The State of my 40k (yes this is includes a rant).

o/

(kicks the dust off of this ol' blog to see if its still alive...)

So, the State of my 40k, my on-again off-again series where I usually just whine/rant about 40k. Rather than just focus on any one army this time I think I'll just do an overview of all of them. Big things are afoot, both around the world and even here locally. 

The Nova Open reveals have induced nerdgasms the world over in the 40k realm, a new psychic...something is coming for all factions! SoBs finally have a release date, PLASTIC aspect warriors after decades of begging!

Emprah be praised! What will we buy first???? 

Locally, there's a 40k escalation league at the FLGS, with prize support and best of all: the only models that get objective secured have to be painted to at least a table top standard! Hell, even Bob, a long-time 8th ed. hold out has a Knight nowadays, as apparently that's what's required to remain 'competitive' in 8th's kick their teeth in with pay-to-win models and make 'em cry meta.

Seriously, every pick-up game I saw in the last few weeks in which I was still a regular at the FLGS' game nights looked like games where any of my armies would be dead on arrival.

Even Neverness' infernal 20+ shots a turn flyer all but wrecked my army on turn one, killing a squad and a half in one volley, requiring my entire army to shoot at it the next turn in hopes of taking it out (which we all know is a really shitty way to try and enjoy a game). Oh, and before you get defensive and bring up the turn 2 'Vyper incident', I'm certain that that was a miracle of dice which will likely never be repeated.

Besides, its not your fault anyways, but rather GW's insistence on making I win button rules to sell over-priced models (Custodes army anyone?) taking just about all strategy out of the game because my new stuff is awesome and your old stuff isn't. Speaking of...don't tell the trolls that infest teh interwebz that you're tired of primaris updates/releases (lieutenants excluded, everyone's sick of those) because without constantly getting newer and better and better releases on a seemingly never-ending basis, that army is (quote) unplayable.

Clearly that wasn't a very good Martini.

...and thru all of that, even with my new projects and 40k purchases I'm just kinda meh. Hell, I'm not really even interested in playing 40k right now, with most all efforts going towards Battletech and a bit of Rogue Stars. Anyways, onto the state of my 40k...

Da Long Wayz Dezert Groop

Da Groop, assembled for their most recent battle.

The baby squiggoth is still on hold, and still awaiting greenstuff. Guess I ought to just order it online given that I almost never make it to the FLGS these days. Also, Krump and Pittance are getting demoted back to a mere nob (appropriately enough, even as puns) as I have a new Da Masta Cheef warboss mini which needs to come out of it's bath of simple green water to remove the resin-mold release agents. Someday I might even assemble my dakka jet as well.

Orks will always be one of my favs, and its doubtful I'll ever sell the army (again) due to too many sentimental models, and following my 7th ed rage-quit/ebay sale and the subsequent horror/anger of My Beloved Wolfy when finding out I'd sold the lion's share of them. As such they're currently holding steady at approximately 1000-1250ish points. 

Spess Mahreenz

Its pretty obvious that GW doesn't give a fuck about any marine that isn't a Primaris marine, and personally I find that heartbreaking. 

To be honest, I'm thinking of liquidating my army again the 500ish points that are left of it (and what little I have left for 30k too). I'll just keep my Rainbow Warriors, Relictors, and Silver Drakes Kill Teams, and my ancient Predator will go into stasis in my dust-proof display box. Technically the Rainbows would still be field-able as a patrol consisting of a Lt., a minimum tac and scout squads and the pred., but I seriously doubt anyone would want to play a game so low in points. So just kill teams for them I guess.

The Eldar

Only three left to go...

The Corsair re-arm-ament is almost complete, though I did keep a squad of 10 Iyanden Guardians with lasguns as is. They are all painted decently, needing only minor touch ups, and match one another relatively well. In doing so they've spawned another project/idea that I'm looking into but I'll get to that below.

Having removed about 200ish points just in over-priced lasblasters alone, my Corsair/Exodite/Craftworld menagerie is holding steady as about the 1k mark. The Corsairs are in dire need of a cohesive paint scheme though!

Dark Mechanicus/Renegade IG.

No doubt you can see the need for my cultists to
eradicate this clearly deranged foe...

Nope, no further progress on the Venomcrawler from my last post. I did get a 3rd squad of cultists cheap though bringing that little band of misfits up to about 300 points. They just need some motivation by me which is sadly lacking these days. 

RETROHAMMER

Kinda sad to think that these convoluted rules were a simpler time...

Going back to those Iyanden guardians with lasguns. In looking at my whole Iyanden contingent, they're all 2nd ed models (like many Eldar armies due to 20 year old metal aspect warriors still being the standard), so I looked to our friends in France and sure enough, they had all of the 2nd ed rules, codexes, etc. available as PDFs and I downloaded all of it (well, only the codexes that are relevant to me), and assuming I can figure out the old rules again, maybe see if Neverness (or somebody) would be interested in playing some 2nd ed retrohammer at some point. 

2nd ed does have the issue of not including My Beloved Wolfy's Fem Fa'Tau as they weren't invented yet, but she currently has zero interest in playing 40k at this point, and thus her 2kish army of Tau remain in stasis. 

*****

Well I think this rant post has a high enough word count to make up for my recent lack of posts...lol. 

0-hr Games' maps and ships for Starfinder

o/

A few months back we gave the Starfinder RPG a try. My Beloved Wolfy is a RPGer far more than a mini gamer, and was thrilled to try out a new RPG for the first time in years. I've missed RPGing as well and was happy to give it a go. Unfortunately, we only managed 2 game sessions before it all fell apart (but that's a rant for another day).

Wolfy and I, were intrigued nonetheless and we'd like to give it another go...someday. Prior to our meeting, My Beloved Wolfy was a longtime WHFRP DM and in hopes she'd take up the mantle again, I got her the Starfinder core rulebook for Christmas. To go with that I got her a map and accompanying ships from 0-Hour Games. Just a small map to see if we liked 'em. Sadly, my package was lost in shipping meaning it didn't arrive for Christmas. Eventually giving up on it I contacted the 0-hr games and got a replacement which arrived yesterday. Our preliminary thoughts on them: its good! Very good!

Having played Dark Heresy for years, we usually had an empty grid with 'maps' temporarily drawn in dry erase marker. Well, now we have ship maps with a 1" grid subtly printed in the interiors. There's a discount if you buy 'em in pairs so you have access to both sides at once, but I went on the cheap as I wasn't sure if I'd like it, and was already well over budget on my Christmas spending. 

Additionally, the map came with resin ship miniatures whose casting quality is flawless, and will work just fine on our X-Wing space mats. Stay tuned, as there will be more on this in the future as we look to giving Starfinder another eventual go.

Side 1, the Remora shuttle.

Bob, nuking a burrito for dinner in the kitchen area whilst Bucket rummages around the crew quarters. Both of characters are from Rogue Stars, where these maps will doubly work for boarding action games!

Bucket's audio receptors apparently picked up a curious thump, and he goes to the bridge to see if anything is out there...

Bad, bad burrito...and with that Bob heads to the can. 

Meanwhile, just one deck below: Space Ninjas! But where did they come from?

No doubt it was from the appropriately named Jade, on the Remora map's reverse side.

Here they are, prepping for the on-coming ship-to-ship raid...

A close up of the bridge...

...and another of the cargo bay.

Being no match for space ninjas, Bob and Bucket flee to the shuttle! (also on the Jade side of the map). Whilst Bucket pilots them to safety, Bob heads for the can once again...that was a really bad burrito!

Alternate shuttle container layouts.

The resin ship minis themselves.

The Remora, this one kinda reminds me of Battlestar Galactica for some reason.

Underside details (peg hole aside) correspond correctly with the maps.

The Jade.

Two CV225s, though without flight bases and...a looming shadow?

Ack! Astro-Felus-Catus-Extremis! Trying to eat the ships!! Literally, I had to stop him from trying to eat them all...

I'm calling this mini a Demiurg...

o/

Monday afternoon a thin little box with British postage arrived in the mail for me. The only package I'm expecting from across the pond is one coming from Warlord Games, containing 5 Ghar battlesuit sprues. This box however looked to be able to hold just one at best. Never looking at the return label, I cut thru the tape thinking: 'Great, they ran out before getting to my order, and I just spent $12.50 in shipping on a $1.50 sprue'.

The Regimental Standard does NOT approve of this message!

Thus, you can imagine my pleasant surprise when upon opening the box, I instead found the contents to a Kickstarter that I had completely forgotten about! My minis from Gydran Miniature's Pelegian Sapper Kickstarter had arrived! The KS was for a space rat which struck me initially as appealing. However on seeing the final model I didn't like it and messaged the creator to see if I could order something else instead? 

No problem! Order whatever you'd like from our store-was their reply. So after a brief perusal, I made my selections, paid the postage and promptly forgot all about it. 

That was 3 months ago...

Looks like something from
The Jetsons!

Gydran is a small outfit in Worchestershire, England who specialize primarily sci-fi dwarves (so anybody wanting some 30k Squat breachers, this is the place to go!). Anyways, I had selected the Pugwanian Mercenary B (the 'A' version has an open helmet with the pug's head visible inside), and a funky, retro-bot objective marker (indeed they do make some pretty cool robot minis).

'Wrex' marks the spot!
(yes, I named the objective marker)

The objective marker's casting is nearly flawless, and whilst the Pug-merc did have a few obvious mold lines, when set against the gold standard-it was still a better casting than many of the Forgeworld minis that I have gotten over the years. 

sans-tail

I opted not to use the curly Pug tail sticking out of the back of the space suit (how would that work anyways?), carved down the socket that said tail was to go into (yes, I literally cut off his butt hole...get over it), adding some Space Marine ammo packs and krak grenades instead. I made an antenna by using a barrel from a spare Tau burst cannon, lopped off the teeny tiny gun barrel, replacing it with a trimmed down plasma pistol tip, then added a spare jet/rocket pack made by Bombshell miniatures. Finally I glued it to the MDF base, and added a pair of human skulls just for shits and giggles. 

 All in all I'm quite pleased with it!

Now...what the hell do I do with it? Well, for 40k, the only thing I can come up with is to call it a Demiurg. I only have the one however, so I guess I could just blow a command point to field this as an understrength auxiliary support detachment. For rules, it could be a 'counts as' Vespid (like anyone has those minis anyways). The Vespid in general can barely stand up to a stiff breeze, so I doubt that just one would bother anybody much! Actually, that both sounds like a total waste of points...and something I'd totally do!

You're short! Fat! And a waste of points!

That said, Rogue Stars is really the only viable option. Whilst this mini won't fit in with either of my existing crews, I do have a pair of Tau Muppet Auxiliaries (yes really) coming soon. I suppose I could just make another, never-played RS crew for this to belong to.

Regardless I like the little guy, and that's all that matters!

*****

On a different note: Check out this AWESOME card my Beloved Wolfy got me for my birthday! Its mounted on the wall, just above my computer's monitor.

Some wee little pirates...

o/

Pic from their website and entirely
too well painted and clean to be
one of my paint jobs!

Aways back, I ordered a single 'fantasy pirate' (which just happens to have the same build/stature of a Grymn) from Hasslefree minis. This order took what seemed like an inordinate amount of time to arrive, but given that (1) toys are rarely a high priority when it comes to necessities and (2) they generously sent a second, free mini as compensation for the delay, hell...if anything I encourage them to be late every time! lol, yes they're still my favorite mini company in case anyone was wondering. :-)

He'll be a Rogue Trader (force commander) leading the Outremar contingent allied to my Salamanders. I have a little fluff write up for hm already, but will save that for when he's all painted up.

The semi-insane Myr'dok in all her glory!

The gifted mini was the companion pirate to the one I ordered. As you can see, I already had one of these painted up as Myr'dok for the G-Team for Rogue Stars (you know, that game I like making crews and back stories for, but don't actually play...). So I'm not sure what I'll do with the freebee just yet. Perhaps my beloved Wolfy or Hoss will want her for one of their RS crews or something.  

Heading in every direction but forward...

o/

There’s neither rhyme nor reason to this week’s hobby progress, rather I’ve started several things whilst finishing notta whole lot. 

First up, the Rainbow warriors:

Having been circumvented by the sudden switch from Kill Team to Shadow War, I decided to build my scouts up to 6 marines. My Sgt. w/powerfist however needed to lose that powerfist arm as that weapon isn’t available in Shadow War (a pic of this mini with said powerfist is in the link below). Luckily, I had matching Scions chainsword arm still in my bitz box for an arm swap. 

Additionally, I found yet another Aurora Scout with a sniper rifle. Those fucking Auroras! Every time I think I’m finally rid of that infernal army another scout is discovered, they’re like god damned roaches! (huh, seems I've had this rant before) As such I suspect he’ll stay true to his Auroran roots and either never hit or never wound a damn thing!

The 1-armed marines in the background seem to be having a dispute of some sort...

The scouts however were put on hold when I realized I was out of 32mm bases. I’ve ordered some more and hopefully they’ll be here before the weekend. I’ve also started painting a Deathwatch Sgt. for my Rainbows, however the traditional Red Sgt.’s helmet (as per Girlyman’s Codex Astartes) doesn’t look quite right to me. So I’ll probably repaint it black. This is also a 1-armed mini currently, as it’ll ease the painting process.

Next up, Rogue Stars:

Insert limp-dick (no pun intended)
comment here.

I also finished ‘Crankie’ from my Rogue Stars ‘A-Team’ crew. Actually he was all but done a week or two ago, but I somehow broke his SMG’s gun barrel during painting and was out of glue at the time. Thus he remained hanging by a shred of resin for entirely too long before I was able to buy some glue to fix it. 

Ya know, despite being a pair of short little bastards, they've somehow managed to be in the way again!

He’s pictured alongside Myr’Dok who was simply plucked from the base of my Grymn’s never-built shuttle and rebased. Conveniently, you’d never know she was on that shuttle’s base which thankfully requires no repair whenever I get back around to that project. Also on the Rogue Stars front, I started painting my only statted out crew’s leader Catalina, whom you can see in back of the vertically challenged A-Team members.

Hopefully I’ll finish some of these projects this week though truth be told, I’m more likely to leave ‘em and start up some others instead.

My Rogue Stars' version of the A-Team!

o/

Okay yes, I'm of that generation that grew up watching the A-Team and I loved the show...well, for awhile anyways. Sadly even as a kid the episodes got terribly repetitive, and all of the show's flaws became readily apparent. Recently Wolfy and I watched the A-Team on Hulu and the show has aged really poorly.

That said, I wanted to make a Rogue Stars crew based on the A-Team using some of my leftover Grymn who don't fit into my Outremar army, called the G-Team.  Needing 5 members, I opted to use the awful 5th season add-on to the cast: Frankie "Dishpan' Sanchez (scroll down to the last of the 'additional characters').

The G-Team was a small (no pun intended), uniquely skilled band of fugitives who fought as mercenaries for the oppressed. They were most famously known for their improvisational antics, which…after a time became mind-numbingly repetitive to anyone who followed their exploits closely. Despite their painfully obvious predictability (something their governmental pursuers curiously never picked up on), they held the public's attention for a few years before disappearing into obscurity…

The following were G-Team's members:

Hanibull:

The mastermind behind the G-Team, Hanibull lead the G-Team throughout its lifespan. Whilst his repertoire of ideas was (terribly) limited, he was nonetheless a master of surveillance, strategery and disguise. At their mission's end, Hanibull was oft quoted as saying he: 'loves it when a plan comes together!'

Fayce:

The G-Team's logistical specialist, Fayce used flirtation and her good looks to prise whatever was needed away from those who had it (ironically, her best 'assets' didn't include her face). Though rarely required, if something proved unattainable despite her wiles and charm, she always had her SMG ready to close the deal! 

Myr'dok:

Never without her trademark leather jacket, Myr'dok served as the G-Team's somewhat mentally unstable medic. She made a hobby out of slipping narcotics of various types into B.A.'s food in hopes that hilarity would ensue! However due to frequent overdosage, the big guy passed out more often than anything else.

B.A. B'Ruckus:

The only non-Grymn member of the G-Team, B'Ruckus (a half-Ork) fulfilled their need for brute strength and intimidation. However, B'Ruckus' preference for red T-shirts, camouflage and vast amounts of gold jewelry (often all worn together!) left many to wonder if he was really a threat, or just there for comedic effect. Poor fashion choices aside, his short temper and considerable attitude, made him a force to be reckoned with!

And lastly:

Crankie:

Crankie is the final and truly forgettable member of the G-Team. In a last gasp of desperation to extend their failing notoriety, Crankie was coerced into joining the G-Team. Unfortunately for him, he signed on at a point in which the rest were all well past their prime. Supposedly an expert in pyrotechnics, the only significant thing he ever managed to destroy was his own career, which subsequently went down in flames.

*All images copyright of Hasslefree miniatures.

GHARRRRR!!!

o/

Neverness stopped by the other day and surprised my Beloved Wolfy and I with anniversary presents! Now, I knew she was getting a gift via previews and inquiries on the subject, so it would be obvious to assume that I was getting one too, but to be honest that thought never crossed my mind. Even after (in hindsight) I recalled his mention of 'presents' in the plural form. Ah well, its always nice to be surprised, right?

In his usual nefarious ways, Neverness gifted me with a blister pack of Ghar Tectorists Scouts for Beyond the Gates of Antares.

As he well knows, the Ghar are the only faction in that game that appeals to me, and even then not the entirety of the miniature range. Prior to this I had just one Ghar mini. However given my malaise in regards to Warlord's Bolt Action, the sales pitch of 'its Bolt Action in space' hasn't been an incentive to give the game a try. No doubt Nevereness' intent was to give me another shove in that direction (kicking and screaming if needs be).

No matter the game system, they still want to exterminate humanity and
everyone else in their path...

However (and what I'm sure will be much to his surprise), I've already repurposed them. I've wanted to use Goob, my one Ghar in a crew for Rogue Stars. Now that I have four more Ghar, I can do just that! I lopped off the round, metal detector-esque bit on the ends of the thing-a-ma-bob that they're carrying and it now looks as though they're armed with a kinda retro-looking lasergun instead.

I don't have any sort of background for these guys yet...I was thinking of maybe using them as miners, or a salvage crew of some sort, maybe armed with cutting lasers or the like...something like that. Regardless, they'll make for a cool looking crew that's quite different from the one I've been using and the other crew that I also have in the works.

Rogue Stars, the 2nd round...

o/

My grumpy little alien Bob.

We interrupt all this Space Marine goodness for a game of Rogue Stars with my Beloved Wolfy and our buddy Hoss. We were all using the same crews as we did in our first game, though in between this game and that one, Hoss and Wolfy's crews had another, separate skirmish which she won handily.

The objectives were six randomly placed, and unmarked loot tokens. Three were duds and three were worth VPs if they were hauled off of the board by a player's character. So two rival pirate crews trying to steal stuff and a Star Cops crew trying to stop them and recover the soon-to-be-stolen goods. Well that sounds about right.

This isn't really a battle report, just a few photos and highlights. 

The battlefield from Wolfy's point of view.

Taco's typical run forward and shoot something! In this case, Hoss's 'super stealthy ninja chick' near the shuttle in the background, putting her out of action. Whilst Hoss's Star Cop Sergeant skulks around in the background.

Wolfy's Bruuna. That's such a badass looking mini, though I'm a little less fond of her after she gunned down my crew's leader Catalina and then tried to shoot my medic (Bucket) as the robot was administering first aid!

Wolfy's Malakite as she pumps yet more rounds into my already bullet riddled Taco. Taco did manage to graze her with a shot, but didn't stop her from grabbing that loot counter that she's standing on and fleeing the field with it.

Over the course of the game, I managed to successfully steal 2 loot counters via Bob and ZOTT! (my minion bot who I didn't manage to get a pic of) and I took 1 enemy model out of action (shot by Taco) for a total of 9 VPs.

Wolfy managed to steal one counter as well via Malakite, and she also took 2 enemy players out of action (including my leader, Catalina) also for a total of 9VPs, so the game ended in a tie.

Hoss's Cops didn't recover any of the loot or capture any pirates, but did take Wolfy's leader B'Yonsae out of action for 3VPs.

All of the wounded were either carried off or (in the case of my robot Taco), managed to limp off of the field. The recovery of wounded crew members is quite necessary, as those lost on the field of battle could potentially die afterwards.

Likewise, as we keep using the same crews, the end-of-game VPs turn into XPs to improve the crew for a later games. Rogue Stars is a fun little diversion from the other games we play, and the closest we've come to finding something akin to RPG campaign (well, in the vaguest of terms I guess).

As you might expect, fun was had by all, and we're hoping to play again next weekend.

Perhaps it was faulty intel...?

o/

I took my Alpha Legion/Outremar army on its first official outing this past Saturday vs. Bob and his Iron Warriors. This was to be the point where theoryhammer would be put to the test. I was using the Sacrificial Offering Rites of War, where my Outremar only deploy and more or less act as bait, and all of my Alpha Legionnaires would arrive via reserves and outflank. Sounds great on paper and I was dying to see how it would work on the table top!

Turns out, Bob's army was the perfect foil for this tactic, as his army included a pair of landraiders full of Cataphractii Terminators on the flanks, ugh! Anti-tank weaponry is sorely lacking in my army which is something I've needed to address for quite some time but never actually got around to doing. Still, my Alpha Legionnaires pressed the attack!

The following of more of a highlight reel rather than a proper battle report:

It wasn't till the bottom of turn 2 that I thought to start taking photos. Here you see the Alpha Legion arriving enmass on turn 2. That said, I never bothered to take pics of the Techmarine & Servitors, Predator and Exodus' paltry right flank assault force. Despite Exodus killing nearly every marine he shot at!

Everyone knows how this one goes, we've all been there: 4 meltaguns in point blank range = 1 penetrating hit which turned that curious looking twin-lascannon sponson into goo. Yeah, good job guys. The termies wanted none of that and jumped out to eliminate the threat. One was vaporized via overwatch before they tore my tactical support squad to pieces...

Ya know, the Iron Warriors' trait which allows them to not have to take morale tests inflicted by shooting casualties? Yeah well, my Centurion was starting to loathe that right about here...

The Outremar cower in fear as death itself approaches the other side of their Aegis defense line.... 

To their credit, the little bastards passed their LD check due to being stubborn in their deployment zone, and kept these monsters in place for another round...

My flank assault is caught in the Iron Warriors' lethal crossfire, and quickly the ranks start to thin...

You know how this went, but it made for a nice photo op at least.

The shattered remains of my Centurion lead blob finally reaches the Breachers marines, and they would spend the rest of the game there (with the Centurion and Apothecary becoming my army's only survivors).

The Iron Warriors Praetor and command squad charge my Outremar Force Commander ("The Gov'na") and his Grenadier bodyguards. They Outremar were eradicated w/o inflicting any return casualties.

In the end, we tallied the Vps as: Iron Warriors 12, Alpha Legion 0. In hindsight I'm not sure how we reached that number as Bob had 3 objectives, 1st blood, line breaker & martial hubris (i.e.: Alpha Legion arrogance) VPs., which totals 6...that said, I still had none. So mathematical skills aside (of which I have few), it still totaled out to Iron Warriors: lots, Alpha Legion: (still) at 0. At least I didn't get tabled!

Still it was a fun game and Bob and I reminisced a bit mid-game about how our 30k game was 'like how 40k used to be'. As such whilst it may be back to the drawing board for my army, I'm looking forward to more 30k in the future!

On a much different note: Playing a game of Rogue Stars vs. Hoss,  my Beloved Wolfy killed half of his force with brutal efficiency and caused his survivors to flee the field! Thus, if we lump our two games together it comes out to a draw!