Friday 24 December 2010

Review - Firedrake by Nick Kyme

It has been a while since I have had a new Black Library novel to read, but I knew that when I did get one I wanted Firedrake to be one of those I read.  After reading the first novel Salamander (review can be found here), I knew I had to read the next in the series. 

The review will be after the cut.


Wednesday 15 December 2010

Rethinking Orks

So, I have managed to get a few games in with my Orks and I enjoying playing them, however I feel like I need to re-work my list a little.  First of all, here is my current list I have been using (1500pts).


Thursday 9 December 2010

Mannfred Von Carstein; Pt II

An update on Mannfred.  At the moment, I quite like him.  He is still well in progress, I have the metallics to paint and his staff.  The top of it I am going for a stone look, I am not sure on the staff though.  I think doing it grey would not work that well next to his surcoat and cloak. 

Tuesday 7 December 2010

Mannfred Von Carstein; Pt I

It has been a while.  My light's bulb died recently, so I have to wait for a new one which arrived today.  I have started work on my Secret Santa model, Mannfred Von Carstein.  I like the skin, the blue flesh kinda looks like dead flesh to me.  The red cloth doesn't show up that well in the pictures, but I like it's contrast with the skin; the cloak and jacket will most likely be black.  The brown leather is just a basecoat, it will be shaded and highlighted properly by the end. 

Friday 3 December 2010

*ahem*

A quick update, I have not been very active recently for various reasons.  The foremost is because the bulb in my light blew, and I am waiting a replacement to arrive; so no painting.  My current painting project is Mannfred Von Carstien, the older version.  This guy:


Tuesday 23 November 2010

LOTR: Strategy Battle Game - Review

As you might know I have recently decided to pick up the LOTR:SBG and so this is my review of the game.  I will start off with my thoughts on the LOTR boxed set - "The Mines of Moria", and then move on to the rules of the game itself.  

 

Saturday 20 November 2010

Look what arrived yesterday!

So, it finally came, and I will soon have my review on the boxed set along with my thoughts on the rules of the game - once I have read the "Rules Manual".

Monday 15 November 2010

A Dwarfs Tale: From King to Clansman. Part IV - Cannon

So, I got hold of a base - the screaming bell one - and after some playing about with miliput I came up with the idea of making a small wall/defence to 'protect' the cannon.  I quite like it, I am hoping to do better with the Organ Gun. 

I hope you like it!






Saturday 13 November 2010

Dwarf Cannon

It has been a while, I know.  I have been working, painting and playing on Final Fantasy XIII. 

I have almost finished my cannon, the minis are painted they just need basing.  I have ordered a Screaming Bell base, I think it is too big but I will see when it arrives.  I have also ordered more shields. 

For the crew I tried out some brighter highlights, it worked quite well though they don't show up amazingly in the pictures as they were taken quickly.  I still need to work on my metallics, the cannon does not look that good.  Here are some pictures, once I get the base sorted I will add more and better ones.








Thursday 11 November 2010

Homemade - Dwarf Upgrade: The Book of Grudges

The dwarfs are known for having the most well known book in the Warhammer world; The Book of Grudges.  There is one that the High King holds that encompasses the entire Dwarf race, but each dwarf city has their own books.  Thus, I think it would be fun and fluffy if it was an upgrade option.  Here is my idea:

The Book of Grudges
Of all races Dwarfs hold grudges the best, and take them so seriously that they have a book to keep track of these wrongdoings against them.  In times of battle the bearer of these books has been known to take to the field.  Held in his hands is one of the books, during the fight he bellows out the wrongs caused by the dwarfs opponents against them, whipping the Dwarfs into a rumbling hatred.

The Book of Grudges is an upgrade option for one Thane in a Dwarf army, at the cost of +50pts.

The unit in which the bearer of the book leads has the Eternal Hatred rule (hated lasts for all turns of combat), and in addition any dwarf unit within 6" gains hatred against all of the opposing army (normal hatred).


************

What do you think?  I was considering allowing him shieldbearers which would increase the range of the Hatred, maybe to 12"?  I don't think he's all that powerful really, and I don't know if he's too costly - 25pts or 50pts?

Friday 5 November 2010

My thoughts on LOTR


I was wandering about the blogsphere and I remembered this post over at Cursed Treasure about why the Lord of the Rings games lacks gamers.  I viewed the comments and there were many interesting points raise, and I felt like addressing my thoughts on these points.

To start, I thought I would drop my thoughts on the original posted question.  Why don’t I play LOTR?  I have been thinking on this, and I think I fell into the same pitfall of most people.  When the game was announced it was on the back of the film trilogy, and GW just seemingly threw it in the face of gamers proclaiming it to be their third ‘Big Game’ alongside the ancient Warhammer Fantasy and its younger brother, Warhammer 40k.  It just didn’t sit right with me.  To me a game becomes popular by the gamers and supporters, not because the company ‘Says so’.  However, up until early this year I had never even read the rules to the game.  I unfairly judged the game, just like pretty much every other gamer.  I jumped right on the band wagon of “this game sucks” and grabbed the tail of the “its stealing time and space in the company” donkey.  I think it also came down to the idea of how GW first pitched it.  It was seemingly marketed to begin with as just a way of replaying the famous parts of the novels/films, seeing if you could change the outcome of the series.  This worked while the films were new and interesting, but as they waned, the idea stuck that this system was limited.  We all know the outcome of the game, and all know that nothing changes when we replay these ‘famous’ events.  I think this was a big pitfall for me.  I like games that have wider range and its ending is not set in stone.

There was also a point brought up in the comments above about lack of customisation, and I agree.  The other two ‘big games’, and even the spinoffs, are very open ended.  You can pick a generic hero for you faction and fashion a whole history for them, arm them how you wish and let them grow.  In LOTR, most characters are known and even then if you can take unnamed ones you can’t really make them a great hero of their faction because Tolkien’s world is very set and lacks any great manoeuvrability for this purpose.  So instead you end up with characters leading factions, but from what I understand race doesn’t matter.  By this I mean, you could have a dwarf character leading elves or visa versa because they are in the ‘good’ faction.  You can have northern orcs being led by evil southern men. And so forth.  It just seems a little bit like having your cake and eating it, leaving very little to skill or having flaws in the force if you can just take other models to fill in those gaps.   One other thing, it kind of goes hand in hand with the lack of customisation comments above, the heroes, or the models in general, they give you little freedom when it comes to equipment - as far as I can tell. 

My final negative point here is the scenarios.  I have nothing against scenario wins, except when they are “if X faction does achieve Y criteria they win.  If they do then Z wins”.  These bore me and strike me as one sided.  However this isn’t my gripe, as I am sure there are different ways to play the game, but it is rather how GW marketed them.  The whole “replay the LOTR and win for evil” etc is fine, but has limited appeal.  This is something I feel has put a lot of gamers off picking up the rules and actually having an opinion that is not just built off of instant dislike or hearsay.  I think win games people like the idea of it being set in a well known surrounding (LOTR, or Star Wars for example) and refighting these epic battles are interesting but after a while, it gets boring and you need more exciting things to do with your minis rather than replay these scenes.  I am sure there are more scenarios and more varied ones available to play, but how GW made them come across has always seemed like there was just the replaying of the story.  Not fun.

So what does this all mean?  Well… I am going to put my money where my mouth is.  So to speak.  I intend to buy the LOTR: SBG rules and have a read of them, to see what my real thoughts on the matter are.  I have read them before, but I want to re-read them.  This does not mean that I’ll be starting up a force for the game (though, I have already considered some options already) but I will definitely read and comment back with actual opinions based on fact and discuss my thoughts on the topic of the game itself.  Look forward to this in the future. 

Saturday 23 October 2010

A Dwarfs Tale: From King to Clansman. Part III - Warriors

So, I have finished my warrior unit.  I actually had these done last weekend but a change of shift at work (had to work 6-2, then this coming week back on to 2-10 and then back to... etc) meant that I was lazy.  I am not happy with the banner, but I'll discuss that after the pictures.  Here:





Right then.  What don't I like?  The banner.  I just couldn't get the axe right and so to me it looks quite childish and flat.  So, I have been reluctant to show that.  Now I don't care that much and instead am just concentrating on the next set of tasks to do.  I am aware the pictures aren't that good, they were taken quickly but there isn't much to see.  I was quite happy with the unit until the banner icon went on.  The champion - to the left of the banner - has a bronze helmet and horns.  Something I am planning on keeping for the army; champions have bronze and an helmet adornment of some form.  The musician is OK, it actually turned out quite good.

For the top of the banner I went for the aged book look - again it is almost impossible to see - and it turned out OK.  I think I have a new method for my metallics, need to try it again, if so it works well and looks good.  It is basically Vallejo smoke ink and badab black wash.  It seemed to look better than just plain black to me.

My next project is the cannon.  I intend to add it to some form of base, being as now I don't have to worry about minimising the number of attackers.  I need to check the sizes and such to see what it would look good on, and what would fit it all.  I also am going to pick up some more old dwarf shields.  For £20 I should get enough to do about 4x20 dwarfs.  I have realised that I am not doing much converting - mainly because dwarfs don't lend themselves well to it - and might have to try a bit more on some of the stuff.  I have upped the number of units I am doing in this "batch" to include an organ gun and a thane.  I am trying to start going through my armies in this manner.  Painting some stuff and then move on to the next.  Will see how it goes.

One thing I have noticed is that I am rushing.  When painting my warriors I didn't care about some bits or pieces.  I feel this is to "please" folks online.  This is not suiting me though.  So, now I am going to work at my speed and hopefully pull out some better looking dwarf minis in the future.

Wednesday 20 October 2010

Where does it go...?

Well, I am sure you'll all have noticed that I have not posted much, this last week I have not had any internet access; a slight problem with our connection.  This has now been finished, as you might have gathered.  What have I been up to?

I now have a job, finally.  Working in a warehouse making plastic items, it isn't a bad job.  I have shift work though, so for this week I am on earlies (6am-2pm) and next week I will switch to lates (2pm-10pm) and then back again etc.  This does mean that I will only be able to get a game in ever other week, which sucks but is better than nothing.  For some reason the guys at the group believes me to be a 'rules guru', and keep asking me questions.  It is odd considering that I have probably played less games than they have. But is quite cool still. =D  Life down in the south is quite cool.  It is a nice place, I have been to Canterbury a couple of times, it is pretty and the local area matches it.  I am yet to make many friends down here but I am working on it.  Other than this I am getting on with painting, along with playing on the X-Box some.  I have recently finally picked up Red Dead Redemption and Final Fantasy XIII.  I am yet to play RDR but I will do.  It looks fun.  I am not a huge fan of the GTA series but this is different.  It's COWBOYS.  I am loving FF13 so far, but the combat system is getting some use to. 

Well.  Painting wise I have finished my 16 warriors, hopefully getting pictures up tomorrow or later today.  I will discuss these more in detail there.  I have now also undercoated my cannon and crew, these will be going on a base of some kind.  I have also planned out small lists for various projects I want to do.  One of these is to touch up my orks, mainly add some detail work to them.  The problem is that when the squads gets close it can be rather hard to spot who is with who if they are all similarly armed - ie 2 slugga or shoota squads next to one another.  So, my plan is to go back and add some form of squad identifier to them.  Something like different coloured dags or checks on shoulders or cloth etc.  Something obvious that can be spotted in the confusion of melee and so forth. 

Almost...
And talking of orks.  I got an actual game with them yesterday.  Yes.  A game!  My first one at this gaming group and first since the beginning of August.  This was Capture and Control against a Chaos Marine force.  He had; 2 squads of berzerkers, one had Kharn leading it.  A small squad of plague marines.All mounted in rhinos  Two obliterators, a vindicator and a daemon prince with.... yes.  Lash.  In return I flooded the board with green.  This was pretty much all I have painted.  2x 20 shootas. 2x 12 sluggas in trukks, 8 nobs and a warboss, 2x rokkit trakks. And 13 lootas.

His objective was pretty much centre of his deployment, mine was kept back and aptly was placed in an ork village.  I won't go blow by blow, but it was very close.  Some highlights were my nob squad and his kharn led 'zerkers battering each to hell before kharn got smooshed.  His daemon prince charging my 20 boy squad alone, killing a few before getting charged by the warboss and remaining nob.  Who then caused only a few wounds with their claws before the weight of 20+ boyz attacks pounded him into mangled flesh.  The game stood on a knife edge as to whether I could contest his objective or not.  Mine was safe.  He was left with only a obliterator and a handful of plague marines to defend it.  I struggled to find units big enough to weather the storm and in the end we had a trukk and a trakk sat on it.  He JUST managed to take out both and stop a small squad of boys (at this point about four left) from sneaking onto it in the final turn.  It was great fun and very close.

Looking at it, I have learnt that the orks are OK in combat.  They win by virtue of weight of attacks, not hard hitting ones.  And they HAVE to assault to do damage.  I2 and S3 is not the best combination in tandem with a 6+ save.  The nobz are pretty good, they hit hard and have lots of attacks.  I need to be a bit more thrifty with the wargear options for them to make the most out of wound allocation.  The warboss performed OK, fluffed a fair few of his attacks though.  The lootas performed well as usual, getting some nice shots off and making the daemon prince keep his head down.  I also need to be more careful with the placement of my transports.  Two out of the three - including the nobz trukk - got taken care of quite quickly.  The last, I should have really tried to keep it hidden so I could have gone for a last turn boost for their objective.  Otherwise, I think it went OK.  I need more practice, but it was rather enjoyable.  I am considering next time, dropping three lootas and taking a single suicidal deffkotta with rokkits for outflanking and pot shots at vehicles. 

Finally, I think I might need to get a new carry case.  the one I have at the moment is good - A figures in Comfort case - but is rather soft and I fear the layers get knocked about a bit and in turn I have many orcs with broken arms or have come off the bases.  This will depend on money and so forth, but hopefully in the future I can see about this. 

Thursday 7 October 2010

A Dwarfs Tale: From King to Clansman. Part II - The Basics


PART TWO


So, picking up from where I left off – The New Army.  I decided a while ago that I wanted to make them stand out, to be MY dwarfs.  With this in mind, I went about looking for a good colour scheme.  I didn’t want to do the typical colours, which for dwarfs are red, white, blue and green.  Usually it is white and…  this I did not want.  I wanted a scheme that stood out, but did not call in the Gay Pride Parade with its choice of colours.  I did originally do about five dwarfs in a light grey and light blue scheme, but it just didn’t seem to suit them.  In my opinion, I have always found that dwarfs look better in darker colours; which is why the 6th ed GW scheme of Dark Angels Green and Brown worked really well.  It had an earthy feel about it.  I wanted my dwarfs to have some of this feel without them falling into the ‘typical looking’ dwarf army trap.  I believe I have achieved this.

Thursday 30 September 2010

Elf. Just an elf.

Right.  I have been working on an [I]elf[/I].  I am OK with it, I don't mind him but he's not the best model I have painted.  I am looking as to whether or not sell him on ebay, I have a base to do for him.  I painted him in more muted colours, I wanted him to be elfy but not very bright blue or red like the usual elf schemes.  I am not fully sold on the cloak, I need to practice more at blending and the sword looks a little washed out.  Other than that, he's OK.

Oh, and I might try selling the warrior priest again.


Sunday 26 September 2010

Bugman from Bugman's Bar

Anyway, he is now finished.  Have a look...






I am now actually on to my next project, and... it's a single elf mini.  I might try and sell him on ebay, along with the warrior priest again.  Not sure yet though.

Bugman from Bugman's Bar

I have had this fellow in my box for some time, and well, I saw an opportunity to get him painted.  He is almost done, just the piece of flooring he came on to paint.  Overall, I am pretty happy with him, the skin and the beard I really like.  The beard was done using my usual blonde method, but I didn't add golden yellow into the mix, made it a bit more natural and more sandy blonde. 

The only thing I am not fully happy with is the gold.  It just doesn't look right, and I have painted, washed and repainted it too many times to mess about with it any more.  I just need to practice my gold more.  The silver on the axe also came out not fully to my liking - and might look under highlighted.

This is just a mini, a really fun one to paint and he'll be glued to his base for display.  Getting in the mood for more dwarfs (I have 16 warriors and Thunderers to paint next and a cannon). 



Friday 24 September 2010

FINALLY!!

So, it has been three months and a lot of um... excuses from me, but finally today it happened.  My table arrived.  Oh yes... KUFFY IS BACK IN BUSINESS!!  Well, painting anyway.  So, I have a picture of my painting table all nice and newly set up today.  And yes, I have started on a miniature.  I won't say what just yet, but as you can see from the pictures below I have two choices... what am I doing? :D

Look at all the boxes!

What is my next project?

Sunday 19 September 2010

A Dwarfs Tale: From King to Clansman. Part I - The Beginning


As readers of my blog(s) might well know, my first and main army for Warhammer fantasy is Dwarfs.  I am in the process of rebuilding my dwarf army, this means repainting, converting and adding my own fluff.  So, with this in mind I decided to start a small little series on my blog.  This series will follow my progress in building this dwarf army.


Tuesday 14 September 2010

Podcast review - Garagehammer, episode 8

This is the first time I listened to this podcast, but I have heard of them about.  And as luck would have it, this episode discusses my favourite Fantasy topic.. DWARFS!

Now, this podcast comes across to me as being a very laid back ship.  I didn't get the feeling that they were geared for tournament play like many of the other podcasts you can find on the net.  I think this is a great difference, I really liked how laid back they were.  For example when discussing their army lists, they didn't go for all the more powerful options but rather they sounded quite fluffy and fun.  I enjoyed the general discussion they had over their local gaming and stuff, and the "Phoenix Prince" section was an amusing and interesting touch.  One nice point I did enjoy, was that they avoided swearing or cursing.  I personally don't mind that much in general, but this makes it more family friendly and does just show that you don't need to swear all the time to have fun.  It makes a nice change.

I really enjoyed the very comprehensive discussion of the dwarf army book, by a rather experienced dwarf general.  There were some nice comments and ideas, a lot of which I am sure most dwarf players would agree with.  They spent a great deal of time on each army option, giving a good strong description of each option they have and explaining the units roles and rules.  I would say if someone is looking to get into a dwarf army, this section of the podcast is a great way to learn how they work. 

I really enjoyed the podcast, I am thinking of making this a regular feature for my painting times.  Go listen!  But be warned, their shows aren't short!

You can find them at: http://garagehammer.net/

Friday 10 September 2010

A quick update


Right so, since the last update I have moved half the length of England and now am living in the seaside town of Broadstairs in Kent.  It's not bad.  We are yet to get the internet connected, however there are a bunch of networks that we can connect to and use (and more are legally done!).  I still lack most of my stuff, that arrives a week on saturday, so no painting just yet.  However, I have assembled a number of dwarfs, namely - 16 warriors with hand weapons, 16 thunderers and a cannon (all kindly donated by PapaJJ in a very gentlemanly give away  he had on his blog).  Some of these have been very slightly converted.  Like the warriors all have axes - started off accidentally but looks good - some of which are converted from great weapons and some small changes to the command and such.  The thunderers are just a normal unit, much like the cannon.  So I have stuff to paint when it all arrives. 

I also went to the local gaming group, just to see what it was like.  It's small, but there seem to be a nice bunch there.  Hopefully I can make some friends with these guys and get some actual gaming done!  In addition to this, I am trying to add or write my dwarf fluff to give it character.  So far it is not that good, but I am just trying to get down the basic structure and build a better one on top of that.

Monday 9 August 2010

A post? YES! A POST!

Sorry about the lack of posting folks.  I have been doing very little GW based stuff at the moment so I haven't had much to post about. Everything is in boxes ready to be moved down south (which should be happening end of the month).  However, this weekend was spent at Warhammer World along with some very nice fellows from my home forum; Librarium-Online and a very fine weekend it was indeed.  Loads of fun and games were had, and here are my photos from it :

http://s198.photobucket.com/albums/aa172/Kuffeh/LO%20Meet%202010/

Sunday 11 July 2010

Loot!

Also, I won some funky loot today.  A contest over at diceRolla blog was giving away an entire chaos army.  For free.  Now that is quite the haul.  I did not win however, PapaJJ (the blog owner) has decided to give away a bunch of prizes to each of the eight entries.  So, what did I win?  Here..

Kuffeh - Are you still actively working on your Dwarves? If so I've got a few boxes of basic dudes that I'd like to send to you. It's one each of the Dwarf Warriors, Dwarf Thunderers/Quarrellers, and Dwarf Cannon/Organ Gun box sets. A few weeks ago I opened them for the first time in search of drinking mugs that I could use for my Stonecutters. Otherwise they are untouched as I didn't see anything helpful for that project. I've also got a new Gyrocopter that I'd like to include if you're interested.

How awesome is that?  So, when I get the chance to start painting once again these will be put to a great use.  :D  Now THAT was a give away and a half.

Tuesday 6 July 2010

Auction Over

Well, I would happily like to report that my Dwarf Blood Bowl team raised me a total of £57. =D  My first personal ebay auction and I think it worked out quite well.

Wednesday 30 June 2010

I would just like to point out that the dwarf blood bowl team is up on ebay still, with just over three days left.  If you'd like to own them, then please bid!  They are currently going for a slightly disheartening £21.  :(

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300440188059

Wednesday 23 June 2010

Blood Bowl Auction

I have finally gotten around to this, and here is the auction for the Dwarf Blood Bowl team.  Go bid my friends. -__^

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300440188059

Modelling Mayhem

A brief post here, sorry for the lack of posting.  I have moved back with the parent's for a little bit and there is no room for me to be doing any real hobby stuff here unfortunately.  I will try and be a bit more active with The Trading Post.

This post however to to mention an addition to both of my blog's banner exchange.  This is the online store, Modelling Mayhem.  The site is a cheap alternative site to buy all your hobby needs from - from GW to the newer Mantic and even battlefoam.  So when you are looking for a discounted place to pick up your hobby tools, you can't look any further than:

Saturday 12 June 2010

Blood Bowl Dwarfs, Complete!

I finally finished these little fellows.  The team currently stands at 12 players, 1 star player, 4 markers.  I also have better pictures of the players, to be used for the ebay sale.  I will not get around to this for another few weeks, next week is packing and moving week.  So, this might be my last bit of painting for a short while.  :(  That aside... the markers:








And a better shot of the 'Turn' marker's wood grain:


I am still getting the hang of woodgrain.  It looks decent this time though, so I am quite pleased.


Overall, I am really pleased with how they have turned out.  The entire team is good for a tabletop quality to me.  I hope it sells.  I will be back with a link to the ebay auction when it is up and ready. :)

Monday 7 June 2010

Blood Bowl Dwarfs, the full team

Just a quick picture of the full team.  Just the icons missing, which are now undercoated.

Update for the Trading Post

This is cross posted from the Trading Post Blog I also host:

Hey there,

Sorry about the lack of posting here, I have been sort of chilling with the house in the last few weeks we have left here.  I now move out on the 18th June, so not long left to be packing.  So I am going to be busy over the coming few weeks, along with the translation to the parent's for a month or two before the move the Canterbury in Kent.

This combined with the lack of anything gaming really happening (except some painting) has left this blog dry and parched.  I am hoping to get something really fun in this week for you all, something I am enlisting my housemate to help with and have been wanting to do for a while.  Another problem that I have encountered is the lack of blogs for the Trader of the Week series to use.  Any new Fantasy based blogs you can dig up and push my way would be grateful, or even your own if I have not seen to yours already.

My final piece of information to add here is that I have made a forum for this blog.  Why?  I'm not sure, but I have.  It's a generic Fantasy blog, like the blog, and well... it's there.  If you wish to join, please do and enjoy a forum that will be fun and friendly.  The link is: http://thetradingpost1.freeforums.org/index.php  At the moment it is empty and bare, I will be playing about with things.  If it is a success, then I will pay the small amount of money it requires for the reputation system to be used as well.  However, I am not rushing into that due to the funding I have at my command and the not-so-distant moving.

So, that is all.  I hope to get things moving when I actually have anything to add.  If you have anything you'd like to post about on the blog, or feel you can regularly contribute, please drop me an email and we can discuss it.

Saturday 5 June 2010

Dwarf Blood Bowl Team - Star Player Grim Ironjaw

The final player has been completed, the dwarf star player Grim Ironjaw.  I enjoyed painting him, he was quick to do as well.  I really liked the skin, I am getting a bit better at it look right, I think.



Monday 31 May 2010

Dwarf Blood Bowl Team - slayer

Right.  The final player in the boxed set.  The slayer.  Following this is the Star Player and 'markers'.  Overall I am quite happy with him, for a quick and tabletop level painting.  The blood is only really on one hand because I tried it on the other and it just didn't look right.  There are a little bit of remains to hint at his use of the hand.



Link Within

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...