Tuesday Nights alright for fighting

Not only has my hobby progress been hit by the loft converison but gaming too has taken a backseat. I had to rain check [for my American readers] postpone [to everyone else] a game with PeteB due to parenting/decorating committments but I'll catch up with him again soon. However, I did get an opportunity to face Ben and his dreaded Necrons that will be descending on Blog Wars

This was one of my three lists I wanted to take, and had the Manufactorum Genestealer datasheet which was perfect for snatching the objectives, for which you get a point for each one secured every player turn.

As you can see there weren't many ruins/buildings for them to hide in but this amount of terrain is consistent with Blog Wars 7 [although apparently that was because people started deploying before terrain had been finished setting up]. Anyway, as Ben had Imotekh I was looking forward to the Stealers being targetted for a quick First Blood but hopefully weathering the storm thanks to Night Fighting and cover. Unfortunately I won first turn but I didn't manage very much, my Hive Guard failing to put even one wound on Ben's Quad Gun. I was hoping to snatch First Blood and portect my Hive Tyrant who I suddenly realised couldn't damage any of his Barges so instead took down just 5 Necron Warriors

Interestingly I also discovered that my Skyhield is too big to deploy. It will not fit within the 12" Dawn of War deployment zone. Although it takes up less surface area than the Imperial version the Capillary Towers have a bigger footprint. This could be a concern going forwards although the rule book does state that the best solution for not being able to fit everything on is to increase your deployment zone, otherwise it comes on as onging reserve. Of course this doesn't move so it wouldn't come on at all. Hopefully as long as it's at the back and I don't deploy anything on it further than 12" it shouldn't be a problem but it's definitely something I should check with Alex beforehand. To be honest I think it's only of value in the Purge the Alien mission and if I can have any excuse not to take it I'll snatch his hands of ;)

Ben deployed behind his Aegis [obviously as who would deploy in front of one?] and pretty much stayed there for the game while I racked up VPs claiming objectives. Ultimately the Hive Tyrant would fall to combined Quad Gun, and a variety of Tesla fire. A big loss for not much gain. I'm not entirely sure what he could have done to turn the tide given most of his weapons were ineffective against his barges but a big loss nontheless.

I would eventually charge the Overlord in Command Barge with my Tervigon and Carnifex which prompted an interesting debate on the fact you specify if you're attacking the vehicle or rider/driver so if I attack the vehicle should I still be susceptible to the Overlord's Mind Shackle Scarabs? So instead of the quick smash we were locked in combat for a couple of turns until eventually I managed to penetrate and blow it up... only for it to resurrect at the end of the turn! It then went on to wreak havoc across my backfield while the now exposed Carnifex was gunned down before it could even cross the Necron defence line.

I think I was quite lucky in this face off in that the Stealers and Deathleaper eventually took down the Wraiths and continued to score VPs. Sadly my Mawloc did not turn up to take advantage of their tightly packed formation and the pheremone trail left by Deathleaper which prevents scatter from Deep Strike within 6". It would eventually turn up and do very little. I also got into a tussle with some Scarabs with Hive Guard and Warriors being particularly resistant to their bitey metal mouths. A stalemate/war of attrition followed for most of the game.

The Triarch Stalker got what he wanted and the Genestealer leaped from the ruins for another protracted melee, while I 'forged a narrative' around it. The rending claws of the Stealers would eventually win out but once again becoming exposed and suffering the consequences.

And that was all I took, our projected 3 hour game [although BW is 2.5hours] lasted 6 hours, we finished at 1am. In the first three hours we got to about turn two or three. By turn four I was slaughtering Ben 13:3 but as we progressed through to turn six Ben managed to secure all three objectives and whittle me down so much he had 9VPs in quick succession. Add in Slay The Warlord, First Blood and Line Breaker and I think it ended 17:14 to him.

A couple of interesting notes include when his Gate of Infinity put a unit of Immortals on my Skyshield! The Other gate mishapped Imotekh and his Immortals onto Deathleaper. I initially put the Stormlord in Ben's backfield where he could do nothing [although apparently those Gates are not one shot deals]. However, I decided it would be more fun to put Imotekh within 6" of Deathleaper and trust my Mawloc ot gobble them up. Which he did to a degree but Imotekh was safe. With hindsight if I'd displaced them across the board it would have prevented a few VPs from happening which may well have won me the game but you never can tell.

Overall I was disappointed, the Skyshield really is ineffective in this mission and a Quad Gun would have been handy. The Psychic Phase is rapidly becoming a waste of time. With only three Warp Charge in this list and the limited powers and not a Catalyst between them it feels pointless even casting anything, so much for this much vaunted 'phase'. Also one Tervigon feels very fragile, when you have to there tends to be some split fire but spawning out first turn, which seems to be the norm for me.

