Wow, and it’s good, I mean really good, yeah it’s a whole bunch of new books to buy, but that’s parts and parcel of gaming, sometimes editions change and your books need replacing.
I attended the midnight launch party at Battle Bunker, I arrived promptly at 9pm and brought a nice big chocolate cake I got from Costco especially, and that went down a treat.
I started the night with a game against Harry Scarr of the Dark Artisan, which he had put up on YouTube here.
It was a fun game full of lots of cinematic movements, Harry already had his Indexes so I used his for the first half of the game and then switched over to mine after midnight when we were able to collect ours.
Favourite moment of that game was when his Bloodthirster leapt out of the sky and wreaked my Stormtalon in one swoop.
Then I played another chap and his Tyranids, and for the life of me I forgot his name. Anyway this one was just a 1000pt game, which I lost, but not by much. My Stormtalon make mincemeat of his gaunts.
My third game was against Jacob and his Night Lords, this game was my least favourite, but only because his list was very samey, mostly Raptors and a couple of squads of Havocs, Chaos Space Marines and some Warp Talons. This time we used a Maelstrom mission and I won on the cards, but my army was just about wiped out by the end.
The dude was a cool guy and nice to chat with, but the army had very little variety to it, so it was not as fun to play against as I would have liked.
On Sunday, Lindsay needed distracting from Father’s Day, it’s not a good day for her and she likes to keep busy. I jokingly suggested we go to Warhammer World, and she decided that we would actually go!
So we set off reasonably early and we arrived in Nottingham about 11:30, which allowed me to go and buy Necrosis the Undying aka the Nurgle Chaos Marine Sorcerer, which I really prefer the look of compared to the Malignant Plaguecaster that comes with Dark Imperium. I resisted a Death Guard t-shirt, but did buy a pot of Elysian Green paint so I could follow Duncan’s Death Guard painting guide and a Nurgle badge for myself and a Chaos star badge for Lindsay.
I then tackled the weekends special Mk X burger, which was a 6oz beef burger, a 6oz minted lamb burger, 4oz pork burger, pulled pork, pulled beef and two sliced of melted mozzarella. Sounds nice, but it really needed a sauce, because it was served just as is, not even any sauce in the pulled pork. Was still nice though, but the chips weren’t the nicest.
After that, me and Lindsay decided to have a game of 8th where I would introduce her to the new edition, she took 1000pts of Space Marines and I had 1000pts of Orks.
She wiped the floor with me, and she enjoyed it which is what counts, we did make a few mistakes, for example, I assumed that vehicles were the equivalent of relentless, they aren’t, and I forgot about Heroic Intervention, but we did ok.
When we were leaving I had to stop her buying an army, she wants something that’s got a small model count and a reasonably uniform colour scheme, so she was looking at Grey Knights. But I recommended she take on the Primaris Space Marines out of my Dark Imperium box.
What I am Modelling
I finished off my Tartaros Terminators for my Word Bearers with this last Squad, which has a Chainfist, Reaper Autocannon and a Power Sword and Volkite Charger on the Sgt.
At the same time I did these I also painted up a Primus Medicae as well. I love this model, but for some reason I found this one a tad more challenging to do than the one I did for the Ultramarines.
On Monday I decided to build the Xhipon which I have decided to give to the Word Bearers, and this took no time at all to build, so I then turned my attention to the Mastadon.
That was a challenging build but I got a few subassemblies built which will allow me to paint the interior as well. Dryfitting makes it looks like it’s going to be a bitch to put together tough, and I am sure the green stuff will have to come out.
On Tuesday I got the Mastodon and the Xiphon primed, which allowed me on Wednesday to start putting colour on them.
The Xiphon took me not very long at all, that was a dream to paint, I think the transfers took the longest time. I still have to do it’s base, but I am very very happy with it.
I have gotten started with the Mastodon, I am doing this a section at a time, so that I can get it done as good as my skills will allow. I started with the top front plate and that has come together quite well, looks really nice painted up, and now I am working on the Command module. I have painted the interior of one side of it, whilst the other side and the floor have been painted with Leadbeltcher and washed with Nuln Oil.
I have today finished up Necrosis the Undying, at first I was unsure of the Death Guard Green colour and when I first put it on started thinking that perhaps I should have stuck with Deathworld Forest, but once the wash went on it, it really made it pop.
It was a lovely model to paint, but he does seem a little small compared to the Plague Marine models from Dark Imperium.
What I am Reading
I have started on The Crimson King by Graham McNeil, but I haven’t gotten very far into it.
I recently finished The Unremembered Empire as an audiobook, and once again I am struck by new insights into the story, simply by listening to it, instead of reading it. Most enjoyable story, and with that finished I have been listening to a few short stories now, currently I am on with The Seventh Serpent also by Graham McNeil.
What I am Playing
I played my first game of 8th edition Warhammer 40k on Wednesday with Megan. I used the leaked photos of pages from Index Imperium 1 and Index Xenos 2 to put together 500 point lists for Space Marines and Orks.
And it went quite well, the game was much quicker, a lot more free flowing and very brutal. My Space Marines consisted of two tactical squads and a Captain and they didn’t do very well against Megan’s Orks, she had two big squads of Boyz, a squad of Grots, a Runtherd and a Warboss.
All in all my first game impressed me a lot and left me looking forward to playing more games on Friday at Battle Bunker, which I spoke about earlier.
What I am Backing
A couple of things have caught my attention, but I am not backing them yet.
Although this week was a good week for deliveries. We got the second copy of Tokaido Collectors Edition, which it looks like I am selling to Rhi for the Board Game Cafe she is hoping to set up.
And Kingdom Builder Big Box 2nd Editor came. This is a weird one, I have the Kingdom Builder base game, and I enjoy that a lot, so when they put up the Kickstarter for the third expansion, Marshlands, I decided to go for it. I backed that at a level which gave me the expansion, in an empty big box with the three Queenies and the 200 settlements which were a unique shape for each colour.
But then shortly after they launch another Kickstarter for the fourth expansion, Harvest, which of course I backed, but this came with a revised Big Box, and I opted to have Marshlands delivery delayed so that I got them both together in the empty big box.
This would have left me needed in to but the first two expansions but that was no issue. But the project overran, by quite a bit, something I expected, Queen Games have a reputation for late delivery of projects. But last month out of the blue we got a message from Queen Games telling us that by the end of May we would have put games, and we were all being upgraded so that we all got a complete 2nd Edition Big Box!
Now that’s awesome, plus for them it made sense logistically as now they only had one product to ship instead of several variations. Anyway the end of May came and went and I was lucky enough to bump into the head of Queen Games at the UK Games Expo and when I asked about the delays was assured that the shipment had only been delayed a short while, I was even given their email address so that if I didn’t have it in the next fortnight I was to email them to let them know.
True to their word, it showed up within the fortnight, and it’s not a bad package. I have now got 200 standard edition settlements I don’t need, because they sent them along as well strangely. But I do have one niggle, the insert leaves a huge gap between where the settlements go and the top of the box, meaning that if I turn the game on its side, those settlements will come out of their slots and mix all together! So I will be putting them in to baggies.
I love Kingdom Builder, it was a very worthy recipient of the SDJ and I really enjoy playing it, and having the complete Big Box it allows me to donate my copy, which includes all three Queenies to Rhi and her Board Game Cafe.
What I am Spending
I spent a bit more than I wanted to this past couple of weeks. In addition to Necrosis the Undying, I bought Index Xenos 2, a pot of Death Guard Green, Wound Markers and Command Dice.
Oh and I visited the North East Model Centre where I picked up Dark Imperium, and a bottle of primer for my airbrush as I am almost out.
Mood: Sore
Caffeinated Beverages Consumed: 5
In My Ears: Good Enough by Dodgy
Game Last Played: Tokaido
Book Last Read: The Crimson King by Graham McNeil
Movie/TV Show Last Viewed: Orange is the New Black
Current State of Projects: Mastodon, about 1/2 finished.