This Christmas in Immoren: Fresh Starts

I hope you are all had a great Christmas. I know I am, I got this:

Full faction baby!

I've been in a bit of a gaming slump recently. I blame Ben and Sam for this. They've been busy with one thing or another, as have I, but they haven't been waiting in the corner of my house on standby for those free couple of hours to play a game. 

The other day this was rectified as I tried out one of the lists I'm planning to take to my first Warmachine/Hordes tournament in March next year. The Tournament is called Fresh Starts and is being hosted by The Outpost in Sheffield. The rules details can be found on their website here.

The game was 35 points and I used Grissel2 with Ben using Cygnar's Kraye. Both casters were new to us so I don't think either of us quite knew what would happen. 

Instead of a straight out slugfest we decided we needed to get in to the habit of playing scenarios, and not having the Steamroller rules to hand, we played No Man's Land from the Rulebook. We had discussed having an auto loss for Caster Kill during the week beforehand and whilst this wasn't strictly in effect, I was going to try to abide by it to fully concentrate on scenario. 

The full list I used was As follows:

Grissel Bloodsong, Marshal of the Kriels - WB: +6
- Trollkin Runebearer
- Troll Axer - PC: 6
- Slag Troll - PC: 6

Fell Caller Hero - PC: 3
Fennblade Kithkar - PC: 2

Trollkin Warders - Leader & 4 Grunts: 8
Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes - Leader & 3 Grunts: 3
- Stone Scribe Elder - Elder 1
Trollkin Fennblades - Leader & 9 grunts: 8
- Fennblade Officer and Drummer - Officer & Drummer 2

Ben's list was:

Captain Jeremiah Kraye - WJ: +6
- Squire
- Hunter - PC: 6
- Defender - PC: 9
- Cyclone - PC: 9

Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist - PC: 2

Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team - Lynch, Ryan & Watts: 4
Stormblade Infantry - Leader & 5 Grunts: 5
- Stormblade Infantry Officer & Standard - Officer & Standard Bearer 3
- 1 Storm Gunner's: 1

Now to be honest, it wasn't until I started putting out my models pre game that I realised that the Krielstone was the min unit, and I was a little concerned that it wouldn't play a big enough part to justify its inclusion. However, since the main role was more about buffing my precious two Warbeasts and the Warders than the Fennblades, it wasn't as bad as I feared, and caused Ben a bit of trouble by pushing the light beasts to armour 20. 

The list was intended to be a jam list and it really did do that. Admittedly I didn't use my list to its full potential, but then nor did Ben with his own. 

I think that with a few tweaks, this is a strong contender for Fresh Start in March, but my main concerns are that with only two Warbeasts, the loss of just one will seriously hamper my late game as soon as one goes pop. As such I'm looking for a way to shoehorn in a third light beast, or possibly even a heavy. 

I was very impressed by the Trollkin Warders as they really soaked up a lot of attention. I think with a better thought out list with a few buffs I can really make them a solid base for the list.

As for the second list, I'm a little unsure. I was looking for a list for Calandra, but to be honest I'm unfamiliar enough with Grissel, let alone taking on a second new caster. As such I keep going back to Borka. 

A Tuffalo list with a heavy warbeast or two will give me something that the above Grissel list lacks: heavy hitters. Also, and let's be honest, it reduces the numbers I need to get painted. 

But painted I must get them, as I want to ensure at least one of my lists is fully painted by March. 

Malifaux Journal: Passing through the Breach

Malifaux. For years others have spoken its name. Some with reverence, others with dread. It is a place of riches and reward beyond measure. A place to make a name or to leave one behind. Though, in Malifaux, you can loose far more than your money, or even your life. Until now I have shied away from this place. I have stuck with that which I know, but recently Malifaux has seen change, a shift in Fate. It has called to me like the song of the siren beckoning me to its embrace. I have resisted so long and for what? What have I to fear?

And so, on this eve of change, I have taken the first steps on my journey. I have passed through The Breach. I have entered Malifaux.

