The Tau of War

Tau Gue'Vesa

2012-01-26T09:12:00.002-05:00

I was just sketching one day and I then I went pretty far with this guy and decided to add some color. I used watered down acrylic paints (not GW's but actually art store acrylics), pencil and water-proof ink pens. I really like how he came out and I want to do more. Notice the katana, yep definitely an Infinity influence there.

Enjoy!

Commission: Alpha Legion Rhino Horde

2012-01-24T11:04:00.001-05:00

Work is wrapping up on the first set of vehicles for the Alpha Legion army. If you are going to Adepticon, you'll be able to see this army in person, as I believe it will be part of the team tournament. Next block of vehicles includes 2 more rhino chassis, 3 Chimeras and 2 land raiders. Maybe someday I'll be able to paint my own figs again...

Question to the community, does anyone have access to or suggestions on where I can find Alpha Legion transfer sets? These tanks are begging for some markings.

The Tau Codex Welcome Center

2012-01-21T10:32:00.000-05:00

First you must watch this video...

Welcome To Planet Earth from Mikey Livingston on Vimeo.

Like the gentleman is this video, I man the Tau Codex Welcome Center. I've built my space ship (Tau army) and I am now just waiting for the aliens (the codex) to drop from the skies. We're ready for them.

Papercraft Cargo Containers, Now in 3D!

2012-01-17T10:54:00.001-05:00

Sometimes I am completely amazed by what some of my fellow hobbyists can do. A friend and fellow Infinity player has really astounded me by his scratch built terrain. This time he's working on a futuristic storage crate for use in games of Infinity.

This guy certainly has the patience and persistence to create really detailed works of art from plasticard. Lo Pan took a simple paper-card design and made it in 3D. Amazing. Check it out, it is well-worth the visit.

http://remotepresence.blogspot.com/2012/01/terrain-project-techno-crates.html

If that's not enough, check out this Infinity City Block he built:

http://remotepresence.blogspot.com/2012/01/or-but-wait-theres-more-once-all.html

Tau in 2012...maybe. maybe not

2012-01-12T11:07:00.002-05:00

Apparently the rumor mill has now churned out some tidbits that some Necron and IG releases are next, then Black Templars. We can't really speculate beyond that. GW seems to change things on its own whim. I remember hearing about the Dark Eldar a long time ago in a podcast with Jervis and Jes Goodwin sometime ago, around when 5th edition came out and it took them years to release it. Seems like they sit on projects.

Tau Empire players, you have to wait longer. Maybe indefinitely. Maybe Tau will end up like Sisters of Battle. Who can say? I expect a marine codex next and who is left? Black Templars. Because 40k could always use another gothic, fantasy-import, marine army. 3 are just not enough.

In the meantime, play Infinity! There are new releases for the armies every month!

The Joy of Airbrushing

2012-01-10T10:20:00.001-05:00

The airbrush is an incredible tool. Can't believe it took me this long to get one. Sitting in my little studio, the paint flowing out of the brush making such beautiful and thin layers of paint. Wonderful blending. What a pleasure...

Tau Color Schemes

2012-01-01T23:19:00.000-05:00

Painting a full army is one of the joys of the hobby. It takes time, effort, dedication, planning and execution. While talent and ability may influence the end result, effort and persistence are much more important. Many of the greatest painters have yet to complete full armies, while moderately skilled painters accomplish some really stunning armies.

Planning is important. It generally starts with an army list and color scheme. For me, finding the right color scheme took ages. As I started collecting and assembling my force, I paged through copies of White Dwarf, army books and the internet until I found a color scheme I wanted.

We're lucky these days in that there are now 3 main companies that produce some really awesome acrylic paints; Privateer Press, Vallejo and Games Workshop. I use all three in painting and prefer some over others for different things.

Here I have done a few test models that may help you choose a color scheme. These include a list of colors so that you can copy or adopt any of the colors I've used here. The only mixing I've done on these models is with highlighting and shading.

Rai'Dallah Sept

Armor Plate Color
VMC German Uniform Green, highlighted by adding GW Skull White
Soft Armor Color/Lower Forearm Guards
GW Chaos Black, highlighted by adding GW Bleached Bone to Chaos Black
Shin Boot Wraps/Gloves/Carbine Ball/Hair
Deneb Stone, highlighted by adding GW Skull White
Skin
GW Shadow Grey
Pulse Carbine "Metal" Parts
Adeptus Battlegrey, shaded with GW Black Ink and highlighted with Fortress Grey

This color scheme is an overall cool theme. I really like how the Shadow Grey Skin and German Uniform Green go together. Deneb Stone is used as a spot color and black adds contrast. You could swap out the Deneb Stone for a warm color that could work, but might end up looking gaudy. I decide to stick with cool colors for this model.

For a battlesuit, German Uniform Green would still be the main color and I might even use Shadow Grey as an alternate color on the armor plates. For Hammerheads and Devilfish, I would likely make a camo pattern with German Uniform Green and Shadow Grey, with Black on certain armor plates to break up the camo and add contrast to the model. Deneb Stone would be used for Sept Markings on all vehicles and Battlesuits. Deneb Stone could also work for helmets to signify leaders like Shas'Ui Fire Warriors, Shas'Vre Crisis Suits. I might give a Commander a Black Helmet with Deneb Stone stripes to set him apart.

Farsight Enclave

Armor Plate Color
GW Red Gore, shaded by adding a little GW Chaos Black and GW Hawk Turquoise. Highlighted by adding Dwarf Flesh.
Soft Armor
PV3 Khaki, shaded by washing it with GW Orgyn Flesh Wash, highlighted by adding GW Skull White
Straps
GW Scorched Brown
Pulse Carbine Ball and Lenses
GW Hawk Turquoise

Pulse Carbine "Metal" Parts
Adeptus Battlegrey, shaded with GW Black Ink and highlighted with Fortress Grey

Farsight Enclave Armies are typically red and I decided to go with a Dark Red for this one. This color scheme is different than others in that most Tau Schemes have a darker Soft Armor and a lighter Armor Plates theme. This one flips that and give you lighter colored Soft Armor and darker Armor Plates. In retrospect, I may have added some yellow somewhere on the model, but this is fine for a quick paint job.

On Battlesuits, you would use the Khaki color as your alternate armor plate color, and use grey for the mechanical parts of the model.

Dai'La Sept

Armor Plate Color

GW Chaos Black, Highlighted by adding GW Shadow Grey.

Soft Armor

Vallejo Model Color: Khaki

Straps

GW Scorched Brown

Pulse Carbine Ball and Lenses

Blood Red, Highlighted by adding Blazing Orange

I painted this model years ago when I was still determining the colors for my Cadre. I didn't like it at the time because it's too dark, that you can't see details. I still don't prefer it, but I thought I would add here for your benefit. In retrospect the model might have been improved by yellow sept markings instead of white.

Old Shatter Hands' Cadre Prototype

Armor Plate Color

GW Kommando Khaki, Highlighted by adding GW Skull White.
Soft Armor
GW Dark Angels Green
Straps
GW Scorched Brown
Optics, Lower Arm Armor and Grenades
GW Codex Grey.
Pulse Rifle Ball
Gold

This model was one of the pre-cursors to the scheme I finally settled on for my Fire Warriors in my army. Looking back at it after all these years, I still see why I liked it so much. MOst of the model is bright, so you can see all the details. The Khaki and Green go well together, yet are different shades so there is contrast. That's something that is important to remember on models, contrast generally looks good, makes models pop and attracts the viewer. Contrary to popular belief, contrast is not achieved by choosing complimentary colors, like blue and yellow. Contrast is achieved by light and dark.

Note: This post is a work in progress that will continue to grow in its scope as I get more color schemes developed and models painted. It will be added as a link to the side bar of this blog in some way in the near future.

Infinity Painting Contest

2011-12-29T13:48:00.000-05:00

A gentleman by alias of BlitzJaeger recently administered a Painting Competition on the Infinity Forums. We were given an approximately 3 month period to complete models and submit them in various categories. While I could and perhaps should have spent more time on my entries, I fared rather well considering.

Check out all the entries by clicking this link: Painting Comp Entries

I submitted two models in two categories.
The first is the Gui-Lang Sniper that some of you saw on Remote Presence. Here's the little bugger in case you missed it. (which you probably did Remote Presence simply doesn't get lots of hits). This little paint-job, while relatively modest, won me Third Place in Category 1, which included some pretty stiff competition.

In Category 2, which featured all non-TAG Remotes and medium sized Infinity models, akin to Terminator sized models I suppose. I entered in the Su-Jian Immediate Action Unit which is actually a transformer in the game. It's two models for one unit. These two pieces got my 1st Place in Category 2, out of three entries so not exactly too much to write home about, but still I'm proud.

This Spring, there will be another contest and I'm already planning out my next entries, although with the Crystal Brush coming up, who knows?

Blood Angels For Sale

2011-12-26T17:23:00.004-05:00

I am clearing out the final pieces of my Blood Angels army and wanted to post them here in case a reader wants to buy them. I'd like to sell this lot as a set which includes the following:

3 Rhinos

1 Death Company Dreadnought, with Heavy Flamer and Meltagun, from Forge World.

3 squads of 5 Blood Angel Assault Marines with Meltagun and a Leader with Inferno Pistol and Power Sword

5 'extras" assorted Blood Angels Assault Marines armed with varying wargear - use these models to customize your squads some more or as a new squad on their own.

So as a recap, 20 Marines, 3 Rhinos and 1 Forgeworld Dreadnought.

I'll ship worldwide, but you'll have to cover the shipping costs. I will provide the box and foam for protecting the miniatures in transit.

If you're interested, email me with a serious offer to timandlucka at gmailocus dot comicus.

Squad 1

Squad 1's Rhino

Squad 2 with red blood drop over yellow marking

Their Rhino with corresponding Squad marking:

Squad 3 with white skull marking

Their Rhino with white skull makring:

Extras:

All 3 Rhinos together:

Broken Contract

2011-12-24T09:29:00.002-05:00

Dear Readers,

I started this blog in 2008 out of love for the game of 40k and my enthusiasm for a single faction, Tau Empire. It features more than just those things, including my work on the hobby, commissions, other little projects and thoughts I have. I told myself way in the beginning that this blog would rant-free. That it would do what Fritz did for his army-build enthusiasm for Tau, create an atmosphere of fluff around, create a world full of characters and tales of battle.

You responded. People come to this blog to read about all the great things in the Tau'Va and beyond. It was a happy little place for a good three years and that was the contract. I produce posts about my love for the hobby, in return, you all keep my enthusiasm up with comments of encouragement and readership. It worked so well.

I broke that contract with this post: http://tauofwar.blogspot.com/2011/12/whats-wrong-with-40k-emperor-wears-no.html

I apologize. I really shouldn't have posted that article. You come to Tau of War for enthusiasm for the hobby, not e-bitching. I feel like I have cast my lot with the likes of YTTH, a blog that simply bleeds depression and negativity. That is not the direction I want to take Tau of War. I am removing the post for this blog and in the future, I promise not to share such negativity with you all again.

Please forgive my momentary lapse of enthusiasm and positivity and I hope you return next week after the holidays. I've got some neat things to show you in the new year. In the meantime, enjoy this time with your family, friends, 40k, dice and your dear little army men.

Happy Holidays and Happy Hunting, Shas'la!

Tim

Ps check out this Alpha Legion Rhino that I've done with my airbrush. I love that little machine!

Crisis Suits and Broadsides

2011-12-20T18:13:00.001-05:00

I was cruising the blogosphere early today as I am home sick and I found this, rather unfortunate set of news; http://natfka.blogspot.com/2011/12/tau-crisis-and-battle-suits-not-to-get.html

Assuming the rumor is true, it contradicts earlier rumors about new Crisis Suits, yet it seems to consistent with Gw's model. Very rarely do they completely redesign a plastic kit, instead they re-work the sprue to add more options, such as was done for the Ork Boyz sprue, and Space Marine kits like the Tactical Squad and Assault Marine set. Most likely what they have done is add the Broadside weapons, in plastic, to the basic Crisis Suit kit.

Yet it's only a rumor, so here's hoping that there is a new Crisis/Broadside kit altogether.

What's Wrong with 40k? The Emperor Wears No Clothes.

2011-12-18T15:44:00.001-05:00

Lately I've been doing my best to get back on the 40k bandwagon. I've decided to avoid tournaments and instead have taken it more as something to enjoy. I've played Kill Zone 40k, a team game, and a straight 1750 pt mash up against a really great opponent. But I am having trouble. None of these games came close to giving me the enjoyment of a well-played Infinity game. They just weren't as fun.

The games lacked excitement, they were long, drawn out affairs. We rolled huge handfuls of dice with little effect. I was bored after Turn 2, and wanted it to be over and done with by Turn 4. I found myself really hoping the game would end on Turn 5 and was disappointed when it would continue. This has nothing to do with my opponents, in most cases I play 40k with like-minded players and friends. There are few, if any, rules disputes. It all has to do with the system.

It just isn't fun.
I've thought about it a lot, chatting with mates and discovered that there are four main reasons why 40k is no longer fun for me. Here they are, in no particular order.

1. The Phase System.
The phase system is fundamental to 40k as it determines how you activate your models. We all know the system. For me, the system really stifles excitement. I tend to get excited about a certain attack action (moving up to rapid fire, plasma death or some kind of assault) and I find myself have to calm myself to get on with the phase system.

How many times have you gotten really excited about a move and jumped to the shooting phase before you've moved all your units? DOH! You now cannot move the rest of your units. HAHA! Rules lawyered like a bitch! Objection. Overruled.

No, you are in a way forced to temper your excitement so you can make sure to move all your other models before getting into the shooting phase. I see it in almost every game. Seriously how much more fun would it be if you could move and shoot your units all in one action, instead of waiting for the next phase.

Anyhow, there is something boring about moving every unit, then shooting with every unit and then doing the assault phase. It's just too...organized.

2. Dice Rolls.
My last game of 40k, I was astounded at how many dice rolls, or I should say series of dice rolls, that amounted to nothing, no effect. Handfuls of dice would be scooped up and rolled, all in anticipation of something momentous, then another handful would be scooped up, then another, then another. End result, zilch. WTF? What a waste!

Do the game designers have any concept of how frustrating, and just how unfun, this is? Contrast that with Infinity, if you're picking up dice something is going to happen, for or against you. And why is this fun? Because you get right into the action, it kicks off as soon as you pick up a die. Things happen all the time!

In 40k, you can spend an entire turn dishing out shots only to watch your opponent make every armor save, every cover save that your efforts are not rewarded. Maybe this is why meltaguns are so popular, they're the only guns that can do anything, LOL!

Not cool. Not fun.

3. List Building.
Games Workshop's Codex release model makes sense for getting a big splash in sales in a particular army that they've just invested in developing. While there is something flawed in the focus on Space Marines in the past couple years (essentially the game becoming Marinehammer with no compelling enemies in sight), this comment is not about that. It's about game balance. Because the updated rules for each army trickle out over a number years, certain players are left waiting and waiting and waiting for their army to get an update. During that period, they meet their friends on the tabletop and get crushed over and over by newer armies that have the varied army builds, options, etc. This leaves some players feeling cheated after their games. They feel that even though they've put the time and love into their old armies, they aren't rewarded on the tabletop. This is how I feel after I've faced a Space Wolf that shoots better than my Tau.

Lots of really good players would disagree with me about game balance. They would say that certain lists from older armies do just as well as other newer armies. However, in fact, what they are saying is that game balance only occurs between certain lists, not between the books. If your lists are of equal power, then there is game balance. If not, then your game is not going to be balanced. Lists must be balanced against each other to achieve a true game of skill.

You get tons of list-building bitching on the internet. It's all over the place and this is something the game designers need to tackle in the next edition. Why? Because themed lists, fluff lists, etc, i.e. those which are not power-built, suffer in game. These kinds of players get frustrated. Again, they feel cheated.

They need to make list building less important. It needs to have a smaller effect on the game in exchange for making tactical decisions on part of the player in game more important. Game play should matter more than list building. Otherwise why don't we just show up with our lists and see who has the better one, no dice even need to be rolled.

Infinity has done this...list building is of little consequence to actual game play. How? I'm not exactly sure as I am still new-ish to the game. One reason could be that no model is immune to damage of any kind, unlike vehicles in 40k. Each and every unit has the ability to kill each and every other unit in the game in the hands of a capable player. You can just cobble lists together and with skill, you can beat every other list out there. There is no leafblower, no SW razorspam, no Grey Knights.

4. Predictable.
This is what I mentioned earlier. A lot of experienced players can look at two lists, then look at how each player deployed and they can predict the outcome of a battle. It's actually not that hard. Even semi-experienced players can do this. Sure, your efforts in game can tip the battle against the odds, but for the most part, military blunders aside, the game can be determined before it's actually begun. On the other hand, you could point out that since dice rolls are involved, lady luck plays a part. Yet, how much does luck play a role? Since there are so many dice rolls over the course of the game, the law of averages mitigates the role of luck.

So why does predictability stifle fun? For one, it ruins suspense. Suspense is fun. Not knowing how things are going to turn out is fun. Can't explain why. It just is.

Infinity has solved this problem by including the critical success rule. I'm not going to go into the mechanics, but essentially any time you roll a die you have a 5% chance of making a critical success. If it's a shooting roll getting a critical means you've automatically caused a wound, no armor save allowed, period. It's a HEAD SHOT! haha! FUN! You never know when you're going to get one!!! Now, I am not suggesting this for 40k but just want to illustrate it as an example of how a simple rule like that can be fun.

So that sums it up for me. 40k needs to be re-built from the ground up. It needs a revolution in game play for it to be fun for me again. I know there are lot out there that would disagree with me. I could be wrong. I can only tell you what my perspective is, and like the little kid who pointed out that the Emperor was naked, I think I am pointing out what everyone knows to be true. 40k just isn't that fun.

It's almost shocking

2011-12-15T22:06:00.003-05:00

In order to really understand this post, you have to watch this video first.

http://www.beastsofwar.com/warhammer-40k/tau-codex-spotlight/

It's almost shocking how wrong these two gits seem to get, well, just about everything. So much so that I really found it amusing. Beasts of War is great and if you haven't seen their videos before, really check them out, especially all of their Infinity ones. I gotta be honest and say that without Beasts, I never would have played Infinity before.

