GRNDLheim

Its been over a year since I started on this project and its finally finished.  What started off as an excuse to sculpt a goblin head became a runaway project that kept getting shelved and then brought out for another stage every 3-4 months. At pretty much every stage there were a bunch of ideas and inspirations that kept coming, but one model is only so big - even though its a large model, there's only so much you can do with it, so all the hanging on, parachuting, nosehair diving, armpit hair swinging, lookout snotlings and so on will have to wait.

 

The actual head that started it all off was finished rather quickly, and works pretty well I think. The next bit was to marry it with a body. I had originally planned on using the old style Citadel Giant because I thought its proportions would make a good goblin. When the new plastic Giant came out, it called out for this goblin head, so I caved and enthusiasm was reignited on the project. The new giant is gigantic and very well constructed - putting it together was a breeze.  I built the goblin head onto the giant kit body and sculpted the neck and shoulder muscles to support it. Then came the issues... LoL. The original pose I put it in brought the giant's weapon too low where it would interfere with models in base-to-base contact with it. The head was also dipped too low, so all the work I had put into the head would be obscured. So I had to pull it off and redo all the supporting sculpting.  A few more months would go by before I plucked up the nerve (and knowhow) to sculpt a Night Goblin style hood for him from green stuff. The hard thing was the idea that the giant's clothing is stitched together from little goblin robes, so figuring out how to sculpt stitches was the hurdle to overcome.

 

Planning the base was a major headache too. With such a large model, I thought it would be a joy to do - so much space! It turned out to be a nightmare. The Giant is locked into one pose, and the base that came with it was badly cast. So I erased all the details and started over, but wanted to put way too much onto the base - the crushed goblin, defiant snotlings, giant feetprints in the mud, mushrooms, broken enemy corpses etc. It wouldn't all fit!  The giant foot prints were fun to do, but took about 3 different methods to do properly. Eventually, I used epoxy putty to make them by using the giant's feet as a stamp. You need water as a release agent, otherwise the putty tends to stick to the feet... 

 

The mushrooms on the base were either totally sculpted from Aves ApoxieSculpt, or dressing pins dipped in several layers of PVA glue. The tiny ones are clipped pins.

 

Painting took about 20 hours, spread over about a week of work. Painting such a large, detailed model made the use of washes somewhat irrelevant - I couldn't get a smooth enough transition from shadow to midtone, and so ended up painting over the washed areas by hand. The wash really became a guide coat.  The model was painted in 4 seperate parts - legs/body/head, 2 arms and the base. Colour co-ordination was dictated by the rest of the army (so far: purple and yellow, black, and dull blues). The original plan was to paint his rag tag stitched clothes as though they were stitched together from the purple and black robes the gobboes in the army wear, but the black didn't work out. It just looked like a cheap shortcut. So I went with deep blues. This colour scheme was echoed on the mushrooms to further tie it into the rest of the army (although its the only model with blue mushrooms on it).  The empire soldier in his hand was deliberately painted the highest contrast colours I could, to draw attention to the giant's head.

 

Overall, with sculpting, painting, engineering, agonizing, I think I cranked in over 40 hours on this fucker. LoL. Now I get to watch it die in the first few turns of the next game he's in. :)

 

 

 

 

Its been a hell of a long time since my last post. Things have been very busy and there's only been a few things of note.

 

Modelling projects: I keep talking about my Giant! The project is getting long in the tooth but nearing completion. Its been quite a battle, and has gone through a major retooling where I changed plans of which giant model to use. I went from using the old stumpy Giant model to the new plastic kit, and I am glad I did. First off, the head I sculpted looks more proportional to the body and the model overall looks more dynamic. Secondly, this choice caused more work - I had to re-engineer the base/feet pins, the arm holding the club and had to rebuild his neck. This culminated in me sculpting a new hood as well. The model is now in the painting stage, and this is presenting its own problems. It is a mountain of a model - huge areas to be painted and because its so big, blending the colours is necessary! I can't get away with slappy painting. Also, since I've sculpted a lot of the detail on the head, there is a lot of cleanup to be done. I didn't see the imperfections while sculpting it, so I didn't file and sand and carve it all down... Now its being painted these flaws are highlighted! Very depressing.

 

The Tau interest. Its dead. LoL. I got one full squad of Fire Warriors, a Crisis suit and 2 gun drones painted, and thats not bad. They look pretty cool for a cast off, scrappy paintjob, but unless something major happens I doubt I will resume building it. Maybe the Piranha, if I can figure out a cheesy, no hassle, paint scheme for it.

 

Squigs... Working on it, working on it... :) The squig fervour has developed into a sort of side project involving a recently developed fascination for chariots in Warhammer... Waaaaggggghhhh!!

So, my current projects are beginning to slew to the side of wacky. Since my Fantasy leanings have recently been dominated by the Night Goblins, I've been painting Squigs.

 

Squigs (short for Squiggly things) are weird fungus creatures (one part alien from Critters, one part muppet) that are used by the Goblins for food, mounts, pets, beasts of burden, etc. They are also insanely coloured which means they are fun to paint. However, choosing colours is a nightmare. I had started off with the idea of taking the colours of me "elite" (ha!)  night goblins, purple and yellow, and use combinations of them for spots, stripes etc. They look pretty good, but yellow is a pain in the ass to make it look right on the model. Yellow has very little covering power, and I found myself putting white base coats down and glazing yellow paint on top of it, layer by layer, to get a decent colour. Also, purple and yellow began to look NORMAL. So, I've been experimenting with other colours. Its probably going to break the  unified feel of the unit, but will look pretty eye-disturbing, and I think thats what Squigs are all about!

 

I also have a plan to make a decent Night Goblin boss. The Grimnebulin model conversion (that still needs work) looks good IMHO, but its not wacky enough to be a Goblin Boss - and in all fairness, he was made to be a Chaos Goblin, and not a Night Goblin. Also, there aren't any stats for the Doomshroom. If my plan comes to fruition (and they don't always), I will post some pics of the work in progress.

 

Tau

----

I briefly mentioned the idea of my Tau army. I'm still not sure the Tau army will reach fruition but as an experiment I feel its been a success. I've found a really cheap and slappy way to paint them, and its rather striking. The downside to it is that I've spent a fun 2-3 hours trying to mix paint to faciliate the process.

 

I didn't want to spend time picking out details on the model and instead chose a "dazzle" cam pattern. The high contrast stripes add visual interest to the model without the need for tedious washes and highlights. I have a very liberal approach to painting and so you will be very disappointed in a close inspection. Tabletop quality only!

 

The Nazi bit. The Tau have always stood out among the rest of the real Warhammer 40k races (!). To me, 40k is all about a very dark, grey universe. Even the good guys are so steeped in moral ambiguity as to be heroes in one light, and evil villains in another. The Tau are good, good, good... /sigh  How boring?  So, my Tau models are not good! Evil bastiches all! Since I'm reading a book on the Nazi's roots in the occult and their associated Cults, I was suddenly stricken by the idea that there might be a Tau Sept who are a bit too ruthless in their expression of the "Greater Good". In the new Tau Codex there are two Septs that might fit the bill: the V'Or'la and the K'el'shin (names might be farked).  The V'Or'La sept are adept Fire Warriors, but are well respected and traditional. The K'el'shin are very xenophobic and mistrusts any aliens. The K'el'shin seem more likely to adopt a ruthless, irrational stance (ie: genocidal) and more likely to twist the ideals of the Greater Good toward evil.

 

With respect to the fluff, I can't see this Army being condoned by the Tau peoples, at least not overtly. I think that these guys are called in for the hard fighting and subdual of lesser races. Consequently, I doubt an Ethereal would ever show up wearing flimsy robes and a smile for the troops. I think that an Ethereal for this army would need to be a hard bitten, deeply resentful, hate ridden fanatic, using his psychic/pheromonal bond to incite anger and bloodlust. This would inevitably lead toward the predations of the creatures of the Warp...

 

And so an ancient, long forgotten prophecy came to pass. It was wrong of course...

 

The Accursed Dave Daniels defaulted on today's game by not bringing his troops in, and so Dawn stepped up to the plate with her Skaven to fight the green gobbo horde.

 

The forces:

 

The semi-evil Gobbo 'Orde ov Der Grimnebulin! 501pts Night Goblins

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hazzat, the Odd Git. Lvl 2 wizard upgrade.

30 Night Goblins, Boss, Standard, Musician. Hand Weapon and shield.

   2 Fanatics

20 Night Goblins, Boss, Standard, Musician, Spear and Shield.

9 Squigs, 3 herders

10 Night Goblin Archers

10 Night Goblin Archers

1 Snotling base.

 

The Really Evil Skaven, 500 pts

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1 Chieftain, enchanted shield and something else.

20 Clan Rats, Bigrat, Standard, Musician, spears?

13 Stormvermin, Bigrat, Standard, Musician, Hand weapon and shield

3 Warplock Jezzails

2 Rat Swarms, no poison.

 

Highlights

======

 

There was too much going on to explain it bit by bit. So here are the highlights:

 

* Turn 1: 2 crucial Goblin units suffer from Animosity and promptly try to kill each other. Much blood.

* Hazzat brings down Brain Bursta and causes much damage. About 20 wounds over 2 turns. Dice rolling was incredible.

* Skaven Chieftain withstands a gigantic attack by goblins. Outnumbered 20:1 he fights on for 3-4 turns before running. The Goblins couldn't even pursue. Skaven is alive by game end, but running off table.

* Squig unit is driven into combat and the herders run away! Squigs everywhere! The bouncing begins and about 3-4 Rats succumb to rampant Squigs.

* Goblin Fanatics cause much devastation - perhaps 5-6 Stormvermin can trounced.

* Hazzat killed in multiple Jezzail volleys. It took two turns of Jezzail fire to take him down. A timely successful dispel magic roll by Dawn saved the Jezzails and enabled them to put a bullet in the wildly successful Odd Gits head. Grimnebulin is now looking for a new Odd Git.

* Skaven frightened of psychotic Snotlings. Dawn is quoted as saying "Snotlings are intimidating", "murderous snotlings", "I could see it in their eyes". These snotlings had puppets. Scary stuff!

 

So, the result was a Night Goblin victory.

 

The deciding factor yet again was magic. Dawn's lack of Wizards on the tabletop meant that the infidel goblin Odd Git Hazzat was able to cast Brain Bursta willy nilly turn after turn. Out of 4-5 casts, only 1 was dispelled. This was by far the best magic casting I've ever had, even over the magic heavy Lizardmen. Don't underestimate the power of Mork and Gork, and the spells of the Little Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagghhh!

 

Ranged weapons didn't help me at all. The Goblin Archers sucked donkeys. I think they got 1 wound in the whole game and that was saved against. But, what do you expect at 3 pts apiece. :)

Goblins can't hit the broadside of a barn, even if its right in front of them, but they have a ton of numbers. In a 500 pt game, I was able to field over 80 models!  In Close Combat, I couldn't get many wounds on my opponent, but I always outnumbered them and had full rank bonus, this meant that only if things went really bad on a round of fighting, they were unlikely to break. 

 

The Snotlings played a mean psychological game. They ran this way and that, and led the charge against the enemy through sheer courage (ie: stupidity). They also didn't inflict a single wound, nor lasted one round of combat. A total waste of 25 pts. :)  They did "scare" the opponent though, but thats because she had no idea how pathetic they were.

 

The ancient prophecy I mentioned earlier was me swearing that one day I'd play a Goblin army, and that came true today... After 21 years of pissing about.  But then, the prophecy said the Gobbos lose...  Probably next time...

I blogged this conversion seemingly aeyonks ago, and now it is finished. Just like many of my models and projects this languished through the "ugly" period. Every project I do starts out great and well planned and then I get through 2/3 of it and it will look like total crap and I'll lose faith in it, and my momentum goes out of the window. When I finally get enough enthusiasm to get over that wall, I can usually finish it up satisfactorily.

 

I think this one worked out quite nicely for what it is, but I'm in no hurry to do another one. :) Its a whacky paint scheme. It makes use of complimentary colours. It isn't quite as vibrant as I was hoping but it still pops.

 

One touch I'm quite pleased in is the skull on the base. It was inspired by real life Aztec decorations. They'd take a skull and press or form gold onto it, and attach chips of turquoise and lapis lazuli to decorate it. I took this idea and added a little homage to Lizardman lore, and slapped some "cut" emeralds into the eye sockets. The lore states: A human lead an army into the Lustrian jungles to steal gold and gems, but failed and was killed. In warning to all those who would follow, the Lizardmen tore out his eyes and placed large bountiful gems in their place.

 

I'm going to take a break from lizards and stuff. I've been experimenting with a cheap colour scheme for some Tau models. The new Tau codex peaked my interest a little, and I'm tired of waiting for anything really cool for 40k. Ever since the 4th edition rules came out its been nothing but Space Marines, Space Marines, Space Marines, Space Marines, Tyranids and Space Marines, with a dash of Space Marines thrown in. Sorry, but making Eldar rangers out of Wood Elf Glade guard models doesn't cut it...

 

The idea: Nazi Tau!! Its for the Greater Good!

 

LoL

I've had this model hanging around for aeyonks. I got it as part of my Lizardman army box and assembled it last year as part of my "Sotek's Defiance" Lizardman warband. But it languished unpainted for a very long time, and I eventually got around to painting it a second time, and ended up with only a base coat on its belly.

 

In the last two nights I summoned up enough energy to slap some more paint on it. I'm in two minds about the end result. I simplified the paint job because it would have been too "busy" for the model and just confused its form; it would have had a jurassic park style velociraptor tiger stripe pattern along its back. Its the most natural looking lizardman I've done, and looks almost "normal". No bright blues here.

 

Kinda happy, kinda not, with the base. With a large 50mm monster base, there's an urge to fill it with cool stuff. I did an experiment. I wanted it to look like an overgrown Lustrian battlefield - where the Kroxigor's ancestors fought off earlier attempts at invasion, and the jungle has grown over top of the debris of battle. There's an old lizardman shield and a sickle weapon half buried on the base - rusted and covered with verdigris from exposure to the moist Lustrian jungle air.  I think the painting works well on it, but the flock and vegetation I added covers it up too much. Ah well.

 

Another figure painted. :)

Well, painting them anyway.  You'd think that a tiny blob of goblin would be easy to paint: slap on some green, a wash or green ink, touch up, done. But no, these bastards are highly detailed almost to the point of ridiculousness. Spears, nets, loinclothes, scabbards, beer bottles, caps, etc. all need to be painted, and the thing that makes it really tough is that after you've glued the fuckers onto a 40mm base, there's very little room to get the brush in. There's also a ton of flash and imperfections to clear up, and its tempting to leave them because the final base will be so busy with action that you might not notice it. Truly, the Snotlings are a minefield for the modeller/painter. If you want a challenge, try them!

 

I made a discovery when I bought more Snotlings. They come in packs of 20, with 2 bases, so its suggested that you get 10 of them on the base. 10!?!?! I was having problems with 5 of them on a base, but 10? Other than basing and painting the snotlings seperately, I don't see any solutions. And doing that would be very time consuming - practically the equivalent of doing a squad of 10 models for 1 base. Bleh!!!!

Anyway, here's a pic of my snotling conversion. I had used a few snotlings on my Plague Rhino model for the decay jacuzzi on the back, and so I was down a few models when I came to do the snotlings for my Night Goblin army. My solution was to sculpt some puppets to make it look like the Snotlings were pumping up their own numbers. Snotlings, not being the brightest of the bunch, decided to make Night Goblin puppets in robes, so they look somewhat suspicious...

So the challenge was issued, and the match refought. The conditions: same armies, the same terrain (as best can be remembered) but with the river declared as difficult terrain, so it only halved movement, not quartered it.

 

The deployments were similar on both sides, but the movements in the first few turns were decidely different. At least on my side. I made a strong move toward the center of the board, protecting my flanks on one side with both Skink units and the Salamander, with the Kroxigor covering the right. Initially, I kept all my troops on my side of the river, hoping to let the vile Skaven flounder in the water. But it was not to be.

 

The Stormvermin and skaven hero came on strong on the left flank and I had to skip Nuqalotl (the skink priest) in to deliver the Storm of Cronos. It did a little damage (2 dead rats) and then he was suddenly in danger of being charged. Luckily a big rock was in the way, and the skaven had to maneuver around it, cutting a good 2" of its charge move. The charge failed and Nuqalotl skipped away, rattling his maraccas! Tch tch tch!

 

These stormvermin were still a mighty threat though, and I had to pull out all stops to stop their advance. If they had gotten into base contact with my left flank I was in serious trouble. Skink blowdarts, salamander flames and a few more Storm of Cronos spells and I managed to break them. They skedaddled to the table edge, unable to rally.

 

The frontlines were troublesome as well. Just like the last game, the rat swarms came scurrying through the woods in the middle. Dawn considered my skink darts a major problem and charged them. The skinks died swiftly under viscious poisoned nibbles! However, the swarms were counter attacked by my Saurus and eventually exterminated. The swarms did very well though and took out 4 Saurus's and tied up my biggest unit for 2 turns. If the swarms hadn't have been softened up by Salamander fire, that combat would have gone on another round for sure.

 

Dawn's clanrats (20 of em) were marching up the middle. I managed to snipe em a little with a Storm of Cronos but really couldn't hit them hard enough without endangering wimpy units.  A big mistake I made was letting my remaining Skink dart unit get a stationary shot on the clanrats. I did very minimal damage and the extra turn allowed the clanrats to get into charging distance of them. They were charged and promptly lost 3 guys in one round, but miraculously made their morale check. Cold blood (roll 3d6, pick lowest 2) helps a ton, even with Leadership 5. The skinks held their ground, allowing the Kroxigor to charge the clanrat flanks. 

 

This was a decisive move for me. If the skinks had broken and ran, the Clanrats would have been able to do an overrun move and base my Skink Priest (who would surely have died in the following battle). Instead, the clanrats were pinned into position, frozen into fear by the Kroxigor and finally countercharged by the Saurus warrior, eventually driving them into a rout that would take them off the table.

This bit brought up some interesting questions - we seem to get into situations which are never quite explained away by the rules. The clanrats were flanked by 2 units, and lost most of their advantages - standard, champion and musician in the front rank, the use of spears, and because their frontage was reduced to 3 models could barely touch the Kroxigor. This meant that they didn't win a combat, couldn't lap around, and were seemingly trapped in a losing situation.

 

I think that the rulings we made on this were logical and sound, but clarification would be helpful. The one thing it did prove is that flanking an enemy brings massive advantages, and you need to keep other units nearby to bail flanked units out of trouble. If Dawn had another unit within charge distance, she could have counterattacked the Kroxigor, perhaps removed it a turn or two earlier and reformed to receive the Saurus unit, or even attacked it first.

 

Perhaps 500pts is still too small for some armies to get a good tactical advantage. I fielded 6 units to Dawn's 4, and I felt like I had more options.  Skaven seem to work better with full blocks of troops - I suggested dropping the swarms for more clanrats or even rat slaves to use as fodder. Even splitting the swarms into 2 units might have helped - to tie up units that were used to counterattack, etc.

 

I think its becoming clear that we need to up the points value by another 100-200 pts just to let the armies stretch their legs. That leap becomes a tough decision for me: it means assembling and painting more core troops which is friggin boring. :)

 

I think I'll take Grimnebulin and his horde out for the next 500 pter...

 

Well, I fired off a couple of questions to the Rulez Trollz at the GW Mail Order HQ (in Oakville) and they responded with grave news. In the last game, my Skink Priest would not have been able to cast the Storm of Cronos and thus, would have been splattered in close combat.

 

So, I make good with my promise and default on the game. Congratulations Dawn, victory is yours! She has suggested a rematch with the same armies, on the same terrain, but suggested that the river only be difficult terrain rather than very difficult terrain. I don't disagree, so we just have to set a date for the next invasion of Lustria by the diseased Skaven vermin.

 

The ruling essentially states that any spell with a Line of Sight requirement needs to be cast outside of close combat. Also, the target needs to be outside of combat as well, since meleeing automatically makes them "out of sight" because the combatants are jumping about, swinging weapons and generally flailing amidst a lot of other peeps doing the same.

So! First warband battle in almost 6 months is a grudge match! Those squirrely vermin, the Skaven, yet again tried to invade the verdant jungles of Lustria!!

 

The Forces of Good - Sotek's Defiance, 497pts

 

Nuqalotl - Skink Priest, lv 2, cloak of feathers, Spells: Second Sign, Storm of Cronos

Saurus - 12 warriors, hand weapon/shield, champ, standard, musician

Skinks - 2 units of 5, blowpipes, scouts

Kroxigor - 1 model

Salamander - 1 salamander, 3 skink handlers

 

 

Dawn's EEEEVIILLLEE Skaven - 500 pt limit

1 Hero with some crazy weapon

20 Clan Rats, spears, shield.

13 Stormvermin with Halberds

2 rat swarms

 

Conditions: Defender (Lizards - me) set up terrain. This was an invasion of Lustrian territory, so I set up. There was a good mix of forests and hills, with a dividing fast flowing river (very difficult).

 

Quick overview:  The game was somewhat upset because I had spell casters and a good deal of long range weaponry - Salamanders, Blowpipes, etc.  I could afford not getting into melee, and actually got a good guerilla war going. Spells and blowpipes initially didn't do much damage but ultimately won the game.

 

My Skink priest was able to skip arount like a nuke-wielding mosquito thanks to his Cloak of Feathers. He was chain casting Storm of Cronos every turn to (eventually) devastating effect. Dawn was able to dispell only 1 of his spells, which lead to her Stormvermin coming narrowly close to charging distance of my flanks.

 

I had thought the priest was untouchable, but Dawn managed to charge him on turn 2, and suddenly I was very worried. Her general charged into combat with three  Weaponskill (WS) 10 attacks thanks to his crazy magical weapon. I was stunned (apparently, my shit eating grin fell to the table!) and expected the worst. She only needed 3's to hit!!  Dawn then proceeded to roll a 2, 1, 1.... I couldn't believe it, Sotek truly was on my side.

 

Next came the most controversial part of the battle. Consulting the rules, we concluded that the Skink priest could cast spells that weren't magic missiles while in close combat. Since Storm of Cronos inflicts attacks on EVERY unit within 12" of the cast, it seemed logical that the Skaven hero in close combat with the priest would get hit as well. This attack inflicted 2 wounds on the Skaven hero killing it instantly. A bad turn of events for Dawn.  Later, further "rules lawyering" came up with a line that said "spells cannot target units in close combat unless specifically mentioned in the description". Storm of Cronos doesn't mention it, so the jury is still out. I will ask the GW Rules trolls and see what they say. I have a feeling that our ruling was incorrect, and that the spell shouldn't have been cast. If that is the case, then I will default on the game, since the loss of Dawn's hero was a gigantic setback for her. There is no way that the Skink Priest would have survived another round of close combat.

 

With the hero gone, the Nuqalotl jumped about the jungle slamming the wrath of the Heavens into pretty much every unit Dawn had. I think his spells accounted for at least 15 models/wounds.

 

The river posed a huge problem. In retrospect it was a mistake to put on the table, and an even bigger mistake to class it as Very Difficult terrain. Because I had ranged attacks, I could sit on one side of the river and shower the Skaven with poison darts, while maneuvring my Saurus Warriors to receive any charge from the other side.

 

The Skaven HAD to advance across the river - a dangerous prospect because the river decreased any movement to 1/4 speed. Charges couldn't be made unless the distance was very small. Dawn's Clanrats floundered and withered under the combined might of spells and blowpipe darts. They almost made it across but by that time, the Saurus formed up on the bank of the river and then charged them. 2 rounds of fighting later, the Clanrats were broken, and cut down by hungry lizards as they tried to flee.

 

The Rat Swarms made their usual appearance and did some devastating damage to me. They wiped out a band of skinks, and their Kroxigor accomplice and effectively denied me a great counterattack I had brewing. The swarms even charged my Saurus, further slowing them down, but only for a turn or so.

 

I would say that the true hero of the Skaven army were the Stormvermin. They had one hell of a time and made the most of it. Constantly under fire, taking casualties, running away, rallying, marching back into the fight, taking hits, breaking, rerallying and finally marching toward my exposed flank, they were only pushed back by a very lucky salvo of poison darts.

 

Overall, it was a very fun game. Its easy to say that when you win, I guess, but in retrospect, the game brought a wealth of tactical choices that were very hard to make.  There was a wealth of memorable images - Dawn's horrible luck with her "how can I lose?" statistics, rat corpses washing downstream shivering from the effects of frog-based neurotoxins as the bewildered rats struggled valiantly across a fast moving Lustrian river, a suddenly nervous Lizardman commander seeing his paper-tiger skink priest being charged by a behemoth rat, stormvermin literally zigzagging back and forth, salamanders blowing shit up. I really think that a lot of this drama really only happens in large scale games, but 500 pts is enough for a very dynamic game.

 

Dawn's big problem was diversity of troops. I think Skaven rely on 2 main things: big blocks of troops (to get rank bonus for Leadership rolls, survivability in combat etc), and softening up the enemy before the melee. Skaven have a good range of heavy firepower - jezzails, ratling guns, warpthrowers, globadiers, etc. If she had had even 1 ranged weapon, it would have been a different game, I think. Without large blocks of troops, the rats tend to run very fast - a full block of rats will get a +3 leadership, bringing it to a respectable 8, from their crappy 5.

 

 

The army has to support every unit inside it, or else you are wasting points.  That is the key of Warhammer (and strategy in general, I think) and its damn hard to do!

 

 

(Had no digital camera on hand, so you get a crappy MS Paint map - enjoy!) 

  Yesterday I was shocked to discover that Keith Parkinson, one of my favourite artists, had passed away.  I had been inspired by his paintings for D&D books, and much later, his work on the Everquest covers. He had an incredible way of blending the fantastic with the natural, almost with a Robert Bateman style, to make his paintings utterly believable.

 

  Some of his paintings defied convention, like "Northwatch" in which the central focus of the painting, a sentry riding a kind of dragon/dinosaur, was facing away from the viewer. His paintings often involved humourous captions and content, even though they were relatively serious depictions - "We're lost!", and "The Big Stash."

  Keith became a lot more prolific in between his D&D work, and Everquest by painting many fantasy novel covers for people like Terry Brooks and David Eddings, and when he stopped doing freelance work to become art director at Sigil games (MMO video game developer) I joked that we wouldn't see anymore art from him for awhile.

 

  I had never expected that it wouldn't be because he was just directing art, but because of Leukemia.

 

  Keith died at 47, well before his artistic prime, but his work lives on as a cornerstone of Fantasy Art.

 

 If you would like to find out more, visit these sites:

 

  www.keithparkinson.com

  http://www.vanguardsagaofheroes.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=571101

So, this thanksgiving gave me an opportunity I hadn't had in a very long time - to bottle my mead! Weekends have typically been shot to hell since my Dad was admitted to hospital and subsequently to a convalescent home. My weekends were made even worse when my Mum finally got notice that her new residence was nearing and completion. Add to this the numerous home rennovation and maintenance that my house sorely needs, spare time has been something of a rare commodity for anything that can't fit in a few hours.

 

Bottling is one of these things. The actual bottling only took 1 hour or so, it was the 4 hours of sanitizing equipment and the kitchen itself that took up the other 4!!

 

These were my 6 or 7th batches I've brewed, and I'm pleased to say both came through with flying colours. Time and patience are the mead maker's friends. Both of these batches had been aging for over a year, and I had been fighting off the urge to bottle them earlier, when I had time.

 

    Last year's Christmas wine tasting saw me unveiling my Dead Ass Viking mead. It is very simple to make and the result is very complex, almost like a gewurztraminer wine - sweat, clear, smooth finish with a slight aftertaste. I made my first batch of this using a hot must process. The heating sanitizes the must (honey, water mix) of wild yeasts and bacteria that will interfere with fermentation. 

   Following the path of a master meadmaker who said that heating the must was not as necessary as believed the second batch was made with a cold must process. The key, the meadmaker said, is to make sure EVERYTHING is sanitized. This is quite the job for someone as slobbish as I am.

   I was expecting 22L of vinegar before I racked the batch for the first time, but low and behold, it tasted incredible. It had a deep vibrant orange colour and full flavour. I was sold on cold musts!

    That was about 14 months ago, and the aging has improved it, but not as dramatically as it has with my other batches, most of which went from crap to spectacular with 6 months of aging.  It is still a complex drink, and tastes a little hot. Its very smooth, but has a peppy spice to it. I'm very pleased with it.

 

    Inspired by fiery and exotic spices and Loki's association with fire, this Methaglin is my most daring mead to date, and to be honest, I'm surprised it got anywhere. Spices are very acidic and their influence over the chemistry of a drink is very strong. My test batch was 4 litres, and was flavoured by a tiny, tiny amount of spice - 1/4 stick of cinnamon, 1 teaspoon or so of nutmeg, and the resulting must literally burned the air surrounding it with spice. This "burn" lingered for months after fermentation, even through the vodka laden fermentation lock. It was magical!

    Because of the intensity of spices, methaglins take a long time to "calm down". Typically they need to be aged for 1-2 years. I cracked my open after 15 months, and boy was it worth the wait.

    Smooth as an angel's butt, with a sweetly edged blade that will cut through your throat as it goes down. It tastes like mulled apple cider, which isn't surprising I suppose, but it has an odd warmth to it that makes it feel like a brandy. My description may be off, though, because I was pretty damn excited by it. In fact, my first reaction was "Fucking A!" I even scribbled this exultation down in my Mead Journal.

 

 

So, my 5 hour endeavour of bottling netted me 19 bottles of mead: 14 Dead Ass Viking, and 5 Venom of the Snake.  The next steps in my mead projects go into even more dangerous territory: a full batch of Venom, and the first, non-prototype version of "Kvasir's Blod"... which will be most secret batch.

 

I hear some people calling it the "Too Human" mead... :)

 

 

After a 6 month hiatus (perhaps more), I got my butt in gear and finished off two Imperial Guard models that had been sitting on my workbench: the crazed Highlander gunner and the company standard bearer.

 

The highlander was made with leftover parts from the conversion of regular grunts, and given a heavy stubber from Necromunda. The kilt was an afterthought but it brings the army just a tad closer to its WW1 roots.  Ted had suggested adding a sling strap for the gun when I first modelled it, but I "just wanted to get it done". Six months later, guess what? It still looks like it could use a strap. LoL. Well, its done!  He's labelled "plasma", but really should be special weapons, and could have a meltagun. I wanted a model that looked different than the heavy weapon crews, but could be used as either a plasma or meltagun depending on the army config. He's really more of a stop gap model anyway - one day I will model a real prototype plasma gun. The stub gun at least gives him more of a WW1 feeling - this guy just up and grabbed the Vickers and is charging across no mans land with it! Crazy highlanders!

 

The Company Standard (and probably the Regimental one too!) is converted from the Cadian Command HQ models which are all metal. He got a head swap, some modified arms, and the standard itself was cut off, repinned and had its details dremelled off so I could paint my own design on it, instead of the Cadian Gate. I'm pretty pleased with the standard, but it was (as usual) a seat of the pants design. The rest of the squads show the company sigil as a black raven, or black raven's head, on a yellow field. I was going to repeat the design on the standard, but eventually made it a lot more elaborate, and more colourful. The standard now has reds, blues, greys and even green. Overall, I feel it looks much better.

 

Finishing these projects means that I have 21 fully painted and converted models after 13 months of off/on work. I still need another 4 models for .... 1 base squad!! Still not a legal IG army!! Bleh!

 

This is the plan to get that full Infantry Platoon going:   1 medic, 1 vox caster and 1 mortar crew with 2 peeps on it.

 

/wipes sweat from brow

 

 

Those fuckers made me!!   I couldn't stop myself!

Not going to say anymore than that. 

 

 

You figure it out...!

There was no Games Day this year, only Conflict TO. Last year I lamented over how crappy Games Day was unless you got stuck in with the games - Forge World didn't bring enough models, Warp Artefacts weren't to be seen (unless you count the 1 page "brochure"). But, I was inspired by the models and the atmosphere of the show.   When I found out there was no Games Day this year, I was somewhat disappointed, but the summer came and went and I really didn't miss it.  Nevertheless, I reluctantly dragged myself to Conflict.

 

Conflict is about 80% of Games Day, crammed into about 25% of the space that Games Day was. I found it badly organized and hard to move around. The freebies were gone by the time we got there (1 hour after opening), and most of the decent "Get it before its released" stuff was as well.  The sneak peaks were not awe inspiring (Black Templars and Dwarves - most of which have been on the GW website for the last month).

 

GW even upped the price to "Get in" from $15 to $17.  I felt ripped off.

 

The up sides: Seeing the models in the Warpstone painting competition is always inspiring. I left the show wanting to go home and start building my Forgeworld Titan. =P  Also, enthusiasm is infectious. Hordes of kids revelling in the pretend carnage and the miracle of imagination that is Warhammer brought a smile to my face. And thats an important thing to remember:

 

Warhammer is what it is because of the hobbyists. A lot of them had probably trekked a long way, given $15-17 to the Corporation that runs it for the priviledge of walking into their store and buying their stuff, and were still fanatical about their hobby.

 

They put up with a lot of crap from GW. In fact, the prices on many of their models went up in July by $2-3 per blister for no apparent reason - most of the models are identical to what they were 5-6 years ago, and many ranges are still awaiting new additions or design overhauls. That was the second price hike with little improvement in the last 3 years.

 

Games Workshop, you are lucky you have such determined fans. Don't shit on them.

 

 

I met up with an old college friend, who now runs his own comic store in TO, on Dundas St. West, called "Duelling Grounds".  His store had a display table with a spacecraft crashed in a jungle. There were some genuinely interesting stuff to see - hobbyists are very resourceful. There was a Lustrian table replete with ziggurat that had a glowing gem on top of it made from a sliced geode and an LED. It looked very magical and oddly "realistic". There was a modular cityfight table made from Ceiling tiles. Each tile had a chunk of building on it, and the entire table measured perhaps 10 tiles on a side. As far as terrain goes, it would be an awesome table for a club - almost limitless arrangements could be made.

 

Anyway, we left about 1.5 hours after we arrived.  Although there was still stuff to do, it seemed tough to get into the events, so we bugged out and shopped around TO.