Blood Bowl Necromantic Team

The Blood Bowl Legendary Edition PC game was dirt cheap a few weeks back on Steam, so I took a punt and downloaded it. I'm glad I did, as I'd forgotten what a good game Blood Bowl is!

Anyway, it got me fired up again to do some Blood Bowl mins. I've been playing a Necromantic team on the PC, so I went for the same on the tabletop.

Werewolves, mostly Ork/Orc bitz:

Ghouls and Wights, made from the Vampire Counts range:

And zombies:

Malifaux: Legion Of Sorrows so far

It's impossible to only own one crew in Malifaux with some many great models. The models in Pandora's crew were some of the those that got me interested in Malifaux in the first place so I definitely wanted those next:

Baby Kade and Candy are tiny figures (Kade especially) so they're not easy to paint at all. I just need to paint Pandora now and they're done to 35SS. In addition to these, I've got Coppelius and Insidious Madness to add (and some Alps for Coppelius to summon).

Sister of Battle at 1000 points list

I was quite excited when I heard Sisters were getting a new Codex in White Dwarf as I'm a huge fan of the army. They're what I've been playing most in 40K this year of the few days I've been able to play. However, once the thing arrived I was fairly disappointed. Some of my favourite units (Inquisitors for example) were gone, and as I write this GW doesn't seem to making any efforts to bring the cost of the Battle Sisters down at all.

But, since I like the army, I wanted to persevere with it so I sat down and wrote up a list to replace my old 1000 point list:

HQ:
Uriah Jacobus, 5 Death Cult Assassins, 4 Crusaders in a Rhino (260)

Troops:
Battle Sister Squad, Melta gun, heavy flamer, rhino (180)
Battle Sister Squad, MG, Storm Bolter, Rhino (163)

Fast:
6 Seraphim, twin hand flamers, power sword for Superior (130)

Heavy:
Exorcist (135)
Exorcist (135)

From my old list, my old jump pack Canoness is gone (no jump pack available now, plus I don't need her 2 Faith points any more), Inquisitor and retinue are gone, and my small unit Inquisitorial Storm Troopers are also gone. In are the Seraphim, and Jacobus who is pretty much mandatory I think.

I don't want to spend a ton of cash on new units so I'm having to make do with what I've got. Jacobus and his unit I don't own, but I think I can build them from plastics fairly cheaply.

I haven't tried this list yet, so I'll post some feedback once I get to trying it out.

Malifaux: Nicodem Crew completed (for now)

Two months without a post.... I've just been really pushed for time these last few months, and blogging is one things that has gone by the wayside a little bit.

Anyway, I've not been totally idle on the gaming front. I've played a couple of games of Malifaux with my Nicodem crew (1 draw Vs The Viktorias, 1 loss Vs Lady J), and done some Malifaux painting.

My mindless zombie horde is done now....

...giving me 8 Mindless Zombies in my crew. I can really recommend these models from Studio Miniatures, they're really nicely scuplted.

Malifaux being a game that features alot of counters, I decided to knock up proper ones.

Corpse Counters (probably need more of these really):

Evidence Markers:

Treasure and Claim Markers:

And finally some Shafted markers for my Crooked Men:

I'm just short of some dynamite counters and a supply wagon and I'll have a full set.

Malifaux: More stuff

I've been pretty neglectful recently of both the blog and the hobby, as I've started a new job at the end of April, and had a third son which as you can imagine has taken up a fair bit of time ;)

I'm on paternity leave for two weeks though so I'm back in the swing of things and putting more work into the Undertaker's Lot.

Flesh Construct:

I'm not a huge fan of the sculpt for this miniature, the head is just silly looking. It is however the single highest Soulstone cost model that Nicodem can summon so I wanted to include him as a nice meat shield.

Canine Remains:

I've just got the two of these so far, I might bump them up to a pack of 4. With the two, I plan on using them as free corpse counters.

Punk Zombies:



Nice models but the swords bend really easily. The flag on Johnny the Rotten as I'm calling him is a bit shaky but it looks OK from a distance (I nicked the idea for this off someone on the Wyrd forums, kudos to them).

Mindless Zombies:



The first two of 4, these are by Studio Miniatures. The zombies are modern ones, but I think I can pass them off as Malifaux zombies. I have zombie mob 4 as I thought it was the most "non-modern" of them but they've got loads of other cool zombies I was tempted by.

