Shrink to Fit

Goals for 2010

2010-01-28T20:24:00.000-08:00

I have one goal for 2010: To complete my Daemons of Chaos army in time to participate in the Ordo Fanaticus Club Challenge. I believe this is in July or August.

Therefore, I am going to have to assemble and paint some things starting, uh... now.

I have next week off, so I hope to actually get the ball rolling.

Here's the current state of things:

Time to get to work.

Hmmmpf...

2010-01-13T21:47:00.001-08:00

I am a lazy POS.

Beastletter and Plaguebeastman Standard Bearer

2009-10-30T23:42:00.000-07:00

Yes, I'm going to insist on using lame names for these creations. Why? Because I find it entertaining.

Anyhoo, here's a pic of the two models:

I really am proud of the standard that the Plaguebeastman is holding. I used a zombie head and a body from the corpse cart, in addition to a standard Ungor spear arm. The inspiration came from an image in the Boom! Studios graphic novel, Forge of War.

Baemons/Daestmen

2009-10-29T10:42:00.001-07:00

I've actually done a little work on my Beastman-themed Daemon army. I have completed a sample Beastletter, as well as a heavily-modified, standard-bearing Plaguebeastman. I plan on getting pictures up on Friday.

Now that I have received a bunch of the items I need to crank-out some units, I plan on doing just that.

*crosses fingers*

Sunday Night Musings: Hobby Time

2009-10-18T21:45:00.001-07:00

Being productive in this hobby is tough.

I have found that I spend most of my hobby time reading other hobbyists' blogs or browsing forums (or writing posts like this one on my lack of motivation). I get great ideas from these sources, but they typically stay plain 'ol ideas--they do not evolve into an actual product.

For instance, I started a Daemons of Chaos army because my fiance bought the Masque of Slaanesh for me as a gift. I decided that I should use that model as a springboard for an entire army. I spent some time developing possible lists, and even joined the Tale of Even More Painters as motivation to work toward a completed DoC army.

The motivation lasted a few weeks, but has since dwindled. During that "motivated" time, I was able to assemble and paint a Beast of Chaos and convert a Herald of Nurgle.

After that?

Pfffffttttt....

I have ideas on what I want to do next. I have developed an armylist that I am working toward building, and I have even listed what models I need for what unit and where I am progress-wise. I have the models necessary to complete a few of these units, but I find myself unwilling to take the next step and actually work on them. It's as if structuring the hobby makes it seem too much like a job. Yet if I don't add some structure to it, I never get anything done.

I need to restrict the amount of time I spend developing ideas, and use the time gained to actually grow my physical army.

The Cheese Comes After the Whine

2009-10-12T21:09:00.001-07:00

After my previous pouting session, I've decided to suck it up and move forward. When an army is lacking punch, you add some punch. Therefore, I've brainstormed some ways to make that happen.

First of all, I'm planning on having a Daemon Prince of Khorne lead my army. Throw on some wings, a Collar of Khorne, and some Armor of Khorne on him and you essentially have a Bloodthirster with a Nerf axe--it's much friendlier, but can still be effective. Best of all, I have an idea for a model to represent it: Dragon Ogre Shaggoth with wings added. I love the Shaggoth model--it's one of my favorites, ever--and it would be a perfect opportunity to include one in my army.

So that takes care some of my issue with mobility and a bit of my lack-of-hitty issue.

A second idea I have is to include a Herald of Tzeentch on Disc or on a chariot. This would function as mobile shooting via magic. Additional bonus: I'd use the Be'Lakor model (yet another personal favorite) to represent this herald. I'd just have to make sure to let my opponents know that it is not a Daemon Prince or Greater Daemon. With the group I play with, I don't think this would be a problem.

If nothing else, these two characters will provide a distraction that should allow the rest of my army to march up the field without being the sole focus on my opponents' attention.

Other fun ideas: Using Centigors to represent either Fleshhounds, Fiends of Slaanesh, or Seekers of Slaanesh. Just brainstorming more ways to include Beasts of Chaos figures in the army.

I have enjoyed painting the Nurgle Daemons thus far, and I think that I'll enjoy painting models from the other gods, too. Thus, I'm going to focus on building an army I like and will like to paint, and hopefully will learn to enjoy playing it, too.

Escalation League Game Night: Crushed by WE and WoC

2009-10-11T22:29:00.000-07:00

I am hating playing Daemons of Chaos right now. Maybe it's my list, maybe it's the people I've been playing against... who knows?

What I do know is that I've been massacred in each of the three games I've played thus far (750, 2@875). I have no hitting power, I have no way to threaten opponents and force them into coming toward me, and it is just plain frustrating. Daemons aren't mobile, they don't have the ability to be tricky (no bait-and-flee), and they suck when wielded by me.

Before I just continue with my whining, I'll share the list I'm using:

Herald of Nurgle (General), Palanquin, Staff of Nurgle
11x Plaguebearers of Nurgle, Musician
10x Bloodletters of Khorne
10x Horrors of Tzeentch, Icon Bearer, Icon of Sorcery
5x Furies
4x Seekers of Slaanesh
3x Screamers of Tzeentch

Now, I know this list isn't optimal, but I'm extremely concerned about abusing the power of the Daemon armybook. That is something that I want to avoid at all costs. But right now, this list sucks. There is no hitting power, and when I am going against opponents with shooting, I have nothing to force them to move toward me, so I just get shot to pieces.

It is not fun. I'm not providing a competitive game to my opponent. I need to up the power level, while using units I like and not cheesing out.

Whine whine whine whine.

Complain complain complain.

Okay. I'm done with the pity party. Time to figure out where to go from here.

Sunday Musings: One Day Early

2009-10-10T21:56:00.000-07:00

I haven't done much physical hobby work recently--a few magnetized movement trays is all--but I have done quite a bit of reading. That's one of the great things about this hobby: there are many different facets of Warhammer, so when you lose interest in one or it becomes tedious, you can just focus on another.

I have just recently motored through the entire Malus Darkblade series--assuming it hasn't continued beyond the 5th book. I borrowed these books from a friend after deciding to start a Dark Elf army (eventually). My reasoning behind starting the Delf army is due to my fascination with assassins. That's it. I didn't know much about Dark Elves, aside from the whole being evil thing. Therefore, I figured that reading the Darkblade series would lead to a decent understanding of the Dark Elf race.

What a great series! I won't give a detailed review or anything, but I do recommend these novels to anyone who enjoys reading about the Warhammer world.

The best part of these books was the inspiration it gave me regarding possible army themes. The first idea refers to Malekith's personal guard, known as the Endless. These ladies and gentlemen all wear masks--to take away their personal identity and show that they're only importance is to obey Malekith--and are pretty wicked. In the books, the ones that interact with Malus are a version of Dark Riders, so I see these being mainly core units--Spearmen and Dark Riders--with a unit of Black Guard thrown in and some Cold One Knights and Chariots. I'd use Dark Riders with shield and spears as well as Riders with repeater crossbows. This army would be lead by Malekith's Champion (represented by a Dreadlord).

The second idea is one that I had thought a little about before, but after reading the books, the basic premise was expanded upon: Khainite. There is an entire book dedicated to Har Ganeth--the City of Executioners. There are True Believers who are insanely talented individuals who fight without armor because they don't need it. They never get touched in combat. The executioners are fantastically portrayed, and the Witch Elves are mystical death-dealers that even frighten other Dark Elves. I can envision an army of Khaine dressed completely in white and covered in blood splatter. This would allow for me to load up on Assassins and Executioners--two of my favorite models/units in the Dark Elf list. Magic could come in the form of Khainite priests (in the books, there were male priests who used magic). Cauldron of Blood? Yes please. Witch Elves? You betcha! I think this would be a beautiful and fun army.

So there's what I have been doing with most of my time recently. Throw in a little Skaven rumor-reading (can't wait until November!!!) and some more lusting after a Beasts of Chaos army, and you have my explanation for why I have nothing new painted.

TOEMP Challenge 4.0: Joker!

2009-09-16T13:00:00.000-07:00

Fail.

TOEMP Challenge 3.4: Herald of Nurgle finally completed!

2009-09-08T18:04:00.000-07:00

Despite it being a late entry, I have completed my Herald of Nurgle. Sadly, I have not constructed a unique profile for him, as he's just going to be a Herald on Palanquin with the Staff of Nurgle in my 2250 point OFCC list.

I'm really, really proud of how he turned out. It was the most greenstuff I have ever used on a model, and I think that it looks pretty decent. There are enough tentacles on the base to adequately represent a Palanquin (hopefully).

Before last night I really hated the teeth, because they were just several white streaks on top of the base color. I decided to put some extra effort into them today before calling the model finished, and I think it turned out well.

Now on to Challenge #4!

TOEMP Challenge 3.3: Herald of Nurgle project failed!

2009-09-05T00:14:00.000-07:00

So close to finishing this guy! Sadly, there was just too much real life interference today to allow me to complete him. Anyway, as I'm not going to be able to work on it anymore before the deadline, here he is in his current state.

I still need to highlight the pink tentacles, horns, hooves, claw, staff, and mouth. The base needs to be completed, as well. But, I like how he has turned out thus far. I tried for a a decayed greenish brown skin color so he wouldn't look just like a regular old Beastman.

Comments are always appreciated.

TOEMP Challenge 3.2: Herald of Nurgle gets some paint!

2009-09-04T01:46:00.000-07:00

Too tired to think of something relevant to type. Here are the pics of the current state of the Herald:

Tomorrow is the last day I have available to paint, so I'm hoping to get this finished early.

TOEMP Challenge 3.1: Herald of Nurgle

2009-09-01T22:30:00.000-07:00

I've decided to work on converting a Herald of Nurgle on Palanquin of Nurgle for this 3rd challenge. Initially, I was going to work on converting a Herald of Slaanesh, but because I enjoyed painting the Beast of Nurgle so much, I figured I might as well continue working with the god of decay.

I've used the Morghur model as the base of this conversion. The Pestigor models are some of my absolute favorite models, and the Morghur model is fantastic, as well. The model belongs on a bigger base to begin with, so it just made sense to add some more gooey-ness and call it a palanquin. I wanted to make the Beastman himself to look more mutated, so I added a scorpion tail--and it just so happens to fit with the whole poison thing.

Anyway, here is the start of the conversion:

I'll be posting updates as the model progresses.

TOEMP Challenge 2.3: Just Another Touch

2009-08-27T21:42:00.000-07:00

I added a few extreme highlights to the Beast, as I wasn't super happy with the prior results. Now, after the very simple additions, and a little bit of wash here and there, I'm pleased.

TOEMP Challenge 2.2: Completed

2009-08-26T20:59:00.000-07:00

I was worried for a bit that I wouldn't make it, especially after misplacing the paint recipe for my Nurgle friends. Luckily, I'm still on vacation, so I was able to spend the day painting. I have no idea what I'm going to do for this army regarding bases--I'd like them to function for 40k as well as Fantasy--so those didn't get any attention.

Here's a companion shot of the Nurgle with his Plaguebearer relative:

Looking forward to the next challenge!

A Question to Fellow Hobbyists: Greenstuff

2009-08-24T23:32:00.000-07:00

I suck at using greenstuff. I am never going to be a sculptor, and I don't really expect anything fancy to appear when I'm rolling the yellow and blue together. However, I would like to be competent at filling gaps and such. I think I need some help.

After my recent experience with the Beast of Nurgle, I noticed that the ends of the greenstuff--where I attempted to smooth over a gap--were slightly raised, and did not blend smoothly with the rest of the model. It's as if when I was pulling the greenstuff over the model, the ends didn't stick. Any ideas on how to prevent this from happening in the future?

And when can you start working with the greenstuff? Do you roll it up, apply it to the model, get the general shape and then wait for a while before trying to get make solid designs/shapes/forms?

TOEMP Challenge 2.1: Greenstuffing Papa Nurgle's Pet

2009-08-23T19:51:00.000-07:00

After getting settled back at home after a lot of time off, I was finally able to dive into the second challenge--well, technically it's my first since I was gone during the first challenge, but...

I have decided to paint up a Beast of Nurgle that I assembled a while back. The model had tons of gaps and didn't fit together very well, so I greenstuffed the crap outta it. For the firs time, I'm trying to make sure there aren't any apparent seams in my figures. I still struggle controlling the greenstuff, but I feel that I'm making progress. I added a very slight Nurgle icon on the beasts chest using greenstuff, but I didn't want it to be prominent because there is already one on his belly that comes standard on the model. I'll post a picture tomorrow when there is better light.

I hope to get the Beast primed tomorrow, and might even be able to get the basecoat on. I owe my Fiance a lot of "us" time, so I don't think I'll get much more than that accomplished tomorrow. Tuesday and Wednesday should be open to painting, and I'm confident that I'll have the time to get him finished.

To make up the extra points needed (the Beast costs 100) I'm going to finish painting a Screamer of Tzeentch I started previously. That'll give me the 130 points I need to meet this challenge.

Pushing the Pause Button

2009-08-11T16:54:00.000-07:00

Even though the Tale of Even More Painters just started a few days ago, I'm going to take some time away from this budding project. Every August, my fiance and I volunteer at a bereavement camp in southern Oregon. It's a week long camp, but we are stopping at the beach to visit a friend before heading down, and then will stay with her parents for a few more days after the camp ends.

Expect the paint to start flying when I get back. I don't know what 73rd has planned for our second project, but I'm anxiously awaiting the orders. Hopefully my recently assembled and primed Bloodletters will be able to get some paint on them soon.

TOEMP: Basing the Pestigors

2009-08-09T20:22:00.000-07:00

I've been busy getting ready for the camp I volunteer at every summer, so I haven't had much time to work on models, but I did manage to get my Pestigors glued to their bases before slapping on some Black Lava (Vallejo). I used some greenstuff to help mount the Pestigors. After I was finished with that, I had some greenstuff left over so I decided to fill in some of the gaps on the currently headless Bloodletters. This is the first time I have done such a thing, and I'm interested to see how they turn out. I left some Bloodletters untouched--as a control group--and will determine whether or not I'm going to do this with all my models in the army. With my last army, I did a lot of basic gluing, drybrushing, and washing to get the army finished. With this army, I'd like to try to work at making a more finished product.

I'll be able to work on some things tomorrow morning, but after that, I'll be leaving town for at least 12 days. Fortunately, 73rd has been kind enough to allow some of to have a "delayed start" of sorts, so I won't get hosed for having a pre-planned scheduling conflict.

Tomorrow I hope to at least get my Pestigors primed. If I'm lucky, I'll get the Bloodletters based, too.

TOEMP: 1st Challenge Preparations

2009-08-09T01:03:00.000-07:00

So it begins. Here is the start of my Daemon army. Yep. It consists of headless Bloodletters and a few Pestigors. Pretty sad. But that's why I've decided to participate in this cooperative event. The goal is to take these metal and plastic pieces and turn them into something beautiful. Well... maybe not beautiful, but at least something that isn't just plastic and metal.

The Completed Skaven Clan Eshin Army

2009-08-09T00:46:00.000-07:00

Tale of Even More Painters: Initial Orders

2009-08-07T11:22:00.001-07:00

Received an email from 73rd today. Looks like we're getting ready to go!

Hey Guys!

Time for an update, or what can be considered more of the final draft of things to come.

In this email I will cover dates, schedules, plans and the excitement within the approaching Tale!

Firstly, please make a note of the following dates, as each deadline will be every 10 days and these cover the near future:

First deadline: 17th August
Second deadline: 27th August
Third deadline: 6th September
Fourth deadline: 16th September
Fifth deadline: 26th September

Now as for the schedules, it is difficult to create a permanent one as each of us are involved in different tasks, so I thought to try a more flexible approach; that of changeable targets.

For those of us painting 40k and WFB, set point limits will be created, whereas for those of us painting Epic 40k, those point targets should be doubled.

For example, the first deadline of 17th August will be an easy one to fulfil. Simply paint 100 points, or 200 in the case of Epic 40k, of troops. This can be any troops choice, from Daemons to Space Marines. Now here are the points values, and please keep in mind there are two variations of the word 'points'. The first instance represents the cost of a unit, so 100 points of Space Marines, the other represents the points earned by completing the painting as below:

Standard Points

Foot Sloggers - 1 point each
Bikes/ Cavalry - 2 points each
Walkers/ Creatures - 5 points each
Vehicles/ Chariots/ Large Monsters - 10 points each

Please base these points on the model's base size or overall size.

Challenges

Icons/ Symbols/ Marks - 1 point per model
Eyes/ Lenses/ View Finders - 1 point per model
Walker/ Large Monsters/ Vehicles/ Chariots Details (accessories) and Freehand - 5 points per model

Targets

Beating Deadline by atleast 24 hours - 2 points
Meeting Deadline - 1 point
Missing Deadline - -3 points

Now that covers the points, here are a few benefits:

The Joker Card - Each painter has one of these and it entitles them to skip a single deadline. Can be used to extend time for that special unit but use it wisely. If used, the -3 points for missing a deadline isn't deducted.
The Assault Card - These can be used every deadline and entitle the user to an award (to be confirmed). The Assault Card represents painting more points than required in the schedule. This must be by atleast 50% (150 points in a 100 point target for example). Each time an Assault Card is played the individual may collect 2 tallies (sub-points) to go towards a title from the list below that should be displayed throughout the TOEMP:

Speed Painter - 1 Tally
Perfectionist - 2 Tallies
Lord of Time - 3 Tallies
Master of Time - 5 Tallies
The Accomplisher - 6 Tallies

Of course these extras aren't neccessary to take part in the TOEMP, they are more for fun. Here's something that everyone may enjoy though is a bit of small competition between our group:

Every deadline, I will create a poll for bloggers to vote for their favourite piece/pieces of work as we go along. I will specify that this poll isn't to vote for the nicest painted or converted model, but the all round best effort. The winner each week will be given a digital Trophy to display on their blog if they choose to do so. Remember that this is to expand an army, or create a new one, so don't worry too much about gaining points in certain areas as it should all balance itself out in the long run with a bit of communication.

NOW FOR THE FIRST DEADLINE:

17th August - 75+ points of models. That is the cost of those models in their Codex or Army Book, and not from the list above. For example, 5 Marines at 90 points. This is just a warm up for a bit of fun, so a minimum of 75 points is needed by the 17th and then the points earned can be calculated from the above list. This should be a troops selection, as next deadline we can concentrate on other aspects, and we all know how hard it can be to paint those annoying numbers of troops! So come on guys, let's give it a go.

Let me know if you have any questions or problems, and I have uploaded the TOEMP Logo in all its basic glory as an attachment in this email for those of you wanting to display it and maybe link back to the page I created as I will be updating it regularly during our progress. I'm also currently working on the Trophies and Titles icons.

I look forward to working with you all, this will be a great experience and one that we can all support each other through,

Thanks fellas,

All the best,

Michael - 73rd

So now I need to figure out exactly what my plans are for this Daemon army.

Tale of Even More Painters

2009-08-07T00:01:00.000-07:00

73rd over at The Unforgiven Angels has decided to unleash a "Tale of Four Gamers" -type of challenge upon the blogosphere! I've decided to join him on this mad quest, and I will be focusing on a Daemons of Chaos army. I'm extremely excited, because there is an escalation league taking place starting in September, and this will be the perfect sort of thing to get my new army on the table looking all sorts of pretty! More to come--including an army list, goals, etc--when the competition gets underway.

Long-Term Goal Review

2009-08-06T23:52:00.000-07:00

2009 Long-Term Goals

Warhammer 40K
Have 500 points of Eldar painted
Have 1,000 points of Daemons assembled
Have 500 points of Daemons painted
Play at least 3 games
Warhammer Fantasy
Have 2,250 points of Clan Eshin Skaven painted [COMPLETED]
Have 1,000 points of Daemons assembled
Have 500 points of Daemons painted
Have 1,000 points of Dark Elves assembled
Have 500 points of Dark Elves painted
Play at least 15 games [Currently at 10]
Start a Beasts of Chaos army
Warhammer Quest
Paint Wood Elf Wardancer [COMPLETED]
Paint Bretonnian Questing Knight

When I composed these goals, I intended on completing them by the end of this year. It is now the 8th month of the year, and I'm not even close to completing 1/4 of them. Additionally, my focus has narrowed onto Daemons of Chaos, and I'm not concerning myself with Eldar or Dark Elves. Heck, I'm not even sure that Beasts of Chaos are going to be released this year, so how am I going to achieve that goal? I think I should change that to a reward for when I have completed both my Daemons and Dark Elves.

Short-Term Goal Review

2009-08-06T23:31:00.000-07:00

Current Short-Term Goals

Warhammer 40K
Assemble 500 points of Eldar
Assemble 500 points of Daemons
Paint 5 Pestigors (that count as Plaguebearers)
Warhammer Fantasy
Paint converted Skaven Ratling Gun by April 20th and submit it to Under-Empire competition [COMPLETE]
Paint 2 Skaven Gutter Runners [COMPLETE]
Convert 2nd Skaven Ratling Gun
Paint to wash double-based Skaven Warplock Jezzail [COMPLETE]
Paint 5 Pestigors (that count as Plaguebearers)
General
Figure out and create or buy Daemon conversion bases/movement trays to go between Fantasy and 40K

My short term goals have changed somewhat since I first posted them. I am no longer even thinking about Eldar, and any 40K that crosses my mind is in the form of Daemons. I love the idea of double-dipping, so to speak. I never know what I want to do with the Eldar, so I never settle on an idea and follow it through.

I'm not going to convert a 2nd Skaven Ratling Gun because I don't plan on playing my Skaven again any time soon. The next time I play WFB will probably be when the new escalation league begins, and I plan on playing my Daemons.

I still need to figure out what I'm going to do with bases/movement trays. I really want to go with round bases so that I can use the models for both 40K and Fantasy, but I know that I'll be playing WFB with them the majority of the time. Time to price-check GF9 custom trays!

An updated version of my short-term goals would read as follows:

Warhammer Fantasy

Assemble 10 Daemonettes
Assemble 10 Bloodletters
Assemble 5 Seekers
Test model a Horror
Model 4 Humanoid Plaguebearers
Greenstuff gaps on Beast of Nurgle

General

Figure out and create or buy Daemon conversion bases/movement trays to go between Fantasy and 40K

Game Night: Eshin vs. Empire

2009-08-03T17:35:00.001-07:00

To celebrate the completion of my Eshin army, I took the all-skirmishing force to Game Night to give them one last run. I ended up playing Tom and his Empire.

I was quite worried about his two units of Knights (one unit of 10 Inner Circle with Warrior Priest Lord, one unit of 5 vanilla with full command) when the game started, but my Jezzails absolutely destroyed them. Each unit of Jezzails was averaging 3 dead Knights per shooting phase. By the time the knights got into the midst of my army, they small enough to tolerate. One of my favorite moments came when his Inner Circle Knights trounced a speed bump unit of Night Runners, over-ran, and ended up right between my Globadiers and a unit of Jezzails. Next turn--seven dead knights! (This had to have been the first game that any of my Globadiers or Jezzails failed to kill themselves. )

My Master Assassin was Skitterleaped into combat (courtesy of Irresistible Force) on the 1st turn, and he was supposed to take out the unit of Pistoliers that were going after my Triad. Sadly, as is becoming a habit, he only killed managed to kill one member of the unit, thus getting stuck in combat. He was then charged in the rear by a unit of Flagellants. I thought that for sure he'd be struck down, but the crazed zealots only managed one wound. A unit of Night Runners then charged into the Flagellants' flank, and a nearby Eshin Sorcerer Skitterleaped the Master Assassin out of the combat and into the flank of a 30-man swordsman unit--more specifically, into the flank of his BSB. He only managed one wounding hit on the BSB, but that became five wound (thanks, Fellblade!). The combat was lost, but the Master Assassin stuck around. He held up this unit for two more turns before the combined might of Gutter Runners and his Fellblade broke the unit, and the fleet footed ninja rats ran them down. Of course, the brave Master Assassin succumbed to the poisonous Fellblade on turn 5, right before he was going to kill the enemy Warrior Priest who had hid behind his Champion the previous turn. Such is the Skaven way of life...

I really enjoyed the game. I lost two units to a cannon ball the first turn (only two models were killed, but the unit panicked and then scared off another unit directly behind them). This was problematic, because I had overloaded my left side with a plan of overrunning his right side and then moving on down the flank of the army. For the first time ever--I think--I stuck to this plan and actually saw it through. Having so many placements allowed me to wait out my opponent before tipping my hand. With deployment being something that I have wanted to work on, I was pretty proud of myself.

Tom was a great opponent, and I'd love to get a game in against him in the future.

The best part about the game was that both of us had fully painted armies. I had never experienced that before, and it really increased my level of enjoyment.

Time to get crackin' on the next army!

An Elf Walks In to a Bar...

2009-07-05T19:41:00.000-07:00

...to meet his four Skaven Assassin friends.

Finally, I have some pictures to share. I finished painting the Wood Elf Wardancer, as well as the two final Assassins for my Eshin army. Here they be:

The Eshin army is essentially complete. The last thing I would like to do is make a crap-ton of snow and to base the entire army. Then it will be completely complete.

Elves Everywhere!

2009-07-04T00:40:00.000-07:00

I sat down this morning to begin working on my final two Eshin Assassins. What did I end up spending most of my time painting? The Warhammer Quest Wood Elf Wardancer, naturally!

While I did manage to get my two rats painted to wash, the Wardancer really only needs the metals highlighted and then the base spruced up until he's complete. I am proud of my focus... Hopefully I'll post pictures soon.
________

I received a package from Games Workshop containing two direct only models: Wood Elf Waywatcher Lord and High Elf Hero with Sword and Shield. The Waywatcher Lord is going to be converted into a Dark Elf Assassin. I've been planning this conversion for quite some time now. I've had the Games Day Chaos Champion that will be part of the conversion for a year now, so I can finally get this conversion done whenever I get around to my Dark Elves--meaning it's probabably never going to happen.

