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Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Armada Q2 Kit Event Results

This will be a relatively short post.  Over the weekend, my friend talked me into playing in a Star Wars Armada event.  There were only four participants, so it went pretty quick.  I had my buddy make a list for me and explain how to fly it.

Shockingly, I came in second place.  I would have come in first, but my buddy absolutely crushed a guy last round and took top place.

We got pretty cool official acrylic round counters as prizes, along with some alt artwork cards.  I might end up playing in another couple of tournaments this summer.


Monday, May 29, 2017

Happy Memorial Day Everyone

Actual hobby post tomorrow.


Friday, May 26, 2017

Paint Night!

I had the most fun this week.  My wife took me out for a paint night at a local restaurant.  It's like a meal and paint class in one.  There might be one near you.  It's a multi-country kind of thing.

https://www.paintnite.com/

I walked in to see this...


Halfway through, the painting is taking shape.


And done!  I've never painted on canvas before.  I loved it.  I will definitely be doing so again.  It's amazing how miniature brush skills translate to the big canvas.  At the very least, I see more freehand work in my future.


Thursday, May 25, 2017

Warhammer 40k 8th Edition Starter

Not much to say on this, but GW released some pictures of the upcoming 40k starter box.  The rumor mill says this thing is going to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $150.  I think that's actually a pretty solid deal.

The set has a TON of stuff in the box.  I count 22 Primaris Marines, 31 Death Guard and a small pile of rule books.


First up is the Captain in Gravis Armor.  Gravis means heavy in Latin, so this makes total sense.  I like his Power Fist/Bolter combo.  It looks like the sort of weapon Marneus Calgar has.  I'm wondering if Guilliman saw those Guantlets and was like "Dude...  why haven't you made more of those?"


Next up is a Primaris Ancient.  I think that's a nice way of saying Standard Bearer Dude.


The set comes with two Primaris Lieutenants. This is a new rank for the good old Space Marines.  I'm assuming that they're Captain Lites in terms of rules.  It's nice that they have different weapon options.  It's also amazing that the one guy has a helmet on his belt.



The box comes with two five man Intercessor Squads.  Intercessors appear to be the standard Primaris dudes.  I'm guessing that they're going to be a Troops choice.  We were told that we could make armies out of nothing but Primaris Marines.  That leads me to believe there has to be a Troops choice.  Sergeants have red helmets, as per normal.



These guys are Hellblasters.  What do they do?  They blast the hell out of things.  I wonder if they've figured out how to keep them from exploding on every 6th shot.  You'll note that the one dude doesn't seem to have a helmet on his belt.  The Techmarine is going to want an explanation.  On an unrelated note, where is my Primaris Techmarine?


I love these guys.  I like that they're legit flying.  I like pretty much everything about these models.  I like the skids on the feet.  I like the rounded look to the jump packs.  I like the shield on the pistols.  I like that the helmets are inset into a sort of cowl.  I need more of these.  I hope they come in a combat version.


I'm less excited about the Death Guard, but man are these some seriously detailed models.  This dude is called a Noxious Plaguebringer.  I'm going to make a bet right now that he can ring that bell to make bad things happen.  Can we also agree that the tabard looks amazing?


This guy is a Lord of Contagion.  I'm assuming that just means Nurgle Chaos Lord.  Very Orky looking axes, he has there.


I am totally not sold on this model.  His name is Baby Face McGee...  err, the Malignant Plaguecaster.  He's clearly the Psyker in the box.  I just can't get past the face.  It's way to weird looking.


Standard Plague Marines.  They're pretty.  One of them has a Plasmagun.  I assume he's not worried about it getting hot.  Might kill a few flies, but...  eh.  They're just flies.


The next block of models are the Poxwalkers.  I guess that's the new name for Cultists with the Mark of Nurgle.  They look pretty cool.  One of them has a lab coat.  I really hope he has a name and a backstory in the included fluff.


Lastly, we have a Foetid Blight-drone.  Are those Lascannons mounted near the bottom?  I think they are.  Cool looking model.


The set comes with two mini-Codexes for the Primaris Marine and Death Guard along with a full, 28 page, hardbound core rule book.  I'm surprised they threw the hardbound copy in the box.



When can I buy this?  SOON.


This last bit isn't in the box.  Being released at the same time is a Sector Imperialis Objectives box.  How cool is that ejection pod thing?  It looks like a tiny drop pod.  I love the asthetic.


Wednesday, May 24, 2017

An eBay Win!

I was screwing around on eBay the other day and came across a very cheap auction for a new in shrink wrap copy of Rivet Wars.  I've been wanting to pick this game up for a while.  It's normally a $100 game that can be purchased pretty reliably for $80 or so from a number of online retailers.  I got it for $23.


The game comes with a bunch of miniatures with a pretty cool aesthetic.  The game itself is a fight between two sides with a series of missions in the box.  My hope is to get to play it this weekend with a buddy.


This is my favorite model in the box.  I love the little spider tank.  I want a million of these to put Grots into.


Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Happy Birthday To Me

One of my birthday presents to myself is that I'm not writing a post today.  Sorry, everyone.  See you tomorrow.


Monday, May 22, 2017

3D Printer!

My in-laws are amazing.  My birthday is tomorrow and they ordered a 3D printer for me yesterday.  The lead time is seven weeks, so it'll be a couple of months before you see any real action on this, but I'm super psyched!

The printer I'm getting is the Original Prusa i3 MK2S.  It's very well reviewed and considered one of the best value printers on the market for basic use.



Might take me a bit to assemble it.  This is what the kit will look like when it arrives!


Friday, May 19, 2017

Runewars - Ankaur Maro


FFG posted a teaser article a few days ago for Ankaur Maro and I decided to sit down and really try to think about how the man will work in game.

The box seems to come with two different versions of the Akaur Maro model.  I'm assuming that the foot version is for putting into a unit while the other version is for running alone.  I'm a little mystified as to why they'd bother include a tray for the foot version.  It doesn't seem strictly necessary or even useful.


The cavalry version is really dynamic.  He's riding on a bone horror, which is a enemy unit from the Descent board game - a game set in the same shared universe.


Maro has only two defense, which is the lowest we've seen for a hero, but also has five health, which is the highest.  The added health is going to be super useful when you look at his skill ability.  He can take X damage to add X full trays of models to a Waiqar Infantry unit...  which right now means Reanimates or Reanimate Archers.  X is the number of red runes, I think.  The actual icons are super similar and I don't have the tokens near me right now.  During a ranged attack Maro can spend two surge icons to regenerate a wound.  I guess if you play your cards right and keep him out of line of sight, you'd be able to skill the first turn, attack the second, skill the third, and so on.  His 'Forbidden Lore of the Shadow Council' allows him to take 1 non-unique unit from any other faction at the cost of that unit starting with two blight tokens.  Can you say Oathsworn Cavalry?  I can.  He's 40 points base, which is pricey...  but he'll be offsetting those points with new trays of Infantry pretty quickly.


On first glance, Maro has an absolutely amazing dial.  And then you realize that he doesn't have Brutal or Precise and may not be rolling any dice at all.  He rolls a number of white dice based on which runes are visible.  I think what really shines are the red modifiers.  If you give him Brutal 1 via an upgrade and roll 1-2 red dice, it's very possible to do 6-8 damage during a single ranged attack.  Realistically, though, I think you'd take the free surge and attempt to regen a wound.


This picture shows his ability in action.  With two blue runes showing, Maro uses his skill to add two full trays of Reanimate Archers to an existing unit, but takes two wounds in the process.  Those Reanimate Archers are worth ~18 points for two trays, so I think you'll be earning your points back pretty quickly.


The kit comes with a couple of Ankaur Maro only upgrade cards.  The two shown below are mutually exclusive.  You can take one or the other, but not both.  Violent forces changes the rune colors for your skill and adds Brutal 1.  Regenerative Magic would mean that Maro regens a wound on a single surge, which you can guarantee by taking the red surge modifier.  I think it depends on how you want to run him.  Regenerative Magic would make him relatively hard to kill, but Violent Forces will add more trays, more quickly.  It could also make him tougher in combat.  Red can easily have zero runes on the table.  Blue always has at least one.  Violent Forces would therefore make Maro more reliable, but would also kill him quicker as he spawns more trays.  Hard to tell.  There are a couple more upgrade cards that we haven't seen yet.




Thursday, May 18, 2017

Star Wars Destiny at Barnes and Noble

Looks like Barnes and Noble is now selling Star Wars Destiny.  I ended up buying the remainder of the box and pulled a Palpatine and a Force Lightning.  It's nice to see a game I love being sold at more places than just gaming stores.  Then again, Barnes and Noble has a good history with FFG games.

For those of you who are not located in the United States, Barnes and Noble is a big box book store that has a couple of shelves dedicated board games.  The Magic the Gathering stuff you see is pretty much their entire stock.  My take has always been that they stock one or two of each to sell to kids who come in with their parents and don't want books.


Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Adeptus Titanicus - Secutarii Hoplites

I bought these guys a while ago, but never got around to putting them together.  They're a hybrid plastic/resin kit made by Forgeworld.  They're sort of AdMech, but not really.  From a technical game standpoint in 7th Edition, they were Adeptus Titanicus faction and could only be fielded as an Elites unit in a Skitarii Battle Maniple Detachment.

I'm assuming that they'll be more generically available in 8th Edition.  My plan is to get these sanded and primed sometime over the next several days, weather permitting.


I dig the new backpacks.


Assembling these guys left me with two full sets of weapons and heads...  Ranger and Vanguard, plus all the special weapons.  To use them, I ordered 10 sets of legs and bodies from Anvil Industries.  I went with hazardous environment suits and short greatcoat legs.  I saw a picture on DakkaDakka and decided to replicate the effect.  Here's the pic I found...


The model on the left is what I'll be making.  I think it fits the aesthetic of the army pretty well.  They're a hair shorter than regular Skitarii, but I think that's going to work out just fine.  The real goal is to just bulk up the army with some unique looking troops.  The bodies, incidentally, have a pretty cool backpack setup...


More to come...


Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Primaris Space Marines!


Games Workshop revealed the long rumored (and oft secretly photographed) Primaris Space Marines.  People have been calling them Truescale or NuMarines.  From a fluff standpoint, they're super-Marines commissioned by Roboute Guilliman from Belisarius Cawl almost 10,000 years ago.

I really like them.

The models have a more realistic proportion.  Games Workshop is known for its "heroic" scale, which means that arms and legs are exaggerated.  A model's hands are frequently larger than its head.  I think they did a good job making these new guys a little better.


From a rules perspective, they're basically regular Veterans with an extra wound and a slightly better gun.  I'm curious to see how many points they up at.


One interesting thing to look at.  The guy in the below picture with the red/white striped helmet clearly isn't an Intercessor.  He's on a 40mm base.  He has a power sword.  Power swords aren't a listed upgrade for the Intercessor Squad.  The dude with the red helmet is clearly the squad sergeant.  I'm assuming that this new guy is a Captain or something.  Time will tell.