Into the Nightvault.

Recently in early February of this year, I sat down for a tutorial of Warhammer Underworlds: Nightvault. I'm not going to teach you How to play Nightvault as that link has someone far more appealing and capable than myself that has already done that work. But I will tell you what I thought of it:

I enjoyed the heck out of it!

Easy, yet complex enough to not seem too dumbed down or childish. It's like a Heroquest style game but without the maze and you clearly know who your opponent is going to be. But you don't know exactly what cards they have up their sleeve either and that's where a big part of the complexity comes in.

Each player chooses his board, which them combines with the other player(s) to make a bigger board. This matters due to the starting position and obstacles that are on the individual boards and factors deeply into the strategic play of this game. But the execution of playing your cards right. The Gambit cards in particular. These are Ploys or Spells that can effect you or your opponent and influence the outcome of the game. It all comes together in a fun, easy to learn, quick and competitive game.

I was impressed enough to get my own copy of the game the very next day. I have since began assembling these (surprisingly) complex pushfit models. The first warband I started to work on are the three models that comprise Stormsire's Cursebreakers. But I'll discuss more on those guys in a seperate thread if their own.

Stormcasts assembly begins.

I hope to get some friends who are outside of my usual gaming circle to play this with me.  My hope is that the small model count and boardgame aspect should be less intimidating to them. We'll see. Meanwhile I have been expanding a bit in hope that it does happen. I have picked up a few more Warbands, some extra dice, rulebooks and another board piece.

The expansion begins. 

...Damn, is this addicting!😮

Terror Tactics

"An Extra Night of Gaming." That's what the event was called on our local Hobbytown FB page. It was this past Monday, and somehow the stars aligned themselves in such a way that I was able to participate.

Attempting to employ terror tactics. 

There were a few games being played when I arrived, but not long afterwards the Kill Team game ended and Josh agreed to play a game with me. We chose the Terror Tactics mission and selected our teams. Since they worked well last time I chose to run the exact same Kill Team of Dru...I mean Dark Eldar. Josh selected a team of Primaris Marines.

Dark Eldar Deployment.

Marine Deployment.

I managed to get the Initiative every round of this game! Really, it was the only time that my dice wanted to roll well, as the rest of this match felt like I was in contention with my dice as much as I was my opponent! It started off well with a segment of my force moving towards the board edge while still peppering the Space Marines with as many poisoned needles as possible. I missed a lot, or failed to wound, or the Marine made a save, or I didn't take him out of action when I did manage to hurt him. This made this match more challenging for me, that is for sure!

Dark Eldar advance on Turn 1. 

The first few rounds seemed to go fairly even handed, I kill a guy  he kills a guy, etc. We both our Leaders early on also. But by the 3rd Turn Josh was able to let the Primaris sink their teeth into my Kill Team and start tearing. My Wyches, who stole the show in their last match, were shockingly ineffective against the Primaris Marines in this game. The Comms Specialist and his synergistic benefits were amazing in this game, and this being my first time seeing it in action, I was impressed greatly by his performance.

The floundered charge. 

I had gotten about three models off this board via his deployment zone however the other victory condition was that if one of the teams broke, than the other team could win. Josh focused on achieving this victory condition. When his Reiver slaughtered my Kabalite Warrior Gunner (with the blaster) in an assault, I was left and the last Warrior was brought down by shooting, I had only the other Kabalite Warrior Gunner (with the Splinter Cannon) left on the board. He was in rough shape, and it was no surprise when he failed that test.

Don't fear the Reiver.

If this match taught me anything it was that mastery of the CP system is key to Kill Team. I was poorly suited for this in this match as I am still unfamiliar with my options, while Josh used his with strategic cunning and was able to undermine my most clever strategies. My best use of the Stratagems did get my Wyche Fighter out of a bad situation and able her to escape, but that was more out of desperation on my part than any sort of strategy!

"This sector is secured!"

Thanks for a good game Josh, we'll meet again! Really, if the game had ended on Turn 5 instead of my dice willing the game to continue for another round, I would have won! But that extra round was all the Space Marines needed to rally and take the day! I had fun, in spite of my frustration with my die rolls and with the mechanics of the game in general. After decades of the 'I go U go' system, this version of 'I move, now you move', although refreshing, is hard for this old beard to adapt too. I guess I just need to play more, right?




Some of the other games that took place that night were awesome to observe. Josh, fresh from his win against me, took on a Death Guard army. It was a good example of how undeveloped an all Primaris army currently is as far as support options go. Take a look at all those heavy support and vehicles on the Death Guard side vs. the Space Marine side and you can see what I mean. I left before it ended, and forgot to take a 2nd pic, but it was a brutal clash with Josh's marines hitting with everything they had!