I've fallen in love with the idea of High Elves after seeing a picture in a past White Dwarf. The artwork depicted a High Elf on horse going into combat against a Dark Elf on Cold One. The High Elf was very bright, consisting of all whites and a little tan for shading. There was a linen color, a mother of pearl, etc, but it was all based off of white. It is exactly how High Elves should look! After really appreciating the picture for a while, I began ruminating on potential High Elf armies. Before I jumped head-first into yet another army, I decided to buy one High Elf figure and paint it to emulate the color scheme in the picture. I figure that if I enjoy painting the model--and if it looks good--then I can take the next step into starting an army.

Sunday Night Musings: Oops! Where'd I go?

2009-06-07T09:30:00.000-07:00

So I've been posting more "Gee, I haven't done anything lately" posts than I'd like. This--appropriately--is another one. I've been struck by the boardgame bug, and I've been buying games left and right (you can see my profile on Board Game Geek here). I think the appeal is in the diversity and ease of playing. Warhammer, on the other hand, requires countless hours of preparation before games can even be played. Right now, I have one army almost completely painted, and it happens to be an army that will not be legal by the end of the year. Additionally, it is a "trick" army, so if my pony doesn't happen to show up for the game, I have no chance of winning. I'd love to get my Dark Elf or Daemon army on the table, but they are both just little pieces of plastic and metal right now. I could sit down and scrape mould lines for a couple hours, or I could play a game of La Citta. I could glue a unit of Bloodletters together, or I could play a couple games of The Downfall of Pompeii. See what I'm getting at?

One of the main roadblocks in the progression of my Daemon army is the bases. I know that I want to use round bases so that I can play both Fantasy and 40k with them. But I'm not certain as to how I'm going to go about making the trays to modify the round bases to a square base Fantasy game. I could drop a lot of cash and have them specially made, but I did that already for my Eldar army, and I really regret the purchase--mostly because I can't ever decide on whether or not I really want to play Eldar. Also, the resin bases don't have an area for easy magnet-attaching.
Now that I'm thinking about it, I might just try and make my own movement trays. As long as the bottom of the tray has metal on it, I could just have the bases be raised instead of sunk-in like I was initially visualizing in my head.
I finished painting my 2nd Eshin Sorcerer. I think it looks pretty cool, and it definitely fits in with the rest of the rats. Now only two Assassins remain until the army is complete. Well, if I'm going to rebase them, then there's that still to do, but...
What happens when you combine an ebay-purchased Skaven Assassin, a Warhammer Quest Wardancer, two Dark Elf Charioteers, a Avatars of War Dark Elf Lord, and a bottle of acetone? You get glue-globs removed from the Lord, and paint removed from everything else. You also get one vanashing base--I'm assuming it was completely melted by the acetone.
The new White Dwarf with all the Empire models makes me want to start an Empire army. Hahahhahaha! That's exactly what I need right now: another army! Ugh... GW sure does have us by the man-parts, don't they?

I'm sure that my binge-buying and playing of boardgames will slow down a bit in the future, thus allowing me to put the focus back on Warhammer. For now, however, I'm just going to have to try and find a little time here and there to put some work into the hobby--especially if I plan on reaching my goals for the year.

Sunday Night Musings: Diversions

2009-05-17T16:03:00.000-07:00

Things have been pretty slow lately because I've been putting a lot of thought into a big event that finally happened: I got engaged a few days ago. So my brain was on things other than little plastic men and women.

But back to the hobby!

I made the last purchase for my Skaven Clan Eshin army: a lone Marauder Assassin. This guy will complete the Triad, because he is the same mold as the other two Assassins. The third Assassin that had previous been in the Triad was one of the newer models, and he just didn't fit in with the other two. Bonus: the new guy is going to be easy to paint! I've already painted the same mold three other times (two Assassins plus the converted Sorcerer) so I know what I'm doing.
Need to finish painting one more Sorcerer, that one Assassin, and another Assassin--the mini converted-from-a-slave Assassin. When those three models are completed, the Eshin army will be finished!
I'm wondering if I'm going to spend the effort to rebase the army. I will need to drybrush a little more bluish greys and then add a lot and lot of snow mixture. Oh yeah, and maybe some dead grass (yellowish color).
After the Eshin are complete, it'll be on to the Daemons!

Mold Lines... How I Loathe Thee

2009-05-11T15:39:00.001-07:00

So I haven't been very active in the physical aspect of the hobby world as of late (How many times have I started out a post with a phrase similar to this?). What I have been doing, however, is participating in Deathmaster Mik's ORPG, "The Armor of Woe," on The Under-Empire, and weighing the pros and cons of sticking with an Eldar army. Those things don't yield a physical product, but they do count as "hobby time."

This weekend I decided to break out some of my Daemon bits and start scraping away all the annoying excess plastic that tarnishes their allure. I haven't been spending a lot of time on this, just a few minutes here and there, but I have managed to clear off Bloodletter torsos x10, left arms x10, and legs x20. I also filed away all the metal flashing on my five Pestigors.

I'm having trouble imagining Daemon armies running around with banners and musical instruments, so I'm going to have to figure out how to model appropriate "counts-as" figures that eschew such items. Most of my Daemon units won't use command models, but I think that the Nurgle unit will need a command, and probably my Daemonette unit, too. The Bloodletter units will just be blocks of killy-death, so the only possible upgrade will be a Champion.

Slowly Gettin' It Done

2009-05-05T21:14:00.000-07:00

The Eshin are almost complete. I just put the final highlights on six Warplock Jezzails (including two that count as two Jezzails), so all ten (twelve) are complete. I plan on posting pictures soon.

Important note: I'm painting these Skaven to a tabletop standard--no more, no less. There are several models that I spent more time on, adding interesting details and such. But the majority of the army is going to be pretty basic. That's fine with me, since it'll be the first army that I will have painted. Also, I just want to be done with it due to the fact that it won't even be a legal army once the new Skaven book comes out...

Daemons of Chaos 2250 point idea

2009-04-29T21:34:00.001-07:00

Here's the 2250 army I'm thinking about working toward:

Herald of Slaanesh - Many Armed Monstrosity, Level 1 Wizard
Herald of Slaanesh - Etherblade, Steed of Slaanesh, Level 1 Wizard (might get rid of this)
Herald of Nurgle - Palanquin, Level 1 Wizard
Herald of Khorne - Chariot of Khorne, Armor of Khorne, Soul Hunger

16x Plaguebearers of Nurgle
10x Bloodletters of Khorne
10x Bloodletters of Khorne
17x Daemonettes of Slaanesh
10x Horrors of Tzeentch
5x Furies
5x Furies

5x Seekers of Slaanesh
5x Screamers of Tzeentch

1x Fiend of Slaanesh
2x Beasts of Nurgle

6 PD
6 DD
90 Models
11 Deployments

There is really no rhyme or reason to the units in this army aside from just throwing in units I have and units I want to have because I like them. I'm pretty sure that, being Daemons, the army won't suck no matter what I take, so composition isn't too important to me. The above list only has one of the "ugly" combos--the regenerating Plaguebearer unit.

I see the Herald of Slaanesh on Steed being a suicidal knight killer. The Herald of Khorne on chariot will just run around slamming into things, hopefully causing plenty of casualties. QUESTION: Does Soul Hunger work on chariot attacks? Or is it just for the attacks the Herald makes himself? If it works on the chariot, too, then this guy is going to be uber-deadly.

I'm not really planning on having any useful magic, but I didn't want to be weak in that department, either--especially concerning defense. But it is really hard to have a legit defense without having a Spellbreaker and such. I don't know if there is going to be any way to have a good defense without including a Herald of Tzeentch...

Just jotting down my jumbled thoughts...

Monday Night Game Night: Empire

2009-04-22T20:08:00.001-07:00

The final night of the WFB league was this past Monday, and I was matched up with Devo and his Empire army. He was rockin' some large infantry blocks supported by an Arch Lector on foot, a Wizard, a mounted BSB, and an Engineer on mechanical steed. He had a unit of handgunners, a unit of crossbowmen, a unit of Outriders, a unit of Pistoliers, a cannon, a mortor, and a rocket battery for ranged attacks.

I didn't get my patented first round Skitterleap off, but it wasn't necessary. One of my scouting Gutter Runners weathered a round of shooting from his Pistoliers and then charged them. His fast-cav then fled, but unfortunately for Devo, when they ran through his uber-unit of Halberdiers (with Arch Lector and BSB), the big unit failed their panic test and fled off the board. That's a healthy chunk o' points gone in the first turn. Good for me, bad for Devo.

In retaliation, Devo blasted a building one of my units of Jezzails were hiding in, destroying the entire unit. I shall now respect the power of a cannon against buildings.

I had some good positioning with my Night Runners that led to some advantageous combats against his infantry. I was winning combats, and he was losing. It was as simple as that.

The only character my Master Assassin was able to kill was Devo's wizard, and that wasn't due to a Skitterleap. It was just a regular old combat.

With the game already in hand at the bottom of the sixth turn, my Master Assassin was Skitterleapt into the flank of the remaining Outriders. As I began to roll his four attacks, Devo burst out with a nice "FLUFF!" And, of course, I then proceeded to roll four ones. Good times!!

It was a fun game, and the win meant that I was fortunate enough to win the league! As my prize, I got a nifty Ordo Fanaticus t-shirt.

Sadly, I'm worried that I might not be gaming with my Eshin much longer. With the new Skaven armybook around the corner, I think it is time to devote some time into getting my Dark Elves up and running.

Sunday Night Musings: OFCC

2009-04-19T21:02:00.000-07:00

The Ordo Fanaticus Club Challenge is coming up, and while I won't be playing this year, I'm hoping to get down and watch some games and take in the event. Maybe I'll convince Brockshow to come over for the weekend so that we could check out the event together.
I would like to participate in the OFCC next year, but I'm going to have to take something other than my Clan Eshin list, because it is going to go the way of the dodo once the new Skaven armybook comes out. This means I'll need to paint and assemble another army by this time next year. Ouch.
A new army would mean Dark Elves or Beasts of Chaos. I'm kinda hesitating going ahead with the Dark Elves because there are so many people out there with the army right now--at least it seems that way. But if I wanted to go Beasts of Chaos, I'd have to buy a whole new army, assemble it, and have it painted in less than 6 months. I don't think I have the skillz to achieve that. That means I'll be rolling with my Dark Elves.
Of course, if the Skaven book allows for an army simliar to what I have now, I could always go with that. Yeah, don't think that's gonna happen...
I'm not going to achieve the goal of having my Ratling Gun painted up by tomorrow for the Under-Empire painting competition. I'm going to enter my sole fully-painted Globadier instead. I like the model a lot.

Sunday Night Game Night: Lizardmen

2009-04-19T20:39:00.000-07:00

I got another game in against Bard_and_Dragon and his Lizardmen.

This time he didn't have any Stegadons for me to butcher. And sadly, even though I got a first turn Skitterleap off, my Master Assassin spent 3 turns killing a unit of Sauri with his Old Blood General (I was lured into declaring a challenge that he declined and hid from).

Per usual, his Terradons took out both my Ratling Guns in one turn. Yeah! I really, really, REALLY hate those things!

My Triad butchered a unit of Kroxigors over two turns. My Jezzails shot lots of things, and didn't kill any of their own! That is a feat in and of itself. All but one of them survived until the end of the game, as well.

One of my Eshin Sorcerers Skitterleaped himself into combat with the enemy Skink mage. He then caused one wound, and caught the Skink as it fled from the combat.

Those are the high points that I can remember. I really enjoyed this game, and it ended in a near-perfect draw. Thanks for the game, Jason!

Tuesday (?) Night Musings

2009-04-14T20:56:00.000-07:00

So I'm a little late on getting this posted. I'm blaming the Blazers.

Found a cool list for Warriors of Chaos that I might someday want: 4xMarauder Horsemen w/Flails, 2xForsaken, 2xChosen w/GW, 2xWarShrines, whatever else can fit. This was found on Stelek's blog, Yes The Truth Hurts. I like the idea of this list. I'm also a fan of small model number armies, and this would definitely be one.
I'm reading the Lord of the Rings for the first time, and even though I really enjoy the story, I have no inkling to play GW's Lord of the Rings game. *whew*
I achieved one of my Short Term Goals tonight. Sure, it was only painting my double-based Jezzail to wash, but it was still something. I also got the two Gutter Runners and the converted Ratling Gun painted to wash. That means I'm that much closer to completing those goals, as well. Now the only Skaven models in my army that have no paint on them are the Clanrats and two Assassins.
Still need to work hard to get the Ratling Gun painted by the 20th. This week is going to be busy for me because of Blazers Basketball and other commitments, but I need to find the time to get it done.

Monday Night Game Night: vs Slaanesh Warriors of Chaos

2009-04-06T21:57:00.001-07:00

I played Raindog and his marauder-heavy Slaanesh Chaos army tonight. The game ended in a draw, and I'm very proud to have achieved that against him. He is a great general, and probably would have kicked the crap out of me on any other night. Unfortunately for him, this night saw his General and attached Chaos Trolls spend the first three turns of the game being stupid. That allowed me to actually participate in some combats without getting completely annihilated.

I didn't get a first turn Skitterleap in (my attempts were scrolled twice in the first round), but I did get it off on my second turn, and I took out one of his Chaos sorcerers and accompanying unit of Chaos Warriors. My Master Assassin then killed himself with the Fellblade.

My Jezzails did a magnificent job shooting today--meaning only one died due to misfire. I shot up a giant and whittled down a couple of units of Chaos Warriors with them.

Playing against RD is great because he does a wonderful job of baiting with his fast cavalry. It really makes me think about each charge response, and whether or not I should charge his units.

Overall, it was a really enjoyable game.

Sunday Night Musings

2009-04-05T20:03:00.000-07:00

Focus. My last three posts were about staying focused in the hobby. Now let's see if any of it sticks.
I'm thinking about setting up an incentive for myself, where if I get my 500 points of Dark Elves and 500 points of Daemons painted, I'll let myself start a Beasts of Chaos army. It seems fair--and feasible.
I have constructed a 1,000 point Eldar list that I threw up on Ordo for C&C. People seem to think it interesting, so I might go on ahead and roll with it. Now I just need to break it in half so that I can focus on a 500 point army to start out with. *Edit* Just did that!
Game night tomorrow at WOW. I think I've had a chance to play everyone, so I'm not sure who I'll end up facing. Maybe I'll have the luxury of getting steam-rolled by Eric...
I'd like to start writing more fluff for my armies, and more specifically, the characters in my armies. I really enjoy playing with Queetik because he has a story (and he's a super-badass). I enjoyed writing his background during the Nemesis Crown campaign. Maybe I should start working on some of the characters that will be in my upcoming armies--as motivation, of course.
This just made me think that if there is a global campaign for Warhammer this summer, I want to get Ordo people involved. I think it would be really fun to do something like that as a group.

Focus: Short-Term Goals

2009-04-04T19:08:00.000-07:00

Current Short-Term Goals

Warhammer 40K

Assemble 500 points of Eldar
Assemble 500 points of Daemons
Paint 5 Pestigors (that count as Plaguebearers)

Warhammer Fantasy

Paint converted Skaven Ratling Gun by April 20th and submit it to Under-Empire competition
Paint 2 Skaven Gutter Runners
Convert 2nd Skaven Ratling Gun
Paint to wash double-based Skaven Warplock Jezzail
Paint 5 Pestigors (that count as Plaguebearers)

General

Figure out and create or buy Daemon conversion bases/movement trays to go between Fantasy and 40K

Focus: Long-Term Goals

2009-04-04T18:35:00.000-07:00

2009 Long-Term Goals

Warhammer 40K

Have 500 points of Eldar painted
Have 1,000 points of Daemons assembled
Have 500 points of Daemons painted
Play at least 3 games

Warhammer Fantasy

Have 2,250 points of Clan Eshin Skaven painted
Have 1,000 points of Daemons assembled
Have 500 points of Daemons painted
Have 1,000 points of Dark Elves assembled
Have 500 points of Dark Elves painted
Play at least 15 games
Start a Beasts of Chaos army

Warhammer Quest

Paint Wood Elf Wardancer
Paint Bretonnian Questing Knight

Focus

2009-04-04T00:00:00.001-07:00

Warhammer can turn from a wonderful, enjoyable hobby into an overwhelming undertaking seemingly overnight. At times there will be great motivation to complete a project, or to start a new one. Then there are the other times, where the drawers and shelves full of untapped metal and plastic miniature potential--a paralyzing amount, no less. It's times like this when thinking about projects becomes much, much easier than actually working on projects.

I am at this point.

I have one army nearing completion, two in infancy, and one that is still in utero. Additionally, I have another army that I'd like to complete for a friend. That makes five armies currently in production. I have yet to complete a single army in my hobby career. This is a daunting task, and lately I have not been up to the challenge.

This needs to change.

I need to set goals and work toward them, yet I need to do so in a way that does not remove the fun from the hobby. This is not a job, after all; it is a recreation.

I need to have long-term goals and short-term goals that help me achieve said long-term goals. I need to allow for deviation from army to army so that I do not get tired or burned out. I need incentives for completing my goals.

It is enjoyable to experience the hobby by collecting miniatures, reading forums, contemplating background, and day-dreaming about armies and lists. However, these are also great ways to avoid the most work-intensive aspects of Warhammer: assembling and painting armies.

I'm going to take the necessary stepts to focus my hobby so that I achieve an end product.

Will it be difficult? Yes.

Will it take time? Yes.

Can I do it?

Up next: Long Term Goals

Beats of Chaos make me hot

2009-04-01T22:30:00.000-07:00

New minotaurs? NEW MINOTAURS?!!?!?

Ok. I missed that part when I first read the rumors. I did see the new Dragon Ogres, and that made me excited. I did not see the minotaurs listed. But when I re-read the article, there they were, nestled in between Bestigors and Dragon Ogres.

Oh boy, this is trouble. I really want some. I want a Beast of Chaos army bad. And minotaurs--bad. I'm a geek, and I have a problem.

My fix? Beasts of Chaos when they come back out.

With MINOTAURS!!!

Monday Night Game Night: Blue Ogres

2009-03-30T23:24:00.000-07:00

I hate fear. I hate Gut Magic. I hate Ogres.

If it weren't for fear and low-cost magic of panic-doom, I wouldn't mind them so much. Sadly, Ogres have these things in spades.

I played Zach and his Blue Ogres. His list was something like this:

1x Ogre Tyrant of Uber-Death-Dealing
3x Ogre Butchers
2-3x3 Ogre Bulls
2x2 Ogre Leadbelchers
2-3x4 Ogre Ironguts
1x25 Gnoblars
1x9 Gnoblar Trappers
1x Rhinox Rider
1x Ogre Maneater

Another game, another first turn Skitterleap (Zach rolled double ones in his dispel attempt). My Master Assassin, Queetik, took down one of his Butchers and a unit of Ironguts. Second turn saw him charging into the flank of an Irongut unit, butchering three Ogres and running down the fourth. Queetik then was left in charge range to his Maneater, and feeling like I could outrun him and then rally in a good position, I fled his charge, only to be caught. Oh well--them's the breaks!

My shooting took out his Rhinox Rider, but really failed to do much else. There was even one round of shooting where I managed to kill more of my own models than my opponents. Even my super-star Globadiers utterly failed me this game!

The worst moment of the game was when I had a unit of 3 Bulls on the flank surrounded with rats (two units of Gutter Runners and one unit of Night Runners). I declared charges that would have put me in his front and flank. Oh yeah, I also had an Assassin hidden in one of the units of Gutter Runners. I felt that I could have taken down this unit and then threatened his close-by Leadbelchers. Instead, I failed all three fear tests. All three. I was then charged by the Bulls, shot up by the Leadbelchers, and my great plan failed.

My units were overpowered by the strength of the Ogres, and I really don't know how to use my Clanrat blocks effectively. They are essentially a way to buy Ratling Guns, but when the damned Gut Magic takes out the guns before they can even fire... My blocks just kinda stood around, got charged, maneuvered into wierd positions, and then died. Well, only one unit died. The other survived the entire battle, but did absolutely nothing.

It was an interesting game, but I still feel like there are too many times where I am sitting there, not knowing what to do. I don't know how to use my blocks effectively, and I need to figure out how to protect my Ratling Guns better. Aside from that, my other units seemed to do what they were supposed to. Granted, my units didn't necessarily perform well, but they did what they were supposed to.

Nuts.

Eric informed me that there are two weeks left in the league, so maybe there is a chance that I stay atop the leaderboard, but I really doubt it. I think that I've been lucky with my wins thus far--gotta love the Skitterleap-O-Death--but I still like the idea of being at the top. Only time will tell if that continues!

Sunday Night Musings: Beastmen

2009-03-29T23:53:00.000-07:00

Read a rumor that the Beasts of Chaos are going to be updated at the end of the year. This is an army that I've always been interested in, ever since reading about Fat Bloke's participation in the original Tale of Four Gamers. If the rumors are true, GW will not be redoing the current basic beastmen models, so maybe I'll pick up a box and mess around with them. I find it funny that I really want to do another army of hairy brown models. Lots of 'em, too...
Spent some time talking with Brockshow about hobby motivation. I need to come up with some sort of competition for us to participate in that results in lots of models getting assembled and painted. Time to put my thinking cap on.
I need to go to town painting my Eshin. I had told myself that I'd be further along than I am currently, but I still lack the drive to start. I don't have much more to do, and a couple hours here and there would see it done this week.
The more I think about it, the more I'm probably not even going to try to run my Daemons as a WFB army. Everyone talks about them being point-and-click, and that's not really what I want. I'm not a good player yet, but I want to learn, not win without trying.
Game tomorrow against S0-Crates and his blue Ogres. I hate fear-causers. Will the streak of first-turn Skitterleaps continue?

Monday Night Game Night vs. Warriors of Chaos

2009-03-23T22:00:00.000-07:00

So I got a game in against Stephen (Ring_of_Gyges) and his Warrior of Chaos army. I was pretty frightened of all his hard hitting Knights and Chariots, but, as has become habit with my Eshin, I negated some of his abilities by getting off a first turn charge with my Skitterleaping Master Assassin. Queetik took an Exalted Champion on Disc of Tzeentch in the side and put 14 wounds on him. I then pursued, and would have pursued into a unit of Maurauders with his general (Lord level mage), but they fled in an attempt to protect the general. Queetik would have then charged into the side of one of his chariots, but instead of taking the charge and getting destroyed (S7+ attack auto-destroy chariots), he fled with his chariot, thinking that the damage it did to the rest of his units would be negligible. Well, as he fled down his battle line, he killed 7 Maurauders from one unit, 6 from another, put 2 wounds on his 2nd chariot, and completely destroyed a unit of hounds. To top it all off, he ended up in difficult terrain, and took 6 wounds. *POOF* Dead chariot.

So... a first turn charge by Queetik turns into a dead Exalted Champion on Disc of Tzeentch, 13 dead Maurauders, 5 dead Hounds, and a dead Chariot. Not bad.

I then proceeded to shoot up his Knights and 2nd Chariot with my Jezzails and Ratling Guns. Luck and fortune were on my side this game, and not really on Ring's. One turn, when shooting with my ratling guns, I got 10 and then 11 shots when only rolling two dice each. That's pretty mean.

After all was said and done, I got the massacre and that was that. It was an enjoyable game for me, but I don't think the same can be said for Stephen.

Amazingly, I'm at the top of the leaderboard in our league. CRAZY!

Sunday Night Musings: Monday Edition

2009-03-23T13:46:00.000-07:00

It was a bad idea to buy the GW catalog. Now I keep finding little things that I want to get, which then turn in to these grandiose ideas. For instance, there is a wicked little Night Goblin Boss model that looks amazing. I want it. Naturally, this then turned into, "Why don't I start a Night Goblin warband?" 500 points, nothing big. I could get some squigs, wolf riders, etc... All of a sudden, me liking the looks of a model has turned into me thinking about blowing $100+ on some crazy idea. Go figure. GW must love people like me.
I am one ratling gun away from having my entire Eshin army assembled. Once the weather gets better, I will then have everything undercoated. I spent a little time this weekend throwing some brown paint on my Jezzails and two Gutter Runners.
The Under-Empire is having a painting contest on Skryre weaponry. This would be a great opportunity for me to paint and submit my converted Ratling Gun--or guns, if I manage to get the other one completed, too.
I'm really on the fence about buying a different Assassin model as a replacement for my Traid. Currently, I have two identical older models and a newer Assassin. I'd love to get rid of the newer model and get a third older model. Bartertown, here I come!
I spent some time fiddling with an 1850 Eldar list--even though I really don't know what point size people tend to play with around here. I want to use a Seer Council on Foot, but I think I need to throw them in a souped up Falcon or Wave Serpent. In fact, from the looks of things, I want about 3 Wave Serpents for my army. So much for not using tanks in my list...
Of course, I'm still contemplating getting rid of my Eldar altogether. The main thing keeping them in my possession is the though of a Seer Council. Some of my favorite models, hands down. Combining that and some Harlequins is just too cool to pass up, especially since I already own the models.
Game Night is tonight. I've missed a week, and am really looking forward to getting a game in. Hopefully I'll be able to play someone new this week.
Going to visit my parents this week. This means I'm gonna get some Warhammer Quest in, which should be lots of fun. I wish I had time to paint the Wardancer. I probably do, but that would mean I would have to stop procrastinating on the internet. No thanks! I know what my priorities are!

Sunday Night Musings: The Never-Ending Eshin Quest

2009-03-15T22:53:00.001-07:00

Did some more work on the Eshin. Drybrushed all of the primered Clanrats and Jezzails that I had previously assembled. Also stuck my bits-constructed Ratling Gun to a base. I converted (super-easy-conversion style) a third Eshin Sorcerer. Started building 10 more Clanrats, as I decided not to use my Rat Swarms as unit fillers.
I've been having a lot of hot/cold feelings about collecting my Eldar army. Some days I just feel like selling them all, whereas there are other days that I really like the idea of the army. I think my desire for a Chaos Marine army that would be able to mix with my Daemons is still appealing to me...
I purchased and assembled a guillotine model for the card game "Guillotine." The game comes with a crap-tastic paper guillotine, but I needed something cooler. Now I need to paint it, which shouldn't be too difficult.
I'm on pause regarding painting Daemons. I think that once I get to a place where I'm not interested in painting any more Eshin for a while, I'll assemble and paint some of the other Plaguebearers, because I really enjoyed the first five I did. Maybe I'll do the Herald, as well. I think the Pestigor models are some of the coolest models out there, so painting them should be fun!
I found rules for a Beastman for the Warhammer Quest game. There are quite a few Beastmen models that I really like, so now I have an excuse to buy one! Then I'll be forced to invite Brockshow over so that we can get some Questing in!
I have to baby-proof our hobby area, because my best friend and his family are staying with us this weekend. Talk about a difficult task! Maybe I'll just make them stay on the couch instead of giving them the spare room...
I kinda wanna fit my Rat Swarms into my Eshin army, somehow. Even though the unit is expensive, it can take a charge from pretty much anything and hold for one round, which would allow me to set up flank charges. Plus, they are the only unit I have access to that is immune to psychology.

Monday Night Game Night: On Tuesday!

2009-03-15T13:48:00.000-07:00

Late post on my weekly game, but I played Brick and his Dwarfs again, and we had a nice game that ended in a draw. The victory could have been mine, but I just couldn't knock down two Dwarf units below half--instead, they were exactly half their starting size! Ugh, but it was still an interesting and fun game. Queetik took out the Throne of Power turn one, continuing his streak of badassness. My Jezzails were the most effective they have ever been, and both units survived the entire battle.

Sunday Night Musings: 100th Post

2009-03-08T21:00:00.000-07:00

Haven't really put a dent in my Eshin like I was hoping to do these past few weeks. I'd love to get the base Eshin army (before I added the Clanrats) finished soon. That shouldn't be too hard. Shouldn't be...
Don't get to play Warhammer tomorrow, as I'll be watching the Blazers take on the L*kers at the Rose Garden. Luckily, I'm going to get a game in against Brick on Tuesday.
There's really not much else I have going on with Warhammer right now. Nothing on the Daemon front or on the Dark Elf front. Trying to focus on the Eshin.

What a waste of my 100th post...

Queetik Gets a Makeover!

2009-03-08T20:23:00.000-07:00

Because I only field my Master Assassin with the Fellblade and Talisman of Protection, I figured I should model the figure accordingly. So I broke off Queetik's hands and made new ones. I carved the Fellblade out of excess sprue, and then inscribed Skaven-y runes and drilled some holes. I wanted the blade to look archaic and foul, yet powerful and deadly. I hope that came through... I didn't really plan it, but I like how Queetik has a bunch of armor on the arm that wields the Fellblade. It kinda gives added emphasis on the evilness of the sword. He's even trying to protect himself from it!

I also have been working on a homemade ratling gun, and here the assembled product is:

Sure, I probably should have been painting unpainted models instead of painting already-painted models, but why stifle inspiration? There's plenty of time to get to the other stuff.

Oh, but I did primer more Jezzails and my two units of Clanrats! That's gotta count for something!

Monday Night Game Night: vs Tomb Kings

2009-03-02T21:54:00.000-08:00

So I played Bard_and_Dragon again this week, but this time he brought his Tomb Kings.

I got owned.

There's really nothing more to say about it. He has strong magic, great shooting (always hitting on 5+), and causes fear and Terror (Bone Giant). It was ugly for me. No skitterleaps because of scrolls and dispel dice. No good combats for me because of his ability to move in the magic phase. My shooting sucked, and he took advantage of everything. I made a few mistakes in the deployment phase (not screening my ratling guns), but really, it wasn't bad luck that did me in. His army is perfect for destroying my Eshin.

Luckily, Jason is a nice guy, and he didn't rub it in as he was kicking my ass. Seriously, I think I had one unit of 7 guys left on the board at the time I conceeded in the 5th turn. Grossness.

Monday Night Game Night: vs Lizardmen

2009-03-01T21:40:00.000-08:00

I never got around to posting this on here, but I played a game against Bard_and_Dragon's Lizardmen on Monday. Once again, I was fortunate enough to get a first turn skitterleap off, and my Master Assassin smashed into the side of an Ancient Stegadon, butchering it and sending the Chieftain riding it running for his life. The Assassin then pursued into the flank of a Saurus block, and after a turn of killing some lizards, he wiffed all his attacks and was poked to death by spears. This time, I held on to my early advantage and got a solid win. I had a unit of clanrats charge into the front of an Engine of the Gods and beat it in combat. They then chased it off the table or caught it when it fled--I can't remember which. It was a fun game for me. I just hope that I'm actually learning how to play smarter, and not just getting super lucky.

Sunday Night Musings: Warhammer Quest

2009-03-01T21:28:00.000-08:00

So I played some Warhammer Quest with the Brockshow this weekend, and had a good time. There's not a whole lot of strategy involved, but it was still kinda fun running through a dungeon killing things and collecting gold. Maybe by adding some role-playing elements to the mix, it would be even more enjoyable.

Of course, just the idea of playing the game again made me want to do some additional things, like come up with my own character and have him/her modeled and painted for the next playing session, etc. I just can't enjoy the game for what it is; instead, I must try and expand it beyond my means.

I am currently attempting to model a couple ratling guns for various bits I have in my collection. This is not easy, and I don't know why I don't just buy a couple of the models themselves. However, knowing me, I'm going to try and finish this even if it doesn't turn out well, just because I'm stubborn like that.
I still need to model up a full command for my second Clanrat unit.
When the weather gets a little warmer, I'm planning on priming the two clanrat blocks--and whatever random metallic figure left in the Eshin army--so that I will only have a bunch of painting to go.
Remember when I said I wasn't going to add anything to the army, and just finish it so that I could say I finished an army? Yeah, that was a good idea. I wonder what happened to it...
I'm not very motivated to work on my Daemons right now. I don't know what happened, but I haven't really though about putting a brush to one this week.
I have a lot of ideas on what to do modeling wise for my Dark Elves, but I never seem to have the right pieces and parts to make it happen. The army will never get up and running unless I just sit down and start assembling things with the items I already have instead of always thinking up ways to make them better.
I really want to paint the Warhammer Quest Wardancer model that Brock left at my place. I remember putting some warpaint on it waaaaaaaaaay back in the day, and I'd love to give it a fresh paint job. I think I could do it justice.

Sunday Night Musings: Much Ado About Nothing

2009-02-22T21:06:00.000-08:00

This past week was quite a disappointment. I had the week off of work, and instead of using that time to make a big dent in my hobby chores, I instead rested and relaxed. All I managed to paint was a single Screamer--discounting the Eldar jetbikes I played around with.
I need to buy a couple Skaven weapon teams. I can't keep using those terrible proxies...
I really, really, REALLY don't want to paint 50 Clanrats. That is going to suck so hard. But when the weather clears up a bit, I'm going to undercoat the suckers and then think about getting started on them. Part of me wants to see how fast I paint them up, now that I have my process down. It wouldn't be too hard, it would just be a pain in the butt. If I just sucked it up, I bet I could finish them in one week.
I think I'm going to push pause on my Daemons and focus on finishing up the Skaven army. It is the army I'm using for Game Nights, so I should really finish it as soon as possible. All I need to finish are Clanrats, Weapon Teams, Jezzails, two Assassins, and one Sorcerat... I think. Nope. I need to paint two Gutter Runners, too. Of course, after I finish all that, I'll need to rebase everything...

Playing around with Jetbikes, part 2

2009-02-18T17:47:00.001-08:00

My brother bought me a piece of art from a local graffiti artist a while back, and it has to be the most badass piece of art, ever. Therefore, I decided to make a tribute to the piece in my Eldar army. Maybe I'll attempt to carry the theme over to other parts of the army, too. We'll see...

Playing around with Jetbikes

2009-02-18T14:23:00.000-08:00

So I was browsing druchii.net and I came across some work that bloopy was showing off in the painting forum. He had painted faces onto the hoods( is that the right term?) of his jetbikes, and one of the faces in particular appealed to me greatly. So, after that shot of inspiration, I set about to copy the face onto one of my own jetbikes.

Here is the result:

I like the looks of it, and I think I could easily repeat this two or three more times to flush out a squad of Shining Spears.

I'm going to need to buy some more jetbikes... Especially if I decide to make a mounted Seer Council.

Eshin vs. Ogres

2009-02-16T23:19:00.000-08:00

I played Sneak at Game Night tonight. He was rockin' Ogres, with lots of Ironguts and Bulls.

First turn, my Master Assassin gets skitterleaped into combat with a unit of his Ironguts that has his Tyrant (general) and one of his Butchers attached. The Master Assassin is in the flank, which puts him against a Butcher and one Irongut. The Assassin destroys the Butcher (gotta love the Fellblade!) and takes one wound from the Irongut. The Ogre unit loses combat, flees, and gets run down by the Master Assassin. Yes, that means on the first turn, my lone Assassin takes out two characters (one being the general) and a unit of Ironguts. The next turn he charged the second Butcher and butchered it.

It had to be the best start to any game of Warhammer I've ever played. Sadly, my Master Assassin was then killed by a unit of Gnoblars that were throwing crap at him, and the rest proceeded to fall to pieces over the remaining turns and flee off the table. I lost the game, after taking down 771 points in the first turn--not to mention whatever the 2nd Butcher was worth. Gotta love the game of Warhammer!

Sunday Night Musings: Distractions

2009-02-15T23:10:00.000-08:00

Set a goal of painting two Screamers and a test Horror, and only ended up painting one Screamer. I did assemble the 8 clanrats like I set out to do, though.
Painting the color yellow is not fun at all. Maybe it's just the GW paints, but it is not an even, smooth color IN ANY WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM!
When I first started painting the Screamer, it reminded me of a McDonalds for some reason.
I'm playing another 2250 point game tomorrow with my Clan Eshin Skaven. It'll be the second time using blocks of clanrats with ratling guns attached. I'm going up against an Ogre player, so it should be a fun match.
I'm still using two Eldar Shadowweaver guns as proxied ratling guns. So sad...
I'm running a game night on Thursday, and I'm trying to figure out what new board game to break out on a bunch of unsuspecting victims. Sadly, it can't be anything fun like Arkham Horror, as this is an extremely casual crowd. Probably gonna end up looking for Ticket to Ride or something like that.
Attempted to paint while watching the All-Star game. Doesn't work out so well. Not when I'm trying to keep my eye on B-Roy and a Daemons of Chaos Screamer of Tzeentch at the same time. Hahahha... I just fit Brandon Roy and Warhammer into one thought. I kick ass!
I'm thinking about basing the Daemons on cobblestones, as that could represent a village in the Warhammer Fantasy setting, as well as a low-tech city in the "dark future." I looked at some sweet bases from Foundations of War--where I purchased the bases for my Eldar--but don't know how I would combine those bases with the Gale Force 9 movement trays.
Shaq + Jabbawockee = Awesome.

First Screamer

2009-02-15T22:59:00.000-08:00

I hate painting yellow. I'm only going to do one more yellow model, and that happens to be a Horror. Then I'm swearing the color off.

Plans for tomorrow

2009-02-13T22:44:00.000-08:00

I'm hoping to get some productive hobby-time in on Valentine's day since my better half is going to be studying all day long. I have 8 Clanrats to assemble that I cleaned last night, and then I'm hoping to paint at least 2 of the base-coated Screamers I have, and maybe a test Horror. I'm pretty confident that I can get that done tomorrow, but we'll have to wait and see. I tend to surprise myself with my powers of procrastination.

New toys!

2009-02-13T22:38:00.000-08:00

Just received three separate Ebay packages, all of which contain miniatures for my Daemons of Chaos army:

1 Morghur, Master of Skulls (This guy will be used as my Herald of Nurgle on Palanquin)
5 Beasts of Chaos Pestigors (These fellows will be Plaguebearers)
10 Daemonettes (new plastics)
10 Bloodletters (new plastic, and some of my favorite models)

With these additions, I will have a unit of 10 Plaguebearers, 10 Daemonettes, and 10 Bloodletters--a solid core to my slowly materializing army. I'm planning on converting at least one more Plaguebearer out of a Zombie, which would give my Plaguebearer unit three ranks when the Herald is included.

Warhammer Game Night: Monday, February 9th

2009-02-12T19:12:00.000-08:00

The new Fantasy league started this past week, and I showed up with my Eshin. This time, I included two units of clanrats for a new twist to the army. Not only did it make the games more fun and interesting, but it provided me with the opportunity to learn how to use ranked infantry--something I'm going to need to do whenever I get my Dark Elves up and running.

I played against Brick Bungalow and his beautiful, all very OOP Dwarf army. Here are some simple highlights of the match-up:

Throughout the game, every time the Skaven and Dwarfs were running after each other, the Skaven ended up out of range by 1". This was all due to the Skaven's +1 fleeing roll, and the Dwarfs -1" fleeing/persuing roll. It was funny to see.
My Master Assassin ended up too close to the Dwarf cannon and took a grapeshot to the head... only to have me roll the necessary 6 on one die from the Talisman of Protection. WHEW!
The Triad worked well this game, tying up units and turning combats in my favor. They owned the right flank--which consisted of quarrellers and thunderers--allowing my other units to march up the field unmolested.
Poor Brick rolled all ones multiple times. There was a time when he said something to the effect of "If I were playing Blood Bowl, I'd be rolling all ones." He then rolled four dice, and, well... all of them were ones.
Ratling guns were fun. I had three misfires throughout the game, because I was throwing three dice each time I fired. One of the misfires ended up with me blasting my own clanrat unit that was locked in a very important combat with the Dwarf Lord and BSB. Luckily, out of 9 hits, I only lost two or three rats (and ended up winning the combat, anyway).
My proxied Ratling Guns were Eldar Shadowweavers. People got a laugh out of that.

It was a good time, and I'm hoping to model up another unit of clanrats so that I don't have to use a mis-matched unit of metal figures that are most definitely not clanrats.

Sunday Night Musings: The Daemons Start Gathering...

2009-02-08T20:31:00.000-08:00

I started painting my Tzeentch Horrors on Saturday. I'm painting them a myriad of colors to represent the sporadic nature of Tzeentch--an idea copped from here. All I did was basecoat them purple, green, yellow, red, and blue. Simple enough, but getting some paint slapped on 'em is good for now. I'm not a fan of putting the figures together, because the little metal arms kept falling off. I'm not about to start pinning everything, because they are too small and too numerous. Additionally, I want to get the Horrors that have other Horrors coming out of them, but it appears these figures are only available in the old, 10 Horror boxes that are no longer distributed. I'm watching an ebay auction for two unopened boxes of these, thinking that if I do go ahead and bid, I'll do so with the intent of selling one of the boxes back on ebay.
The Ordo Fanaticus Warhammer Fantasy league starts tomorrow, and I'm still not sure what I'm going to do. The only full army I have is the Eshin army, but I really don't feel like it gives each player a fun game when played. But, like I said, it is my only full army, so I'm kinda stuck... Maybe I show up with it and try out the single Clanrat block I assembled, and proxy a Ratling Gun just to see how they work out. The thing is, I wouldn't mind doing this if I was going to play Raindog or someone else who would know that I'm new to the whole ranked unit thing, but I would feel bad playing against someone I don't know because I more than likely won't know what the hell I'm doing. This is so frustrating. I need to finish my Daemons or Dark Elves so this isn't an issue.
Speaking again of my Daemons, I ordered 10 Daemonettes and 10 Bloodletters. This means I'll be about halfway--if not over halfway--from having the 2250 point army that I've designed. The issue I'm now facing is whether or not to just order all the figures so that I can start playing another army, or stick to my guns and finish painting what I have before I end up playing with an unpainted army again. Hell, I still have to finish my freakin' Eshin...
Ultraforge miniatures rock! I want all the Greater Daemon models... just for the fun of it!

Slave Giant

2009-02-06T22:33:00.000-08:00

Idea: Slave Giant with a metal collar around its neck, a length of chain attached that it uses as a weapon.

The idea comes from the cave troll in The Fellowship of the Ring.

Now do I have an army that would use this monster? No. But maybe someday I will.

Sunday Night Musings: Stupid Whims

2009-02-01T21:39:00.000-08:00

So I made an eBay purchase... a purchase that I really shouldn't have made. I bought an assortment of OOP Skaven models for $12.99, including shipping. Not bad, but the purchase was totally unnecessary. I'm not supposed to even be working on my Skaven, because I'm just supposed to finish up the Eshin army and then move on to my Daemons and Dark Elves. Stupid me!
I assembled a unit of Clanrats for use in my Eshin army. Why? Becuase the Eshin army as it is SUCKS--and because I had the bits to make it happen without having to buy any additional items. Now I'm going to cry myself to sleep, because that means that I have 25 more freakin' Skaven to paint than before. This isn't counting the other unit that I plan on assembling. *Sigh*
My motivation to paint is in full-on "ebb" mode right now. I wish it would turn to "flow"...
I really want to start painting The Masque, but I feel like I should test out how to paint a Daemonette first. The only problem with this is that I have to buy a unit of Daemonettes so that I can test out the painting. That type of purchase would put me over the limit in my painting pledge, so I need to get crackin' on painting models I already have in order to give myself permission to make another purchase.
I'm trying to think of a way to make a Night Runner "Death Star"--stealing the idea from the Druchii who use a giant unit of Shades loaded with Characters. The only problem is that I don't think there are enough character abilities and items that would make the unit as potent as the Dark Elf version. But I'm still going to look into it...
I'm thinking about buying an Eldar fleet for Battlefleet Gothic. The game has a nice appeal, and there is a fellow Ordo who is looking to offload. If the deal is right, I might have some different looking paper weights coming to me.
If I replace some of the arms of my Eshin Nightrunners with shield arms, I might just use them as Clanrats. This would make a transition to a standard Skaven army a lot easier and cost effective. Of course, it would also mean that the unit of Clanrats I have already assembled would be entirely out of place...

Adding a little something to the Plaguebearers

2009-01-26T22:29:00.000-08:00

After getting some good advice from willydstyle on Ordo Fanaticus, I added some verdigris corrosion to the blades of my Plaguebearers. I went a little over-the-top, but I like the effect. Next time I'll tone it down a bit.

Rat-a-tat-tat

2009-01-25T22:25:00.000-08:00

Nothing big, but I painted three Warplock Jezzail teams for my Eshin army. Therefore, I have four painted, and still need to paint the remaining five (six in game terms, but one of the models will count as two). I'm not picking out all the fun little details on the models, because this is just an army that I want painted to a tabletop standard--and because I want to be done with it already!

As an aside, I just wanted to say that I am absolutely in love with Devlan Mud. I think I'm going to end up using it on every model I paint. It is what Flesh Wash used to be (for me, at least). It makes the metals look nice as well as the wood. It makes painting a breeze when all I do is basecoat, wash, and then add a simple highlight. It makes things look like you spent a lot more time on them then you actaully did. Not a bad thing...

Sunday Night Musings

2009-01-25T19:43:00.001-08:00

In an attempt to post more consistently, I'm going try and start up a weekly collection of hobby-related thoughts that have been floating around inside my head throughout the week.

* The Brides of Burning Blood

There is a nice little box o' fluff in the Dark Elves Armybook that describes a Witch Elf cult that has no place of worship aside from the battlefield. I like this idea, as I see my Dark Elf army being a force that has invaded Ulthuan and remains on the High Elf land--not a raiding party, but an invasive species, so-to-speak. An idea that came to mind for a Cauldron of Blood was a modified corpse cart. I'd have to think of what would be used to pull the cart, but I don't really like the idea of the Witches lugging around a giant cauldron, and a collection of sacrifices for Khaine seems more fitting.

* Anath Raema

This is the sister of Khaine and the goddess of the savage hunt (found in another cool fluff box). I like the idea of this being the god that my Dark Elf warband follows, as it is fitting for a force that lives on Ulthuan and hunts High Elves. The goddess wears a belt of heads and hands, and I'd like to use this imagery throughout my warband to show the connection.

* Daemons Are Fun To Paint

I really enjoyed painting up my Plaguebearers. Maybe it's just the washes and layering of fleshy grossness, but the painting wasn't tedious or tiring. Maybe that will change after I continue painting up the army--or when I paint something "neater," like a Daemonette.

* Round or Square

I'm going to attempt to mount the Daemons I have on round bases, but purchase those nifty Gale Force 9 movement trays that will allow me to rank them up for games of Warhammer Fantasy. This way, I'll be able to use the models for both WFB and WH40K. More bang for my buck, and I like the idea of an all deep-striking army in 40K.

* The Eshin Fade Into the Shadows

I'm not really thrilled with the idea of playing my Eshin anymore. After my last game a couple weeks ago, I was talking with Raindog and he suggested that I add some ranked Clanrats so that I could have some decent combat resolutions as well as being able to add a couple Ratling Guns for added firepower. I toyed with the idea of this, but I'm really not wanting to put any more work into the army than I already have. I think I'll just finish up what I've started, and then be done with it. As easy as it would be to just stop altogether, I really want to finish this army just to say I did.

* Show Me What You're Working With

I am currently collecting three different Fantasy armies--Eshin, Daemons, and Dark Elves. On the futuristic side of things, I have two armies--Eldar and Daemons. I would like to eventually add Chaos to my 40K collection, because I could use the Daemons I already have, and I'd be able to buy the sweet Forge World Death Guard stuff. Right now I'm resisting ordering the Terminator and Chaos Marine upgrades. I really want them, and the conversion rate is great right now, but I need to stop buying and keep painting what I have.

First 5 Plaguebearers

2009-01-20T18:27:00.000-08:00

After posting the picture of my test Plaguebearer, I decided that it was too bright and clean. So I dirtied it up with some Devlan Mud. I liked the result, so I painted up the other four PBs.

Something new that came of this little project was the documented painting process: I wrote down each stage of painting so that I could easily complete additional models. It also allowed me to take a look at what stages were unnecessary so that I could cut them in order to streamline the process. I think I'm going to be doing this from now on.

Anyway, here is a picture of the five Plaguebearers:

Test Plaguebearer

2009-01-07T17:51:00.000-08:00

Painting Points

2009-01-05T19:22:00.000-08:00

I'm going to steal an idea from The Lone Pilgrim that will allow me to keep track of how much I paint by using the following basic point system:

Infantry = 1 point
Cavalry or bikes = 2 points
Monster or Dreadnought = 5 points
Vehicle = 10 points
Superheavy vehicle = 20 points

Maybe I'll figure out how to add a running tally on the side of this blog that keeps track of my painting points...

Clan Eshin Update

2009-01-03T22:22:00.000-08:00

Shadows of the Howling Heights

Lords and Heroes:
Master Assassin - Queetik Eeksteen, Bane of all Man-Things [1/1 Complete]
Assassin - Adept D'Skreet [0/1 Complete]
Battle Standard Bearer - Name Pending [1/1 Complete]
Eshin Sorcerer - Nik-Nak [0/1 Complete]
Eshin Sorcerer - Name Pending [1/1 Complete]

Core Units:
7x Night Runners with Two Hand Weapons and Throwing Stars [7/7 Complete]
7x Night Runners with Two Hand Weapons and Throwing Stars [7/7 Complete]
7x Night Runners with Two Hand Weapons and Throwing Stars [7/7 Complete]
7x Night Runners with Two Hand Weapons and Throwing Stars [7/7 Complete]
7x Night Runners with Two Hand Weapons and Throwing Stars [7/7 Complete]
7x Night Runners with Two Hand Weapons and Throwing Stars [7/7 Complete]
7x Night Runners with Two Hand Weapons and Throwing Stars [7/7 Complete]
10x Night Runners with Slings [10/10 Complete]
5x Night Runners [5/5 Complete]
7x Night Runners [7/7 Complete]
7x Night Runners with Throwing Stars [7/7 Complete]
5x Rat Swarms [4/5 Complete]

Special Units:
6x Gutter Runners [5/6 Complete]
6x Gutter Runners [5/6 Complete]
5x Warplock Jezzail Teams [0/5 Complete]
5x Warplock Jezzail Teams [1/5 Complete]

Rare Units:
Poisoned Wind Globadiers [7/8 Complete]
Eshin Triad [2/3 Complete]

First Harpy Takes Flight

2008-11-27T13:08:00.000-08:00

Something Different

2008-11-02T18:21:00.000-08:00

One of the things I enjoy most about this hobby is just brainstorming ideas on what armies, themes, and teams would be fun to collect, build, paint, and play. The only downfall is that I end up doing a lot of thinking and very little actual building, painting, and playing. The main drawback to games like WFB and 40K is the model count. I'll have a nifty idea for a themed Dark Elf army, but then I have to fill in all the core requirements, etc in order to make a legal army. Same thing goes with 40K. I've been thinking a lot about a Blood Angels army all because I want to model a Death Company that looks like Vampires. I think that unit would be pretty cool, but then I'd have to buy some tac squads and other filler just to make a legal army.

To make a long story a little bit shorter, I'm wanting to put some effort into smaller model-count games such as Bloodbowl, Necromunda, and Mordheim. These games will allow me to have fun converting and placing more emphasis on single models instead of focusing on entire units.

A while back I decided that I wanted to make a Bloodbowl army out of Gorkamorka Diggas. Well, tonight I started playing around with the new saw attachment for my Dremel, and thus came up with the following image:

We'll see what happens when I put some more work in. Now what I really need to do is browse the web for miniature hands, because I'm having to amputate a lot of gun/knife arms...

Dark Elf Color Scheme

2008-08-31T23:59:00.000-07:00

Did you know that Malekith was the Lord of the Dark Elves in the Marvel Universe? And I'm pretty sure that his introduction in 1984 (Thor comic) preceeded GW's introduction of the Warhammer Malekith. Interesting, eh?

That's the Marvel Malekith... and the color scheme for my Dark Elf army. Yep, I'm gonna have blue skinned elves donning red and gold uniforms! It'll be wicked! Here's another example of what I want to paint my elves like (this will most likely be what the Executioners will look like, as they have very little skin showing):

This is Kurse, another Dark Elf.

I just love finding inspiration in random places!

All settled in

2008-08-31T23:52:00.001-07:00

So I finally am settled into my new home. Still have a few things that need organized before it is completely ready, but it's pretty nice as is.

Anyway, I worked a little on the Dark Elves, more specifically, on the Witch Elves. These suckers have soooo many bad mold lines and tons of flash. It took about an hour to clean up all 17 of them. Not a lot of production, but still getting some work done. I really want to get them primed and paint a test model. Actually, what I really want is for my order to come from the Minis Realm so that I can get assembling and painting the core choices that I'll be using in the soon-to-start Ordo Fanaticus Escalation League.

