Post-Christmas Wrapup

Well, I got what I really wanted for Christmas. Guess what it is.

Hint ------>

Yep, it's Super Dungeon Explore. I'm a really big fan of Descent, so when a chibi dungeon crawl game hit the market, I had to have it. The miniatures are now all assembled, and await play.

But, you say, SDE is a boardgame, not a wargame. Yep, it sure is, but those will likely be some of the miniatures you see splashed in here and there, so I figured I'd give you fair warning.

Oh, the first expansion features a short guy in overalls and with a hammer, a princess, and hordes of turtle baddies. How cool is that?

Now from games I'm 100% sure I'll be able to play (my boardgaming group consists of anime and RPG nuts, so this game is pure gold for us) to games I'm pretty sure I'll never get beyond the painting stage.

I also got Songs of Our Ancestors, complete with 30 Quar minis. I've already finished painting up the Crusaders and the Royalists, and I'm looking at spending what dribble of Christmas money I have left (about $30 depending upon certain circumstances) to round out my collection so, should anybody show intrest, I can play the majority of the scenarios in the book. The game looks like a blast to play (I just love scenario-driven wargames) and with five more minis I'll be able to run a trench raid, an ambush, and a straight-up battle. I'll say one bad thing about the bundle I got, there aren't enough miniatures to play some of the intended scenarios (thus why I have to order two more Partisans). I can fill in the gaps easily enough, but c'mon, would two more minis really break the bank? As it stands, if someone wanted to play the Partisans they'd be stuck with an incomplete force. Really unfortunate.

That's really about all in terms of miniatures-related news for right now. I may throw up a "year in review" article (shamelessly ripped off from Demitra) but with the literally hundreds of minis painted in the last twelve months, that might be a touch hard. I'll definately have an article on the progress of my Quar soon, so stay glued to your computer screen!

Why Dark Eldar Now?

Well, to be honest, it was a twofold decision. I've been hovering around Warmachine burnout for a bit. It's really nobody's fault, just the fact that I keep gaming against the same faction. Even with two armies it's a touch repetitive. Having gotten Hordes: Primal from Demitra today (thanks again!) hopefully my ability to field my Skorne again will stave off my getting drained of enthusiasm.

The other reason is simple- I have time on my hands now. Not having any responsibilities a couple of days a week really allows me to kick back, put on the Mike O'Meara Show, DC AM, or the D6 Generation, and get some real progress made. I really get motivated when I have nothing better to do.

Depending on weather or not I get a gift card or good ol' fashioned money on Sunday, I'll be able to put a much bigger dent in the army as vehicles are a breeze to paint with so many nice big flat panels on them. With most of my infantry done, the only real thing keeping me from finishing my army is money. We'll see if I can polish off that Ravager tomorrow. All I need to do is run over to the grocery store and then pick up a last-minute present for somebody at Best Buy.

Expect to mainly see Venoms, Raiders, and Ravagers here for a while, as that's what I'll be focusing on for the forseeable future. I'd really like to convert up and paint those Wracks, but I'm saving them for last as a sort of "carrot on a stick" to get me to slog through the nine more vehicles I need to paint up before I get to my ultimate "dream army" for these guys.

I'm having issues visualizing how I want to paint up my Venoms. I definately want to keep up the current pallet I've been using on the Raiders and the Ravager. The problem arises from the purple I've been using on the sails for the Raider-esque models. There's no sail on a Venom, thus no place to paint purple. Since I'm only using the color as an accent I'm leaning toward just saying "forget it" to the color and slapping whatever miniscule amounts of cloth I can find on the two crew members with purple. Being as the crew are wyches, they should at least have some sort of sash tied around their waist, right? Here's hoping.

Calling it a Day

After a long day painting, I'm wrapping it up for today. Today I finished the Wyches and Haemonculus shown above. I've put a pretty good dent in the army, but I still have a way to go. That Ravager is a bit of a nightmare to paint. Trying to get a brush into those inside surfaces is trying to say the least. I'll have another group shot as soon as I finish up the ravager.

That's it for tonight.

Ponderous, Man, Ponderous

Well, I went over to Battlefoam and priced out getting a bag made for my Dark Eldar (who I've been painting up, and even added a new Ravager to- pictures forthcoming).  Turns out the bag I'll need runs $289.99. That's half as much as the army itself. This leads me to a quandry. How else will I transport an army full of skimmers on fiddly, thin flight stands? This is looking like my best option.

Now, don't get me wrong- I'm not knocking the company. It's just that this is a lot of money. I was sure this would not be a cheap venture, but this is about $90 more than I had planned. I have a Sabol Army Design bag for my Plague Marines, and I'm very happy with it, but due to the wonky dimensions of the Dark Eldar vehicles I see no real ability to compare the two against each other. It'll take cut foam in order to transport these guys safely, not pluck foam.

In the end it looks like I'll be saving up for this after I'm done building and painting my minis. One thing at a time, though. Must... Finish... Wyches!

Insidiousness Coming to a Table Near You

Well, I've been promising to post my Dark Eldar army list on and off for a while, and here it is. It's an aggressive assault-oriented list full of hand-to-hand specialists and various Darklight can openers. The army still suffers the same weaknesses it had before- there aren't a lot of boots on the ground, and if they get overwhealmed and bogged down the army is doomed. The army now has more Splinter Cannons in it to thin out things like Orks and Gaunts. The fact that they're mounted on Venoms makes them more mobile, and the units inside (Incubi and Wracks) are the perfect models to finish off hobbled squads.
I've decided I'm going to avoid using Finecast Wracks, instead going with the most common internet conversions- plastic Empire Flagellant legs, Ghoul torsos, and left over Dark Eldar heads. I'll do some snooping at my FLGW and see if I can turn up some more helmeted and bald heads. I've got four with helmets, and I'll be getting two bald heads with my two remaining needed Raider kits. That puts me at six heads. I'll need four more. I'll see if any of the Ghoul heads will work, but ideally I'd like them all to have Dark Eldar heads. We'll see what I can pull off.

Now to get on with the show!

HQ
3 Haemonculi w/ Liquifiers- 180 points

ELITES
4 Incubi, Venom w/ 2x Splinter Cannons- 153 points
4 Incubi, Venom w/ 2x Splinter Cannons- 153 points
4 Incubi, Venom w/ 2x Splinter Cannons- 153 points

TROOPS
5 Wracks w/ Liquifier, Venom w/ 2x Splinter Cannons- 125 points
5 Wracks w/ Liquifier, Venom w/ 2x Splinter Cannons- 125 points
10 Kabalite Warriors w/ Blaster & Splinter Cannon, Raider w/ Flickerfield- 185 points
10 Kabalite Warriors w/ Blaster & Splinter Cannon, Raider w/ Flickerfield- 185 points
8 Wyches w/ Haywire Grenades & Hekatrix w/ Agoniser, Raider w/ Flickerfield- 196 points
8 Wyches w/ Haywire Grenades & Hekatrix w/ Agoniser, Raider w/ Flickerfield- 196 points

HEAVY SUPPORT
Ravager w/ Flickerfield- 115 points
Ravager w/ Flickerfield- 115 points
Ravager w/ Flickerfield- 115 points

TOTAL
1,996 points

A lot more variety than the Grey Knight army list, and hopefully a lot more fun to paint and play.


...Now to get painting on those blasted Wyches.

Common Sense Prevails?

Will these guys be getting some love again soon?

Well, after some financial thought I may have come to a decision in regards to my Grey Knights. That decision may very well be "nah, too expensive". I did some adding up on the G. W. website and found that finishing my Dark Eldar army would cost about $419. Starting a Grey Knights army from scratch would run about $750. That's quite a difference! Even with the War Store dropping the Grey Knights to $600, that's still a pretty rough number to swallow.

In the mean time I'm going to paint up my remaining Wyches to try to get back into the same painting groove I was in when I abandoned the project a few months ago. I have a finalized army list sitting in a binder at home, and I'll post it later. The gradual build I was using before will most likely work better in terms of purchasing and painting than the "all at once" approach I would have gone for with the Grey Knights.

I'll be picking up more hours at work soon, so I'll have more money to "invest" in the army. Hopefully I'll be able to use my minis (unlike my MalifauX stuff) to play some games. The expanded work hours threaten my gaming schedule, and I'll be going to school in the evenings which will prevent me from gaming at any FLGS or FLGW.

A Quick Post Before My Bio Final

Well, the Grey Knight bug has bitten me again. I'm pretty sure I'll be starting an army, if only to paint them up. I'm still stuck on a Crowe Purifier spam list, this time with no regular Grey Knights- just Purifiers, Psy-Backs, and Psyflemen. My revised list is as follows:

HQ
Castellan Crowe- 150 points


ELITES Venerable Dreadnought w/ 2x Twin-Linked Autocannons, Psybolts- 195 points

TROOPS
6x 5 Purifiers w/ 1 Master Crafted Nemesis Daemon Hammer, 2 Psycannons, 2 Nemesis Force Halberds, Razorback w/ Psybolts, Searchlight- 205 points each


HEAVY SUPPORT
3x Dreadnoughts w/ 2x Twin-Linked Autocannons, Psybolts- 135 points each

TOTAL
1980 points

So, I'm left with 20 points to spend. The question is, what should I spend it on? I'll keep pondering this after I'm done with this final...

Cheesy Sci-Fi Awesomeness

Go look at these right now. Are they not the greatest thing you have ever seen? Flash Gordon-esque space amazons. Now that my Irken are painted, it's time for some Valkeeri, methinks. What about my list of coming attractions? They'll get some love as needed, but these ladies make me want to finish writing up my generic combat rules just to have them get into a fight with my little aliens! Now to start squirrelin' away the bucks.

That is all. You may return to your normal lives.

Little Green Men

For my birthday I received a set of grey aliens from Zombiesmith. They arrived about a week and a half ago, and I tore open the envelope giddy with anticipation. I'd been lusting after these minis for a while, and was ready to get to work on these fellows. I laid them out on my table and checked them out. There was a bit of flash, but nothing an X-Acto blade couldn't cure. They were lightly coated with mold release, so they took a quick bath in some hot water and dish soap. Onto the drying towel they went, and after a bit they were ready for cleanup. The flash came off pretty easily, and a couple of mold lines were easily cleaned up. Some of the tabs were too long for the slots in the round bases provided, so I clipped them down with side cutters. From there, it was supergluing time.

 All of the (now cut down) tabs went into the bases without issue. As expected, the tiny little fellas' bases were much too large for them, so I had to cover up the holes left in the base. I tore up little bits of of receipt paper from a recent shopping trip and attached them over the slots using Elmer's Glue-All.

 
Base issues resolved, I glued down some ballast...

Then outside for some primer...

As usual I used Rust-Oleum automotive primer. I then went over them with thinned-down Chaos Black, and began painting. I was inspired by Invader Zim,  so I decided to paint their skin green and give them beady red eyes. Their skin was basecoated and washed the same way I painted my Yu-Jing minis, and their eyelids were highlighted with green mixed with a little bonewhite. Once their eyes were painted red, it really made the faces pop. I gave the models different uniforms based on their roles, the commander a bright red, the psychic turmoil team colors revolving around which role I have in mind for them, and the basic warriors got a black and purple uniform (shocking, I know based on my propensity for painting things purple). The bases got painted in a moon-like grey since they're from outer space and all.

I'm tempted to collect an entire army of these guys. It's a shame the sculptor seems to have fallen off the face of the earth, as that means the promised heavy weapon troopers and robotic familiars will probably never be seen. Boo, hiss. I'm pleased with these minis in the end. Maybe I can convert some of these guys into special weapons troopers if I buy some more.


...With my sculpting skills, maybe not.

Bad Behavior Abounds

Well, despite a paper and a bunch of exams looming, I had to blow off a bit of steam. First, my fiance and her brother decided they wanted to get in a touch of Squig Racing. Thus the last post.

This was the original course. The rules were that you had to cross the arrows (from Gale Force 9 if you were wondering) in order. The first to do so won the race. The first course didn't result in enough collisions for our tastes, so we revised it.

There we go. Much more brutal. This course resulted in much more skill intensive games, as you really had to really manage the risk of hitting your squig, deciding weather or not to go around or over terrain, and correcting the inevitable collisions.This resulted in a good time for all.

I nearly won one of the races, as depicted above, but a lucky whack of a squig resulted in my ultimate defeat. The rest of the time my squig seemed to be magnetically drawn to every pool of water on the board. *splash, gurgle, gurgle*

I also managed to get in a game of Warhammer, trying out Ikit Claw. A badly timed "We'll Show 'Em" roll resulted in the entire Orc & Goblin battle line going all wonky (as depicted above). This, accompanied by the roll of a 4 on a Orc Shaman's miscast (thus the mangled unit of arrer boyz) led to my opponent losing control of his army and feeding it to me piece by piece. The more interesting parts of the battle were my big Hell Pit Abomination getting offed by Night Goblin Fanatics (I still can't believe I forgot they were there!), the Warboss' unit having to charge the Warpfire Thrower in order to get to my lines, and finally the Orc Warboss' demise. I dropped him into a hole with Crack's Call as he moved over to challenge me. Typical Skaven valor. Upon reflection this may or may not have been legal. The rulebook states that you cannot target a unit in melee, but Crack's Call doesn't really target anything- it just draws a straight line and forces everything along the line to take an initiative test or die. Hmm...

One thing is sure, I borked up Death Frenzy. The caster was slain by a Miscast result, and I let the spell remain in play. I should have checked this, but I was sure the spell stayed up until it was dispelled. Turns out it ends instantly. Whoops. It makes the victory feel rather hollow.

Oh, well. I'll just have to get a re-match. This time with a Grey Seer and Plague Monks.

I found that Ikit Claw is overpriced compared to a Grey Seer. He has little close combat ability, and his greatest asset is Storm Daemon. His missing wizard level (3 versus 4) caused him to struggle to cast spells, and the missing spell was quite a hindrance. The removal of my Rat Ogres and swapping out of a Warlock Engineer in exchange for a level 2 Plague Priest will add a Frenzied unit I can actually control, and my first time using the Skaven Lore of Plague. I've favored the Lore of Ruin as I see more utility to it, but the destructive potential of Plague has me intrigued.

Now back to my paper. 700 words and 3 resources down, 700 words and 3 resources (plus a bibliography) to go.
Then on to studying Evolution.
Then on to taking notes for my English final.
Then on to studying for my Biology final.

*Phew*, It may be a while until my next post...