New Year, New Army

Yes, I know it's almost the end of February, but I stand by this title.

I recently acquired a Dark Legion army for the game Warzone at a discount from a distributor we order from, and thought I'd give it a shot.

The whole shebang.

Now, I haven't been the most pleased with Prodos' sculpts. I Kickstarted Warzone years ago and got some Brotherhood figures that I built, painted, and played with. I found the material tough to work with, the casting sub-par, and the detail too much and too small, making painting a chore. I wrote this off as working through some kinks in the Kickstarter process, and happily bought a Capitol starter set, which remains unpainted to this day.

I noticed one thing as soon as these Dark Legion boxes arrived at the shop, and that was new box design. In fact, a lot of them had the Warzone Resurrection 2nd edition logo on them. When I opened the boxes I noticed that the material is markedly different than anything I've seen Prodos offer in the past. Instead of clipping the pieces off of these huge trapezoidal pieces of resin, they were separated and in baggies. The material was tougher, more defined, and grey as opposed to this powder blue.

Necromutant Squad

Overall I'm much more impressed with these figures even though there are some odd casting mistakes such as this:

look at that flash under the arm. That's the
opposite half of the arm showing through.

I want to raise another point as well. That of bases. Warzone Resurrection uses round-lipped bases, the same ones Warmachine/Hordes, Dark Age, and many other miniatures games made after 2003 use. I'm not a huge fan of these. My issue with them is one of aesthetics: a base is a way to present a model. It is often done up to bring cohesion to an army, and it's a platform that keeps the model from falling over. A lipped base encroaches on that space. What do I do with the lip, paint it the same color as the material and thus have this strange-looking blobby hill that the model is surrounded by? Do I paint it black like many studio painters do and have this donut-shaped edge encroach on the model? It's constricting, and I've actually gotten tired looking at these bases.

My solution was to go with beveled bases. You'll recognize these as the ones used by Games Workshop, Corvus Belli, and Target Games back in Warzone's 1st and 2nd editions. GW actually has a huge assortment of round and oval bases in their web store, so replacing 40mm, 50mm, and even 80mm bases is a breeze. The one sticking point is 30mm bases. The round-lipped bases are a unique size. Most model manufacturers make a 25mm base 'cause it's an inch. Boom! Easy. Most models' footprints take up an inch of space. Lately GW has even been producing 32mm bases, but there's the problem: it's too big.

If I ever wanted to play in tournaments or against people outside of my Warzone gaming circle (currently there's three of us) it may cock some eyebrows that I'm putting some models on bigger bases. Some might think I'm trying to gain an advantage by doing so. While I don't see myself doing either of these things anytime soon, it'd be nice to give my army some flexibility. The worst that could happen is that my search yields nothing, I go for 32mm bases and the world doesn't end.

Then I stumbled upon Armskeeper. No link is provided because their website is non-existant. A Google search revealed that they make 30mm beveled bases, and that while they're not available through our distributor (they may not even make them anymore), they're readily available through Game Kastle in California. I try and avoid online shopping, but when I do I try and order from brick-and-mortar stores. They sent them to me lickity-split, and for cheap considering I'd be paying for shipping from the US into Canada. I got them in under a week, and they're perfect.

So here's my first squad all assembled. I'm not going to work on too much more right now. I just moved into a new place, and I'm actually waiting to see if I get accepted into an even newer place, so I may be moving again in a month. I'd hate to have any models of my great new army damaged or lost in the move.

Lookit those beautiful, simple, bases!

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Mayhem and Miscellany

What a whirlwind two months!

There's been a ton of gaming packed in, and even more miniatures painting, and if I may say so, I think I've outdone myself with speed and quality.

This month started out with some Hobbit Strategy Battle Game hobbying. My gaming group heard rumblings that 40k was getting a re-boot, and so we were in that strange gaming limbo gamers often find themselves in during a changeover in rules. Oddly enough, every time this happens it results in us dusting off the Lord of the Rings or the Hobbit Strategy Battle Games.

For this short dalliance, I painted up the last four figures my men of Númenor needed.

Isildur and his bros.

 We played some games, had some fun, but it was time for me to get back to my Slaanesh army for Age of Sigmar. There was the Wet Coast Grant Tournament coming up in July and I couldn't waste any time painting the last 1000pts needed in the army. I had struggled to get the first 1000pts painted in time for the Wargaming Without Borders (WGWB) tournament at the end of April and didn't want to be stuck doing the exact same last-minute stress-job on some figures (spoiler alert: I was).

