Fallout: NCR Veteran Rangers

Sadly I have been working pretty much non-stop for the whole of December including the entire Christmas period! This high workload coupled with the fact that the nights darken so early in the winter months has severely restricted my hobby time over the last few weeks!

However despite this I have still managed to squeeze in the odd hour here and there on some of my many outstanding projects. My primary project at the moment is my ongoing Fallout vs Rogue Trader campaign and so this is where I have tried to focus my limited hobby time. 

The completed squad of NCR Rangers ready for the table top

Battle Report - Second Edition

I managed to find some time to get a game of Second Edition 40k in this week with one of my long time best mates. We used to play a lot of games together a few years back but since then life and distance has got in the way which means our opportunities for tabletop action have been somewhat reduced. Thus when we do get a rare opportunity to link we are keen to make the most of it and get our forces on the table again.

For this game I set up my recently expanded urban battlefield that has been heavily reinforced with a lot more ruins and craters sourced from a variety of suppliers over the past twelve months.

Rogue Trader does Fallout

After having spent a fair few months collecting and painting a selection of post-apocalyptic forces for some Fallout themed games it felt like it was finally the time to get these Wasteland wanderers onto the battlefield for a bit of action. As ever my dedicated girlfriend was happy to help out and also to get the NCR Rangers that I had painted for her onto the table and so we set some time aside to make this happen.  We were actually able to fit two skirmishes into one morning, but this post will only deal with the first battle... Have no fear, I will cover the second one at some point in the near future.

As ever I used the old but trusty Rogue Trader Rules to facilitate this battle as its small-scale narrative style suits the setting perfectly. I also bought some extra scenery and scatter terrain in order to accurately represent the California/Nevada Wasteland.

These classic Orlock models are ideal proxies for post-apoc thugs

Fallout: NCR Rangers (and Rogue Trader Cowboys)

Well following on from the awesome time that I had hosting the Fallout vs Rogue Trader game at BOYL/Oldhammer Day 2015 I have continued to expand my forces for playing games in Bethesda's popular post-apocalyptic universe.

My exceptionally supportive girlfriend actually took part in the original Fallout game at Foundry in August and really enjoyed it, taking an instant liking to the post-nuclear setting of the Fallout franchise. So it came as no surprise that when she found out that I was planning on expanding my Fallout forces she was keen to get involved and have her own faction to play with. I sent her off to do a little research on the setting and when she returned she told me that her favourite force was that of the New California Republic and more specifically their elite NCR Rangers. With this in mind I then set about locating, purchasing and painting up some figures to represent these characterful soldiers on the tabletop so that she would have some troops to command.

Ranger Athena and her posse of the NCR's finest prepare to engage the enemy!

I'm Back...2nd Ed Battle Report

Well I must start this post by apologising for my long term hiatus from this blog! I haven't posted for over a month as I have been deployed on a large overseas exercise with the army.  This has severely impacted on my hobby time and by default my blogging activities which is annoying as I have a number of projects on the go at the moment which I really want to finish.

Anyway I have arrived back in country now and am steadily trying to regain my hobby motivation which has ebbed a bit since my departure!! Luckily my wonderful girlfriend has been on hand to help with this and so today she was happy to engage me in a game of Second Edition 40k.

We didn't have much time available to play and so I set up a small table and a couple of light skirmish forces which is the scale of battle that both RT and 2nd Ed are best at. The two forces were drawn from my Crimson Fists and their eternal enemies, the Iron Warriors of the deamon-primarch Perturabo.

 

The objective was for each player to try and take control of the geneseed stockpile represented by the assortment of barrels located in the centre of the ruined Imperial trench network.

Fallout 4 - Enclave Officer

Having completed my Enclave Power Armoured Troops last week I quickly decided that they needed some officers to lead them into the Wasteland. For those who have played Fallout 3 you will be aware that officers in the Enclave strangely forgo the considerable protection provided by the advanced power armour that their troops wear, and instead march to war clad only in baseball caps and military fatigues!

Hmmm....this canvas suit and baseball cap definitely look far more protective than full power armour.

