Power from Paint: Dizzy with Joy

Welcome back to the Vault my fellow Archons! I hope you've been enjoying the festive season, and had the opportunity to indulge in some hobby and gaming.  I've been spoilt rotten by family and friends for gaming loot (more on this later in the post), and I've enjoyed the opportunity to build and paint some 40K models.

I am taking part in First Founding's 40K doubles tournament in February and I'm teamed with the club's resident Eldar player. Of course this means I shall be taking the Kabal of the Sand Viper out for another raid!

We waited until Chapter Approved 2018 to be released before (so as to be sure of points changes) before drafting our army lists (1000 points, single detachment, rule of 2, per player). We've got decent lists with a good theme, and I've come away with some hobby homework (i.e. new units to build and paint).

First up is a new Ravager armed with triple Dizzy Cannons (painted following the guide here). Santa Claus was very kind to Space Marine players with the new Primaris Marine formation and rules in the Vigilus Campaign Book, and so I've responded as any proper Archon should; I've put more ways to kill Primaris into my force! 

The Gift: Session 5 Adventure Log

Session Five begins as the heroes return from the Dark Eye Tower to Nanny Ogg's cottage to determine their next course of action. Feeling the party have worked well together Cade asks the characters to help him & Albert deal with the "infestation" of Stirges nesting in the ruins of their cottage. The party agree to help and once rested up visit Cade's land.

Hind sneaks up to the ruined building and confirms the bat like creatures are roosting in the rafters, below the remains of the thatched roof. They have obviously been there for some time as the floor is slick with guano. The party decide to smoke the vermin out; torches are lit,  thrown onto the roof of the building and soon the thatch and timbers are alight. The stirges awaken and flee the flames in terror, seeking a safer refuge. Cade's unwelcome visitors have been dealt with!

Frostgrave: The Smoke Silver Swords

Welcome back to Felstad my fellow Wizards. It's time for another tale of wonder from the ruined City of Wonders; today we will learn of the mysterious Smoke Silver Swords!

Many warriors and soldiers have perished within Felstad, and a number of their souls wander lost and and tormented among the fallen chambers and echoing plazas of the City. Some still maintain a  lingering tether to their mortal remains, shackled to the weapons they bore. When a number of such spirits are in close proximity to each other their agony is multiplied and made manifest in the form of Smoke Silver Swords.

Frostgrave: Marley's Spectral Chains

Today I bring you a story from chill Felstad; that fabulous ruined city of Frostgrave fame. Pull your chair closer to the tavern fireside and I will begin the tale of Marley's Chains! 

Marley was not a particular noteworthy Wizard of the Magical City, save for the reputation; he made coin and surely begrudged spending the same. A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner even when his mortal time and passed he ensured that no one would benefit from his wealth. From beyond the grave Marley protects his treasure with Spectral Chains!

As the Cultist approached the treasure, Marley's Chain shimmered into reality!

Kill Team: Tyranid Warrior Reinforcements

The Warp clears and we return to the Vault once more dear Venturers! My hobby butterfly has landed squarely in the 41st Millenium recently; I've played a couple of games of doubles 40K (in preparation for First Founding's team tournament) with my Death Watch Marines and finished a quick painting project in the form of some Tyranid Warriors for Kill Team. You can see all the Warriors below:

  

The Gift: Session Four Adventure Log

Session Four begins as our heroes continue their investigation of the seemingly haunted Dark Eye Tower. The party had previously encountered and fought a number of Fire Beetles nesting in the ruined upper levels of the Tower; and it seems the strange lights seen at night were in fact from the Beetle's glowing antennas. In fact a careful search of the upper levels did not reveal any further activity.

Back on the ground level the party focus their attention on the door to the north of the chamber where they had battled the beetles and the spectre had disappeared; there are sounds of frenzied animal activity coming from beyond. The characters ready themselves for further battle and open the door. Beyond are a number of enormous rats; obviously distressed by the passing of the ghost!

Kill Team Board Completed!

Welcome back to the Vault once again! Life has been very hectic of late, but I have managed to squeeze in a cheeky game of Frostgrave with a new War Band at the club (more of that in future), and I have managed a few hours of painting as well. It's been a productive session and I'm happy to share the fruits of my labour; I've finished my Kill Team board!

Power Armoured Paint: In Defence of the Tactical Marine

Welcome back to the Vault once again my fellow Venturers!  This post is another journey to Warhammer 40,000's Grim Dark Future, and I'd like to talk about one of the most maligned of units; the Space Marine Tactical Squad.

This post is fairly timely for a few reasons: 

• I'm considering what form my Space Marine armies might take post FAQ (although we still have Chapter Approved 2018 to shake things up further)
• GW have launched Space Marine Heroes, a number of new push fit Tactical Marine models in Blind Grab Bags so Marines are on people's minds
• Competitive "wisdom" says leave the Tactical Squads at home and take Scouts or Intercessors for Troop choices.

My regular 40K opponents know that Space Marines were my first army (my beloved Lightbringers); Tactical Marines were the first models I painted and I still use some of those venerable toy soldiers in my lists:

Reinforcing the Kill Zone

Welcome back to the War Zone my fellow Kill Team Leaders! This week's hobby time has been spent dabbling with Kill Team; as you can probably tell I'm really enjoying this new game! I showed off a lot of terrain I'd been painting in the previous article, and I've been working on a gaming piece to use with it all.

Kill Team Terrain

Time for more secrets of the Vault to be revealed! Regular Venturers will know that I have been playing the new Kill Team game recently, and I have been spending my hobby time painting up some terrain for the game.

The Kill Team box set comes with some new GW urban terrain kits plus a nice printed card game board; I've built the terrain and given it a quick slap of paint.

Multiverse Musings: Salt Lands

Welcome back to the Vault dear Venturers! This is a brief post to point you towards a review of the Salt Lands board game (written by yours truly) over at Multiverse.

Salt Lands is a post apocalyptic race against time as players gather the resources and information necessary to escape the hellish desert, whilst avoiding the bloody thirsty Horde on their gas guzzling transports. If this sound intriguing then check out the review here.

SELWG Show 2018: The Pictures

Time for a bonus mid week post! On Sunday I braved the challenges that are Southern Rail's Replacement Bus Service and ventured to Crystal Palace to attend SELWG Show 2018. SELWG (South East London Wargames Group) is an annual war games show, and whilst not on the scale of Salute (is anything else on the scale of Salute?) there are plenty of games, demos and traders to tempt a gamer out for a day.

The standard of the tables was pretty high, and there was a variety of periods, genres and scales in attendance; there really did seem to be something for everyone. And of course I took some pictures to give you all a flavour! (I utterly failed to note down (or even take pictures) of the names of most of the games and the groups who so kindly brought them along. Apologies to all.)  

I'll start with a few pictures of some of my favourite tables (click on the pictures to enlarge them):

Power from Paint: Octoberfest 18 Raid Report

The Kabal of the Sand Viper have returned from another Real Space Raid; this time to First Founding's Octoberfest 18 tournament. The Dark Eldar experienced a mix set of results, as we shall see!

Power from Paint: Ready to Raid at Octoberfest

With less than a week to go to Octoberfest (First Founding's autumn 40K tournament) it's time for my traditional army list reveal and pre-competition punditry post! Regular readers will know I've procrastinated for a while over which faction to take, and in the end I've gone with a variation of my Dark Eldar force.

Target Prioritisation: What are the benefits of war gaming and model making?

Welcome back to the Vault once again faithful Venturers! This week's hobby time has been spent finalising my list for Octoberfest, and slapping paint on some 40K models. One of my other hobbies is Tai Chi and I've also spent time this weekend preparing for some introductory Tai Chi sessions I will leading as part of an event for World Mental Health Day on Wednesday 10th October.

I've been very indecisive about what army to take to Octoberfest; agonising over what will do well in the various missions, and give me the best shot at winning my games.  But whilst having choices is fun, not making a decision has been bugging me. So I've decided to go with what I feel will be the most entertaining to play (a variation on my Dark Eldar), and making that decision has been liberating; I've been able to crack on with the final bits of painting required for the models.

Combining these two separate threads got me thinking; my gaming time is meant to be fun and I lost that focus for a little while. Let's think on the positives of the hobby and why it's good for us!

I've magnetised and painted Blasters for the Reavers! Pew! Pew!

Target Prioritisation: 40K List Evolution

Hello dear Venturers! Another week of hobby antics is over and that means it's time for another post.  I visited First Founding on Friday evening for the next game in my one-on-one Frostgrave campaign (where Acecerak and the Ragged Court made out like bandits, thanks for asking.)

A lot of the club talk among the 40K fraternity has been around the new FAQ and it's impact on people's lists. Combined with the publication of the Octoberfest Missions and the announcement that the FAQ beta rules will be in effect, I thought it would be timely to discuss possible impacts on my  list selection.

Kill It All With Plasma!

The Gift: Session Three Adventure Log

Session Three begins with a number of the characters forming a small party to investigate the spectral figure and strange lights emanating from Dark Eye Tower.

The ghostly labourer seems to beckon the players to the old watch tower and as they approach a faint red glow can occasionally be seen illuminating the crumbling upper level. However, the light is not constant; it seemingly appears and disappears at random.

As the party gets closer they can see the Tower is stern square structure 3 levels high although the top two are quite dilapidated.

Regimental Reporting: Tank Company 'Righteous Fire" After Action Report

It's time for another well deserved trip to the Officer's Mess! I've mentioned recently that I've been thinking about taking some Leman Russ tanks to the upcoming Octoberfest tournament, and I've played a game to try out the draft list.  

This was the first run out for my newly painted tanks: 

Leman Russ Executioner

Kill Team: Should Scions take the Vox-Caster?

Welcome back to the Officer's Mess!  My last post discussed how I might expand Gaunt's Goats in the future, and how I'd like to explore mitigating Nerve Tests for my pure Scion Kill Team. The most obvious way of doing this is to take a Vox-Caster on a Scion, but it is a very expensive piece of Wargear. We must therefore ask the question "Is the Vox worth it?"

Not Goats, but these are Stormies!

Kill Team: Gaunt's Goats After Action Report #1

Welcome back to the Officers Mess! Gaunt's Ghosts have taken to the battlefield for the first time and so today's post is a brief after action report. I failed in my attempt to get a practice game in at the club on Friday and so I attended Saturday's Kill Team Day at Warhammer Kingston with an untested force!

Kill Team: Gaunt's Goats Roster

Welcome back to the Officer's Mess! I'm attending my first Kill Team event next week as part of my local Games Workshop's 25 anniversary! I intend to take Gaunt's Goats which is bit of a brave choice on my part as I haven't played a single game with them yet (although that's something I hope to correct by getting a practice game at the club).

Today's post covers my roster and few thoughts on how I see the Kill Team being played.

Terrain for Tourists?

I think it's time for another visit to the Vault and today I'd like to share some more terrain pieces. Not that these items were originally intended to be wargaming terrain! 

One of the fun aspects of the hobby for me is looking for unusual items which I  can re-purpose for use on the gaming tabletop (my love of aquarium pieces is well known). And I came across a couple of such items in the tourist shops of Granada, Spain where I spent my summer holiday.

First up is the Fountain of the Lions, found in the wonderful Moorish citadel, the Alhambra.

 

Regimental Reporting: Octoberfest Approaches

Greetings Commanders! First Founding's Octoberfest 40K tournament will soon be upon us and I am in my usual pre-competition quandary as to which force to take! I've taken the Kabal of the Sand Viper (my Dark Eldar) to the last three tournaments as they are a lot of fun to play, but I'm quite tempted to dust off some of my other models and give them a chance for glory on the table top.

I've been struggling to come up with a competitive Space Marine list and I don't think my terminator-heavy Grey Knight force will do well at 1250 points.  However, I have got a new Imperial Guard list in mind.  I've got a decent amount of Guard models painted, but this particular list needs more tanks!

Leman Russ Tank

The Gift: Session Two Adventure Log

Session Two begins with the characters taking stock of their various plots of land and working out the most important jobs they'll need to complete:

Kill Team: First Impressions

Welcome back to the Vault once more! Like a lot of my game-playing friends I've dived head long into the latest incarnation of Kill Team over the last couple of weeks, both from a gaming and hobby perspective.

Rival Tau Kill Team's face off in a training mission

Multipurpose Terrain Crafting

Welcome back dear Venturers! My summer break is almost over and that means it's time to share some of the fruits of my hobby time with you. I've been working on a number of projects which I'll disclose over a series of posts and I'd like to start with some terrain pieces.

Like a lot of my fellow club members I've got *very* excited about the new Kill Team and picked up the starter box. However from my Frostgrave gaming experience I knew that the amount of terrain in the starter box was unlikely to be enough for a densely packed table so I purchased a couple of the Pegasus Gothic City kits along side it. The lovely thing about the Pegasus kits is that they are both modular and will work for 40K and Fantasy (i.e. Frostgrave).

So I've been busy assembling and playing with the buildings. Please bear in mind that a lot of these kits are still works in progress:

Lots of new toys!

Cool Stuff: Freyja's Wrath

Today we have another post full of pictures of Cool Stuff! Another Kickstarter has delivered it's lovely metal and resin goodness into my grubby mitts. This time it's some models from the Freyja's Wrath Kickstarter run by Bad Squiddo Games.

The Kickstarter models are all themed around Shield Maidens, Norse mythology and Scandinavian creatures. Again I was drawn to a lot of the characterful sculpts and the opportunity to fill some of the gaps in my gaming bestiary.

First up is The Seer: 

 

Cool Stuff: Gnomes!

It's time for a short (pun intended) post! Astute Vault Venturers will have no doubt realised that I'm a sucker for cool miniatures, and anything that I can use in multiple games systems gets my attention.

I've been slowly filling out some gaps of various creature/monster types in my collection and I was particularly taken with the sculpts from Krakon Games Gnomes 2 Kickstarter. The postie has delivered the models (I've had them for a while now) and I'm very pleased with them.

Power from Paint: Raider 'Rithmetic Revisited

Hello once again! It's time for another post, and whilst I have a lot of potential topics to blog about at the moment (so plenty of content to look forward to, yay!), I've decided to write a follow up to the Maths Hammer post about shooting Land Raiders.

Shoddy WIP Land Raider. This really needs starting again.

Power from Paint: Raider 'Rithmetic

Another weekend of gaming goodness is over and that means it's time for another post!  I've had a lot of fun playing 40K, various board games and also indulged an hour or two working on some terrain; this means there are plenty of topics to choose to blog about! However, this post will be a little bit different to my normal topics (warning: word heavy, picture light, includes maths).

My Dark Eldar took to the battlefield against the Dark Angels. The First Legion deployed an elite force and unfortunately suffered a defeat against the Kabal of the Sand Viper! The Dark Angels army included a Land Raider which died early in the game under sustained Dark Lance fire, and this event got me thinking; Land Raiders have a pretty poor reputation game-performance wise and are perceived as very expensive points wise, but is this really the case?

WIP Land Raider Crusader

Frostgrave: The Illusion of Progress

The summer heatwave continues and so I've tried to cool down with another trip to chilly Felstad. That's right Venturers; it's time for some more Frostgrave!

I played the second game of the new campaign on Friday evening at the club and decided to prepare and paint a suitable model to represent my Illusionary Soldier. So here's my Cultist Knight:

Frostgrave: Cultist Barbarian

Hello once again dear Venturers!  The chaos of updating the family kitchen is pretty much over and I'm very pleased as I snuck some hobby related changes into the shopping list of changes; the room now has oodles of light which makes painting a much more pleasant experience, and I've now got two (!) dedicated shelves for paints and models so they no longer clutter work surfaces and annoy Mrs. Varchilde.

So of course I've had to paint something. Today's effort is a reinforcement for my Frostgrave war band; a Barbarian who has been recruited into Acecerak's evil cult!

Mask!

Varchilde's Relics: Heroquest

In this post we visit one of the deepest chambers of the Vault; the Reliquary where ancient treasures can be found! 

My house is in turmoil at the moment as work is being done on the kitchen and so my hobby related activities have been restricted to reading books and surfing the web. Top of the reading list has been a couple of Frostgrave supplements; Maze of Malcor and The Frostgrave Folio.

Maze of Malcor is particularly intriguing as it allows an option for a 3rd party player to be involved and run a number of intelligent opponents to confound all the wizard players. In my mind this starts to blur Frostgrave's game boundaries even further, part skirmish war game, and part RPG-like. My roots as as a gamer are firmly in role playing games (I started on Red Box basic D&D), then board games, and then war games; and I have very fond memories of playing Heroquest (which blurs the lines between RPG and board game) and uses some wonderful minis.

I thought it would be fun to crack open my old Heroquest set and take a trip down memory lane dungeon!

Heroquest pits 4 heroes against a variety of foes in a Games Master controlled dungeon. (Please excuse the unpainted models; these minis harken from an ancient time before I had learnt the ways of the paintbrush!)

Wizard, Elf, Barbarian, Dwarf

The Gift: Session One Adventure Log

My players have "suggested" I use blog posts as an Adventure Log to capture key points from The Gift gaming sessions. As always I'm happy to accommodate my players requests but this doesn't mean they shouldn't record important information themselves!

Background information (and going forward these Adventure Logs) can be found using The Gift Label on the right of the blog, but in a nutshell it's a Sandbox Campaign where The Keep on the Borderlands meets The Temple of Elemental Evil with more than a dash of Glorantha's Dorastor thrown in for good measure.

Frostgrave: Casual Campaigning

I've just started playing an ad-hoc Frostgrave campaign with one of the First Founding regulars and I thought it would be fun to keep a summary of my Wizard and Warband's status here on the Vault. Acecerak and the Ragged Court are finally seeing some play time on the Table Top!

Power from Paint: Raiding with Mercenaries

The Kabal of the Sand Viper have ventured back into Real Space once more, seeking glory and slaves. I recently attended First Founding having arranged an impromptu game with Greg and his Dark Angels.  We decided points levels just prior to the game and so I had to go digging into my figure case to find some more models to add to my normal force; this allowed me to add a squad of mercenaries, a HQ and a raider to my list!

So here's the Gun Boat, but who did I recruit to ride in it?

The Gift: Trouble at Leoric's Logging Camp

Time for another journey into the depths of the Vault my faithful Venturers! This month's D&D game (scheduled for a couple of weeks time) will see the players participate in the inaugural session of The Gift campaign. 

Each character has been granted a Land Deed in the northern region of The Gift, near the village of Hearthsholme, from where they can seek their fortunes and make their names. 

Some people are already making their wealth and leaving their mark on these frontier lands. One such individual is Leoric; a hard nosed business man by reputation, he controls two of the major ferries across the northern river and runs a logging business felling timbers from the edge of the Dead Lands forests.

However Leoric has a problem; his woodsmen have been cutting deeper and deeper into the forests, and they have disturbed the forest spirits. And the spirits are angry at the damage that has been wrought on their domain!

Hello!

Power from Paint: The Spirit Prophet

Welcome back to the Vault my fellow Archons; today we visit the darkest halls of Commorragh's Covens.

It is well known among the Dark Kin that the Haemonculi of the Prophets of Flesh foretell the future from the suffering of others; reading the runes revealed in Dark Eldar raids and battles, as well as other more esoteric and exotic forms of flesh crafting. One of the rarer forms of soothsaying is that of Spirimancy, and it's adherents are named the Spirit Prophets.

First Founding Frostgrave: A blast from the past

It's been a long time since we visited Felstad, but I've recently received some more game results so I thought I'd post a quick update to the Rune Stone Race results table. Yep an actual real post as opposed to this apparently imaginary fellow!

Narrative Scenario: Da Sword in Da Stone

Many posts ago I wrote a narrative Warhammer 40,000 scenario that pitted Kanan's Dark Angels against my Death Watch. It was a lot of fun to play, and at the time I offered to write a similar scenario for any of my regular opponents. Neil from Table Standard took me up on the offer, and I've utterly failed to make good on it.

Until this post! Neil and I have played a number of times before but my favourite encounter has been when his Orks and my Imperial Guard have faced each other. So here's a narrative grudge match; Da Sword in Da Stone!

Yes, yet another model to paint!

Power Armoured Paint: From The Past We Awaken

Today the Techmarines utter the sacred rituals and invoke the ancient rites to awaken the Carcharodons Astra most revered and venerable Battle Brothers from deep slumber; today the Dreadnoughts are roused for War!

Like a lot of hobbyists and wargamers I have a small (*cough*) back log of painting and hobby projects and when the urge to pick up a paint brush hit me today I decided to tackle one of the many, many kits. I've mentioned before that I have a soft spot for Dreadnoughts, so I decided to paint my Contemptor.

Power from Paint: The Sand Viper Coven

Deep in the darkened places of Comorragh lie the crafting halls of the Haemonculi Covens. They do not work in metal or stone, neither wood nor jewel; their material of their artifice is flesh!

My Dark Eldar collection is predominately based around Kabal forces (as seen in the recent Mayhem post.), backed up by some Wych Cult units. The third part of the Dark Eldar triad are the Coven which are noticeably absent in my collection, save for a few Wracks and a Haemonculus.

Power From Paint: Mischief and Mayhem

Another Realspace raid has been completed by the Kabal of the Sand Viper and what a difference to our previous outing! Yesterday I attended the First Founding Mayhem 2018 tournament, so here is a brief report. As per usual I won't be writing a blow by blow Bat Rep (as my memory is terrible), but I took some pretty pictures and will add a few words around them.

The Kabal of the Sand Viper

First Founding Frostgrave: The Rune Stone Race Continues

A brief interlude in the arcane storms surrounding Felstad allow us to see how the Wizards and Warbands are faring in the Rune Stone Race. The magical winds are still causing trouble for some of the Mages as we don't have a full picture from our scryings.

Perhaps we should visit the Scrying Pools and see what we can learn?

Power from Paint: Mayhem Musings

The big day is almost upon us! Mayhem 2018 (First Founding's summer 40K tournament) is being held next Saturday, and I will be there with the mighty Kabal of the Sand Viper (as I failed miserably to get the Carcharodons Astra finished in time). As is becoming something of a tradition on the Vault I like to do a pre-tournament post and there will be a post tournament post in due course).

Lets start with the obligatory army pic.

Review: Traders Galaxy Lamiar Gun Slaves

Welcome back to the Vault my faithful Venturers; this week the hobby butterfly has landed on some new Sci Fi models!  Traders Galaxy have sent a blister of their new "Lamiar Gun Slaves" through hyperspace for us to play with and review. So let's crack on and see what goodies we have got out mitts on.

40K Mini-Campaign: The Maelstrom Gauntlet

Welcome back to the Vault my fellow Venturers! Today's post involves a trip to the archives to re-visit a set of Warhammer 40,000 campaign rules some friends and I played some years ago, and freshen them up for 8th Edition; The Maelstrom Gauntlet! Archon Varchilde is ready to pick it up and take on the challenge.

A week is a long time in 40K. What the FAQ?

The last couple of weeks have been very exciting in the 40K universe. We've seen the Dark Eldar Codex released (more on that later in the post) and the Big FAQ 1 released. You can find plenty of details, commentary and analysis elsewhere on the Internet regarding the full extent of the changes, but I thought I'd pick out a few of the pertinent details and how they apply to some of my forces.

The Carcharodons are prepared for change

First Founding Frostgrave: Queen Gladys and her Knights of Numenor

Welcome back to the Vault for more Frostgrave fun! One of the quirkier side rules of the Rune Stone Race campaign is that players are awarded bonus XP for writing back stories for their Wizards and Warbands, and they are embracing this aspect with gusto.

So for your literary pleasure I am proud to present Amit's Warband: Queen Gladys and her Knights of Numenor.

Queen Gladys

Frostgrave: The Sanctum of the Sigilists

Many Wizards and their Warbands are scouring the ruins of Felstad, seeking Rune Stones and other clues towards finding the fabled Sigilist's Tablet of Power. The location of the Sanctum of the Sigilists has recently been discovered, and the Tablet of Power seen within.

Each Wizard is gathering their followers and rushing to the Sanctum, hoping to claim the Tablet of Power before their rivals. And of course there is the not so simple matter of the Sanctum's Guardians and casting the Ritual of Control.