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Guildball - Alchemists

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No not that sort of Alchy, the brewers are for someone else to paint. I mean the Alchemists.



Guild Ball - Alchemists Artwork

I started this team back around May/June but then they fell by the wayside but finally this week I started to pick them up again and actually make some serious progress which resulted in it then snowballing into a ready team!



Alchemists - As imagined by me!

As ever with Guild Ball metals there was relatively little clean up required but a load of joints to pin. As they have such efforts to add dynamic poses it results in a lot of limbs needing attached and quite small contact points, but still big enough to pin in all instances.
 

From there I decided I wanted to move away from the artwork colours of dark green and white but settled on the classic combo of purple and cream (well a bit darker than cream really). These colours are tried and tested and look really good together, so colour theory and all.  Thrown in my usual mix of skin tones, funky steampunk goggles, brasswork metals and that's my paintjob.  Ohh plus the flame effect on Mercury and blue faerie fire on Midas's hand too.  Basically these guys have a load of stuff that is fun to paint on them.


Alchemists stats - They do stuff!

Playstyle I'd said from as soon as I saw the rules I thought that this would be the team for me, they've a captain who is a really good goal scorer but also is more than capable of putting out a beating and has the amazing skill to steal someone else's skill which can be really helpful in tailoring what your team does in any given game. 
 


The rest of the team consists of a silly robot thing that can explode and also can pulse out damage if people have conditions on them, which is pretty decent damage for a mascot and given the rest of the team is pretty good about putting down conditions it's not exactly hard to end up in the position to get it going.  Similarly Katalyst has the same ability and also buffs up his attacks versus people with conditions so starts to build up a real theme here and then you have Mercury and Calculus who, guess what, are pretty decent at putting conditions onto people.  Finally you've Vitriol who is a striker come all rounder with a stat line which is up there with the best in the game, though does lack some of the trickery that some of the other strikers can bring to the table and lacks the all important momentous tackle on 1 hit that many have.
 


All in all I've tended to see them as a fast goal scoring team with some nice abilities to disrupt peoples plans using their ranged AoE effects.  Once you look into the list of Union players who can take the field for them it's pretty obvious you'll be dropping at least one of those players to put Hemlocke on the pitch and then Mist, Snakeskin and Decimate all bring a lot of speed and useful abilities to this team.
 


I can see my regular line up being:
  • Midas - Captain fantastic himself a top goal scorer
  • Flask - Because I still don't know what their season 2 mascot is and his smoke cloud helps out Vitriol
  • Vitriol - Because she's all round awesome and a good scorer
  • Hemlocke - Because she's even more awesome, seriously she's bent good.
  • Mist - because 3 out and out strikers is better than 2 and some people think he's broken too and finally
  • Calculus - Because Blind is good and having it twice per turn is even better but equally there is an argument for Decimate or snakeskin here too. I would put mercury down too as his playbook is really quite hitty but he lacks momentum generation on it and only provides 1 inf unless hanging out close to Flask which he usually can be, but it's annoying when he runs off to do some hitting and your inf pool drops the next turn.
 


Tactics are - score, score score. Win!  When you don't have the ball you're looking to gimp the ball carrier with blind, heavy burden and then use any of your fast guys with easy tackles to strip the ball to set it all up again. As a fall back between Midas, Calculus, Vitriol and Flask you can put out a surprising amount of damage with relative easy and with Hemlocke and Mist you can generate momentum whenever you need too.




So there we have it, my alchemists are done and ready to play. Now, lets play ball!

AoS Battle Report: Stormcast Eternals vs Lizardmen (Seraphon)

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Hey guys, so I’m back from my honeymoon and wedding! Had an amazing time , really loved it!

So Scott and I decided to get a wee game in of AoS last night using the Clash comp pack (little bit of modification to let Scott use his toys lol). We played Stormcasts vs Lizards and was actually the first time I got to play with my speed painted army. Actually quite happy with the standard of them, nice effect on the table and really looking forward to finishing them off to my best possible standard. Also very much looking forward to getting my 20 judicators, 5 Decimators and 5 Protectors speed painted up. Also have a Vexilior, Vennator, Azyros and Heraldor to be painted too.

Anyway so we played a 20 point game and I was using the following:

Lord Celestant on Dracoth
Lord Celestant on foot
Lord Castellant
Lord Relictor

4x 5 Liberators with Shields
10x Retributors
3x 3 Prosecutors.

Scott took (illegal but we agreed it was fine)

Kroq-Gar
Slann
Skink Priest
Oldblood on Coldone
Scar Vet Banner Bearer

2x 10 Skink
20 Saurus Warriors
3x Terradons
Bastilidon

It’s worth noting Scott’s list was pretty rubbish but it was all he had assembled and we just wanted to have some fun. We played the refused flank from the Clash Comp pack (see here: link), Scott finished deploying first so made me go first. I chose not go with any of the teleporting formations primarily because I wanted to test and play with the units in a standard way. Also currently under the comp teleporting units cannot capture objectives and not knowing how the game would flow or my unit performed could result in a big error losing me the game.

Basically I moved up and began pushing the retributors towards the central objective, they are my slowest moving and hardest hitting unit and it made sense that they pushed to smash the centre and react easier. Had I moved to a side objective and it disappeared, they would be out of the game. The liberators pushed towards the side objectives and the characters spread out around the retributors to support each other and buff a unit if required. Also the offensive mortal wound attacks projected threat towards the lizards. The prosecutors spread forward to act as a vanguard and to keep Scott from advancing too fast towards the objectives. I think these small units will work well as speed bumps in the future.

From here onwards it is probably not worth going into massive detail of the game as my army was a lot better than Scott’s, my dice were on fire and his seemed to only roll 1s. The main learning points from the game were as follows:

  • ·         Conventional internet wisdom is going 1stis bad as you run the risk of being double turned and your shooting probably won’t be in range. In some situations however it might be better to go first. Having fast “speed” bump units like the prosecutors that can push forward to slow down an enemy unit are great to ensure you can camp the objectives. As there are no overruns any more you can’t gain free movement from being too aggressive early.
  • ·         The prosecutors are “ok”. They don’t hit hard (no rend) and are quite squishy (2 wounds each and 4+ save) but their utility from shooting, being fast and ok in combat is good.
  • ·         The retributors are solid gold awesome, hits of 6 straight up cause 2 mortal wounds (no wound roll required). 3 wounds each and causing 2 damage (-1 rend, hit and wound on 3s) very, very good unit. Only problem is movement 4 so they are pretty slow but there is potential to teleport them and act as a hammer. A starstone mace also would have been nice to give D3 auto
  • ·         Liberators are decent, with shields they are a very resilient anvil unit (4+ save rerolling 1s) and when fighting enemies with 5+ wounds they activate their “lay low the tyrants” rule making them hit on 3s and wound on 3s. Going forward I will be putting a great blade on my Liberator prime to give them a little punch.
  • ·         The Celestant on Dracoth (VANDUS HAMMERHAND) was very good, the lightning breath causing D3 mortal wounds wise a nice ability, as it happens in the shooting phase you can react much more than having to cast arcane bolt in the hero phase. Also no battleshock within 24” was very tasty!
  • ·         The celestant on foot was also a great addition, his hammer cloak (ridiculous fluff wise) is super good too, D6 hits that do a mortal wound on a 4+ with a nice range of 16” can be great, I killed a Slann over the course of 3 turns.
  • ·         The castellant was also great, his buff was great making vandus and the retributors harder to kill.
  • ·         The relictor was also good, restoring 6 wounds to Vandus with the healing spell over 3 turns. The lightning bolt attack was also good, causing d3 wounds to Kroqgar and making him -1 to hit.
Anyway I'm super positive about playing AoS and the Stormcasts in the future and look forward to using more units in the army. I maybe went a bit OTT with characters but equally it was quite fun using all their utility in the game. Playing Mike’s dorfs on Sunday, wish me luck!



















Araloth: Painting Challenge

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Hey guys! So finally finished my Araloth for the painting challenge (due in just over a week guys!), thought I would try going OTT on the basing since it is such a new realm of possibility in the Age of Sigmar. Have shown step by step images below of the basing stages, almost all of the bits used are just twigs, rocks and gravel I can find on my evening run. Other than that it is sand, PVA and tufts. The snow is a mix of GW snow (fibrous) and army painter snow(granular) which I think has worked pretty well I think. Very happy with how the base came out, so much so that I want to replicate this on my next Age of Sigmar army (ogre or warriors I think!).

Painting wise on Araloth, it’s probably not my best effort but it came out ok. Blend is not quite as good as I wanted on the cape and the overall colour scheme is not great. Green, purple or blue would have looked better than the red I think. I did however test out the new GW golds: Retributor Gold and Liberator Gold and was hugely impressed by them. I will be doing all my golds in the future with these paints. Really simple: Base Retributor, wash Agrax, layer retributory, highlight liberator and edge highlight Mithril silver. It hasn’t come out great in the pictures but will show this in more detail when I finish my stormcasts!

Anyway let me know what you think and remember to submit your Araloths by the 4th of October via DM to me on Twitter (please don’t just send via normal twitter feed, I use twitter A LOT (too much!) so it will get lost in the abyss! No exceptions or special cases!!!!)

Love n Hugs


#RichHate


















Age of Sigmar: Stormcasts vs Dwarfs (Duradin)

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Hey guys quick post with some pics from a wee gaming (DICE WOOOOO!) day Mike and I had on Sunday. We played Age of Sigmar with the Stormcasts shooting off some dorfs (Yay irony!) and winning 18-2 or 19-1 (we didn’t track closely). Turns out judicators in 5s with the prime firing his shock bolt bow (hitting on 2s!) to do some tasty damage. As standard my dice were awesome and mike’s were lack lustre. The judicators were awful in combat though so I think their current 1.5 cost is relatively justified but they were still pretty awesome with bows. The 24” range was tasty and the damage output is quite decent. The protectors were also ace! For those interested my list was (using 1.2 clash comp):

Lord Celestant on Dracoth (2.5)
Lord Castellant (1.5)
Lord Celestant on foot (1)
Lord Relictor (1)

5x Judicators, Prime with Shockbolt bow(1.5)
5x Judicators, Prime with Shockbolt bow(1.5)
5x Judicators, Prime with Shockbolt bow(1.5)
5x Judicators, Prime with Shockbolt bow(1.5)

10x Retributors (4)
5x Protectors (1x Starsoul Mace) (2)
3x Prosecutors (1)
3x Prosecutors (1)

Total (20)

We also tried our very first game of guildball using the quick start rules. These neither resulted in anything quick or startable lol. We basically ended up fudging it a bit and playing with our pretty toys lol. Was good to get them on the table after spending so long painting them but we need to read up a lot more and maybe get taught how to play by someone who knows what they are doing!

To be fair I’m being a bit disparaging and we did start to see what was going on and I can see how the game can be all about synergy. We got things going and I think I will really enjoy the game. My gaming mat arrived and I have 2x Union players to build (thanks to Chris Tomlin!) so keen to play more games and learn it!





























Araloth, the Lord of Talsynn

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Here is Araloth who I painted for the Painting Challenge and also to go in my Wood Elf Army for Clash of Swords. He is a great model to paint up, with loads of character and detail.






 

Cheapest (?) "Warhammer" Army: Khorne Bloodbound Daemonkin

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Hey guys! So last night I was mucking about with some 40k and AoS list (love me a good listing!) and got to thinking about the possibility of having a cross over 40k and AOS army. With both systems now using round bases this has become a much more tangible possibility. Daemons of Chaos are the obvious cross over army but personally I’m not a huge fan of full armies of Daemons (or a large part of the model range) especially mixing marks (old skool there I’m afraid, they should be separate in my opinion!) so I thought I would give it a stab with the new hotness: Khorne Bloodbound.

Khorne is an interesting beasts, I’m a big fan of the new range (prefer them to the Stormcasts truth be told) and GW seems to be getting majorly behind Khorne with model and warscroll support. The newest characters are also really cool too, the Slaughter Priest in particular is an incredible model! Khorne is also one of the most recently updated 40k Chaos Space Marine (CSM) lists with the Khorne Daemonkin list. Khorne Daemonkin has been hailed as one of the most competitive (and fun to play!) CSM army lists where you can take a tasty mix of marines and daemons. It has an interesting mechanic whereby for each unit killed (by either side! Khorne cares not from where the blood flows!!) grants a blood tithe point which can be spent to give army wide benefits (feel no pain, rage etc) or summon new units (Bloodletters to Bloodthirsters!).

So with 40k having the more rigid points system I set to writing a list (Bold letters indicate the models used, typically AoS models):

Slaughtercult Formation
Mighty Lord Of Khorne (Chaos Lord): Kor'lath, the Axe of Ruin; The Blood-forged Armour; lightning claw; melta bombs 205
Blood Warriors (9 Berzerkers): + 1 Berzerker Champion (power fist) 225
Blood Warriors (9 Berzerkers): + 1 Berzerker Champion (power fist) 225
Wrathmongers (4 Possessed): + 1 Possessed Champion 150
Blood Reavers (10 Chaos Cultists): flamer; + 1 Cultist Champion 81
Blood Reavers (10 Chaos Cultists): flamer; + 1 Cultist Champion 81

Brazen Onslaught Formation
Skullreaper Models (4 Chaos Terminators): 2× power axes; chainfist; 2× combi-melta; pair of lightning claws; reaper autocannon; + 1 Terminator Champion (power axe) 223
Skullcrusher Models (3 Bloodcrushers) 135
Skullcrusher Models (3 Bloodcrushers) 135

Gorepack Formation
5 Flesh Hounds 80
• Chaos Knights (4 Chaos Bikers): flamer; meltagun; + 1 Chaos Biker Champion (power axe; melta bombs) 155
Chaos Knights (4 Chaos Bikers): flamer; meltagun; + 1 Chaos Biker Champion (power axe; melta bombs) 155

1,850 points

Summonable models:

Kruul (Bloodthirster)
4 x10 Bloodletters

So obviously this will require conversions! The bikers/knights would get combi bolters on their shield arms. The terminators/skull reapers would get extensive conversions using both kits to get the guns and awesomeness from the skullreapers. The Blood warriors are pretty straight forward being that they are essentially much nicer models than the current 40k Khorne berserkers so would probably just get bolt pistols added somehow. The cultists are pretty straight forward too, some guns on the blood reaver models, done! I actually think this could look really awesome and be a lot of fun to play in both systems. Maybe some are a bit of a stretch but hey can easily not cross over it all!

Here is roughly what the army would equate to in AoS Clash comp pools:

HEROES
Mighty Lord Of Khorne (1.5)
Bloodthirster Of Unfettered Fury (4.5)

UNITS
Blood Warriors x 15 (3)
Blood Warriors x 15 (3)

Bloodreavers x 10 (1)
Bloodreavers x 10 (1)

Wrathmongers x 5 (1.5)

Chaos Knights x 10 (4)
- Ensorcelled Weapons

Skullreapers x 5 (1.5)
- Goreslick Blades
- Spinecleaver : 0
- Soultearer : 0

Skullcrushers Of Khorne x 6 (4)
- Axes

Bloodletters Of Khorne x 20 (2)
Bloodletters Of Khorne x 20 (2)

Flesh Hounds Of Khorne x 5 (1)


TOTAL: 30 / 20

Let me know what you guys think!

Araloth and Darklands Guthwulf Pictures

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Hey guys super quick post just with some updated pictures of my Darklands Mierce Minatures Guthwulf and my Araloth Age of Sigmar model for the #paintingChallenge. Made a cheeky wee infinity wall for taking pictures using some A3 paper and a stack of books, really should get a foldio2!
















Guildball Gaming Mat Review

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So the other night I managed to snap up a Guildball gaming mat from Chris Tomlin off twitter and got a chance to have a look at it. Really impressed with the quality, it is made from the “mouse mat” material that my main gaming mat (gamemat.eu or FAT Mat material) is made from and is in my opinion the best material on the market for gaming. It seemed slightly thinner but not enough to detract, very happy. It is rubber backed cloth and, for all practical purposes, immune to creasing. Print quality is excellent and it arrived in a handy carry/storage bag (would have preferred a high quality tube but hey ho!).

It is marked out for playing a 3x3 ft standard game which is excellent (it is slightly larger than 3x3 so measure yours in person before making a frame if that is your intent). Being slightly larger was a bit annoying as my kitchen table is exactly 3ft wide so had hoped to use it without having to lug out by MDF boards. Would definitely recommend picking one up if you plan to play guildball though, well worth it. Here are a few pictures with my Fishermen team for scale and some close ups of the print quality.

The mat would have benefitted from some nice border art (a pre-determined place for tokens, scores etc) to help with gaming but that is just wishful thinking. Can see them bringing out team themed mats in the future, eg a beach side one for fishermen or a street abattoir/town centre for butchers, grave yard for morticians etc


Would give the product 8/10and highly recommend it!







Bits!! What are they good for.. Absolutely nothing?

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And here we have the wild denuded sprue... These useless bits on a plastic skelton are the remnants of models assembled and all that remains of a once glorious sealed box of miniature goodness.  So what the heck do you do with them?  Some of you throw these away (naughty hobbyist.)  I put it to you that these sprues still have life in them, an inspiration of models yet to come, and conversions yet to be made.

