Open Day Report and Project Tingler

On 11th November 2016

Last Saturday me and Lindsay headed off to Nottingham for the Warhammer 40,000 Open Day, and it was an awesome day.

We arrived a little late so we missed the lines to get in, we also missed being able to park in the car park. But once we arrived we were able to get our passes and move straight into the building very smoothly. Lindsay wasn’t quite amazed it was her third visit in less than a year, but I am still awed every time I go.

Anyway, it was first time since they removed the Special Exhibition area and expanded the Warhammer store into that, moved the Black Library store and expanded the Forgeworld store, the changes were nice to see and it has given a lot more area to display product and give a better shopping experience.

I was able to take Lindsay into the Exhibition Centre for the first time and she was pretty blown away. She found herself once again tempted to look into taking up Age of Sigmar as the models of the Ironjawz and Sylvaneth tempted her, especially Alarielle the Everqueen.

The exhibitions themselves had changed quite a bit from my last visit a year ago which was nice to see, I was especially impressed by the Ironwarp Citadel.

In the main hall they had the Kill Team tournament going on, I would have entered but that would have been unfair on Lindsay as it would have meant me leaving her alone for such a long time, so the Millitarium Tempestus did not get to storm up in their Taurox sadly. They also had the special sales area, but by the time we got there, they had sold out of Custodes Grav Tanks, not that I was interested in one!

In Bugmans it was heaving and at lunchtime, me and Lindsay were very lucky to get a table. Whilst I was in the line to order food the chap in front of me didn’t have a table and couldn’t order food without one, so I let him join us. Turned out to be a lovely young man named Michael who was a student at Sheffield. Now shock horror the menu at Bugmans has changed, they have massively reduced the options to mostly burgers and pizzas which is a shame, no more Fat Bloke which is just sad.

That said I did enjoy the Bugmans Burger and Lindsay enjoyed her Custodes Special Burger.

In the studio area (the GW staff canteen) they had some really cool stuff on display, including the painted up mini of the Magnus daemon primarch model, and an unpainted version, and I gotta say it’s a really really nice model. Might have to get one just to build and paint. The sprues for it were also on display, showing that it has the option of another weapon and three different heads.

There was also a diorama in progress of the burning of Prospero which looks simply amazing, it has some great stuff on there including Feki and Geri, Russ’s wolf companions and their models are brilliant. They also had on display the new shield and gladius upgrade packs for the Ultramarines which I am desperately waiting for, a Custodes Grav Speeder, a Custodes Contemptor and the phenomenally large Imperial Knight Porphyrion.

I also got to have abbot of a chat with Alan Bligh about the rules for the Thousand Sons and Space Wolves that are coming up in Book 7, he didn’t give away a lot, but what he did gives me a lot of hope that these two legions will get the treatment they deserve.

It was a thoroughly wonderful day, wish I had won the £500 trolley dash in the raffle but alas I did not, but I loved my day and am seriously considering going to the New Year Open Day as well.

What I am Modelling

Quite a bit actually, I finished off the three Stormcast Eternal Liberators from Storm of Sigmar, I painted up a scout squad from Lost Patrol, I completed my Word Bearers Chaplain with a jump pack and got the Scourge starter fleet for Dropfleet Commander painted up.

So that took quite a bit off my to do list, I also based the Word Bearers Contemptor Dreadnought that I painted up a while ago.

I have built a squad of MKIII veterans for the Word Bearers and painted up the Sht for that squad as a test model for the line troops who will be mostly drybrushed and I am quite happy with that. And tonight I got some MKIII breachers out of the WIP box and am looking to get them finished ASAP.

What I am Reading

A lot of news and analysis, it’s almost like something important has been going on in the world!

I literally just put down issues 0 and 1 of Warhammer 40,000 Will of Iron a comic written by my friend George Mann, and I have really enjoyed that. It always nice to see the Dark Angels and the Inquisitor seems like an interesting character.

What I am Playing

Not a sausage sadly, I have only really been able to play on the iPad, and I have mostly confined myself to Ticket to Ride using the Nordic map, a map I really love and enjoy, and well it’s wintery and it matches the weather.

What I am Backing

Something a little unconventional, I am backing Project Tingler a FMV game by Zöe Quinn (I don’t care what you think of her politics, I actually rather liked Depression Quest and think the campaign of harassment against her was childish and ridiculous) and Chuck Tingle.

Now Chuck Tingle is an amazing man, he is a high functioning autistic savant who suffers from schizophrenia, and he writes the most absurd gay erotica. Now generally speaking gay erotica is not my thing, but there is a certain something about a Tingler that just makes me laugh.

He first came to my attention in an Observer interview in 2015, but he was really propelled into my thoughts when he was nominated for a Hugo Award for “Space Raptor Butt Invasion”. His nomination was a result of a joke inclusion on the slate of the awful alt-right groups who have spent the past few years trying to hijack the Hugo’s, known as the Sad Puppies and Rabid Puppies. Now I absolutely deplore these groups, they make a business of telling us Sci-Fi fans that all we want is shoot-em-up action adventures with male white protagonists, and absolutely zero diversity or social commentary.

Now I admit I like my bolter porn, but I also love a nice hard hitting bit of Sci-Fi that challenges things in society or makes me think about social change, I mean most of us Sci-Fi fans love Star Trek and that’s as political and progressive as it comes!

Anyway the slate that the puppies put forward is filled with straight white guys and prank candidates, the aim to eliminate nominations for minorities, women and anyone not straight and where they can’t fill a category to see that they aren’t awarded in a good way at all.

And sadly the puppies do succeed in getting their skates largely nominated, including some nominations for their leader, the vile and repulsive Vox Day. Some of the candidates they nominated withdrew to allow other more worthy candidates to fill their spot, but not Chuck Tingle, he said screw you and trolled back in the greatest way possible.

Now Chucks books are simply astounding and they range from “Glazed by the Gay Living Doughnuts” to “Bigfoot Pirates Haunt my Balls” and my favourite “Pounded by the Pound: Turned Gay by the Socioeconomic Implications of Britain Leaving the European Union”!!!