Anyway, down to what is really shocking about this video. Within the first 30 seconds, these blokes are already getting shite wrong. Apparently somewhere out there in the UK or Ireland where people have accents amusing for a Mid-Atlantic native such as myself*, the Tau Empire are a bunch of "Marxist, Leninist, Communists." Obviously, these guys aren't history majors. It's Feudal Japan, guys. FEUDAL JAPAN. Look it up. They've got a freaking caste system for god's sake, that kind of, just a little, goes against the fundamental core-beliefs of communism. If there is any 40k army based on communism, it is the Imperial Guard with their Commissars, totalitarian state, Vahallan Ice Warriors, Chekov, disregard for individual rights, and their mass-produced utilitarian hulking tanks. It's almost too obvious.

Moving from there, they delve into the unit entries and literal scratch their heads at almost every unit. The Kroot are a good example of how little these guys understand about running a Tau Cadre in combat. They keep talking about how Kroot should be able to assault and how it's strange they don't have power weapons and they almost make the correct assessment that Kroot are actually good, but then are derailed by the fact that Kroot have rapid fire weapons...scratches chin, head, armpit... Kroot are not meant to be assaulting things, ya silly smegheads- they're meat shields.

At one point these guys lament that if only there was something to stop the enemy from getting to the Tau, because, oh, they're so bad at fighting...if only! Listen up, there is. It's the piranha and little drone buddies. Apparently these guys haven't heard the old wargamers' saying...a good Tau army is like an onion, it's got lots of layers and makes people cry.

It's just all so wrong...

Well, thar ya 'ave it, guys. Post a comment, tell us what ya think.

*Seriously, can someone place Darrel's accent for me? It is both confounding and amusing to me. I could listen to it all day.

Design your own Fire Warrior!

2011-12-07T14:55:00.001-05:00

The Fire Caste is the most aggressive, hardiest and toughest Tau that the Empire can muster. Yet even the best physical statue in the Empire is weak compared to the might of a Space Marine, Ork or Tyranid. Whereas the aliens may rely on their physique, the Fire Caste must rely on technology to eliminate the enemy. Each Fire Warrior is issued pulse rifle as standard, and in certain instances where close quarter fighting and agility are necessary, a pared down pulse carbine is employed. Both weapons have sufficient stopping power to knock an Ork from his boots at 20 paces, yet lack the armor penetrating to inflict any real damage to power armored targets and armored fighting vehicles. The Ethereals have little interest in integrating specialist weapons into Fire Team and have thus set the Fio’la to work on improving pulse technology.

Ok, fluff over. Let’s talk gaming. These days, if you’re still playing Tau Empire armies, it’s likely that you playing with the minimum required Fire Warriors. The entry in your list probably looks like this. 6 Fire Warriors with Pulse Rifles, mounted in a Devilfish with Disruption Pod and my guess is this group doesn’t see much of the action. I’m rolling with 16 Fire Warriors, on foot, but I think that is rare and would generally be scoffed at by most players.

Fire Warriors are fragile, their expensive transports are not effective fighting vehicles, and to top that off, their pulse rifles are only effective against foot troops. In short, the unit is easy to kill, and lacks any kind of duality (ability to threaten both vehicles and infantry). Oh, and the current rules for EMP grenades do not count.

Unfortunately, Tau fluff has made improvements difficult. Without integrated special weapons, Fire Warriors are limited to pulse weapons. So GW has a challenge ahead of them; improving Fire Warriors without altering the fluff. The Tau rumors online have been silent on Fire Warriors. We’ve seen snippets about Kroot, where they are given Stealth and Infiltrate and new a plastic kit; Kroot Beasts. But nothing on Fire Warriors. So I want to hear what you expect and what you would like to see.

How do Fire Warriors will change in the next codex? How would you design them?

Of course, this challenge must have it parameters. So let’s start with the basic assumptions:

Assumption 1: The Fire Warrior stat-line will remain the same. BS3, 4+ save. That’s not what I like but what I expect.

Assumption 2: The sprue will not change. I have no substantiated information to confirm this, but given recent trends, I am not expecting the basic Fire Warrior sprue to be re-done. It already looks great, provides the option of rifles vs. carbines and I see no reason for the manufacturer to spend the money to change it. This means you cannot give drones or Fire Warriors special weapons.

In my view you'd have to start with looking at pulse weapons. You'd need to make them something more than S5, Ap5 weapons. I'm thinking rending would be appropriate, or even borrowing poison rules from fantasy (all to-hit rolls of 6, automatically cause a wound, armor saves allowed).

Now tell me how you would design them to take on both vehicles and infantry.

Would you make them cheaper? Would you give them any USRs? What about their pulse weapons? Post a comment and let me know.

Railguns from Paulson Games, Painted This Time

2011-12-07T09:00:00.000-05:00

A couple of you asked to see the Paulson Railguns painted so I whipped up a rather speedy paint-job. It was actually rather fun doing some speed painting. I completed in about 15 minutes. As you can see, nothing ground-breaking about the paint-job but I really like how they look. I need to clean up the paint job on the Battlesuit as it's a rather old model, I think one of the first things I did for my Tau Cadre. Well, enough waffling.

Looks like Paulson is back from vacation. Bear in mind that Paulson is probably just a bloke in a basement, but man, is he one talented bloke. I love his designs. And his missile launchers are back in stock!

One added bonus I forgot to mention about these shorter railguns, they fit better in army transport foam and such.

http://www.paulsongames.com/mecha_parts___54mm.html

Commissions: Alpha Legion Army and the Crystal Brush

2011-12-06T09:14:00.000-05:00

I had to put some of my personal projects down to get some solid work done on this Alpha Legion Razorback/Rhino. I'm painting this model up a test for the color scheme and it's lots of fun. I've never really worked with this color combination but I think I really like it. The client asked me to start with blue and highlight up to Scorpion Green. This goes against conventional wisdom on highlighting but the effect is visually interesting and makes the model look very aquatic and nautical. I am complete ignorant as to the Alpha Legion, so I am not sure if that is in line with their fluff or not, but it looks cool.

This is my first real use of my new airbrush and I learned a lot of my first go of it. The next set of models will be done as a group and I'm going to try more advanced shading and airbrush work using masking tape to prevent any over spray.

The army is quite large and needs to be done by Adepticon, but I won't be doing the infantry. I hope to finish this early though, to make room for more work and to get my entries to the Crystal Brush ready to go. I am being realistic about the Crystal Brush, but the point is not the awards, it is the challenge.

I have three concepts for the Crystal Brush.

The first project will be the XV-22 I converted over a year ago and never painted. There a lot of conversion work to be done on him and I'll need to develop a scenic base as well.

The second project, I am hoping, will be a warband of Warhammer Fantasy Mutants - think, Codex the Lost and the Damned but for Fantasy, with all that Old World, John Blanche charm. There are some characters from Slavic myths that I want represented in that group, including a Baba Yaga type hag, Viy and Chert, who is a devil that comes around on Christmas time. Germans out there might know of him as Krumpus if that helps. He's got one human foot and one goat foot, horns, a devil's tail...could make a really good chaos mutant.

Also the Vodnik, a river spirit that lures unsuspecting humans into the depths, when they drown he captures their souls in little jars and adds to his collection. Simply evil.

Then the last idea, is, wel,l you guessed it, the District 9 Prawn Suit...more updates on that to come.

Kill Zone In the City

2011-12-05T09:00:00.000-05:00

When I game these days, it's gotta be something more than set-up and shoot (or in my case, set up and remove models for 6 turns). My gaming tastes have wandered from straight 2,000 point 40k to smaller scale missions that present their own challenges and fun.

The folks over at Galaxy In Flames and A Gentleman's Ones have released Kill Zone 2.0 and being a solid Infinity-player, I like a good skirmish and the bonus of using my Tau models makes it a win. I also get to use my growing collection of slum terrain. A note on that later.

My old gaming buddy, Brian, is always up for something new and he and I met at the new GW battle bunker in Bowie, Maryland. Driving out there was quite a journey for me and I was even beginning to hum the tune to Deliverance, it was so far out in the sticks. Brian and I pointed up a Kill Team in less than 15 minutes and even got to use some of the cool wargear like Medic and skills like Crack Shot. Lots of the rules have all the flavor you would expect from a GW product but nonetheless are independently written.

We played two games in less than 2 hours, the first was one of my own design that set the Dark Angels on a mission to search the slum for alien tech reported in the community while a Tau Infiltration Force lay in ambush. The mission needs tweaking, as Brian gave up on the mission and instead got hell-bent on wiping out the local blue-skin population. Guess there needs to be more incentive to actually search shacks. We shot some pictures

Here the Tau battlesuit lurks before making it's strike.

The suspicious Dark Angels Squad Leader surveys the town square.

With the Tau ambush commenced, the Dark Angels mount a counter-attack.

This sneaky Fire Warrior blasts away at the Terminator, to little avail.

A portion of my slum terrain set on a GW Realm of Battle board. In keeping with the theme of the terrain, it was built primarily from trash and discarded materials, pretty much like a real slum.

I'll be entering these games into the Giveaway at A Gentleman's Ones and you should too. Get rewarded for playing games? Hell yes, thank you.

NOVA Open Registration Live!

2011-12-02T16:47:00.000-05:00

The time is now.

Click the image to be taken to the NOVA Open website.

I was scrolling through the internet, trying to find some good pictures of the NOVA Open and instead I came across this little snippet from a fellow blogger at joesavestheday.blogspot.com and I think it rings true.

Closing out my thoughts on last weekend's event, I can't emphasize enough how great of an experience the NOVA Open was. You'll see a lot of different views and opinions on the Internet but just keep in mind that people tend to complain more about the things they weren't expecting or didn't like over acknowledging the aspects of the event that were done really well. This is the biggest thing I've noticed on the web over the past week. To all the NOVA staff who volunteered their time and effort to make the tournament a huge success, you did a phenomenal job. Everyone who was actually in attendance can attest that the event as a whole was a positive experience and the good far outweighed the bad.

He's talking about his experience last year at the NOVA Open 2011. Being amonst the few 40k gamers in DC, it's kinda hard not know Mike Brandt and other organizers of the NOVA Open. I didn't attend last year due to my friend's wedding but I can tell you this. Last year, they pulled off a world class event and only began planning about 6 months before it. This year, they began planning a year in advance. You can expect something incredible in 2012 from the NOVA Open. I promise you.

Registration is live and the spots are filling up for the 40k tournament. Of course, these year there's alot more option than just that. There's Infinity, Malifaux, Fantasy, Flames of War and a host of non-GT 40k options. Mike Brandt is the mastermind of this whole thing and he's got lots of dedicated staff and friends helping out. You'll find me on the floor as a 40k rules judge for the GT but despite being a spineless deviant, I will not accept bribes. It's a promise I made to the organizers, sorry!

The Hotel....the room rate is 85 dollars!!! Being a DC native, I promise, you will not get a better deal anywhere in the area at this level of quality and cleanliness. Seriously, bring your wife, kid, girlfriend*, boyfriend, neighbor, whoever and send them to Smithsonian while you play. They will get one of those awesome patriotic holidays all good Americans love. Bring your sunscreen and loose fitting shorts and clothes. It gets hot and humid in August, but the museums are air-conditioned. I recommend heading out to see the momuments really early in the morning before it gets too hot.

You can register by going to the NOVA Open website at novaopen.com or by clicking the image above. early registration really helps the organizers in planning for the event so do your duty and support the war effort!

Here are some posts I made about the NOVA Open in 2010. Enjoy!
http://tauofwar.blogspot.com/2010/08/cool-armies-at-nova-open.html
http://tauofwar.blogspot.com/2010/08/best-painted-army-at-nova-open-eric.html
http://tauofwar.blogspot.com/2010/07/nova-open-thoughts-and-concepts.html

*Note: do not bring your girlfriend if you are also bringing your wife. If you are not the kind of person to have both a wife and a girlfriend, ignore this message.

Railguns! From Paulson Games

2011-12-01T19:44:00.000-05:00

Railguns, or to be more precise, Broadsides are almost never seen absent from a serious Tau cadre. Tau Commanders simply value their fire-power too greatly and as a battlesuit, their mobility makes them idea for keep pace with mobile formations and their size makes them easier to conceal than Hammerhead tanks. Yet the cost of such troops often limits their numbers in cadres across the Empire. Until now.

The Fio'la have released a light-weight and affordable railgun that will make all commanders happy.

Of course what I am talking about is the set of resin railguns from Paulson Games.

Paulson Games seems to be really just one chap in his basement, but like a diligent Fio'la, he's been creating some truly unique and advanced weapons. He's got a great selection of railguns for the Tau player, in three sizes. I chose to purchase the medium length railgun, as I am hoping to build an Urban Cadre sometime in the future and I want shorter railguns for close quarter fighting. I've never ordered resin parts from independent sculptors before and I was expecting low quality resin. Thankfully, I could not have been more wrong. The quality of the resin seemed to be as good or even better than forge world. I ordered 12 railguns and I got ZERO airbubbles and ZERO miscasts. I can't say the same for Forgeworld resin I've bought, and we all know what Finecast is like.

The first thing I did when I got the set was to clean the resin from any flash. Flash should be expected on all models, and it's just a fact of life. We'll never be rid of it. Of course I did this wearing a face mask and a window fan going, as resin dust (like all dust) can be harmful if inhaled. I used some fine sand paper to smooth out the surfaces and then I got some sticky tack. I ripped off some old railguns from my first ever Broadside and attached the Paulson railguns. I liked them much better.

Then I got a little experimental and attached them to the arms to see how that might look. Even better. Yesterday I went out and bought a new Crisis Suit with the full intention to use Paulson Games railguns, mounted to the arms of a fully detailed and converted Crisis Suit. Since these pictures were taken, I have fully painted these railguns and attached them to the model forever. Next I am working on an entire squad of Broadsides with railguns and painting them up. But first I have to decide on a color scheme...

Sketching

2011-11-20T15:21:00.001-05:00

This weekend I had a chat with Roman, aka Jarhead from Massive Voodoo. I've been following the Massive Voodoo site for sometime and I randomly entered one of their contests and won a hour long chat via Skype. Talking with other miniature painters is really great for me, because it is a hobby I don't get to share with many people, even within the 40k community miniature painters are rare. One of the things that comes across immediately from Roman is his love for his art and his desire to share that with others. He spoke about how much he loves connecting with others who share in his passion and about "the big nerd family."

We actually spoke for almost 2 hours. Of the many things I learned chatting with this great person, he reminded me that miniature painting must be fun, first and foremost. And what is fun? A process he calls sketching. Here's some pictures of the second time in my life, beginning a miniature in this way.

Still getting the gist of this method and trying to find my own path from it...maybe I will continue to use it, maybe not.

Guilang Sniper on Remote Presence

2011-11-16T15:11:00.001-05:00

A 'look what I did" post on Remote Presence.
Enjoy!

Tau Crisis Suit Repaint and 40k from an Old Man's Perspective

2011-11-13T21:17:00.001-05:00

A couple weeks ago, I picked up this old model of mine and had a good look at it. Then without a thought, placed it on my painting table beside my other models in progress. While waiting for paint to dry on other models, I'd pick this guy up and dab paint on him. I completely re-did his armor plates and his plasma-rifle. I even placed some transfers on him and tried out a new thing- burn marks on his plasma rifle. It's something I had been thinking about doing on my suits and I used this models as a trial run. I like it but I'm not yet committed to doing that on all my Tau stuff.

I don't know if I'd call him completely finished but I am done working on him for now and I've placed him back in my army carrying case for safe keeping.

I played my first game of 40k since January this year. It was fun but I had forgotten how many dice you have to roll in that game. It's a little excessive. So at least 5-6 times a turn, you pick up a handful of dice to roll to hit, then you pick up a slightly smaller handful of dice to roll to wound, then your opponent picks up a handful and then he rolls his save. Your opponent then removes 1-2 models from his unit. Then you Choose another one of your units and do the whole process over again. Am I the only who thinks, this is one handful of dice too many? By the end of the game three hours later, my back was sore from all the leaning over the table to scoop up dice. Must be that I am getting old. Or just used to chilled-out skirmish games like Infinity.

Heh, getting old. Reminds me of when I went out to a bar in Adam's Morgan a couple weeks ago after months on end of parenting. I'm all pumped on the way out the door, but when we got to the place, my first thought was, man, am I tired. Then second thought was, it's loud in here. Ha!

Now where did I leave my reading glasses?

Just a Fun Painting Update and more on the District 9 Suit

2011-11-02T09:00:00.000-04:00

Here I am. Out to re-paint this old battlesuit. So far I've only done the tan part of his armor. Before I had all this pretty amateur battle damage and paint chipping on this guy and it all just looked wrong for some reason. I've come a long way since I originally painted him so I am repainting certain areas. I still plan on doing some paint chipping and battle damage, just more controlled and less over the top. This model actually kind of requires it, because the Forge World Resin has lots of air bubbles in it. I need the paint chipping and such to cover that up.

I can't wait to do this for all of my Tau models. Some really need it.

Here's a sneak peak of my Su-Jian Immediate Action Unit. More to come.

I ordered myself some of these old AT-43 models that you see below. I see lots of potential on that model for bits for my District 9 suit. The basic frame and legs will be used as a chassis for the whole model. It'll look really different when done. I hope to keep ya'll updated.

Converting a Mecha: Help me make my dream project

2011-11-01T13:49:00.000-04:00

If you've gotten to know me in my hobby-side of life, you've probably heard me talking about how much I loved the movie, District 9. Social commentary, mechas, alien weapons, slums, an evil corporation, South African accents, the third world, a new way of film-making (not original, just new). It really hit all the right notes for me.

Ever since I first saw it in theaters I've dreamed of one day, recreating both the setting and the Prawn-Mecha on the table-top. While I have nearly finished creating the setting with all my slums and shanty town terrain, I have yet to begin on the Mecha model. Here is the model that you can buy. It costs over 250 dollars. Nope that will not do. I'm going to have to create my own.

Right now, I have ordered some AT-43 mechas off of ebay and those should be here any day. Believe it or not, I've also found some Dark Eldar parts from their jetbikes that will also be fitting. Throw in some terminator bits, plasticard, guitar strings, random Tau bits and I should be good to go.

Actually now that Necrons are out I could find lots of nice little pieces in among all those new plastics. My guess is that the basic Destroyer box would be the best place to look though, as the scale is more on target.

Check out what this guy did in lego! I know I can do as well in plastic, right?

Now going into a project like this, I have to bear in mind that I should enable myself to be loose with the design and create something new, kind of like a historical drama we are going to based on a true story not an exact replica.

Any thoughts from the community? I would love any pointers on where to get useful bits for converting mechs and battlesuits.

Also, I got some finished models to showcase soon, keep posted.

Help! Critique needed--NMM you are an elusive bitch.

2011-10-26T22:26:00.004-04:00

How many generations of GW paint-pots can you spot? Funny how the older generations don't dry out your paints. They don't make 'em like they used to!

My desktop these days is looking rather schitzo lately. Not only am I am working on a double-model model, the Su Jian, but I am also assembling Dark Eldar and repainting Tau models. Might seem crazy but it actually isn't. I switch off a project when I get bored and on to another, and so the cycle continues. I end up working on 3-4 projects at once but I like it. It's never too much. I love it. I just need more hours in the day and I'm set.

My Tau are getting a look-at. The entire army needs lots of work. They simply don't measure up to the work I am doing nowadays. Everytime I look at one of my "finished" models I notice things I want to change, imperfections to be stamped out, colors to be changed, etc. This is partly because a lot of the models I painted for it, were done in a rush because I had some tournament I was going to or something. After doing this over a course of a year or so, you end up lots of models that you've cut corners on. Not good.

Starting my Forgeworld battlesuits. They were pretty expensive and I want them to look a lot better. The bases need work. They are kind of dull. I was going for a desert look but I don't know if I like that. I think deserts might have more going than just sand and rocks. I'm going to add some flare, some more color, and maybe I'll be more satisfied. Could do some dried up, crusty old pieces of wood.

Hopefully by the time the new Tau codex is out, it'll feel like I have new army without buying any new models, just by re-painting my old ones.

I'm thinking of calling them my Kamakaze Kabal. Not expecting them to have a long lifespan on the tabletop...

What the heck are Dark Eldar doing on my table? I think I posted several months ago about a counts-as Saim Hann Army that I was about to start building. It's now underway, may take a couple years or so, but hopefully I'll have a neat jetbike army to zip around with which can later be built out to a full on Dark Eldar force and back again. Gotta keep the gaming varied to keep it interesting.

The Su Jian is nearing completion. I'm looking for some freehand ideas. I really want to do Chinese text on this thing but I want Chinese Military stenciling and I can't find any on-line. Does anyone out there know where I could find some examples? I've even checked googling Chinese tanks and such...nothing actually shows any Chinese military markings. Wouldn't that be so cool on those leg armor plates and such? Identical on both versions of the model. I am picture it I just need reference material...

NMM is an elusive bitch. I need help. Anyone out there wanna give me some pointers on this? Critique would be great too. It just doesn't look like metal to me. Help!

Is that stone or metal?

I don't want to sound like a queer or nothing but sometimes I like to look at other people's wet pallets. Check mine out. Neat colors, eh?

It's a New Era

2011-10-21T21:19:00.001-04:00

A new era begins...I got myself an airbrush. Tanks, flyers, who knows what else. Oh yeah, my brother's OOP armorcast Eldar Phantom Titan. we'll be sure to post photos of the work here, as I am a shameless show-off.

Below are some pictures of my latest work on my Infinity models- the Su Jian, Immediate Action Unit. Infinity is what I would call very innovative in both miniature design and game rules. These two models are actually one unit in the game, able to switch between forms at will, often numerous times during a single turn. I've got to make the paint jobs are consistent between the two forms because of this, and I am thinking duplicate freehand designs on each model will help reinforce that it is one unit in two forms.

You can see more of my Infinity models at http://www.remote-presence.net./

Here are the links to my work:

http://remotepresence.blogspot.com/search/label/Showcase

I almost forgot, you probably already saw this but BOLS and numerous other sites are saying Tau are going to be in the first quarter of 2012...

Mold Lines Advice and Thoughts on Fine Art

2011-10-19T14:47:00.001-04:00

So I am in the midst of painting a new figure right now, and every time I go to apply more paint I let out a small little cuss word. The reason being that I have spot two mold lines that are extremely obvious now that the model has paint on it.

Mold lines are the devil. They are weeds of satanic origin that must be plucked from the lively garden that is a new miniature. Wish I had caught these earlier.

The thing is I don't believe the files I own are fine enough. Jarhead at Massive Voodoo recommends a combination of files, fine sand paper and then steal wool. Think I am going to have to take a trip to the hardware store after work today.

But I can't decide whether to continue painting, or remove the mold lines and ruin the work I have done so far. I'll post pictures later tonight.

What would you do?

Also, lately I have been visiting lots of art shows and museums with my wife and baby girl, Lili. Lili isn't too interested in the artwork so much as all the little new things that she can find within reach. But there is inspiration everywhere for me.

It's got me wondering if the world of miniature painting will ever reach acceptance as an artform. Right now I believe that most people would call it a craft...but what takes it to the next level to be considered a fine art? The folks at Massive Voodoo seem to have accomplished this. Their work, Jarhead's and Raffa's, often includes a scenic base that takes as much skill as the miniature itself. I believe their work might be accessible to a wider audience.

So here the army painter meets a fork in the road...Do we continue to be army-painters, forever toiling to create great works of art that only gamers or sci-fi fans can appreciate? Works of a so-called kid's hobby that many look at in puzzlement. Beautiful, sophisticated yet childish in that they are game pieces...

Or do we follow the path that leads to individual pieces of art? Self contained worlds. Models that never once hit the gaming table, yet still and speak to the imaginations of a wider audience. Works of art that produce a reaction in any who view them.

In other words, when does a miniature painter become an artist?

Improve Your Painting

2011-10-17T09:00:00.000-04:00

Ask yourself a question. How much time do you spend painting per week? How much time do you spend gaming? Now compare. If you're like me, you spend many many more hours at the painting table than you do at the gaming table. So this post is going to be like a tactics article but for painting. It's about improving your painting.

Lately I have been focusing on trying new things and pushing the limits of the quality of my work. I've been trying to get better at OSL, I've been pushing myself to use more cool colors (I usually stick with warm colors, it's my safe zone), etc. Those kinds of things take time to improve and most of all you need good feedback from your fellow painters. Unfortunately I have to do without real good criticism because I just don't have a lot of people around me who give me good pointers and criticism. Wish I did (know any painting groups in the DC area? let me know!)

So in the absence of peer-review, I've found a couple things have really helped me improve my painting.

The first tip is to paint a wide variety of models. I did Blood Angels for Heroes of Armageddon, I'm working on my own Infinity collection, and I occasionally get a commission I can really go to town on. The variety helps me try new colors and new techniques. It expands my body of work and grows my bag of tricks.

The next thing is using a wet pallet. I started using a wet pallet in May of this year. I had read on Massive Voodoo that I should, so I did. Don't bother purchasing one from Privateer Press, you can make one for like 3 dollars or less. Mine was made from stuff I already owned so I basically spent zero dollars on it.

It does two things for you. it keeps paint wet so you can close the lid with paint on the pallet and come back hours later and that paint is still wet, waiting to get itself on a miniature. VERY useful if you have a baby and you paint during her naps. The second thing, it waters down the paint for you. A lot of painters don't water down their paints (looking at you, Jawaballs). This is not smart. Painting straight from the pot wastes paint. Leaving the paint pot cap open while painting dries your paints out. Plus just looks bad on the miniature ad paint straight from the pot is just too sticky to work with. Get yourself a wet pallet. You won't regret it.

The next thing may seem obvious because it's light. I have two lamps at my painting table. Both with fluorescence bulbs. Before I had one and I was always missing parts of the models, like under the arms, or in a shadow somewhere. This happened because I couldn't see the details well enough, and I couldn't get light in all angles. So I got more light. It helped a lot.

The next thing isn't as obvious to most but it comes down to the basics of painting a miniature - Priming.

Most people either prime white or prime black. Both have their pluses and minuses. White is great because it helps give you brighter colors but it makes if difficult create shading. Black, on the other hand, provides lots of shading for you but it dulls down the colors and makes painting yellow more time-consuming as you paint on multiple layers of paint.

So instead I just prime in both black and white to get the best of both options. This is another thing I learned from Massive Voodoo (noticing a pattern?). We first prime the model in black and then we lightly prime it in white.you get the shading you want and vibrancy of color provided by white. You can also see the details of the miniature better too.

Oh, another thing that is a basic. Holding the miniature during painting. How do you do it? Do you just hold the base? Does that work for you? It doesn't for me. I've now taken to sticking my miniatures on to the tops of medicine containers using stick tack. It gives me a nice big handle for which grip the model as I am painting. There are other ways to attach a model to this kind of grip. Some people use pins, others you magnets...I'm thinking I might try to develop a way with magnets, as sticky tack only works for so long and isn't as strong a bond as I need.

There are probably loads of other simple things one could do to improve their painting but these have worked for me. However, nothing is a substitute for hearing and heeding criticism. Accept criticism with open arms and really consider what people are telling you. That's the only true way to get to the next level. The same could be said for gaming tactics.

Happy hunting, Shas'la, and happy painting.

HOLY Shhhhhhhhhhhh

2011-10-14T16:57:00.002-04:00

http://www.beastsofwar.com/

A Sign of Things to Come and a Cool Army

2011-10-13T10:01:00.001-04:00

The interwebs have uncovered some heartening news. Necrons are less than two weeks away. Shocking.

Seems like Games Workshop is staying true to their new rumor control strategy. I like it. Why is this heartening news? It means that Tau could spring out with a new codex at any time without warning...though it probably won't be until the new year. Still, NICE!

There are lot of people who don't like this new strategy from GW. I am not one of those people. I don't like knowing what everything is going to look like and do before the codex comes out. I like the big sha-bang.

Thinking about getting back into writing some Tau fiction. Fleshing out on some ideas. Taking a story-telling class in fact. We'll see what comes.

Also, I found this online. I think all you Tau enthusiasts would like to see some innovative conversions and what an airbrush can do.

Click this link to see more stuff from this guy:

http://tauva-tsuam.actifforum.com/t493-mon-armee-tau-mise-a-jour-mini-tuto-peinture-exo-armure

Then hit google translate to make the words American.

All Quiet on the Eastern Fringe? Not so!

2011-10-11T17:21:00.001-04:00

Things have been rather quiet here on Tau of War. I haven't played with my toy soldiers since January and I haven't touched paintbrush to battlesuit since around then as well. Those little three-fingered friends of mine are always in my mind though. I've dreamed up a lot of little conversions here and there, and found lots of inspiration for Tau models while playing and painting games of Infinity.

It's now almost 3 years (?) into 5th edition and still no love, no new models and no new units for the Tau Empire. Apparently this so-called fast-advancing race is going through a Dark Age of their own, with little to no development in their society. Seems too, that Tau have got a plague of their own too, as more and more Tau armies wind up on ebay for sell as players quit for something newer and shinier.

There are still some flickering lights of the Tau Empire across the Galaxy however. Stelek has come up with an interesting and powerful new army list for us all to try. Yes, reading his blog can sometimes hurt, but this post is very well written and the army list is a good one. Nick Nanvati, an east coast player, has done well upon us all by bringing Tau to the Battle for Salvation Tournament and placing in the top tier of competitors. His list can be found here. It features lots of Deathrains, a good amount of Kroot and plenty of railgun support. I really like that he has included the Hammerhead, as I've often felt the need to drop large blasts on units. Congratulations, Nick!

There is still a lot to be done with my own Tau force. There are railguns to build, suits to polish and fire warriors to prep for action. One way to keep Tau fresh is to constantly be looking for new inspiration and ideas. Push the limits of conversions and modelling options and you're army will be unique. Tau are one of the few armies that can really stupefy viewers with greatness and that is partly due to their rarity. The 40k masses have all seen countless Space Marines and razorbacks but few see a Tau Fire Warriors with any regularity. Use that fact to wow your friends and opponents.

Although I wasn't present at the NOVA Open regrettably, I hear Tau were fairly well represented there, although I know nought of their success record. There are some pics around of this army, which I really like.

Where next?
Hopefully someday soon, the Tau will be getting a new Codex and a whole batch of lovely new models. I expect (this is not a rumor or a leak, merely speculation), plastic pathfinders, a new crisis suits sprue and all plastic Broadsides and a mystery big model, something like a flyer or a dreadknight. I hope it means a new mega-battlesuits.

Rules-wise I have no idea what to expect. There are some rumors on Dakkadakka and elsewhere but frankly I think it's too far out for any of those rumors to be at all accurate. If I were a betting man, I'd say that we'll probably see more options for fielding battlesuits, more battlesuits in general, and updated rules for markerlights and drones as transports on vehicles, like Piranhas and Devilfish.

What would I like? Army-wide Stealth USR. Rending Pulse weapons. Burst Cannons with longer ranges. Improved Stealth Suit generators. Some sort of Devilfish-Razorback hybrid. Crisis Suits with Eternal Warrior. Now is that too much to ask?

So what now?
Get inspired! It's hobby time!
Really now is the time for me to do some hobbying. I've got a lot of stuff on the docket that needs to be complete and even new units I want to build. Not from a gaming perspective but just from an enjoyment and hobby perspective. I've always wanted convert and paint a unit of Fire Warriors with Carbines, decked out like true veterans with loads of gizmos and gadgets.

Who knows what the future will bring? But be ready for it!

Boats and Hoes

2011-09-17T07:49:00.000-04:00

So instead of spending their time writing a new Tau Codex, they have released a limited edition pirate game for 115 dollars. Excellent. That is just what the community has been begging for.

Now tell me, how is this game better than the Pirates of the Crimson Coast game, where in you don't spend over 100 dollars to play? Oh wait, that game is out of production, right? Yeah and so will Dreadfleet very shortly. In fact, it's intended to be that way.

Jeez, would you get on with a Tau codex already? At least give us a PDF update.

That is all.

Pan Oceania Cutter Showcase

2011-09-08T20:15:00.000-04:00

Repost from Remotepresence.blogspot.com

I painted it as a commission for a friend. Very happy with the end result. Since these photos were taken, the model was coated with watered down GW 'Ard Coat which gave it a slight gloss effect. Note to self, use dull coat next time.

NOVA Open Live Stream

2011-08-24T09:23:00.001-04:00

Howdy all,

If you're like me, you've been drinking beer at night, in the dark, staring at blank walls sullying in your depression about not being able to attend the NOVA Open. Yes, it is a sad day for me. Instead of rolling dice, showing off painting skills and carousing with the likes of Jawaballs, Fritz and Stelek, I will be boarding a plane and flying to Vermont to see my old friend tie the knot. Between the I-dos I will be checking out this live stream from 11th Company. You should too.

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-11th-company

Watch it.

Remote Presence: New Infinity Blog

2011-08-19T21:35:00.000-04:00

With my Tau pretty much on the shelf until a new codex comes out, I've been spending my painting and gaming time with Infinity the Game. It's just a rad game with stunning miniatures that I love. Our gaming group decided to start a blog about journeys into the world of Infinity the Game so check it out!

Remote Presence

We'll be posting anything and all things related to the game and collecting of Infinity miniatures. This means Infinity tactics, Infinity battle reports and even painted Infinity miniatures. That's where you will see my Pan Oceania Cutter once it is done.

I'll be cataloging my growing collection of Yu Jing models and writing about the various Yu Jing units like my now infamous Hac Tao and my transforming Su Jian Immediate Action Unit.

Our group consists of 4 players right now. Morgrim Dark of 23lines runs a Pan Oceania Military Order, that consists of the coolest science fiction knights out there. Models that really have Grey Knights beat in terms of style and finesse.

The Lost Cateran is running his Ariadna Caledonia Sectorial Army. This is a motley crew of space Scots and other Anglo-Saxons that travel the galaxy tossing smoke grenades and chopping their enemies in half with their huge claymores.

Lo pan, whom I've mentioned here in my earlier battle report is running a Yu Jing Imperial Service team. Watch out for his beautiful paint jobs and exploding space zombies called Kuang-Shi.

Please help us get this blog rolling by following Remote Presence and encouraging us with your comments. See you over there..

Note: Tau of War is going nowhere. I'll be still be updating this blog, so don't worry.

Pan Oceania Cutter and a Short Battle Report

2011-08-14T11:47:00.003-04:00

Greetings all. This weekend I have begun a new commission, a Pan Oceania Cutter TAG. This TAG (Tactical Armored Gear) is a remote controlled war machine of the finest technology. Not only does the model have an impressive stat line; BS 15, 8 armor points, 3 structure points, but the model also comes equipped with Thermal Optical Camouflage, allowing it to go near-invisible at will (think the Predator's cloaking device on a 40k venerable dreadnought).

Here is the model primed with both black and white primer. I learned this technique of priming from Massive Voodoo and this is my first try at it. So far it is a success, allowing for bright colors and built-in shading. What you do is get a good coating of black primed to start with, then spray the white at an angle, as if from a light source. This also helps you visualize how you should highlight the model. You'll notice the dust-mask. I wish I had a better one. Respiratory illness is not my bag, baby. (yes, but out-of-date jokes from bad movies is).

Here I've blocked off my main colors. With new color-schemes that I am unfamiliar with, I like to block out my colors before going full force into shading, highlighting and detailing. This helps me visualize how the colors are going to interact across the model and where my spot color will be located. I've pretty much taken GW's Space Wolf color scheme and used it on this Pan Oceania Cutter.

My next step is to work on the blue. It now needs to be shaded. I'll be mixing up Blue Wash with Badab Black or some other color for that. More to come.

This week in gaming, I got to run my Yu Jing battlegroup against Lo Pan's Imperial Service Sectorial Army. You can see I've managed to get a lot painted, but there are a few models needing work. Of note is that cool unpainted, unprimed remote. That's a Su Jian Immediate Action Unit. A model capable of shape-shifting during the game between two forms; a spider-like crawler and an upright battlesuit-type model, each with its own strengths and weaknesses.

Apparently my battlegroup's Lieutenant had been carrying some sensitive information that the emperor deemed too dangerous to go public and sent out his blood hounds; the Celestial Guard and Kuang Shi. Of course the Celestial Guard aren't going to do any dirty work, the Kuang Shi are "recruited" for those such tasks. Here they are advancing on my position.

There are a couple interesting things to see here. First off all is Lo Pan's great terrain pieces. Beautiful work! Second off look at all the mistakes I've made in deployment. Can you spot them?

