The Deathwing's final 5th edition march to war

This the last (5th edition) march of the Deathwing.....

These are not my Deathwing.

But these are my Deathwing. Notice the slowly increasing numbers

of painted models.

Well this weekend, in my quest to actually use and enjoy my models instead of just having them around I managed to schedule another game against my colleague. Since neither of us has really played recently we decided to take the 5th edition rules out for another spin. When I finally get around to ordering Dark Vengeance or playing at the game store where people can teach me (I hope the language barrier will only cause humourous misunderstandings) I'll switch up to the new rules.

Edina admires Aaron's models because they are fun and 

a different colour to my 'bone guys'. 

Aaron's triple lascannon predator and winged, lash daemon prince.

Raptors, terminators and noise marines ready for battle.

I did a normal deployment with two shooty squads plus the librarian

on the field, the latter for anti-lash defences. We were playing an objective

game and I did the old trick of putting the objectives where I planned to

go and not on my side. I knew I needed to get into assault and there are

three objectives near Aaron (the white dice cube, one under the troops

in his hand, one behind the paper ream, one to the left of the red up and

the conker next to my left squad). I figured I would teleport in and take 

the ones in his lines while holding the middle ones with the shooting squads.

This is somewhere in turn 2 because I have all of my guys on the field. Aaron

kept his terminators and raptors back to deep strike, and the chosen outflanked

in their rhino. As usual when facing a spread out force, I dumped my whole 

force on one flank. It feels a bit unfair sometimes but it's a good way to deal with

the lack of firepower for Deathwing and your lack of mobility. If I can put ~1500pts

against 700-1000 then I've got a big advantage. This time Aaron's havocs and Predator

 were forced to spend a few turns moving back into LOS to fire. 

Luckily for me Aaron forgot to move the Daemon Prince in his first turn

because of his eagerness to shoot my guys. This let me gang up on it totally

unfairly....the best way to deal with such a fast and dangerous monster. It still

took a couple of turns for the squads to bring it down. Him making six out of nine

5+ invulnerable saves was annoying but gave the fight a good epic feel. 

I'd split Belial off the command squad earlier to add more threat options. He 

wiped out a depleted chaos marine squad then went in against four marines and

their power fist sergeant. Despite killing three of them, he failed to get the champion

and took an instant death punch to the face in return. Still, the champion ended up being

Aaron's only scoring unit by the game's end so it wasn't a bad move. 

By mid-late game I'd put Aaron in a bad position where most of his units were too

far away to contest or score and the Deathwing were firmly in control of all but one

objective. The raptors jumped in close to threaten but, in the open, took a bit too much

firepower to be effective. They withdrew. The terminators deep struck but Aaron kept them

back to use their firepower instead of putting them in the middle of the Deathwing, where

they could have been attacked on all sides.

The endgame photo. The Deathwing took a few losses but only Belial was a killpoint. 

We held four of five objectives and were keeping Aaron's last forces at bay. 

Overall it was another fun game against a Chaos force. We discussed the battle afterwards and figured out some alternative ideas for Aaron against the Deathwing. For me, once three squads were in reserve to deep strike I would have kept my whole force on the field and castled on the three objectives near my home base. That would give me maximum firepower on the approaching terminators and keep my assault units (prince and terminators) near my troops so that if my weakened squads got close, they could be attacked and finished off. When you have a deathwing army coming at you with deep striking, spreading out into a thin line is often a bad idea. Most armies are not fast enough to completely redeploy to the other flank in time and every turn you do that is wasted as far as damage dealing goes.

We're looking forward to trying 6th edition and seeing how it changes up our armies and how they play. For me, I'm happy about the nerf to power weapons but uncertain how much will go against or help the Deathwing. We'll see when I get a chance to play.

All the best,

Pete

The reason I've not been painting much. Plus NERDRAGE!!11!

Hi everyone,

Sorry I've not been updating the painting pictures much recently. It was my birthday on Monday 3rd and I'm now 28 years young (as I like to say). I was working all day but we spent the weekend in the High Tatra mountains enjoying the scenery. As you can imagine, I didn't have much time to get the paintbrushes out and play. Since getting back I've put a bit of paint to plastic but not as much as I would have liked to. 

Here's me and some mountains ;-)

Here is the latest picture of my Deathwing squad. I'm glad that I don't have many

lightning claw models because painting the electric effect on those little blades is really

annoying compared to the hammers. Still, these guys are progressing nicely and I won't

need much time to finish them. That will leave me with 3 more squads in total to finish, which 

is a lot but at least I'm making progress :-)

UPDATE:

Since starting this post I've been busy but managed to progress more and

 finish off this squad. I think there are a few bits and pieces here that I'd still

like to touch up, but for now it's good to have them done. I love the lightning

effect but it's a bugger to apply to lots of models. I'm looking forward to painting

the shooting squads where I'll only have a single power weapon to electrify :-)

NERDRAGE

I had this recently. It's annoying because I was on such a high with the hobby and got a bit knocked down from that perch. 

