Astartes

Guys, stumbled across this Warhammer 40K fan fiction animation channel called Astartes.  Thus far 5 videos have done, you need to watch them all in full screen mode.  I'm so impressed.  This is essential viewing for anyone with any interest in the 40K universe.
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FUBAR 40k Themed Game

I ran a game at the club on Thursday using an adapted version of the FUBAR rules with a 40K themed army and weapon listing. I do like the activation sequence and acton options in this rule-set.  The game was a good excuse to get out and some of the huge range of 40k figures we have between us.  A first outing for my friend John Elwen's nicely painted Space Wolves.
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FUBAR - 28mm Sci-Fi - 40K

Last night at the club we had a another FUBAR 40K game.  Further tweaks to the rules were experimented with, namely:
a)  Adding an activation system as per the Bolt Action rules, and
b)  Adding proper penetration charts for armoured vehicles, like with the FUBAR 15mm expanded rules our club uses.
c)   Use of a slave Psyker.
The penetration charts worked fine but the Bolt Action system of pulling dice out, to then prompt an activation role was deemed a failure by all involved.  In future where multiple players per side are involved (as they were in this instance) we will use a system where at the start of each turn both sides roll to see who goes first, highest on a D6 winning.  Every player on that side then gets an opportunity to try and activate a unit.  It then switches to the other team, who then get to try and activate a unit each etc etc.  The Pysker rules were fine as well, and detailed at the end of this posting.

The scenario last night saw the Emperors forces fighting on the fortress-world Jago against the dark forces of Chaos.  It had become know that a lost relic associated with Saint Sabbat had been found in a small village.  A mixed mech platoon of the 53rd Cadogus Regt (Imperial Guard) was despatched with a small Pysker unit from the Sanction Division to secure the artefact before it was desecrated by the unbelievers.  The enemy forces also despatched forces to the village, in the shape of an Ork Platoon and two Chaos Space Marine squads.  

Battle was joined when the 53rd were disturbed searching the village.  One section of Guard held up the Orks north of the bridge, but were ultimately wiped out to a man.  The Chaos Space Marine advance from the West was disrupted when a Pysker took control of a squad member with a missile launcher.  This and a Lee-Man Russ tank saw that squad being eliminated, but the mental effort was too much for the Pysker who suffered a melt-down.  A 2nd Chaos squad made it into the village but was unable to stop the Guard locating the artefact and escaping off-board before they too were wiped out.  An entertaining little game overall  
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Here's some pics.


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Slave Psyker Rules for FUBAR 40K (Expanded)
Slave Pysker is chained in a cage and has to be attended by at least 2 member of the Sanction Division who will be armed with Laser Pistols and Flak body Armour.
1.  Must be activated in the normal way.  Initiative roll 4+.
2.  Range of use: 36:
3.  Can attempt mind control of any individual (not another Pysker).  Is successful on a roll of 2+ on a D6.
3.  The following turn(s), provided the Pysker activates the individual under control can be given any normal action, including a new one of Suicide.
4.  Once under mind control, if the Pysker does not successfully activate, the individual does nothing.
5.  Each turn the Psyker uses his mind control there is a chance he will go mad.  On a roll of 6+ each turn this happens.
6.  If the Pysker 'goes mad' the following happens:
a)  The individual under his control reverts immediately to the original players control.
b)  His attendants are automatically killed by a Psychic blast.
c)  Any other troops within 12" must make a D6 roll, and on a 5+ go mad and go over the enemy's control where they must try and fire on their old team mates.  If no targets can be seen, they commit suicide.

FUBAR 40K Game At The Harrogate Wargames Club

At the moment I'm re-reading one of my favourite sci-fi series of all time, the Gaunts Ghosts omnibus edition by Dan Abnett.  Of course reading about the Warhammer 40K universe prompts an itch to dig out my 40K figures and have a game.  The problem though is the Gameswork Shop 40k rule set which is not at all liked by myself or my gaming group at the Harrogate Wargames Club.  As a comprise I suggested we use the expanded version of the FUBAR rules I've blogged about before and a 40K supplement I found on the web.  Accordingly we had a game a couple of weeks back with myself acting as the Umpire.

Playing on our usual 8' x 8' table an Imperial force comprising 2 x squads of 5 Space Marines and a squad of Imperial Guard (10 strong) entered in one corner and the forces of Chaos in the shape of 2 Ork squads (12 each) and 2 squads of Grots Snotlings (10 each) at the opposite.  Both sides moved forward and got set into each other and it quickly became apparent that the Space Marines had a significant qualitative advantage in-spite of their small numbers.  Both sides fed reinforcements in in the form of heavier units including a 3 man unit of Imperial Terminators which teleported down but using a random dice not into a great spot! LOL.  Undaunted however they climbed onto a building and opened up with their Heavy Bolters.  This was an interesting moment for they almost wasted an entire Orc squad in one round of firing.  This generated lots of banter round the table and a last ditch effort by the underpowered Orc team to try and kill some more Marines.  At this point we ran out of time, but notwithstanding this the game was judged to have been a great success.  Easy to pick up rules that gave a reasonable result without too much stress made a for a good evenings wargaming entertainment :)
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Here's a selection of photos from the game.

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Picture Of The Week - No 8 - Chaos Terminator

This weeks picture is one I took many years ago. It features one of my favourite Games Workshop figures, a Warhammer 40k Chaos Space Marine in Terminator Armour armed with a Gatling Gun.   I bought him not use in 40K but to use in Space Crusade games, where I had great fun using a small Chaos squad as my team. Still a top game after all these years.
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Here's an intersting little article comparing the new Space Marine computer game with the 40k figure game. Link
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Here's the trailer for those who haven't seen it yet.
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My son has a copy for the X-Box, graphically its pretty stunning. As for game play, the jury is still out as far as I'm concerned. Need to see youngster playing it some more.
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Laid Up With A Bad Back - Reflecting On Stuff

Today after waking up with a bad back I went into work hoping it would ease off like yesterday. However... it didn't. To cut a long story short my back went into spasm and it became so bad I couldn't sit at my desk. I ended up lying on the office floor for over half an hour and one of my colleagues ended up giving me a lift home (I was in too much pain to drive).
Installed on the sofa with a fistfull of pain-killers and muscle relaxants inside me I can now at least sit up, so it seemed a good opportunity to do a blog posting and reflect on the last couple of weeks.
They say things come in threes; first I'm struck down for almost a week with a bad dose of man-flu, followed by last night with me having an accident with my son which end up with his head hitting my mouth and giving me a badly split lip. Now the back goes..... Hopefully this is the end of this run of bad luck....
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Managed to get a game of Space Hulk in just after X-Mas. For the first time ever I used the solo play rules which I have to say worked really well. Continuing on the Space Hulk theme, after reading several good reviews I've gone and ordered myself a copy of the Space Hulk - Death Angel card game which should hopefully turn up in the next day or so.
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Since I posted on 22 Dec I've continued reading the Gaunt's Ghosts omnibus books. I've now finished 'The Founding' and 'The Saint', and laid up this afternoon I've now started on 'The Lost'. What a great series. As a frustrated sci-fi writer myself I can only read in awe at the scale of the stories and landscape that they are set in (deep sigh). My favourite character so far has to be Master Sniper 'Mad' Hlaine Larkin :)
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For the Company of Heroes players out there the big news is of course that the Version 3 of the Blitz mod was made available for download on the 24th Dec. Several new vehicles are included, my favourite being the German Sturmpanzer IV 'Brummbar'. Expensive to buy, and you can only have one, so it does poses some downsides to the alternative which is up to three Grilles. For offensive actions though it is as tough as nails and that 150mm Howitzer round does a huge amount of damage.
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Gaunt's Ghosts

Whilst laid low with a heavy cold/(man)flu these last five days, I took the time to finish off a (average) novel about Alexander the Great and then make a start on a large stack of Warhammer 40k novels that my brother-in-law has kindly lent me. The first one I selected was 'The Founding' by Dan Abnett, which is all about a unit called 'Gaunt's Ghosts'. If you like sci-fi combat novels I can't recommend this enough. Great characters, tremendous vision and attention to detail and good stories make this a real "don't want to put the book down even though its 1:30 in the morning" experience. I'm only half way through the book but can't wait to see what happens next, and then get stuck into the two follow on books, 'The Saint', and 'The Lost'
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Warhammer 40k - Space Marine - Trailer

Saw this today, and think it looks quite good :)
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Hardardous Environments

Whilst browsing the excellent 'From The Warp' blog I came across this inspired download called 'Hazardous Environments'. It's aimed at the 40k gamer, but could easily be adapted for any sci-fi set of rules and scale. Highly recommended.
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Tampa and Gaming

