I have been and always shall be your friend.

                 Vale Leonard Nimoy

                       1931-2015

It is with great sadness that I write this post, In memory of an extremely talented actor/writer and director. 

As Spock and as Vale Leonard Nimoy, you will live long and prosper in my heart and thoughts. 

Now I'm off to listen to the Ballard of Bilbo Baggins and rewatch the Original Series. 

BloodBowl Match Blackmountain Bloodjaws vs Valhalla Vixens

This match saw my Orcs square up Nics Norse in the Final of our wargames clubs BloodBowl League Cup - The Vase.

It had been a hard slog playing though the cup matches as well as the league and throughout it had thrown up some unexpected results. So it came down to both these teams vying for the honour of the Vase. The weather was nice (for a change) and the Vixens had a slight advantage in the screaming horde of fans in the stands. The Orcs kick off, with the ball landing right next to the line of scrimmage on the Vixen's side.. The Norse start their drive and the Snow troll blitzes a Black Orc and KO's him.

The Vixens Thrower goes for it to collect the ball but trips over his shoelaces and falls on the ball. The Bloodjaws consolidate their line and collect the loose ball. The Snow Troll goes on a rampage and after crunching the ball carrier the Vixens control the ball and pass it downfield resulting in a TOUCHDOWN 0-1.

The teams set up again and the Vixens kick and BLITZ!!! it comes to nothing though and the Orcs steam forward with a Black Orc killing a Vixen Lineman with a block, but the Orc Thrower cant gain the ball even with Sure Hands. A Norse Runner Jumps Up and Blitzes down the line and eventually with a Go For It gets the ball and scores again TOUCHDOWN 0-2. The Orcs are reeling and its not even half time yet.

 The Norse kick to the Orcs again and the Bloodjaws cry Waaagh storming forward and causing a few CAS finally driving into the endzone at the end of the half to score TOUCHDOWN 1-2.

Second half and the Norse are down a few players. The Orcs start well and gain the ball as well as causing a few more CAS including a death!! with Vixen players being dragged off the pitch, its wide open for a Bloodjaws Blitzer to sprint in to score TOUCHDOWN 2-2. The Vixens set up and receive the kick. They try hard moving the ball around and keeping it away from the Orcs but finally the Bloodjaws numbers start to tell and and the balls falls into their possession. The Orc Thrower pumps a long pass downfield into the waiting hands of a Blitzer and the Bloodjaws score TOUCHDOWN 3-2.

BLACKMOUNTAIN BLOODJAWS WIN THE VASE!!

GZG Full Thrust NAC Fleet

Another small project that I will be working on from time to time. I have always liked the Full Thrust game from GZG but have never obtained any of the range for myself, always using someone else's models.

Now, thanks to a small trade, I have the starting's of a NAC fleet. The NAC or New Anglian Confederation are the amalgamation of British, American and Canadian with the Brits being the dominant ruling member.

Thunderer Battleship - Renown Battlecruiser - Tiger Strike Cruiser

2 Lancaster Light Cruisers - 2 Battleaxe Heavy Cruisers - Suffolk Escort Cruiser -

2 Tulsa Heavy Destroyers - 2 Tallahachie Destroyers - 2 Troutbridge Frigates - 5 Commanche Corvettes

Next on the shopping list is some Cambridge Torpedo Frigates, Achilles Heavy Frigate, Tacoma Heavy Frigate, Fearless and Midway Carriers as well as a few more Destroyers to make squadrons and a load of fighters.

Some of the stuff pictured will need to be stripped (when that will be im not sure but hopefully after a spending spree at Salute in April I will then crack on with these and an adversary fleet)

BloodBowl Tournament - Boudicca Bowl 7th-8th Feb 2015

Last weekend I attended my local wargames club, annual BloodBowl Tournament - The Boudica Bowl (III) which was due to a very fortunate change in shifts at work, as originally I wasn't able to attend.

owing to the late change in circumstances I did not have time to put a team together so decided to take my Dwarf team which debuted in the 1st Boudica Bowl. Before the 1st game and after the 4th a certain skillset could be taken.

Dwarf Team - The Gemcutters


2 X Blitzers
2 X Runner with block before game 1.
7 x Blockers, 4 with Guard before game 1 and another 2 with Mighty Blow after game 3.
1 x Flint Churnblade with Chainsaw


The weekend was brilliant and every coach was NAF ranked.


I did not take many pics or write descriptive game reports due to the time constraints but below is a run down of how the games went.


Game 1 vs Nick (NAF-Knowmad)


Dwarf vs Norse, The game ended a Win 2-0 to me and 4-0 CAS to me.


Brilliant game with a cracking opponent who laughed and smiled through all the carnage. Would happily play Nick any time.


Game 2 vs Gareth (NAF-GreyMurphy)


Dwarf vs Underworld, Nuffle completely screwed me Lost 0-3 and 4-3 CAS to me.


I lost big, dice were worst in years!


Game 3 vs Geoff (NAF-BillyD)


Dwarf vs Darkelves, back to normal with a Win 3-0 and 7-0 CAS to me.


Geoff was really unfortunate to play me after that last game and all his agility seemed to of left him, where as my crunchy smash decimated his team. Throughout it all though Geoff was a great opponent.


Game 4 vs Gary (NAF-TalonBay)


Dwarf vs Ogres, The curse of Sunday morning and a very close Loss 1-2, 8-1 in CAS though.


Gary was immense with his Ogre's but it came down to a sneaky sidestepping Snotling doing the impossible dodges to snatch the ball in the endzone to give him the cushion.


Game 5 vs Dave (NAF-Lemf)


Dwarf vs Vampires, These Nosferatu didn't have an ounce of Bloodlust!! Draw 1-1, 5-1 to me on CAS.


Really fun game and Dave was great to play, even if the damn Vamps didn't want to suck blood all game!!


Game 6 vs Dan (NAF-Heartsbane)


Dwarf vs Nurgle, another Draw 2-2 with both of us not going for the win as each were too concerned about losing the game. 2-2 on CAS.


Great game, fun opponent to play, I CAS'd the Nurgle Beast.


So overall a W2 D2 L2 record which isn't too bad and I had no Troll Slayers (plus the Chainsaw was bloody useless all tournament)


In the end with all the results I came 8th and won most Casualties with 30!!!!!

Most evil bugger award!

Across the Dead Earth Scenic Additions

Finally getting back into my Post Apocalyptic gaming and especially Across the Dead Earth. So I though I would have a bash at putting some terrain/scenic pieces together as I am seriously lacking at the moment, only having the usual crates, barrels and sandbag type scatter terrain.

So what to do? the odd piece here and there or start a full project? Well I have plumped to try and get enough bits done to make a Post Apoc/rundown old airfield. This will have a Control Tower, additional buildings in various states of repair, Security fences, abandoned/rusty vehicles, crashed helicopter and a large transport aricraft as a centre piece.

Here are the first additions (as I had them to hand straight away)

A few rusty abandoned military vehicles, these came from Poundland as a set of 3 Police 4x4's and after a quick respray and rusting up, I think they look quite the part. They were sprayed black as an undercoat then the wreck was given a basecoat of GW Tin Bits after which GW Rust was applied with the stipple method. The other two were basecoated with a spray of olive drab then patches of GW Tin Bits applied followed by more Rust stippling.

My crashed helicopter (also useful for them Zombie games) another Poundland special. This was pull cord motorised toy and needed the large workings removed from underneath the fuselage. No problem, a quick hack job and instant crashed damaged chopper! The helicopter was not repainted in anyway, only a wash of GW Rinox Hide and Agrax Earthshade was applied to dirty it up.

 

 

The base is made from a GW forest base, with an added skeleton body from my bits box.

 

Worcester Wargames Relics Tournament - AAR

As per my previous post this month, I went to compete in Worcester Wargames Relics Tournament. Due to problems at work this saw me having to finish a 12 hour nightshift on the morning of the tournament and then drive nearly 3 hours to Worcester to take part.

Although extreamly tired I was hyped to be playing and getting to meet a load of new gaming mates.

On arrival at the venue I met Lee, the organiser and his mate Fish who jumped in my car and showed me a £1 all day car park (bonus). On arrival back at the venue and after a very nice deserved cup of tea, more people arrived and finally we had a full dozen excited gamers ready to play.

I have to say this tournament was one of the nicest, friendliest, well turned out (I mean the miniature forces, as all were very well painted and displayed) events I have attended in a long time.

I had decided to take my Nuem and had managed to get them all painted and bases to a standard I was exceptional pleased with.

On to the games then:

Game 1 vs Chris Hale (Nuem)

So a Nuem civil war game, with a control scenario - there were 5 shard objective counters and victory points would be calculated on who controlled the most at the end of the game. I won initiative and both sides moved into postion with myself sending a Dedicatus and degener on a left flanking move to take control of a shard whilst the rest of my force got ready to attack the centre of the board and rain death on Chris's advancing Nuem rebels.

1st blood to me as my Sagittarius unit managed to kill one of Chris's Sagittarius automatons. Chris then advance with his Dedicatus which was swiflt despatched by guided shots from my Tormentas.

Chris's Pueri cast a repair spell and brings back the destroyed Sagittarius, then he manages to pop off one of my Sagittarius. In return my Degener advances from the flank as the Dedicatus takes a shard and opens fire with a full 5 dice shot and kills the opposing Sagittarius that was just repaired.

On the opposite flank my Peanetentium Death Babies charge into Chris's Death Babies in a tit for tat move and wipe out 3 of them in melee forcing them Shaken.

Chris's Degener opens fire in retaliation killing 2 of my Death babies. In the centre of the board my Concursus charge their opposite number and destroy one whilst my Death Babies annialate their opposite number. With Chris not managing much on his next phase my Degener finally advances further and kills and Sagittarius. With the game ended I had control of more Shards.

Victory 2-0 in VPs and a massive Kill Point total.

Game 2 vs Russ Charles (Britanan)

With a good win over Chris I then had a match up against Russ with his Britanans who had stormed a 3-0 win in their last game. I have been a Britanan player in the past and know they can cause a lot of damage, especially now with the erratta on their marksmen and Bomber units. This scenario was again to control Shards but there were 7 on the board this time and as a twist 4 of them (chosen randonly at the end of each turn) would explode possibly causing damage to close by units.

I made a huge mistake on my set up (being quite tired by now) and lumped all my units together in a large block ready to contest the largest concentration of Shards on my left flank. This played straight into Russ's hands as he won iniative and managed to get his scout deployed Bomber close to my units as I also completely failed to negate it by shooting it when I had a chance.

One of my Tormentas sends a guided shot at the Marksmen in the open and kills it, then a Markman takes a bead on his own Bomber, shoots it and gets it to explode ripping the heart out of my lines. The explosion destroys my Concursus unit in the woods, causes damage on my Dedicatus, Degener, Pueri and kills a few Death Babies. It also knocks down my Pueri and a Sagittarius.

My Death Babies scoot away behind the wood for cover and Russ's Marksman shoots and kills my Degener. A few Shards have exploded causing a few casualties on the puppet army but the rag horde still holds. My Dedicatus is taken out in short shrift but my Tormentas put some serious hurt on the central block of Puppets with their shots and black pulses even managing to kill the Puppet CSM and decimating the Highlanders.

My Pueri is taken out by a Marksman whilst still knocked down and his Arcanum Guard cast Kings Anger on my Death Babies, incinerating most of them.

The game ends and no one actually has controll of any Shards.

Draw 0-0 but I lose on Kill Points as Russ wiped out 260 of my 296 points!!

Game 3 vs Tom Robbins (Nuem)

Another Nuem civil war and I was reeling from my drubbing last game and flagging in energy, but after a few cups of coffee I was ready for my last game.

This scenario had no Shards by each player had an extra model as a mailman. The aim - to get their mailman of the oppositie side of the board (and kill anything else mwhahaha) Both sides set up with mailmans on opposite flanks.

Tom advanced his mailman with a Domini and Pueri for protection whilst I held mine back for a bit as my central gunline took out the opposite forces. Tom was disadvantaged slightly with lack of numbers but his small force was packed with some hard hitters. My Death Babies switched position to cover Tom's mailmans advance and finally charged in and took out his Domini, whilst my Concursus charged his mailman.

Tom used a Pueri to cast fireball on my Concursus but failed to destroy the one in combat with the mailman but incinerated the messenger instead (denied me a VP this  way)

On the other side of the board, my Sagiattarius and Tormentas had been blasting away at anything that moved, wiping out Toms Degener and leaving his Medicae inert with no controlled, whislt each of our Dedicatus battered each other to a standstill in the middle of the battlefield.

Finally I managed to gun down Toms other Pueri on the right, leaving my mailman and easy run straight of the board.

Victory 2-0 and a massive Kill Point total to me.

After all results were submitted Russ had won over all (as well as the best painted prize) and I had come 4th.

A fantastic day out, awesome friendly opponents and some great new mates.

Kudos to Lee for the organization of the event.

Some of the forces on display

 

Tor Gaming - Relics - New Faction, Nuem

As I usually do, I have left it extreamly late to get myself organised for a tournament. This time its for Tor Gamings wonderful game Relics. I have prior experience with this game, coming second place in a previous tournament using the Britanan (puppets) faction.

This time the tournament is being held by Worcester Wargames and I am going to use a new faction - Nuem. These guys are pain loving dwarves with awesome battlesuits and a penchant for chains!

My adorable little Sado-Masochists

Specialis Pueri and Paenitentiam

Paenitentiam

Degener and Metus Dedicatus

 

Auxilium Concursus and Auxilium Sagittarius

Now the tournament is on the 18th Jan 2015 - time to blister my fingers with frenzied painting!!!