A detailed account of my various commission/hobby projects.
Warhammer 40,000 – This batch of models add a few more models to the substantial Dark Angel and Deathwatch force I’ve been painting off and on for sometime.
Included is the new Primaris Chaplain on BIke, this is probably my favorite model from the last batch of releases.
Warhammer 40,000 – Everybody is trying to get their armies ready for ninth edition so I’ve had quite a few random batches of models cross my tabletop. Looking at some of these I’m guessing Chinese Resin if freely flowing again now that deliveries are getting more normalized.
This batch has some Dark Angel Primaris, a variety of Deathwatch models and an old school Razorback for an Iron Hands Successor Chapter.
Warhammer 40,000 – One of my clients is pretty good at finding great deals and rescuing models from the used bins. Most recently he acquired a fully-painted Death Watch force to add to his own. It had a very different theme than what he has been using as well as some unique weapon load-outs. Of course the problem with picking up a “fully-painted” force is they rarely match your existing force. Often people use the GW painting guides and you get lucky that they are close-enough and other times the previous owner put their own twist on it.
This is one of those “Unique-Twist” situations. Luckily the paint wasn’t gobbed on and I was able to make some adjustments. Essentially this became a 3C+Wash job as I only needed to bring the black, gunmetal and red in line with what I’ve done on the rest of the force. It takes a little time but the end result is worth it.
Warhammer 40,000 – I’m sure Deathwatch will be addressed in an upcoming Psychic Awakening book. At which point they might become super popular again. Relative power level or popularity aside I have a steady stream of the men in black crossing my table.
Warhammer 40,000 – Deathwatch didn’t get all the fancy toys the new marines got. With the steady flow of these guys across my table you’d never know it. Some of these guys were rescued from the bargain bin and recruited to the Deathwatch with a shoulder pad swap, while the rest make up weapon load-outs my client didn’t have in his existing force. I tried to make up a variety of chapters by mixing and matching the decals I have with various color schemes, just to avoid only representing a few chapters.
Warhammer 40,000 – Some armies you’ll always be adding small elements to. With Space Marines of any type minor adjustments in wargear load-outs can drastically affect your costs, which means tweaking units by a model or two. When working with a super-specialized force like Death Watch those tweaks can have a bigger impact. For players that don’t like to proxy or use counts as models in their force this means constantly adding to your collection until you have ever combination covered.
This latest batch of Death Watch marines goes along with the force I’ve been painting for a client, this time around he’s adding some special and heavy weapons.
Warhammer 40,000 – I’m really happy to see Deathwatch lists popping up as part of the competitive scene, its one of those forces that has so much flavor but tends to get over-costed to make up for all the “extras” they get. With bolters now being more effective I feel you’ll see more of these Men in Black popping up in Imperial Soup armies if not as a stand alone force.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – 8th edition continues to shine as my group tries playing through various size battle and themes to see what we like best in 8th. I've owned Fantasy Arc's Bug Hunt Corridors for some time now and I will eventually complete all the parts I have so i can justify picking up some of his cool new rooms and specialty corridors.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – Weeknights i try to keep games to 1500 points a side. it makes it possible to finish a game within the few hours, This week three of us got together to play 1500 points of Genestealer Cult vs 750 points each of Deathwatch/Inquisition and Tau.
We played the football field deployment, maelstrom mission with the reducing objectives. The city set-up had plenty of blocked lines of site so it wouldn't be a shooting gallery.
I stuck with the same list I've been playing. I don't think it's optimized but it was the most cost effective choice with the two Deathwatch: Overkill boxes I acquired. Each game I get a little better and have an easier time remembering all the special rules and interactions. Repetition is the best way to learn right?
My opponents had a Deathwatch squad in a drop pod, two inquisitors in chimeras with henchmen squads. The Tau had a few suits, fire warriors and pathfinders. No 100% of the complete list breakdown but that should be pretty accurate.
They won the roll to set up and go first, I got some really good rolls on the Cult Ambush chart, including a "6" with my first curse massive formation. Throwing caution to the wind I place them very aggressively and hope to seize the initiative. Sadly that roll doesn't go my way so my super aggressive deployment meant heavy casualties. The few that did survive made it into combat and tore through everything unfortunately leaving them open for another round of shooting.
On the opposite side of the table the Deathwatch very thematically faced off against a horde of Neophytes and Acolytes. The chimeras were the star of the show on that end of the table and I really need to start them on the table every time I play. Outflanking never seems to pay off for me as well as trucking across the board drawing fire.
At the end of the game I had 9 points to their 6, but lost my last model on the top of turn five. It was by far the closest game I've had so far. Part of it was lucky rolls on the Score D3 cards that put me ahead on points. If I could have managed keeping something alive I would have got my first win.
Genestealer Cult is a tricky army to play, on paper it feels like it wants to get up in your face and win in the assault phase. In practice there's only a few units that you really want to get into combat: Genestealers and Mutants are amazing when they can get into an assault. The small units of neophytes and acolytes are better used to grab and hold objectives, I think. In practice when I get aggressive with them, five man units die to easily in the shooting phase. Being able to Return to Shadow and bring back friends should be really good, but I've yet to master the art of using it effectively.
Warhammer 40,000 – I'm still keeping my head above water, it's crazy every spring I seem to get flooded with a bunch of new commission work, typically it's for a game that just released the previous season or that has recently seen a upsurge in popularity. As of late i've been seeing an awful lot of 40K models come across my table. This seems odd to me as if you believe the interwebs that game might as well be on it's last legs with the amount of "new" games; that play better, are cheaper and generally better designed; that are stepping up to knock the champ off it's proverbial golden throne.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – What's this, more green marines? Turns out my client had a few more models he needed painted for his Dark Angels force. Included in this batch are the remaining Devastators and a Vanguard Veteran squad. The Vanguard are interesting because he chose to build them as Deathwatch marines an interesting choice to add some variety.
I started with the Deathwatch marines. Painting black armor can be a challenge as I found with the Ravenwing. Getting the right shade of grey for the edge highlight is key. From there I then had to find the color for each of the Marine Chapters represented in the squad. My client also asked that I do a knee pad on each marine in their chapter colors to break up the black.
For those of you unfamiliar with the Deathwatch here's a brief summary. Every Chapter has to send a tithe of warriors to serve a tour of duty with the Deathwatch. The Deathwatch act as the military arm of the Ordo Xenos, essentially alien hunters (where the Sisters serve the Ordo Hereticus, Witch Hunters and the Grey Knight serve the Ordo Malleous, daemon hunters.) When the marines join they paint their armor black with a silver arm only leaving one shoulder pad with their chapter heraldry.
With the Devastators they follow the same pattern as the rest of the force. The only real difference is with one of the marines the client asked for him to have a tactical marking to indicate he just picked up the missile launcher and joined the squad. This serves the dual purpose of allowing him to swap out the heavy weapon in tactical squads easily.
I love December. Having my birthday and christmas in the same month usually means lots of new games. Earlier this month we celebrated both my and my wife's birthdays. Hers tends to fall Thanksgiving weekend so we'll celebrate with family all in one go.
This year I was lucky enough to receive the Myths and Legends expansion for Small World. I'm really looking forward to trying this out as it seems to add a whole new level to the game. As with the original game the art is fun and clever. On the board game front I also received Call of Chthulu LCG and the Chthulu Dice game. The card game seems similar to Magic the Gathering without the collectible aspect. Chthulu Dice is a variation on LRC with different terms and a funky 12-sided die.
Quick side note: Recently I watched Chthulu (2007) this is by far one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Be forewarned it is a giant waste of time.
On the RPG front I was fortunate enough to receive the Deathwatch core rules and the Rogue Trader: Into the Storm expansion. Both live up to Fantasy Flight's high level of quality and I look forward to eventually nailing down a day each month to run a campaign. RPG's have been notoriously difficult to run with my usual gaming crew but everyone seems interested in this system. It seems like the nature of it will also lend itself well to players being absent for a session.
