Head down in Undead

Started the effort this week.

So far I have built 32 Zombies and 20 Ghouls.  I now have a new coat of Superglue skin on my hands.  I have tons more to go.

My early impressions is that that Zombies are pretty cool but the Ghouls are really not that great looking.  The skeles look way better so I think it will all be good in the end.

nuts that I have so many.

I did it

220 Undead minis inbound.
Now I just need to figure out which Heroes to get from GW.  I like this guy below and might just look for him to get started.  Man I am a little scared of all the zombie painting.

Undead army

So now that Grey Knights have been pushed back to March or whatever I have decided to take on a project I have always wanted to do.  I am going to start in on a true Undead Fantasy Army using the Mantic minis.  The minis look cool and for $120 I can get 80 Skeletons, 60 Zombies, 40 Ghouls, 40 Revenent knights.  That is more than enough to start basing a nice Vampire Count army around.  I plan on getting all the named Heroes and such from GW but like the idea of supporting these guys.  I also will get the new rules too so it might be a cool thing to try out.

I still have one last CSM project to finish: My nurgle Bikers but that should go fast.  Now I just need to scrounge up the money.  I have resorted to doing a couple User Experience studies to make it happen which makes me feel a little cheap.

been sucked into World of Tanks

Since I am about to hit 300 battles in World of Tanks I can now solidly say that I love the game.

If you like tanks at all (who doesnt) and like to blow shit up, this is a great game.  The only caveat is that the game is brutal.  I got to ask the developers about it at GDC Online and they just explain it this way:  "Hey we are Russian, we have no problem getting killed over and over again in order to figure something out." I hope Americans dont puss out and get scared off when they get rolled starting out.

If you grab the game throw me a holler.  I am Astrothumps in there.

World of tanks: KICK ASS FREE GAME

If you like tanks and Shooters I highly recommend this game.

All you have to do is sign up for the "closed beta" and in about an hour you are good to go.
http://www.worldoftanks.com/
Its going to be Free to Play and right now is a good time cause you get free Gold for upgrades :)

The Storm Raven looks rad

Can't resist

From Warseer:  http://www.warseer.com/forums/showpost.php?p=5112324&postcount=1

New army bandwagon

I have resisted the temptation to go Space Wolves since that bandwagon has left the building.

But I have decided to start saving pennies to jump on the GK bandwagon as soon as it hits.  I would love to have a couple Storm Ravens, the new Plastic GKs and actually Assassin squads :).

Getting ready for 2k tourney

Game Kastle is hosting a 2000 point tourney this weekend and I am pretty excited.  This will be my first 2k tourney and hopefully my CSMs do well.

I am resting the girls this time and have decided to go with the Original BadAss himself: Abaddon.  So this is the list:
Abaddon
DP with Lash/wings
1 Termie Champ with Cfist and cmbiMelta with 3 Termies Icon of Tzeen, 2 combiMeltas in
Land Raider with Extra Armor.  This is where Abaddon will ride.
1 CSM 10 man squad in Rhino 2 meltas with Champ with pfist
1 CSM 10 man Lascannon, melta with Champ with pfist
1 CSM 10 man Lascannon, plasma with Champ with pfist
3/2 Obliterator squads

Small army but hopefully Abaddon gets some action.  I am hoping to match up with some armies where Abaddon can truly shine.  But even if I get destroyed at least I will get to make a run at having the ultimate badass.

w00t free Black Library digital

http://www.blacklibrary.com/Digital

Looking forward to reading Nightbringer on my DroidX.  Hopefully it works for the apps I have.

Possessed with Mark of Tzeen done

Got this guy done a couple of days ago.  I got the Tzeen banner from the Horrors I finished up a couple weeks ago.  The plan is to have some Possessed CSMs with Abaddon in a LR with MoT.  That way they get Invul 4+s and add some mean CC to the Abaddon punch.

Oldie but goodie

I really like the old Possessed CSM metal mini's and since I am on a tight Mini budget right now I am getting around to painting all I got.  So I finally got some time to devote to this guy.  I know they are seriously unpopular but I love these guys and would really like to find a way to field them

I have to say the new DE look awesome

Took this from bols this morning.
I am not a huge fan of things Elf-ish but I have to say these look downright awesome.  Well done GW.  I hope they can pull this off since i think it could kick off a wave of very cool stuff.  I will not be getting these personally but it did insight a quiver of temptation which says a lot since they are elves.

I have high hopes that they are great IG killers and help even out some of the burly SW/BA armies out there that I have seen.  

Huron: The Pimpmaster and spending cheese, new items on ForgeWorld.

LINK
This guy is out of control.  It has me eyeing my credit balances to make a monster order from ForgeWorld.  Hopefully sanity prevails.

I havent seen this on the web yet but it looks rad,

Pink Horrors pretty much done

Got the batch pretty much done today.  I got to figure out a better way to take pics since these recent ones have sort of looked like ass.  Just a little touch up to do and maybe some extra gold to bring it out again after the flat finish.

I am getting close to the end of my CSMs.  I have some bikers that have sort of been a labor of love but I am also finished.  I have started to eye some Warmachine minis but who knows.  I am having a hard time committing to an another GW army and Warmachine is starting to look more and more interesting.

Test Pink Horror done

I think I got him to where I want them to be.  They are fun to paint and look very cool.  GW did a great job with the plastics and I am hoping to crank them out this week.

Hopefully more pics soon as I start to get them done.

Pink horrors are Slimer

The more I paint these the more I think they are from Ghostbusters except that they are pink instead of Slimer green.

Starting in on the Pink Horrors

Finally got them all built and primed.

Only bummer is that I only have black primer so they are going to need some coats to brighten up.  Hopefully I can get em close to the GW images but we shall see.  I know a lot of people dont like how these new horrors look but the plastics are pretty nice with some awesome quality. GW is getting these plastics down and I am very impressed with the models and quality.  I should have some pics soon and once I am done with these I will have my 20 Lesser Daemon mob good to go.

Abaddon good to go

Got this wrapped up yesterday and I am pretty happy with it.  Special thanks to the gifter that financed the purchase for my b-day.  I like how he looks, the only thing I was bummed on is that I couldn't get the face to where I wanted it.  Its a little too greyish and the eyes are odd.  I tried as hard as possible to match the GW website and I like how the armor turned out.  I used black paint as a base, then dark grey highlight, then a dark grey blend wash, followed by this black glaze that's pretty cool.  The effect isn't bad but I think it got dampened a bit by the Flat Finish.  Sometimes I wish I didn't have to spray em with the Flat but I know I will beat it up too much when playing.. I cant wait it get him on the table and have him flying out of the Beast.

Thinking about Abaddon

I picked this model up with a little extra b-day money that I got and finally started painting him.  The model is less than stellar to tell the truth and I have pondered getting another Plastic termie lord just to use the body from that.

Well any way I decided just to get him done and maybe start using him to mess around with.  He is the burley for CSM and I would love to see him abuse some Space Marine ICs.  I will try and get some pics up tomorrow when things start coming together.  I still love the idea of having Abaddon and Kharn in the same army for hardboys :).

Recent work

I got motivated recently to start cleaning up all my unpainted minis. Great way to save money and start using stuff I have already paid for. Here is my new HQ: Kharn and his little Bloodletter friends that I just finished a batch of 10 of.

Next is the horrors and a couple LasCannon CSMs that I got some bits for as well.

6 months till Game of Thrones, thank god for HBO

In Production

Recovering for a 40k sexless orgy and assassin rumor

Replenishing my brain from a punishing weekend of 40k, Modelo and fried chicken.

It was a lot of fun to be playing again since i haven't really had a chance to knock some dust off my mini's since my little game day in July.

I was very happy with my Sisters this weekend.  Even though I lost 3 out of my 4 games I learned a lot and got in some great games.  I got a double dose of Nids which while at the time was a bit painful overall it was a great learning experience.  I now know how to bring it to Nids with my girls and give them a good game.  I did need more flamers to truly beat them but I am not sure how to get that into my army without sacrificing some melta.

The other big achievement for me was to finally beat a IG list with my girls.  I have consistently had a hard time dealing with IG firepower and now feel that I can at least have a gameplan for confronting IG.

Overall it was some great games and great company.  I wish it was something I could get to do more often and it was great to have a chance to lay down some Imperial justice with my girls.

In other awesome news I was super stoked to see this on BoLS this morning:
Assassin Stats:
WS:8 BS:8 S:4 T:4 W:2 I:7 A:4 Ld:10 SV:4+/4+i

Move thru cover
Fleet
Fearless



Hopefully they have some sort of grenades so that they can charge in cover but overall it looks pretty awesome.  I just hope that they allow Witch Hunter armies to get these as well and dont make them a Daemonhunter army only.

Get ready for a game day

Getting the girls ready for a little fight night then long fight day.  I decided on the girls because the list does kick some ass if I stay slinky and a lot of people that are going to be there haven't played them much..

So the list I am going to roll with is:
Palatine with Celestian Ret 2 meltas
3 Celestian Immolators with 2 meltas HvyFlamers
3 Battle Sisters in rhinos with 2 meltas and Vet Sup with Combi melta and Book
1 Battle Sister squad on Foot with Vet Sup all bolters
3 Exorcists
I have some extra points to juggle around but the big change is the ditching of the hvy flamers for the girl squads.  I love the flame but really have enough on the immolators and I need the melta punch.

Badab Forgewold stuff

Forgeworld has finally done it to me.  I have always loved seeing and fantazing about getting some FW minis since they are awesome but none of the armies ever really spoke to me.  Now with the Badab expansion I am going to have to pony up and start getting some of these.  This Huron looks insane and I think I am going to have to break down and get a bunch of stuff.  Great call by FW to choose a period/fluff that people are really going to get into and it looks great.  I hope to see Mantis, Space Sharks, Red Scorps, and Lamenters out of all this.

Lesser Daemons

Decided to try out the Horrors.  Once I get these and my Bloodthristers cleaned up that will get me to 20.  I like the idea of field 2 daemon squads of 10 just to capture objectives and be annoying.  Hopefully I will get some games in soon but life has been pretty hectic as of late.

The Windup Girl

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacogalupi is a wonderful book.  I usually don't post non-40k books on this site but I have to give a shout out to this book.  It is always very cool to read a book builds a believable and different world.  The characters in this book were well thought out and the storyline was constantly moving.  I haven't read a book like this since SnowCrash or Neuromancer which captures a near future world so well but presents it in a way that is both alien and familiar. Hats off to Paolo for a great book and if you have any interest in expanding out your Sci-fi world,
I highly recommend it.

Finally new Daemons annouced

They look pretty cool and are up HERE

I think I might have to get some horrors which I know some people think are poopy but I think are sort of cool.  Also I love the way that new DP looks and its options are probably awesome.

Getting ready for game night

I have started the planning stages of hosting my yearly game night.  So far it looks like we will have 10 people coming with 5 tables in action.  I should have enough room in the house and this should be a lot of fun.

So I have started thinking about Missions:

I am getting a little bored with the tradition 40K missions and am tempted for us to run the Battle Mission missions.  I started looking through the book and think it has some potential but it could be hard.  If anyone has some experience with them let me know.  We will have some very advanced and  junior players at the event so I dont want to make it too complicated but at the same time I want to make it fun for all.

Warhammer 40k video games at E3

THQ is finally showing some trailers today.

Space Marine looks very cool:


If it has some of the same functionality from Gods of War, I will be very happy.  I will have to get this one.

But the MMO I hate it say it looks lame:


I had high hopes that it might be a small kill team-ish type set up were you are given a small squad to build up and combine forces with others to take on bigger objectives.  If you are just a dude running around like a typical MMO its just not going to work.  Can you see it now:  I am tank (Space Marine) you are DPS(Eldar Warlock), healer (Eldar something, or maybe Sister).  That's just lame.
Hopefully they have some better ideas with it.

W00T Game of Thrones trailer

The reason why I got HBO again.  I know its non GW related but I am so stoked on this:

Winter Is Coming

CSM Terminator Lord Model

This model rocks and is a lot of fun to paint.
For some reason they put it in the dorkest poses on the box and in pics but it is super cool.  Tons of conversion options and super high quality plastic.  Hats off to the GW designers on this one its a great kit.

Back to the bad boys

Now with kubla wrapped up and no real tourneys in sight for the next 3 months I have decided to focus in on the CSMs for a bit.

One of the cool things about playing CSMs is the shear amount of plastics and conversions that it lends itself to.  Right now I have 3 little projects to do that will not cost me anything.

CSM bikers
I have 6 bikers that I picked up at the GK flea market and have been pondering how to use them.  It would be cool to make one a Nurgle Lord with the rest of the bikers being his crew but I am not sure.  They are fun looking models and after seeing more of them at Kubla I have some ideas.

More Zerkers:
Just logistically needs to happen.  I want 2 solid 10 man squads of Zerks and realized I have less than I thought.  I have all the bits good to go and think that now I can do some nice conversions.

Terminator Lord:
I broke down and got the plastic termie lord and its a great model.  Ideally I would like to convert him into a cool Slannesh lord for the BlissGiver and Init6 attacks.   I might jump on this one first and I want to really make it a centerpiece of my army.

Lesser Daemons:
I have a ton of old Grenadier Hobgolblin mins that with some work could be some cool lesser daemons.  I also still have some plastic Bloodletters and just need to get cracking on them.  Ideally I would like to build up to 20 daemons just to have a solid option there.

Kubla Con all done

Finished up the tourney yesterday and came in an uninspiring 21st place out of 56 players.

To tell the truth this tournament I had a lot more fun hanging out with guys from Game Kastle and getting to know them better than really playing the games.

I faced 2 Imperial Fist SM lists that were all about shooting.  Not the best match up for me.  Needless to say I wasnt really able to close or bunker up against the FP that they both could dish out.  I made the first one work for his win and the second one we drew.  On the 3rd game I played a really nice guy that hadn't played in over 8 years before this tourney.  I basically surrounded his low model count nid army and executed it.  It was very cool to hear his stories though about his previous work with GW and knowledge of the beginnings of 40k.  I figured he was one of the original big tourney organizers in North America back in the Rogue Trader days.  What was a little odd was he claimed to be texting Andy Chambers(the author of the WitchHunter Codex) and was sending him pics of my army.  Who knows what that was all about.  I felt like telling him to tell him that PEs, Repentias and Arco-Flags are worthless units. and to get his act together and help GW write a new codex.

Another revelation for me out of Kubla was that I don't know how much I really like playing the Sisters anymore.  The list hasn't really changed in about 1 year and is feeling really generic.  My CSMs have tons more options and just are all around a lot more fun to play.  So for the first time I am starting to ponder selling my army but my laziness and remaining affection for the Sisters will probably keep that from happening.
What is scary is that I do have a shit ton of Sisters. Just looking at it today I have
3 Exorcists
4 Immolators (3 new one OOP)
3 Rhinos
40+ Regular sisters
18 melta girls
6 hvy flamer
4 MultiMelta
2 Hvy bolter
8 Superiors
1 Inquis
6 Arco-Flags
8 Storm Bolter sisters
2 Flamer Sisters
18 Seraphim
2 Canonesses

I wonder if I could get about $750 on ebay or not.

Regardless, Kubla was fun my only complaints were that I got slammed on painting again and the missions sort of blew.  A 6 objective game with DoW + Evening night flighting just sucks eggs.  Actually the first 2 missions really put a crimp in my army and gave shooting lists a ton of advantages against me even the 3 mission was sort of lame and just didnt seem tested.

I was stoked that the players from GK did very well in the tourney overall with the top general spot and other spots in the top 5 going to guys from there.  Oddly enough I had a lot more fun at Ard Boyz and this is really making me question if I want to do Kubla again next year. To be honest tourneys at GK are pretty cool with great prizes so it makes it rough to justify spending the entire day and the $45 sign up fee when I could just play for $10 and get better prizes with better missions.

Exorcists Completed

By popular demand.  Well really demand by one person.  Here are some close ups of the army

The Exorcists

HQ with Celestians

Ghetto Immolator that now looks cool

Sisters 1850 and ready to rumble

Here they are.

I have a little work to do in cleaning up an Immolator which I just busted off a ram from.  But other than that here it is.  The Celestians and tanks are all nice but I am not 100% sold on the bulk troops being acceptable.
So for a final list I am going with
Palatine with Psword with Celestian Ret, 2 meltas  in an Immolator with Smoke
3 Celestian Squads with 2 Meltas in Immolators with Smoke
3 Battle Sister Squads with 1 hvyFlamer, 1 melta, Vet superior with book and combi-melta in rhinos
1 Battle Sister Squad on Food with just bolters
3 Exorcists
And if you are curious that 100% metal Minis.

Kubla INC

Its the last week of May finally and Kulba Con is right around the corner.

I have convinced myself to move forward with my Sisters army even tho I would probably do better with my CSMs in both painting and playing.  But I want to give the girls a chance to shine.  Last year I used CSMs and pretty much chundered  my first games.  Hopefully this year it goes better for the girls and I am a better player than a year ago.

My list is looking like this:
Palatine: Bolter book
Celestian Retinue: 2 Meltas
Immolator smoke
3 Celestian Squads 2 meltas in Immolators smoke\
3 Battle Sister Squads with Superior with book, 1 Melta 1 Flamer in Rhino with Smoke
1 Battle Sister Squad just with bolters and Superior with Book
3 Exorcists
Thats 11 tanks and scarily enough I have the all.

The one change I am thinking is taking the Bolter girl squad out of a rhino and just making them foot.  That way I could put some combi-meltas on the Sister Superiors and maybe a power weapon on the Palatine.  Having one foot squad isnt too bad and I hate the way my rhino looks that I tried to make work for both girls and CSMs.  The other idea I am pondering is taking out the hvy flamers with the girls and putting in more meltas.  I can logistically do this but would have some speed painting to accomplish to get those girls ready.

One the plus side I am almost done with the repaint of all the Exorcists and will try and post some pic soon.  I am pretty happy with them and the ghetto Immolator that I finally fixed up last week.

Ard boyz 2010 report (Game3)

On to game 3 at ard boyz.
For me this one was the most fun.  Very cool new opponent who I had never seen before at GK, I got to play the new nids for the second time which was exciting for me and I was pretty amped up from my last game.

We got the snow board at GK which I have had some really bad luck on.  This time it was set up way better with a little more cover on the other side.  My last time on it, I got an asskicking and played a really crappy game.  This time I was determined to not let that happen.

His list looked like this:
Tyranid Prim
Nid Warrior Brood with nasty CC stuff and one with a venom cannon
Nid Warrior brood Death spitters and one with one with CC stuff
Parasite of Mortrex: Some flying thing
Ymgarl Genestealers 7
Zoanthrope Brood in Pod
The Doom of Malan'tai
2 Tyrannofex
2 GeneStealer Brood 5
Carnifex brood 3
3 Spore Mine clusters 3 in each one

Tyranid stuff is totally new to me so I really had no clue what these guys really did.  I did fear the big cannons deals he had on the board and the Carnifexs since they had mauled me in the past.

I deployed first and put my troops in an arc with the oblits in cover on each flank and the core of my troops in the middle or behind the oblits to protect them from nids.

He moved his mob in the middle and geared toward the his left side with warriors and the crazy named dude in cover.  Doom, GSs and the Zoes where in reserve

Turn One:  I got to go first  (YAY)
I starting picking him down with oblits and lascannons from the LR/Pred.  Killed one Carni and got a wound on another.  Moved oblits to better cover and hunkered down my troops
His turn, he bombed my LR right away with a shot from his STR 10 cannons.  I was a little stunned but I lose that thing every game and its what it's for.
Turn 2
Moved Huron/Termies up with DP hiding.  Used the oblits to start hitting those cannons and putting wounds on them.  The DP peaked over and lashed the carnis up and then huron/termies went at em with meltas and then a charge.  Wiped those out which made me happy.
His turn, he shot at the rhinos but didnt pop anything and charged my Oblits with the crazy named dude. The Oblits stepped up, lost one and then put the hurt on that dude.  He went down to a pummeling of Pfists.  His Zoes and other DSers/outflankers didnt come in and it was looking pretty good for me.
Turn 3
I now turned all my Las fire on his Cannon things and killed one while wounding the other.  I pulled back huron and his termies since i didnt want them charged by the warriors and started to creep my other troops up.
On his turn he dropped in the Zoes which popped a rhino and started to scare me, one GS and the freaky GS came out.  The GS up to get near the guys from the rhino and the freaky ones came in where the Oblits were who then stepped on 4 of them right off.  He jumped those out the window and then they charged some zerkers.  That worked pretty well for me since the zerkers were able to hand it to them pretty badly.  His cannon took some shots but that was about it.
On my turn Huron + DP and Termies moved on the warriors and charged them.  I hit them with flames and bolters then went in.  My lascannons worked some more on the cannon deal and started in on the Zoes + Drop pod.  I also moved up my CSMs to start getting in on things since only the doom and one more GS squad was out there and brought up the zerkers to hit the zoes.  Huron and DP killed the Warrior HQ dude and mauled the warriors pretty bad.  He got some payback and knocked out most of the termies but he was reeling
On his turn he popped the other rhino and mauled up a zerker squad pretty good and then rushed some more zerkers with his GS's which just got mauled.  The other GS came in but on the other side and thats about it.
Turn 4
Zerkers hit the Zoes and DP/Huron were now in the thick of Warriors and lost their remaining termies.  My CSMs charged up and finished the cannon thing and started to move in support of Huron and would be ready to charge in next turn.  His turn wasn't the best and he was pretty much wrapped up in CC with my guys.
Turn 5
I knocked out the Zoes and remaining warriors and now turned everything to the last GS squad.
Doom finally came in and could have been a game changer but I only lost Huron to it.  The rolls just didn't happen there.
Turn 6
I knocked the GSs around and got them to run since they had no synapse which ended the game.

My opponent was great this game being a great sport and gamer.  He took a pounding on the dice and in the action but never said one thing negative or acted anything but gracious.  On the rules he was fast and we did a lot of die roll decisions to get things to move along fast.  He was an example about why I like playing in tourneys at GK, you met some great people and have some great games.
Overall the tourney was a lot of fun for me and I really enjoyed the games/opponents.  Of course I enjoyed winning some games but really just liked hanging out and getting to know new people and people I had met before better.  Unfortunately I wont be able to play again until August in a tourney at GK but some of the same guys that I played against are all going to be at Kubla next week which should be awesome.  I do have some pics which I will try to sneak in today.

Ard Boyz 2010 report (Game2)

Game 2 was way different from Game 1.

Since I got creamed in game 1, I was sent out of the big kids room and exiled to the pokemon room with my opponent.  It made me feel a little sad but at least we had plenty of space, my opponent and his buddy who was watching were cool and we had the choice of terrain.  Also, a little breather from the massed smell of manflesh in the big room was nice :).

My opponent was playing the new BA for the first time and just got a good asswhooping from an Eldar player.  I dont have his list but from memory it had:
Dante with Sanguinary Guard
Librarian of some sort with an Assault squad
2 Furioso Dreadnoughts in Drop pods
2-5 man Squads of Sanguinary Guard with some other IC.
1 Tac Marine squad in Drop Pod

So there was none of their new flyers or Deep Striking Land raiders that I had been fearing but I was pretty scared of the new Dreadnoughts and ICs.

I got the roll to go first and set up in the corner and he deployed his Lib with troops hidden in cover.  I probably should of forced him to go first with the drop pods but I wanted to get everything out there.  I decided to lash up his lib squad and just obliterate it.  In an insanely crappy roll I rolled 3 Ones for the Plasma overheats and basically didnt do anything.  I got to shoot at a couple with lascannons but it was pretty bad.
On his turn he moved up with that squad and then drop in his 2 dreads.  They took their shots but blew their rolls as well so we were pretty even.

On the 2nd turn the dice started to turn for me.  I was able to assault his librairain with huron, the termies and a DP.  Basically the DP and Huron just cleared them off the the table.  Also my oblits and pred were able to stun one and destroy the other dread getting them off the table.
On his turn he was able to get another 2 Sanguinary guards down and missed the LR but other than that he was stuck in place. Dante also came down and immobilized the pred

On turn 3 I was able to bring my whole army down on his remaining forces.  The other dread got popped right away by the oblits and then I charged the other Sanguinary squads with zerkers, huron, termies and the DP.  They all got wiped off the table.  All that remained for him was Dante hanging out by my pred.
On his turn he moved up Dante and popped my LR.  His last tac squad came down and that was it.

On turn 4 I cleared Dante and the other Sanguinary guard off and wheeled around the rest of my army to finish off the tac squad.  At that point we called the game.

I felt sort of bad since the list wasn't really tuned and was fed to my troops piecemeal.  The Sanguinary guard really dont scare me since they seem so small and not much different from just normal marines.

Overall it was an entertaining game for me and I think my first game really got me into the mode for playing my CSMs.

