Not very Xmas-y, but what can you do?

Brother Chaplain Bakul of the Sin Eaters (note the eeevil Rosarius)

According to the 40K fluff, all of the original Chaos Marine Legions bumped off their Chaplains during the Horus Heresy.  The Word Bearers held onto their guys (they became Dark Apostles if memory serves.  Big into their false idols those Word Bearer scamps). While I understand that GW wanted to give the Chaos Marines their own identity and feel, I do think that the idea of a eeevil Chaplains of the Dark Powers leading Space Marines into battle is potentially fun.  With that in mind I put this guy together on a whim in 2001 or so.

Lots of Skulls on the Shoulder Pad and the Backpack Nozzles

Brother Chaplain Bakul is entirely plastic and is covered in enough skulls to make a rocker blush.  It reinforces the Chaplain skull motif I suppose, although spiky skulls are perhaps my least favourite element of GW Chaos stuff.

Yet More Skulls on the Shoulder Pad and on his eeevil Crozius Arcanum

I don’t like the way that GW have canonised the colour schemes for Chaplains (black), Librarians (blue), Techmarines (red), Apothecaries (white) etc.  I think that the additional colours can ruin a palette and are often unnecessary. 

 Additionally, GW policy seems to be to cover the relevant miniature in that colour when perhaps just a little of it would suffice (for a good example check out the jarringly blue Librarian that features with the Blood Angel Terminators in 3rd Ed Space Hulk.  It ruins the effect in my opinion.  And don’t get me started on the Blood Angel yellow helmet=Assault, blue helmet=Devastator thing.  Ugh). 

The Chaplain is the least offensive of the marine specialists in that regard as adding some black to a scheme isn’t as disruptive as adding an actual colour to it.  Still, when I added a Chaplain to the Sin Eaters I wanted to use the minimum amount of black to make him stand out a bit without ruining the army uniformity.  I think that it worked fine.  Not brilliant, but not awful in my opinion.

“Bakul” apparently means “sweet smelling”.  Ho, ho, ho etc.

This weekend as you may know I was planning on participating in my first Warhammer 40k tournament. Well, that’s not what happened. It got turned into an impromptu Apocalypse game.

I’ve read the rules, and dreamed about playing one. This was a milestone on two fronts: this was my first game I played in a store with strangers and my first Apocalypse game.

In a nutshell, I and Laura had a great time, and I think this is what’s at the heart of the Warhammer hobby: spending the day with good people, making friends, and playing a game. Which is why it took me so long to play outside of my house. I was afraid of the gaming community. Trust me, take a look online and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

Anyway, a few high lights from the game. Basically it was six Space Marine armies against two Ork armies. I played my Ravenwing with additional Deathwing as well as my brother’s Ultramarines. I will never do that again.  I did get a impish grin when one of the guys put down some Tyranids. I have become proficient at killing them, and I followed through with that by making short work of them.

Now what I thought of an actual Apocalypse game. We were given 30 minutes to complete our turn which is not a lot of time when you’re trying to coordinate with 5 different people and move almost 26,000 points worth of men. I went in with some ideas, but quickly ditched those by the second turn. A lot of units just got forgotten about. It seemed that if you forgot about them, our opponents forgot about them, which is probably why my Ravenwing went unnoticed for the first couple of turns.

Anyway, that’s how my weekend went, and now I’m sure you’re wanting to see some of the pictures. Before I do that though, I want to thank TBS Comics of Fort Walton for allowing us to take up store time.

My favorite form of shooting has to be blast templates. For any army they are good. For orks, they are doubly good. The fact that they hit equally as often as any army means they have a greater advantage then other armies would. The most it would ever scatter is 10″ with a normal scatter of 5″.

