Ebay/Goodbye: Final goodbye and Salamanders are up.

I'm sorry but i forgot to put up that the warriors and silver skulls had gone up on ebay but here is the link to my green salamanders marines:

Salamanders

This really is my last post, bye,

Thanks for reading,

Jacob OUT!!!

Selling: Space wolves and red marines up!

So, Yesterday I put my terran hands space marines up on ebay:

HERE

And I also put up my Space Wolves:

HERE

The rest will go up soon hopefully. Any questions can be emailed to:

jacobgamer@live.com

or can be sent via ebay.

Please take a look at the items, more pictures can be sent to anybody interested.

Thanks for reading,

Jacob

Blogging: The end has come for me.

So, I have to now say that I am leaving the hobby recently I have done no work to my armies at all and for a long time very little. I can write editorials all day but they are not that great and without actually participating in the hobby I can hardly run a blog about it. I also had less and less time for warhammer because of 'real life'.

I will still be listening to podcasts and maybe reading but I have decided to sell my armies. be going up on ebay at some point and I will put a notice up on this blog when that happens.

If anybody would like to take over this blog then they are welcome to, just contact me via this email:

jacobgamer@live.com

As for my other blogs they have not really taken off but I will leave them up on the web if anybody wants to read them. Even if nobody wants it this blog will still stay up on the web as it has plenty of tutorials etc on it and I would not like 3 years of work to go to waste.

I would like to give thanks to all of the FTW blogger group for being such good friends and readers, especially Ron from From The Warp. As well as all my other readers.

I hope everybody has enjoyed this blog and continues their own. I don't know if I will ever rejoin this hobby but I have enjoyed it while it has lasted.

So, Thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Reading this Week: Finished Ciaphas cain book 2.

So, this weekend I had a reading frenzy, I read the last 50 pages or so of Cain book 2 then a 364 page spooks novel then I've started the second short story in the Cain omnibus.

It was great but I'll go into more detail when I've finished the whole thing.

Thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Games Workshop: WoC 8th ed FAQ Well done!!!!!!!

So, i have just read the latest WoC FAQ and it is great. they cleaned everything up and took out the silly jokey comments. It looks like the rules are going to be a lot clearer with 8th so

WELL DONE GAMES WORKSHOP!!!

Thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Hello: I'm Back!!!

So, I have decided that I don't want to move off this blog and so will be using it again. I will still tougfh be focussing more on podcasts and books over anything else. My other blog will still be there on the web and I have some plans for it but there won't be posts on it for a while. So, hello again and I hope to keep looking at everybodys' blogs and keep up to date.

Thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Goodbye: Goodbye to Gamers World and hello to Ahrimans Lair.

So, recently I have been on a complete warhammer low at the moment. I haven't posted or painted or even played. So, I have decided to leave this blog for the moment. It will still be up but I will not be posting on it. I may return at some point. Meanwhile I will still be blogging but over at Ahriman's Lair that is my new blog.

I am still really into reading 40K fiction so it will have plenty of detailed book reviews on there as well and other things that I am doing. if anybody would like to hop on with me and become an author of Ahriman's Lair then contact me at jacobgamer@live.com

Thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Blogging: "ARRRGH, Man down man down!" (or sorry for not posting)

Picture from web, will be removed if asked.

So, Right at the moment it's summer over hear and I am very busy. I haven't been able to do much hobby or any blogging, I am still watching some blogs though.

At the moment I am too busy to keep up this blog as it is so there will be much fewer posts. In return though I will be making sure they are all very quality.

Please put me on a blogroll so I pop to the top when there is a new post. I hope I will be able to return to normal frequency soon.

See you all later,

Thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Painting: Getting back into the swing of things.

Sorry for not posting recently been very busy, I have on the other hand been painting a lot more, almost all of the m.horse are undercoated now and I have done some other knicknacks. More updates and pics to come.

Thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Painting: motivation idea, the painting clock.

So, i feel that I am not painting enough at the moment so I have an idea to get me back into it. The idea is simple, on my watch I am going to time my self while I paint, I am going to paint for at least 10 minutes every night, if I miss a night then I have to do the excess the next night and so on but if I do more than ten mins then it doesn't mean I don't have to paint the next night.

It will start at 10 mins but as I get into the habit then I may raise that. I hope you like the idea.

Thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Polls: Post summaries or full posts results!

So, my poll on whether I should have full posts or summaries has finished and here are the results
Not Bothered 1 (33%)



I prefer post summaries 2 (66%)



I prefer full posts 0 (0%)
Votes so far: 3

Poll closed

I have decided on using what I have now which is to display the first post in full then the rest in summaries.

Blogging: Paying It Forward

So, i was watching the movie 'Paying It Forward' and i found it dead interesting, it's about the concept of instead of paying back someone who helps you, helping somebody else and so on and so on.

So, you may wonder how this relates to blogging and this is how. When I was starting out Ron helped me with a good few tips and then he also set up the FTW blogger group. Now I made the soap box which I think helped one new blogger even if in recent times it has completely failed despite my efforts. Plus I have quite a few posts on blogging meaning I am hopefully helping other bloggers,so i say...

... If somebody helps you I.E. adds you to their blog roll then sure add them but don't stop there, go and add a couple of other people and pass the message on, it only takes a second.

Thanks for reading,

Jacob.

WHITE DWARF: SPEARHEAD EXPANSION REVIEW!!!

So, I recently got white dwarf and went to look at the new spearhead expansion for 40K here are the key points:

1. no minimum requirements
2. up to one spearhead of each type
3. you can take an army entirely of spearheads.
4. Three new deployments and missions.
5. most of the rules in mag but all the extra bits on games workshop website.
6. troops, tanks, walkers, spearheads but not if they a have rule saying specifically against this or are a swarm can score. Troops meaning any unit taken from a army's troops allowance.
7. You always play longways across the table.

8. dice off to be attacker, attacker goes first and deploys first.

Spearheads: formations you take, everybody has access to the same ones (at least at the moment) for instance:
Tanks hunter spearhead:
up to 3 tank or walker units, all vehicles in spearhead get tank hunter USR.

Deployments: counter attack-divide board in half then from each player table edge corners draw a triangle the point 9'' away from the centre so it makes a hourglass shape with a gap between the 2 triangles, deep strike infiltrate and scout can be placed in reserve + up to half your army can be.
Cauldron: both players have 18'' deployment zones so start 36'' away same amounts for deployment as above.
Escalation: players start 18'' apart you can only put down 1 spearhead or 3 units down, all else in reserve, can infiltrate as long as you don't go over the above allowance.

Missions: Breakthrough: you score 1 point for each unit at least partially in you opponents half of the board at the end of the game, whoever has the most wins.
Vital Ground: 1 vital objective and 3 minor, vital worth 3 points, minor worth 1, one player puts vital in one half, other player puts minor in other half, all at ground level, not within 12 of another objective, wrecked super heavies become a minor objective for your opponent have to be within 3'' with no enemy to claim an objective, whoever has most points at end of game wins!
Lightning war: 3 objectives placed alternately 24'' away from each other plus an extra 5, one within 18 of table centre and one within 18 of each table edge, wrecked super heavies become objectives for opponent as before, same rules for capturing objectives as before, whoever has most objectives wins.

Overall a very good supplement and I would definitely recommend getting this issue as it is great!!!
Thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Fun Tips: Easy (well relatively) none metalic metal for weapons!

So, recently I have been playing around with NMM and have found a simple way to do it, here are the steps a proper tutorial will come soon:

1. paint the weapon codex grey
2. water down heavily codex grey and fortress grey and mix them together in a codex, fortress, water 4:1:5 mix, wash this over the lighter part of the blade
3. add a little more fortress and a little more water then wash this over the lighter part of the blade leaving a little of the last layer showing.
4. continue doing the last step until using about a 4:6:10 mix the clean your palette.
5. Highlight the top of the blade edge pure skull white (or for dull weapon pure fortress grey)
6. Mix badab black and codex grey and water in a 3:1:2 mix and wash it over the dark part of the blade.
7. keep adding more badab black and more water like before using the same method.
8. wash the whole blade with heavily watered down codex grey like a 1:10 grey to water mix

For a better coverage use paint thinner instead of water.

I hope this helps, thanks for reading, 

Jacob.

Polls: Do you prefer post summaries or full posts.

So, recently I have been giving my blog a new look using the new template designer as they look much more layered than the old templates. I also added automatic post summaries so my question is.

ON MY BLOG Do you prefer the post summaries or the full posts.

Poll on the top of the left column, VOTE!!!

Painting: I'm entering a competition.

So, in a couple of weeks there is a painting comp at my local store, the owner saw my tzeentch guy and asked me to enter.

He now has an interesting base and has been touched up pics to come.

Fluff: What does the warp look like?

I was reading the other day and the space marine battle barge went into the warp. I think it looks like a mass of colours, more reds oranges any yellows wit a few blacks and purples it all bends and twists an convulses but that is just my view.

What do you think it looks like, thanks for reading,

Jacob

Discussions: Your 40K role model.

Recently I was thinking about all of the different characters in 40k and which ones are good role models:

1 It can't be a space marine because they have no concern for looking after themselves and can be snobs

2 it can't be a guardsman because they are worth zit

3 the only alien races would be eldar, tau, or chaos because they can think for themselves. Chaos is evil though and eldar is snobby plus tau are still a little mind less

I couldn't decide until I thought about books then it came to me, commisar caiphas Cain because he looks after himself and is good with people as well ad being very lucky!

Who is you role model, thanks for reading,

Jacob

Painting: Losing the buzz.

Sometimes I find that I am really into painting and I get loads done but sometimes I just lose the buzz.

What are your tips on keeping that buzz going, thanks for Reading,

Jacob

Army Finishing Project: How I manage only a few projects at a time.

A lot of people wondered how I mange to do only 1 maybe 2 projects at a time so I am going to write that here: What I do is to look at what I have left to do and coose 2 units, one will be a unit that will be more of a chore and one will be a unit I really want to paint, I do the chore first then the nice one. This keeps me motivated an wanting to paint. Thanks for Reading, Jacob

Painting: How many projects at a time?

At the moment I am trying to finish armies, this means I am trying to stick to one project at a time. I used to do 2, 3, 4 projects at a time but today I was thinking how many projects is that perfect number. I think it's either 3 or 1 how about you, Thanks for reading, Jacob

Blogging: Top Ten Tips!

Hi, jacob here, today I am going to talk about my tope ten tips and tricks for blogging they range from template changes to regular tips.

1)Add a statcounter to your blog, this is free and counts how many visitors come to your blog, it helps you track how popular your blog is.
2) Get Google Analytics, this really helps you to see where your traffic is coming from and what posts people like, again this is free (notice a theme)
3) Name you post titles well, this is awesome doesn't tell anybody what your post is about but awesome Venerable dread with freehand tells them a lot more.
4) If you want your blog to look nice then use the new template designer on blogger, it transports all of your widgets over and let you have 3 columns with no code work.
5) If somebody has helped you, give them credit, even if it's just a link expanding the community means there is more community to go round everybody.
6) Make all your widgets relevant, don't just use game widgets because they are 'cool' only use thing that accent your blog.
7) FOLLOW MY BLOG!!!- NAH JUST KIDDING follow lots of blogs, it lets people know that you like their blog and they often will then check out yours.
8) Don't just ask questions, you need to put content up yourself not just say, lets make this a 2 way thing, I'll post and you give me content, it just doesn't work (the odd poll etc is fine).
9) Do it for fun, yes some people make money but if you enjoy it then money is just an added bonus.
10) Make nice headers for your blog, it took me 6 hours to get my header to look how it does now but it was worth it. You don't need a video header but a nice picture is easy to make and really give your blog that WHAM! Factor.

If you have any more tips then tell me them through the comments, I'll make a scroll box widget with them all in! Oh yea, the new template is up and I like it even if I did have to guess where my statcounter was at before (I new roughly) Thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Marathon painting: m. horse fail!

So I said I would try to paint all 15 m. Horsemen but I completely failed. All I managed was to under coat 6 grey. Hopefully I will do a tad more today and then get some time next week. This post is from my itouch so no tags but it does mean I can post more often. Thanks for Reading, Jacob

Theming: Making a unified them (not army composition)

So, The next FTW collaborative post is on making a unified theme for your army outside army composition, here are my thoughts:

Fluff Vs WYSIWIG: Where to draw the line.

So, i was thinking yesterday. Where should we draw the line with fluff Vs WYSIWYG, I mean I don't know any marine players that put grenades on all of their models which is to the meanest of rules lawyers against WYSIWYG (same with both bolt pistols and bolters on ever model) but they are not for fluff reasons but for ease.

Marathon painting: 15 Marauder cavalry.

I'm sorry for not posting lately but I have been really busy and sometimes life is very demanding anyway. I am now up at the caravan with my family and I have brought all 15 marauder cav with me.

Fluff: Why do ships always fight on the same level.

So, I was thinking, in all the fluff ships fly past each other launching broadsides at each other etc but there is no gravity in space. Why don't they fly under each other on their sides launching broadsides and the enemies underside and why don't they warp jump and come out pointing straight up towards the enemy to create a letter T, this would allow the lance batteries to fire at the underside and wreak havoc.

It's just a thought, try and prove me wrong either with a reason why they don't or a time when this happens in the fluff.

Thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Salamanders: Idea for my version of 'Vulkan He'stan'

So, I am planning on doing a Vulkan conversion as well as maybe a lysander conversion for the salamanders (perhaps lysander will be terran hands, my own custom chapter). Now I don't want my He'Stan to actually be Vulkan as that doesn't fit with my fluff, so instead I just want him to be the leader of my force. So, lets break down the important parts needed:

1. Some kind of flame weapon.
2. An amazing cape of scales.
3. A master crafted relic blade.

I think it would be cool to make th flame weapon his mouth and instead of just a cloak, maybe to have his whole armour covered in scales (I would add a cloak too as they are just cool) The master crafted relic blade could be anything.

With that in mind, my guy would be a normal marine with scale texture on his armor and a modified mouth piecu/helmet to launch flame plus some kind of big smash you weapon. His weapon might end up being a thunder hammer becuase that is the chapters siniture CCW, that also fits with the theme of all thunder hammers becoming master crafter when vulkan is in the army. I could also combine the bolt pistol and digital weapons into one thing, This could become part of the chest or hand, not sure yet, maybe I could use one of those new angelus boltguns.

For Lysander I am not sure his main features are:

1. The fist of dawn, a big whopping thunder hammer.
2. Terminator armor.

For Him I was thinking of perhaps Making him kind of like one of the battle knights from mechanicus, kind of like dreadnoughts, I would obviously make him smaller than a dread though. He would be wearing a custom made chapter suit kind of like calgar. So, it would need a big enclosed casing but still with a helmet/ head visible along with a shild arm for the storm shield and a massive hitty thing for the thunder hammer. I mau use an eldar war walker as a base but then have stabliser legs instead of thin ones and obviouly different army. I need to have a bit more of a think about this one.

Oh, yea, over the next 2 days I am a way with a mate so maybe there will be posts maybe not, tell us what you think and if you have any ideas. Thanks for reading,


Jacob.

Discussions: what one rule would you like to add/change to 40K?

So, I was thinking, there are many different game systems but a lot of my reader base are 40K fanatics. The 40K rules are great in my opinion but I have seen some really nice ideas from other game systems.

My question to you is, what one rule would you like to add or change to 40K. I would like to see squad coherency changed to radio coherency. What I mean is that instead of models having to stay within 2" of each other everybody has to stay within say 8" of the sergeant and if he dies you just nominate another model to become sergeant. This encourages the idea of all the men piling in and not spreading out along the entire board.

So, what would you change. Thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Armies: Those great ones that are way to expensive.

Round here there are some guys that get an awful lot of money to spend on warhammer and 40K, they are the guys that take a baneblade set of tracks, build some imperial sector buildings on top, scratch build 2 arms then but a tone of scrap on then paint to a high standard, this makes one awesome looking super-stompa.

Now, I have thought of some ridiculous armies that will never get done, like a space marine force where very man has tank track legs and the vehicles are just much larger versions of the same thing, this could be used as a radical space marine army, a mechanicum army or a chaos army.

Another is the all can ork army, having deff copters as killa cans with BIG ROKET BOOSTRZ representing mega nobz with mini cans, then you make the mega nobz troops.

Now, some people would make these armies, but most of us never could unless we put a lot of money in. Now, if you think that and army with a few options is going to cast about £300 give or take then next time you have that cash just think. Could I make half of a really, really nice army with that money.

Have you got any of those armies, or have you got any ideas. Lets here them, thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Sportsmanship: part 3, Da plyrs dat r rly anuyin

So, the next installment in sports is about those players you meet that are really annoying maybe the speak in text language saying LoL, rofl, foflmao etc all the time or maybe they have really bad 'gamer stink'.

 

This is more of a problem in tournaments where you have to play but anyway.

 

I personally have 3 steps when somebody is like the above

1. Try to make conversation with them and DO NOT make a point about their 'problem'.
2. If the are speaking in text language then make sure you don't if they stink then just stay a little farther away than normal. Just drop a little hint.
3. Remember that they may think you have some sort of problem so try and recognise when they are looking at you funny etc then try and stop your problem.

So, do you have anything to add? thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Reviews: Eisenhorn trilogy final review.

So, after a brake from reading I finaly finished the last 2 chapters of Eisenhorn today and I loved it. the whole trilogy kept me interested and becuase Dan Abnett doesn't get overly attached to his characters and kills them off regularly, you never new what was coming next. In the last book things get really weird. You don't know whether Eisenhorn will become a heritic or stay puritanical.

The description is fantastic, enough to tell you exactly what is happening without long, drawn out descriptions.

Anyway, I would definately recommend you pick up the trilogey. 9/10

Next I'm reading Ciaphas Cain, looking forward to it immensly.

Thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Painting: Random/Fun learning models.

Hi, so today I'm talking about random models that you have in your collection, maybe a spare black reach model or that conversion that you never used. What I do with these is to, from time to time I take one. Build it (maybe not fully) and paint it with no regard for it looking cohesive or fitting in with the fluff. I try to try new techniques for instance on the model below I experimented with wet blending on some of the purple and orange, face paint, an odd stippling effect for green armour and weird layering/washing/brush stroking technique on the hair as well as a couple of others. The model as a whole looks really odd but I learned a lot from painting it.

So, do you use this idea or are you going to try it? Thanks for reading,

Jacob.

P.S. I should be back to posting every day next week as I am back at school.

Discussions: how you transport your army,

I was looking at my armies the other day and thought about the way I transport my minis. Here are the different ways.

This is how I transport my most delicate minis. I wrap them up in tissue and then put them in a box.

The next way is for MARINES ONLY as they are so, so, so sturdy I just shove them in a box then layer the tanks on top.

This is a similar way but in a tool kit allowing me to put more delicate things on the top piece (not shown) and the rest in the bottom.

The final way is in a case. now with most of the guys I just fit them in as there isn't enough holes otherwise. More important and metal models get put in proper places.

So, how do you transport your models?

Army finishing project: Finished tzeentch sorcerer on disk!

So, I have now finished my Tzeentch sorc on disk. I used none metallic metal on the halberd and disk prongs and the only metallic colour used was shining gold. Anyway, here are the pics in a slideshow:

Pros: I am quite pleased with the NMM and the fire, as well as the grubby-ish white. I like hi and I think he stands up to close inspection as I took time in the intricate details especially he little tube on his belt which i used a speckling effect for.

Cons: the only bad bit for me is the stand. I custom made it out of a pen but i can't seem to make him stick and make it not brittle. That's why he is propped up on a bouncy ball.

Tell us what you think, thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Tutorial: 3 Minute a model way to paint nidz

So, i had a couple of nid models left over and decided to experiment. They came out quite nice so I thought I'd do a little tutorial. The pics are in order so watch the slideshow from the beginning for step by step. The method is


Step 1: prime white (no pics).
Step 2: wash 'flesh' with any colour, I used green on one and red on the other.
Step 3: Paint shell grey (or another neutral colour).
Step 4: wash whole model devlan mud.
Step 5: Paint recesses in 'flesh', teeth, claws, edge of shells etc bleached bone and tongue purple.
Step 6: On bigger models add a few highlights (optional)
Step 7: Do any extra details (optional)

If you don't do step 6 and 7 then a normal gaunt with take around 3 minutes. Remember that a spray gun would be dead useful for stp 1, 2 and 4.





Go to ImageShack® to Create your own Slideshow

Thanks for reading,

Jacob

Forum: I just made my own, Warp Stone Pillar, check it out.

So, I have decided to create and mod a forum, it is called

WARP STONE PILLAR

Join and check it out. It is for all GW game systems.
If you have any comments the email me at:

jacobgamer@live.com

Thanks for reading,

Jacob

Discussions: Crazy dice stories and post 300

ERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!! My Internet at the caravan is really playing up so I am struggling to get posts out but anyway. Here 1is. This weeks discussion is about any really weird dice stories you have. From rolling six after six after six then losing the game to losing a dice then finding it a different colour. I have one story:

An adult Nurgle player had bright blue dice for his army and said he wanted some more Nurgle esque ones. He always coughed on his dice (Nurgle) for good luck and when he had to make one more FNP to win the game, he coughed on the dice then rolled it and it ended up under a piece of terrain it came out as a murky green and yellow and also a six. We asked around and no body else had that colour of dice.
No joke, that really happened. So, what's your stories. Please tell us.
Oh yea, this is also my 300th post. Thanks to everybody who has helped me through all of them especially the FTW blogger group. Thanks for reading,

Jacob.

White Dwarf: 364, mini round-up.

I have found that the full reviews of white dwarf are a little long and not many people read them so I will just round up the bits that interest ME.

Battle report: Is a good game that shows off the new models as you would expect but whilst the armies are not broken they are pretty hard and the game doesn't seem overly 'perfect' so it looks like it wasn't 'fudged'.

Old war stories: This is one of my favourite articles and it talks about scenario gaming. Then it gives us one scenario and how a game went. The other guy will do the same next month and they will decide on a winner.

Move and fire: this months tactics article is about gunlines both magic and shooty in fantasy and how they work. It also includes a standard dark elf power army from last year. Overall very good to be honest.

Masterclass: The painting masterclass is ace this month. It teaches NMM gold really well.

Army masters: a great looking if bright vampire counts doubles army that has plenty of conversions.

Standard bearer: Jervis talks about banner designs and what looks right. Very nice!

Battlefield challenge: This months challenge is duel and involves 2 characters fighting it out in the middle of the board to the death. the armies end up quite close together because of a movement special rule allowing them to surge forward. Both characters in the duel have killing blow for the game and the winner gets first turn which often allows for first turn charges. Quite interesting really.

Rambles: Has the mech army had it's day?

So, I was thinking. Has the mech army had it's day. I mean nidz can have drop spores with ultra-lascannon-beam-I-kill-landraider-every-day-and-then-have-a-cup-of-tea zoanthropes in and the amount of melta/las you can get in an army is getting to be almost ridiculous. Especially with inferno pistols on accurate drop troops. I do still think mech has it's place and it is still 'tough' but I think it is dropping in favour of ? I mean some armies have a specialised build like guard who just say ha ha look at my wall of steel and cannons and i still have fast troops in good transports which are better than rhinos even though they are cheaper to make and I still have first turn vehicle killing vendettas. And nidz are also weird but I don't know what the general build will turn into. I have seen some very nice semi-mech armies with say 3 rhino marine squads then 1-2 drop pod squads and 1-3 drop pod dreads I think that semi-mech may be the new mech.

What are your thoughts? thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Battle reports: planning beforhand.

So, I am hoping to do my battle report soon and I thought I'd share my tips on planning.

1. Less is more with notes, I will be writing the BR as soon as I get back so I don't need to many notes. Just the really important bits need to be written down.
2. Think of a pic criteria for each turn, i will have a pic of the entire battlefield, a pic of the interesting events and any other pic that I want to take but keep that in mind and take notes from where you are taking pics of.
3. make sure your opponent is up for a BR as they add time to the game.
4. Get your opponent to help you out by writing his part of the tale down while you do.

So, just thought I'd share that with you. i have a question though. If you don't use picasa or another service like that how do you upload pic. I use blogger in draft and it won't let me upload any pictures at the moment!

Thanks for reading,

Jacob.

VASSAL: does anybody still use it.

So, I know that vassal 40k went down but you can still use the product if you had already downloaded it and I know there have been quite a few new books but you can proxy most things. What i want to know is if anybody still uses it from time to time. Tell us if you do.

Thanks for reading,

Jacob.

40K: Mech Vs Gunline/shield wall Vs re-deployer.

So, I have a couple of tutorials done but I am struggling to up-load pictures to blogger as I don't use Picasa so I though I'd talk about how lists have been changing recently.

Mech- this has ruled the roost over the past couple of years and it is quite easy to play but recently their has been quite a few books that can deal with mech.

Gunline/shieldwall: Gunlines involve an awful lot of shooting and speed bumps for the enemy a shieldwall is similar but it advances slowly with super tough things and leaves behind it a trail of objective holders. these have been holding a monopoly since guard came out but many new books have plenty of melta/lascannon. They can be hard to play because you have to protect your tanks but not to hard.

re-deployer/super-speed-dash-objective-grab-ultra-army-saim-hann: These armies rely very fast troops that can dash about to where they are needed, a great example is saim-hann who have lots of clever tricks. this is a lifetime to learn, an age to master army. Very hard to play but they are very good at what they do.

So, I have missed out 3 more armies which are the counters to the 3 above but often the counter armies are the above ones with a little variation. At the moment the anti-tank maneuverable re-deployer is best in my opinion but if mech and gunline take a turn for the worse then perhaps it may create a new army style or maybe it will bring back an old style. We don't know yet.

Thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Off Topic: Rotating header image and why I didn't post yesterday.

So, yeaterday I didn't post becuase I was trying to get the header image with my title on to change each vist or just every now and again. I used this site but I couldn't get it to work. If anybody has a link please tell me. I got the idea of an image with my title on it from pathfinder but i want it to change regularly. Please help.

Thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Blogging: Schedules, mine and yours.

So, I was thinking about my weeks and the way I organise them, here is the set-up of my posts:

Mondays: Some random post.
Tuesdays: If I can Tuesday gaming, though I may not be going to my gaming club soon so this may disappear and be replaced by this week in gaming.
Wednesday: Another random post.
Thursday: Discussion.
Friday: sometimes no post because I'm busy but if there is one normally a thought or an idea.
Saturday: random post.
Sunday: Something that has come to mind over the week/

Other features: the soap box section (I need some more entries for that admittedly). White dwarf (I will no longer be doing full blown reviews just a bit of an overview of the interesting bits). Battle reports (coming soon) and I may be adding Hobby Log as I haven't been doing as much lately I will pile my work together say every month.

I may have some other features I have missed but you get the idea. I love my relaxed and flexible schedule but write down your blogs schedule and just see how busy you are and what might need improving. Thanks for reading,

Jacob.

discussions: the perfect points level (40K)

So, I was wondering, what do you think the best points level is. Is it the basic 1500 or the choice filled 2000.

I personally like 1850, you get lots of choice without too many ultra killer lists.

Anyway, it's open to you. Thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Sportsmanship: pt2, winning graciously.

Hi, thought I'd add part 2 to my sportsmanship post (notice a theme), this time I thought I'd cover winning.

Winning is a good thing, we should always try to win or it isn't a proper game but when we do it how should we act. Unless you opponent is a complete jerk we don't want to upset them. The way I do this is to go YES! Once or twice then calm it down and say how your opponent did and maybe pat him on the back. If your adults and you thrashed him then buy him a beer. This is easier said then done so here are my top tips:

1. Always let the satisfaction wash over you for a second so it doesn't build up, then calm your self down with a few deep breaths.
2. If your opponent looks up happy or put off by you celebrations then either calm right down or gently apologise.
3. If you have been chatty or are mates then he might be the person that doesn't mind you rubbing it in so don't go too far.

Anyway that's then end for now, see you tomorrow, thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Battle reports: Part 2, pictures, thematic, informative and overviews.

So, I thought I'd go through the 3 types of pictures that I use when I take pictures for battle reports

1. Thematic: Very nice to use, especialy as the first pic. These should show thematic moments like you see in white dwarf. Sant Cruz Warhammer always puts up an edited pic at the start of posts to make them stand out. This leads me onto my next point. You can fuge these pictures. I've seen blood spatters, lightning effects, anything from adding fog to having body parts flying. These pictures are for pure fun.
2. Informative pictures: these are the most common and show the points of action, these are usualy accompanied by the main body of text as these are telling the story.
3. Overviews: these are the other common type and show large parts of all of the battle. I find one or two is good but they are not big enough pictures to show detail.

So, that's about it for now. Oh, yea, James, I need to play you again, what do you think to me actualy doing a battle report on our next game, but play 2250 as it get us more toys. Though I'd give James another shout out as well His blog is: Paint Brush And Clippers James Gaming. thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Armies: how to build an army on a budget pt1.

So, I was think of how expensive armies can get and came up with a few tips on how to build an army on a budget:

1. Write you army first, for 40k, I would write a 2000 point list and then write a few extras as options, for fantasy a 2500 list with a few extras for options.
2. Don't go over the top with conversions, buy some green stuff and cut bits up as well as kitbash but don't go over the top like have your land raider with a bloodthirster ripping the top off (as cool as it would be).
3. If you can find cheaper alternative then use it, like sticking armor plates and gubbins onto ork boyz to make flashgitz.

That's it for part 1, part 2 will come soon. Thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Dark Elves: my tester army list.

So, I found a Dark elf PDF. download online for free (I won't link it, just search dark elf army book PDf 7th ed in google and you will find it).

Here is the list I've been thin king of:

LORD
dread lord, hvy armor, shield, black dragon, hydra blade/ caledors bane, cloak of hag graef, potion of strength- basicaly a super tough dragon lord that will eat you, I laugh at most people who try to take him out, great for steam tank hunting- 569 pts.

HEROES
Sorceress, level 2, dark pegasus, focus familiar, darkstar cloak- a wizard that works by herself to go and blast people up, no scroll because not much magic in my area- 235pts.

Death hag, cauldron of blood, boost units and looks cool- 200pts.

CORE
2x 10 crossbowmen, muso, shields, shooooooooooot!-320
5x dark riders, muso, reapeater crossbows, the most annoying unit ever-117
2x5 harpies, march blocking and cav killing, may become 6's if I get models- 110
SPECIAL
2x8 shades, AHW, kill stuff for fun- 260
2x cold one chariots, like them and never used chariots-200
RARE
2x bolt throwers-200
hydra-175

Then for assasins I have 2 builds:
assasin, rending stars (goes with shades)-120
assasin, manbane, cload of twilight, AHW- 141

overall this comes to: 2857pts edit: 2447. That is way over what I want but this is the list of set up's I like, sometimes I may leave the dragon at home and make the peg a lvl 4 and I will have some extra models (maybe a manticore). So, what do you think of my set up's, sorry for wall of text. thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Discussions: What would you call 'a good game'

So, I was thinking, what is a good game. Is it when you win, is it when you have a hard fought close battle, is it when you have lots of big exiting moments or is it when you sit with a group of mates having a laugh and pushing models around.

For me it's a mix of being with mates and a close battle, I hate rolling over people without a fight and I hate not playing and just being rolled over. When it's close it's just more fun for me. the thing with playing at the local GW is that age doesn't matter (which is a big deal as I'm only in lower high school) I can play an adult or a 15 yr old and still have just as much fun.

So, that's my view, what's yours. Thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Polls: Battle reports poll closed.

So, the poll on battle reports is over and it seems that loads of people like them, here are the results:

YES, I love them. 16 (61%)

Ok, but can get to long, only short ones 8 (30%)
Don't really read them. takes to long. 2 (7%)
Rubbish, waste of space 0 (0%)

It looks like I will be preparing some battle reports in the near future.

Thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Sportsmanship: Part1, losing graciously.

So, thought I'd do a mini series on sportsmanship. The big thing with this is that is has been covered by every man and his dog so I'm just going to go over the finer points (I've had a lot of practise at losing ;)), oh yea, as an easy one, don't get angry.

1. Don't try and make excuses even if you think you have one because it just seems like your trying to diminish you opponents hard earned victory.
2. Don't go mad if you think your going to be just count to 10, keep a clear head and laugh it off, the amount of times I have failed 2+ saves is ridiculous, once I rolled 5 armor saves on my SW termies and failed 4, there were only 4 termies as well.
3. Congratulate your opponent and ask if they think you made any mistakes, most people like the sound of their own voice and will be helpful as well.
4. If your not counting up points at the need of the game and it looks close, if your opponent looks really exited because he thinks he's won, consider letting him have it because if it makes his day then at least one of you gets that extra bonus of winning rather than a meagre stale mate.

So, that about sums up the finer points, if you think I've missed anything then just comment and I will add it on.

FANTASY: I DIDN'T LOSE! (and why not giving up is important).

Sorry for not posting over the last few days I've been on holiday, but today when I got back I went to GW and played Craig with his Brets, so far except against Stu in practise games (and he was using non-optimal ogres against my WoC and my army was much easier to play than his).

The big thing is I don't mind losing because I learn more but today i fought hard and used my cav right, I also used 2 units of knights which helped. We didn't add it up but we thought it was probably a draw (we semi-worked it out) it might have been a small win to me though.

Now, the second part of this post is the importance of not giving up. I have not followed Ron's advice and do change my list regularly but now I have settled a bit more I will just be changing the odd character here and there and occasionally swapping the whole thing up.

So, remember, if you work hard you will eventually get the hang of any selection.

Thanks for reading,

Jacob.

WoC: Jag charm scar vet for WoC

So, in the best lizardman lists there are usually a scar vet that has a jag charm, this gives him a bound spell of steed of shadows at power level 5, then you give him a great weapon and, wa-la. I'm thinking of trying it with an exalted here by giving him the book of secrets and taking the first spell in the lore of shadows, then give him a great weapon and maybe a battle standard (probably not), the idea is that he can hunt lone characters/warmachines/chariots because of his lovely S7.

So, what do you think, thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Fantasy: WoC list building/theorising.

So, I have been playing WoC for quite a while now and have figured out the 2 styles of list I like to play, here they are with and analysis:

1: Lord on jugger
2x 5 man tooled up non lance knights
nurgle warrior bunker
1 or 2 lvl 2's
sometimes 1 more unit of warriors (small)
15 fast cav
a BSB (of some sort, mostly on palanquin)
a mounted fighty character
occasional 20 marauders.

The idea of this list is that the jugger goes in 1 knight unit and the mounted guy in the other then the BSB and sorcs go in warrior units and the cav screen the knights. I hold my battle line with the foot troops to drag the enemy back then push the knights up to go kill stuff, if the fast cav survive then they flank charge.

List 2:
lvl 4 on disk
1-2 lvl 4's
a bsb
1-2 warrior units
sometimes marauders
15 fast cav
1-2 units of knights

With this I do a lot of damage with wizards and use the warriors to try and get ranks and flanks on the enemy, I take his toughest stuff down with magic then finish it off with warriors then his slower stuff will get there and hopefully i will have managed to reinstate my battle line.

So, what do you think, thanks for reading

Jacob.

Building/tutorial: Different ways to glue different materials together.

So, first off i must say that befor building any models you MUST take of the moul lines, I hate some of my old models for just this reason, the 3 different types of models I will be covering today are:

plastic kits
metal kits
wooden stuff (scenery)

Plastic kits: the glue to use nfor these are plastic glue/poly cement and they should go together really easily.

Metal kits: now this gets a little more complecated, small joints on metal models will require pinning which is where you drill a hole in the joint at both points and add a little greenstuff and superglue then put a pice of metal through it to hold the joint together. You can find loads of great tutorials for this online. For bigger contact points use superglue. remember, you should treat meatl/plastic combo kits as metal.

Wood: for this use PVA/white/elmers glue or wood glue, nice and simple but leave plenty of time to dry.

Tell us what you think, thnaks for reading,

Jacob

P.S. don't forget to check out my mate James's new blog!

Fantasy: 2000 pts WoC vs Empire (I got smashed) battle overview.

Hi, today I played a game at the GW and well, I got smashed.

I made a mistake with my screening fact cav and he got an ace shot with a warmachine which dropped some knights then the turn after he took my hero on jugger off. I also made a mistake because I forgot my jugger guy waas a hero and not a lord so used him wrong. The other problem was that in my army I had 1 unit ofknights and 1 unit of warriors then the rest was just cav making a really small list.

So, I bought 5 more knights so I canplay more ballanced and the marauders will be getting another look in, also maybe another small unit of 10 warriors.

I'm going to build those knights now,thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Painting: commisioning, do you lose out on the hobby.

So, I have been looking around at all of these different mini painting companies and James has just set a really cheap one up to. I don't want to use them but for all the people that do. Do you think it detracts from the hobby when perople go, nice paint job mate and you have to go 'yea, it was done by... not me' I thik that definatlely young and new gamers should give painting it theselves a try first. then maybe if you don't want to paint 72 termagaunts then you can send them away.

So, what do you think, discuss, thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Fellow Bloggers: a mates new blog, check it out.

Hi, today i wanted to point you towards a mates blog called Paint brush and clippers James is a good friend of mine and is doing a massive scratch built warlord titan, read hos blog and add it to your blogroll, he wouold really appreciate it.

Tactics: over rated or not, that is the question?

So, last time I went to GW we were playing a game and when I put down I was pretty shore I was going to lose, not that I was put down because I usually lose fantasy because of my lack of experience. That to me was a good game because I learned a bit more.

Now part of the reason he won and I lost was 'tactics' but really, a lot of the time he didn't need his 'tactics' because he knew how my stuff would work etc. So generally in my experience tactics only matter when your armies power level + your skill level balances out to be the same compared to your opponents.

So, I know I'm being blunt but I put it to you, in some cases (not all), do you think that the game is less about tactics and more about whether your luck is average, good or bad and how much of an effect you can have on that (i.e. how many 2+ armor save guys with thunder hammers are next to the trygon!).

Thanks for reading,

Jacob.

A Tale Of 4 Gamers: a tale of 4 gamers online, anybody interested?

So I was reading back over the old and new a tale of 4 gamers and was wondering if anybody was interested I was thinking something like this:

• month 1 20 models
• month 2 500 pts army
• month 3 750 points
• month 4 1000 points
• month 5 (optional) 1250 pts
• month 6 (optional) 1500 pts

If you complete your goal for the month the 3 points, pick your two top game scores for the month, a win is 3 points a draw is 1 point and a loss 0 points. Please be honest with game scores.

You can start a new army or continue with an old one. If your models are already built then you can just add 50 points to each level or try and get them to above your normal standard.

For showing this off then you can do it on your blog but if you could I would like some pics and maybe a few of paragraphs (1-6) so I can do a monthly post. Tell us what you think and if you have any suggestions there is comments and email (see left column)


I'm going to do it so 3 spots left, comment on this post to get in, if there is a lot of interest then I may extend it to a tale of ... gamers.

Please vote on my latest poll, thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Theming: Getting the ballance right.

So, I have been looking around and have been trying to take my armies up to the next level. so expect some none metallic metal and lighting sources to come. I have also looked at themes, this is a big thing for lots of people out there. I'm not talking about just a simple colour scheme compared to a complex one but full on themes like converting all your marines into halo esque models or having an orc army with scratch built trucks so they look like monster trucks.

the think I've found is that you have to find the balance, to much theme and you lose the fell of the army, to little and it is just lost after a couple of people saying ''cool conversion'' and ''nice job''.

So I thought up a few simple, if vague guidelines:

1. Don't change the weapons too much unless they are already registered as weapons by GW (like converting lasguns to autorifles).
2. the level/quality of armor should stay similar, so no giving guardsmen 'power armor'.
3. Don't go too wacky or it will become a joke that is hard to understand.
4. Don't use a theme to make your job easier, it should enhance the model and normally will take more work than just straight out the box guys.

If you think of any more please tell me.

thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Thoughts: Is cheating within the rules cheating?

So, I was thinking, people are always saying how broken things are and how the latest combos will affect the game. Now some of these things were meant to be and GW just got points values a little wrong etc. But sometimes these are picking hairs at GW's rules.

I mean sometimes it is obvious what GW means but they have not FAQ'd it and have not made the rule exactly precise. this is when people start to not just use they vagueness to their advantage but tear these loose ends apart. this is what I call cheating within the rules and whilst it is legal, would they game not be better. Now it wouldn't solve the fact that some armies are just better than others but it would help to rule out some cases where no (or little) tactical accumen is required. I personally think the anwer is yea and I think that you will agree.

So, assuming that is correct would you call someone a 'cheater' for trying to pull loose ends and bend rules? You decide.

Thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Tutorials: Battle Report pt1, the components and layout.

So, time for pt 1 in a series of tutorials for writing battle reports.

Components:
Pictures: very important, they should tell the story whether through clever photoshopping or just clearness. not to many though or they will bog the post down.
Explanatory text: this goes under each picture explaining what is going on.
main body of text: this comes here and there telling the story of the report as a whole. these shoudl tell the main overview and the explanatory text the details.
fluff(optional): either at the start the end or tiny bits interjected in italics this is telling the'story'.

Layout: the report should come in a layout of something like this:

introduction:

turn 1
picture
explanation
overview

turn 2
picture
explanation
overview

etc

summary
picture
closing thoughts.

Now obviously that is very vague but it is a rough idea.

Tell us what you think and if i've missed anything,

Thanks for reading,

Jacob

Battle Reports: Great reads or to long posts? (poll related)

When I first got into this hobby I used to love reading the battle reports in white dwarf so I looked online and found This Site and then when I had read all of those I moved onto Lone pilgrims battle reports then I started looking at his main blog then FTW and finaly I started my own blog. After a while I found that I didn't really have time to read a big long battle reports just like I only skim big posts. I do like mine battle overviews just not a full in depth ones. When I do read big ones they are great-amazing but I just don't have time. I was think though is it just me? I am planning on doing some more battle reports. Maybe a mix between long and short ones.

So, do you think battle reports are worth it? Poll, left column NOW!

Blood Bowl: New blog and sorry for the break.

First off I want to appologise for taking so long over coming out with this post. I have been on holiday for the last week which explains my break. i did play a lot of PC Bloodbowl though and even started a new blog! the ling is now in the side bar!

thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Reviews: Eisenhorn, book 2 review.

So, today I finished the second Eisenhorn book and I must say what a great read. It was gripping all the way through and I always wanted to read on. I won't go through the details because it was a ton of linked subplots and all sorts of of things happened. What I will say it is 50-100 years on which means we have some really developed characters which I have really grown to like.

All in all I would reccomend this book to anybody providing they have read the previous (just as good) Eisenhorn book.

10/10 stars!

Thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Tuesday Gaming: Space Hulk.

Hi, today I had gaming club but dark Heresy was off so i played space huld. We played the escape mission with the chalice and I won. i was teaching a guy how to play but still it was only my 4-5 game and he was good. I made some mistakes with poistioning but in the end I managed to hold off the nidz (I was marines with libby, lightning claws guy, flamer and 2 regulars) with force barriers some guard and the flamer. I beat his guys back with psychic storm then flamed the room before getting my libby with chalice into and out of the room. It was great fun! Can any of you tell me about your space hulk experiences.

thanks for reading,

Jacob.

P.S. The movie marines will be an occasional thing as both me and James have other long term commitments.

Painting: the insides of vehicles.

So, I was finishing my last rhino and thought, how many people paint the insides of vehicles, I used to but now I want to get stuff done so I just leave it. How do you do it?

Thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Overviews: Cool Mini Or Not (CMoN)

So, over the last few weeks I have been looking and cool mini or not (CMoN for the rest of this post) and have found numerous painting techniques which I will post about shortly but today I was wondering whether people like cool mini or not. On there people bash a lot of 'good' paint jobs and you really have to be top notch to get good reviews. I like it as a resource but for average painters like myself I don't think you would get much constructive criticism.

What are you thoughts, thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Discussions: What race would you be?

So, time for this weaks proper discussion. I told you it would be similar to yesterdays. this time we will be talking about what race and who in it would you be. Now I know lots of you want to be tyranafexs but hey you can do the same as last time with an I want to be and I would be:

I would like to be: A titan driver (stay relatively safe, look awesome and wreak havoc!) or an inquisitor (read isnhorn if you don't know much)

I would be: A data geek (like Amos in Eisenhorn), probably serving an inquisitor or someone quite high up.

So, what would you be.

thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Discussions: What marine chapter would you be in?

So, just thought I'd put up this discussion as well as tomorrows.

What marine chapter would you be in. Would you be a ferocious space wolf or a vamparic Blood Angel.

I would like to be: A Death Watch kill team member or a Grey Knight.

I would be: A resourceful Relictor.

So, what would be your chapter. Tomorows discussion will be along the same lines as this. I won't spoil it.

Thanks for reading,

Jacob

Tuesday Gaming: Dark heresy and Movie marines campaign!

So, tonight we played dark heresy and me and one of the wizards were punished for being bad (remember we were in jail) we both had this necron item placed in our cell and he lost his powers (not permanently) and I lost my see in the dark ability (permanently) then we were both tortured which costs no hit points but he got his teeth and tongue ripped out do he can't talk (he may respawn them later). We were then told to go on this dark eldar mission but we would have to lose a fight and get taken as slaves by the dark eldar, the thing is we had to lose by enough to get knocked out but not killed. We did not get to the drop though just told about the mission. We were also all given retractable big claws and our leader (he already had mini claws) had massive ones. the guy who had been with me was stupid and lost his claws and movie marine game with James. We both had 10 normal movie marines and there were loads of orcs (more I tried practising on a wall and one of my claws broke off oh well). then I went on to have a special keep coming on and ones we kill respawn. the idea was for us to kill each other but to get better weapons we had to kill orcs. it cost 3 orcs to upgrade 1 marine to a sergeant, 4 for a missile launcher or flamer. all orcs killed respawned in a building complex and d6 orcs very 2 turns came on. Nobz were worth 2 orcs and war bosses 6. A new marine was 10 points. It was a great warm up game for a campaign w will be starting.

Thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Army Lists: not everyone takes the toughest builds you know!

I have been playing for quite a while now and have played against multiple armies in both fantsy and 40k and you know what. Just because a book is not that great doesn't always affect it. So, for instance. A reletively good player round my area started darke elves with bolt throwers and found that they just were not very usefu;. Now that was partly down to his tactical accumen but as well because bolt throwers are really good at taking down things like dragons and not many people run big mostrocities round my area.

In 40k guard are not that good because no body is taking the super-uber-killy-you-can't-kill-me-death-list. I'm not saying these armies are not good but just that when everybody is just playing for fun and with any list it redresses the ballance quite a lot. Now daemons in fantasy are still over hard so not many people play them, I think about 1 person in my local GW still has an army which he never uses apart from if somebody asks him.

So, just think, next time you have a gaming night why not say to everyone. Lets play some comped down lists or lets play with the restrictions that a certain (soft) tournament gives you.

So, thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Battles: Fantasy, WOC Vs Empire and Bretonia 2500pts (quick report)

So, today I went to the GW and played a relatively large fantasy game. I was running a fairly odd list with a total of :

15 marauder cav
20 marauders
5 knights
36 warriors
1 lord on jugger (Khorne)
a lvl 2 on disk (tzeentch)
a lvl 2 on foot (nurgle)
a BSB on palanquin (nurgle)

And that was about it. In the end my knights and lord were tied up by battle pilgrims (30 of them) and my nurgle bunker got hit by a big block of bretonian knights and my marauders got hit by 20 empire knights then the rest was shot to bits. Finaly the two knight units broke my units and just mannaged to get into the lords unit on the last turn and kill them. I had great fun and loved using the jugger lord. I need to try and find a way to get my lords unit of knights in a position where they can avoid hold up units like the pilgrims. Oh well.

Thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Armies: Why don't we stick with just 1 army?

Now when I say this it is not to the hard core gamers or the people that just paint for the fun and might end up with the odd game every now and then. I'm talking to most of us that are in the middle.
 Why don't we stick with our armies all the way through?

First, lets compare it rugby teams. You stick with your team right through to the end generaly whether they do well or are in the bottom end of the league. Now lets take a look at armies we hop about with them all the time. Now I'm not saying this is a bad thing just look at the comparison, there are not that many people that will play say imperial fists and nothing else for longer than a few years. Sure they migfht be their favourite but there will always be new stuff that screams to be collected. In fantasy books change in effectivness quite quickly with new releases. So the top tounementeirs have to switch about but why should the rest of us.

Lets get into the meat of this post. Why we do it. It's because of how much of our lives it takes up, we have to change it up now and then I thin k this is good. I like both fantsy and 40k and thing every player should play at least 1 or 2 games of the opposite game of their choice. More than anything else you might l;earn new tactics or tricks to use in your favourite system.

So, just think. About it. I'd love to hear your reasoning behind why we jump about and also from anybody that does stick with their army or anything really. Thanks for reading.

Jacob.

Visitors: blog and post naming importance.

So, I was looking at the figures on google anylitics for my space wolves blog and this blog the other day and noticed a massive percentage difference between my amount of traffic from search engines. Here are the figures from Gamers World:

740.00 (87.47%) Referring Sites
61.00 (7.21%) Search Engines


45.00 (5.32%) Direct Traffic

And here are the figures for Space Wolves-Ragnar Blackmane


146.00 (51.05%) Referring Sites
134.00 (46.85%)Search Engines

6.00 (2.10%)Direct Traffic 


Now, as you can see this blog gets lots more reffering sites hits because of how many blogrolls etc it is on and gets slightly more direct traffic because this blog has been out there for longer. But as you can see there is a lot more search engine traffic for the space wolf blog. This is because of the fact that the name is so much better, searches for both space wolves and ragnar blackmane will find it whereas this blog has a bit of a bad name becase it won't be searched for by most wargamers. This is because of the fact that when I created this blog it was for video games as well, that stopped very quickly but it was too late to change the name. At some point I may relocate but that won't happen for a while yet so back on topic. The fact that I get more percentage of traffic from the space wolves blog can be a good or bad thing, the good thing is that you get a larger reader base, the bad thing is that you get some of the internet trawlers not as nice as the FTW blogger group and the other people that look at blogs like mine so you can get more spam and nasty comments. your choice.

Thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Overviews: an outsiders perspective, Blood angels and Nidz.

I thought I'd give my opinions on the rumors and the new book for these armies, remember I don't look at rumors that regularly but I have picked up bits here and there:

NIDZ

The nidz seem to be a really game changing army that need some serious thought, my wolves will be ok because of all the monstorous creature hunting things and I hope that my marines can cope with manouverabilty and high strength weapons. The book seems like it really works together and I think it may be an antidote to guard with all the deepstriking high strength monstrocities. Whether that will make them overpowered is yet to be seen.

BLOOD ANGELS

These bad boys seem ike they could be on par with if not better than the space wolves, some of the stuff sounds cool especialy the assault cannon raider and it sounds interesting to have succesor chapters included. I don't think I will be getting an army of these but I may get one or two bits just to paint up.

So, do you like this style of overview, thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Tuesday Gaming: a double bill.

So, two (well three but it was off this week) weeks of Dark Heresy have gone by and lets have a run down of what has happened:

Week 1: I was off and the team fought Dark Eldar, the chaos sorc that we were working for got killed and his assistand Jeeves turned out to be an even more powerful psyker.

Week 2: They are about to drop down in a drop pod and I decide to run off to the armory and see if I can get back in time, how silly I was as I just get beat up by a marine real bad. The rest of them drop down and screw up the mission by killing each other (the GM dropped a hint that we may get bonuses for killing each other as long as we did it descretely). We make some story up about them getting back up to the ship and they are about to drop down again, one of our players still had it in for the nurgle/lightning sorc and lops his head off so he respawns as a nurgling (we have now called nurgling in my pocket) and he is owned by one of the other sorcs. I should get possesed soon!

Week 3: The GM forgot the rule book so we didn't play, instead I played a game of blackreach with a few extra bits against a mate, we only played a few turns so just called it a draw. Then I watched some guys playing D&D (dungeons and dragons) but with some twists to make it more like fantsy hence why it was allowed in warhammer club (it is also run by the owner of the club). Overall the club is really working because everyone is just there to have fun.

So, what do you think,

Thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Building: Khorne Lord on Jugger and missing bits on rhino.

So, I'm sorry I have'nt posted in a few days, our internet connection went dodgey and then when it was fixed pictures wouldn't upload because it went faulty again. Now, on with the post. Since I last saw you I have been busy with all sorts and there will be a variety of posts this next week but the main two modeling things have been what is shown in the pics below:

The door on the front should have been painted befor but I had lost it and the guy on the top was a bit of a brainwave I had when rooting through my bitz box. I thought it would look cool to have him actualy holding the storm bolter. I quite like it.

This khorne lord on jugger is one of the refinements to my chaos army that I will be doing befor calling it finished or at least as finished as an army ever is. I already have plans to do touch up's and rehauls of some models after the army finishing project. I'm thinking off perhaps to other way off projects, one being a terrain finishing project and the other being a touch up project.

So, what do you think, thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Controversial: Transfers (to be (done) or not to be (done))?

Hi, sorry for not posting over the last few days but i have been adding the finishing touches to the units you have seen the pics of and started building another model, that is a chaos lord on jugger.

So, onto transfers, I find there are 4 levels of transfer goodness, here we go:

1) sloppy tranfer with nothing over it,
2) neat transfer with matt varnish over it
3) neat transfer with basic highlighting/shading painted on with matt varnish over
4) neat transfer with very good highlighting/shading painted on with something that melts the transfer in so it doesn't stick out (can't remember what it's called) then matt varnish over it.

Now, round my area people either don't use them or do them very well but the few young players that use them are normaly someware between 1 and 2, neat without varnish.

So, how is it in your area and do you agree with using them, I don't mind as long as they enhance the model,

Thanks for reaing,

Jacob.

Tutorials/Army Finishing project: Rhino pretty much done and flat colours, freehand tac squad arrows and line highlighting.

Hi, recently i finished the painting on this rhino, well I say finished, I still have the gun and a side door to go but hey I said pretty much. Anyway here are the pics, no transfers have been used, the arrows are freehand:

So, here is the army finsihing project as it stands, then the tutorials at the bottom:

4pts 2 half done land speeders for terran hands, tutorial: not sure.

2pts LR-built-painted-needs some slight changes tutorial: repainting.



-2pts 5scouts- built tutorial: cloth



4pts Rhino-built-primered tutorial: getting nice flat colours and possibly line highlighting.



2pts Dread-needs some repairing and some redoing tutorial: adding to models.



5pts 5assault marines: built tutorial: adding the combat image.



1pts some reapir work. tutorial: probably none.



SPACE WOLVES Tutorials: not sure yet



3pts Drop pod-built



10pts 20 grey hunters- built



-1pts 5wolf scouts-built



3pts 4long fangs-built



4pts Whirlwind-half built



3pts 4wolf guard- built



2pts Rune priest- built



2pts 10 blood claws- need highlights









P.S. I have included the wolf guard joining units in that units cost.









Warriors Of Chaos



6pts 5knights- built-primerd-1 nearly done. tutorial:washes and magic









3pts warshrine-primered-more being added. tutorial: scratch building.



5pts 12 WoC- built primered. tutorial:adding to units maybe



3pts 12 WoC-need details. tutorial:fur



12pts 15 marauder cav- built tutorial: painting black skin maybe more



10pts 20 marauders- need details tutorial: wood



-4 Palanquin- built- partialy painted tutorial: intricate nurgle



-6 to do but +3 when done Lord on disk tutorial: probably fire



-3 odd dude from Games Day- built tutorial: random models.


Now for the mini tutorials:

Getting a flat colour: now for this the GW foundation paints are a godsend, I always use this on my main colour then follow that with the right colour then highlighting. Now there isn't much more to it than that.

Line highlighting: this is a great way of getting basic highlights on your models, I know use a variety of techniques together but line highlighting is the easiest. You simply get a thin brush and use the side of the brush to go round the hard edges of the model. You want to go round most edges with a slightly lighter colour than your base then pick out a few high places for a very light colour, you can go further than that but to start with two highlights is fine, sometimes you only need 1.


Free handing tac squad arrows: for this you first need to find a nice flat are, then mark out with small dots halfway up each side of your rectangle, the top middle of your rectangle, these marks will make your arrow head so join up the dots then fill in the triangle. Next you have to draw the tail which i did by guessing but you can measure if you want to. Now there is some leeway with this because some people like a longer tail and a shorter arrow head but this is the way I do it.

Thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Discussions: #15, The Good Guys of 40k

So, I was thinking, who are the good guys of 40k, is it the imperium fighting aliens and chaos, but also destroying plaents with pollution and ignoring any way other than their own, is is the advancing Tau, only fighting when they are provoked or people disagree with them and even after fighting offer their enemies a place in their own ranks, is it the illustrious Eldar, preserving rarther than advancing or is it chaos, trying to destroy everything and let the galaxy become completely natural (well, that's one view another is cold hearted, greedy killers). Which do you think, tell us people, if I get some results then this may become a poll.

Thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Tutorials/Army Finishing Project: Sally squad finished and conversions on regular guys.

Hi, recently I have finished the 10 sallies, here are the pics:

If you look carefully at that last picture, you'll notice that the power fist is metal with blue and green washes, now this is my new theory for power weapons. It always says in fluff that they are sheathed in power so this wash gives that effect. All it is is thraka green and asurmen blue or watered down blue. On power swords and claws you would still do the power line as well of course. Now, here comes the tutorial:

Coverting regular guys is quite a rtecent thing. I've found though that just a few small conversions in a unit really makes it pop. Now if you look at my guy with bolt pistol and bolter, his strong pose really makes him look real, whereas the guys just holding bolters normaly stop the unit from looking over the top. So, I know that this isn't really a tutorial but just think next time you build regular guys, could I change that.

Now, onto the Army Finishing project standings, I am noow on 11 points.

TERRAN HANDS AND SALLIES

4pts 2 half done land speeders for terran hands, tutorial: not sure.
2pts LR-built-painted-needs some slight changes tutorial: repainting.
-2pts 5scouts- built tutorial: cloth
4pts Rhino-built-primered tutorial: getting nice flat colours and possibly line highlighting.
2pts Dread-needs some repairing and some redoing tutorial: adding to models.
5pts 5assault marines: built tutorial: adding the combat image.
1pts some reapir work. tutorial: probably none.
SPACE WOLVES Tutorials: not sure yet
3pts Drop pod-built
10pts 20 grey hunters- built
-1pts 5wolf scouts-built
3pts 4long fangs-built
4pts Whirlwind-half built
3pts 4wolf guard- built
2pts Rune priest- built
2pts 10 blood claws- need highlights

P.S. I have included the wolf guard joining units in that units cost.

Warriors Of Chaos
6pts 5knights- built-primerd-1 nearly done. tutorial:washes and magic

3pts warshrine-primered-more being added. tutorial: scratch building.
5pts 12 WoC- built primered. tutorial:adding to units maybe
3pts 12 WoC-need details. tutorial:fur
12pts 15 marauder cav- built tutorial: painting black skin maybe more
10pts 20 marauders- need details tutorial: wood
-4 Palanquin- built- partialy painted tutorial: intricate nurgle
-6 to do but +3 when done Lord on disk tutorial: probably fire
-3 odd dude from Games Day- built tutorial: random models.


Thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Terrain: home made Fantasy/40k stepped 2-tier hill.

Hi, the other day I made this hill, the next one will probably come with a tutorial, suffice to say we learned a lot of tips and the next one should be a breeze. I will be painting it in a greyey brown moonscape-mordor type thing hopefully with sand mixed in to make it a rough coat.

It was made out of insulation board (high-density polystyrene), all we did was cut the bottom piece roughly then cut a little detail before using a candle to burn bits away, remember, less = more with this. If you want the odd deeper gash then first cut a rough hole then burn. Next we cut the top piece and did the same thing before sticking it carefully ontop of the larger piece with PVA glue (elmers white glue if your in the USA). Then we textured the surface via burning again and finally I stuck together and burned some random bit of 'rock' then stuck them on.

The idea of the hill was to provide a useable piece of terrain for both 40k and Fantasy, I think it has worked but the painting will make a big difference as it decides where it is. There is plenty of open space to put movement trays etc on without it being too bare. I think it looks pretty good, how about you? Anyway, here are the pics:

So, tell us what you think, thanks for reading,

Jacob.

Thoughts: Updates because your bad? Somebody elses philosophy.

So, today i went to the Preston GW and played a couple of games of 40k with my wolves, it was great fun to play 40k again after playing fantasy alone for a while. But, when I was talking with some of the guys there one of them was half joking half talking seriouly talking about how Necrons really needed an upgrade and that it was unfair that marines got a new one virtualy every week (egsageration I know) then another guy said in the same way that was because Marines lose so GW feels they need updates whereas necrons can win when played right. We then got into a discussion about the fact that nubes always go for marines.

Now, that philosophy about marines being well, FAIL! is interesting to me, I don't belive in that, do you nplease tell me. Now the other thing is that marines are poster boys and that's whay they always get picked, so I was thinking that we could put together some posts on how to do some articles on different armies and starting builds etc at different points values (1000-2000 pts) then how they are easy and hard to play with, now these don't have to be collected together but just have a think about you favorite army and whether you could put a post up on your blog doing what I described above.

So, tell us what you think, thanks for reading,

Jacob.

White Dwarf: 250th post: #361, TYRANIDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

First off I'd like to say this is my 250th post and that I have really enjoyed posting more often and will kepp it up through this year. Second is that I got this moths white dwarf really early on the 11th of December rarther than the usual 23rd-25th this means I can do a review early right, well no as it's christmas so I only finished it this week, hence this is out on time not early. Anyway enough of my ramblings onto the real post (please click on post title to read full post:

So, this moth contains:
Editorial
Tyranid designers notes
Skaven scenarios
Legion of the damned
Evil LoTR (strategy battle game) tactica
new releases
Colin Graysons army masters
Eavy metal legion of the damned
army workshop tyranids
Modeling workshop  tyranid invasion.
Battle Report: sallies V tyranids!!!

New releases- Codex Tyranids (well duh), £15
Trygon/mawloc, awesome model and very nasty in the game, £30 (worth it in my opinion, its worth more than the £25 canifex)
Ravenor brood, lookin good and plastic, better poses too, £27 for 3 (odd price tag)
Pyrovore, meh, looks decent, £20 (good value)
Gargoyles (plastic and great wings for conversions, chaos furies now have models, kind of) £17.50 for 10 (another odd price)
Venomthrope, £12
Hive Guard, £12 (for 1 or 2 not sure, probably 1)
Battleforce, 8 stealers, 12 temagaunts, 12 homogaunts and 3 warriors,plus 3 ripper swarms.
Legion of the damed squad, £20 for 5, £8 for 2 hvy weps, £10 for 2 legionairs (2 different sets) 5 more guys coming out next  month.
Please view post to read rest of review.