Month: May 2017

It’s been a few weeks since I have posted here, I have had lots of family drama which has taken up a lot of my time, and that’s just making me feel crap.

So I am not gonna talk about that at all, and instead concentrate on good stuff.

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How good does 8th edition look, seriously with every single thing that I see, I get more and more excited about it. It looks like the game is going to become a lot more fun and allow it to be something that can be won in the game itself and not at the list building stage.

The starter set looks amazing and the Death Guard models are simply beautiful, and yeah, I will be getting it.

Not entirely sold on the Primaris Marines though, I mean they are growing on me, especially the Dreadnought, that looks amazing, but I am still a bit unsure about them. Obviously when I get them I need to decide what happens with the, do they become part of my Blood Ravens or my Blood Angels, I am swaying more towards my Blood Ravens as they haven’t had anything new for a while.

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I am off to the UK Games Expo on Friday, and I am really looking forward to it. This will be the first time in five years that we haven’t stayed at the Travelodge at Birmingham Airport, instead we are at the Castle Bromwich Holiday Inn Express which is about a 15 minute drive away from the NEC. 

The plan is to leave home at 6am and get to Birmingham in time for the doors opening, I want to grab the Athens Class Light Cruiser from Hawk Wargames to add to my UCM fleet for Dropfleet Commander. 

And of course I want to get to the seminar with Games Workshop for a Q&A about 8th edition.

What I am Modelling

I have gotten out of my hobby stagnation and gotten on with painting quite a bit.

I first off concentrated on getting some stuff done for my Word Bearers who were a little bit neglected in terms of stuff they had available to them. I started off with some Tartaros Terminator units which had sat neglected on my desk for a few weeks.

These were pretty easy to finish off once I put my mind to it, so now I have a unit of 5 Tartaros Terminators, with a Heavy Flamer and Sgt with a Volkite Charger and Power Axe.

At the same time as working on them I got my Praetor Tribune for them done, a wonderful model, which I love to bits and was an absolute pleasure to do.

I also needed to paint up a Chaplain for a game I had against one of my Podcast listeners, so I quickly painted up the Betrayal at Calth Chaplain. And that didn’t turn out too badly.

I then turned my attention to the Gal Vorbak, now these models I found quite intimidating and they really didn’t seem like they could be batch painted, so I got the red armour done and then did them one by one. 

Once I had the first one done, they didn’t seem too bad, it was just a case of not rushing it, taking my time and studying the pictures on the Forgeworld website for reference. I ended up going with a Skaven style flesh for them, using Ratskin Flesh as the base colour. This game the flesh an almost inhuman aspect to it, and I think it works quite well. My original plan was to use skin with purple washes to make it look tortured, but my first attempts at this, looks a bit off, so I abandoned that idea.

With the Gal Vorbak done, I then tacked the Mhara Gal, now if you know me, you know I love Dreadnoughts, so doing this was both a pleasure and a challenge. I approached it in a similar way to the Gal Vorbak, in that I broke the model down into areas and once the basic red armour was done, I approached these sections one by one. And that made painting it a lot easier, in the end I am quite proud of it, a little unsure of the head but I think over all it’s pretty good.

My final Word Bearers unit that I have done recently is a Deredeo Dreadnought, and I armed this with a Hellfire Plasma Cannonade. This one was done differently to my other Word Bearers Dreadnoughts and instead of dry brushing it, I edge highlighted it, simply because that seems to me to be the best approach for Deredeos.

I still think I am going to go back and do a bit more work on it though, probably put some scripture on it, make it fit in with the rest of the army more.

The other model I got done was for my Ultramarines, I have a game against Graham tomorrow and he is bringing an armoured breakthrough, so I need to bring lots of anti-tank, and thus I need Lascannons, in this case a Deredeo with Arachnus Heavy Lascannon Battery, because he is bringing a Fellblade, so Exoshock could come in handy! This model took very little time to get painted I just seemed to be in the zone and it came together quite quickly.

I also finished off a Blood Angels Death Company Dreadnought, this had been mostly finished on my desk for over a year, so I decided to put the finishing few touches to it, and now it’s ready to hit the table for 8th edition.

What I am Reading

I haven’t read an awful lot, but I am back to listening to audiobooks whilst I paint.

I listened to Vengeful Spirit which is a really good book and listening to it, as with many books, opened my eyes to several things I missed when I read it.

I am now working my way through various short stories leading up to Unremembered Empire, currently in the middle of Prince of Crows. 

I did get hold of Dark Compliance on CD, a friend who went to Warhammer Fest managed to grab me a copy and I have already listened to it. Very good story, John French really captures the spirit of what was mentioned in the Black Books, and it’s always nice to hear from Doombreed.

I have started to read the second book in the Hidden Empire series, Consorts of Heaven, but I am very much in the first few chapters still.

What I am Playing

I have only played one game in the past few weeks and that was against Graham and his very cool Space Wolves. I talked about it on the last Edge of Empire episode so you are better off listening to that for a report on the game.

What I am Backing

Well the Creativity Hub launched an RPG based around Rory’s Story Cubes, so I had to back that didn’t I. The game is called Untold and so far it looks pretty good.

I love Story Cubes, I think they are an excellent educational toy and I have quite a number of sets of them. So of course I was going to back this.

At the moment the stretch goals have added a copy of Batman Story Cubes for everyone and tokens to play the game with. I am backing at the level which comes with Adventure Time Story Cubes.

What I am Spending
Not a lot, my being good with money is working out, all I have bought recently are my usual comics, although I did go out for a Five Guys yesterday.
Mood: Downbeat

• Caffeinated Beverages Consumed: 4
• In My Ears: In Your Eyes by Kylie Minogue
• Game Last Played: Pokémon Go
• Book Last Read: Consorts of Heaven by Jaine Fenn
• Movie/TV Show Last Viewed: Dr Who 
• Current State of Projects: Human Blood Bowl team, 6 players partly done.

I don’t really talk much about politics here, and I don’t intend to change that. I try to abide by Wheaton Law in life, but in general I would describe myself as politically conservative but socially liberal.

Anyway, my local council, which is Labour dominated, has been doing some pretty bad stuff in the past few years, and well it’s gotten me angry, especially the way they are treating teaching assistants, whom they are sacking and making reapply for their old jobs, but with a 23% pay cut, which they say is in the interests of fairness.

So I decided that I had to stand for election to the council, so that I could do something to try and stop it. Well as you will all probably know, I am not exactly in the best health so I wasn’t able to do much campaigning, but I managed to get myself 1000 votes exactly, it’s was over 300 votes from winning a seat on the council, but I did manage to double the vote for my party.

The end result of the election county wide is that the Labour Party remain in control, and sadly it’s probably going to end up with the teaching assistant changes pushed through, though a network of Tories, Lib Dems and Independents did manage to give Labour a bloody nose by taking twenty seats off them, including the wife of the leader of the council.

What I am Modelling

Not had much time for modelling this week, but what time I have had, has been dedicated to Dropfleet Commander, getting my UCM fleet ready for the Summer Invasion.

I have completed the paint jobs on a New Cairo Light Cruiser, a San Francisco Class Trooship, two Jakarta Class Frigates, two Lima Class Frigates and four New Orleans Strike Carriers. 

Remaining on the table are a Saratoga (which is just an alternative sculpt New Cairo), a Tokyo Class Battleship, a Berlin Class Cruiser and an Avalon Class Battlecruiser. And although I don’t need it for my list, I am just painting it anyway, I also have the Atlantis Class Battlecruiser being painted up as well.

What I am Reading

I finished Principles of Angels, I forgot how much I enjoyed the book, I love its depiction of the two different sides of society in the world that Jaine created.

What I am Playing

I had a go at the Batman Minitures Game on Tuesday, I played with a League if Shadows gang.

It’s the second time I have played it, and I must admit it’s better than the first time I played it. I am still not keen on the number of tokens needed to play it, that part I still find a little clunky and old fashioned, but none the less I had a good time playing it

Will gave to get the Joker and Suicide Squad gangs I have painted up at some point.

What I am Backing

Nowt, I have absolutely noting on the go at the minute, which a rare thing for me.
Although a recent update from the Kingdom Builder Harvest campaign has said that instead of getting Harvest and Marshlands in an empty big box, I am now getting a full and complete big box of Kingdom Builder, which is very nice.

So I am going to have a spare copy of Kingdom Builder to dispose of at some point!

What I am Spending

Apart from a couple of books, I have been very good this week and it spent anything!

• Mood: Flat
• Caffeinated Beverages Consumed: 6
• In My Ears: Little Child by the Beatles
• Game Last Played: Ticket to Ride 
• Book Last Read: Principles of Angels by Jaine Fenn
• Movie/TV Show Last Viewed: Mystery Science Theatre 3000 – Starcrash
• Current State of Projects: UCM Ship, bascoated and washed 

I had a great time at Betrayal at the Bunker, although I did have an unusual day.

There were 11 players so someone got a bye in the first round, which is never cool for that person, but they volunteered and so was a good sport.

I was drawn against James, an Alpha Legion player and the first mission was Shatter Strike with a Clash of the Line deployment. Now James army was a thing of beauty, really nice paint job, his combo of metallic green/blue with a matt black just looked great, was a real joy to see on the table.

Anyway, in his army, he had a Spartan, with some Tartaros Terminators, Dynat, a squad of 10 Volkite Culverin Heavy Support Marines, a Veteran Tactical Squad, a Contemptor with a Chainfist and Volkite Culverin and a Fire Raptor.

My list was, as nasty as I was willing to make it and well here it is:-

+ HQ +

• Legion Centurion: Cataphractii Terminator Armour with Combi-bolter and Power Weapon, Combi-Weapon, Thunderhammer. . Consul: Siege Breaker
• Legion Centurion: Cataphractii Terminator Armour with Combi-bolter and Power Weapon. . Consul: Primus Medicae

+ Elites +

• Legion Quad Launcher Support Battery: 3x Legion Rapier, Phosphex Canister Shot, Shatter Shell
• Legion Terminator Squad: Cataphractii Terminator Armour with Combi-bolter and Power Weapon, Chainfist, Heavy Flamer, 4x Legion Terminators, 3x Power Fist

+ Troops +

• Legion Tactical Squad: 9x Legion Tactical Space Marines. . Additional Wargear: Additional Chainswords/Combat Blades, Bolters, Legion Vexilla. . Legion Rhino Armoured Carrier: Dozer Blade. . Legion Tactical Sergeant: Bolter, Power Fist
• Legion Tactical Squad: 9x Legion Tactical Space Marines. . Additional Wargear: Additional Chainswords/Combat Blades, Bolters, Legion Vexilla. . Legion Rhino Armoured Carrier: Dozer Blade. . Legion Tactical Sergeant: Bolter, Plasma Pistol

+ Heavy Support +

• Legion Artillery Tank Squadron: Legion Medusa, Legion Medusa, Legion Medusa
• Legion Spartan Assault Tank: Dozer Blade, Flare Shield, Quad Lascannon Sponsons, Twin-Linked Heavy Bolter

Anyway so we set up and I started the game by immobilising his Spartan and destroying his Contemptor, which was great. But in came his Saboteur and he destroyed one of my Medusas whilst the Lascannons on his immobilised Spartan were able to wreak the other two.

My Terminators got out of their Spartan and killed his Volkite Heavy Support Squad, and then were charged by his Terminator Squad. My Siege Breaker did kill Dynat in a challenge, but was then killed himself, and of course I lost combat, and of course I failed my leadership test, and of course they were killed in a sweeping advance!

Anyway I managed to get a unit into his deployment zone, and I killed the Warlord, but then he had done the same thing, so we drew, if I hadn’t of forgotten about his lowly Saboteur sitting in cover in my deployment zone, I would have won, ah you live you learn.

I then volunteered to sit out the next round so that the guy who sat out the first round got to play as he had volunteered t sit out again, and I really didn’t think that would be fair. Was all cool though as Jus gave me £10 store credit, which was really nice of him.

So I ended up taking a nap on the comfy chair, and woke up just in time for the next round.
And as luck would have it, I was drawn against James again! And with such a small pool of players, it was certainly possible, but I just rolled with it.
The game was Blood Fued on a Vanguard Strike deployment, so we set up, I won the draw and went first, I thought I had most of the board covered with my Medusas and Quad Mortars, but he then infiltrated his Heavy Support Squad on the far edge of the board right across from my Quad Mortars, and just out of their reach, but not out of reach of the Volkite Culverins.
Of course his choice of units was Tanks and well, I got pretty slaughtered, he seized the initiative and everything went downhill from then on, I quickly had to make a leadership test on my Quad Mortars which they failed, but that did win me a spot prize of some Sylvaneth dice which was cool.
But yeah I just couldn’t do a thing that game, and his Heavy Support Squad just sat across the table and obliterated everything on that side, while his Contemptor ripped apart my Spartan, at the end all I had left was three Terminators. My opponent played that game very very well.
In the end results, I got special mention in the painting, but Mike took that award with his beautiful Mechanicum army, but I did get Favourite Opponent which got me a free shipping voucher for Forgeworld, which I will put to good use at some point soon.
I had a really good day, very enjoyable and I am looking forward to the next event he puts on. 
What I am Modelling

This week I needed to paint a Primus Medicae, I had built and under Coates it but gone no further, so I pulled it out of the to do pile and got one with it.

I mostly followed the painting guide for Brother Lamentarios which is an excellent guide for painting a slightly off white, and it looks really good on the model.

I also built the UCM ships I need for the Dropfleet Commander tournament, I have now got a Tokyo, a Seattle, New Cairo, Saratoga, Avalon, San Francisco, 2 Jakarta, 2 Limas and 4 New Orleans, and I plan to prime them tomorrow.

What I am Reading
I finished On Basilisk Station and I have to say I rather enjoyed it, at times there was a little bit too much explanation of the technologies that perhaps could have been condensed a little, but overall it was a good book.

It delivered what it said it would, which was Hornblower in space, I may read the other books, but they are on the future reading pile for now.

In the meantime I have moved onto Principles of Angels by Jaine Fenn, who you may recall is the author who brought me back into fandom, and it’s a book I enjoyed a lot when I first read it, and it feels good to read it again.

What I am Playing

Apart from the games at Betrayal at the Bunker I had a practice game against Graham at Durham Raiders on Tuesday, I was supposed to be playing the Batman Miniatures Game, but Graham’s opponent dropped out, so I stepped in to play him.
That game also ended with a loss to me, we were playing Tide of Carnage and we each ended up with a scoring unit in each other’s deployment zone and one in no mans land, but Graham had destroyed more of my units.
It was a fun game, but it makes me aware of how limited your options are at 2000pts, wish we had been playing 2500pts at least to be honest.
What I am Backing

I am still backing Gloomhaven and that’s going to fund tonight, it’s raised quite a bit of money so far, and I really think it’s a game me and the girls will really enjoy and get a lot of value out of.

I am also backing Ember: Mage Nights, which is the fourth Ember campaign, and it’s supposed to be the final one, but I quite fancied the spell cards it adds to the game, to complete my collection.

The creator is also looking into options for us to get boxes to store all of the cards from all of the expansions as right now there are quite a lot of cards for the game, but no box big enough for all of them.
What I am Spending

With my £10 voucher for Battle Bunker, I bought some Bloodletters for my Khorne army for AoS as It meant I only needed to put in £3.50.

I also bought the UCM Command Cards for Dropfleet Commander, so I have all I need now for the tournament, just gotta paint them ships!

• Mood: Tired
• Caffeinated Beverages Consumed: 6
• In My Ears: Push It by Salt n Peppa
• Game Last Played: Pokémon Go
• Book Last Read: Principles of Angels by Jaine Fenn
• Movie/TV Show Last Viewed: The Expanse
• Current State of Projects: UCM Ships Built, Tartaros Terminators stalled