Primaris vs. Deathguard.

The other big game was between The Bob and Matt. Matt used his Genestealer Cult with Imperial Guard Allies and Bob brought his Ulthwe Craftworlds Eldar. It was a brutal match with devastating death tolls on both sides.

Cult corrupted Guard vs. Ulthwe Eldar.

It boiled down to the final fight for the objective. I think the Eldar won, but it was crazy close (so I could be wrong?)! It was a fun game to watch. So I asked Bob who won and this is what he said:

"Matt did on objectives.
8-4 I think,
I had more models left but he had the only unit left that could score.
Fun game."

The final fight! 

Indeed, fun games all around, and I was glad I could participate!

Krom (The Older) (Part 2)

Here is the continuing work in progress on the mighty Krom. As I mentioned in part one, this is the older version of Krom due to, well, reasons. I ended the last post with a quick bit of simple green-stuff sculpting to recreate his bionic eye. And now we are at the early painting stages.

Krom (the Older) WIP.

And since I have listed my stages on various Space Wolf posts over the years, I'll keep this one super simple. I will say that I am taking some cues from the White Dwarf Paint Splatter article* that featured Krom.

Basecoats on armor and cloak.

Base coats on fleshy bits and the ground.

 Basecoats on the metal bits.

Below is a better view of the Axe and Cape, since this will take some time, and I will focus on it in the next few posts, I wanted to establish a good perspective shot. This initial step for the cape is a basecoat of Khorne Blood. The axe blade is supposed to be painted like some sort of icicle, and I will detail those steps in a later post also.

View of the Cape and axe.

We'll pick this up with the middle paint stages in the next part.

*White Dwarf weekly, #108, 20 February 2016.

Intercessors of Fenris (Part 5)

Pack One is done! 

Continuing on from last time, I have managed to finish the first Pack! They were almost done in that last post with exception to just a few minor details.

Sergeant is done, bling and all. 

I used a newer decal set than what I had originally thought I would use, and with the help of Microset, I was done with very little fuss. The newer transfers activate faster and didn't fight me nearly as much as their older kin.

Decal applied to shoulder pad.

Over all, I am pleased with how this first set of Space Wolf Primaris Marines have turned out. My traditional paint scheme took some tweaks but the results leave me wanting to do some more.

Wolf Tail in two colors.

A few of these guys have Genestealer skills. These were painted with a bine color before being washed with Druchii Violet, then lightly dry brushed with Bleached Bone before getting a subtle highlight of White Scar. The teeth were particularly picked out with the White Scar.

Another 'stealer skull.

I confess, I got lazy with the Wolf Tails. These were painted black and dry brushed with White Scar. I just varried the concentration from light to heaviest with the heaviest being towards the tip of the tail. Hey, it works!

Touch-ups added to the first guy that was done.

Middenland Tufts were added to the bases after the decals were done. And that was a wrap!

Feel'n tuft! 

Group shot!

Last thing: I decided to add the traditional wolf  skull campaign badges to their legs. They didn't fit or look right on the front greaves, where I would have preferred them to be, but they look decent enough on the back of the legs.

Campaign badge! 

Now on to the next set of five...

Intercessors of Fenris (Part 4)

I have been picking and poking at these guys since the holidays. They are almost done!  What follows are the steps that got me this far.

Almost done! 

Here is the Sergeant for squad one, getting his mid-coats applied. It's one of the few times that I used my Citadel Hobby Handle, or remembered to take a photo while the model was still mounted on it.

Mid-coats applied.

And here he is again with Bugman's Glow as a flesh basecoat and Mournfang Brown for the hair.

Sgt with mid-coats.

The other three (unfinished) guys from this squad got their mid-coats done also.  Here  they await the final stages...

Waiting for their completion...

As I painted these guys, I seemed to paint the trio of regular troopers together and focus on the Sergeant separately. This has worked out well I think. Here he is with his armor painted up to the top color, Space Wolves Grey, and with his flesh painted with Cadian Flesh.

Space Wolves Grey.

Here they are as collective, awaiting the final highlights and details.

Last steps before highlighting.

The Sergeant has his armor highlighted with White Scar, and his flesh is painted with Kislev Flesh. The only thing left to do is pick put a few details (gem stone, the skulls on the base, etc.). The others are now up to this level also (see top pic). I think I have to pause here, but the next post in this series should see this squad completed.

... almost done!