228: 2014 resolutions

Howdy everyone, welcome to 2014!

As I'm sure many of us are at the moment, we're thinking about what we'd like to achieve in the coming year, and for the last few years I've set out myself some resolutions for the upcoming year to see whether it can encourage me to keep my hobby going, and to keep myself updating the blog.  In the past I have made:

2013 resolutions and 2013 in review

2012 resolutions and 2012 in review

2011 I didn't make up any resolutions but I did do a 2011 in review

So what do I hope to do this year:

• Complete the core of One Force:  I need to complete the last of the core force, battle damage and weather all the models painted so far.
• Expand One Force:  I currently hope to add an Elites unit (most likely in MkIII armour and the Iron Hands special troopers), heavy weapons for all of the core units and a Scouts unit (probably the HH recon squad).
• Paint my Skaven:  a repeat of last years resolution to paint, base and generally finish the Skaven I have so that my force is a more reasonable size.  I'd also like to make some unit fillers as I think that'd be quite fun.
• Build a small Tau detachment:  I've had a squad of Firewarriors for ages, ever since I returned to the hobby, and they can now be taken as a small allied detachment, so along with a Riptide, I hope to add some serious hitting power to my armies.
• Have a clear out:  I've got a lot of models sat in boxes/crates that I really need to go through and get rid of those that I don't need/want/use.  I live in a small flat, so don't have more than a single small cupboard for all my gaming paraphernalia, so I have to be ruthless.
• Independent Characters Hobby Progress Challenge:  This will be this years new army, and I want to paint something bright, colourful and fleshy to break from all the armour and metal I've painted in the past.  I'm flip-flopping between a Deamon or Tyranid army, and of course the Tyranids are getting a new book soon so they are tempting, but there's a lot of cool models in the deamon range, I just can't decide.

So that's it, should keep me busy this year.  As well as all these, I'd still like to keep the blog going and hope to keep a more regular posting schedule than I have at late, and to attend the odd weekend event to keep in the gaming, but I just don't know what the next year will hold for me, so I'm not going to commit to any of those things.

Drop me a link if you are doing something similar, and a very Happy and model/painting/gaming-filled New Year to you all.

 - Andrew

227: 2013 in review

So, how have your 2013's been?

As has become a tradition for me, I'm going to look back over the past year for my hobby to see where I was and where I've got to.  So in 2013 I managed:

• 36 Blog posts, passing the 200 mark for total number of posts
• One Force has progressed well, and now stands at 1500 points
• I'm especially proud of the conversion I did for the Storm Raven, I think it looks a lot better now.
• I went to two tournaments this year
• I came back from the March Throne of Skulls with the Best Necron certificate (in part thanks to also getting a Best Sports certificate)
• I made at least one of Blog Wars this year, and only just managed to avoid the wooden spoon
• Painting wise I managed to total up 70 painting points, not what I'd hoped, but not as bad as I'd thought it would be.

As well as all of that, I've also completely changed career, having to go back to school part time to do so, completed my first triathlon, and renovated about half of the place we live in, so I've been pretty busy.

I also started this year with a series of New Years resolutions, so lets see how I managed to hold up to them this year:

• Maintain 1 post minimum per week - FAILED: Although this worked for me in 2012, this year life and everything else kind of got in the way.
• Attend more tournaments/gaming weekends - COMPLETE: As well as the two tournaments I went to, I also got in a gaming trip to Warhammer World with some local guys. 
• Sell my spare stuff - PASS: I did sell of a lot of stuff, but there's still more to go, so not totally complete yet (but then it may never really be complete). 
• Complete my Skaven (at least all the models I own, and anything I buy) - FAIL: Nothing painted for the skaven, but thankfully only a Warp Lightning Cannon bought, and I hope to make a little progress in the new year. 
• Beat last years painting points score - FAIL: I came closer to equalling it than I expected, but just didn't have the time. 
• Bring One Force to a playable 1750 points force minimum - FAIL: I managed to get to 1500 points, and didn't buy anything new, so I'm almost through with all the models I currently own for the army.

So out of 6 resolutions, I managed to complete one, and pass one, but failed the other 4 which just goes to show that I was just a little too ambitious last year, or that I wasn't as dedicated as I could have been this year. Either way, I'm going to have to reconsider how I'm going to go about hobby next year.

So that's how my hobby year has gone, if any of you out there are doing something similar, I'd love to hear about it just in case I don't already follow your blogs. I'm away over the Christmas/New Year period, so won't be able to reply straight away to comments, but will be checking in as I now have internets abroad!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all.
- Andrew

226: Necrons vs. Space Marines

Game played!

Brief batrep from the game I played a week or so ago against the new marines.  I've included a very brief battle report below, but due to the shop closing, we could only get in 2 turns so its pretty short.

Marines:

            Chapter Master with Honour Guard

            Librarian

            3 x Tac squads with Meltaguns and Lascannon

            5 Scouts (Bolters and Heavy Bolter with Hellfire)

            10 Sternguard

            Dreadnought with Lascannon and Missiles

            10 Assault marines

            10 Devestators – 2 Missile Launchers, 2 Lascannon

            Predator Destructor

            Autocannon Hunter/Stalker variant

My Necrons

            Trazyn the infinite

            2 Destruction Crypteks

            1 veil Cryptek

            1 Lord

            2 x 9 Warriors in Arks

            8 Warriors

            10 Immortals with Gauss

            2 x 3 Heavy Destroyers

            3 x Annihilation Barges

Game was Dawn of War (long table edges) and Purge the Alien (kill points) so about as straight forward as possible.

The Marines went first, their setup, from left to right (my point of view):

Stalker/hunter, Devestators, Tac squad, Dreadnought, Assault Marines, Chapter Master, Tac squad, gap for a building, Tac squad, Predator.  The scouts infiltrated forward in front of the predator, and the Sternguard and Librarian were waiting in the Drop Pod.

225: 5 years old today

Amazingly, today marks 5 years since I started Iron Legion.  Can't quite believe its been that long.  Looking at the post number, it would seem that I've managed to average exactly 45 posts a year, a little under 1 post per week.  Not bad really, but that's not been all that consistent, with times when I've managed to keep a good run going, and other times like recently when a new job, going back to university, and renovating our house means that hobby ends up right at the bottom of the pile, I take a bit of a break.

I'll be back soon, and in the meantime, as a birthday present to you all, I found this out at a recent game and it was news to me:

Skyfire works not only against Flyers and Flying Monstrous Creatures, but against Skimmers too.  May not be all that important, but it opens up the flexibility of units like the Hydra, Hunter/Stalker and others that have the Skyfire rule without Interceptor.

See  you all soon.

224: Finecast is dead, and I'll be sorry to see it go

If you follow any of the rumour mills out there you'll have seen recent talk that GW is abandoning finecast in place of plastic and that forgeworld will be coming more "in-house". I'll probably be the only one to say this, but I'll be sad to see finecast go.

It's got problems, major problems, but if you step back from the rage for a moment, you'll see those problems have a lot more to do with the casting process than they do with finecast. Bubbles, flash, misaligned casts are all symptoms of casting resin and certainly not exclusive to GW or finecast. In fact I've seen the same people bitch and moan about all these things with finecast, but just put them down to par for the course for forgeworld because it is made from resin. Double standards much?
A lot of the problem comes from GW marketing finecast as the best thing since sliced bread.  A bold claim they couldn't back up with product, but get a problem with either their or forgeworld's respective products and they will replace them without question (at least in my experience, others may differ).  If only they'd taken some advice from forgeworld on casting techniques and problem solving, or had a decent quality control system (less of a problem with plastic, but I've still come across problems), I don't think they'd have had half the bad press they did.

I can only hope that we may see forgeworld start to use finecast so we can get their delicious detail without risking our health every time we try and clean and trim models. I also hope forgeworld getting closer to GW won't see their excellent customer engagement start to suffer, and that we might see a softening of GW's policies as they learn from those that are eternally loved.

Anyway, that's my 2 penny'th.

Andy