I ordered the limited edition Dark Vengeance box from Maelstrom games as soon as I could after the preorders went up (the day after....too slow as I found out). Unlike every other webstore that was sold out, they were accepting more orders. Great, I thought. Only later, after I avoided checking other stores do I receive an email saying:

Hi,

We are contacting you regarding your recent order of the Warhammer 40,00 Dark Vengeance limited edition box set. Unfortunately we regret to inform you that Games Workshop have completely sold out of this limited edition set and we shall not be able to obtain stock of this item beyond our initial allocation.

We understand that this may come as a disappointment and inconvenience to our customers. And in light of this, we would like to offer you a choice of how we can process your order:

1. You may cancel your order for a full refund either to store credit (moneyback) or to your original payment method.

2. You have the option to switch your order to the standard version of Dark Vengeance. We will of course refund the price difference between the two sets to your store credit account. See below for an FAQ.

Now I'm not sure who to get more annoyed at but there was a bit of Nerdrage for GW, who seemed to be locking down the cheaper retailers, perhaps to drive sales to their stores with a great profit margin. I also got fairly annoyed at Maelstrom games for continuing to take orders despite knowing that there was a limited amount and this situation could come up.

As it is, my order of DV has been delayed for a few days/weeks until I can muster up the enthusiasm to buy it. Oh well, at least it'll give me time to clear the decks of painting.

I'm not sure I'll order from Maelstrom this time....we'll see.

All the best

Pete

The Golden Age of Wargaming.

Hi everyone,

So I think it's time for a lengthier than usual post about a big topic - The Golden Age of Wargaming.

Now to many of the older gamers who fondly look back upon the earlier days of GW when White Dwarf had more hobby content and less advertising, specialist games were flourishing, there was a solid bits service by GW, the prices were lower, the beer was colder, the grass greener etc., that represents the golden age.

This is not wargaming, it is beer...however, I live in Slovakia, where the

 local brew is great and my wargaming is fun. Beer with a game....mmmmm

I think it's now.

Contentious perhaps but I believe I can support my opinion. Let's take a look at why.

40k has sixth edition.

Here's a ruleset that seems to have people enjoying the game a lot more, whether it be cutthroat tournament play or the more casual scene. 6th edition seems to make for easy cinematic games, people can take allies, which lets you collect more of what you want to collect without the big investment, introduces fliers for more fun on the tabletop. Last, but by no means least, it comes in the form of a fantastic boxed set in Dark Vengeance. 

I think the future is bright (ironically) for 40k and GW in this sense. They are stepping up model quality, as always, look to have moved to a more complete release format, perhaps due to the Chapterhouse lawsuit, the rules are fun to play with and in general, the interwebs seem to be happy with 40k.

Warmachine & Hordes have gone colossal.

As probably the second biggest wargaming company out there, Privateer Press continues to develop and grow. The big news recently was their release of the colossals and gargantuans for the players who want a centrepiece model that just doesn't get any bigger. Combined with the ever moving story line, solid Mk2 rules and a shift to plastic models, PP looks set to continue to with what they do best. They''ve also got two really solid starter sets for their core games of Warmachine and Hordes.

They are nicely diversifying too with the release of the Iron Kingdoms RPG and Escape from Level 7 board game.

Dropzone commander has just dropped in.

Here is a game that seems to be taking people by storm. It's got fantastic models with real variety between factions, the dropships are actually big enough to carry units (and have mounting points), good gameplay and just a nice fresh vibe for everyone to enjoy. I love the models and I'll keep an eye out for anyone playing this locally. 

Infinity has a new campaign book, and consistently gorgeous models.

Infinity is growing as a skirmish wargame and I hear more and more about what is going on with it. The models are fantastic and when I got to handle some in person I was extremely impressed by the casting quality, especially given their extremely delicate size. I want to pick up a starter set of this and get some games in for sure. 

Malifaux gets weirder and more wonderful.

Check this lady out. She's shooting a flaming skull out of her hand and looking pretty awesome doing so. As one of the few games that doesn't work with dice, I'm really interested to try out Malifaux but, as ever, limited budget and play time means I'll put it on hold until I find if there is a local scene for it. 

But the older days were better, weren't they?

