GWpertinent

give my buddy a goblin...

2012-01-25T00:28:00.001-05:00

... and you could win a print of my Xmas gift - two of my blood bowl teams duking it out!!

I promised the jpeg of my Xmas gift, here it is in all it's glory!

torne bane flaming ears (undead) vs. the jawbreakers (counts as slann)

You can check out the details HERE - but basically in order to be eligible for the contest, you need to paint a goblin for Abraxis' blood bowl team and donate it to him. Therefore the prize had to be suitably awesome - hence the print. I will get it signed by the artist as well. He's also generously offered a coupon as a runner up prize

I selected the looney (chainsaw) goblin and plan to convert one similar to the rat wielding goblin I threw together for the blingtoof tournament. I will use the same body and throw a space marine chainsword on there, and add some pads, etc.

We already have five people entered, please consider entering - it's just a painted goblin and the prize is well worth it. Abraxis loved my idea of the harlequins painted by others as a necromunda gang so much he wanted something similar himself! I already have 7 painted harlequins and there are two more floating in the blog-o-sphere (one with Mik and one with Paul of "The Man Cave") so my spire brat gang is in great shape.

Slow start to 2012...

2012-01-18T22:24:00.000-05:00

and here's why.... we bought a house and moved in late December, so we have been getting settled. the advantage is I now get a permanent hobby room/man cave. :) Paul I'm sure you will approve!

front of room, with work/gaming table and shelves to left

will swap out monitor for big screen when ready

shot from the doorway to cold room

So, onto business;
* Part 1 is a pimp post I've owed the Oklahoma guys (Steve @kilowog2814 & Scott @fatfinley)

the #1 Blood Bowl podcast.... with an Episode Zero!!

Orclahomabowl brought to you by the same gingers who host the latest Blood Bowl podcast - Both Down!
You can check out the preview post I put up here. I got my dice in the mail last year before we moved, unfortunately just haven't had much chance for blogging or gaming. They are pretty sweet dice though - also happy to mention the pre-registration dice for Orclahomabowl have sold out so I guess it's going to go off a smash!

* Part 2 is posting about more harlequins painted by others for my spire brats necromunda gang.

First up is a harlequin I received from arabianknight over at Wee Blokes last year as we were packing up to move, so I've had this guy for a while. He also sent over a miniature for me to paint. All I got to before packing everything up was the skin, but you can see that pic below. I have some funky ideas about how to try painting some tartan plaid using washes for it.

loving the orange!!

I'm thinking plaid shorts!

Second up is the skaven miniature that hakomike sent over along with the gorgeously painted harlequin he did for me, which I've gushed about endlessly here. I plan to use washes for this guys fur, and maybe skin - but then use more standard paints for his clothing to really achieve some depth.

still lots to do - lol!

Third up is some great news about another harlequin painted for my by G.N.O.M.E. over at Spaaaaccee Shaaarrrkkks! He's finished up painting a harlequin for me, and is currently in process of thinking of something to send along for me to paint!

loving the paint scheme on this guy!!

Ooofff, that was longer than I thought - I will save the third part of "business" (my plans/thoughts for gaming & painting this year) for another post. I do have the CCKO blood bowl tournament coming up in around 10 days so hopefully that will kick start the hobby-ing!

Best Fiance EVER! merry christmas to ME!

2011-12-25T12:09:00.002-05:00

It has been a little over two years since a post similar to this one went up on my birthday. What a merry christmas it has turned out to be! My wonderful fiance has commissioned me another amazing piece of artwork by our friend Gavin (www.artbygavin.com) to decorate my new man cave! It's based on two of my blood bowl teams; the undead (Torne Bane Flaming Ears) and the team she helped me to paint, the slann (Jawbreakers).

Once again Gavin has completely outdone himself and included so much effort and detail into this painting - it is truly a masterpiece! I'll wait until I have the jpg's to post to describe all the amazing details and special little tidbits that he always incorporates into his work, but let's just say as usual ALL the details are picture perfect. Also speechless how brilliant my fiance is! Best christmas gift ever!

Orclahoma Bowl 2012

2011-11-10T15:52:00.001-05:00

Just wanted to bring to your attention a new Blood Bowl tournament happening in Oklahoma next January. I met the tournament organizers Scott (@fatfinley on twitter) and Steve (@kilowog2814) at the Chaos Cup this year. Very chill couple of guys who are involved with a podcast called Couch Pirate Radio (check out their recent Jam Session for some rather delayed Chaos Cup review!).

This will be their first tournament and from what I gathered the first blood bowl tournament ever in Oklahoma, so even though unfortunately it's a little far for me to attend, I wanted to support them by purchasing some dice and pimping their shit! Check out the wicked website Scott has put together at www.orclahomabowl.com!

Everywhere should have a blood bowl tournament within reasonable travel distance, so if you are in the area - get out there and support these guys. The tournament is only TEN BUCKS if you pre-register and is only a 1 day tournament so it's pretty accessible even for coaches new to the blood bowl tournament scene. The Chaos Cup was the first tournament for these guys but from checking out the rule pack they have clearly learned a lot and Orclahoma Bowl looks like it's going to be a blast!!

Some really cool points about the rules pack for Orclahoma Bowl

Love the weather combinations (obviously a homage to the local weather) I also always like seeing ALL tables being similarly affected by the weather.
Any team being able to buy greenskin star players is pretty thematic, I also like the highlander rule that could see teams counting on certain powerful star players being down a player if they come up against another team doing the same (I see this happening possibly with Ripper, a S6 troll without Really Stupid is a great thing!)
Save the Crom!

Finally, here's a pic of the cool dice!

blingtoof's gitbash - a fouling I will go!

2011-11-07T08:52:00.000-05:00

The inaugural blingtoof's gitbash is in the books and I fully succeeded (and I mean FULLY) in winning the "Best Fouler" award. I will save the details for further down the post but suffice to say that while second fouler had nearly triple the fouling points that third fouler had, he was still over 40 (yes FORTY) points behind me. MUHAHAHAHAAAAA!!!

"Best Fouler" trophy - bag of rats with chain

Game 1 was vs Tyler and his Orc team. There are some pics below. Unfortunately for him he left his thrower too exposed early after receiving the kick and I managed to (after fouling for that turn of course) blitz his thrower down and steal the ball. I stalled for a turn but by then a lot of his players were off the pitch so I scored to get more back on (to foul - lol). He very nearly started the game without taking an upgrade package but I made sure he did, that would have just been unfair. So he gave one blitzer +AG and someone +AV I think. In the second half I stalled too long and he caught my ghoul, then managed to work his way up the pitch to score. To be honest I wasn't too upset as I didn't really want to be winning all my games.

Game ended in a 1-1 tie and I garnered 24 (TWENTY FOUR) fouling points (6 stun, 5 KO, 2 CAS from fouls)

Game 2 was vs Chris (the tournament organizer) and his underworld. We all got a normal skill to give to a goblin and a normal skill for anyone. I gave my Fan Favourite goblin Sure Feet and my Leader mummy Grab. Chris got a quick 2-0 lead built up, and was really smart about avoiding my fouling. I did foul out a fair number of his guys including his pumpkin troll (see pics 2 & 3 from below). From there I caught up with two quick touchdowns of my own, but towards the end of the game he was looking pretty sure to get a third and I just took advantage of the proximity of his players to foul more!

Game 2 ended in a 3-2 loss and I scored 22 (TWENTY TWO) fouling points (2 stun, 4 KO, 3 CAS from fouls)

Game 3 was vs. Robert and his Orc team (there must have been at least four orc teams out of fourteen coaches). We again got two normal skills to distribute so I gave Sure Feet to my goblin with Sneaky Git and Guard to a wight. He had a pretty standard non-troll orc team and he was the eventual wooden spoon recipient. I tried to help Rob out a bit as he was obviously new to the game, so I showed him a bit about how to line up blocks so if you only get pushes you can block with another player, etc. I had a lot of trouble knocking down his Orcs (he had a lot of Block) and so suffered my lowest fouling points game in the tournament.

Game ended 2-0 win and I scored 15 (only fifteen? :-( ) fouling points (5 stun, 3 KO, 1 CAS from fouls)

So I ended day one with a respectable 1 win / 1 loss / 1 tie (especially considering how frequently I ignored the ball!) and a massive 61 (yes, SIXTY ONE) fouling points. The next highest had 40. I found out my next opponent was a chaos pact team so I was looking forward to fouling a bunch of goblins and skaven!

Game 4 was vs. Mark D and his chaos pact team. I gave my last skeleton Dirty Player and last goblin Sneaky Git. He quickly went up 2-0 but my fouling began to take it's toll. I totally ignored the ball for the entire game, and it led to a hilarious conclusion in the final turns of the second half. Marks ogre had kept blitzing towards the ball in my end while I was fouling the rest of his team near the scrimmage line. He managed to get the ogre to pick up the ball and all the way to the end zone. Then he called it - "watch now he's going to go bonehead on the end zone line" and of course - nuffle works with no mystery at all. 3 boneheads in a row gave me a chance to sneak a goblin onto the pitch and help tie up the ogre with a skeleton. In one of my last turns I just decided to throw a two die uphill block and double-kapow'd the ogre, breaking his armour and stunning him for Mark's last turn.

Game ended 2-0 loss and I racked up 26 (TWENTY SIX, hell yea!!) fouling points (4 stun, 1 KO, 5 CAS from fouls)

Game 5 was the final game and I was matched up against Craig who was also trying for the fouling award but quite far behind me in points. I gave my Fan Favourite goblin +AG and my wight with Tackle +ST. This was the second underworld team I played, and we both ignored the ball to concentrate on fouling (I did use it to distract him several times - AFTER my foul for that turn of course!) thanks to Stunty & Dirty Player I was quite successful in getting his players off the pitch. He kept throwing the ball into my end to try and keep the game tied. Late in the game, with his last player on the pitch (his troll) he threw a 3 die blitz against my same goblin who blocked Marks ogre down, rolled triple skulls and failed his loner to reroll! I then proceeded to break armour and KO the troll - BOOYAAH! With three turns left and the board empty of underworld players I did manage to score a touchdown (took all three turns cuz I had no rerolls and ghouls were dropping my hand offs!) which very nearly gave Craig the wooden spoon but he did have lots of fouling points which were first tiebreaker.

Game ended 1-0 win and I got 29 (TWENTY FREAKIN NINE!) fouling points (1 stun, 6 KO, 4 CAS from fouls.

Day two finished up 1 win / 1 loss and a massive 55 (FIFTY FIVE in two games!!) fouling points, bringing my grand total up to 116, with Craig (my final opponent) next highest with 72. "Best Fouler" was in the bag and I managed a pretty reasonable winning % as well with 2 wins / 2 losses / 1 tie.

Some other stats, I actually placed 7th overall, which is just into the top 50 percentile (with 14 coaches) and I was 8th for most touchdowns and 10th for most casualties.

Also congrats to my buddy Mike @ shiftedmatrix for winning Best Team award with his Nurgle Rotters.

dual posted on Merry Mayhem News

blingtoof undead/goblin roster

2011-11-05T00:00:00.001-04:00

Here's my roster for the blingtoof tournament starting tomorrow at meeplemart. Am pretty set on my plan but any tips for massive fouling is much appreciated! I even setup my printed roster with lots of space to track my fouling points!

mummy w leader
mummy
wight w tackle
wight
3x ghoul
2x zombie
2x skeleton w dirty player
skeleton
goblin
goblin w sneaky git
goblin w fan favourite
2x reroll
bribe

You read that right, 15 players! I am going all out for the fouling award, we are talking aiming for 80 turns of fouls over 5 games. Definitely expect to have some players ejected. I have the one cheap bribe (50K) available to sanctioned teams and decided to use the double for leader on a mummy.

Going to start w fan favourite goblin on the pitch.
Attempt to sneak on the vanilla gobbo sometime around turn 5-8.
Have 1 skel with dirty player on, save the other for when he gets ejected.
So hopefully late game I still have a dirty player and if I suffer bad ejections will have the gobbo with sneaky git.

Looking for advice regarding whether I play the vanilla skel or 3rd ghoul from the start? Thoughts??

Expect some live tweets tomorrow. Probably less than normal as time at the store is very tight, probably just every foul that results in something (could hopefully be lots of tweets - lol)

dual posted on Merry Mayhem News

extra goblin for blingtoof tournament

2011-11-03T23:39:00.000-04:00

You may have heard some mention of the upcoming blingtoof tournament that I am attending this weekend. The rules allow for any team to take any number of standard goblins, goblins get the most bonus skills and there's a way to sneak an extra goblin onto the pitch! What's not to like?!? There's even an award for the most fouling points which is the second most important trophy after winning!

ridiculous shouldpad lol

I have been making last minute tweaks to my list, but regardless of anything else I plan to take 3 standard goblins. This has the benefit of being considered a "sanctioned team" which gives you several benefits

stat and double boosts can be given to big guys (from your upgrade package)
purchase bribes as permanent roster addition (first is 50K)
+ 1 to rolls for cheering fans, brilliant coaching, throw a rock

So I am bringing my undead team and adding 3 goblins and going for the fouling award! This way I can get a cheap bribe and one of the goblins will be able to take "sneaky git" for fouling after my "dirty player(s)" have been kicked out. The bribe can also save your turn if you are trying to sneak a goblin on and fail. My current roster ideas have 14-15 players, muhahaha

Unfortunately I only had two painted goblins for my orc team I can borrow, so I needed a third! The trophies are all bags of rats, so in that vein I have made my third goblin from a monopose figure (as with most of my orc team) carrying a giant rat. Following the theme of my orc team (based on 1999 superbowl champion rams) I plucked a name & jersey number for this gobbo to use. He happened to be the kick return so I gave the goblin a giant shoulderpad. He came out pretty well for an old 4th edition monopose spearman goblin.

ps. Yay, first painting point in.... nearly three months. I might even be able to break 100 this year!

pps. Thanks to Mike @ shiftedmatrix for providing painting space while our condo is staged/showing.

Deathbowl IX: Year of the Elf summary

2011-10-30T20:13:00.000-04:00

Here I just wanted to compile a quick Deathbowl IX summary. My apologies for how long this has taken, I had no opportunity to post anything while in Ottawa for the tournament due to all the drinking and shenanigans - and once back I had an extremely busy week so this was really my first day with a solid chunk of free time I could devote to compiling the recaps.

Game 1 recap

Game 2 recap

Game 3 recap

Game 4 recap

In the end I went 1 win/2 losses/1 tie, and finished in 17th place (out of 20) - so another game would have put me on the bottom table! I finished just behind my opponent Colin (orxymandiuz) from game 4 even though we tied so I`m guessing he had less losses than me. Happy I managed to stay above the new kid Kohl who joined us for his first tournament (who won the rising star as he was greatly improved across the tournament) and considering who my losses were to I don't feel too bad about my performance.

Slann are definitely a strong team for the deathbowl format, getting Leap + Very Long Legs is a potent combination. I think next year I may need to try having a super player like Leathan does when the tournament rules offer than option. I will need to practice keeping that player alive too.

dual posted on Merry Mayhem News

Deathbowl IX (year of the elf): Game 4 tweet recap

2011-10-30T19:03:00.002-04:00

Sunday had the final game - I was all the way down on table 4 for the first time all tournament. Was playing against Colin, who I had never met before - very classy dude - I got a little amped up when everyone on the table thought he'd dodged without being next to my blitzer with diving tackle (he had, and it saved me getting a 3rd loss as diving tackle knocked his chance to score down) - and he took it with class and good sportsmanship! Nothing less than I'd expect from most blood bowl coaches!

Mark (halflings) was to my left and Chris (dwarves) was to my right. I've played them both before so there was plenty of trash talking and joking.

#db9g4 final game, slann vs slann and halfling vs dwarves gonna be a stoooopid game lol #bloodbowl

initial setup

#db9g4 fuckin halflings have scored twice, both thanks to throw team-mate :-@ #nufflelovestheunderdog

joked with the guys how all my pics were the setup - AFTER something happened

#db9g4 freaking dwarf intercepts my pass #damnyounuffle #whydoesnufflehateme

damn dwarves intercepted two of my passes

#db9g4 both slann teams manage to score, our game is tied, halflings still leading dwarves 2-0 #bloodbowl

more setup pics lol - blame the Chelsea game!

#db9g4 opponents slann intercepts a dwarf pass, then dwarves intercept my pass #nuffleowesmebig

second dwarf interception

#db9g4 dwarves scoring preserved my tie, just trying to screw the halflings chance to 1TT #dickmove

dick move complete!

So final tournament results for me were 1 win/2 losses/1 tie. Considering the two losses were to 1st/2nd place finishers I am happy with that. Always difficult when you start tournaments with convincing wins, as it puts you against the better coaches.

Deathbowl IX (year of the elf): Game 3 tweet recap

2011-10-30T18:38:00.000-04:00

A quick recap of game 3. By this time was pretty exhausted and it was taking most of my energy just to pay attention to the game. A few quick updates were all I had in me. After the first few updates I needed to focus on the game - only my opponent and I scored all game. Unfortunately instead of ending up as a 3-3 tie, my opponent (Pat from my right in game 2) managed to score an extra touchdown in the last round of turns instead of going the other way (up until that point we'd been trading scoring). Well played to him.

#db9g3 on table two, against elves. #bloodbowl still trying to get the ball

back on the normal deathbowl boards

#db9g3 turn 6 hoping to work my way into scoring position /bloodbowl

pushing up the right side

#db9g3 managed a score passing to a lineman, all tied up 1-1. #whutupshun #bloodbowl

woot, managed to score passing to a lineman

#db9g3 only me and my opponent have scored, it's 3-2 to him right now. 1 turn to go, will take a miracle to get a tie

he managed to score again instead of me, grrrr

So after this game I was 1 win/2 losses (losses were to 1st place - Leathan and eventual 2nd place winner - Pat) so I didn't feel too bad about them but they definitely hurt me in terms of ranking/tournament place.

Deathbowl IX (year of the elf): Game 2 tweet recap

2011-10-30T18:13:00.000-04:00

Recap of game 2, had a bad feeling at the beginning. Leathan is a notoriously tough opponent, because he generally takes a single super player and protects him very well making it terribly difficult to get to grips with him. I knew I would need help against him but with two elf teams going horizontally couldn't see much help coming from them. Good ol' Tom "Cat" (dark elf) was sitting to my left and Pat (pro elf) to my right.

#db9g2 been a tense match, losing 1-0 but have a chance to score in my turn 8 #bloodbowl #pleasenuffleplease

had the ball on the left, needed to stay on my feet - didn't happen

#db9g2 slann can't leap or dodge this game, had later turn in both halves, not good at playing reactive game #bloodbowl

going last definitely didn't help

#db9g2 slann tripping all over themselves. made one successful leap all game :-@ #nufflesucks #damnyounuffle

I think this setup was after Tom's TD

#db9g2 made a rerolled leap only to fail a 3+ dodge with reroll. lots of rerolls failing. #nufflesucks

picked up the ball in 3 tackle zones too!

#db9g2 a chance for a consolation touchdown, but it's in nuffles hands. #notexpectingmuch

got knocked over again!

#db9g2 getting whooped, might get scored on again, 6 failed leaps, 4 failed dodges, might be frogs legs for dinner

yup, he scored a third time :(

So after this game, I was 1 win/1 loss (to the eventual champion) and hoping my next game might see my leaps/dodges work. I ended up playing Pat who was to my right in game 2.

Deathbowl IX (year of the elf): Game 1 tweet recap

2011-10-30T17:59:00.000-04:00

Here's my recap of game 1. I was fortunate enough to start on the top table (absolutely sweet table to play on) and it was my slann vs. Robs necromantic (no flesh golems) and Peters pro elves vs. Philippes wood elves. I've played both Rob and Peter before, but this was Philippes first tournament (deathbowl to boot!).

A bit of his inexperience showed, and benefited me greatly - after winning the roll to go first, Philippe failed a "go for it" with reroll moving his second player - basically giving me first turn (though his treeman had a tackle zone on both balls)

#db9g1 game 1 of #deathbowlIX begins. went with the slann, it's all about leap baby!! #bloodbowl

first setup, pro elf on left, wood elf on right

#db9g1 slann in early control - holding both balls #whutupshun #bloodbowl @GDubToThaFeetUp

going first really gave the slann a huge edge

#db9g1 slann score on turn 4, possibly the earliest touchdown of the day #whutupshun #bloodbowl setup again already

pro elf & necro still have their turn 4, 1-0 slann!!

#db9g1 almost pull off the craziest pickup after scattering ball can't be caught by a bunch of pansy elves. #bloodbowl

at least four failed 4+ catch rolls by elven players

#db9g1 huge scrum in the middle of the board. nobody can hold onto a ball for long. #bloodbowl

slann are always a threat - even with few players on the pitch

Peter managed to score vs. Philippe in the closing turns of the first half, putting us both 1-0 over our opponents. Things are a little hazy now but I think I recall trying to stop him as well because I'd protected myself from getting scored on by Rob - but it could be the other way round and I helped him to score so Rob couldn't!

#db9g1 setup after 3 turns due to slann pulling off a crazy passing play #whutupshun ps. I still had the other ball

only 7 slann left standing, still 2-0 up

#db9g1 2 elf teams going sideways controlling the balls. necro team can't win, just failed another go for it #bloodbowl

Rob just couldn't get any rolls to go his way this game

#db9g1 slann pull off another insane passing play, bringing the ball all the way across the pitch #whutupshun

if I had counted better I could've pushed one more last turn and scored a third.

After the above pic, Peter managed to knock over my player (the ball scattered into the endzone) and put three tackle zones on the ball, he then pushed for his own touchdown and failed with a "go for it" (2+ with reroll). I nearly made it 3 touchdowns on my last turn by leaping onto the ball but failed the 5+ pickup with a 2. That was ok though because Peter failed to get a second touchdown by failing another "go for it" (2+ with reroll) which brought a mighty cheer to our table.

twice Peter failed 2+ with reroll for a 2nd touchdown to tie me for the table

So after game one, I won 2-0 tied on casualties and stayed on the top table to face Leathan (the eventual tournament winner) and his norse team (with 2 ST5 Ulfs and a MV9 Sure Hands, Sure Feet, Dodge runner!!)

It's almost MAYHEM time aka off to Deathbowl IX

2011-10-21T13:19:00.000-04:00

Well I completely failed at doing any painting at all on the team I wanted to bring this year (that I started painting immediately after last year - can you say EPIC fail???) but I feel I have sufficient excuse with how busy things have been (buying a house, staging our condo to sell, being the only guy left in our department at work) so I don't feel too bad about it - there's always next year!! For any NAF members you can check out the NAF thread for more info if you are interested!

In the end I couldn't even decide on a single roster, so I am bringing both the slann and elf models and will see how things pan out over tonight. I have 3 of my preferred rosters printed out (1 slann / 2 elf) which should be pretty sufficient to make a choice tonight. If anything the slann would only change a single skill on one catcher so I can just cross that out. If I end up re-doing the pro elf roster completely I could be in for some last minute scribbling!

who wouldn't wanna get their hands on this trophy!!

Just a quick update to remind everyone I will be doing some live tweeting during the games (should be easy when I have 3 turns to do nothing!!) probably with more pics since it's hosted at the T.O.s house - so wifi should be available. Depending on how quickly my games finish I will either do individual game recaps, or possibly day 1 / day 2 recaps on both blogs. My goal is to try and improve upon my 6th place finish last year, note to self (if using slann) - diving catch provides +1 to catching accurate passes!!

dual posted on Merry Mayhem News

BB downloads: Free Endzone!

2011-10-20T13:27:00.002-04:00

Generously offered for free (and combining well with the upcoming Impact Miniatures dungeonbowl tiles) by the awesome guys at Merry Mayhem News is a custom endzone for use in dungeonbowl games.

Merry Mayhem News: Freebie Endzone!

The Chaos Manifesto: 100th post and a give away!

2011-10-13T14:43:00.004-04:00

HOTpanda over at the Chaos Manifesto is having a little give away to mark the anniversary of his 100th post. All it takes is a follow to be eligible and if you pimp his post, you are entered for a secret prize too! I'll take the mystery box!

"it could even be a copy of dreadfleet"

Check it out here => The Chaos Manifesto: 100 Post by ME and a Give away from ME!!!

Space Hulk genestealer minis - 4 days left!

2011-10-12T10:55:00.000-04:00

Four days left on my auction of some nice Space Hulk 3rd edition miniatures! ~~Tell~~ Infect your friends!

22 Space Hulk Genestealers rare oop

Space Hulk Broodlord rare oop

Deathwatch Session 1: tau, spores and the unknown!

2011-10-10T12:51:00.001-04:00

Yesterday I got my first taste of RPG'ing in any form since about grade eight! I have been pretty excited to try out the Deathwatch RPG from Fantasy Flight Games. Who doesn't want to be a Space Marine! The group was Jason (playing a Blood Angel assault marine, Sepheren) Lorand (playing an Imperial Fist tactical marine, Alexander), Matt (playing a Space Wolf long fang, Baldur) and myself (playing a Flesh Tearer apothecary, Marius - thanks to my fiance for the vampire name to "borrow") and Mike acted as GM.

Marius - Flesh Tearers Apothecary

To start off with, we're playing pretty fast and loose with the rules. At least to begin with it's easier than trying to apply that whole huge rulebook from the start. We're all previous GW employees so our GM (Mike of shiftedmatrix) was pretty comfortable avoiding things like demeanours, since Matt knew how to act like a Space Wolf, etc. (aka Awwooooooooooo) We had 60 points of Requisition (to get equipment) which was spent on a chain-axe for me, heavy bolter suspensors for Matty, an auspex for Lorand (became a running joke all day long) and some special bolter rounds.

The background for this mission was a previous uninhabitable death world "Taros" on the fringe of Imperial space has suddenly spurted life in terms of some heavy vegetation and other life signs being detected through long range scans. We've been charged with a recon mission to determine what is occurring on this planet.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ + + + + + + + | INTERCEPTED MESSAGE FROM TAROS | + + + + + + + +
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

************************************ static ***************** chatter ***********
***** crackle ************* static *************** for the greater good ****

We were dropped for deep strike in a land speeder by Techmarine Aros (one of Mikes old characters) from a Storm Raven gunship and flew in towards the solitary radar ping we'd managed to pick up. Pretty quickly Baldur was able to smell blood and we found some near mutilated cattle like animals.

So after landing several hundred metres away from the blip we track in on foot to find a tower with a radar dish on top (we actually knew it was a tower before entering the clearing thanks to a slip of the tongue by Mike - lol). Alexander and Sepheren examined the terminal at the base of the tower, but managed to fail their tech-use attempts so badly that they did nothing but set off the alarm and release 4 gun drones!

investigating the tower, attacked by gun drones

Alexander took some damage from one of the drones while Matty took one out, Sepheren took out a couple in melee and I blasted away ineffectually. During the scrap the radar started turning to point off into the forest so we decided to book it (not directly but generally in that direction) in case we were about to be ambushed but to ensure some confusion was sown Sepheren decided to jet over the tower and drop a krak grenade on the radar equipment. Recon mission achieved LOL (We began to use the term "RECON'd" from this point to basically mean blow the crap out of it!) I also tried to heal Alexander and failed spectacularly (calling into question my ability to tell between my chain axe and the narthecium!)

Through the forest Sepheren was alert enough to spot a huge log trap swinging down in time to easily perform some evasive maneuvers and save our asses. Regardless of Alexander wanting us to all jump out of the flying land speeder to investigate we decided to hang tight until we came upon a small farming village.

We investigated all the buildings, finding more murdered cows and a dead Tau civilian, finally in the final building we found a power generator which when turned on powered up a computer system of some sort. Alexander had more luck with this version, finding a projected path for something to land nearby and an actual path along with a countdown showing somewhere between several hours and perhaps up to two days before the object landed.

I'm throwing the map in here to break up all the text. We landed near the X with the red circle, we almost got ambushed at the small x between there and the red square (the village we investigated) near the circular "danger" area (where we get ambushed!)

map of the newly vegetated area of Taros

When we tried to make our way back to the land speeder, a Tau piranha flew some warning "strafing" runs between us and the speeder. Alexander tried to take out the engine and only succeeded in convincing the gun drones they should disembark. Sepheren used his jump pack to scamble for cover. Matty missed the gun drone he fired at completely and I blasted one out of the sky. Sepheren then managed to jump and land right on the piranha with a threatening krak grenade and force the Tau to land.

We "negotiated" with the Tau, they were pretty insolent and I wanted to just end them, but in the end we followed them to this area they were too scared to investigate (wussys!!) and promised between ourselves we would go back and xeno-cide those rude cow faces!

They led us to the obviously scary dark area (we could have found it, should have shot them!) and took off like the scaredy cows they are! Being space marines we weren't worried at all and flew in on the land speeder.

We found these green "cloning" sacs in a large patch, many empty but some appearing full. We couldn't tell much from the outside so I blew one open with my bolt pistol so I could investigate. I was able to determine there was some similarity to Orks in the spores I found. At that point a giant cross between a troll and an ork crashed into the clearing howling and slammed into the land speeder. For the first time I had a really high initiative, so once Sepheren had maneuvered the speeder out of the way I charged in. Throughout this battle we fought three of these "trollorks" - the first I cleaved a huge chunk out of him before Baldur blasted him to bits. The second got the drop on Alexander and hurt him pretty bad. Marius kept showing up Sepheren as I had several headshots with my chain axe causing large amounts of damage and dodged all their attacks back while the assault marine was somewhat ineffective. The final trollork landed on the speeder causing a bunch of damage to it and sending Baldur flying. After smacking Sepheren a bit, Baldur and Alexander were able to take it down with combined weight of fire.

strange spore sacs, ambushed by crazy troll/ork hybrids

I then managed to heal Alexander completely and Sepheren flew us outta there back to a clearing in the forest. Our plan was to head back to the Tau settlement we had found but we called the game there due to the Leafs game starting pretty soon and we didn't want to end in the middle of an encounter.

All in all a very satisfying re-introduction to RPG'ing. Looking forward to our next session!

ps. I called this Session 1 as it was my first time, but the other three characters had played a bit before - so if any of them ever write anything up I'll link to it and call it Session 0 ;-)

Space Hulk bugs for sale

2011-10-10T11:50:00.000-04:00

I picked up an extra copy of Space Hulk recently to bulk up my Flesh Tearers terminators. I've sold the librarian and a 5 man squad already. Had no nibbles on bartertown though so I've put the 'stealers and broodlord up on eBay.

Had to relist the items as apparently the image I stole from google was of a resin copy! Sorry to anyone who was watching the previous auctions!

22 Space Hulk Genestealers rare oop

Space Hulk Broodlord rare oop

more painted stuff I had nothing to do with!!

2011-10-09T10:58:00.000-04:00

Except providing the fig itself (in some cases!!)

left to right by; Axt, hakomike, AbraxiS

Here's a quick snap of three (count 'em, 3!) harlequins painted for me by others. You can see who painted them in the caption, and likely know already - but in case you don't - the one in the middle I've posted about before, and was generously painted by Golden Daemon Winner Mike Howell (check out his blog / follow his twitter) and the others were generously painted by my good buddies AbraxiS (follow his twitter) & Axt from over at Merry Mayhem News. Thanks again Gents!!

These are added to my other two harlequins (1 needs some touching up) to form my Spire Brat pack for Necromunda (based on Anthony Cases rules). Five gives me a good start and considering how expensive their equipment is, could be enough for a whole gang - but if you know me at all I like choice! There are at least four (count 'em 4!!!) harlequins out there around the world with some amount of paint on them and eventually headed for me!

Finally a special bonus was included in the package from those crazy Portuguese @ Merry Mayhem News. Axt took it upon himself to build me a couple blood bowl counters/tokens. I was surprised and excited to see there was more than the harlequins in the box that arrived. The hand coming out of the ground even glows in the dark! Am looking forward to using both of these at the upcoming blingtoof tournament here in Toronto (a goblin themed tournament where I am going to bring my undead with a few goblins, the orc counter will be my bribe!)

custom torne bane flaming ears counter & random orc-y counter

If you haven't tried it, I highly recommend trading some painting with people. You end up with some pieces that are truly meaningful and have huge sentimental value, and you get the chance to paint up some stuff that may be outside your usual wheelhouse (I painted a cowboy and a "anime/manga" looking character for Dave of mini painting for free)

Currently on my dock, I have;

A goliath looking near future ganger type for arabianknight (from E4 miniatures I believe)
A zombie for Axts massive zombie collection (will be a "fan" of my Torne Bane Flaming Ears blood bowl team)
A skaven warplock engineer that arrived with the harlquin painted by Mike Howell. Will definitely be using some staining methods for his fur!

also posted on Merry Mayhem News

Dread Drop Pods

2011-10-08T22:58:00.001-04:00

Just wanted to get a quick post up about the two custom drop pods I picked up from Ashton (redfinger). They are converted with plasticard from the standard pod kit. One will go to Ric (ricalopia) for my Flesh Tearers (obviously the red one) and the other will be the final drop pod for my Novamarines.

Heard there's some new rules in the updated apocalypse book, looking forward to testing them out!

Deathbowl in 2 week(end)s!

2011-10-06T16:57:00.000-04:00

Well the weekend of Oct 22nd/23rd is fast approaching. Unfortunately due to real life I have had zero opportunity/motivation to get painting on the team I was hoping to bring this year. It's still sitting with 3 models mostly basecoated and that's it. I might be able to get some work done on it this weekend - but I really wanted it to compete for best team the tournament I introduced it so it's kinda 50/50. I had my folks bring my Dark Elf team as well as my "Jawbreakers" (counts as Slann) to dinner tonight (most of my stuff is still packed and at their place while we resolve buying a house/moving) as a fail safe so I have options in case I don't get the other team painted in time (highly likely!!)

Please vote on the deathbowl poll, options are;
Pro Elves (bring new team even if just basecoated, failing that dark elves)
Pro Elves (if new team isn't shaded/highlighted, bring dark elves)
Slann (who doesn't love jawbreakers)

I still have (and love) the Slann roster from last year. Leap in deathbowl is freakin' awesome. Also a little nervous to use the dark elves as I'd end up using witch elves as catchers and other silly near proxying, which could annoy opponents but also mess me up!!

My goal will be to try to get some more figures basecoated this weekend and see if getting the team fully painted is a possibility.

EDIT: I can't get the poll text to display as white so it makes it pretty pointless. Just let me know in the comments what you think!!

Deathbowl IX coming up... decisions decisions

2011-09-28T09:49:00.000-04:00

Hot on the heels of my Chaos Cup coverage, Deathbowl IX is not far away!! I've begun planning my team roster. I had great success using Slann last year (my infamous Jawbreakers counts as team) coming in 6th. This year is "Year of the Elf" so Pro Elf teams get bonuses this time around. Each Pro Elf team will get a "Magic Codpiece" (this stops any adjustments being made to armour/injury rolls from skills such as Mighty Blow) and as well armour increases only cost 10K, and you can get two of them (however if you do, you fail Go For It rolls on a 1 or 2)

I debated bringing the Jawbreakers again - all that Leap is really helpful in Deathbowl format. Considering how well I did last year and how I forgot about the other benefits of Diving Catch (+1 to accurate passes, I forgot the entire tournament!) it's very tempting to bring the exact same roster. The "Magic Codpiece" is pretty solid though as it would nullify some of the concern about making one very strong player who should always be able to get the ball.

I have a new team I kinda started painting that I am debating trying to finish for Deathbowl this year. Failing that I could possibly draft in my dark elf team as Pro Elves. Here are a couple Pro Elf rosters - TV1250 and remember AV for Pro Elves this year is only 10K and can be taken twice.

Blitzer; AG5, Dodge, Leap, Strip Ball
Blitzer; Tackle
Catcher; Block, Dodge, Sure Feet
Catcher; Block, Dodge, Sure Feet
3x Lineelf; AV9
2x Lineelf
Thrower; Sure Hands
Thrower; Leader
Reroll

Blitzer; AG5, AV9, Dodge, Leap, Strip Ball
Blitzer; Tackle
Catcher; AV8, Block, Dodge, Sure Feet
Catcher; AV8, Block, Dodge, Sure Feet
3x Lineelf; AV8
2x Lineelf
Thrower; Sure Hands
Thrower; Leader
Reroll

Leaning towards the second as it would keep my more important players around longer with the extra armour - thoughts? Or do I bring back the Jawbreakers? Here is the roster from last year. I would probably drop Nerves of Steel on one catcher to get Block on all of them.

Catcher - block/dodge/sure hands
Catcher - block/dodge/nerves of steel
Catcher - block/dodge/guard
Catcher - dodge/tackle
Blitzer - strip ball
Blitzer - tackle
Line - leader
4x Line - no extra skills
2 Rerolls

a bunch of Flesh Tearers commission updates

2011-09-22T21:43:00.000-04:00

Well, even though I haven't had time to post about it - that doesn't mean that Ric hasn't been hard at work!

Three updates have gone by since my last post about the terminators - time to pimp them a bit! I have just included a single pic, but each "heading" is a link to his full blog post with multiple pics.

Deathwatch Apothecary

powerfist/standard apothecary backpack configuration

This guy comes with four different right arms (so far!); chain axe, hand flamer, infernus pistol, power fist and both a normal apothecary backpack and a jump pack. This is beneficial both for my Flesh Tearers army and for games of Deathwatch (which we are supposed to do not this weekend or the next but the one after!)

Space Hulk Dead Terminator on Throne objective

I get the feelin Ric was bored this day ;)

For my Space Hulk objectives I mounted them all on square bases. I also glued a magnet onto the arm of the throne so the magnet in the cup would allow the cup to stick to this objective.

Completed Assault Squad (with meltaguns!)

now with 2 meltaguns!

The original five were the first things Ric painted, and just had 4 bolt pistol/ccw marines plus the power fist sergeant - now they are ready to blow up a vehicle first and then tear the occupants to shreds! The hazard stripes really make these guys pop!

Huge thanks to Ric! He has shipped over the deathwatch apothecary so I can use him for RPGs, but the rest he's going to hold off shipping until we have found/purchased and settled in a house! He plans to work on a Land Raider: Crusader next - looking forward to it!!!

Chaos Cup - Game 6

2011-09-22T00:02:00.001-04:00

For the last game I bounced back up to table 13 (possibly an omen) and played against Chad and his Chaos Dwarves (yay, another AV9 team!) who was the third from Rockford (they all had names starting with C strangely enough).

Additionally since it's the Chaos Cup everyone got two free mutations for unskilled 0-12 or 0-16 roster spots, and you got to wait to see who your opponent would be. I debated Claw but had not been throwing many blocks with my Zombies so in the end I plumped for Foul Appearance on both.

Here's his roster
2 Bull Centaurs w Block
2 Chaos Dwarves w Guard
2 Chaos Dwarves w Stand Firm
Chaos Dwarf w Leader
Chaos Dwarf
2 Hobgoblins w Pro
2 Hobgoblins w Extra Arms (his two free mutations)

Below are my tweets from the final game. Chad enjoyed using my pre-registration red dice and they rewarded him! My models refused to stay on the pitch and once knocked out wouldn't come back either! Pipeline had to leave after game five and my joke was he left me with his luck! Also kept joking about hiding the red dice from Chad ;-) Game ended 1-2 loss, 1-3 CAS and earned me 12 tournament points.

Final game, picked foul appearance for my two zombie mutations.

Skull/chopblock x2 = stunned mummy. D'oh!

Managed to squirrel my sure hands ghoul down right near his endzone from a tough position.

Pretty much best kickoff I could get, ball far in the corner and perfect defence! ** this turned out NOT to be the case as I tried to hold up his Bull Centaurs with my Mummies in the wide zones and ... (see next tweet) **

Looking likely the chaos dwarves will tie it up before halftime. BOTH mummies taken out in one turn :-(

Pulled off a magic move, dodge into 3 tackle zones and uphill blocked the bull centaur down with wrestle.

Followed quickly by failing a 3+ dodge with reroll. wah waaaaaaah.

dual posted on Merry Mayhem News

Chaos Cup - Game 5

2011-09-21T23:57:00.001-04:00

Game 5 saw me on table 17 pitted against Paul (pipeline of "BANG" infamy) and his Chaos team "69 Dudes!" who unfortunately had terrible luck during the game but we later had a great chat about my visit to the Chicago Art Institute on Friday (where he works as a network admin) which was really cool and interesting.

His roster was
2 Chaos Warriors w Mighty Blow
Chaos Warrior w Leader
Chaos Warrior
2 Beastmen w Block
Beastman w Frenzy
3 Beastmen
Minotaur
Reroll

Same as all the previous posts my tweets are below. When my first block was double skulls I thought it was going to be painful for me but it turned around pretty quick. Pipeline took his licks with good sport and quick wit! Game ended 2-0 win and 1-1 CAS, netting me 62 tournament points.

Playing the infamous pipeline. double skulls for my first block :-@ not how I wanted to start day two.

War of attrition going OK, 1 chaos warrior and 1 beastman KO'd.

Averaging a KO per turn by turn four! #whutupshun

Quick progress upfield by the 69 Dudes! Turn 3 starts now.

Poor pipeline has nothing go his way, rerolls burned early and at least six pure skull or skull/chopblocks blocks.

dual posted on Merry Mayhem News