Mmm... Upgrades

So I'm once again in the US - only a short trip this time, less than a week. As per usual, I've gone to Avis and got a silly rental car! GM released the new Camaro earlier this year and it's worked it's way through to the rental companies. Avis asked if I'd like to upgrade to one - how could I say no? It was either that or a Kia Optima.

And what do you know - it's actually not a bad car. It has a 3.6l V6 engine putting out 304bhp. It certainly feels a lot faster than the base model Mustang (this is the base Camaro), which rates only 210bhp from its 4.0l engine. The auto gearbox also feels more responsive, although I suspect the extra power helps there. In another plus it has independent rear suspension rather than the frankly primitive live rear axle. It's also feels slightly higher quality inside, but I think this is due to GM liberally borrowing from the bits box - the indicator stalks, trip computer, steering wheel buttons, light switch and electric window buttons are all identical to those in the new Opel/Vauxhall Vectra. Anyway, it's fun, fast and looks cool - I'm enjoying it! Here's a photo of it in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.

And just for Sam, here's a US spec Volvo 240 in California licence plates.

Apocalypse Delayed

And so to the actual game itself! Apologies to all for the time it's taken to get this up here. Dom had kindly allowed us to use his living room as a battlefield as it a) was large enough b) had a wooden floor suited to models standing on it without falling over and c) his housemates were out.

We taped out an area 8' x 6' - about three times bigger than our normal boards and filled it with scenery, trying to represent a ruined industrial complex on the outskirts of a city, fading out to a wooded green area. We then had to decide deployment. Apocalypse uses a fairly entertaining system whereby once board edge is decided, each team has to 'bid' how long they think they're going to deploy. Each bid is decided in secret and then revealed simultaneously, with the lower bid then getting to deploy and go first (going first is generally a big advantage in 40k). The downside of bidding low is any models that you don't get on the board can't be used until later in the game, so you have to think about it a bit. Team Evil, desperate to go first, made an optimistic bid of four minutes, which led to the entertaining spectacle of Pat, Nicola and Jason speed-deploying an infantry army. They seemed slightly put out when they saw our bid of twenty minutes - enough time to deploy our tanks and still get a cup of tea, over which we chose our Strategic Assets - the various support each side had brought to the battle.

Despite the time limit, both sides managed to get their desired forces down - Team Evil deliberately left their Daemons off the board, ready to be summoned gibbering from the warp later. This left the board with the Scythes of the Emperor operating in the woods against the Thousand Sons and a variety of Chaos Dreadnoughts. A combined Imperial/Crimson Fist armoured column was headed for the traitor infantry horde through the industrial ruins. Supporting the Imperial forces was the Warhound Titan of Legio Aurific and the Thousand Sons' Silver Tower of Tzeentch was using its protective mystcial wards to provide cover to the Traitors' infantry. Its BEAM OF POWER! would most likely come in handy for removing armoured vehicles. In addition, the traitors also revealed their DOOMSDAY DEVICE! Jason and his cabal of scheming sorcerors had been working particularly hard lately, constructing in addition to the Silver Tower a fiendish device to threaten the honest Imperial citizens with. They had to be stopped! But not until after lunch.

With the generals' bellies filled with pizza, the carnage began!

Team Evil began with a headlong charge for the Imperial lines with supporting fire from the Noise Marines of the Thousand Sons, with only some of the Dreadnoughts proving to be suffering from insanity. With the benefit of 'hugs' from another Dreadnought (parking a sane Dreadnought in front of the recalcitrant one's guns), the friendly fire was kept to a minimum. Lucikly, all this shooting was fairly ineffectual, with only a small number of Imperial losses, and one Chaos loss (note the lack of Imperial Fist casualties - clearly a sign of superior tactics).

The Imperials replied with a hail of fire from Vindicator Squadrons, Predator battle tanks, Devestator squads, a Titan and three separate orbiting space craft. Not to be outdone by the other chapter masters, Captain Taelos had chosen the strategic asset of firing giant lasers at the Chaos army from space. This had the desired effect of vaporising an entire squad of Emperor's Children.

The game proceeded, in typical 40k fashion towards an enjoyably huge ruck in the middle. The Chaos horde ran as fast as their legs/tentacles/wings/slug mounts could carry them towards the Imperial lines, whilst the better equipped loyalists sped in in their armoured vehicles. Rhino rush! Once the frothing horde in the industrial plant had been softened up by Demolisher Cannons, Plasma Blastguns and Turbo Lasers, the Imperial and Crimson Fists, under the Command of Taelos, disgorged from their Rhino transports and unleashed fiery death from several flamers. Many traitors caught fire, but many still stood - unfortunately it tended to be the mighty killing machines that still stood. The loyalists braced themselves for the inevitable charge...

The Imperial and Crimson Fist Terminators held off the World Eaters, led by Kharn (KHAAAARN!) the Betrayer and a winged Khorne Lord with a Daemon weapon (+11 attacks! PLUS ELEVEN!), whist the Tactical Marines were assaulted by a Sorceror Lord leading more Khorne Berserkers. In the centre, though, was the big re-match everyone had been waiting for, the grudge match - Taelos vs N'kaa N'kaa N'kaa N'kaa! Fortunately for Taelos, the new Chaos Codex had not been kind to the Slaaneshi traitor and when the dust settled, one stood and one had fallen... N'kaa N'kaa N'kaa N'kaa had fallen and the victor was.... well, okay it was Crusher Gibson with his giant smashing Power Fist. But the main point is that Taelos got to see N'kaa N'kaa N'kaa N'kaa crushed. If your goons do it at your command, it's kind of like you doing it, right?

Meanwhile the ruck was sucking in more and more troops, with Thunder Hammer Terminators, Dreadnoughts and even Pat's child soldiers being driven into the meat grinder. Both sides' heroes were cutting a bloody swathe, Nicola's Chaos commanders in particular accounting for many marines. Fortunately, I'd taken arguably the most cost effective special character in the game - Imperial Fist Captain Lysander, who managed to remove three of the four characters with his mighty bopping stick, also known as the Fist of Dorn. This left the loyalists in a mopping up action and claiming objectives. With the D3 Oil refinery, the Doomsday Device, the mysterious ruins and the Dinosaur Skull in possession of the good guys, it became clear that Team Evil had been forced back. Chalk up one for the Good Guys!

Man of the Match perhaps inevetibly went to the Warhound, responsible for removing dozens of Chaos Marines, a Defiler, two Dreadnoughts and the Silver Tower of Tzeentch. Pat felt that there was no point targeting it as doing so would soak up too much fire power. Jason disagrees and has purchased a Bloodthirster Daemon for the re-match...

Highlights of the game included:

• The Doomsday device activation! Team Evil followed the activation procedure to a tee, with their demands as follows (guess who ordered each!): Space Wolves must from now on wear pink, loyalist's bolters must now fire kittens, and that N'kaa N'kaa N'kaa N'kaa must be brought the head of Captain Taelos! Needless to say, we don't negotiate with devil-worshipping terrorists, but before we could send any response they had already activated it and disintegrated Dr. Octavius and attendant tactical squad. Boo to terrorists!

• Andrew's commander, Master Thracius, revealed at the start of the game that he was carrying the fabled Power Scythe of Sotha, making him virtually unstoppable in close combat (in game terms, it doubled his attacks and made him Strength 10). The downside of this is that if he falls during the game, the enemy counts as holding an extra objective... see below.

• Jason's terrifyingly mysterious Silver Tower of Tzeentch was a real star, utilising mystic wards to protect the onrush of lunatic infantry. Its BEAM OF POWER! was responsible for much destruction, destroying Land Raider tanks, Dreadnoughts and even an unwary Iago Thracius, Andrew's commander. In this Jason showed the classic 40K solution to ludicrously powerful close combat characters - a gaint cannon. With Thracius down, the Chaos forces could claim the objective of capturing his holy relic weapon.

• Pat's army didn't just consist of Kiss rejects and ASBO recipients hopped up on goofballs - there was also the Keeper of Secrets (otherwise known as the 'Doom Cow') lurking in the Warp. On materialising, it promptly inflicted the Dance of Slaanesh on its enemies, playing them like puppets. No-one was left unscathed, not even the Warhound Titan, as they all danced a merry jig - imagine a 50 foot war robot hopping and dancing on the spot like a loon and you can't go far wrong. It didn't really achieve very much, but it did complete its primary objective of making Pat laugh.

• In typical style, Pat proceeded to predict with a cackle, on the turn of the Chaos charge that they'd kill, "ooh, about forty Space marines". Of course, this being Pat, when the dust had settled and we counted the casualties, it turned out be... exactly forty Space Marines. Curse you Pat!

• Prior to the game, a cabal of Tzeentchian sorcerors had been working deep in the warp for 1,000 years, creating dark ensorcellments to enslave a dozen horrific Daemons and encasing them within a special daemonic bolt shell - the mighty DAEMON SHELL. Jason's terminators only revealled this on the turn they teleported in, ready to help storm the loyalists' battle line. The good guys held their collective breath as the sky turned black and the gun was aimed... Unfortunately, it turned out one of the sorcerors had made a mistake at step 4,890,567, three hundred years earlier as the gun proceeded to explode, generating a short lived but powerful (and ironic) warp vortex centred on the Terminators themselves, sucking them in forever. Oops! When it comes to cabals of sorcerors, I definitely rate the ones that built the Silver Tower over the ones that built the Daemon shell.

In summary, I highly recommend the Apocalypse version of the 40K game. It's great fun, and the team aspect really adds to it. The stars of the show are, of course, the war engines. The only drawback is the space needed, which isn't available to everyone. Overall two thumbs up and we're all really looking forward to the next battle!

Apocalypse Last Week

It took about a week longer than I planned, but here's the Apocalypse update! First off, here are the other four armies (due to ease of editing, the game report will be in a separate post):

Dom brought 2000 points of Crimson Fists, led by Pedro Kantor. Dom included his newly bought and painted Land Raider Redeemer, hoping to burn Traitor Marines with its spicy hot Inferno Cannons. Primary reason Commander Pedro Kantor isn't as good as the Mighty Captain Taelos: Whilst his planet was under attack by Orks, he accidentally detonated an ICBM on his own fortress monastery, killing two thirds of his own chapter. And they still allow this man the Orbital Strike special rule?

Andrew brought his old Scythes of the Emperor army, led by Chapter Commander Iago Thracius. Whilst they're not quite a shiny as his stunning new Scythes models, it's still a great looking army and holds a lot of fond memories for him. Primary reason Commander Iago Thracius isn't as good as the Dashing Captain Taelos: He lost most of his chapter and his homeworld to the Tyranids and to re-build his chapter has been reduced to letting anybody in. The man clearly has no taste.

Nicola, signing up for team evil, went for a Chaos Undecided army, mixing Nurgle Death Guard, Khorne World Eaters and some of her own Dark Brotherhood Traitor Marines. Again, great looking models, and the eagle-eyed amongst you will recognise the World Eaters from page 228 of the current 40K rulebook. Although it includes four HQ choices, starting with a winged Khorne Lord and a Sorcerer in Terminator armour, the two contingents are led by Khârn the Betrayer (Kill! Maim! Burn!) and a Death Guard Commander under the control of a being known only as 'Nippy the Wonder Slug' (counts as Chaos Lord on Nurgle Palanquin). Primary reason Khârn the Betrayer isn't as good as the Sagacious Captain Taelos: Taelos has a vocabulary of more than three words. Primary reason 'Nippy the Wonder Slug' isn't as good as the Handsome Captain Taelos: Captain Taelos isn't a slug.

Finally... The player shipped in from Ireland on Ryanair, the Commander shipped in from the Warp on his personal ship Ack Ack the Slaughter Palace, completing the four flavours of Chaos, it's Pat Dunford and the Emperor's Children led by the hateful renegade, N'kaa N'kaa N'kaa N'kaa. There was a period at the old GW Bristol when you could go into the store during the day and you would be almost guaranteed to see the forces of Slaanesh arrayed against my Imperial Fists. Sadly, with Pat now living overseas there aren't many chances for re-matches any more, but with an Apocalypse game arranged, the chance for the old foes to meet again was too good to miss. N'kaa N'kaa N'kaa N'kaa brings with him a variety of Traitor Marines, Terminators and Dreadnoughts along with a Lost and the Damned Apocalypse formation of Chaos Cultists and a mighty Keeper of Secrets from the Warp (or possibly the Daemon Codex). Primary reason N'kaa N'kaa N'kaa N'kaa isn't as good as the Heroic Captain Taelos: N'kaa N'kaa N'kaa N'kaa leads a rag tag mix of child soldiers and failed musicians, whilst Taelos leads the mightiest and yellowest Space Marines of them all.

Choose the Form of Your Destruction!

As promised, here is Jason's lunatic army of Tzeentch. Led by Gozer the traveller, mighty Daemon Prince of Tzeentch, aka the Doomchicken, aka Mr. Cadbury's Parrot, he has a 10,000 year old deeply fiendish plan to do... something. Who knows? To steal all your chocolate mini eggs? Who understands the ways of Tzeentch?

Jason has been feverishly working on his latest whacky creation, the Silver Tower of Tzeentch. This thing packs a Beam of Power! and multiple Bolts of Change. Its mystical protective wards also provide cover to all those nearby. I asked Jason where the doors on the side go and he just cackled.

Anyway, here's the entire army, with its assorted tanks, infantry, giant magic robots and bizarre floating fish daemons.

Jason's also been building a 'Doomsday Device' with which to threaten the loyal citizens of the Imperium. More to follow later!

Apocalypse Saturday

At the request of various people, I'm going to be running a series of updates of sorts of the Warhammer 40,000 Apocalypse game we're playing on Saturday. We have the teams sorted out:

The loyalist Imperial Space Marines (or team 'good guys'), which consist of:

• Dom with his Crimson Fists led by the nacho-munching Commander Pedro Kantor
• Andrew with the Scythes of the Emperor led by the fanboys' favourite, Commander Iago Thracius
• Myself with the mighty Imperial Fists Space Marines, led by the heroic and dashing Captain Taelos, ably supported by Brother Morlock (and some guy named Lysander - whoooo?)

The Traitor Space Marines (or team 'evil' boo, hiss - they also have game winning American drugs), which consists of:

• Jason with his Tzeentchian Thousand Sons, led by the Daemon Prince Gozer the Traveller (otherwise known as 'Mr. Cadburys Parrot')
• Nicola with a rag-tag assortment of evil, led by Kharn the Betrayer (he of pub quiz fame) and some being known only as 'Nippy the Wonder-Slug'
• Finally, Pat with the Slaaneshi forces of the Emperor's Children, led by the well known pervert, N'Kaa N'Kaa N'Kaa N'Kaa

I'll be putting photos of all the armies online, but to begin with, I'll start with the yellowest army - mine.

I started by pulling out all the yellow models I own.

Then I had to form a cunning army of 2000 points. I've taken a liberal smattering of infantry in troop transports, some Vindicator Siege Tanks, a Dreadnought and some Assault Terminators with Thunder Hammers and Storm Shields. These will be led by Captain Taelos, with a supporting cast of Captain Lysander, Techmarine Dr. Octavius, Lieutenant Crusher Gibson and Morlock. I also have what every aspiring galactic hero needs - a GIANT ROBOT - the Warhound Titan of Legio Aurific! Armed with a Double-Barrelled Turbo-Laser Destructor and a Plasma Blastgun, this should vaporise all in its path! It should be noted that this is in addition to the 2000 points - the traitors will be bringing their own war engines to the party.

Tomorrow should see Jason's army on the blog. Unfortunately, he's been feverishly slaving over creating some kind of magical pyramid of destruction, muttering something about 'Beams of Power'... Sounds like bad news...

But is it art?

Found these under my table the other day. Many of them are collaberative, all are produced under the influence of inspiration-inducing substances. (I recommend clicking to expand them, to get the full, unadulterated horror)

From the 40K Doubles tournament pub quiz at Warhammer World, here is Kharn the betrayer.

And his compatriot, Kubist Kharn.

A cowboy looking cool, horse by Charlie

Some terrible robot. But what's he saying?

The Autobot, Prowl.

And finally, Death Pig on Mutant horse, accompanied by Nazi Fox.

Does anyone have a copy of 'Megatron riding Death Horse 2000'? He's my favourite.

RIP Pontiac

Just read some sad news: Stricken car manufacturer GM are shutting down their entire Pontiac division. Positioned as a more sporty brand than Chevy, Pontiac produced such cars as the Firebird and the GTO. Some of the later fare was less than spectacular (the Pontiac Grand Prix, to my mind exemplified everything wrong with the US car industry), but they did produce some top cars. I think it's a bit sad, but unfortunately inevitable; there're simply too many car plants and brands in the world at the moment. GM are right to concentrate on the remaining brands, although I personally expected Buick to go first as they sell so few of them. I guess there's just not much difference in market position between Chevy and Pontiac these days. Well, I'll always remember driving down to LA in my rented Pontiac Solstice.

Anyway, here's a picture of a Pontiac Firebird Trans-Am.

Hammertime: The Sequel

***UPDATE***

Played against Tau this evening, 1,000 points annihilation. Scraped a win, despite the school boy error of splitting my force, partly through Lysander's sheer badassery, but also through krak grenades smashing tanks! Woohoo!

Hammertime

So, I'm in the States! Last week was a bit awkward, a series of meetings between The Company and our supplier. All got a bit fraught with emotion. Ho hum, not sure I can really write about that here.

On to more fun stuff! (Warning - this post contains a lot of Warhammer 40K)

Well, I've had a few good games of 40K over the last few days. The hammers have certainly had an impact ( ho, ho, ho), cutting a swathe before them. Three games so far, two wins and a draw - and I think I'm learning just how different the current version of 40K is from the previous.

First up was Vince (an Irish-American, who I make a point of oppressing whenever I see him) and his Imperial Guard. Unfortunately, let's face it, the current (old?) codex is not very competetive. Infantry exploded from Whirlwind barrages, got set on fire by tactical squads, whilst Old Man Telion showed his boys how it's done by blowing up their Basilisk. Lysander and Squad Hammer just strode up the middle hammering things, tanks, infantry, characters, whatever. There was a particularly epic combat where the Terminators, in typically Imperial Fist style, charged a unit of ratlings and routed them off the board (For those that don't play 40K, imagine 8' tall genetically enhanced super-warriors wearing tank armour and wielding giant electro-hammers. Now imagine them fighting Hobbits). Oh yes, songs shall be sung about that battle. Anyway, I had both objectives, Vince had none, cue mock-outraged shouts of how Storm Shields are 'broken'.

Next up was a daft Apocalypse game between Imperial forces and the new Ork Stompa - which is a much nicer kit than the photos make out. Again, if you don't play 40K, imagine a 40' tall robot with chainsaws and cannons for arms - and a beer belly. The first turns consisted of inneffectual fire from Imperials with the Stompa's main guns wiping out whole squads. Fortunately, the Imperial Fists were there to save the day! Despite a Chainsaw the size of a lorry, the Stompa couldn't get through the Storm Shields and the Terminators were safe. The Stompa on the other hand, was detonated in a single blow from the mighty Captain Lysander and his Fist of Dorn Hammer (Three structure points from one hit!) leaving the Stompa in a ruin and the game over.

The final game was 1000 points against an Ork army. An Ork army where over half the points were sunk into a single unit of Nobz warbikers led by Wazdakka Gutzmek. Well, I figured as I'm probably going to face these all the time at tournaments, I may as well get some practice at facing them (Right, 9' tall 'orrible green aliens with giant axes, robot bodies, filled with drugs and riding giant motorbikes equipped with huge machine guns. Oh, and led by a 10' tall green alien with a hydraulic Klaw and armed with a huge ray gun - they're HORRIBLE). Fortunately - and you may be noticing a theme here - Captain Lysander and the Thunder Hammer Terminators were there to soak up the horror. Two-wound models with medics don't like instant kill Thunder Hammers. I lost the Terminators, but Lysander finished them off before hammering a Battle Wagon to shreds. The remaining Orks were no match for the rest of the marines and were roundly slaughtered. Unfortunately, the result was a draw as three pesky Orks remained on the opposing objective, having survived four rounds of shelling. Grr... with another turn, I could have done it. Oh well.

So, to sum up, in three games, Squad Hammer have taken out:

• 25 Guardsmen (including HQ)
• Leman Russ Demolisher tank
• 10 Ratlings
• An Ork Stompa
• Seven Nobs Bikes, including Painboy
• Wazdakka Gutzmek
• An Ork Battle Wagon

In every game, they've killed at least their points value. They're pretty powerful! And I think I've worked out a general tactic with them. It's not very subtle, and it's very similar to the Ork one of loaading the Ork Nobz up on bikes and smashing all before it. But basically, that's pretty much it. You have one or two devestatingly powerful shock units (and the old 'eggs in one basket' issue isn't as important now due to the deimse of victory points) which rampage through the enemy army whilst your horde of Troops choices scuttle to the objectives. I'm not too worried about spending points on making the troops more killy as they're there to hold objectives, although I'm willing to spend points to make them tougher. It seems to be working fine so far! And I plan on taking it one step further by doubling the size of the hammer boys from five to ten. I look forward to seeing how they fare at Vanguard Vanquish in April.

And finally, just to annoy Ben, here's my current rental car. Unfortunately they were all out of Dodge Challengers.

And for those of you who aren't interested in toy soldiers or cars, here's a photo of San Francisco at night.

Can the Department of Homeland Security please not unpack my models this time?

As most of you know, I'm shipping out for the States next week for a fortnight (cue jokes of, "We'll see you in six months then, ho ho ho!") and right now I'm packing the important stuff for the trip.

Yep, I'm packing up my toy soldiers.

Well, there is a tournament in a month's time (Bristol Vanquish , if you're interested http://www.bristolvanguard.co.uk/BV/Vanquish_09.html).

I need to get some painting done for said tournament, and I need to something to do whilst I'm out there, so I might as well take the Fists. I may even get a game or two at GW Stoneridge Mall (or if you're Willard Foxton, GW San Dimas - Wyld Stallyns!).

Anyhow, this is the main thing I'm going to be painting - a squad of Thunder Hammer Terminators.

They're very bad ass, in theory. They'll be led by Captain Hammer himself, Captain Lysander, and most likely the good Dr Octavius. I had considered taking Captain Shrike (modelling a yellow, lightning clawed, jump packed captain and calling him Captain Strike) to make them all super fast Teriminators, but that was by common consent, too bent for words. So, the one man wrecking crew, the unit-in-a-model, the man with eight limbs that is Forgemaster Octavius will be joining Lysander in building bases and smashing aliens.

In other news, I've been cooking more lately. In a terrible bout of middle aged middle classness, Dom, Ben and I have been comparing notes on cookery. Dom did a very nice Normandie Pork chop with apple cider sauce and shallots and some very tasty meatballs in special sauce. Ben and I have been concentrating on Chinese, particularly from Ching-He Huang's book. Here's a picture of my chilli chicken and noodle with spring onion garnish.

I've also done some sweet and sour chicken (sauce made from scratch) for our gaming night on Monday. Everyone said it was good, so either it was, or they're just trying not to hurt my feelings. I choose to believe the former.

Snowmen and other fun

I'd meant to put these up earlier, but through a combination of slackness and other things didn't quite get round to it. The weather's been... unusual lately - just the opportunity for everyone to slack off and frolick in the snow instead of going to work and school. Unfortunately, walking to work these days I didn't have much excuse to stay at home. Although at least one morning I did leave the house and Jason with, "I'm just going outside - I may be some time".

Anyway, Laura came up at the weekend and we built a snowman, which was a lot of fun.



We couldn't exactly agree on what to call him, so as a compromise, he became known as Bob Frosty.

And then Dom forwarded me this photo - no idea where it is, but there's some great ones in there. Check out Ninja snowman (he's camouflaged), alien snowman, and Bert and Ernie Snowmen. Jason now has it as his computer desktop.



Continuing the snowman theme, we have Calvin and Hobbes. On seeing these photos, Jason said, "It's all very Calvin and Hobbes". So I investigated (i.e. I typed Calvin Hobbes Snowman into Google) and came up with these gems:




And finally, a real life version. Which is AWESOME.



ACTUALLY finally, I had to post this as well. Although it's on Youtube, I didn't actually find it there... I found it in a much geekier place...

"Small cars parked in fields fear many things... They fear discovery, they fear retribution, but most of all, they fear the Wrath of the Space Marines!!!"

I had been planning to write a new post this week (I don't update this as often as I should) and it was going to something cheerful and jolly, like playing in snow and with silly models.

But right now I don't feel like it. The father of a good friend of mine has died this week, and I'm sitting here feeling increasingly angry about it. I'm not sure what I'm angry at in particular, but I do know that it shouldn't have happened. I also feel sad that now I shall never get the chance to meet a man I've heard so much about, who sounded so witty, brave and interesting. I find myself wondering how many more are going to be affected by the times we live in.

I'm so sorry for you Will, and all your friends are here for you if you need us. You've got our phone numbers.

Everything is Easier with Four Extra Limbs

As it happened, they didn't all return. One of them never made it to Nottingham. Like a moron, I managed to leave one of the Scouts at home 'guarding' the painting table, necessiating the borrowing of one of Jason's spare Mantis Warrior Scouts. Oops.

Anyway, we had a great time at the 40k Doubles tournament. We finished mid-table, with three wins, a draw and three losses. We also got nominated for best army, but as Willard Foxton correctly predicted, were beaten by Andrew and Nicola's Black Dragons and Witch Hunters. I'm forced to concede that their victory was entirely justified.

In gaming terms, I think we did pretty well given the entirely non-bent army that we took. A good mix of infantry, vehicles and characters. Unlike some armies that were there - common themes were dual Daemon Prince with Lash of Slaanesh, Tyranid monstrous creature armies, and Orks. Lots of Orks. Principally Ork Warbike bosses with nobz bikes that then become a Troops choice, aaargh! Fortunately we didn't meet those. As Jason pointed out, we didn't win enough games to face them (At this point may I apologise to the startled man in the lunch queue who looked somewhat shocked when a complete stranger berated him as 'a total bender' for taking said army). Our army was a lot of fun to use, with the stand out components being:

• Dr. Octavius, Forgemaster of the Imperial Fists. With his four extra robotic arms, mounting claws, flmaethrowers and plasma cutters, he's a whole unit in one model! His ability to build a base also helps.
• Librarian Shimio of the Mantis Warriors. Has the 'Gate of Infinity' power (or teleport to you and me) which he uses to drive what became known as 'The Fun-Vee' ("I'm sorry, this is the Fun-Vee. The Humdrum-Vee is back there"). This was himself, ten more Space Marines and later Dr. Octavius jumping around the board, setting fire to things and generally being rowdy. But with psychic powers.
• The Imperial Fists Whirlwind Artillery tank. No-one really expected this one. Certainly not Owen Rees and his Master of the Ravenwing Landspeeder, which we proceeded to fire missiles at the back of.

Here are some of the highlights of the weekend (I'll post a seperate article featuring the Fists, just for you Will!):

Paul McCabe desperately finishes his army in Bugman's bar on Saturday morning AGAIN. Despite being nominated for best army (along with GW Cribs' Johnny), some of his models were still on the sprue ten mintues before the first game.

The Imperial Fists bravely charge over the top towards the most powerful tank in the game, the Land Raider. Hmm, good luck with that.

In a fortunate bit of desperate rulebook flipping, we found that Jason's Dreadnought was able to clamber on top of the enemy's wrecked tanks, thus saving the Fun-Vee from the terrible Twin Chaos Lords, J'aake and El-Wood.

Andrew, Nicola, Jason and I celebrate after winning the Bugman's Pub Quiz. Hurrah for free drinks!

Our combined army having been nominated for best painted.

Andrew's Witch Hunters

Nicola's Black Dragons.

Will Hayes' and partner's Ork Band.

A very cool Ork Warboss on bike conversion, modelled in a General Grievous style rolling machine thing. Note the Squig being dragged after him.

Owen Rees' slightly bizarre Watcher in the Dark mounted on Cyber-Manticore.

A very cool Apocalypse board (12' x 6') with an Eldar artefact being excavated by gaint diggers and bulldozers behind an Imperial Fortress. The attackers go up hill through a ruined town, taking cover behind wrecked Titans and Baneblade.

A demonic red cow we spotted on our way back from Bugman's to the hotel on Saturday night. Despite being drunk, it turned out be real.

An only slightly less terrifying thought for many of you, I'm sure - Warhammer World's gaming hall, filled with over 250 gamers.

Finally, GW had a display of their old Warhammer sets in cabinets at the front. This one in particular caught our eye. Jason: "Hmmm... He is pretty tragic".