if you have to tell 'em you're classy...

i've recently started trying to spend more time on the community aspect of the hobby, and sometimes it's as easy as keeping an eye out for what some of your friends are doing.

if you're looking to shake your head at shenanigans and occasionally laugh out loud, you should check out joe and steve, and their podcast "game classy".

find it here.

their latest 'cast asks the questions i've been wondering about regarding games workshop's second wave releases for the wolves and 'nids (primarily "what the fuck were they thinking?"), delves a wee bit into painting an army you love versus painting an army to play with, takes a look at some of the d&d board games, and much much more.

if you need something to lighten your mood, then check 'em out. and tell 'em the little mens sent you.

the image is off of game classy's blog/podcast site, but it's also a 'shopped golden demon statue, so i'm going to go with: the image above is property of game classy and games workshop and they can indian leg wrestle for who gets to sue me...

workbench update

wit's been a few weeks since i've updated little mens, so i thought it'd be a good time to share what's currently sitting on my workbench...

i picked up this little beauty a while back. pretty much the same time i added the skarlock thrall to the horde, but i haven't worked on her until now...

the reason is that for the same number of points i didn't really see her having much of an advantage over the skarlock, but after playing a couple of games with her, i like her a lot, especially running her with pdenny and the next group of yahoos on the workbench.

with the addition of the withershadow combine, the warwitch siren really becomes quite a bit more valuable in her ability to add focus to the autonomous 'jacks created by the combine's dark industries ability.

yes, I know that i need to add a seether helljack to my force, but i don't have one yet, so the warwitch siren gives me more options, as does the next thing on my workbench...

ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce cryx's one and only 'jack marshal: the iron lich overseer. a pretty cool little model, that benefits from having every join pinned. trust me on this one.

with this model being pretty darn tough, he can run forward, burn some living models to accumulate soul tokens, and have his 'jacks pull the soul tokens to use as focus!

additionally, the the overseer use his 'jack marshal ability to have the 'jack charge so that it can use all those soul tokens for attacks or boosting rolls. and the overseer's cloak of darkness magic ability means that any 'jacks (yes plural) in B2B with it gains stealth. I'm thinking a stealthed leviathan tooling around the flanks popping shots here and there...

pretty darn awesome for a relatively cheap solo.

so there you have it! more pics will be forthcoming as they get painted up!

muthaf#ckin' sea monsters...

way back when, i used to work for games workshop. during one late night of hobbying with several other employees at the chicago battle bunker, the topic of a recent white dwarf article came up. veterans might remember when gw put out some very cool warhammer rules for conducting sea battles.

out of that conversation came the opinion that of all the ships and such to be made, the best would be "muthaf#ckin' sea monsters". it became a meme of sorts. when asked what folks were working on, inevitably someone would answer "a muthaf#ckin sea monster". even to this day there are folks i greet at conventions or get togethers with "muthaf#ckin' sea monster!" rather than "hey!" or "what's up?"

so where is this going? well, if you watched the privateer press video teaser about colossals released earlier today, you saw one:

that's right. it looks like cryx is getting a colossal called "the kraken". and it's attacking a ship at anchor in port. in other words, it's a necrotite-fueled, undead, muthaf#ckin' sea monster.

and i couldn't be happier.

image of that muthaf#ckin' sea monster is property of privateer press.

wowzers! some interesting game previews out today...

one of the first things i saw today is that fantasy flight games has put up a pdf of the rules for this:

rex is their adaptation of the really, really old skool avalon hill dune rule set. the big difference is instead of republishing dune (a great idea in my book, but they allegedly couldn't get the rights from the herbert estate), ffg has set the game in their twilight imperium universe.

it looks like that ffg has kept the basic rules pretty intact. there are still the battle dials with the slots to drop in your leaders, each of the 6 factions have their own victory conditions, treachery and betrayal are tools at your command, and there is a progressive destructive event that discourages camping/turtling.

it's a bit ironic, because twilight imperium is one of my least favorite games. i know for a fact that i'd rather have a root canal than play it, but i'm eagerly awaiting this one.

in other crazy-ass gaming news, privateer press just posted a 10 minute video "leaking" the release this summer of colossals! pp gets kudos for showing the khadoran and cygnaran colossal models. i guess that the cryx, the protectorate, retribution, and mercs colossals weren't quite ready yet, though there are some really great images of them.

it definitely looks like this is going to be a big summer for warmachine. that being said, sit through all of the video. there's a teaser at the very end for hordes.

you can check out just how massive things look to get this summer below.

rex box image is property of fantasy flight games, and the video is all privateer press baby!

Happy New Year!

little mens wishes you and yours a very happy new year, and many happy returns!

hope you all have plenty of collard greens and black-eyed peas today!

man-o-... what? it's not? dreadwhat? are you f'n kidding me?

blood angel brother deino by laundryhamper

two years ago, gw rereleased it's standalone big box game space hulk. initally, i was rabidly opposed to the idea. my list of pros and cons were as follows:

pros:

• gorgeous models
• re-release of a great rules mechanic with only the slightest of tweeks to the system to make it even more playable.

cons:

• card components. with all the advances that gw has made to its plastic terrain i was hoping for some cool plastic modular hulk corridors as and rooms and the fact that it didn't seriously irked me
• cost
• splash release with no pre-release play or demo opportunities. 

while the cons didn't outweigh the pros significantly, i felt the lack of demos and pre-release game opportunity was gw simply assuming that they could produce any sort of drivel and sell it to the rabid masses. in fact, when i worked at the u.s. hq in glen burnie, there was a running joke that gw could put a pile of dogshit in a 40k or fantasy box and hobbyists would buy it. 

don't believe me? have you seen the original range of dark eldar? 

in the end, space hulk did pay off for gw and completely sold out. despite my initial protests I did, indeed, purchase a copy, and today an unopened copy of space hulk can sell for more than twice as much on ebay. 

all-in-all it was a good gamble for gw. so good they're gonna do it again...

image property of games workshop

only this time it's something different. according to rumor, this isn't a rerelease of man-o-war, but a completely new game, and like space hulk "this product has been produced in limited qualities and is only available while stocks last - make sure you get it quick..." 

from the gw press releases, i like the way the models look, but gw has consistently produced amazing models. my biggest question is: how does it play? there's a slickly produced video with phil kelly and his sideburns showing the contents and highlighting the play, but i can't justify dropping $115 on a game i can't play/demo first.

i could continue to rant about how i feel about dreadfleet, but duke's inferno does a much better job.

workbench update!

wow. it looks like it's been a while since i've updated little mens. so here are some new warmachine images for you to enjoy.

'jack #7 (juggernaut chassis), 43d assault battalion, 5th border legion:

the juggernaut is a minor conversion. normally the legs are exactly like the ones on the destroyer below, but since the juggernaut is a close combat 'jack, i wanted it to look like it's striding forward about to grab hold of something and plant that ginormous axe into the middle of it.

so i cut the toes off the left leg, then i angled the remaining plastic, and pinned and glued the toes back on. this allowed me to glue the left leg in place well behind the right. after that is was just a matter of hunching the upper body forward a bit (you can really see the difference if you look at the smokestacks on both 'jacks), then angling the left arm forward and the right arm back. 

all-in-all i think it came out pretty nicely. it definitely has a bit more of a sense of speed and menace than it did squared up on the base.

'jack #3 (destroyer chassis), 43d assault battalion, 5th border legion:

as always, comments and questions are welcome!