Oh well, I'll take what I can get.

Here's a pic of the ladies after they've been cleaned up a bit

...and here's just a little bit of the crap that came off of them

Wight BSB

2008-08-13T18:05:00.000-07:00

A while ago I traded Raindog (fellow Ordo Fanaticus member) some sprues of Orcs and Empire for his painting services on a Wight Battle Standard Bearer. My intention was to acquire a very cool character model for TC's fledgling Vampire Count army--a model that would get him excited about the army so that maybe someday he would learn to play, and thus game with me.

Anyhoo, RD finished the model, and it looks great! Here it is:

I'm very happy with the model, and hopefully TC will be, too.

Time for a time out

2008-08-11T22:40:00.000-07:00

I primed all the assembled Harlequins tonight, as well as a Warlock/Farseer on Jetbike and one on foot. After they were dry I proceeded to pack them away in preparation for the big move in less than a couple weeks. As I am leaving this coming Thursday to volunteer at a grief camp, I will have no time to play with my beloved plastic and metal toys--especially since I'm moving the day I return.

The weekend o' productivity was nice, and hopefully I will pick up where I left off after I get settled in to the new place.

Productivity

2008-08-10T23:15:00.000-07:00

Surprisingly, I've been pretty productive on the hobby front as of late. These past few days have been spent watching the Olympics and pre-season football all while filing mould lines, gluing legs to torsos, and priming Eldar. Usually I live vicariously through others while reading their army blogs, and manage to avoid working on my own armies. This was not the case this weekend.

All in all, here's what I completed:

Assembled - 12 Storm Guardians, 10 Harlequins, 6 Warlocks, 1 Farseer
Primed - 12 Storm Guardians, 5 Warlocks, 1 Farseer

I also purchased some rod to create flying bases for my Jetbikes, Swooping Hawks, and Heavy and Support Weapon Platforms. I found a drill bit size that works perfectly, and now just need a device that can cut the rod (I ruined my clippers trying them on it). Using this rod will allow me to make use of all the cool resin bases I ordered specifically for this army.

The only downside to the work I did over the weekend is that it is going to make moving (which I am doing near the end of the month) just that much more difficult, as the models are no longer able to fit in their nice flat storage organizers. Oh well, maybe I just need to hurry up and make my new army transport/storage boxes similar to the one below:

These have a metal bottom that allows your magnetized bases to stay put while being stored away. I'm planning on getting a few square bins that I will do something similar to--which will also decrease the amount of dust that accumulates on the models when they sit out.

Here's to hoping that this type of productivity continues!

Storm Guardians

2008-08-09T17:23:00.000-07:00

I just finished assembling a unit of Storm Guardians for my Eldar Bards of Twilight army. I used 7 resin bases, and 5 regular bases. Hopefully this will allow the army to look nifty without falling prey to the "everyone found a rock to stand on" syndrome.

I modeled this to look like the Tyranid Brood Lord, where it is letting out a great howl (or hiss/whine/growl... whatever).

This fellow looks like he is leaping into combat.

The Rats Return

2008-08-04T09:26:00.000-07:00

Sunday Night Warhammer sponsored by Ordo Fanaticus started up again last night, and there was a nice turnout of about 10 guys, some running multiple armies. Dwarfs, Wood Elves, Empire, Daemons, Hordes of Chaos, Lizardmen, Bretonnians, and Skaven all made an appearance.

My first battle pitted me against John (grayman) and his Dwarfs. If you will recall the last time I played Dwarfs, you'll notice the games tend not to be fun at all. All I do is run circles around them, throwing shuriken that bounce off their armor. I got into combat with a unit of Miners and a Bolt Thrower crew, but that's it. I avoided everyone else. I shot a Daemon Slayer to death with Jezzails and Warpstone Stars. My tunnelers decided to get lost, but I rolled the tunnel mishap that prevents the opponent from gaining victory points from them. It was pretty much a straight up point-denial game, but I came out on top, contesting two table quarters and owning the other two. Not a very fun game, however... but at least John was nice to play against.

Game two had me ambushing an all-mounted Bretonnian force with no magic whatsoever (spells, items). I managed to Skitterleap my Assasin into combat with some mounted Yeomen right off the bat, causing a mess to his battle line. This game had me lose one night runner unit, whereas I killed his three soft mounted Yeoman units and kill a few of those hard-as-nails Knights. Again, it wasn't very fun, and we called it at turn 4, when it was pretty much set that I was just going to avoid combat and maybe kill one knight a turn. Ryan was very pleasant, and his stand-in Mongolian army looked great.

I'm really thinking that this is the last time I'm going to run the Eshin army. It just isn't very fun to play with or against. I felt that I was playing it well during these two games, but that really meant it suffered in the fun category. No charging recklessly into combat, just denial denial denial. Run around and throw stuff, but never take a charge, and only fight against squishy units. It just doesn't scream, "Play me again, I'm fun!"

The Call of the Druchii

2008-07-27T18:39:00.000-07:00

Sunday Night Warhammer is starting back up in August, and I got so excited that I decided I should start a new army! Well, that and I found that there is another army out there rivaling my SoC: Eshin army when concerning Assassins: Dark Elves. Yes, the new book came out, and yes, there are all sorts of nifty new models coming out, but the real draw for me was the Assassins. Every infantry unit can take an Assassin! Now, they are pretty expensive when equipped to kill anything, but I've been playing around constructing armylists and have been able to fit six Assassins into a 2250 list. Now, if I were to play with said armylist, I'm sure I wouldn't fare very well, because it doesn't include any fear or terror causing creatures--in other words, no monsters! It might be interesting to try sometime, but I doubt it would be my all-comers list.

The interesting thing about my foray into the Dark Elves is that while I initially intended to have a very themed army--can you say Assassins?--I have come to the realization that this is a very balanced army, and that would be the most successful way to play it. Not only that, but there is not a single entry in the list that I don't want to use! I've envisioned great Cold One Chariot charges supported by extreme missile fire. I've seen myself with a Dreadlord leading a big frenzied unit of Corsairs across the battlefield. I've thought of how cool it would be to have Executioners and Witch Elves slaughtering everything in their path, bathing in the blood of their foes. I've also thought of playing a point-denial game, making use of Dark Riders, Shades, and hidden Assassins centered around two large Hydras. The ideas, themes, and possibilities are truly endless. This is going to be the biggest difference between my current Warhammer experience with the SoC: Eshin list. The Eshin play one way and one way only. There's really no deviating from that path (but that's okay, because it is the True Path). Dark Elves are going to expand my horizons on how to play Warhammer, and I find that prospect very exciting.

So starting in August, I hope to break out the new army. I placed an order with hakoMike from the UnderEmpire, and on August 2nd, the following items will be shipped to me:

Dark Elf Armybook
1x Dark Elf Warriors Regiment
1x Wood Elf Glade Riders Box Set (to be converted into Dark Riders)
1x Vampire Count Ghouls Box Set (to be converted into Harpies)
1x 25th Anniversary Edition Dark Elf Assassin
1x Closed Harpy Wings Bitz Pack (to convert the Ghouls into Harpies)
1x Open Harpy Wings Bitz Pack (to convert the Ghouls into Harpies)

Using these models, when we finally start the Escalation League with 500 points of Core Only, I will be able to field the following:

Unit Type	Unit Name	Number in Unit	Base Point Cost	Options	Options Point Cost	Total Point Cost
Core	Warriors	10	6	Full Command (Lordling is General), Shields	25	85
	Assassin	1	90	Additional Hand Weapon, Touch of Death	36	126
Core	Repeater Crossbowmen	6	10	None	0	60
Core	Dark Riders	5	17	Musician, Repeater Crossbows	32	117
Core	Harpies	5	11	None	0	55
Core	Harpies	5	11	None	0	55
						498

And there is much more planned for the future!

Raising a Vampire Count army for TC

2008-04-10T19:36:00.000-07:00

Here's some of the Vampire Count stuff I've been working on for TC. The wolves were already painted, but unfortunately fell apart, so they had to be re-glued. I just finished assembling the Skellies, and I used a new glue that made it a LOT easier. 5-10 sec cure time? YES PLEASE!! All my Skaven were assembled with this stupid glue that took like 60-90 seconds to cure. I can't believe all the time I've wasted holding two pieces of plastic together...

NOTE: The shields will be painted separately from the skellies, hence why they haven't been glued on yet.

Swarms and Tunnel Markers

2008-03-30T22:11:00.000-07:00

Finished a couple things recently, even though I really haven't been working very hard on painting.

Entirely Assembled and Primed

2008-02-17T10:27:00.000-08:00

My Eshin force is a little bit closer to being finished. The entire army is assembled and primed, so now it won't look all silly when I'm playing it--it still won't look good, but at least it will look uniform (somewhat).

The members of Ordo Fanaticus that I play against regularly have painted armies, and it is inspiring to see them on the field. Thus, I'm going to try to have my army finished by year's end. Will I fail? More than likely. But at least I can try.

8 POINTS!!!

2008-01-21T11:20:00.001-08:00

I played another game with my Eshin yesterday, and I missed out on a Minor Victory by 8 points! I had a 216 victory point advantage, but it was still a draw. Oh well, that was my first draw at a high point level! WOO HOO!!

The game was 1500 points, and it was against Orcs. My Assassin survived the battle, which was a definite first. I had him equipped with the Bands of Power and Warpstone Charm. Interestingly enough, he didn't even have to take a save. He just teleported around the battle field destroying Spear Chuckas early, and then took out two shamans later in the game. He definitely earned his points back.

My Sorcerats even got in on the killing fun (taking out a war machine).

My Gutter Runners sucked. They didn't do squat. They charged the flank of a Arrer Boys unit and whiffed, being run down in return. The others did the same, I believe. At least the tunnels didn't collapse.

I didn't take any Jezzails, which I would do next time. Additionally, I would take some rat swarms with poison, as poison is the best thing EVER against Orcs.

I magnetized my entire army this past week, and it was great for transporting and packing up before and after the game. Here's a picture:

The Eshin are Getting Stronger

2008-01-13T23:03:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I lost again. Who cares, right? I DO! I was NOT massacred! This is the first time that I have managed to actually put a hurt on the opponent and position myself for a win. Unfortunately, it didn't happen, but I still played well. Usually when I play against people they take it as an easy win, but this time, I actually was making my opponent react to what I was doing and think. It was the most fun game of Warhammer I have played thus far.

2250 point game against Wood Elves.

He had 3 Alter Kindred (one Lord level), a mage (army general), two units of War Dancers, a unit of archers, a unit of glade riders, a unit of Wild Riders, two units of Dryads, a Treeman, and a great eagle.

I ran the following list:

(335) Queetik Eeksteen - Fellblade, Talisman of Protection, Smoke Bombs
(149) Chieftain - Heavy Armor, Battle Standard Bearer, Storm Banner
(140) Sorcerer - Level 2, 2x Dispel Scrolls
(130) Sorcerer - Level 2, Warp Scroll, Warp Token

(240) Triad - Smoke Bombs
(80) 8x Poisoned Wind Globadiers

(120) 6x Warplock Jezzails
(108) 6x Gutter Runners - Tunnelers, Poisoned Two Hand Weapons and Poisoned Throwing Stars
(108) 6x Gutter Runners - Tunnelers, Poisoned Two Hand Weapons and Poisoned Throwing Stars
(260) 4x Rat Swarms - Poisoned Attacks

(49) 7x Night Runners - Throwing Stars
(90) 10x Night Runners - Slings
(63) 7x Night Runners - Two Hand Weapons, Throwing Stars
(63) 7x Night Runners - Two Hand Weapons, Throwing Stars
(63) 7x Night Runners - Two Hand Weapons, Throwing Stars
(63) 7x Night Runners - Two Hand Weapons, Throwing Stars
(63) 7x Night Runners - Two Hand Weapons, Throwing Stars
(63) 7x Night Runners - Two Hand Weapons, Throwing Stars
(63) 7x Night Runners - Two Hand Weapons, Throwing Stars

High points of the match:
1. Master Assassin takes out the General, but is killed by a charging eagle.
2. Gutter Runner unit and one base of swarms dual charge a full unit of Wardancers and destroy it--even with the Wardancers striking first.
3. My Night Runners with slings rapid firing at a unit of Wardancers 2" away, and missing all 20 shots.
4. Tunnelling Gutter Runners scattering right behind a unit of Archers, which led to the Archers being cut up and run down.
5. My BSB keeping the Great Eagle out of the battle for 2.5 turns and preventing the Wood Elf Archers from even firing.

The Shadows of the Howling Heights - The 2250 Point SoC: Eshin Army

2008-01-07T23:28:00.000-08:00

Lord:
Master Assassin Queetik Eeksteen, Bane of all Man-Things (Fellblade, Talisman of Protection, Smoke Bombs)

Heroes:
Sorcerat #1 (L2 Wizard, Dispel Scroll x2)

Sorcerat #2 (L2 Wizard, Warp Scroll)

Chieftain (Bands of Power, Warpstone Charm)

Core:
Night Runners #1 (5 Night Runners with No Upgrades) [5/5 completed]

Night Runners #2 (7 Night Runners with No Upgrades)

Night Runners #3 (5 Night Runners with Slings) [5/5 completed]

Night Runners #4 (5 Night Runners with Slings) [5/5 completed]

Night Runners #5 (7 Night Runners with Throwing Stars)

Night Runners #6 (7 Night Runners with Two Hand Weapons and Throwing Stars)

Night Runners #7 (7 Night Runners with Two Hand Weapons and Throwing Stars)

Night Runners #8 (7 Night Runners with Two Hand Weapons and Throwing Stars)

Night Runners #9 (7 Night Runners with Two Hand Weapons and Throwing Stars)

Night Runners #10 (7 Night Runners with Two Hand Weapons and Throwing Stars)

Night Runners #11 (7 Night Runners with Two Hand Weapons and Throwing Stars)

Night Runners #12 (7 Night Runners with Two Hand Weapons and Throwing Stars)

Rat Swarms (5 Swarms) [2/5 completed]

Special:
Gutter Runners #1 (6 Tunneling Gutter Runners with Poisoned Two Hand Weapons and Poisoned Throwing Stars) [5/6 completed]

Gutter Runners #2 (6 Tunneling Gutter Runners with Poisoned Two Hand Weapons and Poisoned Throwing Stars) [5/6 completed]

Warplock Jezzail Teams (5 Warplock Jezzail Teams) [0/6 completed]

Rare:
Triad (Eshin Triad) [0/3 completed]

Poisoned Wind Globadiers (8 Poisoned Wind Globadiers) [1/8 completed]

The Grim Week 6 Escalation League Results

2007-10-11T23:31:00.000-07:00

So another week has come and gone, and here's the list I took at 800 points:

Chieftain (General) w/ Weeping Blade, Heavy Armor, Shield
Ratassin w/ Warpstone Stars and Smoke Bombs

6x Gutter Runners w/ Tunneling, Poisoned Hand Weapons and Poisoned Throwing Stars

2x Rat Swarms
9x Night Runners w/ Two Hand Weapons
7x Night Runners w/ Slings
5x Night Runners
5x Night Runners w/ Two Hand Weapons and Throwing Stars
5x Night Runners w/ Two Hand Weapons and Throwing Stars
5x Night Runners w/ Two Hand Weapons and Throwing Stars
5x Night Runners w/ Two Hand Weapons and Throwing Stars

I went up against Ogres and Wood Elves... and was slaughtered both times.

Ogres: Fear sucks. I couldn't charge because my leadership is terrible. Additionally, he fielded a Butcher and I had no magic protection, and thus, his two Magic Missle spells (Bangstick and some other spell) hurt me in a bad way. I almost killed his general (Bruiser) right off the bat with my Assassin and his Warpstone Stars, but I left him with one wound and then proceeded to get magic missled to death... I took out a unit of bulls and a unit of gnoblars with my 9 NRs accompanied by my Chieftain, but it was all for naught as the rest of my army was torn asunder. It was definitely an enjoyable game for both parties.

Wood Elves: His army consisted of 3 units of Dryads, a unit of Glade Riders, a unit of Glade Guard, and a unit of Wild Riders. His general had the Hail of Doom Arrow, which he unleashed on my Assassin (ouch). So pretty much he was just as fast as me and he hit harder. It was an ugly game. I almost took out his Wild Riders, but when I had the chance to finish them off, I got lured into a baited trap (damn you Glade Riders and your looking so soft and squishy before running away!). I just don't know what I could have done in that game that would have prevented me from getting a butt-kicking... Definitely a bad matchup for me.

Next week is 850 points, PLUS we get a free character of up to 100 points. So I'm thinking that free character will be my Sorcerat. Oh well, that's a week away, so there's plenty of time to figure all that out...

Thoughts

2007-10-06T17:56:00.001-07:00

So I'm rather disappointed right now, as I just finished playing a couple games at 750 points... and won both.

Now, I'm not disappointed that I won, but I'm disappointed with how and why I won: I avoided combat at all costs and pecked away with slings and stars. Well, I did manage to Skitterleap my Ratassin into combat in the first game and slay the Empire general, which was cool, but aside from a couple other charges with Night Runners, that was the extent of my combat for two entire games.

My opponents were Empire and Dwarfs. The Empire army consisted of a large block of infantry supported by gunners and swordsmen as detachments, as well as a couple small units of knights and a unit of handgunners. I concentrated on his soft gunners, took them out, skitterleaped into the general and slayed him (then fled and got caught), and then avoided combat while pecking away at the big soft unit. I could tell this was not the most enjoyable game for my opponent, but he was very kind and said he had a good time.

My second opponent was a Dwarf and he had a unit of Clansmen with the Thane of Pain, a unit of Thunderers, and a unit of Hammerers. Three big blocks that I just avoided. I ran around claiming table quarters and then just picked at his warriors and thunderers. Talk about boring. The game went by so fast because he never did anything aside from move his piddly 6" march... Now, I didn't have fun this game even though I won due to table quarters, because I was sure that my opponent was pissed at having to play against me.

I am worried that the SoC: Eshin army is not fun to play against. Again, against certain armies (Wood Elves) I'm sure people will be able to keep up with my movement, but for slower armies, it just appears to be ZERO fun.

I'm hoping this proves to be a one-time occurance, and that my games next week are full of enjoyment for both parties--win or lose.

Eshin Escalation League: Week 5

2007-10-06T17:56:00.000-07:00

The Bards of Twilight... The Beginning

2007-08-17T23:39:00.000-07:00

I've already played one game with them, so now it is time to get them all painted! Here's the first of what is bound to be a bunch of guardians painted up as the Bards of Twilight.

Please note that these are most definitely WIP models, and will have a lot more attention given to them. Well, the guardians themselves will stay very basic, but I will add some diamonds in somehow to reference the Harlequin theme.

Back into the Tomb, Ye Dirty Bags of Bones!

2007-08-14T21:06:00.000-07:00

So I have officially parted ways with my Tomb Kings. I sold the gi-normous army today to someone on Ordo Fanaticus for $300 (it was worth around $800). That frees up a lot of space in my basement, let me tell you! I have a had this giant undead-ness hanging over my head, worrying about if I'll ever get around to painting it--playing it even... but no longer!

I wash my hands of them!

I am officially down to two armies each for 40K and Fantasy: Eldar, Witch Hunters, Skaven, and Dwarfs. The best part is that I do not feel overwhelmed at all. The way I see it, Skaven and Eldar are my current armies, and the Witch Hunters and Dwarfs are my future projects. With Fantasy, I almost have my 500 point warband painted up, and soon it will be running rampant in an Eslacalation League, where it will grow to about 1150 or something. So that will be happening in September through December (I'm assuming). After that, the Brockshow will be back from Iraq, and after he gets settled in, he and I will be starting a "Tale of 3 Gamers" with T.C., and for that I will be starting my Dwarfs.

Witch Hunters can stay hidden in my drawer until I get time for them. Heck, the Codex: Inquisition will probably be out before I ever get to 'em. But I'll keep picking up bits and pieces for when its time comes...

So yeah, I'm happy to say that I now only have 4 armies in my possession--not counting the Wood Elf, Ogre, and Empire army that I'm storing for Brock. Little does he know that these models are now corrupted and mutated into chaos spawn. MUHUAHAHHA!

1st 40K Game... EVER!!

2007-08-12T18:38:00.001-07:00

I just played my first game of Warhammer 40,000! Alex and I had agreed upon a trade via Ordo Fanaticus, and decided to play a game when we met to swap plastic instead of just, well... swapping plastic. It was pretty cool of him to take the time to teach me how to play. We played an Eldar vs. Eldar game at 1000 points. Here're the armylists from what I can remember:

Alex:
HQ - Farseer on Jetbike w/Singing Spear and Doom
Core - Jetbike Squad (4) + Warlock on Jetbike with Singing Spear
Core - Dire Avengers (10) w/ Bladestorm Exarch in Wave Serpent
Elite - Striking Scorpions (8?) w/ Scorpion Claw Exarch
Elite - Fire Dragons (6)
Heavy - Falcon w/ all the goodies (Fire Dragons rode in here)

Me:
HQ - Avatar
Core - Jetbike Squad (3) w/ Shuriken Cannon x1
Core - Jetbike Squad (3) + Warlock w/ Singing Spear on Jetbike with Conceal
Core - Guardians (10) w/ Starcannon
Core - Guardians (10) w/ Scatter Laser
Elite - Harlequins (5) w/ Shadowseer and 3x Harlequin Kisses
Fast Attack - Vyper Squadron (2) with dual Shuriken Cannons each
Fast Attack - Swooping Hawks (5) w/ Exarch w/ Skyleap and Intercept
Heavy - Vibro Cannon Support Weapon Platform

We played "Cleanse," so the way to win the game was to secure table quarters. I had an advantage because I had more units and more mobile units. However, it was my first game every playing, and I made a lot of mistakes... but I still managed a draw because we each had two quarters each. If we had been doing victory points, I would have been decimated, because all I had left was my Avatar and one squad of Guardians.

Here are some things I learned throughout the game:

1. YOU DON'T NEED TO BE IN COMBAT EVERY CHANCE YOU GET! I misused my Jetbike squads and they got killed--all because I was trying to get them to shoot at something when I really didn't need to. I should have used them to deny table quarters.

2. Harlequins need to be bigger than units of 5. I need to take a larger squad of these baddies so that they can take some casualties but still hit like a ton of bricks in combat. I hit like a water balloon when I finally got into combat.

3. Swooping Hawks are freakin' rad! I love bouncing in and out of play dropping grenades. Talk about fun!

4. Formulate a plan and then stick with it. I had my Avatar walking around in circles for the first four turns of the game because I kept changing my mind with what I wanted to do with him. Idiot...

5. Vypers with dual Shuriken Cannons are awesome! Must fit two more into my army.

I think I want to play defensive with fast harassment units. I will use the Harlies as a counter-attack unit to wipe out anything that comes for my Guardians/Avatar. I'll let the Vypers, Jetbikes, and Hawks run around doing their thing. Sounds like a fun way to play!

Pretty much I'm just ecstatic to have actually gone out and played a game. Hopefully I will go and play more games in the future.

The State of the Eldar

2007-07-29T15:44:00.000-07:00

[Not shown in image are NIB Rangers, Harlequins, and Guardians]

That's Project: Eldar. It is in no way a legal army (yet), but it is what I have at my disposal. Putting it all out on the table shows what a mass of stuff I do have. I'm pretty proud of it all, even though it is quite overwhelming. I'm going with a heavy Guardian theme, as well as making use of Harlies and Swooping Hawks. I'm not sure I will actually use the Scorpions or the Reapers, but I have 'em just in case. I'm contemplating running a tank-busting unit of Harlies armed with fusion pistols, but we'll see if that is just plain stupid or not (must ask WarSeer).

The basis of the army is the Bards of Twilight, those who know how the Phoenix Kings die in the final battle of the Eldar. The Harlequins are a must, as they are the true bards of the Eldar race. They are the storytellers who tell of The Fall, so I figure they must be tied into the Bards of Twilight somehow. I want a guardian heavy force because it pays homage to the old Ulthwe army list, plus it just seems right. I don't know why the Bards of Twilight would have a bunch of Elite Path warriors running around with them.

So yeah, here it is right now. We'll see what happens in the future.

Already Done with Dwarfs?

2007-07-23T17:34:00.000-07:00

You wanna know what's tough? Choosing a freakin' army to collect. Here I am, all talking about how I've decided to go with the Dwarfs, and then BAM! I get hit with a picture like this:

Now tell me how I am supposed to react to that? That chariot looks freakin' amazing!!! F-R-E-A-K-I-N-G A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!! I've always loved the White Lions. Hell, when I was borrowing some of Brock's High Elves, I bought my own White Lions so that I could use them, as well. They are such badasses--for Elves, at least.

Man, I don't know what to do. Having to choose an army sucks. I know it is not fiscally feasible to buy every army that I like--and I know that I'm just suffering from the "new model" disease--but I really do like the looks of the new High Elves.

Oh boy, this could be difficult...

PS: And what about this guy?

Burrying The Undead Drawer?

2007-07-15T00:18:00.000-07:00

So, my current thinking is to sell my Tomb Kings collection. I just don't think there is much to play around with in the armylist. I do like the look, and love the fluff, but I think that they would become stale. [Side note: I love how I talk as if I would actually finish painting and play with said (any) army.] Therefore, I will ponder this idea of getting rid of the TKs a little more. First off, I'm going to have to inventory what I have. Then I can figure out how much it is worth (retail) and then estimate what I could get for it on Ebay or Bartertown. This could prove interesting.

What's crazy is that I think I'm going to stick with the Dwarfs. More than once I've almost talked myself into selling off the buggers, but they have held steady--like a true Dwarf, I guess. I just can't believe that they are as terrible as our good friend Aaron made them seem. I mean, look at all the toys they have!!

Well, we shall see what happens...

Nemesis Crown Poster

2007-06-25T00:09:00.000-07:00

GO BLAZERS!

2007-05-22T18:19:00.000-07:00

Today is National Blazers Day. Totally non-Warhammer related, but they freakin' won the lottery! We get the first pick in the NBA draft, which means Greg Oden or Kevin Durrant!!!