Since seeing him in action at the Midwest Conquest GT, I decided to add Roboute Guilliman to my forces for the Bug Eater. He's an incredibly intricate model to buy, sand, glue, prime and paint for a tournament. I'd like to spend a lot more time on him, but I'm not ashamed of what I've got here. I'm not quite done but he's well on his way. Also, here's a Flesh Tearer that's nearly done.

This past weekend I traveled to Kansas City for the awesome Midwest Conquest Warhammer 40k Grand Tournament. I never had so much fun losing. It's a great tournament and I had more fun this year than last year but I fared far worse on the table top. Here's my army in a nutshell: 2 CADS 1 Chaos Lord on Juggernaut 1 D-Thirster - Bloodthirster 3 Units of Cultists 1 Unit of Bloodletters 4 Heldrakes with baleflamers 1 Heldrake with autocanon My army on parade.  D-Thirster ready for action. Dark Prince Adam. The drakes! I wanted my army to look like a 70s album cover. My plan was to let the heldrakes do most of the heavy lifting. They can zip around the field, go into hover mode to snag objectives, torch Marines and melt through their armor, deny jinks to Dark Angels and various Eldar... the army looks great on paper and fared well in the few test games I was able to get in but did not do well against tournament play.  As I me...

I don't know if you'll receive any bonus points for building a display board in Warhammer 40k 8th edition, but I find it's the best way to carry my minis around no matter what edition. My dragon wing army for my Khorne Daemon Kin is just about finished painting and I'm going to take them to both the Midwest Conquest and Bugeater tournaments. I'm just finishing up my "extra" units that I can summon during the game and once I complete that, I'll snap a few more pics. The dragon wing army takes up a large footprint so I had to order a large tea tray from Pier One for all of my models to fit. It's roughly 20"x20" and is easily the largest of all of my carrying trays. Here's how I made it:  First I cut out a sheet of cork from Michael's and cut out a rough shape of the Khorne symbol. Then I glued the outer portion of the cork sheet to a piece of plywood cut to the interior dimensions of my tea tray. I used a lot of rocks fr...

There's are a couple of rumors floating around from Games Workshop about new Warhammer 40k rules and models releases; as well as major changes to the fluff. Rumor 1: All of the Primarchs will return, including the dead. Rumor 2: One of the traitor Primarchs will become a loyalist and one of the Imperial loyalists will become a traitor. I got into a discussion with some people on a thread on Spiky Bits' Facebook page about it and here are my theories. The Emperor will briefly return, only to be killed again. Once he finally dies, all of the pysker souls he's been consuming on the golden throne will coalesce and bring all of the dead primarchs back to life. The missing primarachs will rush back to Holy Terra like moths to a flame. Of course, this means both Horus and Sanguinius have returned as well. Horus will see the results of his actions and will repent his wicked ways, blame Ebrus/Logar and the Word Bearers for tricking him into corruption and turn to the sid...

My Adeptus Mechanicus Tech Preist Dominus conversion is almost ready. I wanted to build M.O.D.O.K. (Mechanized Organism Designed Only for Killing) from Marvel Comics because he's one of my favorite villains. Tinkering around with some bits I had, I eventually transformed the idea into more of a dark mechanicum tech priest with tentacles in a dreadnought hull. I've got him almost ready for the LVO; just some cleanup and deepening of shadows. Let me know what you think!

I'm working on a new Magus for my Cult Mechanicus/Ad Mech/Mechanicum. After reading more of the Black Library fluff, it's obvious the Mechanicum/Machanicus are some twisted folks. While I didn't want to make my Magos "dark" mechanium, I think there is a lot of opportunity for conversions to make each Ad Mech army unique and I want my general to stand out. One of my favorite comic book villains is MODOK. A giant head floating on a cyborg body with mental powers and traditional weapons built into his "golden throne." I couldn't figure out how to make a knock-off model out of GW bits, but it did give me a jumping off point by inspiring me to use the dreadnought hull as a body.

Ol' Games Workshop has been doing well in the, "fan service" department. Rumors say we'll get two new armies in December (or shortly thereafter), Imperial Agents and Chaos Traitor Legions. I suspect that the Imperial Agents book will be more of a revision/combination book for the few digital only and outdated codexes - Assassins, Inquisitors, and Sisters. I'm sure they'll add in the Sisters of Silence from the recent Burning of Prospero board game, and I wouldn't be surprised to see Militarum Tempestus, Astra Militarum, Grey Knights, or regular Marines units to make a full army. For the Chaos Codex, I can only assume that we'll see rules like the Space Marine chapters. The Black Legion will be the generic Ultramarines style army that's flexible enough that most current Chaos armies can play. Death Guard, Emperor's Children, World Eaters, and Thousand Sons will probably have some of the best rules/tactics/formations because they already ...

Whoa, Games Workshop has released their new FAQ for Warhammer 40k! A lot of the changes were based on community feedback and they even gave credit to Frontline Gaming/operators of the Las Vegas Open for their help. Link to changes on GW's site. My favorite FAQ? Witchfire psychic powers without a profile, like Psychic Shriek, don't need to roll to hit. Invisibility? You can't hide from being yelled at. Also, Battle Brothers can NOT deploy in each other's dedicated transports. No more drop pod rideshare for Ad Mech. Let's hope that drop pods get a little more expensive or Rhinos get cheaper. If the rumors are true, 8th edition is just around the corner, so I imagine most of these will apply to that edition as well.

I had this thought the other day as I was working on an army list. What if Detachments and Formations were developed as a deliberate attempt to sabotage "net lists?" After Games Workshop shut down their own tournament series, lots of armies were built the same way because the independent tourneys published the winning lists online for everyone to mimic. The proliferation of Formations and all of the new codex specific Detachments could be the way Nottingham has decided to guide players into building lists that are a bit more fluffy and in character. Of course, the cynic in me says it could also just be a simple sales technique to sell more vehicles and models that are slow movers. Either way, I love the bonuses of the Salamander Flame Strike formation, but I don't really want to take a devastator squad. At least the current rules don't force me to arm them with any actual heavy weapons...

Today I played in a 1,500 point Rogue Trader style tournament and did very well. I brought my "Bastards of Badab" Astral Claws army and came in second by getting the most victory points. I brought a Space Marine biker CAD, a Librarius Conclave all rolling on Telepathy, and a Sky Hammer Annihilation Force with 3 grav and multimeltas in the devastator squads. I switched from White Scars chapter tactics to Ultramarines recently and I'm glad I did. The doctrines, even though I only get to use each one once in this build, have been a big help because I don't need to put librarians with divination nearby. If this had been a larger point game, I would have brought devastator centurions and because of the Ultramarines Chapter Tactics, I don't need to sink a lot of points into Tigurius. The conclave on bikes usually means that I can throw some sort of protection on the CentsDevs. In my first battle, I played Eli and his Khorn Daemonkin. It was Vanguard deployment...

This past weekend I made my way to the Midwest ConQuesT GT in Kansas City.   It was a bit of a last minute decision and I didn’t really have an optimized army built for what you might typically expect at an ITC GT but I had three options. First I considered my White Scars (which I’ve recently re-painted as Astral Claws – more on that in another post) but they failed me at a recent local tournament after facing ‘Nids and a scouting Eldar list and I moth-balled them for the time being. Next I was thinking about bringing my Admech War Host Convocation with two Imperial Knights. To be honest, I haven’t really enjoyed playing the Admech very much but they can be a force to be reckoned with a favorable matchup. Lastly, I considered and ultimately chose my Grey Knights. Here’s roughly what I brought: Grey Knight CAD: Librarian -   Level 3, Cuirass of Sacrifice 10 Termies, Daemon Hammer, Psycannon, Halberd 10 Strike Squad, Daemon Hammer, incinerator, Halberd ...

Games Workshop has recently dipped back into social media and community outreach after several years of going silent and have launched several new pages pages on Facebook, including their  Warhammer 40k page. This is a big deal. One of the most talked about posts is their call to fans to submit questions for a future FAQ. Among smart-ass jokes, snarky comments, and other general whining, there are some genuine rules questions that players have been struggling to get a clear ruling. ITC has their own interpretations and rulings that most gamers have accepted but getting answers straight from high command will be a positive step forward in both connecting with the gaming community and building a better game. Personally, I'd like to see some rulings on scouting fortifications, Iron Hands vehicles and chapter tactics, Independent Characters joining formations, and scouting units and their transports with the Strategic Warlord Trait. I know there's always going to be codex c...

Tonight I broke out and began clipping and assembly of one of my favorite models from Games Workshop, the Ork Stompa. I never really had enough Space Orks to make a game of Apocalypse worth playing but I've envied the Stompa since it was released a few years back. Since it's just a Lord of War in the current Ork codex - albeit nearly 800 points of model - I thought I should finally add it to my ranks. I cracked open my new box of over-costed model only to find that the instructions did not have part numbers!? There weren't as many parts as most big models, and there were numbers on the sprue, but not in the instructions. I had a bit of a panic. Normally, ol' GW is really good about making complex models simple to assemble but without numbers to guide me, I was afraid I was going to be lost. Luckily, like any Ork Mek, it seems you can pretty easily follow along and get your Stompa slapped together without too much fuss. My wife and I were watching TV and I thou...

A few new FAQs are out for Warhammer 40k! Some of these barely have any information in them but it does help settle a few rule disputes. Here are a few links to the Black Library site. *UPDATE* Black Library site with all links I don't know if this is the work of the new GW CEO, but I like what Games Workshop has been up to lately.

The Tanks-Giving tournament went fairly well and I went 2-1 placing 4th-ish. Marshall went 3-0 winning the tourney's top prize. I won my first game against Danny and his Tau in a close and nasty slobber-knocker. We played a modified Crusade scenario with 4 objectives in the center of the table and Vanguard deployment. I don't remember the final score, but neither of us had many models left on the table. Danny brought the Tau Ta'unar Supremacy armor super heavy. I was able to tie it up with a librarian and managed to put 5 wounds on it before it finally stomped my model to death. My second game was a solid loss to Chris and his Tau in a modified Contact Lost scenario. He brought a list that had a Stormsurge and a Ghostkeel unit. He was pretty much in control the whole game and frustrated me with the amount of move, shoot, ignore the rules, and move again shenanigans for which the Tau are known. In the third match I faced Braden and his Ork and Necron team up in a Tacti...

Since I went to Austin and played in the 2013 WargamesCon Fantasy tournament, I haven't played a game of Warhammer Fantasy Battles. It used to be my favorite game. I had plans to finally paint up my Night Goblin army. Then, I couldn't find anyone to play. 7th Edition wasn't the most popular edition of Warhammer but it became increasingly hard to find gamers in my area to play and it was even harder to argue that it was a balanced game, or even a good game. The flavor of Warhammer was still at it's core but there were so many rules hangups that favored too few armies that it became a game of asterisks. Oh, we'll you're playing Wood Elves,* you weren't going to win so good job with your loss. Then came Age of Sigmar. I want to play a fantasy game but AoS isn't the game. It has a tiny bit of the familiarity of Warhammer Fantasy, but it's a different beast and that's not the kind of beast I want to hitch my wagon. I've purchased the f...

I've grown a little bored with my White Scars. They're hard to paint and I get a little anxiety when I think about how many bikes I have left to paint. Plus, they've lost a little of their punch in the new Space Marine codex because they don't receive the extra bonus to their jink save. But you know who does get that extra bit of cover save? Raven Guard. At least in the first turn... One of the radio plays I'm in this year is "Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe. Last year's radio play featured three Poe stories, "Cask of Amontillado," "Tell-tale Heart," and "The Black Cat" so I have had a steady diet of gothic imagery from Poe that obviously inspired the Raven Guard. In fact, I have named my Blood Angel dreads after a few Poe characters and I've thought of painting a standard after the Montresor family crest from "Cask." While at rehearsal (and when my roles are not being rehearsed) I've dayd...

As I have mentioned before, I have army ADD. I see new and shiny things and I run to the ATM and place orders at my local comic and game shop. My next obsession is AdMech with the Adeptus Mechanicus and their very powerful War Convocation formation. For the current Warhammer 40k league I’m playing in, I painted up my three Imperial Knights from AdMech loyalist houses (pics coming soon.) I picked up the Skitarii and Cult Mechanicus codexes so that I could fill out my remaining points with some more troops from Mars. At first, I was going to just add some inexpensive Skitarii Vanguard to help hold some objectives. However, after reading some more from the Cult Mechanicus list, I fell in love with the Kataphron Destroyers with their relentless grav-cannons. They lack the nifty model design of the Skitarii, but their firepower is so over-the-top that they make a very attractive option. After a little more research, I found the Adeptus Mechanicus War Convocation formation i...

One of the cool things that Games Workshop has been doing lately is producing lots more armies/rules for armies and pumping them out like a machine. Rumors say Ad Mech is next on the tech thralls agenda and I've found a few teaser items from GW and White Dwarfs. I think all of these look insanely cool. I've never been a fan of the cult of Mars fluff, but I may change my tune after these things are released. I love the gear/Roman helmet plume!

GW FAQs and Eratta on the Black Library site Chaos Daemons and Dark Angels have a couple of things cleared up. Tomorrow I'm playing in a 2,000 point 40k tournament with my White Scars. The tourney is the grand finale to our 12 week on league (or just a regular tournament if you haven't played in the league.) Here's my list: mono White Scars Captain - Bike, thunder hammer, storm shield, digital weapons, Strategic Warlord Trait Command Squad: Bikes, 4 storm shields, 2 grav guns, 2 melta guns, apothecary Librarian - Level 2 (taking telepathy.) 7 Bikes - 2 grav guns, melta bomb 7 Bikes - 2 grav guns, melta bomb 7 Bikes - 2 grav guns, melta bomb 10 Tactical Squad - plasma gun, lascannon, melta bomb 1 Dreadnought - Multi-melta, heavy flamer, Drop Pod Land Speeder - Typhoon missile launcher, heavy bolter Land Speeder - Typhoon missile launcher, heavy bolter 5 Devastator Squad - 4 missile launchers, 4 flack missiles 3 Devastator Centurions - Grav-cannons, Mi...