Reassignment Surgery: Chaos Counts-As

I have more ideas for models I'd like to use than I have money, painting time, gaming time, or actual good counts-as units to use them for!  But reassessing some of my options for Chaos Marines and Daemons today, I have rethought some of my monstrous models and what I might like to field them as.

I was thinking before that these centigor beasties would make good spawn or fiends of Slaanesh, and they would still be good for both.  Mostly because they are bestial cavalry.  But looking at options today, now I'm thinking that in a Daemon army or ally contingent, they might also make cool Bloodcrushers.  I love the new designs on juggers, but I'm unlikely to spend the money on them since I have lots of models I'm not using now.  I was planning to paint my centaur-beastmen reddish anyway, so they'd fit well.  Fast and furious cavalry that gets in close and tears you up .  The only limitation for me is that I have only three models, which works for the basic unit but not if I want to add models.  

WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld	Sv
5	5	5	4	3	4	3	7	6+

The Bloodcrusher role I did have reserved for my newly minted Ogre models now potentially going to the centaurs, I browsed the unit listings to see what else the Ogres might be good at.  And although I wasn't really planning on running any Mutilators before, they might make cool ones for a CSM force (as well as being big ugly spawn, though they look too fat and slow to be beasts).  As Mutilators they are slow and bulky, but powerful and durable.  Hell, nigh unkillable with their saves and two wounds!  The stat line fits pretty well, and add in the close combat weapon mutations and armor/invulns, and they are massive and ugly and deadly up close!  Again, the unit would be limited to three models due to Multilator limits, but who would need more than three of these??

WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld	Sv
4	4	4	4	2	4	2	8	2+

Neither of these are perfect fits, but I like to build my force around cool models as much as cool units.  And with the forces of Chaos, monsters come first!

Summer Blockbuster: Let's Make a Movie!

Let's plan a blockbuster movie for summer of 2015, shall we? This is a "fan cast," which is where people who day dream about a movie being made from their favorite book, TV show, comic book, etc, come up with who they'd like to see play the roles of the characters involved. I haven't gotten the call from Hollywood quite yet for Tarnish (hint-hint, Hollywood), but I thought it would be fun to do a casting call to fill the roles of the main characters of this fantasy novel.

My thinking is not restricted by time and space, and I'm not even limiting this casting by talent -- one of these guys isn't even an actor! But here's my thinking...

Billy Cole/Wil Thunderstrike - 1st choice: I don't know any teenage actors - in fact, I generally don't care for teenage actors. They fill teenaged roles and probably get to thinking they are hot shit even though they can barely shave or drive. So I'm thinking a good actor for Wil would be a 16 to 18 year old Henry Cavill from Man of Steel and Immortals (I didn't even realize he was in Immortals till I started doing this blog post). Tall, strong, dark hair, intense. I think a younger Cavill would fit the bill nicely for our hero. (Though I think he told Jay Leno that he was a chubby loser when he was young -- hey, weren't we all?) In this pictures he's even wielding a spear -- perfect!

Billy Cole/Wil Thunderstrike - 2nd choice: Well, I suppose I should try to pick a teen actor too, barring time travel and fountains of youth. Browsing the internet for candidates... I kinda like Shia LeBeouf as an actor but i don't think he's got the physique to be Wil Thunderstrike, son of Ian the Black. So I picked this dude named Robbie Amell based solely on this picture from some fan-chick's website. But to be honest... I don't like his attitude.

Leon Shimmerskin - 1st choice: We need a guy who can pull off powerful and arrogant and nigh unstoppable. I think Mickey Rourke's big comeback in recent years with The Wrestler, Ironman 2, and Immortals shows he can be that big, muscular badass. He might be a shy bit older for the part now, but since we're not limited by the barriers of time, let's shade him back a few years but keep all the power and intimidating glare.

Leon Shimmerskin - 2nd choice: I suppose Chris Hemsworth does have some experience as a charming yet powerful, blond-haired fantasy superhero...

Ian Cole - 1st choice:  I have rewritten this a year after its original post.  In a flash of wisdom, I realized that Liam Neeson would make an awesome Ian Cole.  Though his talents might largely go to waste, since Ian isn't very talkative.

Ian Cole - 2nd choice:  This close up of writer Alan Moore, who penned the graphic novels  Watchmen and V For Vendetta, looks pretty dead on for Ian Cole.  And while in real life I think he is very tall, he's also very thin, so he might need a body double.

Trevor LeRouge: The aging and balding bard whose whit was as fast as his blade -- Paul Giamatti seems a perfect fit! A real actor who looks like a real person. (That's a compliment.)

Jade: Cunning yet cute, Jade is a thief and Wil's love interest. Again, I don't know any raven-haired teenaged actresses I would trust with playing my characters. Fortunately the internet is full of folks who do, so... Let's see here... Okay, one young lady who is now twenty and I have actually heard of is Nickelodeon actress Victoria Justice. She's got the look for sure, so let's give her a shot. Get her agent on the phone...

Mum Picklebriar: Mysterious stranger in the black hat, a storyteller with a gravelly voice and grit. I can see Russell Crowe in this role. In this pic he even comes with his own black hat.

Morlock: Even though Morlock the archer is about the closest of Shimmerskin's trio to Wil, I had a terrible time trying to envision an actor to play his part. Then someone struck me as perfect: David Wenham, who's cool scratchy voice was Dilios (the narator) in 300 and played the ranger Faramir in the Lord of the Rings movies (so he's got some bow experience too).

Crow: As I was writing I envisioned a thinner version of Danny Trejo with a long ponytail, covered in tattoos, and swinging a huge mallet around. Machete is more than qualified to be Crow!

Lockheed: General scumbag and scruffy waste of space: Lockheed. Let me take you back to Heat with Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, and Val Kilmer. There was one lesser character who made an impact as a villainous creep that the audience really wanted to see dead. I'm talking about Waingro, played by Kevin Gage. "The grim reaper is visiting with you."

Brother Fabien: The "Boy Preacher," a young man who is both doubtful and a leader of the community. He's actually a more complex character than may be let on in this first novel. To fill his holy shoes I'm picking Jay Baruchel, who voiced the hero of How To Train Your Dragon. Young Mr. Baruchel would bring Fabien a great awkward dorkiness (no offense), a young guy who would like to break certain social barriers and "get the girl" but can't. Actually, thinking of him in this role gives greater depth to Fabien for me, which is amazing!

Jenna Knox: The musical heart of Redfield, and a lovely brunette, I can't think of anyone better suited to play the part and draw a crowd than Katy Perry herself.

Mad Dog McCray: This one image struck me as great for the weathered and wild face under the dog cowl of Mad Dog McCray: William Fichtner as bad guy Butch Cavendish in this summer's Lone Ranger. Fichtner is a fantastic actor, almost always playing smaller strong character parts, and it'd be awesome to have him as part of a Tarnish movie. Pull him right out of this picture, slap a dead dog on his head, and we're ready to shoot!

The Swamp Man: The mysterious cloaked master of Blood Marsh. The first thing that actually comes to mind is the Crypt Keeper, but we're not going for comedy here. And though it's not quite right either, I always liked the cloaked and cow-skulled creatures from Time Bandits too. So somewhere in between there...

Gromlins: Maybe we can borrow the Gremlins and spray paint them in appropriate colors for the film.

Redfield, Hobb's Turn, and Fellwater are all towns chocked full of characters, but the above castings cover all the biggest parts for sure. There's also a lot of actors I really like who don't appear here -- you can't just stuff all your favorites into one movie if they aren't right for the part, right?

Just another $100,000,000 and maybe we can convince some producer to go with this! I hope everyone will come out and see it -- and bring your 3D glasses!

If anyone else has any ideas on actors for these characters, I'd love to hear them!

No Minis Required: Eldar Sign

I recently got myself a box of Fantasy Flight's ELDER SIGN board game.  Well, it's more of a card game, really and more importantly, it's a nice break away from mini war games for a minute.  (Cuz we all need a break away once in a while.)

I have played the original ARKHAM HORROR game only once and really liked it, but it does get complicated.  I wanted to have an Arkham game to play, but also needed to have someone to play it with!  Thus my main motive for going with ELDER SIGN -- it's a slightly watered down, simplified version of the Cthullu-esque game with fewer rules and more dice rolling (and the dice even have pictures on them instead of numbers for easier game play).  My point being, THIS game I may even be able to talk my wife and step-daughter into playing. It's more approachable for non-gamers so we might have a better chance of sucking them in.

ELDER SIGN retains all the fun characters and has a whole stack of creepy scenes and other worlds to explore, though it does sacrifice some of the cool details that we gamers love (most of the items and spells, for example, are simplified down to bonus dice).  But it still keeps the fun Lovecraftian horror flavors that we seek on our adventures.  I have successfully played a game using three characters alone now (hard to admit I was "playing with myself for two hours," but i was!), so I know it well enough to try and teach the fam and am looking forward to doing so.  This "arkham horror Lite" also has another advantage -- it takes a lot less time to play.  It advertises 1-2 hours, which is probably pretty accurate.

So if anyone else is looking for a fun, less challenging, and more cooperative game to play (that's another advantage i love -- you're all on the same team instead of trying to kill each other, which is nice for a change!), give ELDER SIGN a shot.  If you like it, you might move up to ARKHAM HORROR, or even start out there if you have a lot of gamer buds to play with.  Fun times!

Land of the Rising Sun

It's 99% official at this point...  I have been talking to my detailer (that's Navy talk for the person who cuts the orders) this past week and I'm all but certain that next year I'll be moving to Japan!!! 

I've been there before, in my past Navy life where I was stationed aboard a cruiser and hitting the Pacific ports for two years.  Now I'll go back as a family man and be shore-based.  I'm pretty damned excited!  But there's one thing I'm not too excited about...

I'm thinking that we as a full house of people and things need to reduce our volume to fit into a Japanese home.  Which may mean... Giving up on 40K and my models, at least for three years.  I just have a hard time justifying the move of so much stuff, especially when I'm less likely to use them over there. (I know there's 40K in Japan but not sure I speak enough Japanese to get a game with the Sailor Moon kids out in town.)  It's a sad realization but at the same time somewhat of a relief.  I have too many irons in the fire now.  Maybe I'll come back better focused and, if ready to get back into the game at that time, I'll actually sit down with one army and get it cranked out and painted in a less than four year time frame.  (I've been back into 40K about 4 years now and, while I've accumulated a lot of models in that time, haven't really painted that many...)

Tastie Pansies: Orks vs Eldar Battle Report

J and I played a 1600 point game last weekend, his Ork mob vs my Eldar.  The battle itself wasn't all that dramatic -- the first 2 turns were pretty uneventful and in the end the Orks had a very decisive victory.  But here's the quick and dirty play by play:

art by hairywookiee

ELDAR LIST

HQ	Karandras, Farseer, Warlocks x2
T	Avengers x 2, Windrider Jetbikes, Rangers
E	Scorpions
FA	Hawks, Spiders
HVY	Nightspinner, Wraithlord, Reapers

ORK LIST

HQ	Warboss
T	Boysx2, Nob bodyguards in Trukk
E	Lootaz
FA	Storm boyz, Defkoptas, Dakkajet
HVY	Killakans, Battlewagons x 2

The game was for kill points and set up "hammer and anvil" meaning long-wise.  There was a lot of terrain, including a big block of impassable jungle right in the middle.

The ork lootaz set-up in a building in the far corner, each battle wagon held 20 boys, and everyone but the lootaz made their way slowly forward.  The warboss and his nobs were in the trukk outflanking (warlord trait) and the dakkajet was in reserve.

