267: The new GW, a refreshing change

Its been pretty hard not to notice the change in GW recently. We've seen:

• the release of "Start and Army" bundles with actual savings 
• the re-introduction of Facebook groups for GW, Forgeworld, and Black Library 
• the tantalising possibility of the re-release of perenial fan favourites like Blood Bowl and Battlefleet Gothic 
• now we've had the call for questions and release of an FAQ that actually seems to answer real questions with actually thought out responses that while perhaps not perfect, definitely look like they are trying 
• and AoS is going to get a points system, and not just willy-nilly, but one that builds on the work done by the tournament community and has had input from mega tournament organisers and pillars of the AoS community HeelanHammer, Bad Dice, and FaceHammer (check their podcasts if you don't already, they're really good). 

You can hardly argue that GW isn't trying to become a new company and one that so many of us have been clamouring for for many, many years. What strikes me is that a lot of this seems to coincide with the stepping down of Tom Kirby as Chairman of GW. As of 1st January 2015, Tom Kirby was no longer in charge of the direction of GW and if what I suppose is true, GW made this change just in time. While Kirby was perhaps a necessary evil when he first took the helm, his drive for profits over community involvement and seeming impression that GW was infallible was producing a truly poisonous relationship between company and customer.

I've been so pleased to see the changes in GW, and look forward to whats coming in the future if they continue this course.

266: 1500pts game, GSF vs SM&Eldar

I got in a game recently against my co-blogger Colonel Fazackerley, we're taking part in a little tournament of local gamers, playing the Forge the Narrative missions. This game was mission 4 from that pack which is the diagonal deployment setup, the primary objective is 6 objectives setup evenly across the board which are scored cummulatively with the winner the first to 8 points (but with the option of a draw if both achieve 8 in the same turn), the secondary objective was the Emperor's will, and the tertiary objective was slay the warlord. The usual 3 additional GW objectives also counted.

I was trialling some of the new formations from the Space Marines codex, and CF was running Space Marines and Eldar.

My list was:
Gladius Strike Force - Iron Hands Chapter Tactics
Battle Demi-Company
Chaplain in Terminator Armour
3 x 5-man Tactical Squads with Missile Launchers
3 Bikes with 2 Grav-guns and a combi-Grav
5-man Devastator Squad with 4 Missile Launchers

1st Company Task Force

2 x 5-man Sternguard Veteran Squad

5-man Terminator Assault Squad with Thunder Hammers and Storm Shields

Storm Wing

Stormraven Gunship with Assault Cannon and Multi-Melta

2 x Stormtalon Gunships with Skyhammer Missile Launchers

CFs list was:

Farseer on jetbike

Unit of Jetbikes with Warlock

Unit of Dire Avengers

3 Eldar Flyer Formation

Space Marine Captain on Bike with Primarch's Wrath

Unit of Marines on Bikes

Unit of Assault Terminators with mixed weapons

Devastator Squad with mixed weapons

CF won the roll-off and nominated me to setup and go first. I setup first, mostly down in my corner as you can see in the image below, CF only set up a few units, all hidden away as much as possible to be out of sight, as you can see in the image below that.

265: Fort Vallum

This project took me almost a year. I got a wire cutter for it. It also toppled over any lingering resistance to getting an airbrush.

In a little while I will post up some rules, and ask for some advice. 

 

264: 2015 in recap

As the end of each year approaches, I like to look back at the year, see what I've achieved (sometimes more than I realised - last year), and to have a think about what I'd like to do in the new year which often follows as a new years resolutions post.  It helps me to keep stock of my progress, and try and know where I want to go in the coming year.

Its been quite a quiet year for me, with "life, the universe, and everything" somewhat conspiring to swallow up the majority of my spare time.  In rough order of what I achieved, I started the year painting the Treeman/Avatar after finally developing a suitable molten metal technique, and managed to bring it to near completion later in April.  I also managed to finally post a picture of the majority of my skaven army as they are painted.

In May, the blog added its first additional contributor - ColonelFazackerley, who probably produced most of the years material, posts:  245, 246, 249, 250, 251, 253, 254, 255, 256, 258, 259, and 261.

I eventually got back into gaming, and as the new Necrons were revealed to be a little more powerful than expected.  I also had to add Tomb Blades to my force, as they are a requisite of the new Decurion Detachment.  GWs relentless release schedule also saw the release of the new Space Marine book, and I promptly gave in and acquired StormTalons which needed a little conversion.

A big part of my year was taken up by my trip to Japan, where I discovered Gundam.  I've got a lot of potential material from that trip, but it'll take me a while to get any of that posted.

Last but not least, I managed to paint my Fire Warriors.

This year, I also set myself a relatively modest 5 goals as part of my New Year's resolutions.  All were partial successes, I posted pictures of those models I hung onto, but have gotten rid of most of the Tyranids, got rid of a lot of my old models that were hanging around but still have more to be rid of, made progress on One Force but didn't complete everything, and the same for other painting projects.

• Post pictures of all the models I painted during 2014
• Skaven army, the Tyranids, One Force marines (Mk II and Mk IV)
• Continue the clear out
• Tyranids, Space Wolves (most of them), a lot of spares and bits and pieces
• Complete painting One Force as it stands
• 5 Mk V marines and jump-packs, 10 Mk III veterans with combi-weapons, missile launchers for all squads, Master of the Forge
• Complete standing painting projects
• Skaven warp lighting cannon, Treeman Avatar, Tau Firewarriors and Riptide, and any other bits and pieces I have lying around that I've forgotten
• Return to blogging

I'll keep on plugging away, and see where I get this year.

Happy New Year to you all.

263: Firewarriors

(No, I'm not posting on Julafton, this just happens to be scheduled for today,

Merry Christmas, God Jul, and assorted Winter Solstice greetings to you all.)

In the time its taken me to change the paintscheme on these guys, the Tau have had 2 new codexes, its a testament (if you want) to the speed of the current GW release cycle, or more likely, how slow my painting is these days.

A simple white paintscheme with blue accents.  The guy below is meant to be a Cadre Fireblade stand in or similar, hence using a lot more blue in his scheme.