Improving the Sound

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On 10th April 2017

In Blog

Since me and Graham started the podcast the issue that has been plaguing us is sound quality so this week I have been determined to tackle that.

Up until now I have been recording the headphones output of my mixer, but the results have been pretty poor, so I spent much of Saturday in the studio working with the mixer and various YouTube tutorials to try and figure out the best way to sort it out.

I have been unable to simply record the master mix off the mixer as it only picks up my voice, despite me gearing Graham through the headphones, and the volume from Skype has been coming in very hot. 

The first solution offered was to set my microphone to be listened to in the properties, and whilst this worked, it left me hearing an echo, which just really put me off, so I abandoned that rather quickly, as it also still had volume issues, quietening me down and pushing the Skype input up.

So I turned to recording software for Skype, but that was giving me a very weird echo on the incoming call, so that didn’t work.

Anyway I eventually discovered that the easiest way to make this work, was to do all the work on the mixer but having a separate machine just for the Skype calls, meaning everything is integrated into the master mix. To do this I need to create a mix minus, which has meant I needed more cables! So I ordered them and I hope they arrive tomorrow, so far Amazon Prime hasn’t let me down and here is hoping it won’t start now.

Thankfully Lindsay had an old PC that we had been playing around with Ubuntu on, but this wasn’t working out, so I was able to take that and move it into the studio, I then reinstalled Windows 7 Starter on it, which has got it running much better. Now that has Skype running on it, I just need to cables to connecting it to the mixer and get it working.

Basically what’s going to happen is that I plug a cable from the headphone jack into a microphone input of the mixer to feed the Skype call into the mixer properly, I then put everything in the mixer except that microphone feed, into an aux channel which then feeds back into the microphone socket of the Skype machine, so that mix has everything “minus” the output of Skype so it doesn’t create feedback on the call.

It all sounds quite complicated but hopefully by this time tomorrow I should know if this is going to work or not and if it does then we will have a much better show going forward.

What I am Modelling

My Triumvirate of the Primarch arrived and I couldn’t resist opening it up and building the models. I recently got rid of the old Cypher model in anticipation of getting this one, and I currently don’t have any Grey Knights, but I plan to put together a small one as a little allied force.

I also built up my Troll and Ogre for Blood Bowl, the Troll was a really detailed build with lots of small parts but when its come together it’s really nice, a lot less horrid than the GW photos made it appear to be

On the painting side, I started and finished up Griff Oberwald and the Ogre for my Bloodbowl team and finished up a Word Bearers Contemptor Mortis Dreadnought I started painting the other week.

What I am Reading

I listened to the Binary Succession this week, and I have to say it blew me away. It was a really good book with an interesting and strong female lead, it wasn’t an action book, but that’s what I liked about it, it was full of intrigue and infighting and gave a great insight into the founding of the Adeptus Mechanicus, and even introduced Electropriests to 30k.

I will be reviewing the book in a bit more detail on the next episode of Edge of Empire so listen out for that.

What I am Playing

On Tuesday at the Raiders I played a game against John and Stuart, they teamed up with 1000pts each to take on my 2000pt list for Betrayal at the Bunker. 

Stuart brought along good old Perturabo, and a squad of Tyrant Siege Terminators and a Tactical Squad, and John had some Terminators, couple of Tactical Squads a Mor Deythan squad and interestingly a Librarian. I had a Siege Breaker, Primus Medicae, two Tactical Squads in Rhinos, Terminator Squad in a Spartan, three Medusas and three Quad Mortar Rapiers with Phosphex Cannister Shots.

We played War of Lies with Ambush and guess who got to defend, that’s right I did! So I put my Spartan, Medusas and Rapiers in a circular formation and left my Tactical Squads with their Rhinos in reserve. I started off by killing three Tyrant Siege Terminators with my Medusas and taking a couple of wounds off Perturabo whilst using my Phosphex shots from the Rapiers to bog down Johns Terminator squad, which also killed two of them.

Perturabos orbital bombardment then destroyed two of my Medusas and shook the other one, so I sent my Spartan round to try and do some damage to him, it did take off another two wounds, but he regained one with his ITWND roll. He then tried to charge the Spartan but managed to fail to r a huge it, so my Terminators, Siege Breaker and Primus Medicae got out and charged him instead after shooting him which took off another wound with the Siege Breakers Combi-Volkite.

The resultant combat saw me lose a Terminator and the squad be blinded but at the same initiative step I was able to take off Perturabos last two wounds and kill him. Then my Terminators found themselves subject to Fury of the Legion from two different Tactical squads, losing me all but one of the squad, so he was left there with the two centurions.

Meanwhile on the other side of the battle, my Rapiers continued to bombard the Terminator squad, with no more deaths, but it continued to keep them stuck in dangerous terrain and from actually doing anything major in the game. They did really well and them being T7 was really their saving grace and John threw everything at them, by the games end all he had done was remove four of the crew and one Rapier.

I ended up winning the game 5-4, we each ended up with two objectives and both rolled a 2 and a 5, but I got Slay the Warlord from killing Perturabo.

What I am Backing

The second printing of Gloomhaven hit Kickstarter and I couldn’t help myself, so I will make myself poor for another month.

This innovative euro style game just appeals to me on so many levels, it’s a cooperative game, so Megan will want to play it and the choose your own adventure style game really draws me in. 

It’s got excellent reviews from people who have the first printing and this one is meant to address the issues that one had, and also there is a book of solo adventures.

I will also most certainly be getting the removable sticker set as well to extend its lifespan.

What I am Spending

The past few weeks has seen me do quite a bit of wheeler dealing, mostly sending stuff I am not going to use out the door, but on the plus side it has brought a few things in the door as well.

I ended up with two built, but unpainted Medusas, which will join my Word Bearers, and enough money that I have been able to place another Forgeworld order, netting me a few things for my eventual Space Wolves for Heresy, a Xiphon for my Ultramarines, a pair of Moritats one each for my Ultramarines and Word Bearers and most excitingly a Legion Glaive!

The Glaive is probably going to my Ultramarines, they already have a Fellblade, but I was thinking that my Word Bearers would get a Typhon as their shooty superheavy as they are already getting the Mastodon.

I also paid for a ticket to the Dropfleet Commander Summer Invasion at the UK Games Expo on the Saturday. That should be interesting as I have only been able to play one game of it up until now and this will be throwing me in at the deep end really, now to prepare my 1250pt list! 

And in an unexpected move I bought a shock mount for my shotgun microphone with a hot shoe adapter so that I can try and film stuff in a better way, so will try and get some test footage done next week.

A Few Events I Looking Forward To

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On 3rd April 2017

In Blog

It’s only been a few days since my last blog entry but I am getting back on schedule so here is another one!

Graham finally put together the Durham Raiders Heresy event for the 14th May, so I am going to be taking along my Word Bearers to that, I even have Scottish Graham coming down and staying overnight so he can play in it.

Also looking forward to the Battle Bunker tournament on the 29th, figure I am going to take along an Ultramarines phosphex artillery list to that, well it is a tournament!

And other than that I am looking forward to Eastercon, I have convinced the girls to drop into Warhammer World for Breakfast on the the way down, I want to pop into Forgeworld and grab a Space Wolves transfer sheet and Varag-Ghoul-Chewer while I am there.

What I am Modelling

Megan got my bug on Thursday morning, so I stayed in the studio all day to be near her for when she inevitably needed a hug.

So Lindsay gave me a hand finishing up the tidying there to make it a bit more accessible as my stuff was all over the place.

But I got on a roll in the afternoon with some building and built a Deredeo Dreadnought with Hellfire Plasma Cannonade, a Deimos Pattern Rhino and a Titan Techpriest which had been sitting unbuilt on my desk for the past two years.

I also started work on painting up a Legion MKIV Recon Squad with sniper rifles for my Ultramarines, I built them a while ago and never got round to painting them, so I am putting that right now, gonna try and get them finished up for beginning of next week. I have another squad of them to do after these, but this time armed with shotguns. I got them finished off on Friday night and I am happy with them, although I am not as happy as I could be with the camoline cloaks.

On Saturday night I got an itch to build some Terminators, because they are one of the things I plan to deliver with the Mastodon. I have 15 Tartaros Terminators and figured I would build a squad of them, well I ended up building all 15 of them, plus the Praetor Tribune and the Praetor from Betrayal at Calth and the Primus Medicae! And then I went away and wrote a Pride of the Legion list with all of them in it, well all but the Praetor Tribune, I still have to squeeze a Chaplain in the list!

I have also started to do a bit more work on my Caestus Assault Ram, although I am now no longer sure how I will be using it, my initial plan was to give it to a squad of Breachers, but now I have the second Land Raider Armoured Proteus for them, so it’s use is currently questionable. 

What I am Reading

I resumed reading Predator, Prey and I am enjoying it, I am only about a quarter of the way through it, but it’s interesting seeing how the Ork invasion is impacting other Imperial systems.

I have been listening to Angel Exterminatus again and it’s interesting because I didn’t really pick up on the meeting between Perturabo and the Emperor when I first listened to/read the book, and it’s interesting to see how noble he was when the Crusade began, compared to where he is at this point in the series. It’s funny how you pick up on different things every time you read or listen to a book.

I finished it up tonight and will be moving onto the new Magnus book next, but first a couple of Podcast episodes stand between me and it.

What I am Playing

Today me and Lindsay played a game of Firefly that took us 4 1/2 hours, which was great. We played with Blue Sun, Kalidasa and Burning Atmo using a standard set up and the “Respectable” Persons of Business story, all of which was on the Whole Damn Verse game mat.

I also played with one of the two new ships for the first time, specifically the Jetwash. It was a very satisfying game and really scratched my urge to play a nice long involved game, I could have gone on for a bit longer, but Megan was hungry and wanted to order tea, so I had the $12,000 needed to end the game, so I called last turn and ended up winning with $9900 to Lindsays $8900.

Perhaps we will do that again sometime soon, but introduce Pirates and Bounty Hunters as well.

What I am Backing

This week I have thrown a couple of quid into Toucan Play that Game Season 2. It’s a YouTube channel about board games with a twist in that it focuses on games that can be played with only two players.

Michael is a decent guy and he has made some pretty cool videos about the board game hobby, so its a good thing to back this project, hopefully his second season will be as enjoyable as the first.

I am still also baking Rising Sun which ends very soon, we now have all 7 Kami and are now working towards the Earth Dragon, here is hoping we get that and that they next do a Wind Dragon which we will hopefully get as well.

And of course not forgetting Cognition Issue #2 which has hit all of its Stretch goals.

What I am Spending

I finally cracked, I really, really wanted him and I have gone and bought him, by him I mean my Spiritual Liege, Roboute Gulliman and his Triumvirate.

Not sure what I will do with the other two guys though, suppose I could see if Harry wants the Grey Knights dude, and I guess I could use Cypher.

Also with that I also ordered a Troll for my Blood Bowl Orcs, so that gives me the three initial teams all with their big boy model as well.

Mostly Ill!

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On 29th March 2017

In Blog

It’s been a really rough week and a bit, a lot of it is fallout from the other week, but I am just trying to put that behind me and move one with things. But the kicker was that at the end of last week, I managed to pick up a little bug which kept me in bed for quite a few days, I managed to miss the whole weekend, cancel two driving lessons and miss a game of 40k on Tuesday, before I have finally managed to get better, which just so happened to be right in time for the dentist.

So not a lot has been going on, I did mange to watch series 3 of Brooklyn 99, it that’s about it!

What I am Modelling

Before I fell ill, I got the Stormcast Eternals Retributors from the Storm of Sigmar set finished this week, and that completes the set, which is cool. Now to actually do what I intended to do with it and get Lindsay to try the game out so I can convince her to play with me.

I am also working on a Word Bearers Contemptor Morris armed with two Kheres Assault Cannons, and a Quad Mortar Rapier. And I built the Deredeo Dreadnought with Arachnus Heavy Lascannon Battery and Aiolos Missile Launcher and I don’t really think I got the pose right, but overall I am pretty happy with it. Hoping that when I add it to my Ultramarines it will give me a chance to go toe to toe with Christians Mechanicum Cybernetica.

