Back for the Wolftime - A return to regular gaming after a couple of years off.

It has been a long time since I have produced a blog post and I thought I would explain why and where I’m at with the hobby at the minute.

I stopped playing just after sixth edition came out (I think I managed a couple of games at most) there was a combination of reasons for this.

Firstly and I promise this will be the only time I mention it, I like a lot of us do not like GW as a company. I feel like they have seriously forgotten their roots as a small cottage industry for the players to a big money company. When I started playing First Company Veterans was one of the biggest clubs in the country with 70 or 80 players attending our own gaming night at Warhammer World on a Thursday night. Within a few years the numbers of people were down to a hand full of 40k and Fantasy players and a core of about 10 to 15 Bloodbowl players. That I purely lay at the door of GW and the staff at Warhammer World, they decided that they wanted to go in a different direction and it destroyed the club other than a few core players. More fool them they went for a full hall on a Thursday night with the majority of the members eating and drinking to not being open at all on a Thursday night.

One of the other reasons I stopped playing was the tournament scene that at the time I was a part of, I wasn't improving and I was becoming frustrated. On a good weekend I’d find myself in the top half on a bad weekend I’d be scrapping it out on the bottom tables. This in turn was part of the issue with First Company Veterans, a lot of the core players were really into Bloodbowl a game which I never picked up at the right time so I wasn’t playing enough different players to really make me better the other problem was how I play the game, I was never decisive enough I had many many games where if I had risked a little more I would have turned draws into wins.

The final reason I think I stopped playing was sixth edition and my own Army list. I’ve always been a Space Wolves player, during my time I have toyed with the idea of other armies. I've built a small Grey Knights force and started both Necron’s and Word Bearers but I have never come close to finishing them. When Sixth came along I couldn't find the motivation to change my list so thoroughly and now I really reflect on it it’s because I wasn't enjoying the game. I saw sixth edition as too random and because of that I thought it would mean that I wasn't as competitive a player. The problem was I’d lost why I was playing the game. When I first started building lists, I picked the units I liked to play with and that were very fluffy. I played with 14 Blood claws in a Land Raider led by Ragnar and a Wolf Priest. I then played with a massive death star of Thunderwolf cavalry. Over the time I dropped these things from my list for the same cookie cutter lists that everyone was playing, lots of Long Fangs (which were enjoyable) and lots of Grey Hunters but I wasn't actually getting the results during tournament play so what was the point.

So what has changed two years later. Well I have returned to what originally inspired me to start an Army almost 6 years ago. I have been lax with my Black Library reading. Mainly down to having a Kindle now the quality and availability of good Science fiction has improved incredibly but last week with nothing to read I picked up Horus Rising and was straight away reminded why the 40K mythology was brilliant. 'I was there when Horus slew the Emperor' is a fantastic opening to a novel and such a massive series. I felt reading that I was ready to pick up the dice and tape measure again and lead my troops into battle but something had to change with my style otherwise I would just end up to in the same position again so I thought about the people who I think have the most fun in playing which are Claws and Fists most regular (and lads I use that word very loosely) posters Andy and Graham. What is different about what they do to what I was doing is they constantly doing something different. They don't have a list they try new things, they use different units and if it works great and if it doesn't its just put down to experience.

So Saturday led me into Derby GW for the first time in a while. I managed to avoid being ganged up on with a conversation about what I'm playing at the minute and made it out with a new rule book, codex and a box of Space Wolves. Sunday has seen me mark two sets of books (just in case OFSTED are stalking me over the internet) and go through all the things I had packed away a couple of years ago. I managed to find everything except for my hobby drill which was good what did make me shudder and also sweat a bit with the wife looking over me is the number of unfinished models I have in there.

When I made my first entry on here (which at the time was the record read post, something I notice I still hold boys) I started it with a resolution that I would play a minimum of a game a week for the following year. In the whole I did that, some weeks I was playing 2 or 3 regular games and on tournament weekends I could well be playing 8-10 games over the course of seven days. That won't happen now, I have too many responsibilities, we are all that bit older wiser and more encumbered with debt. I'm also busy dispensing the Emperor's will in the form of BB's airsofting at least once a week. So my resolutions or perhaps it should be Oath of the moment because it needs that strength to make it stick

Return to gaming at least once a month and chart my progress on here

• Not play the same army list for more than a month at a time and if it returns to my life attend every tournament with a different list.
• Only buy more models when I have finished the last lot.
• Get back to regular blogging.

So that is my tale readers, please check the blog regularly because I'm going to get back to posting my progress and after being out for two editions (what is happening to the speed GW are pumping things out) I will need all the advice I can get.

Rolling Less Than 10 on 3D6 and Other Stories

Parasite of Mortrex

A BLOG WARS 4 TALE

Strap yourselves in readers and grab some popcorn, this is a long one and it’s going to get emotional!

This weekend saw Blog Wars 4 take place at the Eye of the Storm venue in Mansfield (part of the Maunsfeld Games store). This is an event the Blog has always tried to support but, thanks to a poorly scheduled holiday, I’d not been able to attend the last one so I was really looking forward to making a come-back at the first one of 6th Edition!

I had promised that, as a penance for missing Blog Wars 3, I would re-double my efforts to get my Tyranids completed in time for this tournament and thanks to some late night painting sessions (concluding at 1:30am on Friday night) I managed to put the following list on the table (complete with 15 ripper bases – which never saw the light of day!)

Parasite of Mortrex
Tyranid Prime w. 2x Boneswords & Scything Talons
2x Zoanthropes
2x Zoanthropes
10x Termagants
10x Termagants
Tervigon w. Crushing Claws, Toxin Sacs, Adrenal Glands, 3 Powers
Tervigon w. Crushing Claws, Toxin Sacs, Adrenal Glands, 3 Powers
6x Raveners w. Rending Claws
2x Carnifexes w 2x Twin-Linked Devourers (w. Brainleech Worms) eachTrygon

A section of the Hive Fleet

Blog Wars requires you to field a unique or special character as it’s only list composition restriction, this is something I quite like and has previously seen my Ghazghull face off against Commissar Yarrick in an epic smack-down for all the marbles (on the bottom table). We were playing 3 games with the objectives and deployments pre-set as part of the rules pack. If you want to read all the details about the tournament you can have a look at the From the Fang blog (who organise the event) here.

So, on to the games and a day that would see 3D6 leadership tests loom large in my fortunes:

Game 1 vs Dark Eldar/Eldar - Greg Pikos
Crusade (5 objectives) / Vanguard Deployment

The Baron
Haemonculus
5x Wracks
5x Warriors w. Blaster in Venom w. 2x Splinter Cannons
5x Warriors w. Blaster in Venom w. 2x Splinter Cannons
13x Hellions w. Helliarch
6x Reavers w 2x Heat Lance
s6x Reavers w 2x Heat Lances
Ravager
Ravager
Voidraven Bomber

Aegis Defence Line w. Quad-gun

Farseer w. Runes of Warding & 1 Power
5x Rangers
3x War Walkers w 2x Scatter Lasers each

Greg's Circus themed Dark Eldar

OK, multiple objectives, I like that, I know where I am with objective missions; Dark Eldar with a Runes of Warding Farseer ally, not so good, lots of poison shots and table-wide psychic defense which is really going to put a damper on my day. 

I got to pick table edge and deploy 3 of the objectives but I lost first turn, not actually all that bad in an objective game but he would get the first opportunity to unleash all his dakka at me. I deployed fairly conservatively knowing that as we both had speed I could well get off a first turn charge with a bit of luck. 

Speaking of luck, Greg forgot to cast Prescience so his War Walkers were not as devastating as they could have been. His Reavers jockeyed for position and the Baron led his Hellions forward with a couple of cheeky pain tokens and ran for cover in a ruin in the middle of the building. I advanced and took out a Venom with a volley from the Carnifex unit (1st Blood) and typically one of my Tervigons bunged up after spawning only 5 ‘gants. The Hellions looked threatening and would certainly get a charge off in the next turn so I decided to risk attempting a pre-emptive charge against them with the Parasite and his Raveners. A roll of 11 got me in comfortably but I’d be striking last thanks to the lack of grenades. At this point luck was clearly on my side because his entire unit (with the extra attack combat drugs) managed to kill off only 1 Ravener and one of those wounds was caused by overwatch fire, I should also mention that I made five 5+ saves on the Raveners. My return flurry accounted for 4 hellions and the Baron (Warlord) who managed to fail his very first Shadow-field save. I win by 4 But the Hellions hold firm thanks to a nice low leadership roll!

After all that Greg looked somewhat deflated, perhaps he had forgotten about the monumental amount of firepower he still had at his disposal, and this turn those War Walkers would be Twin-Linked! The opening salvo vapourised my Trygon with wounds to spare and he also managed to knock a couple of wounds of the Tervigon on my left flank, those Reavers were also getting worryingly close. We then returned to the epic combat in the centre this time it was much closer but I still managed to win combat by two wounds and that proved to the boo much for the Hellions who ran and were cut down by the Parasite and his 4 remaining Raveners who had a bone to pick with a Farseer.

My turn saw the last Venom over-killed by the Carnifex Unit and a slow advance by the rest of the Horde. I forgot to mention that in turn one I only got two psychic powers off and put wounds on 3 Zoanthropes and a Tervigon thanks to Perils from the Runes of Warding so I had decided not to risk casting anything in Turn 2 as I was very pleased to be well within strike range of the Farseer and his unit of Racks behind their Aegis Defence Line with the Parasite and his rampaging Raveners. The combat was short and sweet the Eldar broke, ran and were cut down, but that left me vulnerable out in the open and at the mercy of Rangers, warriors and the Quad Gun (the War Walkers could also be brought to bear if necessary).

As expected, Greg made short work of the Parasite and his squad and, now that I’d also lost the Trygon as well (who took two squads of gants with him), that really took the punch out of my army. The wounded Tervigon on the left flank fell to Hellion fire and the one in the centre was brought down to its last wound by the War Walkers. I was very much back on the back-foot and trying to figure out how I was going to salvage a draw out of this.

I was able to swamp an objective at the back of the board with my remaining ‘gants but his Reavers were able to assault into the unit to contest (need to work on my placement). Greg was able to take an objective behind his defence line, uncontested, with the Rangers and also held an objective with a small warrior squad on my left flank. My remaining Tervigon was, however, within strike range of this, so I charged in and easily wiped the squad for what I thought was a solid draw. Unfortunately I had forgotten that his Reavers were still in combat with a single termagant very close to the same objective. If I’d have realised, I’d have charged my two remaining Zoanthropes into the combat, but as it was he easily took care of the Termagant and consolidated far enough to contest the objective.

The game ended in a 9-16 loss but it was an extremely enjoyable game which swung back and forth on almost every turn and really could have gone either way. Credit to Greg, he played a blinder and didn't let the early loss of his big Hellion unit get too him. 

Game 2 vs Necrons – Michael Towers
The Relic / Hammer & Anvil Deployment

Imotekh the Stormlord 
Overlord w res orb 
Royal Court: Harbinger of Eternity w. Chronometron; Harbinger of Despair w. Veil; Lord w. Mindshackle Scarabs & Warscythe 
Royal Court: Harbinger of Eternity w. Chronometron; Harbinger of Despair w. Veil; Lord w. Mindschackle Scarabs & Warscythe 
20x Warriors 
20 x Warriors 
5x Warriors w. Night Scythe 
5x Warriors w. Night Scythe 
5x Warriors w. Night Scythe 
5x Warriors w. Night Scythe 

I’ve got to admit that I felt pretty confident about this one. Michael and I had played recently, in game 1 of the last Open War, and I was keen for revenge. I felt this list was less difficult to deal with because the Spyders, Scarabs and Wraiths that he’d brought to Open War were no more, also I managed to get first turn so I knew I had a great chance of getting to the relic with some spawned ‘gants on turn one and putting myself in a strong position early. As it turns out I was not prepared for the trixy-ness and down-right shooty-ness of this list.

Turn 1 - Lookin Good!

As planned I moved up on turn 1, putting my ‘gants in easy strike range of the Relic with the rest of the army in support and the Raveners with the Parasite partially in front to provide a screen. Michael had placed both of his blob squads right at the back of the board, well out of my range. However on his turn he Veiled right behind my lines and decimated the two back-most ‘gant units (First Blood). This, combined with a particularly devastating round of lightning strikes from Imotekh (including 6 hits on the Parasite’s squad – I took my chances saving 4 on the Parasite and passing the other two to Raveners who couldn’t make their 5+) lead to a pretty successful turn for Michael.

Fortunately his veil shenanigans had put both units in range of most of my army so I levelled all available guns at the squad with the least cover and took it down to a manageable size for my Poison/Furious Charge ‘gants and a Tervigon to charge. The combat was a great success and the unit was wiped but the Lord stood back up.

On Michael’s turn two he got 3 of his Croissants (Night Scythes) on to the board and they took no time in focussing down the ‘gant squad on the Relic and taking a couple of wounds off a Tervigon. Imotekh’s lightning storm put another 6 strength 8 hits on the Parasite’s unit wiping it. Bad times but to make matters even worse he also put 4 wounds on my Trygon which was finished off by the left over Night Scythe shooting. This was starting to look bad. The solo Lord charged back into the Tervigon who passed his Mindshackle test and put the Lord back down, only for him to stand back up! Most annoying!

Turn 3 started off with my Tervigon in the centre spawning another 10 ‘gants onto the Relic, and this time I could get it to the one at the back giving me the chance to at least move it towards my swarm next turn. Next I decided that Imotekh had done quite enough damage so I levelled as much firepower as I could at his squad but his 2+ save combined with amazing we’ll be back rolls saw only a handful of warriors dead, on the up-side I did manage to get his Chronometron Cryptek who did not get back up – bonus!

The death of the Trygon meant that I only had a unit of 10 ‘gants in charge range of Imotekh’s squad but I wanted to at least tie them up for the big fellah’s who would be in range next turn. Those brave Termagants made the charge but the combination of withering overwatch fire and Warscythes put a swift end to their efforts and Imotekh was free to reposition next turn. The same could not be said of the solo Lord who was swamped under ‘gants who were less than effective but ensured that he could not charge the Tervigon next turn.

Thankfully Night Fight ended on this turn so no more evil lightning. I’d smugly positioned so that the Night Scythes could not get another volley off ... so instead they dropped off their Warrior units, this combined with the 4th Night Scythe turning up to lend some firepower, and Imotekh’s squad (he’d veiled back to the edge of his deployment zone) saw my Termagant squad with the Relic wiped again!

I was running a bit short of troops now and I’d lost a fair amount of punch from the army. However all of his troop units (bar the one in the newly arrived Night Scythe) were in the open and I gambled to try and wipe all of the 5-man units and put a hurting on Imotekh. My Prime detatched from the Carnifexes and charged the unit on my right flank (wiping them), my Carnifexes overkilled the rear-most unit and I put a unit of ‘gants in tenuous charge range of the nearest (which they failed). The Tervigon in the center fired his Cluster spines at Imotekh’s squad and did enough wounds to knock over the Veil Cryptek who failed to get up – nice! Sadly though a fair number of the warriors did get up which meant that Imotekh still had about 8 warriors with him and the other Lord, quite a daunting prospect. At the back of my deployment zone the solo Lord was still alive and kicking so my Warp Speed buffed (+1) Tervigon piled into him and in an epic simultaneous combat they both fell ... and neither got back up. Probably not worth the sacrifice of a Tervigon given my current position and lack of troops but it did feel good to see that 2 come up on the dice!

The surviving Warriors took to their Night Scythes and fled the board, knowing they would be back next turn. Imotekh advanced and his unit and the remaining Night Scythe continued to pour fire into my remaining ‘gants leaving none alive.

The game was in the balance but with very few troops left I felt right on the back foot, despite having good table position I could not continue to take the firepower those Night Scythes could dish out. I buffed up my remaining Tervigon (with only 2 wounds left) with Endurance and Iron Arm (+3) and went for the Relic, I put everything I had left, the Carnifexes and the Tervigon’s Cluster Spines into Imotekh’s unit. Sadly 2+ saves combined with unerring we’ll be back rolls meant that this achieved exactly nothing and the Necrons just kept coming.

The Night Scythes returned but my T9 Tervigon laughed off their firepower without taking a wound so it was with a glimmer of hope that I accepted the charge of Imotekh’s squad. But this Tervigon was clearly convinced that these were not the Necrons he was looking for as he failed his Mind Shackle test and promptly killed himself.

So, end of turn 5, the Relic is unclaimed, Michael has First Blood so if it ends here, he has it by 1.

Erm, where'd everybody go?

We go to turn 6. One of Blog Wars special rules is that your Special Character is scoring, so as I have no other scoring units left, it’s up to the Tyranid Prime to show his quality. He jumps on the Relic and his trusty Carnifexes flank him boldly, again pouring an utterly ineffective 24 shots into Imotekh’s squad – they clearly have a destiny to fulfill! Michael disembarks everything and puts everything he has left into the fexes killing one and wounding the other, and so Imotekh’s unit charges. The overwatch is ineffective and a challenge is issued. Amazing I think, I decline forcing the Prime out of the combat and amazingly the Carnifex survives.

Again it comes down to another dice roll, I have the Relic so it’s 3-1 to me ... it’s a 5 so we go on! Damn!

This time the challenge is not issued so no hiding for the Prime, I pass my mind-shackle test but the Carnifex buys the farm leaving the Prime on his own for the last round of combat and all the marbles.

Sadly the Hive Mind has realised that Necrons do not make for good eating (not enough biomass to assimilate apparently) so the suddenly dull minded Prime fails his mind shackle test and removes his own last two wounds.

That’s the game, I’ve been tabled. It went from a game with only a few points in it either way to a 5-25 defeat and I’ve gotta be honest, that was pretty crushing and I had a somewhat frowny face on. I hope I wasn’t too outwardly grumpy because it was an epic game and Michael was a fantastic opponent who played a great strategy pretty much to perfection. He really knows his Necrons and is a lot of fun to play against, I hope I get a chance for revenge (again) in the next tournament we’re at! 

Game 3 vs Grey Knights – Nathaniel Gibbs (No Blog) 
Purge The Alien / Dawn of War Deployment 

Inquisitor Coteaz 
Grand Master w. MC Psycannon & Daemon Hammer, Psybolt Ammo 
10x Grey Knights w. 2x Psycannons, Psybolt Ammo, Rhino 
10x Terminators w. 2x Psycannnons, 3x Daemon Hammers, 7x Halberds, Psybolt Ammo
5x Interceptors w. Psycannons 
5x Interceptors w. Psycannons 
Dreadnought w. 2x Autocannon & Psybolt Ammo 
Dreadnought w. 2x Autocannon & Psybolt Ammo 
Nemesis Dreadknight w. Heavy Incinerator & Personal Teleporter 

These Grey Knights look somewhat "Custodeal"

No offence to Nathaniel (I know he’s a reader) but after the last game I was not in the best frame of mind for facing off against a gun-line with a huge, terrain-less kill zone in the middle. I took one look at his super-shooty Grey Knights and the table lay-out, briefly considered playing cagily around the terrain on the edges trying to deny kill points but then just thought f**k it I’ll clog his guns with my bodies and if I can get my Raveners into his Terminators I’ll take my chances.

Things did not start well when he gave me first turn and promptly stole the initiative without the need for Coteaz’s re-roll. A Zoanthrope unit vanished before they could send a distress signal to the mother ship (First Blood)! The rest of the bugs were left largely unscathed and he pushed his Terminators forward positively goading my Raveners to attempt a first turn charge.

And so the ‘nids charged like the Light Brigade into the waiting guns of some lovely gold Grey Knights.

I’ll not go blow-by-blow here because if you’ve made it this far you’re probably losing the will to live, but I will go through a few highlights. The Parasite and his crew made it into contact with the Terminators and managed to kill about 3 of them over two rounds of combat before getting punked by the Daemon Hammers.

The Carnifex unit was as reliable as ever, wiping out an Interceptor squad in a single volley and severely reducing the 10-man Strike Squad over two rounds of shooting before succumbing to combined weight of arms. The Prime was not present at that point however, as he had detached to try and sort out a Dreadknight who was tearing through the back field due to an inability to fail to activate his force weapon despite being in the Shadow of the Warp the whole time and so it was that he took down the Prime without the nid general being able to land a blow on the big fellah.

The rest is not worth the telling, suffice to say that it was all over by turn 4 as even the big bugs could not resist the weight of fire leveled at them. Another 5-25 defeat, this had not been a good day. But again Nathaniel was a great opponent, very likable chap who had the misfortune to catch me in a somewhat dispirited mood and not minded to put up much of a fight, hopefully I can give him a better game should we meet again. 

You’ll have read that Graham was battling away on the bottom table vying for another Wooden Spoon in a nip-and-tuck battle that attracted quite an audience towards the end. What he and everyone else in attendance didn't know was that me and my little rain cloud had quietly put the bottom of the table beyond doubt. So with two emphatic tablings to finish the day I took the dubious honour of the Wooden Spoon, the first certificate I’d laid my hands on at a tournament since picking up a Wooden Spoon for my very first tournament way back in 2009 at Open War 12.

What can I take away from this experience? Firstly it’s not as bad as it looks, my first game was excellent against an army list I really think was a bad match up for me on paper. Sure I got lucky to wipe the Hellions so easily and who knows what could have happened if I’d been a bit less cavalier with my Raveners after that. Also if I’d not missed that lone ’gant tied in with the Reavers I could have got a tie out of the game. Against the Necrons in game 2 the 5-25 scoreline does not do justice to how close the game was and but for a dice roll I’d have had it won (narrowly) at the end of turn 6. The Grey Knight game was a bit of a write-off but if I’d cared about the result I could have done a number of things differently, sorry again to Nathaniel – I’ll give you a better game next time.

I don’t know what you think but to my mind all of these opponents were pretty bad match-ups for me. I thought I had a good chance against the Necrons but they really surprised me with their resilience and sheer weight of fire-power, I need more practice against what is surely one of the more powerful Codices at this point in 6th.

I think the list is OK as it is, I’ll probably tweak it but it’s going to be hard to get rid of the Carnifexes because in 6 tournament games (Open War & Blog Wars) they have been nothing short of amazing. The Trygon was fantastic in Open War but did exactly nothing in any of these games also I think that Crushing Claws on the Tervigons is probably not worth the points. They can be fantastic but I really didn’t get the opportunity to use them enough for me to really think I’ll miss them to save 50pts.

The Zoanthropes were definitely a total bust, I can see the reason why some people like them but I had no luck getting them the powers they need to be force multipliers. In game 2, between the four of them I had Smite, Warp Speed, Iron Arm, Life Leech and a single Enfeeble, likewise in game 3 where one unit had Smite x2, Haemorage and Life Leech. The fact of the matter is that if you pull the less useful powers with the frequency that I seem to get them, you really start questioning why you are spending 240pts on two units of 2! In the future I’m going to drop them and rely on the Monstrous Psykers to buff themselves.

Lastly, the Parasite and the Raveners. I like both of these because you just don’t see them. I can’t deny that Gargoyles are simply better point for point than Raveners but I’m going to stick with them, at least until I’ve painted 20 Gargoyles! The Parasite’s problem is that I could have a Flying Hive Tyrant instead of him and I’m really struggling justifying not doing this to myself. I really like him in theory but I forgot about the toughness tests in the heat of battle so my 15 ripper bases stayed quietly in my case for the entire tournament. Though, to be honest the only game where this would have come significantly into play was game 1.

So, all in all expect a few small changes for the next tournament but by-and-large I am happy with the army and I’m not going to over-react to what was something of a “bad day at the office”! 

Roll on Blog Wars 5!

The week that was ...

I don't know how to say this, but I'm kind of a big deal!

19th -25th October 2012

Chaos fail

My first taste of the new Chaos Marine 'dex was postponed this week because, quite frankly, Mick had bigger fish to fry. I'd put together a not completely hopeless 500pt Tyranid list to face him though so I hope we can reprise our game this week.

In the absence of a game against them, I took a closer look at the codex and decided that actually the "Typhus/Plague Zombies/anything else you like really", list does look good, does look like something I want to play and does look very reasonable cost-wise thanks to Mantic's release of the Corporation Zombies deal. Not so good for Battle Brothers but very good for the wallet!

Rumors abound

For those of you that don't follow Faeit 212, and why the hell don't you - do it NOW, there have been lots of leaks surrounding the pre-christmas release schedule. Most notable, in my 40K biased opinion, are the Wall of Martyrs, The Space Marine and Necron Mega Forces. In the past the Mega Forces have been pretty damn good deals so keep an eye on them because if they are for armies you like/collect this is probably going to be a good investment.

In other news, the on-again/off-again, maestro of SEO - Adam from The Space Wolves Blog appears to be back on the scene again and is threatening to unite all the Blogs disgruntled with BoLS's treatment of the common Blogger and to pick up where FtW's blog roll left off but with even more pazzaz! Colour me apathetic but I'll leave you to make what you will of it (Ed - Andy's opinions do not necessarily represent the opinions of Claws and Fists)

In other media

Some of you may know I'm a big fan of Podcasts. I'm currently listening to The Independent Characters and the 11th Company (never missed an episode of either) and I've picked up again with The D6 Generation (not a 40K podcast but an excellent general gaming one).

Over the last two episodes the Independent Characters have been reviewing the first Book in the Horus Heresy series from Forgeworld, "Betrayal". If you are in any way on-the-fence about this book, I strongly urge you to listen to the last two episodes as they are a really superb, in-depth review of the content, both fluff and rules, by a couple of guys who have a great understanding and enthusiasm for the project. In addition to this the Podcast is very entertaining no matter what aspect of 40K they are talking about so why not subscribe while you are at it.

The 11th Company are still doing what they have been doing sublimely for the last 138 episodes most recently they have delivered some very interesting insights into the world of Tournament Organisers in the US and some early (typically cynical) opinions on the Chaos Marines Codex. Though credit where it's due Neil "he's not going to lie to you" Gilstrap has managed to maintain a cautiously optimistic take on the new codex. I think it's important to remember that when you listen to these guys they are coming from a position of playing for wins in a highly competitive setting but if you're not that type of player this really shouldn't put you off listening to the podcast, it consistently provides fantastic tactical insights into play-styles and list building that I have not found anywhere else on the internet ...

... at least not since 40KUK went AWOL, just a little note here that I miss you guys and I hope that you get a new episode out soon; and please, for the love of god, sort out your sound quality. The content is epically good but I found the last one almost impossible to listen to!

And finally

I'm a pretty keen computer gamer as well as doing the 40K stuff, and recently X-Com has had me poised over the "add to cart" button on Steam. I keep telling myself I can wait until the Winter sale, where it's bound to be 25% off, but I'm not sure I have the self restraint to follow through. Fortunately my buddy Tee has been keeping me distracted with games of Dawn of War 2, Orc Must Die 2 and Left 4 Dead 2 (I'm all about sequels). These games are all excellent, particularly in the co-op multiplayer stakes but I'm not sure how long the distraction will continue to be effective. And really, why am I punishing myself about this ;)

Anyone else out there a keen PC gamer? What have you been playing recently?

The week that was ...

You stay classy, The Internet!

12-18^th October 2012

You all know what happens to “regularly scheduled” blog posts in these parts. Typically they start with good intentions but fall quickly by the wayside as real life and other inconveniences get in the way. So it is with much trepidation that I offer to you a new, regularly scheduled series of posts on the week that was the week before ... if you get me. This entirely (un)original concept is brought to you by me and hopefully will gather contributions from others in the “staff” if it gains any momentum.

With that said, here we go!

Open War 18.

Last Friday I was feverishly throwing Army Painter Medium Shade over poorly painted Tyranid models in a desperate attempt to finish my army for Open War 18. As you can read here my efforts on the painting front were successful enough for me to be able to attend the tournament, sadly however, my gaming skills were not up to the task and I finished a somewhat disappointing 14^th out of 18 competitors. Still, lessons were learned and I’ll be back for Blog Wars 4 with renewed fervour!

Club Night.

Thursday night is our regular club night at Warhammer World in Nottingham. Up to now I’ve been neck deep in the Perpetual Blood Bowl league, amassing four extremely middle-of-the-road teams in just over a year. For the latest team intake, however, I have decided to take a break and recharge my scrimmaging batteries. The previous week saw me, instead, throwing some 40K-related shapes in an Open War practice game against the midget-loving Grazer (who owes us a Battle Report, gloriously detailing how I won on a technicality).

This week heralded the very welcome return of Gav (our very own Mr Claws and Fists) to the gaming table who ably demonstrated his rustiness by loosing consecutive games of Space Hulk to me. Beating Gav at anything is a rare enough occurrence that I have to twist the knife at every opportunity but both games were pretty close, with the kind of great action and tension that makes Space Hulk as memorable as it always has been.

Looking forward.

I spent a couple of hours last night mulling over Daemons/Chaos Marines lists that Gav and I could take to Battle Brothers in January and I came to the conclusion that squeezing allies into 1500 points is at best difficult and at worst detrimental to the list no matter how powerful screamers and Flamers are ;) Bring on 1500pts of Tyranids I say!

And Finally.

I was listening to the latest episode of World's End Radio this week and they did a short segment on playing under pressure which I felt fit in rather nicely with my recent dusting off of Space Hulk. Being a little out of practice I’d forgotten how little time that egg timer gives you as the Marine player. You are forced to think fast and you get a real sense of pressure in a game where the odds are somewhat stacked against you anyway! I love the mechanic here though, because it really adds atmosphere to the game, drawing you into the situation. If you’re in a bit of a jam, the time you spend thinking yourself out of it often leaves you with a frantic rush to get everything done as the last few grains of sand spill out of the timer. Inaction is the quickest killer in Space Hulk.

Please check back next week for more of the same (hopefully!)

Thursday Thoughts

(think of it as a late Monday Musings)

Rumour Control - Percentages

I know this much is... True

We don't do rumours on this site, mainly because other people do it much better. However, I thought it might be interesting to look at some of the rumours regarding 6th edition that are circulating around and to see how they might affect us. A lot of them seem to be wishing for a return to 2nd ed. Ah, 2nd ed where a 2000 point army was about 4 squads of Marines and it still took about 6 hours to play a game. It's true, nostalgia ain't what it used to be.

One of the things we used to have back then and is rumoured to be making a return is percentages instead of the FOC. Now, Warhammer Fantasy Battle already uses this system but what would it mean to 40K? Well, frankly for Space Wolves it would be awesome. Assuming that missions remain broadly similar and you need troops to capture objectives, it would do away with one of the main drawbacks of the Wolves, namely that you can only take 6 scoring units. The other thing that we'd see would be more Long Fangs (and to think, Graham already calls them Cheese Fangs) Let's look at the numbers - in a 1750 point list, 3 units of 6 Long Fangs with 5 Rocket Launchers comes to 24%. So, we can fire 15 Rockets at 6 targets. Or we could have 4 units of 4 Long Fangs with 3 Rocket Launchers and a unit of 3 Long Fangs with 2 Rocket Launchers. This comes to just over 24%. Okay, so we've lost 1 Rocket shot but we can now fire at 10 targets!

I'm not a huge fan of returning to percentages to be honest, I think the FOC works pretty well especially with the characters that swap around slots. It would be interesting if they built on this in 6th edition and had characters that allowed a bit more development with regard to the FOC. Rumours are the Chaos Legion codex may have something like this where you can take an Iron Warriors Captain and get an extra Heavy Support choice for the loss of a Fast Attack one for example.

We can rebuild him

So, as you might have noticed, still no pictures of completed Thunderwolves. Turns out my finger was slightly more broken that initially thought. It is getting better though, so hopefully some more modelling pics next week...

94 Not Out

I'm sure all bloggers have been through this before - slowly watching your Followers total move towards the magical three digits. Then you realise that BoLS has more than 2,000 and you realise that world domination is still a long way away...

Anyone else starting to get excited about the impending 6th Ed? Or is anyone worried that GW will balls it up? Has anyone seen any beautiful new TWC anywhere? And is there anything specific that our 94 loyal followers would like to see? Let us know below the line...

