The 40 thousandth war hammer

On to the big game.  The one I've been collecting for a little while.  25 years according to the anniversary boxed set.  :)

This is the game I've slowed down on the most.  Still picking up stuff but just to fill out a few missing corners, or because I've found something really interesting at a swap meet.   And I have found all kinds of interesting things.  My kids also have involvement here as my youngest has Orks and my eldest took over my old space marine minis.

 And here we have some Grey Knights.  I was into them before they were cool though.  Kind of.  I had 1 squad and a few terminators.   I've loved working on the modelling aspects of these guys and so there is a lot of kit bashing and minor conversion at work here.  There is about 2500 of legally fieldable stuff here.  More points, but you know, not sure anyone would like 6 HQs showing up.

 This was the army I put together when I got back into the hobby.  I loved putting them together, relearning/remembering painting and seeing an assembled force.  Unfortunately I haven't had much chance to play them and as I can put almost 3000 points on the table I really should try.

 As I mentioned, I kind of inherited the Sisters.  Not done anything with them but I will.  Eventually.  They can put 1250 on the table with this set up.

 The Tau are an oddity.  Some random bits, kids allowance purchases and such.  My eldest really likes them so I'm trying to use them as something he can learn to paint on.  Only really 1000 points of playability here but should be a nice looking army.

The old boys.  There are a couple of minis in here that came out before Rogue Trader. I'm looking at you Heavy Laser Marine.  Lots of points, but mainly in troopage.  I made the mistake of getting rid of most of my vehicles a long time ago.  :(  Sad as a couple of old school Land Raiders would look just peachy.

And last, a metic assload of Orks.  And yes, that is a looted baneblade.  And a looted tyranid, and looted imperial stuff there.  Orks are ace for modelling.  I'd actually like to try an pull together a small (1,000 points) list that is all grots on nids.  It would be awesome.

Rage against the warmachine

Still accumulating and playing every couple of weeks.  Be more once I've got a table set up at home.  Anyway, 4 armies going on here.  My youngest son has Khador, my eldest son has Menoth, I have Mercenaries, and we have Cygnar hanging around as everyone seemed to want to sell theirs so they were really cheap (like 2 heavies and a caster for $20 being the first purchase).
Had fun with the game, good to play although the only person I regularly play is Menoth so frequently similar.  I like the rules set, the only complaint being that you almost seem to have to learn every forces cards if you want to ever be good.
Painting wise, I'm almost done with Khador, coming along well with Mercs, a bit further out with Menoth and ways away with Cygnar.  Still, Warmachine is getting the majority of my painting time so things are moving nicely along.

Here we have about 45 points of Khador.  Only ever used little bits of it though and on a table that is way too small.  Just pScorscha for a caster, the starter jacks plus a heavy I magnetized to run as anything.  Best thing is all I need to finish is the winterguard and one solo and these guys are done.

Here we have about 50 points of Menoth. Again, the starter set so pKreoss but with an extra magnetized heavy, the Avatar and a couple of troop units.  Lots of work needed here.

 A somewhat ridiculous 85 points of Cygnar.  Didn't spend much on any of this so I'll probably paint it to a reasonable standard and sell it on.  I was going to run Cygnar but ended up preferring Mercs.

 The larger half of my Mercs for Highborne or Four Star.  Close to done painting these guys which feels good.  Just a bit of work on bases, Eiryss, and the new (magnetized) heavy and these boys are done.

And lastly some Searforge which I'm enjoying.  Still got a way to go with these guys, none are completely finished yet but a lot are getting close.

It's been a while

Not that I've got out of gaming, although it did get toned down in favor of more adult entertainment for a while, just that all my posts ended up over at MWC.  I guess I should copy them back here too at some point.  Actually had plenty going on still, just at a slower pace. 
For 40K I've ended up with 2 new armies.  Both only 1250 kind of size but still something to play with.  I've added Tau, which comprise pretty much 100% of FLGS consignment case, swap meet and ebay purchases.  And, I've added Sisters which I got from a friend who was thoroughly pissed off with them and was going to chuck them.  My Warmachine stuff has been slowly building and we've had some fun games of that.  And, recently I added Dust Tactics/Warfare as a quick to play alternative.  Anyway, over at MWC we were going to add galleries of the various folks armies.  I figured I'd show some quick stuff here first.

Lets start with Dust Tactics.  For one it is a fun, easy, quick (less than an hour per game) board game.  Cheap as the revised core set can be enough if you just want to play at home.  Cheap still as the models are less detailed and lower quality than GW.  That's not to say they don't still look great, just that they suffer from Forge World barrels pretty badly.  Still, $20 for a medium walker that is twice the size of a GW dreadnought that itself costs more than twice the amount.

One thing, its a board game with pre-assembled, pre-primed pieces.  I decided I wanted to paint them quickly, way quicker then GW stuff.  For all these I did partial base coats to add some color, but left them predominantly their base color.  Then a dark wash (specifically the new GW Nuln Oil which I wasn't impressed with to be honest) and a light dry brush and game over.  Going to throw some weathering powders on the bases too, but all quick and effective.

Now to find the original core boxed set at a decent price.  :)

Space Marine the review

What, you hadn't noticed this game was coming out?  You live in a cave with no internet access?

I've really enjoyed the Dawn of War series of games and even a few of the others like Fire Warrior and Squad Command so when I saw this one was being offered I couldn't resist.  A quick trip to Steam and a preorder had me playing the two demo levels and eagerly awaiting the full game to unlock.  Was I happy with it?  Just click below to find out.

And in case you don't like suspense, or have a weak heart, yes I liked it.  My painting table will sadly gather dust for a while.

Warmachine

I guess this was actually something I got started on last winter, but became a side project.  Something to paint and occasionally play with the kids.  Suddenly there is interest in it from the rest of the friends I game with.  My rag tag band will be joined by 4 more armies shortly, and I've picked up the pace on painting mine.

I've got Fletcher's army, about 35 points of Menoth.
Morgan's army, about 35 points of Khador
My army, about 20 points of mercenaries
Some Cygnar.  OK, a lot of Cygnar thanks to ebay and the FLGS consignment case.

They are going to be up against some more Cygnar, some pirate mercenaries, and two as yet undecided armies.

We've had a few games, so far I'm 2:2 on win loss, but most importantly this has been a big help to learning the rules.  I've won with Khador (against Cygnar), won with Menoth (against Khador) and lost twice with my mercenaries (against Cygnar both times).  Last nights second game was a lot of fun and pretty close.  I was busy destroying his army, and probably would have had him knocked out in one more turn as all he had left with three troops and a crippled jack.  He'd managed to injure my warcast earlier though with a lucky shot from his Defender warjack.  He pulled off a flank with his warcaster and managed to get a shot on mine.  Coupled with the earlier damage it was enough to drop him.

I think we'll be mixing in quite a bit more Warmachine in the future.  Now I have a better understanding of the rules I'd like to get my kids back playing it (rather than just playing with the minis) as well.