Malifaux: Mortimer the Gravedigger

I'm still plodding along with my crew. Mortimer is now all done, and he got finished surprisingly quickly. I actually finished this model about a fortnight ago, I've just been so busy I've not had time to post him up.

This was an enjoyable model to paint, there's alot of character in the face which I enjoyed painting.

I based up 2 canine remains, a flesh construct, 3 punk zombies and 8 zombies to go in this crew.

Stylish Blogger Award

Imagine my surprise when I heard from Meatball from My Dice Hate Me that he had been kind enough to nominate my inane ramblings for a Stylish Blogger Award! I was both shocked and pleased, especially as I've not been as on top of things in the world of blogging as I should have been in recent months.

The Stylish Blogger Award given from one blogger to another one might say, is like a pat on the back for a good job. It's definitely a viral, zombie-like spread of good will so it's too good to pass up.

There are four rules for the Stylish Blogger Award:

• Thank and link back to the person giving you the award
• Share seven things about yourself
• Select 10-15 blogs who you think deserve this award
• Contact these bloggers and let them know about the award

So first of all, a big thanks to Meatball for choosing my blog. I've been reading his blog (in both his previous and current incarnations) for a long time now, being as he is a fellow Witch Hunter's player. If you don't already, go and check out My Dice Hate Me and click on the Follow button.

So first of all, seven things about me:

1. I like zombies. Anything to do with zombies really. My favourite non-Romero zombie movies are Zombi 2 (aka Zombie Flesh Eaters), Zombieland and Tombs of the Blind Dead.
   
2. I have (almost) 3 sons.
3. The first miniature I ever painted was the dwarf from the Warlock of Firetop Mountain boardgame
4. Having The Hobbit read to me at school when I was about 8 changed my life
5. You can follow me on twitter @tigerstyle40k
   
6. I've been into miniature wargaming since 1989, but I did stop for 12 years between 1995 and 2007
7. Apart from minis and zombies, I also like podcasts, music, Lego and sleep.
   

So here's my list of bloggers to nominate (aside from My Dice Hate Me go and check that out anyway) in no particular order :

1- Standard Template Construct: Roleplayer is a fabulous painter, even if you don't like Space Marines (like me), then check out his work.

2- The Lower Crypt: This is a Malifaux terrain blog, and there's some really great stuff on here. It's a little behind in being updated, but check it out for the awesome terrain.

3- Warpstone Flux: Jabberjabber has been a long time follower and supporter of this blog, and he always impresses me with his regular updates whilst still maintaing high quality.

4- Excommunicate Traitoris: Superb paint jobs focussing on Inquisition armies.

5- The Glorious Works: The guys running this blog provide regular Malifaux oriented posts, which I always enjoy reading.

6- Constantly Risking Obscurity: Consistently excellent and interesting post from Mike, and he's been kind enough to offer advice to me in the past.

7- John's Toy Soliders: Another long time follower, John provides varied and consistent updates, and some nice photos as well.

8- Kantor Base: The Hammer provides excellent 40K coverage and even some Fantasy.

9- Sons of Twilight: 40K and Lego, two of my favourite things.

10- 2 Ton Studios: Wolfy is a friend of mine and a fellow Freeboota so check out his 40K painting blog as well. He's casting some sweet bases as well.

Hope you enjoy reading these blog. If one of these blogs is yours then drop me a comment below to say you've seen it to save me the job of contacting you.

Cheers
Chris

Malifaux: Grave Spirit

More Malifaux stuff, with still more to come.

This time a Grave Spirit and another try out of OSL:


This totem will link to another model and confer them Armor 2, which reduces the number of wounds inflicted. One of these combined with Nicodem for example (who is already Hard to Wound 1 and can assign hits to nearby zombies) makes him tough to kill.

Malifaux: Crooked Men

I've started a new job this week, so I haven't had much chance to paint anything for almost a fortnight, but today the kid's were out all day leaving me with several hour painting time.

So... Crooked Men:



The one in the middle is my first ever attempt at OSL:

I've got the idea I think, just need to work on the execution. I'll be giving this another go with my grave spirit I think.

And this one has a really wierd zombie canary in his hand:

This guy has a flat top to his head like Helicopter Zombie for Dawn of the Dead.



