Angels of Absolution Wardens (Ravenwing) Nephilim Part 1

Its been almost a year since I bought the Dark Angels Ravenwing Nephilim/Dark Talon kit. People have ranted for the last year about how useless this model is. It may be more points than the Space Marine and Imperial Guard fliers, but I discovered in the last few tournaments that I love my Dreadnought with Twin-Linked Lascannon, Eros. Eros with its re-roll has a knack for taking down Stormravens quickly and easily. My logic is that sticking that Twin-Linked Lascannon in the air where its harder to hit it'll be that much more effective. Sure, this is theoretical. I could face a Quad-Gun and have it go down the second it arrives on the board. A lot of things could happen. But I want to try it out for myself.

Originally I started on the wings to test out my scheme, but I was obviously starting at almost the "end" of the kit in terms of assembly. Near the end of the summer I cleaned up the cockpit bits and primed them black. Yesterday and today I detailed the cockpit. I probably would have gone more "crazy" with it, but I assembled the whole section to see how well it will be seen from the outside and decided it wasn't worth putting it through hyper detailing. Still, I went for all of the basic 3 levels highlighting so that what can be seen looks finished. Here's the cockpit:

Back of the cockpit/seat. The primer across the whole bottom of this piece was scraped off for a solid flush gluing area.

The seat from above and control panel from above.

The cockpit all painted and assembled, waiting for a pilot.

That was my weekend for the most part. I did start work on one of the first FW models I ever bought that is long since been discontinued I think. More on  that later in the week.

-Nick

Escalation and Stronghold Assault

NDG  here in Chicago got in Escalation and Stronghold Assault yesterday and I've been really intrigued to look at both of them.

Escalation is Apocalypse-Lite. GW wants us all to own and play with Super-Heavies even if we don't play Apoc scale games, so they expanded the force org to include a 3rd optional category called Lords of War (the other two being Allies and Fortifications).

The goal is to make it legal to play these in standard pick up games without all of the fanfare and set up of Apocalypse. To balance it out, if you don't field a Lord of War and your opponent does you get a +1 to your Seize the Initiative roll. Additionally, an additional secondary object/source of victory points (similar to Line Breaker and First Blood) appears to give you a VP just for doing 3 Hull Points in damage to the Super-Heavy.

Its not like a typical Expansion book in that there are no Stratagems or other additional layers of the game to pick and choose from added. Instead, there's a Lord of War Warlord Traits table you can optionally roll on and a bunch of new scenarios to choose from, but it is made very clear that playing these models in standard rule book missions is fine, and these missions are just to expand your options for themed conflict.

Its a savvy move to try and sell big kits to people who cap their games at 2000 points. All of the data sheets appear to be the same as Apocalypse, and D weapons remain unchanged. This just allows you to access all of that information without owning the Apocalypse book.

Stronghold Assault is a much shorter book and is much more in the vein of Cities of Death and Planet Strike.

Once again they are trying to get you to purchase more kits, this time the scenery ones. It provides you with the data sheets for all of the Fortification related scenery kits and gives you new combos. It also introduces 3 new ones with no art/photos and thus, NO KIT TO SELL US. This was a huge surprise to me with GW's recent policy of not introducing army list options without kits.

Unlike Escalation which is clearly trying to get you to play standard 40K with Lords of War, this book is approached knowing full well that you're already using Fortifications in your games (at least Aegis Defense Lines anyway) and then gives you a bunch of new scenarios to play in order to play out Siege battles. So its kind of like Planet Strike without the grandeur and additional set up. You pay your points for your Fortifications, pick a mission, and play. Its not like learning a new system and all sorts of funky rules EXCEPT! The Building rules are expanded to make using the new kits even more clear.

From the 4th Edition 40K Rule Book under "Raid Missions". Raids used Sentries, Hidden Set Up, and Divided Forces. Other 4th Edition Raids included Sabotage and Ambush. There were also Breakthrough and Special Missions, each with their own FOC charts. Most players ignored these parts of the book I think. I LOVED those parts of the book.

This book plays into a certain nostalgia for me as it resurrects a handful of old scenarios like Strongpoint Attack and Break Through from the 3rd and 4th Edition 40K Rule Books. I always loved the scenarios in the back of the book more than the tired Standard missions you play all the time.

Overall, I think both books are really cool. I have a Baneblade and a Stompa kit waiting for my attention but I'm not sure they'll get paint just yet. If a plastic Thunderhawk was released beside this book, that would have been a different story. I'd probably be writing this while foaming at the mouth.

The book I was less excited for, Stronghold Assault, has wormed its way into my conscious however, and I think I'd really enjoy playing some Siege missions and I'm trying to think of events for both NDG and Adepticon that could possibly make use of this book. We'll see.

-Nick

III. Broken Contract - Enforcers (Updated 1/6/14)

 I'm still working away on Broken Contract, the alpha test rule set is essentially ready. Here's a tiny blurb about Enforcers - the corporate sponsored bounty hunters of the Incorporated Worlds.

Enforcers

Contract Enforcers are paid to bring fugitives back to complete their contracts. The problem with having a workforce of people capable of inflicting misery on their fellow man daily is that they are not by nature and training the post perceptive or sensitive people. This makes them ill-suited to tracking down the Breakers smart enough and determined enough to get past the Prods in the first place. Most corporations have some combination of hired and in-house Security Forces to deal with break attempts but they are not specifically trained to hunt, detain, and return prey. Some companies with have their own Enforcers under contract, but more often than not an outside firm will need to be outsourced by the security firm or the corporation. These private mercenary firms take on short term agreements, usually for the duration of tracking down a specific group of Breakers and bringing them back, preferably alive similar to the Bounty Hunters and Skip Tracers of earth when there was such concept as governments and law still being enacted.

The goal is to bring back Contract Breakers relatively unscathed so that they can still be made use of. For this reason Enforcers rely heavily on non-lethal weaponry to incapacitate their prey. Catching fugitives by facing them head on is not enough however, so hunting tactics are diverse. Their Lead is supported by Trackers, Muscle, and Gun Slingers employing everything from revolvers, arc pistols, snare-guns, and high tech drones. The tools of the trade vary depending on the depth of the Enforcer’s resources and what they are willing to risk to fulfill a contract.

-Nick 

(with Rob Ferrick)

Review APOCALYPSE WAR ZONE: PANDORAX

I'm a complete Dark Angels fanboy and had to break the bank and pick up Apocalypse War Zone: Pandorax by Jervis Johnson yesterday.


Here are the specs:

The story details Abaddon the Despoiler raiding a death world full of Imperial mining colonies while a regiment of Catachan Jungle Fighters were stuck on system. Abaddon goes straight for the largest hive city on the planet. A man named Colonel Strike of the 183rd Catachan Jungle Fighters offers resistance but the hive falls and Colonel Strike orders Imperial retreat to the various mining colonies scattered through the jungles and mountains. He is surprised when his pursuers back off from giving chase. Dating back to the Horus Heresy the Pandorax system was used to channel Daemons straight from the Realm of Chaos through an underground gate called the Damnation Cache. Only the Ruinous Powers, some of the Heresy era leaders, and the Grey Knights know of its existence (because they sealed it off). However, over the past 10,000 years it had been forgotten.

Before Hive Atika falls a distress call is sent out and it is met with response from a massive Imperial Fleet and the entire Chapter of Dark Angels. Meanwhile, Abaddon is joined by the famed Huron Blackheart from the nearby Maelstrom.

The book has a very detailed account of the fleet actions that took place off world and if you still own a bunch of Battle Fleet Gothic ships like myself you can recreate the fleets, potentially in their entirety and fight it out. No BFG rules are given in any way, but all of the classes of ships are named in perfect detail for those that have the ships and books.

The centerfold battle of the book, the true feature of the book is absolutely inspirational. It is a battle that takes place during one of the fleet actions  and involves a huge battle taking place on the Revenge, and Imperial ship, while the battle rages outside across numerous asteroids and below deck in a separate chamber deck. It is gorgeous and has a bunch of cool rules.



There are then Pandorax specific rules a few pages later for fighting "on world" that include forests with massive lizards that can eat entire squads that get too close and the like. As a fan of terrain rules, I dig this, even though it takes the "Mysterious Forest" rules and takes them to Apocalypse scale in their effects.

Then there are 3 more Apoc scenarios. The one that stands out in my mind involves 6 tables representing massive mountain peaks spaced specifically so you can fire from one table to another. Also, during Breaks forces can redeploy to another table. It seems incredibly cool.

Then there's the usual War Zone Strategem/Effects Cards, Finest Hour rules for a 3 different commanders, and a bunch of formation sheets.

The Appendix is great for anyone who doesn't own a bunch of early 2000's 40K crap because a huge chunk of fluff from the old Codex:Catachan Jungle Fighters and Battle Fleet Gothic rulebook are printed on the last few pages.

I will say, the Dark Angels don't get as much face time as I was hoping but this is still an inspirational book and highly recommended for fans of Imperial Guard (Catachans, Cadians, Vostoyans represent), Dark Angels, Grey Knights, and of course, Chaos (Chaos Space Marines, Black Legion, Daemons, and Red Corsairs.)

-Nick

New Scenery at Next Dimension Games

Back in October Next Dimension Games commissioned me to work on their store terrain. This is a smattering of what I've been working on.

One of the first pieces I worked on was a pair of Imperial Bastions. I don't have any pics of those today, but I did photograph the servo-shrine piece that comes with it.I put more time in than maybe I should have. All of the lenses are gemmed, details like skulls are picked out and highlighted, and I even did caution stripes on the base and some bird poop,

Here's the servo-skull that hovers up above it.

Here are some classic crates dating back to the 2nd Edition 40K box era. You can see liberal use of weathering powders on the pallets.

Tank traps done up very similar to the ones I use on my own tables. You can see a bit of the Manufactorum in the background.

This is the inside of said Manufactorum and uses the Manufactorum kit, a Moonscape crater, and an Urban Barricade and Wall, all from GW. You can see a WIP Shrine of the Aquilla in the background.

As a parting photo, here's the top of one of the two Sky Shield Platforms I've done up for them.

There's plenty more where that came from. I didn't picture any of the work started by other staffers that I've gone back and completed/updated. Stop in the store, check it out, play games on them!

Next Dimension Games 2934 N Clark, Chicago, IL.

-Nick

Next Dimension Games

A month ago I was enlisted to help out with the gaming tables at Next Dimension Games in the Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago. They've only been there a few months so you may not of heard. I wanted to take a moment to talk about Next Dimension since they're a new store and have an excellent selection of stuff.

They made the conscious decision to focus on miniature war gaming and board games and those are their two strongest sections. The store itself currently sports 18'x4' of war gaming space, and two 4 seat painting/board gaming tables. The dedicated painting table has 4 hobby lamps (one on each corner) complete with built in magnifying glasses. Most evenings that I've been in the shop people seem to like the communal painting environment they're trying to foster.

Speaking of community. One of the regular daily discussions in the store involves ways to try and develop the community in the store for a variety of games outside of the obvious big guns: Warhammer and Warhammer 40K. The owners have brought in Infinity, Bolt Action, X-Wing, WarmaHordes, Malifaux, Wreck-Age, Anima, and others and they genuinely want to draw in and build up those communities. There are thousands of dollars in product spread across these games and plenty of space to play them if you invest in the models. If you already play one of these systems they could really use people like you to come in and act as advocate for your favorite system by running demos or a small narrative event that people can jump in on.

 If you're more of the board and card game type, they have an extensive selection covering your strategy games like Settlers of Catan, Dominion, and Small World, to card games like Gloom and Fluxx, to dungeon crawler type games like Level 7, Sedition Wars, Castle Ravenloft, and Descent. They just got in the Season 2 Zombicide games which I'm pretty excited about myself.  

One thing that is very important if you're going to come in to paint or play is that you support the store. And this can be said for any store you play at, whether its Games Plus, Draxtar, Dice Dojo, Cat and Mouse, or the Chicago Battle Bunker. If you want stores to provide services like game nights, cool events, and the like, you absolutely have to spend money in the store or else your favorite hang out is going to vanish. There is nothing more frustrating for a game shop owner than counting a near empty till at the end of the night while you pack up the models or game you were playing with, listening while you bragged to all your friends that you scored your stuff off Ebay for next to nothing. I get it, we're all struggling and hobbies cost money that we can't always afford, but the humble gaming store is the hub of your gaming community. They can't stay afloat without you, and they're there to help facilitate you finding gaming space, gaming friends, and gaming advice. We all should treat that with the utmost respect. I know I try to.

If you haven't checked out Next Dimension yet, or if its been a few months since you did, you should pop in and check it out. The space is constantly evolving because they want you to come in, have fun, and of course spend some money while you're at it. I think they're a great addition to the Chicago gaming community.

-Nick

II. Broken Contract - Breakers

A few days ago I introduced the back story to a game I'm working on called Broken Contract. Today we're going to talk about one of the forces at play: Breakers. Though still a rough draft I want to point out that all of work I'm posting has gone past the eyes of Robert Ferrick who is doing quick copy editing and has been making great suggestions on organizing thoughts and throwing out ideas. Read on. -Nick

Breakers

Breakers are fugitives that have chosen to ignore the contracts that they consigned themselves to in a desperate attempt to live a free life. They see themselves as escaped slaves or justify their actions in light of cruel treatment and misleading promises, but the corporations paint a much different picture. To them the Contracted are good citizens and the breakers, criminals.

                Corporations have become a law unto themselves. Lawbreakers therefore are disloyal, the lowest of the low because they broke contract. There are many ways to break contract, running away is just the most obvious. Most contracts include provisions and clauses enough to shift planetary gravity if they were still on paper. To the corporations a contract is the basis of all civilization. If they neglect to mention that most contract laborers shipped in from nearby worlds are given the most dangerous jobs, charged for their space travel and housing, and have next to nothing left after paying what they owe, it is a Tracted’s fault for not reading more closely. 

The Contracted do have their rebels and rabble-rousers but the promise of a better life for towing the line is enough to keep many placated within their own ranks. The Corporations are also adept at twisting ideas with propaganda. Progenitor Workers, those born and raised on-world, often get preferential treatment and relatively higher wages. Progens are constantly told that they could lose their elevated positions to the influx of lower paid workers coming from abroad. This rivalry helps keep divisions between Drops, or off-world Tracted, and Progens. The Corporations don’t want the various peons banding together against their masters. Instead the work crews fight amongst themselves over imaginary differences. 

                Breaking your contract by yourself is rarely successful. Enforcers catch them quickly and drag them back to their positions a little beat up and with a harsher new contract in place. Contract Breakers band together, pool their skills, and improve the chances of success before breaking if they have any hope of success. Having a plan and the respect of the other breakers is a good place to start. Muscle, medical skills, diplomacy, agility, and sometimes plain old shifty street smarts are all huge assets. These ragtag groups are equipped with stolen equipment from their work postings and any items of worth they pick up along the way. What they lack in equipment and resources they can make up for with ingenuity and sheer desperation. Most importantly, they have their best chance at freedom when they rely on each other.