Playing a bit differently

It's a lovely sunday afternoon, and I'm sitting in the garden on my laptop watching the kids play and the rabbit run for it's life. Well, I say run for it's life, in truth, it's easily running rings around my 3yr old lad and his baby sister - lol

Probably inspired by the old gamers article in the latest issue of WD, I've been thinking quite a lot about big games. I really like big games, and by that, I mean campaigns, multitable games, and scenario driven games. Don't get me wrong, I love a straight game of 40k at the club on a friday night, but that's all it is, a game. Big games are stories in action, they drag you in and then never let you go. Once it's started, you're in it to the end, and that's what I'm craving right now!

So, I've been chatting with a few friends and we're going to setup a campaign that's story driven, points are out of the window on this one. The basic story is set, the foul tau are attacking an imperial world. We've already decided that it's going to be mainly static imperial defences with the tau trying to seize the capital. We've also already decided that the imperium is likely to loss as they are facing overwelming odds. So, what's the point of playing a campaign that you know the outcome? Well, it's not about the fact I'm in all likelyhood going to lose, but how I lose. That's the Dunkirk spirit kicking in.

We'll be fleshing out the campaign over the next coming weeks, so I'll keep posting what we've got so far. Right, off to think about maps.

2nd Platoon WIP

I've been working on the support squads and another heavy weapons squad for 2nd platoon. They're looking good so far, but there's still quite a bit to do on them. I'm working on the bases tonight, so hopefully I'll get those done before bed and that leaves me sunday to work on my trenches. Anyway, there

We are Guard

Found this whilst browsing, think it says it all :-

We are the Imperial Guard. We have bad rules, poor stats and overpriced units.

We have lost a turn of shooting, half the capability of our armour and any pretence of fairness.

Despite this we have thrived, we have adapted and we have prospered.

We are the Imperial Guard, this is what we do best, WE DIE STANDING.

In May 2009, all of this changes.

Where once we stumbled, now we will stride.

We will show you what a true general can do.

Ave Imperator

Command Squad - 2nd Platoon

Well, with all the rumours going around about the new platoon structure, I thought it would be a good idea to put a full platoon together. So, based on the proposed layout from Bols, thats 1 command squad (5), 2 special squads (12), 5 heavy weapon squads (30) and 5 squads (50), giving a grand total of 97, just 3 off a 100. That's quite impressive, almost 100 men for one troop choice.

So, starting at the top, here's the HQ and the first two heavy weapon squads.



I'm going to get stuck into the special squads and another heavy weapons squad next. I'm not going to give them any unit markings until I actually get my hands on the codex.

Imperial Airfield

Spent a bit of time sorting out my gaming room this afternoon, and while I had my table up, I thought I'd grab the chance to take a few pics of my Imperial Airfield. I few years ago, I got a vulture gunship for my space marine force. Once painted up, me being me, I decided I needed an airfield to go with it.

So here ya go, obviously, the runway, radar and fuel depots are forge world, but the control tower, hangers and storage bunkers are mine. They need a bit of touching up, hey ho, another thing on the joblist!

YouTube Vid - Earthworks tutorial

Well, I've spent the afternoon working on the earthworks youtube vid and I've had to split it into two halves. One, because YouTube only allows 10 minute vids and two, because I haven't filmed the sanding and sealing bit yet.

So, here's the next installment. This one covers working with polystyrene (stryofoam for you yanks) and covers the hotwire cutter and using templates to cut polystyrene. Hope you like it.



Please let me know what you think, good or bad. I should have the next video done for the weekend, if everything goes to plan. Right, I'm off to work on my command and heavy squads.

YouTube Vid - Bases tutorial

Well, I've been thinking and I don't want to wait until I've finished the trenches and edited all the tutorials before publishing them. So I'm going to release bit as I get them done. There's only one hitch, the very first part needs the finished trenches to show people what they're building but I can't film that until I've finished. So, ironically the fist part will be coming last. Please accept my apologies for this in advance.

