Playing catch up...

So, Im kinda in a gaming funk right now. I know what I should be working on, and I even have a system to make it easier... I should be working on all my various Space Marines, and Im trying to work on 5 at a time, a combat squad from a different chapter each time. Ive got some Imperial Fists on the table right now, and they are giving me the "when are you gonna finish us" look.

I pulled out that High Elf Battalion thats been in my closet since it was released, discovered that the Silver Helms were assembled and had the metal done on them (I didnt remember doing that), and I partially assembled some Sea Guard. I had been hoping to finish the entire box over the weekend. I am going to aim at finishing that unit this week... Ive gotta clean up their off hand and glue it on, then prep and add bows and heads, then work up the command.

Ive been looking at the Warmachine stuff lately, kinda thinking about dusting them off again and trying to find where I stashed my copy of the MK2 rules, maybe challenging DT to a game once I actually read them. Then again, I might just keep them boxed until after I move and after the new stuff is on the shelves.

I had a wacky idea earlier about starting a new Top Ten, this time for WM/Hordes blogs. Of course Id need to do an online walkabout, try to find a larger chunk of blogs dedicated to that game. Im not going to start it yet, at the earliest it would be when Im back on a sane 8 hour shift, instead of the crazy 10-12s Im doing now. Slight possibility of waiting until the 40k one hits the 1 year mark. Maybe.

Something has been gaining in popularity lately thats annoying me. I use a reader to read all the posts that go on during the day. I almost always save them to read during work, with the exception of Tuesday mornings. Well, people have been setting their feeds to truncate messages. I understand why people do it, you actually want people to visit your site, and people who visit are far more likely to leave a reply... Well, Ive got a lot of stuff that I like to read (over 800 just from this weekend, not all 40k related obviously), and the blocker on my work line is pretty strict about anything it considers Gaming... Add in that the browser I use hates to allow me to reply anyways, and I see no reason to visit the site instead of the reader. Now, lets look forward to Tuesday morning, Ive got well over 500 40k related posts to look at, and Ive got to do this and somehow to sneak sleep, food, showers, and spending time with my wife into 11 hours. First thing that gets cut? You got it, posts that are truncated, unless they have a kickass title or first couple sentences. I hate to look at it that way, but at least until Im working a regular schedule again, thats that.

Deo has picked up the new Skaven book, Im hoping to get my copy after next pay day. I like the new models, but I havnt gotten the new army bug on them yet, which really surprises me. Might be because Ive not been paying as much attention to the rumors and models yet. It will prolly go into overdrive once the book is in hand...

Oh, I finally got rid of all my dwarf models. Getting a nice chunk of change from a buddy of Deo. A large part of the funds will be going in bills, but Im saving a nice chunk of it to restock my model collection. Not entirely sure what with yet, though.

Stuff has changed, and hopefully more on the way...

I decided to do something this weekend. I cancelled my World of Warcraft account. It still has til Tuesday, but for all intents and purposes, its gone. Ive done this a few times before, but usually to play a different MMO. This time, Im not starting a new game (though Fallen Earth is looking pretty...). I decided to drop it for a few reasons, and one of them actually has something to do with this blog. :)

Ive not done nearly as much painting over the past 2-3 years as Id done for a long while before that. The year I was at Osan I managed to get four armies painted, one of which was Skaven and another was Imperial Guard. Recently, I think all I have done of note was a small Space Marine force. Something of a difference there, huh?

This past Friday I managed to get the Columbia GW and had a fun game against an Imperial Guard player. Was his second run with the new book, but nearly all the flubs were off of the more confusing bits. I also picked up a Morathi model to use as a Sorceress in my Dark Elves. She is now assembled, and the Pegasus is nearly completely painted. Also, that Master and Spearmen I posted previously as nearly complete. I just need to paint the straps on the spears and base them, then Ill post pics. I also found those Black Templar terminators I had misplaced and did some work on them. Im going to be looking for some boxes of the old Dwarf models for a friend of Deo when I get home, and Im considering starting work again on the newer dwarfs that have been in limbo for quite a long while.

I think this is the most hobby stuff Ive done in a single weekend in months...

500 Points of FUN!

This past weekend I drooled on my army books a lot, trying to decide where Im going with this new army bug Ive got. The answer? Nowhere new.

Plain and simple, I cant find anything new and exciting I havnt touched on before, but Ive got a closet full of stuff Ive not done anything with at all. So, I decided to make a 500 point list for each of the fantasy armies Ive got models for, and hopefully will give them each a run in the fairly near future. Im not sure if Ill expand on any of them, but having the lists will make quick pick up games easier... I actually have all the models needed for each of these, though a few still need to be assembled, like the High Elves and the Bretonnians.

HIGH ELVES
Noble w/ Great Weapon, Heavy Armor
97

10 Seaguard w/ Shields, Full Command
155

10 Archers w/ Full Command
135

5 Silver Helms w/ Shields
105

Total: 492


DARK ELVES

Master w/ Heavy Armor, Shield
86

10 Repeater Crossbowmen w/ Full Command
120

12 Warriors w/ Shields, Full Command
99

17 Corsairs w/ Full Command
195

Total: 500

ORCS AND GOBLINS

Night Goblin Big Boss w/Great Weapon, Light Armor, Guzzla's Battle Brew
51

Night Goblin Shaman w/Lvl 2 caster, Staff of Baduum
125

20 Night Goblins w/Spears, full command
100

20 Night Goblins w/Spears, full command
100

20 Night Goblins w/Shortbows, full command
80

1 Troll
40

Total: 496

BRETONNIANS

Paladin w/Shield, Barded Warhorse
76

Paladin BSB w/ Barded Warhorse
74

6 Knights of the Realm w/ Full Command
216

8 Knights Errant w/ Full Command
181

TOTAL: 499

DWARFS

Thane w/ Great Weapon
69

14 Warriors w/hand weapons, shields, full command
151

10 Thunderers w/ shields, full command
175

1 Cannon w/Engineer
105

TOTAL: 500

OGRE KINGDOMS

Bruiser w/ Ironfist, Brace of Handguns, Heavy Armor, Wyrdstone Necklace
176

3 Bulls w/ Ironfists, Light armor
129

3 Ironguts w/ Full Command
194

TOTAL: 499

Tomb Kings

Tomb Prince w/ Shield, Light Armor
104

Liche Priest
115

15 Skeleton Warriors w/ Spears, Shields, Light Armor, Full Command
175

10 Skeleton Warriors w/ Bows, Full Command
105

TOTAL: 499

WARRIORS OF CHAOS

Chaos Sorcerer w/ Lvl 2 Caster
120

10 Chaos Marauders w/ Flails, Light Armor, Full Command
80

15 Chaos Marauders w/ Shields, Light Armor, Full Command
110

10 Chaos Warriors w/ Shields, Full Command
190

TOTAL: 500

Weekend Fun

Had a short weekend, due to being on swings last week, but it was full of fun stuff.

Went to DT's place for a couple games, played against some Ogres for the first game. Shot them up until they got to my side, then my warrior unit and thane met the survivors and... got chased off the table. But it was ok, the last two survivors came back on and ate a load of grapeshot.

The second game was 1k of my Crusade vs another Space Marine army. He had a pair of ten man tac squads, a five man assault squad, a five man dev squad with missile launchers, and a chaplain led assault termy squad. My list was the Librarian, two tac squads, a scout squad, a dread and a standard termy squad.

He worked on slogging over with the units without heavy weapons, and deepstriked his termies in. I lit up the termies until one and the chaplain were left, then charged in with the dread. The Librarian and my termy squad used Gate of Infinity and popped around and lit stuff up. This was also the first time I used Outflank... why didnt I ever do this before? My scouts popped in on the side and got in with his Devastators... Im definitely going to be using this list a few more times.

After these two games I watched Mikie and DT play a game of Monsterpacalypse, that looked amusing, even if it did set off my "I hate pre-painted" alarm. I had to take off a little early cuz I was expecting to go to a BBQ... that was cancelled. >.<

Escalation Thing kickoff, and some other stuff.

Mike came over today for a few games. We played 1k of Space Wolves and Nuns w/ Guns vs Red Scorpions, and the first 500 point game of the Escalation Thing.

First, fantasy. My list hadnt changed, aside from my replacing the Thane's shield with a great weapon. His list was a Branchwraithe, a unit of Dryads, and a pair of archer units. We deployed and I kindly allowed him to move first, expecting him to be aggressive and move up to engage. Nope. He sat back and shot. I decided I wasnt going to sit and wait for him to get bored of shooting, so my warriors walked over and picked a fight with the dryads. His leader did the challange thing, I answered with my Thane... who almost got his ass kicked (hooray for T5!). I won the overall fight there due to ranks and a banner, and the walking trees decided they didnt like all my axes and attempted to flee. They didnt get far, my stunties caught up and showed them the business end of those axes. The rest of the game was manuvering and acting aggressive, but no more melee. My thunderers tried to get close enough to be useful, while the cannon plinked off a model a turn, until it misfired and had to miss the last two turns cleaning out. In the end, a win for the Dwarfs.

Scoreboard so far:
Ryan (Dwarfs) 1/0/0
Mike (Wood Elves) 0/1/0
DT (Dark Elves) 0/0/0
Keith (Greenskins) 0/0/0

Second game was more in his favor. He took a couple transports, a predator, and a venerable dread, along with some infantry types. My Devastator squad was Target #1, and were gone fairly quickly. Very brutal game, I was left with a single model at the end, to his small handful.

Lets see, other stuff... Privateer has announced the new faction, the Retribution of Scyrah, a bunch of Elves... Im really needing to dust off my Cryx now! One thing I learned while talking about this in email is that PP is planning on going to the Army Book format. Bleh. I really liked that when a book came out, all the factions got new toys. It also seemed to help with "codex creep", as far as I could tell that is, its been about a year and a half since I got a game of Warmachine in...

Pics of the new Ironclad Dreadnought are out. Im sure you can find them around, if you havnt seen it yet. I am currently undecided on it. Some of it makes me say "oh cool!", but some of it looks too much like the craptacular venerable dreadnought. Im withholding opinion for now.

I got all the Cadian heavy weapon teams rebased onto the larger bases, however now I have to fix the feet for three of the models, they broke in half while I was working. Im planning on just replacing it with greenstuff one of these days. Ive still got three other HW teams and 7 sergeants to go. Once these are all done, Ill look into command squads.

Painting Dwarfs

Ive got my Dwarfs almost to the point where I have to decide on a color scheme... The metal is done and Ive got the colors set aside for beards and painting the gold. Once those are done, Ill start painting the hold colors on the cloth. The question is which hold? Im not going with my old Akhaz Boki (Miner Hold). Ive gone a different way with the banners and actually included black powder weapons. So, my choices are either create another hold, use an existing one (maybe Karaz-a-Karak?) or do something different... Im leaning towards the something different, because Ive got an interesting idea.

The Dwarf Quarter of Altdorf. Paint these guys up as the traders, craftsmen, and assorted expatriots that live and work in Altdorf. Red and blue color scheme, with smaller imperial symbols on their banners, along with the typical dwarf stuff. This would go well with the idea I had about a large Empire force based around Altdorf and Reikland...

Making up for lost time...

So, most of this weekend was shot by a headache the likes of which would have driven a minor diety insane. Luckily, Im already insane.

All the dwarfs are painted Boltgun metal, given a wash of black, drybrushed BG metal, and a lighter DB of chainmail. Trying to decide on other colors, will make a post of that tomorrow, I think.

In preperation of picking up the IG codex when finances allow, Im rebasing all my heavy weapon teams on larger bases. Way back when, when I assembled the models, I put them on smaller bases, figuring larger bases were bad (dont ask). I went through what Ive got, and its looking like I need to build about 7 more Sgts and about as many more heavy weapon teams (on top of the rebases). Aside from that, my IG appear ready for the new book! However, I am planning on replacing the platoon commands with the new box sets. Im keeping the old HQ box set as my Command HQ, and with the officers having the longer coats in the plastic box set.... Yeah, I like a bit of uniformity.

Weekend stuff...

First up is a pic of my recently rebased Imperial Fists, First Tactical Squad of the Second Company. Since the picture was taken, Ive touched up the tac badges, and still have to add unit numbers, and do something with the VSgt's banner. But I like how the yellow looks, even if I loath painting it.


Next up, the complete Red Scorpion Assault Squad Eight of the Fifth Company. Nothing more planned for this unit, time to work on finishing that Devastator squad.

Speaking of that Devastator squad, they have 6 models completed from before, and four models primered, drybrushed grey, and with the yellow-ish trims painted. Im hoping to get them worked on this week.

I also drybrushed the metal onto 4 of those dwarfs, and most of their cannon. Only 25 more to go!

More work was done this weekend on my table. I finally got the other sheet of fabric I need, and once I clear everything off, I plan to tack it onto the plywood. The hills got some love as well, as I gave them all a coat of thinned elmers glue mixed with sand. Im thinking Ill be spraying (and praying I got it on thick enough) tomorrow.

Tonight, I have a goal. To discover a source of decent plastic trees that are sold fairly cheap. Ask nicely, and Ill share. ;)

Oh, and I joined on that MyBattalion thing, as Ryan. ;) Check it out Here.

Saturday Gaming

Mikie came over for a few games this weekend. We played 1250 Red Scorpions vs Necrons, and a 500 point Dwarfs vs Wood Elves.

First up the Necrons came along, and tried to slap me silly, but when the game ended Id scored more kill points then my entire army was worth, and still had most of my force in one shape or another... One of my tactical squads is getting demoted to IG conscript status soon, if they keep up the shoddy performance they showed this weekend. They couldnt hit, couldnt wound, and when charged by the flayed ones, the only model that really mattered (VSgt with powerfist) was cut down in the first round. The only thing the survivors could really do was make armor saves!

Lessons:

When that Scarab Swarm comes jetting around cover on the flank, let them come to you. Dont pull yourself out of position for a round of rapid fire, its just not worth it.

Plasma Cannons knock Necrons down good! Too bad most of them kept getting back up.

If your opponent gets to redeploy your mishapping deepstrikers, just be grateful they didnt die on their way in.

Second game was a trial run for the Escalation Thing, I took the list posted previously, he had 8 dryads, 10 archers, 6 light horsemen, and a caster. I spent the entire game making appropriately Dwarfy comments about trees and Elves.

He ran his horse guys up the side, where they took a load of dwarfen shot, and lost 4 of their models. They then ran around the side, shot a bit at my cannon crew, charged in, lost combat and fled... only to rally, and charge an otherwise engaged unit of thunderers in the rear... only to flee one more.

His Dryads walked up the middle and charged my warriors, and then spent most of the rest of the game trading hits (and failure to wound, and making saves) with them. For only having a 5+ ward, they sure made a lot of saves! I ended up flank charging them with my thunderers, for lack of other targets worth the effort. Eventually I cut them down like the trees they were!

His archers and caster (equipped with bow and doohicky of not allowing armor saves) started at range, but started moving when their targets were all in melee. His caster was lackluster at best, as he ended up with the Tree Singing spell, and there was only a single wood on the table. His only having 3 casting dice didnt help him either, as I tossed all four of my dispel dice nearly all the time.

Lessons!

I need to guess ranges better, and remember that Dwarf handguns get +1 to hit.

Mikie needs to ditch the caster for a more warrior-ish leader. The only thing that made the caster worthwhile were her bow shots.

My Thane needs to drop his shield for a great weapon. It was nice having a 2+ save in melee, but I never needed it! Wounding my targets on a 2+ would be far more useful, and its not likely Id even notice the whole going last bit... On that note, I think I also want to include some warriors with great weapons... or maybe some Longbeards, even though I really didnt need any help on the panic side...

Escalation Type Project

Mikie has his first 500 points of Wood Elves ready to go, and I spent a good part of yesterday in the in-laws kitchen, assembling Dwarfs. Ive got 500pts of models ready to go. Im thinking we will probably get our first game at this point value in next weekend.

Current plan is that the troops will be staying the same (aside from being added to), though Im pushing for the characters to stay as well... just the "optionals" changing as needed (optionals being mounts, magic items, and wierd stuff).

My list so far is:

Thane w/ shield
14 Warriors w/hand weapons, shields, full command
10 Thunderers w/ shields, full command
1 Cannon w/Engineer

At first I was trying to decide if it were cheesy to take a cannon at this small of a point value, then I realized that he is playing Wood Elves, most of his army skirmishes... Ill be lucky to nail more then two or three of the prancing tree huggers at once!

We are still discussing what sort of increments we will be adding, but it looks like 100-125 at a time, every two months. Very slow additions, but leaves plenty of time to test our lists and decide what else to add.