentioned in my last entry, and it arrived, considered painting it up for the Weekender, but ended up deciding against it as I want a bit of a break from scenery for a little bit. It got built up and primed but that was as far as I was willing to go with it.

Looking Forward to the Weekender

By

On 19th February 2017

In Blog

And The Weekender is getting closer and I am really starting to look forward to it now. I have started buying the food, ordered the stotties, got the scenery coming along etc.

At the moment it looks like I am playing which in a way is a good thing, I originally planned this so that I could play some games, and in a way it’s a bad thing because the girls want me to help in the kitchen and someone needs to organise things and stuff. So hopefully we will sell that last ticket so I don’t have to play.
Now I am just making plans for executing everything perfectly, we have the event packs printed, which was the big issue we had last year, they didn’t turn up until the day and even then they were a mess, so we have the biggest issue of last year solved already. 

We are buying the non-fresh food a week Monday, and I am going to order a cake from CostCo for people to enjoy as a snack on Saturday. One thing I did want to try and do with the food is introduce a bit of a North East flavour to it, hence the stotties for the breakfast sarnies, and also why I have spent that little bit extra money to buy Ringtons tea and coffee, I did consider having a Makaway curry for Saturday night, but we figured best to play it safe as curry can be a very funny thing for a lot of people.

The army lists have started pouring in, though a few people are a bit late with them, but that’s cool, and I am getting them typed up so we can publish them next week, so everyone will be able to see what’s coming.

I plan on doing quite a bit of coverage on the weekend with the Edge of Empire website, which I will also publish here, so look out for that.

What I am Modelling

This week has once again been all about terrain. I got built the remaining terrain on Sunday, but when I opened the Renegade box to get the last Sanctum Imperialis, I had three accessory sprues and no building sprues, but a quick email to Games Workshop and I had a replacement kit on Wednesday.

This week I have managed to paint a Wall of Martyrs Imperial Defence Emplacement, a Shrine of the Aquila, 2 Munitorium Armoured Containers, a Manufactorum, a Sanctum Imperialis and a Firestorm Redoubt. Tonight I started on a pair of Haemotrope Reactors, and by start, I mean I have them coated in Leadbelcher and washed with Nuln Oil for me to do further work on them in the morning.

I also took a little time out to paint up an Imperial Space Marine, during the 30th anniversaries celebration of the Space Marine last year, I ended up with four of these, and with this one, I decided to make a Knight-Errant for the Horus Heresy.

He is wearing what I interpreted to be, artificer MKVI armour, has a bolter that could easily pass for a Paragon Bolter, and his Bolt Pistol certainly looks Master Crafted. Anyway I painted him up in a scheme which I will use if I ever build a Grey Knights army, which was a base coat of Leadbelcher, a wash of Nuln Oil, followed by a heavy dry brush of Ironbreaker and then a dry brush with Necron Compound.

What I am Reading

I decided to start on The Beast Arises and have read a couple of chapters if I Am Slaughter, and so far I am enjoying it, although I haven’t read much yet, but already I am liking the politics of it, it’s very interesting to get an insight to the workings of the High Lords of Terra.

What I am Playing

Sadly I haven’t played anything this week, although I have scheduled in a game of Horus Heresy against Graham on Tuesday, and next Saturday I am going to take a small 1000pt force to play in a large Fall of Cadia at the Newcastle Warhammer store.

I did try to see if Megan wanted to take a day to go visit the Battle Bunker in Sunderland so we could play a game, but she wanted to play a few more games at home first before playing in a public place.

What I am Backing

Still backing Munchkin Shakespeare, which has bust through a few more stretch goals, and we have in our sight some Spyke pawns, they are quite a bit away, but I am sure we will get them.

And Sliced Quarterly has now funded and is hitting some stretch goals, we are currently £32 away from getting a colouring book, a goal I really hope we can hit. 

What I am Spending

Given how I overspent quite a bit recently, I am scaling back on my spending for the next few weeks. I did have to go pick up some paints the other day, and I also was tempted by and picked up a pair of Vengeance Defence Batteries, and when he went on preorder today, I could not resist ordering Slambo!
I have also purchased some items for Megan’s birthday as that’s coming up.

A Long To Do List and a Birthday Party

By

On 8th February 2017

In Blog

It’s less than four weeks now until the Heresy Weekender and I have lots of scenery left to do, so I really need to get a crack on with it.

Currently left to do I have:-

  • 3 Wall of Martyrs Imperial Defence Lines
  • 2 Wall of Martyrs Imperial Defence Emplacements
  • 1 Firestorm Redoubt
  • 1 Void Shield Generator
  • 1 Imperial Bastion
  • 2 Munitorum Armoured Containers 
  • 1 Shrine of the Aquila
  • 2 Haemotrope Reactors
  • 2 Sanctum Imperialis
  • 2 Manufactorums
  • 2 Basilica Administratum

So it’s a big list, all I have managed to do so far is a single Wall of Martyrs Imperial Bunker.

I think I need you guys to wish me luck!

In the meantime it was my local Warhammer stores birthday party on Saturday and I went down to join in on the festivities. I managed to forget my case of models, curse you brain damage, so was unable to enter anything into the painting contest, or take part in any of the games. But that was cool I hung out with the guys and just chatted, and drooled over the stuff coming out of the Weekender down in Nottingham.

I had a KFC for lunch which was a nice treat and voted for my favourite model in the cabinet, which was of course Grahams Vampire Lord!

Martin and the gang put on a fun day with lots to do and it was a lot of fun, can’t complain at all. I did have 21 tickets for the auction at the end of the day and had hopped to get myself a framed picture of a Stormcast Eternal, but that ended up going for a lot more than 21 tickets. In the end I gave my tickets to a kid so that he could outbid a fella on a picture of some 40k battle brothers, and ended up encouraging others around me to do the same, as it’s always nice to see a kid walk away with a prize.

Oh and The Mighty Zugband my Word Bearers dice from Forgeworld arrived, quite early which was nice.

What I am Modelling

Not a lot had been done, just haven’t been able to get the time in the studio that I would have liked, but I have done a little work on my Word Bearers Tactical Support Squad, and they should get finished up tomorrow.

For the store birthday party I was going to take along my Stormcast Eternals Errant-Questor for the Bloodtide game, but Megan wasn’t doing so well on Friday night and needed my company, so I didn’t get a chance to finish him off, but when I got in after the party, I went and finished him off and I am quite proud of it, we’ll sort from the sword that is, ruddy hand tremors mean my highlights are utter pants.

I did build the Khorne Bloodbound side of the Age of Sigmar box up today, which I ended up using in my first ever game of Age of Sigmar, but more about that in a bit.

What I am Reading

I finished up listening to Vulkan Lives and I have to say, it made a lot more sense listening to it than it did reading it. 

I have started on the audio book version of Leman Russ: The Great Wolf, and it has so far been quite good. Although Dan Abnett certainly gets the credit for how the Rout is portrayed in the Heresy, Chris Wraight has really fleshed out that portrayal quite a bit, and here we get to see a bit of the Wolves in the immediate aftermath of the Heresy which in itself is really interesting.

I am about halfway through now, and so far got to say that Leman is about as much as I would expect him to have been during the height of the Great Crusade, I am looking forward to getting into more of the book tomorrow.

What I am Playing

I have actually played quite a bit recently, so let’s give a brief overview.

I played Grant at Blood Bowl at the Raiders on the 31st and I drew that game with my humans against his Orcs, but I think I need to get an Ogre to give my humans a bit more punch, but I have Grak and Crumbleberry so they will be getting integrated into the team ASAP. It was a really tough game and I lost 3 players to KO during the game.

On the 1st I played Smash Up at home with Lindsay and Megan, I was playing Changerbots/Time Travellers which was an interesting combo. Unfortunately Megan got a headache so the game was incomplete, though I was on 14 points Simone away from winning. Me and Lindsay then had a game of Ticket to Ride using the India map, where I beat her 177 points to 96 points thanks to getting all my routes on a Mandala.

