Men With Toy Soldiers

Warhammer Quest: Cursed City is a labour of love for hobbyists and a love letter to those old enough to remember the original Warhammer Quest. I hope it's a good game, but it really doesn't matter.

2022-05-07T13:13:00.006-04:00

One of the things I've paid a lot of attention to during my absence from the hobby is the re-introduction of Warhammer Quest.

Delicious components

I have very fond but hazy childhood memories of playing the original 1995 Warhammer Quest with my friends Dave, John and Tim. Dave had acquired the set during a period where we were all collecting Warhammer Fantasy (R.I.P.) models and doing our best to play games when we were too young to stay focused on collecting and painting armies and didn't really have the money to do so. Warhammer Quest was a dream come true with everything you needed right in the box, and I spent some allowance money on the Wood Elf hero to give another option. Back then, they released small boxes with a new hero for WHQ with their in-game card you needed to play them, and at the time Wood Elves were very much my jam. I hadn't yet learned that bugs are gross and I can get all the exposure to nature that I need from golf.

But really, my journey began before that with HeroQuest.

We had a family friend who owned a cottage in the Muskokas, and my father was a general contractor and carpenter. It was mutually advantageous that we would go up for a period each summer and my dad would do some work or repairs, my brother and I would mow the grass or paint a deck chair, and we would get to use this absolutely amazing property for a week or so each year.

This cottage was a full blown house in lake country. Rare for the time, it had all the appliances you'd expect, running water and all that. Because the owner and his family spent so much time there, there was a variety of VHS tapes, outdoor fun equipment like ATVs, and a selection of board games.

Among the board games was something that completely blew my mind called HeroQuest. If you don't know what I'm talking about, give that a quick Google. I suspect that the same son of our family friend responsible for the stack of 1960s-1980s comic books was also responsible for HeroQuest being there, but all I can say for certain is that the box art alone sent absolute fireworks through the mind of a young boy who had been consumed by old AD&D PC games like Pool of Radiance.

I will never find the words to express the frustration I felt when I couldn't get my family to play the game with me for more than an hour -- I couldn't understand why anyone would want to do anything else. Screw the lake.

Fast forward a few years, after I'd managed to finagle my own copy of HeroQuest, when my newfound interest in Warhammer ran face first into my delight for HeroQuest and RPGs in general. It took me a long time to learn that Games Workshop was responsible for HeroQuest as well.

Stepping away from the days of yore, when I learned that the modern Warhammer Quest games were designed to be playable solo, I broke into a sweat. I wouldn't have to convince anyone to play with me.

But I didn't buy Silver Tower. I didn't buy the next one. I didn't buy Blackstone Fortress, despite being intrigued by the fact that it was WH40k.

Then Cursed City got a reprint right as I was getting back into this hobby, and I found out that it had all the secret sauce I remembered from before. Wide variety of heroes? One's even a wood elf? Character progression over the course of a campaign? Random table of bad shit that can happen to you between missions for no reason? Sign me up.

So I bought it. Then immediately decided that I wouldn't play it until I had assembled and painted every model. I wanted to savour the anticipation and have something beautiful. I've started, and I'm making progress. I'm not bothering to count while I'm typing, but I'm 5/8 heroes painted and I'd guess around 20 of the bad guys. There's 60 miniatures in total. It's a lot of work.

Just the enemies.

I don't know if the game is good, but there are lots of places you can look up reviews. I'm guessing I'll enjoy it regardless. But I wanted to use this space to document some of my trials and tribulations while getting the set ready for prime time, and maybe I can inspire someone to finish their set or help someone learn from my mistakes.

So with that in mind, I'll be posting about the painting and some thoughts about the models and some limited lore. I'll also give my thoughts about the box itself, but here's my initial take:

For the money it costs, there is nothing that is going to give you the variety of incredibly high quality sculpts to paint. It's also a hugely satisfying building experience, although it's moderately challenging so I'd say make sure you have the right tools and patience for the job. The quality of the materials inside, the models, the presentation is so far beyond my expectations that it really is the best example I can present for the new Games Workshop theme: High cost, unbelievable quality, slick presentaion.

It's going to take forever to paint, it took a while to assemble, and it will take some time to beat the campaign. But god almighty, I am going to enjoy opening that envelope.

Start of a long journey

I'm painting again. I don't know where it goes from here.

2022-05-04T20:47:00.002-04:00

It's been a while!

About 6 weeks ago, I felt like painting again. It's been about 10 years at this point since I stopped, but I've taken longer breaks than that before.

I wanted to wait before posting anything both because I'm a lot older, out of practice and I honestly wasn't sure if I'd pick up a brush and not be able to paint. As documented previously, my eyesight and fine motor skills were never great to begin with, and I am absolutely racing towards the grave at this point.

It's hard to say what exactly gave me the itch again -- I've casually kept up with WH40k over the last decade, and my Google news feed occasionally features articles from the ever-delightful Bell of Lost Souls (as an aside, it's been incredible to watch the progress of that site over the years). I think I just ticked over from seeing some beautiful models to realizing that I could go pick up something -- maybe just get some fresh paints and a couple of models and dip my toe in. You know.

Within a couple of weeks, I had the 40k starter set, some extra Necrons, the Age of Sigmar Dominion box, and Cursed City. As well as the big paint set from Army Painter, and a growing collection of Citadel contrast paints. I guess the toe dip went a little sideways.

As an aside, I'm amused that this post of mine from December 2010 has become an entirely valid alternate way to paint models that we now call 'Contrast Method' or 'Speed Painting'. We'll come back to that.

I'm now about a month and half into collecting, assembling and painting. I'm really enjoying myself.

The reason I'm posting tonight is that I wanted a place to put up some pictures of what I'm working on, and document for myself some of the progress I'm making. Also it's a place to share photos where I'm not spamming my friends and family, who I'm sure are already tired of the daily random photos of weird little models that they don't really understand.

I can also see by the dashboard that somehow people still end up directed towards this site every once in a while. I hope that these poor lost travelers can find something that inspires or helps them in their pursuit of the hobby, or at least reassures them that someone, somewhere, is also still trying to figure out how to paint after decades of doing it.

I have a lot of thoughts about the hobby, Warhammers both 40k and AoS, and the enormous evolution of available tools to produce beautiful models and the huge increase in both cost and quality of Games Workshop miniatures.

Right now I'm working on finishing the Cursed City miniatures before I actually play a game of it. I'm about 17/60 minatures done, and I'm mostly pleased with how they've turned out.

I will be posting here occasionally with some updates and backlog photos of the stuff that I've been working on. Forgive me in advance, the photos I've been taking are in no way staged for photography, just rough workdesk photos like the header above. But in the meanwhile I thought I'd share the first model I painted after a 10+ year absence vs a model I painted a few days ago and the evolution over that 6 week period as I started to remember what was forgotten. Both are WH40k Orks from the (5th edition?) starter set, Assault on Black Reach.

March 27th:

How do paints work again?

May 1st:

I'll try to put up something new every few days or when the thoughts feel like going down in text. In the meanwhile, I'll also try to find a better set up for taking pictures of miniatures, but bear with me for a while on that :)

I'm back!

2013-05-10T23:06:00.000-04:00

.... An ill wind stirs...

And by that I mean I may start painting models again and talking about that.

In case anyone still has this on their feed, I must apologize for the absence. I can't remember much of the last two years other than seeing one of my zoanthropes larger than life, and then a darkness whose length cannot be measured in minutes, or days, or years, but rather in sins.

We've been biding our time.

I'm incredibly devoted to the ideal behind Men With Toy Soldiers: I want to provide emotional support for other grown men who play with toy soldiers, and share my trials and tribulations regarding turning injection molded plastic or hilariously ill-fitting "pewter" into art and tactical enjoyment. I especially want to encourage other grown men who have fond childhood memories of tabletop games.

For anyone who is still interested, here are the topics I'm interested in covering in the short term:

1) My 1 year old citadel paints are dried up in their containers, but my 15 year old ones are still good to go. I also notice that they have about a dozen different types of paint in their range, while I grew up painting gorgeous minis and it was just paint and primer. DISCUSS.

2) I will unabashedly admit that I love 4th edition D&D, based solely on reading the rulebooks. I reminisce about having to calculate THAC0 and the hilarious min/maxing we did in 2e and 3e. I wonder why noone ever thought of making 1 hp minions before so we could feel legit tossing fireballs. I thank the world of MMORPGS for improving the combat system. I think I want to go to a local shop to play D&D encounters and write about it, having never played D&D seriously since oh about 1998.

3) I want to paint again, although GW's bait-and-switch with the 40k rules doesn't make me want to play (yet). My painting articles before were well-received, and I'm proud of the minis that I do have. My Trygon has been out on our picture shelf since I finished it, and I'm excited to do more mini-painting that I can be proud of. I'm not going to insist on them being Tyranids, I just want to paint, so I would love to hear some feedback if anyone's still listening.

Anyhow I think the glue on my Ork whatever-the-hell-they-call-the-leaders just set, and I want to get him cleaned up so I can prime and decide on a colour scheme.

Cheers!

MWTS

Delusion? Or Genius?

2011-01-11T22:22:00.000-05:00

So while I was scheming about my Tervigon conversion, I had an idea:

All those Rippers we all have kicking around? And all that extra space on the MC bases?

