Monday 29 August 2011

My Tale of Three Gamers Tomb Kings 1000 point Army List



Good afternoon children of the Plague Father, today I offer up my Tomb Kings list for the Cupboard of Nurgle Tale of Three Fantasy Gamers challenge. At this point I haven't read the rule book fully or played any games so as far as I know this could be the worst list I could make but it uses a few different models I fancied painting so should still be good fun, of course any criticism of any massive flaws with it will be appreciated.

So first up here is my list:

Heroes
Liche priest level 2 with Earthing rod
Tomb Prince with Great Weapon


Core
3 chariots with Banner of Eternal flame
18 Skeletal Archers with Musician
30 Skeletal Warriors with Hand Weapons & Shields


Special
3 Necropolis Knights with Musician


Rare
Casket of souls


Total 997 

The list seems smaller than I was expecting but this is probably due to having Knights, a Casket and a unit of Chariots though all three do seem to be getting praise around the forums. I have an idea of the colour scheme I plan to go with these which will I will be starting shortly ( as I am the only one who hasn't started painting yet ) which is currently looking at being a brown/red for the wood with a green/blue ( closer to green than turquoise though ) with brass in place of the gold to try and given a more weather look without going down the verdigris route, though I do like the one in the codex.


Used without permission from www.bluetablepainting.com


The above picture from Blue Table Painting is similar to what I am going for and over the next week I plan to paint up a test model to make sure I am happy with the scheme if the weather stays cool as whenever it gets warm I cannot bring myself to paint.
Until next time children be sure to spread the blessings of the Plague Father to all you encounter.

O'Shashar

Wednesday 24 August 2011

Review of Space Marine demo




Hello again and welcome back to our beloved Father Nurgle's cupboard. Now I wonder if any of you can guess what I was up to yesterday rather then painting my Warhammer Orc horde? Yes, you've guessed right. Like any other fanatically (don't get too giddy though the inquisition might come after you!) devoted fan of GW you will (or should) have downloaded and tried the demo for the up and coming game Space Marine.




Now I will admit we fan boys of the 40k universe can be pretty hard to please, but I have to say Relic have absolutely nailed this game. The look, the feel, the sounds, everything is how I would imagine the 40k battlefield would be like. I think Relic have taken a lot of inspiration from the hobby. I would say they have pulled thing from various parts of the hobby, from Black Library books, to GW's scenery and miniatures. Even to the actual game of 40k itself.

There are two levels to try out in the demo. One where you are on foot and you get to try out some of the weapons that you will have at your disposal and another that give you a go with a jump pack.

OK when the game loads up you get to get your self familiarised with the controls, the graphics and the sounds. The graphics are brilliant. They're very crisp and clear. The textures of the surfaces are especially good. The sounds are believable, from the space marine boots clanking on metal, to the industrial ambience.




The weapons you get to use are the bolt pistol, which is a semi automatic pistol. You use this with your chain sword in close combat. There's the Bolter, which as you can imagine is an automatic rifle a bit like the Assault Rifle from Halo or the Lancer Assault Rifle from Gears of war. You get a grenade launcher, which fires miniature grenades and lastly there is the Stalker pattern Bolter, which is like a sniper rifle version of the Bolter. It can take an Ork down in two shots or with one well placed head shot that causes the Orks head to explode.




The controls can be a little tricky to get used to at first, I found the jump pack especially difficult to get used to. The game play itself is extremely fluid and this certainly helps as your character responds to your commands instantaneously. The change from ranged combat to close combat is brilliant and can certainly help you get out of a pickle. This is the first thing you need to get the hang of quickly if you are to cope with the hordes of Orks and I do mean never ending hordes.

The combat system is easy to get used to and is very swift as you hack and chop through Ork after Ork. There are 3 normal combos for each weapon and 3 stunning combos. The stunning combos are important as you can then use finishing moves on enemies and this replenishes your health and you need this as you are constantly under fire and be hacked and chopped at yourself!

Speaking of Orks the enemies you come across in the demo are Choppa Boyz, some Shoota Boyz, Gretchin, Bomb Squigs and a couple of Loota Boyz on the Jet pack level. There are also a couple of 'Uge Choppa Nobz laying around and these guys are deadly as they tower over you!




I was really looking forward to this game and it certainly did not disappoint me. It really reminds me of Gear of War with the gore, weapons, the characters (you can't say a C.O.G marine doesn't look like a Space Marine) and the game play. I would suggest anyone who like the Gears of War series who is not a fan of the hobby to give this game a go and to all those fellow hobbyists out there you have to try this out. If you haven't then I hope the emperor's finest hunt you down.

Until next time my Plagueling friends.

Wednesday 17 August 2011

A Tale of Three Fantasy Gamers - Introudction




Good evening children of the plague father. This evening I am pleased to announce that Mighty Simo, Dorn's Arrow and myself have decided to start a "Tale of Three Fantasy Gamers" to try and get a starter fantasy army each with plans of trying out 8th edition. I got inspired to do this after following the progress of Millests TOTG and had initially wanted to do an Imperial Guard of my own, however when trying to rally the troops for this no one was interested in starting yet another 40k army and I was at the point of just doing it solo as another project I shouldn't take on until I have finished everything else ( though if my hints of wanting an airbrush for Christmas have been noticed by my wife I might get Imperial Guard and go full tank column ) .




Luckily while trying to convince Mighty Simo he needs another army to use other than his Chaos Marines he said he would be interested in doing it with Fantasy as had collected some Orks from AOBR he wanted to try and use in WFB along with some Night Goblins he had got cheap at the FLGS. With this opportunity rising I decided why not and then had to decide between the Tomb Kings I wanted to start or the boxes of Lizardmen I have in my hobby corner from last year when the hype of 8th hit and I was convinced it was worth investing in ( one game since 8th has been out at 600 points says it wasn't ). In the end true to my nature the models I already own were ignored in favour of the army I always wanted.

After talking it over we are going to write up a 1000 point legal list which will be broken down into 200 points per two months incase of holidays and the like. Now I know this doesn't seem a lot but when looking over the cost of models some are cheap to the point of seeming like a ploy to sell plastic in bulk so a 1000 point army could be quite sizeable.



Army wise I will be going a head with my Tomb Kings, Mighty Simo is starting an Orcs and Goblins while Dorn is treating us to more of his Skaven. The plan is to have an update on each armies progress every week with a round up at the end of each month. Lists will be submitted before the end of August and we will start on September 1st and run until the end of June 2012.

At this point there is no punishment for people who slack off but this may get reviewed if it needs to be, at this point I don't want to be too heavy handed with it and take away the fun and just make it a chore. We will try to post some none Fantasy posts as well but it will not count towards the TOTFG posts so might be a little rarer. All being well a 1000 point army won't take almost a year.

Until next time children keep spreading his blight.

O'Shashar

Wednesday 10 August 2011

What I've been up to...


Greetings followers of all things decaying, I thought it was about time I made another post to the festering Cupboard of Nurgle. So recently I have been working on my 1st army for Warhammer Fantasy Battles, a suitably disgusting and vile species with links to the plague god himself... The Skaven!


So for xmas (I know I've been slow, I commit myself to many projects at once) I bought myself the island of blood, which is a seriously good box set. The models are fantastically detailed and the mini rulebook is great, specially as its full colour.


The thing I like about the Skaven is their backstabbing nature, and lined up in their ranks they really look like they would just overwhelm the foe with numbers, biting scratching and stabbing their way to victory, even if the foe was their (ex) best mate:


I am just about to finish another 5 ratmen, which will give my running total as 15 with spears and shields and 15 with hand weapons and shields. Soon I will be assembling and painting the command units for these 2 infantry blocks so hopefully I'll have some follow up pictures. Following the completion of my clanrat units (well until I get more models to expand them) I have 20 stormvermin, 5 poison wind globadiers, 2 rat ogres, 2 warlords, 2 weapon teams and the warlock engineer to paint… so far I have found the Skaven very quick to paint, mainly due to their dirty nature and the generous use of Devlan Mud wash and a simple highlight scheme. So hopefully I will have enough painted for a small game in a few weeks :)


However because I'm a sucker for a good guy, I have also finished my test model of a High Elf Lothern sea guard. I think its one of the nicest models I have ever painted, differing totally in painting methods to the Skaven, being much more about clean, thin layers of paint rather than the dirty wash. I find these different painting techniques help me from getting bored of painting the same thing, and therefore I don't start to try to paint too quickly and bodge them.


Anyway, it would be great to hear what people think, or if they have been starting any new armies or are trying any different methods of keeping their painting style feeling 'fresh'.

Until next time friends, let the rivers flow freely with pus and mucous (and all manner of other disgusting Nurgley things).

Tuesday 9 August 2011

Could a Black Templars Shooting List Work?


 Good evening children of the life giver and thank you for joining me. Recently I have been trying my Black Templar's on the table top and while they haven't been getting tabled with no resistance I do feel that they just don't stand up in combat very well.

Looking around the internet this seems to be a bit of a sore point with Black Templar fans wanting to stick to the fluff of a combat chapter crusading around the universe in the Emperor's name and bringing heretics, traitors and xenos to heel. Now I personally love the Templar fluff and are the only marine chapter I can see myself using but Grey Knights and Blood Angels do combat better than Templar with the current codex ( hopefully this will be remedied before too long ).

The gun line style list seems to be gathering support and while Templar's don't have the cheapest vehicles coupled with not having as many free goodies as other chapters this is a bit of a worry of mine, however I am willing to give it a go to see if it turns out any better.



So first off the list I used against Mighty Simo in our last 1v1 game;

HQ
Emperor's Champion - Accept Any Challenge No Matter The Odds



Elites
6 Terminators 4 Pair of Lightning Claws, 2 Thunder Hammer & Storm Shield Furious Charge
Land Raider Crusader


Troops
7 Initiates, 2 Neophytes, Bolt Pistols & Close Combat Weapons, Frag Grenades, Power Fist, Melta Gun. Rhino
7 Initiates, 2 Neophytes, Bolt Pistols & Close Combat Weapons, Frag Grenades, Power Fist, Melta Gun.Rhino
7 Initiates, 2 Neophytes, Bolt Pistols & Close Combat Weapons, Power Fist, Melta Gun. Rhino

Fast Attack
Land Speeder - Typhoon Missile Launcher, Multimelta 
Land Speeder - Typhoon Missile Launcher, Multimelta

Heavy Support
Predator - Autocannon & Lascannon Sponsons

Predator - Autocannon & Lascannon Sponsons

I would love to say that this list was amazing but really the game was very tense, it was Dawn of War with 4 objectives with me going first. I deployed nothing and used my first turn to get in position before the forces of Chaos descended on me. Turn 2 looked promising with me doing more damage at range than I expected but on turn three my terminators lept out of the land raider and ended up having nothing to kill as my Melta failed me and in return they were charged & wiped out before they even got to strike by Kharn & his beserker squad with a combi-melter toting terminator squad wrecking my raider from the 1 penetrating hit.

It went the distance to turn seven which luckily by then I had 2/4 objectives as mine, 1 contested by a speeder and the 4th was held by a single plague marine hiding behind a wrecked rhino. It was a win but had been a close game and one that I only won due to me only making one bad roll in turns 6 & 7 both shooting and in combat.



So here is my attempt at a "shooty" list

HQ
Emperors Champion Abhor the Witch, Destroy the Witch

Elites
5 Terminators - 2 Cyclone Missile Launchers, Tank Hunters
5 Terminators - 2 Cyclone Missile Launchers, Tank Hunters

Troops
5 Initiates - Bolters, 1 Plasma gun & 1 Lascannon. Razorback Twin-Linked Lascannon
5 Initiates - Bolters, 1 Plasma gun & 1 Lascannon. Razorback Twin-Linked Lascannon
5 Initiates - Bolters, 1 Plasma gun & 1 Lascannon. Razorback Twin-Linked Lascannon
5 initiates - Bolters, 1 Lascannon. Rhino
Fast Attack
Land Speeder, Heavy Bolter and Typhoon Missile Launcher

Land Speeder, Heavy Bolter and Typhoon Missile Launcher

Heavy Support
Predator - Autocannon, Lascannon Sponsons
Predator - Autocannon, Lascannon Sponsons


I didn't have enough points to take a 4th razorback and was torn between a 4th scoring unit, 2 more Land Speeders or a dreadnought in a drop pod. In the end I thought with using small scoring units ( which will have to be out of the vehicles to fire the Lascannons ) a 4th troop choice sitting in a rhino might work out best but this isn't play tested as of yet so the whole list could be scrapped.

In total this list gives me 12 Missiles ( 8 with tank hunter ), 11 Lascannons ( 3 Twin Linked ) and 2 Autocannons. Now this could prove to be disastrous but until I get I6 power weapons, FNP & Furious charge across my army I don't see them being a true combat threat any time soon.

I would love to hear your ideas on this type of list and any suggestions on making this work.

Until next time

Wednesday 3 August 2011

40k for sale!


Good afternoon fellow warp spawn of the Plague Father. I am going to cheeky plug about my items I am selling on eBay. Basically I bought the Assault on Black Reach box set as I wanted the templates and rule book for Blog Wars back in June. I was hoping to us a lot of the Orks for my Warhammer Orc and Goblin horde, but when I received it through the post I found that only 10 of the Ork boyz would pass as fantasy battle Orcs. I am also looking at converting the Warboss, which I will do a step by step for your loyal fellowship.

This means that everything else I am more or less selling. They have all started at a measly £0.99 so grab yourselves a bargain.

I have split the units up into individual parts and nearly, if not all of the miniatures are still attached to the sprue so they are virtually "brand new from the box". There is also 2 Chaos Space Marine bikes that I got in a bundle off eBay and do not need. The items I have for sale are:

3 Ork Deff Kopters
1 Space Marine Captain
1 Space Marine Dreadnaught
5 Space Marines with flamer and sergeant
5 Space Marines with Missile Launcher
5 Space Marine Terminators
2 Chaos Space Marine Bikes

You can view all the items at http://shop.ebay.co.uk/mighty_simo/m.html?_trksid=p4340.l2562.

In recent news, I have been sorting out the Ork boyz for my Warhammer Orc horde and I have taken my light box round to Dorn's Arrow to take some pictures of his recent models that he should be giving you an update on hopefully this week.

Until then fellow daemons of Nurgle, may you be the bringer of plagues and death to the false Emporer!

Monday 1 August 2011

Magnetising My Land Speeder - Tutorial

Good evening children of the Plague Father I am pleased to once again welcome you to his domain, tonight my offering is my first attempt at magnetising a Land Speeder. After looking around the internet there is a lot of different views and opinions on how to do this ( and I am not above using other peoples experience to avoid ruining my own models ) which varies by each individuals personal approach.

Now as good as so many of these are I did find that the lack of detail did get a bit annoying, I know some things you can assume but when you haven't done it before I find I want to be 100% sure and not making assumptions. I found it would jump from here is a pile of plastic and magnets, one or two quick steps and there you go the finished product. What I am going to try and do is provide a little bit more in depth guide ( yes it will be a long post sorry ) as I found it took a little bit more time than I was expecting.




 Firstly I glued the seats and the central pillars in place so I was able to dry assemble the rest as it was needed, allowing me to make sure everything fit while I was working from a rough idea of how I was actually going to make this work.

I decided to tackle the Typhoon missile launchers first as with my Templars I imagine it will get the most use due to being cheap ranged fire power. I took a lot of my inspiration from †Talonstrike† ( which sadly seems to have stopped posting ) and started by building up the inside of the wall with plasticard. I used 5x1mm magnets so I only had to use 2 filler pieces and then the back piece, I tried with one but it bowed worrying me that one day it would ping off inside the model. When building this part up try and keep on the columns as I ended up having to trim the plasticard at the bottom & sides when I assembled it due to catching on the grooves it slots into.




Next up I assembled the missile launcher and the door before adding a 5x1mm magnet and then trimming the part that looks like a support beam with a pipe on it ( the part that slots through the hole of the door if my "amazing" description lacked clarity ) to be flush with the magnet so the door could sit flat when in place.




So that I could line the inside magnet up with the outer I blue tacked the missile pod in place before adding glue to the plasticard and letting the magnet align itself by dropping it and relying on its mysterious powers ( being careful to keep my fingers off the glue and out of the way of the free falling magnet )



On the inside I cut a piece of plastic card to fit over the supports I had made. It was easy enough to see where the magnet should sit and where to add the glue to let it fall into place, it actually worked better than I was expecting though I do plan to cover the inside magnets with green stuff just to be safe.



To match up the alternative door I waited until the glue was dry and dropped the magnet on the other side, marked it up to get the polarity right and glued it in place, I used the missile door to line it as they are similar but not identical annoyingly so wanted to be safe.


 
Pleased with my efforts I then moved on to adding the Assault Cannon / Heavy Flamer options. The first step was to drill a hole in the base of the model. I chose this spot as it was between the lines and let me line up with the grooves for the gun mount. My magnet of choice this time was a 3x1mm which while the magnet seems small the drill bit seems bigger than I would like to use on such a thin bit of plastic ( I actually made a little hole which I filled with green stuff from the other side trying to get it snug ).


 
The Bottom part here is the weapon mount which needs to be magnetised on both sides, one to attach to the bottom of the ship and one to attach to the guns. I could have glued this in place and saved two magnets but then it would always be on the model though it is fairly small without a gun attached. This was fairly easy to do by centring the magnets however this did lose me the use of the light which is suppose to go on one side ( looking back if I had been careful I could have cut away at one edge to fit the magnet for the gun on and had the light as a permanent feature ).


Drilling in to the top of the assault cannon was a breeze however the flamer is hollow so be very careful you don't drill too far down or you have to build the inside up so you don't lose your magnet. On a side note neither of these came with the barrels predrilled and would recommend no more than a 0.5mm for the assault cannons rotary barrels as the two closest to the extended section are slightly narrower and a 1mm could ruin it.

 

I think the missile doors shut flush especially considering that it isn't all nicely glued in place yet and the extra distance from the hull the weapon mount gives was worth making sure I added it over magnetising directly to the hull. 

Now I know you will all be asking yourself "O'Shashar you traitorous T'au dog what about the Multi Melta / Heavy Bolter?" and this is a good question. At this point I haven't decided yet if I am going to use spare parts to make a second gunner and just swap them out at the torso or use one guy, I would love to hear your experiences with this and which gives a better result.

Currently I am leaning towards torso swapping as I do not put the marines sticking out of my Rhinos as they just don't look like they fit out the hatch properly so have spares. Though it would mean sacrificing another two BT shoulder pads to try and keep the feel of the army as Templars not just black marines ( considering the only icons on the ship are two crosses sides behind the missile doors in place of the included icons which do not include any for Templars).

Over all I do like this model even though it is smaller than I was expecting, I was expecting more piranha sized ships. The Aquila on the front is part of the cast which was a little disappointing as I hadn't planned to use it ( I would have cut it off but with the model being smaller the sword from the upgrade box looked out of place ). It has been a good learning experience for me and I hope that my guide helps at least one person and any feedback on this would be appreciated.

Until next time drink deep from the cauldron and spread his blessings to all you encounter.

O'Shashar
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