WW#14 - Finished Scenery. Tau Leak. Indecision.

Monday 11th - Sunday 17th March 2013

Finally, a week where some reasonable hobby shit got achieved. I'm still not making as much headway on the backlog as I'd like but I didn't buy anything and actually finished a couple of bits.

My focus on scenery continued with me managing to not only complete the Aegis Defence Line I bought ages ago (sans quad gun though, that would be pushing it!) but also finished off the Honoured Imperium set. Both were a treat to paint and it's been a nice break from all the fine detail of actual models.

Now I think of it I did make a purchase at the very start of the week. I was listing my old bed on gumtree and thought I'd have a nose at what GW stuff people were offloading. I managed to find a bulk lot of White Dwarfs locally, £25 for almost a hundred issues. A few were duplicates but they were fairly tatty anyway so I don't mind. The issue I now have is storing them. I didn't take that kind of rapid expansion into consideration when I was planning the warrior lodge (Yes, that's the name I've settled on this week for the gaming room).

My tickets for Forge World Open day arrived and this sparked off my thoughts of rekindling a plan for a Heresy Army. I'd planned to just do Ultramarines, but got thinking about my friend starting a World Eaters force and how cool it would be if I did a legion from the Istvaan setting so we could use the campaign in Betrayal. I spent a couple of nights care fully planning a 1000 point list. Deathshroud, legion Contemptor etc. Then I finished Brotherhood of the Storm, the limited time BL novella. I'll try and do a review of it this week, it was great. This meant I could start on Know No Fear, which I'd been meaning to read for ages. Well this blew all thoughts of Nurgle out of the way, the blues in blue all the way! Another couple of nights planning a new 1k list and I was happy. Would be pricey but there wouldn't be any pesky postage.


The list was as follows -
Praetor with Thunderhammer and Boarding shield. I also gave him Pride of the Legion giving me Terminators and veterans as troop choices. This meant I wouldn't have to spend so many points on the basics and could pack in the good shit!
A five man Veteran squad with minimal upgrades. I was thinking that I could get some more exotic weapon choices when the list expanded past this mark.
Five Cataphractii Terminators. Again kept very basic.
A relic Contemptor with twin linked Autocannon.
A squad of 3 jetbikes. These are just plain cool.
Finally, a Land Raider Proteus. It's old school and pretty beefy.

A quite a nice all-round list I thought. I was all settled on it until I woke up on Sunday morning and checked the Shellcase, Tau photos had been leaked and they looked. Badass. Blurry, but most definitely badass. Well that was a fucking spanner in the works. They've rekindled a long time plan to use plenty of FW suits and drones, so that's my mind (probably) made up, a few XV-9's and and extra treats. And just in case you haven't seen them a million times already, here's the leaked shots.

The final bit of news was the preview of a new Black Library novella. Not limited edition, but direct only. It's called Shadowsun: The last of Kiru's Line. By a relatively new author, from what I can tell, it's some bit size blue goodness. I'll be reviewing it as soon as it comes through the door along with the new Fire Caste novel.

As always, cheers for reading.

WW#13 - Forge World, Scenery, and an actual game.

Monday 4th - Sunday 10th March 2013

Back to work this week, but the usual horridness of Monday was made better by the knowledge I'd be going home to play my first game with the Dark Angels. We played the kill points mission at 1500. I took Belial, deathwing, deathwing command, deathwing knights, a tactical squad and a dark talon. I was up against a hive tyrant with guard, trygon, some warriors and ravenors, a tyrannofex and lots more mini nids. I didn't record the whole match but here's the highlights. Belial did well deep striking but got taken down by the warriors. My plasma cannon blew himself up. The rift cannon was great but didn't get a chance to use the stasis bomb. The knights are a total beast in combat. We finished at the end of the fourth turn as it was getting late, we ended up drawing.

With that out of the way, what else happened this week? I got tickets for the ForgeWorld open day, I'm really excited to be going again this year to check out the Fall of Orpheus and whatever new Heresy goodies they've been working on.

Still thinking about the recent Blanchitsu articles I went for it and got myself a Cairn Wraith to convert into something Inquisitorial. Although I'm quite tempted to make him a Cryptek. Either way it's a neat little kit with plenty of potential. Whilst we're covering the purchasing of hobby supplies, I don't think I mentioned it last week but I grabbed the Honoured Imperium scenery set. I put it together but didn't get around to slapping any paint on it.

Speaking of painting I tried to carry on with the Tau gun drones and got half way through doing the guns then hit the wall, they're going to go back on the shelf until the new codex comes out. I then proceeded to work on some scenery. I dug out the moonscape craters and managed to finish them in a day. Also got a load of basecoating done on the Wall of Martyrs. So that's finally something finished!

To finish up, I thought I'd include some of the awesome stuff that FW has previewed over the past couple of newsletters. On the Warhammer Forge front they've finally put out the Dwarven Command unit, they look really cool, proper grim and grudge-bearing. The biggie though only got previewed today. The Necron Night Shroud Bomber. It's basically an uber-croissant! I like that it's pilotless, or at least that they're not on show. The finale is the Realm of Battle Tomb Citadel. It's been shown a few times previously in WIP form but we finally get to see the finished thing. It does look mighty impressive, but so is the £90 price tag. That's a whole 15 over their existing RoB section. I'll reserve judgement of it's value for when I see it.

Until next time, happy hobbying!

WW#12 - Mancave, Tau Gun Drones, Razarhawk.

Monday 25th February - Sunday 3rd March 2013

Yep, it was time for another week of annual leave! I was hoping that I'd be able to squeeze in some hobby time, but knew that most of my days would be taken up with finishing touches to the house.

The biggest thing to happen this week was the completion of the war room. Or mancave, I still haven't decided on its final designation.  My initial plans for an 8x4 table fell through when I realised I hadn't taken into account the door being able to open and close. A 6x4 it was then. The next hurdle would be obtaining wood that big. Wickes wouldn't/couldn't home deliver it so I went for three pieces of 4x2 chipboard and a shit load of legs from Ikea. Construction was really easy, and although the end products don't look like much on their own, when covered in my painted Realm of Battle boards I think it looks good.

The other project in my room was to finish unpacking all of my armies into the converted wardrobes. They're a lot deeper than my previous shelving solution so everything has space rather than being piled on top of each other. It's quite dark towards the back of the shelves, but no one is really going to be viewing them so it's all good.

With all of the housework out of the way it was time for some fun. First on the list was downloading Magic Duel of the Planeswalkers on my PS3 (my PSN should be either dijital_llama or dijitalllama if you'd like to add me). This sucked up a lot more time than I'd expected, especially some of the trickier problem solving games. By the time Thursday rolled around I still hadn't picked up a paintbrush, it was time to rectify that!

I got up way too early for a holiday and went into Cardiff with my girlfriend, did some loitering until GW opened up at 10. I would've gone to Firestorm but they don't open until 12 on Thurdays. I picked up a few paints I needed to work on some terrain, I also picked up one of the painting trays, as my old wooden version doesn't fit between the arms of my armchair (and it's used for storage of the growing collection of paints and tools. New equipment in hand I headed off home to work on the Honoured Imperium set, or maybe some more Wall of Martyrs. I couldn't find my large brush anywhere, disaster! Plans scuppered I grabbed the nearly models to hand, 13 Tau Gun Drones and set to work getting this random choice painted up. For such small models they took ages, and I've still only completed the 'shells' with the guns outstanding.

Saturday rolled around and I woke up wondering where my week had disappeared to. After a quick tidy up my mate picked me up and we headed to Cardiff Comic Expo. Our friend Ian was back from Ireland with his girlfriend Dani, they were launching issue #1 of their very own comic Razarhawk! We had a lovely chat catching up on all things geeky, and on life in rural Ireland, even contemplating playing 40k over skype somehow, and picked up a copy of the comic. After an hour or so looking round I also went for a book called 7string, from another (possibly local) artist. After one last visit to Razarhawks stand we returned home where the new reading material was digested and amazed at. If you have a minute please head over to their blog to see just how good it looks, here.

And so we reach the end of the week. More hobby progress made than in the preceding three weeks but still not a lot. However I do feel refreshed, and it's only about a month until my next one! Happy hobbying folks, catch you soon!

White Dwarf (399) - March 2013

This month I'm only a few days late, not bad! Let's see if it continues the winning streak from last month, especially since it contains an army I'm part interested in.