Allright, I will concede that the following picture is enough work in potentia to make even the stoutest of conversion dreamers think fondly of the dustbin.  
(the aforementioned milieu of miniature mayhem)

And yet..  I can see some of you.. peering into the screen at this mess and dreaming.. You've noticed that all these pieces are from the dwarf range.  (or Duardin for those of the politically correct AoS mindset ;) ) This little pile of plastic represents more than a decade of design, style, and integration from the GW range.  Maybe you see the gyro bomber bits, the dragonback banner or even the humble dwarf warriors banner, and your mind starts whirring.  You might be the type who hunts through bits sites lamenting the cursed out of stock button!  (I know I am.)  
         Or maybe you're not.  Maybe you just build an army at a time, and you like having everything orderly and stored.  No loose little rubble piles for you.  Well then, how bout this next picture?  ;)
 This is a bitz box.  I say "a" because I have many.  10+ at the last count.  These bitz boxes are my inspiration.  Everything has been sorted.  Banners, shields, beastmen, and empire.   The bitz are sorted by race, by kit, and sometimes even by left arm, right arm, or ranged weapon vs. hand weapon.   Did it take time?  Yes. Do I enjoy the knowledge that I can find almost any bit within minutes, no matter which kit it came from or when I acquired it?  Yes.  
            So what is the point of this post?  Simple.  Your hobby isn't a finished project.  Finishing projects is an enjoyable experience, but if all your projects are finished, I submit that you are no longer a hobbyist.  A hobbyist always has another project on the go, another army to be planned, another theme to be explored.                    Bits boxes contain that little bit with character that didn't fit with your theme, that weapon that used to be terrible, and the un-assembled projects of past plans. But they also contain the piece that you never thought you would use but turns out to be perfect. I always have a picture of the bit that will make my conversion work in my head, and find it only to learn, it's not quite right.  However, it almost ends up sharing a compartment with the bit that is.  So consider sorting your bits, saving them from an ignominious melty death of toxic fumage in some forgotten recycling plant.  Sort them out, because sorting bits in something hobbyists do because who knows what they'll need for that next project? 


Episode 3 - The Return of the Hobby King!

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And finally here....is Episode 3. He's back.....and he's written some OCD Hobby plans....we welcome back Rich from his hobby hiatus/honeymoon. The Kings talk about some (nearly new) releases, general AoS and hobby chat, and spend a bit of time talking about the recent Forgotten Heroes 1dayer. Andy & Scott go through their game-by-game wins and losses (let you guess who won more...). Finally, we have Ryan Savage on to tell us all about the 2nd AoS tournament in Scotland, coming up in Oct - The Scottish Open.



Catch us on iTunes too.

@LastKingsCast 

And Now for something completely different.... Man Points for Mobile Makers

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So.. ever feel like you should be earning more Man Points?  Well I've got a project for you... if you've got little kids.  ;)  How to make your own Star Wars Mobile for your child:
  
This will be the result.  (hopefully)
Disclaimer from The Wife: This is not a grabbing-resistant mobile.  Do not place this directly over an infants' crib, as the small pieces will detach if pulled.  And I'll be honest... It's pretty easy.  It took me 1.5 hours total from beginning to end.
To start with we'll have a picture of the materials

I bought two small kits pictured above for the Star Wars figures.
($11.99 at Hobby Lobby with the Force Awakens Re-release)
($9.99 from Target, Toys R'Us, etc.)
The necessary bits above are: 
1. Heavy duty thread (color is your choice)
2.  Large sewing needle (a larger "eye" is easier to thread)
3. Toys pictured above
4. Pin Drill
5. "I" beam styrene (Available at any model railroad hobby store)
6. Hobby chain for hanging mobile 
(Optional)
Beads for adding beneath micro machines for added bling
(this was the most time consuming part for me... threading beads.)

Alright, so first things first... I made an Episode VII mobile but there are quite the options for the model above:
http://www.revell.com/model-kits/entertainment/starwars.html
and the micro machines hanging beneath:
http://www.hasbro.com/en-us/toys-games/?limit=48&q=star+wars+micro+machines
Whatever your favorite movies are (Ep. 1-3, 4-6 or 7,) there are models to fit it.


1.  First remove the bottom plate of the Millenium Falcon from the packaging.  
Using your pin drill, make a hole through the bottom of the Falcon plate.  (I found drilling into the assembly pipes an easy way to make sure the mobile is balanced.) 
2. After that, thread the needle with the string, and pull the needle through the hole.  Once the thread is through, knot the thread ABOVE the bottom base plate.  (If you pass the thread through the loop multiple times, you can make a larger knot to hold the thread.)   Cut off the String ABOVE the knot, but leave a length (8 inches or about 125mm,) BELOW the Falcon plate.
3. Next, cut a length of Styrene I beam (4 inches or 60mm) and drill a hole through the center.  Thread the needle through this hole (still attached to the thread knotted above the falcon plate.) knot the thread BELOW the I beam, and cut the excess thread below the knot.  
4. After that, drill a hole on through one side of the I-beam (1/4 inch or 5mm from the edge and in the center of the beam itself,)  Thread the needle and attached thread through from the top and knot the thread ABOVE the I-beam.
5. The next step is to drill a hole through the micro machine.  I chose the tie fighter first, and drilled through the center of the recess for the flight stand in the bottom of the figure.  Thread the needle and thread from the top of the figure to the bottom.  (At this point you may optionally thread beads on to the thread BELOW the figure for added bling and to adjust differences in weight between the micro machines.  The Tie fighters are heavier than the X-Wings, so more beads underneath the X-Wings make them balance out.)  Knot the thread BELOW the figure and cut off the excess.  

