NEWS AND RUMOURS: Forge World Waaagh!

Forge World have unveiled several new Ork kits ahead of their next Imperial Armour book which is a fight between Elysian Imperial Guard and Orks. Below is an extract from their latest newsletter.

Our new Ork releases are:

Big Trakk — Designed by Will Hayes (full resin tank model) —This heavy Ork transport can also be used to carry Big Gunz into battle. A brutal-looking machine, the Big Trakk comes with twin-linked big shootas, a massive gas-turbine engine, and ramming tusks. To see images of the Big Trakk click here.

Enclosed Trukk — Designed by Will Hayes and Phil Stutcinskas. (a hybrid resin and plastic model using the Ork Trukk kit). —The model makes for a great alternative for your Trukk fleet as well as an excellent base for your own conversions. Its enclosed cab can also be used to represent the Armour Plates upgrade on a trukk. To see images click here.

Flakk gun — Designed by Phil Stutcinskas (full resin Big Gun with three grot crew and an Ork gunner) —this is a quad-barrelled elevating cannon platform that can give the Orks some much needed air-cover as well as rip apart light vehicle squadrons with ease. To see images click here.

Gretchin Crew — Designed by Mark Bedford (eleven resin grots) —some wonderfully characterful grots to crew your big gunz or use as riggers for your vehicles, and generally make a nuisance of themselves! To see images of the crew on vehicles click here.

Big Zzappa — Designed by Will Hayes (full resin Big Gun with three Grot crew) – this marvellous looking `death ray` is adorned with all manner of strange-looking gubbinz and is as dangerous to the enemy as it is unreliable. To see images click here.

Killkannon — Designed by Will Hayes (full resin Big Gun with three Grot crew) —able to blast apart even heavily armoured troops as the Orks advance, the Killkannon easily lives up to its name and adds heavy firepower to your Waaagh! To see images click here.

Big Lobba — Designed by Will Hayes (full resin Big Gun with three Grot crew) —this somewhat crazed-looking gas-powered bomb launcher is used to lob explosive shells high in the air, and possibly the occasional grot with it! To see images click here.

Supa-Kannon– Designed by Mark Bedford (full resin really Big Gun with three crew, available either on its own or as a compete Battlewagon with Supa Kannon using the plastic Ork Battlewagon kit) —This giant artillery piece looks just as ramshackle and brutal as you might expect from the Orks, and can be used to smash enemy defensives, shatter bastions and fortifications so the boyz can get stuck in. To see images of the Supa-Kannon Battlewagon click here. To see images of the Supa-Kannon click here.

Many of these kits are designed so that in true Orky style you can mix and match between them and particularly in the case of the Big Gunz you can fit them to Trukks, our Half Trakk, Big Trakks, Gun Wagons, Battle Wagons and your own custom models. We also have some great new grots to crew your vehicles and weapons. Each of the new Big Gunz comes with its own crew, and you can also buy the full set of eleven models separately! A quick note on the Supa-Kannon as well, this is a huge gun intended to be mounted on a Battlewagon, Big Trakk or something equally as large! Look out for more Ork releases in the near future.

All of these models are available now for immediate release, and experimental rules for them can be downloaded under the Big Trakk rules Here.

Looks like I picked the right time to collect an Ork army!

Forge World have also updated their rules from IA1 and IA2 to bring them in line with 5th edition 40k. This is the link to the Forge World download page. There are typos of course, but it is better than nothing.

Imperial Armour VII has also just been released, and I'm currently reading it now. It concludes the Siege of Vraks campaign and ups the ante with the Inquisition meeting the Chaos Daemons head on.

Don't tell me how it ends!

GENERAL: My head is spinning

I feel like I am spinning a lot of plates at the moment, even though I've already dropped a couple. Although I have finished painting my Blood Angels for the moment, and I've finished re-writing my battle reports, I am busier than ever on the gaming front.

