Weekly (non) progress; Total War: Warhammer

This week is a light week....

I generally split my time between my PC, and my painting desk. After spending time with my family, I generally have 2-3 hours a night to whatever is needed. 
Total War: Warhammer is one time sink at the moment.

Tutorial; Cheap, easy snow for Warhammer bases Part 2

As the article about Snow seems to be extremely popular, I thought I’d make a follow up.

The prior article is here: a simple recipe for making snow bases for Warhammer. It’s a nice read, some good tips, and processes. It’s a tutorial. Obviously,

The snow mix that I swear by is simply Bicarbonate of Soda, PVA Glue, and Water. Nice and easy and cheap!

The tutorial covers how to mix and apply but it is brief in its description, it doesn’t address some the factors that I have finessed with this technique lately. So on to Part 2!

Invaluable Warhammer tools; Battlescribe Roster builder

One of the most useful tools that I would recommend to fellow players of Wargames is Battlescribe. This is a mobile and PC based list builder that I really would struggle to live without, and heartily recommend to all (not an Ad you’ll be surprised to learn! Just really like it).

So Battlescribe is a third party app that has been around for a couple of years, and is incredibly useful to keep your lists and rules in a nearby format.

Essentially, it uses data catalogues uploaded by the gaming community to allow regular joes to build viable gaming lists.

Astra Militarum themes; Correct vs Fun

I really do need to adjust my tactics. I sit back, a lot. This is classically what Guard excel at. This is how their fluff reads. Sit behind fortifications and blow the enemy away with hammerblows of overwhelming fire-power. 

It’s a tactic that in game works well against a lot of armies such as Nids, Tau, Necrons, Chaos, Ork Kan and horde armies. The problem is everyone else.

I know the amount of Marine players I will be going up against. All with access to a lot of Deep Strike. This means this happens a lot.

40,000 Apocalyptic commitments needed

We tried our first large-scale game a couple of months back, where we tried out the Apocalypse ruleset with 7th Edition. To celebrate we tried a 40,000 point game. Here follows a breakdown of the our first experiences with the system of Apocalypse, 7th Edition, and the weekend setup.

Being championed by my good friend Bave, who managed the entire planning of the thing we set a date, and started checking how many points those invited collectively had, and how much we could field, to see what would be worth trying out. After bandying about for several days for sizes, we went for a game that would be 20,000 points a side. 

Ambitious, epic, awesome, but possibly a case of eyes being bigger than stomach!

Maximising your 40k purchases, 1 and a half years in.

I'm a massive scrimper and I thought that I’d try and share as many possible tips and tricks that I've found to maximise your 40k investment, for the moment focussing on modelling bits and the miniatures themselves.

This is only based on a year and a half of 40k, rather than a lifetime so hopefully I can add some more of these as I go.

Tempestus Scions; not a one-shot-pop-squad!

 These guys will have to do till I get my hands on the plastic Scions box set; Traitor Stormtroopers! (Because they missed the memo regarding naming conventions)

Putting aside their painting methods until later to focus more on their use in-game in comparison to the last ruleset the Stormtroopers have, in general they are cheaper, better in bulk, and using them is wholly more risky if you stick to their former play style.

I've got a legacy of being underwhelmed by the rules for Scions. In the past I've been OK with the one-shot-pop-squad, with 2 meltaguns which can deep strike for a little over 100 points, really I was. 

Now they are cheaper, even with meltaguns. They are still a costly gamble, which is heavily influenced by terrain use, but still worthwhile.

Painting; The Three Feet rule

One of the best things I've found in the last two years since rejoining the hobby are the little benefits that a gaming club brings, and the golden tips that they supply.

One definitely wins out however; The Three Feet Rule.

Closer to true 'grimdark' from Games Workshop

Things are getting darker, grittier, more violent, and more bloody. I was a '2nd editioner' back when I were only 10 or so. My parents bought me this strange box for Christmas with an entire universe inside (thanks for that by the way).

My reading habits and my entire outlook on Fiction itself changed when I read through the Codex Imperialis that came with that set. Beforehand, my reading choices had been fixed on a few Pratchetts, some Martin Jacques (freaking mice with swords!) and maybe some Tolkien, but not any more.

Time and 'Tides wait for no man/Weekend games

Oof, some big games over the weekend. Big Riptide-heavy games. A 3k, 4k, and a 1.5k point games all in a short weekend.