6. Repeat Steps 4 and 5 on the opposite side of the I beam for the X-Wing to finish the dueling X-Wing and Tie Fighter.

7. Repeat steps 1 through 6 on the opposite side of the Falcon plate for the second duel.

8. Finish assembling the Millenium Falcon as directed (use super glue for peace of mind), but leave out the central clear window on the top part of the Falcon.  (This gap will be used to hang the mobile.)

9.  Using a length of chain, twist the bottom ring open, slip it through the hole in the Top Falcon plate, and twist the bottom ring closed.

                10.  Twist the top ring open to attach the large hoop at the end of the chain, and twist to close.

Your mobile should look like this (hopefully) and you should have earned some Man points ;)  Let me know how it goes!  





Building a Darklands List

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Its been a while since I have had the chance to sit down and write a post for the blog (darn real life), however after a request from Rich to write a list with his current and incoming collection of models to help him leap straight into a game with his local group. After finding out what his collection is it was time to bring up the Anglecynn muster and begin. A quick note this was using the official muster at the time of writing so unit costs and stats could of potentially changed, as well as the addition of new units since.

First off the collection:





Guthwulf
Maegenwulf



































As you can see this is a large selection of monsters and characters Rich will have at his disposal! The Gold value I will write the list for will be 1750 as this is the size of list I have been writing for a bit. First off this means the special characters cannot be used as their character entry due to the muster building restrictions as they count as Unique units. Here is the restrictions for this gold level:

Mainstay 1+
Common 0-8
Uncommon 0-6
Rare 0-2
Unique 0

Now what do you want in a list for Darklands? Well to start you want to:
  • Try and have a high authority general, to allow you to get the best chance to pick the table side you want to deploy off on top of giving you the higher odds of not failing the roll to see who activates first each hour. Not only is it useful to let you bring more units to the table! 
  • Next to get a decent selection of units not only to provide more activation's but also more options on the battlefield.
  • It is also a good idea to try and fit as many weapons or units with attacks that get increased damage dice to help deal with monsters and other high priority targets 

To start with I would use the Penda model as a Forthegn as it gives a high authority general so as Rich would have the best chance of getting to go first as well as fit many units in under him. This also gives access to a mainstay unit in the Duguth which forfill the only madatory unit choice he must make. Another good inclusion will be the Wiglere as it will provide synergy with many of the units in the Anglecynn muster with some of his spells as well as Tanglethorn to literally pin units in place to control movement. So without further ado here is the list:

General
Forthegn - Guthelm and Guthbyrne 130gold
Duguth - 10 men, Mail Byrne, Wolfborne,Fane bearer, Horn blower 254gold
Morthorber 396gold

Commander
Wiglere 88gold
Waelwuls - 3 men 192gold
Werewulf - 3 men Beaten armour, Scyld 165gold

Commander
Thegn - Guthelm and Guthbyrne, Fane bearer 97gold
Ceorl - 5 men, bows and daggers 65gold
Maeganwulf - 336gold

With the three commanders Rich will have a good chance to see where his opponent is deploying before he has had to place many of his commands and the 6 units will give the ability to hold back his two big monsters longer so as they are less inclined to become overwhelmed due to his opponent having several activations left. The issues this list will likely have are the lack of armour in comparison across the kindred as well as the maegenwulf and waelwulfs being feral having a reduced level of control.

The Thegn being the Fane bearer will give the chance to re roll valor tests if units are close enough (similar to a BSB back in 8th edition Warhammer) keeping his units in the fight a bit longer.

The Ceorl give a useful chaff option that could ping the odd point or two of constitution from units before the main combat units come in to deliver the killing blow.

Where to next?

My suggestions to Rich with expanding his collection would to increase the number of waelwulfs he has as well as looking into the waelwulf and werewulf characters as these offer him the option to go for an all wolf list which is incredibly quick and hard hitting if a little fragile. In larger games he can make use of the special characters who offer lots of options from Penda's combat capabilities to Meloda's spell casting prowess. Aside from this my main suggestions would be to look at other Beronica units such as the Sleanbera, who offer hard hitting combat power as well as dealing extra damage should the opponent fail to parry his strikes, aside from this he should play around with the units to find what fits his play style and offer him the greatest enjoyment to use.

Thank you and look forward to my next post.













PaintHammer Painting Challenge: Araloth

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Hey guys! so here are the entrants for the third painting challenge! Some amazing work here by the guys! Bit of shame we only had 5 entrants but hey ho, age of sigmar might be denting the popularity of this (FYI blog visits down about 20% but that might be due to lower post quantity by 20% lol).

Anyway now for the voting, very simple: Choose your favourite (hard part!), tweet your vote to me (@paint_hammer) or as a comment to this blog post. One vote per person please and no self voting ;) Voting will close at 2359 BST on Monday the 12th of October. Shameless self promotion and bribes are recommended and encouraged!

DISCLAIMER: Please contact me ASAP if anything is wrong, I have missed your entry or to vent #RichHate. Not everyone listened to me and didn’t submit via twitter DM (bad monkeys!!!).

 Rich P
 Rich P
 Rich P

Rich P


Steve Wren



Steve Wren



Steve Wren



Steve Wren



Steve Wren



Steve Wren



Steve Wren

Scott Ferguson
Steve Foote



Steve Foote



Steve Foote



Steve Foote


Mike Callaghan


Mike Callaghan


Mike Callaghan

Mike Callaghan

Paul Wagner

Paul Wagner

Paul Wagner

Paul Wagner

Paul Wagner


Araloth and the Gobraloth

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I finally managed to finish my Araloth fig for the #paintingchallenge.

(A day late of course ;) )  I decided that I couldn't chop up the wood elf figure, as it was such a nice sculpt, but didn't feel like painting him up on just a normal base.

              All this faffing about left me well behind schedule when it came to the deadline.  I decided to make Araloth face off against a Spider Goblin adversary who was "attempting" to be a Gobbo version of Araloth.  The Spear and Shield were easy swaps.

         The flung Spider was a simple conversion that consisted of simply swapping the gobbo mage's arm to the opposite direction and adding a Spider with webbing to imitate the Bird with cloth straps.  The last touch was courtesy of @iosefward ;)  A brilliant idea of a dead spider on his head to mimic Araloth's Antlers.  In order to make the Spider and the bird appear to be in a duel, the gobbo had to be much higher, hence the hill.

         Finally I decided the gobbo would be far too cowardly to fight Araloth fair, so he is fighting from above his mounts' cave ;)  Who likes a fair fight anyway?

#voteforpaulwagner #notsteve

Painting Resolutions -

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McMourning (Malifaux) - "Are you ready for your review?"
 
 
The end of Q3 is upon us and it’s time to refresh our hobby resolutions.  First off a look back to what was set at the start of the year:
 
Hobby resolutions 2015
  • Finish epic Eldar 3000pts list – Done Q1
  • Base Brets – Done Q1
  • Paint 50pts Relic Knights – Done Q1
  • Paint all Malifaux figs – Q3
  • Assemble guild ball teams, paint 1 team – Q2
  • Finish WoC (3 chariots, 4 skullcrushers, disclord and hell cannon) - Cancelled
  • Finish empire (10 Demis, mounted wizbang) – Cancelled
 
Pathfinder (Malifaux)
 
 
As a quick overview:
 
Epic – The army got finished in January, since then I’ve not really gone back to it but have a load of stuff that would be good to add.
 
WFB – Again at the front end of the year I was happily cracking on with my HE and Bret (basing mainly) projects which was providing me a high volume of figs. 
Orc Shaman - only WFB model I've painted in the last 6m
 
Relic Knights – I think I got my 50pts force finished by April where I played my one (and only) game of it.
 
Guild Ball – Arrived in May and everything else went on hold as I cracked through that, the butchers were the first team I painted and nicely ticked off the goal as I built all the teams pretty much immediately. So from May onwards I’ve been somewhat ‘off track’ in painting up more Guild Ball but it makes sense to stick with what I’m enjoying doing. 
Alchemists (Guild Ball)

 
 
Malifaux – The other thing I started doing from June/July time was to begin clearing my way through the backlog I’d built up of Malifaux figures to tick off the final goal.  Painting these has been really good fun, lots of different looks & feels to them so nothing too turgid and as a result it’s kept my motivation surging along.
 
Hoffman & Friends (Malifaux)
 
I realise with the Malifaux success I’ve somewhat cheated, I have a couple more figs buried somewhere in the form of Avatar Levi & Sonnia plus I’ve got some Ltd Edition stuff stashed away in boxes – Dead Justice and a dayglow Kirai crew I won at Gertfaux.  But none of these are really models that I can use for the game so my mind is discounting them for purpose of the challenge.
 
Molly (Malifaux)
 
Ltd Edition Death Marshall (Malifaux) - the 'last' o/s figure
 
So overall I’ve had a lot of successes but that said this year has been an odd one due to the removal of WFB as a game and AoS coming in to replace it.  Once WFB 8thwas clearly on its way out I just downed tools to see what was coming (and I’m really glad I did!).  It was a bit frustrating to have poured a load of time into getting the Brets nicely based up only for it to be largely invalidated, I’m tempted still to do the ‘cut off the bottom of the base’ trick to remount them on rounds but I’ve not been that bothered seeing as I’ve still not played a game of AoS and have been busy rebasing my TK anyway.
 
But back to the resolutions summary, points to note: they’re all done and we’re not in Q4 yet… Ok ‘done’ is subjective but cancelled projects are not going to happen now I suspect.  So to replace those I’ll end up with some new goals. Options I’m considering:
 
  1. Finish painting all Guildball models – My original goal was one team, as it turns out I’ve loved the models, the game and basically it’s been a great project.  To that end I’ve only got 3 models left to paint and I’ll have done all the Guildball figs I own, so I’m committing to doing them. Not a huge target I accept but I’ve done something like 28 Guildball models so far (plus built 2 teams I then sold).
  2. Rebase the TK – As I mentioned above I’ve started doing this but have loads left to do (in old money was over 7,000pts of TK)
  3. I’m still swithering on others projects, I’m tempted to use my Bones models to turn out a Frostgrave warband which would be a nice 8-10 models I reckon. And I could also do a bunch of monsters for ‘random encounters’ with it too to carry on working through the bones stuff which would be good.
  4. Darklands stuff should land sometime this year I suspect, but depending on exactly when I might just put it as an assemble project because of uncertainty as when it’s coming.
  5. I’ve been toying with getting out some of my Warmachine models again too, they’re a pretty hefty project I’ve mostly put off due to not actually playing the game at the moment.
  6. Similarly I’ve got the rest of my Doctorine Relic Knights force I could get to painting, there can’t be too many models in that 10-15 I’d have thought, so that would be a reasonably nice contained project.
  7. Epic – I really want to paint up some more Epic stuff to expand the Eldar army and I’ve also got Orks and ‘Nids in boxes I could start working up too.  I’m kinda holding off on these as I found them really good for getting my motivation back when I lost my urge to paint last year as the scale allows me to not overly worry about the quality and just get an effect I like done up.

Peasant (Reaper Bones) - the start of Frostgrave

 
So plenty still to be getting on with and there are countless other projects in boxes I could consider too.  I previously had really wanted to own all 16 WFB armies painted up to a usable army sized force.  I still think it would be great to have this in my cupboard and to that end I’ve not done anything with the CD, DE, Empire, WoC or other armies I’ve got sat in boxes in a cupboard.  I’m going to hold off and see where motivation takes me before deciding on them.  Particularly as KoW seems to be gaining popularity at the club so having a ranked army for that would still be a good idea, ok I’ve already got 9 painted ones on square bases but none custom built for that game should I choose to get into it.
 
I don’t think I’m going to formally commit to any more projects for the final quarter of the year and just let inspiration take me where it likes. 
 

 





Painting Challenge Winner: Steve Foote!

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So I am really happy to announce the winner of the Araloth painting Challenge: Mr Steve “Infinite Tory Marketing Budget” Foote! Steve won with 14 votes, Steve Wren with 10, me with 7 and Scott F with 5. Thanks to all that have contributed, voted and made comment J

On a side note, sorry for the lack of hobby/dearth of posts from me, been super busy with work personal issues and haven’t had much free time. Hoping to get stuck back into some hobby over the next few nights and get my Necron army based and kicking off J Here is a few pics of my progress so far with assembling, spraying and washing. Yes I did go super OCD and spray/wash the whole army in a 4 hour sitting.......











A better way to paint

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                                                               This is a Khorgorath.
                                     "Khorgorath - with black background" by schiraga
                                          http://www.puttyandpaint.com/projects/8150
           Schiraga has painted a pretty nice mini here, and had some fun on the base for an interesting setting.  How well do you think this mini is painted?
How about this one?  Yes, this is the pic from the games workshop website.  How well do you think this mini is painted?  
             I bet your immediate reaction was that schiraga painted their mini better.  Scroll back and forth and look at both.  I think they are both rather well painted, comparable even, and personally I think the color scheme and base on the GW fig are much more aesthetically appealing.
              But it's boring, Isn't it?  It's the same old red and bronze and black that all GW Khorne minis are painted in.  The same old dull sand and skull basing that every minis seems to get.
             There are all kinds of decisions that have been made while painting this mini that my mind immediately rebels against.  I don't want my mini to look like everyone else's mini.  I want my basing to pop more.  I don't want my bone to look the same as the way they've painted it.  I have never painted a mini in the GW approved color scheme or my army.
             However, in a very real and important sense, I am 100% wrong.  Every impulse that I have go change the color scheme, and personalize my decisions goes against thousands of years of education and artwork.  Don't believe me?  Let me explain.
           
              This is the GW paint range.  I bet your first thought was how expensive it was :) Mine was a little different.  I honestly believe that this box above is the most incredible tool for a beginning painter that has ever been created.  (overpriced, yes, but let's focus on other things ;) )  I can see you rolling your eyes..  Seriously?  The most incredible tool?  Someone has been drinking the GW Kool-Aid.  Actually I haven't.  
            I had an epiphany while talking to a Professor about painting 1/8 scale sculptures.  He was immensely hesitant to teach his students about painting (or give any advice on it.)  So much so, that he refused to include painting in the syllabus, even though he told everyone they should paint their sculptures.  Why?  He was so frustrated with his attempts to get paint to do what he wanted.  This man drew artwork for Dungeons and Dragons, comics, and is a regular VIP guest at Comic-Cons.  He is afraid of teaching painting for miniatures.  
His first complaint was coverage.  He could never get the paint to cover the figure in a way that he was satisfied with while using a brush.  GW paints give excellent coverage.  His second complaint was knowing how to highlight.  GW literally spells it out with washes, layers, and glazes.  When I took me first class with him, he thought the pinnacle of brush painting was a base coat and a drybrush.  His third complaint was consistency.  He never could get the same color twice.  He always mixed his paints because the range he used didn't have a large selection of colors, (again GW in spades.)  Lastly, he could never get his airbrush paints to match his brush paints, (with the new air range this is a given.)  
I see many of you being annoyed at such a simplistic explanation of how to paint.  But indeed, this is the point of the GW paint range.  Literally anyone can pick up a brush and match the color scheme of their figures.  Gw has removed almost every problem with paint application with this paint range.   Each White Dwarf even includes a step by step how to for the new release every week.  
             So why, I hear you ask, are you telling this to me?  For a very simple reason.  If you have all the tools to do exactly what is in the GW pages, why have you never done it?  It's boring, I hear you say.. uninspiring, not worth the effort.  Oh, but it is! 
             You've heard the expression that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery yes?  Why is that?  It's because you only imitate those that are masters.  You only imitate those worthy of imitation.  This is the exact process that has spawned artists for literally thousands of years.  I hear you say now, but I can paint better than that, (quite a lot of voices in my head today.)  
              It's great that you can paint better than that.  The point actually is that you can learn things from copying that you can't from original artwork.  You can learn how the brush was held to get exactly the right line only by painting that same line.  You can learn how much medium was added to the paint only by mixing the paint yourself.  You can learn how the size of the brush changes the application of the paint only by changing brushes yourself.  You can be taught by the simple process of imitation.  Making your own scheme is fantastic, I do it all the time, but you can learn how to tweak your colors or your technique in a way that makes your scheme better.  Artists never made a name for themselves by doing everything different.  They made a name for themselves by doing something old in a new way.  But you need a knowledge of what has come before to figure out what you are good at. 

          Picasso didn't learn how to paint by following his vision.  He learned how to paint by imitating the masters.  Then he understood how what the masters did could be used to follow his vision.  That is why Picasso was a genius.  It wasn't because of his vision.  It was because of his ability to use his technique to create his vision.  Picasso learned what he was good at by imitating what others were good at.  It takes discipline to Imitate someone else.

Let's return to that GW Khorgorath.
This mini is painted by a master painter.  Believe it.  The person who painted this miniature could paint an exact copy of it in no time, (I can't do that.)  This miniature was painted to exactly match every other GW Khorne mini in the range, which were painted by other painters, (I can't match my own minis to each other.)  That is an incredible feat.  That takes incredible discipline.  Why again can you not learn from this painter?
GW has even gone so far as to include free painting videos to show you things not able to be communicated in books or pictures.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0cfXs_YVHE
Duncan Rhodes literally shows you from beginning to end the process of painting a Khorgorath.  That takes discipline.  Talking while painting, teaching and thinking about the process as it happens? That takes immense discipline. 
So let's finish up with that word there.  Discipline.  Discipline is a better way to paint.  Discipline breeds consistency.  Discipline breeds efficiency.  Discipline breeds results.  And you know what?  Imitation breeds Discipline.  GW has given you every tool to remove every complication to Imitation except one.  GW can't remove every complication with you.  That takes discipline.





