spf geek

i recently got an broadcast email from xenite over at little green monsters about a big hobby push during the month of august. needless-to-say, that kind of call to arms motivates miniature geeks like no other (save maybe that last push of frantic hobbying that occurs right before a big tournament; folks get crazy then).

we all started chiming in with ideas and stretch goals. projects that have languished in hobby limbo suddenly became viable again. 

and from this eclectic, electric correspondence came the name for this sun-avoiding event: the pale olympics, because, you know, fuck you london.

so as it stands now, here are our goals:

xenite: 48 sea guard fully painted 

jason: complete his cpa so he can game with impunity again

felix: complete 100 28mm minis (felix is not fucking around)

joey: paint a 6 tank german panther platoon

rich: paint 24 carthaginian hoplites

john: assemble 15 units for his ancient greek army (like felix, john is not fucking around)

nick: space marine librarian

brian: paint a tzeentch demon prince, assemble and paint 10 tzeentch horrors, sculpt the wings and paint a tzeentch lord of change, and for a bonus paint a tzeentch decimator

me: finish my khadoran 5th border legion to 50 points.

some work has already taken place. xenite posted this image today:

and i picked these up today to complete my force to 50 points:

so what's in my 50 point list? glad you asked. here's the army list and the state they're in.

kommander harkevitch, the iron wolf - primed, and some block coloring completed

black ivan - primed, block colored, some detail work done

destroyer - compelte save for a final bit of basing

juggernaut - complete save for a final bit of basing

wardog - complete save for a final bit of basing

man-o-war shocktroops (5 man unit) - primed, and some block coloring completed

widowmakers - primed

winter guard infantry (10 man unit) - 4 unassembled, 6 primed, and some block coloring completed

winter guard officer & standard - primed, and some block coloring completed

winter guard rocketeers unit upgrade (x3) - 2 unassembled, 1 primed

kovick josef grigorovich (uncle joe!) - primed, and some block coloring completed

as you can see, i'm not really starting from scratch, but there is a still a lot to be done to get this finished.

i'll be posting some "before" pics this weekend, and adding more as the units above are finished. 

for more info on the pale olympics stay tuned here, as well as check out xenite's blog little green monsters, and felix's blog pokeminatures. 

"brick". it's not just the name of a character from "anchorman".

first, space marine players got this:

then they got this:

now they're getting this:

which has the same aerodynamic properties as this:

and really reminds me of this:

yo joe. 

thunderhawk image property of forgeworld

stormraven image property of games workshop

stormtalon drawing image courtesy of beastsofwar.com

stormtalon wd images courtesy of eldargal on the BOLS forums.

thunderhawk hurr image property of xenite (credit or ask permission, bitches!)

skyhawk image is taken from yojoe.com and is probably originally property of hasbro

 

neuroshima hex

another board game that wasn't originally on my list for 30 games in 30 days.  xenite from "little green monsters" introduced this one to me. 

based on the polish role playing game neuroshima, in neuroshima hex, you control one of several factions battling for survival in the post-apocalyptic ruins of north america.  in the simple one-on-one battle games, the action takes place within the black outlined area in the middle of the board.   

between your specialist actions and your troops' abilities, the middle board area is just big enough for a battle or two in the space of an hour.  here is the board at the start of the game: 

xenite (who is playing the moloch, a vicious machine intelligence that specializes in armor and ranged combat) has placed his hq on the board edge and i've place mine smack dab in the middle.  the reason for this is that my troops (the mutated borgos) are more deadly in close combat and my hq can improve their speed in melee, which is the reason for this deployment only a few turns later. 

 

as you can see the number of forces on the board wax and wane as infrequent combat begins taking it's toll on our troops.  

for most of the game, xenite controlled a good portion of the board and kept my forces contained with his shooting.  if not for one of my troops allowing me to negate the power of his hq, xenite would have completely wiped me from the board.

but some clever deployment and sacrifice on my part in the late game meant that the battle was a draw, and my borgos would live to fight another day. 

take that you moloch bastards! 

even though our battle took place in just a small part of the board, the game designers actually encourage you to create your own scenarios to take advantage of the rest of the board, and with the variety of images beneath each hex, you're only limited by your imagination as to what sort of scenario you could create!

i liked neuroshima hex quite a bit, and i don't think i'd pass up an opportunity to play.  

box image of neuroshima hex is property of portal games, all other image property of little mens

electralux in the 41st millennium?

the advance orders for the blood angel stormraven gunship went live today.

as far as i'm concerned the jury is still out on this one.  personally, i think it looks like someone added wings to a vacuum cleaner, but blocky is the style for space marines.

 

regardless, gw is getting really good at these second wave releases.

now if only they could perfect their pricing...

+edit/update+

thanks to xenite for his link to this image:

which correctly identifies the aerodynamic inspiration for pretty much all space marine vehicles.  of course, any suitably inebriated rocket scientist will inform you that even a brick will fly provided you strap enough engines to it...


all images property of games workshop except for that last one which is all xenite, baby!