A heresy most dark...

I've not talked about it much in this blog, although Da Masta Cheef has, I am currently running a Dark Heresy campaign and have been now for about a year. We tend to have quite a bit of explosive fun when we get together, with some of the fun for me being in putting together the mission briefs and game briefs which all heavily rely on GW imagery and content (which is why I haven't published them publicly: they are intended for player used only) however I thought the latest module I ran, although it ended well, wasn't as satisfying as the more loosely based materials I used in past games.

So, while on Scintilla playing through the 1st adventure in Purge the Unclean, I decided to inject an element from one of the more recent source books that Fantasy Flight has published, and see where it would go. I had a player whose character (Artellus) witnessed, and was subsequently blamed for, murders committed by the Spire Stalker. It was a subplot at best, however as the main mission ended we had a player leave, so I sacrificed that character to make her into the literal plot device for their new mission: To recover their comrade's missing head! Here is the Mission Brief I wrote tonight (which they haven't seen yet, but since 4/5s of my players read this blog, they ought to see it here before it ends up in their inbox). I've stripped the imagery out of it for public review.  I would reveal the angles that I'm thinking I will twist this mission with (they never go as straight forward as they're laid out, huh?) but you'll have to wait until we play through this for those thoughts... Meanwhile, enjoy:

+++++++++++++++DATE: ++++++++++++++++REF: ++++++++TRANSMITTED: +++++++++++++++++TO: +++++++++++++++FROM: ++++++++++++SUBJECT: +++++++++++LOCATION: +++++++++++++SECTOR: ++++++AUTHORIZATION: ++++++++++++THOUGHT:

865814.M41 Inq/0456885012/BI Lettuce 561 Squad Gamma, Ordo Calixis Interrogator Errasmus Davis C/O Inq.Svech Mission briefing Segmentum Obscurus Calixis Scintillian Sub, Scintilla LETUS05.61.CLA Warriors of the Emperor seek no other reward but death

Mission Statement: Recover severed head of Throne Agent Sister Isis Mentlegen and uncover the truth of the villain known as ‘the Spire Stalker’, TA Mentlegen’s proven killer, and liquidate her. Full Inquisitorial Authority is granted.

Enemy Forces: The ‘Spire Stalker’ has only been reported alone, however alliances and resources of this villain are unknown at this time. The Spire Stalker appears to use a Combat Suit that utilizes an unknown brand of Xenos Technology, and the weapons of choice have always been a pair of power blades. The Spire Stalker appears to be a human female.

Team Composition: Squad Gamma: Ruby Odessa (Psy), Artellus (Adeptus Munitorium Conscript), Ishta (Liquidations), Sverrus (Legalities & Clearance), Engineering Denizen 2009 (Service & Repair).

Mission: Conduct Investigation in Hive Sibellus on Scinitlla to determine the following:

·         A: The identity (-ies) of the ‘Spire Stalker’.

·         B: The source of suspected Xeno-tech equipment employed by ‘Spire Stalker’.

·         C: The haven or stronghold of ‘Spire Stalker’, if one exists.

·         D: Recover the Head of Throne Agent Sister Isis Mentlegen so that her name can go through the honored descripting process.

Upon successfully tracking down the Spire Stalker, eliminate it. Otherwise end the career of the Spire Stalker which has been on-going for well over one Scintillian month. The Spire Stalker has targeted high-born nobles (men and women), family dignitaries of leading merchant houses, wealthy hive-officiates, and anybody who possesses the wealth and power to qualify them to dwell in the luxury and splendor of the spire.

Note 1: Full Inquisitorial powers granted, restricted to fulfilling successful outcome of the Mission Statement. Tangent missions forbidden unless cleared first with Superiors.  Rosette distributed to each member of Gamma.

Note 2: Inquistional by-pass codes: Alpha Ultra Meridian 8.3.9., and Omega Omega Alpha 6.6.6.which should only be used for Sub-sector wide access.

Note 3: 1000 Thrones have been set aside for use in the fulfillment of this mission.

Note 4: An appointment has been arranged to meet at the offices of Lord Marshal Goreman in the Fortress of the Justice where Investigators can share their case-file with Gamma. This is recommended as the first place to start the investigation.

And that's it. This will be presented at the start of our next game, along with the latest game brief, and then the next mission will begin! As you can see, my 40K hobby isn't just about painting and playing with little toy soldiers... :)

Saturday Night Waaagh!