Unfortunately Brother-Vinni doesn't currently make any sculpts for the Enclave's glorious leaders and so I have been forced to scour the internet for comparable models to adapt to my needs. Luckily after an extensive search I found some suitable 28mm substitutes from Copplestone Castings.

Three Enclave Officers ready for battle, the two models with rifles will represent mere Lieutenants whilst the stern looking individual on the right looks more like a senior Captain or Major to me.

Fallout 4 - Enclave Power Armoured Troops

Having GM'd/hosted the Rogue Trader vs Fallout game at this year's BOYL and had such a thoroughly good time with all involved I have been motivated to paint up some more post-apocalyptic models for combat in the Wasteland.  This has been further spurred on by the news that Fallout 4 will be arriving on our consoles/PC's in November and my growing addiction to the Fallout: Shelter App on my mobile phone!

I completed a full squad of Brotherhood of Steel Paladins, Heavy Weapons Troopers, and a Scribe this time last year. So this time I felt the urge to churn out some opposition for the Brotherhood in the form of the Enclave!

Menacing...just menacing

The Enclave are probably my favourite bad guys ever, they are mean, tough and just look badass. I remember playing through Fallout 1 back in 1997 and thinking how cool the Brotherhood were with their power armour and advanced technology which allowed them to dominate the Wasteland. I was pretty shocked a year later when I got to the closing stages of Fallout 2 and encountered the Enclave, soldiers from the US Government who had better armour, better weapons and some sort of cohesive organisation...oh and Vertibirds...VERTIBIRDS!!

Battle Report - Warhammer World

So after all the fun that was had on the Saturday of Oldhammer Weekend my gorgeous girlfriend decided to give me the complete Wargames experience and take me to Warhammer World for the Sunday. This meant that I could play a game of 40K with her on GWs professionally finished tables, partake of a huuuge burger in Bugman's Bar and also explore their new facility including the impressive Warhammer Museum and Forge World Shop! Wow....this was so amazing that I am going to have to cover it in multiple posts; so please bear with me!

First up.... The Battle!!

We were given a very impressive looking six foot by four foot table in the middle of the gaming hall with a variety of scatter terrain that I laid it out to represent a small deserted outpost with a bunker in the middle. This bunker would form the objective for each player (essentially TAKE AND HOLD) and would need to be seized and dominated in order to ensure victory. The implementation of this basic mission allowed us to jump into things pretty quickly which was vital as we had only been allocated a three hour slot which I didn't want to waste shuffling cards in order to work out missions, etc.

BOYL 15 - Fallout vs Rogue Trader

Well BOYL/Oldhammer Day has been and gone for another year and what a fantastic event it was for everybody who took part. Honestly the come-down from this event is starting to feel like that empty week that follows the Christmas period when you realise that the festivities are over for another 365 days. Oh well...at least I have loads of great gaming memories (and far too many new models) to remind me of the fun that was had.

As most of you will probably know I hosted one of the games for this year's event, namely a Rogue Trader game that was based around the popular post-apocalyptic franchise FALLOUT. It took me nearly a year to put this game together and to organise so needless to say on the day itself I was a little nervous about how it was going to go, especially as none of us had met in person before. I needn't have worried as all the players that took part were absolutely great sports and really contributed to making it a fun time for each other. My girlfriend also took part and supported me throughout so a big thanks to her (particular for facilitating the continuous flow of cider that she kept supplying from the Ansell's bar!)

Further thanks must go to the Ansell's and Weazil (Gaj)  from the Oldhammer forum who sorted me out a nice room with an excellent 7 x 7 table to facilitate the game (I presently decorated this with Nuka Cola posters and Mentat boxes to set the theme of the universe). I also need to express my gratitude to my participants who really pulled out the stops and brought additional post apocalyptic scenery to augment my own, this was really useful and helped further immerse the players in the Fallout-esque setting.

The game itself was set in the Foundry Wasteland located just south of California and I prepared each of the players a bespoke PIP-BOY briefing pack outlining their forces, goals, stats and individual mission in the Wastes

30k - Vlyka Fenryka - Space Wolves Commander and Wolves - Horus Heresy

A veteran Space Wolf Commander accompanied by his two pet wolves, Doppleganger and Lange

As regular readers of this blog will know I am lucky enough to have a very dedicated girlfriend who is exceptionally supportive of my hobby! In fact not only does she support me in my miniature endeavours...she also actively participates in them, regularly taking to the field opposite me and utilising one of my secondary armies on the tabletop! Well she has recently decided to up her game (excuse the pun) a bit and actually build her own force of Space Marines to lead to war, and being a loving boyfriend I have sworn to help her in this sacred mission...consider it my Oath of Moment!

30k - Heresy - Sons of Horus Centurion and Painting Tutorial

Those of you who read my blog frequently may remember that back at the tail-end of last year I started (yet another) project, in this case my goal was to build a force of Pre-Heresy/30k Sons of Horus Legiones Astartes for use in playing Horus Heresy themed battles. I initially churned out a ten man squad of Tactical Marines clad in Mk III battle-plate from Forge World. As these models are comparatively detailed and expensive I made sure that I spent an inoridnate amount of time on painting them and finally I produced what I consider to be my best work yet:

http://classicastartes.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/sons-of-horus-30k-legion-project-with.html

Anyway after this first squad was finished I moved onto other more pressing projects and they were pushed to one side and relegated to my niche models shelf. However recently my girlfriend has started collecting pre-heresy Space Wolves and I decided that I would expand my own 30k forces in tandem with her so that we would have roughly equal opponents to face! With this idea fixed firmly in my mind I decided to get to work on creating a commander for my Cthonian warriors...

Sons of Horus Centurion

...the end result was this fine fellow, a company captain/centurion armed with a fairly substantial power axe and a boarding shield for close assault devastation. I have a fair selection of resin models from Forge World that I could have used for the model, however I wanted something fairly unique and so I rustled this guy together. His body, which is clad in heavily-customised Mk III armour is one of the 'Masters of the Chapter' models released by GW back in 2006 and is a nice weighty model made of white metal and possessing sufficient proportions to stand comfortably alongside the slightly larger models that FW produce.

Second Edition 40k: Skirmishes and Tanks

This weekend one of my best mates was on leave from his job in the Navy (Royal not Imperial) and unusually I was also on leave at the same time, this is a rare occurrence and we decided to celebrate it by getting a few games of second edition 40k under our belts! Unfortunately he was unable to get ahold of his assorted armies due to storage issues and so I happily provided both forces for the game, cracking out the venerable (modern) Crimson Fists and (1980's) Salamanders Space Marines. 

The forces for the first battle were drawn from the original Codex Ultramarines and consisted of a Chaplain, a tactical squad, a combat squad, an assault squad and a predator tank each. Instead of drawing mission cards I decided to give us both the Take and Hold task in order to expedite things, this allowed me to place my recently completed rhino wreckage in the centre of the board as the objective. The battlefield itself was kept relatively simple with a few ruins and a lot of craters littering the area, all finished off with a liberal splatter of the ubiquitous 1980s lichen.

With the terrain set up we both set about deploying our small skirmish forces on the 3 x 5 playing area,

A Predator's eye view from the Salamander's battleline

My First Retro Wargames Article

As many of you will know I have been writing this blog for nearly two years now (wow....time flies) and it has been something of a medium of expression for my love of all things retro and Oldhammer related!

I like to consider myself one of the more proactive members of the community and I spend a fair proportion of my time (both online and in the dreaded real world) espousing the virtues of all things retro in the hope of turning more converts to our noble past time.

Well I have recently upped my game a bit (excuse the pun) and have had a full article on retro gaming published in a well-known games magazine. That's right, my article entitled 'Out with the New and in with the Old' can be found in the latest issue of Wargames, Strategy and Soldiers (WSS).

Broadside Wargames Show 2015

This weekend I was lucky enough to attend Broadside, a Wargames Show based in Sittingbourne, Kent. As ever I was accompanied by my beautiful and very dedicated girlfriend! She has moved her support and interest in gaming up a notch and has decided to build, paint and game with her own army and having settled upon a Space Wolves force we were able to use this event to source some Fenris based bargains in order to start her off.

The venue itself was a leisure club in Sittingbourne and it was just the right size to cater for the event which consisted of a proportionate mix of stalls, participation games and interest areas. From the moment we arrived the organisers and participants were universally welcoming, friendly and generally great guys and I was quickly reminded what a great hobby this is and what nice people take part in it.

Genestealer Cult with Necromunda Orlocks: Part 2

Despite the sabbatical from the hobby mentioned in my last post I have still been using the odd spare moment here and there to progress my genestealer cult for the up-and-coming campaign that I am planning for my dedicated girlfriend and I. 

Currently I am smashing out hordes of fresh brood brothers who are destined to act as cannon fodder on the battlefield in order to allow the more precious hybrids and purestrains to close with the enemy during games.

As per my earlier post I am continuing to use the original 1995 Orlock models to act as my brood brothers within the ranks of the growing cult, I am utilising a specific palette in order to tie these base humans to the hybrids that I have already painted. 

Second Edition Inquisitorial Grudge Match

As some of you may have noticed I have been absent from the blogging scene for the last few weeks; I must apologise for my dereliction of duty! I had to go abroad with work for a little while and then when I returned I went straight into a much needed holiday, so hobby time has been restricted!

However I am back now and so I have decided to celebrate my return with a quick battle report of a game I played with my girlfriend yesterday. 

She wanted to play as her usual alter-ego, the venerable Inquisitor Athena and so I obliged her, however I decided to mix things up a bit by fielding an equally potent Inquisitor against her. After a quick search through my collection I found an Inquisitor conversion that I knocked up about ten years ago, this fellow was armed with a storm bolter and sword and clad in baroque carapace armour.

As we have played a fair few games of second edition 40k together and have a fluid grasp of the basic rules I decided to make both Inquisitors Level 2 Psykers, with two powers each drawn from the Inquisitorial deck. We also took one strategy card each from the Dark Millennium box which were kept secret from the opposition, I really love these little game changers!

The two Inquisitors, each of them is powerful psyker in their own right...but who will survive the grudge match?

Campaign Terrain: Crashed Rhino

With my much-hyped Rogue Trader campaign now impending I find myself with a strong urge to paint up some more scenery for the assorted factions to fight over. Now about a month back I produced a load of ruins using a mix of old GW 'Gothic Ruins' and some newer stuff from Pegasus and so this time around I fancied painting something a bit different to break the monotony of churning out stone buildings.

I had a quick dig through my piles and piles of unpainted plastic and came across this:

It was a crashed Rhino diorama that I had purchased some years back, and like so many models it had been glued together sprayed Chaos Black and then thrown into a box and forgotten about.

Necromunda - Genestealer Cult

After the interesting distraction of a brief foray into the claustrophobic terrors of Space Hulk I have returned to generating the forces required for my up-and-coming Rogue Trader/Second Edition Campaign that I am going to be playing with my better half. 

Having recently finished off some old-school Genestealer hybrids I felt that I now needed some more basic fodder for my cultist forces in the form of some brood brothers. I wanted these guys to look like a rag tag militia as opposed to a formal military unit which pretty much ruled out all the Imperial Guard models released over the years. However I also wanted them to be armed with recognisable 40k weapons (autoguns, bolt guns, etc) as opposed to proxies... which effectively ruled out most other companies ranges!

Space Hulk: Epilogue & Lots of Old School Terminators

Well I have had the pleasure of spending another fantastic weekend with the better half and very obligingly she has made good on her promise of playing through the remaining three missions of the initial Space Hulk Campaign with me... she is literally the perfect woman.

We played the missions in chronological order, squeezing in Mission Four and Five on Saturday night and the final mission this morning. As per last week we used the basic squad layouts that are listed in the Space Hulk rule book without any of the subsequent additions from the Deathwing, Genestealer or Campaigns supplements. 

The only slight amendment that I did make was allowing the squad Sergeants with power swords to utilise the 'parry' rule from Deathwing. 

Also thanks to WARFACTORYUK for his post on last week's blog, he was absolutely right...we had been using the flamer wrongly (I did think it was a remarkably effective weapon....a little too effective) so we implemented the correct methodology for this week's games.

