Explanation for Lack of Update

Hi guys,

Apologies for the lack of update over the last week or so, I've been a little busy as my wife gave birth to our third daughter in the early hours of the 2nd July,

It's likely for the next week or so I'll have minimal time for hobby, and even less time to post here.

I should resume posting normally in a couple of weeks :)

I'll leave you with a picture of our newest addition, Heidi Elizabeth:

Pro Elves vs Amazons // Re-Roll Tokens // First Lineman Painted

Had my first full game of Blood Bowl on Friday night and loved it.

Previously had only been able to get in half matches and I've played a few half matches now against Humans, Orks, then Amazons.

Went round to a friends house Friday though hoping to get a full game in and although it took us a while (4 hours - but some chatting in between) it was great fun and we got it finished.

Random dice rolls were had all round, at one point I failed a re-rollable 2+ twice in two turns! but at the end of it, I had failed dice rolls that weren't critical (although one did lead to my Thrower getting whacked and dropping the ball), while my opponents failures included a 4+ re-rollable catch 3 squares from the end zone with a free run in, then a couple of turns later, a GFI into the end zone.

A few pics of the game:

Well that was a good start, we kick off and the eager crowed invade the pitch, knocking down half the players!

Dave's dice rolling is not doing him any favours...

Whereas mine is fine a minute later!

Dave's luck not improving, even with a 3D block on the catcher...

The casualties start to mount up though...

The game ended with a 3-0 victory to the Pointy Eared Potters although one of the Linemen died, and my thrower got a smashed hip so will miss a match and has -1 MA. Nerves of Steel really came into it's own on a couple of occasions, picking up the ball in 3 tackle zones and running in for the score at one point, and later in the game got my catcher surrounded by no less than 5 players with no way out in sight... only to lob it over to another catcher who waltzed in for the score.

Overall a great fun game and I look forward to a rematch soon!

Re-Rolls

Also I spent an hour yesterday evening making some re-roll counters for my Pro Elves and Norse teams, these are really easy to do but a few people have complimented them so I thought it'd be worth sharing how.

I found a logo on-line and then pasted them into a bottlecap .psd template (Did a quick Google search and it's something like this), printed them off onto light card and cut them out (With a 1" Stamp) then stuck an epoxy bubble on top. Really easy and cheap way to make tokens for anything.

Here's the end results, nothing amazing, but for a cheap and easy option I'm pretty happy with them.

Finally, I managed to get my first team member painted to a basic level, it's not great but it'll do for now and once I've got the whole team painted I'll go back and touch them all up.

Pointy Eared Potters get their first Home Games in (Blood Bowl)

Well had two half games on the new pitch last night and I was really happy.

The new pitch had loads of people commenting on it and went down very well, I'm really happy with it and although it wasn't cheap (although Alex gave me a great deal) I feel I'm going to get great value out of it.

For those that are interested I got the pitch from here: http://www.ff-fields.com/

I played two half games with my Pro Elves, first against Orcs and then against Amazons, winning the first game 1-0 and drawing the second 1-1.

Overall I'm really enjoying Blood Bowl and it seems very tactical now I'm starting to learn some of the intricacies. I think it'll take me a while to be able to challenge any of the more seasoned players at the club but there are 5-6 of us just picking up the game so will be good to climb the learning curve together.

New Pitch:

Action Shot of the First Game:

Display Case for Blood Bowl

Spent a little time the last couple of evenings getting my Pro Elves primed and based and thought I'd share what I've done with the bases and the display case.

I had the display case lying around from ages ago, I think at the time I was thinking of using it for Infinity, but I thought I'd throw some static grass on it and use it for Blood Bowl with that being my current focus.

I'm really happy with how it came out in the end, all the players have magnets in the bases and there are magnets under the display case so they are held really securely and I am sure I could throw it around if I wanted and they'd still be in place.

At some point I'll get round to taking a better picture but I figured a poor picture was better than no picture for now.

Also, I played an Infinity tournament a while back with a chap who'd drilled and painted holes to mark Line of Sight and I thought it looked really effective so I thought I'd steal the idea but use it with various colours to differentiate between the positions on my team.



One of the things I noticed last week playing against the Black Scorpion Orc team was that they were all easily identifiable by silhouette and although my Elves are different enough to be able to tell them apart, it's not particularly easy and I felt that it'd be easier on my opponent if I could say - Yellow Base is a thrower, Red is Blitzers, Blue Catchers and Green for Linemen.

Within that I've further differentiated the positionals with Red 1 and 2, and Blue 1 and 2, so that I can easily tell which is which. It didn's seem viable for me to do this for the Linemen as I'd have up to 7 holes in a base for each one, so I may need to wait until I've painted them and done numbers for those unless anyone has any ideas... ?


Overall for 2 evenings work priming/basing the models and then sorting out the display I'm really happy with how they look.

Hopefully be able to get started on a test paintjob this evening (Red and White) and then I'll do the rest of them in batches.

Also I got a package at work today, I'll take some better pictures when we get a game on it on Wednesday but here's a sneak preview! :)

First Match of Blood Bowl

So I've been busy assembling my new Pro Elf team since receiving it a week or so ago from www.mk1881.com

I'm really happy with the quality and think they're going to look great once I've thrown on a basic paint job. 

I'm not 100% sure on the connectors on some of the raised legs but when I cut one of these off the remaining foot on the base wasn't enough to hold it and I ended up having to pin and green stuff the figure to support it by why time I might as well have left it how it was.

I'm hopeful that when they're painted they won't stand out so much, interested to hear if anyone has any thoughts on whether I should paint the bits black (eye will generally skip over these bits naturally then) or put scatter on them similarly to the base to try and blend them in so they're not as noticeable.

One benefit of Blood Bowl is it's so easy to carry my stuff around, everything I need other than the throwing template will fit into my smallest KR case: (Dice and Ball will fit into one of the slots, not pictured here though)

I took them down to the local club last night for their first outing and played them as Humans for a Humans vs Orcs game against a friend who is also just getting into the game. 

Both really enjoyed the game and the Humans ended up winning 3-1 although we only played 2 turns of the second half and things got a little silly as we started throwing in rules like you have to go for it with every player, to the extent that my opponent was moving forward one and back one with a player he didn't want to move any further than his standard movement XD

A more accurate reflection would be the half time score which was 2-1 to the Humans and my first victory!

We're looking to play another game next week where I'll use them as Elves and we'll use a 1,100,000 credit roster with a few skills and things so we can have a bit more of a play.

Overall though, I'm really enjoying it and looking forward to having my pitch arrive and getting my team painted up. My pitch looks awesome from the pictures I've seen but I don't want to spoil the surprise so won't say anymore!

A little Painting Progress // And some Blood Bowl!

Haven't had much time to pick up a brush lately as I've either been playing and/or too tired in the evenings to pick up the brush.

Did a little more work on my Autarch though and finished off the armour before laying the first couple of coats down on his cloak (Troll Slayer Orange)

I quite like the contrast with the armour but I'm not convinced on how it'll look with my Purple / Black / Blue Dark Eldar and then Blue / White / Orange Eldar.

I managed to christen my new table last Friday with a 1k doubles game (2k per side total) of Tau/Dark Eldar/Eldar against Marines and Grey Knights which was good fun, ending on T5 with the Imperials 1 VP up. None of our lists were optimised and it was a friendly game but good fun and although we got smashed turn 1-2 we came back strong and only just lost it in the end.

I also got a demo game of Blood Bowl in on Wednesday evening at the club after playing it a lot on my tablet recently. I really enjoyed the game and I'm looking forward to getting a Pro Elf team painted up for the "Exe Bowl" tournament in October. 

I'm sure I'll get smashed but hopefully I'll have some fun too!

Finished Second batch of Kabalites and Archon

Nothing much done on Saturday night as my team had a fantastic win over Liverpool (Stoke City 6 - 1 Liverpool) so I had to watch the match in full again in the evening!

I did manage to get the second batch of Kabalites with the Archon finished on Sunday/Monday evening though and it feels good now that at least I have a minimum CAD painted up! (I do have 8 Wyches painted too but the less said about those the better...)

I'm not sure about the Archon, I'm kinda happy he's done, but I'm also regretting just lumping him in with the Kabalites as a batch paint job rather than spending some extra time on him.

Maybe at some point I'll go back over and give him a little more love but at least I can put a painted HQ choice down on the table for now.

I've a 1000pt game on Friday evening for which I'm going to try and field as much as I can painted so will try and take some pictures of everything I have together at that point on my new board.

At the moment then my painted Dark Eldar list looks like this:

HQ: Archon with Shadowfield, Huskblade, Soul Trap
Dedicated Venom with 2 x Splinter Cannon

Troop: 5 Kabalite Warriors with Blaster
Dedicated Raider with Dark Lance and Enhanced Aethersails

Troop: 5 Kabalite Warriors with Blaster
Dedicated Raider with Dark Lance and Enhanced Aethersails

Troop: Troop: 8 Wyches with Hekatrix (Agoniser and Haywire Grenades) and Wych with Hydra Gauntlets
Dedicated Raider with Dark Lance and Enhanced Aethersails

Fast Attack: Razorwing Jetfighter with 2 Dark Lance and a Splinter Cannon

Fast Attack: Razorwing Jetfighter with 2 Disintegrator Cannon and a Splinter Cannon

Fast Attack: 3 Reaver Jetbikes with 1 Blaster and Cluster Caltrops

Games and Gears Urban War Battleboard Review and Painting

Hi guys,

So you may have seen my previous posts in which I raged about the lack of honesty from Games and Gears during the Kickstarter regarding shipping (Not going to touch on that at all here, but if you're interested then please read HERE

I eventually received my boards yesterday and thought I'd share my initial thoughts as well as my poor attempts at painting it.

I will try and be as unbiased as possibly and try not to let the bad experience during the kickstarter affect my judgement.

To set the scene, this is the info we received during the Kickstarter campaign, and what I thought I was pledging for:

Along with the following: ALL BOARDS COME BASED PAINTED AS IN THE PICTURES!!

For anybody who wants to see the original kickstarter page you can find it HERE

Now before I get slapped down, I now that they did clarify later in the kickstarter before delivery but I am pretty sure, after we'd paid, that the boards in these graphics were demonstrating what you could do with the boards, rather than what they came like. 

As you can expect though, given that we were expecting them to come "Base Painted" I was a little upset to find that actually, only the roads are painted, and I needed to prime the rest of the board prior to painting.

Anyway, some pics of the grand arrival:

Pardon my pregnant wife's belly!

Boards unboxed with Clips

Laid out

It's worth mentioning that it was not easy to get to this point. Due to the design of the board/clips, you have to put it together upside down and then flip a complete 6 by 4 foot table over. This would be difficult but possible if it was a solid piece of wood or plastic for example, but with the pieces clipped together it simply wasn't possible without the boards snapping off. 

I had to drag my wife in at this point to help me flip the board, and even then there was some nervous moments, having to ensure the boards were supported properly as we flipped it.

You can also see the areas that aren't the Road are not base coated, they are exactly the same colour as the reverse, and wouldn't take paint at all. No point getting upset about it though, I've ranted enough already, so I started to mask off the roads ready for spraying.