I have 36 eBay auctions running at the moment. Once they have been packaged up and posted I'll have some space to start putting my extensive Planetstrike terrain together.

While I was waiting for the auctions to finish I decided to start pulling my Ork army together. This included clipping the Assault on Black Reach Orks from their sprues and stripping my old Orks of paint. I need to scrape all the mould lines off and glue them together to see what actual models I have. I'm sorely tempted to assemble and base the entire 1500 point army before I even put any paint on them. If I do, it'll be the first time I've ever built an army this way and I'll be interested to see if it feels any different.

I also started painting my Mighty Empires tiles. I bought this campaign system when it was release but it has languished on the shelf for months as I have never returned to Warhammer Fantasy Battle. With the recent release of Planetary Empires I dug out the box. As the two sets are compatible I decided to paint them all in the same colour scheme so I could use them as one big map if I wanted. I'll post pictures of my progress as I go.

Space Hulk is also on the horizon. I'll want to paint the models for that, especially the Blood Angels Terminators which I'll try to squeeze into my 40k army.

Not only that but I have my Aeronautica Imperialis planes crying out to me as I walk past their box every day. It wouldn't take much effort to paint up my Imperial Navy and Ork planes to be able to play this game so I might try and finish them before I start painting my 40k Orks in earnest.

When I think about all that lot I feel overwhelmed.

This is fun, right?

OPINION: Comments?

My back is much better, thanks for asking. I've sacked off the gym for the rest of the week as a precaution ahead of my holidays in two weeks time. I don't want to suffer a five hour flight with a bad back!

Mike on Santa Cruz Warhammer recently wrote about comments on his blog. He was musing on his expectations for comments and how perhaps they aren't the best indicator of whether people like and read your posts.

Here was the comment I left:

The vast majority of time I read new blog posts through Google feed reader on my phone. I do this standing in queues, on the bus, anytime I have a spare minute. I rarely visit individual blogs and therefore rarely read the comments or indeed make one.

The way I read blogs is not conducive to making comments. I don't know if the way I read your blog posts shows up in your numbers or not but if it does I'd imagine a fair few other people do the same as me. The ironic thing is that they are unlikely to comment on this thread!

I made a mental note to go to your blog the next time I was sitting at a proper PC. I run a blog too and have found that opinion pieces get the most feedback, while conversions and good paintjobs also get feedback but most say 'good job' rather than enter into dialogue.

I run the blog for myself and therefore any comments are a bonus for me.

And that's the way I genuinely feel.

Even if no-one ever commented on my blog again I'd still be posting updates because I see my blog as a kind of journal. It records my gaming time, helps structure my painting and thoughts and it's fun in and of itself. If my ramblings appeal to anyone else then great, but it's not my purpose to go out and attract lots of new readers.

I guess that's why I've never really bothered with Google analytics - I have no real idea how many people visit my blog, nor do I really care. It's also why I never bothered with in-depth tutorials and the like. I do show you the way I do things, and if anyone asks for a bit more detail I'll happily oblige, but I'm not trying to take over the world; I don't want to compete with the other 'big' blogs out there and I don't want to make money through my blog.

I'm happy enough just beebling along. The minute I start thinking about the Unique Selling Point of my blog and how to monetize it is the time when it is starting to feel like work and therefore the time to quit.

GENERAL: The battle at the end of the world

If you read the ninth battle report of my Destroy the Gargant campaign yesterday you will have discovered that it was the last game of the campaign. You can read my round-up post here, where I talk about my thoughts on how the campaign went.

And that's it! All of my battle reports have now been ported over to my battle reports blog. The only things to be added to it from now on will be current games, as and when I play them.

As I'm a geeky nerd I may return to my battle reports and work out some stats. How many time have I won? Or lost? How many times have I been crushed by Gary? How many times have I beaten him? What is my win/loss record like with Tau, or Blood Angels, or Daemonhunters? These are all questions that no-one wants answered except me!

Still, I'll only have to calculate the stats once and then keep adding them as I play more games. Maybe I'll add the stats as a column on the battle reports blog. Hmmm...

The good news for this blog is that I will now have more time to dedicate to other things, like painting, modelling, reviewing products and maybe working on some background material, instead of editing battle reports.

Hurrah!

GENERAL: Back to the Post Office

In a continuation of my bad luck with the Post Office I returned home tonight to find that they had tried and failed to deliver a parcel during the day. This will definitely be my Siege of Vraks book which I thought ended up at the sorting office on Friday, but after I picked up the small box on Monday night found was my Cadian Blood book, which I had won in a competition.

I'm actually off work on Wednesday and I have a bad back which I wrenched at the gym this morning, so it would have been an ideal opportunity to laze about and read, but the parcel won't be back at the sorting office for another 48 hours, so I'll have to wait until Thursday night. Champion.

I've mail ordered Space Hulk, so there will be another parcel being driven around Newcastle for a couple of days at the start of next week.

At least Space Hulk looks great. I'm reading the latest White Dwarf at the moment and the models look fantastic. Lingering over the battle report made me feel proper nostalgic and even some of my long forgotten tactics came flooding back to me.

Anyway, I'm off for a long soak in the bath to loosen up my back, so I thought I'd direct you towards the ninth game of my Destroy the Gargant campaign. Again my Daemonhunters took on Gary's Orks and after suffering two defeats in a row I had to win to stay in the campaign. Find out what happened here.

SELLING: eBay bonanza

I don't have any real news for you tonight so I thought I'd let you know about the eBay auctions I have running.

There are 36 items in total, ranging across several games systems.

Catachan Imperial Guard
I stripped my Catachans a while back with the intention of repainting them but I simply have too many armies already without duplicating the Imperial Guard. Therefore I've put all of the metal models up for sale. There are lascannon teams, mortar teams, special weapons and loads more.

Blood Bowl
I'm also selling several metal Blood Bowl models. These are all long out of print and include Dark Elves, Humans, Orcs, a Deathroller and a Treeman.

Sister of Battle/Witch Hunters
I bought a job lot of Sisters in a Games Workshop sale during the switch over from 2nd to 3rd edition 40k. Unfortunately I got several duplicates, so I'm selling the spares now. There are some Seraphim, Sister superiors and a Banner Bearer.

Odds and sods
The last model is quite timely; Skaven Plague Lord Skrolk. I am also selling two out of print Black Library books. The first is the Life of Sigmar background book by Matt Ralphs and the second is a limited edition (number 123) Darkness Rising background book, covering the Storm of Chaos campaign.

I'm hoping to add a fair amount to the New Model Fund as a result of these auctions. I'm not looking forward to packaging them up and posting them, though!

MODELLING: Assault on Black Ork Reach

I spent an hour or two during the week clipping all of my Assault on Black Reach Orks from their sprues and snap fitting them together. You may also notice there are six Nobs rather than five; the extra Nob came free on the cover of White Dwarf. My next big task is to scrape off all the mould lines and glue them together.

It's the first time I've had a decent look at the models and I have to say I'm impressed. The Boyz look mean and sufficiently different from each other to convey the chaotic horde of Orks vibe, the Nobs are big and bulky and the Warboss is enormous. The Deffkoptas are simply stunning and much bigger than I expected. All in all I already have an impressive core to my new Ork army.

I have also been stripping some Old Ork models in my Dettol bath. The Killer Kanz and Deff Dread are in there at the moment along with an assortment of rokkit boyz, big shoota boyz and Nobs of every description. I have such a range of models spread across several different troop types and editions of the game I'm seriously considering constructing the whole army first and then painting them up. That way I'll have a far better idea of how to split the models between units effectively. It'll be a big job but it would mean I could paint other things in the meantime, such as my Planetary Empires tiles and my Planetstrike terrain.

