Looking out at 2010

Hey guys Huron here, just a few more hours left till 2010. Personally I am stuck here at work, well at least for 2 more hours so I thought I would take a small break a share with you my hobby goals for 2010.

First off I plan to finish up the Howling Griffons army that has been seen in the recent battle reports and tutorials I have posted. Now saying I am going to finish them up is I guess a bit of an understatement. My plan for the army looks like this:

1. Space Marine Battle Company - Including Transports
2. 1st Company Detachment - 25 - 30 Terminators, 10 Sternguard, 10 Vanguard
3. Variety of Characters - My own modified versions of several special characters; Khan, Pedro, Lysander, Shrike, Tigerious, and maybe some others. Plus a Power Armored and Terminator Armored Librarian, and Power armored Chaplain on Foot, on Bike, and with Jump Pack along with a Terminator armored one as well.
4. A mix of Heavy Support and Fast Attack vehicles and Bikes
   
5. Then for Apocalypse an Armored spearhead featuring 5 Landraiders (1 Standard, 1 Crusader, 1 Redeemer, 1 Promethius (FW), and One Terminus Ultra), a Line Breaker Squadron (3 Vindicators), An Ancients formation (Master of the Forge and 4+ Dreadnoughts of any pattern), and probably a super heavy of some sort

I am good way along on the Battle company, I just need 2 More Tactical Squads, 2 Devastator Squads, their Transports, and a Razorback for the Command Squad. I am about half way done collecting the 1st Company Detachment as I currently have 13 Terminators, 6 Sternguard, and 5 Vanguard in my collection. Character wise I have and have converted up pretty much all the characters listed except Lysander, Shrike, and Tigerious. I need another Predator or two and some Landspeeders and I have the Bike/Vehicle support of the Griffons locked down and for the Apoc stuff mentioned I just need 2 more Raiders (Redeemer and Promethius), one more dreadnought, and the super heavy choice I mentioned. Not sure what it is going to be yet.

Having all of that and having it all painted are different things altogether though so I am going to be focusing on getting it all painted, starting with what I need for my tournament list and going from their.

Once the Griffons are done I plan to put some work into a number of different projects I have on the back burner. While I will not commit to getting any of these projects finished in 2010 realistically I need/will probably put some work into all of them or sell them off over the course of the year. They are:

1. 40K Orks - I have around 3K or orks in various stages, mostly assembled and unprimed
2. Chaos Warriors - Likely to be my next project, want to get an army painted up and ready to play if I ever get the urge again. I have around 3K or assembled and primed models for this army
3. 40K Chaos - An old standby for me, I would like to revisit and tweak this army for 5th edition sometime in the future.
4. 40K Nurgle Daemons - I painted 1000pts of these guys over the summer of 2009 and really only need to pick up Epideimus, 1 Great Unclean One (to use as a Daemon Prince), and a box of Plague Bearers up for and I will have a full army. I even have 3 FW Blight Drones sitting around unassembled I can add in as well
5. Renegade IG - I have the Infantry component and a few of the tanks I would need to start a FW Renegade IG army based on the new Guard book. Really what I need a few more vehicles and to rearm a few models and this army would be ready to be painted and played
6. Eldar Exodites - This is a new army that I am in just the beginning stages of building. They are a long way off from being playable but I've always wanted and Exodite army and with some of the current Dark Elf, Lizardmen, and Eldar plastic models I think it is very doable so expect to see more work on these guys this year as time allows.
7. Blood Angels - If the rumors end up being true I expect to jump full bore into a Blood Angels army too.

Yeah I know lots of projects. Kind of overwhelming isn't it.

There is one thing besides the Howling Griffons I am going to pledge to do. I want to replace my existing Home/Travel Terrian with a GW Battle Board and some new nicer painted terrain. Whether this means GW stuff or scratch built stuff I do not know yet but I want to up my the quality of the terrain I play on when outside of a GW store.

Well that is it for now, see you all in 2010!

Battle Report 5, vs Chris T's Ultramarines

Hey guys, Huron here. Time for another battle report, but first...

The year is ending fast with only 2 more days left (including today). Check out my blog tomorrow for a video about what is to come using my new HD Camera and find out about my gaming resolutions for the new year. 2010 is going to be a busy year for me as I shoot for 150+ blog entries during the course of the year. The majority of this massive number of posts will be taken up by 2 regular weekly features. First, Tutorial Tuesday will feature a new tutorial every Tuesday in 2010. I will be covering all sort of topics from how I paint various things like my How to Paint Howling Griffons series which is what I will be starting with to more focused tutorials on things like weathering models and applying decals. I have already laid out the plans for one such article which is going to focus entirely on Rust.

On Fridays you will be getting a 2010 weekly update video, where I will share what projects I am working on, talk out plans for the future, and share with you the Battle reports that have already become a key part of my blog. The rest of the time expect army lists, discussion topics, battle plans, tournament reports, and a whole slew of other things to be added as 2010 goes on. It is going to be a good year.

But lets talk Battle Report. Chris is probably my oldest 40K Nemesis. We started playing against each other back in 2000 and the rivalry between his Ultramarines an my Chaos is legendary. We have played several mini campaigns and story archs over the years that have effected the background and story of our two armies. Chris is the ultimate 40K collector and over the last 10 years has collected and painted many 40K armies but nothing compares to his Ultramarines Army. He owns the full Chapter, all the marines, all the vehicles, all the way down to 3 FW Thunderhawks. And the craziest part of all of it is that everything is painted. Chris is the only gamer I have ever known that who can just paint and paint and paint and get stuff done. Chris can crank out great looking minis in an amazingly short amount of time. While probably not a Golden Daemon level paint job (though he can paint to that level if he chooses), his models are very detailed and painted to an very high table top or better standard. If I can ever get him to start blogging regularly I will be pointing out his blog to all of you pretty quickly. But enough talk, time to get fighting.

