I dunno why I am writing this, but I feel I need to.
My pain levels the past two months have been stupidly high, and it’s only getting worse, the last couple of weeks I can barely get out of bed and it’s only thanks to support from the girls that I can get dressed some mornings.
I don’t know why it’s gotten so worse, but it has and I am really struggling to cope.
I am gonna start trying a few simple exercises that I have read about, but honestly I feel like I am going backwards, I used to only have to prepare a couple of days for a trip out, now I have to prepare a week in advance, it’s kinda depressing.
I am already on a lot of painkillers and I don’t really want to go on anymore, so I am going to make an appointment to see a doctor next week to see if we can figure this out.
I am really hoping it’s not a progression of the brain injury.
I wasn’t expecting to play, but sadly I was unable to make a previously planned trip to Edinburgh for medical reasons, so I ended up playing in The Dark Artisans Winter Warmup tournament for Warhammer 40k.
It was three rounds and in my first game I played Tyranids, and lost very badly, my opponent seized the initiative and was able to badly cripple my heavy hitters before they had a chance to do any damage to him.
My second game was against Drukahri and that was closer, but I still lost, the invulnerable saves really made me work hard to kill anything.
My final game was a mixed one, my opponent said he got his list off the internet and it was entirely unpainted.
But that lad was canny so it was a good game, I won simply because whilst his list was powerful, he didn’t know how to use it.
My list was this:-
++ Battalion Detachment +5CP (Chaos - Death Guard) ++
+ HQ +
Malignant Plaguecaster: 1. Miasma of Pestilence, 5. Putrescent Vitality, The Pandemic Staff
Typhus: 2. Gift of Contagion, 5. Putrescent Vitality, Warlord
+ Troops +
Plague Marines: Icon of Despair . Plague Champion . . Codex: Bolt pistol, Plaguesword, Power fist . 5x Plague Marine w/ boltgun . Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Plasma gun
Plagueburst Crawler: 2x Plaguespitter, Heavy slugger
Plagueburst Crawler: 2x Entropy cannon, Heavy slugger
+ Dedicated Transport +
Chaos Rhino: Combi-bolter, Havoc launcher
Chaos Rhino: Combi-bolter, Havoc launcher
It’s all stuff that came from Conquest, and I had no plan on how to use it, in fact for most of it, this was the first time it saw the table.
I probably need to get to know the army better, it I went just to have three fun games and in the end, that’s what I got and I am happy with that.
What I Am Modelling
It’s been a so so week in terms of modelling, I started with some Necromunda doors that we will be using for my Zone Mortalis stuff, simple to do and these were done quite quickly.
Then I painted a Plague Marine Icon Bearer from the multipart Plague Marine kit for the tournament I played in on Sunday so that all of my Plague Marines were unique.
And then finally I painted up a Heavy Support Squad for my Ultramarines, armed with Volkite Culverins. This is a squad that has sat in my to do box for over three years and it felt good to finally get them done.
I also this week built one of my Repressors for my Sisters of Battle, but that’s gonna need a lot of green stuff before I prime it, and I also built my second Javelin, but I need to grab some magnets for that.
Right now I am working on a Millitarium Tempestus Squad armed with Plasma Guns and their Taurox Prime, and I am also working on the Haemotrope Reactor I got with my last delivery of Warhammer 40,000 Conquest as a side project.
So what does that do to my painting plan then.
Tempestus Scions and Taurox Prime
Plague Marines and Plague Marine Champion
Death Korps of Krieg Centaurs
Blood Ravens Reivers
Blood Ravens Librarians
Death Korps of Krieg Quartermaster and Retinue
The Three Hunters
Death Guard Heavy Support Squad with Autocannons
Blood Ravens Bikes x 3 with Attack Bike
Forge World Plague Marines
I have ready just over half of this list, the rest need priming before I can move forward with them.
What Am I Reading
I finished Requiem Infernal and it left me, quite confused, I am not sure what the ending was about but it was, different.
I have since started on Celestine The Living Saint by Andy Clark and I am enjoying that a lot, I am halfway through it now.
And I am still making my way through the Soul Wars audiobook.
What I Am Playing
Apart from the tournament I played in, I also played another game of Warhammer 40k, this was a 500pts game using the contents of Shaodowspear apart from the Captain and Librarian.
I played against some old school 1st edition metal Eldar, which were quite cool and I was throughly beaten!
It was nice to see the Vanguard in action, the Eliminators are amazing and the Supressors are surprisingly good, although I didn’t quite figure out how to use the Infiltrators right.
I am working on my Blood Ravens a lot at the minute, one of my 2020 hobby commitments is to complete them, and I aim to get the Phobos stuff out the way as I am not a fan of painting that armour.
The clubs games are jumping up to 750pts next week so for the next time I play I am thinking of this.
++ Patrol Detachment (Imperium - Space Marines) ++
**Chapter Selection**: Blood Ravens
+ HQ +
Librarian in Phobos Armour: 1) Shrouding, 1. Shoot and Fade, 2) Soul Sight, 6) Temporal Corridor, Camo cloak, Force sword, Tome of Malcador, Warlord
Lieutenants in Phobos Armor . Lieutenant in Phobos Armour . . Occulus Bolt Carbine and Bolt Pistol: Grav-chute, Master-crafted occulus bolt rifle
So just adding in a Reiver Squad and the Librarian bit keeping with the Phobos armoured theme.
What Am I Backing
I read about an interesting video game project called Justice Blocks, it’s by a Chinese guy named Frodo, and looks interesting.
It came to my attention as I heard they had some visa issues getting to PAX, so I ended up checking out the campaign and you know what, it kinda looks interesting, I doubt it will find, but I fancy joining the ride.
What I Am Cooking
I did attempt to cook, but it failed, I am still not doing so good on that front 🙁
What I Am Spending
I am not, I need to keep money for my trip to Nottingham for Graham’s birthday, but I did buy myself the Sisters of Battle dice, which are really really cool.
I did cave and buy a Contemptor Dreadnought for the Sons of Horus as well.
As many of you know, I have been eagerly collecting the Warhammer 40,000 Conquest series, which has really helped me grow my Death Guard and the Blood Angels army I share with Megan, as well as help me cheaply add certain units to my Blood Ravens.
I know I wanted a big horde of Chainrasps and when the trial was on in the summer, I bought 6 copies then, and then planned to get another two when it launched nationally.
Well I got convinced that actually a really cool number to run some amazing games would be 120 of them instead of 80, so I may have been convinced to buy a few more than planned, which means a big painting job awaits me, but I have been slotting in a few hordes into my long term painting plans.
There is also a premium subscription for £2 extra a week and to be frank, the saving on that is utterly unreal, you get four deliveries of models, one for an army from each of the grand alliances, and you end up saving over 50% compared to retail, so obviously I have gone premium!
Conquest has got only a couple of deliveries left so this is replacing that in my budget, and I am looking forward to building a really cool Nighthaunt army and supplementing my Stormcast, but any Stormcast I already have will be going to Lindsay who is starting Astral Templar’s.
What I Am Modelling
I haven’t done very much this week, due to illness but I did get a couple of things done.
I started by finishing Ylthari’s Guardians, which were a lot of fun to paint.
And I then painted up the Vanguard Infiltrators from Shadowspear, which means all I need to do now from that box set are the Librarian and the Captain.
I did manage to find the Nighthaunt warscroll cards at Travelling Man, which I was really happy about, and I will be making heavy use of these when I get my Nighthaunt up and running.
It’s taken me a little while to watch The Witcher I would have loved to have binged it, but I find it very difficult to sit down and just watch TV for ages like I used to.
It’s utterly amazing, frankly it’s as good as the early seasons of Game of Thrones, absolutely amazing with extremely high production values, and the cast is bloody amazing.
The timeline takes a bit of getting used to, but I love how this first season has focused on the early short stories before getting stuck into the meat and bones of the novels.
You really get to understand more about the characters, what motivates them and where they came from.
I absolutely cannot wait to see the next season and I am pleased to be vindicated in my faith in Henry Cavill as a choice for Geralt.
What I Am Painting
Again this post comes after short gap since my last post, but may I have kept myself busy.
I started 2020 with a squad of Death Korps of Krieg Infantrymen, weirdly enough there were 11 of them, plus I also did their Quartermaster at the same time.
I got an Army of the Dead Banner Bearer from my in-laws at Christmas, and because my paint scheme for them is so very simple, I decided to paint them alongside Mollog’s Mob and some other stuff, and I am quite happy with how he turned out.
And on Sunday morning I finished up the last Death Korps of Krieg Infantry Squad for Niki, which brings phase one of the Death Korps of Krieg project to and end.
And now I am ready to start the next phase which will start with a squad of Engineers and a Hades Breaching Drill, but I need to build them.
I then picked up the Rhinos for the Death Guard and got them painted up fairly quickly, the scheme is super simple so they took very little time to paint.
I enjoyed this series but there was rather a lot of repetition of certain turns of words and phrasing between the stories that was a bit annoying, but the stories were great.
I found this series to be a bit better than Hunt for Nagash, they were a little bit more varied, and the alliance between the Ironjawz and Hallowed Knights was pretty cool.
What I Am Playing
Tabletop wise, I played a single game of Holiday Fluxx, before it gets packed away until next Christmas, and unusually, I won!
Video game wise I have mostly been playing Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on the Switch, which is a lot of fun!
I am working my way through the 50cc Cups and plan on moving up to the next level soon.
What I Am Backing
Still just Car Wars Sixth Edition which is in its last 48 hours now and so far what has been unlocked is incredible, my pledge currently includes:
Core Game with 12 Minis
Miniatures Set 1 with 5 Minis
Miniatures Set 3 with 5 Minis
Playmat 1
Playmat 3
Dice Bag
Uncle Al’s Upgrade Pack
Armoury Pack
Road Tiles
Dropped Weapons Pack
Crew Pack
Linked Weapons Pack
That’s an absolute ton of stuff for my Black Friday $139 pledge!
And if we get to $650,000 then a future Kickstarter to add motorbikes will be run, no sign of Boat Wars however 🙁
What I Am Cooking
This morning I helped to make a breakfast pizza which was nice, but the sausages were a bit too well done for my taste.
So this year I set out doing the #Painthammer2019 hobby log with the aim of painting a mode for every day of the year.
I ended up painting 866 models in 2019, and you can see my completed log here so I have decided that I want to beat that next year and paint at least 867 models in 2020.
Plus I have a few other goals I wish to hit as well.
Paint 867 models in total
Finish the Blood Ravens that I own on 1st January 2020
Finish the Death Guard
Paint Mortarion for Everchosen
Complete 1750pts worth of T’au
Complete 1750pts worth of Orks
Complete 2000pts of Stormcast Eternals
Rebase Blood Ravens Tacticals
Rebase Orks
Enter Armies on Parade
So this requires a wider range of painting focus than I normally do, because I want to complete a few projects that have been sitting around for ages.
I know normally people want to do the whole improve yourself resolutions but I tend to find I fail them, so focusing on hobby goals instead.
It’s only been a few days since my last blog post so I haven’t gotten much done, I did complete the Foetid Bloat-Drones, and Mollog’s Mob is coming along fine but I won’t get them finished for a little while as I need Carroberg Crimson and I am out of that.
So I have moved a couple of things around on my painting schedule to keep things fresh, so here it is right now.
Mollog’s Mob
Death Korps of Krieg Infantry Squad and Quatermaster
Plagueburst Crawler
Blood Ravens Supressors
Death Korps of Krieg Infantry Squad
Ylthari’s Guardians
Death Guard Rhinos
Blood Ravens Infiltrators
Death Korps of Krieg Engineers and Hades Breaching Drill
Ultramarines Volkite Culverin Heavy Support Squad
Obviously I have lots of things to add and move around, so that’s gonna be something that filters through in the next few weeks.
What I Am Reading
Sad to say I haven’t read anything this week 🙁
I did however listen to Prisoner of the Black Sun, now that I am out of main Realmgate Wars stories, which was enjoyable and have now just started Sands of Blood.
What I Am Playing
I age played a bit these past few days, we played two games of Maki Stack which Megan gotten Lindsay for Christmas.
We then introduced Paul to Just One followed by a game of Carcassonne on the Switch.
We also played a first game of Island of a Thousand Cats which I won, and it was very fun, although Megan was very unsure about the whole game.
And finally yesterday morning we played Stuffed Fables, and personally I didn’t have a good time playing it, but I think that was largely due to the amount of downtime because Lindsay and Megan spent a lot of time reading and rereading rules.
I also went to the Durham Raiders Long Gaming Day and played two games of Zone Mortalis, one with my Custodes that I painted up for the Adeptus Terra challenge, and they were really really really good in that game.
The second game was with my Death Guard, in which is used my Grave Wardens for the first time, and they were really quite good, the toxin grenades are very powerful.
And finally we played an Age of Darkness game of 3000pts a side.
What I Am Backing
Still just Car Wars Sixth Edition, but that is really knocking down stretch goals right now!
What I Am Cooking
Not a thing in the past few days.
What I Am Spending
I bought myself The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition on XBox for £10.39 which was brilliant, I had been considering getting it for Switch, but on that it was £49.99 so yeah, no question really as to what platform to get it on.
Well this post is basically about Christmas, and it was nice, not the best one ever, but a really good one.
And like all Christmas’s, it’s real downer was no Megan, and it second downer was I got ill on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.
Christmas Eve was popping to Greggs for stotties, then hitting Sainsbury’s for Dream Topping for the triffle and finally a visit to see a nephew for his birthday.
On the day itself, me and Lindsay went and saw some of our nephews first thing to give them their presents and that was hectic, I mean it was crazy, the middle childa face was just pure sticky with sweets!
Then we headed back to ours to make Christmas dinner, which this year was turkey, gammon cooked with whiskey and orange, roast potatoes, roast spiced winter veg (parsnips, leeks, carrots, onion) and for those that liked it, red cabbage with sultanas cooked in red wine, and Brussel sprouts fried with roast chestnuts and a touch of nutmeg.
We were joined for dinner by Paul and Mary who made for lively company, and then we opened presents.
I was lucky enough to get Horrified from my BGT&CUK Secret Santa, Sloppity Bilepiper and Shazam from Lindsay, a Slytherin travel mug and water bottle from Mary and a sack of stuff from Paul, oh and the obligatory Lynx Africa set.
I then had a two hour nap to try and feel better, which worked enough to allow me to play a game of Ticket to Ride 10th Anniversary, which I was one train laid away from winning!
The Lindsay went to her grandads whilst I continued to recover and this was my Boxing Day as well, I was simply too ill to do anything but lie down at home.
Anyway the next few days I was much better, not that much happened, Lindsay went back to work on Friday and Megan came home Saturday.
Sunday I have the long gaming day at Durham Raiders and then we open our presents with Megan in Monday.
What I Am Modelling
I started off with the Blood Ravens Primaris Lieutenants of which I had six to paint, one from Dark Imperium, one from Wake The Dead, one from Shadowspear, the 500th Store one, the Reiver one and Lieutenant Amulius.
I now have Mollog’s Mob and a couple of Foetid Bloat-Drones on my desk, after those are finished, my painting plan looks like this.
Death Korps of Krieg Infantry Squad and Quartermaster
Ylthari’s Guardians
Plagueburst Crawler
Death Korps of Krieg Infantry Squad
Blood a Ravens Supressors
Death Guard Rhinos
Blood Ravens Infiltrators
Death Korps of Krieg Engineers and Hades Breaching Drill
Ultramarines Vollite Culverin Heavy Support Squad
Millitarium Tempestus Scions and Taurox Prime
What I Am Reading
Haven’t read much these past few days, bar White Dwarf.
I have listened to a few audios however, I bought and listened to Morningstar, which was good, but I wasn’t quite sure what the story was about apart from Magnus admitting to wrong doing, it was good just not sure what the intent was.
I listened to Wardens of the Everqueen, and I will be honest, it wasn’t great, it felt like they didn’t let the author read the previous stories in this arc, and there were lots of inconsistencies, such as dead characters being alive again, and it felt like this could have been done in a novella instead of a novel.
Plus it dropped too many things and then didn’t explore them, like the Seraphon, I mean they apparently did something, we just don’t know what.
Still just Car Wars Sixth Edition which continues to knock down stretch goals, currently it’s doing ok, we are getting an extra play mat now and lots more cards.
What I Am Cooking
Well I actually helped a lot with Christmas dinner, I mean I prepared most of it, but Lindsay helped a lot.
It was a big job and very scary and I think I am done with cooking for a little bit now because that was terrifying.
I also helped Lindsay cook dirty rice when Megan got home for tea.
What I Am Spending
Pretty much nowt, as a household, we added £25 to our Nintendo e-store account, so that when we open the Switch in Monday we have money to download some games we want.
I did manage to get to Games Workshop on Christmas Eve so I was able to grab the couple of paints I needed for the Death Korps of Krieg.
When I was at university I was studied for an MChem degree in Chemistry because its a subject I love, the way the material universe works and how everything fits together, and as the song says, how the elements are almost like a paint set, with them standing on their own or combining to make all the colours of the rainbow.
My specialism were food chemistry and nuclear chemistry, which were really fascinating subjects, I was lucky to have a visit from Lord Krebs whilst I was there, at the time he was the chair of the Food Standards Agency, and once everyone had stopped Stanning over his dad, his lecture mostly focused on potatoes, and how if they were brought to market today, they would be banned, because when they go off, they become extremely toxic, poisonous in face.
So any song which does chemistry will always grab my attention, and I really love this song, its so easy to sing along to!
I am really looking forward to Christmas, but then I always do, I am even wearing a Christmas jumper, albeit a Warhammer themed one!
Over the next few days, we are seeing Lindsay’s family, specifically Jane and her boys and George, we are having Mary and Paul over for Christmas dinner, Megan comes home so we get our Nintendo Switch and I go to the Durham Raiders long gaming day.
I did see Star Wars on Thursday morning, a 6am showing, with nachos and popcorn for breakfast, I enjoyed it, a lot, and I have thoughts on it, but to avoid spoilers I will talk about them next month, but I will say if you can, watch The Mandalorian Episode 7 first.
I got this months Conquest delivery early, so I built the Haemotrope Reactor and the Plague Marine Champion.
My painting queue currently looks like this, the Death Korps stuff has had to move back a little, I need a pot of Rakkarth Flesh and I am not getting anywhere near a Games Workshop until at least Boxing Day.Blood Ravens
Blood Ravens Primaris Lieutenants
Foetid Bloat-Drones
Death Korps of Krieg Commissars, Quatermaster, Officio Prefectus Commissar and Severina Raine
Mollog’s Mob
Death Korps of Krieg Infantry Squad
Legio Custodes Contemptor-Galatus Dreadnought
Ylthari’s Guardians
Death Korps of Krieg Infantry Squad
Plagueburst Crawler
Blood Reavens Supressors
What I Am Reading
I am really bad and haven’t read at all this week, but I did listen to Broken Saints which was really good, I love this character and the acting in this was phenomenal.
What I Am Playing
I had a few hours playing Fallout 4, but nowt beyond that sadly.
What I Am Backing
My Munchkin Pathfinder 3 stuff arrived from the US, hopefully Steve Jackson Games will start offering rewards outside the US, I know I could have waited and gotten these at retail, but I really wanted the to be made and hit the stretch goals.
I actually cooked, well it was kinda basic, I did some sausages in the oven, then added them to some microwave egg fried rice and some mushrooms, not gourmet but was filling.
I am currently roasting the meat for Christmas, but this is pre-prepared ready to roast stuff so not very taxing.
What I am Spending
I topped up my paints, although I still need a couple more and I treat myself to a new paint brush.
I also bought a £15 card for the Nintendo online store, which I will be using to get Catan when we set up our Switch.
Its time for some metal, in this case we are going with DragonForce a speed metal band from London who specialise in fantasy and video game influenced music.
This song is probably their best known song and was featured on Guitar Hero III, and is a really difficult song to so in that game, its really really hard.
Interestingly during the recording Herman Li snapped one of his guitar strings during the recording of the dual-guitar solo, and they kept this version and used it on the album.
Through the Fire and Flames is an epic 7 minutes and 22 second song, although the official video cuts that down to 5 minutes, but I highly recondite listening to the full song because its fantastic, and its an amazing D&D anthem.
Almost there and now we have the grandfather of nerdcore, MC Frontalot and many consider him to be the first nerdcore artist, but he acknowledges that others came before him and that they are his peers.
He has been performing nerdcore since 2000 and has seen the scene grow into the niche of a niche of a niche that it is today.
