Day One Results of the 'Veiled Region' Campaign Weekend

Just a quick update after day one of the campaign weekend... 

Game 1 - 1000pts (minimum 50% flyers):

Lost (twice!) on VP's against pre-heresy World Eaters from the Betrayal book. The list included a Whirlwind, 2 x Lightnings & ten assault Marines. 

Game 2 - 2000pts:

 Win - I claimed two out of three objectives, and managed to table my opponent! I was playing against Chaos Marines with Fabius Bile, terminators in a Land Raider, some possessed Marines, two Hellblade flyers and a Storm Eagle flyer carrying twenty cultists.  

Game 3 - 2000pts: 

Win - ten victory points vs five. This was a kill points mission against a Killa Kan Ork list featuring a lifta-droppa, six Killa Kans, a couple of Deffgun Dredds (I think), a Flak-Trukk, Wazdakka, some bikers and some Trukkin' Boyz. 

So, four games today, two wins and two losses. Let's see how day two goes tomorrow! ' 

Off to 'In The Veiled Region' Campaign Weekend

In just about to set off to my first campaign weekend - In The Veiled Region, organised by Animosity. I'm excited and curious to see exactly how the campaign will differ from a tournament. I'm hoping the spirit of fun will be prevalent, rather than the WaaC vibe that I've encountered so often at tournaments, consciously and unconsciously. 

Im taking my Squat Guard, who will be on their second major outing - last December's Blog Wars being their maiden performance. 

I'll keep you posted with my progress! 

A Call for Competition ... of sorts.

Chaos! You know it makes sense.

Well, this year looks like it might be more of a hobby focused year than a gaming one. I’m certainly planning to go to a few tournaments this year (BoTCh, Blog Wars, Open War, Throne of Skulls and probably a couple of others) but my usual Thursday night games seem to have dried up with my regular opponents disappearing, for very good reasons of their own I might say. Fortunately there are a couple of major hobby projects that have caught my eye which should fill the gap nicely.

Firstly I’m going to take part in the Age of Armies campaign being run by the 40KUK Podcast as you can see here. I’m still minded to go Khorne Marines/Daemons but given my magpie nature nothing is set in stone until the paint hits the model.

Secondly, I recently downloaded and digested the Age of the Emperor supplement published by the Tempus Fugitives crew and it’s got me feeling all unnecessary about Heresy Era stuff and as such I’m going to repaint my Marines as Imperial Fists and Blood Angels add some Mark III armour from Forgeworld into the mix. Those of you who have followed the blog for a while will know that my marines are predominantly Yellow anyway but I am planning to strip them in batches of 5 and start again from scratch. There are a couple of reasons for this, mostly because I want to ensure the consistency of the new scheme but also because I want to try a different technique for painting yellow which I think I can get to look cleaner and brighter than my current “dirty yellow” look.

Lastly, I won an Amazon Gift Voucher recently and decided to splurge it on an airbrush and compressor kit and there’s nothing like a new toy to get the hobby juices flowing. I am really itching to start using it to see what sort of difference it makes to my throughput and the results I can achieve both on large models and blocks of infantry. I’ve been spending the last few days trawling through YouTube and various forums looking for advice on how to both operate and maintain and airbrush and how to get the best results with it as part of various projects. I’ll definitely be blogging about my experiences so keep an eye out for that.

What all this means is that you should start to see a more regular flow of content on the Blog which Grazer has pretty much single-handedly been supporting over the last few months/half a year. Battle reports are likely to be few and far between, but will probably come all at once as I attend tournaments, and are likely to be focussed on what I learned from humiliating defeats (nothing different there then!). Hopefully the painting and modelling content should be coming thick and fast (well I expect I’ll manage one post a week at least), and the predominantly yellow pictures should be broken up with some red for the Blood Angles and more red from the Khornate Chaos project.

On a final note if anyone in the Nottingham area fancies a game at Warhammer World (or I can Stretch to Eye of the Storm in Mansfield) on a Thursday night please just drop me a line either as a reply to this post or email me at andylane78 at gmail dot com and we’ll sort something out.

Silver & Gold and Other Army Lists

The 40kUK Podcast are currently instigating a hobby event called “Age of Armies”, you can find out more about it here. But suffice to say it’s an army building challenge requiring you to build and paint a new army over the course of the year with a view to bringing it to a tournament at the end of the year, possibly the Autumn Throne of Skulls.

I’ve always wanted to do one of these events but they’ve always seemed to fall at times that weren’t convenient for one reason or another but this time, I’ve just finished my Tyranids, my Marines are just expanding into 6^th edition and my Orks may never surface again ... so I quite fancy doing something new. The premise is that you acquire the equivalent of £50 worth of models for your army each month which is pretty achievable I think but what I really like about this is the intention for everyone involved to attend a tournament together at the end of the challenge. This sounds like a lot of fun.

The big question though, is what army should I do? I’ve been really tempted to do a Chaos Marines (Khorne) Primary with Ork Allies army because I have always loved the Chaos Marines from a fluff perspective and it would give my Orks a focus again. However I pretty much have all the Ork models I’d need painted up so that’s probably a no-go from the point of view of this challenge.

The list I’d considered at 1850pts was:

Request for Players -' In the Veiled Region' Campaign Weekend

Over the Easter weekend (30-31 March) Animisity are running the 'In The Veiled Region' campaign. It's open to all players and races and comprises 6 games. Game 1 is a specially comped mission (1000pts, minimum 50% flyers / skimmers /jump infantry / winged), whilst the remaining 5 games are standard 2000pts missions - see full details, below. 

You can still grab your tickets here

You can ignore the imperial/Ork designations now as its open to all races and army lists.

Animosity - In the Veiled Region, March 30th and 31st

- Game 1 Blitzkrieg-

And introducing...

So, Grazer mentioned me briefly around Christmas time and that I would be posting to the Claws and Fists blog. Well, I'm ever the procrastinator and it's taken until now for me to actually get around to doing something about it!

I was introduced as a 'veteran gamer' (thanks Grazer!), but the reality is that apart from a dabble in my teens I've only recently re-introduced myself to miniature wargaming. It was around 5 years ago after losing another game of Risk that I declared: the only reason I lost is that there is no tactics involved, and it's mostly a case of random dice rolling and castling up until strong enough to attack en force. The irony I'm sure is obvious here...

So, the day after, I got my arse down to Warhammer World and walked out with a copy of 5th Edition and the starter set. Initially playing at home with my bro, I rapidly built up my armies and scenery collection. Around a year after getting back into it I contacted 1st Company Veterans...and here I am now.

I would describe myself as a fluff player rather than hardcore competitive. I only play armies that I feel represent the background, without the feeling I'm playing some sort of narrative story I just don't enjoy the game. However, that doesn't mean I don't play to win every time! I have a preference for fast, hard-hitting armies and am not afraid of taking risks.

So, what armies do I play?

I've sold off 2 armies:

1. A Khorne CSM force built around terminators in a Land Raider and a ton of berzerkers.
2. An IG force of ratlings, ogryns (beautiful models), a couple of Leman Russes and a healthy block of gun-line infantry including lots of HWs.

And I have remaining:

1. A Evil Sunz Speed Freaks army - lots of choppa boys in trukks and a 20 man (ork?) unit of Stormboyz with Zaggstruk. I also have Weirdboys, a couple of SAGs (love me some SAGs). I've also got a BW, a load of killa kanz and a Deff Dread. Got some warbikes (no, not the crazy over-powered 5th Edition nobz). Oh, and a Stompa! It's an eclectic mix of stuff that is great fun to play, and despite it being a hybrid mix works pretty well for me. I also like how it's painted, very gritty but colourful and cohesive.
2. Alaitoc/Beil Tan Eldar. It started as mainly aspect warriors, but I added rangers and Wraithlords later. I got tired of the green & white and spent a fun couple of months stripping EVERYTHING back to the plastic or metal and repainting it. Again, I love the look of it and is great fun to play, if very hard to win nowadays (new codex please). 
3. Daemons. I'm going to talk about this next:

My daemons are predominately a Tzeentch force but with a bunch of other stuff in there. I have 40 bloodletters which I rarely play now as I played them with my (now sold) Khorne CSM army. I played screamers, flamers and horrors in 5th and generally got laughed at, but did win more often than I lost (I have an amazingly lucky scatter dice). Then the WD update came along and the army basically played itself, not great fun. The old codex also suffered from an ever so slight lack of options, but there was beauty in the simplicity. The new codex is great though and I can see a ton of new ways to play, and thankfully most of my existing models will continue to be useful.

I'm also glad to see the Tzeentch stuff toned down again. An army that is a challenge is fun to play. I also like that I don't have the crazy 50/50 daemonic assault split, although I can still reserve my whole army if I choose to do so. I'm going to collect another god next as I prefer mono-god armies. I'm leaning towards Slaanesh, but not in the standard colours - I'm thinking something more bright pink/deep purple with possibly human coloured skin.

Right, I think that's enough for now. I'm going to post again soon with my army list and hopefully some feedback on how it plays. I have a game with Grazer on Sunday so I'm hoping to have a photo or two to post - everybody loves to see Squats valiantly fighting despite being (nearly) extinct!

One last thing - I've just finished my 9 plastic flamers tonight and ready to play them painted. Am I crazy to field them?

The Hall of Miniatures at Warhammer World

Just a quick post today. Last weekend I went over to Warhammer World to pick up some stuff, which I'll be blogging about in the near future, and I thought I'd take a minute to head upstairs and see what was on display in the Hall of Miniatures.

I was quite surprised to see that the Dark Angels exhibition was still on despite the recent Codex Daemons release but I was very pleased to see loads of my old favorites still on display up there. Here are a few pictures.

GW Reclaim their Heritage

This week Games Workshop have released a whole slew of tickets for events - seven of 'em in total - all at Warhammer World this June. What caught my eye was the Vidar's Fate: Praedis Zeta campaign weekend, which features this classic image from yesteryear:

Genestealer Hybrids return to 40k

The image is from the early nineties, when Genestealer hybrids were one of the most imaginative and weird armies available for collection. For me, the period from the latter years of Rogue Trader through to Second Edition were the most fertile and creative times in Games Workshop's history. It coincides with my first innings with 40k, so perhaps a little nostalgia has crept in(!) but from that era we have the Freebootas and Waaagh! The Orks books, the Realm of Chaos book, Titan Legions morphing into the Epic / Space Marine game, Necromunda and, slightly later, Gorkamorka. All of them were chock-full of well-written, clever and funny background fluff (especially the Orks books) and the army lists were full of imaginative and interesting units.

 

One of those armies was the Genestealer Cult. For those not in the know (or not born... it was over twenty years ago) Genestealers infiltrated all societies and used their telepathic hypnotism to exercise control over those in control. Quickly, a cult would arise around the Genestealer and the puppet politician it controlled, with the Genestealer implanting (exactly how was left to our imaginitions I believe...) it's spawn into host bodies. When born, these creatures were part-Genestealer, part-human (or Ork, or whatever the parent host was). First-generation hybrids were a real alien/human mix, with subsequent generations becoming more and more human. Those born in the fifth generation were once more purestrain Genestealers.

 

The Vidar's Fate: Praedis Zeta event at Warhammer World seems to have been designed by Nick Bayton, one of the main guys down at GW-HQ and a friendly, decent guy too). Nick obviously knows his heritage, as the campaign he has devised allows units of Genestealer Hybrids to be taken. I doubt that this is a precursor to GW releasing either a codex (highly unlikely) or even an Allies supplement (of which I've read a lot of internet wishlisting about) but rather a fun throwback to GW's younger, more carefree and creative past.

 

If however GW did want to reclaim their heritage (and intellectual property, let's not forget!), then here's a few things that I would love to see return - either as a White Dwarf codex, a full release or as part of an Allies supplement:

 

 - Adeptus Mechanicus

 

 - Eldar Exodites

 

 - Squats (you knew I'd have to say that!)

 

 - Genestealer Hybrids / Cults

 

I think that the Adeptus Mechanicus would make for an awesome new army/race in modern 40k. GW owns the intellectual property, the structure of the army and units thereof exists already, and the fluff sets them apart from any other race currently in the universe, so that a full codex release would be an original and totally different proposition to anything else currently out there. Of course, there are plenty of fandexes already in existence (the Tempus Fugitives version foremost amongst them), but a proper codex release with a full set of models would be most welcome.  

 

Who doesn't love steampunk cyborgs?

 

Of my other suggestions, the Eldar Exodites are a very intriguing proposition. Some suggest that their race is (in fluff terms) too small to warrant a full codex or range of models, but I would counter that by asking how many of you haven't faced up against Grey Knights in the last year or so? For a secretive and ultra-elite chapter, there seems to be more than enough of them to go around! The Exodites are a back-to-nature branch of Eldar, and would feature a mix of pre-fall Eldar technologies, natural psychic abilities and beast-riding knights. It is this latter point that some think mark Exodites as in some way 'not 40k' - that in the fortieth millennium, it should all be about spaceships, robots and big guns. Of course, those things are all very cool(!), but I think there is space for some earth-lovin' pixies Eldar too, right?  

 

Image: http://www.stephane.info/res/article/exodite_lord/thumbnail_Lord_on_mountain.jpg

 

Image: http://exodites.blogspot.co.uk/

 

Anyone who has read this blog, or my sister-blog Rogue Trader (on which I have slowly been posting my fandex creations) will know that my true love in 40k is Squats. I love the fluff, the old-school models, I love the whole vibe of tough, down-to-earth engineers building their own unique vehicles to survive in the most inhospitable worlds of the galaxy. Again I think that, along with the Adeptus Mechanicus and Exodites, Squats could make a positive return to 40k.

 

 

Just like the Exodites and the Adeptus Mechanicus, the Squats have their own unique feel and style, and their own iconic range of vehicles. These could be translated very easily into modern 40k, and would make - in my opinion anyway - a most welcome addition to the races currently available to collect in the Warhammer 40,000 universe.   

 

That's my thoughts on some of the races which I would like to see gain full Codex status.

 

How about you - what would you like to see come into Warhammer 40,000?

 

 

 

(Note - images copyright Games Workshop except where stated).