Mission Four: Layout and background

Space Hulk: First Edition - Bank Holiday Gaming

Well over here in sunny old England its the Easter Bank Holiday weekend, which essentially means extra time for gaming!! After a lovely weekend with the other half she kindly agreed to play a few games of 'little men' with me!

Always keen to take up such a kind offer I quickly scurried off to the man-cave to set something up. For a variety of reasons I wasn't really in the mood to set up all the scenery and construct the army lists required for a game of Second Edition 40k and so I looked around for something a bit easier to just 'pick up and play'.

A quick perusal of my shelves yielded this:

The iconic artwork on this box is timeless and still rates among one of the best cover images ever produced by GW. Young Legio spent many an hour gazing adoringly at those bold red terminators slaying the purple and blue 'stealers!

Now 1989 was a very important year in the history of mankind; the Cold War and the associated threat of nuclear apocalypse effectively ended with the shattering of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent demise of the Soviet Union. The first commercial based internet service providers went live heralding a new age of technology and the election of FW DeClerk in South Africa really began the end of apartheid! However despite all these major events most experts agree that one thing above all was of even greater import...

Games Workshop released the first edition of Space Hulk, an absolute master-piece of a wargame/board game hybrid (hybrid - get it??). This extravaganza of retro goodness was penned by Richard Halliwell and involved heavily armed Space Marines clearing an assortment of deserted corridors of vicious-looking, Geiger-esque aliens. Many people said this concept was remarkably similar to a certain 1986 film...but I can't really work out which one...

'Hey Vasquez...Have you ever been mistaken for an Astartes?'

Second Edition 40k - Guard vs Space Marines: Rematch

During my latest set of rest days I was lucky enough to be visited by my best mate and his new born son (my God Son no less); he was very cute (the baby...not the mate) and I did enjoy some face time with the little man. 

Given the importance of the occasion I felt it should be marked by something suitably auspicious and so decided to lay on a special game of Second Edition 40k for my mate in order to find out what had happened to to the insidious mercenary Lieutenant Rock from our previous engagement:

http://classicastartes.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/second-edition-imperial-guard-vs-space.html

Given that we have played a few games recently and were growing more comfortable with the rules I decided to ramp things up a bit by including all the extra stuff from Dark Millennium. Therefore the assorted troops were laden with all manner of exotic wargear; each side had a handful of 'Strategy Cards' and I finally gave each side an Inquisitor who was a Level 3 Psyker, hopefully the presence of these characters would add another layer of fun to proceedings.

We drew our mission cards, but this time we kept them secret so that the other party would have to guess the opposition's mission. I put an objective in the middle of the table beforehand so that if someone drew 'Take and Hold' they wouldn't have to give their mission away by asking for an objective to be set up.

This time around the missions were kept secret from the enemy.
The Guard drew 'Engage and Destroy' whilst the Space Marines were tasked with 'The Assassins'

Rogue Trader Campaign: Terrain - Gothic Ruins

With my girlfriend's Rogue Trader campaign nearing its impending start date I am frantically painting models in order to expand both sides military forces before kick off! However the campaign will have a strong narrative element to it and so I wanted to prepare some new terrain so as to set the scene for this conflict. Without giving too much of the story away I am aiming for a strong gothic theme to the setting and so I have sourced some appropriate buildings to facilitate this. 

To start with I found a couple of the old Gothic Ruin sets that were produced by GW back in 1998, these were glued to a Warhammer modular movement tray (these are an excellent basing resource for scenery as they are already embossed with a natural tile effect). They were then sparingly scattered with sand & PVA and painted. Personally I think that these are some of the best pieces of terrain that Citadel ever produced...they are simple, basic and fit the old school 40k gothic image perfectly...they are also very reminiscent of the custom terrain that used to appear in set pieces within White Dwarf and assorted Codices in the mid-nineties. 

Rogue Trader Campaign: Genestealer Hybrids

As mentioned previously I am soon about to run an old school retro campaign for my girlfriend which will focus on her alter-ego the noble Inquisitor Athena battling the forces of darkness with the aid of her (ever-expanding) retinue of Storm Troopers and other acolytes.

However a hero always needs a suitable villain to battle ...and personally I feel there is no foe in the Warhammer universe more insidious than the parasitic filth of a Genestealer cult, they are the perfect enemy for an agent of the Inquisitorial Ordos to annihilate!

Those of you who have been reading my blog for some time may remember that about two years ago I expanded my force of 20 purestrain (Space Hulk) Genestealers with a few third generation hybrids and a Magus in the hope of eventually building a full cult force.

http://classicastartes.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/genestealing-my-time.html

http://classicastartes.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/purestrain-pleasures.html

Unfortunately since then I have done little to expand this force, and it has been repeatedly relegated in favour of other assorted modelling projects.... However the up and coming narrative campaign has acted as a catalyst for me to reinforce these xenos vermin in order to make them a more viable opposition. 

So I have now acquired and painted two of the original plastic hybrids from the Space Hulk expansion 'Genestealer' (1990), and these will be used to represent a pair of first or second generation hybrids as they are far less human looking than their metal counterparts that I have already painted.

Second Edition: Imperial Guard vs Space Marines

Another one of my best mate's leave days coincided with mine this week and so of course we marked this momentous occasion with a well-deserved game of second edition 40k. He's been working on his rather impressive Imperial Guard army for the best part of a decade and it was finally time to give them a fight in the world of 1993 gaming. Not being used to playing with these retro rules I didn't want to blow his mind by making things too complicated and so I deliberately kept the forces small, coming to a grand total of 850 points per side.

I'm proud to say I own a copy of every Codex from second edition...these are two of my favourite front covers!

Being a generous sort I had already bequeathed him a copy of the 1995 Imperial Guard Codex some time ago so that he could familiarise himself with his force and how they are supposed to work. Whilst I chose my own forces from the original Codex Ultramarines from the same year.

Rogue Trader Campaign Prep 1

I am pleased to say that I am planning to run a Rogue Trader/Second Edition/Necromunda campaign for my partner and I in the near future! She loves Genestealers so inevitably they will be involved somewhere in the narrative (and my growing cult will be expanded further to facilitate this)...along with some other special models I have acquired!!

However every campaign needs it's protagonists and in this case it will be my girlfriend's alter-ego, the powerful Inquisitor Athena of the Emperor's Holy Ordos. Despite her potency an inquisitor alone would not stand much of a chance against the enemies of the Imperium, and so she will need a force of warriors to command in order to thwart the machinations of evil.

Normally Athena uses her Inquisitorial Authority to commandeer a selection of Space Marines to aid her in her purges but in this case I want the campaign to escalate progressively. After all the Astartes are the Emperor's elite force, designed and equipped to face the greatest foes of humanity...in fact there is less than one space marine for every world in the Imperium. Despite their elite and rare status they seem to be a common force that crop with amazing regularity, from suppressing mild incursions of rebels to saving Mrs Miggins kitty-cat from up a tree. With this in mind I decided that for this campaign the inquisitor should (initially) have a selection of slightly more standard troops to support her endeavours... So instead of starting a new force from scratch I dug out a squad of Imperial storm troopers that I painted over a decade ago... I then adapted their colour scheme (after all...in the intervening period Citadel have completely changed their paint range) in order to further expand the force with five unpainted storm troopers from my Bitz box:

A new squad of Inquisitorial Storm Troopers painted up for my impending campaign

I think they came out pretty well, ready to smite the foes of the Inquisition with powerful volleys of laser fire. I love these old metal Kasrkin/Storm Trooper models, they are such great sculpts and with their menacing visors they really fit the image of faceless Inquisitorial heavies. 

Fratricide...40k Second Edition

After a rather fabulous long weekend away with the other half and our friends I was lucky enough to squeeze in a quick game of second edition 40k this morning! Two games in a week....I'm spoiled! Today my opponent was my long time best mate who has been collecting 40k since we were housemates together many years ago. Unusually one of his annual leave days luckily coincided with one of mine... A rare occurrence indeed ... And so we decided to run an impromptu battle in the Dark Millennium to celebrate this monumental occasion!

This time the armies involved in the fighting were my Crimson Fists Astartes versus his Black Templars...as both these venerable Chapters descend from the Imperial Fists Legion this was set to be a very close fratricidal feud! Finally we would find out who the most resolute Sons of Rogal Dorn really are.

