Storm of Chaos to rise again

You may have seen hints of this around the net, but I thought I'd post about it for the benefit of those who haven't. 9 years ago now, Games Workshop ran a global campaign called Storm of Chaos. Next year (on its 10th anniversary) a group of fans is organising to make the campaign live again. Have a look at their website below:

Storm of Chaos website

Despite it being 11 months out, there are already draft army lists for most of the forces involved in the campaign, and it seems the planning is well under way. They will be looking for people to play-test the army lists in order to ensure they've got things right, as well as getting involved in the campaign proper once it kicks off. I think it might be nice to run some themed events next year in line with this, so I will be keeping close tabs on the project in the meantime. Who knows, my Teutogen Guard might even get some use as something other than Greatswords...

Convic 2013 Aftermath – Day 2

This is a continuation of my account of Convic 2013. If you want to read about Day 1, you will find it here.

So after Day 1 my army was going along pretty nicely with 2 wins and a loss. I would be hoping for something similar on Day 2.

Game 4: Dawn Attack

Nick Gentile, Short Shorts/High Elves

Nick Gentile. The Short Shorts are not really his army, but they're definitely some form of weapon and/or assault on the senses... Sadly the spiffy jacket was missing in this photo.

Convic 2013 Aftermath - Day 1

Another Convic has been and gone, and my tournament report is already overdue. My work circumstances have changed recently and it may take me a while to find my feet from a blogging perspective. Anyway, I shall see if I can keep things a little briefer than my usual waffling...

I entered the tournament with a pretty middling army – decent magic, some strong units, a Steam Tank and a Griffon. I forwent any other shooting in the hope that the Tank would cover things well enough (it frequently has done in the past). I pointedly included 2 things in the list – the Flagellants and the Griffon. Since the current Empire book was released I have often seen people on the net dismissing Flagellants as not worth the trouble and the points, and wanted to show people they were wrong. Of course, I've used them before (with some success), but it never hurts remind people. Well, that was the plan.

My army for the tournament. A little small, eh? That's what you get for spending too many points on a magnificent flying beastie.

As for the Griffon... Well, I hadn't used one yet and it seemed like a good time to do it. I knew he would be a bit of a liability, so I deliberately bought the General very little gear. I did give the Glorious Birdie (as he shall henceforth be named) a magnificent singing voice in Bloodroar, which forces enemies to take Fear and Terror checks with an additional D6 and discard the lowest roll. It seemed like a change for him to contribute simply through charging some good targets, and it was possible it would help keep him alive in combat by reducing some enemies to WS1. Again, it was a good plan.

Unfortunately not all plans are destined for success...

Updated Empire whole army shot

It has become my tradition to take a whole army photo of my Empire army every 6 months or so, to see how much progress I've made. The last 6 months have not been my most productive, but I figured I'd still hold to the tradition.

My entire Empire army as it currently stands. 12,000 points huge.

Cracking the whip

Time is ticking away. Convic is now 2 days away, and I won't get a chance to do any painting tonight. Nevertheless, I think things are just about under control. I've worked diligently on the Flagellants over the last few evenings, and this is where things currently stand:

9 Flagellants and a couple of unit fillers, now mostly painted. 

Adding a little more DOOOM!!

Convic is fast approaching (5 days away now), and as I mentioned earlier, I still have work to do. I don't have enough Flagellants to field both my list and that being used by a friend at the event. It was clever planning. As it currently stands I'm some 19 models short, and I'm running out of time. The end is coming! The END!! 

Sorry, just getting into the whole apocalyptic vibe. Anyway, I planned a long time ago to make a unit filler for my Flagellants to add some interest to the unit. I decided that I wanted to give them a little bell carriage to push around. It should aid them in their efforts to make a lot of noise and generally get people's attention. At the time (some 2 years ago now), I went on a quest to find a suitable bell. I had some difficulty, but eventually I located a little wedding bell. I say little, but it was still pretty big by 28mm standards (or 30mm, or whatever scale GW claim to be using these days). Nevertheless I figured I could make it work, but I followed this resolution up with absolutely nothing. The bell sat on the painting table and waited patiently whilst piles of modelling crap accumulated on top of it.

Well, my sudden need for more Flagellants brought things to a head, and coupled with my friend Pete's ability to print things in the third dimension, it seemed a good time to finally make use of the bell. I fired up Sketchup and started planning my bell carriage. After a bit of fiddling and scientific guesstimation, I came up with the following:

The bell carriage concept. The bell itself is just a place-holder to help me get the dimensions right - we didn't need to print a bell, after all. I already had one of those.

I decided I was happy enough with this layout, so I saved the various components and sent them off to Pete for conversion into the physical realm. In a dazzling display of efficiency, he was able to hand me the finished product the following day when he arrived at painting night.

The components of the bell carriage, along with the long-neglected bell itself.