Battle Report Test game WH 40k 5th Edition

So I got to play a test game of the upcoming 5th Edition of 40k.

I was playing a drop pod version of a Dark Angels army:

I fielded Belial, with a Deathwing Terminator Squad, a single Ravenwing Bike squad, with 5 bikes, the Sergent, an Attack Bike and a Land speeder with assault cannon, two Tactical squads of 10 with Drop pods, and a Dreadnaught with a Drop Pod.

My opponent was an Eldar players, fielding a  Fire Prism, a unit of Dire Avengers, two units of Guardians with Star Cannons and Warlocks,  A Farseer, an Autoarch.  In reserve he had a unit of Scorpians mounted in a Wave Serpent, a Unit of Fire Dragons mounted in a Falcon and another Falcon.

We rolled for scenario and ended up facing each other from the long table edges fighting over two objectives, one each placed into our respective deployment zones.

Rules we had to get use to were the Line of sight (so how do cover saves actually work for the unit or the individual).  Blast templates not rolling to hit, but rather deviating (so how is this effected by Plasma cannons which overheat on a 1 – where do you roll for the one now?).  Vehicles get shaken frequently (I mean you roll a 1 or less then they are shaken, and this is the minimum that any glance or penetrate will do).  Initial assault tends to be bloodly, but against equal opponents, they you can get bogged down like we had with a unit of space marines versus the Dire Avengers.  One of our objectives was a bunker, which would have had an armour value of 14, which would have made digging the 5 space marines out it very hard for the Striking Scorpians heading toward the bunker on turn 5.

The randomn length game came into play here by allowing the space marines to hold their objective uncontested, but due to the Dark Angel first turn terminator assault the Eldar objective remained contested the entire game.

In the end, the Eldar were able to kill Belial and his Terminator Squad, all the basic bikes, immobilize the Dreadnaught, and 1/2 of the first of the Tactical squads.

The SMs were able to kill the Autoarch, both of the guardian units, the Fire Prism, The Fire Dragons.

We got to see the armor penetration table in use a lot.  Fairly easy.  A falcon behind your dreadnaught is not a pretty site.  When you miss with a blast weapon, its not fun.

So, no more how many of your units did you kill, versus how many did I kill.  Straight forward, what was the objective.

I like 5th edition.

Space Marine Terminator Chaplain – Assembling

So began work this week on my Terminator Chaplain for my Dark-Angel Army.

Here is photos of the basic pieces.

In addition, I added purity seals, a power mace that I could add an eagle to to make a Crosius.  Talberts and holy bells, to spice things up.

I used a Chaos Space Marine Skull for the head of the Chaplain.

Here is the result, primed:

Armorcast Reaver Titan – Finished

OK, so the final steps to completing the titan is sealing it with Minmax Fast-drying Polyurethane, Clear Satin, Spray.

Then I assembled the model:

4th edition DnD – Review

Well I picked up the 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons book and have done a first read on it:

Major changes that I saw:

Races
Eliminated Gnomes, Half-orcs

Added:
Tiefling -1/2 daemons (Hellboy) – children/offspring of humans who sold their souls/birthrights for power from daemonhood.  In exchange they had a great civilization, and they and their offspring were the Aristocracy.  When the civilization fell (like they all do) their poor offspring were left with the half daemon legacy, but none of the benifits.

Dragonborn – Dragonspawn, Sauron, lizardmen, you get the idea, except each one gets his own personal breath weapon.

Modified:  Elfs are now split between what we use to call high (or grey) elfs and wood elf.  The High Elfs are now Eladrin (sylvan) and have a connection to another plane of existence (faeryland) and the Elfs (wood elfs) forsook faeryland and are more grounded to nature.  (Think WHFB wood elves here).

Remains current:
Human, dwarf, 1/2 elf, halfling

Alignments:
Yes, the good versus Evil and Chaos versus law still exists, but the book suggest that the only Player character alignments are Good, Lawfull Good, Neutral, Evil and Chaotic Evil (and the Evil one only with GM prior approval).  Bye-bye LE, CG, CN, LN, these are considered party killers by the players guide.

Divine magic changed, in that all characters have the ability to heal themselves a number of times a day, the cleric just has the ability to speed up this process.  The higher level of cleric, the faster the push.

Character levels:

Heroic levels 1st through 10th (general adventurer, captain of the guard, beginning priest or wizard)
Paragon levels 11th through 20th (Local Bishop, Gandolf the Grey, leaders of cities and armies, Robin Hood)
Epic levels 21+ (Emperor of a kingdom, Gandolf the White, Head of wizard orders, Head of a church – arch-druid, arch-bishop, Pope)

Classes:
Greatly simplified from 3.5:
Rangers, Rogues, Wizard, Warlock, Cleric, Paladin, Warlord (new)

gone:
Illusionist, Thief, Assassin, Druid,

So, this is a major change and revision.  This will definitely entice (possibly) Video gamers into RPGs, but it will irk the more hard core old school RPG gamers.

General review – Heh!  2.5 out of 5 stars.  Its playable, is it the be all to end all – no, but Role play gaming is suppose to be about the companions and the party, this book is a good push in that direction, but in the end, it will not make a bad party good or better, it still up to the players to build a good gaming group.

Gencon Indianapolis – 2007

Gencon is one of the premier miniature events here in the United States. It has had along career in the miniature and gaming industry. They celebrated their 25th anniversary last year. I attended Gencon last year for the 3rd time and took many photos: This convention is attended by many manufacturers:

Privateer Press:

Dark-age Miniatures:

Crocodile Games (Wargods)

There were many tournaments and games played from early morning till late at night.

I really loved some of the conversions and models represented at the convention:

And the costumes by the participants:

Began Painting of Reaver titan Details

ok,

1. Finished the cleanup of red and gun metal details.
2. Painted the gold trim.
3. Painted the Axe trims
4. Painted the head lenses

Now I’ve gone ahead and super glued the torso to the shin guards at this point.   I’m trying to decide whether to glue the feet to the shins yet or not.

Second coat of Red on titan accomplished today

So, I had the time and applied the second coat of red base color to the Titan today.  This allows me to go back now and touch up the areas of Bolt Gun Metal that I splashed while I was applying the red.  Hopfully I will have time to do that tomorrow night.

I picked up a second lamp to use in my painting area.  An OTT-LITE that provides natural colored light to paint by, rather than relying on the typical yellow house lights, that throw off temperature of blends and colors on the miniatures.

I picked it up, on sale, at Michael’s Craft store yesterday, at 40% off.  Not a bad deal!

Testing of my Flip Ultra

So I purchased a Flip ultra the other day and now I’m attempting to test my ability to post videos from it in my blog:

This is my cat Cali! She is a sweet heart of a cat.

Hello world!

Welcome to my Blog.

This will be a place for me to keep the world current on my miniature projects, various events that I attend and run and Associated products that I use to support my hobby!

My most recent project has been my work on my titan.

GW Paint Washes are in the house

So I stopped by my Local GW Bunker today as I was dropping a friend off at a nearby Airport.

I was lucky in that they had just received their shipment of GW Washes:

The Store manager being a great guy, and knowing that I live a distance from the store, allowed me to pick up the box set.

Now I’m a died in the wool dipper. Having used the dip method on a number of my armies for the past few years to turn out some fast tabletop quality armies:

I have heard good reviews on these the GW Washes, and am looking forward to utilizing them selectively on the Reaver and some of my other projects.

*Disclaimer – the above miniatues where done utilizing a dip, not the GW Washes. They are just examples of past work.

Miniature Peddler