I did manage to start and finish a Rapier Quad Mortar today, it was my first day of recovery so I took it easy and spent time in the studio. This particular set required quite a lot of work to build it up a couple of months ago, I got it with my first Forge World order for my Ultramarines, which included two of these preordered and this one came really badly miscast. The crews bodies were just about the only usable pieces on the whole thing.

I sent in photos of the damaged parts to Forgeworld and they replaced the whole kit which was great, but I have ended up building this one up, so I can have a third Quad Mortar option for when I really want to rain down the pain. I needed to do a lot of rebuilding with green stuff and some alterations under hot water, but eventually it came together and bar the obvious issues with the tracks and barrels that I couldn’t fix, you would be hard pressed to tell how bad it was when I got it, although the plastic MKIV parts used on the crew, particularly the shoulder pads would give it away as well. The original back packs were completely unrecoverable, but I managed to get these ones from a guy on eBay which was cool.

What I am Reading

Not a lot, the headaches kept me from concentrating too much, but I have read and digested most of White Dwarf, and that counts as reading right???

What I am Playing

I have played noting thanks to being ill, just a lot of Ticket to Ride Germany on the iPad.

What I am Backing

Nowt new this week, still backing Rising Sun and Cognition Issue #2.

Rising Sun has added an expansion that is $50, which I have gone in for because it has some KS exclusive extras so the two clans it comes with will match up to those in the base game KS version.

We have also started with the development of an expansion called the Kami Unleashed for which we have so far funded 5 out of the 7 Kami and hopefully we will have funded all of them by the end of the campaign.

The value of the box keeps going up and up and the campaign is now past $3 million.

And Cognition has got all of its stretch goals as well which is cool.

What I am Spending

I went to the Hilltop for dinner last Tuesday night and got a burger for my tea, and I bought some super glue and a pot of paint, that’s about all I have spent this past week and a bit.

I did manage to swap some of the extra Dropfleet Commander stuff I had got for a sealed copy of Warhammer Quest Shadows Over Hammerhal which is nice, but I already have the Silver Tower still waiting to be built and painted!

Slow with a Touch of Upset

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On 18th March 2017

In Blog

It’s been a slow week, although we started it nicely with a trip to Airecon in Harrogate where we played some games.

The rest of the week has been a bit weird, Lindsay has been off work unwell, so me and Megan have been doing our best to look after her, and thankfully she is getting a bit better.

I think the most we have achieved is that we have done some moving around and changing of furniture in the games room, replacing a double bookcase with two singles so we could split them up and put the sofa against the wall. It means we have acquired a little extra space for games which is nice.

The back half of the week has been dominated by some drama, a chap in the local war gaming community has fallen out with me, which is a bit upsetting. Honestly I have noting bad to say about the guy, apart from his habit of being quite loud, but he is a great guy and has done wonders for the local community. But what’s done the damage is that a “friend” of mine has decided to message him and harass him over it, which is utterly unfair and wrong. It’s driven the chap to want to give up 30k and I am trying to convince him not to, but he wants to sell his army and that’s not cool.

I would hate to think that a guy could be driven from an amazing hobby because if something I, or one of my friends has done. Honestly it’s got me quite upset, and I am angry with my friend for making him feel this way.

I wish I could wave a magic wand and make people feel better and get along, but I can’t, so instead I will just keep trying to restore a bit of calm and sanity to life.

What I am Modelling

Because I have been in a lot of pain this week I have gotten very little done, I have finished most of a squad of Breachers with Power Swords, and they now just need their bases doing, which I am going to do tonight.

I also have built a Aspiring Deathbringer with Goreaxe and Skullhammer that I found hiding on my shelf behind some some Legion Combi-Weapon sets. My plan is to prime all my Sigmar stuff tomorrow along with The first if Megan’s Ironjawz.

What I am Reading

I read The Ember Wolves by Rob Sanders. It an interesting short read, and really gives an insight into how the traitor titan Legions were breaking down in terms of chain of command and how unruly the traitors were becoming.

Also, it describes a really cool scenario showing how in numbers, Warhounds are extremely deadly to bigger titans, kind of a rehash of the cool Titan battle in Betrayer by Aaron Dembski-Bowden, but it’s different enough to keep you I treated in the story. It gave me a lot of inspiration for when they eventually release Titanicus.

I also finished I am Slaughter and have moved on to Predator, Prey. A bit shocked that the Imperial Fists were all wiped out, and I am wondering how that will play out, because we know that they are still around in M41.

What I am Playing

Myself, Lindsay and Megan made the trek down to Airecon last Saturday, which was really cool. Both Lindsay and Megan were suffering from some significant anxiety that day so we didn’t stay for a long time nor play too many games.

We played a game of Samurai Spirit which I have had on my to play list for a while, simply because I enjoy the work of Antoine Bauza and I have a Promo Card for the game.

It was ok, a bit confusing as it was noisy and we struggled to get our heads around the rules on our first read through, and so we lost pretty badly, the villagers all died. 

Megan was not impressed by it, so it’s coming off my to buy wish list and I will pass on the Promo Card to someone else.

We then played in a short session of Pathfinder, which was cool, the girls have been wanting to do a bit more role playing for a while, and I think they enjoyed it. I really should play some Pathfinder, I have enough of the books!

On Thursday I went to Battle Bunker where I played a game of Horus Heresy with my Ultramarines against Christians Mechanicum, and of course he brought his Acastus Knight Porphyrion, which I really struggled against.

The game went quite badly very quickly, my Fellblade was destroyed in one turn of close combat, curse Scoria, and my Sicaran Venator died before it could do any damage to the knight. My reserve rolls didn’t go my way, so my two Storm Eagles full of troops didn’t come on, and I lost the game by end of turn three. It was a brutal game and I need to figure out a way to counter his high toughness, high wound robots, because my current army just can’t seem to manage it.

What I am Backing

This week, my old school pal Ken Reynolds laughed his Kickstarter for Issue 2 of Cognition, his self published series about a steam powered robot with the soul of a man and a demonically possessed mouse.