I was thinking of magnetizing 6 rippers onto my next Trygon's base, and pulling them off as wound markers.

What do you think?

Alright, it was Paddy's idea! I'm scared to contradict him.

Prepare yourselves for the world's laziest Tervigon conversion... And a status update!

2011-01-10T20:57:00.000-05:00

Hello, everyone!

I will remind you again that this is representative of my conversion/painting skills

Just a super-quick post to update on my progress with all the new acquisitions, and I can tell you that my league starts in mid-February, but I'm doing well enough here that I may actually be able to play my first game before then. I know I haven't been keeping up with my posting, but in my defense, you don't want to hear about me working or see pictures of grey plastic models :)

Also I finally figured out what I'm going to do about Tervigon conversions!

But first, an update of where I'm at:

What I've got done:

I've assembled my Hive Guard and Zoanthropes, but haven't painted anything -- in fact, the last bit of painting I did was the Trygon 'lo these many moons ago.

I've assembled one of my two boxes of Gargoyles, with the other to follow suit soon. I'm trying to decide on whether it's worth the effort to introduce another colour for the wings on them, we'll see.

I've assembled all the Genestealers I need for my 1500 point League list, but still need to paint two of them and acquire/convert a Broodlord -- ANY suggestions for conversion are welcome.

I've also put together what I'll be using as a Tervigon. I bought Green Stuff, but haven't used it yet, and frankly I'm happy with just what I got out of the Carnifex box plus a large oval base for a Terv, but I have a clever trick up my sleeve.

Look forward to a series of posts on how to make the world's laziest - yet decent looking! - Tervigon conversion from your friends at Men With Toy Soldiers.

What's missing from the list:

Aside from painting everything, which just plain isn't going to happen by the start of the league in mid-Feb, I have a few things to do:

I still need to assemble a box of Gargoyles. Oh! Despite my skepticism, I'll be damned if Mercer wasn't right! They CAN give cover to a Hive Tyrant!

I have 13 Termagants to assemble, since I want all 28 ready for games (10 + 18 for the Terv spawning), although 4 of them have a 'higher purpose' that you will learn of shortly.

I need to assemble another Trygon, and I'd love to get him painted up in time, but that's a lofty goal.

A small piece of my soul was consumed to bring you this one, and I don't have much soul to spare.

So that's where I'm at.

Here's what I have planned for the next few days:

1) I'm going to share with you how to make a neat, easy Tervigon that will be a little bit different.

2) I'm going to put up The Great Painting Challenge, where everyone can help me set goals for painting by the time my league starts, and we can all discuss an appropriate reward/punishment scheme for how well I do based on that.

Get excited!

We're Back! And we have a 1500 point 'Nid list for your consideration!

2011-01-03T10:06:00.000-05:00

Well here I am on the last day of my holiday, finally returned to the city, ready to build up the Hive Fleet and play in a league!

Hive Fleet Turbo-Ants Cheerleading Squad 2011

I appreciate those who visited during Men With Toy Soldiers' hiatus, and now it's time to get back on attack.

So when we left off, I had asked for input regarding a 1500 point list using primarily what I had available in order to participate in an upcoming league with a 'Golden Standard' of 1500 points. I got lots of good input, and was told quite firmly that I could not bring Swarmy in a 1500 point list (especially with two Trygons!), and now I think we're on the home stretch for what I'll start off with.

Be warned: this list may shock your Net List sensibilities! We have foot slogging Zoanthropes, Genestealers, and a Gargoyle blob! There are no T-Fexes, no Harpies, and only one Tervigon!

HQ:

Tyranid Prime w/ Bonesword, Lashwhip, Deathspitter - 100 pts

Elites:

2 Hive Guard - 100 pts

2 Zoanthropes - 120 pts

Troops:

Tervigon w/ Cluster Spines, Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacs, Catalyst - 195 pts

10 Termagants - 50 pts

10 Genestealers w/ toxin Sacs, 1 Broodlord - 235 pts (11 models, to be clear)

Fast Attack:

20 Gargoyles w/ Toxin Sacs - 140 pts

Heavy Support:

Trygon Prime w/ Adrenal Glands - 250 pts

Trygon w/ Adrenal Glands - 210 pts

1500 pts on the nose.

So, in theory, here's how it works:

1) The Main Force

The Tervigon, Gants, Zoanthropes and Hive Guard march up the middle of the board. The Prime can go with the Zoanthropes to provide some ablative wounds and give them a chance, should they be assaulted. I realized that I've never seen someone drop a Prime in with the Zoeys, I figure it's worth a shot!

If I can be ablative wounds for warriors, I can be ablative wounds for Zoanthropes!

2) The Flank

Gargoyles, Trygon and Trygon Prime can all sprint up one of the flanks. The Prime gives synapse (and Shadow In The Warp!), so they should do more or less what I want until the Prime is (inevitably) taken down. What I'm hoping for here is that opponents have to split their fire between the flanking force and the main force, since I think I've given them a number of poor decisions to make regarding target priority.

The Gargoyles can quite happily deal with ranged support units, and if need be they can tarpit a unit of my choice. The Trygons can go ahead and do what Trygons do.

First model pulled off the table in every game?

3) The Genestealers

10 Stealers with toxins and a Broodlord is a nasty little CC unit, and an underrated one. At the 1500 point level, I think I'd put them up against just about anything in the game in CC. They can also be pressed into service in destroying light mech if I need them to do that, too.

They also have flexibility when it comes to their deployment. They can either walk up the board with the main force under Catalyst, Fleet their way up the flank under cover from the Gargoyles and Trygons, infiltrate and take advantage of poor deployment on the other end, or outflank. If they outflank, the opponent can't put anything valuable within 15-16 inches of a board edge unless they want to potentially give me a juicy target for a full-strength Genestealer unit. In other words, they make the board that much smaller and basically put my bugs a full turn of movement closer to assault.

Attack of the pink dreadlock beard!

Overall:

I've mentioned this a number of times before, but I believe the key to success with Tyranids is making sure that everything in your list is a threat, and then making target priority very difficult for your opponent.

Again, speaking from a purely theoretical standpoint, this list should be able to advance up the board while leaving spawned 'Gants behind to take objectives, should be able to deal with Mech reasonably well, and should be able to wipe up anything on foot between the gargoyles, Trygons, Prime + Zoan unit and Stealers.

The 'Stealers also make a great wildcard unit that allows this list to alter its tactics to suit the opponent, which is always good.

Playing against this list, it's difficult to pick your targets properly. You really don't want those Trygons hitting your side of the table, but you also really don't want those two Zoanthropes to start opening fire. You really don't want that Tervigon to be left alone and helping to score objectives/dish out FNP, but you also can't let those Hive Guard keeping firing 8 cover-ignoring shots per turn and popping all of your transports. It's very tempting to use a turn of shooting to wipe those Gargoyles and Genestealers off the board, but what are you letting hit your lines instead of them?

Oh, and of course, there's 26 T6 wounds that need to be dealt with.

And perhaps most importantly, I have everything I need to play this list, I just need to get cracking on the assembling and painting!

Alright people, let me have it!

Merry Christmas from Men With Toy Soldiers!

2010-12-24T11:18:00.000-05:00

First, I want to thank everyone who has dropped by since we opened up less than a month ago to comment, follow and read our content!

When I started this project, at the urging of my better half, I was utterly convinced that I was absolutely deluded in thinking that anyone would have the slightest interest in what I had to say. Thankfully, I was wrong!

He's making a 1750 point tournament list, he's checking it twice...

What keeps recurring in the feedback that I'm getting is that:

1) People are interested in the perspective of someone just starting up in the hobby.

2) Most of our articles are 'fun' to read.

I'm glad to hear both of these things, because I've been making an effort from the beginning to keep everything posted very positive and light-hearted, while also trying to provide lots of pictures and content that was a little bit different from what I'm seeing elsewhere.

So thanks again to everyone that's tuned in, and have a great holiday season! It'll be quiet around here for a few days while we're devouring turkeys with the Hive Fleet at home, but in the new year I endeavour to continue providing you all with half-cooked Unit Reviews, mediocre paint jobs and conversions, and of course, lots of pictures captioned with bad jokes!

The quest for the 1500 point Tyranid list continues!

2010-12-22T20:58:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm trying my best to come up with a 1500 point list for an upcoming league that I'm happy with, and that I don't need to buy/convert too much for.

I'm finding the points total to be really restrictive, however, because I want to include a Trygon -- Which really means I have to include two, and there's a third of my army gone.

The other thing I'm struggling with is where to fit Genestealers in. I want them to outflank, but if I do, I want the Swarmlord along for the +1 to reserves and the re-roll. Does anyone have success infiltrating them, walking them up or outflanking them without bonuses?

Put me in, coach!

I also haven't been able to visualize a conversion for a Mycetic Spore, so I don't know that I can put my zoanthropes in. Does anyone have any experience with scuttling them up the table behind friendly units? Or is that just crazy talk?

Anyhow, I'll shoot out two lists for now. I'm not 100% happy with either, but I figure they'll get nicely dissected here and hopefully that can help my though process along.

List #1: Swarmlord and two Trygons, or 'How to not make friends!'

Swarmlord w 2x Tyrant Guard (nekkid)

2 Hive Guard

2 Hive Guard

Tervigon w/ Adrenal, Toxin, Catalyst

10 Termagants

10 Genestealers w/ Toxin Sacs
- 1 Broodlord, Toxin Sacs (11 models)

Trygon w/ Adrenal

Trygon w/ Adrenal

This list doesn't have a lot of models, and I'm a little wary of how well I'd be able to score objectives. Not bad for kill points, though...

The Plan:

Swarmy, 'Gants and Terv scuttle up the middle together, with gants providing cover, Terv providing FNP, Swarmy providing an excellent distraction. Realistically there's not much that can beat him in CC, so at least I've build a core that's threatening, and objectives can be scored by the Terv/Terms.

Hive Guard go on each side and scuttle up moving between cover until they've got a good position

Stealers outflank. The plan with them is to neutralize a threatening backfield unit i.e. Long Fangs, then find an objective in cover, in the enemy's deployment zone. If it's annihilation, they can hopefully cause some havoc in the backfield. Broodlord is in there to provide ablative wounds with a 4+ armor save, and possibly neutralize an enemy IC in assault.

Trygons either go up the flanks or potentially deepstrike depending on the amount of firepower on the other side of the board!

I'm concerned that packing Swarmy and two Trygons into a 1500 point list isn't going to win me any sportsmanship points, though.

List #2: More models, more balance, less focus!

Prime w/ Bonesword, Lashwhip

2 Hive Guard

2 Hive Guard

Terv w/ Adren, Toxin, Catalyst

11 Termagants

8 Stealers, Toxin, 1 Broodlord (9 models)

8 Stealers, Toxin, 1 Broodlord (9 models)

20 Gargoyles w Toxin Sacs

Trygon w/ Adren

Trygon w/ Adren

More bodies on the field, but less focused!

The Plan:

Prime has to go with either Hive Guard, 'Gants or 'Stealers. He can go with Stealers if we're marching the whole thing up the board.

This list has the advantage in terms of target priority. There's nothing in the list that you can ignore (except the 'Gants in KP missions, but even then, not really), and there are a lot of targets. The Trygons are the only thing that can deal with AV14, sure, but in a 1500 point game if they can take out both Trygons, they're leaving the rest of the army intact, so hopefully I can ignore their AV14 and chomp chomp the rest of their army.

The plan here is to walk straight up the board (surprise!) going from cover to cover. The Gargoyles are a bit out of place in terms of speed, but they have the advantage of being a wonderful screen, and being able to leapfrog over friendly units to shoot and then assault, most likely at full strength.

I'm a bit concerned by my lack of Venomthrope in this army, and would consider trading in a few things to plunk one in the back. It either gives a cover save and its other benefits, or it gives another unit that you can't really ignore.

Alright party people, dissect away!

Help! I need a 1500 point list!

2010-12-21T22:16:00.001-05:00

Hi all,

Just a brief call for help here. I'm thinking of joining a league for this season, starting in a week or two. It's 1500 points 'golden standard', so we have to play at least that point value and can play above it if both players agree.

Uncle Paddy Needs You!

I want to build a good, balanced, all-comers 1500 point 'Nids list, and I need input! Please!

Doesn't look like there are any comp rules, but your opponent can award you 3 points for sportsmanship per game, and one point is 'is it a fair list', one point is 'would you play this person again'.

HELP!

Bonus round:

We don't have to take the same army each week, or even the same codex! So while I might not play it, I'm trying to build a 1500 point Blood Angels list with no mech except for dreads. Go!

Santa showed up, and brought the Hive Fleet with him!

2010-12-21T16:37:00.001-05:00

Thanks everyone for the suggestions on what to pick up!

As it turns out, we bought everything. All of the Tyranids in the store. Well, actually, I left a couple boxes of 'Gants and Raveners behind, and an army box. And since we still had money to spare, I ordered a couple more things, which I'll list below.

So here's what we got:

Santa brought the tequila for Paddy O'Lantern

List and what's to come under the jump!

So I picked up the following:

1 Hive Tyrant (Going to be magnetized, but for now plan on making a Swarmlord)

2 Hive Guard

2 Zoanthropes

8 Open box Genestealers (bargain!)

24 Gargoyles, just for giggles

1 Trygon

1 Carnifex, to be turned into a Tervigon

Codex: Blood Angels

1 Sweet, sweet purple dice block to go with my purple bugs

1 Elf Flesh, for my marines :)

Annnnnd one bottle of Patron Silver Tequila. Because that's how we holiday.

And here's what's still coming:

2 more Hive Guard

2-3 Tyrant Guard

1 more Carnifex

Maybe a Venomthrope or two

So, I've got my hands full for the immediate future!

To respond to some of the comments on the previous post:

Ruina: You read my mind. Part of my mantra in list-building is 'two of everything, two of everything'. Absolutely I needed another Trygon, I just hadn't picked it up yet because the first one was such a big project and I just wrapped it up, didn't feel like tackling another one. I definitely wanted a Tyrant so I could do old Swarmy, and start thinking about a Flyrant, and I wanted both Zoeys and HG for anti-tank.

Mercer: See, this is why we get along :). I had intended to pick up 4 Hive Guard in total, and definitely another Trygon. And by 2x Warriors, I meant I have 2 warriors, since I had 3 and upconverted one. I'm not buying any more for the time being, until I figure out how to switch them to Shrikes and an easy way to get bonesword/lashwhips for them. And yes, the Tervigon conversion is a thing that is happening.

Dwez: I was heartbroken that he didn't have broodlords. I want a few of them so I can run them in a stealer-heavy army.

39,999: I have too little patience to wait for an order to come in off e-bay, and I don't really find it's worth my time to strip... I'd rather pay more and not have to strip it :). I'm interested that you don't like Hive Guard, you're the first person I've ever heard say that!

Thanks everyone! Hope your Christmas is as fruitful as mine!

Help me spend $400 on miniatures!

2010-12-20T21:26:00.000-05:00

Sorry about missing the last few days' worth of content, Men With Toy Soldiers was away at the first of many illustrious holiday events!

We also had a family dinner tonight, at which I over-indulged. I think the Hive Mind was fully in control, because I was definitely The Great Devourer!

But we're back in town for a couple of days until we do the real Christmas marathon, and Santa is coming around tomorrow in the form of a shopping spree at my Friendly Local Game Store, sponsored by my Sugar Mama.

It's all about the Elizabeths, baby

So I'm going to put up what I have, and if anyone still reads the blog you can help me choose how to spend money!

Here's what we've got:

1x Tyranid Prime

2x Tyranid Warrior

16x Hormagaunt

28x Termagant

8x Genestealer

1x Trygon

So, I've got $400 (Canadian) to spend, at 20% off GW prices.

What should I buy? GO!

Bonus round:

If you run out of Tyranids worth buying, I've also got a budding Blood Angels army....

Finished Trygon!

2010-12-16T12:23:00.000-05:00

Well, that was a journey!

I actually finished it yesterday but didn't have time to post anything up. I also want to say that by 'finished' I mean it's ready for the tabletop, but I'm going to be finding small errors and correcting them for weeks to come, I'm sure.

Here it is!

Bring on the AV14!

Detail pics and my thoughts after the jump!

Well, I'm pleased with how it turned out. I think it looks good up close, good across the table, and it's quite lively in its pose and colouring. I should point out that the red isn't quite as bright as it looks in the picture, and I think it does a nice job of 'popping' while not interfering with the general colour of the army.

I did end up ripping the Rippers (hmm...) off the base before I finished it. In the end, I just didn't think they added anything to the base and it had enough going on between the rocks, metal, and Space Wolf head.

That's just poetic... in fact... this seems like a good time for a haiku.

The base was fun to do simply because I've never done one that big before. To flock it I must have used a quarter of my tube of white glue, and then (hobby pro-tip!) since I couldn't dip it in the flock container, I put it on a clean, blank sheet of paper and poured the flock onto it. After the glue set, I gently shook and tapped the loose flock onto the paper and poured it back into the flock container. If you're not already doing this paper trick for all your flocking, you should be!

Hive Mind loves to see,
Upon the fields of battle,
Bleeding Space Wolf heads.

All in all, this was a LOT of fun to do and I'm glad I did it! What a great centrepiece model for Hive Fleet Turbo-Ants! Although it violates my 'two of everything' principle of army construction, I'm not in a rush to get another Trygon just yet. I'm hovering a little over 800 points worth of bugs now and I think the next step is Hive Guard and a Tervigon, maybe a few more 'Gants, since that's around the point where I'll actually have an army that can be fielded.

He's turned into the corner, like he's snubbing me.

I'm happy with how the model turned out, and a bit proud of myself. This is by far the largest model I've attempted, but really now that it's done everything else seems small. I said to my alluring mistress, "Well, I think I'll knock off something small and easy next to relax after that. I should probably paint that Dreadnought."

It's all about context.

Anyhow I'm going to leave off with a little group shot so you can see how he fits into the Swarm:

Awww the Warriors look so tiny now!

UP NEXT:

I'll be doing unit reviews, Men With Toy Soldiers style, of Trygons and Termagants (yeah, that's right!). Anyone have a preference on which you'd like to hear about first?

Also:

I know I used this joke before, but I couldn't resist:

Do or do not. There is no Trygon.

The Biggest Bug of All - Trygon almost finished!

2010-12-14T23:26:00.000-05:00

After much. much work, we're coming around on the home stretch!

I have to paint three of these eventually? Goodness.

I am actually tired from painting. However, it's almost done!

Here's what I have left to do:

- Edge all of the carapace sections with Dheneb Stone
- Clean up a couple of the details
- Do some general fixing of errors
- Base it!

So what you're looking at is very close to the finished product, with a little less depth in the carapace!

Here's a closer view of the front that shows the details a bit better:

Terrifying, isn't he?

So I should be done, dare I say, tomorrow! Although it's such a large model that I'm sure I'll be finding errors on it for the next month, so it'll keep me busy. As for the base, I think I'm going to take the Rippers off, just because I don't really feel like painting them or that they add too much to the base.

I'll wait until tomorrow to do that, though, because maybe I'm just tired and grumpy right now!

The Biggest Bug of All - Trygon WIP Update!

2010-12-14T10:50:00.001-05:00

Well, this thing is a pretty big project but having started it I'm much less intimidated! I had a nice night where I popped the movie Hot Fuzz on the computer in front of me and just painted away. So here we are:

The Trygon got a manicure with OPI colour "Voracious Vermillion"

- The exoskeleton is done, highlighting shading and all. It will get another thin coat of Leviathan Purple wash over certain parts, but other than that it's finished.

- The (very) bright red on the talons will be toned down considerably after a couple coats of Baal Red, but I really like the effect -- it's very attention-grabbing! This will probably be the method I use for MC talons on all of my bugs, except perhaps the Tervigon, but more on that at a later date. And what you're looking at there is just two layers of Blood Red over white primer.

- The Carapace is what I'll be working on tonight. I'm still trying to wrap my head around how to shade and highlight it, and I still haven't picked up Devlan Mud to test it and see if I can get a more natural, consistent shade on the Dheneb Stone. One thing I'm very pleased with, however, is how smooth of a coat I managed to get on the large back Carapace section (the only part I'm really stressing about) by being very patient and thinning down the Dheneb Stone alot:

I hate to see you go, but I love to watch you leave

As always, any input is appreciated! One decision I'm still struggling with is whether or not to use the red for any other 'spines' on the model, such as the side ones that I've left unpainted on the tail. I'm not sure if it would add anything, or just make the model look busier.

Thoughts?

The Biggest Bug of All - Time to paint a Trygon!

2010-12-13T15:01:00.001-05:00

EDIT: The next one gets painted before it gets fully assembled. Made that tougher for myself than I had to.

Well, here it stands in all its white-primed glory:

Whitesnake! Haha!

This is by a large margin the largest model that I've ever attempted. The next largest was a Bloodthirster, which really isn't all that big without its wings. This model poses a couple unique challenges that I'm going to have to overcome:

1) The two-part Scything Talons. Because I've been painting both the carapace and talons bone-coloured for the rest of my models (such as these hormagaunts), I've got a bit of a quandary here, since there is carapace on top of the Talons. After doing a lot of test runs on a spare Mawloc arm, I'm going to try leaving the carapace bone coloured, but doing all the talon 'blades' in bright red. We'll see how that works out! I can always repaint it.

2) The sheer size of the model. As I said, I've never tackled anything this large, and the wash-over-primer method I use for the little bugs won't really do this justice -- plus it would take a lot of wash! So I'm going to do a traditional paint/highlight/wash on this model. Which could take some time! I'm also going to try Devlan Mud for the carapace sections instead of Badab Black, since I think it will give me an overall 'smoother' finish. I'll be testing that out beforehand, though.

So that's what I'm up to. How are you all doing? I feel like we haven't talked in so long!

I'll update the WIP as I get something accomplished on this beast.

P.S.: I had to add a couple rippers to the base. I like to think that they look up and say, "I want to be a Trygon when I'm all grown up!"

MathHammer, Episode 1: Termagants are better than Tactical Marines!

2010-12-12T21:35:00.001-05:00

This is the first installment of a series of articles that use the power of math to show that some units are better than you think. We're delving into some dangerous uncharted territory here, and I'm likely to make errors, so feel free to contradict me!

I notice after posting that he has dirt stuck to his gun! Silly Termagant!

Everyone knows that you only take Termagants in units of 10 so that you can take Tervigons, right? That's what the internet says, so it must be true.

As those of you who have been reading along know, we try and do things a little bit different here at Men With Toy Soldiers. While I agree with the consensus that Termagants + Tervigons are possibly the best unit in the game at scoring objectives, I want to see if we can find other uses for them, and possibly even... have them kill things?

This could be a bit of a challenge. A base Termagant seems singularly ill-equipped to actually cause damage.

But let's do the math!

Case #1: Marines with Bolters vs Termagants with Fleshborers, shooting at MEQ

34 Termagants shooting at Marines (170 points):

17 hits (4+)
8.5 wounds (4+)
2.83 unsaved wounds (3+ save)

So each Termagant generates 8.33% of a wound on an MEQ. At a 12" range. That's not great!

In close combat, the results are worse: Hit on 4+, wound on 5+, save on 3+. 5.6% of a wound on an MEQ, or about 18 'gants to cause a wound, assuming no assault bonus.

Marines, on the other hand, shooting at Marines:

10 Tac Marines, bolters (170 points):

6.67 hits (3+)
3.35 wounds (4+)
1.1 unsaved wounds (3+ save)

If they are in rapid fire range, it's 2.2 unsaved wounds.

Close combat results are worse because the hit is on a 4+.

So wait.... Marines generate (at best) 22% of a wound on an MEQ, at 12". Considering you get 3.4 Termagants per Marine, that means that point for point, Termagant shooting is more effective than Marines with Boltguns, even if the Marines get their Rapid Fire. (Ratio is 1.29:1)

Terrifying Instrument of death? Dear God, my painting was never meant to be zoomed in this much.

Case # 2: Things shooting at Marines vs Termagants

I would argue that the Termagants are more resilient, as well.

Anything shooting the Marine is .833 (1/6 difference) as likely to wound it as the Termagant, until you get above S6 and then it doesn't matter, it's 1:1.

Then the Marine gets a 3+ Save against most things. Not much out there denies that save that you would be firing at a Tac Marine. So now it's 8.33 x 0.333, or 0.275 marine wounds per Termagant wound.

This means that for every Marine you kill, you can kill 3.6 Termagants. Given that we can buy 3.4 Termagants per Marine, this means that the Marines are more resilient, but only if the Termagants don't have a cover save.

If they have a 5+ save from, say, a Venomthrope, then you only get 2.4 Termagants per Marine.

If they have a 4+ save, like they'd receive from most cover, then you're only killing 1.8 Termagants per Marine.

If they have 5+ from a Venomthrope and Feel No Pain from a Tervigon, you're only killing 1.2 Termagants per Marine.

Marines rarely benefit from cover saves, since AP3 is rare for torrent of fire and 3+ or better cover saves are rare as well.

So I guess we have to conclude the Termagants are more survivable in more situations.

Additionally, the Termagants are almost always going to be Fearless under Synapse, so you actually have to kill them all off.

I can only conclude that point for point, a Termagant is more dangerous and more survivable than a Tactical Space Marine.

Now, that's interesting!

Conclusion:

So of course, I haven't included the fact that Tac Marines can include heavy weapons. Or Razorbacks. Then again, I also haven't included the fact that Termagants can have Devourers. Or Tervigons.

Now you might say, "you're only talking about Marines' boltguns and who cares about those? lul". The point's still valid though. I doubt a Marine player would agree that he should forget about rolling dice for all the boltguns in his army because they're useless, but The Internet tells Tyranid players that we should assume our Termagants are just useless little plastic toys that can't accomplish anything in the game other than sitting on an objective and not dying.

I don't want to go much further into how you can make your Termagants wreck face. I'm going to save that for their official Unit Review.

Anyhow this is a bit of a divergence for me, but my desire to post stuff that people aren't expecting really makes me want to continue this series.

Would love some feedback!

UP NEXT:

Almost ready to start painting my first Trygon!

Also:

I've test-painted one of the spare arms from the Trygon kit so many times now that I can't see the details on the Scything Talon anymore.

So how does Acid Blood work, exactly?

2010-12-11T23:49:00.002-05:00

Super short post:

I'm trying to wrap my head around how Acid Blood is supposed to work. Since I can't get clarification by googling it, and it's not in the FAQ, maybe I'm just imagining things.

But if I had unit X attacking, say, a Pyrovore (comes with Acid Blood), and let's say for argument's sake that unit X was really good at close combat:

30 attacks, hitting on 2's = 24 hits
Wounding on 2's = 20 wounds
20 Wounds, 4+ armour save.... 10 unsaved wounds.

"For every unsaved wound a model with acid blood suffers in close combat, the enemy unit that struck the blow must pass..." - Tyranid Codex p. 84.

So despite the Pyrovore only having 2 wounds, would you have to take 10 initiative tests for the unsaved wounds as opposed to 2 for the Pyrovore's wound total?

I'm going with yes, and here's why:

1) Rules! If I cause 200 unsaved wounds on your model that had 2 wounds, and you had Feel No Pain on that model (triggered by unsaved wounds), I guarantee you would want to roll 200 FNP checks to try and save its life, despite the model only having 2 wounds. Exactly the same situation.

2) Fluff! If I bleed acid and that hurts you, and you beat my corpse into a bloody lump, you're going to cause more acid spray.

Thoughts?

P.S.: The Zoanthropes who run the legal department here at Men With Toy Soldiers would also argue that the definition of 'unit' in the base rulebook, combined with acid blood as written, verbatim, would mean that every model in the unit that wounded the acid blood critter must take its own initiative test and risk a wound. Not sure if anyone plays like that, but that's the logical conclusion of both rulesets. Either way, we might be able to find a use for the Pyrovore (god I'm trying so hard...) as a melee suicide bomb.

Interlude over!

How To Cheat At Painting -- Part 2

2010-12-10T20:56:00.002-05:00

Part 1 here.

Recap:

If you're anything like me, you face two very large obstacles when starting a new painting project or (heaven forbid) an entire army:

1) You are physically disabled when it comes to painting. Your hand quivers as though in constant terror of the brush, and you have eyesight somewhere between a myopic bat and an a rock.

2) You have little time, and less attention span. You are also the slowest painter in the world, and it's a shame there's no trophy for that.

Because I'm determined to enjoy this hobby despite my challenges, I had to figure out a way to paint up 'Nids quickly, smoothly, and (since I started a blog) in a fashion that photographs well.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We left off with this:

We've come so far together!

Now I'm going to continue the step-by-step and show you how to finish off a model's details and give it a good looking base, all with minimal effort and time!

Step 5: Carapace Highlight

You've got two choices here, and they're both good ones, but it depends on your comfort level.

If you like dry-brushing, take your favourite dry-brush and hit the carapace with a fairly heavy Dheneb Stone dry-brush. After you do that, it's going to look a bit chalky. That's fine, just run a VERY thin coat of Badab Black over the carapace, and it will even out nicely. By very thin, I mean I took my large brush, soaked it in water, and dipped just the very tip in the Badab Black (maybe 1/16 of an inch), then applied that to the carapace and head.

If you prefer line highlighting, you can do that easily and it looks great. I tend to do the dry-brush for smaller carapace sections, like the Hormagaunt's head and back, and the lines for the larger parts, such as the shield on my Tyranid Prime.

Either way, you want to highlight just the edges of the scything talons. It will keep it much cleaner. I also hit the edges of the hooves, just for kicks (see what I did there?).

I apologize, but I somehow didn't get a picture after the highlights but before the eyes etc were painted.

Step 6: Details

After that's done, the model's almost finished! The only details left are on the face.

First, grab some Mechrite Red or equivalent, and paint the tongue.

Next, grab some Skull White and hit the teeth and eyes.

I feel like I should point out that you'll have an easier time if you simply take a very fine brush, wet it thoroughly and use just a tiny bit of skull white. You don't want it running off your brush as a liquid, but part of the problem with using a very fine brush is that if the paint isn't properly thinned, it will dry on your brush almost instantly, which will stiffen your brush and lead to messy errors.

Also do your best to pick out the teeth individually instead of trying to draw your brush across and hit them all, it will give you a better effect in the end. This should be relatively easy, because all those layered washes really make the details on the model visible, and hide a lot of errors if you don't quite get the whole tooth.

Finally, go over the eyes again with Sunburst Yellow.

Sunburst yellow is fairly transparent, but goes over white very well. If you've made mistakes, which can easily happen on the eyes, you can go back over the area with a dark purple to hide, and it should blend in easily. I use Liche Purple with a bit of grey added to dull the colour, and I find it blends beautifully.

Your model should now look like this:

Hey there, good lookin'!

Congratulations! You've just painted a Turbo-Ant! Now it's time to base it!

Step 7: Painting the Base

Go ahead and paint the base Khemri Brown or something equivalent. Pick something very opaque, such as something from the Citadel Foundations line, or even use black if you prefer. You'll probably need to hit the rim twice.

I find it's faster and easier to get a lot of paint on the brush, start at the centre of the base, drop the paint down and spread it toward the edges, then do the rim twice. Very fast and even.

A Hormogaunt, gracefully leaping off a Frisbee made of dirt

If you're doing more than one model, do the top first and one coat on the rim, and the paint will be dry by the time you get back to the first model.

Step 8: Applying Your Basic Basing Material

I use a mixture of plain beige flocking sand, which you can find anywhere, and the "Small Slate" rock chips from GW's 40k Basing Kit, which is VERY much worth the purchase, in my opinion. The mixture is approximately 75:25 in favour of the Sand. You want it to look like rocks on a beach, not random beige pebbles on a volcano.

Anyhow, grab some PVA (white) glue, and just SLATHER it on. I used to not use enough glue, and my flock would come off the base with any sort of handling. Basically, put on how much glue you think you need, and then double it. Noone's base has ever suffered by having too much flock, or having it stay on the base too well.

My rule of thumb: If I can see through the glue to see the base colour underneath, there's not enough glue. Grab your large workhorse brush and just pound it on, and don't worry about the brush. Warm water will wash it right out.

Once that's done, dip the model's base in the basing material ( which should be in a small container). Do this over a clean sheet of blank paper, so that any spillage or flock that comes off the model can be poured right back into the container of basing material.

Give the glue at least one hour, but preferably overnight, to dry before you do anything else. Your model should now look like this:

Oooh, baby, I be stuck to you like glue, baby...

Step 9: Finishing the Base

I use plain green Static Grass, and I use it for a couple reasons.

1) Fluff-wise, Tyranid Hive Fleets prefer worlds that are filled with life. So I like the thought that even in the desert-ish badlands that the basing material depicts, there's still lush green grass popping up all over.

2) Plain green Static Grass, when sprayed with a matte finishing spray, looks AWESOME. It loses the shiny, plastic look and just looks like bright green summer grass.

To apply Static Grass, put some random blobs of white glue on the base and simply dip the model into the static grass. After that, I use my number one gal's hair dryer (on warm but not hot) to blow on the bases. This helps blow off excess static grass, but has the bonus effect of making the grass stand up wonderfully.

Some people drybrush their static grass. I don't. I'm toying with picking up some Iyanden Darksun (dull yellow, foundations series paint) and trying it out, but I'm just not sold on the necessity. To each their own!

I sometimes add bloodstains, however. To do this, I put thinned down Mechrite red, and then go over it with Baal Red wash. It'd probably look better if I did a hit of Devlan Mud over that, but I haven't tried it because I don't own any Devlan Mud yet.

Anyhow, after that your model should look a little something like this:

All your base are covered in grass

Not bad for a quick, easy paint job on a swarm model.

I should just point out, by the way, that I took that photo before the glue dried on the static grass. As it dries, it retracts a bit, and makes the grass stand up straighter and look a little less 'blobby'.

So that's it! I'm still convinced that you can do Ork Flesh with successive Thraka Green washes, so if you've got a horde army, rejoice! We have a quick painting method that even those of us with physical disadvantages can use to produce good looking models, quickly enough to field a painted horde army.

Together, we can kill a Wraithlord or Demon Prince, and that's just kinda awesome.

As always, I would love any feedback or suggestions that anyone has to offer me. I'm pleased with how these models look, and I actually have a shot at fielding a painted army for my first game, and I'd love to share this method with other people who might be struggling to balance a good looking model with a technique that's efficient as well.

NEXT UP:

More Tyranid Unit Reviews forthcoming, and I still have a Trygon to paint....

Also:

My brother got me into playing Ultimate Hockey Team in NHL 11. He said be patient, it's super hard to get decent NHL players from the packs of cards. The first Standard Pack I opened? It had Jonathan Toews, the guy on the cover of NHL 11.

He still hasn't forgiven me.

How To Cheat At Painting -- Part 1

2010-12-09T21:20:00.004-05:00

If you're anything like me, you face two very large obstacles when starting a new painting project or (heaven forbid) an entire army:

1) You are physically disabled when it comes to painting. Your hand quivers as though in constant terror of the brush, and you have eyesight somewhere between a myopic bat and an a rock.

2) You have little time, and less attention span. You are also the slowest painter in the world, and it's a shame there's no trophy for that.

Because I'm determined to enjoy this hobby despite my challenges, I had to figure out a way to paint up 'Nids quickly, smoothly, and (since I started a blog) in a fashion that photographs well.

I should have special parking at my hobby shop.

Now, I've posted the evolution in how I paint my bugs, but I feel like I should share a step-by-step for others on how to quickly and easily put together a decent looking model, from priming to basing.

I've said it before, but it bears repeating: I'm not going to win any Golden Daemon competitions. At best, I might pick up 'best painted' in a very modest tournament, but really only if I'm the only one who shows up with a fully painted and based army. Having said that, I like the look of my 'Nids, and I've received some good feedback.

In the words of Jay-Z:

I ain't passed the bar but I know a little bit.

First up, I decided that since I was priming my models white, and washes did a wonderful job of blended shading with no skill required on my part, I wanted to know what would happen if I just started putting washes on white primer.

This stemmed out of a problem with GW not really making a solid range of purples that had 'off the shelf' highlight and wash colours. I realize now that I could probably go Liche Purple/Tentacle Pink (or the modern equivalent)/Leviathan Purple, and I will try that combo, but for the time being this is what I'm sticking with:

One Hormagaunt, dancing an Irish Jig.

Tyranid Warrior who forgot his Bonesword/Lashwhip at home

What you're looking at is two layers of Leviathan Purple over white primer and a layer of Badab Black over the entire model after the rest of the details are painted in.

Here's where you should probably make a decision: If you like how this looks (I think it can apply to Ork flesh nicely too, which would save you Orkses a lot of time), at least for tabletop quality, please continue reading. If not, feel free to leave, but go ahead and link to my models and talk about how ugly they are on your own blog, I'd love the pageviews!

Step 1: Priming

Snow White and the seven other Hormagaunts

I use a white primer on mostly everything. This is mainly because a lot of the brighter Citadel paints (which I like to use), have absolutely no opacity, and so you need to do a ton of coats on a black or grey primer to get a smooth coat.

Since, like I said, I'm a super slow painter, that doesn't work. So white it is!

Step 2: Coloured Wash

Now we're going to take the models and slap a coloured wash on the exoskeleton. I use Leviathan Purple, because I want my 'Nid colour scheme to be an inverse of Hive Fleet Leviathan, but really any colour wash will accomplish the same thing, and I'm pretty sure you could do this for the flesh on Orks if you used green. So let's toss a coat of Leviathan Purple over the exoskeleton with a giant brush and see what happens!

We may have a new Irish Dancing Hormagaunt...

Well, that doesn't look great, does it?

Hmm... Well, let's do the whole group anyhow. Trust me. While you're doing this, by the way, be sure to overlap the bone sections. I'll explain why later.

"At least we're all ugly together!"

Now if you're as slow as me, the wash should be dry on your first model by the time you're done the last, so you should be able to keep on rolling and apply the second coat of Leviathan Purple.

Hey, that's... that's looking a bit better!

Now that's more like it! Again, try to overlap on the carapace/claws a bit, and try to keep it as an even coat. Repeat for the whole group, and you're ready for the next step as soon as they're dry!

Step 3: Painting the Carapace... With your Big Brush!

So grab some Dheneb Stone (the infinitely superior alternative to Bleached Bone), and your big workhorse brush. A big brush will speed things up and reduce the visible brush strokes on the finished product.

Go ahead and paint the head and back bone parts, as well as the scything talons, but don't try to reach into little spots with your large brush, because you'll need to hit all of them with a smaller brush anyhow.

Large areas painted Dheneb Stone

I find it's faster to do the group with the big brush, then do each model's smaller areas with a smaller brush. I have to wash/switch brushes less like that. So go ahead and do that!

An important note is that you need to hit the edges of the carapace. Because you overlapped the wash, however, the recesses will be black after the third wash, which saves you the trouble of getting right into the recesses with a colour.

Time for the Badab Black!

Step 4: Black Wash!

Again, grab a large brush and give the entire model a generous coat of Badab Black. If you're the sort who dips models, now's the time!

The ladies love my graded shading

That's it for this part.

I'll conclude this article in the second part, where I'll describe how to finish the model and base it.

I think now is a good time to bring up a point, though:

I think you could dip this model twice, paint the bone and dip it a third time. But in order to do that, you'd have to buy a LOT of Leviathan Purple and put it in a reasonable container. Still, if you did buy, say, 15 pots of it, you could probably knock off 30 or so 'gants in an evening to a pretty good standard. If you bought 15 pots of Leviathan Purple.

But.... you'd have to be a lunatic to do that, wouldn't you.....?

Hmmm.....

Here's a link directly to Part Two.

UP NEXT:

The thrilling conclusion of How To Cheat At Painting!

Also:

I send forth some synapse creatures in search of a bulk coloured wash manufacturer!

Finally on Google!

2010-12-09T08:14:00.000-05:00

Well, it took about a week for Men With Toy Soldiers to show up on Google, but we've finally done it! Thanks so much to everyone who's tuned in to check out what we have to offer in the early stages, I can promise you that things should be both bigger and better moving forward.

As for being on Google, check this out:

We're number 1! We're number 1!

So thanks again to everyone who has been reading and commenting, I've gotten some great positive feedback. I'll try to keep providing you with reading material that's positive, in good humour and hopefully helpful or inspiring to other people who love the hobby like I do.

I'll also keep making fun of Space Wolves!

A Surefire Way to Attract S8 Weapons - A Tyranid Warriors Review

2010-12-08T21:45:00.004-05:00

The Hive Mind came to me in my dreams and spoke to me. It used no language, as such, but its message was clear:

If I didn't get back to posting Tyranid-related stuff, it would open one of its six mouths, and sing the song that ends the Earth.

So I'm taking a break from batch painting the last of my Hormagaunts -- more on that later -- to bring you another Unit Review!

Well, before I can play a game, or even assemble and paint an army, I need to figure out what I'm going to field. So I guess I'll start examining the units one by one and asking:

- Do I like the unit? That is to say, do I like the aesthetics, background, etc?

- Do I think it's worth putting into a game, for its point cost?

This installment: the misunderstood Warrior.

Not a basketball player from Golden State.

Are they cool?

This isn't as obvious an answer as with Hormagaunts (puppies) or Genestealers (zombie ninjas). One the one hand, insofar as all Tyranids are cool, Warriors are cool. On the other hand, I can't think of why just off the top of my head. Shall we read some fluff together and ponder?

Here's a sample fluff line:

"They are creatures from the blackest of nightmares, unstoppable killing machines with pulsing ichor for blood, needle-sharp teeth and darkly gleaming eyes that reveal a terrible intelligence at work."

Not bad! We take unstoppable, in this case, to mean "extremely vulnerable to S8, AP4 or better weapons".

However I have to say that Tyranid Warriors really are 'cool'. They are essentially other armies' leaders as a troop choice. Both in stature and stats, and their description as cunning, dangerous battlefield leaders, they are as impressive as the centrepiece models of other armies. Sure, they're lacking in crazy wargear options and special rules, but they're also just a 30 point troop model! With a stat line that rivals a Space Marine Captain's!

They are a great example of what makes Tyranids so cool: scary, impressive alien monsters that can put the fear in the toughest models of an opposing army. With a troop choice. Feel free to point out to an IG player that your Warrior can shred his army leader, and score objectives. And you have nine of them.

It doesn't hurt that they have a fantastic model, as well. Good size, good detail, good posing ability, great conversion potential. Great looking kit.

Overall: Makes you feel better than everyone else. Rolex out of ten, or A- in conventional terms.

"I'm quite posh, you see..."

Are They Useful?

Now here we run into a bit of a snag. Toughness of 4 makes those 3 wounds pretty irrelevant if you couple them with a 4+ armour save and no Eternal Warrior. There's a lot of S8+ weapons in the game that will kill off your Warriors with Instant Death.

But you all know that, and you didn't come here to get common internet wisdom. So instead of focusing on the problem, I will continue with my unstoppable optimism and focus on the solution!

So what's good about Tyranid Warriors?

Well, they can all carry power weapons that have a chance to cause ID, and lashwhips that let them always go first. That, coupled with a pretty impressive stat line, means that if they can get into melee, they can shred a lot of stuff, including power-armoured folk.

They can also carry a few ranged weapons... the Deathspitter's not bad, I suppose... but it's not really good enough to make them a ranged unit unless there's a few of them, and there's a Prime in there. Even then, that's an expensive option, but also versatile if they've got melee kit as well. Still, it's like having a bunch of heavy bolters, with less range and AP, but Assault instead of Heavy. There's potential there. They can penetrate AV 10, and that's a lot of shots...

So they can wreck stuff in melee, if we can get them there.

Well, can we?

I would suggest that if you want to do a true 'scuttling' army, crawling up the middle of the board, that Warriors aren't a bad choice. They'll get 4+ cover from the 'gants in front of them, who will get 5+ from the Venomthrope(s). You can slap FNP on them from the Tervigons if you feel so inclined, and with a Prime in the unit, they've got a few ablative wounds to soak up S8+ hits. If all that can keep them alive to cross the table, they will cause some wreckage on the other end.

Either way, you need one of these in the unit!

Wait a sec, at no point there did I suggest that their 4+ armor save was going to be used.... that means...

What's bad about Tyranid Warriors?

Well, if I'm right about that and their shooting is mediocre, and you need them to get into melee, but they can hide behind other units and use cover/FNP to protect them.... Why not use Shrikes?

If you can keep a screen in front of your Shrikes (you can), the 5+ save/4+ save doesn't matter. Drop the Deathspitters and they don't even cost more. I would suggest that Tyranid Shrikes might be a lot more useful than the internet would lead you to believe.

It's Hammer Time! Mathhammer, that is:

200 pts Shrikes (4 shrikes w/ bonesword + lashwhip, scything talons)

200 pts Terminators (5 Schwarzeneggers w standard powerfist)

Shrikes go first, probably on the charge (jumping over their screen)

16 attacks, hit on 3 = 10.6 hits, call it 11 because I'm feeling lucky today.
Re-roll 1's, 1-2 more hits, call it one

12 hits, wound on 4 = 6 wounds

6 wounds, 5+ save = 4 wounds-ish.

One termy hits back, hits on 4 = 1 hit

1 hit probably = 1 wound, instant death so 1 dead Shrike. Unit's still useful, and that Termy unit's broken. And once again, if you've got a Swarmlord kicking around somewhere that can drop a USR on them, they'll probably get the whole group.

Dead termies. Really, Shrikes/Warriors are great for taking down anything but MCs and Vehicles, and we have other ways to deal with those. Frankly if I were expecting MCs, I would be taking swarms of poisoned Hormies instead.

The results are the same if you can get the Warriors into melee, but I think you're more likely to get the Shrikes to their targets, and they can leap-frog over their screen unit.

Overall: Either way they're impressive, but the ones that can fly are better. Experimental Aircraft out of ten, or B- in conventional terms.

Conclusion: Will I Use Them?

Yes. Not always, but yes.

You see, even the regular Warriors have to be dealt with. Tuck them back there behind the gants and Tervigons, and you have a credible threat. I mentioned before that I feel that part of the strategy with 'Nids is forcing your opponent to make bad decisions regarding what they can target, and you can make that Warrior unit pretty resilient if you want too (feel free to Mathhammer yourselves).

Those missile launchers shooting at your Warriors, hitting on 3, wounding on 2, with a 4+ cover save followed by FNP (if you have a Prime)? Let 'em.

That's a lot of dice to get through and cause a wound on your Prime or kill a Warrior, and a lot of missile launchers that aren't shooting Frag missiles at your 'gaunts, 'gants or 'stealers. That Instant Death vulnerability might not be as big a deal as the internet makes it to be.

Plus they're cool, and that's what matters.

UP NEXT:

How to paint good looking Tyranids faster by cheating at painting!

Also:

I want to put together an 80's movie montage for painting my Termagants

Blood Angels - 2nd Attempt

2010-12-07T20:55:00.000-05:00

After receiving some solid advice, I think we can all agree that this is more like it:

When I showed her this model, my girl said: "I wouldn't kick him out of bed."

I'm excited!

As you may notice, I actually finished this model. That wasn't the original plan. I had intended to paint just the body on this model again until I figured out how I would be doing my Blood Angels, but I was so pleased with how this was going that I wanted to see it finished and based to see if I liked the results. I do.

So let me give a nod to my two sources of inspiration for the improvements that I made:

Gavin at Club Workshed gave me some solid advice on my first attempt: Save the gold for centrepieces, use a bit of black for the deep recesses. While I'm sticking with the white undercoat (because blood red's such a pain in the Azrael, Grand Master of the Dark Angels), the rest of what he said is pretty solid advice. I may even change the chest eagles to match what I plan to do on the Sang Guard, using white with a blue wash for the feathers.

Blood for the Blood God! Wait, no.... For the Emperor? Why are we called Blood Angels?

So thanks, Gavin! Looking forward to more of your input as I progress through the models!

I also read through this fantastic article at All Things 40k detailing how his Blood Angels are painted. What I really took from there was that I was correct about Baal Red being a perfect wash for Blood Red, but he did a Fiery Orange drybrush on the basecoat prior to applying it. Wow! What a difference! Awesome tip. Here's what the model looked like with the Blood Red base coat and a Blazing Orange drybrush:

Blindingly bright. At this point I was going on pure faith.

And here it is with one of the two coats of Baal Red. Huge improvement.

Whoa! The internet was right!

I may just be over-excited, but I'm really pleased with how this little guy turned out. On top of looking good on the table, he actually photographs well, which is something I haven't been able to accomplish yet. I'm looking forward to getting more Marines painted, and hopefully applying a bit of what I learned with this model to my Nids. It also reduced my stress a lot about painting the Dreadnought, as I've always struggled with large, flat parts of models (this is why I haven't painted my Trygon yet). Using this method, however, I just drop a heavy drybrush around the edges, and give it a couple coats of wash, and it should look great!

Here's a final look at the model from the back:

Let me get some action from the back section

UP NEXT:

Well, that settles the Marines Quandary, I suppose. The default UP NEXT is Tyranid Unit Reviews!

Also:

Who thinks it would be wicked to do a conversion to a Judge DreddNought? Yeah, thought so.

First attempt for Blood Angels paint scheme

2010-12-07T14:58:00.000-05:00

Since I'm leaning towards Blood Angels for my fledgling Marines, I figured I should do some paintin' and make sure that I actually enjoyed painting the model and could do it to a standard that I found acceptable.

So I'm going to put up two or three test models using different techniques and hopefully get some feedback on what looks best. I have a tendency to create extra work for myself by picking out areas of detail that aren't necessary, which slows down the whole army production, and I have a feeling I might have done that on the first test model here:

Look Ma! No hands!

First of all, as many people have mentioned, it's amazing how much you can see in terms of errors when you photograph the model. Having said that, you can't really see any of them on the tabletop, and this is just a test model after all.

So here's how I did it:

First, I decided to use Blood Red as a basecoat colour, because it's incredibly bright. Let me just say first off that I forgot how much of a pain it is to use that colour, as it has very poor coverage. Thank goodness I used a white basecoat. I also decided I wanted to do the armor accents in Shining Gold, as I would be using that for accents throughout my entire army.

So basecoat Blood Red all over the model, Shining Gold, Mithril Silver and Dheneb Stone on the details:

If your blood is actually this colour, you need immediate medical attention.

I knew I wanted bright, but I forgot just how bright this colour is. That's okay though, because my well-know love for washes dictated that I do a bright red and wash it down with Baal Red.

It's clear to me that Baal Red Wash was made for exactly this purpose. It gives some good darkening and blending on Blood Red without diminishing the colour, and lets you go right back over it with blood red to highlight when you're done with that.

So Baal Red wash (2 coats) for the red armour and Badab Black (which I go through like candy) for the metallic bits, bags, parchment, and your shading is done!

... Shady Character?

From there, I simply drybrushed the original colours back on, painted the eyes Emerald Green (of course!) and cleaned up a couple trouble areas.

Do I like it?

Yes. Looking at that final picture at the top of the article, I think once it's finished and based, it'll look great. There are two problems that I have with this method, however:

1) Both Blood Red and Shining Gold have terrible opacity. This means that if I make any errors, it's difficult to correct, and because the model isn't as detailed as some others, the lines can blur a bit.

2) I'm not sure that the gold is necessary. I looked at GW's Blood Angels, and they don't have the gold trim, simply bright red all around. This would speed things up greatly and let me focus on smoother shading instead. I'll keep the gold for the chest piece, however, because gold will feature heavily in the entire army as an accent. I could (gasp!) put transfers or freehand on the blank shoulderpad.

So while I may stick with this method, I may reserve the gold shoulder detailing and other extravagant touches for special models such as characters or heavy weapons mules.

I'm going to try a model without the gold, and I'm also going to try a model using Mechrite Red instead (due to its ease of use), which will probably end up darker than I want it to be.

I'd love some feedback, or tips from people who have painted Blood Angels.

UP NEXT:

Hopefully more painted Marines!

Also:

Seriously, what am I supposed to do with all these Orks?

What Flavour of Space Marine am I?

2010-12-07T11:47:00.000-05:00

Well, being the proud new owner of the Assault on Black Reach set, I find myself in possession of about 600 points worth of Space Marines, and living near a hobby shop where I can pick up extra pieces out of the AoBR set for very cheap. Also, I have some Orks, I guess. As such, Hive Fleet Turbo-Ants, my main project and real buggy passion, will now be competing for shelf space and painting time with my new strike force of Space Marines.

This leads to a crossroads, as it were. Because Games Workshop is a little too enthusiastic about them, we have a whole bunch of options as to what kind of Marines you want to play. Meanwhile, we Tyranid players get the Pyrovore. So before I start down my path to the Dark Side, I need to decide what kind of Marines I'm going to play -- And this is where I would absolutely love any input. But let me see if I can give you the 'new to the hobby' perspective on what I consider to be my four choices for what type of Marines I'm going to play.

Laziest White Scars paint job ever?

Option #1: Vanilla Marines, a.k.a. Ultramarines

The most obvious choice is to play straight Space Marines out of the Codex: Space Marines. From what I understand, they aren't as competitive (read: spammable) as the two newer Marine Codices, but I choose armies (and units) based on what I like stylistically as opposed to what I think is the best thing out there. Besides, even if they aren't the best Marines, they're still Marines and in my opinion one of the strongest and easiest to use options. AbusePuppy points out that they've got their own little tricks up their sleeve as well.

Which kind of raises a problem with Vanilla Marines: I don't really care about the Ultramarines -- I find them a bit boring. I will say that I like them a bit better after reading all the fluff in the Tyranid Codex about the invasion of Ultramar etc, but really that's more because there's Tyranids involved there.

Pictured: Ultramarines. Ironically, also one of my favourite ice cream flavours.

I guess the thing about Vanilla Marines (delicious!) is that there's no persuasive reason to build a force of them. If you just build another Marine force, you can really play either that force or Vanilla Marines depending on what kind of list you build by subbing your other chapter Marines for the standard codex. So this pretty much rules out most of the oddball chapters like Imperial Fists, White Scars etc unless I have them counts-as for another Codex.

Overall: Not a bad option. I'll keep the codex handy in case I want to field my Chapter Marines as Vanilla Marines for a few games, and probably pick up some of their nifty toys i.e. Master of the Forge.

Option #2: Space Wolves

My distaste for Space Wolves is pretty well documented, so it would be the height of hypocrisy to start a Space Wolf army. But let's give them a fair shake anyhow.

First, and I cannot stress this enough, I can't stand the whole concept of the Space Wolves. I find their models to be aesthetically displeasing. I'm not interested in a group of rough and tumble men, who hang out together and compare beards. I really don't care for any of their back story that I've come across either, and I think the concept of them riding wolves into battle is cringe-worthy. I guess some people like Vikings, I really don't. I feel like this army would be a lot less popular if they were a little less 'competitive'. Maybe that's true of any army, but I feel like the drop-off here would be sharper than most.

So, what if I created my own Space Marine chapter and used the Space Wolf Codex as the rule base? I'm allowed to do that! But I won't, and that's really for two reasons:

1) I have enough converting to do with my Tyranids, since half of the Codex doesn't have a model,

and...

2) More importantly, I really feel like that would still be hypocrisy. I can't think of any justification to use the Space Wolf rules for a created chapter, other than to use a more powerful Codex.

"I would never forgive your betrayal if you started a Space Wolf army."

Honestly, the temptation's there because if I ever wanted to play a tournament and bring home some prizes, I feel like this is one of the simplest and cheapest armies with which to accomplish that. But that's not play-for-fun thinking, that's join-the-arms-race thinking.

Overall: Good option if I really wanted to win games, which would be nice but not at the cost of my dignity. No thanks.

Option #3: Dark Angels

I have always loved the Dark Angels models, even way back when I was still playing Warhammer Fantasy as a kid. I think they look mysterious and just plain cool, and I like their colour scheme. From what I understand, however, their codex is a bit dated and showing its age. I think if I were to play Dark Angels, I'd be using the Vanilla Marines codex.

That's actually not a bad option, because there's nothing wrong with the Vanilla Marines 'dex.

Delicious Vanilla...

So I could play games with the Vanilla 'dex, build up a force of Dark Angels, and when GW eventually releases a new Dark Angels codex, I'd be ready for it. Not bad! I'd have Vanilla Marines the are slightly better. French Vanilla.

Overall: Pretty good option, and one I'm considering. I've like the Dark Angels since I was young lad, and I still think they're one of the best looking chapters.

Option #4: Blood Angels.

Now we're talking! The Blood Angels have also been one of my favourites for a long time. That was before I even read about The Flaw, The Red Thirst, and The Black Rage.

The Red Thirst. No way I'm doing a picture for The Black Rage, though.

I think that this particular bit of back story makes the Blood Angels one of the most interesting offerings in the Games Workshop catalog. That, combined with the fact that I think a bright red army would look pretty striking on the display shelf next to my dark Tyranids, makes me lean this way.

It doesn't hurt that they've got a shiny new codex as well. And yes, I'm aware that they have the potential to be (almost) as cheesy as the Space Wolves, but I'm thinking that I'm going to avoid the Mech Spam altogether for a few reasons. It's expensive and hard to transport, first of all. Second, I don't think I'd have fun playing against it, thus I won't inflict it on my opponent. Third, there is too much cool stuff in this codex to waste lots of points on tanks. And even if the Sanguinary Guard aren't that great on the tabletop, I'm going to get some anyways just because the models are so nice.

I have to admit that I have almost made up my mind for sure on this, especially after putting it down in writing. The thought of having a big army of Assault Marines with a couple of the cool Blood Angels Dreadnoughts and some of the other neat stuff in the Codex.... well, it's really tempting.

Overall: My favourite choice so far. Blood Angels are just too cool, a great looking army, and the jump-pack/drop pod army would be a TON of fun to play and paint.

Bonus! Option #5: Create my own Space Marine Chapter

I know that some people find this really fulfilling, but I don't think it's for me. I like exploring the worlds that other people create, but I don't consider myself to be an imaginative person. Coming up with my own name, backstory, colour scheme.... Well, it took all my creative juices to have my Turbo-Ants with their inverted Leviathan scheme.

And I think I'd restrict myself to using the Vanilla Marines codex at that point. I'm just more interested in doing Blood Angels or Dark Angels.

Conclusion:

I'm leaning heavily towards building up a Blood Angels army while keeping Codex: Space Marines handy so I can play as either as I see fit. I think it's a fun change up from the 'Nids, even though it's still an assault-based army, and the backstory and aesthetics of the army are both great.

I'm going to paint up a Marine as a Blood Angel (or at least, I'm going to try) and see how it feels.

UP NEXT:

Tyranid Unit Review!

Also:

I've got everything I need to play a game... so now the quest for an opponent begins!

Assault on Black Reach impressions

2010-12-06T21:49:00.000-05:00

Okay, the Mordheim stuff is on hold for the time being, but we have returned to civilization and I have had a chance to dig into the Black Reach boxed set. I know it's been out for a while, but I just got it, so I thought I'd give a newcomer's perspective on the set, especially as it compares to what Games Workshop offered back when I used to play their games, a decade and a half ago.

Pictured: Civilization, except for the Big Bang Theory sign

So while I sit here in the comfortable glow of the city lights, the familiar hum of the Leafs getting massacred on the TV behind me (fewer things are more pointless than a huge HDTV that you listen to, rather than watch), with glass of wine in hand, I'll give you my thoughts on the Assault on Black Reach box. And I'm thinking of what kind of Marine force I'm going to put together.

The last Games Workshop boxed set that I had was the one that came with Bretonnian and Lizardmen forces. The tireless Zoanthropes who perform the research here at Men With Toy Soldiers inform me that this was in fact the 5th Edition of Warhammer, and that it was released way back in 1996, when I was just a small infant (or teenager). They've also informed me, although I didn't request the information, that this edition was referred to as 'Herohammer', due to the hilarious cheese you could pile on top of the characters, like some sort of Epic Meal Time episode.

They're absolutely correct -- remember, I played Chaos, and watched my Khorne Lord weigh in around 700-900 points with a decent loadout and just eat units. Chaos got hurt bad by the 'step up' rule. Magic was hilarious too. I'm sure some of you have decent stories about 5th edition heroes that wrecked entire armies, please share!

Regardless, we were talking about AoBR and 5th edition 40k, which replaces cheese characters with cheese tanks! I have to say straight up, even though I'm aware that they've had 14 years to improve upon their offerings since my last basis of comparison, I'm really impressed!

Gratuitous box shot!

Models:

Quantity and quality. While the models can't be posed or customized, the level of detail is pretty good. Back in my day (he says while waving his cane around) we used to buy boxes of, say, Wood Elf Archers or Skinks that were exactly the same model, one piece, with a poor level of detail, because that was acceptable for your basic troops. Oh, did I mention the diagonal slotted bases that had entire units facing 45 degrees to the right or left? By the way, I just google image searched 'high elf spearmen diagonal base' and got some wicked pictures of nice ladies in lingerie. No idea what the connection is there, but I hope my blog shows up for people looking for ladies in lingerie as I think that might be a bigger audience.

There's also not only a goodly number of models (600 points of Marines, according to the book), but a good variety. I don't care too much about the Orks, but I love that you get a Dreadnought in this set! Even the Deffkoptas are cool! Back in my day (predicts weather based on trick knee), we got Skings and Saurus. The Bret Knights were the only multipiece. This is neat in terms of economies of scale, too; my FLGS owner breaks these boxes open and sells the contents on the cheap, $20 for most things in the box, which is better than $40-something for dreads or like.... what does GW charge, $60 for 5 plastic terminators? Hilarious!

Overall, I'm really impressed!

Growing the Swarm?

Other Junk:

I love that the rulebook is so compact, as it's easy to tuck into a case on your way to the game. I'm of the firm belief that everyone should have both a copy of the rulebook and their codex at every game, to solve gentleman's disputes. If I had one complaint, it's that the font is maybe a bit tiny, but maybe I just need the prescription on my contact lenses updated.

I love the templates. Back in my day (yells at children to get off his lawn), the templates were cardboard. That's right, the templates, under which units were affected by spells etc, were opaque cardboard. Made it super easy to count models underneath. They also frayed around the edges easily and got wrecked pretty quickly.

I love that they give you a sheet of transfers. That's just something that they didn't have to do, even though I don't really use stuff like that myself (anymore), I think it's neat, and it'll really help a lot of people who just do 3-colour paintjobs have better looking models.

Well, I started the last three paragraphs with 'I love'. So I guess you could say I'm happy with the set. If I had to pick something negative about this set, I guess I can come up with a couple things: First of all, the sides are uneven, badly so. 585 points of Marines and 450 points of Orks? Kids are going to get this, and the boring child that picks the Marines is going to smush the Orks over and over and over. Good preparation for the game of 40k, I suppose. Really, that Dreadnought is something the Orks can't deal with in this game. Those Deffkoptas are probably not going to take it down, and if they don't, there's no hope for the Orks.

The only other comment I'd have is that dice are really not an expensive thing to provide, and 6 dice is a hilarious number to provide, given the 20-strong Boyz mob that potentially gets 80 attacks on an assault. An extra artillery die or two might be nice, in case the first one gets lost.

Overall, I started 3 paragraphs with 'I love...', so draw your own conclusion!

It's been suggested to me that I give a proper grade to things that I review, so I'm going to start doing that.

I really want to give this an A+, but that might just be my own giddiness. I'm going to give it an A-, if only because of the imbalance of the forces provided and the cheapness of not providing a reasonable amount of dice in the box. You should really be able to play proper games straight out of the box if that's what you're interested in, just like any other board game. I'm still really happy I have it.

Overall Grade: A-

UP NEXT:

What kind of Marines should I play?

Also:

This part is usually where I put a joke but my god, while I've been writing this post the Leafs came back from a 4-1 deficit to win the game in a shootout! What a hockey game!