A Change of Direction

Hi guys,

Just a quick post to draw a line under this blog as I've not played 40k since April and can't see myself doing so for a while.

I've been playing Imperial Assault almost exclusively for a good 6 months now and have been active on my YouTube channel for that if anyone is interested in checking it out on the below link:

http://www.youtube.com/c/StarwarsStreaming

And a quick example:

Thanks for all the support here, I really appreciate all the feedback I've been given previously but at the moment I'm not enjoying 40k and as a result it's just not getting played.

Thanks all!

Rich

Tournament Results

So went down on Saturday and got 3 games in with my "Shadow Raptors" Dark Eldar.

Bit of a strange system the scoring was via 6 objective cards that each person had available all game, plus a VP for each Objective at the end of the game.

Something Like:

Assassinate - 1 VP per independant character killed this turn

Take and Hold - 3 VP's if you control 3 objectives

Purge - 1 VP for manifesting a psychic power or denying the witch

No Prisoners - 1 VP per unit killed in Assault

Something? - 1 VP per unit killed by Shooting

Linebreaker - 1 VP if you have a unit within 12" of the opponents table edge

Was a bit strange as I'm used to scoring through the game with Maelstrom and I'm not a big fan of leaving the scoring to the last turn, however it is what it is.

Had one big win, one big loss, and one closer game so fairly balanced I guess, although it was a shame as none of the game's were particularly close.

First game (18-1 Win against Space Wolves)

Bad matchup for this guy and I did feel bad for him, He had roughly:

Njal Storm Caller in a unit of 9 Wulfen, 3 Claws, 3 Hammers, 3 

Arjac Rockfist in a unit of 6 Terminators inside a Landraider (2 Flamestorm Cannons)

Giant Flyer thing

2 units of 5 Grey Hunters

With him just really having 2 big dangerous units I was able to dance around and shoot  them to pieces, he had nothing left on the table by the time the Flyer finally arrived turn 4.

Wyches did OK I guess, moved out of their transport turn 2 and knocked two HP off the Landraider with a thrown and then placed Haywire Grenade, before being toasted by the flamestorm.

Game ended turn 5 with 4 units of kabalites chasing after the flyer snap shooting at it and finally bringing it down. Jumped onto the objectives at the end for an extra 6 points. (MISTAKE as it dictated my next matchup)

Second game (20-0 Loss against Eldar)

Brutal matchup and I was almost tabled turn 1 (Just de-meched Kabalites and half a unit of Wyches left with him destroying all 6 skimmers before I got a turn)

His list was pretty brutal for a "friendly" tournament:

Farseer on bike

4 Scat Bikes

4 Scat Bikes

10 Warp Spiders

5 D-Scythe Wraith Guard in Wave Serpent

3 Hornets with 2 Pulse Lasers

3 Hornets with 2 Pulse Lasers

Dark Reapers with Exarch manning an Icarus LasCannon emplacement

so the Scat Bikes took a skimmer out each (16 s6 shots per unit) then the Hornets took a skimmer each (12 s8 shots per unit) then the Warp Spiders accounted for 1, and the Icarus Lascannon plus Dark Reapers plus Serpent Shield and Lance from the Serpent finished off anything that was left.

Fun...

Wanted to call it before my First turn but opponent pointed out we needed to carry on for VP purposes. He finished what was left his turn 2 but my reserves came in afterwards. He then tabled what was left T3.

Funnily enough that list went on to win the tournament having won 19-1 // 20-0 // 20-2

My last match was against a friend of mine with his Tau, something like:

Riptide

Y'Vara (Spelling?)

Ghost Keel

Coldstar Commander

Regular Commander with 5 Marker Drones

1 Crisis Suit with Fusion Guns

3 Crisis suits with S7 / S5 stuff?

2 Broadsides

5-6 Sniper drone things

Pathfinders

Again pretty brutal with 3-4 Skimmers down first turn although I did manage to score a few points in this match at least, losing 12-7 in the end.

Anyway!

Long and short of it is I think if I ever go to anything semi competitive again I'll probably need to bring some Eldar support as it just didn't feel that I could compete with my opponents after the first game. 

Shadow Raptors Background

Going to a tournament on Saturday and part of the entry is that I need to write a piece of fluff for my army.

I always enjoy giving my army a background and doing the "factual bits" (A friend has just politely pointed out they're not real - spoilsport!), similar to what I did with my Craftworld Eldar a few weeks ago, and have done for my Wych Cult in the past. However I hate the process of weaving that into a story! I just can't seem to get it right and it just always seems to read like I'm a little kid again writing "let's pretend" stories.

I am also terrible at generating names for my characters so just nicked a few Dark Eldar sounding names from the "Path of the Renegade" book.

Anyway, it had to be done so I've spent a few days off and on thinking about it and eventually finished it up over breakfast this morning.

The initial task I set was to set the scene for why my kabal was playing these games, and to excuse the fact that I'm bringing a unit of Wyches along (the tournament doesn't "have" to be fully painted but I'd much prefer to play fully painted and there is a slight advantage in VP's if you bring a painted army so I figured what the heck, they've been on the shelf long enough)

This is what I came up with anyway, it's too late for change now but I'd appreciate any feedback you may have so that as and when I come to do it again I can improve upon this offering. (Army list is below for anyone interested)

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

Duke Yllithian strode down the ranks of his arrayed kabalites,  daring one of them to blink out of turn. Not known for his patience at the best of times he was currently fuming inside, and looking for an excuse to release that rage on something or someone.

The arrangements for the raid had started well, he was soon to be launching a sustained campaign aimed at raising the stature of the Shadow Raptors kabal, and had begun pitting his warriors against each other to ensure only the very best were given the honour of joining the coming slave harvest.

All had been going well until the insolent Succubus Xelion had dropped from the sky unannounced in her Raider while final preparations were being made.

The wych cult of the Dancing Death was known to Yllithian, a once powerful gladiatorial cult that prided itself on the acrobatic skill of it's Wyches but that had fallen from grace recently as the powerful kabals it used to sell it's services to, found that they would rather fill their ranks with more of their own kabalites. (An arrangement also significantly less likely to end with a knife in the back)

Yllithian couldn't help but take the opportunity to point out the power he now held in comparison to the shreds of a reputation that the wych cult now clung on to and asked what Xelion thought of his assembled warriors.

The lithe Succubus had hesitated, stroking the blade of one of her knives down a thigh just enough to draw blood, before responding with a shrug and launching into wildly exaggerated tales of the feats her Wyches were capable of. Yllithian had cut her off at the point she began to compare his kabalites with the grace of a Squiggoth, a nod to his Sslyth bodyguard Morr the signal to throw Xelion overboard.

Xelion somersaulted out of reach and landed with one foot on the very tip of the Raider's aethersail. "A wager then!" The shout had come down, "one group of my Wyches, to outperform your entire raiding force!"

Yllithian had been left with no choice but to accept or lose face at that point and was raging at the fact that her been manipulated into taking along a group from the wych cult. A webway portal could only be held open for so long and the presence of the Wyches meant he would likely have to leave one of his favoured razorwing jet fighters in Commorragh.

With a mock bow the manipulative Succubus leapt back off the Aethersail and onto a swooping venom, leaving Yllithian to continue with his preparations...

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

Shadow Raptors + Guests (1500 pts)

Duke Yllithian - Archon with Agoniser / Armour of Misery / Shadowfield / Webway Portal

Bodyguard - Court of the Archon, 3 Sslyth and 2 Medusa in a Raider with Nightshield

5 Kabalites with Blaster and Sybarite with Haywire Grenade in 2 Splinter Cannon Venom

5 Kabalites with Blaster and Sybarite with Haywire Grenade in 2 Splinter Cannon Venom

5 Kabalites with Blaster and Sybarite with Haywire Grenade in 2 Splinter Cannon Venom

5 Kabalites with Blaster and Sybarite with Haywire Grenade in 2 Splinter Cannon Venom

5 Kabalites with Blaster and Sybarite with Haywire Grenade in Raider

8 Wyches with Hydra Gauntlet and Hekatrix with Agoniser and Haywire Grenades in a Raider with Nightshield

Razorwing Jetfighter with 2 Disintegrator Cannons and 4 Monoscythe Missiles

Razorwing Jetfighter with 2 Dark Lances and 4 Monoscythe Missiles

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

It's not the most optimal of builds, but it's fully painted and the tournament was pitched as "fluffy" so I don't feel so bad including the Wyches and Razorwings over Ravagers and more Kabalites.

I'll let you know how I get on and hopefully add some pictures next week

Dark Eldar Progress

Just a few work in progress pictures of the Dark Eldar so far, I'd just finished the razorwing and my wife had the camera out so took a few pictures.

Unfortunately it turns out I had it on the wrong setting so apologies for the poor quality pics but a friend has offered to help me take some better ones once the 1500 is finished.

Getting there now, I have another 2 venoms in progress right now which should be done by the end of the week, and a couple more units of kabalites, then it's just the ravagers to do for the campaign list.

Anyway, picture dump coming up!

  

Quick recap from A Cam(bridge) too far

Just a quick recap from my trip with a few details. I did take some pictures but appear to have lost all but one from my phone 😑

Ended up being the biggest bolt action tournament yet with 60 players in attendance and generally had a great time, despite the 5 hour drive each way!

First game was a draw against British 8th army, 8-7 to me but needed to win by two for a minor win
Second game minor win against Russians
Third game heavy loss against Russians

Due to that last game I ended in 42nd out of 60 but had a great time and hoping to go again next year.

Court of the Archon finished (Minus basing) // A few Bolt Action pics

Still need to do the bases but have to wait for those to arrive from the U.S. - Didn't think to order any 40mm ones when I first got them as I didn't have the Sslyth at the time.

Nothing spectacular but I'm happy with the overall effect for a couple of evenings work, Quite chuffed with the colouring on the Sslyth. Not really happy with the green rags on the Medusae but I wanted to try and tie the unit together and think it needed the green to do that.

It's worth noting that my Eldar project lasted all of one game as my opponent just didn't have a good time against my Eldar/Harlequins list (I had tried to tone it down by adding 750pts of Harlequins but obviously not enough) therefore I just decided to finish my Dark Eldar and run those for the campaign instead.

Still have to post some of my Bolt Action bits but I seem to have deleted some of the pictures on my phone so can't post full army pics right now. I'm at the event on Saturday so will try and take some pictures then if not before.

For now just a few pics of some of the bits that I could find. Bit of a mish mash sorry!

Idrathanil Background

Hi all, I know it's been a while - believe it or not I've gotten a fair bit done despite the latest addition to the household.

Been playing a good amount, primarily bolt action (British Paras) and imperial assault but recently been convinced to join a 40k campaign starting in May and likely to use this blog to document my progress.

I'll pop some pictures of my bolt action up at some point soon as I'm quite chuffed I've gotten a full 1000pt army built for a tournament I'm attending in Cambridge next month.

For now though I wanted to share some of the background I've built up for my latest project, the Eldar of Idrathanil. Some of this was edited from existing background, some written myself, and I used a couple of random Craftworld background generators to direct me in places.

Mostly here for my own reference but posting up in case anyone else finds it interesting :)

Might need to play with formatting later as currently posting this from my tablet.


Craft world name - Idrathanil

Craftworld Environment - Split between Temperate Rainforests and Mountainous areas.

First Encountered by the Imperium -  Limited contact from afar before The Fall

Before the Fall - Explorers. The Craftworld was used to explore and keep tabs on the galaxy surrounding the Eldar Empire.

During the Fall - Escaped. As a result of its explorations, this Craftworld was far away from the core of the Eldar Empire and managed to survive safely.

Demeanour - Diplomatic. Because of its role on the edge of the Eldar empire this Craftworld learned always to establish peaceful contact as a preference, although there was always an unseen eye on negotiations should help be needed.

Goal - The Craftworld's ultimate goal is to rebuild the Empire. This Craftworld seeks to re-establish the Eldar Empire and the direct power of the Eldar race.

Craftworld Strength - Prosperous. This Craftworld has thrived from its strong bond with the Harlequins of the soaring spite and consequently the Dark Eldar.

Combat Tactics - Stealth. Rangers and war walkers scout ahead whilst striking scorpions lie in wait. When the time is right, from nowhere swooping hawks drop from the skies and crimson hunters tear in on attack runs to obliterate the unsuspecting enemy. When the situation calls for a greater infantry presence, the craftworld has been reported to use speedy Dark Eldar attack craft to jet into position from nowhere.

Military Composition - Aspects and Rangers, striking scorpions and swooping hawks match the tactics of the Craftworld whilst as normal for Eldar there is also a strong presence of dire avengers.

Fabled Hero - The enigmatic Harlequin Troupe Master who came to the rescue of the Craftworld and provided assurances that there was a future for the Eldar Empire to plan for. The Harlequins were instrumental in helping to destroy a Necron tomb complex that would have meant destruction for the Craftworld, although some of the younger Eldar of Idrathanil whisper that it was also them who awoke the threat...

Autarch - Iselyth - A respected commander having mastered all of the paths of war with particular affinity for the swooping hawk and striking scorpion aspects. Showing respect for both those aspects Iselyth is normally seen armed with a scorpion chainsword and mandiblasters, with a las blaster and swooping hawk wings, and has a knack for arriving at the perfect moment at the head of a trio of swooping hawk shrines.

Farseer - Oreshae - Little is known about the spiritual leader of the Craftworld and he rarely takes to the field unless the Eldar of Idrathanil are forced to fight a pitched battle rather than their favoured hit and run tactics. When he has been seen he has shown himself to be a powerful psyker and the Inquisition are said to be very interested in knowing more about this individual.

Head of Rangers -  Arlon StarStrider (counts as Illic Nightspear) With a burning hated of the Necrons, Arlon has devoted himself to bringing about their destruction whenever a new tomb world is discovered. Little is known about the origins of Arlon but it is known he was one of the first to discover the Necron Tomb World that so nearly destroyed Idrathanil and he has a stronger bond than most with the Harlequins of the Soaring Spite that intervened.

Common Aspects - swooping hawks // striking scorpions
Rare Aspects - fire dragons // dark reapers // shining spears
Common Path - Outcast
Common Allies - Harlequins and Dark Eldar
Bitter Enemies - Necrons

Themes:

Peaceful but dedicated to their path.
Stealthy, striking from an unseen angle
High amount of Exarchs/Rangers, Eldar often get stuck upon a certain path or become outcasts

Background:

While all Craftworlds make use of highly efficient sniper Rangers, none utilise them more than, or as well as, Idrathanil. By their nature Idrathanil Rangers, known as The Wanderers, do not reside upon the Craftworld, but travel the galaxy. These Rangers retain their loyalty to Idrathanil, returning to their craftworld regularly to report on any threats to the Craftworld or the Exodite Worlds it protects. The Wanderers are all highly trained snipers and can cause havoc to the enemy from afar with their long rifles.

In times of need the Craftworld sometimes recalls their Rangers to contribute to Idrathanil's military force. Idrathanil can also call upon an unusually high number of Exarchs, as its Eldar are more disposed to become utterly consumed by their chosen Path. This has caused some ripples amongst other Eldar, with rumours that the aspect shrines of Idrathanil are becoming more and more secretive, and sightings suggesting that warriors of the hawk aspect are slowly becoming twisted by their over zealous dedication.

The history of the craftworld details a time in M36 when a Necron Tomb World awoke on one of the Exodite worlds that Idrathanil was sworn to protect, with the craftworld fighting with unsustainable losses before an intervention by a Dark Eldar force guided to the battlefield through the webway by a Troupe of Harlequins. Since that time there has been a strong respect from the Idrathanil Eldar for the Dark Eldar cult and Harlequin Masque involved, and they can often be seen fighting alongside each other.

It is said that by capturing large numbers of Outcasts, the Imperial Inquisition has gleaned much knowledge of the Eldar through torture. This has increased tensions between the Imperium and Idrathanil, and the two currently share very tense relations, with the Imperium eager to find out everything they can about the Eldar whilst knowing that any ally in the battle against Chaos is priceless and at times they will need to work together.

For the Eldar of Idrathanil there is a similar struggle, as whilst they detest the methods of the Inquisition and feel the need to protect their own, they also realise that there are important allies within some factions.

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!