Awesome Kickstarters

I joined in on the first Heresy Girls Kickstarter, and am incredibly happy with the Models I got from it. Even if I haven't actually got around to painting any of them yet. But the casts were fantastic, they were very close to the  original designs, and the operator was great about communicating when the project hit some snags. The second one looks even better.

The second one, I don't have any experience with the people doing the actual casting, but they have a good track record, and the designs are done by Ana Polanscak, best known through her blog, Gardens of Hecate. For those who aren't familiar with her work, she has an amazing imagination, and a wonderful sculpting style for all sorts of creepy-cool little daemons and creatures. I got distracted and didn't get this up as early as I meant to, so there are only three days left in this KS, but it is fully funded.

I highly encourage all y'all to go check both of those projects out. Until next time, y'all have a good one, y'hear!

Models of Indeterminate Gender

Getting this up a bit late, but things are hectic as I'm in the process of moving. These are my Models completed during March for Azael's Squad: March! + Gender-Ambiguous Model Painting Challenge. I didn't think I had anything for Squad March, but when I checked the post again, I found that three was enough, so I actually have two "Squads" done by the challenge's definition, even if they really aren't the sort of things that would be organized into "squads" as such.

 First up, we've got an Acolyte Hybrid from the Cult of the Emperor's Embrace. I had a Squad of five I was working on, but only the one got finished. As I've mentioned before, the harsh lighting does somewhat odd things to the effects of gloss inks glazed over strong colours, so it doesn't look quite like this in person, but it looks cool either way.

Hiss!

Next up, we've got some Ur-Ghuls from Blackstone Fortress. I have the fourth one done, and I think I actually posted it at some point, but it's packed away right now, so I only have the three here. Very simple paint jobs, just working up through a couple of the lighter greys and then some targeted glazes of red and purple. The basing is going to eventually get the little glowing lines and stuff, but I can't deal with that right now, so this seemed like a reasonable "getting by for now" solution.

Rawr!

 

 

Last, but not least, we've got a trio of Spindle Drones. Like the Ur-Ghuls, the fourth is packed away somewhere right now. These are arguably even simpler, the same greys, and then a couple of dots of gemstone paints on lenses or sensors. I kind of wish I'd thought to do them in the same glossy black as the bases, to really reinforce that they are, in a very literal sense, part of the Blackstone Fortress itself, but I didn't think of it until I was mostly done. Also, they might be kind of hard to see on the board if I did that.

Beep Boop!

As I mentioned at the top, things are pretty hectic right now with the move (until my brother comes by to help haul some of this stuff out of here, I can't use my stove, and have to choose between being able to open the front door or being able to open the fridge), so I'm not going to be hobbying or posting much during April, but I do hope to get at least one Blight Hauler or Predator done for Azazel's Armoured April challenge, and I might manage some Army shots of old stuff as I'm sorting through it all. Until next time, whenever that may be, y'all have a good one, y'hear!

HAIL! ALL HAIL THE RETURN OF OUR LADY OF EXCESS!

[A portion of the Adepticon WH Reveals post on WHC]
Rumours of the Dark Prince’s death have been greatly exaggerated…

Your eyes do not deceive you. A host of gorgeous new models kick off a new era for the Dark Prince, including an all-new Keeper of Secrets.

We’ve come a long way since the Keeper of Secrets first graced the worlds of Warhammer in Realm of Chaos: Slaves to Darkness. At once monstrous and beautiful, the new Keeper of Secrets is one of the most striking and unusual Warhammer miniatures ever designed. Drawing on decades of art and lore, this model manages the nigh-impossible task of creating a creature that’s both terrifying and alluring. Sinuous, elegant and predatory, it’s the epitome of everything fans love about Slaanesh. Tempted? We don’t blame you.

The Keeper of Secrets will be joined by a number of new Slaanesh models that bring to life a magnificent and richly realised cast of Daemon champions, from a new iteration of the Masque to Syll’Esske – an unholy tag team of Daemon Prince and Herald.

