Saturday 31 October 2009

October Parade Ground recruits



This is the first of a regular monthly feature where I'll showcase this months additions to The Parade Ground bloglist. So here's this months recruits fresh on the parade ground.

Imperial Armour - an excellent blog full of Guard and FoW stuff. Check out his troopers, they're really life like and very well painted.

WH40K Imperial Naval Infantry - a project blog based on the Imperial Navy, it's got some excellent concepts, can't wait to see how they turn out.

Tiberius Prime - a brand new blogger with some classic mini's. Go visit, leave him some comments, we all needed a bit of encouragement when we first started (Thanks Drax/Ron)

Why I will never have money
- if tournaments and guard are your thing, then I'd check out NemFX's blog.

A Canadian in space
- a brilliant blog full of WWI guard conversion goodness. Well worth checking out.

XIIIe Regiment de Cadia - an excellent blog full of guard and inquisition conversions. Full of gothic conversion goodness.

First rank - Fire - a blog about putting together an Imperial Navy masterclass army by two gamers. Looks
promising.

Black/Red painting studio - a painting studio blog that's got some excellent guard stuff. Check out the objective markers.

That's it for October guys, remember, if you run a guard blog or know one that isn't listed on The Parade Ground bloglist, then drop me a line or just comment on this post, and I'll get it added. As it's Halloween, I'll leave you with a few pics.







Friday 30 October 2009

IG Veterans



Like the rest of the FTW community, I got Ron's email about the never leave at home unit, for me it's Veterans. Unfortunately, I haven't put together mine yet, so in the games I've had in the past, I've just used normal troops (The guy above was painted by my mate Tolcrothlogan). I'll be painting mine relatively soon after I get my mojo back.

So, what is it that lights me fire about veterans. Well, they get the job done. In truth, guard arn't the best fighters or shooters but with a bit of experience, they can do wonderful things. They're a ....

  1. 10 man squad, 
  2. that's a troop selection, 
  3. gets an improved BS 4, 
  4. can have a vox for rerolling oders tests,
  5. can have lasguns or assault shotguns, 
  6. can take 3 special weapons, 
  7. a heavy weapons team,
  8. can get an improved 4+ save, or +1 to cover saves and defensive mines, or melta bombs and a demo charge.
  9. can get another rentless, feel no pain heavy bolter whilst getting infiltrate, move through cover and stealth.
  10. or can get a vet sgt that can issue commanders orders on Ld 10 as well as been able to regroup regardless of the situation.
  11. can take a cheap chimera or mobile gun platform as I prefer to call it.
  12. could hop on a valk for some hellrazing.
Now, stop for a moment, then scroll back up and have another look at those options and have a play with combining a few and when you're done, come back. Go on, go now, scroll up :-)

Ah, now you're back, see what I mean, these guys can be customised to get any job done. The possibilities are endless, and they always do wonders for me. That's why they're the boys who never get left at home.

It's a bit hard to write a post about veterans this close to November the 11th without mentioning those who have fallen for our freedoms. To those who have gone....We Will Remember You.


Please support the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal.

Thursday 29 October 2009

101 Followers .... WOW!


I was just having a nose at my blog and I've just noticed that I have 101 followers. That's amazing, word's can not express how I felt when I spotted it. I mean the idea that there's over a hundred people out there who think my blog is worth the time they take reading it is outstanding.

So, thanks to all those who pass by, thanks to those who follow my blog anonymously, and a very big thanks to Niklas Öjhage, damobeepbeep, bunnyman, Mr.Esty, dylangould, Colonel Krieg, Tironum, Little Max, Marshal Argos, CrusherJoe, mark mercer, Chris, Josh Cornwell, ELYSIAN 5th REG, Blitzspear, Dom, WalrusPaladin, Jason Lotito, Akozz, HuronBH, Dj Batman, Aaron, zealot, ludoredguard, CommissarHarris, KingofKanadia, the Engineer, Rogue Pom, Kevin, Elazar The Glorified, Inquisitor Lord Aki, Kuffeh, Metcalfedan, Darkwing, bG, Tristan, Apoc, Lach, Hal, Capitola Family, Lunchbox, Oz Marshal, the other Kevin, Dezartfox, Jonathan, Chuck, Captain Neven, Col. Hessler, Big Jim, Ace_Blitzkrieg, Reds and Royals, zorcon, The AKH, Kron, Karitas, Paul Wu, rc, Magiler, Klaus Fischer, Mordian7th, Paul Chana, Luis Bermer, Wienas, Andrath, Siph_Horridus, FoxPhoenix135, Raptor1313, Rangerrob, lnolen75, Gavin Schofield, Master Darksol, Sidestreaker, elijah.wrigh, Extrac32, Anon, Will ....

and finally t6T_NXRhz4unu_0_fQC.qydo0.nDcw-- ????

Thanks for following guys.

Wednesday 28 October 2009

That's it, I'm done!


I've had enough guys, I'm burnt out, knacked, disillusioned. I've just gone to paint up some heavy weapons for 2nd platoon and I just couldn't bring myself to put paint on the models. It felt like a choir, not something that I love doing.

It's not surprising really, I've painted a phenomenal amount of models (for me) since starting this blog. Combined with the fact that I haven't really got many games in these past few months, it's understandable. Sometimes, I'm envious of these people who pick up different armies all the time, or finish an army and leave it at that. The problem is that I love my guard, I want regiments of them, all lined up, even if I know that I'll probably never use all of them. It's the curse of the lifelong guarder!

So, I've decided, I'm not painting any more guard.

For at least a couple of weeks (see what I did there, that's a Dan Abnett moment). I don't care if I'm up for it tomorrow, I'm having a break. It'll mean skipping the TEOMP challenge this time round, but I'm sure that won't be a major problem. I might paint something else for a bit of fun but no guard. I think I'm going to get stuck in to the Gaunt's Ghosts books. I've already started another 'big long term' which I'm sure loads of you will love and get involved, but I'm not ready to reveal that to the community.

So, I'm off to work on that, and there's not a paintbrush in sight.

Monday 26 October 2009

Introducing a friend and more command models

Before I show you the latest additions to my command squads, I want to introduce a good friend who's just started blogging. Tolcrothlogan is a good friend, who's been a long time player of various system, he's been a propainter with his stuff on the front of Wargames Illustrated and an all round military buff. He's even an ex rupert, but we forgive him for that. Check out his blog at :-

http://tolcrothlogan.blogspot.com/

He's new to all this blogging lark, so nip over and say hi, I'm sure he'll bring a lot to the community.

Now, onto the models. Sorry about the pics, with this winter light, I'm struggling to get decent pics. I really do think that I'm going to have to put together a light box. Anyway, I've painted up another selection of command squad models.


First off, we have four plasma gunners, I just love plasma and four in a command squad mounted in a chimera will be a hell of a headache for those marines.


Next up is a selection of command squad veterans. There's a new smaller banner for 2nd platoon, I decided the first was too grand from a platoon so it's going into the company command squad. The banner is actually from the the catachen command squad, so I snipped it off the arm and cleaned up where it joined the shoulder before mounting it on a normal guardsman. There's two vox casters, a standard plastic one which I put together first and then an old metal one which I found in my boxobits. Finally, another medic to finish them off.



Hope you like them guys. These finish off my command squads, so I'll be posting a full pic of the company command squad as soon as I sort my lighting issues. 2nd platoon just needs a squad of guardsman and two heavy weapons squads to finish it off.

Sunday 25 October 2009

Going Tactical - Bring on the BIG guns


I love artillery and as a guard player, I really do have a lot to choose from, It's like been a kid in a sweet shop, but I don't really think any of them belong in the 40k game, especially in 5th edition.

Why is this? Well, it's down to True Line of Sight. In previous editions of the game, one of the founding rules concepts is that 40k is a game of abstract scale. IE 36" is not same as 3 sets of 12", when you looked at the table, you were looking at a map, that bunker wasn't a bunker, it was a bunker complex, those two tree's were a heavily wooded forest.

With the inclusion of True LOS, all this changed. That bunker was just a bunker, those tree's were just a couple of trees. Everything on the table becomes what is was, rather than a representation. What you see is what you get. Well, if that's the case, then abstract scale goes out of the window. You can't say that a building is just a building and then park an artillery piece behind it and fire over it to hit something in the other side, it just makes no sense.

You see the problem is that 40k isn't a wargame, it's a fantasy battle game. It's full of stuff that just wouldn't happen in a wargame. It's probably the reason why it isn't taken seriously by proper wargamers.

Now, I like tactics and strategy, and I often try to include these into my games of 40k by creating special rules and campaign rules that support these. So, with artillery, here's a few things that I've done in the past with friends to bring a bit of wargaming to 40k......

Artillery has been a major part of all modern conflicts from WWI onwards and played parts in many of the conflicts before the 20th century. The one thing that made artillery excellent was the idea that you could have guns safely in your rear echelon and still damage the enemy. There's no way in hell you'd have heavy pieces lined up with your infantry on the front line, so useless they could fire directly, we banned them and we also banned them firing indirectly. This didn't apply to troop weapons, just any that needed a vehicle to move it.

With them gone from the table, we needed to represent them in the game. This was done in a few methods.

Off Table support

We simply counted them as being behind the lines, and used a spotter much like the current MoO, which was more realistic if not a little annoying to the enemy, with them not being able to do anything about them, but then that's the point of artillery. An alternative to the MoO are preplanned strikes very much like the Grey Knights orbital bombardment.

There's plenty of playing around you can do with this option, from spotter rules to fire missions, to planning pretimed creeping barrages, even to coin a phrase, broken arrow fire missions. With a little effort you can add a whole new tactical level to the game with offensive and defensive artillery support.

Multitable games

Best saved for big point games and multiplayer games, but they're absolutely great fun and add a whole new level to the game. The basic idea is that you have another table setup to represent the artillery positions. You can then call in support fire from the rear table to the front line table using various spotter/fire mission rules.

Where it gets interesting is how you deal with this rear table. In the past we've allowed players to allocated deep striking units to attack the artillery positions. It becomes a whole new game, with player having to decide how much of their force they want to put aside for attacking/defending these positions. Too much and you could be lacking on the front line, to little and you'll be feeling the pain on the front line.

Campaign rules

Campaigns already add a whole new strategic level to the game and artillery is just one element. In past campaigns based on hex maps (the old mighty empires), we've allowed artillery pieces in forces neighbouring a hex currently in conflict to support their forces with off table artillery. Combined with a relaxation of the FOC, this encouraged the players to develop specially artillery support armies and artillery hunting forces. There's just so much possibility.

Give them a go, I'm sure you'll have a blast, a very large blast. Out of interest, have any of you guys used alternative rules for artillery support? I loved to hear them, feel free to add them in the comments or even blog about them. I'd love to hear how you making things a bit more tactical.

Sunday 18 October 2009

Objectives complete

I've finally finished my new objective counters. It was an interesting challenge and I've loved putting these little scene together, so much so, that I'm looking forward to seeing what other scenes I can create. Big thanks to the TOEMP challenge for pushing me to give these a try.

Sorry they're not the best pics, I really should have waited until daytime to take the pics but it's been a hell of a weekend and I wanted to do a little painting and blogging to wind down before I hit the much needed sack. Anyway, here's the pics.







I'm hoping to get the extra command squad models done for Tuesday, the latest TEOMP deadline, but that depends on whether I can keep Real Life (TM) getting in the way of the important stuff ;-)

On the Real Life (TM) stuff, I'm knackered and by that I mean properly knackered. The wife and I had a weekend away with friends and last night was a late one. We finally got to sleep at 6am after a night of clubbing and laughing, then the hotel reception rang us at 9.30am with our wake up call. I'm really surprised that I've even finished these and blogged about it tonight.

Anyway, whilst on our way down to Brum on a cold, spitting, bitter October morning, we pulled in behind a guys cruising in his Porsche Boxster with his roof down. My lovely wife spotted his number plate and took a pic......


No question at the end of this one guys, I've decided that it makes the blog to much like an article and that just isn't me.

Saturday 10 October 2009

Wednesday 7 October 2009

Going Tactical - thoughts on the future

I've been thinking quite a lot about the future lately, and what I actually want out of this hobby. I've had a great year so far, especially the six months I've been blogging but looking back at my posts, I realised something. I've had very little gaming this year, and that's a shame as I've always considered myself a gamer first and a painter second.

It isn't easy for me to get games, I don't like to play at GW stores, not until they start running veteran nights again. My local club is good but they get together on Fridays, which is often a busy time for me. Having kids ties up quite a bit of my leisure time and my gaming friends live over an hour away and have families, so getting time with them is tough.

All this has led to me getting very few games in, and it's something I want to rectify. I don't think I can really change any of the above, so I need a new avenue to explore and after a bit of thought I came up with tournaments. My lovely wife doesn't have a problem with me taking a weekend out every so often and I get quite a few games in a day or two.

The only issue is that in the past, I've always avoided them because of the competitive nature of these events. Now, I don't think I'm going to find any non-competitive tournaments and I can't expect other people to change, so it looks like I'm going to have to.

If you're going to do something, you'd better do it as well as you can - it's a phrase that's served me well over the years. I'm not going to become a power gamer using hardcore net lists, rather I want to try to use a themed guard force as well as I can. This means learning the game a lot more, learning the other armies and their play styles a lot more and learning how to use my army a lot more.

For those that follow my blog, don't worry, it's not going to become a tactical advice blog. I'm still going to posting my models, wip pics, the odd tutorial and an occasion thought or two but I'm also going to be posting more tactical and game reports. This actually works out quite well, with my upcoming 2010 special ops force, I'm going to have to put a lot more work into sculpting and converting and therefore more time between modelling posts.

So, here begins a new journey into a new aspect of the game that will hopefully end with me winning the grand tournament at warhammer world - Hey, you've got to aim high to hit high - lol.

In the current style of asking questions at the end of a blog to encourage discussion, I ask this - What are your favourite UK tournaments?, and if you don't have any, then why are you not into the tournament scene?

Sunday 4 October 2009

WIP Objectives

With the latest TOEMP challenge, I've put myself down for painting up the rest of my command squad. As I went for the easiest for the three possible challenges, I had to take a hard bonus challenge, which meant challenging myself with sculpting, body positioning, converting and parts swapping.

Well, there wasn't much chance to get this done as part of the command squad as they're pretty uniform models. So, I decided to add a set of 5 objective markers to my painting total.


When I first came up with the idea, I thought about what the average soldier would see as an objective. Stores and Whores came immediately came to mind, lacking any suitable whores, I decided to go with casualties instead.

The first two are just simple stores objectives, nothing fancy here. One of the boxes was damaged, so I had to do a little GS fixing.



Next up comes a simple casualty taking cover in some rubble, nothing fancy on this one.


The second casualty marker was a bit more involved. I used fuss wire to represent the drip line, so this casualty is getting aid in the field.


For the fifth and finally one, I wasn't sure whether to do stores or another casualty, so I did both, a casualty sitting on stores. This one was the most involved of all the objectives. There's a head mod, change in body position, hand swap plus adding a fag to his new hand.


I've still got to add a few bits and bobs, then I'll seal the gravel with watered down PVA. Let me know what you think guys.

Saturday 3 October 2009

Vanquisher added to 152 Armoured Assault Company

I made the latest TOEMP challenge deadline by nineteen minutes, finishing just before midnight last night. I'm quite please on how it's come out, sorry the pics are brilliant. I must sort out my lighting at some point. Anyway, here's tank number 5 of 152 Armoured Assault Company.





All I need to do now is the executioner, which will bring the company strength up to 6 Russes and then I'm done with the company for a while. Finally, a quick shout out for some blogging love .....


On Tuesday, I realised that I'd run out of transfers for my tanks, so I put out a call to my fellow bloggers, and they responded on Wednesday and the transfers started to drop on Thursday. Now that's what I call a community. Big thanks to Craig from the 8th, Paul from Exponent and Siph from Weemen.

Just got to wait for the next challenge now, it should drop sometime today.

UPDATE - EPIC FAIL


I've just noticed as I was putting the vanquisher in my display cabinet. In my rush to get it done, I've put the wrong fething transfers on. I've put 571 which is my infantry company number instead of 152. Guess I know what I'm doing today, luckily, I've got plenty of spare transfers now - lol.

UPDATE 2 - SAVE!



I managed to fix the ident panels, it's not the best fix but it's passable. They do come off a bit darker than my other vehicles ident panels but not excessively. There's a lesson in this somewhere.