So took the ol' Battle Barge to Planet Hobbytown, in the JC System, where Sven and the Wolves stood valiantly against the combined Waaagh! of Da Long Wayz Dezert Group controlled by the archfiend himself, the Masta Cheef and Waaagh! ...actually I have no idea what he calls his Orks, so for now I'll just call it Waaagh! Murl.

Due to a lack of players (5 of us showed up) I challenged 2k of Space Wolves vs. 1K Each of Orks (the other 2 player had their own game-Space Wolves vs. Necrons). Sounded like a fun challenge. Only I didn't have a 2k list prepped, so I had to modify an older list. Without going all full-blown Battle Report, I will simply discuss the highlights of this challenging and enjoyable game!

The big yellow/orange die is the Turn Counter, this was an Annihilation mission, an after I placed my sniper scouts, da Boyz got the first turn. Here you can see the bulk of Cheef's force which was mostly mechanized completing 1st turn moves with Murl starting on his moves. Yes that is a Forgeworld Grot Megatank! The big tank in the back is a Battlewagon.

My left flank, eyeing Murl's Mob. He took a list I never have tried (I'm always enticed by the Elites, Fast Attack and Heavies to do this): All Boyz Mobz, one Joined by a Warboss, a Nobz Mob with Painboy (Feel No Pain would equal pain for me!). The plan was to pie plate the crap out of the big mobz with my Whirlwind and Vindicator and get my Landspeeder Tornado up there with the Heavy Flamer and do likewise.

Here's my middle ground and some of the right flank. The Epicast Vindicator is eyeing the masses of Murl's Mob, The (truly) Venerable Dreadnought is poised to start popping tanks with his twin-link las cannon. (The rhino has a model on it to help me keep up with what unit is inside of it.)

This next pic shows the rest of the right flank. I believe we're seeing Murl taking his first run moves. Pay particular attention to that far off rhino (stuffed with a full 10-man squad of Grey Hunters) and those two trukks of Da Masta Cheef...

...here my lonely rhino exchanges fire with the trukks, though it escapes me what actually happened...

 Here my Venerable Dreadnought blows the converted Matilda Battlewagon to smithereens, prompting an encouraging response from Cheef (at the moment, he thought I was targeting his precious Grot Megatank! LOL! "No dude, I targeted the Battlewagon!"

And during that 1st turn of mine, Sven Axegrinder shows up in his Drop Pod! (he's the mostly painted guy with no arms! I really should finish that model...hmmm...) The green die on my rhino is to indicate that I had popped smoke.

This is a view looking down the field after the 2nd Ork movement phase... Oh yes, the Rune Priest in the rocks was whittling down the mob that the Murl's Warboss was tied too with both Jaws of the World Wolf and Living Lightning. Those Orks know how to dodge! LOL!

The first two rounds of firing I was able to greatly reduce the Ork numbers... but they were closing fast! Then, disaster struck! The Ork Truckers were able to charge and totally surround the rhino with the marines in it! THey did if in such away that my Grey Hunters were unable to escape the rhino once it was wrecked into a raging firestorm, and, well, they died a blaze of glory!

 The boyz get stuck in! With charges against the Rhino by Murl's Mob, and a charge from a Grot mob and survivors of the mob that was in the Battlewaggon piling into the Wolfguard at the Drop pod. The Sven and the Wolfguard would trimumph and the Ork and Grot units would flee off the board. Meanwhile Murl's mob would immobilize the Rhino, which the Grey Hunters would disembark from (after hearing what happened to the other pack over the com, they weren't about to stay put!)

On my Left flank, the beefy Nob Mob of Murl, smashed through the Blood Claw's rhino! On my turn I shot them, and charged, but the combined toughness of the Nobz and the gifts of the Painboy proved too much for the Blood Claws who were struck down!

In the final throes of the game, you see the Nobz moving to intercept the Runepriest once they had wrecked the Whirlwind. He would take out another nob before they ripped him apart...

In the middle, after taking fire from the boyz in the trukks, the Grey Hunters routed. For the next two rounds the trukk boyz would Sheppard the Grey Hunters right off of the table, who where two close to the foe to not know any fear!

At the top of the blog, you can see the Warboss who engaged the Vindicator in close combat and power clawed it to death! The Venerable Dreadnought dove into close combat with the Warboss, who was down to his last wound, but it was to be as the dread was slowly being dismantled by the Warboss as the game reached it's conclusion...