Korghos Khul

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Here is my version of Korghos Khul
I was able to pick him up from a store paint and take at my LGS.  (you could choose any mini from the starter except the Lord Celestant and the Khorgoroth.)  I chose a pretty standard color scheme for this guy as he's going on display at the LGS now that he's done.

 This model is not what I would call a "beginner" model for assembly or for painting ;) but man it looks rather amazing!  I modeled the flesh hound to be straining over the cliff for a dynamic look.

 I had some fun with the flesh tones on the hound himself, working up from a red with bloodletter glaze to a bugman's glow.  The teeth worked out well with an unhealthy yellow gum base.

 I had some real fun highlighting up the colors and worked a bit on my techniques for blending.

The cloak especiallly I really enjoyed working on the colors giving a stark contrast between the shadows and the light.

 I also couldn't resist giving him a red axehead ;)   It's just so khorne ;)

I opted to add fleshtone as a bit of a spot color highlighting the head and chest area, surrounded by a crown of teeth ;)   
Hope you like him!  


Foray into Battlefleet Gothic (BFG) and Rules

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Hey guys! So just a wee post to show some pictures of my Battle Fleet Gothic (BFG) game playing against Ryan Savage’s brilliant Tau Fleet. For those of you who don’t know many moons (hoho!) ago Games Workshop made an excellent space fleet combat game which was supported for years with new fleets and rules. The game was heralded as one of the best rulesets they have made and it was launched around about the time I was getting into the hobby. At the time I was a young whipper snapper and couldn’t afford to get into but being a big star wars fan it certainly caught my imagination.

The great thing nowadays is that the rules are all available online for free (the ships are VERY expensive though!) just have a wee google or message me and ill share some. Actually here’s a link to my stash of rules on dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/8cnx5zxbk0t1bd1/AACCdExR5CG4Ow4ghYDsQfT-a?dl=0

Anyway so Ryan and I played our first game with a 750pt fleet (comparable to a 1200pt 8th Edition Game size or 1000pts of 40k) and we had a great time. Necrons are mentioned as probably the “best” race in the game and I did win but to be honest I can definitely see some glaring weaknesses which could be exploited.

For those interested here were our lists:

Necrons
Necron Scythe Harvest Class Cruiser (8 Hull Points)
Necron Shroud Class Light Cruiser (4 Hull Points)
3 Jackal Class Escorts (1 Hull Point Each)
3 Jackal Class Escorts (1 Hull Point Each)
1x Re Roll

Tau
1x Protector Class Cruiser (8 Hull Points) with Admiral of the Fleet
1x Protector Class Cruiser (8 Hull Points)
3x Defender Class Escorts (1 Hull Point Each)
3x Defender Class Escorts (1 Hull Point Each)
1x Re Roll

All the fleets have a distinctive feel and play style with strengths and weakness that make them very unique and fun. The game is mainly about planning turns in advance your manoeuvres and positioning to co ordinate your attacks and try to predict your opponents counter or planned moves.

Anyway I’ll hopefully be getting in more games with the guys and trying out more fleets, other than the cost of the ships, it is a very easy and fun game to get into!







Last Charge Of Bretonnia

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The Last Charge of Brettonia

I love history. I am also a lover of historical epic high fantasy in many different forms. Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, Game of Thrones, Warhammer Fantasy (obviously), Elder Scrolls, Warcraft and Diablo to name a few of the big hitters. To me medieval history and high fantasy meld together with the legands of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. Take these legends and stories and add the dark tones of the warhammer world and you have Brettonia. I am guilty of always going "vaninilla" (humans, "goodies", protagonists, warrior or knight class) but when vanilla is this tasty. 

What is more iconic to history, fantasy, legends or heroic archetypes than a chivalrous and honour bound knight charging across the battlefield lance and shield braced for combat to righteously slay the foe. Whether it be to protect the defenseless of the land from horde of savages, remain loyal to your liege lord during a civil war or even saving that princess from that stalker dragon. They live by their principles, duty, code, vows, and honour especially during warfare or combat even in the face of overwhelming numbers, unspeakable monsters or super natural powers. They are decked out from head to toe in plate armour to be seemingly impregnable. So much so that it can created an air of mystery about the men who wear the armour and do such deeds. This mystery only somewhat answer or possible furthered by their heraldry, motos, sigils, icons and colours  representing their home, heritage and possible characteristics.

This Army contains:

2 Lords
1 Battle Standard Bearer
24 Knights of the Realm
7 Pegasus Knights
20 Men at Arms
15 Bowman
1 Trebuchet with 4 crew

This army was my first army and I still like the variety of colour and heraldry as well as Brettonia but my hobby is getting stream lined and changed so I have decided to sell my Brettonian army but before I put it on ebay I thought I would share this army of mine.




These six knights are some of the old heraldry of the old Bret knights and some basic conversions to provide a lot of diversity.  


Basically Rhaegar Targaryen


Great model


I like the idea of these pegusus belonging to the king and he would entrust them during times of war to a handful of selected and proven knights and would be happy to represent their king on the battle field. They are all very different from the other Pegasus knights and mounted knights of the realm with conversions making up a few of their helms. Only six pictured here but I am selling seven all painted.



I like the rabble of untrained men bunching together to aid their knightly protectors and defend their homes. Always remind me of the Rohan men in the battle of helms deeps.





This is basically Robin hood and his merry men, complete with a Friar Tuck musician.



Who does not love trebuchets after watching them in films like Kingdom of Heaven or Lord of the Rings - Return of the King.



Just a badass Lord with a bad ass axe doing his thang!




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