Khador Warjacks painted with new Citadel Paints!

This weekend I met with Brian from A Gentleman's Ones for some much-deserved hobby time and for the first time since I've know Brian we actually hung out for a reason that was not terrain-building or Special Operations: KILLZONE. And it was Glorious!

Those of you who read my blog on a regular basis know that I don't usually post about my painted models simply because.. well.. I don't paint a lot. It's not because I can't or I don't want to - it's just that whenever I start an army I can never decide how to paint it. I'm very familiar with color theory and the different types of brushes and paints, mind you. It's just my indecisiveness and inability to commit to a decision that usually leads to a lot of my stuff being factory gray. That is why I decided to let Brian teach me how to paint my Khadoran army. His stuff is always so astonishing and from the few times I've seen him paint, his entire process seems so spontaneous and carefree. I wanted my hobby to be like his, so I made the trip to his place with "Frozencore" Joe to get stuff done!

Green has always been my favorite color and I wanted my Khador stuff to be green. It's not the most original idea, but I like the look of it, so I wanted to do that. I wanted my army to be dirty, gritty and covered with rust and dust from months and months of constant warfare in the trenches. I didn't want pristine-looking 'jacks, I wanted them scratched and damaged, but still ready to punish the enemies of the Motherland!

After I explained to Brian what I wanted, he went and primed the models. He grabbed the Destroyer and I got to paint the Juggernaut. The rest is magic..

What you see below is the result of ~3 hours of painting. There are a lot of touch-ups, highlights and other things to add and fix on the models, but for now I am definitely happy with the results.

Destroyer and Juggernaut - 80% done!
OH! AND THEY ARE ALL PAINTED WITH THE NEW CITADEL PAINTS!!!

Summer of Flyers: NEW Flying Coffin Orcoplane from Puppets War

It's truly the Summer of Flyers this season, guys. The Necrons are finally getting their Doom Scythe and Night Scythe kits; Codex: Space Marines is getting its very own flyer as well, represented by the Stormtalon; Orks are getting not one, not two but three sweet-looking Bommers, all of which come in the same kit.

And just a few hours ago, Puppets War, the Polish-based miniatures company which has been churning out amazing looking models by the dozens of as of late, released their second "Orc" flying machine...

The "Flying Coffin"- Orcoplane

Set contains 1 complete "Flying Coffin - Orcoplane model which includes: 2 parts of Orcoplane main body, 2 wings, flight stabilizer, 2 very big engines, 6 bombs, 2 versions of cockpit, 2 wheels, hatch with 2 goblins playing CKM, pilot, little exhaust pipe and a barrel...

The price is a little bit less than the GW fliers - $42.30/30.00€/£26.10. It's definitely worth it!

Man, what a great-looking flyer! The huuuuge engines are definitely a great addition and they just give so much character to the vehicle. It's crazy. I think that Puppets War should definitely sell JUST the engines as a separate bundle, because people will definitely want to use them to convert/modify the GW Ork Bommers. Now, I don't know my planes, but I'm sure this one is based on a real oomie plane of some kind.

This summer is truly the Summer of Flyers, folks!

Thoughts on the new Ork Flyers: The Dakkajet is da way to go!

Hey there, folks, It's me again. With some of my thoughts on the this whole ACTUAL Summer o' Flierz. Again.

Now that we know what the rules for the Ork Flierz are, it's time to sit down and play favorites.
The Dakkajet, the Blitza-Bommer and the Burna-Bommer now have their very own, special entries in the new White Dwarf and there's even a cool Fast Attack page with all of their options and weaponry, which should fit just nicely between the pages of Codex: Orks. 

Thoughts on the new Ork Flyers: The Blitza-Bommer; the Burna-Bommer and the Dakkajet!

Here's a picture from the yet-to-be-released White Dwarf in case you happen to be living under a rock/in a cave/under the sea/in China:

Blitza-Bommer; Dakkajet; Burna-Bommer

The rumor for the Ork flyers, as well as the new Space Marine flyer and the Necron Scythe variants has been all over the interwebs for the past month or so - pretty much ever since Beasts of War had a live discussion about them, featuring drawings of the models, which now seem to be basically traced images of the actual kits. That was pretty cool. A lot of people thought it was just a giant joke, especially with the outlines of the Space Marine Stormtalon er.. Gunship? It seems to be sharing the fate of the Stormraven from a few year ago - basically people are swearing that they'll never buy it due to its ugliness, only to give in to the temptation and its ruleset a few weeks after its release.
Personally? I don't care. I'm not even going to post a picture of it, since it's really easy to find it anyways, plus it's going to dilute my point..