With so much new stuff for Slaanesh on the way, it’s only fitting that the Dark Prince and his followers should receive a new battletome. With allegiance abilities for the three hosts of Slaanesh – the Invaders, Godseekers and Pretenders – as well as updated warscrolls, spell lores and more, Battletome: Hedonites of Slaanesh will cement these warriors of excess as a major player in both the setting of Warhammer Age of Sigmar and on the tabletop.

And, of course, what would a new battletome be without endless spells?

***

Fucking finally! This is the biggest and best wave of Slaaneshi Minis the game has received since I started playing over 20 years ago! I can't wait to get my hands on them. THEY MUST ALL BE MINE!

Bits and Pieces

Between a bit of post-Squaduary burnout and getting ready to move, I haven't got much finished this month, hobby-wise. I've been working on stuff here and there, doing at least a little every day, and it is making progress, but not completing things right now, for the most part.

I did knock out the chests from the Rogue Trader box, tho. They were pretty fun to paint, with some cool detail, but it's not too fine, so I could work on them even when my hands were kind of shaky.

I also got around to another project that I've been thinking of for almost a year, since my brother got me back into MtG, and I picked up a couple of Battle Decks from Card Kingdom. One of them was their Dino-Might deck, which uses a bunch of Dinosaur Tokens. I've always felt that the word "token" implied something a bit more substantial than a card, so I wanted to make a few actual ones. At some point last summer, I got a cheap tub of plastic dinos from the hardware store's toy shelf, and finally got around to gluing them on to bases and getting some paint on there. I'm going to go back and do a bit more, clean up the bases a little, and mark on them that they're 3/3 with Trample, but I'm really happy with them. I took them to the Lady Planeswalkers' Society Battle Deck night last week, and everyone thought they were super cool.

I got my hands on some Atalan Jackals as well, and got them built. I'm trying to figure out what I want to do to kick the bases up a notch, since the diamond plate plasticard starts looking a bit bare at this base size, but they're really cool Models. If you look closely, you can maybe see that the plasticard doesn't actually cover all of the Leader's base. I'm trying to find a tube of the right size, and then I'm going to have her coming out of some big abandoned pipe, since the fact that GSC Bikers can use the Underground Tunnels to Ambush from leads to some really awesome imagery. I do sort of wish the kit came with a few more options for stowage and arms, because I want a bunch of them, and I feel like they're going to get a bit same-y pretty quickly, but they're still awesome. Looking forward to getting some paint on them, but that may not happen until sometime next month or in May, after the move.

Last night I finished the build on the main part of something using the Tectonic Fragdrill kit that I think is going to be super awesome. Need to make some space to set up enough of the other terrain to show it off right. Until next time, y'all have a good one, y'hear!

February Hobby Challenge Wrap Up

EDIT: Finally got around to processing more pics and getting them up.

At the moment, this is just a single quick photo of everything for Squaduary, Fembruary, and Neglected Model February. Sometime in the next day or two I'll get around to taking better and more detailed pics, but right now, I'm just not up to it.

The front 10 are a legit Squad of Neophyte Hybrids. I want to touch up their bases a bit, but I've taken Models to Tournaments in worse shape than this. In the back, we have a quartet of various non-combatants, a couple of female Spaceport Crew in the middle from Statuesque Miniatures that I was reminded of by Suber, who are my (smaller than hoped) contribution to Fembruary, and they are flanked by a couple of old-ass Imperial Guard repair crew or something, I can't remember exactly what they were called. Every last one of them qualifies for Neglected Model February.

I'll be back in a day or two with better pics, and until then, y'all have a good one, y'hear!

First off, here are the two for Fembruary.  My camera isn't great at capturing darker skin tones, and it kind of distorted the features on the second woman in particular a bit. I'm really happy with how they came out, tho, they look great in person.

 Now the other two civilians. These are, as I mentioned, old GW tank repair workers or something like that. These and the two above were a really nice bit of a break from the Stealer Culties, since they were all hand-sculpted and cast in metal, so they don't have so much ludicrously fine detail as modern CAD-sculpted plastics. The dude carrying the fuel cans is the only one that has any remotely interesting detail from more than one angle, so he gets more pics. I'm kind of assuming he also has no eyebrows, since things like smoking while hauling around tank fuel tend to lead to that ;)

"Man, I need another gas fire like I need a hole in the head." "I think we can safely assume that you don't have a good grasp of what you do or don't need."

