2nd Bakemono finished this evening. Still not convinced about the colours and base but stubbornly persevering.
Archive for March, 2014
Nearly finished the first Bakemono. I’ve been a bit experimental with the colours and base on this chap to inject a bit of interest into my painting which has been flagging recently. The highlights on the skin are warm complementaries to the base green colour. This has given the mini a slightly chaotic even messy look up close under bright light, but from a distance in more gentle light the effect is more appealing. The base too is something I wouldn’t usually do. I’ve tried to be bold and capture a colourful garden feel. All good fun and I’ll persevere. It will be interesting to see how the force looks finished and all together.
A bit more progress on the Savage Wave this evening. I quite like the Bakemono sculpts. I’ve gone for a Knarloc Green base colour and shadowed it with a mix of P3 Trollblood base and Liche Purple. The idea is this a cold colour close to the complementary for green.
For the bases I’m going for a Japanese ornamental garden feel. I’ve used some fragments of miniature bricks to create a paving effect.
Nurgle Daemons Demolish the Emperor’s finest …. again!
Posted: March 24, 2014 in 40k, Daemons, Gaming, UncategorizedA game of 40K this evening. Space Marines across the table against 1.75K of Nurgle’s rotters. I decided to play the strategy which has worked well recently. Park a medium sized unit of Plague Bearers on an objective, Soul Grinders laying down covering fire, Plague drones getting an icon up the board and Deep Strike remaining units into aggressive positions.
In the first turn I had a stroke of luck with a Phlegm bombardment scaring a squad of Marines off the back edge. Everything else pretty much went to plan and when my Daemon Prince immobilised the Marines Landraider that was carrying a large and dangerous squad it looked like game over for the Marines. The Great Unclean One joined the battle late but his intervention saw the Daemons claiming an objective deep in the Marines territory. We called it a day and tallying the scores the Daemons had won 11 -3. I’m enjoying the Nurgle Daemons more now that I’m playing more aggressively. I must get the models at least built though – lots of them are falling apart which is a tad embarrassing!
I quite enjoyed browsing through the Bushido models on show at SMOGCON. A club mate mentioned they had painted up a few models so I thought I might as well dig out my stash of Savage Wave and get them ready for the table.
I don’t know much about this game or faction at the moment but as it’s a skirmish game I’ve just decided to get painting everything I have and I ‘ll worry about the force composition later. So, early stages of what I have below:
A 35 point game of Warmahordes this week. I decided to get Kromac out and across the table pGaspy with a horde of Cryx infantry. I didn’t like the look of this but a large forest near the centre of the table and the Stalkers ability to cut through infantry gave me hope.
The Cryx rushed forward and were split by the forest. On my right a big group of Bane Thralls with Tartarus looked very threatening while on my left Satyxis Raiders and Mechanithralls were the threat. I used my Stones to whittle them down and block charge lanes while the Stalker and Kromac got into position. I put Kromac as far forward as I dared intent on casting Bestial to close down Gaspy’s spells. The Stalker managed to get into the Bane Thralls and wiped out quite a few. It was hard work but the plan was coming together nicely.
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This was one of those games where everything came together nicely. Kromac had closed down the Cryx magic, the Stalker was scything through the infantry and the stones were doing a great job supporting my offensive game from range and simply getting in the way of the Cryx assault on Kromac. I gradually took down the horde of Infantry and with hiding places running out my opponent threw in the towel. A good game and very happy with the result.>
SMOGCON 2014 – part 7
Posted: March 8, 2014 in Dropzone Commander, Painting and Modelling, Tournaments, TrollbloodsThe Golden Thrall. There were some very nice entries in the competition. I popped a few of my Trolls in and the Hades. Ken popped in his Despoiler hoping for a sneaky coin. Sadly I missed the presentation due to the DZC tournament but I later learnt I had won three coins. A gold for my Runeshapers, a bronze for Gunnbjorn and his battle group and a gold for the Hades. Ken’s Despolier picked up a silver.
The third day of SMOGCON was always going to be busiest for me. First up it was the Dropzone Commander tournament and later in the day the Golden Thrall. The Warmachine Masters was also a distraction but sadly I wouldn’t be able to take part in the Speed Painting final as it clashed with the DZC tournament. I believe Ken was trying out Bushido and Tim was in the SMOGPIT but I think there may have been a High Command tournament in the mix too – all a bit much to remember at this stage!
