Tag: Sisters of Battle

Grifters & Gamergate 2.0

By

On 24th April 2024

In Blog

Gamergate was an utter debacle; it was horrific, disgusting, and merely an excuse to abuse and harass women and minorities in the gaming industry.

It was never about ethics in gaming journalism. If you believe it was, you’re seriously mistaken and need to reconsider, basically take several seats.

At its core, it was a jilted ex-boyfriend’s revenge plot that spiralled out of control.

Following events like Race Fail and the Sad/Rabid Puppies controversies, it was a dreadful time for enthusiasts like me. All my passions, including gaming, sci-fi, and fantasy literature, felt under attack by far-right zealots.

It took me years to regain my enthusiasm for gaming as my love for it waned alongside my interest in literature.

Now, there are opportunists attempting to ignite a new Gamergate to make themselves relevant again or simply to stir up anger for profit. I refuse to let this happen again.

Take Mark Kern, for example, a once-prominent figure now irrelevant since being ousted from his company in 2013 due to his egregious behaviour.

And it’s disheartening to see creators I once admired, like Lady Decade, getting involved, which really stings.

Yet they persist, desperately seeking to spark a new “scandal”. Their efforts with Sweet Baby, who actually advised for widely praised changes in games, have failed.

They’ve targeted Stellar Blade, lauding it as “Game of the Year” material solely for its characters tits and arse and ‘jiggle physics’, blatantly ignoring the story and gameplay, they never mention that at all, so I have no idea if the game is actually any good.

Now, they’re criticising a tabletop RPG adaptation of Tomb Raider because it focuses on uncovering historical truths rather than grave-robbing. Clearly, they’ve never engaged with the Survivor Trilogy, which explores similar themes.

Furthermore, there’s constant griping about the portrayal of women in games, claiming they all should look like porn stars with heavy makeup.

Take Aloy, for example; they call her ugly when in fact, she’s stunning and lives in a post-apocalyptic world devoid of beauty salons. And Mary Jane in Spider-Man is portrayed beautifully in a realistic way.

So, if you see me confronting these chuds, know that I’m not backing down this time. This is my hobby, and these ignoramuses need to understand it’s not just a space for cis-het white men!

What I Am Modelling

Started the week with some Tyranids, specifically the Neurolictor

Then the Neurotyrant and its Neuroloids

As well as rebasing my Lictor on to the new 50mm base size

I then painted some Thermic Plasma Regilatoes for Zone Mortalis

And a Haemotrope Reactor too

After that I worked on some Wulfen for my Space Wolves

After that I turned to the Flesh Eater Courts and painted the Royal Beastflayers

Then a couple of Teleport Homers for the Blood Angels

And a squad of Seraphim for my Sister of Battle

https://www.instagram.com/p/C6Aa20RI99h/?igsh=OHk4aDU2YW00czY=

The Boarding Actions Terrain was finished up as well. This stuff is going to be used for my Zone Mortalis table mostly, the idea being it’s going to be the neglected and horrible service corridors of my hive

https://www.instagram.com/p/C5_H27rNeyy/?igsh=MXZjb2g5c3ZpdTFrZw==

I still want to add the marketplace stuff, a gang stronghold and some promethium containers, perhaps another set of shipping containers, but for now, I am quite happy with this!

And these Dark Angels Aggressors were finished as well!

https://www.instagram.com/p/C6C9y6qI-dA

So what’s next?

  1. Sisters Repentia x 4
  2. Hobgrot Slittaz x 10
  3. Drycha Hamadreth
  4. Sneaky Snufflers x 12
  5. Lasrifle Section c 20
  6. Arco-Flaggents
  7. Dark Angels Intercessors x 10
  8. Space Wolves Infiltrators x 10 and Battle Leader in Phobos Armour
  9. Paychophage
  10. Mega Boss on a Maw-Krusha

What I Am Reading To

I listened to Mort by Terry Pratchett my first of the new Discworld audiobooks, a real classic story and a hell of an update with a stellar cast!

I weirdly find it far easier to listen to the Discworld books than read them, dunno what it is, but the structure just seems to work better in audio, for myself that is!

Then I moved onto The Natural History of Fear by Jim Mortimer which was fairly interesting, but depressing, but a really cool twist at the end!

I have now started on Deathworlder by Victoria Hayward and am almost through it!