Opening Salvo - Jes has toned it down to an appropriate level, and comes across much better for it. The new models are described as being terrific which sums them up and doesn't make me feel like I'm being sold to.

New Releases - Chaos Daemons, so a double release. This has always intrigued me and put me off at the same time. The fact that the minis have to be designed to be compatible with both systems must put a lot of restrictions on the design process but I think they've done a good job of keeping the grimdark in there. It's mostly (well actually only) the Nurgle kits I'm interested in and they look suitably gribbly. The Plague Drones look interesting, but the Herald of Nurgle is amazing, proper nasty stuff. These look like they'll fit in very nicely with the other daemons released a few months ago.

Forge World show us what they've released over the past few weeks, with some of the special units from the Betrayal. I guess the rampagers weren't quite ready when this went to print.

Licensed Games is something slightly different this time. They've released Warhammer Quest for the ipad. I'd seen this back at GD2012 and had a chat to one of the designers, and this might actually be the first app that I pay for. I never played the original boxed game but was very interested in it from reading articles in old WDs.

Army of the Month - A very Forge World heavy marine army this month with a crazy number of superheavies. The scale of it is impressive but I don't feel as inspired by it as last months.

Jervis Johnson - The importance of letting the dice decide. My initial reaction was the think 'why don't you just develop watertight rules in the first place?' Then when I stopped to think about it, a foolproof set of strict rules would be bad (can you tell I'm not competitive yet) as it would greatly reduce the freedom we have in making this game our own.

Battle Report - Daemons v Space Marines. The daemons were a mixed god list but weighted towards Nurgle which I liked, and used the FW plague toads which is cool. The one thing that struck me about the battle was the board. It was a relatively simple set up, one that could be easily achieved by any gamer without a huge budget.

Blanchitsu - More warbands, and another showcase of a hobbyists fantastic conversions. See previous Blanchitsu reviews for appropriate comments.

Hall of Fame - Urien Rakarth is nominated by Neil Green. It's cool to see concept artwork and it's a nice model. As with a lot of these articles I'm not too sure of it's classic status yet.

Parade Ground - Even even more Golden Demon entries. Possibly going too far with this series as it's taken over from the real article for a bit too long. One idea could be to have a Golden Demon section as well as Parade Ground, just showing a single category each month, that way it won't have such an impact on content.

Kit Bash - I thought they'd covered flyers a few issues ago? There's some really neat conversions but I've got a strong sense of dejavu.

Battle Ground - Further showcases from Armies on Parade. The Tau board is very eye-catching. The Imperial Fists are a little underwhelming though.

Paint Splatter - More chaos orientated mini tutorials, how to use the spray gun and the tricky subject of how to paint yellow marines.

Jeremy Vetock - This time round Jeremy talks about what fucks him off. It's an interesting piece as it highlights that things aren't always happy and rosy. Of course it's all done in a tongue-in-cheek manner to keep the mood light, and it was a fun read.

Beth's awesome Raider, not mentioned in the review.

This Month In - Blanche returns to talk about the artwork of Chaos and how this informed the design process. There's talk of inspiration, thought processes and outcomes. The piece about cartography was a nice touch too.
From Forge World there's some great bits that haven't been seen before. The Mechanicum Thallax is intresting, and it's great to see another RoB section in the works. Looks like this one will fit in with the first one.

I didn't feel quite as excited reading this issue as I did the previous one. It's possibly down to repetition more than anything but I'll give it a 7/10.

White Dwarf (398) - February 2013

Yep, I'm a whole month late in reviewing this, so I'll try to keep it brief as I imagine that if you wanted to know about what's inside you will have found out by now!

Opening Salvo - Jes is up to his old tricks again, going to great lengths to tell us how great the new models are.

New Releases - The big release this month were the Warriors of Chaos for fantasy. None of them particularly caught my eye, but if I had to pick a favourite I'd go for the Vortex thingy. Speaking of models that aren't what I'm into, there's some new Hobbit stuff including a non-limited edition Radagast. This model definitely isn't as awesome as the one from the box set, but is still sweet.

From the satellite companies we have a few nice releases. A Ciaphas Cain novel featuring the Tau, and the Legion Champion and master of the signals from Forge World.