Beasts of War's "sketch" is almost identical with the real deal... !!!!

And now, for the Ork Bommerz.. 
There are three Ork Bommer variants, all of which come in the same kit, which is nice. They should become available for pre-order on the GW website in a couple of days, cost $45.50 each and are going to come out on June 2nd..
1) Blitza-Bommer - "a dive bommer used to deploy payloads at low altitude and high speed" seems to be a hybrid flyer/skimmer with some pretty big "bommz" and a few er.. supa shootas? I'm guessing that it's going to be similar to the Dark Eldar flyers with an assortment of different bommz with different profiles and blast sizes, but it will probably have less options and will compensate with quantity rather than quality, which is da Orky way. It will probably be able to drop all of its "payloads" in one turn and then it will fly around shooting rokkitz or other similar weapons at the enemy.

Rumored stats and rules:
????????

2) Dakkajet - "a brazen dogfighter outfitted with rows of high caliber supa shootas". The name speaks for itself - the Dakkajet is all about the dakka and it seems to have at least 4 types of shootas, two of which seem like regular big shootas, while the other ones (on the wings) are probably the supa shootas. Now, I have no idea what a supa shoota is, but... Anyways, I managed to find some rumored stats and rules for the damn thing, but in it it mentioned dakka guns, instead of the listed "dakka guns". When I saw the picture and the description, the Dakkajet really struck me as an anti-aircraft type of vehicle, so here's hoping its weaponry functions similar to the Hydra in Codex: Imperial Guard.

Rumored stats and rules: 

BS 2
10/10/10
Twin-linked Dakka Guns (18'' S5 AP5 Assault 3)
Aerial Assault (Can fire all weapons if it moves at cruising speed)
Supersonic (If it moves flat out, it can move up to 36'')
Waaagh! plane - can fire twice in the turn you call Waaagh!
Strafing Run - BS 3 vs everything but jump infantry and skimmers
Fighta Ace upgrade - BS 3 against everything..

3) Burna-Bommer - "an aircraft outfitted with an assortment of volatile incendiary bombs" is also pretty unique. It replaces normal bombs and the sheer amount of dakka with incendiary bombs and seems to be a vehicle that specializes in the extermination of hordes and perhaps small elite units.

 BS 2
10/10/10
Aerial Assault (Can fire all weapons if it moves at cruising speed)
Supersonic (If it moves flat out, it can move up to 36'')
Waaagh! plane - can fire twice in the turn you call Waaagh!
Burna Bomb - Similar to a Scorcha (S5 AP4)
S7 AP1 bomb in the movement phase?
Burna Missile - S5 AP4 small blast, ignores cover, one use
Grot gunner on one weapon

A lot of people have been asking and waiting for this release. I know I have. Ork Aircrafts have always been my favorite thing, but I have never expanded on my love for orky planes. As a matter of fact, it was the Deff Kopta model from the Assault on Black Reach set that pretty much sealed the deal and got me started with Orkz and Warhammer 40,000 in general. It's just such a sweet, sweet model and I want to field lotz of 'em. ALL OF THEM. A GOTTA HAVE 'EM ALL, YOU SEE? I want at least a 100... Help me?
So anywaaay...

All three kits look pretty cool to me. I'll have to agree that they do look kind of similar, but there are three variants in one box, after all. Imagine all the extra bitz inside? From the pictures you can tell that there are 2-3 different pairs of wings and tails, which can be used not only to differentiate your various flyers (because, let's face it, you're going to buy at least 2 of 'em...), but you can use the extra wings to Loot other vehicles and turn them into Orky flyers. Got a spare Tau Piranha? Add wings to it, it's now a Dakkajet. AND you'll have tons of spare shootas and rokkitz to kustomize it.

One of the main complaints on the interwebz is that they are kind of simple and plain. Again - 3 kits in one box. That, and I actually like their plain profile. It means that you can easily add stuff to them - extra weapons, gubbinz, wires, wheels, wings, plates, glyphs.. etc. etc. If anything, they are going to make converting your very own Orky flyer that much easier, because you'll have the main components as reference or simply as something to built on top of. Just the release of this kit will unleash a bran new wave of Ork conversions all over the world, mark my word!

