A detailed account of my various commission/hobby projects.
Warhammer 40,000 – One of the game stores I frequent is working on a new program that will showcase local painters in the store. It's a pretty cool program, they give you a box to assemble and paint however you want and you bring it back with a detailed cost breakdown. They'll display this in the case along with your contact info/ad and have it for sale.
Read MoreBATTLE REPORT: Warhammer 40,000 – I'm not sure how I feel about random team events. On one hand they're fun and it's a great way to meet new players. On the other hand it can be grueling trying to play a team game with someone you don't know with lists that may or may not work well together. To offset this most events of this type that I've played in are raffle events that don't give a real prize to the overall winner but rather tickets for participation and other random events over the course of the day. Some do it better than others but overall the goal is to keep it casual and focus more on having fun than being the top dog.
The day of the event I got packed up and headed out early figuring I'd have plenty of time to get there and relax before the event started. Unfortunately it's construction season in Michigan and most of the major highways I'd take to get to the event were closed ... good thing I left early. When I got to the event they had already wrapped up the sign ups apparently the organizer posted two different times in two different places. So far this is looking to be a great day. Oh and every mission is Malestrom, yet I left my cards at home...
Round one I faced the ringer for the event in an 800 point match up. He was playing Dark Angels Raven Wing with the big skimmer that gives everything a 2+ re-rollable jink save. I spent the whole game inflicting a tons of wounds that were ignored because of the re-rolls. It was a little frustrating having never faced the force I realized after the fact that I should have just charged and hoped for the best rather than wasting the waste the game hoping he'd roll two ones in a row. My opponent was pretty nice guy which helped make the trouncing tolerable.
Round Two I got paired up with Dark Eldar and would be facing odd against a mostly Killa Kan Ork list. Unfortunately the other partner was nowhere to be found so I got to face the Ringer again. The Dark Eldar player was better equipped to deal with the bike nonsense but it was still an uphill battle. The mission allowed you to steal your opponents capture objective 1-6 cards and score on your turn. We go lucky with the way the cards came up and out-scored our opponents pretty badly.
Round Three I was paired with a Necron player against a Khorne Daemonkin and Dark Angels force. This was a weird mix of The Relic with generic Maelstrom Objectives. The table was set up rather odd with a raised city potion on one side of the table. (I really liked the idea behind it and might build my own terrain piece with a fortress to defend set up similarly) We didn't size the initiative so the Khorne player ran to the middle of the table to seize the relic with his Bloodthirster. Since it was on the ground I poured lascannon a melta fire into it until is vanished back into the warp. From that point on the game was more of an exercise in playing smart and killing off threats as they presented themselves. This is a game where the benefits of the Stormlance Squadron really paid off. Besides staying safe in my transports most of the game I was able to gun down a unit of cultists charging me while I was on an objective. Since the cultists had objective secured they "controlled" the objective when I fired overwatch which allowed me to re-roll my overwatch shots. (pretty strong, ability).
Overall I had a good time at the event, 32 players in total made for a busy event. This was my first time at this game store and the overall impression I got was pretty good. They have a good amount of space to play, decent terrain and really nice tables. I'll defiantly be back and might even swing out to meet up with some of the guys I met at the event. The event itself was a little losey goosy for my tastes, even when you're not playing "to win" it's nice to see standings and to keep the rounds tight so the event doesn't go to long. I'm sure for future events they'll pay a bit more attention to that so they can keep this momentum going.
Guild Ball – The popularity of skirmish games never ceases to amaze me. They tend to burn bright and fade away quickly. When I started this blog Malifuax was fresh and new and over the course seven years I've seen many games come and go. It's always cool to see a new game on the rise, mostly because that means I get new models to paint.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – One of my regular clients sent over the Deathwatch marines from the Overkill board game to have painted to match his Inquisitor/Grey Knight/Assassin force. I don't know how effective they are on the battlefield but the models look amazing. They are however one pose models, which is the thing I dislike about other companies plastic models. The poses are dynamic and look cool, however the end result is you have the exact same models as everyone else that chooses to play it. The thing that always set GW above the rest was the possibility and customizability of their models and kits. I have bins of space marine parts and can spend days building random dudes that just look cool. With the new direction that is significantly harder to do. Hopefully the multi part kits with more possibility stay part of the range in the future.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – There a silly random team event coming up in my area that has some strange limitations. I'm using it as motivation to get some of my own models painted as nothing is a better motivator than an event to be ready for. (Especially when there's a painting award).
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – I'm really excited about the Angels of Death supplement, I've been a fan of the Iron Hands rules for a little while and bringing back the "It will not die" on all vehicles in the army is nice. Making an all tank army is a viable option with the added boost the supplement brings to the table.
Read MoreBATTLE REPORT: Warhammer 40,000 – Some time ago I painted a boatload of assasin models for a client/friend. At the time I though he was crazy and couldn't imagine ever being able to field them outside of the random apocalypse game. The other day I went up to the game store to get in a 1500 point game. I had scheduled a game with an eldar opponent who had to bail due to other commitments. Luckily Glen also had his opponent bail on him as well so I was able to get in a game.
We decided to play the "Sacrificial Lamb" Mission out of Angels of Death, because we got a late start all of the good tables were taken so we played on a bare table with a mishmash of terrain on it. (One of the dangers of playing at game stores is the availability of good tables) Per the mission rules I set up first and had to put a unit in reserve for each unit I deployed. I won't be able to start rolling for reserves until turn 3, but when they come in everything does at once.
My List
CAD
HQ - Tech Marine bike with conversion beamer
TROOP - Tactical Squad in Razorback
TROOP - Tactical Squad in Razorback
LORD OF WAR - Knight Acheron
Armoured Taskforce Formation
Techmarine
(3) Thunderfire Cannons
(2) Vindicator
(1) Whirlwind
His List
(2) Caldius Assassins
(8) Vindicare Assassins
Based on the mission I deployed my artillery, barrage and Knight on the board to start. He then deployed his assassins in a way that made me questions why anyone would every take artillery. I fail to seize and my opponent proceeds to go to work. (Note: I completely forgot Feel No Pain and It Will Not Die both of which may have made a serious impact on the game, someday I won't suck at 40K)
The first turn sees me lose a hull point on the knight, whirlwind, and two thunderfire cannons. The knight walks forward and kills one assassin in shoting and charges the other stomping him into the mud. The second turn sees me lose the other cannon, more hull points on the knight with me taking out another assassin. Turn three is looking really bleak with the Knight my only model left on the board when I make the reserve roll and the calvary arrives. The salvo I unleash takes out a few more assassins and puts me back in the game.
Turn four the knight explodes and scatters away from the action. There's some back and forth between the marines and assassins a few wounds tossed back a forth but nothing major. Turn five sees the game continue to six where it ends.
Once we tally up the points for the mission the assassins win by one point. Only three of the ten survived the battle and I had my tactical squads left.
Warhammer 40,000 – I recently came across a very good deal on a Fellblade Super Heavy Tank, I'm not sure how much I'll actually use it but having access to a super-heavy that's considered part of my "faction" will be useful for events that allow Forgeworld but restrict to one faction. Most of the time I'd prefer an Imperial Knight for versatility.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – One of my regular clients seems to be on the last leg of his fleshing out out his Grey Knights, Inquisitor and Salamanders forces. The latest batch of models he gave me to paint included six death cult assassins, five metal terminators (that needed to be stripped), three daemon hosts and a drop pod that has been built for a dreadnought.
Read MoreArena Rex – I know very little about this Gladiatorial Combat Game. What I know is it uses a D6 system, is small scale and has beautiful models. As part of the orange marine commission I've been grinding away at my client also gave me a box with four small resin model for Arena Rex.
Read MoreAlien vs Predator – As a kid I was a huge fan of both of these franchises. I had my grandfather build me a pulse rifle out of wood so I could run around pretending to blast Xenomorphs. I bought the Bug Hunt Corridoors because I always wanted to play out the scenes on LV426. My wife picked up the Alien Archive book which I've been referencing along with the blue ray disks to make my terrain look great and be close to the movie. So I guess you could say I'm a fan. (My boys recently snatched some of the action figures off my bookshelf and have been playing with them, they also grabbed the predators I have the cracked tusk, scavenge and stealth mode mail order versions.)
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – My marine client has started an Imperial Guard allied contingent to go with his Space Marines. He asked that they be painted up just like the rest of the army and will be using them like my other client that had me do a custom verision of the Tyrant's Legion.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – I love Space Marines. I can proudly say that the moment I decided to dump my Chaos army and focus solely on Space Marines back just before 5th Edition dropped was one of my smarter decisions. GW's poster boys have yet to disappoint. After 30 years they're still the best and to prove that point they release a homage to the original metal model in plastic with special rules. (I did own this guy in metal at one point but he was chaosified so when I dumped those years ago he disappeared with the rest of them.) Not only that but they also released a whole new book of formations, warlord traits and other useful items for the major codex chapters. (Annoying that a portion of the book was a reprint of the Kayoun stuff...)
Read MoreBATTLE REPORT: Warhammer 40,000 – A member of our gaming group is back in town for a few weeks and as such many of our members came out of the woodwork to hangout and play games. The general consensus was to play 40K so everyone brought a 750 point list and got paired up randomly. I didn't get the exact models in each list but it broke down to something like this:
Team A:
Carchadons with a Knight - Tyberous and five Lightning Claw Terminators, Scouts and Knight Gallant
Imperial Guard - Three Leman Russ, Commissar, Guardsmen
Tyranids - Two flying hive tyrants, two units of genestealers
Team B:
Chaos Marines - Belekor, two units of Chaos Marines
Impirial Guard - Tank Commander, Leman Russes, Chimeras with Vets and Sentinels
Ultramarines – Armoured Task force, Predator, two vindicator, Whirlwind, Thunderfire Cannon and Teach Marine on bike with conversion beamer.
We played Maelstrom and got in three turns before we started to lose interest. The game was a bit of a cluster as tends to be the case when you get more than four players. Some highlights from the game were:
•Knight Gallant took a multitude of hits early on and eventually exploded after smashing a rhino.
• Scouts held their ground against Sentinels and Belekor long enough four the big guns to be brought to bear.
• Leman Russ sniping the front corner of a Chimera through three pieces of terrain (True LOS is dumb, laser pointers for the win)
• Tyberous and his crew coming in on the last turn we played (I think I'm done deep-striking Terminators)
Team B won 5-4 on objectives when we called it. The general consensus was that 40k is best with fewer than 4 people regardless of the point level being played. Going forward if we have 5 or more than we'll be playing a board game, magic or something else that holds a bigger groups attention for longer.
To wrap up the night we brought out King of Tokyo and played a few quick games of that. The game is so simple yet so much fun it's always a good way to wrap up the night.
Dungeons and Dragons – And then there was one. I saved the winged demon for last, this model goes along with the rest of the Heresy Miniatures demons I've been working on. Blue is one of the less common colors I paint and as such it tend to take me a little longer to get it right.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – I love being able to move things off the painting table. The first portion of the Orange Marines is done (except for decals and sealant) I spent a bit more time on these than I typically would for a three color job just because most of these models are character and special characters.
Read MoreDungeons & Dragons – It's rare that a job takes me this long, I think the combinations of a lack of deadline, huge pile of work and wanting to make these perfect is what's causing this to take so long. (Huh rereading that it almost looks like I'm making excuses...)
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – Jockero Orange is my friend. This nifty color has been the basis for a very large (an ever growing) commission army for one of my favorite clients. Granted it's not flashy or super detailed but working on this job has truly expanded my ability to quickly assemble, base and paint a large number of models in a short amount of time. This force really represents the most economical way to get a great looking army on the tabletop.
Read MoreDungeons & Dragons – Blue, pink and green are not in my typical comfort zone on models. I've done each as a main color individually but never all together. The second half of the demon job I'm working on pulls those colors together.
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