Showing posts with label Astra Militarum. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Astra Militarum. Show all posts

Friday, April 25, 2025

STILL MOAR STUFF!?

Over the last few weeks I have acquired... a few more things... despite really wanting to AVOID acquiring MOAR STUFF!?

It started with piggy-backing on a few orders Orion was placing to build up an army of Hungarians! That stuff is already painted

Then, two weekends ago, I pedaled out to the Warhammer Store to pick up this month's Free Miniature of the Month - a Death Korps of Kreig Engineer miniature... since I do actually HAVE a few... (though I've yet to FINISH painting ANY of them!?).

That same week I ended up placing a few of my own orders... 

The MAIN reason was, again, to pick up a few game mats for different environments. Because they're made in the USA, I was concerned that Canadian retailers that stock them might be raising their prices on them considerably in the not-too-distant future (because of the constant threats of a trade war and reciprocal tarrifs being announced) and wanted to just pick up two more before that happened... and... partly to get free shipping from the two places I ended up ordering from... and because both of the places had considerably discounted Bolt Action miniatures... I picked up a few other things along with them... 

The first to arrive was.... another order from 401 Games... 

Included in this order was Bolt Action: Armies of Germany 3E, French Army Weapons Teams and Casualties, Fallschirmjager Squad (Tropical Uniform), Gebirgsjäger Squad, US Marine Corps War Dog Teams, and a F.A.T. Mats 6'x4' Grassy Plains game mat (for some battles on the steppes of Russia!)! 

Next was an order from Kingdom of Titans... 

F.A.T. MATS 60"x44" Alpine game mat (for... REASONS!?), a second Chi-Ha Japanese tank, and an Afrika Korps Pak 36 light anti-tank gun and crew!  

Oh, and I got some Bersaglieri Forward Observers... from.. elsewhere... 

Okay... SERIOUSLY... I'm DONE NOW... well, for now... maybe... 

I'm definitely done with the Mats... There are a few things that I could get to finish off a few of the smaller WW2 forces... and there are a few things I'd LIKE to get for some of the others... once I've finished what I have! 

The Plan of Action to get all this (and the other WW2 stuff I have!) done is:

  1. Chi-Ha Japanese tank
  2. US Marine Corps War Dog Teams
  3. French Army Weapons Teams and Casualties
  4. Sd.Kfz 222 Armoured Car
  5. Italian M14/41 Tank
  6. Italian M14/41 Tank
  7. Bersagieri Forward Observers
  8. Panzer III
  9. Panzer III
  10. Panzer III
  11. Matilda II
  12. Matilda II
  13. Matilda II
  14. Matilda II
  15. Cruiser MkI (A9)
  16. Cruiser MkI (A9)
  17. Cruiser MkI (A9)
  18. Cruiser MkI (A9)
  19. Cruiser MkI (A9)
  20. Italian Colonial Troops 
  21. British 8th Army 6-pdr Anti-tank Gun and crew
  22. German Afrika Korps LeFH 18 10.5cm medium howitzer and crew
  23. Italian Bersaglieri Breda 2cm AA gun and crew
  24. Afrika Korps Pak 36 light anti-tank gun
  25. Fallschirmjäger Squad (Tropical Uniform)
  26. Fallschirmjäger Squad
  27. Fallschirmjäger Squad
  28. Fallschirmjäger Squad
  29. Fallschirmjäger Command Squad
  30. Fallschirmjäger assorted extras
  31. Gebirgsjäger Squad
  32. Panther
  33. Panther
  34. Panzer IV
  35. Panzer IV
  36. (assorted Heer Infantry) 
  37. (assorted British Commandoes) 
  38. S.A.S. Jeep
  39. S.A.S. Jeep
  40. S.A.S. Jeep
  41. LRDG Truck
  42. LRDG Truck

I THINK that's all the unpainted stuff I have for WW2 forces...?

 If I did ONE of these a week, it would take me to the end of the year!? Luckily at the moment, I seem to be working a bit quicker than that... 

I'm not 100% sure about the order of things... I put the French and Japanese and USMC stuff at the top, because ALL of those things are otherwise DONE, so it would be nice to knock those out and keep those forces DONE! 

After that I tried to keep focused on finishing up stuff for the North African campaign... Though the exact order of all the things for North Africa might switch around a bit... 

Our games will probably shift as Orion gets her Hungarians done, but I have NOTHING I need to paint for that as ALL of my Soviet Horde is complete and I have no interest in buying anything else for them!!

Of course there will be other things I'll be painting - There are SO MANY things I could paint up for the new Fantasy campaign we've started... and probably will... So they'll be snuck into the Queue, as required... but I'm going to try and stick to using things I already have painted, for the most part, so as not to get overwhelmed by it all and start to lose focus and interest when it becomes more burden than fun!!

I may even sneak a few 40K or AoS items into the queue from time to time, just to keep my toes into that... Most likely Eldar/Harlequins or Emperor's Children... but possibly some zombies or Skeletons for the Soulblight Gravelords...? 

The packaging for those two orders were fascinating... Both had a free shipping threshold. For 401 games in Toronto it was $165CAD. For Kingdom of Titans it was $199CAD

401 Games send the shipment in the GIGANTIC box! it was about 4'x1'x1'!? 

and it was just FULL of packing material!? 

kind of had to dig to find things and briefly wondered if they're remembered to put any of the order in the box!? 

Like, SO MUCH packing material!? 

I did, eventually find all the things... but in comparison to the size of the box, the order seemed rather diminutive!? The other long, skinny cardboard box within the cardboard box was the Game Mat I ordered from them all rolled up... 

