Month: January 2020

New Stuff from Games Workshop!

Hey everybody!
It’s been a while since I’ve had time to catch up with what’s coming over the hill, but with the news coming from the Nuremberg Toy Fair today, I thought I’d better make some time to wax lyrical!

There are three big names in the offing here, let’s start with Aeronautica Imperialis and the new box, Imperial Guard vs T’au!

I’ve not played IA, and if I’m honest, it doesn’t really interest me a whole lot. But I am really quite intrigued by seeing the xenos races coming to the game. I wonder if we’ll see this explored further, with Necrons maybe? Is this how they’re going to re-implement Battlefleet Gothic? Hm!

Adeptus Titanicus has got a new box, too. Another game that I’ve not had any interest in, if I’m being honest, though I have had a game of this at least! At any rate, it’s good to see more for the game, as I’ve seen a lot of folks getting a bit antsy for more! Notably, battlefield structures!

Wonderful stuff, even if it isn’t a game that I’m going to be rushing to buy!

Something that I will be rushing to get, however, is new Necromunda!

Now, then. Of all the House gangs, Goliath are the ones that I’ve not yet been tempted enough to build. Well, I take that back – I’m interested in them, but I think they’d look better with some of the Forge World upgrades on them, such as the massive hammer and heavy flamer:

The other thing, of course, is that the other gangs just interest me more!

However, we’re seeing a new book, House of Chains, along with an upgrade pack for the gang, featuring massive hulks, or Stimmers, and some juves seeking to prove their worth in the gang.

As with a lot of Forge World paint jobs, I’m not entirely sure about these models when we see them like this – indeed, a lot of recent Necromunda publicity photos don’t really do the models justice.

The preview article tells us that several of the core gangs will be getting reinforcements along the way, so I’m really excited to see what else is going to be on the horizon in 2020. Particularly with regards to Van Saar, Delaque and Orlock.

Speaking of which…

I’ve been feeling a bit down of late about my own painting, as I was trying to get the Orlocks finished but feeling really unhappy with them. After the above photo, I ended up stripping these models and starting again – I’ve finished building up the full gang, finishing them off with a heavy bolter from the Forge World kit, so I’ve primed all ten of them black (rather than the grey recommended by Duncan). So far, I’ve not done a great deal with them, but I’m hoping that I can get them painted up before I start browbeating people into playing games with me!

Nuremberg isn’t the only set of reveals though, as we’ve recently had the excitement of the LVO last week, as well!

Oh, wow. AdMech flyers, and AdMech cavalry. This, I did not foresee! I’m not sure right now what I want to do with my AdMech, truth be told, but I’m considering getting some of the mechanical horses because I like the idea of all of these weird things, and they remind me of the Genestealer Cult bikers. Might be interesting to have as a sort of mirror for those guys, anyway.

The next Psychic Awakening book has also been revealed to be all about Knights, AdMech and Daemons! Engine War does sound intriguing, I have to say, though I’ve got no plans to go for Knights anytime soon!

Age of Sigmar is finally seeing High Elves return, the Lumineth Realm-lords. Alongside new units that have a distinct feel of the Old World about them – perhaps more than any of the new Age of Sigmar stuff yet – we’re getting a new Teclis, though I’m not a big fan of it.

It’s been out there for almost a week now, and I just can’t get round the fact that he’s just floating there, really lop-sided on the wing of this flying tiger-thing. It’s just weird, in a way that I can’t quite get my head around. The flying tiger bit is glorious, don’t get me wrong, but why is Teclis just floating there like a weird pin-badge…

What else is there…?

New warbands for Warhammer Underworlds, and most excitingly of all, Zoats are coming back to 40k in the next expansion for Blackstone Fortress!

Well, it’s just one zoat, it seems, which is a bit of a disappointment, as the Ambull at least had those borewyrm models as well. Unless it’s huge, in which case I can understand! The article talks about how they were the vanguards for the Tyranid Hive Fleets back in the day, so I’m guessing that connection will stay. In which case, I wonder whether they’ll have some special affinity with the bugs in their 40k rules (assuming they get some!)

There is a lot of good stuff coming out of Nottingham right now, it must be said! Of course, the new-style High Elves are interesting, though I’m more interested in the Slaves to Darkness release that I still hope is coming. There must be more to it than just the Start Collecting box, right? Also, what’s next for Warcry? Scions of the Flame still haven’t even been teased, outside of their name, while the Spire Tyrants are getting released this coming weekend.

These guys are very much making their way into my Slaves to Darkness force – there’ll be a blog on this soon, no doubt, but I want an army of Chaos renegades and rabble, and they fit the bill perfectly!

The first of the big beasts for Warcry is being released at the weekend also, and I’m quite excited for this! Again, it’s for the Slaves to Darkness that I’m most thinking for this guy, but even so! I think I’d like to get in at least one game of Warcry in 2020. I’ve got several warbands now, of course, and have recently made a start on painting the Cypher Lords… Hopefully I’ll get to try them out soon, anyway!

Blackstone Fortress is looking exciting right now, as it continues to be supported with the Zoats, though I find myself wanting more – as ever! I think I’d like to see a bigger box expansion, much like last year’s Escalation, though maybe even bigger still. More of the same is always fun, more explorers and more gribblies, of course, though I’d like to see something different – like a new big baddie rather than continuing the story of Obsidius Mallex. Whether we’ll see something like this, who knows, but it’s definitely something I’ll be keeping an eye on!

Necromunda The Eightfold Harvest Lord

Necromunda, though, is looking really rosy for the time being! The Corpse Grinder Cult is getting their standalone box this coming weekend, as well as the expanded terrain from the Dark Uprising box. I’ve not made great progress getting that box built up – I had a loose timeline in my head, where I’d get it all built in January, then painted in February into March, in time to start getting games in. Well, maybe half the terrain has been built, so I’m getting there. I do like the look of these Cultists, and have been building up a few with a look to getting at least some of them painted, if not yet the full gang. Though apparently they don’t work well for a starting gang, so it might be better off sticking with the main six gangs for the time being.

The possibility of new models for these gangs is really exciting me, though, and I’m looking forward to seeing how the year goes on.

What with getting into Sisters of Battle, too, I feel like it’s going to be a busy year!!

January catch-up!

Hey everybody,
It’s been a while since my last blog post on here – in fact, I hadn’t realised just how long ago it was! Time to catch up, methinks!

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Should see me through the festive season! #nowReading

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First of all, I read the very wonderful Grey Knights, the first novel in the Grey Knights omnibus, shortly before Christmas. It follows Justicar Alaric as he works alongside Inquisitor Briseis Ligeia to prevent the rogue Inquisitor Valinov from bringing the daemon Ghargatuloth into the universe. As the majority of the Grey Knights have been deployed to the Cadian Gate in an effort to stem the tide of Abaddon’s Thirteenth Black Crusade, Alaric only has a small contingent to aid in his task. They track the likely place for Ghargatuloth’s return as somewhere within the Trail of Saint Evisser, and we really delve into the whole world of Imperial saints and the Chaotic corruption there – there are several twists and turns along the way, which I don’t want to spoil here because they were really well done, but suffice it to say it’s definitely worth picking this one up, even sixteen years after publication!

There is so much to enjoy in this novel, even though I found it difficult at times to get the time to actually read it! Having recently made a commitment to getting back into my Grey Knights project, I think this made me enjoy it even more, seeing the way the Grey Knights do battle. We get some really great descriptions of the Fortress-Monastery on Titan, and there is the real sense that Space Marines are, at their heart, warrior monks.

I very rarely read an omnibus as a single book, but rather treat it as the collected individual titles, and come back to it each time I want to read a particular book collected within. However, this is probably the first time I’ve wanted to carry on with the books, and I’m definitely planning to read the second book very soon.

Sadly, painting has not been something that I’ve been enjoying of late. I think I’ve been really out of practice since not having the time after the firstborn came along. Painting is, of course, something that improves over time and, after having a significant break, I’ve found that my brush control has really fallen by the wayside, and as a result I’ve become really frustrated with myself for not producing the sort of miniatures that I want.

I’d been wanting to paint up the House Orlock gangers that I’d started to paint almost two years ago, but a combination of the loss of confidence with a brush, as well as the fact the primer on some of these is a little thick in parts (it’s a grey primer, too, and I hate painting over grey!) has made me give up and strip them.

I’ve been watching Duncan’s video on painting the Sump Dogs, though, and as always, he has inspired me to give them a proper go. I mean, none of the lazy “just give it a drybrush and call it quits!” – I’m going to (try!) and follow this guide to the letter. We shall see how I get on!

Incidentally! How sad is the painting world now that Duncan has left GW?! I was gutted when the news was leaked shortly before Christmas – Duncan’s videos were basically how I learnt to paint!

This classic was, probably, the first miniatures-painting video I ever watched, and the massive collection of videos have been some of my favourites over the years – always come back to them, and I always look for a Duncan video when I’m going to paint something to see what he has to say about it. Hopefully they’re going to keep the archive up there, at any rate!

Model of the Year was announced the other week, and it was none other than the new Abaddon the Despoiler! I’m not sure if that was a shoe-in, though, as my personal choice was the new Keeper of Secrets, which is just such a phenomenal creation, it’s almost unlike anything else they have!

In a year when we had all of the Genestealer Cults stuff, the new Chaos Marines, new Drazhar, Ossiarch Bonereapers, new Slaves to Darkness, new Sisters of Battle – and all of that incredible Warcry stuff!

There were so many amazing new models in 2019, it was definitely a hard call. 2020 is already shaping up to be wonderful, now that we’ve had some of the new Sisters released – that Triumph of St Katherine centrepiece model is just astounding – so I can’t wait to see what else is in store!

Hopefully by then, I’ll be more confident with painting once again, and can actually knock out some of these new models!

So yeah, I think I need to get cracking with regaining my confidence when it comes to painting. There are so many miniatures that I have on the back burner of course, so I really need to crack on! I think a lot of this will be helped by going back to basics, to some extent, and trying to re-learn a lot of stuff. It’s definitely going to be worth spending the time to do this, though, as I so many models that could be outright ruined by sloppy (or worse) painting!

I mean, I’m going to be picking up the Triumph of St Katherine, for goodness’ sake! I definitely need to up my game for something so fancy!

Hobby Resolutions 2020

Happy New Year, everybody!
I’m sure there will be a plethora of posts on their way, not just from me, where people expound upon their hopes and plans for the new year. Well, for now, I thought I’d come here to start looking at those hobby goals that I’d like to set. After my little retrospective from 2019, I was surprised at how little I managed to do there. So I’m going to set myself fewer goals – in the hope that I can achieve them, but also because I know that my priorities change, and I’d like to be able to have some flexibility to think, I’d like to get x done in the next three months.

So, without further ado, let’s get to it!

  1. Paint up those Grey Knights!
    This is continuing the point from last year’s efforts. Now that I’m settled on keeping them as an army, I would like to get that army finished off, both built and painted. I only have a couple more units to build before I’m at the 1500 point mark, which I think is a decent point to aim for in this first iteration of the list. I’ve talked to some degree about this army already, but in the coming weeks and months I’ll be back with my full list ideas, so stay tuned for that!

  2. Finish off the odd Drukhari stuff that I have hanging about
    This is something that I think needs doing, and is likely to be a fairly quick win, because I do have a lot of models that are kind-of done. Reavers, Clawed Fiends, Grotesques, more Warriors… the list goes on to something like 2000 points (in the current climate) of random stuff. I’d like to get this finished, so that I can then use it within the wider army.On a related note, I’d also like to give some focus to the Wych Cult models that I have hanging around, as I would like to try and dabble some more there. It’s an area that I have very rarely used, so I think it would be useful to have the models there and ready.

  3. Necromunda, generally!
    So, I failed to do anything with this last year, but I am so in love with this game that I really feel that the time has come to actually play the bloody thing! I will still collect everything that comes out, for sure, but my current plan is to get the Dark Uprising box done, somehow. Again, there will be another blog coming soon that focuses on this, but I think, of all of these goals, I am most excited for this!

  4. Blackstone Fortress – play a full campaign!
    Similar to the Necromunda goal, really – I want to play more of this game, as it has such a fascinating look at the 41st millennium. I’ve only played it once, so that definitely needs to change! I’d like to get the models painted, as well, but I think I want to get the game played, first and foremost.

  5. Try to thin out the unpainted / unwanted models
    This definitely needs to be a thing. I have so many Deathwatch models, so many AdMech – even so many Drukhari models – that I could definitely do with thinning out the chaff!

  6. Finally – try to work on what I have had lying around for ages!
    The Tempestus Scions, the Chaos Space Marines… there is a lot of stuff that I have that has been built for years, but just not painted or played with. This needs to change, as well! My plan for this is to try and focus on a single unit every month or two. Again, there will be a blog where I probably ramble about these plans coming out in the next few weeks, so stay tuned for that!

So that’s pretty much it, really!