Animosity IV Campaign begins 10/31 - The Great Migration needs you!

Sign-ups for the Animosity IV Warhammer Fantasy campaign have begun, and this time around they have included an Ogre Kingdoms faction (among others). Taking part seems pretty easy, and it's a great excuse to play more games of Warhammer!

The campaign begins on the 31st of October 2009, so head over to www.animositycampaigns.com now and get registered! Here are a few links to get you started:

• How to register for the campaign
• The campaign FAQ
• The map room

If you are interested in joining the Great Migration you will want to check out these links as well:

• The Great Migration faction's sign-up thread
• More information about the Great Migration faction
  

"As a player in The Great Migration you will take the part of a Tyrant, Hunter or Butcher in the service of Grazok Beastslayer as the mighty hunter leads your tribes into the land of Cathay. You are backed into a corner and your goal is simple. Cathay has food where you do not and you must take it for yourself. Grazok is not stupid however. An all out assault on the Cathayan army would be dangerous and he trusts you and your fellows to help him guide the tribe to a safer path. So your task is one a true Ogre will grasp quite easily. You must feed your tribe!

The Great Migration is an essentially neutral faction, and therein lies your advantage. While Ogres are quite rightly the largest and most feared humanoids in Cathay, they are not complete strangers. Ogre bodyguards have been employed within the Empire for centuries, so most people are well used to seeing hulking Maneaters walking along side the carriages of the more affluent members of Cathayan society.

It will be down to you as players to decide which way the Tribes you lead will go. You could approach the Figureheads and offer your might for hire, hoping to gain food for your whelps through this exchange. Many Figureheads would gladly use Ogre strength to further their own goals, yet you must decide carefully which ones will follow through on their promise of rewards and whether being led around by the nose suits your disposition. Alternatively you could choose a more independent path, and taking advantage of the weakened Empire take what you want when you want using your great strength to eat the very heart of Cathay. The choice is yours.

Finally, it may be worth pondering Grazok's own question to you when he gathered the tribes. Is it possible to escape the constant hunger of the Maw? Only Cathay holds the answer. Use your cunning as a Hunter, but don’t be afraid to unleash that inner Tyrant if it means securing a hot lunch! Pray to the Great Maw as you see fit and may it grant you a plentiful bounty!"

I've already signed up for the campaign and I am looking forward to playing some games for the Great Migration. It's not too late to get involved! Sign up now!

While you were out.

After a few weeks away from my drinkin' and modelin' I have returned. I feel like I have aged three-hundred years in three weeks. Still playing WHFB catch up so here is a quick post with re-caps of what I missed while I was out!

• The new issue of Word of Hashut is out now. This latest issue (number 6) looks amazing, features a lot of Ogre related content, and has the rules for a character I created called Mawster Blaster. I'll post a more in-depth analysis on this at a later date (detailing the creation and throught process behind the character).
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• GW added the Screaming Bell/Plague Furnace kit to their site. You can see pics of the kit, box, and sprues here. It looks like one hell of an impressive kit and I am glad to see GW actually putting pictures of the sprues up on the site. I'll add them to this blog's collection later this week.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Bell of Lost Souls added pictures of the Doom Wheel after assembly. I wonder if the person who took the pictures happened to write a step-by-step instruction book for the model as well. I was scratching my head after seeing it on the sprue for the first time.
  

More posts to come this week as I get re-situated (assuming I don't spend my extra time working on my TOP SECRET project or playing Borderlands). If you know of something else I might have missed in the past two weeks please leave a comment and let me know about it!

Two brutal Sundays.

It may not be "blog appropriate" but the events of the past week will certainly have an impact on my life and hobbies.

My father passed away last Monday night. I never had a chance to show him my completed models but I like to think he would have liked them. He had an enormous influence on my life and most (if not all) of my artistic talents can be credited to him. My love of monsters, fantasy, science fiction, nature, food, games, comics, reading, laughing, sarcasm ... the list goes on an on.

I gave up my place in the next round of this year's 'Ard Boyz tournament to the fourth place contestant. Although I might make it back home in time to compete I don't think I would be able to focus on something so trivial while being crushed by the combined weight of other events in my life. I'm not saying painting, constructing, and "doing battle" with tiny models isn't great (of course it is), just that life can be short (sometimes tragically so) and you never know what the universe will throw your way. Make the most of the chaos and hug the ones you love - you might not get another chance.

It isn't fantasy.

My father is quite ill. I will be out of town for a few weeks as I rush back home to support my family. Hope you and yours are doing well.

Progress Report - Ogre Tyrant Karnov WIP.

Karnov! Ahhhhhh!!

I have been putting off finishing this big guy for a while now but I thought it was time to share a WIP picture of my Tyrant. I have only applied a base coat with a few highlights, need to work on the details and finishing touch(ups) before I seal the model. He is quite big. Large and in charge as they say...

Speaking of large, here is a review of one big beer from my favorite brewery Stone!

Stone Brewing Company - Stone Levitation Ale

Beer Type: American Amber / Red Ale

Appearance: 12 oz. brown bottle with a hovering silver devil on it, plus a bunch of awards (2007 Gold Medal Winner at the Great American Beer Festival). Poured reddish ambler color with a thin off-white head.

Smell: A lot of hops, some citrus, and lots of sweet malt.

First Drink: Sweet and not too bitter with hints of citrus and a sort of cereal/grain flavor.

Mouthfeel: Smooth and full-bodied like most Stone brews.

Last Drink: A lot more of the malts with a lingering sweetness and a bitter finish.

Drinkability: A good beer but not my favorite Stone brew.

Notes: This beer is good and well crafted but I think I may not like Red Ale that much if this is any indicator of the style.

Verdict: 4 out of 5

Links: Beer Advocate and Stone Brewing Company.

New Skaven available for pre-order from Games Workshop!

Check this out!

New models! New Skaven! Doomwheel!! Look at Snikch!

Disclaimer time - the above image is © Games Workshop Ltd. All rights reserved. I have used these without permission. Don't sue me!

Alright. In an effort to get you the reader caught up in the hype here is a sampling of Skaven chitterings regarding the new book (some of which are now confirmed by the advance order listing on the GW site):

LORDS
Warlord Queek Head-taker
Verminlord - roughly 500pts
Lord Skrolk, Plaguelord of Clan Pestilens - Bringing Skrolk lets you take plague monks as core
Thanquoul and Boneripper
Throt the Unclean, Master Mutator of Clan Moulder
Ikit Claw, Chief Warlock of Clan Skryre
Warlord
Grey Seer

HEROES
Warlock Engineer - wizard 1/2, Skryre Sniper weaponry available
Plague Priest - lvl 1/2 wizard upgrade available
Chieftain
Deathmaster Snikch
Tetch – nothing has been given on him except his name, and this name doesn’t appear in any current lore
Assassins

Character Mounts:
Grey Seer - Screaming Bell
Plague Priest - Plague Furnace, Giant Rat
Warlord - Rat Ogre, Giant Rat, War Litter

CORE
Slaves
Clan Rats
Storm Vermin
Rat Swarms
Night Runners
Giant Rats – Master Moulder as a packmaster upgrade

SPECIAL
Jezzails - No longer skirmish, Sniper Champion @ BS4
Gutter Runners
Plague Monks
Censor Bearers - drop to 14pts, 2A on profile (3 with frenzy)
Rat Ogres
Poisoned Wind Globadiers

RARE
Warp Lightning Cannon
Plague Catapult
Hellpit Abomination
Doom Wheel - 3d6 movement, immune to psych, impact hits, 150pts

Special Items:

Storm banner, Weeping Blades, Warpstone Stars, Warpscroll, Warpstorm scroll, Brass Orb, Death globe, Fellblade, Sacred Banner of Horned rat, Skalm, Skavenbrew, Smoke bombs will be in the book.

Warpscroll now S2
Weeping blade: AP, D3 wounds, Can be used by GR champion
Infernal Bomb: an Assassin can place it wherever he likes during the movement phase. It can be triggered anytime during the game.
When triggered, on a 2+ roll it explodes with St10 D3 wounds (center of template) or St 3 (if touched). A roll of 1 causes no effect.

New kit available will be able to make plague furnace, screaming bell, or plague catapult.

More Skaven rumor chitters can be read here yes yes. In the meantime, what do you think of the new models? I really like the overall look of them but I wonder how the differing styles will "mix and match" when on the table together? I expect to see a lot of conversions from the Clanrats box. As for the pricing.... $49.50 for a box of 20 plastic rat models!? That is a bit insane.

UPDATE: The main sections of the GW website have been reordered as well! Plague censor bearers are now listed under Special instead of Rare, and poison wind globadiers are listed under Special instead of Core.

UPDATE #2: Just saw this up on the GW site as well! Sprue pics!!!

Clanrats!

Doomwheel!

Games Day UK 2009 - Golden Daemon Winners.

Games Workshop has added pictures of the Golden Daemon winners from the UK Games Day 2009 to their website. Who won you ask? This awesome Warhammer Empire Engineer from Ben Jarvis!

You can see the rest of the winners here.

For those too lazy to check out the Games Workshop site I have included a few of the "blog pertinent" models as well. Here is a cool Ogre Kingdoms Butcher from Charles Kirkpatrick.

And from the "Duel" category there is this really cool Giant fight from Nigel Carmen!

And for the legal minded folks out there - all of these images are © Games Workshop Ltd. All rights reserved. I have used these without permission. Don't sue me!

Seeing these latest GD winners has inspired to me work on my own models. Perhaps this weekend will be one filled with painting (in addition to some homebrew bottling).

Sprue pics: Vampire Counts - Skeleton Warriors.

Another entry in the Sprue Pics collection - this time around we have the VC Skeleton Warriors kit. It is a pretty good set of sprues with options to make Skeletons with spears or swords and shields. There is not a lot of variety in the body types and poses but there are numerous heads - some with armor and plenty of skulls.

Sprue #1 - Front



Sprue #1 - Back



Sprue #2 - Front



Sprue #2 - Back

If you have pictures of new sprues to share send them my way and I will get them added to the site! Thanks.