LOTR Moria Goblins

A few more Lord of the Rings figures today, this time a sprue of moria goblins, which I got a pile of a long time ago, and these are the first ones I've actually got around to painting.

One question I had with these was how to base them, I nearly decided to base them all rocky and cave-like, but in the end all the models they are going to fight have grassy bases so these do too.

I've given in and ordered the Hobbit - escape from goblin town, and am actually really quite excited about it, expect to see lots more from middle earth in the near future.

White Dwarf 396 & Wargames Illustrated 302

This months white dwarf is of course focused on the new Hobbit releases, but thankfully they seemed to have learnt a bit and it doesn't overly dominate the magazine.  Again the first 50 or so pages are taken up with the new releases, I know it's important to showcase the new stuff but I'd really like to see the page count on this section come down.  This months battle report is Hobbit related and not a bad read, jeremy, jervis and john blanche all return, but I didn't find any of them that inspiring this month.  On the other hand parade ground (40K flyers), kit bash and the army of the month (an ogre army) were definatly inspiring.  Other than that 'the rivals' returns and the 'this month in' sections at the back were quite interesting.  A reasonable issuse overall.

As the picture above shows this months issuse also came with a very large double sided poster which is basically a giant advert for 40K, with just the standard minis we've all seem before layed out all together.  Very boring I'm afraid and mine went straight in the bin.

A couple of quick thoughts on the new Hobbit line whilst we're here, the models look great, I like pretty much all of them.  Also it's something I've wanted ever since I got into wargaming and first read the Hobbit (around the same time actually), and now they're finally here I'm very impressed, what I'm not impressed with is some of the prices.  The main boxed set looks to be OK (just), but some of the others are insanely priced (e.g. 3 plastic trolls for £50).  It's a shame I'd love an excuse to buy it all, but at these prices I can only see me getting the main boxed set, and possibly, maybe stretch to some of the plastic orcs in the future.  Also although it was predictable I'm very glad they kept it in the same game as the LOTR figures, I'm getting sucked back into middle-earth already.

The theme of this months wargames illustrated is the french and indian wars of the 18th century.  It's not a period I collect, but is one I'd like to do at some point in the future.  Theme articles were an overview, both of the history and the forces, a battle report and a look at how to make period terrain.  Flames of war is quiet this month with the only real article being about the US nationals, which features an awful lot of very nicely painted models.  Savage wars of peace returns with a look at our heroes followers and the first anglo-afghan war, I'm really enjoying this series and hope it keeps going for quite some time.  There is more 19th century action  with looks at the satsuma rebellion in Japan and the US army for the american-mexico war.  The other article of interest was an interview with Bryan Ansell, who of course has been involved with Games Workshop, Wargames Foundry and others for many years.  A good issuse all round. 

More LOTR, Theoden, Gamling & Bilbo Baggins

I enjoyed painted Balin so much the other day I've had another rumage through my mountain of unpainted figs and have dug out a few more, this time three heroes for the forces of good.  For a quick one afternoon paint these guys have come out remarkably well and I admit that I'm rather pleased with them.

On another (but related) note the first pictures of the new Hobbit range have appeared today, and they're looking rather spiffy.  I know it's going to be very hard for me too resist getting the main boxed set at least, but the final decision will be made at the weekend when the prices are annouced.

Angels of Death & Balin

It's been a horrible rainy day in Bedfordshire today which meant I couldn't get out and do what I was meant to be doing, on the plus side it's been a constructive day on the painting side as a consequence.

First off we have these 'Angels of Death' which will count as Vanguard veterans for my space marine army.  They are of course basically blood angel sanguinary guard, but In a different paint scheme.  I've been promising myself a unit of these ever since they came out, really fantastic models, especially the death masks, but all of it to be honest.  A real design triumph in my book and I'm not going to let something as silly as them being the wrong chapter of marines stop me adding them to my army.

Secondly we have this Balin model for Lord of the Rings.  I've been rereading the Hobbit over the last few days and it gave me the hankering to paint a few lord of the rings figs again.  I had a rumage around and came up with the Balin figure, which is appropriate as of course he appears more in the Hobbit anyway.  I'm really looking forward to the new movie now and hope GW come up with a good value boxed game for me too buy.

40K Alpha Legion Chaos Cultists

It's been a slow month, but here is my latest finished squad, the second bunch of cultists from the dark vengeance set.  Lovely models, and very useful gamewise.  The Hellbrute and chaos lord are now underway and will hopefully appearing soon.

My alpha legion army had its first outing last week as well, they took some imperial guard allies and gave my opponents chaos space marines quite a trounching, although the star of the game was the allied leman russ due to my opponents inability to spread out his troops!

Spartan Games 40mm Cyclops

I've finally painted something not for my alpha legion army!  Today we have this cyclops from Spartan Games which I got very cheap in the Wayland Games halloween sale.  He's actually in 40mm scale not the 28mm that the rest of my ancient greek stuff is in, but I've bought him like that on purpose as I always imagined the cyclops to be substantially bigger than a normal man.  Anyway it's a nice model which I'm pleased with overall, not to sure of the goat hooves instead of human feet though.

 

And finally here's a comparison shot a 28mm foundry Odyesseus.

 

 

White Dwarf 395 & Wargames Illustrated 301

A week late but here we go and after the excitement of last months new styles and giant isssues this month was never going to come off great in comparison, still it's not all bad......

White Dwarf comes with two inserts this month, this first is a gift guide and went straight in the bin, the second however is more useful and is a small booklet with the rules for the new warriors of chaos units.  I'm a big fan of WD introducing new units and having them as seperate booklets is great too as I can just slip it into the army book and not worry about carrying the WD about as well.

The main mag is a bit smaller than last month at 136 pages, the first 50 or so of which is the new realeases section! Just a tad excessive and disapointing.  The format is the same as last month and there are no suprise articles, jervis johnson, jeremy vetcock and john blanche all return, there are some nice gamers models in the form of an empire army and some 40K conversions and of course a battle report showing off the new chaos models.  The good 'this month in' section returns at the back of the mag.  Overall it's all ok, but feels a bit 'light' still and unimaginative and I really think the new releases section needs cutting down.

Talking of new releases I do like the new plastic chaos models and hope to get some of the hellstriders in the not to distant future.  Can't say I feel the same about the new finecast scyla anfingrimm, to me he just looks too much like a skylander!

This months theme isn't much of one really, it's the battle of the bulge for flames of war and there are two articles, one scenario / battle report and one on making appropriate terrain.  Not particulary inspring stuff to me I'm afraid, but there's some good stuff elsewhere in the mag.  The standout article for me is 'savage wars of peace - part 1' the start of a series about adding some victorian stereotype heroes and antiheroes to colonial wargames and developing them, some real potential here.  Another article which will be useful to many is an army list for the Byzantine faction in Saga (a game I'm managing to resist playing for now) with the battle board for them printed on the back of the magazine.  Other articles that I liked included one on some fantastic dioramas of the peninsular war and a look at a battle between the incas and the spainish, which was a bit of a different era to get a look in.  Overall a perfectly good if not spectacular issuse.

Alpha Legion Rhino & Vindicator

Two new vehciles for my Alpha Legion army today, both of which came from job lots I got off ebay, so aren't constructed as I would have chosen, but still they add useful abilities to my army.

First off is this rhino, with way to many spikes for my liking, as well as an attached havoc launcher.  Rhino's aren't as good any more, but I still think a bargin for the points.

 

 

And secondly this origanl Vindicator based on the origanl rhino with metal add ons.  It was in a bad way when I got it and had been constructed very badly, the barrell is on at a funny angle and there were gaps everywhere.  Liquid green stuff filled in the gaps and I have to live with the wonky barrell.  Oddly I think this could do with a few more spikes, like the obliterators I painted last week this is more for functionallity than looking good on the shelf.

More Alpha Legion & The First Game of 6th

Been a bit quiet again recently, but I've finished another couple of units for my alpha legion force.

First up are the chosen from the dark vengeance boxed set.  Lovely models, although all the detail on them took abosolutely ages to paint.  Not sure I can acutally see myself using them that often though as with all the upgrades they end up costing a lot of points and still die relativly easily.

These obliterators are the opposite, not good models at all (though admitedly the were very cheap), but will find themselves in most games that I feild my chaos army in.

Yesterday also saw my first game of 6th 40K, with my space marines taking on my freinds chaos (neither of us have the new codex yet so he was using the old version).  It was an easy win for me, helped a lot by my opponents chaos terminators failing a 5" charge and them getting counter charged by my storm sheild termies.  These things are bound to happen more now though.  Very breifly I liked the new flyer rules, the new scenarios and the pyschic rules, wasn't so sure about random charge ranges and the new wound allocation rules.  Vehicles really do seem a lot weaker now with a lot going pop very easily, and alas my rhinos are nowhere near as useful (although still efficient enough at 35pts).  Although we didn;t use them in this battle I'm a big fan of the allies rules too.  Overall I'm happy enough, it's still the same game, but mixing it up ocasionally adds to the fun.

Warhammer 40K Dark Vengeance Limited Edition

So here we have the latest Warhammer 40K starter set from Games Workshop.  This is the limited edition version that contains an extra chaplain model for the Dark Angels.  I've had this for a few weeks now and have even painted up some of the figures, and it's fair to say I'm happy, this is good.

What do you get then? well I'm going to start with the paper an first the mini-rulebook.  If you have island of blood you'll know what to expect, it's an A5 size full colour rulebook containing all the rules from the expensive full rulebook but without the background sections, it's what I wanted, no more, no less, but I'm really glad it's included and I don't have to fork out for the big rulebook.  The other major booklet is a 50 page A4 'starter booklet' which contains an intro to 40K and 6 scenarios using the models in the book, it's a nice touch that the first 2 scenarios are one-player so you can get gaming striaght away without even the need for an opponent.  There is also a black and white booklet on how to construct the models, a couple of reference sheets (oddly one on card and one on paper) and a laminated colour card sheet with the rules for the chaplain on.

You also get the usual whippy sticks, a template sprue, a few dice and of course the miniatures;

The models are very nice and the set contains the start of  a chaos space marine army and a dark angels army.  The chaos side for me is the star of the set, with all of it being fantastic, the giant helbrute steals the show and is really rather awesome.  The chosen are also great with 5 of the 6 being indivual scuplts and the cultists are something a lot of poeple have been waiting for for a long time.

The dark angels aren't as interesting, but are still pretty good, with the standout pieces for me being the librarian and the limited edition chaplain (the only model in the set to come with a moulded base).  And whilst they might not be as exciting as the chaos, it really is a good start to an army or as in my case a good boost to an existing one.

It's not perfect though, there are some ways that the set could have been even better.  First off the two sides aren't closely balanced enough in points for my liking, with the dark angels enjoying a clear advantage, a simple switching of the librarian for a chaos sorcerer would have helped.  Secondly I find the choice of Dark Angels as apposed to vanilla marines very odd as it will limit their use for a lot of players and I think will reduce sales.  I plan just to add them to my army anyway and not worry overly about any inconsistant iconography (I'm sure there's an interesting story behind it in my chapters history), but I know a lot of people wouldn't be happy with that.  Finally only 6 D6's is just mean, really 6 dice, shameful.

not enough dice, sigh...

Overall it's a great value for money boxed set and a great intro to 40K.  The models are fantastic, the mini rulebook is great and the intro book is much better than the previous versions.  The limited edition seems to be sold out already, but the normal edition that lacks the chaplain will be nearly as good and a bit cheaper.

White Dwarf 394 & Wargames Illustrated 300

It's been a big month with my two wargaming magazines, lets start as usual with White Dwarf.

White Dwarf 394 (actually I now can't see that number anywhere so WD Oct 2012) is the first of a new era, with a complete redesign and an increase in size and price.  There is a lot of good here, it's a big improvement.  I like the new styling, I like that black library, forgeworld and fantasy flight games are given a proper place.  At the end of the mag is a nice section of whats going on in WD, the design studio, black libray and forgeworld, with the sort of design notes that have been missing of late.  Jervis Johnson, Jeremey Vetcock and John Blanche (blanchistu is spectacular this month) get columns and there are quite a few examples of poeples models and conversions.  A battle report of course features and there is a nice article called the rivals which pits two warhammer generals against each other in army design.  It's not all good though the painting section is still very basic with little in the way of techniques, and the biggy is that the new releases section takes up a whooping 50 pages! A full third of the space.  It's definatly better, but not quite yet fixed.

It also comes with a fre Horus Heresy poster which is OK if not spectacular.

Wargames Illustrated celebrates its 300th issuse by producing a huge issuse of just shy of 300 pages!  This months theme is last stands and the mag has many many articles on famous and not famous last stands throughout history.  Flames of war only gets a quick look in where they explore the new plastic starter set (which I am tempted by), but pretty much every era gets at least one article.  I've not had a chance to read it all yet, but it's very impressive eye candy and the articles I have read have been up to the usual standard (including an interesting one trying to sperate the myth of the 300 spartans from reality).

