From the Warp

So, I put myself up as a pundit for the FtW blogger group. Strange thing to do for someone who doesn't play pick up games and doesn't actually play that much at all. But hey ho, I'm not usually short of an opinion. So here it is:

The Space Wolf codex represents the latest and greatest in 40k Codex books from GW.The Tyranids codex is right around the corner and Blood Angels shortly after that.What do you think of the direction GW is taking with the new Codex books?

Somewhat understandably, SM are the largest selling faction in 40K. They (SM) are the best of the best and have the best tank, the best wargear, best basic troop profile and so on and so on. All designed to hook the 14year old boy and allow him to have the coolest army. Even the structure of the army in terms of FOC is easier to grasp (and therefore build a legal if not usable army) to enable the less experienced player to get started with their super army. And Termies are deliberately engineered by GW to be the pinnacle infantry of the entire game. Fair enough.

So that’s where any discussion like this begins. The SM have to have the shiniest and newest of everything all the time. Any respite in the release of SM stuff can only happen if the void is filled by their spiky brethren; who, let’s face it, are just another flavour of SM.

So a lot of people who want to play an interesting or challenging game or exercise their tactical acumen will use a different army (there are a few to choose from). But either through misty eyed nostalgia or just the desire to use everything they have (I still have my RTB 01 Blood Angels) there is a need for SM with a bit of character.

This has led to the SM Chapter specific codices. Some may see these as an attempt to make humanity’s finest power armoured super men even tougher but let’s say that the game designers know what they are doing and these codices are balanced. In this case, the Chapter codices become an attempt to provide some depth and character to what is otherwise simply an army composed of all of the very best stuff that the 40K universe can produce.

The “new and shiney” phenomenon is hardly unique to 40K. Some years ago games companies began issuing updating existing games instead of just launching new ones. So, just as there is the scramble to have the newest in 40k, so it is for new cars and computers and so on. Does your wife ever stop buying shoes ? It’s a thing we have to live with. I do get the impression that E-bay is full of yesterday’s must have armies.

So the new Space Wolf and Blood Angel codices do serve a purpose. However, what GW give us is as close to makes no difference a SM codex in between every other codex. Since I returned to the table top we’ve had SM, CSM and SW on the one hand and Orks and IG on the other, with Nid’s in the new year.

If this is what keeps GW afloat than so be it. But it would be much less frustrating for people who play 2nd and 3rd edition armies if their codices were revisited, even if only to revise the points cost (downwards !) perhaps in the form of an errata sheet. It is quite easy to develop the feeling that if you don’t play SM, then GW don’t care about you. Blaster and Shredder armed DE warriors, for instance, no longer appear to be available on the GW web site, denying the DE a troop slot template weapon. Not exactly helpful for DE players.

There are lots of threads out there in all the usual places (dakka, warseer et al) pointing out that points costs are coming down and that this means that to build the army you want you will spend more money on toy soldiers because you can afford it in terms of points. No brainer for GW.

So SM will continue to be constantly refreshed whilst the rest of us languish in some GW pending tray until they feel like a little capital investment. And we will be tempted to increase the size of our armies as time passes. These will happen, like death and taxes, no point in complaining.

One possible result of all this, once more of the codices have been revisited and their unit points costs reduced, might be that the points totals for pick up games tend to fall. Perhaps individuals who do not have the resources (cash for youngsters and students and/or building/painting time for us oldies) will just run smaller armies.

Another way it might change could be bigger tables to play on. Perhaps a 6’ by 6’ table will become more common, just to give players the space to play on. We’ve all seen the publicity pictures of Apoc tables; it does a certain appeal. And 40k is a fun game, not a simulation. But if the playing area is too small for your and your opponent’s armies then it’s not going to be much fun. If you’ve carefully crafted an army list that relies on a certain amount of manoeuvre space (Fritz), and you loose half of your capability in the first turn, not to the other guy’s brilliantly executed alpha strike, but to having no space on 6’ by 4’ table for the two enormous armies, then it’ll kill that day’s game for someone who was looking forward to exercising his tactical acumen.

Diseny's Incredible Journey

An e-mither from my wife; from Oct 09

Meet the wiliest of all coyotes:
Hit by a car at 75mph, embedded in the fender, rode for 600 miles and SURVIVED!
When a brother and sister struck a coyote at 75mph they assumed they had killed the animal and drove on.
They didn't realize this was the toughest creature ever to survive a hit-and-run.
Eight hours, two fuel stops, and 600 miles later they found the wild animal embedded in their front fender - and very much alive.
Daniel and Tevyn East were driving at night along Interstate 80 near the Nevada-Utah border when they noticed a pack of coyotes near the roadside (on October 12, 2009).
When one of the animals ran in front of the car, the impact sounded fatal so the siblings thought there no point in stopping.
'Right off the bat, we knew it was bad,' Daniel explained. 'We thought the story was over.'
After the incident around 1am, they continued their 600 mile drive to North San Juan - even stopping for fuel at least twice.
But it was only when they finally reached their destination at 9am did they take time to examine what damage they may have sustained.
At first it looked as though it was going to be quite gruesome.
'Daniel saw fur and the body inside the grill,'
Tevyn East said. 'I was trying to keep some distance.
Our assumption was it was part of the coyote - it didn't register it was the whole animal.'
Daniel East got a broom to try and pry the remains out of the bumper and got the shock of his life.
'It flinched,' Tevyn East said. 'It was a huge surprise - he got a little freaked out.'
'We knew it was bad': Tevyn East, who was in the car when it hit the coyote, bends down to take a look at the fur poking through the fender

Fur Pete's sake: What Mr. East spotted as he bent down to inspect the damage to his car - the body of the coyote poking out through the radiator
Wily coyote: The animal's head can be seen as rescuers took apart the front fender to save it after it was struck by the car at 75mph
As the animal struggled, wildlife protection officials put a loop around its neck to prevent it from further injuring itself
The front of the car is completely taken apart as the coyote begins to wriggle free
And voila! Tricky the toughest coyote ever rests in a cage after its ordeal - which it survived with just some scrapes to its paw

Link of the Day.

Deployment:

http://www.yesthetruthhurts.com/2009/11/discussion-deployment-101.html

Some nice ideas here. As the campaign escalates in 1000 point chunks, I suspect that these ideas (and reserves) will become more important.

FRPG - The tomb of Ankha Rattalla

w/e 23/24 Jan 10. Jake's House.

The rear party have things to contend with, this will be mostly written up before the game, as it requires only a policy desicion or two from your HedgeLord. But it might involve a change of scenery....

The action team have their mission; to secure the artifact before the baddies get it. I suspect that even if you write this in three foot high letters on a lorry and park it outside the window, you won't be able to remain focussed on the mission objective. You're all rubbish.

Escalation Pointy Eared Interlopers

Strike Force Elui reconnaissance in force (Craftworld Eldar) 1003 points

Farseer doom, fortune, mindwar
5 warlocks enhance, conceal, 3x destructor
Wave Serpent tank, skimmer, TL scatter lasers, TL catapults

Dire Avengers (9)
Dire Avengers Exarch power weapon, shimmer shield
Wave Serpent tank skimmer, TL scatter lasers, TL catapults

Rangers (5) infiltrate, move through cover, stealth

Striking Scorpions (8)
Striking Scorpion Exarch shadow strike, stalker

Sacred Guard detachment (Craftworld Eldar) 1007 points

Farseer doom, fortune, guide
4 warlocks 4 spiritseers, conceal, enhance, 2x destructor

Dire Avengers (6)
Dire Avengers Exarch blade storm, twin catapults

Rangers (5) infiltrate, move through cover, stealth

Dark Reapers (4)
Dark Reaper Exarch fast shot, tempest launcher

Wraithlord flamers, wraithsword, scatter laser

Wraithlord flamers, missile launcher

Kabal of the Broken Teaspoon (Dark Eldar) 976 points

Dracon Agoniser, Poisoned blades, Hell mask, Shadow field, Haywire grenades
Incubi (8 & Incubi master)
Raider Dark Lance, torture amp.

Warriors (8 & Sybarite)
Raider Dark Lance
Warriors (8 & Sybarite)
Raider Dark Lance
Warriors (8 & Sybarite)
Raider Dark Lance
Ravager Dark lance & 2x Disintegrators

Progress

Base coated the remaining personnel for the Tigers (too many flamers !). Did more work on the DE Wytches.

When Mrs Z goes climbing in the week, that'll give me a clear evening with Radcliffe and Macaroonie to get a bit further. Always assuming that it isn't the one night of the week that I'm in Kent.