Destroy the Gargant campaign
Speaking of Orks, I've just uploaded my eighth campaign game where my Daemonhunters took on Gary's greenskins. This was another Cityfight mission called Relief Force. Inquisitor Lord Severus is cornered by Warboss Snitchtongue - will his reinforcements arrive in time? Find out here.

GENERAL: 500 not out

Lone pilgrim has hit another major milestone with it's 500th blog post. This is a pretty good total given my battle reports blog is marching on toward 200 posts. Anyway, I'm not going to blather on too much about it other than to say I still have the blog bug and it will continue for the foreseeable future.

The U2 gig was great on Thursday night, I made it back to Newcastle to go out for a meal and some drinks last night and I've booked tickets for Inglourious Basterds tonight. The Ashes are being played all day and Newcastle are playing Cystal Palace this afternoon and I'll be trying to follow both on Sky Sports and on the radio. I'm now trying to fit in a bit of hobby time around my busy social schedule.

Wait a minute Mr Postman...
I was in a really foul mood with the Post Office this morning. When I came back from Sheffield on Friday I had a note through the door saying the postman had tried to deliver a parcel but had missed me. I suspect this is the latest Siege of Vraks book along with IA4 which I ordered. I had a drive down to the sorting office to pick it up only to find it is still on the van. As the Post Office is shut on Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday, the earliest opportunity I'll have to pick up the parcel is Monday night after work. That means I've lost my 'reading window' over this weekend. Rats.

This is the thing about ordering stuff online and is one of the reasons I don't get most of my GW stuff delivered. Sure, it's great to get a discount and in theory I might get stuff a few days early but I'm out most of the time when it is delivered so more often than not I have to go and pick up the stuff from the sorting office. The office is nowhere near where I live or work so it's a real hassle to get to and there is no guarantee it'll be there when I go, unless I leave it 48 hours. That means I also lose out on slightly earlier release dates. It's so frustrating that I often prefer to wait until the product is in the shops so I can buy it when it's convenient for me. Ho hum.

Ork bath
Anyway, the first thing I've done today is take my Blood Bowl models out of their Dettol bath and scrape all the paint off. It's worked a treat again and I'd definitely recommend using it if you haven't already done so.

I've now put a trukkload of Orks in the bath. There are several Killer Kanz, a Dread and numerous Nobz. They will be joining the Assault on Black Reach models I've already started to put together.

Destroy the Gargant
I'm now writing up more of my Destroy the Gargant battle reports. You can read about the seventh game here. It's a Cityfight scenario with the Orks and Daemonhunters scrapping for the high ground.

NEW MODEL FUND: Over the line!

I'm off to Sheffield shortly to see U2 play Don Valley stadium so I thought I'd drop in for a quick update first.

I had planned on accomplishing lots of hobby related stuff on Tuesday night but in the event I felt ill and curled up on the sofa to watch Aliens for the umpteenth time. It must have been all this talk of Space Hulk which made me think of it. Cracking film.

I was out at the Newcastle match last night to see Shola Ameobi score his fourth goal in two games. At one point the crowd starting singing 'same old Shola, always scoring' and I burst out laughing. We won the match and are unbeaten so far in the Championship. Good stuff.

As I've mentioned I'm out tonight and I'm also out on the lash on Friday night back in Newcastle.

All this socialising means my battle reports, eBay selling, Planetstrike terrain and Planetary Empires painting will have to wait until this weekend. I do plan to get really stuck in on Saturday and Sunday, fitting in Inglourious Basterds and maybe a drink or two on Saturday night as well.

One thing I did manage to achieve this week was to hit the £500 target for my New Model Fund. Hurrah!

I took some coins out of my penny jar and was surprised to find £11 in change. A swift run down to the bank and my grand total now stands at £501.09.

I have two options at this point; one is to revise my target up to £1000 by the end of the year and two is to start spending on models.

Of course I have made a resolution to not buy any more models this calendar year so I'll probably opt to raise my NMF total. Given that I have a load of stuff ready to hit eBay I could see an immediate boost to the Fund over the next few weeks anyway.

Watch this space!

NEWS AND RUMOURS: Space Hulk

There were two big Games Workshop related news stories over the past week.

The biggest as far as I'm concerned was the announcement that the mystery box did indeed contain an updated version of Space Hulk. Here's the blurb from GW:

From the depths of space an ancient vessel drifts slowly towards the Imperium of Mankind - a space hulk. Within its confines, untold thousands of Genestealers slowly emerge from hibernation. The Space Marines must enter the cramped corridors and tomb-like chambers of the ancient ship to defeat this alien menace.

Space Hulk is a board game for two players, recreating the battles fought between the Space Marines and Genestealers. One player commands the Space Marines as they carry out deadly missions in the ancient Space Hulk, and the other commands the horde of Genestealers opposing them. Space Hulk's fast-paced rules simulate the tense atmosphere of a mission deep inside the cramped confines of a derelict space hulk, where split-second decisions are needed for victory.

This boxed game contains: a 23-page Rulebook, a 47-page Mission book and 35 finely-detailed, plastic Citadel miniatures, including: 11 Space Marine Terminators, one Space Marine Terminator Librarian, 22 Genestealers, and one Broodlord.

Also included are: 105 gaming counters, 24 corridors, 10 rooms, eight crossroads, eight T-junctions, six corner sections, four dead ends, four end pieces, 20 doors with plastic stands, one mission status display, and three plastic mission objectives, including: a dead Space Marine on throne, a Blood Angels artefact and a Cyber-Altered Task Unit. Plus a sand timer and five bone-coloured dice unique to this game.

My first impression is wow!

There is a lot of stuff in the box. I think it represents decent value for money. Given that a box of Terminators now costs £25 for five models, the eleven Terminators in Space Hulk pretty much accounts for the whole £58 game price. Then you get the twenty two Genestealer models, Broodlord, objective models, map tiles and counters on top.

It's particularly great for me personally as the Terminator models are Blood Angels, dripping with Blood Angel iconography. Talk about good timing!

I do however understand that making generic models for an unspecified chapter would have given them a wider appeal - I still have ten models from the Assault on Black Reach set that I'm wondering how to fit into my Blood Angel army.

The models look superb. The Terminators in particular are wonderfully sculpted with very fine detail. The Genestealer are very dynamic, crawling all over terrain and even bursting through the floor. This, coupled with the fact they are not mounted on slotta-bases, means it might make it tricky to fit the models into a standard 40k army. Still, with a little creativity I'm sure I can make them work.

The rules sound like they are largely based upon the first edition of the game, rather than the second (which I never played), including rules for a timer, large flamer templates, regular six-sided dice and even a C.A.T. There have obviously been some changes though - there is a Librarian and a Broodlord for a start. I just hope the psychic rules are balanced unlike the Genestealer expansion for first edition.

Overall then, I am stoked about this release. It stands alone as a stellar game in it's own right and with a little work could prove very good value for players of Blood Angels and Tyranids in 40k. It pushes the nostalgia button in me too, as Space Hulk is one of my favourite ever games and it shows some love for the Blood Angels. I just hope the rumours of a 2010 codex release for the Blood Angels are true (Tyranids are also rumoured to get a codex update next year).

Soon after the Space Hulk game announcement Black Library advertised their tie-in novel, written by Gav Thorpe. At just £3 it seems like it will be a novella in the same vein as the Assault on Black Reach book.

The other meagre news came out of Gamesday Germany. Rather like Baltimore this sounded like a bit of a let down on the news and rumours front.

The Forge World Chaos Reaver Titan was on display as was the Ork Big Trakk with a giant Kill Kannon. Presumably the Ork vehicle will feature in the forthcoming Elysian v Ork IA book.

Nothing exciting was spotted regarding Space Wolves despite them having an October release date.

GENERAL: Back of the net!

I was at the Newcastle match last night, our first at home in the Championship, and watched Shola Ameobi score a hat-trick(!) to give us a comfortable win. I just don't know what to expect from NUFC day to day, match by match. One thing is for sure - it won't be dull!

Anyway, I went out to celebrate, got totally smashed, fell asleep in the taxi and woke up this morning with a raging hangover. To blow the cobwebs away I'm going to walk into town and pick up a copy of Planetary Empires and hopefully the Battlescape scenery piece with wrecked Rhino.

Before I set off, though, I wanted to point you towards a couple more of my Destroy the Gargant campaign battle reports.

The first game, game 5 of the campaign, saw the Daemonhunters surrounded by Orks and trying to break out of an ambush.

The second game was twice the size at 1500 points and had the Daemonhunters making a bunker assault on the Ork bastions.

NEW MODEL FUND: Planetstrike goodies

I have added nothing to my New Model Fund for a few months now and this time around the story is no different. I have made some plans, though. As you can see in the photograph below I have pulled some models out of my collection ready to be flung upon eBay.


There are quite a few Catachan Imperial Guardsmen; loads of metal heavy weapons and a few plastics in the tub. I stripped these a while ago with the intention of repainting them but I'm broke and I don't have the time to paint a whole new army.

You'll also notice some Blood Bowl figures. Many of them are very old metals (lead probably) from third edition. I'm hoping the Treeman and Death Roller in particular will fetch a good price.

The last set of models are Sisters of Battle. This is an army I plan to keep but I have a few duplicate miniatures. I bought many of my Sisters models in bulk right at the end of 40k 2nd edition/start of 3rd edition, back in the day when Games Workshop had sales. I got a job lot of minis, most of which I'm keeping, but I also received four extra Sister Superiors with power weapons and three Seraphim with plasma pistols and power weapons. There is also a spare standard bearer. All of the poses are quite distinctive so I won't be able to convert them, but I could sell them singly on eBay.

In the background you can also see a couple of resin Forge World busts. I'm still torn on whether to sell them or keep them. They were prizes I won in tournaments and my girlfriend is quite insistent I paint them up and display them. My point of view is that they are pretty rare so may fetch a good price and I don't have the time to paint them up anyway. Hmmm, I'll have a ponder.

I hope to put all the models up for sale on eBay in the next two weeks or so.

Planetstrike
In addition to my New Model Fund I have had a short term fund running to spend my Fantasy Football winnings on Planetstrike goodies. I had £123.25 from £150 left having bought the book and the limited edition mines, bombs and booby traps.

Since then I have also purchased the Imperial Strongpoint boxed set, the Skyshield landing pad and the Blastscape craters.

By my reckoning I now have £34.15 left to spend on Planetstrike stuff.

Destroy the Gargant
For those of you who missed it, I posted my third game from my Destroy the Gargant campaign yesterday. Here it is in all its glory; a clash between my Daemonhunters and Gary's Orks.

NEWS AND RUMOURS: A blizzard of books

I didn't bring you any news or rumours last week as I was busy finishing off my Blood Angels army. I didn't miss much anyway because there wasn't much going on. I still don't have anything terra-shattering but I at least might have something of interest for you.

Black Library
Some of you may already be aware, via Gav Thorpe's website, that he is writing a series of Eldar books for Black Library. This is a significant development as BL had moved away from non-human perspective books for some time. The first book is entitled Path of the Warrior and I have linked to the cover art below (which is superb in my opinion).

The book is due out in 2010.

Other BL products on the horizon include two audio books; Thunder from Fenris, a Space Wolf book written by Nick Kyme and Raven's Flight, again by Gav Thorpe. This is the blurb on Amazon:

After the horrors of the Dropsite Massacre, the Raven Guard are trying to survive in the caves and mountains of Isstvan V. Their plight is desperate, and escape from the roaming Chaos Legions seems impossible. Meanwhile Colonel Valerius of the Imperial army begins suffering terrible dreams, believing the Raven Guard to be in trouble. But he faces obstacles of his own in attempting what he believes will be a heroic rescue. Can the decimated Legion hold out against the forces of the World Eaters long enough to reach an unlikely salvation?