Ard boyz 2010 report (Game1)

Got to attend my first Ard Boyz and had a lot of fun.  The venue was great as always with solid opponents and a great atmosphere.  We are very lucky in the South Bay Area to have Game Kastle and I hope they keep doing well.  My only minor complaint is that none of the employees are big 40k players now so its a little rough for them to be good refs.  Luckily there are enough experienced players that issues get resolved quickly by consensus.

So,  I brought my CSM army that I posted a couple of days before and didnt do too badly.

First Game:  JeffKs CSM army
2 Slannesh DPs wings/Lash
2 Chosen, 5 man squad 3 meltas/2 flamers in Rhinos with Combi-Plasma
2 10  CSM squads with Lascannon and Plasma Gun
1 10  CSM squad with 2 flamers, champ w/pfist&combi-melta
1 10  CSM squad with 2 melta, champ w pfist&combi-flamer
1 10 Plague marine squad w/2meltas
3/3 oblit squads

Not too much different than mine except for the 2 DPs and extra oblit squad.
Just to make a quick note here:  This was my first tourney game in over 6 months and first game against someone that isnt Captn Dees in over 5 months.  So I rolled to go first and deployed.  Not the best deployment but I thought it was ok.  My big problem was that I deployed the oblits into cover so that they could get some shots.  Unfortunately JeffK deployed himself expertly with rhinos providing a great shield wall.  I then dorked all my Oblit shots and in retrospect I should of shot Plasma Cannons at the rhinos and tried to splash the units behind them.  Deployment was the first of many lessons this game.
On his turn he blew the crap outta my oblits leaving me with one and then he moved up.  I won the roll for the objective placement and had a nice group of 3 on my side of the table.  I was planning to just try and hold on to these and play for the minor victory/maybe tie.
Turn 2 I rolled out the LR with Huron to try and hit the DPs.  I lashed one forward and hit it with all I had, killing it.  I had some weak shots on the rest his army with no real effect.
JeffK countered with superior oblit fire and wasted Huron's unit and then finished it with his Death Guard and other DP.  Also by this time he had started moving into the center and took out my LR and another rhino. He also came in with chosen on my right side.
Turn 3 I moved up my zerkers and tried to kill his Death Guard since it was a troop and eventually got it.  I still had all my troops and was on the objectives so I was hoping I would get a tie at this point.  Like a moron I allowed one of my CSM squads to get pulled off to deal with the chosen when I should of ignored them.
On his turn he wiped my zerkers, and mauled my CSMs that I pulled to attack his Chosen.  My rhinos started taking a pounding but he was rolling pretty crap.
The rest of the game was really just him picking apart my units that were on the objectives.  I tried to make him work for it but gradually he got them all.  I blew a difficult terrain test with one of my rhinos which made it impossible for me to block an objective but that was about it.  I also didnt know that you could Lash someone into dangerous terrain but I learned that lesson as well.
Overall this game I was out played.  JeffK didnt really roll well but he blew me off the table.  I got massacred but have to say it was a real enjoyable game.  It was very cool to watch someone play CSM so effectively and it truly helped me for my next 2 games.
Big lessons from this one:

• Get oblits anyway possible even if it's with PC splash or hide your obits turn one if you can shoot at his oblits or other things that can kill yours. Not having 5 oblits was a big blow from turn 1.
• Dont come out of your LR unless its perfect.  Make him pop it then hit him with a charge.
• Ignore chosen(nonscoring units) on your flanks if you have objectives to worry about.  I could have covered an objective with a rhino and forced him to pound on it all game.  Instead I chased a nonscoring unit and blew it.
• Lashs can put you in dangerous terrain.  Should of known this and I think in the back of my brain I did.

Ard Boyz 2010

Going in to most likely get my face smashed.

Decided to roll with CSMs since its the easiest to field and this is last minute.  I am still planning on girls for Kubla but I dont have the minis to get up to 2500 with Sisters really effectively.

CSM List
Huron
DP with lash/wings
2-10 Zerker squads with 1 pfist champ and 1 Plasma Pistol in rhino
2- 10 CSM squads with 1 pfist champ and 2 meltas in rhino
2- 3 oblit squads
1 Tri Las Pred
1 Land Raider with 4 termies loaded out with 1 Cfist on champ and 3 combimeltas +1 hvy flamer
Feels super small for 2500 but I hope it does ok.

At least I got 11 LasCannons to fire which might be ok but with IG pounding me I dont think it would do too good.  Its all painted and looks good and I know Huron is not uber but I play better when I have some fluff.

Book review: The Lost (Gaunt's Ghost Omni)

This is the 3rd Gaunt Omni that I have plowed through.  For entertainment value these books are great and always a fun read.  But I felt that this book was the weakest of the 3 massive omni's but still worth reading.  The first book in this Omni was great but then the series had a tendency to trail off after that.


My big issues with the books were:
Abnett likes to kill characters but he always replaces them.  So I always get the feeling when some is introduced that someone is about to die.  Also he seems to be mining the same themes over and over again.  I don't know if its noticeable if you read the books over the years they were released but when you condense your Gaunt experience into one year you get the feeling you have read this book before.


At the end of the day I am still looking forward to the next Omnibus but really want to see this story wrap up and close some loose ends.  Hopefully he finishes it off with the next one.

Exorcists before and after

I have started redoing my Exorcists and got one done this week.  Hopefully I have time to get to the other 2 and one of my Immolators before KublaCon because I am pretty happy with the results. Here are some pics of the new one and how it looked before.

The big thing I am happy about  is fixing the Purity Seals.  I painted those before I was informed about em and made them look pretty stupid with colors.  I like the new look quiete a bit and am only unhappy about a couple of the decals.

To repaint or not repaint

I am getting my girls ready for an upcoming tourney and am wondering if I should dive into making them look a lot nicer.

My new Celetians are great and exactly the quality I want the army to have but the Battle Sisters I painted ages ago are looking really shitty.  Also my Exorcists just look bad at this point.

So I gotta decide what to do.

Finished Gods of War 3

GOD DAMN that is a good game.  Not too hard but hard enough to make you feel like you accomplished something when it was over.  Very cool balance and control throughout the whole game.  If you have a PS3 it is a treat and I highly recommend it.

Sisters army 1850

They are starting to come together.  Got the last immolator ready today and if my trade from bartertown works out then it should have its glass dome soon.

Here it is there are still a couple more girls to paint but its pretty close:

Gods of War 3

Not 40k related but god damn Gods of War3 is an insane game.  Been playing it hard for the last couple of days which has kept me away from the minis.  Got a couple girls cooling in some Simple Green now to take off this booty primer  and started to convert one of my Superior Seraphim into a Vet Sup today.  Doesnt look stellar but I think it will work

A Thousand Sons by Graham McNeil

Another solid book in the Horus Heresy series.  As a 40k player these books are really mana from heaven.  It is very cool to read about characters that you have in your miniature collection and know really well.  This book continues to build out some incredible back story for all the Chaos Legions and I enjoyed it very much.  I do wonder tho how much you would like these books if you didnt play 40k.  I think the books hold up pretty well to other military Sci-fi novels but I wonder if I cut them some slack cause I love the game so much.

Regardless, great book and its a very fun/quick read.

I have started to have some questions tho about where some stuff is going and wonder if we will ever see things in the main game.  These Silent Sisterhood girls are really starting to sound more and more like the pre-cursors of the Sisters of Battle or Culexus Assassins.  If and this is a big IF, they are redoing the =I= codex right now I wonder if they are re-writting the fluff completely.  The signs are there and it would be cool to tie the =I= into the who Horus Heresy books.

KublaCon

After much internal debate and some wise words from CaptDees.  I have decided to play Sisters at the Tourney.  I was potentially thinking of running an all Nurgle list with some bikers but I would just get pounded and be sad.

So this needs some playtesting and here is what I am thinking:

1 Palatine with Celes Ret in Immoator

3/5 Girl Celestian Squads in Immolators with 2 meltas

4/10 Girl Battle Sister squads 3 with 2 meltas 1 with just bolter with Vet Sups with books

3 Exorcists

No smoke on the exorcists and one girl squad with just bolters for holding a objective or just random havoc.

I have all the tanks right now and just need to build/paint an immolator.  I might need to get some other pieces together but I picked up 2 more melta girls at the GameKastle flea market and have 4 coming in from an Ebay win so I think I am set.

For this list I fear 2 things:  IG and my stupidity.  I will need to play every game for the draw and pull people to me to win so hopefully I can contain myself and not go for massacres.

The Beast

This is the LR I am so happy about.  I wish she was performing a little better and then I would feel better about using her at Kubla Con but after last week I dont know.

Biting the pillow

Things didnt go well for my CSM list over the weekend.  Got whooped on twice by orks and then even took  a beating from a 1kSons army which was pretty sad.



The list I rolled with was:
Kharn
CSM Sorcerer with Lash
7 PM squad with 2 meltas in Rhinos AC with Pfist
7 PM squad with 2 plasmas in Rhinos AC with Pfist
7 Zerkers with  AC pfist
Landraider for Kharn and Zerkers
2/2 oblit squads
2/5man Chosen Squads with 3 meltas

thats it and it sucked.  I really want to field my Land Raider since its the center piece of my army right now but I am really questioning if its going to be effective.  When I look at the girls I can field at 1850 I really wonder why  am bothering.

Heresy

I am thinking of jumping into a Fantasy Army and have caught myself staring at the Skaven.

The new models are rad and I love the wheel of doom.

But I have heard some poopy things about Warhammer Fantasy so I am a little worried about making the plunge in. IF anyone has any input about the pros of Fantasy and if it stands up to 40k or other systems please post.

W00T: New Inquistor Series coming Ravenor v. Eisenhorn

Heard this today and am very excited.  Dont know if its new but I will love reading about Eisenhorn kicking some ass.  Very cool interview on multiple levels. I was also happy to hear that the Alpha Legion might get another pass.

Thinking about =][=

I was checking out the GW store yesterday and noticed that the Witch and Daemon Hunter codexs are still not up there.  The metal sets have returned but those are gone which is very cool.  I know there are some different opinions out there on whether the Sisters and Grey Knights should have their own codexs but I think combining them could be pretty cool.  It is going to open up more model choices for me and is going to be a lot of fun.  If GW keeps the trend going with their new Codexs I think we could be in for some fun times with the Inquisition.  I really like my Sisters right now but I would like to see a couple things and it makes sense to me that this would happen:  New Transport (Flyer) an Argus Plastic kit or Valkyrie variant, new point costs and abilities for Repentia's; maybe fleet or some sort of invul save, Arco-Flags repriced and most of all named Saints, Inquistors and Canonesses.  Ideally it would be great to see the point costs of Battle Sister squads and Grey Knights be brought in line with other MEQ units and I suspect they will be.  The big questions I have is whether or not they will make the leap in Ordos Xenos or stick with the two and I also wonder if they will introduce Assassin kill squads instead of making them solo.

Landraider almost there

I am pretty happy with how the Land Raider is turning out.  Overall the greenstuff makes a nice Plague-like ooze and some of the bones I put in actually look pretty cool.  The only thing I would like to figure out is how to properly do MUD or dirt off the tracks.   I made the tracks kind of a rusty metal which actually looks cool but I like the idea of having a little bit more on that front.

Almost wrapped up with the CSMs which is only going to make me start eyeing new armies, or possible  a new mini system. Gonna need my fix somewhere and I cant go back to WoW.

Thinking about a 3rd Army

I am starting to contemplate building up a 3rd army and its sorta down to 2 choices.

Necron:  Could be fun to paint but get boring fast with 50 warriors.  I like the idea of inventing a really cool rusty look for them but am not sure.  Also a new codex is looking likely so it might be fun to ride that wagon.

SMs:  Vanilla marines painted for Salamanders or Iron Snakes.  They are cheap due to the massive kits but I am not sure.

I still got to get the money together but with nothing more to really buy for CSMs and Sisters its pretty tempting.

Flight of the Eisenstein (Quick Review)

Just finished this while traveling for work.  Not a bad read at all and it was much different than I thought it would be.  Especially since I play a CSM army it was very cool to get some background on the Death Guard and get some more info about Mortorian and Typhion.    James Swallow isnt necessarily my favorite BL author but he did a good job with the entire story arch and tied it into the other books very well.  The ending was a little bit of a let down but I am sure the characters will be coming back for more in the upcoming stories.

Overall it was not the strongest in the series and was potentially the weakest I have read so far but it is still a solid book.

