A detailed account of my various commission/hobby projects.
Warhammer 40,000 – I recently had the chance to face off in a 2500 point battle with my Imperial Knights vs a combined team of Thousand Sons and Death Guard. It's an odd point level that my opponents regularly played so I tweaked my standard 2,000 point list to include an Archeron. My opponents chose to fight in the city, so my Knights weren't going to be as maneuverable and we opted to use the Open War Deck.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – The Beta Rules and Faqs have put a damper on some of the more prevalent strategies for the Chaos Super-Faction. Soup is gone, Alpha-Strike is limited, and the Never-ending Cultist Bowl is a thing of the past. Things change so fast that some of the units my clients give me change in function before I finish painting them. With the FAQs dropping twice a year now it should be easier to anticipate what may or may not change.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – I really love the look of fighting in a city. Having to get down and check line of site, navigating around cramped quarters, makes for a more interesting game than shooting each other from the edges of the table. Having played Open War last week we opted to play Maelstrom of War this week. My opponent ran close to the same list as he did last week swapping out a Librarian for a Lieutenant to benefit from the re-roll auras.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – The recent release of the Imperial Knight Codex has given the giant robots new life. Thankfully the new book looks to make the army playable. To put them to the test I built a basic Knight army with a Space Marine Battalion to give me access to much needed command points. (Note: This game was played prior to the FAQ having 15CP is going to be bonkers).
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – For the Escalation Event I plan on attending later this month I needed to add five Chaos Furies. The metal models are just gross, I never cared for them and used to use Dark Elf Harpies with my old Word Bearers force back in the 3.5/4th edition days. While the models weren't much better they fit the rest of my army. Sadly I sold that force off ages ago and haven't stopped kicking myself since. The problem at hand is I need five Furies to fill out my force for this event because Screamers don't fit when playing points (power level is just fine which is my preference at the moment ... but its not my event and 90% of tournaments will use points so whatever).
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – Space Marine Scouts, Devastators and Tactical Marines join the fight. This group will join the other groups of Raptors I've painted in my clients "all-infantry" Space Marine force. I think it's a cool idea and it will make full use of the Chapter Tactics and special rules available to the Raven Guard/Raptors.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – I remember when bitz boxes the world over were filled with left over Space Marine Plasma Guns. It was always a weapon that would kill your own gun at the most inopportune of times, which meant any other special weapon would see more play on the table. Eight Edition made it a choice to supercharge your plasma and risk killing your own guy rather than happening every time they fire their gun. Suddenly plasma guns are all the rage and you see them on everything.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – Today's question is who would win in a gunfight between the two sneaky marine factions? Alpha Legion and Raven Guard mimic each other in most of their chapter tactics and abilities so this should be a fairly even match up. Maelstrom of War with Tactical Objective cards should force both forces to move about a bit. Scorched Earth is one of the more unforgiving missions out of Chapter Approved 2017, so of course that's what we rolled to play.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – One of the things I've been working on since the early 2000's. What started as a bunch of random marines and bits a client traded me for some paint work has blossomed into nearly a full chapter. (Well at least a few companies.) Listening to the Independent Characters recently I realized the latest Space Marine Codex had completely updated how a Company is set up which might change how I lay mine out.
Read MoreNecromunda – Combat shotguns are probably one of the most versatile guns available when playing Zone Mortalis style Necromunda. Knowing you're going to get up close and personal against groups of enemy fighters means the shredder rounds will put in work. Template weapons in general are nasty because they pin you without having to "hit" against a close combat orientated gang like my Genestealer Cult it's devastating.
Read MoreTerrain Building – Blade Runner really set the tone for me as to what a dystopian future would look like. Dirty, crowded and dark. Ultimately that's the look I'm going for with my city table. Ideally this terrain will be "useable" across several different rules sets like 40K, Necromunda and Batman as well as any other random "near-future" sci-fi games I might find myself interested in.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – I just wrapped up more iconic Ravenwing models. Like most of the Space Marines Chapters the bulk of their army is made up of units that are shared with the main codex with some minor variations. Each of the chapters with their own codex then have several unique units that only they can access. The Darkshroud and Black Knights are both examples only the Dark Angels have access to.
Read MoreNecromunda – Having played a few games with the gangs that came in the boxed set I decided it was time to branch out and experiment with the Genestealer Cult. I've always been a big fan and while I'm not using my Warhammer 40,000 Genestealer Cult until they get a new codex I can use the models I already own to build a pretty cool gang.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – The Death of Soup has forced some of my clients to revisit their army lists and comply with the newest FAQ. Having to have everything be related on a deeper level than just their Super-Faction keywords means they need more models to take advantage of the same strategies.
Read MoreWarhammer - I have a few models up for sale on eBay at the moment. One of the services I offer my clients is to sell models either for a percentage or for painting credit on a larger force. Occasionally I'll have commissions that were never collected or test models that didn't make the final list.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – The Escalation Campaign is over. Unsurprisingly Chaos lost. In the final battle I used a different Chaos force than I had been using to represent the Nightlords abandoning the system with the meager spoils they claimed just as Chaos re-enforcements meandered onto the scene. Given the once sided nature of the campaign it was inevitable that Chaos would turn on itself.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – Cadians are always a popular choice, particularly for a basic 3C + Wash paint job. Castellan Green, Agrax Earthshade and some metallics make quick work of these bad boys.
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Warhammer 40,000 – The Black Legion commission I periodically do work on continues to supply a steady stream of models to fill out any options he doesn't own yet. At this point the models I've seen are less common for bulk painting so the models tend to be a bit more unique.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – Escalation Leagues are typically a sneaky way to get people to finish off a force or get a reasonable amount of models painted. Which is great because typically you win the war against gray plastic thorough escalation. Tying it into a campaign system is just a bonus.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – One of the coolest (or most annoying) things about 8th Edition 40k is list construction. The Keyword system means you can cherry pick the units you want to build whatever force you want. From a thematic aspect this is very cool as it can represent the disparate forces abandoned to the darkness after the Great Rift ripped the galaxy in two. Which means it's feasible to have several units of marines traveling with the remnants of a guard regiment being led by some group of Imperial Heroes with a Knight backing them up. Or recreating odd pairing that you see in Black Library books all the time. For instance I'm reading Death of Antagonis right now and am tempted to pick up a Canoness to run along side my Imperial forces. It's not super strong but could make for a cool narrative.
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