Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Dead Men Walking - Book Review

Dead Men Walking by Steve Lyons
When the necrons rise, a mining planet descends into a cauldron of war and the remorseless foes decimate the human defenders. Salvation comes in an unlikely form – the Death Korps of Kreig, a force as unfeeling as the Necrons themselves. When the two powers go to war, casualties are high and the magnitude of the destruction is unimaginable.

The latest release for the Imperial Guard from the Black Library is a bit of a Marmite novel! Love it or hate it though one thing’s for sure it certainly makes you think about the Death Korps and reveals much of their back ground and organisation.


The novel has a simple premise, Necrons, Guard, Civilians? Then game on. This though to my mind is somewhat over shadowed by the style of flitting between one character or the other. Linked to the fact that the book has action but its short, sharp and has little detail, to me not something that makes the book work as a combat novel.

The novel itself didn’t really impress me unfortunately but it was a good first look at the Death Korps, giving little bits of info away about the way they are “titled”, no names just numbers, designations and ranks. The ease with which they died and sacrificed themselves as well as the callousness of the commanders was good and really helped highlight the fatalistic nature of the korps.

Other interesting bits where how the novel showed the reaction of the local population to an almost alien unfeeling invader, and that’s just the Death Korps, and how it takes time to defend itself and almost accept the Korps. Yes, there are more aspects to the book but to go in to them more might spoil it but let’s just say not a great novel as far as stories go but when it comes to information and background a very good read. Over all then from me it’s a three and a half stars!




Available from:

http://www.blacklibrary.com/
Dead Men Walking by Steve Lyons
Paperback • ISBN 9781849700115

Friday, January 21, 2011

Modelling News - Guard Weapons Questions & Bases update!

A fellow guardsman struggling with his weapons choices!
Well folks more progress today and a step backwards I'm afraid!

First up the step forward, today I finally took the step to order my bases for the force. I headed over to Secret Weapon Minis earlier and not only picked up a set of the Urban Beveled bases but decided to grab some of the small metal shell casings they sell. So I'm keeping an eye out for those and hope that once they arrive you guys don't mind a little review of all the bits I've ordered.
To check out their products head over here: Secret Weapon Miniatures

Now for the step backwards, I'm just placing an order on the old Forgeworld site for some of the Cadian Special Weapons Teams and it struck me I have no idea what weapons fits work in "todays" Guard Army. So folks I'm turning to you for advice on what works in what situation. To give you a bit more feedback locally I will mainly be facing Space Marines (of all flavours, both Imp and Chaos), Tau, Eldar and Orks, though obviously there are others out there. So my questions are what weapons fits are the best all rounders, both in general and for the following units:
  • Command Squad
  • Platton Command Squads
  • Heavy Weapons Teams
  • Guard Squads
In the case of all these I'd also really like to know do heavy weapons work in these squads or is it best just to run them light and just have special weapons?
Any advice on weapons fits would be appreciated as this one really has me stumped.
Thanks in advance!

Friday 5 Finds - 21.01.11

Hi Folks
Once again apologies for the quite week from me, I've managed to get a few reviews up and have another due to go up soon and finally my order of Cadians arrives just in time to see the announcement from Forgeworld that they are planning some nice Cadian conversion kits so at the minute I'm back to a crawl but hopefully well get some work completed and some vehicles ordered soon to tie me over till the new releases! In the meantime here are this weeks 5 finds:

  1. First up over on Black Matt's blog we have some pics from the GT and of one of the most amazing looking Tau forces I have seen in a while
  2. Back to Dark Future games now for a bit of a throw down and some pics of a superbly painted space marine predator.
  3. Over on SoS we have a nice simple conversion for a vendetta for those of you fancying an Avatar theme to your force
  4. Next we have the first of our steps away from the norm and have some nice screen shots of some new DoW fan models on Musings of a metal mind
  5. Finally on Dragonforge Design blog we have their latest new product, ready made power cables for models, simple but ingenious!
Finally here is this weeks Five Finds Sneak Peek:

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Forgeworld Newsletter #263 - Eldar Spectres & Tanks!

As always the important bits reproduced below:

===============================================

Hi There,

This Newsletter contains some fantastic news for Eldar players with two releases available to pre-order now. We also have two previously unseen Badab War scenarios for you to download, and news of our first three Events for 2011- AdeptiCon in Chicago, the Forge World Open Day here in Nottingham and Salute in London.
Thanks, Ead Brown


Eldar New Releases Available to Pre-Order Now:


Shadow Spectres Aspect Warrior Squad
Disguised behind shimmering holo-fields, draped with gossamer-thin robes and appearing like ghosts, the Shadow Spectres are armed with prism rifles, each a potent anti-tank weapon. Their jet pack mobility allows them to hunt down their chosen targets with the implacable patience of the dead, materialising seemingly from the very air to unleash their overwhelming firepower.
Believed long lost by the Eldar’s Seers, this detailed full resin kit, sculpted by Simon Egan, contains 5 of these mysterious and deadly Aspect Warriors.
Experimental rules for the Shadow Spectres Aspect Warriors are available to download from the Forge World website, taken from the desk of Imperial Armour writer Warwick Kinrade.
The full story of the discovery of the Shadow Spectres will be featured in Imperial Armour Volume 11: The Doom of Mymeara, released later this year.


Warp Hunter Grav Tank
The Warp Hunter, perhaps the rarest of Eldar tanks, sacrifices the transport capacity of the Falcon chassis to mount the terrifying firepower of a large D-Cannon, a weapon capable of tearing open the very fabric of reality and engulfing its target in the dark energies of the Warp.
This complete resin and plastic kit, sculpted by Stuart Williamson, adds additional mobile heavy firepower to an Eldar army.
The Warp Hunter will be fully detailed in the forthcoming Imperial Armour Volume 11: The Doom of Mymeara, but in advance of this we’ve managed to secure experimental rules for the Warp Hunter from Warwick Kinrade’s manuscript as a free download.


Both the Shadow Spectres Aspect Warrior Squad and the Warp Hunter Grav Tank are available to pre-order now for despatch in the week commencing the 24th of January.


Additional Badab War Content Available to Download Now
After the impressive response to the additional Badab War material from our last newsletter, this week we’ve added another two scenarios that you can download here and here. To get the most out of these scenarios will require Imperial Armour Volume 9 and Imperial Armour Volume 10, as each provides a unique tactical challenge based on some of the major engagements in this most bloody conflict.


Warhammer Forge
As you may have noticed, the Warhammer section of the Forge World website has altered slightly in anticipation of the imminent launch of Warhammer Forge. We’re excited to announce that the very next Newsletter you receive will feature the first Warhammer Forge releases, which will be sent out alongside our usual Forge World newsletters so you don’t have to worry about signing up again. Stay tuned for more in the not-too-distant future…


Dates for Your Diary – Forge World 2011 Events News


AdeptiCon, Chicago – 1st to 3rd April 2011
For the first time, Forge World will be attending AdeptiCon at the Westin Lombard Yorktown Centre in Chicago, IL, and we are now taking reservation orders for the event. This is the best way to guarantee that we will have exactly what you’re looking for, and you can place a reservation order either by telephoning the Customer Service team on 011 44 115 916 8177 or by sending an e-mail titled ‘AdeptiCon Reservation’, including your name and a list of the items you’d like to reserve, to ForgeworldReservations@games-workshop.co.uk.
We must receive your reservation orders by January 24th to allow us to process and ship them in time, so don’t delay! We’ll be bringing you more news about our presence at AdeptiCon over the next few weeks, so please keep an eye on our Events pages.


The Forge World Open Day, Nottingham – 3rd April 2011
Warhammer World in Nottingham will play host to the fifth annual Forge World Open Day on Sunday the 3rd of April.
As part of the event, held at Warhammer World in Nottingham, the Forge World studio team will be showcasing their work-in-progress and unveiling their new projects. As part of this showcase, final proof copies of both Imperial Armour Volume 11: The Doom of Mymeara, and Tamurkhan: The Throne of Chaos will be on display for your perusal. We will also be bringing you our Charity Titan Raffle, fantastic participation games and our Open Day Painting Competition, and the facilities of Warhammer World will also be available. Our sales stand will, as always, be packed with our full range of products including some top-secret new releases, and our exclusive 2011 Events Only miniature will be on sale for the very first time!
Stay tuned to our Events Pages for more details about this ever-popular event, which will again be free to attend.


Salute, London – 16th April 2011
The ExCel centre in London will be the venue for the popular Salute show which we are excited to be again attending. Our sales stand will be jam-packed with a selection of the Forge World range of products as well as new Warhammer Forge releases and Warhammer Historical rulebooks.

Keep an eye on our Events Pages, where we’ll be bringing you more information about our presence at Salute 2011 over the coming weeks.
===============================================

Monday, January 17, 2011

Imperial Armour 10: The Badab War – Part 2 - Book Review

Imperial Armour 10: The Badab War – Part 2 - Alan Bligh et al.


Once again having just completed the latest Imperial Armour book from Forgeworld I thought it would be a good idea to treat you to a good in depth review, however once again Gotthammer over at Collegia Titanica already beat me to it. So rather then write something that pales in to comparison next to his work I thought i would check with him and then post it over here. so for the most impressive review of an Imperial Armour book to date check out the Collegia Titanica here:



For me IA:10 was excellent, more reviewing of the fluff of the vehicles is nice as its something you can never have enough of, not to mention the mention of a medium Marine tank out there in the aether somewhere! I found that when reading this that whilst all the chapters were really well written about I felt that the Space Sharks and Mantis warriors needed more (the Mantis Warriors especially after the Deathwatch novels - I mean are they forgiven or still on the crusade?) but that was probably because they were the two chapters that most caught my eye!
Also given the Mantis Warriors were big contributors of Marines to the ranks of the Deathwatch what happened to their Marines on secondment, or infact Marines from any of the Successionist Chapters that were not "at home" as it were? That to me was the only real bit of fluff I would liked to have seen answered, who knows in a Garro style there may have been loyal Astral Claws on secondment within the Imperium, what happened to them?
My other favourite parts though were the colour plates, the way the armour was mixed so mk3 and mk8 were mixed up with other mks on one Marine was great, to me it answered a lot of questions I had about looks and is now gonna cost me a fortune in FW models. The well thought out schemes and vehicle markings shown on these colour plates are always what make the FW books for me, below are some examples.




Some of the little snippets, side notes and events suchs as those involving the Salamanders, Astral Claws and Executioners - the Red Hour or even The Doom of Hive Dominar should be written as a novel! Infact the Badab campaign could be the next Horus Heresy style novel chain for the BL - if only! My only complaint was the ending, too short and not enough clear up. The story just seemed to end with little or no details on what happened next, any follow up skirmished or subjagation of rebal populations of civilians or what the Claws did on their charge for the eye.

For me the overall rating for this book is a 5 because even though the end was so very short the overall look of the book and its partner just made it worth the obscene amounts of money it is from FW!




Availible from:

Imperial Armour 10: The Badab War – Part 2 - Alan Bligh et al.
Hardback, 208pp

Warriors: British Fighting Heroes - Book Review

Warriors: British Fighting Heroes by Ross Kemp

Ross Kemp has encountered conflict and warfare the world over, broadcasting from some of the most volatile military hot-zones. From meeting the world's deadliest gangsters, to perhaps his hardest assignment of all; embedded with the British Army in Afghanistan's Helmand province, where he witnessed some of the fiercest fighting of the conflict and was trained in the tactics they use to stay alive. Stationed with British forces for his award-winning television documentaries, Ross Kemp has not only experienced the terror and exhilaration of life on the frontline, but also the courage and leadership of today's servicemen and women. The plight of our Armed Forces is one especially close to his heart, and here for the first time Kemp tells the breathtaking stories of commandos, medics, submariners, fighter pilots, infantrymen, sailors and engineers in daring raids, stirring last stands and acts of extreme valour. "British Fighting Heroes" is Ross Kemp's personal tribute to some of the most remarkable men and women to have served in the British Armed Forces during the two World Wars, many of them unsung or forgotten. From Sgt Major Stan Hollis, D-Day's only VC winner, to Freddie Spencer Chapman the reluctant war hero who spent three years behind enemy lines in Burma fighting guerrilla warfare against troops, each account is an extraordinary tale of courage, adventure and patriotic sacrifice.

This latest book by Ross Kemp looks at some of the many forgotten heroes of the British armed forces over the last one hundred years. The men who are explored in this book are some of the many people that were either forgotten through the passage of time or because their work was secret, some were just forgotten though because their achievements had fallen out of favour.


Mainly concentrating on some of the forgotten heroes from the first and second world wars this book looks are the astounding feats that were carried out, the risks taken and the background that spurred these men to such extraordinary lengths. Many of the stories read almost like action novels or films rather then something that would have occurred in the real world but amazingly everything in this book is true.

Ross Kemp tries to capture this amazement and his language is almost schoolboy like in its admiration but this just helps to convey the unbelievable nature of the events he is trying to chronicle and put back in to the public eye again. He also tackles things from a human angle and whilst he himself states he doesn’t want to delve to far back so the book becomes a dissection of the psychology of the men he does include enough background in each section to help give you the idea of the men’s characters.

Nicely divided up in to four sections, Army, Marines, Navy and Airforce, the book nicely packages up the events and actions without too much baggage and whilst some forces, such as the Marines, only have a small entry it brings home the extraordinary lengths men go to in times of war. There are nice little touches and bits of information for each man and the biography of what they did after their service is a nice touch that many historians forget and it really does bring home how forgotten these men really did become. There are also some nice bits of trivia and coincidence that could almost be made up, if you don’t believe me read the book and find out about the three men who have won the VC twice!

Over all a good read and something anyone wanting to find out more about true heroes, and not some over paid ponces kicking a bag of wind about that the papers call heroes, a good 4 stars from me but more down to the fact I felt there could be more men in it!

 
 
 
Available from:

http://www.play.com/ or http://www.amazon.co.uk/
Warriors: British Fighting Heroes by Ross Kemp
Hardback • ISBN 9781846057991

Monday, January 10, 2011

Forge World Newsletter #262 - Space Sharks Character and more Badab rules!

As always the important bits reproduced below:

===============================================

Hi There,

Happy New Year from all at Forge World! In this, our first Newsletter of 2011, we have two new Space Marine releases to start the year, along with additional Badab War content now available to download and news of the first three events that we’ll be attending this year.
Thanks, Ead Brown


Tyberos the Red Wake, Available to Pre-Order Now
Tyberos the Red Wake is a uniquely detailed multi-part resin kit designed by Will Hayes. Tyberos was presumed to be the commander of the Carcharodons Chapter during their unlooked-for and savage intervention in the Badab War, leading his Terminator-armoured brethren in bloody assault after bloody assault from the notorious battle barge Nicor.


Tyberos gained a dark fame for his brutal combat prowess and the two unique power weapons with which he carved a path of mangled and shredded corpses through the Secessionist forces. Known as ‘Hunger’ and ‘Slake’ these ancient relic-gauntlets, which combine barbed power blades with an inner maw lined with vicious teeth, are of a pattern and manufacture unknown to the Adepts of Mars.


With devastating special rules published in Imperial Armour Volume 10: The Badab War Part 2, Tyberos the Red Wake adds deadly close combat capacity to a Codex Space Marines army, and allows a unit of lightning claw-equipped Assault Terminators to be chosen as a Troops choice. This sinister special character is available to pre-order now for despatch in the week commencing the 24th of January.


Black Templars Transfer Sheet, Available to Pre-Order Now
Zealous, fleet-based defenders of Mankind, the Black Templars have waged a 10,000 year crusade against the alien, the heretic and the witch. This new A4 Black Templars Transfer Sheet, designed by Paul Rudge, is packed with over a thousand individual Chapter badges, Crusade heraldry, mottos, litanies and blazons that can be used on vehicles and infantry.


The Black Templars Transfer Sheet is available to pre-order now for despatch in the week commending the 24th of January.

Additional Badab War Content Available to Download Now
The Forge World warehouse has been relentlessly shipping Imperial Armour Volume 10: The Badab War Part 2 for the past few days, and we’re glad to announce that all pre-orders for this extremely popular book have now been despatched.


Alan Bligh’s first draft contained several extra scenarios that we didn’t have room to print in the book, and the first of these is now exclusively available to download here (Red Hour) and here (The Doom of Hive Dominar). To get the most out of these scenarios will require Imperial Armour Volume 9 and Imperial Armour Volume 10, as each provides a unique tactical challenge based on some of the major engagements in this most bloody conflict. You can also find two new special characters, Arch-Centurion Carnac Commodus and Master Harath Shen, to add to the bloody legend of the Badab War on the tabletop.


Dates for Your Diary – Forge World 2011 Events News
With the New Year only a few days old, here at Forge World we’re already planning our calendar of globe-trotting events for 2011, and we’re proud to announce the first three:


AdeptiCon, Chicago – 1st to 3rd April 2011
For the very first time, Forge World will be attending AdeptiCon 2011 at the Westin Lombard Yorktown Centre in Chicago, IL. We’ll be bringing a wide selection of our resin kits, modelling products and Imperial Armour books, and hopefully a few currently unseen new releases as well!
We are now taking reservations for AdeptiCon, and this is the best way to guarantee that we will have exactly what you’re looking for. You can place a reservation order either by telephoning the Customer Service team on 011 44 115 916 8177 or by sending an e-mail titled ‘AdeptiCon reservation’, including your name and a list of the items you’d like to reserve, to ForgeworldReservations@games-workshop.co.uk for AdeptiCon.
We must receive your reservation orders by January 24th to allow us to process and ship them in time, so don’t delay!


The Forge World Open Day, Nottingham – 3rd April 2011
Warhammer World in Nottingham will play host to the fifth annual Forge World Open Day on Sunday the 3rd of April. We’ll be bringing you huge participation games, our annual Painting Competition and the return of our Charity Titan Raffle.
What’s more, our entire Studio team of writers, sculptors and graphic artists will be present for you to chat to, and they’ll have displays of work-in-progress miniatures, artwork, and forthcoming Imperial Armour books for your perusal.
Our vast sales stand will, as always, be packed with our full range of products including some top-secret new releases.
Stay tuned to our Events Pages for more details about this ever-popular event, which will again be free to attend.


Salute, London – 16th April 2011
The ExCel centre in London will be the venue for the popular Salute show which we are excited to be again attending. Our sales stand will be jam-packed with a lavish selection of the Forge World range of products as well as new releases and Warhammer Historical rulebooks.


Keep an eye on our Events Pages, where we’ll be bringing you more information about our presence at Salute 2011.
===============================================


I must say I like the look of the unsual terminator armour on the Space Shark Character, pretty sure that will be turning up in a conversion or too. Only hope they make some variant armour for mixing in to normal squads rather then just this version. Other then that good rules and nice scenarios.
Not a bad little issue even if there are only two releases lol!

Friday, January 07, 2011

Friday 5 Finds - 07.01.11

Hi Folk
So here it is the first FFF's of 2011! With that in mind I've added a few extra bits so enjoy:
  1. First up on Dark Millenium we have some of Mjolnir's Pre-Heresy Space Wolves, very tasty and some nice details included in the article.
  2. Next on The Anarchy of Anton we have some Emperors children models and some of his other odds and sods that caught my eye.
  3. Over on Ricalopia we have his latest project ED-2000.... I mean IKE! Very neat and rather tongue in cheek!
  4. Drathmere over on 40k Hobby blog has some pretty tasty Forgeworld characters up on the blog all looking rather clean and well painted.
  5. Over on Black Matt's Blog we have a huge post showing the completed Blood Angels army, if you don't check out any other link please check this one, it rocks!
Finally as a bit of an extra as it is the new year here is a link to From the Warp where Ron has posted a rather good guide on painting red:
Ron's Red Roundup!

