Autarch finished!

   Empires have risen and fell in the time it took for him to follow just one path. And almost the same amount of time from when this model was purchased to this day. Today,  He is ready to fight!

The Plague comes agan.

       The sun rose over the tree line. Following the sun from the east came a lone skimmer. Over the comm came one statement. "Here they come." Chapter Master Uriel starts barking commands. "The Plague has come, but it will not take this shrine." This shrine was damaged during a recent civilian uprising. Uriel brought a detachment of the 5th company and some Ravenwing to scout for a leader to this uprising. They found much more than they ever expected. They found the enemy of all Space Marines. They found Lord Blight. A lord and worshiper of the dark forces. A follower of Nurgle. Unfortunately, they were spotted and followed back to this shrine. Now, not only that rabble, but worse, much worse, came to take this shrine. Plague Marines were spotted across the river from here.
     The Dark Angels prepare for this assault from the dark forces that come this way. "Hold your ground! We will not fail." Leaving only a squad in the shrine, the rest of the marines setup in the woods nearby. The roaring engines of the Ravenwing echoed off the far side of the shrine. The first shots are fired from the auto cannons on the hill to the south.  Then, the cultists' guns blaring away in random directions and strangely taking down two marines in the process. Then, the bolters of the Dark Angels let loose, mowing down about half of the cultists. The devastators fired on the Havocs, taking down two of the infected.
        The bloated armored bodies of the Plague Marines crossed the river onto the consecrated land, tainting the very water at its source. The black riders prepared to stop these infernal abominations from this holy land. Launching a drive by, only to be caught by three diseased knives. Only by the skills of the riders did they escape certain death. Havoks continued to trade shots with the devastators creating a bridge of bullets and laser fire between the two hills. And the pestilence marches forward.
       The squad leaves the shrine to take cover near a fallen aquilla, seizing the opportunity to destroy one of the last plague marines. While the Ravenwing finish off the other squad, Holy bolter fire work on whittling down the heretics. The sorcerer of the dark lord fled before being slain. Finally, seeing the defense of the shrine more than he could handle even the dark lord, himself, teleported back to his cruiser. The shrine was save for today. A new honor guard will be left at the shrine. Uriel has a new fiend to hunt this day.

Open Spaces

      Well, It has been an interesting week to say the least. Last week I announced that I am starting some commission painting. I did not expect much feedback or serious inquiries. I did expect some "how much for this?" or "what do you do ?" Though I did not get much inquiries, I did get an incredibly positive response. I think making this announcement made me a few online friends.
   Then when things were started to calm down. I went to my local friendly game store. I had a nice chat with the owner. He offered me a display case in the store to show off my skills. So, now I am getting some minis together for the case. I would like to thank Steve from Dragon's Head Games for giving some space in his store.
    Other than that, I finished my Autarch made some progress on the howling banshees. And, for anyone that saw my miniatures that I put up on facebook. I drybrushed those terribly flat Swooping Hawks that we had so much trouble trying to photograph. What an incredible improvement a little detail work does to those old models. Now, I want to paint the newer ones I have (which I probably had those for 5 years.) Time to get busy.

Any advice?

I have to admit, since having my 2 children, I have gotten somewhat out of the loop when it comes to the best forums and places to find other people's blogs. Does anyone out there have some good sources for me to check out to find sources for me to get more involved in the online gaming community? I am looking for all kinds of tabletop gaming including 40K, historical, LOTR. Thank you in advance for your help.

A change of procedure.

