Saturday, June 7, 2014

Durgan: enter the dragon

This is the latest hybrid tank I've been messing with - we call it Durgan's Dragon.

Basically we wanted to try and make a form of JCB originally as a piece of scenery for our battles.  We decided to use an Academy 1/35 StuG IV model kit, we wanted really to make some form of "crane-tank".


We did fall in love with the model though, although the side armour just didn't work for us.  The instructions are a bit mystical in places, although when you're hybriding you tend to pick-and-choose anyway.

The back story for this was that this was a tank run by "the clean up crew".  They're basically scrap merchants who comb through the aftermath of a battle, looking for anything they can salvage.  They hang anything they thing has use off the back, and can even tow any semi-working vehicle with them.  But otherwise they keep a loose collection of bits off the back, with any trinkets kept inside.

I wanted to replace the turret with a crane, but (a) it seems impossible to buy a crane kit and (b) the gun just looks so cool!  We fitted the tank with some flamers, reasoning that if they came across any infantry, they'd want to just flame them out of the way.  But in the face of another tank, they'd want to run away.

With so much flame, the name Dragon seemed only appropriate, indeed there seemed an entire backstory to the salvager guy who ran that tank and made a living scouring battle sites ...




Meet Durgan ...

The name’s Durgan, and I hear you want to do a bit of business, and I might just be your man.  Oh, you want to know about me?  Well what’s to tell …

I grew up on the agri-world of Kenzel V on me parents farm.  There was an extended group of us, but we had to be pretty self-sufficient.  Never been much of the farming kind, but the machinery – now that had me interested.  The family tractor had a few quirks, so there was a lot to learn servicing it and keeping it running.  It was a good life, and I have a lot of fond memories, but it wasn’t to last.

It all ended when I was 10 and the sky turned black one afternoon near harvest … it’d come out of the blue.  We’d never heard of Tyranids before, it’s not a name now I’m soon to forget.  Before we knew it, spores were falling onto the farm.  They cracked open, and that yell they gave… before I knew it, all hell broke loose.  We were running to the stormshelter when the Valkeries from the nearby garrison came overhead.

Explosions rocked everywhere.  I was knocked unconscious with my family, but woke up an orphan.  Yeah, life has a way of being brutal alright.  I was pretty much an angry kid, couldn’t wait until I could enlist and get some revenge.  The Astro Militarium became a new family really – I was with the Kenzel Revengers.

I did well enough to become one of the elite Stormtroopers … well most of the time.  I had a habit of having issues with some of my commanders.  That would often mean me getting demoted temporarily.  One of my CO’s favourites would be to assign me Ogyrn babysitting duties.

A lot of people have a problem with Ogyrns, I’m not going to lie, they do stink.  But you get used to it, at least they don’t have their head up their ass like some people I know.  And they’re loyal – something you can’t say about many people.

Anyway, that’s where I first got to meet Kurr, he was the Bonehead commander of a group of an Ogryn unit.  To be honest, we didn’t get off to a great start.  He’d mainly just sneer and growl at me.

But life with the Kenzel Revengers all kind of fell apart at Sherbourne.  The world had been part of a monumental (and unsuccessful) battlefield against a great Ork Waaargh of the past, and the world was littered with Ork, Space Marine and Imperial Guard debris.  The Orks had defeated mankind thousands of years ago, and then moved on, but another Waaargh had return to pick up from the last one.

It was a brutal war – I was still on Ogyrn duty, but my Stormtrooper unit were misplaced on the battlefield by a junior officer who didn’t know his arse from his elbow.  They were placed in the centre of a Nobb unit from a Valkerie and jumped, being killed to a man.  I was the lucky one, if I’d not been subordinate I’d have been dead with them.  Even so, I only survived the battle by sheer luck.  That officer wasn’t done yet, spreading all us infantry units too far apart, and too far away to get support for our heavy armour.  The Chimera I was in with the Ogryns was hit by some burna boys.  We jumped out – they were led by a huge Ork Nobb, and I was glad to be next to some Ogryns that day.  Ogryns can be terrible and brutal, it makes you glad they’re on your side.  I tried to take out that Nobb with my hotshot lasgun, all I got was his attention.  As he charged me I was sure I was done for.  Then out of nowhere Kurr, stepped in front of me, holding his emptied ripper gun, and hitting the big Orks head repeatedly until the skull was smashed into the ground.  Yeah, that seemed to scare even some of the Orks.

