Monday 29 December 2014

The Gang's All Here

Much to my own surprise I've actually finished a painting project this year. In record time in fact. This is definitely not what I'd expected to happen as normally my productivity drops off as it gets colder and darker (than usual). But with a Necromunda campaign starting early in the New Year I've had to crack on.

A Cawdor gang definitely was not what I expected to be working on this Christmas as it is a recent addition to the collection, but the rather simple and charming sculpts means that it got bumped up the queue quite considerably. I've got most of an Escher gang that needs some TLC and a fair sized bundle of Ratskins that really ought to have some colour splashed on them, but the Cawdor models were just so delightfully easy to paint that I couldn't resist!

The Emperor's Reeves are now ready to take the fight to heretics, mutants and wyches everywhere.

The Emperor's Reeves in all their glory

Wednesday 17 December 2014

The Emperor's Reeves

"And there we were, just me and the big armoured bastard in the middle of 'ese ruins. The rest of the gang had scarpered off or been killed and it was me and 'im left."

The sump bar was silent, the patrons gathered close around Constantine as he spun his tale. The Reeves had gone outside to smoke some hivegrass, they'd heard it all a thousand times before anyway.

The grizzled gang leader took another long swig of wildsnake. "So I looked him right in the eyes, stared him down I did. I wasn't scared lads 'cos this was what He put me 'ere for. Killing the heretics in 'is name. Praise be to the Emperor." 

Another swig. He climbed up onto the table and unholstered his autopistol. "And I drew my gun on him and he raised his Boltgun at me. We both fired. BLAM!" He emptied a few rounds from his pistol into the ceiling for emphasis and the crowd jumped back. "My bullets caught 'im dead between the eyes and his bolt smashed up my face something proper."

"That's why I wear this mask now, 'cos the scars are too terrible to see. None of you'd ever sleep again if you saw. You'd be too busy pissing yer'selves and crying for your mamas." He pulled back his cowl, revealing a thick leather mask that covered most of his face. "I took 'is bolter as my rightful reward and it does the Emperor's work now. Good thing none of you is heretics is all I can say."

He took his seat again, revelling in the rapt attention of the assembled drinkers. "Now, someone buy us another round and I'll tell you about the time with the Wyrd Spiders in the ruins of Scraptown."

Constantine - Reeves' Gang Leader

Friday 12 December 2014

Infinity Autumn Challenge 2014

A couple of weekends ago I attended the Autumn Challenge event run by Ian 'The Wargaming Trader' Wood. The weekend was designed as a casual event where we'd be trying out all of the N3 rules spoiled so far with changes to Camouflage, Impetuous, Infiltration, weapon ranges, silhouettes and so on.

Unfortunately, as the weekend was a fairly unusual format - casual gaming on Saturday and 150 point non-ITS doubles tournament on Sunday - the event was not particularly well attended compared to others in the Challenge series, but I still had a really good time and appreciated the chance to get a bit of a preview of N3 and test out some new toys.

Speaking of new toys, there is always an excellent array of Infinity boxes, blisters and scenery for sale at these events and I picked up a copy of the new Dactyl for my army as well as a bunch of 55mm MAS Urban Fight bases for my TAGs, Remotes and Bikes.

Spoiled for choice!

Monday 8 December 2014

List of the Week - Combined Army 'i0003 Style'

With Infinity 2nd edition getting the boot in the next week or so I thought I'd take the opportunity to write about one of the defining lists of the UK tournament scene.

Robin, i0003 to some, has blazed a trail across England this year and has posted excellent tournament results consistently. His force of choice? The Combined Army (...and Haqqislam ...and Yu Jing).

So now that ITS 2014 is all but over I thought I'd ask him to share with me a typical CA list from a recent event so I could try and break down the choices made and why the list works. Do note that this isn't a 'cookie cutter' force. I don't think the exact same list was ever played twice and tuning for the missions in a given tournament is important.

Ewww - weird hand-feet! - Image from Corvus Belli