Here we have Da Masta Cheef's final bombardment of the abandoned bastion in another vain attempt to wipe out the sniper scouts on top of it. Those scouts survived many attacks up there, and although they killed a fair share of orks, they were unable to prevent the green tide from taking the field.

The game went to the Orks!

Orks 10 kps Space Wolves 5 Kps.

Despite blasting a heap of Orks, my inability to eliminate entire units cost me the game, plus getting the Grey Hunters cooked in that Rhino was just a major game changer for me... The Landspeeder managed to survive, it cooked a lot of orks, but once it got their attention and had it's Heavy Flamer ripped off, I moved it very far to make it's KP difficult to grab. Also I grossly overestimated my Terminator's ability to survive and massive ork assault, and should've whittled the unit down more before diving into it like I did. -Whoops! LOL!

Fun game!

Legion of the Damned

A friend of mine told me today that he plays "Pure old skool Legion of the Damned Space Marines." Which caused me to remember that I painted a squad of these back in '99! It was my summer project that year, and I got them done in time for Games Day '99. I had acquired a bunch of REALLY old RT era marines, and with nothing else to do with them (They just didn't fit in with my Space Wolves) I decided to paint them up as Legion of Damned.

Most of these models all have newer (2nd edition) style back packs. These were a bit bigger and look better on these older models. They're all variants of the 'beakie' style of armor, MKVI 'Corvus', that will always be my favorite.

 Don't ask what style of armor this is supposed to be, I'd say 'corvus' however that helmet is just weird. Worked out well for a Legion of the Damned guy though.

 These guys are just fuggly, and brutish . Plasma guy here is no exception.

 I like how the skull came out on the helmet of this one, and the heavy bolter in the back is probably my favorite of the bunch (he was featured in my 'other armies' post awhile back).









 Very old school indeed, still they haven't changed much, although heads are a tad bit more proportioned these days. The guy on the right was the first one I had painted and the only one with a bit a greenish caste to the flesh. I wasn't able to successfully repeat it though, so I left the rest of them all 'flesh' colored. Note that I added a plastic bolter to him to make it appear as if he was leaning on it.



 The Squad leader was the last model completed. The night before Games Day I completed the banner (on Holiday Inn stationary no less! Only the best for my models! LOL!).
















And here is the assembled group. And I have yet to use them in a battle! I just don't ever play regular 'Codex Marines',

 I hope you enjoyed that little bizarre trip down the path of GW minis of old. Yes the newer models are superior, but they just don't have character like these do!

Happy New Year from Necromunda! And another White Dwarf Rant

Here we are in 2012! Hey, only 1,000 years from 2112! ROCK!!!! Anyway, I spent New Years Eve with my old pal, the anonymous "Dr." and we played a 2nd game of Necromunda, the 1st one having been played around the 4th-of-july last year. Strangely enough, neither of us have ever painted our Necromunda models. The models seen in these pics he acquired in a trade from the old friend that he named his gang after. Above is Scottie and Mr. Hiser. He named his gang after friends and people we knew in High School, I named my gang after people in his current gaming circle. All in fun, and also in a 'wish you were here' spirit as well.

The scenario was the one where the two gangs have to collect loot counters. It was a pretty awesome set up, and although I got in the 1st shots, it was those two models in the top pic that won the game! See these two red shirts in the foreground? See those two on the bridge in the background? My Juv (the one on the right) shot and pinned his Gang Leader, who, in the next turn, got up and downed the Juv! While his juv, Scottie, downed the ganger with the shot gun! And, to make matters worse, I failed the 1st bottle test either of us had to make!

This left him with the field held as my gang bolted from the scene. He was already holding onto 2 loot counters to my... none. He racked in the dough in the post-game for sure! Oddly, most of my gangers received skill advances in the post game. The next game should be interesting as a result.

Good fun, but it really does make me want to get my own Van Sar gang more than ever so we can both have fully painted gangs for these encounters.

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A New Year's Resolution? Since every other gaming blog has at least one, why not? How about I resolve to get as many unfinished minis that are currently on my painting station done in 2012?

Heck, this alone could be a blog: just talking about the minis living out their existance on my table! Have fun picking out what they all are! And, before someone asks, this pic does not include the previously blogged about Land Raider and Drop Pods (but look closely and you might spot the Land Speeder Typhoon!) because there is is simply no room for them here! :)

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And on to a brief 'What is going on with White Dwarf!?' sorta rant. The above image was taken from the GW website where you can also find this statement: "January's White Dwarf will be released on Saturday, January 7th. Subscriptions should be expected within 10 days from that date."

