[SCC13] HQ

Chroma - A Blog in Ruins

2007-10-23T15:04:00.000-03:00

Wow... it sure has been a long time since we posted anything here. Doesn't mean we're out of the hobby or anything... just busy... yeah, that's the ticket! (Marriage, new houses, school, jobs... you know the drill!)

Pipboy's non-ruined building pieces inspired a lot of creativity at the HQ, so here's a couple of shots of some of the cool stuff we put together:

I've done up some Imperial monuments/shrines as well, using all kinds of bits:

That's just a taste of things to come, we've been doing a lot of casting and building and will showcase more stuff soon!

Pipboy - Settlers of Catan 3D

2006-11-20T17:00:00.000-04:00

I'm in the process of sculpting and casting a 3D Settlers board for my girlfriend for Christmas. I'm not very good at sculpting so I think the results so far are looking pretty good. These are the raw clay prototypes of two ocean tiles, two port tiles, a wheat tile, a desert tile, and a hlaf finished pasture tile.

Pipboy - Building Mock-ups

2006-10-25T01:00:00.000-03:00

This will give you a better idea of what I'm thinking. I still need to add a low wall around the edge of the roof sections to form a little lip. Just you wait to see all the cool building layouts I've got brewing in my mad little brain...

Pipboy - Epic Imperial Buildings

2006-10-16T15:07:00.000-03:00

I've been poking away for a while trying to create some non-ruined Epic buildings. I've taken the ruined building sprues from Epic 40k and chopped them up and built whole facades. Then I cast them and now I have turned out the first few casts. The Alumilite casting plastic I have been using is a little viscous for this kind of project so there are loads of bubbles. Once they're painted I don't think they will look any different than all the shell pock-marks covering the buildings anyway. I've found a source in Toronto for Smooth-On brand casting rubber and epoxy plastic. This new stuff should do much better as it is much thinner and will pour with far less bubbles trapped. Anyway, I'm convinced that these new buildings combined with all the cool scenery parts I've discovered I still have will make one damn fine looking Epic table...as soon as I get enough of the buggers cast.

Chroma - EPIC Titan Competition

2006-08-31T18:02:00.000-03:00

Well, Specialist Games was holding a "Create a Titan" competition this month and I really wasn't inspired to do much for it initially. The prize of a 3000 point army plus other goodies sounded sweet, but I just wasn't sure what to do. Pipboy had some ideas, but I think he lost inspiration as well as the month progress. One also had to write up the stats and flavour text for this new War Engine so it combined both modelling and creative skills.

Suddenly, I was inspired! (I think it might be the new shower head I got as I've been getting some really creative ideas in there! *laugh*) I scrounged around for bits and pieces and worked out something that, I think, is really cool. Now, the submissions for the competition just closed this week, so no judging has occurred. I'm going to keep the full glory of my creation under wraps for the time being until after I've found out how much I've won... ;) But here's a little sneak peak:

BloodNGuts, Pipboy, and I are going to try and set up a 4000-5000 point game to take my creation out for a spin. More word when we've worked out that plan!

Chroma - The Changing Ways of the Eldar

2006-08-27T18:00:00.000-03:00

Hey there EPIC comrades! Summer has been a busy time for all of us here, though I have been averaging two games of EPIC a week for most of it. Mainly been focusing on playtesting the proposed rules changes put up by the Eldar Army Champion Sotec over on the Specialist Games forums.

One of the cool things that happened is that he and I actually got to play a few games when he was down here visiting family. I did up battle reports and you can see them here.

Sotec vs Chroma Battle 1

and

Sotec vs Chroma Battle 2

I've gotten in a lot of other Eldar vs all-comers games as well, just head over to the Eldar Forums at Tactical Command to check them out!

Pipboy - Almost finished

2006-07-11T01:39:00.000-03:00

I've been rather overwealmed with the positive responce to the Necrons - thanks everyone. The army is very close to being finished but after 2 weeks of non-stop painting, I need a break. In the meantime I give you the finished infantry. All infantry stands and Obelisks are mounted on a 1" steel washer and Monoliths and Pylons are mounted on a 1.5" washer.

A selection of basic Necron Warriors:

A couple of shots of the 4 Necron Lords:

The Destroyer Lord is my favorite.

The 4 stands of Pariahs were converted from the DRM Andrayadas Scouts. I chopped off their rifles and added a glaive made of paperclip wire and plasticard blade.

The Heavy Destroyers used 40k scarabs for the body and Andrayadas Heavy Weapon Trooper for the torso.

The Obelisks are scratch-built starting with a 20mm square base. I slapped a flat deck on top and built the 'central column' and 'corner stones' out of square plastic stock. The 'conduit' detail on the deck surface is just more square plastic stock. A bead from the craft store completes the model. Obviously these ones aren't fully painted yet. The only thing left is to paint the crystal a suitably glowing green.

The Monoliths took a lot more work (and patience). I began with a 20mm square base for the top and a 25mm square base at the bottom. I then carefully cut notches in the sides of each base and glued 'U'-shaped plastic stock into the notches, thereby joining the top and bottom in a vaguely pyramid shape. I then cut plasticard plates and glued them to the sides to cover the open corners of the model. (It occurs to me now that I really should have taken progress photos of all this...) The 'corner stones' were made from the same square stock as the Obelisks, only taller. A 40k gauss flayer muzzle was used for the crystal cradle. Once that was all done I cast the Monolith (and the Obelisk and Pylon) with RTV rubber to make a mould. I used Alumilite casting plasic to produce a handful of copies. Finally I added the fiddly details like the vertical buttresses (more square stock), the rear detail, the top 'arm' (hand bent 'H'-beam stock), the portal door, and the crystal. Voila! It's pretty big for an AV but it is suitably impressive on the table. Again this Momolith is not yet finished the painting stage. I still have to paint the portal, crystal and icons.

Finally the Pylon gave me the biggest headache but the best result (I think). I used an old 40k Tarantula base for the legs and scratch-built the rest. The whole thing is built from plastic stock of various shapes ('H'-beam, square, flat, round, and quarter-round). The tricky part was to shape the crescent. I built the basic shape of the curve first, then immersed it into boiling water for a few seconds. The heat allows you to bend it around a shape/form. Hold it in place until it cools and retains its shape. It took 4 tries to get it right. After all that effort it was still a battle to get a descent cast of it due to all the fine projections. In the end it came together and now it's my favorite model of the army (for now).

Pipboy - Horde of Warriors

2006-07-04T21:59:00.000-03:00

Here are the mostly finished Necron Warriors. I ran out of dark green ink so they are still waiting for their Necron Lord stands. Overall I'm happy with them but I still wish I had the time to have reduced their oversized shoulder pads. I found it hard to make all metal warriors interesting. I could have painted them some colour instead of silver but I think they have much more 'pop' on the battlefield in silver. Bah, close enough for Epic!

Pipboy - The metal menace draws near

2006-06-28T23:47:00.000-03:00

After a very long time my Necron army is built and half-way painted. They should be finished for the Epic event at the Oakville Battle Bunker next week. First up: the previously viewed Obelisk:

The Obelisks are mounted on a 1" washer and won't float so high when they are finished.

I'm mostly happy with the Monoliths but I still think they are a little large (but suitably impressive) and maybe a little squat (short and fat - not beardy). Overall they do a good job of looking like what they are. They will also be floating a lot lower than this when they are finished.

The Pylons are my favorite and I think they turned out just right. Not too big but still look large enough for a war engine. I think they do a great job of approximating the gargantuan 40k sized Pylons.

Everything here was scratch built out of polystyrene with beads for Necron crystals. Once the master models were built I made an RTV mould and cast as many Alumilite super-plastic (resin) duplicates as I needed. This was my first time casting and I think it worked pretty well. The whole process was super simple and I'm totally going to use moulds again in future projects.

Painted infantry and vehicles to follow soon.

Chroma - May the Dice Be With You!

2006-05-30T16:56:00.000-03:00

Well, I just don't know why we don't post to this thing more... I guess we're too busy playing games. *laugh*

I've been averaging about 2.5 games of EPIC a week lately, though that will be tapering off as I'm cat-sitting D-Girl's feline friends for a couple of weeks while she's out of town. Knowing my EPIC obsession, I'm sure I'll work something out.

What have we been up to? Well, doing a *lot* of Necron playtesting for one thing. You can check out the pics and battle reports here:

vs. Orks

vs. Space Marines

vs. OGBM

vs. Lost and the Damned

vs Deathwing

Supposedly Pipboy has been working on some Necron models in secret and we hope to reveal more of the metal menace in the near future.

Early in the month, BloodNGuts and I also participated in a small EPIC event at the GW Oakville Bunker. He brough Black Legion and I brought Ulthwé. I faced off against Tau (Very cool!), Imperial Guard (Very tanky! Two Tank Companies!), and Tyranids (Very pokey!)... the competition was fierce and the games close, but I managed to pull out a victory in all of them and wound up winning the event. WOOHOO! Ol' BloodNGuts didn't fare so well...

We've got a few more battles scheduled for this week so I hope we can post some more stuff soon!

Chroma - March of the Metalheads

2006-03-02T21:08:00.000-04:00

Well, inspired by PipBoy's plasticard exploits, BloodNGuts and I decided to take the Necrons out for a spin, as they were one of the few EPIC armies that haven't been deployed to our little battlefield... and the newly finished scenery was just begging to be played on.

We decided to try them out at 2700 points and got in two games. You can read the battle reports I did up about the fights here:

Necrons vs. Speed Freeks - (Another army that hadn't really be played yet!)

Necrons vs. Biel-Tan Eldar

Please feel free to question or comment either here or on EpiComms!

Chroma - My Lonely Weekend

2006-02-27T14:01:00.000-04:00

The great thing about not having the girlfriend around or having anyone come over, is that one can occasionally get things done… *laugh*

As well, we all really had a good time last weekend participating in the 3000 point EPIC Game Day at the Oakville GW. A good portion of the SCC13 crew made it out and fun was had by all... I'm just not sure why no one wrote about it! *laugh*

Well, back to doing scenery!

Pipboy - Proof of Concept

2006-02-27T01:25:00.000-04:00

Well? What do you think? Does this say Necron Obelisk to you? It was a bitch to build - *way* too much fiddly work to put into 12 - 15 of them. I figure I'll do an RTV mould and resin cast as many as I (or we) need.

Chroma - International Conflicts

2006-01-02T20:41:00.000-04:00

Happy New Year everyone!

Not a lot of gaming got done over the holidays as the SCC13 crew scattered to the four winds (and then some!), but a new year means time for new battles!

I spend a lot a time on the various EPIC boards out there and have made some friends, but I've never really met anyone in person that I first met online (strangely, the reverse has happened). So, this week I'm meeting up for a match with Dobbsy, an Australian Tau player I met over at EpiComms. We'll be playing a 3000 point game of Tau vs my Ulthwé Eldar: Skimmers for everyone! I look forward to matching Eldar tanks vs Tau ones. We hope to keep a game log and do up a battle report... unless the excitement overwhelms us.

Looking forward to getting a lot of gaming in this year!

Chroma - Winners, Losers, and Inbetweens

2005-12-15T12:17:00.000-04:00

Well, despite the low turnout, the EPIC event on the weekend was fun, as well as being the biggest games of EPIC I've played with the E:A rules at 4000 points.

Fought against normal Orks (loss), Biel-Tan Eldar (win... in six turns!), and started a game against BloodNGuts's Nomads that was called for time (tie!). I'll just post a few pics from the event for now and try to do some more writing later.

As D-Girl is going to be in Ottawa all next week, I just might be getting even *more* painting done! I'm thinking about trying to complete 4000-5000 points per army I've got...

Chroma - The Power of Personal Magnetism!

2005-11-30T20:40:00.000-04:00

Well, there's another EPIC tournament coming up on Dec 10th, at the Oakville GW Bunker and this time it's 4000 points!

I've really debated what army to bring: the Lost and Damned that have done so well for me previously... but I'll have a hard time scraping together 4000 points, 3000 was really pushing it last time; the Tyranids... well, I've got something like 5000 points worth of models, but not that much painted, and I'm all out of hex bases and my next order of them has been delayed for some reason... *sigh* And I don't want to do Eldar, cuz that would be cheesy. *laugh*

So, what does that leave... Orks... but what kind? At that point level you can get a look of fun Ork toys... but who has the most toys? Why of course! Orkamedies and his Gargant Bigmobs! Yep, I'm doing the Gargant army.

Those are the Big Bad Boyz I'm working on: a Krawler Gargant, a Kustom Gargant, a Blasta Gargant, and a Great Gargant. The thing is, there's lots of options in the list, particularly for kustom parts and weapons, so what to do? Well, you get some rare earth magnets and make weapons that you can swap! Wow, those magnets are strong!

Well, I've got a lot of modelling and painting to yet, so it's fortunate that D-Girl is out of town all weekend... not so fortunate that it looks like enough people are around to play D&D! I'll let you know which game wins...

PipBoy - A little more

2005-11-24T00:02:00.000-04:00

Assault Sqaud upgrades to a Tactical Formation.

PipBoy - Yeah, yeah - it's been a while.

2005-11-23T01:11:00.000-04:00

So maybe I've been distracted lately but I'm back into the swing of things. Now, maybe the Space Marine missile Launcher fig was cool in 1996 but it's a bit out of date nowadays. To address this discrepancy, I've converted the old ones to look more in line with the new ones. Here you go:

I've also been fooling around with adding some Heavy Bolters to Scouts. Here's a WIP:

Oh, and forget using web-based picture hosting guys, the built-in pic utility is *way* easier.

Chroma - Titanic Battles!

2005-11-15T19:35:00.000-04:00

Well, BloodNGuts and I have gotten in quite a few battles these past few weeks... I wonder if we can keep it up? *laugh* Pipboy may be mobile again soon as well, and I'd really like to try the 'Nids against the Blood Angels!

I've really been posting heavily on the EpiComms Tyranid development boards, even put together a little .pdf of the changes I think the Bugs need. More on that later.

Anyway, here are three more Tyranid battle reports for you to enjoy!

Battle 6: vs Orks

Battle 7: vs Nomads (White Scars)

Battle 8: vs Titan Legions

I've got a 2700 point game against Ultramarines tomorrow evening, should be fun. For the Swarm!

BloodNGuts - Well and Truly Swarmed!

2005-11-14T14:12:00.000-04:00

BloodnGuts here. I've played a bunch of games (each with a different army) againt Chroma's Tyranids. You'd almost think there was a local tournament coming up and Chroma just wanted to sharpen his claws on a few armies in slavering anticipation...

I've been winning around half of the games. And no, that does not mean I've been winning turns 1 and 2 of each game like our usual scraps! I've won with my Wanderers (Chaos Marines) [I still think you should call these guys "Ravagers" or something, they're frigging Khornate! - Chroma] and Orks, and lost with Nomads (White Scars variant), Biel-Tan and Titan Legions. I will comment on the shiny goodness of the Titan Legion list soon, but I'll just concentrate on 'Nids here today. There are a few vitally important points for people to understand before they go against the endless swarms:

1. Numbers - Since Tyranids NEVER accumulate blast markers, you will start almost every engage down 2 on your combat resolution result. Add to that the large snappy claws of the 'Nids and you have a bit of a recipe for disaster. The answer to this is numbers! If you "vastly outnumber" the 'Nids when you are adding up modifiers, that will at least negate their BM advantage and leave you on an even footing for combat resolution. I know the idea of "having more guys than the enemy" may not be a revolutionary military concept, but you can forget it with some super units in Epic and get caught with your purity seal in a wringer if you're not careful. I would rarely hesitate to throw a unit of 4 Terminators into combat with anything, but if they have even one BM, and there are 12 'gaunts and a couple of 'Nid Warriors, those 4 superhumans WILL lose that engage. Which leads us to:

2. Engaging - 'Nids do not break. Period. Even when you beat them in an engage. For this reason, it is often better to sit and fire any and all weapons rather than engaging, unless you can bring a massive combined assault to bear. For example, if you engage a 'Nid formation and win, they do not break although they are pushed back from you. However, you likely lost at least one stand and now have BMs if you didn't before. That same 'Nid formation now has an action, unlike every other army out there; they just stop running, eat their dead and charge you back in the same turn. They never have BMs, and now you do, so you are basically refighting the same engage you just did, but at a huge disadvatage. It is often better to stand your ground, apply some sustained fire (or even marshal and fire at -1) and suffer the, let's face it, inevitable engage from the now smaller 'Nid formation. But, you ask, don't 'Nids have:

3. Shooting - There is no shooting to be worried about in the 'Nid army. Yes, they have some. They even use the flamer template with a couple of models! All in all, they expect no casualties from their shots. The 'Nid player will be happy enough to lay a BM for an upcoming engage. Staring into a formation made up entirely of Zoanthropes and whatever else the 'Nids consider shooty? Ignore it. I'm not saying that the BMs they lay are inconsequential, but I would say don't be as cautious about remaining in cover as you would against Eldar or Tau. So, what type of shooting is best aginst 'Nids? Anti-personnel or:

4. Anti-Tank - There are a large number of nasty bio-tanks in the 'Nid force. Most of us have played 40k, so we live in abject fear of Genestealers and Lictors. Not so! Lictors and 'Stealers are a quick firefight away from the casualty box and they, unlike many bio-tanks, can't come back after you kill them. In a 'Nid formation of squishy Inf and crunchy AV, take the AT shots and don't worry about the 'gaunts. Many of the "tanks" have RA and really hurty bits just like mechanical tanks of other armies. Try to think of them the same way. In a mechanized IG army, wouldn't you shoot the tanks first? Especially if the IG general could somehow pull more tanks out of his butt? [That's an ovipositor, thank you very much - Chroma] Tanks cost the 'Nid player more resources to bring back from the grave as well, so hit him where it hurts. To continue the theme, if a mixed Inf and AV 'Nid formation is coming at you, stand your ground and shoot the tanks. Not only will that make your engage go more easily, but some of the tanks are fearless and will not be wiped out in the combat resolution stage like the Inf. Wait a minute, which keyword was that:

5. Fearless - most of the 'Nid "synapse" creatures are fearless. So, even when you've maneuvered and arranged a massive combined assault and wiped out a huge formation in the combat resolution, the only 'Nids left standing are the only ones you actually needed to kill. You want to talk about Break the Spirit, nothing will demoralize you like wiping out 15 or 20 'Nids and watching a lone Tyranid Warrior respawn them all right back in the same spot. Again, I'm not coming up with anything new, but if you've won an engage against 'Nids, try to retain the initiative and shoot the survivors before they get to spawning. Your BTS objective is to kill more than half of the synapse creatures, and engages have a hard time doing that. Keep a fast unit or two around in reserve to mop up.

If you disagree with any of these tactics, let's see you fight some 'Nids for a change!

Chroma - Lost in the Warp

2005-11-10T21:18:00.000-04:00

Okay, where the heck have we been?!

Why playing games of course! Hectic summer, busy fall, and now winter is approaching... the season of gaming!

There have actually been quite a few games going on, I even won another (small) Tournament with my Lost and Damned army! But recently my focus has been on Tyranids, been playtesting various new rules and such against a wide variety of armies. BloodnGuts and I even have a couple of games scheduled for tomorrow.

If you'd like to read the Tyranid battle reports I've been posting over on the EpiComms site, here are some handy links!

Battle 1: v.s. Steel Legion Imperial Guard

Battle 2: v.a. Black Legion Chaos Marines

Battle 3: v.s. Biel-Tan Eldar

Battle 4: v.s. 3rd Phase Expansion Tau

Battle 5: v.s. 3rd Phase Expansion Tau, again!

So, feel free to join the boards and comment or you can comment here. Sorry there's no pictures, we kind of got caught up in doing the game logs and didn't snap a lot of shots. I'll try to post some pics in the near future!

Again, sorry for the long absence!

Chroma - Of Eggshells and Sledgehammers

2005-06-07T21:08:00.000-03:00

I don't think ever I've heard the phrase "F'n Eldar!" muttered as many times as I did this weekend.

BloodNGuts, Squint, and I got together for a little EPICing. We played 2500 point tournament-style games on our little 4x4 table and managed to get three games in, so we all got to play two. The first dust-up was BnG's Nomads (using White Scars' rules) vs Squint's IG. The Guard held onto a ruined city while the Marines tried to dig them out; an infantry company in some ruins withstood something like 6 barrages from BnG's paired Whirlwind detachments and only lost *two* stands! In the end, the intractible IG beat back the suffering (mofos?) Space Marines in turn 4. It was a great game and really showed how tough dug-in troops can be... we just gotta get some ignore cover weapons to use against them! *laugh*

Well, the next fight was the one we'd all been waiting for: after using Orks and LatD I finally brought my Eldar out of mothballs. They still need some paint and bases, but they were good enough to play with.

Or so I thought.

This was the first time I'd used Eldar in the new ruleset, but I had some "cunning plans" in mind. My favourite goal to achieve is "Break Their Spirit": it eliminates the "strongest" enemy unit and it's demoralizing for the opponent; I think Eldar would favour that kind of decapitation strike if the enemy Supreme Commander was in that unit. So, I had a little Jetbike Troupe as my bait. BnG set up in the ruined city while my Eldar claimed some forested hills. I had a couple of Aspect Hosts off board waiting to teleport/Vampire in. The turn begins, and I'm pulsing, and lancing, and shooting up the enemy big time, I'm retaining the initiative all over the place, and both BnG and Squint are cursing the Eldar and their technology.

So, most of my army has activated, and I march my little bait unit along the flank near BnG's Supreme Commander tactical/razorback formation... and he jumps on it! Now, I don't know if it was the wings for lunch, the Twinkees for snack, or just dust on my Seer Stones, but I send in my Aspects and pounce! A vampire, 4 Dire Avengers and 4 Striking Scorpions dive into action with the Autarch in the lead! "F'n Eldar!" The bikes are close enough to support... but they had marched... oh yeah, I forgot to bring in my Swooping Hawks... oh, you've only activated two units while I've been retaining the initive? So, my units are annihilated with very little to show for themselves... "F'n Eldar!" and BnG gets a grin on his face... which I promptly wipe away as Scorpions pulse that crap out of his armour... "F'n Eldar!" And all my units get rid of their blast markers... "F'n Eldar!" In the end, the battered and bruised Marines managed to squeek out a win and send the f'n Eldar packing in Turn 3.

I learned a lot about the fragile nature of the Eldar, they can pack a punch, but shouldn't hang around for the counterattack!

I'll await to see what Squint has to say about his battle... other than "F'n Eldar!"

BloodNGuts - Eldar, Schmeldar!

2005-06-06T22:53:00.000-03:00

So, the day finally came. Chroma brought out the pointy-headed hosts to lay an elegant smack down on us poor slobs. I'll tell ya, I hate to see them come at me but I love to watch them zip around the battlefield! Take a look at these beautiful (and nasty!) Eldar:

A few of you may remember Chroma's reign of terror with his 40k Eldar. I still bolt awake some nights to what I imagine is the sound that shuriken catapults would make... Well, now the Eldar may have some sleepless nights as they contemplate their ebbing fortunes in this new campaign. Or maybe the Nomad Marines were just fed up with losing!

Our game had some early (and ludicrously pathetic!) mistakes on both sides. Turn one saw the hardness of Space Marines proven once again as Tactical Marines in Razorbacks engaged and wiped out the Eldar BTS objective. Throughout the game, the pointed gave the rounded lots of pointers about bringing the hurt. The volume of fire the Eldar can effortlessly toss around the battlefield is staggering. Of course, Marines just stagger and then lean in and kick some pointy butts.

When we calculated victory points at the end of turn 3, I came out ahead but most of my remaining detachments were broken! Turn 4 would have been ugly (well uglier!) but I had BTS and HTL and the Eldar were wailing and sobbing over their complete lack of victory points.

So, to those of us who play Marines, I say this: We Shall Know No Fear of Eldar. Maybe some trepidation, a little apprehension and a great deal of caution, but No Fear! You guys may have seen Chroma's Eldar, but until you share a table with them, your EPIC experience is not complete.

Chroma - What's that bitter taste I taste?

2005-05-29T23:51:00.000-03:00

Well, it finally happend... my Lost and the Damned army got beat... and beat good! Three formations wiped out and the remaining three broken at the end of turn 4... a sound defeat! And who administered this drubbing? BloodNGuts himself and his White Scar successors, the Nomads. I think it was him realizing his White Scar bikers get an extra close-combat attack that really put him over the top... forgetting about it in the previous game cost him a cruical assault. It was a good run of six victories, but all empires end.

So, what shall I do now? Well, I'll lick my wounds (hey, it was a Slaanesh cult!) and break out the Eldar! *laugh* Every time my cheesy army gets beat, I retreat to something cheesier! Mmmmmm... cheese!

Chroma - My Big Fat Geek Weekend

2005-05-24T16:57:00.000-03:00

Well, that's the most gaming I've done in some time. I was able to play four games of EPIC and also watch one... super!

My Lost & the Damned Cultists did me proud. I was 3-0 at the GW Battle Bunker and won the big prize of $50 in Gift Certifactes; now I just need to figure out what to waste them on. I met some cool EPIC players, got to face some new armies, and I had a blast!

I face Orks, Ulthwe Eldar, and Space Wolves, and, for the most part, sent them packing! *laugh* I'm starting to feel that the LatD might be too powerful, but I'm having a hard time narrowing it down to why. I guess more playtesting is in order and the list is still in its formative stages. Here's some shots of the big fights!

Here's the cult approaching and then finishing off a lot of Orks:

And here's the technologically advanced Eldar:

Unfortunately, none of the photos I took of the fight against the Space Wolves turned out, but the best one was of two Thuderhawks strafing the same poor coven... which happened twice!

With Monday being a holiday here in Canada, BloodnGuts and PipBoy came over for some more EPIC fun. My cultists squared off againts BnG's Nomad Marines and taught them a lesson in fun! *laugh* That's the danger when the followers of Slaanesh bring cookies to the battlefield...

Then PipBoy brought his freshly semi-painted Blood Angels, that looked suspiciously green... (Not from the cookies, I hope!) and faced off against BnG fielding a mechanized Guard force. It was a very interesting fight and was the first time the Blood Angels had taken the field. There were many highlights that I'll leave to the lads to describe, but I'll just mention that wow Terminators are tough!

There may not have been many Termies left after that massive conflict, but they still wound up winning! In the end, the Blood Angels took the field... but we'll see how they do against the Cult next time!

PipBoy - Victory for the Sons of Sanguinious

2005-05-24T15:12:00.000-03:00

I finally played my first game of Epic with the new rules, and I loved it. 2000 points of Blood Angels versus Imperial Guard. It was touch and go for a turn or two but in the end the resiliency of the Marines won me through. The most important lesson? Don't leave Marine formations unsupported. I've got a much more interesting, and BA flavored, army list floating around in my head now so more painted forces should be on the way. No images of the battle from me but maybe Chroma will post some.

Chroma - Playing on the sweet side of the Force

2005-05-21T22:59:00.000-03:00

Well, looks like I've done it. I've completed 2000 points in a week. My new army? A Slaanesh and Tzeentch Lost and the Damned Chaos Cultist horde! The models were rare to begin with, few people played them back in the day, and they'll probably get the stuffing knocked out of them! It's just nice to know I can go from 0 to 2000 in a week!

I'll let you know how they fare at the EPIC tourney at the Battle Bunker tomorrow. Without further ado, here they are:

The Horde

The Leader

May the Ruinous Powers be with you!

Chroma - Did somebody die?

2005-05-17T08:59:00.000-03:00

Wow, it's been a while since anyone posted. BloodnGuts, Derek, and I had some good games last week; I took photos and notes to do battlereports, but haven't gotten around to writing them up. Let's just say Marines *finally* won a fight... in tiebreaker... of course, it was a Marines on Marines game.

The Geo-Hex performed admirably and everyone really enjoyed its presence. Initially I put the "drop cloth" over the hills, but it obscured them too much. They actually looked pretty good on top of the olive table, not sure how they'll look over the "desert" sheet. The only problem with the dang things is, once you've used them, you want more! Different shapes and such... I could see it becoming addicting! I'll have to work out some kind of hexagonal jig and hot-knife some more hexes out of pink insulation board some time

I've been working on an army other than Orks lately; I'm hoping to take this rarely seen army to the EPIC event at the GW Battle Bunker this weekend. Not sure if I'm going to get it all done, I'll post some pictures once it's a little more complete. It's incredible how quickly one can paint up 2000 points of EPIC! *laugh*

Chroma - Someone put a hex on me

2005-05-06T16:59:00.000-03:00

Well, I've started going through the Geo-Hex I bought over the weekend. Here's a shot of most of it laid out on a 4'x4' table, there's a few "end" pieces and such as well.

I haven't even begun to figure out how to do the layouts and such or how to keep it from shifting around on the table, but just looking at it is fun! *laugh*

PipBoy, hurry up and finish 2000 points so we can have a match!

Chroma - The Hills Are Alive With the Sound of Warfare

2005-05-04T22:02:00.000-03:00

Wow! What a deal! Bayshore Hobbies, my friendly local game store, has a yearly Used Games Sale where gamers dump their stuff... well it's a festival of trash and treasure to be sure. I sold a bunch of stuff and went in afterwards to pick up my cash and saw a box of treasure just sitting there: a massive box of green Geo-Hex Terrain System pieces for a mere $50!

So, I bought it. Haven't had a chance to go through it yet, but I'll post some pics of it once I've sorted it out.

COOL!

PipBoy - slowly but surely

2005-04-30T21:51:00.000-03:00

Just to keep up - here are the finished Death Company Detatchment and the two still waiting for transports Devastator Detatchments. I'm totally a convert to basing all vehicles now. It just looks beter and the models are way more durable. Be warned that I still need to add a bit of grass to the bases to spice them up.

Chroma - The vagaries of life and war

2005-04-27T09:18:00.000-03:00

Hmmm... where've we been?

Busy week with work, girlfriend back for only two weeks before being gone for two months, and I'm catsitting two cats (D-girl's cats, getting them acclimatized to my apartment for when she's away), so, I haven't been doing much EPIC, other than watching eBay for deals and such.

Was going through my models while cleaning up for the cats arrival (none of my troops wanted to face Mega-Bio-Titans-With-Claws-n-Teeth, so they're now in armoured crew compartments) and worked out what I've got: Once I get paint on everything, looks like I can field over 6000 points in each of Eldar, Guard, and Orks... even I was a little surprised! Haven't gone through the Chaos or Tyranid stuff yet as those armylists haven't been finalized.

I hope to get back to painting soon and I might have a small battle on Saturday, so, I've got that.

Chroma - My girlfriend's back and so is my camera

2005-04-20T22:40:00.000-03:00

So, I don't have a lot to report tonight... well nothing you want to read about, so I snapped a couple of shots of my Orks-in-progress while D-Girl was studying.

Da Boyz:

Da Wheelz:

Looks like tomorrow's game vs Derek's Space Marines will be a no-go; his kid came down with some kind of stomach bug and now he's got it. I don't need him spewing on the table, so we'll be postponing the match. I'll try to do some more painting and snap some more shots instead.

PipBoy - Trueborn of Sanguinius

2005-04-19T18:23:00.000-03:00

Here for your approval are the beginnings of a mighty Epic Blood Angel army.

So far it's just the Death Company and Rhinos, the stands for 2 Devastator detatchment (no Rhinos yet), and the start to 2 Tactical detatchment. You'll notice that the leaders and their honour guard are painted gold as befits their esteemed rank.

Once the 2 Tac detatchments are done, I'll base them all. I'm thinking of going with a sand and tufts of grass. I've also decided to base the vehicles as well - just because it looks good and gives more modelling opportunities.

Chroma - Getting back on the gunwagon that threw ya

2005-04-19T14:14:00.000-03:00

Well, my girlfriend returns from Europe tonight, so I'm not sure how much gaming I'm going to be getting in during the next few weeks (In two weeks, she's heading to Central America... for two months, helping sick kids! She's so nice, I have to be doubly evil!).

Derek, a non-SCC13er, wants to get in a scrap with me Thursday, and I'd like my Orks to regain their confidence. So, which to choose: loving or fighting (and possibly more fighting)? Fortunately for me, I might be able to get two out of the three, as D-Girl (the girlfriend) has a big exam Thursday night... might be just enough time to get in a good fight. I hope I can manage the logistics.

As my digi-cam will be back, I'll try and take some pictures if the fight happens. If not, I'll just do some shots of my Orks in progress!

Chroma - WAAAAA-OW! Dat hurtz!

2005-04-17T01:20:00.000-03:00

Well, my Orkish winning streak is over.

Three quarters of Squint's Imperial Guard vs my Warboss' warband and a couple of Stompas made short work of Break Their Spirit in turn 2... from there on it was just mop up! End of 3rd turn: Guard 2, Orks 0. Playing so often against Space Marines made me incautious to enemy garrions; I've definitely learned a lesson! Well fought Squint!

Looks like I can bring out my Eldar now... ;)

PipBoy - OK Mr. Productive

2005-04-16T21:32:00.000-03:00

Starting Monday, I'm going to try to bang out the Blood Angels. I don't know how many points yet. I'm just going to paint 'em all and see what I get. I can't wait to try out the Death Company! :)

I'm trying to build the army without buying many extra blisters, so I'll be converting Hunters (easy), Razorbacks (shouldn't be hard), and maybe some Predators and Vindicators (maybe hard). Any suggestions where/how I can find/make some turrets? In the end I'm still going to have to buy a pack of Dreads and Land Speeders. And maybe a T-hawk or two.....And maybe some Thunderbolts.....And maybe a Reaver.....

Images of the first efforts should be up soon.

Chroma - How many armies do I have?

2005-04-16T21:05:00.000-03:00

Here's a nearly finished ruin with some unwelcome guests:

Tonight it's Orks (my Bad Moons and Evil Sunz) vs Imperial Guard (played by my brother Squint). 2000 points on a 4'x4' table; ruined Imperial city and a ridge of hills being the big terrain features. I'd take pictures, but my girlfriend has my digital camera... in Europe.

Here's hoping she picks up Swordwind for me while she's over there!

Chroma - Ruining Everything!

2005-04-16T20:48:00.000-03:00

While Pipboy is working on even more Marines, I've been taking a break from my Orks (WAAAAAGH!) to build some ruins.

Here's a look at the work in progress:

And how I'm making craters in the buildings:

Step 1: Step 2: Step 3:

Unruined buildings are my next project.

PipBoy - First post test

2005-04-15T18:05:00.000-03:00

So let's test it out.

Here are a few pics of the Epic Dark Angels. I have at least two 3000 point armies worth. I'm going to be selling them on Ebay soon so if anyone is interested, drop me a line.

Careful, they're big files...