Spotlight On: Pimp & the Gimp Harem

 Meet Pimp and the Gimp Harem!!!

(Titter)

These are some of the nicest models around - really simple but just kind of gloriously cool.

I have a mixture of old metal and new plastic Gretchen. I bought the original metal ones for playing Space Crusade a few years ago but now I enjoy using them in games of 40k.

In fact my good friend Peter will be facing them in no time when we have our apocalyptic next confrontation...

And they have a naughty name!

(Giggle)



Man, I could amuse myself all day with this kind of shenanigans...

Thoughts on a New Kind of Campaign

I thought I would have a bit of a ruminate if you'll bear with me.

My 40k campaign has stalled almost completely while my Fantasy campaign over on Last Chance War is tootling along at a merry pace. and I'm here to wonder why.


For a long time I was busy writing my version of a Forge World campaign book, mainly filled with location descriptions, background on my armies and an epic narrative campaign storyline broadening the scope of the games I played.

For the last year or three though it's been staggering along feeling rather sorry for itself.

Why is that...?

Here are the factors:

1. The friends I am most in contact with about Little Men are extremely not interested in 40k but are really interested in Fantasy. 
2. I find it difficult to be interested in both 40k and Fantasy at the same time.
3. It's a bit of a drag writing up the battle reports (and I'm about eight games behind)
4. My wife will play but would rather play Fantasy.
   
   and perhaps most significantly:
   
5. With my fantasy map campaign I am strangely addicted to completing each campaign turn so that I can move the armies around and see how everyone is doing. In my purely NARRATIVE 40k campaign, there is no particular incentive to play games, and though there are a variety of interesting plotlines going on, I don't HAVE top play any of them.
   
   In the map campaign I HAVE to play several games with each army before I can get my reward (the exciting map movement). 

So is there a way I can add this kind of HAVE TO incentive to the existing campaign?

A year or so ago, My goody buddy Peter and I stumbled onto a really cool way of playing 40k that we did once then didn't quite get going again. This offered a lot of possibilities and could be the beginning of something.

We played three games continuing a linked storyline between two particular opponents. It was narrative based (and thus potentially more interesting than a map-trapped game) and each game built toward the final climactic Apocalypse game that finished off the three.

Here's my new idea:

There are a limited number of conflicts going on on Valorax at the moment. What if I set in place a rule where I had to play a mini three-game campaign involving each conflict on the map before I return to the original one. I can create a campaign turn structure in this way and come up with some kind of reward for the campaign turn's end in terms of a critical moving forward of the plot.

As each trilogy of scenarios will always build to a plot-shattering climax which will move the greater story forward then the story will really start to develop. Also, storylines I've been planning on developing for years (the coming of the Dark Eldar and the Hellspore and the Death Korps of Krieg AND the Adeptus Mechanicus AND the Grey Knights) might actually start getting somewhere.

Let's review the conflicts as they stand right now.

Each of these will need to be moved forward before the end of the 1st new campaign turn, one at a time.

One Game Played So Far

• The Tau stumble upon a stockpiling of arms by the Adeptus Mechanicus
• The Eldar attack the capital, Qualitat (could include Epic games)
• Sisters of Battle assassinate the Planetary Governor but are now trapped in the city of Qualitat
• Orks strike at Mechlock Base 

Completed for this Campaign Turn 

• Chaos Space Marines go for the next Pernicious Gate
• Necrons battle with Valorax and Space Marines in the frozen wastes

Not Started Yet

• Jungle Fighters Versus Tyranids in the woods 
• Escavar Mavericks make guerrilla attacks against Chaos Marines in the ruins of Escavar 
• Aeronautica Valoraxis counterstrike the Eldar fighters over Escavar
• Grey Knights strike at the daemons
• Tyranids and Valorax Guard clash at the firebreak (Epic) 
• The Black Flotilla attack the Valorax fleet in space (Battlefleet Gothic) 
• The Hellspore launch a raid on a human settlement more heavily protected than they thought 
• The Death Korps of Krieg launch their assault on Valorax
•  A Dark Heresy Roleplaying Campaign where an Inquisitor investigates cult activity on Valorax

So next, I'll see which one of these I fancy (maybe Sisters of Battle) and get it going.

I'd love to get somewhere with this campaign because it's potentially much more interesting than the Fantasy one (which is just battle after battle with little plot). The idea of little trilogies building to climaxes is really good and should encourage greater buy in from players.

What I need now, ideally, is to make friends with someone new who's willing to play using my miniatures. This will enable me to maintain the themes and storylines a little bit easier and get more games in than I can manage with Peter and my wife.

The other thing I can do, is that in the Forge World style campaign book I am writing, Each campaign turn full of trilogies becomes a chapter of the book. This will allow me to have themes across each chapter with an overall plotline across all of them depending on the developments in-game.

Spotlight On: A'rrse Bandit & the Bugg'erz

Heh.

Continuing my spotlight on the amusingly named elements of my Ork army, allow me to present A'rrse Bandit and the Bugg'erz.

They are Ork Kommandos that I wanted to make a bit unique well before the most recent models came out from GW.

So I asked what imagery I associated with commandos. My brother, Pod, was really into army as a kid (he's cutting back now so only owns four or five guns). He furnished me with quite a cool picture of commandos in my mind that involved tough sneaky men in black woolly hats. 

A fresh batch of milliput later and Bob is indeed your uncle.

These dudes always get their ass kicked in the game before they do anything interesting but they do look cool so who cares!

This dude's cool. I stole the idea from a White Dwarf but it turned out I had to grind away his lower jaw to fit the knife in.

And finally one of the classic Burna Boyz!

With the addition of a woolly hat he is a cuddly part of the team!

And there you have it!

A'rrse Bandit and the Bugg'erz!

(naughty snigger)

Well... It amuses me.

On the Painting Table: Men of Stone Space Marines!

Allow me to introduce my new Men of Stone Space Marine Tactical Squad.

Using Scibor Spartan shoulder pads, I've spiced them up to give them more of an ornate fantasy feel.

It's hard to get quite the right angle for the photos but I really like the way they look in real life.

I'm also still liking this colour scheme.

On the Painting Table: Scibor Space Marine Librarian

Well isn't this a beautiful miniature:

It's one of the nicest miniatures It has ever been my pleasure to paint And I completed it in a very short time. It's from Scibor's SF range (basically beautiful space marine copies on the whole)

Just one problem:

He's chuffing HUGE!!!!

He is standing on a plinth, but even so... I'm capable of justifying some things but this is pushing it a little.

Having said that; he is a hero level character and is probably closer to the correct scale that space marines ought to be. I plan to write something into my background about the heroes from my chapter being bigger somehow blah blah blah.

It's a bit annoying though. I'm doing the same thing with characters for my Mordheim warband that I bought from Banelords.

Why can't everyone use the same scale!?!?!?

It's just a case of using the same size armature. It's a simple decision that a lot of alternative miniature suppliers aren't making. I know they don't want GW to determine everything but they are the market leader and they are trying to make money off GW marketing. I think they should try a bit harder to match sizes.

I bought a sorceress off eBay last year and she was gigantic!

(Takes some deep breaths)

Okay I've calmed down now. Let's look at some more pictures.

He actually doesn't look that bad when placed in a unit. And he is such a nice model I can overlook his faults. 

I painted him: Adeptus Battlegrey | Black Ink | Adeptus Battlegrey| Codex Grey & Tin Bitz | Dwarf Bronze | Shining Gold. And Boltgun Metal | Black Ink.

The cloak thing was Scorched Brown | Calthan Brown and the red bit was Dark Flesh | Red Gore.

The alternative back vent is a real feature, with various designs on other Scibor miniatures. The other models in the range have to be seen to be believed.

Go and check them out.

On the Painting Table: Men of Stone Terminators!

Well after ordering large shoulder pads from Scibor's SF range rather than small I realised I was going to have to prioritise painting my Terminators after all.

I'm in the middle of a major project to repaint my space marines for my Warhammer Fantasy campaign over on Last Chance War.

I wanted to give them more of a fantasy feel but retain the versatility for both systems. Scibor Shoulder pads seemed a step in the right direction.

They cost £4.50ish for eight shoulder pads. It's a doable price but irritating that they don't come in tens (so you can do multiples of five men - probably an evil ploy on their behalf to make more money.

But they do look lovely!

I used Adeptus Battlegrey | Black Ink | Adeptus Battlegrey| Codex Grey & Tin Bitz | Dwarf Bronze. And Boltgun Metal | Black Ink.

And I'm also liking my new colour scheme. I feel very funny about leaving my crimson colour scheme behind but what's the worst that can happen? 

Worst case scenario I can repaint them again and meanwhile they're doing me fairly proud.

Return of the Men of Stone

Well, I haven't posted a lot lately, which I am sorry for, but I've been very busy over on my Fantasy campaign Last Chance War.

But I thought I would stop by to mention that I'm working on repainting my Crimson Blades to fit in with my Fantasy campaign. If any of you have read the history of the Crimson Blades in the Forces of Valorax section above, you'll know that in their dim and distant past, they were known as the Men of Stone.

This was before they were betrayed and a portion of their forces crash landed and abandoned on a backwater planet.

I can now reveal that the backwater planet was the Old World of Warhammer.

Here's the new colour scheme I'm working on and I'll be posting pictures of the developing army over on Last Chance War.

Though I will be improving on that dodgy eye glow effect that I totally haven't mastered yet...