The Kuang Shi are approaching in a linked team. This provides them with the mobility needed to get right up to my models in one turn. Linked Teams are somewhat equivalent to giving your unit a transport in 40k, regarding the mobility it provides the unit. Unfortunately I've done two things wrong here. I've have deployed all my models bunched up in a nice and neat package for all those Kuang Shi chain rifles. Second, I have deployed zero models with any line of sight to get any AROs as the Kuang Shi approach. This gave Lo Pan the opportunity to advance his Kuang Shi unmolested in a linked team, then set them loose using their impetuous orders. Essentially I handed the game to Lo Pan on a silver platter.

The only model in my Battle Group that had even marginal success was my Domaru Butai, as she managed to take out 2 Kuang shi before getting sniped on her attempt to take down a third. You can't see it here, rather appropriately, but there is a sniper in the ruins in the distance (upper center portion of the pic) that took her out with a single shot to the head.

I capitulated when I only had 3 models left and shook Lo Pan's hand for a job well done. Lo Pan did everything right, I did everything wrong. Lessons learned. Revenge will be had. That much I swear. The swords of the Domaru will not be sheathed for long.

Homemade Terrain

2011-07-30T10:21:00.001-04:00

How many of you are making homemade terrain these days?

I started playing tabletop games well before the days of Cities of Death plastic ruined building kits. Back in the early days of my 40k and tabletop career, we had to make our own terrain. The only store-bought pieces were trees and grass mats from model railroad sets. To match it, we'd base all of our miniatures, from the darkest chaos lord to the mightiest Space Marine on lush green grass. No grim dark here, only perpetual springtime! (White Dwarf letter? Remember it? Bonus points if you do).

To make buildings and ruins, we'd collect actual trash as our main construction materials; old styrofoam packing material, cardboard, bottle caps, etc. In fact, the dumpster is where you would go to find terrain, not the Games Workshop Online Store. At one point Games Workshop started releasing terrain kits, like model trees, hills, even card-buildings. These were all horribly over-priced in our eyes and we stuck to our home endeavors. Why purchase terrain when we could build it ourselves from free materials?

A couple weeks ago, I told Mike Brandt I'd help him get started in making terrain for the NOVA Open. I sent him a list of materials to purchase and showed him the basics of building hills from foam. About a week later, Mike had a terrain factory in full production. His team build over 100 hills in less than 10 hours or so. One of the guys showed up with left over foamcore he found in his office at work, so I showed them how to make ruins with that material. From what I have heard from Mike of late, is the NOVA Open is going to be unlike a lot of tournaments in that, it is going to have sufficient terrain on every table. Near uniform in its layout and amount of coverage, the NOVA Open will provide for a level playing field for everyone, at every table. This is all due to lots of hard work from Mike and his terrain-team, which includes, I'd like to add, a hard-working pregnant woman, whose due-date is the first day of the Open!!! (now that is dedication)

So lately I have been keeping an eye out for any material I could use to make a new terrain set for my own tabletop games. I've decided on a theme; District 9. I want to create a terrain set that includes a slum, strewn with debris, footpaths, shacks, contrasted by tank-traps and barricades, watch towers and sentry guns; the homes of an impoverished alien population, oppressed, contained and monitored by a sophisticated military force. Below are the humble beginnings of such a table; the shacks.

I found blocks of styrofoam to form the structure of the buildings and then I just glued on different textures. I found a huge supply of corrugated cardboard in our recycle area of our office building, and this is great texture that makes it look like corrugated iron sheets you'll see on real-life shacks in shanty-towns across the globe. Pop-cycle sticks, broken up, provide me with wooden planks used when the corrugated iron is missing. Wood-filler is slathered on in some places, to give the look of concrete ways or plaster. I was also given a whole bunch of resin miscasts from Ramshackle games that included a bunch of doors and ladders that add to the variety of textures.

I've still got a long way to go. I want to have at least 10 shacks like this, preferably 20 or more. I've just got to keep an eye out for materials in dumpsters around town. This set won't be extremely functional for 40k, or at least todays incarnation of it (with each army running 12 chimeras or razorbacks) but that's my intention. It is meant for skirmish level games like Infinity or Necromunda. However, that doesn't mean we couldn't have some amazing 40k games with them. Imagine a group of Space Marines having to dismount their vehicles, because they don't fit in the narrow alley-ways of the Kroot slum, only to find themselves attacked by a nimble Tau Crisis Suit, darting about among the shacks. For Infinity, I can imagine a small Pan O strike force, hunting down Combined Army Shas'vaasti aliens in bitter fighting from shack to shack. Oh the possibilities!

But that's what homemade terrain is about, making your own world. Think outside the plastic kit, build something new and original. Essentially what I am doing is re-creating a movie-set and that's a great place to start in building a terrain-set. Maybe you really liked Return of the Jedi. Now imagine a terrain set based off of the Battle for Endor. Large redwood trees, underbrush, hills and natural elements, made complete with a military fort from the future. What about the Terminator movies? Crappy movies story-wise, excluding the first one, but you can't argue that their sets weren't amazing. Remember the last scene of Terminator 2? Now imagine a 40k battle taking place inside a huge industrial factory! The list goes on.

Got any homemade terrain? I want to see it. Drop me a comment with a link! Artists need inspiration from other artists!

Congratulations to all! We raised over 31,000 dollars!

2011-07-24T22:49:00.000-04:00

Thank you to all those who supported the Heroes of Armageddon project. Please go to the official Heroes of Armageddon blog and drop a comment of congratulations and jubilation.

Being a part of this project has made me extremely proud. What was once a nerdy hobby that my friends thought silly is now something much, much more and we owe it all to ourselves for supporting the project financially, getting the word out, or by contributing to the prizes.

There are so many places and people in the world that need the support that Doctors Without Borders provides. For them, it can be a matter of life and death. All of you came through for them. I am really humbled by your generosity, support and enthusiasm. It makes me a true believer of what a group of people working together can achieve.

$31,000 is no joke for any non-profit organization. Quite frankly, you've all beaten and gone beyond expectation. Thank you.

Now that you're done with my piece of drivel, I strongly encourage all of you to go to their website and just poke around a bit, read an article, learn something about them. http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/

Captain Tycho Arrives On Armageddon

2011-07-22T07:55:00.002-04:00

Captain Tycho is joining his battle brothers in the Blood Angels army. There are still a few areas I'd like to touch up before strapping him in his drop pod for deployment. We're going to shine his boots, get those gems gleaming and inscribe the emperor's prayers on his parchments.

Captain Tycho could be arriving in your sector if you're the lucky winner, but only if you donate. As of this post there are 2 days and 10 hours left to donate. Captain Tycho knows you've been putting it off so the time to act is now.

Captain Tycho says there's a paypal widget where you can easily donate and put yourself in the running to win one of four beautiful armies. Check out Heroesofarmageddon.blogspot.com to view them all.

You could win this army!

2011-07-18T17:44:00.000-04:00

Yep. That is right. You could win this. No, it isn't being auctioned away to the highest bidder, it isn't being sold, it is being given to a random donor, who contributed to the Heroes of Armageddon project to support Doctors Without Borders. That means that even if you support with 5 dollars, you are in the running. See the clock counter up there to the right. It's ticking away. Time is running out. Support the cause now, by using the pay pal widget on this blog to contribute 5, 15 20, 50 dollars to this great cause. Show the world that gamers don't just roll dice. Make your warhammer addiction mean something. Support right now!

Captain Tycho for the Heroes of Armageddon - Blood Angels Build

2011-07-16T23:39:00.000-04:00

Better late than never, right? While Jawaballs is fuming up in Connecticut about the late arrival of this little guy below, I am busily getting him ready for the army.

A couple weeks ago I was shipped out some parts to make a Captain Tycho conversion. The pieces were all there, I just had to work how to fit them together well. But I put it off. I had 5 scouts and a storm raven to assemble and paint. Plus my own gaming interests, being a dad and having a full time job, and one that has been quite demanding of late, I might add. Not making excuses, I'm just saying (aint that a cliche).

You may know that I have been playing Infinity a lot lately. It's a great game, and the level of complexity makes for unique games every time. But the miniatures are really what draw me to it. They are gorgeous. They proportioned right, they are realistic (well as realistic you can get in sci-fi really), and they are stylish.

After being exposed to such perfection in scale and anatomy (no, not bathroom anatomy), it's hard to pick up a 40k fig and be satisfied. They're just neanderthals compared to Infinity models. So you can imagine, that when I looked at the parts I had to make this model, I knew I had to change something. So I pulled out my trusty hack-saw and went to work. I am quite pleased with the result. Not perfection of Corvus Belli caliber, but in my eyes a serious step up for a Games Workshop model.

I did a couple of things. First I cut the legs just above the knee, and re-sculpted new thighs and waist. This essentially removed the bowl-legged look of the space marine. Then I positioned the combi-weapon so that it appears to have some weight to it. Because, by god, are they ridiculously large weapons, incredibly unwieldy and awkward. I can't imagine how someone would be able to fire one with any accuracy, with one hand alone, as Space Marines often do. At least now it is supported somewhat by his other hand and arm.

I also sculpted on the mask, which was nothing spectacular. Once painted though, it will look great and fitting for Captain Tycho.

This model will be included with the rest of the great Blood Angels army that you can win, but only if you donate and donate often. Use the paypal widget on this blog to do so, even 15 dollars puts you in the running to winning one of four beautifully painted armies from lots of great modellers. Even if you do not win, you win, because you are donating to Doctors Without Borders, who help those in need all across the globe in places where few other NGOs dare to go.

Support your local Armageddon

2011-06-24T10:28:00.000-04:00

Howdy all, there's a huge Blood Angels update on the Jawa blog at the link below. The Sanguinary Guard are 99% done, with only the banner still in progress. I'm proud of what I have done with them but I must say the experience of painting these models was humbling for me. I wanted to hit a higher level of quality than I did and it made me understand the level I am at right now and areas I want to improve. For now I am moving on to the banner and then the Stormraven, but I will revisit these models if time permits.

One thing you absolutely must see (beyond Mike's Stormraven) is Jawa's Land Raider. The pictures don't do it justice but I can see just how beautiful the model is coming out to be. Check it out and tell me what you think.

http://warhammer40kbloodangels.blogspot.com/2011/06/heroes-of-armageddon-update.html

All those beautiful models could be your but only if you support the cause!

Heroes of Armageddon Update

2011-06-17T16:10:00.001-04:00

Turquoise is quickly becoming my favorite color to paint with, as you can see here. It's a great color for power weapon blades and even works well when shading white. This model has a long way to go still but over this weekend it should be done along with his four other battle brothers. Painting an entire squad to a high standard has been a challenge but one that I have really enjoyed. So far, having a wet palette has really helped as it keeps paint wet and prevents it from drying out while you're painting a whole unit like this.

Support the Heroes of Armageddon project by using the paypal widget in the upper right hand side of this blog and put yourself in the running to win this model, his 4 battle brother along with an entire army of Blood Angels Space Marines or one of 3 other beautiful armies. All support goes directly to Doctors without Borders for the great work that they do!

For more information please visit, heroesofarmageddon.blogspot.com.

23 Lines Donates to the Heroes of Armageddon Project

2011-06-09T11:13:00.001-04:00

Online Persona, Morgrim Dark, author of 23 Lines has generously donated a Storm Raven to the Heroes of Armageddon Project for Doctors Without Borders. Here's me with my sh@t-eating grin accepting the donation and Morgrim mumbling "warhammerrrrrrrrrr" to the camera.

Thank you, 23 Lines!

Storm Ravens are not cheap and Morgrim contacted me without my solicitation about donating the model. This shows just how great the wargaming community is. The same could be said of all the great doctors who VOLUNTEER their time and expertise, unsolicited, to provide medical care to people in need all across the globe, no matter what the risk. Return the favor, do a good turn today. Check the paypal widget in the upper right corner of this blog. Even 5 bucks goes a long way if we all pitch in. Plus, you might win something incredibly awesome.

Heroes of Armageddon Update

2011-06-07T23:03:00.000-04:00

Here is just one of the 5 Sanguinary Guard that I am painting and donating to the Heroes of Armageddon project. Metallic Gold is proving harder than I thought to get to a high level of quality, without it looking ordinary. I've already used countless washes of old GW inks and washes and at the moment I am OK with where they are at now. Still not 100% satisfied but we'll see as the model gets more color on him.

The wings are something else, and these picture doesn't do them justice. I am pleased at how they look now and I really like the definition and high contrast I've achieved there. Citadel Shadow Grey, you are my best friend.

I am holding myself to a much higher standard for this project. Why? Because it is for something greater than just gaming, it's for Doctors Without Borders! On top of that, I've got the pressure of these being displayed to the all the attendees at Games Day 2011.

More pics to come as I get close to completing these, the emperor's finest.

Heroes of Armageddon: Blood Angels Army

2011-05-17T13:38:00.000-04:00

Friends and Fellow Hobbyists,

Jawaballs has officially announced the Blood Angels Build Team for the Heroes of Armageddon project. Check out his post here: Jawaballs.

Apart from being extremely smothered in jawa-love on that post, I am really psyched to be apart of this project. Jawaballs has done a great job of coordinating the team and making sure we all have what we need.

Last night I began furiously assembling the Sanguinary Guard and planning out their color-scheme. Right now the concept is majority yellow-gold and white, with black and red spot colors here and there. I've checked my ancient supply of Citadel Washes and re-read Jakub Rune Nielsen's tutorials on painting gold so I am ready to go.

Then I am on to work on a squad of Scouts. I am really excited about the scouts and I plan on going to town on them with conversion work and even some re-sculpting of their legs.

However, before I do I need some help from all of you. First of all, what is the best "stuff" for sculpting? Green stuff from Citadel, Kneadlite, Pro-Create? What is best for a beginning sculptor?

Also, what is the best armament for a scout squad? I am thinking shotguns, a missile launcher and powerfist on the leader. What do you all think?

Lastly, I'd just like to remind you all who are the Heroes of Armageddon, why, they're YOU...but only if you support the project. Check out the paypal widget on my blog and support this effort. Doctors without Borders needs your support to save lives, that's how you can be a hero. I've already supported the project with a 10 dollar contribution in addition to my regular monthly support to DWB. Be like me! As little as 10 dollars from each of you will make a huge difference.

Infinity: Shang-Ji Invincible and Zhanshi Soldiers

2011-05-15T18:19:00.003-04:00

Yu-Jing specialize in Heavy Infantry and the Shang-Ji is one their front-line units. Not as expensive as the walking-tanks, Hac Tao, nor as sneaky, the Shang-Ji offers a well-armed and armored trooper at an affordable rate in points. Their basic build-out is a Shang-Ji armed with Combi-rifle and Light Flamerthrower, that roughly translates into a Space Marine with Combi-flamer, but the bolter part of the equation can actually do a fair amount of damage, while the flamer part doesn't run out after one shot. I ran this for a couple games, was unimpressed but then I looked at the unit entry again and realized this guy can carry a Spitfire. Spitfires are small hand-held machine guns that pump out a sick amount of lead per second at a high velocity...in game terms it means the weapon has a burst of 4 and damage of 14, the second highest in the game. Say good bye to the combi-rifle!

Besides having a respectable statline and power armor, the Shang-Ji is pretty basic. No frills but that certainly doesn't mean no thrills. The first of note being his movement rate of 4-4. Most heavy infantry, like regular Invincibles and Orc Troopers, are slowed by their armor down to 4-2, but not this gentlemen. What this means is that early on in the game he is quick enough to take up forward positions where he's needed most. Additionally it means he gets to move 2 inches when failing a guts-check roll instead of 1 inches, so if he's taking fire, he can pull back quicker to cover.

Secondly, like most Yu Jing Tiger Soldiers, he's got an above average AVA at 3. What is that you say? AVA is availability; how many models of a certain type you can field in an army. Most HI of other armies are 2. Veteran Kazaks: 2, Janissaries: 2, Mobile Brigada: 2, the exception is the Orc Trooper of Pan O at 3 as well. On top of that, it seems Yu Jing have a wider selection of Heavy Infantry, meaning you could possibly field an entire special ops unit composed of mostly power armored troops.

Of course, no elite trooper would be without his mandatory support section of line troops, often called order-monkeys or cheer leaders. These are the basic trooper, who are included in the unit to provide support to your main troopers by adding their orders to the pool. Below you can see 3 of the Zhanshi soldiers I've done. They look fairly decent, although I'm not 100% satisfied with the color-scheme. They just seem to be a little dull and overly grey. After viewing these pictures myself, I've decided to paint on some more orange so that they match their Shang-Ji comrade.

I've done six of these chaps, as when I initially started writing lists, I thought that having a good sized force of line troops would firstly generate lots of orders and also overwhelm my opponents in the game. However, line troops like the Zhanshi die easily under fire due to their lack of armor. It really isn't difficult to pump a bunch of orders into a well-placed Orc Trooper with an HMG and rack up the kills in a single turn. Instead it's wise to have a good supply of armored troops that can take on opponents like that.

One thing I really like about Infinity is the scale. You've only got a handful of troops and that means you can lavish each model with bright colors, blending and details without getting burned out by having to paint the basically the same figure 10, 20 or even 35 times, with 6-12 vehicles on top of that. While I love the spectacle of huge armies, I am really loving the amount of details I can bring out on the small special ops units that you run in Infinity games.

On the way to me is a box of Haramaki, another Heavy Infantry unit that I cannot wait to bring brush to. They are space samurai! First however, I've got to get started on my Heroes of Armageddon project. I'm getting 5 Sanguinary Guard assembled this week so hopefully I'll be able to post some pics on that as well.

To Infinity and Beyond!

2011-05-02T08:00:00.001-04:00

Lately I've been quite simply obsessed with infinity.I've poured over the rules, watched every Beasts of War video on it, made terrain and assembled a bunch of miniatures. Why? Because it's simply awesome. It's action-packed, sophisticated and tactical.

The game mechanics have a couple unique selling points, the most obvious is the turn-sequence. Unlike other games, you can act during your opponent's turn. It's based on a system of orders, done in your turn, and automatic reaction orders or AROs, done in your opponent's turn.

When it is your active turn, you have a pool of orders based on the number of models in your force. You use these orders to make actions with your miniatures. So for example, I have 3 models giving me a pool of 3 orders. I use these orders to activate my models, spending an order to do actions,, but there is no limit to how many orders I use for each model. So I could one action with each of my models, or make up to 3 actions with 1 of them, moving and shooting multiple times.

While this may seem an unbalanced rules mechanic,potentially allowing a powerful model to move and shoot multiple times like Rambo, it is balanced by your opponent's ARO. ARO is an action that enemy models can take in response to your moves in your turn. As your soldiers open fire, the enemy reacts by ducking behind cover or returning fire. It means that running out in the open is dangerous and that you have to plan your moves carefully. You have to cover your advance.

Leadership or willpower as it's called in Infinity is an important component to combat and your tactics. Each time a model is hit fire and survives, he must roll under his willpower or move back 2 inches to get out of sight. Models can even go prone, lying on the ground for better use of cover.This allows you to be tactical with your shooting, by forcing key enemies behind cover, you can create opportunities for your other models to get into better positions. Your troops support each other in this way.

To make the game interesting, there are a host of special rules that give you different deployment options like combat jumps and other rules that give you other in game effects like camouflage and hacking enemy systems. There's even two kinds of weaponry, those that cause damage and those that disable machinery and computers, immobilizing soldiers in power armor.

Onto the fluff. The game is set 175 years in the future at a time when mankind has populated the galaxy. Major powers are locked in an eternal conflict over resources, information and influence.

The army that I've started off with is Yu Jing, a pan-Asian conglomerate power with advanced technologies married with ancient tradition. They can field a large array of heavy infantry, ninjas, and powerful battlesuits. Because of their adherence to the tradition of martial arts, they also boast the best close-combat units in the game, although is of little significance due to the game's focus of shooting. In general, the Yu Jing specialize in armored heavy infantry.

The Hac-Tao are their elite and embody much of the Yu Jing character; a heavy infantry unit, well-armed, with both close-combat and ranged weaponry, and possessing advanced technologies like thermal-optical camouflage. They also exemplify their main weakness, a vulnerability to electro-magnetic weaponry, hackers and sepsitors, that can disable, immobilize and even control their computerized power armor.

One of the things that draws me to Infinity is the sleek weapon designs and true-scale miniatures. Below you can see my first painted infinity model. This girl is a Zhanshi, a basic line trooper of Yu Jing. The sculpt is very detailed and certainly carries a bit of character. Her face, although I haven't photographed it well, is distinctly Asian. Such is the level of quality of Infinity models.

If this post sparks your interest, check out www.infinitythegame.com or you can even post questions in the comments section on this blog.

The game has a surprising amount of support on-line and I've collected a few links that I recommend if you're interested in the game.

The first is www.toposolitario.es.
This is a Spanish website with English text of course that is an excellent source of paper terrain for Infinity. Check out the Ikubes. These are great, colorful and free terrain pieces. You simply print the PDF, cut and fold the piece and you're done. I've taken it a step further, building a structure from foamcore and gift wrapping them with Topo's printed textures for a more durable terrain piece.

The next site I'd like to share is the Infinity wiki: http://infinitythegame.wikispot.org/Home.
Because the game's ruleset is free online, the Corvus Belli is able to share them through wiki. If you have an iPhone or iPad, the wiki is a great reference during games, allowing to find rules quickly with flipping through a book.

If you are in the DC area, I am available on Wednesday nights for demo games at Dream Wizards or Games and Stuff in Glen Burnie. Just email me and we'll sort something out.

Infinity Battle Report, as promised

2011-04-14T10:55:00.003-04:00

Take cover! Infinity is a game that actually simulates live fire-fights with even your toughest heroes suffering critical injuries and your troopers getting mowed down by heavy machine guns.the most important rule is to keep your head down

In my first game last night I ran a Yu Jing battle group of six soldiers. Yu Jing is a Pan-Asian empire that specializes in heavy infantry, clad in power armor wielding advanced and traditional weaponry. The core of my force was three Zhanshi with combi-rifles. Zhanshi are your basic trooper, nothing special here. Combi-rifles are akin to a bolter in 40k but have a maximum range of 36 inches, with heavy penalties for long range shots.

For my heavy infantry I brought a Tiger Warrior with sniper rifle and an Invincible with Heavy Machine Gun or HMG. Both these soldiers wear power armor and carry deadly weaponry.

Next up is my lieutenant. The lieutenant is your army's ground commander and his survival is important to winning games. His/her death means you lose a turn, a fearful prospect as one turn can mean life or death for your troops. I nominated a second Invicible as my lieutenant.

My opponent was gracious enough to teach me the game as we played so he took units which would highlight some of the rules. He also had a Yu Jing force and brought some Invicibles, some Zhanshi and a shaolin monk.

I won the roll for deployment, chose an edge, set up and gave first turn to my infinity mentor. He kicked off the game by tossing a smoke grenade so some of his troops could get into firing positions. By positioning his Invincible with an HMG in cover, he created a veritable machine gun nest, that then proceeded to gun down my lieutenant in the first turn. I would have lost of turn because of that but my mentor skipped that rule as it was more of a demo game than an actual match. Note to self, keep your lieutenant protected, lesson learned.

In return, I started to work my troops into position to start laying pressure on that HMG nest. After losing a Zhanshi to return fire, my Invincible's HMG managed to gun down his, and make short work of the line troops supporting the position. While doing so, one of his heavy infantry was flanking me on my left. Seeing this, I had to reposition my sniper in order to get a good line of fire on his avenue of approach. As his power-armored soldier rounded the corner to fire on my line troops, my sniper took aim and got a direct hit. A sniper's bullet penetrated his armor and felled the attacker in silent death.

With that threat nullified, it was my time to execute the killing blow. I began to move up my heavy infantry but fumbled the moves a bit and lost my sniper while fleeting from cover to cover. That's the beauty of Infinity, you really have to be careful where you step or you'll be pushing up daisies.

In the end, my Invincible leaped up a hill, shrugged off some fire, and pumped the enemy full of lead to kill off the last pockets of resistance. Rambo moves like that aren't uncommon in Infinity but they are risky!

Infinity really is an exciting game. One thing that struck me was the vulnerability of even the most elite infantry, which creates a lot of risk and excitement during the game. Though, there were many things we skipped over in this game, like gut-checks and hackers, I feel pumped up to keep playing Infinity.

Tau Help Desk: List Musings and Tyranids

2011-04-13T09:17:00.002-04:00

Dear OSH,

I'm a big fan of your blog, and until recently have been in a state of denial that Tau have become a mono-build. After your initial post on the subject, I played my mechanized, killing-blow Tau for several months more, trying to prove to myself that it is as viable as the list you posted. After twice ending with 2 wins, 2 losses at local tournaments, I decided to change to the new Tau a couple weeks ago. So far, I have been extremely pleased that I can use my Kroot in mass again, and have greater firepower. I use a list almost identical to your 1850 (sorry about that, but it is a mono-build you say!) with full sized firewarriors and one fireknife team instead of a deathrain squad. Thank you for all the tactics and articles on the new strategy! I greatly enjoy them and it has helped my Tau win most of their games with the new list. I will try this at a tournament coming up.

I've been meaning to ask you about your tactics versus Tyranids for some time now. I have had the most trouble against them, and its the only army I haven't beat. The Patient Hunter list should be better at keeping them away from my firepower, but I still fear genestealer heavy lists with backup large gaunt squads. I can't focus on such a large squad when the genestealers will require all my firepower. Are there any tactics or tips you keep in mind when fighting 'nids?

Also, based off your 1850 list, what do you drop when lowering to 1500? I ended up dropping piranhas and a deathrain squad, but they are both pretty essential units for the army. I won that 1500 game, but with less screens, it was harder to hold off the attackers. In addition, what is the first unit you'd add for a 2000 list? The army fits too well at 1850, and I don't know what else I need more of.

Thanks, and good luck on Heroes of Armageddon! I can't wait to see how awesome your models will be!

------Reply out:

Sorry I haven't emailed you sooner. My internet has been down at my house and I don't have much time at work to write emails. I'm glad you've been having fun with your Tau army. Honestly mine has been shelved due to time constraints with my daughter. Parenting takes time, it really does.

I can't wait for the new codex which isn't too far off. The anticipation is brewing, believe me.

The Tau aren't 100% locked into a mono-build. Stelek from Yes the Truth Hurts has been producing some great new builds to play with. Although they are soundly founded on the mono-build, they have some interesting elements.

Check this link for a genius list from Stelek:

http://yesthetruthhurts.com/2011/02/tau-phase-four-expansio/

Also, have you seen the new Tau FAQ on the GW website? Seeker missiles now pretty ignore cover except for area terrain and smoke launchers. There is some potential there. Drone are now destroyed if attached to a vehicle when it's wrecked but they don't give up kill points in that situation. I'd like to think my emails to Jervis helped get this done, but who knows?

Kroot in great numbers are still extremely useful. Keep using them and learning how to get the most out of them.

Going down to 1500 points from my 1850 list is quite hard. You start getting into an area where you don't have enough points to build the backbone of the Tau army, which is kroot, prianhas and broadsides. I think I would start from scratch, but ensure that I have at least 10 Crisis Suits with Missile Pods, 2 squads of 10 kroot and at least 2 piranhas. Be sure to fit in at least 4 railguns somehow. Keep the upgrades to a minimum, for example, if you get fire warriors take 6 of them and put them into a stock devilfish with only the Disruption Pod upgrade. That's only 145 points. Not bad at all.

For 2000 points I would try to combine my Broadsides into 2 squads and try to fit in a Hammerhead with Railgun. You start needing the large blast at that point. Lately I went to a tournament without any large blasts and faced two horde armies, that simply ignored most of my shooting. Large blasts are an essential tool in most lists, so do consider including a Hammerhead or even a Airburster on your commander.

Against Nids, honestly I haven't ever played against the new codex but I'd say to be sure you have some flamers on your suits, a Hammerhead with railgun (for large blasts) and a good screen of kroot and vehicle dropped drones. Even drones can slow up a tervigon. Make sure you kill any flying guys early.

To sum up, screen your firing line with kroot and drones, with crisis suits with flamers and missile pods close behind. With a good mix of blasts, templates, and S6.S7 weapons, you should have all the tools you'll need.

Heroes of Armageddon is about to get going. I moved into a new place this weekend and I am working on setting up my paint station. First to come is a unit of Blood Angels Scouts

Heroes of Armageddon

2011-04-07T08:30:00.018-04:00

You may all remember the Storm Wardens Project from last year in which Thomas Wynn, Jawaballs, Ron Saikowski, Mister Justin, Mik and Mike and John from Santa Cruz Warhammer all collaborated to create a unique and beautiful Storm Wardens Army to raise support for Doctors Without Borders. The project was a huge success because the great amount of community support that folks like you contributed.

Well the community is at again and this time I have been offered the distinct honor of joining the likes of Ron Saikowski, Jawaballs and many others in the great project. This project was a complete no-brainer for me for a couple reasons. First of all, I am monthly contributor to Doctors Without Borders, a non-profit organization that provides medical care to those in need all across the globe and particularly in areas where few others operate, places like the Democratic Republic of Congo. I've visited the Congo myself, while travelling with my father in his work. I've seen with my own eyes the kind of work that this organization does and it is essential to many.

With that said, I am honored and committed to supporting the project and I hope you will to. All of the painters will be bringing all the stops on their miniatures and we are bound to be seeing some fantastic stuff.

Please visit the Heroes of Armageddon blog and don't forget to click "follow" and add it to your blogroll. Your support, monetary or through promotion, is essential to making this project a huge success. This is project belongs to each and every one of us, so let's make a good 'un!

Long Fangs Complete

2011-04-05T14:00:00.008-04:00

Long Fangs are one of the most popular units out there these days. Very few Space Wolf armies will leave Fenris without them and I felt that I had to do them justice in this commission. I am pretty proud of how they came out, especially the Squad Leader. I set out to make him more technical and ended up with a right-cool Space barbarian. These days he’s the object of my man-crush. Those shades just make him so hot.

There is some freehand on this unit and I follow Ron from From the Warp’s advice on doing freehand symbols. Break the object up into manageable shapes and take your time. Great advice, Ron. It worked!

Enjoy!

Coming soon...

2011-04-05T08:30:00.001-04:00

Infinity the Game

2011-04-04T09:00:00.000-04:00

Lately I have become very interested in Infinity the Game. Infinity, for those who haven't heard of it, is a skirmish battle tabletop game, like Necromunda and Malifaux in it's size of battle but not in it's scope. It's produced by a Spanish Company, Corvus Belli, who were recently guests on Beasts of War Youtube Channel.

The game is set in 175 years in the future of our world. This is very important, because in the game you'll find all the contemporary world powers represented in the game. There is a huge Asian conglomerate power, the Yu Jing, that features units and troops from China, Japan and other Asian nations. Americans have been fused with the nations of the UK and Russia, and become a power, less advanced technologically due to isolation from Earth and the Human Sphere for a century.

The game can be incredibly detailed; your futuristic soldiers can doctor wounded comrades, hack into enemy computer systems, and use camouflage to move undetected across the battlefield. At first it sounds complex, but the core rules are fluid, simple and easy to learn. You'll never need more than 4 dice at a time, in contrast to 40k where you often find yourself digging out 20-30 dice from your stash.

What I like most about it, is that although it's still based on a "you-go, I-go" turn system, your enemy can react to your moves in your turn and vice versa, making for a game that engages you throughout its entire length. You don't have to watch your opponent move and shoot uncontested during his turn, you get to fight back.

I haven't even mentioned the miniatures yet. They are, in my humble opinion, the best miniatures available on the market today. Every model is expertly sculpted with near flawless anatomy, posed in dynamic and fluid stances that imply action. You have to see for yourself. It's hard to look at a 40k miniature the same way after you realize what Corvus Belli has achieved with this range.

I've scheduled my first game for next week, and I plan on doing a short battle report via Youtube. I know, I know, all this text and no actual in-game experience. WTF? That's bloggers for you! I am in no way endorsed by Corvus Belli, either, just really enthusiastic about this new game.

I'll be proxying my Tau force for a Pan Oceania battle group. Pan Oceania is the future manifestation of the western powers, rich, technologically advanced and domineering, they field some of the best shock troops, Orcs, and have powerful TAGs, or battlesuits. Check out this video to learn more.

www.infinitythegame.com

Desktop Shot: Long Fangs

2011-03-29T08:48:00.001-04:00

Long Fangs are in demand these days, this is my second Long Fangs commission and I'm surprised I was able to muster up enough missile launchers for it. These guys are nearing completion. I think maybe two more nights of painting, maybe one if I move fast. Then they get boxed and sent out to the client.

One thing I like about this group are the subtle conversions I made here and there. The Pack Leader is actually operating his auspex and his head is a scouts head. Scouts apparently have no necks and are slightly smaller than a full grown space marine's. I used greenstuff to build up the neck and by making it a little longer than usual, I managed to solve the scale problem.

This unit has really made me want to build and paint a Space Wolf Army of my own.

In other news, I placed a mammoth order for a huge jetbike army. It'll be here soon. I really can't wait to get started on that. It will hopefully re-invigorate my passion for gaming.

Mounds of Meaty Muscle: Ogre Army Commission Near Complete

2011-03-21T08:30:00.002-04:00

This Ogre Kingdoms Army is my first ever entire army commission. Luckily the client has been generous in the deadline, because I've had to push it back twice already. Such is the reality of a new father with a full-time day job! I am proud to say that, bar from adding static grass to the bases of 12 models, I am 100% complete with all the plastic components of this army. That's 48 Gnoblars. 20 Ogre Bulls, 8 Ogre Leadbelchers and 4 Ogre Ironguts. No small feat I assure you. I've got 2 Scraplaunchers, 1 Ogre Tyrant, 2 Gorgers, 1 BSB and 1 Ogre Butcher to go.

It really has been a joy paint all these guys. With my busy schedule, I wouldn't take any army out there but when the client told me it would be Ogres, I was really excited to get started. Brian Neilson sculpted the plastics and he's always been one of my favorite members of the Citadel team. His work is impressive in that he always makes sure that his creations are 100% anatomical plausible and that really suits my aim of capturing of gritty realism in my work.

If you're interested in a commission, email me at timandlucka at gmail dot com. Although I am booked with Army Commissions until September, I might be able to fit in a squad or character model somewhere.

Last day to bid on Sanguinary Priests

2011-03-19T10:24:00.000-04:00

Today at approximately 3pm Eastern, the auction on Brother Corbulo and his cadre of 2 Sanguinary Priests. Check it out: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220753453251&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT#ht_483wt_1158

I've also got a Land Raider: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220753429533&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT#ht_500wt_1156

A Chaplain: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220753437648&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT#ht_500wt_1156

and Blood Angels Biker Squad: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220753762675&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT#ht_483wt_1160

Those last 3 end tomorrow. And yes, I am totally whoring out my blog for these auctions. Hope to get some Tau content up soon.

A New Way of War

2011-03-17T10:44:00.000-04:00

Recently I have been moping around, looking for a new army to do. You all helped out greatly in making me realize that Space Marines are not it. I'm firmly in the Xenos camp.

If recent rumors are true, we've got about 8 months at least until a new Tau Codex comes out, but I'll wager it won't be until 2012 that we see it hitting the shelves. I've got loads of stuff I want to see in the new codex and releases. First and foremost is a complete redux of the Tau Fire Warrior, as they are without a doubt one of my favorite plastic kits in the current range. Second would be a new Crisis Suit model. The current set quite simply doesn't stand up to what's out there now. It lacks detail, looks boxy and needs extensive conversion work to increase the coolness factor. But that is for another post....

With the Tau release still a long way off and the Ogre Army Commission nearing completion, I've got the entire summer and fall to work on something new.

I've got an army list, I've got a few boxes of models. I've got a paint scheme. It's not Dark Eldar, it's not Space Marines of any type, nor is it bug-like in any way, but it is going to feature these models extensively:

That's right. Old Shatter Hands is getting on the Counts-As Bandwagon. This time it's something along the lines of a very darkly-lit Way of Saim Hann...

Blood Angels Sanguinary Priests for Sale

2011-03-12T14:30:00.003-05:00

This post is serve as a showcase for the Blood Angels Sanguinary Priest models have recently finished for Ebay.

Happy bidding. The auction ends on Saturday, March 19th at 3:44pm eastern.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220753453251&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT#ht_483wt_1158

You can leave questions about the models in the comments section of this post.

Blood Angels Chaplain for Sale

2011-03-12T14:13:00.003-05:00

This post is serve as a showcase for the Blood Angels Chaplain model have recently finished for Ebay. It's a gaming model first and foremost but I'm really proud of the work I did on this guy. Especially the black that almost looks like midnight blue. This was achieved by using blue ink washes instead of Citadel washes and greys. The effect makes the overall look more vibrant. I've also done some freehand on the knee-pad and shoulder-pad to signify this Chaplain as a member of the Blood Angels Chaplain.

Happy bidding. The auction ends on Sunday, March 20th at 7pm eastern.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220753437648&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT#ht_500wt_949

Blood Angels Land Raider for Sale

2011-03-12T13:43:00.002-05:00

This is to showcase the Land Raider I have listed on Ebay for Sale. Click on the pictures for bigger shots. The model has been in service for some years and it's time to move on to new campaigns and other tabletops. If you have questions about the model, please leave comments and I'll post answers. The auction ends on March 20th at 7pm Eastern Standard Time. Happy bidding.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220753429533&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT#ht_522wt_932

Eastern Empire has a new look!

2011-03-11T11:06:00.000-05:00

After a long period of stasis, it looks as though Eastern Empire has been revived. This is one of my favorite Tau modellers out there. I've gotten so much inspiration from this guy over the years and now his site is back up. Have a look at all those awesome Tau comics and models. I especially recommend looking at this "unique models" section. It features a female Fire Warrior. Great Stuff.

http://eastern-empire.com/

Tau Help Desk: Adepticon Combat Patrol Tournament

2011-03-07T15:26:00.000-05:00

Email in:

Greetings from the beach head at Adepticon. We are preparing our
scouting patrol units to survey the area for a suitable location for
the primary force strongpoint. We are spread thin due to the number of
potential landing zones. Currently we are unable to send the normal
Pathfinder units forward in this process. The teams we are sending
forth are being taken from regular units. With the blessings of the
Greater Good I trust this will be enough to hold the positions long
enough for the main force to join them. Please see that this
deployment meets with your well heeled designs.

400 Pts - Tau Empire Roster - ESWAT Combat Patrol

Total Roster Cost: 399

Troops: Fire Warrior (7#, 196 pts)
6 Fire Warrior w/ Photon Grenades
1 Devilfish w/Disruption Pod, Flechette Discharger,
Multi-Tracker, Smart Missile System, Targeting Array

Fast Attack: Piranha Light Skimmer (3#, 75 pts)
1 Piranha Light Skimmer w/ Flechette Discharger, Targeting Array

Fast Attack: Piranha Light Skimmer (3#, 75 pts)
1 Piranha Light Skimmer w/ Flechette Discharger, Targeting Array

Elite: Crisis Battlesuit (1#, 53 pts)
1 Crisis Battlesuit w/ Twin Linked Missile Pod, Targeting Array

I await your response. For the Greater Good!

Reply:

Commander,

In response to your request for approval, the Aun of Voi’la have requested your patrol be accompanied ny Shas’Ui Rio’Myroi, a veteran battlesuit pilot of the Thoth campaigns. His command will help bring much needed fire support should your patrol encounter enemy forces.

The Aun also suggest rounding up a gaggle of Kroot, whose attunement to natural surrounds will assist in routing out any concealed forces amoung the vegation on the sector.

Ha! I love getting emails like this.

Combat patrol tournaments are really fun as the games are lightning fast and you get to meet lots of guys (because you're playing a lot of rounds). Because of the low model count, you’re more likely to see beautifully painted patrols at the event. If I were going to Adepticon, I would certainly play in this event as it gives you a nice healthy 3 hour break on Saturday when you can cruise the convention and look at all the cool stuff there.

The Adepticon Combat Patrol Tournament is using the following ruleset: http://www.adepticon.org/11rules/2011cp.pdf

Pretty standard Combat Patrol rules but with the addition of the swing slot, allowing this Tau Commander to field two Piranha units.

I’d be nervous about running this list however. It doesn’t have enough firepower, it just doesn’t have the firepower to really kill much. A lot of the points are put into upgrades like Flechette Dischargers, which are situational and only really useful when you’re opponent has no way of killing vehicles outside of Close Combat and those armies are few and far between. Cheap melta abounds in 5^th edition and you’re more likely to be shot at, than assaulted.

What I do like is that it stays within the theme of being a patrolling force, so as I re-work it slightly I want to keep that in mind.

Troops:

6 Fire Warriors with Pulse Rifles 60 points

1 Devilfish, Disruption Pod 85 points

This unit has had it’s SMS and upgrades removed. The Gun Drones are more valuable than SMS anyday. They will pop off and contribute fire and get in the way of assaulters.

Fast Attack:

1 Piranha, Fusion Blaster 65 points

Again, stripped of it’s upgrades. Sure we lose BS4, but we need those points for more guns.

Fast Attack:

1 Piranha, Fusion Blaster 65 points

Elites:

2 Crisis Suits: Twin-linked Missile Pods, Flamers. 94 Points

Total: 399.

We've kept the main structure of the list but we've removed most of the unit upgrades in order to get another Crisis Suit in the mix. Well worth it in my opinion. The theme is left intact, and we've just beefed it up a bit.

In Space Marine and Imperial Guard Patrol lists, you might see at least 2 transports and having the extra Missile Pods will help. An IG list can go real cheap and could potentially field at least 3 Chimeras, Space Marines you're likely to see two Rhinos or Land Speeder Storms if facing a scout list.

With this in mind, I decided to think up a list that I might run in this tournament. I want a bigger force with more models and more firepower. Since the mandatory Fire Warrior unit is waived for this event, I decided to skip them altogether in favor of Kroot. This would be my scouting party, a large clan of Kroot to sniff out the enemy with Piranha providing an eye in the sky and 2 units of Crisis Suits to pummel the enemy with high-strength fire, then to purge them with flame if they get too close.

Troops:

10 Kroot. 70 points.

Elites:

2 Crisis Suits: Twin-linked Missile Pods, Flamers. 94 Points

Fast Attack:

Piranha with Fusion Blaster and Targetting Array. 70 Points

Total: 398

Alternatively, you could drop the piranha and one of the Crisis Suit squads to field a unit of 5 Stealth Suits. These would work well with Kroot as they can both infiltrate and the kroot can form a defensive skirmish line as you blast away with Burst Cannon Dakka.

I'm sure there are lots of ways to build out a successful Tau Patrol, but I think the main principal should be: Keep the upgrades to a minimum, get as much bodies, and therefore guns, as possible.

I'd also suggest doing some google search for Combat Patrol lists, for inspiration and to get an idea what others might bring to the table.

Ebay Auctions This Week

2011-02-22T14:03:00.001-05:00

Whoring my work out to the masses, trying to make room and money to fund a new army project, I've listed a couple more things to Ebay this week.

Here are the listings:
Painted Blood Angels Baal Predator
Painted Blood Angels Assault Squad with Jump Packs
Painted Space Wolves Long Fangs with Missile Launchers

Bid early, bid often!

I am actually trying to decide what my next army should be. I've got a couple ideas.

Eldar Jetbikers with Dual Seer Council?
I've always liked the playstyle of really fast armies and this one seems pretty cool. I'm not sure how competitive it is, but I believe with Dual Seer Council I could at least put up a tough fight. I'm actually thinking of using Dark Eldar models for this army and use 5th Edition models for a 4th edition codex, kind of doing the opposite of a lot of counts-as armies these days.

Space Marines?
I know, I know. WTF? Well I have some really cool ideas for a Space Marines army, taking a complete departure from the Gothic imagery of Space Marines and give them more advanced technology and wargear. Of course making it a balanced force with lots of tanks and some assault Terminators. Lots of ideas for modelling here and I thinking of transferring my Tau color scheme to marines, with some improvements of course.

Ogre Thursday

2011-02-17T09:00:00.003-05:00

Tau of War isn't alway Tau-focussed, like I'd like it to be. I can't only paint Tau models now can I? so today I want to share some of the ogres I've been working on. (Although if you look closely, you can see some battlesuits in the background, those will be posted soon as well).

I'm not sure how effective these boyz are in Warhammer, but they've got to me some of the coolest models GW has made. They aren't the easiest models to convert and don't have a wide range of pose-abilty like other plastic kits. What they lack in range, they make up for in character.

Getting the skin right seems essential to making Ogres look good, and it seems to get better with every batch I do. I've got to work a bit on the warpaint but overall the models look good. In the next batch, I hope to improve the warpaint, taking these models from good to great.

Some people ask me how I get such clear pictures. I use a Nikon D90 with natural light. Always. And what's even cooler is that I've recently set up my painting table right by two large windows! This is great for painting on weekends during the day but at night I've still got to use my 3 lamps to paint.

Tau Mobile Assault Cadre: When you get the urge to execute the killing blow.

2011-02-16T12:56:00.004-05:00

So this list isn’t the best Tau list out there but it’s different than most in that it’s 100% mobile and semi-fast. It’s designed to have lots of little gun drones squad detach as early as possible to act as speed bump units for your suits and vehicles. The problem with the list is that it suffers when your opponent has lots of lascannons but should be OK against a mech’d up force. Disclaimer: I’ve never run this list…but it is my dream-list. I’ll build it one day!

HQ- Shas'El with Twin-linked Missile Pod, Flamer 72

Elites- 3 XV8s with Twin-Linked Missile Pod, Flamer. 1 upgraded to Team Leader with Drone Controller and 2 Gun Drones 166

Troops- 6 Fire Warriors in Devilfish with Disruption Pod, Multitracker 155

Fast Attack- 2 Piranhas with Fusion Blasters and Targeting Arrays. 1 has a Disruption Pod. 145

Heavy Support- Hammerhead with Railgun, SMS, Multitracker and Disruption Pod. 175

Pts: 1995

Set up would be to place your suits running behind piranhas at first, but then when the game gets going, drop some drones and use them for cover and speed-bumping for your suits. 2 Hammerheads get deployed in the boards corners if possible, so you can get some cross-fire action on the table top. The 3^rd one gets put down in the middle of the board and joins one of the flanks during the game, depending on firing lanes and such. Hammerheads are going to be shooting tanks in the first couple turns of the game, and then switch to infantry as soon as you get the opportunity.

Piranhas should be deployed centrally, preferably behind cover. In the first turn, I’d drop the drones to accompany the XV8s, then move your piranhas 12 inches, being sure to keep the speeder with the pods in the back so you get the pod save on the whole unit. Piranhas then need to move out to melt transports and tanks. Crisis Suit XV8s use the drones as cover and hop around shooting transports and tanks, contributing covering fire. The Shas’El can join a squad of XV8s or he can do a hamburgler and join some Gun Drones for some protection.

The Devilfish can be put in reserve during objective based games or placed on the board for annihilation, where they can contribute their hulls to block the enemy and so on. With 3 devilfish, you’re going to need to protect these guys. Their Drones should be dropped at first chance to provide more speed-bump and covering units. Devilfish don’t really contribute to the fight much and I’m not sure if I’d use Pulse Carbines or Rifles on the Fire Warriors. Probably Rifles so they can work in tandem to drop their Warriors and rapid fire (Fish of Fury) but this isn’t the best tactic out there.

So a re-cap:

Piranhas are tank-hunters and move blockers.

Gun Drones are cover-saves and speed-bumps.

XV8s target transports and get the enemy on foot.

Devilfish take objectives, run Fish of Furies and move-block when needed.

Hammerheads’ primary role is to kill infantry but can target tanks.

That’s my dream list. As I said earilier, it isn’t the most powerful Tau build but it has some nice weapons in its arsenal. It can move, has some speed but it’s pretty fragile, losing a Hammerhead or unit of Piranhas is really hard pill to swallow.

Suggestions? Comments? Is this the worst list ever? You decide.

Blood Angels Ebay Auctions

2011-02-14T09:00:00.001-05:00

I'm clearing out some models from my collection to make way for more. I'm starting with some Blood Angels models that you can see below. I may eventually put all my Blood Angels up for sale, seeing as how I rarely play with them anymore.

The Dread and Devastators are probably the best units in the lot but all the models are painted to a good table-top standard. There are 2 out of production Sergeants in the lot as well.

Click the links below the pics to head to the Auction!

Blood Angels Tactical Squad with Plasma

Blood Angels Tactical Squad with Lascannon and Flamer

Blood Angels Dreadnought

Blood Angels Devastator Squad

Inner Circle High Stakes Tournament and Sausage Fest

2011-02-11T11:24:00.002-05:00

As a new father and dedicated husband, I’m finding less and less time to get out and roll dice at the my local store. Sure, after the family has gone to bed I get in about an hour and a half of solid painting each night, but I’m really missing out on the gaming aspect of the hobby. Tournaments are becoming my sole source of gaming. Not because I am a uber-competitive guy, but because they are planned in advance, contain at least 3 games in one, and do the networking for me---I don’t have to seek out new opponents, I just meet them at tournaments.

My next appearance at the table-top is going to be next Saturday at Games N Stuff in Glen Burnie, Maryland. The Inner Circle is hosting their annual High Stakes Tournament and Sausage Fest. And yes, it’s going to be a sausage fest in both its meanings. We’re going to be dining on sausages throughout the day and yes, it’s pretty much going to be a big room of man-dudes.

It’s an 1850 tournament, using missions straight from the 40k rulebook, rolled collectively each turn. Pairings each round are going to be randomized. There is a prize after each round. If you win, you get 10 bucks, if you draw you get 5. Fair enough. So what this means, is that the tournament isn’t really a tournament, its more of day of friendly gaming with an added bonus of winning some cash and eating sausages. It’s just what I am looking for.

I’m bringing a list just like my 1750 list I took to conflict, with another Broadside thrown in.

HQ: Shas'El Commander with Missile Pod, Plasma Rifle, Target Lock, HW- Blacksun Filter HW-Mulitracker 95

Elites: Crisis Team: 1 XV8 Team Leader with Twin-Linked Missile Pod, Flamer and HW-Drone Controller and 2 Gun Drones, 2 XV8s with Twin-Linked Missile Pod, Flamer 166

Troops: 6 Fire Warriors 60

Troops: 10 Kroot, 3 Kroot Hounds 88

Fast Attack: 4 Pathfinders, Devilfish with Disruption Pod 133

Fast Attack: 3 Piranhas with Fusion Blasters 195

Heavy Support: Broadside Team, 1 XV88 Team Leader with Advanced Stab. System, HW-Blacksun filter, HW-Drone Controller with 2 Shield Drones, 1 XV88 with Advanced Stab. System 198

Heavy Support: Broadside Team, 1 XV88 Team Leader with Advanced Stab. System, HW-Blacksun filter, HW-Drone Controller with 1 Shield Drone 103

I gave my XV-88 Team Leaders and the Shas’El Blacksun Filters in case we end up rolling Dawn of War for deployment. There is the potential for that to come up more than once. If we happen to roll annihilation more than once, I’m going to be having trouble. That said, if I play smart I’m sure I can protect my units from getting destroyed.

This list is actually fairly durable in-game. I know theory-hammer-wise, people would be shocked at the amount of Kill Points it has but with careful placement and ensuring cover-saves on all my units each turn, it can soak up damage like the dickens. Lascannons and meltas are made less effective as it’s mostly infantry based, and even heavy bolters and assault cannons have trouble knocking out my units.

So far the list of participants is really small. So if you’re in the area, please sign up!

Commission Sneak Peak: Ogres

2011-02-03T08:30:00.000-05:00

Here is a small sneak peak into a commission project I'm working on. It's about 40% done and I expect to be finished at the end of February. I'll post more as I near the finish line.

The Argument for Counts-As Armies or A Declaration of Independence from GW Fluff

2011-02-02T12:12:00.005-05:00

Counts-As Armies are becoming more and more common these days. Black Matt's got his Chaos Wolves, Goatboy's got his Space Goats, even Eldar players are trying to see if they can use Dark Eldar rules. There's been a recent backlash to it and even some tournaments are disallowing the use of such armies. So I wanted to take the time to post my thoughts on the subject with regards to aspects of the hobby, the gaming and the modeling.

Counts-As Armies seem to push people's buttons. Some players really don't like seeing Chaos Space Marine models being played with the Space Wolves or Blood Angels Codices. I'm not quite sure why this is. There are a couple possible reasons.

They could simply be tired of playing against Space Wolves (or insert 5th Codex X). There are a lot of Space Wolf armies at most tournaments and the Codex is wildly popular. However, popularity of a Codex shouldn't be reason to disallow people from using it for their Counts-As army.

Another factor to consider is that the complaints about Counts-As also seem inconsistent. Nobody ever complains about traitor guard being played as IG, but complaints about Chaos Wolves are common.

Another reason could be that some people feel the Codex is "cheese" or over-powered and so they feel that Chaos Wolves are gamey, or an indication of a "power-gamer." This is the most likely reason, as it seemed to be the most common complaint on Goatboy’s article on BOLS earlier this week. Some people see Counts-As armies as a veiled attempt at “power-gaming.” Accusing some one of “power-gaming” is pretty low in my opinion and amounts to nothing productive within the hobby so I really don’t believe this is a valid complaint. Using effective units shouldn't be a reason to disallow someone from using a Codex.

This piece isn’t about power-gaming however, it’s about Counts-As armies. I believe that Counts-As armies should be accepted and embraced as part of the community and hobby of 40k gamers. This is because Counts-As armies add to the diversity of army projects out there because it removes the limitations of imagery for competitive armies. By allowing Counts-As armies, we’ll see more Chaos Space Marines on the table, more Pre-Heresy Armies, and more traitor guard. It opens up more possibilities for our models and stimulates diversity in the hobby.

Another reason I support and encourage Counts-As armies, is because I see the rules as simply a template for army building. Fluff is something completely separate from it. While the rules are often designed by GW to fit the fluff, fluff is something that is mutable. Fluff can be molded to fit the rules of your army.

This is where imagination comes in. Players should have the freedom to use their imagination to come up with armies they like and use models they like, then choose the codex that fits their army. Why should we be limited by GW’s imagination? Why should I be banned and ridiculed as a power-gamer if I want to field an army of Khornate Champions riding Juggernauts that count as thunderwolf cavalry? Or why should I be forbidden from playing a Jump-Pack Raven Guard army using the Blood Angels Codex? Why should I limit my imagination because Codex X can only be used with model X, painted in X color?

That said, there does need to be some consideration of game play when building an army. Counts-As Infantry need to be WSYWYG, to a degree. A model with a 3+ armor save, should be wearing a significant amount of armor and a model with a melta-gun should be armed with a meltagun. Size should also be appropriate.

Vehicles need to be even more so, because vehicles rules depend so much on the size and shape of the model. I would go as far to say that Counts-As armies should still have the same vehicles you’d find in an army from that codex. This is why the Space Marine variants are the best candidates for Counts-As armies, as they all have the same vehicles chassis. I’ve seen Ork models used as Blood Angels, but the owner stuck to using Rhinos and Predator models, but modeled them to look suitably orky. This is in my book is totally acceptable.

As long as the player/modeler considers game-play in his/her conversions, I believe Counts-As armies are a welcome phenomenon in the 40k universe. We don’t need GW to tell us what our armies should look like. In fact, GW openly encourages us to use our own imaginations to build and paint our armies. We need to be able to “own” this hobby. Owning it means freeing ourselves from the limitations of the GW fluff-rules marriage.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to build my Sisters of Battle Army from Eldar models and converting Immolators with Wave Serpent sets.

Tau Help Desk: Tau at Small Points Levels and a Tangent on Mobility

2011-01-30T21:35:00.003-05:00

Hi Old Shatter Hands,
I've been playing Tau for three years and I'm a big fan of your blog, especially the tactics. I was hoping you could give me some advice on a list I'm using in the UK school league tournament. The rules for the tournament are: armies must be no more than 600 points, you must have an H.Q. and two troops, you may have one elites, you may have one fast attack or heavy support.
I played this list at the qualifier:
Shas'el, deathrain, burst cannon, shield drone
3 shas'ui, deathrain, flamers
6 fire warriors
6 fire warriors
10 kroot
Hammerhead, railgun, burst cannons, disruption pod, multitracker, flechette dischargers
It performed quite well but it suffered against a Blood Angels army with Seth and honour guard due to slow moving troops. I thought about taking a deathrain shas'el and a single deathrain shas'ui, 2 squads of six fire warriors in devilfish and two fusion blaster piranhas. It wouldn't do as well against hordes but it moves a lot faster. Have you got any ways I can improve the list?
Thanks for your time,
T.U.

P.s. I have a blog at http://pointyearedshenanigans.blogspot.com/

Reply:
Thanks for reading Tau of War! Congrats on the blog, I'll add it to my blogroll

Warhammer 40,000 at small points levels can be real fun because you have less models to move around and the games are quick and decisive. But as you discovered in the qualifier, they can be unbalanced. Older armies like Tau, Eldar, Chaos Space Marines have less flexibility in their lists. which is only exacerbated by having less points to spend and the restrictions of 1 FOC slot per Fast Attack, Elite and Heavy Support. Armies built from the newer 5th edition codices can throw down a balanced force at this level due to cheap points costs, troops that wield special and heavy weapons with transports like Raiders and Razorbacks that also carry weaponry. So they can be sure to run a strong close combat element, melta weaponry, and long range fire, even with only 600 points.

So the question is how can we build balanced force with the Tau Codex at 600 points. Tau are different in that they need certain elements unique to Tau in order to be viable. The first and second are a Kroot Wall and at least one unit of Piranhas. The Kroot extend cover, while the Piranhas provide you with another screening unit, the Drones, and some move-blocking for enemy vehicles and troops. The Kroot Wall and move-blocking Piaranhas are important because you'll find yourself having trouble keeping foot-troops like Seth and buddies away from your lines.

Then you need a good supply of missile pods and railguns. On top of that, you've got the mandatory unit of Fire Warriors and the XV8 Commander HQ so fitting all this into a 600 point list is going to be tough. Your list above is almost there but unfortunately the Hammerhead is sucking up so many points that you 're not there yet.

So here's what I'd feel comfortable bringing to the table at 600 points:
XV8 Commander, Twin-Linked Missile Pods, Flamer, Drone Controller and 2 Gun Drones. 92 Points

2 XV8s with Twin-Linked Missile Pods, Flamer. 94 points

6 Fire Warriors 60 points

10 Kroot. 70 points

10 Kroot. 70 points

2 Piranhas with Fusion Blaster. 130 points

Broadside with Targeting Array. 80 points

Total: 597

Personally, I am becoming a believer in the Tau Infantry Force (foot-lists), with limited vehicle support in the form of Piranhas. I prefer to leave the big expensive Hammerheads at home. Because of our cheap troops , we can throw down a psuedo-horde of infantry backed up by some serious high strength fire power from the larger Battlesuits (i.e. anything but stealth suits).

Your Piranhas are going to move out to block your enemies main advance. Move flat out for 4+ skimmer cover save, and get in the way. Chances are, they'll get destroyed, but they've given you another turn of shooting. Their drones will pop out, take a pinning test but then make themselves useful for screening against infantry.

While this is going on, the Commander and the Crisis Suits use their Missile Pods as suppression fire against Razorbacks and other transports, causing damage results like stuns and shakens to prevent them from firing. Get a shaken or stun result then move on to the next target with your Broadside. He is given a Targeting Array because with only one railgun, you have to make his shots count. He's going to target transports and light vehicles, AV11 and 12, again to make those shots count. ( A railgun needs a 2+ to penetrate a Rhino's armor). So your XV suits can shut down 2 transports a turn maybe 3 if you get lucky ( and hopefully destroying one of them).

Your Kroot and Fire Warriors are going to form a wall of defense for your heavy firepower. Deploy at least 5 Kroot from each squad in area terrain and extend the other 5 out so they can confer cover saves to models behind them. Their job will be meet the enemy infantry head on once they've been popped out of their transports. But you're not going to assault approaching squads, you want them to assault you. So when they get close, move your kroot up, maintaining a cover save and rapid fire. Have your second squad of Kroot and fire warriors behind them to contribute fire. 26 Tau and Kroot rapid firing marines means an average of 4-5 dead marines. Not bad. Not too good, but not bad. Remember to try and get your Gun Drones from your piranhas to screen and contribute fire as well.

The key to Tau is slowing your opponent so you can keep your heavy weapons firing each turn.

That's how I'd do it anyway.

I also want to comment on one thing you mentioned in your email-the issue of Tau mobility. You mention that you're looking to make your army list faster and more mobile. Unfortunately, Tau aren't fast and won't be able to escape meltaguns and assaults without a good amount of screening from Drones and Kroot. It's a common misconception about Tau that I myself played into. Tau aren't fast, they're mobile. This means you can't really escape assaults or run circles around the enemy like Eldar (both varieties) can. It does mean, however, is you can move without losing firepower. It allows you to put units like Drones in the way of things, while your army positions around to get clearer shots, then moves again in the assault phase to ensure cover saves. This combined with markerlights, means you're getting cover saves every turn while your opponent doesn't. Mobility helps you create a cover-save imbalance. Just a neat thing about Tau, that sometimes feels like cheating.

Old Shatter Hands' Cadre at Black Matt's

2011-01-26T13:52:00.000-05:00

Black Matt, fellow blogger and painter, was at the Conflict GT to play and take photos of the armies present. He took some real neat shots of my army set up on it's display board. Here is the LINK for you all to have a gander.

You can see some of my new suits in this photo. You can tell that I haven't quite finished them and I'm currently doing so in the midst of a Ogre Kingdoms Army commission. This commission is really fun but it's eating up a lot of my painting time. It's quite the mammoth project. Although I'm relishing the opportunity to paint ogres, I've really got to mustard the strength to complete it on time.

Part 5: Rules of Engagement

2011-01-24T09:00:00.041-05:00

After the Conflict GT, I was thinking about how differently Tau play than other armies. It's almost as if we're playing with an entirely different set of rules. Then it donned on me. The Tau don't have their own set of game rules, they've got their own set of Rules of Engagement. I've begun the process of transcribing these for your indulgence.

1) Use wound allocation to prevent casualties from shooting, use wound allocation to cause casualties in the assault. You want your units to be durable enough to soak up return fire. Luckily, our main firepower units, like Broadsides and Crisis Suits, have a good armor save and access to drones for wound allocation. In the assault however, the last thing you want is to be bogged down. Use wound allocation to suffer casualties so that the assault ends on your opponent's turn, leaving his unit out in the open for a counter-attack in your next shooting phase.

2) Never advance unless you absolutely must to claim an objective. Unless you need to gain ground and claim objectives, there is no reason to advance on the board. It's tempting to do so to get your troops into rapid fire range, but resist, a good Tau player knows when to exercise restraint.

3) Extrend terrain with Kroot Walls, Drones and Pathfinders. See the picture below. I've used my Kroot to extend the cover save provided by the ruins. The Kroot have the majority of their unit in the terrain and therefor the entire unit gets a cover save. Because they are strung out, they confer cover saves to the Crisis Suits, Drones and Broadsides behind them.

4) Take lots of missile pods and railguns. Both of these weapons are essential to the Tau army. Both have long range, allowing you to keep your distance without wasting firepower and both are high strength, able to reliable put wounds on anything in the game penetrate most army. Railguns are destroyers. They are effecient at wrecking vehicles and the like, while Missile Pods are supressors. They cause lots of damage rolls on the vehicle damage chart preventing tanks from shooting, Most Tau armies need a healthy supply for both of these weapons.

5) Fire Warriors ain't for fighting. In my experience, Fire Warriors are most valuable as cheap scoring units in Devilfish. They aren't good shots and so lack the ability to cause significant damage and aren't numerous enough like Kroot to be a durable unit. Keep them in a Devilfish and use them to claim objectives.

6) Devilfish ain't for fighting. Just like Fire Warriors, Devilfish while durable, aren't very capable fighting tanks. While at first you might think that upgrading them with Smart Missile Systems, Targeting Arrays and Multitrackers might be a good idea, look at the points you're investing into the vehicle and do the math. 7 S5 AP5 shots at BS4 from a tank thats costs 120 points is silly. Better to go cheap, get yourself a Disruption Pod and be done with it. After all, the free Gun Drones are more valuable than a 20-point Smart Missile System any day.

7) Build Firebases that have an escape route. When building a firebase, consider your enemies most likely avenue of approach and build in an escape route. You can do this by positioning Devilfish to provide cover for suits as you move, or by using Piranhas to stall an enemy advance while you move-shoot-move your way out of trouble.

8) A good Tau army is like an onion, it has lots of layers and makes people cry. By layers I mean lots of cheap units that can put in your enemies way blocking him from assaults, speed-bumping essentially. My latest Tau build has 19 units in it. About 50% of these are 'layer-units', ones whose survival isn't important and who can move to get in the way of things. Use these layer-units to bait opponents into a kill-zone or simply block him from killing your more valuable suits and troops.

9) Never waste your drones without purpose. Free Gun Drones, or burger-bots, are a Tau player's best friend. But you've got to protect your friends. Like a good friend they'll protect you, too. Always do your best to make them difficult as possible to kill. Make sure they have cover save and only commit them when you need to block an assault from happening. Their little twin-linked carbines will most of the time cause no damage but you can sometimes get lucky and immobilize a Rhino with them. Keep them around, they are an asset that shouldn't be wasted needlessly.

10) The best armor save Kroot have is staying out of range. While you always want your Kroot to be getting a cover save, be mindful of weapons that can ignore cover and stay out of range of them. Sternguard's bolters, flamers, and the like should be avoided if at all possible.

11) You're mobile, not fast. Don't forget that you are playing Tau, not Eldar. Our forces are mobile and can maintain the a high rate of fire on the move, but they aren't fast. Deployment and destroying your opponent are important to ensuring that you can get where you need to before the end of the game. Don't even deploy thinking that you'll have to the time or speed to redeploy if needed. Tau need to clear the board before they begin moving, so concentrate on dealing damage first.

If you've got more Rules of Engagement, please post them in the comments section.

Conflict Report: Game 2

2011-01-21T09:59:00.004-05:00

Round two of the Conflict GT. I'm coming off a draw with Fritz and matched up against Bill and his Pred-Spam Blood Angels Army. 6 preds of various configuration and 5 scoring 5-man Assault Squads in Rhinos and Razorbacks, lead by a Librarian with Fear the Darkness and some other power that wasn't used in the battle.

This kind of list is difficult to use in my experience. I ran a list like a couple times and I noticed that once a few preds get whacked, it's potency is significantly diminished. Yet still I had to respect the fact this army was one of the few that could exploit poor leadership in a foot-list like mine. The tanks can shock my infantry who don't carry any melta and fear the darkness can force morale checks at a -2 penalty. Psychological warfare at its best!

The mission was a special one made by the TO. The win condition is having more scoring units in your opponents half of the table. I had 4 total scoring units, he had 5, all in transports.

With pitched battle deployment, my opponent won the roll-off, took first turn and set up on a refused flank to my left. I knew was going to have to get clear shots on his tanks so I set a squad of 2 broadsides on the top floor of some ruin on my right, and then set up the bulk of my force toward the center forming a battle line with kroot strung out in front. I infiltrated a pack of kroot carnivores on his table edge to my right, well out of harm's way. One thing could threaten them, an outflanking Baal Pred with flame cannon.

Turn 1, the armored column advanced forward, with 2 baals screening the weaker transports. He takes a couple shots but little damage is sustained by the finest of Tau'n. At this point, he has 5 scoring units in my half or close to it and I have one in his.

My turn 1, I send my piranhas out to intercept the wall of tanks and adjust my forces for the shooting phase. The carnivores in his half just sit there. In the shooting phase, I get off a couple markers and destroy a Baal, then immobile and stun another. My Deathrains manage to immobilize a rhino and stun a razorback or two. I then reposition everything in the assault phase for protection.

Turn 2, his transports move up some more so now they are in my deployment zone on my left, and behind this very large terrain piece I can't see through. His shooting is largely ineffective and his outflanking Baal doesn't show up yet. His Librarian pops out of a rhino hatch and shoots my Kroot front-line with Fear the Darkness. I need to roll a 5 or better, and I fail. The Kroot fall back but only about 6 inches or so.

In my turn the Kroot rally, and I start to pummel him some more with fire power. I can't remember what exactly I killed but this shooting phase is very productive. I think I wreck at least 2 more preds. My kroot move up 3 as their rally move and I start to re-adjust my line so I can run pop-out attacks from around the terrain, to get at his transports. My Devilfish start to move into his half of the table.

Turn 3 or something, the Baal Pred outflanks right on my infiltrating Kroot! He shocks them, they pass. He flames them, and whiffs on the to-wound rolls, 3 ONES! Yes. The kroot hold their position. But then my front-line Kroot are once again threatened by Fear...they fail their morale, and flee some more, but only a few inches. Yes!

My retailiation. I unleash a hail of fire a railguns at the Blood Angels tanks. The outflanking Baal get immobilized and a railgun blasts it's flamestorm cannon clear off. The rest of the Preds are either wrecked or neutered and I get some shots off on his transports from behind the hill. My kroot assault the outflanking Baal and then spend 2-3 turns trying to destroy it.

Turn 4, Bill gets mad at my Crisis Suits and summons the fear once again. My crisis suits, this time, fail and flee 3d6, rolling an 16 or something and run off the board. Blasted! This continues until the end of the game when I have zero crisis suits left!

At this point, I'm just trying to kill scoring units while my firepower is getting diminished by Fear every turn. Bill's scoring units are hunkered down, all hiding behind a hill. But they can't hide from Smart Missiles! Eventually I manage to knock out 2 squads of assault marines leaving him with only 3 left. The game ends with my Kroot and 2 squads of Fire Warriors in his half and 3 5-man Assault Squads in my half.

Fear the Darkness had removed 3 squads of Crisis Suits from the game. It's almost too good against Tau...but only Tau. For 3 reasons: poor leadership, jetpack equipped models falling back 3d6 and the Tau perchance for keeping close to the long table edge.

Bill ended up getting my vote for favorite opponent. He was a challenging player and maintained a friendly demeanor and even joked with me quite a bit. Great game, Bill, I can't wait to meet you again on the tabletop and at the bar for a beer!

Conflict GT Report: Game 1

2011-01-20T09:00:00.003-05:00

As my first big trip ever to attend a 40k event, I was excited about the Conflict GT. I drove 5 hours on Friday night to make it there for a couple reasons. I wanted to meet and hang with the Battle for Salvation club, throw my dice in a new pond of gamers and lists, and of course win stuff. My expectations were tempered by the fact that I did not finish my 5 new Battlesuits and thus would be playing with unfinished models, disqualifying me for Best Painted awards and the like.

To the games!
My list:

HQ: Shas'El Commander with Missile Pod, Plasma Rifle, Target Lock, HW- Blacksun Filter HW-Mulitracker 95

Elites: Crisis Team: 1 XV8 Team Leader with Twin-Linked Missile Pod, Flamer and HW-Drone Controller and 2 Gun Drones, 2 XV8s with Twin-Linked Missile Pod, Flamer 166

Troops: 6 Fire Warriors 60

Troops: 10 Kroot, 3 Kroot Hounds 88

Fast Attack: 4 Pathfinders, Devilfish with Disruption Pod 133

Fast Attack: 3 Piranhas with Fusion Blasters 195

Heavy Support: Broadside Team, 1 XV88 Team Leader with Advanced Stab. System, HW-Target Lock, HW-Drone Controller with 2 Shield Drones, 1 XV88 with Advanced Stab. System 200

Heavy Support: Broadside Team, 1 XV88 Team Leader with Advanced Stab. System, HW-Drone Controller with 1 Shield Drone 100

Total pts: 1750

To my delight, the first game I was matched up against the infamous Fritz from Way of Saim Hann and his Harlequin troupe. Fritz was running Eldrad, 3 wraithlords, 3 units of 10 harlies with kisses and a couple fusion pistols, 2 units of 5 rangers and that's it. Small and compact. The mission was 3 objectives, which are placed by the players, after deployment, anywhere on the table and then scatter. Fritz deployed a little castle in his corner and I set up aggressively in my corner, with Kroot Infiltrating into a forest near the Harlies. Fritz won the roll-off and placed 2 objectives along his table edge 6 inches apart and then rolled scatter but he rolled hits for placement. I placed my objective in my quarter and it didn't scatter.

With my objective safe, I had to come at Fritz to knock him off his objectives to win. Without a strong assault element, any army has a difficult time knocking Eldar Rangers with a 2+ cover save, rerollable from fortune off of objectives. In hindsight, it would have been best to deep strike some suits down to roast those pansies with flamers.

Looking at the mission and the way Fritz was able to place his objectives 6 inches apart along his long edge, you can see how winning the die-roll for placing objectives can give you an advantage before the game starts in this mission. This was one of the few things wrong with this tournament, as 2 missions essentially coming down to a single die-roll.

Turn 1 starts and the first dice are rolled. Fritz sits back, taking pot-shots at my with his Wraithlords and Death Jesters. Fritz can win this game by simply holding me off his objectives; He had 2 units of rangers sitting on his home objectives and Eldrad pumping them with fortune each turn. That's a 2+ cover save, re-rollable...if only I had deployed my pathfinders closer. They ended up spending the game inching forward to get in range with their 'lights. From turn 1, it's clear Fritz isn't going to come to me. Time to charge up the jetpacks!

My army advances, unleashing a hail of fire but my shooting was greatly reduced as I had very few targets. The Harlequins were for the most part out of sight, and the rangers had a 2+ re-rollable cover save so his Wraithlords were my only targets. My broadsides drop a wraithlord per turn and at the end of turn 3, these slender giants are extinct from the board.

It's quite a different thing to have to take ground as a Tau Commander and with Harlies getting their fleet roll it was difficult for me to judge assault distances. As I close, I stick with the usual Tau blocking tactics, sending out Kroot and Drones to speed bump his harlequins. They take the bait. Almost too well though.

As I move, Fritz is able to pin my suits and kroot with a Death Jester's cannon a couple times, holding off their advance. The poor Tau leadership turns out to be a running theme in this tournament as you'll see in the upcoming reports.

Fritz was able to destroy my Kroot and fry my fish with Fusion pistols, only to make short work of the Fire Warriors in the assault. My retaliation attacks from suits, however, were not as effective because they were getting pinned left and right.

With my advancing troops gone and his army largely intact, this would come down to Fritz's old turn 5 tactics of contesting objectives. I scoot a piranha on one objective and a piranha on another. But the game continues to turn 6, and he fights back killing the drones, but failing on my piranha. Turn 6, his rangers hold done objective, my Devilfish on the other side of the board hold another, my Piranha contests his second. The game is a draw.

Great game, Fritz!

Countdown to Conflict FAIL

2011-01-14T10:46:00.002-05:00

So, yesterday was insanely busy with my frantically painting the last bits and pieces of my Crisis Suits that I was not able to update you all. That will change today around lunchtime so keep posted. Suffice to say, that I did not him my deadline but I certainly got the suits up to tabletop quality.

In the future, I would recommend giving oneself more than 4 days to assemble and paint 5 Crisis Suits with a full time job.

Countdown to Conflict Part 3

2011-01-12T15:19:00.001-05:00

Day 3 of my countdown.

This is turning into an interesting view of my process. First I lay down all my base colors, then I shade the model, then I highlight it and paint all the little details.

Here you can see that I’ve completed my base colors. Painting the green parts with Orkhide Shade, the balc parts (legs, weapons, other mechanical parts) the white with a base of Deneb Stone. Once that was complete, I mixed my special “outlining wash.” This is scorched brown, with a little black, watered down and mixing with a dab of white glue. The glue is important and it pulls the solution in the recesses of the model, much like a citadel wash.

At this stage, the models look rather messy but that’s the shading stage for you. The next stage will be to clean up the model and begin highlighting them. I’ve got 2 more nights for this and I am very pleased as it looks like I will hit my deadline.

Crisis Battlesuits are a lot easier to paint when you paint them in pieces. You can see that I have not glued the heads or arms and this allows to me to apply paint on those hard to reach places. Painting the heads separate also makes it easier to paint the lenses and details. Heads need to look awesome as they are the focal point of the model. It also helps if they are painted in lighter colors than the rest of the model.

Countdown to Conflict Part 2

2011-01-11T14:46:00.000-05:00

So here am I, day 2 of the my countdown. I've finished assembly now on to painting. First I always undercoat my Tau Cadre in Leather Brown from Army Painter, then I paint the bases Bestial Brown and drybrush it with Snakebite Leather, Bubonic Brown and then finally Bleached Bone This gives me that nice warm desert color.

The next step is to paint all of the basecoats. I mixed up a pot of OSH Khaki for this as you can see below. It is 2 parts Vallejo Model Color: Khaki and 1 part Vallejo Model Color: Dark Sand. I used an old washes pot for this as these have a superior cap design.

Below you can see the models with the base color of OSH Khaki. Time is ticking but I am pleased with where I am at right now. I think I'm going to meet my deadline. The next step with be painting all the dark green parts, the black parts and then the white ones. After that, it's on to shading the models. More to come!

Countdown to Conflict

2011-01-10T12:41:00.000-05:00

The first installment of Countdown to Conflict. Here are 2 of the 6 twin-linked missile pod suits that I am building for this tournament. My list has 10 of these suits in it, the goal to utilize the increased accuracy of twin-linking, so I can save markerlights for cover removal rather than boosting the to-hit roll. Once the enemy unit has been popped out of a transport, it's time for the kamikaze-rush-in to drop 3 flamer templates and then assault block.

As you can see, instead of loading up to missile racks on each suit, I've decided I want to represent the 'twin-linked" rule by equipping each missile pod with an independent targeting system, that follows the movements of the pilot's head, to a degree. The second pic below demonstrates one of the design flaws however, as the suits will have to turn completely to the right to target units on that side. Alas, even the great Fio'O have not come up with a solution yet.

Tonight, I'm aiming to complete assembly and flock the bases on all 6.

Conflict GT aka Shameless Name Dropping Post

2011-01-10T10:03:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to post a quick update to my blog. I will be attending the Conflict Gt in New York this weekend. Jawaballs has graciously offered his couch for me to crash on, making it possible for me to attend this event. I hope I don't stink up his place to much!

I was about to go with a Blood Angels army with a list I hadn't ever played with but after a practice game with Mike Brandt, I realized I just don't know the army well enough to bring it to a major event and thus reverted to using my Tau. Better to go with an army you know in and out, than an army you don't. I'm running a largely infantry force with some markerlight support in the form of 2 minimized squads of Pathfinders. It is isn't very much different than previous builds of mine in terms of firepower and move blocking. I'm still running 10 Crisis Suits, 4 Broadsides and 3 Piranhas but the pathfinders will make the fire power more effective with the removal of cover saves.

This weekend I set to work on 6 more twin-linked missile pod, flamer suits (Deathrains) and I completed about 75% of the assembly stage. I've come up with some new conversions for these guys, while keeping them very uniform.One thing I have done is removed the bulbous missiles from the missile pod and replaced them with sharper missile tips from Imperial rocket packs and so on. They look great and I can't wait to show you them.
So from today until Friday, I will be posting the progress of these models everyday. We'll call Countdown to Conflict. The first installment comes soon.

The Conflict GT is aiming to be a great event with a lot of well-known players showing up like Alex Fennel, Dan from Ten Inch Template, Matt from Black Matt's Black Legion Blog, as well as Fritz from Way of Saim Hann. I'm looking forward to meeting all these guys in person. More than that I'm looking forward to subduing the barbarian hordes in New York and showing the burning light that is the Tau Empire. Peace through the barrel of a railgun.

MSU and the Tau Empire

2010-12-03T16:10:00.000-05:00

One thing that I think is missing from ATT is discussion of how Tau can best utilize MSU power. This post is going to discuss MSU, look at a few very competitive builds out there and give an example of a Tau MSU build that I am planning on fielding for the 2011 tournament circuit. I’d really like the community’s input and dare I say, army lists that utilize MSU power.

What is MSU?

MSU is the abbreviation of “multiple small units” and most often refers to an army that contains lots of minimum or small sized units where nearly every FOC slot is filled. It’s not a new concept in 40k and harks back to 3^rd and 4^th edition in which victory points were the major determining factor in winning games.

Lots of the newer 40k armies like Space Wolves, Blood Angels, Imperial Guard and Dark Eldar have flexible Codices that can really take advantage of MSU power. A good example is the 5-man Blood Angel Assault Squad unit armed with a meltagun, infernus pistol and power sword, dropping its jump packs for a rhino or razorback. This unit actually doubles up an FOC slot as it gives you two units, a 5-man infantry unit and its transport (which can be a weapon in and of itself). The unit has meltagun-power and can fight in the assault too, due to the fact there is typically a Sanguinary Priest nearby to provide feel-no-pain and furious charge. That’s an example at the single unit level. Looking at the large context of the entire army, we’ll likely see 4-6 of these in the army (at around 155 points, they’re cheap), with around 5 or so predators, both Baal and regular preds and so on. Typical builds have almost every FOC slot filled up in some way. Space Wolves have a really great ability to fill up their armies with MSUs due their cheap points cost and access to special weapons and dedicated transports.

What does MSU do for your army?

The most important advantage of MSU is that builds in redundancy to your list and makes your army more durable to incoming fire and assaults. Who cares if you lose an assault squad you’e got 5 more of them! Also as your opponent’s units can only target one enemy unit at a time, his shooting needs to be divided up among small units instead of being able to concentrate fire on a single large threat. Because you have multiple units, losing one unit has little effect on your overall army because you have so many small units to replace the lost one.

Offensively, it makes your army more effective as well because you can allocate your fire better. Instead of having a single large unit overkill an enemy unit with shooting, your small unit can apply their firepower as needed without wasting redundant shots. This plays out well for broadsides. Sometimes a unit of 3 broadsides overkills an enemy tank, wasting a railgun shot or two, while 3 separate Broadsides can fire one at a time without wasting any shots.

You can probably find better explanation of benefits of MSU on Kirby’s Blog or on Yes The Truth Hurts. Mike Brandt from Whiskey 40k also had a great section on the 11^th Company Podcast discussing MSU in great detail.

Tau MSU

The Tau Codex is structured well to take advantage of MSU. We have XV-8 Crisis Suits which by their nature are MSU and have access to special weapons. Broadsides work better when split up in to 3 units of 2, giving your army 6 railguns that can target 3 different enemies. Adding target locks to the Team Leader furthers this ability to spread railgun shots.

Piranhas are great too because not only can they be armed with powerful weapon, the fusion blaster, but they also come with a bonus of 2 drones as a unit. They’re also better off fielded as single units for blocking purposes. Fire Warriors while weak in general also fit into the MSU framework as well because they are cheap. What I also like about the Tau army is that for the most part, the units within it have lots of special rules without needing upgrades. For example, a Shas’El with two battlesuit weapons and a multitracker aleady has mobility, 3+ armor, the ability to deep-strike, counts as an infantry model and has acute senses. This is all without any fancy upgrades.

MSU is also important for Tau as having multiple small units builds layers of assault-protection and move blockers. Drones are great for this. Those little burgerbots are so useful in that they can be a serious nuisance to the enemy as you block their assaults with them and get in the way of enemy fire, providing cover for your units behind them.

The key is try and fill out all of your FOC slots with little units with minimum upgrades in favor of more guns on the table. It embodies the zen-like synergy that the Tau Empire aims to achieve. With Tau MSU, the whole is much greater than the sum of its parts.

For me, perfecting Tau MSU is a work-in-progress so bare that in mind as you think about this post.

Sample Army List - 1750 points

Here’s a sample army list that after revisions from earlier will be taking to the field at The Conflict GT.

HQ- Shas’El with Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, Multitracker, Hard-wired Target Lock 87

HQ- Ethereal 50

Elites – 3 XV-8s with Twin-Linked Missile Pods, Flamers. 1 upgraded to Team Leader with Drone Controller and 2 Gun Drones 166

Troops - 6 Fire Warriors with Pulse Rifles 60

Troops - 10 Kroot 70

Fast Attack - Piranha with Fusion Blaster 65

Heavy Support - 2 XV-88s with Advanced Stabilization Systems. 1 Upgraded to Team Leader. Drone Controller and 2 Shield Drones 195

This is pretty blatant departure from the on-going Mech craze, not because I think Mech is bad or anything, I just had a suggestion from Mike Brandt to remove Devilfish and it made sense to me. Hammerheads are a bit of disappointment as well. At any rate, you can see that just about every FOC section is filled. The list is actually 19 units in total with the drones off the piranhas. The amount of fire power this list can pump out at only being 1750 points is staggering. And it’s not all anti-mech firepower either, meaning that I’ll be able to hurt infantry as they pile out of transports.

The only thing missing from this article is a discussion of the effects of Kill Points. I think I’ll leave that to the next time.

Questions, Comments appreciated. I want to hear how you’re using MSU power to buff up your armies!

Conflict GT - Tau List Decisions

2010-12-02T08:30:00.000-05:00

In less than two months, another big tournament comes to the East Coast, Conflict GT. I've heard about this tournament before but never managed to get to it. I generally don't travel far for wargaming as a rule but given that this is in the neighborhood of the BFS guys, I'm going to be looking at making the drive up to NY to attend this thing.

It's a 1750 tournament but from the website I can't tell how many rounds it will be, nor what the scheduling is. This makes travel plan a little difficult at this stage. So what to bring is the question. I feel compelled to bring my Tau, even though I said I had shelved them. My Blood Angels are looking tempting. In fact, my Blood Angels are almost shootier than my Tau, sporting 6 lascannons. Well, somebodies got to play Xenos, might as well be me. Plus the blogosphere still considers Tau are powerful army even with Space Wolf Missile Spam out there. Since this is a Tau-blog, let's see what kind of list I could field at 1750.

Here's what I've got so far.

HQ:
Shas'El, Missile Pod, Plasma Rifle, Multitracker. 87 points

Elites:
3 units of 2 XV8s with Missile Pods, Plasma Rifles and Multitrackers.124 points each for a total of 372.
This gives me some rhino-popping help and some weapons for Marines. Splitting them up into little units like this also reducing the effect of leadership rolls too. I think it be worth it.

Troops:
6 Fire Warriors in Devilfish, Disruption Pod. 145 pts
10 Kroot, 3 Hounds. 88pts
10 Kroot, 3 Hounds. 88pts
A little light on the scoring units but this is Tau we're talking about. You're alway light on the scoring units even when you take a lot of them.

Fast Attack:
3 Piranhas with Fusion, Targeting Arrays and Disruption Pods. 225 pts
The obligatory move-blockers. Problem here is, there is no room for Pathfinders and I still want at least 3 piranhas but I don't want to field a squadron.

Heavy Support:
Hammerhead with Smart Missiles, Railgun, Multitracker, Disruption Pod, Target Locl. 185 pts.
Really expensive tank but it has staying power, a railgun and smart missiles that can ignore cover in some cases. Helps deplete enemy infantry, especially those guardsmen.

2 Broadsides with Advanced Stabilization Systems and Team leader with 2 Shield Drones. 195 pts. Good for popping tanks and absorbing fire.

3 Broadsides armed as above but the Team Leader has a Target Lock for splitting fire. 280 pts. Expensive unit that can absorb fire and distribute 3 railguns across 2 targets.

This leaves me with 85 points left over. I could add in another Broadside but I don't have a model for it so I'd have to figure something out for that. Another option would be to throw in a second Commander and drop a kroot hound. Decisions, decisions.

So what does the wargaming community think?

The Humble Beginnings of the Tau Empire.

2010-11-30T12:06:00.000-05:00

I was helping my brother move some items to storage when I discovered a couple boxes of White Dwarfs. It turned out to be a collection of those magazine since the late nineties. So being a diligent Tau enthusiast I decided to try and locate the White Dwarfs that featured the Tau as an entirely new race back in 2001. To my delight, I found them. Leafing through the old psuedo-magazines (aka advertizements), it was interesting to look back and read about the process of creating the new race. After reading it, I decided I might return from obscurity and start blogging again. I know it's been a long time. I've been spending lots time lately getting into this new hobby called parenting. 40k is still my main thing of course, but parenting is cool too sometimes.

Back on topic here. In October of 2001, the Tau were revealed to the world of 40k. At the time, I was collecting Chaos Space Marines and it wasn't a good fit for me. I was getting more mature in my tastes of fantasy worlds and I wanted something more Sci-Fi, something more realistic than daemon-possessed space marines. I was beginning to shy away from Knights and Elves in Space. Enter the Tau. Here was a line a miniatures that embodied the practicality and militarism I was looking for in 40k. They had a high level of technology, they had battlesuits, they had hover tanks, and more importantly for me, they didn't come with knives to a gunfight. This was a proper army for the battles of 41st Millennium!

Looking back at these White Dwarfs, I really like seeing the concept sketches done up the by the design team. I only wish the models were a little closer to these great images of battlesuits and armor clad space aliens.

Images copyright Games Workshop, used without permission. Please don't sue me.

Fast forward almost 10 years, rumors of the 3rd incarnation of the Tau Codex are trickling through the warp. August 2011 is the date being uttered and I really hope it is sooner than that. My worry for sometime had been that Tau will go the way of the squats but it appears, to my pleasure, that this is not the case. Unfortunately though, the rumors of the new codex has actually shelved my Tau. I'm just not as interested in playing the old Dex, with the thoughts of a new one running through my head. I do have some color schemes I'd like to try out on an entirely new army, utilizing all the conversion work and painting skills I learned on my current Tau force. One thing I really want to see is a resurgence of Tau Stealth Suits. I've got around 15 of the old original metal models that are itching for some paint and my conversion saw.

For now enjoy these pages I scanned from my old White Dwarf!

Warhammer 30,000

2010-10-04T08:30:00.000-04:00

Although Tau of War is somewhat intended to be a Tau-specific blog, I don't have to write about Tau this week. I haven't been playing lots of games with them nor have I discover any cool new tactics. However, a lot is about to happen in the world of 40k. First off, Dark Eldar are almost here and I've decided I am going to collecting them. What I'd like to do is finish painting all the Blood Angels I've got then move on to Dark Eldar. It's not that I am an army-of-the-month painter, it's that I really haven't gotten that excited about the new Blood Angels Codex and I am playing less games with them than I did with the old PDF version.

The Dark Eldar are beautiful and I can't wait for the chance to field an army that is fast and highly skilled, yet folds like a deck of cards in a war of attrition.

But there is one army I have to do before moving to the Dark Side, I'm going to stepping back in time to the year 30,000 and the days of the Horus Heresy. I'm going to visiting the planet of Prospero and building a small elite force of Pre-Heresy Thousand Sons. Below you can see the modest beginnings of this new project.

What I am looking for is inspiration. Readers, if you can help me, I'm looking for some great online resources about the Thousand Sons. I've googled it to no end and discovered some real gems out there but I wonder if any of you out there know any great links to Thousand Sons projects that I could use to help form the vision of this army. I'm looking for great project logs on forums, good tutorials, or even ideas like what you all think would be cool and what bits from the various ranges would work in making loyalist Thousand Sons Sorcerers and Soldiers.

Obviously Forge-world now has some great kits for Pre-Heresy Marines and you can bet I'll be getting some of those. What about the Fantasy range? Anything I need to see from there to incorporate into my conversions. Any independent sculptors out there that are making great bits? Whatever you guys suggest would be great to making this project and really cool unique army.