Ahoyhoy internets, DaveHowitzer here once again with a 40k fix.
Before anything though, I'd very much like to thank my good friend Archnomad over at Skavenblight for the plugs on the banner I did him, I don't think it's that great but hey I friggin love praise! Happy times!
So as you know I'm busy working away on my Eldar list in my Assembling the Warhost articles and the first 1k points of fully painted Ulthwé goodness is nearly done.
-I say nearly done...we'll see when I get round to finishing it-
Ahoyhoy internets, DaveHowitzer here once again asking for a little advice this time.
I dunno if I've mentioned it, but I've not been back to a GW or to a club for a game in...phhh....ermm.....hmmm....
-Well you get the picture, a while-
So, recently the only games I've managed to get are Vassal games with some buddies or the occassional tabletop game with a mate from Uni, which I now no longer attend. So it seems to get my fix I really, really, really get back into the old social scene of playing this game. But that for me seems a bit daunting for several reasons;
1) It's like being a new gamer again. By this I mean remember when you got into the hobby? Maybe you were an older guy who saw these guys your age or a bit younger playing with SUPER COOL SPACE DUDES and thought to yourself, "Hmm me, to alleviate myself of this chocolate and Honey-Nut Cheerios addiction I have here, perhaps I should indulge in that spiffy looking hobby."
-Alas dear reader, the chap in the above example swapped gluttony for plastic crack. An all too common case of GW Syndrome, or "Adeptusastartesitis" -
Ahoyhoy internets, DaveHowitzer here once again with a little Eldar progress update. Hobby time hasn't been given to me in droves this week due to my second love - being the job but in what little time I've had to paint a little I've manage to complete the first block of the 1000pts list, my 2 Troops and 1 HQ...well...besides a weapon platform but we'll overlook that. I have a couple days off as of tomorrow, so I'll hopefully be starting work on the Dire Avengers or Fire Dragons, which I haven't decided yet, but hopefully we'll have another complete unit by the end of the week. So I'll leave you with a few pics of the legal army as it stands, hope you enjoy.
Ahoyhoy internets, DaveHowitzer here with just a quick little post whilst I'm at work. Browsing the internet in my lunch hour I've noticed a very disconcerting trend in the Eldar lists I've been seeing on the Blogsphere: the maxing out of Fire Dragons in the army Elite slots.
Ok guys, I know Dragons are good; really good at what they do but is it just me or does having 3 "disposable" anti-tank not make sense. Ok, they WILL kill their designated target, but then you have the rest of a leafblower or a BloodWolves army to eat them for breakfast. And to me that doesn't make sense when you can only knock out a max of 3 transports with them. 1 unit, I'm more than happy with, I employ one myself; 2 ok personal choice but you're cutting it fine. When we get to three, I just say, "Dude, what you are doing." OVERKILL. We already have a metric ton of S6 for light armour and Prisms/Falcons to mop up what that doesn't kill.
All of the Eldar CC goodness is in our Elites slot and to not use one unit at least of them, we leave ourselves open to assault with little or no countermeasures in place.
What's wrong with 2 Dragon units and a unit of Harlies with a Shadowseer and kisses? Maybe a couple of fusion pistols in the mix?
Come on internets, you know it makes sense. We aren't the best army around right now, but don't pansy out with so many Dragons. Grab life by the balls!
Ahoyhoy internets, DaveHowitzer here once again! I must apologise for lack of hobby posting recently, between work and Reach my hobby time has been limited in the last week. However this week I did have time to re-locate my hobby operations one level up. Literally.
I got the chance this week to get some space in the loft of my building to put some gear so I jumped at the chance at getting a better area for my modelling and painting. The area of the loft is well lit and ventilated and with a little...ok a lot of elbow greese and a new table from a certain mainland European furnature company I now have an excelent area for hobbying.
Ahoyhoy internets, DaveHowitzer here again, back from my time engrossed in my Xbox and my heavy weekend of work. As you could probably gather from my GAMING: Remember Reach... article last week, I was a little excited about the release of this game.
Like really excited.
Like...REALLY excited.
To this point I think I've devoted every waking second where I haven't been at the bar to this game and having played through the campaign a couple of times, kicked some ass and taken names online and developing a Forge obsession, it's time for a review! Spoiler free don't worry.
My pretty pretty 'niddys (most of which are unpainted/ half painted/ semi painted/ painted in anger or under the influence of the alco-demon) are my pride and joy as of last year when the urge to have 6 limbed, acid spouting, gut wrenching, armour cladded, alien monstrositys just became to much.
I was very very very lucky to nab a couple of battleforces when they had the 'fexes in them, i mean whats better than a carnifex; a FREE carnifex of cource. sadly the stingey goat lovers at GW took out the pretty pretty 'fexes and jacked up the price by 10 quid.
Once i have a brood of something finnished or mostly ill upload a few pictures. OH the joys of painting the swarm.
Alrighty y'alll
Ahoyhoy internets, DaveHowitser here with something a little off topic for me, little bit of video game discussion. Now the word on every fanboy's lips today is "Reach" the grand finale of gaming's love affair with Halo and Bungie as it's creator. Now as you may or may not know, Halo will live on in the hands of 343 Studios, a splinter Bungie group that will deal with the IP but this will most likely be the final Halo game of the generation. Hype as well as expectation is high, but from what the reviewers have been saying around the internets, we are not to be dissapointed a la ODST. So now I'd like to look back at the series and chronicle a little of what Halo means to me.
Halo: Combat Evolved (15th November 2001)
After a brief stint trying to create the first Halo game for MAC Bungie were offered the chance to create a launch title for the first Xbox, and boy did they make one. Set in the 26th century, Halo: CE (Halo 1) told the story of the last SPARTAN II, simply known as the Master Chief and the crew of the Pillar of Autumn as they escaped the alien alliance known as the Covenant's invasion of the planet Reach, the powerhouse of the UNSC's millitary might. After making a blind slip space jump (kinda like hyperspace) the crew find an ancient ring like planet/structure known as the Halo. After skirmishes with the Covenant and an ancient race or parasites known as the Flood, the humans discover that Halo is a superweapon with the power to set the galaxy aflame. Through the heroics of the Pillar of Autumn's crew and the unparalleled force of will that is the Master Chief the human forces manage to destroy the Halo ring, but leaving only the Chief and his A.I. companion, Cortana alive and adrift in space to tell the tale. Halo: C.E. is considered widely to be the game that made the Xbox the powerhouse that it was and is regarded as one of the greatest feats in video game history. With over 5million copies of the game sold by November 2005, it is due to this game the terms "Halo Clone" and "Halo Killer" were coined, showing that through the rest of the FPS genre's lifespan, every game would be compared to this masterpiece. Today, many Halo fan's consider this the best of the core Halo Trilogy. Truely an evolution in the art of combat.
Halo 2 (9th November 2004)
The Bungie team were hungry to feed us more of their signature hero and began work on Halo 2 quickly after release of Halo: CE. Huge hype and speculation surrounded the development and a release date was released relatively early in production, giving the Bungie team a real headache in terms of creating a finished game in time. In Halo 2 we see the Cheif returning to Earth and fighting against the Covenant forces, led by their mysterious leaders, the Prophets. Halo 2 included a plethera of changes and upgrades from the original game, the exclusion of a "health" system that the first game had -so no more running to find pesky medpacks- meaning the player had to conserve his shields more, because a few hits with no shields and our hero would be significantly less heroic and more...gooey. The inclusion of the Arbiter - a disgraced Covenant Elite - in the campaign as a playable character in hindsight was an excelent move on Bungie's part and really did flesh out the story, letting us see first hand the Covenant heirarchy, their beliefs and the repression within their society. Many players however felt that the Arbiter levels were dull and wanted to get back to their beloved Master Chief -admittedly I was one of them at the time. So another Halo ring and a Covenant rebellion later, we were left with one of the biggest cliffhangers in gaming that pissed off EVERYONE - the "finish the fight scene."
What really made Halo 2 great was the multiplayer, an experience that, like the campaign in the first, defined a generation. Halo 2 was the most played game on Xbox Live over the Xbox and the Xbox 360 up until the release of Gears of War. With intensive gameplay, vehicular combat and above all immaculate level design, Bungie had once again broken the mould.
