Adepticon 2011, Part V: The Rest

Well, I wrote about the event itself, the stuff I got, the Team Tournament and the Killzone event on Sunday, so in conclusion I'd like to share whatever is left in my photo folder. Unfortunately, it is kind of hard to take a picture of everything in a room with so many people, especially when participating in such a crowded event, but I am very happy with some of the photos I took. I hope you like them as well!

Adepticon 2011, Part IV: Special Operations Killzone

In part IV of my Adepticon coverage, I'd like to tell you guys about my first games of Special Operations Killzone on one of the FANTASTIC tables that Brian from A Gentleman's Ones built and painted with the help of a few friends (with my buddy "Frozencore" Joe being one of them!).

Come on, now. Unless you have been living a rock for the past year or so you probably already know about Special Operations Killzone, but for your convenience and in case you don't know here are some quick links to the beautiful .pdf's:

a simple, cinematic skirmish version of Warhammer 40,000... of AWESOMENESS!!!

• Rules: What is Special Operations Killzone? How do I get started? How do I write a list?
• Army Errata: How does my army work in Special Operations Killzone? What units can I pick?
• Missions: How much terrain do I need? What size are the tables? What are the deployments and missions?
• Mission/Fate Cards: What is that?

The best way I can summarize Killzone is "a simple, cinematic skirmish version of Warhammer 40,000... of AWESOMENESS!!!" It is a great way of playing quick, fast-paced games of 40k that, while at a smaller scale, feel just as (if not even more) epic but it still requires lots of thinking, because in Killzone nothing is expandable....
 Okay.. Maybe Gretchin are. Just a little bit. And I.G Conscripts. And Penal Legions.  Okay, I'll shut up now.

Brian's increasing Special Operations Killzone WAAAAAAGH!

Killzone games are just around 250 points each with special upgrades included and it allows for a relatively cheap and easy participation. In many cases a single box of plastic dudemen or just some models you have laying around but never use are more than enough. Always wanted to be cool and play Orkz but never got around to it, intimidated by the throngs of guys you'd have to paint? So did Brian and look what he did!
It's also a great way to start an army: A warband here, a warband there and all of a sudden you'll have a nice collection of models and 1000 pt. games will be a piece of squigpie.

/palmface

Also an opportunity to finally field "those" units. Got some Kroot or Vespids that you never use? Maybe one of those units that a new edition, codex or codex creep made less-than-desirable like.. Pariahs, Immortals, Wraiths, Necron Warriors, Destroyers, Scarab Swarms and Flayed Ones? Genestealers (in Killzone you can give them frag grenades for 1 pt.)? Ogryns and Ratlings.. and pretty much all I.G Elites Choices... Ork Flash Gitz, even! BAM, you got yourself a Warband that doesn't necessarily suck. Actually Necrons are kind of amazing in Killzone and I really, really WANT to have a Kroot or a Vostroyan-themed Warband in the future.

This is Special Operations Killzone in a nutshell, Ladies and Gentlemen's Ones...  Now follow me for my Adepticon 2011 Special Operations Killzone coverage!

Adepticon 2011, Part III: Team Tournament, Game 4 vs. Penguins of Chaos

After the crushing defeats it was time for the 4th, final, less-competitive and more casual Game of the Adepticon 2011 40k Team Tournament. Usually by that time most teams realize that there is no reason to be super competitive unless you actually have a chance of winning something or scoring within the... erm.. Top 20? Besides, booze adds up, hehe.  Well, for us it didn't. Cuz.. you know.. 3/4 of the team were under 21 (Thanks for the shots, Team Sweden ;P)? Our fourth game was indeed very pleasant and laid back, so without further ado let me introduce you toooo...

Penguins of Chaos

All the way from the famous tourney scene of Toledo, Ohio we were to face these wonderful fellas. Not exactly too far, my only memory from the Buckeye State was waiting 15 minutes for a meal in Burger King on the way back from Games Day 2010.... but that's another story. It's Batrep time, baby!

Adepticon 2011, Part III: Team Tournament, Game 3 vs. Sons of Scotty (SOS)

Well, gents, it was time for the third game of the Team Tournament as it usually happens, after a good round you tend to face bigger challenges. And in our case it was true. I retell this story with a sour taste in my mouth simply because it really wasn't that interesting and yeah, some might say it is because we got utterly trounced. So without further ado, meet the Canadian invaders from team..

Sons of Scotty

Or at least one of the Coalitions..