Army of the Month - I've been looking at these pages for a month now and I'm still not bored. This is exactly the kind of cool shit I want to see in this magazine! It's a well painted army with plenty of kit-bashing and also and very flexible approach to collecting. Using various different 'types' of Astartes and painting them as one unified chapter. Love it!

Jervis Johnson - I think this whole issue is subliminal. Jerv ties in nicely with the previous army by talking about what it's ok to collect. The answer is do what will please yourself. This, coupled with Blanchitsu and the Army of the Month has had a profound affect on my attitude to the hobby over the past few weeks while I've been unable to do any actual hobbying. I always knew that the freedom was there, but I guess I was just always too busy working on army projects and really stop and think. I'm even contemplating buying a Hobbit figure just for the hell of it!

Battle Report - Once again I'm afraid I kind-of glazed over, except for the great shots of the Night Goblins. I think there might've been an issue at the printers as Andrew's army is so black it's almost impossible to make out details.

Blanchitsu - When this article first returned in the new WDs I didn't get it. The models showcased didn't look like they could easily be used in a game so I passed them off as an odd curio from a talented man. Something happened this time around and I realised the joy of modeling for it's own sake rather than as a means to an end (I hope I got my cliches correct!). The minis on display this month were sent in by a reader and are oozing with detail. I'm already planning in my mind the Inquisitorial Warband I'm going to try and make!

Hall of Fame - Juan Diaz' Sternguard are the focus this month. They are amazing sculpts, however I'd probably rate the Tyrannic War Vets over these, but they're not current.

Parade Ground - Continuing on from last month we get some highlights from Golden Demon 2012. Stand-outs for me this time are Adam Haton's Inquisitor, and Kornel Kozak's Skaven.

Kit Bash - This month it's a look at 40k command squads. There's some really cool examples like the kit-bashed Tau suits, with great posing and an inventive use of different bits. Inspiring stuff.

Battle Ground - Four of last years Armies on Parade entries. These must have taken so much time and money. I was happy to see the Deathwing again, with much better photos than I took. Also there's the overall winner, from Cardiff no less!

Paint Splatter - Mostly focusing on Chaos tips but it does branch off to other areas. Much discussion has taken place about how this article lacks the focus of the old 'Eavy Metal masterclasses. It's just a different beast. I prefer to look at it as a handy collection of tips and tricks that you might not think of on your own, and these techniques can then be learnt, adapted and used on whichever minis you like.

Jeremy Vetock - Some people say this is a waste of two pages, that it's not important and that it's nothing that you can't find on hundreds of blogs online. I think it's actually a very important article. It's very rare, probably impossible to find a hobby blog written by a member of GW, and this is an insight into one of the design teams life in the hobby. Yes it's not telling you how to win at all costs, but it is a slice of fun, written in a very personable manner and shows that the designers are still passionate about the hobby the create.

This Month In - The photos in this section are really dark. It's a shame because this is another area where the passion of the Dwarfers really comes across. There's artwork and designers notes about the Warriors of Chaos, but the star of the show in my eyes is the FW section. Abaddon and Loken are previewed (they've been released now though!) and there's shots of an awesome looking Necron Realm of Battle section. I saw it at GD2012 but there was no clue as to when it'd be coming out. Now it's been shown to the masses I really hope it's coming out soon. It'll be a huge amount of fun to paint.

There we go, short and sweet. I'm not sure if you can tell that I think this issue is great, it's packed with ideas, inspiration, non-studio models and plenty of enthusiasm. So on to the score, wait for it, a whopping 9 out of 10. Nice one Jes, Andrew and co.

WW#11 - Moving, Meatballs, Music, Magic and a Man-Crush

Monday 28th January - Sunday 24th February 2013

Well, I'm back. It's been a long time, almost a month in fact. It's been quite a hectic few weeks moving into a new place. I'd forgotten how much work goes into it, from making sure you tell all the relevant companies and relatives where you've moved to, many trips to Ikea (I'm glad I went before they found horse in the meatballs, they complete the whole experience), and almost endless unpacking.

I think we've pretty much settled in and are feeling at home, it's almost like I never lived in the last flat. So here's a couple of photos of the new place just in case you're remotely interested.

Oh, I almost forgot. The Monday before we moved we saw a gig. It was the first bit of live music I'd seen in ages and they were every bit as good as I expected, they were the Joy Formidable. I wasn't too familiar with some of their new tracks but did my best not to look too much like an old man in a crowd of young hipsters.

