The Beard Bunker

In recent times two things have happened. Firstly, but chronologically second, we have gained a new codex for the Thousand Sons. The codex is actually quite good. Positives include more wounds for your Arcana Astartes and the daemon engines gaining some extra shooty points. Negatives include no actual daemons in the book and you can no longer take hordes of minions. Which to me is a downside as I liked the image of a powerful sorcerer kicking about a mass of expendable underlings towards the enemy. Also gone are the stratagems that allow you to mutate models into daemons or spawn. Do not despair, this is now part of the crusade rules. In fairness I think this is probably a good thing, partly because it probably takes longer than a single game turn to mutate, partly it is also fairer for those of us who don't have the spare models kicking about to spontaneously drop in a Daemon Prince because of a lucky roll. Other things include a whole load of new rules for Cabbalistic Rituals, In...

The impending release of Codex: Orks for 9th edition 40K is stirring the long-dormant bit of me that enjoys painting ramshackle vehicles, but it's not a foregone conclusion. If the new Codex is overpowered it'll dent my enthusiasm. As GW's Community team tease details from the new book, I find myself growing concerned. In today's short post, then, I'm going to talk about whether or not that concern is sensible, and what to do if we get a bad case of Codex power creep. The first thing that really got my attention was the announcement that basic orks would henceforth be Toughness 5. Any seasoned player of 40K probably understands what a big difference that is. Suddenly, a Space Marine with a boltgun will have just as much a chance of causing a wound as a veteran Guardsman with a lasgun. From an immersion perspective, that feels off, and like it risks making basic workhorse units weirdly ineffective against massed infantry. On the one hand, I tell myself not to worry. ...

Right then, if you are here there's a fair bet that you are someone who prefers the narrative side of gaming.  As such, I have no idea whether this post will be of any interest to you whatsoever or whether you'll just find it trite and boring, tough. I want to talk a little about background. This post was going to be all about the characters in my Necron army but I have spent a whole day trying to write something for them, and many weeks with this post sat in draft thinking about it and I've come to a conclusion. I hate writing characters. If you want a world, a system, a biome, fauna, flora, geology, astronomy, physics, technology, a civilisation (preferably fallen), then I will write you that over and over again, I love it. Most if not all of the background that I love, and my thoughts about armies, forces, chapters, and everything else revolves almost completely around the worlds, systems, and civilisations that birth them.  I think absolutely nothing about the character...

More additions for my Ikarran Necrons today.  This time around it is the turn of the various flavours of Necron that have succumbed during the long aeons of hibernation. So, to continue the telling of the origins of the Ikarrans and in order of age of the models: The Flesh Harvest Infected by some virus, these units now seek to recover all they lost through transference, thinking that if they can harvest sufficient biological matter from their victims they will somehow transform back into their previous selves.  A true terror to their foe, they inhabit pockets of a nether dimension and phase onto the battlefield where they are least expected. These are the old metal sculpts of the Flayed Ones, and they are absolutely fantastic, if horrifying.  It's not until you get really close that you see how the flesh is sculpted as if stretched over the skeletal frame underneath, and the way it hangs over the faces with the odd eye peering through is deeply disturbing (the close up p...

Today's instalment for the growing Ikarran dynasty are the Canoptek constructs, mindless automata whose sole purpose is the maintenance and protection of the "true" Necrontyr and their homeworlds.  By their very definition, these units can be a little dry or bland for the more narrative kind of experience I like, so with my apologies to fiction writers everywhere I plan to include a snippet of colour text that has been knocking around in my head that helps me bring them to life.  If nothing else, it'll give you all an insight into how I imagine these delightfully spooky constructs would act. First up are the Cryptothralls, or murder-barrels as I like to think of them (left and right, I'll cover the central Cryptek in a later post).  With their backwards angled blades, and extremely hunched poses these are glorious models.  The centralised glowing power orb (not really visible in the image below sadly) is a new feature that seems to be a common theme in the Canopte...

 ... They ARE the jungle.  In a somewhat Stark contrast to Andy's take on the Tau, my vision of them is rather more utilitarian. I've gone for a very simple scheme indicative of the industrial war machinery of another regime that also believed in the Greater Good*. To add a layer of interest, and because I seem to always want to over compliate everything, I have pushed the boat out with the weathering and basing on these guys.     The main paint scheme is drab green and black. The Green starts with Death World Forest, then a wash/pin wash** of Athonian Camo Shade***, Elysian Green, then finally Ogryn Camo. The Black was Corvus Black everywhere but the deepest of recesses where I left the Choas Black undercoat showing, then highlighted with Eshin Grey and Dawnstone.    Next up was the weathing stage. This was achived by taking a very light colour and a very small brush and gently building up the chipping with tiny dots and stratches. This is time consu...

Allow me to indroduce the Ikarran Dynasty, my fledgling Crusade force which will combine my old Necron army from days-of-yore, and all the lovely newness of 9th Edition.  For anyone who wishes to get ahead of the posts, a lot of the flavour text you'll read here can be found on the Cetus wiki . The names the Ikarran Necrontyr used for the worlds of the Eridani Sector have been lost in time. Needless to say, both Eridani and Achenar Sector were once part of their dominion. In an age when dinosaurs still roamed Terra, and humanity's ancestors were but tiny vermin desperately trying to avoid becoming the next meal, the Ikarran dynasty was at its peak. Victors of sorts of the War in Heaven, and vanquishers of the C'Tan, they along with the other dynasties were masters of the Galaxy. Seeing little more to achieve, they realised their lives would no longer have purpose. Withdrawing to their birth worlds, they erected defences as they went so that they could remain undisturbed unt...