On the 3rd I played Ticket to Ride 10th Anniversary Edition with Lindsay and Paul, it’s a rare treat that we get this set out and I am always the Hobo Express, Lindsay got to play with the circus trains which megan normally plays, anyway I couldn’t repeat my success of a few days earlier and only scored 105 points to Lindsays 136, but I was ahead of Paul’s 79.

On Sunday we cracked our Sentinels of the Multiverse, and I don’t know what it was, but I just didn’t enjoy it all that much, probably didn’t help that we got so many of the rules wrong, either way I just found it dull, so will have to change it up for our next play of it, especially as it’s part of the 10×10. We then finished up the day with a game of Firefly Fluxx which was won by Megan.

Today I had my first game of Warhammer: Age of Sigmar and I rather enjoyed it. I played David at the club and in our short game I had a unit of 20 Bloodreavers, a Mighty Lord of Khorne and a Khorgorath against his 16 Dryads, Treelord and 3 Kurnoth Hunters with greatbows.

The game was a tad unbalanced and I got ripped apart quite quickly, but I had fun, the game was quick, interesting and simple to pick up, but next time we should use points to ensure a more even game.

What I am Backing

Sliced Quarterly has come back to Kickstarter and my old school pal Ken Reynolds has put together a nice campaign for it.

There are 14 days to go and as I write this they are £106 from funding, so if you like experimental comics go take a look and if you like it, back it.

What I am Spending

Well the store birthday party saw me get into the spirit of things, mostly cause I wanted a messenger bag!

But in all honesty, what I got was mostly for the Heresy Weekender, and those were scenery, I picked up a Firestorm Redoubt to go with the other Wall of Martyrs stuff I have and a Void Shield Generator, so I think we are going to have a pretty cool board with those bits together.

I also wanted to grab a boxed game, I went in with the intention of getting Gorechosen to add to my Khorne Bloodbound, but ended up getting Gangs of Commorragh because Megan loves her Dark Eldar, though I am kicking myself as that’s something I should have gotten her for her birthday instead of letting here know I had got it!

I also picked up a few pots of paint and a Golden Daemon bag label and I also got the free messenger bag, blue mini shopping bag and a bunch of other promo stuff like badges and wrist bands.

10×10 Report for January and Painting a Bunker

By

On 31st January 2017

In Blog

Well the 10×10 didn’t go too well this month, after a good start we didn’t play a single game for the last week and a half, so we have only completed 4% of the challenge.

So we have 96 games still left to play, we must do better next month.

Horus Heresy Weekender Scenery

I have been putting my hobby budget mostly towards scenery for the Horus Heresy Weekender, simply because I want us to step up our game in terms of scenery from last time.

So I purchased a load of Wall of Martyrs scenery so we can make ourselves a defence line board, when combined with a couple of Imperial Bastions.

I have done a test piece to set out how the rest of the stuff is going to be painted, and I think it looks quite good. The painting method is a simple one I found on a blog a few years ago.


The scenery is primed black and the concrete sections are then dry brushed with Stormvermin Fur, followed by a dry brush with Administratum Grey, the metal is painted with Leadbeltcher which is then sloppily washed with Agrax Earthshade. The small aquillas are then dry brushed with Ceremite White.

The gold is Retributor Armour, washed with Reikland Fleshshade and dry brushed with Sigmarite. The earth is Mournfang Brown, washed with Nuln Oil and then dry brushed with Mournfang Brown and then dry brushed with Tau Sept Ocre. 

The Cadian armour is painted Castellan Green, washed with Agrax Earthshade and then dry brushed with Nibblet Green, and the red canister is Mepheston Red, washed with Agrax Earthshade and dry brushed with Astorath Red.

The roof is painted Doombull Brown, washed with Agrax Earthshade, drybrushed with Squig Orange and the dry brushed with Leadbelcher.

Finally the bone is Zandri Dust, washed with Agrax Earthshade and then highlighted with Ushabti Bone.

It’s a very simple scheme and one that is very easy to replicate across the three Imperial Defence Lines and two Imperial Defence Emplacments that I still have to paint, and I might be adding a Firestorm Redoubt to that pile as well.

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