Book review: Galaxy in Flames by Ben Counter

I finished this book on my last trip but didnt get a chance to right up anything about it.  I had been reluctant to pick this book up since I havent been overly impressed with his short stories.  But I have to say I really enjoyed the book.  Not as much as the Abnett or McNeil books but overall it was a good read.  He has his own style and the story carried over nicely from the other 2 books with some good closure of storylines.  It is getting a little confusing with all the characters and since I read the books out of order by reading Fulgrim first I knew a little bit more about the Emperor's Children characters making it seem a little out of joint.  But it's a  very cool book and I probably should of read it first instead of skipping it to move on to Fulgrim.  I am debating on picking up The Flight of the Eisenstein but I haven't been too impressed with Swallow's short stories so I am not sure.  I cant wait for the new McNeil book and hopefully Abnett was start to feel better so that his 1ksons book can hit the stores as well.

Finally got in some games

I finally got a chance to play some games last night which was great.  We have had a lot of game days/nights fall through and I have been super flaky recently with the new job/3 kids keep me busy, so I havent been able to play much.

Luckily, Captn Dees was able to come over with his Drop Pod Templar list and we got to play 2 games.  I really like the Drop Pod dynamics since it gets the game going right away and there is no pussy footing around.



For the games I fielded my Plague marines army:
Nurgle Chaos Lord with PowerSword and Combi-Melta
DP with wings
2/ 7 man PLague marine squads with Champ-pfist and 2 meltas in rhinos
1 7 man Plague Marine Squad with champ-pfist and 2 meltas with Lord in:
1 Land Raider with Daemonic Possession
2/5 man chosen squads with 3 meltas in rhinos
2/2 oblit squads

The templar
Marshall with TH and SS
Chaplain with a psword (?) and a combi melta
Emperors champion
3 BT squads with their neophytes and normal SMs melta and pfist
1 BT squad with melta and pfist
2 Dreads with Mmeltas and pfists
3 Speeders with Hflamers and Mmeltas

all the dudes and dreads in Drop Pods which I think brings it to 6 pods total.  Seeing all those Pods can be intimidating but when I am playing my CSMs I dont really mind.

First game was 2 objectives and I choose to go second.  I decided to place everything in reserve and just roll out on him after he had dropped down.  I only got one PM squad to come out the first turn where as he got about 60% of his army out on turn 2.  I wussed it a bit by putting the PMs off on the side to engage the speeders which I am still debating and whether or not that was smart.  He proceeded to drop on the objectives and start to secure them right away.  Gradually the rest of my army came on and in typical CSM fashion they started to kick some can.  The game was pretty bloody but in the end he had one dude hanging on to my objective even tho I had whooped on 2 squads and a dread there.  So I lost but the army did ok.

Second game was kill points.  This gave me a pretty nice advantage since I had 14 KPs to his 20.  I decided to deploy this time in a little ring.  Maybe I should of bubble wrapped my tanks but I decided to just throw them out there with smoke.  On turn 2 when his pods started raining down he got 2 rhinos right off the bat.  My response was pretty effective with the killing of a squad, dread, 2 pods and I think a speeder.  I also engaged his Marshal with the DP, Lord and PMs right away.  I chundered a bit on the rolls but I felt like I was doing ok.  For the next couple of turns it was pretty back and forth and just as I started to really pull ahead I executed a stunning display of horrible rolling (once again).  Luckily I was able to eek out a victory but we called the game a little short because one of my little girls refused to go to bed and was making eyes for the templar.

Overall it was a lot of fun to get some games in and it reminded me that I miss playing quite a bit.  My kids arent 100% ready to have people playing minis in the next room but they are getting closer.  Maybe in a couple months we can give it another shot.  Unfortunately, I am going to miss the next tourney due to a tradeshow but thats ok since I would rather be employed and having a good time in SF.  I am hoping to do the upcoming doubles tourney at Game Kastle with  Soulcrusher's  IG army and I am very much looking forward to that.

Nurgle Chaos Lord

Did a little conversion this weekend using some left over CSM and Plague Marine parts.  I sculpted the cape out of some green stuff and got a great hairy effect by sticking it to some newspaper.  Its always nice when a mistake turns out to be pretty cool.  I also made the Combi-Melta with some left over melta parts from an Immolator.  Overall I am pretty happy with it but its doesn't look very Lordly.

Thinking Ard Boyz

I am seriously starting to consider doing Ard Boyz this year and want to start planning now.  The Bay Area the event is in May but I am still going to have to gather some minis to play and do a lot of painting/modeling to be ready.




Right now the list I am thinking of is:
HQ:
Typhus
Daemon Prince, Wings, MoS, Lash
Elites:
4 Terminators: 1 ChFt, 1 PF, 1 Hvy Flamer, 2 CombiMeltas, 1 Champ with PF and CombiMelta
Land Raider with Daemonic Possession
2/5 man Chosen Squads in Rhinos with 3 meltas
Troops
3/7 man Plague Marine Squads in Rhinos with 2 meltas and a champ with a PF
Heavy
2/3 Oblit Squads
1 Trilas Pred

2498 Points

I know that Typhus is a little fluffy but I think he would be fun to run and will theme well with the PMs.  I like this list at least on paper.  With 11 Lascannons (3 of them TLed) this could be a nice anti-mech list.  It wont match a IG list but it could kill some Chims and Rhinos pretty easily.  Also with the 2 Chosen squads and meltas all throughout the army it should have some nice hvy tank killing power.  I have no idea how it would match up against the new nids but with the flamers mixed in and Termies I should be able to put some hurt on them.

To make this happen I only need to buy Typhus which is pretty cool.  I already have another Rhino in pieces that I need to get together and paint as well as another that I started this weekend.  I will also need to finish the conversion of my Land Raider into a full-on Nurgle monster but thats about it.

Back from the travels

Got back from my trip late Friday and am still pretty exhausted.  Unfortunately this time I didnt get a chance to check out any gaming stores since I was super slammed the whole time.  Hopefully next trip I will be able to check out the mini gaming scene in Austin.  I am even tempted to load up my Army Transport some time if I know I will be there for a Thurs night again.

I have 2 rhinos waiting for me to work on this week so I might try and get that going.  But it looks like the new job is going to keep me pretty busy(which is a really good thing :))

First batch of Chosen done

Luckily, I was able to squeeze in a little painting this week before my trip and got these dudes wrapped up.  I wanted them to fit in with my other CSMs but make em a little more showy so that they could be identified as Chosen.  I am looking to get another group of 5 done but I am running low on melta guns.  I am thinking that each group of chosen needs 3 meltas.  Also this is the first time that I really used decals.  I am not 100% sold on em and I kind of felt cheapen by the experience but a couple of them turned out nice.

Chosen

Getting some Chosen melta dudes together today.  Converting some zerker CSMs and they are starting to look cool.  When you cut off the khorne helmet ornaments the head pieces great.  I am happy with the first one and have started in on the next 2.

Cthulhu makes me happy

Saw this today and it made me smile



Been pretty slammed with the new job and driving everywhere in the bay area so I havent had much chance to work on minis or play any games.  At least in a couple weeks I am going to get a chance to spend some time in Austin and hopefully I can check out the store the Bols dudes all play in.

Plague Marines batch done

Got the big batch done and can now ad in 8 more Plague Marines to my arsenal.  Now I just need a couple more rhinos and maybe some Meltas and I will be good to go for the tourney.  I feel like Rhinos are the bane of my existence but I need just a couple more to complete this army.

God made the desert to train the faithful

I rarely post personal things but today I am happy to post that I am back to full employment.  I might not be able to keep up with this blog now as much as I was but at least I got a budget for mini's again :).

Thanks to all my buds out there that gave me a ton of support throughout this long haul of unemployment.  The market is a bitch out there now and I can seriously sympathize with everyone out there who is still unemployed.  At least things seem to be turning around now and hopefully we are getting out of this mess.

Custom bases

After getting pooped on by Capt_Dees in the comments I decided to put a little more effort into my bases for the Plague Marines I am working on.

Using some crushed up rocks from the yard and some sand I think I got a pretty good effect:

They still need to be painted and such but I think they dont look too bad and the price is right :).

Plague Marines chugging along

I am almost done with my new batch of Plague Marines and am very happy with how they are coming along.  I kept with the Red Corsairs theme for the Plague Marines and I think it gives them a nice different look while keeping them in line with the rest of my CSMs.  Hopefully I will find a way to show them off at the next tourney.

1500 Tourney Coming up

I made a tactical decision to pass on the last tourney at Game Kastle so that I could spend some time with the kids, go to a bday party and give my wife a little morning break. So now I have earned enough good will to be able to play in the Feb 6 tourney coming up.

Once again the eternal debate begins to rage about whether or not to use Sisters or CSMs.

I think I could squeeze in another Immolator or another Exorcist into the list and I would really like to have another Battle Sisters Rhino as well for my girls. For CSMs I was looking at 3/ 7 man squads of vanilla CSMs, 2 Chosen 5 man squads in Rhinos with 2 meltas, and 3/2 Oblit squads, with 2 CSM sorcerers leading them.

I got some work to do in order to get together the lists and work on some models but I think I can get it all together. Hopefully this tourney will go well for me and I won't chunder in the brain this time.

Celestians done

I think I am done until I add in another Immolator. I also could get another Melta girl but in a way I am leaning towards have 1 melta/hvy flamer in with my Canonness retinue. Now I gotta go and start touching up my regular Battle Sisters. I think I will leave them Black so that there is a nice difference between Celestians and regular girls.

Brush battle

Recently I have been trying out a couple new brushes and deviated from my usual Raphael 8404 3/0. One is the Connoisseur 007 Kolinsky Round: I picked this one up at an Art Store in Santa Cruz because I thought it was on sale but it really wasn't. It cost me $18 and was a let down. The staff was nice at the store but got a little snooty when I asked for Raphael's and I had to endure comments like; "Do you want to spend that much on a brush you paint miniatures with?". It was rather annoying especially since you can get them at Dickblick for $8 and they told me they usually cost $24 for the one I wanted. So after I told one of the ladies who worked at the store not to touch my kid (it was rather creepy, this lady who worked there seemed nice but couldn't keep away from my 3 months old so I eventually told her to her back off). I felt bad and bought some brushes. To sum it up the brush sorta sucked. I am pretty tough on brushes but this one is burning out fast. It also doesn't hold or spread paint as nicely as the Raphaels which I found far superior. I was a wee bit bummed out cause I could of ordered 2 of them from DickBlick but at least I tried something new.

Last week I picked up a new Windsor and Newton Series 7 at Game Kastle to use up my Gift Card and I have been very happy with it. So far I have used it for about 8 minis and it is holding up really well. Its a very nice brush and for sure gives the Raphael's a run for their money. So far its held up a little better than my last batch of Raphael's but I was pretty harsh on those brushes. Overall its a great brush and I might have to order a batch of them once this one burns out.

So to sum up: I highly recommend both the Windsor&Newton Miniature brushes and the Raphael's. If you order them online you can save a ton of money and these brushes are really far superior to the GW and other mini company brushes. They have really helped me with detail and with great brushes painting really is way more enjoyable.

More rumors for Mr. Stickmonkey on Warseer

"Inquisition
* All inquisition units to get new models...eventually
* Codex: Inquisition to combine all orders of =I=
* GK being focused on for release, Sisters 2nd wave
* No allies, but indoctrinated units will include choices from other Imperial armies
* No faith points
* Lots of Psychic Nullification
* Lots of Ignore Invul
* Another flyer/transport kit Valkyrie-sized being planned for release
* GK models may see light of day early tied into another product release. (commentary: I hear rumors of a Space hulk expansion being planned, but they are vague and disorganized, so much salt needed here)
* Release window is not 2010 for C:I
* Imperial Assassin now a single unit, culdex, Caladeus, etc all gone. Unit will have numerous lethal options. Very Expensive."

From Warseer

One the plus side: New units, a combined codex (which I think will be cool), new models that could be rad, w00t a flyer. Psychic Nullifications and Invul save removers (which I would love).Maybe they will finally let Sisters get Incinerators.

On the negative side: No Faith Points :(: This makes me a little sad but if they just make them inherent abilities for certain units that could be ok. No 2010 release :(. Another year but in some ways thats ok since I am cash strapped now and would have a hard time justifying to the wife that I have to have this $60 flyer.

Overall this could be really cool. Some new diversity to Sisters would be pretty awesome since it seems that it has become an one list army. I would love to see PEs, Repentia's and Arco-flags become effective units. Hopefully something like this is in the works.