Kingdom of Titans, by comparison, sent the order in a box less than a quarter of the size! barely larger than the tank box in length and width... 

And they were apparently totally okay with bending the rolled up mat to shove it into the box... 

To be clear, I am not COMPLAINING about either method. Both got my stuff to me lightning quick and without much trouble... Would totally order stuff from either in the future... 401 Games has a LOT of Bolt Action stuff and sells it for considerably less than what it would cost to order direct from Warlord Games!! 

Wednesday, December 4, 2024

Work-in-Progress Wednesday - 4 December 2024

I've been feeling a little bored by the Work-In-Progress Wednesdays over the last few weeks... or even months...? It's been feeling less like "Work-In-Progress Wednesdays" and more like "What's-On-the-Workbench-and-NOT-being-Worked-On Wednesdays" Where I just keep posting remarkably similar photos of the same miniatures that HAVEN'T actually had any work done on them in the last week (or MONTH!?). 

So here is a shorter series of pics of stuff I've actually been working on! (there is still LOADS of the same stuff crowding the workbench that I've been taking pictures of for the last few months!) 

I have been working on some bases for miniatures I'm planning to assemble in the next bit - mostly Chaos/Darkoath Marauders and the Corvus Cabal miniatures I picked up on the weekend. 

Speaking of miniatures picked up on the weekend... 

I assembled and started on the Provisionally Prepared Ratling Sniper team. I don't often paint things in parts and then assemble... but this one seemed like I should... there have been more and more miniatures lately that I've felt, if I had the patience, it probably would have been smarter to assemble parts and paint them before putting the the whole thing together...

I also assembled and started painting Lady Annika and Kritza the Rat Prince... even though I won't be needing them for MONTHS, likely... and did NOT work on ANY of the Warhammer Quest heroes that I probably could have used this evening!?

I also started on the Slaves to Darkness Endless spells I picked up over the weekend... which is super smart, considering I don't really have any Slaves to Darkness miniatures... other than Khagra's Ravager's and Hargax's Pit Beasts... 

This is the Darkfire Daemonrift... I was trying to make purple flames... Not sure it's really working... The base and miniature on these are not yet attached as I realized it would probably work out better for these if I painted them separately and then attached - as both parts would require a fair bit of drybrushing and if they were attached it would mean and endless loop of going back and fixing bits that I'd accidentally got the dry brushing colour of one on the other... ugh... it's workedout pretty well working on the parts separately... not sure if I'm loving the purple flames though... 

The Realmscourge Rupture is coming along... starting to feel like these might have done well to paint separately too... ah, well... 

The Eightfold Doom-Sigil... I was thinking of doing pink or blue flames on this... but considering how the purple flame on the Darkfire Daemonrift, I may just do regular red/orange/yellow flame... 

Maybe that's the problem... regular flames are red and orange and yellow... the purple flames are just purple of different values... the monotone just isn't as interesting? I'm not sure purple/blue/green flames would really work though. Maybe if it was for a Tzeentch-leaning army... but my Slaves to Darkness I always imagined allied to the Hedonites of Slaanesh - my first chaos army... 

I've also, finally done some work on one of the other Slaanesh Endless Spells: the Dreadful Visage! It is very nearly done... 

There are still the same Warhammer Underworlds Warbands on the workbench... and the last of the Sylvaneth and Nighthaunts... and more tokens and heroes and villains for Warhammer Quest: Cursed City... And a smattering of Slaves to Darkness Heroes and cavalry... hopefully I'll get to them at some point!? 

What are YOU working on this week!? 

let me know in the comments!


Saturday, November 30, 2024

BLACK FRIDAY

I did end up wandering over to Dragon's Den games to pick up a few items on Black Friday...

A box of Corvus Cabal cultists (as they've been discontinued), Slaves to Darkness Endless Spells (because I am going to try and focus on getting all my Slaves to Darkness stuff finished up in the new year) and the Provisionally Prepared Commemorative Series set... (because SPACE HOBBIT SNIPERS!)

I've already got the Slaves to Darkness Endless Spells mostly assembled, and the Provisionally Prepared mostly assembled - in three parts for painting - the two figures are on temporary individual bases for painting. After I painted the base and terrain on it, and paint the two Ratlings, I'll finish assembly.

STILL working on that Game Report from Wednesday... 

Tuesday, October 8, 2024

Warhammer Day and MORE Plans

Well, Saturday was "Warhammer Day". There was a special commemorative miniature. There was a Big Preview Show online. So many people logged into the Warhammer Community Website that it crashed and was down for most of the day - leaving people wondering WTF was going on - hearing bits and pieces of information that was in the video, but unable to access the articles on the website that would provide further explanation... 

I watched most of the video on twitch. I skipped a bunch of he stuff about 40K and the Horus Heresy and the new epic game... I was there for the Warhammer Underworlds reveal and the preview of the new Slaves to Darkness stuff... and other stuff... 


The Miniature

(the above picture is ©2024 Games Workshop and i have used it here entirely without their consent for the purpose of review or commentary) 

Tzarketh, Bane of Law, Chaos Sorcerer Lord - Commemorative Series Miniature!

The special  Commemorative Series Miniature for Warhammer Day this year was a Chaos Sorcerer Lord.... and...  I have a Slaves to Darkness army! 

Technically, I DO have a Chaos Sorcerer Lord miniature that I'm planning to use... but it's an old metal miniature, mounted on a horse-like-thing (Daemonic Steed?) and there isn't rules for those anymore (other than the one mounted on a Manticore!). 

I want to use it because my plan was to have almost all of the army mounted - I thought I could use the old mounted model AS a regular Chaos Sorcerer Lord with a 5" move and no attacks from the mount - saying it's a decrepit old nag... but still faster than the Sorcerer herself, who has a mangled leg and can barely walk.. 

But I thought I should have an ACTUAL Chaos Sorcerer Lord model, just in case any opponent gets bent out of shape about me not using the proper model on the proper size of base - and thinks I'm trying to gain some advantage by doing so... (some people do get like that, because there ARE others that WOULD find a way to take advantage of a weird base size, and I try to respect that)... I'm not sure what advantage there'd be with it being on a different size of base...? But also people (including myself) are visually cued and if they're seeing something mounted - even though I would have made it clear at the beginning of the game that it COUNTS AS on foot and the mount is just for show and narrative fluff - could mistake it for something that goes faster and/or is more deadly than it is and make decisions based on that... anyway... that was... part of my reasoning... But maybe it was mostly just an EXCUSE to buy a not inexpensive fancy model for myself... 

(the above picture is ©2024 Games Workshop and i have used it here entirely without their consent for the purpose of review or commentary) 

The order had to be placed online and will show up at the local Warhammer Store in a few weeks... 


Slaves to Darkness

This is not the order the preview went in... but following on from the Chaos Sorcerer Lord... There was a preview of some of the new stuff coming out for Slaves to Darkness for Age of Sigmar. 

(the above picture is ©2024 Games Workshop and i have used it here entirely without their consent for the purpose of review or commentary) 

It was already revealed that the next Battletome to be released after the Skaven and  Stormcast Eternals battletomes, would be Slaves to Darkness! I was pretty excited about this becauise, as I mentioned, i do HAVE a Slaves to Darkness army! 

When the previous edition came out and I had started playing a little Path to Glory campaign with Finnegan, I got really excited about the idea of having a FEW smaller 500 point forces that could be used in an extended campaign. And I got the idea of a very mobile mounted force that consisted of Chaos Knights and Chaos Marauder Horse. So I bought a  Chaos Lord on a Daemonic Steed and 10 Chaos Knights and (I think) 20(!) Marauder Horse and the aforementioned old mounted Chaos Sorcerer ... and then never painted ANY of them as interest had waned before I got to them... 

Also Khagra's Ravagers came out around the same time... that probably got me inspired/interested as well... 

Then, with the new edition I got excited, again, about getting some of these Slaves to Darkness figures painted and field and army of them! I realized, however, I'd need a Darkoath character to lead the Chaos Marauder Horse (now called Darkoath Fellriders) as neither the Chaos Sorcerer Lord nor the Chaos Lord can have Darkoath units in their Regiments!? 

The recently released (like, earlier this year, before the new eidtion) Darkoath Army Box contained a Darkoath Chieftan on Warsteed.... and MORE Fellriders (but, like, the NEW ones!)...and other Darkoarth stuff... I thought I should pick up one of those before they disappeared (and I picked it up long enough after it's release that places were starting to sell the boxes at discounts... and the contents of the box were already a pretty good deal... so...) and then I had a BIGGER Slaves to Darkness army... of which little is assembled or painted... 

I did also picked up, assembled, and painted Hargax's Pit Beasts... for... REASONS!? 

As the initial Spearhead armies were made up of the Vanguard boxes from the previous edition... But then with the launch of the New Edition, the Stormcast and Skaven each got a second Spearhead army... I got to wondering if, with each new Battletome, we'd see a whole new Spearhead force for each faction... And I wondered futher if the new Slaves to Darkness might just be an all Darkoath option - and maybe hoped it might be the contents of the Darkoath Army Box I'd already bought!? 

(the above picture is ©2024 Games Workshop and i have used it here entirely without their consent for the purpose of review or commentary) 

No such luck on it just being the stuff I already had... but I was right about there being a new Spearhead army AND that the one for Slaves to Darkness might be a Darkoath army! 

Obviously, since I don't have the models required for this I'm going to need to buy it... and have MOAR Darkoath Fellriders?!

Also... 

(the above picture is ©2024 Games Workshop and i have used it here entirely without their consent for the purpose of review or commentary) 

They also teased ANOTHER new Chaos Sorcerer Lord... which ALSO looks really cool... 

Do I NEED ANOTHER Chaos Sorcerer Lord!? 

No, probably not... 

Am I going to GET another Chaos Sorcerer Lord, anyway!? 

Ugggghhh... probably... 

(the above picture is ©2024 Games Workshop and i have used it here entirely without their consent for the purpose of review or commentary) 


The OTHER Miniature

(the above picture is ©2024 Games Workshop and i have used it here entirely without their consent for the purpose of review or commentary) 

Also, this weekend the new Free Miniature-of-the-Month was released - a CHAOS WARRIOR!!

I'd originally intended to ride out the the Warhammer Store on Saturday and pick this up and buy the Commemorative Miniature... but then I found out the store wouldn't be stocking it... and then got caught up in all the DRAMA online about the Warhammer Underworlds news... I didn't get out there until Sunday to pick one up... 

But I did get one... 

Luckily, they still had them!

I am totally going to paint this up in the same scheme as Khagra's Ravagers to add a fifth member to their team - in case I ever use them in Warcry... or some other skirmish or role-playing game! 


Warhammer Underworlds

I have to admit, I was kind of DREADING this Warhammer Day Preview, knowing that they'd be previewing what was coming for Warhammer Underworlds... 

I've played a LOT of Warhammer Underworlds this year. In the first half of the year, I played over SEVENTY games?! It was a whole thing!! But in the last three months, I've played FOUR. Interest has been waning. There are a number of reasons for this

My Brain. 

The BIG AoS4 Distraction (not just for me, but for everyone I play Warhammer Underworlds with!). 

Other Reasons...

Regardless of why, I'd been expecting - if GW continued to follow the patterns established over the last seven years - that there's be two more warbands and two more Rivals Decks for Wintermaw - which usually would have happened by now... and then a new Core Box for a new setting (which is usually in October, but sometimes later in November or December...). So I was genuinely worried there would be a BUNCH of new stuff coming out and I would have to make some HARD DECISIONS about whether this is actually a game I'm still playing and if it's worth continuing to buy the stuff. The last time I kind of stopped, I kept buying ALL THE STUFF (well, most of it) for almost an entire year, thinking "I'll get back into this... and I don't want to miss out while this is still available!?" and... I guess it DID work out, because I eventually DID get back to playing the game... but I'm not sure I want to DO that again... 

If there were two more warbands and two decks for Wintermaw in October (~$170CAD) AND a new Core Box for the new setting in November ($125CAD) and then another independent warband and deck for the new setting in December ($85)... That's a lot to spend on a game I'm not really playing... 

But that's not quite what they revealed... 

This was the big one... and they lead Preview Show with it...

(the above picture is ©2024 Games Workshop and i have used it here entirely without their consent for the purpose of review or commentary) 

The next Underworlds release is a COMPLETELY NEW EDITION!? "A complete redesign, from the bottom up", as they put it. There are enough similar elements that it is recognizably the same game....

So, not even bothering to finish off Wintermaw! (which, if the pattern of the last few years held, should have gotten two more warbands for that setting!) 

As I mentioned the Warhammer Community website went down and people couldn't access the full article about the new edition and were making a LOT of assumptions about this coming  new edition based on what little was said in the video (and past experience with GW and other games) and a LOT OF FEELINGS were expressed in a lot of places online... 

The new edition  does away with faction decks... and.. all the other previously released cards and decks. With the new core release, there will be four new themed decks to play with. They are generic decks that can be played with ANY warband. And that's IT!?

They've got a new format for Fighter cards which only had their basic stats on it expressed in a symbol and a number (so users of MOST languages will be able to use them). The only special rules a warband will have will come on a separate "warscroll". 

It looks like all the cards no longer have art, just pictures of miniatures...

They've done away with the two-board format and now it's just one big double-sided board... (but it's pretty much the same size as putting two of the older boards together, long edge to long edge. 

There were a LOT of salty, jaded opinions expressed in various online spaces - Reddit, Discord, Facebook - were where I followed a lot of the commentary. There was also a lot of confusion about what stays and what goes... it seemed a lot of people thought EVERYTHING was being "squatted"...

And, I get it. I understand why people were SO upset and making bold statements that they were DONE with Warhammer Underworlds or DONE with Games Workshop... a lot of people (myself included) invested a LOT of money and a LOT of time in painting and playing this game over the last seven years... and to be told Nope, you can't play with that anymore (at least in "Organized Play" - official leagues or tournaments or whatever!)

The preview video stated "Everything legal in organized play will be available on warhammer.com or at your local game store"... Which sounded a lot like, yeah, all that old stuff...? GONE! No longer playable.. 

When Warhammer Community was back online it became clear that they WOULD be making available new fighter cards and warscrolls for EVERY warband ever released as PDF downloads on their Website at launch... and sixteen of those warbands would be re-released (presumably with printed cards...?) with the launch of the new edition, and there will be the two new warbands in the Core Box and two other NEW Warbands. So... twenty warbands in total that should be available in stores. 

It may be that, despite releasing Fighter Cards and Warscrolls for ALL THE WARBANDS, these twenty warbands might be the only ones allowable for "Organized Play" (like, official tournaments and stuff...) - because they HAD said "Everything legal for organized play will be available..." So the other FORTY warbands are just allowed for "playing for funsies" with the new rules...?

These are all my faction decks and rivals decks that were currently playable, as of Wintermaw... Now, totally useless in the new edition. 

Now, to be clear, there is NOTHING stopping me (or ANYONE ELSE, for that matter!?) from just CONTINUING TO PLAY WITH WHAT WE HAVE!!! No one's going to stop us. The GW Police are not going to show up at our door and take away our birthdays along with all of our old metal miniatures! 

I mean, there are people that still play Warhammer Fantasy Battles Third Edition!? I CAN be done!!

And in some places, I imagine (and indeed HOPE!) that within groups that have only ever played amongst friends, that DO NOT CARE about "Organized Play", they WILL continue to just play with what they have and not worry at all about the new edition.  

To be honest, my own INITIAL reaction to the Preview was "Whew! I don't have to buy ANY MORE Warhammer Underworlds stuff!!" There will be nothing new for the edition I have stuff for, so I can just keep playing with what I have (when I get around to playing again) and not have to worry about BUYING EVERYTHING or missing out on it entirely! 

Of course... this has happened before!?

These are my three binders, each full of HUNDREDS of Generic Universal cards for Warhammer Underworlds that haven't been looked at for nearly three years since the released of Gnarlwood and the new Rivals/Nemesis formats of play... But I still have them. They COULD still be played with... 

There was NOTHING stopping me then (or now!) from continuing to play with THESE - they even have a name for a format that allowed the use of these - Relic (or Championship, for the first year, or so, of the new systems).

But I haven't looked at them for over a year. 

