6th Edition 40k: a perspective

Of late Drakin and I have begun our usual process of thrashing out the rules for 6th edition- this involves allot of cursing, gnashing of teeth and general insults across the table as we learn and relearn the rules.  Getting our heads around some of the new nuances as well as remembering the old tricks we had learned in 5th ed.

Weekly WIP

So as I mentioned in the last blog post part of the plan after Arcanacon is to take on board some feedback- even though the guy in my opinion could really go to the school of "dealing with other humans" he is a master painter, and he did point out something I could do to improve the overall effect of the army.

Weekly WIP

Well Arc has come and gone,

Ive been playing Grey Knights for a few months now and focusing solely on foot lists with only walkers in the list.

Im going to look to pull together my 1st Tactica based on what ive seen and played in the coming days.

In the meantime the work continues- Ive sat back and look at the collection (which i really haven't put up good enough photo's) and looked at where I can improve the current work or add to continue to make this army distinctive.

Arcannacon 2012

Well so much for the posting hey!

Yeah Ive been lazy on the posting front but I have a legitimate excuse! Promise!

The reason of course is the Biggest Tournament in the Southern Hemisphere Arc 40k- 150 players crowd into the collingwood college and over two days battle it out following these simple princples:

Don't be a Prick !
Paint your Damn Armies !
Play for Fun !

So how did it go?  well I really didn't bother to record all the games Suffice to say 2 losses 3 wins and a Draw and I nearly Passed out in the 5th round due to heat exhaustion.  It was that damn hot in those halls!

Aside from that I came 6th overall- which to be honest I was not expecting.  Having finished 12th last year I was hoping to finish in a similar postion of at least closer to the top 10 not be just outside the top 5.

I think I generally underestimate myself at this event every year and expect very little for my efforts, and Ill probably take the same attitude again and just go to have fun and play with and against some really great painted armies.

That and you get to meet a whole bunch of really great people and maybe even walk away with a new friend or two.

On that the below photo's where not taken by me (i could dream to be this good with a camera) but by Adam Dorney and his photographer partner in crime Zoe on the day-  Ill link his flicker stream for you all to see all the great photo's when I get the info in the meantime here are shots of my guys on the day.

Anyway enjoy and then hopefully ill kick start 2012 blogging with some WIP's and planned projects for the coming year.

Cheers JP

Army Lists for Arcanacon

The last few days I've spent pondering what list id like to take to this years Arcannacon Tournament-  Last time I was very successful with a mechanised space wolf list though certain options did let me down in the end. Notably the drop pods actually hurt me in some games and Id like to revisit that list possibly as a back up if the Grey Knights are not completed in time.

Theme and colours

So thanks to all those who commmented last post.

The next thing I going to discuss about the GK army is the theme and colour.

As you would have noticed they are not the shiny new grey knights from the codex- they have a darker colour set its grey with metal working through it but all in all its grey.

Reading the books and fluff etc- the armor of the grey knights was unpolished and unmarked cermite in the beginning so im sticking with the  dull non reflective approach-  My brotherhood and grand master could honor the old ways of the chapter im not yet certain how it will go.

Additionally I have some reference material to go with this approach.

As you can see here the color scheme is allot darker almost black with hits of metalic highlights, and i personally prefer this look- there are some changes ive made- notably the storm bolter is red as opposed to black in these pictures and hilts of swords and halberd parts are gold. But predominatly this will be the colors ill use for my army.

As to force structure - there will be a dreadnaught - mainly because you can't really go pass the -4 on psychic rolls for the ageis- he will be venerable and it will be a contemptor model.

I think personally considering at what point the Knights where formed and that they have access to the technology of the imperium and really are the few that would have had access to allot of the STC- considering a whole forge world was dedicated to their resourcing that the contemptor would feature in the Grey Knight forces -  according to the special rules for the contemptor it has a 5++ cover save well i would argue that field generator that provides that would be replaced with the re-enforced ageis to combat demons etc.

As to the name ill pick for my main characters and the justicars and the squad names im not sure where to go with this.

Im thinking roman names etc but that may be standard across the empire.

But I will lay down some back story for the strike force and how its come to be the way it is etc.

Any thoughts from you readers on the approach for names etc would be interesting to read.

Anyway now for forgeworld to get my stuff delivered and for Dragon Forge to send me my bases and Ill be able to kick this up a notch.

Next post ill throw up some proposed army lists for consumption and feedback.

Sloth be thy enemy!

So guys and gals its been while! Of course for a large part of my time away from the blog'o'sphere I have been happily touring Japan.

So whats news? Japan is awesome... If your living there and reading this then I hate you :D also can I come stay with you? but apart from that in the world of Hobby there was Arcanacon!

2 days and 6 games, Great people and shit dice lol. Its a big weekend and with the heat, enclosed spaces and general unwashed masses a wee tad funky, yet for all that I wouldn't have missed it for the world! How did I do I hear you ask? 60th of 140 players, 2 wins, 2 draws and 2 losses... which for the Astral Wolves is about normal, granted the army would do better if I wasn't throwing my usual shit dice (I failed in 1 game every single armour save at 3+ I had including the follow up feel no pain saves on my plague marines!) so as you can imagine sometimes I got a frustrated!

However as the saying goes "Lucky at cards, unlucky at love" except im the opposite! I have a great life, great friends and some extraordinary luck in real life... In fact just recently I got excepted for an Aerospace Engineering place that ive been trying to get for some time! So suck that 11 ones in a single throw!!! oh yeah I have thrown 11 ones out of 16 dice. do the math.

so until I can get off my arse to throw some pretty pictures up please enjoy this shot of a wonderful store I found in Shimonoseki!

Reclaiming the wasteland.

So here I am... minding my own business when the school year just comes to a stop. Not one of those fancy I've got brakes stops, no sir. But a good old fashioned I just hit a Mercedes stops... sudden and you know the other guy's car is going to cost you... a lot.

So there I was, when a shining beacon shone out at me. A chance to hobby unimpeded, YAY! but oh wait what fair daemon stands there before me? Why its the latest Fallout game... New Vegas thy name is Legion.

So in short no hobby has been done. Thanks to circumstance no games have been played (on the table that is) and here I stand a week later, shaky at the knees having finished Fallout: New Vegas. In case your wondering Fallout is good... Its really good. Just dont plan anything with your life until the experience has had time to finish.

In other news I have signed up to play at one of the premier tournaments in Melbourne, Arcanacon. Regretfully my friend had to sign me up and didn't do so until 8 minutes had passed from the sign up opening time. So im currently player 169 out of 140 spots to play. I can only hope that people drop out like flies because I didnt get to play last year either.