Chicken Vindaloo
First off, I just saw this vid report of a tournament and this guy had a Skaven army with 180 slaves/rats and another 180 clanrats. No magic, no casters, just a wave of brown.
Friday was Paint Fest. We went over basing styles as well as how to paint more efficiently. Here is one of a many number of slides about setting up an efficient station. This is my view of one of the best setups for painting. Everything is scrunched in close, everything handy. Water dish is shallow and broad and filled up just over half way.
I have recently started using an even larger water dish, a small tub actually.
Julie is working on a Lizardmen army that is just beyond belief. The saurus are sandy colored with deep jade colored armor, brass weapons with crystal blades. They look better than any lizardmen I’ve ever seen. You’ll get to look those over later.
Paint Fest had a fabulous turnout. It’s college level education intended to expand techniques and make sure that everything is homogenized: all painters should be able to do the same work as the others. And also cross-pollination of skills.
I have to shamefully say that I didn’t paint anything for Paint Fest. I just sat there and chatted, and read army books. Sad.
Friday evening I went out with Tamie to a small concert featuring her sister’s husband’s band. Afterwards we went out for pie. I bought a pecan pie to take home. I made myself sick on that the following morning.
Saturday afternoon I put in just more than a half-day at the studio getting everything caught up. I watched like ten episodes of Red Dwarf. That show is beyond awesome. What a great adventure. Loads of fun. And good sci-fi, too. Not for kids, but probably more tame than your typical episode of Seinfeld. Though evidently the middle finger is all right on the UK airwaves.
Once home, we bundled up all four kids and headed to the local grocery store. There is a certain one, Macey’s (not the clothing store Macy’s) that is particularly beloved of the locals. It is bright and well-stocked, and on a Saturday night it is packed, and we’re sure to run into a few people we know. It’s closed on Sunday, which is why we like it– the story is that they have been standing against larger chains open 7 days a week.
The kids love it. We like to pick up a little baggie for each child of those scoop-bin candies. I also picked up fixins for hamburgers which we had for dinner.
What I really want right now is to play a game of Warhammer Fantasy. I have no new plans for new armies. I do have multiple full armies ready to be painted up, on hand and ready to roll. As usual you get a break on price for just letting us make an X point level army for a set price. No waiting– when the half-down deposit comes through I just walk the materials into the assembly room.
- Vampire Counts
- Imperial Guard
- Orks
- Orcs and Goblins
- Lizardmen
- Space Wolves
At the top of our stairs is a wooden lip. I ran up full bore tonight and rammed my toe on it, smashing off a jagged, bloody quarter inch of nail. Then that magical ten seconds where you know you’re hurt but the endorphins have kicked in.
Mmmmmm… Endorphins.
Nudge
Just some random reminders:
I have three copies of Space Hulk ready to be painted up.
I’ve got Type II Cobra and Scorpion tanks for Eldar on the block at $160 each, ready to be commissioned.
More to come…
Advance Scout Report
Thanks to Advance Scout Paul for this summary of rumors and useful articles.
Here’s some events happening in the mini wargaming world. Other than people squabbling on release dates for GW, not much is happening.
Here’s the release months (pretty finalized)
http://www.belloflostsouls.
January: Tyranids
Febuary: Beastmen
March/May: Blood Angels
June/july: Fantasy 8th edition
Septemer: 8th edition box set
Beastmen cover (codex release in feb):
http://www.tabletopgamingnews.
New Warmachine khador warcaster Kommander Strakhov:
http://privateerpress.com/
More Warmachine Cygnar trencher commandos. They are some really cool looking steampunky figs:
http://privateerpress.com/
Skaven Banners from GW here. Just color them in photoshop, print out, glue down, and paint around the edges.
http://www.games-workshop.com/
Custom Dice
Check out this site for custom dice. Came recommended by a client.
Wilma Flintstone
I fell asleep last night watching Red Dwarf, then woke up again at 2pm, my mind doing ponderous windmills. So, I gave up on sleep and watched like four more episodes until I fell unconscious again for a few hours. Dawn came soon. I am majorly sleep deprived.
Against my better judgment I filled a mixing bowl with generic brand Capn Crunch and sent my pancreas running for cover.
I took Willow for a ride in the stroller. It snowed overnight, the mountains are powdered with it, and there is perhaps a good inch layer on the trees.
I tried to be on time for church, but didn’t make it. Next week it shall be! For some reason I’m in a real funk on Sundays. There are like six families in the ward having a hard time right now so I’ve nothing to complain about.
Maybe I’m “crashing” around church time.
We cooked up some dumplings for dinner, so delicious and filling.
We “gobbled” three families: leaving cookies with a note to forward it to others. We were gobbled earlier this week.
Just more of the same, warm snuggly family life.
It’s Cold Outside
This is the astounding new Queek Headtaker model. It makes for a great Warlord as well.
Today I hung out with the family for a few hours, watching kids cartoons and eating breakfast with my lovely wife. I have a lot to get accomplished at the studio (had, I guess) so I headed down around 10am or so. My wife headed up to visit her sister along with all the kids.
I’m just hanging out down here by myself. Yup all by my pitiful lonesomes. It’s pathetic. I’m really down in the dumps.
My inbox is cleared.
I’m going to go home and hang out. I’ll be on and off, so if you’d like to set something up that would completely make my night.
Blue Hats
I ate an omelette and orange juice for breakfast, kitty corner at the dining room table with my wife, sitting primly in silky pink pajamas. We talked about money, plans for the kids, and the daily news.
At the studio today there were at once eight people in, coming and going with various projects.
I have models on hand for several armies, as I’ve mentioned before:
- Lizardmen
- Imperial Guard (see below for general list– this isn’t set in stone, you can add/subtract things)
- Skaven
- Space Wolves
- Orks
- Orcs and Goblins
- Khador
Just email me for details. I can get them started straitaway.
I have a dream that one of these will be set up by the end of the day on Saturday.
I’ve become quite a fan of Red Dwarf. I also rediscovered an old favorite album: Hounds of Love by Kate Bush.
I used to listen to this tape when I worked for Raven Maps back in Oregon as a single young man, I think 19-20. I was the sole warehouseman, packing and shipping giant maps. I was by myself down in this huge building. I loved it. I got to organize everything. I improved the methods of packing. I got the job because the owners frequented the video store where I worked before that. I earned $3.55 an hour. When the Map job was offered at $7.50 an hour I thought I was the richest man on earth, nearly double raise. I used to buy cookies at the Cookie Connection just up the street. There was a girl named Tamara (not same as my current wife) there who I had quite a crush on. She ended up marrying the owner of the local bike shop.
I played a couple of games for the studio Warhammer Fantasy Campaign, in the 300-400 range. We’re trying to get everyone worked up to a full 2000+ pt army. I’m the only one who works at the studio with a full army (Dark Elves). Here are the army types and point totals:
Dwarfs 800 pts
Ogres 500 pts
Skaven 1000 pts
Empire 800 pts
I take that back; Janene has a 1500 pt Dwarf army. She is refurbishing it and adding some cool current edition models.
I left a bit early. Sarah was just finishing up packing, a monster day of packing, and just barely making it to the Post Office. It probably won’t be until over the weekend that confirmations will be out. So, rest easy. If there were any stragglers I plan on getting those out Saturday (tomorrow).
I gave my wife a much-needed break to go out to some Twilight shindig with her girlfriends. I got to be home with the kids, each one a delight. Not an ounce of frustration (tonight!). I fried up some dumplings, put them in a giant shallow bowl with soy sauce in the middle with several forks and a huge glass of orange juice and another of milk, and we all ate off the same dish. And a side of green beans. Deeelish!
Here is a view from the plateau on which Spanish Fork rests, looking south over the dales and farmland. It doesn’t show, but I’m a good fifty feet above this valley.
Life is so good. I have this last year, been waiting for the other shoe to drop. How could life be so sweet and not have some terrible punishment in store? This is not what is waiting for me. The thing that I thought would be the best case scenario is only the foothill at the base of the Mountain of Goodness that the God of Creation has in store. He is full of grace and mercy. The only question is will I open my hand broadly enough to receive it. Will I have the courage and faith to embrace it?
When things go wrong I start to waver, perhaps like Peter on the water. I clamber for the edge of the boat. I must have greater faith that the Good Lord is showing me to something good.
Chaos Notes
Hey, saw your post in the blog, thought I’d give you some thoughts on that (I used to play chaos.)
First off, I think chaos terminators are far superior to normal termies. For one, their guns are actually twin linked bolters, as opposed to storm bolters that normal termies carry. Though they don’t get two shots from 24 inches, but they are twin linked and rapid fire. Next, they get normal power weapons as opposed to having power fists stock. This is good because it lets your thin out the ranks of termies before their power fists get the chance to attack you. And, for the same price as a normal termie (40 points) you can have your chaos termie as a champion (3 attacks, and everyone in the squad can be upgraded this way.) This will help you wipe out a termie squad before they even have a chance to fight back.
Chaos rhinos are also pretty useful (seeing as how oceanic eldar cant kill them 
Seeing as how 5th ed is all about mech, chaos rhinos can fill their role as transports well because of demonic possession. While it is 20 points, it lets you fearlessly charge your rhino across the board and into your opponents face (so what if it lowers your BS to 3, not like your supposed to be shooting with a transport much anyways.)
Seeing as how 5th ed is all about mech, chaos rhinos can fill their role as transports well because of demonic possession. While it is 20 points, it lets you fearlessly charge your rhino across the board and into your opponents face (so what if it lowers your BS to 3, not like your supposed to be shooting with a transport much anyways.)
Defilers are also amazing. I would recommend two. This way if one gets shot to hell you still have another. The battle cannon seems like the most useful weapon on a defiler, but most people aren’t aware of its prowess in close combat. If you get one, give it all close combat weapons, and charge it (or use the battle cannon if it still has it) and use fleet to get into the opponents face. Defilers are probably the most fun heavy support choice in the chaos list.
If you plan on giving your regular marines a mark, the one that I recommend is mark of tzeentch. A 5+ invuln certaintly helps them capture objectives. Slaanesh is also really useful against regular marines as you can attack before they do and hopefully wipe them out. Mark of chaos glory also helps in case you lose combat and need to make a reroll for moral. (Dont forget a termie squad can deep strike and not scatter within 6 inches of a mark)
Finally, I would recommend taking at least one squad of berserkers in a land raider. This allows you to rush your berserkers into combat and then assault out of their transport. Possessed also fill this role fairly well, but a pricey value.
Hope this helps, I got a couple more ideas but let me know what you think. Oh and the eldar army turned out great
Sincerely,
SM
Wheel of Doom!
I’ve been able to see the Doomwheel in action a few times.
Like most Skaven machinery, it has a chance to work spectacularly (eg double-time it across the board and Terror three units off the board) or to actually kill your own guys.
The Doomwheel is a wrecking machine, virtually no down-side. Let’s take a closer look.
Defenses
The Doomwheel is Toughness 6 and has Wounds 5 and a 4+ armor save. It also causes Terror. This puts it on par with a Giant for overall durability.
Movement
The Doomwheel moves 3d6″ a turn for an average movement of 10-11″. This makes its overall movement better than a chariot of cavalry on average since this is not slowed by models being nearby (ie it has no March move, it just trundles along at a steady pace). Even better, it does not need to have line of sight to charge, it can just zig around the board without a care in the world.
The machine does suffer d3 S4 hits if it moves into difficult terrain, but so what? On average that’s two hits, and each one needs a SIX to cause a wound. It takes d6 S10 hits if it moves into a building or impassable terrain. Ouch. But at least it’s not automatically destroyed.
Ranged
The Doomwheel shoots three lightning bolts every turn. They hit automatically. Strength is an Artillery dice.
Tired…. more to come.