Tag: Word Bearers Page 1 of 2

A Big Bunch of Stuff

On 27th October 2023

This is a big update, life has been a bit all over the place and its taken this long to sort out putting out a new blog post, sorry

My dad turned 60 earlier this month so we buggered off to Suffolk for a birthday meal, we were in the county for less than 24 hours which felt too brief as I was unable to get any quality time.

Would have liked to have spent more time with the nibblings, but it was nice nonetheless.

It was a Sunday dinner at the pub and I had lamb, cause I love lamb and so rarely get to have it.

I turned 41 as well, which was fine, but my birthday plans failed and it’s left me somewhat deflated.

I am on the verge of giving up any attempt at celebrating it from now.

I did get a pair of AirPod Pros for my birthday, mostly cause I needed the ANC

This weekend I went to Stirling for a Horus Heresy event runs by some friends of ours, an event with lots of Conpany of Legends DNA, which is really cool cause we never get to play in our own event!

That’s not me saying they ripped us off, we love that they have taken our concept and turned it into their own thing, it’s absolutely brilliant, although we did provide them with Chris’s scoring/pairing spreadsheet.

I am gonna put up a vide with my list next week.

It’s been a really fun event, my first game was against Matts Whit Scars, a beautiful army that I was able to really push and give it a hard time.

The game went rather well for me, I did lose in the end, but it largely came down to a mixture of great tactics by Matt, poor decision making on my part and of course rolling double 1s on Plasma Pistol Chainfire on my Moritat resulting in him dying in his first turn out of the Rhino!

The second game on Saturday was against Chris’s Custodes, and yeah at 3.5k points, Custodes really get to shine as they can take a lot of the nicer toys that 3k kind of stops them taking

I got hammered in this game, my list just struggled to handle the sheer amount of 2+ Armour

Wonderful guy as well and a beautifully painted army, makes me want to get my Custodes out the box!

On Sunday I faced Mark and his Ultramarines, in a very challenging game, for a good part of the game, I was dominant on one flank, distracting him with stuff on the other, but once he had taken care of those units, he quickly wiped out my whole army!

And my final game was against Michael and his Space Wolves, a great army with a Thunderhawk, my first time facing one of those bad boys!

I did okay, but eventually folded and was tabled, a mix of poor choices on my part and great tactics on Michaels.

A great weekend and the lads put on an amazing event, really good, absolutely loved my time there.

Insullationgate

Not my name, but it seems apt, on my return Stirling, we were having some insulation work done by the landlord, the contractors said, it was all external, but when they arrived, we were told its actually all internal!

So we had a chaotic week, with every room in the house being torn apart, and it ended my #HobbyStreak 🙁

It is what it is, but we are only just getting the place back together, and it still needs painting.

In other news, I am back into therapy and mental health treatment, I need it, and the waiting period was awful.

Initially my medication has been adjusted as they build an idea on how to help sort me out.

What I Am Modelling

I started off painting some Blood Angels but got bored partway though so got painted up my Questoris Knight Styrix for House Taranis

Then I finished the Phobos Lieutenant for the Blood Angels

Followed by the Suppressors

And the a squad of Infiltrators

After that a Ballistus Dreadnought for the Blood Ravens

As a result of the insulation, I found a DOOM box of abandoned Warhammer projects and decided to finish as many of them as I could, starting with a resin Big Mek with Shokk Attack Gun, who mostly just needed a few bits and bobs finishing

Then it was a Praetor for the Death Guard armed with a Thunder Hammer!

Then I finished up some Marines that Chris gave me ages ago to supplement my Word Bearers who needed a couple of Marines per Squad to allow me to take them as Tactical Squads instead of Veteran Squads and allow me to build some non Pride of the Legion lists

And then some Tyranid Warriors that I originally got with Deathstorm, a very very long time ago!

And finally I painted a squad of Assault Terminators for my Ultramarines from the DOOM box

So what’s up next?

Ork Boyz x 10 & Nob
Marshcrawlla Sluggoth
Sororitas Dialogus
Imperial Fists Rotor Cannon Squad x 10
Death Guard Spartan
Termagants with Devourers x 20
Grots x 10 & Runtherd
Chaos Familiars
Loonboss & Zarbags Gitz
Ultramarines Infiltrators x 10

What I Am Reading

I finished The Prisoner of Tartarus bu Richard Lee Byers, so expect a review of that soonish!

I also read The Devouring Void by Danie Ware, which was ok, the twist was kind of sudden which didn’t work for me, but otherwise was good.

Audiobook wise, I listened to Blood of the Emperor, and The Sandman by Simon A Forward, and I am currently listening to The Church and the Crown by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright

What Tabletop Games I Am Playing

I got a game of Sone Mortalis in with Paul at Durham Raiders

I did ok, my list is suboptimal, Paul’s is much better and he played really well, very smart choice made by him.

But it was a close run thing!

And we also had a game of Alhambra, on my birthday which I did not win, of course Megan did.

But it was close!

What Video Games I Am Playing

I have started on Assassin’s Creed III Remastered and been doing so on stream.

I also played and completed Assassin’s Creed Bloodlines, emulated using Retroarch, and I uploaded the playthrough to YouTube

Other than that, I finished Bayonetta.

And I am now playing through Spider-Man Remastered.

What I Am Creating

I did finally get round to making that Ork Skin video!

What I Am Spending

I bought this Neo Geo CD controller made by 8BitDo a month ago and it’s only just arrived, the best thing about, MICROSWITCHES!

So yeah 8BitDo got right what SNK couldn’t

I also had a couple of bits printed up for my controller board, some black hooks to hang cables and a shelf, to hold a few little bits.

I also finally bought a new monitor for the studio, I just really needed some more screen real-estate for editing Edge of Empire podcasts, cause the setup I had was a bit weird in composition.

Its a Cooler Master GA271 and is really good for the £130 I paid for it, and I mean, really good, far better than it has any right to be, with some HDR and FreeSync too.

Mood:- Drained
Caffeinated Beverages Consumed:- 19
In My Ears:- Great DJ – The Ting Tings
Tabletop Game Last Played:- Dungeons & Dragons
Video Game Last Played:- Assassin’s Creed III Remastered
Book Last Read:- The Devouring Void – Danie Ware
Audiobook Last In My Ears:- The Church and the Crown – Cavan Scott and Mark Wright
Movie Last Viewed:- Sharpe’s Peril
TV Show Last Viewed:- Star Trek: Lower Decks
Podcast Last In My Ears:- The WAN Show
Current State of Projects:- Orks coming along!

Embrace the Plastic Fantastic

By michael

On 29th January 2017

In Blog

The past few weeks I have had a few discussions with people about people getting into The Horus Heresy game with plastic models. When I first started my Ultramarines it cost quite a bit to get into, my first two orders to get me going came to £1,291.72!!!

That got me two full Tactical Squads of 20 marines, two Storm Eagles, a Fire Raptor a Sicaran, Praetors, Apothecaries, Tarantulas a 10 Marine Assault Squad, Champion, Master of Signals, Quad Mortars, Deredeo, Command Squad, command Upgrades, Assault Weapons, Books 1 and 5 plus moulded shoulder pads for everyone!

So it wasn’t cheap, but I had saved for a long time to be able to afford it all over two purchases. But someone starting today doesn’t face the same cost barriers I did, mostly thanks to Betrayal at Calth and Burning of Prospero.

So how is it cheaper getting into Heresy, we can see this just by looking at how I started my Word Bearers, for which I wanted 35 Marines, which would be split into two 10 man Veteran Tactical Squads, a 10 man Tactical Support Squad with Plasma Guns and a 5 man Heavy Support Squad with Missile Launchers.

Now going to Forgeworld for resin marines it would cost me £25 for 5 Marines, making it £100 just for 20 marines without weapons, now add to that sone Bolters at £12 for a pack of 10, so you need two packs plus a command upgrade pack at £11, you have a total cost so far of £135 for two basic squads. Of course these being veterans you want them to have special/heavy weapons, I opted for Heavy Bolters in one Squad and Missile Launchers in the other, to grab those you need to buy a pack of 5 of them for £13 each adding another £26 to the cost of those squads for a total cost of £161 for the two squads!!!

For the Tactical Support Squad, you will need two £25 packs of Marines, and a pack of Plasma Guns in this case which are £12, so that Squad is £62. The Heavy Support Squad need a pack of heavy support marines which are £24 plus the missile launchers which cost £13.50, so that squad will cost you £37.50.

So far for just basic powered armoured marines we have spent £260.50.

With a copy of Betrayal at Calth you can do it so much cheaper, buying from Games Workshop direct you would get the boxset for £95 giving you 30 marines which you can use for the Veteran Squads and Plasma Support Squad, and what’s more it comes with all of the options to build the Veteran Squads, you will still need to buy the £12 plasma gun still. Also you are five marines and four missile launchers short of having everything so you will still need to get the £24 Heavy Support Squad and £13.50 Missile Launchers. So with that in mind your spend for those 35 marines is now £144.50.

But that’s it all you get with Betrayal at Calth, you also get a Contemptor which with its weapons would cost £53 and a squad of Cataphractii Terminators which would cost you £49.50. And not forgetting a Praetor in Cataphractii Armour and a Chaplain, the nearest equivalent on Forgeworld being the Praetor pack which costs £34.

So all told with the few bits from Forgeworld, buying Betrayal at Calth instead of Forgeworld resin gets you £397 worth of stuff for just £144.50 and gives you a basic list of 1532pts.

Now what about adding vehicles?

The discussions originally started around the use of Mars Pattern vehicles and whether or not this was ok or not. Now as you may or may not know, I have used Mars Pattern Rhinos for my Word Bearers, two of which were in the modelling section below. These vehicles, no matter what anyone tells you were around in the Heresy and are perfectly fine fluff wise to use, Whirlwinds, Rhinos, Predators and Land Raiders. The only ones you can’t use are Razorbacks and Land Raider Crusaders/Redeemers because they hadn’t been invented yet. And you can’t really use a Mars Pattern Whirlwind to represent a Whirlwind Scorpius, because they are very different models, but other than that, go wild use them.

So if you add three Mars Pattern Rhinos you are spending only £22.50 as opposed to £37 for the Deimos Pattern Rhino, and £45 for a Land Raider as opposed to £73 for a MKIIB Land Raider from Forgeworld.

From this you can see getting into Heresy these days can be relatively cheap, all of the above would set you back no where near as much as it would have 18 months ago, and that can only be a good thing can’t it.

Well not according to some Horus Heresy veterans who shall remain unnamed. They are concerned that with the plastic kits, too many people are getting into Heresy on the cheap and damaging the game!!!

Right well let’s just look at what has happened in the last 18 months then in the North East Heresy scene. We have seen a lot more people getting into the game, now admittedly a lot of those armies are initially starting off as heavily infantry based as that’s the model favoured by the cheaper kits, but once the infantry core of your army is established, it’s then easier to add the more expensive resin only stuff to your army on a piecemeal basis.

So a player might start off with two big footslogging units of Tactical Marines backed up with Terminators and Predators, but as they play others, they see what works for them and they start adding things like Sicarrans, Spartans, Leviathans etc etc.

This has seen the number of regular opponents I have shoot up from 2 or 3 to substantially more giving me more variety in my games, and how can that not be a good thing??? With my two regular opponents Graham and Christian, I was lagging behind in a bit of an arms race, with Graham running a tank list and Christian running a Scoria Cybernetica list. Now I can enjoy games against them, with my reasonably fluffy Ultramarines list, lose and know I have other opponents against who I stand a more equal chance.

Not that I am complaining about Christian and Grahams lists, I just need to develop better ideas on how to handle them whilst sticking to the fluff of my Legions.

And with more players comes more events, Graham has been able to run several more Heresy related events at which we have gotten more and more players, giving us all chances to play more varied games. If anything the influx of people has actually calmed down the local meta, as new players come in, we have actually seen our lists decrease slightly in power so we don’t put the new blood off the game.

Anyway, I say, go out and buy plastic Marines, use your Mars Pattern vehicles, come and enjoy the game, because the more players we have, the better off the game will be in the long run.

What I am Modelling

The first half of the week my motivation to paint was quite low, but on Wednesday I was ambushed by Lindsay and Megan and frogmarched into my studio where I decided to paint up the last two Rhinos for my Word Bearers. One will be for the Heavy Bolter equipped Veteran Tactical Squad and the other will be for the Plasma Gun equipped Tactical Support Squad.

With both of those finished I have put the main red onto the armour of the Tactical Support Squad and washed it, but I was running very low on Nuln Oil and had to wait until Saturday to restock.

What I am Reading

I am about halfway through Master of Mankind and so far I am impressed, it’s a very good book and extremely well written, possibly the best Black Library book yet written.

I am also listening to Vulkan Lives, like with Nick Kymes other Slamanders books for the Horus Heresy, I struggled with reading it, but I am getting on with it much better as an audiobook, plus it’s nice to get an appearance from John Grammaticus who has to be one of Black Library’s most mysterious and interesting characters.

What I am Playing

I went to Graham’s Horus Heresy event, A Message from History last Sunday. I took my Word Bearers at 3500 points and played two games. My first was against a Mechanicm Cybernetica army, playing the Shatter Strike mission.

With a large number of Castellan robots, three Thanatars and a low number of troops, I figured my best tactic would be to drive forward and get up into his deployment zone and try and stay there.

So my Rhinos and Spartan headed in whist my Dreadnoughts walked in whilst shooting their weapons, I deepstriked in with my Gal Vorbak and Ashen Circle to try and distract him and keep him off my troops.

The tactics worked, and I ended up winning the game 7-1.

My second game saw me team up with Grahams Iron Warriors in a doubles game to play the same Cybernetica player and a Dark Angels player. The Dark Angels player was using a force organisation chart that allowed him to take four fortifications, which I am still trying to figure out which book that was in. Either way he had three Bastions and some Vengence Weapon Battery’s.

Due to some confusion about setting up, all my dudes ended up set up behind Graham’s line of tanks! So it took a while for my guys to get into combat, although my Plasma Gun equipped Tactical Support Squad managed to wipe out a unit of Dark Angels Terminators who arrived by Deep Strike, again trying to work out how they did that too.

In the end my squad of Terminators and my Praetor saved the day by killing the Cybernetica Warlord in the last throw of the games dice.

In the event overall the forces of the Warmaster easily destroyed the lackeys of the Emperor, and Christian got to play with his new Acastus Knight Porphyrion.

I also got to play a game of 2500pts with my Word Bearers against Edwards Emperors Children at the club on Tuesday, again the tactics of being aggressive paid off as we were playing the Tide of Carnage mission.

Again it came down to the last dice roll as I denied him a unit in his own deployment zone by having my Ashen Circle charge and chop down the guys he had in his deployment zone, meaning that I won the game instead of him.

What I am Backing

Still just Light and Dark, but I have finally gotten round to unboxing the Turtles game and I will have a proper report for that written up once I have gotten a game of it in.

What I am Spending

I have bought some terrain for the Heresy weekender which is just five weeks away now, bought three Wall of Martyrs Imperial Defence Lines, a pair of Wall of Martyrs Imperial Defence Emplacement, a Wall of Martyrs Imperial Bunker, two Basilica Administratums and two Manufactorums.

I also preordered the Dwarf Giants dice, the Special Play Hall of Fame Cards and the Mighty Zug for Blood Bowl as well as some Word Bearers dice and I picked up a couple of sets of plastic Tartaros Terminators from eBay relatively cheaply.

Spent a lot this week, but much of it was for the weekender so that doesn’t really count does it!

Anyway the issue is that I have been feeling down, and when I feel down I either overeat or spend money, and this week I have been spending money.

Mostly Down

By michael

On 14th January 2017

In Blog

I have mostly had a couple of weeks of being down, to start with, we had a tragic and untimely death in the family and that and its circumstances which if I may be so dramatic, could very well be the worst thing to have ever happens on the maternal side of my family.

To further make me down we have beenhaving issues at the flat we own in Newcastle, we already had to replace the boiler this winter, something we could have gotten done for free had someone followed up on something they were supposed to have done for us, and now the washing machine broke down!

And of course when they first tried to deliver it, they refused to install it because the old washing machine had a leak, so we had to pay £75 to a plumber to go out and stop the leak, which would have stopped anyway once the old machine had been removed.

I was also a bit ill earlier in the week, including one day where I threw up my medication, which resulted in me being all over the place for a day as my meds really do keep me stable and out of pain, so I was going from manic to depressive all day.

We have also had to have some repair work done in our flat as on of the stairs slipped out of its fixings and part of it went through the ceiling below it, the landlord was absolutely shocked at how badly it had been installed, but he had joiners out to inspect and check the whole staircase and thankfully it was just the one which was bad.

We have a temporary step fitted whilst the new one is cut, it’s been approved by an inspector from the council but it still doesn’t feel safe, but that’s probably just me feeling insecure about it know the old one was dodgy.

And to top it all this week, when buying some Xbox Live credit on eBay, I managed to get someone’s house raided by the Anti-Terror Squad!

No I didn’t SWAT them, basically he asked for a scan of my driving licence and passport, now I am a paranoid git (it’s true I take tablets for it) so I think that isn’t quite right, so I say no, he says he won’t send the code. So I call eBay up, who then make me call ActionFraud, who go nuts and put me though to the Anti-Terrir Squad who themselves think that they have stumbled onto a way that terrorists have been obtaining details for fake IDs!!!

So I get a call the next day and they have conducted a dawn raid against the guy, and yeah he does have loads of driving licence and passport details, but simply because he was trying to protect himself from scammers on eBay!

But regardless what he was doing is pretty naughty and he is being charged with crimes relating to the Data Protection Act and possession of a stun gun, and I am possibly going to be called as a witness for his trial if he has one!!!

So yeah that’s all contributing to be feeling quite low.

If I am honest the stuff that has been going on has in a way been a distraction form the family death, it’s hit me hard because me and this person were extremely close growing up.

What I am Modelling

Yeah I have built the first 1000 points of my Tau, well 1009 points if you want to get technical! In addition to the Devilfish I built a couple of weeks ago, I have built a Start Collecting Box and Burning Dawn. Combined that gives me 2 Ethereal, 10 Fire Warriors, 3 XV8 Crisis Suits, 10 Pathfinders, a TX4 Piranha and 3 XV25 Stealth Suits, oh and not forgetting all those Drones too!

I have also almost finished building the Word Bearers for the 22nd as well, I also finished painting the Ashen Circle and a unite of Legion Veteran Tactical Marines, who are armed with 2 Mars-Pattern Heavy Bolters and a Sgt with a Lightning Claw. The Mars-Pattern Bolters are really quite cool and I am glad I went with them, but have fitted them, I can say with certainty that they would not have fitted a MKIII Marine without some serious cutting down of his vambrace. The ammo belts are also a little difficult to get into place, but mind you a lot of that could be bacause I mount my models on the base, and putting the basing material on before I start painting.

I didn’t get finished the Gal Vorbak, Mhara Gal, Legion Tactical Support Squad or 2 Rhinos. I feel a bit crappy going to play with unpainted models, but you know, some personal stuff can up and I kinda needed to stop painting because I had to paint, and paint because I wanted to paint for a bit.

So I did start painting the 3 Crisis Suits and I have gotten as at as getting their armour done, going to try and finish them next week.

What I am Reading

I actually haven’t read anything this week barring news and magazines. I have read through the Fall of Cadia tonight, and well talk about advancing the story!!! But I won’t spoil it for anyone.

I finished listening to Betrayer this week, and have just started on Fear to Tread, a book which I really enjoy and love even more so since a few years ago I got to spend an being with the author James Swallow as he told me about how he approached writing this book.

What I am Playing

We finalised the list of games to form our 10×10 Challenge, the final list consists of:-

Bohnanza
Castle Panic
King of Tokyo
Kingdom Builder
Lords of Waterdeep
Pandemic Legacy
Sentinels of the Multiverse
Smash Up
Speldour
Thunderbirds

Last week we had Paul around so we began Pandemic Legacy, and January got off to a bad start. We had early success in curing the blue disease, but got hit with a few outbreaks early on. We managed to then cure the yellow and black diseases and were making progress to curing the red one, but we had neglected South America, and a chain reaction of outbreaks saw us lose the game and have one city hit Panic Level 2!!!

We will tackle January again in a few weeks, it felt weird changing the game, but this is going to be an interesting experience, I just hope we have a fun campaign and we make it to December without destroying the world!

This past fortnight we have also played King of Tokyo, Tsuro and Bohnanza.

What I am Backing

Currently backing Light and Dark which is an expansion for a game which I backed last year, Ember. The creator was responsible for Lindsays best moment of the whole weekend, his enthusiasm really made her rather happy, so I was happy to back his first expansion for Ember and I am looking forward to getting this one as well which looks like it adds some different elements to an already enjoyable game, plus the dude only lives in Scarborough so is almost local!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Shadows of the Past finally arrived and I will post a bit more about this next time.

I did get through my copy of Steal This Game, plus one extra, need to get to give this a game and see how good it is. Either way I am happy to give to the campaign.

What I am Spending

I sold a couple of bits and bobs, so I had a bit of money this fornight, and feeling down I went on a mini spending spree and bought a KV128 Stormsurge for my Tau and a copy of Doom for the Xbox One plus a Season Pass for it.

I got myself a USB 3.0 hub to replace one that broke, and a friend was selling a 2016 Imperial Space Marine so I bought that one with the idea of turning it in to a Knight Errant.

Oh and I went on eBay and bought another Primus Medicae, this way I can have one for my Word Bearers and my Ultramarines.

Happy New Year and a 10×10

By michael

On 5th January 2017

In Blog

Happy New Year nerds, I hope you all had a nice time and are looking forward to 2017.
I am not doing resolutions this year, other than to paint more than I buy, but one thing I am doing is a board game 10×10 in order to get to know some of my games better.

The basic idea behind it is that you play 10 games, 10 times in a year, so 10×10! Our current list consists of:-

Pandemic Legacy
Thunderbirds
Splendour
Lords of Waterdeep
Bohnanza
Kingdom Builder
Castle Panic
Sentinels of the Multiverse

Lindsay has the last two to pick still, so I am curious as to which games she will pick. We kind of decided that we would avoid light fillers like Fluxx and Love Letter, despite Megan’s objections because we really want it to be a challenge to achieve.

I will keep you updated about how we do!

What I am Modelling

I was away at my parents in Suffolk a good part of the week, so not a lot!

I bought a Tau Devilfish which had some parts come off the sprue, so to make sure they didn’t get lost, I did build that and it’s Drones.

I am currently painting The Ashen Circle for my Word Bearers, and I really need to get a move on building and painting the rest of them!

What I am Reading

I read this week a couple of shorts in the Horus Heresy series, Red-Marked and Raptor, both have been available as audios for a while, but have now been published in anthologies so I have reading them a shot.

Red-Marked explained how Thiel got his gang together, who we meet in Deathfire, and it was about as Thiel like as we could expect. A short and sweet story, one which I throughly enjoyed.

Raptor saw the Talons of the Raven Guard come up against some Wulfen of the Space Wolves, what happens when mutant Astartes meet, well it explained the lengths that the Raven Guard would go to in order to protect Corax and showed how despite all the evidence, the Wolves don’t see their mutations as being something a fundamental flaw in their geneseed.

On the audio front, I have started and am most of the way through Bettayer, a book I enjoyed for its combination of the Word Bearers and World Eaters, two Legions whom one would never have thought to pair up. As usual the writing of Aaron Dembski-Bowden is superb, and I am rather proud that he is a friend of mine, his books are simply amazing and well worth the long wait they often take, perfection after all, should not be rushed.

What I am Playing

I got to play a few games this week on New Years Eve with my brother, his girlfriend and my nephew.

We started out with Trivial Pursuit Family Edition, it’s not really a game I would normally play, but my nephew insisted, I ended up winning that one because I got a really easy question as my final one, nobody thought I would know a thing about ballet. Through playing it, I did find out that my nephew has some serious holes in his knowledge of literature, something I think I will have to do something about.

Then me, Lindsay, Megan and my nephew played Castle Panic, at first he was a little confused about it, but once he figured it out, he really enjoyed it, and we sadly lost, but only just, but it had my nephew chomping at the bit to play again.

Alas we didn’t have the time, but once the bell struck 12 we did have a game of Batman Fluxx, but I am not sure he took that in quite as well as he was really tired and falling asleep in it, and I still didn’t get a chance to flip the promo coin that I have for it.

What I am Backing

Not backing anything still, but I did get through my copy of Braggart 2nd Edition, so expect a report about that soon.

What I am Spending

I bought a few things for my Tau specifically a Riptide and as I mentioned before a Devilfish, plus another Tau Commander that a friend offered me for cheap, and it was still sealed. And I had a friend get to Games Workshop on the 27th to pick me up the Primus Medicae in Cataphractii Terminator Armour, but not sure if he is going to join my Word Bearers or Ultramarines.

Upon delving into my Tau Empire Targeted Reconnaissance Cadre battleforce box set I found an extra Broadside had been placed in the box, so that made me happy as Larry!

I had to buy a printer as mine had gone kaput, Megan was determined that this printer be very good for photo printing so upon looking at reviews, I have bought us a Canon Pixma iP7250, but discovered afterwards that it’s just a printer and has no scanner! So either I will need to replace it again or buy a separate scanner 🙁

But a big thing was that I bought my membership to Eastercon, I will attending for the first time in 16 years this year and I am really looking forward to it.

Christmas Report

By michael

On 28th December 2016

In Blog

Well Christmas came and has now gone, and I had a nice few days. This year instead of going away, Megan’s family stayed up north, so me and Lindsay got to spend the day with them.
We did the traditional Botterill thing of waking up and having bacon and mushroom stotties, although a lot earlier than usual, 7am to be exact! And then we opened our presents. I was a bit worried about what I got Megan and Lindsay, but they both loved what they got, so that made me happy.

I got some quite cool things, a pack of Wulfen for my Space Wolves and some Haemotrope Reactors as well as a Stormsurge, Pandemic – Reign of Cthulhu, Fallout 4, Ghostbusters (2016) on Blu-Ray, some drill bits for the drill I got for my birthday and an amazing pair of Joker Converse High Tops!

We then travelled down to Megan’s parents where we had a lovely dinner of beef and turkey, piled high, not quite as high as my Nana’s, but pretty high. In the afternoon we played some games and watched a bit of TV, then had a tea of party food, including some low sugar cakes and gingerbread that Megan made especially for me.

When we got back home that night, we had left the wrapping paper on the floor, purposefully, so we sprinkled some pellets in it and let Gandalf dive into it and make a mess like he loves to do!

Boxing Day I spent in the house on my own, which gave me a bit of time to just chill out in my own, and with that time I did a of reading, and some painting.

All in all a really nice Christmas, different from the Christmas that I have developed over the years with Lindsay, but sometimes it’s nice to mix it up a bit, and I have promised the Ruffell’s a Botterill Christmas next time they stay up north for the 25th December.

What I am Modelling

Still working hard on the Word Bearers, but I need to really get my arse into gear if I am to have all 3500 points read for the 22nd January.

Over the past week I have finished up a Praetor for the list, it’s the event only mini, which I picked up at Warhammer Fest, armed with a Combi-Volkite and a Thunderhammer. Absolutely love this model and feel like it’s full of character. I have the same one painted up for my Ultramarines and am tempted to get another to paint up for Space Wolves.

I also painted up a squad of Cataphractii Terminators for which is used a few bits form the Special Weapons Upgrade Kit, specifically the Reaper Autocannon and the Power Maul. I didn’t think that the Power Sword really suited the Word Bearers whereas the Maul really did. The model was inspired by a piece of artwork that SN Battle Reports have been using for their Horus Heresy event, it really captures what I wanted to express with my model and I hope you can see that.

Then there is the lone MKIII Marine with a Meltagun. One of the things I want to do with the Word Bearers is to use them as Chaos Space Marines for 40k, but I can’t simply plop my Legion Veteran Squad in as a squad of Chaos Marines, sadly they can’t take two heavy weapons. So that’s what this guy is for, he will substitute for one of the Missile Launcher Marines to give me a 10 man squad of Chaos Space Marine armed with a Missile Launcher and a Meltagun.

On Boxing Day, I was left to my own devices as Megan and Lindsay were off elsewhere and I was able to paint up a Spartan Assault Tank and a plastic Contemptor Dreadnought armed with a Kheres Assault Cannon. I also built and primed a squad of Ashen Circle which I shall begin painting tomorrow.

What I am Reading

In audiobooks I listed to Perpetual, a story by Dan Annett which formed part of the Black Library advent calendar subscription. I really enjoyed it, was nice to catch up with some characters who are off on one of these side missions which will probably not finish up until the Siege of Terra. I did have one issue with it, and that was that the actor voicing Ollanius Persson seemed a little too old. The artwork of him from Know No Fear shows a man of middle age appearance but still quite vigorous, and his voice actor in the audiobook of that story I think captured him perfectly, whereas in this one he is just a tad too old, more like Robert De Niro, old and retired but still with it, than Liam Neeson, if that makes an sense.

I also listened to Children of Sicarus in which we got a bit of historic information about the home world of the Word Bearers and a bit of character building for Kor Phaeron. We also were introduced to the first Kairic Adept in the 30/40K lore which makes me wonder if they will be introduced when GW get round to do some more Tzeentch models for the game. We got to see what a self-serving got Kor Phaeron truly is, how he puts himself ahead of everything, even the will of the Gods he claims to serve.

A criticism would be that it describes M’Kar as a member of the Gal Virbak, when I just listen to the story of his assent to the ranks of the Daemon Princes in The Mark of Calth, and he is quite well established as such in the rest of the lore, typical GW not keeping tack of its own more I suppose, LOL!

I got finished reading Sons of the Forge, and overall, I didn’t enjoy it all that much, it was very jumpy and filled with plot holes and dead ends, which is a sad thing to say because it had lots of potential.

I then moved on to a few of the recent shorts that were released during the Advent event, The Painted Count, Exocytosis and The Last Son of Prospero, all of which I enjoyed a lot. But Last Son of Prospero was a tad weird, it’s an interesting ending and I am wondering where they are going to go with it, but it does seem to have undermined all that had been built up around this character up to this point.

What I am Playing

On Christmas Day, I played a couple of games with Megan’s mum and sister along with Lindsay and Megan. We started off with Joking Hazard, we played to 5 points and Lindsay won it, was a lot of fun and we made some very funny comics. We then played a game of Timeline British History, which I had gotten Megan for Christmas, and Lindsay won that, after declaring at the beginning of the game that she wouldn’t win because she is rubbish at British history!

Durham Raiders had an all day gaming session today, but sadly I was unable to make it until much later on, by the time I arrived most people were either leaving or had just started another game, so I sat with Aidan whilst he was building his Sylvaneth for the slow build Age of Sigmar and I built the Genestealers from Lost Patrol.

But after I had done that Phil and Gareth had finished their games of Age of Sigmar and The Horus Heresy, so we played a game of Gorechosen with Christopher. I had not played Gorechosen up until this point, although I had always wanted to pay a game, and it was really really good. I even won, but very early in the game I took a real beating from Gareth’s character until he and Phil realised that Christopher hadn’t taken a single wound, and they then ganged up on him! It’s a really brutal game and I had a lot of fun, so much so that I intend to get a copy at some point, as much for the minis as for the game itself.

What I am Backing

A Bahá’í friend Jody Cooper is running a Kickstarter to fund a concept album of songs he wants to produce, it’s called Serenades and Odes to a Cracked World. He is a rather talented musician so I suggest you check it out.

What I am Spending

Well all the Christmas presents I needed to buy were bought, so I treated myself, I did some demo work last month at the Newcastle Film and Comic Con, so with my pay for it, I got the Tau Empire Targeted Reconnaissance Cadre battleforce box set, a Tidewall Rampart and Stormcloud Attack. With my normal hobby budget I bought a Ghostkeel and a Broadside. So I probably spent a bit much on the hobby this month than I should have done considering my backlog of projects.

I also got a killer deal on an old box set, the Blood Tide of Khorne from my FLGS, they found it at the back of the storage area, it had arrived damaged and unsellable a few years ago when it was sent in by Games Workshop, and they were sent a replacement, so I was given it for a steal, the only real damage I could find was to the box, the sprues themselves are in perfect order, so I snapped up the offer, and this will form part of my slow build Age of Sigmar Khorne army.

Blood Bowl, Bloodbound and Calth

By michael

On 17th December 2016

In Blog

I will be honest I have had quite a boring week, other than a night away in Newcastle with Megan it’s been all rather dull and ordinary, with that last part of the week taken up with a little bit of a tummy bug.

What I am Modelling

I finally finished the Heavy Support Squad for my Word Bearers, might go back to them and add some scripture, but I am actually rather happy with them. They were built using the Forgeworld MKIV Legion Heavy Support Squad with some of the Word Bearers torso and head upgrades, which I regret using as the size of the Missile Launchers make it hard to see them. But these knock off something from my January list which is nice.

I also finished a unit of five Blood Reavers from the Storm of Sigmar box, which will begin my slow build Khorne Bloodbound. For the entirety of next year, the Durham Raiders are going to be running a slow build Age of Sigmar campaign where we all build and paint things to eventually get to a list of 2000 points. I have decided to do Khorne Bloodbound because it’s more than likely a number of players will be doing Stormcast Eternals from the starter box, so I figured I would be a little different. Plus it’s more of a challenge to me, they represent something very different from what I normally paint. It also had my first ever attempt at Dark Skin in there, and I think I did ok with it, well I am happy at least.

I have a squad of Word Bearers Cataphractii Terminators which have just hit the table, tonight I have finished the red armour, something I do by first of all painting it with Mepheston Red, then washing it with Nuln Oil, tidy up with Mepheston Red again, then a dry brush of Astoreth Red followed by a lighter dry brush of Kindleflame.

I also have the Cataphractii Praetor at this stage as well, this is the event only model with the Combi-Volkite and Thunderhammer.

What I am Reading

I have started reading Sons of the Forge, I must admit I have not been the biggest fan of the Salamanders books by Nick Kyme, I don’t know what it is, but I just can’t follow them as easily as other books, and this is proving no different. I suspect it’s the very large cast in it, a cast with names which are not as easy to remember because they are unusual names, I never used to have this kind of trouble but that’s what a brain injury will do I suppose.

On the audio book front, I just finished listening to The Honoured and have just started The Unburdened, so still very much on the Calth stuff. These two books themselves were ok, they didn’t really do much bar fill in a bit of the background of Kurtha Sedd. But then again they were tie in novels for the Betrayal at Calth game and follow the scenarios in that game, so they are rather limited in nature, but seeing the same events from two different perspectives is interesting.

What I am Playing

Played my first game of Blood Bowl in about 20 years on Tuesday at club, I played David, who had his Skaven and I had the Orcs. I chose to kick first after winning the toss, which in reflection may have been a mistake.

The Skaven were able to swamp my Black Orcs with a Rat Ogre, which let the Gutter Runner through to score a touchdown very quickly. I then readjusted my strategy and decided to make it as difficult as possible for him to get his Gutter Runners down the wide zones as had been his tactic when scoring and trying to get the ball and throw it upfield to an awaiting Lineman.

This actually worked for me, bar the fact it ended up being a Blitzer I had upfield, but still I got a touchdown and the game looked to be headed to a draw.

But then in the last few turns of the last half, disaster struck, David got so very lucky, he set himself up so that he could get a gutter runner in my half, and swamped players in his so that they couldn’t assist one another in attempting to take his down. And with some very lucky dice rolls and more sixes than I have seen in a long time, he passed the ball to his Gutter Runner, who then passed through two players tackle zones to fly downfield and score a touchdown for the final moment of the game, meaning I lost 2-1.

I really enjoyed the game and it was a lot of fun, but the Rat Ogre was very hard to play against, so my thoughts at the moment are that it’s a little difficult for the initial basic teams to come up against some of the extras that players who never stoped playing have. But given time I am sure that will be resolved. My loss in all honesty was down to me simply not being able to take out those ruddy Gutter Runners, they were just too fast.

What I am Backing

Nowt right now, but I am eagerly hoping that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:- Shadows of the Past game will be with me by Christmas, currently I am not confident it will be.

What I am Spending

I think I am finally done with Christmas presents, so I treat myself to a meal at Laus 202 in Newcastle, and a second hand copy of the updated Tau Empire Codex from eBay.

Challenge of the Word

By michael

On 11th December 2016

In Blog

My good friend Graham, is organising a 30k event in North Tyneside on the 22nd January, and I have decided to challenge myself to have the Word Bearers read for it.

It’s 3500 points and this is the list I am building.:-

At the moment I have built and painted the Veteran Tactical Squad with the Missile Launchers and their Rhino along with the Chaplain, so I have a long way to go in a little over a month. On the table at the minute the Heavy Support Squad are all done bar their bases and I have just finished building the Terminator Squad and Praetor.

I will try and keep you guys updated with the progress of the project, and hopefully they will be ready in time to lose some games!

Update for the Last Few Weeks

By michael

On 6th December 2016

In Blog

It’s been a whiles since I last posted, in that time I have been to Warhammer World, been to a wedding and done very little else really, oh but we did put up the Christmas tree, a bit early, personally I prefer to wait until after my mums birthday partway through the month.

So here is a general update on what I am up to.

What I am Modelling

Gotten through a bit of the to do pile the past few weeks so let’s look at them project by project.

– Ultramarines

Got painted up three squads, a squad of Cataphractii Terminators with Lightning Claws, a squad of 10 Legion Breachers including a Vexilia, Nuncio Vox and two Graviton Guns, and finally a Legion Heavy Support Squad all armed with Ryza Pattern Lascannons. I am a really big fan of these Lascannons, the MKIII arms needed a little shaving before they fit, but they look really good and look like a nice step from the shoulder mounted Lascannons of the Great Crusade to the 40k Lascannon.

– Word Bearers

I painted up the rest of the Legion Veteran Tactical Squad for the Word Bearers and their Rhino. The two special weapons guys from the squad were armed with Proteus-II Missile Launchers. Now originally when Forgeworld first revealed these I thought they looked a tad daft, I just didn’t think they looked right and swore I would never use them.

That was up until I decided to do a MKIII Veteran Tactical Squad with Missile Launchers, and well the MKIII pack doesn’t come with its own Missile Launchers like the MKIV kit. In my mind I headcannon this as the ordinary MKIII armour isn’t suitable to carry shoulder mounted heavy weapons. Now I could have gotten a pack of MKIII Heavy Support Marines and a pack of Missile Launchers, but that would have been rather expensive, and a bit wasteful. So I went to eBay and bought two of the Proteus-IIs and when I actually have them in my hands, they aren’t too bad. They remind me of the Space Crusade Missile Launchers, and when given to a Veteran Squad, it seems like yeah, this could be the variant of the Missile Launcher that a Suspensor Web is easily fitted to.

