Page 5 - A way to bring the pain or a means to be a douche?

As a small departure from my normal updates, I thought I’d take a little time to talk about something that’s been bugging me recently.  As a forewarning, these rants may come up from time to time and will be labelled hence forth as Trev’s Tirades.  Such an article will pretty much contain my frustrated thoughts on a particular aspect of the hobby, whether it is the models that are on sale, the insane pricing of GW or just an experience that’s come up.  So sit back, relax, and get ready to read about what really grinds my gears. 

 Recently a few new faces have appeared at my gaming sessions which, when looked at as a singularity is a good thing.  More people to game with and game against are always a good sthing; however, it has become blatantly apprarant to me that their attitude towards the game seems to coinicde with the general description for “that guy” at tournaments.  Everyone knows who “that guy” is at a tournament.  Here’s the guy who nobody wants to face during the tournament and even when there’s 120 players attending the event, everyone quickly learns who they are – usually by the second round.  They are the guy who whinges and whines about every little ruling, who argue with you until you give in and they get their way.  They are the ones that in a team game, will happily sacrifice their allies faction to ensure that their own is protected from harm (and then rub it in their faces).  He’s the pseudo rules-lawyer and the guy who thinks he knows everything about anything when in actual fact, he knows nothing about a majority of things.  For the sake of clarity, I’ll give you an example:

Currently in our role-playing group, we have a situation where a majority of our players have decided to play pointy-eared girly elves.  Now of those playing elves, a couple of the guys decide they’re going to play pretty seriously and adopt the whole “I’m-an-elf-and-you’re-not-so-you’re-not-worth-my-time” crap to not only the NPC’s that they come across but also the non-elf players too.  At the start, everyone seems to be cool with that.  For a lot of us, we play purely so we can have a bit of fun, we’re not really into the whole ‘roleplaying’ thing (and by ‘roleplaying thing’ I mean, lets put on pointy ears, funny hats and really immerse ourselves in the game itself with voice acting etc).  So when these guys choose that course of action I’m OK with that, because I feel that having different playing styles are important for a group as it provides diversity and increases the fun.  However, when these players decide that this is an excuse to act like a dick and be condescending to everyone else in the group, arguing with the DM about rulings and holding back party loot and other key items/ plans, it gets really old, really quickly.  Eventually such behaviour stops being “I’m in character” and starts being “I’m just using this as an excuse to be a fuck-wit.”

Hey dude, it’s a GAME that people play to have FUN OK!?!?  Just because you are encouraged to play competitively does not give you the right to act like a jack-ass, screwing over everyone else just so you can feel good about playing a pointy-eared girly-man elf in a make-believe world.  Fucking with your team-mates does not make you cool – it makes you a douche and if that’s the way you’re going to play, then do it somewhere else, far away from the rest of us. 

This is Trev and this is my Tirade. 

Catch you all later.  

And so begins the march of the Empire Slave-train

This week’s painting schedule was broken up a little with the purchase of a box of Empire Flagellants, which will be used to create the captured Empire citizenry that is being force-marched north to the Chaos Wastes.  The Flagellant models themselves lend themselves well to this role, due to their already wild and abused look and the frames contain a plethora of chains that can be used to give the impression of manacles.  The box also comes with enough bits to have no less than 2 of your captives thrown into stocks to make them more compliant, which is just pure gold in my opinion.  Looking at the various heads that come with the box, there are a number that lend themselves well to various Chaos Powers.  For example, there is a head that looks as if the unfortunate victim has been enclosed in an Iron Mask, while another is gagged using a rough piece of rope (both perfect for Slaanesh).  This weekend saw me assembling 6 of the little fellows for use in my Tzeentch warrior unit, quickly boosting the size of the unit to 26.  I just need to add another warrior to act as my Warden and the unit has reached my desired minimum unit size of 27 (9x3).   A unit this size will be capable of grinding with the best of them, ensuring that they can take significant punishment, while still possessing sufficient strength to give it back.

Tzeentch Chaos Warriors Front

Chaos Warriors from the right

Chaos Warriors from the left

As well as assembling my unit filler, I was able to finish painting and basing my second rank of 5 Warriors of Tzeentch.  I’ve taken the opportunity with this unit to give all the raised areas of Bronze a wash of Gryphonne Sepia to give the metal more warmth; an effect I’m quite happy with.  

2nd Rank of Chaos Warriors front

2nd Rank of Chaos Warriors back

Finally, I also got the chance to finish painting a set of barricades and craters that I purchased from Amera Plastics (http://www.amera.co.uk/product.php?range=z).  These miniatures are brilliant in their level of detail as well as their ease of painting.  For the most part, all the dirt was completed using a base coat of Scorched Brown, with layers of Bubonic Brown and Bleached Bone dry brushed on top before washing the entire piece with Devlan Mud.  Once dried, I painted the borders with a coat of Chardon Granite, which is a fairly neutral colour that allows the pieces to be used on a range of fields.  

Well that’s all for this entry, I’ll catch you all later. 

Trev

Fandexes, Bronze 2.0 and Guest Spots

This last week I’ve been thinking heavily about Unofficial Army Books that are brought out by the fans of Warhammer and what it means for the game as a whole.  The Warhammer Forum (http://battlereporter.freeforums.org/warhammer-army-books-fan-made-unofficial-f88.html) has a number of these ‘Fandexes’ in PDF format and the three that caught my attention initially were Army Books for the armies of Albion (Celtic barbarians), one for the armies of Nippon (Samurai for the win) and the lands of the Norse (Vikings ho!).  It should be noted early that these books are not your half-arsed I’m-gonna-make-my-army-invincible army books. No siree, these books are well researched, well laid out, and for the most part relatively balanced in comparison to their GW counterparts (Deamons, Dark Elves and Skaven not withstanding).  This is particularly true for the Nippon Army book that combines army specific special rules and appropriately costed unit choices with thematic but not unbalanced magical items.  While I have not yet had a chance to playtest any of the Fandexes, the modelling opportunities for the adventurous gamer are almost endless.   I hope in the future to be able to report back to you on the performance of some of these books.

But my week has not been totally consumed by reading (although there has been a great deal of that); I’ve also finally completed another rank of Tzeentch infantry for my Chaos Warriors.  With this rank I’ve experimented with some of the washes used to shade the bronze armour with varying levels of success.  For example, I used a combination of Delvan Mud and Badab Black to shade the Chaos symbol on this shield.  While the black provided a significant level of shading, I feel it’s too stark for the bronze armour, leaching too much colour from the shield as a whole.

Another test was through the use of the Griphonne Sepia wash to brighten the bronze armour on the parts not covered by the shield.  This test was relatively more successful, with the sepia tones brightening the armour, making it look less... dirty (for lack of a better word).  This technique has been repeated on the armour of my BSB.  Note on the BSB’s armour, that it has been highlighted first using Shining Gold in an attempt to provide another level of highlighting to further distinguish him from the rest of the men.  Something I believe has been quite successful on the whole. 

Finally, as a means of providing a bit of variety for the readers, I’m looking to enlist a number of guest writers to periodically provide articles for the blog.  If you’re interested, please feel free to contact me here by leaving a comment.

Catch you all later

Trev

Thunder Wolves are go!!

These last couple of days have been a little mediocre on the painting front, with only a couple of warriors having their shields painted and their bases finished.  On the upside however, I've been doing some work on the Warshrine, finishing the prep work so that re-basing and filling can begin.  In the pictures that I posted last week, I did not include the back banner that was jutting out of the spine of the giant.  Since then I've magnetised the banner so that it can be removed and attached as the need arises.  Once more progress has been made, I'll be sure to upload some pics.  

Today I received a package from the good people of Paulson Games: http://www.paulsongames.com/page/page/5879537.htm I'd ordered one of their resin wolves that have been marketed as one of the many conversion kits for Thunder Wolf Cav, in hopes that I may be able to use them as mounts for my Chaos Knights.  While mounting the armoured warriors will require some green stuff work, mounting my Chaos Sorcerer, however will not be as great a challenge.  The pics below give you some idea of just how good this mini looks.  I'm hoping that I can make this unit work, because it would be a crime to ruin such impressive sculpting.

 

I'm working on ideas to make the wolves a little more armoured, so I'm keen to hear your thoughts.  

Catch you all later 

Trev