Here in the UK' we've had (for us) quite a cold snap. Nothing to do with wargaming but here is a great photo of our rabbit 'Tampa' in the back garden a couple of days ago, enjoying the snow.
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On the gaming front my son saw a piece of my 'Tech Tunnel' corridor terrain (made by Old Crow) I had out its' storage box, and before we knew it, he had all it out and a full scale battle in place between his Space Marines (may the Emperor protect them) and my Orc Mob (green is best !)
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On the painting front I've been pushing on with the Mk2 Critical Mass Grav tank, and part from the aerials and base gritting, it's all complete. I hope to post a couple of photos tomorrow night, time permitting.
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Last Day Of The Holiday

It was my sons' last day of his X-Mas holiday break, so I arranged to have the day off as well. We've had a day full of wargaming goodness :) Firstly I dug out of my garage over 30 square feet of ready made 1/300th terrain that an old friend of mine (Steve Hammond) very generously passed onto to me at X-Mas; and then proceeded to lay out 25 sq ft of it on the floor in the spare bedroom. We pulled out of the attic some of my Battlemech collection and we had a couple of entertaining hours battling with them on the terrain.
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After lunch on the orders of Mrs Vulture the two of us took a car full of rubbish to the council run tip / recycling centre. Whilst there I was astonished to see by one of the skips, a box of Warhammer 40k Terminators.
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I spoke to the attendance who said if I wanted them I could have them :) Five what were previously unmade Terminators are now as of this evening assembled uncoated and ready for painting :) To add to the new figures in our collection, today the postman brought the small order of twenty seven 15mm Orcs I had recently ordered from 'The Scene'.
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Fabulous little figures, this photo does not do justice to just how nice they are. Overall a good day here at the Vulture's Roost :) Sadly, back to work tomorrow though :(

ULTRAMARINE MOVIE

It seems there is a movie in the works about the Ultramarines. It is described as a 70-minute sci-fi thriller that will use CGI and state-of-the-art animation production techniques. Games Workshop will be working with a UK-based production company Codex Pictures, who have the momentous task of bringing the Warhammer 40,000 universe to the screen. Check out this link.
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Been Busy

Been busy with the out-laws visiting these last few days, so little time to update the Blog. Fortunately my brother-in-law (Mike) is a keen gamer, and the two of us have been doing quite a bit of computer gaming, both with my son, and also late on a night. Company Heroes ‘Blitzkrieg Mod’ has been the favorite thus far, the two of pitching our skills against the CPU. We’ve also bought Star Wars Battlefront II and Dawn of War II. Both thus far have proven to be a big disappointment. The first because it is so bugged I can’t get it to multi-player over the LAN, and DoW2 is a pig to install, and keeps crashing; furthermore you can only multi-player over the Internet through a Steam account. Not impressed thus far…
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A platoon of walkers I had ordered from Critical Mass Games came in the post, and I've been gluing the first one together, hope to post a photo as soon as there is some paint on it.
On figure gaming front, my son and I had a ‘play’ battle (no rules as such) on the floor in the yesterday using a mixture of 40k and Space Crusade figures. Here’s a couple of photos…
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Dawn of War II - Real Life Rhino

Dawn of War II - Real Life Rhino
Putting the real life Space Marine Rhino to the test ! Okay, this is pretty impressive the amount of effort someone has gone to here !
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Warhammer On-Line Age Of Reckoning - Trailer

Here's a rather excellent trainer I found on U-Tube for Warhammer On-Line 'Age Of Reckoning'.
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SPACE MARINE - TRAILER FOR NEW GAME

This trailer for a new 40k Space Marine game from those smart chaps at Relic has just been released. V nice.
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Warhammer Dawn Of War Trailer

Quite simple one of the best trailers ever done for a game IMHO. Certainly worth posting :)
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White Scar - Space Marine

Been doing bit of work on a couple of my sons 40k figures. Here's my first effort on a White Scar Space Marine. Spray undercoated him in grey car primer, then followed this by two light coats of a very light grey, followed by a good dry brushing of white. Lined the detail in black. The gun is done in GW's Boltgun metal with a bit of Scab Red to finish it off.
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Warhammer 40k: Space Hulk - Stop Motion Movie

I thought today I'd embed a link to, IMHO one of the finest stop-motion movies you will find on U-Tube. Made by a guy called Conlan, this is a great piece of work. Enjoy