Space Marine Board Game Unboxed.

 I did something I didn't think I would ever get around to doing, I posted a video on YouTube. It's a simple and crude thing, but it was fun and spontaneous as I was genuinely excited to get this today. 

This is the exclusive to Target Space Marine boardgame. The game comes with 23 miniatures, 20 Termagants, 2 Ripper Swarms and the lone Space Marine himself, Lieutenant Titus. This is exclusive to Target and retailed for $39.99. I am sure you won't be able to get 10 Termagants for that price let alone 20 of them, and you know Titus won't be any cheaper. It comes with board tiles for the game that are printed on heavy boards, sling shot ammo dice, and a measuring device. 

And slick booklet that contains the rules to the game with some tutorials for learning how to play it. You kids today and your fancy tutorials! Back in my day, when we got Space Crusade we were thrown right into the fray, tutorials be damned! It also has one of those odd photos of people with strange haircuts awkwardly having way more fun playing 40k then you'll ever seen in reality. A good portion of the booklet is devoted to introducing you to the larger world of Ultramarines and Tyranids.

I touched on this in the video when  I found this, but the cardboard counters aren't perforated. This may seem to be a nitpicky thing to harp on,  but remember, this is a game intended to introduce someone unfamiliar with the larger Games Workshop / Warhammer experience, at least make it easier for these players (most of whom are likely to be kids) to actually play this thing. 

I thought about that more after I stopped recording the video. In particular I compared it to some of the boxed games that GW makes in conjuction with Barnes & Noble as this set is along those lines. Those games usually have perforated game pieces and a plastic tray for mounting your figures in for storage. They are a classier presentation in that regard, but to be fair, I don't think it's conceivable to make a storage tray for 23 miniatures for a box of this size. (Just wait, someone will be selling a laser cut foam one soon just to make me eat those words). The games sold through B&N rarely have more than 10 miniatures included in them and usually have cards and a lot more tokens also. 

All-all, I am pleased with this set. It's a good value and looks like a fun way to introduced someone to miniatures gaming. Hopefully I will be able to put this to the test at some point. 

Termagant Fun! (Part 4)

 

The first brood of ten.

The fun continues. Last time I finished off the first five guys in this brood, and now we have five more. Giving me a unit of ten fully painted Termagants. 

Focus on the pinkish parts of the fleshborer. 

One thing that I did to all ten of these models was to add some additional color to their fleshborers. On the tentacle and the ribbing (what else can we call this texture?) beneath the plate at the front of the gun I used slightly thinned Volupus Pink Contrast Paint. Painting that over the green creates an interesting, well, contrast effect that gives a gutty kind of vibe. I haven't decided what to paint the exposed organic ammo in the "clip" so I reserve the right to revist these guys whenever I figure it out. 

Force Ten for the biomass. 

I have twenty more of these models before I move onto the new termagant models from Leviathan and Space Marine 2 The Board Game. The next ten are the guys I made with the weird brain things on their backs. I don't think they have had any in-game function for a few editions now, but I like how they'll help me distinguish them from the first brood. And, yes, they have already seen combat. Expect to see these guys again in Part 5...

Twice the brains, twice the headaches. 

Until then, keep your bio-mass fresh! 

Lett 'em Rip! (Part 2)

WIP shot of the Rippers.

Once I got past the repair steps from last time I moved onto trying to get these things painted. 

First thing was to get their bases painted up. I did choose to add a skull to each base to indicate which squad brood that they are.  I thought that this could be a neat way to keep track of them during games. 

You might notice that there is an additional (fourth) base. This is because I plan to add at least three more Ripper bases to to this group. One such brood is a set of the 2nd edition era Rippers that GW put out in Finecast a few years ago. I was baffled at the time as to why they did this, but when I saw them at a local store I couldn't resist the variety that adding them to my  collection would bring. 

The joy of Finecast. 

But that's for another time, for now I wanted to get these thing s finished. I used the same steps and colors that I used on the Termagants. 

Mid-coats. 

And here they are, finished. 

So far I am pleased. I adore these models, something about them remind me of the horseshoe crabs that I used to see on the beach when I was a kid in Delaware. Anyway, hopefully I can get them onto a table top sooner than later and see how well they work in game as both wound counters and as annoying units for tying up enemy troops.  They probably get ovetwatched by flamers, but the ambition is there. 

Let 'em rip! (Part 1)

 As any tyranid player knows,  when building troop models you tend to accumulate Rippers. I found that I had a dozen of them. And it turns out that in 40k 9th edition (and now also in 10th)  Ripper Swarms have 4 wounds per base.

Three bases of Rippers. 

I decided to have each ripper count as a Wound token. So when the model takes a Wound, I remove an individual Ripper. I decided to accomplish this by using magnets on the bottom of the rippers with a sheet magnet on the base. The first few that I magnetized were stronger than the rest, so I will try to make sure I leave them towards the back of base to make it easier to move the model during play.

A strong magnet indeed 

Next came the basing materials. 

Grit and skulls. 

I added a few skulls to the bases and some grit. Trying to leave as much room as I could for the magnets to work of course. 

I started to basecoat these critters when I decided to take them with me to a game. Due to a lack of foresight on my part, some of my tyranid models were damaged by the heat when my car got too hot. One of these ripper bases was severely warped unfortunately, forcing me to re-do it. 

Yeah, there is no hope here. So I removed the skulls and removed the sheet magnet from the now useless base. It occurred to me while I was working on this, that I could use the number of skulls on the bases to denote the base number for easier cross reference to the roster. As I proceed on this project, that is what I am going to do. Let's see how far I get with these things in part 2. 

Spear Of The Emperor (Review)

 Spear Of The Emperor by Aaron Dembski-Bowden. 

The story takes place post Imperial Nihilus, about a 100 years later. Amadeus Kaias Incarius of the Mentor Legion is sent through the Great Rift to the scattered worlds of the Elara's Veil nebula. This area of space is oath-sworn protected by the Star Scorpions, Celestial Lions and the Emperor's Spears. With the Scorpions basically destroyed, and the Celestial Lions still recovering from Armageddon 3, the Emperor's Spears are shouldering the brunt of the work protecting Elara's Veil. 

But here's the twist, at least from a narrative standpoint: the story is a first person perspective accounting told by one of Amadeus' serfs. Helot Secundus Anuradha.  She is the second ranking amongst the trio of attendants serving Amadeus. Helot Primus Kartash and Helot Tertius Tyberia are also in attendance. 

Upon arrival to the chapter home of the Emperor's Spears, Nemeton, the reception is cold to say the least. The Spears are a gruff sort of Chapter and their culture seems primitive to outsiders. They are loyal but not quick to trust outsiders. But Amadeus, with the assistance of Anuradha, eventually win over the Spears through the revelation of secrets, the execution of prophecies, and as brothers in arms in war against the Exilarchy, a Chaos force lead by the Renegade Space Marines of The Pure. 

The helots of Amadeus and Amadeus himself are captured by The Pure halfway through the book and the tone of this gets dark. Darker than grim dark. And just when you think you understand who the enemy is, who the antagonist is that you need to keep your eye on is, you find out Amadeus' whole mission was veiled in a lie.  By the end of the tale Amadeus has been rebuilt in all aspects, from the inside and the outside, as he sheds the lies of his past. 

I want to tell you more, even put up a spoiler warning and let my thoughts dwell on some of the juicier aspects of this tale, but I won't. And it's for the simple reason that I recommend this book so highly that I want you to read it. My recanting, even in the most vague of summaries, would be a grave injustice to this tale. Find this book, in whatever format, and read it. 

This book is simply phenomenal. Is it a must read? No. But if you read it you will not be disappointed. This might be the best Space Marine centric story I have (so far) ever read. If you see how many reviews I have posted you'll know I have read a lot of "bolter-porn" over the years, so I have a lot a material to gauge a story like this against. 

If you want to know more, I highly recommend Arbitor Ian and Mira's book club review. Or you could just download the book and dive right into the worlds of Elara's Veil.