here is this weeks Five Finds Sneak Peek:

Last but not least, just to give you guys a heads up of my up coming reviews Imperial Armour 10 arrived this morning and I am very pleased, 100 pages in already and was suprised by the rather awesome poster. As you can see from the Pic below its MASSIVE, looks like I will be picking one up for over the painting desk along with my other 40k artwork!


Enjoy folks and who knows maybe some models might appear soon!
Thanks for reading.

I Shall Wear Midnight - Book Review

I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett
A man with no eyes. No eyes at all. Two tunnels in his head ...It's not easy being a witch, and it's certainly not all whizzing about on broomsticks, but Tiffany Aching - teen witch - is doing her best. Until something evil wakes up, something that stirs up all the old stories about nasty old witches, so that just wearing a pointy hat suddenly seems a very bad idea. Worse still, this evil ghost from the past is hunting down one witch in particular. He's hunting for Tiffany. Andhe's found her...A fabulous Discworld title filled with witches and magic and told in the inimitable Terry Pratchett style, "I Shall Wear Midnight" is the fourth Discworld title to feature Tiffany and her tiny, fightin', boozin' pictsie friends, the Nac Mac Feegle (aka The Wee Free Men).


This is the fourth, and apparently final, Tiffany Aching book from Terry Pratchett. It's brilliant - darker and more complex than the previous books, reflecting the fact that Tiffany is growing up, and the children who read Wee Free Men when it came out are growing with her. The Baron, Roland's father, is dying and Tiffany is taking his pain away. Roland has a new fiancee with a scary mother (with a secret of her own), and a secret of her own - and something is poisoning the people against witches - and only Tiffany can fight it.


As ever, the Feegles are helping her out in their own particular way, but even they seem to be more grown up than previously.

With the usual cameos from other Discworld stalwarts (this time including Carrot, Angua, Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and, of course, Death - in a beautifully written death sequence), the extremely skilful use of locations - Tiffany and the Feegles in Ankh - and the unexpected reappearance of a VERY old character (or, rather, a character from one of the first Discworld books - to explain more would be to spoil the surprise) all come together to make I Shall Wear Midnight simply brilliant - and I love the title (It comes from Tiffanys statement in a previous book when she's asked why she doesn't wear black - "When I am older, I shall wear midnight" - the discovery that she's right about that is one of the cleverest bits of the book - but again, that would be telling...

Whichever version you choose, go out and buy it as it shows that despite all the turmoil Mr Pratchett can still write an amazing novel! A full on 5 stars from me.






Available from:

http://www.play.com/ or http://www.amazon.co.uk/
I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett
Hardback • ISBN 9780385611077

Thursday, January 06, 2011

Blog News - Christmas and New Years Updates!

Hi Folks
after a very hectic Christmas and a New Year period that was devastated by weather, illness and work there has been little progress on modelling and hobby work, though there has been lots of purchasing going on. With that in mind and the fact I am still unable to hold a brush without shaking or a major coughing fit I am afraid the next week or so will be made up of the more staple posts such as Mondays Mirthfuls and Friday Finds, along with anything else that crops up as interesting and some book reviews of my Christmas period reading material. I apologise for the lack of hobby progress but I do hope to rectify this in the coming weeks.

On a side note (no pun intended) does anyone have a side panel from either a Leman Russ or a Chimera that they would be willing to sell? If anyone has any left over from recent projects please let me know as I'm trying to source one for a few bits and pieces i would like to try out. Please drop me a line at millests_m_m@btinternet.com to discuss.

Thanks guys and all the best for 2011!

Monday, January 03, 2011

Mondays Mirthful Meandering - 03.01.11

Happy new year folks, time for the first post of the new year, enjoy: