Dont worry mate I'll make it to Melbourne in Flames!
in as fact im currently just finishing off building the new models for what I hope to be my last Chaos Marine tourny, I mean lets face it with the arrival of Grey Knights on top of other great codex's and a new unnamed codex in the works my pre 5th edition Chaos Lite 'just one calorie' codex is starting to see the end of its days!
But fear not my stalwart friends the last major tourny for the Astral Wolves is going to be a blast with my new list!
Friday, March 25, 2011
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Melbourne in Flames and Lords of Terra Invitational.
The coming series of tournaments will probably represent my season of tournaments for the year 2011 until Arcannacon.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Gythium Campaign game 3
Howdy! Von Drakin here with another game report on what is becoming a hotly contested matchup between Jp and I, the Gythium Campaign! As always I will include a little bit of story time at the end :)
But first off the bat, before we delve into the raw grit of battle, the wistful tales of heroes told and a boy and his rabid lesser daemon of fury I would like to address Jp's new idea "The painting initiative" (a newer snazzier name could be good... suggestions welcome. btw I will not accept "The newer snazzier painting initiative")
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| Bloody door to door sales tanks... |
Sunday, March 20, 2011
High Elves and a New Painting Intiative
Well its been a few weeks and I have to say sorry for not posting sooner. Real life as Drakin suggested has caught up with me and I have been unable to do much than work and focus on the basics.
The last few days I've been working a High Elf Seaguard color scheme and feel ive hit the scheme im after and will now progress to building at first a 2000 point army.
The last few days I've been working a High Elf Seaguard color scheme and feel ive hit the scheme im after and will now progress to building at first a 2000 point army.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Story time and pretty pictures!
Hi there,
Well its fallen to me Von Drakin to take the blog under my wing for a few days due to unforeseeable events outside of hobby/cyber space, Needless to say things are a bit hectic at the moment for Jp so his side of the story will have to wait for another day, but in the mean time your support would perk him up no doubt about it!
So first of, before I go on languidly on our narrative campaign story arc how about a little hobby to whet yon appetites!
Well its fallen to me Von Drakin to take the blog under my wing for a few days due to unforeseeable events outside of hobby/cyber space, Needless to say things are a bit hectic at the moment for Jp so his side of the story will have to wait for another day, but in the mean time your support would perk him up no doubt about it!
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| Go ahead, Make my day! |
So first of, before I go on languidly on our narrative campaign story arc how about a little hobby to whet yon appetites!
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Campaign Game 2, The Alamo!
Hello again dear readers! Today is a battle report post on the outcome of the second game in the Badab war sequence as laid out by the good fellows of BOLS.
First a recap, Game 1 (The Black Heart) saw a dramatic defeat of the Forsaken 1st Recon division, in a standard killpoints game. With that being said being said the Loyalists claimed two veteran abilities to assign and the Renegades 1. JP assigned his two points to both his Mortis pattern dreadnought (2 x T/L Autocannon) and his Assault Terminators, gaining Scouts and Preferred Enemy respectively. I assigned my one point to the Sanguinary Guard gaining them Stealth!
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| Game 2... this pretty much sums it up! |
First a recap, Game 1 (The Black Heart) saw a dramatic defeat of the Forsaken 1st Recon division, in a standard killpoints game. With that being said being said the Loyalists claimed two veteran abilities to assign and the Renegades 1. JP assigned his two points to both his Mortis pattern dreadnought (2 x T/L Autocannon) and his Assault Terminators, gaining Scouts and Preferred Enemy respectively. I assigned my one point to the Sanguinary Guard gaining them Stealth!
Thursday, March 10, 2011
A way to sell more models...
Hi, its Von Drakin here and I would like to talk to you all about what's on everyone's mind right now, Grey Knights. So by now i'm sure most of you if not all have seen the new Grey Knights release, if not go check them out! I'll wait for a minute... go on!
So let me first and foremost say "zomg so sexy!", yes thats right me a staunch bad guys player, he who sits in dark corners plotting the down fall of all that is right and good in the world wants to buy the ultimate good guys!
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| Ellen Ripley eat your heart out! |
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Atraxus: The 1st draw of blood
The impact of the drop pod always sent a shiver through Sergent Iuventius's servo leg, the feeling clearly a false register from the flesh that was once there, a latent memory.
The explosive bolts fired and the doors of the drop pod fired open. Squad Iuventius advanced into a desolate and empty city. To their left a larger drop pod also impacted and from within Ancient Germanicus walked out, the Mortis Pattern Autocannons tracking from the left and right on the ancient dreadnought looking for targets. A small discolored piece of what seemed to be toilet paper fluttered passed on the breeze as the machine moved through the wreckage of lander advancing towards Squad Iuventius.
The explosive bolts fired and the doors of the drop pod fired open. Squad Iuventius advanced into a desolate and empty city. To their left a larger drop pod also impacted and from within Ancient Germanicus walked out, the Mortis Pattern Autocannons tracking from the left and right on the ancient dreadnought looking for targets. A small discolored piece of what seemed to be toilet paper fluttered passed on the breeze as the machine moved through the wreckage of lander advancing towards Squad Iuventius.
A tale from the Traitor Legions
Hi there! Its Von Drakin from the Astral Wolves here! As you may know if you happen to be a reader of both this blog and my own that JP and I are indeed real life friends, who on a regular basis compete against one another in the realm of 40k. If you did not know this then you do now!
Anyway before I launch into a spiel about our current venture I would like to let you know that recently we have decided to combine efforts into this one blog in the interest of keeping you entertained! You the avid reader will be experiencing twice the content as before and who knows, maybe further down the the track we could expand that even further! maybe even by a factor of 1/2!
The Gythium War
The Gythium Campaign.
Harley and I finally found a campaign tree we like and have resolved to play a campaign game to add a narrative to our gaming.
Using the excellent Badab War Campaign resource created by the Bell of Lost Souls Team we will use the tree campaigns as a way of playing out our own.
The Gythium Campaign Setting
The Gythium System , near the Gates of Varl In Segmetum Ultima recently reported increased shipping raids by renegade astrates calling themselves the Astral Wolves, more commonly known as the Warhounds of Huron.
While not a significant event in itself considering the closeness of the Maelstrom to the area, the presence of supporting "loyal" Astrates called the Foresaken has raised the interest of the Inquisition. Unable to deploy to the sector due to resources commited to the Cadia gate the Arctic Templar Crusade Fleet on return from a cleansing mission in the Artaxata hive worlds, has been redirected to the sector to locate and determine the scale of the potential Hersey and neutralize the threat.
The crusding fleet of the Arctic Templars comprised the two great companies of the the Wolf Lord and the Raven Lord (Wolf and Raven companies).
Lord Haldor "the wold" had operational command of the task force at the beginning of the campaign.
Upon arriving in the Gythium sector on the outskirts of the planet Atraxus Raven Company deployed a recon force in strength to determine the location of possible renegade operations, and was able to predict a raid by renegade forces on the star port Helenium on the surface of Atraxus.
The scene was set for the opening salvo's of the protracted campaign.
(so i will leave it there for Harley to write small piece from the renagade's perspective and then I'll add a loyalist's point of view hope you enjoy it!)
Using the excellent Badab War Campaign resource created by the Bell of Lost Souls Team we will use the tree campaigns as a way of playing out our own.
The Gythium Campaign Setting
The Gythium System , near the Gates of Varl In Segmetum Ultima recently reported increased shipping raids by renegade astrates calling themselves the Astral Wolves, more commonly known as the Warhounds of Huron.
While not a significant event in itself considering the closeness of the Maelstrom to the area, the presence of supporting "loyal" Astrates called the Foresaken has raised the interest of the Inquisition. Unable to deploy to the sector due to resources commited to the Cadia gate the Arctic Templar Crusade Fleet on return from a cleansing mission in the Artaxata hive worlds, has been redirected to the sector to locate and determine the scale of the potential Hersey and neutralize the threat.
The crusding fleet of the Arctic Templars comprised the two great companies of the the Wolf Lord and the Raven Lord (Wolf and Raven companies).
Lord Haldor "the wold" had operational command of the task force at the beginning of the campaign.
Upon arriving in the Gythium sector on the outskirts of the planet Atraxus Raven Company deployed a recon force in strength to determine the location of possible renegade operations, and was able to predict a raid by renegade forces on the star port Helenium on the surface of Atraxus.
The scene was set for the opening salvo's of the protracted campaign.
(so i will leave it there for Harley to write small piece from the renagade's perspective and then I'll add a loyalist's point of view hope you enjoy it!)
Sunday, March 6, 2011
A small change
I had decided to combine my two blogs and rename my blog to a more general name calling it 'Th 5th column"
If your interested browse through the 2009 and later posts and they will show you my Napoleonic collections.
I'll probably do a post in the coming week that revisits these guys as well.
Also look out for possibly somthing else in the mix in the coming week as well !
Cheers
JP
If your interested browse through the 2009 and later posts and they will show you my Napoleonic collections.
I'll probably do a post in the coming week that revisits these guys as well.
Also look out for possibly somthing else in the mix in the coming week as well !
Cheers
JP
The Sunday Rant
Well another Sunday and today maybe a differnt type of discussion.
Theme over competitiveness. Are they mutually exclusive?
Today had two games with the new aforementioned 1500 point drop pod list with stormraven.
Interesting thing was that in both games I've never had more fun. The 1st game was a tester against harley and he had some bad luck and poor deployment and i was able to capitalise on this to devestating effect.
The 2nd game was a team game with Harley and Myself Vs a Space wolf and Bloodangles list.
The opponents we faced had the standard formal lists, mechanised forces with optimised weapon loadouts that anyone with access to a computer and google could use.
Don't mistake this for sour grapes I'll get to the result later, and the guys we played where really nice and freely admitted they min-maxed on purpose.
What I found was that considering both Harley's and My lists where not of that formula infact I would call them designed to probably eschew any of the major min-max options in favor of a more fluff orientated army, based on a thematic concept.
Anyway as the game progressed, we started to take a beating, the well developed and synergised army really showed its power, the space wolf component with the long fangs ripped up our support assets and the BA element meneced our flank denying us allot of tactical options. Suffice to say by the close of turn 2 it was very grim, and being an annihilation game we felt we where going lose this one convincingly.
It was part of the turn 3 discussions that I thought what would the commander of such an army do? whats the theme here and whats the approach such a theme should take?
So we rather than re-acting to the armies we faced we got into theme and played the forces the way we both knew they would do it.
What that resulted in was some very aggressive moves, using both our storm-ravens to lay down fire in a corridor for the assault troops to come in via and then once the beachhead was down break out and eliminate the enemy.
The change in the approach suddenly saw the other players struggle to respond, their armies where built to execute one specific plan, and they failed to deal with the change in our initial approach.
So I could go on talk about how wonderful and insightful we where, but what I really wanted to get at is this, allot of people see fluff and competitiveness as two polar opposites where a combination in the middle detracts from your overall ability to win game.
I personally think that actually this is wrong. I'm beginning to take a position that fluff can take you down a path that takes you away from the proposed best optimized unit.
Yes under the control of a good player these units make it easier to achieve games, but I think its allot more interesting to test yourself with a specific restriction.
What ive found thus far with the 10 games ive played with this list is that while i can take the optimised units im enjoying the challenge of playing with an army that presents from problems than solutions and that I have to fight to win.
There are some that state that fluff resides in the modeling choices you make but I think fluff can also be determined by the unit choices you take and not lead to a crappy lose all the time list as well.!
The team game was an uphill battle, we really didn't get to position of victory to about turn 4 and then it was still close.
It was one of the best games Ive had and harley mentioned it to.
So here is the question.
Do you prefer just to run with the optimised lists all the time? at tournaments for each codex is there really only one list that is the best to take? or does theme and fluff make a showing, can you really take a list that is built on theme and be effective?
Im taking this list to MIF if i can get it ready in the 6 weeks I have left, and with every game I feel more confident I can be competitive but also be true to the theme and fluff.
Look forward to your thoughts !
PS, I head that a certain Micheal boles is ill and wish him well and hope he recovers in time for MIF!
Theme over competitiveness. Are they mutually exclusive?
Today had two games with the new aforementioned 1500 point drop pod list with stormraven.
Interesting thing was that in both games I've never had more fun. The 1st game was a tester against harley and he had some bad luck and poor deployment and i was able to capitalise on this to devestating effect.
The 2nd game was a team game with Harley and Myself Vs a Space wolf and Bloodangles list.
The opponents we faced had the standard formal lists, mechanised forces with optimised weapon loadouts that anyone with access to a computer and google could use.
Don't mistake this for sour grapes I'll get to the result later, and the guys we played where really nice and freely admitted they min-maxed on purpose.
What I found was that considering both Harley's and My lists where not of that formula infact I would call them designed to probably eschew any of the major min-max options in favor of a more fluff orientated army, based on a thematic concept.
Anyway as the game progressed, we started to take a beating, the well developed and synergised army really showed its power, the space wolf component with the long fangs ripped up our support assets and the BA element meneced our flank denying us allot of tactical options. Suffice to say by the close of turn 2 it was very grim, and being an annihilation game we felt we where going lose this one convincingly.
It was part of the turn 3 discussions that I thought what would the commander of such an army do? whats the theme here and whats the approach such a theme should take?
So we rather than re-acting to the armies we faced we got into theme and played the forces the way we both knew they would do it.
What that resulted in was some very aggressive moves, using both our storm-ravens to lay down fire in a corridor for the assault troops to come in via and then once the beachhead was down break out and eliminate the enemy.
The change in the approach suddenly saw the other players struggle to respond, their armies where built to execute one specific plan, and they failed to deal with the change in our initial approach.
So I could go on talk about how wonderful and insightful we where, but what I really wanted to get at is this, allot of people see fluff and competitiveness as two polar opposites where a combination in the middle detracts from your overall ability to win game.
I personally think that actually this is wrong. I'm beginning to take a position that fluff can take you down a path that takes you away from the proposed best optimized unit.
Yes under the control of a good player these units make it easier to achieve games, but I think its allot more interesting to test yourself with a specific restriction.
What ive found thus far with the 10 games ive played with this list is that while i can take the optimised units im enjoying the challenge of playing with an army that presents from problems than solutions and that I have to fight to win.
There are some that state that fluff resides in the modeling choices you make but I think fluff can also be determined by the unit choices you take and not lead to a crappy lose all the time list as well.!
The team game was an uphill battle, we really didn't get to position of victory to about turn 4 and then it was still close.
It was one of the best games Ive had and harley mentioned it to.
So here is the question.
Do you prefer just to run with the optimised lists all the time? at tournaments for each codex is there really only one list that is the best to take? or does theme and fluff make a showing, can you really take a list that is built on theme and be effective?
Im taking this list to MIF if i can get it ready in the 6 weeks I have left, and with every game I feel more confident I can be competitive but also be true to the theme and fluff.
Look forward to your thoughts !
PS, I head that a certain Micheal boles is ill and wish him well and hope he recovers in time for MIF!
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Saturday Update
Well a weeks worth of work and a weeks worth of painting.
This week saw the termiantors move closer to completion, I've started on one of the assault sqauds and will continue with them this week, hope to bring them closer to completion by firday.
I have 6 weeks left and have 2 assault squads a sniper squad, 2 dreadnaughts and 3 drop pods to work on.
I think if i keep the pace up I can get there, but time will tell. Ill know closer to the end of April so we shall see.
Anyway onto to the models, with the weathering of the raven ive taken some tips from the the brush brothers using windsor and newton latex art masking fluid to create rust and damage effects
The effects in my opinion have come up well anyway here are the pics
And then the terminators which Im really happy with the outcome!
Anyway tomorrow is game day and I'm sure the Sunday rant will be back!
Cheers
JP
This week saw the termiantors move closer to completion, I've started on one of the assault sqauds and will continue with them this week, hope to bring them closer to completion by firday.
I have 6 weeks left and have 2 assault squads a sniper squad, 2 dreadnaughts and 3 drop pods to work on.
I think if i keep the pace up I can get there, but time will tell. Ill know closer to the end of April so we shall see.
Anyway onto to the models, with the weathering of the raven ive taken some tips from the the brush brothers using windsor and newton latex art masking fluid to create rust and damage effects
The effects in my opinion have come up well anyway here are the pics
And then the terminators which Im really happy with the outcome!
Anyway tomorrow is game day and I'm sure the Sunday rant will be back!
Cheers
JP
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Shades, In perspective.
So it came to light (pun intended) this evening as a friend was visiting, that shades can make all the difference to a colour in some very subtle ways. The point arose when he sighted my Stormraven in progress and the blood red I had liberally coated it with, he then said to me "Why did you paint this model in a brighter red than the rest of of your army?"
Well I hadn't done so of course, what I had done or more like hadn't was paint the special grey blend over the slightly darker Codex Grey base coat. Now that grey is very close to white and when painted on next to the blood red makes the colour pallette look in proportion, but of course this trick has some very subtle uses in your own painting some of which im sure you already use without knowing it!
Now as you can see from this picture the two squares marked 'A' and 'B' appear to not only be different shades or saturation but drastically so! Well as you can see in this next picture that I have taken the liberty to modify that both the colours are in fact the same, not only that but the dark grey squares are in fact almost black!
So where does this leave us? Well not all of us can be masterclass painters, but many enthusiasts win awards and even the coveted Golden Demon with not to much more skill than us. What they have is a good understanding of the human eye and well... tricks of the light!
So take a moment and think to yourself, was that model you drooled over last time actually that well painted? sure I wont deny that some people slave over their work, and hell some people are just dumb lucky enough to be some sort of paintbrush savant, rocking backwards and forwards while they shit Tiffany cuff links but more often than not they have slaved over one detail on the model (usually the face or head) that catches the eye and filled the rest with the right shade to make the details they want "pop" from the mini!
So give it a try sometime, you dont need blue to make that yellow pop if the colours around it have a little touch of black mixed in, the shade will do the pop for you!
As always, Good Gaming!
Von Drakin
Well I hadn't done so of course, what I had done or more like hadn't was paint the special grey blend over the slightly darker Codex Grey base coat. Now that grey is very close to white and when painted on next to the blood red makes the colour pallette look in proportion, but of course this trick has some very subtle uses in your own painting some of which im sure you already use without knowing it!
So where does this leave us? Well not all of us can be masterclass painters, but many enthusiasts win awards and even the coveted Golden Demon with not to much more skill than us. What they have is a good understanding of the human eye and well... tricks of the light!
So take a moment and think to yourself, was that model you drooled over last time actually that well painted? sure I wont deny that some people slave over their work, and hell some people are just dumb lucky enough to be some sort of paintbrush savant, rocking backwards and forwards while they shit Tiffany cuff links but more often than not they have slaved over one detail on the model (usually the face or head) that catches the eye and filled the rest with the right shade to make the details they want "pop" from the mini!
So give it a try sometime, you dont need blue to make that yellow pop if the colours around it have a little touch of black mixed in, the shade will do the pop for you!
As always, Good Gaming!
Von Drakin
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