Another thing that happened was Valentines Day. I decided to consult with my Jamie Oliver collection, and came up the an interesting sounding mozzarella and chilli salad to go alongside homemade pasta with parsnips and pancetta. Apart from the bombsite that was the kitchen after I'd finished I think it all went alright! Anna got me Professor Brian Cox's new book which was lush, he's my favourite person on the telly, and it's a great read. I just need to catch up on the TV series on my week off.

At some point, I can't quite remember when I went down to my local board and card game shop for a night of Magic. It was EDH night (or Commander as it's now known) and it was a huge amount of fun. I definitely think I'll be playing this a lot more than Standard. I took a Naya deck which you can find here.

I don't think I mentioned it in my last blog post but I picked up a Dark Talon for my Dark Angels and got it built. No photos yet but I'm hoping to get some paint on it later this week. I also finally got hold of a copy of Space Hulk from ebay. Whilst still very expensive it certainly wasn't as bad as some auctions I've seen and I'm really happy that I've finally got it. Once I've had a few games I'm planning to build my own terminator squad / warband to add the personal touch to it.

I'll call it a night there I think. Sorry for boring you with a whole heap of non-wargaming related news! Normal service will be resumed next week with an update on my War Room, a game I've got scheduled and hopefully some painting. Laters!

Warllama Weekly Issue 10

Monday 21st - Sunday 27th January 2012

Hey folks. Thought I'd write this weeks adventures up a day or so early since I'm in work tomorrow then out at a gig Monday. Currently I'm suffering from massive sleep deprivation from staying up all night playing Magic, not something I'm going to repeat in a long time! More on that later, first there's been genuine hobby progress made this week, so there's not as much filler/news!

I ended up deciding to just part with more cash for plastic crack at the start of the week, so for my first trip down to Firestorm of the week I picked up another Deathwing Command box and a Dark Talon. I had my work cut out with 11 chunky models but I've managed to get all of them cleaned up, glued and primed! At least the first time I use them they won't be bare plastic. I'm hoping I'll find some time after moving to at least get the basecoat down.

On the painting front my mission was to finish some scenery ready for my Realm of Battle so that my army had something nice to die behind. I managed to build up the motivation to finish the bastion finally, and also completed two parts of the Wall of Martyrs box set. I got the bunker and one of the emplacements done. I haven't seen how they look on my board as it's packed away ready to move but hopefully it'll all gel well and look ace. I'll put up some photos once it's all set up.

Before we break into Magic talk, as it's Saturday I was expecting February's White Dwarf but it hasn't arrived. I really thought GW had got their postage issue resolved as it's been consistent for quite a few months now. Guess I'll have to wait and see for Monday.

Finally we come to Magic the Gathering. I think I mentioned it last time round that I haven't played in years, since around the time that Zendikar came out. The Boros legion (red/white) has been a firm favourite archetype of mine for a long time and when I found out this set was going to feature the old Ravnica guilds I knew it was time to jump back in.
Last night I set off in the shitting rain (well, at least it wasn't more snow!) to Firestorm again and arrived at around half 11. It was a fairly uneasy feeling walking into a room of over forty complete strangers on my own but soon got chatting to a few guys. There were 45 of us playing I think so we had 6 rounds, which I was totally unprepared for! I thought I'd be home by 4, 5 at the latest. I managed to drag my weary body back home at around 7 this morning.
Each player got a box from their guild containing a specific pack with cards from their chosen colours, along with 5 booster packs and a spindown die. I'd gone prepared with some fresh sleeves and eagerly went about trying to remember how to build a deck. I managed to get it figured out with time to spare and here's what I came up with - http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/boros-gatecrash-prerelease/

I started taking notes after the first couple of games, but by the time we'd finished game three I was too fucked to bother writing anything down. Each of my opponents was great fun to play against, and I ended up winning 3 matches and losing the same amount. This placed me somewhere near the bottom of the pile but I really don't mind that, it was a great way to get back in the game and I'm looking forward to heading to a FNM in the next couple of weeks.

Another week reported on, and it's been a good one. Next week isn't going to be great hobby-wise with the big move into the valleys, but I'm sure something geeky will happen that I can write about. Until then, have fun and have a great week.