Month end update... October.....

So yet another month creeps past like the ninja from Tenchu......

I've finally managed to get the last of my black orc's painted and spent a fair few days magnetising the whole of the army only to discover that 8th Ed warhammer isn't quite as good as I expected, reasons for this where...

The new horde rules, ok nice idea but when facing 18 ogres, 30 chaos warriors, 1 khornate champion and a alter of chaos in your first game for well over 2 years its not particularly entertaining from my side of the table...

High Elves, ok so they always strike first but the guy was getting rerolls due to his initiative being so high and promptly chomped through my army...

Maybe I need to get some more games in who knows, but hey at least the army is just about painted!!

So I've managed to get two of the Retribution ghost snipers done, really nice models just a shame that privateer press haven't done an alternative pose,

Pretty easy to do to be honest but look quite nice,

Then I managed to get the last of the Micro Armour done, 2 havocs and 10 BRDM'3 aka anti-tank units, I was kinda wondering how much I've actually got now since starting collecting back in September, the answer was a bloody lot!!

Over all its been fairly un-productive month painting wise, but I'm sure once I get the Emperors Children on the painting table that'll get my painting going again for some reason I enjoy painting 40K more than anything else??

talking about 40K I was having a rummage through some boxes and came across this little lot, not these are all thats left from my chaos warhammer army, back in the day when you could have daemons and warriors in the same list, but I figured that they would be best used in my 40K daemon army and so all I need to do is play a few games and see what the screamers and the herald on chariot are actually like!

So the "pledge" for October wasn't too bad scraping in by the skin of my teeth...

Bought  25
Painted  27

So +2, I've been keeping track of the "pledge" since Jan this year all I've got to do is suss out how to put an excel spreadsheet on this blog and you can have a good look at what I've achieved at the end of this year.

Your painting area, does it reflect your gaming habit......

As I rushed around trying to get ready for work the other day and got a barrage of abuse that my painting table was a bomb site!

I am inclined to agree but the crazy thing is I know where everything is on the table! unless I'm looking for a paint that seems to evade my eyes and its sitting right in front of me!

Example being if you look at the above to the untrained eye aka Nadine its a shithole however let me walk you through is...

It started life as a computer desk... but when I was bought a big stonking monitor to play warcraft on (For the Horde!) it was to be my new painting table...

Area 1:

Where the "magic" happens no its not the bedroom but the only clear space that I have to paint! With brushes shoved at the back general shit on the right and right underneath the trays of paints that slide out, where the keyboard would normally go...

Area 2:
The world famous bathroom tile that has seen every type of army painted (and survived longer than all my ex's!) and more than likely still has the paint on it! As a good friend of mine said if you chopped it in half you'd be able to count the layers like a rings on a tree! and just to the left of that is another shit dumping area normally where brushes go to die, I think the one that hit me the most was my trusty windsor and newton brush that had a run in with some superglue, not a pretty sight!

Area 3:
Part of the "Mexican" production line, i.e. I stack em and rack em on this bit then rinse and repeat on the next bit, help keep them out of the way....

Area 4:
Basing stuff, cork and the like,

Area 5:
when not taking pictures to put on the Blog I use a book with a piece of paper to protect it and shove the semi-painted stuff on there I think it of the "whats next to be painted" area. On the back wall I also have my colour theory circle as well as the gameswork shop thicko guide to highlighting and shading using there paints, the only reason I keep that up there is I tend to experiment when starting a new project, that's how the noise marines came about!

Area 6:
Stuff I really wanna get painted but can't either be arsed or have been distracted by something else, but read on with regards to this...

Area 7:
Glue, Dice, stat cards and general odds and sods

Area 8:
The really big dump zone!! or models that are yet to make it onto the whats next to be painted bit....

Now I'll agree there is a lot of wasted space but hell its works for me, but does the "chaos" of my painting table reflect my gaming habit i.e. collecting stuff and painting?

I'd have to say yes to be honest, I'm constantly chopping and changing what I want to play with and paint, I'm always looking at new systems and new armies for the the ones that I play on a regular basis, Take my Skorne for example I painted a 35 point army in about 5 weeksish and I've not played a proper game with them much to the protest of some of the guys that I know, and jumped feet first into a retribution force!

But with the year rapidly drawing to a close I've decided to use whats left of it to finish off started projects so in no particular order this is what I'll be attempting to do....

The ever growing Chaos.. I'm not going to bother with the khorne berzerkers as originally planned as there crap on the table unless you put them in a land raider! but for the rest:
Lucius & three noise marines
10 Chosen
10 Possessed
2 forge world nurgle dreadnoughts
1 forge world slannesh dreadnought
1 nurgle rhino
1 defiler

Warhammer Orc's & Goblins...
Doomdiver
a couple of individuls shammy & warboss
a unit of really old school night goblins with bows
base the whole army with magnets and the like

Deamons....
Finish of the deamonettes including the mask
Herald of khorne on jugger
Forgeworld Herald of khorne on foot
soul grinder

so that's the plan assuming that I can stay away form the dark eldar when they get released next month, I'm really trying to wait for the Legion Codex to come out but go knows when that's going to be as I kinda expected to get some "mutter from the gutter" but GW aren't letting anything out....

At the moment I'm also starting to make some space as I'm going to need it for Barbie's dream house so as I get rid of my stuff that I don't use the bits that I like I'll post up..

Today its Dream pod's 9 Heavy gear blitz!

Myself & Spencer started collecting this stuff a while back and the actual models are really cool with the battlesuit/mech warrior/ anime feel to then the only negative thing was the price, I'll be honest there not cheap and when I asked various questions on the forums with regards to the rules the "community" was a bit snotty and rude to be honest,

The Naga has to be one of my favourites as it reminds me of ED209 but with really big guns!

anyway if your intrested the link for the auction is .. Heavy gear

And one last thing is that I've been accepted onto the blog roll for table top gaming news so check out some of the other blogs on the website, loads of cool looking stuff for all sorts of systems!

tabletop gaming news blogs

as always cheers for your time and drop any comments below,

Retribution Chimera & Malifaux Crew

So I managed to get a third game of warmachine in last week using the Retribution against Kurt, now Kurt is one of these guys who keeps on smiling no matter how much smack down you give him, but it was to be Kurts night with his trollblood gunline doing some very sneaky shooting (but quite clever) and my caster once more rolling over and playing dead!

The game was a good laugh and I discovered that dawnguard Invictors are pretty tasty and once there stuck together I'll be putting them on the painting table to sit there for a couple of weeks and hopefully the paint fairy will sprinkle some magic dust on them! I.e. if I have the time and can be arsed!! (I've picked up both call of duty & deadrising 2 so xbox time has gone through the roof!)

 But onto the Chimera.....
 
The colour scheme was a bit of a cross between the "challenge Ant" that Spencer gave me as well as the while that I painted on the caster, in layman terms its a right ball ache however it does look sweet on the table and once the whole lot is done it's gonna look mint!

 

Its a fairly plain scheme which gives the models the animi look, they kinda remind me of the suit things out of appleseed,

So how does it fair on the tabletop?

Well points cost its the most expensive out of the three light warjacks that Retribution can field at the moment, however it is one of only two jacks that carry an arc node, now as a cryx player arc nodes are my bread and butter but with the Retribution, I'm still to find a happy medium with the arc node and offensive spells, but that'll come with time.

The thing that I like about the Retribution jacks as a whole is that you get forcefield's with each jack and the Chimera rolls in with 6, the other cool things that come with the jack is Apparition, the important bit on the description is that the model is placed, so according to the rule lawyers down the shop it's exempt from free strikes, but you do have to be completely within the 2" so basically you get to jump outta the way and carry on rocking!

the other little trick is the Phantasmal Field, basically +1 Def for each point of focus against ranged & magic attacks, but that would give you a defence of 15 if you stacked it to the max, but the focus could be spent else where so not too sure how much of a benefit you'd get out of this skill,

The actual hitting power of the jack is pretty naff, ok so you can combo attack for a P+S 20 attack which isn't to be sniffed at or make full use of the two open fists and long bomb your opponent around the board.

So over all "ok" is the way to describe the Chimera I've still alot of games to get under my belt so I can suss out how the model fits in with my plan and if it actually deserves a place in the army!!

Now on to the Malifaux crew, I've had these since April when I went to Salute but havn't really done much with them, I tried a game with Chris but that didn't really go too well as neither of us really knew the rules so was a bit slow to say the least, but recently I've been told by one of the other guys that the chaps over at wargames inc are playing it quite a lot so I did plan to go over there and get some dice time in, but other things came up so didn't make it, hopefully next week I'll get there and see what I can pick up,

But I did manage to get the crew painted, all in one day which I was happy with, over all the models are fairly easy to paint but are a little delicate but as I'm used to warmachine & 40K stuff these are actually in scale! I wanted to keep the actual scheme fairly simple but also quite dark as they are "bad guys"

Overall I'm quite happy with these as tabletop standard and it nice for something differant to paint I might get some more bits and bobs depending on how I get on with the rules system, but as I'm having a clearout I don't need anymore stuff to be honest!

Retribution Mage hunter strike force... are they really that dirty??

Well... the painting has taken a bit of a back burner to say the least!

On a positive note I've managed to get a unit of mage hunter strike force finished

The big question is are they really as good as people make them out to be??

So far I've played 2 games with the retribution and when the guys I normally play against find out that I'm trying out the new project its meet with moans and groans of the usual cheese which makes me smile ;)

The first game against Spencer I'll be honest I had no idea how to use them and it was tight to say the least, I sent the mage hunter group after Spencer's warcaster and only just failed to take him out.

Now the second game was against Stef's troll's, with the new Trollblood army book out I wasn't looking forward to this game as it was going to be a tough one! Stef didn't disappoint me and promptly stomped all over me! (I did make a schoolboy error at one point but the less said about that the better!!) however I sent the mage hunters after his warlock and once more they failed to do the job that was expected of them.



Breaking down the unit into the basic areas...

Movement:

So they have stealth, pathfinder and advanced deployment with the upgrade which makes them nice and fast and the threat range is very impressive.

Shooting:

fairly good range, if you use a certain caster and get snipe on them then they border on the insane! Arcane assassin is nice and with that skill it appears that they are warcaster/warlock killers but then they also have jack hunter giving you 3D6 against warjacks, include the unit upgrade and you ignore LOS, so far all very impressive, but then you look at the actual power of the ranged weapon and its only 10... now against anything above armour 18ish then your going to need some above average rolls to score more than 3 to 4 damage points sometimes easier said than done!

Melee:

For what ever reason the unit comes with combined melee attack? again the arcane assassin & jack hunter skills can be used in combat but with a power + strength of 9 I don't quite "get it" either stand 12 inches away and shoot like a nutter or run up and get a +7 to hit and damage with one attack (minimum size unit and commander) assuming you can get all 7 into melee range of the target.  

so final thoughts??

Against warmachine armies they do have there uses, aka jack hunter however as I found out to my cost against hordes they are "ok" maybe I expect too much of the unit? and should use them more as a "sausage" unit? I've had the usual suspects trying to tell me what to use but I like to find my own way as we all have a differant playing style.

now the question is turned over to you.... would you agree with what I said or am I missing something?

Any how I'm working on one of the retribution light jacks to see if the technique that I tried on my caster works on the bigger models, so far its looking quite good but I'll try and get this finished sooner rather than later, and once its done I'll break down the model from a gaming point of view as I enjoyed disecting the mage hunters gave me some food for thought!

Month end update... September - Micro Armour time!

Jesus wept where is the time going!


So with the "Golden Child" now on board my "pledge" this month has gone a bit off the rails, not that I'm complaining there is nothing better than my daughter looking at me with her big open eyes making strange noises and myself making crazy noises and silly faces (at last I can get away with that kinda thing!) and the warmth of her body in my arms... and then Isla cracks a smile and her arse explodes filling the nappy that I put on about half hour ago, now that's my girl!! LOL

Anyway Micro Armour time, now being 6mm aka epic scale its a bloody doddle to paint!

As the rules set that we are trying out is taking the next step towards air support I'd thought I'd flex my CIS muscles and get the arms race going!

4 SA6's & radar system

3 Tunguska's

BMP 3's so I can start getting a command element together and make what I have a legal army

BTR 8's again for command elements of the force, 

Scud launcher, well I figured why not and just because I can ;)

It'll more than likely get used as a mission objective doubt it that we'll be using NBC rules any time soon!

SU 27's now I'm still undecided over the paint job on these, I've not really painted aircraft before but I figured that they wouldn't be weathered like a tank hence quite clean, now the camo I found on the Internet and thought it was something different! 

The Classic "rambo" Hind, I think these are the "D" variant, a simple brown and green camo as that's what you tend to always see them painted in.

Frogfoot's the Russian version of the A10 but not as cool looking! 

So the micro armour is up to date just waiting for 2 blisters of anti-tank rocket launcher BTR's and I'll think I'll then start looking at some infantry to round off the force. All I've really got to do is get my hands on a copy of coldwar commander as the current version is now out of print, sods law really I used to see them all over the place when I went to trade shows and now I want a copy its no longer available! however on a positive note the chap who wrote the rules is doing a 2nd edition which will be out after the new year (maybe) so I'm happy to wait!

So whats on the table???

Retribution!

I played a 35 point game against Spencer and his Menoth and only just lost it was a tight game and admittedly I didn't have a clue with the retribuation but I've learn't a lot!

So this is what I took,

Kaelyssa
Chimera
2 Manticore's

Epic Eryss
Ghost sniper
Max size Mage hunter strike force & Commander upgrade
Stormfall archers

I'm going to try normal Eryss as I wasn't that impressed by the epic version and for the same points cost then it makes no real differance, now spencer was banging on about taking a mage hunter assassin but I like the sniper kinda reminds me of the widowmakers that I used to use with my Khador and I used to love those!

The biggest Challange is can I paint the 'jacks like the caster in the whiteish colour??

And on a final note how good do the Dark Eldar look! really really tempted!!

The start of something intresting...

Ok so its been a while is the best way to describe it however I do have a really really good reason...

Isla Megan Evans.. its the future I tell you, I'll be able to get twice the amount of painting done now with my dark appreictance, and just for good measure I've got the horus heresy books ready for bed time reading!!

so before my bundle of joy turned up I managed to get a few bits and bobs done,

So starting with the new avatars of war "deamon" well some of the chaps don't like it saying that he looks like he's taking a dump, but personally I think its ace, and will be a great Herald of khorne!

now the micro armour fetish is well and truely in full swing!

So this is what I've done so far and I've more on the painting table just need to get some time in between the visitors, nappies and feeding!

T72's

T92's?

an intresting comparrison between the two types the one on the left is GHQ the one on the right is H&R I think? got them from Ebay so carn't complain and at table top level they look alright,

I figured since I got my 35 points of skorne done I fancied a change for warmachine and thought it would be cool to do a 35 point warmachine force, after some thinking I'm aiming for retribuation as I only saw one force at the UK masters so over the next month or so you'll se a few of these popping up on the blog but this was my test model but I've sussed the white with a green tinge

Now I've gotta really get a shift on with getting some stuff done this month the "pledge" as gone to the wolves and I need to reel it back in! Some how I've a feeling that I'm going to be distracted by a little Miss!!

35 points of Skorne done & some micro armour action!

Well its been a busy week to say the least! 

The 35 point chain gang Skorne tier list is finished, All I need to do is get a couple of games under my rather large belt and I'll increase it to a 50 point list, but more on that another time,

the micro armour T90's have been finished, however there only 6mm so I managed to get them blasted out dead easy, and I've even been told that Spencer has based his yanks.... wonders never cease!

so onto the pics....


The triple tag team....

Close ups of the bronzeback, a bugger to build and whilst painting it at spencers only did I realise how much lower armour it actually had which made painting it fairly simple,

Titan close up, as there pretty much both the same I've only done close ups of the one, I'm also in two minds about the banner pole, I've left it off for the time being as I've seen on many occasions when one of the lads at the club get there skorne out the banner poles have come off,

The Crocmen, now there where quite tricky to get right as I couldn't quite get the skin to look the way I wanted it but I think in the end I got there so I'm quite happy with them, might dull down the red on the unit leader though?

I put a bit of red wash round the mouths and gives it that just eaten look!!

So the whole lot minus the caster which is currently sitting on display at the local shop, over all the colour scheme looks good and with splashes of red still make it look "skorney"

Pictures from last week at the club using some home grown rules that a chap call Nick has spent the last 10 years writing!

Dan getting very excited seeing the British threatening to roll over the Russians

first turn Stef trying to suss out his rules,

T90's trying to find the local starbucks

T90's looking for doggers...

T90's on a suicide run to try and outflank the British Challenger 2 which turns out carn't be destroyed unless the russians get within 10cm! so it was balls to the wall, most of that was Dan's whispering in my ear though!

So the puffs of cotton wool are the destroyed armour both sides took a licking!

T90's "trying" to hide in a wood, there wasn't a great deal of them left after the volley from the chieftains

T90's still looking for starbucks after getting rid of some light tanks

trying to be sneaky and rape the reteating British...

So over all the game was pretty good and it attrached alot of intrest, so carn't wait to get another game in!

As long as I keep away from the following I should be onto a winner this month!

Cheers for reading & comments welcome as always,