Squaduary Week 4- Deathwatch Veterans complete!

Today marks the end of Squaduary, the month long painting challenge to get a squad completely painted in February. 

The event was run by Rory over at Stepping Between Games, and was a great way to get my Deathwatch Veterans complete and to see the hobby progress that other bloggers and gamers were making too!

Birthday Bash Bound!

Tonight after work, I will be heading over to Southport in preparation for Birthday Bash 2.0. 

The Deathwatch are all ready to purge the Xenos at the event, and it looks to be a lot of fun. If you are heading to the event yourself, be sure to come over and say hello. Always great to meet some fellow bloggers or 40k addicts! 

Squaduary Week 3- Painting complete

This week I have finished the third week of Squaduary, completing the painting on my Deathwatch Veterans. 

Squaduary is a month-long Hobby challenge to get a squad painted up over the month. The event is being run by Rory at Stepping Between Games. 

This week, real life has got in the way, so I only got the painting finished yesterday evening. I am quite happy with how the squad has turned out. There were a few errors In noticed when taking the photos, so will try and correct them this week. 

Monster March!- Path of an Outcast Hobby Challenge

Today, I wanted to highlight another awesome hobby challenge that I will be taking part in next month- Monster March!

I had a lot of fun taking part in Squaduary (run by Rory over at Stepping Between Games), painting up my Veterans squad and seeing all the other hobby content by the many participants. 

Monster March is a hobby challenge to get a monster model painted up over March. The event is being run by Swordmaster over at Path of an Outcast. These monthly challenges are a great way to dust off your unpainted pile collection and show some love to a model that has been waiting a while to get painted. 

I decided to sign up with my Terrorgheist for my Vampire Counts army. This model was purchased back in March 2015, so has been two years with only being assembled! With my plans to get back into Age of Sigmar, I decided this would be the perfect opportunity to finally finish it. 

So, head over to Swordmaster's introduction post and sign up if you are interested in taking part. It doesn't have to be limited to Age of Sigmar. There are various different game systems you could pledge a model for, even the 40k universe has a range of great monsters that could take part. 

Please be sure to check out all the Monster March posts next month. These events are great for building the blogging community and finding and following new blogs. Also, be sure to check out and follow Path of an Outcast. This is a brilliant blog that focuses on Kings of War, with some great battle reports, and Swordmaster has recently started posting some fantastic hobby posts. 

Better Know a Blogger: Part 31- Quietly Raging

This week's Better Know a Blogger features Dave (@nerodine) from Quietly Raging. 

Dave's blog is primarily a hobby blog, showcasing his amazing painting skills across a large number of gaming systems, many of which I have never heard of.

His most recent series has been painting a large number of characters and models for Colony 87. These are some amazing and characterful models, and Dave has made a great job of them.

You will find a whole range of interesting and unusual models on display on the blog, including those for 40k and Bloodbowl. Be sure to check out the blog and waste many an hour poring over the great work on display!

Here are Dave's answers to my questions:

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

I was 12, and it was White Dwarf 103. A friend handed it to me toward the end of school term and the Rhinos just blew me away, and that's the moment I realised I needed 40k in my life. A copy of Rogue Trader quickly followed (I still own it too), and that fired all the synapses in my brain at the same time and I was hooked from that point onward. Fast forward a brisk(!) 29 years and here we are.

Hobby Sunday 19/02/17- Cityfight Ruins

This week, I decided to make a change and do some work on some Cityfight ruins that I had lying around. 

I've been busy for the past few months getting my Deathwatch painted up and trying to finish up my unit for Squaduary most recently. I though I would take a look at some neglected terrain that has been sitting for ages. 

I have had these pieces built and undercoated black for a long time now. I recently purchased some grey primer from GW, so got to work undercoating them with grey to save me having to paint the entire surface. I then gave them a quick highlight with white. This is my standard technique for painting ruins. They could be used in a game as is, but I will go back and pick out some details in them.

Fracture of Biel-Tan Review: Part 5- Formations and Forces of Ulthwe

Welcome to the final part of my Fracture of Biel-Tan Review. This section will look at the new formations that are available in the book.

Ynnari Formations
Triumvirate of Ynnead
This consists of Yvraine, the Visarch and the Yncrne.

The special rules for this formation include Heralds of Rebirth. This makes any non-vehicle unit within 12" of two members of the Triumvirate are Fearless. In addition, if all three members of the Triumvirate are on the table, all friendly Ynnari models are Fearless. This is a pretty potent special rule. Generally, you will have Yvraine and the Visarch together to benefit from their special rules, as the Ycarne generates a 12" Fearless bubble anyway. Making all your Ynnari models Fearless when all models are on the table is also a very powerful bonus, giving you a big incentive to keep them alive for longer.

In addition, if all three models are on the battlefield, you get to add 1 to the special Ynnead rolls that the three new special characters get. This means that Yvraine and the Visarch re-gain a wound on a 3+, or the Ycarne on a 2+ when an Aeldari model is killed within 7" of them. This gives them a very good chance of regaining wounds if your units are getting killed.

This formation is great if you are planning to take all three models, providing them and the army with some very nice bonuses.

Fracture of Biel-Tan Review: Part 4- Forces of the Ynnari

Welcome to part 4 of my review of the new Fracture of Biel-Tan supplement. This section will look at the new fraction to join the 40k universe- the Ynnari. 

This army features a combined force of Eldar, Dark Eldar and Harlequin units to combine into an Aeldari super-force to use on the table. 

Warlord Traits

As is common with many of the 40k supplements recently released, the Ynnari get a new Warlords trait table to roll on if they choose. 

Lord of Rebirth- The warlord gets It Will Not Die. Useful for keeping your warlord alive for longer. Added to the wound recovery methods that the new Ynnari special characters get, this could boost their durability even further, helping to keep them alive for longer. 

Warden of the Forgotten Wisdom- If your warlord is a psyker, you get to choose your psychic powers rather than rolling for them. This is amazing. Given how powerful the Eldar and Harlequinn psychic powers are, as well as the powers in the various other shared disciplines, removing the random nature of the roll and getting to choose the best powers for the situation is brilliant. Do Eldar have access to Telepathy? If so, you now have Invisibility. This would work really well on a level 3 Farseer, allowing you to choose the best 3 powers from the various disciplines at will. 

Walker of the Many Paths- Each turn, your warlord gains a special rule of your choice from Furious Charge, Hit and Run and Move Through Cover. This is pretty awesome too. Hit and Run is an amazing special rule, so getting it guaranteed on your Warlord's unit is going to be very effective in the game. 

Battle Report 96- 1500 pts Deathwatch vs Crimson Fists

This week's battle report sees my Deathwatch take on Maurice's Crimson Fists army at the Newcastle Warlords gaming club. 

Maurice was recently getting back into 40k, so we decided to play the Relic Eternal War mission. 

My army consisted of:

Combined Arms Detachment

Watch Captain Artemis (with VV)

5 Veterans- 4 Frag Cannons, Storm Shield (V1)

Drop Pod (DP1)

5 Veterans- Meltagun, 3 Combi-meltas, Auspex (V2)

Drop Pod (DP2)

5 Veterans- 5 Stalker Pattern Bolters (V3)

5 Veterans- 5 Deathwatch Shotguns, Storm Shield (V4)

Rhino (R)

4 Bikers- Power Weapons, Meltabombs (B1)

4 Bikers- Power Weapons, Meltabombs (B2)

4 Vanguard Veterans- 2 Heavy Thunder Hammers, 2 Pairs of Lightning Claws (VV)

Corvus Blackstar- Inferno Halo Launcher (CB)

This list was based on revision to my tournament list that I had recently made to my Deathwatch army. My warlord trait was set with Artemis, giving me an extra change to the Mission Tactics.

Fracture of Biel-Tan Review: Part 3- The Yncarne, Avatar of Ynnead

The third part of my review of the new Fracture of Biel-Tan book covers the Yncarne, the Avatar of Ynnead. 

The Yncarne

The Yncarne is a pretty potent monstrous creature to add to an army of the Ynnead. He is a potent combat character, a powerful psyker and provides some nice buffs to any army that he is a part of. 

First off, The Yncarne has a pretty impressive statline. For combat ability, he is WS9, S6, initiative 10 with 6 attacks. His Relic sword, the Sword of Souls is AP2 with Fleshbane, Armourbane and Soul Blaze. This makes him a pretty potent force in combat. He will be generally be striking before most models/units in the game, hitting on a 3+ and wounding on a 2+ with no armour saves allowed. He will even be able to take on vehicles fairly reliably thanks to Armourbane. As a result, he will have no problem taking on most combat threats with ease, with only good invulnerable saves or feel no pain saves providing him with any trouble. He also gets Fleet, giving you a better chance of getting into combat with your charges. 