This week in Immoren: list strengthening.

I'm thinking I have a new feature title. Also, I've been trying to improve my lists a bit recently. I'm working mainly on strengthening my 35 points lists initially but then increasing to 50 points in time.

Now, I have all the currently released Warlocks, but there are a few I prefer to the others:

Packing away the GW

Ok guys, just thought I would let you know that I have now packed away all the GW armies I own that I don't intend to sell with two exceptions: Dark Eldar and Empire.

Please note however that neither of those two armies are in a playable state.

I don't intend to unpack anything until after I move, so I won't be playing 40k or WFB for some time, if ever again at the rate the 'move' is progressing.

The only exception to this may be the Sisters of Battle, depending on their forthcoming Codex.

Thanks,

Mark

This week in Immoren: Marshalling the forces

Seems more like it ought to be this month rather than week since it has been so long since my last post. Suffice to say I've not managed much table time or modelling time recently with one thing or the other.

As the months roll on and we seem no closer to moving I have been spending a bit more time trying to order the chaos of my house so that we can at least try and get over to West Yorkshire before I retire. In addition I seem to have developed something of a social life in recent months with me joining an am-dram group earlier in the year (as a stagehand; I've no desire to act, I'm a writer after all!) and a couple of weddings, a stag do and numerous trips here and there.

However, I have recently had my first battlegroup game with the Comvergence of Cyriss against Ben's newly acquired Retribution of Scyrah whereby he used the alternate battlegroup from Privateer Press' Journeyman League rules. It's early days but I enjoyed the game and even though it is a very different (pardon the pun) beast to Hordes, the synergy element of the Convervenge helped. In the end though I sacrificed the Forgefather rather needlessly and gave Ben a caster kill.

The only other thing I've done is assemble my Trollkin Warders and try to find a list for them, which I think I have done now, and there is a clue as to which Warlock I'm using somewhere in the post, but I shalt spoil the surprise for the uninitiated.

The models are quite nice albeit that there is quite a lot of flash to them. I've still not managed to remove all of it, but to be honest I got bored of trying so shall have to go back to that if ever I decide to paint them.

I'm quite enjoying the back to basics approach to gaming with Warmachine and Hordes at the moment and so m scaling back my games at the moment, so when I get a chance to catch my breath again in a couple of weeks, if anyone wants a smaller level game, let me know.

Until then, take care and play you you have a pair.

Games Workshop, I'm done.

I've had a lot of fun with GW games over the years. Without them, I would have been blissfully ignorant of Wargaming. For nearly 20 years I played both Fantasy Battles and 40k and to greater and lesser extents I enjoyed each. In total I amassed 15 armies across both systems, some I enjoyed, some I never got to grips with, some are still on sprues.

My enthusiasm has waxed and waned over the years, but had always held firm.

Until now. At least as far as Games Workshop is concerned. Whilst many have baulked at the ever constant price hikes, I had always felt that the hobby has always been expensive and that I would just need to be more selective with my purchases. Even with the great Games Workshop exodus of 2010, when I began to really get into Hordes I wasn't ready to forego My first love.

I think there are a few reasons for this: very few of my gaming friends were ready to forego Games Workshop entirely, many didn't even start playing Warmachine and Hordes, and of those that did, not all stuck with the new system (and that's fine obviously). Another reason is that the community is much more established for GW. With not just tournaments but also more thematic campaign weekends, due to the number of years head start they had, GW have almost settled into their events more than their competitors. As such, since I've neither the inclination nor the skill to be highly competitive, I'm not too fussed about attending a Warmahordes tournament just yet.

I think that the main reason though is quite simple. I still love the background to both systems.

However, there is only so much I'm going to put up with and these days GW are really grinding my gears.

Their kits are becoming stupidly overpriced for much less value, they are trying to make certain 'must haves' direct only items and this latest move towards supplements is really the final straw.

