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

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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

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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

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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.

Edge of Empire

By

On 12th February 2017

In Blog

If you know me well, then you know I have an interest in podcasting, a couple of years ago, I bought a new mixer, microphones and headphones and I dabbled a little, but didn’t really have much in the way of focus and it kinda fell by the wayside and I didn’t really do much with it as a result.

I had often thought about Podcasting about the Horus Heresy and the scene in the North East, but couldn’t motivate myself, and it took Graham to say, that he wanted to do a podcast for me to say, yeah I actually want to do this.So we have currently got a name for it, Edge of Empire, because here in the North East we are at the edge of what was the Roman Empire, and the Imperium is kinda Roman themed, plus it was just too good a name to pass up, so thanks to Martin for suggesting It.

So I have stormed ahead and registered the domain and started work on a website, registered us on the main social media sites, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, set up the Soundcloud account and set back up properly my equipment.

Now we just have to get in and do it, I have Lindsay going to design us a temporary logo, cause mine is rubbish, and we can use that until we can strong arm someone to design is a better one.

Me and Graham both have plans to build new armies around the new Inferno book, him Thousand Sons, me Space Wolves so that’s going to be an interesting place to start with, and we plan to generally talk about the hobby here in the North East, and it’s an exciting time, what with the Weekender coming up and the new Battle Bunker opening in Sunderland. And with so many other great podcasts out there influencing us, like Sons of Heresy, North Heresy, Geno Five Two, The Imperial Truth etc, we just hope we can do a good job.

Anyway suggestions on how to do this are welcome, both me and Graham have no real idea of what we are doing so if you can offer any advice it’s always welcome. 

What I am Modelling

It’s all about scenery still, I have painted up two Wall of Martyrs Imperial Defence Lines and a Wall of Martyrs Imperial Defence Emplacement, I am now halfway though it all and although I love the detail on them, they are a pain in the arse to paint up so many.

I have also built a Wall of Martyrs Firestorm Redoubt, which is a horrible kit to build, two Munitorum Armoured Containers, a Basilica Administratum and a Manufactorum. I think I am going to get the rest of the scenery built tomorrow so I can try and prime it after my driving lesson on Monday and then get on with painting it all.

What I am Reading

I finished Master of Mankind and have to say it’s an absolute masterpiece.

I was struggling to sleep the other night and so I picked up my Kobo to read a single chapter and I couldn’t put it down, the last third of the book is simply that good.

I really think it’s good enough for me to nominate for a Hugo, I doubt it would win over many other voters as they tend to look down quite a bit in Black Library books, but the quality of writing is simply amazing, and certainly up there with the best of them.

Honestly, Aaron Dembski-Bowden if he wrote sci-fi that wasn’t Warhammer related, would win a Hugo award, and frankly I am not sure how Black Library are going to keep hold of him for too much longer.

Now that I am fully up to date with the Heresy, I am thinking of reading the Beast Arises series, Harry tells me it’s really good.

What I am Playing

Played noting since I last blogged, have been too busy with painting, but I did manage to get a game of Blood Bowl 2 in on the Xbox One, struggling to get past the Wood Elves. 

What I am Backing

I am a big Munchkin fan, I know it’s not the most sophisticated game, but I enjoy it. So it natural that I would be backing Munchkin Shakespeare, a project which arose out of a panel on a JoCo Cruise, and seeing as it’s a crowd sourced project, it kinda makes sense to crowd fund it.

Well honestly I am not a big fan of established companies going to Kickstarter to launch a new game without good reason. And Steve Jackson Games is a pretty big company so I am conflicted about this, but they aren’t a daft company so I am sure they would have done research before deciding to take this to Kickstarter, and in fairness, it’s a product that I can distributers being a bit wary of.
Regardless, I am sure the team will produce a game that will amuses and entertain us. I am backing at the $60 I Want it All! tier which includes the base game, which currently consists of 147 cards and a custom d6, a Kickstarter exclusive expansion which has in it 37 cards, 16 dungeons, a bookmark, Kill-o-Meter, a journal, a coin and some blank cards, and all the add ons unlocked by the project, which so far include a rigged set of demo cards, a pack of 6 d6s with 4 cards and a guest artist Kill-o-Meter with 4 cards.
The project stand at $117kish as I write this and is well on its way to unlocking its next two stretch goals, the $130 one being some themed Flower pawns.

So if you are a fan of Shakespeare and Munchkin I highly recommend you go back this project.

What I am Spending

Seeing as I spent all my money at the store birthday party, absolutely noting, although I did pick up the Dwarves Blood Bowl team that I had ordered at the birthday party on Saturday.

I had hoped they would have gotten some stick, but none was sent to the store strangely, and I did spend some time checking out more scenery, but I am not sure I want to add anymore to the to do list!

A Long To Do List and a Birthday Party

By

On 8th February 2017

In Blog

It’s less than four weeks now until the Heresy Weekender and I have lots of scenery left to do, so I really need to get a crack on with it.

Currently left to do I have:-

  • 3 Wall of Martyrs Imperial Defence Lines
  • 2 Wall of Martyrs Imperial Defence Emplacements
  • 1 Firestorm Redoubt
  • 1 Void Shield Generator
  • 1 Imperial Bastion
  • 2 Munitorum Armoured Containers 
  • 1 Shrine of the Aquila
  • 2 Haemotrope Reactors
  • 2 Sanctum Imperialis
  • 2 Manufactorums
  • 2 Basilica Administratum

So it’s a big list, all I have managed to do so far is a single Wall of Martyrs Imperial Bunker.

I think I need you guys to wish me luck!

In the meantime it was my local Warhammer stores birthday party on Saturday and I went down to join in on the festivities. I managed to forget my case of models, curse you brain damage, so was unable to enter anything into the painting contest, or take part in any of the games. But that was cool I hung out with the guys and just chatted, and drooled over the stuff coming out of the Weekender down in Nottingham.

I had a KFC for lunch which was a nice treat and voted for my favourite model in the cabinet, which was of course Grahams Vampire Lord!

Martin and the gang put on a fun day with lots to do and it was a lot of fun, can’t complain at all. I did have 21 tickets for the auction at the end of the day and had hopped to get myself a framed picture of a Stormcast Eternal, but that ended up going for a lot more than 21 tickets. In the end I gave my tickets to a kid so that he could outbid a fella on a picture of some 40k battle brothers, and ended up encouraging others around me to do the same, as it’s always nice to see a kid walk away with a prize.

Oh and The Mighty Zugband my Word Bearers dice from Forgeworld arrived, quite early which was nice.

What I am Modelling

Not a lot had been done, just haven’t been able to get the time in the studio that I would have liked, but I have done a little work on my Word Bearers Tactical Support Squad, and they should get finished up tomorrow.

For the store birthday party I was going to take along my Stormcast Eternals Errant-Questor for the Bloodtide game, but Megan wasn’t doing so well on Friday night and needed my company, so I didn’t get a chance to finish him off, but when I got in after the party, I went and finished him off and I am quite proud of it, we’ll sort from the sword that is, ruddy hand tremors mean my highlights are utter pants.

I did build the Khorne Bloodbound side of the Age of Sigmar box up today, which I ended up using in my first ever game of Age of Sigmar, but more about that in a bit.

What I am Reading

I finished up listening to Vulkan Lives and I have to say, it made a lot more sense listening to it than it did reading it. 

I have started on the audio book version of Leman Russ: The Great Wolf, and it has so far been quite good. Although Dan Abnett certainly gets the credit for how the Rout is portrayed in the Heresy, Chris Wraight has really fleshed out that portrayal quite a bit, and here we get to see a bit of the Wolves in the immediate aftermath of the Heresy which in itself is really interesting.

I am about halfway through now, and so far got to say that Leman is about as much as I would expect him to have been during the height of the Great Crusade, I am looking forward to getting into more of the book tomorrow.

What I am Playing

I have actually played quite a bit recently, so let’s give a brief overview.

I played Grant at Blood Bowl at the Raiders on the 31st and I drew that game with my humans against his Orcs, but I think I need to get an Ogre to give my humans a bit more punch, but I have Grak and Crumbleberry so they will be getting integrated into the team ASAP. It was a really tough game and I lost 3 players to KO during the game.

On the 1st I played Smash Up at home with Lindsay and Megan, I was playing Changerbots/Time Travellers which was an interesting combo. Unfortunately Megan got a headache so the game was incomplete, though I was on 14 points Simone away from winning. Me and Lindsay then had a game of Ticket to Ride using the India map, where I beat her 177 points to 96 points thanks to getting all my routes on a Mandala.

On the 3rd I played Ticket to Ride 10th Anniversary Edition with Lindsay and Paul, it’s a rare treat that we get this set out and I am always the Hobo Express, Lindsay got to play with the circus trains which megan normally plays, anyway I couldn’t repeat my success of a few days earlier and only scored 105 points to Lindsays 136, but I was ahead of Paul’s 79.

On Sunday we cracked our Sentinels of the Multiverse, and I don’t know what it was, but I just didn’t enjoy it all that much, probably didn’t help that we got so many of the rules wrong, either way I just found it dull, so will have to change it up for our next play of it, especially as it’s part of the 10×10. We then finished up the day with a game of Firefly Fluxx which was won by Megan.

Today I had my first game of Warhammer: Age of Sigmar and I rather enjoyed it. I played David at the club and in our short game I had a unit of 20 Bloodreavers, a Mighty Lord of Khorne and a Khorgorath against his 16 Dryads, Treelord and 3 Kurnoth Hunters with greatbows.

The game was a tad unbalanced and I got ripped apart quite quickly, but I had fun, the game was quick, interesting and simple to pick up, but next time we should use points to ensure a more even game.

What I am Backing

Sliced Quarterly has come back to Kickstarter and my old school pal Ken Reynolds has put together a nice campaign for it.

There are 14 days to go and as I write this they are £106 from funding, so if you like experimental comics go take a look and if you like it, back it.

What I am Spending

Well the store birthday party saw me get into the spirit of things, mostly cause I wanted a messenger bag!

But in all honesty, what I got was mostly for the Heresy Weekender, and those were scenery, I picked up a Firestorm Redoubt to go with the other Wall of Martyrs stuff I have and a Void Shield Generator, so I think we are going to have a pretty cool board with those bits together.

I also wanted to grab a boxed game, I went in with the intention of getting Gorechosen to add to my Khorne Bloodbound, but ended up getting Gangs of Commorragh because Megan loves her Dark Eldar, though I am kicking myself as that’s something I should have gotten her for her birthday instead of letting here know I had got it!

I also picked up a few pots of paint and a Golden Daemon bag label and I also got the free messenger bag, blue mini shopping bag and a bunch of other promo stuff like badges and wrist bands.

10×10 Report for January and Painting a Bunker

By

On 31st January 2017

In Blog

Well the 10×10 didn’t go too well this month, after a good start we didn’t play a single game for the last week and a half, so we have only completed 4% of the challenge.

So we have 96 games still left to play, we must do better next month.

Horus Heresy Weekender Scenery

I have been putting my hobby budget mostly towards scenery for the Horus Heresy Weekender, simply because I want us to step up our game in terms of scenery from last time.

So I purchased a load of Wall of Martyrs scenery so we can make ourselves a defence line board, when combined with a couple of Imperial Bastions.

I have done a test piece to set out how the rest of the stuff is going to be painted, and I think it looks quite good. The painting method is a simple one I found on a blog a few years ago.


The scenery is primed black and the concrete sections are then dry brushed with Stormvermin Fur, followed by a dry brush with Administratum Grey, the metal is painted with Leadbeltcher which is then sloppily washed with Agrax Earthshade. The small aquillas are then dry brushed with Ceremite White.

The gold is Retributor Armour, washed with Reikland Fleshshade and dry brushed with Sigmarite. The earth is Mournfang Brown, washed with Nuln Oil and then dry brushed with Mournfang Brown and then dry brushed with Tau Sept Ocre. 

The Cadian armour is painted Castellan Green, washed with Agrax Earthshade and then dry brushed with Nibblet Green, and the red canister is Mepheston Red, washed with Agrax Earthshade and dry brushed with Astorath Red.

The roof is painted Doombull Brown, washed with Agrax Earthshade, drybrushed with Squig Orange and the dry brushed with Leadbelcher.

Finally the bone is Zandri Dust, washed with Agrax Earthshade and then highlighted with Ushabti Bone.

It’s a very simple scheme and one that is very easy to replicate across the three Imperial Defence Lines and two Imperial Defence Emplacments that I still have to paint, and I might be adding a Firestorm Redoubt to that pile as well.

How Did I Miss That

By

On 30th January 2017

In Blog

In my last post I mentioned the game against the guy who had three Imperial Bastions and Deep Striking Terminators.
Anyway, I somehow managed to miss the Castellan Force Organisation Chart, I mean I must have spent a few hours looking through the book, and I missed this, my excuse is that I have brain damage, but that only goes so far really!

As for the Deep Striking Terminators, well it’s been suggested that he could have rolled for Void Walker as his Warlord Trait, I am sure he rolled for World Burner, but a Praetor can reroll for his Warlord Trait and I didn’t see him reroll it, so that’s entirely possible.

Anyway, then conclusion is that I am an idiot, so don’t listen to me!

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