I have really enjoyed issues #0 and #1 and think these are pretty good examples of how cool small press comics can be, and the fact he is an old friend makes it an auto-buy, of course it helps that the series is well written and beautifully illustrated by Sam Bentley.

As always, go check out the project and if you like what you see, back it.

What I am Spending

This week I actually spent an awful lot! I sold a couple of bits and pieces on eBay and achieved my savings target and was finally able to afford the things from Forgeworld I have been squirrelling away money for these past seven months.

What did I get, well I bought a Mastodon, my most expensive model ever purchased! I did vacillate and seriously consider just getting a Warhound, but I figure I will have more opportunity to use a Mastodon, plus it’s a lot less scary than a Warhound. It’s destined to join my Word Bearers and eventually will transport a unit of ten Val Gorbak, but initially it will carry nine Tartaros Terminators and a Praetor Tribune. In both cases the other 20 Space will be taken up with two Contemtor Dreadnoughts.

Also included in the savings target was Lorgar, because I desperately wanted to paint him, and a Deredeo Dreadnought with an Arachnus Heavy Lascannon Battery and a Aiolos Missile Launcher which is destined for my Ultramarines.

I also had to buy Lindsays birthday present as I next get paid the day after her birthday, she knows what she is getting, a good pair of monitor headphones for her record player, but not the exact make and model.

At Airecon I found myself in love with this amazing Imperial Aquilla dice box and I had to have it, the artists works is really good, and Megan and Lindsay also bought boxes for their polyhedral dice from her. I also bought a copy of Ticket to Ride Map Pack 3: The Heart of Africa from the Travelling Man stall as it was on a nice show price. 

I also put down part of the deposit for next years weekender and had a few other unforeseen expenses, so I am pretty brassic for the rest of the month, and as such won’t be doing much of anything.

Post Weekender Roundup

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On 11th March 2017

In Blog

Well the weekender was amazing, it was phenomenal, although I was looking after everything and didn’t get to play, I saw some amazing games and some brilliant armies.

It started with a huge panic, because when we arrived, there weren’t enough tables and after trying a few methods to live with the number of tables we had, Phil had the brilliant idea of looking in the marquee and we found some more tables there which we fetched over to use. Tristan whom we normally deal with the last few times has set the hall up perfectly for gaming, but he is sick at the moment and the rest of the staff didn’t know where the tables were. So we sorted out the tables but Phil had forgot the all important event packs so he had to rush off, which left me to cook the pie and pea supper, and ever since my brain injury, well cooking is not something I can really do anymore and I managed to burn the peas!

It was overall a nice night because people came along and helped us set up tables and they started playing, which was brilliant to see. People got a bit merry and although me, Phil, Graham and Adam ran around like headless chickens for a bit getting things ready, but it did calm down in the end and things started to move slowly, even though we were still repairing terrain and boards right up until quite late!

Saturday started well, the breakfast was on time and warm, strangely only one bowl of cereal was eaten, but lots of toast and Jane was had! Games got underway and these matchups were ones that we had predetermined based on fluff, so we had Space Wolves taking on the Thousand Sons, Ultramarines battling Word Bearers, Night Lords tackling the Dark Angels etc, and this went very well and worked out a bit more balanced than we had thought, the only game which looked a bit too uneven was a game between the Legio Custodes and traitor Solar Auxillia, but it wasn’t overly so.Lunch was hot dogs which we had slow cooked since the breakfast and these were well received but based on feedback we might need to provide a bit more next time for the hungry guys. After lunch was game 2, and the hour break worked out perfectly to allow Adam and Graham to work out the narrative and pairings. These games also went rather well, and I just pottered around, emptying bins, and took a quick trip to Tesco with Lindsay for a few bits and bobs we ran out of like Tomato Ketchup.

Game 3 was a doubles game and this was a bit mixed, it was a hit for some people, but other people didn’t like it, and we had one very bad match up, where there was a bad personality clash between two players, which was a shame. It didn’t get too bad, but when two of the players were having a bad time because their partners spent the game arguing over simple rules, it made me feel bad for them. This game went on quite late on into the night, with the last game putting dice down at 11pm, at which time I retired to my room because I needed to be up early to reorganise the tables in the morning.

At least that was the plan, but I managed to sleep in, but thankfully Phil had gotten up early and reorganised all the tables himself and started to cook breakfast, showing what a bloody hero he is! Games wise this is where we fell down a little, Graham and Adam left organising the narrative and pairings until the morning so the games got away a bit later than planned, and in between games 4 and 5, it took an hour to sort out, and we only allocated 30 minutes, so that’s something we have to tighten up for next time.

I spent most of Sunday tidying stuff up whilst Lindsay and Megan, who were amazing and cooked for everyone during the weekend, told me how dreamy Jason Mullins was! Game 5 actually worked out to be the worst game, I had planned an ambush game with a last stand for the losing side, but some games were over far too quickly as they were so very one sided, so I am never planning that kind of mission again, but that was the biggest disappointment of the weekend.

Getting out of Moorhouse was a huge rush as we overran our booking and as such we forgot to take the tables back to the marquee and afterwards they told us that there was a superglue spillage on the floor, so I am awaiting a repair bill for that.

I know the weekend went very well, we have had some great feedback from the survey, but there are things I need to change for next time. The biggest thing we are going to do is to extend our booking and get a couple of hours extra to set up and break down, and putting up a pasting table outside for repairs, oh and hireing tables next time so we don’t have to scavenge for tables and most importantly we can provide seating for lunch!

But we plan on doing it again next year and right now I am just awaiting confirmation that we can have the date we want from Moorhouse, and then I will be announcing that date. But just in case we can’t get it, I am looking at other venues, and also getting a van next year to make getting the scenery around a lot easier, rather than spreading it around everyone’s cars.

What I am Modelling

The early part of the week I took a bit of a break and only just got back into my studio on Thursday.

I built the Stormcast Eternals part of the Age of Sigmar boxset, and some Mighty Skullcrushers of Khorne, gonna give a bit more attention to my Age of Sigmar stuff now the weekender is done and out the way.

I planned started to paint my Gal Vorbak as well, they are an intimidating unit to paint but hopefully I will do them justice, for the daemon skin I am looking at Skaven flesh for inspiration, I want something that looks like it could be human, but slightly wrong. However, I left the Word Bearers in the car so I started on my MKIV Breachers for the Ultramarines instead.

What I am Reading

Mostly a whole lot of noting, not even an audio book, I am not happy with myself in this department.

I have read a little bit more of I am Slaughter but that’s it!

What I am Playing

At club on Tuesday I played Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shadows of the Past for the first time and it was ok. We played through mission 1 from book 1 and it’s not too bad a game. Still need to read though the rules a bit more and figure it all out properly, but I quite like it so far.

We also played an old favourite of mine from when I was a kid, Space Crusade, I played at the Imperial Fists and the dice hated me, I lost all my heavy weapons in the first villain turn and only managed to score 6 points in the whole game, whole Lindsay managed to win with 73 points after she killed the Chaos lord.

I visited Battle Bunker in Sunderland for the first time on Thursday and I have to say, it’s a brilliant venue, lots of tables, just across from a McDonalds, 25% off GW stuff and a really nice owner. I really want this place to be a success and will be playing as many games there as I can afford to.

Anyway I meet up with John to play an 1850pts game of Heresy, it was one of Johns first games so he had to pop in a Space Wolves unit to represent a tactical squad.

For my list I took as follows:-

HQ – Praetor, Cataphractii Terminator Armour, Iron Halo, Thunderhammer, Combi-Volkite, Digital Lasers 

HQ – Centurion, Jump Pack, Chaplain, Artificer Armour, Plasma Pistol, Power Maul 

Elites – Gal Vorbak Dark Brethren, Dark Maytr with Artificer Armour and Power Fist

Troops – Terminator Squad, Cataphractii Terminator Armour, 3 x Powerfist, Chainfist, Reaper Autocannon, Sgt with Grenade Harness and Power Maul, Spartan Assault Tank, Dozer Blade, Armoured Ceramite, Flare Shield

Troops – Veteran Squad, 2 x Heavy Bolter, Vexilla, Sgt with Artificer Armour and Lightning Claw, Rhino with Dozer Blade, Marksmen

Troops – Veteran Squad, 2 x Missile Launcher, Vexilla, Sgt with Artificer Armour and Power Fist, Rhino with Dozer Blade, Machine Killers

Heavy Support – Heavy Support Squad, 5 x Missile Launchers 

We rolled to play War of Lies with an Ambush deployment and I rolled to deploy first and I chose to be the attacker. But John was playing Raven Guard so after he deployed his Contemptor Dreadnoughts he then decided everything else would infiltrate, whilst I put my two Veteran squads and my Terminator squad in their transports on the board in my deployment zone and then placed my Heavy Support Squad in a ruin.

I managed to get an exploded result by firing my Lascannons from the Spartan into one Contemptor Dreadnought, but no matter what I put into it, he always seemed to roll the invulnerable saves for the other. I rolled up my Machine Killers and eventually got them into combat with a Mor Deythan Strike Squad which had almost wiped out my Terminator Squad in the shorting phase where they rerolled their misses and had rending. But when my Praetor and last Terminator got into that combat they were able to rout them which allowed the Veteran Squad to make a sweeping advance which wiped out the Squad and his Praetor.

Kaedus Nex made some excellent shoot attacks against my Praetor and did take a wound off him, but the Heavy Bolter on the Spartan eventually killed him, but it has made me decide to get a Moritat when FW eventually release that kit.

 My Praetor eventually died to shooting attacks from his Tactical squads and he was on one wound and standing on the central objective, he fell to a lowly bolt gun round.

My Gal Vorbak succeed in their reserve rolls on both turns 2 and 3, but in both turns they managed to mishap, but they did go into ongoing reserves thankfully, eventually they arrived in Turn 4 but by that time they couldn’t do much and were in an end of the table where in the turn they arrived I wiped out the opposition.

My other Veteran Squad, shot up a Tactical Squad and eventually wiped them out in close combat, but it took a while, I then wanted them to claim the objective the Tactical Squad had been on, but by the time they had wiped out the units last guy, John had moved his Terminator Squad onto the objective and I decided to have them try to take shoot to death the Tactical Squad sitting on the central objective which they failed to do.

In the round up, we both held two objectives and got Slay the Warlord whilst I had First Blood, in the rolling for points I ended up with -1 victory points after rolling a 6 then a 3, whereas John got a 2 and a 5 giving him a total of 5 points.

It was a very enjoyable game and I look forward to playing John again.

What I am Backing

What else, but Rising Sun!

I really regret not backing Blood Rage so of course I was going to back this game, and it looks brilliant. Ok so it’s a slight bit lacking on it’s perfect knowledge of the culture, but otherwise it’s looking awesome, the gameplay looks really interesting and quite involved and the minis look breathtaking.

It’s knocking down Stretch Goals like there is no tomorrow, I can see this ending up making an easy $3 Million.

If you liked Blood Rage, then certainly go and back this, or alternatively if you do’t know what Blood Rage is, back it, otherwise you will regret it.

Munchkin Shakespeare ended up funded with $295k, just $5 short of getting us a round game board resembling the Globe Theatre, but it is coming as a deluxe edition with a board and standees, and I also let my sister-in-law Jane piggyback on our pledge in order to grab herself both the main game and the Kickstarter expansion.

What I am Spending

Not a penny, I bought a parmo on Tuesday after club but that was it.

I am trying to reduce down my spending and hopefully this is a good start in doing that.

A Bunch of Thank Yous

By

On 5th March 2017

In Blog

I first off want to thank the people who made the weekend possible. 

To Adam who wrote the fluff which directed the narrative, I know a lot of people loved his s croon about the various planets in the system.

Graham who used his programming skills to write the branching method which worked out how the story unfolded.

Phil who organised the logistics of how things would work during the event, and who sweated moving around tables for the doubles.

Andrew, David and the two James, who as the remaining members of the committee helped steer us in the right direction and in a way that would benefit the community and the club.

And of course my beautiful girls, Megan and Lindsay who alongside Megan’s mum Jane, cooked the meals that were e joyed over the weekend.

These people put up with my madness, panic and worry as I worked to coordinate people and make this event work, they kept me more or less sane and I am proud to call these people my friends.

But the people I want to thank the most are those of you that came, it’s was so inspiring to see people travel far and wide to come and play five games of The Horus Heresy here in our little corner of North East England.

I will speak a bit more about how the weekend went in a few days, along with some feedback we got, but for now I just wanted to say thank you.

Almost There

By

On 3rd March 2017

In Blog

This week has been mostly finishing up preparations for the weekender. Sunday saw me and Lindsay head up to CostCo to order the cake, and pick up the crisps, chocolate and pop for the tuck shop, and Lindsay and Megan will be returning on Friday night to grab the cake and some biscuits.

On Tuesday I was at club where we got the clubs terrain split amongst a bunch of us to take up to Moorhouse on Friday, we figure with my Realm of Battle and terrain, plus all the clubs stuff, we can do about 16 tables, which is one more than we need, we hope it’s going to all look good.

Wednesday was the day we went to grab the non-perishable food for the weekender, off to Asda in Stanley I journeyed and managed to clear their shelves of mushy peas, bockwurst hot dogs and kidney beans. We still have to grab the fresh stuff, but that waiting until Friday morning just before we drop it off at Moorhouse, I don’t have room in my fridge to keep 9kg of mince after all!!

I have also been collecting together all the other bits and bobs that will make the weekender work, things like the iZettle, for taking card payments in the tuck shop, the camera so we can film some of the games taking place, my audio recorder so me and Graham can interview some folk for our podcast, and little things like that.

I also tonight finally sort d out all of my terrain that I am taking along, I had to remove the fantasy style stuff from the box, and thankfully once that’s removed the newly painted up stuff fits in it quite nicely. And looking though it I found one or two bits that I forgot I had, like the resin Urban and Ork barricades that Games Workshop did a few years ago.

I know it’s going to be a good weekend, we just have to make it happen!

We did have a bit of a bad day today, it’s the 5th anniversary of Lindsay getting attacked by the dog, so she really was having a hard time coping at work. In the end she had to take a days holiday, because she couldn’t stop crying. 

I hate it when she gets like that, I feel so useless, I should be able to look after her and make her feel better, but when it comes to this I simply can’t, and it really makes me feel impotent and powerless.

Some people wonder why I don’t like dogs, but when you once had to pick up bits of your wife off the carpet, lie next to her whilst she suffers through the attack all over agin via a nightmare, or she just has this sad look in her eyes when looking at the scars, then you might understand.

Thankfully the law has changed since she was attached and if it happened today the police would have the power to seize the dog and destroy it, but that doesn’t make me feel better know that it’s still alive and could turn on someone else at the drop of a hat, and perhaps they won’t be so lucky as she was.

What I am Modelling

I finished the terrain I had to do with the completion of the Void Shield Generator, the glowing orbs were done using a method that Sarah from Warhammer in Newcastle thought me.

Started with a base of Caliban Green, then drub rushed with Warpstone Glow, then dry brushed with Moot Green. The lightning was then painted in using Yirel Yellow, and the whole thing was then glazed with Lamenters Yellow before being given a coat of Ardcoat. It’s a simple method buy one which looks really well, although the lightning on mine does let it down a little.

With this done I turned my attention back to my Word Bearers and competed the Plasma Tactical Support Squad, it was. Ice to be doing one of my armies again.

I will be turning my attention next to my Age of Sigmar Khorne Chaos stuff, the Newcastle Warhammer store is doing a challenge to build and paint up a 1000pt list to play in some games in store during April, so that’s what I am going to do.

I already have the Goreblade Warband ready to go for this, to which I will be adding three Mighty Skullcrushers and ten Bloodletters to get to 960pts, so sadly I won’t be including Slambo in that list.

What I am Reading

I downloaded and read the new short story Ordo Sinister by John French which is about a Psi-Titan and its fight in the War in the Webway.

It tells a tale of Prefect Hydragyrum holding back a deamonic incursion in the engine Borealis Thoon, completely unsupported by any other elements of the Emperors forces.

The story being only some 20ish pages long doesn’t go in to a huge amount of details about the Ordo Sinister, but does give us a brief glimpse at how starange they are compared to other Titan Legions and how disturbing their Psi-Titans are.

It does kind of over exaggerate exactly how badass it is, but honestly it’s a decent little read and the way it easily fits in with the story in Master of Mankind means it’s a no brainier of a purchase at £2.49, especially with a talented writer like John behind it.
What I am Playing

This week I got a game in with Graham using my Ultramarines, I wrote up a Battle report of the game for Edge of Empire which you can read here.

What I am Backing

Nowt new, but Munchkin Shakespeare is still plodding along, and now we have a stretch goal at $275k which turns it into a Deluxe version of Munchkin complete with game board and standees. So I urge you to give it a look and back it if you like it. 

It hit £200k last night which added 4 more cards, 2 dungeons and a colouring book to the Kickstarter Expansion, for the main set, Andrew Hackard, the Munchkin Czar, tells me they are aiming for 168 cards which would be the same amount in a core Munchkin set.

What I am Spending

It’s not spending, but I did swap a rare Munchkin promo card for a Plasma Obliterator as I mentioned in my last entry, and it arrived, considered painting it up for the Weekender, but ended up deciding against it as I want a bit of a break from scenery for a little bit. It got built up and primed but that was as far as I was willing to go with it.

A Productive if Odd Week

By

On 26th February 2017

In Blog

It’s been a funny old week, and I have been up and down for a lot of it, and it doesn’t help that my doctor has adjusted some of my medication so my mood has been making huge great big swings to even the most minor things.
Me and Graham recorded the pilot episode of our podcast Edge of Empire, which you can listen to here, and it’s also available on iTune here, and if you like it, why not leave a review for us.

The recoding went okay apart from some minor initial technical difficulties and the audio quality has some issues with the recording level, I have since made some adjustments to the set up, which I might talk about another week, and that should hopefully resolve the issue, as well as moving the microphone a bit further away from me, need to remember my microphone is really sensitive.