The Stealers were OK, they certainly tied up the few bits of his force that pushed forwards, and when i suggested he should have moved the barges up to try and contest he pointed out the very reason he didn't was because of the Stealers. So they still bring the fear factor at least.

I mentioned to Ben recently that his Imperial Guard should adopt the Victorinox badge as their symbol. They're like a Swiss Army knife with a tool for every job but I realised his Necrons are even more versatile. Once again though I was close to victory and threw it away, I've still to beat them although if we'd stuck to 2.5 hours I would have probably won the game about 6:1

Terrain is everything - Project Ω - Realm of Battle Board - Dem Bones

 PLEASE NOTE: These pictures do not represent the boards current state, it has since been ruined by Polyvine floor varnish and taken back to shadow wash stage.

Like I said I took this picture and the colours just blew me away, this had to have a post of it's own. This had to be the headline, not some subtle spots. Obviously I've painted the skulls Bonewhite and washed all the cracks with Army Painter's Devlan mud equivalent. I also washed some of the skulls.

Having apllied the Bonewhite I wanted to add a bit of variety so I did a quick highlight of pure white on a random selection of skulls. I also knocked a few back by washing them with Army Painter Soft Tone [sepia]. Once again I'm overjoyed at the result and because it doesn't introduce any further colours to the board I think I may well just stick to the this rather than turn them into reclamation pits.

    

The skulls work on their own and although adding some slime and water effects would mitigate the almost universal dislike my mates are not that set against them. Anyways it also adds another lements of fluff I could write about the questions what these skulls are buried just beneath the surface? I'm just a little unsure that there's too much red oxide showing through in this one, perhaps a darker wash in the crevices would add a bit more depth. it wasn't an issue when more effects were going to be added on top, now it looks a little like skulls moulded onto a flat sheet [which is exactly what it is!]

Similarly, close up the highlights and colouring on the skulls is actually quite poor. This would have been covered up with green/yellow/black slime btu it's exposed now but it's sufficent for gaming purposes. Listen to me rationalising shoddy workmanship just to get it done on the thing I'm going to be playing on for a good few years!

I know I had my camera settings to 'warm' but the colours are just fantastic and just as rich as my printed backdrop I'll be sad to miss [although I'll still use ot for photography].

Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures with models on but I have put 'Death' on it and he blends reasonably well, his base a little more 'pumpkin' but it should be interesting to see the army displayed once it's completed.

Yet more pictures of my lovely [alien infested] red planet.

And lastly a real close-up so you can see all the spray texture, highlights and spots. It's a little blown out but I think you can see that at least the majority of the surface looks like real dirt, at least I think it does, rather than a moulded plastic field.

Terrain is everything - Project Ω - Realm of Battle Board - Man I got a Boner[white]

PLEASE NOTE: These pictures do not represent the boards current state, it has since been ruined by Polyvine floor varnish and taken back to shadow wash stage.

The original plan was to include the skull pit elements in this post but the pictures came out so well of them I thought they deserved a headline of their own. So what you have here is the addition of the Wraithbone shards on the surface of the planet. You may remember I was disappointed I went OTT with this effect on my original Armies on Parade board well this time I was much more reserved. The effect is much subtler, as it should be. The AoP board was going to be covered with models so I needed more spots to show through in what little gapes there were. This time the board will be more exposed so overwhelming spots of Bonehwite wouldn't work.

As it was I messed up and a couple of brush hairs fell onto the board. In particular the top right you can just see where there are some more highlights to cover the Bonewhite lien and in so doing make it more of a mess [it's just to the right of those three highlight spots on the hill]. Still, it could have been worse.

I used a cheap childrens craft paint brush, about .5" in diameter and flicked it onto the board from about 2-3' above. This helped the spots to fall flat, instead of having direction. There are still some elongated bits but that's reasonable.

As you can see the edges of the board are still evident but there's not much I can do about it now I've got to this stage so I'll just live with it.

Next up I'll be accentuating all the cracks and doing the skulls.

Overall I'm really chuffed though.

I very nearly have my own board!

Terrain is everything - Project Ω - Realm of Battle Board - Praise be to the Emperor!

Just a quick update in that last night I applied a new shadow wash and it has covered up most of the frosting, so I won't have to go back to square one, just square two. Obviously my blog posts are all out of whack now and I didn't take a picture but currently the board looks halfway between this:

And this:

It's obviously made the board a bit more uniform, with shading all over, instead of stippled, bcause I needed to cover all the Polyvine but I'm hoping that the caried colours will still show through the subsequent layers and highlights. Fingers crossed this could actually look better for all the additional tone that will be added. The skulls are a worry as any drybrushing will potentially catch them and it's not like I was fugal with the paint on the skulls so I do risk covering up details when I repaint them also.

Still, the worst is behind me and it's onwards and upwards.

What GW should do - Listen to me

In case you didn't know I've bought Citadel Miniatures and GW products since the late 80's. I also have a blog, it's quite cool you can view it here. Those two facts alone qualify me to make 'suggestions' to Games Workshop and their subsidiaries in how they can grow their company/improve their products. So, free of charge I will be sharing some of my sage business advice to them and just you wait as 'we're bound to see them take forward my ideas with gusto. I recently posted an article on GW rebranding it was one of a number of articles that I've started only to not do anything with and then GW only went and did something that failed to exhibit my Nostradamus levels of Prescience because I didn't end up posting the article. Only this time I bloomin' well did and then this happened:

And this:

And this:

It's a nice start, but I bet it's exactly the same inside, the logo is OK although I'd have tightened the kerning up a little bit especially between the A and the R as it currently a bit WA RHAMMER.

Faeit212 has the full story and BoLS also has a thread on it but clearly when it comes to having the finger on what GW should be doing it's the 40kaddict who has the inside scoop. Now apparently they've also got a new CEO... ;)

Terrain is everything - Project Ω - Frost me I'm an idiot!

With the last of the nice weather I thought I'd intersperse DiY duties with coating my Realm of Battle boards with my brothers dodgy floor varnish. You'll see a couple of upcoming posts that revel in just how pleased I was with how this was going but be sure 'pride comes before a fall' and the Polyvine Dead Flat Floor Varnish did indeed behave in exactly the same way as it did when first we painted my brother's vivarium. At that time we thought it was due to the cold conditions but there was some warmth in the air today, personally I think its not a product to be used on rough surfaces.

Anyway, I'll not share the full extent of the damage just yet, but I felt I had to offload this so I can move forwards. I'm disappointed but more frustrated. I'm going to struggle as the weather turns to get out and repaint the boards in the same way I did them first time around. It's only a few hours work but it's fitting it in to daylight and weather conditions. I'm hoping to start again with the shadow wash and not need a full respray but we'll see where we're at afterwards, Hopefully I can mask off the skulls, they're not too bad considering.

Lesson of the day - do not use products you know are dodgy, unless you want to ruin all your hard work.

Meanwhile I can't bring myself to edit the upcoming posts so just read them and enjoy the pictures before it all gets mucked up!

Terrain is everything - Project Ω - Realm of Battle Board - the highlight of my day

When you left me last I was debating just how cool my Realm of Battle Board was without any further highlights... well I think the first picture alone illustrates just how much they add. It's far from perfect and I know I foolishly rushed it in some places, which for a board I'm going to be using for a long time is madness. But I think it's as good as I hoped for. 

I think I managed to make it textured enough, add definition with the highlights where appropriate. The cracked slabs leading up the hill are more worn through traffic, therefore more highlights. I'll go back in with some Army Painter Washes to pick out the cracks a bit more but overall I'm really chuffed.

      

 I probably should have done step-by-step shots but there's nothing different here than what I do on a normal base. I mixed Vermilion craft Acrylic and PVA [once again for added stickiness and perceived durability] did quite a few drybrush coats with that because the Vermilion goes on like a polish. This means you're only ever getting a semi-opaque coat, so multiple coats will build up the colour which is more hard work but you do get to control how much tone you're adding to the board.

One concern is that I had the hill in this configuration as I highlighted, obviously you try not to highlight the edges of each board because that emphasises each board piece, not the terrain but I still have to see how the terrain highlights interact in a different configuration. I had seen a blog a while back that had diagrams of how to do it but I couldn't find it for this.

Following on from the Vermilion I added a small amount of Pumpkin Craft Acrylic and did more highlights. In particular I felt that you have to make sure not to brush too hard in straight lines or else it'll look unnatural. That's not say I didn't, you just have to be very careful and when you do pick up too much paint or lay down obvious streaks it's all about working the paint with circular motions to defuse the 'shape'. Of course there are now areas that look like faded spots but I think they're more natural looking at least.

Finally I went straight to a Pumpkin highlight which was quite a step. With my Crashed Aquila Lander [which I just noticed I've not done any pics of, so I'll have to rectify that] I got a bit excited with the highlights on the Red Planet Basing and it's very orange. So what I did here was do more coats of Vermilion, a 3:1 [or even 4:1] Vermilion:Pumpkin and then extremely light Pumpkin on edges. That way it remained Red Planet and not orange.

So I was well chuffed, after about 2-3 hours I had pretty much done my board, now to do some Bonewhite flecks and then pick out the skulls and add in some shading in the cracks.