Parallax Campaign - coming soon - intro part 1

"You have been wronged my friend!"

Teutoge Del Castillo jumped from shock more than fright.  He had been in isolation for…. for … He wasn't quite sure, but he had been here for some time now shackled in this small cell.  Had he really missed a new arrival?  No surely he would have heard the door open, the shackles being clasped, and the prisoner's protestations, with claims of innocence or defiance!

He had been awoken a few times by the echo of footsteps drifting down the hallway beyond his cell door or the infernal clanging and rattling of pipes that preempted the arrival of his nutritious ‘slop'.

At first he had thought there had been some terrible mistake, a case of mistaken identity or another one of those terrible pranks that his ‘fellow' Officers had played.   He had been due for one, it had been too long since the last one, and they had been getting progressively worse.

As the four hulking behemoths that had man handled him into his current confines had grabbed him he had given his name and rank and thrust his commission papers under their noses.  He had received a blow to the head for his protestations and the papers had been knocked from his grasp and kicked into the gutter.  How very dare they, he had worked his rear end off to get those papers, no matter what anyone else said.  As the papers sank into the cesspool of human waste and detritus he had threatened these imbeciles' with the Emperors fury.  The first and last noise he had heard from these hulking brutes was that of grating raucous laughter.

He had been brought to this place and shackled like some common miscreant.  As the brutes left a shadow had appeared in the door way.

"Do you have anything to tell me?"

"I am Lieutenant Teutoge Del Castillo of the Troodon Planetary Defence Force, attaché to Captain Wibertus Mehler, personnel number DC7564321 …………."

"You are not a prisoner of war Leu…..  Where are your papers?  Impersonating an Officer is punishable by death."

His face could not be seen but from the tone of his voice Teutoge could tell there was a smile on his face as he had closed the door and Teutoge's world became black.

Finally the heldrakes have risen during 6th editions death throes

I finally gave myself a kick up the backside to get my dragondrakes finished.

I did a post a while ago showing some progress so don't plan to write anything, just a quick splash of some pictures.  I really do need to learn to take better pictures.

The first 2 I had a rough idea of how i wanted them to look and just wanted to get them done.  The 3rd I got a little bit more confident and hacked up the base model a little so its hunched over its prey ready to unleash the fiery fury.

They will hopefully be getting their first proper run out tonight ......... I know 3 heldrakes in a list will make me  'THAT' guy but I doubt they will all make it out for a dragons night out again any time soon.  "Hey, whilst we are all together why not invite our very grounded cousins".

It's a family reunion.

I think I've done a fairly decent job.  The maulerfiend & forgefiend have had really positive responses as they have stuck to the GW concept.  I'm thinking that the drakes will get a mixed reaction.  My simple reply will be it only cost me about 12 to make the 5 of them & I have enough to make another.

Criticisms aside, though please do leave any you have, should I make another maulerfiend or a plasma-dragonfiend ?

Tester Models for Tau and Tyranids

Afternoon.

It's been a long while without posts on here and unfortunately I've not got time for detailed blog posts, battle reports, etc. anymore with changes with work patterns and family life.

In the mean time, I've been building up Tau and Tyranid armies across the last 12 months and found myself with a free evening yesterday, with which I decided I would do some test schemes for both forces.

These were the ultimate speed paint tests and the main thing (with my limited painting time) was to get one done from undercoat to washed, within 20 minutes. 

 

Tau - These guys are based on the Tau from the Medusa V campaign from a couple of years back. I've always liked the idea of white armour for them and definitely wanted a colour scheme which was different from my other armies. The white was really quick to paint, my only concern would be for when it comes to painting the vehicles. The test model is a Tank Commander stuck on a base, but I'm optimistic this will be better on a proper Fire Warrior that has more armour.

Tyranids - A few years ago I did have some Tyranids painted up in the same scheme and really liked it. It's based on a Guy Haley article on speed painting from an early 300ish White Dwarf. I used to use a Chestnut Ink on the body, but tried with Nuln Oil now. The most important thing for these guys is that they are quick to paint. I really love the contrast of the cream carapace against the brown body.

With practice and a few more, I'm optimistic that I can reduce the painting time to <10 mins per model start to finish. I wasted a lot of time on the Tau by painting the cloth first and then the armour. If I were to have slopped on the grey base of the armour, then overbrushed the white, then painted the cloth etc. it would have been significantly quicker.


In other news I've not played 40K for a while as I've been getting involved with Malifaux, which I really love and would like to do a proper intro post to that separately (whenever I can find time). I'm currently painting up my Lady Justice plastic crew and have a Mei Feng crew ready to go after that.

If you've not given Malifaux a go before, get involved! It's fun and cheap to get started with. It's allowing me to spend a lot more time on detail of minis, something which I've abandoned whilst painting hordes of Orks, Marines, Guardsmen etc.

Cheers,
SB

Tyranids - Fighting back against Codex Hatred

Morning folks,

Saturday morning I woke up like a giddy schoolboy, it was new Codex day! All through the week I had been hearing the doom and gloom over the changes people had found. Despite all of this though, it's still the book I've anticipated getting my hands on the most in the last couple of years - purely because of this hate.

I'm the sort of person that if someone says something is bad, it makes me want to use that unit / character / vehicle all the more.

Whenever a new book comes out, there always seems to be some kind of "ripples in a pond" effect of hatred. One or two "notable" voices / blogs / sites have their opinion and everyone seems to snowball off of whatever that opinion says, even before they've read the full codex and can see the entire picture.

So, over the weekend I had a bit of a skim read and to be honest, I really like it. It goes back to the Monster Mash style lists of 4th edition, but importantly, there's now a load more monsters rather than just various different Carnifexes.

"BUT WAIT! YOU LIKE THIS ABOMINATION OF A CODEX?!"
Yes. Yes I do, and here's why.

"They've removed Spore Pods, how are we supposed to get anything anywhere now?"
Aside from the Chapter House rubbish side of it, it means that the Nids don't just get to copy Space Marine tactics. Warriors, Gaunts and Fexes were never supposed to be the ones getting dropped onto the opposite side of the table - there's now various flyers for the speed along with Rippers, Raveners and the Mawloc that can deep strike by tunnelling in. Tunelling always made much more sense to me.

Ultimately, Drop Podding is a Space Marine thing to do - other armies don't get equivalents, why should Tyranids? The more fitting thing for them is Spawning (a unique mechanic for Nids) and Tunelling. This coming from the guy who bought 20 Dragon Eggs off eBay last year for a 5th edition Nid army.

"Synapse is rubbish now! My Gaunts can hurt themselves / flee off the board / etc."
Good. That's the way Synapse is supposed to be. With the 5th edition codex bleeding over into 6th edition rule changes, what you ended up with was actively wanting your Hormagaunts to be outside of Synapse range so that they got Rage and extra attacks.

The only thing I will concede on this is that I think a 1-3 for the lowest level of Synapse (i.e. the bad one) is a bit harsh, but again, this promotes you needing to keep stuff in Synapse range / extend your Synapse range / take more Synapse creatures.

"But they made the Tervigon rubbish!"
I've not read the Tervigon entry properly yet, all I've seen is that you now can't spawn then move your Gaunts, to which I say "GOOD!". See the Tervigon now more as a Transport vehicle, as opposed to launching yourself out of it however far it used to.

As for the fact you now need to take 30 Termagants to take a troop choice Tervigon? Again, that's good. I was fed up of seeing "The Scuttling Swarm" represented by 10 - 30 Gaunts and 1 - 3 Tervigons. Yeah it became swarm-like as the game went on, but 30 models is a good sign GW want to see hordes of Gribblies on the table as well.

"They got rid of the Doom of Malan'tai! How could they do this to me?!!"
Simple, they got rid of a character who was broken. Ever see a Tyranid army in a tournament without one? Point proven. For not much more than a basic Zoanthrope you got something that could do Psychic shriek to ALL units in a radius, in BOTH player turns, without ever having a downside to using it AND got stronger for doing so. I don't like seeing units get deleted from a Codex, but he was a crutch, plain and simple.

"They got rid of the Parasite of Mortrex too! How could they do this to me?!"
Said no one. Ever.

I can only remember seeing him 1 or 2 times mostly in a themed list with Warriors, Shrikes and Rippers. I heard someone complain about losing a Winged Synapse creature. Seems they forgot about the Hive Tyrant - but again, this falls into the "I always use the winged Tyrant in this way!" rather than "I need Synapse support for this stuff, maybe I can use the Tyrant?".

"But all the Bio-Artifacts suck!"
Not really, I just feel that they're costed properly. There's no auto-include artifact in this Codex, like there are in the previous 6th edition Codexes - Puretide Engram in Tau, Mantle of the Laughing God in Eldar, Black Mace in Chaos Marines, Grimoire in Daemons. I felt the same way about the Dark Angels artifacts, they're all middle of the road "handy if you need them and cool in some situations" kinda thing.

Considering how Synapse is, I'd expect people to start looking at the Norn crown, especially on a Winged Tyrant to help him support areas of the battlefield.

"Pyrovores are still rubbish! The internet told me they would be good!"
People were expecting AP3 / AP2 Pyrovores that could drop down in Spores and batter marines. They've gotten better in having AP2 melee attacks, but I see these more now as backfield "sweepers" and support. Keep them close to your home objective holders to clear up things like infiltrating Kroot, Orks, Scouts, etc.

"The Warlord table is rubbish too! Rolling a 1 is useless to me!"
Add more trees to your scenery collection then! Any time you don't include ruins, buildings, rivers / ponds, forests then you're limiting your game types. Understandably in Tournaments you don't get a say (unless you're Wood Elves in Fantasy, with your pet Forest). We're guilty for it at club (not including trees), mostly because we've not got many or that they're not in with the 40K scenery.

I think the rest of the traits are all pretty good. I've got a box of trees that I need to get on bases and I'll be adding them in regular rotation.

Other than that, I think the other Warlord traits are alright. As with most Warlord tables I've seen in Codexes, there's some that are "Meh" and some that are decent. That's why we roll a dice to see what you get!

"Tyranids can't take Rulebook Psychic Powers anymore? GIVE ME BACK BIOMANCY!"
Now, this is a touchy subject to a lot of people and one that will likely get FAQ'd back in.

Personally? I see the BRB powers as Warp based, to which the Tyranids should have no access to. Mechanically their Psykers function as everyone else does, to keep the rules simple, but I like the fact they've their own Psychic discipline. What I would have liked to have seen would be a few disciplines, rather than the one, which is why I think it will get FAQ'd.

The one I will conceed on is that Biomancy suits the Tyranids down to the ground and I expect them to get access back to it. If it doesn't happen, then I'm not going to lose any sleep, I'll just keep plodding on with the Codex powers.

Biomancy was a crutch for players to make their MCs nigh invulnerable, now you actually have to think about where your Psyker and MCs wade into / what units they get close to. Ultimately it's less about getting Iron Arm, Endurance, Warp Speed etc. and more about using the actual stats for the model you're using.

The reason why I think Nids will get Biomancy back, is that Chaos Daemons have access to it, and if you can have a Great Unclean One making himself Toughness Infinite, then Tyranid MCs should be able to as well.

"Scything talons are pointless now!"
When you consider pretty much every unit had Scything Talons and they're the "standard" Tyranid weapon, I can see the logic for toning them down. I wouldn't expect a Space Marine chainsword, the basic combat weapon, to have some kind of special rule or bonus involved with them that gives them rending or shred, for example (however fitting that maybe). It's just a loss you have to accept really in the grand scheme of it, however handy it was for the bugs.

-------

There's probably a ton more online hate that could be piled in here, but I've gone for the biggest and most vocal ones I've seen. I've not had a good enough read of the codex to go into too many specifics, so I could be wrong on some bits.

I'll probably also get a lot of flak for posting this off people who don't like the Codex, but personally I'm looking forward to finally painting my Nids (after starting them last January) and getting them on the table to play some games.

It's shook things up at least so we're not seeing the same 5th edition / early 6th edition lists over and over again with Swarmlord, Doom, min Gaunts, max Tervigon as troops, 3 Trygons, etc.

That's my two bob worth, anyone else fed up with the bile and hatred towards new codex and rules before they're even released properly?

So many people take rules snippets and debatable points out of context with the whole book or the grand scheme of the rules, it's getting really boring to hear.

If you like the models and the army, then use them and enjoy them. So what if something's more expensive than it was, so what if they've removed something from the codex, so what if something is different.

Get over it and enjoy playing toy soldiers.

Cheers,
SB

New Year, New Start - Blood Raven Captain

Morning all.

It's been a long while since I made a post on here. In this year I've had multiple projects to deal with at work, moved house and had another baby born, which has kept me from posting and away from hobby stuff mostly.

I'll keep this brief since I'm planning on doing a "here's my backlog and plans for the year post" soon.

It's been about 6 or 7 months since I last actually painted, but since new year I've managed to get some bits done. I finally got around to painting my magnetised Eldar vehicle weapons so that's all my Eldar army completely painted now.

Then the last few nights I wanted to paint an actual model as opposed to just weapons, so I had a Black Reach Marine captain lying around which I'd been wanting to use as a test for Blood Ravens paint scheme for a while.

It took me a lot longer than usual to paint him up, partly down to awkwardness of the model and details covering other details, but also trying to get a nice red colour on the armour.

Overall I think the black wash is too heavy, but that's also possibly down to where I left the model to dry in the new house (to keep my paint desk away from a grabby toddler) and also possibly because I've not painted for a while and slopped it on way too heavily.

I wasn't sure on what other colours to use for things like the banner and robes, as all I could find of Blood Ravens was black, red and cream along with green power sourcing.

I really enjoyed painting him though, was a welcome treat to paint a single model not tied to any army, although it's made me consider making a small Space Marine allied detachment of Blood Ravens.

So there we are. I'm going to try and get some Chaos Terminators painted up next and then that's the stuff on my paint desk cleared. After this, my aim for January is to get a test Firewarrior and Termagant painted up so I can decide on a colour scheme.

Hopefully I'll be a bit more regular with posting now things have eased up, but it'll mostly be hobby progress or thoughts on codexes / ebooks as playing time isn't much of an option currently.

Cheers,
SB

Warhammer 40k on a budget part 2

Progress on the heldrakes has come to a halt as my wife rather unhelpfully threw away her hair pins I had set aside for the 2nd & 3rd drakes arms.