On Thursday I had a knock on the door from the police, who told me that someone, had shared my address with a far right group on a Russian website, which lists people who are alleged far left enemies of the people. Now I am not on the left side of politics, for my sins I am very much on the centre right, but to these far right nut jobs, if you oppose their hatred and bigotry then you are to them on the far left. 

Their perception of where the centre of British politics is so skewed, that it’s almost laughable. The police said there is noting to really worry about as these idiots are all talk and no action, and in truth I am not at all worried, I suppose, as Scott pointed out, that if I had kids, it would be different. If anything I just find it funny that because I have commented to point out racism, bigotry and homophobia, mostly on the Evening Chronicle Facebook page that I am being seen as a leftie, not that there is anything wrong with that, I have many friends on the left side of politics, but it’s more that if you really knew me, you would know I am a very moderate Tory!

So not only have I been involved in an accidentally swatting, I have gone and been doxxed and all within a month as my friend Andrew points out, if I keep this up I will end up on a no-fly list at this rate!

So other than those two things most of my time has been taken up with preparations for Company of Legends, I had to write up the shopping list, finish the sleeping plan, arrange the first games and keeping them as fluffy matchups as possible, and typing up the lists so people could see them. Took a little while to get all of the lists in, a couple of guys needed a little extra time because they were bringing lists from Inferno and needed to get their heads around the rules, one guy was waiting for his internet to be installed, and so on. But we eventually got them all in and hopefully I have typed them up with a minimum of errors, if you want to take a look at them, they are listed here.

What I am Modelling

On Sunday I painted up the Haemotrope Reactors, between building a desk from Ikea and losing my temper over that, the paint job isn’t my best, I chickened out on painting the skull white and went with silver instead, but I am okay with what I have managed with it.
I had an amazingly productive day on Monday and managed to get finished a Wall of Martyrs Imperial Defence Emplacement, a Basilica Administratum, a Manufactorum and a Sanctum Imperialis I had built up as two smaller buildings to use with Renegade.

Megan wanted to paint up a Basilica Administratum, so I have been talking her though my painting scheme so it fits in with the rest of the buildings, and I think she did a pretty good job of it.

The last bit of the Wall of Martyrs was put to bed on Friday leaving me with just a Void Shield Generator to do, and Megan is going to do the Bastion. The pylons of the Void Shield Generator have had the base coat of Leadbeltcher put on, then been washed with Nuln Oil and then drybrushed with Necron Compound.

I also took the time to build a unit of MKIV Breachers armed with Power Swords for my Ultramarines, for them I used the Ultramarines Upgrade set from Forgeworld which gave me 10 Praetorian heads and toros along with moulded shoulder pads and the Praetorian Breacher Shields set which provided me with the Power Swords and Shields. I also gave the Sgt a Power Fist from the MKIV Power Weapons Set. They got primed on Friday and are ready to paint now, and because I used so few parts from the spruces, I have purchased 10 legs and backpacks from a bits site for a reasonable price which means I still will have an entire sprue of MKIV Marines to use for something else.

On top of my mixer since the summer has been a half finished Tyranid Hive Tyrant, because I needed to put my mixer back into use I decided to finish this off whilst some washes on a Wall of Martyrs piece was drying, and it didn’t take too long at all, it’s the first model for my Tyranid army, which I will do something with one day!

What I am Reading

On the audio book front I have made my way through some of the smaller stories like Inheritor, Ironfire, The Final Compliance of Sixty-Three Fourteen, Vorax, etc, I have also listened to the two novellas, The Purge and Cybernetica and a couple of Garro stories.
I have started now with my next full length audiobook, this time Angel Exterminatus, and this is the first time I have listened to it, so I am quite looking forward to getting into it.
What I am Playing

On Sunday we played a game of Castle Panic, it’s the simplest game on our 10×10 but this is the first time we have played it as part of that. We started off quite badly losing almost all of walls very quickly, but we eventually recovered and managed to win the game losing only one tower.
I was supposed to play a game of Horus Hersey against Graham, but I cancelled because I was having a really bad day on Monday and wasn’t in a frame of mind for it, and it allowed Scott to get his first game of Heresy in.
I did however play a game of Star Trek Fleet Captains against Madison, I managed to beat him in a reasonably quick game, according to him at least I have never played it before. I enjoyed the game it was quite fun, but it’s not something I will be looking to add to the collection anytime soon, the components were a little on the cheap side which is a shame as I love Star Trek.
On Wednesday me and Lindsay played a couple of quick games if Camel Up whilst waiting for our tea to cook in the oven. Camel Up is a lovely game that we both adore, especially as it’s a game that when we have children round, they take to very quickly, though on the one hand, not sure if I should be teaching children the basics of gambling! Anyway, we both won a game a piece and had it not been for the fact we both had other things we needed to do that evening we could have played a few more games.
Today I was at Warhammer in Newcastle for a Fall of Cadia themed Apocalypse lyose game, for which I took the following Space Marine 1000pt army.

  • HQ – Captain, Power Fist
  • Troops – Scout Squad, 5 x Sniper Rifles, Camo Cloaks
  • Troops – Tactical Squad, Imperial Space Marine
  • Heavy Support – Relic Sicaran Battle Tank, Dozer Blade, Lascannon Sponsons
  • Lord of War – Fellblade Super-Heavy Tank, Armoured Ceramite, Pinter-Mounted Heavy Bolter

When I arrived the sides were a little unequal so I quickly needed to add in another 500 points so I added a Terminator Squad, two Rhinos and another Tactical Squad.
The game was rather fun and quite bloody, although us loyalists spent most of the time behind in terms of points, we wiped out a lot of stuff pretty harshly, and my Fellblade was almost impossible to kill until it took a D blast which took off 8 hull points. my Sicaran went in the first turn killed by the Autocannon and Missile Laumcher of a Taurox Prime, my tactical squads both died to Scions, and my Captain was killed by a Mauraduer Bomber.
But my Fellblade and a single Terminator lived until the end of the game. And I got the Triumvirate of the Imperium card for my Crusader wallet
Afterwards I meet Lindsay for an evening at Newcastles Gamers where we played Viticulture, a game that has been on the list of games I would like to try, and I have to say I rather enjoyed it. Not sure if it’s something I can add to my collection as Megan might find it a bit overwhelming but I think once she gets over her current funk with games that are a little heavyweight that she would be rather good at it. Anyway, I ended the game in dead last place on 14 points, I used my big worker too early in the last year and thus couldn’t fulfil any orders that would have given me a more respectable score.
What I am Backing

Noting new this week, but Munchkin Shakespeare is still on Kickstarter and is approaching $200k. The main set currently sits at 160 cards and I am hoping that by the end of the campaign it can reach the 172 cards if a normal set.
The tier I have backed at, the $60 All in Tier now is worth $75 for which I am getting 226 cards, 7 d6s 2 Kill-o-Meters, 16 blank cards, 3 bookmarks, 1 journal, 1 metal coin, 6 male and 6 female pawns.
Personally I say if you are a Munchkin fan, then go for it, because it’s going to be an awesome version of the game.
What I am Spending

Seeing as how I am all spent out for the month already, I have spent as little as possible, although a friend offered me a steal of a deal for an unopened Plasma Obliterator and I have accepted and am picking it up later next week, maybe I will get it built for the weekender, but probably not if I am honest.
I also did a bit of wheeler dealing and swapped the unbuilt Dwarf Blood Bowl team for a built Anvillus Pattern Dreadclaw with Phil and that will probabjly find its way into my Heresy Space Wolves.
I picked up Slambo today and because I have gone through them shockingly fast with doing all the terrain, picked up a new bottle of Nuln Oil and pots of Leadbeltcher, Warpstone Glow, Balthasar Gold and Retributor Armour.
I also picked up the first part of Lindsays birthday present, it’s not until April, but I have started already.

Go Big Or Go Home!

By

On 20th February 2017

In Blog

Late last year I decided that the squad of Tau Fire Warriors I got with the Kill Team boxset was an ideal excuse to start a small Tau army, no more than say 1500pts just for fun.

Yeah all that stuff I purchased last year, well I put it all on a chair whilst I was sorting out the studio and the idea of getting a small army went out the window at some point and this is what I have ended up with!

Not shown are two loose Devilfish I got off eBay, the squad of Fire Warriors I got with Kill Team or the extra Broadside that came in my Battleforce.

This will be a project for later this year I think!

Looking Forward to the Weekender

By

On 19th February 2017

In Blog

And The Weekender is getting closer and I am really starting to look forward to it now. I have started buying the food, ordered the stotties, got the scenery coming along etc.

At the moment it looks like I am playing which in a way is a good thing, I originally planned this so that I could play some games, and in a way it’s a bad thing because the girls want me to help in the kitchen and someone needs to organise things and stuff. So hopefully we will sell that last ticket so I don’t have to play.
Now I am just making plans for executing everything perfectly, we have the event packs printed, which was the big issue we had last year, they didn’t turn up until the day and even then they were a mess, so we have the biggest issue of last year solved already. 

We are buying the non-fresh food a week Monday, and I am going to order a cake from CostCo for people to enjoy as a snack on Saturday. One thing I did want to try and do with the food is introduce a bit of a North East flavour to it, hence the stotties for the breakfast sarnies, and also why I have spent that little bit extra money to buy Ringtons tea and coffee, I did consider having a Makaway curry for Saturday night, but we figured best to play it safe as curry can be a very funny thing for a lot of people.

The army lists have started pouring in, though a few people are a bit late with them, but that’s cool, and I am getting them typed up so we can publish them next week, so everyone will be able to see what’s coming.

I plan on doing quite a bit of coverage on the weekend with the Edge of Empire website, which I will also publish here, so look out for that.

What I am Modelling

This week has once again been all about terrain. I got built the remaining terrain on Sunday, but when I opened the Renegade box to get the last Sanctum Imperialis, I had three accessory sprues and no building sprues, but a quick email to Games Workshop and I had a replacement kit on Wednesday.

This week I have managed to paint a Wall of Martyrs Imperial Defence Emplacement, a Shrine of the Aquila, 2 Munitorium Armoured Containers, a Manufactorum, a Sanctum Imperialis and a Firestorm Redoubt. Tonight I started on a pair of Haemotrope Reactors, and by start, I mean I have them coated in Leadbelcher and washed with Nuln Oil for me to do further work on them in the morning.

I also took a little time out to paint up an Imperial Space Marine, during the 30th anniversaries celebration of the Space Marine last year, I ended up with four of these, and with this one, I decided to make a Knight-Errant for the Horus Heresy.

He is wearing what I interpreted to be, artificer MKVI armour, has a bolter that could easily pass for a Paragon Bolter, and his Bolt Pistol certainly looks Master Crafted. Anyway I painted him up in a scheme which I will use if I ever build a Grey Knights army, which was a base coat of Leadbelcher, a wash of Nuln Oil, followed by a heavy dry brush of Ironbreaker and then a dry brush with Necron Compound.

What I am Reading

I decided to start on The Beast Arises and have read a couple of chapters if I Am Slaughter, and so far I am enjoying it, although I haven’t read much yet, but already I am liking the politics of it, it’s very interesting to get an insight to the workings of the High Lords of Terra.

What I am Playing

Sadly I haven’t played anything this week, although I have scheduled in a game of Horus Heresy against Graham on Tuesday, and next Saturday I am going to take a small 1000pt force to play in a large Fall of Cadia at the Newcastle Warhammer store.

I did try to see if Megan wanted to take a day to go visit the Battle Bunker in Sunderland so we could play a game, but she wanted to play a few more games at home first before playing in a public place.

What I am Backing

Still backing Munchkin Shakespeare, which has bust through a few more stretch goals, and we have in our sight some Spyke pawns, they are quite a bit away, but I am sure we will get them.

And Sliced Quarterly has now funded and is hitting some stretch goals, we are currently £32 away from getting a colouring book, a goal I really hope we can hit. 

What I am Spending

Given how I overspent quite a bit recently, I am scaling back on my spending for the next few weeks. I did have to go pick up some paints the other day, and I also was tempted by and picked up a pair of Vengeance Defence Batteries, and when he went on preorder today, I could not resist ordering Slambo!
I have also purchased some items for Megan’s birthday as that’s coming up.

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