The Krak Report - The month of June...

The Krak Report - June Edition

Another month has past and its time for a round up of some random (and not so random) hobby related things that spark my interest... This ones a little late, real life and all...

Raging Heroes - The Toughest Girls of the Galaxy

Last few days of the kickstarter and this one blew away all its targets in the first few days. I have to say, making war dollies into girls is great in most situations, however making your entire range of war dollies girls? Pure genius!
This is what alternative ranges should be about. Bringing something different and unique to the gaming table, not all this baltant rip off stuff that some others produce.
Go read up about them here theres not much time left...


Apocolypse

If you like pew pew and you have not been hiding under a rock for the past month you would have heard about Apocolypse. No not the four horseman type but the nuclear explosion type.
We got a very early preview of the cover of the July WD which had one of the worst models GW have ever made...

Then we got the sneak preview of one of the best models GW has ever made (at least for 40k). 

Nobody knows how one company can be so hit and miss with their core product... 

As it turns out they put together a 296 page hardcover for $146NZ, not to bad for a full colour hardcover book. They also announced that it will be available on iBook in three parts (rules/data sheets/scenarios) which is a bloody nice idea IMO as I intend on buying the Hardcover rulebook and grabbing the data sheets for my tablet.


ETC

The ETC is fast rushing up on me and with a little under 4 weeks until I fly out I still see a mountain of painting to get done before this years event being held in Novi Sad, Serbia. 

While I am away my will probably be a bit quiet on the posting front however I will try and give regular updates of the event in between games

Games Workshop goes Digital - In a real format

Gee Dub have finally realised normal people can use technology to and have broken the fast of only pandering to the 'i' crowd.
Through the Black Library, we can now get our very first codex in a normal format usable on normal tech. Eldar became the first foray in Mobi and ePub formats, and will quickly be followed by others no doubt. Supplements are also quickly appearing as well as a previously hardcopy only assortment of GW publications like Index Astartes. 
I see this as a great move and an area GW had previously preformed very poorly at. 
But the best thing for us Kiwi's... Codex's are only $40NZ.... that is $58NZ cheaper than the hardcover equivalents!


Supplement Speculation

I blogged briefly on this earlier last month about what the supplement introduction could mean for not only 40k, but fantasy. You can find the post here
Now that the anouncement has been made that Tau will be getting a Farsight Conclave supplement (which was the obvious choice), further speculation and conjecture arises.
I cans see Hive fleet Kraken being the focus of a Tyrannid supplement (sorry, I dont buy the BS about a Genestealer cult, it dosnt fit the format of slight codex modification and no new units) as Kraken was the Tyrannid fleet that destroyed Iyaden (ooooh) and the current codex sports only a small contingent of painted models in the Kraken sceme (as opposed to the two other main fleets in the book). 
I see Imperial Fists in the Space Marines supplement lineup (I actually think we will see all the first/second founding chapters at some point) which may even include crimson fists (such a terrible name) and shock horror Black Templar.

As for WHFB 9th edition is rumoured to be right around the corner and I can see the supplements being intergrated into the new edition as opposed to being retconed into 8th. Rumours abound that we will see a ravening hoards type list with the new set, but then again, grain of salt. We get that rumour every new edition


On the Bench

I currently have the majority of my Chaos Dwarf Army sitting in front of me at the moment, all half finished of course. I have 4 weeks until I fly out so plenty of time right? 
I recently picked up a Blood Slughterer from Forgeworld to represent my K'daai Destroyer, as my current conversion (based on a Thundertusk) is too large for me to transport half way around the world for the ETC. 

Also sitting in front of me is my new project High Elves. Mountains of Sea Guard and Dragons, I've picked up a lot of the new models purely to paint a nice looking army. Its all about the Hobby! No idea if they will ever sea the light of a tournament, but I do play on trying a new technique on them where you paint light/pastel opaque colours as a base, then shade/highlight up with transparent and opaque washes and inks. This project will have to wait until after I get back from the ETC however.

And sitting right beside them is about 30 Mk IV power armour + some assorted Heresy era armoured vehicles including a Land Raider Proteus and a 
I hope to be adding a Thunderhawk Gunship and Warhound Titan to this while I am in Europe. Always wanted to paint up these iconic vehicles

What's next from Forgeworld?

Hopefully the bloody Chaos Dwarf Bull Centaur Taur'uk and K'daai Destroyer. We have been teased with these for months and the Taur'uk now features in the latest Forgeworld catalogue. 

We have also been seeing a lot of new Heresy Marine variants including the new Fellglaive painted up in Iron Warriors colours. I'm expecting book two is just around the corner. good times!

Tournament roundup

Well I have not managed to get to many tournaments this year so far, numbering only two.  I attended Equinox earlier in the year where I place 1st. This was the largest WHFB tournament this year so I picked up max 100 points for the win. 

At the beginning of June I went to my "local" Southcon where I placed second overall. There was only 14 entrants so it is one of the smaller events around. However I did manage to suffer my first 20-0 defeat at the hands of NZ's own token LMC! A bit of rock paper scissors here but still managed the second place. Unfortunately it means I missed out on the coveted hat trick of wins having won 2011 & 2012 Southcons....

Oddly enough this still leaves me in the no.1 ranked spot in NZ for WHFB. I am expecting this to change soon as more of my ranking points expire from last year.

Its been good at the top defending without even having to play games...

Then there is the most coveted trophy (mug) of them all. Top Warhammer Internet Personality. I scored this beauty at Equinox this year, and I figure the best way for me to defend it is not go to tournaments with other Internet personalities! Its mine Mr Brown! Mine I say!!!!

Parting shot

So ends another instalment of my ramblings. I expect new posts on the blog to be less frequent this month and the following as work gets in the way of fun, and preparation for ETC takes all my spare time.

Until next time

The Krak Report - May Edition

So I am back again for round two of the Krak Report. A round up of things that sparked my interest in the month thats just been. 

Forgeworld

Forgeworld continued its regular march of weekly releases. A few new items not previously seen snuck in this month such as the Legion Praetors. And wow there a nice sculpt! We got our first look at the new Fulgrim model, and there appears to be multiple sculpts. Multipart poseable maybe? 

We also seen more new Necron goodness (who woulda thunk I would do Tomb Kings in space?) from the Fall of Orpheus book, and several new previews of upcoming Horus Heresy tanks and marines. I've made a summary of them here in my blog. I can't wait for some of these new models, and most importantly, book 3 covers Imperial Fist! Oh and who can forget the Squig Gobbla. 

Tablescapes

Secret Weapon miniatures kickstarter campaign closed with a flurry of success at the end, and the stretch goals went as far as unlocking the ruined temple theme. For those of you who don't know tablescapes is a 1' x 1' modular gaming table with multiple unique tiles so that you may arrange a table in a huge array of ways. I'm looking forward to getting the 8'x4' ruined temple for home. More details can be found here

High Elves

The internet has been a raging over the new High Elf book, from its completely O.P. to is completely U.P. But no matter who you talk to there seems to be no middle ground, that is, if you believe the internet....
I for one am well impressed with the internal balance, and the flexibility of the book as a whole. I've been cleaning up some of my old High Elves models and purchased some of the new range. It will be a few months before I get a chance to take them to a tournament as I still have a lot of work preparing the Chaos Dwarfs for the ETC in August. I wrote a summary of the book early in May here

Space Elves

Early rumours and leaked pictures of the Eldar where everywhere. This staple of 40k was long overdue for an update, and well, looks like they got only a fraction of what they wanted. We seen the rise of the spirit machines with new Waithguard and a Wraithknight which stands near 10" tall! This model is huge. I didn't blog much on them as they seemed to be everywhere and I didn't receive any new or contrary information. I'm just waiting for someone to paint some big egyptian style eyes on them...

Games Workshop Rumour Clamp Down

Last month we seen GW have a go at the life blood of the modern wargaming communities. Faeit212 and BOLS plugs where pulled, and although BOLS claim it was for different reasons, the timing seems to coincidental for my liking. Both are now up again but it appears that the lawyers of GW will still take any chance to attack the community that feeds them... 

Australasian Price Rises

Did not happen for a second year in a row! The rest of the world suffered some changes to paints and brushes (around 8%) with the GW line being only non GW manufactured items received an increase. We also seen repackaging of some 40k kits from singles to 3 packs, with the price going down! I for one am hoping that this continues as many of you already know how much Australasia is gouged compared to the Rest of the world (hence the healthy parallel importing of GW products). One day, its going to dawn on GW that reducing their prices in NZ and AU will actually increase their sales and profitability, as I think 70% + of new items bought in NZ are imported from the UK and US... Will the sleeping giant wake up to the reality of a global economy?

Tournament roundup

Last month was the build up to my 'local' tournament in Dunedin, Southcon. The last two years I had attended seen me walk away with first prize (year one with Orc's and Goblin's, year two with Tomb Kings) both times. This year I am taking my Chaos Dwarfs based on ETC comp (even though this is not a ETC comp Tourney). I'm not holding my breath as there are a few armies out there that my build cannot handle. I still think I can podium with them. Keep an eye out for the tournament/battle reports for further details

Parting shot

Well what do you know I still havn't managed to take any pictures of my models yet. I have started my High Elves project, finalised my Necron colour sceme, and figured out how to paint yellow (for imperial fists). One day I might even finish something, but don't hold your breath...

The Krak Report - April edition

Hello from the future! So to try something new I am going to write 'The Krak Report'. Hopefully (time dependant) it will become a regular monthly article recapping some key events and news in the wargaming world that sparked my interest, here at the bottom of the world!

Tau Release

So the month started with Games Workshop releasing the new range of Tau. Not being a huge 
fan of the Tau there was an interesting array of new models following GW's standard release format of a Plastic big gribbly, some middle sized duders, an infantry sized unit and a plastic character + a small range of finecast specials. The army needed a shot in the arm and the local 40k fanboys are all jumping on the bandwagon. I played a game against them using my Necrons and wrecked some hobby. Its ok when its 40k!

High Elves Pre Release and Rumours/Leaks

Last month seen the High Elves release get some traction. Not only did we get a nice little easter egg when a North American GW store leaked the following pictures

GW then managed to top this effort by giving us a complete preview of all the special rules and units on the iBook store! Safe to say this created a lot of content on the interwebs! We even managed to get the WD leaked almost a week earlier than normal. Lets hope it roles like this in the future...

Full details of the rules roundup for High Elves can be found here: http://plastickrak.blogspot.co.nz/2013/04/high-elves-army-book-leak-from-ibook.html

Secret Weapon Tablescapes Kickstarter Campaign

Secret Weapon Miniatures launched their Kickstarter campaign for their new range 'Tablescapes', a huge array of 12"x12" tiles so that you can make your very own unique table for wargaming. 

Not only was it funded on the first day, the campaign is still going with several more stretch goals to unlock. Its currently sitting at about $175k with no signs of slowing down. If your in the market for a landscape to wage war over, be if Fantasy, Scifi, or Historical, you can't go past these. They feature up to 1" raised/depressed features and are fully textured injection moulded plastic, and the selection currently available allows huge potential for never fighting the same battle twice! I'm currently pledged for two 4x6' tables and if they unlock the 'Ruined Temple' theme, no doubt I will be in for another! The 'trenchworks' theme will be one of a kind when unlocked!

You can find the link to the kickstarter campaign here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1084069684/tablescapes-by-secret-weapon-miniatures
It still has a little under two weeks to go with delivery in October. The big factor here is that international delivery is basically FREE! Secret Weapon is now also offering a 20% discount to backers of the kickstarter. All you need to do is pledge additional $$$ and get great discounts on their usual range! check it out now.

Mantic and the Copy Cat Brigade

While I am on it Mantic Games also launched another Kickstarter, this time for their Deadzone game, which is basically a rip off of GW's Necromunda of old. Their campaign was funded within 33 minutes of going live. Details can be found here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1744629938/deadzone-the-sci-fi-miniatures-board-game/?ref=kicktraq

Mantic, can you please come up with something original instead of just copying Games Workshops games? Its popular enough but not my cup of tea. Each to there own I guess.

WHFB Tournament Roundup

Runefang was held in Wellington on the 27th & 28th with a field of 28. I didn't make this one thanks to air fairs being over $700! Congratulations go to Pete for proving once again that Skaven is the most broken book in 8th! David Appleby helped prove this point by coming in third with the rats as well. Sam Whitt managed a healthy podium (1st one ever?) but still managed to be the bridesmaid. Full results can be found here: http://www.thefieldsofblood.com/2013/04/runefang-vi-results.html

Adepticon!

The good ol' US of A held the annual Adepticon in Lombard Illinois this year. And what a feast for everyone in the tabletop gaming world. We had amazing paint jobs from single miniatures right through to complete armies, new products released or previewed to the market, and even drama on table one! (WHFB) The twitteratzi was in full swing providing commentary to the masses and video/pictures coming out from the event inspired us all. This is a must attend event for any gamer and there is now talk of us Kiwis coming over next year to invade stateside with our particular brand of hobby! You have been warned...

Hobby Corner

April seen me get some hobby mojo back! 
It started with a huge clean up of the mess that is my man cave. New shelves and a lot of new storage containers enabled me to finally see my desk again. Off to the stationary shop to pick up an A2 size cutting mat and what a difference!
Then with all the talk of High Elves I dragged out the old pointy ears and started cleaning them up. I use to run an all cavalry army back in the day and if rumours remain true this will be viable again! I now have dozens of Seaguard, Dragon Princes, Chariots and characters all cleaned up and ready for undercoating. Lets see if they can get further than a base coat!
Not only that I learnt how to paint yellow! Often reported as the most difficult colour to paint and get right, I am very pleased with how my first batch of Imperial Fists turned out. Now to finish them and base them up. Easier said than done for me...

A huge order of Forgeworld stuff turned up on my doorstep last month to add to my Imperial Fists collection, including 20 Devastators, 10 more Tactial Marines, a Land Raider Proteus and a Storm Eagle. That should keep me busy over the winter months and keep up with the Field of Blood Tale of X Heresy Gamers Pete is running... although I notice with the exchange rate the 20 pack of Terminators sneaks in under the $400 mark...

I also worked some more on my Chaos Dwarfs in preparation for the ETC later this year. I still have a long way to go and its likely the list will change but at least my warmachine's crew are well underway. I started building a Hellcannon in finecast. The cast is good and no issues so far, but wow it requires a lot of cleaning! Now to try and finish them... I have a tendency not to do that...

Tweet Tweet

I joined Twitter! There has been a rather profound community developing on there and it appears to have continental appeal, particularly in the UK. I'm only ankle deep so far but living at the bottom of the world it looks like a great way to stay involved. You can find me by searching Jossy@plastic_krak on twitter

Parting Shot

I have just picked up a new camera with a fancy Macro that can go down to 30mm, so I now have no excuse to start posting some pictures of my mundane efforts at the hobby. Hopefully this will get me motivate to finish projects more!