Back to the (Grim Dark) Future: Warhammer 40,000 6th Edition

Posted on 29/06/2012 by sho3box

deadly embrace:

  1. a standstill resulting from the opposition of two unrelenting forces or factions.
  2. A stalemate that occurs when two elements in a process are each waiting for the other to respond

Events have conspired: I will be playing Warhammer 40,000 this weekend.

One of my 40K figures which may or may not be used in a game of 6th ed in my house this weekend.

I have been keeping half an eye on the scuttlebutt about sixth edition for the last couple of months, mostly because of how fear of change has given dull competitive players diarrhoea of the soul.  Hi-larious.

Regardless of all of that, I didnt plan to pick up a copy of the sixth edition rulebook any time soon.  By way of example, I picked up a second hand copy of the 5th ed rulebook in a trade a month or two ago and I have yet to read it.  Considering I have waited four years to read fifth edition I was in no rush to get sixth ed.

The Nob here may well be used in 6th ed games this weekend, but it depends. The ally rules seem very suitable for use with small forces like my Gorkamorka Orks, Da Bigdogz

For unrelated reasons I have a gaming weekend planned starting this evening running until Sunday.  The other half of this man-date is MT, a gentleman human that I got to know over a 40k table over a decade ago.  We had no specific games planned for the weekend, although boardgames are our usual choice these days.

These 40k figures are highly unlikely to feature in games this weekend, but I may squeeze them in somewhere just because I like them.

Unexpectedly however MT used his massive leverage on the Irish gaming scene (read: none) to get his hands on the rulebooks today: a day before release.  This was all we needed to make us engage in an activity that we had sworn to give up numerous times in the past.  We also decided to play 40k.

Therefore this evening we will each be sitting at a scenery covered table opposite one another, each with a ludicrously expensive hardback book in hand (a copy each, naturally).  As we both have access to hundreds upon hundreds of painted miniatures for this specific game, we figured “Why the hell not?  How bad can it be?”  Watch this space…

Astro-Pat here will make a good MaGuffin for a scenario, so I will try to get him to feature.

The last time that we played 40k is documented here in five easily digestible chunks (with my most recent 40k games before that being an eye watering eight years ago in 2004).

Rereading about those 2010 games a couple of years later it seems that I enjoyed them more than I remember now, which is interesting.  We played five small games in rapid succession, so maybe we might stick to that formula.  Or maybe we wont, who knows?

This guy is old school awesome. I am definitely going to play a game using him.

I will take some photos one way or another.  I havent rolled and dice on my new Zuzzy terrain mats yet either (Malifaux uses cards instead) and they are crying out for it.  Dice make a soft rumbling noise as they land on the mats, like chestnuts wrapped in felt landing on a waterbed.  Lovely.

Advertisement

Filed under: Editorial | Tagged: , | 6 Comments »

Malifaux: Scales of Justice

Posted on 26/06/2012 by sho3box

“Please… kill… me”.

In Malifaux each crew is led by a Master.  Nearly all Masters have a Totem that is theirs alone: some form of manifestation of an aspect of a Masters psyche made flesh due to the magic forces that Malifaux is saturated in.  The figure above is the Scales of Justice, the Totem of Lady Justice.

I dont know what is supposed to be going on in Lady J’s head, but seeing as this unhappy looking guy represents those thoughts given form, I am probably better off.

The concept of the figure doesnt really do anything for me.  The blind justice thing is already amply displayed by the Lady J figure and it was unnecessary to ladle it on here I think.

Maybe its just me, but the strong visual links to crucifiction looks to me  like the original figure concept sprung from the mind of someone heavily weighed down by Catholic guilt.  As someone who is not weighed down by same but who happens to live in a country with a large percentage of fruit loops who are, the figure design is a bit of a turn off.  I bought the Totem simply because it is an easy fit into the game, but I think that perhaps I should have come up with a proxy miniature more to my liking instead.

The sculpting on the figure is good and it was easy enough to paint.  The casting was acceptable, but like many Wyrd products it could be better.

Wyrds casting quality is extra disappointing considering that it comes from a company that started as a manufacturer of collectors figures for display.  I hear rumours that their production will switch entirely to “sprueless plastic” soon, which might help.  I hope that it does.

AWK-WARD!

A note on basing: since I started the Malifaux project I have begun adding more and more bits and pieces to the large, flat 30mm slot bases that I have been using.  The Malifaux rules tend to be generous regarding base size, so the simple (and most importantly fast) basing technique that I have been using for a couple of years just looked too plain.  As the Malifaux project has progressed I have begun adding more and more bits to the bases, although years ago I promised myself that I was done with that sort of thing.  It turns out that I was wrong.

The cactus visible above is a symbol of this malady.  Like the grass tufts that I started adding after I painted Santiago Ortega I liked the look so much that I went back and added cacti of various shapes and sizes to every Malifaux figure that I have finished so far.  I imagine that tiny cacti will feature on every vaguely cowboy looking figure that I paint in future.  They are cute though.

Filed under: Miniatures | Tagged: , , , , | 3 Comments »

Robosheriff / Malifaux: Guardian

Posted on 18/06/2012 by sho3box

++ BEEP++
“Reach for the [FILE NOT FOUND]”
++ BEEP++

This rather crudely sculpted cowboy robot makes me smile every time that I look at it

Its part of the weird but oddly appealing range of Golgo Island miniatures that I picked up from East Riding Miniatures.  I bought the figure with plans to use it in post-apocalyptic/sci-fi western games where it would form the strong arm of the law in the Standard Falls Sheriffs department.

While that use remains valid, Robosheriff  will also serve well as a proxy Guardian robot in Malifaux games.  Thats why the figure got bumped to the top of the painting queue recently, seeing as Malifaux is the new black at Chateau Sho3box.

The sculpting on the figure really is pretty crude, which made painting it a little less enjoyable than I would have liked.  Therefore I went for a simple and quick drybrushed metal effect rather than doing anything too fancy, as I figured that it wouldnt be worth the effort.

Sculpting aside, the rigid pose is quite suitable for an obviously not-very-bright robot and the clunky design and lovable dopey expression make it a fun figure to put on the table: it always gets a laugh.  That definitely counts for something.

This is how the rather tall figure scales up with some rootin’ tootin’ Mali-folk.  L to R is The Judge, Robosheriff, Santiago Ortega.  The boys are on 30mm bases and the Robosheriff is on a 40mm.  Would I watch a movie that had the above image as a poster?  Damn straight I would.

Edit: a helpful Malifaux player knocked this card up for me so that I can use the figure as a proxy Guardian with minimum fuss.  Very kind.

Filed under: Miniatures | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

Malifaux: Guild Executioner

Posted on 12/06/2012 by sho3box

This large gent is part of my Malifaux Guild faction.  I painted this figure plus one other in preparation for my first Malifaux tournament just over a week ago.  I got the figure finished on time, but I had to go back to it subsequently to tidy up a couple of areas that I wasnt happy with.  A couple of other parts of the paint job could maybe do with some more work, but at this stage I will likely leave the figure as is.

The blacks came out funny in the photo: the highlights on the black are not as harsh as that.  Something funny happened with the contrast :/

The design of the figure is a bit mad, somewhere between a hangman, executioner and some sort of S&M cyborg.  Rather than simply paint the figure in black all over (a rubberised or high gloss PVC look could be fun) I decided to try painting leopardskin trousers on the figure.  I thought that it might be funny and that it would play on the S&M look a bit.

I consulted the notes that I made while painting Dr.Leghorn and attempted to replicate that.  Largely it worked, although there are a couple of spots in particular that I am not happy with.  A learning experience.

L to R: Copplestone, Malifaux, Foundry (including metal base stuck to the slotted base), Hasslefree.

Also of note is that the figure is quite large (thats a 40mm diameter base).  Unfortunately due to my poor choice of miniatures for comparison purposes, the Executioner doesnt look that big in the photo above at all.  Oh well.

This guy has turned out to be quite a fun figure to field in Malifaux games.  He also serves a couple of purposes in my current Lady Justice crew line up whch has led to a more satisfying experience when playing games featuring Lady J: he has helped to make smaller games fall into place.  I havent got this much fun out of a 250lb semi-naked, masked man in leopardskin trousers for months.

Filed under: Miniatures | Tagged: , , , , | 7 Comments »

Busy, busy, busy. And Malifaux.

Posted on 07/06/2012 by sho3box

COMs new Kaeris crew face off against my newly reinforced Lady Justice force in the midst of my almost completed graveyard terrain (just a few more gravestones to add)

Todays slightly-later-than-usual post is a bit wordy.  Even though this week I have managed to get a couple of cool miniatures painted up and the graveyard terrain set has advanced to near completion, I haven’t had an opportunity to take any proper photos yet.  The phone photo of my regular game with COM shown above is all that I could manage visually this week.

Largely this is because I played a lot of games over the last few days, by my standards at least.  Saturday was a day long boardgame session featuring four games (Marvel Heroes, King of Tokyo, Nexus Ops and WizWar).  It was a good laugh and it was fun to again play with some people that I dont get to game with as often as I once did.

I then played in my first Malifaux tournament on Monday.  Despite making a number of noob errors my luck managed to hold at crucial points throughout the day, resulting in me winning the tournament, which was both unexpected and nice.  For my troubles I won a limited edition figure, which I have cleaned, filled and primed so it should show up finished around here sometime soon.

In addition to this I also got my weekly game with COM in on Tuesday.  All of this gaming plus the painting time spent making sure that I had another couple of figure options available for my Malifaux crew made the last week jam packed by my standards.  And thats before I even mention real life stuff, which is more tempestuous than usual too, but thats not a subject for around here.

So, not much time for photography.  I did manage to liberate some of the photos taken by the organisers though (my thanks to the Cork Games Guild for that).

I strike an album cover pose in anticipation of the first game. Thats my “I am hungover and totally unprepared for this.  How the hell does this game even work again?” face.

Regarding the tournament (my first of any kind for a while and my first toy soldier/tape measure tournament for many years), part of the reason that I signed up was so that I would be forced to tackle a couple of Malifaux figures that I had not got around to painting yet.  This enforced deadline worked a treat, and I managed to get a pair of fun figures for my Guild crew finished on time for the tournament.  Even better, my finished crew also won a prize for painting.  Go me.

Two of my Death Marshals and my Convict Gunslinger (a proxy using my rebased Dr Leghorn) quake at the approach of bizarro-Lady Justice.

The green clad gent (me) attempts to decipher what horrible things that a Zoraida crew might be able to do to him, as his opponent applys a cold can of beer to his overheating thought centre.  This game was the most tense and close fought (and therefore most fun) of my day.

All in all, this means that enthusiasm for Malifaux is back up again around here and that the Ursa Miners will be taking a back seat for a while.  This is fine with me as I have been trying to vary my painting subjects this year in an effort to avoid the burnout that hit me last year (and to a lesser extent in 2010).

My Guild Executioner will likely be the next finished figure to get posted up.

Filed under: Games in Progress | Tagged: , , , | 3 Comments »

%d bloggers like this: