New Loot

Hello again.

I had pondered for some time whether I was going to get the second edition of SAGA, having enjoyed the first one so much. I read reviews in magazines of what changes had occurred within the rules, but nothing really stood out. I saw the promises of various world books to come, with particular interest in the Age of Samurai option, as I felt that was a way to get some oriental stuff under my belt, but left it at that.

But then came "Age of Magic".

What was this? Did I want to spend £30 on another book, knowing I would also need the new rulebook to go with it? Did I want yet more faction dice, not to mention the magic dice to go with it?

Well, it turns out, yes I did!

The rules, the "Age of Magic" supplement and some Magic dice. I certainly hope they are "magic" when I come to roll them!

A set of each of the two faction dice, the magic dice again and some spell cards for those like me whose memory is not what it once was...

So, why did I succumb? Well, I blame Wargames Illustrated magazine. They ran a piece on this game a couple of months back and I was hooked.

• Being the owner of many fantasy figures, many of which are ready to go on the table any time soon, being painted and all, I quickly realised the outlay on this game would be limited to the rule books and dice if I wanted it to be.
• It was SAGA, right, so I was very likely to enjoy my games, just like I used to when thrashing Vikings and the like.
• It was easily and quickly expandable.
• It certainly looked the part from what I had read and seen in the aforementioned article.
• Within the six archetypal fantasy forces outlined in the book, there was massive flexibility to be able to create what you wanted to create, but sensibly bound by certain faction rules and constraints.

All good reasons, I think.

But, me being me, my thoughts turned to not just what I had, but what else I wanted.

I have a load of stuff I do not use, painted and unpainted. Hmm.

Those Ancient Indians would make a great "Great Kingdoms" force, especially with a multi-armed statue for some monstrous clout and perhaps a shape-shifting Rakhshasa or two. For "Great Kingdoms", think High Elves/ Empire/ Gondor.

Those Ancient Chinese would also make a suitable "Great Kingdoms" choice, especially with the addition of a Chinese dragon in the Monster category. The book's specialist option of "The Theocracy of Qwan T'ang" also fits well, but from the "Otherworld" faction, equipped with demon weapons and armour. Or perhaps I can have a terracotta warriors vibe with my monsters and creatures.

The "Undead Legions" specialist option of "The Royal Dynasty of Nephren-Ka" is a dead ringer (pardon the pun) for my once beloved Tomb Kings.

My Orcs fit neatly into "The Horde".

My Chaos forces can be split quite simply, with daemons going "Otherworld" and Chaos-worshipping humans going either Great Kingdoms, Horde if I make them hairy barbarian types or Otherworld too.

And that is before I drag the dwarves out of storage, the Skaven likewise, or think about anything else...

Highly recommended if you want some quick and easy fantasy games. The variety provided by the usual SAGA battle board system, together with the addition of a magic system allowing for the complexity of different spells cast at different power levels and you have a wealth of options. And who would not want to make some weird terrain to go with your imaginative use of old and tired forces?

Go for it!

G

Old, new, borrowed and...bilious green

Hello again.

Way back on 2nd July, I proudly posted about my latest purchase, which was the latest incarnation of Warhammer 40K, together with the Chaos Space Marine Codex.

I drank deeply of the putrid filth that is the Death Guard, waxed lyrical about new options allowed by the new rules to make this doyen of disease and decay even more palatable and bemoaned the fact that I could no longer have Terminators in my Death Guard forces as the new Codex omitted them from the relevant list.

Well, on September 16th I hurried down to my nearest Games Workshop store to purchase the newly-released, specifically "Death Guard" Codex. I also managed to get some cards to use with them, showing tactical gubbins of one sort or another for use with 40K, but I was unable to get the special dice also released at the same time because they had already sold out when I got there.

I had a flick through on arriving home and, lo and behold, not none, not one, but TWO TYPES OF TERMINATOR IN THE DEATH GUARD LISTS!!!



Had they relented at GWHQ? Had they been bombarded with bile by those of us who were old enough to remember the last century at the omission of the Tactical Dreadnought armour types from the Chaos Codex? Had I read that part of the Codex wrongly and confused myself (not too uncommon a thing, unfortunately...)

Who cares?!

My entries into the genre are more of the "Blightlord" category than the "Deathshroud" variety (see pages above), but I am sure I can field both with some thought and coercion of my opponent, when I get a game in that is. I knew there was a reason I originally built eight of these though."Blightlord" units are five+ strong and "Deathshroud" ones 3+ strong!

So, what better way to celebrate than to post a few more retro picks of what younger G used to get up to in his gaming time.

G



These Terminators were originally built mainly from parts from the plastic Imperial Terminators available a couple of decades ago. By mixing parts from other sets, adding some Greenstuff rotten flesh, patches of textured paint scoriasis, etc, I got what I was looking for and made them into something Nurgle-esque. This is the leader figure.



Three ordinarily-equipped figures, with Storm Bolter and Powerfist. A judicious mix of Greenstuff, protruding worms, rust and other detritus all adds to what I was trying to achieve all those years ago.

And the effects are both back and front on various figures.

 

The "Specialist Weapons" types - heavy flamer for smoking out troops in buildings, the Reaper Autocannon for rapid, heavy firepower, a combi-weapon for mixing effects vs various targets and a good old chainfist to rip through tanks.

And a close up of a few of the disease effects I was after, namely mottled, diseased skin, boils and scoriasis, together with rust, rot and patched-up armour.

Ebb and flow

Hello again.

I cannot believe it is over two months since I last put something up on the blog, but there it is. A veritable cornucopia of technical issues, family holidays, the sad loss of my beloved Border Collie, impending redundancy and other life events have seen my activity slip to what I would call "very limited", but here I am again.

So, to recommence my musings after this latest lay off, I am linking the last post I did with this one by way of showcasing a few choice items from my Death Guard, which, I hope, also convey quite why I was so excited by the new release of Warhammer 40K edition whatever, complete with the Death Guard miniatures.

Now, this trio of ne'er-do-wells are not the Bee Gees, nor Genesis post-Steve Hackett. They are not A-ha (which Occasional Wargamer Brother Kev has a penchant for, much to my amazement when I discovered it!). They are not even the Sugababes in any of their various incarnations.

No, these three scions of Chaos are the source of much amusement, a depiction of my mad desire for converting and scratch building much of my Chaos forces back in the day and also became a sort of figurehead for my Death Guard in its paltry number of actual outings to the tabletop, a sort of signature dish for how I wanted my force to look.

"Why amusement?" I hear you cry.

Well, in one particular game against Nephew Paul, one of them wiped out most of the Chaos army in dice-fuelled fits of psychotic rage. He did more damage to his own side than all of the Space Marines opposite could manage between them! Then another, in the same game, walked calmly across the battlefield, lascannon shots bouncing off all over, and ripped the offending Predator, with its puny, twin-linked lascannons, to pieces with its bare claws. It then promptly scored two wounds on the Space Marine Chaplain who was the only thing left alive on the opposing side...........and Nephew Paul promptly rolled a double six for invulnerable saves, thereby earning a draw! Happy days!!!

Anyway, all three of these beasts were converted from the plastic Space Marine Dreadnought kit from Games Workshop at least ten years ago, and probably nearer twenty, when I first set out on this Death Guard frenzy. A lot of greenstuff, bits of other kits, pieces of wire, plastruct and sundry other bits later, I had three Death Guard Dreadnoughts of my own, each unique and, in my eyes, showcasing exactly why Chaos was King. All that potential for conversion and creation at a time when most people just seemed to want to build the various kits according to the manufacturer's instructions. If I had wanted to do that, I would have settled down with one of Airfix's offerings!

Part of the "legend" was that they all had names and personalities. We had the troop muncher with the plasma cannon (I think I called him something like "Bubonicus", but my memory is failing somewhat!), the armour hunter with the multi-melta (Lord Tsetse, as the fly-resemblance is entirely intentional) and the bruiser with the twin close combat weapons (Lord Tetanus). According them noble titles emphasised the message - these guys were there to lead the footsloggers like good (or not) medieval knights.

I make no claim that any of them are the greatest/ best/ most reasonable/ other examples of the breed - I have seen some truly stunning GW kit in my time, converted or otherwise - but they are the sort of thing that first led me to build exclusively Chaos forces for 40K. Nothing has ever come close to making the workbench in 40K terms, as I just love the opportunities for modelling and creativity afforded by Chaos. Orks could have rivalled it, but I cannot get over the inherent silliness of the breed. Oh well.

Time for the photos. See you soon.

G

"Bubonicus" is all his glory. He was the first one built and I used the metal claw from the original, metal Dreadnought kit by GW. The rest of the kit formed the sole dreadnought from my original Chaos Legion, the "Medusa Legion", which had an Ancient Greek vibe in my imagination, with lots of red plumes and close combat weapons. I may show them at some point. The plasma cannon is from a boxed set of Orks from about 30 years ago, the rest a mix of greenstuff and sundry kit parts.

Ah, the front view seems to have failed. A plastruct girder is his main weapon, allied with a powerfist with built in flamer for that "up close and personal" combat experience, this is Lord Tetanus, all black eye and brute force. Subtlety not required... 

And, finally, Lord Tsetse, the fly-like leviathan who likes to eat tanks for a living. He is the most converted of all, with arms splayed more widely via inserts and greenstuff, a largely scratchbuilt multi-melta from plastic tube, prominent antennae and proboscis from brass wire, a face sculpted from green stuff, powerfist claws from more plastruct and token trophy rack with incense burner for that extra bit of religious iconography. The clawed foot is just another attempt to do something a little different to the other two.

Oops, I did it again...

Hello again.

Last weekend, on the hunt for my usual monthly-published reading matter in a local newsagents, I happened upon the magazine pictured below.

"White Dwarf" is a magazine I have not purchased regularly for some considerable time and the whole GW genre divides gamers like no other...

I remember the first issue I bought was number 61, though I have acquired earlier issues since, and I bought it for some time thereafter, month after month, then broke off, then started taking it again probably twenty years ago for perhaps another five+ years. The last issue I actually bought prior to this one covered the re-release of "Bloodbowl", as I thought it might inspire me to buy that game again. It did not.

So, what made me buy this one?

A new edition of "Warhammer 40K". Neat. My copy of the last edition is still in its shrink-wrap!

A nice cover picture? Same as always, I suspect.

But wait. "Look again," I told myself. The left hand side of that Space Marine's face is rotting, decaying, blighted by the disease of Chaos. Blighted by the touch of Nurgle...

I built myself a "Death Guard" army around fifteen years ago. Hm.

"Take a look inside," I mused.



The box contents did not disappoint!

The eye-candy did not disappoint either!!!

PHWOAR!!! The usual two armies! The usual plethora of other bits! Some very interesting changes to aspects of the core rules, notably to simplify the multitude of special rules I always forgot! AND ONE OF THE ARMIES IS......

DEATH GUARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not just bog standard Plague Marines though. Oh no. There is a "Foetid Bloat-drone." (???). There is a "Lord of Contagion", a "Noxious Blightbringer", a "Malignant Plaguecaster", some "Poxwalkers"...

AND SOME PLAGUE MARINES!!! (And some Imperial tat...)

So, with a BIG birthday less than a month away, do I buy it?
At slightly less than £100, do I buy it?
With so many half finished and not yet started projects already to hand, do I buy it?
With the final instalment of second daughter Becky's trip to Mexico this year to pay in a week or two, do I buy it?

YOU BET I DID!!!!

And I bought the "Index: Chaos", which details every single Chaos option across the range for every budding megalomaniacal despot.

Yet, even with all this, I must end on a sad note. No one wants to wrap this up for me for the aforementioned BIG birthday, so I am forced to open it early...

AND, the "Death Guard" can no longer have the Terminator unit I so lovingly scratchbuilt/ converted for them those several years ago. They are no longer allowed in the new army list options for that Chaos Legion.

But I am still a VERY HAPPY BUNNY!!!

It is a long time since I read a copy of "White Dwarf". I may yet return to reading more...

G