The dead shall rise

Well hello there, it's been a while, I haven't picked up a brush for about 5 years and was on the verge of giving up the hobby all together. My collections have grown and quite a high proportion of my collection remains unbuilt, unpainted and still boxed.

My enjoyment of the game has waned with the new edition releases, I wasn't overly keen on 5th, 6th was hard work, 7th introduced some awful changes and 8th is trying to be simple but is even more complex than ever. 4th still remains my favourite edition closely followed by 5th, despite it being the beginning of daft and pointless rules.

That said GW does seem to have listened, at least in part, to the players and collectors. They're now releasing some excellent boxed games. The most notable of these is the latest edition of Necromunda. A skirmish games set in the bowels of massive cities in the 40k universe. It was with much excitement that I bought my copy of the game, which has remained in mint condition for the last few months.

Another game that came out was Shadespire, it's a 2-4 player skirmish game set in what was known as the Warhammer Fantasy universe, small groups of models battle each other for some reason or another. I never really played Warhammer Fantasy Battles, but I do have a favourite race from the game, the Skaven. They're vicious, devious ratmen. Cowardly, cunning and spiteful. I discovered that a Skaven expansion set for Shadespire was available. It contained 5 fantastic models and I decided that I had to have them, so they were bought. Then I looked closely at the photos of the painted models and thought they really looked hideously brilliant. The detail is incredible and each model tells a story, I didn't feel that my painting skills would do them justice. I asked one of the guys from the Thursday night group if he would paint them for me, he's much better at it than I am. In between me handing them over and Jack returning them, I bought another Shadespire expansion, Sepulchral Guard, 7 models represent animated skeletons. Ever since watching Jason and the Argonauts and the skeleton fight scene I've like skeletons from the fantasy setting, so I had to buy them, rude not to. The models stayed in the box for a few weeks, I considered asking Jack if he would paint those as well. Then he returned the Skaven in all their colourful glory. The models look fantastic, Jack if you ever read this "Thank you so much!"

Jack's work on the Skaven triggered something in my head, and I decided that I'd paint the Sepulchral Guard models myself. With absolute respect to Jack, I'm so glad I did. As I write this I have almost almost finished the fourth of the 7 models, the rest should be finished by Sunday evening, Monday at the latest. When they're done I plan to paint some of the models from the Necromunda set.

A copy of the full Shadespire game has been ordered and I'm looking forward to painting the 8 models in that. That means I'll have 4 complete warbands for the game.

So my love of the hobby has been restored and I'm painting again, and I have Jack to thank.

Below are images of the completed Sepulchral Guard models, I'm not putting the Skaven images up as I didn't paint them, but trust me, they are stunning.

When the last 3 models are done I'll post photos.

Until then, here's some skeletons.

This one's my favourite model of the set.

An open letter to Games Workshop

For me, Warhammer 40000 and Warhammer Fantasy Battles is a hobby that I enjoy, I look forward to the new releases. I actively promote the hobby to younger players and their parents as an excellent social activity. I supervise a gaming group for players under sixteen at my local independent retailer. I happily promote the models that Games Workshop produce with particular focus on the boxed set like Island of Blood and dark Vengeance. I see the two products as excellent value for money and the perfect way for players, both young and old, to get a foothold in the hobby. I have watched the models progress in quality from the very early plastic models to the superbly detailed models that are available. I seriously think that the level of quality and detail in a plastic model is astounding, I agree with the Games Workshop claim that they produce some of the finest models in the world.

Think of it this way, a thirteen year old child has so many options of what to do with free time, with video games become more and more immersive and the attraction of sporting activities. Games workshop produces a hobby that promotes several areas of childhood development. From the need for patience and concentration used whilst building and painting the models. They improve their literacy skills through the need to read the rulebooks. Children also develop important social skill as a result of interacting with other players. Over the years I have watched kids grow from brash young lads into respectable young men because they have played Warhammer at our local outlet.

As a hobbyist/player I have seen the best and worse of the hobby, sadly the current situation is the latter. Consider that the dark Vengeance box retails at less than £62; however the total value of the models if you were to buy the separate equivalent is almost four times that. There in lies the first problem, price! Games Workshop have admitted that the cost of producing miniatures has dropped, Finecast is cheaper and cleaner to make that the old metal models. As a result Games Workshop have reflected the reduction in cost by increasing the cost of a model in its Finecast equivalent by at least 50% unfortunately the quality of Finecast isn’t as great as Games Workshop claim. When Finecast was announced it was described as being comparable to the moon landing. To be honest I think most of the hobbyists I know see Finecast as the gaming equivalent of Marmite, personally I don’t like it, it’s too fragile and flimsy and there are still casting issues a year on from Finecasts release. With metal models at least any miscast models could be melted down and recast, with resin that option has been removed which goes to explain the price increase. The same can’t be said about plastic, miscast seem to be rare and if the is a problem with the casting that slips the GWs QC net and ends up in the hands of a hobbyist it can easily be fixed or thrown in a bits box for a later project. The quality and versatility of plastic also seems to have warranted a rather large price increase. I don’t have an insight as to how Games Workshop works out its prices but I do know that over the last few years a box of ten Space Marines, for example, would have cost the end user £18.00, as of February 2013 the same set is £23.00. There is also the larger models, a Land Raider, 2007 £35, 2013 £45. A Codex has increased from £18.00 on average to a rather wallet rupturing £30. Whilst other companies are lowering prices as a method to encourage its customers to spend with them, Games Workshops approach seems to be that of increase the end user cost because they will pay the amount for such quality, sadly this does not seem to be the case. I often see people in my local store (not a dedicated GW outlet) discussing the current prices and they are becoming more disheartened with the fact that in order to continue with the hobby they must either reduce the amount of models they buy or go elsewhere. As a manufacturer GW must be aware that more alternatives are starting to loom on the horizon. Those manufacturers are fast becoming serious rivals to Games Workshop, producing models of equal, if not a better, standard. The rules for the rival companies are also producing a less complicated rule set. Since the release of 6^th edition playing a game has become a chore, before 6^th we merely chose an army, selected a point limit, chose a game type and played. Now it’s almost at the stage where the set up takes an hour before the game itself starts. First choose an army, then roll a dice to see if the armies will actually face each other, if they agree to fight select a points limit, decide how many of your points will be spent on the main army, allies, fortifications and socks. Roll to see if your Warlord (the model that represents you leading the army to victory/defeat depending on how the dice roll) will have a trait that is actually of any use. Then roll to see what mission will be played, roll for deployment, roll for first turn, roll to seize initiative. Then there are hull points, for me that is one of the most pointless additions to the game! Most vehicles have 3 hull points, a hull point is lost through either a glancing hit or a penetrating hit, as soon as a vehicle loses all the hull points it’s wrecked. So at the start of the game you opponent fires everything that can glance or penetrate vehicles glances it to death and the points you put into the vehicle have gone before you get a turn. The designers claim that Hull Points were introduced so that vehicles had more chance of doing something in a game, sorry but it hasn’t worked. First turn a Predator takes three hits, two glancing and one penetrating. The glancing hit take away to hull points, the penetrating takes off the final hull point and the tank crew is stunned, not that there’s any point in rolling for the penetrating damage as by taking off three hull points the vehicle is lost anyway, the tank crew isn’t so much stunned, they’re more shocked at how ineffective the tanks armour has become. Here’s how I feel the Hull Points addition should be used: A predator has three Hull points, it takes a penetrating hit and the resulting damage takes off a hull point, the tank the takes a glancing hit, the controlling player then makes a save roll at the vehicles original hull point value, if the roll is failed a hull point is lost, if the roll is a pass then no hull point is removed. Only glancing hits can be save in this way, penetrating hits remove a hull point regardless of the penetrating hit result.

With regard to the introduction of flyers is clearly another endeavour to produce more unnecessary models that are excessively priced. A Storm Talon probably uses the same amount of plastic as a Rhino or a Drop pod and yet it costs £5 more than the latter model.

Games Workshop, if it is possible to produce box sets like Dark Vengeance, Isle of Blood and Escape from Goblin Town at such fantastic value for money then you must realise that this value can be carried through the rest of the range. I firmly believe that by August 2013 a box of ten models will cost a minimum of £25.

