Moving over to Wordpress

I am saying goodbye to this blog and moving over to blogging all about my hobby on Wordpress.  

Why?  Well my hobby has changed over the past couple of months, I am starting to play and get interested in more war gaming rule sets.  At the moment its Warmachine which is taking up a lot of my time.  So much that I haven't yet picked up the new 8th edition Warhammer Fantasy rule book.  But I will at some point!

Because this blog was Warhammer Fantasy focused, I needed to change the blog to reflect the changes in my hobby.  So instead of changing this blog, I created a new blog on Wordpress and imported all the posts over.

I hope that all my regular visitors will still follow my ramblings on my new blog.

Click here for the RSS feed on my new wargaming blog.

Click here to see my new war gaming blog.

My 2010 Resolutions Progress

I have to thank the Boisterous Exuberance blog for reminding me of my 2010 new year resolutions.  So here is the progress I have made during the first six months.

Continue to spend at least 30 minutes most evenings away from the television painting my miniatures.

Achieved.  I now have a Warmachine Protectorate of Menoth box set to keep me busy in the evenings.

Join a club and play more often against other people.  Aim is at the very least 2 games a month.

Achieved.  Myself and my son Tyler now attend the gaming nights at Maelstrom Games at least once a week.

Complete painting my 2250 points Warriors of Chaos army.

Achieved.  This was completed back in February for the Gobtyks tournament. 

Complete painting my new army Dark Elves, so I can field at least a 1999/2000 point army.

Binned.  Difficult to paint an army when its all sold on ebay!

Terrain, I need more.  At least two woods and two hills.

Binned.  Been playing more often, but at the gaming nights at Maelstrom Games.  Hence the need for more terrain isn't high on my list at the moment.

Play in at least six tournaments during the year.  I have already earmarked ten tournaments.

On Target.  Have played in four tournaments during the first half of the year.  I was planning on attending Autumn Incursion at Maelstrom Games in August, but don't think I will be able to attend now.   Will definitely be attending Immortal War III at the Sutton Immortals in November, that's if I can get a ticket.  Apart from these two I am not planning on attending any others.

Expand my Ogre Kingdoms or Warriors of Chaos army to 2999/3000 points to play in larger army size tournaments.

Achieved.  This was completed back in June for the Summer Incursion tournament. 

Achieve a UK Warhammer Fantasy Battle Tournament Ranking of at least 250 in 2010.

Binned.  Really not too bothered with this.  It would have been nice to achieve this year, but Warmachine has got my attention now.

With the Ogre Kingdoms I am waiting on a new army book and miniatures before progressing any further.  Knowing my luck I will start painting more miniatures, then new miniatures and a new army book would be released.  I am hoping this will be later this year, or early next.  The rumoured 8th edition errata for Ogre Kingdoms may change my mind on this.

The Warriors of Chaos is an awkward army for me at the moment at 2,000 and 2,250 points my Daemon Prince doesn't fit within the new army composition rules, unless I drop him down to a level 3.  Rumours on the UK tournament scene is that 2,400 will probably be the new limit.   Therefore I am now 351 points short of a tournament army, so probably a new block of fifteen Warriors is in order? Of course a block of eight Chaos Ogres from the Ogre Kingdoms army could also fit in nicely!

With both armies, I need to wait two weeks for the new rule book and hopefully the rumoured erratas before making a decision!

Regarding Warmachine I now have the Protectorate of Menoth box set built and primed ready for paint.  So will be concentrating on painting this army to the very best quality I can achieve.  I have found over the previous two years that the quality I spend on painting has decreased, mainly due to getting an army on the table.  Therefore the Warmachine Protectorate of Menoth army will take as long as it takes to paint to the highest quality I can achieve.

Single figure painting has also made it back into my hobby recently.   I was inspired by The Basement demo day at the Summer Incursion to get back into single figure painting.  The miniatures on display were absolutely stunning.  Plus The Basement are having another demo day at Maelstrom Games this month, so I will be attending that for more inspiration.

So onto the revised resolutions for the remainder of the year.

Build up my Warmachine Protectorate of Menoth army to 35 points, fully painted.

Play a game of Warhammer Fantasy and/or Warmachine at least once a week.

Paint a single figure to the highest quality I can achieve.

Post more regularly on this blog and reflect the changes to my wargamming and painting hobby.

Another Change of Direction

Well it seems that my wargamming is going to take another new fresh change of direction.  I did plan on painting a Dark Elves army, but the army is being sold on ebay.  Got to admit after purchasing the miniatures I couldn't find the motivation to paint them.  Plus with the new Warhammer Fantasy rules coming out next month, and I think the Ogres and Warriors will need some more units painting.  Will still definitely be playing the new Warhammer Fantasy rules.  But a new army is being put on hold probably until next year.

Reason being... Well recently my son Tyler has got back into the hobby.  So instead of investing in another Warhammer Fantasy army which can be very expensive, we opted for a demo game of Warmachine at Maelstrom Games.  Having had the demo Tyler has opted for a Khador force and I have chosen the Protectorate of Menoth purely for the painting possibilities.  Hence the selling of the Dark Elves army to aid in purchasing two Warmachine armies and the Rule Book.

Also I won the Infinity rule book at Summer Incursion for my last place.  At first glance of the book my initial reaction is that it looks like a kids game, with a cartoon look n feel.  But Dan at Maelstrom Games informs me that is it one of the best tactical games that they sell.  So will probably be putting together a small force to play some Infinity.

Plus recently myself and Tyler have been attending a few gaming nights at Maelstrom Games playing Warhammer Fantasy up until now.  
Whilst there I noticed some people playing Black Powder with Napoleonic 28 mm figures.  The battlefield looked stunning, this has really caught my eye.  So will probably get some Vitrix or Perry miniatures to paint, see how that goes.  Will start with painting some units and get the rules at a later date.

So the title of this blog is going to have to change may be to "My Wargamming Blog", and possibly change the banner!  Will have to find the time to make some changes!

D' Oh

I had a game over the weekend with my eldest son. I played with the Ogre Kingdoms and Tyler played my Warriors of Chaos in a 2,250 point game. The Warriors of Chaos came out on top with a marginal victory, which isn't bad as Tyler hasn't played for around three years and only just picked up the Warriors army list before the game!

One thing came up in the game which got me thinking. Tyler cast a spell with his level four Deamon Prince. The spell was cast successfully, yet Tyler picked up a dice to re-roll because the Deamon Prince had Tendrils. I said "Why are you doing that, the spell is cast?", Tyler replied "Because changing this roll of a one makes it harder for you to dispel". 

D' Oh.... Bleeding Obvious, yet I had never considered re-rolling a dice for a successfully cast spell, Stupidly in my mind I would only re-roll a dice for a unsuccessfully cast, that being my reasoning for that item being in the list. 

Yet Tyler didn't have any preconceptions behind my reasoning why the item was in the list. Because of this his view having only picked up the army list was completely different to mine. The item says can re-roll a casting dice, so he did. 

So a very valuable lesson learnt. Even though you don't need a re-roll to cast a spell, taking the option could improve the chances of Irresistible Force or making it harder to dispel.

This may seem obvious to others reading this post, but to me at the time it wasn't.

Ogre Kingdoms Painting Progress

With forty days remaining until the Summer Incursion tournament at Maelstrom Games I still have a load of painting to complete.  Progress was slow during April, the Scraplauncher, Gorger and Gnoblar Trappers have all been built and primed.   The Gnoblar Fighters are still on the sprues.  I have concentrated on painting the Scraplauncher first because it was the largest model.  The base and Rhinox are complete with the Scraplauncher its self and Gnoblars only half way done.  The construction and painting of the Scraplauncher has taken longer than I expected!

I guess by next Friday the Scraplauncher will be complete.  Next weekend I will start on the Gorger, followed by the Gnoblar Trappers.  The Gnoblar Fighters I am leaving until last.  This will leave me probably only two weeks to complete two units of Gnoblar Fighters.  Its going to be tight with the deadline for army list submission being the 4th June.  Every Ogre Kingdoms miniature I own in already in the army list, so there is no room for tweaking the list should I fail in painting these in time.

When all these are complete I can field a 2,999 point Ogre Kingdoms army,  the only units I won't have are Yhettees and a Slave Giant.  I am really hoping for a new Ogre Kingdoms army book this year after 8th Edition.  With the possibility of different miniatures and different rules the future could be very interesting for Ogre Kingdoms players.

Back to the painting table!!

Change of Direction

My plan for the remainder of the year, was to play with my existing Warriors of Chaos and Ogre Kingdoms builds.  This was so I could concentrate on painting on my Dark Elves.  However there are a few tournaments which I would like to attend that are 2,999 points when taking an Ogre Kingdoms army.  So a change of direction for the remainder of the year.  One of my new year resolutions is to "Expand my Ogre Kingdoms or Warriors of Chaos army to 2999/3000 points to play in larger army size tournaments" anyway.

So for the next two months the Dark Elves will be put on hold and I will be painting an extra 500 points for my Ogre Kingdoms.  




Ogre Kingdoms army additions...

Additional Maneater to make a unit of three.
A Gorger which primary use is to harass all these bolt throwers I keep coming accross.
A unit of Gnoblar Trappers to harass and march block the enemies battle line.
A Scraplauncher for some range attack ability.
I may also go for another Butcher to replace one of the Hunters.

So onto another of my new year resolutions, "Join a club and play more often against other people.  Aim is at the very least 2 games a month".  I haven't managed to join a club in my area yet this year, but this is going to change!  I desperately need some more practise games with my Ogre Kingdoms if I am going to better myself at Warhammer!

The Warriors of Chaos will be put in the display cabinet and the Ogre Kingdoms back in the army case, reason being "Five dice Infernal Gateway on that unit" is getting boring and predicable, plus I find my Ogre Kingdoms more challenging to play with.

My next tournament is the Summer Incursion at Maelstom Games in June, I am not planning on attending any others until then.  So it will be 2,999 points of Ogre Kingdoms on the battlefield!

My 2010 New Year Resolutions

At the beginning of 2009 I started this blog by setting some new year resolutions. So again for 2010 I have set myself some resolutions for the year.

Continue to spend at least 30 minutes most evenings away from the television painting my miniatures. 

Join a club and play more often against other people.  Aim is at the very least 2 games a month. 

Complete painting my 2250 points Warriors of Chaos army.

Complete painting my new army Dark Elves, so I can field at least a 1999/2000 point army. 

Terrain, I need more.  At least two woods and two hills.

Play in at least six tournaments during the year.  I have already earmarked ten tournaments.

Expand my Ogre Kingdoms or Warriors of Chaos army to 2999/3000 points to play in larger army size tournaments.

Achieve a UK Warhammer Fantasy Battle Tournament Ranking of at least 250 in 2010.

My 2009 Resolutions Complete ?

At the beginning of the year I set myself some resolutions for the year. Click here to see the blog post. 

Spend at least 30 minutes most evenings away from the television painting my miniatures.

Achieved; I spend most evenings away from the television painting my miniatures.  Had a few lapses over the year.

Complete the painting of my Ogre Kingdoms army to 2000 points.

Achieved; I now have 2500 points full painted.

Join a club and play more often against other people. At the moment only played against my son Tyler at home.

Not Achieved; Haven't really found the time in the evening to join a club and attend regularly.

Expand my Warriors of Chaos army to 2000 points.

Achieved;  I now have 2250 points but NOT fully painted.

Build a gaming table for home, with at least three fully painted scenery items.

Achieved;  I now have a gaming table, but only two fully painted scenery items.

Complete the painting of my Warriors of Chaos army to 2000 points.

Not Achieved;  I now have 2250 points but NOT fully painted.

Expand both Warriors of Chaos and Ogre Kingdoms armies to 2500+ points.

Not Achieved; Only my Ogre Kingdoms can be played at 2500 points.  The Warriors of Chaos can only field 2250 points.

Play in at least one tournament.

Achieved; Played in the Leicester Squiggle, Immortal War, and the Destruction Derby tournament.

Keep this blog up to date.

Achieved; Over 150 posts in the first year.

Really happy with my progress in the hobby over the last 12 months.  The only resolutions which I didn't achieve was to expand my Warriors of Chaos to 2500 points, to have at least 2000 fully painted and to join a club and play more often against other people.  I am not too bothered by this, as I can now field a 2250 point Warriors of Chaos army in a game.  I will however be trying to find time between work and home life to attend a gaming club or clubs in 2010.

Without these goals I would probably still be painting my Ogres and not played any games or tournaments.  


Next my new year resolutions for 2010!!

2010 A Year For Fantasy ?

Next year 2010 is widely rumoured to be a year for Warhammer Fantasy!  One such rumour is that the game will get an 8th edition rule book in the autumn.  We do know that Beastmen are to be the next army to have a new book published, and that this will be in February.  Another rumour is that Tomb Kings will be published after Beastmen?

Here is a break down of the army books published (to my knowledge) in recent years. This year 2009 has been a quiet year for Warhammer Fantasy Battles with only two new army books published.

2010 Tomb Kings (Rumour), Beastmen

2009 Skaven, Lizardmen

2008 Warriors of Chaos, Dark Elves, Daemons of Chaos, Vampire Counts

2007 High Elves, Orc & Goblins, The Empire, Dwarfs (could have been 2006?) 

This leaves the three armies I have listed below in order (to my knowledge) of when the current army book was published. Will these armies receieve some attention from Games Workshop in 2010?  Another rumour says that all armies without a 7th edition army book will have new books published from spring onwards, before the rumoured 8th edition?

2005 Wood Elves

2004 Ogre Kingdoms

2003 Bretonnia

We have recently seen a new Dwarfs FAQ being published, why after 3 years did Games Workshop feel that an updated FAQ was required for Dwarfs?  Could it be that all the armies will have an updated FAQ to bring inline with a new rumoured 8th edition?  Will we see a flood of updated FAQs in 2010?

Another rumours is that Chaos Dwarfs will return with a new army book?  The current 7th edition rule book contains a breif description of the Chaos Dwarfs along with profiles for the units, so this does indicate that back when the 7th edition rule book was published Games Workshop were intending to keep Chaos Dwarfs.

Regarding my beloved Ogre Kingdoms it is rumoured that the Ogres and Dogs of War will merge into a new army?  It is stated in the 7th edition rule book that Chaos Dwarfs trade weapons with the Ogres, will we see a Chaos Dwarfs, Ogre Kingdoms and Dogs of War new army?  

My last rumour is something Warhammer Fantasy based is being released in March, what I don't know?

How true are these rumours going to be?  However all the rumours are indicating that 2010 will be a year for Warhammer Fantasy Battles!

Remainder of 2009

For the remainder of 2009 I am planning on completing the painting of the remaining miniatures for my 2000 point Warriors of Chaos army.  I have these to complete...

5 Chaos Knights
5 Marauder Horsemen
10 Chaos Warhounds
Daemon Prince

Will also need some movement trays which will probably be magnetised.  Also want to improve on the bland bases which I currently have on my Warriors and Marauders.

My current Warriors of Chaos army consist of....

1 Mounted Chaos Sorcerer
1 Exalted Heros
1 Exalted Heros with Battle Standard
15 Marauders
14 Warriors
11 Warriors (mark of Khorne)
1 Chaos Spawn

I was hoping to complete this army by the end of 2009, well that was the plan at the start of the year.  But I am now not expecting myself to complete painting all of these miniatures by the end of the year.  I would like to complete these by the end of February 2010.  Then its on to my next project which is going to be Dark Elves, but more on those in the future.

Washing Miniatures

Ever since I was a kid making Airfix and Tamiya kits I have washed my miniatures in warm soapy water before priming.  This is because a release agent similar to WD40 is applied to the mold which aids the frame/sprue to exit the mold easier, thats what my father told me.

However when giving this advice on forums I have always got slated by other members, saying that they have never washed a miniature and never had any problems.

Then today I find a post on the Games Workshop blog regarding a 40K gameboard.

I quote from the blog...

"All plastic models have a release agent applied to them during the casting process; this allows the frame to come out of the machine. The Gameboard is no different and Ray of the Warhammer World scenery team recommends washing the Gameboard sections with soapy water to get the residue off before painting."

Thank you Games Workshop!  And to all those on various forums who have slated my advice in the past "I told you so..."

Image used is courtesy of Games Workshop, used with out permission.

Vocabulary of the Gamer

There are two words in the gamers vocabulary which I tend to only hear around gamers and especially gaming pod casts. I find that these two words aren't used outside of the gaming world with as much frequency. These two words are "Awesome" and "Cool".

The worse pod casting offenders seem to be World's End Radio, the use of these two words is very prevalent with a very high frequency per episode. HeelanHammer uses the word "Awesome" to described their premium content section, even going to the extent of “Super Awesome”.

A search of the word "Awesome" against the Bell of Lost Souls website returns 25 pages on Google, “Cool” returns 35 pages. Search for the word “Brilliant” and Google only finds 5 pages. Therefore proving my theory that gamers use the words "Awesome" and “Cool” more than other words such as “Brilliant”.

So next time you are listening to a gaming pod cast or with your mates gaming at a club, listen out for these words. Second thoughts better hadn't, it might start bugging you as much as it does me!

What have I been up to ?

I haven't posted on the blog for a month now, been busy building 10 Chaos Warhounds, 5 Chaos Knights, my Hellenika Spartan 300 Girl miniature and a 6" x 4" gaming table. As well as not posting in the last month, I haven't picked up a paint brush either.

I have sent my list in for the Leicester Squiggle tournament on the 26th of this month. With 21 days remaining I need to seriously get some practice. The list is basically 29 Ogres and 2 Sabretusks (there's a clue on one of my Heros!).

Will post some pictures of all the miniatures and gaming table soon.

The Glorious Banner Exchange

The Glorious Works has started a banner exchange to help increase traffic to blogs whilst sharing viewers with other like minded individuals. If you'd like to join the banner exchange then please email The Glorious Works (email address can be found on his blog (link above) with the subject line The Glorious Banner Exchange.

My Banner

100 Posts

100 Posts !!

I started this blog back in January, just as a method of documenting my progress in the hobby during the year. Especially to document the progress against my new year resolutions for 2009 (click here for post).

At the back end of last year I found that I was spending far too many hours of an evening and weekends sat in front of the television watching mind less crap. After spending a whole two week break from work over Christmas without even picking up a paint brush I decided that things had to change. Hence this blog was born on the 1st January 2009.

Since then I have changed the look of the original blog quite considerably, given the blog a banner, posted pictures of my various miniatures. I still haven't posted pictures of my Ogre Kingdoms army, but these will be up on the blog in the coming weeks.

I would just like to thank all the readers who regularly visit my blog.

Painting Ogres Update

All my 2500 points of Ogre Kingdoms miniatures are now fully painted, varnished and based! I did set myself a target of the 21st June (click here for post) to complete so only a few weeks out, and I have been away for a few weekends lately. Without setting myself this target I feel that I would have been way off completing.

Whilst the target was not fixed in stone, it did provide the motivation to get this army fully painted. We all need a little motivation from time to time. I will be posting pictures of the complete army over the next couple of days.

My next project will be to complete my Warriors of Chaos army to 2500 points, which currently stands at around 1300 points. Will need a Lord (probably a Daemon Prince), some Knights and Warhounds.

The Games Workshop Blog

Games Workshop have started their own blog titled What's New Today @ Games Workshop.

Click the link below to subscribe.

http://feeds.games-workshop.com/TheGamesWorkshopBlogEN

Some of the recent articles posted...

Skyshield and Valkyries
Planetstrike Know Thy Foe
UK School League National Final
Warhammer 40,000 Scenery Focus
Planetstrike articles and a Phil Kelly army list

I will be keeping an eye on this blog, could have some very interesting insights in the hobby.

Movement Trays

I was going to order 16 pre-built resin movement trays for my Ogre Kingdoms army totalling £24.90 (which included £7.50 postage and packaging) from a company in the UK. The cart and checkout process on the web site didn't show the postage and packaging, until the very last stage, even after entered delivery details. This annoyed me, but when I saw the postage I decided to look elsewhere.

So I decided to opt for two packs of the Citadel Modular Movement Trays from Maelstom Games at £10.80 all in. Spent a day building the trays and applying sand for texture and I have saved myself over £14!

Just goes to show contrary to popular believe that sometimes Games Workshop products are cheaper. Especially when ordering from Maelstom Games.

2009 Resolutions Update

At the beginning of the year I set myself some resolutions for the year. Click here to see the blog post. After six month this is how I have achieved.

Spend at least 30 minutes most evenings away from the television painting my miniatures.

Achieved; I spend most evenings away from the television painting my miniatures.

Complete the painting of my Ogre Kingdoms army to 2000 points.

Achieved; Only got to paint 2 Ogre Hunters to achieve 2500 points full painted.

Join a club and play more often against other people. At the moment only played against my son Tyler at home.

Not yet achieved; Haven't the time at the moment.

Expand my Warriors of Chaos army to 2000 points.

Not yet achieved; Been concentrating on my Ogre Kingdoms army.

Build a gaming table for home, with at least three fully painted scenery items.

Not yet achieved; Been concentrating on my Ogre Kingdoms army.

Complete the painting of my Warriors of Chaos army to 2000 points.

Not yet achieved; Been concentrating on my Ogre Kingdoms army.

Expand both Warriors of Chaos and Ogre Kingdoms armies to 2500+ points.

Not yet achieved; Expanded Ogre Kingdoms to 2500 points.

Play in at least one tournament.

Achieved; Signed up for the Leicester Squiggle tournament in September.

Keep this blog up to date.

Achieved; Nearly 100 posts in 6 months.

Fathers Days 2009

My kids, with the help from my wife bought me some new brushes for Fathers day.

I had hinted that I quite liked the look of some Pure Kolinsky Sable brushes, from a company I found on the web Rosemary & Co Quality Artist Brushes.

Snippet taken from their website on these Pure Kolinsky Sable brushes...

This is the top grade of hair for holding capacity due to the perfect ‘belly’, excellent snap and spring. Selected and made by hand enabling the brushmaker to ‘feel’ the belly and thus form a brush head which is symmetrical and tapered to perfection. The high cost of the hair being the only major drawback (usually weight for weight three times the price of gold). Once used however the difference compared to others is well worth the difference in price. Consider Kolinsky Sable a long term investment. Personally as a brushmaker this is my absolute favourite hair to work with, indeed a privilege.

I will be using these brushes on my next project, which is probably going to be the Chaos Lord on Juggernaut, or some Chaos Knights.

These brushes look and feel excellent, I will post a review once I have used these.