Countdown to Armageddon . . . . .

So this Thursday is Sheduled for Armageddon!!

With that in mind I decided to finish up my bases for my Ork Warband ah well as assemble together the bits I have painted terrain wise.

Shadow Wars Armageddon: Kill team.

So this week I got 5 minutes to sit down and have a think about my Kill team for Shadow Wars.

Now I had a bit of a quandary because I have all this lot to pick from. . . . . .

Legends of the Old West. Good guys wear black.

Finished up the last of my Lawmen for my brother yesterday.

Here are 'The long arms'.

Once again they are Black Scorpion efforts and are a collection of their 'Earps', 'Tombstone' and 'Sheriff' ranges.

And once again I think they look the business considering they are only ink washed and line edged.

Speaks volumes about the quality of the sculpts!

Kris' deputation stands at six miniatures but I have painted up seven just in case.

Also have a 'lynching' planned for the game Thursday at the Creative Biscuit so I need up to a dozen towns folk to get in the way during the shootout.

For that reason the two below got an hour with the brushes.

Both are Foundry efforts. They are old skool 28mm which means they are much smaller then the heroic scale miniatures but their smaller statue fits with their 'diminutive' stature so it all works out.

Now the numbers

Miniatures painted / sold this year = 142

Miniatures bought 95

371 miniatures to go!

Path to Glory.

So even before the dust had settled on the (ahem!) extravaganza that was Riotville LIVE!!, Lano, Lee, Anthony and I had talked each other into playing a 'Path to Glory' campaign as published in White Dwarf 275.

Being the proud owner of a (mostly) completed set of Silver Tower I went for Tzeentch although I can never pronounce it properly (!), Lano for Khorne, Lee for Slaanesh and Anthony for Nurgle. 

With the four powers represented we rolled on the followers table and I ended up with the following;

Aspiring Champion (on barded steed),

1 Marauder,

3 Chaos Warriors,

1 Ogre,

1 Chaos Hound

and a Pink Horror.

Tonight I set out what I've got. . . . 

Apart from the Chaos Lord they are all miniatures from the Cupboard of grey shame.

I love the look of the Chaos warriors and such as they are so O.T.T. they appeal to my 'kid growing up on heavy metal album covers' sensibilities!

But the lower level stuff like Marauders are just a bit well . . . . . pants!

Copyright of GW. Still does not change the fact they look pants

Thankfully the artwork in the Warriors of Chaos book is brill and I spotted this picutre. . . . 

Again copyright GW.

. . . . . especially these fellas tucked away in the corner . . . . .

Copyright GW

Now that's more like it!!!

I am really into converting Ogres at the moment so the Ogre will be getting some Green stuff work done. The Darkoath Champion from the Silver Tower set will do the job for my first marauder but the rest will probably go through some converting.

I am thinking of going the full 'Diceman' with this and rolling up completely EVERYTHING on the die apart from the actual tactics in the battle.

I have already found an old ROC name table and rolled up the name 'Daoz Daemonstrength' for my aspiring champion.

By the skin of my teeth!

So finally got (most) of my 1850 points of Ogres painted up for Riotville LIVE tomorrow!

The Gnobblar have got the shitty end of the stick and will not be painted for tomorrow meaning all painted miniatures will have hatred against them.

Oh well their only Gnobblars

Also had to cheat and Army painter spary and ink wash another Standard bearer as there was no way I would get the original painted up to the standard I wanted.

It is a testament to the GW figures that they look the part considering the crudeness of the techniques I used.

None of these count towards the painted total for this year as I will go back and touch these up at some point.

CAN'T WAIT FOR TOMORROW!!!!!!!

The Sons of Ulric; Regiments of Renown

It was always going to happen really . . . . . .

After watching these videos and buying the rule books it was inevitable . . . . .

I was going to build a Regiment of Renown warband . . . . .

They are an amalgamation of these blokes . . . . .

from the 'Uniforms and Heraldry of the Empire' and these . . . . . . .

Which is a book I picked up for pennies while buying one of the army books on eBay.

I have to pick a winter painting project as the early nights play havoc with my partial colour blindness. Last year in was these blokes . . . . 

This year because of this tutorial and something I have planned for next year I want to concentrate on making and painting terrain over the winter.

Forward you Sons of Ulric!

6 point Viking SAGA army finished

It's amazing what playing again can do for your painting mojo!

One game of SAGA against Macca and I was foaming at the mouth to finish off 6 points of SAGA Viking.

First up the Berserkers are a compulsory unit for Vikings!

With Valhalla and other augments they generate 32 attack die! BUT they are a glass cannon and unless you keep them at the back you will always need a SAGA die on the 'Asgard' ability to save them from enemy missle fire. Even losing ONE of these fellas will really hurt their ability to cause carnage to the enemy!

They really are a one shot trick as they will almost definately be wiped out in the combat, but if those 32 attack die are against the enemy warlord who cares!

One warning I will give is against using them to clear an attack channel as they will always be massacred and this WILL generate a fatigue on any friendly units within 6 inches, which your opponent could exploit, especially to shorten the movement of the next charging unit which can stop the assassination run in its tracks.

They also really nerfed against Irish as I found out recently!!!

The Warlord (Olaf the lucky) is a given and in most scenarios his death results in your defeat. I try to keep my army in a 'flying brick' formation with as many units as possible within 6 inches of Olaf to allow the 'come with me' ability to get any unit moving.

This is especially true with this army list as the majority of the warband is Bondi and you can not always be garranteed the die to get all the units moving and make full use of the battle board boosts.

Remember just because you activate a unit with the Warlord he does not have to attack the unit with them. I usually just move him over to stand next to the other unit of Bondi while the unit he activated crash into any threats.

My 4 point Viking army list for SAGA is:

No poxy levy (whats the point!). 

The Warband consisits of;

 Warlord (free)

1 unit of Berserkers (1 point)

2 units of twelve Bondi (3 points of Bondi split into two units of twelve) 

The only difference for 6 points is I add 2 points of Hirdmen of as a single unit of eight figures.

As an aside here is Sven 'The Oak', half brother of Olaf 'The lucky' and his right hand man.

Sven was the result of a tryst between Skorri 'the adventutous' (Olaf's father) and Hilda the gigantic ginger milk maid!

I like to keep a large unit of Bondi around the Warlord as it always hurts to pawn hits off onto expensive and hard hitting Hirdguard (especially Berserkers!) when my Warlord gets attacked. Having the unit of twelve Bondi allows me to soak up a lot more hits and leave the Elite units free to do what they are best at - collecting skulls!

Also a unit of twelve Bondi with the Warlord in support can (with the right die) generate up to 34 ATTACK die. That is enough to put off any Warlord from making a run at your Warlord. Especially in the early stages of the game. 

The five new Bondi are hidden away in this first unit. They are table top standard and lets just leave it there.

 Here is my second unit of 12 Bondi.

Like the Hirdguard I like to keep them in big units so I can take advantage of 'Valhalla' etc and still keep the unit viable.

In summary here is my 6 point Viking army list for SAGA.

No poxy levy (whats the point!). 

The Warband now consisits of;

 Warlord (free)

1 unit of Berserkers (1 point)

2 units of twelve Bondi (3 points of Bondi split into two units of twelve) 

1 unit of eight Hirdmen (2 points formed into a single unit)

 

Now the numbers.

Miniatures painted / sold this year = 153 (silver tower does not count)

Target 100

Miniatures bought 30 (damn you BOYL!!)

316 miniatures to go!

123 in the black this year

My WHF 8th edition Empire Army

With the sun out and my 'Sons of Sigmar' getting a run out in the fine weather I decided to take some army pics to see where I was with my 1st Company Lustrian Expeditionary Forces.

Here we are. . . . .

Group shot of all my painted elements.

My Militia, which thanks to Mordheim are the best painted regiment in the whole army!

Centre of picture are my 'Deamon Slayers' spearmen with my Warpriest.

My hard as nails, Demigryphs.

Custoras my Grand Master, with Rags and Marcus Darklore my level 2 Wizards. In the back ground you can see my units of 'Second Sons' mounted Knights.

Here are my cannon and crew, Matilda and the boomtown rats.

Here is my gunline. The guy on the end is a sniper.

My 'Noble flashes' pistolliers. Basically my suicide troops.

At some point this lot below will end up as a detachment of crossbows or Huntsmen.

There are still lots of elelments to add to this army but there is no rush as there is still a strong following for 8th amoung my gaming circles.

I am currently painting up a second cannon and crew for Crew(ly) / July and below is a photo with my Greatswords and other unpainted elelments added.

40K Space Marine Battle Demi-Company. Ultramarine 2nd Company finished

So finally I have the Demi-Company finished.

Here's the break down.

Commander

Captain Cato Sicarius.

Captain Cato Sicarius

Tactical Squads

Squad Fennion. Squad Fennion is known as "The Immortals" due to the fact that they haven't taken a single loss since 829.M41.

Squad Fennion

Squad Vorolanus. Squad Vorolanus is used for reconnaissance and deep strike missions when Scout squads are unavailable. They are known as "The Thunderbolts".

Squad Vorolanus

Squad Manorian. Known as "The Shield Bearers", squad Manorian is used in the vanguard during chapter and company level assaults.

Squad Manorian

Assault Squad

Squad Strabo - Squad Strabo is responsible for the death of Ork Warboss Bonehamma on the Hive world of Selonopolis. They are known as "The Heroes of Selonopolis."

Squad Strabo

Devastator Squad

Squad Tirian. Also known as "Guilliman's Hammer" Squad Tirian is known for their unwavering conduct in battle.

Squad Tirian

The final chip of the Devastator Squad

Dreadnought

Brother Ultracius. Ultracius was interred inside the shell of a Dreadnought after the Pyra Crusades in 453.M39.

Brother Ultracius

The final Chip of the Demi - Company lead pile

I also have the first squad of First Company Terminators done as an attachment.

Not bad considering how they started out, when I bought them off a kid at a boot sale for £20 . . . .

 
I have several elements to finish off to turn this into a 'Gladius Strike Force' but with the light inproving I think any extra bits will be put back in the lead mountain until November.

So lets look at the numbers for the year.

Miniatures painted / sold this year = 6.

Target 100

Miniatures bought 1 (I made the mistake of going to Dark Sphere and they were having a sale on).

434 miniatures to go!

5 in the black this year.