Having ousted the wife to stay elsewhere, 2 of my gaming buddies came round to drink beer, eat chicken wings and play some 40k games (order optional). 

One (we’ll call him ‘Bave’) is a Tau and Ultramarines player, and the other (we’ll call him ‘Den’) has Tau and Blood Angels. Between them, my buddies have around 4500 points of Tau, this includes 4 Riptides and a R'vana. Playing my Marines with these guys before I’ve now accepted my tactics to dealing with the ever-present Riptides. 

Ignore em!

Tutorial; Cheap, easy snow for Warhammer bases

This Blog should be called the 'thrifty gamer', but I expect that's taken so instead I figured I'd try and bestow some of my cheapness to others instead. And I do mean that, cheapness.

Theres a significant difference between cutting costs, and going cheap. Cost cutting to me will mean sacrificing premium purchases until necessary. Cheap means substitutes! This means Ebay'd miniatures instead of full-price ones, proxies instead of bespoke, and cooking materials instead of terrain materials.

Ideally in all of this, you won't notice too much of a difference, and your tabletop opponents aren't likely to either, in fact more people comment on the good look of the snow, and then are pleasantly surprised by its cost.

So lets get started, first up, an example of what this effect results in.

Lets play with proxies!

With the sheer volume of bodies needed for a proper guard army (the basic platoon for 130 points is 25 guys) you're gonna need to build up those spares and those extra bodies that can be added in as your list changes.

For the thrifty player in most of us, during the interim this means proxies;

Painting Traitor Guard Tanks; Sons of Sek Part 3

More on the Executioner, whilst playing with a new camera I may have gotten carried away so apologies for the over-indulgence with filters.

Another tank that was inspired by my drubbing at its hands, kitted with two heavy plasma sponsons this thing was dropping five plasma templates on my squads in a single turn. And I do mean squads. Used in a 2000 point game, where battlefields can get cramped, this thing is a nightmare. This is the first of a possible two.

So having only purchased the generic Russ kit , I splurged the cost of a large hazelnut latte from Starbucks and got the Executioner turret from a bits store.

Aside from the slight extra care with the writing on the turret-top and some heat scorching on the louvres;

Painting Traitor Guard tanks; Sons Of Sek, Part 2

Onto the next tank, and this was a happy conversion, but not as good as it could have been.

This is my dancing tank gif. It would amuse a 5 year old. Its a happy tank because he has his hat on, and then his hat off again.

Head hurt, head hurt.

Playing the Sons of Sek as a Guard 'force'

A little delayed, next steps for the Son's.

The good thing about having some painted tanks on the battlefield is that they take up the space of a squad, but take less than half the time that ten guys do, allowing your army's colour scheme to spread across the gaming table nicely. At least you'll feel slightly better about bringing grey or black mini's along.

My principal army since rejoining 40k back in May 2013 has been Space Marines, a 3000 point force of random elements (i.e. no all bike/all Stormtalon/winnerstar force), just a custom force purchased for 'model-love' more than winning intent. 

How can you not love a stompy Ironclad! Tau's bestie.

Sons of Sek; Paint schemes and Berocca paintbrush holders

So, time to attempt some colour.

First things first, basic palette.

Again, teasing data from the books shows that the SOS have yellow ochre uniform, with glossy black body armour, which rose over their mouths into a hand cupping into a gorget.

For some reason though, a paragraph lodged in my memory that indicated that the SOS wore 'acid yellow' uniforms, and whose belts, bindings, and accoutrements was formed from the flayed skin of their enemies. However, without being able to find this in the fiction, I went for the option which I could guarantee I could find.

Basic Palette
So the basic palette was nice and simple;

Converted Sons Of Sek

Well, as if my putting off writing wasn't enough, now come the Guard.

Inspired as ever by Dan Abnett's books, I felt a little homage, emphasise the 'age' please, was in order. And with a large chunk of greenstuff padding my painting box, an outlet was needed.

Here we go then. My Sons of Sek force, starting with a command squad.

Dark Vengeance Conversions

I've been painting again.

After receiving the Games Workshop Dark Vengeance set as a Christmas present from the wife, I figured I should engage with the hobby that I so gladly wrote for. Picky person that I am, I chose to make a custom army.

Enter; Astartes.