So as mentioned I've already got the Rasputina Children of December crew box set that I've been painting up recently. I've not played a game with them yet and want to more focus on the Tale of Malifaux Bloggers crew that I'm working on (post incoming over next couple of days.)
Almost finished Rasputina and her ice constructs just a couple of touch-ups here and there but I'm realtively happy with these.
Hope you all like!
Tuesday 3 February 2015
Wednesday 28 January 2015
#ToMB2 Tale of Malifaux Bloggers - Month 0
So here’s the secret project that I’m going to be running
this year. I’m going to be taking part in a “Tale of” series for a brand new
game I’m jumping into Malifaux! I used to love as a kid reading the Tale of
Gamers series in the old White Dwarfs, reading about the team slowly but surely
building and buying their armies month by month and watching them grow was a
really good way of keeping your spending down while also making a fully
playable army in due course.
Now I’m completely new to Malifaux and towards the end of
the year I was getting an itch to play it. The game is rather cheap to get
into, the crews are slowly getting some stunning looking plastic crews and best
of all for me there’s no dice involved so I can’t be failing on dice-rolling that
much! The game uses a normal deck of cards including two jokers.
I’ve already got the
rulebook and expansion book and bought the Children of December plastic crew
box with the Rasputina master. I’ve never played a game with her and more
wanted her to paint up which I’ve almost finished. I think with this ToMB2
it’ll be the ideal to learn the game with a small crew to start off with and
then build upwards from there as I get confident. Being a complete newbie I’ll
also be able to give my thoughts on the rules as well as revealing what I’ve
been learning as I play more games. It may sound ambitious but my main goal for
this year is to go to a Malifaux tournament towards the end of the year with my
new crew and feel confident enough with the rules that I should be able to play
without having to worry too much.
So what are the rules of this then? Well it’s going to be
ran by Ben at the Malibros Blog, everyone starts with £40 in month one to buy
their crew box set and then £15 every subsequent month to build up your crew,
obviously if you want to save some left over money from month to month to
purchase more than your monthly allowance then that’s fine. At the end of every
month you need to have your minis purchased that month built and painted or
face a forfeit, and you’ve got to show your progress throughout (games,
tactics, painting, etc). It’ll run initially for four months but if there’s
enough interest it’ll be extended to six months.
So now the important bit….Which crew will I pick?
Well being completely new to this I’ve got a plethora of
choice, as mentioned the new plastic crews feature some stunning models and my
weak wargamer self has switched between so many different ones in the last week
trying to find the right one. Here are the options I’m toying between; I’ve
given my initial impressions of each master from reading the books. If I’ve got
anything wrong about them apologies!
Pandora - Neverborn
We all know bad stuff happens when you open Pandora’s box and
no that isn’t a euphemism. She controls
the enemy and manipulates them rather than going out and out damage dealer. In
her crew box you get the two creepiest models to find in a skirmish game, Candy
and Baby Kade. These two models easily optimise the vast styles of factions
that are available in Malifaux. You also get the rather impressive looking Poltergeist
and three Sorrows to fill out the crew. Seven models to start isn’t too bad.
The lure of getting the much loved Teddy model included in the crew is
definitely a pull for this crew but for a complete newbie to the game I think
all of Pandora’s tricks and skills might be a little overwhelming to learn
with.
Sheamus – Resurrectionists
How much cooler can you get than a master that’s a mix of
Jack the Ripper and The Mad Hatter and is backed up by Zombie Hookers and a
copycat midget? It looks like Sheamus has one of the most deadly ranged weapons
in the game managing to cause 8 damage on a severe damage flip before
disappearing the other side of the table as long as he’s out of sight. The fact
his Rotten Belles can use a skill called Lure to move an opponent’s model
towards them so Sheamus doesn’t even need to get up close and in harm’s way is
an awesome skill to have. I could see a lot of synergy with this crew and not
many skills/rules to learn the game with; but until the additions in month two
the first month I can see the crew being very one dimensional. It’s a
possibility and I know for a fact if I don’t do Sheamus for #ToMB2 I’ll be
picking him up in the future.
Perdita Ortega – Guild
The Latigo Posse, a very much ranged based crew to start
with but with Perdita meaning to be very forgiving for new players to learn. I
love the mix of Mexican and Cowboy attire and this box features my personal
favourite model in Nino, who seems to be carrying a gatling gun but sets up as
a sniper anywhere on the table! The rest of the family is just as potent and
have little clever skills to utilise with each other. A lot of synergy possible
with this crew and I think I’d be much more comfortable learning the game with
ranged guys first before having a predominantly focussed melee army.
Von Schill – Outcasts
Another ranged themed crew full of mercenaries of the Freikorps.
Von Schill himself is pretty adapt at both ranged and melee combat, he has
decent movement and buffs his surrounding Freikorps with the A Legend to Live Up To ability.
Included in the box are two normal Freikorpsmann troops, a Freikorps Librarian
who is tasked at healing his comrades in battle, a Freikorps Trapper who is a
traditional sniper model and finally my favourite model in the box set the
Freikorps Specialist who wields a big beefy flamethrower! Like the Perdita crew
box, this is more of a ranged box set and has potential additions in the
following months of either ranged or melee focussed mercenaries. Compared to
the other crews though the Freikorps are not really the most interesting models
in the game. When you compare all the weird and wonderful creations for the
Arcanists, Ressurectionists and the like; having normal mercenary troops seems
a bit meh.
Time to deliberate until Sunday when I’m going to be putting
in my order for my crew. I have a feeling who I’m going to be choosing but you
never know I might go completely different. Tale of Malifaux Bloggers Month 1 begins on Sunday!
The full rules for Tale of Malifaux Bloggers 2 #ToMB2 can be
found here.
Monday 26 January 2015
Bolt Action AAR – Point Defence – Soviets vs British 1,000pts
I finally made it down the club for the first time in ages
in the New Year, December saw me have plans every single weekend so it was a no-go.
I played Jim again at 1,000pts of Bolt Action. I used my tried and tested
Soviet list and Jim ran his Brits. We played Point Defence and like normal I
was defending (every time we’ve played this mission I’ve played defender and
HATE preliminary bombardments!). I used my two Zis-3 guns to defend either
corner of the board; the best thing about these is while they’re medium AT guns
they can also be utilised as light howitzers so are effective on both armour
and infantry. I packed two objectives filled with troops and left my T34, another
squad and some of the team weapons to come on in reserve.
Jim’s Sherman entered the battle and immediately took out
one of the Zis-3s looking across the board from him. Thankfully though I
retaliated with the T34 and managed to immobilise and then destroy the vehicle.
Jim had a SAS truck that he had been banging on about all week filled with a
huge SAS squad. Unfortunately for him he outflanked onto the road on the left,
the truck was blown up and pinned the squad in position and my flamethrower
team came on the same edge and burnt the poor Brit specialists into a crisp.
My Green squad was dug into some rocks on the left hand side
and stayed there all game holding the objective. For a free inexperienced squad they have been
my MVP every game I’ve played with them. They’re expendable men who seem to
refuse to die no matter how many shots they take, and for inexperienced guys
they’re shooting is pretty top notch. For once my dice rolls for everything
were coming up trumps; even my mortar was ranging in quickly and wiping squads
out left, right and centre.
As Jim was using his force to try and get the two objectives
I was defending, I ran my third squad onto the non-defended objective and kept
them in cover to hold all three objectives without much threat. By turn 6 we
rolled and there would be no turn 7, to be fair I think Jim’s minimal remaining
men wouldn’t have made it across the table anyway. Was a well fought match and
pleased I picked up the victory. Will have to try a different Soviet list at
some point and maybe pick up some different models, really wanting to try the
Soviet Engineer Squad with Body armour, can only be killed on a 6+ and veterans
with a flamethrower…yes please!
New Year New Post, Part 2
So what else have I done in the past three months? Well The
End Times has kicked in full swing in the Warhammer world and for some reason
the idea of a Chaos Legions army really sounded like a good idea, finding a
decent deal on Wargaming Trading page on Facebook I found myself with quite a
rather large collection of unmade current edition Chaos and Beastmen figures!
I don’t have a clue what came over me, most of the models
are still unbuilt, I did make an attempt of a Beastmen BSB and Beastlord and the unit of Chaos Warriors I built and started to
paint as Khorne Warriors I’ve been a little underwhelmed with. I know Chaos Warrior
armies can be low numbers and really competitive but I’m honestly not sure
whether I can see myself to build, paint and play another Fantasy army at the
moment. I’ve got so many Beastmen models to build it’s a daunting task, I’ve
gone from one horde army of the Vampire Counts to another Horde army of
Beastmen. I think realistically thinking I’ll probably resell all of this and
hopefully someone else will have more luck than I did!
One of my resolutions for 2015 is not to impulse buy, last
year I had a rather bad habit of jumping from army to army, something which I
think a lot of wargamers do, but I’d buy enough for way over the normal points
limit and then struggle to complete it and sell it on. This year I want to make
a concentrated effort on the armies I own and get them finished and fully
painted/based.
The armies are as followed;
Warhammer Fantasy
Ogre Kingdoms – Finish painting my first Fantasy army when I
got back into the army. I’d say I’m about 75% of the way through this army but
still need to paint a few of the bigger things. I do have an unbuilt
Thundertusk which needs building at some point too.
Vampire Counts – As mentioned I’ve made a good start but
still have a lot to do for these. Obviously being a horde-style army each unit
is 40 strong so it’s a big task for each unit. Though if they’re as simple as
the Zombies to paint, I feel I could get through the army quite quickly.
Empire - I’m not too sure what to do with my Empire. I’ve
got a pretty big force built and mainly primed but whenever I pick them up I
cannot for the life of me get motivated to paint them up. It also doesn’t help
whenever I play them on the table they’re boring to play. It may well be the
case that I sell these rather than trying to paint them up.
Bolt Action
German Waffen SS – This was a Christmas present and spent
the Christmas week building it all. Now with the weather being it’s normal
British weather I’m finding it pretty hard to get anything primed. I unfortunately
don’t have a garage or anything so have to go outside in the shed so I really
need a decent mild temperature. As mentioned in Part 1 this is more of a
modelling and painting project so I’m not too fussed if this takes me longer to
get these painted and sorted.
Warhammer 40K
Necrons – I’ve got about 90% of everything painted. I’ve got
one unit primed and halfway painted and then a couple of units still to build.
I’ve not really played much 40K recently so it’s not a major rush to get these
finished but with the new Necron Codex coming out I’d like to get these
finished so I can properly learn 40K in the near-distant future.
Space Marines – This was actually meant to be my winter
project and wanted to get everything built and primed over the Christmas
period. That obviously didn’t happen with so many other things happening! I
really want to make a effort to get these done as they’re going to be pretty simple
to paint and build. I know I’ve got a weekend in March where the fiancé is
going away with work friends all weekend so I might very well just spend the
whole weekend building and priming it all.
Infinity
PanO – Everything is primed and I just need to paint the
Military Orders up. Unfortunately not many people are playing the game at the
club and that’s after the Version 3 rules which came out recently. These shouldn’t
take too long to get done so I might just need a weekend or two to focus and
get them done.
Morats – Again these are all primed and half painted but
need finishing off. I think my motivation for them have really died down now no
one plays at the club but I think I need to make a focused pledge soon to get
them done and relearn Infinity. But it’s not a major rush to get them done at
the moment.
So yeah quite a few projects, and I’ve also got one bigger
one that I’ll be mentioning in a blog post this week. Something that I’m
looking forward to being a part of and it’s for a brand new system that I’ve
not learnt yet. It’ll probably get me visiting a couple of different North East
clubs to play the game but I’m already really looking forward to jumping into
this and learning to play it.
New Year New Post, Part 1
A very Happy New Year! Can't believe it's been October the last time I
posted an update in here. Though to be fair the past three months has been
crazily busy. Work went mental for the Christmas period, I went on holiday to
Paris, I got engaged over Christmas. And we're in the process of selling the
house to move onto a bigger place. Yeah pretty busy end to 2014!
Hobby-wise though it's been hit and miss. For Christmas my fiance (still feels wierd saying it), got me a brand new German Waffen SS army for Bolt Action. I added to the box set and picked up some Artizan Design winter Germans. My aim for this army is to create a Battle of the Bulge Winter themed army, a bit like my failed Flames of War army. I want to create woodland style basing for these including a MMG lying up against dead cattle and the Nebelwerfer to be based in a bunker with trees on the back. This is more going to be a painting and modelling army first with the aim of playing with these second. I want to take my time on the camo patterns and basing rather than rushing them through like my Russians and Japanese just to get them tabletop ready.
Hobby-wise though it's been hit and miss. For Christmas my fiance (still feels wierd saying it), got me a brand new German Waffen SS army for Bolt Action. I added to the box set and picked up some Artizan Design winter Germans. My aim for this army is to create a Battle of the Bulge Winter themed army, a bit like my failed Flames of War army. I want to create woodland style basing for these including a MMG lying up against dead cattle and the Nebelwerfer to be based in a bunker with trees on the back. This is more going to be a painting and modelling army first with the aim of playing with these second. I want to take my time on the camo patterns and basing rather than rushing them through like my Russians and Japanese just to get them tabletop ready.
The Vampire Counts have been progressing nicely but have stalled over
the Christmas period. I’ve got the base for the Terrorgheist done and I’m so
pleased with it. The 40 Zombies we’re actually pretty simple to do. With the
basecoat spray of the Army Painter Necrotic Flesh it was a case of giving the
skin a wash of green, adding some different colours for the pieces of clothing
and then adding Blood for the Blood God to the mouths and hands. Basing was
also pretty simple and overall the 40 Zombies in one movement tray look pretty
impressive.
The Terrorgheist itself is coming along, with the winter themed army
(what is it with Winter themed armies that I like?) I thought the best bet for
the wings was to do it in an icy blue/green colour and then have a warm bone
colour for the skeleton to offset the colours. It’s still a work in progress
but I’m happy with how it’s looking at the moment. I’m really pleased with my
Vampire Lord conversion though. He was a finecast Empire Warrior Priest who I
got as a double for Christmas last year, quick snip of the head and a ghoul
head and a new sword arm makes him a unique looking Vampire Lord. Still need to
base him but overall really pleased with how he came out.
I did get one game of Fantasy in with the Vampire Counts at a new
wargame shop in Ashington called War and Piece. I faced off against Jim’s High
Elves but unfortunately lost. The Vampire Lord on foot was an absolute beast
though and chopped through a whole unit of horses including the BSB and High
Elf Lord. Though my deployment failed me again, as my Ghouls were almost cut
off due to the houses in the middle and took a turn too much to get into the
battle. I think with it being so long since my last Fantasy game it was a bit
of rust.
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