Tag: Adeptus Mechanicus Page 1 of 2

How is Hartlepool?

We have been here for a few months, and I must admit, it’s not actually that bad.

People said the neighbourhood was rough, but in all honesty, other than bonfire night, it’s been alright, but hey, I am from the west end of Newcastle so, rough is a relative term.

The sea air, as weird as it sounds, has helped, I need my inhaler a lot less and my lungs feel a lot less heavy, and there is something about waking up to a sea fret, that’s almost magical.

There are some issues here, our kitchen is so so small it’s difficult to cook in, and the wi-fi on the router is so bad we are going to invest in a mesh system.

Whilst I miss aspects of the old house, what I do like is having my own space, but I am struggling to keep it tidy.

I think in the long run the move is positive, but I do need to make sure the doctors are issuing my repeat prescriptions when needed as this far they are doing awful at that.

What I Am Modelling

I started with a trio of Kataphron Breachers for my Adeptus Mechanicus

Started off with a Praetor in Terminator Armour for my Ultramarines.

And followed up with a Techpriest Enginseer to join my Death Korps of Krieg.

After that I concentrated on the officers for the Imperial Fists and painted up a couple of Praetors first, the Legion Specific in Artificer Armour, and the Praetor Tribune.

And a Praetor in Cataprachtii Armour and Chaplin.

Then it was the Vindicare Assassin from my Warhammer + Subscription.

And then I finished a final pair of Kataphron Breachers

After which I completed an Imperial Fists Legion Champion and Master of Signals.


So what’s coming up next week?

  1. Imperial Fists Tactical Squad x 10
  2. Orruk Gutrippas x 12
  3. T’au Crisis Team x 3
  4. Imperial Fists Contemptor Dreadnought
  5. Ultramarines Intercessors x 5
  6. Silver Tower Heroes
  7. Blood Angels Repulsor
  8. Imperial Fists Templar Brethren x 10
  9. Hobgrot Slitaz x 20
  10. Leagues of Votann Kâhl & Einhyr Champion

What I Am Reading

I finished up Zachareth by Robbie MacNivan, and you can read a review of that here.

And I started Sanguinius: The Great Angel by Chris Wraight

Continuing my listening to the Doctor Who Monthly Series, I listened to The Spectre of Lanyon Moor and Winter for the Adept.

What Tabletop Games I Am Playing

Wasn’t sure where to put this but my Board Game Geek Secret Santa arrived, and it’s the incredible Arkham Horror!

What Video Games I Am Playing

Darktide hit GamePass, so I got that installed on my PC.

I also decided to play my first game on the PlayStation 5, specifically God of War, which is proving rather fun so far.

What I Am Backing

The Car Wars CARnage project

I completed my Backerkit survey for the TT Combat Paints and Washes project and picked my two paints, went for Supernova Chrome and PHR Bone.

What I Am Winning

A while back I won a competition run by Durham Prints Store for anything in their Etsy shop.

So I opted for this personalised slate signed with “Kill, Maim, Burn” on it, the warcry of the World Eaters, cause I thought it would be funny!

It’s taken a few weeks but it’s finally arrived and I am super happy with it!

What I Am Spending

I need to get back to streaming properly again, and I decided to spend my sponsorship money on a new toy, an Elgato Stream Deck Pedal, which is gonna sit on my floor and be useful for things like muting the microphone, which I think the fellas on Edge of Empire will appreciate!


Mini Consoles Galore

It might have escaped your attention, but I really love the plethora of mini consoles released in recent years.

Well the consoles themselves are cool, and offer a great way to transport some awesome games to play very easily.

I much prefer emulation via RetroArch, but the mini consoles usually bring something with them, as close to original controllers as possible.

I mean you try and get a PC Engine controller outside of the box containing the CoreGrafx Mini!

There is just something so much nicer about playing with controllers that are basically like what we had as kids, and often the knock offs just aren’t as good.

But that leads into another obsession, controllers and that’s a subject for another time!

But the consoles themselves are pretty cool so let’s take a look at what’s in my collection!

The C64 Mini

The C64 Mini (note not the Commodore 64 Mini) comes with 64 classic games for the Commodore 64 and VIC 20.

The design of this one is just so adorable, yeah the keyboard doesn’t work, but it doesn’t need to, and they even got the discolouration right.

The joystick however, is to be honest, rubbish, I hear that the standalone one is better, and I think I may invest in one.

I never had a Commodore 64 as a kid, but plenty of friends did, and I remember wasting plenty of time playing Speedball and Impossible Mission.

The most irritating thing about it was to have it load up, only for it to fail at the last second meaning you had to rewind the tape and load it up again!

This particular console is great, but I wish I had grabbed the Maxi or the VIC20 for the working keyboard, but that would have taken up so much more space.

NES Classic

Now living in the UK, the NES wasn’t that popular or common. We mostly had the ZX Spectrum and the Amstrad CPC, and when a console did get big, it was the Master System.

I never saw a NES in person until I went to university, but the GameBoy was very common.

I got this when it first came out on release day, and it’s kinda cool, but I guess, the games in it, don’t have the same nostalgia kick for me as they would for others.

I mean I have played a fair few of these games, either in the arcade or in later rereleases down the years.

The big issue with this controller is the puddly length of the controller cables, you can’t use it in the average living room without extension cables.

And the connector itself is a Wii Nunchuck port, so the controllers themselves whilst being very very well built and almost perfect replicas of the originals, they require an adaptor to use them with PC.

Mega Drive Mini

This is my main nostalgia kick, my first console that wasn’t borrowed from a friend, the 16 Bit masterpiece that was the Mega Drive.

My parents got me and my brother one with Sonic the Hedgehog, Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle, and a three pack with World Cup Italia 90, Columns and Super Hang-On.

It also came with the Master System Convertor so we could swap games with our friends who owned the earlier system, as well as buy our own games for that system.

It was far and away the best system of the era, the software was great and there were so many fun games on it, I even saved up the money from my paper round for 6 months to buy Virtua Racing for it, cause it cost an eye watering £100 back in 1994!

The mini version is grand, comes with a lot of the big hitters, but sadly missing Sonic 3, the controllers are just *chefs kiss* but a part of me kind of wishes that they bundled the six button controllers simply because games like Eternal Champions and Street Fighter II work better with them.

PC Engine CoreGrafx Mini

The PC Engine was a weird console, it was technically an 8 Bit console, but it’s 16 Bit GPU, and the lateness of its release meant most people considered it part of the 16 Bit era.

The PC Engine was super rare in Europe, but I did know one kid who owned one, that he imported from Japan, and we did have a lot of fun playing bullet hell shooters!

The mini version is a bit of an oddity, carrying both Japanese and English language games, and there are times in here that I am rather upset didn’t get an English version, Snatcher being the biggest disappointment.

Always wanted to play that game, but the lack of a modern release, and the only English version is for the Mega CD, and that was massively censored.

But there are plenty of other games on there, and even Japanese ones which require little, if any reading.

This is a great little console and the only way to get CD Engine controllers in USB, I know 8 Bit Do have released some similar controllers, but they lack the turbo switches and instead only have a turbo button.

A500 Classic

I had an Amiga A500, our best friends had one as well or in some lucky cases, an A1200, I even had a friend with a CD32!

The Amiga was the dominant platform that wasn’t a console for a very long time, and the versatility of what it offered was wonderful.

We used to have just as much fun with Deluxe Paint, as we did with Lemmings, Sensible World of Soccer, Alien Breed and Zool!

This platform was fantastic and the death of Commodore after the failure of the CD32 was devastating to me, but it did essentially allow to IBM PC platform to become the dominant force it is today.

The A500 Mini is the most recent addition to my collection and thanks to the developers awesome system, I have a 32GB USB stick, with every game ever published for the platform on it, including all of the CD32 games.

My only criticism is that the game pad, whilst clearly taking inspiration from the CD32 controller, is quite a bit different, but I guess I can live with that.

SNES Classic

Being British, the SNES, well it wasn’t as big a deal as it’s Sega rival was to us.

I did have a friend with one and there were some absolutely killer games released in the platform. The Mario games are up there as classics, for a long time it was the only way to play Street Fighter II at home, and Mario Cart made its debut here.

The SNES Classic is one of the best mini console offerings, the controller cables are a bit longer than those offered by the NES Classic, but are still rather short.

Playstation Classic

This is the dud of the collection, Sony looked to jump on the bandwagon and put together this offering which in all honesty, just missed the mark, by a long shot.

Ok you have some classics, like Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy VII, but so many games that should have been on here aren’t.

No Gran Turismo, Wipeout, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, Crash Bandicoot or Tomb Raider to name a few.

The controllers are great, but it really feels like Sony just couldn’t be arsed with this one.

The modding scene around it is great, and it’s something I should probably consider, but this is technically Lindsay’s as I bought it as a birthday present for her, so she would need to approve any modding!

What Next

Well there are other options out there, the main one I really want is the SNK Neo Geo Arcade Stick Pro, which will combine my desire for an arcade fighting stick, and a Neo Geo games machine.

An Atari Flashback 9 or better is also wanted, as well as the Mega Drive Mini 2, but that looks to be out of production after only being released in October.

But beyond that, that would be it, unless a Master System Mini or a Dreamcast Mini hits the market. I really cannot see a PlayStation 2 Classic, due to the poor response to the PlayStation Classic and the technical issues would probably prevent development of a Saturn or N64 Mini.

I already have a PlayStation 3 and a Wii, which can play GameCube games, so realistically the only think I want that’s not a mini console, is a PlayStation 2.

What I Am Modelling

I painted up a unit of Sicaran Infiltrators to add to my Adeptus Mechanicum army.

And begun the painting of a T’au Fire Warriors Strike Team, which I finished up last Saturday night.

I am then finished a Necron Chronomancer.

And I am currently working on a pair of Necron Tomb Blades.


So what’s coming up next on the horizon?

  1. Necron Tomb Blades x 2
  2. Imperial Fists Tactical Squad x 10 & Praetor
  3. Ork Nobz x 5
  4. Kataphron Breachers x 5
  5. Oruck Gutrippas x 12
  6. Blood Angels Assault Intercessors x 5
  7. T’au Crisis Team x 3
  8. Imperial Fists Contemptor Dreadnought
  9. Ultramarines Intercessors x 10
  10. Silver Tower Hero’s

What I Am Reading

I listened to The Great Clans of Rokugan Volume One, which was pretty good, but I had read a couple of the stories before I think.

Still working through my re-listen of the Dr Who Monthly Advenntures, and I listened to Red Dawn this fortnite.

I am also listening to Kasrkin, and I am very happy to hear that the Cadians remain, Space Geordies!

Also slowly making my way through Zachareth.

What Tabletop Games I Am Playing

On Saturday, myself, Lindsay and Megan played a game of Ticket to Ride London, and I lost, really badly, Megan blocked a route which ruined my whole strategy, but that’s the game!

On the Tuesday I enjoyed a couple of game of Just Oney with Lindsay, Megan and Jane, we only scored 5 on one game and a perfect 13 on another.

What I Am Spending

I grabbed the new rulebook for Dropfleet Commander so I can sort out running some battle reports and demos of this amazing game!

I also bought the Leagues of Votann dice, I am not sure if I want an army of these guys, but I grabbed the dice in case I do.

I got a four pack of USB Sticks, I only wanted a single 16GB stick, but turned out the 4 pack was the cheapest option for that, weirdly.

I needed a 32GB stick as well for the Amiga games, so picked up the same type, just bigger.

And I replaced the little drawer I keep my USB sticks etc with a new one.

My beloved fridge, that I have had since I started university in 2001, has died, it was a fair few years old when I got it, and it’s lasted for 21 years with me, at times having to serve as the houses main fridge.

The last 10 years it’s been exclusively for the storage of pop, snacks and medicine, and since we moved was kept in my studio.

But last week it ceased functioning all together, and we had a look on eBay and Facebook Marketplace and found this London themed Husky fridge for £50, and we picked it up on Wednesday night.

I managed to score a cheap copy of Marvel’s Avengers for PS5, I know it’s had mixed reviews, but you can’t go wrong for £8.

I wanted the PS5 version because it has Spider-Man in it!

We also grabbed a 4TB Hard Drive to add to the PLEX server, adding Paul’s library has taken up a considerable amount of space on the existing drives.

Adding this drive we found sealed and unopened on Facebook marketplace, for a killer price, had allowed us to expand the server space to 13TB in total.

For Dropfleet Commander, I grabbed some Nickar Class Hunter-Killers for my Scourge fleet.

Also some fleet condition tokens, but they have all been put away now!

What I Am Winning

A little prize came, a cast photo from Star Trek: Picard Season 1, and that made me very very happy!


Warhammer 40,000 Imperium – Issue 33 Battle Report

The 33rd part of the Warhammer 40,000 Imperium Battle Report Series.

In this episode, we play the next Scout Mission!

Who will prevail in this battle between the sinister Necrons and a combined force of the Adeptus Mechanicus and the Blood Ravens!


You can buy your own Task Lamp here

You can support what I do by doing any of the following:-

Warhammer 40,000 Imperium – Issue 32 Battle Report

Trying a proper camera this time instead of just using my phone, so sorry for any issues with slight blur, focus and aspect ratio!

The 32nd part of the Warhammer 40,000 Imperium Battle Report Series.

In this episode, we play the next Scout Mission!

Who will prevail in this battle between the sinister Necrons and the Adeptus Mechanicus!

You can buy your own Task Lamp here

You can support what I do by doing any of the following:-

I Wish My Sleep Would Return To Normal

The second bout of Covid has really messed up my sleep, when I want/need to be awake, I am sleepy, when I want to be asleep, I am wide awake, and no matter what I do I am really struggling to return my day/night cycle to normal.

Tonight I am gonna stay awake until bed time on Wednesday again, to try and shock my system back into a normal pattern.

I have tried it already but it didn’t work, but lets give it another go.

What I Am Modelling

I finished off my Blood Warriors for the Blades of Khorne army, which I think finished off all the mortal units I have for the army.

I also painted up a Kataphron Breacher that I got from my Forbidden Planet Imperium order.

I then had a weekend cat sitting for my sister in law so I took a few models to build, specifically the heroes from Shadows Under Hammerhall, which I built on Saturday night.

On Sunday I built the next two models, a Black Ark Fleetmaster and a Loremaster.

When I got home, I finished up the work on the Auto-Choral Transmitter for my Imperium table.

And on Monday I built the Chaos Sorcerer for Shadows Over Hammerhal.

What I Am Reading

I actually picked up a book!

I have started to read Splinter Cell: Firewall by James Swallow.

What Video Games I Am Playing

I have been making great progress through the campaign for Halo Infinite, mostly working on the side missions like killing the High Value Targets, FOBs etc.

I played a couple of hours of Horizon Zero Dawn on Thursday which you can see below.

I had an ad hoc session on Sunday night Ti test some improvements I have made to the setup to improve quality of the recording and I hope this looks better!

And my Monday painting stream became another Horizon Zero Dawn session cause my hands were shaking a lot!

What Tabletop Games I Am Playing

On Sunday me and Megan played a game of Assassins Creed Valhalla Orlog, which of course Megan won.

Its a lovely game and the mat makes it very immersive.

What I Am Creating

I published the 27th Imperium Battle Report.

What I Am Backing

My First Kickstarter project in some time is Ravage by the Cybertronic Spree!

What I Am Spending

My Stadia Controller arrived. It was awful it stank to high heaven of cigarettes, I mean the guy I bought it off must be a very heavy smoker, and honestly, that’s something that I cannot stand the smell off.

When I opened a return he became abusive to the point where eBay stepped in, suspended his account and refunded me right away.

But a different one I bought did turn up, along with a Chromecast Ultra for mine and Megan’s bedroom TV.

I did buy an Adeptus Soriatias Codex and Datacards to allow me to run that army again, it’s an army I have a great love for and need to expand to 2000pts from the current 500 or so points.

I did pick up a hair drier, I need one for working with resin and Lindsay complains when I pinch hers from our bedroom, so this means I have one in the studio, which I am sure Lindsay will use when she needs it.


Warhammer 40,000 Imperium – Issue 27 Battle Report

The 27th part of the Warhammer 40,000 Imperium Battle Report Series.

In this episode, we play the fourth Scout Mission

Who will prevail in this battle between the sinister Necrons and a mixed force of Blood Ravens and the Adeptus Mechanicus!


You can buy your own Task Lamp here

You can support what I do by doing any of the following:-

Warhammer 40,000 Imperium – Issue 26 Battle Report

The 26th part of the Warhammer 40,000 Imperium Battle Report Series.

In this episode, we play the third Scout Mission!

Who will prevail in this battle between the sinister Necrons and the artisans of Mars!


You can buy your own Task Lamp here

You can support what I do by doing any of the following:-

Warhammer 40,000 Imperium – Issue 22 Battle Report

The 22nd part of the Warhammer 40,000 Imperium Battle Report Series.

In this episode, we the Adeptus Mechanicus take to the field for the first time as a squad of Skitarii Rangers face off against a phalanx of Necron Warriors!

Who will prevail in this battle between the sinister Necrons and the servants of the Machine God?


You can buy your own Task Lamp here

You can support what I do by doing any of the following:-

An Exceptional Swimmer

So I am gonna write about something, controversial, well I don’t think it’s controversial personally.

I want to write about the US swimmer Lia Thomas, whom you may have seen featured in hate filed articles arguing that as a biological male, she has no right to compete against cis women.

I saw a meme that made a big deal about the fact that in the 2020-21 season, she ranked 462nd amongst males.

But you see that got me wondering, she had to be on oestrogen for a full 12 months before she could compete as a woman. So that means in the 2020-21 season she was competing against cis men whilst on oestrogen.

Oestrogens biggest impact on a person assigned male at birth, is the extremely quick reduction in muscle mass, it drops off you very quickly.

What this means is that you have a denser bone structure that you need to work harder to make work, so against cis men, and even against cis women, you would find yourself at a disadvantage.

So how did Lia perform in the last season she competed in, prior to oestrogen treatment.

Well the answer is available for all to see, she was in the 500, 1000 and 1650 freestyle events, number 1, not simply good, she was the best amongst men in the entire US.

Her times when she swam before her transition were exceptional, I mean they were incredible.

She was an exceptional swimmer when competing as a man, and is an exceptional swimmer when competing as a woman.

What this says to me is that it’s not about her being a mediocre man who changed sex to win medal, but that she is simply a good swimmer no matter how she competes.

It reminded me of a US army study that looked at trans women in training. After being on oestrogen, they did have an advantage over the average cis woman, 12% to be precise.

However, the average elite level female runner is 29% better than the average cis woman, and none of the studies participants even reached that level.

Now I conceded, the research done into trans woman’s participation in sport is limited, and the conclusions are not quite conclusive either way.

But so far the evidence suggests that trans women are less likely to be as good as other cis athletes in their ability level.

But contrary to what people say, trans women aren’t dominating woman’s sport, far from it.

Lia Thomas is simply an exceptionally good swimmer, she has demonstrated it in both gender categories by dominating them.

So frankly I think it’s more likely that like Michael Phelps, she may have genetic differences that simply make her better at swimming.

What I Am Modelling

I painted the Pathfinder Team for my T’au Empire.

After that I finished Darkstrider.

A Thermo-Exchanger Shrine got bought earlier in the week and painted up on Sunday night to add to the Company of Legends terrain.

After this I competed a unit of Deathmarks for my Necrons.

I then turned my attention to the Skitarii Rangers that I needed for a battle report.

Currently on my painting desk are some Primaris Suppressors for the Ultramarines.


So what’s coming up next week?

  1. Ork Kommandos Kill Team x 12
  2. Corpse Grinder Cult x 15
  3. Blood Bowl Referees x 2
  4. Blood Angels Primaris Lieutenant, Librarian in Phobos Armour & Assault Intercessors x 8
  5. Orruk Weirdnob Shaman
  6. Death Korps of Krieg Medusa x 2
  7. Morg n Thorg
  8. T’au Breacher Squad x 10
  9. Fafnir Rann
  10. Ork Terrain

What I Am Reading

I published my review of School of X which you can read here.

And I also finished To Chart the Clouds by Evan Dicken, a review of which you will find here.

I am currently reading Reign of the Devourer by David Annandale.

What Video Games Am I Playing

Not much, but I did play Horizon Zero Dawn for a couple of hours on stream on Thursday.

Other than that it’s mostly been Halo Infinite, been playing Ranked Area games to get an achievement.

And some Forza Horizon 5 here and there.

What I Am Creating

I published the issue 20 Imperium Battle Report.

What I Am Spending

I did grab a Thermo-Exchanger Shrine to add to one of the Company of Legends table, one of the Sector Mechanicum probably.

I bought the Itch.io Ukraine bundle, it’s an awful lot of stuff, but the donation is the best but about that.

To help with the vlogging for Company of Legends I grabbed a Mini LED video light.

I wanted the one recommended by Randomfrankp, but that particular model isn’t available in the UK, so I grabbed this one as it’s pretty much the same thing.


My Nana

My beloved nana, a woman who has been so influential in my life passed away after a long illness last week.

Its left me in a bit of a state even though it was long expected.

She was always there for her grandchildren and anything we could have done for her was never enough.

She lead an interesting life, from her time as an evacuee, an army career, beating the crap out of terrorists (I wish I was joking about that one), time as a social worker and bringing up five children on her own after my grandfather abandoned her.

She was a tough geordie battleaxe and whilst not a perfect woman, she was always there for me when I needed her.

Her funeral is next month and I am just trying to get through until then, but the grief over losing her is kinda hard to deal with.

Nana, I will miss you, and I will make sure to make my tea the way you taught me!

What I Am Modelling

I started the week by painting the Vertus Praetors and a Captain on a Dawneagle Jetbike for my Custodes.

And these mark the last models overall for my Custodes in both 30k and 40k, I currently have no more to paint at all 🙁

After that it was on to some Ork Flashgitz, which were a lot of fun to paint!

I then moved on to paint a unit of Skitarii Rangers for my Adeptus Mechanicus army, which gives me two squads of them overall.

I then painted up some Primaris Space Wolves, a pair of Battle Leaders, a Rune Priest and some Aggressors.

I am now working on some Assault Intercessors for my Blood Ravens.


So what’s coming up next week then?

  1. Blood Ravens Assault Intercessors x 5
  2. Adeptus Mechanicus Sicarian Ruststalkers x 5
  3. T’au Pathfinder’s x 10
  4. Death Korps of Krieg Kill Team
  5. Blades of Khorne Blood Warriors x 10
  6. Orruk Megaboss
  7. Necron Flayed Ones x 5
  8. Snottlings Blood Bowl Team
  9. Imperial Navy Thunderbolts x 2 & Marauder Bomber x 2
  10. Soulblight Gravelords Mortis Engine

What I Am Reading

I finished The Rebels of Vanaheim and you can click that link to go to my review.

I also finished Cult of the Spider Queen (Review coming soon) and am now working on Witches Unleased.

What Video Games Am I Playing

I have been playing a bit of Forza Horizon 5.

I started Assassins Creed with a 5 hour stream, and managed to eliminate two of the targets!

You can watch it in YouTube here!

And on Saturday morning, quite early I had an impromptu session cause I missed Thursday with being grief stricken still.

What Tabletop Games Am I Playing

I had a game of Horus Heresy with Graham, and I scored my third win against him ever, by two points, one of which was Slay The Warlord.

Was a very fun game, I suspect that the Death Guard are my favourite Heresy army overall, I just like their grittiness!

What Am I Creating

Well I returned to video game streaming and managed to stream 5 hours of Assassins Creed which you can see above.

I have started a new YouTube series, Wargamer News, you can see the pilot here, and will start regular episodes from this week.

What I Am Backing

Gloomier arrived!

Although the Griefcase was missing the dividers, I contacted Atlas Games and they say that they are in the post!

What I Am Spending

I bought myself the PC Building Simulator Humble Bundle, cause it’s a fun game!

I also picked up a new light box after mine died just before Christmas

And I got a paint restock from Element Games, along with dice and cards for my Nurgle Blood Bowl team!

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