But we were being overrun, there were just Orks everywhere, already Kurr was the only Ogryn left, the others having been injured in the melee.  I grabbed Kurr, and told him to fall back with me.  But from out of nowhere a Commissar appeared on top of the Chimera ordering us back into the fray.  I tried telling him we needed to regroup, we were going to be easily overrun here.  The idiot tried to get the drop on me and punish me as an example.  Sorry, but a Commisar is no match for a Stormtrooper, and I got the drop on him.  [I found out much later I didn’t finish him, and he’s out for revenge on me if he ever finds me]

We made it back to our command line, and it was chaos, everywhere was trying to evacuate.  I managed to get Kurr into the Valkerie, but we were hit soon after launch.  The pilot did his best, and he got us several hundred clicks away before we crashed.  We were at least well away from the battle, though only me, Kurr and the pilot survived the landing.  We were lucky though – we’d landed at the site of the previous Waaargh – lots of junk to hide in, lots to scavenge.

As a Stormtrooper this kind of survival had been part of out core training.  I found some old, thousand plus year old rations (which were still kind of edible).  I kept an eye on the sky – it was obvious at night that our fleet had pulled out.  We were here on our own, just me, Kurr and the pilor Mason.  They wouldn’t have lasted without me, or to be fair, me without them.

Mason was alright, a bit of a dick, who’d worked Imperial Navy and thought he was smarter than you because he was better read.  We tried to lay low – the wreckage field was the perfect place.  Occasionally a couple of the mech Orks came to see what they could salvage.  The trick was to hide in something that didn’t have much value.  If it was just the one, we got good at working as a team, Mason or me would run interference, and Kurr would sneak behind them and snap its neck.  Seems fights between the Orks were common, and it wasn’t unusual for two Orks to kill each other over junk/loot.

Eventually we decided we’d just have to make a move – there’d been a lot of activity, and Mason said it looked like the Orks were moving off.  That was good news for us, and a sign to get out of the debris field.  That’s where we found the Dragon, she was hidden in a nearby cave, though one of her treads were broken.  They must have never had a chance to fix it as they became overrun.

She was a tank unlike anything I’d ever seen – painted in Space Marine Salamanders colours.  The moment I saw her was love at first sight, I knew I had to have her.  She’d been there for thousands of years, but sheltered from the worst of it.  When it comes to it, most tanks engines in the Imperium are only a degree or two from a farm tractor.  The engine didn’t work, but even I could tell she was in good shape.  Some new leads, oil, spark plugs.  We were sitting on all the spares you could imagine ever needing, and in Kurr we had the muscle we needed to help get at those parts.  [Note – Ogyrn beats any winch or jack you’d ever need].

We got all the fuel we needed, and some besides, managing to also fill the flamer units on the tank.  Feeling a little braver we started to explore.  But Mason was right – the Orks had moved off.  Sherbourne it seems was always a stepping stone objective.  We ran into the occasional Orks, the ones who’d not quite made the call back to Waaargh, or maybe had pissed someone off.  We had to be constantly on our guard.  We made it back to the command post.  The Orks had looted a lot, but there were still things to take – rations (which were thankfully more recent), fuel, radios.  We tried making contact, but there seemed to be no-one out there.  The Imperial Guard had been beaten back, any stragglers massacred, and were now pursuing the Waaargh.

We were there four years.  We got good at sorting through the debris, finding things that were useful.  If we got bored, we tended to blow stuff up for a laugh.  We had ammunition coming out our arse, so it was worth it.  It was interesting, sometimes you found interesting trinkets, and added to your collection, some fuel here, spare treads and engine part here.

I managed to get my first bolt pistol.  In the Guard you’re told you’re given the most advanced weaponry in the Universe to stop the alien hoard and make him shake in fear at humanities might … and then they hand you a lasgun.  The hotshot lasguns we Stormtroopers had were a bit better, but basically when an Ork charges you, you’re unloading every shot you can at them, hoping you get lucky.  Then you get your hands on a bolt gun.  Okay, the recoil is enough to almost take your arm off if you don’t hold it correct.  But from the first shot, I decided I was never going back to a laspistol ever again.

Collecting weapons became a bit of a hobby of mine.  You can see I tend to carry a multimelta around with me – has to be my favourite.  It’s unsubtle, and you have to hold your nerve given its short range, but it gets the point across that I’m not to be messed with!

Thankfully eventually a Rogue Trader came along looking like us for any scrap – as we’d already looted the good stuff, we were able to trade with them for passage offworld, including for the Dragon, which we’d repainted by now to be more camouflaged.

Now give us credit, we did try and report back to the Kenzel Revengers, but they’d been wiped out during the Waaargh.  And as far as records were concerned, Kurr, Mason and myself were all dead, and the bureaucrats being as they are, they weren’t about to persuaded otherwise.

So the bad news, no back pay.  But the good news, we were free to do what we wanted.  We did okay though, we hadn’t traded everything we’d found for passage offworld.  We managed to find a fence, a squat called Oberon for the rest of it.

We picked up a business partner though, Masons wife Helga, who was a fellow pilot.  I wish I could call her a silent business partner.  He never mentioned her in our time on Sherbourne, though if I was her husband, not sure I’d want to own up to it either.  She’s handy in a firefight, and can be as mean as any Ogyrn if you cross her.  But all the same, she’s a massive pain in the arse.

We also picked up a dedicated mechanic, a Halfling lady called Amber, she’s alright, useful little tunnel rat, and a dead shot with a rifle.  Always happy going outside knowing she’s got her hands on the guns to support me.

Yeah, so we salvage full time – Mason is always hunting for news of battles, and then we come afterwards to help the clearing up.  Its handy the Dragon has a bit of fighting capacity, but we’re not heroes.  If we see a couple of Orks we’ll burn ‘em, but generally we just turn around and run aware REALLY FAST.  That’s why we’ve got a smoke launcher on the rear – to help us get away!

Most times all you get is spare parts – you got to know what’s worth rescuing.  Mainly we just sell back the Astro Militarium and Space Marines their own stuff back.  Weapon systems are always handy if they’re not too beat up, the Militarium tend to be cheapskates, though you’d be surprised how many farmers or industrialists want a lascannon battery to keep poachers and looters away.

Space Marines can be easy to anger if you try and charge too much, it’s best to let them set a price.  They then feel honour bound to give a good price and save face.  Most of their power armour and weapons are prized antiquities, so always worth gathering them.  If the dead is recent, they can harvest geneseed from it, so we’ve got freezer room for 3 in the back.  I typically don’t even talk about charging for their return, it means they tend to pay more for anything else you have.

I do get it though, if someone offered to return the body of my family after the Tyranid attack or one of my Stormtrooper pals, I’d not want them asking for cash.  Space Marines for all their superhumanness, they get that.

But once in a while, you hit a real prize, and we keep an occasional item – Kurr has a Thunderhammer he’s taken a shine to.  Ogryn with a Thunderhammer, now that’s scary.  Some of it we have no idea of, not even Mason, but Oberon always seems to know what’s what.

So anyway – that’s my story, here’s my three rules,

  • No Salamanders.  I don’t want them recognizing the Dragon.
  • No Chaos.  Pretty much all their stuff if cursed.
  • No Necrons.  You never know if they’re dead of not.


Still interested?  How can we do business then?

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Some speculation on collecting and recent codices ...

This weekend saw me come to a weird experience you only get occasionally in the wargaming hobby.  It's the experience of "done".  You need to embrace it, it doesn't last for long ...

It was a great opportunity to collect up my Storm Wolf army and put them on display.  They look amazing ...


Don't laugh, but Calgar reminds me of my grandfather







Yup - I've got almost a quarter of a chapter there, but I have no desire to build a whole set (I seem to just end up getting more and more marines).  I have a hangup about using any model for a battle without it being "done" (and based even).  So done is a big thing, and it's taken about 10 years to get this army to this state.  Of course in that time I've learned a lot about assembly and painting, and I occasionally notice a model that "needs a revamp" to bring up to snuff.

Of course a new Codex is a mixed bag of emotion.  When I played Space Marines at Call To Arms 2013, it was generally noticed that compared to many of the races which had been updated, they were a hard race to play at the moment.  That's not necessarily a bad thing - in the 2010 Call To Arms, we saw about 60% of players were just various Space Marine regiments.  Diversity is good for the game.

A new Codex means new ways of playing with your existing force.  I have to feel a bit cynical though - as also with a new Codex there are always "new toys" introduced, which typically feel like it's time to dig into your pocket again and buy more Games Workshop merchandise.

The new Space Marine codex in September last year introduced some interesting new weapons,

  • the grav gun.  Typically most codices under 6th edition have been introducing high toughness, multi-wound, monstrous creatures.  With the relegation of the tank under 6th edition, these seemed to be the new "in vogue" killing machine.  Interestingly Space Marines didn't get them, but this weapon is very much the "monstrous creature hunter".  Annoyingly though (thanks Games Workshop), you only get one in a new pack of space marines.  And as you can imagine (I own about 200 of them), the last thing I need to do is buy three new packs of space marine just to get 3 x grav guns.  Hence I've ended up improvising my own - trying to make them look like almost an anti-grav coil/toxic super-soaker ...

  • the anti-flier tanks.  I've been split between buying one of these or an Aegis defence line, with it's anti-aircraft gun.  Ended up going for the defence line, just so again I can improvise the Stalker tank with a Razorback.



  • Centurions.  Hmmm ... in a way very cool, they're a squad of multi-wound tough guys.  They're somewhere between a Terminator and a Dreadnought.  I haven't ended up buying a pack yet, as I'm not won on them.  They don't have an invulnerable armour save, so would be the target of most malicious players (oh that's mean, but we're all malicious players at heart).  But against this they have 2 wounds and a lot of weaponry.  All the same as I saw in this video, I have to agree, "where is our Riptide or Helldrake?".


The codex was nice, and a good read, but of course, release on release there's a lot of repeated artwork and fluff.

Not so cool was my son's update of the Imperial Guard of Adeptus Ministorum as they're now called (technically they were always called this, but this is how they're now sold).  A bit like with the new rules changes, it's a lot of money for very little changes (it felt a very lazy update).

My son's really annoyed at losing his penal legionnaires (they were a cool unit), but there's very few changes - the introduction of a new mortar tank, and heavy armoured Ogryns, which although cool, there doesn't really seem much point in.  Certainly in a world of Terminators and Riptides, the Ogryns seem the poor and expendable cousins.  Heck I'd put my money on a Nob with a power weapon over the Ogryn.

Next projects ... I'm actually busy building a tank to use as a piece of scenery - very much a hunt for scenery type object.  I really like the idea of getting either a JCB model or old style tractor (pre-roll cage) to decorate our landscapes.





Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Warhammer 7th Edition quick reference and review

Technically the new rulebook "isn't really 7th edition", however ... the name's kind of stuck.

We were a little disappointed to find the rulebook was being updated - 6th edition has been out only about 18 months after all.  And here in New Zealand, it's a whopping $165 to buy (that's about 80 GBP folks thanks to the weighted price system Games Workshop uses).

It's a sad fact, but thanks to that weighted price system and a few other practices, Warhammer 40,000 has been very much in decline in New Zealand, with many gamers defecting to Warmachine or Flames of War, and with tournaments slightly struggling for numbers.

Our friend Luke summed it up nicely when he said "well ... I do have a lot invested in Warhammer to start over in another system".  I certainly find myself quite cynical about Games Workshops attitudes to fans, esp those of us in other countries (we typically pay a 50% markup on prices compared to UK/US prices).  Games Workshop was never in my 25 years of playing "the cheap option".

But at the same time, we do love the universe of Warhammer 40k, it's just something we love, live, breathe ... and certainly from my army below (I only really collect Space Marines ... although I've got a usable smallish Dark Eldar army) ...


What I've found essential is the Black Library - I bought the latest rules copy electronically - that came out for me as about NZD80 vs NZD165 - that helped, a lot!  Since 6th edition we've managed to get a couple of ebook readers, which has made this edition the easiest to read (I've an old Kindle, so I've been taking and digesitng the rules wherever I travel ...).

Overall as many blogs have said, it's not really a new "7th edition", more version 6.5, with a few tweaks over a major overhaul.  I've been playing Warhammer since 1988, so it's hard to reread the rules, you tend do go "to hit ... know this, to wound ... I know this as well ..." and it tends to be only when you play with someone else you notice "oh - I missed this tweak".  Usually it's the rule you've missed that always hurts the most ... [With 6th edition I'd missed about power weapons now being AP3 ... and I found this out ... at a tournament!]

So an overview of those changes ...
  • Psychic powers get their own phase!  Pretty much a nice idea.  The psychic rules also feel much more like those from 1st edition, a little more powerful but a lot more unreliable as well.
  • Vehicles - they got pawned in 6th edition, which made high toughness, multi wound monsters the way to go.  Now it's much harder to explode a vehicle.
  • Force Organisation mods - you can now cast out the force organisation changes and build any army you want.  This is kind of fun ... we've never been too religious about this, and tried some things "just to see" in the past.


Somethings I'm a bit cynical about,
  • Mallefic psychic powers.  You're able to basically spawn a large host of demons.  A lot of powermonger players already have plans around this "I can spawn even more psykers ... then spawn more".
  • Lord Of War inclusion. I guess the Escallation book started this, but you can now include an apocalypse unit in normal Warhammer games.  I've seen this happen before when I've organised games and someone has included a Titan because "you didn't explicitly say apocalypse was banned".  But believe me, when a player has prepared an infantry heavy army and their opponent brings in a Titan or Baneblade, it's such an incredibly one-sided and no-fun a game.

So these changes, together with "no force organisation" - 'hey ... my 10 Riptide army, woo hoo!'- has me just a bit ...


Of course such gamers will always exist.  What worries me is will this mean really I need to go out and get some form of Lord Of War?  And then does the game become "both sides bring a Lord of War ... first person to kill the others Lord Of War is essentially the winner".  Well that will become quite boring.

I'm quite pleased that our local tournament, Call To Arms has included rules to say "no escalation models" from the off.

Personally I might like to face off against a Lord Of War (I don't have one), but I'd like to know ahead of time one was coming.  I guess it's just basic player courtesy and etiquette.

Anyway, as per last time, we've put together a 7th Edition quick play guide for the new rules.  I find it really useful to have this, and also to go through the rules to write it.  As I said last time, it's actually frustrating that Games Workshop aren't making these available anymore as a downloadable PDF - they did in the 5th edition, and another side of the increasingly ill-manner in which Games Workshop treats its fans.  The site (much like the magazines) used to be about inspiring and supporting the game.  Now it's just basically an "Amazon sales portal" for Games Workshop products

You can buy one only as part of the expensively packaged "limited edition" set, which is something like about NZD650.  So ouch, but no thanks.

This guide is not meant as a substitute for buying the rulebook, but just as an aid to gameplay.  And on that subject, here's a major feature of the ebook, you can search it!  I've been looking for "dangerous terrain test", just enter it into the search, and you find all the references for it.  This is going to be so incredibly useful!  In fact I'm trying right now to justify buying an electronic version of the Space Marines codex that I already own!

Saturday, January 4, 2014

So, you want to get into Warhammer 40,000?



Getting into wargaming can feel a bit daunting at first, but it really is a superb hobby.  Obviously we're Warhammer 40,000 players although we are interested in Infinity and have dabbled in Flames of War.

The unfortunate fact is that Warhammer 40,000 doesn't come cheap, but I'll make a few suggestions as we go along to help with that.

As mentioned I've been into Warhammer on and off since it was launched.