One of the strengths to GW is aside from the main Rulebook is that if you buy a Codex or Army Book, you have all the rules you need for that army. Sure there are other supplements like Apocalypse, City Fight, Planetstrike etc, but they are optional. But this move towards 'buy this book here, but wait, you need this one too and it costs just as much, then there is this one and this one and you can't play properly without this one' attitude is more than I can bear.

As such, I'm calling time on Games Workshop. I've much more desire to play Warmachine and Hordes than I do Fantasy or 40k anyway, so I'm not too fussed.

Now I'm not going to forego my armies entirely, after all I've spent a lot of time and money on them, however fifteen armies are a lot of shelf space for what is now a secondary set of games at best. As such I am intending to downsize my collection dramatically and shall be putting many of them up for sale.

It's sad that I've come to feel like this about them, but I do feel that Games Workshop's greed and desperation have driven me to this.

This week in Immoren: Large scale games and new Convergence models!

Unbound Hordes

This weekend I played a large scale game with Ben and Sam. The idea was that Sam and I had to capture objectives held by an ambushed Skorne force. The point sizes were 50 each for Sam and me and 100 for Ben. Three objectives were set along the centre line with the idea that at the end of turn one, Ben would remove one of his choice as a decoy. Victory conditions were that Sam and i had to reach 3 objective points while Ben, being in the stronger starting position to do so, had to earn 6 points. He then set up his Large and medium based non Warlock models in a 12 inch area in the centre. Sam and I then set up our full forces except advance deployment and finally Ben placed his remaining models and we each placed our advance deployment models.

Sam's Legion

Ben's Skorne

My Trollbloods

The game went on for six hours, and whilst it was a good game, was largely uneventful on my side. I had taken an entirely firepower Hunters Grim list and essentially could not then break through Ben's Xerxis force. Well played on his point, but neither of us really did more than act as a cordon to the opposing force. 

Sam's side however was something of a bloodbath. He used a eThagrosh force against Ben's eHexaris force. In the end, the Messiah fell to Hexaris, but Sam had exacted a decent toll for it. 

However, we just couldn't break through enough to even gain a single point between us, and as such Ben reached his double points easily. 

In all then, an enjoyable game, and in terms of us amateurs creating a game, not too bad and a few lessons learned. 

A big thank you to Ben and Jamey for hosting (as always) and for feeding and watering us. 

The Maiden of lots and lots of Gears

Also this week (and I term this as since I last posted), my Convergence of Cyriss Battlegroup arrived. 

A small mixup on my part has meant that I don't yet have the book (not an issue as I've the deck on War Room) but instead have two sets of the Cyriss paint sets (yeah I know). I'm very excited about these, even if the following assembly pictures taken from the Privateer Press Insider are making me a little bit afraid. 

This week in Immoren: Sunday hobbying

I've had a good run of games of Hordes lately against Ben and Sam and I've really enjoyed them.

At this point I'm obliged to congratulate Sam on his first 'Caster kill the Sunday before last when he managed to slay Angus from Hunters Grim using a Carnivean. Now, I must admit that I cannot honour Sam with the four paragraphs that I awarded myself when I managed to kill his Thagrosh, however I will say that much like my own 'Caster kill, Sam managed string together a few combos to really make his turn a success, and even had it not worked, he would have likely weathered my own turn and seen off Angus in his next turn. Well done Samuel.

Proud of you!

This Sunday was supposed to be a hobby day rather than a gaming day, and moreover I was supposed to be painting. Ben had already done a fair bit of painting by the time I even picked up a paintbrush, and in a cunning ploy I used it to apply PVA to the bases so that I could add sand to them, thus delaying the painting a little longer. 

Digmies gonna dig!

Whilst the glue dried Ben and I played a small game. Knowing that we didn't have as much time as usual and also having a desire to play a stripped back game, I had suggested we play a 16 point Claw and Fang game. For those not familiar with the missions from the Hordes rulebook, it is a Warlock and Warbeasts only game (the Warmachine equivalent is Mangled Metal). I chose to dust off pDoomie, the first Warlock I ever used, and decided to back him up with a Dire Troll Mauler, a Dire Troll Blitzer and a Troll Impaler. For his part, Ben took Tyrant Xerxis and his battlegroup consisted of a Titan Gladiator, a Titan Sentry and a Cyclops Savage.

Going in to this game I had never killed a Titan of any kind, so that was my objective for this game. I didn't hold much hope of Doomie standing toe to toe with Xerxis and that was clearly Ben's thoughts too so killing a Titan would be more than enough of an achievement for this game. 

And to be perfectly honest, not only did I finally win myself some ivory, I also didn't do a bad job at trying to take down the Tyrant as well. But sadly, Doomie is far too squashy and instead the old man of the Trollkin collapsed under the weight of the Pillars of Halaak despite making two tough rolls. 

Back at the painting table I could avoid it no longer, but undaunted I under coated the min unit black which took most of the rest of the day. I did also basecoat them with, well, Trollblood base, so I am getting there slowly.

A photoshopped image to make it look as though I am painting

Painting wasn't as terrible as I remember it, so I may try my hand at it again next year.

Progress so far

Malifaux

Some of you may know that once again, my itchy gamer finger has been playing up, and as ever I seem to have run out of ointment.

This time, my attention has turned towards Malifaux by Wyrd Games. I've been drawn to this game for some time now, but because it uses a very different mechanic, namely cards instead of dice, I've always kept a distance. There are a few people in the area that play the game already, but due to circumstance I haven't really had a chance to see how it plays.

So a little introduction to the background for those that do not know. The world of Malifaux is linked to our own by a dimensional gate known as the Breach which was opened by a collection of magic users on our side. On the other side was found an abandoned town, also called Malifaux, and a very specific resource called Soulstones. These Soulstones can be used to power spells amongst other things, but diminish in power with use. The main method of recharging them is with the death of a living being in proximity to the diminished Soulstones. As such, the town of Malifaux has been populated by groups of humans all intent upon seeking their fortune. Of those, there are several factions: The Guild who retain some semblance of order, though mainly for their own ends. The Arcanists that area collection of independent wizards and black market smugglers of all things magical, the Resurrectionists who are practitioners of Necromancy. The Ten Thunders, the newest faction who have spent years increasing their influence by infiltrating the other factions, the Outcasts, the disinherited populace that have no home within the other factions. This one more than most are crewed by human and none human members. Finally, The Neverborn, as far as is known are the native inhabitants of Malifaux. The presence of the humans is not a welcome addition to their world and they seek to eradicate this new intruders, something which they may well have done at least once in the past.

For my part, I have been drawn to the Arcanists, or more specifically, to Colette du Bois' crew of Showgirls.

Now, before you judge, I would point out that in Hordes I play Trollbloods and in both Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 I play Chaos. Neither are particularly feminine, even the female Trollbloods. As such I go for models that look nice and I can feel a resonance with their background. I shall let you dwell on the thought of resonating with a showgirl.

For Malifaux I wanted a crew with a good strong backstory, and the trouble is that they all do, but the Showgirls particularly drew me as more than many others, they naturally rub shoulders with the other factions on a regular basis. It seems however, that I have not only picked a crew requiring more synergy than most, I have also picked one that hasn't yet, and in all likelihood won't have its 2nd edition beta rules for some time.

As such, I have also picked up the Ortegas box.

This crew, I understand, is more forgiving for the beginner and so I am hoping that I can get the basic rules down using this crew and then I shall move on to Colette.

I've been helped so far by a few different resources, as well as Mark Green who goes by the twitter name of @Aeth_1904.

The main resource is the Malifaux site itself. As well as pages for each Faction and crew, it also has a PDF of the current 1.5 version of the rules, a crew creator which is fully adjustable with all options available to each faction.

In addition there is a downloads page that has rules updates, wallpapers and fiction that is all free to download. 

The Wyrd Forums appear to have a good group of helpful gamers as well as a reasonably active company presence. As said earlier, Wyrd are currently working on a second edition of the game and one of the most surprising things I have found is that they are running an open public beta. This is a completely alien concept to me and just goes to show that Wyrd are open to genuine feedback.

External to the main site, and independent of Wyrd, the most useful source I have found is Pullmyfinger which is the Wiki site dedicated to Malifaux. So far it seems very detailed and very extensive and has  proved invaluable.

I've also been watching as many battle reports as I can find on YouTube as well as watching episodes of Joeyfaux.

Finally, I have been listening to the Malifools podcast. Episode 33, which can be streamed from the website, contains a beginners guide, so be sure to listen to that one.

Obviously I am still new to the system, but if anyone would like any further info, or can  provide me with information please do so. I would be particularly interested in any good Malifaux blogs or 'how to' or introduction videos.

For now however, I'm off to find Deadwood on DVD cheap. 

This week in Immoren: Hunting with Grim

Okay I will admit it, I am in love with Hordes again. I knew I would be. I even spoke about it in my last post.

So far since writing that I've had one very long walk to get a new Warlock and three games.

The Road

I had ordered the Hunters Grim a couple of weeks ago, and not long later a red slip appeared on my doormat one afternoon when I returned home from work. Helpfully the time on the card indicated that as useual, the Postman had been waiting around the corner out of sight until I had left for work earlier in the day, waited a whole three minutes, then gingerly ran to my house card in hand. This is the only logical conclusion I can draw as it seems to happen every time. That was the Friday. By Tuesday I was finally off work, but not having a car at the moment meant that I would need to walk to the depot if I ever wanted my parcel. Phones, it seems do not work in the Royal Mail and I cannot figure their backwards website out.

And so, I began the forty five minute walk (each way) to pick up my new favourite Warlock and it was worth every second!

Hunting Season

I've been lucky enough to get three games this week with Hunters Grim. In no particular order, I played against Ben's Lord Assassin Morghoul led Skorne, Luke's Gorten Grunback led Mercenaries and Sam's Thagrosh the Messiah led Legion of Everblight.

Now, I must admit that I completely messed up against the Skorne. Taking nothing away from Ben who earned his win regardless, I not only left Angus vulnerable but I didn't exploit openings he left to the fullest and I fixated on his distraction. And so, Ben got his first Caster Kill with his new warlock.

Against Luke I knew I was facing a much more experienced player than I. He started playing Warmachine and Hordes at the same time as Ben and me, but hadn't been playing other systems since and so was more focused (pun intended) than either of us. It was a great game and Luke was very patient considering unlike myself, he doesn't need ten minutes just for the control phase. I enjoyed facing the Mercs as it was a very different one to the Seaforge list I faced last time I played against Mercs so it was a nice change. I conceded this game because of time, though as I explained to Luke, my options couldn't lead to a win, though his own would, and so I am glad I didn't take up Luke's paint bet upon arrival. I've fallen foul of that before!

In my game with Sam, I had obviously learned from the previous two games and I managed to pull together a few combinations to ensure a caster kill on Thagrosh with these little buggers

Now, it was actually the min unit rather than the max, but it was still fairly impressive. Here is how the plan came together. At the beginning of my turn I was left with just a Mauler in my battlegroup who was facing off against a Scythean that it didn't manage to kill. With a Raek nearby the Scythean and Grim being in charge range of the Scythean, I knew that if I didn't manage to kill Thagrosh in my turn, Sam would kill Grim in his.