The best scatter weapon. Scatter weapons, while they hit lots of units, are inherent at having low strength and lower armor pierce. It is just to easy to have a S 7 AP 3 large blast weapon. that could kill practically anything, even space marines! The only army that I know of that can do that is one thing for imperial guard, and there are several ORKS!!! they have the ability to blast there foes to shreds with option for S7, S8, and S10 Large blast shots. The only disadvantage is that it costs so much. I think my favorite combination, when I have the points, is a big mek with an SAG, 11 lootas, (no meks) and a battlewagon with a kill-kannon. The only problem with that is the fact that if the SAG blows up, and everything dies. That would stink. Still, the large blast templates of the ork world are incredibly destructive and- well, they are incredibly destructive.

There are two basic transports for ork boys, and one specialty. The basics are: trukk (fast, AV 10, TC 12) and battlewagon (tank, AV 14 12 10, TC 20.) The battlewagon costs nearly triple the points, (plus upgrades) but holds eight more boys and withstands way more shots. It moves slower, but if you are moving a powerful but weak unit, (lootas are good, maybe a group of flamers,) that will kill the enemy fast but will die quick, wagons are the way to go. however, if the boys have ‘eavy armor, (they are ‘ard boys) don’t even think about it. You would already be spending 80 PTS on the unit, you dont need to burn up more.

The trukk, on the other hand is fast, cheap, and disposable. Against a ranged army, you have two or three turn’s at best. They have a great advantage, though. They are cheap, and they don’t hurt the boys very much. In fact, with their dying breath they can get the boys eighteen inches closer to the enemy. (if you get lucky.) A good speed freak army would pertain of six units of trukker boys. Even if the opponent can pump out enough shots to swallow some of the trukks, there are plenty more where that came from.

Also, in a really big board, where you will be shot to bits before you are close enough even for an SAG, with little cover, you will want to consider either infiltrating with kommandos, or using the least orthodox and most random of the transport methods: the warphead. 1/3 of the time you will be able to fly across the board and be mere inches away from the enemy, and only 1/36 of the time will it be forced uppon you. Also, if you have extra points, take old zogwort. Not only will he get you across the board, he can give you, at best, 9 infinite strength power attacks at initiative of 4/2 (two of the attacks are at the lower initiative value). Great if you are trying to take out those carnifax beasties.

In the end, I think every transport option, limited as they are, rock in the ork army. So whether you intend to fly in from the other side of the board, flood the enemy with trukks, or have a few hard hitting units, whatever you chose is going to work very well. (though it would be best to analyze the army you are facing to make a more detailed decision.)

Today I continue my series on ork boys.

Which gun?: Depending on the size of the unit, ork boys can take up to three heavier weapons, either rokkits or big shootas. I like big shootas when going against light infantry, (imperial guard, maybe,) and rokkits when going against heavier infantry. (nids, marines.) Once I killed four genestealers who were armed to the teeth before they could assault me. One thing to remember, do NOT take rokkits to kill a tank. It will make your assault worthless unless you are six inches away and have a nob with a PK, (or at least a big choppa,) and you could be using that assault on someone else. Lets say you are facing a tau hammerhead tank and a twenty man unit fire-squad. You could shoot the tank, maybe even damage it, but then the fire squad becomes a firing squad for the rest of your ork unit.

Stikkbombas: This upgrade is normally considered cheap. Real cheap. At only one point per model, this is only a thirty point upgrade, max. However, it’s usefulness is rather limited. I mean, how many times have you EVER assaulted into cover? That is a very rare occurrence. The only time I have ever seen it happen is when a Tau player assaulted my bikers with kroots. I didn’t know about the rule at that time, and so I forgot to use it. (oh well.) I would only ever take stikkbombas if the field I was playing had TONS of cover, and I would no doubt be assaulting into it.