What Tabletop Games I Am Playing

I played Alex and his Tyranids in the 40K League on Thursday

https://www.instagram.com/p/C58zbCNNUk8/?igsh=MTN1Zm4yanMxZ2R1Mw==

The game went ok until it started and then my army was dismembered, I did ok on objectives, but it was a solid loss

Then on Friday I played Edward and his Aeldari, also for the league

https://www.instagram.com/p/C5_KInENPnH/?igsh=MWFkNnN3N285cGd6cw==

And that was a game in which we both thought I would be tabled by turn 3, but I managed to keep it going and survived the whole game, still a major loss!

Think I am gonna win the leagues wooden spoon!!!

What Video Games I Am Playing

Not much this week, Megan is anxiously waiting on something so I have leant them my Steam Deck to help distract them, they are mostly using it to play Disney Dreamlight Valley, on my Xbox profile I might add!

But I did play some Boltgun

What I Am Creating

We published a new episode of Edge of Empire, this one was a Solar Auxilia special!

What I Am Spending

Not really anything this week, I grabbed a HDD caddy to add a further 2TB for the PLEX server

From a mystery bundle on Fanatical, I got Internet Cafe Simulator 2 and GRIP, and also purchased Oddworld: Soulstorm Enhanced Edition.

I also bought the Train Sim 4: Top Up Your Timetable bundle from Humble Bundle, which scored me

  • West Somerset Railway Route Add-On
  • Southern BR Class 313 EMU Add-On
  • Hamilton – Oakville Add-On
  • Hagen – Finnentrop Route Add-On
  • Duisburg – Bochum Route Add-On
  • Aschaffenberg – Gemunden Route Add-On
  • Marseille – Avignon Route Add-On
  • Boston – Providence Route Add-On
  • Brighton – Eastbourne & Seaford Route Add-On
  • Mainz – Koblenz Route Add-On
  • DB BR 101 Loco Add-On
  • Cheyenne – Laramie Route Add-On
  • DB BR 363 Loco Add-On
  • Ambergate – Chinley & Buxton Route Add-On

And my Saints Row IV key from a previous Humble Bundle finally landed in my account!

A Bit Bummed About The Stormcast

By

On 15th April 2024

In Blog

I love my Stormcast Eternals army, I mean its really fun to play with and I actually love the theme of the army, especially as I play Celestial Vindicators and their colour scheme is amazing.

My favourite chamber, is Sacrosanct and well, GW have announced that 80% of my army is being squatted, which is a real bummer.

Ok the old school Liberators look like they will be fine with the new rules, but so much of my army, seemingly isn’t going to have a Thunderstrike replacement, so yeah pretty bummed out.

It just is quite dishartneing that an army I put my heart and soul into, has lasted barly 6 years before being yeeted.

Its got me feeling really down about AoS 4.0, like I am probably gonna skip the launch box, cause honestly, I am not sure if I buy it, how long those models will be useable for.

I mean I get it, I have argued for a long time that the Stormcast range is bloated, but yeah, that was a pretty extreme solution.

So yeah, I just don’t know if I still have the passion for the game anymore, I just don’t know.

What I Am Modelling

I started the week by painting the Homunculus for my Drukhari army

After which I moved onto a batch of Blood Angels, starting with a Rhino for the Death Company

Then a few Chaplins, starting with one in Terminator Armour

Then a Primaris Chaplain

Followed by one in MKIV Armour

And finally one with a Jump Pack

After that I painted a squad of Death Company, although I left one in the storage box so I will need to get him and paint him to complete the squad

I also painted Saint Celestine and her Geminae Superia

And finally I painted the Expeditionary Navigator for my Solar Auxilia

So what’s up next

  1. Wulfen x 5
  2. Seraphim x 5
  3. Royal Beastflayers
  4. Sisters Repentia x 4
  5. Dark Angels Aggressors x 3
  6. Hobgrot Slittaz x 10
  7. Dryca Hamadreth
  8. Neurotyrant
  9. Sneaky Snuffles x 12
  10. Arco-Flaggents x 4

What I Am Reading

I listened to Grim Investigations and finished it this month!

And now I have started on Terry Pratchett’s Mort!

What Tabletop Games I Am Playing

Had a game of Horus Heresy with Russel on Friday night, we played Strike and Fade, and I lost 7-3, could have gotten a draw but alas my Terminators just failed to get to the objective in the last turn!

