Waking Dead

Wow, talk about late to the party… I’m really sorry I haven’t posted this earlier; I don’t generally have any excuse other than I’m lazy. Before another month passes by I thought I’d better talk about how the Fighting Cocks did at the tournie.

First game was against another Dark Angels list (traitors!) and some Ultramarines, and the day started badly for AP Juan. We lost our entire Ravenwing squad to concentrated fire after failing to penetrate a Dreadnaught with two Melta-Guns. Ouch. The rest of the game started to pick up for us, mainly due to the entire Tau mechanized section making every hit count, and the Vindicator did its best to pie-plate some Marines. By the time it came to dice down, we were pretty even on VPs but lost on TPs 5-3.

Our next match-up was against Tau and Daemonhunters, with two chaps who’d only just got back into 40K after a long absence. Due to their inexperience, myself and Radders decided to be nice, and so elected to crush them mercilessly. We won the game by blowing a unit of Gun Drones off their objective; even though they had troops in the same building, nobody else was within 3″ and they simply hadn’t noticed. A win then, but the manner of our victory caused Radders to run after our opponents and apologise to them after the game

The final game was a mouth-watering grudge match against fellow Cocks Lock+Load. We’ve only played each other once before in a tournament setting, and the dream-team of AP Juan was 1-0 up. Was this the match to even up the scores? Well, almost. It was a hard-fought game, both of us sussing out the other teams’ secret objective fairly early on, and generally playing pretty tight for the two hours. In the end we just about edged it, claiming a draw but gaining the extra TPs due to killing more of them.

Come the final reckoning, AP Juan had climbed to the heady-heights of joint 6th! Both of us were really pleased with this performance, especially after our fun-but-disappointing experience the month before. The top tables largely saw Flame On! run rampant, as per the Games Workshop Doubles, and I’m sure I glimpsed some double Land Raider filth up there.

All in all we had a great time, and I’d like to thank Jamie and Fabian – not to mention the rest of the Marple Marauders – for setting up this event. You can rest assured that the Cocks will be back again next year.

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This Sunday sees the Marple Marauders host an independent 40K doubles tournament, and the Fighting Cocks will be fielding two teams at the event. Myself and my regular doubles partner Mark are taking Dark Angels and Tau in what’s mainly a mechanized assault force. My list is as follows:

HQ: Company Master; Power Fist

Troops: 10-man Tactical Squad; Flamer, Plasma Cannon, Power Weapon, Rhino

Fast Attack: 6-man Ravenwing Squad; Meltagun, Meltagun, Power Fist

Heavy Support: Vindicator

Mark is fielding mainly armour, something like two Hammerheads, two Devilfish and a Commander. The Devilfish both come with 6-man Firewarrior squads… and thassit. We’re very mobile, have a shit-ton of firepower, and some fast units to claim or contest. On paper it looks like we might struggle against the assault, but we played against an all-assault army in practice and came out on top.

The other Fighting Cocks team is the legendary doubles partnership of Johnny Lock and Terrence Load, aka Mike and Chris. They’re taking a last-minute, cobbled-together, ‘we’ve had no practice games with this list’ alliance of Blood Angels and Imperial Guard. Tanks and Assault Marines is the name of the game – looks fairly tasty on paper, but we’ll see how they fare on the tabletop.

General army construction has been slightly adjusted for this tournament as the rules pack has some very interesting scenarios, including the ability for Fast Attack and Elite choices to claim on two of the missions. There’s also a ‘wildcard’ each round that provides another additional victory condition on top of the base scenario. You get extra points for fulfilling your bonus objective and the scoring margins are nicely presented (it’s not ‘3, 1, 0′ like most GW events).

You can find out more about the tournament on the WPS website. I’ll post up a report and some pictures from the event next week – wish us luck!

Note: if you’re still waiting for the GW 40K Doubles report I’ll try and post something up next weekend. I’ve not had chance to edit the video we recorded, and I’m having second thoughts about posting it up anyway.

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Here’s my first Ravenwing model, a Sergeant armed with Power Fist. This is my first attempt at doing a lava base and I think it’s actually turned out OK. I can embelish a few more details on, such as bubbles and possibly a gloss finish. I could even add some ‘ash’ scatter but it might be going a bit too far… Eventually I’ll rebase all my Dark Angels this way, but this guy is my first test model.

Overall I’m pretty pleased; I can’t wait to see what the normal Marines look like on bases like this. Elsewhere I’ve managed to dip my Dwarf Blood Bowl team, the ‘Albion Brewers’, although I need to do a bit of highlighting in a few places. I’ve undercoated a pair of fine Dwarven lasses (read: cheerleaders) as well as some Windowmakers and Greylord Ternion for my Khador army. I’m itching to get the Warmachine stuff painted but I’ve still got 5 more Ravenwing bikes to do. I’m hoping this next tournament has no minimum painting requirements as ideally I’d like to get started on the Greylords… Oh, and I’ll be picking up some SotTR/Incursion minis soon – that looks likely to be our next game.

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In my rush to get the last post out, I completely overlooked a game that I am really looking forward to trying out. It’s another Rackham game that I intend to play this year, and I’m arguably more excited about this than Confrontation. The game in question is…

AT-43
http://www.at-43.com/

This is Rackham’s other big pre-painted skirmish game, and it appears that it’s even more popular than its fantasy counterpart. I’d let this pass me by when it was first announced, but looking over the miniatures now available for it, some of them are absolutely stunning. I’ve also since read a few reviews of the game, and it sounds like a whole lot of fun. The production values are high and the rules seem simple but with a lot of tactical depth.

For a current 40k player I guess the attraction is a fast(er) ruleset with some different armies, and I found a nice comparison between the two over on this website. I’m probably most attracted to the Therians and the Karmans, but even the bog-standard U.N.A have some very interesting models in their line-up. I think I’ll pick up the Operation Damocles starter set in the next few months and see if I can convince the Fighting Cocks to give it a go. With all the painting I’ll be doing this year, it also helps to have something at tabletop-standard out of the box!

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First of all, if you’re waiting for my write-up of the recent 40k Doubles Tournament, it’ll be a little while longer as the Warhammer World blog hasn’t put the results up yet. Once I’ve got the final placings for the Fighting Cocks I’ll make a post about it.

Anyway, on to the main topic. I’ve decided to make 2009 a major year for War Gaming. I’m getting that itch again like never before, and as I’m really enjoying painting and modeling these days I thought I’d keep the train running. I can’t keep asking the loyal Cocks to keep playing lots of different types of games if they have to shell out some cash first, so I’ll be making all the purchasing up-front. Gasp!

OK, that’s not quite as batshit crazy as it sounds. I generally spend around £100 a month on video games, and I’ve really fallen out with those in recent months. I’ll keep it to my job, but my hobby time is much better spent elsewhere. For £100 I can buy a couple of starter sets for most modern skirmish games, and I’m getting pretty quick with my painting and modeling, at least to tabletop standard. So, with that in mind, I’m going to become something of a war games crack dealer.

This post will focus on the new games I’d like to play this year; I’m still keen to fire up the likes of Blood Bowl and Battlefleet Gothic again, but I don’t need to spend much time convincing people about those. No, these are the games that are outside our usual collection of minis, and I want to get in at least 2 or 3 games of each this year. And here they are!

Warmachine/Hordes
http://www.privateerpress.com/

Technically we’ve already played a few games of this, and we have at least 350 points worth in three factions right now, but we’re still yet to give it a thorough play. This is probably the main event in terms of non-GW miniatures games, and most of the Cocks are likely to pick up a starter box.

Gameplay is skirmish-based, with an interesting mix of magic and machinery. Each side usually fields 1 or 2 Warcasters, and each of these can command massive engines of death called Warjacks (for Hordes read Warlocks and Warbeasts). The rest of the force is made up of tough single models called Solos, and larger Units that offer a few rules variations. The game is pretty fast-paced and has been likened to a CCG in playstyle. I can see the similarities, but it’s very much its own game.

Hell Dorado
http://www.helldorado.fr/

I remember someone once telling me that the Rackham catalogue was like Playboy for geeks; those original Confrontation minis were works of art. The style and detail was incredible, and leagues ahead of anything GW – save perhaps Forge World – could produce. While Hell Dorado isn’t quite in the same ball park, those crazy French people at Asmodée are producing the next best thing.

Hell Dorado is a 30mm skirmish game, similar it appears to Warmachine/Hordes, but with a fascinating theme and some incredibly lavish miniatures. The rules seem to favour tighter, melee-based combat rather than ranged or magic-heavy games, and this really appeals to me. The only English language stuff available for now is via download, but Asmodée are releasing a full English rule book in the second quarter of 2009. Colour me interested.

Alkemy
http://www.kraken-editions.com/

Alkemy is another French-produced skirmish level game, but the appeal here seems to be in the combat system, with three types of unique dice to roll, plus the usual card-based stats. Another change though is in the Combat Cards which allow you to change the type of attack you are performing. The miniatures are also multi-part plastic models, and the detail is pretty good. Some of the minis I’m not utterly sold on yet, but overall they do enough to get me interested. I’m playing this primarily for the rules though, particularly as it won Tabletop Gaming News‘ Game of the Year award for 2008.

Secrets of the Third Reich
http://www.westwindproductions.co.uk/

Nazis + zombies + mechs = awesome! Another skirmish-level game (I guess they’re all the rage now because they’re fairly cheap to start up), this sees an alternate-history WWII fought out among the trenches and bunkers of Europe. The minis are the best that West Wind has produced so far, and the rules are apparently very tight indeed. I’ve never been one for real-world war games, but the explosion of ‘weird’ war games has definitely expanded this niche into the wider war gaming community.

The Uncharted Seas
http://www.spartangames.co.uk/

We all look back on Man-o-War with a rheumy tear in our eye, but the truth is that despite the fluff, the game was pretty poo. Enter Spartan Games with their thinly-veiled attempt to capture us grognards’ interest once again. I’ll be honest and admit that, apart from the Dragon Lords and Humans, most of the miniatures aren’t that great, but the rules are apparently fantastic, so it’s a game I’ll be playing for that sake rather than to line up pretty figures on the table.

Confrontation
http://www.confrontation.fr/

Well, despite it moving into pre-painted minis, I still have a soft-spot for Rackham’s long-running game. 4th Edition has driven away the old guard, but from what I can gather it’s actually a far superior set of rules. Sitting somewhere between skirmish and army-level combat, the fact that you can now use the old metal minis with the new rules is enough to peak my interest again.

I know very little about the new rules save what I’ve gleaned from forums, but the main draw is definitely the factions. Typically French, and beautifully quirky, Rackham’s original creations are still the best miniatures money can buy. Even the new pre-painted stuff is decent once you’ve applied your own painting over the top. This is pretty low down on my list simply because of the initial outlay, but I’d like to get a couple games in towards the end of the year.

Incursion
http://www.incursiongame.com/

I thought I’d briefly mention this, even though it’s not out yet. Developed by Grindhouse Games, one half of the team that produces Secrets of the Third Reich, it uses similar minis but is usually described as ‘Nazis meets Space Hulk’. Consider me very excited indeed!

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This is something I’ve been working on for a while, and with me already maintaining the Bride Burners forums I decided to merge the two sites. So, what we have now is a set of forums for both our MMO guilds and also for our tabletop gaming as well. The address for the new site is http://community.wakingdead.co.uk/. Please sign up and get posting!

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Some kind of miracle occured the other day, akin to the risen Lord in many respects. Chris – resident Warhammer obssessive that he is – was right about something. What he was right about was that the Warhammer Doubles Tournament tickets would sell out if me and Mark weren’t quick about it. Thinking this to be another unnecessary panic on the old man’s behalf, we weren’t especially quick about it. And they sold out. Which means that, unfortunately, the Radders/Barlos partnership that blossomed so successfully at the Warhammer 40,000 tournament in January has to sit it out for another year.

I’m gutted. I hadn’t realised quite how much I was looking forward to it until I was told wasn’t going. Even more galling is that I’d already told some other friends I wouldn’t be going to Download this year – and part of that reason was the Warhammer tournament. So I’m now going to neither. Life has a funny way of kicking you in the balls when you least expect it.

The upshot of all of this is that I’m no longer in any rush to finish off my Empire, but I suppose that’s a bit of a double-edged (+1) sword. You see, I’ve also now got no real incentive to finish them off – unless I can muster up the effort to paint them for our gaming group’s campaign in the Summer. I hope so.

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I thoughth I’d draw peoples’ attention to a bunch of really good painting tutorial DVDs that are out there. I own both Kenaz Raynor’s and Laurent Esposito Mas’, and I’ve heard good things about Rune Kappel’s.

First up, Kenaz Raynor does a DVD called The System Multipack which you can buy from various people on eBay. It costs about £15 and lasts 4 hours. It covers everything from the absolute basics (i.e. how to clean and prime a model) to NMM and airbrushing. The picture quality isn’t great and its sometimes difficult to make out exactly what he’s doing, but he has a very patient and clear way of explaining things, and he has one of those voices that you just don’t mind listening too. Overall, I’d recommend it as a starting point; I certainly picked up at least fifteen quid’s worth of info from it.

Next up is Laurent Esposito Mas’ similar effort, the first in a series of DVDs from the chaps at Miniature Mentor. Now I’ve only just ordered this so I’ve only got the sample clip and some online reviews to go on, but it looks far more professional than The System Multipack. If you’ve been following this thread you’ll know of my love for the French style of miniature painting, so buying this DVD was a bit of a no-brainer for me. It seems to follow a very similar path to Kenaz’s tutorials, but also has some nice overlays and a much, much better picture quality. I’ll report back once I’ve received and watched it.

Lastly there’s Rune Kappel’s Miniature Painting CD. Unfortunately this only features 20 minutes of video, but the picture-based tutorials are supposed to be excellent. Having said that, I can grab excellent online tutorials from a bunch of sites for free (Brushthralls, Dr. Faust, etc.) so I’m really only likely to pay for quality video. Also, a word of warning: Rune pretty much starts with the advanced techniques, so it might be worth picking up one of the other discs before getting this one.

I hope somebody finds this helpful, I know for a fact the stuff I’ve already seen has helped my painting improve almost by the miniature. Also, if anybody knows of any other good tutorials DVDs, leave a comment about it.

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Here’s what I’ve been up to lately…

What you’re looking at is my first painted Warmachine figure: Kommander Sorscha from the Khador faction. The pictures are, as usual, pretty shit; I really need to invest in a camera. Having said that, I’m pretty chuffed with her to be honest, especially the snow on the base. I still need to tidy up her face a bit and dot her pupils in, but ostensibly she’s finished.

Back to Games Workshop: last night I got back on track with my Empire and started to paint up the BSB. I’ve finished him (barring his pupils – need to invest in a fibre tip pen really) and I’ve started to paint the banner. No idea what I’m going to do yet as I’m crap at freehand, but I figured I’d oultine something in fibre tip and fill it in with paint. Can’t see me painting freehand really… I’ll try and take some pics of him tonight anyway.

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So here’s what I’ve been working on.

First up is an Empire Pistolier champion, painted up in Talabheim colours. Interestingly I’ve gone for a slightly darker look to the traditional red and white, particularly as the white is much more of a cream colour (using Bleached Bone highlights over a Graveyard Earth base). Now, I’ve always been pretty rubbish at painting horses but I’m really pleased with how this one turned out. The picture doesn’t really do it justice, camera phone and all that, but I’ve started to try and do some blending. I’m still not really good enough to attempt true wet blending, so this is dry blending using built up layers of highlights, but its effective enough for me. And before anybody says anything I know I haven’t smoothed out the join on the horse’s neck, but these are tabletop standard and not showcase standard, and I’ve got 2000 points to paint so ya boo sucks to you!

Secondly I’ve got some Handgunners, again painted up using the same take on Talabheim colours. These are also magentically based using the tape and steel paper combination I talked about in my previous post. I’ve used the modular movement trays from Game Workshop again, but I’ve been trying to save the corners for bigger trays (this is a 20mm x 200mm gunline base). I’m going to cut up some of my older trays to get the corners for this and fill in the gaps with Green Stuff. Once its sprayed up black it should sit nicely with the bases. Anyway, I’ve got to finish the rest of my Pistoliers this week then I’ll get cracking on painting the rest of the Handgunners. After that? Probably the two wizards in my list to give me a break from painting alternate red and white patterns!

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