Soul Reapers: State of the Rebuild

Hey guys, I wanted to share with y’all the current state of the Soul Reapers and the rebuilding of the army. This has been an extremely tough year for me, in terms of real life and an extremely busy year on the hobby side.

I must admit that I have been extremely deflated in spirit when it comes to rebuilding the army; even thought the fantastic members of the 40k community rallied and replaced my stolen models. I actually feel a bit bad about this.

With that said, I have finally gotten the mojo toward getting the Reapers back on the tabletop. I have spent the last week getting an 1100 point force almost completely painted. I should have some nice looking eye candy just after the New Year.

I have been reintroducing my buddy Kev to rulebook style 5^th ed 40k, cause when we play our version of 40k is nothing like 5^th. I need him a 5^th ed mindset as he is helping me with the Narrative event at the bay open.

I guess he has gotten tired of my stealing his IG shtick using my steel legion guard, although he has been using his orks. He is one of the biggest supporters of the Soul Reapers and has decided not to play another game until I run the Reapers.

Here is the list I am finishing up.

Soul Reapers 1100 pts

Exalted Centurion 110 pts

Plasma Pistol, Chaos rune weapon

Elite

Cataphracts 193

3 X Warp Ammo, Chainfist, Heavy Flamer

Troops (632pts)

8 Legionary squad 198 pts

2 x Melta gun, Power weapon, Personal Icon

Centurion Pfist

Rhino

8 legionary squad 188 pts

Plasma gun, Autocannon, Power weapon, Personal Icon

Centurion Power weapon

8 Reavers 206 pts

Flamer, Heavy Flamer

Centurion Pfist

Heavy Support (265pts)

Dakka Pred dozer 105 pts

Defiler 150 pts

Soul Reapers Dread 130

TLLC

Killzone embraces social media

Facebook now has 100% more Killzone!

Just one more way to keep track and share Killzone with your friends.

I have been putting this off, but it is now time to embrace the social media with Killzone, to aid in spreading our Glorious little project!

Merry Christmas From GiF

I hope y'all have a great day! I am looking forward to spending the holiday with my family and closest friends, I say bring on the Ham and Turkey!

We are also going to have the first annual Christmas night 40k bash, looks to be a fun time!

Cheers,
Big Jim

TCP podcast Launched

Hello loyal disciples of fire, I wanted to make you aware of an exciting new project that I am helping with in conjunction with TCP. We have decided to create a podcast that will post occasionally through the Codex Project website. It will cover game and codex design, with interviews from the members of the project to talk about the great codices that they are working on.  

Well as we all know the studio in Nottingham is hard at work on the 6th Edition of Warhammer 40,000. Every once in a while a rumor seeps out from behind the closed doors. We all quickly gobble them up and talk endlessly on forums like BoLS, Dakka or Warseer about their value and contribution or even if it is a mistake that will ruin the game.

What we never get to do is talk as a community about what we think should be done in 6th Edition. Possibly more profoundly what 40K could be if all caution were thrown to the wind and a complete re-write were executed on the rules. Generally speaking we know that the guys at the GW Studio do not put lots of weight in the goings on of generally wild and often negative blogs and forums.

In the grand spirit of TCP right out the gate we have a series of episodes in the works talking about 6th edition. We discuss the current 5th ed rules define any weak points we may see, talk about possible fixes for those rules and then delve into the current 6th ed rumors which may or may not be accurate.  We then discuss whether the rumored changes would be good or bad for the game, in our opinion.

Each episode will have guest hosts from around the 40k internet community.

We do understand that many may not agree with our opinions and that is fine. We figure that since nobody else is covering 6th ed especially from a game design perspective we would. Since Jeff and I have both been active wargamers since the 1970's we have well over 60 years of gaming experience. On top of that we have both written an published wargames rule sets, Jeff's last one was Battlestandard Ancients and mine was and is Killzone. (while not a stand alone game it has been well received) Most of my published rules were in the 80's and early 90's including 15mm Ancients, I Corps Vietnam 1967-68 (which is in a reboot phase currently) and the short lived Federation and Empire hard sci-fi.

Please keep in mind that both Jeff and I love the 40k universe and are very passionate about it. So what may sound negative or like we are coming down hard on GW, is really our passion for the universe showing through. We really do want 6th ed 40k to be the best game it can be.

Here are the first two episodes

Introduction episode

Episode 1 6th ed rules series: Movement Phase, Vehicles and the Force Org Chart

The first show is a bit rough around the edges, but we are working on the format so will improve.

BAO 2012 Narrative Event

I am proud to announce that I have teamed up with the Bay Area Open to present a narrative gaming event for those gamers who enjoy a more laid back story driven day of gaming.

Participants will help decided the fate of a small star system on the eastern fringe of the galaxy. Will the forces of the Imperium and the allies save the system or will the system be subjugated or destroyed by the forces of Chaos and their nefarious allies.

This will be a large team run event (teams determined on the day of the event) fought over three different battle zones, utilizing what we like to call an Apocalypse lite format. This means that you will be able to use Apoc formations and some Apoc units, but must follow the restrictions listed below.  

Allowed Armies:
Armies can be built from all current 40k codices including the White Dwarf codex for the Sisters of Battle, and may also include or be built to include units or completely using the army lists in the Imperial Armor books. Units and list may only be draw for Imperial Armor books 5-10 and the IA Apoc books. Players may choose Apocalypse formations if they wish; either from the Apoc books or the GW website.

With that said all IA units and lists must use the most current listing for the unit, which includes the Errata listed on the Forgeworld site. So for example the Renegades and Heretics list from the Siege of Vraks uses the update on the forgeworld site.  

All armies are built using the following requirements:
1250 points and must include an HQ and one troops choice and may include one superheavy vehicle with no more than 3 structure points. Each army may also include one Spearhead formation as listed in the spearhead rules on the games workshop site. I would also appreciate if all players bring a 625 point sideboard list incase the sides end up being lopsided.

Players may not purchase stratagems individually, however if the player is taking an Apoc formation that comes with stratagems they still benefit from them. At the beginning of the game each player will draw a strategy card from the decks that I will provide.

At the beginning of the game each player will draw a Fate card from from decks that will be provided. The Fate cards will add to the narrative of the game allowing each commander some special bonus during the game.

At the beginning of the game each player will draw a Mission card from decks that will be provided. These will provide each player with a secret agenda that will benefit their team upon completion.

Each table will have a special character for each side created and provided by me. They will represent the army commanders of that theater for narrative purposes.  

WYSIWYG:
 All models are expected to be WYSIWYG as much as is reasonable. Proxies are not permitted. However, counts as armies are acceptable and encouraged. What’s the difference? That can be a tough call to make in some cases. Judges will determine what is acceptable or not and all judgments are final. If you feel your army is questionable, contact a TO in advance to clear any confusion.

Proxies: Using Necron Warriors as Lootas in an Ork army, etc.

Counts As: Using Ultra Marines colored models with Blood Angels rules. Using custom Adeptus Mechanicus converted models with Daemon rules. The key is that everything is easily identifiable and appropriately equipped.  

Painting:
Every army must be painted to a three color minimum and be based. (basing can be as simple as painting your models bases an appropriate color.) We want a great looking event filled with painted models fighting over nice looking terrain.  

Scoring:
 Objectives will be scored at the bottom of every game turn. Objectives held by a troops choice are worth 2 points, any other unit may score objectives with a worth a value of 1 point gained.

Killzone True Skirmish

So I have been chatting with the guys about finally getting to the advanced “True Skirmish” version of Killzone. We have been batting around some mechanics, the one thing that the “TS” version of Killzone will have is a “phased” turn sequence. Where one player will activate a model/unit do its turn then the 2^nd player will activate a model/unit. Alternating activations until every model/unit on the table have a turn.

When activated a model will be able to perform 3 actions from a list included in the rulebook; these include things like moving, shooting, fight in melee and overwatch.

Things we are heavily considering: (none of them are a sure thing.)

We are pretty sure the “TS” version will do away with the codex errata system; it will be replaced with an actual book or Codex of armies that represent the forces of 40k.

With the new army book we are debating creating a new stat line and realigning the points values with an entirely new system. The points realignment will probably happen, since the points system of 40k is jacked up and arbitrary anyhow.

The D10 will more than likely make an appearance alongside the trusty D6 in the new version.

You will be able to group models together into adhoc squads.

Ditching the clunky cover save system for hit modifiers for shooting.

Until next time…

Angels Encarmine Commission Part 2

Here is the second part of Snake's AE commission. Magnetized dozer blade for a Rhino and a Las/plas turret for the back.

Magnetized Sang Priest

Rounded out by Mephiston!

Angels Encarmine Sternguard

Hey guys here is an AE Sternguard squad that I have painted for Snake Eyes over at Tabletop War.




I tried my best to mach the color of the original models. I used the same colors as the original but still ended up slightly redder and brighter: even after 3 washes of red over the top!



Five of these guys have Chapterhouse Studios magnetized combi-bolters, I think they look pretty good! Be warned though you have to drill out all the holes for the magnets in the gun part of the weapon and it is a pain.

One final note, this darned cold weather is killing me, I had to brush seal these models because of it, and that takes close to 24 hours to fully cure.

Tomorrow I will post up the rest of this commission.

Check out the Killzone playtest give away

Brian is running a give away for Killzone on A Gentleman's Ones. It's really easy to enter play a game of killzone, use the form provided in his post to report you game and bam, you are entered in the give away. First prize on the table is a NIB Stormraven!

So Check it out!

Killzone: Giveaway

Killzone V2 available for some hot skirmish action

Get 'em while they are hot!

A newly revised and updated Special Operations: Killzone Core Rules and Errata is available for download. These revisions and updates improve on the basics of the Killzone dynamic, but also account for the player feedback about extremely modest hiccups that were encountered over the last year, as well as bringing all the new codices into line.

This update includes:

The revised ruleset includes revisions to: wargear, skills, overwatch, team selection, themes, deployment, mission points, victory conditions, and much, much more. We have worked very hard to hone the dynamic, and I am quite proud of where we are.

The revised errata include new lists for the Grey Knights, Sisters of Battle, Necrons and a special operations team for the Inquisition.

Also outlined is an entirely new card system that includes deployment options, primary missions, secondary missions, tertiary missions and rounded out by the wildly cinematic fate dynamic. We have rolled the Missions into the Core rulesbook.(The card decks will follow shortly.)

To download the files follow this link to the TCP Killzone page you want the V2 versions of the PDF's.

Killzone Downloads

We have left up the old V1 cards, missions book and Adepticon 2011 missions for anyone that may want to have them.

The home stretch: Killzone fans rejoice!

Brian and I have been hard at work on the next version of Killzone. We have hashed almost everything out and editing and formatting is about it. We have updated the rules and missions. We have finally got all the FAQ's done for all the codices; Grey Knights, Sisters of Battle and Necrons. We have even included a specialist Inquisition henchman list out of the GK codex.

The plan is to have the PDF's in your hot little hands by Friday 11/26.

Healthy Gamer Challenge update 11-11

Howdy health fans!

It's been another two weeks so time for another update. I have hit a plateau on the weight loss side of things, as I have lost none in this cycle. Now that is always to be expected when losing weight so I am not worried one bit.

So I will be changing up my exercise routine a bit in the next two weeks. I'll still be walking, although the weather has forced me indoors on the trusty old treadmill. I will be adding some light weight lifting to help firm and tone in the areas I have lost in, so I don't end up with any saggy areas. This will also increase the amount of exercise that my body is doing and should spur my body back toward burning more calories.

Now that I have shared it is your turn. How have you guys been doing?

Killzone links temporarily removed

Hey guys sorry for any inconvieniences but I have removed the links for the Killzone PDF's. So that there is no confusion for the 2012 Adepticon Killzone participants.

Brian and I are hard at work on an update to the system including a few long overdue Errata updates. Sorry for the delay life has gotten in the way.

We should be able to have these up in the next 7-10 days, so keep your eyes out for them.

Cheers,
Jim

Healthy Gamer Challenge update 10-27

Hey guys time for another update, sorry for the delay, family issues have been thick.

So over the past three weeks I have only walked about 40 miles, but have dropped another 7 pounds. Bringing the total loss to 62 making my current weight 313 pounds. I am stoked that I am close to breaking the 300 pound mark.

I am feeling great, I am almost starting to feel like myself again. Being this heavy can really drain on you emotionally, but I can see light at the end of that distant tunnel.

Blackmoor gave the challenge a shout out this week and has already lost himself 20 pounds, congrats dude keep up the hard work!

So hows about the rest of you guys?

AoV Librarian Terminator

Here is a Librarian for Magilla's Angels of Vengeance army. I have finally finished him. I feel bad that it has taken so long, but my injuries have slowed my painting significantly. On top of that this is a repaint as the US post office lost the package with the original miniature and there has been no sign of the package in a search conducted by the USPS.

I'd like to thank Mags for his patience in this time of recovery for me. I had hoped to send him last week, but as you can see that did not happen, my left hand has been shaky from all the rehab and pain. He will be trucking his way to SoCal on Monday via UPS or Fedex!

I went with a slightly darker blue for the armor to match the broodish nature of the AoV's black armor. I have noticed that I forgot to paint his teeth and need to touch up few minor things, grr....

I really like the way the glow on the staff script/whirls turned out

Healthy Gamer Challenge update 10-06

Ok guys it has been two weeks and it is time for an update post! I have been as busy as I can be juggling the pain from rehab and the weather.

I have walked a total of 25 miles during this period and have lost another 10 pounds. Bringing my total weight loss to 55 pounds.

So my staring weight was 375 and I now weigh 320, I am happy for the loss.

Every week I find myself having more energy to burn.

As soon as my rehab is done on the 14th, I plan to start jog walking in an attempt to strengthen my cardiovascular system even more.

So what have you guys been up to? Have you gotten up from your desk and game tables getting a bit more active? How about those typical gamer snack, have you swapped any for healthier choices?

Share your experiences below if you'd like.

Healthy Wargamer Challenge

My computer issues have now been resolved and I am getting caught back up with the online content that I have missed. I have just found out that one of my Online friends has passed away He and I have been friends since I found the Dice like Thunder now Eternal Warriors podcast and have enjoyed sharing our hobby via the live show chat and forums. We also became friends on Facebook, which was neat as I got to know more than just the gamer he was. I would like to offer his wife and young children my most sincere condolences

On September 9th James Ayles also known as "xxxjammerxxx" passed away from a sudden massive heart attack at age 45. I am in shock; James was only a couple of years older than I am. The first thing that I thought was that could have easily been me.

Back in June I had reached a weight of 375 pounds; I was horrified, I immediately decided that denial of my health and weight issues could not go on any longer. So I began walking every day; at first I walked a mile a day, but within weeks I was walking a steady 3 miles.

It was on one of these walks that I got clipped by that damned car a few weeks ago. It was bizarre I found myself going stir crazy due to my inability to take my walks. So I worked hard at rehabbing myself as fast as I could. Even with the pain from my previously dislocated shoulder I pushed on to rehab the shoulder as soon as I could manage to move the darned thing!

At the time of my accident I had lost 45 pounds, thank goodness I have not put any back on from my inactivity. I have resumed walking although I am only walking a mile and a half right now. The rehab on my arm is taking a toll on me and I don’t want to over do it while I heal.

I would like to lose at least another 45 pounds by the New Year. I will be chronicling my progress by weekly on the blog, not something I would usually do, but I think that gamers need to be aware of the repercussions of being an inactive and/or overweight hobbyist.

I have a few medical conditions that are caused from my weight and inactivity. Up until August I had a serious issue with my blood pressure and was on medication for the condition. I am happy to say that through my recent exercise I have completely corrected the condition. I always knew that I could control my blood pressure through exercise, but was just too lazy and it was easier to just take the medication then go through all that effort. I was also borderline diabetic, which I am happy to say is also no longer the case!

I feel a hundred times better than I did back in June, I really do. I now wake up in the morning invigorated and ready to start my day; before it took me at least an hour to shake the grogginess outta my head.

The tragic passing of James has strengthened my resolve. I will be down to a weight of 190 pounds by this time next year; or at least that is the plan. I swear I won’t go back to ever being as inactive as I was back before June.

So here is the challenge for any of you that would like to embark upon this journey with me.

Make a determined effort to be more active and healthy. Get a bit of exercise and eat a bit better staying away from those typical sugary gamer snacks. This is not necessarily a weight loss challenge as it is more of a getting into a more healthy state of mind and body; don’t get me wrong weight loss is a thing to be praised. Then when I make my post in two weeks just report your progress in the comments.


Whether or not you join me I will be sharing my progress with you guys in two weeks. I will not pass quietly into the night; I will do everything in my power to live good life as long as I can.

11th Company Live Nova Open Coverage

The guys from the 11th company will be streaming live coverage from the Nova Open for the next four days. I am embedding the player for you all to enjoy.

Thursday coverage at 6PM EST
Friday Coverage at 9AM EST
Saturday Coverage at 9AM EST
Sunday Coverage at 9AM EST


Live video for mobile from Ustream

Holy Carp!

I am sure that you may have noticed my lack of blogging for the past couple of months. I have not had the best of luck in my personal life, which is something I don't usually mention here. Things were finally starting to even out it looked like I was going to be back into the hobby full swing; then out of the blue my luck went sour again.

This past Sunday I was hit/clipped by a car while crossing the street. I am now on the mend from this event, but will be unable to do anything hobby related for probably another 4-6 weeks as my relocated shoulder and broken fingers heal.

This has been the most awful 10 months of my life, but despite that I have worked hard to stay positive.

What I am going to try to do is finish up my gaming outside the box series, if I can coax my friend into editing the articles. This one handed pecking is awfully slow and tedious.

The Bay Area Open GT

The above pic is my vote for most gutsy player, Necrons in a Zero-comp event!

The GT is over and I am absolutely beat, who knew that just taking pictures could be so exhausting! Reece and the rest of Team Zero Comp put on an outstanding event, congrats guys and gals!

There were tournaments for 40K, WFB and Warmachine. I will be covering some of the 40k stuff here.

The tables were really good for the most part, a few were a little sparse but even at that better than most Tourneys I have ever been too.

What was really awesome is that for the event being a tournament, everyone was extremely friendly and all around great guys. I am gonna go out on a limb here and say that I think it was the whole zero army composition and strait win loss scoring style of the event.


Top three were Winners for 40k were:
Imperial Guard Mechanized - the undefeated champion.
Battlewagon Orks - 2nd Place
Paladin GK - 3rd Place.

I will do a few more posts about this before the week is done. I have tons of Photo editing to do catch y'all later!

Here are a few pics to tied you over

Angels of Vengeance Speeder and Terminator fillers

Here is part of the second part of the Angels of Vengeance commission for Mags.

Angels of Vengeance Objective Markers

Here are 5 objective markers for Magilla's Angels of Vengeance. These are a last minute addition to his 2nd commission for the army.

He just wanted some simple bronze marine statues to use with the army for the Bay Area Open that is happening this coming weekend. I will also be at the event snapping lots and lots of Pics as the staff photographer!



Also before I forget, I will be finishing the Gaming outside the box series next week as this commission has got me otherwise occupied.

Gaming outside the box: Inspiration

When it comes to narrative wargaming the only thing holding you back is the limits of your imagination. Sometimes even the most creative amongst us fall short on inspiration, and that is what this post is about. I am going to share some of the ways that I get inspired.

A phenomenal source of 40k inspiration is the Black Library books, which just keep getting better and better. They contain some fantastic settings that are just screaming for recreation on the tabletop! If I had to pick my favorite series of books it would have to be the Horus Heresy series. Any of these stories can be re-envisioned to fit your current armies in the modern era of the 40k universe.

Another great source of inspiration can be the History and Mythology of our own real world. In fact I know that GW has used some of the great battles in history as inspiration for 40k. A small force of Space Wolves that is lead by Wolf Guard Ranulf the Strong holds a small mountain pass against an Ork horde to allow the rest of Space wolves to regroup, sure sounds like the Spartans at the Battle of Thermopylae.

A personal favorite of many wargamers and GW is Hollywood! Movies can be a great starting point for inspiration, cause who does not love the tension of being trapped in a spaceship surrounded by the foul xenos! I’ve even enjoyed games involhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifving a dozen military criminals sent on a suicide mission where you know all but a few are gonna die!

Other Sci-fi genre books can inspire also, but this can be a bit tougher due to the established Grim Dark of the 40k Lore.

Edit: a great suggestion from Porky. Lexicanum is a great online source for 40k inspiration!

The bottom line is that there is a world full of inspiration waiting to be transformed to life on your tabletop all you have to do is find the correct muse for your tastes!

See you Monday for part three, Objectives and Special Rules.

Until then!

On the table: Eradicators/CSM Havocs

Here are the first two finished models for the squad. The other three models are almost finished I need to finish painting the gold on them. I should have the rest of them up by Thurs or Friday.

I have finished the Centurion and one of the Missile launchers. Sorry for the dark pics I lost a lamp and didn't have a replacement bulb for it.






I was a bit worried about the rotting heads hanging from the missile launcher models. I am pretty satisfied with the result, they are a little lighter in color in person.

Gaming outside the box

In this series of posts I will be going over my thoughts on Narrative gaming; from tried and true mechanics that my group has used for years as well as ideas that are brewing for upcoming games.

Here is a little background for those of you that were not around in the early days of 40k Rogue Trader. Back in those hallowed days 40k was all about the story; it was so deeply ingrained into the game that you were supposed to have a game master. Most gamers back then were more worried about having a great time creating a fantastic story that winning and losing was only a fleeting secondary thought.

So for most of the been playing since 1st ed crowd narrative gaming is as natural as breathing. Oh how things have changed, now with the streamlined rules and tournament hungry gaming culture, narrative gaming has taken a back seat. I’d be willing to bet that there will be gamers that read this that have never played a narrative game of 40k

Narrative gaming means different things to different gamers, but at its core it is about creating a story with your games. This can be achieved in many ways, from a simple objective driven system where each objective has real significance to the actual story. It can also be very elaborate with custom special rules, random events or anything your imagination can cook up.

All you have to do is let your imagination take over and find a fried that wants to have a game where the results create a story.

Did Captain Antillies, and his Knights of Fire purge the traitors from Pergos, more importantly did he survive the engagement?

On Wednesday I will be going over idea about where you can draw inspiration for your narrative games.

Until then……

On the table this week: Eradicators/CSM Havocs

Here is a WIP shot of what I am working on this week. It is a squad of Soul Reapers Eradicators; so basically correctly priced Chaos Havocs! The squad weighs in at 155 points without an icon or costs 160 points with a personal icon.

I really like the way that they turned out, even though they were a nightmare to build with the metal heavy weapons.

The Champ is a particular favorite of mine, I worked hard to give him a natural pose for a model holding a bolter and pointing. I also gave him that clever spiky bit on his pack that can double as a personal icon for those time that I give the squad an icon.

Soul Reapers Praetorian Centurion: CSM Chosen Champ

I am working on finishing up my Praetorian squad, I have finished the Centurion. I really love these Forge World berzerker heads, they give the perfect look to these veteran madmen. He is armed with a Chaos Rune Blade and bolt pistol, but his right arm is magnetized so will have more weapons options later.