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Saturday, February 16, 2013

Taking flight.

        Most of my post so far have been on scenery. My thoughts on how to hide a guardsman in a copse of trees or ruined buildings.Tonight, my thoughts turn to the skies. Or at least 6 inches off the table top. Today the new Death From the Skies compendium came out. As a long time player of speeders, skimmer tanks, and jet bikes, I am used to weaving in and out of terrain at about 2 inches off the table. For these, trees & low buildings or ruins are your friend. A Vyper can easily dash from behind a hill to the safety of ruins and never be seen. It's actually easier than trying to do the same with ground bikes, tanks or infantry. The mobility of skimmers makes them invaluable for hiding and moving secretly.

     But today, I'm looking higher. Should I be making terrain high enough to hide a squadron of Vendetta? The question really is, are we trying to create high flying aerial dogfights or strafing runs through the streets of Los Angeles. I already own and have building of 9 inches or higher. But as a tournament organiser or group host, are you obligated to provide a hiding place for a Storm Raven. I don't think so. It would be nice for 1 or 2 that might obscure, but for the ground part of the game to flow you can't have a table full of spires and multiple story ruins.  Squads would be climbing out of one building into the third story of another. There are just not enough turns in a game for that.
         But, for all the jets and drop ships in the 41st millenium, I am really surprised that the only warrriors to not employ aerial combat are also the dogs afraid to teleport, too. I hope the best for them.
   
    

Saturday, February 9, 2013

Supernatural Intervention

      This week , I was watching the last week's episode of Supernatural. God bless the DVR. One of the characters states "Abbadon was a demon knight of Hell. All of the demon knights were killed by the Dark Angels." Sounds like some serious foreshadowing to me.

     That got me thinking of the direction of my painting that has been less than what I want it to be. When I first decided to start a blog, I was setting a 2 week painting goal. 1 squad and 1 vehicle painted start to finish in 2 weeks. This is the perfect goal for me at that time. Well, since my 2 year old decided that he doesn't need to sleep anymore. My painting has dropped off, but the blog has picked up. Despite that, I am going to restart my efforts and  I want to concentrate on my Dark Angels collection. I call it a collection more than just an army due to my level of involvement.

Ancient warrior or new addition?
I own more models than I would field in any normal fight. Anyway, I'm not here to brag. Not at all. There are plenty of people with far more models than I. And my wife would certainly not be happy if I told her I have more  little men than most gamers. My intentions were to build a battle company, with plenty of Deathwing and Ravenwing add-ons to go with it. This way I would have anything I want to play with.    
    I decided to go for a long term goal for my painting. This week I will be posting my list on the   The Independent Characters podcast forum. This will include the remainder of  my Dark Angels battle company. Included in this list will be 2 Tactical squads, Devastator squad, and veterans for the chapter. I am going to add only 2 characters, just to keep with the force organization chart. And for theme, and the fact I should really paint it, the Fortress of Redemption.

   This will be giving me a long term goal of November. Which should work well for me as long as my boy decides to start sleeping again. 1850 points should be attainable. Of course, I will be putting updates here as well. Talk to you next week.

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Building Rome: Part II


      Alright, I am back this week for an update on our city fighting terrain project. We have 5 buildings structurally assembled and based. The final vision is to cover a complete 4 foot by 6 foot table with a tile system. Every tile will have some kind of feature on it. From buildings to a  park piece, and the roads to finish the table off, we should have everything we will need for a believable cityscape in the grim future. The geography of this near desolate city has been bombarded by years of warfare and strife.
 This Imperial habitat is one of the many recruitment points for the Space marines. Many buildings are dedicated to the chapters of the emperor's sky warriors. The mausoleum is going to have a sarcophagus with the interned body and a honor guard of marble. Also, a statue. Tiles of debris & streets will complete this tabletop.

   So, far the footprint of this projec  is         aproximately 21" x 36' So we are almost 1/2 half way through, yet we have only really started. There is still all the priming, painting, basing, and sealing. So completeing Rome is going to be a little longer than a day. Hopefully, it won't take as long as completing the whole empire... But don't worry. I will keep you inform.
   Also,on a side note, I painted my Aegis Defense Line. But, I neglected to take a picture. I guess I have content for next week. Talk to you all then.