DAKKADAKKADAKKA!

But before I take you on this very short and painful journey let us observe what this Coaltion from Canada brought on the table. Yes, you got that right. Orkz. *sigh* Orkz: The one army I was 100% we could defeat without a problem just by playing Space Wolves and the army that I really, really wanted to face just so Skarvald the Troll-faced could have a field day feeding his Thunderwolf some xeno fungus. After all, we did practice against a shooty Ork list that was specifically created to face us and while it was tough we won.
I guess with great overconfidence comes great regret, eh?

Da Speshul 'Eadz!

See what I did thar? ;P This is my unit of (for now) Savage Orc Big 'Uns, although I have yet to use them as their bigger equivalent in an actual game. The Big Stabba is there just because it looks so friggin' cool and just in case I run into something bigger and nastier than my warpaint-covered brawlers. They will be led by a Savage Orc Great Shaman with the Lucky Shrunken Head for a 5+ warpaint ward save and there will possibly be a Black Orc BSB which will be using a Savage Orc model!I'm really likin' the unit champion guy in the middle - he looks scary and killy enuff!

NB#1: This may sound VERY stupid, but I don't know if it was just me, my luck, the humidity, the way the planets were aligned or the plastic glue I was using but.. I had to pin every hand to every arm! First of all, the weapons these guys are carrying are 'uuuuge and 'eavy and there's no way they are going to stay in one place while you are gluing them. Gravity simply doesn't work that way, which suck. That, and for some reason my plastic glue (New GW bottle, which I think is pretty sweet!) was taking forever to dry/glue ONLY on the Savage Orcs.. It was incredibly frustrating and I'm really now looking forward to repeating this process on ~30 more guys. 

NB#2: The various weapons make fitting these guys on the movement tray a pain in the ass, which is why I have numbered them and will take advantage of regimental bases in the future.

Adepticon 2011, Part III: Team Tournament, Game 2 vs. A Day Late and a Dollar Short

Well, after the awesome Draw and Loss against the coalitions from Team Sweden it was time to go to our second game. Despite the rough start we were supper excited to see who our opponents were and fate put us against the jolly and "slightly" inebriated fellas from The Heroic 28s Podcast (Great, casual podcast that I've been enjoying ever since!). So without further ado, let me introduce you to Team..

A Day Late and a Dollar Short

 

They had a very mixed army and had written up a bunch of fluff to make it work, however I seem to have misplaced their story, so if any of you 28s reads this and you have a digital copy, please send it to me and I'll add it. Unfortunately we were too excited and the game went by pretty fast, so I didn't remember to take any pictures. The Coalition we faced had a Vulkan He'Stan Salamanders-themed SM list AND a Null-Deployment Style Tyranids. I am 99% sure that these lists below are correct since I saw them posted on their forums.. so join us after the break to see them AND read the battle report!

Adepticon 2011, Part III: Team Tournament, Game 1 vs. Team Sweden

So there we were, Team Razorback's debut in the "tourney" scene and boy were we all excited to eat stuff with our Thunderwolves as various kinds of ammunition went "plink!" against their cybernetics and fur. All of our.. well.. hard work was hopefully going to pay off and we were either going to get crushed or win with a bloody massacre. Well, neither happened but our very first game at the Adepticon 2011 Team Tournament quickly became the highlight of the entire event for we were playing..

Team Sweden

"AAAHHHhhhhh! We come from the land of the ice and snow.."

With their blue-and-yellow T-shirts, blue-and-yellow dice and blue bottle of booze, we were destined to face one of the top teams at Adepticon 2011. Unlike last year we didn't luck out with an easy team. This one was going to be.. hm.. what was that, little thunderwolf puppy? Ruff? Yeah, exactly that - rough.

Painted Grot Tanks!

Hey there. Super excited to share some pictures with you guys. Today I finished painting two Grot Tanks for a friend's birthday gift and it felt really good not having to paint space marines, power armor, fur or anything Space Wolves related. I know, I know, this blog is "Wolves for the Wolf God" after all, but even the greatest Wolf Lord of them all needs to kick back and let some servitors give him a foot rub, right?

"Oi, wut is dat flashy fing??"

