Happy Halloween!

2008.


2007.


2005.

Ground Pounder

There's a new minis game to put on your heads-up display by the name of Ground Pounder. You won't find a company name attached to the title, this is their first foray into this little corner of the world, in the classic vein of "why don't the guys and I do something like this?" It's headed up by a single hive brain, Jason Ellis, doing the writing and dev work, with a small cast of artists and a sculptor. The ideas look great so far, and the direction it's going in show a lot of promise. This is one I'll be keeping tabs on.

It's a true skirmish based game with 1:1 representation; forces will consist of less than a dozen troopers per side with a host of options from heroes, psions, tech specialists, and a small number of meat shields, err, grunts. Also thrown in the mix is the option of a 'heavy', usually a hardsuit of exo-armor, or a hulking Bio-Giant of some type.


Hero Concept, by Melvin de Voor

If the translation from sketch to fig comes close to the above, then count me in. I've read some complaints about how there's nothing substantially new added to the sci-fi tabletop mix, but frankly, if it's got a solid ruleset, and is fun to play, I'm a happy camper.

There's four initial factions: The Alliance (humans and a possible alien ally subrace), the Ravagers (kinda like Firefly's Reavers, but crossbred with animal DNA, the Drax Hierarchy (bio-tech integrated baddies bent on enslavement and domination), and the Free Strikers, which are really just Human mercs.

It is new, pretty much announced just this month, and slated for release around the end of 2008. Go to their site, here it is again, and check it out. I'm interested for several reasons; first and foremost it's sci-fi, which I love, it's a minis game, but of a much smaller scale, smaller than Necromunda even. It's got a nice visual look so far (based off concept sketches) and according to the designer (off the website) both long term campaign rules, as well as authentic and sensible terrain rules are built in from the ground up, not as an after-thought. A couple of other mechanics caught my eye, first it's all based on the d10. Only the most canny and genius game designers work with the d10! Also, the system will utilize a reaction-based mechanic where the players have a full game experience, rolling dice on both sides of the table, not just sitting around waiting for their turn while their opponent has a field day.


Marcus Fenix of the Gears of War franchise

Sure, not everyone out there is cranking out unique figs like the Quar, but regardless, if your inspiration is coming from something hardcore as the above, it's all good. Now I'm not saying Ground Pounder is doing a 'Gears' clone or anything, far from it, but visually I don't think anyone could go wrong in that direction. Fielding a small squad of elite BA's over broken ground, laying down suppressive fire against an implacable alien foe, heavy armor walking alongside...yeah, sounds like fun.

Election '08

What's a blog in 2008 without some kind of political rant?

Go vote. Make the choice your own, whoever it may be, and do it.

Captain Othniel

Captain Othniel of the Dark Angels 4th Company

Captain Othniel helps lead the fourth battle company of the Dark Angels chapter. He answers directly to Company Master Tracto himself and is key in much of the strategic planning that the 4th Company is known best for. He wears ornate articifer power armor using the newer style MkVIII Errant suit as a basis, which has been modified by numerous chapter techmarines. He carries a relic blade, which has been passed from member to member of ranking leaders of the 4th Company for longer than anyone can remember. His sidearm is a powerful plasma pistol which he took off the slain body of a mighty champion of Khorne as a trophy after defeating the foe in bitter hand-to-hand combat. It has since been cleansed and purified by the same chapter techmarines who have been heavily modifying his armor.

I know, I know, in true Dark Angels form this guy should have some quasi-biblical sounding name; Obadiah, Ezekiel, Sammael, Gabriel, Gideon, yada yada, but I don't have one. Using the magic of the internet, I will find one now: Commander Othniel. Although it may seem like no time passed, in fact, six minutes were exhausted in searching for a Dark Angel-sounding name. Yes, I am filling up space because I don't have too much to add here.


The symbol of the Fourth Company adorns his right shoulder and left knee. His backbanner was hand drawn and painted, and also displays Fourth Company markings. Like the rest of my army, Othniel here is fairly dated, but his refurbishment, fortunately, was a simple process, no weapon swaps or larger bases were needed. All I did was paint his base edge in Reaper Dark Skin, and added GW sand to cover it. A bit of the original green peeks through, but not much.

Terminator Squad Kostova

Deathwing Terminators of the Dark Angels 1st Company

I've been sitting on a decent-sized Dark Angels army for some time, a long time actually, and with the revival of 40kv5 in our group, I thought I'd dust them off. Although refurbishing them is kind of slow-going, I'll chart their progress here for posterity. First on the block are these Terminators, fortunately no weapon swaps were needed to bring them current with the new rules.

Size: Five Man Squad
Leader: Terminator Sergeant
Wargear: Terminator armor, storm bolters, power fists
Special Equipment: chainfists and sergeant gear
Naming Convention: Instead of just calling them 'Squad Retribution', Kostova, or Kostoa, is Finnish for Retribution. Being Deathwing Terminators they get the double punch combo; they're dead hard for simply being Terminators, add that they are Deathwing, and you've got a true fear-inspiring unit.


When I put these together I really liked the look of the Space Wolf Terminator Sergeant, it was the pelt that won me over. Although he's covered in Space Wolf iconography, he's been painted up as a Dark Angel. I also opted for the near requisite Assault Cannon, a trooper with Lightning Claws (another Terminator must-have), and I made sure the remaining two troopers had Chainfists.


Terminator Sergeant Ignis

Brother Ignis has served within his thick Terminator armor for centuries. He carries his badge of rank in the form of an ancient power sword, and on his armor is the pelt of a Fenn Wolf, which he hunted single handedly on the Death World of Saul IV, a world reputed to have a similar demeanor to the now extinct Caliban.

These second edition sculpts really show their age compared to the newer sculpts. The head should actually be closer to where the wolf's head is...not in the middle of the chest! I had to order some medium-sized bases from the bits department at the War Store, but now that they're on them, they at least have the illusion of being hulking death machines! Overall, it's not too noticeable.


My Chainfist troopers; I used Reaper Dark Skin to paint the base edges, and a GW tub of sandy desert stuff, whose name escapes me.


Bah, blurry pic! Both vintage Lightning Claws and an Assault Cannon!

Mass Effect

I'm on the second play-through of Bioware's Mass Effect, and I figured it'd be high time to review it here. Mass Effect has been out for some time, but I only recently came by a copy, and have been playing it whenever free time presents itself. For most games, I am overly methodical; I can take a game that might take twenty hours to beat and turn it into a fifty hour game easy. Usually I explore every nook and cranny, talk to every NPC, run every side mission and quest given to me, and run through my item inventory nonstop. If you're that kind of player, then this game has your number, because you can do all of the above...and more.


It is a combat oriented game, but where it may look like a shooter, it is most certainly a RPG through and through. It has a somewhat engaging storyline that makes you take note and eagerly await the next chapter...or plot twist. It also sports some impressive voice acting, which goes a long way in a video game. Two of the actors of note that come to the top of my head are Keith David and Seth Green. Star Trek vixen, Marina Sirtis has a role, and "Bishop" from one of my all-time favorite movies, Aliens, is also in there. Voice acting, along with an engaging story, great visuals (not stunning mind you, but good nonetheless) and memorable bad guys (see Saren above) make for a great overall experience. You've got an absolute ton of character creation options and classes, as well as a custom visualizer where you can represent your character in almost any size, shape, and shade you want. You'll acquire a team of humans and aliens to take with you on missions as well, and outfitting these guys 'n gals, choosing which complement your character the best, is half the fun.


Although it is an RPG, there is a lot of combat too, so much combat at times I was hoping the game would make up its mind; be a shooter, or be an RPG. Next to the Halo 3 engine, it pales in comparison, but that's not exactly fair since the two games really are separate genres. The flip side to this is that if you're not the mega-hardcore twelve year old button masher, you won't have your butt handed to you every combat, and can enjoy a frenetic firefight without having a nervous breakdown or throwing your controller at the television.


What really puts this ahead in the RPG department is the use of dialogue trees, shown above. Throughout the game your interactions with NPC's take place using this mechanic, and different choices do make a difference in how the story in revealed. You can take the 'nice guy' route and build up paragon points that will give you additional 'charm' dialogue options, or you can be an absolute jerk throughout the game, building up renegade points that open up all new 'intimidate' options. On the second play-through I opted to be the opposite personality type than I did the first time around, and I can see fairly significant differences in both.


In the end, it's a great game, but it does have its flaws. It's most noticeable in combat, when you'll want more out of the engine, but find it lacking. I can't complain about the storyline or the missions though, the main story moves along well and keeps you engaged. Side missions tend to be redundant, but they are side missions, completely optional however. Playing it a second time is cool because you keep your skill levels and combat bonuses, and the enemies are all scaled to your new (much higher) level, giving you a greater challenge, but it's the exact same game, it's gets a tad boring, the only thing you really get out of it are those nifty Xbox achievement 'dings'. If you like a good story and sci-fi zappy goodness, go pick up a used copy. Out of ten stars, I'd give it a solid seven and a half.

Aliens, Bugs, and Robots

40k Battle #2
Mission: Seize Ground (3 objective points)
Deployment: Dawn of War
Size: 1,000 points
Forces: Allied Necron / Tyranid Contingent
vs. Tau Empire


My 1,000 point Tau Expeditionary Force.


Andy's compact, 500 point Necron Raiders.


Chris' not so compact 500 point Tyranid swarm.


Hot on the heels of my terrain trio, Andy brings a brand new piece of terrain as well, an Industrial Pump Station. His is a tad more contemporary than mine, heh. Some of his Necrons pose on the catwalk. Hopefully there'll be more of these down the pike...


Scuttling, screaming, clawing forward through the pre-dawn gloom and fog, a clutch of Genestealers rush the Fire Warriors. The Fire Warriors, in turn, calmly sight in their long-ranged Pulse Rifles.

Turn 1: The allied enemy forces won the roll and got to set up first. Due to the Dawn of War deployment, they set up right on the halfway mark of the table, dangerously close to Tau forces and the two objectives. The three objectives were, once again, mushroom stands. Two separate Tau Fire Warrior squads cut down five advancing Genestealers in a crossfire.


An XV8 Crisis Suit team deep strikes into the middle of the battlefield.


The remaining Genestealers close ranks with the Fire Warriors.

Turn 2: The Fire Warriors didn't last a single round in melee with the Genestealers, staving off the additional charging close combat attack with their Photon grenades was but a brief respite. On the other side of the board, just as my six-strong Vespid were emerging from the table's edge, they were completely blown away, by Necron Gauss rifles, the whole squad was wiped out before they ever took to the skies. The Crisis team accurately deep struck into the middle of the action, cutting down one Necron Warrior and four Hormogaunts with their Missile Pods and Plasma Rifles, able to pick multiple units to fire upon thanks to their onboard multi-trackers.




The endless Tyranid swarm scurries forward.


A Tyranid HQ squad holds one of the three objective markers. Being an HQ unit, they wouldn't be able to count as a scoring unit, however, they will deny the objective to enemy scoring units as long as they're holding that position...and staying alive.


Turn 3: Things seemed to go from bad to worse for the Tau forces as another Fire Warrior squad was wiped out in melee by the Genestealer squad, who were living up to their hype as being true combat monsters. Kroot forces, who probably should have infiltrated at the beginning of the game, finally got in position to be effective, catching a Termagaunt squad in another effective crossfire with the Crisis Suits, cutting down a whopping fifteen of them, mainly thanks to the high AP values of the weapons brought to bear.


The Tau Commander stands alone against two squads of Necron Warriors.


Turn 4: Whereas Tau Fire Warriors are supposed to avoid melee, their Kroot allies excel at it. After a successful shooting round wiping out the Termagaunts, they charged headlong, shrill shrieks and sharp blades into the loathsome Genestealers, vengeance on the agenda for the Kroot. Numbers and an unexpected ferocity gave them the edge in battle as they destroyed all of the Genestealers, cracking open their shells and eating them like some type of nightmarish shellfish. There was a single XV88 Broadside Battlesuit on the table, but the majority of firelanes were choked full of terrain, it was relagated to a close combat role alongside the Tau Commander against the Necron Warriors. It's 2+ save gave it staying power, but it wasn't enough in the end and it was toppled. The Tau Commander fought on, slagging two more Necrons, however in the following shooting phase she was gunned down by massed Gauss Rifle fire.


The Kroot became the MVP of the Tau, and propose a most curious scenario. With the Genestealers completely wiped out, the objective marker is completely uncontested, and the Kroot are a scoring unit. Let's look at the other two objective markers. The one in the middle of the table is being guarded by an HQ unit, so it is claimed, but not scored. The last objective marker is indeed swarmed by a full strength squad of Necron Warriors, definitely a scoring unit, however, a full strength Crisis Battlesuit team is engaging them, effectively denying the Necrons the objective. The Crisis Suits are a multiple wound unit with a low 3+ armor save; they can't be wiped out that easily, but they're also not invincible. In the end, a tie would've been nice, I think an outright win is a bit of a longshot however.

There's a good moral here; always play your games to the bitter end, then count up your points, you may be surprised by the outcome, and the end might not be as bitter as you think. It's tougher to say what the actual outcome of the battle would've been, even though it looked like a total route of Tau forces.

I saw a complaint on a forum about this, stating it as "idiotic", though there is more general disgruntled GW rant in there than actual playtesting. By having objectives and goals for each battle you don't just have seemingly pointless games existing in a vacuum for no other reason than to 'fight'. With the missions comes some strategy and tactics of when and where your troops are going to deploy and defend. Sure, you can play for the total annihilation of the other side, but if time runs out and you haven't checked anything off your clipboard objective-wise, a moral victory is all you can claim, at best.

Munchkin Cards

I know I've mentioned Steve Jackson's moneymaker, Munchkin on here more than once or twice. If I haven't said it lately, I'll reiterate here; it's a great game. It does have some depth, if you can get past the goofiness, but mostly, it's just a bunch of fun. It's an easy one to break out at little to no notice, and requires little to no prep work too. If you own the game, you've noticed the blank cards it comes with as well, here's what we've done with the cards in our set.


The Ragna-Rocker

This is a solid little weapon that favors music being played in the room while a game is going on. It's two hands, duh, and gives you a -1 to run away (presumably because you're clicking away instead of paying attention to your surroundings).


Cock-Blocked

Munchkin is all about playful backstabbing and double-crossing your supposed allies. This card works wonderfully in this same 'bite me' vein, while still remaining happy-go-lucky.


The Oz Card

Chris, who makes a cameo on here from time to time, was the inspiration for this card. He's as avid a Munchkin player as any of us, and his verbal antics in the past when someone would discard an item he was under the impression should not have been tossed are legendary. If timed right, it's a great card.


Freaky Friday

This was one of the first cards we made. I don't think it has ever been a game winner, but I have seen it used a few times to thwart someone with a strong lead.


The Long Count

I wish there was enough room on the card for a little Mayan Calendar symbol or something, but oh well. This one might seem a tad severe, but considering you still keep your level, race, and class after you die, it's not too bad. Plus, it's party-wide, so everyone (allegedly) suffers the same fate.

Technical Difficulties

Apparently the blog host here, blogger, is having some difficulties when it comes to posting pics. Since my little journal here is all about the pics, I'm on a bit of a hiatus, which is a bit frustrating. I've got emails in to whoever it may matter, we'll see if it gets resolved sooner than later. I've got two posts waiting in the wings; one's some custom-made cards for the card game Munchkin, the other is a good-sized three player 40k battle report with a whole slew of pics.

Flames of War: Germans vs. Russians

The above carnage was the view I had for the entire battle. That's my unit of Soviet T-34's blown all to smithereens! We played a massive seven person game on a huge table sagging under the weight of fully painted armies and lavish terrain. It was a great gaming experience, and even though I admit to not being much of a World War II buff, I still had a blast.


The game was hosted by our buddy Brian C., and no, not the same Brian with the Dark Eldar army we speed-painted. Flames of War Brian has also got a gaming blog with a very detailed writeup reporting all of the action, there's also plenty more pics to drool over as well. I'm going to send you over there now; these are just some teaser pics to reel you in.


One of my minesweepers made it well past the mark of its life expectancy, getting ever-so-close to the German entrenchments. Flames of War was a great game, the rules had a very '40k' feel to them in that they were straight-forward, simple to use, easy and intuitive to pick up on the fly, and made for a fun atmosphere and a great game where you didn't spend half your time flipping through reference charts. I already have a sizable 15mm army, but it's sci-fi; my Star Grunt II army which resides in a box. Would I be keen on painting up a whole new 15mm army for a whole new game? Eh, probably not, but it is intriguing nonetheless. I'll no longer say "never" when it comes to a Flames of War army...

Grath Watchmen

Here's my patrol squad of Grath. Originally they were some vintage Warhammer 40k Ogryns, way back from first edition, which puts them at about twenty years old according to the year molded on their slottabases. They'll work as any big, brutish troops in a sci-fi or quasi-fantasy modern setting. They're Ogres with guns basically.


I had traded (or bought, can't remember) these guys from Andy, who in turn got them off of ebay. They came painted as is, and only took a little bit of tweaking. They've been 'dipped' using PolyShades MinWax Black Tudor, and some areas on the figs were touched up as needed. They were based originally, but not very well, so they were also given new, matching bases.


On some of the figs their Ripper Guns weren't even painted, they were just left silver, same with their chain mail. The dip easily took care of this. I like this trooper because of his expression and copper colored armor. His left gauntlet is pretty cool too.


Here's a closeup of his flair I added (hence the title Grath "Watchmen". I used a .01 tipped permanent graphing pen for the black and a little red paint on the tip of a detail brush for the rest. I'm not the first person to put a Watchmen button on a fig, my buddy Supervike paid a little DC Comics homage a while back as well on a Spinespur fig, you can see it here.


Another fairly basic paintjob enhanced ever-so-slightly by the dipping process. Touch ups on this fig were kept to a minimum.


Nice camo pants on this one, and a beer-can grenade to boot. Again, no paint on the Ripper Gun, but I really like the impromptu head swap for a very sci-fi looking helmet. This guy would be the squad leader by default.


This one had a lot of touch up work to be done. I wish the whole team had this copper colored paint scheme.


It would unfair to say that this fig reminds me of someone in our group, but it does, really. He needed an above average amount of touch ups too. I like how the Ripper Gun is almost fully painted as well; stock, body, magazine!

As the title suggests, these aren't going to be used in the 40k universe, but rather the 5150 universe, as the aforementioned brutish Grath. Below is a pic of the Ogryn page out of my first edition Warhammer 40k Compendium, and following that is the official writeup on the 5150 version of the Ogryn, the Grath. They'll see the majority of action on the tabletop in this capacity.

Graths survive solely by fluid intake. They have the ability to convert most fluids into the necessary nourishment it needs to survive. Just a word to the wise, they do not care where they obtain this fluid.

The Grath is the perfect warrior. Graths will fight anyone (including each other), any place, anytime, and are in constant demand as mercenaries throughout the 5150 universe. Only in GAEA PRIME controlled areas are the Grath not used. In fact, any Grath caught in Gaea Prime areas are immediately destroyed.

Graths prefer hand-to-hand combat and will always toss aside their weapons to do so. They have no concept of sleep or imagination and are basic in there intellect. Graths are extremely loyal to their employers and it is common for a Grath to know only one employer during their lifetime. This can be a very, very, long time as there is no known natural cause of death for a Grath, just combat.

Blockhouse and Ruins

Hot on the heels of marginal success of yesterday's Shrine, I launched into giving my other neglected Hirst Arts dust-collectors a shot at being reborn. I think it was again met with success, and there are now at least three pieces of terrain from my own collection that won't outright suck.


Like the Shrine, the blockhouse was originally built as a set piece for Warmachine's Escalation campaign. It never saw fruition in that capacity, but it will see the light of day again.


My painting methods were the exact same as the shrine; a basecoat of gray with highlights achieved through drybrushing of dove gray (both are craft paints). The wood was painted with a similar two-color combo using browns, and the grass was the same as last time as well. I wanted the two pieces to look like a matched set.


It's done, and I am very happy with it, but there are a few fairly major changes I would've done to it had I thought about it. It's looks just fine without them, which is why I won't mention what they should be! It's spacious up top, allowing room for about six, maybe seven, models on 25mm bases.


Bonus! When the two pieces (shrine and blockhouse) were built there was a handful of leftover bricks. This piece was thrown together with those leftovers. I used the same coarse ballast I used above for scrub grass, but this time painted it in the same shades of gray as the blocks; going for a rubble look. I should have put some larger, broken chunks in there too, but they're just ruins, it's all good. Green blend flock covered the rest of the ground.


The back side looks pretty much like the front. I did put some flock on a few of the blocks on the ground for that mossy look that's so hot right now.

The Shrine of Marcus Gideon

After our second game of 40k, where we had fully painted, beautiful armies, but were somewhat lacking on terrain, I thought I'd focus some energy in that department over the weekend. My budding dark Angels army can wait. I had two buildings I had made with Hirst Arts bricks, a long time ago. I've mentioned them before. I had built them to be objective buildings for the Escalation campaign in Warmachine a long, long time ago. We never played the campaign, and now our WM armies have all been sold off, but the buildings remain.


This shrine isn't dilapidated by any means, but it has seen better days. It will work in just about any setting, fantasy works best, but any genre will do, I foresee a lot of sci-fi action.


I absolutely love Hirst Arts bricks, although I see their brick molds have literally doubled in price since I built these, I'll still plop down for some more, I've already got a new idea sketched out.


Here's the rear view. It does lean ever-so-slightly, but that adds to its out of the way, backwoods charm, heh.


Tiles affixed and everything undercoated in black.


I cut the roof shingles in large strips and glued them on one layer at a time. When I first got going, it looked like there'd be no way it'd look halfway decent, but when it was done, I was surprised at how "shingly" it came out.


Being a shrine I wanted to put a statue on the inside of a forgotten adventurer or lesser warrior deity. This figure is a Reaper one I had in my bits box. Now that I know his name, that's who the shrine is named after! Most of the shrine was done in grays, so I shied away from making him a fake marble or something. I painted him in bronze with some burnished gold highlights and some slight splotches of verdigris added by using GW Orc Flesh wash.


Honestly, other than the building of the shrine itself, this was an incredibly easy project, and building was so long ago I don't remember if that was a pain or not. The shingles went on quick, and the painting was quick too, I used two craft paint grays for the blocks (gray and dove gray) and two browns for the roof (teddy bear brown and teddy bear tan). I overbrushed the darker color on the two areas, then drybrushed the lighter color on top of that. I painted clumps of coarse ballast green as scrub grass, using three shades of green, building up from dark to light (craft paint forest green and GW paints snot green and goblin green) and the flat areas that were left were painted in the same craft paint forest green and flocked with a green blend. I used white glue for everything, except the superglue used to keep the statue in place at the back of the shrine.

40k: Reboot Dos

Hot on the heels of last week's game (prior post) is another 40k night. We were shooting for a four player night, but for reasons I won't go into length about, one of our players did not show up. His name is Chris. Chris is the player who didn't show up. Anyway, we had a blast, mostly because we felt more comfortable with the rules and played with points values and much bigger forces. Because we had a player not show up, remember his name is Chris, we had to rethink how we were going to play the game. We opted for a 1000 point battle, Andy and his Necrons versus an alliance between 500 points of my Tau and 500 points of Ray's Imperial Guard Cadians. The points value was still not enough for me to sink my teeth into some meaty Crisis Battlesuit teams, Vespids, a tricked out commander, etc. For Ray, it was a hard task to finagle two troop choices and an HQ choice under the points limit, but he shoehorned it all in. We had a go at it, and it did not disappoint one bit. I need to come up with a more concise battle report in the future, but in the meantime I'll just ramble on. Here we go:


We put together a 6"x4" table with a fair amount of terrain. If it looked organic, it was soft cover, if it looked hard, it was. We had some marsh land, a few ruined buildings, and a smattering of leftover industrial equipment.


Like I said, five hundred points doesn't give you a lot of Tau options, especially after you get your two troops choices out of the way. I really wanted to take at least a single team XV8 Crisis suits, here in the 'Fireknife' configuration, this left me with a full squad of Fire Warriors and a bare-boned, absolute minimum squad of Kroot. A low-leveled Commander led the team.


Andy's Necron army, unceremoniously arrayed on top of his codex. There's the requisite choices of Necron Warriors along with some Destroyers, a gaggle of Scarabs, some vicious Wraiths, and some of the flesh-wearing infiltrator guys (whose name I forget). They're all led by the Undead Robot Commander guy.


Ray took pride in setting up his force for the opening shot, and well he should. His Cadians are drop dead gorgeous to look at and have some serious tabletop presence. His mere 500 points had him fielding no less than fifty troopers. A single troop choice numbered three ten-man squads, accompanying heavy weapon teams for each squad, and a five-man command squad. His other troop choice was a ten-man armored fist squad mounted in an Imperial Chimera. A five-man command squad leads the force as his HQ choice.


Our mission goal was to secure various objective markers around the field. I'm looking forward to making up some game-specific markers in the future, but for now we settled with stands of giant mushrooms.


The allied Tau and Cadian deployment line stretched across the entire length of the six foot table. I opted to have my Crisis team deep strike from orbit. I don't think they really drop from orbit, I"m pretty sure they drop out of the back of Manta Transports, but it sounds cool.


Necrons Destroyers eerily glide across the battlefield.


Kroot infiltrators eagerly rush the first objective marker...


...and were quickly pounced upon by awaiting Wraiths, immaterial until the last, deadly moment. The Kroot are no strangers to melee, they inflicted a couple of wounds as well, but their fate was sealed the moment the Wraiths emerged and engaged them.


The Armored Fist squad piles out of their Chimera and open fire on the distant Necron warriors. The Chimera's turret multi-laser was knocked out rather quickly, leaving only the Heavy Bolter team to add punch to the massed firepower.


Gauss Flayer and Pulse Rifle energy ionized the air as these two squads hammered away at each other turn after turn. The Necrons' ability to self-repair each turn, and possibly get back up after suffering a crippling hit, made these types of engagements tiresome at best, heh.


Staff Sergeant Johnson valiantly holds the line, err, mushroom against innumerable odds. Shouting Imperial Chants, fist raised in defiance, he exemplifies the Imperial Decree.


The Flayed Ones (ha, I remembered their name!) infiltrated towards the objective in the middle of the table, and held it all game, almost too effectively; no one even bothered to contest their objective stranglehold. Below their position more Necrons advance under the watchful gaze of their Undead Robot Commander Guy, and no, I haven't remembered his name, haha.


The allied Tau/Cadian forces lost, having failed to secure a single objective marker. The Necron forces, having tread Staff Sergeant Johnson under their steel heels, secured one objective mushroom. Above, had the Cadians been a little swifter, or had we had one more turn, we could've had a tie game on our hands. The Crisis team, being an elite choice, is not a scoring units, but they could've held up the Wraiths long enough for the human grunts to secure the influential fungus.

It was a great game, very fun, and like I said last post, it gets players around the table. The war torn future looks promising. Rock on.

40k: Reboot

I've been talking up 40k quite a bit lately and here's the first fruits of our group's labor; an actual 40k night, don't feint! Why 40k? Well, it's sci-fi for one, which is a big plus in a lot of our books, also it's readily available and easy to find. Lastly, since it's been around forever, not just many, but *all* of us have preexisting armies of one fashion or another, in various states of completion. Other than getting to groups with the new 5th edition rules, we all have a big leg-up on getting started; no more starting from scratch. All in all, we've got a potential five, maybe six players total who can mobilize forces. What follows is our first night just kicking around the new rules, we didn't even use the points system.


The battlefield. Terrain should be number one on my list of gaming priorities; admittedly it's not. Ray chipped in some models with his Imperial Sector, which is a great looking kit. As always the broken monolith (up top) makes an appearance, it's kind of a house rule.


Ray's troops: A smattering of Imperial Guard, half of his Imperial Guard are shown here. The other half began the game deployed on the second floor of one of the ruined buildings.


My troops; an Ethereal leads a small band of Fire Warriors. Six more troops are deployed near some buildings. That was about the easiest way to meet the two troops and one HQ requisite. This would probably be the last time I bring an Ethereal; I was not impressed.


Tau forces dig in.

What I like about the new rules, first off, is how streamlined the missions and deployment options are. The mission being played is straight-forward, yet varied, and the method of deployment is done in the same manner. Even though there are only three missions and three deployment types you never know in what combination, so there's lot of variety and replay built-in. Most of the missions will revolve around capturing and holding objectives too, given the games a tactical focus other than 'blasting the crap out of each other'.


Imperial Guard troops round the corner and sight in on the Fire Warriors. Having rapid-fire lasguns, they are just out of range because they had moved.


The Fire Warriors on the other had remained stationary, bringing their pulse rifles to bear on the advancing humans.


On the other side of the field, Guard troopers dig in and fire from their elevated cover. The HQ unit on the ground advance towards the Fire Warriors taking cover in the generator and bushes, Lieutenant leading the way, standard flying high.


Crossing open ground, the Ethereal is cut down by lasgun fire.


Rule number one for the Tau; never get involved in melee. Rule number one for Imperial Guard; never get involved in melee. This should be interesting...


Close combat is 'fixed' now, which was the largest complaint of the 4th edition rules. It's also streamlined, easy to manage along the way, and doesn't get bogged down or overly complicated. If we had followed half of the rules as written, we may have discovered all of that. As it stood, we took a simple process and made it more complicated than it should've been.

Overall impressions: Two thumbs up, way up. Why? Because it got players around the table and had us all on playing a common game. People are excited about building and painting armies again, and can't wait to put them on the table. The game itself is almost a secondary factor; people getting together, making a regular go of it is what's important. As far as 40k5.0 goes, it was pretty good too...

Monsterpocalypse! Wait, what the?

All right, Monsterpocalpyse has finally released! I've mentioned it on here a few times, and I must say, I am still keen on its release, maybe not as much now though as I was. Still, I was looking into maybe picking up a starter set or two, but I got to browsing...where you may be paying a premium for shiny packaging and new models with MonPoc, you may get just as much fun, if not more, at a fraction of the price from one of the originals...


Giant Monster Rampage. This came out in 2002, a full six years before Monsterpocalypse. Let's see, giant Ultraman throwing a right hand uppercut; check. Godzilla-like critter with a big horn on its nose; check. Buildings getting crushed; check. Ground forces and tanks scrambling; check. Air units; check. Here's the review, check it out. Now...


...isn't this the exact same thing I just described? Let's see, giant Ultraman throwing a right hand uppercut; check. Godzilla-like critter with a big horn on its nose; check. Buildings getting crushed; check. Ground forces and tanks scrambling; check. Air units; check. Sure, it's beautifully rendered, but I call shenanigans.


In addition to Giant Monster Rampage, there's another solid game out there called Monster Island. It came out about the same time, six years ago, and features many of the same mechanics. At both games lies the core; having fun smashing each other's Kaiju and stomping on tanks and buildings in the process. Here's the review on Monster Island, again at a fraction of the price.

Well, I guess make that all three games, including the newcomer. Now Earth-marauding saucers aren't that unique, granted, but once again; the similarities above (sorry for the grainy image) and below are awfully coincidental. I twice call shenanigans!


You can't deny the production value, or artistic quality of what MonPoc has to offer though, and I know Giant Monsters are nothing new, but in a gaming format, they're a bit of a unique niche. I am a little put-off though by Privateer Press' not-so-subtle translation. In the secondary market, it might be good to pick up singles to use with these other rule sets I've mentioned. I've heard the MonPoc rules aren't overly complex, so it could be good to pick up as a beer 'n pretzels game, or something to play with the wee ones. Speaking of rules, you can get the free Monsterpocalypse ones here, scroll to the bottom...

Bring on the Beakies

"As you know, you have to go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you want." -Rumsfeld

Ground zero of my weekend was spent at the best workbench in the house; the kitchen table! The above atrocious quote got me thinking too, well not thinking, but it was a poignant reminder nonetheless. We kicked around some 5th edition 40k last Thursday (I'll get around to posting that) and it was fun. Well I've been sitting on a huge Tau army for some time, I'm proud to say I painted every model of it too (yeah, that's a pic of my army), and that's what I used last week, but I also have some Dark Angels, not a lot, but some. I have just enough to add an extra squad or two and I'll have a full sized, fully functional army, so I thought 'why not'?


All the beaky material my bits box has left...

I went with Dark Angels for a couple reasons, both had to do with money. You may recall my Chaos Marine writeup (more to come on that as well, ahem). Anyway, I was building up fluff to launch a 5th edition Chaos Marine army, but to what end? I'd literally be starting from scratch, both with models and budget. With Dark Angels I already have a big step forward, painted too, but still don't have the money to pick up another squad or two, or even a Dreadnought.

A recent article in a new White Dwarf magazine got me thinking though. It was talking about the invention of the Space Marine, and its humble beginnings with the RTB01, some even consider this boxed set 'mythical' or at the very least 'historic'. Well, heck, I had that boxed set, I remember when I got it, and it came shrink wrapped with a copy of the original 40k rules, Rogue Trader. For me it seems no big deal, but looking back, it did come out a whopping 21 years ago, so I guess that is impressive!


I needed a ten man tactical squad, and I had just enough parts left in my bits box to not only put one together, but it's about 97% vintage Rogue Trader. Sure, they're not the super sexy, ultra detailed, mega multi-part plastic that you can get now (and at $3.5 bucks per fig not a bad buy either), but they are classic, and that might make up for them being dated. Most of my pieces still had some paint on them, but back in the day I didn't even use an undercoat, so I'll just spray over the top of them. I also found a dated Space Marine Captain I thought I'd have to use for my Sergeant, but luckily I found one last beaky in the bits box. "Beaky", of course, is Ork slang for Space Marines who once sported the vaguely pig-faced bassinet helmet of the Mark VI Corvus power armor. My ten man squad was rounded out.


I did have to supplement a couple of arms and a bolter or two. I also swapped in some backpacks from later versions. Frankly I still had original backpacks on the sprue, but I like the idea of mixing different styles in there. Check out the old style flamethrower!


Here they are, Squad Antiquis, ready for action.


As a completely random bonus, I found these guys over the course of the weekend in various bits boxes. I had to replace a couple of hands and knives, but for the most part they are complete. My brother-in-law has some painted as Ultramarines and they look great, hopefully mine will look half as good as his. They're Scouts from the almost as vintage game Advanced Space Crusade. Scouts in 5th edition seem to have a bit more punch as well, so since I've got 'em, I may as well use them, right?

Debate '08

Hold me 'til dawn, 'til the zombies are gone...

Last Night on Earth! Woohoo, what a great game! I could go on and on and review the game, but I'll stand on the shoulders of fellow game-blogger Supervike, and let you read his review. No, I'm not lazy, per se, it's just he's got a great little writeup which gives it a lot more justice than I would have. I should also rib him for not updating since the summer, so get crackin' SV!


Rucht's visits to town are far and few between, thus I had to capture the moment for posterity's sake. He controlled the undead horde for the game; Andy and I played a fabulous femme fatale force!


The aforementioned fabulous femme fatale force...


The "L" shaped corner pieces are plentiful and have a variety of specific locales on them; such as the police station, pharmacy, general store, and the like. Searching for items in these areas will yield items common to that place. Your starting positions can be random, and you never know which board pieces will be used either, so there's a lot of replay value automatically built in. The center tile is double sided and the larger squares mean your character gets to travel faster in these (unimpeded) areas.


Set up at the beginning of the game; girls clustered in the center and red 'alpha' zombies randomly placed in buildings. The goal of this scenario was to wipe out the alphas before dawn.


Of course there were more than just alpha zombies, the regular zombies were also present...in droves. Alphas moved faster and were tougher, but the "regular" zombies were still a threat.


Production value is high for this game. It sports quality board tiles and some nicely sculpted game pieces.


The smell of a cluster of fresh brains brings the zombies running to the pharmacy where the girls are holed up, trying to search for medicine and supplies. There is an expansion for this game too called Growing Hunger, which we played with for this game. Having never played the game without it, I couldn't tell a difference, but apparently it adds new scenarios, board tiles, figures, hero templates, and more. If you're looking for something new, I highly recommend this one; the price is right, the learning curve is low, replay value is high, and it's a boatload of fun.

The Nine Irons

I've been on a painting roll lately, for me anyway. Here's another squad of generic sci-fi grunts for use with just about anything you could throw at them. Specifically, like the last batch, I painted these guys up for the 5150 rules expansion, Under a Hishen Sky. I haven't played the scenario yet, so they may just be a cameo appearance, if at all. I've given the scenario a cursory looking over, and it seems pretty fun.

Basically, you play a group of blue collar friends on a three day vacation to a local swimming/fishing hole, doing some camping and hanging out. Well, those pesky Hishen slavers (I've mentioned them before, yeah?) show up to do some abducting. If you meet conditions of the scenario (get to your hover car and hammer on the comm-set) you can call in reinforcements from the local mine where everyone works at. Well, the figs I painted up represent the security team that shows up to assist.

It's a backwater world and a blue collar job, you're not getting top-notch spec-ops troops. They work security, at a mine. I envisioned rookie fresh troops who get their kicks by handing out citations to mine workers for parking violations, on the weekends they like to take their recycled plastic lasguns out to the "range". The range, of course, being someone's backyard.

I thought of the mine (don't know what they mine exactly) and thought of it kind of like modern day aircraft carriers; all the laborers wear color coded outfits. Security got stuck with yellow, I picked it just 'cause it'd be crazy bright and definitely different than what I usually paint. I imagined their lasguns being very cheap, recycled, and fresh out of the shrink wrapped plastic crate, they're like Glock rifles of the future; they work reliably, but are mostly polymer and won't win any beauty pageants. The same applies for their carapace armor; helmets, shoulder pads, and torso armor is all lightweight recycled plastic.


You might think I've done some fancy, white drybrushing on their packs, armor, and grenades. No, they were still sticky from the dip, and being impatient I handled them anyway. The white areas are where my fingers took off some of the paint, revealing the white undercoat, haha. The numbers are leftover Dark Angel decals, not freehand.


Here's how I apply basing on all of my models. I use white PVA glue and pour it directly onto the base of the model. Then, using an older brush, I "paint" it around the base, making sure not to get it on the feet of the model. If any glue gets on the side of the base (if using plastic slottabases) I just wipe it off with my finger. Then I dunk the base in whatever ballast, or dirt/gravel I'm gonna use and 'swish' it around some. After that, I use a 50/50 mix of glue and water, put it in an empty syringe, and then just apply about three to four drops to the base. It spreads out and soaks in, when it dries it is rock solid. It's quick and easy, cuts out about four extra steps, and does wonderfully.


I went bright and bold with these guys, a stark contrast to the last batch.


Squad, nice and shiny right after their dip!


I jotted down their name while painting, it just comes to you sometimes. I was going to do orange armor and guns originally, but changed my mind (see below). Anyway, I got up about halfway through painting (I was also watching an excellent Monday night game) and when I came back a few minutes later I then realized they had the exact same color scheme as Iron Man, haha. It takes a fresh perspective sometimes. Since I use my GW decals all the time, and put 'nines' on their shoulders, I thought "Nine Irons" would be fitting. Sunds like a good security team name anyway, and has a little inside joke to boot.


Comparison of dipped (right) and pre-dipped.


The thing, the big thing that makes these figs different than most I've done is that I didn't paint them, per se. I used washes, almost exclusively. I didn't thin my paint and do the Valis technique or whatever, (I would link the Valis technique, but keep getting Philip Dick novels) I just used washes over the whole model, broad spaces, faces, details, whatever was called for. It was frustrating, and a pain at times, and incredibly sloppy. But, I had the entire squad painted before halftime of the aforementioned Saints / Vikings game. I spent the second half of the game tidying up some of the more messy areas with a brush, applying decals, dipping, basing, etc.


Assembled and primed atop a piece of Guatemalan fruit.


I undercoated them white, still on the sprue and just clipped 'em off.


These are some very simple models. Although they look just like the awesome multi-piece Cadian plastics, they are far from it. They would make for great filler troops if needed, or in this case, just good for some quick and easy human troopers.


$8 bucks for five troops. Sweet.

COG Troopers

Last night I painted up a few quick troops, intended for use with 5150, but really they'd work for just about anything. I used old Warzone Bauhaus Hussar troops, the single piece metal sculpts that still hold their own to today's standards. I painted them to represent the new COG troopers that are in the "Infestation" rules expansion. Their fluff is posted below.

As you may be able to tell, the paint jobs were quick, after clipping off their pickelhaube points, I started off giving them all a black undercoat (flat black spray paint). I dry brushed a little dark gray (craft paints) all over to give their armor some depth and definition. Next I painted (again, mostly drybrush) their rifles an olive green (Reaper) followed up with some brighter green details (GW paints). Their visors got white lenses, and I went with a dark skin tone on the helmet-less models (dark flesh base, vermin brown highlight). For basing, I used three parts fine black railroad ballast and one part gray; giving it a bit of an urban feel. Overall, for being quick and easy paintjobs, they still came "out all right"; at least well enough to hold their own as part of the scenario I painted them for. The Bauhaus symbol is a nice touch on their shoulder pads because it looks just like a machine cog to boot!


Rear view.


Closeups of the standard trooper; with and without helmet.

As defined by the newly restructured DEPARTMENT OF HOME SECURITY (DHS), a “covert operation” is one intended "to influence political, economic, or military conditions off-world, where the involvement of GAEA PRIME will not be apparent or acknowledged publicly." To better complete these operations the “functional arm” of the DHS was formed. This agency is known as the COVERT OPERATIONS GROUP or COG. Whereas a “clandestine operation” emphasizes the concealment of the operation a “covert operation” emphasizes the concealment of the identity of the sponsor.

The STAR ARMY carries out clandestine operations while COG carries out covert ones. And these operations are only restricted by the imagination of the DHS. Possible but unverifiable COG operations include ambushes, training military forces, mapping, prisoner extraction, rescue and recovery, raids, sabotage, surveillance, tapping into communications, hacking into computer systems, black mail and other “stings”, setting up business fronts, inciting and fermenting revolution and a host of other things. The only restriction is that these operations can only be carried out against enemies of GP. However, there has been some debate as to who defines these enemies, and how rigorous a criterion is applied. COG operatives are not subject to military supervision and on occasion GP military forces have unexpectedly run into evidence of suspected COG operations where no “friendlies” were expected. In some instances COG operatives have acted, in the guise of “private contractors”, as advisors to Star Army (SA) operations. If there is a need for COG and the Star Army to interact, it always comes from “high up” and the two forces do not always share a sense of camaraderie. It’s a known “fact” that you never put ISS and COG together in the same place at the same time.

COG operatives come in a variety of shapes and sizes and are recruited from a variety of occupations and places. Both males and females are recruited for COG, the only restriction is that all candidates are genetically BASICS. COG answers directly to the Director of the DHS and he or she only. At this time there is no estimate on the number of COG operatives nor indeed, has the existence of any such organization been publicly admitted by any GP official.

Clash on Clobaka

Deep within the Kepler Verge lies the planet of Clobaka. A lesser known, and even lesser visited planet, Clobaka carries on nonetheless. They have had a stable government, even given their remoteness from the ruling body of Gaea Prime itself.

It may be this remoteness that caused Clobaka to become a target in the eyes of the Hishen, who are infamous across the galaxy for their ruthless slavery runs. After raiding nearby systems somewhat sporadically, the Hishen seemed content to settle down near Clobaka and slave-mine the planet for all it was worth.

Without hesitation, when a planet comes under any sort of extra planetary attack, a call is made out to defense forces in the system to assist. Clobaka on the other hand made no such calls, even after they discovered what was happening to large numbers of their citizens, even though their Planetary Defense Force found themselves often outmatched by the ruthless Hishen, no distress calls were made.


This remote swamp area on the steamy southern continent hides the remains of a downed Hishen surface-to-orbit craft (center) simmering in the morass. An ancient monolith, found by Clobaka's original colonists centuries ago, was clipped by the falling craft, smashing it in half. Large areas of ground became huge craters as pieces of the craft's engine exploded on impact. A Clobakan pumping station and water tower marks the only signs of civilization, its purpose to filter the mineral rich waters and irrigate nearby agricultural lands.

The cause of the crash remains unknown; planet side defense guns could have taken it from the sky, it could have been engine and mechanical trouble, or as it has been surmised, the Hishen became greedy and simply filled their cargo hold with too many slaves, weighing them down. No one knows for sure, but what is known is that on board the Hishen craft is an intact mainframe with a data component containing an incredible amount of invaluable information.

The Hishen are meticulous, and this data consists of every planet they've raided on this particular mission in the last six months, with times, dates, and locations of their slaving operations. Not only this, but most colonists and citizens are tagged with an ident-key, the Hishen data has all of this info as well; thousands of missing person names, their ident-keys, financial records, and the when and where they were enslaved is on the mainframe. Most importantly, the transaction of where each individual slave has been sent after being indoctrinated is on there as well. Planetary governors are waiting in line to get this information, connecting the dots to countless mysteries that have plagued the system.


Clobakan Planetary Defense Forces.

The Clobakan planetary government has recently cut off communication and traffic to even neighboring planets. Curiously enough, as reports of the downed Hishen craft managed to leak out, the Clobakan Council refused to help in the matter outright with recovering the data. In a terse statement they told fellow planets in no unclear terms that the wreckage, and whatever is recovered therein, belonged to Clobaka, and Clobaka only. A large recovery team has been sent in to the crash site consisting of PDF forces armed with the mass-produced lascarbine. A team of three Grath as well as a high ranking command squad round out the force. Initial visual scans suggest something is horribly amiss with the troopers.


The Kings of the Kilburn High.

It is a delicate diplomatic situation. Overt action is unheard of until further questions are answered given Clobaka's sudden shift in demeanor. The fact remains that the data on the downed craft is too important to let just one planet have however, so the Kilburn Kings were brought in. They are a free company of Mercs; Mercs with a solid reputation of getting the job done. Being a simple recovery mission, the Ceathairs would hit dirtside, and the exo-armored Big Tens would await in orbit, ready to airborne insert if needed. With superior training and equipment, the five-man squad didn't feel so overwhelmed.


Cat-and-mouse games are played around a piece of the broken monolith between PDF forces and a lone King. A second King would join in and PDF forces would eventually fall back to cover. Fire was exchanged and grenades were tossed, taking out a majority of PDF troops. The two Kings then fell back, while laying down suppressive fire to keep the remaining squad's heads down.


Dusk creeps in as PDF forces maneuver around the ample cover to attempt flanking King troops at the wreckage. Flannery, assault rifle running on empty, opts to hop into the wreckage to locate the mainframe. Next to him, Dalton unloads with his assault rifle on the flanking PDF troops, also running out of ammo. Lasbeams cutting through the air all around them.


Flannery slings his rifle and brandishes his multi-tool, removing the mainframe as quickly as possible, once he had the chip in hand, Flannery got back to the LZ as quickly as possible. Perhaps too quickly, running off leaving his allies behind. Dalton not having time to reload, also slings his rifle, draws his combat knife, and prepares to rush two PDF troops that have been knocked down, but are not yet out of the fight.


King troops shout taunting obscenities to duck backed PDF forces, brazenly walking out in the open, trying to gain a visual so they can throw more grenades. PDF troops wisely hunker down behind a storage shed, waiting for the right time to open fire with both lascarbine and LAW rocket.


Captain O'Shaughnessy left his custom OICW on board and took the closer ranged auto-shotgun dirtside, using it to devastating effect.


Run away! As Dalton dispatched a downed PDF trooper via coup de grâce, he was unaware of more approaching PDF. His hard body armor may have saved his life, but not his dignity as he fled...

There was more fluff to this 5150 battle report between Andy and myself than crunch, but it's been a while since we rolled dice in conjunction with figs, so I lavished some extra detail. It was a great game, and even though we were both incredibly rusty on the rules, they came easily enough and played with a fair amount of intuition and made for a quick paced battle. There was plenty of action, and I love the excitement that the rules bring with both sides firing on each other at any given time, it's like always playing with overwatch rules on. A few questions popped up along the way, which I contribute somewhat to a rulebook that requires a bit more work on the part of the player to decipher...at times. It also could've easily been contributed to how rusty Andy and I were with the rules as well. Quality of the troops, known as 'rep' in 5150, is a very important aspect that makes it's impact most known on the battlefield, and shows the biggest gaps if two separate forces have very different scores. For example, the Grath, which should have been a HUGE headache for me, simply ran off after receiving a few rounds of fire. Also, while I appreciate the realism of weapons vs. armors, there will be instances where your troops will have ZERO chance of wounding the enemy; such as firing a simple pistol at a power armored target.

100th Post!

Hey, hey, a little over a year in and we're on the 100th post!

Serious business!

Dark Eldar / Khang

So, our buddy Brian has had a shoe box of Dark Eldar sitting around...for pretty much ever. At least since the new 4th edition 40k box came out anyways. The group's been threatening to get their act together and actually play some minis games; a single game consistently that is. I think our two runner-ups are 5150 and 40k5.0, 'cause all good sci-fi games have numbers in their titles, right? Anyway, the cool thing about 5150 is that you can use pretty much whatever minis you want, 40k is a bit more rigid. Even on a casual level, it's a tad harder to proxy for 40k without it getting hard to keep track of what model is supposed to represent what.

Well, above you've got Brian's Dark Eldar army, which would roll just as well being a Khang army from the 5150 expansion, Illegal Aliens. Either way, they're not painted, and we decided to get together as a group and 'speed paint' all of them at once. Shown here with rudimentary base coats from many moons ago.

5150 Khang: Premier in the long list of “Malevolent Emperors” is the enigma KHANG. Khang is considered to be evil incarnate by his enemies, and just plain evil by his admirers. Khang was the third son of a minor provincial governor who fought his way to the throne, and through guile and brute force has become the dominant ruler on Khanopia. The Emperor has gone so far as to change the name of the Empire officially to Khang. His subjects willingly serve him, and the Empire, as in their hearts and minds, Emperor and Empire are one.

or...

40k Dark Eldar: Dark Eldar are a Kindred of the Eldar, an ancient and advanced race of elf-like humanoids. Their armies usually have the advantages of speed, though they are often lacking in resilience. The Dark Eldar revel in piracy, enslavement and torture, and are sadistic in the extreme. Dark Eldar armies make use of various anti-gravity skimmers such as Raiders and Ravagers to launch high speed attacks. They strike with little or no warning, using an interdimensional labyrinth known as the Webway to traverse the galaxy safely and far more quickly than most races are able to with their Warp jumps.


Brushes at the ready; Brian (left) and Andy commence drybrushing!


Andy focused on a lot of the detail work (faces, rifles, etc.) while I just slathered on the reds.


Ray and Brian prepare for the new Olympic sport; synchronized painting.


The skirmish formation guys in the middle still need some work. The ranked up figs on the right are just a layer of basing from being done.


Here's a squad of five, finished, sans basing.


What we've got done so far. With a little basing, these guys will really 'pop'.

Black Tuesday, III

To make up for my extremely poor camera-phone footage, I present some videos I gleaned off of YouTube that feature both the Sword and Clutch. Enjoy...


The Sword: "Iron Swan", live in Charlotte, NC.


The Sword: "Fire Lances of the Ancient Hyperzephyrians".


Clutch: "Electric Worry", live in Minneapolis, MN.


Clutch: "Burning Beard".

Black Tuesday, II

Hey, straight from the show is some footage! From, err, a camera phone, which, umm, sucks. In fact, I'm putting them here just for posterity's sake, 'cause, well, not only are they not that great, they're far from it. I wouldn't even bother if it wasn't such a great show. But, it was a fun show, and if you turn down your volume and squint just right, you may just see some of the kinetic energy therein.


Graveyard rocks out with their extra long jam Satan's Finest...


Clutch performs the Texan Book of the Dead...


More Clutch, more Texan Book of the Dead...

Black Tuesday

Black t-shirts at the ready, the intrepid trio you see above; Jake (left), myself, and Andy (right), headed off to a local haunt called the Valarium to see an amazing lineup of various metal bands. The metal was all over the map; ranging from Ragnarök, Stoner rock, Doom, Indie, and even some retro psychedelic inspired heavy jams.

Tickets were an amazingly low $16 bucks, which was an absolute steal considering how much music there was to go around. There were a total of four bands:

Never Got Caught: This three piece band packed a lot of sound in with their power-rock antics. They were the opening act, so only had a handful of songs, the first one of which started out great and showed a lot of promise. The rest of the set wasn't bad, just not fantastic, about what you would expect from the show opener. They were solid, and gave inspiration to anyone who wondered if their own garage band was worth the effort.

These guys came out of nowhere, looking like a skinny Allman Brothers back in '67, talking in a mix of Swedish and heavily accented English, and with a sound that shook the pillars of heaven. The bassist looked like a prototype from the vaults at Jim Henson's studios, the lead guitarist, I'm pretty sure, was one of the barbarians in the 13th Warrior, and the lead singer sported a vintage wide body straight from Chuck Berry. I shouldn't forget to mention that the drummer had quite the Burt Reynolds 'stache too. But enough of looks, these guys could play. Their songs would be 5-8 minute romps through a barrage of tempo changes; from the slow jam to the aggro rock, and it all wove together effortlessly. It had a huge retro vibe to it, as if modern metal had been transported back to the Vietnam era.

The Sword: Wow. I can't say enough good things about these guys. Most people have heard of them actually, well, if you have ever played Guitar Hero 2 anyway. Even then, they stood out among the other lesser known tracks on the game. The Sword has a purity to their music that makes them stand above the rest, they don't hold anything back, and they have a singular vision which is brought out in everything they play. Invoking imagery of a time when the world was young and mankind scratched out their existence with grit, determination, and strength of arm. They weren't the headliner, but they stole the show for me.

Clutch: Even though the Sword stole the show for me, it was these guys I was most keen on seeing originally. This prolific band has about fifteen or so albums and has been rockin' out at least since 1990. They fall squarely into the 'stoner rock' genre, but their music has changed a lot over the years as they try new directions and really can't be classified. One thing remains, and that's the distinctive Sci-High feel to their lyrics and albums. Their lead singer is darkly charismatic, prowling the stage, spitting out vocals like he's giving a fire and brimstone sermon while perched atop a post-apocalyptic mountain top during the end times. My one disappointment for these guys was that given so much material they've got, they didn't play for a very long time, and my favorite song by them, A Shogun Named Marcus, didn't make the cut.


A surprisingly older crowd lines up before the doors open...


Filing out after Clutch's encore...


Andy, fresh from the pit, rock on brother...