Games Workshop I ask you this, do your customers, you know the guys that hand over their hard earned cash for your products mean anything to you? Are you actually interest in what the hobbyist thinks? GW claims that they want to restore the shop based retail of the company and yet the stores have reduced opening hours and most of the stores only cater for the new player, any older players wanting a game are made to feel unwelcome. I suspect that this approach is also a marketing ploy along the lines of the fact that because the “veteran” player probably has almost all of the models he/she wants or needs so we won’t entertain them. Gone are the days when even dropping in for a small purchase and being welcomed as a valued customer are long gone, the guys that operate the GW outlets are trained in such a way to move on the person making a small purchase of just one or two models. Instead they focus on the new players who they can almost cajole into making excessive purchases. The last time I was witness to a GW hard sell I almost felt embarrassed not only for the chap making the sale but as a person who is passionate about the product. The sales pitch was more or less “buy Dark Vengeance, you’ll need dice, and a tape measure, and some paints, and brushes, and the codex for both armies, and these models to bolster your forces, don’t forget the glue, oh did you know there’s a Dark Vengeance novel? You’ll need that so that you have a fuller understanding of the story behind the game.” It was painful to watch and it was also clear that the guy making the sale was very uncomfortable with what he was doing.

I used to have a £50 monthly GW budget, five years ago that would get me a tank and a squad to go with it. In 2013 I’m lucky if my £50 per month gaming budget will buy a squad and the glue.

Games Workshop is making it harder for the Independent retailer to stock the product with ridiculous terms and conditions and restrictions on what an independent can stock. I would think that a standard box of five plastic models, Catachan Command Squad, would be easily available through my independent retailer but it is in fact a direct only product that I can order online or spend £6 travelling to my nearest GW outlet to be treated poorly or have them try to persuade me to make other purchases of stuff I don’t need or want.

Not only is Games Workshop forcing its customers to look elsewhere for the models, paints and tools but by limiting the availability of product to the independent retailers the company is doing very little to prevent the decline of the high street. How long will it be until the only option GW offers the consumer is “Buy from us either online or from a GW branded outlet only. Even with the outlandish rules, regulations and restrictions that GW place on the independent trader it is becoming harder to play at the GW stores. A while ago some fool posted a video in which it was claimed that GW ban the use of models that have not been put together with GW branded glue and painted with Citadel Paints, as crazy at it sounded three years ago I suspect that that particular day is looming ever closer when GW becomes interested in only selling the product and not promoting the games through taster days and mini tournaments and competitions.

So there it is, I’m a disgruntled hobbyist and gamer who is unhappy with the decisions being made by the Games Workshop Powers that be, the ones who see profit over customer relations, table top gaming is a niche market and GW claim to be the best in that niche. Well GW you fall short in that claim and the sales I see at my local store reflect that, with high prices, ridiculously high prices, people are buying less, if people are buying less they are spending less, do you see how that works? With people spending less that results in less hard cash falling into the GW coffers. Even with the rising prices the fact that the models are bringing in higher revenue doesn’t mean that more product is shifting.

Despite what I have written above I still enjoy the hobby, but not as much, I am buying less and I am looking at cheaper alternatives. Due to the over complicated rule set I enjoy the games less and I would rather paint than play. By switching to only painting I can be a little more choosy about the model I buy which means that there could be several months, if not more, before my disposable cash works its way into the bank of Games Workshop. I would like to think that there will be a time when GW returns to the halcyon days of yore when it actually cared what the customer thought and rewarded them with the odd treat like a free model on the front of White Dwarf or a rule set for a mini-game, Who remembers Arena of Blood, the Dark Eldar skirmish game that came with WD 229? Instead we get posters of all the models available for the main three ranges, badly designed posters at that, in order to see the full range you had to have two posters, which meant buying a second copy of White Dwarf. Another brilliant marketing tactic to sell more copies of what is rapidly becoming a very dull catalogue; in fact the Argos catalogue is probably more interesting.

So after a long absence from writing my return is nothing short of a whine about how unhappy I am with the current situation of the fictional worlds I spend my spare time in. But this goes beyond that, what this is meant to be is a message that will make GW sit up and take notice that if the devoted customers like myself are looking for alternatives then the they newer players will soon see that the way ahead is with another manufacturer and another set of rules.

Games Workshop, you are failing your customers and as a result you are slowly but surely ruining your own investment in a business that was started over 25 years ago by people who enjoyed sharing the world of hobby gaming and RPGs with like-minded people, it has now become nothing more than a means to an end, and that end is probably a sports car.

An explanation for the lack of posts

Yes it’s been a long time since I posted anything here, the reason for this is because the monster that is Games Workshop took it upon themselves to release a whole new batch of Necron models, they did the same at the end of March. Between December and February I had been busy painting Dreadfleet, and then we started the fortnightly gaming evening. Then last week I started painting the Necron models. You can follow the progress of Project Necron here: http://kalonsplog.blogspot.co.uk/. So far I have painted one Ghost Ark and one Doomsday Ark. Waiting to be painted is two Catacomb Command Barge / Annihilation Barges, two Triarch Stalkers, some plastic Wraiths, A couple of Tomb Spyders, some Tomb Blades, 3 boxes of Lychguard / Triarch Praetorians, 3 boxes of Immortals / Deathmarks, 5 Flayed Ones plus various Overlords and Cryptecs and a replacement Finecast Shard of the Nightbringer. Once all those are complete I will move on to a secret project for my Necron army that has been inspired by a post I saw on one of the 40k forums. So pop over to Project Necron and take a look, and if you do, please leave a comment.

Ta muchly

The best laid plans…

We had the second of the fortnightly gaming evening last night, another successful evening and we had a spectator along, two if we include Skeletal Sid.

Earlier in the week I was asked if I could take Dreadfleet down for the chaps to have a game. I said that I would and then it occurred to me that it wasn’t fully painted, there were a couple of islands, some shipwreck markers and a few other pieces that needed finishing, to be more accurate they needed to be started. So over the last two weeks I have spent Monday to Thursday evening with brush in hand and surrounded by paint pots, jars of water and reams of kitchen towel whilst franticly painting in order to complete the last of the Dreadfleet models, and what a journey it’s been. I started the first model back in December, in the three weeks leading up to Christmas I had painted eight of the ships. I had a break during the Christmas holiday and in January I carried on with the project, by April I had finished the ships and had made headway into the islands and shipwrecks.

Towards the end of April everything came to a halt as the kitchen table would be needed for other purposes. May arrived, bringing with it the wettest drought I’ve seen in a while so I took the opportunity to paint some assault marines that have been sitting around for the last eighteen months. Ten of the little blighters were painted and they had their first foray into battle last Saturday when they tore there way through a Blood Angel Tac Squad. Then it was into the final stretch of the Dreadfleet set, I had hoped to have it finished in time for the Thursday game session but some very uncooperative plumbing and an hour travelling to and from B&Q meant that I had all but five components of the entire set painted. I plan to spend one evening finishing them and I can sit back and relax.

On Thursday morning I gathered Dreadfleet and my Space Marine army, now the sole inhabitants of the army case, the Necrons have been temporarily consigned to the smaller figure case until they are completed and then an army case will be bought for that set. After work I headed to the shop where I showed sue the fruits of my labour, I’m pleased to say that she was impressed with the work I’d done. The usual suspect trickled in, each taking a look at the Dreadfleet models, I must admit that it does make the effort worth while when other people see your work and make comments like “WOW!” and “Oh that’s nice!” So with Dreadfleet getting the approval of some chaps that are much better painters than me I feel that the last six months of squinting, cursing and very late nights have all been worth the effort.

I will hopefully have the last few components finished very soon and then it’s straight on the next project, The Necrons. After finishing the Assault Marines, (Smiffy beware!) and with the completion of Dreadfleet imminent I am now looking forward to painting the Necrons, there will be a few firsts involved in the new project. It will be my first experience of painting the new* Finecast resin models and for the first time I have painted Character models rather than just standard HQ models. This means that I shall be following the original colour scheme and painting the Finecast models as they appear in the codex.

Once the Necrons are complete I think I will finally get around to painting Space Hulk and then the Skaven from the Isle of Blood set. I will also, Hopefully get on with the Tau whilst working on other projects.

I’m really pleased that the fortnightly gaming evening seems to be working, it means that I get to game a bit more often and this is restoring my enthusiasm for the game and the hobby in general. The last session was a brilliant evening and although I didn’t play, by choice, I enjoyed the company and the pure lunacy that arises when we’re playing with our toy soldiers, long may it continue.

