Design a Banner Competition for Ultramarines movie

From their official site

Design a Space Marines standard and win one of five original and unique storyboards from the ULTRAMARINES movie, inked and signed by the storyboard artist.

To enter, create your own standard using the official design template entry form and submit it to the Ultramarines movie website www.ultramarinesthemovie.com/competition/enter by Midnight GMT on 27 June 2010.

Judged by a panel including Black Library author and movie screenwriter Dan Abnett and representatives from Codex Pictures and Games Workshop, there will be one lucky winner from each of four geographical zones and one winner in a category especially for professional artists, designers or miniature painters.

Each of five winners will receive an original and unique window-mounted storyboard from the ULTRAMARINES movie, inked and signed by the storyboard artist.

A selection of the entries will be posted for everyone to see in a special competition gallery on the website.

Good luck!


So I have ZERO artistic ability but I'll have to do something for this. And I'll have to force the brother who actually has a DEGREE IN ART to do something for it too.

Tankity Tankity Tank!

As an Imperial Guard player I have an overwhelming urge to drop as many massively armored titans of destruction onto the table as possible at any given time. Leman Russes of all shapes and sizes rolling where they choose, Basilisks and other artillery not letting anything stay behind cover and of course the utter and complete Goddess of Sex, the Baneblade!



I think if my wife knew how much I really like that tank she might force it out of my house.....

Anyways, I'm excited about Spearhead. From what it looks like, and the June White Dwarf is going to expand on this, it looks like an expansion that puts all your vehicles on the table. According to the Games-workshop.com blurb you play it lengthwise on the table so you have longer ranges and larger weapons to deal with.



On top of that, new tanks! I'm really liking the differant missile tanks like the new Manticore and Deathstrike launchers but I can't see a place for them in my army other than as a cool looking vehicle. I'm really more of a direct assault tanker since I've never had much luck with artillery. I think it's because I expect them to actually kill stuff when really they should be used as an area/cover denial weapon. I'll have to slip some pieces into my next army and try it again.



Mmmmmmmm... Tanks!

Da Stabby Onez VS Albion Wanderers!

Have I mentioned how much I love Blood Bowl on the 360? It really makes me wonder why Necromunda can't be done in the same way. Come on THQ, I am ready and willing to give YOU money and in exchange you will give ME a game. Seriously, who's with me?

So todays match was against the human Albion Wanderers. I've been on a bit of a dry streak lately, Da Stabby Onez have definately been living up to their name however we've gotten so caught up in making sure the opposite team never, ever gets back up again that the whole ball thing has escaped us.

I was a bit worried at the start, they took an Ogre star player along with some powered up blitzer however after Da Stabby Onez received the kickoff the front line, my good old Troll and Black Orcs, put the hurt on both their star players on turn 1! The rest of the game went pretty much the same way, none of their original team was left for the second half but the game subs in generic players at that point so we ended 2-0 Stabbyz! Go Boyz!

This stadium really has nothing to do with my game against the Wanderers, I just loved it.

Squad Command

Picked this up at the Gamestop sale and while the graphics on the DS version look like mud, the gameplay is well put together and enjoyable.

Squad command is a turn-based, tactical game where you deploy and manuver a squad of Space Marines and, later in the game, their accompanying vehicles and support. Each Marine is allocated a certain amount of action points that are used for movement, firing weapons and other actions. Character position is taken into account during combat as kneeling characters gain cover bonuses and tend to be more accurate while firing.



Now I'm usually all for playing the DS over the PSP, mainly because I believe that better games make a better system, but to be honest the graphics actually do make a differance for me in this case. The touch pad controls never felt as easy to use as the d-pad, there is a very noticable differance in the graphics and the crisper PSP display is much easier on the eyes. However, the constant top screen map display is handy whereas in the PSP version you have to pause in order to access it. Also, while the DS has static displays for it's story elements, the PSP makes use of video, some of which are pretty nice looking.



Both versions are on clearance and are worth picking up. While not as deep as I'd have like, the character advancement is basic and new weapons are doled out every other mission or so, the gameplay is close enough to X-Com to be enjoyable.

Based on this, and the semi-recent release of Blood Bowl, I wonder why the older spin off series aren't leveraged into video game titles? Blood Bowl is a pretty solid game even without the customization of the PC version, Squad Command as well and of course Dawn of War 1 and 2 are excellent RTS games. So why do we not have an amazing Necromunda or Mordheim turn based tactical? Their very nature lends themselves to this type of gameplay and I don't know about you guys but I'd be first in line for a Necromunda game equivalent to Blood Bowl on the Xbox 360 with online multiplayer support!

And the same goes for Battlefleet Gothic and Man O' War! Just put them on DS, pretty please THQ, I'll be your best friend!

