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My Birthday

Twas my birthday this past weekend, and we had a quietish one!

On Saturday we went to Newcastle and I was able to hang out with some of my nephews and share a hot chocolate with them, whilst also popping into Warhammer for a bit of paint and for Lindsay to buy me a present, plus got the model of the month!

Sunday, we went to Megans parents, had a lovely beef dinner and some jam rolly polly!

My presents were nice, and I had a really nice weekend.

What I Am Modelling

This Captain was pulled out of a DOOMBOX and got painted up for the Blood Ravens, was a limited edition Captain, and had to be rebased onto a 32mm base as he was on a 25mm one

I printed out this Mortificator for the Word Bearers, and painted him up, to give myself a dude to prod around the dreadnoughts

And a Tactical Squad of Ultramarines I have had sitting in my pile of shame for well over a decade, they probably don’t have much of a life left in 40K, but hey, at least they got painted!

They came out of the DOOMBox and were also on 25mm bases and needed putting onto 32mm ones

Also coming out of the DOOMBox was Cypher, Lord of the Fallen


What’s next in the painting plan?

  1. Blood Angels Land Speeders
  2. Myari’s Purifiers
  3. Tempestus Aquilons x 11
  4. Red Brigade Warband
  5. Death Korps of Krieg Engineers x 6
  6. Dark Angels Firestrike Servo Turrets x 2
  7. Veletaris Section x 10
  8. Grey Knights Librarian and Brotherhood Terminators x 5
  9. Dracosan
  10. Heretic Legion Warband

What Tabletop Games I am Playing

Played my next Combat Patrol League game against Dave and his Arldari, and yeah that was a big loss because the Eldar move very quickly and my dice rolls were terrible

What Video Games I Am Playing

Still deep into Cyberpunk 2077 and I have now put in 84 hours and other than finishing the end of Kerry Eurodynes story, I am about to go to the point of no return!

Also still streaming Assassin’s Creed Syndicate

What Achievement’s I Have Unlocked

Continuing on with this little experiment, which I am finding rather interesting

Cyberpunk 2077 (Steam)

Judgement Day

Eliminate three bosses from the “Increased criminal activity” category
29/09/2025
The High Priestess

Talk with Hanako Arasaka
30/09/2025
Spin Doctor

Complete “Run This Town”
30/09/2025
Dirty Deeds

Complete every Gig in Dogtown
01/10/2025
Breathtaking

Collect all items that once belonged to Johnny Silverhand.
02/10/2025
King of Wands

Take Songbird to the stars
04/10/2025
King of Wands

Take Songbird home
04/10/2025
Bushido and Chill

Watch Bushido X with Rogue
06/10/2025
The APB is Not Enough

Become Dogtown’s most wanted criminal
06/10/2025

Assassin’s Creed Syndicate (Xbox)

The Perils of Business

Complete Memory Sequence 5
30/09/202520G
Bartitsu

Learn every Fight Skill as Jacob
30/09/202520G
Phantom

Learn every Stealth Skill as Evie
30/09/202520G
Treasure Hunter

Complete ten Raids of any type with Jacob or Evie
01/10/202520G
Keys to the City

Acquire all of the Gang Upgrades
03/10/202520G
Wonder of the Age

Reach Level 10
03/10/202520G
Artisan

Craft a Level 10 Item
03/10/202520G
Street Sweeping

Conquer all the boroughs in London
03/10/202530G
Bedfellows, Strange or Otherwise

Reach maximum Loyalty with any Associate.
03/10/202520G
A Broad Base

Reach Loyalty level 1 with all Associates
04/10/202520G
Chimney Sweep

Synchronize every Viewpoint in London
04/10/202520G
The War at Home

Complete the World War I simulation
06/10/202530G
Blade from Above

Air Assassinate twenty enemies from a zipline
06/10/202515G
Furious

Destroy twenty vehicles by ramming them
06/10/202515G

What I Am Reading

I read By The Horns by Rob Sanders, which really captures the fickle nature of the Chaos Gods and the status of the Dark Prince in the early days of AoS

I am listened to The Traitors Hand by Sandy Mitchell in my quest to do the Cain stores again, and that was as good as I remembered!

What I Am Creating

We published the Raven Guard Painting Video

What I Am Spending

I grabbed issue 56 of Combat Patrol, which completed me a set of Leagues of Votann Hearthkyn Pioneers

In the Steam sale, we bought


Returning to Streaming

I have started streaming on the regular again, and I want to keep it up

I have been playing Assassin’s Creed Syndicate which is so far a lot of fun, the two characters are fairly different to each other

Took me a little while to get the setup back and working, but I think we are getting there with it

Had a bit of an issue where despite me telling it to record the streams at 1440p it was insisting on doing them at 720p, but that’s all sorted now thankfully, and they are being recorded in AV1 too thanks to the fantastic encoder in the 9070XT

I am gonna try and keep at it, I don’t want to be a famous streamer or make money from this, it just helps me do something that feels sort of productive!

I really should get a schedule together at some point, but I will discuss that with Lindsay and Megan at some point

Right now I am still dragging my life back together after a terrible summer, so lets get back into a decent situation first eh.

What I Am Modelling

I painted up this Ultramarines Praetor in Saturnine Armour

I spent a good chunk of the week working on Stormcast Eternals

I finished off two units of the new Liberators

But in all honesty, Thunderstrike Armour just isn’t as cool as Bastion Armour, it just lacks the presence for me

Ah well, it is what it is right

I also painted up two units of Stormdrake Guard

I am really trying to find some joy in Agr of Sigmar again, I will try and get my Stormcast out of storage and see what’s usable and what’s not, I probably do have a decent amount of Thunderstrike stuff that can be used, and some of my older Liberators can be proxied


So what’s coming up next for my painting table?

  1. Blood Angels Land Speeders
  2. Ultramarines Tactical Squad
  3. Myari’s Purifiers
  4. Tempestus Aqulions x 12
  5. Red Brigade Warband
  6. Death Korps of Krieg Engineers x 5
  7. Dark Angels Fire Strike Servo Turrets x 2
  8. Veletaris x 2
  9. Grey Knights Librarian & Brotherhood Terminator Squad x 5
  10. Dracosan

What I Am Reading

Since last I posted, I have read Final Deployment by R.S Wilt, which was an amazing book with the Tempestus Scions, my favourite 40k army!

I then listened to Other Lives by Gary Hopkins and Pier Pressure by Robert Ross as part of the Doctor Who Monthly Adventures, and to be honest they were both kind of middling!

And finally I read In Wolves’ Clothing by Ian St Martin, which was pretty good, interesting concept in that one.

What Tabletop Games I Am Playing

We played some DnD with CJ this past Saturday, I knew what was coming up cause Megan, our DM had me print the minis for the baddies, I wanted to tell Lindsay and CJ not to waste their Holy Water on the mummified cats and save it for later, but alas I didn’t

I am enjoying RPGs with this group and for a Christmas treat am tempted to ask them if I can run a one shot of something like Cyberpunk Red, WFRP or Soulbound perhaps

What Video Games I Am Playing

Playing a bit of Hell Let Loose still, me, Chris and Graham have a great time playing that as a tank crew, but only playing the good guys is certainly a disadvantage cause the Tiger is a bugger to kill!

Also getting my way through Cyberpunk and have so far completed all the gigs and scanner hustles and trying to deal with the side stories before I go and tackle the main missions

My character is maxed out, so hopefully that makes the main missions a bit easier!

Quite obviously I have been playing some Assassin’s Creed Syndicate

What Achievement’s Have I Unlocked

Trying something new here

Cyberpunk 2077 (Steam)


I Am The Law

Complete all Cyberpsycho Sightings
19/09/2025
City Lights

Complete all gigs and NCPD Scanner Hustles in City Center
22/09/2025
Greetings from Pacifica!

Complete all gigs and NCPD Scanner Hustles in Pacifica
23/09/2025
It’s Elementary

Complete all gigs and NCPD Scanner Hustles in Watson
23/09/2025
Autojock

Buy all vehicles available for purchase
23/09/2025
Mean Streets

Complete all gigs and NCPD Scanner Hustles in Heywood
24/09/2025
The Jungle

Complete all gigs and NCPD Scanner Hustles in Santo Domingo
24/09/2025
The Wasteland

Complete all gigs and NCPD Scanner Hustles in the Badlands
24/09/2025
To Protect and Serve

Complete River Ward’s storyline
24/09/2025
Little Tokyo

Complete all gigs and NCPD Scanner Hustles in Westbrook
25/09/2025
Life of the Road

Complete Panam Palmer’s storyline
25/09/2025
Judy vs Night City

Complete Judy Alvarez’s storyline.
28/09/2025
Two Heads, One Bullet

Kill or incapacitate 2 enemies with the same sniper rifle shot.
28/09/2025

Assassin’s Creed Syndicate (Xbox)

A Spanner in the Works

Complete Memory Sequence 1
13/09/202520G
A Simple Plan

Complete Memory Sequence 2
13/09/202520G
A Modern Babylon

Complete Memory Sequence 3
14/09/202520G
Blade in the Crowd

Assassinate fifty enemies
14/09/202515G
Queensbury Rules

Reach combo level 40
23/09/202515G
Unqualified Success

Complete three Templar Hunts and their challenges
23/09/202520G
Thieftaker

Bring three Bounty targets back alive
23/09/202520G
Flawless Conqueror

Secure three Gang Strongholds and complete their optional constraints
23/09/202520G
Children’s Aid Society

Complete five Child Liberation memories
23/09/202520G
WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU

Flip five vehicles by shooting their horses
25/09/202515G
A Quick and Reliable Remedy

Complete Memory Sequence 4
25/09/202520G
Friends at My Back

Recruit a gang of 5 allies.
26/09/202520G
Ordinary Criminal

Complete twenty Crowd Events
26/09/202515G
Bare-Knuckle Champion

Win three different Fight Clubs
28/09/202520G

What I Am Creating

I published the next two Just About Tabletop Standard Videos, those being Word Bearers and Salamanders

What I Am Spending

I bought a Filament Drier for the house, I have been having some issues with certain filaments, so hopefully this will help

Went for the Sunlu S2, just because it’s got a few more decent niceties compared to the S1

Two of my nibblings have demanded masks for Halloween, so I ordered some filament to print those

I also bought some more resin, cause yeah I use a lot of that!

And a new charger for my Steam Deck for beside my bed in Lindsay’s room

And I was able to grab issue 54 of Combat Patrol too

And issue 55 too

In terms of video games, I treated myself to


Getting Myself Back On Track

After a difficult summer, I am starting to get myself back on track, still need to work out a weeks schedule, but I am getting there

The studio is much tidier, I have reinstalled Windows to deal with my glitch gremlins, I am painting more, I am playing more video games, and working on my mental health more.

We have made some good investments in the houses infrastructure, replacing the homelab, getting new hoovers, and an FDM 3D printer, still have a few more things to pay for/pay off but we are getting there.

My next thing to tackle is getting on with some more physical exercise, but lets see how next week goes.

What I am Modelling

I turned my attention to the Blood Angels to get a bunch of them finished off so I can have the Combat Patrol ready to go,

I painted up the Intercessors from the Combat Patrol

Along with the Incursors, which got the patrol finished up!

Followed by a Captain in Terminator Armour

And a Chaplain on a Bike

And finally for this week, a Librarian I printed up for the Ultramarines


So whats next?

  1. Blood Angels Land Speeders
  2. Stormdrake Guard x 4
  3. Ultramarines Tactical Squad x 10
  4. Myari’s Purifiers
  5. Tempestus Aquilions x 11
  6. Red Brigade Warband
  7. Death Korps of Krieg Engineers x 6
  8. Dark Angels Firestrike Servo Turrets x 2
  9. Veletaris x 10
  10. Liberators x 10

What I Am Reading

I read Blood and Iron by Robbie MacNiven, which was flipping brilliant!

After that I read Divine Will by Andy Smillie which was short but sweet.

Then I read The Unending Storm by Nick Kyme which I was far less impressed with, you could really tell it was very early AoS fiction

What Tabletop Games I Am Playing

Had a great into game of Heresy with Ed on Friday, an incredible amount of fun was had, and there was much Chaos!

What Video Games I Am Playing

Making my way through Cyberpunk 2077, mostly working on gigs and side jobs to level up!

And I have started with a streaming playthrough of Assassin’s Creed Syndicate

What I Am Creating

I got back to the Just About Tabletop Standard series and finished published the video for the Sons of Horus

What I Am Backing

I have backed the Assassin’s Creed Animus board game on Kickstarter, because, well its Assassin’s Creed, and I love that IP

What I Am Buying

I grabbed issue 53 of Combat Patrol!

I bought Legendary on Steam, because it was 59p!

I also bought Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Watch_Dogs 2 on Steam as well whilst they were on sale


First Blood

On Sunday, I ran the First Blood event at Durham Raiders

We wanted to have the hall available so people could come along and play some games of 3rd edition Heresy to get their head around the rules and figure out the game with all the changes

I took Ultramarines and had these two lists ready, this one for 2000 points

# ++ Crusade Primary Detachment ++ [970 Point(s)]

## High Command [135 Point(s)]

Praetor [135 Point(s)]: Bolt pistol (default), Paragon blade, One Apex Detachment

## Command [285 Point(s)]

Centurion [95 Point(s)]: Bolt pistol (default), Power fist, Frag grenades, Krak grenades

Centurion [95 Point(s)]: Disintegrator pistol, Power sword, Frag grenades, Krak grenades

Vigilator [95 Point(s)]: Nemesis rifle, Bolt pistol, Frag grenades, Krak grenades, Prime Unit (Paragon of Battle)

## War-engine [175 Point(s)]

Contemptor Dreadnought [175 Point(s)]: Gravis power fist with in-built ranged weapon, Gravis plasma cannon, Plasma blaster

## Troops [255 Point(s)]

Tactical Squad [125 Point(s)]: Frag grenades, Krak grenades
• 1x Sergeant [5 Point(s)]: Chainsword, Plasma pistol
• 1x Legionary [20 Point(s)]: Bolt pistol, Bolter, Nuncio-vox
• 1x Legionary [20 Point(s)]: Bolt pistol, Bolter, Vexilla
• 7x Legionary [10 Point(s)]: Bolt pistol, Bolter
Prime Unit (Logistical Benefit (LB - War-engine))

Tactical Squad [130 Point(s)]: Frag grenades, Krak grenades
• 1x Sergeant [10 Point(s)]: Lightning claw, Bolt pistol
• 1x Legionary [20 Point(s)]: Bolt pistol, Bolter, Nuncio-vox
• 1x Legionary [20 Point(s)]: Bolt pistol, Bolter, Vexilla
• 7x Legionary [10 Point(s)]: Bolt pistol, Bolter

## Transport [120 Point(s)]

Rhino [60 Point(s)]: Pintle Mounted bolter, Pintle Mounted Bolter

Rhino [60 Point(s)]: Pintle Mounted bolter, Pintle Mounted Bolter

# ++ Auxiliary - Tactical Support ++ [270 Point(s), 1 Auxilary Detachment(s)]

## Support [270 Point(s)]

Heavy Support Squad [150 Point(s)]: Autocannon, Bolt pistol, Frag grenades, Krak grenades
• 1x Sergeant
• 4x Legionary [10 Point(s)]

Rapier Battery [120 Point(s)]: 3x Rapier Crew
• 2x Legionary: Bolter, Bolt pistol, Frag grenades, Krak grenades
• 1x Rapier Carrier (Gravis heavy bolter battery)

# ++ Auxiliary - Combat Pioneer ++ [220 Point(s), 1 Auxilary Detachment(s)]

## Recon [220 Point(s)]
Land Raider Explorator [220 Point(s)]: Two Sponson Mounted Twin lascannon, Dozer blade

# ++ Auxiliary - First Strike ++ [150 Point(s), 1 Auxilary Detachment(s)]

## Fast Attack [150 Point(s)]

Javelin Speeder Squadron [150 Point(s)]:
• 2x Javelin Speeder [75 Point(s)]: Heavy bolter, Cyclone missile launcher

# ++ Apex - Army Vanguard ++ [123 Point(s), 1 Apex Detachment(s)]

## Elites [123 Point(s)]

Seeker Squad [123 Point(s)]: Frag grenades, Krak grenades
• 1x Seeker Sergeant: Bolt pistol, Kraken bolter
• 5x Seeker [18 Point(s)]: Kraken bolter
Prime Unit (Combat Veterans)

# ++ Auxiliary - Recon Demi-Company ++ [235 Point(s), 1 Auxilary Detachment(s)]

## Recon - Reconnaissance Squad Only [135 Point(s)]

Reconnaissance Squad [135 Point(s)]: Frag grenades, Krak grenades
• 1x Recon Sergeant [5 Point(s)]: Nemesis bolter, Bolt pistol
• 4x Recon Legionary [22 Point(s)]: Nemesis bolter, Bolt pistol
Prime Unit (Combat Veterans)

## Fast Attack [100 Point(s)]

Scimitar Jetbike Squadron [100 Point(s)]: Frag grenades, Krak grenades
• 1x Scimitar Sergeant: Chainsword, Bolt pistol, Heavy bolter
• 1x Scimitar Hunter [30 Point(s)]: Bolt pistol, Heavy bolter
• 1x Scimitar Hunter [35 Point(s)]: Bolt pistol, Volkite culverin

For 3000 points I had this list

# ++ Crusade Primary Detachment ++ [985 Point(s)]

## High Command [135 Point(s)]
Praetor [135 Point(s)]: Bolt pistol (default), Paragon blade, One Apex Detachment

## Command [300 Point(s)]

Centurion [110 Point(s)]: Bolt pistol (default), Combi-melta, Frag grenades, Krak grenades, Cyber-familiar, Vexilla

Centurion [95 Point(s)]: Bolt pistol (default), Power fist, Frag grenades, Krak grenades

Vigilator [95 Point(s)]: Nemesis rifle, Bolt pistol, Frag grenades, Krak grenades, Prime Unit (Paragon of Battle)

## War-engine [175 Point(s)]

Contemptor Dreadnought [175 Point(s)]: Gravis power fist with in-built ranged weapon, Gravis plasma cannon, Plasma blaster

## Troops [255 Point(s)]

Tactical Squad [125 Point(s)]: Frag grenades, Krak grenades
• 1x Sergeant [5 Point(s)]: Chainsword, Plasma pistol
• 1x Legionary [20 Point(s)]: Bolt pistol, Bolter, Nuncio-vox
• 1x Legionary [20 Point(s)]: Bolt pistol, Bolter, Vexilla
• 7x Legionary [10 Point(s)]: Bolt pistol, Bolter
Prime Unit (Logistical Benefit (LB - War-engine))

Tactical Squad [130 Point(s)]: Frag grenades, Krak grenades
• 1x Sergeant [10 Point(s)]: Lightning claw, Bolt pistol
• 1x Legionary [20 Point(s)]: Bolt pistol, Bolter, Nuncio-vox
• 1x Legionary [20 Point(s)]: Bolt pistol, Bolter, Vexilla
• 7x Legionary [10 Point(s)]: Bolt pistol, Bolter

## Transport [120 Point(s)]

Rhino [60 Point(s)]: Pintle Mounted bolter, Pintle Mounted Bolter

Rhino [60 Point(s)]: Pintle Mounted bolter, Pintle Mounted Bolter

# ++ Auxiliary - Tactical Support ++ [600 Point(s), 1 Auxilary Detachment(s)]

## Troops [180 Point(s)]

Breacher Squad [180 Point(s)]: Boarding shield, Frag grenades, Krak grenades
• 1x Sergeant: Bolt pistol, Bolter
• 1x Legionary [22 Point(s)]: Bolter, Bolt pistol, Nuncio-vox
• 1x Legionary [22 Point(s)]: Bolter, Bolt pistol, Vexilla
• 2x Legionary [22 Point(s)]: Graviton gun, Bolt pistol
• 5x Legionary [12 Point(s)]: Bolter, Bolt pistol

## Support [420 Point(s)]

Heavy Support Squad [300 Point(s)]: Autocannon, Bolt pistol, Frag grenades, Krak grenades
• 1x Sergeant
• 9x Legionary [10 Point(s)]

Rapier Battery [120 Point(s)]: 3x Rapier Crew
• 2x Legionary: Bolter, Bolt pistol, Frag grenades, Krak grenades
• 1x Rapier Carrier (Gravis heavy bolter battery)

# ++ Auxiliary - Combat Pioneer ++ [440 Point(s), 1 Auxilary Detachment(s)]

## Recon [440 Point(s)]

Land Raider Explorator [220 Point(s)]: Two Sponson Mounted Twin lascannon, Dozer blade

Land Raider Explorator [220 Point(s)]: Two Sponson Mounted Twin lascannon, Dozer blade

# ++ Auxiliary - First Strike ++ [395 Point(s), 1 Auxilary Detachment(s)]

## Fast Attack [395 Point(s)]

Fire Raptor [235 Point(s)]: Two Sponson Mounted Gravis autocannon batteries, Four Centreline Mounted Tempest rockets

Javelin Speeder Squadron [160 Point(s)]:
• 2x Javelin Speeder [80 Point(s)]: Heavy bolter, Two lascannon

# ++ Apex - Army Vanguard ++ [334 Point(s), 1 Apex Detachment(s)]

## Elites [334 Point(s)]

Seeker Squad [159 Point(s)]: Frag grenades, Krak grenades
• 1x Seeker Sergeant: Bolt pistol, Kraken bolter
• 7x Seeker [18 Point(s)]: Kraken bolter
Prime Unit (Combat Veterans)

Invictus Suzerain Squad [175 Point(s)]:
• 5x Suzerain [30 Point(s)]: Legatine axe, Bolt pistol, Argyrum pattern boarding shield, Frag grenades, Krak grenades

# ++ Auxiliary - Recon Demi-Company ++ [235 Point(s), 1 Auxilary Detachment(s)]

## Recon - Reconnaissance Squad Only [135 Point(s)]

Reconnaissance Squad [135 Point(s)]: Frag grenades, Krak grenades
• 1x Recon Sergeant [5 Point(s)]: Nemesis bolter, Bolt pistol
• 4x Recon Legionary [22 Point(s)]: Nemesis bolter, Bolt pistol
Prime Unit (Combat Veterans)

## Fast Attack [100 Point(s)]

Scimitar Jetbike Squadron [100 Point(s)]: Frag grenades, Krak grenades
• 1x Scimitar Sergeant: Chainsword, Bolt pistol, Heavy bolter
• 1x Scimitar Hunter [30 Point(s)]: Bolt pistol, Heavy bolter
• 1x Scimitar Hunter [35 Point(s)]: Bolt pistol, Volkite culverin

We rocked up at 8am and got the hall set up, and at 9am the players started rolling in, we had 7 attendees plus myself

I started to play a game with Adam and his Custodes, and oh my word they are tasty, very tough to kill with the lack of AP2 weapons in the marines, and the Hawkmen scored 8 points on the first turn, 3 from Vanguard from killing my squad on the objective, 1 for the objective and 4 for First Strike!

We got two turns in before someone else turned up and needed a game, so I let them play out a full game

After that I moistly chilled as others played games, but towards the end I got another two round game with good old Paul, of course he beat me but I learnt a lot!

It was a good day, was hoping for better attendance, but it was fine, I only lost £20 on it!

But a ton of fun was had an we met some new guys which is always great.

What I Am Modelling

I painted up this Heavy Support Squad for the Ultramarines, armed with Autocannons in MKVI Armour

After that I painted up a Praevian, also for the Ultramarines

And the MKII Centurion from Saturnine for them too

Following that I painted up another pair of Armiger Heliverins to finish the five I printed off a few months ago

I then painted an Augur Command and Control Squad made from various bits from my Bitz Box and a few 3D printed parts

And a Warboss in Mega Armour for the Orks


So where does that leave me for next week?

  1. Blood Angels Land Speeders
  2. Stormdrake Guard x 4
  3. Blood Angels Intercessors x 5
  4. Ultramarines Tactical Squad x 10
  5. Myari’s Purifiers
  6. Tempestus Aquilions x 11
  7. Red Brigade Warband
  8. Death Korps of Krieg Engineers x 6
  9. Dark Angels Firestrike Servo Turrets x 2
  10. Solar Auxilia Veletaris x 10

What I Am Reading

I finished Singularity by James Swallow, which had an interesting concept and a well written story for the 5th Doctor

I then started listening to Final Deployment by R.S Wilt, which so far is pretty decent, a Tempestus Scions book is guaranteed to grab my attention

I read Without Fear by Aaron Dembski-Bowden which was pretty good, not his best work, but pretty good.

I followed that up with Midnight Rotation by Dan Abnett, which was exceptionally good, great concept and well written.

After that I read Glory from Chaos by Chris Dows, which was fine, not the best story he has done, not the worst, it was kind of middling.

What Tabletop Games I Am Playing

Had my first game in the Gamer-At-Hart Combat Patrol League, I am playing with the Astra Millitarium Combat Patrol, Strike Force Gorgonne VI which is a Millitarium Tempestus one.

I played Alex and his Vardenghast Swarm, and they absolutely wreaked me!

What I Am Spending

Technically I bought this last week, but it finally arrived, an Arvus Lighter for the Solar Auxilia

I ordered this on payday, but it has arrived today, an Arvus Lighter to add to the Solar AuxiliaFigure this will be great for getting some dudes into Objectives #Warmongers #WarhammerCommunity #Warhammer30k #Warhammer30000 #HorusHeresy #TheHorusHeresy #SolarAuxilia #ArvusLighter

Michael Botterill (@biggeordiegeek.uk) 2025-08-29T16:41:52.049Z

I also picked up the Battle of Hoth that I preordered from Gamers@Hart earlier in the year

To my video game library I added, Son of a Gun, EVERSPACE, Fantasy Empires, Psionic Sentry: Infinite and Tandem: a tale of shadows

It was Humble Choice, so that netted me

I also picked up Issue 52 of Combat Patrol for an extra Khâl for my squats!


Finding the Fun Again

As Warhammer: Age of Sigmar turns ten, I’ve been reflecting on how much the game has changed. and, more importantly, how much my relationship with it has changed. Somewhere along the way, the joy I used to feel slipped out of reach. I still love the models, I still love the worlds, but playing? That’s another story. And honestly, I don’t want it to stay that way. I want to find the fun again.

I was there on day one. I tried the new rules, I liked the look of the Stormcast Eternals (even if they did get called “Sigmarines” by everyone on the internet), and I stuck with it. The early days were rough, no points, no balance, just arguments about how to make a fair game. It really was the Wild West, and plenty of people hated it. They hated the death of the Old World, they hated the move to high fantasy, they said it looked like a game for kids.

But I kept going. And when the General’s Handbook finally landed, it clicked. Suddenly the game worked. By Second Edition, I was all in. Endless Spells were amazing fun, the Sacrosanct Chamber gave me my favourite models, and the Nighthaunt were some of the best villains we’d seen in Warhammer. Add in writers like Josh Reynolds, and the Mortal Realms felt alive and fresh. That was peak Age of Sigmar for me.

Then came Third Edition. The new Thunderstrike Stormcast were… fine, but they didn’t excite me like the chunky Liberators and Sequitors had. More than that, the whole tone of the game seemed to shift. Competitive play had always been there, but now it felt like the focus. And by Fourth Edition, things just broke for me. My beloved Sacrosanct models — not even six years old — were squatted. Yes, the Stormcast range was bloated, but wiping away entire playstyles in one go? That stung.

I’ll admit it: I was bitter. Very bitter. I didn’t buy the new starter box, shoved my Stormcast into storage, and picked up Greenskins instead. I joined an escalation league, but even then, the magic wasn’t there. The narrative side of the game had all but vanished, terrain felt like a box-ticking exercise, and every match seemed to orbit around the latest “meta” list. I wasn’t showing up to play anymore, I was showing up to hang out with friends, with the games themselves feeling like chores I had to get through before the actual fun started.

The return of Chaos Dwarves should have set my heart racing, after all, they were my very first army in any system, my first love in the hobby. The models themselves are incredible, beautifully sculpted, and exactly the kind of army that should make me excited to get painting and building. And yet… the thought of playing them in the current version of Age of Sigmar just turns me off. It’s not the models; it’s the game around them. The overly competitive focus, the meta-driven play, the lack of narrative feel, all of it saps the excitement I should feel for something so personal. It reminded me that no matter how much I love an army, if the game around it isn’t fun, the joy doesn’t follow and that’s something I need to fix for myself.

And part of that’s on me. Since my brain injury, I can’t hold rules in my head the way I used to. I was sharp once, but now I forget things, I get muddled, and honestly? I lose a lot. I’m used to that. But when the whole culture around the game feels like it’s built for hyper-competitive play, it leaves me feeling like there’s no space for someone like me who just wants to throw dice and tell a story.

But here’s the thing: I don’t actually want to give up. I still love the models. I still get excited when I see a new sculpt, even if I can’t muster the will to buy it. And deep down, I still want to enjoy the game. I just need to change how I approach it.

So here’s my new plan: stop chasing the meta. Stop pretending I care about tournaments. Stop playing like winning matters. Instead, I’m going to lean into the stuff that actually makes me smile. If that means turning up with a weird, suboptimal list, great! If it catches my opponent off guard, even better. And who knows? Sometimes those “bad” lists surprise people, and suddenly you’ve not only given your opponent a more memorable game, but you might even scrape an unexpected win.

That’s the kind of joy I want back. Games where my Orks run around being loud, messy, and hilarious. Games where my Knights crash into things just because it looks cool on the table. Boards that look like real places with varied terrain, even if it’s not ITC compliant. I’ve got 17 boxes of terrain that the competitive crowd says are useless, but they’re going on my tables anyway. I want battlefields that tell stories, not perfectly symmetrical chessboards where people measure gaps for half an hour before rolling a single dice.

I need to play more Heresy, it’s the game I love most. I’ve seen how stepping back from the competitive grind can change the experience. Take Graham, for example. He was once the most cutthroat, WAAC-focused player I knew locally. But since he started playing Heresy more for fun, he’s mellowed out. He still likes to win, of course, but he’s way more relaxed and chill these days. Watching him enjoy the game without stressing about the meta has reminded me that maybe I can do the same, that the joy of gaming doesn’t have to come from trophies or “perfect” play, but from simply loving the game itself.

And maybe I’ll spread my wings a bit more. Try Trench Crusade. Dip into The Old World if I can decide on an army. Play some historical with Bolt Action and maybe even some Napolionics. Explore games that don’t have the same competitive baggage, where the focus is back on narrative, creativity, and having a laugh.

At the end of the day, I don’t care about trophies or titles. I don’t care if I’m not “keeping up.” What I care about is fun. I want opponents who smile when they see my army, not because they think it’ll be an easy win, but because they know it’s going to be a fun game. That’s the whole point of this hobby.

Because let’s be honest: most of us got into this for joy. For the excitement of a new box of plastic, for the thrill of rolling that clutch dice, for the stories we tell after the game’s over. Somewhere along the line, I lost sight of that. But I’m ready to start looking for it again.

And that’s why I’ve started drafting my own little manifesto for fun gaming: a set of rules to keep myself honest and make sure the hobby stays joyful, for me and for anyone I play with.

My Manifesto for Fun Gaming

  1. Play what I love: If I like the model, the lore, or the look, it belongs in my army, meta can go to hell.
  2. Every list needs a curveball: At least one “weird” choice that isn’t optimal but makes me smile, and might just surprise my opponent.
  3. Paint at my pace: If a model sits on my desk for two months, that’s fine. This isn’t a race, it’s a hobby.
  4. Terrain should tell stories: Symmetry is for chessboards. I want tables that look like real places worth fighting over.
  5. Winning is optional, fun is mandatory: A memorable story beats a victory every single time.
  6. Celebrate the silly moments: A goblin felling a gargant with a lucky stab should be cheered louder than a finely-tuned combo working as intended.
  7. Make the game fun for my opponent: If they walk away smiling, it was a success, win or lose.
  8. Keep exploring: Try new games, new armies, or new scenarios if they spark excitement. Stagnation kills joy.
  9. No guilt, no grind: If I’m not enjoying it, I step back, take a breather, and come back when the spark’s there.
  10. Remember why I started: Dice, stories, friends, and toy soldiers. Everything else is optional.

What I Am Modelling

I started out the week by painting this Knight-Draconis, with the scheme of a Blue-Eyes white Dragon which my sister in law, Jane will get a kick out of

After that I finished up this Griffin from the BattleTech Beginners Box for the Federated Suns

For the Red Brigade I painted a Yeoman

A Trench Cleric

And a Trench Dog

I also cracked on with these Armiger Helverins for my House Taranis force


So what’s up next?

  1. Blood Angels Land Speeders
  2. Stormdrake Guard x 4
  3. Blood Angels Intercessors x 5
  4. Ultramarines Tactical Squad x 10
  5. Myari’s Purifiers
  6. Tempestus Aquilons x 11
  7. Red Brigade Warband
  8. Ork Warboss in Mega Armour
  9. Death Korps of Krieg Engineers x 6
  10. Dark Angels Firestrike Servo Turrets x 2

What I Am Reading

I finished The Silent King by Guy Haley, that was a lot of fun and wove together a lot of the novels published since 8th Edition, bringing together the Pariah Nexus and Dark Imperium stuff along with a few other bits I have yet to read

Its a shame the Dawn of Fire series has ended, if they had all been as good as that book, it would have been amazing!

I am now listening to Singularity by James Swallow, only about a quarter of the way through but so far, so good!

Also made some great progress with Era of Ruin as well, and should finish that in the next day or two, on the last story now!

What Tabletop Games I Am Playing

Myself and Megan played Unlock! Game Adventures and went through the Mysterium pack, and that was fine, a little confusing at times however.

I also played a game of Heresy with Graham, and weirdly I won!

But later on we realised that Graham remembered his Comptroller rule, he would have won by 1 point instead of me winning by 3!

What I Am Spending

I bought myself a paint top up, so glad Gamers-At-Hart are now selling Fanatic paints

I also picked up Liber Astartes, and a third Dracosan for the Solar Auxilia

In terms of video games, I did buy The Expanse: A Telltale Series, Silver Box Classics and Gimmick! Special Edition


Whoop A 9070XT

My RTX 3070 has bee. Great apart form one issue, VRAM, 8GB didn’t cut it and in too many games it proved to be an issue

I had planned on upgrading when the 60 series came out but struggles in games like Darktide and Cyberpunk 2077 convinced to upgrade early.

And for the first time in a very long time, I went for a Radeon card, specifically the 9070XT, the Acer Predator Bifrost 9070XT OC!!!

The card is beautiful and looks amazing in my PC and performs like a dream, especially in games where the devs have added FSR 3 and above.

My performances in Cyberpunk 2077 has gone up a hell of a lot, yeah some is via frame gen, but honestly, the AMD implementation of that feel fine.

I am sadly like far too many PC gamers and will upgrade my rig regardless if it needing it sometimes!

And in all honesty if the RTX 3070 wasn’t struggling with its VRAM in certain games I probably would have kept it as its performance is good, it’s just been hamstrung slightly which is annoying.

Also AV1 encoding is fantastic, and has been really good for my YouTube videos.

But that card is still going to live on in the house as Megan has had their rig upgraded from the GTX 1660Ti to the RTX 3070, which will give her some great gaming performance in the games they play, like Disney Dreamlight Valley and The Sims 4.

Meanwhile her GTX 1660Ti and the Ryzen 5 3600 that used to live in that rig, which I upgraded to a 5600X when I changed my CPU to a 5700X3D, well we have an idea for that!

What I am Modelling

I started off by painting this Command Squad for my Ultramarines in MKIII Armour, 5 guys all armed with Power Swords and Combat Shields

I already have a MKIII Banner Bearer from the old kit, so he will be hoping these where needed

I also painted up these two Heralds in MKVI Armour

After that I decided to get the Imperial Fists I have finished so that they can go into storage for a bit, and started out with an Overseer

Then a squad of Breachers

After that I turned my attention to The Red Brigade of New Antioch and painted a few figures for them starting with a Lieutenant

Then Lieutenant MacDonald

Followed by a Stormtrooper

And a Yeoman

Then I finished off this Draconis Combine Vindicator for BattleTech


So what does that leave me with to paint next

  1. Blood Angels Land Speeders
  2. Knight Draconis & Stormdrake Guard x 4
  3. Armiger Helverin x 2
  4. Blood Angels Intercessors x 5
  5. Ultramarines Tactical Squad x 10
  6. Myari’s Purifiers
  7. Tempestus Aquilions x 11
  8. Red Brigade Warband
  9. Ork Warboss in Mega Armour
  10. Death Korps of Krieg Engineers x 6

What I Am Reading

I listened to the next couple of books in the Doctor Who monthly range staring with Live 34 by James Parson which was pretty good, this was followed by Scaredy Cat by Will Shindler which was actually pretty dire.

I then started to listen to The Silent asking by Guy Haley, which is quite good, seems to be weaving together a few more recent threads from the novels of 8th and 9th editions.

I also read To Speak As One, also by Guy Haley, which was a nice little story covering some of Cawls entourage

What Tabletop Games I Am Playing

On Tuesday I played a game of 1500pts against Graham with my Solar Auxilia, using this list against his Mechanicum

Crusade Primary Detachment

High Command

Legatine Command Squad
Bayonets x 4
Blast Charger x 4
Needle Pistol
Power Fist
Cohorts Vexiliia
Augury Scanner
Command Vox

Command

Armoured Command Section
Dozer Blade
Flare Shield
Searchlight
Lascannon
Multi-Laser
Prime Advantage:- Logistical Benefit

Transport

Aurox

War Engine

Aetheon Heavy Sentinel Squadron x 3
Incinerator

Infantry Tercio

Troopa

Lasrifle Section x 20
Bayonets x 20
Vexilla
Vox Interlock

Lasrifle Section x 20
Bayonets x 20
Vexilla
Vox Interlock

Heavy Transport

Dracosan
Dozer Blade
Searchlight

Dracosan
Dozer Blade
Searchlight

Armour Tercio

Armour

Leman Russ Vanquisher
Dozer Blade

Leman Russ Vanquisher
Dozer Blade

We are still learning the new Editon but we are now getting to grips with it a bit better

But Grahams Tech-Thralls were a tad more resilient and less likely to panic than my Lasriflemen

Then on Friday at Gamers@Hart, me and Russell played 1500 points, I took the this list

# ++ Crusade Primary Detachment ++ [723 Point(s)]

## High Command [135 Point(s)]

Praetor [135 Point(s)]: Bolt pistol (default), Paragon Blade, High Command Detachment Choice (One Apex Detachment)

## Command [215 Point(s)]

Centurion [100 Point(s)]: Melta bombs, Bolt pistol (default), Power fist, Frag grenades, Krak grenades

Master of Signals [115 Point(s)]: Bolt pistol, Frag grenades, Krak grenades, Command vox relay

## Retinue [210 Point(s)]

Praetorian Command Squad [210 Point(s)]:
• 1x Chosen Champion [12 Point(s)]: Power sword, Combat shield
• 1x Chosen [52 Point(s)]: Legion standard, Power sword, Combat shield
• 3x Chosen [32 Point(s)]: Power sword, Combat shield

## Troops [163 Point(s)]

Tactical Squad [163 Point(s)]: Frag grenades, Krak grenades
• 1x Sergeant [15 Point(s)]: Lightning claw, Volkite serpenta
• 1x Legionary [22 Point(s)]: Bolt pistol, Bolter, Augury scanner, Chain bayonet
• 1x Legionary [22 Point(s)]: Bolt pistol, Bolter, Nuncio-vox, Chain bayonet
• 1x Legionary [22 Point(s)]: Bolt pistol, Bolter, Vexilla, Chain bayonet
• 6x Legionary [12 Point(s)]: Bolt pistol, Bolter, Chain bayonet
Prime Unit (Logistical Benefit (LB - Retinue))

# ++ Auxiliary - Armoured Fist ++ [530 Point(s), 1 Auxilary Detachment(s)]

## Heavy Transport [530 Point(s)]
Land Raider Carrier [265 Point(s)]: Twin heavy bolter, Two Sponson Mounted Twin lascannon

Land Raider Carrier [265 Point(s)]: Twin heavy bolter, Two Sponson Mounted Twin lascannon

# ++ Auxiliary - Tactical Support ++ [90 Point(s), 1 Auxilary Detachment(s)]

## Support [90 Point(s)]

Tactical Support Squad [90 Point(s)]: Rotor cannon, Bolt pistol, Frag grenades, Krak grenades
• 1x Sergeant
• 4x Legionary [8 Point(s)]

# ++ Auxiliary - Heavy Support ++ [155 Point(s), 1 Auxilary Detachment(s)]

## War-engine [155 Point(s)]

Contemptor Dreadnought [155 Point(s)]: Gravis bolt cannon, Gravis chain fist and combi-bolter (Gravis chainfist, Combi-bolter)

It was a great game, but I lost, and that was down to secondaries, Russell got ahead early on, but I was able to catch up, what cost me the game was not having a balanced list to be honest, not enough Line and no Vanguard

What I Am Creating

The next videos in the Heresy series went up, those being Ultramarines and Death Guard, two legions I have been collecting for a long time as well as the Thousand Sons

I also published the next episode of Edge of Empire

What I Am Spending

I bought a few games, a couple of Humble Bundles starting with this months Humble Choice that got me

And the WB Play the Legends Bundle that netted me

The rest of the games went into a second Steam account I am maintaining for whichever nibbling starts wanting to play PC games first!

And the Table Top Tag Team Bundle which got me

I also got seperatly


  • Mood:- Feeling a bit more positive
  • Caffeinated Beverages Consumed:- 1
  • In My Ears:- The Flood – Take That
  • Tabletop Game Last Played:- The Horus Heresy
  • Video Game Last Played:- Diablo IV
  • Book Last Read:- Era of Ruin – Various Authors
  • Audiobook Last In My Ears:- The Silent King – Guy Haley
  • Movie Last Viewed:- Star Trek: Section 31
  • TV Show Last Viewed:- Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
  • Podcast Last In My Ears:- The WAN Show
  • Current State of Projects:- Knight Draconis about 75% done

A New 3D Printing Journey

For a few months now we have had a list of things we want to do to improve our home infrastructure

So that’s been things like the new car, replacing the vacuum cleaner and a new home server

High on that list has been a filament 3D printer to do the things my resin one cannot, and this week, we finally got it!

We went for the ever popular and ever reliable Bambu Labs A1! Paul has the A1 Mini and raves about it, so we figured to go for the same as him.

But he has an AMS, we currently do not (long term it’s on the list)

It’s living in my studio, because the cats don’t go up there, nor will visiting children

Assembly was fine, the video helped a lot and it probably took about an hour to get from unboxing to having Benchy starting to print

We borrowed some already dried blue filament from Paul, the first thing printed, other than a benchy and a poop bin, was some replacement pegs for our Socktopus, using an STL that Lindsay found on the Bambu Handy app

We have printed a fair few things, Megan has been especially happy with the initiative tokens for DnD and this over the screen dice tower!

We also got round to printing the storage solution we have been wanting to sort out for Takenoko

We have built up a bit of a supply of different coloured filaments to use for some toys for the nibblings

It’s a really great printer, and we are really happy with it and looking forward to way it can do!

What I Am Modelling

I started off with a second Heavy Mechanised Infantry for the Trench Crusade Red Brigade

I painted the Dark Disciples from the Dark Apostle that I had painted up for the Word Bearers

After that it was some scenery for my oldie world set

Then an Overseer for my Word Bearers

Followed by an Overseer for the Ultramarines

Then a Centurion for the Ultramarines


So what’s next on the list?

  1. Blood Angels Land Speeders
  2. Stormdrake Guard x 4 & Knight Draconis
  3. Imperial Fists Breachers x 10
  4. Armiger Helverin x 2
  5. Blood Angels Intercessors x 5
  6. Ultramarines Tactical Squad x 10
  7. Myari’s Purifiers
  8. Tempestus Aquilions x 11
  9. Red Brigade Warband
  10. Ork Warboss in Mega Armour

What Tabletop Games I Am Playing

I played Graham in a last hurrah for 2.0 Heresy, of course I lost as he dismantled my Fists, but it was a really fine game

Last Sunday, we hosted CJ and played a game of Unspeakable Words and Fluxx, I won Unspeakable Words and Lindsay won Fluxx

On Tuesday I had a first game of 3.0 with Graham, we got to only 3.0, and I can tell you this, it’s a hell of a lot of fun!!!

What I Am Reading

I finished CL Werner’s Lady of Sorrows as an audio book, fairly good read, one of the twists seemed really obvious, the other, not so much.

Good story and makes me want more Nighthaunt books!

What Video Games I Am Playing

Not much this past fortnight, but I have played a little Cyberpunk 2077

Myself, Chris and Graham have started a playthrough of Diablo IV, which is pretty fun.

What I Am Creating

I published the paining videos for the Night Lords, Blood Angels, Iron Hands and World Eaters this past fortnight

And a further Edge of Empire episode!

What I Am Spending

Ok, these next two I didn’t spend money on but rather was gifted, starting out with a Sicaran Venator that someone gave to Gamers-At-Hart to distribute to the community, and this one ended ok with me

And Graham was kind enough to give me this Stugg III, for my Bolt Action Germans

I did treat myself to a MKIII Command Squad for Heresy, which will join the Ultramarines

Will be making the guys inside as all Power Sword and Combat Shield guys as I have a MKIII banner guy to join them already, but will probably print off a couple of MKVI bodies to make two more Heralds/Banner Bearers

Of course I was saving up for Saturnine, and I picked it up from Gamers@Hart last Saturday

I only bought the Liber Auxilia hoping the other two books would be coming out as ePubs, but no dice on that thus far

I have bought a couple of games


A Bit of a Break & Heresy Camp

I haven’t been posting for a while, alas a lot of it comes down to going through my usual summer slump and a bit of depression I have been battling, but I am trying to turn myself around.

Giving myself some projects to do, and things to try and keep me occupied, I really think I am missing Company of Legends, it gave me something to focus on, something to look forward to and these last couple of years without it, well I have been doing a bit badly.

But let’s crack on and update you on my last few months, so let’s get into it!

Heresy Camp

This other weekend, I attended Heresy Camp, run by some amazing friends of mine, and how did a not “Company of Legends” weekender go?

On Friday I met up with James at Gamers-at-Hart and we played a warm up game with our armies, my Solar Auxilia and his Sisters of Silence

To remind you, this is the list I have taken.

LI - Solar Auxilia - Solar For Camp - [3000 Pts]

## HQ [437 Pts]

Armoured Fist - Leman Russ Command Tank [270 Pts]: Leman Russ Command Tank (Armoured Fist Pattern Cohorts (Check Limitations manually), Battle Cannon, Searchlights, Smoke Launchers, Warlord, Lascannon, Multi-Laser, Cognis-Signum, Dozer Blade, Flare Shield)

Tactical Command Tercio [167 Pts]:
• 1x Tactical Command Section [167 Pts]: Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Meltabombs, Refractor Field, Augury Scanner, Command Vox, Cohorts Vexilla
• 1x Auxilia Captain [2 Pts]: Void Armour, Auxilia Captain, Pistol and Combat weapon (Sub-menu) (Close Combat Weapon, Needle Pistol)
• 4x Auxilia Companion [12 Pts]: Void Armour, Lasrifle
Aurox Transport (Smoke Launchers)

## Elites [45 Pts]

Medicae Section [45 Pts]:
• 3x Auxilia Medicae [15 Pts]: Auto-medicus, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Void Armour, Close Combat Weapon, Laspistol

## Troops [1118 Pts]

Armoured Fist - Leman Russ Strike Squadron [160 Pts]:
• 1x Leman Russ Strike Squadron [160 Pts]:
• 1x Leman Russ Battle Tank [140 Pts]: Searchlights, Smoke Launchers, Heavy Bolter, Dozer Blade
Turret Mounted Vanquisher Battle Cannon and Co-axial Mounted Autocannon (Co-axial Mounted Autocannon, Vanquisher Battle Cannon)

Armoured Fist - Leman Russ Strike Squadron [160 Pts]:
• 1x Leman Russ Strike Squadron [160 Pts]:
• 1x Leman Russ Battle Tank [140 Pts]: Searchlights, Smoke Launchers, Heavy Bolter, Dozer Blade
Turret Mounted Vanquisher Battle Cannon and Co-axial Mounted Autocannon (Co-axial Mounted Autocannon, Vanquisher Battle Cannon)

Armoured Fist - Leman Russ Strike Squadron [160 Pts]:
• 1x Leman Russ Strike Squadron [160 Pts]:
• 1x Leman Russ Battle Tank [140 Pts]: Searchlights, Smoke Launchers, Heavy Bolter, Dozer Blade
Turret Mounted Vanquisher Battle Cannon and Co-axial Mounted Autocannon (Co-axial Mounted Autocannon, Vanquisher Battle Cannon)

Infantry Tercio [319 Pts]:
• 1x Rifle Sections [319 Pts]: Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Void Armour, Auxilia Vexilla, Vox Interlock
• 1x Auxilia Sergeant: Lasrifle
• 19x Auxilia w/ Lasrifle and Bayonet [6 Pts]: Bayonet, Lasrifle
Dracosan Armoured Transport (Searchlights, Smoke Launchers, Gravis Lascannon, Dozer Blade)

Infantry Tercio [319 Pts]:
• 1x Rifle Sections [319 Pts]: Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Void Armour, Auxilia Vexilla, Vox Interlock
• 1x Auxilia Sergeant: Lasrifle
• 19x Auxilia w/ Lasrifle and Bayonet [6 Pts]: Bayonet, Lasrifle
Dracosan Armoured Transport (Searchlights, Smoke Launchers, Gravis Lascannon, Dozer Blade)

## Fast Attack [200 Pts]

Carnodon Strike Squadron [200 Pts]:
• 3x Solar Auxilia Carnodon [65 Pts]: Smoke Launchers
Two Sponson Mounted Volkite Caliver (Two Sponson Mounted Volkite Caliver), Turret Mounted Volkite Culverin (Volkite Culverin)

## Heavy Support [900 Pts]

Aethon Heavy Sentinel Squadron [200 Pts]:
• 3x Aethon Heavy Sentinel [65 Pts]: Aethon Missile Battery, Multi-Laser

Malcador Heavy Tank Squadron [350 Pts]:
• 1x Malcador Heavy Tank [350 Pts]: Searchlights, Smoke Launchers, Vanquisher Battle Cannon, Demolisher Cannon, Hull (Left) & Hull (Right) Mounted Lascannon, Pintle Mounted Multi-Laser, Dozer Blade, Flare Shield

Malcador Heavy Tank Squadron [350 Pts]:
• 1x Malcador Heavy Tank [350 Pts]: Searchlights, Smoke Launchers, Vanquisher Battle Cannon, Demolisher Cannon, Hull (Left) & Hull (Right) Mounted Lascannon, Pintle Mounted Multi-Laser, Dozer Blade, Flare Shield

## Lords of War [300 Pts]

Macharius Heavy Tank Squadron [300 Pts]: Macharius Vanquisher Cannon
• 1x Macharius Heavy Tank [280 Pts]: Two Sponson Mounted heavy stubbers, Hull (Front) Mounted twin-linked heavy stubber, Smoke Launchers

The game was fine, I was punished for not being more aggressive with taking objectives and thus lost the game, but damn the Sisters move very fast!

After the game myself and James made our way to Moorhouse Adventure Centre where we hung out for a bit, I was going to play Zone Mortalis, but decided to come home that night cause I wanted us to pick up Graham the next morning, but there were some great games being played

On Saturday after returning with Graham, I played on Table 5 against Nick Hall and his Emperors Children including a Deamon Prince Fulgrim

The missions and environment rules were fairly punishing with vehicles and dreadnoughts moving within 3” of terrain having to fire on the nearest United friend or foe, which saw me destroy one of own Carnadons and Nick wipe out a Recon Squad of his

Deamon Fulgrim is a beast and basically ate two squads of Lasmen and my Command squad, in the end I lost by a lot!

Game 2 was on table 3 vs Johns Death Guard, which was a mostly infantry list, but damn Death Guard are tough

Combination of Mortaion, who kept healing the wounds I put on him, and a trio of Dreadnoughts just ripped apart my tanks and I was tabled again

Game 3 was against Chris’s World Eaters on Table 4 and I wasn’t tabled, which was a bonus, but his fast troops, and awesome advanced reaction made short work of my tanks.

After the game I had my tea, a lovely Chinese takeaway of chips and fried rice in curry sauce and salt and pepper chicken, after which we had a Heresy Quiz, which I did respectably in.

The next day I played Matthew and his traitor White Scars, which was tough game, the rules were a bit complicated and I was forced to keep my men out of their transports to carry the objective.

But Matthew had a pair of Whirlwind Scorpius, which just deleted all of my infantry as they tried to take the objective to the target area.

The last game, I was grudged by Mark Frost, and he is a very good player with his Daemons of the Ruinstorm, and he doesn’t use lube!

So yeah that was a horrible loss, but a very very fun game and I loved it.

Overall the traitors won the weekend, which was a shame for my side, but it was a really great weekend

I was given a little something for Edge of Empire having pioneered these events, I got some dice, Death Guard Heads and a Harlequin Shadowseer!

The award winners were all very deserving, especially Keith’s Space Wolves which won best hobby.

The guys did an amazing job, and I am looking forward to returning should they run it again!

My Own Event

I ran my own little Heresy event at Durham Raiders, and I think it went well.

We had two games of 3500pts, with some very simple missions, the whole idea of the day was for it to be chilled out and easy going.

It was a nice way to say goodbye to 2.0 and I think I would love to run some similar events for 3.0.

What I Am Modelling

I did prior to the even paint up some tokens for me and Graham to use at the event, to show us what the various status of our stuff was

There are simply primed in black, dry brushed with Leadbelcher and then washed with Nazdreg Yellow

The first models I painted afterwards were some Deathshroud for the Death Guard to complete the new Combat Patrol.

I then painted some Thousand Sons Scarab Occult Terminators for their Combat Patrol.

Alongside an Infernal Master.

Then I painted up a test piece for a new terrain project, this one is going to be for a no man’s land board for Trench Crusade, but is also going to be generic enough that it won’t look out of place in Bolt Action or Warhammer Fantasy Battle

Kind of an old worldie European looking set

I then painted up a Helbrute for the World Eaters, armed with a fist and and hammer

And then some Dark Angels Incursors

Then I painted up this Dark Apostle, who will be seeing use as a Chaplin or perhaps even a Praetor in my Word Bearers

And another Helbrute for the World Eaters followed, this time armed with a fist and Power Scourge

I then added a Knight Magaera to the forces of House Taranis

This year I want to finally play some Legions Imperialis, so I painted up the bases to make my Aeronautica models usable, went for a sandstone type scheme

And then to make my way to a fully painted Blood Angels Combat Patrol, I finished up this Impulsor for them

After that I painted a Praetor for my Ultramarines

I then painted a Gondola for Carnivale, a game I really want to play at some point soon!

And after that I finished up this Leman Russ Demolisher for the Solar Auxilia and Astra Militarium


So what’s next on the agenda?

  1. Blood Angels Land Speeders
  2. Stormdrake Guard x 4 and Knight Draconis
  3. Imperial Fists Breachers x 10
  4. Armiger Helverin x 2
  5. Blood Angels Intercessors x 5
  6. Ultramarines Tactical Squad x 10
  7. Myari’s Purifiers
  8. Tempestus Aquilons x 10
  9. The Red Brigade
  10. Ork Warboss in Mega Armour

What Tabletop Games I Am Playing

Myself, Lindsay and Graham played some Firefly at Durham Raiders, Grahams first time playing and he won!

My Knights had a game against the Necrons

I basically wiped out his army, but alas he won on points

My Solar Auxilia had a run out against Graham and Andrew, anothe loss for me!

I played Dale and his Disciples of Tzeentch in AoS, and he throughly demolished my army!

I played Craig’s Space Wolves with my Knights again

And weirdly, I actually won a game!

I also finished off the AoS League with a game against Andrews Skaven

Of course I lost!

And finally, myself and Graham had an intro game of Bolt Action in which I played the Germans (because I already have a German army) and Graham the British, I think he won, but really we were just figuring the game out

Neil who took us though it was champion

What Video Games I Am Playing

I finished Final Fantasy III Pixel Remaster, still got a couple of achievements to pick up however

I also started playing Cyberpunk 2077, at long last.

I originally bought it on GOG a few days after release, despite my system at the time only having a 1660 Ti, which wouldn’t have run it well, but I got it for under a tenner due to the very poor reviews of the state it was in at launch.

But my experience with GOG Galaxy and its cloud saves ended up having me buy it on Steam in a sale earlier this year, alongside Phantom Liberty.

I even bought Phantom Liberty on GOG, but losing all my saves in Control when GOG Galaxy crashed, has put me off GOG for anything I really want to invest time in.

So the reason I am only now just playing it now is cause with these kinds of games, I tend to wait until all the expansion are out, and then have a massive big playthough then, and well it took a bit for Phantom Liberty to come out and I was busy with other stuff.

I have still been playing some Hell Let Loose most Mondays at least and often a game on Wednesday nights as well, and the other week we had this score which was incredible!

What I Am Creating

I have started a new YouTube painting series Just About Tabletop Standard, in which I am going to paint a Marine from each of the 18 Legions from Horus Heresy.

We started out with an episode on the Dark Angels, followed by an episode on the Emperor’s Children

What I Am Spending

The grown up purchase the past few months was a new vacuum cleaner, we ended up getting a GTech AirRam Mk2 K9, and Lindsay is very happy with it, she always gets excited for new vacuum cleaners!

Our new car was also delivered, we got a Renault Mégane E-Tech which is a really nice car, quite a bit more range than our last and a few extra niceties as well, like a pair of USB-C sockets in the back and dual zone air-con

I bought some dice for my Blood Angels & Tyranids

And my Warhammer + model of Inquisitor Ostromandeus arrived

And I picked up a cheap desk mat from Temu to replace the one that Cassius has shredded up

Plus a poster for the studio

I also picked up a business card holder, specifically for use with the Firefly Board Game.

I managed to get all of the issues of Combat Oatrol I wanted, issues 37, 38, 39 and 40, to get me a Helbrute, some Chaos Terminators and some Wraithguard

To add to my pile of Combat Pattols I need to paint, I bought the Black Templars box

Which means other than Deathwatch I have all of the 9th Edition ones that can be in 10th

I upgraded the server with a couple of SSDs, one to host my websites, including this blog, and one to back up the VM images and the websites

Whilst at UK Games Expo, I did pick up the Battletech Beginner Box, I really want to play some of this game again, played it as a teenager, and want to relive my youth!

I bought Zodgrod Wortsnagga off my friend James, and I am really looking forward to getting this hairy git in the table

I also stocked up on resin

And finally a Leman Russ Assault Tank to add to the Solar Auxilia/Astra Militarium

We had three lots of Humble Choice , so I got out of that

And I also bought the Xbox Games Studio Bundle to net me

I also bought over the past couple of months


The New Server

I have finally gotten around to sorting out a new server for the house.

Gone for a Fujitsu TX1310-M1 with a Xenon E3-1226V3 with 32GB Ram and even comes with a 512gb SSD and a pair of 3TB HDDs.

Got it for £130 which I don’t think is a terrible price, but when they went to ship it to me, they found they had lost the side panel and they contacted me to offer a discount of £26, which is accepted, I can always pop a Perspex cover on it.

It came on the Thursday and was delivered by DHL, coming at lunchtime.

So the planning started as soon as I hit buy on as to how best implement this and get it up and running and that started with the decision to run Proxmox on bare metal.

So that was installed and I created a ZFS pool with the two 3TB drives.

The first container I set up was for Casa OS, which would be hosting most of the media stuff, starting with the basics of PLEX and AudioBookShelf.

Once that was setup, I started setting stuff up, but I soon realised that I had a fatal issue, my hard drives with the media on were formatted in NTFS which docker doesn’t play nice with 😭

So I had to transfer data to drives that were being formatted in EXT4 or the ZFS pool, starting with the movies library, and then the slow process of the TV shows which would take some time annoyingly.

In the meantime I set up a second VM running Foundry VTT that me and Chris are going to play around with to see if it will prove a decent replacement for Roll20.

The data transfer took a good long while, there was a lot to transfer.

But alas, in my attempts to be clever I managed to delete the audiobooks and movies meaning I have to restore them from the offsite backups, and that could take at least a month to do that and sort out the metadata properly

But now it’s in place in what’s its permanent home, it takes up a lot less space and is significantly more powerful that what it replaced, I am quite happy with it and in the next few weeks we are going to set up Mealie

What I Am Painting

I spent the weekend at my sister in law’s and painted up the terrain that came in the £75 pack from Combat Patrol

I got the Stockades finished first

Then the Vox Antenna

And then the Landing Pad

Followed by the Auspex Shrine

Then finally a pair of Hab-Bunkers

After that I painted a squad of Ogryn Charonites for the Solar Auxilia

Followe by a squad of Phallax Warders for my Imperial Fists

And finally a trio of Rapiers for the Solar Auxilia


So what’s coming up next?

  1. Blood Angels Landspeeders
  2. Scarab Occult Terminators & Infernal Master
  3. Dark Angels Incursors x 5
  4. Blood Angels Impulsor
  5. Imperial Knight Magara
  6. Carnivale Gondola
  7. Stormdrake Guard x 4 & Knight Draconis
  8. Imperial Fists Breacher Squad x 10
  9. Armiger Helverin x 2
  10. Deathshroud x 3

What I Am Reading

I listened to Leontus: Lord Solar by Rob Young whilst painting the terrain and that was really good

Right now I am listenting to Terror Firma by Joseph Lidster and Fulgrim: The Perfect Son by Jude Reid.

I also read We Were Brothers by Richard Fox which was pretty decent

What Tabletop Games I Am Playing

I played a game of Heresy with Graham at Durham Raiders, where I tried out Artillery with the Solar Auxilia, it did not go well, my positioning was terrible and his summoned Daemons ripped me apart

But it was fun and that’s what counts

I then played Dave at Hartlepool Gamers, where I lost, badly, but I could have won in turn 2 when all his reserves failed to arrive, but I am lot a dick so didn’t do that

When his reserves did arrive, the Gal Vorbak tore my ranks apart panel by panel

And again at Durham Raiders, I played a simple doubles game with Andrew where we took on Paul’s Iron Warriors and thanks to Andrew’s nasty plasma guns we won!

And finally I played 40K with Chris and took my Imperial Knights, we didn’t do too badly but it was still a loss

But I really felt like I held my own!

And when CJ came over one Saturday we played DnD with Megan DMing

What I Am Spending

I bought a controller holder for my peg board from eBay

IKEA discontinued these, annoyingly and I needed one more to hold my Duchess

I also grabbed some Deathshroud to complete the Death Guard Combat Patrol

And some Tempestus Aquilons for my Astra Militarum

Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag went on sale on Steam, so I picked that up, and it also included Freedom Cry, and I managed to grab Assassins Creed Unity as well.

And I finally bought Grand Theft Auto V!

I also picked up in various bundles and sales


Changing Broadband

It’s now been 3 years since we moved to Hartlepool and since then we have had Virgin Media, which has been extremely reliable and much better than what we used to have in Pelton.

But with our current deal coming to an end, we were being offered a price of £78, which is much higher than the £36 we have been paying for the same deal, which got up 1Gbps.

We thought we had sorted out a new deal with them, but Virgin never bothered sending us any confirmation of the deal, so we handed in our notice, and decided to move to Grain, an altnet, who had installed their infrastructure on our street last year.

We are paying £34, which is getting us 900mbps both up and down, which is perfect for the server, which is running PLEX and AudioBookShelf.

The router is wall mounted, and it’s quite interesting, does WiFi 6

And we have a Wi-Fi booster as well which we hope will solve kitchen connectivity issues

And we also have a static IP address which is very handy and will hopefully let me sort out a proper web address for my AudioBookShelf server

So far, really happy with the service and it’s been amazing being able to upload videos to YouTube so quickly!

What I Am Modelling

I started off by doing some weathering to my 3D printed artillery carriages using some Contrast paints, and I am rather happy with how that turned out.

Afterwards I turned my attention to a pair of Wraithlords

Followed by Neophyte Hybrids

And a Kellermorph for the Genestealer Cults

Then a trio of Charonite Ogryns


So what’s up next for me?

  1. Blood Angels Land Speeders
  2. Phallax Warders x 10
  3. Scarab Occult Terminators x 5 & Infernal Master
  4. Dark Angels Incursors
  5. Ogryn Charonite Squad x 3
  6. Blood Angels Impulsor
  7. Imperial Knight Magaera
  8. Carnivale Gondola
  9. Stormdrake Guard x 4 & Knight Draconis
  10. Imperial Fists Breachers x 10

What I Am Reading

I listened to Unregenerate! by David A McIntee which was an interesting concept, but not executed the best.

I then listened to For the Emperor by Sandy Mitchell, been a long time since I read the book, and it was good to go back to the Cain stories.

After that I listened to Council of Nicaea by Caroline Symcox, which was a really good listen.

I read Perfection and Pride by Jude Reid which was a very cool little Emperors Children story, which some nice Dark Eldar side characters

What Tabletop Games I Am Playing

I played Joshua in the AoS League with his Ossiarch Bonereapers, and whilst I lost, I did alright

I did a lot of damage to his army, but failure to secure some objectives and Battle Tactics early on, cost me the game!

What Video Games I Am Playing

I have started playing the Final Fantasy III Pixel Remaster, I am a couple of hours in and it’s quite different to the previous two with managing my magic being quite difficult so far

What I Am Creating

I published the latest episode of Edge of Empire

What I Am Spending

I bought Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones and Prince of Persia on Steam


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