sons of thunder

Brisbane's Hobby Progress

2012-02-10T09:35:00.002-05:00

Circle: Just polishing and tightening up details. Going from 40k to Hordes is such a refreshing change and a challenge. It's just such a different style of painting. There's no question that if we want to be great painters, we should paint many types of models.

Dark Eldar: I think I'm finally happy with their color scheme. It's both dark and eldar at the same time. The funny thing is how it's really just the old 3rd edition color scheme, black and purple. It just works for them, I guess.

Necron Lord: Painted this for my buddy Jaime as a Christmas gift. I was worried about how to proceed and then just decided that simple was best. He loves orange and really wanted his Necrons to showcase that. All airbrush on that one.

That's it for now, thanks for reading!

Tony Tips : Preperation for War

2012-02-09T17:16:00.002-05:00

Cygnar withstanding a Khadoran onslaught

Hey guys, Tony here again! Lets start off the series with what I always do before any engagement is preparing myself. I also would like to note that these tips are generally intended towards competitive playing but doesn't exclude casual playing at all. So please don't take it to offense and enjoy!

So you got your army and tools ready and your opponent is gearing up. Whats next? Well lets see!

List Build/ Faction Knowledge

One of the most important thing to check before everything else is what army are you facing? Afterward ask yourself these questions. Do I have a list that can do well against his faction? Do I have a plan against him/her? How well do I understand his faction? In reality you may not always have an answer to all of these questions but its always good to have a general plan to win or a plan to not lose.

Choices

Whats the difference between playing to win and playing to not lose? Normally you can win the game by warcaster/warlock assassination or scenario. Those are the most simple methods of victory but there are a few others. Playing not to lose is trying to out-attrition your opponent. Attrition according to Webster is wearing down or weakening of resistance, especially as a result of continuous pressure or harassment. Whats that mean for Warmahordes? It's basically saying who's army can outlast the other army. So in a general sense you are trying to wear down your enemies while maintaining yourself in a good position. For example, lets say I charged with a 6 man weapon-master unit that cost 5 points against a heavy jack that cost 8 points. The result is the heavy jack is scrapped and hes down 8 points while I only spent 5 points to take it down. The results mean I still have 3 points more than he does on the table. This, in retrospect, leaves me in a very good position.

Know Your Enemy

Understanding your opponent's faction is very crucial as it can lead you to the best option to retaliate. A great example would be Circle of Oboros vs Legion of Everblight. Circle as a faction generally loves utilizing the forest terrain however Legion loves it just as much or should I say even more. Let's say I have no idea how Legion works and I do my usual tactics of moving my army into the forest to gain concealment and block LOS. Next thing I know my opponent gives me a smirk and gloats about how his warbeast ignores concealment, clouds, stealth and forest when determining LOS. That leaves me flabbergasted and a deranged wth look on my face crying out "Legion is broken!". But mostly it was my poor lack of knowledge. Not knowing what your opponent is capable of can lead to horrible games and a bad aftertaste. In this case the legion player has a strong advantage against my army because of their innate ability to ignore many strengths that I rely on.

So whats a good solution? I know we all hate school but studying is the best solution to match up problems. You do not have to read every damn detail of their faction but at least get an idea of how they work and what you can do about it. If you find that you can't find a solution to a problem ask a friend or another player about it and see what they can come up with. The forums are also a great source to find information.

OK, Tony, I read all the books studied my eyes out am I ready now? Not quite yet! Even though studying is great, play-test unfortunately is required too. From experience I've read all the books, I've come up with solutions against certain factions on paper and theory but when I hit the board it didn't work quite as well. Its not a simple process or else the game wouldn't be fun would it? My point is if you want to be good at this game you gotta study, play-test, and have fun. Having fun is important because without that there is no point to the other steps. So grab those books and your buddies and play!

To Be Continued...

Preparation for War part :2 Coming Soon!

Circular Logic: An Introduction

2012-02-09T08:24:00.002-05:00

As most of you can tell, I've been doing a lot of painting lately. While I've never really written any sort of real tactics articles, the Sons of Thunder gaming group has been playing a TON of Warmachine lately and we are all just drowning in rules and theory. After some chatting, we figured it would be a great time to start actually talking Warmachine on the blog. Hopefully some of the other guys will put together some great pieces and in the meantime, I figured I'd talk about Circle Orboros as I learn to play them.

As with any game, I am open to ideas and suggestions. I'm not a master player by any stretch, just someone who's really enjoying the Circle Orboros and its Druids, Warpwolves and Constructs.

Intro
Before we talk about what I have been learning, let's take a moment to discuss Circle's biggest strength: "speed". Circle aren't the heaviest hitters or the fiercest casters, but the ability to bounce around the table via teleports, stones, shifting and just plain running is incredible. While there are a few other factions that can run as fast, the ability to move huge chunks of your army with such ease is quite unique to Circle and is something that I have had to learn to manipulate. Shifting Stones are my friends!

Consider Baldur. His speed is pretty low for a Circle Warlock at 5. Take a look at his abilities and spells, however, and you'll see that his SPD doesn't slow him at all. Forest Walk allows him to show up in any forest within his Control Area and Rapid Growth allows him to create forests anywhere within his Control Area. So he's moving a potential 12" a turn! Though he gives up his normal movement to do that, he can still cast spells. That's powerfully "fast".

Another quick example is the Blackclad Wayfarer. He can choose to sacrifice his action in order to show up within 2" of any Shifting Stone ON THE TABLE. Wow! With some good planning, Circle can run rings around even the fastest factions. Not that any of this is easy, but it is fun and when you can pull it off, it's wonderful. The planning for Circle is like walking a tightrope, constantly manipulating the battlefield in order to set up the perfect strike. It's fun!

OK, so next time, I'd like to talk about the Warlocks I've been using lately and how they play for me. Every Warlock (or WM Warcaster) is very characterful with a lot of background and personality. They are men and women who cast long shadows and really influence the nature and character of the army that surrounds them.

Thanks for reading!

Greetings!

2012-02-08T16:42:00.002-05:00

Hello! Tony here and I will be bringing you the glorious rulings and tactics of Warmahordes. As you know playing Warmahordes, rulings can be very specific and yet confusing like determining whether you have LOS (line of sight) to a target that is behind a model/terrain or understanding how a spell can be given to a battlegroup or a warrior-model only.

Point is ruling sometimes aren't that clear and is frustrating because we all want to enjoy the game and have a good time. Misunderstanding some rulings can also lead to a lot of fits and debates and can potentially ruin games.

So whats the purpose of this series? To help you understand and become a better player! I will be bringing you lessons and tips as well so please stick around and comment. In a game like this I believe anyone can become good as long as you dedicate yourself to some studying, understand your weaknesses and strengths and always practice practice practice!!

My Gaming History: Currently 22, been gaming since I was 7. My game background consists of fighting games and trading card games, with more focus on fighting games, and my first tabletop game Warmachine! I've come from a very competitive gaming background and won tourneys playing such games as Soul Calibur 3, Yugioh, and Super Street Fighter 4. Warmachine has been going well for me for the past 8-9 months. I enjoy the fluff and models but mostly the game itself as I feel as a competitive player.

Many may disagree with me but I find the most joy in playing competitively as it test my limits as a player, which then nourishes me into a better player. I cannot find anything more satisfying than playing against other players at their best and coming out victorious. It really feels like all the hard work and effort I've put into thinking, theorizing and testing has paid off.

This train of thought may not be for everyone but I do highly encourage everyone to play their best whether you win or lose. Your opponent and your peers will know for a fact that you did your best and tried your hardest. So hold the salt and hit the training room because there's always a next time!

P.S. I play Teh Protectorate of Menothz.
credit goes to lanceradvanced for the picture of Epic Feony

Colossals!

2012-02-03T13:01:00.001-05:00

Commissions

2012-01-30T12:41:00.000-05:00

I've been painting a ton lately. Just wanted to show you what I've been up to.

First there is my Dark Eldar. I've been moving pretty slowly with them, simply because there are a lot of them to do! Here is the basic color of the warriors and wyches. They'll have purple and green as accenting colors.

Then I've been working on a small commission of Menoth figures, mainly Warcasters and the Avatar. I was never a huge fan of the Menoth line or their fluff (despite how similar it is to the 40k cult of the emperor) but painting them has been so much fun that I've started my own force.

I'm not sure what colors my own will be, but here we have the more traditional looking Menoth scheme which has been quite fun to paint. Thanks for reading!

Battle Report: Circle v Legion 25pt

2012-01-19T18:08:00.002-05:00

I'm still learning the deeper levels of WM/H game play, but this game proved to be helpful seeing as how I ended up playing Will's Legion in the Steamroller last week!

I Won...Again?!

2012-01-14T23:02:00.000-05:00

WTF, I'm having a blast! I went into the Conflict knowing two things. It was my first GT and since it was the first time Warmachine was being run, it would be a smaller crowd. Perfect for a noob like me!

When the smoke cleared, though, I landed at the top of the bloody pile!! Not much to say but I had a great time. I'm hoping the Warmachine scene grows out here in the American North East and get more GTs running Warmachine, Flames, Infinity alongside the traditional two.

Wish I had planned a trip to TempleCon...maybe next year!

New Circle Pics, with "Stage"

2012-01-11T09:58:00.000-05:00

Circle Update & Conflict GT

2012-01-07T22:00:00.000-05:00

The Conflict GT is coming up this weekend, and while most people will be playing Warhammer 40k, I've decided to go in with Warmachine/Hordes. My weekends are usually very busy and a full weekend of gaming is quite difficult for me. A 40k Doubles Tournament would be fun times, I'm sure, but I really need to dive into Warmachine/Hordes competition and get my tail kicked in to really learn and become better at the game. So Friday night, I'll be playing in a 25 point Tooth and Claw (Warlock/Warcaster and Beasts/Jacks only!).

This is the first time that Privateer Press is being supported at the Conflict and I also want to help get it off the ground. I don't know how well it'll all turn out, but I think it would be great if any local WM/H players came on over and helped kick start WM/H in what is one of the few GTs in the NY area (with the BFS being the only other one (?) and they don't support WM/H, yet).

What I find very strange about the gaming community, particularly 40k players, is the sense of loyalty they feel towards a company to the exclusion of all others. It's been strange seeing how resistant some people are in adopting a new game. Not for financial reasons, either, just some weird sense of loyalty. They want every game to play and look like "their" game. It's really silly. I love miniatures and I don't want to be pigeon-holed. I just want to play some table top games! That said, I'm glad the gaming environment is changing. Even our store is starting to carry WM/H and Flames of War alongside GW product. That's a good thing.

Long story short, I needed to paint up some new models to run my Circle list. You'll also see an eHaley commission and an Abby commission.

eKaya
Feral Warpwolf
Warpwolf Pureblood
Warpwolf Stalker

I will be practicing with it this week as much as possible since I've only run Kromac (LOVE Kromac, lol). Let's be frank, I'm going to get my crushed, but I am very excited about playing some competitive WM/H.

Hobby Update

2011-12-30T00:05:00.000-05:00

Bad, bad pics but I think you can see what's happening (except maybe with Gorax). The Baneblade is pretty much done, the client wanted a simple job done on it. It's a shame I can't figure out how the hell to get a light box going, lol. Maybe that should be a New Year's Resolution for me, set up a frikkin light box!

Merry Holidays!

2011-12-24T22:52:00.000-05:00

Enjoy the Holidays folks! I pray you all spend quality time with good family, good friends, and face some stiff competition on the table top! 2012 will rock, be ready for it!

I Won! :)

2011-12-19T08:04:00.002-05:00

Pic by holypixels.blogspot.com

My FLGS held a small RTT yesterday and your truly brought it home! We played at 1750 and I took my Grey Knights.

Librarian (Warding Stave, Shrouding, Quicksilver, Might of Titan)
Terminator Squad (2x Hammers, 3x Halberds, Incinerator) in a Raven (Lascannon, MM)
3x 6-man Strike Squads (Psycannon, Hammer) in Psybacks
3x Rifleman Dread (Psybolt Ammo)
Vindicare Assassin

That should be it, if memory serves. I don’t consider myself a WAAC player, I don’t think the list was overly powerful, but others might judge differently. What made the biggest difference (and this is probably a weakness of 40k) were the match ups. The combination of opponent and scenario really helped me out.

Game One - I drew IG, Capture and Control. He destroyed 2 Razorbacks and 2 Dreads before I had a chance to roll a single die. Yet, there’s one thing I’ve learned about my Grey Knight list, they’re late game contenders. I’ve been here before so I patiently waited to see what would happen.

The IG got overly aggressive. One vendetta showed up behind my objective and failed to do anything with its shots or his melta-vet squad. My Strike Squad got out and ate up some Vets while immobilizing the Vendetta, which died next turn. That was the game. The game turned for me after that. At the end he had 6 guards in a Chimaera running for their lives midfield. Note that the scenario here was in my favor, I think. He had to come get me in order to get my objective sooner or later, if he wanted the win.

Game Two - Space Wolves Razorspam, three Long Fang squads, all led by a Rune Priest. Kill Points, Spearhead. He won first turn (as usual). Not much to say here, his dice stunk. He failed every psychic test, nearly every save and scored 1 and 2 on every pen and glance roll. At the end of the game I won about 10-4. He just had a lot of bad luck and the scenario (kill points) really played into my hands again.

Game Three - Blood Angels, Seize Ground. His list was insane. 9 Dreads, of all sorts. Death Company, Furioso, shooty. It was crazy. What helped me here was the Dawn of War deployment. He had to walk his Dreads across the entire board. He only had two 5 man assault squads to score with.
I killed one in the first turn with my Raven. He just had no answer to my guns as he walked across the board. He was upset at the end of it all. Honestly, my list beat his, it wasn’t really a tactical game. Again, a flaw at the core of 40k, I think.

That’s that. Small three game affair, but it was nice to have some fun and grab a few wins. Thanks for reading!

Conflict GT Plans
Just an update that my plans for the GT revolve around Warmachine. This tournament really drove home that 40k is just beer and pretzels, guys. That last game wasn't even fair. I didn't outplay him, he lost when he brought that list. 40k is a list building game, nothing more, I'm afraid. If lists are balanced (that's a big 'if'), then the match can become tactical, but otherwise, you always run the risk of face-rolling someone. That's OK if we're just goofing off, but when there is prize money on the line, it can get ugly.

Plastic Warpwolves!!!

2011-12-14T23:09:00.001-05:00

I don't usually post this sort of stuff, but holy moly! These guys look SICK! I'll be ordering six...that's right 6!!! Two of each Warpwolf. Though I could magnetize them, I want to paint them up differently, so I'll go ahead and bite the bullet. March can't come soon enough!

Army Painter & GW Grass Tufts - Mini Review

2011-12-14T08:48:00.001-05:00

So Army Painter Winter Tufts (pictured above, on the Privateer Press miniature) is a nice little product. It's about 7$ and is very nice looking. My Circle Orboros army is the first time I've ever used this product and I am quite happy with the ease of use and the final results. You get enough grass to base a skirmish level army, I would say. Certainly not enough to base an entire 40k army, I don't think, but overall, worth every penny.

GWs Winter Tuft (on my Infinity Vindicare Assassin) is also pretty cool. It's about 14$ but comes with about twice as much grass, maybe even three times as much. Certainly enough to base most 40k armies. The quality takes a bit of a hit, I must add, but you get so much more that the trade off is almost worth it. I think I'll be using the GW stuff for GW armies, mainly because of the cost effectiveness of it (weird, huh? GW AND cost effective in the same sentence...), it would simply cost more to use the Army Painter stuff.

All that said, I think Army Painter's product is a better one. For my smaller armies, perhaps Deathwing or my soon to start Khador force, Army Painter is the way to go. The Grey Knights and the Dark Eldar, my Warriors of Chaos, they all just have way too many boots on the ground. I'll stick to GW for those armies.

Have any of you used these products? What are your thoughts?

Circle Updates

2011-12-13T09:05:00.002-05:00

More airbrush work on the Circle Orboros. I've really enjoyed painting so far and I'm really trying to stretch a little bit with color choices and with the way I'm painting. The Wilder, for instance, hasn't been touched by a traditional brush, yet. She'll get detail work done, of course, but the fact that I can lay down a basic coat with an airbrush is awesome. Can you say Fine Needle?!

Please note that I'm a tweaker. While the Pureblood might look the same, he's been retouched and retouched and retouched, lol. Enjoy the pics and thanks for reading!

Harkevich Project

2011-12-09T08:20:00.001-05:00

I'll be starting a small Khador project built around Harkevich. I recently purchased Wrath and his backstory is really wonderful. He's (surprisingly) rather unique in terms of Warmachine and Hordes in that he's a compassionate, sympathetic leader. He simply isn't your typical warcaster. It's interesting how aloof and distant so many of the WM/H leadership are.

Anyways, stay tuned for the last of the Grey Knights (with full army pics), Dark Eldar progress, Circle and now Khador. I'll be having a few airbrush tutorials up soon.

Is 40k Competitive or Balanced?

2011-12-03T19:04:00.000-05:00

I don't usually write about tournaments or lists. There are so many sites out there trying to unlock the über-list that I don't feel one more will make much of a difference. Besides, in a very mature and honest article over on 3++, none of these so called awesome lists are winning tournaments anyways, lol.

I follow Terminus Est and this article got me thinking, though. Is 40k even tournament ready?

The more you play the more you realize that luck of the draw, list match ups and dice rolls have as much to do with winning as anything else in 40k. You also realize that every Codex introduces more imbalances, more FAQs, more confusion, more changing of the power level.

It just got me thinking that 40k just isn't ready, it's not what I wish it was. Next year will be my first NOVA trip and I'm strongly thinking of participating in the Warmachine or Infinity tournaments.

Don't get me wrong, no game is perfectly balanced, but at least in other systems I can play the army I want without the fear that I will autolose or autowin. Lols, I remember a game against the old Necron Codex. Tri-Monolith build against all my Warp Quaking Strike Squads. Yup, that didn't go well for my opponent. I doubt it was fun for anyone.

So, what do you guys think? Is 40k really ready for tournaments? We know it's not balanced (the Codex books are not equal in power, I don't think anyone is going to try and debate that, right?) so what are we expecting from tournaments and GTs?

Space Wolves have won the last few GTs with a couple of exceptions, does that mean the SW codex is the most powerful? Are the Xenos books just underplayed and misunderstood? Can more exposure make these books as powerful as the Space Wolves?

I don't know, it just seems that the more I play 40k, the more I realize it is exactly what GW wants it to be: a casual, fun, beer and pretzels game.

What do you all think?

Dark Eldar vs Necrons Video

2011-12-01T08:58:00.001-05:00

Enjoy and thanks for watching!

Hobby Update

2011-11-29T08:10:00.001-05:00

Nothing too fancy going on here, just some photos (taken from my phone, sorry^^). We have some Dark Eldar bits, my Skinwalkers and a Finecast Librarian that I'm trying some OSL on. Let me know what you think!

Thanks for reading!

Domination Help!

2011-11-22T23:49:00.001-05:00

Just a quick question: Who is that Warpwolf?! He looks so incredibly incredible, I want 7 of them, now!!!!

I've been listening to every podcast, seen the spoilers, read every article and I've got nothing! Obviously my copy of Domination is awol and that pic is what has me most excited. Is that Circle's plastic kit? Someone please help!

Hobby Update!

2011-11-18T10:38:00.001-05:00

Another quick update. Castellan Crowe is finished and he's going on eBay pretty soon. The terminators need a couple of touches here and there and the Tharn Ravager is my lead model for this unit. He's the most complete and I am enjoying the process immensely. It's such a fluid, organic thing when painting flesh. It's very enjoyable.

On a related note...I need new brushes! My stuff is moving on in age and some of my favorite brushes (Vallejo, Citadel, WN) are just getting to the point where I know they need to put to rest. Can anyone recommend good brushes that strike a good balance between cost and quality? While I LOVE the WN miniature series, they're running over 25$ a brush and I just don't have the cheddar for that right now.

Thanks for reading guys and gals!

Upcoming eBay Items

2011-11-14T12:38:00.001-05:00

Hey everyone, just wanted to give you all a heads up to watch for a few items I'll be putting up on eBay soon.

I've got a 5 man squad of Grey Knight Terminators going, this Stormraven on the right (once I finish the weapons) and my first go at Krom Dragongaze, 1750 point Deathwing army.

It's just clearing inventory and making room for more projects and new additions (for instance I want to paint a new Stormraven, and I don't need three!).

Items should be going up soon, I'll give you all a heads-up when they do.

Thanks for reading!

Circle Updates

2011-11-05T22:21:00.000-04:00

Not much to say here. I've been working on making green and brown pop. My first attempts were a little muddy and dark, I think I've successfully made the models jump out at you a little more. As always comments and crits are welcome.

Also, after playing a few more Circle games I've really begun to wrap my head around them. Feeling pretty good about the Pureblood/Feral combo and I think I'm in love with the Lord of Feasts, but he's tricky to keep alive.

I also want to try a Morvhanna infantry heavy list and see how reliable her resurrecting Grunts is.

Winners!

2011-11-01T20:33:00.001-04:00

Using Random.org we have our two winners!! Remember that each of you will get either The Fall of Damnos or the Purging of Kadillus. Whoever gets back to me first can pick their book.

Winners
sonsoftaurus
Jacob D Stejskal

I'll be attempting to email them with the news. Thank you all for getting us to ~~100~~ 90 followers! :)
We pray for another two years of hobby goodness!

Contest Update

2011-11-01T08:06:00.001-04:00

irrelevant but good looking

Just a note to let you all know that I'll be drawing our two winners tonight! Though we didn't reach 100, I want to reward the faithful anyways :)

Good luck to everyone involved!

Kromlech Review

2011-10-30T00:25:00.000-04:00

Enjoy :)

Krom Dragongaze 2

2011-10-26T09:47:00.001-04:00

Here's my Krom. I'll have the army built by week's end. Playing my first game with them on Monday. I will be spamming hobby progress on these guys so stay tuned!

Update on the contest, we are closing in on the end of the month and we are still 11 followers from the goal. Do not fear!!!! Even if we don't get to 100, I'll be giving away those books to thank all the faithful!

Thanks for stopping by!

Grey Knight Terminators

2011-10-22T23:42:00.000-04:00

Just a quick pick, showing what I was able to work on today. One of the most enjoyable things about using an airbrush for painting miniatures is the opportunity to nail the natural, smooth look of power and force weapons.

In any case, there's my Librarian, backed by his squad. Sexy models make the Grey Knights so much fun to paint.

Thanks for stopping by.

Krom Dragongaze

2011-10-22T00:08:00.000-04:00

pic by nachomon

With my Grey Knights almost 100% done, I've set my sights on my next project. Honestly, there was no real question what army I wanted to rebuild: my Space Wolves. However, I wanted to do something surrounding my favorite unit in the game, Terminators.

Those of you who've been reading for a while know that I returned to 40k in 2009 with a Loganwing army (long since sold off). While this was a serious consideration, Space Wolves Assault Terminators are stupidly high in points (please FAQ this, GW - there's no reason why TH/SS terminators should cost 63 points - a ton more than in every other book and almost 10 points more than Paladins - WTF!!!!).

Without boring you too much, I searched for a Wolf Lord that favored Wolf Guard. Krom Dragongaze loves his Wolf Guard. So I decided that my Krom takes long trips away from Fenris, loading up on Veterans in Tactical Dreadnought Armor. They would be a ragtag group, with bits of scavenged Chaos armor. They would be more of a brotherhood and return home to Fenris when they needed to restock and recruit. Slowly I began to love the idea. How could I make this work?

Then it hit me, the ultimate heresy a Space Wolves player could ever suggest...but I could not relent, the seed had been planted and my thoughts forced it to germinate and grow...I would use the Dark Angels Codex to bring them to life on the tabletop.

That's right! I will be building and painting a Space Wolves Deathwing army!

I am super excited about this project for so many reasons, but the one that most stands out to me right now is the hobby. I feel a certain level of maturity developing. I feel confident enough with my modeling to magnetize the entire army, make some conversions and paint it in less traditional colors. I am comfortable enough to step away from the norm and branch out into something that appeals to both the fluff-junkie in me and the player I am becoming.

Honestly, it's the type of project I would see others take part in and think, "I'll never have the courage or skill to try that'', silly as it may seem. So it seems my still short, two year journey is coming full circle....sort of. :)

See you across the tabletop soon!

Tight End, My Unit of the Week

2011-10-16T20:36:00.002-04:00

Sport of Kings
I love football. I've not been able to get on the College wagon, but the NFL is so wonderful to me, I can't get enough. In the years I've watched, I've gotten attached to several positions on a team. Like many, I love to watch quarterbacks do their thing, wide receivers, too. Running backs are beast, without question. Yet my favorite position to watch is the Tight End.

See, what I like so much about that position is the diversity. He can usually come out of nowhere and make an unexpected play. He can be another Wide Out, unexpected by the defense. He can be a mini-running back, catching a screen pass and barreling up the sideline for a first down. He can be another offensive lineman, keeping defenders off your Quarterback. This week, Castellan Crowe was my Tight End.

The Brotherhood Champion
Crowe sucks, let's be up front here. I'm waiting for him to be an IC for me to pay the nonsense tax on Purifiers on a regular basis (maybe in 6th, maybe in their next Codex...in 2027). This week, however, he almost made me a believer.

Against the Space Wolves, I simply marched him across the table in cover. We were playing 4 Objectives, Dawn of War, I won the roll off. Crowe started the game a midfield. On turn one I move him up 6" and run 6". I'm hoping to use him to distract those Long Fangs/Rune Priest. Unfortunately, my opponent doesn't bite. Crap. What do I do with this scrub now?

Oh well, turn two I move 6" and then charge those Long Fangs. What have I got to lose? Apparently, nothing. 6 Fangs = 6 attacks, 4 of them Rending....wow, that's some dead Fangs. (Keep in mind I forgot to use my Titan's Herald - rerolling hits on the charge).

Next turn, I clean them up and get ready to charge some Grey Hunters. Now I've got a mini-deathstar just walking around back there chopping up some Space Wolves. Crowe died next turn, to many Grey Hunters at the end of it all, but it was two turns of serious distractions. It's really got me thinking if perhaps Crowe doesn't suck as bad as I thought...

Closing
What are your thoughts guys? Is Crowe's best asset his model or does he have so über potential in there somewhere?

Lastly, I'm thinking of running a few Brotherhood Champions for the reroll on the charge. Death Cultists led by a Champion...uh, yes! I'll post my findings soon.

Hobby Video & Contest Update

2011-10-11T11:00:00.003-04:00

Short video showing you all what I've been up to.

Contest
We are closing in on 90 followers. Just twelve more to get to 100 and the books, so make sure you follow us and have your buddies to the same!

Airbrush woes resolved!!

2011-10-04T08:40:00.000-04:00

Hello, I hope everyone is doing well today!

I’d like to mention an experience I had these last 2 weeks that may help someone else in search for answers to the same question I had: What air brush do you recommend I buy? For those that do not own any airbrushes there are plenty of guides out there whether they be on YouTube or in other blogs and such; this post is not an airbrush guide sorry to disappoint.

Last year when I first got into the hobby and started painting models I bought an airbrush from of a friend. It’s an Iwata HP-3 and he sold it to me with an Auto Shut off compressor. I didn’t do much research on air brushes at the time but I did enough to know that Iwata is a major player in airbrushes plus he told me when his father had bought it for him he paid a lot. If you know his father like I do that meant this brush was worth every penny.

In any case I started to use the airbrush and ended up bending the fluid needle after some time and it never worked the same. I bought another fluid needle from Amazon and although its performance improved again, it just wasn’t the same. The paint flow out of the brush was inconsistent and I couldn’t use it for more than 10 minutes before I needed to clean the front end due to dried paint gathering in the needle cap. I decided it was time to buy another airbrush…

Once I started doing research and price watching I decided I was NOT going to buy another airbrush.

Their pretty damn expensive, at least the ones I had my eye on. I called Iwata and spoke to their support department and was pleasantly surprised to hear that they still carry all the parts to their older products (the HP-3 is over 8 years old I’m told). They recommended I visit http://www.chicagoairbrushsupply.com/ for the parts. I was again, surprised at how helpful Chicagoairsupply.com was over the phone, they recommended the necessary parts to revitalize my airbrush and I placed the order over the phone.

It turns out that I bought a 0.3mm Fluid needle when I needed to get a 0.2mm needle. Also my needle cap was scratched on the inside (I am guessing from the previous owner scraping paint off the inside of the cap during cleaning) and that was causing my paint to get caught on the way out eventually clogging the flow. I replaced the Needle Cap, Nozzle Cap, Fluid Needle and the Fluid Nozzle all with 0.2mm sizes.

Needless to say my airbrush is now working like a champ now. I saved a ton of money by just revitalizing my existing brush rather than buying a new one. If someone were to ask me “What airbrush should I buy?” if they didn’t already own one I’d recommend Iwata just for the simple fact that their customer service was really helpful. They could have sold me on buying a new brush but chose to point me in the direction of fixing the brush I had. That tells me they stand by their products, even the ones that are almost 10 years old.

I hope you enjoyed the post, thanks for reading.

*On a side note, I also bought an External Mac Valve which allows me to control the amount of air pressure that my brush receives from the compressor. It’s an amazing little device!

First Give Away!

2011-09-29T11:11:00.001-04:00

The Sons of Thunder are two years old now. We've never held any sort of contest or anything like that and with us closing on 100 followers we thought it was a good time to have one.

On October 31st, if we have reached 100 followers, we're going to give away two books (maybe a little more, too): The Purging of Kadillus and the Fall of Damnos. Two books, two winners.

Rules
Rules for the contest? Easy. Follow the Sons of Thunder. On October 31st we pick two random followers and send them each a book. The first to get back to us will have their choice.

If you'd like to increase your chances of winning, leave a comment below about why you would make a great Ultramarine or Dark Angel (or Ork or Necron, lol) and we'll add a second ballot to the pool for you.

So get crackin' guys, these books need a home!

Unit of the Week

2011-09-25T23:06:00.000-04:00

I played one game of Fantasy last week and one game of Hordes. While Hordes was incredibly fun, the Fantasy battle was just more dynamic this week. I got my head around magic and really enjoyed the phase, though I hear most people hate it.

Two units really fought the top spot this week, but I'll have to give the nod to the Skinwalkers. While just a three man unit, they were able to tie up the great and mighty Typhon of the Legion of Everblight long enough for my Pureblood to charge in and smoke him!

Since I charged him into Typhon first, the last Skinwalker was able to get a charge off on Absylonia. That was the game right there, made possible by those dirty, dirty Skinwalkers.

So far, I've found that while they're tough, they need a couple more friends. I'm hoping they get a unit attachment in Domination to make them extra dirty! :)

All in all, they are this weeks Unit of the Week (echo, echo, echo)!

An Unnamed Update!

2011-09-23T11:43:00.000-04:00

Wow, It’s been a while since my last post and much has changed since then. The Unnamed here just to throw a quick update your way.

Despite my efforts to settle on the Blood Angels I once again find myself moving on to another army. I am now the proud owner of a Dark Eldar army. I've played two 500 point games (our SOT escalation league) with them and I am pretty excited about the army. Yes, yes I know 500 points is nothing but what I mean is I am excited and looking forward to playing more games at higher point cost. I like the idea of my playing with a DE army for a couple reasons the first one being, I am in love with the models. Ever since the new models were release I took a liking to their style. I also like the fact that despite their being a fairly new codex, they aren’t too popular or at least they aren’t as played as other armies. If there is one thing I can't stand, it’s playing an army that is very popular and status quo. That might have been part of the reason why I wasn’t really clicking with the Blood Angels among many others.

I look forward to figuring this army out and making it work despite some of the criticism it has received since its launch. Having that parallel goal running alongside my game play really makes 40k more interesting and exciting for me. I guess you can say I took a hiatus from 40k for a month and change, I was a bit burnt out but I feel as if the flame has reignited and I look forward to the future. On another note, I have the opportunity to go to the battle for salvation this October but I am very hesitant to go. I don't know the army, it’s mostly unpainted, and there is no time to fix either problem. The opposing thought to that is who cares if I get smoked all day at BFS. It will be good experience and best of all more game time to learn the army and play the game. I'd love to know your thoughts, have you ever been to a tournament in order to learn and just simply get some games in? I do understand that even if I did have some experience I am new to the game as a whole and would get smoked anyway but still. Let me know what ya think.

On the Warmahordes front, I have picked up The Legion of Everblight. I was really bonding with the Trolls yes but like 40K I had an opportunity to move to another army that I loved for its looks so I jumped on it. I have played several games with them and really enjoy this army. They have a really nice balance of ranged and close combat abilities. I loved the Trolls for their ability to kick tail in close combat but after awhile it gets redundant. This is the reason why I got rid of my Death Wing army, I was dissapointed in the amount of options offered despite their affectiveness at what they did do. In anycase I seem to have taken a liking to Absylonia and Rhyas.

Both armies are unpainted; I just bought some battle foam bags with custom trays to transport both the Dark Eldar and Legion with the hopes that this will fortify my decision to stick with both armies. I look forward to painting both and you can bet I'll keep you up to date with my progress. I'm a table top gaming rookie on a mission and I am excited about what lies ahead!

Let me know what you think, BFS yes or no?

Thanks for reading!

Circle Orboros & Chaos Knights

2011-09-20T22:05:00.000-04:00

Just a few images of stuff I continue to work on. The Chaos Knights are more test models as I'm not really diving into the Warriors of Chaos, yet. Grey Knights and Circle Orboros are painting priorities. I am particularly happy with the progress on the Purebloods. I can't confirm this but the Warpwolves look so much like Confrontation Wolfen and Devourers that I am convinced the same artist sculpted them!

That being the case (in my head, at least) I went to my old Confrontation catalogue and found some Devourer models to use some of the painting ideas from there. I couldn't do anything like this several years ago, but airbrushes and lots of practice change a lot of things :) In any event, the Purebloods are making me smile.

The Tharn Ravagers and my warlock Kromac are very early, but I am happy so far with the colors chosen. More updates when I can.

Thanks for reading!

Edited!Fantasy Battle Report

2011-09-20T00:11:00.000-04:00

Edit: Fixed the video, didn't realize the last turns were cut off!
1200 Points of Warriors of Chaos vs Ogres. We are completely new at Fantasy and have lots of questions at the moment, so please help us out if you see anything that needs fixing!

In particular, how do Ogres ever win combat?! It could be the points total, but with all the combat resolution modifiers, I just don't know how they keep from breaking. Any advice and/or rules clarification would help!

Thanks for watching!

Lists:

Warriors of Chaos
Level 2 Sorcerer of Tzeentch (Pandemonium and Tzeentch's Betrayal)
2x 12 Warriors with Banner, Champ, Musicians, shields
20 Marauders, Banner, Champ, Musician, Flails
5 Knights, shields
10 Hounds

Ogres
Level 2 Firebelly w/Great Weapon, hellheart
6 Ogres, iron fists, bellower, standard, crusher
6 Iron Guts, gutlord, bellower, standard, lookout gnob
4 Leadbelchers, thunderfist, bellower
Stonehorn

Hobby Update

2011-09-13T22:56:00.000-04:00

I should post up my hobby progress more often. I don't know if it's my own insecurity or something, but I hold these pics back quite often. Anyways, here's what I've been up to.

Grey Knights

First is some Grey Knights, preparing for the Battle for Salvation. Everything is at least coated in Boltgun Metal and washed at least once. Here you can see the WIP of my Librarian. This is one of my absolutely favorite models from Games Workshop and getting the chance to run one in my Grey Knights is a joy. He's got a sword, I should have magnetized in order to run the Warding Stave but instead I purchased another copy and he'll have the stave.

Seriously, he's a joy to paint. As you can see I grabbed the Iron Halo off the Terminator Chaplain to remind me that he's got a 4+ in close combat with the Nemesis Sword. The Stave version will just have the huge book.

Here is the Stormraven that transports my Terminators. What can I say, I love Stormravens. I think they have a bad rep for some strange reason but they're just ace for me. I've been using a Fist/Mult-Melta Venerable in there as well and the amount of death that the Stormraven delivers is just gross.

I am still painting the magnetized weapons and I am trying to find a small stencil to airbrush numbers on the red strip you see on the wings. Sadly, I can't find anything small enough to fit onto that red strip (it's about 1/2" thick). I'm open to suggestions :)

Circle Orboros
I've also been trying to find my way with Warmachine and decided to let the fluff guide me (I should have done that from the start!). Here is where I've landed - the Circle Orboros! They are very similar to the Drunes of Confrontation, which was my favorite army of that wonderful, wonderful game system. Here you see the Skinwalkers, assembled and ready for priming. Behind them are various warbeasts and solos. The rest of the army is in simple green :)

Fantasy
Lastly (whew!), I have started to move forward with Fantasy. While many are hating on Fantasy, I've never played it before. All I have to go by are the wonderful models. I don't know what people have lost in the move from 7th edition to 8th but I want to play in a universe with models like this!! This is sexy, people, sexy!

He is obviously not finished but the model is fantastic! It makes me wonder why GW is bothering with Finecast at all. The quality of the pencil rubber/resin has been pretty poor. This plastic fig is beautiful and cheap (13$), including that molded base! It's tough to complain about that, honestly.

Well, that's all for now, folks. Please feel free to comment and thanks for stopping by!

List Building Tools

2011-09-10T17:25:00.001-04:00

List creation tip #1: Terminators as Troops are win!

I hate math. I've never really understood the practical application in day to day life outside of Engineers and Architects (as an example). It was the only class I hated in school. Numbers.

So it is with great joy and glee that I happily use army building (lol, copyright violation?) applications. I use two main apps, one for 40k/Fantasy and one for Warmachine/Hordes.
I don't use any of the web-based list builders simply because I don't find them appealing, but there are apps like Forward Kommander out there and Control Central

Warhammer 40,000
For many years there was the one king of the hill - Army Builder. While I am thankful for the app, it's not really very good. It's obtuse and very, very, very ugly. Additionally, it's quite pricey for what it is. Recently the app has moved to a subscription based fee (companies like Discreet, Softimage, Adobe, etc used to do this, but people got wise to the scam and all of them have stopped) which is confusing to me. It's almost like penalizing the consumer base. Anyways, I am hoping someone comes along and makes an easy to use, attractive app for less than 40$ a year. Also, AB is only available on the PC. WTF?! It's 2011, guys, not 1992.

That said, I rarely use AB any more. My main 40k builder is Battlescribe. It's more intuitive to use, cheaper and while not beautiful it is infinitely less offensive to my eyeballs than Army Builder. It is available on Macs, PCs and Android phones. I am guessing it's not on iPhones because the cost to put it on the iPhone is prohibitive. We can dream, though :)

Warmachine/Hordes
On the Warmachine/Hordes front, I use what I imagine everyone does, iBodger. This app is so wonderful, PP should just buy it or support it officially somehow. It's clean, concise, available on most smart phones and free. I don't even know if there are any other list builders out there but honestly, I've not needed anything else!

What do you all use to create your lists? I've heard Excel is a good choice (though insanely expensive for what I need). Any experience with these apps yourself? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

Battle Report & Space Marine!

2011-09-07T07:51:00.000-04:00

Here's a quick video of my Dark Eldar facing Jaime's Wolves at 500 points. The camera work is dodgy, we hadn't planned this and I'm out of practice.

Taken from my phone, so forgive the quality

Also got to play some Space Marine last night (look me up on the 360 - Malleuss. Interestingly, that's been my user name since xbox live launched O.o) and I love it! Played through the first part and, like the demo, I really had a great time. I then jumped online to play some Seize Ground and just had a blast! Playing as a Black Templar, I was just loving the chance to play as a Marine, within the 40k universe, defending Imperial assets. That just kicked all sorts of ass! If you're online over the next few nights, that's where I'll be :)

Steamroller Recap

2011-09-02T17:06:00.000-04:00

Last night was my very first Steamroller at Toywiz. I have never played a Warmachine/Hordes tournament and I wasn't sure what to expect but I had high hopes and honestly, every one of those hopes was met and surpassed.

Game One: vs Cryx
The sheer fun had was beyond expectations. We saw many factions represented and most people knew how to play their lists. It was also another opportunity for me to play against he who is quickly becoming my gaming rival - Tordeck! We've played about 5 games in the last month at tournaments and such. We've split the games pretty evenly but they've all been blow outs. He smokes me or I smoke him...Warmachine was no exception. It was my turn to do the smoking. Don't worry, man, I heart you!

Game Two: vs Menoth
Menoth frightens me because fire stinks! Epic Kreoss led his battle group towards one of two objectives. This game was difficult for me because Menoth was quite spread out. I was able to take his big 'jack out of the game by keeping Eiryss on him but I simply wasn't aggressive enough and though I took home more kills than he, I lost the scenario :(

Game Three: vs Legion
8 Shredders, Thagrosh and a Carnivean. This was scary to face. Luckily my guns went to town each turn and was able to kill off lots of his army. Sadly, this game had only one objective so unless you tabled your opponent it would be a draw...which in my case it was.

So overall I ended the night with a 1-1-1 record. Not bad for a nubcake with a possibly sub-obtimal list. In any event I had a blast! I'll follow up this blog with a more serious look at my list and what I think I should change to make Brisbane more effective.

Warmachine Steamroller

2011-08-31T00:24:00.001-04:00

This Thursday is Vet's Night at my FLGS (Toywiz). Our buddy has set up a 25 point Steamroller, three games, one list and despite not having had a real chance to play WM in about two weeks, I'm AMPED!

As some know I've had to focus fire my cash, selling off lots of stuff (including my Retribution and Legion armies). That's left me with a smaller pool to choose from. Actually, I only have Cygnar remaining, lol. Here's my list, trying something different:

"Siege" Brisbane
Ironclad
Charger
Lancer

Eiryss, Angel of Retribution
6 Long Gunners
Black 13th

As you can tell, it's based off the starter box, but it's what I've got at the moment. I'll let you know how I do!

WIPS: or what I did as I watched NOVA

2011-08-28T23:00:00.003-04:00

Continued to work on my new station, started messing around with my Techmarines (finecast - soooo much flash) and finished an old Emperor's Champion (sans base) for eBay. That's what I did during NOVA. Props to the 11th Company for a awesome coverage, and grats to Tony Kopach for winning it all again with his tried and true Space Wolves.

Not sure why Blogger put this paragraph here, but I'm too tired to move it :)

YouTube Highlights

2011-08-24T11:02:00.001-04:00

I Heart YouTube
I love YouTube. I'm on there often, waiting in the car, sitting at my desk or the porcelain throne. There are some videos that I just love and watch often. I figured I'd share some of them this week.

Blue Table: Dark Eldar v. Loganwing & Storm of Magic
This isn't on here for the battle report but for the paint work on the models. Both armies look amazing. My Dark Eldar haven't moved on, yet. If they don't sell soon, I'll be painting them up to look this way. The Storm of Magic stuff is just as stunning. That Manticore is incredible, the Vortex is just the same.

Buy Painted
This guy is amazing. So much so that I've got two videos to show you. The first is a Grey Knight tutorial and the second is his Ultramarine Rhino. This guy is just fantastic and worth Subscribing to.

Musical Interlude: Pomplamoose FTW

Thanks for reading and enjoy the show!

SALE: NEW Dark Eldar

2011-08-16T10:50:00.002-04:00

I've slowly come to the realization that having a second child is putting a serious damper on my hobby time. Since the Dark Eldar released I've been buying and building at a steady pace, but I'm fooling myself. With Warmachine, Fantasy and 40k all on tap, I just don't have time for the Dark Eldar at the moment. It's at the bottom of a long list of priorities. So here's your chance to pick them!

All new models including:

Razorwing
Venom x2
Raiders x8
Ravager x3
Incubi x9 (finecast)
Urien
Archon x2
Succubus
Scourge x5
Wych x20
Warrior x20
Talos
20 Hellions
Lelith, unpainted model
Drazhar, old metal model I'll throw in :)

These are all built, all new models. I'm looking to avoid eBay (I don't like giving away money) so I'm putting them here in case anyone is interested. I'm asking for 600$, you'll note it's over 800$ worth. The models are all new, all built. 3 Raiders have a basecoat on them but nothing that can't be completely painted over (airbrushing produces pretty thin coats of paint). I'll ask you to pay for shipping and if you buy them all up I'll send you the Sabol case most of the infantry is in. You'll get all the bits and sprues, etc. All of it. If you're serious please email me and we can chat. If it's something you're wanting to do I'll even call you up and we can speak on the phone. I'd like to find these guys and girls a good home.

Thanks for reading!
Sergeant Brisbane

Edit: forgot about Hellions, Scourges, Lelith and Drazhar

Grey Knight Magnets

2011-08-10T15:22:00.000-04:00

I've been wanting to experiment with Interceptors for a few weeks. They're very fast, can disrupt the enemy's plans early and have cool backpacks! Problem is, they could be a waste of 35$ (sigh, GW chargine 7$ per plastic Marine). So I went ahead and magnetized the mess out of my squad. It now has the option of Personal Teleporters or normal power packs, Incinerator or Psycannon (or Psilencer?), Halberds/Swords/Staves. Neat. Here are some pics.

I use several of the bits here, zoom in for sizes. This small set was 10$, if I recall.

This is my "dremel". It's a Black & Decker and was pretty cheap, I think under 30$. The Dremel equivalent was closer to 60$. It's quite comfortable and capable lots of work before needing a break.

Random pics of my Magnets. The smaller here are 1/8". I use them for most things such as backpacks, Dreadknight/nought weapon options, etc.

I clipped the nubs on the power armor and then drilled down a bit, until the 1/8" magnets fit nice and snug. A drop of super glue over it and they're good. REMEMBER to keep track of the polarity!

I drilled the hole in the backpack just a bit, so the magnets would sit mostly flush. This one here is a touch off but you've got to be careful because you can drill through to the other side of the pack if you're not careful (I lost a pack that way, lol). POLARITY!

Here are the packs, ready to play (sans paint job).

All the packs done. It takes a few minutes and can sometimes be a pain, but in the end it's worth the effort.

Sanguinary Guard WIP Update

2011-08-07T23:11:00.000-04:00

Greetings all,

I’m back with a Sanguinary Guard WIP update. So here are the pictures as promised. As discussed in my last post I went with a base coat of Burnished Gold then washed them in Devlin Mud. The wings are Skull White with a badab black wash. I still have to paint the arms and weapons as well as add highlights to the model so there is much work to be done. I took these pictures before I atteched the arms but I did put them on. I needed to get them fully assembled because I am using them in the Toy Wiz tournament out in Nanuet, NY this Saturday.

Any suggestions as to how I should hightlight or what finishing touches I can add would be greatly appreciated. My plan as of now is to dry brush skull white on the wings and as far as the Burnished Gold base, I’m not sure yet.

Thanks for reading…

My Top Podcasts

2011-08-01T09:49:00.001-04:00

Easy Listening

I listen to a lot of podcasts. I'm in the car a lot, so I get a nice chance to listen to about 6 a week on average, sometimes more. Over the last year, I find myself listening to the same ones a little more than the rest. There are a few that I now follow religiously, I really enjoy them.

So I want to list my top 3, the ones that I just can't live without, along with the reasons why I think they're the best of the best. I'll be covering 40k first and next week I'll hit the Warmahordes Podcasts.

Number 1: The 11th Company

There a lot of reasons to enjoy this podcast. First, they offer a lot of content, there is very little fat in this show. That said, they enjoy themselves immensely and there are plenty of laughs along the way. You will almost always get loads of tactics, tons of mathhammer, interviews in a segment called Pat's Corner, battle reports, etc. Each week is just a huge 'tome' of information.

Now, all of that by itself would be more than enough reason to listen but there is one other reason that they are constantly on my iTunes, iPod, Android...everywhere...they watch their language. I'm a family man, I've got a 5 year old and now a newborn. I can't have the airwaves filled with junk, that's just unacceptable to me. The fact that the 11th Company really goes out of their way to make sure their show is family and store safe is awesome. I can't thank them enough for that.

So overall, the 11th Company is just a great show. I could nitpick and ask for more hobby, but then I'd be diluting what I loved about the show...tactics! So kudos to the 11th Company, please keep doing what you're doing!

Number 2: The Independent Characters

The Independent Characters is the polar opposite of the 11th Company. All hobby focused. The cool thing is that when I say "hobby" I don't mean simply painting. They cover books, Imperial Armor background, etc. If I were to express one complaint is the blinders they seem to have on about GW. Every once in a while it seems like I'm not getting entirely objective views. Now that's not always a bad thing, because they get pretty excited about the games background story which is wonderful but the idea that GW is the bestest, darndest, shiniest game-company ever is a little wonky for me at times.

Lately they've been sneaking in some battle reports, which I think really helps round the show out. Even with less competitive talk, I just enjoy battle reports and they do a nice job of expressing what they learned during a given battle, which is always helpful.

I can't listen to them as regularly as I want simply because of the random cussing. The worst part of about this with IC is how random the cussing really is. You can go an entire show and not hear a single word that needs editing. Grr, if I'd known it was clean, I wouldn't have listened to it in small chunks after all the kids are in bed! I think they need to decide whether or not they're family friendly and just roll with that so they stop frustrating me!

Number 3: 40k UK

Great show! Once they get their audio together, this'll be a show on par with the 11th Company. The chat is awesome and the tactics are really solid. Also, they discuss many more armies. Wolves, Dark Eldar, IG, any army they have played with or against is covered, which is refreshing and something I wish the 11th Company would do (I know 11th will discuss GK, Daemons and Wolves, with the occasional Blood Angels).

That's it for now, folks. I'll have my favorite WM/H pods next week. In the meantime give these shows a listen, they're lots of fun.

Trollbloods FTW!

2011-07-26T11:33:00.001-04:00

Hello Everone,

I’d like to introduce another love of mine, My Trollblood army. Just like 40k I was recently introduced to Warmachine and Hordes and it has become another part of my every day. Warmahordes is a great game system and different enough from 40k to provide that “break” that I need every so often.

In regards to hobby, I have them all primed grey but haven't got around to painting them yet but you know I'll let ya know when I do. I have about 149 points worth including 4 warlocks 2 of which I use regularly (Hoarluk and Grim Angus). Being new to the game I am still learning the models and rule books so I play pretty aggressively in search of a learning experience in each game. We have a great group of guys in our local gaming group and they all play Warmachine. In our gaming group there is Retribution, Khador, Legion of Everblight, Cygnar, Cryx, Mercenaries and The Protectorate so I get a decent amount of experience fighting different factions.

I really enjoy playing the Trollbloods I grew attached to them pretty fast and unlike my experience in 40k I don't plan on hopping from faction to faction. I feel as if they fit my play style which is in your face aggressive. Expect to see some battle reports and discussion on the Trollbloods and my experiences playing them. I look forward to sharing and learning from you all!

If you've played Trollbloods I'd love to hear your opinion on which caster you think is currently the front runner in this faction and why. I've had pretty good success with eHoarluk and like how he plays.

Thanks for reading…

Three Rifleman

2011-07-20T12:26:00.001-04:00

Here are three of my Grey Knight Rifleman. I am slowly plugging away at my Grey Knights and I realized I wasn't updating anyone on their progress nearly enough. So take a gander and let me know what you think.

I need to wrap up the bases and write all over the scrolls and parchment. Other than that, I might be done. Creating contrast on these guys is difficult, I'm hoping the bases help :)

Unit of the Week

2011-07-18T23:08:00.001-04:00

Stormravens!

Love them or hate them, the Stormraven is officially part of the Imperium of Man. It's too late to debate its design or its sex appeal (or lack thereof) because it is here and on tables across the world!!

Anyways, I love 'em. I really do. They're fast, they're durable and they're big square things that fly and poop Terminator-shaped death!

I played in a three game tournament at Toywiz last weekend. These games would be the fourth through sixth games I played with my current GK list, which I realize I haven't posted, yet, huh? Here it is, for completeness' sake.

Librarian, 5 Powers

2x Stormraven, Assault Cannons, Multi-meltas
5 Terminators, Banner, Psycannon, Hammer, 3 Halberds
5 Terminators, Psycannon, Hammer, 3 Halberds

3 Strike Squads, Halberd, Hammer, Psycannon (5 GKs per squad)
3 Razorbacks, Psybolt Ammo

3 Rifleman Dreadnoughts, Psybolt Ammo

Why I Love Them
The list is fun, pretty fast and durable. I've made some adjustments to it and I'm testing those changes now, but in 6 games I only lost once. I had a few wins and a some tie games, with my biggest challenges being a Leafblower that got first turn and a gun line Space Marine list. Crazy games.

In all of my games, my opponents just had lots of trouble putting the Stormravens down and in fact, I think only one player managed to kill them both. 4+ saves are pretty fantastic. My enemy has to hit, then penetrate and then I've got a 50% to shrug it off. That's just tasty. It got to the point where my opponents would just skip them. It was easier to pop a Razorback than waste shots at the Stormravens.

That's why in three games, my Stormravens were my unit(s) of the week. I played a few games without them since them and I honestly miss them. I miss the constant 4+ save and 36" melta threat range. Love them! My birds are named Mercy & Justice, by the way. I like the sound of that.

Summary
So you keep them moving, hide them when you can and shoot some deadly target with your twin-linked multi-melta. Once all their armor has been popped, unload your Terminators and kill stuff. Easier said than done, I know, but it's sure been fun trying to pull it off game after game!

This list has weaknesses, sure, but is it fun? Hell yes! Is a big terminator-pooping bird awesome? HELL YES!!!!

On Ebay Now: Librarian & Rune Priest

2011-07-11T11:42:00.000-04:00

Hey guys, I'm working on putting a bunch of painted stuff on eBay and would appreciate your financial love! I'm starting off this week with a couple of Librarians. I'll have my Unit of the Week up tomorrow, by the way...Stormravens!

The first is a general Space Marine Librarian with no Chapter colors on him so he's usable in any Marine army you might have. He's a metal model, on a Jawaballs resin base and one of my favorites. Click to bid!

The next is a Rune Priest. He's painted in a more tradition Space Wolf color pattern (as in the sky blue GW 'official' color). He's on a simple base with snow effects on him. Very simple and clean but I think he's come out pretty good. Again, I can't touch the pros out there, but I think my tabletop quality is pretty high. Click here to buy this bad boy and help feed Zoe!!! :)

These guys are up for 20$, which is what you'd pay Retail anyways, but they're nicely painted. Help a battle brother out and get your bid on!

Black Library now on iBooks

2011-07-06T10:01:00.002-04:00

While skimming through iBooks last night I bumped into something that filled my heart with joy. Black Library books are now available through the iBooks store! How did I miss this? I searched the net but could not find any announcements detailing when this took place, not even on the Black Library website! My Google-fu may be off, but I can’t find any announcements at all. You may be asking yourself, “Why does this excite this dude so much? You could always buy the eBook through the Black Library website and just import it into iBooks” that’s very true my friends, but I like the convenience of buying a book at any time and not needing to be at my computer to import it and… I like iBooks’ pretty graphics. The cool thing is that they even sell those short stories from the compilation books for $2.99 just like on the Black Library website. Can you say impulse buy? If my math is correct, there are close to 156 books currently available. Now the big test for me is trying to not click on the “Buy Book” button on each one of those books. Battle of the Fang here I come!

Unit of the Week

2011-07-05T11:27:00.000-04:00

Double Dose
This week's unit of the week is also my WIP update for my Strike Squads. Click on the image to the right to see what I've been up to. There's the basing, the weapons and some minor details to get to but overall, they're ready for war. This is a good thing as I've got a tournament this weekend at Toywiz! 2000 points of utter mayhem!

The Humble Strike Squad
Most people hate the basic Grey Knight. Everyone at the Ordo Malleus loves Crowe and his gang of Purifiers, but I really enjoy fielding the Strike Squads. Why?

Honestly, while Purifiers do have a lot of relative punch, I try and field at least two units of Strikers in most of my lists. The reason being that taking Purifiers gains you some combat punch but robs you of very a important defensive ability: Warp Quake.

Warp Quake is so frikkin amazing, folks. You can absolutely deny your entire half of the table to your enemy, forcing them to come at you head on - right into your guns. Sure, Purifiers bring more punch, but you'll need lots of it if you can no longer control where your enemy is coming from. The question then becomes, "Is what I'm gaining with Purifiers worth what I'm losing?". For me, the answer has been no. I might add Purifiers to my list, but I'll just leave them in the Elite slot as a counter-attack unit. Honestly, I feel naked without Warp Quake!

So that's it, short and sweet (maybe, lol). I've got a ton of games this week, three on Saturday's Tournament and as many as I can squeeze in on Vet's Night. Let's see if I can remember to take as many pics as possible!

Baby Zoe

2011-06-30T07:53:00.001-04:00

Not much to say. I'm one blessed daddy.

Confessions of a rookie...

2011-06-28T08:41:00.001-04:00

It’s funny, maybe someone out there can relate to this. You look at a picture of a superbly painted model online. You're like "wow that’s awesome" and begin to collect the materials to replicate it on your own models. Everything goes fine until it’s actually time to paint. At that point I'm like WTF was I thinking I can't paint like that!

See my problem is, my brain is taking in all these images and all these articles and such off the Internet and its racing at 100MPH. I have 9 months experience in the hobby and it’s a bit frustrating to me that I can't paint my models to look the way I'd like them to look. I give you the example of these sanguinary guard models:

Awesome models, I figured I'd go with metallic gold plated look. Hey guess what, Tim over at the Tau of War just painted up a unit of sanguinary guard for the Heroes of Armageddon project. Later that week I found myself in my room having based all 15 of them in this awesome gold color and clueless of what the next step was.

So what is the solution? Unless someone out there can advise me differently, the solution is to keep it simple. I'll stick to the metallic gold base and a wash. Throw some detail on the armor and call it a day. That’s what I am capable of, doesn’t look bad either; table top quality in my opinion. My point is, I am supposed to enjoy this hobby/game not get frustrated because I am comparing my own noob paint jobs to the likes of "Old Shatter hands". I am sure Tim has a lot of experience and has suffered through much trial and error before he acquired the skills he has today. I need to slow down, pace myself etc...

In any case I'll post a couple pics of my "Table Top Quality" painted sanguinary guard once their complete.

Can anyone out there relate? This doesn't only apply to painting, its playing the game too. I feel like I have a decent grasp of the 40K rule book and have alot of it memorized. However, I still find I lose more games then I win. I need experience, I need to play more, round out my skills develop my tactical acumen. Some of you veteran players/hobbyists I'd love to hear what you have to say on the subject and whether or not you went through this stage at any point during your 40k stretch.

Thanks for reading...

Unit of the Week

2011-06-26T22:38:00.001-04:00

Intro
I usually get to play two games a week. They're not always within the same game system, but it is quite often at least two games. Each time I play there are usually certain stand out units, certain heroic or game-changing squads or individuals that deliver the game into my hands or at least keep me in it a little longer that I should have been.

So I've decided to highlight those units here, once a week. I'll communicate why I played them and why they were successful in that particular game. So, without further ado, here are this weeks Units of the Week:

Grey Knight Terminators
I got to play my good friend, Schmidtimus and his Grey Knights. He ran a nice* Purifier list with two Vindicare Assassins and Coteaz. I won the roll to go first but he seized immediately. I was shot to hell very quickly. I lost a Razorback, both of the Heavy Bolters on the other two and one Psyfleman Dread. I was in a world of hurt. I survived til the second round when both Stormravens came in from reserves. I shoved them right at his objective (he already had taken mine) and just went to town, killing a Dread, Crowe, one Assassin and his objective-camping Purifiers. Quicksilver doesn't care that your opponent is I6 :)

I was able to tie the primary and win on Killpoints to win the game! Thank you, Knights of Titan!

*Nice is relative here. I think Crowe sucks. When you add his cost to each Purifier you take, those Marines end up costing near 30 points a model. There are some advantages, sure, but overall, he's the most useless character ever. He needs to be an Independent Character.

Raek
Wow, this guy is super annoying to opponents! He's a little Fury hungry, especially when you pop his Animus and Leap in the same turn, but he's fantastic. I was in a tight game against some Trollbloods (hi, Will!) and things were looking bleak for me. My Carnivean was a stain on the Earthborn's fist. My Scythean was all that stood between Lylyth and death. I command my Raek to leap out of combat and then move into combat with Hoarluk! I tie him up for a couple of turns, enough to get those Trolls on their heels and delivering a draw into my wicked, wicked grasp. As a bonus, Will's Mauler was hurting from all the transferred damage. Very annoying guy, this little Raek.

Conclusion
Have you had any success with these guys? What would add? What did you love or hate? Comment below.

Seriously Beautiful

2011-06-18T21:21:00.000-04:00

Yup. I bought just one but I might not be able to resist getting three. They're paper-thin but fiercely sexy.

I am learning with the Stormraven and Ravagers that moving all out is your friend. I'll be trying the Razorwing out on Monday night so expect a field report asap.

The model itself is very easy to put together. It's smaller than a Stormraven and sits closer to the ground than either the Stormraven or the Imperial Guard equivalents so it could be a touch easier to hide, especially with decent LoS-blocking terrain. I'll have her painted up soon.

Wow!

2011-06-15T23:19:00.000-04:00

It is really hard not to get excited about what Privateer is doing right now. I'm in the process of building up my Retribution and considering the addition of Khador, Trollboods or Menoth. That was before this announcement....now I'm simply trying to hold on to what's left in my wallet!

That's well over 200$ worth of stuff in that box. The miniatures included form a very solid core of either Khador or Menoth armies. These aren't random plastic bits that might one day be part of a big blob of plastic soldiers. This box contains two solid 20 point armies. Fantastic. If you've never played WM/H I'd recommend it.

From PP:
Complete Prime MKII rules in a travel-sized booklet (86 pages), introductory guide, dice, ruler, and 17 plastic WARMACHINE models with corresponding stat cards.

KHADOR

• Warcaster Kommander Sorscha
• Juggernaut Heavy Warjack
• Destroyer Heavy Warjack
• Man-O-War Shocktrooper Unit (5 models)

PROTECTORATE OF MENOTH

• Warcaster High Exemplar Kreoss
• Crusader Heavy Warjack
• Vanquisher Heavy Warjack
• Repenter Light Warjack
• Exemplar Cinerators Unit (5 models)

99$

FAQs & WarmaHorde News

2011-06-14T08:54:00.001-04:00

FAQs

GW released two FAQs yesterday, one for the BRB and one for the Grey Knights. The Grey Knights FAQ doesn't really change much as most people were playing the Codex in a conservative manner, at least around here. So Dreadknight CCWs, Shunt moves, Falcions, etc didn't change at all for my play group.

The BRB FAQ, on the other hand, is full of some serious adjustments, mainly to the way Psychic powers work. While we have always played that if a power has a ranged weapon profile you roll to hit as well as taking your psychic test, things like Murderous Hurricane would auto-hit because it has no profile. That has now been changed. If the power is classified as a "Psychic Shooting Attack" you must now roll to hit as well as taking your psychic test. That's going to hurt some armies a bit, mainly Space Wolves. I don't think it's the end of the world, though. It's just an adjustment to the game not a huge nerf in my opinion.

WarmaHordes

Taken from here, this is some nice news and I just had to mention it! Privateer is releasing a two player starter box!!!!! All plastic Khador vs. Protectorate with small rulebook and dice. This is a wonderful development and I think it's going to do quite well.

Also, Khador is getting Bombadiers in plastic! Look at that wonderful looking unit, all plastic. I can't wait for Hordes to get this treatment, plastic Fennblades are such a beautiful thing, full plastic Trollbloods would make me jump for joy!

Battle Report + Some Hobby

2011-06-08T15:28:00.001-04:00

Here I am playing my good buddy Jaime and his Space Wolves. 1500 points, using the NOVA missions.

The hobby has been slow lately as we prepare for Zoe's arrival but I've been able to shake the dust off myself and get some work done.

First up we have some Finecast Incubi. I needed another two or three of them and figured this was a good way of checking out the new models.

I don't know what they're made of, but where there were gaps I could clearly see pink pencil rubber. There are tons of bad bubbles and gaps in the models, as well. It was a pretty bad display honestly. The worst part was that the fifth model came with the wrong weapon option. The good news is that GW is sending me a whole new box. I guess this is why we pay a premium for GW minis?

Next up are some Grey Knight Dreads. Three Dreadnoughts and a Dreadknight. The models are just based and in the case of the Autocannon Dreads, I added some grime around the barrels of each of the autocannons. It's situations like these that remind me of why I love my airbrush.

I also based up my Dreadknight and his sword. This model is strange overall, but it really does look pretty good on the battlefield.

If you look carefully, you can see Draigo in the lower left hand corner, as well :)

Last but not least is my Hydra and Phoenix wips. White is damn scary, but these Retribution Myrmidons (warjacks) are a breeze to paint so far. Now, I might be sucking badly, but I really enjoy what they're looking like. If you have any suggestions on how to make them look a bit more rugged without simply screwing up the white paint, please let me know!

It Starts...

2011-06-03T17:19:00.001-04:00

Hey all hope you had a great holiday weekend!

As I touched on in my introductory post, after bouncing back and forth from one army to the next I finally decided to stick with the Blood Angels. This is my first power armor army and needless to say, I have much to learn. I have played about 7 games with them (including 3 Tournament games) and despite all the loses (which I like to define as the learning process) I still enjoy the army and I’m anxious to play more games and develop some skills.

Then there is the hobby fun. This army served under Dave (Sgt Brisbane) for quite some time. His painting skills grew exponentially during the time he was using and painting the Angels and this is reflected in the look of the army. Here in lies what could be my biggest challenge. I want to make this army my own but don’t want to spend countless hours scrubbing marines after their 24 hour Simple Green bath. I’ve done that before, I can’t do it again. So I’ve decided to slowly repaint the army over its existing paint job. Yes there are some models that will need a simple green bath but most of the army has a thin neat coat of paint (thanks to Dave’s air brush skills) that can easily pass as my primer. That said, I haven’t started painting them yet, I did however buy resin bases. I figured what better way to start this project then to unify the army on the same style base from 25mm to 60. This is my first time working with and painting resin bases. The pictures show what I’d like to think of as a near finished product. I primed and sealed the bases twice to prevent chipping (as per Jawaballs). I then base coated the bases using Codex Grey and washed the stone surface with Badab Black. All the bases you see in the background are at that stage. Once that was dry, I painted the dirt/sand texture of the base with Bleached Bone and washed it with Gryphon Sepia. I dry brushed (I'm using that term loosely because I am not sure if I’m doing it right heh) Denab Stone onto the stone surface and afterward I washed it with Devlin Mud.

There you have it, base painting confessions of a 40k noob. My work on these bases mark the begining of the Blood Angles makeover project. Let me know what you think, what you think I can do better or should do differently. I have 68 more 25mm bases to paint so any advice you have will get utilized. More updates to come!

Thanks for reading,

WL

Nayl'd

2011-06-01T10:47:00.003-04:00

So I've been playing with the Retribution of Scyrah for about a month. Truth be told, I almost gave up on them. They're so very different from the slow and steady Trollbloods or the beatstick Khadorans. The last couple of games I had almost broke my spirit. Then Monday happened (apologies to Wil for being the first games sacrificial lamb).

Two units on Monday night really drove home some things for me. I'm going to talk about the first, Nayl, today.

All I ever read online about Nayl says he sucks. I'm sure glad I was hooked on the model before I read all that.

I'll admit, he takes a lot of work to get right but if you get him in place early, he's pure gold!

Here's what he does well: denial. Especially against an army that relies on buffs, he can work wonders. The idea is to lock him in combat as early as possible and as close as possible to the enemy.

He won't be as powerful against faster armies, but against a slow Khador or Trollbloods brick, he's beautiful. Because he's a magic bomb (he sucks the focus & fury from the surrounding area when he dies), the enemy just won't risk killing him early on. Losing a turn of buffs, upkeeps, fury & focus camping can be just plain lethal to some armies.

He's not unstoppable. Wil grabbed Nayl and tossed him 6". Unfortunately for the Mauler, Nayl then just charged him again. Nayl did no real damage, but the Mauler was tied up for about three turns during our second game, leaving me the chance to deal with Mulg on his own instead facing down the twin menace on their terms (Mulg owned me though, lol).

Denial. Frikkin' fantastic. That's what I love about WarmaHordes, the combos and tactics. Anyways. Nayl really opened my eyes to a few things, not least of which is the fact that Trollbloods can take a punch like few others!

Nayl ended the game without a single kill. Does that mean he was wasted points? Absolutely not! In my opinion, when a 2 point model can disrupt an opponents entire game plan, he's done his job!

So there it is, give Nayl a chance. Maybe you'll find some new things to love about him!

Next time I'll be singing the praises if a unit everyone loves: the Stormfall Archers!

- C&C welcome!

Preorder? Yes, please!

2011-05-29T23:45:00.000-04:00

So it looks like pre-ordering this video game will get you a Space Wolves skin and a Black Templar skin so we'd be able to play as these two crazy, sexy Chapters! Maybe there will be downloadable Blood Angel or Salamanders skins? Either way, giddy as a school girl

2000 Point Grey Knights

2011-05-27T20:24:00.000-04:00

another masterpiece by Aerion @ Deviant

Here's the list I played at the Battle for Salvation last week. Thoughts after the list.

List
Librarian
Digital/MC Sword, 3x Skulls
Hammerhand, Might of Titan, Quicksilver, Sanctuary, Shrouding

5 Terminators
3x Halberds
Hammer
Psycannon, Banner
Stormraven, Lascannons, MM

5 Terminators
3x Halberds
Hammer
Psycannon, Sword
Stormraven, Lascannons, MM

3x (
5 GK, Psycannon, Hammer
Psybolt Ammo Razorback
)

3 Psyfleman Dreads

Thoughts
I went 1-1-1 with the list against some really good lists and very good players. It was also the first time I played the list. It's not a net list, so if you're looking for the easiest way to win, you might want to move along.

I enjoyed playing the list. It's got some punch in close combat and good shooting as well. Against Alex's Deathwing, I'd shot up over half his Terminators by the 3rd or 4th round. He handed me a loss, again because I overextended my line, as usual (one day I'll need to learn to wait just one more round - the smell of blood sends me into some sort of berserk rage thing). That said, I learned a lot about the list and it's strengths.

First, I think I the sheer weight of fire is painful for most opponents. Strength 6 heavy bolters, strength 7 psycannons, strength 8 autocannons. It's just a lot to to try and survive for most armies.

That said, it might be better to pass on the Razorbacks and just Psycannon dudes from the top hatch. Even one Psycannon, from a Rhino that's not moved is more powerful than the Heavy Bolters. Granted this doesn't consider the twin-link, but I can give the Psycannon to the Justicar and Master-craft it? Or take a full 10 men and simply fire two Psycannons all the time. I'm thinking aloud here.

I can also consider Purifiers and take two Psycannons in smaller squads. What do you all think?

Conclusion
I'll be practicing this list for a while and seeing how I do with it. I think three games against some pretty good guys is a good sign. If that changes I'll surely let you know.

I'd also love to throw a Dreadknight in there, but not without a Grand Master. The ability to Scout this bad boy is too much fun.

Tournament Pics

2011-05-22T12:14:00.000-04:00

Brandon's Chaos Marines

Alex's Deathwing

Jawa's Angels

Imperial Guard, didn't catch the player name

Fritz' 'Nids

Dark Eldar, didn't catch the player

Wil's Angels

Another shot of my GK

On the road

2011-05-21T07:48:00.003-04:00

Overall Impressions: Grey Knights
Ok, so the day is done and the congrats go to Nick and his Grey Knights who took home first place! I'm not sure of his list but if I can track it down I'll post it up. What about yours truly? Well, it was a good day with lots of fun. How'd my Knights do?

Each of my Strike Squads carried a Daemonhammer and a Psycannon. None of which got any use. They camped objectives and remained inside their Razorbacks. When their rides were popped, they hid in cover. When they were in assault, they died. What to do with these slackers? Hmm....

The list I run is almost a gun-line. Three Psyfleman Dreads, three Psybacks all put out a lot of fire. My Stormravens jet around with a 4+ cover popping things with their lascannons. I only lost both of them in one game, and they never died before the 4th turn. I'm not sure what people are complaining about with this bird, it's wonderful at delivering death in the form of 6 Terminators with Halberds!

Now, if I want to run a gun-line...well, my Dark Eldar do it better. More hmm....

Anyways, it's a fun list but I'm not 100% comfortable enough with it to judge it. I do think I was a little too conservative with my Terminators and when I did unleash them I think I went after the wrong targets. Granted, two of my games were against insane Terminator heavy lists (Deathwing & Black Templar) and I needed to kill those Storm Shields somehow. Let's see how they do in the future.

When facing an army with no Psychic defense, Grey Knights are very annoying. Fortitude is wonderful. This is the winner in the Codex, it's just so awesome.

Overall Impressions: RTT
I had a great time today. There were two things that contributed to that. First, the players were all great guys. Everybody was chatty and quite happy to just be playing, which is refreshing.

Second, Bobby (and company), the TO, ran a fine tournament. The terrain was really nice and was a constant topic of discussion. The tables looked great and gets me pretty excited about my first planned GT in October.

Updates
Last game: no pics this time, forgot to snap it, but I played against a cool cat named Keith and his Black Templar. He had 15 or so Terminators with lots of cyclones, thunder hammers and storm shields. Annoyingly survivable.

Still, in the end we pulled a draw as we basically tore each other up. We both made a few tactical errors that could really have turned the tide of battle.

Alex's Deathwing

Second game: loss against a great guy named Alex from the UK. He brought his Deathwing & we basically traded blows for 5 turns. At the last he squeezed it out. Great game.

First game: against a great guy named Brandon and his Chaos Marines. Bad dice gave me the minor victory.

The BFS setup

Live-blogging today from the Battle for Salvation RTT. This is all new for me so bear with me.

I'm outside of Wil's place, headed to see Black Matt, then off to tourney! More reports from the inside!

My Grey Knights, not all painted :(

Video Battle Report: Retribution vs. Khador

2011-05-19T18:59:00.000-04:00

Lists forthcoming, soon as I remember what Efrain was running :)

Hello all! My name is Wil.

2011-05-18T17:35:00.005-04:00

Some call me The Unnamed because I didn't have nor did I want an "internet name" but I guess it’s being forced on me. Well in any case Sgt Brisbane was gracious enough to invite me to contribute to the great Sons of Thunder blog and I've accepted. I must admit, he invited me months ago when I first got into 40k but I never got around to it until this week when I decided to make the time.

My Brief 40K History:

Dave (Sgt Brisbane) introduced me to table top gaming (specifically 40k and Warmachine/ Hordes) about 4 to 6 years ago and it never really appealed to me. Well last September he made a second attempt and successfully lured me into 40k. I've been a gamer most of my life; primarily video games like death match, RTS and I also had an extended obsession with MMOs too. I can't say why I liked 40k enough to try it (it helped that he gave me a Tau starter army) but the timing was right and no more than a couple weeks later I became obsessed with 40k.

That obsession has slowly become a love for table top gaming in general. Since September 2010 I've had a 2k point Tau army, 2k point Tyranid army, 1900 point Space Marine bike army, Chaos Space Marine Army and I have recently settled on a Blood Angel Army to be sort of my primary focus. I hope you understand why I used the word Obsession! Here I am 9 months later and I feel as if I am looking for the next level in game play, the tactics and strategy. Deep inside I want to be a competitive player but my 9 months experience is a huge obstacle :).

In any case, as I mentioned I have decided that I'd like to stick with the Blood Angels as they fit my play style and I feel like there are many things left to discover with this codex. I have an issue I'd like to ask your opinion on though. The Blood Angel army I have purchased is already 95% painted and although it is painted well as I add new models to the army I'm a little intimidated as to how I can bring about a unified look to the army as a whole with both the new and existing models.

Would you repaint all the models over? Can you suggest what I may be able to add to the new models and the existing models that can disguise the fact that they were painted by 2 different people with 2 different levels of painting skills? Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Wil

An Open Letter to GW by Kirby

2011-05-17T00:43:00.000-04:00

From the Desk of Kirby:

I normally hate these type of posts and avoid writing them like the plague. Most of these type of articles just end up complete whining or asshatery (though I did love SandWyrm's)which isn't really necessary but what has happened recently has lead me to write this. Before we get to the letter though some information. Games Workshop has changed their terms and conditions for stores in the United Kingdom to only allow shipping to countries within the European Union and other parts of Europe. They have increased their prices again come June and have announced the released of resin and mixed resin/plastic sets instead of metals with an approximate increase of 2.5-25% depending upon the set. None of these sets are new but rather re-casts.

Letter time!

To Games Workshop,

Why? No seriously, why? I'm sure the excuse of cutting off Australasia and other countries (Canada, India, Korea, South American countries, etc.) to benefit the independent and GW store sales in Australia sounded good but unless you cut the prices here to not be a ridiculous 200% higher price than overseas, it's not going to happen. Let's look at this logically. You've stopped us from buying from stores like Maelstrom and Wayland with an embargo agreement in your Terms and Conditions (remember globalisation? how's that going btw?). Does this mean we are going to now buy at RRP in Australia or other countries? No.

There are other outlets overseas we can buy from which are still much cheaper (hi America), other companies which you cannot touch without raising a helluva lot of crap (hi ebay) and people who are willing to ship to us overseas (hello family and friends) without the 200% tax. We won't be getting as huge a discount as before but it's much better than buying here at RRP. The other option is of course going to be quitting which I imagine some people are going to do. Check out this thread on WargamerAU where a lot of people are indicating they are. The ultimate bottom line? Your bottom line suffers (more people leaving) and the retailers in Australia do not benefit.

Now I'm all for one in supporting the locals. I buy all my products such as spray paint, paints, plasticard, magnets, drills + bits, modelling putty, brushes, etc. from Australia. As an aside, do you actually stock good quality merchandise for all of those options? I don't see you selling plasticard, magnets, good sized drillbits, custom bases, etc. I'd be happy to pay a 5-10% premium on these objects compared to other stores to support your business but then again, I don't really want to support your business currently do I? The point of any business is to make a profit but the problem with your business model is you do not do this whilst concurrently supporting your customer base. We don't ask for much but a short list would look like...
not raising prices every year, without fail, regardless of the economic situation or inflation rates
basing prices around the world upon exchange rates (I wouldn't be averse to paying 20% more in Australia compared to the UK or America locally but I am adverse to paying twice as much) - there are circumstances in each country that make operating there more or less expensive but you need a base retail price for your product which is then translated by exchange rates at a given time (i.e. quarterly) rather than a price set many, many years ago. It's part of being in a global market.
regular and quick FAQs - you've done a fantastic job IMO of creating some pretty balanced books for 5th edition, fix the grey areas quickly.
official erratas - man up and admit you've made mistakes (hi Tyranids) and work on erratas that are official and re-print the books with these amendments. Admitting a mistake and fixing it isn't a problem and I'd applaud you for it. Ignoring a problem is.
fix Fantasy - you did it with 40k, why go backwards with Fantasy?
don't think your customer base is moronic - the resin re-cast to be cheaper than metals whilst hiking prices, not fooling anyone.
Ultimately people in Australia and other countries go overseas for their Games Workshop products for a reason: it's significantly cheaper (I.e. half price). What motivation is there to therefore buy from our locals when you aren't treating your customers with loyalty and support? People will walk away and your bottom line will hurt. A simple solution: care about your customers. Change the Australian (and other countries) prices so they are at least similar to the UK and US. This doesn't have to be the exact same price but some parity would be greatly appreciated.

Here's a quick example. If you could buy a similar product for $45 compared to $150, what would you do? How about if the product was the exact same but if you ordered it overseas it was $80 compared to $150 by the time it reached your door step? I'm pretty sure you'd want to take the cheaper option correct? For you as a company, you make your profit margin through the reseller regardless of where it is purchased. You may make more money off a direct sale at an Australian store compared to an Internet sale from the UK but you have already achieved the profit margin from the Internet sale already. The Australian stores may be hurting but this is down to the initial price you have set, not market trends. Simply put, you are alienating customers from a large and developing market.

I and many of the readers here obviously enjoy your game. We've played it through thick and thin (4th edition...) or come back thanks to an improvement game balance (5th edition) and don't want to leave. We will though sooner or later if you keep piling on idiotic choices on us. Other companies like Privateer Press did very well in the early to mid-2000s for a reason and people will migrate to other gaming systems if you continue to mistreat them and their loyalty.

As it stands I question why you do the things you do. Raising prices every year annoys me but I cannot complain too loudly as your products are a luxury item but you do not provide excellent customer service one usually expects with such goods. I certainly find minimal fault with your staff or when your product is damaged/faulty but your overarching business model seems counter-intuitive to maintaining a customer base. Even if you are getting a large amount of new customers imagine how much better off your company would be if you had maintained a significant portion of your repeat customers. The model you are running currently to me does not seem sustainable as your turnover rate in customers is just too high. I applaud your efforts in making 40k 5th edition a more competitive game but what you've done to Fantasy 8th edition doesn't bode well for the future.

Please, look to satisfy both the shareholders and the customer rather than just the former.

Kirby.

P.S. Anyone who agrees with this, I would greatly appreciate this being re-posted on your blog so we might actually garner GW's attention and hopefully move forward together. That is the ultimate goal, I want Games Workshop to succeed as a company so I can continue to enjoy the gaming systems I do but to do that, Games Workshop must look at altering their business model in the long run to maintain a steady customer base.

xSignedx

Battle for Salvation RTT

2011-05-15T19:28:00.000-04:00

I had to miss Toywiz's 40k tournament yesterday. We are about to have our second child and our friends and family gave little Zoe a Baby Shower...I couldn't miss that!

I need practice, though. I've not played a tournament in a while and I'd like to at least break even in October at the Battle for Salvation GT! So this Saturday BFS is having a Rogue Trader Tournament, 2000 points! This will be my biggest game played, yet! Now, I registered pretty late, so I'm hoping I made it in on time. I'll let you know what happens :)

I'll be preparing my budding Grey Knights to make their first appearance! I didn't think I'd get to play much this month, but I'm glad to be able to get a bigger game in.

I'll try to live blog during the tournament, just for kicks!

Retribution of Scyrah

2011-05-10T18:11:00.001-04:00

Finally got to play a 35 point game with my new Retribution army and, having played with Trollbloods for almost two years, they took some getting used to.

My first full game came against Grim Angus and his stupid range of forever with True Sight. Grr, he sniped Nayl before my poor elf ever got into the fight!

That said, it was really rough going at first. Those Trolls are really tough to hurt. My plan of wearing down the beasts with my Stormfall archers wasn't working at all. So Dawnlord Vyros ordered his Sentinals forward....holy crap! They tore up a Mauler in one go!

Despite the topsy-turvy nature of the battle, I won on the objective. Will didn't properly read the scenario and decided to send a line fenblade at the Dawnlord, who promptly struck him down, clearing the objective of enemies and giving the Retribution a victory. Not how you wanna go down but a win is a win.

I'll be painting then up this week and posting up some finished Grey Knights as well.

The State of (My) GW

2011-05-09T17:58:00.001-04:00

Stormraven WIP

A Little History

I started playing 40k a long time ago. About 20 ago years now. My good buddy and I walked past one of the many (at the time) GW stores in lower Manhattan (the only one left now) and were fascinated by the Ultramarines (in my case Space Wolves, Blood Angels and Grey Knights - eventually) and the Orks in the display cases. We walked in and the rest is history...sort of.

After a year or so of hard playing, we were burned out of 40k. The rules were broken or imbalanced or stupid (we were stupid, too, at the time, lol). I guess there were all sorts of reasons were wanted to try other games. This led us to playing VOID, Celtos, Confrontation, HEROclix, Magic the Gathering, and on and on. We played a lot of games. We had a lot of fun.

Eventually, we all grew up. Marriage, homes, cars, education, kids. It all piled up to create a big stack of bills. More bills means less disposable income. We moved on.

Today

2009 came and my family and I were beginning several pretty big projects. I was getting burned out on life. Every thought was work related and peace was getting difficult to find. I found I was losing my ability to enjoy a breeze or the blue of the sky. I was losing myself. I studied Psychology, Philosophy and Music because I love people, the human mind and the arts. August 2009 saw me purchase about 300$ in Terminator Wolf Guard and a couple of Land Raiders. Thank God I did.

Strike Squads WIP

My Point?

The Grey Knights just came out with a new book and I just had to see how far they'd come in all these years. Somewhere in the back of my mind, however, I can't help but feel a little frightened. 6th Edition is supposed to be around the corner...just like when I first got my Grey Knights, there is a new edition about to arrive. Back then, the new edition hosed my Grey Knights. I can't help but fear that the same will happen again. Or will it?

Though a lot has remained the same, some things have changed. The biggest of which is the balance of the newer codices. (I know Matt Ward gets a lot of hate, I enjoy his books. They're over-the-top but remain competitive and balanced. Dark Eldar, Blood Angels, Grey Knights. My favorite books of 5th edition so far.)

Although a part of me is quite nervous about just having spent a few hundred on Grey Knights, there is a part of me that *gasp* trusts GW. I even just invested in Fantasy! I have never, ever, trusted GW. I know they're the greedy corporation that simply wants my money, but I no longer feel like I am paying to be abused like some strange S&M thing.

Trust

I am confident that GW will produce a good game in 6th edition. It might not be like 5th but it will be good. I'm not going to discuss what I hope is in it or what I hope is changed but I wouldn't mind a 600 page behemoth of a rulebook, all color with fold-outs and bookmark. I wouldn't mind hard-cover full color (FULL color) codices over 100 pages. Basically, give 6th the treatment.

So, I'm hopeful. Are you? What are your thoughts on where Games-Workshop is as a game designer? Let me know what you think in the comments. Note that I'm not talking about pricing or models or any such thing, simply rules and game-play.

Note: I love the Dark Eldar. They are such a great race and they have received a great codex. I am troubled by the idea that so few people are playing them. I'll be writing more about them soon, but if you haven't tried the Dark Eldar, please do yourself the favor and give them a go, they're fantastic!

Vets Night 8 Write-up

2011-05-05T22:34:00.002-04:00

Driving home from Vets Night 8 at Toywiz. While it was a quiet night, I had a very enjoyable time. We didn't have as many people turn out this time (maybe 20), the wide array of games bring played really felt great.

I personally played in four 500 point games tonight, 3 40k and 1 Fantasy (my first!!). I also glued up a ton of Warriors of Chaos, met some new guys (Randy and Joseph) and had a nice slice of bruschetta. Overall, a great hobby night.

My first official PnP games were great! Two against John, which he'll battle report on his blog soon and one against a big blob of IG.

My first official fantasy game saw me squaring off against Drew's Tomb Kings. 500 points of skeletal death is all I remember of that one. He smoked me in two turns. Granted, it was really an exercise on the rules and movement, but Drew was merciless! I'll get my revenge!!

I really enjoy competitive play, but nights like tonight are just plain fun. Lots of quick games and good times. Love Vets Night!

- C&C welcome!

Another Birthday Gift

2011-05-05T08:50:00.002-04:00

Warriors of Chaos battalion, the army book and the giant Tome of Rules (echo: rules, rules, rules!!!)

Put these bad boys together. They look good. Will fantasy appeal to me? We shall see!

- C&C welcome!

Vet's Night 8 is Here!

2011-05-04T14:29:00.000-04:00

C'mon up to Toywiz Thursday and bring nearly any game system in town to play with the big boys! Vet's Night is our monthly grown-up time and there's always plenty of gaming to be had.

I'm personally bringing a small Warriors of Chaos list, 35 points of Retribution of Scyrah and my Grey Knights (500 points and 1850 points)! I'm hoping to get at least one game in with everything! Once a month, baby, I gotta make it count!

If you're free and looking to get a game in with a cool bunch of folk, then I'll see you there!

Baby Zoe

2011-04-30T12:53:00.002-04:00

Just thought I'd show you some of what's been keeping me busy lately. Her name is Zoe.

Thoughts? Should I have added less brains and more muscle? Will she stand out enough in a crowd? When she enters a room, will she command enough attention or should be less beautiful? As usual, suggestions welcomed :)

- C&C welcome!

Happy Birthday to Me!

2011-04-26T15:06:00.001-04:00

April 25th, 19xx. I'm an old guy now. But not too old to get AWESOME gifts!!!

This fully painted Castellan Crowe was a gift from Black Matt and I am completely blown away and humbled by the act! A big thank you to him and if you are looking to get work done on your minis, you can not go wrong with Matt. Just look at Crowe if you need proof!

Thanks, Matt!

Grey Knights Paint & Play Research

2011-04-24T23:00:00.000-04:00

I wanted to post a follow up on a bunch of projects and see where my thoughts on the Grey Knights have changed or stayed the same. I didn't get to do much blogging this week, but a lot happened.

Painting

Artemis: He fell. Both hands and his power pack went flying. Besides some fixing of the paint, I've decided to pin everything. I was really trying to avoid that because of the metal shavings flying around the house, but I'm going to have to bite the bullet.

I've got three Razorbacks and two Rhinos ready to be detailed for my Grey Knights. Airbrushing metallics is such a wonderful thing. I've done a lot of research to prepare for the mental challenge but honestly it was much easier than I ever imagined it would be. I'll have photos up soon, but in the meantime check these two wonderful pieces of inspiration:

First Rank, Second Rank

Buy Painted Video

Grey Knights

I'm a power armor guy. Even my Dark Eldar are, in my mind, built with power armor in mind. How would Space Marines do it? I start from there and then make changes based on the strengths and weaknesses of the Dark Eldar. I know it sounds obtuse, but it works for me, lol.

So here are some follow-up thoughts on the Grey Knights.

Strike Squads
Are Tactical Marines. Give one a Hammer and add as many Psycannons as your points allow (based on squad size, of course). They're not very good in combat and are pretty good at staying put and holding an objective. Warp Quake makes them safer than they'd normally be otherwise and should be used each and every turn.

Justicars
Don't put special weapons on them if you'll be casting normally. If you put your Daemonhammer on this guy and suffer a Perils of the Warp, you just lost your Hammer. No matter how unlikely, you WILL suffer a Perils eventually. Give that dude a Sword (Nemesis if Purifier or Terminator) and be done with it.

Psyfleman Dreads
Are your Long Fangs. The biggest difference being that you can move and still fire 4 Missle-equivalent shots. That's a huge advantage. Additionally, the Reinforced Aegis is sexy.

The biggest issue is the fact that losing one Dread means you've lost 4 shots. Otherwise, they're golden.

Librarians
Just take him. At lower points, around 1500, they compete with the über Grand Masters and the potentially nasty Inquisitors, but otherwise, they get better each time I read their entry.

Paladins
Still feel too expensive.

Inquisition
Psykers, Death Cult Assassins and Inquisitors are all super fun and viable in a GK list. The Psykers are basically the Grey Knight Vindicator, except they can ride in a tank or stay in deep cover while pounding the enemy with gross templates.

That's it for now, lots of pics and a battle report coming later this week.

Happy Easter Folks!

2011-04-24T12:35:00.002-04:00

May you and yours be blessed!

Grey Knights: What I Love, What I Hate

2011-04-16T00:01:00.002-04:00

Grey Knights have been out for a week or so now. The internet is full of lists, Boltgun Metal is everywhere and Stormravens are leaving the hangar. Good times.

So what do I think? First I'll start by saying that I'm getting better at 'reading' a codex. How strong or weak, where good combos exist and what might simply be a bust. That doesn't mean everyone will agree with me because I find such awesome info, simply that I am better at finding what will work for me and what won't. So, let's get to it.

Love

The psychic presence in the book is great. I enjoy how they're represented and I enjoy how tied together many of them. To be honest, it feels a lot like Warmachine in a sense. Instead of rolling a TH/SS unit because it's so amazing (and it is sooooo amazing - Salamanders ARE coming from me soon) it feels like you really need to find synergy.

Psybolt Ammo. The ability to add strength to a weapon based on the ammunition is fantastic, very fun. It's a little one-dimensional (more on this later) but it really changes the roll of certain parts of the army.

Librarians are sick. Their powers are versatile, useful and fun. Terminator armor is not fun in this book, but I'll take him as I can get him. He's cheap for all he is, to be honest, as an equivalent character in most other books would cost closer to 200 (TDA, Level 2 Psyker, etc) points.

Grand Master Mordrak. His rules are amazing and fun. He's not an Independent Character, so his Ghost Knights are more of a Retinue, keeping him safe in the unit and allowing you to wisely place wounds on him when you're ready and produce more Ghosts when you need him. He's a bit suicidal in nature (as is Crowe, sort of a trend) but he will undoubtedly cause lost of trouble in your enemy's backfield.

Vindicare Assassins and Death Cult Assassins. Oh..MY..GOD...4D6 Armor Pen?!!? OK, this is completely broken but he or she is almost an auto-include. There are things about this book that confuse me, like the nearly useless Strike Squad (more later) and the confused role of the Nemesis Sword but the Vindicare is crystal clear and beautiful.

Terminators as troops are pretty great. People seem to prefer Paladins but I prefer being to field more units over elite. For the same price as a normal Marine Terminator we get Force Weapons and a 4++ in combat. I'd say that's nice and cheap.

Hate

Boring. I don't see the flexibility in here of the latest Codices. Dark Eldar, Blood Angels, Vanilla Marines, etc. all seem to have much more flexible books. So far, if you want to roll a pure GK list, they're all looking pretty similar. Three Dreads, TL-Autocannons with Ammo, lots of Terminators or lots of Purifiers, either Rhino's or Razorbacks with Ammo. I could be wrong here, but the book seems pretty flat overall.

Strike Squads. What the heck happened here? One attack?! No True-Grit style ability so no bonus for two close combat weapons? Am I reading this correctly? That means that, in general, a basic Grey Knight will only out-combat a Tactical Marine. Any dedicated assault units will eat up a basic Grey Knight. I'm not expecting a grunt to out-combat Vulkan and his crew, but at least survive a round or two, you're a Grey Knight! Doesn't feel very elite to me. Honestly, there isn't much of a combat punch anywhere in the book. I'm confused by this quite a bit. The army feels defensive but doesn't have a way to defend in combat, either: no storm shields, for instance, on Marines.

I still don't understand why Predators, Speeders, Bikes, Chaplains, etc are all unavailable to Silver Marines?

Paladins. 55 Points for a second wound?! How exactly are these guys better than a normal Terminator? They have WS5 and 2W. That's it. Normal Terminators are such a bargain, what happened here? T5 would have been great, closer to TWC in relative value, but dying to a Missle when you fail a save is stupid for what is supposed to be the monster unit in the book.

Apothecary for 130 points. Someone at GW thought this made sense?! 130 points to help you against Orks and Dark Eldar poisoned weapons. Most Marines are shooting you with Plasma and Missles, wasting the 130 points. They don't grant any other buff, don't accomplish anything else in the game for Paladins.

Closing Thoughts

Overall, I'm a little confused by the direction of the book. Not much left to say, really. It's very possible that the strength of the book is more subtle, not so easily identified, but truthfully it feels a little underwhelming. Please remember this is all based on how I plan to play the book and what I feel are strong and weak points in light of MY play style.

That said, it looks like a FUN book and I'm looking forward to play them and playing against them!

I'd love to hear your ideas as well. Show me where I'm missing something and point out some tight combinations to me. Am I being pessimistic? Am I discounting the strength of the Strike Squads?

Dark Eldar v. Chaos Space Marines with Guest Host!!

2011-04-11T12:19:00.000-04:00

Black Matt guest hosts this 1700 point battle. It's a new camera and a dark basement, so we are out of focus a bit, bear with me as I work out those kinks. There will be a Khador vs. Trollbloods battle going up sometime the end of the week, as well. Enjoy!

Paint n Play Campaign at ToyWiz

2011-04-05T18:42:00.000-04:00

So as Tordeck has pointed out, the guys at the Ordo Malleus are starting a Paint n Play. The plan is to help WIPs get finished and on the table. Good time to start a new army and there's no army newer than Grey Knights. Here are my 500 points, followed by the rules of the campaign themselves:

9 Grey Knights, 2 Halberds, Pyscannon, Rhino

9 Grey Knights, 2 Halberds, Psycannon, Rhino

Force Organization as follows:

0-1 HQ
1-3 Troops (you must take at least one troop choice)
0-1 Elite
0-1 Fast attack
0-1 Heavy support
0-1 "swing" slot (you can use this to take an additional Elite, Fast, Troop, or Heavy choice)

-Armies are not required to take mandatory choices, but all other unit restrictions apply.
-With the exception of Troops and Swarms, no model may have more than 2 wounds.
-Psykers may be chosen, but may not use any power requiring a psychic test.
-No Independent Special Characters. Named special characters that are upgrades to units may be taken provided they follow all the rules provided under this section, but they will cost you an additional HQ slot.
-No monstrous creatures.
-No 2+ saves (armor or invulnerable).
-No vehicles with a total Armour Value greater than 34 (add the front value to one side value to the rear value to determine this).

Other Stuff

Artemis is done, going to post final pics and up on eBay he goes. I am also considering taking commissions on video intros for battle reports, gt announcements, etc. I got a lot of great response on the one I made for my Blood Angels and I think there might be a niche to fill there. Let me know if something like this is something you would like to see/use/purchase for your own site/videos/announcements.

Adepticon on Ustream

2011-04-03T10:08:00.000-04:00

Adepticon Live

The Independent Characters are ustreaming it live! If you couldn't go, watch it on ustream.
Make sure you sign up and join the chat room for maximum streaminess.

Real Life

2011-04-01T13:11:00.000-04:00

I drew this way back when I played Daemonhunters in 3rd

My parents were in a car accident yesterday. A young girl ate a red light and drove right into my Dad's driver side door. After a scary night, everyone is fine!!! I thank God that everyone (including the young female driver) was able to see another day. My parents should be home tonight, all scans are negative and life will inevitably move forward.

[Speaking of, I had to back out on a match against Black Matt's Chaos Marines because of this, but the Kabal of the Dying Sun will face those psychos soon!!]

Gaming is a wonderful thing, something that I am very thankful for. As I considered all the things I'm thankful for (a man get's introspective when faced with such heavy-weight happenings), I just figured I'd take this moment to remember the things that are important to me. Some things are too personal for a blog, so here is my "Gaming Thank You" list...

1. Thank you for my family.
2. Thank you for a wife that supports my hobby and a son who wants Orks for Christmas.
3. Thank you for a gaming community that is amazing, giving, receptive and relaxed.
4. Thank you for the friends I've been able to meet and share with (I'm looking at you, baby Solomon!).
5. Thank you for ToyWiz and the guys at Ordo Malleus.

I'll leave it at that, it's not Thanksgiving Day, yet.

Anyways, thank you followers and readers. This has not much to do with 40k or Warmahordes or anything but I know you're all OK with the occasional ramblings of a fellow gamer :)

Pic: by ME! Yay.

Color Choices

2011-03-29T11:01:00.002-04:00

Are there no male Incubi?!

Intro
When I began Sons of Thunder, way back in 2009, it was mainly a Space Wolves blog. Dig deep into the archives and you'll see photos of my metallica Wolves. To this day, the Wolves have more posts than any other topic (look at the labels on the right). I haven't painted or played the Wolves in a long time, though. One of the reasons for this is their Chapter colors.

Grey is Flat
The picture on the right is a shot of my Incubi. They're almost done to a solid table-top level (in my opinion). While they're not perfect, their colors make them pop. Dark base, bright blue helms, goblin green accessories. It just comes together.

I've been wanting to finish and play the Space Wolves for a long time but I haven't found a color palette that I would enjoy using for them. Maybe you all can help me out? You see, the baby blue colors used by GW of late are a bit too soft, no contrast at all. I would have to go with a darker blue base with very bright highlights. Doable, of course, but the Wolves would look quite powdery at that point. Still I might bite the bullet and go with that.

The other accepted option is a slate grey. Unfortunately, this option is almost worse, from a color perspective. Take a look at the more popular Wolves blogs and look at the grey blobs on the table-top. The army loses any distinct profile, the models blend and blur into one another and instead of having a distinct, savage-looking profile, the army gets lost in itself. Not good, at least not for me. Grey is just too flat. This doesn't speak to the ability of the painters, the stuff is well painted, but the color choice is, in my opinion, poor. It can work, but it needs to massaged, like these.

more info on these at Space Wolves blog

These Wolves on the left have better contrast, but you'll notice that the armor/body is still lost. The contrast is created by the hair and face of each model, but the details of the armor itself is lost.

Contrast
What I really need is a scheme with nice contrast, maybe even high contrast. This is what makes the Blood Angels, the Salamanders and others work so well on the table-top. Green and black, red and black, blue and yellow, etc. Good contrasting sets of colors. My question is, what's acceptable for Wolves? They have no successors, their original colors are just grey (which is why GW probably went with the baby blue, I think) and their official colors are a bit too soft for my tastes.

by Andreas Neger, Tower of Heroes

Check out these Wolves, by Andreas Neger. Very high contrast, with a look that will pop on the table. Even the grass looks to be dry-brushed in order to add more contrast. Clearly, Andreas is a beast and matching his colors, much less his style, would be quite the challenge. Honestly, I might just shoot Andreas an email.

Wrap Up
You'll forgive me if this post is more of a "thinking a loud" sort of write up, but sometimes this helps get my thoughts in order.

(Stepped away from this entry to email Andreas^^).

So post your thoughts, links, tutorials and pics in the comments below and help a brother clear up the fuzz clouding his thoughts!

The End is Near!

2011-03-28T22:07:00.000-04:00

Artemis is taking longer than I expected! Not because of any difficulty in painting him, but because real life has been on my tail like a bloodthirsty Wych! I make most of my painting progress on Thursday's and sometimes that just isn't enough.

That said, he's looking good. I like how he's coming along and even with the craptacular camera, I think you can get a good idea as to his badassery. Hopefully you all think I'm honoring the sculpt.

Here his hands are finally attached, though the joints need to be cleaned up a bit and the paint on the sword and bolter need finishing. I totally love the way his Deathwatch armor turned out (left arm) and his power sword is why I love my airbrush (Paasche, fyi).

So there he is, more to come.

Artemis Update

2011-03-23T09:24:00.001-04:00

Artemis 1
Originally uploaded by Sgt. Brisbane

I'm a little behind schedule but Artemis is coming along. I don't usually get to paint at this scale and it certainly presents some interesting challenges. I wish I owned a better camera, or at least a photo station, by the way. I might build one soon.

First, he weighs a ton. Sometimes just handling him is a pain since I can't always hold the model by the base.

Second, the shading and gradients used to create highlights are not as easy to pull off. I find I need to use more wet-blending than I might use on a smaller marine.

Lastly, Artemis is in black power armor and black isn't the easiest color to work with. I've never been a fan of the hard-lining technique a lot of folk use so I'll have to think about making the armor pop.

I might simply wear the armor down, with cracks in the paint, etc. I would have had to use a liquid mask at some point to make it look super worn, but alas I didn't think about that so I'll have to do it the hard way.

Either way, he's coming along. Another day or so and he should be done.

Rune Priests, What Are They?

2011-03-17T20:37:00.004-04:00

Spoilers Ahead
One Thousand Sons & Prospero Burns are all about the Wolves and their conflict with the Thousand Sons. They're two very good books, with Prospero being insanely so.

Throughout both books there are some strange references about Space Wolves culture. One is the notion that there are no wolves on Fenris. It's an entertaining comment and the books are worth reading just to discover the answer to it.

The other is that Rune Priests (and Space Wolves & perhaps the Emperor, as well) are some sort of hypocritical chapter because when the Emperor bans psykers, the Wolves completely ignore the ban. The truth is that the Emperor ignores the Wolves violation and few people look on it with suspicion at all.

Simo over at Claws & Fists asks this very question and wonders what the heck is going on. Here are my thoughts.

Answers...maybe
Rune Priests aren't psykers (in the traditional sense). We see several hints that the Wolves aren't (simply) tapping into the Warp throughout both books and the chapter's Rune Priests themselves on several occasions make comments to this effect. Usually their defense falls on deaf ears or they are simply cut off and not allowed to explain themselves, but the bottom line is that Rune Priests might actually function differently than most psykers in the Warhammer 40k universe.

I'm trying to be vague, but I'm about to spoil something here, so be careful. Remember at the end of the council of Nikea, a Space Wolf paints the eye of aversion on the armor of a Thousand Son? Did you notice how whatever dark power had infused the Marine was banished? How's that possible?! That should not have happened, that's not how things work in 40k. Or is it?

Consider some of the war-gear. Wolf tooth necklaces, wolf tail talismans: both of these items are, according to the Codex, powerless. They aren't the same as the gear worn by other Marines. This isn't a tooth-shaped piece of technology, it's a tooth. The Codex says that "the faith Fenrisians have in these items is powerful in itself". That's not supposed to work. Either the Emperor is a god or the Warp is being touched or the technology is making something work. This, however, is completely different.

I think they were telling the truth, their power is not the same as what the Thousand Sons access. Psykers are not Rune Priests and Rune Priests are not psykers.

While the end result might appear the same, the truth is subtly different. Why do Space Wolves wound demons on a 2+? Why can they simply stop powers on a 4+? We think it's a powerful Codex, but what if it's just the fluff influencing the rules? Wouldn't that help to explain some of the special treatment that Rune Priests seem to have gotten via the Codex and the recent novels?

Well, I hope I've added fuel to the fire or perhaps even answered some lingering doubts. I don't claim to have any real knowledge, this is just the fluff junkie in me enjoying 40k to its fullest. What do you think? Am I on the right track or am I simply marked by the Wulfen and losing my ability to reason? Either way, hope you enjoyed this little right up. Forgive the lack of page references, I haven't unpacked my books from the move to the new house.

Art by Aerion

and the winner is....

2011-03-17T11:08:00.000-04:00

Blood Angels! Brother Artemis will be a son of Sanginius. Stay with me for the work in progress and unveiling next Wednesday.

Thank you guys for voting and making thus a fun little project!

Vote NOW!

2011-03-16T10:21:00.000-04:00

Irrelevant pic O.o

Our friend Artemis is torn between Black Templar and Blood Angels and he needs your help!!

Vote in the comments and let me know what Chapter he should belong to, today is the last day, otherwise I'll have to flip a coin and let the Emperor decide and we all know he's way too busy to have to worry about something so silly ;)

Hobby: Deathwatch Marine

2011-03-12T16:38:00.002-05:00

Deathwatch Marine
Originally uploaded by Sgt. Brisbane

You all remember this guy, right? Anyone remember what Chapter, if any, he was supposed to be from? I am just curious.

I'm going to kick off my eBay madness by painting this guy up as best as I can and then putting him up for sale.

Question is: What Chapter?

Vote in the comments, I'll paint him up in whatever Chapter wins.

The Black Rage: Tournament Thoughts Part II

2011-03-07T14:42:00.000-05:00

So I was home sick all day yesterday. Fever, body aches and toilets...every toilet in the house. Not a good day. This gave me a lot of time to think about what steps are necessary to be a competitive tournament player.

Army & Lists
I'll need to rethink everything, nothing is beyond reproach. What army am I building? What list am I going for? This blog is almost three years old, and it's taken me this long to realize that I want to compete to win (especially if I'm paying money to play!). If I choose something other than Blood Angels, my current force is getting eBay'd...fresh starts need fresh cash!

Once I choose a tournament army, I'll sit with the pros (in my life) and build a hardcore list.

Painting
I am never going to get painting points if I paint stuff with different techniques. I'll need to paint an entire army with one idea and stick to that idea, even if I pick up new skills along the way.

Blog
What to do with the blog? It will focus on the army that I choose and will try and become a resource for that army. Of course, Jawa has the Blood Angels sort of cornered, so perhaps I'll go another direction? This reinforces the idea that everything is being put under the microscope!

Wish me luck!

The Red Thirst: Tournament Thoughts

2011-03-05T21:47:00.002-05:00

Toywiz
Today was our local 40k Tournament at Toywiz and it was a doozie. Lots of the big boys showed up, including the likes of Black Matt, Fritz and Jawaballs and my own brother-in-law (who shall remain nameless^^). The tournaments held by the OM club have really been incredible of late, with HUGE prize support, great attendance and really great atmosphere. If you haven't come by, you're really missing out on a great time.

Recap
My three games went thusly:
Game 1: Against Andrew's Imperial Fists. Two Raiders, ten TH/SSs with Lysander and a bunch of Tactical Marines. Close match, but I overextended and he made me pay. It was looking tough for him but I reached too far and couldn't recoup in time. Loss.

Game 2: Tordeck's Dark Eldar. It was sort of CC focused, with lots of Wyches and Bloodbrides, some Incubi and a Talos. The game was close, but I squeaked out a win, 10KP to 8KP. It was quite the bloodbath.

Game 3: Geoff's Blood Angels. Sadly, Geoff made two big mistakes, in my opinion. First, with Dawn of War, he reserved everything. I suggested he just roll onto the board on turn one, but he wanted to wait for turn 2. He got shot up, one unit at a time. I don't think we got to turn 4. His other huge mistake was trying to Heroic Intervene in a really tight space. He mis-happed and I got to place them and then Vindicator them.

Overall, 2-1 and I had a great time. My list was:
JP Librarian
2x 10 JP Marines, 2x Meltas, Fist
2x 5 Ass Marines, Lazbacks
Vanguard Vets with power weapons, fist, Infernus
2x Baal Predator, Dakka
2x Vindicator

The Red Thirst
I felt myself getting left behind, drowning in a sea of Land Raiders and Stormravens, Terminators and Missile Launchers. It wasn't a mech'd up 40k, but a "hammer" 40k. As I looked at the lists around me I realized that my enemies would swarm me and overwhelm me....unless I was reborn.

For two years I've played 40k for the fun, the hobby, the 'me' time. None of that has changed, but I realized today that I need to give myself a chance to win. Tournaments are fun, win or lose, but I'm not always going to get favorable match-ups, lucky dice and perfect terrain. I need to play to win.

Now, it doesn't mean that I won't be graceful and elegant, flowing with charm and grace, but now, like Mephiston, I'll have undergone a change, a metamorphosis. Am I trying to win at all costs? No, of course not, but if I'm paying to play in a tournament, I should at least be playing on an even playing field.

Old Stuff Day

2011-03-02T14:42:00.001-05:00

Original Post, November 14, 2009

Decisions, decisions
Well, I'll be honest, I'm a bit of a hopper. I am very easily bored and my gaming is no different (ask me if I've finished Assassin's Creed, yet). I don't think I will ever be able to play just one game or just one army. It's just not who I am. Some people see gaming as a serious, life changing part of their life. It's just not who I am.

That being said, here's a list of what I own, what I plan to own and what I'm focusing on, at the moment.

Warhammer 40k
Daemonhunters, Tau, Space Marines

Warhammer Fantasy
Nothing, but I'm looking into getting into it with Beasts of Chaos. They're just about to get a new book, apparently in February. Let's see what happens.

Warmachine/Hordes
Cygnar, Khador, Trollbloods

Avatars of War
Um...yes.

That's about it. ;)

New Additions, Today, 2011
Wow, some stuff stayed the same, lots of stuff changed. It's now March 2, 2011 and I'm much more settled into my tabletop gaming, though video games remain a fickle thing for me.

40k
Blood Angels, Dark Eldar, Grey Knights (yay for new Codex)

Warmahordes
Trollbloods, Cygnar (about to get eBay'd)

Flames of War
Open Fire! starter box in my possession.

Malifaux
Starting that up with a couple buddies very soon!

I've learned that I like fun rules over fun fluff, prefer painting with my airbrush and will most likely start a small commission service (small 'hammer' units and characters, hq transports, etc, not full armies - more on that later, but feel free to inquire).

I've learned that I enjoy winning as much as the next guy, more than I thought I would. The joy of meeting new friends and seeing new armies is wonderful and really has me thinking about NOVA and next year's Conflict GT, which Aaron from my FLGS hosts.

Hobby: Why I Prime

2011-02-28T14:01:00.001-05:00

Just a quick note on the way my priming has changed over the years. This isn't the only way, just the way I've adapted over the years.

The Early Years
Prime Black. That's all I ever did and there was one main reason for that: I couldn't paint. Now, that's not the only reason, but it was the main reason.

In essence, I wasn't priming or preparing the model for paint, I was actually laying down a base-coat of black. That's a big distinction because without realizing it, I was already dictating the direction of the look of the army, simply because I'd chosen to coat the model in black.

The Mid Years
I got married, had kids....little hobby happening hear, let's move on...

Present
I prime grey. I am not looking to color the model, as I was with black primer. I am not looking for shortcuts or quicker ways of getting something to look finished. I am simply wanting to create a thin layer of grey that will allow my paints to stick. It was a paradigm shift. The primer isn't so much the first painting step, but the last step before the painting stage.

Grey also has the advantage of not affecting the shade or tone of the final paint too much. It doesn't darken the model or brighten the model. It's (literally) a mid-tone that allows the paint to generally come through as intended or as envisioned (in my head). Basically, red = red.

It took me a few years to figure out that my mindset was all wrong. I now go into my priming with a different mentality and I have found that I've become a better painter for it. Try looking at the process differently and see what you might learn about yourself!

Hobby: Nemo Update

2011-02-23T23:39:00.005-05:00

Nemo
Originally uploaded by Sgt. Brisbane

Hopefully this pic is a lot better.

Nemo

2011-02-22T23:57:00.002-05:00

Originally uploaded by Sgt. Brisbane

As promised, Nemo the Magnificent (the title is mine, I think it's appropriate^^).

Warmachine: Cygnar Warjack

2011-02-22T23:55:00.002-05:00

Cygnar
Originally uploaded by Sgt. Brisbane

While the Stormraven comes together, (literally, the magnets are coming together nicely - more on it later), I've been doing some early spring cleaning. I've purchased some plastic bins for my bits, a new Black & Decker 'dremel', new paints for my airbrush, a slew of magnets, foam for terrain and display board, and the list goes on.

The upcoming tournament at ToyWiz is fueling my hobby passion. My deathstar (5 TDA with TH/SS and LC, led by a TDA Librarian) is on the table to be painted, but I had lots of ready paint and decided to stop ignoring my Cygnar battleforce. I'm working on gathering a few more opponents (the process of evangelizing a new game is much more wearying than I have energy for - meanwhile Flames of War is spreading like wild fire. What to do my faithful Battle Brothers!?).

So here is a WIP. Another follows.