Last Night on Earth – Board Game

In a change from tabletop wargaming, I thought I would throw up some pics and a mini-review of a board game we have been playing ‘ere up North.

Last Night on Earth is a zombie survival game with players taking control of either survivors or zombies (duh...). The game has a number of missions with tasks that the survivors must complete within a set number of turns in order to win, whilst the zombies generally just need to eat the survivors brains.

I first saw the game being played on W(h)il Wheatons Tabletop series (speaking of which, it is International Tabletop day on 30^th March 2013 – so check it out!) and liked schlocky style and cliched characters and soundtrack (which comes on a CD included).

The mechanics are simple – survivors move around and search buildings for weapons and mission-specific items, can shoot guns (if they have any) and fight zombies.

Fighting is an interesting mechanic; the survivor roles 2D6 whilst the zombie rolls 1D6. If the zombie rolls higher, the survivor takes a wound. If the survivor rolls higher, they fend off the zombie but the fight continues. If the survivor rolls higher AND a double, the zombie is killed. This makes it pretty tough for survivors to kill zombies to begin with, but the various weapons and actions found throughout the game then modify these rolls (give you extra dice, you don't need doubles to kill zombies etc) making it easier. 

The game is easy to pick up and we’ve had several (drunken) games with (drunken) partners and everyone has had fun. We also learnt that the tiles are spill resistant at this point.

Down to the fun part – the minis! The game comes with 8 unique survivor models and 14 zombies in 3 different variations. Whilst the models are nowhere near GW standards, they are still pretty nicely sculpted and have plenty of character and were dying to be painted.

The models were easy to paint – even though I only did them to a basic standard (base colours, washes, quick highlights, bit of blood etc). I didn’t want to put too much effort into them seeing as they will be handled a lot, they were only basic sculpts and there is no case for them (they just sit loose in the box – although I did give them a coat of Purity Seal to keep them looking good for as long as possible).

The game was about £40, which I don't think is too bad for a board game of this quality with a fair few minis and I’ll definitely be investing in the expansion packs in the future.

Iron Warrior – CSM squad

Finally - some finished troops! Can you believe I have been working on bog standard CSMs for about 6 months now and have only recently finished the first full squads??? TBF, I have been building/painting them in batches of 4 in between other projects and I keep running out of bits or building CSMs for the wrong squad (a CCW squad is also in the works).

 

I’ve been trying to make each model an individual – which I hope pays off. Every single CSM model has been converted in some way; most are converted with the GW Iron Warrior torsos/heads/pads, some feature 3^rd party bits (bionic limbs & heads from Maxmini, Iron Mutant heads from Puppets War, gunfire effects from somewhere I’ve already forgotten...), quite a few of them have be significantly reposed and I have mixed up the basing a bit – sandbag/barbed wire/craters etc. Most importantly – no spikes or mutations!

This squad is just armed with standard Bolters and is there to hold objectives and my Aegis early on in the game.

The Champion is an old GW Warsmith model – how could I not include it? I guess he could be a Lord/Warpsmith stand-in (although a Power Armoured Lord isn’t going to last long), but it doesn’t really fit what I have in mind for them – so now he is a Champion and I am counting his claw as a  Power Fist.

Having not played CSMs before, I was under the assumption that they would have some form of Fearless-ness...or at least a decent Leadership value. I wasn’t overly happy when I found out they have neither (especially after playing Nids where Leadership almost never entered the game) – so decided I would need some Icons of Vengeance which gives the Fearless. That means I will need Icon bearers – here is one of my first attempts...not overly happy with the Iron Skull, but it will do for now.

Warhammer 40K Sideshow Collectibles Polystone Statues

After much scurrying around the net and ebay suchlike, my collection of long out of production and Limited Edition (of 5000) Warhammer 40K Sideshow Collectibles is finally complete.

These include all the 16 Space Marines plus the single Firewarrior released, 17 in all. In original boxes.

These are:

Released for launch of Firewarrior the PC/Console game:
Kais Firewarrior - Pulse Rifle

Series 1:
Brother Hyrion of the Dark Angels - Bolter
Brother Osrik of the Space Wolves - Bolter
Brother Meridicus of the Ultramarines - Bolter
Brother Holst of the Blood Angels - Bolter

Series 2:
Brother Amadeon of the Ultramarines - Bolt Pistol and Chainsword
Brother Grimmaw of the Space Wolves - Heavy Bolter
Brother Sanchez of the Imperial Fists - Bolter
Brother Cleon of the Blood Angels Death Company - Bolt Pistol and Chainsword

Series 3:
Brother Santos of the Crimson Fists - Bolter
Brother Theolus of the Blood Angels - Bolt Pistol and Chainsword
Brother Thraxius of the Ultramarines - Missile Launcher
Brother/Veteran Sergeant Ostavia of the Dark Angels - Plasma Pistol and Power Sword

Series 4:
Brother Hervictus of the Ultramarines - Auspex and Flamer
Brother Strom Wolf of the Space Wolves - Bolt Pistol and Power Axe
Brother Gorgon of the Black Templars - Bolter
Brother Rhamiel of the Dark Angels - Plasma Cannon

Anyone else collect these?
(And yes, that's a framed First Edition of Issue No.1 White Dwarf from July 1977 and two FW Warhound Titans plus the Reaver... I know, I'm just showing off now...)   ;)

Relictors Scout Bikes - WIP

With the coming of 6th, Scout Bikers have become a lot more viable, with true toughness of 5 not just 4(5) and with additional Hammer of Wrath attacks in CC, I'm liking what I see. Plus their Infiltrate and Scout Move (but now they can't assault on first turn if Outflanking from Reserve) I quite like what they bring for a fairly low points cost. I have a squad of 5 old Scout Biker models on SM Bikes I have wanted to use for eons as well as 3 newer Scout Bikes from the Spearhead Boxset, so I added two more bikes and now need to get around to painting all ten... the first 5 new plastics are on the painting bench. I envisage the heavier SM bikes loaded with long range scouting stuff, Ravenwing packs and whatnot. They may take longer to get done knowing my short attention span, but these first five are the short range recce team, so light on add-on packs and roll mats etc.

The main bike bodies will be done shortly, I find its all the details that will take the time. I also picked up a few Sci-Fi helmeted heads to use as bike helmets (top left above), instead of the plastic Scout heads. The cool respirator head will still make the cut, like my footslogger scouts (here), he will be the Sergeant.

What was I saying about details.... so many parts to choose from... only question is how many Astartes Grenade Launchers? One , Two or Three?

Lord Halfpenny- WIP Daemon Prince - Relictor Style

Hi all!

Just a quick post to demonstrate one of our projects - another Daemon Prince to add to the vast Daemon collection - this one has had several additions and minor conversions to make him stand out.

Firstly I wanted to try something a paint scheme that was a little different, and one that would be interesting to paint - I love Siph's Relictor scheme and thought 'why not' after all, Relictors are known to dabble with chaos weapons - what would happen if one such Relictor Captain went a bit too far and became one with the warp... thus the Daemon Prince was born..

I wanted to make the plastic kit more marine like, so I converted the head- I chopped back the original neck portion, and added a spare Contemptor head to the model a perfect fit! Both in size, and the look- I decided to model horns to the helmet from one of the daemon heads to 'chaos it up a bit' The overall look of the model with the converted head is less hunched over- more 'humanoid'.

The next additions was the skull rack and banner pole - the racks were taken from the Daemon Prince kit, and modelled to fit on the upper shoulder/back portion. It was after I finished the model that I realised it needed something extra- I dived into my bitz box and found a spare Bloodletter banner - I bored a hole into the back of daemon, to allow the pole of the banner to fit tightly. The overall affect of the banner is to make the model look bigger and to stand out - I also added spare 'sprue' pieces to the base to look like detritus of war and to make him slightly taller.

The armour was painted to reflect that of Siph's Relictors and was surprisingly easy to get a nice affect. I opted to paint the 'workings' of the armour a fiery red/yellow/orange- as if chaos is now burning in is soul - I carried the same scheme into the shoulder pads and the eyes. The banner was painted similar to those of Siph's, again trying to achieve a true likeness of Siph's models.

For the models skin I decided to go for a deep rich purple to contrast against the grey armour, as well as to be different to the the skin tones of my other chaos models.

To finish the model I want to add transfers to the banner and shoulder pads, and then overlay these transfers with the 8 pointed star of chaos. I also need to finish the base as well as maybe adding a few skulls and SM helmets as 'trophies..'.

I hope you like the results!

Relictors Drop Pod Armoury - Pics of all 5 Pods!

This post is really just a nice picture fest of my completed Pods, please enjoy. If you want to see the WIP and how to magnetise drop pods, please see my previous posts (here). The first pic is all the finished Pods in gaming glory. Just add some righteous fury filled power armour clad Relictor Marines...

The Emperor's Holy wrath made incarnate, the Relictors surge forward from their Drop Pods 

 The dropsite was leveled by the missiles of the support Deathstorm Pod before the Tactical Squads landed.

Squad I advances towards the enemy lines 

 Squad II

Squad IV

 Squad III - Until next time Traitor Scum!

Iron Warriors – Rhino

You would think this lowly little Rhino is a Forgeworld super-heavy by how much I’ve been fawning over it for the past week – but it’s the first tank that I’ve built/painted and apparently that’s enough to get me excited...

It is going to probably be one of a pair that will provide some long range fire support (via Havok launchers) in the early turns and then take their respective squads to their objective-based destinations mid-game.

The build was a fairly easy choice; take the Havok launchers as yet another form of shooty and leave off anything spikey (spikes really don’t fit my armies look all that well). I picked up the Iron Warrior doors from Forgeworld – the motto whilst building this army seems to be “if you are going to do it, you might as well do it properly/expensively”.

I was a little concerned whilst painting it; people often talk about the difficulty they have painting flat expanses without the use of an airbrush and this was going to be twice as bad painting it almost solely with metallics. Luckily I managed to keep all my brushstrokes going in the same direction and it turned out looking a little like brushed steel. Not sure what will happen with Land Raiders though. The hazard chevrons were also a pain to paint – apparently I can paint in a straight line on shoulder pads, but not on a flat surface...

The lights were a nice chance to try out painting jewelled/reflective effects which turned out pretty well for an early attempt.

It was also a chance to try something new with the weathering powders; normally I have been applying them in their powdered form, but for this model I added some matt medium to the pigment to make it think and almost like a paint, which I then stippled on and finished it off with a dusting of the powder, to make it nice and dirty.

I have managed to include it in one game so far and it really was the little engine that could, after wiping out half a DE squad and taking two penetrating Dark Lance shots without exploding.

Iron Warriors - pre-Heresy Havoc squad

Hi again all – another out-of sequence Iron Warriors army update (despite working on my core CSMs squads for what seems about 3 months now...they still aren’t finished). Today’s bad-ass goodness is my new Havoc squad.

 

If you have read Storm of Iron/Iron Warriors Omnibus, you will know that the Iron Warriors are an original founding legion and were instrumental on the Siege of Terra. As such, a number of their forces are the original (10,000 year old) marines that stood on Terra as the walls were being torn down. They later managed to steal imperial gene-seed for Abaddon and one of his crazy crusades...and are able replenish their own ranks with new CSMs. That means that it is possible for an Iron Warriors army to contain a mixture of both pre and post heresy tech.

 

This have given me a great opportunity to use some of the Heresy era goodies from Forgeworld and one of the main things I have had my eyes on are the MKIII Iron Armour marines. Other than the name, this armour is perfect for Iron Warriors; it is old, the helmets are similar to the Iron Warrior skull markings and perfectly fits aesthetically (they look like evil marines – rather than spiky/chaosy marines) – they are pretty similar to how they would have been pre-Heresy. The Heavy Weapon squads are also built to take the Legion Heavy Weapons – which I went and bought seeing as CSM Missile Launcher and Autocannon bits are really expensive to pick up online and the GW Havoc kit only has one of each weapon (which look crap anyway). And check out how the Legion Autocannon looks... pure awesome.

So drawing back on the Iron Warrior fluff, I think that any veterans of the Heresy are going to be taking pride of place in the army – most likely with the big guns; so the plan is to mix pre-Heresy marines into prime places in the army; heavy weapons, Champions, special weapons, Chosen etc. This does mean I will need to buy some more to mix into my existing CSM squads (yet another reason why they wont be finished any time soon...).  

I am happy with everything apart from the Champion...I was in a hurry and wanted to give him a combi-weapon which a) I bodged together in 2 mins and looks crap (especially after I realised Siph posted a tutorial on making great looking combi weapons *stupid*) and b) why the hell would a Champion sitting in the backfield with Missile Launchers and Autocannons need a combi-plasma??? Needless to say, this model will be swapped out for something more appropriate when the army gets larger.

BTW – I managed to get my first 900pts test game with the army and the Havocs were amazing! As someone who has only ever played Nids, you cannot understand how awesome cheap S7/8 weapons with an AP are...and they all have an armour save!!! These guys got into position on a tower overlooking the entire battlefield and shot anything off the board that dared show their face (and then I forgot they were there for the last two turns...).