Then the Warhammer 40,000 boxed set (Dark Imperium) got delivered to the shop. I painted up the Primaris Marines and Darren painted up the Death Guard, but they had to be done by release day on June 17th. I pulled some all-nighters and got them finished, mostly. I still need to do two highlights on the armor, but they're definitely table-ready.

Clockwise from top: Primaris Ancient, Lieutenant 1, Captain in Gravis Armor, Lieutenant 2

Inceptors

The whole shebang. 980pts (51 power)

Intercessors 1

Intercessors 2

Hellblasters

The next step will be finding out what size of game the Foodhammer tournament will be later this year, and work up towards it. The starter set has 969pts of Primaris Marines, and I have a grand total of three sets worth. 

Then after that is was right back into my Age of Sigmar force. I struggled to get 2000pts painted, and did so just at the last minute. I had a great time at the Wet Coast GT, and if anyone reading this can get a chance to make next year's (rumor has it it will be in February/March 2018), it's well worth it. I went 1-4, but won Best Painted, and (most-importantly) had fun. 

Game 1 vs. Ironjawz

My knights were no match for his Gore-Gruntaz

Oh look! More Gore-Gruntaz...

Guess who won?

The hell are you doing in the middle of nowhere?

Game 2 vs. Blades of Khorne

Don't crowd, lads!

20-year difference in models.

Daemonettes are not known for their attrition.

Game 3 vs. Flesh-Eater Courts

Game 5 vs. Disciples of Tzeentch

I'm so glad Tzaangors are back.

I actually did alright on this flank.

Now, I've gotten myself embroiled in an Age of Sigmar Skirmish campaign, which has me painting up these guys:

Which got me thinking: "Why not do a Stormcast army for Foodhammer this year (provided it's only 1000pts like WGWB was)?" So I picked up a box of Judicators (the old box that just had five), and crammed it into the army you get in the AoS starter set (the big one), and voilà, 980pts!

So that's what I've been up to these last two months: painting furiously with no sign of stopping. Now things can calm down a bit. I still need to have three Stormcast figures (a Lord-Relictor and two Liberators) painted for the start of the Skirmish campaign on the 22nd, but Foodhammer isn't until late Fall, and with plenty of notice I can avoid the follies of this Spring's scheduling.

On the Mutant Chronicles front, I haven't done much. I printed out the Venusian Apocalypse pdf I bought and am prepping for the long-haul of the campaign (which should begin in just over a month). I'm really excited! I love the RPG, and I'm glad my gaming group (who have no prior Mutant Chronicles experience) are excited about it too. 

I bought a "Blast Zone" F.A.T. Mat to simulate the bombed-out no-man's land of the Martian front, and Mitch Hunter to add to my Capitol force, but painting the starter box I already have has got pushed further back with all the Games Workshop excitement that's been happening these last couple months. I'll keep plugging away at them, but with my gaming group infatuated with 8th edition 40k, it's looking like the majority of my Mutant Chronicling this year will be the RPG and maybe the Siege of the Citadel, if that gets released.

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SLAAAAAAMMMMMBOOOOO!

Well lookey what GW released last weekend. Turns out I own the original Slambo (well, the pewter one that was available when they still had a Bitz Order service (mid-2000s)).

I'm gonna paint these two maniacs, and I'm gonna paint 'em Slaaneshi!

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Blood Bowl!

This week sees the re-release of the Games Workshop classic Blood Bowl.

I've had a rocky relationship with Blood Bowl in the past. When I first got into it in 1998 with the re-release of the third edition (in a thinner box with a blue border) I liked it. I thought it was a fun, goofy, game that was perfect for a nerdy kid who didn't like sports. It was kind of like a satire in that regard.

Anyway, I played it, I enjoyed it, and when GW removed it from their shelves and their catalog, I was more than happy to go back to Warhammer and 40k (also around that time there would've been Mordheim, Warmaster, Inquisitor and Battlefleet: Gothic to keep my attention). Years later when I worked for Games Workshop, the era of Specialist Games was in full swing, complete with Fanatic magazine adorning the magazine rack alongside White Dwarf.

At this time people were again talking about Blood Bowl. The difference was that I couldn't muster the energy to get excited about it. Again, there was a lot going on miniatures-wise, and I just couldn't get behind the bandwagon this time around (especially with the "living rulebook." As much as I think it's cool that the community was given control over the game, I can't stand ever-changing rulebooks).

So why's this time different? Maybe because my excitement surrounding Games Workshop is at the level that it once was in the '90s. They've really been hitting it out of the park lately with their community engagement, creative supplements, innovative rules designs, and stellar models. I'd feel a bit foolish not jumping on the excitement this time around. So on that note, I'm going to paint up the Orcs in the base set in the colors of the local Canadian Football League team here in Vancouver: the BC Lions.

Again, I'm not a football fan, but I am a Vancouverite through-and-through, and I don't get to paint much orange. I'm going to wait and see what their High Elf models look like if/when they release them, and I'll paint them up like the Seattle Seahawks (the other half of my family is made up of Seattleites. Not to mention the name "Seahawks" just screams High Elves), so I can rep teams from both sides of the 49th parallel. 

Not to mention a good reason to get into the game is the inevitable league that will spring up around this game. Campaigns and leagues are really my favorite parts of the hobby. 

I'll keep you updated on this project as well.

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The Nightmare Kingdom Cometh

(Still workin' on my AoS Slaanesh force, don't you worry...)

When I went to Kippers Melee in Nanaimo, BC a couple weekends ago a friend won a copy of the Warmachine 2-player starter set in a raffle. He's a bit apathetic about Warmachine/Hordes, and so agreed to trade me the Cryx half of the set for a Harlequin figure (score!). Now I've been playing Warmachine since it was first carried in games shops here in Vancouver, and while I focussed mostly on my Cygnar stuff in those days, I always had Cryx in my back pocket.

When I get into a miniatures game I always look for two things: An army closest to an elf archetype (Legion of Everblight and Retribution of Scyrah eventually fit this description), and/or an army closest to the Chaos archetype (that is, demon-worshipping barbarians), and while Cryx aren't exactly "demon-worshipping barbarians" (that would probably be the Orgoth in the Iron Kingdoms (IK) world), they are the most sinister of the IK factions. I'm very excited to potentially be working on a Cryx force.

All the bits that're fit to Cryx!

When MkIII came out for Warmachine and Hordes this year, I wanted to jump into it with my Legion of Everblight force because I played them the least out of my factions in MkII, but my gaming group was knee-deep into Kings of War at the time and one thing or another kept preventing us from really diving into MkIII. Now the impetus has died down, and I don't feel as pressured to just jump in and rev up to 11 with the game.

Warmachine/Hordes is a complex game; there are a lot of moving parts, and for a casual gamer like myself it can feel a bit overwhelming. With this little project I want to slowly work on this Cryx force and play games with my painted stuff (a novel concept in the Warmachine/Hordes gaming scene), before expanding it bit-by-bit. This is the dream of every veteran miniatures gamer. We have a tendency to jump in and buy box after box of stuff, overwhelming ourselves. This way I can treat MkIII like it's my first time experiencing the game. Anyway, more will be covered on this here blog. Stay tuned!

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Back to BASEics

Clever title, I know.

As you'll remember from this post—which briefly chronicled my efforts to work on a gaming project every day—I actually have been working on stuff daily. I haven't really taken any pictures of any of it because it's been a lot of subtle stuff that will bring my Khorne Bloodbound to completion. To be honest, I've mostly only had a chance to sit down and pick at my figures, working on a layer or a color at a time then cleaning my brushes and turning off the ole paint light.

Well recently I decided to bite the bullet, take the plunge, go for broke, and re-base my Warhammer Chaos army onto round bases. Ever since Age of Sigmar came out I've had the idea of doing a Slaaneshi war band that's out in Ulgu (the Realm of Shadow), looking for Slaanesh. The idea would be that I would build up a Slaaneshi war band and chronicle it on this blog through a narrative. Originally the project had me re-buying a lot of the stuff I already had in my Warhammer army, but that's ludicrous; my stuff's already done. The major problem was that they're all on squares, and I believe that models objectively look better on round bases. So I'm committing to having my Chaos models on rounds now that AoS is the new Warhammer.

Here are some pictures of my stuff so far:

I also thought I'd share what guidelines I'm using to re-base my models ('cause there is a method to my madness). Every Warhammer model is supplied with a square base. Because squares of a certain perimeter take up more area than circles of a certain perimeter I've decided to re-base all my figures one up from the bases they were supplied with. Citadel provides a really impressive range of bases, and I figure by using the rounds and ovals that are just slightly bigger than the squares the models came with, I can have a consistent and fair basing pattern.