Escalation Forces of the Imperium

Ordo Hereticus Expeditionary Force (Witch Hunters) 1000 points

Lady Inquisitrix Hammer of the witches, Word of the Emperor, Bionics, Carapace armour, Liber heresies, Psychic hood, Purity seals, Plasma pistols, Power stake.
Acolyte
Warrior (Guardsman Grenade launcher)
Warrior (Crusader Power sword, Suppression shield)
Chirurgeon
Familiar

Inquisitor Scourging, Carapace armour, Hexagrammic wards, Psychic hood, Inferno pistol, Power stake.
Warrior (Guardsman Flamer)
Warrior (Crusader Power sword, Suppression shield)
Sage
Chirurgeon

Death Cult Assassins (2) fearless, infiltrate, power weapon

Sisters Repentia (9) Eviscerator
Repentia Mistress Neural whips

Inquisitorial Storm Troopers (5) 3x Hellgun, melta, plasma

Imperial Guard Platoon

2lt Hammer Bolt pistol, power weapon
Platoon Cmd Squad 3x Grenade launchers, platoon standard

Squad Alpha (Sgt & 9) flamer

Squad Beta (Sgt & 9) plasma

Special Weapon Squad Gamma (6) 3x Sniper rifle

2nd Line Regt Devos IV PDF (5ed IG) 1000 points

Primaris Psyker
Lord Commissar

Psyker Battle Squad (4 & Overseer)

Design Platoon
Platoon Cmd Squad Platoon Standard, Missile Launcher
2lt Foche Power fist

1st Squad (Sgt & 9)
2nd Squad (Sgt & 9)
3rd Squad (3x Las cannon)
4th Squad (3x Heavy Bolter)

Accident Platoon
Platoon Cmd Squad Platoon Standard, Missile Launcher
2lt Ney Power fist

1st Squad (Sgt & 9)
2nd Squad (Sgt & 9) 10 bolters
3rd Squad (3x Las cannon)

Destroyer tank hunter tank, Laser destroyer, pintle storm bolter

Kursk Coy, 2nd Bn, Kado 540th Advance Party (5ed IG) 1001 points

Coy Cmd Squad Regtl Standard, plasma
Maj Chekov Refractor field, plasma pistol, power sword

3rd Platoon Cmd Squad 2x flamer
Lt Lenin

1st Squad (Sgt & 9) melta
2nd Squad (Sgt & 9) flamer
3rd Squad (Sgt & 9) melta
4th Squad (Sgt & 9) flamer
A-T Support Squad (att 333rd ASL) 3x Las cannon

4th Platoon Cmd Squad melta
Lt Marx

1st Squad (Sgt & 9) melta
2nd Squad (Sgt & 9) flamer
3rd Squad (Sgt & 9) melta
4th Squad (Sgt & 9) flamer

333rd Armageddon Steel Legion Armoured Sentinel Det (1x Plasma cannon, 2x Las cannon)

Escalation People's Libertine Army

Bloodcoats (5ed IG) 1080 points

Primaris Psyker


1st Platoon Command Squad melta,plasma,grenade launcher,flamer
Squad (sgt & 9) flamer
Squad (sgt & 9) grenade launcher
Squad (sgt & 9) melta
Squad (sgt & 9) plasma
Heavy Wpn Squad (3) mortars
Heavy Wpn Squad (3) mortars
Heavy Wpn Squad (3) mortars


2nd Platoon Command Squad grenade launcher,flamer
Squad (sgt & 9) flamer
Squad (sgt & 9) grenade launcher
Squad (sgt & 9) melta
Squad (sgt & 9) plasma
Heavy Wpn Squad (3) auto cannon
Heavy Wpn Squad (3) auto cannon
Heavy Wpn Squad (3) auto cannon

Tigers (Servants of Slaughter IA6) 1083 points

Exalted Champion (Maj Choo) bionics, melta bombs, shotgun, power weapon, refractor field
Veteran melta bombs, plasma pistol
Command Squad plasma

3rd Platoon Command Squad melta
(Lt Dolce) Bolter, Carapace Frag & Krak
Squad (Veteran & 9) flamer, plasma
Squad (10) flamer

4th Platoon Command Squad krak
(Lt Gabanna) Power weapon (daemon sword)
Squad (Veteran & 9) flamer

Sentinel Squadron
2x flamer, 1x multi laser

Disciples Squad (Champion & 8) Frag & Krak, infiltrate

Leman Russ MBT Battle cannon, track guards, hull mounted las cannon, HB Sponsons

Leman Russ MBT Battle cannon, track guards, hull mounted las cannon, HB Sponsons

Emperor’s Children (CSM) 1000 points

Daemon Prince mark of Slannesh, Lash of Submission

Squad Boyzone
8 noisemarines 2x sonic blaster, 1x blastmaster, 5 bolters fearless, powered armour
1 noise marine champion power fist

Squad JLS
7 noise marines 3 sonic blasters, 4 bolters, fearless, powered armour
1 noise marine champion power weapon (daemon sword)

Predator exterminator tank, auto cannon, HB sponsons, searchlight, smoke

Predator exterminator tank, auto cannon, HB sponsons, searchlight, smoke

Defiler (walker) Battle cannon, 2 dreadnought CCW, TL auto cannon, TL heavy flamer daemonic possession

Revising history

CNJ, MCH, KK;

I've learnted more rools.

Specifically things like when a unit comes off worse in close combat it has to make a morale check or break. And then the victor gets to make a 'Sweeping Advance' to inflict further damage on the routing unit.

If we had included these then the Eldar (dark & vanilla) would have been much better matched against the PLA, almost certainly getting further with each assault.

And the AP of a weapon is matched against their armour save; if the AP is equal or less than the value of the armour save then the victim does not get the save, they just snuff it. So that would have done for another half dozen of CNJ's guard.

C'est la vie. Or not, as the case may be.

Escalation army lists.

A lot of this (fortunately) is already painted. There are bits that are not - including the entire Emperor's Children list. So they'll wait until last - I'd want the others finished rather than jeopardising a list because I'd been painting the CSMs.

I'll post up three sets of lists over the coming days; the PLA, the Eldar interlopers and the forces of the Imperium. Just to whet the appetites of dos generales.

There will also be a few themed games. The capture (or not) of Maj Gen Marcus Firth III by the PLA. The rescue of Dracite Taple by the Kabal. And the stuggle for the Frabovoki Promethium terminal. Frabovoki is a single industry town (unsurprisingly). It's also the nexus of communication routes between Xyphonica and the western coast. So success here may well see either the forces of the Imperium fighting to retain their hold on Benq or the PLA beaten back across the plains to Xyphonica.

Opening Skirmishes (the Eldar arrive)

Alerted by the commotion, Farseer Dowllzie of Bel Tain, with a tiny seer council and honour guard of Avengers has come to Devos IV to assess the extent of the Great Enemy’s involvement. His three warlocks and five Avengers are being led by a team of five rangers through one of Xyphonica’s outlying districts to have a closer look.

Dacite Taple with her retinue of five incubi, accompanied by two half strength warrior squads is also probing Xyphonica’s suburbs, looking for opportunities, ready to just fly by.

Unfortunately for the Eldar (both flavours). They run into Capt Choo who is on his way back to report his sighting of Gen Firth. He has just linked up with a detachment of 99th Devos IV PDF Regt (“The Bloodcoats”) (the Varksian renegade list from IA5).

The Bloodcoat detachment is led by Capt Champion Raymondo and his Cmd squad, which includes a support squad of three heavy stubbers. He also has a rifle platoon of Cmd Squad and two rifle squads as well as band of concerned citizens (worker’s rabble). Now I’ve just discovered a huge disparity, for which I must apologise to CNJ (who did have a copy of the army list in his hand) but I put the squads together with a flamer. They were supposed to have auto cannons as well. Sorry.

So it was a gamma table CoD with spearhead deployment and a firesweep mission. The Eldar begin in the SW building and PLA begin in the NE building. There is monument in the SE corner (this is where the rangers have infiladed) and a larger ruin in the centre. 21:00 on Sat 14 Nov to 01:00 on Sun 15 Nov 09. MCH again played the Tigers, CNJ turned traitor to play the Bloodcoats. KK played the Eldar and I ran the Cabal of the Broken Teaspoon.

As the rangers see the vast number of PLA troops the Sacred Guard and Cabal of the Broken Teaspoon realise that they have to fight together to get away. Dacite Taple peels off to the north, shoots a sentinel with her raider’s Dark Lance (looses it’s flamer and just wanders around for the rest of the game) and ploughs straight into Capt Choo’s Tigers.

