Terrain Monday!

Hello all and welcome to a new feature here at Citizen Nick Hobby Center:

Terrain Monday!

Every Monday I feature one piece of gaming scenery for your inspirational viewing pleasure. Most of these probably won't be mine as I don't have a large collection. I will be featuring finished pieces as well as works in progress (WIP).

First piece comes from the collection of Art Olsen. Art has one of the best terrain collections I've ever seen, so expect to see a lot from him in the coming months.

Today's piece is a ruined chapel:



As Art bought this second hand, so he is unsure of the manufacture. At first, I thought it was some form of Armorcast, but I'm not 100% sure. The buttresses are from GW's Basilica.

The chapel is attached to a base of fiberboard with some felt glued on the bottom. The felt keeps the piece from sliding around during games.

Above you can see some vile Tau desecrating the chapel during a recent game.


You've probably seen this picture before. I like it, so I'm posting it again.



That's all for this week, folks. If you want some of your gaming terrain/ scenery, whatever profiled, use the contact button on my profile to send me some pics.

Return of Rogue Traders

Not really. Thanks to Brian for pointing this story out to me:

Rogue trader to cost SocGen $7bn

Now they just need their own codex...

Gaming Comics

I really like comics. As evidence by this blog, I also like gaming. Therefore, I really, really like it when gaming and comics are combined.

This is basically my convoluted way of saying I've added a list to the right over there of links to my favorite gaming related webcomics. Check them out. I will point out that Secret Lives of Mobs is on hiatus at the moment. Still, if you've never seen it before, the old ones will be new to you.

Also, Misfire has recently returned to the scene after disappearing for sometime. Unfortunately, they have yet to get into the routine of posting frequently. Hopefully they will soon because what they've posted so far is pretty funny.

Some other stuff...

Rich over at Chicago Terrain Factory has added an interesting feature to his blog. It's a list of RSS feeds from 40 different hobby blogs (including the one you're reading Right now). Click on over there and look to the right sidebar. it's pretty cool.

Dude, Where's my Demon Engine? I wanted to follow up my last post about the Codex: Demon rumors. I was pretty excited at the early rumors of this codex because they seemed to hint that there would be two different demon engines: an "unbound" defiler and some kind of mutant amalgamation of various tanks from other armies.

As the rumors have gotten more specific of late, it seems that there is only one demon engine in the codex and it's just another version of the defiler. Still cool, I'm sure, but the more demon engines the better, I say.


Damn you, Hackers! Adeptus Windy City, my hometown forum, got hacked this week. Bastards! The data center where the forum is hosted seems to have it's head up it's ass, so about a month's worth of posts are gone! Very sucky, but the administrator has gotten things running pretty smoothly again, so hats off to him.

Codex: Demons Rumor Round Up

A member of Warseer who claims to have play tested the new demon codex has posted a lot about the list on this thread. Unfortunately, he's not a native English speaker, so some of what he's saying is hard to read. Still, he's offered a lot of information, which I have combined with the previous rumors and summarized.

Here is a list of the units in the codex and their rumored characteristics:
HQ
Greater Daemons
Blood Thirster - Can Fly and also rumored to have a shooting attack, which seems odd. May be as strong as S8! Maybe because of furious charge?
Great Unclean one - T6, but I2 and slow and purposeful.
Keeper of Secrets - Fleet, Hit and run, and some sort of Lash of submission- like ability.
Lord of Change - Rumored to be the most powerful. Carries some kind of force weapon. Can target three units with three shooting attacks.

Herald - Can have up to two for one HQ slot. Each Chaos God has it's own Herald with tons of options. These were featured in January WD.

Elite
Flamers - I've heard nothing on these.
Flesh hounds - Have option to have special character.
Fiends of Slaanesh - I've heard nothing on these, either.
Beast of nurgle - Similar to Chaos Spawn with poisoned attacks and feel no pain.

Troops

Daemonettes - Have Fleet and Rending. The plastic kits have caused much debate.
Bloodletters - Have Power Weapons and Furious Charge. Loincloth no longer confers 3+ armor save. The other plastic kit seen around the net.
Plaguebeares - Feel No Pain, Poisoned Weapons, Slow and Purposeful.
Nurglings - Got me!
Pink Horrors - S3 AP3 Shooting attack with option for Bolt of Change. Also has option for special character called "The Changeling"
Furies - i don't know, but I'd bet they fly.

Fast Attack
Bloodcrushers - Bloodletters on Juggernauts of Khorne. May only move 6" - I'm not sure why.
Seekers of Slaanesh - f.k.a. Mounted Demonettes
Screamers - Treated as Jet bikes. May also have some kind of killer optional upgrade.

Heavy Support - There seems to be a lot of confusion and contradiction in this area. More on that later...
Soulgrinder - Modified Defiler. Possibly source of "unbound Defiler" rumor.
Daemon Prince - A very customizable choice. Treated with disdain by true demons due to formally human nature.

Special Characters
3 Greater Daemons:One for Nurgle, one For Tzeentch and one Undivided)
4 Special Heralds:One for each God. Slaanesh Herald called, "The Masque".


General rules: All Daemons have invulnerable save, can be placed in deep strike and have immunities versus Instant death. All codex entries - even demon engines- are daemons.

I have to go, but I wanted to post this before anyone else (I hope I can beat the Bell of Lost souls). I haven't thoroughly spell-checked this, so forgive me if I've misspelled any names of any Chaos deities.

Also, if you want to see the thread that started this, it's here.

Looking Forward for 2008

Well, now that I have the reminiscing of the last year out of the way, it's time to see what's in store for next year!

1. "What is Wargaming?" article - When people ask me about wargaming, I usually refer them to my own site. Then I realized that I don't do a particularly good job of describing what all these little painted figures are for. One friend looked at my site and said, "It looks like D&D mixed with model railroading." I can't say that I can argue with that, but I figure I can do a better job of explainign it. Then, when I've finished the article, you can send the link to your friends and family who have no idea how you spend your free time.

2. More terrain! - No, I'm not going to build any more terrain. At least not until I have someplace to put it. Still, I like looking at pictures of terrain. I think a lot of people do, so I'm going to be starting a new segment at the end of this month called, "Terrain Mondays". If you have a terrain feature that you're particularly fond of, please forward me a picture and I'll present it here.

3. More games... Maybe... - I started this wargaming business with a skaven Warhammer army. I tried to start a goblin army a few years back, but it never really went anywhere. I'd like to get back into Warhammer Fantasy Battle, but I'm making no promises. John over a Plastic Legions has been harassing me for ages and maybe I'll give in... Maybe.

It doesn't help that all the new vampire counts miniatures are freakin' awesome! I suspect I can get away with a smaller army than a goblin horde and therefore paint it faster. I'm not making any promises.

If not, my son has taken an interest in Star Wars Miniatures. I'm not sure what I can feature here, but maybe I'll make some terrain or something. If nothing else, I'll actually be playing something besides 40K.

4. Running my First 40K Campaign - I'm pretty excited about this. I'm basing it loosely on mighty Empires. I'm hoping it will be fun for everyone involved. Watch this space for updates.


Other Stuff

I'd like to give a shout-out to Chicago Terrain Factory for hitting the one year mark. Congratulations, Rich! -and I agree, blogs are better than forums!

On that point, tomorrow is this blog's two year anniversary (One year under the old name and one under the new). Just sayin'.

I forgot to mention two important events on my year in review post: the opening of Games Workshop Oak Park (a.k.a GWOP)and the opening of Galaxy America. From the looks of it, GWOP is doing great. Unfortunately, Galaxy American in rumored to be in some sort of dire straits. Word on the street is that they had issues with their landlord and are presently looking for new space. Best of Luck to them. I hope to see them back soon.

2007 in Review

It's this time of year that I like to look back at the passed year and reflect on it. Some people like to do these year in review things during December, but those people are lame. I mean, you need some distance, you know what I'm saying?

Anyway, here are gaming related events that were important to me in 2007:

In list form!!

1. The return of the Harlequins - So, I don't even own an Eldar army. I may never own a Eldar army. Still, I was so excited to see the Harlequins return. The original Rogue-trader area Harlequin box was one of the first sets I ever owned. The new minis are some of the best that Games Workshop has ever put out. I probably seeing them through nostalgia-colored glasses, but I'm really happy to see their return.

2. My first 40K campaign- Even since I started playing 40K, I wanted to be part of a campaign. This year, I finally got the chance. Because of the campaign, I think I played more games of 40K this year than I have in the last 2 combined, seriously. It was a map-based campaign, which was another thing I've wanted to try. 40K is so much better when you have some story behind it to motivate you.

3. Finally getting my Thousand Sons on the table - My army in no where near finished, even now. But I was happy to finally make the switch from Space Wolves to Thousand Sons this year. Oh course, playing a new army is a learning experience. I had a lot of victories at the beginning; from which, I learned very little. It wouldn't really matter because...

4. The New Chaos Codex - It's just my luck that right when I finally start playing my new army, the army gets completely re-vamped. I think most of the changes were for the better. My only complaint was that I spent so much time building those stupid demons, only to have them made mostly useless.

Still, I not one of the many, many people who posted on forums all over the Internet that they were going to quit playing 40K because of the new Chaos Codex. Hmm, funny, I see those same people still posting on those same forums.

Anyway, new Codex means new miniatures and this batch of chaos ones are some of my favorites ever. Did I mention how much I like SPAWN!!!

5. Apocalypse - I must admit that I don't actually own a copy of Apocalypse yet. Still, I like the theories behind it. I like that 40K is moving away form the tournament/ power gamer mentality which it's been mired in for way too long.

6. The year of the bitch and moan - I don't know if I just never noticed it before now, but MAN, are people on the Internet bitchy! I used to love chatting on forums about gaming, but it seems that most of my favorite forums have been taken over by people who like talking about how much they hate 40K more than they like to talk about how much they like 40K. Maybe people have always been like this, but it seems to me that in the last year, it's gotten so much worse.

7. Blog-splosion! - I know that's not a word, but I've used it before and I'll use it again, so there! This year, so many great blogs have hit the scene. Bell of Lost Souls continues to blow my mind. My buddy, Old Coast (a.k.a. John) has been posting some great stuff over at Plastic Legions. Of course, there's also Rich over at Chicago Terrain Factory who continues to amaze. Check out my side bar for more great blogs.




Next time: Looking forward to 2008!