There are also a raft of other books I can't recall hearing about before:

• Helsreach by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
• Flesh and Iron by Henry Zou (There are reports of an uprising on the planet of Solo–Baston. Indigenous forces are rebelling against Imperial rule, led by the mysterious ’Dos Pares’. Amidst the conflict, the 31st Riverine Imperial Guard are dispatched to seek and retrieve a vital piece of weaponry, but find themselves beset on all sides by hostile forces. And what they originally thought was simple tribal warfare soon reveals a much more sinister activity. Henry Zou’s latest novel serves as a prequel to Emperor’s Mercy and delivers non–stop action and mystery in the grim world of Warhammer 40,000.)
• Redemption Corps by Rob Sanders (An Imperial Guard novel)
  
• The Chapter's Due by Graham McNeill (Another Ultramarines novel)
  
• Enforcer by Matthew Farrer (Presumably another Shira Calpurnia novel)
  
• The Hunt for Voldorius by Mitchel Scanlon (A Space Marine Battles book)
  
• Waiting Death by Steve Lyons
• Nemesis by James Swallow (a Horus Heresy book)

Forge World
I got the latest Forge World newsletter on Friday and it revealed that The Siege of Vraks part 3 (IA7) was up for advance order. It will be released on 24th August and will come with a slip cover for all three Vraks books. You can flick through some pages of the book here.

I ordered the book and also ordered the Anphelion Project, IA4, while I was at it. It's been on my 'wanted' list for a long time now so I thought I'd take the plunge while I was on the website anyway.

APOCALYPSE: Blood Angels updated

With the current batch of painting of my Blood Angels coming to an end it's time to update my Apocalypse army list for them. Please bear in mind that many of the models listed below go back as far as Rogue Trader days and I wouldn't normally even consider playing them in a normal game. Of course in Apocalypse games all bets are off...

HQ

• Dante 200 points
  
• Mephiston 225 points
• Lemartes 125 points
  
• Tycho 110 points
  
• Corbulo 100 points
  
• Chaplain with jump pack, plasma pistol 120 points
  
• Chaplain 100 points
• Chaplain 100 points
• Chaplain 100 points
• Chaplain, plasma pistol 115 points
• Librarian 120 points
• Librarian 120 points
• Librarian 120 points
• Honour Guard, plasma pistol 140 points
• Honour Guard 125 points
• Total 1920 points
  

Elites

• Techmarine 75 points
• Techmarine 75 points
• Techmarine 75 points
• Techmarine 75 points
• Techmarine with servo-harness, 2 close combat servitors, 2 heavy bolter servitors 200 points
• 5 Terminators, assault cannon 230 points
  
• 10 Deathcompany with jump packs (8 free) 60 points
  
• 5 Veterans with jump packs, powerfist, plasma pistol 190 points
• Venerable Furioso Death Company Dreadnought 145 points
• Dreadnought with multimelta 125 points
• Dreadnought with assault cannon 125 points
• Total 1375 points
  

Troops

• 10 Assault marines with jump packs, 2 plasma pistols, sergeant with power weapon and melta bomb 300 points
  
• 5 Tactical marines, flamer, Veteran with power fist 145 points
  
• Razorback with twin lascannon 80 points
• 10 Tactical marines, flamer, missile launcher, Veteran with power fist, Rhino 270 points
• 5 Tactical marines 115 points
• Total 910 points
  

Fast Attack

• Land Speeder, multi melta, heavy flamer 75 points
• Land Speeder, multi melta 65 points
• Total 140 points
  

Heavy support

• Predator Destructor, heavy bolters and storm bolter 100 points
• Land Raider, storm bolter 255 points
• Land Raider Crusader, storm bolter 255 points
• Total 610 points
  

Total Points: 4955

Looking at the totals for each category I can see that my army is very unbalanced with loads of HQ and Elite choices but very little of anything else. I guess that means that this army would excel at attacking in Planetstrike missions. I wouldn't fancy defending though!

I still have a pile of models I need to paint which would help to re-balance the army; 20 or so Tactical marines and a Whirlwind would flesh out my Troop and Heavy Support options nicely. Of course the 16 Scouts, two Captains and another Chaplain would knock it straight back out of whack...

My current wishlist includes Baal Predators, lots of Tac squads with Rhinos, Razorbacks and Drop Pods, Veterans and Honour Guard.

I have heard rumors that the Blood Angels will get a new codex sometime in 2010 so now will be as good a time as any to put away the paintbrush and wait to see how the army will be affected by Games Workshop's update.

But if an Apocalypse game does come calling in the meantime I'll have almost 5000 points of Blood Angels to command.

Destroy the Gargant
I've just posted up the second battle report from my Destroy the Gargant campaign. This time my Daemonhunters took centre stage to beat back Gary's Orks as they tried to infiltrate the Ork camp.

PAINTING: The thin red line

As promised yesterday, here are the photographs of my finished 2000 point Blood Angels army.

Doesn't look much for a years work does it?

Terminator squad Kalastin with their new Land Raider Crusader ride.

Chaplain Lemartes with Chaplain Diavolo in the background.

Techmarine Kadeon with servitors.

Of course, I already had some models painted before I started the challenge. I'm guessing that by adding two more dreadnoughts, the Predator and four special characters the total army comes in at over 3000 points. I'll know for sure when I rewrite my Apocalypse army list and update it on my blog later this weekend.

Destroy the Gargant
I posted the introduction to this campaign yesterday and today I'm posting the first game. It was so long ago I can't actually remember if it was played in 3rd or 4th edition 40k. Anyway, check out my DH/IG taking on Gary's Orks.

PAINTING: The Crusade is over

I have finished painting my Land Raider Crusader and therefore finished painting 2000 points of Blood Angels Space Marines in one year.

YES!

Ahem.

This model was a monster to paint and represents an insane amount of time and effort. I hope it's worth it on the tabletop.

The shiny patches around the transfers are the spots where I've painted varnish so that the transfer is sitting on a flat surface. I'll be re-varnishing the whole vehicle and that will disguise the glossy bits.

There are still some additions I'd like to make to this model eventually - weathering for instance. My Crusader is in a similar position to my regular Land Raider in that it has no battle damage or churned up mud and dust on it's tracks. This means they stand out from my other vehicles like my Rhino, Predator and Razorback. I'll probably return to both vehicles at some point and weather them together.

I had some modelling issues with my Crusader.

The assault cannons are glued in place as one of the holes in the weapon wasn't formed properly so it wouldn't take the pin. Also the front ramp mechanism has ceased to work (this has also happened on my other Land Raider). That means I can't open the ramp very far, nor can I shut it fully. I guess God doesn't want anyone to see the fully painted interior.

The whole model feels fragile. As I've mentioned before it is oddly weighted and the Hurricane bolters feel like they could come apart very easily. Coupled with the plastic/metal combo of the multi-melta I'm not confident that this model would travel in one piece.

Anyway, despite some reservations, I have achieved my goal of painting a full 2000 point Blood Angel army in a year. I'll be posting some army shots on my blog and on Warseer over the weekend and then I'll be planning my next project.

Destroy the Gargant
With one project finished another is drawing to a close too. I have been blogging my old battle reports since September 2007 and I'm down to my last campaign. Once all these games have been ported over I'll only have my future games to add to my battle reports.

The campaign is an epic series of battles between my Daemonhunters and Gary's Orks. It's based on the premise that an Ork Waaagh has overtaken a Chaos held planet and an Ork Gargant is in danger of being possessed by a daemon. Can Inquisitor Lord Severus destroy the Gargant or will Warboss Brazhak Snitchtongue foil him?

Find out here.