And we'll finish everything off with the Culties here. First a bunch of generic grunts to fill out the Squad, but even they end up having a lot of fine detail on them. One of my fave things about this colour scheme is that the skin and the reinforced parts of the work suits both start with Rakarth Flesh. The only difference is whether they get Purple Tone or Strong Tone over that. I try to further differentiate by thinning the Purple Tone down more for the 4th gen Hybrids than for the more alien-looking 3rd gen Hybrids. The spotlights on their shoulders are Nihilakh Oxide over white, and I need to remember to do that after the Strong Tone in the future, because it's really fiddly trying to keep that off the lens.

 I wanted to take a couple more pics of this guy, because he's got the most chitin of anyone in this Squad. This is the hideously garish blue and red (Caledor Sky and Evil Sunz Scarlet), with a coat of undiluted Purple Tone, and then another coat of turn-of-the-century era GW purple ink, which was ridiculously shiny, and utterly crap for actually shading things, but perfect for the effect I wanted here. The first pic is closer to how it looks in person. The second, the bright lighting from the flash and light box make a bit more of the base colours show through the glaze.

And that's it for now! I've been kind of crashing since rushing to get this all done by the end of February, but I have been working on other stuff as well, and hopefully I'll have some actual new content, instead of just edits of previous posts, up soon. Until then, y'all have a good one, y'hear!

Genestealer Cults Codex Review: Vehicles

EDIT 3/4/19: I think I got all the references to Cult Creeds taken out. If you were planning on taking my advice from this, give it another look, and make sure that what you plan on doing is legit.

EDIT 2/26/19: It has just been pointed out to me that only Infantry and Bikers gain Creeds. I don't have time to go through and properly fix this right now, so just ignore those parts. Also, GW really needs to start standardizing these things. Ugh.

Here we are with the last, and smallest, section of the GSC Units to look over. Altho primarily an Infantry-based Army, there are some definite uses for some of the Vehicles they have available, particularly the Ridgerunner and the Goliath variants, which get a Cult Keyword and can benefit from some of the Cult-locked effects.

Achilles Ridgerunner: Speaking of the Ridgerunner, it's the first on the list, so let's dive in. There are a lot of potential ways you can set up a Ridgerunner to be used, but some of them are clearly better than others. It's a very light vehicle, with just a couple of extra Wounds separating its defensive Statline from that of a Sentinel, but it's substantially less disposable, coming at potentially over twice the cost of a Sentinel. This will definitely affect how good its various options are.

Other than the potential to explode (3", 1MW), the only unique special Rule it always has is Scout Vehicle. Before the first Turn begins, you can move it up to 9", staying at least 9" away from any Enemy Units. I'm going to have to play around with them for a while to figure out how worthwhile that actually is, because it also has Cult Ambush, allowing it to be held back while you just set up an Ambush Marker instead, but because of the timing of Scout Vehicle, it's mutually exclusive with Cult Ambush. I suspect it will vary case by case, but I feel like it will usually be better to keep it hidden so you can be sure to place it somewhere safe, and use Scout Sentinels if you want something that can move out from your Deployment Zone before the Game begins. Note also that this is a move, not a redeployment, so you'll need to go around any obstacles, potentially take Dangerous Terrain tests, all that sort of thing.

The Ridgerunner has three "main gun" options, plus a pair of Heavy Stubbers. Of the three, the Heavy Mortar is far and away my fave, partly because it's much cheaper than the other two, but mostly because it lets you keep the incredibly fragile Vehicle out of LoS. The Heavy Mining Laser is actually a pretty good buy compared to a regular Lascannon, but on a Ridgerunner, it's just too much of a glass cannon, and too tempting of a target for your Opponent. Similar to Brood Bros HWSs. I'd rather taken them on Rockgrinders. The Missile Launcher is just a Missile Launcher. It will function almost exactly the same as one taken on a Sentinel or in a Brood Bros Infantry Squad, but will be easier for your Opponent to destroy. Also, I must admit, I really don't like the design they went with for the Missile Launcher on this thing. It's too clearly a military weapon that was specifically designed for this Vehicle, rather than being a repurposed mining tool or something more improvised looking like the Mortar is. I'd rather see it done with something more like an Infantry Missile Launcher on a pintle mount, like some of the heavier armed pickups, or Technicals, used by parties that don't have the infrastructure for custom-built military vehicles.

The other three options are for different "support systems". If you do want to use a direct-fire Weapon on it, the Flare Launcher is a very attractive choice. Over the course of the Ridgerunner's 8 Wounds, the 6+++ roll will probably save you one of them, which isn't terrible, but isn't fantastic, either. It can also be used once per Game to basically give a Unit of Atalan Jackals the Turbo-Boost Rule for a Turn, which has some potential for shenanigans. A Spotter, on the other hand, gives you an extra 6" of range, which, especially with the Missile Launcher and Mortar, can help to keep it out of range of return fire. A bit. The third option, the Survey Augur, is the most expensive, but my fave with the Mortar, since it lets the Vehicle ignore the effects of Cover, and those are often going to be used  on stuff that's trying to hide, which often involves both LoS blocking and Cover.

The Ridgerunner does get a Cult Keyword, but most of them aren't too great for it. Hivecult and Pauper Princes both have Stratagems which give it the potential to get +1 to Hit under the right circumstances, which is pretty nice. Ridgerunners can also benefit from being near a Hivecult or Bladed Cog Warlord with the Cult-specific Trait, and they can also benefit from a Jackal Alphus's Priority Target Sighted, the re-roll 1s to Wound against a nearby Primus's chosen target, and the Deny the Witch attempt from a nearby Magus.

Goliath Rockgrinder: I'm going to go out of Codex order here, and cover the GSC-specific Vehicles first, and then the Brood Bros options afterward. The Rockgrinder is as beefy as it gets for specifically GSC Units, with T7 and 10 Wounds, tho it is unfortunately stuck with just a 4+ Save. Rugged Construction gives you a 6+++ that should be good for another Wound or two on average, but isn't to be relied on. There are basically two ways I see to use a Goliath Rockgrinder. Either seems good, but trying to mix them and have it do everything is probably going to be bad.

First, and less fun, it's one of the few things GSC have that can really be a "bunker" type of Unit. It's not great at it, but between being cheaper and being able to get Cult benefits, it's actually probably better at it than a Russ would be here. The Heavy Mining Laser is your main option here, tho the Heavy Seismic Cannon might work. (IDK. I haven't really figured out what either version of the Seismic Cannon wants to be shooting at.) But the Heavy Mining Laser is at its best here. If you want, you can also toss maybe some sort of small counter-Assault Unit like a half-dozen Stealers or Acolytes in there, or even a Patriarch. Keep a Jackal Alphus or something nearby to help boost its accuracy, and you can probably get some real value out of it.

The more fun, and probably more effective, way to use it is as an Assault Vehicle. For this, you want to give it the Clearance Incinerator, and probably a Cache of Demolition Charges. Unlike in most Armies, the main use here isn't transporting an Assault Unit (tho you should probably stick one in anyhow, given how cheap it is to add on some Acolytes, and they let you use the Cache of Demolition Charges), but actually Assaulting people with the Rockgrinder itself. Depending on how damaged it is, it gets between 2d3 and 6+d3 WS4+ Attacks on the Charge, at S9, AP -2, Damage d3.

Keep Stratagems in mind when using the Rockgrinder. This is basically what Devoted Crew was made for, maintaining a Rockgrinder with even a single Wound as a major threat as long as you have CP left. Or if it does go down, and you bought the Cache of Demolition Charges, you can use Rigged to Blow to automatically make it Explode for d3 Mortal Wounds to every Unit within 6".

As with a number of other things in the GSC Dex, the threat of what a Rockgrinder can do is probably more useful than when it actually does it. The potential to just randomly shrug off that last Wound, the ability to act at full power for one more Turn, even what it can do when it does get taken out. You can't rely on any of those, but your Opponent has to keep those possibilities in mind when deciding how to deal with it. And any time you force them to make more decisions, you increase the chances of them making one wrong.

Goliath Truck: Now, if rushing an Assault Unit up in a transport is actually what you're going for, this is the variant you're looking for. It loses most of the Rockgrinder's offensive capability, and a point of toughness, but gains a couple of inches of movement until it's on its last legs, and can carry 10 Models. It does still have Rugged Construction, for that extra little bit of durability. It also has a Heavy Stubber and Twin Autocannon, which, if you'll pardon the digression, I really don't get, fluff-wise. A Heavy Stubber (or even two like on the Ridgerunner) seems perfectly reasonable. Even civilian life in M41 is pretty dangerous, and it's been clearly established that things like Stubbers are fairly common on Vehicles that are going to be traveling through sketchy areas. Almost all the other big guns (except for the Ridgerunner's Missile Launcher, which I have the same issue with) are re-purposed mining tools, which also make perfect sense. I could even see a jury-rigged Autocannon on there. But having twin Autocannon --heavier armament than that carried by AM Chimeras or even some Space Marine Razorbacks!-- as a standard fixture on a civilian vehicle just feels ridiculous. I really think it should start as a completely demilitarized base version, with all the weapons being optional additions. It would also make the thing about 28% cheaper if you just wanted to use it to haul dudes around.

OK, rant over. And speaking of hauling dudes around, that's the other upgrade it has over a Rockgrinder: A transport capacity of 10 (a Patriarch counts as 5). Now, that's not exactly optimal for most GSC Assault Units, that generally want to run Units of 15-20, but there's still some potential there. A couple of Goliath Trucks full of Stealers, Acolytes, or Metamorphs, and then maybe a Rockgrinder with a Patriarch and another support Character, or just a handful of support Characters, probably have decent odds of getting something across the board that's worth hitting folks with. Even more so, tho, they seem just about perfect for Aberrants. They have a max Unit Size of 10, and the Abominant doesn't take up any more room than any other, so you can really pack some serious hitting power into a single Truck there. Gotta be careful with it, because that's a lot of Points in one place, but if you end up across the table from someone who's clearly going to blow it away first thing, you do still have the option to just use it as a gun truck, and bring the Aberrants and Abominant in via underground tunnels. Do keep in mind that both variants of the Goliath are Cult-locked in who they can transport, which may be an issue when mixing Cults in a single list, but is more likely to cause issues with Brood Bros.

The other thing to keep in mind about the Goliath Truck is that it has the Open Topped Rule, which can make for some pretty nasty drive-bys with a bunch of Hand Flamers or something in there. And like the Rockgrinder, it has the option for a Cache of Demolition Charges, which both add some extra short-ranged firepower while you've got a Unit embarked, and unlock the Rigged to Blow Stratagem for it. As a final note, the Goliath Truck is probably the best statline to use as the basis for any Cult Limos anyone might have lying around or in progress/planning.

Cult Armoured Sentinels: I've gotta be honest, I really don't see the point of these, in either Astra Militarum or GSC Armies. They're slightly more durable than Scout Sentinels, but a Lascannon or Krak Missile can still one-shot them, and they lose out on the pre-Game Scout Vehicle move. They are one of the two places you can get a Plasma Cannon if you really want to, but they're pretty likely to just blow themselves up with it if you ever overcharge, since they can't benefit from any of the re-roll auras or anything that Cult Units can.

Cult Scout Sentinels: The main use I see here is the Scout Vehicle Move, as described above for the Ridgerunner, if you need a way to push forward before the game begins. That's less of a big deal than it was before the removal of Turn 1 Reserves, but there are some situations where you might want a bit of a buffer, or to get on an Objective right from the start, and with a starting price as low as 35 Points each, these guys are the most efficient way to do that. I probably wouldn't run them with anything but the Multi-Laser, since cheapness is their main virtue. It is unfortunate that they don't benefit from Cult Creeds and such, because the Sentinel Chainsaw upgrade would be mildly hilarious with Twisted Helix.

