o/
As you can see, I played my first ever game of Star Wars Legion. My little army got rave reviews from the folks at the shop as it was just 4 models shy of being fully painted. Indeed, one of the FLGS owners commented: So, you've clearly been buying and painting these for quite awhile, but you're only playing your first ever game now? Weird.
My opponent Jake (the FLGS' other co-owner) had only played a few games previously himself, so we were both more or less stumbling though the motions, though admittedly I was more than he.
I fielded a generic Rebel officer, no upgrades
(2) Squads of Rebel Troopers, each with an extra trooper and a Z-6 gunner
A squad of Veterans with an extra veteran and an upgrade card that I totally forgot about, so isn't worth mentioning
A squad of Ewoks with 'Charge' and an Axe Ewok
AT-RT with a rotary blaster
Landspeeder with a refurbished Gonk droid, RPS-6 rocket gunner, hotshot pilot and a Mk II medium blaster
Jake had General Grievous
Cad Bane (he's as bad ass on the table as he is on screen)
(2) squads of 2 Droidekas
and a double squad of B-1 Battle droids with a special weapon of some sort.
The scenario had 6 objectives which were quickly forgotten about (though they partly won me the game), secondary objectives were totally forgotten as well.
No more pics were taken from this point forward, but the Rebel officer managed to put another wound on Cad Bane and also finished off the ailing (well, more than the usual) General Grievous. At that point, I was up by a point, and all Jake had left was the wounded Cad Bane and 2 Droidekas. I still had 1 or 2 of my veterans, the damaged AT-RT, the speeder, and unhurt officer. It was getting late and not seeing as path to victory he ran up the white flag.
That was fun, I need a full hand of command cards though, I'll need to remedy that before my next game. I know we screwed up several things, but nothing really all that game changing. The Ewoks performed well, though were the glass cannon I expected them to be. Most of the rest performed decently and/or about as i had expected them to. The only exception being the Rebel officer who might deserve a name right out of the gate as he was quite the marksman.
*****
I hope everyone has a good Thanksgiving! Frankie is up at his Dad's in Virginia for the holiday. As such, we have to come up and get him. I am not looking forward to a 12-14 hour round trip. It should be only 10-12 hours, but the holiday traffic, a blocked interstate due to this year's hurricanes, and a lousy weather forecast means it will be slower going. Nonetheless, we will be up in TN for a few days for Thanksgiving at my Aunt's house. The fam in Knoxville is mad at us again as a result, despite the reality that the aforementioned blocked interstate would add another 4-5ish hours round trip to go to see them (ah yes, the joy that the holidays bring...).
I'll be packing light, but am planning on getting a small game of Battletech in with Screech at our Airbnb on Black Friday. My apologies to Neverness & the rest, no room in the car for a 40K army. I am already done Christmas shopping, so will not be partaking in the shopping madness, other than to swing by the old Hobbytown which will be right up the street from where we will be staying.
I just painted this as 1-off for my own amusement. That said, after looking back on this here blog, this is the first marine that I've painted since May, and the first here in South Carolina. Ironically, it is well camouflaged for the 'aquarium basing' as Neverness likes to call it.
My next post ought to be about the learn-to-play game of Star Wars Legion that I am going to play this evening. I will be fielding my 500 points of Rebels using my own army which is a mere 4 infantry models short of being fully painted. Usually the first time I try to play a new game, I'm lucky to have 4 models with primer, much less paint on them.
o/
Just letting you know that I am still alive. Shortly after my last post, when I spoke of needing a break from painting my Il-Kaithe, I played a game of Battletech, my first game played here in South Carolina. Two days later my Battletech Kickstarter minis arrived and all of my attention has been over on my TBAGers blog since.
That all said, yesterday I needed a break from painting mechs and tanks and so painted this guy up. He came out a little darker than anticipated, but isn't too bad for a 1-day turn around. Also of note (and I am sure that Neverness will no doubt notice), is that this mini is the first to debut a new shade of my alien 'aquarium plant' colored tufts.
I have a mix of 13 Dire Avengers and Dark Reapers still on my desk yet to paint. Meaning I haven't forgotten about this project. Its just that 40k has fallen onto the back burner. Several of the folks that I've met in the local Battletech crowd also play 40k. Neverness has also inquired about the next time I'll be in Tennessee in hopes of a game. So 40k will come back around to the fore after a bit I'm sure.
o/
Its been a busy month for me so far and as you can tell by the title, odds are that I'm not going to get all 20 of my remaining Smurf intercessors and hellblasters painted like I had originally had hoped to. Indeed, two weeks in and I've managed just five so far.
That said, they look pretty good, and I'm rather pleased with the glowy effect on the plasma guns. The three Hellblasters bring me up to a combat squad of those guys, whereas the two Intercessors round those out to a dozen painted. Ignoring these two intercessors, I can now field 635 points of fully painted Ultramarines! So yeah, still a long ways to go.
I had only intended to work on basic troops as they are both the most numerous and least exciting to paint. However after my last game with Neverness, the Librarian has wormed his way into the next batch of Smurfs to paint thanks to his glorious psychic deeds in combat!
Likewise the 2nd squad's sergeant is in there as well due to consistently rolling 6s to hit & wound with his bolt pistol. He's even successfully wounded a Carnifex with said bolt pistol! Curiously, he also brings 5 chainsword attacks to the table (Suck it assault intercessors!). Backing that up is another 27 CCW attacks, which ought to make even basic intercessors a worrisome target to charge into.
With luck, hopefully I'll get these five (and maybe a few more) done before the month is out.
I'm thinking that this might be my first ever leap year post.
This past Saturday evening I elected to not go out and game and instead I painted this guy up. I did a minor arm and head swap as I didn't like the chitinous, replacement, hillbilly armored pauldron and, well I just prefer for my marines to be helmeted.
At first I didn't quite know what to think of this model or its utility. However at some point it just clicked that he's basically a Space Wolves' Lone Wolf, albeit one for any chapter. Sure he lacks the customizability of kit, but most primaris marines suffer from that trait.
Given my Marines' repeated pummeling of Hivefleet Neverness, I was tempted to paint the 'nid gribbly under his foot in Neverness' nids' color scheme. Rather than add yet more bluish tones to this model, I opted for something with more of a visual contrast. Thus, I picked the colors on a whim, I have no idea if there's a known Hivefleet in these colors or not.
Edit: Neverness brought to my attention a new (to me) painting challenge along the lines of Dreadtober, only for Smurf players called 'March for Macragge'. As such I guess this guy can kick that off for me as the Emprah knows that I have hordes of primed Smurfs awaiting paint.
o/
Well its been a minute since my last post, indeed February is almost over at this point! All forward progress ground to a halt due to an impromptu trip to Ft. Lauderdale to lay a dear friend to rest. As such, I've struggled a bit to get the creative juices flowing once again.
That said, just prior to getting the bad news, I got together with Neverness for a game of 40k in which Da Long Wayz Dezert Groop itself came out of seclusion and made it's 10th ed 40k debut. Neverness already has a battle report here. The TL;DR version is dat bugs iz not az gud at killin' az Da Orks iz!
In that battle report, this nob that you see pictured both above and below earned his paintjob following a glorious last stand in that game. After killing off my kommandos (who reduced the brood by about half) a Brood lord and its' remaining genestealers charged and obliterated the Nob's mob, leaving him alone and wounded. Furthermore, the broodlord subjected this Nob to its hypnotic gaze.
Outraged and swinging his big choppa with all of his fury and might he rolled three 6's to hit which doubled to six hits due to the Get stuck in detachment rule! As such, he killed all of the lord's brood of remaining 'stealers, and when a second mob charged in to his rescue a turn later, the Broodlord (which always strikes first) was so incensed by this nob that it made sure to kill him before the charging nob tore it to pieces.
Yes, that was worthy of a paint job I think.
My favorite Tankbustas missed the game as you have to have a tank hammer boy in your mob. Typical of GW's post-Chapterhouse lawsuit 'you can only field what mono-pose models we put in the box' bullshit. For a company that so once embraced variety and konvershuns, GW more or less treats such concepts as anathema nowadays.
Well, fuck 'em! Needing a tank hammer which is more likely to kill it's user than a tank (okay, so that part is Orky), I managed to splice together a spare runtherd body with some Kommando breacher bitz and a standard boys' head for my own version of a tank hammer grunt. Since the big shootas largely suck (I may have killed a single termagaunt with them all game), the rest of da bustas will spread out to the uvver mobs to serve as mere rokkit boyz.
o/
Before I talk about my latest project, I was hoping that maybe some of you would be able to help out my personal friend Neverness. Had his supervisor not decided to take him to the ER as a precaution last week, we might have lost him forever. While he's in much better shape at the moment, the both physical and financial ramifications of his sudden bad turn of health has turned his world upside down. As such, his family has created a GoFundMe for him and if you can help him out a bit we would all be grateful. Also a word of caution on GoFundMe: the 'suggested tip' at the end is both unnecessary, and does not go to Neverness' benefit. GoFundMe keeps that for themselves on top of the fees that they collect, the sneaky gits!
*****
This was one of the first minis I that I bought for Legion, and unlike the rest of my early models, this was the only one I didn't either sell or trade away. I'm glad I didn't as it is a really cool looking model, not quite sure if it qualifies as a proper tank though.
The Occupier is more of an armed transport in my opinion. Sure it has guns because what Imperial vehicle doesn't? The Mudtrooper crewman seems more appropriate as I see this as a second line unit as opposed to say an AT-ST.
All in all I'm pretty happy with this model. This is the last of my unpainted Legion vehicles. Indeed, I think that I have little more than a dozen or so minis across all three of my factions left to paint!
o/
It seems that whenever I get rid of all of my Firstborn marines, somebody gives me their Firstborn marines. Indeed, I've gotten rid of virtually all of my Firstborn (barring a few buried stragglers) TWICE now. Yet, once again here we are. Rejoice Zzzzz, your boys are back!
The weekend before last, Neverenss and I were getting in our 2nd game of 10th ed and Rob swung by the shop and handed me another box of Orks and grots (3-4 sealed boxes of the latter), these being the last remnants of the horde he gave me last year. In the bottom of said box were some AoBR marines. In addition, I had a 2nd ed 40k missile marine that Kushial gave to me to pass on to Neverness. Instead Neverness suggested I keep it.
Neverness likes to give me hell about repeating armies and I certainly expect to hear such shenanigans again here. Curiously, I missed the Coyotes as soon as I got rid of them, though not their difficult paint scheme. Indeed, the Black Dragons were borne out of an attempt to reverse their colors, but to no avail.
Having a handful of firstborn again thanks to Rob, I thought I'd give my Coyotes another try, the marine above is the result. I ditched the infernal Gryph-Hound Orange contrast paint that caused me so much grief, and used Jokaero Orange instead. Black, leadbelcher, a Vallejo brown for the leather and a sepia wash layer and there ya go, easy-peasy.
The basing was also simplified with just sand glued to a bone colored base with some tufts. In addition to the slight color changes, and squad numbering, there is a "II" above the chapter icon on the pauldron, marking this marine out as a member of the 2nd company.
Rob said he thought he had a few more of these, worst case I'm sure I can scrounge a few from Kushial (NO MORE ARMIES Kushial, just a few if Rob can't find 'em) to flesh out a single tac squad to add to one of my Primaris armies for variety's sake.