Right, back to the good bit, I've finished editing up the movie and posted it to YouTube. It's a 10min guide to using MDF for wargames scenery. Hope you like it and let me know what you think.



Making earthworks out of polystyrene next ...

End of a Cracking Weekend

Well, a bit of real world for a change. I'm settling down after what has to be a truly great weekend. It started on Friday night at the club, with a couple of cracking games with the newbie Draz. We had a good couple of small games with him winning the first and the second ending in a bloody draw. Overall, a nice easy evening especially as it ended in the pub.

Saturday saw a day shopping with my little man. First off to Wrexham for some shoes (da boring stuff) and then a trip round the various toy and model shops, I'm just like a big kid when it comes to toys - lo. After our shopping trip, we came home and just played trucks for the rest of the afternoon. Sometimes, it's nice to get away from being an adult and all the crap that comes along with it.

Once the little ones were in bed, I kissed my wife good bye and headed off to my first Poker night with the lads from gaming. Cracking night, I've never played before but I think I held my own. At one pint, it was so close, lost to a pair of bloody 3's - lol

Sunday was spent working on my video tutorial on my laptop whilst sitting in the garden watching the kids play. As I said at the start, cracking weekend.

Modular Trenches - Earthworks

My new hotwire cutter turned up today and what a shiny new toy it is! It's mains powered unlike the GW one, so no more dead batteries or wires that arn't hot enough. So, with my new cutter in one hand and a camera in the other (not literally!), I cracked on with trench system.

I only managed to calve one trench piece as filming took quite a while, but overall I'm pretty happy with it. Here are the pics :

I'm going to work on the rest of the pieces over the weekend as I've got a couple of busy days ahead of me.

Eldar City Scenery

Not been up to much recently, I'm waiting on my hotwire cutter from EC Scenics so I can continue my trenches. So, I thought I'd share a few pics of some Eldar terrain I did for my brothers Eldar army.

It's just a collection are all the sweet tubs and tubs we had left over from xmas along with one of those plastic yard of ale thingys all mounted on cake bases. The covering was papa mache, then thinned down polyfiller and a watered down coat of pva to seal them.

Command Squad

Well, while I've been waiting for my bits to turn up so I can continue my trenches, I've decided to catch up on my guard. I was planning to paint up my hellhammer but to be honest, I'm sick and tired of painting armour after finishing my armoured company.

So, it's back to troops or more specifically, another HQ unit. So far I've painted up the command squad and two heavy weapon support squads. I still need to do their bases and a bit of touching up, but I'm almost there.


Slightly off topic, I captured the footage so far for my trench tutorial this evening. Now, I might not be the best film maker or the best narrator in the world but the footage ain't that bad. I've managed to get 13 minutes of useful footage on planning and then making the bases, so things are looking good so far.

Modular Trenches - Bases

Well, I've spent the evening working on the bases for the trench system. I've put together four boards, each one 2'x1' (well actually 10" on the edges). Two of the boards are going to have pillarboxes on them, the other two and simple trench lines with firing steps and heavy weapon dugouts.

I've made them out of cake boards, which may sound strange but they're dead easy to get hold of, most supermarkets stock them. They're cheap, 8 12"x12" boards only cost me £6 from the lovely old dear who runs the cake and sweet shop at our local indoor market. Finally, they're really easy to work with, you can cut them with a steak knife if you need and I often do when I'm bevelling the edges.

Anyway, here's the pics of what I've got so far ........



Next stage is the earthworks. I'm going to make these out of standard builders polystyrene. I know you can get specialist modeling foam but personally, for general hills and stuff, this stuff is just too expensive and difficult to get hold of. So, once again, I'm going for the cheap and easy option. I've ordered a 2 inch thick sheet of 8'x4' from my local builders merchants. It's only cost me £11 and I'm only going to use 1/4 of it (one long edge 8'x1').

I've also ordered a new hot wire cutter from EC Scenics along with some replacement wires and some new tall grass tufts that you can just stick to your bases. Although, in hindsight, they're not much use in a cityfight army....... they'll probably end up on my Eldar or Grey Knights.

Hopefully, it'll be here early next week so I can get cracked on with making the earthworks. I really don't want to have to use my GW wire cutter, this woodland scenics one is mains powered, so it'll cut through it like butter and I don't have to worry about batteries going dead.

On the video tutorial, well, my wife has given me some space and I've aleady done the footage for the planning and base making. I'll get it captured tomorrow and have a look at how bad it is .... I hate seeing myself on camera - lol

Modular Trenches

I've always liked the idea of guard armies massed in trenches awaiting an enemy attack. I searched for quite a while for trench systems online and they're either way too expensive or just not suitable for 40k. So, I started searching for tutorials on how to scratch build them and bummed out on that one as well.

So, I've decided to make my own. I'm looking to make initially four 2'x1' tiles that I can line up for make an 8' trench line. So far, all I've done is draw up some simple cross sections and sketched out a few layout ideas.



As a tip, if you're going to make your own terrain, especially stuff that models can move inside, I highly recommend taking a little time to plan it out and make sure you can actually fit models inside it, as building a model that you can't use is heartbreaking, trust me ............. I know.
As a side note, as a project, I'm going to try to film the process and do a video tutorial for youtube. In all honesty, this might get sidelined by family life, but I'll try my best.

More halftrack madness

I really wish I could say that I did this one, but the truth is that I picked it up in a trade. It's a really nice conversion that I'm going to use as a standin centaur which is an open topped fast vehicle that can transport 5 models, so perfect for my command squad.

Sentinel Standin

My next big block of troops are going to be my veterans. I picked up a load of old metal catachens from a friend. Unfortunately, there's no vehicles with them, so I'm look at doing some halftracks to stand in as sentinels. Here's the first ......

Cityfight Canal System

I recently moved house and decided to dig out some of my old scenery. Here's a cityfight canal system that I put together. It's modular and measures over 6' long. It has three main crossing, a bridge for vehicles, a footbridge for large models and a walk way for troop. It needs a little touching up, but otherwise, it's good to go ......

 

 

Rumours everywhere

Well, another day, another rumour about the up coming Guard codex. To be honest, I've getting a bit tired of it all, so I've made a decision. I'm not going to bother with reading to much into them.

At the end of the day, we're not going to know for sure until it's released and there's nothing you can do about it once it's been released. So I'm just going to wait until it is released and take it from there. I've been in this hobby for nearly 20 years, I don't mind waiting for the codex.

On a final note, I did come across this, the suggested new guard codex cover .....

Image from Warseer

Mech Elements of the Corbanian 1st

HQ 571 Mechanised StormTrooper Company


JO - Plasma Pistol, Powerfist, 2x Grenade Launchers, 2x Flamers, C.Armour.
CHIMERA - Autocannon, Heavy Bolter, Search Light, Heavy Stubber, Track Guards.

621 Sentinel Anti Armour Squadron


SENTINEL - Lascannon
SENTINEL - Lascannon
SENTINEL - Lascannon

1st Section - 571 Mechanised StormTrooper Company


10 STORM TROOPERS - 2x Melta
CHIMERA - Autocannon, Heavy Bolter, Search Light, Hunter Killer, Track Guards, Smoke Launchers.

2nd Section - 571 Mechanised StormTrooper Company


10 STORM TROOPERS - 2x Plasma
CHIMERA - Autocannon, Heavy Bolter, Search Light, Hunter Killer, Track Guards, Smoke Launchers.

754 HellHound Squadron


HELLHOUND
HELLHOUND
HELLHOUND

154 Armoured Strike Squadron


LEMAN RUSS - Heavy Bolter, Heavy Bolter Sponsors, Heavy Stubber.
LEMAN RUSS - Lascannon, Heavy Bolter Sponsors.
LEMAN RUSS - Heavy Bolter.

Introducing the Corbanian 1st.

So, what's all this about? Well, I'm a long time player of Warhammer 40k and over the past couple of months I've been looking for a spot of the web where I can share my thoughts and models. So, while I get some stuff together for this blog, I'll leave you with a pic of my beloved guard to wet you appetite.







CC