Thursday Game

Marius Oudenaar squinted as he peered through his spyglass. "I don't see anything, Pietro... besides, nothing ever comes out of the Wastes. Ever."

"Look closer!" his companion insisted. "I'm sure I saw something!" Pietro and Marius were standing atop a sturdy stone watchtower, charged with the duty of watching the eastern frontier for interlopers. The duty was somewhat of a punishment, as the watchtower was isolated and lonely, far from the busy marketplaces and villages of the Border Princes.

"Wait a moment... I see something! I see it!" cried Marius. "Dear Gods in heaven... they're Chaos warriors! No, wait... not men... those are hats... big hats! Could it be, dwarfs? They have beards... but I never heard of dwarfs with tusks. And are those greenskins with them?"

"Slavers!" interjected Pietro. "Chaos Dwarf slavers, from out of the Dark Lands! Come with Black Orcs and Hobgoblins to take us all as slaves! Quick, light the signal fires, hurry!"

Thursday's game: Warhammer Fantasy Battle, Chaos Dwarfs vs. Empire. 7:30pm start; see you then!

Cheers,

Dallas

"Buzz" Beurling over the Med

Sorry for the late post. I finally got around to writing up the Check Your 6! game held in honour of the visit of Conscript Sean, who now lives in Ottawa. We played the "Operation Pedestal" scenario again, minus the Stukas and a pair of Spits.

Note: click on the photos for larger images.

Here's Sean, who ran a pair of Spitfires, led by the Canadian ace, George "Buzz" Beurling. Kev ran the other pair of Maltese based fighters.



Brian ran a flight of JU-88s, in a bombing run on three merchant ships. I ran a pair of Bf-109s.



The three ships all had light AA, which shot indiscriminately at the closest plane. Very historical.



Things went wrong from the beginning, due to the Luftwaffe's setup. In hindsight, the bombers and escorting fighters should have swapped places.



As it was, the Spitfires were able to get good positions on the bombers, shooting down two bombers in rapid succession. The Bf-109s tried a head-on pass, losing one fighter for their trouble. The lead bomber is getting shot at by the ships, hence the splashes.



The trailing Spitfire, damaged by the lead Bf-109, failed to shoot down the bomber. The JU-88 managed to drop its stick of bombs (more splashes) but missed:



In the end, Buzz Buerling merely damaged a plane. However, his wing man was credited with downing two bombers.

The final tally was two splashed JU-88s and a Bf-109, in return for a couple of damaged Spitfires. This is in direct opposition to the result the last time this scenario was run, which was a clear Luftwaffe victory. Maybe the scenario is balanced after all...

Just when you think your minis are safe...

I love the gaming hobby, and have amassed quite a horde of painted stuff over the years. I display as much as I can - trying to find a spot that is nice, safe, logical, and within domestic-approval zoning. I figured the second story of our little house was safe enough...so imagine how great it felt to come home after a week long vacation to find this upstairs:



Some back story - our house is 80+ years old, and following ice-damming issues and rain-leaking-into-the-house issues, we opted for a brand new roof. New shingles. New insulation. New decking. New everything, right down to the studs. While I was away, I received a cryptic call from the roofing supervisor that a guy had "slipped, damaging the ceiling, but nothing inside".

Well, it could have been a lot worse, but the tally for this little slip (all painted stuff) is one 40k Stormblade damaged (bizarrely, one of the side turrets is missing - I think they knocked it off, and sucked it up in the clean up), four 40k Chimeras damaged, three 40k Leman Russ tanks damaged, and two Gün Scwharm tanks damaged.

The damage was primarily chips in the paint, and then little frizzy bits of spray insulation which came through the hole and stuck to the models. And the missing turret on the Stormblade...at least they did not totally destroy any stuff. Still, that little note on the inside decking did not really make me feel better.

F****!

More 40k Valkyrie madness

I just can't let go of the colour blue for 40k....

A couple of weeks ago, we concluded an Epic 40k game set on the hapless Imperial world of Toxo IV with a draw between the Tau and the Imperial Guard. A final show down had been brewin in that last disputed sludge sector, between the Tau and the Storm Troopers and Sentinels. I figure this will call for a part II, but with the game in 40k. Since I have a bunch of red Tau in 40k, and blue storm troopers in 40k, I just needed to add a few models to round out the "feel" - Valkyries!

