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My Blog List

Tuesday, 30 December 2014

40K the hive fleet is coming back

As I'm writing this post GW seem to be going down the road of doing campaign books which is stuff I really like tbh & with detachments & formations & what not the possibles are endless, why they've even brought back cities of death in the WD, all good fun stuff.

If you come to this blog often you will have read that I was talking about using a BA scout army which was me just waffling really as I don't have the models to run it & stand in's are not really my thing but it did get me thinking.

I want to run an army that wants to assault & with some of the new units that nids have got (pods anyone) I think combined with the detachments & formations it might just be do able, now don't get me wrong here I'm not saying that nids can now build an assault army that can beat up on all in front of it, but I hope it just might be possible to that can be fun to play while still making you feel like your in the game to do more then just remove models from the table.

So I'm going to start off with things like the Deathleaper formation & the geanstealers formation, these units backed up by others coming down in pods should be able to get in the others players face from the off.

There are within the dex a lot of 3W models that if they could get into a assault are not that bad & tbh I'm sick of units like my ravener's  sitting on the shelf, I want these units in peoples faces, why who knows I might even give the red terror a run out at some stage.

Going into the Newyear I'm going to make a resolution to try to get back to having fun playing 40K as it is still at heart a fun & enjoyable game to play & if I can get up close & personal then it will be so much the better.

Well that's it for now & as always my thanks for dropping in.



Wednesday, 24 December 2014

40K Joining the scouts

I can't do this post without using one of my all time favourite move lines & it comings from one of the Naked Guns staring Leslie Nielsen.
Its the scene when he's in a bar & turns around to George Kenny & says I haven't had this much sex since I was a boyscout leader LOL,

Anyway back to what this post is about & that is me trying to come up with an army in 40K that I can really enjoy playing & to that end my first port of call is going to be marine scouts,  now as I've said before I think the most fun part of 40K is to be found in assault, now I'm not talking about the invisible 2++ rerollable  deathstars here, no what I'talking about is the unsure who's going to get the better of who kind of assault where the two sides are getting stuck into each other.

Now I first thought of running scouts along time back but for some reason I never got around to trying it out, so what brought it back to me now you might ask ? well tbh it was when reading the new BA dex.

Now I've two ideas on how I might go about playing scouts, one it from the BA dex the, what's not to like about S5 on the charge, the other is from csm where they can take landspeeder storms.
Either way the idea of this army is to throw it into the other players face & let him deal with it, so that's the basic outline for now, will it be spamy  ? yes but I hope in a way that will make the army fun to play with & against.

Well that's it for now & as I get a chance over the hols I'll stick up a couple of lists, so talking of hols I'll take this chance to wish you all a very marry Christmas & as always thanks for dropping in.

Sunday, 14 December 2014

40K One last try ?

I haven't played a game of 40K in a couple of months now & really find myself at something of a cross roads I'll try to explain, as someone who has played 40K since 4th ed & collected the models since even before that needless to say I've a lot of models, but I now find myself wondering sould I just sell most of them off & just keep the stuff I want for pulp ally.

You see the problem I have is that while I love the concept of 40K I find that for me more often then not the game is a bit of a let down, now I believe  that the reason for this is two fold, one is the way GW sell us 40K as a whole & the other is GW's regard for balance with in the game, it at times strikes me as if the design team are playing a different game to the rest of us.

Now I'm not foolish enough to think that a game with as much stuff in it as 40K could ever be over all balanced but at the same time GW could put a bit more effort in make sure that units are not completely useless, it seems to much like GW don't care if the models that people have paid good money for can still work or not.

Anyway I don't want to turn this post into a rant what I want to try to do is work out if I should keep on playing or just throw in the towel right here & now and say enough is enough, so to try to help me out on this I'm going to do a bit of a pro's & cons.

Right I'll kick off with the pros of which I believe there are many.

1) The setting, for me there really is none better.

2) The models, while of late some of the stuff GW have come out with for some of the armies I play haven't really been my cup of tea, there is still enough good stuff to keep me happy.

3) The game, this is the big one to try & call as I've had some very enjoyable games of 40K in 7th ed I've also had some that while I've played very well & won where just to much like hard work, for me I  think the bast way to play 40K is in a relaxed manner & if it can be a special setting then so much the better.

4) Mates I've made from playing 40K.

5) Seen some of the wonderful stuff that player have done with their models.

6) The many different ways you can play 40K, I don't think there is another game out there that can offer as many different way to play, the fact that we don't is down to the players not GW.

7) Easy of getting games.

8) Tournaments a great way of catching up with people you other wise might not get to see.

So there I've what I feel are the major pro's in playing 40K, so now to  look at some of the cons.

1) Price, this is really an odd one because while it can be quite expensive to build an army once you do you need never buy another model if you don't want, the problem is that GW might make your army next to useless.

2) Balance, now again I've mixed feelings here as if I was playing a game like the ones that use to be in the older IA books where the out come of the game is that outside is more likely then the other to win I've no problem, while on the other hand if I'm just playing a game in the club I shouldn't know how the game will go just by looking at the two armies on the table.

3) GW enough said.

4) Rules for models, now this is more a FW problem then a GW one one as I think of it all as the same thing its a con, what I'm getting at here are the rules for FW models as you might only have 1 or 2 but if the release a new book with the model been part of it then you can end up having to pay a lot of money for a book just to get the rules for a model or two.

5) Poor rules & loopholes, I'm not a completive player any more but I think having clear rules is to everyone's benefit, loopholes are something that just P me off & really are in most cases just like poor rules down to GW not wanting to spend money on fixing.

6) Tournaments, while yes they do have their place in the game, my experience is to many games are played out to this end.

7) The stupid rules that suck all the fun out of the game, I think we all know what I mean with this.

So there you've got it my view on 40K, now these are very much my own & I'm sure there are many out there that see the game in a very different way but that is not what this post has been about, it has been to see if it could help me make my mind up one way or the other & to this end the post has worked.

The result is I'm going to give 40K one last chance, I've some ideas of how I want to try playing games but that's all for another post, Ill finish this one off by saying I won't put my bolter away just yet & as always thank you for dropping in.




Sunday, 30 November 2014

Pulp Alley a setting

A setting for my games is something I've been thinking about for a long time now & while I've a rough out line of what I want, I need to get some time to flesh it out.

Now if you read this post (http://ifitwasntforone.blogspot.ie/2014/10/pulp-alley-leaves-inq28-parting.html ) you'll know that I took my first steps in where I want to go with this, but like I've said time hasn't been on my side but with Christmas coming up fast I should get the time I need to start the ball rolling.

The plans for this are big & I'm looking at a project that is going to be years in the making but that's good right ? I've seen others do this this kind of thing & it has really grabbed my imagination, it will however mean a lot of terrain building, but if I'm honest I'm more into that then painting a 2000pts 40k army.

So what type of terrain am I looking at doing ? well first off I need three different cities, then different stuff for 3 different worlds, one thing that I feel is that a lot of games are just played out on a table not in a place if you get what I mean.

Well that's the plan for going foreword & like all great plans it will most likely fail lol but you've got to aim high right ? I want something that I'll enjoy doing & hopefully inspire my hobby in a new way.

Right now that all the excitement over what the hell is near enough to us to try to get this old boat fixed up Lucinda ? asked Jack.
The nearest system to us will take about 2 months to reach with the damage we taken Captain, also it appears a bit unusual in that there 3 planets orbiting a round its star that are very close to each other & I mean really close, like no more then a week apart in our currant state Jack.

Well we don't have any choice but to head there as we need to lock into an orbit a round a planet while we try to fix the ship up so we can get back to where we belong said Jack
I wonder is there any life on them though Jack as I could really do with a night or two at the gaming tables.

Welcome to the Tricol system, until next time my thanks for dropping in.

  

Friday, 14 November 2014

How to walls

Its so long since I done any modelling I'd nearly forgotten how to use a hobby knife lol, anyway what I've here is some cheap & easy walls & while these ones are only 20mm high I intend to do some at about 50mm high but no matter how high you build them it's all done the same way.



I used cork to make these with & tbh I find cork is one of the best modelling materials I've ever used, its cheap, light weight & is robust enough that you don't have to handle it with kid gloves.



So for the walls I cut strips of cork into 3 different sizes 20mm, 2.5mm & 15 mm all by 300mm
These where then cut into 20mmx150mm, 2mmx20 & 15mmx15mm, to make up the corner pieces I cut a couple of the 20mmx150mm into 20mmx75mm.


Now really these are as simple as can be to make as all there is to it is glue 4 of the 2mmx20 pieces to the 20mmx150mm strips, two at one end on each side & two in the middle, the 15mmx15mm pieces are then glue on top of the wall over these points.


Just two things to note the two 2mmx20 pieces at the end are let over hang the end of the 20 strip, while at the other end you need to both sides of the 20mm strip a little sanding, this is done for joining the wall pieces together.

That's really all there is to it, I'm not going to base theses wall as I don't think they need it plus it leaves them more flexible use wise.

I've got to say that even though this was such a simple project it was nice to get some little thing done.


Above a corner & a straight section of wall joined together, so until next time thanks for dropping in I hope it was worth your while.
















Saturday, 8 November 2014

To many models

To many models I would think there are a lot of people out there with this problem, but what to do about it & how did it come to this ?

Lately I've not been doing much gaming & when I have played its been pulp alley a game that uses very few models, now while I hate to get rid of models I really have got more then I'm ever likely to use.

So how did it all come to this ? well tbh I think it comes from (in my case )2 things, the first one is the love of models, now you might thing that everyone in table top gaming loves models but that's not really the case as I know some people who just love the game their playing & wouldn't care if they where just using card cut outs.

The second part of the problem comes from the kind of games you play, which if I'm honest is how I ended up with so many models.
If your a painter & not a gamer this is I would guess is unlikely to happen to you, but for gamers it can get out of hand.

Lets take a look at some games I've played with models & some that I haven't & see what kind of games are likely to cause this problem.

I'll kick off with some board games with models that I've played.
Space hulk, first time round this game could lead you to getting more models but now it's a stand alone game with out any add on so you never have to buy any more models for it.

Descent again another board game with models but unlike spacehulk this game has some tokens that are used instead of models that you can if you like buy the models for, also this game has expansions which you've guessed it have more models.

Bloodbowl  is the last one I'll look at in the board game group, in the set you got 2 teams & I don't think there was add ons like in descent, but you could buy different teams from different races so again more models.

Moving on to smaller table top games you've got games like deadzone or infinity, so lets have a look at a few of these.

Deadzone this game is nearly like a cross between a board game & a table  top game, not a lot of model used it the game its self but like bloodbowl you can use different races.

Infinity again low model count but different races means you are likely to pick up more models.

Pulp Alley this one is different in the sense that while you can make up different leagues to play it there really is nothing to stop you using the same models all the time, as there are no races unless you want to add one & what weapon any model has is not an issue.

Boltaction low model count but set in WWII so different armies, the thing with boltaction is that there is only even humans used so it is possible to play the different armies with the same models & if you play it as a game in a different setting then you don't need to worry about the Brits looking like the Brits or the Jerries looking like the Jerries.
So while you could get more models for this game you don't really need to.


Warmachine/ hordes  still I think a low model count even if not as low as some of the games above, the use of different races & new units added all the time means you be adding to your collection.

Moving up the model count & coming to the games that are likely to get you up to a high amount of model quickly.

Historical gaming this might depend on the setting but by & large seems to have a high model count, but unlike other systems there is a cap as you can't keep making up new units for this type of gaming.

Now for the one that more then any other game got my where I am now 40K, when I started playing 40k back in 4th ed was still a kind of low model count game, now don't get me wrong some armies could have a high model count like ig or orks but even those would be small by the count of today's armies.

Over time the amount of models you own will grow in any of the above games where you can add more models, but with 40K it seems to be at a faster rate then others, now don't get me wrong here the only one to blame for the amount of models you have is yourself, but I'be fairly sure in saying that if I'd have played say infinity instead of 40K that I could have an army for every race & still not be anywhere near the amount of models I've got now.

So what about you guys ? do you look under the bed or in the shed & see models that haven't seen the light of day for years, are there un open boxs in the corner that if your honest with yourself will never be put together while you go out & buy the newest shiniest thing ?

If the answer to the above is yes then like me you more then likely got to many models, anyway thanks for dropping in & please if you know of a cure for the to many models sickness then please put it in the comment box.






Sunday, 2 November 2014

Pulp Alley 3 way

Mayhem absolute mayhem & great fun that's the best way I can explain my latest game of pulp alley, regular readers will know that my son Paddy & I had just kick off a little campaign of pulp alley as we go about getting to grips with the rules.


Well it just so happened that another son of mine Trevor was home from OZ for a couple of weeks & decided he'd join in, now before I go any foreword let me tell you that Trevor unlike Paddy & myself is not a table top gamer, but so simple are the basic rules of pulp alley that he was able to join in the fun using the league from the rulebook.



As I said above this game was a complete blast & proved to me something that I'd thought might be the case, that pulp alley becomes a different game when you have more then 2 players.
What the extra player brought to this game was the whole players making alliances with one another & then stabbing each other in the back as the game twisted & turned.



A blooded affair this game was with Panama Jack & the crew all falling by the way a part from Lucinda Green that was, while over in Paddy's comer things weren't much better  with his leader the Duchess among other's also falling leaving the way clear for my non gaming son Trevor to slip in & win the day.


I think in pulp alley I've found a game that very much suits where I want to be hobby wise at the moment & while it will be after Christmas before I start doing a lot of the stuff I want to do in pulp alley & in a way I've nearly come full circle in the hobby as with my not been able to get in to the club these days it just Paddy & myself playing as it was all those years back when we started playing 40k, anyway I hope to have more time in the newyear & hopefully can talk 1or 2 others in the club to joining in on pulp alley.


So I'm going to finish up with a well done to Trevor on his win, a big thanks to both himself & Paddy for the game & thanks to you for dropping in & please call back soon.

PS I had more pictures of the game but for some reason only a few up loaded so sorry about that.