Sunday 13 November 2011

Army transport alternatives


*The products mentioned below are the intellectual property of the companies that provide them, and are copyrighted by law. I just mention them for informative purposes.*

Yesterday I was in my local GW, wanting to pre-order the limited edition army cases that are coming out for the holiday season. Luckily, the manager, who is also a personal friend of mine, said he could also keep one in the back for me on the day of release, so I didn't have to preorder it.

I'm glad I did that, cuz when I was on my way home, I thought I'd check to see what alternatives there were in that price range, and I figure I might as well share my 'research' with the blogging-community.

The reason I wanted a carrying case for my models is that I've been using a cheap DIY alternative up till now, and it's fine for tanks, but not for infantry. Yesterday, on my way to GW, three models broke. Not in a major way, all easy to fix, but still, it made me decide to get a better solution to carrying my models, since I bring them with me pretty much once a week.

At first glance, the big limited edition GW cases seemed like a good solution. They had the loadout I wanted (4" pluck foam and some infantry trays) and they're plenty sturdy. They also come with a 40k logo, which is a tiny little plus. What I didn't like was the color of liquid bowel contents, or the size. I would prefer a case that's shaped more like the monster case, where the layers or foam are all stacked. I also would prefer a space for my dice, ruler, books and templates, outside of the foam.

The limited edition GW Army Case
I usually take either the car or public transport to wherever I'm going, so I don't really need a hard shell case. What I want is something that'll keep my models apart, snug in their own little space, without pressing on eachother or chipping paint. Therefore, any carrier that has foam trays will do. In fact, a bag usually supplies the extra space for gaming accessories I want.

I knew Battlefoam did great bags, but also remembered they were expensive, because they had protective hard shells in their bags. I checked anyway for good measure, the PACK 432 seemed to carry the amount of foam I wanted, but would be a lot more expensive than the GW one.

Battlefoam P.A.C.K. 432

I then checked KR Multicases, but their site was too confusing for me to even bother with their products.

From there I went on to Feldherr, they did a nice case, their Hardcase XL, which worked out about 20% cheaper then the GW one with a similar foam loadout. They also had free shipping throughout Europe for all orders over €50, which was an added bonus. The Hardcase XL was one to consider.

Feldherr Hard Case XL
Then I checked Sabol, but they don't ship outside the US, so tough luck for me.

I still had the Battlefoam website open in another tab, and just quickly browsed through it as I was closing tabs, when I noticed a link saying 'BF Shield Bag'. Hadn't heard of it before, so I decided to check it out. What they did is take their amazing product, took out the stuff I didn't want, and dropped the price to something I could afford! I put it in my shopping basket, browsed the site some more, went back to the Shield Bag, and suddenly saw the price increased by about 20%!

Battlefoam SHIELD Bag
Luckily, I still had my shopping basket open in another tab, with the product at it's previous price in there. I hesitated no more and pre-ordered it straight away. Expected shipping date is 7 weeks away, sadly, but it still worked out 15% cheaper than the GW one. The GW case does have more spaces for infantry models, but the BF bag comes with a large infantry tray, for models with large bases, which I personally prefer. It's also not the color of diarrhea, which is good. The only thing I don't have, is the 40k logo, lol.

Hope this post helps someone else find a good army transport solution! As always, thanks for reading, comments are most welcome!

Thursday 10 November 2011

Concept 1750 Necron List

Picture 'borrowed' from here

Been a while since my last post, have been busy reading the new Necrons Codex ofcourse. Painting has taken a step back for the past week because of this, but I'm hoping to get started on the new models I bought on release day: the Command Barge and the accompanying Overlord.

I also bought Trazyn the Infinite, but now that I'm getting a bit of an idea where I want this army to go, I doubt I'll use him. Have yet to read most of the fluff, so some changes in direction might still be made, who knows.

Let's move on to the title topic. This is the first list that I've produced from the new book that I'm sorta content with. It centers around a large, slow-moving 'firebase' behind a pseudo AV13 wall, with several fast moving 'harassment' units moving on the flanks.


Phaeron Overlord   180
- Warscythe
- Sempiternal Weave
- Resurrection Orb
- Mindshackle Scarabs

Overlord   180
- Warscythe
- Catacomb Command Barge

20x Warriors   260

9x Warriors   232
- Ghost Ark

9x Warriors   232
- Ghost Ark

7 Canoptek Scarabs   105

Triarch Stalker   150

2 Canoptek Spyders   125
- 1 Fabricator Claw Array
- 1 Gloom Prism

Royal Court   105
- 3 Harbingers of Destruction

Annihilation Barge   90
- Gauss Cannon

Annihilation Barge   90

- Gauss Cannon

Total points: 1749


The Phaeron joins the 20 Warriors, making them Relentless so they get a threat range of 30". He is also been built for assaults, to help ensure the Warriors don't get sweeped too easily.

The Harbingers split up and join the 3 Warrior Groups.

The two Ghost Arks provide moving cover for the large group of footsloggers and a way to get troops to objectives reasonably quickly. They can also repair any fallen Warriors, and it serves as a gun platform for the units inside. Because they'll be moving 6" along with the large group of Warriors, the embarked unit can still shoot.

The Triarch Stalker stays close to the large group, threatening vehicles to stay away due to Melta range, and hiding behind the Ghost Arks for cover if needed.

The Command Barge and the Scarabs go around the flanks to harass some vehicles or unmoving units such as Long Fangs.

The Annihilation Barges advance alongside the large group, attempting to shoot anything that gets too close for comfort.

The Spyders add a bit more presence to the assault phase if needed, as well as psychic defense for the large firing base, and the ability to repair the vehicles or regenerate the Scarabs, provided those make it back to the large group in one piece.

I can't wait to try this out, I think killpoints will be ok, objectives might be a pain, but my Troops are quite durable with those Ghost Arks. We'll see =D

As always, thanks for reading, any comments are appreciated!

p.s. I can't wait for those Armybuilder files to come out!

Thursday 3 November 2011

"Their number is legion, their name is Death"

I present to you today, a personal first! I have my first fully painted army! (until Saturday probably)
Been busy the past few days, hence the lack of daily painting updates. I did paint a week's worth of models (in Scarabs) so my 'challenge' is still on.

Here's the pics of what is now roughly 1500pts of Necrons, I hope 1000+ of that remains with the new codex.






Thursday 27 October 2011

Yesterday's model... today!

Right, my one thing a day challenge is already off to a bumpy start. Life got in the way of painting a model yesterday, but I made up for it today! Even though I did cheat a bit :P

First off, here's the Necron Lord with the green rod added:


Then, here's the Grey Hunter I promised:





He's actually part of a Kill Team I've painted up for my local GW's 'Tale of Many Gamers'. We paint 200pts the first month, then another 300 next month, and from there 250pts each month, up to 1500. Here's what I've done this month:

A Lone Wolf with Chainfist and Stormshield
Grey Hunters pack
- 4 normal Grey Hunters
- 1 with Meltagun
- 1 with Mark of the Wulfen


And now for how I managed to still paint one model for yesterday, and one for today, without it costing me all day long:



Scarabs are models too ;-) As always, thanks for reading!

Wednesday 26 October 2011

Day one: Necron Lord with Warscythe

By the time I finished this guy yesterday, there was no proper light to take decent pictures, but here goes, my first achievement in my one thing a day challenge:






I'm pretty happy with how he turned out. Painting the right eye was a pain, couldn't reach it properly cause his arm's in the way. Green rod will be added at some point today :)

Today's model will be: a Grey Hunter

Tuesday 25 October 2011

One thing a day!

Because of my recent graduation, I've moved on from being a student, to being unemployed! Stepping up in the world ey?

Anyway, since I now have all the spare time I want (or don't want) I figured I'd challenge myself to a 'One thing a day challenge' to get my models painted.

So, I've decided to try and do one model every day (or spend 2 hours on a larger model) and post my results on here.

Coming up later today: Necron Lord with Warscythe.

Monday 24 October 2011

Necron release date published?

Just saw this on BoLS:



This probably means Necrons advance orders will be up this Saturday, one week before the rumoured release. I for one, can't wait! Add salt to taste...

Monday 17 October 2011

Necron pre-order list!

Just found this list on Wayland Games, havent seen it anywhere else yet, figured I'd share it :) enjoy!

Imotekh the Stormlord - Finecast -  £10.50
Trazyn, the Infinite- Finecast -  £10.50
Necron Overlord - Finecast -  £10.50

Necron Doomsday/Ghost Barge - £31.00
Necron Flayed Ones - plastic - £20.50
Necron Immortals - plastic - £20.50
Necron Triarch Praetorians - plastic - £20.50
Necron Deathmarks - £20.50
Necron Lychguard - £20.50
Necron Catacomb Command/Annihilation Barge - multi-part plastic - £20.50

The Barge, Deathmarks and Lychguard have no mention of the material.
I'm not sure how much salt is required, since these products are actually up for order now, but take some anyway, just in case ;-) Thanks for reading!

Sunday 16 October 2011

Updated Loganbomb

Wew, been far too long since I last posted, but between graduating university and travelling from one end of the country to the other (only takes about 2 hours, it's tiny) twice, I havent had much time.

Did get a couple games in recently, with my Loganbomb and Nids Null Deployment lists.


Just wanted to share my updated Loganbomb list:


HQ: Logan Grimnar, The Great Wolf (1#, 275 pts)
   1 Logan Grimnar, The Great Wolf, 275 pts

Troops: Wolf Guard Pack (3#, 144 pts)
   1 Wolf Guard Pack, 0 pts
      3 Wolf Guard in Power Armour, 144 pts = 3 * 48 (base cost 18 + Melta Bombs 5 + Combi-Meltagun x1 5 + Power Fist x1 20)

Elite: Lone Wolf in Terminator Armour (1#, 85 pts)
   1 Lone Wolf in Terminator Armour, 85 pts = (base cost 45) + Storm Shield 25 + Chain Fist 15

Troops: Grey Hunters Pack (10#, 200 pts)
   8 Grey Hunters Pack, 150 pts = 8 * 15 (base cost 15) + Mark of the Wulfen 30 + Wolf Standard 10 + Meltagun 5
      1 Grey Hunter w/ Mark of the Wulfen, 15 pts
      1 Rhino, 35 pts

Troops: Grey Hunters Pack (10#, 200 pts)
   8 Grey Hunters Pack, 150 pts = 8 * 15 (base cost 15) + Mark of the Wulfen 30 + Wolf Standard 10 + Meltagun 5
      1 Grey Hunter w/ Mark of the Wulfen, 15 pts
      1 Rhino, 35 pts

Troops: Grey Hunters Pack (10#, 200 pts)
   8 Grey Hunters Pack, 150 pts = 8 * 15 (base cost 15) + Mark of the Wulfen 30 + Wolf Standard 10 + Meltagun 5
      1 Grey Hunter w/ Mark of the Wulfen, 15 pts
      1 Rhino, 35 pts

Troops: Grey Hunters Pack (6#, 150 pts)
   5 Grey Hunters Pack, 75 pts = 5 * 15
      1 Razorback, 75 pts = (base cost 40) + Lascannon and TL Plasmagun 35

Fast Attack: Land Speeder Squadron (1#, 70 pts)
   1 Land Speeder Squadron, 70 pts = (base cost 50) + Multi-melta x1 10 + Heavy Flamer x1 10

Heavy Support: Long Fangs Pack (7#, 180 pts)
   5 Long Fangs Pack, 125 pts = 5 * 15 (base cost 15) + Missile Launcher x3 30 + Multi-melta x2 20
      1 Squad Leader, 20 pts = (base cost 15 + Melta Bombs 5)
      1 Drop Pod, 35 pts

Heavy Support: Long Fangs Pack (7#, 245 pts)
   5 Long Fangs Pack, 155 pts = 5 * 15 (base cost 15) + Lascannon x2 50 + Missile Launcher x3 30
      1 Squad Leader, 15 pts
      1 Razorback, 75 pts = (base cost 40) + Lascannon and TL Plasmagun 35

Total Roster Cost: 1749


Logan ofcourse joins the Drop Pod Long Fangs, the Wolf Guard split up to lead the big GH squads and the small group of 5 Grey Hunters hangs back at a home-objective.

Let me know what you think!

Friday 30 September 2011

My 1750 Loganbomb list


The army-list I’m currently working on, practicing with, finetuning, is this:

Logan Grimnar                  275pts

Wolf Guard Pack             317pts
3x Power armor, combi-melta, powerfist
Arjac Rockfist

Grey Hunters Pack         200 x 3 = 600pts
                9 Grey Hunters
                Mark of the Wulfen
                Wolf Standard
Meltagun
Rhino

Long Fangs Pack 1           255pts
                6 Long Fangs
                2 Multimelta’s
                3 Missile Launchers
Drop Pod

Long Fangs Pack 2           255pts
                6 Long Fangs
                2 Lascannons
                3 Missile Launchers
Razorback w/ TL Lascannon

Vindicator                          125pts
                Siege Shield

Total: 1747pts

The power-armor Wolf Guard join the GH units, Arjac joins Long Fangs pack 1, as does Logan.
I haven’t tried out this version with the Vindicator yet, I had two Lone Wolves (TDA/CF/SS) before, and although they performed quite well, I believe a Vindicator and a few more bodies in the GH units might prove more valuable. I tried putting a GH unit in a Drop Pod in case there were no targets for the bomb the first turn, but am probably never doing that again, since Logan and pals didnt arrive till turn 5... That's roughly 1/3rd of my army not even being on the table for 80% of the game. Combine this with bad luck all throughout the game, and I still cannot believe I managed to pull a draw from it

Well, if you have any thoughts on the list, comment away! Thanks for reading!

Thursday 22 September 2011

My armies


Today, I wanna share a list of my models, so, here goes:

Tau:
2 Commander Battlesuits
3 Stealth suits, 1 with Fusion Blaster
12 Fire Warriors
28 Kroot Carnivores
1 Piranha
3 Broadsides
1 Sniper Drone Team
2 Hammerheads with Railguns
1 magnetised tank, which can be a Railhead, Devilfish or Skyray

Tyranids:
Swarmlord, converted from a Hive Tyrant
Hive Tyrant with wings, converted using Balrog wings
Doom of Malantai, converted using a Zoanthrope head and torso on a Ravener tail with lots of greenstuff
6 Warriors with boneswords, (poorly) converted from Scything Talons
48 Hormagaunts
40 Genestealers
2 Broodlords
Mawloc
Trygon
Carnifex
Old One Eye, built using the Carnifex kit
3 Raveners

Space Wolves:
Logan Grimnar (both original and conversion)
Njal Stormcaller
Ragnar Blackmane
Ulrik the Slayer
Arjac Rockfist, built with the Wolf Guard Terminator kit
Wolf Lord in Terminator armor with 2x Wolf Claws
Runepriest in Terminator armor
3 Lone Wolves with Chainfist and Stormshield
12 Wolf Guard Terminators with various wargear
3 Wolf Guard in Power Armor
27 Grey Hunters, various wargear
2 Rhino’s
Land Raider Redeemer
Land Raider Crusader
Land Speeder with MM/HF
Venerable Dreadnought with TL Lascannon
Drop Pod
Thunderhawk Gunship, converted by using 2 Stormraven kits

Necrons:
C’tan Nightbringer
Lord with Warscythe
28 Warriors
7 Scarab Swarms
3 Destroyers
Monolith

Orks:
Warboss
3 Deffkoptaz
5 Nobz
20 Boyz
Trukk
Deff Dread

Space Marines:
Forgefather Vulkan He’stan, converted using the Commander box and a GK halberd
Captain with combi-flamer and Thunderhammer, also from the Commander box
30 Tactical Marines
2 Ironclad Dreadnoughts
2 Drop Pods
2 Vindicators
Rhino

Skaven:
Queek Headtaker
Deathmaster Snikch
Warlord
Chieftain with Battle Standard
2 Warlock Engineers
80 Clanrats
2 Master Moulders
4 Rat Ogres
2 Warpfire Throwers
Poisoned Wind Mortar
Ratling Gun
Doomwheel

Lizardmen:
Slann Mage Priest
Chakax, Eternity Warden
10 Temple Guard
32 Saurus Warriors
8 Cold One Cavalry
24 Skinks
Stegadon


The Space Wolves and Marines share their vehicles, so I can use 3 Rhino’s for both. I also have Razorback hatches so can use em as Razorbacks as well.

That’s all for today, thanks for reading!

Wednesday 21 September 2011

The ‘Not So Great’ Wolf, previously known as ‘Erik’


Hi, I´m the Not So Great Wolf. Sounds lame, I know, but bear with me here, I´ll explain in a bit.
I´m from the Netherlands, in Europe, commonly known in the US as ´Amsterdam´, 22 years old, rounding up my university degree.

I´ve been playing 40k for nearly 2 years now, and only recently started to look at my lists beyond the ´that unit is awesome!´ level. I started 2 years ago by purchasing a Tau battleforce, and although they don´t work with the current codex, had a lot of fun with that army. Expanded it a bit with some tanks, broadsides and kroot, and now have about 1500 points worth of them. Hardly ever play them though.

Then, the new Nids codex came out, and I wanted them for something completely opposite from my Tau. So I went with a themed Nids army, going all/assault, no shooting, unless I couldn’t get rid of the shooting (Trygon, Zoanthrope). With a large amount of disposable income at the time, I bought about 2500 points of them in a month or two, and they were my main army for a ‘long’ time (a few months). Still like them, occasionally play them, have a lot of fun, but not great results, as is to be expected of a themed army.

One day (I was actually in Amsterdam at the time) I decided Space Wolves looked cool, so I got a box of them, just to build them mainly. Oh yeah, painting isn’t something I overly enjoy, so most of my models are unpainted. I enjoy a model that is painted, but the actual painting, not so much. I do have an airbrush, so tanks are pretty easy to do, but I still haven’t done most of em.

A while after building my first Wolves pack (appallingly, if I do say so myself) I got the codex, read through it and decided an all-terminator army sounded awesome. I had battled termi’s with my Tau, and somehow always found them quite scary. So I went and built a 1500pt dual Land Raider Loganwing. In hindsight, it was doomed to fail from the start, but I did have fun with it.

Somewhere along the way I also picked up 1500pts of Necrons and roughly 800pts of Orks btw. Hopefully the Necrons will get their new codex announced shortly, and I’ll get it straight away. Metal space zombies ftw. Oh, I nearly forgot my most recent addition, 1500pts of Codex Marines, painted in a sandy color, chapter named the Desert Eagles.

I also dabbled in Fantasy for a bit, got a Skaven and Lizardmen army, so my girlfriend (fiancé I should say) and I could play it together, but after a while we got bored of it again. The Lizardmen are now slowly but surely being turned into pieces of art by my girlfriend, and the 85% unpainted Skaven are in a box on top of the 40k display cases.

Did I say cases? Yes, I did. I have 3 of em now, and I really kinda need another 2, to fit in all of my armies. Since my previous roommate left, we now have a ‘Warhammer room’. It sports a hobby desk, a 6x4 table and the 3 displaycases.

A few months ago I stumbled on Faeit 212’s blog, while looking for 40k rumors. That guy does an amazing job at gathering em all, suggested reading! His blog-exchange got me reading more and more blogs, which made me come across a lot of new exciting information. Because I usually play the same opponent at home on a very casual basis, I never gave my lists the amount of thought that ‘competitive’ players seem to do. I only realized this when I was reading through some Space Wolves blogs, mentioning Long Fangs, which I’d never even considered before then… I know, right.

Another blog that deserves some attention is Best Overall by Purgatus, I enjoy his style of writing a lot, and he’s doing a (so far) amazing Loganwing guide, which is what inspired my current 1750 Loganbomb list. Even though my all-termi list sucked, I still like the character a lot (the model not so much, so converted one myself, although I also have the metal one).

Oh, and to get back to the name, if it wasn’t clear yet, I don’t consider myself a great 40k player and I may never be, but so long as I have fun I don’t mind that too much. I’ve been learning a lot recently, who knows what it’ll lead to.

The purpose of this blog is mainly to post fluffy battle-reports of the campaign me and a friend are currently playing, and to post random other hobby-related bits. I hope that one of my posts will someday inspire someone in the hobby, like the blogs I read have done for me.