In the (half a) Company of Angels

Welcome back fellow travellers to The Folly of War. The time has come to take stock of how my Blood Angel 3rd Company is coming along. So far I have added a few units here and there and I am now almost on my way to having a fully painted half a company of marines.
My model list totals thus:

• 3 tactical marine squads
• 2 five man devestators
• 1 assault squad
• 1 company command
• Captain Tycho
• Librarian

It has been great fun painting and researching the deeds of this oh so famous company of marines and finally I got to use them in a game. At the H and L Friday night club I played a 1500 point game against the new chaos codex. My opponant was Mr. Pidwell a fellow enthusiast of the fluff and an avid RPG(er). His army consisted of over 14 spawn, a lord on bike, 2 havoc squads, 2 plague marine squads and the infamous Daemonic Rapper E Didy (epidemeus). Now, I can hear you calling from the rafters "that doesn't sound too hard". Well, my eager readers unfortunately for me every model in the army had the mark of nurgle, including, the Havocs. For those of you who have put 2 and 4 together, you will have realised that for each kill a model does in the army E diddy gets to up the tally making the army better. I'm not saying 14 spawn are any good, but when these spawn have hatred, wound on twos with a re-roll and ignore armour, you do feel slightly (oh so slightly) inadiquate. On the plus side it was a highly entertaining game with a delightfully funny opponant (shame about the army). I left the game feeling better about 40k as looking at the 57 marines in the 1500 which, made me think with pride, what a good job I have done with the army. Even though I was slaughtered (to a man) I loved the imagery that both armies had inspired. The thought of a brave last stand against the diseased, rotting, monstroserties rampaging towards combined bolter, las and plasma fire was fantastic to watch and inspired me to keep plodding away at the rest of the company.

In other news I was trawling the BOLS site and came across an article about home made photoshopped backgrounds for miniatures. The cogs began to turn in my head and I thought I could do that. Over the next couple of weeks I am going to experiment to see what I can produce and I hope to show you something very soon...wish me luck. Finally before I would just like to wish everyone going to PAW this year the very best of luck as unfortunately I cannot make it this year. Until next time travellers farewell.... 

40K... How Do You Play Yours?

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all from The Folly of War. As we mark the end of a overall good year in wargaming, I feel its time for some reflection and changes with my view of the world of 40K.



This is not my 40K

What a jam packed (strawberry flavoured) year it has been for 40K with the new rule book, chaos 30K and loadsa new shiny toys. Has it been good or has it been bad? Constant moans of "allies is stupid" are being cried up and down the country in tournament games everywhere. The hardcore majority of my friends are of that breed and will stop at nothing to create the most "broken list". I myself have even fallen into the seductive arms of tournament gaming with promises of glory and silverware this year (yeah right I can dream). Many an evening was spent in heated discussion about what should go into an army and what shouldn't due to its viability in tournaments. I remember one afternoon after just purchasing Lucius the Eternal a complete stranger told me that I shouldn't have bought him and that he was a waist of money for a "decent" Chaos army. That kind of conversation really knocks the hobby stuffing out of you and low and behold no Chaos army 3 months later. This type of thing happens to me quite a lot and can be a massive blow to any new army I want to collect.

My Dead Pile

However, after a very one sided game between me and my ever so delightful brother (Space Wolves are his friend) I realised something. Who the hell is anyone to tell me how to play MY damn hobby! I have, quite frankly, had it with tournament players and their "ooooh I don't think you should do that..." attitude. My brother has taught me a vital lesson this year, which is I just don't want to be "that guy". He is a very competent 40k player but his love for his hobby is very different from mine and thats fine. His point was this "I don't like painting but I like to win and at the end of the day I don't care if my army is painted or not". Now, at first I thought my brother was just being a win at all cost kinda guy but actually he has a point. Its his game as much as mine and if he wants to build an army that kicks out enough firpower the British armed forces blush then fair play.

His Dead Pile (the 3 Marines on their own Killed themselves)



My point is I want the same entitlement in reverse.



This is my 40K!!!!!

I want to take certain lists because they're in the background. I want to use models because they look good and I have spent vast numbers of hours painting them. I want to buy a model without being put off by someone elses perspective of the game bluring my own. So, I have decided I am going to go back to how I used to collect when I was a teenager. My Blood Angels are staying with me but I am going to paint the entire 3rd company. If i decide to go to a tournament I'll take a list from what I have and not go out and specifically buy units that will "compliment" each other on the table. I am also looking at going to more themed events (Campaign weekends and Apocolypse games). Hopefully with this in mind I will keep my love of 40K fresh and hopefully not end up (like a lot of people I know) falling out of love with 6th. My wish for 2013 is that people begin to understand that not everyone plays the game like them and thats okay.



You might have a different oppinion or might agree. Am I talking nonsense or the truth? Should we tell people how to play their game? Whats your take? Leave a comment below.

6th Edition First Impressions

Welcome, welcome, as we set sail into the heart of the unknown, aboard the Folly of War. These last couple of weeks have been busy ones both with work and with painting. My Blood Angels army is steadily growing (I'm verging on 1500 painted!) and I have been feverishly playing games of 6th edition to try and smooth over any rules issues. So far I have played a total of 4 games and have won a grand total of... 0. However, this has not in anyway been a bad thing. Each game has given me a new aspect to learn or changed the way I have interpreted the rules. For example, I found out that jump packs must decide which phase they will jump in (movement or assault). If they jump 12" in the movement they do not get the hammer of wrath rule or re-roll to charge.

Another area where the game has changed dramatically is aircrft (I am trying to stop calling them Flyers as it makes me sound like I have the vocab of a 10 year old child). Now, I have a bit of a soft spot for aircraft, as my dad used to work at Heathrow and my girlfriend's dad works at Duxford. So, when an opportunity to include models that add an extra dimension to the gaming table I flew (pun intended) at the chance to make plane noises during the movement phase (they should've added something along the lines of this in the new book. "You must make a neeewooaaaah noise every time you move an aircraft else the engine stalls and it crashes").  Using aircraft is so much fun and can really freak out your opponent if they have no AA. Watching the desperation of an army unload the entire contents of their guns just to bring down a single plane is very entertaining... right up until the point that your opponent does hit your Stormbrick and it comes crashing down, killing the majority of passengers insides (damn you Jamie!!!).

I leave you with pictures of my Librarian dread. I have used the same chipping technique as before but I wanted to go another step forward with painting the Force Weapon. Using blending and washes I gradually built up a crystalline looking blade. Using 1:1:1 mix of Hawk Turquoise, Bleached Bone and Regal Blue (or equivalents if you cant get them any more) I gave the blade a solid coat then added more Bleached Bone to highlight and used Regal blue wash for low lighting. Lastly, streaks of white were added to create a reflective shimmer. Next, on the to do list of the angels is 5 scouts, another dread, a drop pod and the one I am putting off the most 7 Sternguard. Right, those marines won't paint themselves. Navigator set course to the Baal System we need reinforcements!!

6th Edition 40K



Eager to get to grips with the new book!



In the grim darkness of the far future there is only.... a brand spanking new book with lots of pretty stuff in it (woo). 6th edition 40K is here and on Saturday I was one of many people to purchaise a copy of the new rules.

I awoke bleary eyed and was out of the door in 5 minutes flat. The feeling you get when you're a kid at Christmas rushed over me. I talked to animatronica about the book all the way to the Heroes and Legends store. For those of you who arn't in the know Heroes and Legends is my semi local gaming store. Only just over a year old it has allowed me to experience games and products that I would have never heard of let alone seen in a GW.


Guy's excitement knows no bounds...



I arrived at H&L and to my suprise I wasn't the only one a que had formed already. The atmosphere was buzzing and you could have cut the excitment with a chainsword. Onlookers stared at the group in bewielderment (You'd think standing outside a gaming shop at 9 am was normal?). The shutters shuddered to life and the doors opened. The shop was rammed with people all with one quest, 40K. I asked Guy (one of the staff members) what his impressions were of the new rules. He was pleased that he now had even more psychic powers he could use in his Grey Knight force. After this brief discussion he then proceeded to show me how the new powers can effect a game. One power made my terminators re-roll successful armour saves!

Finally it was mine (at a discount too SCORE!), as well as many, many, many more things for my Blood Angels (looks like 2K points is going to be the new black). The staff were great and were happy to talk about the new rules, possible lists and play games. I myself played 3 games over the Saturday and lost all 3 (nothing new). However, it didn't matter, as it gave me a chance to learn new rules and discuss possible problems with slight inconsistancies with the codexes.

I also managed to be one of the first to aquired one of only 25 purity seals made by Hammer and Forge. The quality and craftmanship is outstanding right down to the scrollwork. Now I've just got to find somewhere to put the thing. If your interested check them out as they can made all manner of bespoked items for certain Sci fi games (hint, hint, nudge, nudge, you know what I mean).

A Purity Seal. Now where to put the thing?

So what does this mean for my armies. Well out of the ashes have arrisen the Templars. The have been given a significant boost by new F&Q (rage anyone?) but for the time being I will be beavering away at trying to get a 2K Blood Angel list with all manner of thinngs: Dreads, Stormravens, Tycho and possibly some Allies?

So thats it till next time. The Folly of War is setting off into the unknown. If you had a great 40K release tell me about it. What was your favourite bit? What do you think of the new rules? What was your 40K release like? Until next time. Navigator set co-ordinates Octoberfest!!!!!