Anyway Chuck registered the website therabidpuppies.com and put out the following statement:-

“Hello my name is Chuck Tingle (worlds greatest author). Sometimes devilmen are so busy planning scoundrel attacks they forget to REGISTER important website names. this is… good because it makes it easy for BUDS WHO KNOW LOVE IS REAL to prove love (all). please understand this is website [sic] to take DARK MAGIC and replace with REAL LOVE for all who kiss the sky.”

The site collected donations for the Crash Override Network, an organisation that works with victims of online trolls like the Puppies, and also included an awesome plug for Chucks local library.

Anyway in the long run, Chuck did not win his Hugo, but there is a small and growing campaign to get him nominated for best related work for his masterpiece “Pounded in the Butt by my Hugo Award Loss”, but he handled the situation so well, he was able to stand up to the nasty alt-right bullies and beat them at their own game. And since then, you could say I have become a True Buckaroo!

I know that Project Tingler will not be in everyone’s taste, but I think it’s worth a look, and given how the world finds itself today with a Donald Trump presidency, perhaps we ought to show that love will always trump hate, so go on, throw a couple of Dollars into a worthy project and help bring the Tingleverse to the computer.

What I am Spending

Spent a little bit too much at the open day, bought myself the Warhammer World exclusive Imperial Knight head, I like its Cylon look, got a Landraider Proteus for my Breachers, a Blood Angels transfer sheet, a Blood Angels t-shirt, the Warhammer World exclusive Errant-Questor for my Stormcast Eternals, some Ultramarine MKIV shoulder pads, praetorian torsos and head and a pot of Dorn Yellow Edge paint.

Brain Damage and Games Exercise

By michael

On 2nd November 2016

In Blog

2 1/2 years ago I suffered some brain damage, and since then my games have taken on much more meaning. They are one of the few things I can still do with friends. Im a fan of the bigger chunky games that take time to play and I’m just getting into playing solo games. All these mean I have to concentrate and act as a kind of exercise for my damaged brain.Games provide me with a chance to socialise, & provide health benefits. The theraputic value of this also helps with my depression.

Getting run over has really changed my life, and my whole aim of things now is to try and get me back into a position where I can work again. But having the issues I have currently, it’s not looking likely to happen anytime soon, which is shame, because for all I complained about work, I did enjoy feeling useful and doing something that contributed to society.

So yeah, games help me, but for various reason, I am not getting to play many games lately, and I can tell because my mental abilities are slipping and I find my ability to concentrate less. So I am not getting the brain exercise I need, and thus I am going to have to make a bigger effort to get to things like Newcastle Gamers so that I can give my brain the workout it desperately needs.

I am, money depended, going to be entering the Kill Team tournament at the Warhammer 40,000 Open Day on Saturday, but it’s very money dependent!

What I am Modelling

This past week and a bit I have decided to clear up some of the models on my painting table that have been started and not finished. I started by finishing off the Blood Angels Tactical Squad to form a basic Kill Team, they are now done and dusted.

I then moved onto the Blood Angels Terminator Librarian, and he was actually a lot nicer to paint than I had expected him to be. And I finally based a Word Bearers Contemptor Dreadnought

I am currently working on a Scout Squad that’s for Lost Patrol, a Word Bearers Jump Pack Chaplain and a Word Bearers Veteran.

What I am Reading

I read White Dwarf, but other than that I haven’t been pick my Kobo for over a week now, which is simply down to how drained and tired I have been feeling.

I have been listening to audio books when I paint still, I recently finished the Damnation of Pythos, a book which in my first reading of it, was ok, not amazing but ok. But after listening to it as an audiobook, my opinion of it worsened, and I now have to agree, it just feels out of place in the series.

What I am Playing

I played in a long afternoon playing Horus Heresy on Sunday, however opposite me on the table was Christian and his Mechanicum, so I spent most of the afternoon removing models without doing any damage to him at all, really need to figure out a better way of dealing with the Mechanicum.

I have a plan involving combining a Reconnaissance Squad with Sniper Rifles and a Heavy Support Squad with a Lascannons. I have bought some Lascannons when a friend did a Forgeworld order a while ago, but he keep forgetting to give them for me. But I have a promise from him to give me them at the Open Day on Saturday.

What I am Backing

I had backed Pretending to Grownup, a card game from Jason Anarchy of Drinking Quest fame, it’s an excellent looking game with some really cool looking art from Megan McKay.

And in a nice surprise, Quatermaster General 1914 arrived with me on the 31st, meeting it’s October delivery date, only had a brief look at it, but everything seems quite cool and I look forward to playing it.

What I am Spending

It’s coming up to Christmas, so too much, I have bought a few gifts for Lindsay and Megan as most of my nephews and nieces presents will be coming from the John Lewis account we put money into every month and the £200 of High Street Vouchers we have saved towards. I also have my nephews Max’s birthday coming up and I have paid for his birthday present.

That’s not to say I haven’t spent money, I did but myself the Burning of Prospero and then traded with a dude on Facebook for an extra two squads of MKIII Space Marines to add to my Word Bearers.

In a spate of depression I also placed a Forgeworld order and am now the proud owner of a Mhara Gal Tainted Dreadnought, which has reduced my money for the rest of the month.

A Relaxing Trip

By michael

On 20th October 2016

In Blog

To help celebrate my birthday, myself, Lindsay and Megan booked up a nice weekend away at a lodge in Otterburn. My plan had been to chill out and play games all weekend, the girls proffered the idea of visiting some places.

So Friday morning we feed and watered the animals and set off to spend a few hours in Rothbury a picturesque little town to the north northwest of Newcastle, where we had a nice little walk along the old fashioned ships and finally having some lunch in a little cafe. After this we set off to Otterburn and our lovely little lodge for the weekend.

And it was a really nice lodge, nicely decorated with comfortable furniture and best of all a hot tub! We had pizza that night and played Joking Hazard a game I backed on Kickstarter from the team behind the Cyanide and Happiness comic and it was a pretty good little party game.

The next day we drove up to Alnwick where we wandered round the market and Megan bought some mead from the Lindisfarne Mead shop. We had a nice dinner at the Dirty Bottles smokehouse and then went home via Barter Books, who to my dismay did not have an RPG section! That evening we had hot dogs and played a game of Munchkin Gloom.

The Sunday was dedicated entirely to games, starting out with with a nice game of Firefly Fluxx, after a lovely fried breakfast lovely prepared by Lindsay and Megan. Then we cracked open our copy of Tokaido Collectors Edition, another game we Kickstarted, the first one that we as a household Kickstarted together. We got it back in June, but it was only completed recently when we got the missing parts we needed. That was a fun game, which I won, but only because I decided to play as the game designer Antoine who wins all ties!

Then we moved onto Munchkin: The Nightmare before Christmas, a game which we had to import from America because USAoploy don’t publish their games in the U.K., but we enjoyed this version of the classic, I would have won, but Lindsay and Megan ganged up on me, wasting all the cards they had to mess with other players which then allowed Megan to win because there was noting Lindsay could do to help me stop her.

After lunch, Megan wasn’t feeling too well so she sat and watched some David Attenborough whilst me and Lindsay played Thunderbirds with the Tracey Island expansion, which is one of my favourite games. We managed to win that one, but it was close, another couple of turns and we would have lost because of of the missions was going to be so difficult to achieve.

Finally before bed we played a few rounds of Love Letter, which is always a favourite, me and Lindsay did want to play Carcassonne Star Wars Edition, but Lindsay wasn’t taking in the rules so we ended up not playing, which was a shame, I would have liked to have played more games that day, but the girls had a pace they wanted to play at. But we did have plenty of dips in the hot tub though!

Megan was sadly quite sick through the night, so we ended up leaving a little earlier than planned on the Monday to get her home quicker so she could recover for her trip to her Nana’s down in Oxfordshire.

On Tuesday I was due to play a 2500 point game of 40k but annoyingly the car decided to break down on the way to club, we did manage to get the car moving again before the RAC dude came out, and he found a fault on the booster pressure sensor, but the garage aren’t too worried about it, but we are taking him in next week to get looked over anyway, hopefully it’s just a one off, one in a million fault that won’t reoccur.

What I am Modelling

Got my Millitarium Tempestus Kill Team ready to go. I went with the Kapic Eagles colour scheme because I actually quite like it and it’s easy to do following Duncan’s painting guide. I am seriously thinking of entering it into the Warhammer 40,000 Open Day Kill Team Tournament. I figure it will keep my busy, and not spending money, for much of the day, and I might actually stand a chance as not many players use the Millitarium Tempestus and thus they have a little bit of an unknown factor to them.

My list consists of the following

+ Troops (95pts) +

Millitarium Tempestus Scions (95pts) [2x Tempestus Scion (24pts), Tempestus Scion w/ Hot-shot Volley Gun (22pts), Tempestus Scion w/ Plasma Gun (27pts)]····Tempestor (22pts) [Bolt Pistol, Close Combat Weapon]

+ Fast Attack (100pts) +

Taurox Prime (100pts) [Taurox Missile Launcher (20pts), Twin-linked Autocannon]

The Scion with the Hotshot Volley Gun gets Relentless as an Indomitable Specialist, the Scion with the Plasma Gun is a Guerrilla Specialist and takes Preferred Enemy and one Scion with a Hot Shot Lasgun gets Sniper as a Weapons Specialist.

Hopefully this small elite team in the comfort of a Taurox Prime will manage to do some damage.

I have also started to paint up a Blood Angels Kill Team as well, but I will talk more about them next time.

What I am Reading

I have finished Ahriman Sorcerer, which was quite good, I liked how the story built up to the battle, but I was disappointed with the deaths of the characters who has supported Ahriman in the first book, it felt like they got very little in terms of appearances before they were summarily gotten rid of.

I have also been listening to some of the short stories around the Drop Site Massacre as I have been Modelling, stories you forget about like Strike and Fade, Veritas Ferrum and The Phoenician, and I am currently listening to the Crimson Fist, which I enjoy as Alexis Pollux is one of my favourite characters.

What I am Playing

A lot more than I have been of late, other than my trip to the lodge this is what we played.

Last Saturday night, me, Lindsay and Megan played a game of Bohnanza, a really cool game by Uwe Rosenberg, which is an old favourite of ours. It’s all about planting, selling and trading beans to make money, trusts me it’s better than it sounds. As usual Megan dominated the game, winning with 40 coins to my 24 and Lindsays 22.

The next Sunday, whilst Megan was at her sisters with her parents, me and Lindsay took a trip to Consett Tabletop Gaming Society, which meets on every second Sunday of the month. There we played a game of Ticket to Ride on the United Kingdom map, and I got bested very convincingly by Lindsay.

Then we cracked out Secret Hitler and we had 8 cracking games of this incredible hidden roles game. In the first 4 games I had the same Liberal card for all of them which cracked me up so much at the beginning of game 4 we had to redeal the role envelopes.

As when playing with Drew’s print and play set, I had an amazing time, it really is a game that gets your pulse racing. In one game we had passed 5 Facist laws and 4 Liberal laws and failed to elect a government 3 times, so we had to pass the first law from the top of the deck, unbelievably and statistically unlikely, it was a Liberal law wining the game for the good guys, but that game really did have my heart pounding.

The game went down very well with the Consett guys and I can certainly see them buying a copy for their collection.

What I am Backing

At the moment I am backing another project by my old friend, Sliced Quarterly. The stories in t you can read online so you get to try before you buy and they really are some very interesting stories and ways of telling these stories.

What I am Spending

A lot less this week, simply because I have put money into Christmas presents, like an awesome Lego train set for one of the bairns. I did pick up another set of Lascannons to go with my Blood Angels Devastator Squad that Lindsay bought me for my birthday, so I can equip the whole squad with Lascannons and have them sit back and fire off laser death shots!

I also picked up as a birthday treat to myself a box of Blood Angels Assault Terminators, these guys are going to be equipped with Thunderhammers and Storm Shields and form part of my Archangels Orbital Intervention Force, I have a squad of standard Terminators already, so I am going to add another squad of Assault Terminators but give the second squad Lightning Claws.

An Obsession on my Birthday

By michael

On 5th October 2016

In Blog

Today is my 34th birthday, which isn’t cool, I can clearly remember my parents turning this age and I don’t want to be an age I can remember my parents being!
But that aside I am hoping it’s going to be a nice day, Lindsay, Megan and I will be this evening going to visit my nana before heading to either Coop Chicken House or Nando’s, where we will be joined by Paul.

And because it’s my birthday I wanted to share one of my obsessions with you, Carcassonne!

Carcassonne is my all time favourite board game, now I know it’s simple and unsophisticated, but I love it. It’s got very quick gameplay, it’s easy to learn and has a good amount of player interaction, it doesn’t give you too much analysis paralysis, but at the same time does require thought and strategy.

The base game has just over 70 tiles, which you place on the table to create a landscape of the ancient French walled city of Carcassonne and its surrounding countryside, which you then deploy Meeples onto which help score you points. I am not going to go into detail about the rules, why would I need to when you can see the excellent episode of Tabletop in which it featured below!

Now what makes it my obsession, well I own all of the expansions for the base game, that’s right every single tile official tile made for the game over 40 different expansions, though I don’t own the individual release of River II owning it inside Count, King and Robber, nor the Spielbox release of The Cults which I already own through again in Count, King and Robber and Cult, Siege and Creativity.

I even went so far as to pay extortionate sums of money to buy the Die Kornkeise and La Proxada, expansions which are very hard to get hold off, and in the case of La Proxada only 72 of them were ever made.

My Big Box of Carcassonne is rather full as you can see from the picture, Lindsay got me my first copy as Big Box 4 back in 2012, but since then I have replaced it with Big Box 5 in order to get the Wheel of Fortune expansion and the full set of Meeples for Pink and Purple as 7th and 8th player sets. I have a German version of Big Box 5 because unbelievable it cost £32 to buy it and ship it to the UK, whereas buying it here would have cost me £65, so naturally I went with the cheaper option, especially as the game is language independent.

Lindsay and Megan know of and tolerate my obsession with this game, and even allow me to have a few of the variants, those being the Winter Edition, My First Carcassonne (for when I have child guests of course), Hunters and Gathers and Star Wars. But their tolerance only goes so far, in 2014 Hans im Glück, the original publisher, decided to retire the original artwork and relaunch the game with a r refreshed look for a new edition. Now I own the base game in the new edition, but Lindsay and Megan have forbidden me from buying it’s expansions in the new artwork as well. I get where they are coming from, I don’t need the same expansion twice just because it has new artwork, but the obsessive in me is really torn by it, I feel like I “need” the expansions on the new art work, and that probably why it’s sensible I have Lindsay and Megan to look after me.

With the imminent release of Temples in Japan at Spiel next week, it will be the first new expansion in the new artwork, and that’s going to be the real test, am I willing to mix the new and the old together!!!

What I am Modelling

A slow week on this front, I bought a Furioso Dreadnought so I could begin to build an Angels Blade detachment for Blood Angels based around a Blood Angels Demi-Company, so I built that with a Frag Cannon and Power-Fist with built in Heavy Flamer and a Magna-Grapple.

What I am Reading

I just finished up the short stories in Ahriman: Exodus which lead into Ahriman: Sorcerer, and I must say, I am less impressed with those than I was with Ahriman: Exile, but I think it was the protagonist I had issues with. He seemed far too whiney for a sorcerer of the Thousand Sons, too much about how he hated Ahriman when in fact it was he who made many of the choices which put him in the positions he was in.

But the one story amongst them that did stand out was The First Prince which is also available as an audio book, and that’s mostly because it was the first appearance of Be’lakor in 40k literature and he is a very interesting character with motives all of his own, unrelated to those of the Chaos Gods.

What I am Playing

Noting really, most of my play has been restricted to iPad, and that has all bee Ticket to Ride using the India map which is fast becoming my favourite map in the game.

What I am Backing

Another one with only a little bit of time left on it, but it’s Quartermaster General 1914 by Ian Brody and published by PSG, a game set during World War I using the dynamic and quite innovate card mechanic found in the original Quartermaster General. I had a chance to play this at the UK Games Expo in June and it’s quite good, all the Strech Goals have been busted through and it’s already in production, shipping to backers this month! You can back it from £35 and if you are lucky enough to be going to Essen next week you can pick up your copy then for £40 (the extra fiver is because it’s being air freighted from China).

Anyway gontake a look it’s got 2 days left on it!

What I am Spending

A little too much again!

I bought the Spiel 2015 card for Carcassonne, to keep my collection up to speed, it’s taken me almost a full year to get hold of this tile.

I also bought two dreadnoughts, a Furioso one which I have already built and a standard one which I have yet to build, both are destined for my Blood Angels Demi Company formations for the Angels Blade detachment.

Oh and I got the How to Paint Genestealer Cults book and the Datacards for Genestealer Cults, the Datacards as it turns out are another one of my little obsessions but that’s for another day.!

Feeling Broke

By michael

On 29th September 2016

In Blog

I had a horrid time at a local tournament a week gone Sunday. The tournament itself was run amazingly by Harry of Mackem Productions and he did a great job putting it together, but my not having played much 40k this year whilst I concentrated on 30k has seen me fall out of step with the local meta.

I took my friendly fluffy Iyanden army, which I won’t lie, has two lots of Wraithguard, a Hemlock Wraithfighter and a Wraithknight. But one of those Wraithguard are footslogging, and the Wraithknight is armed with a Suncannon, so it’s not that scary.

But what I had, including D weapons was so far out of line with what I came up against. My first game, against another Eldar army, lasted three turns, my Wraithknight coming off in turn one as it got shot to death by a Heavy Wraithcannon Wraithknight, and I simply removed other units in single swoops as Fire Dragons and Scatter Laser Jetbikes killed off my units one by one systematically.

My second game was a lot more fun, I played against my friend James, the eventually wooden spoon “winner” and we had a very good evenly balanced game which saw us mostly wipe each other’s armies out evenhandly. We ended up drawing, but had the game gone on another turn, his Imperial Knight would have made mince meat of my Wraithknight.

My third game saw me take on Chaos Daemons, this game lasted a lot longer, but with a Daemonic Incursion detachment with a Warpflame Host of 7 Flamers it was a really tough list. I did alright against his Chaos Space Marine allies, but I couldn’t touch the Daemons, and a Daemon Prince charging into combat against Dire Avengers is just hard to watch.

My last game saw me take on Eldar again and at this point I just lost the will to play, another Wraithknight, more Fire Dragons in an Aspect Host and plenty of Windriders with Scatter Lasers. Put it this way, I was scooping up units away with a dustpan metaphorically and only managed to kill three Jet Bikes all game with my Hemlock.

After the tournament I feel like a broken man when it comes to 40k, I am just that far behind in the meta, I don’t know what to do to catch up. I like fluffy armies and taking the most powerful broken units, well it’s something you won’t really see me do. But I have to do something, i don’t mean it like as in I want an army that will curb-stomp all others, I just want one that can stand on its own and get me mid table finishes at tournaments.

People keep saying I should go back to my drop pod Space Wolves list and play it as Blackmanes for the free drop pods, or throw in some Wulfen or Thunderwolf Cavalry, but that would to me, feel like the first steps on the road to power gaming.

Anyway it’s something to think about I guess.
What I am Modelling
Trying to get back my hobby mojo, I am going to be playing some Kill Team at the club, so I am building two 200pts kill teams, a Millitarium Tempestus one and a Blood Angels one.

The Millitarium Tempestus one consists of five Tempestus Scions, with a Hot Shot Volley Gun, Plasma Gun and a Tempestor with a Bolt Pistol and Chainsword, and accompanied by a Taurox Prime with Missile Launcher and Autocannons.

The Blood Angels kill team is the example squad from the Kill Team booklet, I have added a Blood Angels upgrade sprue to give the Space Marine kit just enough Blood Angels stuff to make it cool. It’s my first time using the new Space Marine kit, I haven’t had to buy a Space Marine kit for some years and I have to say it’s pretty good as kits go.
I have also built a Blood Angels Terminator Librarian, well it came packaged as a Deathwatch Terminator Librarian, but they were the same price and this came with a Deathwatch Upgrade Sprue I can add to the bitz box.

What I am Reading

I finished Praetorian of Dorn, and I have to say wow, what an ending! It’s a brave book, changing something somprbipusly fundamental about the fluff, it kept me reading right until the end.

I also read Ahriman:Exile by John French and I also really enjoyed that book, it was quite interesting to see Ahriman on the back foot, not sure of himself or his direction, but I very much enjoyed the book and have no moved on to the short story collection Ahriman: Exodus which so far is a little slow going, but I expect it will pick up.

What I am Playing

Got three games of Kill Team in the other night using the Millitarium Tempestus. The first game I played against Tyranids, with three Tyranid Warriors and six Genestealers, and that game went quite well, he deployed quite spread out which allowed me to keep my team together hopping in and out of the Taurox taking out the nids one by one.

The second game was a total whitewash, as five Ravenwing Black Knights shot me to death with Plasma.

The third game was against 15 Dark Angels scouts, who as well as infiltrating made a scout move and were able to bring down a heavy rain of fire on me, lasted three turns, but my Scions couldn’t cope with the fire, and the individual scouts charging the Taurox with Krak grenades made short work of that.
Overall I am enjoying Kill Team it’s a lot of fun and we are talking about having a Kill Team campaign at the club, which I am looking forward to a lot.
What I am Backing
There is just 48 hours to get in on Dungeon Fantasy, a good old fashioned dungeon delivering RPG, powered by GURPs from Steve Jackson Games. They have a great team writing it and the game box which is rather large ships from the EU at a rather reasonable $20, which is much better than what was originally proposed.

At the $70 level, which I am in on, you get the box containing the 5 books which make up the set, cardboard figures, dice and a map plus a GM screen with pre-generated characters. It’s pretty decent value in my opinion, and I have also bolted on a copy of How to Gurps GM in print and a print copy of the Companion which will contain the three Dungeon Fantasy PDF extras unlocked as part of the campaign.

So if RPGs are your thing, give it a look, and don’t worry if you can’t back it, there is zero in terms of Kickstarter Exclusives as its all about getting it to retail, and thus what you can back for will be in your FLGS next year.

What I am Spending

With the split between Games Workshop and Fantasy Flight Games happening, I went into panic mode and have bought a few things I was holding off buying until I had the space/money. The prices on them was skyrocketing and I couldn’t afford to hold back anymore.

I picked up a copy of Forbidden Stars, a game I have wanted for a long while but been reluctant to buy because I am not sure Megan or Lindsay would be interested in it as it’s quite a heavy game and set in the 40k universe.

I also got the expansions for Relic, Nemesis and The Halls of Terra, they haven’t arrived yet as they are having to come from the Republic of Ireland, but I am currently worrying about how they will fit on the shelves, I might have to put their components in the core game box.

While I was at it, I decided to pick up a copy of Lost Patrol that was going for a song On eBay, I remember the original game, but back the. It was Dark Angels in the jungle, not Blood Angels.

And it’s not technically money I spent, but I did swap a few rare Munchkin cards for a copy of Warhammer Quest Silver Tower from a dude who runs an FLGS in Glasgow, the cards were free for me from my time as an MIB, and obviously the guy running the store would have paid trade price for the game, so it’s not as big a value swap as it seems on the surface.
I also sold my Abaddon and Loken set, I had it from when I originally looked into Heresy and was planning a Sons of Horus army, well that is until the Ultramarines tempted me to the ways of the XIIIth. Anyway the money I made from that ended up getting spent to buy an Infiltration Cadre, so along with that Tau Strike Team from Kill Team, I guess a Tau army is on the distant horizon.

Kill Team

By michael

On 17th September 2016

In Reviews

After a summer filled with releases for Age of Signar it’s nice to get back to 40k, and following Death Masque we get the return of the popular Kill Team game.

My first forays in the 40k universe were with games of Necromunda, I had a force of Enforcers lead by the corrupt Sargent Hill who liked to go into combat with a shield and power maul. The thing I liked about the game was that it was easy to start and quick to get on the table fully painted (though in my case quite poorly) and I enjoyed some awesome games with my Enforcers, small games in which every figure counted.

Kill Team is kind of like that in that you get a small squad of 200pts, which allows you to buy, 0-2 Troops, 0-1 Elites, 0-1 Fast Attack. There are a few more selection rules, namely that you need at least four infantry models, nothing with more than 3 wounds or hull points, no vehicles with a combined AV of 33, no flyers and no 2+ saves.

With a force selected using this rules, you then can play as a small band of troops doing quite cool cinematic missions lead by your heroic leader. This is a fast easy way to try 40k and may be a cool way to try out a new faction without investing a huge ton of money on a whole army only to find out you dislike it.

The rules have been released on Black Library, fully updated for 7th edition for the low price of £6.99 as an ePub, or if you bought the 6th edition version, it’s a free update. For those on iOS there is also an enhanced version for £7.99.

The box set I am reviewing comes with these rules in a handy booklet, and you get a an excellent two player set which also includes a full copy of the 40k rules with a Raven Guard cover, along with a set of Space Marines Tactical Squad and a set of Tau Fire Warriors, and you get all of that for £40. And that is excellent value, its about the price of a decent board game these days and is perfect for starting out with 40k and you don’t fancy the Dark Angels or Chaos Space Marines offered in the Dark Vengeance box. The only things you don’t get are dice or templates, but in fairness these are easily acquired elsewhere.

So getting back to the game, when you build your army there is one thing you should bear in mind, and that is that when you add dudes to your team, although they may act as individuals in the game, you still buy them as a unit, so if you only want say 4 Space Marines, you still pay the price for 5 of them, so mixing and matching units can get quite hard.

The model with the highest leadership becomes your team leader and gets what is in effect a mini Warlord trait, which is chosen exactly the same way, by rolling a D6. You can then nominate three non-vehicle models to be specialists, and you can pick from one of five categories, Combat (melee orientated), Weapon (shooting orientated), Dirty Fighter (dirty tricks), Indomitable (making the model a bit special), or Guerrilla (movement orientated). When you pick your specialist you then get to given them a special rule from the category, for example in the Raven Guard kill team data sheet included in the rule book, a model armed with a Missile Launcher, is an Indomitable Specialist and gets the Relentless Special Rule, meaning he can fire that Missile Launcher on the move. Now you only get one of each speciality so no giving yourself multiple versions of the same specialist.

The book also contains six special Kill Team missions which are played on a 4’x4′ board. The missions do have slightly different rules to standard games, for example, transports can carry multiple units, because each model is a unit all of its own. And some codexs get a tweak too, for example, Chaos Daemons don’t use the Warp Storm or Daemonic Instability rules, but they do get fearless instead.

There is a nice mix of mission in there, objective missions, assassination missions, get into your opponents deployment zone, but they are all quite fun and short in length, so you can easily play a couple of games in a single session.

The book then looks at what the next steps in Kill Team could be, for example it suggests tournaments, linked games, and multiplayer games. So you can see Kill Team offers plenty of scope beyond whats in the box.

Finally the book contains Data Sheets fro two pre-built Kill Teams built from the kits in the box, one a Raven Guard squad, and the other, a team of Tau Fire Warriors complete with Drones. This is a cool template to use, but does somewhat take away from the fun of building your own Kill Team, but for people new to 40k, they are perfect.

So whats my final opinion on Kill Team, well its good, its very good, its an excellent kitchen table/beer and pretzels wargame, its dirty and quick to play. But, and its a big but, like with all Games Workshop wargames, it all depends on the players, in the hands of most of the players I know, it will be fine and fun, but in the hands of the WAAC players, it will be broken very easily, for example, taking an Eldar Hornet, which is perfectly acceptable for use in Kill Team.#

Its a great game, just be wary of who you play with!

8/10

New Project Needed

By michael

On 13th September 2016

In Blog

I need a new project to try and get my hobby mojo back.

So which project should I pick up and run with???

Blood Angels – got bits and kits to make a 2000pts army of these with plenty of variety in HQ models, most of everything has a transport and it’s all about hitting hard and fast, have many of the units built up already, and a Death Company Dreadnought already finished. Megan would be helping me with this one and I have a good mix of Death Company, some Sanguinary Guard as well as standard Blood Angels.

Tyranids – for almost two years I have had this Tyranid army sitting on my shelf, I have the Start Collecting box built and primed, the Hive Tyrant is just about finished off, plan is to paint it up as Leviathan. Sitting on the shelf I have a Wrath of the Hive Mind box, a Tyranid Swarm box, two sets of the Tyranids from Deathstorm, Genestealers from Space Hulk and the Genestealer Cult from Overwatch.

Word Bearers – I have enough models and kits to build a 3500pts army, mostly based around a Pride of the Legion/Primarchs Chosen force from a Betrayal at Calth set. Plenty of Dreadnoughts and some Gal Vorback, Ashen Circle and Lorgar in there. For this one I would need to buy three Rhinos and a Dreadnought Drop Pod. I already have painted up a Company Champion and a Contemptor Dreadnought.

So what do you guys think I should do???

Not Enough Sleep

By michael

On 6th September 2016

In Blog

Struggled to get to sleep last night, ended up not sleeping at all. Not sure what it is that’s got me lacking the ability to sleep, but it’s been the same the past few nights, and it’s meaning I sleep in far too late in the mornings. I got a quick two hours in this morning and was up and about by 10am, not that I would say I was functional, but a sugar free caffeine drink saw me through.

Sometimes I think half the issues I have are because of all the medication I am taking, I mean here is a photo of my pills for the week, and it’s no wonder I rattle when I walk.

This week I did take delivery of Grifters and Coup G:54 Anarchy, two games I backed on Kickstarter from Indie Boards and Games. Now I am going to admit, I have an intense dislike of Travis, the man behind the company, he is rude, arrogant and treats his backers like they are an inconvenience, especially when they catch him out in a lie. That said, his last two cycles have been vastly improved and games have been delivered with minimal of fuss. Hoping to get both of these on the table as soon as I can, and hope they aren’t added to the list of perpetually unplayed games.

What I am Modelling

Got my Word Bearers Contemptor Dreadnought with Twin-Linked Volkite Culverins finished, and I must say I am rather proud of the model, this is that standard I hope to go forward with for the Word Bearers. Let’s just hope I can keep it up.

What I am Reading

Got a few more chapters of Praetorian of Dorn read and I am enjoying it so far. Still reading Facebook and Twitter too much instead of a book though.

What I am Playing

Stupidly still noting, it’s like I keep wanting to play, but then I don’t. It’s something I need to deal with because it’s really damaging my mental health, games really engage my brain and not having a job means that my brain does need challenges. It doesn’t help that Megan hasn’t been so good in the days, nor that we are currently running up to Newcastle every night to make my nana her tea, but I desperately need to play something, even if it’s only a small game of Fluxx. Perhaps I will try and convince Lindsay and Megan to go to Newcastle Gamers this Saturday after we see my nana.

What I am Backing

Right now I am backing, in addition to Cognition #1 and One Night Ultimate Alien, Luke Slotts Year of the Nightingale, a Bahá’í inspired album of music celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Bahá’u’lláh. Now I know many of my friends don’t put much stock in religion, and that’s perfectly cool, you won’t hear me trying to twist your arm into believing, besides as a Bahá’í I am forbidden from the practice of proselytism, but I find the music of Bahá’í artists tends to be very soothing and lovely. Besides Luke is a lovely chap, when he played a performance at the Newcastle Bahá’í centre a few years ago he spent the night at my house and he was a brilliant and kind guest.

At this time the project has fully funded so I am looking forward to getting my digital copy of the album next year.

Anyway here is a video of his performance in Newcastle for you to enjoy.

What I am Spending

It’s the run up to Christmas, so my spending has gone up, as I purchase a few presents here and there for Megan and Lindsay. I also treat myself to a Pop vinyl of Spyke from Munchkin, mostly for the card, but the character will look nice in my man cave. And I may have purchased the Kill Team box, but the Tau in it will not, I repeat not become the basis of a new Tau army!

Oh and I couldn’t resist a Squirtle Squad t-shirt from Qwertee.

See you on the flipside guys

Secret Hitler Has Arrived

By michael

On 1st September 2016

In Blog

On Tuesday my copy of Secret Hitler arrived, its a hidden identiy game from the guys behind Cards Against Humanity, I spoke about it in my last post. And boy was I pleased with the result, its absolutly amazing.

I got the version that came with the nice wooden box, and that is nice and hefty, ok so the catch and the felt on the bottom could be better, but the box itself is brilliant. For some reason I thought the wood colour would be darker, more like a cherry wood, but its cool as it is, the inlaid logos are lovely to just feel with my fingers.

Inside the wooden box, is the game box, which is quite long for a small game, but this is beacuse the legislative board are single boards as opposed to ones which fold up to make the box smaller. This means they are always flat and its this kind of attention to detail which convinced me to back the game in the first place, and those boards have lovely foil in them as well so they really do pop.

The cards are printed on very good card stock, not sure of the core, and I ma not going to tear one apart to find out, but I suspect its black core card. The biggest highlight for me are the two plaques for the goverment positions, those of Chancellor and President, they are both solid wood blocks with the instructions for each role on the back.

They could have made the whole thing with much cheaper components, but they didn’t they spalshed the $1,479,046 they raised back in December, and it shows.

I can’t wait to get a group of 5 together to play this game, becuase the PnP version is good, so the physical; edition is going to be a bit better still.

What I am Modelling

Not much, I just really seem to have lost my mojo, I did a bit of edge highlighting on my Word Bearers Contemptor Dreadnought tonight, but I suspect I need to do something to get my mojo back.

Last time I was in such a position, I built and painted a 1850 Space Wolves army in a month, perhaps I need a project like that to get back into the swing of things.

What I am Reading

Too much of forums, Facebook and Twitter, I find myself getting angry with people on the Internet at the moment, especially with people who have been calling for a ban of the burkini, or demanding that Caster Semenya be reclassified as a man for her races.

Anyway stuff like that is dragging me away from reading books, I did get started on two chapters of Praetorian of Dorn, and I have put a few more serious science fiction books onto my Kobo, but I must read more!

What I am Playing

Because Lindsay was unwell Tuesday night I never got the Durham Raiders and with the next two weeks being dominated by looking after my nana whilst my cousin is on holiday, i won’t be getting any war games in, I will try to get something in on Sunday, but I may have left it too late to arrange a game.

I will however play a game with Megan in the daytime tomorrow!

What I am Backing

This week I backed Ultimate One Night Alien, yeah I know it’s not the worlds most sophisticated game, but I have the rest of the Ultimate One Night games as well as Ultimate Werewolf Deluxe and I do enjoy these games. Though I do confess Ultimate Werewolf Deluxe rarely gets a run out as I don’t often to get to play games in groups the size of what it needs and even then, Lindsay and Megan prefer the one night version and make thier feelings on that very clear.

Anyway the One Night games are a favourite when we go to Consett Tabletop Gaming Society and have lead to several classic moments, my favourite still being when Lindsay declared that Megan couldn’t be a Werewolf becuase she and Emily were, though I may have gotten the names wrong there. Its a game that gets a gaming session started and gets people in a good mood, and at the end of the day thats what counts isn’t it.

Its up on Kickstarter until the 28th September, so take a look and if you fancy it, go back it.

What I am Spending

I got my PIP this week so I have spent a bit of money, I paid for entry to the Durham Dakka Warhammer 40,000 tournment, hoping to take my Adeptus Mechanicus, but the Space Wolves will be a back up if I don’t get those painted up in time.

I also paid Harry of Mackem Productions for the work he will soon be doing on my Harlequins from Death Masque, as I said, I don’t think I could do them justice so I am handing them over to him to paint in the Veiled Path scheme from Warriors of the Laughing God, simply because I think it looks amazing.

One thing I have done when not in a good state of mind is spend some money I didn’t need to spend, I don’t know why,. but for some reason I purchased another copy of Deathwatch Overkill, I already bought it when it came out in March so why I would buy another copy is a loss to me. It really worries me when things like that happen, I am like my mother, when I am down and depressed, I spend money, usually money I can’t afford to spend. I belived up unitl this Tuesday that I had it under control, but clearly I haven’t.

Lindsay and Megan are normally pretty good at spotting when I am in a funny turn like that, but in this case it was missed, it’s possible it happened while I was in Cardiff as that’s where the shop is I ordered it from, but I did manage to sell it for not too massive a loss to a guy at Durham Raiders.

Headaches and Diabetes

By michael

On 27th August 2016

In Blog

It’s been a slow week, not much has happened at all and I haven’t done very much at all. The weather can’t make up its mind, one day it’s miserable and raining cats and dogs, the next it’s far too hot for me to do anything.

But the one constant thing about this week has been a stabbing constant headache, they started Tuesday and have continued since, I would go and see the doctor, but they will probably blame it on my diabetes.

It’s quite annoying really, every little thing I need medical assistance with, the doctors blame on diabetes, I know it’s a serious disease and I ought to take it far more seriously than I do, but when everything that can go wrong is said to be because of diabetes it’s gets a bit dull.

“Doctor I have been stabbed”, “Well that could be your diabetes” “Doctor I have been throwing up after eating some questionable meat yesterday” “Probably the diabetes” “Doctor my foot fell off”, well actually the last one could be diabetes, but you get my point. Given that I had a head injury when I got run over a couple of years ago, it’s quite irritating when they ignore that as a possible cause of any of my neurological issues.

I did actually get some success with the doctors when my new one decided that the last doctor diagnosing me with CFS could have been premature, so she ordered more blood tests and found I had undetectable levels of Vitamin D, which is probably because I am usually in too much pain to go out much and the sun kinda burns, when I go outside, plus there is nature and stuff. Anyway I now get monthly injections of something and a lovely tasting Vitamin D pill three times a week that honestly doesn’t taste like old feet.

So back to the headaches, and yeah I am not sure what I am gonna do about them, it could be a caffeine related. I haven’t had a cup of tea in about a month, but that caffeine has been replaced with that from cans of Pepsi Max, so I tried having a caffeine free day (so long as Tango Sugar Free doesn’t have caffeine in it), and was I wrong, the headache was just as bad, but then j got hit by a headache of caffeine withdrawal, something I haven’t experienced since the last Nineteen Day Fast I actually participated in, diabetes means I don’t take part in the fast!

Anyway so I currently have no idea why I am getting these headaches or what to do about them, if they are still here on Tuesday I will reluctantly make an appointment to see the doctor, even though it know they will try and blame them on diabetes.

What I am Modelling

Currently I have a few too many projects on my desk, the headache means that it’s been rather difficult for me to do much work, though I have managed to do a little work on a Contemptor Dreadnought for my Word Bearers, it’s going to be armed with two twin linked Volkite Culverins, simply because I think they are such a cool weapon. I airbrushed the majority of the model Mephiston Red, then washed it with Nuln Oil, then doing a little tidying up with Mephiston Red again. After this I dry brushed it with Astorath Red, Ryza Rust and finally Hexos Palesun, which I think has given a nice set of red armour, and this is a scheme I will replicate for the rest of my Word Bearers vehicles.

What I am Reading

I finished Angels of Caliban, which I quite enjoyed as it reached it conclusion, it had the civil war really come to Macragge and showed that Lion El-Johnson really is a ruthless general. The focus on the Dreadwing of the Dark Angels was also pretty cool and got me wondering how this could be represented in the game, but I had to stop myself there because I am not starting another army, I don’t have the room!

I then digested two short stories, Blackshield by Chris Wraght which was very cool and introduced to the fiction an interesting character from Betrayal, as well as giving us an insight to why some Astartes would become Blackshields.

The other story, Myriad by Rob Sanders, which followed up the novella Cybernetica and picked up a thread from that which was left hanging. This story I felt was more like classic more serious sci-if, despite being a Warhammer 40k story, and it really felt extremely fun as the characters were almost strong armed into breaking their own moral code for the greater good. As well as that it had characters straight from the Skitarii codex, giving me hope that maybe we will see the Skitarii become usable units in Heresy games.

I haven’t really listened to any audio books this week because it’s been hard to concentrate, so I have mostly been listening to pod casts instead.

What I am Playing

The headache has jet me from playing much, I was going to play Forbidden Island with Megan on Tuesday but the headaches started that day and I wasn’t much good that day at all. I have played some more Pokemon Go, though less than most weeks due to a mixture of headache and few Pokeballs, though last night it was mine and Lindsay’s monthly date night, so we went to the Metrocentre, ate at Ed’s Diner and then went Pokemon hunting. I currently have saved up candies to perform about 20 evolutions, so plan to camp on a Pokestop and put a lucky egg on to do all those evolutions tomorrow.

My aim for next week however is to play at least two games of something.

What I am Backing

At the moment noting new, although the new edition of Braggart looks very tempting, it really depends on money, my hobby budget this month is going to the extremely talented, Golden Demon finalist Harry Welsh of Mackem Productions for him to paint the Harlequins from Death Masque for me, and I also need to put £50 into the conventions account, so money is tight again. Doesn’t help that I bought a 4 months supply of deodorant from Costco today either.

But it looks like my copy of Secret Hitler is being delivered to me on Tuesday, a game which I am really looking forward to get it. The production quality on it looks phenomenal, and of course I got it in the wooden box, in the few games I have played, it’s been brilliant, it’s a hidden identities game which solved issues that games like The Resistance had that I didn’t even realise they had. And even the print and play version was very nice, though it probably helps that Drew (from The Boardroom podcast) did a great job with his printing and mounting of it on good quality cardboard.

What I am Spending

Ok I bought a Dominos work lunch for me Megan and Lindsay on Thursday as the kitchen was a mess and neither me or Megan was in any state to tidy it up, but it has been a good week for not spending. I did buy two pots of paint, Fenrisian Grey and Evil Suns Scarlet because I had run out of them, and I picked up my available comic subscriptions, that being the August edition of the Munchkin Comic and the next two issues of the Marvel Ultimate Graphic Novel Collection. Oh and I got a brand new sealed copy of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 on 3D Blu-Ray from eBay for £2.99, for various reasons, I haven’t seen it yet, I know it’s going to be terrible, but hey it was a bargain!

I did see a few games in Travelling Man I am very interested in, The Networks from Formal Ferret Games and Moops Monster Mashup from Steve Jackson Games, but like with comics the price of Brexit has really set in and games that would have been £20 for example, before the referendum, are now £24 or £25 which might not seem a lot, but when your budget is limited like mine, it can be the difference between getting it or not.