Tag: Word Bearers Page 1 of 2

I Like Weird War… Until It Feels Too Real

By

On 28th May 2026

In Blog

I’ve come to the conclusion that I really dislike the very idea of Konflikt ’47, not just mildly, but viscerally.

That probably needs an immediate caveat: I’m not here to judge anyone who enjoys it. Plenty of people do, and that’s completely fine. We can like different things for different reasons without it needing to become a moral argument.

But for me, Konflikt ’47 just feels… wrong.

I love playing Bolt Action. It’s one of my favourite wargames. However, World War II gaming is already a serious subject. It isn’t just a neutral backdrop for cool tanks and infantry, it represents real human suffering on an unimaginable scale. It carries historical weight, and that weight never really disappears, even in a game.

That’s where my discomfort starts.

Konflikt ’47 takes that same historical foundation and adds zombie soldiers, mechs, occult experiments, and super-science. On paper, it’s alternate history pulp. But in practice, it turns something already rooted in real tragedy into something closer to spectacle.

Enhanced SS units, dieselpunk weapons, and “Nazis with lasers” sit uneasily with me. Not because I think people who enjoy it are endorsing anything, but because the aesthetic draws directly from regimes responsible for very real atrocities. It feels, to me, like it risks turning that history into something stylised, almost consumable, and that’s where it becomes uncomfortable. At times it even feels commercially exploitative, like the imagery is being used because it’s provocative rather than because it’s being meaningfully reframed.

I don’t think anyone who enjoys the game is a bad person, or thinking about it in the wrong way. I just find I can’t reconcile the mix of pulp spectacle with real-world tragedy. Or maybe it’s the idea of extending such a regime into “what if” scenarios that linger too long over history’s worst parts. Either way, it doesn’t sit right with me.

But then there’s the contrast: I really like Trench Crusade.

I’ve thought quite a bit about why that is.

The key difference, for me, is that Trench Crusade isn’t trying to be WWI with a technological twist. It isn’t asking “what if Verdun had mechs?” Instead, it’s a mythic, theological alternate universe where history has already diverged into something fundamentally different.

Yes, there are trenches. Yes, there is war. But it’s not anchored to specific real-world battles or regimes. It’s a gothic horror setting, a fantasy abstraction rather than a reimagining of identifiable history.

In that space, humanity is fighting literal demons of Hell alongside crusader-inspired factions drawn from Abrahamic religious imagery. It’s not alternate history in the traditional sense; it’s religious and mythic horror. That abstraction creates distance, and that distance changes how it feels.

The result is that it doesn’t trigger the same sense of proximity to real-world events. It feels like symbolism rather than substitution.

They just land differently emotionally.

That said, I do have some reservations about Trench Crusade as well. It’s intensely grimdark, almost relentlessly so. Compared to something like Warhammer, it lacks much of the satire or levity that helps break up the tone. I once summed it up in a Bluesky conversation as: “there are no Orks.”

But even with that, it doesn’t produce the same discomfort. It feels like a fully fictional mythos built to explore horror, rather than a stylised extension of real-world catastrophe.

And that, I think, is the distinction that matters most to me.

In the end, this is just my personal reaction to tone, framing, and proximity to history. I don’t think it’s something universal, and I don’t think it should be. People are going to respond differently to the same ideas, and that’s fine.

If anything, it’s a reminder that in games like this, tone matters just as much as theme. What a setting is doing emotionally is often more important than what it is doing structurally.

And for me, that’s where the difference lies.

What I Am Modelling

I started out with a squad of Pioneers for my Early War Germans

Plus an officer to lead them

Also a Stug III Ausf F, which represents the far end of the army I am building right now, more crossing the Volga than the Meuse

I also painted this Panzer III, but it’s a pretty crap model, the details are bad and the print isn’t great, I ended up scrapping the idea of it being for my early war Germans and painted it in dunkelgelb with the idea of giving it to a couple of my nephews as a toy

This was fllowed by a Praetor in Saturnine Terminator Armour for the Word Bearers

I also painted up a trio of Panzer IIs as well

I finally got the Loght Mortar unit finished, so no longer need to proxy my Medium Mortar as one!

And a Stug III Ausf B, cause most of my army is themed around crossing the Meuse and the Ausf B fits that whereas the Ausf F does not

I also painted some test models for a French army, I am kinda fancying doing to face off against my Germans, and I am quite happy with how it turned out

Then two squads of Cadian Shock Troops to finish this off

So what’s up next?

  1. Blood Angels Landspeeder
  2. Heretic Legion Warband
  3. True Sons Legionaries x 10
  4. True Soms Daemon Prince
  5. Cadian Command Squad x 5 & Ursula Creed
  6. Ultramarines Saturnine Terminators x 6 & Centurion in Saturnine Terminator Armour
  7. Neophyte Hybrids x 10, Primus & Magos x 2
  8. Vanquishers x 10
  9. SD. kfz 222
  10. Deffkoptas x 3

What I Am Reading

Alas somehow, I have no idea how, the screen on my Kindle broke 😢

So I had to get a new one, it’s a bit smaller than my old one, but it’s got twice the storage

In terms of reading I have ‘t read much, but I did listen to Zardu Layak: The Crimson Apostle by Rich McCormick

What Tabletop Games I Am Playing

Not much but I did get a game of 40K in against Brian

His detachment negated most of my tough weapons, so stuff that should have been wounding him on 2 was now doing so on a 3 and that made a huge world of difference

Plus the oath of moment rerolls are so very powerful, but it was an excellent list and his played it very well

What I Am Creating

We published the latest epsiode of Edge of Empire

What I am Backing

I have backed the Worlds Beyond Brawl campaign by One Page Rules with a friend, it’s an interesting concept and we fancy a few of the models so why not!

And I am still a backer of Desert Theatre: WWII North African Campaign Stl System

And I have now backed Foldable Terrain for 11th Edition

The Cranes and Fire Engine Vehicle’s of WW2 Volume 1 has now been delivered

What I Am Buying

I got two copies of issue 89 of Combat Patrol

And this Wednesday I managed to make sure to grab two issues of 90 to allow me to make myself a Forgefiend and Maulerfiend for the True Sons Warband of Chaos Space Marines.

And for the regular delivery, my last delivery came, which completes the collection

I also bought a few video games, some from the past month that I forgot to put in the last post

  • Over the Top
  • Warhammer 40,000: Fire Warrior
  • Anno 1701
  • Final Liberation: Warhammer Epic 40,000
  • Warhammer 40,000: Gladius: Onslaught Pack
  • PowerWash Simulator
  • Skull & Bone
  • Heroes of Hammerwatch

Doubles with Megan

By

On 6th April 2026

In Blog

Bit late with this post due to illness 🙁

A couple of Sundays ago, myself and Megan played in a doubles tournament at Games-at-Hart, and it was for Megan their first time playing against someone other than me

We took this list, the rules were two armies of 1000pts so we took this list. With me playing the Guard and Megan the Blood Angels

Our first game was against a very serious pair playing Orks and Death Guard with both Mortarian and a Gorkanaught

It was a hard game and I felt I had to be a bit strict with the pair as they tried to control the game in ways that were not friendly such as picking our cards in the app for us, something which is a real faux par and extremely rude

I could not have imagined a worst game for Megan to start with and was a very much we went through the motions to just get through it

The second game was much better, sadly Megan fell ill and had to leave 🙁

But I played a Death Guard and Astra Militarium combo which was a lot of fun to play against and a decent amount of cool banter

Massive loss again but well worth it for the game

My third game was a force of Daemons of Khorne and World Eaters, a bit closer but not by much

Another excellent game and at the end we were 3 losses down, but that’s fine with me as fun was had

The event was brilliant, but there was a degree of the issue I dislike about 10th edition, and that is the problem of armies being built around the best most destructive units with the lists not resembling an army you would see in “reality”

Hopefully something that changes in 11th

What I Am Modelling

I started out with an Anointed with an Anti-Material Gun for the Heretic Legions to use in Trench Crusade

Then I painted up a Nemesis Dreadknight for the Grey Knights to finish up their Combat Patrol

After that I painted a War Wolf for the Heretic Legions, model that reminded me a lot of a rat!

This was followed by a Leman Russ Demolisher for the Solar Auxila and Astra Militarium

For the Cadians I then painted a pair of Field Ordnance Batteries with Bombast Field Guns

And for the Orks Combat Patrol, two units of 10 Boyz

And finally a unit of Word Bearers Tactical Marines

https://www.instagram.com/p/DWVK5RCiJR1/?igsh=dnd3cG1mZXBkMDlu

And an Apothecary as well

https://www.instagram.com/p/DWVLQeLCIpZ/?igsh=MTRvZ21ydWZ6NTB3cw==

I painted up a second Hellhound for the Guard

https://www.instagram.com/p/DWiAJhciKs3IB1aN6xCvLB38Mrg8gMF-972cWA0/?igsh=MWo1cjNmZnZta29kcg==

Then rebased a few Orks to modern base sizes

https://www.instagram.com/p/DWiDTipiCL-DvhAhy1qyHcgo1-79d8VR4k188A0/?igsh=MWt4bGIyNWRzNTh2OA==

Plus a Panzer 38 (t) for my early war Germans

https://www.instagram.com/p/DWmBSWgiPAGLP57MgqactNgCeTwjLQGT3EFGCs0/?igsh=d2IweHFnNjh1NXFj

And a SD.Kfz 222

https://www.instagram.com/p/DWmBppWiBkPH_HBlrM8NCY8gKQbTJP63sah4Uo0/?igsh=bjJjaWgybHF4OHBy

I also painted a Warsmith for the Iron Warriors, but he was really a bit too grimy!

I then painted a couple of models for the Skaven from Spearhead, a Warlock Engineer

And a Grey Seer

And a couple of units of Howling Banshees for the Aeldari

As well as Zodgrod Wortsnagga for the Orks

And a couple of random Grots I found half painted in the Orks box!

So what’s up next?

  1. Blood Angels Landspeeders
  2. Heretic Legion Warband
  3. Black Templar Intercessor Squad x 5 & Marshall
  4. Hearthkyn Warriors x 10
  5. Acolyte Hybrids x 5 & Acolyte Iconward
  6. Death Korps Squad x 10
  7. Cadian Shock Troopers x 20
  8. Chaos Legionaries x 10
  9. Combat Engineers x 10
  10. Brôkhyr Thunderkyn x 3

What I Am Reading

I finished Soul Music by Terry Pratchett, which was very very good, but I have been displeased to hear that weirdly some schools have been banning it.

I then listened to Vainglorious by Sandy Mitchell, sad to have have finished the main series of Cain books.

Then I listened to Death Rider by Rhuairidh James which was really good, just as good as his previous shorts which are also really good.

After that it was The Nowhere Place by Nicholas Briggs which was a good idea, but badly executed.

Following that I listened to The Devil You Know by Sandy Mitchell which was a great deal of fun to listen to again.

And then it was Dead in the Water by Sandy Mitchell, again another great audio drama.

Currently I am listening the Ciaphas Cain: The Anthology by Sandy Mitchell, which I am rather enjoying

What Video Games I Am Playing

Been playing some more Final Fantasy IV Pixel Remaster

And we tried out the demo for Burglin’ Gnomes which was a lot of fun

Assassins Creed Origins got played a little too, but nowhere near enough

What Achievements I Have Unlocked

Final Fantasy IV Pixel Remaster (Steam)

Reforged Love

Defeated Barbariccia, the Lord of Wind		13/03/2026
Field Research- Advanced

Completed 50% of the Bestiary entries		14/03/2026
To the Depths

Arrived in the underworld		14/03/2026
Veteran Treasure Hunter

Collected treasure from 50% of the chests		15/03/2026
Inflamed Anger

Defeated Rubicante, the Lord of Fire		16/03/2026
Moneybags

Obtained 500,000 gil		16/03/2026

Assassin’s Creed Origins (XBox)

Elementary, My Dear Bayek

Solve a papyrus mystery		30G13/03/2026
Raider of the Lost Tomb

Complete a tomb		20G13/03/2026

What I Am Backing

I joined a group buy for Over There Part 2 for the Afrika Korps infantry

And the first part of From Meuse to Volga, 1940-1942 was delivered, that being the HQs, Infantry Squads, HMG and LMG Teams.

What I Am Creating

We published the latest episode of Edge of Empire

What I Am Spending

Managed to get two copies of issue 79 of Combat Patrol to start off a couple of Sentinels

Plus issue 80 to complete them, along with an Issue 2 of Stormbringer

And issues 81 and 82 for the Lord on Juggernaught

And we did a 3D printing materials restock, resin and filament, plus some oil for lubing the Y-Axis on the A1 and magnets to magnetise minis

Humble Choice netted me

My Birthday

By

On 7th October 2025

In Blog

Twas my birthday this past weekend, and we had a quietish one!

On Saturday we went to Newcastle and I was able to hang out with some of my nephews and share a hot chocolate with them, whilst also popping into Warhammer for a bit of paint and for Lindsay to buy me a present, plus got the model of the month!

Sunday, we went to Megans parents, had a lovely beef dinner and some jam rolly polly!

My presents were nice, and I had a really nice weekend.

What I Am Modelling

This Captain was pulled out of a DOOMBOX and got painted up for the Blood Ravens, was a limited edition Captain, and had to be rebased onto a 32mm base as he was on a 25mm one

I printed out this Mortificator for the Word Bearers, and painted him up, to give myself a dude to prod around the dreadnoughts

And a Tactical Squad of Ultramarines I have had sitting in my pile of shame for well over a decade, they probably don’t have much of a life left in 40K, but hey, at least they got painted!

They came out of the DOOMBox and were also on 25mm bases and needed putting onto 32mm ones

Also coming out of the DOOMBox was Cypher, Lord of the Fallen

What’s next in the painting plan?

  1. Blood Angels Land Speeders
  2. Myari’s Purifiers
  3. Tempestus Aquilons x 11
  4. Red Brigade Warband
  5. Death Korps of Krieg Engineers x 6
  6. Dark Angels Firestrike Servo Turrets x 2
  7. Veletaris Section x 10
  8. Grey Knights Librarian and Brotherhood Terminators x 5
  9. Dracosan
  10. Heretic Legion Warband

What Tabletop Games I am Playing

Played my next Combat Patrol League game against Dave and his Arldari, and yeah that was a big loss because the Eldar move very quickly and my dice rolls were terrible

What Video Games I Am Playing

Still deep into Cyberpunk 2077 and I have now put in 84 hours and other than finishing the end of Kerry Eurodynes story, I am about to go to the point of no return!

Also still streaming Assassin’s Creed Syndicate

What Achievement’s I Have Unlocked

Continuing on with this little experiment, which I am finding rather interesting

Cyberpunk 2077 (Steam)

Judgement Day

Eliminate three bosses from the “Increased criminal activity” category		29/09/2025
The High Priestess

Talk with Hanako Arasaka		30/09/2025
Spin Doctor

Complete “Run This Town”		30/09/2025
Dirty Deeds

Complete every Gig in Dogtown		01/10/2025
Breathtaking

Collect all items that once belonged to Johnny Silverhand.		02/10/2025
King of Wands

Take Songbird to the stars		04/10/2025
King of Wands

Take Songbird home		04/10/2025
Bushido and Chill

Watch Bushido X with Rogue		06/10/2025
The APB is Not Enough

Become Dogtown’s most wanted criminal		06/10/2025

Assassin’s Creed Syndicate (Xbox)

The Perils of Business

Complete Memory Sequence 5		30/09/202520G
Bartitsu

Learn every Fight Skill as Jacob		30/09/202520G
Phantom

Learn every Stealth Skill as Evie		30/09/202520G
Treasure Hunter

Complete ten Raids of any type with Jacob or Evie		01/10/202520G
Keys to the City

Acquire all of the Gang Upgrades		03/10/202520G
Wonder of the Age

Reach Level 10		03/10/202520G
Artisan

Craft a Level 10 Item		03/10/202520G
Street Sweeping

Conquer all the boroughs in London		03/10/202530G
Bedfellows, Strange or Otherwise

Reach maximum Loyalty with any Associate.
03/10/202520G
A Broad Base

Reach Loyalty level 1 with all Associates		04/10/202520G
Chimney Sweep

Synchronize every Viewpoint in London		04/10/202520G
The War at Home

Complete the World War I simulation		06/10/202530G
Blade from Above

Air Assassinate twenty enemies from a zipline		06/10/202515G
Furious

Destroy twenty vehicles by ramming them		06/10/202515G

What I Am Reading

I read By The Horns by Rob Sanders, which really captures the fickle nature of the Chaos Gods and the status of the Dark Prince in the early days of AoS

I am listened to The Traitors Hand by Sandy Mitchell in my quest to do the Cain stores again, and that was as good as I remembered!

What I Am Creating

We published the Raven Guard Painting Video

What I Am Spending

I grabbed issue 56 of Combat Patrol, which completed me a set of Leagues of Votann Hearthkyn Pioneers

In the Steam sale, we bought

A New 3D Printing Journey

By

On 2nd August 2025

In Blog

For a few months now we have had a list of things we want to do to improve our home infrastructure

So that’s been things like the new car, replacing the vacuum cleaner and a new home server

High on that list has been a filament 3D printer to do the things my resin one cannot, and this week, we finally got it!

We went for the ever popular and ever reliable Bambu Labs A1! Paul has the A1 Mini and raves about it, so we figured to go for the same as him.

But he has an AMS, we currently do not (long term it’s on the list)

It’s living in my studio, because the cats don’t go up there, nor will visiting children

Assembly was fine, the video helped a lot and it probably took about an hour to get from unboxing to having Benchy starting to print

We borrowed some already dried blue filament from Paul, the first thing printed, other than a benchy and a poop bin, was some replacement pegs for our Socktopus, using an STL that Lindsay found on the Bambu Handy app

We have printed a fair few things, Megan has been especially happy with the initiative tokens for DnD and this over the screen dice tower!

We also got round to printing the storage solution we have been wanting to sort out for Takenoko

We have built up a bit of a supply of different coloured filaments to use for some toys for the nibblings

It’s a really great printer, and we are really happy with it and looking forward to way it can do!

What I Am Modelling

I started off with a second Heavy Mechanised Infantry for the Trench Crusade Red Brigade

I painted the Dark Disciples from the Dark Apostle that I had painted up for the Word Bearers

After that it was some scenery for my oldie world set

Then an Overseer for my Word Bearers

Followed by an Overseer for the Ultramarines

Then a Centurion for the Ultramarines

So what’s next on the list?

  1. Blood Angels Land Speeders
  2. Stormdrake Guard x 4 & Knight Draconis
  3. Imperial Fists Breachers x 10
  4. Armiger Helverin x 2
  5. Blood Angels Intercessors x 5
  6. Ultramarines Tactical Squad x 10
  7. Myari’s Purifiers
  8. Tempestus Aquilions x 11
  9. Red Brigade Warband
  10. Ork Warboss in Mega Armour

What Tabletop Games I Am Playing

I played Graham in a last hurrah for 2.0 Heresy, of course I lost as he dismantled my Fists, but it was a really fine game

Last Sunday, we hosted CJ and played a game of Unspeakable Words and Fluxx, I won Unspeakable Words and Lindsay won Fluxx

On Tuesday I had a first game of 3.0 with Graham, we got to only 3.0, and I can tell you this, it’s a hell of a lot of fun!!!

What I Am Reading

I finished CL Werner’s Lady of Sorrows as an audio book, fairly good read, one of the twists seemed really obvious, the other, not so much.

Good story and makes me want more Nighthaunt books!

What Video Games I Am Playing

Not much this past fortnight, but I have played a little Cyberpunk 2077

Myself, Chris and Graham have started a playthrough of Diablo IV, which is pretty fun.

What I Am Creating

I published the paining videos for the Night Lords, Blood Angels, Iron Hands and World Eaters this past fortnight

And a further Edge of Empire episode!

What I Am Spending

Ok, these next two I didn’t spend money on but rather was gifted, starting out with a Sicaran Venator that someone gave to Gamers-At-Hart to distribute to the community, and this one ended ok with me

And Graham was kind enough to give me this Stugg III, for my Bolt Action Germans

I did treat myself to a MKIII Command Squad for Heresy, which will join the Ultramarines

Will be making the guys inside as all Power Sword and Combat Shield guys as I have a MKIII banner guy to join them already, but will probably print off a couple of MKVI bodies to make two more Heralds/Banner Bearers

Of course I was saving up for Saturnine, and I picked it up from Gamers@Hart last Saturday

I only bought the Liber Auxilia hoping the other two books would be coming out as ePubs, but no dice on that thus far

I have bought a couple of games

A Bit of a Break & Heresy Camp

By

On 4th July 2025

In Blog

I haven’t been posting for a while, alas a lot of it comes down to going through my usual summer slump and a bit of depression I have been battling, but I am trying to turn myself around.

Giving myself some projects to do, and things to try and keep me occupied, I really think I am missing Company of Legends, it gave me something to focus on, something to look forward to and these last couple of years without it, well I have been doing a bit badly.

But let’s crack on and update you on my last few months, so let’s get into it!

Heresy Camp

This other weekend, I attended Heresy Camp, run by some amazing friends of mine, and how did a not “Company of Legends” weekender go?

On Friday I met up with James at Gamers-at-Hart and we played a warm up game with our armies, my Solar Auxilia and his Sisters of Silence

To remind you, this is the list I have taken.

LI - Solar Auxilia - Solar For Camp - [3000 Pts]

## HQ [437 Pts]

Armoured Fist - Leman Russ Command Tank [270 Pts]: Leman Russ Command Tank (Armoured Fist Pattern Cohorts (Check Limitations manually), Battle Cannon, Searchlights, Smoke Launchers, Warlord, Lascannon, Multi-Laser, Cognis-Signum, Dozer Blade, Flare Shield)

Tactical Command Tercio [167 Pts]:
• 1x Tactical Command Section [167 Pts]: Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Meltabombs, Refractor Field, Augury Scanner, Command Vox, Cohorts Vexilla
  • 1x Auxilia Captain [2 Pts]: Void Armour, Auxilia Captain, Pistol and Combat weapon (Sub-menu) (Close Combat Weapon, Needle Pistol)
  • 4x Auxilia Companion [12 Pts]: Void Armour, Lasrifle
    Aurox Transport (Smoke Launchers)

## Elites [45 Pts]

Medicae Section [45 Pts]:
• 3x Auxilia Medicae [15 Pts]: Auto-medicus, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Void Armour, Close Combat Weapon, Laspistol

## Troops [1118 Pts]

Armoured Fist - Leman Russ Strike Squadron [160 Pts]:
• 1x Leman Russ Strike Squadron [160 Pts]:
  • 1x Leman Russ Battle Tank [140 Pts]: Searchlights, Smoke Launchers, Heavy Bolter, Dozer Blade
    Turret Mounted Vanquisher Battle Cannon and Co-axial Mounted Autocannon (Co-axial Mounted Autocannon, Vanquisher Battle Cannon)

Armoured Fist - Leman Russ Strike Squadron [160 Pts]:
• 1x Leman Russ Strike Squadron [160 Pts]:
  • 1x Leman Russ Battle Tank [140 Pts]: Searchlights, Smoke Launchers, Heavy Bolter, Dozer Blade
    Turret Mounted Vanquisher Battle Cannon and Co-axial Mounted Autocannon (Co-axial Mounted Autocannon, Vanquisher Battle Cannon)

Armoured Fist - Leman Russ Strike Squadron [160 Pts]:
• 1x Leman Russ Strike Squadron [160 Pts]:
  • 1x Leman Russ Battle Tank [140 Pts]: Searchlights, Smoke Launchers, Heavy Bolter, Dozer Blade
    Turret Mounted Vanquisher Battle Cannon and Co-axial Mounted Autocannon (Co-axial Mounted Autocannon, Vanquisher Battle Cannon)

Infantry Tercio [319 Pts]:
• 1x Rifle Sections [319 Pts]: Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Void Armour, Auxilia Vexilla, Vox Interlock
  • 1x Auxilia Sergeant: Lasrifle
  • 19x Auxilia w/ Lasrifle and Bayonet [6 Pts]: Bayonet, Lasrifle
    Dracosan Armoured Transport (Searchlights, Smoke Launchers, Gravis Lascannon, Dozer Blade)

Infantry Tercio [319 Pts]:
• 1x Rifle Sections [319 Pts]: Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades, Void Armour, Auxilia Vexilla, Vox Interlock
  • 1x Auxilia Sergeant: Lasrifle
  • 19x Auxilia w/ Lasrifle and Bayonet [6 Pts]: Bayonet, Lasrifle
    Dracosan Armoured Transport (Searchlights, Smoke Launchers, Gravis Lascannon, Dozer Blade)

## Fast Attack [200 Pts]

Carnodon Strike Squadron [200 Pts]:
• 3x Solar Auxilia Carnodon [65 Pts]: Smoke Launchers
  Two Sponson Mounted Volkite Caliver (Two Sponson Mounted Volkite Caliver), Turret Mounted Volkite Culverin (Volkite Culverin)

## Heavy Support [900 Pts]

Aethon Heavy Sentinel Squadron [200 Pts]:
• 3x Aethon Heavy Sentinel [65 Pts]: Aethon Missile Battery, Multi-Laser

Malcador Heavy Tank Squadron [350 Pts]:
• 1x Malcador Heavy Tank [350 Pts]: Searchlights, Smoke Launchers, Vanquisher Battle Cannon, Demolisher Cannon, Hull (Left) & Hull (Right) Mounted Lascannon, Pintle Mounted Multi-Laser, Dozer Blade, Flare Shield

Malcador Heavy Tank Squadron [350 Pts]:
• 1x Malcador Heavy Tank [350 Pts]: Searchlights, Smoke Launchers, Vanquisher Battle Cannon, Demolisher Cannon, Hull (Left) & Hull (Right) Mounted Lascannon, Pintle Mounted Multi-Laser, Dozer Blade, Flare Shield

## Lords of War [300 Pts]

Macharius Heavy Tank Squadron [300 Pts]: Macharius Vanquisher Cannon
• 1x Macharius Heavy Tank [280 Pts]: Two Sponson Mounted heavy stubbers, Hull (Front) Mounted twin-linked heavy stubber, Smoke Launchers

The game was fine, I was punished for not being more aggressive with taking objectives and thus lost the game, but damn the Sisters move very fast!

After the game myself and James made our way to Moorhouse Adventure Centre where we hung out for a bit, I was going to play Zone Mortalis, but decided to come home that night cause I wanted us to pick up Graham the next morning, but there were some great games being played

On Saturday after returning with Graham, I played on Table 5 against Nick Hall and his Emperors Children including a Deamon Prince Fulgrim

The missions and environment rules were fairly punishing with vehicles and dreadnoughts moving within 3” of terrain having to fire on the nearest United friend or foe, which saw me destroy one of own Carnadons and Nick wipe out a Recon Squad of his

Deamon Fulgrim is a beast and basically ate two squads of Lasmen and my Command squad, in the end I lost by a lot!

Game 2 was on table 3 vs Johns Death Guard, which was a mostly infantry list, but damn Death Guard are tough

Combination of Mortaion, who kept healing the wounds I put on him, and a trio of Dreadnoughts just ripped apart my tanks and I was tabled again

Game 3 was against Chris’s World Eaters on Table 4 and I wasn’t tabled, which was a bonus, but his fast troops, and awesome advanced reaction made short work of my tanks.

After the game I had my tea, a lovely Chinese takeaway of chips and fried rice in curry sauce and salt and pepper chicken, after which we had a Heresy Quiz, which I did respectably in.

The next day I played Matthew and his traitor White Scars, which was tough game, the rules were a bit complicated and I was forced to keep my men out of their transports to carry the objective.

But Matthew had a pair of Whirlwind Scorpius, which just deleted all of my infantry as they tried to take the objective to the target area.

The last game, I was grudged by Mark Frost, and he is a very good player with his Daemons of the Ruinstorm, and he doesn’t use lube!

So yeah that was a horrible loss, but a very very fun game and I loved it.

Overall the traitors won the weekend, which was a shame for my side, but it was a really great weekend

I was given a little something for Edge of Empire having pioneered these events, I got some dice, Death Guard Heads and a Harlequin Shadowseer!

The award winners were all very deserving, especially Keith’s Space Wolves which won best hobby.

The guys did an amazing job, and I am looking forward to returning should they run it again!

My Own Event

I ran my own little Heresy event at Durham Raiders, and I think it went well.

We had two games of 3500pts, with some very simple missions, the whole idea of the day was for it to be chilled out and easy going.

It was a nice way to say goodbye to 2.0 and I think I would love to run some similar events for 3.0.

What I Am Modelling

I did prior to the even paint up some tokens for me and Graham to use at the event, to show us what the various status of our stuff was

There are simply primed in black, dry brushed with Leadbelcher and then washed with Nazdreg Yellow

The first models I painted afterwards were some Deathshroud for the Death Guard to complete the new Combat Patrol.

I then painted some Thousand Sons Scarab Occult Terminators for their Combat Patrol.

Alongside an Infernal Master.

Then I painted up a test piece for a new terrain project, this one is going to be for a no man’s land board for Trench Crusade, but is also going to be generic enough that it won’t look out of place in Bolt Action or Warhammer Fantasy Battle

Kind of an old worldie European looking set

I then painted up a Helbrute for the World Eaters, armed with a fist and and hammer

And then some Dark Angels Incursors

Then I painted up this Dark Apostle, who will be seeing use as a Chaplin or perhaps even a Praetor in my Word Bearers

And another Helbrute for the World Eaters followed, this time armed with a fist and Power Scourge

I then added a Knight Magaera to the forces of House Taranis

This year I want to finally play some Legions Imperialis, so I painted up the bases to make my Aeronautica models usable, went for a sandstone type scheme

And then to make my way to a fully painted Blood Angels Combat Patrol, I finished up this Impulsor for them

After that I painted a Praetor for my Ultramarines

I then painted a Gondola for Carnivale, a game I really want to play at some point soon!

And after that I finished up this Leman Russ Demolisher for the Solar Auxilia and Astra Militarium

So what’s next on the agenda?

  1. Blood Angels Land Speeders
  2. Stormdrake Guard x 4 and Knight Draconis
  3. Imperial Fists Breachers x 10
  4. Armiger Helverin x 2
  5. Blood Angels Intercessors x 5
  6. Ultramarines Tactical Squad x 10
  7. Myari’s Purifiers
  8. Tempestus Aquilons x 10
  9. The Red Brigade
  10. Ork Warboss in Mega Armour

What Tabletop Games I Am Playing

Myself, Lindsay and Graham played some Firefly at Durham Raiders, Grahams first time playing and he won!

My Knights had a game against the Necrons

I basically wiped out his army, but alas he won on points

My Solar Auxilia had a run out against Graham and Andrew, anothe loss for me!

I played Dale and his Disciples of Tzeentch in AoS, and he throughly demolished my army!

I played Craig’s Space Wolves with my Knights again

And weirdly, I actually won a game!

I also finished off the AoS League with a game against Andrews Skaven

Of course I lost!

And finally, myself and Graham had an intro game of Bolt Action in which I played the Germans (because I already have a German army) and Graham the British, I think he won, but really we were just figuring the game out

Neil who took us though it was champion

What Video Games I Am Playing

I finished Final Fantasy III Pixel Remaster, still got a couple of achievements to pick up however

I also started playing Cyberpunk 2077, at long last.

I originally bought it on GOG a few days after release, despite my system at the time only having a 1660 Ti, which wouldn’t have run it well, but I got it for under a tenner due to the very poor reviews of the state it was in at launch.

But my experience with GOG Galaxy and its cloud saves ended up having me buy it on Steam in a sale earlier this year, alongside Phantom Liberty.

I even bought Phantom Liberty on GOG, but losing all my saves in Control when GOG Galaxy crashed, has put me off GOG for anything I really want to invest time in.

So the reason I am only now just playing it now is cause with these kinds of games, I tend to wait until all the expansion are out, and then have a massive big playthough then, and well it took a bit for Phantom Liberty to come out and I was busy with other stuff.

I have still been playing some Hell Let Loose most Mondays at least and often a game on Wednesday nights as well, and the other week we had this score which was incredible!

What I Am Creating

I have started a new YouTube painting series Just About Tabletop Standard, in which I am going to paint a Marine from each of the 18 Legions from Horus Heresy.

We started out with an episode on the Dark Angels, followed by an episode on the Emperor’s Children

What I Am Spending

The grown up purchase the past few months was a new vacuum cleaner, we ended up getting a GTech AirRam Mk2 K9, and Lindsay is very happy with it, she always gets excited for new vacuum cleaners!

Our new car was also delivered, we got a Renault Mégane E-Tech which is a really nice car, quite a bit more range than our last and a few extra niceties as well, like a pair of USB-C sockets in the back and dual zone air-con

I bought some dice for my Blood Angels & Tyranids

And my Warhammer + model of Inquisitor Ostromandeus arrived

And I picked up a cheap desk mat from Temu to replace the one that Cassius has shredded up

Plus a poster for the studio

I also picked up a business card holder, specifically for use with the Firefly Board Game.

I managed to get all of the issues of Combat Oatrol I wanted, issues 37, 38, 39 and 40, to get me a Helbrute, some Chaos Terminators and some Wraithguard

To add to my pile of Combat Pattols I need to paint, I bought the Black Templars box

Which means other than Deathwatch I have all of the 9th Edition ones that can be in 10th

I upgraded the server with a couple of SSDs, one to host my websites, including this blog, and one to back up the VM images and the websites

Whilst at UK Games Expo, I did pick up the Battletech Beginner Box, I really want to play some of this game again, played it as a teenager, and want to relive my youth!

I bought Zodgrod Wortsnagga off my friend James, and I am really looking forward to getting this hairy git in the table

I also stocked up on resin

And finally a Leman Russ Assault Tank to add to the Solar Auxilia/Astra Militarium

We had three lots of Humble Choice , so I got out of that

And I also bought the Xbox Games Studio Bundle to net me

I also bought over the past couple of months

Finally Made It To Suffolk

By

On 25th December 2024

In Blog

On our fourth attempt, myself and Lindsay actually made it to Suffolk to visit my family.

We went at the beginning of the month, stopping at Nottingham so that Lindsay could do a days work in her office, she hasn’t gotten down there since the Pandemic.

So I was dumped in Warhammer World for the day, where I spent it working on the Solar Auxilia Army Focus article for the Edge of Empire website.

Luckily Lindsay’s office has free BEV charging points so she took advantage and charged the car to 100% getting us 250km of range, which is decent for the time of year.

We were about an hour later than planned due to a number of accidents that took us off the motorway, but made it with 14 miles left in the tank. Had some lasagna then off to bed.

After spending the morning with my mum and dad, we nipped out to charge the car, and have a bite to eat in McDonalds, before picking up three of the nibblings.

We then took them to Wendy’s in Colchester for lunch and played some mini golf in Hollywood Bowl.

After which we returned them home, and went to my parents where we enjoyed some fajitas!

And on Sunday we headed him, it was a super short trip, but we really needed to see my mum and I am really glad I did

What I Am Modelling

It’s been a tough few weeks due to the cold, and personal stuff, so not gotten a lot done

I started out with the Dwarf Fleet for Kings of War Armada

Then I painted up a squad of Phalax Warders for the Imperial Fists, this squad being fully 3D printed

I also painted up a table for Megan to decorate the Christmas cake with

And a character for my Word Bearers who can act as a Librarian, Diabolist or Esoterist

Next up I painted another Christmas Decoration, a Skyrim one!

Then my first Trench Crusade models, a pair of Communicants!

Then it was back to Christmas decorations with a The Luggage ornament for my sister-in-laws Christmas tree.

Then I expanded my UCM fleet for Dropfleet Commander with these Lysander Stealth Lighters

Followed by some Malcadors for my Legions Imperialis Solar Auxilia, the previous ones were to be frank, shit, so these were printed to replace those, its a much better set of STLs

And for the larger Solar Auxilia, some Cyclops Demolition Vehicles that I printed off, I really liked this STL, and think they will be super cool, if massively ineffective on the table!

After losing Smokey, I wanted to paint this STL I got from a Kickstarter last year in tribute to him, so I did, and we ended up with CyberSmokey, which is being put on the Christmas Tree.

I also painted a third Carnodon Tank for my Solar Auxilia to give me a full squadron for them!

After that I turned my attention to to a Snatchaboss on Sludgeraker Beast got it finished up.

So what’s next in my Painting list

  1. Blood Angels Land Speeders
  2. Karazai
  3. Paragon Warsuits with Heavy Flamers
  4. The Dread Pageant
  5. Calth High Guard Lasrifle Section x 10 & Command Section x 4
  6. Dark Angels Impulsor
  7. Ardboyz x 10
  8. Skragrot the Loonking & Rabble-Rowza
  9. Allarus Custodians x 3
  10. Rockguy Troggoth x 3

What Video Games I Am Playing

Been playing more Assassin’s Creed Unity

What I Am Creating

We published the latest episode of Edge of Empire, the last for the year.

What I Am Spending

At Warhammer World, I bought myself a Rabble-Rowza for the Gloomspite Gitz

To convert some mini planes to Legions Imperialis, I bought two packs of Flying Bases from Warhammer World

A big purchase was buying Grahams old telly, a 65” LG Nanocell TV and boy is it amazing, best TV I have ever owned and it makes all sorts of media just look so bloody good!

We also got an LED strip to run round the back of it to use as bias lights

I also bought Lieutenant Titus for my Ultramarines, which came with a £10 voucher, which I will be putting towards a Malcador for my Solar Auxilia

Speaking of the Solar Auxilia, I ordered a Leman Russ Strike Tank, which will be built as a Command Tank with a Battlecannon, I also got a pit of Fanatic Matt White, which I desperately needed, and to make it up tit he free postage, I got a MKIII Command Squad for the Imperial Fists

Also for the Solar Auxilia I got an Aethon Heavy Sentinel to make up a full squad of three of them, plus a drybrush

And I topped up my resin supply with another 4kg of Sunlu ABS like in Dark Grey

I got a few little bits in the Steam sale

A Big Bunch of Stuff

By

On 27th October 2023

In Blog

This is a big update, life has been a bit all over the place and its taken this long to sort out putting out a new blog post, sorry

My dad turned 60 earlier this month so we buggered off to Suffolk for a birthday meal, we were in the county for less than 24 hours which felt too brief as I was unable to get any quality time.

Would have liked to have spent more time with the nibblings, but it was nice nonetheless.

It was a Sunday dinner at the pub and I had lamb, cause I love lamb and so rarely get to have it.

I turned 41 as well, which was fine, but my birthday plans failed and it’s left me somewhat deflated.

I am on the verge of giving up any attempt at celebrating it from now.

I did get a pair of AirPod Pros for my birthday, mostly cause I needed the ANC

This weekend I went to Stirling for a Horus Heresy event runs by some friends of ours, an event with lots of Conpany of Legends DNA, which is really cool cause we never get to play in our own event!

That’s not me saying they ripped us off, we love that they have taken our concept and turned it into their own thing, it’s absolutely brilliant, although we did provide them with Chris’s scoring/pairing spreadsheet.

I am gonna put up a vide with my list next week.

It’s been a really fun event, my first game was against Matts Whit Scars, a beautiful army that I was able to really push and give it a hard time.

The game went rather well for me, I did lose in the end, but it largely came down to a mixture of great tactics by Matt, poor decision making on my part and of course rolling double 1s on Plasma Pistol Chainfire on my Moritat resulting in him dying in his first turn out of the Rhino!

The second game on Saturday was against Chris’s Custodes, and yeah at 3.5k points, Custodes really get to shine as they can take a lot of the nicer toys that 3k kind of stops them taking

I got hammered in this game, my list just struggled to handle the sheer amount of 2+ Armour

Wonderful guy as well and a beautifully painted army, makes me want to get my Custodes out the box!

On Sunday I faced Mark and his Ultramarines, in a very challenging game, for a good part of the game, I was dominant on one flank, distracting him with stuff on the other, but once he had taken care of those units, he quickly wiped out my whole army!

And my final game was against Michael and his Space Wolves, a great army with a Thunderhawk, my first time facing one of those bad boys!

I did okay, but eventually folded and was tabled, a mix of poor choices on my part and great tactics on Michaels.

A great weekend and the lads put on an amazing event, really good, absolutely loved my time there.

Insullationgate

Not my name, but it seems apt, on my return Stirling, we were having some insulation work done by the landlord, the contractors said, it was all external, but when they arrived, we were told its actually all internal!

So we had a chaotic week, with every room in the house being torn apart, and it ended my #HobbyStreak 🙁

It is what it is, but we are only just getting the place back together, and it still needs painting.

In other news, I am back into therapy and mental health treatment, I need it, and the waiting period was awful.

Initially my medication has been adjusted as they build an idea on how to help sort me out.

What I Am Modelling

I started off painting some Blood Angels but got bored partway though so got painted up my Questoris Knight Styrix for House Taranis

Then I finished the Phobos Lieutenant for the Blood Angels

Followed by the Suppressors

And the a squad of Infiltrators

After that a Ballistus Dreadnought for the Blood Ravens

As a result of the insulation, I found a DOOM box of abandoned Warhammer projects and decided to finish as many of them as I could, starting with a resin Big Mek with Shokk Attack Gun, who mostly just needed a few bits and bobs finishing

Then it was a Praetor for the Death Guard armed with a Thunder Hammer!

Then I finished up some Marines that Chris gave me ages ago to supplement my Word Bearers who needed a couple of Marines per Squad to allow me to take them as Tactical Squads instead of Veteran Squads and allow me to build some non Pride of the Legion lists

And then some Tyranid Warriors that I originally got with Deathstorm, a very very long time ago!

And finally I painted a squad of Assault Terminators for my Ultramarines from the DOOM box

So what’s up next?

  1. Ork Boyz x 10 & Nob
  2. Marshcrawlla Sluggoth
  3. Sororitas Dialogus
  4. Imperial Fists Rotor Cannon Squad x 10
  5. Death Guard Spartan
  6. Termagants with Devourers x 20
  7. Grots x 10 & Runtherd
  8. Chaos Familiars
  9. Loonboss & Zarbags Gitz
  10. Ultramarines Infiltrators x 10

What I Am Reading

I finished The Prisoner of Tartarus bu Richard Lee Byers, so expect a review of that soonish!

I also read The Devouring Void by Danie Ware, which was ok, the twist was kind of sudden which didn’t work for me, but otherwise was good.

Audiobook wise, I listened to Blood of the Emperor, and The Sandman by Simon A Forward, and I am currently listening to The Church and the Crown by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright

What Tabletop Games I Am Playing

I got a game of Sone Mortalis in with Paul at Durham Raiders

I did ok, my list is suboptimal, Paul’s is much better and he played really well, very smart choice made by him.

But it was a close run thing!

And we also had a game of Alhambra, on my birthday which I did not win, of course Megan did.

But it was close!

What Video Games I Am Playing

I have started on Assassin’s Creed III Remastered and been doing so on stream.

I also played and completed Assassin’s Creed Bloodlines, emulated using Retroarch, and I uploaded the playthrough to YouTube

Other than that, I finished Bayonetta.

And I am now playing through Spider-Man Remastered.

What I Am Creating

I did finally get round to making that Ork Skin video!

What I Am Spending

I bought this Neo Geo CD controller made by 8BitDo a month ago and it’s only just arrived, the best thing about, MICROSWITCHES!

So yeah 8BitDo got right what SNK couldn’t

I also had a couple of bits printed up for my controller board, some black hooks to hang cables and a shelf, to hold a few little bits.

I also finally bought a new monitor for the studio, I just really needed some more screen real-estate for editing Edge of Empire podcasts, cause the setup I had was a bit weird in composition.

Its a Cooler Master GA271 and is really good for the £130 I paid for it, and I mean, really good, far better than it has any right to be, with some HDR and FreeSync too.

Embrace the Plastic Fantastic

By

On 29th January 2017

In Blog

The past few weeks I have had a few discussions with people about people getting into The Horus Heresy game with plastic models. When I first started my Ultramarines it cost quite a bit to get into, my first two orders to get me going came to £1,291.72!!!

That got me two full Tactical Squads of 20 marines, two Storm Eagles, a Fire Raptor a Sicaran, Praetors, Apothecaries, Tarantulas a 10 Marine Assault Squad, Champion, Master of Signals, Quad Mortars, Deredeo, Command Squad, command Upgrades, Assault Weapons, Books 1 and 5 plus moulded shoulder pads for everyone!

So it wasn’t cheap, but I had saved for a long time to be able to afford it all over two purchases. But someone starting today doesn’t face the same cost barriers I did, mostly thanks to Betrayal at Calth and Burning of Prospero.

So how is it cheaper getting into Heresy, we can see this just by looking at how I started my Word Bearers, for which I wanted 35 Marines, which would be split into two 10 man Veteran Tactical Squads, a 10 man Tactical Support Squad with Plasma Guns and a 5 man Heavy Support Squad with Missile Launchers.

Now going to Forgeworld for resin marines it would cost me £25 for 5 Marines, making it £100 just for 20 marines without weapons, now add to that sone Bolters at £12 for a pack of 10, so you need two packs plus a command upgrade pack at £11, you have a total cost so far of £135 for two basic squads. Of course these being veterans you want them to have special/heavy weapons, I opted for Heavy Bolters in one Squad and Missile Launchers in the other, to grab those you need to buy a pack of 5 of them for £13 each adding another £26 to the cost of those squads for a total cost of £161 for the two squads!!!

For the Tactical Support Squad, you will need two £25 packs of Marines, and a pack of Plasma Guns in this case which are £12, so that Squad is £62. The Heavy Support Squad need a pack of heavy support marines which are £24 plus the missile launchers which cost £13.50, so that squad will cost you £37.50.

So far for just basic powered armoured marines we have spent £260.50.

With a copy of Betrayal at Calth you can do it so much cheaper, buying from Games Workshop direct you would get the boxset for £95 giving you 30 marines which you can use for the Veteran Squads and Plasma Support Squad, and what’s more it comes with all of the options to build the Veteran Squads, you will still need to buy the £12 plasma gun still. Also you are five marines and four missile launchers short of having everything so you will still need to get the £24 Heavy Support Squad and £13.50 Missile Launchers. So with that in mind your spend for those 35 marines is now £144.50.

But that’s it all you get with Betrayal at Calth, you also get a Contemptor which with its weapons would cost £53 and a squad of Cataphractii Terminators which would cost you £49.50. And not forgetting a Praetor in Cataphractii Armour and a Chaplain, the nearest equivalent on Forgeworld being the Praetor pack which costs £34.

So all told with the few bits from Forgeworld, buying Betrayal at Calth instead of Forgeworld resin gets you £397 worth of stuff for just £144.50 and gives you a basic list of 1532pts. 

Now what about adding vehicles?

The discussions originally started around the use of Mars Pattern vehicles and whether or not this was ok or not. Now as you may or may not know, I have used Mars Pattern Rhinos for my Word Bearers, two of which were in the modelling section below. These vehicles, no matter what anyone tells you were around in the Heresy and are perfectly fine fluff wise to use, Whirlwinds, Rhinos, Predators and Land Raiders. The only ones you can’t use are Razorbacks and Land Raider Crusaders/Redeemers because they hadn’t been invented yet. And you can’t really use a Mars Pattern Whirlwind to represent a Whirlwind Scorpius, because they are very different models, but other than that, go wild use them.

So if you add three Mars Pattern Rhinos you are spending only £22.50 as opposed to £37 for the Deimos Pattern Rhino, and £45 for a Land Raider as opposed to £73 for a MKIIB Land Raider from Forgeworld.

From this you can see getting into Heresy these days can be relatively cheap, all of the above would set you back no where near as much as it would have 18 months ago, and that can only be a good thing can’t it.

Well not according to some Horus Heresy veterans who shall remain unnamed. They are concerned that with the plastic kits, too many people are getting into Heresy on the cheap and damaging the game!!!

Right well let’s just look at what has happened in the last 18 months then in the North East Heresy scene. We have seen a lot more people getting into the game, now admittedly a lot of those armies are initially starting off as heavily infantry based as that’s the model favoured by the cheaper kits, but once the infantry core of your army is established, it’s then easier to add the more expensive resin only stuff to your army on a piecemeal basis.

So a player might start off with two big footslogging units of Tactical Marines backed up with Terminators and Predators, but as they play others, they see what works for them and they start adding things like Sicarrans, Spartans, Leviathans etc etc.

This has seen the number of regular opponents I have shoot up from 2 or 3 to substantially more giving me more variety in my games, and how can that not be a good thing??? With my two regular opponents Graham and Christian, I was lagging behind in a bit of an arms race, with Graham running a tank list and Christian running a Scoria Cybernetica list. Now I can enjoy games against them, with my reasonably fluffy Ultramarines list, lose and know I have other opponents against who I stand a more equal chance.

Not that I am complaining about Christian and Grahams lists, I just need to develop better ideas on how to handle them whilst sticking to the fluff of my Legions.

And with more players comes more events, Graham has been able to run several more Heresy related events at which we have gotten more and more players, giving us all chances to play more varied games. If anything the influx of people has actually calmed down the local meta, as new players come in, we have actually seen our lists decrease slightly in power so we don’t put the new blood off the game.

Anyway, I say, go out and buy plastic Marines, use your Mars Pattern vehicles, come and enjoy the game, because the more players we have, the better off the game will be in the long run.

What I am Modelling

The first half of the week my motivation to paint was quite low, but on Wednesday I was ambushed by Lindsay and Megan and frogmarched into my studio where I decided to paint up the last two Rhinos for my Word Bearers. One will be for the Heavy Bolter equipped Veteran Tactical Squad and the other will be for the Plasma Gun equipped Tactical Support Squad.

With both of those finished I have put the main red onto the armour of the Tactical Support Squad and washed it, but I was running very low on Nuln Oil and had to wait until Saturday to restock.

What I am Reading

I am about halfway through Master of Mankind and so far I am impressed, it’s a very good book and extremely well written, possibly the best Black Library book yet written.

I am also listening to Vulkan Lives, like with Nick Kymes other Slamanders books for the Horus Heresy, I struggled with reading it, but I am getting on with it much better as an audiobook, plus it’s nice to get an appearance from John Grammaticus who has to be one of Black Library’s most mysterious and interesting characters.

What I am Playing

I went to Graham’s Horus Heresy event, A Message from History last Sunday. I took my Word Bearers at 3500 points and played two games. My first was against a Mechanicm Cybernetica army, playing the Shatter Strike mission.

With a large number of Castellan robots, three Thanatars and a low number of troops, I figured my best tactic would be to drive forward and get up into his deployment zone and try and stay there.

So my Rhinos and Spartan headed in whist my Dreadnoughts walked in whilst shooting their weapons, I deepstriked in with my Gal Vorbak and Ashen Circle to try and distract him and keep him off my troops.

The tactics worked, and I ended up winning the game 7-1.

My second game saw me team up with Grahams Iron Warriors in a doubles game to play the same Cybernetica player and a Dark Angels player. The Dark Angels player was using a force organisation chart that allowed him to take four fortifications, which I am still trying to figure out which book that was in. Either way he had three Bastions and some Vengence Weapon Battery’s.

Due to some confusion about setting up, all my dudes ended up set up behind Graham’s line of tanks! So it took a while for my guys to get into combat, although my Plasma Gun equipped Tactical Support Squad managed to wipe out a unit of Dark Angels Terminators who arrived by Deep Strike, again trying to work out how they did that too.

In the end my squad of Terminators and my Praetor saved the day by killing the Cybernetica Warlord in the last throw of the games dice.

In the event overall the forces of the Warmaster easily destroyed the lackeys of the Emperor, and Christian got to play with his new Acastus Knight Porphyrion.

I also got to play a game of 2500pts with my Word Bearers against Edwards Emperors Children at the club on Tuesday, again the tactics of being aggressive paid off as we were playing the Tide of Carnage mission.

Again it came down to the last dice roll as I denied him a unit in his own deployment zone by having my Ashen Circle charge and chop down the guys he had in his deployment zone, meaning that I won the game instead of him.

What I am Backing

Still just Light and Dark, but I have finally gotten round to unboxing the Turtles game and I will have a proper report for that written up once I have gotten a game of it in.

What I am Spending

I have bought some terrain for the Heresy weekender which is just five weeks away now, bought three Wall of Martyrs Imperial Defence Lines, a pair of Wall of Martyrs Imperial Defence Emplacement, a Wall of Martyrs Imperial Bunker, two Basilica Administratums and two Manufactorums. 

I also preordered the Dwarf Giants dice, the Special Play Hall of Fame Cards and the Mighty Zug for Blood Bowl as well as some Word Bearers dice and I picked up a couple of sets of plastic Tartaros Terminators from eBay relatively cheaply.

Spent a lot this week, but much of it was for the weekender so that doesn’t really count does it!

Anyway the issue is that I have been feeling down, and when I feel down I either overeat or spend money, and this week I have been spending money.

Mostly Down

By

On 14th January 2017

In Blog

I have mostly had a couple of weeks of being down, to start with, we had a tragic and untimely death in the family and that  and its circumstances which if I may be so dramatic, could very well be the worst thing to have ever happens on the maternal side of my family.

To further make me down we have beenhaving  issues at the flat we own in Newcastle, we already had to replace the boiler this winter, something we could have gotten done for free had someone followed up on something they were supposed to have done for us, and now the washing machine broke down! 

And of course when they first tried to deliver it, they refused to install it because the old washing machine had a leak, so we had to pay £75 to a plumber to go out and stop the leak, which would have stopped anyway once the old machine had been removed.

I was also a bit ill earlier in the week, including one day where I threw up my medication, which resulted in me being all over the place for a day as my meds really do keep me stable and out of pain, so I was going from manic to depressive all day.

We have also had to have some repair work done in our flat as on of the stairs slipped out of its fixings and part of it went through the ceiling below it, the landlord was absolutely shocked at how badly it had been installed, but he had joiners out to inspect and check the whole staircase and thankfully it was just the one which was bad.

We have a temporary step fitted whilst the new one is cut, it’s been approved by an inspector from the council but it still doesn’t feel safe, but that’s probably just me feeling insecure about it know the old one was dodgy.

And to top it all this week, when buying some Xbox Live credit on eBay, I managed to get someone’s house raided by the Anti-Terror Squad! 

No I didn’t SWAT them, basically he asked for a scan of my driving licence and passport, now I am a paranoid git (it’s true I take tablets for it) so I think that isn’t quite right, so I say no, he says he won’t send the code. So I call eBay up, who then make me call ActionFraud, who go nuts and put me though to the Anti-Terrir Squad who themselves think that they have stumbled onto a way that terrorists have been obtaining details for fake IDs!!!

So I get a call the next day and they have conducted a dawn raid against the guy, and yeah he does have loads of driving licence and passport details, but simply because he was trying to protect himself from scammers on eBay!

But regardless what he was doing is pretty naughty and he is being charged with crimes relating to the Data Protection Act and possession of a stun gun, and I am possibly going to be called as a witness for his trial if he has one!!!

So yeah that’s all contributing to be feeling quite low.

If I am honest the stuff that has been going on has in a way been a distraction form the family death, it’s hit me hard because me and this person were extremely close growing up.

What I am Modelling

Yeah I have built the first 1000 points of my Tau, well 1009 points if you want to get technical! In addition to the Devilfish I built a couple of weeks ago, I have built a Start Collecting Box and Burning Dawn. Combined that gives me 2 Ethereal, 10 Fire Warriors, 3 XV8 Crisis Suits, 10 Pathfinders, a TX4 Piranha and 3 XV25 Stealth Suits, oh and not forgetting all those Drones too!

I have also almost finished building the Word Bearers for the 22nd as well, I also finished painting the Ashen Circle and a unite of Legion Veteran Tactical Marines, who are armed with 2 Mars-Pattern Heavy Bolters and a Sgt with a Lightning Claw. The Mars-Pattern Bolters are really quite cool and I am glad I went with them, but have fitted them, I can say with certainty that they would not have fitted a MKIII Marine without some serious cutting down of his vambrace. The ammo belts are also a little difficult to get into place, but mind you a lot of that could be bacause I mount my models on the base, and putting the basing material on before I start painting.

I didn’t get finished the Gal Vorbak, Mhara Gal, Legion Tactical Support Squad or 2 Rhinos. I feel a bit crappy going to play with unpainted models, but you know, some personal stuff can up and I kinda needed to stop painting because I had to paint, and paint because I wanted to paint for a bit.

So I did start painting the 3 Crisis Suits and I have gotten as at as getting their armour done, going to try and finish them next week.

What I am Reading

I actually haven’t read anything this week barring news and magazines. I have read through the Fall of Cadia tonight, and well talk about advancing the story!!! But I won’t spoil it for anyone.

I finished listening to Betrayer this week, and have just started on Fear to Tread, a book which I really enjoy and love even more so since a few years ago I got to spend an being with the author James Swallow as he told me about how he approached writing this book.

What I am Playing

We finalised the list of games to form our 10×10 Challenge, the final list consists of:-

  • Bohnanza
  • Castle Panic
  • King of Tokyo
  • Kingdom Builder
  • Lords of Waterdeep
  • Pandemic Legacy
  • Sentinels of the Multiverse
  • Smash Up
  • Speldour
  • Thunderbirds

Last week we had Paul around so we began Pandemic Legacy, and January got off to a bad start. We had early success in curing the blue disease, but got hit with a few outbreaks early on. We managed to then cure the yellow and black diseases and were making progress to curing the red one, but we had neglected South America, and a chain reaction of outbreaks saw us lose the game and have one city hit Panic Level 2!!!

We will tackle January again in a few weeks, it felt weird changing the game, but this is going to be an interesting experience, I just hope we have a fun campaign and we make it to December without destroying the world!

This past fortnight we have also played King of Tokyo, Tsuro and Bohnanza.

What I am Backing

Currently backing Light and Dark which is an expansion for a game which I backed last year, Ember. The creator was responsible for Lindsays best moment of the whole weekend, his enthusiasm really made her rather happy, so I was happy to back his first expansion for Ember and I am looking forward to getting this one as well which looks like it adds some different elements to an already enjoyable game, plus the dude only lives in Scarborough so is almost local!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Shadows of the Past finally arrived and I will post a bit more about this next time.

I did get through my copy of Steal This Game, plus one extra, need to get to give this a game and see how good it is. Either way I am happy to give to the campaign. 

What I am Spending

I sold a couple of bits and bobs, so I had a bit of money this fornight, and feeling down I went on a mini spending spree and bought a KV128 Stormsurge for my Tau and a copy of Doom for the Xbox One plus a Season Pass for it. 

I got myself a USB 3.0 hub to replace one that broke, and a friend was selling a 2016 Imperial Space Marine so I bought that one with the idea of turning it in to a Knight Errant.

Oh and I went on eBay and bought another Primus Medicae, this way I can have one for my Word Bearers and my Ultramarines.

Happy New Year and a 10×10

By

On 5th January 2017

In Blog

Happy New Year nerds, I hope you all had a nice time and are looking forward to 2017.
I am not doing resolutions this year, other than to paint more than I buy, but one thing I am doing is a board game 10×10 in order to get to know some of my games better.

The basic idea behind it is that you play 10 games, 10 times in a year, so 10×10! Our current list consists of:-

  • Pandemic Legacy
  • Thunderbirds 
  • Splendour 
  • Lords of Waterdeep 
  • Bohnanza
  • Kingdom Builder
  • Castle Panic
  • Sentinels of the Multiverse 

Lindsay has the last two to pick still, so I am curious as to which games she will pick. We kind of decided that we would avoid light fillers like Fluxx and Love Letter, despite Megan’s objections because we really want it to be a challenge to achieve.

I will keep you updated about how we do!

What I am Modelling

I was away at my parents in Suffolk a good part of the week, so not a lot!

I bought a Tau Devilfish which had some parts come off the sprue, so to make sure they didn’t get lost, I did build that and it’s Drones.

I am currently painting The Ashen Circle for my Word Bearers, and I really need to get a move on building and painting the rest of them!

What I am Reading

I read this week a couple of shorts in the Horus Heresy series, Red-Marked and Raptor, both have been available as audios for a while, but have now been published in anthologies so I have reading them a shot.

Red-Marked explained how Thiel got his gang together, who we meet in Deathfire, and it was about as Thiel like as we could expect. A short and sweet story, one which I throughly enjoyed.

Raptor saw the Talons of the Raven Guard come up against some Wulfen of the Space Wolves, what happens when mutant Astartes meet, well it explained the lengths that the Raven Guard would go to in order to protect Corax and showed how despite all the evidence, the Wolves don’t see their mutations as being something a fundamental flaw in their geneseed.

On the audio front, I have started and am most of the way through Bettayer, a book I enjoyed for its combination of the Word Bearers and World Eaters, two Legions whom one would never have thought to pair up. As usual the writing of Aaron Dembski-Bowden is superb, and I am rather proud that he is a friend of mine, his books are simply amazing and well worth the long wait they often take, perfection after all, should not be rushed.

What I am Playing

I got to play a few games this week on New Years Eve with my brother, his girlfriend and my nephew.

We started out with Trivial Pursuit Family Edition, it’s not really a game I would normally play, but my nephew insisted, I ended up winning that one because I got a really easy question as my final one, nobody thought I would know a thing about ballet. Through playing it, I did find out that my nephew has some serious holes in his knowledge of literature, something I think I will have to do something about.

Then me, Lindsay, Megan and my nephew played Castle Panic, at first he was a little confused about it, but once he figured it out, he really enjoyed it, and we sadly lost, but only just, but it had my nephew chomping at the bit to play again.

Alas we didn’t have the time, but once the bell struck 12 we did have a game of Batman Fluxx, but I am not sure he took that in quite as well as he was really tired and falling asleep in it, and I still didn’t get a chance to flip the promo coin that I have for it.

What I am Backing

Not backing anything still, but I did get through my copy of Braggart 2nd Edition, so expect a report about that soon.

What I am Spending

I bought a few things for my Tau specifically a Riptide and as I mentioned before a Devilfish, plus another Tau Commander that a friend offered me for cheap, and it was still sealed. And I had a friend get to Games Workshop on the 27th to pick me up the Primus Medicae in Cataphractii Terminator Armour, but not sure if he is going to join my Word Bearers or Ultramarines.

Upon delving into my Tau Empire Targeted Reconnaissance Cadre battleforce box set I found an extra Broadside had been placed in the box, so that made me happy as Larry!

I had to buy a printer as mine had gone kaput, Megan was determined that this printer be very good for photo printing so upon looking at reviews, I have bought us a Canon Pixma iP7250, but discovered afterwards that it’s just a printer and has no scanner! So either I will need to replace it again or buy a separate scanner 🙁

But a big thing was that I bought my membership to Eastercon, I will attending for the first time in 16 years this year and I am really looking forward to it.

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