The Historical Settings For RPGs

Something a little different today. I spend more gaming time playing RPGs (and board games) in my little gaming group than anything on the table top, and for obvious reasons I follow a number of RPG-themed blogs. I thought I'd give a shout out today for Monsters and Manuals, which is very well deserved on a normal day, but especially so today as there is a great example of the posts that make it such a worthwhile follow/regular read. Even if you don't play RPGs, Noisms discussion of the historical context of D&D is well worth a few moments of your attention.

In my experience, all these adventurers will die

New GW Chaos Daemons In August!

Well everyone seemed to think it was going to be Chaos Space Marines as the big release in August, but it now looks like it's going to be Chaos Daemons for both WFB and 40k. Rumours over at Faeit 212. Considering I've just picked up some Nurgle models I'm pretty happy with this... it also means I won't get too distracted from my Genestealer Cult... yet!

Artist's impression of me, looking happy

That Was The Week That Was #4

Congratulations folks, we all made it to the weekend! I'm getting really fidgety waiting for some concrete news about the rumoured Chaos Space Marines Codex but I've managed to stop gnawing my fingers completely to the bone by delighting myself with the following morsels: 

1. A very handsome steam tank featured on the GW website:

2. The enormously talented James Wapple turns his hand to a Nurgle Decimator:

3. 'Choose Your Own Adventure' junkies will love this Tumblr site - You Chose Wrong:

Titan Forge Launch Their Indiegogo Campaign

Titan Forge have launched an Indiegogo campaign to raise funds for a planned undead greenskins fantasy army. Their ideas look fabulous and as an owner of some of their 'zombins' I can tell you that the quality of their work is top-notch. Take a look here and lend them your support if you're able.

Everything's Coming Out Nurgle

And there I was thinking that that stench was my wife's feet! It turns out all along that it was this rather nifty miniatures exchange that I've just done with my brother. I gave him some Ogre Maneaters and Firebelly, and in return I received: 10 Pestigors, 5 Plague Bearers, a Great Unclean One, and a Daemon Prince. 

The GUO is quite an old sculpt now ('96) but it has enough character, so I think I should be able to do something interesting with it. As for the others, I've very happy. I'll base up all the daemons for 40k, while the pesties will fit nicely into my beastmen army.

6th Edition Genestealer Cult Army List (First Bash Anyway...)

Here's my first bash at a genestealer cult list for 6th edition. This has been designed with a 10-12 game narrative (non-competative) campaign against my brother's Blood Angels (and allies) in mind. A few early WIP photos to follow this week, before I have a week on holiday - with my paints thank goodness! - when I should be able to make some substantial progress. I imagine that this list will be added to in some way over the coming months, very possibly with the introduction of some Renegade Rough Riders led by a stand-in for Mogul Kamir - these guys would be seriously nasty on the charge. 

Genestealer cult army list - (around 1500 points)

Primary Detachment (Imperial Guard Codex)

HQ

Genestealer Magus (Primaris Psyker)

3 x Cult Priests (Ministorum) deployed with the Cultist Squads)

Elites

3 x Zoat Mercenaries (Ogryns)

Rogue Psyker Battle Squad (6 psykers plus overseer) 

Troops

1 x Cultist Command, 5 troops, heavy flamer, heavy bolter, flamer 

2 x Cultist Squads, 20 troops, lascannons, meltaguns, melta bombs

1 x Hybrid Squad (Penal Legion), 10 troops 

Allied Detachment (Tyranid Codex)

HQ

Patriarch Genestealer (Hive Tyrant), with armoured shell, old adversary, regeneration, implant attack, adrenal glands 

Troops

2 x Genestealer Broods, 22 stealers, adrenal glands, 2 broodlords with implant attack


Something like that anyway. Any ideas, comments, etc. would be most welcome...

The Key Design Decisions Behind 6th Edition

If you're interested in reading about some of the key design decisions behind 6th edition then head over to Faeit 212 where there is an excellent round up of all the details for a GW 40k Studio Open Day. The main thing I found interesting was the notion of 'associative' and 'disassociative' rules, which was apparently one of the key design drivers behind the new ruleset.

Necessary picture of 40k thingy to add visual interest to a short blog post

A Little Gem From The 6th Edition Rulebook

Has anyone else noticed this wonderful picture buried in the fluff section of the 6th edition rulebook?

Look, there's a Zoat! And an Ambull. And... Well, this is a test of your Oldhammer credentials: how many others can you put a name to? ;-)

How To Build A Genestealer Cult In 6th Edition?

So 6th edition 40k has arrived and I'm pondering what influences this will have over my genestealer cult. The allies rules in particular raise some interesting questions and opportunities for force organisation. If you overlook the fact that Tyranids can't officially ally with anyone and focus instead on the narrative of the genestealer cult, then it's possible to have the main part of the army drawn from the IG codex and the 'stealers themselves as a contingent of allies.

The first option I've come up with has the benefit of simplicity. Take a Primaris Psyker (the Magus) as HQ and 'Warlord', include a few Ministorum Priests (cult leaders) for added colour, then fill out the troops slots with normal grunt types. The 'stealers can then come in as allies, with some kind of Patriarch Genestealer as HQ (a nifty conversion from Hive Tyrant perhaps... ooh that sounds like fun, although a Tyranid Prime conversion would probably be a better fit) and then 'stealers in the troops slots.

But that would probably mean loosing hybrids and the great narrative colour they would lend the force. Or would it?  I suppose one option would be to model the first/second generation hybrids and simply include them with the purestrains, while dropping converted third/fourth generations hybrids in with the IG style grunts. Perhaps that's the most 'elegant' solution... one that doesn't depend on too much retro-cranking of the rules from Rogue Trader? Definitely something to ponder...

Lahmian Medium (Citadel Technical) Review

As someone who uses several different acrylic mediums already I was sceptical as to whether Lahmian Medium from the 'technical' section of the new Citadel paint range would be of any use to me. I'm quite sure now that I was mistaken - it's extremely useful - but this might be because of the specific paints I use.

I love to use Daler Rowney acrylic inks with my miniatures, I find everything about them a joy: the range of colours, their flow... everything. But the trouble with using artists' acrylics as opposed to paints made specifically for miniatures is that the finish can very often be too glossy. This is where Lahmian Medium steps in! It's perfect for adding in small doses to the Daler Rowney inks for achieving a matt finish - just a small brush-load mixed through the ink completely alters what you can achieve.

Using a medium when painting is a very wise move in all cases of course, but if you've ever thought about using artists' inks then this might give you a good opportunity to go ahead and do that. A note of caution to end on though, I wouldn't personally try this with regular artists' acrylics as they're totally the wrong consistency for miniatures work. 

BaneBeasts Blood Maw - Out Of The Box

I'm sure that, like me, plenty of people will have looked at the BaneLegions/BaneBeasts range and thought, "hmm, can they be as good as they look?!" Well I'm happy to report that on the evidence of the Blood Maw, they certainly are. Here are a few 'out of the box' photos:

Here he is in all his unassembled glory - the resin is perfect and there are no quality glitches whatsoever

Right arm detail - look at that texture on this skin

The underside of the same arm - outstanding

I was lucky enough to win this chap through a competition over at Frontline Gamer, so a massive THANK YOU to both FG and the folks at BaneLegions for making all of this possible.

That Was The Week That Was #3

Everyone's still 40Krazy this week! From among the rulebook arguments, laments, celebrations and diatribes, I've plucked out a few noteworthy projects for this week's round-up:

1. Fantastic kitbashed Dakkajet from Paul over at Watching Paint Dry:

2. James Wappel scratch builds a Hierotitan:

3. The magnificent miniature manufactures Titan Forge have announced a new Indiegogo crowd-funding project:

40K Sixth Edition Thoughts: Forging The Narrative

I wonder if I'm the only person who hasn't played 40k since the Rogue Trader era who's planning on diving into 6th edition? Like many people, I've spent the last few days with my head buried in the new rulebook, and I have to say I'm rather impressed. I'm all in favour of pre-measuring, random charge distances and the like, although why people persist with so-called 'true line of sight' baffles me (but that's for another day, maybe...)

I'm also really impressed with the 'Forging the Narrative' boxes that pop up all over the place in the 6th edition book. I do hope that new-comers to the game - 'youngsters' I might patronisingly call them! - will get into this side of the game. The Rogue Trader rulebook didn't have a hand full of scenarios - there are 100 plus ways of playing a single game, and plenty of ideas for playing campaigns. It's good to see that, in this odd world of competitive play and tournaments, some aspects of narrative gaming survive. I also think that (on reading only) the core rules appear to support this kind of play rather well.

Bravo GW, this is going to be fun.

Alternative Imperial Guard Armies - Victoria Miniatures

I've been pondering the possibilities that an Imperial Guard army offers for a while. I like the idea that with millions upon millions of troops drawn from hundreds of thousands of worlds, one can put together a totally unique force. A massive bonus for me as I look to the future for new projects.

In scouting around for ideas I came across the work of Victoria Lamb, a multi-talented artistic-type from down under. Victoria designs and produces conversion pieces for Imperial Guard armies and you can find a her online shop here. Certainly work a look. Below is a photo of a squad from her 'Praetorian Guard' - inspiring stuff I'm sure you'll agree. ***Correction*** These are old GW models***

That Was The Week That Was #2

This week has been dominated by the frenzy and speculation about the new 40k rulebook, but from such slim pickings I've selected these slices of loveliness for this week's honour role:

1. Smashing Tzeentch Ushabti Terminators for a Thousand Sons force by GMM Studios:

2. Better than the GW model, Mangler Squigs by Arbaal on Cool Mini Or Not:

3. Superb Greater Daemon of Nurgle by Sigur at Tale Of Painters:

4. I also re-read the Oldhammer manifesto over at Realm of Zhu and fell in love with it all over again: