Better Know a Blogger: Part 27- Dragons Eye Miniatures

This week's Better Know a Blogger features Jonathan Lyness from Dragons Eye Miniatures. 

I first become aware of Jonathan's blog when the Faeit 212 blogroll returned (so glad that is back!). His post was titled "Tournament Prep, Dave Weston's Birthday Bash 40k tournament". As regular readers will know, I am currently preparing my Deathwatch army for the tournament, so was interested to see what other bloggers would be attending the exclusive soiree. 

It was not long after I first spotted his blog and added it to my blogroll, that I received an email from Jonathan offering to contribute to the Better Know a Blogger series. I was more than happy for him to join the swelling ranks. 

Dragons Eye Miniatures has just recently celebrated its first birthday. Things have really stepped up for him in January as Jonathan has been posting about his efforts to update the Imperial Armour Maynarkh Dynasty to fit in with the current Necron Codex. He plans to bring this army to the Birthday Bash, so it is great to read up a bit about the background of this army and how it differs from the Codex version. Jonathan has certainly taken the spirit of the Birthday Bash to heart, frequently choosing to ignore or tone down certain powerful special rules in the list in order to generate a tough, but fair army to play against. I look forward to seeing how it performs at the tournament. Who know, maybe I'll even get to face them!

Here are Jonathan's answers to my questions:

1. What age did you get into gaming and what started it off?

Well this is a bit of a long winded answer, so you'll have to bear with me and my reminiscing... My first experience of wargaming was when I was 7 years old and I didn't even realise it at the time! I was in the local department store, back in my home town of Ballymena, in Northern Ireland, being carted around by my granny, while she was shopping. Being a kid, I walked around the toy section not knowing what I wanted until I wandered into the music section of all places (specifically the heavy metal section) and on one of the shelves was a model I would never forget. It was Inquisitor Karamazov on the Throne of Judgement, and I couldn't believe my eyes. I didn't know what it was, or if it was a toy, all I knew was that I wanted it! In a fit of excitement I dragged my granny over to get me it, only to be told no! I was despondent, as could be expected, and after much pining it slipped my mind for 10 years. 

I need one.....At some stage!!!

It wouldn't be till I was 17 did I rediscover again by accident the grimdark of the 41st Millennium, when my mother bought me the Index Astartes. I was hooked on the background story of the fate of the raven guard, and was awed by the audacity of Abaddon and the Black Legion, I was hooked. But I still didn't know there was a game involved, I thought it was only a story universe and would be another 2 years to I claimed my first real model! 

Hobby Sunday 29/01/17- Deathwatch Drop Pod

This week on Hobby Sunday, I have pictured of my second completed Drop Pod for the Deathwatch army. 

For the first Drop Pod, I painted this when it was assembled. This time round, I decided to paint the model partially assembled first, and then complete assembly when it was painted. This made things much easier this time around, particularly with the edge highlights. 

Better Know A Blogger: Part 26- Recalcitrant Daze

This week's Better Know a Blogger features Rictus from Recalcitrant Daze. 

I think I first came across Rictus' blog on Twitter. I was drawn in by pictures of his amazing Ork looted vehicles.

When you check out the blog, you can see his great tutorial guides on how to generate your own great looking Ork vehicles. In addition, you will find some great conversion and painting articles, and a really nice series looking at old issues of White Dwarf and their contents. Those of you with some nostalgia for the "good old days" of White Dwarf should check it out. 

You can also find him on Twitter (@Rictus40k), posting some great scratch-build and terrain pictures.

Here are Rictus' answers to my questions. 

1. What age did you get into gaming and what started it off?

I was 12, I think. It really began with the Fighting Fantasy books by Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson and the Heroquest board game (I loved those books!- Mike). It wasn’t long after I started playing Heroquest that a friend introduced me to White Dwarf. I admit I didn’t know the connection between all three for a while. Space Hulk then arrived in my life and the die was truly cast. It was White Dwarf that really got me hooked. Something I have discussed on the blog more than once as I looked back at the early White Dwarfs I read, including the first one I ever bought – Issue 124 back in March 1990.

https://recalcitrantdaze.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/into-archives-my-early-white-dwarf.html

Battle Report 94- 1850 pts Deathwatch vs Adeptus Mechanicus/Skitarii

This week's battle report sees my Deathwatch army take on Harry (AKA the Dark Artisan) and his Adeptus Mechanicus and Skitarii force.

This game was being filmed for his awesome Youtube channel, so was played on a fantastic board full of terrain against a great looking army. I think this is pretty neat, as you will get both the video battle report and written battle report to check out, as well as the perspective of both players on how the game went. 

My army consisted of:

Combined Arms Detachment

Watch Captain Artemis (with V5)

Librarian- Mastery Level 2, Meltabombs (with V5)

10 Veterans- 4 Frag Cannons, Storm Shield, Auspex (V1 and V2)

Drop Pod (DP1)

10 Veterans- 2 Infernus Heavy Bolters (V3 and V4)

Rhino (R)

8 Veterans- 3 Deathwatch Shotguns, 2 Heavy Thunder Hammers, 2 Storm Shields (V5)

Drop Pod (DP2)

5 Veterans- 5 Stalker Pattern Boltguns (V6)

4 Bikers- 3 Power Swords, Power Axe, Meltabombs (B1)

4 Bikers- 3 Power Swords, Power Maul, Meltabombs (B2)

5 Vanguard Veterans- 3 pairs of Lightning Claws, 2 Heavy Thunder Hammers (VV)

My warlord was Artemis, his Warlord Trait allowing me to change Mission Tactics an additional time. My Librarian rolled on Biomancy and got Smite, Enfeeble and Warp Speed. 

For my army, I stuck with a CAD. I was hoping to use the Blackspear Strike Force, but didn't have time to get my Corvus Blackstar painted to use it. Anyway, in most missions, a CAD is a solid choice thanks to Objective Secured. 

I took Artemis to lead the force once again, hoping to use his Stasis Bomb to good effect. I backed him up with a Librarian using Biomancy. I was hoping to get Endurance to boost my durability, but ended up with Enfeeble and Warp Speed instead. Smite is a pretty good Primaris for me, as my army lacks a lot of AP2 shooting. 

Both characters would join a unit of combat Veterans in a Drop Pod. I took three shotguns, two Heavy Thunder Hammers and a couple of Storm Shields for some added protection. I didn't really rate the Deathwatch Shotguns when I first reviewed the codex, but after using them for a few games, I have turned around on them. Even though the template mode is only S3, the number of hits you can normally get more than makes up for this in most games. 

I took a unit of Veterans with 4 Frag Cannons in a Drop Pod. I decided to combat squad these and put two cannons in each unit, allowing me to go after 2 different targets. One squad would take the Storm Shield and Auspex (I would normally put them both on the squad Sergeant, but the recent FAQ put an end to that). 

I then took a unit of Veteran with Stalker Boltguns and a unit with Infernus Heavy Bolters in a Rhino. The Stalker unit could hold a backfield objective, while the Rhino would give me more mobility to go after objectives. 

To round off the list, I took my standard two units of 4 Bikers (power weapons and Meltabombs) and a unit of Vanguard Veterans armed for combat. 

Battle Report 93- 1500 pts Deathwatch vs Emperor's Children

This week's battle report sees my Deathwatch army take on some 30k Emperor's Children, commanded by Ed at the EDGE gaming club. We were playing the Crusade Eternal War mission with 5 objectives. 

My army consisted of:

Combined Arms Detachment

Watch Captain Artemis (with V1)

Librarian- Mastery Level 2, Force Sword, Meltabombs (with V1)

5 Veterans- Heavy Thunder Hammer, 2 Deathwatch Shotguns, 2 Storm Shields, Power Maul, Power Sword (V1)

Drop Pod (DP2)

5 Veterans- 4 Frag Cannons, Auspex, Storm Shield (V2)

Drop Pod (DP1)

10 Veterans- 2 Infernus Heavy Bolters (V3 and V4)

Rhino (R)

5 Veterans- Stalker Pattern Boltguns (V5)

4 Bikers- 3 Power Swords, 1 Power Axe (B1)

4 Biker- 3 Power Swords, 1 Power Maul (B2)

Garran Branatar- Terminator Armour, Heavy Flamer, Power Fist with Auxiliary Meltagun (T)

My warlord trait for Artemis was Vigilance Incarnate, allowing me to change the Mission Tactics one more time (so two times in total). My Librarian rolled on Biomancy, getting Warp Speed, Life Leech, Smite and Force.

Hobby Update 25/01/17- Kill Team Cassius

Today, I have pictures of my completed Kill Team from the Deathwatch Overkill box. Previously, I had completed the Terminator, Chaplain, Librarian, Frag Cannon and one of the Vanguard Veterans. I was able to complete the rest of the Deathwatch models from the box to get my full Kill Team completed.

Hobby Update 24/01/17- Deathwatch Librarian

Today I have pictures of my latest completed model for my Deathwatch army, the Deathwatch Librarian from the Deathwatch Overkill boxed set. 

I really like the look of this model, as he is striding forward ready to face the enemy. I am planning on using him in my tournament list for the upcoming Birthday Bash 2.0. Usually, a lone Librarian does not do much in a list, but with Biomancy he can be quite effective for boosting my fragile Marine units. 

Better Know A Blogger: Part 25- I'm Alone with a Dream

This week's Better Know a Blogger features D Power from "I'm Alone with a Dream". 

What to say about D Power's blog that would accurately describe it or do it justice?!?! I'm actually a bit behind the times with discovering "I'm Alone with a Dream". Marc (Old School Gaming) has mentioned him a few times in the past and Rob (30Kplus40K) recently highlighted some of his work on his own blog. 

The best way for me to describe his converting and painting style is a Blanchitsu-inspired, proper grimdark vision of the 40k universe. Take a look at some of the creations on his blog and marvel at the creativity and unique style that D Power brings to his work. His blog is not the place to go if you want tactica articles, codex reviews or rumours analysis, but if you want to spend a few hours marveling at some top notch creations and original painting style, it is definitely a blog that should be on your list. 

He recently took part in the Dreadtober event and produced a fantastic version of a scratchbuilt loyalist Space Marine Dreadnought. 

He also runs a painting commission service that is well worth a look. You are unlikely to get a model that will match your own army style, but as a fantastic display piece, you can't go wrong.

Anyway, enough of my vain attempts to describe it. Enjoy the pictures throughout the post, and here are D Power's answers to my questions:

1. What age did you get into gaming and what started it off? 

I was 16 when I bought my first batch of Space marines from a friend that had been running Tau from the crib and had no room for the Imperium anymore; although I had been drooling over the bible-sized catalogue at the old hobby shop since I was 10.

Hobby Sunday 22/01/17- Deathwatch Chaplain

As part of my continuing efforts to get my Deathwatch finished, I have now completed the Deathwatch Chaplain from the Overkill boxed set. 

I really like this model. He has a very angry facial expression, quite right for a Chaplain extolling the virtues of killing alien scum. Given the huge number of combat options available to the Deathwatch Veterans, he should come in very handy for giving me the Zealot re-rolls, as well as stopping the units from running. I still suck at painting faces, but other than that, I am pretty pleased with the result.

St Andrews Wargaming takes on The Dark Artisan

This weekend I have a game planned for Sunday against The Dark Artisan. 

For those of you that don't know, the Dark Artisan is a gamer in the Newcastle area that produces some fantastic video battle reports on Youtube. You can find links to his Youtube page and Facebook page by clicking on the highlighted words above. You can also find him on twitter @darkartisan40k 

My recently painted Deathwatch will be taking on one of his armies. I will be taking notes for what is sure to be a very nice looking battle report, as well as the video battle report also being produced. This way, you can enjoy both contents and see the battle from the perspective of both players. 

Be sure to check out and like his pages, I hope to be featuring in more of his battle reports over the coming year.

Giant Blogroll images on blogger? Here's how to fix!

For a while now, I've been having a problem with the blogroll on my site. Certain blogs (generally Wordpress ones) appear on the blogroll with a massive thumbnail image to accompany the title. While this was annoying, I hadn't really done that much about it. It was making the blog a bit unsightly. 

Even though that is an awesome Rhino, it takes up a bit much space.

Recently, Jimmy from Eye of Terror contacted me to see if I knew about it. He told me what the cause of it was, but I am a bit of a Luddite when it comes to coding or doing anything with the blog, so didn't really understand what he was trying to tell me, try as best as he did. 

I went to the Blogger help site and managed to get a simple fix that even I could follow! I thought I would share it with my fellow Bloggers so that they could fix it too. 

Fall of Cadia Review: Part 5- Detachments and Empyric Storms

This final part of my Fall of Cadia review will take a look at the two new detachments available in the book. In addition, I will take a quick look at the new Empyric Storms table for adding a lot of psychic fun to your games of 40k.

Formations

The Fall of Cadia introduced a number of new formations and detachments for an Imperial army, some of which are very useful. I will not be reviewing some of the Mechanicus formations. I don't have the codex, so am not aware of the units required or some of the special rules available, so analysis of these is limited for me. 

Wrathful Crusade

This formation consists of:

• Saint Celestine
• Inquisitor Greyfax
• Space Marine Captain
• 0-1 Sternguard Veteran Squad
• 2-4 Black Templars Crusader Squads
• 1-2 Black Templars Assault Squads
• 1 Militarum Tempestus Platoon

The special rules grant the formation Crusader and re-rolls to all charge rolls (unit gains Furious Charge if you roll a 10 or more). In addition, if the formation includes the maximum number of units, all units gain Zealot. 

Hobby Update 19/01/17- Watch Captain Artemis

For the past few weeks, I have been working on one of the leaders of my Deathwatch army, Watch Captain Artemis. 

Artemis comes from the Death Masque boxed game, but I managed to pick him up from ebay for a reasonable cost (annoyingly, this was before the recent release of the awesome Deathwatch boxed set). I decided that as he was likely to be my Warlord model in games, that I would take special care when painting him up, even more so that my regular Deathwatch Marines. 

I found a great painting video on Youtube from The War Gamer on "How to Paint Watch Captain Artemis" and used this to guide my painting, following each step as faithfully as possible. 

I can say without a doubt that this is the longest it has ever taken me to paint a single miniature and the most effort that I have put in. I am actually quite pleased with how it has turned out in the end and am happy to have him leading my force. 

When taking the photos of the miniature, there were a few errors that I noticed when examining them. I was able to go back and touch up those areas that I had missed the first time to try and make it better. I plan to use the same devotion when painting up my Watch Master in the coming weeks. 

Fall of Cadia Review: Part 4- Arcana Mechanicum Relics and Ecclesiarchy Relics

Today, I take a look at the new Relics available to Armies of the Imperium from the Fall of Cadia book.

If your army includes Saint Celestine or Belisarius Cawl, or is in one of the Formations/Detachments in the book, any models in your army that can normally take a Relic can choose to take one of the Ecclesiarchy Relics or one from the Arcana Mechanicum. These are some potent Relics to add to your army as you will see below. 

Arcana Mechanicum

Any character normally able to take a Relic that is in one of the book's detachments or in an army that includes Belisarius Cawl can take one of these Relics. 

Numinasta's Casket of Electromancy

This is a one use only weapon that hits all enemy units within range (including flying units). It is a 2D6" range that is S3 and Haywire. At 30 pts, I feel that this is way too expensive to be useful as a one use only weapon. Strength 3 with no AP is not going to worry most units in the game. Haywire is nice, but most of the time you are going to do a single glancing hit. The random range is also annoying, as it would be too easy to fluff the roll and get a very short range. I would not see much use for this in an army. 

Fall of Cadia Review: Part 3- Inquisitor Greyfax

Part 3 of my Fall of Cadia review sees me taking a look at the final character from the book, Inquisitor Greyfax, eye of the Emperor.

Inquisitor Greyfax
Greyfax is a pretty decent addition to any Army of the Imperium looking for some measure of psychic defence and for taking on enemy psykers. While she is expensive, I can see some use for her when playing against psychic-heavy forces. However, I still think a Cullexus is the better option for taking on enemy psykers. If you have the points and wish to take both, they could prove to be a powerful team on the battlefield.

She has a fairly modest statline. With 3 wounds and a 3+ armour save with no Invulnerable save, she will not take a lot to kill with most competitive lists (or many casual lists, to he honest). As such, she will need to join a unit to stop her being wiped out too easily.
She has a Master-crafted Power Sword, but with 3 attacks at S3 and WS4, you probably don't want her in combat all that much, as she will fall easily to many enemy characters or even just enemy units with enough attacks.

Better Know A Blogger: Part 24- Eye of Terror

Yes, it's back. You've been asking for it, and I have managed to get some more participants to contribute (a big thanks to everyone who got in touch to take part). 

This week's Better Know A Blogger features Jimmy from the Eye of Terror. 

The Eye of Terror is a relatively new blog that was only started in December. However, it has some great content already, as Jimmy discusses issues and pitfalls of starting 40k, as well as showcasing the building of his current Traitor Legions army. 

Even though he is just getting started, Jimmy has already given magnetising a go, applying magnets to his Chaos Terminators and Forgefiend. These efforts have been very successful and are a fantastic for someone who is only starting in the hobby. I know it took me about 15 years of 40k to even attempt my first magnetisation of a model! 

I asked Jimmy for a bit more information on what is to come for the blog and he said: 

"My aim would be to write about getting stuff done. How do you assemble pieces, where to get pieces, how yo learn the rules, how to build terrain like stones/mountains/trees? The latter I hope to start out with in the upcoming weeks, as it's something with my current painting skills can't really screw up, it can be done quite rudimentary?

Codex reviews will be left to the pros I think, as I don't have the time to spend on it. Possibly I will post commentaries limited to my own armies, ideas of future setups, that sort of thing.

Battle reports might become a part at a later stage. I'm not sure whether or not I'll do it, as it might break immersion or game flow?"

I look forward to seeing how the blog grows and progresses over time. Be sure to check out his posts and comment on them, show your support for a fellow blogger starting out. 

Here are Jimmy's answers to my questions:

1. What age did you get into gaming and what started it off? 

I guess there we have a huge gap with the general audience right off the bat? I played boardgames when I was young, stopped at around puberty, hardly ever played since. I like the way Scythe sounds though, so might pick it up in the near future! Computer-games I've played since I was 6-ish I think, up until a few years ago, around 35-ish years old. I guess you could say it created a void that I'm going to fill with playing Warhammer 40K? :) 

Fall of Cadia Review: Part 2- Belisarius Cawl

Part 2 of my Fall of Cadia review will take a look at the second character of the Triumvirate, Belisarius Cawl. 

Belisarius Cawl

Cawl is the Archmagos Dominus of the Mechanicus. As such, he can be taken in any existing Cult Mechanicus formation, replacing the Techpriest Dominus. Alternatively, he can be taken as an HQ choice in any Army of the Imperium.

Cawl is a character that seems designed for vehicles- boosting the vehicles in your own army and damaging enemy vehicles. He is also a quite a durable character and has some useful wargear for taking on larger horde units in combat. 

In terms of durability, Cawl has toughness 6 and 5 wounds. In addition, he has Feel no Pain and gets to re-roll failed Feel No Pain rolls, giving him roughly a 50% chance of passing the roll. On top of that, he gets to recover D3 wounds at the start of each of your turns. This combines to make him pretty tough to kill against a range of weapons. Grav will still give him problems with is 2+ save and he only has a 5+ invulerable save. Another downside is that he does not have Eternal Warrior. Thanks to his toughness of 6, only Instant Death or a 6 on the D table are going to cause him issues with this though. 

Fall of Cadia Review: Part 1- Celestine, the Living Saint

Hi everyone, welcome to the first part of my review of the new Gathering Storm, Fall of Cadia book. I rushed down to the local GW this morning to get my copy of the new book (as well as some other choice goodies), eager to read the new story and some of the new rules. 

First up, we have Saint Celestine of the Sisters of Battle. Celestine was originally feared lost with the recent release of Imperial Agents, but she is now back and stronger than ever. 

Celestine, the Living Saint

Celestine can be taken as a HQ choice in any Army of the Imperium. She costs 200 points, but is well worth the cost. Expect to see her in a lot of armies. 

Celestine comes essentially as a character consisting of 3 models. She is accompanied by two Geminae Superior, but they do not prevent her from joining another unit, the Geminae Superior simply join the unit as well. 

Celestine is insanely durable. She comes with Eternal Warrior (great as she is only toughness 3), 5 wounds, a 2+ armour save and 4+ invulnerable save. On her own, she would be pretty tough. Even though she is only T3 and easy to wound, she does get Eternal Warrior along with a very good armour save and decent invulnerable save. However, she comes with a number of special rules that significantly boost her durability. 

Hobby Update 13/01/17- Deathwatch Terminator

This week, I managed to finish off the Deathwatch Terminator from the Deathwatch Overkill boxed set. This model comes with a Heavy Flamer and a Power Fist with an Auxiliary Meltagun. This gives him some good option for tank hunting or going after infantry. 

In my games, I will use him as Garran Branatar, the Terminator from the Overkill rules. He costs the same as a Deathwatch Terminator armed with the same weapons, but gets a master-crafted Meltagun and Power Fist for free, as well as access to the Salamander Chapter Tactic special rules (FNP versus flamers and re-rolls to wound for his Heavy Flamer). My plan is to use him as a solo tank hunter or infantry hunter. The twin-linked Meltagun should help him hit any enemy tanks he goes after. He can also be used for Deep Striking onto enemy objectives.

Battle Report 92- 1500 pts Deathwatch vs Tau

This week's battle report sees my Deathwatch army take on a Battlesuit-heavy Tau force in the Cleanse and Control maelstrom mission (3 cards in a turn). 

This game was played against Andrew at the Newcastle Warlords gaming club. Andrew is just getting back into 40k and had a really nice looking Tau army for me to play against (painted by a friend he wanted me to add). 

My army consisted of:
Combined Arms Detachment

Watch Captain Artemis (with V1)

Librarian- Mastery Level 2, Force Sword, Meltabombs (with V1)

5 Veterans- Heavy Thunder Hammer, 2 Deathwatch Shotguns, 2 Storm Shields, Power Maul, Power Sword (V1)

Drop Pod (DP2)

5 Veterans- 4 Frag Cannons, Auspex, Storm Shield (V2)

Drop Pod (DP1)

10 Veterans- 2 Infernus Heavy Bolters (V3 and V4)

Rhino (R)

5 Veterans- Stalker Pattern Boltguns (V5)

4 Bikers- 3 Power Swords, 1 Power Axe (B1)

4 Biker- 3 Power Swords, 1 Power Maul (B2)

Garran Branatar- Terminator Armour, Heavy Flamer, Power Fist with Auxiliary Meltagun (T)

My warlord trait for Artemis was Vigilance Incarnate, allowing me to change the Mission Tactics one more time (so two times in total). My Librarian rolled on Biomancy, getting Smite, Enfeeble and Haemorrhage. 

This is the 1500 points list that I am considering taking to Birthday Bash 2.0 in February. For more in-depth thoughts on my list, see the Initial List Thoughts post. This would be my first outing with this version of the army and first off I would be taking on one of the toughest match ups for Space Marines, the dreaded Tau. 

Deathwatch army to date

As you may have seen in the Hobby Sunday posts, I have been making some great progress on painting up my Deathwatch army. I assembled the first Marines for this army back in late October of 2016. In the last two months, I have painted just over 1600 points worth of Deathwatch, which for me is a lot in such a short space of time. What is odd is that I don't feel I have been rushing through them. I have been taking my time over each unit and trying to sort out the individual details in each squad and trying new painting techniques, such as edge highlighting. It just so happens I've been able to get a lot done over Christmas and in the evenings. 

I thought I would take some photos of the army so far. I still have a few models to get painted before I can call the army complete, but I am confident that I will have the whole army painted by the end of February. Apologies for the darkness of some of the photos, it was a miserable weekend here in Newcastle, so the lack of natural light did not help much!

Hobby Update 10/01/17- Deathwatch Vanguard Veterans and Veterans

This week, I have completed a unit of 6 Vanguard Veterans and some Heavy Flamer-totting Veterans for my Deathwatch army. 

The Vanguard Veterans come armed for combat. I have four with a pair of Lightning Claws and two with Heavy Thunder Hammers. This unit should pack a good punch in combat, the big problem is getting them there intact.

40k Bloggers Wanted! Better Know a Blogger- The Revenge

Yes, it's back. It's pretty much a repeat of the first one, but with more CGI! 

When I posted my blogging plans for 2017, I asked what kind of articles people would be interested in seeing. One of the biggest requests was for more Better Know a Blogger articles. I loved doing this series, it gave me a great chance to get to know a little bit about the various different 40k bloggers out there and find out a bit about their background. 

In the first run of the series, I managed to get an awesome 23 participants before the replies started to dry up. 

I am going to make an effort to get the series going again, trying to find some new blood to add to the ranks as well as contacting previous entrants for a second round of questions. 

So, what am I looking for?

• Do you have a 40k blog or other gaming blog and would like to take part? If so, contact me at corrm83@gmail.com and we can arrange your entry for the series. The questions are not invasive and you don't need to answer everything if you don't want to. It's a great way to introduce yourself to the blogging community and to pick up a few more regular readers for your posts. 
• Better Know a Reader- Don't have your own blog, but wish to take part? If you are a regular reader and/or commenter on the blog and wish to take the survey, email me at corrm83@gmail.com to take part. 
• Questions! I plan to contact previous participants for a second round of Better Know a Blogger questions. What are some of the burning questions that you want to know about your fellow bloggers? Comment below with your suggestions. 

I have followed a bunch of new blogs recently and will try and contact the writers to see if they want to take part. However, a lot of blogs I follow don't have any contact information on the blog page, so this makes it difficult. If you are one of the blogs on my reading list and haven't taken part yet, please get in touch if you want to contribute!

As for the rest of you, please spread the word. Feel free to link to this post in your own blogs or pester some of your fellow writers about taking part. 

Hobby Update 08/01/17- Deathwatch Veterans and Bikers

Over the Christmas period, I managed to get a good deal of my Deathwatch army painted up. I'm really surprised with how much progress I am making on the army in such a short time. I tend to go through periods like this, where I do a lot of painting at once, then go for months with nothing done.

First up, we have some Deathwatch Veterans with Shotguns. I really like the look of the Deathwatch Shotgun, and they have some decent firing modes to go with them. I will probably add these to some of my combat units, so that they can still shoot and assault.

Fluffageddon 2016: Tournament Review

Fluffageddon Tournament Review

As this was the first Fluffageddon, I thought I would give my opinion on how I thought the event went and what could be improved for next time. This post was ready ages ago, but I haven't got round to posting it yet. I contacted Matt to see if he wanted to respond to any of the points listed below, but I think he was too busy before Christmas to write a response. 

Venue

The tournament was held at the Outpost in Sheffield.

First off, I found it very difficult to find the shop. I put the postcode into the sat nav and arrived some time around 8.30 am. I could not find the shop, despite wandering the streets for a while. It turns out, there was a tiny little sign in one of the windows with the name of the store. I don't think that it was visible when the shutter was down, as it was when I arrived. I eventually saw it when a bunch of other gamers started to arrive at 9 am.

The shop itself was pretty cold and didn't really warm up too much as the day went on. I am told that this is only a temporary location for the store, as they are waiting on new premises, so is not really representative of what they want to have in the future.

The staff were very nice and the store had a decent selection of stuff to buy. I wanted to pick up a copy of Deathwatch Overkill, but unfortunately, they had run out that morning, so I didn't end up buying anything.

Another bonus is that there was plenty of parking around the area.

Timetable

I couldn't find any sort of timetable for the event in the rulespack or online. I assumed it started at 9 am, but found out that it was due to start at 10 am the morning of the event after I had already checked out out of the hotel.

Fortunately, I was able to sit in my car, but others didn't seem to be so lucky and had to stand out in the rain until the store opened around 9.30 am.

A clearer indication of the start time for the next event would be good, especially if it gets me an extra hour in bed!

Birthday Bash 2.0 Tournament- Deathwatch Initial List Thoughts

Over the holidays, I began to think about what list I may want to take to Dave's upcoming Birthday Bash 2.0. This is a 40k tournament in February, so I decided to take my Deathwatch Marines. They are one of my newest armies, so this tournament gives me the perfect opportunity to practice with the Deathwatch and to get most of the units painted up in time to use. In a recent post, it was suggested that I could do more posts on list building and tactical thoughts in games. I thought I would use this post to go through my thought process on what I wanted in the army and my first initial list that will go through some playtest games. 

First off, let's take a look at the restrictions for the tournament:

• 1500 pts army
• Single Combined Arms Detachment (CAD), no other formations or allies allowed. 
• Lords of War are allowed, subject to ITC restrictions.
• Tournament comprised of 3 Maelstrom games (maximum of 2 scoring cards per turn). 

Having to use the CAD with the Deathwatch is pretty good, but I think the Black Spear Strike Force would be a better option. I'm surprised that Lords of War are allowed for the event. With 1500 points and no formations allowed, I think having an Imperial Knight or Wraithknight would be a big boost to an army. You do get to choose a Warlord Trait from Escalation if your opponent has a Lord of War and you do not, so this is a nice bonus (it is in addition to your regular warlord trait). 

I really like maelstrom missions. They are very tactical and need different types of armies to a regular game. The missions will be using a reduced deck of 18 cards. I'm not sure why the deck is reduced to only two scoring cards per turn. I guess this is so that you don't run out of cards or can get a score that is so far in advance of your opponent that they are out of the game early on. Based on this, I am assuming the missions will be the three card ones or drawing cards equal to the number of objectives you control. Limiting you to scoring only 2 cards per turn is pretty harsh in the missions where you draw 5 or 6 per turn! 

Hobby Goals for 2017

Welcome to 2017! I hope everyone had a good break over the holiday period. With the New Year beginning, I thought I would take a look at what I hope to achieve in my hobbying for the coming months. 

1. Deathwatch Army

I have really been enjoying painting up my Deathwatch army. It has given me a chance to learn some new techniques and really focus on individual models in the squad. I have also been enjoying gaming with the army, giving me a new style of force to use from my regular armies.

I am currently planning to take the force to Dave's Birthday Bash, so will be working on getting 1500 points painted up by February, as well as getting some practice games played.

Happy New Year!

A Happy New Year from St Andrews Wargaming!

What are your hobby plans for 2017?