Pic submitted by JR Vosovic
Surprise! Caption contest go!
Friday, May 7, 2010
Book Review: Legends of the Space Marines
Legends of the Space Marines is the second anthology of space marine stories released by Black Library, and I just so happen to have found a copy lying around.40K Editorial: How to Fix Grey Knights?
Today's open topic is simple. The Grey Knights are truly the elite of the elite. Shrouded in secrecy, sworn to face the horrors of the warp with no fear, and defeat it utterly, with no glory, only a hope of a well earned eternal rest in their dark chapter crypts. So what do you want to see done to bring them up to 5th Edition Standards?
NEWS: Games Workshop vs Curse.com
EDITORIAL: Dealing With Setbacks
Setbacks happen to all of us; our best laid plans can crumble right before us. The real test, at that point, becomes how we deal with them.Thursday, May 6, 2010
FLAMES OF WAR: Bringing Your Terrain To Life
You can get more from your Flames of War terrain without lifting a paintbrush: just don't miss the forest for the trees!
40k Lore: The Nature of Daemons
Hey everyone, this time let’s give some thought to nature of 40k Daemons.
40K SNEAK PEEK: Eldar Night Spinner Sprue (Pics)
Pics brought to the community by 40KOnline's Lorizael:
Who's game for these now... Now if only we know the stats of the spinner's weapon.
40k Tactics: Art Of The Wraithlord
Fritz here with some ideas on one of my favorite Eldar models, and since foot ‘dar seems to be all the rage I thought I would offer my experience in running wraithlords in an Eldar army- the good, the bad, and the so-so.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
40K HOBBY: Portal Objective Markers (Video)
Wednesday, March 24th, 15:00 Central time...
Bulwark: Hey, do we have 4 themed objectives for the Team Tournament at Adepticon?
Bushido: Ummm, No?
Bulwark: Oh...
That's about the conversation I had with Bulwark the night before we left for Adepticon. It was up to me to save the day...
PAINTING CHALLENGE: BFG Blood Angels Edition
You heard me right, its time for another great BoLS hobby challenge and this time we a great prize sponsored by BattleForgeGames. The goal is simple: Take 2 weeks to paint up your choice of the best Baal Predator, Death Company, or Sanguinary Guard you can.
40K RUMORS: Grey Knights Coming Soon?
Here's the latest word in the whipsaw next 40k codex rumormill: Grey Knights are next, with the Dark Eldar being bumped to Q1 2011. More after the Jump...
40K Thoughts: Away from the table
We all spend many, many hours at the painting desk and game board, all for the love of this hobby of ours. Sometimes though, you end up away from it all, but this doesn't mean you have to stop!
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Wargames Gallery 5-04-10
Perhaps my favorite mini from Adepticon.
I'm always humbled by how much emotion an artist can enfuse in their work.
I'm always humbled by how much emotion an artist can enfuse in their work.
Hobby: Painting Battle Damage
Written by: Grey_Death
Here's a follow up and some more in-depth technique for weathering from my Sons of Medusa Razorback.
It's been a while since I've really dug in with weathering and this time around I've taken the time to get a good amount of photos along the way. Many of you already know, I fully believe in the beauty of weathering, grit and damage on models and have been advocating their use for years now! With this tutorial I'll walk you through my simple and effective method of paint chips/battle damage all done using just a few simple tools and a bit of good color choice!
When starting off with my latest Sons of Medusa Razorback, I knew I wanted to approach it much the same as past things but try and speed it up a bit by adding depth in later stages. So to start off, just getting your model to base color with a light highlight along armor lines and joins. Get your colors blocked out, clean and smooth. I highly suggest an airbrush to get your main color on and use a brush to block in the rest, in this case that's what I've done with the black.
Here you can see the tools of the trade. I make consistent use of foam from a blister I bought way back when, chipping off a little bit of the crusted up foam each time and creating a new random edge to use. In this same photo you see a big, gnarly messed up brush. If you don't have one of these, you need one. Go do a few terrain projects and trust me, you'll get one quick enough! The brush is a bit less random but with a good eye for the pattern it's giving you, you can make it just as random as the foam but this comes with a handle! When you're using the foam, you can do a few different things to help in the application, rolling it, scrunching it, whatever. Just find something that works for you, is easy to work with, and gives the kind of pattern you're looking for.
I make use of a paper towel as my palette when working on chipping. It's a bit easier for me to guarantee I won't blob the paint on and get just enough to the tips of the bristles or edges of the foam.
When you're using this technique/method, it's REALLY important to know what sort of pattern you're getting with what sort of pressure you're pressing with. Check on a piece of paper, your palette, hand, whatever. Don't just go blob the paint onto your model without first checking that you're getting the right look for what you're going for. Make adjustments with paint amount, pressure, angle, and applicator before you go to the model with the paint.
I've gone with Catachan Green as my vehicles 'primer/undercolor'. This deeper green helps to push the color back behind the bright Scorpion Green base color. Cooler/Darker colors will work great for this, but test a few things out on a few different test pieces. See what works best for your color scheme and go through the full method for each to be sure of your color choices. The level of weathering is up to you, a little, a lot, in between, whatever you like! Pay special attention to high traffic areas like the hatches, edges and track sections. Give your piece a bit of narrative with a few long scratches from some unknown alien race! Have fun, and if you go a bit overboard, you can always paint the base color back in.
Above you can see the Bleached Bone highlighting that is applied to the lower edge of all chips. This is what really drives home the depth of the chipping. I simply use the same color that I highlight everything else with. Take your time with your chips to be sure you're hitting the right edges and the results will be nice and convincing. Also don't be shy, those little chips need love too, get in there and go to town!
A lot of folks like to add freehand detailing to their vehicles. After a few goes at it on various other projects, I've found that the best time to do so is after your chipping is finished. You don't waste time with unnecessary details that end up getting smothered in chipping by an unsteady hand this way. You know what sections you have to work with this way and save time by not having to paint some areas of your freehand details thanks to a convenient paint chip! Just paint around the paint chips with your freehand and pay attention so you're not going over them.
Once the freehand is down, here is when you get to play a bit more and be free to make a bit of a mess. Using my grime streaking, I go in with Gryphonne Sepia and from the edges, corners, bolts and a few of the larger paint chips, I streak down along the model a bit. I don't like to go all the way down the model, just far enough to make it noticeable. The above look took two layers of wash and a bit of heavy attention to the crevices with a big drop of wash painted in to add the depth we skipped out on earlier! With regard to the top of the tank, I don't streak, but pool around areas like rivets and other details that stick out. Just a quick pool around these details and a wipe off of the raised surface works wonders!
Once the wash is down, you can move on to a plethora of other techniques that all add something extra to the story of your freshly busted up ride!
Want more? Then don't forget to visit The Painting Corps for regular updates with tips for the newest wargamer to the most grizzled veterans. There's something for everyone. Head over and join the conversation!
Warmachine: Battle Box Tactica- Cygnar #2
This is our second tactical examination of the Cygnaran battlebox. In this one, we'll be covering the Warjacks, basic tactics versus the other battleboxes, as well as some easy ways to expand your army.
40K Poll: Should the Inquisition be Split?
40K Tactics: Outflanking for Objectives
Probably the single most important change between Fifth Edition and previous editions is the change in how Line of Sight and Area Terrain interact – if you think you have an argument for something else being bigger, I’d love to hear it. I don’t think there is a lot to say about that, though – it’s no longer possible for most armies to get into knife range without taking any enemy fire.
Monday, May 3, 2010
NEWS: Warpshadow on Hiatus
Dear Broodbrothers and Sisters!
On March 22nd, Ross Nickle, better known as "Accommodator" on Warpshadow.com has died suddenly. He was not only the foundation of our community on Warpshadow, he had also the access to our host. The Gestalt (the admin group) has contacted the host, to make way for a possible transfer of access rights to a member of the gestalt. Until this transfer has happened, the host decided to shut www.Warpshadow.com down. We are working feverishly on a solution and try to get the board running again as soon as possible.
Thank you for your patience!
-Hydra
I wish to offer my condolances to our Tyranid brothers over the loss of forum founder and fellow wargamer Accommodator. We hope to see warpshadow.com up and running in no time. Leave your thoughts here.
40K: List Building 101 - Part 4: Lists and Player Q&A
40K: List building 101
by Reece Robbins
This article is intended to help new players build effective army lists in 40K, over the course of a 4 part series. This is the last part covering sample lists and sever Q&As with players You can find part 1 here and part 2 here, and part 3 here. Lets forge ahead.
40K TACTICS: Dark Eldar Weaknesses
The Weakness of Commorragh
A guest piece by Buffo
“Welcome to Commorragh. I hope your travel here was to your satisfaction? Bringing you to Commorragh undetected was no easy task. Shall we begin?"
Honor and respect to you, the Bell of Lost Soul community. This is BuFFo, and I wanted to take this opportunity, in light of the Dark Eldar rumors and release sometime this year (hopefully), to give would-be Archons out there a little insight into the world of the unique and deadly Dark Eldar Army from the perspective of a Dark Eldar player of 12 years.
This will be a multi part article, and I will just delve into the generalities of the army and its rich (yeah right) fluff and history. If you didn’t get into the Army in the past 12 years, I don’t expect you to until the new Codex is released, and if you have been playing all this time, then well, all this is old hat. This is the reason I won’t be going into detail with the army lists builds or any of that. In later parts of this Article I will give sample builds of the three flavors of Dark Eldar; Kabals, Cults and Covens.
The Dark Eldar and their Fragility
The Dark Eldar army plays like no other army in the game. True to it the gamer cliché, the Dark Eldar army is a glass cannon, a paper tiger, a horseless walrus. Dark Eldar is all about offense, offense, offense.
So let me talk to you about our general ‘weaknesses’ in this Article. I don’t really feel these are ‘weaknesses’, but rather, the other side of a magnificent coin that reflects the genius of this Army’s play style. I will also talk about an abridged history of the Dark Eldar’s low popularity.
Armor Saves - Our Armor Save is the game’s “average” armor save of 5+. Even our HQ’s come with this save as standard! Some units do not even get a save! Where Orks (arguably the army with the worst all around Armor Saves in the game) can offset their 6+ saves with mass bodies and Fearless, Dark Eldar cannot.
Leadership - The Dark Eldar army is probably the only Army in the entire game without ANY meaningful Leadership tricks. Our average Leadership is 8, and that is it. Even our HQ’s are not respected enough by their battlefield, back stabbing True Kin for a Leadership of 10, so they only merit a 9! We do not have any Fearless multi model unit, we have no way of ‘buying’ a higher leadership. We have no way of rerolling any kind of Leadership, Morale or Pinning Tests at all. Even the Sybarite, upgrades to most of our squads, keeps the Leadership of said squad an 8.
We are Leadership 8, and that is it. Oddly enough, Dark Eldar feel like the ‘best’ army in this respect because we are affected by other army’s Leadership messing ways.
So when you couple horrible armor and arguably the worst Leadership in the entire game, you actually get an army that can be shot at and forced to run, or worse yet, Pinned!
Vehicle Armor Value – Dark Eldar have two flavors of vehicles; Raiders and Ravagers. Raiders are the flimsiest vehicles in the entire game, with Armor Value of 10 coupled with Open-Topped. Yes, this means that even a humble Bolter can destroy our Transports. Tau Pulse Rifles? Forget it. I hate those things!
Ravagers are our Heavy Support, and get this…. Our Heavy Support comes with Rhino Armor Value and is also Open-Topped! That means any Penetrating hit has a 50% chance of downing the Ravager! Melta weapons have a field day with Ravagers and Raiders!
The only army which has this weakness is the Ork Army, but their Transports avoid getting Destroyed (as far as I remember), and sometimes even deliver their payload deep into enemy lines when blown up! Dark Eldar Raiders are just engines strapped onto the weakest materials known in the Galaxy, and the slightest wind blows them over into nearby shrubbery, turning them into flaming wrecks!
Unforgiving - The Dark Eldar Army does not allow for mistakes during the game. Dark Eldar simply cannot Drop Pod themselves in the middle of enemy lines, and survive rounds of shooting due to a 3+ armor save. We get shot at, we die. We get assaulted, we die. Our opponent looks at our army, and our models melt, they are so fragile.
A Dark Eldar General needs to make sure he understands every aspect of the opponent’s army to be successful. You need to know what unit has what weapons, their ranges - I mean you need to know everything! You need to know what is in Reserves, what those units can do, etc… Nothing against other armies, but other armies can afford to not give a crap about what the opponent has, and just play the game. Not Dark Eldar. If you make the mistake of not caring about what an opponent’s units can do, you will find yourself shot to death turn 1 if you deploy wrong.
The Dark Eldar is truly an army suited for expert players. Do not get me wrong, ‘expert’ has no connection with WAAC. Expert simply means you have a near perfect understanding of the three aspects it takes to be a winning general in 40k; Knowledge of your army’s capabilities, Knowledge of your opponent’s army’s capabilities, and intimate knowledge of the basic rules. Other armies can forgive you if you do not know the basic rules too well, or do not know your own army, or your opponent’s army. The Dark Eldar army does not forgive any mistakes.
True to the ruthless, cut throat nature of the True Kin, the Dark Eldar army will punish you mercilessly if you do not know what you are doing. It doesn’t matter if you are playing for fun, or competitively. You will get flattened if you do not keep your wits about you during the game.
Why no one got into Dark Eldar (abridged)
Why do I say this is all part of the Dark Eldar play style, and why would you want to play this army?
Ever hear of the saying, “the Dark Eldar army is an expert’s army”? Well, it isn’t something Dark Eldar players made up to make ourselves feel better. It is the truth.
When the Dark Eldar first was released back in the start of 3rd edition, right out of the gate we were branded as a craptastic army. The box contained 32 Dark Eldar warriors with our Splinter Rifles and Splinter Cannons, and the Marines had 20 bodies and a Landspeeder. Really? You know how every game ever demonstrated with that set turned out? The Dark Eldar would fire at the Marines, and kill not a single one. The Landspeeder couldn’t even be touched realistically. The Marines would fire their Bolters, massacre the Dark Eldar, and the Landspeeder would run up to the Dark Eldar lines and shoot them to death without recourse.
Right from the beginning, the Dark Eldar Army was branded as a weak army, and most gamers never gave them a chance beyond 3 games. I mean, the Dark Eldar codex didn’t even have vehicle upgrades!!
These gamers missed the update Dark Eldar received, what, around 2000/2001, in which Wyches became one of the most feared units in the game, even to this day. We also got our much needed vehicle upgrades and powerful Arcane wargear. Finally, we got a way to build a Wych Cult through arguably the most powerful non Special Character model in the game; the Archite.
Oh, and I won’t even get into the model range. I think we all know how they look, and this is the SINGLE biggest reason players have not got into the Dark Eldar army. The model range is a mix of pure genius and some of the worst atrocities committed to our Hobby. How could anyone but a pure Masochist
It really isn’t the Hobbyist’s fault for not giving the Dark Eldar a chance. GW just crapped them out post haste for a new edition, and the Army suffered for it, which is a shame, because as older Codices got weaker each new Edition, the Dark Eldar Codex actually got STRONGER!
Well, that covers it for now. In the next Article, I will go over the positives of the Dark Eldar play style, and how the Dark Eldar truly are the masters of 40k with a unique play style like no other.
“For today, my dear honored guest, we are done. My trusted and beloved Incubi will show you to your quarters and will stand guard outside your doors and window. Make no mistake, Commorragh is a dangerous place and even within the walls of my very own palace you are not safe when not in my presence. I bid you a good evening, and look forward to our conversations”
Goatboy 40k: Lets make a balanced list shall we?
Goatboy here again talking about some of the things I see spamming the comment sections. The thought that duplicating units is some how wrong?
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Wargames Gallery 5-02-10
Pic submitted by Brandon Palmer
A truly stunning Imperial Guard army by GMM
40K HOBBY: Captain Eurico of the Lamenters First Company
Even done with their one hundred year crusade, where they dove head long into the jaws of a Hive Fleet, it seems cruel fate was not yet done with the Lamenters. Their one saving grace, the fact that they were free of the effects of the Curse, was stripped from them. Now the few hundred Lamenters remaining are doomed to die slowly of madness.
The new Blood Angel Codex declares that this old Cursed Founding chapter now has their founders genetic curse. So I have been using some new army builds, including ones using Tycho. I thought the old model was a little small, and I wanted something more modern and with less BA symbols.
I based my conversion off one of the new Sanguinary Guard models, to get that sculpted chest look. Unfortunately those models are sold out all over the US. Fortunately (for me) an itrepid local gamer had one for me to borrow (thanks Cargill!). I used the actual head of Tycho to help dissuade any of the confusion sometimes associated with 'counts-as' characters. Simple job with a hobby saw, and a ball of putty to act as a neck. I gave him a combi-melta from an old limited release metal SM Captain. I figured his 'Angelus' would make a good wrist-mounted bolt pistol.
For paint, I went for an opalescent alabaster color. This was achieved in the following way:
1. Skull White undercoat
2. Badab Black wash
3. Dheneb Stone overcoat
4. Skull White highlight
5. Coat of 50/50 Gloss Medium and Interference Blue powdered pigment.
The yellow I did like the rest of my Lamenters, plus some checkers. A little cork and sand for basing, and jobs done.
Let me know what you think of the Lamenters. Aventine out.
Forces of Warmachine Protectorate: Review
The holy warriors of the Protectorate have a new weapon at their disposal. The latest Forces of Warmachine book provides 144 pages of rules, fiction, art, and beautifully painted minis to instruct and inspire any who fight in Menoth's name. This is really the book I've been waiting for as Protectorate was the first Warmachine army I picked up, way back in 2003.WFB: Heavans Magic: Bang for your Buck
Bang for your Buck
by Revenant
Heavens magic is really a good choice for magic. It doesn't have the raw damage output that some of the other lores have. However, it provides some excellent versatility that you might have not thought of.
40K Conundrum: Falling Back while Embarked Edition?
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Wargames Gallery 5-01-10
Pic submitted by Aaron Wright
They don't call them the Bling Angels for nothing
40K Tactics: Better Know a Necron Part 2 - The Pariah
ODDBALL: Stephen Hawkings Says Watch out for the Nids!
FFG Video Battle Report: Horus Heresy
The 19th Hole - Blood Angels - Codicers Arm
The 19th Hole
Hi everybody Darkwynn here. Welcome to my new column, the 19th Hole. After moving away from Imperial guard I wanted to look at other army list and going to start creating list that will be solid but yet should still be fun for you and your opponent to have fun with. Looking at the power of core army books and building list around that. The overall goal of these lists will be to create strong potent lists that can win competive games, yet still provide a great fun time on the tabletop for BOTH players and not be a tedious or dreadful to play. Lets take at look at this week's list from codex Blood Angels.
"Codicers Arm" (2000pts)
Librarian x2
-Jump pack x2
-Unleash rage, Fear of darkness
Furioso Librarian Dreadnought
-Wings, blood lance
Sanguinary priestx3
-Jump pack x2
-Power weapon x2
10 man Assault Squad x2
-Melta gun x2
-Powerfist x1
5 man Assault Squad x2
-Flamer
-Twin linked lascannon Razorback
-Searchlight
Baal Predator x2
-Assault Cannon
-Search light
Vindicator
-Siege Shield
-searchlight
7 man Devastator Squad
-4 missile Launchers
Tactics
The idea behind this list is pretty simple. You have flexibility that very few codexes have. You can start on the board and able to deploy focus fire or you are able to reserve off the board while dropping into key areas or moving fast on. While moving on you can hide behind a wall of vehicles to screen your assault drops while still being able to move out from behind them to attack targets. The army isn’t relaying on tricks or gimmicks but is using subtle synergy’s to boost its effectiveness and using its core strengths from the codex.
I would run the two ten man assault groups next to each other and you should be able to control your charge range when you choose your targets. Let your Razorbacks and Vindicator break out key armor. You only have 4 melta guns which should be enough for games when you face AV 14. You have to send both assault units after that and swarm the Land Raider while blowing it up. It will be a risk but you should have at least 5 weapons that can key on units like that.
I would hide razorbacks in the back field staying out of the 24 inch range threat or at least 36 inches always from your opponent. Razorbacks are very easy to destroy so you have to take advantage of cover or certain key areas to cut off angles while still going after low AV tanks. This will also allow you to move these tanks up to key objectives early on. As for the Vindicator and the two Baals you can use them to screen and play aggressive to put pressure on your opponents. The siege shield works great for tank shocking people in cover and also keeping your tank moving at all times.
And thats this week's list. I'd love to hear your thoughts on its design as well as you own tweaks and advice. If you have any special requests for next week's lists, lets hear them. Darkwynn out!
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