Growth of the Under-Empire

So for the longest time I've had a skaven army from the world that was sitting in a cardboard box waitng to be transformed into an army for the Age of Sigmar. Recently I've decided to get it out, paint it up and add some things to it to make it a battle ready force. My son has started to get really into the hobby and we often find time at a weekend for a game, Stormcast vs Skaven, so I've really found an injection of passion to get this done.

First thing to do was to decide on a colour scheme. I initially thought I would aim for something not gren. I have a lot of green armies; Imperial Guard, Nurgle, Haqqislam for Infinity. However, after some thinking, research and some testing I decided to go for an overall green sceme. Initially I wanted to make the army look like it was in a dark, dimly lit cave so went for someting like this:

I really like this scheme but hit a snag. I have always been adamant that I wanted to have mixed fur colours for the army; some grey, some brown and some black with the odd character white to make them special. I discovered that the brown/grey material was just too earthy to go next to a brown fur colour and didn't give enough contrast. After looking at some artwork I decided that green would be best so came up with this:

I was quite happy with this scheme so decided to run with it for a bit:

After looking back over the inspirational artwork I had collected I felt that, althogh I was happy with these they still weren't quite right. So I decided I wanted to add more vibrant green lighting to the scheme, like it was inside or emerging from a warpstone laced tunnel:

I decided this was too vibrant htough and in the end toned it down to this:

I'm pretty happy with this scheme. I think it captures the "feel" that I want. Eeire green lighting, malevolent and pretty cool :)

Onto the rest of them!

We're still around!

So, it's been a while..... A lot has happened, not just for me personally or with what I am up to in the hobby but in terms of what is happening in the world of tabletop gaming. There have been new editions of multiple games, expansions, new armies and new games entirely. Some games have even come back from the dead! 

I'm going to give a quick run down on what I have been up to in the past 12 months to show what armies I have, what I have played and what I have had fun with.

I have tried not to flit too much between games in recent times but it's just impossible with so many great systems out there. I have actually stopped myself from buying into everything (I'm looking at you Necromunda) and kept my gaming in the past 12 months down to these systems:

Age Of Sigmar

Warhammer Underworlds

Blood Bowl

Infinity

Malifaux

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay

As for systems that I am also collecting and building in the background:

Warhammer 40K

Beyond the Gates of Antares

Ill run through each system and cover what has been going on.

Age of Sigmar

I've had a lot of fun playing through multiple systems but Age of Sigmar is the game I have played the most. It's a pretty simple game and it's been fun collecting a Nurgle army. The lore for AoS is becoming more fleshed out as the months go by and it is starting to feel like an actual world now, much like the older fantasy realm. The Nurgle models have also been fun to collect and paint. I haven't really decided on what sort of army to collect, instead going for models I like the look of.

My son has also been having fun painting up and collecting an order army themed around Stormcast Eternals and Lizardmen. We have painted a few models together but the best unit is his skinks. With a bit of airbrushing, some shading and some metallics they came out really nicely:

Warhammer Underworlds

Underworlds is the fantastic, relatively new, competitive miniatures game. It's more like a competitve board and CCG than a wargame and is a lot of fun to play. I have had a lot of fun playing this game but there are a few caveats when it comes to the system:

1) New warbands are being released all the time so it can be expensive to keep up with the ever changing meta

2) It's quite tricky to get good at unless you play a lot. I have really struggled with understanding the tactics of the game and almost never win.

It has been fun and it is one I would like to continue with.

Blood Bowl 

So the latest edition of BB came out a few years ago and after a couple of games it pretty much sat on the shelf for 2 years.... Until fairly recently. I recently took the Orc team out for a few matches and have had a lot of fun. It's not exactly a fast game to play but It is easy to transport and fast to set up meaning we can easily get through a game in an evening without being chased out of the shop at closing. Win!

Infinity

There has been a lot of new additions to the game of Infinity over the past 12 months. We've seen the rise and fall of sectoral armies, non aligned armies, expansions and more. Infinity remains one of my favorite games to collect and play. The miniatures are gorgeous and it's a great fun, if brutal, game to play. It isn't easy to learn but the rewards when it all goes to plan are high. I did manage to paint a model and start painting some more:

I recently picked up some models for a new sectoral army: The Invincible army for Yu-Jing. Haqqislam are agreat faction but with a vanilla non sectoral Haqqislam army you're looking at close to 18 models. With the Invincible army you can easily run at just 10 models so I thought it would be a great opportunity to collect some awesome looking figures and hopefully get them all painted up!

Malifaux

Malifaux is going through some big changes at the moment from 2nd to 3rd edition. Part of this change is the removal of some characters from the story line. One of those is the master that I run.... Ramos. They haven't stopped supporting the model and it's rules but officially, he's out for now. I totally understand as things can't stay stagnant but it has turned me off for the time being. Its a great game with some great mechanics. I have managed to get one game in over the past 6 months which was fun but with limited time and resources this may sit on the back burner for some time to come.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay

Last year saw the release of the 4th edition rule book for WFRP. I was so excited for this release. The Old World is a very special realm for me and this enables me to get my fix when I can. I threw myself in at the deep end and decided to run a mammoth gaming session from a Friday afternoon through to early Sunday morning (yes, we did sleep and eat). Having never DM'd before I totally immersed myself in the lore and watched and read so much about DM'ing that it all but consumed me. It was a fun process but it did take up a lot of my energy. It was a great weekend though and the three payers thoroughly enjoyed it, as did I. In the build up to the weekend I made quite a bit of terrain and collated a lot of figure for it so have quite the collection now:

Since then I have run a little game for my family which they really enjoyed. I love DM'ing and can't wait to run some more games!

What else?

Whilst all the above has been going on I have also been keeping my eye on a couple of other games that I enjoy: Gates of Antares and Warhammer 40k. The former game is one that, despite having the starter box for ages and having never played a game of, I am still very keen on. It's a fantastic rule set based upon Bolt Action but has been modified slightly. I have recently got the box out and built a few more models for this game so fingers crossed I can get a demo game in soon!

When the new spoace marines were released for 40K I wasn't overly taken with them but recently I got the urge to build and paint a Crimson Fist army so I have some Intercessors and  new dreadnaught. This is going slowly and really is more for the collecting and hobby side of things. That being said, I will play with them, they just won't be optimised for game play.

In conclusion...

So there we have it. That's where currently am with the hobby. It's been a funny few weeks recently as I have had so much going on with work and other personal projects that I haven't even had a game for about a month or more. I have a short break coming up where I intend to recharge and set a plan for the coming months in all aspects of my life with the intention of making sure the hobby is part of that plan. Lets see how that goes :) 

A surprise gift

Six months ago I was having a chat with my mate Trevor about Games Workshop and their various games and how things were so much better when the hobby was still young. We were condemning the most recent price hike and remembering how you could afford a squad of Space Marines, a few paints and brushes and still have change from a tenner.

Anyway, I was telling him how I wanted to start a small Astra Militarum army for 40k, but was struggling to find the time what with Rosie being a year and a half old. Trevor said he had a few Astra Militarum models knocking about the attic and that he would be happy to give them to me.

Fast forward to the present and our second child Poppy was born. Trevor had his first child, Henry, and all things 40k was long forgotten. The newborns had a play date so they could  dribble on each other and Trevor brought with him three large cardboard boxes. I had no idea what was in them, but it turns out it was the Astra Militarum models Trevor mentioned ages ago.

I seem to have inherited a Astra Militarum army! I can't wait to start painting things up and putting together a small 500pt force. It's been years since my last 40k game so I'm going to have to swat up on the rules as well at some point.

Once I had sorted everything out, I took some pictures which I thought I would share.

The tanks! A Chimera and two Leman Russ. One of the reasons I wanted an Astra Militarum army in the first place was the crazy amount of mechanised death available.

A squadron of three Sentinals. I have to admit that I have never even thought of taking these guys before. I'm loving the models though.

The Heavy Weapons. There are three Lascannons, four Autocannons and three Missile Launchers. These should be enough for the first 500 points and Trevor has saved me a fortune as they cost a bomb for some reason.

 The cannon fodder. Easily enough models for two healthy platoons. There are loads of special weapons mixed in as well. I'm loving the Commissar model, which again, I hadn't though of taking before.

So there we go. A big thanks again to Trevor for his generosity. I now just have to figure out how to paint and bottle feed at the same time...

The (Maya)net Is Vast and Infinite

Not posted for a while due to lack of time and on and off, feeling a bit meh about 40k.

But i thought I'd post today because I finally bit the bullet and bought into Infinity. When Gotrek and Praetor first talked about Infinity, I wasn't fully convinced. I loved how much character the models have and the rules looked interesting but I just couldn't find a faction that I could imagine playing. That was until recently when i discovered Ariadna's Caledonians!! They're Scottish, have werewolves and have access to a William Wallace character. SOLD!

So i bought the Highlander starter pack, a Cameronian and William Wallace (from Element Games) and have been absorbing the rules and getting (just a little) excited about playing my first game!

Astra Militarum Infantry Squad - Finished

So I finally managed to finish my 20 man squad! Its taken ages but mainly as I rarely am able to sit and paint and when I do its only for an hour or two. I think next time I'm sticking to 10 men at a time maximum!

I really need to try and do a proper showcase at some point but for now I have taken the best picture I can with my (crappy) phone camera:

Astra Militarum - Update

Hey all. Just a quick update on my Astra Militarum Infantry Platoon. They are almost finished. I just need to do a second coat on the black rims of the bases, varnish them (matt) and add some grass tufts. I'm fairly pleased with them. As always there is stuff I'd change and things I have learned but I find it's best to finish what is in front of you then move on. I learn way more like that. Keep an eye out for the finished article on these.

Shadows of Brimstone - New stuff

What caught my eye about Shadows of Brimstone was the scope for expansion. As I mentioned in the last post, the western theme is simply the tip of a very deep gaming iceberg. The core boxes provide the groundwork and what may seem fussy to begin with (everything, from treasure to monsters has at least three decks of cards each!) means that an add-ons can simply be shuffled in with the rest of the cards.

For example, the first Other World expansion has been released in the States and is called Caverns of Cynder.

Just like the other two Other Worlds, it comes with it own event and loot deck. All you have to do to incorporate it into your games is to put it's Other World card in with the Ice City and Swamps and hope you draw it when you venture through a portal. Flying Frog really do have a blank canvas and can literally go anywhere with this concept. Abandoned space wreckage hurtling towards a sun anyone?

New characters are also planned to expand the original eight. Again, each character just needs their starting gear and off they go.

Personally, I'm always a fan of Wizards in fantasy games so I hope they include a character who uses magic or spells in some form. I spotted a picture of a Dark Stone Shaman knocking about the internet so who knows?


However, the really crazy things are the new boss style enemies.

They are HUGE!

Overall, I can't wait to get going in Shadows of Brimstone. I'm also genuinely interested to see where Flying Frog takes the game. I already have the City of the Ancients core game and next I really want to put up a battle report of my first play through. Saddle up!

Shadows of Brimstone - So what is it?

Shadows of Brimstone is a cooperative dungeon crawler set (initially) in the Wild West, published by those crazy people at Flying Frog Productions.

Unusually, the core game comes in two versions, City of the Ancients and The Swamps of Death. Each core game contains The Mines location (which is where you start each adventure) together with a different Other World location, which you can travel to through portals, more of this later.

Each player chooses a character from the 8 classic western archetypes currently available, such as US Marshal, Crazy Priest and Mexican Bandit and collects together their starting gear.

Each adventure can either be taken from the Adventure book where the layout of the Mines is pre-mapped and the events pre-scripted, or take on a completely random map layout on their quest for money and loot.

Players can keep track of their character's experience, stats and equipment and keep them from adventure to adventure, levelling up as they go. Between each adventure players can go to Town and visit various shops to buy new equipment, heal various aliments and do any character-specific events (the Outlaw can try to rob the Bank!).

An experienced Outlaw

The gameplay is familiar if you have played a few games like this. Each turn every character/monster activates in initiative order and can move and then attack. When a character attacks, you count up how many ranged shots or melee attacks they have and roll to hit and wound. The target can then roll to defend and takes wounds accordingly.

Every monster have their own stats and rules which are printed on giant cards.

When you move to the edge of a map tile, a new one is drawn from the pile and you carry on, much like Warhammer Quest.

The blue and white blob is a portal to another dimension...

As previously mentioned, some map tiles have portals for exits. When you go through a portal, you randomly draw a card from the Other World deck to find out which dimension you end up in. This is where the City of the Ancients and the Swamps of Death come in. Each Other World has their own loot deck and event deck. Therefore, you start your adventure in the Wild West, but could end up knee deep in a swamp being attacked by dinosaurs or find yourself in a frozen abandoned city surrounded by alien technology!

There is already a ton of expansions and additional characters planned. I'll have a look at these in the next post.

Shadows of Brimstone - Preamble

There was a town, if you could call it that, named Brimstone; a small railway stop on the edge of the hottest deserts in the south west territory. Barely a speck, it didn’t even show up on most maps… That is, until they found the Dark Stone.

Digging in the hills, an old prospector came across a strange nugget he had never seen before, a black rock, part way between a crystal and a metal ore. But there was something special about that rock, it had a glow you could only see out of the corner of your eye and was warm to the touch. It had properties folks said were magik, and of course, that caused a stir. Within days they found more of it buried in the earth, and stories started to spread. Business men and scholars started offering top dollar for even the smallest shard of the stuff, and that opened the floodgates. 

It was a gold rush, but not for gold; for the black rock… the Dark Stone. People came from all over to try and make their fortune, and Brimstone boomed over night. They dug mines in every scrap of land they could get a hold of. Round the clock they worked, digging deeper and deeper into the earth, bringing up cartloads full of the rock and sending it back to town to be stockpiled and sold to the highest bidder. What they didn’t know, what nobody knew, was that the energy in the Dark Stone resonated with itself. As they collected more and more of the rocks all in one place, it started to cascade, until… it exploded. In a flash, the town was consumed and a shock wave rolled out across the desert, burning the trees and tainting the land.

Reality itself was being ripped apart, and the people along with it. Dark portals to other worlds started tearing open across the countryside, pulling people in and unleashing all manner of demons and creatures into our world. Wherever there was Dark Stone these gateways would appear; some only flickering open for an instant, others opened and stayed that way.

That was 6 months ago. Since then, demonic creatures of all kinds have been pouring out of the mines, and the scorched hell on earth that is…was Brimstone. The government denies its existence, and anyone sane steers clear of the whole area, but plenty of folks find they can’t help but be drawn in, whether it’s to try and help somehow or just to find a fortune of their own, doesn’t matter. Everyone wants to be a hero. Damn fools. No one ever escapes… the Shadows of Brimstone. 

 

Astra Militarum - WIP Update

Hey all. Just a quick update to my unit. I am managing to find some time here and there to do a bit. Here is the latest. I still need to add a bit more weathering with powders and tidy up some stuff like the pipe that runs to the flamer from the promethium tanks on his back but they are getting there. Quite pleased with these for standard troops. Its been a great learning process and I have discovered several things that I can do differently to speed up the process for the next batch.

Astra Militarum - WIP

Just a quick update to show show a WIP photo. I'm working on a large unit of shock troops in the new scheme. I'm managing to get an hour in here and there and its adding up. I'm still in the process of laying down the base colours ready for the wash. Its coming together though. I'm hoping to have this squad done in the next week or two. Then it'll be the command squads and then some tanks!

2016 - The year of Astra Militarum

So it's 2016 and barely anything has changed in a year on the gaming front. I have started to play Star Wars Armada (which is a fantastic game) but in terms of modelling and painting, most of my armies still sit in almost the same state they started the year in. I did get some AM built and a squad painted but for the most part, the last 6 months, I have made no progress. Roll on into 2016 and I have got things going!

I am keen this year to really get my Astra Militarum army to at least 1250 points, painted, and then possibly get a Baneblade variant to add to it (I love the model). My last attempt at painting was loosely following the normal Cadian paint scheme but one thing that never sat well with me was the khaki fatigues that went along with the green armour that they wear. It just seemed like the model would stand out like a sore thumb. I there fore decided to go to a more green overall scheme:

The model still has enough contrast to stand out and I think looks more realistic in terms of what a Cadian soldier might wear. Sure it would be nice to add some camo pattern to the them but I am going to have to paint scores of these guys, which brings me to the next part.... Airbrushing! I have decided to use my airbrush for more than priming. These guys got a Zenith highlight in white, basecoat in Vallejo Green RLM 62 (this was applied as a dusting to the whole model), then highlighted with Vallejo Camoflage Lightgreen and the GW Straken Green. I then used Vallejo Beasty Brown to colour the base and add a mud affect to the boots and fatigues. All of this was done with the airbrush and in a fraction of the time it would take to do with a brush. It also meant all my highlights were added in. 

Something else I tried with this was a watercolour wash. I mixed some black and some burnt Umber to create a dark wash and applied it liberally. Once this was dry I then dampened a cotton bud and wiped it across the model. This leaves the wash in the recesses but removes the excess on the raised surfaces. It's a bit of a faff but way faster than touching up afterwards and it also means that the airbrush work isn't ruined or covered up. I did go in afterwards and add some Nuln Oil to some of the receses in a controlled manner but this took little time.

Overall I'm really happy with the look. I'm looking forward to getting the others painted up!

Gotrek