And we're back

172132MAY10
Well, it's been awhile. I owe the handful of you who actually come to my blog an apology and an explanation. The past month or so has been nonsensically nasty (and my camera died) between the end-of-semester crunch Virginia Defense Force activities (I commanded a composite company out at the Apple Blossom Festival this year; 2 days of command, 2 months of lead-up work, strangely some of the most fun I've had as in the VDF yet), and completing my Basic MEMS (Military Emergency Management Specialist) training. Thanks for sticking around.
Okay, so I've got about a month of updates to go over . . .

Warhammer Fantasy
I've been playing Fantasy as my primary game for the past month or so. I consider it the better game (compared to 40k), being more complicated, more thought-provoking, and far more challenging. My Empire army has grown tremendously, and I've been focusing what little painting I've done on them. You can see the numbers at the top (which I have been updating, despite the lack of actual posts); the Army of Brewheim now has a 1,000 points legal army fully painted (it would likely get trashed, due to a noticeable lack of detachments for the Core choice done so far, but hey, it's a fully-painted army).

What everyone knows about by now is the upcoming release of Warhammer 8th edition. I haven't been a hobbyist for long (about a year now I'd say) and have only just gotten used to 7th ed. As a result I don't have much to say on it, though if you poke around the internet and/or your local GW store I'm sure you'll find/hear/see plenty of information on what people think is coming in 8th. I'll keep my peace until I have something confirmed by GW.

I have considered what I want to do for my inaugural 8th ed. army. As there are very few people in my local community who do Beastmen (that I've met at least), I had considered them and even bought the army book and wrote a list. That said, both thematically and how the army seems to play isn't really that appealing. The look of the army doesn't really strike me as that interesting (half-naked things with back-jointed legs, hooves, and cow-faces? no thanks).

I do have my old Warriors of Chaos army that has been begging for an update. The army, as it stands, is totally Tzeentch-themed, which, after careful thought, isn't really a good way to run an army. I picked Tzeentch because Tzeentch struck me as the most Chaos-y of the Chaos gods. In terms of gameplay, however, a 6+ Ward save only goes so far. I'm looking at adding some Khorne and Nurgle to round it out and strengthen the army into something more playable.

Warhammer 40,000
I haven't been neglecting my Space Wolves too much. I've almost finished the first pack of Grey Hunters, and I've been adding on to the Blood Claws to make a full pack (I have a vision of a full pack with a Wolf Guard Battle Leader charging out of a Land Raider Crusader). The Blood Claws have served as one of my Kill Teams, though due to a lack of 40k playing they haven't had a chance to do anything but die to Bill's Eldar team (I have an axe to grind with that Relentless Ranger).

My second Kill Team is not a team in the strictest sense. I have been using a Blood Angels Furioso Librarian (converted from an Ironclad Dreadnought), which I have found is something that works if played very conservatively. The Furioso's back armor is still only 10, so, as I've discovered, enough Ork Shoota shots into the back will bring it down. As will a meltagun to the face. Still, it's fun, and there's something delightful about seeing a Fleet (special rule specifically for Kill Teams, it's not a Furioso thing) with the Wings of Sanguinius power (allowing it to move as Jump Infantry) dreadnought run around and smash things to pieces with terrifying ease.

I haven't done much else with the Blood Angels, however. Nor have I done much about rebuilding my Imperial Guard, and part of that was a realization that making my list my theme was a bad idea (not to mention expensive). I sat on that for awhile, then came up with a grand idea. You see, Empire Militia and Archers fit really well with Cadian bits. The result is a unique look (and now I really wish I had a functional camera to show you my test model). With some modification to the test model's look, and at the suggestion of several fellows at the local GW store, I'm now leaning towards making a mechanised Guard list depicting the Fenrisian PDF (having been somewhat motivated by the new IG tank kits coming out). Below is a theoretical list.

1/9 Fenrisian PDF: Imperial Guard 2,000 points

HQ
Company Command Squad with a power fist, medi-pack, a meltagun, carapace armour, 2 bodyguards, and an Officer of the Fleet: 185

Troops
Veteran Squad with a power fist, and 3 meltaguns, with a Chimera with a heavy bolter and a heavy stubber: 180
Veteran Squad with a power fist, and 3 meltaguns, with a Chimera with a heavy bolter and a heavy stubber: 180
Veteran Squad with a power fist, and 3 meltaguns, with a Chimera with a heavy bolter and a heavy stubber: 180

Fast Attack
Valkyrie Assault Carrier with a lascannon and multiple rocket pods: 145
Scout Sentinel Squadron with 2 autocannon-armed Scout Sentinels and 1 lascannon-armed Scout Sentinel: 130
Scout Sentinel Squadron with 2 autocannon-armed Scout Sentinels and 1 lascannon-armed Scout Sentinel: 130

Heavy Support
Leman Russ Squadron with a Leman Russ Battle Tank with a hull-mounted lascannon and a Leman Russ Exterminator with multi-melta sponsons: 345
Leman Russ Squadron with a Leman Russ Battle Tank with a hull-mounted lascannon and a Leman Russ Punisher with heavy bolter sponsons: 365
Manticore Rocket Launcher: 160
Total: 2,000 points

This list is likely to go through a few iterations before seeing the tabletop, but as it stands it strikes me as being crazily hard-hitting and surprisingly durable (mostly thanks to the sheer amount of stuff an opponent would have to cut through).

Well, it's been a long block-o'-text (that's what happens when you don't post for a month), thanks for sticking around, and I'll have pictures of my stuff for you once I get the camera up and running again.

New Title

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I'm sure it's going to confound someone, but I got tired of the old "Booj's Hobby" title. Far too bland, and no amount of clever subtitles I could think of were going to spice it up. Better to change it now with a minor readership than later on, I say. I spent awhile coming to this decision; luckily I wasn't particularly keen on maintaining the old title, so no big hurdle there. I spent more time figuring out what I was going to change it to.
Other titles I toyed with (some humorous, others like this new one):
"Legend"
"Time of Ending"
"Saga of War"
"Special Rule: Epic Fail"
"Plastic, Paint, and Bad Dice"

Death Company Guinea Pig

182347APR10
One of these days I'm going to follow my own damn advice to myself and paint to an actual "table" standard by minimizing things like highlighting and extreme details. That way, a model like the one here will only take an hour or two instead of the 7-hour mess it ended up taking.

To be fair, part of the reason this guy took so long was because of the experimentation with the colour (blast it, it's "color" in American English, not "colour") scheme for the Death Company. And experiments with things like the black armor, the loincloth, the red areas, etc. Despite the length of time, it was time well spent as the next four Death Company models going into the GW Sugarland 5-model painting competition (I think I can do another 4 in two weeks) won't take nearly as long, even with little detail I normally skip like eyes and teeth.
Not a bad bit of work, methinks.

Wolves, Angels, and Marines

170044APR10
Hope everyone remembered yesterday, being the 16th of April. Especially my fellow Hokies.
Right, moving on to the stuff you came to see. I have a few random pictures for you, to show I have not been idle with the hobby and haven't just been sitting around making lists.
The first is a Grey Hunter armed with a plasma gun.

The effect on the coils is achieved by making the coils white, then washing it with severely watered down Ice Blue. Having successfully done it with just the coils, now I've got to figure out how to do some directional lighting (time to visit HuronBH's tutorials, mayhap). This brings the total number of Grey Hunters done to 6; another 14 to go, plus 9 Blood Claws, 5 Wolf Guard, Logan, and a Rhino. (Argh . . .)
Next up is a Risen Angels Assault Terminator.

This was mostly trial-and-error on the color scheme applied to a Terminator. You may notice the helmet, however, uses the technique I mentioned before: Mithril Silver with 3 Gryphone Sepia washes to get a fine highlighted gold effect. You can see a hint of the chapter emblem there (went back to the single-winged sword), that's free-handed rather than using the old method of cutting off a wing from a Dark Angels transfer. Best part is he didn't take too long, either.
Lastly, I admit to having caved: I started building up my Blood Angels' "Descent of Angels" list. I started with 5 of my 10 Death Company Marines.

Note the fellow in the middle, in the process of leaving the ground. So much for not doing Blood Angels . . . well, let's face it, they're awesome.

BA list revised

151936APR10
Clearly I need to take a math course again. I horrifyingly miscalculated the cost of 10 Death Company, which meant I actually was quite a few points short of 1,500.
Anyway, with the numbers fixed I went back and added some much needed wargear to the squads (it seemed more useful than adding, say, a Sanguinary Priest). So here it is, hopefully fixed.

The Descent of Angels
HQ: The Sanguinor, Examplar of the Host: 275
Elites: Sanguinary Guard with death masks, the chapter banner, and one infernus pistol: 265
Elites: Chaplain with melta bombs and a jump pack: 130
Troops: Assault Squad (10) with two meltaguns and a power fist: 135
Troops: Assault Squad (10) with two flamers and a power fist: 125
Troops: Death Company (10) with jump packs and two hand flamers: 370
Total point cost: 1,500

No change in strategy, except now one Assault Squad is essentially a dedicated tank buster unit while the other is an infantry hunter. The Sanguinary Guard is now capable of taking on enemy armor to clear the way to the enemy HQ.

Second thoughts and a BA list

141443APR10
Sadness. After painting a Tactical Marine and a Terminator for the Keepers, I find that this new theme just doesn't speak to me in the same way as my original one did. Simply put, I don't like it.
So now I find myself torn on how to rectify the situation. I don't want to just keep trucking along on a theme I don't feel anything for, and I find it somewhat difficult to think of a another brand new one. Inevitably, I think I'm going to be returning to my original theme and design.
I'm undecided right now, but I'm thinking the Keepers are going right back to being the Risen Angels. I don't know if I'll use the old Risen Angels chapter symbol (single-winged sword) as it was far too often mistaken for Dark Angels (the color scheme didn't help, either). Maybe a one-winged angel? (I've watched Advent Children too many times it seems.)
Speaking of angels, Scribd has a copy of the Blood Angels codex on it now, which meant I was able to write up a theoretical list. For what I wanted to do I found that 1,000 points was too small, necessitating a jump to 1,500. Thus, I give you the first incarnation of a theoretical Blood Angels list that is becoming more and more likely to be made:

The Descent of Angels
HQ: The Sanguinor, Examplar of the Host: 275
Elites: Sanguinary Guard with Death Masks and the Chapter Banner: 255
Elites: Chaplain with jump pack: 125
Troops: Assault Squad (10) with power fist: 215
Troops: Assault Squad (10) with a flamer and power fist: 220
Troops: Death Company (10) with jump packs: 410

This list plays to a theme based on the Descent of Angels special rule. Everyone has jump packs and are made for getting in close combat. There is no long-range support in this list, so I had to make up for that with the power fists in the Assault Squads. It's also very small with all of 37 models, all jump infantry, so there's no time to dally; get close and get punching.
The Sanguinor can't join units if I'm not mistaken, so his job is to go find the enemy's HQ and tear them to pieces. The Sanguinary Guard would move with him and make sure he gets there, taking out any units around the enemy HQ and clearing a path. The Chaplain moves with the Death Company as the main effort, there to destroy as much as possible. The Assault Squads will support the Death Company and capture objectives as needed.
Hmm . . . so much to do, and so much more I want to do . . . no wonder nothing gets done.

On Wolves and Vampires

121141APR10
No, I'm not talking about yet another incredibly bad vampire movie.
For anyone concerned that I may have been neglecting my Space Wolves in favor of everything else, including my still list-less Imperial Guard army, fear not. The Space Puppies too well fit my play style and too well appease my love of the 40k lore to be ignored and are still my primary army. They've now gone through a much-needed expansion that now allows me to start mixing up my lists somewhat.
Anyone who has played against me or has at least seen my lists knows I'm not a big fan of named characters. Not because I don't like their rules or their stats or their model (generally), but rather because I vastly prefer to create my own characters with their own backgrounds, then make their own histories and legends on the "battlefield." Unfortunately, that deprives me of some of the edge of any army I play. With my Wolves I have finally decided to change that outlook, and so I picked up Logan Grimnar and a box of Terminators. Logan will be my next masterclass, so don't expect him to be painted anytime soon (I have to practice painting Terminators in general, then Space Wolves Terminators in particular, before I even consider that).

The fellow next to him is my take on Arjac Rockfist, the upgrade character for the Wolf Guard. There's not much different from a straight-up Wolf Guard Terminator, other than his base. The head is different; I wanted to get it as close to the picture of him in the codex as I could without spending hours with green stuff and a hobby knife, so I took the closest looking head I could find and removed the hair (he's bald with a beard in the codex). The hammer on his back comes from a Space Marines Assault Terminator sergeant's thunder hammer with the skulls removed (vaguely resembling the anvil on his back). I also removed the cabling connecting his hammer to his arm, as it would be awfully difficult to throw it at anything if it's attached to his armor with a short cable.
In terms of Logan's usefulness, it's more for his personal power and some of his special rules rather than some desire to make a "Loganwing" army. First of all, that would supplant my desires to make a Deathwing army at some point in the future. Second, I don't have a huge desire to see that man Wolf Guard Terminators on the field at once. What I do see myself doing is using Logan and his Wolf Guard Terminators in conjunction with Morkai and his jump pack-equipped Wolf Guard. In fact, to my mind having access to Wolf Guard as Troops doesn't scream "make lots of Terminators!" Wolf Guard are by far the most flexible units in the Space Wolves codex; why would I sacrifice that just so I can have that many Terminators? They're also expensive in points, which tells me that they're a supplement to the primary Troops of the Wolves, Grey Hunters and Blood Claws.
That's just my opinion, of course, feel free to agree or disagree as you see fit.
In the painting department, I've (finally) finished a Grey Hunters Pack. It's not the whole pack--I normally run 10 Grey Hunters rather than 5--but it is now codex-legal. They're shown here coming out of my second Drop Pod (which, typically, they do).

The fellow with the power fist was something of an experiment in alternative paint schemes. The nozzles on his backpack are actually Boltgun Metal rather than the gold that everyone else has (a surprisingly great look, very complementary to the Space Wolves color palette), and there are a few gold areas on his armor I used a different technique to achieve. Normally I basecoat with Khemri Brown, then put Shining Gold on top of them. This time I used a method described on GW's site last week I believe: Mithril Silver base with 3 Gryphone Sepia washes. The result was spectacular (belatedly I realize the picture above doesn't show the results, as I only did that to the gold on his power fist), and will likely see that becoming a more common method of painting large areas of gold for me.
Changing tracks here, it is becoming increasingly tempting to at least pick up some Blood Angels models and paint them up. I'm particularly in love with the Sanguinor and the Sanguinary Guard. I see that was a slippery slope, though; if I pick those up I'm going to have to make a Blood Angels army. If I do it will likely be another 1,000 point "experimental" list, and I believe it would feature lots of jump packs. To me that's one of the key parts of the Blood Angels' imagery, Angels of Death descending from the heavens on wings of fire, destroying the enemies of the Imperium in the fury of hand-to-hand combat (too florid, you think?).
If I get a hold of a Blood Angels codex (which is increasingly likely), I'll write up a list and post to show you what I mean and what I see as a "proper" Blood Angels list. Don't worry, I don't see them ever supplanting the Space Wolves as my favored army (giving their codex a read-through the other day didn't inspire that "I have to make this army!" feeling I got from reading Codex: Space Wolves the first time).

Possible Guard list

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I'm closing on a final Guard list. I thought I'd share the current iteration.

HQ: Company Command Squad with a medi-pack, a vox-caster, a mortar, and an Officer of the Fleet: 120
Troops: Infantry Platoon
Platoon Command Squad with a power fist, a vox-caster, the platoon standard, a heavy flamer, replacing lasguns with laspistols: 85
Infantry Squad with a vox-caster, a grenade launcher, and an autocannon: 70
Infantry Squad with a vox-caster and a flamer: 60
Heavy Weapons Squad with three lascannons: 105
Troops: Infantry Platoon
Platoon Command Squad with a power fist, a vox-caster, the platoon standard, a heavy flamer, replacing lasguns with laspistols: 85
Infantry Squad with a vox-caster, a grenade launcher, and an autocannon: 70
Infantry Squad with a vox-caster and a flamer: 60
Elites: Ogryn Squad: 130
Elites: Guardsman Marbo: 65
Fast Attack: Scout Sentinel Squadron with three autocannon-armed Sentinels and camo-netting: 150

In this iteration, the Company Command would sit in the rear with the lascannons and autocannons, aiming for tanks and the like (autocannon-armed Infantry Squads would screen in front of the Heavy Weapons). I realize I have an Officer of the Fleet in this list, but I would likely swap him out for whatever's most appropriate (Master of Ordnance for, say, Ork mobs and big 'nid swarms, an Astropath when I have no other needs; I don't see Bodyguards being all that useful here). Flamer-armed Infantry Squads would form the front of the tiered gunline to act as a screen and counter-charge. Platoon Commands and the Ogryns would remain in the front to act as skirmishers. The Sentinels harass from the flanks. Marbo's (or rather this army's equivalent's) role is to pop in at the most inconvenient location to irritate and annoy (from cover, of course).
May be worth testing with some old Guard models (I don't have everything, of course, but I can sub some other models in).

Masterclass Telion (or as close as I get to masterclass)

060140APR10
For the record, playing WoW while trying to update the blog is not a good idea; avoid it if possible.
I promised pictures of Telion when I finished. I'd say he's at least close enough to finished that I can post them (which probably means I'm not going to work on him one bit more). I'm more than a little pleased with how the fellow turned out.

He may not actually be "masterclass" compared to some of the other stuff I've seen, but he's certainly one of the best, if not the best, I've ever painted. (I've been asked this since my last post, so let me just be clear that I am not an Ultramarines player; I just felt like painting one for laughs).
I've also started work on the Keepers. The vehicles' interiors are all painted up, so now it's just the exteriors that need work, and my first Tactical Marine is done, too.



Here's the list I've built, 1,000 points. Will it win? Heck if I know, but it was fun building it and I'm looking forward to painting it.

HQ: Space Marine Captain with a power fist and a combi-melta: 135
Troops: 10 Tactical Marines with a flamer, a missile launcher, a combi-melta, and a Rhino: 215
Troops: 5 Tactical Marines with a flamer, melta-bombs, a chainsword, and a Razorback: 135
Troops: 5 Tactical Marines with a plasma gun and a Razorback: 140
Elites: Venerable Dreadnought with a plasma cannon: 175
Elites: Terminator Assault Squad with 3 thunder hammers & storm shields: 200
Total: 1,000 points

It's been a long time since I've played vanilla Marines, so I honestly can't say for certain how good this list is. I'll almost certainly have this army with me next time I'm at GW in the hopes of getting a test run.
Speaking of lists, the reason why there have been no real updates on my reborn Imperial Guard army is because I'm having trouble making a good list for it that keeps to the light infantry theme. Right now the list revolves around an Infantry Platoon supplemented by some close-quarters oriented Veterans (the platoon would act as a gunline, Infantry Squads protecting the Heavy Weapons Squads and the Company Command Squad, while Veteran Squads and the Platoon Command Squad run around and harrass the enemy as they close). I've never had a good experience running an all-gunline list, so I wanted to make sure I had a few things here and there to slow them down (later expansions would likely see some Ogryns thrown in there). I've toyed with the idea of an all-close-quarters list, but while inexpensive I don't see it working well at all. Any veteran IG players got any ideas? (Among the two of you who read this nonsense and blah?)
(Yes, I know Blood Angels just came out and I apparently should be making one of their lists. Fact is, I have a Space Wolves army that needs painting, a Codex chapter starting out, a Guard list in the future, and a recently massively expanded Empire army that needs lots of work. Blood Angels are interesting, but not enough that I'm going to start building one of those in favor of these current projects.)

Update

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Such a bland title, but I suppose it's appropriate as I'm afraid I don't have much information to share. School has taken on something of a punishing tempo, and looks like it's going to continue in that vein for some time. Not exactly my preferred way to kill time (for the most part; the actual biological weapons classes are fascinating in a singularly morbid and disturbing way), but oh well.
During what little free time I do have I have been working on my first "master-class" model (at least that's the term I have heard used to describe a maximum effort): Scout Sergeant Telion. This thing is for the Fair Oaks GW Birthday Mini-Daemon, so I'm taking my time with it; the event is in a week and a half but I'm only about 2/3 done with it. I really wanted to do Calgar or Sicarius, but I don't see myself as having the time to do that particular fellow justice. Next time . . .
(No, I don't play Ultramarines, nor do I intend to play Ultramarines.)
Next time I do one of these I'll post WIP pictures; I apologize for not having them this time, but I didn't think about it until about an hour ago.
I realize it's April Fool's Day. Fear not, I have put no strange, tasteless jokes in here.

Ugh . . .

240252MAR10
Laxity on the blog updates is due to midterms. (Come to think of it, I can blame grad school for the all of the slowness of my posting.) They'll be done by tomorrow, but alas, I haven't any new pictures to post then. Instead, I give you a brief update on the state of things (just because I haven't in awhile):
I am finally caving in and getting one of those nifty sprayguns. Anyone who has seen any of my armies on the table knows I almost never field fully painted armies because I end up buying and building at a far greater rate than I paint (which I like to think manifests in the quality of my work, but I leave that to you, oh few readers, to judge). This thing ought to massively increase the rate at which I paint, particularly those grueling Space Wolves and the multitude of Empire State Troops (lest we discuss my future Imperial Guard rebuild).
I've finished collecting all 1,000 points of the Keepers. They'll be built for the big painting competition soon (except the vehicles, I'm leaving them partly assembled so I can try my hand at painting the interiors).
I have now played a few games of War of the Ring. I found Gimli to be absolutely disgusting; the diminutive fellow pretty much crushed an entire formation of Mordor orcs on his own (or rather his company did; Epic Rampage FTW!). It's definitely a great game, and abominably fun, but I find I actually like the skirmish game better. To me, it felt like WotR was trying to be a strange mix of LotR and Fantasy, and while that's not necessarily a bad thing . . . I don't know, I think I like both of those games better than WotR. (Just to be clear, WotR was an absolute delight, and I hope more people start playing it, but given a choice between it and any of the other game systems, and I'll probably take one of the other ones.)
Alas, it is back to the grind of studying for me.

Keepers update

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Google Analytics is awesome. For example, I know that there have been people poking around this blog and reading this drivel from several states in the U.S. (primarily Virginia, of course, but I recall seeing New York and California in there), and even some European countries (the U.K., Germany, and Spain). I honestly hadn't expected anything of the sort before several months had passed. Is not that just cool?
Now, I know I've waxed lyrical about my themed Imperial Guard army, but I find I have very little interest in actually making that army right now. Oh, I intend to in the future, but I just don't feel like it at the moment. What I do feel like doing, however, is concentrating on the Keepers.
Remember that Captain from not-so-long-ago?

Unfortunately, after making this guy I finalized the theme and design of the Keepers slightly differently from how he's painted. Rather than mess with his paint scheme, however, I think I'll leave him as a sort of record of how the Keepers have evolved over the months.
I couldn't come up with a satisfactory theme for the longest time; would the Keepers be a new chapter? Old? Converted to depict a raid on an Eldar craftworld? Fighting Tyranids? Orks? Traitors? How would I base it?
None of those ideas really stood out at me. Instead I went with focusing on the chapter's lore. It took awhile, but I eventually arrived at the idea of using Japanese mythology as my basis. The squads are all named after legendary dragons (e.g. the Yamata no Orochi), and individual named models take names from similar sources (e.g. Captain Susanoo and Honoured Brother Urashima). The chapter itself is from the 21st "Cursed" Founding; their misfortune is represented by constant raids on their recruiting worlds, including the total loss of their homeworld Amaterasu (along with over 70% of their chapter, leaving them in a nearly Crimson Fists-like state). They now operate out of the deep space station/Fortress-Monastery they call the Citadel.
There's word of a painting contest at GW Sugarland starting up in the near future: build, convert, and paint a 1,000 point army of any game system. This provides a fine excuse to finally rebuild my Keepers. I'm still playing around with the list, but here's what I'm thinking of:

HQ
Space Marine Captain (Captain Susanoo) w/ a power fist, a combi-melta, and artificer armour: 150

Elites
Venerable Dreadnought (Honoured Brother Urashima) w/ a plasma cannon: 175
Terminator Assault Squad (Squad Ryuujin) w/ thunder hammers and storm shields: 200

Troops
Tactical Squad (Squad Orochi) w/ ten Marines, a flamer, a missile launcher, a combi-melta, and a Rhino: 215
Combat Squad (Squad Watatsumi) w/ five Marines and a Razorback: 130
Combat Squad (Squad Mizuchi) w/ five Marines and a Razorback: 130

Total point cost: 1,000

It needs work, of that I have no doubt; there's barely anything to take out enemy armor, for example. (Okay, there's a missile launcher and a plasma cannon, which can take down light to medium armor from range, Susanoo and Squad Ryuujin all have tank-buster melee weapons, and a couple of combi-meltas, but there's nothing beyond Strength 8 right now; something to consider for the inevitable army expansions.) Mayhaps the handful of people who read this drivel have some suggestions (I know some of you are experienced Space Marine players) or comments on the theme?

More Blood Angels stuff and the War of the Ring

121543MAR10
If you'll permit me a moment of bitching, does anyone but me think it's abominably rude when you make a head call (more commonly referred to as going to the bathroom) in the middle of your turn? Seriously, you couldn't do that as I was doing my movement, you have to wait until your shooting phase? That was the first, and hopefully only, game of 40k during which I struggled to maintain a sense of sportsmanship and decorum with my opponent, as well as the first and hopefully only game I did not have fun.
Moving on from the complaints section, after actually looking through the Blood Angels codex a little more thoroughly, I discovered there's no way to have an all Dreadnought army (except the HQ choices). Alas, but they've got awesome models strewn across their choices anyway (and damn but I can't wait to see what they come up with for the Stormraven). I came up with an experimental 1500 point list; I wrote it up quickly without really working on a strong plan for it, but still . . .

HQ: Captain Tycho (Death Company variant): 175
Troops: 15 Death Company with 2 power fists, 2 power weapons, 2 hand flamers, 1 infernus pistol: 405*
--Dedicated Transport: Land Raider Crusader: 250
Troops: Death Company Dreadnought with magna grapple: 140
Troops: Death Company Dreadnought with magna grapple: 140
Troops: 5 Tactical Marines with flamer and chainsword: 90
--Dedicated Transport: Razorback: 55
Troops: 5 Tactical Marines with flamer and chainsword: 90
--Dedicated Transport: Razorback: 55
Heavy Support: Whirlwind with hunter-killer missile: 100
Total: 1500 points
*No there was no rhyme or reason for those weapon selections, I did it to fill in the points

That list is liable to get modified in many strange ways before the Blood Angels actually get released (likely in the form of being shrunk down to 1000 points, as that is my "experimental-army-I'm-just-trying-out-for-now" size).
Changing tracks here, I've built up my Lord of the Rings army to be fully playable for War of the Ring. I don't have a rulebook, so someone might be able to point out something terribly wrong with it (I'm fairly sure the Epic Hero or Legendary Formation leading it can be an ally; at least that's what I'm banking on). I'm hoping more people jump on this system (kind of like I keep hoping to find more Fantasy games . . .), as it is abominably fun. Here's what I have:

Epic Hero: Gandalf the Grey: 200
Common Formation: 3 companies of Dwarf Warriors with a Captain and a Banner Bearer: 205
Common Formation: 2 companies of Dwarf Warriors with shields and a Captain: 130
Common Formation: 2 companies of Dwarf Archers: 70
Common Formation: 2 companies of Dwarf Rangers: 70
75 points of Fortune
Total: 750 points

It may be a bit odd to have Gandalf leading a dwarf army (I really need to get a Gimli model or something . . .), but that provides the army with some crazy magic that the dwarves don't otherwise have access to. All I need now is an opponent (which exemplifies my general status with Fantasy, now that I think about it . . .).
I never know how to gracefully end these posts . . . Old Booj, Out.

WIPs and Blood Angel thoughts

072051MAR10
I have now empirically proven that a great way to get funny looks (which I would advise against) is to interrupt the Commanding General in the middle of his address with a hearty "Oorrah!" Unless, of course, you want to irritate all of the colonels and sergeants major around you.
Reflex reactions may save your life one day, but they can also leave you feeling mighty uncomfortable on another.
Anyhow, Gamer's Lounge has put up their second podcast, go listen. Apparently Jay and Bill read this drivel because they mention my last post in it. Grand stuff, though I must point out that I'm not making a Traitor Guard list; that's Cathal at 4 Ones (http://4-ones.blogspot.com/). I hate pointing out errors in an otherwise delightful podcast, but I'd rather not be known as a Traitor player. The irony is that I have yet to play a game against either of those two. One of these days I'll have to take care of that; they'll probably wreck me, but that's immaterial to the notion of the amount of fun to be had.
As the post's title points out, I have some works-in-progress for you. The first is one of the new Space Marine Venerable Dreadnoughts. This kit is, without a doubt, one of the most awesome kits I have ever messed with (that may not be saying much, but whatever), and even if you don't play Space Marines or 40k, you may want to get one just because it is awesome. I have left the arms unglued so I can swap them out as necessary.

You ever see that great picture of a bomber (a B-52 if memory serves) with its payload laid out in front of it and a football-esque caption? That's what I think of. "The Xenos have won the toss, and have elected to receive."
Next up is my codex chapter's (the Keepers) Captain. He's not done, but should look all manner of awesome when he is. (He's also taken two days to get to this point, so it won't be anytime soon.)

His cloak is something of an exercise in blending, and his shoulder pad (and eventually the banner) is one in free-handing.

Finally, some finished works. The first are a bunch of Space Wolves; the fuzzy-ish one on the left is a Long Fang (and dear God what a pain his shoulder pad was), the ones other two are Grey Hunters. Difficult though they may be, I am rather pleased with how they turned out.

The fellow on the far right has proven himself in the Kill Teams scenario in the new Battle Missions book. Great book.
Finally, we have a Fantasy Imperial Marksman. Note the Outrider's cloak, I think it gives him a rather romantic (or, perhaps, elitist) look.

On a completely separate note, I stopped by GW Sugarland earlier today (to pick up their last Venerable Dreadnought), and found an absolutely delightful surprise: the black box containing the Blood Angels preview. Those sprues are amazing, and just based on those I feel compelled to make a Blood Angels (or, more likely a Blood Angels successor chapter) army. What cinches it, however, is what I found in the codex itself, specifically the Blood Angels army list: the Furioso Dreadnought, an Elites-choice psyker (yes, psyker); the regular Dreadnought playing Heavy Support; and, best of all, a Troops choice dreadnought whose name I can't remember at the moment. That means you can field up to twelve (!) dreadnoughts per army. Alas, there is no choice for an HQ dreadnought (like the Wolves have), but you can bet, without any shadow of doubt, I will be making a Blood Angels army consisting of a mass of dreadnoughts, properly upgraded, likely in Drop Pods (if I can convince myself to make and paint more of the blasted things), with the final points filled up with HQ choices. Will it be a successful list? Probably not, but let's face it, a mass of dreadnoughts would be ridiculously fun to play with and an awesome sight on the field.
That's all for now. Old Booj, Out.

75th Leads the Way

252005FEB10
Should I be concerned when Higher tells me they've got plans for me? Eh, whatever.
If you have not gone to Gamer's Lounge (http://gamerslounge.coda.net/), run by a couple of fellow Sugarland GW gamers, do so. I bring this up not just to publicize a great podcast, but also because of this:
Way back (actually not that far, only since last August or so) when I first got into this hobby seriously (ie I was doing more than ten Tactical Marines per year), I decided to go Imperial Guard to replace my wrecked Space Marines. Unfortunately, I had no idea what I was doing. I believe I won twice with it over several months of playing it (it wasn't just poor composition, I had no idea how to use the army and was making stupid mistakes left and right). It originally had a theme of urban warfare light infantry, but somewhere along the line, that got lost in the interest of getting more of those tanks that make the Guard so very popular (thus losing the notion of light infantry).
Listening to all that talk of theme and composition in the podcast caused me to revisit the idea of an army made for theme, would be fun to play, and would, hopefully, do tolerably well in games.
I am currently working out a 2000 point Guard list that features no tanks. Instead, there are well over 100 Guardsmen, loaded with enough heavy weapons to make up for the lack of tanks, supported by a bunch of ogryns and psykers. Rummaging in the bitz box, I found enough bits to make a spare Guardsman and painted him up as a proof-of-concept model for this new army, the 75th Strathmoran.

So I went from urban to desert. This is a crazy-easy paint scheme; I figure I can do a full squad in two days, tops (which, when you consider the number of Guardsmen involved, is a very good thing). Unfortunately, considering the amount of stuff I have to do, just in regards to the hobby (painting Space Wolves, building up and painting Empire, restarting my Codex Chapter Space Marines, and now this), it's going to be awhile before that list sees the light of day. But when it does . . . well, it's going to take forever to finish my turn in games, that's for sure. But heck if it won't be fun as hell.

The Brewheim Longswords march to war

231140FEB10
I find myself unable to conjure up any pithy and completely unrelated remarks for this post, so we'll just jump ahead to the point of this.
I've completed my first block of State Troops. These Swordsmen call themselves the Brewheim Longswords, and they have proven themselves to be quite effective fighters.

For anyone who's wondering, the bases for each individual models are made to represent flagstones, as though the army is marching through a city or some sort of ruins (some of my other models' bases lean more toward the latter due to the inclusion of things like vines and rocks). This is accomplished by cutting the stones' shapes into the bases before any gluing happens, then painting appropriately. It's very simple and looks pretty nice (no, I didn't come up with it; GW mentioned one of their employees who did it that way on their website a while back). And those are Reikland colours. 'Cause everyone keeps thinking I made their colour scheme up.

The Keepers chapter is back

101417FEB10
What does Square Enix have against Cid? In FF12, he was, from what I saw, the #2 villain, and arguably the reason all the badness was going on. In FF13, he's a Fal'Cie goon/spy-type (or something like that; I don't speak Japanese well enough to know for sure).
But this isn't Booj's Adventures in Final Fantasy, so returning to the correct topic . . .
As promised, I have finished the first of my Space Marines army rebuild. The scheme is an update of my original paint scheme, being both simpler and much better looking. As a bonus, it's now harder to mistake them for Dark Angels. Of course, originally the "Risen Angels" were a Dark Angels successor chapter, but with the new paint scheme comes with a new background. They're an Imperial Fists successor chapter now called the Keepers.

Compare to the original:

On another note, I mentioned an expansion to 1850 for my Space Wolves. To commemorate, I painted my Rune Priest:

I've also thought up a truly evil scheme: 15 Blood Claws with a power weapon, 2 flamers, and one with the Mark of the Wulfen, a Wolf Guard with power weapon attached, all mounted in a Land Raider Crusader. Smash!
Speaking of Blood Claws . . .

It may not be WYSIWYG, but is anyone seriously going to complain?

Pwent's Boys--er--Dwarves

060104FEB10
I know they said we were getting a lot of snow, but dear God this is ridiculous.
On a somewhat more interesting topic, I finished painting my Lord of the Rings Dwarven Battle Company. There was something appealing about playing as the tanks of the LotR universe, thus my selection of the Dwarves. The painting for these guys was something of a rush job, an experiment to see how long it would take me to paint seven dwarves (you think GW picked that number on purpose?). In all it took about seven hours, including a dinner break and wash-drying time.

It's far from my best work--I am reserving that kind of effort for my Space Wolves--but for doing it that quick I am rather pleased with the results. Pwent (a name I shamelessly filched from RA Salvatore's books--good stuff, read 'em) is the company's Hero; he's the Dwarf Captain model, second from the right in the front row, having taken the place of one of the two-handed weapon wielding dwarves.
I've only gone through an instructional LotR game once at GW Sugarland, in which I was more than a little surprised at the survivability of hobbits; yeah, all but Frodo went down but the other three survived long enough for Aragorn to come in and wreck face on the remaining Ringwraiths. And I think Pippin took one of the Nazgul out himself, not bad for an annoying little snot. It was abominably fun, and I look forward to seeing these fellas go make a mess of things.
One a side note, I'm thinking it's time to rebuild my old Space Marines army. Those few of you who know me may recall they met a rather grizzly fate at the hands of Route 7 traffic. I've been wanting to rebuild them, not so much to play as them (freakin' everyone plays Space Marines), but because it was a shame to lose them. I've been putting it off for months, but that's not a good way to get things done, so mayhaps there will be more Marine nonsense popping up here at some point in the near future.

More pictures

012331FEB10
You ever get a song stuck in your head that you wish you had never heard before? 'Cause I bet if I went to a Random-Song-No-One-Has-Ever-Heard-Of-Stuck-In-Your-Head competition, I'd get at least the bronze medal.
But you didn't want to read about that.
I think I've worked out fairly nasty lists for 40k at 1850 pts, both for my Wolves and my Guard (not it's not completely mechanized). I've also figured out a 2250 pt Empire list, but it's going to be a helluva long time before that's ready. On the other hand, my Warriors of Chaos only require a few things here and there to bring up to that point level, so they may be seen on the field again (now under the thrall of all four Dark Gods as opposed to just the one).
I also grabbed some Lord of the Rings Dwarves, so perhaps Gimli will be seen on the field at some point in the near future.
I also come with pictures.

These are the last two of my Wolf Guard. Note the Chaos Marauder sword the one on the right is wielding. Kinda ironic how the Chaos bits work so nicely with the Space Puppies.

My first Grey Hunter. Those shoulder pads are a bitch.

This is a better view of the shoulder pad.

Switching tracks here, this is the command group for my Empire Swordsmen. I have just over half of the block painted and hope to finish off the rest of the unit in the near future. These guys were done before I started working on a solution for the contrast in skin tones, so at least everyone else should start looking better.
All for now.

Time for a list

261141JAN10
Apparently being the battalion S-3 means I have to actually work now. Someone needs to increase our budget so I can get paid . . .
Anyway, being bored before class tonight has driven me to post my Space Wolves list for all the world to see and despair (or not . . .).

HQ
Erik Morkai (Wolf Lord): 2 wolf claws, runic armour, wolftooth necklace, Belt of Russ, jump pack, melta bombs, Saga of the Warrior Born: 260
Arok Thundercaller (Rune Priest): Master of Runes, runic armour, wolf tail talisman, Saga of the Beastslayer: 185

Elites
5 Wolf Guard: 4 power weapons, 1 power fist, melta bombs, jump packs: 300
Lone Wolf: thunder hammer, storm shield: 80
Wolf Scouts: meltagun, melta bombs: 110

Troops
10 Grey Hunters: 2 meltaguns, power fist, Drop Pod: 215
10 Grey Hunters: 2 meltaguns, power fist, Drop Pod: 215

Heavy Support
Vindicator "Mjollnir": siege shield, storm bolter: 135

Total points: 1500

The Plan: this is what I call a knife-fighter list. Inspired by Morkai's description in the Codex as being particularly aggressive and violent, it is designed to get close and beat the snot out of the enemy. As a result, nothing has a range greater than 24", but just about everything is very powerful. To offset the lack of tankbuster weapons, I loaded up with meltaguns and melta bombs.

What I've Learned: this list's biggest weakness is its lack of Troops choices, making it weak in objective games. Definitely going to need more. Morkai and his Wolf Guard are absolutely monstrous in close combat, but extreme care is needed to get there before too many of them die off and render the squad combat-ineffective (jump, run into terrain, repeat until close). Otherwise everything performs exactly as designed. I tend to break even with this particular list (smaller games tend to go far worse).

Future Plans: I'm definitely going to need more Troops choices, some Blood Claws in a Drop Pod (with Arok attached to them so they don't go running off) and move a Grey Hunters Pack into a Rhino. A pack of Long Fangs would be very helpful to deal with enemy armor, as well as to hold enemies off of objectives. Replacing the Lone Wolf with a Venerable Dreadnought (for bigger games, anyway) would be no bad thing, either. Some Fast Attack choices are certainly called for; I'm leaning towards Land Speeders with multi-meltas.

Yo

241443JAN10
Decided to give this blogging nonsense a go.
I thought a good way to kick this off would be with some images of my current hobby projects. Right now, I have one 40k army and one Fantasy army I'm working on concurrently, with one of each on the back-burner. Both are 1500 points, and won't be expanded until what I have is done (to avoid the hell of a mess I experienced with my Imperial Guard). The pictures are easier to see if you right-click and open in a new window/tab.
First up are the Space Wolves, depicting Erik Morkai's Great Company:

Erik Morkai, Wolf Lord

Wolf Guard (3/5)

Wolf Scouts

Vindicator, front and rear

Drop Pod, outside and inside

That's pretty much all I've got on the Wolves so far; I'll post more when more are painted.
Next up are a couple models from my Empire army, the Army of Brewheim, commanded by the erstwhile (and often severely intoxicated) Baron Otto von Bierstein:


Aurig Stehlenhand

State Troop (Swordsman) Standard Bearer

That's it for now. More to come whenever my productivity wakes up again.