29 March, 2018

Do not adjust your set.

So it's been a while (a whole 9 months!) since my last post. I started my MSc course towards the end of last year so that put a lot of hobby stuff on the backburner (that's my excuse anyway). I have however got a few things at various stages of progession that I want to talk about.




Warhammer 40K - Necrons

So it's been so long since I posted that a new edition (8th) of Warhammer 40K came out. My gaming group collectively decided that we would all slowly build and paint armies for it using the 'Index' army lists until all of of respective our army codices get released (at which point we'll switch over).




I decided to play Necrons. No particular reason why; space Egyptian robots are cool and quite simple to paint. We've got Tyranids, T'au and Space Marines in attendance (with Eldar potentially coming into the mix as well). So far I've got about 1000 points painted, with another 1000 on the way to bring it up to 2000 points.


I'd like to do a brief review of 8th edition at some point; as far as editions of 40K go 8th is easily one of the better ones. Sometimes vastly simplified rules is beneficial for a game (especially after the rules bloat that was 7th edition).



Warhammer Age of Sigmar - Tzeentch 

Now that Warhammer: Age of Sigmar has been out for a couple of years it seems to have left its screaming newborn helplessness, gone through puberty and reached its 'finding myself' adolescent years.

With the release of two editions of the 'General's Handbook', the game is now at least in a potentially enjoyable and somewhat playable state. Turns out that after decades of games development points are still a good idea and throwing them out of the window was rather a bad idea.

I picked up a 'Tzeentch Arcanites' Battleforce to build a 1000 point army. The sculpts are actually really impressive and intricate. I built and painted a test model to try out a colour scheme; the model was genuinely fun to paint and I'm quite pleased with how it turned out:


The goal is to have 500 points fully painted and ready to play some games at the end of April. I'd better get cracking on...

DC Universe Miniature Game


The death of the Marvel Miniatures Universe Game after we'd only played a couple games was a bit of a dissapointment, but the game lives on within its DC counterpart. I picked up the Lex Luthor starter pack a while back in a sale (the Lex sculpt sold it for me). The Justice League characters I offered to paint for my opponent Aaron. Unfortunately this game is way down the priority list at the moment. I'll get round to it sometime...

 Gaslands


After having gathered a whole bunch of Hot Wheels / Matchbox cars the Gaslands rulebook was released last November. Having watched a few videos of the gameplay it certainly looks fun to play. We've decided that it'll be one of the games that's to be played at our post Salute games event (stay tuned for a report on the game). This means I need to get three cars finished by April 14th...

Company of Iron


Warmachine and Hordes were never my favourite games to play, but the release of Company of Iron, the skirmish scale spin off, interested me as an avenue to use my models at a figure count that I find more comfortable playing. The only progress so far has been to strip the paint off of some Legion of Everblight miniatures to assemble the list you see above. This is another game way down the priority list, but I'd like to give it a go down the road at some point.

With Salute 2018 just down the road I'm looking to get back into the swing of posting articles on a more regular basis.

Until next time.

15 June, 2017

Epic 30k Iron Warriors - 3000 Points

A short update on my Epic 30k Iron Warriors. After the addition of a couple more detachments, my Iron warriors are now at a healthy 3000 points; enough for an average sized game. A whole three quarters of the additional 1000 points belong to a squadron of Fellblade super heavy tanks.

Legion Fellblade Squadron - Vanguard Miniatures (Novan Elites Challenger Super Heavy Tanks)

The Iron Warriors (as part of their legion army list) have access to squadrons of three Fellblades, as opposed to the usual single tank choice, at a slight discount compared to paying for three individual tanks. I figured it made sense to try and use the Iron Warriors army list's unique options, so here I am dumping lots of points into three giant tanks. The models are Vanguard miniatures Novan Elites Challenger tanks, which work excellently as Fellblades.

Legion Tactical Detachment

The remaining points were just enough to add a single Legion Tactical Detachment. Whilst not particularly exciting, this detachment will provide some generic infantry to bulk out the force and fulfil some roles the other units are not suited to (like garrison duty).



With the army now standing at 3000 points,  I look forward to getting in some more substantial games. I would like to try and produce a battle report in the near future - the system is very enjoyable and provides a good spectacle on the tabletop.

So what to add to the army next?

I think we need a Titan...


30 April, 2017

Salute 2017

Another year, another Salute. I must be getting old, it doesn't seem so long ago that I was at last year's one! I must in all honesty say that this year's event wasn't as exciting as last year's; nothing in particular stood out and caught my attention this time; a number of the displays and demos seemed to have repeated from 2016. 

Mark looking decidedly happy.

There we're a number of new games and companies I hadn't seen before, but none of these managed to drum up enough enthusiasm in me to spend my money - I only parted ways with £30 this year for a copy of the Sharp Practice rulebook (way less than usual, something my bank account is happy about at least).

Still, it was a good day out. I took my camera with me and got shots of the displays that caught my eye, which you can see below.

Nick the Tsar II - Ad Hoc Gaming Group





Doctor Who Time Vortex - Warlord Games


Batman Miniatures Game



Sharp Practice - Too Fat Lardies





 Frostgrave - Chesterfield Open Gaming Sociey



Darklands - Mierce Miniatures



Infinity: Operation Free Nippon - Red Knight Wargames



Fabled Realms - 4Ground Limited






Warpath - Mantic Games (4Ground)




Frostgrave - Osprey Games (4Ground)




Battle for Neustadt - 6mm Cold War


The Drowned Earth



Sword Beach, 1944 - Herts Volunteers




Witch Racing - Rapier Miniatures


Shiro O Kogeki (Attack the Castle) - Oshiro Model Terrain




Thanks once again for all the clubs and companies for putting on display games, your hard work is appreciated!