Most of the guys have seen this finished model anyway, as I was showing it off at the 6mm WW3 game two weeks ago, but here are a couple of pics. This vehicle has more of a vehicle-hunting mission, equipped with a lascannon and two hellstrike missiles. In theory, the commandos should be killing the people/aliens (right...)



My first pass with this model was very frustrating. But the second time around went way, way smoother. I figured out the thing to do was to pretty much ignore the instructions, and instead follow the excellent GW online tutorial, which provides a sane way to assemble the model. One thing I clued to this time around is that many photos on the box are not, in fact, the assembled plastic model, but photos of the finished resin models from Forgeworld, which have many subtle differences.

Also, I was reminded again of why I love that blue paint scheme - it is insanely fast. Painting the cockpit takes the most time. The photo above is the model at the half-way stage - took about an hour!



So, one down - three to go, plus a Vulture for fun! I have ordered the additional Vaklyries from Maelstrom games, saving some big $$, and I still have that Vulture from Forgeworld (which is really, really hideous to assemble - stay tuned for seperate posts on that desperate project - I have had to break out the green stuff, and I SUCK with the green stuff).

While the remaining Valkyries should go smoothly, I think I may attempt one model with the door gunners open...that will be tricky! Not sure how I will pull that off. One problem at a time.

The overall force will transport my blue storm trooper lads - three squads, each with one Vaklyrie, and a fourth to carry the command flunkies, with one Vulture to assist. A bunch of sentinels will help (let's say they got air-dropped or something). I don't think it is codex-legal or whatever, but who cares? I just hope it will look cool...and when the time comes, we'll have a mega-smackdown in that final sector of Toxo IV!

**** You and the Horse You Rode In On

OK, so the first conversion work has started on the Vraksian Renegades. I decided to start with the Rough Riders. Readers will recall that the converted model consists of:

- Chaos Marauder horse and torso

- Bretonnian Knight lance arm

- Empire Militia left arm

- Forgeworld Renegade torso

Here is the assembled product...

Personally, I like how the rider came out, but not sure on the horse choice. It looks very... "Chaos-y" for lack of a better word, and may not quite fit with the more restrained and realistic look of the rest of the army. I think I'll continue with the riders but use a different horse... Empire Pistoliers maybe? There used to be some plastic Bretonnian squire horses that were quite nice but I don't think they're made any longer. Rats...

Thanks GW!

Went down to my local GW shop to pick up Razorwire for the Renegades project, and to "beautify" the Bastion I just built.

Guess what? They didn't have any! (cue Greg B.-style rant) The GW worker said that they stopped carrying it because "nobody bought it". He actually "didn't think they could even order it."

Visiting our local GW is getting more and more like stepping back into some sort of hobby version of Soviet Russia. "We can put you down on a pre-order list..." Whatevs.

Antenociti's Workshop, here I come =)

An Army (before) Dawn...

A pile of bits that might someday become an army...

With the recent... "enthusiasm" around here for Warhammer 40K I've joined Greg B. in "hooring it up" and now the bits that will become a Vraksian Renegade army are (mostly) assembled.

Clockwise from centre top... Command Squad and 3x Heavy Weapon crews; 10 "Chaos Death Riders" and steeds; Beastman squad (to stand in as Ogryns, 2 per large base); Renegade Squad #2; Renegade Squad #3; 2x Renegade Heavy Stubber crews.

There are 40 Forgeworld Renegade Militia torsos in there and a whack of Cadian bits. The Chaos Death Riders will be the most interesting conversions: Chaos Marauder steeds and bodies, FW Renegade torsos, Bretonnian Knight right arms, Empire Militia left arms. The Beastmen will be made from Cadian torsos, arms and legs, and Beastman lower legs/hooves and heads. The Militia squads are straightforward, all Cadian parts except the FW torsos.

Not shown: 20 Mutants/Itinerant Sludge Farm Workers with guns (Warhammer Fantasy plastic Zombies with random firearms and Renegade Squad #1 (these are painted already), two Leman Russ Demolishers (one assembled), about 40 Armageddon Steel Legionnaires (Traitor Guard). Might grab a Sentinel or two and/or a Hellhound but that should about do it for the list. Now to assembly!