A completed tank

I feel like I've at least achieved something in the past week!

The hull of this tank has already served with distinction at Throne of Skulls, with a Demolisher turret blu-tacced to it. Now it can loyally serve in its proper function!

The coming week

I have now at least managed to complete my Leman Russ MBT, so I'll be moving on to focus on the conscripts, using the Storm Troopers as a break from them.

I am considering painting up my second Storm Trooper squad using the new paints and methods GW recommend while I do the first using my old painting method, then doing some comparison shots.

I need to look into sculpted / detailed bases for my Malifaux Crew, the first part of which is to go through my wife's existing collection!

I'm not expecting to get a huge amount done this week as work is currently on the wrong side of incredibly busy, with me generally not leaving until after 9pm...

Malifaux: Zoraida & Collodi

So, AwesomeWife is Awesome, and she bought me a Malifaux crew for our wedding anniversary.

I got a case to put things in, the rulebook, the Zoraida alternate sculpt, the Collodi boxed set and Zoraida, Avatar of Fate.

This is _just_ a spot too much to fit into a 25 soulstone game, so my current plan is to assemble Collodi and Zoraida, leaving the Avatar form until last. I can then drop a Wicked Doll from the starting line up to allow the Avatar form, given Zoraida can make new ones...

I've also been quite surprised that I can't seem to get Army Builder to process Avatar forms. I don't seem to be doing it right. I'm usually a huge fan of theirs, especially for GW lists, but right now, I'm finding Wyrd's own Crew Creator much more reliable and accurate (although given its a tailor made solution by the makers of the game, I'm really not surprised at all!)...

Achievement Fail

I didn't do much painting at all.

Goals:
Leman Russ MBT
Currently: Turret Undercoated, hull fully painted
Goal: Fully painted tank

Conscripts Squad
Currently: 10 fully painted, six undercoated, 4 assembled and unpainted
Goal: 20 fully painted

Storm Trooper Squad
Currently: Undercoated started base coating
Goal: Fully painted

Achieved:

Leman Russ MBT: No change
Storm Trooper Squad: No change

Conscripts squad
Achieved: 10 undercoated, and first base coat started

The coming week

As predicted, my work training course was insane and I got precisely no gaming related things done all week!

I now have a week of holiday where I hope to get some catch up done.

The reason for the holiday is my first wedding anniversary. I got my wife the Incarnate Elemental of Beasts from Forgeworld. She's been talking about doing it up in an awesome winter colour scheme for a while, and I suspect if she gets it done in time it will be a Golden Demon entry.

My wife has, in turn, lovingly added to my painting backlog by getting me a Malifaux crew, the rule book, and a carry case from KR Multicase. I'm going to be going to pick them up tomorrow...

I'm going to try and set myself some goals for the coming week, and see how well I manage in getting close to them.

Leman Russ MBT
Currently: Turret Undercoated, hull fully painted
Goal: Fully painted tank

Conscripts Squad
Currently: 10 fully painted, six undercoated, 4 assembled and unpainted
Goal: 20 fully painted

Storm Trooper Squad
Currently: Undercoated started base coating
Goal: Fully painted

I think that's pretty achievable, all told. Lets see how well I do!

The coming week

So, how has my painting & modelling been coming along in the past week?

Well, after trying to trim the flash from one of the tiny pipes on the Forge World Titan Tech Priest's axe resulted in damaging the model, and I'd had a little cry, I decided to put him on hold for now. There was no way I was going to get him done in time for the painting competition last Saturday, so I decided to chalk that up to experience and leave it be for now.

So, I did a bit of pleading to the wife, and she fixed my mess up, and I put him back into his bag to finish the prep work later once I'm a lot more confident on such things. Instead, I decided to learn how to use a Dremel.

In short, they're awesome, and cut model prep time down extensively.

As a result of a productive weekend, I have now;

Cleaned up the second half of my conscript squad
Undercoated five of the conscripts, with the rest still to do (stupid rain)
Undercoated my stray Leman Russ turret

I also managed to get some of the base coating started on my first Storm Trooper squad while I was painting in Darksphere on Tuesday painting night...

As a result, I'm feeling really productive right now!

Because we're so busy (only just back from a monthly pub social!), and I'm on a work training course this week, I'm going to be giving Darksphere painting night a miss tomorrow. Despite that, I'm pretty hopeful of getting some stuff done over the week on some of the quick wins.

I've also joined the blog up to the UK Bloggers Group for 40K, so may see a very slight increase in traffic when I get as far as doing such things as regular pictures and more thoughts on tactics and stuff.

Wife

The wife has said I need to create a label for my blog for posts that would interest her.

Well, actually, what she said was "I don't read your blog much, because it's mostly boring shit".

I refused to create a "Stuff my wife finds boring" label, because that would be most of the gaming discussion, which is a high proportion of what the blog is right now.

In other news, it feels weird to type after using a Dremel. Its like all pins and needles, but without the prickling.

Death World Battle Mission vs Space Wolves

So, when Paul came over to do some 40K, we had time after the first game to fit in another - so I suggested we used the same army lists to play a Death World Battle Mission from April's White Dwarf.

We rolled up "Search and Rescue", and I got first deployment. Here was where we came across the first challenge. The scenario uses alternate deployment, with each side getting to deploy within their own table half but at least 18" away from an enemy...

Unfortunately, we don't have a gaming board, and the dining room table is 6' x 3' - so I very quickly denied most of the battlefield to Paul, and he got a horrid clumped deployment that he just didn't recover from. My squads ran forward, grabbed all the objectives and ran away with them while the rest of my army shot his advancing Space Wolves off the board...

The Death World random events were pretty fun and random. They did disadvantage one side or another at completely random, which meant that there was an additional element of complete chance in the game. This might not be to some people's taste, but it was genuinely good fun. I'd certainly recommend people try them out.

I think I also need to think about the thin table. Sim is adamant I shouldn't invest in some table boards right now, so I think introducing a house rule about the narrower table and the distance units are from each other may be worthwhile. They still need to be out of assault range of each other, but perhaps, where Fleet isn't involved, something under 18" may be worthwhile for "distance deployed apart"?

Another hard fought draw

I seem to have this habit of drawing against other Imperial Guard!

I had a 1,500 point game against Richard (Jangalak) from the Dark Sphere forums today at the London Plaza Veteran's Night. Dawn of War, Annihilation, and drew five kill points apiece.

I was using my January ToS list, which I won't repeat here as its only a few blog posts back.

We both failed to fully engage our forces - with a number of his mechanised squads ending up too far from anywhere to get fully engaged, and my big blob squad did nothing but sit in a corner firing Autocannons all game.

This was, I think, partially due to the my flank being very low on cover, which with two guard armies facing each other, leads to a lot of ineffective, cautious sniping, with neither side wanting to risk breaking cover. A brutal close ranged fire fight, followed by a cavalry charge, took place on my right flank in among a few small buildings, resulting in the majority of the kill points.

Learning points:
* Psyker Battle Squads are horrific. They really help you ensure units are going to flee.
* Two Command HQs with less equipment may be an interesting build, to give you a second "Get Back in the Fight" option and more orders.
* A heavily equipped, multi use combined infantry squad is a waste of points if all it is doing is firing two autocannons.
* Work out routes of advance sooner. I had a log jam on the right flank which meant the Rough Riders did not get an opportunity to assault as early as they could have.

While I had a slight lead in kill points for much of the game, Richard did a very good job of pulling back to a draw, and there were several close points where it could have tipped to either of us on the final turn of the game (I passed some leadership rolls, he passed some cover saves)...

I got the impression that my long range firepower was a bit more effective than his, while his short range firepower had an edge on me - but in turn, the Rough Riders gave me a genuine edge in the assault phase.

Also, his army was gorgeous. Am now bullying him privately to give me a link to his painting blog so Sim can see, as I totally forgot to take photos at the time!