Regarding 40K Releases and Multiple Armies

(Here's my thoughts regarding the recent spate of quick releases for 40K.  I left it as a comment on BoLS, but I'm going to avoid the impulse to dress it up.)

I suspect Games Workshop has been stalling releases a bit, waiting for some of the pending legislation to work its way through the courts; Chapterhouse being perhaps the largest example.
From what I can tell - and of course, this isn't an expert opinion by any stretch - GW may lose out their claim of IP on any model that isn't already in production in some way. Perhaps they slowed down their production toward the end of 5th with the expectation that books and a full range of miniatures needed to be released at one time?
Ah well. I'm really enjoying the releases, but this definitely heralds the age of collecting an army or two, not ranges, and certainly not every army! It's too expensive for the average gamer to own and support more than a few anymore.
Pick your favorite!

Of course, time is also an investment!  Here's all the stuff for my stalled out Bugs! army.  I'll get around to it one of these days, but it's just a huge project to tackle.

Quickly Painting to 3-Color Minimum

Here's a project I've been working on the past week, which was basically painting vehicles.  Traditionally, I've not enjoyed it much.  My past efforts haven't been that stellar.

My idea was to let the base coats do much of the grunt work I find so difficult on large, flat spaces; that is, blending effects.  This was accomplished by using four spray coats from different angles.

I used black as the primary base, followed by silver, then yellow from a few different directions and brown from underneath, spraying occasionally from a 45 degree angle for some bleed over.

The doors were easy.  I popped out two, hit them from the top, not spraying all the way down, then turned the model and did two more doors.

The paints I used.

At that point, it was a matter of doing the details, but I didn't kill myself trying to reinvent the wheel.  I basically cleaned up some spots and blocked out some black areas for contrast.

I got a bit happy, putting together this model and painting him up.

That's about it, really.  Thoughts?

Daemon Prince of Slaanesh (and BoLS Draft)

Brent here, and I recently finished painting a Keeper of Secrets for TimCan, to add to his ever-increasing Daemons army for Warhammer 40K, so - as ever - I'm dropping the photos here on Strictly Average.

Normally at this point, that's about it, but in the spirit of an active Sunday Morning, with the Honey-Do-List Honey-It's-Done and the paint drying on felt in a new dice box...

...man, that's kind of a long sentence...

...I thought, why not?  Let's crack open the book and check out the basic rules a bit.

Okay, the basic rule from the main rulebook provides a Daemon with a  5+ Invulnerable Save and Fear.  Note, that's not Fearless!  Reading under the Fear rule:

"At the start of each Fight sub-phase, a unit in base contact with one or more enemy models that cause Fear must take a Leadership test (called a Fear test) before any blows are struck.  If the test is passed, (edit) there is no effect.  If the test is failed (edit) all models have their Weapon Skill reduced to 1 for the remainder of the fight sub-phase."

Practically speaking, the Fear causing unit will hit on 3's and the Fear struck unit will usually require 5's.  Units with a model that has the And They Shall Know No Fear or Fearless special rules won't have to take the Fear test.  Neither will Daemons; the relevant section is under Daemonic Instability:

"Units with this special rule will automatically pass Fear, Pinning, and Morale tests..."

Instead of Morale, a Daemonic unit rolls for Daemonic Instability.  A double-1 or double-6 is a special result, either returning or removing all models, respectively, but any other roll is adjusted by any modifiers (usually the amount of wounds the Daemonic unit lost combat by) and can obviously destroy any remaining models.

What's interesting here is how these wounds are applied.  The Daemons Codex states:

"For each point the unit fails its Daemonic Instability by, it suffers one additional Wound, allocated by the unit's owning player and with no saves of any kind allowed."

So does this mean, for example, that a player could allocate one wound to each of three remaining Fiends?  No.  The owning player could choose where the initial wound is allocated, but page 25 of the rulebook, last paragraph, states:

"Once a model has a Wound allocated to it, you must continue to allocate wounds to it until it is either removed as a casualty or the Wound pool is empty."

Easy enough.  One Fiend would be removed due to Daemonic Instability.  It should be noted this does not mean that a model previously wounded (for example, in the combat itself, or even as a result of Instability from a previous round) would have to be allocated wounds until destroyed.  The process ends when "the Wound pool is empty," providing for a definite start and finish to the Daemonic Instability process.

Well, what started on Sunday ended this dreary Monday morning.  This is a partial draft of this week's Terrible Tuesday article, so if anyone sees any errors in the text, please let me know.

Creating a Blood-Soaked Monstrous Base

Or rather, did this work??

As strange as this sounds, I've never really tried the 'soaked in blood' base idea.  So I started from white...

...but in hindsight a nice coat of red over that would have been a better base to work from.  I just started layering on different glazes and washes and such.  Not only did it take forever to dry, it required multiple layers and waaaaay too much paint / glaze / wash... you get the idea.

Here's a pic of the final product, without using the flash on the camera.  Since it looked more 'muddy rust' than 'fresh blood'...

I layered on some 'Ard Coat for the shine.

Here's the work-in-progress miniature, which I'm trying to paint using James Wappel's method of putting down midtones before shadows then highlights.  At this point, I was really just started.  Should be done tomorrow.

As I look at these pictures, it still needs some cleaning up - anyone got any good ideas for an easier way to do this?

Battle Report, Chaos vs Salamanders

It's been awhile since I've done a 40K Battle Report, largely because it's been some time since there have been two painted armies on the board at the FLGS!  Things in my area of the woods have been in flux, and it's more likely I'll bring you Infinity reports than 40K ones in the near future.

Still, last Saturday I got to duke it out with a new local, Spencer.  (Haven't gotten around to naming him yet - it'll happen.)  Anyway, I won't waste too much page-space on words; instead it's big pictures, little captions time.

I'm playing a basic CSM list, which I discussed a few posts back.  Spencer has a nifty Vulcan list, naturally chock full of Melta and Flamer weapons.

Daemons... just too lazy to try...

Okay, I've got the new Daemons Codex... now what to do with it?

I've got a game at the FLGS in about an hour, so it seems like a good time to try out the new book.  That said, while I've got a gazillion models, about half a gazillion aren't put together.  I don't want to take on that chore until I have an idea what direction I want to take the list.

To that end, I'm going to put together my old, tournament winning list and see if it's worth a crap now.

Scratch that.  Turns out, the Horrors are in the dip.  I had this vague, partially formed idea that I'd use the smaller, metal Horrors as Blue Horrors to fill out units.  So in the dip they went!

Here's a better idea - I'm going to put together a Chaos Space Marine army with Daemon allies.  I'll be able to try out some new goodies without stretching it too much.  We've not been playing much 40K around these parts, so I'm rusty.

Scratch that.  Except the part about being rusty.  Turns out, without Army Builder to help me kick around lists, I'm forced to resort to...

...creating a spreadsheet to do the work for me.  Can't kick around with a pen and a blank piece of paper anymore.

So I just built a Chaos Space Marine Roster.  Talk about lazy.

* * * 

2000 Pts - Chaos Space Marines Roster - (NICE AND BASIC!)

1 Chaos Lord in Terminator Armour, 142 pts ((C:CSM, pp. 31 & 93); Infantry (Character); Terminator Armour; Mark of Khorne; Power Sword; Power Fist; Bulky; Champion of Chaos; Counter-attack; Fearless; Hatred (Space Marines); Independent Character; Rage; Veterans of the Long War; Warlord)
5 Khorne Berzerkers, 200 pts ((C:CSM, pp. 44 & 98); Infantry; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Icon of Wrath; Bolt Pistol x3; Close Combat Weapon x5; Plasma Pistol x2; Counter-attack; Fearless; Furious Charge; Furious Charge; Hatred (Space Marines); Mark of Khorne; Rage; Veterans of the Long War)
   1 Berzerker Champion ((C:CSM, pp. 44 & 98); Infantry (Character); Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Bolt Pistol; Power Fist x1; Champion of Chaos; Counter-attack; Fearless; Furious Charge; Hatred (Space Marines); Mark of Khorne; Rage; Veterans of the Long War)
1 Chaos Land Raider, 245 pts ((C:CSM, pp. 55 & 103); Vehicle (Transport); 10 model capacity; Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Daemonic Possession; Twin-Linked Heavy Bolter; Twin-linked Lascannons (each side); Assault Vehicle)

9 Thousand Sons, 265 pts ((C:CSM, pp. 43 & 98); Infantry; Aura of Dark Glory; Inferno Bolts; Power Armour; Boltgun w/ Inferno Bolts x9; Fearless; Hatred (Space Marines); Mark of Tzeentch; Slow and Purposeful; Veterans of the Long War)
   1 Aspiring Sorcerer ((C:CSM, pp. 43 & 98); Infantry (Character); Aura of Dark Glory; Inferno Bolts; Power Armour; Bolt Pistol w/ Inferno Bolts; Force Sword; Champion of Chaos; Fearless; Hatred (Space Marines); Mark of Tzeentch; Psyker (Mastery Level 1); Slow and Purposeful; Veterans of the Long War; Biomancy; Pyromancy; Telepathy; Tzeentch)

9 Chaos Space Marines, 230 pts ((C:CSM, pp. 37 & 95); Infantry; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Bolt Pistol x9; Boltgun x7; Meltagun; Heavy Bolter; Hatred (Space Marines); Veterans of the Long War)
   1 Aspiring Champion ((C:CSM, pp. 37 & 95); Infantry (Character); Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Bolt Pistol; Boltgun; Power Fist x1; Champion of Chaos; Hatred (Space Marines); Veterans of the Long War)
   1 Chaos Rhino ((C:CSM, pp. 54 & 99); Vehicle (Transport); 10 model capacity; Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Combi-Boltgun; Repair)

9 Chaos Space Marines, 230 pts ((C:CSM, pp. 37 & 95); Infantry; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Bolt Pistol x9; Boltgun x7; Meltagun; Heavy Bolter; Hatred (Space Marines); Veterans of the Long War)
   1 Aspiring Champion ((C:CSM, pp. 37 & 95); Infantry (Character); Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Bolt Pistol; Boltgun; Power Fist x1; Champion of Chaos; Hatred (Space Marines); Veterans of the Long War)
   1 Chaos Rhino ((C:CSM, pp. 54 & 99); Vehicle (Transport); 10 model capacity; Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Combi-Boltgun; Repair)

9 Chaos Space Marines, 245 pts ((C:CSM, pp. 37 & 95); Infantry; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Bolt Pistol x9; Boltgun x7; Plasma gun; Lascannon; Hatred (Space Marines); Veterans of the Long War)
   1 Aspiring Champion ((C:CSM, pp. 37 & 95); Infantry (Character); Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Bolt Pistol; Boltgun; Power Fist x1; Champion of Chaos; Hatred (Space Marines); Veterans of the Long War)
   1 Chaos Rhino ((C:CSM, pp. 54 & 99); Vehicle (Transport); 10 model capacity; Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Combi-Boltgun; Repair)

9 Chaos Space Marines, 210 pts ((C:CSM, pp. 37 & 95); Infantry; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Bolt Pistol x9; Boltgun x7; Plasma gun; Lascannon; Hatred (Space Marines); Veterans of the Long War)
   1 Aspiring Champion ((C:CSM, pp. 37 & 95); Infantry (Character); Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Bolt Pistol; Boltgun; Power Fist x1; Champion of Chaos; Hatred (Space Marines); Veterans of the Long War)
1 Aegis Defence Lines, 100 pts (Battlefield Debris (Defence Lines))
   1 Gun Emplacement (Quad-gun)

1 Chaos Vindicator, 130 pts ((C:CSM, pp. 55 & 103); Vehicle (Tank); Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Extra Armour; Demolisher Cannon)