Anyway, the Dropzone tournament was a three game affair and I was really looking forward to seeing if my numerous games at the Big ‘Uns had prepared me for playing ‘outsiders’ effectively. First game I played none other than Hawk Simon so I could immediately get a feel for whether we had been playing the game in the right style. Simon was playing Scourge and had a lot of the new models in his list. I noticed the list contained a lot of infantry and a lot of aggressive flying units, but was light on armour. As you might expect Simon played quickly and he targeted my anti air early leaving me unable to deal with his flyers. The game revolved around getting objectives out of buildings and he managed that rather better than me so won convincingly. It was a good game and perhaps what was better was the reassurance that my knowledge of the game and style of play was sound.
The next game I got to turn the table on the Scourge. I played a chap called Mark who was playing a very nicely painted army heavy with armour. In this game I had a lot more luck with the objectives and my PHR outgunned the Scourge menace with ease. Unfortunately no specific pics of this game but here is one that captures the atmosphere nicely.
In the final game I played a new scenario which involved five bunkers as focal points in which infantry were protected from fire apart from Flamers and CBQs. Across the table a PHR force including a Hades. This turned out to be a fantastic game that went right down to the wire. I dropped my Heavy walker ‘Death Star’ in the middle of the board and got my Sirens and a group of Immortals into the pivotal bunker at the centre of the board. However I left my home bunker very lightly defended and in the final turn my opponent made a daring raid down a flank putting just enough points within scoring distance to take it in the final moments. Great stuff – this scenario was a real corker and I would like to play it again.
So, I finished 1/3 but had a great time. Would be much more confident in my next tourny and I would need to take more infantry. I think the heavy walker ‘Death Star’ is too inflexible as well so would be keen to mix in some if the new lighter walkers for variation. To finish a rare shot of me playing a game!
A combination of still suffering from a cold, the rugby and the need to paint my PHR Hades for the Golden Thrall saw me sneaking back to the hotel room for a couple of hours in the afternoon. This was a feature I really enjoyed about SMOGCON : there was always something going on but it was possible to retreat for a bit and chill out. Anyway, I got a rest, saw England beat Ireland and painted the Hades. Result!
In the evening we went for a curry and met a nice bloke called Mark who had put a fantastic Retribution ‘jack into the Golden Thrall. Ken got experimental with his curry which looked as though it had been contaminated with necrotite, while we kept a close eye on Tim and his shandy consumption for fear of having to carry him home.
After the curry it was back to the hotel for a few beers and King of Tokyo. This was great fun enhanced by Tim’s authentic Manga cries of ‘Kraken’ and ‘fist him’ every time he got a chance to go on the attack (he had moved from shandy to lager by now). Towards the end of the session Nepalese Ninja, Conrad Gonsalves no less, joined us and there was much hilarity as he struggled with the dilemma of whether or not to ‘come out’ when in Tokyo City. Great game – I’ll be on the look out for a copy.
Day 2 kicked off pretty early with Tim and I in the SMOGPIT while I believe Ken continued with his High Command adventure.
I played two games in the morning. Both were 50 points and with Gunnbjorn. Game 1 was against a friendly chap playing Convergence. He helpfully told me that the key to beating his list was taking out the Clockwork Angels. The Convergence army looked intimidating lined up across the board, particularly as I had no idea what the models could do. Early in the game I was surprised when my opponents ‘caster whizzed across the board and landed pretty much in the middle of my army. It was a high risk strategy brought about in desperation as I had taken his advice and concentrated on successfully taking out the Clockwork Angels. Gunny, a Bomber and the Mountain King opened up, and although it was close thing, took the ‘caster down.
In the second game I played a delightful Spanish guy with Ravyn and a Retribution force. This was a real war of attrition on a bizarre scenario table with a huge tower that was an arc node in the centre.
Eventually the Mountain King faced off with Ravyn in one of those epic gaming moments but he didn’t quite have the capacity to take the ‘caster down. Fully furied up Gunny had no where to transfer and he was shot down by an arc noded spell and a Retribution ‘jack. This was a fantastic game and the best of the weekend for me even though I lost .
Nurgleonbass 