For example: 20x20mm squares become 25mm rounds; 25x25mm squares become 32mm rounds; 40x40mm squares become 50mm rounds; and 50x50mm squares become 60mm rounds.

Cavalry and chariot bases are a little trickier, but use the same principles. Citadel has a set of oval bases which look great with cavalry on them. 50x25mm cavalry bases become 60x35mm ovals; 75x50mm monstrous cavalry bases become 90x52mm ovals; 100x50mm chariot bases become 105x70mm ovals.

Of course heroes I want to be particularly impressive-looking. To do this, I've decided to one up them from my new basing scheme. Therefore dark elf heroes—for instance—will go on 32mm rounds, and chaos warrior, and beastmen heroes will go on 40mm rounds. The same principle will work for cavalry heroes.

These are not hard-and-fast rules and I've already broken them on a couple occasions: My Lord of Slaanesh is mounted on a 60mm round even though he came with a 50x50mm square and he's a hero, so he should be going on an 80mm round base by my tortured logic. I found this to be too big for the figure and left a lot of empty space around him. In this case I broke my hero rule because he's already rather impressive, what with being on a super-tall daemonic mount and having a tall banner pole.

Also chaos daemons already come with round bases for use in 40k. For these I've decided to just use the rounds and ovals that come with the figures. So for the most part my daemonic infantry will be on 25mm rounds, greater daemons will be on 60mm rounds, and my seekers of Slaanesh will go on those odd 70x25mm ovals.

Anyway, I thought you might be interested in these guidelines for basing in the new Age of Sigmar. I know the rules have confused a lot of people, but we have to get comfortable with the fact that the new game puts a lot of power in our hands. Provided we work within some reasonable guidelines and maintain consistency, I don't think we'll have many problems. Therefore I present my basing guidelines with the intent that they can inspire you to do the same. The spirit of my basing rules is to have an aesthetically pleasing base for the figure, not to gain an unfair advantage by basing my figures to maximize the amount of models I can get into combat, or some other beardy shenanigans.

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Tournament Wrap-Up

I went to a Warhammer tournament on December 14th, 2014. It was at a Games Workshop retail store, and there were ten people there. It was a three-round, 2000pt, tournament where anything goes provided you had the book to back it up. This means that if I wanted to use the Chaos Ascendant rules, I had to have the Glottkin book with me (which I did!).

Each 6'x4' table had a special scenario attached to it, and you had to play that scenario while on that board. My personal favorite was the first table I played on, where there were no deployment zones—meaning you could set up anywhere you wanted on the table as close as 1" to the enemy if you dared—but every time you set down a unit you had to roll a scatter die to see which direction it faced (a HIT is any direction you want).

It was tons of fun, and I came in third place. I only won one game, but due to the inclusion of soft scores like painting, sportsmanship, and so forth, I rocketed to the top three. I lost out by one vote for best sport, so the award I usually win in tournaments went to someone else. I won the first game, and then proceeded to lose the next two, but the hilarious part was that I played all three games against people who were either in my gaming group, and/or were friends of mine. 40% of the people at the tournament I've known for 10+ years, and have, or still, game(d) with regularly.

Anyway, I was pleased to find out that they're doing the same thing this year, and that it is an escalating tournament (I just missed the first two parts in 2014). There's a tournament in Spring that's 1000pts, one in Summer that's 1500pts, and the last one in Fall that's 2000pts. I plan on bringing my old-school Lizardmen army to these three events, so keep up to date on that. It'll be like the tournament journal I've always wanted to write for this blog.

Without further ado, here are some pictures:

This is my army on display. Everyone did this
and people went around and voted on the best
painted. 

This is actually the set-up for the first game—or
as much as I could include on my cellphone's
camera. See the 2nd paragraph for why it's so
chaotic (no pun intended).

A grisly shrine.

I didn't get a chance to finish painting my
daemonettes, so I had to summon plaguebearers.

Game two against Beastmen. I lost this one.

Final game against another Legions of Chaos army.

There used to be five knights with this fearsome
exalted hero of Chaos, however the winds of magic
are fickle indeed... 

CHALLENGE AXEPTED!

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Reinforcements!

Just a quick post to show you some pics! My saurus command arrived in the mail today, so I put them together. They came still in the blister pack! In the old style that's yellow on the bottom and red on the top (back row, left, in this picture). Anyway, they're cool, and now I have a full unit of 25 saurus to command on the battlefield.