What did stop me from using them? New players. I introduced my friend Orion  to the game at little less than a year ago.. and met then some others that were new to the game... and as they didn't have access to all these old cards to play in Relic format, we've only played Rivals or Nemsis format this past year. 

So, in many areas I imagine the new edition will be adopted by newer players... and then anyone else that wants to continue playing in leagues or tournaments or game nights... will simply have to follow suite and play the new edition. 

I have to admit, I'm kind of coming around to trying out the new edition... To be honest, I find the deck-building, especially over the last year with the Nemesis format, a little OVERWHELMING. I have troubles with Executive Functioning to begin with (due to some neurodevelopmental issues...). Strangely, when I was just building decks for me and Amanda to play for funsies, it was fine - even though there were hundreds more cards to choose from when building a deck! I could take my time building them. We'd play with them for a few months, i might tweak them a bit... There were far fewer warbands (and warband faction decks) to start with...  I would start with an "audit" of the faction deck - rating cards by how many things have to be happening for the card to be played. if it were more than two, it was just not even considered to keep in the deck. And then with whatever I had left, I'd go through the hundreds of generic universal cards and find ones that worked with what I had and were (almost) ALWAYS PLAYABLE - it meant I had a LOT of go-to cards... and a LOT MORE cards that I had in those binders that I just never even considered... 

But FML... the new players I play with... a lot of them have a really solid background in Magic: The Gathering AND have been playing 40K competitively for years... and they just GET these games on a level that I never will... Every time I turn around they've got a new combo of Warband and Nemsis deck!?

They said in the preview that they've redesigned the game so you don't get "bricked" hands of cards that you can't use. This HAS been a big problem - especially in the last year of playing. There are a LOT of cards that CAN be pretty fun or powerful.. but they are SO situationally dependant... and if that particular situation just doesn't come up... it sits in your hand being unuseable!? So, I'm kind of wondering if they've redesigned all (or MOST!?) of the cards to just be playable always - +1 dice to any player attacking, +1 Defence to any fighter being attacked sort of thing, etc. 

I also wonder how much deckbuilding we will be allowed in the new edition? Will it be use whatever you want from all of the theme decks... or will it be take TWO decks of your choice and just use any cards from the two of them...? 

Deckbuilding is one of the things people LOVE about this game and there is some concern that there won't be enough of it to hold their interest. With the newer Nemesis format, you only got to choose cards from two decks (the Faction deck and one of the generic Rivals decks). I guess there were a lot more decks to choose from.. 56 different faction decks (if you could find them!) and a dozen, or so, of the Rivals decks. 

I imagine they will continue to make core boxes every six months - with four new decks in each, and continue to produce a two more decks at some point in between... and after a year or two will rotate out older decks, but eventually there will be a few dozen decks worth of cards to choose from?!  

The CrAzY thing is... they also announced it's this New Edition is what will be used for the World Championships... which is less than two months away!? (I can't seem to find the actual date, but I feel like it was end of November?!) It will be at least FOUR weeks before we see this game on the shelves (as it wasn't announced in this weeks pre-orders for next Saturday - which are two weeks before they're released!) So that's going to be a VERY short time for anyone going to the World Championships to figure out the new rules and how to play them!? A true test of game-playing champions!? who can learn the new rules and figure out the best combination of Faction abilities and decks within a few short weeks!? 


Special SEASONAL Commemorative Series Miniature

(the above picture is ©2024 Games Workshop and i have used it here entirely without their consent for the purpose of review or commentary) 

Dammit... There is a special place in my heart for halflings... My favourite D&D character of all time was a halfling. I love the "ratlings" in the 40K setting. They only show up as specialist sniper units attached to Imperial Guard outfits... but there's lots of fun fluff/lore about them being sticky fingered thieves of the worst sort - always managing to conjure up the very best of foodstuffs available on any given planet! 

The Special Seasonal Commemorative Series Miniature this year is this characterful pair of halflings/Ratlings trying to enjoy some (likely ill-begotten) savoury snacks, while also trying to maintain the security of their hide. 

I'm obviously going to have to pick this up... 


Kill Team!?

Now, I've been TRYING REALLY HARD to stay focused on ONE THING (or at least ONE SETTING!) this year: Age of Sigmar... and that's meant, for the most part,  Warhammer Underworlds, Warhammer Quest, and Age of Sigmar... and I've been doing pretty good... there's a new edition of Kill Team that was released just this weekend and... I don't even care... Not even going to look at it... I have SO MUCH STUFF for the previous edition that I haven't gotten to painting, let alone playing with... 

And then they announced the new box set, and it includes... 

(the above picture is ©2024 Games Workshop and i have used it here entirely without their consent for the purpose of review or commentary) 

Emperor preserve me... MORE Ratlings!!? 

This is only HALF of the Kill Team: Brutal and Cunning box... the other half is ANOTHER Ork kill team which I just DO NOT need... I STILL haven't painted the Ork Commandoes from the initial release box for the PREVIOUS edition... 

(the above picture is ©2024 Games Workshop and i have used it here entirely without their consent for the purpose of review or commentary) 

But the Ratling Scout/Sniper Kill Team... I... I'm just going to have to get... even if I NEVER play this new edition of Kill Team... for one of my Guard armies!? 

So, if the box is released in January, the separate Kill Team would be released in April... so not something to worry about any time soon... 

(But then my brain goes, WAIT... but there's a book with their rules...and cards... and tokens... and how much is all THAT going to cost SEPARATELY!? Ususally about the same as buying the bloody BOX SET?! Ah, well... like I said, won't have to worry about THAT until the new year...)

(the above picture is ©2024 Games Workshop and i have used it here entirely without their consent for the purpose of review or commentary) 

I mean look at this dog they got!? How could I NOT!?!


Emperor's Children Teaser

When I noticed the Warhammer Community webside finally WAS back online, later in the evening, and was able to read the articles.... at the very end of the main preview article, I spotted this... 

(the above picture is ©2024 Games Workshop and i have used it here entirely without their consent for the purpose of review or commentary) 

By the Six Sultry Seductions of Slaanesh!!! It looks like we are FINALLY going to see an Empreor's Children codex for Warhammer 40000!! 

I thought for sure it was going to be last edition... but here it finally is... well.. sometime... next year. All the other Chaos Gods have had a Chaos Space Marine chapter with it's own Codex and own dedicated miniatures... Nurgle has Deathguard with Plague Marines, and Myphitic Blight-Haulers, and Plagueburst Crawlers, and Foetid Bloat-Drones, and just SO MANY characters and other special miniatures... Tzeentch has the Thousand sons with their Rubric Marines and Space-Tzaangors, and Scarab Occult Terminators, and Ahriman... I think it was 9th edition we finally saw Khorne get the World Eaters Codex with their Khorne Berzerkers, and Eightbound, and Jakhals, and Angron, Daemon Primarch of Khorne!?!

The Chaos Space Marines I have are devotees of Slaanesh and an offshoot of The Emperor's Children! Sure... the Chaos Space Marine codex has Noise Marines... buuuut... to play them you had to buy a box of Chaos Space Marines (now $80CAD for a box of 10) and then spend $22CAD for enough Sonic Weapons to upgrave FIVE of them!? It'll be super nice to a new dedicated plastic kit of Noise Marines and hopefully some fun new stuff! 

Mind you, considering the unit sizes are currently 5-10 and in 10th Edition you can only ever have a MAXIMUM of three of any particular unit type... I'm kind of already maxed out on Noise Marines?! 

I guess I could retire the five that I made with third party parts... 

Looks like I'm going to be buying some new 40K stuff next year... 


So... The PLANS... 

How does this change my PLANS for the fall... either then overall GAME PLAN 2024 - Q4 or my plans for PATHS TO GLORY armies...?! 

Not a lot... I don't think...? 

For the Path to Glory campaign I think I'm still going to start with the Hedonites of Slaanesh. I do HAVE a lot of Slaves to Darkness and I'm REALLY EXCITED about it right now... but I just don't want to have to rush to paint a BUNCH of it in the next two weeks or so before the campaign begins. 

I will probably try to stick to the plan of finishing up the few units for Sylvaneth and Nighthaunts, just to have them done and a unit of Blood Warriors, just so I have a 1000-point force of those to play with! But after THAT is when things might switch up... I might just go all in on trying to get as much Slaves to Darkness stuff done - to get a Spearhead force ready - and in hopes that we do another Path to Glory campaign in the new year...? OR I might work on the Soulblight Gravelords - Their Spearhead army and stuff for Warhammer Quest: Cursed City... OR, if Amanda showed any interest in playing and wanted some Daughters of Khaine, I might push to get a Spearhead forces done for them...and then build it up to 1000 points for Paths to Glory... 

I do know I'll probably pick up the Slaves to Darkness battletome when it's released, probably in Novemeber. I'll probably pick up that Darkoath Spearhead force as well... I like the idea of having a Slaves to Darkness Spearhead army, and I just don't care for the current one - with Chaos Warriors on foot and a goofy-looking chariot... 

I probably WILL buy the new Warhammer Underworlds. Just to see. Maybe it will get people playing games again. Maybe it will be a dud and just kill interest in the game locally and I'll just go back to occasionally playing with the old stuff with Amanda... 

If it DOES get people playing again, I'll probably try to start working some more Warhammer Underworlds warbands back into the mix! With the promise of EVERYTHING LEGAL TO PLAY WITH IN ORGANIZE PLAY WILL BE AVAILABLE... I'm NOT going to worry, AT ALL, about picking up any of the new warbands or decks for the time being, so I can focus on getting stuff done for the other projects. 

I'll probably pick up that Special Seasonal Commemorative Series Ratling Sniper Team Miniature... just.. because... 

Not necesarily BECAUSE of the preview... One change to the plan might be getting some different stuff ready for the Hedonites of Slaanesh! After deciding to play the Hedonites in the upcoming Path to Glory campaign, I actually started reading the rules for how they work in the new edition, as I hadn't really considered that in my decision making process!? It was all based on what I had, what was DONE, what (of the things I and were done) couldbe easily arranged into a 1000-point force, and, impost importantly, what seemed fun to play!! I also started re-reading some of the fluff and was reminded what I'd been PLANNING on doing in the previous edition... but never got to... 

There are three main subfactions within the Hedonites of Slaanesh; Invaders, Pretenders, and God-Seekers. The one I was (and AM) most interested in are the God-Seekers - those that rampage around the Mortal Realms looking for clues as to where their god has been imprisoned in hopes of freeing it!

In the fluff, the God-Seekers are generally highly mobile forces with a LOT of mounted units! 

I do have a lot of mounted units... and they look pretty bad ass... especially when using the Seeker Calvacade battle formation (which, in previous editions, was generally what the God-Seekers used)... they're just not painted... 

So I might try to slip ten Seekers of Slaanesh and ten Hellstriders into the painting queue. The Seekers are assembled and primed. The Hellstriders (above) are still on the sprue... If I could get them done BEFORE the campaign begins, that would be cool - but would require some re-org of my forces... OR I can have them ready as new recruits when the force expands...? 

Of course with all this plotting and planning and reading and renewed interest in things... the other solo games I'd been so stoked about, momentarily, over the last few weeks, seem like a chore to have to play when I just want to paint mounted chaos daemons and mortals... 

Maybe it will still happen... 

This is the PROBLEM with solo games... they are SO EASY to blow off if interests shift even slightly... if SOMEONE ELSE had been involved and expecting to play a game, it'd probably have stuck to it and made it happen! (This is why I had TRIED to recruit Amanda to try out Devilry Afoot... but she's been very busy and non-commital... and, indeed, most of last week and all of this week is away - she was in New York for a bit of a vacation last week before heading to a training thing this week in Massachusetts!). 

Tuesday, February 20, 2024

Warhammer 40K - Strange Bedfellows Team Tournament

Over this past weekend, my friend Orion and I attended a Warhammer 40,000 team tournament called Strange Bedfellows. The idea is each player in a team of two brings 1000 points of a faction of their choice to play along with their team partner against other teams. There were no restrictions on what factions could pair with each other... So there were a fair few Imperium/Chaos teams... 

We decided to keep it "thematic" fielding two imperial forces that could very likely be fighting together! Orion brought Space Wolf Space Marines, and I brought an artillery detachment of my Tallarn Imperial Guard! 

Force construction in 10th edition is pretty loose, so there were a few forces that had only a few BIG models (Greater Daemons of Chaos! etc.) 

DAY ONE

The event took place at the upstairs banquet room at a local pub; The Thirsty Scholar. Seems like a nice enough venue. 

Round One 

The Replacements:  Zach (Necrons) Tom (Chaos Space Marines - with Abbadon!)

Our first game was against Zach and Tom. Zach was the tournament organizer and he and Tom put this force together at the last moment because there was an odd number of teams and didn't want to have to make anyone take a bye. (Actually, WE would have been totally okay with a bye - Orion had noted that there were only 11 teams and suggested I bring some Warhammer Underworlds stuff in case we did get a bye... WE WERE PREPARED!) 

All set up for Round One. 

 

The wolves took off to go chew on some Necrons and Traitor Marines and my Tallarn just sat back and pummelled them with artillery... The system seemed to be working as we'd intended it to... 

Some of the Necrons we were facing.... one of (I think) two or three C'tan Shards and some Tomb Blades? 

Scout Sentinels doing their thing - spotting enemy targets for the artillery! 

Space Wolf Primaris marines charging some of those Tomb Blades. 

Thunderwolves chewing on one of the Shards... 

The remains of one of the Thunderwolf units being beat down by two of the Shards and some Chaos Space Marine Havocs(?).

This guy showed up and I thought it was going to ruin my day... 

But then Abbadon beat it to the punch... 

By the end of Round Five my entire force had been utterly destroyed... Mostly be Abbadon the Destroyer! Wasn't sure how this was going to end, but when all was totalled up we scored enough to eek out a victory at 90-85. 

(and when I say "WE scored enough"... I mean "ORION's Space Wolves scored enough...")



Round Two 

Knights²: Alex (Grey Knights) and Carlin (Chaos Knights)

Carlan's force of Chaose Knight Wardogs - looked pretty frightening... 

Turned out to be not so frightening when I can't stop rolling sixes... This 60 point Scout sentinel (which was really just brought along because their spotting ability VASTLY improves the Artillery's ability to hit), acutally hit one of them in the middle of the bunch with a Hunter-Killer Missile (ONLY 50% chance of hitting) and then rolled a six for damage (on d6, so... the maximum)... AND THEN hit it with a Krak Missile (also only 50% chance of hitting...) and then AGAIN rolled six damage (max on the d6 damage roll) BOTH Saving throws were failed and then Carlan rolled a 6 to see if his Wardog blew up, which meant it did... and dealt mortal wounds to all of the other Wardogs surrounding it... 

Yikes... 

And then the Thunderwolf Cavalry charged in to chew the legs off the rest of them.... I think only one or two survived the first round...? And the rest were finished off in the second or third round... 

Despite fighting an uphill battle at this point, Alex kept teleporting his Grey Knights here and there desperately trying to score victory points... before getting blown to bits by the artillery which, for a while, seemed like I could only roll fives, sixes, and ones... but the ones were only on hit rolls against target which I'd spotted... and got to re-roll anyway... 

One of them teleported right amidst the Mortars and killed two teams... which were my only losses for the game (I might have lost a Scout Sentinel or two... but I just kept bringing them back with the Reinforcements! Strategem.

I really liked the look of these teleporting Grey Knights! 

We won this one as well... 100-47 (100 being the maximum points that can be scored in a game!?) 

After this game we wandered downstairs for supper. 


Round Three

Hammer and Anvil: Cory (World Eaters) and Mark (Dark Angels)

So... a Chaos Team... 

Setting up for Round Three! 

And that's how my first Sentinel died... 

(Charged down by a Lord Invocatus!) 

Another Lord Invocatus blocking the way of the Thunderwolves while the Dark Angels MEGA TANK blasted away at them... 

Wulfen and Scouts in the central plaza wondering where everyone had gotten to...? 

Invocatus taken down the remains of the Thunderwolves charge the tank! 

This game ended up timing out. Our two previous games we played through five rounds in less than two hours (the timeslots allowed for 2.5 hours). This game just went on and on and we only got to the end of round three in teh 2.5 hours... We won it, though... 50-42!


DAY TWO

Setting up for Day Two!

This is the force that Zach has brought to play on Day Two... Greater Daemons of Nurgle, Slaanesh and Khorne (or.. maybe that was a Daemon Prince...?) plus an Avatar of Khaine and the Yncarne and... something else... They are BEAUTIFUL models! 


Round Four

In the first round of day two, we played against the only other team that went 3-0 on Day one: Clown T'aun - Chris (T'au Empire) and Hailey (Aeldari)

The Aeldari list was; Avatar of Khaine, The Yncarne, a Farseer, a Death Jester, and a Solitaire... five models. 

Ready to go! 

Round One, T'au shooting blew up a unit of Space Wolf scours which allowed the Yncarne to teleport right into the midst of our army... 

She promptly blew up a Mortar Squad... I guess this tactic worked out pretty well for them the day before. 

This did not work out so well for them against us... 

On our half of the First Round both the Yncarne and the Avatar of Khaine were swarmed by Space Wolves... 

And utterly destroyed... 

At the end of round one (or maybe two..?), our two opponents looked at each other and said: "Well, this is not how I expected THIS game to go!)  

And that left the Thunderwolves sitting in the direct fire-lanes of the T'au! So they consolidated out of there as best they could and charged off in another direction the following turn... 

Leaving the poor Scout Sentinels feeling a little exposed... 

Eeep! 

I can't remember if that T'au Commander even bothered to destroy the scout sentinel... or was just getting into position to shoot the fleeing Thunderwovles - who'd taken off to kill the Aeldari Farseer, who had teleported onto the flanks to sieze an objective. 

The other scout Sentinel was left to the two remaining Aeldari Harlequins! First it was shot at by a Death Jester - and survived! 

Then it was charged by a Harlequin Death Jester - which, the previous day, had just been dancing through enemy units slaying all before them... and somehow my brave little Scout Sentinel survived... with ONE WOUND! 

Thunderwolves charged the T'au Commander and some of the other units... it was a mess... 

We won this game 78-35... 


Round Five 

Sask Vypers - Rhett (Astra Militarum) and Tyler (World Eaters)

facing doesn't really matter at all in the game... but I still find it funny that so many make no effort at all to face their models in the general direction that they are headed.. it makes for funny pictures, like this one where it looks like Angron is fleeing my brave little Scout Sentinel. 

These guys knew what they were doing and in the first turn made SURE to destroy BOTH of my Scout Sentinels before I even had enough Command Points to bring one back... One was destroyed by both Manticore's unloading on it, the other was destroyed by Angron charging it!? 

Angron fighting the Thunderwolves. 

Angron chewing through more Thunderwolves and trying to get to our objective marker. 

Angron coming back like a bad case of herpes, after we had destroyed him once, to just slaughter the rest of my force... 

Angry Angron... 

This was the second game that my force was tabled... 

We lost this one 78-66... 

As we were both 4-1 at this point, it came down to battle points and they ended the tournament with a total of 420 to our 373... so they won, we were in second place.'


Overall... a fun weekend. Lots of friendly people to play games with and lots of beautifully painted models. I didn't go inspecting all the forces, but I'd guess that 90+% were fully painted - and most of them very well painted at that! The few that weren't, were "combat ready" (had at least three colours on them) and I didn't see anyone playing with bare plastic! 

It was a bit loud and a little overwhelming for me. I forgot my earplugs on day one and was more or less in a state of being completely overwhelmed the whole day. I have auditory processing issues and I end up not being able to hear anything because I can't filter out background noise. I remembered them on Sunday, which, because they block out noise, I still often didn't hear what people were saying to me, unless they were facing me and speaking clearly... but it was better than the previous day! 

I do not play this game enough anymore to really get how it is played - at least in the matched play competitive format - like what all the objectives are and how to score them...? Luckily Orion was VERY GOOD at that and took care of it and just said "shoot that thing" and I did and it worked out for us! 

I do miss playing 40K. I'm not sure if I love playing at this level of matched play competition, though... I like NARRATIVE  and scenarios that make sense and have understandable objectives and playing campaigns. I think my IDEAL situation would be running a Wrath & Glory role-playing game campaign... and occasionally busting out the 40k armies to play out larger engagements that the player characters find themselves in the midst of! 

I kind of regret buying the "Small Format Rulebook" now - the one with just the roles (which is SO SMALL I can barely even read it WITH my reading glasses on) -  and not the bigger book that probably (maybe) had rules and scenarios for narrative play. I really liked the Narrative section of 9th edition - with the Crusade Campaign rules... I liked starting the crusades with Combat Patrols of 500 points (or 25 Power Level or whatever it was...). I'm not 100% sure if the Narrative campaign system is even IN the new core book, or if that is a separate book now...? 

Also, it seems the old Combat Patrol rules are gone and have been replaced with FIXED LISTS... like an Astra Militarum Combat Patrol always has a Cadian Command Squad, 2 Squads of Cadian Shock Troops, one Armoured Sentinel, and two Ordnance Teams... most of which I have... except for the two ordonance teams... which I am NOT going to go out and buy.

I know I COULD just play 9th edition... Like if I was only ever going to play with Amanda and no one else... but if I wanted to continue to play with Orion or others, that wouldn't work out because there is no way I could keep the rules for BOTH editions straight in my head. I can barely keep ONE straight in my head, because I keep getting things mixed up with the five other different editions I've played!

Maybe I just need to become one of those retro-cranks that still play Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader (first edition - which I DO still have a copy of! it's a reprint, not the ORIGINAL copy I bought back in 1987, but still...). Ha! 

Well if this weren't enough gaming for one weekend... I DID also got in a game of Warhammer Underworlds! I'll have a brief report of that up soon as well!