Before I close this entry I have a little snippet of advice for those who have never used an airbrush and are planning on getting one at some point, get a dust mask! not for health and safety reasons, purely to prevent the look of complete horror when you blow your nose and what ends up in the tissue looks like you’ve had a major artery burst in your head, not a pretty sight and I still don’t get why we feel compelled to examine the contents of the tissue after clearing your nostrils.

The airbrush is a brilliant addition to my kit and it will halve the time it takes to paint the larger models.

Right that’s me done for now, I think I’ve waffled on enough and I’m sure you have better things to do than faffing around on the internet, maybe you should fix that leak thats been dripping for the last five months!

Ta ta

Well that went well!

Thursday saw the start of the new fortnightly gaming evening, it was quite a success with six guys turned up and a total of four games were played, including me v Smiffy. I had a brilliant game, which resulted in a narrow win for me and I suspect that a rematch is on the cards. The guys seem happy with the Thursday night thing and next week we may be play Dreadfleet. Sorry this is a short post, I had planned to do a battle report on my game with smiffy, but because I’m old I can’t remember the details aside from the fact that I won. HUZZAH!

A change is coming

So here’s the state of things. For many years now I have supervised a post 16 gaming group of warhammer 40k gamers. Generally we have a good bunch of lads who get on well together and there’s very little friction within the group. We have had the odd unpleasant player but the lads that attend regularly won’t stand for any unsporting behaviour and any one who comes along with any negativity is soon made aware that they are not going to get away with behaving the way they do and the bad apples soon realise that they need to either shape up or ship out. The owner of the shop has a deep seated trust in me and has allowed me to hold a set of keys for the shop, taking this into consideration I enquired about the possibility of starting up a monthly session for the older players that don’t always get to play on a Saturday, this was met with a positive reaction and so I started up a Sunday session. Initially this started out well with regular attendance and players, but I’ve felt for a long time now that those players deserve more, unfortunately I had to cancel the last Sunday session and I haven’t managed to arrange a session for May. So I spoke to the power that is and suggested the idea of a fortnightly session. This has been given the green light and we have our first session this coming Thursday. I’m looking forward to it as it will mean that I may get to play a bit more regularly. I’m hoping that I will get a game against Smiffy as he is my favourite opponent, I have had some of my most enjoyable games against him and when I battle Smiffy I usually discover a gap in my army. First it was the absence of Snipers and then Assault squad, OK the Assault Squads aren’t painted but they’re on the to do list, ten of the little blighters that I’m sure I can have painted and ready for battle in a weekend. So when Dreadfleet is finished and before I start my next big project I shall paint the Assault Squads and then death will rain from the skies (insert evil laugh here!) On the subject of new projects, it’s been three years since I bought Space Hulk and it’s still unpainted, so the next project is actually going to be two. When the main project is completed it will probably mean a new case as the Space Marine army is getting very large and the second army will no doubt need an army case of its own. Space Hulk will mean the purchase of a Battle Foam set, if they’re still doing it by then.

So that’s it for now, hopefully I’ll have some positive feedback from Thursday, I’ll keep you posted.

Admit it, you think dice are evil too!

It’s been a while since anything appeared here, I think the last time I posted an entry was it was related to a rather dismal days gaming that centred around losing to Tyranids, well since then I’ve lost to the little buggers again, although I have had a win against Dark Eldar so it’s not all bad. Over the last few weeks I’ve been trying to work out what I can do to improve my game, I’ve taken into consideration the unit choices I make, the way I deploy those units on the table, the way the units are equipped and I’ve realised where the problem lies. its not my choice of unit or wargear, it’s not my tactics, it’s my dice!

I know the old saying is that a poor workman always blames his tools but in the case of the gamer it’s extremely rare that we get a perfect run of luck and our dice rolls are exactly what we need and our adversaries are exactly what they don’t need. All too often I have been willing my opponent to roll badly, do I feel bad about it? Heck no! Those pesky little plastic cubes can mean all the difference between win or lose, succeed or fail, and although I will not stoop to outright cheating, well not so much anymore, I will do what I can to ensure my dice roll well. If that means bribing someone or sacrificing someone something then I probably would. I admit that I have, on the odd occasion, been somewhat dishonest about the results of a dice roll, usually when the odds are stacked against me and that result could spell total disaster for the game. Oddly most of these times have been when playing an RPG rather that on the table top, but none the less something has stirred within me to bring to this confession. I know it’s a small thing, but I blame the dice entirely. We’ve all been there as gamers, that time when you absolutely need to roll a four or better and you roll a three, the ref doesn’t actually see your roll so the three becomes a five. Why five? the logic behind that choice is this: you need to roll a four or higher to prevent certain death for you PC, a six would be a little too obvious that you fudged the roll and aren’t being entirely honest, the same goes for a four, needed a minimum roll of four and getting a four would appear suspicious if not actually witnessed, as a ref I would doubt the validity of the roll unless I saw the die leave the players hand, so five would be the best result to call as it’s not too high or too low. it’s the same as rolling a 19 or 20 on a D20, during one evening of AD&D we had one chap in our group roll seven consecutive 20s, the odds on that are beyond my ability to calculate, but I know how unlikely that is. I was so wary of the rolls that when the player left the room I checked the die to see if it was loaded, that sort of thing isn’t just limited to Vegas you know, surprisingly the die wasn’t loaded, I was rather shocked to say the least.

Most of the gamers I know, whilst fitting the stereotype in some from or another, aren’t particularly superstitious except where dice are concern, and I’ve seen some genuinely out there methods for trying to coerce dice into behaving themselves. Almost everyone I’ve gamed with has been a little odd about their dice, from the sublime right through to the absolutely ridiculous. We had a player who would wash his dice in the local river after each nights gaming, another chap would place his dice on the table in a particular pattern, he’s get seriously miffed if we messed with them. I know at least two dice killers, the type that you absolutely forbid them touching your dice, you don’t even let them pick up the bag the dice are kept in because you know that if they do they will never roll well again, Then there’s the player who can roll a die and before it finishes rolling he tells you what the result will be and is right 95% of the time, you know who you are!

So what about when it all goes wrong? When that moment arises when you roll six dice and you need a two or better on just one and they all roll ones, is such an event purely down to chance? Or is there some controlling factor that kicks in just to frustrate you and make you look like you’ve been kicked somewhere that you really don’t want to be kicked? Of course there is, ask any serious gamer and they will tell you that dice rolls are not random, they’re not the result of pure chance, there is a power that governs those small plastic cubes and it’s evil! At the risk of being hung drawn and quarter by the girly types I’d go so far as to say that the force that resides inside each and every die on the planet is female. Dice rolls aren’t pure chance, its mood swings, I swear that if I offered to buy my dice shoes, handbags and chocolate they’d roll well every time.

I suspect that the non-gamers that read this, or those folk whose only experience of dice is Monopoly or Cluedo are probably thinking I’m totally bonkers, but spend an evening with a group of gamers and your eyes will be opened. So the next time you are about to put your faith in the result of a random roll of the dice, don’t blow on them or kiss them, just say a little prayer to the goddess Randomonia and hope that she’s listening and not browsing the shoes on E-bay.

We fear Change!

As a gamer, both paper and pencil RPGs and table top war gaming, there comes a point in your involvement with the past time you have chosen when a company that produces/publishes the majority of the stuff you use in your games makes a drastic change to the product you have come to know and love. Take for example, Dungeons & Dragons, a classic game published in 1977, twelve years later TSR published AD&D 2^nd edition, it wasn’t a new game, it was a set of enhanced rules that improved the playabilty of the game. The rule set remained the same but there were new character classes and skills. These changes weren’t just accepted they were welcomed. I totally enjoy playing second edition, I know the rules inside out and I can hold my own as a ref who not only enjoys presenting the players with a challenge, I also enjoy those moments when the players threw me a curve ball and scuppered my plans to end their adventuring careers. I had an unwritten agreement with one group of chaps that as a Ref it was my job to screw the players over and make the game as difficult for them as I possibly could, it was down to the players to out smart me, or the bad guys I threw at them, at every opportunity.

The Second Edition of AD&D stayed around in published form for about eleven years, TSR sold the rights to Wizard of the Coast and they announced the release of Dungeons and Dragons 3^rd Edition. This news rocked my little corner of the gaming community, this wasn’t an update with enhanced rules and skills, this was a complete change to the game. The rules became virtually unrecognisable as the game I had more or less grown up playing. More out of curiosity than interest I bought some of the books, young minds, fresh ideas and all that. The art work was nice, the concept, for me, was dire! THAC0 and AC were gone, player character generation was as close to a point based system as you could get with out calling it a points based system. from a players perspective I have a strong dislike of point based PC creation, it generally results in seriously overpowered characters that are usually defeated by something completely mundane, the main problem with a point based system is this: Players start off with a standard character with slightly above average stats, this character is by no means playable and invariably requires considerable tweaking, this is done by spending points (DUH) on improving the stats and skills. Then comes the dodgy bit, once the stats and skills have been sorted players can spend any remaining points on merits, these are usually extra skills or abilities that “enhance” the character. Whilst merits cost points, players can take flaws. Flaws, obviously, are the opposite of merits, they usually take the guise of weaknesses that a referee can exploit during a game. Flaws may include an allergy, a moral code or a phobia. They are also usually scaled such as slight, moderate and severe, depending on where on the scale the player places a flaw the higher amount of points can be added to the points that are available to dispense on the character. As I said earlier, this can result in strong powerful characters that are crippled by a bout of hayfever or they have an irrational fear of something completely mundane, one chap I gamed with had a PC that was mortified by penguins, seriously, he explained that whenever his character saw a penguin he would immediately fall to the ground and assume the foetal position. So for me point based RPGs are rather naff, I happen to be a big fan of rolling dice to generate that stats for my characters, although as mentioned in an earlier entry dice can be a bit cruel at times and it’s no easy task trying to portray a chap that has the strength of a hill giant and the intelligence of a stoat, no comments about me finding that easy please!

Some say change is good it keeps and idea fresh and can improve on the original, I counter that with this, sometimes change is stupid and is nothing more than a way for a company to line its collective pockets with more of my hard earned cash.

This is more or less aimed at a certain publisher of a table top wargame that shall remain nameless. When they announced the imminent release of models in a brand new resin we were all keen to see what the company was about to produce. A new word appeared in the lexicon of wargaming, that word was “Finecast”. Hailed as the biggest thing to happen to TTWGs since Napolean and Wellington, described as the model producers moon landing, now referred to by the people who actually buy the models that are not on the payroll as either “Failcast” or “Finecost”. Granted the quality of the model detail improved, the resin is much lighter than metal, obviously, but as the quality improved the price went up, as the weight fell the models are now much more fragile. A metal model will bend where a finecast model will snap. most people I know have complained that they have bought a model only to return the model because its badly cast, full of bubbles or both. From a modellers take on the new medium I can see the benefits, converting a finecast model is much easier and it lends itself well to display pieces, not so great for models that are constantly being picked up, put down, moved, dropped and otherwise man handled, but ours is not to reason why, ours is but to choose and buy.

With the space of a year, maybe less, the almighty powers that sit upon thrones of cash in the Valhallen halls of Nottingham have once again produced a new product, no longer can we talk in adenoidal nasal tones about simply painting, we now have a painting system comprised of 145 colours spread over five different types of paint. whilst the article printed in this months anaemic short one tells us that the new colours won’t be a perfect match for the older colours they are close, well close in the way that a Citroen 2CV is close to a Bugatti Veyron. Sadly I think I like the new range of paints, so the colours are wrong and most of them match the original colours about as much as I can easily be mistaken for Johnny Depp but I think the new range will actually benefit the more experienced painter rather than a beginner, someone who’s been painting for a while will simply see the range as a wider choice and more productive, someone that is just starting to paint their own models may find the variety of colours a bit daunting, do we really need six shade of red and five greens? For the more able painter simply adding black or white to alter the shade is a challenge and part of the creative process, it’s also a good way for a beginner to learn how the colours work, by adding so many shades of green, blue, red or whatever, the pleasure of finding a unique colour is removed in favour of having another 60+ colours, not including textures and technicals, at £2.30 a pop. I can see where the logic behind it is. Yes as painters we have a greater choice but do we really need such a wide range? I a few years ago I bought the full range of paints and there’s a large number of them that I have never used, even some of the paints that I bought 25 years ago when Citadel first release the first sets of acrylics I have never used. I like the idea of the “dry” paints and I hope that the new base paints will have better coverage, the original Skull White always needed at least three coats until the undercoat didn’t bleed through and some of the metallics were even worse. In truth I’m on the fence about the new paint “system”. Hopefully I’ll be able to give a better opinion once I’ve used some of them, currently its really only the whites and metals that I want to try, if those have improved I may feel that the change is worth the fuss.

So there you have it, a bit of a rant about the way my hobby has, once again, been messed about with, I suspect that when Warhammer 40000 sixth edition is released later in the year I’ll be up in arms over the new rules and how the game has been broken, but unlike some players I won’t scream about how unfair it all is and babble on about quitting the hobby because I like 40k, I like getting together with the lads at the shop, I like painting and I enjoy the banter that happens when I have a game. The core element to any game is to enjoy what you’re doing, when I stop enjoying it, then I may stop playing. However I think, even with my win/loss ratio, that day is a while coming.

So here’s to more changes, good or bad, and huzzah for the forth coming 6^th edition, I’m quite looking forward to seeing what they do to improve the game, I know what changes I would make, bring back the 4^th ed sniper rules for a start.

Have fun and may Randomonia bless all your dice rolls.

Grrrrrr! Bloomin’ Tyranids, flippin’ Imperial Guard

It’s been a while since the last entry that was actually a proper 40k post. Well this one’s more of a rant than a game post, yes I know the rants usually go on the other blog but today I feel like have a gaming rant.

I haven’t had a game of 40k since November when Smiffy and I played the clash of heroes, which I lost badly. The December adult session was pretty much a Dreadfleet day, Dan, Data, Mikey and me had a blooming good laugh blowing up each others ships and “firing at the she bears” you had to be there. I was so inspired by the game that I started painting my models for it, there’s still a lot to be done but I’m really enjoying painting the set.

Today, Sunday 15 January, was the first adult gaming day of 2012 and I was really looking forward to it. I arrived a bit late to find Mike waiting, but IU needed to do a quick trip to the shop before I could do anything. However we were soon in the shop and setting up for the first game. Necrons against Imperial Guard, I was using the old codex I’m still reluctant to use the new codex until I get the models painted. The game lasted for four turns, Mikeys

plasma fire was doing some serious damage to my ‘crons. My Monolith took out his heavy weapon squad before they could administer any serious harm, but those rotten plasma cannon and guns were a real pain. Destroyers fell to them and the the Warriors started to be whittled down until I was forced to phase out.

The second game was my Space Marine against Datas Tyranids, why did I bother? I put two Whirlwinds on the table, this seemed like a good idea at the start. The Whirlwinds took out a squad of ten Genestealers that were hiding in a ruined building, but that was about it. I lost one whirlwind to one of the nasty things that have a strange name that you need copious amounts of alcohol to be able to pronounce, and then some Genestealers appeared and obliterated a Devastator squad. A Mawloc type thing ate my Terminator squad. For my third turn I planned to have my Librarian hit the Genestealers with Vortex of Doom and then have a tactical squad clean up what was left. The problem was that I used a scout squad to shoot before I made any moves which meant that I wouldn’t be able to move the Librarian or the Tac squad, this put paid to my cunning plan. I was so annoyed at having made such a stupid mistake that I felt there was no point in continuing the game so I cleared the table. I’ve never done that before but I’ve played against datas ‘nids so many times now that I knew he’d exploit my mistake and I wouldn’t have seen turn three with anything of any worth on the table. I suspect he would have taken down the Scouts although considering the threat that a Librarian could pose, that may have been his next target along with the squad he was attached to.

So two rather nasty defeats today and a lesson learned, never play Data when he’s fielding Tyranids, I miss Smiffy, at least I have a fighting chance against him.

Oh well, better luck next time!

So you want to start painting miniatures, Part 2

When I first started painting I used the Humbrol enamels that are used for the plastic model aircraft kits. Whilst for the beginner these are ok, they can be a little too thick and you will lose the finer detailing on your model. They also limit what you can do with detailing effects. The enamel paints are notorious for shortening the life span of your brushes, as they have to be cleaned with white spirits.

Tamiya paints are acrylic, although they do smell as though they are spirit-based, personally I’ve never done too well with Tamiya paints, and again, I find them too thick for miniature painting. Also if you try to thin them down it can be hard to judge the right amount of thinner to use. To be honest I personally have had great success with Citadel Colours. These paints are acrylic and water-based, also and more importantly they are non-toxic. The paints are easy on the brushes and clean up easily. Because they are water-based it makes them easy to thin down and this makes them perfect for washes, although Citadel do produce specially designed inks for just this job. You will also need to buy undercoat. Citadels Colour starter kits provide a good range of colours and also supply some plastic miniatures to get you going.

Once you have your paints you’re ready to find yourself a miniature to apply the pigment to.

Finding the right piece.

Now you have your tools and your paints, you need to find a miniature. If you are new to the gaming fraternity, then the best place to find your models is the shop where you buy your games and dice. Again Games Workshop stores have a wide selection so as you buy your paints, browse the miniatures as well. Choosing a suitable piece can be quite difficult as you will be trying to find one that you like the look of plus finding one that has an interesting characteristic. If you are preparing to paint your first model don’t pick one with heavy surface detail. A highly detailed model may look good but if you’re new to the craft then you will find it quite daunting. This also goes the other way round, even if you are new to miniature painting, don’t get a model that’s too plain as there will be no challenge and you will not enjoy your time. The first miniature I painted was a fighter figure wearing a cloak; a helmet that comes over the eyes and it held a scimitar in its right hand that rested in the left. It also had a shield bearing a Celtic knot design. Ok so you have your tools, and now you have your model, you are ready to start painting.

For me painting a model is like colouring in a picture. I also find it very relaxing. Painting can be time consuming, but if you have the right motivation towards it, it is time well spent.

The first thing you need to do is find the right location. The ideal spot is in the kitchen, preferably when it’s not in use by other members of your household. Although sitting in the kitchen may get you roped into chores like tea making and washing-up. There are several good reasons for using the kitchen one is the fact that most people have a large table in the kitchen, (be sure to cover the table before you start work.) another is that kitchens tend to have large windows. A big window is great for painting as it allows lots of natural light to paint by. Lighting is an important factor to consider when painting. A figure painted under artificial light may not have the same lustre when displayed in natural light. So you have a good work area and now it’s time to set up. Put the pots of paint on the table then spread them out a bit so that you can clearly see each colour. You will also need some water. I tend to use three containers of water. One is for the light colours; another is for the dark colours and a third for the metallic colours. Yoghurt pots are perfect rinse pots.

The first thing you need to do after set up is clean the model.  Once you are happy that the piece is clean leave it to air dry for about an hour. When you return to your work you will need to remove any flashing and mould lines. Using needle files and you craft knife carefully scrape away any parts that don’t belong on the model. When using the knife always work away from your body, NEVER towards you, firstly this can result in a severe injury, secondly you may get a very interesting colour scheme. Now that you have removed all the flash and lines it’s time to undercoat your figure. I find that the best method for undercoating is a spray can. Different people hold different opinions on undercoat. Some say that a light or white undercoat is best, others tend to go for black. I like grey, I tend to buy the grey acrylic spray primer from a local car repair shop, it’s cheaper than GWs sprays and the cans are larger.

In order to apply the undercoat you need to be in a well-ventilated area. A spray box can be easily constructed. Place the model on a separate piece of card so that you can turn it as you spray. Hold the can about 20-30 centimetres from the model, then spray in quick short bursts. When you have completed the undercoat leave the model to dry, again for about an hour.

Now your undercoat is dry you are ready to start painting proper. You will need to attach the piece to something so that you can move it around without touching the painted areas of the figure. An empty paint pot with a large lump of blu-tac type stuff on it is ideal.

Start with a base coat picking out the larger surface areas. Your base coat should be a darker shade of the colour you want to end up with, so if you want a light blue cloak for instance, then the cloaks base coat should be a dark blue. Once you have applied the base coat to the model you can start on the smaller areas, such as boots, gloves and the like.

After you have completed the base coats you can move onto the more technical stuff like washing and drybrushing. For the wash, you need to use either ink a a wash. If you do not have ink or ink or a wash then you will have to thin down some of the paint. A wash should be darker than the base coat you used initially. To apply the wash you will need to use a large brush; a size 2 should suffice. First place a drop of ink onto a white surface, then dip your brush into some fresh clean water and drip the water into the ink. This will thin the ink out a little more and make it run easier. Before you apply the first wash, work some of the ink out by painting it onto the plate. Then apply the ink to the recessed areas of your model. You should see that the ink runs into all the grooves and folds on the figure. You can apply 2-3 washes, lightening the shade as you progress.

After you have applied the washes you will, again, need to allow the figure to dry. Make sure that the ink is completely dry before you proceed to the next stage.

Now that you have completed the wash you need to apply a drybrush to the surface of the model. Drybrushing is a simple but effective method of highlighting the detail on the model. A drybrush starts with a shade that is a little lighter than the last colour you used before you washed the model. You need to lighten the shade with each application. To apply a drybrush take a small sample of the previous colour then add a tiny amount of white to the colour. Add the same quantity of white for dry each brush application. To perform the drybrush you need to use an old brush. This is where those nylon brushes come into play. Pick up some paint on the brush then using a piece of kitchen towel or tissue wipe off the paint on the brush. You may have to do this two or three times to achieve the right effect. When you have wiped the paint off the brush paint over the model, being quite firm and rapid with your movements. You will begin to see that the paint that is left in the brush is adhering to the surface of the model, picking out the raised areas as you go. If you want to achieve a good effect for a sword or armour or an axe-head, paint the area with a dark metallic colour. Citadel Paints BoltGun is perfect for this. When the base coat is dry, run over it with a drybrush of the lighter ChainMail. Repeat this with a lighter metallic colour i.e. silver. You will see that you have created a convincing area of light and dark patches on the piece. With time and patience you will create some incredible effects with your paints, and you will soon want to move on to larger models.

So you want to start painting miniatures! Part one.

Before I get started on this please be aware that I DO NOT consider myself to be some all knowledgeable painting guru, I don’t actually think I’m that good. However I have over the years been asked to paint models for friends and they have been pleased with the results. Plus some of my models have received a few “wow” moments when they’ve been placed on a table. The best painted model I own is my metal Nightbringer, it wasn’t painted by me but by a professional artist and will always have a special place in my collection, I plan to retire it soon and when I do it will take pride of place on my display shelf.

Also the views and opinions that you are about to read are mine and I paint to my own methods, if after reading this you find it useful then great, I hope you have many happy hours painting.

My first little gem of advice is start small, there’s literally hundreds of superb models available from many quality production companies, I’m not here to promote a particular company but since this blog is predominantly 40k and GW I’m going to assume that those are the models you want to paint. My second snippet of sage wisdom is to visit the GW website and check out their painting and modelling articles, but obviously not before you’ve read this, after all that’s why you’re here.

So where to start? First and foremost are the all important brushes, in this modern age the are so many different options for bristle type from natural sable right through to nylon. Personally I prefer sable, the bristles hold the paint well and they are supple enough to shape around that one piece of detail that you want to pick out with a different colour later. Although a good stiff nylon brush can be useful for applying paint to eyes and writing, but I have a cheat for that!

When buying a brush there’s a couple of things to look out for, firstly examine the bristles for defects, the lower the cost the more important this is, are the bristles coming together to a good point? are any bent or sticking out? or even kinked? all of these will present problems when using them. If the bristles aren’t making a crisp sharp point, make them do it! there are two ways of doing this, the first is to stand in the shop and shout at the bristles until they form themselves into a well defined point, now although this is highly amusing to those around you, it doesn’t work! So what you need is some water, a good art shop will have a beaker of water available on the counter for the purpose of this method of pointing a brush.

Firstly dip the brush into the water, then using the hand opposite hand to the one you’re holding place the tip of the brush in the largest crease in your hand and close your hand. draw the brush out slowly, twisting it as you do, all being well the bristles will form a nice neat and crisp point, if they have then try “painting” one of your fingernails to see how well the bristles hold the point. If the point is still good keep the the brush and pay for it. this method is also useful for maintaining your brushes when you finish with it after a painting session.

What about sizes? most brushes have a number stamped on the handle somewhere, the higher the number, the larger the brush. The largest brush I use for an average infantry model is 2, the smallest is 00000 or five O, i have a couple that are smaller but they have a specific use. as a good start go for at least two of each ranging from 2 down to about three 0s. cheap brushes do have a use but I’ll go into that a bit later. For now a little tip, good brushes have a small plastic sleeve that protects the bristles when you’re not using the brush, if it doesn’t then a small piece of drinking straw cut to the right length will do the job.

Caring for your brushes is probably the most important part of the painting hobby, ideally they should be stored flat with the sleeve in place, or stood up in a jar bristles up. I know that’s a bit obvious, but I have seen some chaps store their brushes really badly.

another very useful bit of kit are plastic cutters for removing the model components from the sprue, the sprue is the frame that the part are attached to, using clippers will help you avoid damaging or breaking the parts as you remove them.

Next are some needle files, files are used to remove flashing, excess plastic left over from the moulding and mould lines, the files only need to be a couple of inches long and four or five millimetres thick.

A sharp modelling knife is useful I like the surgical scalpel style blades.

I have a model, I’ve removed all the bits from the sprue and prepped them, now what do I do?

First off, I never said to remove any parts from the sprue yet, before you do anything with the parts you need to wash them. Sometimes the release agent that is used to aid in the removal of the sprue from the mould can stay on the plastic and this can prevent the paint binding to the plastic, so give it a wash in warm, no too soapy, water. This will remove any unwanted release agent.

Now you can set about prepping a model for painting, the first stage is applying the undercoat, Undercoat is slightly rough and it gives the basecoat a good base to bind to. the next few stages are really down to personal preference, but I’ll go with how I like to proceed.

I spray the components whilst they’re still on the sprue, when that’s dry I apply the basecoat. at this stage it’s not too much hassle touching up areas you’ve missed, either because of attachment points or they’ve simply been overlooked. Once the basecoat is on, build the model in stages, clean off the paint from the points you’re going to apply the glue, don’t worry you can retouch the areas when the glue has set.

Which glue to use? There’s really only to choices for glue, plastic is best joined with good old fashioned polystyrene cement, I recommend the precision type that has a needle type applicator, but brush applied is just as good, DON’T use the stuff that comes in a tube that you have to squeeze unless you have a very steady hand and lightning reflexes.

For metal and resin such as Citadel finecast and Forgeworld models you’ll need a slightly thicker than usual superglue, the gel type is ideal. WARNING superglue is very quick setting and seems to glue skin much quicker than models, so be very careful when using the stuff.

Whichever glue you use you’ll need to hold to parts together for a few minutes so that the glue can form a bond.

So now you have put the model together, it’s undercoated and basecoated, now what?

Pick out the detail, apply shading and highlights and you’re done.

As for paints. there are several to choose from, the best ones are Vallejo or Citadel, avoid humbrol enamels, water based paints are the way to go as they are much easier to work with and thin down.

As you develop your technique you may want to invest in separate sets of brushes that you use for light, dark and metallic colours, also try to use at least two separate pots of water for washing your brushes, one for ordinary colours and another for metallics, kitchen towel is also useful for drying your brushes.

In part 2 I’ll do my best to explain how some very simple techniques can further enhance your skills.

Yes I play Warhammer and AD&D, yes I'm a geek, but are we really that different?

So there I was sitting on a bus travelling home from Hythe reading the latest issue of White Dwarf. It was one article in particular the held my attention. It was a focus on one of the in house painters, and how he got into painting miniatures and his techniques. This got me thinking about what it was that drew me into the hobby all those years ago. Initially it was white dwarf, to be more precise it was Issue 75. I’d already been gaming on and off for a few years and I had just been introduced to a game called The Call of Cthulhu, horror role playing in the 1920’s Issue 75 had a Cthulhuesque picture of the cover and some articles about the game, including a mini adventure. Yes, believe it or not but back then the anaemic short one was indeed a more wider based magazine. The issue also had a couple of painting articles. I soon discovered that a local toy store stocked Citadel Miniatures, so I bought a model and some Humbrol Enamels, Citadel didn’t start producing paints until a couple of years later. Armed with a brush and a very limited pallette I set about painting my very first model. By todays standards it was rubbish, I didn’t know about drybrushing, washing or any of the other methods that I teach the lads at the shop, and because I was using enamels I also needed thinners which meant that I now had to consider where I was painting and I needed to be wary of spillages and naked flames and fumes, It’s so much nicer these days. I still have that first model and I think I may dig it out, strip it and give it a fresh painting using more up to date brushes, paints and methods, actually I have a number of models that could be revisited with 21st century knowledge.
As for 40k what drew me in to that was the release of the first edition of a game called Space Hulk. Set in a dark and distant future, the same one as 40k to be precise, Space Marines Terminators board derelict interstellar craft to carry out mission that range from equipment recovery to cleansing the wreckage of an alien menace known only as Genestealers. Borrowing heavily from the Alien franchise the game was for two players and was very enjoyable, My mates, at the time, and I would play for hours, we once played over a whole weekend starting with the first mission though to the very last one that was published in a copy of WD, this event included all the mission from the two expansion sets as well. Fortunately one of the lads worked in a pizza parlour and arrived late on the Saturday weighed down with various pizzas and cheesy garlic bread. In fact Matts free pizzas became the mainstay of a number of gaming evenings. I then picked up a copy of Warhammer 40000: Rogue Trader, and a small Space Marine army. I played for a couple of years, expanding on the army and painting the models until slowly but surely time took it’s toll and friends moved on or moved away and I sold my books and models being certain that I no longer had the need for them. I continued to buy the odd copy of White Dwarf for a while after but, for me the golden age of White Dwarf was over as it had became a purely in-house magazine that no longer carried features on other gaming systems and had even stopped advertising other gaming companies such as TSR and West End Games. I also thought that gaming had gone the way of the dodo due to the release of consoles like Playstation and the Sega Megadrive. Now the games that I used to pay 10p to play were available to play at a moments whim for free and no one was interested in using paper, pencils, funny shaped dice and a little imagination. So I packed away my dice and rule books and set about looking for a new hobby. However gaming has always been one of my favourite things to do with my free time, yes I bought a console and I like the RPG games that are available, but none of them compare to the enjoyment of sitting at a table with some good mates discussing the drawbacks of full plate armour. Eventually I managed to persuade a few friends that shared a love of all things daft to give AD&D a shot and soon my rule books were dusted of and my dice were hitting the table again. Then I became friends with Sue and she had just started stocking GW products and I mentioned that I used to play 40k and might be interested in collecting a small army. Sue suggested that she would like to offer a gaming session to the lads that were buying the models and asked if I still new anyone who had experience at running a gaming group, surprisingly I did, me! I offered to supervise the sessions but the only problem was that as I hadn’t played in a while I’d need a rulebook and maybe some models, the rest is history, here we are five years on and much has changed, 40k 6th edition looms on the gaming horizon, Space Hulk returned with vastly superior models and I have three armies for 40k all in excess of 300 points and, more than 20 years after my first foray into the rather odd world of tabletop gaming I finally have a Warhammer Fantasy Battles army and rulebook.
Over the last 30+ years of gaming I have seen many changes and attitudes to the gaming society, from religious zealots who promised me an eternity  of red hot pitch forks in places that I can’t mention here to people who think that gaming is just.. well.. weird. Despite all the setbacks I think there is still a large community of bearded men who get together a couple of evenings a month to moan about their girlfriends, or lack there of, whilst fiddling with their dice and trying desperately to get a really low AC and as high a THAC0 as they possibly can. For myself there is only one gaming related question that needs to be answered, what is the damage for a polearm with a night watchman on the end?
Until I think of some more drivel to put on here, hopefully with a title, may all you die roll well.

Dreadfleet open box review

Having the good fortune to get my grubby little mitts on a copy of Dreadfleet a little early, I thought I’d share my opinions on Games Workshops most recent publication.

 

The box art is, as expected, excellently printed and easy on the eye. The main image is by John Blanche and it is clear it’s his work, as is the majority of the art in the rule book; all 96 pages feature incredible imagery. The artwork follows through on the game cards.

Three packs in total, two packs of small cards and one pack of larger cards. Around the sides of the inner box are the instructions for building the models and various game accessories.

The box, unopened, weighs in at a little over 2.5 kilos. Yes, I weighed it! Lighter than Space Hulk and a smaller box.

 

 

On to the models, everything that isn’t card or paper is the bog standard grey plastic, those who enjoy painting and building their models are in for a treat. GW has designed the kits along the same lines as Assault on Black Reach, Isle of Blood and Space Hulk so it’s all click fit. The level of detail is easily up to the standard we’ve come to expect from GW plastic and once built and painted you’ll need to pack the models very carefully or masts, flags and other fragile components will end up looking like the wrecks before too long.