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Extract From The Prophecy Of Sotek

New year, new army!

I hope your holidays were as fun as mine! I didn't get up to too much gaming after my tournament, which I will write about later this week (gotta save something to write about on this blog, seeing as I do so infrequently), but I did get a pretty decent x-mas haul (Warhammer 40,000 Conquest, and a booster box of Khans of Tarkir), and some dude came into the shop and dropped-off a near-mint Warhammer 5th edition boxed set.

So that brings me to the allusion in this post's title, which is my new Lizardmen army:

The whole shebang (note the gap in the sauruses is for a yet-to-be-received command section)

The skinks

The sauruses (with gap for command)

I decided—in a moment of beer-fueled frenzy—that I will take the 20 saurus, and 32 skinks, and use them to begin a Lizardmen army. After all, they're the only Warhammer army I haven't attempted to build, and until we can all be sure what is and isn't true in the (pretty incredible) 9th edition rumors I don't want to start my brand-new High Elf army if it means half-way through I have to do some unexpected alterations. Hell, with this Lizardmen army I may even get a chance to finally try out the Army Painter dips.

Here's the catch, though, the army will be made up of first-wave Lizardmen figures, such as the ones found in 5th edition. That means, wherever I can, I need to use a figure from before May 2003. This doesn't preclude me from using figures post-2003, but I can't use the new plastic stegadon when there are metal ones to be had, for instance.

Anyway, we'll see how far this goes. I'll keep you updated (albeit spottily). I have some ebay wins coming in this week or next, so you'll get to see more as this mad project reaches fruition.

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EDIT (Jan. 14, 2014): Just wanted to pop in and say that I intend to command this fearsome army in a series of tournaments being run this year at my local Games Workshop retail store. The first one's in Spring and it's 1000pts, the second one's in Summer and it's 1500pts, and the third one's in Fall at 2000pts. Anyway, I changed the labels of this post to reflect that this is actually Part 1 in a tournament journal, wherein I'll describe my process of taking an army from zero to hero and throwing it to the dogs in a tournament. Stay tuned!

Scion of Slaanesh

Keeper of Secrets: Finished!

This figure was a long time coming. I think I've owned this model for over eight years! Anyway, it's finished, and ready to lead my damned legions across the war-torn battlefields of the End Times.

Speaking of which, if you haven't gotten your hands on any of the End Times books—and who can blame you? They're impossible to find in hardcover—I strongly suggest you pick up the newly-added softcover ones. The stories are amazing (Nagash was a bit slow at the end). I've been reading them before bed, and I have to say, the last couple weeks I've been excited to get to bed.

Anyway, I now have a fully-painted 2000pt Legions of Chaos army. But am I going to stop there? Nope! In the (hopefully) rare chance that any of my champions turn into spawn I'll need to have a couple of those foul abominations on hand. I have two days to finish these two models. This is entirely doable.

It appears that I won't be finishing my daemonettes, which is a bit sad. It also means that if I have an opportunity to summon daemons, I'll have to use my old pewter plaguebearers. I love my old pewter plaguebearers, but they're a tad out of place in a Slaanesh army, no?

I'll keep y'all updated.

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Enter the Realm of Chaos, your nightmare has just begun

So the tournament I mentioned a month ago is a scant week away! By Slaanesh's studded boot, that's soon! What do I have left to do? Seemingly everything, of course.

I have to paint a Keeper of Secrets, for sure, and then everything else is extra. Painting the six knights, and battle standard bearer took longer than I'd hoped, but they're finally finished!

Here they are:

So now I just need to paint my Keeper of Secrets, then every point of my 2000pt army is ready for the tournament. The rest of the army could definitely use some touch-ups, and will get some after the tournament, but for now, they'll have to wait. 

Now I need to paint the auxiliary stuff that I mentioned last post: that is, the 20 Daemonettes, 2 Spawn, and Herald of Slaanesh. Here are some pics of the whole army including the stuff that needs to be finished:

This photo was taken before the BSB was finished.

This photo was taken before I really sat down and write my list. The Hellstriders of Slaanesh are not featured in the final draft of my army.

This photo was taken before the knights were painted.

Anyway, it's been awhile since I posted, and I've had a back-log of stuff to post about, so I apologize if this isn't up to the usual quality. There is some repetition, and run-on sentences, for sure. I'm just jacked-up from coffee, painting, heavy metal, and the need to be out the door in a half-hour.

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