More Painted Renegade Imperial Guard Conscripts

I've finished painting my second batch of my Warhammer 40k Renegade Imperial Guard Conscript models. That makes about half of them done, and the other half still to go. It should look pretty impressive when I have the full unit of 50 of these guys on the table.

I don't have much to say about them. They were painted pretty much the same as the previous batch, except that I did a bit of highlighting on the sharp edges of the green coats before doing the Devlan Mud wash over the whole model. I think it does make them look a little better, but I'm not sure if it's worth the extra effort. Let me know what you think of these guys compared to the previous batch.

Warhammer Fantasy Temple of Skulls

I've painted up my Warhammer Fantasy Temple of Skulls terrain piece. I decided to buy this after seeing one in person. It is much larger than I expected, and should be a useful piece of terrain for Warhammer Fantasy or 40k.

After assembling it, I noticed that the plastic was extremely smooth. Especially on the big skull parts, which I imagined to be carved out of stone. I wanted a bit of a rough texture, so it would look more natural and more ruined. And it would also make it easier to paint just by dry brushing. To add some texture to it, I mixed some watered down glue and some sand and coated pretty much the entire thing with it. I then tried as best I could to remove it from the spikes sticking out of the columns.

In retrospect, this is probably too much texture. It might have worked better to apply some spray glue, and then sprinkle on a much finer grained sand until it had the coverage I wanted. That would have given enough texture to make it not look completely smooth, without being quite as rough as this, and without covering as much of the piece.

For painting, I started with a black primer. Then I just painted most of it a dark grey color, with a dark brown for the parts I wanted to be dirt. Then I drybrushed with a lighter grey, and a lighter dry brush with an even lighter gray. I put a wash over the dirt to try and give it more of a varied brown tone, but I'm not sure that accomplished much. I also touched up the skulls white, and painted some grey rocks amongst the big dirt areas. The spikes in the column were painted with Boltgun Metal drybrushed with Tin Bitz. I finished it up with some static grass in a few places. Overall, a pretty quick job.

Have a look at the pictures, and let me know what you think. I included some previously painted figures on it, to give a sense of scale, and to add a bit of drama to the scene.

Might and Reason 7 Years War game

I recently started using Meetup.com to look for gaming groups in my area. I found a somewhat nearby group that does historical gaming about twice a month, and so I went to one of their gaming meet-ups. I played in a big multi-player game of Might and Reason. The game was a hypothetical 7 Years War battle between French and Prussians with Hanoverian allies.

I don't know much about the 7 Years war, and I had no experience with the Might and Reason rules, but the guy running the game did a good job of explaining the rules and the historical context and reasoning behind the rules.

The scenario was that a small Hanoverian force allied to the Prussians was in a good position on a hill right next to a river. Their Prussian allies have disappeared in the night to go on a long flanking maneuver to outflank the large French army across the river from the Hanoverians. So the Hanoverians, in a strong position, have to hold off the much larger French army long enough for the Prussians to arrive. The French do not know when or where this will happen.

The Prussian players got to secretly select one of five roads on which they wanted to arrive. The turn they would arrive on depended on the road selected, but the French players did not know where or when they might show up. The French army was split up between the players, with one controlling the center, one the right wing, one the left wing, and one the reserve. I was controlling the right wing, including the Guard regiment of four infantry battalions, another infantry regiment of three battalions, and a cavalry regiment of three squadrons, I think.

The plan of the French commander-in-chief was for the entire front of the French army to advance at full speed to sweep the Hanoverians from their strong position, and in order to not be where the Prussians were expecting by the time they arrived. The reserve would stay back to delay the Prussians if they arrived too soon, so the rest of the army would have time to reorganize to face the bigger threat. On the far left and right flank, cavalry regiments would move down the river to find crossings and get in behind the Hanoverians.

In practice, this didn't work out so well. Between command difficulties and the delaying effects of the river and surrounding hills, the front Infantry regiments advanced slowly. The cavalry moved faster, and the Hanoverians only had a single cavalry regiment to deal with two of ours. On our right, my cavalry regiment reached the river crossing just as the Hanoverian cavalry arrived to deal with them. These two regiments spent the rest of the game in a pretty inconclusive cavalry battle. My regiment lost a squadron to an enemy charge, and both sides took a lot of casualties, but both sides were also held up and unable to have any effect on the infantry battle in the center.

My two infantry regiments started forward toward the river, but then got tangled up with each other. Their commanders spent much of the battle arguing about which one was holding up which, and who was in who's way, and who was going to get blamed for the delay, which of course caused even more delay. Meanwhile, the center was moving forward and slowly crossing the river to engage the Hanoverian infantry on the hill, who outclassed the French infantry and were in a better position.

The Prussians arrived much sooner than expected on the far French left, very close to where the French infantry were advancing toward the river. The French cavalry on the left did make it across the river at the crossing just before the Prussians arrived to cut off access to the crossing. As soon as the Prussians arrived, the French left had to turn to face the coming onslaught, and the reserve was moved as quickly as possible in that direction.

The infantry of the French left wing took the brunt of the Prussian attack, and was completely wiped out. They did, however, delay the Prussians and wear them down a bit, which is what was needed. The reserve arrived in time to form a pretty solid two-layered battle line to engage what was left of the Prussians, who were unable to break through.

Meanwhile, the French Commander-in-Chief came over personally to find out what was going on with the Infantry regiments in his right wing. He personally visited one regiment commander, and then the other, no doubt dealing harshly with their childish arguments. This finally got them moving. At this point, the infantry of the center was mostly spent, and the Hanoverian battalions were weakened, but still holding their positions.

The right infantry crossed the river in unison, four battalions in line in front, with another three right behind in reserve. At the same time, the French cavalry from the left had made it's way around, free of the one Hanoverian cavalry regiment which was tied up elsewhere, to charge the flank of the Hanoverian line. Between the cavalry in their flank and the strong infantry attack to their front, the brave Hanoverians could hold no longer. They had held out longer than could have been expected, and still the Prussians had not reached them.

The Hanoverian Cavalry regiment was getting the better of the French cavalry regiment on the French right, but now they were completely cut off. With some of the French army turning to face them, they decided to retreat. This is where we decided to end the game. Neither side had yet reached the victory conditions, which was to eliminate a certain number of enemy units. But the French were closer to their victory condition, and the momentum was certainly on their side.

The French also seemed to hold the field, with a long line starting on the hill where the Hanoverians had started and stretching left all the way to the table edge. A pretty solid double line faced the Prussians on the French left, and the French right would now be able to turn toward the Prussian flank, though this would take a long time. It seemed that if the sun were going down at this point and the battle had to end, the Prussians would likely be obliged to fall back, and the French would hold the field. So we agreed it was a minor French victory.

All in all, it was a fun game, and the guy controlling the Hanoverians was a fun opponent. I wasn't paying too much attention to what was happening on the left flank, but it seemed like quite a brutal contest between the French Left and Reserves against the Prussian army. I know the battle in the Center was pretty dramatic. I look forward to more historical games with the group, and getting to try out more periods and rules that I haven't tried before.

Warhammer Arcane Ruins

I finally got around to painting the Warhammer Arcane Ruins set that I've had sitting around for years. It was a pretty simple paint job. Just started with a black basecoat, drybrushed a dark gray color, then another dry brush of a lighter gray color. I used some craft paints and a one inch wide paint brush I got at a hobby store for pretty cheap. It worked fine. The big bristles on the brush did leave some brush strokes, but on the rocks of these ruins it looks okay.

Here are some pictures of the results.

Finding Gamers

I have a group of friends I game with about once a month. With everyone being on different schedules and not living very close anymore, this is about all we can manage. Of course, I wish I could play more. But that would only really be practical if I knew some players that lived much closer, and were on a similar schedule, so we could maybe get a game in on a week night.

In addition to not playing very often, my gaming group almost exclusively plays Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40,000. Over the years, I've started to become more interested in trying out other kinds of games. If you've been following my blog you'll know that I'm interested in historical gaming, especially in the American Civil War and other "horse and musket" wars. I would also really like to get back into RPGs, and would really like to find a group to play Pendragon or the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying game with.

Unfortunately, I don't really know how to go about finding other players for historical games or RPGs. The group I play with now are all people I was friends with before, and we got into gaming together. Or they were a friend who joined in later when some of us were already heavily into 40k and fantasy. So I haven't had to find other gamers to play some particular thing I was interested in before.

I've tried getting the current gaming group interested in those other things I am interested in, but to no avail. For the most part, they only want to play Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40,000. And who can blame them? After all the money and time spent creating multiple armies for those games, they only get to game with them at most once a month, usually less. So maybe 10 or 12 games each year between the two systems. And with multiple armies per game, each army might only be played once or twice a year. So already the gaming is stretched pretty thin without using up gaming time trying out new things.

Nevertheless, that doesn't prevent me from wanting to try out other games. So lately I've been trying to find other gamers who are interested in the types of games I want to play. I've had some mixed success. At first I did a lot of looking for gaming message boards (including official company ones like the Fantasy Flight Games message boards) and posting or searching for posts about gaming in my area. That didn't work all that well, because there are so many boards out there, and many people don't use them, and any people using them are spread all over the world.

One thing that has worked out was searching on meetup.com. The site is not gaming related, and is used in general for any kind of meeting groups that are looking for interested people. The group pays a small fee to be listed on the site, and then it can post meetings for the group. Members can search groups by location and keywords, join groups they are interested in, RSVP to their meetings, and post in their individual message boards, etc.

I did manage to find some groups on meetup.com that are in my general vicinity and that do historical gaming, though none of them are using the Black Powder rules, which I like. I haven't found any groups or individuals interested in playing Pendragon or Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, though there are a lot of Dungeons and Dragons groups. So if you are looking for some people to game with, I would recommend checking there. It's really quick to do a search for groups that are in your area and see all their upcoming and past meetups to get an idea of what kind of games they play.

I also found out that a gaming store near me does some open gaming nights for Warhammer and Warhammer 40K on week nights, so I might stop in some time and try to get a quick game in after work. Also, that store has a guy who does games of Ambush Alley or Tomorrow's War every other weekend. I'm really hoping to make it up there for one of those games, and I'm really interested to see those rules in action. I'd actually be interested to know if the Tomorrow's War rules can be used with the 40K miniatures I already have. I like the 40K miniatures and background, but sometimes the rules just don't allow the kind of story and mission driven games I would like to be playing in that universe.

So, I've had some success so far in searching out others who share some of my same gaming interests. The internet seems like a double edged sword in this respect. It has allowed me to find out about all kinds of gaming, miniatures, and rules that I would never have known existed without the internet, since I certainly wouldn't have seen them in person. I played Warhammer 40k for a long time before I had any idea that people did a similar kind of gaming in historical periods. On the other hand, since I didn't find out about these things by seeing them at a local gaming store, that means there's no telling if anyone near me will have the same interests. So it may just allow me to find out about all kinds of great games that I'll never get to play.

If anyone out there has any tips or suggestions for finding like-minded gamers, please leave a comment. It might help me or someone else who happens to read the blog.

Warhammer 40,000 Painted Battle for Macragge Terrain

I finally got around to painting the crashed shuttle terrain pieces from the Warhammer 40,000 Battle for Macragge boxed set. You can see a couple of pictures below. This was just a quick and basic paint job to get something usable, since I don't actually have a lot of painted terrain. I figured it's better to have terrain with a basic paint job than terrain that is completely unpainted. So it gets the job done, and didn't take long to paint. I painted it green, which is the predominant color (at least for the infantry) in my Renegade Imperial Guard army.

Painted Renegade Imperial Guard Conscripts

I've finished painting up the first batch of my Renegade Imperial Guard Conscripts. Since I have so many of them to paint, I decided to break the painting up into batches, each batch being all the models with the same kind of headgear. Below are some pictures of the completed first batch, consisting of 14 conscripts.

Games Day Chicago 2011

I attended Games Day Chicago this past weekend. I had a good time, and it was a decent Games Day. They don't have much in the way of seminars anymore, since they are mostly pointless. But they did have Forgeworld and Black Library seminars, which I did not attend. Aside from that, there was a lot going on. Lots of Golden Daemon, Armies on Parade, and conversion contest entries to look at. Lots of open gaming tables to play on if you want to bring an army. And a lot of event games to play in. Most of those also required you to bring your own force, but some of them provided everything and you could just stop by and play.

There was also the on site Fantasy and 40k conversion contests, where they give you some sprues and you have an hour to convert something cool out of them. They were mostly chaos warrior and daemon sprues, but I did make a pretty cool Chaos Spawn, I think. There was the scenery make and take, where you could build and take home a small Cities of Death building, but it was so crowded all day, with people waiting in line to do it, that I didn't get a chance to get near it.

There were some guests from the design studio, and some guests from Black Library. I got some stuff signed by Gav Thrope, which was cool, and he seems like a nice guy. I enjoy his blog, and Crown of the Blood, Path of the Warrior, and Angels of Darkness are all very good books which I would highly recommend. I wish I had stopped to talk with him a little more about some of the ideas in his books, but I didn't want to hold up the people waiting behind me.


Here's a video I took of one of the event game tables, which included real running water. I hadn't seen that done before. As always, Games Day had some impressive display tables and event game tables.


The giant Chainsword here was at the booth for the Space Marine video game. The game looks fun, though I didn't wait in line to play it, since I don't own a system it is being released on anyway. They also had set ups for playing the Dawn of War game, which I've never played. The giant boltgun was just brought by that guy I think.



Here's a picture of the one event game I play in, which was a massive super-heavy tank battle pitting many (probably around 30?) Imperial Baneblades againts a similar number of Ork Super Heavy tanks. I didn't try to get a picture of the whole table, but it was huge. The rules were very simlified (each tank getting 4+ shots that hit on 4, and penetrated on 5+, then needing a 6 to do a structure point, 3-5 to lost one shot next turn, and 1-2 to not be able to move next turn). Each tank had 3 structure points, so I took a lot to do any damage. But as the game went on, the organizers made things more deadly but giving aerial bombardments to the side that could scream the loudest, and then eventually giving +1 to all rolls. The objectives were the landing pads, which could be held by being within 6" with no enemy tanks within 6". Anyway, it was a fun game. Mine was the green Baneblade charging forward on the left there. Unfortunately, things turned against the Imperials and we got completely crushed, with all the tanks on our side in my imediate area being destroyed by the end.

They had some new models there to show off, and I took some pictures of the new Zombie Dragon kit. It looks even more impressive in person.

I have a couple of pictures of Golden Daemon entries, but it's very hard to get good pictures of them, since they are setting behind some plexiglass or something which is very scratched up. Between the glare and the reflections and the scratches, it's hard to take a good picture, so I only have a few that turned out well. I really liked that diorama of the TechMarine and Servitors working on the Dreadnaught.

Lifesize Khorne Berzerker. There was actually a gun in there moving around, it wasn't just a statue. He was pretty terrifying.

Here's one of the entrires in the monster conversion contest, which had some decent stuff, but nothing amazing. The vehicle conversion contest, on the other hand, had one entry that was without a doubt far above anything else that has ever been converter. That massive Ork ship was really incredible, and hopefully you can get some sense of the size of it from this picture, because it was really enormous.

This was an Armies on Parade entry that I really liked. A daemon army with a beach theme, with everything converted to go with the theme. It went together really well with the terrain and backdrop, and I liked how everything in it was unique.

Here are a few of the club boards and display boards they had at Games Day. As usual, there was some pretty impressive stuff.

There was a Specialist Games area, where you could see or learn how to play some of the specialist games, like Epic, Blood Bowl, and Space Hulk. This is a picture of the Battlefleet Gothic table in this area, which I thought looked pretty good. I was tempted to try out Epic, which I think looks really cool, but I don't need another game to play.

They had a big Empire Cannon that people were lining up for. I'm not sure exactly what they were doing with it, since I didn't want to wait in line, but it looked cool.

And finally, here are some pictures of a Khorne Chaos Spawn I made in the Fantasy conversion contest. Considering the time limitation, and that all I had to work with was a few random sprues, a pair of clippers, and the absolute worst plastic glue ever invented, I think he turned out pretty well.

Warhammer 40,000 Battle Report: Ultramarines vs Renegade Imperial Guard

The Setup
I wanted to try out playing my new Renegade Imperial Guard army that I've been working on, though I don't have much for it yet, and most of what I have isn't painted yet. I managed to just barely scrape together a legal 1000 point army by borrowing a tank from my opponent. It was the Leman Russ variant with the hull mounted heavy bolter, two heavy bolter sponsons, an a twin linked 4 shot autocannon on the turret. It can spew out an impressive number of AP 4 shots, and would be a fearsome weapon against any army but Space Marines. Naturally, my opponent decided to play Space Marines. His Ultramarines, to be more specific.

So 1000 points of Imperial Guard against Space Marines. We set up 1/3 of the board with tunnels using the Space Hulk floor tiles. This would represent the tunnel system found beneath the bunker entrance. The tunnels could be entered or exited by the bunker entrance we placed halfway between the long board edges, or units could move onto the table through the tunnels that reached the long board edges.

Warhammer 40,000 Battle Report: Eldar vs Chaos Space Marines

The Setup
This was a 1500 point standard Warhammer 40,000 game, pitting Eldar against Chaos Space Marines. It used the standard missions and deployment from the rulebook. The objective of the mission was simply to gain more Kill Points than the enemy. Deployment 12" on to the long table edges. The Eldar deployed first and would have the first turn.

The Story
Renegade Space Marines of the Crusaders chapter are assisting a rebellion on an Imperial world, as they are wont to do. Pursuant to such, they have destroyed and then desecrated an Imperial church, along with some other outbuildings. Having done so, they are now occupying the area whilst a Thousand Sons aspiring sorcerer amongst them prepares an arcane ritual. This ritual, like any good arcane ritual, requires the sacrifice of a beautiful, scantily-clad woman. In truth, it probably just requires any old human sacrifice, but given the choice, why not choose the beautiful, scantily-clad woman?

And so the sorcerer has, and said woman is now chained up awaiting her fate. Unbeknownst to all, an Eldar Farseer has taken an unusual interest in the fair maiden (though to any who've seen her, the interest taken is perfectly understandable). The Farseer has examined the threads of future destiny, and decided that he needs to rescue the sacrificial woman. Perhaps saving her life on this day will result in many Eldar lives being saved in the future (probably the lives of all the Eldar he imagines he'll be fathering with her once he rescues her). At any rate, he doesn't have to explain himself to anyone and, furthermore, if he says the future of the Craftworld depends on saving some hussy, then save her they shall.

Turn 1
The Renegade Marines were pretty focused on their pillaging, so the Eldar managed to sneak up pretty close to them before being noticed. Once spotted, however, they were still out of range with most of their short-ranged weapons, so they all moved forward to close the distance. The sole exception was the rangers, who were in a good position and fired with their sniper rifles, but caused no wounds. There must have been a gust of wind.

In response, the Berzerkers in the remnants of the church struggled through the rubble towards the now visible Dire Avengers, not realizing the epic struggle they were about to engage in. Most of the rest of the marines held their ground and fired, with the Predator causing a few casualties in the Farseer's bodyguard of Warlocks. The Thousand Sons, in the Rhino on the right flank, drove up to the other side of the Altar to protect it.



Turn 2
Appearing from out of the warp, a unit of aptly-named Warp Spiders destroyed the Rhino containing the Thousand Sons, forcing them to disembark. They jumped again to add some distance between them and their foes, but return fire from the Thousand Sons and Crusader marines nearby killed several of them. The rangers found their range, and managed to kill a couple of the Crusader marines on the hill by the altar.

In the middle of the battlefield, the ponderous advance of the Wraithguard was held up when two Obliterators (in this case, renegade Techmarines) teleported in directly in front of them. They opened fire with everything they had, aided by the Marines in the woods behind, but after the barrage most of the wraithbone constructs still stood.

On the Renegade Marine left flank, the Dire Avengers fell back while firing at the Berzerkers, killing two of them. That really annoyed the Berzerkers, and they continued their headlong charge at their foe.

Turn 3
With well-practiced precision, the Dire Avengers again fell back, staying just close enough to keep the Berzerkers in range, and felled two more of them. Now the Berzerkers were getting angry. They fired a few bolt pistol shots at the Dire Avengers, but to no effect.

In the center, the Wraithguard all fired on the Renegade Techmarines, but only killed one of them thanks to their powerful force fields. A unit of Swooping Hawks landed, dropping enough grenades to kill a couple of the marines on the hill near the altar. The Swooping Hawks then immediately fled the battlefield upon taking a few casualties from return fire.

Having failed to eliminate the last Techmarine with warp-tearing energy fired from their Wraithcannons, the Wraightuard charged in to beat him to death with them instead. The Warlock leading them was crushed to death by the Techmarine, but the Wraithguard fought on, only managing to wound their adversary.

On the right of the Renegade Marine battle line, the Howling Banshees and the Farseer with his Warlock bodyguards sprinted full speed to assault the Thousand Sons marines near the altar. It doesn't take a powerful Farseer to predict how that turned out. However, one tenacious Thousand Son did survive the initial onslaught, and so prolonged his twisted semblance of life for another few seconds.

Previously, a unit of four Terminators, one with a Heavy Flamer, teleported down in the rear of the Eldar force to take out the pesky rangers. Unfortunately, they arrived far off target. They had, however, drawn the fire of the Rangers, who only managed to take down one of the Terminators. Undeterred by the loss, they advanced to within Heavy Flamer range and roasted most of the Eldar Rangers in an instant. The four remaining Rangers bravely, though foolishly, held their ground.

Turn 4
The Howling Banshees, Farseer, and Warlocks easily put an end to the one remaining Thousand Son, and advanced toward the Crusader Marines on the nearby hill. Sprinting at full speed, both Eldar units charged into combat with the Marines before they could get off a volley. Most of the Marines were cut down in a blur of flashing power weapon blades. Only the Lord and an Aspiring Champion survived long enough to kill the two Warlocks, before fleeing for their lives. The Eldar let them go, intent on the bigger threats still remaining.

Shuriken catapults blazing (or whatever they do), the Dire Avengers charged into the Khorne Berzerkers. Normally this would seem pretty foolish, but the Berzerkers, finally enraged by the Eldar continuously staying out of assault range, had sprinted so quickly towards their enemy that there was simply no more room for the Dire Avengers to fall back. Knowing that they would soon be caught by the frothing, charging Berzerkers, they elected to reverse direction and charge, hoping the element of surprise would bring them victory. This was not to be. They only killed one of the Berzerkers, while three of them fell. Undeterred, they held their ground and the fight would continue.

Meanwhile, the six Wraithguard were unaffected by the loss of their Warlock leader. With the determination of soulless constructs, they managed to beat to death the renegade Techmarine.

Turn 5
The Howling Banshees ran up to the crest of the hill, but were still too far from the Marines in the woods to assault. The Farseer examine the twisting paths of potential futures, and determined that he didn't want to be shot by the two Heavy Bolters and the Autocannon on the nearby Predator. With the psychic power of his Witchblade, the managed to destroy the tank. The Marines in the woods couldn't see the Farseer, and so again fired at the advancing Wraithguard, cutting down three more of them. Elsewhere, the Berzerkers slaughtered the remaining Dire Avengers, and the Terminators easily finished off the few remaining Rangers. The forces on both sides were severely depleted by this point. However, it is not in the nature of the Crusader marines to hold ground long, and the time had come to withdraw.

The Result
The Eldar force destroyed a Rhino and a Predator, wiped out a unit of Thousand Sons and the unit of "Obliterators", and broke the Chaos Lord and a unit of marines for a total of 6 kill points. The Renegade Marines wiped out the Dire Avengers, Rangers, Warp Spiders, and the Farseer's retinue, and broke the Swooping Hawks, which gave them only 5 kill points. A victory for the Eldar, as the Renegades were forced to withdraw, leaving the sacrificial maiden in the hands of the Farseer.