Monthly Vox: 9 (January, 2022)

 Alrighty! So this month hasn't been the craziest when it comes to hobby-ing but what can you do? I was able to recover from my C19 and jumped straight back into my local club where I've been able to get a few practice games in for an upcoming tournament over at my local club, GTGC. More on that at a later date.

Modelling and Painting

Last month I mentioned participating in Knightfall Indomitus 2021/2022 and vowing to paint up my small 400 point Phobos force. I may be a day premature on this but I can say confidently that I have failed my vow. The tournament coming up has had me painting all the wrong stuff to get it battle-ready and I just haven't had the time to paint stuff that wasn't going to score me 10VP. I will bare my mark of shame over on Bolter and Chainsword and aim to get it done ASAP

Venerable Dreadnought

This gloriously entombed brother hasn't been given a name yet but he's more than ready to kick some ass on the table. Rocking a custom-printed Missile Launcher system courtesy of Craig over at the3dprinter on eBay who kindly stepped forward to design and print me the Missile Launcher to save me the hassle of buying a standard Dreadnought kit just to acquire one. 

All weapons are currently blu-tac'd in place while I get in more magnets. The plan is for all of this stumpy fella's armaments to be completely swappable, though to be honest I'll probably be running the pictured loadout more often than not. 

Eliminator Sgt

This guy was a lot of fun to paint up and I'm honestly super happy with how he turned out. Originally my first step towards completing the aforementioned Knightfall vow, I got to try a knew blending technique and also got to paint up a Camo Cloak.

I actually painted this guy up in a time-lapse over on the Fistful of Beans YouTube channel. More on that a little later.

Reiver Castellan

The second model I painted in a time-lapse on the Fistful of Beans YouTube channel (again, more on that later), this guy turned out alright and was a great bit of practice at painting dark skin tones. He was also a lot of fun to kitbash together from various Infiltrator/Incursor bits I had lying about. 

Gameplay

Crushing Stampede

So last week I got to test my 1.5k tournie list at the GTGC and got my first taste of the new Crushing Stampede army of renown for Tyranids that arrived with Issue 471 of White Dwarf. Now I don't know if it was my opponent, Chaz, making practically all of his 5++ saves on his various wonderfully painted Nidzillas but the Crushing Stampede rules certainly seem incredibly durable. My tournament list features a potential 13 d6 damage shots and I was able to land about 2 damage across 3 turns. Granted, hopefully that's the worst of my luck out of the way for the tournament ahead. 

Anyway, here's some pics of my Templars suffering a crushing defeat at the hands(?) of the Nidzilla Stampede:

Closing Statement

So while this month wasn't the craziest in terms of hobby progress, the blog still took a few steps in the right direction with the creation of a Twitter profile and YouTube channel. I'm not quite sure what'll be arriving on either of these but the YouTube channel already features two time-lapse proof-of-concepts with potentially more to arrive. 

So that's it for this month! Somehow the site has been getting traffic more consistent than I can post content and it's super great to see! It's great looking at analytics charts and seeing that some of you guys out there are genuinely interested in this blog. 

I'll be moving later this year and plan on dedicated a portion of my hobby space to producing, recording, and photographing more awesome content for you guys so stick around!

Until then, Auf Wierdersehen!

Cheers, 
Ryan

5 Months Later, Is Warhammer+ Worth the Money?

 So WH+ Dropped about 5 months ago and while some people were sceptical, or even angry, about the platform at first, it's evident that it's here to stay. Warhammer+ has kept it's promises of drip-feeding weekly content to its two major platforms: Warhammer TV and the Warhammer Vault, the latter of which they have done an exceptional job filling with a variety of content and lore. The prior, not so much. 

Warhammer TV has seen weekly releases that have varied from exciting to downright pathetic. Obviously animation and writing are things that take time but with upwards of three simultaneous series on the go, it feels like we should be expecting more each week. Some weeks users can expect to see a new episode, or even two, of one of the series featured on the platform like the gritty Angels of Death, the short stories of Hammer and Bolter, and a Battle Report, and others we'll be lucky to get a single 10-minute guide on base-coating skin, and then putting some shade wash on it. 

Warhammer TV still has a lot of potential as well as some genuinely good content once it arrives. It's particularly it's weekly release schedule that leaves a lot to be desired. If you are considering picking up a subscription this month just to binge-watch the last 5 months worth of content, I heavily encourage it. Angels of Death, for instance, has a combined total runtime of about 3 hours, allowing it to be watched like a long film. Hammer and Bolter (similar runtime) utilises individual stories that are totally independent of each other making them perfect for a lunchbreak or bus ride without leaving a moreish taste in your mouth. All in all, at present, Warhammer TV can be binged, in its entirety, in a weekend or even a single day. 

However, you probably aren't going to want to watch everything. I for one, am not going to sit there and watch endless trailers back-to-back, and the 'Best of Citadel Colour' series has very little for me as an intermediate painter (and can also be found in it's entirety on the Warhammer YouTube channel..)*. You should consider this when subscribing. 

A subscription to Warhammer+ also gets you access to Games Workshop's official Warhammer list-building apps. If you plan on subscribing with the main intent of utilising these apps then I would not encourage it. You are clearly not of sound mind and that money would be put to better use like medication or a private psychologist. Alternatively, go ahead. I'd feel safer knowing you couldn't afford as much ammunition for your inevitable mental collapse.

(Still not alphabetised. Still no search bar...)

In conclusion, is it worth it? Yes! There's a decent chunk of content on both of Warhammer+'s two platforms and it's definitely worth a month's sub. It's mainly Warhammer TVs weekly release schedule that feels a little lack-luster so I would only encourage repeated monthly subscriptions if you feel like you'll spend a lot of time on the Warhammer Vault, as I do. 

I hope this helped some of you make an informed decision. This month's Vox will be coming probably sometime next week and that Black Templar Codex review is on it's way, I swear!

Cheers,

Ryan

*I do, however, make a lot of use out of most of the 'Citadel Masterclass' tutorials  when they release as most of them cover intermediate topics that can be applied to almost any model.

The Genestealer Cults' New 'Brood Brothers' Rule is the Kind of Viable Fluff We Want to See

 

Today Warhammer Community revealed a cool new rule in the up-coming Genestealer Cults Codex that I think other Faction Codices could learn a thing or two from. The rule, allowing Cults to take a detachment of Imperial Guard is exactly the kind of thing I like to see. From a competitive standpoint, it gives the cults a few more options as they have one of the more limiting unit rosters in terms of viable firepower. Throwing in a detachment of Basilisks certainly wouldn't detriment the cults by any means.

The 'Brood Brothers' rule allows a battle-forged GSC army to include one Astra Militarum detachment to, effectively, be treated as GSC units by gaining the 'Brood Brothers' keyword. However, there are catches. Since this is not, technically, an Astra Militarum detachment, no models in the attachment can be given relics or declared as a warlord. This is fair enough though, right? After all, you are playing cults, not guard. Furthermore, the combined cost of this detachment can not equal more than 25% of your army's total points. See: previous sentence. 

Any Militarum units in a Brood Brothers detachment also gain 'Loyalty to the Cult' as their faux regiment, granting them +2 Leadership to all models in the detachment, as well as the 'Unquestioning Loyalty' ability which, by it's original ruling, allows them to intercept wounds that would be allocated to a nearby Character. "Get down Mr. President!".

Templars on the left representing 😎

But here's the kicker. Not only does this rule sound very viable for cultist lists, but it's also incredibly fluffy! There's an argument to be made that there is competition, and there is fluff, and never the twain shall meet but I say fuck that! Fluff has it's place outside of Narrative modes and it's great to see a, frankly over-looked, faction get something that is not only very in-keeping for the faction, but also viable from a competitive standpoint. 

I can't wait to see an opponent back-up their cultists with a battalion of Leman Russes. Granted, I'm sure I'll change my tune when I'm hit with a volley of Demolisher rounds but we shall see.

Until next time! 

Cheers,

Ryan

Monthly Vox: 8 (December, 2021)

Happy New Year everybody! Yes, I know it's another late vox and the site has been super quiet this month but the Holidays, combined with my acquisition of COVID-19 has made things a little shaky. I hope you all had a lovely New Years Eve and were not unfortunate enough to acquire Nurgle's Rot as I have. Do not fear, however! I am on the up and you are at no risk of catching the 'rona through this site. With that, let's get into what December brought...

Modelling and Painting

High Marshal Helbrecht

I was lucky enough to maintain the motivation to paint the high-marshal in all his glory over the course of a combined 24 hours or so. I think that comparing him next to his original finecast model not only shows how far miniature sculpting tech has come but also how much I've improved as a painter this year. My shoddy photography really doesn't do it justice.

The community seemed to like my rendition of this fella because when I put it out on some Black Templar facebook groups, alongside some closeups of his terribly-painted face (I'm still no good at those), he was quickly integrated into a meme by The Eternal ShitPoster. 

Invictor Tactical Warsuit 

Using some of the mangled Necrons from the Sgt Castus kit, along with the legs of a spare necron from Imperium Magazine, I was able to get the Invictor Warsuit I bought off a clubmate over a year ago paint-ready while giving it a bit more visual interest. 

Yes, there's an argument to be made that both necrons featured on the model would probably just phase-out but maybe they're giving it one last go. The cron being clutched and lifted into the air seems to be making a grab at the pilot and the one under the Warsuit's foot appears to be reaching for his Gauss Flayer. That is how I shall justify it so shhh.

Redemptor Dreadnought (Re-Paint)

I decided to touch-up Dreadnought Alfons to be more in-keeping with the rest of my army. This was simple enough and mostly involved painting over and re-doing highlights, as well as fixing any transit damage he may have accrued. Alfons was painted in the pre-varnish era of my hobby journey. Fool me once... I am yet to repaint the weapons but they'll do for now. 

Re-Paint Prep

This month was a real slow month in terms of new projects because I kept touching up old models and even re-primed a large amount of them as well as priming old kit-bashes and stuff to hopefully encourage me to paint them more because priming is boring as hell. I intend to have these guys looking a bit more in-keeping with the rest of my army and also paint them to a generally better standard. I intend to do this with almost all my models over the next couple of months as well as having a good sit-down and going crazy with transfers even though I normally hate using them. We shall see...

Knightfall Indomitus 2021/2022 Vow

I'm also participating in this year's Knightfall over on Bolter and Chainsword and have vowed to put paint on the following units for a total of 405pts:

• 1x Phobos Marshal (95)
• 1x Reiver Castellan (75)
• 1x Invictor Tactical Warsuit (Seen earlier, 160)
• 1x Eliminator Squad (75)

I always find myself neglecting my Phobos models a little so I plan on using this vow to get through a bit of the backlog I've built. Big thanks to TheOneTrueZon over on B&C for setting things up. 

Site Changes

There's been a few changes on the site this month. The head-canon intertwining my 40K armies, the 'Gannach Crusade',  has been heavily restructured and renamed 'Warzone: Gannach' to pull less focus away from my Black Templars and stay more in-keeping with the 40K setting. I'm still not 100% committed to the structuring and navigation system but Blogger's tools are fairly limiting when it comes to large database-esque wikis of custom-written lore. 

Another large change to the site has been the introduction of ads! No, I'm not selling out (much) but I figured if the site can at least pay for it's own domain name, I'd be chill with that. So if you see something you like, make sure to click it and I'll get some bounce-back. Cheers!

Closing Statement

So that's December! COVID and the holidays have kept me busy and I'm sure January will love to pile-on when Uni work starts to pick back up. Again, I hope you all had a lovely holiday. Thank you for the growth this page has seen. The stat's are surpassing my expectations and that brings me joy. 

Here's to 2022!

Cheers, 
Ryan