First game of 6th Edition!

You know, I don't talk much about my gaming. That's mainly because I don't do much of it at all. But last night I played my first game of the new edition of 40K... and I quite enjoyed it.

I cobbled together 1,000 points of Lamenters and threw down against my friend Jake's Eldar. So, not only was it my first game of 6th, but it was also my first game with a tiny, super-elite force: Death Company Tycho, 8 Death Company with jump packs, 5 Assault Marines, 10 Tactical Marines, and a Furioso dreadnought.

It was Jake's second game of 6th, but he was well-versed in what his Eldar could do. He ran a very shooty force: 3 scatter laser-War Walkers, 2 squads of 10 Dire Avengers, 2 Wave Serpents, and a Farseer.

It was interesting learning a few things about the new system: defending against psychic powers, removing casualties from shooting, 2d6 for charging, and - much to Jake's chagrin - a lessening of the survivability of those damn Wave Serpents.

After three turns of dancing around, gunning my squads down with what seemed like endless Bladestorms, Fortune, Guide, Doom, etc etc. I was down to Tycho, 2 Tactical Marines, 1 Death Company Marine, and a Furioso surrounded by the bulk of Jake's army.

Fortunately I got a chance to split my meager leftovers and, in a couple of glorious combat phases, I got to see just how brutal the Death Company version of Tycho can be. While my remainders took out a War Walker and a Wave Serpent, Tycho single-handedly took down a loaded Wave Serpent. He then weathered a crazy Bladestorm where he was hit 22 times (thanks to Guide), wounded 17 (thanks to Doom), and proceeded to save 15 times, and let his Feel No Pain suck up one of the other two wounds.

Still standing, he went on to take out the rest of the Dire Avengers and the Farseer in combat! By the end of turn 5 Jake had a single War Walker remaining. Quite the turn around.

In honor of this first match, I'm going to kit-bash a sweet Tycho stand-in. Now I just need to come up with a name and a bit of a background story for him.

Here's to many more games of 40K : )

Cheers
Dave

Kickstarted!

There have been a lot of miniature wargames-based campaigns launching on Kickstarter recently, and it has been very interesting to watch things tick along.

As someone who has worked in the "toy soldier biz" for the past two decades, I'm well aware of the costs involved in getting things off the ground, and then the momentum needed to keep things rolling. I'm fairly certain that sometime in the next few years that someone will write a thesis on the pros and cons of it all.

One thing that many of us will have seen (or even felt ourselves) is the level of excitement surrounding a successful campaign, and even more so with a wildly successful campaign (like Dreadball, Zombicide, or - the grandaddy of them all - the Reaper Bones campaign). We get caught up in what seems like a wonderful thing, and we're reluctant to miss out.

Well, fortunately I've been able to hold off on jumping into the "incredibly effective pre-order system" until now. Yesterday I pledged my support for the Dreamforge Games campaign and I'm looking forward to getting a hold of my Leviathan Mortis and Eisenkern APC next year.  Why this campaign Dave, and not the others that promised crazy rewards (like 250+ minis at the $100 level)? Well, the other minis didn't really speak to me, I just wasn't interested in having a bunch more models around I'd never paint. However, I've been excited by Mark Mondragon's designs for the last few years. Once or twice my hand even hovered over a button that would've seen me purchasing the original resin models.

So, I've finally taken the leap. Head on over to the campaign and see if there's anything there that "floats your boat", and if there is, think about jumping on it asap. Less than two days to go in the campaign.

Kickstarter campaign:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dreamforge-games/something-wicked-this-way-comes-crusader-plastic-m

Dreamforge Games blog:
http://dreamforge-games.blogspot.com/

Enjoy!

Lost in the Warp reaches 200th post, running a competition!

One of the most fearsome characters in all of Warhammer lore, with one of the least 

fearsome models. Picture © Games Workshop, used without permission.

Hi everyone,

Just a quick post to guide you towards a great blog/site/forum run by a friend of mine - James Craig. James is not only a great guy, but an excellent modeler and painter, so I urge you to head to his blog, Lost in the Warp, and dig through the archive of excellent material...oh, and enter his competition!

Cheers
Dave

PS. Why the use of the Nagash pic? He certainly grabs some attention, doesn't he? That, and James used the pic too ; )

More Death Company and the Dropzone Grand Opening!

Two things quickly: the first are the next five Lamenters Death Company I'm working on. You can see them above. Still yet to finish the parchments, silver, checks, and black.

Then here are a few Panthers I'm working on for a small commission. I'll show you some WIP shots as I go along. Should be interesting working on some Late War schemes after last year's Early War Germans.

If you'd like to chat a bit more about painting Flames Of War tanks, come and hang out to the Dropzone Games Grand Opening tomorrow. I'll be leading a class on FOW Tank Painting from 3pm : )

Have fun!

Cheers
Dave

Dark and Angry!

There has been some more progress this week on my Lamenters/Badab War army. Namely wrapping up the test model for the Death Company (above) and starting on the next four models (below).

Originally I was reticent to include any Death Company or Sanguinary Guard in my army as I thought their primary colors were white and gold respectively. I wanted this army to be grim, dark, and full of anger. White just didn't speak to me. When I took another look at the Imperial Armour book I noticed that the Lamenters Death Company were actually black, I changed my mind very quickly.

One change I have made, however, to the scheme is to replace the red Xs of the typical BA Death Company with the bright yellow of the Lamenters, providing a stronger link back to the regular Chapter Marines.

These four are nearing completion. Just a bit of touch up, then highlighting the black. Once I've painted the next five Death Company bodies, I'll paint up the nine backpacks I need to finish off the entire squad.

Anyways, I hope you like how they're coming along.

Someone asked, in a recent post, if I have a list ready for the army. Well, I kind of do. Here goes:

HQ: Unsure at the moment

Elites: 

• Furioso Dreadnought with Blood Talons

Troops: 

• 10 Tactical Marines - Serg w/powerfist & plasma pistol, 1 w/plasma gun, 1 w/plasma cannon

• 10 Death Company - 1 w/powerfist, 2 x melta pistols

• 5 Assault Marines - Serg w/powerfist & plasma pistol, 1 x meltagun

• 5 Assault Marines - Serg w/powerfist, 1 x meltagun

Heavy Support:

• Storm Raven - unsure of final weapon configuration.

If you have any thoughts, feel free to leave them in the comments below, or let me know next week when you visit the Grand Opening Event for Dropzone Games. I'll be hanging out Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, so make sure you drop by!