Everything however was leading to the Chief's grand finale...
Halo 3 (25-27th September [Worldwide release at the same instant])
Now this was a game and a half, widely thought of as Bungie's swan song and farewell to the series. Maybe we were wrong there, but it was our last goodbye to the hero that had carried us through 2 whole console generations, the Chief. In true awesome hero Spartan style, the chief rocked into the next generation of consoles as a comet crashing into the jungles after escaping the Covenant ship he arrived in. Yes folks thats right...he can survive goddamn re-entry. Now explain to me why he can't survive sustained plasma pistol fire on Legendary and I'll give you a chocolate medal! Anyway! This was a great yarn, telling of the Arbiter and the Elite's story of redemption, Chief's struggle to repel the invasion of earth from Covenant and Flood and then stopping the Prophet of Truth from inadvertantly destroying all life in the galaxy. All in a day's work ain't it. What else is there really to say on the campaign...it was stunning, visually supreme to any other game that had been out at the time save perhaps Gears, the score was incredible, Marty O'Donnell really outdoing himself and the gameplay was excelent. Even the level's I disliked (anything Floody except for the final mission) I can't really fault in any significant way. Our hero's "end" was actually moving, especially for those who had followed the series closely like me. I felt sad that my Master Chief had sacrifieced himself for the sake of everyone, even though as we did find out, all was not as it seemed ;)
The multiplayer too was superb, taking the Xbox 360 top spot initially from Gears of War and then sparring with CoD4 right up till the release of Modern Warfare 2. Improvements in character design, level design, weapon design and balance really made it enjoyable for everyone. Further the powerful Forge tools meant that players could even create their own levels! A game designed for longevity! Fantastic!
I'm not going to go into ODST, A) because I didn't take to it and B) because I didn't finish it and I don't want to go into something without knowing about it, but I was dissapointed by it. I know many weren't but I was and not just because it wasn't Chief, I felt the whole experience left me going...well...this is a bit meh. I don't expect "meh" from Bungie. I want "HOOOOLY SHIIIIT". And that's what the original trilogy gave me and that's why I put it up there with Ocarina of Time and FF7 as my favourite games of all time, and there they will stay.
I have that clip of the memorial on Halo 3 (the above video) on right now writing this article and I can feel myself welling up, O'Donnell's music, the superb voice acting, the impressive visuals but most of all, that sense that Halo was for me. I think those of us who truely loved the original trilogy can understand that bond. I hope this inspires some of you to go back and play what, for me, has defined Microsoft's journey into console gaming.
I almost think of the core trilogy as the original Star Wars Trilogy; A New Hope (Halo:CE) beaing the tale of a single man who can bring about the change needed against all the odds. The Empire (Covenant) Strikes Back, the evil empire goes on the offensive and by the end we are left wondering how the good guys are going to overcome the terrible odds. Return of the Jedi (Chief) our hero survives against the terrible odds in the previous installment with incredible will and masters the enemy. Further our previous evil adversary finds redemption by killing the evil emperor (Prophet?) that was his master. Think about it actually and it will make sense.
Now, with Reach under 12 hours away, we can see how the war really started with the Chief and though we will not see him or play as him, we will see the events that drove the Pillar of Autumn away from Reach all the way out to the first Halo ring. We will not bond with one of these lonely Spartans, but with 6 of them, and I have every confidence that Bungie will have created characters that we will fall in love with and will break our hearts when the inevitable happens. This is the culmination of a 10 year series, and Bungie's true farewell to their IP and for a lot of us gamers it's going to be how we remember the series going into the next generation.
Ahoyhoy internets, DaveHowitser here with another Assembling the Warhost article! Ok so we've seen the basic 1000pts list for my Ulthwé Eldar so now we get to the first important milestone, the painting! in true 40k fashion first it's the 2 Troops (well...one and a half at the time these pics were taken) and an HQ. So enjoy and critisise!
Love, Dave
Right: Farseer He'Léon
Below: Black Guardian Master (Dire Avenger Exarch for WiP Avengers)
Ahoyhoy internets, DaveHowitser here with a flash news update! For those of you who like me didn't buy the PC version of Blood Bowl on release, Steam have 75% off the game this weekend, giving it a price tag of under £5! Well worth a download guys and dolls, I'm downloading it right now!