Howling Griffons vs Ultramarines, part 1


Howling Griffons vs Ultramarines, part 2



Okay guys, well that is it for tonight. Check back tomorrow for at glimpse of what 2010 holds for the Blood and Blades!

Until next time...

Happy Holidays!

Hey guys, Huron here. Happy Holidays to all. Whether you celebrate Christmas like me, Hanukkah, or any other holiday this season I hope you get all the GW goodies you asked for and desire.

I have a special Blood and Blades Blog post for you today. I have a battle report between my nearly finalized Howling Griffons army and Nix from The Dead Tau project and his nicely painted Eldar army. I have the first pics of a new project I have just started working on, a new Eldar Exodite army inspired by some of the other great bloggers in the community like Akenseth over @ Path of the Exodite and Gepostet over @ The Path of the Outcast. Fritz and his Saim-hann definitely had a hand as well. This will be the first big project for me in 2010 after I finish up my Howling Griffons. On top of all of that, this is post number 50 here on Blood and Blades and we look at the humble start and some of the things I have planned for the new year.

First up is Battle Report 4 vs Nix from The Dead Tau Project. Nix's Eldar are really is nicely coverted and painted and he and I have been playing quite a bit lately. He is strongly responsible for me heavily refining the tactics for my Howling Griffons lately and taking the army from the rough starting point it was at back in November to where it is now. Thanks man for all your help! Additionally, a very interesting matter comes up toward the end of this video which is just one of those situation that sometimes happens in 40K that makes you go Hmmm? How does that work? Fritz (and everyone else), we require you Eldar expertise for this one! Let me know if you got an answer or if you have a different opinion then what we came up with.

Exodites! Thats right, I have started a new project, Eldar Exodites. For those that do not know the Exodites are the survivors of the Fall of the Eldar who saw the end coming and left to form colonies on worlds through out the universe on various worlds with webgates. They are the distant cousins of the Craftworld Eldar with all the knowledge technology of the ancients but who decide to for go it for a simpler life style.

Another cool feature are the Dragon Knights, Warriors who defend their world from the backs of raptor like dinosaurs and other beast. These Dragon Knights make perfect stands in for Jet Biker. The current mostly plastic Dark Elf, Lizardmen, and Eldar armies makes converting one of these armies both cost effective and fairly simple compared to the past. Here are a few pics of the first converted models for my army.

Farseer on Jetbike

Dire Avengers

Warlock and Storm Guardian

POST #50! So the beginning of last year I started hearing about a community of gamers that was beginning to form on the web. I followed a few people around to various sites and read their blogs which in the end lead me to Ron and From the Warp. A few days later after playing around with Blogspot, Adobe Illustrator, and Adobe Photoshop Blood and Blades was born and I had joined the FTW blog ring and the greater blogging community. I at first planned to just post pics of my models, maybe a battle report or two, and some project ideas I had bouncing around my head. Now I am posting Video Battle reports and tutorials, army lists and tactics, and have 47 other people who follow what I say and care about what I think, crazy!

2010 is going to see a big expansion of my blog. More tutorials, some gaming guides, and lots of battle reports are in the future, along with a video project log. New better quality videos, thanks a new camera capable of recording HD Videos has been obtained. I am also planning to pic an HD capable webcam in the near future and some higher grade editing software.

2010 is just around the corner and with it comes the plans of traveling a good deal this year to many tournaments and events and maybe running a few myself. I will be providing complete coverage of all of them for you to enjoy. 11 Months down and 50 post in. Lets see if I can triple that in 2010.

Well that is it for now. Happy Holidays again! See you in the new year!

Battle Report 3, Rematch vs Mike's Chaos + Howling Griffons Update!

Hey guys, Huron here again. It has been a while since my last battle report so I thought I would share another with you. This game is against my same opponent from the last battle report, Mike Johnson. Mike, me, and several of the other regulars at the GW Sugarland store in Sterling, VA are involved in a Challenge Pyramid. Mike is currently at the top and I am on the second tier trying to knock him off and down to the bottom so Mike and I have played a few games recently.

I have been working on fine tuning my Howling Griffons for tournament play so I have been experimenting with alternate list and different unit choices in my army. I think I have pretty much settled on the core of this build. Current I am using:

HQ
160pts Kar'sarro Khan

TROOPS
185pts (10) Tactical Marines - Combi-Meltagun, Meltagun, Multimelta
050pts Dedicated Transport: Rhino - Extra Armor

185pts (10) Tactical Marines - Combi-Meltagun, Meltagun, Multimelta
050pts Dedicated Transport: Rhino - Extra Armor

185pts (10) Tactical Marines - Combi-Meltagun, Meltagun, Missile Launcher
050pts Dedicated Transport: Rhino - Extra Armor

ELITES
240pts (6) Assault Terminators
260pts Landraider Crusader - Multimelta

That comes out to 1,365pts. What I have been struggling with is what to fill out the rest of the army with. I have tried a variety of things including Assault Squads, Bike Squads, Attack Bike Squads, and all sorts of Heavy Support vehicles. I am about 80% settled on a 10 man Assault squad with a Powerfist and Flamer as they can be a really strong choice when outflanking. Not sure just yet but right now it is a good bet they will end up in the army.

In this Battle Report, I use the above core build plus I decided to go a bit Assault Heavy adding in the 10 man Assault Squad with Jump Packs mentioned above, another 10 Man Assault Squad in a Rhino, and 6 Bikers with Meltaguns, Powerfist, and an Attack Bike with Multimelta. I hope you enjoy the Video.



Yeah, not my best strategy. I should have deployed something so I could contested one of those objectives til the rest of my army arrived. I have since changed my list to encourage just that but more on that in a future post. Expect another report soon vs Nix of The Dead Tau Project as we have a challenge game coming up. Also for those you waiting for Part 2 of my How to Paint: Howling Griffons series have no fear, Part 2 is just around the corner.