Jack's birthday is today, so me and a few guys from the store decided to surprise him with a painted squad of Forgeworld's Grot Tanks! Now, the reason we decided to give him Grot Tanks was pretty self-explanatory: Jack loves his shooty metal coffins. A lot. He even rides in one from time to time, pretending to be a German officer or something. Very surprised he doesn't play Flames of War.. But! Jack plays Imperial Guard. Jack hates Orkz just like any I. G. player should... and thus the Grot Tanks. It is funny and now Jack will have to use them in the Apocalypse games he loves so much just because the lil buggerz look so darn kool and deadly.

I know I don't show you guys a whole lot of painted models on this blog, so now you'll get to see my painting skills in action. I really like using many watered down layers of paint, so painting with "washes" and glazes to create verdigris and rust is one of my favorite things to do. It is easy and fun and you can always walk around and watch people play while your models are drying. The first model I painted was the "French" Grot Tank. I don't know my tanks but from what I've heard all of the Grot Tanks are actually based off of real old tanks?

"French" Grot Tank

Decided to go nuts with this one. It had been a while since I had the opportunity to paint an Ork vehicle and I had forgotten how much fun it is to drybrush, wash and then do battle damage. Decided to do plenty of rust and paint some sections blue. For my rust I water down Vermin Brown and apply it where it makes sense for rust to form. Using water I control its flow and transparency. Second layer is the "fresh" rust achieved by watering down Blazing Orange and going over the Vermin Brown.

Grots, like Frenchmen have low Ld values..

One of Jack's tanks has "Will break for beer" or something like that written on it, so I wanted to reference it on the side of this lil tank. "Stopz Fer Wine" is both Frenchy and Orky, don't you think? Also, the obligatory DAKKA. The verdigris (the patina formed when copper, brass or bronze is weathered and exposed to air or seawater) is simply watered down Hawk Turquoise over Dwarf Bronze that was previously washed with Badab Black. Telling you, washes = liquid talent.

The French flag was then painted on one of the side plates. Blue, white and red are important in Ork kultur, so it only made sense! And there you go, a French Grot Tank!

The second Grot Tank was to be more simple. I wanted to paint some more verdigris and definitely wanted to have tons of blood on the front. I mean, with them spikez this vehicle was just askin' for it. The first layer of blood is supposed to be the coagulated, scab part of the massacred victim, so Scab Red it was. To make sure the first coat was thick and had texture, a standard brush was dipped in Scab Red (no water was added) and then brought a few inches away from the model. You want to get close to the brush and then blow on it, almost like you are spitting. You won't have a lot of control on the splatter and even I got a little more blood than I was looking for... but in the end it looked great!

The second layer of blood is the older blood, but not as old as the first layer. Here we use Red Gore. This time a tank brush was dipped into a 2/1 Red Gore and water mix and then using your fingers you gently flick the bristles of the brush, splattering blood on the vehicle. Let it dry and then it is time for the fresh blood. This time we are going to be using a 2/1 Blood Red and water mix and do the same thing.. Apply a generous amount of Gloss Varnish to make it shiny and nasty.

The tank got a quick freehand of the Bulgarian flag.. just because. The grot driver was then given a white hat and red pants to match the tricolor of the Bulgarian flag. No silly slogans this time, just lots of verdigris and rust allowing for a simple, yet charismatic tank.





Here ate the other two Grot Tanks that were painted by the store's manager.

The Führer's Grot Tank.

The uncanny resemblance to Hitler is uncanny.

Unaffiliated Grot Tank..

... with jungle AND urban cammo. You never know where you're going to fight!

So.. Grot Tanks. Fantastic models with tons of cool little tongue-in-cheek details and a lot of ways to paint them. Definitely a great addition to any Ork army as long as your opponent lets you use them... And if he does not, then he is a mean jerk who cannot appreciate the killy powa of da Grot Tanks!

All of 'em!

Adepticon 2011, Part II: Da Loot!

Hehe, I bet you can't wait for the actual tournament coverage.. Trust me, I can't wait to type it.. But for now, lets see what I spent my cash-money-dollars on! After all.. loot is pretty important.

Adepticon Poster and T-Shirt

We're starting with the old Adepticon poster everyone got for free with their swag bags or during registration. Not sure if I like the white on he top and bottom of it, but I was too lazy to play with the scissors when I taped it to my wall. It now sits next to my Games Workshop Academy Diploma. Ah, they don't make them anymore.. $5 also got me the 2009 Adepticon T-shirt with the exact same design. It was pretty much a steal..

 

x2 Bags with 5 Kroot on Spue

On Sunday I was able to snag these bad boys at a discounted price. There were a bunch of bags and I just knew that there were Kroot lurkin' around. Standard GW price is $35 for 16 of 'em, so that's a nice deal right there, right? I'm going to be collecting a small Kroot Mercenary Special Operations: Killzone team, but that's going to be only in the near future. I was thinking one or two with wings, a few sniper guys, a hunter followed by two Kroot Hounds. Can't wait to see what comes out of them..

Assorted Bitz!

$9 got me some nifty bitz! I got the top part of a Fantasy Orc Boyz banner, a chained snotling from an unknown kit, two sets of Sisters of Battle wings (for trading, possibly for flying Vulturekin Kroot) and a painted Space Wolves Rune Priest in Terminator Armor ($17 value!) that's missing his storm bolter arm. I also picked up a GW cube of green dice for like $6.60, because all of my friends tend to agree that green dice roll better and I lost most of mine. Plus, my local store never got any new shipments of green dice..

Micro Art Studio's Forest Bases and Engima's Ulkurz

Ulkurz!

Frozencore Joe persuaded me to check out Engima's miniatures and if I had to choose between GW's miniature line and their before I got addicted to 40k I would have chosen Engima. Simply superb. I quickly picked up Ulkurz who at 32mm is just big enough to pass as a Savage Orc Warboss. I'll just have to get rid of that shield he's carrying and give him a suitable second hand weapon for more choppiness. Adn warpaint. Lots and lots of warpaint. I also asked the vendor if he could recommend me a base for the model, simply because the selection was so big. I wanted something to make him stand out, make him even bigger and scarier without being too cliche and at the end I decided to pick up
Micro Art Studio's 25x25mm Forest Bases.

Autographed "Prospero Burns" by Dan Abnett

Next is definitely a very valuable item! While I was walking around the vendor's area I saw a familiar face. And whaddaya know, Dan Abnett was there, signing books. And he looked lonely. So, just like any good Space Wolf player would have done in my power shoes I asked him to sign "Prospero Burns" for me! I have yet to read it and I still need to get my "Thousand Sons" on, but eventually I will. I'm planning to give away my first copy of Prospero Burns. Not sure if people would be interested.

Gale Force Nice Massive Wound Markers

 These always come in handy, especially if you are a Wound Allocation Jerk like me!

Special Operations: Killzone cards

Got myself a set of the Secondary Objective and Fate cards for the Special Operations: Killzone game. These bad boys are Superior POD's doing and look pretty sweet. Brian was kind enough to save a set for me
and I can't wait to open them for my first game of Killzone at the FLGS. Price was a bit steep at $25 but I realize that the supply was limited. Besides, they look friggin' sweet-tastic! I also got one of the printed out rule booklets after the Killzone event, which was neat. I really cannot stress how much I want to play this game. It's like a breath of fresh air... of awesomeness.

Adepticon 2011 T-shirt

I've been having a lot of fun collecting shirts from various conventions and events and this one is no exception. the gray color is a nice touch and the logo is beautiful. Also, I was extremely lucky to pick up the very last XL T-shirt on Sunday. Kind of awesome, right?

Battle Foam P.A.C.K. 720

P.A.C.K 720, also known as the "Arm and a leg splurge". I had to, I just had to. I'm sooo sick of Citadel cases barely holding my stuff with only one of the latches remaining. Or.. you know, with spiders living inside them. My current way to carry miniatures has been 2 Citadel cases (both with the left latch missing): One for Warhammer 40,000 and one for Warhammer Fantasy. I try and cram my rulebook, codices and dice and stuff. If I'm going to play, I put both of them in a Aldi bag and plop a metal foam case with my vehicles in it. Otherwise it's one case and a small tool/tackle box with my paints and hobby supplies. The 720 is going to be able to fit all of them.. hopefully. Plus I've got some cool iron-on patches from various events that I can't wait to decorate it with.

Adepticon 2011, Part I: The (Bumpy) Road to the Adepticon 2011 Team Tournament!

*takes a deep breath* Man, I survived Adepticon. Again. The feeling is so exhilarating. All the pressure, all the excitement, all the good and bad feelings, emotions, all the stress. Gone. What's left is pure awesomeness.

So this post I want to dedicate to the "hobby" part of the little plastic dudemenz-building hobby we all seem to enjoy around here. Especially the things that worked and did not work for our team. I'll talk about our ideas and what we hoped to accomplish and even cover some of the things I'm definitely going to try and change for Adepticon 2011. So, without further ado..

Team Razorback Spam's Road to Adepticon 2011