EPIC28

Playing EPIC in 28mm.

Friday 30 May 2014

Goodies, goodie, goodie, gum, gum. (Sorry if you didn't grow up watching BBC in the 1970s)

The bizarre title will be explained further down.


Amera Plastic Buildings, as seen in the fortymunda posts.  Six buildings and a pretty nifty bunker for a shade under £100.


Someone (The Responsible One perhaps ?  He is pretty keen on scenery) mentiioned that they sometimes don't stand up too well to sustained use.  And the really tall building you can see here did need one floor re-gluing after the fight. However, they are not likely to see more than half a dozen days of use each year, so I've no really qualms about that.


And this is one of the helpers destroying the illusion of scale (she's not really a deformed headless bitch, she's looking the other way ).

Anyway, this last picture (and the other unpublished ones) reminded me of this: Giant Kitten wrecking London. Which explains the title.  And yes, Michael Aspell did once used to be a news reader.




Tuesday 27 May 2014

Waffenritters Assembled.


Command group - in the IA books you can build a deathrider PCS, so here it is.  The Empire standard is trimmed to get rid of the arm etc and there are set of IG finals to go on top.  The flag is not attached to the brass rod, so it could be changed out for something else.


More of 'em.  These fellows are off to the seaside for a lick o'paint.


Here they all are; PCS and three squads of Sgt (watchmaster) and nine. If you've put DKK infantry together before (esp the Grenadiers) then don't be scared of these - they are much easier to put together.

Wednesday 21 May 2014

Fortynumda

There were a number of gangs:

De Laque
Cawdor
Van Saar
NYPD/Carabineri
Orangedemptionists
The Socialised Workers Party
Escher
Brotherhood of Drums and Flames
Porns of Chaos
Loup Grous
Striking Scorpions
Iron Broo
Wrecks
Mordian 7th
Black Templars

We got through them all in seven hours.  No idea how many turns, twelve maybe ?  The Players were randomised and then worked through the gangs in the order presented - largely because they'd been written in that order and had a reasonably strong sequential narrative holding the thing together.



The BT were last on the table with two Tac Squads in Rhinos and orders to purge the district.  Seemed to have a decent level of finality to it.

The Brotherhood of Drums and Flames possibly had the best kill ratio (ie greatest number of charred victims in the shortest amount of time) in the hands of Courtney from Cadian 127th.

There was a lot less collaboration than I expected; I thought there would have been a shifting pattern of alliances going on with plenty of double crossing and broken promises.  Disappointingly there was nothing of the sort.  Gangs came on and were promptly wiped out to be succeeded by more gangs.

Only two of them made their victory conditions; Andy BG (Iron Legion)'s Porn's of Chaos's victory conditions were achieved, but only after that gang were done for, so I'm not sure if that counts or not.

As far as furthering the Devos IV campaign narrative goes, there are now definately CSM on the world, BT on Acer and the goats have stolen the remaining servitor.

Sunday 18 May 2014

East Side Rumble (What really happened at the weekend)



This was the player's brief: 

Welcome to Bruboxville, a small industrial town on the north east coast of Acre.  Its main claim to fame is being the most easterly town with a rail link.  Its port is modest and not really part of the war effort. It smells of diesel and fish.  Please try to imagine this, you don’t need to bring items that smell of diesel or fish to try to recreate genuine ambience; it’s enough to know that the minis can smell it.
The main reason for Bruboxville being of any interest to anyone at all is that it had, until a few hours ago, one of the main communications hubs linking 72AG to the war effort taking place on Benq over the ocean.  However, an accident has occurred and the station has shut down and gone off line.
Whilst the Ad Mech and Imperial Guard scramble to fix the problem, some of the comms servitors have just wandered off through the war damaged ruins of the downtown areas.  These comms servitors could have codes allowing access to 72AGs network, or data about supply contracts that would useful now and probably in the future as the economy is rebuilt after the war.  Possession of one of these comms servitors would be a definite boon to anyone who had one.
At the very least, possession of one should be denied to any rivals.



WS
BS
S
T
W
I
A
Ld
Sv
Comms servitor
2
0
2
2
1
3
1
4
5+
Shotgun, vox caster, independent character.

At the beginning of the game the comms servitors are controlled by the GM.   Servitors will shoot at the closest threat until such time as they are captured and the weapons can be deactivated.  To capture a servitor, simply move into base to base contact.  The servitor will stay in base to contact with any other model that the controlling player moves into base to base contact.   If the controlling player moves all of his figures out of base to base contact with a servitor, its weapons system will re-arm and it will go back to being moved by the GM.

Servitors can be targeted or avoided at the discretion of the attacking player.
You do not have let other players know what your victory conditions are.  Unless your ‘army list’ tells you to for some reason.  The game will last six turns. 
You may ally with other players if you wish, but keep it fluffy.  Bear in mind that any alliance is going to fall apart at some point – probably tied to victory conditions.

This game was never intended to be balanced.  The actual Necromuda style gangs are tweaked for some vague degree of parity, but if you meet a dreadnaught, run away.   Some gangs will need to gang up with others just to stay in the game. 
Do not be dismayed if your initial gang gets wiped out; this is to be expected in such interesting times.  There are replacement gangs drawn to the east side by all the commotion. 
A pink prawn is generally held to be a Slanneshi symbol.
If you defeat an opponent in HTH, you can elect to capture them, rather than leave them bleeding in the gutter.  Captured individuals behave like a captured servitor except that, if the release conditions are fulfilled, they return to the control of their owning player.  They are considered to be unarmed for the remainder of that turn.
Deployment:
You will be given a counter on the board edge which is your gang’s entry point, either on foot or mounted, your gang, deployed, must be in base to base contact with the counter.  (so they could be in a blob or strung out in a line).

Unless, of course, your ‘army list’ tells you otherwise. 

Friday 16 May 2014

Tuesday 13 May 2014

Share & Enjoy.

Liebster_award

It does feel nice having been nominated for a Liebster again.  I know that part of this is to promote other blogs to an ever widening audience.  So taking my 'core audience' into account, here's a few:

Andy Kirkpatrick is Hull's second most famous climber; this link is to the front page of his 'site; I've found that linking directly to his blog always ends up in an unfollowable URL.  Anyway he's a bit of star in the climbing world - you might have seen him dragging Alex Jones up a cliff in America for Children in Need.

The Northern Lights - An English ex-pat living in Finland; a lot of the posts are to do with climbing gear, cycling gear, camping gear, or climbycyclocamping gear.  Which interests me.  However, the real value is the politics and media watching posts - you can search back for those.

The wonderful wobbly model syndrome.  Some things in here, that I admit I don't understand - I figure they are jokes about rules and leave it at that.

Dan Eldridge's Arcadia Prime, if only for the camo painting how-to post.

There's this as well, which I found via the responsible one's blog.  I like the way this guy writes and I like that he (he ? How very presumptuous of me) points out the inaccuracies and defects in things.

Andy BG's Iron Legion. he's got a widget that does the 40K date but the juicy filling is the care and attention given to the individual marines of One Force.

Anime, Manga, Mecha and other random stuff like cosplay can all be found here.  It's in Spanish, but I'm sure you'll cope.

Some really clever 3d art and other stuff, mostly  in London.  Here.

There, not eleven and mostly bugger all to do with 40K, but it's stuff I find interesting.

Eleven facts about me:

1.   I am phenomenally tall and difficulty finding clothes to fit.
2.   I am addicted to abelone
3.   I have six brothers
4.   I once ate a tin of cat food
5.   I used to have ear and nose piercings but they've healed up
6.   I had a pet bat, but you need a licence for that nowadays.  I miss my bat.
7.   My favourite colour is Olive Drab
8.   I have a spray can of petrol resistant green paint kicking around somewhere.
9.   I once spent the night asleep in an ambulance (it was open and had a bed)
10. I design garden furniture for a living.
11. Two of the above are not made up. (deep breaths, Drax, deep breaths...)

And lastly:

Eleven Questions to Answer (care of Adam):
  1. Eisenhorn or Ravenor?  Gideon.  Read him first.
  2. What is your favourite aspect of the miniature hobby? the portions of the community it has brought me into contact with.
  3. Will dread Cthulhu rise from his sunken city of R’lyeh? I hope not, I'm busy.
  4. What is your favourite takeaway? Stuff that's still warm when I get it home.
  5. If you could change one thing about the wargaming hobby, what would it be? the perception of the general public ?
  6. Have you ever played the cRPG: Planescape: Torment? I have absolutely no 'effin' idea what this is, sorry.
  7. Games Workshop’s White Dwarf magazine recently switched formats and is now weekly, thoughts? nope.  Did it ?  - Don't answer that, I don't care.
  8. What miniature are you most proud of having painted? Ouch ! You bitch !
  9. How do you deal with burnout? Burnout ?  Really ?  I can imagine it, but don't see it happening this side of retirement. 
  10. Why is a raven like a writing desk?  Because it soars on thermals for fun, mates for life and is protected by law.  Odin had two writing desks and in native American mythology, a writing desk gave mankind the internal combustion engine. 
  11. Who is your favourite sculptor? Mark Bedford just squeezes Jez Goodwin out. Now there's an image to model in 3D. 

Friday 9 May 2014

Right Marker !

So it was a bit dismal and Mrs Z had gone wedding shoe shopping with her bestie.  I built an Amera Plastic Buildings intact factory (following the instructions) and then came indoors as it was grim - I spoke to Jeff at PVP and he swore blind that it was dry in Wales.  humm....

Anyway, what to do, what to do.  I could de-louse myself or bathe the hounds.  I could watch GoT on the big telly.  But I could also see how many iggies I could put on the dinning table.  No contest.


Best Group Shot


DKK 262 Line Regt (a half company thereof)


Necromundians (Necromunda 1st 'Deaths Head' Regt - 17 Korps Sy Detail) manning the HW.  Vostroyans from 11Bn, 158th Firstborn, also manning HW.  Cadians from 144th LRR Regt.


Stormtroopers from D-77


902 Div HQ elements in front of 17 Korps Staff Officers.

Anyway - laying them out like this is fine, but due to the constraints of space, they are all too close together to illustrate their dependancies and Chain of Command.  Plus of course, a lot of these fellows don't actually have to walk anywhere.  And there really is no room for any vehicles once the iggies are out on the table. I might try for bigger, better (a better illustration of their Org and Det) and easier to understand in the summer.

And of course, the DKK 19th Armoured Regt boys didn't feature at all.

Tuesday 6 May 2014

Mechdar.

Quake in fear purple marines, all the twiddly bits in the eye of terror cannot save you now...

I'd mentioned my killy Eldar some time ago.  Karitas has met some of them, but most of them have just been biding their time in the webway.  So I thought I'd get them out and parade them for you.  Sorry about the exposure, but it was already dark outside and the dining room isn't the best place in the world for photographing miniatures.

Unfortunately, the dining table has shrunk and there was no room for the infantry models.  So here's the Mechdar:


The especially killy Void Dragon vehicles there, paired warp hunters (bye, bye, lumbering Imperial Knight...), paired night spinners (bye, bye, horde army) and triple helpings of pulsar hornets and shurikannon wasps.  Troop carrying capacity of zero, but I can live with that.


If I may, I'd like to draw your attention to the flanks, giving you the option of either trying to avoid the gaily coloured clans of Siam Hainn and thus wandering a little too close to the wonderously shooty Bel Tain.  You can go via Christmas, or by the summer holidays, but one of these is gonna get ya.


Yes, that is a Cobra.  And there's the Bel Tain one in the picture below, as well.  Titan Schmitan.  It's just behind the three 'prisms.  Yes, the Wild Riders of Siam Hainn have 1:3 Shurikannon.  Yes,  there is a twin farseer JBcouncil.


The screen of ML armed Vypers is just that, a screen.  With template weapons.  There are ten 'serpents and three Falcons there; that's 118 Eldar in your deployment zone in turn two (plus the 'spiders, 'hawks and rangers).  Mostly seers and Fire Dragons, it has to be said.

Yee-har, as they say.

Friday 2 May 2014

A bit more progress - Easter weekend.

Hello.  A little more progress to report.  But these arn't making a huge dent in the list.


This wasn't on the list, but after leafing through the IA masterclass volume 1 (available from no good book retailers at all, only direct from the publisher....) I was stuck by the need to weather the Valk fleet a little more.  So I started.  And now I'll have to finish.  Overdid the yellow ink straight off (it's over humbrol metal coate, which is ace if you something to look like metal.  Prolly coz it is [?]).  The light coloured bits, will I am confident, eventually look like rusty corrugated iron. Perhaps the engines were made in New Zealand, where corrugated iron is naturally occurring.


Getting there.  Sponging greys over the engine and matt varnish.  And then airbrushing the soot from the engines.  But first more blue and black ink washes over the hot bits.


This is the Industrial Mechanika warthog, which you may have seen on Dwartist blog.  It was paid for last year (and so is 'legal') and is 1/35th.  But don't let that stop you - it didn't stop me.  Ideal for a command vehicle.  The casting is crisp and the separate hull panels on the front (as you look at it, the features to the left of the vehicle) slot together with no room for glue.  And the wheels are fab too.  I've got some splinter masks for this one from a kickstarter (also last years).


And lastly, some salamander progress - more stowage has been selected and prep'd.  Work has begun on the inside of the crew compartment as well.



And a few more buildings as well.  These are Amera Plastic Buildings, which are cheap and quick to put together; each is a kit of vaccuformed plastic sheet, which makes them simple and inexpensive in engineering terms.  You get extra little bits of 1mm plasticard with some of the kits, with which you can buttress the interior of the building, should you wish.  They arn't the prettiest, however, I think that the scenery is just that; a backdrop to the main event - the minis.


The winter coloured Chimera gives an idea of the scale.  The basic under coat and two tone grey is all from spray cans.


There is a small gap at the top of the wall on the end of the factory; a strip declaring this to be a tractor factory will be fitted at some point.  The units will be held upside down and the inside done in the darker grey to get rid of those white bits you can see.


Compared to some other buildings for 28mm wargames, these are inexpensive and quick to put together. And you get something that you can stand minis on the floors. And they could be reinforced and tarted up.

And check this out for a DKK army: http://gunheads.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/a-new-beginning.html?showComment=1398017289539#c3900700890810703689