Thursday 27 June 2013

Goblinaid Giveaway!


From GoblinAid FB page:

''Something different for GoblinAid - Andy at Heresy Miniatures not only sculpted a new Gobbo for the GA set(s) but also kindly donated a handful of original master castings of the model.

I'll be listing a VERY limited edition of these on the GA eBay page soon, but in the meantime, for a chance to win one yourself free, just leave a comment on this thread and share the GA page with anyone you think might be interested''





So head over to GoblinAid FB page HERE for your chance to win one of these baby's :)

Also for you Ebay heads there's a rather tasty Gobbo being sold by GoblinAid HERE


So support a good cause and buy some new toys :)

Wednesday 19 June 2013

The Warband of Dolgar Manhood-Eater, Fimir Background and Fluff Part 2

The story starts many years ago back in the misty south western bogs in the cold hard land of Norsca between the tribes of Bjornlings and Skaelings.



Dolgar, later to become the Manhood-Eater was back then the High-Dirach of a small Fimir Tribe called the Mud Crows. Their Meargh an old and wise Fimir choose the way of peace from the Tribe, only taking Human tribesmen to breed from starving and defeated Norse Tribes that are constantly warring with each other.

Soon this was all to change as well armed scouting party from the Dwarf hold Karak Ankor came across the Mud Crow's village and upon seeing the captured and enslaved women began to slaughter every Fimir within their sight.


Dolgar and a band of less then 100 Fimm and Fianna Fimm managed to escape the blazing village and murdering Dwarfs.

Fleeing eastwood, Dolgar led his small band to the Wastes. Forsaking Balor and the rest of the Fimir Gods and Dietys, Dolar called out to any entity which could provide his revenge against the hated Dwarfs. One answered the one God which was also a outcast and renegade Malal!

There is a name whispered quietly and with fear even by the most depraved, the most evil, and the least sane of the worshippers of Chaos. That name is Malal, the Renegade God of Chaos. Any man who dares look within the unholy black pages of The Great Book of Despair, that foul tome held sacred by worshippers of Chaos, would find the following words: "...and he that went before now came last, and that which was white and black and all direction was thrown against itself. Grown mightily indignant at the words of the Gods, Malal did turn his heart against them and flee into the chambers of space . . . And no man looked to Malal then, save those that serve that which they hate, who smile upon their misfortune, and who bear no love save for the damned. At such times as a warrior's heart turns to Malal, all Gods of Chaos grow fearful, and the laughter of the Outcast God fills the tomb of space . . ."
In eons past Malal was cast out from the bosom of Chaos by the other Gods, or else abandoned them of his own volition, no one is sure which. In any case, Malal's relationship to the other Gods of Chaos is a strange one. All Gods of Chaos pursue purposes that are wholly their own, yet only Malal occupies a position so antithetical to the success of his own unfathomable creed. To be a follower of Malal is to be a Chaotic warrior bent upon shedding the blood of other Chaotic creatures. As such, Malal is both feared and hated by the other Chaos Gods. Malal's worshippers, too, are loathed by other Chaotics; they are outcasts beloved by neither the friends nor enemies of Chaos, dependent upon the least whim of their patron deity. Few men worship such a God; fewer still live long in his service. The bonds that tie master and servant ever drain upon the soul of the warrior, and it is a rare man that can loosen the bonds of Malal once forged.

Icon Of Malal


And so Dolar now Doomed One of Malal and Outcast had the power he demanded, will he get is revenege?  How did he become the Manhood-Eater? these are all questions for another time.

Enjoy
Chico

Tuesday 18 June 2013

The Warband of Dolgar Manhood-Eater, Fimir Background and Fluff Part 1

Inspired by the Fomorians of Celtic myth, they are depicted as humanoid, cyclopean creatures with barbed tails and beak-like snouts, with skins that varied from a dark green to a muddy brown colour. They are described as being part Daemon.
 The Fimir inhabit the wetlands of the Warhammer world, typically within crudely constructed fortifications resembling nothing more than a pile of rocks. From these locations, the Fimir raid the homes of humans, taking captives for daemonic sacrifices. The Fimir loathe sunlight, and are followed by wreaths of mist to shield them from it, and their homes are always shrouded by it.


Fimir society is divided into a caste system, consisting of Meargh, the Dirach, the Fimm warriors, and the Shearl. The Meargh - also known as witch-hags - are the leaders of Fimir colonies, as well as the only females. A Meargh would typically also be a very powerful user of magic. The Dirach - described as "daemon-friends" - are a caste of wizards specialising in the worshipping of Daemons. The warrior caste - consisting of Fimm (warriors), Fianna Fimm (elite warriors), and the various nobles - take the brunt of raiding and fighting. The Shearls - the slaves of a Fimir settlement - exist only to work and die. The ruling Meargh hold the clans together. In the event of a Meargh's death, the Fimir of her stronghold separate, either working as mercenaries for other evil creatures or seeking out another clan to join. However the Meargh is sterile and therefore unable to breed. So as to replenish their numbers the Fimir kidnap young fertile human women to use as breeding stock.

The Warband of Dolgar Manhood-Eater

Map of the Known World

Part 2 will be my personal fluff and background for the Fimir Warband of Dolgar Manhood-Eater, Doomed One of Malal and Renegade.

Until next time!
- Chico

Sunday 16 June 2013

Squats.. No not what you have after a curry...

Arhhh Squats.. a cause for heated debate on many a forum.

How many people would go nutty for this to be made
This is what Jevis Johnson said on the subject of Squats in '04

"I know I shouldn't get drawn on this... but... can't... resist

Seriously, a couple of points just so you can have an informed debate based on the real reasons that Squats are no longer available. Be warned, it is going to be hard reading for people that like the Squat background.

First of all, Squats were *not* dropped because they were not selling well. There were then, and are now, plenty of other figure ranges that sell in the sort of % quantaties that the Squats pulled down, especially when you look across all of the ranges produced by GW rather than just those for 40K.

No, the reason that the Squats were dropped was because the creatives in the Studio (people like me, Rick, Andy C, Gav etc) felt that we had failed to do the Dwarf 'archetype' justice in its 40K incarnation. From the name of the race (Squats - what *were* we thinking?!?!) through to the short bikers motif, we had managed to turn what was a proud and noble race in Warhammer and the other literary forms where the archetype exists, into a joke race in 40K. We only fully realised what we had done when we were working on the 2nd edition of 40K. Try as we might, we just couldn't work up much enthusiasm for the Squats. The mistake we made then (deeply regreted since) was to leave them in the background and the 'get you by' army list book that appeared. With hindsight, we should have dropped the Squats back then, and saved ourselves a lot of grief later on.

Anyway, the Squats made it into 2nd edition, and since we were doing army books for each of the races, we started to try and figure out what to do with them. Unfortunately we just couldn't figure out a way to update them and get them to work that we felt was good enough. The 'art' of working on an army as a designer is to find the thing that you think is cool and exciting about an army, and work it up into a strong theme. This 'muse' didn't strike any of us, and so, rather than bring out a second-rate product simply re-hashing the old background, we kept doing other army books instead, with stuff we did feel inspired by.

Now, while this was all going on for 40K, we were actually doing some rather good stuff for the Squats in Epic. On this scale there was a natural tendancy to focus on the big 'hand-made' war machines the Squat artisans produced, and this created an army with a feel that was very different to the biker hordes in 40K. However, this tended to reinforce the problems we saw in the Squat background rather than alleviate them, underlining what we *should* have done with the Squats in 40K.

In the end (and it took years to really get to the roots of the problem) this led to a realisation that we were going to have to drop the Squats in their 'Squat' form from the 40K background. There was little point having a major race that we weren't willing to make an army book for, and their inclusion in the background meant that people kept asking us when we'd do a Squat Codex. Instead we decided that we'd write the Squats out of the background by saying that their Homworlds had been devoured by a Tyranid Hivefleet. This would give us the option in the future to return to making a race based ont he Squat archetype for 40K. This race was given the name of Demiurg, and a certain amount of preliminary work was done to get a 'feel' for what the race would be like. At present the only hint of the Demiurg in 40K is the Demiurg spaceship for BFG. However, we do have this race 'in our back pocket' as a possible new race for 40K, or an interesting character model in Inquisitor, or whatever. So far the Demiurg have lost out to other projects, and it may be that their time never actually comes, as they will have to win through on their merits, not simply because we once made some Squat models in the past. At present, I have to say that it is more lilely that they *don't* make the cut than do, as there is a certain predudice these days to simply taking races from Warhammer and cross them over to 40K like we did in the early days, so it may be that the Squats/Demiurg end up remaining a footnote in the history of the 40K galaxy. Only time will tell...

The second point I'd like to make is about 'old moulds'. In the past, Mail Order in the UK and US used to be the place that we kept all of the retired moulds for Citadel Miniatures, and we used to offer a service where you could order any Citadel Mniature ever made from MO. However, there are now so many of these 'back catalogue' miniatures that it is simply impossible to keep all of the old moulds in Mail Order and offer this service. Instead, we pick and choose which back catalogue miniatures are kept available. At present we're still struggling to produce special catalogues for these ranges (in the US there is the 'Phone Book' catalogue with everything in it, while the UK has special 'collectors guides' that are themed round a race). Once we've ironed out the kinks in the way we deal with the range of collectors models we want to keep permenantly available, the plan is to offer up other parts of the back catalogue for limited periods of time. In effect this will divide the back catalogue into three parts: a range of classic models that are permenantly available, a range of classic models we dip into and bring out for a limited release, and a range of retired models that will no longer be sold either because we've decided that they are embarrassingly bad, or because we are no longer allowed to sell them due to licencing agreement changes. So far we're still slowly working on deciding which classic models we want to keep permenantly available, and its going to take several years to work through just those. The old Squat range is most likely to end up as retired models, I have to say, though there is a good chance that the Squat war engines they could simply into the limited release classic range. Once again, only time will tell...

I'll finish off by saying that whatever we decide to do 'officially', there is nothing stopping players with Squat armies from using them, either in Epic or 40k for that matter. There is no GW 'rule' against using old Citadel Miniatures, as long as you use them with exisiting army lists and in a way that won't cause confusion for other players. I recommend taking a positive stand by saying "Have you seen these cool old models? They're called the Squats and GW used to make them back in the late eighties/early nineties. I love 'em, so I count them as Imperial Guard and use them with the current rules..." Put like this I can't imagine that anyone would stop you from using your army.

Best regards,

Jervis Johnson
Head Fanatic"


I've always wanted a Chaos Squat force and one day i will get round too it.. right after the Genestealer Cult, Orks, Fimir, Slann and Chaos Dwarfs i still need to start/finish.

Chaos Squats Vs Loyalist Squats


 
What's your thoughts on the Squats?

Chico

Wednesday 12 June 2013

Blood Bowl: Star Coach

Hey,

Not an Oldhammer post or even a Wargaming post! Wait wait before you leave muttering, its still about Blood Bowl that game of bloodshed that you all happen to love right?

The last few days i haven't done much painting, the reason Blood Bowl: Star Coach is in open beta for the PC and i been giving that a good bashing.



In Blood Bowl : Star Coach create your team and set your own match tactics to destroy your opponent in a fantasy, ultra-violent version of American football! Based on Games Workshop's fantasy football game world, Blood Bowl: Star Coach is a tactical multiplayer team-building game.

What the developers say:

As development of Blood Bowl: Star Coach enters its final phase, we offer you the chance of an Early Access in order to try out the game. Thanks to your feedback, we will be able to correct any errors and improve the game experience.

Blood Bowl: Star Coach is Free-to-Play and we intend to add content in the game as well as in the in-game store. For example, we would like to introduce additional pre-defined tactics, new training bots for practice games, boosters as well as new teams to coach.

This Beta phase also allows us to prepare for the launch of the game on other platforms because you will soon be able to play on tablet computers as well as on Mac!

To thank you for taking part, Cyanide will reward you with a pack of Cyans, to be used in-game when Blood Bowl: Star Coach is officially launched.



About the Game
In Blood Bowl : Star Coach create your team and set your own match tactics to destroy your opponent in a fantasy, ultra-violent version of American football!

Based on Games Workshop's fantasy football game world, Blood Bowl: Star Coach is a tactical multiplayer team-building game. Dwarfs, elves, humans, and other foul creatures are back and, once more, they are determined to grind each other into the turf!

Star Coach tasks the player with creating their own Blood Bowl team (choosing from different races and players) and the development of his own offensive and defensive playbook. The player will then challenge other coaches, no matter which digital platform they play on, and choose the strategy that best fits his opponent. The basics of this violent sport are simple: two teams, one ball. The team that carries the ball into the opponent's end zone scores a touchdown, and the team with the most touchdowns at the end of the game is the winner. But, as with the original Blood Bowl, no holds barred violence and dirty tricks are allowed!

Matches are resolved by an online server and a ranking system designates the best coaches. Coaches can develop their teams in a variety of different ways and have the opportunity to improve their teams by hiring Star Players or recruiting new staff. A ‘Cabalvision’ replay mode allows players to live out the blow-by-blow contest in full 3D!

System Requirements
Minimum:

OS:XP
Processor:Core 2 Duo
Memory:512 MB RAM
Graphics:Shader Model 3
DirectX®:9.0
Hard Drive:200 MB HD space
Other Requirements:Broadband Internet connection

I look forward too seeing you on the game, well beating you at least.

-
Chico

Thursday 6 June 2013

Orks! Orks! Orks! Orks!

So as the title suggests this post is all about Orks so ain't you lucky?

Anyway yesterday (yes yesterday) a nice package came though the post from Mutantdale (A member of the BLOOD forum) containing amongst other items one of the Holy Grails of RT/2nd Ed Ork collecting..a Battle Wagon!

After a quick dip in Dettol, I had a 3-way game of 40K while i waited for the Dettol with my Genestealer Cult against Black Legion and Dark Angels.

There was a few missing bits and a little damage, but nothing major and to be fair it gave me an excuse to have a bit of fun converting.

4 hours later and i was finished, pictures below what do you think?












So that's not the only update i have for you, i also finished a few more Boarboyz:




So until next time, feel free to follow this blog and comment.

-
Chico

Tuesday 4 June 2013

HEROHAMMER!

Many of you may remember Herohammer also known as 4/5th Ed Warhammer. These are the days when you had mighty Vampire Lords upon Emperor Black Dragons which could fly high and do flying charge out of the sky anywhere it wanted. These where the days when battles where decided by a handful of powerful heroes, the massed ranks of both sides serving only as cannon fodder for their blades.

I started to probley game at the beginning of this era of Warhammer, and i have to say i kind of miss it. I play 8th Ed quite a lot and i really enjoy the massed Infantry in horde formations that are promoted by this edition. But there's something missing and that's the Hero's.

Still maybe its nostalgia talking and it wasn't all glory. My first game of 5th is still quite fresh in my mind, I was fielding my new and shiny Big Hat Chaos Dwarfs as White Dwarf had just released there Army Book. My Lord took to battle folly tooled up with Helm of Many Eyes (Always Strike First) and Executioners Axe (Always Strike Last but chance of killing blow) and Heart of Woe (When you died you exploded). Arhh which reminds me of the HoME Vs EA which one told president do you strike first or last?


So there was my Chaos Dwarf Lord a combat machine leading my force forward into the ranks of the most hated foe.. The Dwarfs! Then came my shooting phrase and my massed Warmachines took aim, i started off with my Death Rocket and aimed at a unit of Bugman Rangers trying to flank my unit of Big Hat Warriors containing my Lord. My Death Rocket scattered and hit my Lord and killed him straight.. so much for Herohammer after all!

Image from Coolminiornot

So what's your take on 4th/5th ed? Did you play it? did you enjoy it?

I'd love to hear your views,
Until next time,
- Chico

Sunday 2 June 2013

Goals of a Oldhammer Collector

Hey,

Right while hunting for a few Orks on various forums i started wondering about collecting lead and the goals that drive you too keep hunting for those missing mini's from your own collection.

Now for me when i start a new army i have 4 goals in mind, first goal is a simple one and that's get as many figures for that force as I can in the quickest time frame possible. Second goal is too make a effective and legal playable force, at this time point I'd like to point out that I like to play current rules but with old mini's. Third goal is what i happen to enjoy the most and that's getting them painted, now while this is the third goal I still start this from the moment I get the first bit of old lead in my greedy hands. The fourth goal is the hardest and longest and its where my collector self comes into play, the fourth goal is all about collecting all the odd bits and pieces for that force such as Limited Edition or Uncatalogued/Unreleased or variant sculpts and can does take forever. In fact i have never completed the fourth goal as there's always something else lucking out there that I want.

Now when it comes to the fourth goal i have gotten quite lucky in the last month sourcing 3 Uncatalogued  2nd Ed Greenskins (One i didn't even know i had and was even found in my ''To sell'' pile :O )

So below are my lucky finds (Pictures from Collecting Citadel Miniatures)


Space Ork Freebooterz - Freebooter Boy 7


This Freebooter was a Ebay buy, i paid a little bit more for him then i happen to do for most my Ebay buys but what can i say i really wanted him.

Space Ork 1991 Runt - Runt with net and mushroom




Space Ork 1995-6 Death Skull Loota Nob




Right my old gits, until next time have a beer or 6 and keep fighting that good fight aka getting the Wife to let you buy toys.

Cheers
Chico
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