I think a major part of what is shifting is that in earlier days, Games Workshop basically was the wargaming hobby. They offered the big, core games but also the smaller specialist games, hobby advice and a lot more of the less tangible things. That still happens in GW but has been tempered by their business model now, which focuses on their core lines and making them the best way to sell admittedly excellent plastic models. At the moment, I think few companies can match GW for quality and consistency of plastic models, and fewer still can hope to offer a similar range. That said, the role of variety in the wargaming falls less to GW now and more to the other companies who are on the rise:

Games

40k/WFB/LOTR          - Games Workshop

WM/Hordes                 - Privateer Press

Flames of War              - Battlefront

Infinity                         - Corvus Belli

Dropzone Commander   - Hawk Wargames

Malifaux                        - Wyrd Miniatures

Models

WFB/40k                      - Mantic Games

Fantasy/Sci fi                 - Reaper, especially with their bones kickstarter

Fantasy/Sci fi/Post apoc   - Ramshackle Games

I'm sure that there are many more I've missed out on and no offence is intended to the companies that are out there.

But....but.....GW is evil and expensive. 

I think, and hope, that the signs we're getting are accurate as it seems to me that GW are listening more to their hobbyists and working at least towards giving us what we ask for. The rules have been tightened, allies are in, the fun has been bumped upwards, the models continue to impress and the latest word is that White Dwarf, which is already adding rules and expansions for the game,  is moving to a new publishing base where they can deliver more value and less of a catalogue of advertising. Fingers crossed on that.

Is Games Workshop expensive?

Yes.

Are the prices ridiculous?

I don't think so, at least for the most part. There are some models that are pretty silly in price (Blood knights for example) but overall they offer pretty solid value for money, as long as you're not going crazy and building big armies. Perhaps it's just that I've curbed my spending in a bit and tend to collect now in the way that GW promotes (get a starter, add a unit, paint, add another etc.).

Also, if GW is too expensive for you, now is the time to branch out to other games with much lower cost of entry. You've got a wealth of game types, models, rules and styles to get involved in, from the near(ish) future skirmish of Infinity, to the Steampunk naval Dystopian Wars, through Malifaux's weird and wonderful, the steam and iron of Warmachine and many more besides.



If you love gaming, now is the time to enjoy the Golden Age of what is on offer.

All the best,

Pete

20 minute painting update, a spillage and the army in full.

I'm still here and still painting. It's approaching that busy time of year when the new courses begin at the language school but for now my schedule is quiet and so I'm trying to paint a fair bit. Unfortunately I've finally discovered the Half Life 2 series, or finally allowed myself the time to play it. It's really good and is competing with my wargaming time. If you haven't tried it yet I can recommend it as one of the best-written, compelling to play and developed video games that I've ever experienced.

That said, on to the painting.

This is where we started. The turtle skeleton Dreadfleet terrain piece,

a dwarf ironclad and two Deathwing with armour done. 

Here I've done the water and started to block out the colour on the turtle,

I washed the ironclad with Devlan prior to the next highlight and did the 

crux terminatus and fur highlights for the terminators.

Then DISASTER! My menoth white highlight takes a tumble. Luckily

all models are missed with the exception of the terminator's base you can

see in the background. I got a good amount of paint back into the pot so it's

not a complete loss. I've done some more on the terminators too.

Progress Check

Here is my Deathwing army (plus a buddy painted by Edina). Belial and the

librarian are done, as are the command squad. One of the assault squads is 

getting there, one shooty squad is done, at least with armour, leaving two entire

squads yet to be done. Still, it's nice to see them all lined up.

All the best

Pete :-)

The weekend's painting. Thank you 20 mins challenge.

Hi everyone,

So thanks to starting my little idea of a 20 minute painting challenge, I've had one of the most productive painting weeks of the last year or so. I'm really pumped up for Dark Vengeance (ltd. edition pre-ordered) and this is my way of justifying it. The more I can get painted before the new set drops the better I am doing at being responsible with my purchases. 

A responsibly collecting wargamer might be an oxymoron don't you think? :-)

Anyway, on to the pictures.

This the elf ship when I started the weekend. 

Here are the models I worked on. I've done a bit with the elf ship's

decking and a lot of base colours are done on the Skaven one. You can

just see the list of painting stages on the paper underneath. This was an idea

from Tristan in the comments and it's a great one.

No in progress shots but here is the Scabrous all finished. It's an unpleasant

looking ship but I'm happy with how it turned out. I'm glad that I added the 

yellow tone to the bright green as that makes parts jump out.

The Seadrake ready to take to the waters and slay the Dreadfleet ships'

crews. In hindsight, the white is too bright for the ship. If I did it again

I'd probably go for very light bone, like the Deathwing.

Here are two of my Deathwing that I got finished as well. The lightning isn't

quite as nice as I'd like and I'm not sure about the OSL on the librarian's staff

and hood/cowl. I think I might give it a quick glaze with the colour to even things up.