Coup de grace

Mirage and Vengeance moved my Fennblades in to Thagrosh's rear arc as well as enabling them to kill a Shredder which would hinder the Digmies shooting. Because Sam had depleted my Fennblades over the previous two turns, I only had three that would definitely make it into Melee with Thagrosh and two that may or may not (I had used No Quarter earlier so wouldn't gain +2 movement not to mention the all important Fearless required to face an Abomination with ease). As such, I knew that I would need to view them as the back up plan. I therefore activated The Hunters Grim. Muggs and Krump advanced towards Thagrosh, albeit from different areas of the board and Grim as the only with a hindered line of sight to the Messiah advanced to a better position, though one that would mean a rear advance from the Scythean if the plan didn't work (albeit that it would only be a rear advance if Krump died). It was unclear at this stage whether all the components were in the right postion as I purposefully for once didn't check my control range. If even one member of the warlock unit was out, the plan would crumble anyway. My first action was for Krump perform his Trapper action. If Thagrosh survived, it would deter Sam's Blackfrost Shard from aiding in the retribution towards Angus, not that the Scythean particularly needed it. But it's main function was to let me know if I would gain Mark Target on Thagrosh. The 5" template overlapped Thagrosh's base and so I knew that part one of the plan had worked. Next up, Grim popped his feat. I now knew he wouldn't need snipe on Headhunter as I had just declared I was casting Mortality on Thagrosh and found myself to be in range of that. I boosted the roll to be certain and managed to hit. This proved invaluable as I then fired Headhunter causing the first amount of damage to Thagrosh. Sam didn't have any fury on him and so couldn't transfer. Next, making the most of gaining Snipe from the Feat, Muggs fired the Snare gun. Even at defensive 11 with an effective RAT of 8 thanks to Mark Target, I was nervous of the roll but managed to hit Thagrosh thereby knocking him down. From here, I knew that the outlook was bleak for Thagrosh as the newly emerged Pyg Burrowers were next to activate and advanced so that four of them were within eight inches of Thagrosh. Needing anything but ones, none of the pygs failed to hit their target and it took just three to finish off the Messiah.

I would say that Sam didn't really make any mistakes, he just couldn't cover all the possibilities as I had ensured that threats were evenly spread and so he dealt with what he could where he could.

I was pleased with the way I used the list as I felt I was beginning to get my head back in to the Privateer Press way of thinking again, so hopefully I shall be able to continue this in future games.

Thanks to all three for great games, and I hope to face you all, and others besides, again soon.

The State of the Nation 2013

I've not been too frequent with my blog posts lately, but as that is well documented already I won't go in to that too much other than to say that as much as I love writing, I miss wargaming as much as I used to be able to. 

Focus
One of the decisions I made earlier this year, which is again well documented, was that I would focus on GW games with a view to maintaining a consistent approach as well as to improve my knowledge. As such I have stuck closely to single armies for both Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000.

Warhammer 40,000
The army I have played the longest for 40k is Chaos Space Marines. I've tried a few different styles over the years be they Night Lords, a mixture of the cults and none cults, but when GW started to focus more on the Red Corsairs more as a unified force rather than a rag tag band that is mentioned from time to time in the fluff, I really started to like them. The Huron model is superb, and as such with the new book I wrote a Red Corsair themed list. The list itself isn't a tournament list by any stretch, nor however is it too weak and as such I have enjoyed using it greatly. As I've tweaked it and become familiar with it, I have looked towards developing a second force, which whilst remaining a Chaos Space Marine force does perform in a different manner. The Red Corsairs were more of a fire base army with a few mobile elements with which to close up to the enemy. However, I have developed a purely Tzeentch army whilst is quite the reverse. It is much smaller even than it's Red Corsair counterpart, and is in truth a bit of a glass hammer, but although I shall need to test and tweak it further, I think it should perform strongly.

Warhammer

For Warhammer Fantasy Battles, I have again developed one army before working on a second. The first being a Daemon Prince led Tzeentch army with a few monsters in it, albeit that I have mixed marks in this army a bit. I liked the idea of men of the North worshipping all the deities, but perhaps some being favoured more and so the bulk is Tzeentch but some of the army is dedicated to Nurgle. Afterall, they are men even if they are servants of the gods, and men follow a strong leader even if he does speak of a different god. This army has done reasonably well. Again possibly not a tournament army, but solid nonetheless. The second army is a much newer beast. All units in this second warband are marked Nurgle, or cannot be marked. It is still early days, but is enjoyable enough to play with.

Children of the Empyrean
I have however begun building my dual system Daemon army. Very early days as yet, but initially I plan to use them as allies in 40k, then develop them as a force in their own right.

Privateer Press

Now, having spent the first half of the year keeping my promise to stick to GW, I find myself yearning to get back to Privateer Press. At the end of last year I felt I was finally starting to get somewhere with Hordes and Warmachine, something which I think I shll have to develop once more due to the break in play. I am still very much in love with my Trollbloods and have spent a lot of time recently thinking about lists. Jarl Skuld is still my favoured Warlock and so he is still going to be the crux of my main list, but I have found myself looking at the new Hunters Grim Warlock unit from the Gargantuans book.

Having played about with some list options, I am happy with the theory of how the units will play, and as such he is now on his way.

Aside from the War Wagon (which I think will have to be a Christmas present) and any of the currently unreleased models, I'm now at full faction and as such I have plenty of options and so I'm trying to vary the lists as much as possible at least up to and including 35 points. Inevitably the Fennblades are a popular option in most lists as are the Scattergunners, but I've resisted putting them both in all lists. I've also varied the Warbeasts as much as I can, though the Impaler, because of his animus and my seeming preference for ranged lists, makes it in to more than one force. Initially I shall concentrate on the two Warlocks mentioned above, though eventually the aim is to get back to developing the Borka list and some of the other Warlocks that I've not used before.

Convergence of Cyriss

Keeping with Privateer Press, I have wanted to have a go at the Warmachine side of the coin for some time, though as they did before I first bought the Hordes Trollblood starter pack when Mk1 was around, none of the factions really captured my imagination. Even the newer Scyrah didn't really hit the spot, and to be honest I had decided to forego that side of the game entirely. However, with the announcement of the Convergence of Cyriss as a playable faction, I decided to wait out the details and see how I liked them, and I must say, I really like them! The idea of them being clockwork beings that have foregone their flesh is a very good one to me, and I like the idea of the Vectors rules. As such, I have ordered the starter set for them and who knows, maybe I can cope with painting silver?

Dystopian Wars
To be frank, this has taken a back seat for now. I still have much less time than I would like to wargame, and either 40k or fantasy will suffer to fit in Warmachine/Hordes. But it is not forgotten, and I shall get back round to it at some point.

The Future
Some of you may know already, however The Whyf has been given a store manager position in Ilkley, and as such at some point the intention is for us to move to West Yorkshire. Their are pros and cons for us that we have carefully considered, but both think it will be beneficial in the long run. It may be in a few weeks that we go, or in a few months. That is the best information we have at the moment, but we are looking forward nonetheless.

In the meantime, thanks for reading.

A year turns

Well, it certainly seems that long since I last posted anything. In fact it's a quarter of a year already.

I've not been lax in that time. My uni course is going strongly with a good 2:1 and a good 1st so far this year. That has in truth taken up a great deal of my time as I have done a great deal of research in addition to the actual assignment writing, and in order to give myself a decent amount of experience of different genres, I have read extensively to compensate for the fact that I've spent too many years reading only Black Library literature. I have another blog where I collate some of my writing, which can be found here.

In terms of my gaming, I have been a busy bee as well. Unfortunately I have not been able to play Warmachine and Hordes at all this year, a matter that I hope to address soon, nor (I think) have I played Dystopian Wars. With two sizeable fleets in the KoB and the Russian Coalition, the dream is to give this game some attention soon.

However, this section is supposed to be about what I have been doing, so, with my gaming time this year, I have entirely been corrupted by Chaos. In 40k, I have done what I have been claiming I will do for years. I have stuck to one army, my Red Corsair Chaos Space Marines. It didn't start well, with Huron's first battle seeing him turn in to a spawn. The Tyrant wasn't too pleased at this, and has refused to win most of the time since (I think I managed a single win, but I'm not certain on that). Though I must say I think I've gone for too slight a list as the main weakness time and time a gain is attrition. In truth there have been a few times where Huron alone has stood in the path of too quick a loss. I suspect tactics also play a role, but, then they always have.

The aim now is to build a secondary CSM list with a mainly Tzeentch theme. I do intend to go for quite a lot of Daemons with this, so Tzeentch will improve their Invulnerable saves handsomely. Whether it will work, I do not know.

Warhammer fantasy battles has, as always, been my first love in gaming. Where possible I have persuaded opponents to play this rather than 40k. And again, the Mortal followers have been in favour. Kalaghar is currently on sabbatical, replaced for the moment with Belloq The Evershade, Daemon Prince of Tzeentch. Named after the French Archaeologist in Raiders of the Lost Ark, Belloq is a champion of Tzeentch who ascended when he opened a forbidden casket. Currently the fluff is work in progress to ensure it doesn't include any renowned adventurers that name themselves after dogs. This army, while being mainly Tzeentch, does often include other marks. Apparently alone, I did like the freedom of mixing marks fluff wise from the last book as it struck me as more apt for the Norse/Kurgan belief system to worship the whole Pantheon rather than a single one of the four gods. However, I can see the reasoning to not permitting multiple marks in a single unit.

As the Evershade army is being honed, I am also looking at a secondary Nurgle single god list. The idea here is to allow some decisive theming as well as giving a nice unified feel. This is early days yet,  but the second battle went reasonably well for a first draft list. The first battle went dismally, but a mix of bad luck on dice rolls and trying to apply exactly the same tactics from the Evershade list meant that even despite Ben being a strong opponent with a decent list, I was already on the back foot. I would say though that the second game did give me some particularly good luck points too, so the list drafting continues. By the way, not a single Daemon Prince of Nurgle in sight here.

The next project is Daemons. Some strong eBay sales have meant I can replace the core/troops choices that I sold (as they were all old metal ones). The plan had always been to sell my old ones to finance new ones, make a profit and so be able to make additional purchases. However, I sold the old items without replacing them, but now I have rectified this and so intend to get the Daemons up and running.

Regrettably this was too late to take part in the club's badlands campaign and as such there is now no immediate rush to get them sorted.

So, that is what I have been up to lately, maybe next time I shall have some pictures, even if they aren't painted.

As a final note, I have written my first commission background story for Matt Walker at the club. If you would like anything writing, please let me know.

Cheers

Progress (of sorts) so far.

Still not painted anything yet. Been building the scouts and the Aegis line (I have one for my Chaos and one for my Loyalists).

Sorry about the rubbish picture, even for me it is a bad one, but since it isn't of anything painted I figured it wasn't the end of the world.

The Scouts for my Blood Angels are Sniper Rifle and Missile Launcher armed so I didn't really want to repeat that with their Dark Angels counterparts. After talking with Ben I decided to go with Bolters. My intention here is to use them to either outflank as a full unit or combat squad them as infiltrators (in the main), but I suspect that other options and ideas shall present themselves once I've used them a couple of times.

So, I'm going to have to paint these things now.

I've also converted a quad gun for my Chaos Space Marines so that the Imperium and the Traitors don't have to share.

I have no idea why, but blogger doesn't want to show this the correct way up. Even though the picture is saved as such on the computer.

Stupid thing!

Rise of the Unforgiven

Well, after nearly a month of not painting anything for my painting pledge, I have decided that Chaos Space Marines will not be the force of choice for this.

I've very much enjoyed playing my Huron led Red Corsairs army and I shall continue to do so for pick up and play games, however if I wish to use a painted army for any given event, then the Dark Angels stand the stronger chance of being painted in time.

At present I have a little over 2250 points of painted Dark Angels, but typically my newest list has very little by way of my originally painted units. Furthermore, I think it about time I actually painted some of these Dark Angels myself.

So this means that I have a little over a month to paint a few models, but at this stage I have no idea which ones I intend to paint.

The first problem I have is that if I choose a Tactical squad to paint, then I need to paint a Rhino with it, though as I have already said, I am hoping that someone will be able to help me out with airbrush painting my vehicles (hint).

So for now, I've just got to decide which units I need painting the most and then find a reasonable painting guide so that this time I can have a unified colour scheme.