The other two squads in their raiders fly east, using the buildings as cover. The Farseer, council and honour guard also go east, using the buildings and raiders as cover. The rangers are already in the east and begin shooting at the Bloodcoat heavy stubber position on the second and third floors of the old generator building. The shoot one gunner and pin that team.

The heavy stubbers return fire, mowing down three rangers. The workers rabble surge forwards. The raiders dark lance the other sentinel.

On turn two Dacite Taple and her incubi charge a Tiger’s rifle squad and kill six of them in a gruesome and horrible fashion. The raiders and the Eldar sheltering behind them continue to travel East. The Tigers (including the mutant horde) all assault the Dacite. She and the Incubi shrug the whole thing off. The Bloodcoats mobile elements continue to advance in a westerly direction, bar one squad who are going for the monument to wrestle it from the rangers.

The incubi and Dacite, whilst never making their points back, nonetheless continue to tie up almost the entire Tiger’s army for the rest of the game. It takes them another three turns to take them down, loosing a fair portion of their strength in the process.

The Bloodcoats, with a stunning combination of flamer and heavy stubber fire, bring down a Raider, killing two of the warriors. The others disembark ready to shoot and then assault the Bloodcoat Cmd squad in front of them. The other raider squad shoot and then assault the rear of the team who are trying to sneak around the monument. Six die straight away and yet make their morale check.

The workers rabble dodge around the raiders and catch sight of the small unit of Avengers and charge. They make it into combat but don’t make much of an impact on the Fortuned aspect warriors.

The three warlocks counter charge. Destructor takes out three of the rabble and the witchblades take out another six. A Bloodcoat rifle squad reach where the surviving rangers were, only to find that the last one left has already run away.

During the last two turns the Tigers finally do for the DE HQ. The Bloodcoat command teams in the central ruin stunningly out perform the three surviving DE warriors, the last of which flees the battle field. The Avengers and seers do for all bar one of the workers rabble. They in turn loose numbers to the blood coats. The Dacites raider gets behind the generator building, survives everything thrown at it and fails to kill anything.

The game ends with the Bloodcoats planting the flag in two locations, contesting the monument and just about to march a spare command squad into the Eldar’s base location. So the pointy eared folk lost that one, then. We were amazed at just how resilient the incubi actually were. With a few more numbers, they really are something to be avoided by IG types. The heavy stubbers, as a squad, appeared to be much more effective than the heavy bolters were split out amongst squads. The game really did illustrate that even if each of the Eldar and DE units had just one more model in each, the result could have been radically different.

And the big lesson is not to rely on DE Raiders to screen your small elite army from a vast tar pit unit who are 5” away and looking for you.

So Capt Shoo now has Dacite Taple hog tied. He can report to Chaux Na M’rrsee that he has found Maj Gen Firth and also hand over a DE Dacite at the same time. Should be Maj Choo by teatime. Farseer Dowllsie will run for it. But once back in the webway, he is likely to gather together Bel Tain’s Sacred Guard and call on his friend Eldrad; whose Strike Force Elui is never too far from readiness.

Opening Skirmishes (very first one)

This is the western end of the table, the Tigers are flaming the 2nd regt squad. These then fell back, allowing the HB at the bottom of the picture and a lot of rapid fire to wipe out the rest of them.

From the east, looking west. The 2nd regt has HB teams and two rifle squads holding the ruins but the mutant horde has already reached the wall. The rest of the Tigers (at the top of this picture) are poised to follow on.

The PLA (People’s Libertine Army – the army of Chaux Na M’rrsee) are liberating the continent of Benq. The Imperial Governor, Maj Gen Marcus Firth III, is in retreat. Leading elements of the renegade PDF unit the 13th Devos IV Mech Regt (“The Tigers”) are closing with the rearguard of the PDF 2nd Regt, who are the Govenor’s household troops.

We played our first every 40K game (supposed to 40/40 !) despite being only 400 points a side, and referred, it lasted from 17:00 to 20:00. We learned that: Lascannon punch through sentinels like they are paper. And that sentinels and HW teams are bullet magnets. And that Rapid Fire and FRFSRF make an immediate and obvious difference.

The 2nd Regt’s rear guard comprised of Coy Cmd w/ lascannon, 3rd Pl Cmd w/ lascannon. 2 rifle squads with HB. 4th Pl Cmd with Lascannon and 2 rifle squads. The Coy Cmdr was MIA and so this stage of the withdrawl was actually being supervised by Maj Gen Firth himself.

The Tiger’s advance guard was led by Capt Choo and his Cmd Squad. He had at his disposal Lt Skol and his Cmd Squad with two rifle squads and two flamer scout sentinels. They were accompanied by a mutant horde who had joined for revenge after years of persecution by the ‘norms’.

The set up was DoW and the game was annihilation. 2nd Regt took control of the cover/buildings at the half way point and opened with a lascannon ambush of the sentinels. Capt Choo sent the mutants against the 2nd Regt’s position in a zulu like wave; this was held for three rounds by A/Sgt Hicks and his bullet magnet HB team. There was plenty of tit for tat on the extreme flank with Capt Choo hanging back, keeping his team as a reserve and the General kept another rifle squad back in cover as a reserve.

There were four or five hard fought rounds where the 2nd and the Tigers tried their darndest to get into a good position to do for each other. Eventually I woke up to the fact that MCH and CNJ would just fight each other to a stand still and so explained KPs and declared the last round.

Eventually the horde did force their way over the wall; but at the cost of almost all of them. A/Sgt Hicks’ squad became the last kill point.

The meta result was a draw (2 KPs each). The campaign result is that Capt Shoo knows that Maj Gen Firth is within striking distance.

Seconds out.

There are six armies. Three of us. So there'll be a chance to use each one, or to concentrate on using one or two. We'll make it up on the day.

Imperium of Man:
2nd regt infantry force with fire support
Valhallans - pure infantry

Interlopers:
Bel Tain - shooty Eldar scouting force
Dark Eldar - hover skif mounted raiding force with close combat HQ element

Rebels:
99th regt (Bloodcoats) infantry force with a modicum of fire support and workers rabble
13th regt (Tigers) infantry force with two sentinals and a mutant rabble

These are only 400 point armies (about 50 bodies) and really we're just doing this to learn the rules. There isn't much room for tactical shenanigans beyond the obvious.

Odd.

I've just caught a thread on YTTH http://www.yesthetruthhurts.com/2009/11/politically-correct-bad-for-hobby.html

Now Stelek is always the devils advocate and so on but the arguement here hinges on a subjective scoring element in competitions in the Antipodes. The gist of it is that if you bring a Stelek-esque killer army list and manage to crush everyone else in the tournament, then that is bad sportsmanship.

The rulebook and restrictions in the codecies are there to provide the balance and framework within which the game can be played. So if the Stelek-esque list is BRB and Codex 'legal' then bring it is simply that player maximising their chances of success in a competition.

It is a competition. If the tournament organiser feels the need to impose a different set of force organisation charts then that is still fair cop. If everyone has to build on 2HQ, 2 different Elite choices, 2 Troops, 2 Fast Attack and 2 different Heavy Support then that is still a level playing field. It is objective in that it is not open to interpreation by opinion; its all already in black and white and does not hinge on being a chum of the organiser or having a face that fits.

Penalising someone for a Stelek-esque or min/max or spam list has to be subjective. It is entirely within the opinion of the person charged with the responsibility to decide if someone's list is 'fair' this is not following the BRB or Codecies. No matter how fair minded and well intentioned, those whose own view of 'fourtykay is closest to that of the 'judge' will score the best.

A sportsmanship score should be given on the performance of the player at the table (and in the bar/shop/lounge). Patience, politeness, reasonableness and a whole host of other ness-es is what should make up someones 'sportsmanship' score; if such a thing were to be scored at all. And these should be in the view of their peers. This might include the organisers/referees but primarily is down to the other players.

Army composition has sod all to do with sportsmanship in an open, competitive, environment.
Now I know that I've been reading YTTH too much.

And...... Box !

Mrs Zzzzzz is going out 'later' (it's a hen do). So no start expected before Z14 10:00 Nov09.

Also, part of the fee is that she gets picked up from central Oxford. Which means that someone has to remain sober. So that'll be me then.

MCA will be busy (it's Alison's birthday). AD will be in and out, as dictated by her flighty and whimsical nature.

So the three of us, CNJ, MCH and Z will either be reffin' or playing the whole time (unless we can pursuade AD to 'have a go').

We'll quite probably have had enough by the time Mrs Zzzzz gets home; and there's no activity planned for Sunday.

Wotsit all about (Alfie ?)

OK: The whole Devos IV idea was for the four of us ol' drinking buddies to have a huge apoc fight. We all thought it would be fun and light releif from the FRPG.

However, I, as the supplier of the armies and so on, have found it a huge task and its taken over a year to get to where I (we) now are.

So what this means is that this weekend coming we have a series of patrol clashes. Six 400 point armies. So that's thirty games before we even have to fight someone we've fought before. Only two of these armies have vehciles (DE Raiders and the Tigers[Devos 13th] have a pair of scout sentinals).

Admiral Drax's blog today includes a link to here: http://goingoncampaign.blogspot.com/ which provoked the following random thoughts which had been coalsecing somewhere out there and have now made it to cogniscense.

The games, assuming we continue, will have to follow an escalation pattern as I manage to paint up more of each army. So it's sort of evolving already into a campaign. These patrol clashes will just be patrol clashes at the onset of hostilities on Devos IV. The next set of games, somewhere between 1000 and 1500 points, hopefully, will feature things like the Shrine of St Joesphine and the Pormethium refinary (seize the ground), an ambush of the IG supply column (running the gauntlet) and so on. Hopefully this will generate enough buy-in from the participants to lead to the next round (or two) of the escalation campaign; even if its only grudge matches.

Eventually we will get the apoc game when the IG try to liberate Marcus Firth and the Eldar go after Chaux Na.

114 Mech Coy (reprise)

For the third time of trying: The photo above is 114 Coy (-) with the armour added in. It looks untidy, there are obviously Chimera missing etc. Not good. Might not have enough unmade Grenadiers to actually fill out the third platoon. I think I've only got three unmade Chimera and three eagle doors; so if I include a Coy 2iC then that would leave me one short.

The oldest two Chimera actually wobble; I'd managed to put them together on the wonk, even with elastic bands, so my aspiration had been to do without those ones.

So to the next picture:

This shows the platoons reduced to a total of five squads, ie command squad and four squads. Now the 5ed codex doesn't allow for full strength command squads, however, there is enough space in a Chimera for a six body command squad and a special weapon squad as well. Which is going to be the way I go with these.

I really must get to grips with the airbrush. Soon.

Cadian 44th Light Recce Regt

These are the Cadian's Recce sleds. They are HALO 'warthog' toys with Cadians in them. The guys in the seats have sentinal pilot bodies cut off just below the knee. The sheilds on the MWIK bit are original; the HALO rotary cannon was hacked off and spare sentinal autocannons added.

There are three of them at the minute. I suspect that competitvely priced (in points) they might be quite good; mobile (fast) heavy weapon installations. Like a Vyper. But different.

This has been project HQ since April

This has been my workspace for all those months. This is it after tidying and moving most it home. The door to the cabin is just out of shot to the right and is open. Also a lot of leaves have fallen off of the trees and this shot was taken at about mid day. So it all looks quite light.

For most of the year, the leaf cover was very thick and due to the long hours on the pipeline project, I didn't get in here until about 20:00. You can see the mezzanine floor at the top of the picture. The main light for the cabin is near the apex of the roof; so between the tree cover, late hour and cabin lighting, the workspace was not light enough to work in, hence me bringing two lights from home.

So in the company of http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/shows/the-radcliffe-and-maconie-show/ for eight hours a week for six months I've been gluing and painting. I have really enjoyed being in the cabin and must thank Alasdair and Maggie for their horse brutality.

This is it from the outside, showing the bathroom extension. It looks very low here, but the floor is at ground level and not at the raised floor level of the rest of the cabin, so there is enough headroom.

It is quite a wonderful place, in the spring the woodland floor is blue with bluebells (there are also wood anemonies here as well as dogs mercury and lords and ladies deeper into the wood). It'd be a wonderful place to grow up.

Anyway. I'm moving my last possessions out today.

Potentially icky. PE Spoiler

OK. So during the 'Lost Temple of Demogorgon', Tud received a broken hip and femur. With no real medical care to speak of, with a long (well over a week) cross country journey through the mountains in atrocious weather, he should have died. Even once back in the Agadir, the amount of marrow in his bloodstream would have killed him. Two deaths. Dead twice. A PC bites the dust.

But Tud had previously spent some time looting corpses and stuffing what he had already been told (and could probably tell for himself by their creepiness) were demon tainted bits and peices down his underpants.

So then. Anyone wanna guess why Tud is still alive ?