Due to family issues, one wasn’t published this month, but I plan to upload two in April, starting with T’au vs Adepta Sororitas and followed by Dark Angels vs Daemons of Chaos
Its been a tough few weeks, we have had a death in the family and some other stuff that’s caused some challenges
I have been feeling my depression quite deep and its really doing a number on my life, I am really finding it very hard to even leave the house.
I know I need to try harder, so I am going to try and have a better month in April now that the worst is behind us, I mean that is all I can do right, just keep going and try to be better.
I had a particularly bad instance of doing my normal rushing ahead last week, and it hurt some of my friends, so I need to watch myself and keep an eye on my tendency to just rush ahead and not stop to check things are sound.
I am organising a Heresy event as part of my getting back on top of things, and tickets sold out right away, gonna try and have my Zone Mortalis table finished by then so I can set it up and try and convince someone to come play on it with me whilst I EO.
I finally finished sorting out all the metadata on the Audio Book Shelf server, and oh my word, that was a lot of stuff to deal with!
I still have to sort out the authors and series, but we will get there!
I am currently uploading my BBC Doctor Who audio books, which is a sizable pile, still need to buy The Church on Ruby Road by Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson, which is the latest release, might spend my next Audible token on it!
What I Am Modelling
Its been a bit of a weird period of time, but I have painted up two squads of Vigilors for my Celestial Vindicators.
I also listened to Lazarus: Enmity’s Edge by Gary Kloster which was pretty good, but I kinda expected the bad guy to turn out to be a Fallen, but it wasn’t and that was still cool. It actually humanised the Dark Angels quite a bit.
What Video Games I Am Playing
Finished up with Yakuza 0, and I have to admit, the story was phenomenal, really good.
I also sold my old iPhone 12 and was able to afford to buy the Solar Auxilia Battlegroup as a result, which you would have seen the unboxing for video earlier.
About a month ago, I realized that the geniuses behind Audio Book Shelf had released a native Windows version of the application. Until then, I had been running it in a Docker install. However, this method was slow and could only allocate 2GB of RAM, greatly impacting performance.
So, I decided to switch from Docker to the Windows version. Unfortunately, this transition resulted in the loss of all metadata due to differences in how Linux and Windows file structures operate.
Consequently, I find myself having to re-add all the metadata. While this isn’t an issue for much of the content, as Audio Book Shelf can scrape data from Audible, it’s a manual task for Big Finish, which constitutes the majority of my collection. Thus, it’s quite time-consuming.
Currently, I’ve managed to complete the metadata for all titles up to those beginning with ‘O’. Although it’s taking time, the effort will certainly be worth it.
Furthermore, I’ve adjusted settings so that metadata is now stored with the files rather than in a central database. This change aims to prevent similar issues in the future, particularly if I decide to switch my server back to Linux from Windows.
What I Am Modelling
I started off by painting a Loonboss on a Giant Cave Squig for my Gloomspite Gitz
We did add Blood Angels to the painting pile, for these the Librarian and Aggressors have previously been painted, so those models will join the Dark Angels.
So we now have 2 of the 6 Combat Patrols I wanted to get done this year done.
Bring My Gloomspite Gitz to 2000 Point – 56% Complete
I added a Loonboss on a Giant Cave Squig this month, and next up I am going to be painting two more units of Stabbas next along with a couple units of Fanatics
The chest is feeling better, I am coughing less and I am able to climb stairs without needing my inhaler halfway up.
But the fatigue is another thing, I think I have spent more of the last couple of weeks in bed asleep, than awake, and its pretty annoying.
It having a marked effect on my memory as I am forgetting so much, and I have become a real burden on Megan and especially Lindsay as she has family stuff going on right now.
Hopefully I can push though it, and I will try as much as I can, that’s all I can do right.
What I Am Modelling
I started the week with a Nexus Syphon for my Age of Sigmar terrain box
A couple of games of the 40k league, but the third one I was due to play today, I utterly forgot about cause of the aforementioned issues, utterly unfair on my opponent and I feel like such a dickhead for it.
a bit more of Yakuza 0, its a weird game, but I am loving the story.
I also returned to the Halo Infinite campaign, the last time I had fired it up until last Thursday was the day Mary passed away, so I guess that explains why I didn’t pick it up again, especially as we moved house shortly afterwards.
What I Am Creating
I published the next battle report of Combat Patrol, this episode features the Drukhari taking on the Vangaurd Space Marines of the Ultramarines Chapter!
What I Am Backing
Nowt new, but I realised I forgot to pay for shipping on the Firefly: The Game – 10th Anniversary Collector’s Edition project, so we got that done, and I cannot imagine we will get it until later on in the year and not in the main wave!
But back in the day, Space Marines were the default starter army, S4, T4 and hitting on 3s with a 3+ armour save, they were decently tough, and didn’t need a lot to make them work well.
Plus they were really easy to paint and make your own.
But these days, they are not a good starter set, they have a bloated list that half the time makes little sense.
Here is the thing, how would you recommend starting a Space Marine army, its always been to recommend the Battleforce/Start Collecting/Combat patrol as they always included a Troops/Battleline, that you could build your army around.
But today, the Combat Patrol doesn’t contain a Battleline unit, the Infernus Marines aren’t one, and its a pretty elite force, simply not one that its easy to build an army around.
And even then, look at what is available, its so many units that its hard to actually look at the list as a beginner and figure out how to start an army.
A kid I know who wants to play Ultramarines was genuinely confused, because, they simply couldn’t figure out how to build an army, what they absolutely needed and how to synergise the army.
Look I am not saying Space Marines are now crap, its just really difficult to build a list as a beginner, and there is no starter box that represents the army as the very basic units which can form a decent core.
How would I fix it, well I would love to see a Combat Patrol with Intercessors at its core, the ETB Redemptor Dreadnought, and a Lieutenant.
Heck, why not release the sprue from Dark Imperium which had the Intercessors, Ancient, and two Lieutenants, then throw in an ETB kit, perhaps the Invader ATV, or as I suggested the ETB Redemptor Dreadnought.
Here is the crack, I ended up recommending the Dark Angels Combat Patrol, or the Blood Angels Combat Patrol, as these have generic units, one of which is an Intercessor Squad, a HQ and a couple of other interesting units. Actually, if you can, get both, they synergise well together, and just sell the upgrade sprues!
What I Am Modelling
I started the week by painting a unit of 10 Gutrippas for my Orruk Warclans
Followed by Snazzgar Stinkmullett the Fungoid Cave Shaman for the Gloomspite Gitz, which means I have now painted all four of the Harbingers of the Malign Portents!
I started to listed to The Talon of Horus by Aaron Dembski-Bowden, it’s a book I have started a couple of times, but never gotten past the first 30 minutes cause I get disturbed then forget about it.
I was horribly ill on Sunday, so played through Portal on my Steam Deck for the first time since 2007, I want to play Portal RTX but my 3070 struggles with it!
We needed a KVM for the studio to allow easy switching between the media server and Lindsay’s laptop. This Ugreen one was on special offer on Amazon, so we grabbed it and it does what we need.
I will be honest, I did really badly in 2023 and I just feel too depressed to go over them
So lets try and look forwards with some new plans for 2024!
Complete 6 Combat Patrols
This one is gonna be a fun one, and a bit easier, because I have three in progress!
Tyranids are half built, Sisters just need a Rhino, which is waiting to prime and the Chaos Space Marines is on the shelf needing to be built.
My plans were set, but then Hachette came out with the news for Warhammer 40,000 Combat Patrol, which will contain NINE different combat patrols, probably coming in late September I would imagine!
So my focus for adding will be stuff not included in that, so the the three I will add to my collection will likely be the new Ad Mech one, Grey Knights, Chaos Deamons (only need one pack of Bloodletters).
Bring My Gloomspite Gitz to 2000 Point
Should be relatively easy thanks to Stormbringer, I already have 640 points painted that I completed in the last few weeks, and I am adding two units of Stabbas and a Fungoid Cave-Shaman next.
That’s it, just read 40 books, and yeah I include shorts!
Start the Combat Patrol Battle Reports
Thats what I really want to focus on this year, battle reports with the Combat Patrol format!
I currently have painted and ready to play:-
Original Adeptus Mechanicus
Necrons
Space Marines (Blood Ravens)
Drukhari
Death Guard
T’au
As previously said, sitting on my shelf waiting to be added are a Tyranid and Chaos Space Marines Combat Patrol and the Sisters just need a Rhino which is waiting to be primed.
I also am just a few units short of the Adeptus Custodes (need a single squad of Sisters of Silence), Chaos Deamons (need a single squad of Bloodletters)
The gaming table is going up in the studio tonight or tomorrow to record the first battle report which will be, Necrons vs Space Marines!!!
Hope you all had a good Christmas, mine was fine, but I was ill for most of it and for one point over 72 hours was awake for less than 10 of them!
But other than that, it was good, we went to my sister in laws for the dinner, which was nice, and we had a great time with Megan’s family.
Me and Lindsay kept up our tradition of a Chinese takeaway for Christmas Eve and a movie, this year it was Super Mario Bros. And Christmas morning it was turkey bacon stotties with mushrooms, and the egg that Lindsay has been adding recently and Tymbark Apple & Cherry juice.
We didn’t do much in the way of gifts, we limited ourselves to £25 each, so I got Megan a book and a rainbow Stich controller holder. Lindsay got a book as well, plus a bunch of Steam games, as she has decided that she wants a Steam Deck in 2024.
My favourite present was a Moopsy toy that Karen made for me, its adorable, I just need to find a place to put it in the studio!
New Years was quiet, me and the otters went to Pauls for a few hours, then returned home and they went to bed, whilst I had a chicken wrap and chips and played the last of Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered.
Hopefully 2024 is gonna be a better year, because 2023 has been challenging.
What I Am Modelling
I started off with a big batch of Ultramarines, starting with a squad of Aggressors
And then I finished off Silver Linings just as the bell struck midnight, which I was happy with, great game, but the DLC felt disjointed because of the episodic nature.
I won a voucher from Maltesers which I combined with a voucher from some market research I did for KFC in order to buy a copy of Assassin’s Creed: Mirage, which made me very happy, as everyone knows I am a massive fan of the series.
Not much this week, but I have made a couple of changes to the house to make it more comfortable and easier to use.
The first, was to add a SKÅDIS pegboard, just like in the studio to the wall, to hold knives, and a few other bits and bobs using some bits that I had previously used on my studio board.
I finished listening to The Fall of Cadia by Robert Rath, which was a pretty good listen, and I hope they finish the story of the Gathering Storm and give us a novel of the Fracture of Biel-Tan and the Rise of the Primarch because they are so far poorly explored.
What Tabletop Games I Am Playing
I haven’t, but I did receive my BoardGameGeek Secret Santa, which is Root!
Due to the insulation work, we had to swap out a bookcase we had when we moved for a narrower one, so we went to IKEA and picked up a narrow Billy to store some of our board games.
