Thursday 24 May 2012

New 40K Flyers

Morning folks,

These have been floating around since lunchtime yesterday, but I thought I'd share here for people who don't check the regular / un-mobile friendly blogs and sites (and also, chime in with some witty opinions...)

Images are taken from: HERO's Gaming Blog

Space Marine Stormtalon


I know there's a lot of people who really don't like this model, and initially I was put off. Everyone disliked the Stormraven on it's reveal too. Personally though, I like both models and I especially LOVE the idea of a SM flyer gunship. I'm not sure what role it will have in comparison to the cheaper, lighter armoured Land Speeder, but we'll see.
The only downside here is according to what people have said about the rules, it will only be for Codex: Space Marines for the time being. Which means my Dark Angels army, and people at the club who have Blood Angels and Space Wolves will miss out on this for the time being.

Necron Doom Scythe / Night Scythe


This is pretty much as it is in the codex. I'm not massively keen on the "Flying Croissant" look, but that's the Necron visual style of Battlefleet Gothic ships after all. I do like the fact that it's a dual kit though, the annoyance for me with the Dark Eldar fighter is that it only gives you the Razorwing, not the Void Raven (however, this could be to do with the AV difference).

Ork Burna Bomma / Dakka Jet / Blitza Bomma


Now then, these Ork planes, I love. The only downside is that I already have 2 Fighta-Bommas made up at home so probabl won't be buying these. The upside is that I can now use my Fighta-Bomma conversions in normal games of 40K! My only hope is that they're in the Fast Attack slot, rather than Heavy Support competing with Battlewagons, Kans and Dreads.

Hopefully this is the first of many flyer additions into 40k. I loved the Valkyrie model when that came out, so much so that I bought 3, and love seeing them on the table. The rules don't really suit Flyers at the moment though, so hopefully 6th ed will add another layer onto this. But yeah - more flyers for all the races please!!

What do you guys all reckon to these? Looking forward to seeing them on the table and more coming for other races?

Over and out,
SB

Tuesday 22 May 2012

THE DOOM OF MALAN'TAI

Hi All,

Angryman here,

I played a 2K game against another club member on Monday night.  I was using my Tyranids and Mike was using his Dark Eldar.  The mission was 'bases' with pitched battle setup, terrain was light and spread evenly over the board.  I got first turn, things were going well until the end of my movement when I DIDN'T cast FNP on my Swarmlord and Tyrant Guard, a few shots, no combat etc - Mikes turn 1, due to the amount of poison, re-roll weapons his Dark Eldar had, my Swarmlord died, horribly, he then took out some of my Hive Guard so my shooting ability was hampered.  My turn 2 started and the Doom appeared in his spore pod of awesomeness.  I then then went on to single handedly turn around what was a sure fire loss to me to a well deserved draw.  At the end of turn 6 (when he finally died) the Doom had at least 80 shots fired at him, survived 2 lots of combat, he did have a lot of wounds taken off him but he kept on regaining them and turned the game around for me.

so the point of my post is this

How awesome is the Doom for 90 points? to the other Tyranid players out there, do you take him and if not, why? to the non Tyranid players, is it a broken unit?


all comments welcome

Badger's Log - Back in Backlog

Ello folks,

Over the last 6 or 7 months I've gotten really lothargic with 40k. Even prior to my Daughter being born last month, I hadn't picked up a paint brush for a fair few months, had no time or energy to glue and assemble stuff and also wasn't finding any playing time.

I built and converted a fair amount of stuff over the winter period while I was stuck inside, but due to the weather being horrible 90% of the time, I never got anything sprayed up. Which meant nothing got painted...

So yeah, it's a vicious circle I've been stuck in. Lack of motivation and time blocking one thing, meaning the next thing gets pushed back and so on.

Anyways... I'm trying to give myself a big kick into hobbying again, with the lead up to 6th edition.


A few years ago, in the lead up to my first Britcon, I found that making a list of what models needed painting and pinning it to the wall above my paint desk, then ticking them off as I go, was a really good way to manage it. It looked daunting at first, but a few models here and there ticked off got the ball rolling until I had 2k of Chaos Marines and about 2k of Grey Knights painted up.

Looking back, I did a blog post last October about my backlog then and the majority of what's on that list has been chipped off - which is good! http://maws40k.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/baby-got-backlog.html

The Dark Angels and Daemon things on the list have been cleared off and finished. The Brotherhood of the Forge stuff is ready to spray and my Bretonnians are now just resigned to probably never getting painted. Unless they get a new army book and models, or I manage to clone myself and send the clone to work whilst I spend all day at home painting.

So here goes... Here's my updated project lists:

Eldar


Strip:
- 4 Guardians

Assemble:
- 8 Guardians
- 3 x Wave Serpent Weapon sets to magnetise

Spray:
- 20 Dire Avengers
- 3 Wave Serpents
- 1 Falcon
- 6 War Walkers
- 1 Farseer
- 5 Jetbikes
- 1 Autarch on Jetbike

Dark Eldar


Spray:
- 30 Kabalite Warriors
- 8 Trueborn
- 6 Hekatrix Bloodbrides
- 3 Venoms

Necrons

Spray:
- 1 Imotekh
- 1 Trazyn
- 1 Cryptek
- 10 Immortals with Tesla Carbines
- 5 Lychguard with Shields
- 1 Ghost Ark
- 1 Catacomb Command Barge

Brotherhood of the Forge

Spray:
- 1 Archconfessor Kyrinov
- 5 Dominions
- 6 Crusader Henchmen
- 10 Seraphim
- 20 Sisters of Battle
- 5 Command Squad Celestians
- 1 Saint Celestine
- 1 Immolator

Bretonnians


  Paint:
- 5 Bretonnian Mounted Yeomen
- 2 Bretonnian Damsels
- 8 Bretonnian Grail Knights
- 1 Grail Reliquae with 20 Battle Pilgrims
- 3 Pegasus Knights
- 10 Knights Errant

I think that's everything for 40k that I can think of dotted around my house...

Admittedly it's not the worlds biggest backlog, but to me it's an annoyance. This time last year, Bretonnians aside, I was well on top of my backlog. Then, a slow hobbying summer due to work made it build up again with me working on a Dark Angels army, then needing more Daemon bits for a tournament.

Similarly 2012 has been unfavourable to my hobbying, between work schedule and baby related stuff my backlog had again increased - it didn't help that I bought a 2nd hand Eldar army in that time though...

Hopefully by listing what I have left to do, I can start ticking it off on here and chipping away. I'm not planning on buying anything more now until 6th edition hits, apart from getting my Eldar up to 2k for if I were to take them to Britcon.

So that's my worklog for the next few months, but more than likely, the rest of this year... It should then leave me with at least 2k for each of my armies and only bits and bobs left to do.

Over and out!
SB

Wednesday 16 May 2012

Choosing an Eldar Craftworld

Ello folks,

Over the last few months I've been working very, very slowly on an Eldar army that I bought second hand. I've been repairing broken bits, assembling what was still in boxes and converting some other bits and bobs with them.

I'm still not quite ready to paint them yet, however... I've not settled on a particular Craftworld choice and don't really have any ideas of my own when it comes to paint schemes.

I would prefer them to be a different primary colour to my other armies, since I don't really want to be painting something that's the same as another army. I'd like them to be visually different where possible... Anyway, here goes...

Biel-Tan


I like the idea of a white armoured army, however painting a lot of things Green is putting me off. After 10k of Orks, helping out painting more Orks and then a Dark Angels army - anything that is green is a turn off.

However, I am swayed by the white armour, but would need to find a quick way of painting white over a black undercoat. As I'm stuck in my ways and don't like to base white.

Saim-Hann



I don't particularly like the fluff of Saim-Hann, however I do think their Guardians and red armour are the nicest looking variant in the Eldar codex.

However... the prospect of painting more red, after a ton of Ork vehicles and a Khorne Daemon army really puts me off. Plus, it's a very vibrant red, which I don't think I'm committed to doing nicely.

Alatoic



Now, I do like this craftworld. Partly because it uses Yellow in the scheme and I've very rarely painted using yellow. However, the downside is that the primary colour is the mottled blue, which is pretty similar to my Dark Eldar army.

I also like the fluff of the heavy emphasis on Rangers / Pathfinders for this Craftworld as well.

Iyanden


The reverse of Alatoic, this one. Again, Yellow is a colour I've not used very much while painting. But the thought of using a white base here puts me off. It's a very warm yellow that I don't think I would be able to achieve without a lot of work.

The other downside to this Craftworld is that Sanguinus has based his Eldar corsairs around the Iyanden craftworld, led by Prince Yriel, and I like to avoid clashing of armies and fluff between the gaming group where possible.

Ulthwe


Ulthwe is quite a popular craftworld, due to Eldrad, high number of Psykers and it's quick and easy paint scheme. So far there's at least 1 Ulthwe army that comes to the club, with the possibility of a second.

I originally painted some Guardians last Summer in an Ulthwe scheme and quite enjoyed it, but I'm thinking that the vehicles will look pretty boring. It's quick and easy on the infantry, but I doubt the massive amount of black will look nice on the tanks and walkers.

Yme-Loc


These guys looked pretty cool in the Codex and I've seen a few armies knocking around online. Personally, I prefer the Red sections to be more Orange in colour, as that's a colour I've also not used a lot in my time painting.

The only downside to this is that my Squat and Imperial Guard armies are both primarily Grey. So it'd be very Grey vehicles and armour plates again.

Altansar




Again, these guys are primarily Red coloured, which is a bit iffy - especially as I've said before with vehicles. However, I like the background of this craftworld, they appear out of the Eye of Terror after dissappearing and are treated with suspicion.

--------------------


So what do you guys think? So far I'm most tempted by Yme-Loc, but each day I keep getting drawn to do a Biel-Tan army in a "dirty white" style and focus on white on the vehicles, rather than heavy on the Green.

Any other craftworlds or cool paint schemes you can show me to inspire Craftworld Mystery?

SB

Monday 14 May 2012

Paul Reid

Morning folks,

It's been a while since there's been a blog, especially one by me. However I felt the need to post at this time to inform those MAWS members who check here, and other wargamers and hobbyists of some sad, sad news.


I don't really know how or what to say about this, since I'm still in shock over it. However, here goes..

This morning we got an email from Geoff, the MAWS club treasurer that Paul Reid, our club secretary, has passed away after losing his fight with cancer.

I am sorry to have give you all the very sad news that Paul lost his fight with cancer last week.
All our prayers and thoughts are with Paul's and his late wife Annette's family and all the many friends who knew him.
May he rest in peace and always be in our thoughts.xx

Geoff
Paul was very involved with MAWS over the past few years, several of which he spent as Club Secretary, and worked a lot on the hobby and wargaming in general. He had a good relationship with a lot of traders, retailers and event organisers in the hobby and was the instigator and organiser of Warboot, the wargaming carboot sale and the MAWS boot camps for various gaming systems.

Over the last year or two he's been involved heavily with the MAWS Black Panthers and hosting numerous display games at shows and conventions up and down the country. He worked hard on forming inter-club relationships, as well as working on giving publicity to local traders, clubs and gamers.

Paul was also the inspiration behind us forming the MAWS 40K group to promote the club around the internet and at events. He helped us out tons with promotion work and kept us informed of events around the wargaming calendar.

The hobby has lost a true Gent and all round top bloke. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends at this time.

I don't really know what else to say, other than goodbye to you Paul and thanks for everything.