Great if you're bored this weekend or just want to try something new.
Ahoyhoy internets, DaveHowitser here with the first of a weekly series which will showcase some models from various miniature wargames and companies that could be effectively used as proxies for GW models in themed armies!
For our first feature, I thought I'd bring some models that could easily be used as Guard Vets or Stormtroopers in Talaran/desert themed armies. coming to you from the game Infinity, these are Haqqislam: Djanbazan
OH HAI DER GIRLLLFREEEEENDS! gavtheman here again for a wee WoW update. Recently I transferred my Paladin back to Darkspear EU to be with my bestest bud DaveHowitser . All going good except last night I stirred up some trouble which I'll explain later... just thought I'd add a wee post!
Well, well where to start. Probably best from the beginning, thats always a great place to start, well unless its needlessly complicated in which case it's probably best to start at the end but thats delving to much into a bizarre chicken and egg scenario, and boy do I hate needless prattle, well obviously that's a blatent lie, I love it and couldn't function without it.
Anyhoooo down to buisness, I'm Zepher and I started wargaming pretty much at the exact same time as the Dave-ster, give or take 5 minutes or so. I've been jumping in and out of the hobby since then I and mainly just paint and convert, but I'm slowly; very, very slowly, re-learing the rules and one day I'll get them in my head ball and everthing will be awesometasticularlyepic.
I'll be posting some of my painting and conversion projects as, if and when they come up, which hopefully should be more frequent now!
Im a graphic artist - ie. slacking moocher / hysterical maniac so I might post some little warhammer doodles now again.
Ahoyhoy internets, Dave here once again for a rare 40k post! Good lord, I hear you exclaim, well believe it folks. Now today I'd like to go into a little background about my Ulthwé Eldar list that I've had since the tender age of 15...or rather why I scrapped said list and began again from scratch. Basically back in the day, I ruined my Eldar. I played them relatively OK managing to get about an average loss/draw/win ratio when playing my old Craftworld Eldar Ulthwé. Little bit of FootDar was fun, and the old Seer Council rules were simply filthy.
Then with the new codex I kinda put the Eldar on the back burner in favour of my 2nd 40k love, the Deathwing and spent stupid amounts of time (and money) on getting the most badass lookign army on the tabletop. After C:SM and the "death" of C:DA I kinda fell out with the hobby for a while and switched to fantasy.
I don't know what gave me the 40k bug again this year but I'm glad I got it. I got out the old nail polish remover, stripped some old metal Eldar and began to paint. So the plan is to build the list from 1k to 1.5k to 2k over the coming months and (hopefully) make my first fully painted army.
So without wanting to stall any longer, here is the 1k portion of my list, not all fully painted as yet, but pictures are on their way once my camera decides to charge.
Ok folks, being a bartender and an avid 40k player I thought with this series of cocktail articles I'd share my passion for the daemon (hah!) drink with you all. So here's a little something I came up with "at the office" so to speak.
anCnoc 12 yr old malt whiskey 25ml (use as 1oz for all you non-Europeans) Licor 43 25ml (1oz)
Creme de Cacao 12.5ml (1/2 oz)
Lemon Juice 25ml (1oz)
Gomme (Simple Syrup) 25ml (1oz)
Chocolate Bitters 1 dash
Half an egg white (optional)
Shake well in a boston set (or normal cocktail shaker) and serve in an Old Fashioned glass with plenty of ice and a wedge of lemon and if you're feeling exceptionally dangerous a cheeky wee sprinkle of nutmeg.
Tastes divine!
I find that whilst most purists will say mixing a malt is blasphemy, the anCnoc can be a wonderous addition to any whiskey based cocktail and works very well with lemon, giving an almost honey like aroma to the drink, further enhancing the traces of chocolate. Well it is marketed as the "mixing malt" I suppose! I also found that working with Licor 43 - a Spanish vanilla liquer - was a preferable alternative to vanilla schnapps as the taste was far less harsh and overpowering when the lemon juice and simple syrup were added. The egg white is option of course, based on personal preference and alergies, but I think it adds a really nice, creamy consistency to the drink. On the whole, a great drink to have after a hearty meal, acting as a nice after thought to dessert, whilst cleaning the pallate for the evening ahead. Enjoy! I'll try to get some pic in later.
Love, Dave
Knockhill Sour created for the Buzzworks Group by David Howie Elliots Bar and Restaurant, Prestwick
Good fine evening to all you manly men, and woman of course. The names Gav and in the upcoming months I shall be posting 'sneaky sneaky' information on how to play the 'Paladin' class in the MMORPG 'World Of Warcraft'. First thing you will be wondering is; " how the shmeg will I know that what he is saying is the correct way to go". Well my hunnies, do not fear as gavtheman plays a Holy Paladin who goes by the name of 'Azuremist' on the EU Sunstrider realm at end game level (11/12 heroic 25 ICC). I will be posting any sneaky tips that I uncover, any changes in spec / glyphs ect. for upcoming content and whatever else I can find to make you guys a 'Winner of Warcraft'.
Ahoyhoy internets, DaveHowitser here with my first real post on any blog ever! First of all I'd like to say, I don't claim to be any wargames genius (though, GW is my area of expertise and I must say I do know my stuff) but I am a man of strong opinions. Maybe occassionally I'll come up with some gem for you all, but on the whole this will be a place to post my thoughts and army progress along with some input from my mates.
So in the spirit of progress let's get down to business! This afternoon I'd like to talk about how the internets (that's you people!!) have effected the way wargames (specifically 40k and Fantasy) are played globally. Back when I started playing 40k at the tender age of 13 at the arse end of 3rd edition the local metagame was everything! You had to tailor your list aways for what you knew was coming at you in your gaming group everyweek, and certainly in my mind the "all comers" list didn't exist in my area (west of Scotland). Whenever you went to a tourney you would be genuinely surprised at what would be there.
As time progressed into 4th so did technology, and the internet became much more of a household product in mainstream culture. This is the time when we saw the advent of forums and blogs dedicated to niche markets one of which would be miniature wargaming. Now we all know the big boys of the forum and blogsphere; BoLS, FTW, Warseer, B&C, DakkaDakka and many more, but in the new wargaming society we have made do we realise fully how we have changed the landscape of our hobby. As an example, let's take our tourney play as an example. With the coming of blogs and forums the "local" gaming community expanded somewhat into being a worldwide gaming community. Ok, you can't pick up your little plastic men and play some guy in Arazona if you're in Ayrshire -I guess unless you are amazingly committed- but that sense of fellowship with other gamers seems to have transcended the local gaming group wouldn't you say? We share our lists with others though the online personae we build up, we talk tactics, we listen to opinion, news, rumours, tips, tricks, hell all the things we usse to do with guys who are a 10 minute drive away we now do with guys a 10 hour flight away.
And who would say that's a bad thing? I like the fact I can see some guy in Chicago's FootDar list and compare it to. I like the fact I get to see Goatboy's Orgy of Blood List when I go onto BoLS in the afternoon. I like -with the advent and huge success of hobby podcasts- that I can listen to Romeo talk about Battlefoam and curse the fact that being a Brit, I can't get my grubby little hands on any.
I guess the reason I'm writing this article is in response to the guys who in my own gaming group have become the naysayers against our new global wargaming community; "Oh you see the same lists at every tourney now," "Who are these guys to tell me how to play," "What's the point in listening to these guys talk crap for 2 hours." I say this is balderdash based on common sense! Let me explain: You don't HAVE to read blogs. You don't HAVE to post on forums. If you do they are not there to dictate how YOU of anyone else plays their game. Ok so at every tournament from Victoria to Brighton there are a few Leafblowers and Razorback spams and the interwebs in all likelihood played a large part in that. But does the internet determine the quality of the player playing it? The same list at every tournament played by mediocre players should be a godsend to those who know how to counter attack well.
Come on haters, be groovy about our worldwide community.
I'd really like to hear your thoughts on this new age we live in, haters or lovers so don't be afraid to comment =]
Welcome one and all; ladies, jellyspoons and children of all ages, to our new blog, discussing general matters of interest to the internets wargaming community!