‘Ard boys with ‘eavy armor: Expensive. REALLY expensive. I think I would prefer to just take mad dok grotsnik for feel no pain. That would be a bargain, and the leftover warrior that comes with the deal makes them fearless, has toughness five, and a cybork body. (save six points over a PK nob with a cybork body.) However, if you have lots of leftover points, and they already have grotsnik, then by all means, beef them up. They will only be four points cheaper then a space marine squad, but throw in a warphead for fun and watch it fly to the other end of the board, right next to some unit that stinks in CC. (a firing squad, or perhaps an imperial guard unit.) Overall, these guys cost a TON, but you can get a BUNCH of them, they have two good saves, they rock in CC, they are fearless, and when the opponent sees them, they are likely to to scream and run off the table.

In this solo episode, Ken Whitehurst presents this week’s news from around the world of wargaming, including items from Brigade Models, Privateer Press, Tabletop Gaming News, Smart Max, Forge World, Gale Force 9, and more.

This Week in Military History: December 16, 1944.

Fantasy Flight Games’ Horus Heresy: Dude.

This Week in Wargaming is sponsored by The Williamsburg Muster wargaming convention, February 5-7, 2010, Williamsburg, Virginia.
http://www.odms-club.com/convention

Episode AT-2 Direct Download

I designed this unit over several days. I have NO idea how well it would would work, but I think they are pretty cool.

The space marine armada prepared to defend against the burgoning orks. They knew of their vicous ability to tear through even the strongest warriors, and some of the more weak-hearted ones were found late at night pacing, worrying about the upcoming battle. They watched in the sky as giant greasy streaks of smoke trailed in the air, coming for them. They took cover behind baricades, knowing of the trickery of the ork meks. Light slugga fire hit their ranks, but did simply bounced of their armor. The objects smashed into the ground, forming dust clouds, making it impossible to see anything. When the dust cleared, they saw that the objects were metal contraptions, but they could not discern the purpose. Could it be they were simply auto firing gun turrets? but no, the guns had ceased to fire. The objects were emitting no signals, and they did not appear to be explosive. One of the marines threw a rock at the front one, and it clanged on without effect. He apprehensively walked up and prodded it with his bolter rifle. In the blink of an eye, part of the object shot out and tripped him, then came down on him with crushing force. Private Thompson was no more. The marines raised their guns and held their fingers on the trigger. They saw the front of the machine raise, and saw a ork head with a mechanical eye look at them, the eye flashing. One of the privates yelled and started firing, but it was to late. The ork leapt at them with speed greater then they could expect from that heavy of armor. It crashed into them, along with its comrades, and in a flurry of blows they managed to break the lines of the space marine company. Within moments the entire force was dead, though reinforcements were on their way. Once they arrived, they saw the orks klaws and teeth dripping in blood. They leveled their guns and fired, but the orks simply laughed and killed them as well. One was barely alive, who they didn’t notice. He watched in horror as they gathered war trophies from the dead marines. They then looked at the sky, there was a whine as their suits charged, and they blasted into the sky.

boss killa must accompany a unit of kommitz

Boss killa                            185 PTS

Ws 5 Bs 6 S 5 T 5 (6) W 3 I 4 A 4 Ld 9 Sv 2+

special rules: waaagh! furious charge, mob rule, fearless, strike team

Strike team: when Boss killa and his kommitz deep strike, it must be within 12″ of an enemy unit. That unit must go to ground, and thus may not move away. Boss killa and the kommitz must assault that unit, and once it is dead, must assault the next unit within 12 inches. If there are no units within twelve inches, then they are placed back in reserve, though they do not count as destroyed for point purposes. They may deep strike again, though when you roll on the table, count the turn they were removed as the first turn.

In addition, when the kommitz land, the unit that has gone to ground must take a leadership test at -3 leadership, regardless of fearless. (fearless units count as leadership 9) If they fail the test, they must come out of cover, (including going to ground) and fire the maximum amount of shots at the kommitz with -2 ballistic skill, regardless of weapon type. (even heavy weapons or rapid fire). After this, the unit may not assault, suffers -1 weapon skill and -2 initiative for the rest of the turn, and is no longer in cover. (regardless of where the unit is, or if it is more then half hidden from the unit firing.) Note: if the unit has no guns, then they do not fire, and they do not fire, they do not suffer from the weapon skill or initiative loss, but they may not assault.

Wargear: Kommit armor, twin linked Big shoota (replaces twin linked shoota,) Heavy cyborks

Kommit armor: Probably one of the greatest ork inventions to date, kommit armor is a masterful fusing of mega armor and a jump pack. All units with kommit armor enter the board via deep strike, have a twelve inch assault, and roll 3 D6 for movement instead of 1 D6. other than that, it counts as mega armor for purposes of wargear. (power klaw, twin linked shoota, has the slow and purposeful rule.) Also, whenever a unit with kommit armor deep strikes, it may take one free shooting phase at an opponent withing range of the target area, he rolls only one D6 for scatter, and gains a 3+ cover save on the turn he deep strikes, though he may not move or assault.

Heavy cyborks: Boss killa and his kommitz have been in so many launches, and thus wrecks, that they found themself under the knife of a painboy again and again. This had two main effects: they made themself immune to the feeling of pain, and they have a heavily rebuilt body. They gain the feel no pain special rule, a 4+ invulnerable save, and add one to their toughness value.

Kommitz                   80 PTS

unit composed of 3-10 kommitz

Ws 4 Bs 2 S 4 T 4 (5) W 2 I 3 A 3 Ld 7 Sv 2+

special rules: waaagh! furious charge, mob rule, fearless, strike team

Wargear: kommit armor, Heavy cyborks

I mostly just came up with the rules to accompany the story, but what do you think?

I just realized something: the games workshop painboy is in the HQ section on the website, and The games workshop model for the warboss with attack squig has no close combat weapon, so he gets an attack from the squig, but loses one because he only has the slugga, not the choppa. (There goes fifteen points)

Grotz are probably the cheapest troop unit in existence. The are also the weakest troop unit in existence. So, with such a weak statline, what are they good for? Lets go through the basic kinds of grotz:

Basic runts: The troop unit version. They are most commonly used as a bog, or a speed bump.  (see irondog’s grot 101 for more info, I can’t really improve on his.) I find if I have an SAG then it helps to surround it with a bunch of grots to prevent being mowed over by quick units. (say, geanstealers with leaping, space marines with jump packs, ETC.) Don’t forget the can still shoot, despite how pathetic they are. S3 is equally as strong as an ork boy, and the shot will hit half the time, so that is 15 S3 hits with a full mob, that can injure almost anything.

Ammo runts: I find that if you simply twin-link a weapon, it is far more cost effective then an ammo runt. However, if you take an SAG or a combi weapon, (especially skorchas) then fire away

Artillery runts: Their higher ballistic skill helps here.

Oiler grot: Like ammo runts, but a smaller application. I find that one or two can help, but only use them on rolls of one.

Grot orderly: for one turn, a single warrior with ‘ard armor gets a 4+ armor save, a 4+ feel no pain save, another 4+ save (if he needs it,) and whatever cover save he may have. I would take one or two, but only if it to save a indispensable warrior such as a warboss.

Two Iaconian Guardians

The Iacon Craftworld was the last 40K army that I painted, and it broke my heart

A bit of an aside here, bear with me: 

The first army that I painted for 40k back in my teens was Eldar.  I have always been more interested in the creative side of the hobby than the gaming (although I love that too) and as such always chose what forces to play based on one of two things: either they were the figures that looked the nicest to me (Eldar) or that I thought that I could have a lot of fun with them as a modelling project (Sin Eaters).

Squad Nephtys Guardians

I played a lot of games with the Sin Eaters and they were pretty well regarded aesthetically.  That meant that when I finally got around to doing another Eldar army that I wanted to do “a good job” on them. 

The Sin Eaters each took a very long time to paint and although it may not look like it, the Iacon guys possibly took even longer.  Painting that gold took ages and it doesnt even show.  Oh well.  They still look good I think, they just dont really look as good as they should considering the time spent on them. 

This army was a turning point for me when I decided that the painting methods that I was using were too time consuming and that I needed to rationalise the process more.  That principle has continued up until the present day.

Nephtys Gunner and Guardian

There is a vaguely Egyptian theme running through the force (it isnt really that visible other than colour choice in Squad Nephtys) that should hopefully be more apparent in some of the other units.

Nephtys Gunner and Star Cannon Grav Platform

The hand painted symbol on the cannon fairing is repeated on the right shoulder plate of each squad member.  Although the plates used varied from squad to squad, that variable glyph motif continued through the whole force.

According to this store’s numbers, Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader, the FFG 40k role-playing games, already are third place in market share. Of course, they’re still small fish in a small pond…although it appears that D&D has lost about 20% of it’s market share since the introduction of 3.5.

I came up with a quick 4-game scenario to go with The Third War for Armageddon.

General special rules:

Ghazkull Thraka army: The third war for armageddon is led by ghazkull thraka, and will be built as such. All armies fielded by the ork player must be led by ghazkull, may only take two fast attack choices, but may take two additional groups of nobs or meganobs, (not biker nobs,) four additional troop choices, and six additional heavy support choices, with the exception of flash gitz.

Waaagh! energy: For every ork game won, you may call one additional waaagh! per following game. However, if you lose a battle, it re-sets to 1.

Battle one: touchdown.

Orks VS.  imperial guard

3,000 PTS (apocalypse)

Game type: Attrition. (the player controlling the largest part of the board at the end wins.)

terrain type: ork player choses

Special rules:

Roks: All ork players must enter the board via deep strike in a Rok on turn one. Roks are armor value 14, 14, 14, have a single mounted boomgun and two big shootas, a transport capacity of sixty, and only roll one die for scatter. When they enter the board, if they deep strike on to an enemy unit, all figures under the rok take a destroyer hit with +4 on the damage table for vehicles. the hit may not be consolidated onto any other unit, and eternal warrior does not apply. If any unit underneath survives, (invulnerable saves, multiple structure points, ETC,) the rok takes a penetrating hit and D6 glancing hits. (note: if two units survive then the rok takes two penetrating hits and two D6 glancing hits, ETC.) If the rok survives, then inflict another destroyer hit on all the surviving units, repeat.   NOTE: All roks must be filled to the maximum capacity before adding an additional rok to the army. however, as long as they are all full, you may continue to add as many roks as you want.

The winning team gains a five-hundred point advantage for the next battle.

Battle two: The battle for armageddon secondus.

Orks Vs. Imperial guard

1,500 PTS

Game type: capture and control

terrain type: heavily forested

Special rules:

Kommando base: 1-3 groups of kommandos must be taken by the ork team. This does not take up an elite slot. In addition, one group of kommandos must take boss Snikrot.

The losing team has a three-hundred point disadvantage next battle.

Battle three: The battle for hive hades

Orks VS space marines

2,000 PTS

Game type: Utter annihilation. (all enemy models must be destroyed)

terrain type: city terrain

special rules:

Roks: up to three ork roks may be taken. (see above)

traitor: The space marine team may take only one elite choice, and sets up first but moves second. In addition, they may not use the scout, infiltrate, or deep strike special rule.

The winning team may take one troop choice at a five-hundred point discount. (all over-spill may not be used)

Battle four: The Fire Wasteland

Orks VS. Space Marines

800 PTS

Game type: capture and control.

terrain type: completely barren

Special rules:

Fiery wasteland: Place three markers at points twelve inches from the edge of the ork table edge, in the center of the board, and twelve inches from the edge of the space marine table edge. Every turn, roll a D3. On a one, roll a scatter die and 6 D6 with the large blast template in the center marker. On a two, place the small blast template at both of the edge markers and roll three D6 for scatter. On a three, use the results from both one and two.

The winning team may infiltrate three troops units in the next battle, as well as a six-hundred point advantage.

The Battle for Armageddon

Orks VS imperial gaurd

6,000 PTS (apocalypse)

Game type: Point frenzy. (roll 3 D6 + 6 for number of turns, the player who kills the most points worth wins)

Terrain type: City-scape.

Special rules:

Fight to the Death!!!!: This is the imperial guards last stand. All imperial guard units count as having both the fearless and relentless special rule, as well as the fleet* special rule.

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!: The orks are so caught up in this enormous battle, they all count as having the fearless and relentless special rule, and always count as having a normal waaagh! in play. (ghazkulls waaagh allows them to roll 2 d6 and chose the highest, as well as the other effects)

P.S. to all those who play ork, whenever there is an opportunity to use rots, take advantage of that and fill it with grots. (around two-hundred points) Then use it as a suicide bomber to take out big threats. (try landing on a group of terminators for a laugh!)

I co-edit and design the layout for an on-line magazine called Irregular Magazine and I’ve finally decided to write a short piece about the mag here on this blog. The magazine cover all genres of gaming and during 2010 each issue will have a theme. The first theme of the year is the Undead, we have a fantastic cover by Ricardo Guimaraes. Each  magazine has sections dedicated to RPG, Wargaming, Painting Tutorials and hobby community articles, along with great artwork throughout. The aim of the magazine was to produce a modern version of an old retro RPG/gaming magazine that is multi system and not ridigdly dedicated to one in particular. Another feature of the magazine is that it doesn’t carry any advertising, though the magazine does have a review section.

Cover Art for Issue 3 of Irregular Magazine.

About

Irregular Magazine is a free PDF download full of hobby articles, tutorials, reviews and short stories.

Brought to you by hobbyists turned editors Jason Hubbard and Nick Johnson, Irregular Magazine has been designed to provide hobbyists with articles and tutorials on miniature painting, RPG and wargames.

All content is community generated, including the art-work, creating a very unique magazine, not specific to any one aspect of the hobby, or tied down to a particular game or manufacturer. Hopefully it will reflect the diversity of the hobby community.

Issues will appear every quarter, and back issues will remain online – so don’t worry if you lose your copy.

The magazine is FREE and is also advertisement free; this project makes absolutely no money – and we’re ok with that.

We recommend you print off only the pages you really need – this way you don’t have piles of paper cluttering up your space and it helps the environment.

Make use of the web enabled features to link directly from the magazine to sites of interest, or from the contents page to the article you want to read.

Irregular Magazine

First off, lets get one thing clear. The Big Mek is only good for two things: The Shokk Attack Gun and the Kustom Force Field. NEVER give him mega armor or a warbike as this deprives you of these things, and nobs can do equally as much for way less points. But between the two, which one is best?

Shokk Attack Gun: Large blast, AP 2, strength 2 D6, Ordnance. Just this statline is amazing. If that were it, this would be the best gun ever. However, 1/3 of the time, something goes terribly wrong. It is an amazing anti-troop weapon, but to erratic to be counted on consistently. Remember, there is only 1/36 chance of rolling a double six, but don’t let your opponent remember that. Make him fear the gun and waste ammo on it, or seperate his powerful spearhead so they aren’t all killed instantly. If he fears that he will lose a broodlord, a carnifax, and a hive tyrant all in one shot, no matter how well his strategy would otherwise work, it will cause him to seperate his men into tiny fragments of their previous glory, thus allowing you to face them one at a time, and giving you a great advantage.

In the end, it not only makes a strong fire base, but it strikes fear in the hearts of even the most battle hardened generals. Overall: 7/10

Here is an odds chart for you generals:

doubles of any kind: 1/36

2: 1/36

3: 2/36

4: 3/36

5: 4/36

6: 5/36

7: 6/36

8: 5/36

9: 4/36

10: 3/36

11: 2/36

12: 1/36

Kustom Force Field: Now this is something I can’t personally endorse. I have never used it, but in my opinion it isn’t worth it’s salt. It’s slightly cheaper then the SAG, but if you want to increase a units durability simply give it mad dok grotsnik. he has infinite radius as long as they are in the same unit, and gives them a 4+ save instead of 5+. If you are looking for vehicular armor, just give it ‘ard case, extra armor, and grot riggers.

There are three basic kinds of nobs: Nobs, Meganobs, and Biker Nobs. But which nob is best?

Nobs: Lets face it. These guys rock. They can do anything boyz can do, but better. However, they cost a bundle. One disadvantage is that if they take a power klaw, they are already costing more than meganobs, who get free power klaws with their armor. They can also take a painboy, who can help by doubling the survivability of the unit.

Biker Nobs: These guys are some of the most powerful warriors in the game. They are also the most expensive. you are looking at sixty to ninety points per model. They can take a painboy as well, but in the end, I think they are still not competent enough to justify the point value, especially since you could by an entire dreadnought for the cost of just one biker nob.

Meganobs: These are probably my favorite of them all. They can’t take a painboy or a bosspole, but at toughness 4 and a save of 2+, not to mention the power klaw, these guys are a steal. If you were to give a regular nob mere ‘ard armor and a power klaw, he would cost ten points more and have a weaker save. They are slow, but I find (for real) that if you stick them in a battlewagon, or even a trukk, they rock all the harder. (for a bosspole or other fancies just give them a warboss.)

In the end, nobs are the most versatile and meganobs are the best deal. Now, biker nobs are the fastest and have higher toughness, but lets face it, for the cost of one and a half biker (or just one biker nob with a power klaw and combi-weapon) could buy a BATTLEWAGON as a transport, thus removing the point of the bikes.

overall: Nob: 7 Biker Nob: 3 1/2 Meganob: 8 1/2

I just realized that orks are the equivalent of toadstools in Super Mario. Think about it: They are both half humanoids, half mushroom. They both show weaker signs of intelligence. They are both found on areas of massive bloodshed. (All those more turtles mercilessly slaughtered by Mario.)

Yesterday, I found a box designed for keeping spare screws, nuts, bolts, ETC. in. It also happens to be perfect for storing my ork army in. It has grooves on the walls and barriers so you can place them to chose the size of the container. Today, I painted it.

And here it is:

And on the inside:

Man, it’s been a while. I haven’t done any painting since the last post, though lately, I’ve started feeling the urge again. I should get in there and finish my Space Hulk Terminators, but, hmm, something else is calling. I played War of the Ring again about a week ago and I’m jonesin’ for more. I painted all the of the minis in that game except for the North and I really should finish those guys off – it’s only something like 24 figures. I think if I do anything next it should be that.

And then yesterday I saw this. I don’t play 40K but I have always liked the fluff, and the battle for Earth has always been one of my favorite stories (spawning, as it did, from the 4-page short story in the long OoP Slaves to Darkness). Ah, makes me wanna get my old Space Marine minis out and blow up the landscape! Anyway, this new Horus Heresy game looks like it does away with the (IIRC) shaky dice based system of the old game in favor of cards. I’ve been quite happy with FFG’s retreads of old games like Arkham Horror and Fury of Dracula, and seeing this get the FFG treatment makes me very happy.

Yah, it’s expensive, but I’ll find some way to justify it to myself (and most importantly, my wife)!

You will notice on a lot of my posts about strategy, I will say ‘I like to take, I like to use’ Etc. A lot of times when I say this, I do not technically own that figure, and have never used it in battle because I can’t afford it. What I mean when I say that is that I think it would be good to field that model in that application.

I do this because I don’t have the money to actually buy that figure, and so I can’t field it. That is part of why I have a store. But it also spurs me to make awesome custom figures. Thus: The Rokkitkopta.

I got the idea off of irondog’s incredibly awesome Vomit Kommits. I altered it to have one turbine. 1/20 of a dowel rod, a cap for a glue bottle, an ork boy, a big shoota off of a trukk, a whole lot of plasticard, and the finest in squigskin seats:

From the side:

The co-axial big shoota

The turbine:

All painted:

The painted turbine: (notice the bad gash in the leg. That’s because I ran out of green stuff when I was changing the leg position)

The co-axial gun:

I decided to give it a chain weapon from the warbike sprue.

What do you think?

I had this little nugget of goodness appear in my inbox tonight…

This week, Fantasy Flight Games announced Horus Heresy, a massive two-player board game that immerses players in the most legendary battle of the Warhammer 40,000 universe!

In the greatest betrayal the universe has ever known, the Warmaster Horus — once humanity’s greatest general, now corrupted by Chaos — has turned against the Emperor and hurled the Imperium of Man into ferocious civil war.

In the Horus Heresy board game, this gripping battle unfolds across the razed plains of Terra and in the frozen orbit above. Deadly fighting ranges from the Emperor’s golden Inner Palace to Horus’ flagship, the Vengeful Spirit.

Taking the side of either traitor or loyalist, two players control fearless Space Marine legions or deviant Chaos Space Marines, mighty Titans, Imperial Armies both loyal and traitorous, and a fearsome array of other units, including the Emperor and Horus themselves. This spring, brother will fight brother, and the soul of the Imperium will hang in the balance!

Here’s the link to the full press release over at FFG’s site (http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=988).  I’ll be looking forward to the release of this.

I came up with snotblast for fun recently.

Snotblast is a Big mek who liked using his guns a lot more than building them. He was contracted by a wannabe loota to build him a deffgun to surpass all deffguns. Snotblast agreed, so long as he was payed his exorbitant fees in advance. He working sleeplessly for days, kept awake by concoctions from the local mad dok. When he was done, he called back the loota, and showed him how effective it was. Hur hur. After that he took the gun and gathered a retinue of orks to come with him and blast the warp out of all those who got in their way.

Mek snotblast may be in a unit of lootas

Ws 5 Bs 2 S 5 T 4 (5) I 4 W 2 Ld 8 Sv 4+

Wargear: meks tools, Big Deffgun, Gitfinda

Twin-linked Big Deffgun: The big deffgun is a massive weapon with the following profile:

Range: 60″ Strength: 8 Armor Pierce: 3

In addition, it counts as a bike for the purposes of toughness and saving throw

Special rules: Mob rule, waaagh!, furious charge, dakkawaaagh!, relentless

dakkawaaagh!: This may only be used once per game. when Snotblast calls his dakkawaaagh!, all lootas in his unit count as having twin linked weapons. In adition, they all count as having the relentless special rule.

All lootas in snotblasts group can take gitfindas at +3 pts per model

They may take a looted wagon as a dedicated transport vehicle. In addition, it may take a boomgun without the transport capacity disadvantage.

Nurgling Swarm

Nurglings featured in my Sin Eater Chaos Space Marine army from day one.  For some reason which I cant put my finger on I have liked (if that is the right word) them since I first read about them in 1989.  Its probably the fart and other biological function jokes.

Tide of Decay

I spent way more time painting these than they really required.  I like them though.   They variety and character in the figures made them painting them more entertaining than it would normally be.  They were originally based on large GW titan bases, in preference to the horrible square WHFB bases that they were supplied with.  Once the large, circular 40k base was released I rebased them (and turned four bases into eight in the process).  Go me.

Like a phoenix from the ashes, This Week in Wargaming returns.
New host Ken Whitehurst presents this week’s news from around the world of wargaming, including items from Privateer Press, Games Workshop, Litko Aerosystems, Lock ‘N’ Load, Grindhouse Games, Taban Miniatures and more.

Joe Krause offers his commentary on the recent round of Games Workshop cease and desist letters.

Ken discusses the past, present, and future of the show, and
This Week in Military History: December 7, 1941.

This Week in Wargaming is sponsored by The Williamsburg Muster wargaming convention, February 5-7, 2010, Williamsburg, Virginia.
http://www.odms-club.com/convention

Episode AT-1 Direct Download