"Do you want salt n' vinegar with that Luv?"

Two months into 2018 and some more progress has been made! This update is all Blind Beggar stuff. I'm a big fan of Blind Beggar, their models strike a chord with me. Not as batshit crazy detailwise as some companies, they are unusual models that are a refreshing change from the overly militaristic models I seem to be painting a lot lately. The models below mainly come from the Crew Of The Mother Hydra Kickstarter and the Deep Ones collection as well. They are all a bit fishy.

Dark Clergy Guy

The model below is from one of the 'Dark Clergy' sets. I like this one as it is unarmed, and can be used as an alien, a mutant or well, that's all I can think of for the minute. I painted a fish symbol on his top as is looks a plain without it and he can pass as a priest type that has contracted some strain of leprosy that turns skin grey without many appendages coming off. I decided to paint the top half of his robe different to the lower part as there was a very definite divide. Now he looks like an alien wearing a skirt and a hoody. He probably has a few ASBOs*.

I AM THE CLERGY!

Scenario Two of 'The Scargill Cleansing'

Dylan's next scenario for The Scargill Cleansing is hot off the press! The game is due to be played on Thursday, following the worldwide cards with hearts buying bonanza.

‘The Scargil Cleansing’

Hold Out

“Oi, get off your arses you lazy useless gitz, there is a bunch o umies dat what won’t stop trying to tell der bosses wot we iz up to.  Now I is gonna take all you lazy grubz and stomp em good n’proppa. Getz runnin youz gitz……”

“Incoming vox transmission from HQ sir” called specialist Brandt.  Major Schmidt looked up from the piles of data slates and report cubes, his eyes red from lack of sleep and constant screen use. “A large Ork force has been spotted moving at speed to our location Sir”, “it looks like they know we are here”. Schmidt cursed and turned away from the piles of reports, Woolstrop and his force should have crushed the Orks already. “Sgt, sound the alarm. Ready the men for action, and prepare to hold at all costs” He knew many of the men would not see another day.

A small Krablokistan force is holding an important surveillance tower in a remote area, data gathered here is being used to prepare the Scargil sector for the coming Ork invasion, Hold this position at all costs.

·         Orks are the attacker and will use the Sustained Assault rule.

·         Defenders army should be no more than 1000pts (Cannot use the extra 500 if won last mission)

·         The attacker can have up to 2000pts.

·         The Defenders deployment zone extends out in a 10” circle from the centre of the table.

·         Use a bastion model as the relay control hub, use the rules as in Chapter Approved.

·         If, at the end of turn five the Attacker has destroyed the relay they score D6+1 Victory Points, if however the Defender still holds the relay he wins the game.

The winner of this battle will be able to exploit the data gathered/destroyed to their advantage in one battle of their choice.  At the start of any battle, before the first turn, declare that you will use this advantage. Immediately add D3+1 Command Points to your total. This advantage can only be used once.

As you can see an interesting scenario that adds some more flavour to the campaign.

Baptism Of Promethium

Farg Woolstrop reread the report. It didn't make very salubrious reading. Waargh Gitsmasha (another of these xenos despots that seem to spring up twice a lunar cycle) had grown tired of fighting itself and had started migrating into the Scargill Sector - named after the planet and system of the same name. Due to the Krablokistan 47th's proximity to the sector a rapid redeployment was underway. Hemmerdale was Mitigated and the previous misunderstandings between both Ultramarine, Crimson Fists chapters and the Convent Of The Vengeful Scold were ironed out. The first blows of the conflict had begun so an advance force was sent to bolster an Imperial research base on the planet of  Spasitor. The vanguard of Waargh Gitsmasha had landed and were currently dismantling the base and using the occupants for target practice, additional rations and Mothbear baiting. The majority of the fleet moved on towards Scargill but a Pacification Class troop carrier - named The Erstwhile - detoured to Spasitor to dispatch the advance Ork force.  

The Scargill Cleansing Act I

Welcome to part one of our 40K campaign between my Astra Militarum force of the Krablokistan 47th regiment vs Dylan's Orks of Waargh Gitsmasha. The battle is 1500 points of battle forged goodness with all the whistles and bangs that accompany that. The mission is No Mercy so in addition to the usual victory points each unit destroyed also scores a VP as well. The initial preamble about the campaign is to be found here. I set up the terrain before Dylan arrived and he got to choose whichever table end to deploy in. I always find that an fair system as it makes the person placing terrain try to make the table as balanced as possible.

The Armies

The battle represents the first encounter of Waargh Gitsmasha's advance force attack on the first Imperial planet en route to the prosperous mining planet of Scargill. The Imperial force that landed on Spasitor is pictured below.
They included;
Farg Woolstrop, company commander.
Gilprect Von Staab, second in command.
Shilum Drool, astropath.
Four infantry squads.
A special weapons squad (flamers).
Veteran squad.
Ratling Squad. 
Two Leman Russ.
Hellhound.
Two heavy weapons squads (mortars and heavy bolters).
Ten roughriders.
The force I put together was a fairly low power level that I thought might be fun to play. I took roughriders as even though they no longer exist in the 'official' codex, I have 20 in various states of assembly and thought as they're not the most overpowered unit in the army they might be a bit of fun. The picture below contains all the models I used for this soire. 

Standard battlefield deployment, otherwise known as the armoured square formation.

Some shorties for January

Greetings. Another day another blog post. This is a very short one as I thought I'd put up my newly varnished Ratlings. Not much to say about these models except they are filling out my sniper unit to 10, fully painted models. These models were previously Dettoled and hastily stripped so there are still a few lumpy bits on them, hence no very close ups. If nothing else these models will hopefully spell the demise of more than a few Orks in the upcoming campaign.

Some shifty Abhumans.

Thanks for reading.

Dramatis Personae - The Scargill Cleansing

To further mire myself in the narrative campaign that hasn't yet started, I thought I'd write some backstorys for my characters in the upcoming hostilities. Hopefully the characters below will only be the first of many fleshed out ideas that will come from the battles to be fought over the next few months.

Farg Woolstrop

Farg is the supreme commander of the Krablokistan 47th regiment. Although he is a loyal servant of the Imperium and a dedicated adherent to the Imperial Cult he has found himself at odds with both Rouboute Gullimann and Saint Celestine in the now infamous Mitigation of Hemmerdale campaign. The Mitigation was a particularly confusing conflict as the 47th found themselves fighting with and against Ultramarines on more than one occasion. The fact that he survived with enough of his army to be redeployed to Scargill is testament to both his tenacity and ability to blame others for his failures.  Woolstrop attires himself like an Imperial Commisar but does not come from such a background. He is actually a former gang fighter from the Krablokistani city of Paraquat where his viciousness and ambition drew him to the Astra Militarum and further up the regimental ladder. 

Farg Woolstrop (right) accompanied by a guardsman.

Something Big Is In the Process Of Happening.

As I alluded to in my previous post, myself and Dylan are embarking on a campaign. To me the campaign is the epitome of war-gaming so I'm pretty stoked. It's going to be set on an as yet unnamed Imperial planet. The combatants are Astra Militarum (probably the Krablokistan 47th) and the Orks of Waaagh Gitsmasha. Dylan is providing the fluff and I will write updates as I am able. Hopefully the campaign will be similar to the Andy Chambers narrative campaign from the 90's White Dwarfs which I will try to dig out to get a better feel for that sort of thing.

My First ever 2017 In Review Type Post

Well I've decided to write up a brief summary of all that happened in my little piece of hobby wonderland. Lots of other blogs have them so I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon.

The Revolving Door Of Gamers

Well my gaming group has had a constant core of about 6 gamers who over the last 5 or so years I've had the pleasure of cursing dice with. Stuart, Phil, Aaron, Shane and Pat. We lost Vinny last year to something called 'a better job'. We have also had some new arrivals, Billy the Ultramarine player, Dylan who is Crimson Fists and Death Guard and Alan who uses AdMech. 

Painting

2017 was a pretty productive year. 122 models finished. Mainly Imperial Guardsmen, with a smattering of Aeldari. I must admit it was very good for someone who struggles with the actual finishing of models. A big pat on the back for me. I did a quick total up of how many points it all comes to and it is 1161. I was going for any weird model that doesn't really fit into a specific army like the Star Lords civilians they get drafted into my Genestealer army as Hybrid Neophytes. Even the Werefox.

Gaming

So I think I've been tallying up my games, and I've had 5 games of Inquisimunda and 14 games of the new 40k. There is probably another one or two I may have forgotten, but a total of 19 games is pretty good for someone who used barely manage 1 a year. In both systems I've won more than I lost so that is something but for posterity it is Inquisimunda P5, W3, L2, D0 and 40K P14, W8, L5, D1. Here's to at least another 19 in 2018.

Scenery

I started many scenery projects but the only one I managed to fully complete is my six craters. They've had many guardsmen and other humanoids inside them so they really get around. Hopefully there will be a lot more to report in 2018, I have a public toilet, a hab unit and half a dozen other pieces to hopefully dazzle my readers with. 

Six craters to hunker down in.

As you can see the above craters have luminous pools of some undisclosed material in them. Are they lava? Toxic chemicals? Fanta? Each game will have a different possibility.

The Futures

 Dylan has mentioned a narrative campaign for the start of next year so that sounds like immense fun. The details have to be ironed out but hopefully it will be the sort of mayhem that makes for fun battles and fun battle reports to read.

My veterans for the Krablokistan 47th will hopefully be finished by the end of January.

Paintwise the Catachan's above are what I want to get finished first. Mainly going to use them as vets as there are plenty of meltas and a plasma gun in there, following that is my landing pad.

My Mantic budget Skyshield Landing Pad is hopefully getting used in a beautifully crafted Battle Report in the near future.

So all that's left for me is to wish everyone in plastic metal world a very Happy New Year and as much hobby as they can handle!

Thanks For Reading!