     Today is a new day. After some recent developments and a small push from my friends and a huge push from my wife! ( Thanks, Sweetheart!) Today is the day I announce that Table Ready Painting is progressing into a commission based painting service. Hooray! I have been helping some friends of mine with their painting and conversions for years. Even to this day I have scenery and models to paint for other people, from the Protectorate of Menoth to Nurgle plague marines to a chapel for city terrain.
     The last few weeks I have been preparing for this announcement. The last thing I did was getting professional pictures done of some of my miniatures. I will be adding them onto my facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/TableReadyPainting I wanted to thank Karen for all her help. Before today she had never seen a Warhammer miniature. So if you like the pics, you can look at more of her pictures on her Etsy page. PictureYourMemories
 So, as of today, I am looking for anyone that wants models assembled, painted, and/ or converted. I'm looking for any miniatures, any game systems. Please message me on Facebook or e-mail me at tablereadypainting@Gmail.com for pricing and availability. Thank you in advance.

Battle Report: Stop the crusade!

        I know this is a little bit late. (Sorry Chris) But here is the battle report from our last Imperial Guard vs. Chaos Marine throw down. I'm gonna apologize for the lack of pictures once again. I need to be a little smarter when I start to play and attach the camera to my right hand. I decide to break out my guardsmen roll a little tumble. 1500 points was our limit. I got close. Chris, of course, got right on the money. I set up the terrain in NOVA Open style with a Tzeentch theme of a large sorcerer's tower in the middle amid woods and swamps. That choice was more for aesthetics and theme. What a beautiful table layout. I knew Chris would be proud to put his Thousand Sons on this board. Then, he showed up with Abbadon and a mostly unmarked Chaos marine army. We'll see if I theme a table for him anytime soon...

     The game went from there. We played the Scouring again with the diagonal deployment zones . For some reason, that is our most common fight lately. I got First turn and ran with it. I was playing 2 Leman Russes and a Manticore with a platoon and 2 vet squads, 1 in a chimera and the other in a Valkyrie. And with no night fighting, I began to shower his side of the board with long range fire. His army consisted of Abbadon with some slaneesh terminators, some chosen, a forge fiend, and chaos marine squads. I commend him for a very different list than usual. Unfortunately for him, nothing he had was very fast or long ranged. So I got 2 good turns of shooting on his troops before he dropped his terminators right in front of my firing line. And in case you don't know. Lasguns do NOT kill terminators. Especially with Abbadon divvying up the wounds when necessary.

   We decided to call the game on turn 4. Why, you wonder? Well..... We had very few troops and only a Valkyrie on the table. They were all going to die or be absurdly overwhelmed on a contested objective. In other words, on turn 5, there would have, decisively,  been no scoring units to hold objectives. I got first blood. Both of us had line breaker and neither had a chance at killing the warlord. Though it was a victory for me, I'm sure Abbadon and his terminators would have been chasing my command squad right after they killed everyone else in range. I'm looking forward for the next game and a camera in my hand at that time.

The state of the game

      Good morning and Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a great holiday season. Mine was fine. Thank you. I have had little time to myself & hobby time over this period, between preparations, visits, and the day to day stuff that goes on in my regular life. Though, there is one thing that keeps bugging me terribly. When I did get to forums and podcasts in the past couple week, I was incredibly surprised and disappointed about the amount of negativity and immediate denial of all the new material we got for 40 k in this past month. With 2 new books and data slates from the advent calendar, isn't this what all the old timers loved about this game? Wasn't this the way rogue trader and 2nd edition like? I started playing Warhammer 40000 in 2nd edition. I remember when I bought my first Eldar squads. Those units I bought all those years ago wouldn't even make a feasible list now, even with how "out of control" these expansions are claimed to be. When planet strike came out, there was not this kind of hatred towards a new way to play the game. The people that didn't like it didn't play. Period. Why is it so much different today? The community has been asking for more content. Well, you got it. If you don't like the way Escalation plays, Don't include it in your group. To me, It is Apocalypse light and that is it. We won't be playing here unless we agree to, just like Planet Strike, or Cities of Death or Kill Team or 1250 points games or Battle Fleet Gothic. Sometimes that's what we want to play and sometimes we don't. It's a game. It's our game. I even heard it called a gentleman's game. Let's play the game we want to play it. If it's not fun where you are playing, you can always come visit me for a game. Please feel free to comment on this. I would be interested in hearing other people's opinions.