Happy Birthday Brother!

Today is my brothers 26th birthday and I thought I'd help celebrate it by showing off how much of a better painter he is than I am.

Of course the dork doesn't have any of his beautiful Tau, Sisters or Black Templars, especially some of the specially built or modified minis, posted online. So instead you'll have to make due with his Legion of Everblight from Hordes.



Thagrosh is a nasty fellow in his own right. I haven't had the chance to take a look at the new evolved version but from what I hear he only gets meaner the older he gets.



The Carnivian I've taken down a time or two, those Skorne monster hunter units really can do their job occasionally, but it's a mean monster and combined with Thagrosh' ability to bring it back from the dead it's basically a twofer.



Incubi. As if his normal troops were not annoying enough, whenever you kill one they turn into one of these. Yeearrrggh!

Anyways, Happy Birthday Curtis! You paint beautifully and I hate you for it!

Imperial Draw

So our noble guardsmen faced off against the insidious Tau tonight and it was bloody!

We took 1000pts each and my army list didn't change much from last week:

HQ
Company Command Squad Destroyed by games end
No Upgrades

Elite
Ratling sniper squad w/ 5 members 4 members dead 1st turn

Troops
Platoon Command Squad 3 members dead by last turn
No Upgrades
Heavy Weapons Team w/ 3 lascannons Wiped out first turn
Heavy Weapons Team w/ 3 lascannons Wiped out first turn
Special Weapons Squad w/ 3 sniper rifles Wiped out fifth turn
Infantry Squad w/ Autocannon Wiped out 2nd turn
Infantry Squad w/ Autocannon Took fire until 4th turn, then wiped out
Veteran Squad w/ 3 meltas and chimera Wiped trying to take Tau side objective
Veteran Squad w/ 3 meltas and chimera Wiped out 6th turn trying to hold Imperial side objective

Heavy
Leman Russ Demolisher w/ lascannon Survive unscathed!

I did add in the ratlings and honestly, was not terribly impressed. They took a beating first turn and broke, the sole survivor held on the rest of the game but managed to miss every shot he took though I will give him credit for actually accepting a Fire on my Target! order.

The Tau had the following:

HQ
Etheral w/ 10 man Fire Warrior squad 70% killed by Demolisher shot

Elite
3 Stealth Suits Wiped out turn 6
3 Stealth Suits Survived untouched

Troops
Fire Warrior squad 2 members left at games end, lost objective
Fire Warrior squad 5 members left at games end, lost objective
Kroot squad Wiped out 5th turn

Heavy
Hammerhead Weapons destroyed 4th turn
Hammerhead Survived untouched

We rolled Sieze Ground with 3 objectives as the mission and the Tau got first turn. They wiped out the Hvy Weapons squads with submunitions and did a number on one of the infantry squad with their missiles. Like I mentioned the ratlings got whacked by the Fire Warriors.

Neither one of us were able to grab a foothold on those objectives and at games end neither of us had any scoring units left. Now this sounds like a down ending but a lot of my games against Tau typically end with almost a complete route of my forces. In the last turn, one of my Chimeras put enough heavy bolter shots into a Fire Warrior squad to take them below scoring level, thus forcing a draw as they had a hold on an objective.

So, very very bloody and not just on my side which is a win in my book!

Rat-a-tat-tat

On Bell of Lost Souls we were discussing some of the merits of my Imperial Guard list recently, especially in regard to the Special Weapons / W snipers I took. Really it was more about the Ratlings vs Traditional Snipers and it had some valid points so here's a quick pro/con of both of them:

Ratlings



Pros:

Better BS means more accuracy
All models in the squad have Sniper weapons
Infiltrate allows better positioning at the start of the game
Stealth gives defensive bonuses

Cons:

Takes up an elite slot
Low Leadership makes giving orders more difficult
Low Leadership can send them running very quickly
Can't hold objectives

Guardsmen Snipers



Pros:
Scoring Unit
Higher Leadership so orders are more likely to be followed
Spotters with Lasguns provide some weapons diversity and allow additional orders options

Cons:
Higher cost for initial unit (Special Weapons Squad w/ sniper rifles is 20pts more expensive than ratlings for the base unit)
Lower BS, less accurate
No special abilities


In my last game my basic guardsmen snipers actually paid for themselves, held their objective and kept their targets at bay. I've never had much success with them as a unit but this particular game they were worth every penny. Based on the ideas above next game I'll probably split the differance and take one squad of Guardsmen with Sniper rifles to sit on an objective and provide cover fire and then a 5 man squad of ratlings to focus their more accurate fire on key enemy units. The same amount of points is spent and it does give me some extra options during the game.