Thursday Thoughts

(think of it as a late Monday Musings)

Life

Who ya gonna call?

So, I've not been around for quite a while despite the fact it's my name above the door. Sorry about that. As always, real life has gotten in the way of playing toy soldiers. Unfortunately, I can't see things getting any better in the near future as I'm currently trying to sell my house and I made it my new year's resolution to play more sport and sort out my band's website. That means less time for playing 40K and I find it's the playing that drives blog content.

However, I am going to try and get organised and write a least one post per week. I guess that a lost of this will be more Theoretical rather than Practical (everyone has read Know No Fear by now right?)

Which also bring me on to welcoming Dave to the blog. He's been threatening/promising to join for a while (delete as applicable) so it's great that he's finally on board and we're all looking forward to seeing some of his painting posts over the coming weeks and months.

Warhamzzzzzzzzzzz

Dream a little dream of me

Having said that, I did actually manage a game the other week against Mick's Throne of Skulls list and it was possibly the most boring game of 40K ever. Mick suggested playing Pitched Battle/Kill Points and I absent mindedly agreed. So, my three Long Fang packs stood on my board edge, Mick's three Long Fang packs stood on his board edge and we spent 45 minutes shooting each other. I went first, I won. The only unit from either side that even made it into an opponent's table half was one of Mick's Land Speeders that then got shot down for its trouble. At least it's given me a couple of ideas for posts which will pop up over the next couple of days...

Winning

Winner, winner, chicken dinner

I've been reading Andy's write-ups of the Throne of Skulls tournament with interest. Congratulations to Andy who managed to understand GW's ker-azy system that meant that the only person who won all five games didn't win the tournament. I've also been speaking to Mick about Caledonian Open from the week before where someone missed out on a top 5 finish due to painting scores.

In my opinion, tournaments should be decided on the tabletop. It's slightly facetious but you don't get extra points in football for having the nicest kit. Don't get me wrong, I think that everyone should have a painted, based, WYSIWYG army and there should be prizes for the best painted/converted etc. However, this should have no bearing over who wins overall.

There also need to be a way to differentiate between scale of victory. At ToS, a win was a win. So you could end up with 5 big wins having played against 4 guys who only narrowly won their games. I think that either secondary objectives (as in Nova) or VP adjustment (as used at Caledonian) are probably the best ways to sort this out.

What's the most boring game that you've ever had? How do you think tournaments should be scored? Generalship? Soft scores? A mix of the two?

Blog Wars - Game 1

On-Fire Painting blog

This weekend saw a motley crew of Bloggers descend on Maelstrom Games to contest the coveted Blog Wars trophy for the second time this year. Blog Wars is a tournament run by Alex of the From the Fang blog and is intended to be a fun day out for us bloggers to get together, chat, eat, drink and roll some dice. Graham (Grazer) and I were there representing Claws and Fists and I think it's safe to say we both had a great time and I'd like to say that I think Alex runs a great tournament in the just the right spirit for his target audience. I have thoroughly enjoyed the first two tournaments and look forward to the two he's got planned for next year.

My first game was against international 40k Podcast net-celebrity Dave Symcox of the 40kUK podcast and blog. Now I've been a fan of the 40kUK podcast since it started and even before that when Dave did a regular segment on the 11thCompany Podcast so, since we usually operate at opposite ends of the draw in regular tournaments, it was great to face off against him here.

Here's my list for your consideration:

HQ

Ghaz

Big Mek

Kustom Forcefield

ELITE

12 Lootas

TROOP

Meganobs

(4) Kombi-Rokitt, Kombi-Skorcha; Trukk

Ork Boys

(18) Shootas, inc Nob w. Power Klaw & Boss Pole

Ork Boys

(18) Shootas, inc Nob w. Power Klaw & Boss Pole

Ork Boys

(12) Slugga & Choppa, inc Nob w. Power Klaw & Boss Pole; Trukk

Gretchin

(11) inc Runtherd

FAST ATTACK

Deffkopta

Buzz-Saw, Twin-linked Rokkit Launcher

Stormboyz

(15) inc Nob w. Power Klaw & Boss Pole

HEAVY SUPPORT

Battlewagon

Deffrolla, Armour Plates, Red Paintjob, Big Shoota

Battlewagon

Deffrolla, Armour Plates, Red Paintjob, Big Shoota

Dave was playing a Space Wolf Army which pretty much looked as follows:

HQ

Njal

ELITE

Wolf Scouts

(5) Meltagun

Wolf Guard

(5) 5x Combi-Melta & Power Fist

TROOP

4x Grey Hunters

(7) Meltagun, Wolf Standard; Rhino

Grey Hunters

(5) Meltagun, Wolf Standard

HEAVY SUPPORT

Long Fangs

(5) 4x Missile Launchers; Razorback w. Lascannon & TL Plasmagun

Long Fangs

(5) 4x Missile Launchers; Razorback w. Lascannon & TL Plasmagun

Long Fangs

(5) 4x Missile Launchers

(I can't remember the exact list but it was very much along these lines)

I won the roll off and decided to go second, I wanted Dave to deploy without knowing where my Battlewagons were going. He spread out across the back of his table edge with Long Fang packs on each flank and the third dead centre. The Grey Hunters and their Rhinos were evenly distributed as well and he held the 5-man Grey Hunter Squad and the scout in reserve with the scouts OBEL. Oh, and the Wolf Guard were split among the mechanised Grey Hunters and the Scouts.

I deployed heavy right hoping to deny two of his long fang packs side shots on my BWs and out-range the other(Ghaz was deployed in one of the wagons). The two trukks were tucked in behind the BWs and I deployed the Stormboyz and the Deffkopta on the extreme edge of my right flank. The Lootas were central, in cover with good LOS across the board and the gobbos were, of course, in reserve! I scouted the Kopta down the right table edge and after I failed to steal the initiative, Dave kicked off turn 1.

The Space Wolves fell back to the centre of their deployment zone away from the bulk of the Ork force. They were able to draw line of sight on both Trukks and the resulting salvo blew one up and immobilised the other. Not a bad start as my Meganobs would be walking! Never-the-less the Orks set off across the field with the 12-man Slugga Boy unit racing to keep up with the Stormboys down the right flank, the Deffkopta tucked in behind the Long Fangs on the right and next to their Razorback. The BWs Angled for the mass of Wolves in the centre and set off at full speed with the Meganobs, trudging out of their stricken Trukk, in hot pursuit. The Lootas unleashed a hail of fire vaporising the lead Rhino in the central formation and the Deffkopta was able to wreck the Razorback.

The Wolves reformed their lines but most of their turn was about the shooting, the Long Fangs on my right flank were unable to despatch the Deffkopta and didn't do much to the advancing Slugga Boys thanks to some good cover saves. In the middle, however, the Long Fangs managed to blow up the Big Mek's putting a unit of 18 Shoota Boys out on foot. The Lootas took some fire but didn't suffer significant losses and Ghaz's BW escaped without a scratch! In my turn the Sluggas continued their advance towards the Long Fangs on my right flank, ready to support the Deffkopta. The Stormboys managed to engage a rhino and Ghaz's unit poured out of their BW into the Grey Hunters who's been de-meched in turn 1, this turn though, the Lootas could only stun Njal's Rhino. In assault the Deffkopta managed to win combat against the Long Fangs taking only a single wound, Ghaz and the Shoota Boys lost combat against the Grey Hunter pack in the centre but thanks to Ghaz's Waaggh, they stayed in it. The Stormboyz also made it to their target and managed to wreck the rhino but they were starting to look pretty thin on the ground thanks to a few deaths to Murderous Hurricane terrain rolls.

Now obviously Ghaz was a concern for the Wolves, right in the heart of their lines, locked in combat and already with a taste for Wolf. Njal sprang into action and lined up a Jaws attempt aimed at the BW behind but conveniently tracing a line through Ghaz. The roll was a tense one but Ghaz passed comfortably with a three! More fire directed at the Lootas was ineffective, the Long Fangs were able to finish off the Deffkopta and the unit who were de-meched by the Stormboyz returned the favour and wiped them out. In the middle a second Grey Hunter Pack had piled into Combat with Ghaz and the remains of the Shoota Boys; despite the Shootas getting finished off, Ghaz held firm and was comfortably chomping his way through the Wolves. In the Orc turn the Sluggas finally made it into combat with the Long Fangs on my right and the remaining shoota boy mob was heading towards the melee in the centre. The Lootas took out the last Razorback and Ghaz continued to much his way through the Grey Hunters finally finishing off the first unit he engaged! It should also be noted that the Goblins arrived this turn, choosing to hunker down behind a wall towards the left edge of my deployment zone.

Turn 4 was the turning point, the Wolf scouts turned up in charge range of my Gretchin, finishing them off easily, Njal was able to Jaws Ghaz (the roll of a 5 sealing his fate). Somehow, the BW in the centre of the table was still working and the Meganobs had finally reached it! They chose to board hoping to be able to launch some sort of game-saving multi-charge in turn 5. The Shootas continued to close in on the centre but the depleted Wolf units were going to be able to keep them at a safe distance for at least a turn or two.

Turn 5 saw the Wolfs manoeuvring to deny as many kill points as possible but Njal was till a possibility but it was a bit of a long shot, I would need to pop his rhino with my Lootas and then cause enough wounds on his unit with my Meganobs to force a Klaw wound onto him. As it transpired the Lootas could not pop the Rhino and the Meganobs had to console themselves with popping the Rhino themselves in the hope that there would be a turn 6. Unfortunately that's all she wrote and the Wolves came away victorious.

I have to say that, particularly given my recent attitude towards 40k, it was a very enjoyable game. I felt I made a number of mistakes, in particular giving away first turn, and then in not properly covering my Trukks but other than that I think I played pretty well. I didn't experience any huge dice slumps and could only put the loss down to my own mistakes and my opponent's superior play. I do think that if Ghaz had survived that second Jaws attempt the game would have looked a lot different come turn 5 though. Never-the-less my confidence in the Orks was re-affermed and I was looking forwards to game 2.

Monday Musings

Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

One of my favourite bands is The Flaming Lips. I even proposed during a performance of Do You Realize?? at one of their gigs. That song originally came from the above album, "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots". So, with the Necrons out next week, I was thinking, how cool would an army of pink robots be?!

I'm still a bit unsure about Necrons though. The models look awesome but I'm not convinced I want anther BS/WS/S/T 4 army with AV11 transports. That's one of the reasons I really like the Dark Eldar, just because they're so different. In the meantime, I've also come up with a Grey Knight list that I quite like the look of. I'll post that later in the week for some feedback...

Rumour Control

Coming soon - Arrow of Desire: S6 AP2 Large Blast

So, there's been one "dark, satanic mill" missing from "England's green and pleasant land" recently - the rumour mill. GW's news blackout surrounding the Necrons has, in my opinion, been incredibly short sighted. Until last week's leak by Beasts of War, we hadn't seen any of the new miniatures. I understand that GW want to sell some extra copies of White Dwarf but they would have been much better off drip feeding information, building interest and, in these uncertain economic times where toy soldiers aren't a necessity, allowing people to plan their purchases.

Planning to purchase any pink robots? Rabid for reliable rumours?

Monday Musings

The Future

I've seen the future man, it's murder

So, technically, I'm supposed to be saving up for a new house and a wedding. However, that hasn't stopped me thinking about buying some new toy soldiers. Reading all the new Necron rumours over at Faeit 212 this week has got me really excited about the new Necrons. However, then there's the Dark Elder which I'm still in love with. And then there's the Grey Knights. I really want to do a pre-heresy Thousand Sons army "counts as" Grey Knights. I either want to run a "2+" list with Terminators and Dreadknights as a f-you to the missile spam around at the moment or I'd write a piece of fluff about Magnus giving one of his sons a powerful, mystical sword to protect and then run a Purifier list.

Blogging

And I hope you like blogging too

Some exciting things happening at the blog this week (please note that excitement is relative, C&F can not be held responsible if you do not get excited by this week's content) There's a new feature on friday called, "Deep Thought" which will become semi-regular. I'm also going to start my long awaited (by me at least) Space Wolf "codex review" It will have all of the standard things like unit reviews and some more esoteric things too. All of it will be based on my practical experiences of playing the Space Wolves rather than what's good in theory.

We also see the return of the 10 week challenge. Now, this was an idea I had with the aim of becoming a better player - pick a list and stick with it for 10 games. The aim is to get to know the army inside out. I've been inspired to restart this by Dave with his triple Vindicator list which doesn't look optimal on paper but works because he's know it like the back of his hand.

Oh and I should hopefully finally get round to writing up Day 2 of the GW 40K doubles. I've been shamed by the speed that Mick and Andy have got their Ope War tournament reports up so I think I should finish that off since it was nearly two months ago now!!

Any thoughts about which second army I should start? Is there anything that you'd like to see on the blog that we don't do at the moment?

New Kid on the Blog

Or rather, a new blog on the scene: Rogue Trader. I've decided to make the brave move and set up on my own!

Now, I would never abandon the Claws & Fists boys so I will of course continue to post here on C&G with articles and thoughts on 'regular' 40k topics, but I have decided to create a new blog for my '40k expanded universe' ideas:

- All-new Squat Codex

- Reviews of others' fan-dexes:
        - Adeptus Mechanicus
        - Exodite Eldar

- Fan-fiction

So, that's the plan. I hope I can look forward to a few visits from the ever-loyal Claws & Fists readership. The plan is certainly NOT to steal readers or the limelight from this blog, as Gav, Andy, Mick & co are doing a sterling job here, but I feel like my more creative ideas might attract a slightly different audience which I hope to attract to the new blog.

So, please wish me luck and I hope to see some of you over at http://40kroguetrader.blogspot.com/ soon!

Monday Musings

Spinefists and Rending Claws

So, this week is Tyranid Week on C&F. Expect to see some painting, some modelling, some army lists, an Arena of Death - all the usual stuff but with a Tyranid slant. Hopefully it will go down as well as last year's Ork week. Oh and if there are any Tyranid experts out there who would like to write a guest article then please e-mail us and we'll give you the floor.

Search Engine Optimisation

So, being a bit nerdy, I regularly check the Stats here on Blogger. Even though I started this blog as somewhere to write for myself, I'm human and I need to be loved (just like everybody else does) With that in mind, does anybody have any SEO tips or even any thoughts on the best time to post to get picked up on BoLS, HoIP, etc? All help gratefully received.

The shadow in the warp is here; don't forget those 3D6 for your Force Weapons you Grey Knights! Oh, and 10 points for anyone who got The Smiths reference.

Guess Who's Back

Well hello there! It's been a while...

I've been pretty busy over the last couple of months (drinking, going to festivals, drinking, playing sport, drinking, discovering Brazilian cuisine, drinking, learning how to make cocktails, drinking, watching sport, drinking, writing songs, drinking, getting engaged, drinking, growing a moustache and drinking) Unfortunately this has left no time for playing 40K or even indulging in any 40K-related stuff. This has been exacerbated by 85% of the people at the club starting a Blood Bowl league and the other 15% playing some bizarre comped version of 40K. All of this led to my "10 Week Challenge" being drowned at birth like an unwanted kitten.

With my batteries recharged and my head full of new ideas, I thought that I'd give a little teaser of what I'll be posting in the next week or so:

The unkillable man takes on the unkillable woman in a "Why won't you die?!" Area of Death special
Andy and my plans for the GW doubles
George Michael helps me rant about Sisters of Battle
How I nearly turned to the dark side
My initial thoughts on Blog Wars 2
Part 1 of my Space Wolf codex review
A Know Your Rules Njal Nova special
A new feature called Your Move

All being well, I should also be able to announce the timing and theme of this year's xenos week. Last year's Ork Week was really good and hopefully this year will be bigger and better.

(Hmm, just realised that this post doesn't really say anything. Hopefully the picture of me with a comedy moustache will be enough to make you tune in for the proper posts)

Time for a New Army....

Well apparently something called 5th Edition happened a little while ago, and while I have been playing it I actually haven't built a new army for it. I've built some small 750pt lists for Doubles events in the past including Word Bearers and Traitor Guard however I haven't developed these further.

Now some of you will notice that I haven't been seen around here in a while and that's for a number of reasons including but not limited to:

• The fact I hate the internet, blogs and ones about Space Wolves
• The fact that I've been stupidly busy in my new job meaning I haven't had time to play, paint or even think
• The fact I hate the internet, blogs and ones about Space Wolves that tell you to steal things
• The fact that I've grown to hate 40k and now only play Blood Bowl
• The fact that I was busy "Building a Tervigon"

Now that's out of the way I'll move on to the point of this post...I want to build a new army, to 1750pts, using a 5th Edition Codex...but I don't know which army to do. This is where you come in...I've narrowed it down to a few I'm interested in and would like your comments so...

Tyranids:

With a heavy focus on gaunts and gargoyles with a few other bits thrown in for good measure....I'm looking at you Parasite.


Marines:

Using the FW armour sets to build a "Loyalists of Istvaan III" army that can be used with SW, BA, SM Codex small...elite....but no Razorbacks...

Guard:

...of the Traitor variety. Think FW renegades with some tanks, beastmen, mutants and a few more tanks...

Grey Knights:

Small...Elite...New...and I keep winning bits to build an army form raffles when I go to Events...

So the floor is open to you all...opinions please...also, links to cool pictures for the above armies would be appreciated for inspiration...

TheBaron Out!

Thanks so much to from the warp and an announcement

I went to the Zoo today. Really good day. Get home and got to check the weekly top ten to the sad sad news that From The Warp is going into stasis to allow Ron a chance to regain his world so I would like to offer him the thanks of Claws and Fists.

I have especially loved the weekly top ten so I am going to have a bash at putting one together each week starting next week.

So again thank you Ron and all your contributors.

Behind the Curve...

If any of you read my New Years Resolution post a couple of weeks ago you'll know that by now I should have 270pts of Word Bearers painted to be on target. You should also have seen two Saturday painting updates, and I should also now be able to challenge these guys on stage...however none of this has happened.

I haven't been idle as far as the hobby goes though. I attended my first Warmahordes tournament, which required me to build and paint a 35pt Cryx infantry force in around 2 weeks plus having only played 3 games prior to this, and not owning the rule book I think not coming last was an achievment! In addition to this I posted Underdogs on time, and have even had people comment!  Oh and I've also been teaching Fudal how to play 40K for a tournament he has coming up this weekend.

However, I still have the Doubles in Feb so the deadline is looming. Here is the current state of the army:

Daemon Prince - Built
Chosen - Built, Undercoated and Based
Chaos Marine Squad- Built, Undercoated and Based
Rhino - Built
1 x Rhino, 2 x Obliterators- Unbuilt

Secret Project Test Mini that has nothing to do with current project - Built, Heavily Converted, Undercoated, Based (I think this might be the problem)

In any case, that's how things currently stand re the Word Bearers. There will be photos of them this Saturday, I'm not sure in what state, but there will be something! I may however change tack on the painting points per day front. I saw on a blog a little while ago (sorry cant remember where) but it was along the lines of 1pt per Infantry, 2pt per Large Infantry, 5pts per Bike/Cavalry, 10pt per Vehicle and I'm tempted to move to something along these lines as it then makes things easier working out my target if I jump from 40K to Fantasy/WarmaHordes.

Well thats all for now Boyz and Grots...but don't for get to check out my contest here.

TheBaron out!

I rolled: 9 (5/4)