Cult Leman Russ: Nice and fluffy, but not terribly useful, I think. No Tank Commander option for Orders and better BS, no access to the best variants (Punisher and Executioner), and no Orders or anything to buff their accuracy. They are the only T8 Unit available, but given that we can't take enough of them to achieve Target Saturation, that doesn't actually mean much. Maybe when Allied with Nids using some of their T8 beasties? Probably still better to just take a Brood Bros Spearhead. If you are going to take one, the Battle Cannon is the best option. At first glance, the Eradicator Nova Cannon does have potential against T3 enemies, but for just a few points more, you can take an Augur Array with a Battle Cannon and get something significantly better. The Vanquisher is just plain awful, and the Exterminator is one of the only formerly Twin-Linked weapons that didn't get its shots doubled in 8th, leaving it badly under-gunned for how expensive it is. Heavy Bolters are the only Hull/Sponson weapons worth considering in most circumstances. Heavy Flamers are occasionally really nice, but most often useless, and pretty expensive for a contingency option. Lascannon, again, is just bad here. Plasma Cannon are slightly less terrible than on a Sentinel, because you only half kill yourself with an overheat, but still pretty bad.

Cult Chimera: Pretty much a side-grade from the Goliath Truck. Costs about the same or a bit more, depending on what options you take, has a little less firepower, but the extra point of Toughness and Save are probably worth more than the loss of Rugged Construction. The Lasgun Array more or less compensates for the lack of Open Topped, and pretty much everything else is the same. The first main thing about it is that, while the Chimera can't transport Cult-Keyword Models, it's the only thing that can transport Brood Bros, so if you want to haul them around, this is what you're using. It does still have Cult Ambush, tho, so you can make use of it in all those shenanigans as well. The other big thing is that it has access to a wider range of upgrades. The Dozer Blade is garbage, and the Auger Array isn't worth much here, but the Track Guards, letting you keep going at full speed regardless of how much damage the thing has taken, are potentially very worthwhile, if a bit spendy. An extra Stubber or Storm Bolter seems like a pretty obvious choice given how cheap they are, tho.

Bonus - Tectonic Fragdrill: It's a bonus because I completely forgot about it until just now ;) My gut feeling is that this thing really isn't worth taking in Matched Play. You can get a lot in a GSC list for 75 Points, and it eats up one of your Detachments as well. Maybe if we ever get a Fort slot added to one of the other Detachments or something. If you do take it, I kinda feel like the Drill itself is the least valuable part of it. What seems much more relevant is that it's a 10" tall piece of Terrain that provides Cover, and that you get to place during Deployment. And given how Cult Ambush works, you can actually wait until you've seen a pretty good chunk of your Opponent's Deployment before deciding where to put it. Then, on top of that, you can use it to send one Unit per Turn into the underground tunnels, popping back up wherever you want (usual 9" restriction from enemies applies) at the end of your next Movement Phase. That could be incredibly handy for late game Objective Grabs, effectively letting you bring in Reserves on Turn 4+, especially if you can keep them out of LoS while they're waiting.

I would note, however, that considered purely as a Terrain kit, it's a pretty good one. The drill blocks LoS to most of the middle floor, and if you choose to build it other than as the purchasable Fort, it comes with a couple of the most useful sprues in the Sector Mechanicus line (walkways and stanchions), is US$60 for a four-sprue kit (most of those are US$75), and has a ton of cool options for things to do with the drill, including some ways it can fit together with the Galvanic Servo-Haulers kit. Check out some of them on Ray Dranfield's twitter, and the_kit_basher on Instagram.

And that's all I've got. Sorry for not breaking it up with pics this time, but I've been writing this up because of insomnia, and now I'm finally starting to crash, and I can't deal with finding pics and putting them in. Hopefully I'll have some more finished Models over the next few days before the month runs out, but my hands have been pretty shaky lately, and most of what I need to finish up needs more care and precision than I've been able to manage.  I may try to just slam out some stuff that doesn't need any fine detail work, or I may just go straight to the wrap-up/Army Lists portion of this review. Until next time, y'all have a good one now, y'hear!

Gellerpox Infected: Nightmare Hulks

Once again with the Nurgle warning. These guys include some of the grossest stuff I've ever done, so maybe don't click through to the rest of the post if you're currently eating or something. This will be the last of these for a while, tho.

OK, for those of you still with us, let's get started: