Update! Fire Dragons and Dire Avengers nearing completion.

Just a quickie update on my Eldar army progression as tournament approaches (and my story isn't completed yet either).

So I finally decided on a theme for the army, mostly because there are models with bases sculpted that way. I'm going with a battlefield/ruins look. I am making the squads match, but each will vary. I have a grid/metal plates theme going for the Dire Avengers, and ruined vehicles for the Fire Dragons. I ran out of time for working on them this evening as it's a girls' night out for me (yay) but will post photos as soon as I get them painted (the bases that is) and attached. Rangers are next and will feature city ruins as their theme.

That is all!

Projects - for the future

I currently have 3 armies I've yet to play and another that I've retired until I can do more to it. I am currently playing my Eldar and occasionally my Tyranids. I have far too many armies I know, but I don't know what to get rid of. I've toyed with the idea of selling the 'nids, but I've not finished them up yet. I've come very attatched to the Eldar so I think I'll hold on to them for a while yet. Then again, I said that about the Space Wolves too, but I'd been building them for a looong time. Yes, I've been at this quite a while.

New Year's Resolutions.

I've spent some time poking around other peoples blogs trying to see what makes one successful. I've seen a lot of things and while I got some good ideas, I decided that a successful blog would be the one that I'm happiest with. I am no expert tactician, so I can't be expected to help there. I'm more into 'fluffy' armies, so God help you if you come to me helping with a list. I've been made fun of for some of the armies I've made, but it doesn't bother me. I know they are mine and I have fun with them and that's what it's about to me. I'm no expert at painting either. I know what I know and it gets me by. Sometimes someone says "Wow!" and that's good enough to make me a giddy girl. I do occasionally learn something new though. This old girl isn't above learning new tricks.

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

Hope everyone has fantastic holidays, however they celebrate or name it.

Super Dire Avenger Exarch Go!!

I've been a bit busy lately with several projects, one of which involved putting figures back together thanks to certain unnamed kitties. My future as the cat lady at the end of your street has become in doubt of late...

One of my projects was to turn my standard 10-man DA squad into something more versatile. I wanted the ability to run an Exarch-less 10 or 2 5 man squads. This has become especially important of late since there is a 1000 point tournament and those few points are becoming vitally important.

Battle Report - Daemons vs Eldar

Been a little pre-occupied this week, and the draft I had started for this Battle Report never got saved, so here we are (with no excuses left) starting over. Had another game with Da Machine last weekend at the local game store Phoenix Games. They have awesome tables with gorgeous terrain. Also home to the biggest (chaos) titan I've ever seen.

Mission was Annihilation, Setup was Dawn of War. 2000 points. Da Machine brought lots (3 or 4 groups) of Plague bearers, a group of harpies, nurglings for days, 3 spawn, a Great Unclean one, Daemon Prince, nurgle's accountant and some little robed thing that spits huge vomit. I deployed my scouts and waited for the rain of pestilence.

"The Warp" Chat Network is up and running!

Thanks to Trucker Judd, the chat network has been tested and is running! We both now have linked chats on our blogs, and it's also available at http://thewarp.chatango.com/ as a standalone. The website is also accessable from Droid phones but doesn't look like iPhone can do it since it's flash.

It's very easy to add to a blog, simply click 'copy this', tweak the colors to your liking, then post the code in a blog widget! Simple and easy! Note: '200' width will fit within the standard width of the side column in blogger. If/when you do so, register your name and send me an IM via chatango and I'll make sure you have moderator status as well.

I have another battle report in the works, but wanted to put this out there now. Coming soon; Eldar vs Chaos Daemons!

*edit* just wanted to shout out to FoxPhoenix135 (who's got a chatango for his local group) for inspring this idea into motion. Thanks!

The 40k Chat Project.

Ok, so maybe I'm being a little over ambitious here, but I've always enjoyed a more 'live' chat with other folks. Or at least direct contact. I don't know if you other 40kers like it too, but this little nerd girl has a vision. That vision is uniting the universe! And I don't even want to rule it! (But I will remain a princess!)

Overlooked & Underused Rule Time - Buildings



I know this is a ruin and not a 'building' but he's SOOOO cute!!!

 I know that each gaming area / metagame is subject to its own generalities, but I was looking through the rulebook last night (playing someone in vassal that didn't have much of a clue) post-game and came across my old friend, The Building section.

I love buildings. I have built many of them (as you can see in past blog entries) and something in my brain makes me build them (and my vehicles, and of late, my infantry) modular. I like having buildings that you can actually put models into. At one point I even had a garage being worked on. That got discarded or lost in a move along the way.

Battle report!! Eldar vs. CSM

Yay!! Dice on the table finally!!

I've been Vassaling the last week or so, mostly to try and test my 1000 point list (see previous post) and evolve it. It's not enough though, to sate the hunger for dice in hand. Today I got to go to my friend Da Machine's place and square off. Classic battle for Iybraesil! vs Chaos Marines! Grr.

The Tournament list evolving...

I'm now on version 4 of my tourney Eldar list. I'm feeling a bit less confident in the Eldar than the Tyranids, but that's only because I'm losing. However in losing I'm learning and in learning we grow better. There's still plenty of time.

I've dropped the Autarch at this point. She's awesome and can put a melta gun wherever I need it with that bike, but she's just too expensive at this point range (not to mention it just takes one S6 shot to kill her outright) A whole squad of Fire Dragons with an Exarch is cheaper. That's FIVE times the melta. Noah asked 'why the exarch?' Well that's all I own.

Tournament bound! (and happy 50th post!)

Finally! Motivation! Muse-ism! Something to do!

There's a tourney scheduled the Ides of January at the (now) local store. They don't have 40k tourneys very often and I missed the last one, so it's been since March I think since I've had a tourney. Gah! I did manage to walk away with a "best painted team" trophy, so that's tided (is that a word?) over for a while.

Fiction - The Origin of Autarch Ry'hanna Skyblade (part 1)

Ry'hanna ech'Tyur of the Skyblade clan and her cousin Allonia lived on the Saim Hann craftworld. Naturally, they learned the jetbike and even talked as children of following the path of the Shining Spear. As adults this was not to be so. Ry'hanna did not feel the path of the Warrior's call in her heart. Instead she became an artisan. Allonia felt the calling of the Scorpion, and joined that Aspect. For many decades they would not see one another, or maybe just in passing, until a fateful day when Saim Hann had wandered near an Exodite world. The Exodite world had been invaded by Imperial forces and the Craftworld responded sending relief forces. Ry'hanna was called upon to fulfill her role as a guardian and took to battle on the back of her jetbike with the others. After a very successful battle, the Exodites were feasting the victorious off-world Eldar and Ry'hanna and Allonia had a chance meeting.

Things are finally coming together

A quick trip back to Athens to drop off the old place's keys, spot clean and visit my storage unit (ok, not that quick) later and I think I have my painting station problem solved. I now have desk space! Now I just have to get things set up.

Battle report too. Long over due.

Well the moving is done, and the unpacking has commenced. Sadly my painting setup that I had imagined did not work out, so I'm still at a loss on where I will be painting. Still, I'm very glad the move is over and the new place is much much bigger. I'm also glad that I'm back online. I've had a difficult time with AT&T the last few days.

But enough of that, you didn't come here to listen to her prattle. You came here for a battle report!

So the game was 2000 points, Eldar vs Blood Angels. Mission was Annihilation (again, bleah) and setup was pitched battle. BA went first and reserved everyone. I failed to steal the inititave.

Is it... a Battle Report?

Yes! She lives.



Yes, I have an unfinished figure on the table.
I'm so ashamed..



The last several weeks have been a whirlwind of busy. I had to scramble to put my halloween costume together (successfully I might add). The party was comic themed, and I wanted something a bit obscure. Sadly, since I got out of comics in the early 90s, my idea of obscure is unheard of for the average comic fan now. Still, the ones that went and checked it out after the party said I made a spot on Typhoid Mary.

After Halloween, the packing began in earnest. I'm still doing it. I hate moving. But it will be a bigger place and more room to spread out my hobby instead of a tiny little corner between my computer and sewing desk.

But this is a battle report. I took a break on Sunday to get in a game with the guys before moving. I won't say last, since I'm only about 50 minutes away and will certainly come running back when they dangle the Apocalypse hook in front of me.

Battle Report - Swarm of Personality vs Space Marines



The Great White Hive Tyrant can be sneaky at times.

 So after hearing Fritz blog and blog about the Tyrannofex I finally broke out 'little brother' and began converting him over. I guess he'll be "mini-T'fex". Of course, being Queen of Magnets I'm magnetizing his main gun so that I can swap between rupture cannon and the gun that rolls far too many dice (doesn't have codex handy fleshborer hive). I picked up a lot of devourer guns on ebay recently, and several of them have a date with some green stuff for this conversion.

Battle Report - Eldar Apocalypse!

Well I'm slacking again. It's been nearly a week and I never posted a battle report. Obviously you, dear reader are slacking too, since you haven't hounded me about it! The game of all games and neither of us seem too concerned.

All things concerned we learned quite a bit about all sorts of things; units and rules we don't often play with and I think that was a very good thing for all of us.

The game was standard Apoc. 9000 pts of Imperial vs 9000 points Eldar. Troops only were scorers. Six objectives and 3 Apoc assets for each side, drawn at random.

Apocalypse! The Eldar challenge.

As I'm moving out of town next month, and it seems to be tradition around here to have a 'going away game', Noah approached me with the idea of a big TWO DAY Apocalypse game. We both have rather large Eldar armies and both are increasing slowly. We each totalled what we had and came up with a combined total of around 9000 points! The combined forces of Yme-Loc and Iybraesil issued an open ended challenge on the local forums here and awaited a challenger.

We don't need no water...

Enter the frazzled frantic woman trying to get ready for her last big game with the local gang (at least while living in town). At my partner's behest, I included my fire dragon squad into our giant Eldar force taking over the tables tomorrow. I was worried that I would have to field unpainted troops. (*gasp*) Anyone who knows me (or reads this blog with regularity) will attest that I dislike this practice. (she means "abhore") I don't mind it if playtesting, and have even done it myself, but in a 'showdown' match like this weekend, I want to look my best.

Harlequins - Finished!

As of right this moment, My harlequins are done. Well ok, the first squad. Through some good old fashioned mini trading (bet you thought I'd say horse), I wound up with a dozen harleys. I even traded some of the classic models away, but they were doubles or didn't have kisses. I'm only using 6 in the Apocalypse game, since that is all that will fit in a Falcon.

The roll continues - Harlequins & Apocalypse

So I'm still rolling with the painting streak. I'm halfway through my harlequins, and as a break I hacked at and painted my old wraithlord. He's now got an interchangable hand and one of them has the 'kung fu' grip. I'm really liking the pose too, and maybe I'll get better photos of him soon.

The Swarm - stopped.

So my killer bug list was killed. Blood Angels did me in, though I have to take a smidgen of the credit for the work.

I used my "Swarm of Personality" list, but with double boneswords on the shrikes and no frag spines on the 'fex.

Oppnent had Dante, Jump marines with him
Razorback double flamer with 5 assault marines, melta, power fist
The burninator Land Raider with 5 assault termies +
Librarian in termie armor
Storm raven with 6 sanguinary guard and an underslung
Two fisted Dreadnought.
Both jumpy marines had sanguinary priests.

Back in the groove!

I've been like a madwoman this week with the hobbying. I started with the bugs. I've gotten everyone primed with the exception of the Doom. I still need to work on his brain a bit. But everyone else is ready to paint. I even got some of the walking warriors primed that needed it, and a couple that needed their talons painted are now in the 'finished' area of my workspace. I'm looking at 3 left that need eyes, some greenstuff for a barbed strangler 'sac', and one warrior that's just primed. I even have the Parasite halfway finished.

Harlequin Commission - Finished

These little guys were much easier to paint that I realized. Having a color scheme to go by probably helped me a great deal, and figuring out where to use what colors appealed to my puzzle loving nature. The first two (this one and in the previous post) are the ones I was handed and asked to replicate. I am not sure who painted them, they were picked up off Ebay I believe, so if you did them, not bad, and thank you for giving me something fairly simple to follow. And blue. I love painting blue.

Harlequin Commission - (not so) quick update

Just a quickie update here cause I've been lazy from the standpoint of this blog, not so much at what I'm doing.

In the mail this week arrived some bits for my Shrikes, now they finally have heads!! A bit of paint and they'll make an appearance here. I'm really excited about my bonesword conversions.

Battle Report - Tyranids vs. Eldar

A little overdue, but we finally got to play this game yesterday.

Noah took;

Eldrad + 3 warlocks

Avatar

3 squads of Dire Avengers

1 squad Pathfinders

1 squad of Striking Scorpions

1 squad of Fire Dragons

1 squad Howling Banshees

3 Wraithlords

I used the Swarm of Personality list with 3 zoanthropes and a lictor

Waiting...

Oh waiting can be so frustrating. Especially when you are on a creative 'roll'. I had such a streak going with my Parasite and flying warrior team. I've been stalled out though as I didn't have enough ravener talons for the Parasite (didn't have enough for the raveners either, which is why they never got put together) and no heads for the warriors.

Tyranids - Swarm of Personality

So today we're testing out the new stuff. I do so detest putting unpainted models on the table, but there's a lot of work to be done still before those Tyranid Shrikes are completed. Not to mention purchasing some parts online. I've been lovingly called a paint snob for this. (it had BETTER be lovingly dammit)

Here's a look at my Parasite of Mortrex so far. I'm really happy with how he came out, but I'm probably going to replace the metal ravener talons with the new plastic ones when I get them from ebay.

It's not always about Eldar...

Copyright Scott Adams

In a recent discussion with Noah, we started talking about the Doom of Malan'tai. I've had ideas of how to make one for a while, and had an extra Zoanthrope just for that purpose. Suddenly, I'm motivated. DoM is a powerful unit and there's lots of praise for it over the intarwebs of course. He's very much in progress right now and though I'm not exactly thrilled with what I envisioned it to look, Noah liked it and offered some suggestions. His brain looks a bit too ... wormy and open. So now I have to make a brain sack for him in order to preserve the texture, but fill the gaps. This is okay since I can actually make flat things out of green stuff. I'm also working on balancing his brain out, since he was a little lopsided. I wasn't orignally going to share WIP photos of him since I think he looks terrible, but for posterity sake, I think I should. (And get some therapy.) Retail therapy might just be the order of the day! A girl can never have enough shoes!

The losses continue...

So the first test of my 500 point Eldar list didn't go quite as planned. I issued a challenge vs an Imperial Guard army consisting of:

Company commander with snipers

Heavy weapon squad with heavy bolters

Veteran squad shotguns and melta gun in a Chimera

Platoon command with some stuff that I never really saw.

2 x Guard squads with grenade launchers.

Spearhead deployment with 5 objectives. Considering I only had 2 troop choices I was in for a fight! Moreso since a draw went to the defender in our challenge league. I failed to steal initative.

Blast from the Past - Space Wolves

I know I've used work to excuse my lack of progress on my blog but that will be changing soon. I've gotten the hang of things and have actually been commissioned to do some models. Woe! I have procrastinated the painting of my Harlequins for so long because I cannot do the little stripeys and diamonds that everyone else seems to. Thankfully my client (ooh I sound professional!!) handed me two other harleys and said, can you paint them like this? They are largely blue and black, so yes of course I can paint blue. I don't have an army that hasn't been blue of some sort!! Yay!

New shoes, New job, what next?

Been a little busy lately. I got a new position with the company I am working for and begain training for it this week. I've been a little bit busy but still managed to take some time this morning and grass my entries into the terrain contest that GW is running for the realm of battle board. I'm not so excited about my chances, but hey, I entered. I make pretty simple terrain I think, but who knows. maybe something could happen.

I'm really enjoying this new position and did so well at the interview they made me an interviewer. :D Yay for finally having a techie job again.

Aaaand you boys can stop reading now. I got new shoes and wow they are hot. Torrid was running one of their half off the clearance sale (read: get rid of the stuff) and I just had to get a little retail therapy (even if online) in for all the stress the previous position was causing me.  grr.

So I'm thinking of going to Dragoncon tomorrow. I looked at the 40k tourney there but it's nightmarish in description. $50 to get in the con and another $30 just for the tourney! And no prizes listed either. No thanks! The Eldar will not be accompannying me tomorrow if I go.

Sunday I have a challenge match from Noah. 2000 points of Eldar on Eldar action. He says he's got this diabolical new list that is supposed to tear me apart. Says something about being all on foot too. Still not sure what to bring either. I guess my regular list might do, but I'd like to come up wish something a little different. I won't post it here either, since he's one of my minions, er I mean followers.

Battle report - Eldar vs Blood Angels

I was hoping for a game like this, with one of the more vicious army lists out there today. First mission was Spearhead / Annihilation

vs Blood Angels; Stormraven with 5 Death company and Lamartes and a DC Dread

Land Raider with 5 assault terminators and a Librarian
2 squads of 10 assault marines with saguinary priests

We trained her wrong on purpose ... as a joke.

I’m currently doing fairly well with my mechanized Eldar. I hesitate to use the vernacular ‘mech-dar’ because I have none of the trappings of the lists that seem to be so popular on the ‘net; Seer councils, Fire Prisms or Fire Dragons. Seeing so many people speak out against similar armies, I worry a bit that it’s the army that is winning and not so much my tactics. Granted I’m getting draws a fair bit, but more draws than losses to be sure.

Siege of Vardash III - results

Vardash III, infested by Tyranid forces and destination of a Chaos Lord hellbent on worldwide destruction. Somehow these unlikely races formed an uneasy alliance and were ready to defend the main spaceport they had taken on the planet. High above, a fragile alliance formed between the Imperial forces of Marines and Guard led by an Inquisitor and his Grey Knights, and the Tau and Eldar were preparing to launch an assault to eliminate this joint threat...

Apocalypse Objectives!

Daemonhunter, Marine, Tau, Eldar Objectives:


1. The defense laser must be silenced! 1 point for destroying, 2 points for securing.

2. Stop the Warp Bomb. 1 point if you can prevent it being delivered to it's destination, 2 points if you control it. You can carry it, but intel reports that anyone in less than power armor (3+ save) would be not protected by it's chaos warping effects.

3. 1 point for each bastion that you control.

4. You've recieved orders to bring back a Tyranid Synaptic organism for study. 1 point for having a Tyranid Primary marker. You will also get a non-primary marker for killing a tyranid HQ in hand to hand. You will get 1 point for each of these you get back to your Forward base (even if it's a ruin).

5. Killing Xylar ne'Ivis  is 1 VP, Capturing him is worth 2!

Tyranid, Genestealer Cult/PDF, Chaos Objectives:


1. Defend the Bastions in the city. This means you cannot allow attackers to be in base to base even if they are in ruins. 1 point per bastion.

2. Delivering a Primary HQ marker to the hive bastion. 1 point each.

3. Having the Doomsday Device in an Active state - 1 point. If the Warp Bomb is attatched to it - 2 points.

4. Taking the Attackers' forward base: 1 point for destroying it, 2 points for capturing it intact.

5. The Tau shot down the Chaos General's ship. Twice now. 1 VP for killing the Tau commander 2 VP for capturing him so that he can be 'thanked' properly.
The revolution will be televised!

Doomsday Device

So in trying to design the 'Doomsday Device' for the Chaos forces, I was racking my brain trying to decide just what sort of device to build. I went through my now nearly depleted  bits box looking for inspiration when it struck me. Why does it have to be a machine? My only requirment was that it had to have a recepticle for the Warp Bomb. I was having thoughts of carving the Silver Towers out of foam, why not just make an obelisk? So I broke out the super duper foam slicer and got to work. I had plenty of styro left over from the first wall attempts. I carved up an obelisk quickly, but thought it was too straight. Not chaosy enough. I thought about carving flowing curves out of foam insulation, but wanted to save that for the tower. It's chaos, why not make it a giant chaos symbol! aaaaaaaand here it is. I'm rather proud of this considering it went from concept to finished in a little over two hours.

I'm all packed up, ready for the game. Hard to believe that I didn't have anything that needs to be done in the morning. Yay!

At noon tomorrow the mission objectives will be posted.

Don't get excited!

A little more than 24 hours left before the siege begins and though I'm behind schedule, I feel confident I can get things done. I have 3 manufactorum ruins left to paint, but those should be fairly easy. I've already done the gravelly bits on the base, so it's just drybrushing the walls, minor detailing, done. The PDF force's Valkyrie is nearly done. It just needs a few minutes of work- landing gear, weapons. They might very will be flying open cockpit, but I believe the weather will be nice for it.

The Defenders of Vardash III

I've had these guys for AGES wanting to paint them up. Years and years ago I collected genestealers from space hulk and space crusade on the side while I was building Space Wolves.  By the time I had enough Tyranid models to field hybrids were no longer a valid option in the codex. Into a box they went. I gained possession of a couple more here and there and those too joined the originals in the box. I'm now up to 11. When the Genestealer Cult codex came out I got excited about being able to run these guys, but was deep into other things at the time so on the shelf they stayed. Until now.

More fiction and other stuff too!

"All drop craft report readiness Sir. No further trace of the tyranid debris." said the deck officer aboard the Hammerhand.

"Good. Let the Voice of Redemption know we are ready to commence. Inform my ship that I'm on my way, and signal me if that Eldar craft comes any closer. It's been sitting there for two days now." The captain turned and strode away, his artificer armour making heavy footfalls upon the deck.

Tis but a Monday

I just realized that it was Monday and I hadn't yet blogged. I've been trying to stick to a schedule here. One Sunday evening/Monday morning (since Sunday is game day) and one in the middle of the week. Sunday usually will be a battle report and mid-week an update on projects. Usually.

Fully Armed and Operational...

I haven't *completed* the Terra's Virtuous Wrath yet, but it's definitely ready for the table. I want to put more detail on the barrel of the defense laser. Just a little texture and maybe some wiring type detail.

I'm really excited about the Apocalypse game next weekend. I have been working on terrain all week, and have half my walls (including the gate) primed to paint this evening. The players are starting to get geared up too, working on lists and stategems and such. Yay!! I'm a happy camper.

I just finished the two wall sectons and the gate. Behold! Not exactly fancy, but sufficient, quick and very very inexpensive! I'm still going to add some flock to the bases but right now table quality is the desired result.

Warhammer 40k: Space Marine

Is also going to be a PC port!! Yay! I found the review to be okay, but the images shown in the video make up for it by far.

Rawr!!

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/warhammer40000spacemarine/news.html?sid=6273134&mode=previews&tag=hotslot%3Bimg%3B1

Terrain - Walls!

So these were pretty easy to make with the right tools. All that's left to do on them is find some of the macreme mesh for the top of the 4th wall , add some braces to the underside of the platforms atop the walls, slather them with a watered down glue and then paint :D I must apologize for the poor lighting, it's the only spot in my work area that isn't a nightmare of a mess.

I've had the styrofoam for ages, but couldn't find my foam cutter. So I made one. I found a power supply from an old speaker set or something, and my hair dryer that had a switch burn out in. Strung the element from the hair dryer across a coping saw, attatch the power supply and presto! that thing is a million times better than my old battery op one.

I made the walls in 12" sections, 4 complete walls, one gate section with removable gate, and a destroyed section. I was wanting a second breach section but didn't have the base for it. Hopefully the attackers in my Apoc game won't be so keen on blowing up more than one section of wall. :)

The defense laser is now on a base, but I don't have a photo yet. It also needs a smattering of glue and then it's painting time. I probably should add rivets to it and the walls to give them more flavor.
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Next on my list is to build some craters. There will be firestorming and orbital bombardment fun! I've got several bases for these and will be using Model Magic to sculpt them since it's lightweight and so easy to work with. It's the same stuff I made my Mycetic spores from. I found a neat way to cut multiple circles when using the jigsaw. Draw them in a line, then cut out the entire line at once. You can then make 'V' shaped cuts and once that's done just cut them apart. Thusly:

More photos will come as I complete items. I may build another few buildings custom fit for some monstrous creatures to hide in if I have time, and I'm thinking that the defense laser might just need a 'ruined' version as well, but that may be too daunting a task for my upcoming week.

Sunday, Lazy Sunday

Today was nice and lazy, no big battles, no hurries. There were only 4 of us at our host's house today including our lovely host, so kind of him to have us over since our game store is gone. We'll call him Devin. We sat around and geeked out and just enjoyed one anothers' company. I love this. The three of us that don't live there, D and N and myself had all shown up a little bit late and no one really wanted to commit to a large scale battle that would take us into early evening. The discussion of Kill team came up and with it of course Devin's nigh-unstoppable Tau team. N is constantly trying to come up with ways to beat it. I gave up after the wraithguard embarrassment. However a 4 way battle was joined. N proxied 9 warp spiders; D chose 5 thunder hammer/storm shield terminators; I brought 3 vypers, 2 with starcannon and one shuriken cannon and Devin brought 3 crisis suits with missles and plasma.

We each started on a corner of a 4'x4' board. I had first turn. I was also first out of the battle. I managed to kill one spider, starcannons bounced off that accursed 3+ invuln of the termies. N split his forces, but in trying to stay in cover to hide from those tau plasma, he killed several of his own guys. He did manage to wound one of the crisis suits though. He killed the shuriken vyper, the other lost it's starcannon and headed away, flat out, the remaining vyper took up a position placing him between it and the terminators (who had lost one to plasma fire) but they teleported around and blew that vyper up, but it took 2 of them with it in the ensuing explosion. Having nothing else on that side of the board D turned his terminators towards the Tau. N's remaining spider took a risky jump into cover, failed to hurt it, and then rolled very poorly for assault range failing it. The crisis suit promptly cut him down for his error, but not before one of the other crisis suits immobilized my remaining wounded vyper, and since I'd gone flat out, that was upgraded to 'wrecked'. The terminators slowly advanced on the Tau position, but of course crisis suits being much more maneuverable, made short work out of the poor terminators.

Work on the Defense Laser has slowed a bit, mostly due to my being distracted by other things and wanting to add too much 'cool' to it. I am nearly ready to basecoat it though. I now have the wood to put it on, just need to get it cut first. I also have a project to do after, making walls for the apoc game, but the bases are cut already, so that should make things easy, and I have rethought how to make them a little faster. I've had to push my battle date back by a week, so I've got a little breathing room.

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I've been weighing on how to establish objectives for the Apoc battle. Apocalypse or Planetstrike. I think however I've decided to make my own army-based objectives. Each side will have specific tasks to accomplish that will be secret from one another. I'm hoping that I can do this in a balanced way that doesn't leave too many holes.

Terrain - Terra's Virtuous Wrath Ep. II

Well she's coming right along!

I'm still not excited about the Defense Laser itself. From looking at a lot of other folks' constructs they have a much smaller barrel, so I think I'll try and taper it down a bit. I'm also not settled on the pipe placement, I think I'm going to back the longer section up a bit. Everything else I'm quite pleased with, especially my angled tower pieces. I have a few more larger parts to fasten down and then we can start working on the details. Doors and windows please? :)

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I'm wondering why the Apoc entry doesn't list a troop capacity. I'd think something this size would double as a bunker or bastion. I imagine the fluffy answer would be 'power gubbins' or some such. I'm currently debating leaving the flat area (behind Mr. Dire Avenger) open. I have one particular Falcon pilot who likes to perform daring rooftop deployments.

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I went shopping today, first time in months. I missed getting a paycheck. I digress. I found an X-acto circle cutter for $7. Thought that was pretty nifty and wish I'd found it before starting this project. I'd almost decided not to get it for that reason, but I plan on doing some Eldar terrain after this, so that tipped me towards it. It's also a handy tool to have. I didn't see any replacement blades for it, and that was a concern, but it does appear to accept standard blades, but at the cost of accurate measurement. It also is limited to 6" circles maximum, but the smaller circles are the harder to cut.

Battle Report: Planetstrike!

I like Planetstrike. I think it's my favorite of the 40k expansions so far. I haven't played in some time however, and with a big Apocalypse/Planetstrike campaign ending game coming, I felt like I needed a bit of a refresher. I thought I had the perfect recipie for a prequel campaign fight too, as my 'Forces of Disorder' general was going to be making a showing, and hopefully wanting to push some bugs for me. I only wanted to watch and coach as a rules refresher. Sadly my general didn't want to partake, so I broke out my Eldar. I also forgot to pack my camera today, so I have no visual evidence either. My Eldar opponent from last week's rematch was my opponent again this week, so we drafted 2500 point armies; he as attacker and I as defender. We did a simple Planetfall mission, 3 objectives. I simply forgot somehow that I could place some of my things in reserve, but fortunately had enough tanks to load everyone except my Autarch, Farseer Elorrah (both on bikes) and my wraithlord into one or into a Bastion. Firestorms didn't do much, both my jetbikes were hit but saved by invulnerable saves, I think two of the falcons were 'can't shoot' results. 3 Fire Prisms, 4 Vypers and 2 squads of Fire Dragons showed up first turn, and though one of the FD squads was shot down with interceptor fire, 2 of my bastions were blown up. Both my Dark Reapers and Pathfinders were inside, with both of my strategems attatched, now gone and useless. One wave serpent (Dire Avengers) got immobilized. Striking scorpions showed up too, but were misplaced landing near the wraithlord (*whistles innocently*). However the wraithlord was distracted when an Avatar was dropped from orbit right beside all 3 falcons.

It was a very fun game, and it's very late so here are the highlights...

• Banshees won the scorpion v. banshee argument. The scorpions have to be painted the next time they show up if they want a rematch. However banshee on banshee is the worst sort of fight!
• Avatars can take a crap-load of fire (took 3 wounds), but they just make Pathfinders mad, and they know kung-fu. (killed 3 of mine, but doom got his last wound in the end)
• Fuegan apparently brought a cap gun to this battle. His axe worked fine though, if a tank was already on the ground. He did take out my wraithguard early on to his credit.
• Eldrad does whatever he wants.
• Fire dragons raining from the sky are not healthy for bastions, or much else for that matter.
• Tank shock works very well for my opponent. Those watergun wielding pathfinders were sent running off board.
• Wraithsight pops up at the WORST times.
• My Dark Reaper exarch can survive a Fire prism blast, but not a shuriken catapult??
• My Autarch showed the shining spears that there were entirely too many missles in her reaper launcher.

All in all a great game! I'm hoping to get another in before the big game.

Terrain - Terra's Virtuous Wrath

I have an Apocalypse game coming. It's the culmination of the map based campaign I ran at our local gaming store (R.I.P.) last year. Not having a common venue has been detrimental on getting the original players back together for the last few turns and the endgame. I decided to advance things a bit and go ahead and narrate it a little so that we (perhaps just I) can have some closure on it. I even wrote a little fiction to that end. I am thinking of starting a 2nd campaign, but instead have it narrative rather than map-based. Before I can do this though, I need to have the first one out of my hair.

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In this final gambit, there is going to be a defense laser involved. I've always wanted to build one, and this was the 'oomph' to get it done. So despite being distracted by WarGames con photos (I found ProdigalSon's army there!) I managed to get the main gun bashed out. Above is the beginning stage. I wanted a rounded turret something similar to the USS Monitor and had originally planned to carve out 3" worth of the pink foam. Forgetting that it was 1/2" thick and not 1" I soon became dismayed. I don't freehand cut circles very well, and end up with those rough edges and now I was looking at twice as much work. I had planned on sanding the edges down smooth once I had them glued together but my foam supply wasn't going to go the distance (not to mention my fingers from all that cutting). I thought for a moment and came up with an alternate plan that would solve the smoothness and supply issue. I wound up using card stock to make the outer edge laid over a skeletal framework as seen here. This doubly serves the purpose of making the turret lighter, because I had every intention of making it swivel. I mean, what good is a defense laser if you can't shoot behind you!

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I am finding great success with the tops of containers. Even my swivel mount will be using the top of a shave gel can. I've cut a hole in the bottom of the turret, and will attatch the plastic top to the building and presto. It's large enough to keep the turret from toppling over, yet the

smooth plastic will allow it to slide. I haven't fully attatched the gun yet, since I'm trying to figure out how to make it able to go up and down with enough friction to keep it in whichever position it's placed in. I considered a counterweight, but I'd have to have a lot of weight in the end of it in order to make it work. I want to be able to carry the terrain for goodness sakes!!

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Well that's all for now, I'll be posting more as it comes along.

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Oh and a special shout out to all my new followers! Thank you for visiting!

Photography improvement. Check.

Using some of the tips from Faolain's article: http://awakeningynnead.blogspot.com/2010/02/photographing-your-minis.html I've improved my photography just a bit. ;) I'll be tweaking things a little more to suit my own preferences but I'm pretty happy with this test run. The below photo is obviously the 'after' pic.

I've gotten a fair idea of what basing I will use for my Eldar and am actually planning it out instead of just throwing it together as I did with my Tyranids. I think I have 3 or 4 different grades of basing on my 'nids, but since it's just sand and rock for the most part it's not too discernable. I'm going to be taking more time on the Eldar, so I want to make sure it's done well. I may even document it here. ;)

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I've got a 'blast from the past' blog that I've written and was going to post, but with my newly levelled up photo skills, I'll be retaking that photo. (did you see what I did there? ;) )

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Rawr!

Eldar - Banshee Exarch #2

As I am nearing completion of the 4th and final wave serpent, I had gotten the urge to paint the squad that will be riding in it - my 2nd squad of Howling Banshees. As the first squad is painted similar to the Bleached Bone style typically shown in the codex I wanted something different since these squads would likely be on the board at the same time. Or scary version; in the same combat. ;) I couldn't think of or see anything that I really was inspired by around the web. Breaking it down however, I came up with something. I thought about it, Banshees are scary. What else is Banshee-like and scary. The first thing that popped into my head was spectres and immediately after that the Dunharrow guys from Lord of the Rings. I'd seen some fun paintjobs on those and someone else's undead army at one time. I started with the Exarch, since I have 3 of her. I'm pretty happy with the results. :) Slight conversion to her as well. My first squad is the current models of the Banshees, but through a trade that I couldn't pass up, I wound up with the 2nd gen models. I call them the 'tall hat' Banshees. Anyway, I wound up with 3 of the Exarchs as I mentioned, all with Executioners. I prefer Mirrorswords (with doom, yum) so I set about converting. Pretty simple conversion, cut it in half, trim the ends and then turn one of the swords around. I pinned it just to be sure. The rest of the squad won't have the contrasting helmet (as I didn't do that with the first squad) but I do rather like it with it's green tinged edges. I tried to put a metallic blue wet blend on the tips of the swords, but I'm rubbish at the whole wet blend thing. Still, I'm happy with the result and that's what counts!