Squaduary Week 2- Block painting and Washes complete

Week 2 of Squaduary is now up and my Deathwatch Veterans are coming along nicely. 

In the last week, I have got most of the colours and washing done on the models. 

Fracture of Biel-Tan Review: Part 2- The Visarch

Welcome to part 2 of my Fracture of Biel-Tan review, looking at the Visarch- Sword of Ynnead. 

The Visarch

The Visarch is a combat character for the Eldar, designed to take on the elite of the enemy army and keep Yvraine safe. 

The Visarch has WS7, I7 and 4 attacks base. This means he will be hitting before most other units and characters in the game and hitting them on 3's much of the time. His Relic weapon, Asu-var allows him to strike at S5 and AP2, meaning he will be able to chew through a range of standard infantry and many characters that lack a good invulnerable save. The sword also has a bonus rule, forcing an enemy unit to use the lowest leadership when within 3". This will be useful for making sure that enemy units flee from combat and giving you a chance to wipe them out in a sweeping advance (thanks to be initiative 7). 

Better Know a Blogger: Part 30- Beserkerblade

This week's Better Know a Blogger features Ed from Beserkerblade.

Ed's blog primarily focuses on the painting side of 40k, with regular hobby updates on his fantastic forces to keep you coming back for more. Most recently, he has been updating us on his progress on his Squaduary unit- a Skitarii squad.

Not just content with awesome painting work, you will also find some battle reports and opinion pieces on the blog.

A particular favourite of mine is his awesome Night Lords army. Mix an already great colour scheme with some great painting skills and you have a brilliant looking force to strike fear into the hearts of your enemies!

Here are Ed's answers to my questions.

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

I think I was about eleven, damn, that’s twenty years ago! I had just started secondary school and got introduced to Warhammer by one of my friends. Come to think of it, the first game I saw was probably Epic 40k, a system I’ve never collected but played a fair few times in my youth. At any rate, it was a slippery slope from there, me and my brother shared the fifth edition Warhammer box set (the one with the Lizardmen) and we had many happy (read: childishly competitive) games of Warhammer in the following years (exactly how I got started too- Mike). I fell out of wargaming in my mid-teens, but always played some form of tabletop games; from D&D to a home brewed Mad Max game that was pretty much the only game I played for years.

What drew me back to 40k was a combination of the Dawn of War PC game and the Dark Heresy RPG. I can remember picking up the core rulebook in Waterstones and being blown away by the artwork, details and grimdarkness of it all. From there I soon progressed in to my first army, my beloved Tyranids. 

Hobby Sunday 12/02/17- Deathwatch Drop Pod and Dreadnought

This week, as well as my continuing efforts towards my Squaduary Veterans unit, I have also managed to get some work done on a third Drop Pod, as well as my Venerable Dreadnought. 

The Drop Pod is proving pretty easy to get through. Having painted two previously, I am getting reasonable efficient at the edge highlighting for the model. However, even though I've made 2 previously, it was still a pain in the ass to put the Drop Pod together.

Fracture of Biel-Tan Review: Part 1- Yvraine

Hi everyone, welcome to part 1 of my review of the new Gathering Storm book, the Fracture of Biel-Tan. This book introduces new rules for your Eldar, Dark Eldar and Harelquin units to be used as a single force, and let me tell you, this book gives you some awesome new rules for these forces (not that the Eldar needed any help!). 

This first part will look at the rules for the first of the new triumvirate; Yvraine, Emissary of Ynnead. 

Yvraine, Emissary of Ynnead

Yvraine is a decent psyker with some good combat ability that should be a useful addition to an army. 

She has a fairly decent statline for combat. At WS8, she is going to be hitting most things on 3's, at initiative 8 and 5 attacks (4 base and one for two melee weapons). She wields the Sword of Sorrows, a weapon which is +1S (taking her to 4) and AP3 with instant death. Any characters that are toughness 4 (or 5 at a push) with a 3+ save will generally fear Yvraine in combat. She will generally be striking before them and has enough attacks to make failing an invulnerable save more likely and killing them instantly. She will struggle against those with a high toughness or 2+ save, but should be able to handle herself in combat against most basic infantry. 

She is not the toughest of characters. With 3 wounds at T3 and a 4+ invulnerable, it will not take a lot to kill her. She does gain Eternal Warrior, making it impossible to double her out with S6 attacks or instant death weapons. She also gets a nice special rule, giving her a wound back on a 4+ if any Aeldari model (Eldar, Dark Eldar, Harlequin or Ynnari) is killed within 7" of her. This should help her be a bit more survivable, but any dedicated shooting or combat attacks will still kill her relatively easily. She is certainly not as durable as Saint Celestine or Belisarius Cawl. 

Assassins Assemble!

As many of you may have seen from his recent posts, Rob (30Kplus40K) has been working on painting up the four Imperial Assassins for a commission. It was actually my Assassins that I had sent Rob, and they were delivered at the weekend so that I could marvel in their glory. 

When I was going through the list of models that I had left to get painted across my various armies, I was reminded of the Assassins from the Execution Force that I hadn't got round to painting. I decided to see if Rob would be interested in painting them up for me. I really liked the black armour that he had done for his Death Company army, so figured he would do a great job on the mostly black Assassins.

He did not disappoint! In fact, I felt pretty guilty about the effort that he had put in and how little he had charged to do them.

Birthday Bash - Deathwatch List 2.0: Playtest revisions

Later in the month, I will be attending Dave's Birthday Bash 2.0 tournament. I have been painting and practising with my new Deathwatch army to try and get them ready for the event. This post will discuss some of my experiences with the army and what changes I have made to the list. 

As a reminder, the rules for the tournament are:

• 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). 

Based on these criteria, I came up with an initial list based on the Deathwatch units that I had. This list was:
Combined Arms Detachment
Watch Captain Artemis
Librarian- Mastery Level 2, Force Sword, Meltabombs
5 Veterans- Heavy Thunder Hammer, 2 Deathwatch Shotguns, 2 Storm Shields, Power Maul, Power Sword
Drop Pod
5 Veterans- 4 Frag Cannons, Auspex, Storm Shield
Drop Pod
10 Veterans- 2 Infernus Heavy Bolters
Rhino
5 Veterans- Stalker Pattern Boltguns
4 Bikers- 3 Power Swords, 1 Power Axe
4 Biker- 3 Power Swords, 1 Power Maul
Garran Branatar- Terminator Armour, Heavy Flamer, Power Fist with Auxiliary Meltagun

I played a few practice games with the list and here are the lessons I've learned from the games. 

Warhammer Newcastle Birthday Painting Competition

This past weekend was the Warhammer Newcastle store's birthday. As part of the celebrations, they were holding a painting competition. I decided to enter some of my Deathwatch, not under any illusions that they would win, but to showcase my recent painting efforts. There was some really nice entries on display, the photos of which are below.

Squaduary Week 1- Veterans built!

The first week of Squaduary is complete and my Deathwatch Veterans have been built. 

I decided that I wanted to do a few little conversions/kit bashing for the squad. First up, we have some simple ones that mix the Deathwatch Veteran kit and Space Marine Tactical Squad. I have a Veteran Sergeant with an Auspex. 

Better Know a Blogger: Part 29- Kaptain Von

The first of this week's Better Know a Blogger features Jon Garrad from the blog Kaptain Von. 

I checked out Jon's blog after he got in touch with me about the series and I was glad that he did. What you will find is a range of hobby content and "Theoryhammer". He has recently been focusing on the new Traitor Legions supplement, with articles on the Iron Warriors and Night Lords most recently.

As well as 40k content, you will find some great work on RPGs and some really nice hobby painting tutorials.

Here are Jon's answers to my questions:

1. What age did you get into gaming and what started it off?
Really young - about six or seven. A Fighting Fantasy choose-your-own-adventure book is one of the first things I remember reading on my own. These are the perils of being a precocious brat and regularly left unsupervised in the library - you find all kinds of stuff. Miniatures came when I was about eleven, roleplaying when I was about fifteen or sixteen.

Hobby Sunday 05/02/17- Deathwatch Corvus Blackstar

This week, I have been painting up the Corvus Blackstar for my Deathwatch army. I wanted to save this till near the end, as it is a great model and a centrepiece for any Deathwatch army.

When painting this up, I used the amazing Warhammer TV video, appropriately titled, "How to paint Deathwatch- Corvus Blackstar". This painting videos are phenomenal, showing you how the studio gets the paint jobs on their models and giving you great hints and tips on how to get the different techniques and colours to work. I have found that some of these video tutorials are great for helping me to boost my painting skills, as I have been trying to do with my Deathwatch army.

The only difference is that I have not gone for the weathering techniques described in the video. I tend to like my vehicles a bit more pristine. Just because you are going to a hellish warzone, it's not reason to let standards slip! Give that flyer it's second coat of wax and watch the enemy be blinded by the shine.

Better Know a Blogger: Part 28- Chickhammer

This week's Better Know a Blogger features Ashley from Chickhammer. 

I had not come across Ashley's blog before, but had seen her work on twitter (@Chickhammer), when she got in touch to take part in the series. 

After checking it out, I will be a regular follower of Chickhammer from now on. You will find a whole host of varied content to suit all your hobby needs; some great photos of painted miniatures, reviews of different games, reviews of Adepticon and much more. Ashley is also taking the plunge into the realm of 30k, starting a Sons of Horus force in 2017. If the pictures on display on the blog are any indication, this is sure to be a great looking army to follow the progress of in the coming year. 

Be sure to check out the awesome Miniatures Gallery on the blog. There is also a section on the blog where you can glimpse the mythical "Finished Armies". These elusive creatures have long been the subject of rumour amongst gamers, but are rarely observed in nature. 

Ashley on a visit to Warhammer World.

In addition to her blog, Ashley is also one of the hosts of the 40k radio podcast. Again, I've not heard this before, but will be checking it out from now on. Podcasts provided some great background entertainment while I am painting and should help me as I go through the many, many models of the Genestealers Cult I have yet to do. 

Here are Ashley's answers to my questions:

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

My best friend spent the better part of our childhood trying to get me to play Warhammer Fantasy, but I didn’t do much gaming until high school. He got me into Magic the Gathering eventually and it spiralled out of control from there: board games, other card games, RPGs, etc. A few years later, clichéd as it is, a boyfriend finally got me into tabletop gaming with 40k. I picked up a Keeper of Secrets and never looked back.

Battle Report 95- 1500 pts Deathwatch vs Iron Warriors

This week's battle report sees my Deathwatch take on Gareth's Iron Warriors. Gareth was using the new Traitor Legions rules for his Iron Warriors, so I would be interested to see how they played on the tabletop. I had previously played Gareth's Iron Warriors in their 30k incarnation, so would be interested to see how the 40k version fared. 

We would be playing the Contact Lost maelstrom mission (one card for each objective you control). 

My army consisted of:

Combined Arms Detachment

Watch Captain Artemis (with V1)

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

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 the Librarius Discipline and got Emperor's Wrath, Might of Heroes and Fury of the Ancients.

Squaduary- Deathwatch Veterans plan

Squaduary is a month long painting challenge, initiated by Rory from Stepping Between Games. The challenge is to paint a squad of Infantry for your army, with some guidelines to help you get them completed on time. Other bloggers will be contributing to the event and sharing the photos of their progress and the progress of others over the course of the month to encourage one another along.

As I had a squad to complete for my Deathwatch army and am always keen to engage with other bloggers, I decided to throw my hat into the ring.

My plan is to complete a squad of 10 Veterans in the month, a task that should be easily achievable given my recent run of painting form (I may even throw in their transport vehicle too if I have time).

The first week is focused on assembly of the models. I plan to have 10 Veterans; two with Shotguns, two with Combi-meltas, one with a Meltagun and 5 with Bolters. I have decided that my army need a bit more anti-tank punch, so have decided to add some Melta fury to the army.

Not content there, I am planning to convert one of the Shotgun marines to carry a Storm Shield. Since the Shotgun is modelled to be held in both hands, this will require a wee bit of work to get the look I am looking for (I have been inspired by the 30K breacher squads that wield their Bolters and a Shield at the same time).

Assembling 10 models with some minor conversions in a week is a pretty straightforward ask, so hopefully I'll have some time at the weekend to get it all done.

Tune in on the 7th for photos of my progress, and be sure to check out and support all those taking part in the event.