Frog Tape and Paper

Spraying took me about an hour I guess, including masking them off and then using a rattle can primer (Rustoleum Grey Surface Primer from Homebase in the UK) to spray over the tiles, I was a bit sparing with the Primer as I was worried I'd run out halfway through and this came back to bite me a little later as in areas I had obviously missed spots where the wash later wouldn't settle. If you're doing this with a colour that's less similar to the plastic's natural colour this would be much easier to spot..

After leaving the Primer to dry for a little while I then mixed a basic black wash using some Black Acrylic paint and Water and sloshed that over the whole board to try and make the detail pop a bit more and have it look less uniform. 

Bit of a photo dump now as I took a few pictures as I did it, and as it was drying for those of you who're interested. Please bear in mind in many of these the wash looks terrible as it's drying, the end result is only... mostly terribad ;)

You can see a few tiles I tried to deliberately clear of wash to vary it a little, not sure if this was a good idea or not...

This one is almost dry at this point and started to look a bit better

Finished for now other than the Park (Middle Right) I think

I probably could have been more careful and got a better result, but I just wanted to get it to a point I was happy playing on as soon as possible given that I had hoped to receive it painted. The wash has pooled in places, and at times I was reduced to using a wet wipe to try and wipe off where the black wash had started to pool and dried.

My plan initially was to paint the various bits of brickwork a reddy/brown as in the tutorial from Games and Gears but I'm not sure now, I might just leave it as is. I don't want the board to be the focal point rather than the figures we're going to be putting on it.

At the moment I'm thinking of flocking the blank piece (middle right) to make it look like a park so I can get some Woods scenery or something similar on the board, other options would be a lake, or car park of some sort?

Any ideas there?

Pros:

• A 6 by 4 board for £62 that doesn't require additional support once it's up (I don't feel worried by the slight overhang you can see above) 
• Roads are painted, although not to a great quality
• With a little work, I'm sure that someone could get this looking great
• The Anima board for the same price actually looks really nice, when people will receive that though I have no idea

Cons:

• It wasn't base painted, that simply isn't true, I needed to prime it before painting.
• Needs two people to clip together and flip the board, so I can't prepare my table for an evenings gaming with the lads until they get here.
• There is no carrying/storage solution, this was mentioned during the kickstarter but they said it wasn't feasible in the end because the boards were too heavy, this still leaves the problem of how to store or transport the boards though
• I wouldn't ever pay £140 for this at retail

In conclusion I'm still disappointed with the service and what I perceive to be outright lies from G&G during the kickstarter, however given it's only taken an evening (about 3 hours work) to get the board to this stage I'm fairly happy with the end result. If I had paid £140 I would be livid, but I'm just about satisfied with the product at £62. (Albeit with an 18 month wait for delivery)

If anyone has any suggestions as to additional improvements I can make, or storage solutions etc. please let me know!

Assembly Progress and a Start on Painting my Eldar

Got my Dire Avenger assembly finished last night and then didn't have long left so didn't fancy carrying on with the last batch of Kabalites/Archon.

Heads are cleaned up but I'm keeping them off for now to spray separately before attaching once painted.

Models are all just pinned to the bases for now so I can remove them to paint the bases easier.

Instead of the Kabalites I grabbed the new Autarch and quickly popped a basecoat on him to see what the colour looks like on the model (Falcon Turquoise)

I was surprised to see the Autarch comes with a 32mm base which threw me as I don't have any scenic bases for that size, for the time being I've pinned him onto on a 25mm one and then magnetised that one onto a larger 32mm base.

I'm not sure whether to rebase him entirely, just run him on a 25mm, or keep the 32mm underneath it as it is and play with him like that?

The turquoise is a bit darker than I expected but hopefully after a wash and then bringing it back up with highlights it'll start to become brighter.

Don't think I'll get a game in this Wed (might play some X-Wing) but I'll pick the Kabalites and Archon back up on Thursday night I expect and try to get them finished so they're out of the way.

Does anyone else find it really difficult to go back to a project after you take a pause partway through?

More Lies from Games and Gears

So you might recall my post a while back detailing my frustration with Games and Gears Kickstarter.

At the time it was the 16th April and we'd been promised delivery at the latest by 15th April, after which those few of us who hadn't received the boards should pm the co-ordinator. (Clue: Nobody in the world had received them by that date.)

I still haven't received the boards and the story just keeps changing from Games and Gears so this is another warning to those out there to stay away from the company.

Here is an updated timeline, purely from the time the boards apparently entered the UK, if you want to view the timeline in full then please view my previous post here

Timeline from December:

05/12/2014 - Boards should be in the UK this week, then will need sorting and should dispatch January after Christmas holidays. "Even with possible port delays or customs delays it's still on it's way for us to get the gears rolling for Jan 2015 dispatch to your door"

19/12/2014 - Boards are at the UK Warehouse

17/01/2015 - Boards have ALL?!? been unpacked, quality checked, then packed back in their boxes. Should be completed early next week.

28/01/2015 - Dispatch estimate now of February 2015, hoping to make delivery 2-4 days instead of 5-25

09/02/2015 - Boards will be dispatched wc 20th February, new delivery date of Mid-Late March

09/03/2015 - Boards all dispatched, delivery is 5-25 days and everyone should have theirs by 15th April 2015

13/03/2015 - Exciting times, "all boards will be with you by or before April the 15th" Battleboard clips sent separately from China and should be here within 10-20 days.

01/04/2015 - Quote: "As per previous update please allow your Urban Wars to get to you by the 15th of April 2015. We understand there is a lot of excitement and frustration in getting your boards now but they are coming to you, all shipping is prepaid so they have to get to you :P by the deadline date at least. "

 16/04/2015 - If you haven't got your Hawk Urban War battle board,  Don't Panic, they are in transit and will be with you. They are on their way and we have a tracked record of fullfilling gears 100% once they have been dispatched.

21/04/2015 – PM to me to advise of my personal delivery time 12-18 days, final day of 14th May, there is still nobody in Europe that has received their boards.

12/05/2015 – “Tracking numbers to be issued out to all EU Hawk Urban Wars backers who did not get their battle board by this Friday (15th of May).” We’re also kindly informed that they are no longer reading or replying to the comments on the kickstarter project page as they don’t have time

15/05/2015 – As a reminder, so far we’ve gone way past the “FINAL delivery date of the 15th April, and no-one in Europe has received them yet a MONTH later. I now receive a message this morning as below:

Hello Rich! 

How are you??

Tracking number to be with you Friday from anywhere between 6am to 7pm UK time.
It is coming from Germany as you will see via your tracking number. If you do not get it on Friday it is probably due to the National holiday the Germans had yesterday (14.05.2015). Which means you will get it Monday or Tuesday as you will see via tracking number
We are going to dispatch all the grid sheets with the next huge shipment we are planning to do. I am working on that right now and making sure I only deliver confirmed info.... so I don't get things wrong.

Trays, as soon as we ship them. looking to ship them separately... waiting for some confirmations. Because one length is 24" long some couriers of iffy as they say they will post it then class it as abnormal and return it back to me. So I just making sure we don't go through that and make sure when it is sent out it all happens smoothly and quickly. working on it.

So basically, they’ve been in the UK since the 19th December, have been shipped twice FROM THE UK, but are now, somehow?!?! In Germany and have been shipped out from there.

If ANYBODY can give me ANY plausible explanation of how and why this has happened that does not involve them consistently lying to us about shipping, then please feel free to enlighten me.

I text Sam again, who I believe owns the company this morning to ask for an explanation of how the boards are now being shipped out from Germany but was asked not to text him again, and to feel free to raise my perceived mistreatment to Kickstarter.

For me, I’m absolutely livid with the treatment received and will be reporting the company for breaching kickstarter terms and conditions which detail that as below:

Don’t lie to people. Don’t post information you know is false, misleading, or inaccurate.

Don’t do anything deceptive or fraudulent.

Throughout the process, creators owe their backers a high standard of effort, honest communication, and a dedication to bringing the project to life

Obviously this will have very little effect on us as backers for this project, but hopefully it will stop the company doing any further projects and duping further customers.

1000pt First Week Results // Further Eldar Assembly // Imperial Assault Frustrations

1000pt Results (Maelstrom)

2 Games last Wednesday to tell you about, my list was as per last week's update:

Medusae
··Raider [Dark Lance]

Kabalite Warriors with Blaster
··Raider [Dark Lance]

Kabalite Warriors with Blaster
··Raider [Dark Lance]

Scourges with 4 Haywire blaster

Scourges with 4 Haywire blaster
Solarite with Power Lance (Warlord)

Venom with 2 Splinter Cannon

Ravager [3 Dark Lance]

Ravager [3 Dark Lance]

Ravager [3 Disintegrator cannon]

First game was Cloak and Shadows against a mechanised Imperial Guard army with a HQ Tank, 3 Troops Tanks and a Tank Destroyer thing with a massive gun, plus a Vendetta

Took out one of the tanks early on and the scourges dropped in turn 2 and over 2 turns took out another tank each, Lost one of the Ravagers and the Scourge units both died once they'd done their job but generally I flew around and claimed objectives whilst firing off lances and haywire at tanks.

I felt a bit bad for Chris as he's a nice chap but my army is pretty good at taking out armoured targets, and even with the Venom and Medusa being useless in this matchup I had plenty of tools for taking out the tanks. The Vendetta did cause a bit of a problem but my Ravager with DC's got behind him the turn after he showed up (Turn 3) and then followed it around firing shots into it's back armour and forcing him to jink, making it pretty ineffective.

Ended up winning the game 13-2, the mobility of the army really helps for Maelstrom missions!

Second game was Cleanse and Control against a friend's Scout army (Sentinels of Terra)

He ran something like:

ML2 Librarian
5 Bolter Scouts
5 Scout Snipers
5 BP + CC Scouts with a Heavy Bolter
3 Scout Bikers with Grenade Launchers
Mortis Dread with 2 x twin Auto Cannon
Dread with Assault Cannon and Heavy Flamer Power Fist
Vindicator
Landspeeder with Heavy Flamer and Multi Melta
Landspeeder with Heavy Flamer and Multi Melta
Aegis Defence Line

Good fun game and really close until turn 5 as I had to jink less and less as threats were taken out I was able to take the game away a little and ended at the end of t5 with a librarian and a couple of scouts left. Ended up winning 7-4.

Overall I was fairly happy with my list, I think the Ravager with Disintegrator Cannons definitely has a place and came in useful both games. There was plenty of anti tank whilst still retaining some decent infantry killing between the kabalites / venom (28 poison shots and 2 blasters in close range) plus the Disintegrator Ravager and the Ap3 Flamer from the Medusa. I'm not sure how I'd cope against a horde army like Nids or Orks but I think I'd still give it a good game.

Scourges I don't think I'd deep strike again, both games they came in and did something but they were pretty much suicide squads which is potentially fine, but if I can take out their targets without getting them killed then even better. Nice to have the option though I suppose.

I think two games in a night is starting to be a stretch now though so I'm likely to only get one game in a week from now on.

-----------------------------

Assembly

Just to keep a track of progress here, I managed to get 6 Striking Scorpions and a Support Platform done over the weekend, the Striking Scorpions took ages as the finecast was pretty bad and had to be very careful cutting bits away, will need to go back over these with green stuff at some point.

The Support Weapon Battery I enjoyed making and I really like the figure, nice to have the options without having to magnetise as well as they just slot on top.

-----------------------------

Imperial Assault

Had another game of this on Friday and we're now on about the 7th mission I think? We played the "Sorry about the Mess" side mission and it just felt impossible for the Imperial Player, I think the Story missions are balanced fantastically well but the Side missions just don't seem to have had that same thought go into them, much less detailed and they don't scale.

If we'd have played this Side mission as the first mission, the Rebels may have had a challenge, but as the 5th? Side Mission they just blew through it.

We'll need to think of a way to balance out the Side Missions I think, or I'll have to play more of a GM type role and add in things randomly to provide that challenge.

Oh well, I'm just a bit disappointed after my initial enjoyment of the game, I still hold high hopes for the Skirmish version though as that seems to be balanced well with a good variety of missions and the deck building element of it looks great too.

Assembly Progress // 1000pt Dark Eldar list

Hi guys,

Apologies I haven't posted for a while, been busy trying to get everything finished for my 1000pt list in the Escalation League and reading through the new Eldar Codex.

Some quick assembly pictures below for my Scourge and final Ravager

Scourges:

The plan is to do 4 with Haywire and 4 with Blasters then make the other 12 with Carbines and I will use them as two units of 6 Swooping Hawks in my Eldar armies for now as I prefer the Scourge figures.

Trying to therefore do all the Swooping Hawks with the Hawk Wings and the Special Weapons with the bat like wings but sadly I'd already made one of them up with Bat Wings so that one will look a little out of place for now.

Ravager:

I probably should do this with Lances but I do like the Disintegrator Cannon version (9 S5 AP2 shots) and I hopefully will have anti tank covered at 1000pts with 2 other Ravagers, plus the Raiders lances, plus two units of Haywire Scourges. This one is therefore my MEQ and TEQ hunter, going after elite infantry and wreaking havoc hopefully.

For those of you interested, this is my current thoughts for a 1000pt list.

Court of the Archon (85pts) [Medusae]
··Raider [Dark Lance]

Kabalite Warriors (120pts)
··Kabalite Warrior with Blaster
··Raider [Dark Lance, Enhanced Aethersails]

Kabalite Warriors (120pts)
··Kabalite Warrior with Blaster
··Raider [Dark Lance, Enhanced Aethersails]

Scourges (120pts)
··4 Scourge with Haywire blaster

Scourges (120pts)
··4 Scourge with Haywire blaster
··Solarite [Shardcarbine]

Venom (65pts) [2 Splinter Cannon]

Ravager (125pts) [3 Dark Lance]

Ravager (125pts) [3 Dark Lance]

Ravager (110pts) [3 Disintegrator cannon]

Finally a small update with a start on assembly for my Eldar:

Brief Report of 750 Dark Eldar vs Blood Angels Drop Pod Assault

So on the back of the tailoring article on Wednesday I did play two games in the evening vs an Imperial Guard player and then Blood Angels.

I won't report much on the first game as it was pretty one sided in the most part.

He ran:

Leman Russ Vanquisher with Camo Netting
Leman Russ Destroyer? with Camo Netting (The thing with a Demolisher Cannon)
Leman Russ Destroyer? with Camo Netting
Vendetta with lots of Las Cannons and Heavy Bolters

Basically my Ravagers blew up one of the Troops first turn while my Blasters and Haywire Blasters from Scourges took out another, my Venom ran and hid on an objective.

Rest of the game was firing absolutely everything at his HQ Tank and him passing 13-14 cover saves on a 3+ and when I finally gave up and flew over him to get no cover shots... he passed the cover saves on a 6.

Regardless though his Vendetta and Vanquisher just couldn't kill enough to stop me grabbing 3 of the objective to his 1 (Went into hover with the vendetta turn 5) and won 11-4 (He had one objective and one for destroying  a Heavy, I had 3, line breaker and first blood)

-----------------

Second game against Blood Angels was much more interesting, as per my article Wednesday I did run a more balanced list (not just kabalites in transports) that I felt would give me more of a chance.

This is the two lists:

Blood Angels:

Sanguinary Priest with Combi Melta and Auspex
7 Sternguard with Heavy Flamer, Flamer, 2 Combi Meltas
Drop Pod

10 Tactical Marines with Heavy Flamer/Flamer
Drop Pod

Furioso Dread with Frag Cannon and Heavy Flamer Power Fist
Drop Pod

5 Tactical Marines with Heavy Bolter

------------------

Dark Eldar:

Medusa
Raider with Enhanced Aethersails

5 Kabalites with Blaster
Raider

5 Kabalites with Blaster
Raider

5 Scourges with 4 Haywire Blasters

Venom with 2x Splinter Cannon

Ravager with 3 Dark Lances

Ravager with 3 Dark Lances

------------------

So looking at his list I was still very worried about the flamers (2 S6 // 3 S5 // 2 S 4), but hoping that by deploying my kabalites in reserve I'd be able to limit the damage done.

Mission was Relic and Night Fighting was in effect, I won the roll and asked Fred to deploy his Blood Angels first and I would go second, reasoning if I went first I'd only be able to hurt the 5 tac marines, and I wanted to be able to go last come the end of the game.

I deployed my Scourges and Medusa (Not joined) in the bottom right corner and spaced all my vehicles to block access to them and try and limit how many vehicles he could catch with one template.

He landed the Dread and Sternguard first turn, pretty much central and as close to my deployment zone as he could get. Frag Cannon explodes a Ravager and stuns a Raider while the Sternguard blow up the venom. Painful but not as bad as it could have been had my kabalites been sat in their vehicles.

I managed to put 2 HP and immobilise the dread but couldn't finish it off, Medusa got 8 marines under the template and wounded 4... which they all save with FNP due to the Sanguinary Priest. Disappointing!

Most of the rest of the game involved me trying to run away whilst firing what I could into the Sternguard to whittle them down. The Dread went down T2 with a Disintegrator Cannon in the back, but by T4 I had 1 Raider on 2 Hull Points hiding on the far left, 1 Ravager on 2 Hull Points and 1 Kabalite with Blaster on the right near his deployment zone, and my other unit of kabalites at full strength about halfway up the field in the centre. He had 2 Sternguard, 10 Tac Marines, and the 5 man Combat Squad. Not looking good!

Turn 5 he started moving his Combat Squad towards the objective but they were still a good 5-6 inches short after running. The Sternguard moved and charged the Ravager, putting a Hull Point on it, while the 10 Marines ran towards the Relic, ending about 1/2 " from it.

I moved the Raider within 1" of the objective and everything moved and fired at the marines by the Relic, between them killing I think 5-6 marines but leaving a few still within 3" of the Relic.

We rolled for end of game and hit a 2 so tallied up the scores. I had Slay the Warlord to his First Blood and Slay the Warlord. I checked with my opponent what detachment he was running and it was the Blood Angels specific one so no Objective Secured. My Raider therefore could steal the Relic from under the nose of the Tactical Marines and claim the win for me at 4-2.

Overall I was pretty happy with the game. I think I played reasonably well and did what I could to minimise the alpha strike, I was unfortunate with the Ravager exploding and my opponent passing 4 FNP on the Sternguard  but that's dice for you. By t2 it was clear that the only way I was going to win was through the objective, so I did what I could to pull the marines after my Ravager and Kabalites etc. to try and ensure they wouldn't go and sit on the objective, which would have made it almost impossible for me to shift them (If they pick it up I'm pretty sure I can't claim it by being in 3")

My main learning points from the 2 games were:

• As long as I've got a plan for my opponent bringing drop pods, I "can" limit the destruction they cause and not automatically lose the game. I think my deployment worked well to limit the damage and although it hurt me (1 Ravager, the Venom and stunning the Raider meant it was pretty much confined to dying t2) I was happy enough after his first turn that I would still be able to strike back. I think if we hadn't been doing the relic mission it would have been easier for me to leave the marines there and fly off, but sadly they were within 10-12" of the Relic the whole game so I couldn't just leave them to themselves.

• Objective Secured is huge, I think the way Dark Eldar play you need to have this and it's fantastic that you can take an absolute pounding, be almost completely tabled, but that one Raider can still win you the game from almost anywhere on the board (12" move, 24" boost with aethersails)

• Scourges with Haywire Blasters are fantastic reliable anti tank, I've not really used them before, preferring to spam Raiders with Kabalites in, but there is a massive difference between glancing on a 4 and glancing on a 2. These have definitely won a bump up my painting queue and I'll likely be using two units with 4 Haywire in most of my games in future. 240pts for 8 haywire shots from 36" away (12" move, 24" range) seems great value, and with a 4+ save and 5+ FNP from T3, they're a fairly survivable unit by Dark Eldar standards.

List Tailoring at 750pts - Thoughts?

Not much painting progress sorry as I've been doing more assembly than painting, getting my 3rd Venom and 3rd Ravager assembled ready for the jump to 1k points.

Also had some problems with my airbrush which have delayed me somewhat so haven't managed to get the basecoats on my other Ravagers yet.

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Tailoring

List tailoring has become a bit of a hot topic in our group of friends the last few days, some say this is how GW wants us to play the game nowadays, and ensures that you bring the right tools for the job, others will say "all comers" lists are much more interesting.

I'm definitely in the all comers camp but have had issues in my last few games with people seeming to have "figured out" my Dark Eldar, meaning that every game I play against, everything is full of flamers.

As you can expect, when my tactic is built around troops in open topped transports, this is NOT FUN.

My last game involved me taking 8D6 hits on my units on the first turn from units of assault marines with 2 flamers in dropping in and toasting my Kabalites/Wyches. When I tried to counter charge with the remaining Wyches, the whole unit died to overwatch fire from flamers.

As I'm sure you'll realise, this leads to games that are... NOT FUN. Wyches, taken for fluff reasons, are rendered absolutely useless as the last thing I want to do is charge into a wall of fire.

So I'm going to give "tailoring" a go tonight and run a list that can hopefully survive against flamers and then give a decent counter punch. I'm still trying to keep it able to deal with a variety of lists but keeping in mind that there is likely to be a flamer around every corner.

This is my 750 list then:

Court of the Archon - Medusae 25pts

Raider with Disintegrator Cannon and Enhanced Aethersails 60pts

5 Kabalite Warriors with Blaster 55pts

Raider with Disintegrator Cannon 55pts

5 Kabalite Warriors with Blaster 55pts

Raider with Disintegrator Cannon 55pts

5 Scourges with Solarite (Warlord) and 4 Haywire Blasters 130pts

Venom 65pts

Ravager with 3 Dark Lances 125pts

Ravager with 3 Dark Lances 125pts

The plan would be to deploy empty transports and the Ravagers to ensure not being wiped Turn 1 by drop podding troops/dreadnoughts, T1 there will be 3 Raiders, 2 Ravagers, and the Venom on the table. 

The Scourges will reserve and likely walk on T2-3 hopefully to add some additional anti armour to the Ravagers.

Kabalites and Medusae reserve and walk on when they come in, embarking into their transports which then get them to where they need to be, hopefully after all pods etc. have landed.

Medusae is there as a cheap HQ option and to try and punish any marines who land too close to my Deployment Zone (Should get into a transport 8" onto the table, then it moves 6" and she can fire out of the far end, with a raider I wouldn't be surprised if this can hit anything in my table half with an AP3 template.

The List doesn't have a massive amount of anti tank, but there is still 8 lances and 4 Haywire Blasters which hopefully at 750pts will be enough.

What do you think of the List?

What thoughts do you have on List Tailoring?

Is the list balanced enough to run as an "all comers" List?

Games and Gears Battle Board Kickstarter - An endless saga of frustration

So, I've been trying to avoid doing this while I'm so emotional about it but I'm coming to the end of my tether and need to vent.

I pledged £62 a while back (November 2013) for a 6 by 4 plastic modular board for my gaming table, this was initially estimated to arrive by May 2014 which I felt was acceptable, and worth waiting for to get a decent product at a good price.

Initially all went well and I'll track the project updates here to try and warn those of you who may be interested in kickstarters in the future, and potentially just to avoid the company in general as some would say there updates have been at best, unclear, and at worst, downright lies.

Nov 2014 - Kickstarter funds within 12 hours, promising to deliver the next generation of tabletop boards

24/12/2014 - Kickstarter successfully funded

22/01/2014 - Backers Kit locked down, no more addons can be selected

20/02/2014 - Battle Boards in molding process, on schedule to deliver May 2014

01/03/2014 - Still in mold making process, we are told that this is the longest process  of the production and that the mass production process thereafter is quite fast. Told that some may even deliver earlier than the May 2014 deadline!

14/03/2014 - We are told that we will be given a battle board carrying box for free as a packaging solution. This will be a sturdy box with a plastic handle.

01/04/2014 - We are told that we are on target for May 2014 dispatch, Molds are nearly done and then mass production will be a few days. Painting will take place during April and all will be completed during this time.

01/05/2014 - Everything still on track for dispatch during May

16/05/2014 - Some severe flooding in the area of China the boards are being painted, according to news reports caused by poor drainage systems during monsoon season. Production is untouched, but 30% of the cardboard boxes are ruined and approx 20% of the boards themselves. 

Estimated a 25 day delay as will need to be repainted.

26/05/2014 - Battle Boards getting back on track,  We are told they are a week behind schedule on Urban War Battle Boards but that they will be dispatched in July

07/07/2014 - Battle Boards should be with you August / September

23/08/2014 - Battle Boards estimated shipping late September. Delivery time quoted as 4-12 days to the EU

08/10/2014 - Boards not dispatched yet. We are told they are trying to ensure they can ship them at a price which will ensure the kickstarter is kept in the black.

18/10/2014 - Boars almost ready for dispatch

04/11/2014 - Boards sent to Port in China. We're told once they're in the UK warehouse it'll take a week to repack and re-check, following which we will get a 1 day delivery from TNT.

05/12/2014 - Boards should be in the UK this week, then will need sorting and should dispatch January after Christmas holidays. "Even with possible port delays or customs delays it's still on it's way for us to get the gears rolling for Jan 2015 dispatch to your door"

19/12/2014 - Boards are at the UK Warehouse

17/01/2015 - Boards have ALL?!? been unpacked, quality checked, then packed back in their boxes. Should be completed early next week.

28/01/2015 - Dispatch estimate now of February 2015, hoping to make delivery 2-4 days instead of 5-25

09/02/2015 - Boards will be dispatched wc 20th February, new delivery date of Mid-Late March

09/03/2015 - Boards all dispatched, delivery is 5-25 days and everyone should have theirs by 15th April 2015

13/03/2015 - Exciting times, "all boards will be with you by or before April the 15th" Battleboard clips sent separately from China and should be here within 10-20 days.

01/04/2015 - Quote: "As per previous update please allow your Urban Wars to get to you by the 15th of April 2015. We understand there is a lot of excitement and frustration in getting your boards now but they are coming to you, all shipping is prepaid so they have to get to you :P by the deadline date at least. "

So it's now the 16th April, I've not received anything, neither has anyone who's posting on the Kickstarter comments, I have not had the clips either that apparently were sent separately from China.

I'll allow everyone to draw their own conclusions from the above, which is the information we've been given through the kickstarter updates.

Personally, I will never be having any dealings with the company again. I will be strongly urging anyone I know/have contact with to boycott the company, and avoid sending any business their way.

I feel we've been misled and lied to continuously throughout the process and if there was any action other that I could take other than to just urge others not to make the same mistake I did in trusting the company, I would take it.

My advice would be to avoid this company at all costs, goodness knows when/if we will ever receive our boards

Airbrush Stencilling // Hobby Update // 1000pt Dark Eldar vs Crimson Fists this evening

Hi guys,

Quick update with some progress, I'm afraid most of it is pretty boring but just got some progress on assembly / priming.

Before...

Got the airbrush out last night and primed some more of my Dark Eldar bits as well as spraying over some I had bought second hand on ebay. I also managed to get some of the characters primed for my Harlequins so that I can get started on those when I feel the urge.

After...

Managed to Prime:

Dark Eldar Scenery Piece
Archon
12 Kabalites (3 Blasters, 1 Sybarite, 1 Splinter Cannon)
2 Ravagers

Solitaire
2 Death Jesters
2 Shadowseers

Drop Pod
Marine w. Heavy Flamer
Dreadnought

I do find the airbrush a much better way to prime then the spray cans, you're able to direct the spray much better and can put a much lighter coat on them. It is a bit of a pain having to get it all out and then clean and put it away afterwards but I think it's worth it.

I also managed to have a play around with some stencils and I'm quite happy with the results, the stencils are from a recent kickstarter I backed from Anarchy Models and are the Dragon Scale pattern ones, I really like the effect and think it'll look good once they're painted up. I have some hex ones for the Aether Sails of the Ravagers as well as some Diamond ones for the Harlequin vehicles

The picture at the top is a better close up and you can see the one on the right I had a bit of splatter from the airbrush with so I'll need to clean that up, they also look much brighter than they are in the flesh, for a better idea of the colours/brightness look at the army shot.

For anyone interested in how I used the stencils I just held them over the area I wanted to put the pattern and sprayed over with some white paint, then went over the area with a purple shade (Druchi Violet) afterwards to try and tint the white and blend it in a bit more. Might need to put a couple more coats of this on to make the effect more subtle but wanted to consider it rather than just do it on the night then regret it.

------------

Following that I managed to get another batch of 4 Kabalites started last night and I'm painting my Archon along with them. (Not going to put a lot of time into this model as I plan to convert my own eventually but I'd like to get him on the table painted for now)

That would put me on the following painted:

Archon in Venom
5 Kabalites with Blaster in Raider
5 Kabalites with Blaster in Raider
8 Wyches with Hekatrix and Hydrae in Raider


Feels like I'm slowly getting there with the army and I have a few other bits at various stages of completion like the two jetfighters above, a unit of 3 Reaver Jetbikes and a second Venom that just need to be finished off.

------------

1000 pt Game this evening

I also have a friend coming round this evening with Crimson Fists for a game at 1000pts playing a Maelstrom mission. He normally brings quite a competitive list so I'm going to try out the list I wanted to use for the league once it kicks up to 1000pts in May.

Archon with Blaster and Haywire Grenades in Venom (2x Splinter Cannon)

5 Kabalites with Blaster in Venom (2x Splinter Cannon)
5 Kabalites with Blaster in Raider (Dark Lance)
5 Kabalites with Blaster in Raider (Dark Lance)
5 Kabalites with Blaster in Raider (Dark Lance)

Razorwing Jetfighter (2 x Dark Lance and 4 x Monoscythe Missiles)

Ravager (3 x Dark Lance)
Ravager (3 x Dark Lance)

Hopefully has the tools to deal with a variety of lists, with 9 Lance shots initially and extra as the Blasters come into play and the Razorwing arrives. Not sure the Razorwing is worth it but it's my only anti air if he brings any flyers.

Will try and take some pictures this evening and post them up some time in the next couple of days, possibly as a battle report if I've time, if not then just a few pictures and a brief overview of the game.


Sorry for the info dump, I view this blog as somewhere I can dump my own thoughts so I can look back on it as much as anything and I am aware it's content may not be the best format for everyone!

Rich

Quick Update on 750 League Progress and first impressions of Imperial Assault Skirmish

So still only played one game at 750 I'm afraid as we played our first game of Imperial Assault Skirmish on Wednesday at the club.

I played against my mates Sentinels of Terra scout army and it was a good game, could have gone either way until the last turn really.

I went with the slightly fluffier option as below, it's still a reasonable list I think but the Wyches and Succubus are definitely not a great option at this points level, with that unit coming in at a third of my points (255)

Succubus with Archite Glaive and Haywire Grenades

6 Wyches with Hekatrix (Agoniser)

Raider with Dark Lance

5 Kabalites with Blaster

Raider with Dark Lance

5 Kabalites with Blaster

Raider with Dark Lance

Ravager with 3 Dark Lances

Razorwing Jetfighter with 2 Dark Lances

He ran:

Librarian ML2 (Pyromancy)

5 Scouts with BP+CCW and a Heavy Bolter

5 Scouts with Bolters

5 Scouts with 4 Snipers and a ML

3 Scout Bikers with Grenade Launchers

Dreadnought with Ass Cannon and Heavy Flamer Power Fist

Vindicator

Land Speeder with HF and MM

Land Speeder with HF and MM

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By the end of the game I had the Ravager left and one Immobilised Raider, He had the Dreadnought on 1 HP, the Librarian with CC Scouts, and 2 of the Snipers.

Succubus and Wyches got out to deal with the Scout Bikers and then Bolter Scouts when their transport got stunned and probably should have stayed inside, but there was little in the list they could really do much to.

Ravager and Raiders took out the two Land Speeders as early priority, with the Succubus finishing one by charging in with Haywire Grenades. Tried to keep the Dreadnought stunned and did so two turns in a row but it still recovered in time for trashing my last raider on his objective on T5.

Ended with a 7-2 Win for the Fists and I'm going to have to change the list up again to avoid the Wyches I think at least until a higher points level. Not sure though as against a different list with more infantry it might have had more luck. Charging a couple hundred point unit in to deal with 3 scout bikes and 5 scout bolters seemed a waste though.

-----------------------

Imperial Assault Skirmish

Very quickly - positive feelings about this after our first game, seemed very tactical and I can see loads of variation in list building with the deployment and command decks both offering options.

We just grabbed some random command cards for the first game but I've put together a list now for next time we play Skirmish (Maybe Sunday evening)

On Wed we went with:

Rebel High Command

Luke

Fenn

Diala

Mak

Elite Rebel Troopers

vs

Royal Guard Champion

Royal Guard

Royal Guard

Elite Officer

Officer 

Officer

We played "Get to The Ship" from the core rule book

Was a good game and the last couple of turns was hectic. Fenn legged it in to contest the consoles with the last activation of one round, then activated first next round and used "Marksman" command card to get a shot through my officer and into the last Royal Guard to win the game for the Rebels at 40-38

I really think the game is likely to be popular, the only thing stopping it is likely the buy in as you really need the core box for the map tiles and command cards as well as it giving you a good amount of figures. I think £60 is harder to swallow than the £25 needed for X-Wing, even though that £25 likely turns into £50-60 once you've put a squad together.

Hopefully get an update up after the weekend, I've mostly been doing assembly, so I have my first Harlequin Troupe assembled, along with a Death Jester and Shadow Seer, as well as a new Archon for my Dark Eldar.