It looks a bit better in person and not so zoomed in, but still. 

So all in all I'm happy with the weekend. I now have 3/10 Dreadfleet ships painted up. The Deathwing are quite behind, especially considering that they will have a big stack of Dark Angel reinforcements coming in the next few weeks. 

My next painting goal is to get my Deathwing cranked out. I should be able to get the basic squad members done at a fairly quick rate. At the moment everyone is base coated and washed, most of them have highlighted armour, the command squad, Belial and (now) the librarian are done.

That means I just have to get about 20 more terminators finished in two-ish weeks :-)

20 minute painting challenge days 2 and 3.

Hey everyone,

Been busy with work and other such things, plus writing on my other blog but I've managed to keep to my twenty minutes per day painting. 

Here are the results of what I've done recently.

I got another layer on the dragon and it's starting to look a lot nicer now. I prefer the mix of colour having a green dragon on the ship and a red dragon as the free-flying model. The sail patterns have been tidied up, the flags made bright and I started with a few gold bits to add detail.

Here I changed tack with the gold a little bit, doing the ram and figurehead in metallics and basecoating the gun ports with grey. I think I'll pop a quick wash into them and then paint some silver for the actual weapons. Though you can't see it on this side, I've started painting the waterboard line with blue and I plan to add the same yellow as the sails to the pattern at the back. Hopefully I'll get it done tonight. I also need to shade the windows and finish the tower colours.

Hope everyone is well and I can vouch that this little kind of stimulation can help boost your tired painting muscles even when you're not that into it. 20 minutes is a very short time and seeing the progress is great. I suggest keeping your painting area set up and only having one model in front of you at a time. It's a lot more inspiring that way.

Not long now to the Dark Vengeance pre-orders. That limited edition sounds pretty tasty to me.

Pete :-)

The 20 minute painting challenge to get the Dark Vengeance starter set

Hi everyone,

So like many of you, I recently saw the leaked 40k Dark Vengeance starter box miniature pictures. I think they are pretty stunning and I'm generally very keen to get my hands on them and develop my Dark Angels force. To be honest, with the quality of the Chaos miniatures in there and my long time like of Nurgle forces, I see a chance to start a small gribbly evil army too. 

For those of you who have missed out so far, then head over to Faeit 212's 40k rumor site to check out the pics in this post.

Here are some of the Chaos and Dark Angel models. I am very impressed with the quality in this release. I think it's a nice step up in dynamism and sculpting detail from the already excellent Assault on Black Reach models.

So with these fantastic looking models coming out very soon, my plans to add some Infinity models as allies, and my current painting backlog (about 30% of the Dreadfleet models and 40% of my Deathwing finished) I need to step up my game. 

My girlfriend is awesome, no questions. She has painted a model (very well for a first time), played Dreadfleet several times, winning each of course, and generally is very happy for me to be involved in a hobby that doesn't have me drinking, partying or doing bad things. 

She is also a voice of reason though. When I gushed excitedly about the new models and how I couldn't wait to buy them she said two things: 

 - You have only played 40k once since being here in Slovakia.

 - Why would you buy more models when you haven't painted the ones you have?

Curses. The inner collecting geek was foiled by cold logic. Instead of getting pouty, I decided to make a challenge for myself to address the two points above. I'm going to find some opponents so I can start getting games at the local store at least monthly. I'll browse the Slovak wargaming forum Old Shatter Hands linked me to and find some people who speak at least enough English to play against me. My Slovak is improving but I haven't reached 40k levels yet ;-)

The painting issue will be addressed by the 20 minute rule. 

I struggle to find the time and motivation to paint a lot of stuff and easily get overwhelmed by the stack of models that I need to do. I keep my paints tidied away and so it's annoying to get them all out and start painting, only to lose interest, energy or have to run off and do something else soon after starting.

No more.

Instead I'll keep my desk set up for painting, limit myself to two models on the table at a time to minimise getting overwhelmed and I will paint for a minimum of 20 minutes per day. I can do this even on a day when I'm tired and not feeling like it and it'll help me get through the pile of models that need to be dealt with.

First Installment.

Here is my Elf warship from Dreadfleet. It took me a while to brighten up the white tones over a black spray undercoat and I'd been losing energy.

Here is the same ship after my painting session (admittedly longer than 20 mins, but hey, here's to enthusiasm). The dragon has another layer of highlights, his first claw layer and red eyes. The sail details are started, the masts are brighter now (still need the white over the top) and the ship is looking nice. 

Stay tuned for more painting updates as I go. Any and all comments encouraging, nagging or prompting me to work harder or better will be very much appreciated :-)