The Rhino had been long in the making, when Dark Vengeance came out, I was all for doing Word Bearer Chaos Space Marines, and I bought three sets of Word Bearer Rhino upgrade kits from Forgeworld , anyway, bar two squads and a Dark Apostle, my Word Bearers then never amounted to much because life got in the way. But I am glad I ordered the doors as Forgeworld no longer make them, and I think for my Calth themed Word Bearers they look so much more appropriate than the Legion upgrades do.

– Dropfleet Commander

Now I have my Commodore Pledge for Dropfleet Commander I have been slowly building up some of the starter fleets for it. I have built and painted three out of the four starter fleets, those for the UCM, PHR and Scourge. I am actually going to be playing my first game of this at club this week, where Ken, our regional Hawk Talon will be showing me and Madison the ropes.

I am currently thinking that UCM and PHR will become my main fleets, I just found them so much nicer to paint, but even then, my paint jobs were really basic and terrible.

What I am Reading

For some reason I couldn’t actually get myself to pick up my Kobo for a few weeks, but a few nights ago I did so and finally at long last finished the Ahirman series, and I have to say I found it a little anticlimactic. Which is a shame as I enjoyed the rest of the series, but that said the ending was actually rather hopeful and uplifting in a universe of Grim Darkness.

It just feels like there is more story to tell, in a way because this was more of an ensemble book and you spent a lot mor time amongst the supporting cast than you did with Ahriman himself, and that’s no bad thing, I enjoy Ignis and Cetsias, they are very interesting characters, especially Ignis who is very unusual for a Thousand Son, and to me seems to be more like a member of the Iron Xth than the XVth. I do hope we get to hear more about Asteroes though, I hope his story is not at an end.

I have however had better progress with audio books and have smashed through Scars, Know No Fear, and Mark of Calth plus various shorts set around these books, this evening I just started on Garro – Oath of Moment, which features the awesome Garro and Rubio and I am enjoying that so far.

What I am Playing

Not much as seems to be the usual these days, every time I arrange a game at Club it falls through, which is kinda getting me down, but I am looking forward to playing Dropfleet this week.

I have started a game of Dark Heresy 2nd Edition of Heaton Games Society, I have had l the books for some time and have been meaning to start up a game for a long while.

We have just done character creation, and will be meeting every two weeks, my character is a Seeker from a Garden World who previously served in a Rouge Trader Fleet. I don’t know what the GM has in store for us, but we have been told that initially we are being sent in by the Inquisitor to investigate irregularities with the worlds Imperial Tithe and taxation records.

What I am Backing

Nothing, I was backing Ogre Minitures and Ominoes, but alas money is tight and I have had to abandon this pledges.

The Teenage Mutant Nina Turtle board game is apparently going to be shipping to me in the next couple of weeks, I backed that back in February, it was meant to be delivered in the summer, but there was a perfectly reasonable delay, the only negative is that the Yanks have had the game for over a month at this point, and I am a bit annoyed they couldn’t have gotten the boat for the States and the EU on the water at the same time.

What I am Spending

Mostly just buying Christmas presents, but I did but Blood Bowl, Death Zone Season One, the Skavenblight Scramblers and the Skaven Dice. I also ordered a UCM Battleship to add to my fleet.

Although I had to think long and hard about that purchase. After sharing a photo of my unopened projects (there are a few), I got a bit of a backlash from friends, many of whom were annoyed that I appear to spend more on the hobby than them.

I, as many of you will know, don’t work, due to disabilities I am paid the benefits ESA and PIP to support me while I am physically unable to work, and it was said that I shouldn’t be able to afford these things whilst on those benefits.

Well I don’t really drink, I don’t gamble, I don’t smoke or do drugs, I live in a three adult household with rent that is quite cheap, even for the north east, and I have no debt payments bar the mortgage on the flat me and Lindsay own in Newcastle. I have no children to support, just four cats and a rabbit, and on occasion I get paid to demonstrate board games and stores and conventions. My wife also earns a decent wage for the region and takes on the lions share of bills for us. I have a disabled persons bus pass so I don’t pay bus fare to get anywhere.

So yes I do have a reasonable amount of disposable income each month, and I spend that mostly on things for my hobby or books, and I am told I should feel guilty for that.

I don’t feel guilty, why should I, just because I am disabled doesn’t mean I should live a life like a monk. I don’t get a huge amount of money a year, just £9,807.20. Okay so I also get a car which if I took the cash instead would be another £2,987.40 a year, so as you can see I don’t get the full time equivalent of someone working full time on the National Living Wage would get, and that’s quite right, why should I get what someone who works gets.

But I am good with my money, I manage to make the £65 a month I spend on my hobby stretch quite far, sometime I add some money from my weekly budget and not go out that week, but generally that’s all I spend.

I get that’s more than some others, but then again it’s less than others, but just because some of my friends who work feel like I get to spend more on the hobby than they, should not affect me. It’s gets to me emotionally when I am told that I should not be so shameless about claiming disability benefits and buying what are luxuries, it’s like I am being told that I don’t deserve the money I am given.

I have been told before that the disabled should only be given food vouchers and bare minimum to pay utilities before, because we are scroungers, and that hurts. I worked all my life, ever since I was 13 and got my first paper round, and bar 7 weeks of unemployment I worked continually right up until I got ill, I paid my taxes and national insurance. So why should I not be able to claim now when I need it? And why should I be punished and penalised because I can’t work?

I got kind of lost with this rant, but this is the kind of thing those of us who are disabled have to put up with all the time, we are judged and abused constantly because of general assumption by some people, encouraged by the shit-stirring ultra right wing gutter press, that disabled people like me sit around all day drinking, watching Jeremy Kyle and raking in the money for it.

For the record, Jeremy Kyle is rubbish.

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