Bring out your Lead - Friday 2018

This year I had the opportunity to play a bit of a special game, not just because it was at my first BOYL since 2014 but because I travelled up with my Dad, against whom I haven't played Warhammer in the better part of 15 years despite us both painting a significant amount of models in the interim!

Our game wasn't planned out particularly well - we did rather just throw down whatever we had, but it was a cracking day and we managed to wrap it up in a single day!

The Lizardmen army arrayed for war.

Heavy Support for the Lizardmen

Just a quick update today to show what I've been adding to my Lizardmen lately. Having finished up a couple of chunky blocks of saurus warriors, I thought it was time to turn to something a bit meatier.

Coatl Got Your Tongue?

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's a .... snake?

This Coatl has been sitting in the pile for a long time as I've been unsure of what scheme I wanted to use on it. But after seeing a beautifully painted example of this mini by Andrew 'Frogg' on the Codex Slann group I knew I had to steal his idea!

Cold-Blooded Ferocity

Things have been pretty quiet here for far too long!

I've had a lot of things going on over winter - trying to sell/buy a house (ongoing), pass exams (successfully), and polish off a D&D campaign amongst them. This has been combined with an absolute varnishing nightmare where every can I've used has ended up frosting, causing a lot of wasted time and reworking. Overall, I just felt I lost my creative mojo a bit which is a great shame as I have some fantastic minis to paint!

But I finally got a big chunk of painting finished off and I'm very happy with my two new units of saurus with spears. There are two fairly chunky 6x3 blocks that will serve as a strong backbone for my army.

Skink High-Priest and Lobotomised Slaves

I've finished up a slightly esoteric unit for my lizardmen army today - a unit of lobotomised slaves and their skink high-priest!

It did feel a bit sacrilegious to remove the original slann inhabitants of the panalquin, but the fan waver at least will likely make an appearance as a standard bearer at some point in the future. I'd love to have had enough slave models for a couple more files of troops, so maybe I'll get a chance to add to this unit in the future.

Skink Culchan Riders

With the release of Total War: Warhammer 2, I've found myself wanting to pick up on an old project - my Lizardman army.

I'd originally started planning to use it as a pure 5th edition army, as that's when I first started playing them, but I'm far more fond of the magic system from 6th onwards and of the rules/flavour from 7th edition. As it is, it's probably going to be a fudged mess of everything from 3rd-8th, with an aim to play it using a post-5th rule set. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Over the years I've collected a wide array of bits and bobs to supplement the scaly horde including a variety of jungle beasties - scorpions, spiders, cotatls, snake/lizard swarms, leeches, snails and even a capybara! The first thing I felt compelled to paint though were some rather esoteric creatures - the Culchans.

Ragnarok Escort Services

I'm still gradually adding ships to my Battlefleet and for this update I wanted to inject a bit of variety into my fleet. It turns out that thirteen of the same escort is probably overkill and I probably want some more options in the future.

I'm also finally kicking off a campaign this week so want to have plenty of ships to appeal for after my games!

A lunar class cruiser surrounded by two squadrons of escorts

Rounding out the Ragnarok

It's been a sweltering few days lately, but on the upside it means there has been lots of sunshine and little else to do but paint!

As such, I've been working on the third instalment of my Armageddon fleet, Battlefleet Ragnarok. This time I've taken the opportunity to further boost my carrier capacity, fill out my light cruiser options and escort squadrons, and add in a half dozen transports.

Wave three of Battlefleet Ragnarok

Apocalypse Now

I've been continuously working on my new Voss-row fleet for Gothic - Battlefleet Ragnarok.

This latest batch has seen me expand the fleet to around 2,500 points by adding in a battleship, four cruisers, two light cruisers and a pair of escorts.

BFG: Battlefleet Ragnarok

It's been just over two years since I first started work on Battlefleet Valkyrie - my Imperial Navy fleet for BFG. In about six months I'd rounded it out to around 4,000 points of various ships and I'd largely considered the project to be done and dusted. After all, there wasn't a great deal more that I could add.

Hahaha... yeah, right.

Battlefleet Ragnarok

Magnets, how do they work?

I finally decided to bite the bullet and shell out for an Adeptus Mechanic cruiser. It's a ship that I've been keen to acquire for a long time and it will hopefully be a worthy addition to my Imperial fleet.

It arrived ready assembled as a Tyrant class (all weapon batteries) but I wasn't convinced that this was the best use for it, nor was I willing to shell out for several vessels to have different configurations. After all, it would be a rare fleet indeed that would field more than one given that they take up valuable reserve slots! So I did what anybody would do and put the question to the BFG Facebook group. Which configuration should I go with?

The response; magnetise it.

Fine then.

The Adeptus Mechanicus cruiser Immutable Faith

Battlefleet Valkyrie - Group Shots

You know what it's time for? Full fleet shots!

I went to a mixed 40k/BFG event last weekend and got a couple of really fun games in on a very pretty table. Of particular note was the custom built planet which was designed to look like Armageddon, although in this case it represented Ichar IV, and was the main focus of the games.

More pictures after the jump.

Battlefleet Valkyrie in all its glory.

Rounding Out Battlefleet Valkyrie

Over the last few weeks I've been adding some final elements to round out my Battlefleet Gothic fleet. I think I'm sitting at over 3,500 points including static defences and the fleet contains most everything I'd regularly use.

This it not to say that I've got everything painted, a big box of unpainted models is evidence to the contrary, but that I have 'enough' for now. There will still be some occasional additions such as a Long Serpent, Avenger, another Dictator, a Rogue Trader cruiser and a bunch of escorts but I'll be trying to focus on some other old Warhammer/40k models and Infinity over the holidays.

So enjoy this influx of spaceships while it lasts!

The Overlord class battlecruiser Vanguard and the Lunar class cruiser Senator Albrecht supported by a CAP.

BFG - Missions and Advantages

A friend and I had a chance to play some Battlefleet Gothic a couple of weekends ago and to mark this special occasion (we don't get to play too often!) I wanted to try something a little bit different.

This 'little bit different' manifested itself as a set of Advantage Cards which give minor perks to the players during the game and a set of Mission Cards for use with a modified version of the Escalating Engagement scenario. You'll find rules for both of these below.

Are these cards fair? Probably not, but we had a fun, tense game that came down to a 6-5 win for the Chaos forces (boo!). There were some really memorable moments and it was interesting trying to adapt to the rapidly changing circumstances.

A Mars class Battlecruiser escorts a pair of transports as they try and reach a dock at the far side of the planet.

Strike One, Strike Two...

Welcome back to another episode of "did I really need to buy these?" this time featuring the iconic Space Marines Strike Cruisers.

I love the way Strike Cruisers look. The tall spires combined with the really flat prow is really distinctive and looks sufficiently different from other Imperial vessels to stand out. Even though Strike Cruisers are individually unimpressive I'm hoping that squadroned as a pair they'll prove to be effective.

As I mentioned last time I was planning on going for Imperial Fists unless I could come up with anything better and... I couldn't come up with anything better. So bright yellow it is then.

Two Imperial Fist Strike Cruisers deploying for battle.

More spaceships...? More spaceships!

Hello again Battlefleet Gothic fans. I've still got the painting bug so there has been a decent turnaround on new ships including my take on the Enforcer Class light cruiser from the Additional Ships Compendium.

A friend and I are demoing BFG as part of a store open day next weekend so I want to make sure we're going to have lots of interesting stuff to play with and this update is a big part of that. On a related note; if anybody has a cool scenario system, missions cards or a multi-player format to share then please do let me know.

An Enforcer guards a convoy of transport ships.

BFG and Necromunda Update

I've had all kinds of odds and ends cross my painting table lately. This always tends to be the case once an army or faction reaches a certain size and I begin adding the more esoteric elements in order to add some variety.

The main addition was a set of miniatures from Brigade Models that I picked up at Blast-tastic! earlier this month. Yes, I managed to assemble and paint a set of models within a month of buying them. Impressive I know.

Anti-shipping missile defence system.

BFG - Converted Vengeance Class

My current conversion project is finally done (pending basing and a bit of tidying up) and I couldn't wait to share it.

A few months ago I converted up an Exorcist Class grand cruiser and got a lot of helpful advice from the Battlefleet Gothic community. The clearest bit of feedback was that people were not keen on the chunky Imperial prow on the ship, so with my latest build I tried to find a way around that.

This version is meant to represent a slightly earlier design of grand cruiser again, without even having the first vestiges of the frontal armour. The colour scheme is slightly cleaner and brighter to show that it has been mothballed for a long time and finally given a new coat of paint and pressed into service.

The re-commissioned Vengeance Class grand cruiser Tempest with Diligence in the background.

BFG Support Ships

I've been busy preparing my fleet for a tournament between Vanguard (my local club) and Hackney Area Tabletop Enthusiasts (HATE) at the end of November. It'll be a mixed 40k and Battlefleet Gothic event in which I'll be playing three rounds of Planetary Assault with, as yet unknown, additional rules governing the victory conditions and also not knowing which side I'll be fighting on! Engagements will be at 750 and 1,500 points.

The interesting thing about planetary assault is that it gives you free transport ships or (a random amount of) bonus points to spend on planetary defences depending on whether you are attacking or defending respectively. This means I'll need at least 6 transport ships and 180 points of defences in order to be ready for the event and the downside is that these models are all relatively obscure or hard to come by (read: expensive).

Fortunately I managed to pick up some as part of a collection a while back and a couple of other odd bits off eBay. Others I'm going to find proxies for (Spacefleet?) or try and acquire through trading groups. I love these more unusual vessels though so really this is just the excuse I've needed!

The cruisers Drake and Aurora, assisted by the defence monitor Fervent, guard a transport convoy.

Beastman Naming - an Oldhammer Oddity?

When I get hold of some new (to me) Oldhammer models I like to take a long hard look at them. I enjoy turning them over in my hands, noticing all the little details that are easy to overlook when they are just images on a page. In particular the Chaos miniatures all have wonderful features, mutations and accoutrements that set them apart beautifully.

There's also information that's otherwise hidden on a painted and assembled model, or obscured or destroyed by glue, putty or overly-vigorous filing - namely that which is on the slotta tab.

Generally there is some indication of the manufacturer and a copyright date or date of production. But what I found curious was the name on the other side of the tab. Surely, they'd all just say 'beastman', right?