Battle Toads: Strange Advice about Slann Mage Priests

I don't write much on tactics, a WFB strategy savant I am not.  Go see Bringer of Victory for that department.  However, a recent BOLS article about Lord choices made me face palm.  The article was suggesting some "interesting" Lord level character combos.  One suggestion was running two Slann.  One would have Lore of Life with Focus of Mystery (giving him loremaster).  The other is packing Lore of Death with Focus of Mystery and Focused Rumination (+1 power die per casting roll).  As a Lizardmen player, I'm all for all-glory-to-the-hypno-toad, but this suggestion really stuck in my craw.

15mm Warriors - Scaling Back to Paint Flames of War Miniatures

Recently Flames of War has pried my interest away from my Lizardmen army after I picked up some Operation Market Garden intelligence briefings - my favorite WWII battle.  Before I jumped into my next FoW endeavor I'll share with you my experience during my first go around with 15mm mini's.  In 2008 I was given a British Para company for FoW. They don't see much action, much similar to the real 1st Airborne Division, aka the Stillborn Division (that's not a sick joke - read A Bridge Too Far).  Prior to getting my hands on the paras I had never painted anything besides 20-30mm figures.   Despite the rather straightforward painting guide in the D-1 book* and the solid advice of Art of War Vol. 1, painting 60+ of the buggers looked daunting. Particularly, I was concerned how difficult it would be to get effective shading and highlighting at this scale.

I painted these one platoon at time, ending up with 3 platoons, extra PIAT teams, company HQ, snipers and a blister pack's worth of machine gunners. With each platoon I modified my technique slightly, until I did the final platoon and though "dammit, why didn't I do this the whole time." Here's how I developed my  technique as I moved through the company.  Note that I used Vallejo paints for the entire company, with the exception of the bases.  If you haven't tried Vallejo, I'd highly recommend them particularly if you're setting out to paint WWII mini's as the colors are close to being 100% historically accurate.  The little eye dropper bottle are fun too.  Sorry for the poor quality pictures, they where taken before I built a light box.

Ultramarine Movie Review

The holiday movie season is well upon us.  In addition to the big theatrical releases, Codex Pictures has recently released Ultramarines: The Movie on DVD, the first ever feature length production based upon the Warhammer 40,000 universe.  The following is a review of the film by my long time friend and fellow Warhammer enthusiast Justin:

As soon as I had heard about this movies imminent arrival, I could hardly contain myself. A Warhammer 40,000 movie, finally.  I am a big fan of Games Workshop; I love the grim darkness of the far future and all the Black Library stories and background fluff associated with it. I have been playing Warhammer in both forms for close to 15 years, so I was pumped when its release drew near. I actually first heard about the movie at Games Day Los Angeles 2008 at the Black Library seminar. The Black Library representative said that it would look better than the opening for the Dawn of War computer game. At that time the movie seemed a long way off so I was intrigued but not overly excited.

I always wondered why Games Workshop had not invested in creating a cartoon to supplement their games systems.  Obviously cost is the main factor, but when I was a child animated shows and commercials always got me excited for purchasing the action figures that went along with whatever franchise I was hooked on at the time.  G.I. Joe, Ghost Busters, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, etc.; I watched the show and purchased the figures. Now a cartoon has arrived to pump me up on Warhammer 40K and, even as an adult 20 years later, I could not be more excited.  Of course there were some exceptions.

What to get the hobbyist who has everything?

I was struck with this dilemma this Christmas season when trying to figure out something hobby related to give to my best Warhammer buddy for Christmas.  Whilst wandering my local Home Depot searching for furniture pads and poinsettias I was struck by holiday inspiration.  I saw a set of six battery powered tea light candles and I remembered the Santa Cruz Warhammer article about making wrecked vehicle markers with them!  If I can't purchase something for the gamer who has everything, then I can make something!

Knight of Bal Timorea Finished!

Well, things haven't been all that productive around here at One Inch Warriors with the holidays, work and a road trip to the Grand Canyon.  However, I managed to sit down and finish off my knight: