ITEN: Rapturous Beasts Ascending

So my buddy Stu saw my post on Reaper's mutant and got a burr in his saddle to play some In The Emperor's Name (ITEN).  If you have not heard of it, it's a mainly fan-made skirmish system for doing Abnett-style Inquisitorial games in the 40K universe. I had the good fortune to nose my way into the process a few years ago and add some cool stuff to the 2nd ed. I know there is a 3rd ed. in the works, but we'll be using the 2nd ed. this morning.

Anyway, I dug through my extensive collection of minis suitable for building a warband for this, and decided on an Ordo Xenos Inquisitor and his band. This guy is a bit of a heretic, so he's willing to pal around with aliens to get the job done. Check them out!

Here's the band. 200 pts., 8 models.

Inquisitor Holger Geist (a Cobalt mini).

Ygori, his mutant henchmen.

Greskin, alien psyker (Blue Moon mini).

P'knoc, Kroot tracker.

Imperial Interdiction Team.

I'll stat the Interdiction Team up as Guardsmen with shotguns. The alien psyker will be made up using the standard psyker rules and profile. Ygori the mutant will be a standard Inquisitorial agent with some sort of minor special ability. I'll include the Kroot using the Strange Ally rules that allows one model from another list.

So yeah, ITEN makes for a great way to dust off the old (or not so old!) minis and get some gaming in!

Thanks for visiting!

--Scott

Hordes: Plastic Trollbloods

I've always sworn that if PP did the core Hordes forces in plastic, I'd go back and redo my Trollbloods in plastic. So after scoring a giftcard to my local FLGS (Phantom), I grabbed the Trollblood starter set and the new plastic Storm Troll light warbeast (also in plastic).

As this will be my third go-round with Trollbloods, I wanted to do something a little different with the flesh tones. So last night I did a test paint on the plastic Impaler. This mini-project will get me to 15 pts. and allow me to play in the upcoming campaign at the shop!

I used a Reaper 3-step Drow skin for his flesh tone!

Thanks for visiting!

--Scott

Reaper Post Apoc Mutant

I bought this guy a while back and then asked my friend Sky to sculpt a shirt onto him. Sky complied and did a bang-up job, and then the figure sat on my bench for months. Then today I painted him! 

That's the way it goes sometimes!  But this guy has Dark Heresy/Inquisitor written all over him.

Pictured here with a GW conversion I did for Dark Heresy.

Not sure if I'd use him as a PC or an NPC villain, but I will also definitely include him a in skirmish game warband.

Thanks for visiting!

--Scott

A Pair From Fading Suns

I've long been a fan of the Fading Suns RPG line.  Once released by Holistic, but now under the creative control of Red Brick, Fading Suns meshes elements from some of my favorite sci-fi universes. Take a dash of Dune and mix with a twist of Warhammer 40K, along with some truly unique aspects, and you have a rich compelling universe to adventure in.

That's Fading Suns. More than a decade ago, when the property was still actively controlled by Holistic, they did a small but fine run of 28mm miniatures for the game.  They even did pre-painted versions. But I went for the unpainted ones and painted them up myself.

Thanks to some holiday time off the last few days, I took some bench time to re-paint and re-base my Vorox alien from the Fading Suns background. This model marks one of the best 28mm scale four-armed aliens in my collection. I wish Holistic had done more when they had the chance. Pictured with him is a fine star-faring noble adventurer, also from the Fading Suns line.

Pictured with a Foundry 2000 AD cyborg. 

I've been working on some sci-fi RPG rules mixing aspects of FUDGE and Fate, and writing rules for multi-limbed races that are fair and balanced is not easy!  I settled on allowing a player running a multi-limbed creature the option to make two attacks at -1 each should he choose. He can still make just one normal attack if he likes. We'll see how it works.

Of course, gaming aside, we cannot ignore the calendar, so Happy Christmas to all my readers who celebrate the holiday!  I hope you find plenty of gaming goodies under your Christmas Trees, and perhaps give some games as gifts yourselves!

Thanks for visiting!

--Scott

The 5th Chaos Cultist Is Done

I finished the 5th Chaos Cultist from the GW toy box. Can't stress too much what a sweet little boxed set this is for $10!

I used these guys in a game last night! They make excellent RPG villains for Inquisitor-based games.

Thanks for visiting!

--Scott

Warhammer 40K: A Fourth Cultist

Finished another of the 5 cultists from the 40K toy-box I picked up a few weeks ago. I may have a chance to use these guys in a game this weekend. We shall see!

Thanks for visiting!

--Scott

Nobody Asked Me, But...

Being an occasional feature where I discuss a bit of this and that.

• We saw The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey over the weekend, and I was really gobsmacked by how amazing it was!  Mr. Jackson and his crew pulled it off again! I loved every minute!
• We played a small game of GW's Hobbit strategy battle game over the weekend. Great stuff!  We ran four Dwarves against a horde of goblins and warg riders and lost, but had a blast doing so!
• I am currently following the progress of an amazing RPG Kickstarter, Fate Core.  Fred Hicks at Evil Hat Games has caught lightning in a bottle with this one, and the Fate RPG fans (myself included) are coming through with the support. In the end we'll have an amazing hardcover RPG suitable for use with nearly any genre!
• Been re-reading my JLA/Avengers crossover trade paperback lately and marveling at how Busiek and Perez managed to pull it off so beautifully. Other comics I've dusted off an read of late include: Steve Ditko Collection v. 2 (with all of the great LSH and Starman stories), Dark Horse's recently King Conan re-telling of the classic Phoenix on the Sword written by Tim Truman and drawn by Tomas Giorello, and my X-Men Hidden Years v. 1 by Byrne and Palmer.
• If you're looking for great maps of Middle-earth, check out Karen Wynn Fonstad's The Atlas of Middle-earth (revised ed.).  Brilliant cartography that will inform your reading and gaming of Tolkien.
• After playing a great session two weeks ago, our Shadows of Mumbai Shadowrun campaign goes on break until after the new year. We had one dramatic character death in the last session--a story-driven one decided on by one of the players. So we lose a ninja-type and gain an AI--not too bad! 

Later this week I may complete Thorin's Company, or move on to something else.  Not sure yet!  

Thanks for visiting!

--Scott

The Hobbit: Balin

Finished Balin this morning!  The event last night was a blast! Someone had an app loaded onto a computer where you could enter your real name and it would give you a Hobbit name.  Mine was Lotho Bumbleroot!

We had some enthusiastic players, and the Dwarves and Bilbo fought their way to freedom, suffering the loss of the redoubtable Dwalin in the process!

Thanks for visiting! 

--Scott

The Hobbit: Bilbo

You can't have a Hobbit game without Bilbo Baggins, and so here he is!

While the smallest member of the company, I also found Bilbo easiest to paint, and I decided to give him his walking stick instead of Sting.

Tonight is the event, so I am not sure I will have the next member of the Company done first thing Friday, but we'll see. 

Thanks for visiting!

--Scott

The Hobbit: Bofur

With the completion of Bofur, I now have 9 of Thorin's Company done!  This is plenty for the event Thursday night, but I also feel like I need Bilbo, so I plan to get him done next.

In the meantime, give Bofur a look!

Bofur may have been the toughest to complete so far. Sort of sticking to GW's color scheme, he almost got away from me, but I managed to reel him back in with judicious use of inks and subtle highlights.

Thanks for visiting!

--Scott

The Hobbit: Thorin

What would Thorin's Company be without Thorin Oakenshield?  This rather tall Dwarf included two options for armament, Orcrist, or a short blade and the eponymous Oakenshield.

I agonized for a while, but ended up choosing the Orcrist.  If I am ever lucky enough to land a second one, I will do him with the Oakenshield.

Anyway, here he is!

He's a head taller than this Dwarf Ranger--must be the Ent Wash!

A true fighting company!

Having used 7 of the company in a game on Sunday, I can attest they are awesome to behold in battle.  Now with Thorin they'll be even deadlier!  I think using these guys will work best with a single player fielding a sub-group of his favorites. They've got a lot of special rules, but they also have a lot of Might, Will, and Fate, so there's some game resources to keep track of.  They're perfect for demo games where you want the new players to feel cool and special.  You field the goblins and let the newbie play a couple of stout Dwarves!

  Now, a brief digression!  I was nominated for an online blogger award called a Liebster Award by Rothgar of Rothgar's Workbench.  Thanks! The way this works is I now list my 5 favorite blogs, and let those bloggers know I've named them (why does this feel like a chain letter with no money involved? is time still money?).  Anyway, here are 5 of my favorites!

http://clearhorizonsalvage.blogspot.com/
(for all of my 15mm sci-fi inspiration)

http://brummieswargamingblog.blogspot.com/
(for general miniature hobby coolness)

http://baronvonj.blogspot.com/
(because the Baron's a righteous dude and I envy his painting, wargame group, and basement)

http://ironworkersminiatures.blogspot.com/
(because Nathan's another gamer whose drive and talent inspire me)

http://leadaddict.blogspot.com/
(while a member of the Baron's crew, Ken is a fearsome blogger in his own right)

And very special mention to Tenz at the Basement Motive:

http://basementmotive.blogspot.com/

An awesome Goalsystem blog!


So yeah, get ready guys, because like the blogger-chain-letter-santa-claus I will be visiting each of your blogs today and leaving a message that you have earned a Leibster too!  Although I think the Baron already won one. But oh well.

Thanks again, Rothgar!

And thanks to you all for visiting!

--Scott

The Hobbit: Kili

It's now time to show off the most dashing member of Thorin's Company, Kili!  He looks a lot like a Dwarvish version of Aragorn, and he will synergize perfectly with this brother. Fili!

Check him out!

Check out that 5-o'clock shadow!

Thorin's Co.--8 strong!

I may try for either Thorin or Bilbo next, we'll see! 


Thanks for visiting!

--Scott

The Hobbit: Gloin

Gloin is done!  He's another gem, and it's obvious that he is Gimli's father! I love the fact that his axes are similar in style and heft to the ones we've seen on the Gimli figures--nice touch GW!

Seven company members down, seven to go!

Thanks for visiting!

--Scott