We drew our mission cards, the Templars being tasked with 'Take and Hold' whilst my own Crimson Fists had been given an 'Engage and Destroy' Mission. In short this meant that my opponent needed to seize and dominate an objective in the centre of the table whilst I needed to kill as many of his warriors as possible...brutal stuff!

The randomly drawn mission cards allocated to the forces in this engagement

In this battle each of the Imperial Fist's successor chapters fielded three full tactical squads, a demi-squad of assault marines and a Predator tank under the overall command of a veteran Space Marine Captain.

Strike Force Francisco - 2nd Company, Crimson Fists

St Valentine's Massacre

First off let me start with a sincere apology for my prolonged absence of late! I have embarked upon a large hobby project that is sucking out a lot of my time and the results are slow to say the least...hence the lack of recent posts! However let me assure you that when this project is done there will be a full, in-depth post and it will almost certainly be worth the wait!!

In the meantime my dedicated girlfriend has treated me to a Valentine's game of second edition 40k.... Truly there can be no greater expression of love!

I kept the game deliberately small for two reasons, firstly I was going to use a new army that I haven't fielded in second edition before (Iron Warriors from Codex Chaos) so I wanted to learn their nuances gradually...and secondly because I didn't want the game to take too long.

As per usual we drew the cards for our missions, my girlfriend drew 'Engage and Destroy' meaning she would need to kill a vast number of enemy units to gain victory points, whilst I drew 'Take and Hold' which required me to seize and defend an objective in the middle of the battlefield.

Ubiquitous Second Edition Mission Cards at a degree of randomness and purpose to each game.

My girlfriend took command of a small detachment of noble Crimson Fists with an eclectic mix of troop types:

Imperial Forces: Crimson Fists Space Marines (NB an additional 5 man combat squad was added to this force)

Whilst my force consisted of the grim forces of The Iron Warriors, let by a Chaos Lord and an Icon Bearer with the blasted standard of Tzeentch... Both of whom were clad in tactical dreadnought armour.

Chaos Forces: Iron Warriors Traitor Space Marines

Rogue Trader Devastators (Horus Heresy Salamanders)

After a busy weekend of hobby activity I have managed to finish off another heavy weapons squad for my Rogue Trader / Horus Heresy Salamanders.

These models are all the mono-pose heavy bolter marines that were released in 1988, I have tried to overcome this high level of repetition by giving each marine individual markings/heraldry for a little variation.

This squad came about due to my decision to re-structure my Salamanders in order to make a force that is legal to play in games of Horus Heresy (aka 30k). In this variation of the rules Heavy Support squads can be up to ten men strong, but everyone (that's right all ten) are required to carry the same weapon system, additionally tactical squads can only have bolters...no heavy weapons specialists! As such I have broken up my old devastator squads (who were equipped with mixed weapons) and am now gradually painting sufficient reinforcements to create a number of new five man units. You'll also notice that in these rules the squad sergeant carries the same weapon system as his troops, hence why the sergeant above (with authentic Rogue Trader rank chevrons) is also packing a heavy bolter.

Every trooper in this squad has the RT symbol for a heavy bolter operator (cross-hair in a circle) painted somewhere on their power armour, adding a sense of coherency to the unit, and tying them in nicely with their retro heritage.

In order to add a bit of variation I filed the studs off the sergeant's left shoulder pad, giving me another blank surface to add some heraldry to. I used this  new canvas to paint the old RT symbol for a devastator (the bright yellow sunburst) surmounted by the more modern broken triangle.

Overall it took me a weekend to knock up this squad and I am more than happy with the results, they will fit in nicely with my growing force of 1980s marines. Next up will be a five man missile launcher squad. Watch this space!

Second Edition 40k Battle Report

Having created a few posts recently that have been slightly more modern than my usual Oldhammer vibe I have decided to go back to basics with a proper Old School Battle Report. This was a quick game played with my usual opponent (my wonderful girlfriend) using second edition 40k rules.

In order to really bring out the 1990s feel I left my modern buildings in the terrain box and instead littered the green battle mad with 21 year old card ruins and lichen (I love lichen), the battle field was roughly 5x3 foot.