Chat: Changes To Schools League Rules

Seeing as the Schools League Coordinator recently released the rules pack
for next years Schools League I thought it would be a great chance
to have a look through what has been changed and how it will affect the tournament next year.

1. POINTS REDUCTION TO 450 - Not overly happy with this one to say the least, I thought 750 was too small so I was a bit mad when this happened.
2. Blanket ban on FW rules - I can see why this has been done as some FW stuff the rules are very overpowered, however I believe that if you pay more for a specific model you should be able to use the rules that come with it.
3. Slay the Lord Of War - This is a new secondary objective introuduced for games which awards 8 points when scored. This basically shouts don't bring a LoW otherwise you're basically handing the game to your opponent. Not that many Lords of War fit in 450pts!
4. Game points increase - Winning a game now gives you 10pts and a draw gives you 5. This switches the tournament to have more of a game focus which is not a bad thing in my opinion.

Overall I think that the coordinator is trying to steer Schools League to more of a skirmish tournament aimed at new players. Although this is not altogether a bad thing it makes every one of your units on the table a whole lot more valuable. If you have an opinion on this stick it in the comments below as it would be intereting to get more views on this.

Stay Tuned!

~DaemonColin 

Showcase and Chat: The Humble Beginnings of my Wehrmacht Force

As we mentioned when we first started the blog, Warlord Games' Bolt Action was probably going to feature on here at some point. So after having some issues with photographing my Renegades and Heretics force I decided to try and see what I could do in terms of getting some decent pictures of a small portion of my German army.

When I first took the plunge into a new game system around a year ago now and bought the D-Day Firefight set, these (with the exclusion of the MMG team) were the first minis that I assembled and painted. I distinctly remember finding them to be an absolute joy to paint and I'm still quite happy with the finish on them now. Just the overall look and feel of Bolt Action models just inspires me. They might not be as detailed as Games Workshop minis but the simple nature of them is what I think really makes them shine in their own unique way. 

Since buying the starter box and playing my first few games I have accumulated quite the collection of a total of around 5K points in Germans and Americans and due to recently discovering the film "Enemy At The Gates" I am now turning my sights to building a Soviet Force. 

For now however I have decided to show only these few models as a little taster as to what's to come. When I have a little more space for taking pictures then maybe I'll do a few whole army shots but here are a few more pictures of the models above.

The first of the two 5 man veteran infantry units.

Second infantry squad, this time with an LMG

First lieutenant and infantryman with an assault rifle

MMG team. I built this before realizing that there should be a third man

Hanomag half track with two MMGs

Box O' Tricks - What's Inside?

So... after I came back from my trip to Iceland, I cracked open the box of tricks (which is what I'm naming this project now) to see what treasures awaited me inside. I wasn't disappointed!

Inside I had models from a total of 6 different armies - some only were represented by single models and others had quite a lot in them. These were Necrons, Skitarii, Orks, Skaven, High Elves and Stormcast Eternals. So let's take a look...

Necrons:

• 10 Necron Warriors - Some with heads some without - luck of the draw!
• 1 Triarch Stalker - Half built missing a leg
• 1 (part) Necron Overlord - Only found two parts of this guy so far!
• 3 Scarab Bases - They need some redistribution.
  
  
  
  

  

  All 10 Warriors

  
  
  
  
  

  

  Scarabs and a lonely base

  
  

  

  Overlord Cape and War Scythe

  
  
  

  

  Triarch

  Skitarii:
• 5 Rangers - All missing arms 1 missing head
• 5 Vanguard - Need serious mould line attention!
• A pile of spare parts

  

  I was surprised at these because there were no missing heads or arms! Low expectations, eh?

  
  

  

  5 Unloved Vanguard - Quite clearly the Omnissiah has not seen the need to give them arms!

  
  
  

Stormcast:

• 3 Prosecutors - Well built one missing the top of a hammer
• 1 Lord Relictor

  

  Grey Prosecutors

  
  

  

  IMO the best looking Stormcast model - and I hate Stormcast with a burning passion!

  Orks:
• 6 Killa Kans - Various degrees of quality - some painted some unbuilt missing parts etc.
• 1 Trukk Gun? - Unpainted
• A literal pile of Boyz
• 3 Cave Squigs
• 1 Warboss
• Ork Boss Zagstruk - Painted
• 
  
• Random Ork Character - Painted
  
  
  

  

  Best Warboss Sculpt ever!

  
  
  
  
  

  

  'Ere We Go!

  
  
  
  
  

  

  Not sure who this guy is?

    

Other:

• 1 Mk4 Tac Marine from B@C
  
• 1 Skaven Warp Fire Weapons Team
  
• 1 Aegis Defence Line Sentry Gun
  
• 1 High Elf Wizard with a bent staff
  
  
  
  

So all in all quite a large haul of things to be getting on with. Most of the models are in the condition that I expected and so none really came as that much of a surprise. This project will be a lot of work but hopefully quite fun, and it will help me to improve my painting skill on a wide range of different models and armies.

Stay Tuned!

~DaemonColin

Imperial Fists Contemptor

As promised yesterday, I took some pictures of my contemptor dread that I painted up alongside my squad of cataphractii. This guy is the plastic model from the Betrayal at Calth set however i made a few alterations to him. As well as the base i built using spare scenery parts, I spent some time reposing the mini so that he looked less static; moving one of his legs backwards and twisting the torso at the waist slightly just to give the impression that he's moving. After a lick of paint he's now ready to take to the field alongside his terminator brethren.

The finished contemptor with the cataphractii unit. These guys held their own against a unit of GK paladins with Drago in close combat recently!!

When I first started painting this model I was slightly worried that I would not be able to achieve the colours and effects that i did on the terminators. Luckily the layering and sponge weathering scaled up well and I was able to produce results on this guy that I'm really happy with.

Thanks for reading guys!

-Commissar Raphel

My Update - A Mammoth Task!

Well, as term is nearly over its good to get the blog properly going again. After exams and work experience I'm ready for the summer hols, and as I'm going to Iceland in like 4 days time, I'm pretty buzzing!
However, when I get back, I have one heck of a job on my hands, so I'd better get explaining...
Basically, the school that both Commissar Raphel and I attend has a Warhammer 40k club, run by quite an enthusiastic teacher! Recently, at an open evening which the club was a part of I discovered the state the club models are in. After seeing these, they made me want to stop doing the hobby, and so I volunteered to help sort it out, so I'm taking some of the models home over the holidays. When, I get hold of the models I will be able to show in my detail, but these models are:

• Half built or built badly
• If built, then they are either primed, completely unpainted, or painted to a THIN YOUR PAINTS level https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3p_VuPIS2c
• Parts missing, damage etc etc

I'm not sure how many models I will get to sort, but to my knowledge this is the amount of models the club currently has:

• 3000+ points of Orks (a lot of these are the teachers personal models - although he's got no idea which ones are and which ones aren't!)
• Betrayal at Calth
• Ad Mech Start Collecting! Box
• Necron Start Collecting! Box
• Some random tau, space marines and other crap

I imagine I could well get a large percentage of this to sort out and sift through so I'm going to apply a simple step plan to all these models:

1. Inventory the models to know what I have to work with and to work out whats gone missing etc
2. For half built or unbuilt models find the pieces and build them up. For badly built models try and do what I can to make them look better! Repair damage with greenstuff and other bits
3. Finish primed models, if unpainted prime and paint.
4. Judge the painting of the other models and work out if they need stripping to be redone or if they will be acceptable as is.

This could take a long time but I see it as the only way to help improve the state of them - you'll see what I mean when I get the pictures up.

Also over the summer I'm currently planning to attend the Combat Patrol event being run on the 29th August at Warhammer World in Nottingham, so if you're going I'll see you there hopefully!

Stay tuned for some more posts, including me sorting this lot and also some updates on my CSM and Vampire Counts with perhaps some new Daemons models coming in for next year Schools League (450 pts woooo!).

~DaemonColin

Imperial Fists Cataphractii

Despite the fact that this unit (which personally I'm quite happy with) being finished nearly 3 weeks now, I've only just had chance to get some good pictures of them. These guys are the first unit of (hopefully) many for my 30K Imperial Fists army and they look great alongside my contemptor dread which was also finished around a similar time, but more about him in another post. As for the Cataphractii, I'll let the pictures do the talking.

The whole completed unit of 5

Sgt. with power sword and veteran with heavy flamer

Overall I feel as though I've done alright with these guys. I'm venturing out into a new field with the yellow and this is one of my first times really putting some effort into basing (Usually its just some simple texture paint or sand with a drybrush and maybe a wash).

Thanks for reading and I'll see you all in the next post!

-Commissar Raphel

I'M BACK

Hey guys, sorry for the huge gap between posts, both Colin and I have been super busy lately though. However, I'm back. Plenty has been going on since we last posted such as the schools league finals where I was fortunate enough to win best army with my freshly completed renegades list (we came 10th out of 18 overall as a team which isn't too bad considering that we had both Tyranid and CSM players) Hopefully I can get the blog back on the road with the Facebook page  https://www.facebook.com/aslwargaming/ and plenty of new content such as my renegade guard, Imperial Fists cataphractii, Nurgle themed Chaos Chosen and maybe even some Bolt Action. Stay tuned for more posts!

Commissar Raphel.