Kaboooooooom!

I mentioned in yesterdays post that my favourite part of the hobby is painting, I’ve been painting for around twenty years now and even in my quietest point I managed to paint one model every few months. I have my favourites and there are some that I’ve disliked.

It’s all down to personal preference, but I prefer to paint the plastic models, I think it's the way that the quality of the moulding process has improved. When GW produced the very first set of plastic Space Marines (RT01) I remember them well, mainly for the lack of detail and that they went together quite badly. A box of current plastic marines can be used to build a squad with individual models in dramatic poses with a variety of ranged and close assault weapons. i also own original copies of the first edition of Space Hulk, the Genestealers haven’t changed much, but the terminators have undergone a major design change. I bought a boxed set of termies about fifteen years ago, maybe longer, I thought they were fantastic pieces, highly detailed and quite simple to put together. the same models, now in plastic are incredible. there is so much room for conversion and a wide selection of options. don’t get me wrong, there are some very fine metal models available, the Ork Shok attack gun being just one example. the model is so well detailed and the sculptor has put so much effort into telling a story with the model. from the expression on the big meks face to the little snotling clawing at the ground desperately trying to escape the horrible fate that awaits him. with time, skill and effort, this model looks amazing and makes a fine addition to any Ork force, plus it’s quite scary when your adversary announces that he’s going to fire the damn thing. when you consider that it can, with a good dice roll, unleash a strength 12 AP2 large blast. I, for one, wince in fear when the strength dice are rolled and I find myself praying that a double one is rolled. I honestly don’t know which is the nastier weapon, that or the Stompas supa-gatler. all i know is that I’ve had squads on the receiving end of both and fare badly against them. What Ork weapons lack in reliability, they make up for in the ability to decimate a force. So I wonder what my readers like about the game, maybe they would be gracious enough to leave a comment telling us about their favourite aspect of the GW multiverse.

On the subject of readers, I’ve noticed that the majority of them appear to be from the States, it would be interesting to get their perspective on the game.

For the Emperor!

It’s all in the game.

After reading an article in this month’s WD, I got to thinking what the hobby means to me, I make no secret of the fact that I prefer painting and only wish that I could paint to GW standards. I really enjoy seeing other people’s models and the quality of some goes beyond the pros who work for GW. Seeing a model go from plastic kit to a beautiful finished piece is a real thrill. When one of the lads shows me some of their work I make a point of noticing the good effort they have given to painting rather than looking at a model and telling them it’s a bad job, these guys are young and as an older player I feel that I just make every effort to encourage them to stick with the hobby. In truth I’ve seen many styles of painting from the lads, some have improved greatly where as others have continued to slap paint on with a 2 inch brush. Some listen to the advice I give others completely disregard it. Of course it’s their choice and it’s not my place to tell them that their work is bad, but I think that if I can help them improve the way they paint then I will continue to do so.

Although I’ve said that I would rather paint, I do enjoy a game, I’m happy to play against the lads and older players/ I’m also happy to be corrected if I get a rule wrong, especially if it’s one of the youngsters that corrects me, it shows that they’re taking the time to learn the rules.

I wouldn’t consider myself a competitive player, I like to win, that’s the point of playing any game. But I can also lose gracefully. I will congratulate an opponent when they take down a powerful unit and share in their victory. At times I’ll remind my opponent that they’ve forgotten to deep strike or take advantage of a situation, and every now and then I’ll use their forgetfulness to my advantage, something I’m sure we’ve all done at one point.

When I supervise games for the lads, I will point out a flaw in their opponents’ tactics, this usually results in cries of despair from the other player, but then I do the same for them and they soon realise that I am helping them improve their game, they soon learn to avoid making the same mistakes.

If I had to choose a favourite opponent for me, it would have to be Smiffy. Our games are good fun and we both enjoy playing. When he and I play we tend to expose weak areas in each other’s army. Of course this also means that we both get to the shop to buy something to fill that gap and look forward to trying out a new vehicle or squad. That was the reason I bought a sniper squad and a very good purchase it was. I suspect Smiffy has rectified a few flaws in his army, most likely to combat the dreadnought plasma cannon. No doubt this will mean that I need to add something that will deal with his new addition, namely an assault squad, at the moment I don’t have anything that’s really hack and slash so something that is primarily close combat might be a good idea. I would really like to get a Necron Tomb Stalker, I’m sure it make like work of Smiffy chaos Space marines and it would look very cool on the table.

Looking to the future I plan to have the Tau table ready within the first half of 2011, a whole new army to field will make for some interesting games, and I’m sure Smiffy looks forward to putting his CSM’s against them.

Have fun, and roll well

Toodles

K

Sundays meet up

I uppose I should have done this one before the entry about the visit to kentish Rogues, but never mind.

Sundays session was a bit quiet, including me there was only two people there until 13:00, I have to admit that I was a bit dissapointed with the low turn out, but the weather didn't help.

My Necrons went up against Dans Blood Angels, although I didn't do too bad I still had to phase out so no win there, I then went up against Dark Eldar, it seems that GW have, once again created yet another Marine crushing army. The Dark Eldar have a host of special rules that make them almost invincible in close combat and almost impossible to hit with ranged weapons, the Necrons had to phase out from that battle too. My win/loss ratio isn't looking too good at the moment, I need to pull something out of the hat soon otherwise everyone will have beaten my Necrons, maybe it's time to dust off the Marines and see how they fare for a change.

with a little bit of tweaking I could pull a few wins from somewhere, I may also have to sacrifice a bottle of oom Bar to Randomonia so that she blesses my dice again, I don't know what I've done, but I defenitely seem to be out of favour with her at the moment.

So that's it for a while, hopefully next month attendance will be back up to standard, maybe the promise of mince pies will draw the crowds in, we shall see!

See ya soon.
K

A change of Scene

Tonight, being Monday, Smiffy and I popped along to meet up with the members of a gaming group called The Kentish Rogues. They're a welcoming bunch and I was soon involved in a six player game, Necrons and two seperate Tyrannid forces v Space Wolves, Imperial Guard and Tau. On the second table, forces of the Imperium battles against a mass Orc war band which I suspect may have been comprise of a couple of different clans.
Our table was limited to 750 points and despite our best efforts the combined Tyrannid and Necron forces were out matched by the opposing side, I think the end result was the opposing side holding an objective whilst we held none, so it meant a loss for my team.
My problem was that with 750 points I cant get a Monolith on the table, if I had done then, possibly, game would have had a different end result.

I've been thinking about my Tau army a lot over the past few weeks, it's a shame that they're sitting in boxes waiting to be painted, especially when I consider the Forge World model I have for the force.

I managed to get a few photos from tonight and I shall post them on The Hythe Tyrant facebook page and I shall try and post them on the Kentish Rogues forum.

I've been reading a lot of the possible changes to the Necron Codex, this may be out early next year. I have to admit that I'm really looking forward to the realease as it could mean that the Necrons will be re-established as a force to be reckoned with, plus some of the models that I've put off getting for my collection because of expense will be available in plastic. this means that I'll bee able to add some powerful units to my force will, all being well, will make them very difficult to beat, huzzah. It's been a while since I've had anything to look forward to release wise, But given the fact that I favour my the Necrons over the Space Marines I reaaly can't wait to see what the powers that be do with the souless machines.

I should really disregard the Marines, I have a good force and when I finish the models that are still boxed they too will be quite formidable on the battlefield, although I suspect that the Chapter Aurelius could benefit from the addition of at least one squad of assault marines. I'll have to have a game with Smiffy to give it a try out, you never know.

The next Sunday meet up for the Hythe Tyrant "adult" division will be December 12, in addition to a minimum 750 point army, mince pies will be compulsory.

Hope to see as many of you there as possible, ta ta for now.
May the goddess Randomonia bless your dice rolls.
Regards
K