Resurrecting my Plague Marines II: The Unpainted

Following on from my previous post, here I am going to go through my unpainted / unassembled Chaos Space Marine models. These forces have been gathered from bargain purchases off Wargamer AU in the four years since I built the original army. These reserves have been patiently awaiting their chance to be unleashed on unsuspecting enemies and spread a little pestilence.

In general I love the assembly and modelling part of the hobby, but the level of detail I have gone to in this army makes some of the tasks a little onerous. Still with a new codex (well I don't actually have the codex but its starting to look like I'll have to pick it up) one can find the patience and energy to do what has to be done :)

Resurrecting my Plague Marines I: The Painted

Well, well, well. A new Chaos Space Marines codex sees the light of days. Four years ago (or something to that effect) I was just getting back into 40k. I had harboured a fondness for the followers of Nurgle for a long time, and made the commitment to start a Nurgle army. My idea was to theme the force around a Chaos Sorcerer and his immediate retinue, supported by a horde of plague animate zombies brought back to life by the Sorcerer's will.

By the time I had got my shit together and bought a couple of CSM boxes, the new simplified codex wa released and my plans were in tatters. The best they could do was vary my zombies as Lesser Daemons, which didn't really work thematically. They (and my chaos lord) didn't have Feel No Pain damn it! I love my FNP. I built that force up to around 1200 points, before my "el cheapo" Crimson Fists force started to dominate my hobby time.

Android: Netrunner Initial Thoughts

It finally arrived! I walked into Good Games Melbourne during lunchtime on Tuesday. Looking around and lo and behold - a bunch of large brown boxes labelled Fantasy Flight Games. The first had something about Star Wars minis, so I threw it aside. But there underneath was what I have been waiting for all these weeks, "Android: Netrunner" in bold print.

From there it was easy. I grabbed the guy from behind the counter and forced him to open the boxes. I then waited patiently whilst he called his boss for a retail price. $55 later, and the box was mine. I think I was probably the first person in Melbourne to own a box.

Android: Netrunner: The Eternal Wait

You know that unhealthy feeling when you start to get obsessed with a game? Spending all your waking hours:

• writing army lists / deck lists
• cycling repeatedly through every related web forum, waiting for new posts
• studying spoilers to memorise stats
• talking about it to people who don't care...

Well I got it bad for Android:Netrunner -  and I don't even have the game yet! I have been walking to my FLGS each day at lunch, and asking the same question - "Netrunner?". The answer is invariably no, but the exercise is good for me. Just recently the answer changed to something like "We expect the ship in Sydney any day now", then "The boxes are in customs", all the way to "In a trunk on the way to our warehouse and should be in tomorrow" (that was today). I wrote a haiku to capture my frustration:

Tau in 6th Ed: Crisis Suits (POST FAQ!)

I dropped an article one week ago going through the Tau crisis suit armoury options and unit configuration options in detail. Then, after all this hard work, Games Workshop release their now famous Warhammer 40k 6.1 Ed FAQs, screwing up several of my analyses and ruining a couple of tactical options that I was looking forward to trying out on the table.

However I can't complain because (A) they at least reinstated target locks to their former glory, and (B) these FAQs are fair, balanced, and the best thing to happen to 40k since, um ... OK I dunno. Maybe the Ork codex. Whatever, choose something that you liked. So instead here is the revised version, with original text scored out when no longer applicable, and new coolness added.

Oh yeah, not relevant to this article but disruption pods now give shrouding! Thats a 3+ cover save for all Tau vehicles which have 25% cover. Just saying :)

40k Rulebook and Codex FAQs Summarised

This is just me copying and pasting the interesting looking entries from each FAQ, without large amounts of thought. It the ruling was obvious to me I didn't bother. Take it for what it is.

My general impression is "well done', this is a positive and well thought out update, something that we all wished for I'm sure. Some of the cheesiness of 6th edition has been toned down - Fateweaver, Tau drone characters - leaving Flyers at the top of the cheese mountain.

You can find all the FAQs on the Games Workshop site.

Review: 28mm Russian Heads from West Wind Productions

I'm building a WWII Russian themed Imperial Guard Armoured Company. Its taking me a while, but one of the blockers has just been overcome - my Russian heads from West Wind Productions have finally arrived. West Wind have a line they call their Separate Heads System, where most of the heads they make for 28mm lines are available separately.

Firstly, let me complain about how long these tool to arrive. They took a LONG TIME. Checking my emails, I put my order in on 23rd June and was informed they shipped from the UK on 5th July, two weeks later. They arrived OVER FIVE WEEKS after that, on 10th August. Don't expect swift service here folks.

At least everything arrived as ordered.  I ordered 80 heads with helmets and 20 with caps. They come in packets of 20, with four connected to each sprue, cast in white metal. There is also a colourfully illustrated catalogue, that sadly has no pictures. Duh! There aren't any pics online either, I had to go sight unseen and that doesn't help sales folks.

Tournament: Judgement Day 7

So I'm back and recovered from a day of 6th edition 40k action at the annual Judgement Day tournament. This 750 point tournament is hosted by the Western Suburbs Wargaming Association, and this was the 7th year of its operation.

I had just finished painting this army the night before. A bunch of rats from the Warhammer box set painted up as Horrors and Nurglings, lead by the big man Kai-rat Fatecheeser himself. The display board was a plate I bought from a $2 store on the way home from work the night before, covered with air-drying clay, and spray painted and dry brushed in the morning. Here's the list:

• Fatecheeser
• 6 Horrors with bolt and icon
• 5 Horrors with bolt
• 5 Horrors with bolt
• 4 Nurglings
• 4 Nurglings

Quick Update Before Judgement Day: Army Pic

Well time to jump into the car and head off to Judgement Day once more. Here are the boys all ready for transport. Not really ready for my first 6th edition game...

I'm promise I'll take photos! Tournament report coming.

Netrunner: A Classic CCG is Reborn

Along time ago in 1996, after Magic had created a brand new genre of gaming, a new CCG was popping onto (and often out of) the market every time i visited my local gaming store. One of these, a little game called Netrunner, was written by none other than the creator if Magic himself - Richard Garfield. It was themed on cyberpunk style corporate hacking, and in an original twist it was 2 player asymmetric, with one player taking on the role of the Mega-Corporation, and the other playing the insidious hacker breaking in to the network.

Netrunner was quite a revolutionary game bringing bags of new tech to the SCCG genre. However it also suffered from issues in balance, and it was discontinued relatively quickly. This is one of those games that the players have never let die, and the crew on http://www.netrunneronline.com/ have apparently worked to balance existing cards, as well as release their own virtual expansions online. The game obviously inspires loyalty in its players.