Still to come in this crew:

-Mortimer the Gravedigger
-3 Samurai Punk Zombies
-2 Canine Remains
-Grave Spirit
-Flesh Contrust

Malifaux: Vultures

I've finished the next models in my crew, 2 vulture totems. I'm not I'll ever want to field two (not unless it's a really big game), but when I bought the models second hand I got two of them. They look OK from tabletop distance anyway.




I've had some more models arrive this week for the crew as well: 2 canine remains, 3 punk zombies and a flesh construct. They've been added to my "to paint" list.

The rules manual also arrived on Tuesday. I'm really impressed with it, it makes alot of the areas that the main book is vague on (blast markers and corpses counters are two examples I've struggled with), and it's got a huge section on strategies and schemes. I'm guessing some of this must be taken from "Rising Powers" (which I don't own yet), as there are master specific schemes in there for masters which are only in that book.

Malifaux: Bat rep, Nicodem Vs McMourning (25ss)

I played my first (almost) full game of Malifaux last night. This was at 25ss. I say it was almost full, we just both used the Slaughter strategy rather than flipping for it, the idea being to keep it simple as I'm still learning the game and my opponent was still learning a new crew.

He was my list:
Nicodem, The Undertaker
Mortimer, The Gravedigger
3 Crooked Men
1 Vulture
Soulstone Cache of 7

And the opposing crew:
Dr Douglas McMourning
Sebastian
Flesh Construct
4 Canine Remains
Soulstone Cache of about 5-6

Deployment was just standard across the board.

I kept back, and castled up my crooked men around Nicodem. Mortimer dug up a corpse counter and Nicodem raised a mindless zombie from it to protect himself. My vulture headed forward and I attempted a Decay through it against the dogs, but I was cheated out of it.

McMouring and his crew headed forward fast, McMourning using his scalpel sling off the Flesh Contrust to catapult himself another 6" of so forward, but wounded the Flesh Construct in the process.

Things were starting to look bad around turn 2 or 3. I was really thinking I was going to get kerb stomped as I was not confident in my own crew's melee abilities, but this point was where it turned round.

My Crooked Men used Shafted to block the route between some terrain. This meant the Flesh Construct had to risk it, so my opponent sent his dogs into clear it, wounding them in the process. I dropped another Shafted on my activation in the same place, so he had to send in another dog. His other surviving dog charged and wounded my third Crooked Man. The FC then killed a Crooked Man. At this point, he had two dogs and a wounded Construct (I'd softed it up as it advanced using Cave In) very close together.

Nicodem then used Decay to kill the dog that had wounded my Crooked Man, leaving him free to Cave In the Flesh Contruct, killing it and using the blasts to kill the two dogs near him.

Next turn, Nicodem had what he needed: alot of Corpse Counters. I summoned my Crooked Man back and then raised 6 mindless zombies. Nicodem then used Rigor Mortis to paralyze McMourning. I pretty much managed to keep McMourning paralyzed for the rest of the game, which was just as well, as on the one turn I didn't do it (thanks for a rubbish control hand), he caused carnage, killing Mortimer and a zombie and healing 8 wounds. I eventually killed Sebastian and McMourning resulting in a win, mainly thanks to Bolster Undead making my zombies much tougher.

A great game overall, very tactical and I really had to think about how my crew works, particularly with more of a support caster like Nicodem. I'm not sure how I would have faired in a strategy which required me to move around the board more.

Malifaux: Nicodem

Over the past couple of weeks, I've really been bitten by the Malifaux bug. I played a demo game with my local Wyrd henchmen and was really blown away by it.

I actually bought a crew second hand before Christmas, so I've finally now been motivated to paint it up. I love all things zombie, so The Resurrectionists, and particularly Nicodem was an obvious choice for me:

I had about 4 attempts at the vultures neck, and I'm still not 100% on it. I might have another go with it. I've got two more vulture totems to paint but I think I'm going to do their necks in more of a flesh tone.

One thing I like about Malifaux are all the cool bases. This particular model has one of the base inserts from Wyrd:

I'm going for a graveyard theme for this crew. What I was attempting on the tomb stone was a marble effect, which I'm reasonably happy with. I looked around on the Interwebs for some info on painting marble and the couple of sites I looked at recommended using a sponge to add the initial texture. I actually used a stippling brush for mine.

-I painted the whole stone Astronomicon Grey

-Washed with Gryphonne Sepia

-Stippled Codex Grey patches

-Stippled Fortress Grey patches to highlight

-Added thin lines of Fortress Grey to marble it.

The miniatures I've got left in this crew are:

-Mortimer

-3 Crooked Men

-2 Vulture totems

-Grave Spirit

-2 Canine Remains

-Shafted markers

-Corpse Counters

I've also hoping to get a game or two in tonight.

Khorne Lord in Terminator Armour

This was my most generous gift from the UK Bootaz Secret Santa this year. I wanted to give him a paint job befitting his status as a marvellous gift and an eater of worlds. He's going to be my entry for a local painting contest which I've amazingly managed to finish two weeks early.





I think I've managed to nail down painting red now with this one after my earlier attempt on my Kabuki doll. The red was done farily simply:

-Base of two thinned coats of Mechrite Red
-Two washes with Devlan Mud
-Layer of Red Gore, working up through about 4-5 layers to Blood Red
-Blood Red and then adding Fiery Orange for the top end highlights.


I also used weathering powders for the first time to add the black dust to his feet and loin cloth. I used the Forge World ones, as they happen to be the ones I've got. I've used Black Soot on this model to represent dust from the ashen ground and just applied it with a dry brush

I didn't think I'd actually have time to get the model done, hence I went for a fairly basic (ie rubbish) base. In future I'll allow myself more time to do something better with the base. Long term, this will be a gaming piece anyway, so I wouldn't have been able to do anything that flash with it.

RPG Play by Forum

I've now played in two Dark Heresy campaigns, one Deathwatch campaign and I'm currently GM'ing another Dark Heresy campaign. Play by forum can be very enjoyable, so I thought I'd share some tips with you based on my experience in case you ever want to run or take part in your own campaign. Obviously to do any of this you'll need a forum of your choice to do it on ;)

PBF takes time: When you're planning your campaign bear in mind it's going to take time. Alot of time. What you'd manage in a session or two face to face is going to take several months most likely. Our first DH campaign (Maggots in the Meat from the Games Master's Kit) ran between July and October to finish was should be doable in a single evening session. Be prepared for it to take time and plan for the long haul.

Get reliable players: When recruiting players or thinking of being a player yourself, think about the first point. Am I willing and able to run or play in this campaign for the amount of time required? Is it likely that real life stuff is going to get in the way of me playing? Obviously if something unexpected happens, or you have to go on holiday or something then these can be handled, but if you're just going to lose interest then don't bother starting.

Post often: One way your campaign will stagnate is if people aren't posting often to keep things moving. A lack of posting is going to slow stuff down, people will lose interest and things will fizzle out. My advice would be to look for people, or plan on posting yourself, who can post every 24 to 48 hours. This sounds like quite a commitment, but if you think of how many people have smart phones these days, it's not too arduous (Tapatalk is your friend by the way if you're forum playing by phone).

Fudge things: Let stuff slide and things happen without rolling to keep things interesting. Unless it's really vital or unavoidable don't let people die, no one wants to lose weeks of work and have to re-roll.

Don't enforce a posting order: Out of combat, things will slow down if you're all waiting on one guy to post. Let people post when they want when not in combat to keep things and the roleplaying flowing.

Don't be waiting on one player: Try and avoid situations where you're waiting on one person to do something or post. If the majority of players have decided on a course of action, go with it rather than waiting for a unanimous decision.

Have everything ready: If you're GM'ing have all your major posts planned out and ready to hand when you need them. Same thing for player character sheets, reference tables, NPC stats and so on. When you've got it to hand you can quickly copy and paste the next part of the post (especially if it's a long one) and you're away. I've found Google docs useful for this, so I carry all my major posts in one document that I can cut and paste from even when I'm using a mobile device like my iPod.

Credit for many of these insights is also due to Aaron from the Mystical Throne who has GM'ed two of the three campaigns I've played in. Many of these tips I learnt from him so go check his site out.

Blog neglect

I've been somewhat neglectful of the blog of late due to some real life stuff getting in the way of hobby time.

What I have managed to do since early February...

I got 30 Gnoblars painted up for my Ogre Kingdoms army:

I didn't really enjoy painting these things that much, I'm glad I don't play a horde army...

I went down to Warhammer World and got a big game in with the UK Freebootaz. 5K points per side on the custom made Tau table they've got down there. Farthestgoose on Adeptus Alcoholicus posted a short report on it as well. Those are my Sisters of Battle facing down his dreadnaught. I ended up on the losing side, but it was a great game all round and a good day as it usually is when the Bootaz get together.

Last week, I finally got round to playing Malifaux. Our local Wyrd henchman offered to come down to club night and run a demo so I jumped at the chance to try out my Nicodem crew. To be honest, I'm pretty much hooked on Malifaux now so expect so more stuff on that in future.

I've also been playing in play by forum Dark Heresy but I'll talk about that separately with some tips on what I've learnt. I've been spending a lot of time ready DH books and working on a campaign I'm running via a forum.

Inquisitorial Storm Troopers

Finally, after some years, I'm up to date with my Witch Hunters, in that all the models for it are now painted. The last five are here, Inquisitorial Storm Troopers:


These use heads and backpacks from Pig Iron. The heads are actually very similar to the ones pictured in the Codex under the Inquisitorial Storm Troopers.

As a unit, they cost a grand total of 60 points, including the grenade launcher. Being this dirt cheap means I'm happy for them to sit and hold an objective whilst my expensive Battle Sister squads go and do their thing. They won't take much punishment, but then again they don't cost much either.

For my Witch Hunters as a whole, I can probably stretched to 1550 points by tricking out every unit. Really I need to get another unit of Battle Sisters done but the only way that's going to happen is if I buy them in blisters or get them off ebay.

A brace of Exorcists

Though I've been lax with blogging this month, I've been pretty busy with hobby.

I went down to Warhammer World last week to play a few games with the UK Freebootaz. We only playing 1000 point games so I took my Witch Hunters, but I was still short on a couple of painted units, namely 2 Exorcists:

The GW one has been sat on my shelf for nearly a year (I got it for Christmas 2009) and was such a sod to put together I went for the Forge World Exorcist for the second one which was much easier if less visually impressive.

Here was the list I took with me:

Canoness, jump pack, bolt pistol, frag grenades, cloak of St. Aspira, Blessed Weapon, Book of St Lucius

Inquisitor Lord with psychic hood and bolter, 3 gun servitors with heavy bolters

10 Battle Sisters inc, a Veteran Sister with Book, Heavy Flamer, Meltagun, Rhino with smoke launchers

10 Battle Sisters inc, a Veteran Sister with Book, Storm Bolter, Meltagun, Rhino with smoke launchers

5 Inquisitorial Storm Troopers with a grenade launcher

Exorcist with searchlight

Exorcist with searchlight

I played two games with this list both against Space Marines, and to my surprise won both (I'm still not sure whether this was luck or judgement).

The Exorcists absolutely rock, they were instrumental in both games in dealing with TH/SS terminators (I faced 5 in the first game, 7 in the second).

Although I felt a bit cheesy, the Inquisitor Lord's unlimited range psychic hood was very useful in game two as it prevented 7 TH/SS terminator and a librarian from using Gate of Infinity to get across the table at me. He's a must take in this army. I'm not sold yet on the gun servitors, they need a bit more testing.

The 5 ISTs were handy as well as a cheap objective holding unit. They won't stand up to anything much, but they freed up my Battle Sisters to do their job.

All in all, I'm looking forward to running this army again.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to you! Traditionally, this is the time of year for making resolutions for the forthcoming year.

Looking back, my resolutions from last year were:

1- Build, paint and play at least 1 game with my new Ogre Kingdoms army DONE Played 4 small games

2- Complete my Witch Hunters army to 1500 points FAILED Failed kind of, partly due to GW withdrawing the basic troop box.

3- Build and paint at least one super heavy DONE Kind of. Painted my Doomsday Device, but I built that in 2010.

4- Play at least 25 games total of either 40K or Fantasy FAILED Only managed 20 games

5- Play in at least one proper tournament DONE Played in both UK Freebootaz tournamnents this year.

6- Paint at least 120 points worth of minis on the lonepilgrim painting point scheme (I did 109 in 2010) DONE I painted 144 points worth.

Here's what I aim to be doing for 2011:

1- Buy less models, and paint the ones I've got
2- Finish my Witch Hunters to the 1500 point list I've written (I technically have more than 1500 points worth)
3- Finish my Ogre army
4- Play some Malifaux
5- Play 25 games of either 40K or Fantasy
6- Get some work done on my 40K Chaos Daemons army