Friday, June 28, 2013

Laying it all out..

I've been trying to figure out a design for a gaming display board I need to build for Nova. Though it's not the most original idea I wanted it to be a Webway Gate. That's how the Eldar would deploy and so I was thinking of making it look like an old abandoned gate. I want it to be mostly intact but overgrown with vegetation. I will make it more separate pieces then a solid base I'm thinking so you'll see separation and growth coming through it. The base itself will be mostly undergrowth like it's the top of trees. I'll have to measure the basic foot print of my army and then determine how big the design will be. Sadly it will take some time to build it and I need to get going.
I'll probably be making it out of MDF and then applying some plasticard and plaster. I want to line the bottom of the upper level with LEDs or other light source. Just a lite glow, nothing too crazy.

This Saturday I'm going to squeeze in another test game with my friend Josh against his Orks or Daemons. Either way it will be a different style of army to play and I want to see how some the units I'm thinking of using perform. Hopefully my rolling will be decent so I can get a good idea of what to expect. Last night I worked on getting the War Walkers together.

Thankfully it didn't take too long to get the three WWs mostly together. I need to glue on the feet and legs to pose them. The weapons will be magnetized and I'm short so I just ordered 100 small Magnets for the WW's and Wave Serpents. Once they get here I'm going to Mag the Weapons so I can use all the load outs if I ever want to.
Since I'll be playing I sprayed a coat of clear on the Jetbikes and the Warp Sipders.
Having a little more time left I painted some bone details on the spiders. Not really too much done but since I had the time figured I'd throw some paint on them. When I get a long stretch of time to sit down and paint I"m going to work on getting these guys done.

And as a heads up if you use Army Builder they updated the other day and you can build 6th ED Eldar Lists now.

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Codex Iyanden

I picked up the Iyanden Supplement last week and have been reading it over the week here and there. Yesterday was a rough one so I didn't really feel like painting. I choked some zombies out in Last of Us and then finished reading the Iyanden book. So I figured I'd write up what I think about it.

The book does look good but not really worth the cost in my opinion. I'd say the two main reasons to buy the book is you are going to run a full Ghost Army and the new rules in the book will make it a stronger build. Or if you are into fluff and want some stories and background to read. Other then that it's pretty much some pictures and a few missions you can play.

A breakdown of what you get:

Rules - Two pages of rules that do offer some benefits for running a full Ghost Army. But there isn't anything in there that really stands out as amazing to me and the real big let down is no Iyanna rules. I know Iyanden already has Yriel but Iyanna is as big a part of the Craftworld's history and would probably be used more. What would an Iyanden army really use more? A Spiritseer or an Autarch? Not really a hard choice there.

Story / Fluff - Ok, so this book is written by Mat Ward, a mostly fluff book by Ward? Yuck. Too bad he didn't give the book a broken new unit for the Eldar to exploit haha but he did work his normal fluff magic. Most of the background stories are ones you've already heard. The Fall, the Nids attacking but there are a few new stories in it. Sadly I wasn't really impressed with the creativity of them. One being Iyanden being cut off from Exodite worlds by Warpstorms which eventually clear up. Umm.. that for one sounds just like Mankind at the start of the Great Crusade and two Warpstorms don't affect the Eldar all that much. The webway skirts the real and the warp and space is pretty big. They would exit the webway and just fly around or take another webway exit and fly there. The stories of how awesome the Hemlock Wraithfighter are make me laugh but I guess if you could field 80 of them like in the story they would be awesome.

Pictures - The pictures are cool and some of the iconography is useful. Most of the pictures are the standard you've seen before but if you are planning on playing and painting an Iyanden Army it could be helpful.
Overall I'd say unless you are big fan of Eldar or like I said playing a Wraith build I'd pass. I was really hoping for more, if it was going to be a all about fluff book it should have a lot more. Two pages of rules isn't all that much either, if they are going like that they should just make a Craftworld supplement like they did in third Ed. They are pretty much just breaking them up to make more money, on the book and when each new one comes out I'm sure it will make more people buy more models. Just my opinions... maybe you'll love it!

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Luck is one of my skills..

I sprayed the back section of the Jet Bikes with Trans Black to darken them up. I think it ties them together much better. I glued the sections together and now it's time to start working on their riders.  I'm bouncing around a little on stuff but more to keep it from getting boring. Painting a ton of the same thing over and over again can get old haha.. Better for me to mix it up so I keep my motivation high 8)

I'm liking them but the only thing that will throw me off is the mix between these and the older bikes. I'll have to fight the urge to repaint the old ones. I don't need anymore mini's to paint. 8)




On the bikes themselves it's really only details on the gems and painting the designs on the front of the bikes. They will also have the flamejob I used on the older bikes. I didn't get all that much painting done because I started to clean the three War Walkers I picked up. And that took me way longer then I counted on.
Seriously took me an hour and a half. They had a lot to be cleaned but they are now ready to be assembled. I may have to order some more magnets for the guns though, I don't think I'll have enough to magnetize all the gun options. I also cleaned the plastic Farseer which I will be using to make the Seer on Jetbike. I don't really like the positioning of the mini but it will be nice to have a Seer that's easy to convert now. I'm still not sure why they made another mini that looks just like all the older models. They really could have made something new and cool.

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

We Travel the strands of the Warp

Last night I worked on the spiders a bit. I was trying to get the majority of the base colors done but it's a lot of spiders. And still I'd need more, I want to run two squads for Nova. I got the main colors done on the primed only spiders and did a little touch ups on the already painted ones. I did leave the red to yellow fade on the guns to get an idea of what I really liked best. Seeing the large group of both green and red let me look at the group as a whole and I'll have to say I like the green much better so that will definitely be the color of choice. Never really looks like a lot got done when I do a bunch of base coating haha... I know it is a lot but never looks like it.
Thankfully I can knock these guys out pretty quick I think. One or two decent painting sessions and I'll have them mostly done. But like I was saying I'll have to buy at least 5 more, which kinda sucks with the fact they didn't release new models. I was hoping to wait till the Biel-Tan Supplement came out which I'm hoping will mean new Spiders. I really don't mind the mini's but it would be nice to have a bit different pose or two haha..

Monday, June 24, 2013

The Way is Clear

Saturday night we got in a Kill Team game and though we didn't have a huge turn out it still ended up being very fun and I got to actually test some of the new rules and units.

I ran:
8 Dire Avengers
3 Shinning Spears w/ Ex, Star Lance

Thankfully I was rolling pretty decent up until I went against Josh and he used his hateful mojo to make me roll 1s. I swear he knows Voodoo, but thankfully his Dice Rolling was also affected haha..

I got some decent data about the units and let me say they both did well. Dire Avengers are very strong with the Battle Focus and in Kill Teams they were brutal. Sadly it was a ton of run rolling though, in KT's each model is a separate unit so you roll (in this case) eight times. But they put the hurt on Space Wolves and vanilla marines. My friends were yelling for me to stand and fight but why would I do that haha..   I jumped out and unleashed then ran and hid. There is a lot of terrain on the board for KT's so that does help but still. Sadly even with BF and 18" Range you are still going to be in range of Marines with bolters so you are still going to get hit but hopefully only the once. Either way, with the a ton of shots you are going to get some AP2 in there and I was getting a decent amount (though people were rolling cover saves like no one's business haha) and no save it pretty nice. I didn't face any Termies but the same thing would have gone down as the cover was typically 5+. So most likely I'll still be running these as my main troop choice. Wave Serpent are strong tanks so I suspect you'll see a lot of them on the table. They aren't a CC delivery unit but they can unleash a lot of firepower and with the Shield and Holo Fields should have some staying power.

The Shinning Spears also did well but you really need to get up close and I'm not sure I really want to be that close. With a large squad they could be pretty brutal against most units but they are most likely going to have to suffer a round of shooting. If they had the ability to add a Lock to the group and he got Conceal off they'd be good. They would be a nice surgical strike unit, I could see them being very useful against Tau. Shoot and charge, if the unit survives you should be able to last their round of combat then Hit and Run. Shoot and charge again if need be. But I'm thinking you are really going to need the full nine to really be devastating.

It was a very fun game and was all friends playing so it ended up with a lot of smack talk going on. I pulled out the victory with a large margin in Victory Points but at the end it was really down to model count. My friend Dave and I were going at it in the middle of the board on top of the Landing Platform. Thankfully the Avengers took out two of the three Scouts up top then ran back off the platform (thank you Battle Focus). That took Dave to break numbers and ensured me the victory. Josh got to try out the new Dar Dex running Scorps and Rangers, that Scorp Claw at I value put a hurt on Dave's marines. It really is a killer.Then his Rangers Shot my Shinning Spear Ex with Shoulded and killed him with me rolling a 1 for his 2+ cover save! BAH. I did get revenge though, I zoomed the other Spears over taking out 4 Scorps and his remaining Rangers as they broke. TAKE THAT! 8)

Friday, June 21, 2013

Strip it down

I posted a few pictures the other day of the Dark Reapers I've been stripping. Normally I just soak mini's in Simple Green which works great unless you run into Enamel paint. For that I usually break out the Goof Off.
Goof Off is no joke. So I'll throw out a little warning about it. DO NOT USE IT ON PLASTIC. I was working on the mini's as I was doing laundry so wasn't really thinking about the bases. I sadly left the bases attached to the Reapers and wow, those bases were brutalized. They were only soaking for about 10 mins but that's all it took haha..  I picked up the first Reaper and the base melted in my hand. It was a mess and was actually burning my hand haha.. brutal. So I scrubbed real quick and then took a shower to remove the burnt plastic. That's something you never really want to have to say!

It did do a number on the paint though 8)


They are almost ready for primer again. I'll clean the edges a little more and then they will be all primed up.

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Bit o Fun..

Last night I had to run to the store and do some other odds and ends so nothing really got done. I did de-sprue a box of guardians and three War Walkers.
I scrapped some flash off some of the Walkers but then got bored with that so thought up a few lists for the Kill Teams that I'll be running this Saturday. I'll be playing one of them and a friend will probably be playing another.

Fire Dragons
Elite
3+, Fusion Guns Str 8 Ap 1 Assault 1 Melta
198
9









Fire Dragons
Elite
3+, Fusion Guns Str 8 Ap 1 Assault 1 Melta
176
8
Exarch
Powers- Fast Shot
20
0









Warp Spiders
Fast Attack
3+, Spinners Str6, Mono
190
10
Exarch
10
0









Dire Avengers
Troop
4+, Avenger ShurCats
130
10
Jetbikes
Toop
3+
51
3
ShurCann
10
0









Rangers
Troop
5+, Long Rifle
72
6
Striking Scorpions
Elite
3+ Mandiblaster, SCS +1 Str
85
5
Exarch
w/ Scorp Claw
40
0









Shining Spears
Fast
3+, Laser Lance
75
3
Exarch
w/ Star Lance
20
0
Guardians
Troop
w/ ShurCann
105
11









Shining Spears
Fast
3+, Laser Lance
75
3
Exarch
w/ Star Lance
20
0
Dire Avengers
Troop
4+, Avenger ShurCats
102
8

The spaces separate the lists above.. With Battle Focus these could be some decent lists. In Kill Teams there's so much cover that even with low armor saves you'll be getting a decent cover save. Scorps will really benefit from that having the built in Stealth now. I'm leaning toward the Spears with Avengers, I think it could be a decent list that will have speed and the chance to really put the hurt on. With BF and BS the Avengers could be pretty strong and the SSpears will jump all over bringing the pain. My friend is leaning toward using my Fire Dragons .. that's a lot of Battle Focused Melta on the move.

All in all it should be a good time, Kill Teams usually is, boiling down to a hectic hail of bullets and fists. For two rounds someone is an Ally killing a shared enemy only to get lite you up on the next round. You never know who to trust and that makes it even more enjoyable. Personal grudges fire up and you will typically see the same people going right after each other. Good times.. Last KT one of my Banshee's took out my friend Josh's last Mega Nob, so I'll have to be on the look out for him. 8) 

With only 200 points and no Ally Additions it makes list building tough and fun. No one is going to have an uber OP force and even if they seem to be a little stronger then the others it's not really a big deal. People will notice and team up on you, so trying to make a uber force doesn't always pay off. The climint of 40K seems to be changing a lot, people only playing what's the strongest, cherry picking allies and generally playing bland spam lists. KT's is a somewhat quick game where none of that comes into play. Play what you like and have some fun, the only thing you win is a chance to talk some more smack. Plus it usually gives me a chance to paint some stuff that I normally don't play.