If you read my last post the baby we were expecting was a girl.  I haven't had much free time to venture to the pound shops to get some replacements.  With heldrakes on the back burner and whilst my 19 month old slept my mind moved onto other shelved projects for something to do.





I bought these some time ago on good old flea bay for a steal, £6 including P&P.

For this I got 6 teams of 10 'rangers' including a squad leader & a variety of heavy weapon options.  I'm thinking autogun, plasma/melta & lascannon.

in addition to the basic bolter marine. (Apologies for the photo quality but they were taken quickly in case it was a long labour - it wasn't.  I suppose I could have just retaken them then -- but this has been put together whilst trying to get the toddler to sleep).

The poses are a little static for these guys but they make perfect models for thousand sons.       I didn't even need to buy the backpacks for these guys as I make use of my own or friends bitz boxes.  When it came to the aspiring sorcerers to lead each squad I wanted these models to be a bit more individual.  I bought 10 kromlech heads from ebay think they were £5 from flea bay, but a good deal I think for what you get.

A few chops here and a bit of green stuff later and I had my first 2 sorcerers:

Soon they will be ready to play alongside the big boys, which are currently sitting in my so far unused in 6th ed tzeentch daemons army box :

So, I have 2 squads of 10.  I plan to make another 2 squads & then decide what to do with the rest.  I was thinking of adding in 3 squads of 5 havocs and the last 5 for character/hq conversions and/or differently equipped sorcerers. 

What do you think--- not bad for £11 --- but would it be straying too far from the rubric ???

Warhammer 40,000 on a budget

Yes it can be done lol

Seeing as nothing has been posted on here in some time I thought I'd do a little post.

Warhammer 40k on a budget is not something I gave much thought to in the past.  If I wanted to add a new unit I'd just nip to my local GW on and pick it up - its dangerous having a store just round the corner but alas/thankfully it closed.  Most of my purchases were on a whim and a desire to build something there and then, usually at the weekend ready for a game on Monday.  With the closure of this shop I could think whether I really needed it and the whim of online purchasing wasn't the same.  Though I still got the occasional box or 2.  Its left me with a massive collection, too much,  but I just can't muster the strength to part with any :)

The crux of this post was with an unexpected arrival of my 3rd child (the others being 15 & 12) & consequently my wife leaving work there just isn't the money to purchase plastic krak anymore.  The speed at which codexes have been churned out hasn't helped either as its a must to keep your army current.  Then we decided baby 3 needed a playmate - baby 4 is due in 2 weeks yikes.

Anyway enough background to this post.With the release of the new chaos space marine codex I got a good deal on some cultists from eBay & was content with just adding these into my existing army, after a few conversions.  My friends bitz box came in handy for guard & empire stuff so thst was free.  It was only when my wife was clearing out the house that she came across some old kids toys.

 Mega blok dragons x2.  What a find !!!

I knew immediately what I wanted to do with these and a further route through the toy bin pile provided a few extra bits an pieces I would need.

Then it was time to stick the A-team music on loop.  With much blood, sweat and greenstuff along with many profanities when something went wrong, or I stuck my fingers together again for the seventh time.

Designers note:  you may get grief from your other half if you take bottle lids, all the drinking staws & other household items before they are finished with.

Eventually resulting in:

Maulerfiend - made this guy first purely for scary hitting power.

Forgefiend - After many an immobilised result on the mauler i finally got around to making Mr Big Guns.















After these were made but before they were painted I bought another 1 of these dragons with 3 slightly different ones,  more suited to another daemon engine.  Have a look on ebay they go for next to nothing.  I saved money as they were a job lot on ebay :)

I've only just got around to making a start on the next project, which has proved to be a lot faster.

 Helldrake - just the left hand claw to finish on this monstrosity then I'll probably get the other 2 done before painting.

Hopefully it will look as good as the mauler & forge fiends once painted - they looked a mess to before painting.

There's still much work to do but what do you guys think ?
Should I make another mauler or forge fiend ?
Would it make a huge difference to your decision if I told you that once finished I'll have 3 helldrakes & say 2 maulerfiens & 1 forgefiend for a total cost of £12?

X-Wing

Hi All,

Angryman here.  Last night I played X-Wing for the first time. 

For those of you who know nothing about the game (or have never heard of Star Wars................) its a space combat game between 2 factions, the rebels and the imperials.  you have a certain amount of points to spend on ships and upgrades, you can pick 'named' pilots or standard fighters etc.  You set the board up, you move, shoot and hopefully blast your enemy into space dust.  The game flows very well, its easy to pick up (I think the basics took me 30 mins) and you can usually get a game done in an hour or so.  Larger point games mean more 'named' pilots and upgrades etc so it can get a little bit more involved but its a lot of fun.
The best part is all the star wars quotes that you hear people saying, then you find yourself doing it.  The game is worth it just for that!!!

I'm looking to see what others think of the game, all comments welcome

MAWSCON and updates

Hi All,

Angryman here - 2 posts in 2 months, this almost a roll for me posting!!!