The eldar dark reapers and snipers were set up in the opposite corner building, with avenger guards on the ground floor.  Avengers with the farseer and the warlock braintrust were in ruins in the middle of the board edge, and the wraithlord was hiding behind some trees.  Karnadras and his scorpions were about mid-board hiding on this side of the jungle (infiltrated), and the hawks, spiders, bikes, and nightspinner tank were in reserve.  (I held the tank in reserve afraid the lootaz would kill it turn one -- dumb move on my part, as they couldn't reach it and the damn tank didn't come in till turn 4!)

The first two turns were mostly trading a few long-range shots and the orks making their way toward the eldar, who were patiently waiting them out.  The stormboyz and defkoptas were quickest and made it into combat first.  The stormboyz all died to shooting over two turns.  The defkoptas fired some rokkits and dropped an ineffective big bomm and were routed after losing all but 2 models.  Those two rallied to die in turn 4 with dire avenger shurikens in their gullets. Meanwhile, the dark reapers were the first eldar unit wiped out over two turns of shooting and the wraithlord was shot and wounded by the lootas. 

On turn two the ork warboss and his nobs popped onto the board right behind the wraithlord.  WL moved up and flamed the lot of them, the swooping hawks deepstruck, dropping grenades and lasing them with lasblasters, killing maybe 2 nobs in all that.  The farseer threw three maledictions at the warboss's unit and that stubborn bastard denied two of them!  Finally the faseer "dominated" the warboss unit with telepathy and the WL waited rather than assaulted the mob, hoping that the orks would fail to muster the willpower over the farseer's curse to be able to charge on their turn ("dominate" means the target has to pass a LD check to take any actions).  But the orks managed mind over matter, stubborn as they were.  The ork warboss challenged the WL to a fight and the WL failed to hit with any of his attacks!  (I rolled so many 1s and 2s this game it was pathetic.)  So the warboss tore the wraithlord limb from limb with his powerklaw in a dramtic display of brutality.  Big score for the Warboss!

On turn two (or three?) the warboss intitiated his WAAGGHHH! and the battlewagons emptied their 20 boys each onto the eldar half of the field, both on either side of the scorpions' position. 

One mob charged the scorpions. Karandras and his scorpions rolled a lot of failed hits in the first round but still managed to win the combat, taking only one casualty.  In the next round of the combat the scorpion lord and his warriors won and cleaned up with a sweeping advance (go, Krabby, go!).

The second mob of boyz charged across a river and through a ruined wall to reach the farseer and his avengers!  They were determined to eat smart pansy that day!  The avengers lost the combat against (and were pretty much unable to overwatch as they couldn't even see the orks coming).  The farseer was then killed in their sweeping advance. 

This left the poor twin warlocks trapped inside the same ruined building by the vicious orks.  Facing certain doom, the warlocks cursed the orks with Enervate, which reduced them to S2, and then charged the mob, despite being outnumbered about 7 to 1!  This was actually a great move, denying the orks their furious charge and extra attack for assaulting.  The warlocks killed 3 orks and had they made four measley saves they would have held down the big mob all by themselves!  Their wraithbone breastplates were not sturdy enough, however, and died heroic deaths.

The swooping hawks, who were now within reach of the Warboss and his nobs, leaped away with the intent of haywire grenading one of the battle wagons to death.  A thrown grenade did one hullpoint of damage.  They need only make a 5" charge to slap 5 more grenades on it.... Rolled a 4.  No problem, we're fleet.  Reroll was a 3!!  Failed!!!  So much for nimble eldar.  Four of the five hawks would die to shooting attacks.  The last attacked the trukk in the last turn (turn 4) doing 2 hullpoints of damage--not quite enough to wreck it.

The dakka jet flew in from the ramshackle ork airstrip and shot up the scorpions, 2 of the 3 jetbikes, then shot Karandras in the back on turn 4.  The phoenix lord and his scorpions would all be shot down, lastly by boy sluggas, before they could engage another enemy in combat. 

By turn four the orks had a decisive advantage in kill points -- something like 6 to 2.  The eldar had the last go of the game.  (We called it at the end of 4.)  Finally the nightspinner gravtank came in from reserve (the crew must have been fornicating in the background or something) and found the warboss, his remaining nobs, and the surviving boyz all wading in the river trying to wash the sweet perfume of dead space elves off their bodies.  Being in the river, they were all lined up nicely for its template torrent of razor-sharp spiderwebs.  The warboss took 3 hits and the boyz seven, though they collectively made a lot of cover saves.  Then in a last desperate attempt to avenge my lost models, the warp spiders (who had landed in turn 3 and shot up some boyz) jumped in and cast razor webs into the warboss's mob, killing the last of the nobs and wounding the boss.  Then they made a last ditch charge.  The warboss challenged the exarch, who I realize now should have just refused--even if he stood out of the fight, I'd have had more attacks with the rest of the squad than with him alone.  But the dumb exarch's pride got in the way and he died a horrible death.   

The final score, with secondary objectives, was something like 8 to 4 maybe (wasn't much point in keeping exact count at that point).  You know what they say: Orkes never lose in batt'l! 

Looking back, i think my Eldar were too well hidden while they waited for the orks to trudged down the field and lost opportunities for kills (mostly notably the tank hiding in reserve and DAs not getting shots off).  My bad strategy combined with J's great strategy to keep his boyz inside heavily armored transports and outflank with his warboss resulted in a pretty one-sided fight.  The Orks seized a well-deserved victory.  It was a lot of fun and I'm eager for a rematch.

MVP:  It's hard to pick an MVP when no one really did well on my team, but Karandras and his scorpions bravely waited in the middle ground as the orks swarmed in on both sides of them and then engaged nearly 20 boyz on their own (out numbered 3 to 1), and wiped the scruffians out.  So Krabby is my MVP, along with his scorpion disciples.

Boobie Prize: I had a lot of failed rolls and gimpy units in this game.  The two top contenders for boobie prize are: the swift of foot and wing Swooping Hawks who couldn't complete a 5" charge, and the immortal wraithlord who returned from death and accepted a duel with the Initiative 1 warboss and yet failed to hit with any of his four S8, AP2 attacks.  Have to give it to the Wraithlord - you big oaf!

I'm guessing that J would pick his Warboss as his MVP. That dude was a monster.

The Usual Suspects (part 4): Converted Chaos Characters (part 2)

I've been doing a lot of multi-part episodes lately, huh?  Well this will wrap up Usual Suspects here, finishing off the last two of my converted chaos baddies.

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This is Thorbolg Wolfsbane, renegade Space Wolf.  Whenever I want to field Huron Blackheart, Wolfsbane assumes his stats and powers (in other words, he's my counts-as).  He, too, is made from various parts, most of which are of course from the Space Wolf kit.  His evil power fist is an old-school chaos termie arm and his backpack comes from the possessed CSM kit.  The wolf head shoulder trophy is an old fantasy goblin rider's wolf head hollowed out with a drill bit, knife, and file. Took a lot of work but I like the result.

 

Thorbolg is one of my original Chaos heroes from my warband Prospero's Corpse, which was my primary 5th edition Chaos force led by him and Thoth, my Tzeentchy daemon prince.  The warband's core was comprised of units that had survived the Space Wolves' attack on the Thousand Sons' homeworld millenia ago.  I therefore ran Sons and Berzerkers, who were "feral wolves".  I have yet to make a 6th ed version of them but when I do it'll likely include a daemon ally so I can field flesh hounds as wolves too.  Thorbolg was a Space Wolf lord who's now gone over to Tzeentch, thus his random and limited sorcery powers, which includes the innate ability to cast fire (his in-built heavy flamer).

 

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Finally, we have the Fallen Angels of Purgatory sorcerer Rasputin.  He was also once an Interrogator Chaplain for the Dark Angels succession chapter AoP and so good at his work that he began to develop the ability to read his victims' thoughts.  His latent psychic powers truly manifested with the Angels threw off the Emperor's suppression and he is now a powerful sorcerer of Chaos. 

I magnetized Rasp to be placed on a jetbike base, thus simulating him flying.  This, of course, makes him easy to shoot at so I won't likely use it, but I figure he'll have a jump pack (or just fly on magical currents) and be placed with a raptor squad, likely beside Ravenswing, who will be his right-hand man and bodyguard.  This model is a combo of Dark Angel and Chaos parts, his head being perfect for the role of sorcery, especially one who is a former interrogator. Someday I'll get around to painting him!  (Hopefully soon.) 

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At this conclusion of my "Usual Suspects" chaos run, I am also deciding to back off the blogging habit a bit.  I enjoy it and feel a stressful duty to maintain at least a weekly blog, but in the greater sceme of things I realize that the time and efforts put into this could be better directed toward other, more important projects.  I still fully intend to maintain this blog, and my writing blog Fugitives of Purgatory, but probably not weekly.  (Hell, it's not like anyone will notice me not blogging anyway, right...?)  As I find time to work on models, play games, rant about the hobby (or other hobbies), and produce more sci-fi and fantasy written works, I'll certainly let you know.  But I can't do those things if I'm spending all this time working on the blog instead of working on things to blog about. 

So until next time...!

Oh yeah, so did you consider the Emperor like I asked?  What do you think?  Kind of a stuffy old asshole, eh?  Yeah.  Come on over to the Chaos clubhouse this weekend.  We're having a poetry slam and tea, followed by beers and a riot downtown.  You'll love it.

The Usual Suspects (part 3): Converted Chaos Characters (part 1)

Here's a band of Chaotic characters that I have made over the years.  They could be used for just about anyone, whether it be Lord, Sorcerer, or a Counts-As for a named character -- and that's about how I use them. This "Usual Suspects" installment will also be in two parts to cover all four characters...

 

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First up is Doctor Faustus, who is my "counts-as" Fabius Bile.  Like all of these characters, he's made from a wide assortment of bits, primarily a Dark Angel robed body and possessed space marine parts.  His scythe-bladed rear arms represent the the multi-limbed contraption on Bile's back and give him +2 attacks.  His right arm is a possessed space marine claw/chainsword that stands in for the Rod of Torment and delivers Instant Death, and his toxic needler is a very old Eldar bit -- to be honest, I'm not even sure what it was supposed to be!  I think a flamer, but being an unidentifiable weapon makes it great for use as a unique needle gun for this character. 

In my fluff, Doctor Faustus is a victim of his own experimentation and has granted himself all the bonuses that Bile enjoys, from Feel No Pain to increased strength to his unique weaponry.

Notice he also has an alternate head!  I couldn't decide which I liked better so I magnetized it (which was a tricky operation with risks of destroying the model -- appropriate for Doc Faustus!).  I will eventually paint this guy shades of green and bone-white.  One of my Chaos Warbands is the Angels of Purgatory, a traitorous off-shoot of the Dark Angels whose colors are green and bone.  Doc was likely one of their Interrogator Chaplains before, using surgery and bio-experiments as a means of getting answers and "purifying" their souls.

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I had a fancy name for this model and now have forgotten some of it.  Damn, should have written it down!  Last name is Ravenswing.  Also an Angel of Purgatory, this model can be my raptor champion or a lord/sorcerer in his own right.  (Probably a chaos lord but I lean toward sorcerer just because I imagine him having some kind of evil angelic powers.)  He's mostly Blood Angel Sanguinary Guard -- those models are awesome.  (I intend to make his some raptor companions wearing the creepy masks -- love those masks!)  His head comes from the Warhammer Fantasy Marauders box and his wings are Dark Eldar Scourge wings.  He definitely looks like a good guy hero who just became too caught up in his own righteousness and thus fell to Chaos.

I added some greenstuff to help hold the wings in place and hopefully look kind of feather-like to fill the gap.  Or at least furry...?  Maybe a very downy region, small soft feathers that betray his soft heart?  (Hell, I just suck at scultping on this scale, okay?)

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I'll cover the next two models next time.  In the meantime, think about this: What has the Emperor of Mankind done for you lately?  Hmmm?  Think about it and get back to me.  I'll get you some of our Chaos literature.