Until next time.

AVATAR

Avatar, by now everyone has heard of it, a movie by James Cameron of Titanic, Terminator, and The Abyss lore. When Cameron sets out to make a movie he does not do so lightly so when I say Avatar meets all the hype Cameron has promised and more, I hope you believe me. I do not know how to generalize Avatar or what movie it could compare with. I guess if Gorillas that Dance with the Last of the Fern Gullians was a movie then you could start there. Cameron has fused multiple elements together from a score of different genres to mesh together Avatar. The depth of the film still has me realing. I am having a hard time find the right words to describe it.

If you are like me and walked out of District 9 moved, See avatar. If you walked out of Gorillas in the Mists and wanted to save the Gorillas see Avatar. If you watched dances with wolves and loved it see Avatar. If you are a fan of seamless special effects and alien worlds, see Avatar. If you are a fan of action movies and love the amazing battles scenes of movies like Star Wars Episode 3, Matrix Revolutions, or District 9, see Avatar. If you are a fan of romance movies like the Lion King, See Avatar. If you are a fan of... You get the point. See Avatar, you won't be sorry.

Oh, an if you happen to have a chance check it out in 3D do so. It took 20 minutes or so for me to get used to it, but after I did it was well worth the additional $3.50.

How to Paint Howling Griffons, Part 1 Basecoating

Hey guys, Huron here, today I start the must asked for tutorial on how I paint my Howling Griffons. I will be going through step by step the painting process on how I achieve the rich reds and yellows, the green glows of the weapons, and how I do the weathering amongst other things. Part 1 sees me talking about base coating using an Airbrush. Now don't get intimidated, it really is much simpler then you think. I use the GW Hand Flamer and cans of spray air in this video and talk your through it, from what tools I like to have around when I spray, to how far away to hold the gun, to how to get the right mix of paint, it is all covered. Check it out.

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3


Well that is it for part 1. Let me know what you thought. I left the video quality a bit higher which meant larger files. Any tips anyone can give me on how to do smaller files with decent enough resolution for models I am all ears.

In part 2 I will be talking about the clean up to part 1, plus sharing the secret you amazing yellows which is far simpler then you think.

Until next time...

Howling Griffon's vs Mike Johnson's Chaos - Challenge Pyramid Game

Hey guys, how is it going? I'm slowly getting caught up on the back log of stuff I have to post here on the blog, hopefully after this weekend I will be able to start posting 2 or 3 times a week. Today I have another Video Battle Report for you, a game I played last week vs Mike Johnson and his Nurgle Chaos army. It was a good game and it helped me recognize a major flaw in my army and that I have been working on addressing, but more on that in a future entry.

Part 1


Part 2


Okay guys that is about it for this week. Check back next time for Part 1 of a new series on how I paint my Howling Griffons.

Until next time...

Battle for Salvation Tournament Coverage - Game 1 vs Rob Baer

As promised here is the coverage for my experience playing in the Battle for Salvation Tournament in White Plains, New York on Saturday November 21st. As in past posts of this nature I have included a photo of my opponent, some pics of their army, and a few other shots to keep things interesting.

Game 1 was against Rob Baer's beautifully painted Ork Imperial Guard army. That is right, I said Ork, Imperial Guard army. Rob has converted and painted up a very impressive Imperial Guard army using a mix of Imperial and Ork vehicles and replacing the Imperial Guardsmen with Boys and Grots. Rob won overall at Mechanicon with this army and I am not surprised. While I personally think the painting could use just a bit more depth (the army is just to clean for a Ork force for me, even if meant to be IG) it is still a beautiful army and the crown jewels are definitely is Vendetta Helicopter conversions, just stunning work.

This army, like pretty much all Mech IG these days was a hard nut to crack. 2 Manticore Missile Tanks, 3 Hydras, Lots of Chimeras, Hellhound Variants, and nastiness. Luckily mission 1 was a modified kill points missions, in where after setup each player got to pick 5 units (of which up to 3 could be dedicated transports) to count as a kill point with the rest of the army not worth anything. I chose Rob's Inquisitor+Retinue and their Chimera, his Psyker Battle Squad and their Chimera, and a Hellhound as my 5. Rob chose 3 of my outflanking Razorbacks, my predator, and the regular landraider.



This was a rough game for me with models coming in a dying all over the place, but I got in my licks and in one good turn went on a spree of Chimera destruction and took out 3 of the buggers in one go. However in the end it came down to just 1 dice roll at the bottom of turn 7. Rob had managed to kill all 3 of my Razorbacks and my predator. The landraider was immobilized, had no weapons, but was still alive deigning him the KP so Rob had 4 KPs. I had destroyed the Chimera with the Psyker Battle squad in it and the resulting blast had wipe the squad out as well, and I had destroyed his Hellhound, leaving me with 3KPs. I had, in the last moments of turn 7 fired a Hunter Killer missile in desperation at his remain rhino with the Inquisitor and retinue inside. The missile hit, it penetrated the armor and rob had rolled a 3 for its cover saving meaning the missile had got through. Now all I needed was to roll a 5 or a 6 to tie the game, with a 6 meaning I could do some damage to the Inquisitor and Retinue inside and maybe get them to run, giving me the victory.

I rolled the die and rolled a 1! Gar! Round 1 to Rob. It is a good close game with the Mech IG holding out just long enough for the win.

More to come so stay tuned...

How to Run a Proper Tournament

Hey guys, Huron here. Mike and I really had a blast at the Battle for Salavation Tournament run November 21sts and got some good ideas to implement for a Sugarland Gamers Tournament we want to run early next year. From my experience at their tournament and from running some in the past here are a few things I think are important to running a really fantastic tournament.

1. No bad games - usually when I play in a tournament of the magnitude of the BfS tourament (40 Players) I expect at least one of my games to be a bad one, usually against someone who is a little to over competitive for their own good. However, with a little work and defined purpose and goals you can usually get around this problem. Mainly from the beginning you need to have the right attitude that will attract the right kind of gamer to your event. Making it clear from the being you are expecting good, competitive, respectful battles with no funny business (and that there will be penalties if there is any) is a good start.

2. The Food - Thats right folks, many of you are scratching your head wondering what good food has to do with a successful tournament. Well let me tell you, great food keeps players on site instead of allowing them to wander off and come back late. It fills the bellies and settles the gripes that come up after tight hard fought games. I have never been to an event before that fed me so well as the BfS tournament (Hot Dogs and Hamburgers for Lunch, full on Thanksgiving style Turkey dinner later on), and that includes the several GW GTs I have been too.

3. The Cause - Why run a tournament just to run a tournament. The best, most well attend events I have have been too were always those that bennifited a cause of some kind. The BfS tournament while putting up some great prizes for the winners also was part charity fund raiser. Their tournament benefited the Salvation Army and brought in quite a bit of money for them. Not only did part of the proceeds for the event go to Charity, but there was also a Charity raffle which raised several hundred dollars but also all the money raised by the good food I talked about above went to charity as well.

4. Good Judges - Make sure you and those helping to run the tournament have a good grasp of the rules and FAQ for the system you are playing. Having to look up simple rules can take up time and cause fustration amongst players looking for a quick answer. However with that also goes making sure players know that a judges ruling is final and once they have made their final ruling there is no room for anymore arguement. There is plenty of time after the game to look up rulings after the game, while the game is in play, players should respecting the ruling made by a judge until the game is finished.

5. Good Terrain and Area - Make sure that the terrain you are using and the area you are playing in is the best it can possibly be. Players like playing on good terrain and not on unpainted card board cutouts with books for hills. One of the reason to goto tournaments is to put your nicely painted army up against another nicely painted army on a great looking table. Good presentation brings players back.

Well that is my thoughts, but what tips didn't I cover that you have found work well. Please post them in the comments and I will see about getting them add to this list.

With that in mind, the Sugarland Gamers 2010 tournament series (I hope to run one per quarter) has a mission. To put out and provide the best possible tournament environment that focuses on good fun competitive games while giving back to the community and those in need. Additionally all players will be well fed.

Until next time...

Bringing something new to Blood and Blades

Okay sports fans, I have something new for you. This past weekend Mike Johnson (a fellow Sugarland Gamers member) and I spent some time (actually almost the whole time) up in White Plain, NY playing in the Battle for Salvation Fall Tournament run by Bobby and Black Matt. What a tournament, I had a blast and will be sharing my experience more over the coming week (still have some photos to edit). However, I have a special treat and a new addition to my Blog. Mike and I decided to stick around and get some games in Sunday with Black Matt, Fritz and the rest of the Battle for Salvation crew at one of the regular club gatherings at M&I Comic Book Heaven in the White Plains Mall. If you are ever in the White Plains area and are looking for comics, cards, and gaming I suggest you check them out.

Anyways, I have for you a real treat, my first Video Battle Report vs Black Matt from Black Matt's Black Legion Blog. While the quality might not be up to what you are used to seeing from Fritz, Jawaballs, and Black Matt, remember this is my first video of many more to come so cut me some slack. Check it out.



Assuming everything worked and you were able to view the battle report this is an exciting time for Blood & Blades. Now I can start sharing with you some of my painting knowledge as I find that showing instead of explaining is really the best way to pass on new techniques to others. Also I promise the quality of my Vids will get better as I get more practice.

Well that is it for this time. You can expect details on rounds 1, 2, and 3 of the Battle for Salvation Fall tournament, and an article about painting the interiors of tanks in the next 7 to 10 days. From there I guess the sky is the limit.

Until next time...

The Howling Griffon take a trip to NY.

This weekend me and a guy from the Sugarland Gamers club are headed up to the Battle for Salvation tournament happening in White Plains, New York on Saturday. I thought, since I just finished finalizing my plans and that it has been a while since my last post I would share my list with you guys. Jawaballs, Fritz, Warmaster Black Matt, eta all watch out because we are coming for you. Oh and that snazy Eldar army is coming home with me! ;)

Some of you may remember by Howling Griffons. For those that do not go slip down the left side of my Blog here and check out the labels section. You should find a direct link to everything I have posted about them there. Originally, my Griffons list was based around Pedro Kantor and a Master of the Forge allowing me to play and infantry/ dreadnought/ drop pod heavy list. However I found this didn't really work for me and while I have not abandon the concept of the army complete I have gone in a different way for this list.

I'm trying a tactic that I have never seen used and have only recently seen people talk about here on the Blog-o-sphere. I am playing a Kor'sarro Khan outflanking army. Here is the list.

2,000pt Space Marine Army

HQ
160pts Captain Johfrit (Kor'sarro Khan)

TROOPS
115pts Squad Sagrenor - (5) Tactical Marines w/powerfist
050pts Dedicated Transport: Razorback w/ Twin-Linked Heavy Bolter, Hunter Killer Missile

115pts Squad Agravain - (5) Tactical Marines w/powerfist
050pts Dedicated Transport: Razorback w/ Twin-Linked Heavy Bolter, Hunter Killer Missile

100pts Squad Garreth - (5) Tactical Marines w/ Combi-Meltagun
075pts Dedicated Transport: Razorback w/ Lascannon and Twin-Linked Plasmaguns

100pts Squad Lanval - (5) Tactical Marines w/ Combi-Meltagun
075pts Dedicated Transport: Razorback w/ Lascannon and Twin-Linked Plasmaguns

100pts Squad Calogrenant - (5) Tactical Marines w/ Combi-Meltagun
075pts Dedicated Transport: Razorback w/ Twin-Linke Assault Cannons

100pts Squad Palamedes - (5) Tactical Marines w/ Combi-Flamer

ELITES
280pts Squad Aramand - (7) Assault Terminators w/ 5 Thunder Hammer Storm Shield, 2 Twin Lightning Claws
260pts Dedicated Transport: Landraider Crusader Llamrei w/ Multimelta

HEAVY SUPPORT
260pts Landraider Gringolet w/ Multimelta

085pts Predator Destructor Caliburn w/ Autocannon, Heavy Bolter Sponsons

TOTAL: 2,000pts

Kor'sarro Khan does 2 things for this army. First be replaces combat tactics with the ability to Outflank. All units can outflank as well as any dedicated transports they have. And secondly Khan gives whatever squad he joins the Hit and Run and Furious Charge Universal Special rules. So needless to say, Khan joins the Termies in their dedicated Landraider Crusader and along with the 5 Razorback squads outflank. The landraider, with the 6th tactical squad that does not have a transport are deployed on board (which makes it scoring, oh yeah) and the Predator start on the table or roll on early. This army is mainly designed to do well in objective missions but has done surprisingly well at Kill Point missions in the few test games I have run.

The big flaw is not having things show up till late game or having them show up piece meal. One way to counter act this is to include Tigurius in the army, but at 230pts I would have to drop the Predator, the 6th Tactical Squad, and the Multimelta on the regular Landraider, and I am not sure it is worth it but I may have a decision for you after I see how I do tomorrow.

Well that is it, see you all later. Check back late Sunday or early Monday for coverage of the event. Depending on when I get back into town I may have some coverage of the Sugarland GW Rapid Fire Tournament as well.

Until next time.

What I have been up to...

So, its been a while since I did a status post, especially with pictures. So here we go:

I have been working on 3 armies lately. Orks, Howling Griffon space marines, and Chaos Daemons. So far the only thing I have done for Orks is a Warboss and 5 Nobs. Here is a pic, sorry about the depth of focus, my camera hasn't been cooperating lately.



Besides these guys I have 2 more nobs that need basing but are done being painted and around 120 Orks is one stage or another and some vehicles to work on. Next up Daemons. Here are some pics of the Forge World Daemon Prince I painted over the summer which is my stand in for Ku'gath.




Besides the above model, I have 14 Plague Bearers, 2 metal Great Unclean Ones (I use them as Daemon Princes), and 5 Nurglings painted up. Additionally I have 28 more Plague Bearers, 8 Screamers, a Soul Grinder, a Forge World Herald, and 3 Blight Drones all waiting to be painted up to match. I still need another DP, Epidemius, and maybe one or two little things to fill out the army.

Last are my Howling Griffons. I have really put a lot into this army and for the most part so far I am fairly unhappy with how they have turned out. While they look good they do not look great and several of the techniques I have used just do not stand up to photograph. Also this army never wins. Never. Except against Eldar(Hi Bill). I just can not figure out how to play marine is this edition. I have a few ideas but they need developing. Here are two pics of some new stuff. A stripped down Ko'sarro Khan with a new head and a command squad which while modeled very nicely, I will probably never figure out how to get into an army list.




And with that things come to a close. I have a few other things hiding in the folds and a few pics of things that just did not turn out so did not make it up here. That stuff will have to be saved for a future post.

Until next time.

Sigh... Stepping out of Mechanicon.

Sigh, hey guys, Jay here with an update. I know it has been a while and I am sorry about that. Work and School have been slamming me, even more so in the last two weeks, it almost feels like I am working 2 full time jobs and both have been forcing me to work over time.

Mechanicon is this weekend and I have been rushing to try to get one of my newer armies completed (Orks, Howling Griffons, or Nurgle Daemons) done for it. Well none of them are even close so I fell back on my Red Corsairs and have been working to figure out a way to get them to a level I am happy with.

But as of today I am officially bowing out. I do not have a place to stay (things got screwed up with my hotel room), I have to work at least a half day Friday, which means I won't have time to do a display board, and I've been burning the candle on both ends for so long I am just to exhausted to stress over trying to make it work anymore.

So everyone have fun at Mechanicon, I will see you all in the future.

Until next time.

Da Boyz Toyz

Hey guys, in my last entry (which was horribly long and boring, I know, sorry), I posted some really poor pics of some Vehicles that I have been starting to add to my Ork army. I have found, in recent games, a necessity to change up my Ork mob tactic to better allow me to handle the Marine and IG MEQ armies and the Space Wolf inspired combined arms lists (Mix of mounted up Marines and Terminators supported by fast movers like jump troops, bikes, and out flankers).

The amount of vehicles I will be fielding has been steadily going up starting with no vehicles, just Deff Koptas; to Deff Koptas and 2 Trukks; to Deff Koptas, 2 Trukks, and a Battle Wagon; and now finally to Deff Koptas, 2 Trukks, a Battle Wagon, and a not quite finished yet Looted Wagon. I suspect another Battle Wagon or two are going to find their way into my list eventually, but I am going to stick with this for now.

In later entries I will discuss the different uses, wargear options, and craziness associated with Ork Vehicles but for now I wanted to share some better pics of these 4 vehicles in all their glory!

First up is the first Trukk I assembled, which when I opened the box I found to be missing a few parts, namely 3 wheel halves, the ork gunner for the big shoota, and the mounts for the boarding planks. A quick call to GW and they sent me a whole new Trukk (see Trukk 2 below).



Even with out these parts I could tell that this kit was going to be a tough build and I am not to ashamed to say that this is the first GW Vehicle Kit I have had to look at the directions to build in recent years. Wow this is a great kit, lots of option on how to assemble things, parts to put on or leave off, and pretty much all the options all in one box. If you look closely at the pic above and the pic of Trukk 2 below you can see there are some slight difference that while not major, really make the vehicles different and unique while keeping the overall Ramshackle yet similar look going. So needless to say I applied some of my conversion skills and over came the missing components by just leaving one of the two sets of back wheels off and hiding the missing set with some armor pieces made from the planks that did not have mounts and some glyph plate detail pieces that were on the sprues for the Trukk.

Trukk 2 (The Free Trukk!) offered me some new modeling opportunities as all the piece were there this time, so I went to work trying to build the basic Trukk the directions told me to build.



I did a few things differently. For starters I figured out something I had gotten wrong about the assembly of the crew compartment on the first Trukk, and did it right this time. Then I switched the sides of the Driver and Gunner. This is really one of the great things about the Trukk Kit, a lot of the pieces are modular so you can assemble them in different ways to get a unique feel every time. I also left off some the rear armor plating and one of the roll bars to give the back a more open feel. In addition I added on the boarding planks to each side of the Trukk this time, but cut them down to make them shorter to make them fit in with the Trukk a bit better. I did a few other cosmetic things too but they are not that important.

Next up we have the Battle Wagon!



This monster was another kit that forced me to break out the instructions as the level of complexity and detail rivals that of the Trukk. Sure it looks less ramshackle then the Trukk does but that is the point. This bad boy comes with most of the options too, plus a few new ones that the Trukk does not have (like the Grabber Claw that I decide to put on my Looted Wagon below). This beast has so many configurations and ways to assemble it that I am going to have to get 2 or so more just so I can try them all out. I decided that this time around I wanted to go for a lightly armed, low point cost variety Battle Wagon. So I kept things simple, the only weapons options on this bad boy are a zap gun and a big shoota (not shown). Add in some Armor Plates, a Nice red paint job, and you have a 120pt - 130pt monster that can take a licking and still get its up to 20 ork crew into battle safely.

And finally, the Looted Wagon.



Originally I had not planned to add one of these into my army, preferring the speed of the fast Trukks over the slightly better armor and weapon option of the Looted Wagon, but after learning that it is nigh impossible to get Trukk transports for units like Tank Bustas (one of the balancing factors of the Ork book) I decided I need one of these vehicles to get my special boyz into battle safely. This vehicle is about 60% done being converted. I still need to work on the exhaust system some, the details on the sides, and the interior detail too. In addition, the Grabbing Claw needs a ork operator, the other side needs a hatch, and I need to figure out what weapon options I want to add. The Looted Wagon has the option of having a Skorcha for 15pts and I am starting to lean that way though it will make this tank expensive. I had already planned to give it Armored Plates, Grabbing Claw, Red Paint Job (all ork vehicles should have a red paint job) and Grot Riggers, bringing its current cost up to 60pts already. Add on a Skorcha and 2 Big Shootas and we are looking at an 85pt Armor 11 Vehicle that isn't fast. Cool, fluffy, fun, but not that cost effective. I may have to rethink things some.

Well anyways, I just wanted to share the fun I am having with my new found passion, Ork Armor. Next time I will be talking about Ork Boyz and showing you the progress I have been making on getting the 80+ I have to paint finished.

Until next time...

Goff, We'ez 'ere ta Fight!

Hey guys, I know it has been a while but work, preparing for school (starts today), and a dire lack of wanting to paint but play (with my new orks) has had me held up from posting anything for a while now, as well as the fact I have had nothing to post.

So first things first, yeah I have a new Ork army.

"But what happened to your Griffons you ask?"

Well I have put that army on hold for now, need a break from the quartered red/yellow and besides it has not been playing very well for the most part. I need to step back, take a break, and rethink my list a bit before I go back in and tackle the final 800 - 1.5K of models to paint.

The Ork army has been growing by leaps and bounds during the month of September as I find more and more uses for the AoBR models which I keep finding for cheap on ebay or around the area. I have been building like a mad man trying to get everything together so I can get it painted while testing things out (as this is the first time I have ever played Orks in 40K). The painting on the other hand, at least in the month of September has been going really slow. The Warboss (pictured above) and 7 Nobz took me 3.5 weeks to get finish and I still haven’t based them properly yet as I can not decide on what finish I want to go with. Here is a bad pic of what they look like:

As I mentioned above, I have been getting in some gaming recently, a lot more then I did over the summer and I have had a chance to face the new Space Wolves list. So 2 games against the new Space Wolves this week and also a game against a very tweaked IG MEQ list last weekend has caused me to begin thinking about my Ork list and what needs to be changed to deal with both of these very different threats. The Wolves really do out Ork the Ork army, putting out an insane amount of attacks (especially Sky Claws and Grey Hunters packs with wolfen) at a higher Init then my Orks, killing a lot of boy before I even get to go. IG on the other hand, tends to be lots of tanks and transports with a butt ton of melta bottled up inside those transport waiting to kill my 2 wound Nobs and Deff Koptas dead with ease. How do you combat both the need for more counter charge ability against wolves and tank busting ability against guard?

To be honest I am not sure, but I have some ideas. For those that don't know or who will be there I am headed to Mechanicon the first weekend of November up in Philly for a 5 round 1850pt 40K Tournament, and I will be playing Orks. Besides figuring out what I will be taking, I need to figure out how to deal with the above two list and all the rest I might face or at least have a plan for each type of army going in. The list I had intended to take looks like this:

Warboss

Big Mek (Kustom Force Field)

2 units of 30 Slugga/Choppa Boyz with Nobz

20 Shoota Boyz with 2 Big Shootas and Nob

7 Nobz w/ Trukk

10 Lootaz

10 Tank Bustas

5 Deff Koptas

Battle Wagon

What I have found (though I have not used the Battle Wagon yet) is that this army just can't handle high armor or fully MEQ armies very well. Sure the Mass of boyz is nice but isn't in anyway guaranteed to take out tanks or transports if they get to them. Additionally, a more mobile hard hitting Melee army like Space Wolves can have lots of tools that make this type of list not work either. In a game last night I found that all the Wolves have to do is jump a sky claws unit lead by a wolf priest behind my unit of 30 Slugga/Choppa boyz and they can pretty much clean house by shooting and then charging in and it is doubtful that I will be able to win the combat, even with a full 30 Orks at the start.

I suspect that I am going to need to try to start thinking more unconventionally with the Orks to be able to handle some of the nastier New fangled IG and Wolf lists. Also, to add insult to injury, I found out last night that I have been doing something wrong; Boyz units can not take a truck if they have more then 12 models in them, something I have been doing to give my Tank Bustas a ride.

I have talked to a few Ork players about what they do and all of them have told me or have been surprise that I do not have any Trukk boy mobs in my army. A trukk boy mob is just 10 to 12 orks, usually with a Nob with Power Klaw mounted up in a Trukk. Personally just looking at them on paper seems like I am giving my opponent easy Kill Points. 12 boyz and a truck, wow that is an easy 2 KP right there, Pop the truck and then blast away at the 12 boyz with a low 6+ armor save, simple. But I am going to go against my instinct I think and try them out. From everything I have heard you are never supposed to Run them in less then groups of 2 to 3 trukks so I am going to try out 2 units run together for now (As I only have 2 Trukks). I will be mounting up 12 Slugga/Choppa Boyz with a Nob w/Power Klaw and a Boy with a Big Shoota into each trukk. Here is a pic of most of the models for these two units:

As for the rest of my army, this has a few effects. For starters I have had to cut down one of my 30 Boy Mobs to 20 models as I only have so many extra boyz lying around. Secondly, I need a new ride for my Nobs and Tank Bustas. In comes a Battle Wagon which I have just finished building and a Looted Wagon (which as luck would have it; I started building out of an unassembled Rhino kit I had laying around). Here is a pic:

And finally I think I am going to be upping the number of Lootaz in my army to 13 as was suggested to me by a friend that plays orks. 13 ups the number needed to be killed to take a test to 4 and gives me 4 more deffguns to blast away at my enemies with (in the old squad of 10 had a mech with a rokkit). To do this, and get in all the other stuff I want to add in it probably means I am going to have to drop the Shoota Boyz, at least in 1850pt games. So as of now here is the new list am leaning towards, at least till I test it some and find out is does not work at all, sigh

Warboss and Big Mek (KFF)

2 mobs of 12 Trukk Boyz with Nobz w/ Power Klaws

2 mobs Boyz w/ Nob and Sluggas/Choppas, one 30 Boyz, one 20 Boyz

5 Nobz in a Battle Wagon

10 Tank Bustas mounted up in a Looted Wagon

12 Lootaz

4 Deff Koptas with TL Rokkits

Thoughts?

Wow its been a while...

While I sit here taking a break from work, waiting for the Privateer Press site to load it strikes me, wow has it been a while since I posted last. September 6th was the last one, 15 days ago. Well needless to say I have been good. Real Life however has been nuts. I finally got hired on full time (though I have been working full time this whole time) at my job. Instead of just getting the benefits and vacation time that comes with full time, I got promoted, so had my whole job reformatted and added to. It is a good thing in the long run I guess but it is going to make the next several months much slower hobby wise for me.

So over that past two weeks I have been working on getting a Warboss and 7 Nobs painted for a new Ork army I have started collecting. You would be surprise just how crazy fast an ork army can come together with a few AoBR sets and a few wins on E-bay, I know I am. Next post expect to see pics of the finished models as they are acting as both my test models and the first few model I paint for the army so I am taking extra time to make them nice.

So what I really wanted to talk about today is something I haven't mentioned in a while. Some of you know I am a Pressganger for Privateer Press. Recently Privateer has been failing in my eyes due to their treatment of switching from Mark 1 of their game to the soon (Jan) to be released Mark 2 version of their game. Well folks, today they may have redeemed themselves. PP has release the preprint, prelayout final version of the MK2 rules and cards free of charge to all who wish to download them.

In this unpresidenced move, PP has release the new version of their new game 4 months early and free for all. The gaming communities have been stagenating with people wanting to play Mk 1 or Mk 2 or stopping gaming to wait for Mk 2 (I am in that last category) and this move really gives all of us incentive to go play. So if you have ever been a PP fan and stopped for whatever reason, I suggest you follow the links below and go check it out. Free rules are free rules. And while the nicely layed books and cards with all the fluff and painted figs are still to come, you can start getting your game on now.

Classy Privateer, Classy.

Rules
Cards

Until next time.

How many points is too many points?

Hey guys, welcome to post 30 of Blood and Blades. Today I am going to share with you photos of a mega battle I played in yesterday and talk about was the title suggest, when should you say stop and quite adding more and more points to one of your games. First off lets start with a pic of the insanity.

This photo was taken just after I had finished deployment at the bottom of turn 2. As you can see the board is littered with all sort of models and combats and firefights are raging everywhere. This brings me to part one of figuring out how many points to play. In my experience, a person can handle roughly 3 to 4,000pts of models effectively and still play in a reasonable amount of time. To be honest, neither of us know exactly how many points where on each side, but Chris's was using 3 Battle Companies and 2 Reserve Companies (1 Tactical one Assault) plus a good number of supporting vehicles and Dreadnoughts. I was using components of my Blood Angels, Bloodwing, Howling Griffons, Renegade IG, Chaos Space Marines, Chaos Daemons, and Ork armies. By our estimates is was close to a 30K vs 25K and Defenses planet strike game, pretty cool is you ask me.

To get back on topic, this is a pic of what the table looked like after chris finished his deployment on turn 1, which took more then 2 hours I might add. The important thing to note here is how much time do you have to play the game. When chris and I were setting up we thought we had all the time in the world, and took it very easy and talked and did not really focus on deploying. This made turn 1 take 4 hours to play. Chris finished deploying at 4pm and turn 1 was over at 8pm. Obviously we let the shear scale of the game get away from us and did not budget our time well.

Now if that is what you want, to just through all your models on the board and see what there is to see, cool, do it. That is what this game very quickly became as we realized we were not going to get to finish the game as midnight got closer and closer and Chris's wife began to text more and more frequently. So lets go over what you should plan for.

1. Plan ahead, figure out how much time to want to spend playing and pick a point sized based on that. A 2K game should take about 2 hours, with each additional 1000pts adding on in my estimate an additional 1 hour of play time. So a 3K game should last 3 hours, a 5K game 5 hours, etc. Also note that the you can divide the game size by the number of players and apply my 1K to 1 hour formula. Just for every 4-5 players and 4-5K of stuff add +1 hour. So 5 player per side playing 20K should take (20/5=4) 4 hours +1 hour for the number of players and +1 hour for the size of the game which is roughly a 6 hour game.
   
2. Budget your time, keeping an eye on the clock and setting time limits for turns or phases of turns can get games moving faster. In big Apocalypse games, with many many players per side I suggest 30 minute turns. This forces players to do what is important and not let the game get bogged down by finishing every little thing. Often times in mega games, the important thing to do is the stuff that will have battle sweeping effects and leave those 200 lasguns firing at 5 tactical marines alone.
3. Stick to your plan, every plan is going to change once things get going, but except that. That said, you should still try to stay on plan as much as possible, if you just throw it out then you are garunteed not to finish your game.
4. Play for Fun, not to win. Often times players do not understand what these big games are about. They will take the nastiest, meanest, craziest army the can come up with and end up not having fun because the are worried about winning the whole time. Big games are ment to be a fun time where you and your opponent can pull out your armies and show off those models you do not get to use that often in regular games. For example Chris had 28 tactical squads in our games, 28. 3, 4 yeah that is all you usually see in a normal game of 40K, but 28 on the table all at once, and an additional 12 or so assault squads is a sight to see. Remember, you and your oppenent want to have fun, use some stuff you haven't used, and just fill up the table with stuff. If you keep that in mind you will have a great game.
5. Rules are not as important in big games as they are in smaller ones. Do not nitpick as much as you would in a normal game. Cool things can and will happen in big games, let them even if to do so isn't quite in the rules, the game will be more memorable that way.

Well that is it for this post, please enjoy the following pics and please go here or even more photos of the game:

More Howling Griffons and TOEMP #3

Hey guys, in this blog entry you will find pics of Galvarium Vector, my Master of the Forge for the Howling Griffons and Rion, one of 4 Dreadnoughts I have in the army that go with Galvarium. Both of these, along with the two squads you have seen so far plus a second Tactical squad and a Scout squad made up the 1000pt army I entered into GW's paint contest that ended August 30th.

As I have said the army won first place, though to be honest not everything was quite done. Rion and Galvarium are both finished, but you are going to have to wait for pics of the Tactical Squad and Scout squad as they both need a bit more detailing before I am happy enough with them to show off.

In addition to being part of my 1K for GW, Galvarium is also half my entry for TOEMP's challenge #3. The task was to paint any amount of HQ and/or Fast attack choices you want by September 6th. With Galvarium Complete I am half way to my projected goal. I just need to paint up an Ork Warboss for my new Ork army that I mentioned I was starting last post. I primed him tonight so hopefully tomorrow I will have some time to get some work done on it.

Also, I am enrolled in what GW is calling a Veterans Class currently at my local GW store. Think GW's Academy classes, but for veterans that is more about sharing tips and tricks, best practises, and growing the Veteran community in the store by teaching them how to better pass on what they have learned to less experience players. This is a pilot program and if successful could be developed into a regular thing all GW stores offer.

While to be honest, I really do not need this class, I was one of the biggest supporters of its founding and developement as there are a lot of guys who play at my location that are okay painters, modelers, players, and leaders in the store but none of them have my experience as a Press Ganger and/or game organizer in the area to really fall back on so do not know how to give the best advice or teach someone else the best way to achieve a certain technique. Also no one else at the store, except one or two others, really has the depth of experience in wanting to be a better painter and striving to be that I do. I think this class is really going to help many of them for are just about at a level to really start improving and that it will push some several of them to start really uping there game to a higher level.

Well its time for bed, I need to be up early tomorrow. Next time more Griffons, the beginnings of the Orks, and maybe some pics of some other stuff I have laying around.

Until next time.

1K Done, well sort of...

Hey guys, just a quick update today. So I managed to finish (well mostly) 1,000pts of Howling Griffons to enter into GWs painting challenge judged yesterday. While I did not have time to paint the glow on the second Tactical Squad's Sergeant or the Scout Squads, or do the weathering, I managed to get everything else done and submit.

Surprisingly, at least for me I managed to take 1st place do to the variety of techniques I used on the models. It was close though and there were 5 other very nice armies submitted. Unfortunately no pics today as I did not have my camera with me yesterday. I will take some pics of my guys and any others thaht are left in the case tomorrow evening when I get to the store and post them probably on Wednesday morning.

Also, tomorrow see the beginning of a new Challenge. While I am going to continue working on Howling Griffons off and on, September 1st sees me starting a new army, ORKS! The Painted Dragon, a forum which I joined recently is running the second event of a Challenge series they started back in May. There is a very skilled painter on the forum by the name of Gareth that is also an amazingly fast painter who is know for cranking out beautifully painted armies very quickly. The challenge is to beat Gareth to a fully painted 1500pt army starting with unbuilt, unprimed models. Pretty cool.

I have never played Orks before (in 40K) and I have been really interested in trying to build an army of them since the release of the 5th Ed Ork Codex. I recently came into 3 complete sets of Assault on Black Reach Orks and some lootas in a trade, which is the prefect start to an Ork army so I took the plunge and got the couple of things I needed to fill out a 1500pt army list. Then this challenge came up and I suddenly I had the motiviation.

Stay tuned as I embark on this new challenge.

Well I seem to have run out of steam, so I am going to say ado.

Until next time...