The difference in Privateer Press and Citadel miniatures

Now I have been playing 40k for a long as time, like 13+ years or some shit.

Let me tell you, in all those years of playing, painting, doing stuff, I have never once had to wash a metal miniature to get it to glue together.

I am not sure if there is a residue from the releasing agent, or they have a reeeeaallly dusty facility, but I have been trying to put my Farrow Brigands together and they would not stick!!!

Also, the paint on my Gun Boar is peeling off. Is that a primer issue? Maybe! Maybe its a dirty ass miniature issue as well. I have no idea, but its making me RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGEEEEE!!!!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRGGGGGG!!!!!!

AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ugh, life

Life is holding me down atm. Get out of here life!

I am moving this weekend so I am incredibly busy after work is done with me for the day. That is why posts from me are kind of slim this week.

I know everyone is brokenhearted about it, but take heart my friends! I will be back next week with a battle report with Blackmoor of internet fame!

In the meantime, please enjoy this picture of the Lakers Cheerleaders as they go into the playoffs!

Thanks all for reading. Be back next week!

May GW releases, now with prices and space marines!

From BoLS

Product	Contents	Date	Price	Material
Necron Triarch Stalker	1 mini	may 5th	$47.00	Plastic
Necron Tomb Blades	3 minis	may 5th	$41.25	Plastic
Necron Canoptek Wraiths	3 minis	may 5th	$47.00	Plastic
Necron Canoptek Spyder	1 mini	may 5th	$33.00	Plastic
Nemesor Zahndrekh	1 mini	may 5th	$19.25	Finecast
Illuminor Szeras	1 mini	may 5th	$21.50	Finecast
Vargard Obyron	1 mini	may 5th	$16.00	Finecast
Necron Destroyer Lord Upgrade Pack	5 parts	may 5th	$10.00	Finecast
Necron Heavy Destroyer Upgrade Pack	3 parts	may 5th	$8.25	Finecast
Citadel Water Effect	1 bottle	may 5th	$25.00	Hobby
Space Marine Bike Squad Upgrade Pack	3 parts	may 19th	$10.00	Finecast
Crimson Fists Shoulder Pads	10 parts	may 19th	$10.00	Finecast
White Scars Bike Squad Upgrade Pack	6 parts	may 19th	$10.00	Finecast
Crimson Fists Command Squad Upgrade Pack	9 parts	may 19th	$13.25	Finecast
Ultramarines Shoulder Pads	10 parts	may 19th	$10.00	Finecast
Crimson Fists Tactical Squad Upgrade Pack	13 parts	may 19th	$14.75	Finecast
Crimson Fists Assault Squad Upgrade Pack	14 parts	may 19th	$14.75	Finecast
Iron Hands Tactical Squad Upgrade Pack	23 parts	may 19th	$18.25	Finecast
Sergeant Telion	1 mini	may 19th	$16.00	Finecast
Space Marine Librarian with Staff & Book	1 mini	may 19th	$16.00	Finecast
Space Marine Librarian: Force Sword & Bolt Pistol	1 mini	may 19th	$16.00	Finecast
Space Marine Chaplain: Crozius & Power Fist	1 mini	may 19th	$16.00	Finecast
Space Marine Chaplain: Skull Helmet	1 mini	may 19th	$16.00	Finecast
Space Marine Librarian: Force Axe & Plasma Pistol	1 mini	may 19th	$16.00	Finecast
Space Marine Apothecary: Chainsword	1 mini	may 19th	$16.00	Finecast
Damned Legionnaire: Multi Melta	1 mini	may 19th	$16.00	Finecast
Damned Legionnaire: Heavy Flamer	1 mini	may 19th	$16.00	Finecast
Damned Sergeant: Bolt Pistol & Power Weapon	1 mini	may 19th	$16.00	Finecast
Damned Legionnaire: Flamer	1 mini	may 19th	$16.00	Finecast
Shadow Captain Kayvaan Shrike	1 mini	may 19th	$19.25	Finecast
Chapter Master Pedro Kantor	1 mini	may 19th	$19.25	Finecast
Marneus Calgar, Lord Macragge	1 mini	may 19th	$19.25	Finecast
Chief Librarian Tigurius	1 mini	may 19th	$19.25	Finecast
Kor'sarro Khan	1 mini	may 19th	$19.25	Finecast
Space Marine Captain in Terminator Armour	1 mini	may 19th	$19.25	Finecast
Chaplain Cassius	1 mini	may 19th	$19.25	Finecast
Sergeant Chronus	2 minis	may 19th	$19.25	Finecast
Forgefather Vulkan Heston	1 mini	may 19th	$21.50	Finecast
Space Marine Techmarine	1 mini	may 19th	$21.50	Finecast
Space Marine Terminator Chaplain	1 mini	may 19th	$21.50	Finecast
Captain Darnath Lysander	1 mini	may 19th	$21.50	Finecast
Space Marine Casualties	3 minis	may 19th	$24.00	Finecast
Space Marine Masters of the Chapter	4 minis	may 19th	$33.00	Finecast
Space Marine Damned Legionnaires 1	4 minis	may 19th	$33.00	Finecast
Space Marine Damned Legionnaires 2	4 minis	may 19th	$33.00	Finecast
Ultramarines Tyrannic War Veterans	4 minis	may 19th	$33.00	Finecast
Legion of the Damned Squad	5 minis	may 19th	$41.25	Finecast
Space Marine Veterans MK2	5 minis	may 19th	$41.25	Finecast
Space Marine Veterans	5 minis	may 19th	$41.25	Finecast
Space Marine Thunderfire Cannon	1 mini	may 19th	$56.00	Finecast

Good lord, that's some spendy stuff. Looks like Triarch stalkers and 3 packs of wraiths are just under $50. $56 for a thunderfire cannon though?? And $24 for 'space marine casualties'? FU GW, F-freakin-U.

Ohhai new necron releases!

A couple images for the upcoming Necron 2nd(?) wave have leaked today. So far they are looking good and pretty much in line with the rest of the range. Check them out!

First up, is the tomb blade. Not a super exciting unit, and from the final pic it looks like these could be kitbashed from a CCB. The control guys look almost exactly like this already. Just strap on a gun and shove a flying base in there and you are good to go!

Next up, is the Triarch stalker. This thing is freakin boss! It stands at 4.5" high and has cool pincer legs. These will definitely fit in with a AV13 spam list. They should beable to take cover behind a ghost ark easily!

After that is the Canoptek Spyder. Rumor has it that these guys with be 20 British Pounds retail. Making the 9 you will need for your scarab swarm 180 british pounds or 290 USD!!!  Good lord, GW is not messing around with these new models. They definitely want their pound of flesh for their new armies.

And last, but definitely not least, the unit that most people have been anticipating... The canoptek Wraith!  These will definitely be selling like hot cakes. Because hot cakes sell fast, right??? That's a thing? Either way these look pretty cool and they will also fit in with the new necron theme.

What do you guys think of the new sculpts? I like the triarch stalker and the wraiths, but the spyders and the tomb blades are kinda meh. The only thing I really hope from this is that the wraiths can stand up on their own. The old metal wraiths do not like to stand up and they do like to break in the weak middle.

Adepticon final results! Plus a bonus rant!

For those who don't know, Adepticon was this weekend and it's kind of a big deal.  Check out the top 16 for the 40k singles:

From Adepitcon.org

Warhammer 40K Championships (Top 16)
Alexander Fennell – Necrons
Tony Grippando – Grey Knights
Mike Mutscheller – Space Wolves
Justin Cook – Grey Knights
Bill Kim – Chaos Daemons

Jose Mendez – Dark Angels
Joakim Engstrom – Grey Knights
Doug Johnson – Orks
Brett Perkins – Imperial Guard
Paul Murphy – Grey Knights
Tony Kopach – Space Wolves
Dave Ankarlo – Grey Knights
Brad Chester – Grey Knights
Nick Nanavati – Grey Knights
Reece Robbins – Eldar
Tim Gorham – Grey Knights

After the jump, I will break down the armies and give some of my "thoughts" on the tournament

Pork Update!

Well Pig Progress is coming along well.

I won a Lord Carver on Ebay and I purchased a box of Farrow Brigands.

With that said I am on my way to building the Carver Tier list.

My next few purchases will have to be at least 2 War Hogs, Rorsh & Brine and 1 more box of Brigands and then:

Another WiP shot of my Gun Boar after the break!

Hordes : The Beginning! OOOIINNNKK!!!

With little hesitation, I have decided to venture in to the War-ma-hordes arena for a second time.

I was a little disappointed with the way my initial foray went, but a lot of people, who's opinions I respect, tell me that the game is awesome. I will give it another round.

I chose to go with the later end of the Warmahordes amalgamation of a word, so I decided to go with Minions. I realize this puts me in a precarious position as far as model selection and diversity goes, but I think if I stick with this game for any amount of time, then having a base in the section that allies with other armies will give me more diversity later. Will it work out... Fuck if I know!! Ha! Trying to plan for the future is a silly prospect!!

What I did like was bad ass super pigs!

OOOOOOIIIIINNNNKK!!! is almost as good as WAAAGGGHH!!!!

ROFL!

A little painting after the break for those so intrigued to click!

Puppets war: filling your necron holes with shiny bits!

As GW languishes on their rears, 3rd party companies are picking up where they dropped the buck. The latest instance of this is the newest "Cyber" releases from Puppets war!  A lot of new Necron players are lamenting the lack of some crucial pieces to their competitive lists. Spyders and Wraiths are just two of those, but Puppets war has stepped up to fill the need.

Check out the "Cyber Gigant Beetle"

From the site
"Set contains one main body, 2 armors, 2 blades, 6 leg mountings, 6 legs, head, 2 smaller face blades, 2 bigger face blades, and 10 cyber beetles. Designed to fit 28mm tabletop wargames scale. Supplied unassembled and unpainted."

It retails for a little over $28, which may seem like a lot for one model, but keep in mind you get 10 "cyber beetles" as well. Also, if you check out the site, these have multiple poses that you can use to distinguish the up to 9 that you can field.

Next up, is the "Cyber Arthropod squad"

From the site
"Set contains 3 Cyber Arthropods. Designed to fit 28mm tabletop wargames scale, supplied unassembled and unpainted."

These bad boys are quite a deal compared to the current cost of getting a hold of the older ones.  At $25 for a squad of 3, you are saving yourself about $20 off the ebay price.  They also come with CC options that include the whip or the scissorhand as shown in the pic above.

I have not personally ordered from these guys, but their reputation preceeds them. Their models are cast well and the designs are cool. (In my opinion at least!) The only potential downside is that these guys are based out of poland so shipping is generally long and customer service can be an issue since they are in a far different time zone.

Considering Warmachine/Hordes...

Well, more than just considering. I have started in on my collection and will soon be the proud owner of my very own Legion of Everblight army!

80's cartoon icon, check!

While cruising through the battle college a few weeks ago, I stumbled upon Legion and it's awesome looking models. Specifically the Angelius.

Dragons, check!

If there's one thing I've always said, it's that 6 winged, shark headed, flame throwing dragons are what I'm all about! Well maybe not that specifically... But this is a freaking awesome model. So I got one!

Long hours of work re-shaping the model and cleaning flash... uh, check...

It comes in quite a few pieces and there was quite bit of flash, but that seems to be common for PP metals. The real problem I had with the model is that the pieces didn't quite seem to fit together!  The wings don't slot on quite right and there is a large gap between the tail base and the body. I'm not sure if that's common or not as I've only opended 3 or 4.  But it seems like a bad precedent for such a large and detailed model.  It kind of reminded me of the old metal Daemon Prince. That fuckin thing never went together right... Overall, the detail is all there and that's what I want in the final model.  I would just like a bit more precision in the casting.  It's no finecast pos, but it's also not 100% awesome.

The rest of my LoE army is incoming in the mail, so hopefully this is just a one-off problem. What about you guys who play warmahordes? Have you had similar experiences after unboxing new models? I'd like to hear about it either way. It will definitely influence my further purchases for this system!

Kingdom Con results and unit rankings

I ended up 4-1-1 over the weekend in San Diego and I wanted to take a minute to review the units I took individually and maybe think about any adjustments I need or want to make to my list. 

Before I get into that, I want to just real quick give a shout out to the folks that placed

Best Painted: Israel Sanchez’s Tau
Renaissance  Man: Dave Fay’s Black Templars
3rd Best General: Doug Johnson’s Battlewagon Orks
2nd Best General: David Key’s Scarab Farm Necrons
Tournament Champion: Cooper Wadell’s Tyranids

The top 3 all ended up 5-0-1, which is an excellent finish for 6 games. If I could've beaten Dave's necrons, I might've been right there! I ended up as best Blood Angel, but in a last minute change, they announced that they didn't have the budget for the best of army prizes. Wah wah...

But, I'll get 'em next time! On to the unit grades!

It's a new day

Time to kick butt and take names on day 2 of kingdom con!

On the Road to Kingdom con! (game recaps after the jump)

6am, up and at 'em! Time to take my happy ass down to San Diego and win me some warhammer games! Wish me luck! I'll see those of you who are going in a couple hours.

Here's my army, lined up and ready to rock. Don't let me down, Mephiston!

Ignore the dirty socks and assorted paints...

Damn... this is early...

Kingdom Con indecision, HALLLPPP!!!

This weekend, the guys from Frontline gaming are running a BAO style event in sunny San Diego at Kingdom con!

I've never been to this convention before, but I love me some San Diego so I'm sure this'll be a fun weekend!

If you take a look at their events page, if looks like they have something for everybody.  40k, fantasy, warmahordes, and even the guys from SoCal Malifaux are gonna be there. Those guys go to freakin everything!

I am running into a problem though... Which army do I take??? This is not a good problem to have two days before the event! The 40k tournament is 1750 with 6 rounds of BAO type mission madness, so I will want a strong, mobile troop core and to bring a list that is somewhat resistant to giving up KPs.

At the moment I'm heavily leaning towards BA as I have been tearing unholy ass through people with them at the 2k level. The only thing I give up between 2k and 1750 is the honour guard and some fancy upgrades. That won't impact the effectiveness of my list that much, but the thing I'm worried about is that I haven't been practicing the BAO mission with them. Also, as I said in my other article, I give up the booty to a couple of the slightly main stream lists.

Battle Report! 1500 points of Orks vs GK awesomeness!

For the third time, me and Soldado decided to throw down some Ork on GK madness.  I'm trying to figure out a 1500 point list for an upcoming GT so I asked him to try a couple practice games against me!

Check out game 1!
And game 2!

Here's my list. It's pretty standard purifier spam, which kind of bores me to play, but 1500 is a hard point level for GK. The optimal list is probably henchmen spam... but fuck that. DCAs are a crutch!

HQ
Castellan Crowe
Xenos Inq w/psyker upgrade, psyko-troke

Troops
5 man Purifiers w/2 x psycannons, 3 x halberds, Razorback w/psybolt
5 man Purifiers w/2 x incinerators, 3 x halberds, Razorback w/psybolt
10 man Purifiers w/4 x psycannons, 5 x halberds, 1 x Daemon hammer, psybolt, Razorback w/psybolt
5 man Strike Squad w/psycannon

Heavy
Dreadnought w/2 x autocannon. psybolt ammo
Dreadnought w/2 x autocannon. psybolt ammo
Dreadknight w/Heavy Incinerator

I think Soldado tried to squeeze in a bit too much at 1500 without enough support. Check out his list

HQ
Ghaz
Big Mek w/power Klaw, KFF

Troops
Nobz w/ stuff, Battlewagon w/deffrollas and other stuff
19 boyz w/nob, power klaw
19 boyz w/nob, power klaw
10 grots w/herder

FA
Deffkopta

Heavy
Battle wagon x 2 w/deffrollas and other stuff

We played the BAO mission since that's the format the tournament is going to be in. With 4 points given for each mission won, and 2 for each one drawn.  We rolled deployment and got spearhead... I hate spearhead...

Also, the pics came out a bit fuzzy at first because Soldado had his grubby paws all over it! 

Release the Kraken!

The latest preview in the colossals range is for Cryx. Seems like a pretty decent sculpt, but I don't know why it would come with a big gun if it needs to be powered by grabbing dudes. That seems at odds with the design.  So far I have been pretty impressed with most of the design that the PP guys do.  I'm sure it will make sense once the stats are released.

Are Blood Angels back in the top tier?

Recently I have brought my Blood Angels out of retirement for the last RTT and the local 40k Masters league. I really feel that they have the tools needed to be a top contender in the late 5th edition 40k Meta.  In my local meta at least, it seems that people have begun shying away from space wolves and heavy shooting in general. Favoring mid-strength AP4+ shots, instead of the higher strength, lower AP weapons.

Also, they're bffs with Necrons!

In the grim darkness of the 41st millenia, there can be only Bro-fists!

In my opinion, BA have 4 solid lists. 

• AV13 spam: The core of this list is Predators, Baal predators, Furiosos, and Librarian/s with shield of sanguinus.  
• All power armor/DOA: As many assault marines as you can fit on the table with Devastators providing the fire support
• Double/triple Stormraven:  An alpha strike style list, it fields heavy rocks in Stormravens and tries to get them across the filed as fast as possible
• Razorspam: This usually includes similar elements to the AV13 spam list, but with less focus on resiliency and more on redundancy

The AV13 spam list is incredibly resilient to stationary fire and provides it's own cover saves with shield of Sanguinus and scouting Baals. The all jumper/dev power armour list is very good as well. It takes maximum advantage of the FNP/furious charge bubble as every point you spend is able to utilize the bubble. The double/triple Stormraven list is incredibly fast and dangerous but overall a bit more frail.  The Razorspam list just tries to get as many tanks on the field as possible. Generally with las/plas as that is currently the best option for a fast chassis.


My current list and opinion of it's matchups after the jump!

WAAC Attack!

The recent talk of GW removing tournament support and cancelling it's tournaments over the last week or so has got me thinking...  Why do I play 40k when GW seems to not care about the style of play I want to engage in?

GW doesn't care about WAAC people!

No emo...

Given that the company that makes my chosen wargame doesn't support my style of play, I am forced to evaluate what it is that I want from this hobby.

A second look - Burnas and TankBustas UP Lootas Down

When I first mentioned Orks and the elite selection of the codex, it was met with some hesitation and resistance from the rest of the internet. Here.

All of this is going to require a bit of pre-reading here, so once you get back you will see my evolution of thought from 6 months ago.

A plea to GW and a thank you to Indy TO's: Re tournament support

Games Workshop has decided to end it's support for the tournament circuit that led up to the throne of skulls tournament. From this thread on Dakka

"The North American Games Workshop Business Support team along with our management team has spent an extensive amount of time reviewing the current tournament circuit and the best way to offer support to hobbyists interested in hosting events of their own.

As you are undoubtedly aware, there is a Games Workshop tournament circuit in which tournaments must apply and those chosen are offered support. After serious consideration, we will continue with the current 2012 circuit ending in May 2012 and host the culminating Throne of Skulls tournament this October. Going forward, in order to be more supportive of events of all types, especially those in our retail and trade outlet stores, we will discontinue the GW tournament circuit.

We would like to thank all the organiser's from the 2012 Circuit and we wish everyone the most success with their events in the future.

Regards,

Desiree Dorsey
Director of Business Support
Games Workshop"

Wat duck is not happy...

My thoughts after the jump...

More Dark Angels news: WD Spine Image part 4!

Which one is the darkest angle???

The latest white dwarf was released this weekend and of course it brought us another part of the "mystery" that is the image on the spine. Here's a look at the compiled image as of April's WD. 

The fourth part of the image actually creates more questions than It answered! Why are there two plasma coils? What's that glowy thing on his chest? Is that a hilt of a sword... Of secrets?

I'm still fairly convinced that this is Azreal, but the double plasma is kind of throwing me off. Maybe that's new wargear in the next book? Or It could be a plasma blaster. Forgeworld has been tossing those around pretty liberally lately.

For those that don't know a plasma blaster has the following profile

Plasma Blaster R18"  Str 7 AP2  Assault 2, Get's Hot!

This would be a serious upgrade for marines everywhere. Especially those of the assaulting type. A 6" move and 18" range puts these at the same max distance as a regular plasma gun but with twice the effectiveness over 12".   Also, since the gun is assault, infantry would still be able to mix it up in CC!

I'm not sure what they are going to do after they reveal the face... Hopefully one side is a robed DA marine and the other side is Cypher! That would be a pretty sweet teaser for the rumoured DA/Chaos starter box for later this year. At the current rate of reveals, I think the full image should be done  around September... Here's hoping!

Malifaux Easter releases

As with most things Malifaux, these are slightly disturbing... But here are a couple sweet new figures they are releasing today for Easter! (Or Egg-travaganza as they are calling it)

Sweet PJs!

That's one end of a naked rooster I never wanted to see!

Looks like the easter bunny is a little... weird...
But everything in Malifaux is a little weird so I guess he should fit in just fine!

The Egg Hauler counts as a Slop Hauler and the War rooster counts as a War Pig of course.