First Look: Kings of war & GW venom or homegrown?

I might as well start with the kings of war review...

I was asked by a new chap at the club if I fancied a bit of kings of war, and me being a system whore accepted, fantasy is something that doesn't really float my boat unless its warhammer quest and that's a different story for another day, but with the beta rules being free as well as Mantic just about to release orc's I decided to get some use out of the orcs & gobbo's that I painted for the latest warhammer which I don't really like to be honest.

So initial thoughts on the game:

Not too bad actually, I've had mixed reactions when I've told people that I was going to play but the rules are fairly simple and the combat is interesting the nerve test is very clever and the bigger the unit the more "nerve" you get which I like, the orc army list is still being tested so feels a tad overpowered as every once has +1 to damage for brute strength.

even with only a 500 point army list I managed to field:

2 Ax regiments (120)
1 great Ax regiment (105)
1 Gore riders troop (80)
1 Krudger (115)

throw in some banners (+1 Nerve for your unit) and musicians (-1 nerve for the enemy) and you 66 orcs running around the table!

the army selection is quite simple, one core troop unlocks one warmachine/hero choice which is nice and easy rather than percentages, the other this I really like is that armies (evil) undead, "chaos" dwaves & orcs and (good) evles & dwarves can ally with each other and when they start doing neutral lists they can be included, so can give you a bit of variety when choosing what you want as well as painting options.

So onto the actual models...

I'll be dead honest the elves are shite, the undead and the orcs are shit hot, the normal and abyssal dwarves are "ok". but pricewise its a no brainer! 60 zombies for 30 quid! why thank you!!

this is something that I would play again and I'm looking that the mantic range of orcs to see how they compare to the GW ones that I already have or I could flog the GW orcs on ebay and triple the amount of models from the price that I could be for them.

have a look if you fancy it... www.manticgames.com

So with all the rage of the recent price increases resctrictions on selling to the otherside of the world the dark eldar releases have not had the postive comments that they deserve, I think that the all look supersexy par the venmon, I don't know why though? I know the venmon is a viper thats been nicked by the dark eldar and pimped out so that it they can go crusing for bitches, but it looks too much like a vipe (if that makes sense?)

so the GW venmon...

very pretty & nice and nice paint job..

my version, bit more "spikey" and longer looking?

ok so I prefer mine but its £28 to get both kits compared to the £18 gw kits so ok 10 quid more expensive and if your on a limited budget then the GW kit is the choice but if I was to continue the dark eldar then I'd only and another 1 or 2 venmons and convert them in the same manner but slightly differant detail as I'd imagine each one would be decorated differantly according to the squad riding in them.

so onto what I've been splashing paint on recently...


after picking up some more epic bits on ebay I added to the huge marine army with a couple of units of land speeders, a couple of tactical detachments, a couple of assault detachments. With the 2 thunderhawks that needed finishing and the "strike" cruiser the marine reinforcements look like:

I need to stop myself from getting more epic though... I've more than enough!!

So with the hail Caesar game approaching fast I blasted out a 40 celt warriors and a skirmish unit of slingers

painted with the army painter dip technique that I posted about a while back, and I'm liking the overall appearance of the army, only another 40 warriors, 10 cav and some command guys and that lot will be sorted, not too sure if I'll pick anything else up though I did go a bit mental with the French and have quite a lot left over that I need to either do something with or get rid of!

so with just over a week of the month left and spencer picking up some GHQ stuff for me at triples its time to get a shift on and I'm looking to clear this lot by the end of the month...

so 10 T55's, 10 T72's, 5 BRDM-2's, 5 recce jeeps, 9 lots of infantry, 6 epic marine rhinos and whats left of my FOW british before I pick up any thing else.

Assuming I can get that lot done that should put me at:

Bought:  54
Painted: 114
Difference: +60

not a bad result at all and as I'm not really after anything at the moment next month should be a bumper bonus with the CY6 models that I need to do and the rest of the celts to finish.

Well that sucks balls!

I like to "wander" around various sites for all my gaming news and catch up...

And the world is on fire with regards to GW!

So its starts with the "resin" that is replacing the metal line so a sneaky price increase on the "new" releases,

The the Aussies and there neighbours (get it ;) ) get shafted with the limit on European retailers not being able to sell to there countries,

THEN a price increase in a couple of weeks.

I do feel sorry for those people out there who have limited funds to get there plastic crack and in some ways I can see this impacting the "noobs" as the price goes up are parent really going to shell out that kinda money for models? 

So what to do??

well as my chaos & deamons are at crazy points I'm alright as I don't have to buy ought for those armies apart from forgeworld if I'm feeling really flush! as for the dark eldar I'm now in two minds what to do with them, i.e. keep em or flog em, and with the up and coming necrons well they can stay in there shiny new packaging...

Its quite sad really as I've been "into" the hobby for the best part of 20 years and have enjoyed it but with all the other companies that are out there (battlefront, warlord, privateer, mantic etc..) I can see myself leaning towards those with regards to new purchases rather than GW.

So I suppose it comes down to either man up, or bail??

what are your thoughts and feelings on this? 

whos house.... Bin's house!!

Well I know that some people like up to date bits and bobs for there modern wargaming but this has be the first item that actually has made me laugh!

yep thats right the previous world champion of hide and seek, Mr Ladens' compund is now available to buy in 6mm!

htwww.gamecraftminiatures.com

I think it's look quite nice in either 28mm or 15mm scale for ambush alley or any skirmish system.

Me Stylish? Oh go on then put a cherry in my pint!

Well bugger me!

For what ever reason Suneokun over at pathfinder deems my blog to be stylish, (too much free cash though, well that'd be the international gun running that I do at the weekends) well thats awfually nice old chap! ;)

The Stylish Blogger Award (given from one blogger to another, one might say), is like a pat on the back for a good job. It's definitely a viral, zombie-like spread of good will so it's too good to pass up. The best bit is I get to nominate my own choices, too...

There are four 'rules':

-- Thank and link back to the person giving you the award (see above)
-- Share seven things about yourself
-- Select 10-15 blogs who you think deserve this award
-- Contact these bloggers and let them know about the award

Seven things about me.... that can be told to the general public...

1, I served time with the TA 7th Royal Anglain regiment Assault Pioneer platoon translating that into "normal" mean I have a really strange fetish for barbed wire, field fortication, explosivesand booby traps as well as being able to amuse many people with stories from back in the day!

2, I'm a gaming whore!! If I like the look of a system of a single model I'll go into "mental" mode and pick up stuff even before playing a single game!

3, Every single system that I play I like to be the "bad guys" if its taliban for ambush alley, Chaos for 40K, Orc's for fantasty Celts for hail caesar, French for black powder... you get the idea!

4, I love smoking shisha! discovered this in ejypt with one of my many ex-girl friends and recently a shisha cafe has opened up round the courner from my house, I'll be the token white man in there!

5, I enjoy Airsoft alot! nothing like running well more jogging for me around a fibua village or woodland site and blating the be-jesus outta people with my RPK

6,  I worked for GW back in the hayday when epic wasn't a mail order only specialist system 40K made sense and you could have grenades and all that jazz and fantsasty well I never was bother by that! so my gaming knowalge is bloody scarey, added to the fact that I seem to be able to remember rules for systems that I only play once in a blue moon but not to put the wheelie bin out on a wednesday night does concern me some what?

7, I picked up best painted fleet at a mongoose B5 torney when I first started playing it and I was quite chuffed with that, but last year I picked up best sportsman at the UK warmachine nationals which was really good!!

So Blogs that I like to follow/read, now in no particluar order...

Aria at paintingmum  really nice painting and goes into alot of detail with how she does certain techniques, only if I had the skill eh...

Darksol at All things 40K great step by steps for all sorts of stuff, simple to follow but with cracking results,

Andy at Another slight diversion a manly napolonic and cold war commander blog, the amount of historical stuff that this guy has painted is mind blowing and the battle reports of his games are really nice as well!

Ron at from the warp a cornerstone of the 40K blogging scene, nice chap and bloody good painter!

Jon at jons wargames minis posts really random armies up but I like the quirky really old school models that he uses, good knows how much he's got in his stock pile!

Sgt Scream at small scale operations its all about force on force and I like it! ok 20mm isn't something I do but its nice to read and does tempt me over and over again to change scale

Neil at troop of shewe pro painted armour? oh yes please! makes me want to get an airbrush but I carn't really be arsed with all the faffing about ;)

JabberJabber at warpstone flux loads of chaos, loads of deamons enough said, man after my own heart! we should start a online campaign for the next chaos codex!

And finally

Chris at pathfinder bangs on about guard way too much for my liking! but I like to wind him up now and then he normally responds by asking for a game and rolling me!

so there go, have a look at the above and enjoy!

Nurgle Firepower..... dreadnought style

Well this has to be a first...

I've said I'm going to actually do something and I have!

The pair of nurgle dreadnoughts are done, I've used the same tried and tested technique that I used for the whole of the deathguard army and they look pretty sweet, I'll admit I was a little worried that they might turn out paints as there isn't that much "green" armour compared to normal marines so I decided to go down a brass route for most of the metal and throw in the odd boltgun metal bit to break it up.

the banner on the converted dreadnought I've left blank but I'm thinking maybe 13 in roman numerals on one side and a off set chaos star on the other in a nice contrasting colour but we'll see what happens with that,

 anyway enough of the whaffling..

the "boys"
 

 the business end, loads of detail on these forgeworld models and great fun to paint

does my bum look big in this? 

The power claw on this is really nice, 

and even with the pooling of the inks it adds to the decayed look of nurgle, result!

so off to a pretty good start towards "the pledge" with the flying skip getting its MOT this month the likely hood of it actually passing is slim to none, so no shiney new models for me me thinks unless I either win the lottery or some one asks me for some more commission work!

But on a positive note that'll put well back on track for the last couple of months and with Abbadon, The cutlass gang on the painting table they shouldn't take too long to sort out, along with the looming target date of June for my first game of hail Caesar I need to crank out some celts too!






Could be a busy month!

And finally Happy birthday to my little sister!! (because she reads my blog apparently!)

(this was a long long time ago!!) Hence the slimness of us both!