At the end of March I was feeling a little overwhelmed by recent events, you'll be glad to know that I think for the most part things are back on track with me and I've been getting on with hobby activities [I must write that post on the hobby matrix] and I'm generally more positive about every aspect, even the blogging. However, I've achieved this in part through choosing not to record everything I've been doing. For instance I've had two games recently and chose not to photograph and prepare battle reports. I've noticed that the reports make more sense the sooner they're done after the battle but that puts undue pressure to follow up as soon as possible and it's actually been a relief not to have to do that. Of course I'll regret the decision down the line for not having recorded the result, added to the blog and shared the experience. So I'll do a quick overview [all old pics but they deserve a second chance in the sun].
The other week I finally got in my first game of 2013 with my good friend PeteB. We'd planned to go to a FLGS he frequents for a 40k in 40 minutes thing the week before but it was right in the middle of things getting on top of me so I postponed. So we had a little 1000pt battle on his 4'x4' table. I went with Warriors, Tervigon, min Stealer brood, couple of Hive Guard and my joker in the pack - a Mawloc! He was going with some Imperial Guard he's rustled up over the last few months, which made me smile as I'm sure in the last 9 months it looked like he was giving this all up! That's the nature of this hobby.
Anyway he had plenty of Heavy Weapons teams, a Leman Russ and a Manticore. Pretty early on the Manticore hit the Warriors and Prime and the amount of extra blasts rolled meant I was pretty much out of Synapse by turn two [although the guys firing must have spent the remainder of the game celebrating because they couldn't hit the side of a barn afterwards!]. I was spanked, spanked hard and early on but in comparison to my drubbing at the hands of the Dark Eldar at Throne of Skulls I enjoyed this immensely and somehow even with just a Broodlord and stealer, two Termagants, 7 Devgaunts and the Mawloc trying to overcome Instinctive Behaviour for 4 turns was able to make PeteB work for the win. It was really good fun and it helped so much in restoring my faith in the game and that I can take a bad loss, especially when its in such good company.
Tuesday I also got to play my mate Ben and he too was sporting Imperial Guard borrowed from Liam. It seems that after facing Necrons with his own Necron force he's realised how unpleasant they are as an opponent and so doesn't want to 'be that guy'. So I set up with the Winged Hive Tyrant, Mawloc, 3 Hive Guard, Ymgarls and the other usual suspects and a Biovore. It was a kill points game and I actually had the advantage going into it with 2 less VPs.
Unfortunately I lost First Blood but despite suffering -1 to my reserve rolls every reserve came in during turn 2. The Doom spent the game snipping away at units [after deviating 12"], taking the odd guardsman here and there. The Ymgarls came out of some woods and messed up a Leman Russ that had been pounding away on my nids. The Mawloc mishapped off the board in turn 2 but popped back up to take out the stormtroopers who wiped out the Ymgarls. It all came to a head when the Hive Tyrant managed to get into assault his command squad, which brought them in range of the Doom and when he rolled three 6s for Leadership on Spirit Leech they all got sucked away. Ben called it then as he didn't see how he could recover. A good result, but I still have to beat his 'crons.
Amongst it all I've started back painting the Dark Vengeance Chaos Cultists [I'll take some updated pics tonight] that's got a bit more colour on them. I'm really not achieving a quick result, I hoped they'd be easy to paint but there's so many bits, straps, belts, loops, pipes, guns, shoes, skin, hair - it goes on. I'm concentrating on 11 of them and I've started to rust up the weapons - another effect that seems to be taking ages for a decent result but not quite worth the amount of effort that's going in. Progressing nonetheless though and even with just these I'd gladly tick off one of my To-do's
And last night I actually sat down and looked at my new Defence Line 'master'. I got a couple of packs of Milliput recently to make up for the cheap epoxy putty that you can't sculpt with. Last night I did the two short and two halves [and joins] of the long pieces. I've not put the holes in the base of the facing sides like my own version. I wasn't sure how they might cast so decided to leave them out for simplicity. Anyways, the holes fit more with my scheme so making them more generic allows other folks patterns come to the fore. Another couple of nights work and they should be done, then I have to go about the mould making and casting process, I'm sure my mate Liam will be able to help though. Need to work out if I should be going resin or plaster on these...
Anyway, that's where I'm at, more to come, keep on gaming.