Friday, March 30, 2012

Underground Tunnel Terrain Update

Last night I did more base coating and also started dry brushing. I also painted a black base coat on some of the balsa wood pieces. Here are some pics:




This weekend I am quite busy and won't be doing any updating and not much painting, unfortunately. I will be doing some painting tonight and hopefully Sunday night. I will also be taking pictures and will have a new update Monday.

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Tunnels Progress

So I've begun base coating the tunnel walls that I posted up in the previous post.

I need to finish all of this terrain by next week Wednesday so I've still got a lot of work to do but I am pretty sure I will be able to finish it by then.

Here are some progress pics:





Whats great about this terrain is that it all fits tightly on a 3' by 4' board for this Book of the Arbitrator game I am running on April 6th but it should also be good for a larger game on a 6' by 4' board.

I want to use this terrain for Zone Mortalis games as well. Looking at the Zone Mortalis rules I've begun to come up with some ideas. I want to incorporate the rules from the Badab War books for boarding actions. Specifically the strategems.

Luckily I have some friends who are pretty much up for anything experimental-rules wise so I'll keep you all informed.

Monday, March 26, 2012

Chaplain Ivanus Enkomi and Tunnel Terrain!

I finally painted up the High Chaplain of the Minotaurs which I converted almost a year ago. Of course now Forgeworld comes out with a resin model of him. Anywho, I will probly buy it at some point, but until then here is the fig I will use:



I have begun working on the terrain for my split-level board for the Book of the Arbitrator scenario I came up with. I worked on it all weekend while listening to podcasts.

I started out with a hot-wire styrofoam cutter. I cut a bunch of packing foam inserts into shapes I liked that could pass for rock and glued them with white glue onto pieces of corrugated card board.

Then I began working with some Balsa wood. I made a bunch of ladders and the elevators that can transport guys from one level to another.



After that I built some bridges from Demo's Laser Cut Designs and also made a little platform.



Then I began work on one of the doors that will lead into the main chamber where the Tech Priest will be.



I used some land raider doors and balsa wood.



I decided to lay everything out that I had finished on Saturday. This was before I had finished most of the Balsa wood terrain.











I then finished all of the balsa wood and foam terrain for the tunnel portion of the board and laid it all out.















The night we are playing this game is two weeks away so I have quite a bit of work to do. I am going to start painting tonight and will continue to share my progress here on the blog.

Until next time...

Big Game 2012 Part III

And welcome to the third and final part of the Battle Report for the 2012 big game.

We will start off with more Daemons arriving to take on the Marines Errant and the Space Wolves. (He got wiped out fairly quickly so we decided that the Daemon player should get another 2,000 points so he could stay in the game until the end.)



At this stage of the game the Chaos Marines/Traitor Guard had taken care of the Loyalist Guard contingent and began pushing onto the bridge trying to make it to the Citadel on the main board.



Quite the log jam!



The Blood Angels and Dragon Lords Assault Marines clash with Chaos Marines.



The Ultramarines continue to hold the Thousand Sons back from the Habs.



At this point the game is winding down and I've nearly cleaned up the main board of the Orks.



Chaos Marines and Guard have reached the main board!



The Thousand Sons corrupted Leman Russ continues to fire on the Ultramarines.



The Attacking General uses some command points and moves the entire Nurgle Death Guard army from the Blood Angels / Dragon lords table over to the Space wolves table.



My Minotaurs move in for the kill.



Meanwhile the main assault force of the Orks that I have ignored have made it to the Citadel and I am now apparently needed to help deal with them.



Ghazkull tries to make it through the screen of Chimeras to get at the leg of the Titan.



The orks continue their assault of the Citadel.



Chronos leads a team of devastators up onto a bridge.



The Orks' rear-guard has been all but annihilated.



The Blood Angels' Storm Raven flies over to the main board to take out the Trator Marines and Guard who made it over the bridge.



A squad of Burna Boyz starts working their way up the bridge to confront the marines and Chronos stops his Devastators in their tracks.



With the Orks' rear guard defeated, the Minotaurs mount up their remaining Battle Brothers and begin their advance to the Citadel.



Now you see the Citadel.



Now you don't.



And here is the guy who finally did it.



So the battle swung from the Defenders having a huge margin of battle points in the beginning to losing right at the end. While I slaughtered more Orks in this game than I think I ever have before, I didn't stop them from getting to the Citadel like I probably should have.

Anyways, great game and I look forward to next year.

Oh and here is my favorite picture from the whole weekend:



Until next time, when I will have pics of my tunnel terrain.....

Friday, March 23, 2012

Deathwatch and New Forgeworld

The big news today of course is Forgeworld just released models for the Minotaurs Chapter Master Asterion Moloc and Chaplain Ivanus Enkomi. Check em out they are pretty darn cool:

http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/New_Stuff/ASTERION_MOLOC_AND_IVANUS_ENKOMI_OF_THE_MINOTAURS.html

And also the Raper Laser Destroyer with Space Marine Crew:

http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/New_Stuff/SPACE_MARINE_RAPIER_LASER_DESTROYER.html

I must admit I want both of them.

And in other news last night I played my first game of Deathwatch, the Fantasy Flight 40k RPG.

I played an Iron Hand Devastator marine with a Heavy Bolter named Vaylund. I was teamed up with two other marines one was an assault marine from the Blood Angels with a jump pack and the other was a Dark Angel Ravenwing biker. I had missed the previous session which was the first session. Apparently our Inquisitor Silas Marr had gotten an Inquisitorial distress signal from a planet and we were sent down via drop pod to check it out.

The first session also had two other marines, one a librarian and one a techmarine of the Black Templars. In this session their players were not able to play.

The game started out with me finally getting untangled from the harness in the drop pod (that was the explanation of the reason I wasn't in the first game) and then shortly there after the Librarian let out a cry and collapsed onto the ground. We decided that the Techmarine should watch over him at the drop pod while we continued on with our investigation.

We sent the biker out on a recce mission to close in on an agri settlement where the signal was coming from. He closed in on a L-Shaped building with 6 large silos attached to it and found a door that was blown open from the inside.

Once that was reported back to us, the Blood Angel and I decided to check it out. The two of us entered the building and got surprised by a Combat Servitor going out of control. I noticed it immediately and began firing my heavy bolter I hit it 4 times and it exploded covering us with gore.

After that we looked around the building and decided there was nothing of real interest and then left.

The biker decided again it would be a good idea to zoom through the gaps in the silos to look for clues as to the source of the transmission. He got ambushed by about 14 orks.

He barely got out of that and led the orks back closer to myself and the Blood Angel. At this point I opened fire again and for 5 turns I blasted away orks. I had killed 6 of them when the assault marine finally charged into combat with the two remaining orks. He killed them after several rounds.

At this point we ended the session for the night.

Well this being the first time playing as a PC in a 40kRPG, I had a good time. It was very combat oriented, maybe more so than I would have liked, but fun none the less.

I've GMed many games of Dark Heresy and one Rogue Trader game but never played in one. I think the last time I was a player was around 2003. I played a Dwarf Fighter in D&D 2nd Ed and then a Psuedo Street Samurai in Shadowrun.

We will be playing every two weeks on Thursdays and I can't wait for the next game. I am painting up my character who I will share on here once he's done.


Coming up next the much delayed final part 3 of The Big Game 2012 Battle Report.

I am also going to take some more pictures of some Minotaur stuff I've done and also more info and pictures of my underground mine terrain for an upcoming game of Book of the Arbitrator.

Until then...

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Big Game 2012 Battle Report Part 2

Here is the second part of the Big Game 2012 Battle Report.

At this point in the game we were still just getting started. It was still Friday night. I was just starting to get my army in and I began to dismantle the ork rearguard.



The Ork's main assault had almost reached the guard's lines. The Rock N Rolla Stompa was very close to flattening a bunch of guardsmen.



Meanwhile The Dragonlords and Blood Angels were in position to attack the traitor marines en force.



Led by Astorath the Grim, a huge force of assault marines gather in preparation for the assault to come.



The Ultramarines and the Thousand Sons are now coming to grips and the battle is escalating on their board.



The faster elements of the Ultramarines try to outflank the Thousand Sons.



At around 11pm the world clock stops and we take a break from 40k until Saturday. Some of us just hang out and talk others start playing other board games. I decided to have a few more beers and listen to music and talk about the game.

The next morning we slowly make our way to the battlefield. Here is an overview picture of all of the boards.



As day two begins I renew my assault on the Ork forces.



The Blood Angels and Traitor Marines close the distance and the assault continues.



The Marines Errant and the Space Wolves move out of their defensive positions and take the fight to the Tau.



The view from the Imperial Guard's position. Not a pretty sight.



A view from the top of the Citadel. Notice the awesome lights we added to some piece of terrain. I though it was really awesome.



The Ultramarines and Thousand Sons continue their battle with a land raider lending support.



Asterion Moloc of the Minotaurs is down to one wound and his combat is not going according to plan. 30 Orks boys is nothing to scoff at.



Astorath leads a huge cadre of jump pack troops into the heart of the enemy's lines.



The Marines Errant and the Space Wolves continue their struggle against the Tau and Daemons over the Power Regulators.



More Khorne Daemons materialize right in front of the Space Wolves' lines.



I am down to one terminator in the assault. I have decided to let him die and then that will open up the door for me to eliminate the rest of that ork squad next turn.



Deffkoptas have now reached the teleporter next to the bridge which is bad news for the defenders.



High Chaplain Ivanus Enkomi leads a squad of Vanguard Veterans into the remnants of the Ork squad to take vengeance for the death of his master.



At this point I have the Ork rearguard under control. I am beginning to worry, however, that I have missed an opportunity to stop the orks from reaching the Citadel. I have been focusing all of my efforts to kill all of them, while their main assault lines have begun breaking the Guard.



Next up will be part 3 and it should be the final installment of the Big Game 2012 battle report.