The majority of the Warhammer Fantasy Battles races are represented by a ship and the rulebook, rather obviously, has a detailed entry for each of the ten models which includes a background story and details of special rules. Stat lines consist of 6 attributes, Speed, Hull, Crew, Broadside, Handling and armour. I won’t go into detail for the stats; I think I’m pushing it a bit having the game already. The twelve dice are average and there’s nothing special about them, you get 11 ivory coloured and a red one.

It would have been nice if the dice were a little larger and perhaps had a nautical theme, but oh well, maybe there’ll be a limited edition dice set available?

Finally included in the box is the game “board”. Not so much a board as a table cloth, or at least that’s what the missus called it. I don’t think the photo does it much justice by way of showing the design, but you can see where they were going with it. The missus describes it as having the feel of cheap nylon, I think the intent was to give it the look and feel of an olde worlde silk map, I wouldn’t say they failed, that would be harsh, but it definitely doesn’t have a silky feel to it. but it does feel very durable which is the important thing. At 5 feet by 3.5 it’s large but it will fit on a fair sized dining or gaming table, assuming your gaming table isn’t themed, that would make for very rough seas.

Personally I’m looking forward to putting the models together and getting them painted, I’m also keen to start playing. Whilst the rules do look a little complicated I’m sure that it will only take a couple of games to grasp them and blasting your enemy out of the water and sending them to Davy Jones’ locker.

Of course the main question is what are the negatives? As I mentioned above, the dice, I think a little effort could have been put into them, maybe an anchor where the one should be or perhaps a skull & crossed bones. My second gripe is the amount of work involved before you can actually get to play. Of course you can simply snap the kits together and get on with it. But, for me anyway, part of the enjoyment of collecting these games is to paint the models. It’s so much nicer to see painted models in play rather than the dull boring grey of the plastic. The other thing that’s missing, in my humble opinion, are more detailed building and painting instructions. It’s all well and good putting a quick guide on the outer edge of the inner box, but they’re not particularly clear and there’s not a great deal by way of a painting guide. A four page guide would be handy. The only source available is the small photographs in the rulebook or the images on the GW website.

My favourite model in the box? It has to be the Black Kraken, those chaos dwarves and their engineering skills, it’s submersible, can’t wait to learn how that works in the game. I also think GW could have done some of the work for us, with so many models to build and paint, some of the counters and other gaming accessories could have been better presented by casting them in multi coloured plastic, but maybe that’s just me being lazy.

Despite the few negatives I like what I’ve seen and I’m glad I have a copy. I strongly recommend it and I’m sure that it will give you great pleasure both from the hobby side and the game.

Enjoy it me hearties, hoist the main sail and prepare to catch the wind and have your timbers shivered and your buckles swashed.

I’m sorry, but did you really think I’d get through this post without the ubiquitous pirate reference?

Something else I picked up today was liquid green stuff. This is most definitely a WTF moment. Apparently it sets hard and can be worked once set. Sanded, drilled and cut just like the two part putty. To be honest I’m dubious, it looks and smells like extra thick green paint. GW also have a “now you’re taking the p*ss” release this month, a set of files specifically designed for the finecast range. For file read fine emery board, blokey types may not be too familiar with the product, basically it’s finely ground glass/grit/sand glued to a flat wooden stick. They can be bought in a budget priced outlet, the type where stuff costs a pound or less and you can buy about twenty for a quid rather than a possible three for £4, they’ve also bought out a second prep kit that contains two items, one looks like some form of tool for removing flash from finecast models, the second tool in this kit can only be described as an over sized toothbrush, because you clearly haven’t thought of using your girlfriends toothbrush to clean your models.

I’ll post my view on Liquid Green Stuff when I get a chance to use it. My main concern is that it may have a very limited shelf life.

 

Special thanks for this post go out to my secret supplier for the early provision of the game, and to the missus for holding up the game board cloth so that I could take the photo.

Lordy lawks, what a bloomin’ week!

I haven’t been keeping up with blogging, to be honest I haven’t been able to put my mind to it. I should have done a post last Sunday but I was too knackered and sore so I thought I’d do it on Monday instead. bad idea as I was in more discomfort than Sunday. Why, I hear you ask, was I  so ache ridden. Well the reason is that on Sunday I went back to the Western Heights in Dover, this time there were more bods coming along and I had set myself a personal goal of accessing a part of one of the places we saw on our previous visit.

On arrival at Saint Martins car park we learned that some of the chaps were already in the deep shelter, this was a relief as I was sure that it would have been sealed by now. We spent some time exploring the shelter and accompanying Gun batteries before heading down to the Grand Shaft. Whilst exploring the gun placements it was noticed that Saint Martins Battery was running alive with the most annoying creature known to man, a beast so foul and toxic that the mere thought of them sends a shudder down my spine, my hair stand on end and my stomach churn. What vile animals could promote such feelings of dread and repulsion? Children! Don’t get me wrong, not all children are evil minions from a hell dimension, I actually do know a handful that are quite pleasant to be around and I can stand more than ten minutes of. The children that were out in force on Sunday however were the worst kind. CUBS, I assumed that they’d been taken there for a day of history, it seemed as though they’d actually been handed blue smarties and cheap cola on arrival and told to run free like little apes released from a zoo. There were some adults who were alledgedly supervising the little “darlings” by supervising I mean sitting on the floor scoffing cucumber sandwiches and nattering about who’s doing what to who and when*, whilst ocaisionally shouting things like “do be carefull” and “mind you don’t fall”. So wanting to put distance between us and the horrors we headed down to the grand shaft. After walking down a 200 year old flight of steps our ears were assaulted with the yelps and screams of yet more cubs. It transpired that the walk down may not have been in vain, the gates to the Grand Shaft were open, Woo Hoo! We made enquiries about the possibility of going down the shaft, only to be told, by a very glum adult cub that the shaft was only open for the cubs. I looked around at the 40+ kids who were running here and there in a pattern that could only be explained using the chaos theory. It seemed clear to me that they were more interested in playing “hit the small kid with a stick” than the history of their surroundings. So having no luck with Captain Grumpy we headed away from the Grand Shaft and I led the party in search of a Tunnel that I half remembered, sadly my memory painted a better picture of the tunnel so we  made our way towards the engineers tunnel via a route that was last trodden by Raptors, or so it seemed. Fortunately it turns out that badgers are excellent path finders and he soon had us back on track. As we were walking through the early Cretaceous forest I noticed that an access door to the Drop Redoubt was open, my heart stopped. I absolute do not condone vandalism and I would not damage a property to gain access, but if someone else has chosen to make access possible, I would certainly take advantage of it. I mentioned To the Badge that if we could get in, we would go for it. Further along our walk we saw a group from the WHPS (google it) on one of their work days. When we got to them we enquired about the chance of a walk round the redoubt, we were politely told no as there was already a tour in progress and the next one, at 2pm would probably be full, of cubs, and Health and f*****g safety wouldn’t allow us to just wander around on our own. We decided not to wait and headed off to the North Entrance. After scrambling through a very small hole into the drawbridge mechanism pit we tried to find a way of getting up to the top of the fifteen feet wall to further explore the place. We managed to get a fair few of our number up and it was so very worth it. during the explore of the system I took a picture of a hole that I fell down in my now distant youth and we eventually headed out and on to the Detached Bastion where we finished a brilliant days exploring.

That’s about it, no painting or astronomy this last few weeks as Smiffy’s been away with work and family commitments and the sky’s been rubbish.

Hopefully there’ll be something a bit more exciting over the next few days. but before I go I would like to bring something to you attention.

Please visit the website below and read the info then sign the petition. Lets work together to save the little chaps life.

http://www.savelennoxpetition.co.uk/

Thank you

Tournament 2011

This weekend saw the gaming clubs second tournament, I set off Saturday morning to help out. The lads who were attending started to arrive all keen and eager to set up and get on, I, on the other hand, was not at all prepared, since I wouldn’t be playing I didn’t bother to take along any models, this also meant that I didn’t have any templates, dice I had aplenty, but with out templates certain things would be a bit hard to work out. Oh well we just had to get on. The rules for the tourney were fairly simple, for day one each player would play two games using an army of 500 points. the games would be annihilation and the winner would be the player with models remaining on the table there would be no turn limit and play would continue until one clear winner was determined. this all went rather well until two players had a minor falling out when one claimed the other had been cheating. It was decided between the moderators that a third game would be played and that it would follow exactly the same rules but this time it would be supervised from the onset and the the moderators decision would be final. eventually a clear win resulted and the lad who initially claimed his opponent, and brother, had been cheating won the game. The other lad was given a good sportsman award for taking the whole thing really well. personally I don’t think that there had been any cheating, it was more a case of the lads not playing exactly to the rules and interpreting them how they saw fit and when it all went wrong for the other chap he got a bit upset. the thought of losing to his big brother irked him somewhat and he wasn’t happy, so there was probably a bit of sibling rivalry involved as well.

Sunday was the 1000 points event and the games were seize the objective with a minimum of 5 turns, these games went without a hitch and a clear winner and runner up were awarded, the winner was in fact the lad who received the good sportsman award an Saturday, and his win was well earned and deserved. the only upset from today was one of the lads who had two clear losses and claimed that it was unfair because both of his opponents were fielding metal models. I explained to the chap that I failed to see how the other players having metal models had an effect on his gaming, maybe the magnetic resonance of the metal had an influence on the dice! he argument was that metal models are heavier, again I saw no relevance on that and had to fight back the urge to tell him he was being ridiculous.

On the whole the lads taking part behaved brilliantly and I cannot fault the way they were with each other, aside from the two brothers and annoying whiney boy, they had fun and there was no malice toward any of the lads from each other. That’s one of the things I like about the hobby, the way that it generates a strong sense of camaraderie with the players, we share advice on painting and modelling and most of time we will point out if our opponent has missed something out or forgotten something tactical, I say most of the time as I tend to lose a lot and if I’m playing against a horde army like Tyranids I don’t tell my adversary that he’s forgotten to roll for reserves, especially when he’s just taken out half my army in two turns. you know who you are!

I’ve been told that I need to learn how Warhammer Fantasy Battles, I also need to paint the models, and that will be done by mid 2012 at the current rate I’m painting models. so over the next few weeks I need to have a major push on getting the Tau finished. Oh dear, this may be about to turn in to another moan about how much painting I’m not doing, so before it falls in to that pit of tedious monotony I’m going to close. In closing I would like to say well done to the lads that won in there categories and also to all the lads for their brilliant behaviour, as a club we could ask for a better group of members. you are all brilliant. most importantly, I would like to thank Sue, every week she hands over half of her shop floor space to a bunch of noisy lads who probably scare off customers and make a mess, but without Sue there wouldn’t be a Saturday gaming group or the monthly grown up day, so the biggest thank you is for that wonderful and fantastic person.

The Metal Menace rises victorious

you know how there are times when you think “stuff the rules and choose to completely ignore the Force Organisation Chart” well today was one of those days. Mike was desperate to play his Dark Eldar (P’tooie*) against either my Space Marines (Huzzah!) or the Necrons. I haven’t played in a while and I really fancied a chance to field the Nightbringer, especially as there’s rumours abound that hint at the loss of the C’tan from the Necron Codex. So we agreed on 1800 points and set about putting our models on the table. Since Mikey wanted to play test a DE character named Asdrubael Vect, apparently he’s rather nasty and would give the Necrons a hard time. Mike agreed that if I let him proxy this character he’d let me field three HQ choices rather than the standard two. So two lords, one on a destroyer body, The Nightbringer, 20 Warriors, six Destroyers, three Heavy Destroyers and a Monolith were placed on the table.

We rolled to see who would take first turn, I rolled 4 Mike rolled lower, he then announced that one of Asdrubael Vects' special rules was that an army he had joined could seize the initiative on a roll of 4+, so he re-rolled and got 2. I was definitely taking first turn. The destroyers and warriors advanced on the dark Eldar force, 18 shots from gauss cannon had no effect and of three heavy gauss cannon shots one destroyed the a Raiders Dark Lance. The Nightbringer silently made it’s way to Vects’ Dais of Destruction, but was out of range for any of its fire power to cause any damage to the vehicle. On Mikeys first turn his Reavers screamed across the battlefield, their blade vanes slicing through the metal hides of Necron Warriors and Destroyers, the Hellions moved in on a squad of Destroyers cutting two of them down. The Kabalite Warriors on-board the Raider unleashed 31 splinter rifle shots which felled a total of 8 warriors. At the start of my second turn I restored only three of the fallen Necron Warriors and only lost two of the Destroyers, 1 from each squad. One squad of Destroyers reduced five of the Hellions to dust and then the Heavy destroyers turned their weapons upon the Raider and Vects Dais of Destruction. Gauss fire tore through the hull of the Dais utterly destroying it, leaving only a pile of molten slag that hissed and bubbled as it melted the bodies of the handful of Wyches that were caught in the explosion, some of the Wyches and Vect himself had managed to jump clear of the devastation and braced themselves for more incoming fire. The Monolith, having completed the charging cycle for the gauss flux arc released the energy on the reavers that had felled the warriors, a total of 9 Reavers were struck, 5 of those were melted down to a boiling ooze of flesh and steel. The Nightbringer moved toward the hellions, as it gained ground it sliced through the air with its scythe sending ribbons of ancient energy into the squad, bringing down one of there number, the Hellions sky boards were swift and the ancient monsters attacks could not find purchase on any of them to inflict any damage, the same could not be said for the Hellions, they tore into the star god like wolves on fallen prey, a total of 4 wounds were caused on the Nightbringer. At this point I was worried, not only had I just rolled 5 1s for the Nightbringers attacks, but my rolls were so bad I also failed the four armour saves that I had to make. One of the Necron Lords fired upon the reavers with its Staff of light, failing to bring any of them down, the lord then motioned the remaining five warriors that had accompanied it to attack the Reavers in close assault. A foolhardy endeavour that would result in a stalemate.

The Kabalite Warriors fired again at the Squad of Necron that were close to them, another 31 shots that bought down another five warriors. Vect and his remaining Wyches made an effort to assault the Nightbringer, but even as they moved in a wall of force pushed the Wyches, Vect and the Hellions back from the Nightbringer. The Reavers struck back at the Warriors and the Lord, their assault bought down two of the warriors Their retaliation was harsh, three of the reavers were cut down, but, being made of stern stuff and as expected from a race that were bred to fight, they stood their ground.

On my third turn the fallen warriors were raised and fired on the Kabalites, bringing down three, the remaining destroyers fired upon the hellions, taking down another two, The Nightbringer posturing with it’s scythe bought another to the ground with an arc of lightning. The Warriors and Lord that were occupied with the reavers finally cut them down. the Kabalites moved in to assault the Destroyer lord, a bold move that fortunately had no effect, other than causing the lord to strike back bring down two of the Kabalites before vanishing from their sight only to reappear from the Monoliths portal.

The Necron Warriors made short work of what was left of the Kabalites, erasing them from the surface of the planet leaving only a cloud of acrid vapour where they once stood. The destroyers applied the same relentless devastation on the last remaining hellions and all that remained of them was shards of metal as the gauss energy all but evaporated them. Vect failed to notice the Monolith coming to bear and too late he saw a huge plume of gauss energy fall from the sky, turning the remaining Wyches to separated atoms that could do no more than drift away on the breeze. With the majority of his force dissolving around him, Asdrubael Vect saw no other option than to seek vengeance for his fallen brothers and sisters, he made to move toward the Nightbringer, the ancient monster gazed quizzically at the form that charged it. A leering grin split The C’tans face as it raised the scythe and sliced through the air, a strong sulphuric odour filled the air as lightning gripped the Dark Eldars' body, a new scent rose, that of burning flesh and hair until the aged body of the leader of the Kabal of the Black Heart exploded as the lightning boiled it from the inside. The Nightbringer, its hunger for death temporarily satiated vanished, leaving no trace but the charred remains of its victims. The remainder of the Necron force returned to the tomb from which they had been awakened, leaving only a small sentry unit active in the event that any Dark Eldar should be seeking revenge for the loss of one of their greatest warriors and leaders. Somewhere deep within the remnants of the intelligence that the Necrons once possessed, they knew that day would come. Let it come they thought as one, let them all come, the undying machines would show no mercy, any that stepped upon the tomb worlds soil would meet the same fate as the last fools that felt they had claim to the land.

 

*the noise that is made when people spit after hearing a name or word that they find distasteful!