New beginnings ...

Hello everyone,

Once again I noticed how difficult it sometimes is to keep on blogging.
Especially if you're like me and only like to show finished projects.
But as half the projects I start are abandoned before they see completion, I rarely post.

Since my last post I went to Salute and, though I swore not to do so beforehand, I started a dozen new games.
My creative mind and buying habit are once again getting the upper hand after seeing all these amazing boards and miniatures at the show.
Also, there is something magical about getting into a new game (or faction), everything looks so fresh and full of opportunities.
Funny how our human minds tend to work.

Here's some of my latest work.

First off is the start of my Astral Claws for 40k. I did start with a marine squad but found these very boring to paint, so I switched to this fellow in the hope he would spark my interest enough to get back to my marines. It didn't work but I had a lot of fun painting him.

Second is the start of my Feral warband for World of Twilight, a game I have neglected for too long but which I still keep close at hearth.
This little guy is Jakiin, one of the smallest, and most likely fiercest, braves around.
I tried something new, which was using a leaf stamper to add fallen leaves to the base.
Seems like I need more practice though as it didn't turn out as I expected.
I really like this little warrior as he is both a bit cute, with his doll tucked in his belt, and threathening.

Last of the projects I like to show of at this moment is a rush job I did as part of the competion at the 'The Drowned Earth' Kickstarter.
The challenge was to convert/paint-up a proxy of one of the characters for the game. This one resembles Nix, the leader of the Artificer faction and one of the easiest ones to do in such a short time in my opinion.
This was the base figure:

Though Nix doesn't have a braid, I really like this hairdo on the figure and decided to keep it.
She was only declared as 'good enough' just before the deadline ended, if I had more time I would definitely have spend more time cleaning up the little green stuff addition and also change her bow.
As well as a more decent paintjob.

 

 

I did paint some more Brewers for my Guildball team too, these don't fit in with the title of this post though :). On top of that, I would like to show them of as a team, so I still need to finish Stave and Stoker.

Thanks a lot for reading!
Until next time!

 

Back to Basics

Hi everyone,

I haven't anything new to show off, but it still is a bit of a special post, as me and a friend played our first 40k game in more than a decade.
For us as a group we held up and kept buying the books until 4th edition.
While I have rather fond memories of 4th edition, with the best Chaos codex to this date, we decided not to make the jump to 5th edition.
Personally I like skirmish games and with the start of 3th edition, 40k was getting more and more detached from the games I actually wanted to play (the same happened with Privateer Press afterwards as well though, despite their famous statement about using metal miniatures in the mk1 rulebook and the fact it started out as a skirmish game).

As a Chaos player I hated GW for their jump to 3th edition, leaving me without a usable army and having to tear off the arms of many of my figures.
These were different times, money was scarce and every investment made had to count.
Which was the reason I made some stupid purchases (like Abaddon or a Bloodthirster), just because they costed a lot of points.
Only to see them put out of use by a graviton gun or shot back to the warp on the turn he was summoned.
As much as I like the ruleset of the 2nd edition, the imbalance between the different lists was a big issue. Especially as my regular opponents were Space Marines, who were GW's sweet spot at the time.
The Chaos codex, while pretty, was also a mismatch of different kinds of units. More suited for a Black crusade than a themed legion army.
It's like they thought a mix of the Warhammer Chaos Warriors army book and the space marines codex was the way to go. 
True, there are some strong individual characters, but they cost a lot of points and are far too easily dispatched.
My biggest issue is that they don't feel like Chaos marines should, they don't fit in with the stories and look more comical than the biggest threat the Imperium is facing.
It wasn't until 4th edition until they got this right, with usable daemon princes you could create yourself, raptors, veteran skills, daemon weapons, the first daemon engine, ... It was also the codex which showed how the Chaos Marines were masters of their domains and enslaved the lesser daemons within.
In 2nd edition there isn't even a good way to get into Hand to Hand, something they should excel  at, without clinging to cover, picking a Nurgle or Khorne force or loosing half of your army.
And why do Imperial Guard veterans get all these skills, but not the far older and far more experienced veterans of both Space and Chaos Space Marines?
Anyway, I'm rambling. The point is that I actually prefer the 2nd edition ruleset, but like the later edition codexes that much better.

Earlier this year we discussed the idea to get back into 2nd edition.
When Modhail jumped on the wagon he expressed the fact he likes the Badab War very much and as I think this is an interesting part of the 40k history as well we are currently working on a campaign.

Yesterday, me and Bram wanted to test out the rules again and the game went exactly as I remember them from games all those years ago.
It's was a small game with only 500pts a side on a 2' x 2' surface, Wordbearers vs Carcharodons.

Turn 1, naturally I lost the roll for deployment (Strategy rating 3 vs 5).
Carcharodons took first turn, moved their units and shot at my rhino with my whole force on board.
The multimelta ripped through the hull, destroying all except my champion, a Chaos space marine and the crew. But as it is a template weapon, two more hits on the tracks needed to be worked out, throwing the rhino from left to right on the battlefield, leaving only a single crew-member standing.
....

The first shot of the game, ...
True, I could have put my rhino into cover (or not have taken a rhino at all), but I needed to get into combat as my force was mostly equiped with assault weapons. Also, in 2nd edition you need to pick up pace with your vehicles and turning with them also isn't that easy. I could have picked a force with more firepower, but most of the time this doesn't work well with Chaos Marines as they don't have that many options and with a large template I doubt they would have lasted much longer against the multimelta. The survivors could have gone on overwatch though, ... if they didn't break.

 After this blow I decided to make the best of it. At first my sole survivor fled into cover, but rallied over there. Meanwhile the Cacharadons marched across the field.
My first idea was to make it into the buidling at the left, but I had already run out of time.

In the end I decided to snapshot the techmarine, but got charged in return and butchered with the rest of the small Carchardons force watching.
Sigh

 

I'll try to get my Astral Claws ready for the next battle.

 

This was actually my first game on my recently bought foldable 6' x 4' table from Gamemat.eu (http://www.gamemat.eu/sk/)
While I'm not one to promote things on my blog I'm very satisfied by it, as it is quite easy to use and can withstand quite some force. We used it for RPG's in the past and it has been pushed, leaned on and loaded with books without problem.  The table is a great solution to safe space compared to my three battleboards.

 Thanks for reading!
Until next time, hopefully with some painted marines.

Enjoy New Years eve everyone and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!