MAWSCON has moved to August 11th.  The medals have been ordered and will be ready for collection tomorrow.  The rules pack has been play tested and I've had some good feedback for the rules, all that's left to do is have the tournament!!

The club has received a free starter set for Empire Of The Dead, we'll hopefully start to play a few games once the rules have been digested.

The Blood Bowl league should be kicking off soon, people have been playing games in preparation, more news to follow once the league kicks off.

X-Wing will be getting its first run out at MAWS on Monday, I'm looking forward to this, I've heard nothing but good things about this game.

I don't think anything has been missed out but as usual, all comments welcome

What I Like Today - Azrael

Welcome to another WILT article for today, I've not had much chance over the last couple of days to get one done because I've been too busy. However, last night I was having a skim of the Dark Angels codex to check up some special rules I was unsure of and read Azrael's rules properly. I'd been using him in my last few lists in prep for a tournament soon but didn't realise he had a few of the extra rules.

Deathwing / Ravenwing
The original reason I chose to take Azrael was as a quick way of getting Deathwing and Ravenwing as scoring units, without me having to take both Belial and Sammael, as I don't own Sammael.

Azrael lets me take both for just over 200pts in one handy package.

The Protector
This is a suit of Artificer armour which also bestows a 6+ feel no pain, which means Azrael can happily tank wounds and deal with AP3 weaponry. The only downside is that it doesnt give the "Grand Master of the Dark Angels" the Eternal Warrior special rule.

Lion Helm
The Lion Helm is a cracking bit of wargear that gives Azrael's unit a 4+ Invulnerable save. Decent enough with a Tactical Marine squad, even better when you combine it with a big Imperial Guard platoon squad.

Warlord Traits
Azrael can choose any of the traits from the Dark Angels Warlord table, which is pretty handy too, as you can then tailor to what you need from the game. Personally I like the Feel No Pain within range of objective (although only on works on Dark Angels units) and also the modifiers to reserve rolls is quite handy too, so I can try and get Flyers on when I need to.

Rites of Battle
Something I didn't realise when I picked him is that he has the Rites of Battle special rule, meaning all units from the DA Codex use his leadership while he's on the table. Which means I don't have to be spending points on Veteran Sergeants in my units in order to get the LD boost on the unit.

Inner Circle
Azrael also has the Inner Circle special rule which makes him Fearless and also gives him benefits against Chaos Space Marine units.

Sword of Silence
Being a S6 AP3 weapon means that Azrael doesn't have to drop to 1 attack and use Krak Grenades against vehicles, which is pretty decent.

So that's it for now, so far I'm really enjoying my games using him, another WILT installment some time soon!

SB

(Song - "If You Love These People" from Man of Steel Soundtrack)

W.I.L.T - Ravenwing Bikers

Morning and welcome to another WILT installment! Yesterday in the post I got another 3 Ravenwing Bikers to get my Dark Angels w/ Guard allies list up to 1750 looking towards a tournament at the end of July.

It got me a bit excited to write about Ravenwing bikes and why I like them... So here's a few reasons.

1. Scoring
If I choose to take Azrael, it allows me not only some benefits to his unit, but also lets me take my precious Deathwing AND Ravenwing as scoring. It's great having a group of scoring bike units that are fast to get to places.

2. Fast
As I said above, Ravenwing are fast elements in my mostly static Dark Angels and Guard army. They can also Scout move allowing them to get further up the field meaning in a standard deployment, they can be 24" across the board in Turn 1.

It also means later on in the game, thanks to turbo boost and whatnot, they can be reaching objectives quite a distance away.

3. Hit and Run
Something I always forget about, but can be massively helpful is the fact they all have Hit and Run special rule. Meaning they can bang into a combat, do some damage, stick in during the enemy turn and then leave for a re-charge in my own turn.

4. Homing Beacon
Great in tandem with my Deathwing elements, especially combined with a Scout move and Turbo boost and hoping they survive until Turn 2. Or even reliable deep strike on Turn 1 Deathwing assault.

5. Firepower
A group of twin-linked rapid firing bolters can do a fairly decent amount of damage to small units, combine that with the 2 plasma guns I run and we're putting out a decent few shots for the unit. On top of that, adding the Banner that gives Salvo 2/4 nearby works on Ravenwing bikes as they're Relentless.

6. "Free" Landspeeder
The last thing I like about Ravenwing bikes is the ability to attach a Land Speeder if the squad is a full 6. This frees up my Fast Attack slots for other things or even more Bikes. This is handy since I've got a new found love for the Land Speeder.

So that's all for now about Ravenwing Bikes, maybe next week I'll delve into Azrael and Land Speeder Typhoons.

SB
(Song: Do I Wanna Know - The Arctic Monkeys)

Tlaxtan Titans first game of the season

The Tlaxtan Titans had their first game on Monday, they were all feeling rusty after a long break from the world of Bloodbowl, but their ability wasn't diminished!!! In their first match their were pitted against the vile Zharr Earthquakes, the Titans were anxious about the game as the Hobgoblins can keep up with their Saurus linemen keeping them pinned in place slowing the running game to a grind, and each of the Dwarves was an expert tackler ready to grab any slippery skink trying to sneak past.

The Zharr Earthquakes  won the toss to receive in the first half and quickly went for the ball with their Centaur, however his hands and legs got muddled up and he failed to pick it up. The Titans capitalised on this, and while the Zharr Earthquakes  were caging around the ball, they began to pick on their faster players with the Saurus on the scrimmage line. TheZharr Earthquakes  attempted to make a break down the wing but were quickly cut off by the swifter Titans and after a full half of pushing back and forth at the halfway point went for a chance pass hoping to single out a lone hobgoblin. The pass wasn't accurate however and landed a few spaces away, The Titans attempted the same action but couldn't even pick the ball up.

The second half started much in the same way, the Titans got the ball deep into the opponents half, but were quickly beaten down, the ball changed hands several times until on the final break a lone Skink, No.10 Ekkeko, broke away from the Centaur, picked up the ball and launched it to his team-mate waiting down the pitch, who promptly scored a touchdown with just enough time for the ref to blow his whistle.

Titans 1 Zharr Earthquakes  0

It was a close match, and the Titans only won by the skin of their teeth with an extremely lucky last ditch run.

W.I.L.T - Colossus Siege Mortar

Good morning folks and welcome to another edition of "What I Like Today" (or W.I.L.T for short).

Today I'm going to talk about the Colossus Siege Mortar in the Imperial Guard codex. This has been a favourite unit of mine since 5th edition with the Guard codex, but only since getting to grips with 6th edition rules have I brought it back out onto the tabletop.

My logic for this has been 2 fold. 1 is to deal with infantry blobs in their own deployment zone and also to take the Colossus over something like the Griffon or Basilisk is the S6, AP3, Ignores Cover.

What this means is that I can 2+ out Tau Firewarriors, instakilling any HQs that it lands on and fail their L.O.Sir test. It can also then deal with backfield power armoured units, like Tactical marines in cover or pesky Devastator equivalents like Long Fangs or Dark Reapers.

In the games I've used it, it's always done pretty well. I'm not sure if it's made it's points back in every game, but it's killed a few HQs and troop units they're hiding in.

It's very reliant on getting a hit since otherwise it'll be scattering full 2D6", but it's got a decent chance of landing a hit, or even scattering onto other nearby units if you play something like Guard platoon blobs or Tau huddled together to benefit from support fire.

And that's time up. What do you guys think of the Colossus Siege Mortar? Both playing using it, and playing against it.

SB
(Song: Mr Brightside by The Killers)

MAWSCON

Hi All,

Angryman here - its been too long since I last posted!!!!

I just wanted to update everyone with what we are doing at the club.  First of all we are now GCN (Gaming Club Network) registered.

This means that MAWS can easily forge links with other clubs, be advertised to a wider audience, see what other clubs are doing and have a network of like minded people we can reach out to.

As the number of 40K players have increased over the past year, we are running our first in-house only competition,

MAWSCON - Sunday 18th August 2013

it gives people of varying skill levels, experience and knowledge of the game a chance to play each other and hopefully take something away from the day.

I hope after this post (I know I said this last time) that I will be able to post on a regular basis.

Thank you to Badger for keeping the blog alive

Everyone else (you know who you are) - post something!!!!

All comments welcome

The Great Maw's Invitational - Blood Bowl League

Good morning folks and welcome to the first edition of this special broadcast from Skycutter Sports News, brought to you by Athel Loren - because you're worth it. The Old World watched on last year as the Middenheim Mawlers demolished every team that stood before them (along with a few stadium walls too...) on their way to multiple cups and trophies.

Critics along the way claimed they relied too heavily on maiming the opposition, rather than actually attempting a touch down, but it made no difference to the Mawlers. By the end of the season, their dominance was so total, that comparisons were starting to be made with the almighty Chaos All-Stars.

Middenheim Mawlers in their prized Blue and White home armour.

The Middenheim Mawlers have since been inducted into the hall of fame in the Orclays Empire League after (literally) crushing the rest of their opponents into submission and achieveing a perfect season. In their post-cup final revelling, the mighty Mawlers declared that no team in their current division are capable of dealing with them and have saught out fresh challenges further afield.
Using the massive prize money from winning every honour available to them and keeping the majority of their team injury free, the Mawlers have put together the Great Maw's Invitational - where hand picked teams from around the region will compete to see who are worthy enough to grace the field against the Mawlers.

 So far, the Mawlers have singled out 8 teams from around the Empire:

The challengers make themselves known.

• Drakwald Destroyers, an Orc team from the outskirts of Bretonnia.
• Tlaxtlan Titans, a highly praised Lizardmen team from the Lustria leagues.
• Cabal of Broken Dreams, a mysterious Dark Elf team with ties to a mysterious Warpstorm.
• Altdorf Angels, a team of former Crickethammer players turning to Blood Bowl for the fame.
• Hulton Marauders, a team of hardy Dwarfs from the Khazad Undermountain Leagues.
• Zharr Earthquakes, the Champions of the Centaur Cup.
• Fallassion Rangers, an agile team of Elven nobles who dominated the Ulthuan Inter-Elf Cup.
• Mystery Team, an unknown team who have yet to reveal themselves but have answered the call through their herald.

The Mawlers await, atop a mountain of gold and skulls, for the team who conquers the invitational leaague. The Drakwald Destroyer's star Blocker Nobrot Uzthug has stated "We izn't afraid of dem big ladz. Da Destroyers can 'andle anyfink they throw dis way!". Presumably Nobrot hasn't seen the Mawlers alarmingly high casualty infliction rate - or he has and has taken a few too many blows to the head along the way...

"Thick skulls? Who you callin' Thick skulls?"

Whatever fate befalls the challengers to the Mawlers, it's sure to be an interesting run up in the invitational league whatever happens! There's some strong teams out there looking to take the Mawlers down a peg or two, along with taking a sack or two of their gold as well.

That's all for now folks. Signing off on this special introduction Great Maw's Invitational report - Rodnut Burgundee.

What I Like Today - Rune Priest, Grey Hunters and Drop

Afternoon all.

Since I've been struggling to find the time for length blog posts and haven't really gotten much painted, converted or built since progress is slow, I'd thought about doing some micro-posts each day.

One of the topics has stemmed from my random thoughts whilst commuting to work, usually listening to various 40K podcasts.

So... I'll christen the segment "What I Like Today..." or "W.I.L.T" for short.

The rule here is that it doesn't have to be amazing, points efficient, competitive or whatever else. It's just an idea I've had and would like to try out at some point in the future.

Oh, and I also am limiting myself to the length of time it takes a shuffled song to play through! So I've got (unless Master of Puppets comes on) about 3 minutes to write it.

Without further ado, I give you the very first "What I Like Today" segment.

Rune Priest, Grey Hunters and a Drop Pod.

Having seen the Riptide in action on another table, combined with reading a bit of the Tyranid codex over the last few weeks, I've been thinking about what can be done to deal with big units like the Riptide and Tervigon. These guys can tank a lot of hits and be a right pain for you to play against.


My idea? Jaws of the World Wolf.

In order to get them into my army as allies, I'll pack a Rune Priest into a Drop Pod with a squad of Grey Hunters with Meltas.

Plan is, I drop them in first turn, detach the Rune Priest on one side and the Grey Hunters on the other.

The Drop Pod can be really bold in where it lands since it'll always do it's movement reduction, so as long as I'm not daft near board edges, it's cool.

The Grey Hunters can then hopefully Melta a nearby vehicle or monster if possible, whilst the Rune Priest tries his jaws on the big stuff with low initiative.

It relies on passing the psychic test and there's still a 1/6 chance in stopping the power completely, and then the Initiative test, but either way it's a crippling blow if it all comes off.

If there's not a Riptide, Necron Wraith horde, Tervigon pile on the opposite side of the table, the unit is still pretty handy at crippling vehicles and whatnot. The Rune priest can always stay in the back field and use his Divination powers instead.

And now the song is coming to an end so that's my time up.

What do you guys think to the idea to deal with big, low Initiative monsters?

See you next week for more W.I.L.T segments!

SB
(Song: Golden Years - David Bowie)

June Painting Pledge - Necrons and Chaos Daemons

Morning folks.

It's a bit far into the month for this, but if I don't post it I will be giving myself an excuse not to do it. Last month was quite a productive month, with the exception of my Eldar vehicle weapons, so this month I'm looking at a bit less painting and more building.

Paint:

• Necron Ghost Ark
• Remaining Eldar vehicle weaponry.

Build and Spray:

• 20 Bloodletters
• 1 Skullcannon
• 1 Herald of Khorne
• 3 Ravenwing Bikes

Buy:

• Eldar Codex
• 3 Ravenwing Bikes

So far I've made a bit of progress by getting the Ghost Ark basecoated in black, which is a massive chore since I've glued it all together and it's a right pain to get into the gaps.

I've also managed to glue up the Skullcannon. Originally I was hoping I could magnetise it to enable me to swap between the Bloodthrone and Skullcannon, but gave up on that as I needed the Herald on foot for my list idea.

That's all for now then, I'll be posting up a few more micro articles over the next couple of days, then on Monday hopefully do a photo dump from Phalanx.

SB

May Painting Pledge - Finished.

Morning.

So I've been meaning to post a blog up for a couple of days but haven't had chance to take pictures, or get it written up on the PC.

In all, it's been a pretty decent month for getting things painted, although I've had absolutely no desire to paint my Eldar vehicle weaponry. Since they're all seperate fiddly weapons, they're a nightmare for painting without getting my hands coated in primer or wash, or worse, smudging all the paint off them while handling them. I'll get around to these at some point this month hopefully...

Anyway! Here's the list and here's what got done!

Paint:

• 5 Dark Angels Devastators
• 1 Belial
• 1 Stormlord
• 1 Trazyn
• 1 Cryptek
• 1 Overlord
• 10 Immortals with Tesla
• 5 Lychguard with Voidblades and Shield.
• Remaining Eldar vehicle weaponry.

Build:

• 20 Bloodletters
• 1 Skullcannon / Bloodthrone

I didn't get any building done since I was pretty busy with painting and playing on the Xbox whilst having hobby burnout.

BUT! I did get a bonus Annihilation / Command Barge completed whilst I was in a painting mood. Used this as a test for painting my other Necrons vehicles, and the intention is that I'll repaint my Monoliths to match - since they were speed painted Boltgun metal to be used in a tournament a few years ago.

Time for some eye candy....

Annihilation Barge - The Tesla weapon (can't remember the name) is removable so I can swap it back to a command barge. As is the weapon underneath to swap between Tesla and Gauss.

Cryptek - His back plating is Ice blue to separate him from the other Necron characters. I also painted up a few smaller details on there in the same blue to pick them out.

10 Tesla Immortals - These guys have a white stripe down their foreheads to set them apart from warriors. Chose to arm them with Tesla Carbines as I already had a squad of 6 Gauss Blaster models.

5 Lychguard with Voidblades and Shields - These guys have gold crests and white face masks to make them more wraith like in appearance and also tie in that my elite units have elements of white on them in places.

Plastic Overlord from the Catacomb Command Barge. Lots of gold detailing on him, and a brass cloak to set him out in a crowd.

Imotekh the Stormlord - Was struggling for what colour to use for him, but ended up with a Jade green cloak... Which ironically is the same colour I use for my Ork skin. He won't like that one bit...

Tazyn the Infinite shares the same white face mask as the Lychguard since he can end up regenerating into one of them. Blue for his cloak since his GW model had a lot of blue elements. Also a little easter egg, he's got a "keyring" with some Eldar runes and a Tau symbol. The Eldar rune is painted as Ulthwe and the Tau symbol is painted as a Farsight enclave, for if I ever get around to doing a Tau force.

Planning get June's painting pledge up in the next few days, since we're already 1/5th through the month.

Cheers,
SB

MAWS-Bowl: Blood Bowl League Rules

Morning!

For those of you who are interested in taking part in the Blood Bowl league, I'll be tracking the progress and standings on here during the time but for now, here's the initial ruleset.

 

MAWS Blood Bowl League Rules v1.0

Dates:

• The league will start on June 3rd.
• Players must submit their team rosters by 31st May.
• Preliminary fixture lists will be sent out by 1st June.
• Emails with team rosters to be sent to my email address.
• The league will be split into 2 phases (details later).

Rules Used:

• We will be using the current version of the Blood Bowl Rules on Games Workshop site (HERE).
•  All teams must be made using the rosters in the specified version of the LRB.
• No teams outside of the GW LRB may be used (No Bretonnians, Khorne Daemons, Slaan, etc.) regardless of their official status with organisations like the NAF.
•  Proxies / Conversions maybe be used, providing it is clear what they are meant to be.

Team Rosters:

• Each team is made using 1,000,000 gold coins.
• Each team roster should be submitted using the Excel document supplied (HERE)
• All teams and players should have some creative and suitable names (No Player #1, Lineman 12, etc.)

League Phase 1:

• Phase 1 of the League is intended to get players to know each other and get comfortable with rules and play each team at least once.
• All games will be played using the standard rules (including Weather).
• There will be no pre-game inducements.
• There will be no post-game injury, skill advancement or other rolls.
• At the end of each game, all players are returned back to full health as they appear on the submitted roster.
• In short, each match between players is treated as though it is their first game with the team.

League Phase 2:

• Phase 2 of the league will be used once all players have played each other once.
• At this point we will introduce post-game injuries, skills and so on.
•   Rules for phase 2 will be sent out after all Phase 1 games have been played.

League Scoring:

• 3 Points for a Win
• 1 Point for a Draw
•  0 Points for a Loss.
•  Touchdowns For / Touchdowns Against will be recorded and the Touchdown Difference will be used to settle tied positions.

Playing Schedule:

• Players will play each other once in Phase 1.
• On the last weekend of each month the fixture list for the following month will be posted.
• Each player must get that fixture played in the upcoming month.

Post Game:

• Record the results of the game, along with touchdowns scored.
• Email / Text me the results.
• The League table will then be updated and mailed out at the end of each month.
• A copy of the league table will also be posted to the MAWS Facebook Group.

//------------------//

If you're interested in taking part, let me know ASAP! I'll be drawing the first fixtures over the weekend so people can arrange their games for this month.

Cheers,
SB.