Roll Call! Fall In! Attention!

Standing at attention in my other room are some 100 or so traitorous Space Marine scum. From renegades to full blown Chaos worshipping fanatics, they've come together for one purpose... To make ME happy! :p

Okay, really, to plunder and pillage Vienna till there's nothing left to plunder anymore. And collect skulls... Yes, lots of skulls.

Anyhow, my army finally arrived. Sweetness. And surprisingly, very little damage was sustained by the troops. The battle foam trays got a little warped, but I had stuffed A LOT in my 1520 box.... Lawl.

Unfortunately, no pictures as my camera is still lacking a memory card and I'm still to poor to spare the cash for one. Oh the shame.

Annoyed...

Been here in Vienna for two and half months now... Lord knows how many boxes I've recieved that my father has mailed over, yet none are one of the first things I asked for... My plastic crack!
With every shipment I tell him I seriously want this one specific box. It's not hard to find either, its a giant Battle Foam case. Its green! Its sitting in a room of cardboard boxes. Come on, it freaking stands out!
But still, it sits back in Ohio... And I'm left with cravings for this awful addiction. I want to cut, hack, slash and glue together little bits of plastic! I want to paint! I want to kill hours of free time working on getting just the right pose!
I suppose maybe my father doesn't support this hobby of mine... He doesn't even know the expenses involved, but I think he's against it because its "childish" and crap like that. Grown men shouldn't have "toy soldiers". Bah! What a lame.

Great News!

After a month and a half of living in Vienna, my father is finally shipping my possesions over here for me! What does this include? Well, aside from some cold winter cloths (hopefully), my TV and Xbox 360 (power converter still needed...), a big green box... What is this big green box?

BATTLE FOAM ARMY CASE!

And inside?

A MASSIVE HORDE OF CHAOS LEGIONNAIRES!
My old Chaos army, my Blood Angles / Chaos kitbash Army, 5 Dreads, a full motor pool, two drop pods and three Storm Ravens. Mmmmm, smexy.
Can't wait to get back to work on my Winged Berserkers.
Also, I'm dying to get my hands on the new Daemon Prince model and convert it into a count-as Gabriel Seth. Give him a nasty scratch built chain sword, a 40mm base, and lots of sweet doodads and he'll make a fun fluffy inclussion for my forces.

Of course, being in Vienna I have a limited pool of players to game with. Language barrior. Also, as the game scene here is more casual fun than competition, I'm gonna need to tweak my lists to drop them down a notch... If all you do is stomp on people, pretty soon no one will want to play you. :(

Sadly, I won't be buying any models any time soon.... Kind of in a financial bind at the moment. Waiting for funds from the Veteran Affairs to pay for University and Housing. Also looking for a job... Hello English bar tending... Dun dun dun...

And that sums up todays blurt. Time to enjoy the night.

Staying Frosty

Nothing much new to report on my end here... Started University and am enjoying it thoroughly. Living the life of a bachelor... Pretty boring stuff really. Nothing on the hobby end as of the moment, however a friennd from the Embassy here has volunteered his mailing address (American Address so cheap shipping), so that my father can mail my house hold possesions over. What does the first shipment entail? My army case with my entire Blood Angels and Chaos armies! Also a 32" HDTV and XBox 360... Unfortunately, the latter two will be useless until I get a proper 120v to 220v power converter.
Hopefully by time I post again I'll have received my army... Dunno how gaming will go when I don't speak the local language though. :O

MOVED!

Oops, another trivial post intended to keep the blog alive while I'm away from the hobby. :O

Successfully moved to Austria finally. Been here for two days now, living off of a extremely frugal allowance and little to no possesions. Everything I own is scattered around the globe, from boxes in Oman to the wasteland that is Ohio. All I have with me here are clothes and some assorted comforts... 'Tis a sad sad life, but enjoyable none the less... After the month things should pick up, I'll be a bit busy and have an actual income again. Plus I'll start getting my possesions shipped over! I shall return to 40k before you know it!

Just a Quickie

Back from my short (20 day) vacation home to Ohio! Great time, partied a lot but did nothing hobby related... Well, I did one thing hobby related. I accidentally brought my army along with me, which I then set in my little brothers room to have trunk space for beer and a beer pong table. Lawl.

Went to my FLGS Tuesday night for my last night there. Didn't have my army, but I brought my new terrain I got in the mail for the other gamers to use. Unfortunately it was a low turn out night and no one got to break the terrain in. Got a lot of comments on it though. Positive feed back. I'd post pics of it, but my camera was also left in Ohio. :O

I finish up my tour with the Marine Corps in four days. Monday I take off on Terminal Leave and return to Ohio to visit family and friends. Then come August I'm off for Wien, Austria to kick off college and the rest of my life. This unfortunately means there will be a long hiatus from posting here. Occasionally I might drop a few lines to leave updates on my life, but until my gaming good get shipped off there will be nothing hobby related.

Until then, I wish every one the best.

'Ard Boyz Stumble

Played in the semi's yesterday. Had an amazing time and played quiet well... however my body did not take to kindly to the day. As I am still recovering from a broken leg, have caught some upper respritory crud and am fried (nasty sunburn) from washing cars all day Friday, my body just shut down on me. Maybe if the store wasn't blistering hot and muggy... But what do you expect in a small crowded place full of grown men? Of course it was going to be nasty.
So I played in two games. The first game went amazing well in my favor. I gave up maybe 400 VPs total and claimed a Major Victory againt my 'Villa Space Marines opponent. He was a very polite and well mannered player despite how brutal a beating he was taking. Major props to him for not letting the game drag him down.
Not much to say on the game, I went second and weathered the storm of gunfire he threw at me and from then on it was assaulting and steam rolling....

Game two was another great game with a top notch opponent. My BA Stormraven build vs a fairly well ballanced JP/Mech BA build. The game was leaning in my favor till the top of 4.... A risky move on my part to kill a Vindicator (it succeeded) cost me my Stormraven that help my 10 man Assault Squad that I needed to pull a Major Victory. At this point I considered playing for a Minor Victory or Minor Loss, but that would kill both of our chances at Top 3 so I changed my game plan to allow a slightly better outcome for one of us... Needless to say, my opponent was very pleased with the game results.

Over all I had a great time. The crowd was very friendly and well mannered. The store was well organized and the staff were very helpful and curtious at all times. The only real downsides is my sucumbing to ailment and the blasted AC being too weak.

The three and a half hour drive home sucked too... Trying to smoke a black and mild while fighting some upper respritory infection is not smart.... Cough attacks all the way back. Ugh.

The Endtimes Near...

Alright, well not really.. But I am going to be doing a whole lot less blogging in the coming months...

See, I finish my contract with the Marine Corps n August 20th and currently have over 60 days of leave (vacation) to spend... I'm moving to Europe in August as well, so I want to spend a lot of time with family and friends before I go....

We also have to take into account where wargaming falls in my list of pass-time priorities....

1. Party
2. Drink
3. Girls
4. Sports
5. Poker (Drinking)
6. Nerdtime

With vacationing and living in europe as a recently freed man, its easy to see in which direction my life with gravitate.

I do love my plastic crack, and I will post some new stuff from time to time. But this will sadly fade away to a once a month sort of deal for me...

Argh! Nurgles Rot Has Infected My Room!?

Short rant here, and an annoying one at that. See here, I live in a barracks. This implies two things, I've got Sgt's and such in charge of me and that I must keep my room clean. Well, I do keep a clean and rather tidy room, yet however my Sgt constantly accuses me of stinking because she's under the impression my room smells bad. Hell, I just moved into a new room last night and she's already complained that it reeks when she walks by. WTF?

Well, thing is, I cut and glue plastic like its cool. I've got a work desk that I bought to dedicate completely to my plastic army endevours. I use plastic cement and super glue frequently. What smells strong? Plastic glue? What could this stench she complains about be? Probably the plastic glue. Considering I bath once to twice a day, and that I've only lived in this room for one night (however have been working on models for a week in it), I know this is what it is! Yet my Sgt will have none of it. How frustrating!

I suspect that when she finally gets with the program and realized that plastic cement smells kinda funky (I like it actually), she'll tell me I can't put together models anymore. That will PISS me off severely. It's bad enough I can't paint in here and have to drive through DC traffic for half a freaking hour to GW to paint, but to be disallowed to build models? Bollocks! I won't have none of that.

*end rant*

Splurge!

Cash splurge! Argh! I'm such an impulsive spender. :O

Today I finally got around to buying a battlefoam carry case. Can't wait. On the upside, I got the big on at a $30-40 discount. :)

New Valk came in today as well. I'll get started on converting it to a Stormraven tomorrow.

Did manage to start on the Warhound today.... I got two toes down. Cardstock Warhound is meh... But after this is finished I'll either reinforce it with plasticard or make a new one from scratch with plasticard.

He Care Not the Color So Long as the Blood Flows

And tonight it flowed like rivers...

First game of my BA Codex Khorne Army went very well tonight, minus the fact it ended after four turns due to time constraints. I paired off against a Tyranid Tervigon list and faired much better than I could have possibly expected. Game type was the capture objective (5 this game) one. Dawn of War deployment. I won the roll and elected to go second. 1850 point lists.

Turn 1: I reserve everything. My opponent starts spawning masses of Termagaunts. He reserves two Trygons and Doom.

Turn 2: Opponent spawns more Termagaunts and his Trygons come in around the center of the board between three objectives. He moves some hordes up towards my edge.
My Death Co Stormraven comes in guns a blazing as Lemartes and the Death Co jump out. A few small buggers go down to the Stormravens shooting. Death Co lights up a swarm of Termagaunts on the nearest objective, downing two before rushing into assault. The annihilate the buggers.

Turn 3: Opponent's Doom lands towards the center of my territory, starts working its way towards the Death Co. Ole One Eye comes in behind a swarm of Termagaunts. Trygon and some other buggers pop off shots at the Stormraven to no avail. More bugs are spawned and begin rushing towards the Death Co as a Tervigon, Trygon and One Eye do the same.
Death Co Dread leaps out of the Stormraven and lights up 7 Termaguants with his Heavy Flamer, opponent pulls the models to prevent assault. Death Co fires at Trygon and charge! They strip it of several wounds but fail to kill it this turn.
One Heavy Bolter Razerback with Assault Squad and Sang Priest arrive on the far side of the board where only two squads of Termagaunts guard two objectives. The squad hops out and everyone opens fire. A few bugs drop.
Sanguinor also came in and aided the Death Co in their battle.

Turn 4: Trygon battles on with the Death Co and is joined by Ole One Eye. Together they drop the majority of the Death Co, but the fight rages on.
My opponent rushes my Assault Squad with his unit of Gaunts, I take one casualty but dish out a lot more. Some bugs and stuff spawn in various places as well and amble towards various congregations.
My Jump squad comes in as well as my last two Razerbacks. The two Razerbacks rush towards the center to aid the Dreadnaught in seizing the objectives there. The Heavy Flame Razerback wipes a squad of 'gaunts off the table.
Death Co finish off the Trygon and One Eye, but are downed by Doom. Two marines in the Razerbacks also die from his scream. The assault squad on the far side mop of the rest of the 'gaunts they were in battle with and seize the objective. The Jump Squad stand by to move on the next objective the following turn (that never came :( ).
Dreadnaught goes insane and charges the largest mob of 'gaunts on the table and downs four of them. His blood talons generate 4 more attacks and kill another four. Rinse, repeat, 4 more down. Another four attacks splatter more bugs and there are no more in range for the assault.

At this point I have one object, my opponent has 3. I stand ready to seize one of the center objectives and another on the far right side if we were to continue, but due to time constraints the game ended.

Pros:
- Death Dread with Blood Talons is a BEAST! Sixteen skulls for the skull throne in one fell swing.
- Lemartes and Co; 360 pt squad downs 460 points of bug, throw in the 60 pts of Termagaunts from before and they've definitely earned their keep.
- Stormraven was very pretty, got lots of compliments and made it very easy for me to get to any unit to assault safely. It also ate a ton of fire and went by relatively unharmed.

Cons:
- Time constraints. This could have easily been my first win.
- Traffic. I had to run 20 miles north to pick up a dreadnaught model before the game... 10 minutes to get there, 50 to get back. Grrrr. DC traffic blows.


Overall, great night. Easily the best game night I've ever had.
Also learned that the GW Springfied, VA is holding an Apoc event this weekend in commemoration of their third birthday. 1500 point limit per player though... I'm tempted to show up with my Obliterator Cult of Destruction. I've only got 12 Oblits at the moment, but if I had 15 it'd be a done deal. :D

Blood for the Blood God!

As it would appear, this blog has clawed its way up from 6 ft below the gaming table and risen again. A terrible spill whilst partying in Europe had sent the young blogger crashing to the ground with a broken leg... Unable to stand for months... And hence, unable to game. All motivation for 40k stopped then and there.
Untill....

Blood Angels arrived!

However, the red of this codex was not that of the Blood Angels! In fact, it had been tainted! These were Khorne Berserkers! What madness was this? And they have a mini thunderhawk!? My passion for gaming has been reborn!

Now as my leg heals and I can stand once more, the tables call for me yet again.

Gaming and Such

Lot been going on lately... kinda. First and foremost, a summery by bullets.

• Joined the Iron Fist League gaming group
• Played 2 games in the past week
• Still hanging out in Quantico
• Got a 96 (4 day weekend) coming up
• No news on where I'm gonna be stationed

Alright, Iron Fist League... Meets every Tuesday night at Games Parlor in Woodbridge, Va. Its the closest hobby store to Quantico base, and pretty top notch at that too! Friendly environment all around, both gamers and store staff included. All the guys in the gaming group are pretty chill, very easy to get along with. Their lists are a bit competitive, but I'll make due in time.
As for the two games... Last week I played against an IG army at 1500 points. I through down a hasty list with a low model count, tons of Oblits, some Plauge Marines and some Berserkers. He brought a nasty Russ with plasma cannons, a Psyker battle squad, a ton of foot sloggers with Commisars, a Callidus Assasin and a Inquisitor. We rolled for spearhead and territories. I said screw my objective and rushed to the slaughter.... and was slaughtered by volleys of flash light fire. My Oblits did manage to do some damage though, but not enough in the long run. It was a valuable learning experience.
Second game, last night.... I played against a Fateweaver Nurgle Demon build. Annihilation. I got stomped.... bad... Couldn't get a good shot off at the Fateweaver and the re-rolls he was granting all the Plauge Bearers was making it virtually impossible for me to wear them down. Game ended at 8 to 2 in my opponents favor.
Both guys I played against were very curtious and gracious enough to help me through the game, answered all my questions and gave me some helpful insight and tips for future games. I had a great time and look forward to playing again. Hopefully my learning curve will soon bring me up to speed and capable of winning a couple games.
This weekend is a 96 hour liberty weekend! Renting a car and embarking on the long and tedious 9 hour drive back home to OHIO! First time visiting home in 17 months and I am stoked! Going to do some car shopping while I'm there as well as pick up a new laptop from Skunkarific Computers, the only computer store I trust.
Over all, I must say life is pretty good. Hopefully I'll get properly situated here in Quantico soon and can continue on with my life. All I have to do is pass the time till August 2010 and I am set. :

Still Kickin

Its been over a week since I've last posted, but I'm still going. Its gonna be a while before I can get back to regular updates again.
At the moment I'm currently stuck in limbo. Not sure if I'll be staying in the D.C. area or getting pushed out on a new assignment. That being what it is, I have yet to settle down and do not have a reliable source of internet aside from my newly acquired crack berry.
On the upside of things, I finally managed to get a proper game in with some one who actually knows the rules! Ah, the benefits of playing with others who speak english as a primary language. ;)
As for that game.... I made a hasty list with the smallest model count as possible... then went against a competitive guard list. Haha. I got stomped, but it was a fun time and a major learning experience for me.
Next Tuesday I'll be going back to Game Parlor for another round, only this time I'll bring a better prepared list.

Packing!

Not much going on for me at the moment. Managed to some how crash my operating system (linux: PCLoS07) and am running it off the boot disk for the time being, unfortunately this is also slowing my computer down terribly and preventing me from uploading any pics. Blast.
I'm all packed up to take off... kinda... I want to finish painting my Reavers first before I pack them and everything that'll be on top of 'em. All I got left on them at this point is the layer of Golden Yellow and touch ups with Chaos Black.
Just finished reading World War Z. I enjoyed it thoroughly, despite the restless nights as I struggled to fall asleep. Haha. Yes, despite being a Marine I in fact did become quite spooked by this book. The author paints this beautifully graphic and disturbing that will leave you 'chilled' for hours. More haunting than the scariest of movies!
Unfortunately, I'm not left bootless until I visit the base exchange in a few days... Maybe I'll pick up a good magazine at the airport or something.

Thats it for now. Don't expect many updates in the coming weeks... I'm going to be a tad busy with settling in to my next unit, shopping for a car, and whatever else life throws at me. Hopefully I'll find a hobby store to get a game in sometime in the near future though. I haven't had a game since July...

Woah! So Much Going On!

Alright, first up, here's a picture of my latest WIP; Hakanor's Reavers. Upfront and center is the Aspiring Champian who has the option between a Power Fist or Power Weapon for his wargear. I built him before actually knowing the rules of the game... dun dun dun. Anyways, no matter, he has a bolter and bolt pistol per his codex entry anyways. Hopefully I don't bump into any WYSIWYG nazis. :/

I also realized something blatantly obvious recently. Hakanor's Reavers are nothing more than Black Legion CSMs with lava legs! Wha!? Shocker! Haha.
All I got left on these guys are to touch up around the gold with some Chaos Black and add lava lines to the legs.

Some news from my life now... I'm moving again! What!? Again!? You've only just settled in finally!
Well yeah, but things change. I'm heading back to the D.C. for some stuff.... What stuff exactly I don't wish to disclose, but I'm just happy to be going back to America. Lets leave it at that.

Managed to pack into two foam trays the majority of my army.... Around 35 Terminators, 9 Chaos Chosen, 12 Obliterators, and 4 squads of CSMs. Also is my Chapter Master (counts as Abbadon) and my Slaneshi Jump Chaplain as well as 20 Raptor jump troops.

I really oushed to fit as much as possible in these two containers. This is all the WH40K I'll have with me for probably a month or two... Minus and additions I make while back in the states... And I want to be able to play from the git go. With no mech I won't be playing any competitive lists, but no bother... I just want to get some games in.
My squad of 5 magnetized terminators really took the cake here. Managed to fit 4 of them into one biker space. :D

You really gotta love battlefoam. I ordered an extra Terminator and Assault Marine insert a few weeks back in preparation of this move. Having packed all my Assault Marines (raptors) in the other foam insert, I had 20 spaces to spare which I was easily able to double up normal CSMs in. Awesome!

Made a new addition to the side of the blog. I'm not posting books I've recently read, ratings, and what book I'm currently reading. I'd like to post some book reviews as well, but my writing is so out of practice I really can't bare to embarrass myself here. Having been out of school for thee and a half years (minus some b/s online college), my writing abilities are pretty sorry. I full well intend to fix that when I start attending college next year as part of my post-military life. August 2010 can't come soon enough!

Heroes: Season 3 Volume 4

After the first half a season three of Heroes I find myself a tad burnt out. The way it seems rushed, cliche and over the top really left a bitter taste in my mouth. I found myself disappointed with the direction the show has taken since season two. Its as if the writers don't really care about the content so much anymore, they know it will sell anyways.
Anyways, I finally decided to give the second half of season 3 a shot. Volume 4: Fugitives proves to be more of the same rehashed garbage that the writers have been throwing around for what seems like forever now. Characters have sudden persona changes to fit the plot, powers still turn on and off from quirky gimmicks and there are more loose strings than I can even count. New characters are introduced and dropped like its no big deal, they're just left stranded in thin air while old ones make a cameo for a brief moment only to vanish from existence again.
The Petrelli family continues to bicker and fight as always, Cheerleader continues to have daddy issues, Peter can't stop being emo and Matt Parkman continues to make goofy faces and be the annoying ass I find him to be. It doesn't help that every one, well almost every one... but I'll get to that in a minute, are terribly predictable. The only characters who really aren't predictable are the villains!
Well, Nathan Petrelli isn't really predictable, but that tends to happen when his character's persona is rewritten time and time again. Sylar is the main attraction of the show though. Sure he has daddy issues still, but that doesn't change a thing. Sylar is still the be all end all BAMF we all know and love.
At the moment I'm at episode 22, about to kick it as soon as I wrap this up. There plot has seemed rather incoherent and sporadic throughout the season so far, contrary to the well pieced plot of season 1. I'm hoping that things start clicking together here at the very end...
And now..... *clicks play*

Today I....

Did a whole lot of nothing.... Hobby related anyways.
Up until 1700 in the afternoon I was under the impression that my detachment was still scheduled for an inspection from our Region XO tomorrow. I also had overslept till 1300, which really didn't help me out time management either... So anyways, I cleaned all day and put away my giant mess of a hobby workspace so that the XO wouldn't flip a switch on me tomorrow when he toured the MSGQ.
By time I learned the whole inspection was canked I was too lazy to bother fooling around with my plastic crack. I instead busied myself with reading Ravenor, as I finished Eisenhorn over a week ago. I also then snuck into the gym for some heavy lifting while the rest of the Marines were out... Not supposed to be lifting for awhile per doctor's orders but I really can't resist myself. :P
Got the morning shift tomorrow followed up with a lovely chat with my GySgt... Hopefully it won't get ugly... And hopefully come the end of the week I'll be packing my bags to PCS back to the states. Who knows...
Wish me luck.

Finally! I'm Back!

Misfortune recently fell upon me and I found myself hospitalized for a stomach virus of all things. Embarassing story that I feel no need to give the details of, but the gist of it is that I was out for the past three days. Its amazing how disconnected three days of no internet leaves you... Proves just how addicting the interwebz really is.
So here I am back at work again for another lovely stint of the night shift. Found a couple of pleasant surprised when I came in too. Mail! What'd I get?

-Terminator/Assault troop tray from BattleFoam
-Catachan Command Squad
-Space Marine Scout Squad
-Tube of Green Stuff
-'Tank Shock' Edition of White Drawf

The troop tray was a big thing for me. I have the 1520 battle foam load out already (minus the bag) and that doesn't provide enough space for my plethora of Terminator and Obliterator models. I currently have (thanks to space hulk) 35 Terminators and 12 Obliterators! Yikes!
With the new Catachan and Scout bits I can now finish my IG Vets squad. I want to build a whole army in the manner of my Afriel Strain vets, but its freaking time consuming and costly!
The green stuff was actually a mistake on my part. When I ordered it I was under the impression that I was out of my own stock... turns out I just didn't look hard enough and I still had two full tubes. Now I got two n a half.
Having moved from Vienna to Muscat, Oman recently; my subscription to WD got lost in transition. I finally got the replacement copy I ordered though. Hopefully I can get my next copy before I move again.

Also had sitting in my room, much to my surprise, four giant boxes of all my house hold goods that got shipped in from Vienna. They've been sitting in Oman's Customs department for the past three weeks and finally got approved. Yay! I'm not going to open them though... I'm hoping to be rotating back the the states here soon. Or so I pray.... This country is driving me mad!

Where was I....

Been slacking on the hobby work the past few days... work tempo is picking up and my time gets very tight when I'm working evenings. A lot of my free time is invested into going to the gym and keeping my (currently) long distance relationship alive. Its a rough life being a Marine.

Anyways.... been plowwing along at a decent pace with Abnett's Eisenhorn series. Got only two more chapters of the first book... I'm loving it. Gives a much deeper look into life in the grim dark of 40k. With other novels all you ever really see it war, but with Eisenhorn you get the chance to see what the norm of living is like in a peaceful locale of the Imperium. Still grim dark, but not full of despair. I like it.

I obviously am not the most talented of writers. I've noticed my writing style has degressed substantially over the past three years... I'm so relieved that I'll be free to return to higher education in a year. Not that I can't attend university now... I've tried online course, however the disapoint me terribly. Out of the three classes I've done, none were challenging enough to really captivate me... I feel more like these online universities are degree mills. They'll give just about any one a passing grade so long as they complete their work.

On my hobby table things have been slow as I've mentioned. Been conducting work... Arms dealings with a Rouge Trader whom I know only as Gener Suft.
Alright... that was pretty lame. Truth be told, I'm committing heresy. Green Stuff molds... nothing big really... just some purity seals, melta bombs and flamers. The big item is the flamers... I don't have enough of them to adequately arm my forces and they're too hard to aquire at a reasonable price... Shame on me I know... But, to each his own.

And now, back to Eisenhorn. Terribly hard to put this book down.