Just Cracking On

By

On 17th August 2021

In Blog

This week has been a week in which I have just really been cracking on with stuff.

I have had more self-isolation, some babysitting and a couple of days with a little bug.

But not really much else.

What I Am Modelling

I started the week by painting four characters for my Stormcast Eternals. 3. Sylas Beastbane, Leena Stormspire, Astreia Solbright & Berek the Indomitable.

This was followed by a unit of Infantry for my Death Korps of Krieg.

And finally a Primaris Chaplain on a bike for my Blood Ravens.

After this I began work on two units of Vindictors to join the Stormcast Eternals.

I also purchased an STL for Captain Carter, it still needs loads of work to get the print right but I am getting there.

So what’s coming up next week then?

  1. Zone Mortalis Terrain
  2. Stormcast Eternals Vindictors x 10
  3. Kurdoss Valentian & Lady Olynder
  4. Legio Custodes Pallas Grav-Attack x 2
  5. House Taranis Knight Castellan
  6. Blackstone Fortress Traitor Guardsmen x 21, Commissar & Ogryn
  7. Stormcast Eternals Praetors x 3
  8. Flesh-Eater Courts Crypt Ghouls x 20 & Crypt Ghast Courtier
  9. Legio Custodes Agamatus Jetbike Squad x 3
  10. Mechanicus Secutarii Hoplites & Terrax Pattern Termite

What I Am Reading

Not much still working on The Serpent and the Dead by Anna Stephens which is a good read.

What Video Games Am I Playing

I got a single session in of Bioshock Infinite and will get another one in today.

I also played some Forza Horizon 4 and played a bit of Sonic Generations with my Nephews.

What Tabletop Games Am I Playing

Not a sausage 🙁

What I Am Creating

The next episode of Edge of Empire is on the editing desk now.

What I Am Backing

I am currently backing the Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game project, just not sure what level I will settle in.

What I Am Cooking

Not much really, I managed beans on toast but that was a struggle.

Painting My Death Korps of Krieg

By

On 12th August 2021

In Blog, Tutorials

I have been asked a couple of times how I paint my Death Korps of Krieg and considering a certain release coming out this Saturday, I figured I would share it.

And if you want to help me and the podcast out, use this link to purchase from Element Games and links to any products will be affiliate links.

I developed the scheme to be different from the army that I painted for Niki, which were very traditionally Krieg with blue French style uniforms.

These are my 510th Siege Regiment, and their uniform is a dark green greatcoat, grey trousers, dark green helmets and tan leather.

Their weapons also have wooden casings as I feel like they would want to ensure their equipment is manufactured as easily and as cheaply as possible.

Anyway let’s crack on, with a squad of Firing Infantry.

We start by priming all the models with black, in this instance I used Wilkos Satin Black.

All the paints I am using are all Citadel, apart from two Vallejo colours.

Step One

The first step is just getting on the base coats which are as follows.

Step Two

The second step is super simple, an all over wash of Agrax Earthshade.

Step Three

The third step is to tidy up the great coat by relayering Death Korps Drab, leaving the Agrax Earthsade in the deepest recesses.

And then do the same to the helmets with German Camo Dark Green.

Step Four

The last step is just some highlights.

And That’s It

It’s a super simple scheme, not a lot to it and it looks nice on the table, dirty and subdued, just like the Death Korps of Krieg.

I like to combo it up with a muddy and wet basing scheme, which is more or less the same scheme as Duncan Rhodes has demonstrated on his website and I think it looks really nice.

If I were to start over, the helmets would be black as the German Dark Camo Green is influenced by the Heer helmets, which is something I was trying to avoid.

I know I am not the worlds best painter, I paint for fun and to a tabletop standard, but I am really proud of these and I enjoy painting them.

Here is the squad that I completed today.

Anyway, I can’t wait to try this out on the new plastic models and will be ordering the new Kill Team box.

Next Projects

By

On 10th August 2021

In Blog

Now that both mine and Megan’s PCs are complete, it’s time to turn my attention to my next projects.

Setting up a Home Assistant server, and adding Network Attached Storage.

For the Home Assistant server, I am going with the Raspberry Pi 4 solution, but just to ensure it’s going to be as future proof as possible, I am going to build it around the 8GB version.

That’s probably gonna get out together in the next six weeks or so, and I will hopefully be able to join up a lot of the house smart systems together properly.

That said, I am actively looking to see if IFTTT can do many of those functions and if it’s possible we could put off the Home Assistant server by using that. Then again, I do like to tinker and Home Assistant would be a challenge and something to occupy me.

The Network Attached Storage is already in progress. When I built Megan’s PC I also built a PC for her dad, he had an old Dell Optiplex eBay special which managed to screw itself up all the bloody time.

Anyway I got sick of fixing it, so I built him a new PC that should last him a fair few years as his biggest usage is amateur photo editing.

Anyway this Optiolex has a couple of hardware issues, the motherboard has a couple of dead SATA ports and is very much at the end of its usable life as a general PC.

So I intend to use it to fiction as a the houses NAS for the short term, I have grabbed a SATA SSD to serve as it’s system drive and I am gonna pick up a couple of Ironwolf Drives next payday to run in RAID.

The idea being that all of our files can be stored centrally and backed up at the same time.

Next year I plan to transfer the NAS to dedicated hardware, potentially by pinching Megan’s motherboard after replacing hers for something a bit more high end. Plus either grabbing a new GPU for Megan so the 1660 Ti in her system can go into the NAS or getting something like a 1650 Super for the NAS.

The GPU would be needed because by the time I get ti the situation where I can put the NAS into dedicated hardware, I want it to be running a PLEX server too, so we can have our own home Netflix with all of the DVDs and Blu-Rays we have ripped onto the server.

I have a rough plan in my head now, and think that it’s possible in a couple of months I will have the basics of both of these systems up and running.

They are going to be housed in the cat cave (spare/junk room) and we have a monitor already set up in there for them, we will need a network switch still as both devices will need to be plugged in via Ethernet.

What I Am Modelling

I started the week by painting the Judicators with Boltstorm Crossbows for my Stormcast Eternals, two squads of five.

Then I painted the Night Scythe for my Necrons, a model I have wanted to paint for absolutely forever!

And then I painted the Beastmen for Blackstone Fortress. I have tried to give them a load of variety, with at least one dedicated to each of the four Chaos Gods and one that’s Chaos undivided.

I just wanted to see some variety on the table.

I am also working on printing a fleet for Battlefleet Heresy, so far I have gotten printed out a Battlebarge, with some damage from a print failure and four Strike Cruisers.

Tomorrow I intend to try another Battlebarge and a couple more Strike Cruisers, the plan is to get a fleet ready for Company of Legends.

Right now on my painting table are Sylas Beastbane, Leena Stormspire, Astriea Solbright & Berek the Indomitable, who are about 50% done.

So what’s coming up next week?

  1. Zone Mortalis Terrain
  2. Sylas Beastbane, Leena Stormspire, Astriea Solbright & Berek the Indomitable
  3. Death Korps of Krieg Infantry Squad x 10
  4. Stormcast Eternals Vindictors x 11
  5. Blood Ravens Primaris Chaplain on a Bike
  6. Kurdoss Valentian
  7. Custodes Pallas Grav-Attack x 2
  8. House Taranis Knight Castilian
  9. Blackstone Fortress Traitor Guardsmen x 21, Commissar & Ogryn
  10. Stormcast Eternals Praetors x 3

What I Am Reading

My review of Target Keee by Stuart Moore was published and you can read it here.

And I started on Pandemic: Patient Zero by Amanda Bridgeman and I got it finished, it made for uncomfortable reading if I am honest.

You can read my review for that here.

I am now reading The Serpent and the Dead by Anna Stephens

What Video Games I Am Playing

Played a variety this week, there was a session of Bioshock Infinite, a bit of Clustertruck, Halo 2 Anniversary, Star Wars: Battlefront 2.

You can see my Bioshock Infinite play videos here.

I also got my Saturn emulator up and running and can now play some games I always wanted to play as a kid, but couldn’t because my parents couldn’t afford a Saturn.

My current queue of games to stream is right here below

  1. Bioshock Infinite (Nintendo Switch) – In Progress
  2. Assassins Creed (Xbox Series S)
  3. Borderlands(Nintendo Switch)
  4. Assassins Creed The Ezio Collection (Xbox Series S)
  5. Horizon Zero Dawn (PC)

What Tabletop Games I Am Playing

We played Carcassonne as a family on Thurday night, albeit on the Switch, quite predictably I came last!

What Am I Creating

I got the unboxing video for Carnivale done!

What Am I Backing

Still backing AB Con, it’s only for a small amount, but I think it’s good to encourage events like this.

I am also backing Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game at the Otter-Penguin level right now, but might up it to the Polar Bear Dog.

What I Am Cooking

All I cooked this week was a mad concoction of chips, beans and cheese for lunch on Sunday for me and Lindsay.

Pandemic: Patient Zero

By

On 7th August 2021

In Book Reviews, Reviews

I have been provided with an advance copy of the new Pandemic book Pandemic: Patient Zero by Amanda Bridgeman, published by Aconyte Books, so here is the honest review I promised in exchange for the book.

So here is an important disclaimer which is always important to put out there first. I have a casual work contact with Asmodee to demonstrate board games for them in stores and at conventions. Asmodee being the parent company of Aconyte the publisher.

I am going to try my best to not let this cloud my judgement in this review, but I accept that subconsciously it might.

What Is Pandemic

Pandemic is a cooperative board game designed by Matt Leacock, in the game you work together to discover the cure for several diseases rampaging though the world.

Players take on various roles, such as medic, dispatcher, scientist, quarantine expert etc and though the combined efforts, collect enough data and information to find the cures to save the world.

The game is incredibly successful and has three expansions for itself as well as numerous spin off games and variations. As well as the extremely popular Legacy versions of the game.

My personal current favourite is Pandemic: Hot Zone North America.

The Story

The story starts with a nun falling ill in Peru, and quickly the disease she later dies from starts popping up in Brazil and Columbia too.

It’s a new disease to which humanity has no immunity and it rapidly kills those it infects.

The Global Health Agency dispatches a team from its base in Lyon to discover the cause of this disease and hopefully find a cure.

We have a cast who roughly represent many of the possible roles within the Pandemic board game, and a nice mixture of nationalities and genders. There is also an interesting little bit of minor subplot about one of the field team finding it more difficult to traverse the world due to her being from Nigeria rather than the US, UK or Australia.

The story takes us on a hunt for the source of the disease, from Lima, into the jungle and down the Amazon river and then deep into a drug lords village as the team desperately search for patient zero and understand how this disease came into existence.

Conclusion

Look I need to be straight up here, I got Covid early on in the pandemic, it took a third of my lungs from me and has ruined my lungs to the point where I can’t climb stairs without an inhaler.

This book was extremely difficult to read because it quite often referred to Covid in the past tense, when Covid is still very much with us and killing people.

The book itself is well written, it’s a by the numbers virus outbreak kind of story, nowt ground breaking but well done and brilliantly written with relatable characters.

But it feels far too soon for a book to talk about Covid as being in the past, had I known this book would have done this, I would never have read it.

So it comes down to this, if you can handle many references to Covid and a new respiratory disease, then it’s a good book to read, but if like me you basically have PTSD when it comes to Covid, I would strongly advise giving this book a miss for now.

Just for now though, because it is a good book, but frankly it needs a trigger warning, I donMt know why I pushed myself to keep reading, I really shouldn’t have.

I don’t know how to score this book so I am going to ignore my instincts which are to refuse to score it because of how much it triggered my PTSD and made my chest feel incredibly tight.

It’s a well written book with a good story so I will give it a 4 out of 5 stars, but as I said, it desperately needs a proper trigger warning.

The book is published as an ebook on 7th September and will hit bookstores on the 11th November.

Target Kree

By

On 4th August 2021

In Book Reviews, Reviews

I have been provided with an advance copy of the new Marvel Crisis Protocol book Target Kree by Stuart Moore, published by Aconyte Books, so here is the honest review I promised in exchange for the book.

So here is an important disclaimer which is always important to put out there first. I have a casual work contact with Asmodee to demonstrate board games for them in stores and at conventions. Asmodee being the parent company of Aconyte the publisher.

I am going to try my best to not let this cloud my judgement in this review, but I accept that subconsciously it might.

What is Marvel

Look at this point I would bore you with a bit of background to the game/universe, but lets not, you all know the Marvel Universe, if you don’t have you been living under a rock!

Marvel Crisis Protocol is a tabletop skirmish miniatures game from Atomic Mass Games based on the Marvel comic characters, with its starter set conations five of the Avengers (Captain America, Captain Marvel, Iron Man, Spider-Man and Black Widow) and five of the Kabel (Barron Zemo, Red Skull, Crossbones, Doctor Octopus and Ultron).

I own the core set and its well worth investing into, if you fancy it you can purchase it from my Element Games affiliate link!

The Story

The Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy team up in a search for a planet killer amongst a group of Kree refugees on earth working for Tony Stark.

The story starts with the Guardians of the Galaxy trying to save which is in the middle of being destroyed, but they sadly fail and lose a beloved member in the process.

The story then picks up on earth six months later as the Guardians hunt down the planet killer and Tony Stark (Iron Man) faces the wrath of Jennifer Walters (She Hulk) and Kamala Khan (Ms Marvel) over the conditions of the refugees from the planet, but of course the Guardians crash the party and chaos ensues.

You know what there isn’t much to talk about in regards to the plot, its very simply and as it develops you end up with a huge number of Marvel characters making an appearance, most included in Crisis Protocol, but at least two who are not.

Conclusion

This is a hard book to review, on the one hand, it’s filled with lots of fun and some cool interesting fight sequences.

But there is way too much fighting and not enough stories, especially when you are cramming so many characters into the book.

At points it’s felt like they were just throwing in extra characters for the sake of it, I mean there is a scene with Black Panther that goes nowhere and serves no purpose other than to have Black Panther in the book.

The characters all want the same thing but they are too busy fighting each other to figure that out, and that’s not exactly in keeping with the characters.

The book starts off great, the first part is fantastic, but honestly, I think this would have been better as a comic rather than a prose book.

But then again it is promoting a skirmish combat game.

It’s a 3 1/2 stars from me, and had it just had a bit more dialogue and story in it, it could have really been a lot better. That’s not to say its bad, its actually quite fun, but it wasn’t quite what I was hoping it would be.

But if all you want is literally a fun beat-em-up story, give this a go as it is rather entertaining.

The eBook is released this Friday the 6th July and the paperback hits the shelves on the 2nd September.

UK Games Expo 2021

By

On 3rd August 2021

In Blog

So I went to the UK Games Expo this past weekend, which was amazing.

I worked with the Asmodee demo team, and I was responsible for demoing Carcassonne, which was loads of fun.

It was great to get back to a con again after 18 months without them.

It was much smaller than normal and a little more subdued, but that’s kind of understandable in the circumstances.

So yeah happy as hell and cannot wait for the 2022 event.

Oh and of course we did get a little haul!

What I Am Modelling

A slow week due to going away for the UK Games Expo.

Most of the early week was spent building up my next twenty planned projects, so they are all ready to rock and roll next week.

I did do some painting and went for some easy wins, starting with the Ur-Ghuls for Blackstone Fortress.

Followed by some Necron Lychguard.

And finally some Bladegheist Revenants for the Nighthaunt.

So what is coming up next in my painting queue?

  1. Zone Mortalis Terrain
  2. Stormcast Eternals Judicators with Boltstorm Crossbows x 10
  3. Blackstone Fortress Beastmen x 6
  4. Sylas Beastbane, Leena Stormspire, Astreia Solbright & Berek the Indomitable
  5. Necron Night Scythe
  6. Death Korps of Krieg Infantry Squad x 10
  7. Stormcast Eternals Vindictors x 10
  8. Blood Ravens Primaris Chaplain on Bike
  9. Kurdoss Valentian
  10. Legio Custodes Pallas Grav-Attack x 2

What I Am Reading

Just finished Target Kree by Stuart Moore and a review will be forthcoming this week.

Next up is Pandemic: Patient Zero by Amanda Bridgeman

What Video Games Am I Playing

I started my playthrough of Bioshock Infinite which is so far a lot of fun, you can see the first video below. Thus far its very very different to the games set in Rapture!

I also had a go on Flight Simulator on the Xbox just for shits and giggles, and its a lot of fun.

Just to update you on the current playthrough plan

  1. Bioshock Infinite (Nintendo Switch) – In Progress
  2. Assassins Creed (Xbox 360)
  3. Borderlands (Nintendo Switch)
  4. Assassins Creed The Ezio Collection (Xbox One)
  5. Horizon Dawn Zero (PC)

What Tabletop Games Am I Playing

None for myself, but I played an absolute ton of Carcassonne to demo it this weekend, including some tournament practice for some fellas!

What Am I Creating

Not got anything done this week 🙁

What Am I Backing

Still backing AB Con, only for a token amount, but every little helps I guess, wish I could put more in.

The Assassins Creed Orlog game funded successfully, I plan to add the other dice options to the pledge in the pledge manager.

What I Am Cooking

Not a sausage!

Back At It

By

On 26th July 2021

In Blog

Ok so this week I have really been working at getting back on tack and it’s mostly working.

We may have discovered a reason why I am just so ugh at the minute, a blood test revealed that my iron is in the toilet.

This means I am starting an intensive three month course of iron supplements and have to give a bunch of blood samples and other stuff to try and figure out the issue.

Douggie is as ever being a charmer and I love the photo of him I have used for this post, he is just so bloody cute!

More PC Stuff

Megan’s PC is mostly complete now, we put it in a new case, a Corsair 220T RGB Airflow, in white, and it looks really nice.

The only other thing we wish to do to it, is add a Corsair H60i RGB Pro XT to cool her CPU and some sort of heat sink for her SSD.

Possibly add a Corsair Commander Pro as well to manage all the fans.

She is going to get a capture card in the near future, I am adding an Elgato HD60 Pro to my setup, arrives tomorrow, and in time it’s going to take over console capture from my 4K60 Pro so a CamLink Pro can take the place of that.

The 4K60 Pro will then find it’s way into Megan’s rig and that will be hers basically complete.

I have also grabbed her a dock and charger for the Nintendo Switch so she can use it on the monitor at her desk.

So now my attention turns to building a NAS, the basis for its first iteration will be a Dell Optiplex 760, an ancient computer, but one which will do the job initially until a system that is tailored to the job better can be procured.

I have already obtained a cheap SATA 128GB SSD to run as it’s boot drive for FreeNAS and will be adding a couple of large HDDs (hopefully a round 6TB each) to run in RAID as they initial storage solution.

What I Am Modelling

I started off with some Dominion of Sigmar statues from Mortal Realms, both with a slightly different finish to indicate that they were added to the city of Esasa.

I also painted up some Grimghast Reapers for the Nighthaunt along with the 500th Store anniversary model, Garkor the Bladeghast Revenant.

I then I started work on some Crypt Flayers for my Flesh-Eater Courts.

I then had a building spree as I need to get a bunch of stuff built before I could move on.

I have my next 20 projects built apart from a squad of Krieg Infantry and some Crypt Ghouls.

I also had another crack at 3D Printing which went so so, but I have had some excellent advice on how to make it better.

So what’s coming up next for me then?

  1. Zone Mortalis Terrain
  2. Niki’s Death Korps of Krieg
  3. Stormcast Eternals Judicators with Boltstorm Crossbows x 10
  4. Necron Night Scythe
  5. Blackstone Fortress Beastmen x 6
  6. Sylas Beastbane, Leena Stormspire, Astreia Solbright & Berek the Indomitable
  7. Necron Lychguard with Warscythes x 5
  8. Death Korps of Krieg Infantry Squad x 10
  9. Stormcast Eternals Vindictors x 10
  10. Legio Custodes Pallas Grav-Attack x 2

What I Am Reading

I am now about halfway through Target Kree, which is pretty good thus far if a bit fighty.

I also finished the audiobook of Mortis which was very good as the prose version was.

What Video Games Am I Playing

I decided to split the What Am I Playing section up, to try and force me to play more tabletop games and get more focused on my video games.

So I am going to start streaming games again, The Witcher is going to feature a little bit but I have decided to work through a list, which you can see below.

  1. Bioshock Infinite
  2. Assassins Creed
  3. Borderlands
  4. Assassins Creed 2
  5. Horizon Zero Dawn

So I will start streaming Bioshock Infinite as of Tuesday.

What Tabletop Games Am I Playing

Sadly none 🙁

What Am I Creating

The stream upgrade video is almost done and will be published this week!

What Am I Backing

I completed the backer kit for Isle of Cats.

And I am backing AB Con, because it’s something I want to see grow and become successful.

Also backing the Assassins Creed Orlog game, because it looks really cool!

What I Am Cooking

I wash supposed to help Megan cook dirty rice, however we had to do an emergency application to renew her Blue Badge so I did that whilst she cooked.

Resolutions Update July 2021

By

On 24th July 2021

In Uncategorised

This month has been slow going, a mixture of depression and the heat has really slowed my painting to a crawl.

I am currently at 835 models painted for the year.

Paint 2000 Points of Necrons for Warhammer 40,000 – 78.75%

This number has actually gone down thanks to points changes in Chapter Approved, so I may be revisiting this to work out a new list.

But sadly no work done on models for the list this month.

But I was able to paint a unit of Lychguard armed with Warscythes.

Paint 2000 Points of Flesh-Eater Courts for Warhammer Age of Sigmar – 46.5% Complete

The new editor of Age of Sigmar means a new Generals Handbook and new points, so here is my revised army list.

Core Battalion: Warlord

+ Leader +

Abhorrant Archregent: Warlord - 1-2 Commanders

Abhorrant Ghoul King on Royal Terrorgheist: Warlord - 1-2 Commanders

Crypt Haunter Courtier: Warlord - 2-4 Sub-Commanders

Crypt Infernal Courtier: Warlord - 2-4 Sub-Commanders

+ Battleline +

Crypt Ghouls: 20 Crypt Ghouls, Reinforced, Warlord - 1-2 Troops

Crypt Ghouls: 20 Crypt Ghouls, Reinforced, Warlord - 1-2 Troops

Crypt Ghouls: 20 Crypt Ghouls, Reinforced

+ Other +

Crypt Flayers: 3 Crypt Flayers

Crypt Flayers: 3 Crypt Flayers

Crypt Horrors: 3 Crypt Horrors

This month I got the first unit of Crypt Flayers painted.

Bring My Mechanicum to 3000 Points for Horus Heresy, Including The Warhound Titan – 37.99% Complete

No progress on this resolution this month.

Paint Blackstone Fortress And It’s Expansions – 15% Complete

This month I painted the Ur-Ghuls!

So what’s coming up for me next?

  1. Zone Mortalis Terrain
  2. Stormcast Eternals Judicators with Boltstorm Crossbows x 10
  3. Necron Night Scythe
  4. Blackstone Fortress Beastmen x 6
  5. Sylas Beastbane, Leena Stormspire, Asteria Solbright & Berek the Indomitable
  6. Death Korps of Krieg Infantry Squad x 10
  7. Stormcast Eternals Vindictors x 10
  8. Blood Ravens Primaris Chaplain on a Bike
  9. Kurdoss Valentian
  10. Legio Custodes Pallas Grav-Attack x 2

A Few Gloomy Weeks

By

On 21st July 2021

In Blog

The past few weeks have been very poor for me mood wise, the temperature, and generally other life anxieties have got me very glum.

Not the mention the two times the Covid App has pinged me and made me self-isolate.

When thinking about it, I haven’t been right since the chair broke, I think that really knocked my confidence, the way Lindsay and another friend said it was my own fault it happened. Made me feel like an idiot and a fat mess, and I haven’t been really able to feel very happy since then.

I am gonna try and sort myself out though, and I am actually gonna buy a decent chair at some point in the future.

Dominion

Finally got Dominion, I know it’s had a mixed response, but I have been looking forward to this box so much!

I picked it up at a Midnight launch along with a copy of the Generals Handbook, and the three new paints!

I have gotten the Stormcast side all built and plan to get them painted as soon as possible.

I am not sure what I will do with the Greenskin side, I already have some Ironjawz from Mortal Realms, so I am thinking a Big Waaagh!!! army with elements from all three major tribes of Orruks.

The Kruleboyz don’t really do it for me that much, but aspects of them are quite cool.

3D Printer

This month I acquired a 3D Printer, a Monoprice MP Mini SLA, a resin printer, when I was actually banned from buying one!

Anyway it’s a lovely little machine and only cost me £50, but it a great little starter machine.

I got it set up where the Inkjet printer used to go in the studio, alongside a curing chamber.

I did print some skeletons but they didn’t come out all that well, but I haven’t had the confidence to try again, I might do this week.

Streaming Setup

Thanks to sponsors, I have made some major upgrades to my streamings setup, so much of setup has been replaced, upgraded or added to its unreal.

Got a video about that coming hopefully Friday!

What I Am Modelling

Painted a Vulturax for my 30k Mechanicum army.

Came together really quickly and a part of me is kinda wondering if it needs something more.

After that I painted myself a Squad of Krieg Infantry for myself.

And then I painted the big Ork himself, Makari and his pal Gazkhull Thraka.

I then worked on some Evocators and a Lord-Arcanum on Celestial Dracolines.

I then began to work on some Dreadnoughts for my Custodes. Starting with a Venerable Contemptor.

Followed by a Telemon, which is fully magnetised, along with one of each gun and two Caestus close combat weapons.

And I finished up with the Contemptor-Aquilius.

I am gonna paint the Grimghast Reapers x 10 & Garkorr next for an easy win.

  1. Zone Mortalis Terrain
  2. Niki’s Death Korps of Krieg
  3. Flesh-Eater Court Crypt-Flayers x 3
  4. Stormcast Eternals Judicators with Boltstorm Crossbows x 10
  5. Necron Canoptek Wraiths x 6
  6. Nighthaunt Grimghast Reapers x 10 & Garkorr
  7. Blackstone Fortress Beastmen x 6
  8. Sylas Beastbane, Leena Stormspire & Berek the Indomitable
  9. Necron Lychguard with Warscythes x 5
  10. Death Korps of Krieg Infantry Squad x 10

What I Am Reading

Very slow, the whole depression feeling down thing has gotten me struggling to read, so I have only read a little bit of Target Kree by Stuart Moore.

And I have gotten most of the way through the audiobook of Mortis and should finish that in the next few days.

What I Am Playing

No tabletop games, just some video games, which has mostly been Forza Horizon 4.

I have managed to buy Bamburgh Castle and have now reached level 200.

What I Am Creating

I have published a new episode of Edge of Empire, and have plans for some new episodes of The Hobby Studio.

And I published a video of an unboxing and review of an adaptor to allow you to use GameCube and Wii/Wii U Classic controllers with PC and Switch.

What I Am Backing

I backed the GURPS 2021 PDF Challenge, which successfully funded.

And I am now in the pledge manager for The Isle of Cats: Don’t Forget the Kittens, and have selected what I want.

I am giving serious thoughts to backing Orlog, the Assassins Creed dice game.

What I Am Cooking

I tried to cook something tonight, but the anxiety over getting it wrong ended with me throwing up, and we ordered in a pizza instead.

The Devourer Below

By

On 4th July 2021

In Book Reviews

I have been provided with an advance copy of the new Arkham Horror book The Devourer Below edited by Charlotte Llewelyn-Wells, published by Aconyte Books, so here is the honest review I promised in exchange for the book.

Stories in this collection are written by Evan Dicken, Georgina Kamsika, Thomas Parrott, Josh Reynolds, David Annadale, Davide Mana & Cath Lauria.

So here is an important disclaimer which is always important to put out there first. I have a casual work contact with Asmodee to demonstrate board games for them in stores and at conventions. Asmodee being the parent company of Aconyte the publisher.

Also I am friends with a couple of the authors on social media, not that we are close friends, for them its probably about connecting with fans rather than wanting to be my pal!

I am going to try my best to not let that cloud my judgement in this review, but I accept that subconsciously it might.

What is Arkham Horror

Anyway that put to one side, let’s look at this book, by first looking at the game Arkham Horror which is a cooperative game, originally designed by Richard Launius, and is now in its third edition which was released in 2019.

It’s published by Fantasy Flight Games, a subsidiary of Asmodee, and is set in 1926 in the town of Arkham, Massachusetts. Each player takes on the role of an investigator, who are working to stop the Ancient Ones, eldritch horrors which lurk in the void beyond space and time.

It’s a 1-6 player game and you work together to gather clues and defeat the evil of the Ancient Ones and save the world.

As I said I haven’t actually played Arkham Horror but I do own its spin off Elder Sign the cooperative dice game.

The Story

Like the rest of the Arkham Horror novels, its set in the 1920s, and this collection of short stories all feature characters from the upcoming new revised edition of the Arkham Horror Card Game Core Set.

So lets look at each story one by one and I will give you some brief thoughts on them.

Running the Night Whiskey – Evan Dicken

This story is about Leo, a war veteran who runs into an old comrade in arms and gets himself involved with a bootlegging run with very sinister consequences.

This story was fantastic to open the book as it really did have a loveable protagonist who whilst a bit naughty, but very loveable.

The story has hints of horror that finally culminate in an ending which is quite eldritch, and sets up the rest of what’s to come very nicely.

Shadows Dawning – Georgina Kamsika

Lita Chandler, a recent widower whose husband was murdered by cultists, is desperately trying to get revenge.

The story wasn’t big on horror as the others, but was interesting to read as Lita seemed to get more and more desperate as the story went on, there was a real sense that she had lost all control of herself in her desire for vengence.

You really do find yourself rooting for her.

The Hounds Below – Josh Reynolds

This is in my opinion the strongest story in the collection as a journalist, Holsten manages to convince the doctors at Arkham Asylum to let him interview Mr Drew, a war veteran with a particularly gruesome compulsion.

This story is very sinister and chilling as we slowly hear the backstory of Mr Drew and his decent into depravity and madness. The ending is very intense and an extremely horrific twist, a real page turner.

Labyrinth – Thomas Parrott

This is part one of a two parter and is the most unique of the stories, being the telling of a story from Greek Antiquity in a Lovecraftian way.

Joe Diamond is trying to save the life of an innocent girl and his research leads him to find a connection to the myths of the Minotaur from Greek myths, and its very horror filled.

The time jump was a bit weird, and this finish left me a little confused, but the second part resolved that issue, but it would have been nice if it was clear that this was a two part story as that wasn’t clear to me.

Its a really solid story and shows that the world of the Cthulhu mythos isn’t confined to a small part of New England.

All my Friends are Monsters – Davide Mana

This is one of my favourite stories as it sees the morgue worker, Ruth Turner find herself blackmailed into helping sinister and dark forces when her other life of cross-dressing, speakeasy visits and a queer relationship is discovered.

This is a tragic tale of how Ruth slowly finds herself getting involved deeper and deeper with the cult. Its a deeply engaging tale and you find yourself rooting for her and Charlie.

The plot is in my opinion the most engaging in the book and it got me hooked more so than the others.

The Darkling Woods – Cath Lauria

This is an okay story, but I found it less engaging than the others simply because it felt so obvious in its nature.

The characters didn’t speak to me and the plot felt rather forced.

But it was really well written and cleverly crafted story, I just couldn’t connect with it, and I felt it lacked the same horror as the other stories, but that was just me and I am sure others will feel differently.

Professor Warren’s Investiture – David Annandale

This story shows how easy it is to succumb to darkness and evil, as they say the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

In this story Professor Warren has been working on a book about the occult for the past two decades, mocked by his colleagues at Miskatonic University, when a mysterious woman approaches him at the library and offers him all the occult secrets he ever desired.

Professor Warren feelings of anger and humiliation come through quite well and this story really does show how he was susceptible to the approach of the cultists.

Its a very interesting story in the way it plays with your emotions, you sympathise with Professor Warren, but at the same time are horrified by his choices.

Sins in the Blood – Thomas Parrott

The conclusion to Labyrinth and sees Joe Diamond team up with a waitress called Agness to save the life of Nadia.

I enjoyed this one, the pacing was just right and it built upon very solid foundations from the first part with the characters involved in a race against time and cultists to prevent Nadias life being taken by a horror of the old times.

My only negative comment about this story is that Joe kind of got overshadowed by Agness, despite his being the hero of sorts, perhaps had Agness been involved in the first story that would have felt better. But they had to do a lot to shoehorn her and her story into the limited time she featured.

Conclusion

This was a very enjoyable and creepy book, a lot of emotions were played with and some fantastic characters to root for, or be horrified by.

There were of course stories I enjoyed more than others, but in general they complimented each other very well and built a general idea about the particular cult who form the antagonists in this collection.

The length of each story was just right and allowed me to dip in and out over a couple of days, making it a very very easy to read book.

Its a good primer for the general idea of Lovecraftian horror and sets up the card game very well, potentioally giving you new insight to the characters you will play with.

The editing I would add is extremely good, other than the slight confusion about the two partner, nothing feels off, and the stories flow very nicely from one to another.

A good balanced anthology that leaves you wanting more.

5 out of 5 Stars

The eBook is out on the 6th July and the paperback on September 2nd.

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