This makes for the 1st time in my memory that I didn't have a shiny new White Dwarf to drool into around, or at, xmas! This is also the 2nd time in recent months that they played with White Dwarf's release schedule to accommodate an element of (what they think will be) surprise about a new release (they did this with the Dreadfleet launch also). Now, the content of WD, which followers of this blog have seen me rant about before, has improved. However there is a new problem:

I haven't received my subscription in the mail for 2 months in a row! In fact, I have had to make arrangements with Customer Service (who I have to state have been, and always have been, marvelous to work with) to receive my last two issues (way late I might add) which makes this whole jerky-rescheduling of the release date game they're playing even more annoying! I might not get the next issue until the 21st! Now, I'm like the only person I know who actually subscribes to this magazine any more (the others left when the content did), and this is somewhat begrudgingly considering they don't offer any real deals with it anymore. I think you get the approximation of a 'free issue' and the option to BUY a Limited edition model! Rewind this back to the '90s when you'd get a free small boxed set or, hell, at one point they were giving away Gorka Morka boxed sets! And it was significantly cheaper than buying it from the local game stores.

So, as a subscriber, I'm feeling a bit jaded. I'm thinking I will not re-subscribe but rather I will get it locally. This will allow me to get it before subscribers do (which isn't supposed to be the case BTW), but it won't be mangled by the post office, and if I really want the limited edition model, I can just get the near perfect knock-off from China after awhile... :/

Terminator Basing (Part 1)

Since I've been home from my latest work-trip, I've been painting all kinds of minis. It's an example in vainglory to try to get some of the single models off of my modeling station, and my focus keeps bouncing from night to night depending on just how much time I actually have. I have worked some on the Landspeeder Typhoon (almost done!), a Lone Wolf, some Death Watch marines and some Dark Eldar. None of these are at a stage that they're worthy of being presented in this blog.

 I have noticed that one of my most viewed posts is An Update plus some-terminator-basing, which is quite curious considering how utterly uninformative that post really seemed to be on the matter. So I decided to work more on it and post pics as I go along. So if you will, consider that the preamble to this series. In that post I was quickly getting my Wolf Guard Terminators ready for a battle against the vile Warfrog by simply gluing the existing model straight onto the bigger bases. This, as you're about to learn, was never meant to be a temporary solution:

 In the pic above you got a Terminator just as he was on the day I glued him to the base. Pretty much ready to go to step two.

This is Step 2, at least for this model. I applied green-stuff to the lower 'tier' and smoothed it out so the 'tier' effect went away to replace it with a 'mound' effect. By the way, this is a Rogue Trader era model, when GW finally figured out what they wanted the Terminators to look like. He's the Heavy Flamer model.

If you look at the feet of this Terminator, you can see that his feet have these really extreme gaps between the model and the base. Instead of bending the feet or just filling in the gaps, I decided to just get creative with that void...

So using the pieces of the thin slate/shale piece that came in a basing set that GW sells, I was able to find pieces that fit the gaps perfectly. These were the 1st two pieces, you'll see below (in the background) that I continued to stack more rock all over this base.

Here's another example. I swear looking at these models, it's surprising they didn't come up with putting the Terminators on bigger bases back in the beginning. Check out how the sides of the models feet hang off of the slotta base!

This was easily fixed by just adding some appropriately sized rocks!

So, after adding rocks to those models, I applied the green stuff to minimize the 'tier' effect between the two bases. For continuity purposes, I added a rock to that first model.

 Had some extra green stuff so I did a 4th model, a Cyclone Missile Launcher Terminator. Once the green stuff was applied I mixed up some Elmers Glue with water and brushed it on the base.

Then I dipped it into this sand tub I have (some rocks got mixed in a while back, no big deal though), shook the model around and presto: a sanded up base! I this a light sand that I get out of a spring-house on my folk's property here in Tennessee. It's very fine and collects on a stone slab when the springs flood.  Having said that, you can either find it in nature or buy it. It's just sand.

 Here they are all lined up. However I like a bit more 'depth' to these bases, especially when the green-stuff shows through as that is the sand most likely to wear off.

So I apply glue to those spots, and dip the models again into a bag of bigger grains (these are really, really small stone bits I got from a local hobby store). And the pre-painted stage of this project is done!

Unlike many of my friends and apparently 'the pros' out there, I do the bases before (usually) before I prime the models. Nothing annoys me more than having a finished model that I'm really satisfied with just to get paint all over it's legs while I'm trying to paint the base. It's just strange to me to it like that, plus doing it that way sometimes gives the appearance that base was an after thought, an pedestal, or some other secondary prop, whereas I like to think that I'm giving the illusion that this model is one piece that's connected to this little piece of environment. It almost helps tell the model's story. ...perhaps I over think this stuff! LOL...

...anyway, look for part two, and additional updates to the series's that I have, in the new year! Have a Happy Holidays! 

Pods to Drop and Lands to Raid (and Speed) pt.9

Here I am on the road for business, and I have my Portable Neverness kit with me. Today I found time to do something with these minis. I worked a bit on the Landspeeder Typhoons. The one in the rear in this pic I tightened up the base coat, but now I'm contemplating ripping the crew out of it like I did for the one in the foreground. In short, I added a thin Skull-White highlight on the Space Wolf Gray top-coat, finished the pack marking on on the rear support, highlighted the black on the on the Multi-melta, and applied some more decals.

Here you can see the highlight on the gunner, and the decals (the number on top of the pack marking, and the Chapter symbol). I really had to resist painting that field yellow, deciding to not go all 'retro-2nd edition'. Maybe on the next one...?

Here is a view of the main hull with the white highlight. I'm having difficulty liking the angle that the multi-melta will sit once it's mounted. A friend suggested I just clip off the 'U' shaped mount and let it lay a bit lower. So, the only things left to do to the model is drill a hole for the ball joint (the original owner filled it in! Gah! I JUST noticed this! and I don't have the pin-vice with me), and finish painting the flesh on the pilot. And probably touch up his chest plate. I could have glued on the missile launchers tonight, but I'm not sure how well they would survive the trip home (remember, these are the original metal ones!). There were a few other details I wanted to hit, but hotel lighting generally is not fitting for miniature painting, and even with moving lamps around (haha, roomservice might hate me tomorrow!) it just wasn't as good as being at home. I did like the hight of the table and it was nice on the back, which has me thinking about making some changes to the painting station at home.

Ok, now finally, after 9 posts, we have progress on the Drop Pod #2. I've been hauling the box around for months and dabbing paint on the sprues ever since my first blog showing off the 'Portable Neverness' kit.

This was how I did the 1st one (see the 1st post in this series) and the Land Raider Cruesader (BTW, I've been working on the sponson Las Cannons as well, but just didn't think they were picture worthy yet). I just paint the components on the sprue so as not to lose anything and for better handling. I just finished the base coat early, and will soon move on to the mid-coats.

That's it for now!

-Neverness

Space Wolves Gallery (part 4)

I discovered that I had some pics in a storage device that I need to clear that I never posted. So here they are:

This guy is a Wolf Guard that I painted around 2001. I still am quite pleased with how it turned out. For some reason I can not explain, I was thinking that the last ork weapon sprue that GW was putting into their blister packs towards the end of 2nd edition had a bulky crudeness that, with a proper paint-job and scope, looked fairly fitting for the Space Wolves. I'm not sure I have that same opinion these days, but this model works I think.

In this pic you can see the Auspex hanging from his belt,  which I painted some details on to indicate that it was on. Also the decal worked out well on the left shoulder pad. The key is to repaint over it once you've cut out all the air bubbles...:)

The model is supposed to have a power fist, but with the addition of two combat accessories from the original plastic Space Marine kit (RTB01) and some electrical FX, this guy now has a pretty cool looking lightning claw!

Per the fluff, I leave the "older" marines a tanner color on their skin pigmentation. The Blood Claws, when I get to them, will be quite lighter skinned.

This Rune Priest was also shown in a previous post, but this is a different angle. Note that most of the painting was done by Rob, the local hero whose 28mm combat is matched only by...well, it's debatable. But he's a swell guy, and I acquired this model in a trade. However he only had this model painted up to a Shadow Grey brightness, so I completed it by applying the next two highlights, and added more highlights to the bone areas. I'm really pleased with how it turned out, considering that I only did the mid-stages and the highlights!

I can't recall if this exact pic has been posted already, but I know I have already discussed this, so all I will say now is that I am completely determined to get that base completed before the new year!

'Til next time!