The Daemon's Claw

I have been working on some Eldar Rangers to get my 40K hobby going. I have now made up a list so I have something to aim for. I am also building a new Autarch, he has just fallen out of the list but he has been fun to make and paint. I am also building a unit of Wraithguard with D-Scythes to counterpoint the otherwise small numbers of fragile Eldar. I also managed to do some work on the Blakes 7 models I got. These are nice simple models that have a good likeness to the cast members. I have gone for a simple gravel base so I can do a traditional deserted quarry setting. I will add some grass tufts and colours to the rocks The Federation models have separate heads and the security robot has separate arms and weapon hatch. In the show the security bot is equipped with a flame thrower. No stun setting there. In the background you might be able to glimpse the Wytch warband I am making for Shadow War. I like having lots of projects on the go at once so I can go wher...

I am getting out my Eldar army to refresh for 8th edition. This army was the last one I played in a tournament during 4th edition. I think this army was the first where I used Vallejo paints for much of the work so got a bit better at blending. I have always been into designing armies so they fit the background. This army I designed as being all vehicle mounted high speed attack force. The vehicles are also not painted like any specific craftworld and hark back to the Rogue Trader Eldritch raiders. I got inspired to use this army, because no one else is using them, I could enhance and add to my existing army rather than have to build a whole new army (such as an Inquisition led Imperium army) so I can get playing quickly with models I am happy to use. Here are my unit of Jet Bikes. I started building these and then dropped them from the army when I found they didn't really do anything other than draw fire and possibly contest objectives. Now they can all have scatter laser...

This game was a bit more like scorched earth than sacred ground. I got to use the new hill I made because I knew we were going to be playing this scenario. I got a bit excited during this game so there are not many photos. I was playing against an Anglo Dane army configured as 3 points of Hearthguard and 3 points of warriors. The Hearthguard were an 8 of ormal and 4 with dane axes and the warriors were in two units of twelve. The other challenge for a cavalry army is that the objective is to get units into areas of difficult terrain where cavalry are at a disadvantage. I confirmed with the Umpire that the central hill did not count as pieces of terrain. This meant I got to pick another hill for one of the flank terrain pieces. The Anglo Danes chose a field on the other side. The initial deployment sees both sides favoring their left flank. The Anglo Danes sent a unit of twelve warriors into fields on their left while the Templars split their forces between the two hills. (one h...

I went out to the Hutt for a couple of games of Saga. For those who don't know, the Hutt valley is a bit like a post apocalyptic world. piles of burning tyres, cars up o blocks and severed heads on stakes. Just kidding its really a lovely place. I was playing a Scots Army in the river crossing mission. I was using my Templars again. Here are my Templars, deployed around a hill covering one of the crossings, with the Scots lined up opposite. The challenge in this scenario is how to divide your forces to cover both river crossings. I ended up deploying opposite the Scots So we were both strong on the same side and weaker on the other. I wonder whether I should have used my mobility to move all my knights to the weaker flank and rush the Scots and get my whole army over the river. Here the Scots advance over the bridge and here are my sergeants and crossbows advance on the other side My mounted sergeants led the way but ran into the javelins and archery of the S...

Here are Russell's Vikings forming up between  a wood and a house. So with his flanks secure it looks like it will be a frontal assault. Here are my Templars lined up to defend some decent Christian villagers from the pagan horde. I have my knights in the center with the infantry in advance on the flanks. My crossbows are in the forest on the left.  The Vikings come swarming forwards while the Templars pray for divine blessings, The Crusader crossbowmen open fire on the warriors reducing them to 4 and then the Brothers go in. After a dose of rubber lances I only kill 3 hearthguard for the loss of two knights. I think Russell's response was "is that it?" The Viking Warlord leads the Bersekers into the knights after some softening up by the warriors, they bounced off losing 2 warriors ad not killing a Knight.  Notice the big cleared zone. The berserkers kill all the brother knights, the brothers in turn kill all the berserkers and force the warlord to ...

This was a TV show from my childhood. Back then, the idea of being a Robin Hood in space driving around in the most advanced spaceship in the galaxy sounded great. Now watching it again especially binge watching it for hours at a time you get to see how the characters changed. At the start of the show, Blake is leading a peaceful protest movement trying to change the government through civil action. After two seasons, Blake is leading a military strike on the central computer system responsible for managing the lives of millions of people. Talk about the end justifying the means. The morally ambiguous nature of the "good guys" is ahead of its time. The weaknesses of the characters make them interesting. This is definitely not a Star Trek crew of happy people on a mission of peaceful exploration. So what does this have to do with wargaming? Well, 7TV made a rage of models that do a good job of capturing the likenesses of the cast and extras and for terrain, well any ...