Rules-wise.. nothing too crazy. After all they are xeno vehicles, they are obviously not going to be crazy over-the-top overpowered. Aerial Assault and Supersonic are definitely cool, but are certainly now unique and every flyer seems to have them. Waaagh! plane is amazing! I don't care if it's going to be good or not, the very fact that this vehicles gets to do something cool when you declare your Waaaaagh is just phenomental and I really hope that more non-infantry units in the Ork codex get similar treatment in 6th edition. We're obviously going to see many of the typical Orky upgrades as options: Armour Plates, Grot Riggers, Red Paint Job.. etc. Probably options for extra guns or for making weapons twin-linked.

I kind of wish they can be fielded as a Squadron. Come on.. how awesome would that be? 9 Ork flyers.. just 'cause. It wouldn't even be overpowered. No, really. We're talking about AV 10/10/10 vehicles here. I just want to be able to field a bunch of them. Which brings me to yet another pondering..

AV 10/10/10 is a bummer.. 11/11/11 would be soooo much better. Oh, well. At least they are not open-topped. Oh, that would be an even bigger bummer.

No variant with transport capabilities is a bummer. Perhaps in the near future? Yeah..... right. 

Are they Fast Attack or Heavy Support?
Fast Attack seems to be the sane choice, simply because they are well.. fast. But then they are competing with a lot of fast units, which are all pretty decent in Codex: Orkz - Deff Koptas, Warbikerz, Nob Bikerz.. even Buggiez... and I definitely want to be able to run a bunch of Ork flyers... with a bunch of Deff Koptas. Dakkawing, baby!


6th Edition Caveats: 
While the vehicles ARE sweet, we have no idea how flyers, skimmers and even vehicles in general are going to function in 6th edition. Are there even going to be Fast Attack or Heavy Support slots or is the game going to adopt the percentage system of Warhammer Fantasy? Buying a bunch of vehicles right now seems kind of risky and definitely dangerous, simply because 6th can (and probably will) turns everything upside down. This is why I won't be picking them up immediately and I'll wait until the new edition rolls out. I know that I'll be picking some up for sure, I just don't want to do it right now. I think that a lot of you will agree with my fears..

So yeah, I'm pretty excited. Are YOU?

Adepticon 2012, Part III: Team Tournament, Game 4 vs. Wardens of the Maelstrom

With some delay, time to tell the saga of our 4th game from the Team Tournament, in which Vince's Blood Angels joined forces with my Thunderwolves once again to wreak havoc upon the unfortunate ones.

After game 3 ended, we were definitely feeling much better. I guess swift victory and carnage will do that.. Still hoping not to face any more Grey Knights (and perhaps Imperial Guard, because they are always annoying..) we picked up our stuff and headed towards our final destination....
It was time to meet our last opponents for the event with the hope of a fun, challenging game to end the tournament with.
And then, Fate smiled upon us once again for we were destined to face..

Wardens of the Maelstrom

From left to right: Mr. Malevolent, Solar_lion, Gitsplitta, Briancj from the DakkaDakka Forums!

New Battle Reports Page!

Battle Reports make you STRONG!

Still recuperating from finals and about to begin the work week, so while you guys are waiting for the 4th and final game from my Adepticon 2012 Team Tournament coverage, why don't you take a look at my brand spankin' new Battle Reports page? You know, the one beneath the sweet header image thing with Skarvald the Troll-faced's pretty mug onnit? Yeah, that one. Click on it. Cliiiick on it.
You know you want  too...

Honestly, I like to think that I'm pretty good at writing battle reports. They do end up being pretty verbose, but are always dripping with gory detail and there are also some pretty nifty pictures to boot. I do spend a long time writing them, so I'd appreciate any and all the comments you guys can give me.

Just some reading material for the summer, you know?

Soon I hope to write a few more and will even branch out to Warmachine battle reports featuring my slowly growing Khador army.

Adepticon 2012, Part III: Team Tournament, Game 3 vs. Da Boyz Wolfpack

.. in which Skarvald the Troll-faced and his Thunderwolf Retinue reap a great tally and once again bask in the glory that is victory, even if taken from the dying hands of fellow Space Wolves.

Whoa, holy foreshadowing, Batman! 

As stated in my last battle report from Game 2, my team really, really, really didn't want to face yet another Grey Knights team. Our opponents were fair and sportsmanlike with well-painted armies, but we were tired of facing the abominations of Matt Ward and we actually wanted to stand a chance for once. Besides, winning a game for once would have been nice, at least for me. A 0-2 streak is not fun..

Mad Men, where you at?
Look at them well-defined elbows, ladies!

So after nursing a few delicious Czech beers, one cold and one slightly toasty Corona, a shot of Jägermeister and a nice glass of Captain Morgan I realized I had a drinking problem was ready to face my new opponents and to ingloriously flip the table over and storm out like some kind of a bastard if I had to fight any more Grey Knights.

And whaddaya know, lads, Fate decided to grace my team with its 24-carrat smile once again, showing us that although MEQ armies were the 99% of Adepticon 2012 it was not all about jerks in silver. Enter team...

Da Boyz Wolfpack

Due to Popular Demand: MORE KILLZONE cards!

Extra! Extra! Due to popular demand Brian was kind enough to let me know that he has in his possession a bunch of extra Special Operaitons: KILLZONE tokens and cards, as reviewed here a few weeks ago. They are quite literally hot off the press and are on a first-come, first-served basis, so if you were one of the many Adepticon 2012 attendees who couldn't purchase the tokens or cards due to initial doubt, financial insecurities or if you simply couldn't get in line (Seriously, the tokens vanished Friday morning; the cards were soon to follow) to purchase these KILLZONE supplements.. well, I guess you can do it now.

Information about the cards, tokens and the various sets + how to ORDER

Here

But hurry up! Even though Brian considers shipping dozens upon dozens of packages to be an enjoyable part of the hobby I doubt that he's willing to do it forever.

Adepticon 2012, Part III: Team Tournament, Game 2 vs. Team Aquila [18+]

Hurr durr, Skarvald, you're taking forever with these battle reports!

*sigh* But.. but.. writing about losing to Grey Knights is not fun to write about OR even read.. ;_;

OH, GET ON WITH IT!

Fine. 
After suffering defeat at the hands of Team Handsome's Draigowing Grey Kniggits it was time to face the music once again and this time the playlist featured the din of Storm Ravens and the sound of silence. Kind of like.. the silence lingering on the battlefield after most of your army has been extinguished by force weapons, you know? Oh, who am I kidding? You've faced Grey Knights, you surely, surely know.

Partnered with what some of the more ignorant members of the Imperium call the best Adeptus Astartes of them all, I (alongside my Vince and Blake who were facing a similar fate) was once again destined to clash with the knights in shining armor, this time commandeered stellarly by the members of...

Team Aquila

Adepticon 2012, Part III: Team Tournament, Game 1 vs. Team Handsome

Team Tournament Time!

For the third year in a row I participated in the Adepticon Warhammer 40,000 Team Tournament, this time with a very different team. I still find it hard to believe that we managed to organize everything with even less preparation and motivation than we did last year, but in the end things turned out to be fine, I suppose. This year we decided to bring four different Imperial Armies. 

I brought my standard Space Wolves list; my friend Vince brought his sexy, all-jump pack Blood Angels; Blake brought a smorgasbord of flyers with 2 Vendetta Squadrons and a Vulture with a Twin-lined Punisher Cannon + a bunch of puny Guardsmen inside, while our Team Captain Justice brought his Ultramarines. Thus, we assembled the..

Justice League

Justice (Superman), Vince (The Flash), Me (Batman) and Blake (The Green Lantern)

With little to no preparation we decided to wing it this year and just roll dice... The idea for this year's team name came to me as soon as the question was popped. I mean, come on. Getting to be Batman was just the tip of the iceberg.... And yes, we had Heroclix miniatures as Objective Markers.

Game #1 from the Warhammer 40,000 Team Tournament had us facing probably one of the more entertaining and original teams at Adepticon. Actually, this year our game encounters were saturated with some pretty er.. famous.. individuals and teams, I suppose.
In what was certainly a mission in which we were doomed from the very beginning, Blake's Imperial Guard and my Space Wolves were put up against the Grey Knights of...