More Alpha Legion legion

I've been absent from here for a couple of weeks, with real life getting in the way and having a couple of posts that just can't quite seem to get themselves finished off.  But nonetheless I've returned with reinforcements for my alpha legion.  First off some much needed elite forces in the form of a Terminator squad.  I've mixed in a couple of pieces I had spare from my chaos lord.  There's a couple of chainfists and a lightning claw mixed in, but game wise they will all count as having a powerfist (their weren't enough in the kit).

I've also finished my first models from Dark Vengeance (thoughts coming soon), which is a squad of the new cultists armed for ranged warfare.

 

Below is a pic of my new army now and its finally starting to get somewhere!

A Few More 40K bits

An assortment of recently finished projects today, all for warhammer 40K.

Starting off with these 5 fire dragons with exarch, which takes my fire dragon squad upto 10 and enough firepower to melt just about anything!

Another squad is completed with these two terminators taking my 'normal' terminator squad upto a full 10 men.

And finally two squads of Imperial Guard infantry to form the core of my allied detachment. These came off ebay cheap, but one of the downsides of this is that they're not put together as well as I would have liked, but they're OK and will hopefully do their job well.

Navwar WW2 Late War Japanese Starter Set

Another project that I've forced myself to finish off as dark vengeance arrives (which it has, and very good it is too) is my Japanese Late war starter set from Navwar, as usual in 1:3000 scale.  The ships have actually been finished for a couple of months, but I just hadn't got around to basing them.

The japanese are very good in victory at sea and benefit hugely from the poor points system as in each of the 5 brackets they can field efficient ships.  It also helps that the Yamato class battleships are the most powerful in the game.

As all the Navwar starter sets this one is good value, although I'd have prefered one less carrier and another battleship, but thats just me, I like battleships a lot.

 The big boys of the set the Battleships, from left to right the Nagato, The Ise and the Yamato.  Although as I already have a Yamato this model has been christened the musashi.  The Ise is a fascinating ship that is half battleship and half aircraft carrier!

The set also contains 3 full carriers of various sizes, the Kaiyo, the Shinyo and the Unryu.

On the left we have two Takao heavy cruisers and on the right we have two oyodo class light cruisers. 

 And finally we have 4 akitsuki class destroyers and 4 kagero class destroyers.

A Few Thoughts On The Dreadball Kickstarter

Kickstarter seems to be the in thing at the moment, with many gaming companies running successful campaigns to launch new games/ranges.  The one that is interesting/tempting me is the dreadball one from Mantic Games. 

The first question I had was why on earth kickstarter? the game was clearly already done, designed and the models produced.  One of the earliest 'stretch' goals was the refbot which was in the rules and the model had already been produced and an example painted up.  It all sort of looked like a bit of a con.  Also the deal at the beginning frankly didn't look that good at the $150 'striker' level that the campaign has been centered around.  But a lot of this was because I didn't understand how kickstarter works, Mantic sensibly started out not promising too much so that they could add more stuff in later, and we are at the point now in the goals where things like Hex-bases seem to be genuinely stuff they couldn't do without this upfront funding.

Onto the game itself, firstly I want to give big respect to Jake Thornton (the writer) for addressing the big question over on his blog, that is of course, have you just copied Games Workshop's classic fantasy sports game Blood bowl?  And whilst it is aimed to appeal to the same people that like Blood Bowl Jake has purposely designed it to not be blood bowl.

How the game works is slowly coming out and it has some interesting mechanics, I like the standardised class system, but the big one for me is no resets after scoring.  This is massive and will add a whole new layer to the game, no good scoring if the opponents can easily score straight back again.  I'm also a fan of 'sudden death' and that there will always be a winner.  It can be difficult to see how it all adds together at the moment and I hope a video of someone actually playing turns up before the kickstarter ends.

That's the positive, there is also one negative for me, and that's the selection of the standard fantasy races as teams (although I understand that that is to match the races from warpath), as this makes it look a lot more like blood bowl and opens up the copying accusations.  Having said that some of the MVP's starting to be shown are taking it more in the sci-fi direction I like to see.





In the end it's very, very tempting, and the deal is starting to look good, at the time of writing you get all this for $150, with 28 days to go, and hopefully many more stretch goals to be reached: