Hobby Focus - Unto the Anvil of War! Salamanders 2nd Company

Evening all, today I'd like to reveal my forthcoming plans for my Space Marine army:

The full 2nd Company of the Salamanders

That's right, a whole battle company consisting of:

• Captain
• Chaplain
• Librarian
• Techmarine
• Command Squad
• Servitors
• x6 Tactical Squads
• x2 Assault Squads (& variations thereof)
• x2 Devastator Squads (& variations thereof)
• x2 Dreadnoughts
• Assorted transports & vehicles

That little list equates to over 100 miniatures and is going to be quite the challenge to keep the motivation up to get to the end of it, but, I have made a start.

So far I've got the bones of the HQ section sorted, the heavy weapon section of one of the devastator squads, 1 1/2 tactical squads and most of my sergeants assembled. I'm going to concentrate on getting those bits painted first otherwise I'll end up swimming in a sea of grey plastic as usual! 

For the devastator and assault variations, they're going to be centurions and bikers/landspeeders/storm talons respectively but they aren't so much of a priority to start with. I'm also hoping to get some Forge World goodies in there too (I'm looking at you Bray'arth Ashmantle & Mk IV Ironclad!).

I've already painted my company standard as I thought that'd be a good place to start to get motivated, and here it is below.

And so "Into the Fires of Battle, Unto the Anvil of War!"

Reinventing the Wheel: Part 2

So last week we looked at a couple of ideas I’ve been kicking around for new tournament missions and this week, I have 2 more for you lovely people.

Mission 3: Take and Hold

In this mission players get to place an objective in each quarter (2 each) with a fifth objective placed in the center of the board. Players deploy using Vanguard Strike from the rulebook. The twist on this mission is that each player scores a point at the end of every game turn for each objective that they claim. The idea behind this is that it makes players consider all objectives on the board. Claiming another objective, even for a turn, can earn you the points needed to get the win.

Mission 4: Cleanse

That’s right! I’m bringing this 3^rd edition favourite back, with a 6^th edition slant. Using the old Spearhead deployment, players will have to fight to clear the table quarters and claim them with their own scoring units. A quarter is claimed when a scoring unit has the majority of its models within a given table quarter and as long as there are no opposing enemy scoring/denial units in their as well. A contested quarter is worth 1 point; a claimed quarter is worth 3 and a fully claimed enemy deployment one is worth 4. I like this mission as it discourages castling up and could lead to some pretty awesome micro battles happening around the board as each player tries to control the table quarters.

These could all use a bit of play testing and refinement but I’m interested in changing up the sometimes stagnant tourney scene of my local shop. Thoughts and opinions on this?

Re-inventing the wheel: New missions for 40K tournaments. Part 1

After attending and organising several tournaments at my local FLGS, The Giant’s Lair *coughshamelessplugcough*, I have gotten a bit bored of using the same old missions out of the book. Especially seeing as in a tournament situation they seem to get a bit sterilised in the name of balance, for example removing the random numbers of objectives. So I have taken upon myself to try and slip in some new and interesting missions into the mix.

First of all is a fairly simple addition to the mission roster, I call it Forlorn Hope. Basically it follows on from the Scouring and Big Guns in that it makes new units scoring, in this case elites. Hardly ground breaking I know but at the moment there is next to no incentive to take elites for mission reasons and I think it makes for a more rounded event. This minor tweak is going to be the first thing I try and get the other committee members to agree to.

Mission 2: Seize Ground

In this mission the objectives are set up as shown in the awesomely drawn MSPaint diagram, 3 objectives placed equally along the centre of the table. The red objective is worth 4 points; the blue ones are worth 2 each. Sounds pretty standard right? But there is a twist; if the blue objectives are contested they give 1 point to each player. This is to encourage the players to think about which objectives they will go for. Going for the middle objective while contesting the others is risky while relying on getting the side objectives might not get you enough points to get the win. I know this mission might end up with a lot of draw results but I’ll have to see how the play testing goes. More to come in part 2…

Retailer Review - Element Games

Morning/Afternoon/Evening (delete as appropriate) all, just wanted to share with you my experiences of buying stuff from Element Games. 

Since moving from Plymouth to Hertfordshire, I've been on the hunt for a local brick and mortar store that offered a similar discount rate to my spiritual home, the Giant's Lair. With no luck, I turned to the internet. After reading around about the webstores out there, I bit the bullet and headed for Element.

I ordered the new plastic librarian, new tactical squad, a devastator squad and some paints (including some VMC colours, therefore Element are now my default go-to guys for Vallejo) on Sunday afternoon and they arrived today. Ideal! And, not only do Element do quick delivery, they also do quick, free delivery within the UK if you spend over £80 (which let's be honest, isn't particularly difficult in our hobby).

On top of that, they also give you a 15% discount off RRP for GW and can also source some of the big seasonal bundles, again discounted, which means you can enjoy the GW hobby without the GW prices. Bargain!

And if all that wasn't enough, you can also generate store credit in the form of "Element Crystals" which can then be used towards future purchases. The way it seems to work is for every whole £10 you spend, you get 1 crystal which equates to 10p's worth of store credit. Add that to the friends and family referral code generated with your order which gives you double crystals when used and you can soon start racking up the credit. Sweet!

So there we go, give Element a bash if your after stuff quickly and reasonably priced!

"We're putting a team together..."

Afternoon all, some exciting news for you today on this dreary November Sunday. I now have a collaborator on this blog of mine in the guise of my partner in crime, Calamari. We figured two heads are better than one when it comes to keeping to the content flowing so on board he comes. He's written a little bio about himself for you to peruse below:

"Hi there, I’m Jake, or Calamari on most forums that I use. I’ve known Geochimp for about 5 years and we were regular opponents until recently when he ran away from Plymouth! I’ve been playing since 2008 and have dabbled in lots of armies since then. At first I used my Space Marines from when I was a kid back in the early 2000s; then moved onto IG, back to Marines and so on. I used to have a really bad case of shiny syndrome and so have dabbled in quite a few armies. My current armies are Deathwing heavy Dark Angels, Daemons and I am starting a Necron army very soon. I am part of the organising team for the 40K events at my FLGS, The Giant’s Lair in Plymouth. This has been running for just over a year now and so I am making an effort to get into the UK tourney scene.I also play Infinity, Battlefleet Gothic, Malifaux and a little bit of Warmahordes.

I have lurked on a few blogs like 3++ and Fritz40K and they have guided my tactics a fair bit. I also sporadically listen to the 11th Company podcast. If you want to catch me on forums you can find me on Heresy Online or on the Giant’s Lair forum under the username JakeM."

So there you have it, all you need to know about Calamari! As an aside, if anyone else wants a platform to share some of their insights into the hobby but aren't really into forums or blogging, then drop us a line at crucibleoffate@gmail.com and we'll see what we can do.

3. 2. 1. You're Back In The Room

Evening all, just a quick one tonight to update you all as to what's happening. 

So, the move has been completed, I'm getting settled into my new digs and I start my new job on Monday (woo!).

It'll still be a little sporadic for the time being but never fear, I've got some meaty posts in the pipeline. The first of which will be a tutorial on how I paint my Salamanders. It's a biggie and requires a lot of pictures to give the full-on step-by-step process. Once my hobby area is all set up, I can get cracking with that, but in the mean time I'm hashing out the text for it.

For now though, I'm going to enjoy my last few days off before going back to work, enjoy Wales vs South Africa on Saturday, get my hobby gear unpacked and start looking for a new gaming club.

Have a good weekend guys! :)