Holiday Time!

Hello, dear Reader! Today I am embarking on holiday for a week. 

Don't fear though, the content will continue to come on St Andrews Wargaming for the following week. Please continue to read and comment as normal, but you may not get a reply to your comments as quickly as usual. Next week, you can look forward to my review of my Deathwatch army from the recent Birthday Bash tournament, as well as a review of the tournament itself, in addition to Monday's Better Know a Blogger. Also, be sure to check out the Armies on Display post, featuring some of the amazing forces that were brought to the tournament. 

This also unfortunately means that my review of the next Gathering Storm book will not be out until I return, as the book is released while I am away! I hope to write it up fairly quickly when I return though, so look out for that. 

All the best, see you in a week!

Birthday Bash Tournament Battle Report 3- Deathwatch vs Khorne Daemon Kin

My final game of Birthday Bash was to be against Liam and his phenomenal Khorne Daemon Kin army. With two wins each under our belts, this was sure to be a very tough match up for both armies. 

Liam actually has his own blog, Blue Warp Studios, which is well worth checking out and following. As you will see from the photos below, his army was absolutely stunning, featuring some amazing painting and conversions. Not only did it look great, it looked like a nasty force to fight as well. 

This mission would be Cloak and Shadows with Hammer and Anvil deployment. This is the mission where you draw three cards per turn, but keep them secret from your opponent until you score them.

My army consisted of:

Watch Captain Artemis (with VV)

5 Veterans- 3 Frag Cannons, Storm Shield (V1)

Drop Pod (DP1)

5 Veterans- Meltagun, 2 Combi-meltas, Auspex (V2)

Drop Pod (DP2)

5 Veterans- 5 Deathwatch Shotguns, Storm Shield (V3)

Drop Pod (DP3)
5 Veterans- 5 Stalker Pattern Bolters (V4)

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)

Artemis was my warlord and his warlord trait would grant me one extra change to my Mission Tactics (so two in total). This time, I decided to put Artemis with the Vanguard Veterans in the Corvus Blackstar to keep him safe. I figured the Drop Pod units would be quickly killed upon landing, so wanted to try and save my warlord a bit longer.

Birthday Bash Tournament Battle Report 2- Deathwatch vs White Scars

The second game of Birthday Bash saw me facing off against Robert Nathan and his White Scars army. 

Robert is a regular reader and commenter on the blog, so it was great to finally meet him and play against him. This was likely to be a tough match up for me. I know from my own White Scars army how good they are in maelstrom games, and Robert's army seems to be set up for maelstrom missions very well. 

We were playing the Cloak and Shadows mission with Hammer and Anvil deployment. In this mission, you draw 3 maelstrom cards per turn, but keep them hidden from your opponent. This makes it hard predict what your opponent will do and how to best block them scoring in the game. 

My army consisted of:

Watch Captain Artemis (with V3)

5 Veterans- 3 Frag Cannons, Storm Shield (V1)

Drop Pod (DP1)

5 Veterans- Meltagun, 2 Combi-meltas, Auspex (V2)

Drop Pod (DP2)

5 Veterans- 5 Deathwatch Shotguns, Storm Shield (V3)

Drop Pod (DP3)
5 Veterans- 5 Stalker Pattern Bolters (V4)

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)

Artemis was my warlord and his warlord trait would grant me one extra change to my Mission Tactics (so two in total). Once again, I put him with the Shotgun Veterans in the Drop Pod.

Birthday Bash Tournament Battle Report 1- Deathwatch vs Necrons

Welcome to my first battle report of the recent Birthday Bash tournament that I attended. Birthday Bash was organised by Dave over at Confessions of a 40k addict and run at Wargames over in Southport. I will do a full review of the tournament and store after my battle reports, but I'll just say that it was an awesome event held at a great store. 

I arrived with my Deathwatch at Southport on the Friday night, ready for the carnage to come the next day. I did manage to get a decent sleep at the hotel (though I was awoken during the night by the couple next door who were really enjoying their stay!). 

The tournament was a 1500 points, three game event that was going to be three maelstrom missions. All armies were using a Combined Arms Detachment, with Lords of War allowed. Armies were 'encouraged' to be a friendlier affair than a hardcore tournament list. The maelstrom missions would use a modified maelstrom deck- basically the deck cut in half and each card only worth one victory point. In addition, you could score a maximum of two cards per turn. This would prevent any player from running away with the game in most cases. Impossible cards could be discarded when drawn (impossible from that game point onwards).

My first game was against Jonathan from Dragon's Eye Miniatures, who was fielding his Necron Maynarkh Dynasty army. Jonathan has been chronicling his updates to the rules for the Imperial Armour Necrons, so has come up with a fun and thematic force for his Birthday Bash army. The first mission was Cleanse and Control, where you get up to three maelstrom cards per turn. We would also be using Vanguard deployment.

My army consisted of:

Watch Captain Artemis (with V3)

5 Veterans- 3 Frag Cannons, Storm Shield (V1)

Drop Pod (DP1)

5 Veterans- Meltagun, 2 Combi-meltas, Auspex (V2)

Drop Pod (DP2)

5 Veterans- 5 Deathwatch Shotguns, Storm Shield (V3)

Drop Pod (DP3)
5 Veterans- 5 Stalker Pattern Bolters (V4)

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)

Artemis was my warlord and his warlord trait would grant me one extra change to my Mission Tactics (so two in total). I decided to change his unit for this game. Normally he goes with the Vanguard Veterans in the Corvus, but this time, I put him with the Shotgun Marines in the Drop Pod. I figured his poisoned combi-flamer would be of more use with their shotguns and he would add some combat punch to the unit for when they are inevitably assaulted. 

Better Know a Blogger: Part 32- Sprue Grey/Golden D6

Today's Better Know a Blogger features Adam Jones (@spruegrey) from Sprue Grey and the Golden D6.

Sprue Grey is a very nice hobby blog, with some posts featuring his work in progress on the recent Squaduary challenges, as well as the older Dreadtober. He also has a number of reviews, including a more recent one of Heresy Miniatures. 

Adam might now be better known for the awesome Golden D6 magazine. This is an awesome regular hobby magazine, available online, that is written by gamers, for gamers. It features regular tutorials on painting and terrain, as well as battle reports and army showcases. 

One of my favourite articles was a tutorial on creating dungeon tiles from foamboard. A really simple technique, but giving amazing results. 

Here are Adam's answers to my questions:

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

In the dim, dark ages past, I started playing Dungeons and Dragons at high school. It was all badly done innuendo and naughty encounters with succubi, but what else would you expect? As a result of this, I discovered a FLGS (Friendly Local Gaming Store- Mike) called Mind Games (long since passed into memory) and marveled at my first exposure to miniatures. I ended up buying a four pack of adventurers: a halfling, a samurai, a thief and a barbarian. From that point my fate was sealed. My FLGS also stocked this magazine called the White Dwarf and again, my journey to the dark side was complete. It was inevitable that painting would follow and my first fumbled efforts on those four models with Humbrol enamel paints, well, we all have to start somewhere.

I wax nostalgic about those days still, and one of my favourite memories was buying White Dwarf 125 and 126. For those keeping score at home, these issues were my first introduction to the amazing Eldar of Jes Goodwin. Many years later I had the good luck to meet him at one of the Australian Games Days when I was working as a “red shirt”.

These days, family commitments, two kids, work and real life really make a dent on game time. My 12 year old son makes rumblings about playing and I kind of dread the financial cost of having two gamers in the house. Lucky for me there are a heap of options available and he keeps eyeing off my newly acquired Blood Bowl …

Hobby Sunday 05/03/17- Ghouls, Genestealers and Ruins

This week, I have been working on a number of projects. First up, I started on my work towards my Terrorgheist as part of Monster March (posted earlier today).

While I was waiting on the Terrorgheist to dry, I decided to crack on with painting my Crypt Horrors and Ghouls. I had previously started these by giving them a couple of basecoats of Screamer Pink. I had decided to paint them up in flesh-like colours, using a nice guide that I found online. 

After the basecoat, I gave them a wash of Reikland Fleshshade. 

Monster March- Week 1

Welcome to my first week update for Monster March. 

Monster March is an event being run by Swordmaster from the Path of an Outcast blog. I decided that after the success of Squaduary, I would sign up for another painting event. 

I pledged my Terrorgheist for the challenge. I bought this model around 2 years ago, but had yet to paint it. Monster March would be a great opportunity to do so. 

Week 1 was supposed to be for assembling the model. As I already had it assembled, I decided to make a start on painting it. This helps me, as I am away on holiday for a week during Monster March, so can make up for lost time. You can check out the first update post for Monster March over on Swordmaster's blog. 

Old Stuff Day 2017- Post round up

Yesterday was Old Stuff Day. I posted my own link to some previous articles that I wanted to highlight once more on my blog, but there were several other bloggers who posted as well. As I did last year, I thought I might collect them all for you to go and read them yourself. 

First up, we have the organiser of Old Stuff Day; "Warhammer 39,999". He posted a great compilation post, detailing his links for Old Stuff Day from the past 6 years he has been doing it. I love a good terrain piece, so the highlights on his 40k buildings and his stained glass windows are well worth a look. 

Next up, we have Marc from "Old School Gaming", who delved into his archive to pull up a great short story, some advice for gaming fathers and some old battle reports. Not only that, but Marc decided to go a step further and give an older model some fresh love with a new coat of paint and a fresh conversion. 

Dave over at "Confessions of a 40k addict" posted one of his great older battle reports, as well as a touching tribute to his Dad. Not only that, he managed to dig around other people's blogs and post some of their old content that he still enjoys and that were an inspiration to him (a great idea that I may be stealing!). 

Steve over at "256th Imperial Battle Group" posted a great short story on a Space Marine intervention in a planetary rebellion. 

Nick at the "Burning Eye" decided to update an older article he had written on the skill and technique of dice rolling. Regular readers of my battle reports will know that my dice frequently hate me, so here are some great new ways to roll a 6 for that crucial result. 

Finally, we have Alex at "The Roost of Turkadactyl" who crept in under the wire to showcase some great photos he found of an older miniature when he was cleaning out his camera, as well as posting some great 40k hacks. 

So there we have Old Stuff Day for 2017. I hope you enjoy the various posts and look at blogging past. If you have your own Old Stuff Day post that I missed, please share the link in the comments below. 

Old Stuff Day 2017- Blog Wars and Card Terrain

March 2nd is Old Stuff Day. For those of you that don't know, Old Stuff Day is a yearly event that I first saw on Warhammer 39,999. It is a chance to raid through the archives of your blog and dust off some articles that you haven't seen in a while or didn't get enough attention first time round. 

You can find my post for last years Old Stuff Day, where I talked about White Dwarf and my very first battle report on the blog. 

This year, I wanted to delve into the distant past of 2015 and highlight my battle report for my first game at Blog Wars 9. As I am coming up on my second year of blogging, it seemed right to highlight this, as Blog Wars 9 was one of the catalysts that led me to set up my blog in the first place. This game was against NafNaf (of Objective Secured fame) and is one of my favourite tournament games I have played. NafNaf was a blast to play against and we had a fantastic time with terrible dice rolls, terrible failed charges and my White Scars Bikers doing their best to run away from his Thunderwolf Cavalry for most of the game. 

Battle Report 97- 2000 pts Deathwatch/Assassins vs Space Wolves

This week's battle report sees my Deathwatch take on Stu's Space Wolves in the Spoils of War maelstrom mission. This battle would sees the inaugural use of my Assassins, that were recently completed for me by Rob (30Kplus40K). Lets see how they would fare against the Sons of Russ. 

My army consisted of:

Combined Arms Detachment

Watch Captain Artemis (with VV)

5 Veterans- 3 Frag Cannons, Storm Shield (V1)

Drop Pod (DP1)

5 Veterans- Meltagun, 2 Combi-meltas, Auspex (V2)

Drop Pod (DP2)

5 Veterans- 5 Stalker Pattern Bolters (V3)

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

Drop Pod (DP3)

3 Bikers- Power Weapons, Meltabombs (B1)

3 Bikers- Power Weapons, Meltabombs (B2)

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

Corvus Blackstar- Inferno Halo Launcher (CB)

Assassinorum Execution Force
Callidus Assassin (Cal)
Culexus Assassin (Cul)
Eversor Assassin (EA)
Vindicare Assassin (VA)

The army was based on my force for the upcoming Birthday Bash tournament, but with a few modifications to allow me to take all four Assassins. My warlord was Watch Captain Artemis.