What Video Games I Am Playing

Got back to some Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag

What I Am Backing

Our copy of the Firefly The Board Game 10th Anniversary Collectors Edition arrived last Friday and its amazingly huge and I love it!

Cannot wait to play it!

What I Am Spending

It was Humble Choice, so I grabbed that and got

I also bought myself Ghost of Tsushima for PS5, I have been hunting for it, at a reasonable price for a while, and it was on sale at the local Argos, so I leapt on it!

Next on my want list for PS5 is God of War Ragnarok

I also grabbed a couple of extra bottles for our Sodastream, cause ours always need washing and I figure a couple extra will be helpful

I also picked up the mat for my Zone Mortalis board, it’s a 4×4 Undehive Mat from Deep Cut Studios that I ordered from Entoyment

And I also bought these Grundstock Thunderers for my Kharadron Overlord force!

I picked up some Assault Intercessors from a trade on Facebook, no bases, but I have plenty spare

And a second Solar Auxilia Battlegroup was aquired

Moved From Docker, But Its Better In The Long Run!

By

On 9th March 2024

In Blog

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

Followed by a Heavy Support Squad for my Imperial Fists, armed with Heavy Bolters.

Then I painted some Spite Revenants for my Sylvaneth.

As well as a Branchwych for them too

I then finished up a Penitent Engine for the Sisters of Battle

Before painting another Loonboss on Giant Cave Squig

I am now working on some Vigilors for the Stormcast Eternals

So whats up next?

  1. Vigilors x 10
  2. Nexus Syphon
  3. Chief Librarian Tigurius & Primaris Librarians x 2
  4. Homonculus
  5. Bloodletters x 10
  6. Saint Celestine
  7. Death Company x 10, Chaplain & Rhino
  8. Stabbas x 40
  9. Wulfen x 5
  10. Ultramarines Hellbalsters x 5

What I Am Reading

Not much, but I did listen to Cypher: Lord of the Fallen by John French which was very interesting.

What Tabletop Games I Am Playing

On Wedensday I played a Hartlepool League game with Leon, and his T’au kicked my arse!

I had another game of 40K for the Hartlepool League with Dale on Saturday, and despite his very good list, I didn’t lose as badly as expoected!

What Video Games I Am Playing

I have returned to Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag.

What I Am Spending

I bought myself a few bits of DLC

Resolutions Update – January 2024

By

On 2nd February 2024

In Resolutions Update

An update of where I am at now for this years resolutions!

Complete 6 Combat Patrols – 16.67% Complete

I have now gotten a Dark Angels combat patrol and bought the Bloodletters I need to complete that Combat Patrol.

The Sisters of Battle Combat Patrol is now complete with the painting of a Rhino

So on the production line, we have:-

  • Chaos Daemons
  • Chaos Space Marines
  • Dark Angels
  • Tyranids

For the Dark Angels I completed the Chaplain and Redemptor Dreadnought

Technically I did get the new Space Marines one done with the finishing up of a Librarian in Phobos armour, but I am not sure I am counting that!

I plan to purchase a Sister of Silence squad next month to allow me to get a Custodes Squad done.

Bring My Gloomspite Gitz to 2000 Point – 49.5% Complete

This month I got the Fungoid Cave Shaman and two units of Stabbas painted up!

At the moment, we have painted and ready to play, which comes to 990 points

LEADERS

Mollog
Loonboss
Fungoid Cave-Shaman
Zarbag

UNITS

Moonclan Shootas x 20
Moonclan Shootas x 20
Moonclan Stabbas x 20
Moonclan Stabbas x 20

Sitting left to build/paint are

  • Boingrot Bounders x 10 (2 Units)
  • Squig Hoppersx 10 (2 Units)
  • Loonsmasha Fanatics x 10 (2 Units)
  • Sporesmasha Fanatics x 10 (2 Units)
  • Moonclan Stabbas x 40 (2 Units)

Get My Drukhari To 2000 Points

No progress

Complete My Video Game Geek Hardcore 10! – 20% Complete

Due to a technicality, my list wasn’t finalised 🙁

So my completion of Stray and Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster don’t officially count.

So they have been replaced by Portal, which I did complete this month and Final Fantasy II Pixel Remaster.

So this month I completed Rise of the Tomb Raider and Portal and I am now playing Yakuza 0.

So this is where we stand now

Alternative Three

Also Completed

Read 40 Books – 10% Complete

This month I have read/listened to (yeah I am including audio books)

Start the Combat Patrol Battle Reports

So yay the first report went out and I am super happy with it!

And because White Dwarf included a new Combat Patrol for Space Marines, I now have that Combat Patrol for both Blood Ravens and Ultramarines!

So here is my current list of Combat Patrol options!

Space MarinesImperiumChaosXenos
UltramarinesAdeptus MechanicusDeath GuardDrukhari
Blood Ravens x 2Adepta SororitasT’au
Necrons

Trying to be Better with Breakfast

By

On 18th January 2024

In Blog

Just as the title says, I am trying to be better with breakfast, because I am usually awful at the most important meal of the day.

So I have been trying to have something warm for the meal, whilst I am struggling to kick this winter cold, that has stuck around since Christmas.

Most days I am having knock off Ready Brek, because porridge is really good for me, and this is really easy to make.

We are keeping in some frozen sausages so the odd sausage breakfast is happening.

So far this year I have been ok, other than a morning in which breakfast was custard doughnuts, but I was feeling super crap.

Other options are bagels, set honey on toast and how can we forget about beans on toast!

What I Am Modelling

I started the new year with an Apothecary Biologis for my Blood Ravens.

Followed by the first lot of Hobgrot Slittaz from Stormbringer

After which I painted some Sternguard Veterans for the Blood Ravens

Along with a Phobos Lieutenant, which completed all the models from Leviathan for the Space Marines.

And then it was the last unit for Shadows Over Hammerhal, some Bloodreavers!

And I also painted this Rhino for my Sisters of Battle which completes that Combat Patrol!

I decided to crack on with the Dark Angels Chaplain, just cause I wanted him done

And because I need him for a Battle Report, here is the Phobos Librarian for the Ultramarines!

So whats up next?

  1. Termagants x 20 & Rippers x 2
  2. Gutrippas x 10
  3. Fungoid Cave Shaman
  4. Arch-Revenant & Ylthari’s Guardians
  5. Space Wolves Suppressors x 3
  6. Screamer Killer
  7. Stabbas x 40
  8. Ork Warbikers x 3
  9. Knight Judicator
  10. Khagra’s Ravagers

What I Am Reading

I have been listening to Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales – Wings of Fury by Brittney Morris, and I finished that, not a bad story at all, and I cannot wait to play the game!

I have been listening to Steel Tread by Andy Clark, which has been a fun story, but the accents are wrong 🙁

And to continue the Doctor Who Monthly Adventures by Big Finish I am now listening to Project: Lazarus by Cavan Scott & Mark Wright.

And I have been reading The Tower of Nerek by David Guymer, which is ok so far, moving along very nicely,

What Tabletop Games I Am Playing

I have been playing a bit of D&D with Lindsay and Megan, using the Dungeon and Dragons Adventurer magazine

I also played my first game of the Hartlepool 1000pts 40K league on Friday and lost, by a lot!

I am using this list for it

Necrons (980 Points)
Awakened Dynasty
Incursion (1000 Points)
CHARACTERS
Overlord (85 Points)
    • Warlord
    • 1x Overlord’s blade
      1x Tachyon arrow
Royal Warden (40 Points)
    • 1x Close combat weapon
      1x Relic gauss blaster
BATTLELINE
Necron Warriors (100 Points)
    • 10x Necron Warrior
        • 10x Close combat weapon
          10x Gauss flayer
Necron Warriors (100 Points)
    • 10x Necron Warrior
        • 10x Close combat weapon
          10x Gauss reaper
Necron Warriors (100 Points)
    • 10x Necron Warrior
        • 10x Close combat weapon
          10x Gauss flayer
OTHER DATASHEETS
Canoptek Doomstalker (135 Points)
    • 1x Doomsday blaster
      1x Doomstalker limbs
      1x Twin gauss flayer
Lokhust Heavy Destroyers (50 Points)
    • 1x Close combat weapon
      1x Gauss destructor
Night Scythe (145 Points)
    • 1x Armoured bulk
      1x Twin tesla destructor
Skorpekh Destroyers (100 Points)
    • 3x Skorpekh Destroyer
        • 3x Skorpekh hyperphase weapons
Triarch Stalker (125 Points)
    • 1x Heat ray
      1x Stalker’s forelimbs

What Video Games I Am Playing

I started playing Stray on New Years Day and I managed to finish it and it was a really good game, and I was not prepared for that ending emotionally.

I then started on Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster, I have never played any of the first 6 games in the series as they were never released in Europe when I was a nipper, and even then they were on Nintendo consoles, which weren’t that common in the UK.

And I managed to complete the game in about 16 hours, but missed out a few achievements thanks to a missing 3 treasure chests!

I justr finished playing Rise of the Tomb Raider, great game and great story and worked so well on the Steam Deck!

I returned to Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun, its a great game and I want to finish it, then play it again!!!

What I Am Creating

The first Warhammer 40k Combat Patrol Battle Report has been published, this one was between the Blood Ravens Space Marines Chapter and the Necrons of the Sautekh Dynasty.

We also got the final episode of Edge of Empire of 2023 out (I know)!

What I Am Cooking

We are brining back the tradition of having breakfast together on a Sunday morning, and I cooked the first one, which was croissants with ham, cheese and egg!

What I Am Spending

I bought a few little games for my Steam Deck from a Fanatical bundle, these were:-

Also it was Humble Choice, which bagged me:-

And from the Steam winter sale, I bought Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order

I have gotten a new headset, but not by buying it, my friend gave me a broken headset and said it was mine if I could fix it, turned out the dongle was borked, so after asking Logitech if I can buy replacement, they told me it was still in warranty and replaced the whole thing, which my friend was cool with as theirs had already been replaced.

And for Battle Report reasons, I now have a Dark Angels Combat Patrol box!

And in the Games-At-Hart reverse auction sale I bought Ticket to Ride Berlin and Ticket to Ride Poland cause I am a big fan of Ticket to Ride!

Christmas & New Year 2023

By

On 1st January 2024

In Blog

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

Followed by some Inceptors

And Finally a squad of Infiltrators

After this I turned my attention to a squad of Battle Sisters

Alongside a Repentia Superior

As well as Sister Superior Tariana Palos

And then some Shootas for my Gloomspite Gitz

I also painted some Grot Scuttlings for Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower at the same time

I then painted up Gordrakk, the Fist of Gork over Christmas as a main centrepiece for the Orruk army!

And painted up the Gaunt Summoner for Silver Tower which completed that boxset.

Plus Mollogs Mob

And finally I painted a Whirlwind Scorpius for my Imperial Fists!

So what’s coming up next?

  1. Blood Ravens Sternguard Veterans & Phobos Lt
  2. Hobgrot Slittaz x 10
  3. Termagants x 20
  4. Gutrippas x 10
  5. Fungoid Cave Shaman
  6. Arch-Revenant & Ylthari’s Guardians
  7. Space Wolves Supressors x 3
  8. Bloodreavers x 10
  9. Screamer Killer
  10. Stabbas x 40

What I Am Reading

I finished Krieg by Steve Lyons, and that was a very very good audio book!

After that I moved on to Witchbringer by Steven B Fischer, which was ok, but the lack of Cadian accents threw me. Doctor Who and the Pirates was a lot of fun from Jacqueline Rayner and Creatures of Beauty by Nicholas Briggs was a great mind trip of a story.

And finally I listened to Gloomspite by Andy Clark, which was grim as fuck!

I have now started listening to Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales – Wings of Fury by Brittney Morris, before I play the game.

I read Sammael: Lord of the Eternal Hunt by Ben Counter, which was ok, followed by Astorath the Grim: Redeemer of the Lost by Andy Smille which was really good. Then I read The Sanguinor: Exemplar of the Host by James Swallow which was actually pretty good.

I also read The Nine by Justin D Hill which was pretty good, nice look at a character we have had a lot of time with but not much background on. The Last Loyalist by David Guymer was also excellent.

Then I picked up a few more shorts, Bjorn: The Fell-Handed by Chris Wraight, Marneus Calgar: Lord of Ultramar by Graham McNeill, Abaddon: Chosen of Chaos by Aaron Dembski-Bowden, Cato Sicarius: Master of the Watch by Nick Kyme, Pedro Kantor: The Vengeful Fist by Steve Parker, Gabriel Seth: The Flesh Tearer by Andy Smillie, Dante: Lord of the Host by James Swallow, Helbrecht: The Crusader by Guy Haley, Vulkan He’stan: Forgefather by Nick Kyme, Lysander: The Fist of Dorn by Anthony Reynolds, Typhus: Herald of the Plague God by David Annadale, Logan Grimnar: Defender of Honour by Cavan Scott, Kaldor Draigo: Knight of Titan by L.J. Goulding, Kayvaan Shrike: Shadow Stalker by Gav Thorpe, Azrael: Protector of Secrets by C.Z. Dunn, Kor’sarro Khan: Huntmaster by Graeme Lyon, Torias Telion: The Eye of Vengeance by Graham McNeil and Ahriman: Hand of Dust by John French.

I also read The Staff of Asclepius by Graham McNeill which was pretty class.

What Video Games I Am Playing

I got my VideoGameGeek.com Secret Santa gift, and my super generous Santa gifted me, Stray, Yakuza: Like A Dragon and Crysis: Remastered, all games that have been high on my wish list!

Continued on with Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag.

I also completed Marvel’s Spider-Man: Remastered, total of 33 hours played and it was a lot of fun.

I have started to play The City That Never Sleeps DLC also on the Steam Deck and intend to finish it over Christmas.

Its one of those annoying episodic DLCs, which I hate, so obviously I started with The Heist, which was finished late on Christmas Day.

And yesterday I finished Turf War, which was ok, but felt less that The Heist.

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.

What I Am Winning

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.

What I Am Spending

I grabbed myself a few bits on payday, as a treat.

I got myself a Chaos Space Marines Combat Patrol, Necron Datacards, a brush and a few paints.

I also bought a few video games

Some Minor Studio Upgrades

By

On 6th November 2023

In Blog

Following the insulation work I have made a few small changes to the studio, mostly cosmetic, but they do make it far more comfortable.

First up, I have moved my collection of badges to a set of banners that Megan made for me in the polycule sewing room.

Really happy with how these turned out, and they fill a bit of a hole in the room.

I also hung a Man Cave sign that Mary got me before she passed away, and it looks pretty nice.

And I took the fabric Avatar world map we got with the Avatar Legends Kickstarter, and put that into a frame and hung it on the staircase

I also ordered a 3D printed stand for my Echo Dot to hang on my pegboard, its been a bit of a chew on to get it, and when I eventually did two weeks after it should have come, it was in entirely the wrong colour!

Next steps are going to be something to store the hot chocolate pods in, and a couple more Ikea controller holders for the pegboard.

And of course I do need to do some painting still!

What I Am Modelling

I started off my finishing the Ork Boyz

Plus a Runtherd for some Grots

And then followed up that with a pair of Marshcrawlla Sloghoths

Then some more greenskins, this time in the shape of 10 Grots!

I finally painted the Lord Inquisitor of the Ordo Xenos, good old Kyria Draxus!

And then a Sister Dialogues for my Sisters of Battle

So what’s up next?

  1. Imperial Fists Rotor Cannon Squad x 10
  2. Death Guard Spartan
  3. Termagants with Devourers x 20
  4. Chaos Familiar’s x 8
  5. Loonboss & Zatbags Gitz
  6. Ultramarines Infiltrators x 10
  7. Battle Sisters Squad x 10
  8. Baal Predator
  9. Lilith
  10. Trukks x 2

What I Am Reading

I read a few short stories to try and get me reading again, starting with The Long and Hungry Road by Adrian Tchaikovsky, then Devilhunter by Nicholas Wolf and finally Blood Harvest by Richard Swan.

I have now started on The End and The Death Volume II by Dan Abnett.

What Video Games I Am Playing

Continued to play some more Assassin’s Creed III Remastered, and I am getting to grips with the ways its different to the previous 3 games.

What I Am Creating

I published the latest episode of Edge of Empire!

What I Am Backing

My first project in a while, but I am backing the Car Wars Companion for Sixth Edition, cause, you know, Car Wars!

What I Am Spending

Not much, but I did buy The Ancestor’s Wrath, cause why not, new Votann models are gonna be cool!

We also upgrade our broadband, from 350mbps to 1130mbps, for only a few quid a month more!

The Steam Deck!

By

On 24th July 2023

In Blog

I have worked really hard at a few events and managed to earn the money to buy a Steam Deck, a device I have been planning to buy in August, but well the Summer sale price was just too good!

I absolutely love it, the ability to play my PC games natively on a handheld device is amazing!

The first thing I did with it was to okay Aperture Desk Job to get it tested out and make sure everything was hunky dorey!

After that I took it apart, well, I took the back cover off, unplugged the battery and replaced the SSD with a 1TB Corsair MP600 Mini, after which I installed SteamOS on to it!

And then began the process of installing the games I want to play right now.

I also set up a 256GB MicroSD card with Windows 11 on it, so that I can have the ability to play games on Windows natively as well, via the Epic, Xbox, GOG, Ubisoft, EA and Amazon apps.

I also installed a screen protector, to add some anti-glare and keep the screen protected from scratches and stuff.

I used it to play through 80’s Overdrive (review here) and I am currently pushing my way through The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

Overall I am really impressed with the device, its super cool, but I do want to sort out eventually dual booting with Windows, so I can play things like the Ubisoft titles, I have the Heroic Launcher setup for Epic and GOG already and they are mostly working.

I have been having a lot of fun with the device, and its helping me game a lot more, cause I can hang out with Megan and Lindsay whilst I am gaming, rather than having to exile myself to the studio!

What I Am Modelling

I started off by painting up the horrors for Warhammer Quest, so that’s 2 Pink Horrors, 4 Blue Horrors and 4 bases of Brimstone Horrors.

Then I painted the Blood Ravens Infernus Squad for the Space Marine Combat Patrol

After that it was The Rashaar for Carnivale

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And a Skitarii Marshall

Followed by the Palatine for the Sisters of Battle

Then a Primal Lair from Stormbringer for my AoS scenery!

And finally some additions to the Ultramarines, starting with a squad of Bladeguard Veterans.

Then a Bladeguard Ancient.

And finally a Primaris Ancient

So what’s up next?

  1. Gutrippas x 10
  2. Imperial Fists Tactical Squad x 10
  3. Defkilla Wartrike
  4. Ultramarines Bladeguard Veterans, x 3 Bladeguard Ancient and Ancient
  5. Big Mek with Shokk Attack Gun
  6. Stealth Team x 3
  7. Canoptek Wraiths & Hexmark Destroyer
  8. Gutrippas x 10
  9. Elathain’s Soulraid
  10. Tazaangors x 6

What I Am Reading

No physical reading done, which is annoying, just can’t manage to do it!

But I have finished listening to Leviathan by Darius Hinks, the story is good, but the narrator was kind of meh!

I also listened to Neverland by Alan Barnes which was pretty good, nice to see Romanadvoratrelundars return!

I have now started on The Martyr’s Tomb by Marc Collins.

What Tabletop Games I Am Playing

Had a catch up game of Blood Bowl and it went very very badly.

I had two Clanrats murdered, ended up with seven players knocked out and just three Clanrats left on the field, and I lost the game 1-0

I had a game of Heresy with Graham at Durham Raiders, and, I won, which is weird!

And finally I played a game of Warhammer 40k Combat Patrol with my Drukhari and I got utterly tabled by the Dark Angels!

What Video Games I Am Playing

Played a bit more Boltgun!

But mostly played through 80’s Overdrive and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

What I Am Spending

I bought a few more games in the Steam sale, specifically the Valve Complete Pack, which got me

I also purchased, The Witcher Adventure Game as well, plus the Window Flags and Volvo Construction Equipment for Euro Truck Simulator 2, a few bits of Lego Marvel DLC for a few different titles and Lego Indiana Jones The Original Adventures.

I grabbed a couple of bargains on Prime Days, I bought a new kettle, as our one was having issues.

A 65w USB C controller to give myself a second charger for the Steam Deck, this is gonna live in the living room and will allow Lindsay to power her MacBook or work laptop as well.

And the Luna Controller was going for a song, so I picked one of them up for the collection, and its now on the peg board!

Warhammer Fest & Pegboard

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On 7th May 2023

In Blog

So Warhammer Fest, where do I start?

Well let’s be honest, there were a lot of issues, huge numbers of them, and let me be frank about the biggest issue, the shop.

The shop is something that GW should be able to and can do well, at the UK Games Expo last year they had a far bigger presence and more stock, what they had in Manchester was small and focused on a few stands.

The queue to pay was 90 minutes long, there was very very little third party licenced stuff, a few McFarlane and JoyToy figures, a small selection of the Cubicle 7 RPGs and a limited number of art prints.

So no board games, clothing, dice bags, posters, phone cases, mugs, notebooks etc

It felt very lacking in terms of that stuff.

There were a few gaming stalls and credit to them, they put on an amazing show, but because they were one of the few things there, the queues were mental.

Never got a chance to try Boltgun, but I am gonna preorder it anyway, the community lass from Tacticus convinced me to give it a go, and it’s actually pretty good.

Warpforge seems a lot of fun and Horus Heresy Legions is as good as ever.

There was one set of painted models on display for 10th edition 40K, in between the queue for the shop and the queue to try 10th edition, so you could barely get to take a gander at them.

There were 5 tables to try 10th on and a lad I know queued for 4 hours to get a turn at trying it, which if I am honest was ridiculous and a bit of stupid decision, at the Fest when 8th launched there were 20 or 30 tables if I remember correctly.

Its sad cause the last event was so good, and this was just a real let down.

But I still had lots of fun, but that’s cause I got to meet up with people I rarely get to see and play with and in that respect it was good, but still it shouldn’t have been so lacking in content.

Will I go again, depends, if I can get a tournament to play in sure, but if not, perhaps I won’t.

My Haul

So I got a bit from Warhammer Fest!

Here is the total lot!

It’s broken down into, the event exclusive Commissar!

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Some dice for my Imperial Knights and *ahem* Kharadron Overlords 🙄

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A Homunculus and some Mandrakes for my Drukhari

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Lelith Hesperax and Drazhar for them

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A Combat Patrol for them too

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A Deimos Pattern Whirlwind Scorpius for my Imperial Fists

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A Rat Ogre for Blood Bowl

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And some general swag, which includes some Warhammer Fest objective markers, some badges, patches, a few paints, and a mousemat!

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Pegboard

I went and got the Skådis Pegboard from IKEA, well I had them delivered to a local shop, IKEA want 20 notes to deliver to the house, but only £2 to send it to a shop 5 minutes away!!!

First up I had to remove all the controller mounts from the wall, then fill in the holes and paint over them.

This meant the girls insisted that I sort out the cupboard under the stairs, and I will have to take a trip to B&Q to get colour matched paint.

So I started with the cuboard sort, then filled in the holes with the filler and the put the boards up, the bits of filled wall need painting still, but B&Q in Hartlepool is now closed so it’s a trip to Stockton for that!

The pegboard went up pretty easily, I went with the black Skådis, I did consider the Uppspel board with the ROG branding, but that would have been an extra £20 I didn’t fancy spending!

The controllers are now all up, I went with the Skådis hooks to mount them, because it works, mostly.

I did get an Uppspel accessory kit, mostly for the magnetic strip, but the straps are great for holding the NES and SNES controllers, and I plan to get a couple more to hold the PC Engine, CD32, Neo Geo CD and SN30 Pro controllers.

Also, my future Steam Deck may be stored in the board using these straps!

The magnetic strip currently holds a pair of nice braided cables to connect the controllers to the PC directly, one cable is USB C and the other is Micro USB. The WaveBird receiver is also held on it too!

What I Am Modelling

I started out by painting the Imagifier for the Sisters of Battle!

And a Abhorrant Ghoul King for the Flesh-Eater Courts!

Followed by the Drukhari Raider for the Wyches.

So what’s up next?

  1. Kairic Acolytes x 18
  2. The Guild
  3. Ultramarines Repulsor
  4. Hedkrakka’s Mob
  5. Skaven Deathrunners x 2
  6. Blood Ravens Invader ATV x 2
  7. Catacomb Command Barge & Overlord
  8. Swampcalla Shaman x 2 & Pot Grot
  9. Ultramarines Outriders x 3
  10. Rashaar

What I Am Reading

No books read, but I have finished listening to Lukas the Trickster by Josh Reynolds.

And I listened to Embrace the Darkness by Nicholas Briggs.

What Tabletop Games I Am Playing

Myself, Graham, Rob and Niall had a game of 30K at Element Games, which was a hell of a lot of fun, and my first time visiting Element in person, and its a really fun place.

What Video Games I Am Playing

A couple of hours of The Witcher 3 but that’s it!

What I Am Spending

Bought a few more video games!

Plus this months Humble Choice that got me

And I bought a copy of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection for the Switch too

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