Exciting tidbit from Forge World

From today's Forge World News letter:


"Exclusive Sneak Peek
As you may have heard from our Studio design team at the Forge World Open Day back in March, or read in the Games Day UK Preview, our designers, graphic illustrators and writer Alan Bligh have spent much of the past few months feverishly working on an incredibly exciting Imperial Armour project that is, as yet, still Top Secret.
Our agents have managed to obtain this exclusive work-in-progress sneak peek of one of a veritable cornucopia of forthcoming Space Marine releases. Forge World is once again turning its attention to the noble warriors of the Adeptus Astartes, the Emperors' Finest. Many boffins died to bring us this information, so keep an eye on the Forge World Newsletter over the coming weeks for more details of this thrilling project..."

The picture is labeled "mkVnl." I'm guessing that means Mark V Armour. I am very excited about what could be coming.


UPDATE: I just noticed that on the Blogroll at FTW, the image does not appear, and instead has text saying "Mk V Heresy Armour." I really hope they're making old style Terminator armour.

Battlefleet Gothic!

Other names I like to call it by include Battlefleet Galactica, and Battlestar Gothic. Damn I miss that show...ANYWAY...

Once upon a time, last year in December, I played a game of Games Workshop's specialist game Battlefleet Gothic. It's set in the 40k universe. Upon taking a look at it, the following immediately becomes obvious: it's about freaking spaceships battling in freaking space!! After playing it, it's clear that the game system is solid.

Cool game setting + good game system = FUN!

(I'm told by several people that the game is extremely balanced. As long as each side has a fleet of equal points value, the game will be fair, and the winner will be the person who played the best, or who had the best dice rolling that day. The only exception to this is the Necron fleet, which is apparently over powered).
A campaign will soon be starting at the Local GW store. This adds up nicely with my recent Forge World order, which included the Space Marine ship models they produce. (three resin ships for around the same cost as four metal ships from GW. I went with the Forge World models because of the better look and extra detail they have).

My friend and I played a game of three cruisers each this past weekend. I think we both felt like playing something other than 40k for a nice change of pace. It was a fun game, and I can see the potential Battlefleet Gothic has when played as a campaign and with larger fleets.

Aside from having good rules, and a very balanced system, there are other reasons to get into BFG. The rules are available for FREE! The Games Workshop website has a number of Battlefleet Gothic PDFs available for free download, including the two main books. These can be found here.

Also, you do not need to spend a large amount of money to acquire a space fleet of your own. A Space Marine fleet of one Battle Barge, three Strike Cruisers, and 12 escorts will cost $168 Canadian.

An Imperial Fleet of one Battleship, four cruisers, and nine escorts will cost $156 Canadian.
(There is a decent variety in the types of battleships, heavy cruisers, cruisers, light cruisers, and escorts you can field.)

And, as already mentioned, Battlefleet Gothic provides a nice change from your usual 40k games.

One other thing; you'll be able to paint your whole fleet in a day. Dry brushing 14 models won't take long. Plus, you don't even have to base them. Paint the stands black and you're set. If you want, you can take a few seconds to flick some white paint on the base to represent stars. As for terrain, cut a circle out of cardboard. Paint it grey. You now have a lifeless planet. Or, you can pick up a Styrofoam ball from a craft store and paint it like Jupiter like I plan on doing.

Out Of The Basement Gaming Tournament

Spent a busy few days a little over a week ago painting up 1850 points worth of Imperial Fists. The reason is, of course, because of a tournament! I was a little burnt out after all that painting and gaming, but am now recharged hobby wise. I'll get some photos of my army up soon.

Last weekend (July 3rd and 4th) was the second annual Out of the Basement 40k and Warhammer Fantasy Battles Tournament. It's put on by a great local gaming group called Out of the Basement Gaming. The goal of the tournament is to host a great weekend of gaming with fun, balanced lists. The very best Dark Elves and Imperial Guard lists are allowed, but not warmly welcomed. An army composition system rewards softer lists with a score multiplier. I'm not sure of the exact formula, but I do know that if an army that received a comp score of 1 tied a game with an army that received a comp score of 5 (perfect score), the army with the comp score of 5 would receive a good deal more victory points in the competition for the Best General and Best Overall Awards.

The points limit was 1850 for 40k and 2250 for Fantasy. The comp for 40k worked as following:

The army has fewer than two Special Characters.1 point
The army does not have duplicate HQs. 1 point
The army has fewer than three choices from each Elite, Fast, and Heavy support catagory. 1 point
The army is balanced and fun to play against. 1 point
I would like to play this army again. 1 point

A player awarded 1 point for each of the above criteria that their opponent's army list met.


The comp system seemed to succeed in producing a tournament with sporting gamers who brought lists that were both fun to play, and play against. There was only one Imperial Guard leaf blower list. The other guard players (at least the ones I met), were good sports who cared that both they and their opponent had an enjoyable game. The same could be said of all of the players I faced. To me, this is how games of toy soldiers are meant to be played. The first goal is for both players to have fun!

Every list I faced was balanced, every opponent was sporting, and every game was a blast. The other players I talked to all said the same thing. The tournament was also very well run. The winners of the Best Sportsman, Best Painted Army, Best General, and Best Overall Awards for both game systems were announced within 30-40 minutes of the last game.

The trophy for winning one of the awards is a metal stein (beer mug). If you win one and bring it to the tournament in any following year, you get it filled for free with the beer of your choice at the party the tournament organizers hold at a pub they rent out on the Saturday night.

This was the second tournament I have ever entered. My first tourney was the first one held by Out of the Basement Gaming last year. Going into that tourney, I had only played 3 games. I finished with 1 minor victory, 1 draw, and 4 losses of varying degrees. Things went much better this year. On the first day, I started with a loss and followed it up with two major wins. The following day, I had two draws, one of which was a draw with the secondary objective completed.

In that first draw, my scouts assaulted a loan Chaos marine in the final assault phase of the game, and promptly did not kill him. Had they killed him, the objective they were on would have been held by me, and the result would have been a victory. Five scouts with close combat weapons. 20 attacks. I thought victory was mine! My opponent was very relieved and we both had a good laugh about it. In the second draw, those same scouts failed a leadership check after suffering 25% casualties from shooting, and were unable to regroup because of an enemy unit within 6 inches. This mission was kill points, the game ended on that turn, and the scouts counted as destroyed, making the result a tie. I couldn't get mad at the little guys though, since they did knock out two moving tanks with their grenades earlier in the game.

A fantastic tournament (which motivated a huge amount of painting). I definitely look forward to next year's! (Which, by the way, will be seeing some goodies from a Forge World order I recently placed. Stay tuned for more on that).

Sternguard Conversions, Fists are seeing progress

I've spent the past week and a half working on many of the tanks for my Imperial Fists.  Three rhinos, one razorback, two speeders and my landraider have been basecoated and washed. Scratch that. I just looked over at the painting table and realized the razorback just needs highlights, the details, and the tracks painted up before it's finished. Well, mostly finished. I may weather them a bit.

Pictures are being taken for the WIP post, but I won't put them up just yet. Instead, here are some photos of my Sternguard squad! These still have a little ways to go before they're ready for paint. The bolters need bigger magazines, and possibly straps and scopes. Even once assembly is finished, they'll be staying on a shelf for a while (except to come out for games). I want to leave them, along with my terminator squad, until after I've refined my painting technique and the painting process I'm using for this army.


Most of the squad:

Here is the sergeant:

 

Here is one of my combi-melta veterans:

Regular veteran:

And another angle:

And the last one I have a decent photo for:

Helmets: space wolves pack (two per box) (thank-you ebay)

Torsos: Tactical squad box (one per box) (thank-you again ebay)

Metal shoulder pads with Imperial fist symbol:  Bitz pack from GW

Other shoulder pads: Command Squad box, tactical box


For larger magazines, I'll be using the pintle-mounted bolters that come with Space Marine vehicles. I'll be taking the straps from Black Reach marines, or using plastic card.

Librarian Conversion

This model was originally put together to go with the Imperial Fists successor chapter I had been working on. His look is a bit different from the standard librarian, and this fits with the background I developed for the chapter. As I still plan on doing that successor chapter, I won't go into what that background is just yet. That project will have to wait!

The legs and head are from the Dark Angels veterans models, I believe, while the torso is from the Space Marine Commander box. His staff is part power axe, with the winged skull coming from I think a command squad sprue, and the skull at the bottom is from a Vampire Counts box of skeletons.

I wanted him to look like he was advancing confidently and unstoppably towards some foe, either getting ready to hit it with a psychic power, or stopping the psychic attacks of a Chaos sorcerer.

Venerable Dreadnought, versatile drop pod icons

I really like this kit. The three different guns it comes with are a nice addition to my dreadnoughts' arsenal. I already had an assault cannon and a Forge World plasma cannon, but now I have two of each! Who doesn't want two Dreadnoughts armed with plasma cannons? I would happily field six of them with a Master of the Forge in a silly/friendly game if I had them.

As it happens, I can now field five dreadnoughts: two normal, two Ironclads, and the Venerable. One of my best friends will be made aware of this the next time we decide to play a game with ridiculous army lists. I'll have to keep my Master of the Forge model and Dreadnoughts hidden when I ask him if I can borrow a few of his drop pods...he might suspect something otherwise.

Nothing out of the ordinary with this model except for two magnets and the Imperial Fist icon from the Drop Pod kit.

The Drop Icons continue to find uses. It took a little bit of effort to make it fit on the sarcophagus cover, but I think it looks alright.

I felt that the Dreadnought looked way too cool with the torso exposed to put the cover on. On the other hand, the cover was really cool too. So...magnets!  It was really simple to do, and now I can field the Dreadnought either way.

Land Raider ready for paint!

Here is the Land Raider for my Imperial Fists army. It has seen some slight conversion work, has been primed, and will shortly come under assault from a paint brush!

Of note are the Forge World Terminator door upgrades, as well the statue and engraving I have added to each side. You can also see how all four hatches have coins glued in place. The Terminator doors, as well as Redeemer Cannons and twin-linked lascannons, are magnetized so that I can easily switch between Land Raider variants. When I want a Redeemer, the guns go up front and the doors go in the rear hatches. When I want a God Pattern 'raider, the doors go up front with the lascannons in the back.

Both of the add ons are from the Bastion kit. They were part of the relief sculptures that could be put in the wall mounted turrets in place of the heavy bolters. I used clippers to cut them out and then a file to smooth out the edges. The Imperial Fist/Crimson Fists icons behind the Terminator doors are from the Drop Pod kit.

And here is a shot showing the magnets. The mounts I used for the coins came with the Land Raider kit.

My plan is to paint the Terminator doors and statues with a marble effect. How exactly that effect is achieved is something I don't know. Hopefully I'll manage achieve a decent measure of success. I'd hate to put to waste all the effort of cutting that saint statue out with a lousy paint job!