Death Cult Assassins

It seems fitting to end the first week of the New Year off with some Assassins. These ladies were feared by most opponents during our Kill Zone games. The ladies come with a boatload of power weapon attacks. Of course there is some downside, low toughness and subpar armor save.  Still, once they closed with someone, it started to get interesting quick!

The models themselves were very different from the rest of the army. The lady on the left is an Infinity model, Szalamandra. Originally this was purchased for our Rogue Trader RPG. We had a female player who was looking for a cool model for her assassin. I wanted to surprise her with this model and low and behold- she found one too!  The game went on using her model instead, and Szalamandra stayed on my painting shelf.

The lady on the right was Dark Age Forsaken model. It was originally, wait for it... our Rogue Trader game. No particular person or character this time around. I bought it when the model first released seeing some potential with the model and then quickly lost it in my bin of models!  When she resurfaced, it seemed like an obvious addition to the team. Despite a few size differences, the models actually worked out well. Most players seem to like a few non-GW models thrown into the mix giving them something new to look over while playing. But mostly I just don't like the GW assassin models. That being said, these models are not perfect. The sizing is off and one obviously doesn't have a pair of power swords strapped to her waist!

Finally some top down action. She was ready to take on all the chaos scum she could find (and hold that objective). She actually made all of those rapid fire saves.... except the last one. 

Inquisitorial Henchmen

Still more Inquisitors from Adepticon 2012 Special Operations Kill Zone event to show you all. 

To be honest, the whole Inquisitorial thing started with the acolyte with an eviscerator! I mean a dude carrying a super long chainsaw that he uses to "persuade" people to his side of the Emperor's will is a super cool thing. His draw backs are huge, even in 5th edition. Being toughness 3 and initiative 1 is no way to actually survive carrying that gigantic weapon, but still it was cool. 

On the other hand, the Acolyte with the storm shield and power weapon was thrown in because (a) I had the model sitting on the shelf, and (b) toughness 3 with a 3++ adds to your survivability a lot. 

It didn't take long for me to pick the Kill Zone special rule to give these guys each a +1 toughness. It helped keep them alive a bit longer. Still, my evisterator hasn't caused a single wound!

On the painting front I tried using some new techniques when I popped these guys off of their old bases and onto these new resin Secret Weapon Miniature bases. There are some weathering powders in the rust and green ooze. Then I tried to get a little hyper realistic to make them 'pop' some. I think the effect worked well and was quick to pull off. Seeing a whole squad like this on the awesome terrain they had set up was a blast!

Lastly, an action shot from the event.  It ended sadly for the Inquistorial team!

Inquisitor of Ordos Xenos

Way back to the early spring of this year, 5th Edition was still going strong and Special Operations: Kill Zone was happening at Adepticon. After looking through my stash of spare miniatures I decided to do an Inquisitorial Kill Team after I found this Inquisitor that was perfect for the Ordos Xenos. 

The fancy gun (now with psy-bolt ammunition) was constructed out of spare Necron bits on a lark several years ago. I have no idea how I did it. Sadly there was no blogger at that time. 

The miniature was mostly painted several years ago. This was when I was following 'Eavy Metal painting guides. There was no blending and some of the transitions were awfully hard. But it was the common paint procedure for the era. 

The base was from Secret Weapon Miniatures. The old bases were bland, so new ones had to be had! The weathering was actually done with just paints, no powders this time. I was going for the hyper realistic bases to try to match the older paint job on the models. I think the combination turned out pretty good. 

I suspect that there will be Special Ops: Kill Zone happening in my gaming group soon. We are still having a lot of fun with base 6th Edition. There will always be a place for small skirmish style games. 

(Obligatory barrel shot!)

Visions of 6th Edition

By now many, if not most of us have seen visions of 6th Edition 40K (via White Dwarf 390), and I for one love it. If you haven't had a chance to read through #390, its entirely devoted to 40K. Most of it is a paid advertisement for the newest edition with all of the eye candy you expect to see.

But what has me excited about 6E?  Forging a Narrative.
Matt Ward talks on page 22 about telling a story in each battle. It isn't so much just winning a game, but  being able to have your "unsung heroes earn honor and glory."  Characters can pick out individual models, challenge other characters, and get a special ability before the game starts. But its not just new rules for heroes, its that Games Workshop has purposely strayed away from making a system designed for parity, designed for tournaments, designed to show off a players skill. Its clear, GW wants its game to show off GW. And you know, what?  I'm ok with this.

Fortifications
Having stayed away from the rumors for the last several months, I still wasn't surprised to see mysterious terrain in the new rules. But what did surprise me is the close tie-in with Citadel scenery and the new Fortification rules. Its a beautiful tie-in to allow your army to gain some very real benefits. It will be interesting to see how this affects play. Should I expect my opponents to show up with their own scenery?
In other news, I've actually been working on my scenery for the last couple of weeks. Its kinda by mistake, but I'm eager to use some of my newly prepared Fortifications!

Overwatch
Its hard to say before the rules come up, but WD suggests that Overwatch comes in two forms. Classical overwatch from days gone by (or standard in Special Ops: Kill Zone) and as a charge reaction. Finally! I've been asking for a rule like this for several editions. It definitely changes the landscape in Warhammer Fantasy Battles, and certainly my Imperial Guard hope it changes things in the far future.

Flyer Rules
There are finally some real flyer rules coming out. I wish the rule "zoom" was there (it just sounds too silly), but at least a dude with a hand gun isn't going to easily be able to shoot my planes out of the sky while they are flying around. However, it seems (pg 67) that exploding vehicles deliver a staggering S10 hit to those inside!  Yikes!  I don't know now what this means for mech armies, but you know have to account for flyers in your games.

Other Rules
Pre-measuring and random charge length didn't get much coverage, but seem to be in the rules. I'm all for these rules if it speeds up the game and avoid "cheating measuring" I've seen more and more the last year. My only fear is that it might actually slow down the game as some players will spend an eternity making sure models are where they want them.
Hull Points are definitely in and look to replace the former vehicle damage chart and functions more like wounds on a standard IC.  This might mean my Vendettas fire a full strength until its HP's are fully gone. I can live with that!

Old Rules that Have Changed
Feel No Pain is now 5+, Reserves start on turn two at 3+, you loose your assault bonus with multi-assaulting units, Overwatch Flamers might do d3 wounds (not automatic),  and most significantly wound allocation might be gone and replaced with nearest models take the first wounds.

We will see on Saturday, but sci-fi war gamers have some exciting times ahead with an edition change.

What I Learned at Adepticon

Adpeticon has come and gone, and I've (finally) recovered from the Con. Before moving on to GenCon and the other summer cons (as well as getting back to painting) I wanted to share my thoughts about what has become the best miniature wargaming con in the land.

Adepticon is still the premier wargaming con, bar none (you've heard that already).  Don't believe the blogs and what not- the tournaments are only a small part of the experience. Though most of the events are tournament related, most of the players are just here for the experience, meet up with old friends, and games in a well organized area. Its still a Gentlemen's Gaming Con.

Just an 'average' hobbyist army! No, this was seriously cool DE army display board.

Special Operations: Kill Zone was a blast. You can read more about that here.

Giving away a Battlefoam Bag is a recipe to get 1,000 gamers to line up hours before registration begins. I was especially thankful for getting a VIG badge. I'll put that on the list for next year as well! On that note, the Adepticon swag bag has already been a thing of legend. Please keep it that way. Well worth the trip, just to get the bag. This year's special miniatures were nothing short of awesome.

The only camera I used was my iPhone 4GS. No DSL-R for me this year. And the pictures I got were just a great as any with my big camera. As an added plus, the iPhone was with me everywhere and I wasn't constantly looking after my big camera making sure it didn't sprout legs and wonder off.



No need to carry that big camera around anymore fellas!


Registration for an event is purely optional. Despite most events (at least 40K related) being sold out months ago, there were a lot of no-shows for nearly every event. Its certainly possible to show up early and get in an already full event. Trust me. I did it for several events!

In a sense, this event has become "Lobby Con" for me. Two nights we sat in the Lobby drinking beer and eating (usually pizza) just hanging out, seeing old friends, making new friends, and just talking to other hobbyist. Just hanging out seems to be a very reasonable way to spend a lot of time at Adepticon.

Unidentified friend enjoying Lobby Con... very

The Team Tournament still remains the highlight of the weekend. The amount of awesome armies and awesome people will never be forgotten. Three of our games were spectacular. And while one game fell flat, the team captain sought me out the next day to apologize and promised a better game next year if were to ever play. So sign me up, we'll be back again for the Team Tournament.

Big Display armies for the Team Tournament. This from our friends at the Axis of Ignorance.

Our Team- Hot Wings sporting dual Raven Wing armies. Complete with custom templates we gave out to our opponents.

Justin of Secret Weapon Miniatures is a stud teacher. It was my only hobby class this year, but was well worth getting out of bed on Sunday for. You'll be seeing plenty of weathering effects in the coming months. Everyone should do at least one hobby event every year. You will grow as a hobbyist, promise!

Mr. Justin.



My Death Wing terminators and my 'old' rust effect.





It would be cool to see more "small" vendors in the back halls. Battle Ready Figs and Techtonic (laser cut MDF) had booths set up. But I could envision small vendors with unique hobby supplies or supplements with a very low cost, fan friendly set up. The main vendor hall was nice (as always) but I am interested in seeing what the small guy has up his sleeve.

One of about 1,000 Psy-Bolt Dreadnoughts.

I just love the Chaos fliers. Come on GW and give us some flyer love this summer!!

I was shocked to see the 'lack' of hobbyist involvement with Warmachine. No doubt there were lots of players present, but the amount of cool looking armies was low. In fact, there were many unpainted models. In contrast Warhammer Fantasy and Flames of War had as many players, with many fantastic looking armies. Malifaux remained small, but had a dedicated following. The new Dust Tactics/Warfare game was constantly drawing people's attention. It will be interesting to see what happens to the game in the next year or so. Mantic had their new space dwarves and space 'rats' (i.e. skaven) on display. Expect to see even more 'counts-as' armies next year!





I expect to be painting some of these soon. I've been wanting to do Space Skaven for nearly a decade now.

Adepticon 2012, Kill Zone, and oh yeah, I'm Back!!

Well I'm back doing the blogging thing again. It took some time to get my crap together... Adepticon has come and gone for another year. It was awesome as always and we all had a blast. Later in the week, I'll post The Things I Learned at Adepticon. However, tonight I wanted to talk about the awesomeness that is Special Operations: Killzone. Brain and the team put together some very awesome tables and provided us all with a great opportunity to play.

My Death Cult Assassin is taking out one of Taneth's finest. 

Awesome Jungle Board with ruins. Plenty of places to hide here.

My Inquistor and Plasma totting henchmen stare down warriors of chaos...

With the Inquistor dead, the DCA had to take them all on her own!

Later the girls had to battle some brutal orks. 

I brought my Inquistorial Henchmen who started off slow, but built up steam as the day (Friday) progressed. I finished the first session with only one win but played Mission Denial at least once!

My plasma gunner had a great shot on a Kan. And it would have blown up, if it wasn't for a blasted cover save!

The Inquistor was brave. But died anyway, lol!

The squad moving among the buildings. 

I walked on the afternoon session and added a couple of wins for my Inquistor and ultimately took home best theme/appearance!  Yeah, my first Adepticon win!  I got a very awesome Chris Borer miniature as well.

The Artillerist, so awesome. I'm really happy to have this model. 

So thanks to Brain and the team for providing awesome tables, awesome prize support, and for just being awesome.

I'll be back soon with more pictures and thoughts about Adepticon. I hope that everyone hasn't forgotten about me in my internet absence!