Bits and pieces

Hi all,

Didn't get much time for puttering this weekend, but did get an hour or two with the Cub down at the G-Dub, and we brought our brushes.  Managed to pick at a couple more of the Khorne chaos warriors.







Don't know as they'll be winning any awards, but they'll do just fine for gaming purposes, which is where they'll see the most use.

Speaking of gaming, I'm planning to attend a 1000k Age of Sigmar tournament in a couple of weeks.  The plan is to bring my Bretonnians, and I've got a secret weapon in progress.



Although the Brets are legal, they won't be getting any love from GW in the foreseeable future.  That said, there are opportunities in the new game not to be overlooked.  One is that Brets now share a key word, "Free Peoples" (i.e., a thing that fosters synergy) with much of what used to belong to the Empire army - including their heroes.  One of these "Free People" heroes is a general on a griffon, and he comes with a fairly useful command ability (buff a unit for morale, charge, and to hit purposes).  Also, as he's riding a Griffon, he's a bit of a beatstick.



The problem, of course, is that Brets themselves don't have a griffon rider, and the old Empire model doesn't look at all appropriate for a Bretonnian army.  Hence this fella.  It's the griffon from the Isle of Blood set, cut down, and with some Bret pieces and green stuff, (notably bits from the Green knight) added in.  There's a back banner I'll add once painting is done (glueing it now will make it hard to paint).  It'll serve nicely.  Hopefully I can get it painted up in time for the tournament.

FMB

Only took a few years

Hi all,

So, many (many) moons ago, I started picking away at some 1/72 French, part of my ongoing existential crisis about what scale in which to play the period.  Finally, after some internet-based inspiration (I'm look at you Johnny Rosbif) and a trip to Benno's Forum, I finished up the last base for the first complete unit of French.

The original plan was to use these for Black Powder, if and when I actually get enough painted up to play.  Basing is a little unconventional for those rules, but should work just fine.  I stuck with the larger, almost element basing I started out with, for much the same reason - it looks good, and deals with the overhang that results from the use of multiple poses in 1/72 ranges.

I've got some voltigeurs to use for skirmish markers, and have some French Hussars up and prepped as a next step.  I figure I'll paint these guys until I start to get bored, them maybe go back to some GW stuff.  In the mean time, I'm scratching a historical itch, and enjoying myself in the doing.

FMB

Sprog wars: The revenge of Sprog.

Hi,

Got my butt handed to me by the Cub today, as we managed to sneak in a game of 40k before he headed back to his mom's post-March break.

The game was notable in that both of us took rather different forces than usual.  Cub went armour heavy, and unbound, with a Redeemer, Predator, and 3 (!) Dreadnaughts, whilst I moved away from my usual recipe of more boyz =   better by taking my Dakka Jet, my full suite of Deffkoptas, and a Battlewagon.



Cub had himself a massive turn 1, with his Landraider scoring a penetrating hit on my Battlewagon (which subsequently managed to get itself stuck in difficult terrain), and an aggressive drive toward my forces.  His LR Redeemer is a bit of a nightmare for me, as it not only has ridiculously heavy armour, but is equipped with the perfect weapons to sweep orks off the table in droves.  To kill it, I need to get my power klaws into b2b contact, but that means exposing my boyz to flamey templates of doom.  It's always an issue, he knows it, and he's learned to use it effectively.



That said, Warboss Binky and a power klaw are a solution to many problems, and via the power of the Waaagh, I was able to put an end to the Predator fairly quickly.  This set me up for a charge against the Landraider the following turn - if I could weather the firestorm.

In a bid to ease the path a little, I threw the PK -equipped Nob from the mob that had been in the (immobilized) Battlewagon against the Redeemer, but sadly, managed to do little more than scratch its paint.



In the meantime, my Deffcoptas screened the approaching dreadnaughts - which proved fairly effective.  One Dread I've had little trouble dealing with, but a vanilla, Ironclad, and venerable, all marching towards me, proved  a tougher nut to crack.



Turn 4 saw the arrival of my Dakkjet.  I love this model, got it for Christmas over a year ago, and have yet to play it, so this was a much-anticipate moment.  Also, something of a disappointment.  In a flurry of high-caliber shoota fire, the 'jet managed to force a total of 3 armour saves, and kill the grand total of 1 marine.  Warboss Binky got in his charge, but between he and the Nob tagalong, only managed a couple of hull points and a destroyed assault cannon.  The following turn would not be pretty.



On the following turn, the Cub opened up with both his uber-flamers (gutting Binky's mob, and bringing the Warboss down to 1 wound) and his multi-melta, which left poor Binky as nothing more than a smoking boot on the table.



The assault cannon on one of the Dreads took down my dakkjet, and things went downhill fast.  We called the game for time at the top of turn 5, with points tied, but I was down to the rump of a couple mobs, 4 dakka jets, and nothing that would be able to counter the mass of armour Cub brought to bear.  Even the cold comfort of a successful Sluggaboy mob charge (which wiped out his tac squad) wasn't going to do much to turn the tide.



It was fun to get (and see) some new stuff on the table.  I was, honestly, disappointed in the Dakkajet.  While I can see some utility in it against other forces, against Marine armour it struggles.  Maybe I'll give the bomber version a try - and I've been itching to try the Forgeworld FightaBomma rules as well.

In other news, I've been picking away at the last base for my first unit of French 1/72 Napoleonics.  Saw a post over on RB and JtF the other day, and it fired me up a little.  I quite like the scale, the figs have improved marvelously since the old Airfix models, and it's got me reading the Black Powder rules again.



I have enough figs on hand for a couple more units of French Infantry, and at least one of cavalry, plus officers.  I figure I'll work on these for a bit until it's time for another change.  There's no rush on this project, as playing BP will require a) more room than I have, and b) more opponents than I have, but I figure a judicious program of exposing the children to repeated viewings of Waterloo and Zulu may have the desired effect.



I should have these fellows properly based in a few days, and will try to get a decent post out of it later in the week.  Until then, fare well.

FMB

Khorney

Hi all,

Having told the Cub recently that my AoS army was perfect for dads (it being rather Khorney), I felt obligated to do a little WiP post of the Khorne marked chaos warriors I've been picking at.



I had some fun with these guys.  I picked up a bunch of space wolf heads on EBay, and a few extra axes, and managed a full unit of 16 guys with bare heads and axes all round.



Kept the painting simple, with the same limited pallette as the rest of the army.



Works pretty well, though, I think.  I'm eager to get these guys finished, and on the table - might be able to talk the Cub into a game to try them out.  In the meantime, there's 15 more to finish up.



Enough to keep me busy, anyways.

FMB