An Englishman's Home is his Castle

After being quite unsettled and flitting around various places over the past few years, I finally got my act together and climbed back on the property ladder.   In September 2012, I went through a very quick process of searching for a house, applying for a mortgage and moving into a house in South Normanton, on the Nottinghamshire\Derbyshire border in England.

As soon as I viewed the house, I just fell in love completely.  It was a repossession, so needed a bit of work and sorting out, but nothing too serious.  It's a four-bedroomed modern house, tucked into a corner of a new-ish, small housing development (called Turnley Grange).  The plot was actually intended to contain two houses, apparently, so it's got quite a large gargen, which was terribly overgrown and in quite a state when I moved in.  However, I (with the help of my folks) have pretty much got on top of it; with a large lawn area, courtyard, decking, hot tub, store house, it's going to take some more work to get nice.

The insides is largely stone or wood floors, so it can be pretty cold underfoot, but the rooms are quite good sizes and allows me to be greedy with both a study and a gaming room.  Definately plenty of things that require a lot of time, effort and money inside the house too, but all in good time... it has to be enjoyed as well as worked on ;-) 

Needless to say, it's financially draining trying to keep the place ticking over with monthly expenses, maintenance costs, living costs and trying to do improvements.  Even so, i'm loving it, it's my "forever house" and has all that I could want and need from a house.  I feel very comfortable and at home and the location is also ideal, right on the edge of the countryside, a stone's thrown from the main M1 motorway and easy access to Nottingham.

So now just taking time to improve the place and put my personal stamps on it.  Bit by bit, it's taking shape and look forward to seeing it get nicer and cosier over time.

Welcome, Gemini

Eventually, I did end up getting a cat, thanks to Tim and Jo Wild.  Tim had heard I was on the look-out for a cat and as luck would have it, Jo works at a vets who had a 18 month old cat brought in and been resident for a few weeks.   So after all the necessary innoculations, operations etc, I brought Gemini home.  Very cute, and very attentive, following me around everywhere.  Hell, just when I think she's sleeping deeply, I creep off to make a cup of tea, turn around and there she is, at my feet.  She chases anything that moves too, balls, leaves, sticks...and brings them back, like a dog! She may have issues with her identify. 

Anyway, it's great having an animal around the house.  I'm sure that in time i'll end up getting her a companion.

Hiatus Terminated!

Well it's been a while since I posted on my blog; real life got in the way and derailed me for numerous reasons; largely unpleasant!   So i'll be adding a number of updates to catch on a few significant things and subjects over the next couple of weeks and hopefully getting back on track.

First off, I moved house (again!); this time to South Normanton in Derbyshire, UK.  I love the house, has plenty of rooms and a fair bit of land for the type of property, so i've sure got my work cut out with maintenance jobs, decorating, fixing etc.   Nice view out just over trees and vegetation and no neighbours on two aspects, so i'm finding it quite peaceful.  It's a struggle at the moment, but I do feel settled and have lists of jobs that need doing; so it's just a matter of time, money and effort (all hard to give ;-) ).

Just need a couple of cats to liven the place up bit!

Tau Codex Wishlist

Ok, so it's certainly no secret that my pride and joy army is my Tau Empire. I love the models, the lore and background and the overall feel of the army. I've certainly won my fair share of games with them too, but I believe the army are suffering since coming into 5th edition 40K and certainly struggle to stand up to the latter armies which have had new codices or attention by GW. With armies getting into assault much quicker, having deployment abilities to appear behind enemy lines or outflank and generally harder hitting abilities, the Tau's lack of assault ability and low stats for close combat defence, combined with being locked into combat, it is quite easy to lock down and destroy units. In particular, I feel that Battlesuits suffer and do not convey the image that they should have. Tau are certainly overdue for a good revision and upgrade, so i'm eager for the new codex release. Here's my wishlist to help the blueskins have a better chance:


HQ

Ethereals - abilities and powers increased, give Save, and better Firewarrior honor guard (veteran stats (+1 BS and Ld) and not having to use Troop slot!)

Elites

(new) Battlesuits with better WS and assault based weapons (makes sense when protected in a suit!)

XV25 - Give Battlesuits some support systems hard-wired as standard.  Lower wargear points costs.Allow Crisis Battlesuits two weapon shots per turn, as Multi-tracker
Give battlesuits Hit and Run to allow not be tied up into Close Combat. (Jet pack makes sense, and gives a chance in assault)
Increase max unit size of Crisis Battlesuits to 5.

XV15\XV25 - Lower cost of Stealthsuits.

Decrease chance of spotting to 2D6"

Fast Attack

(new) Jet Bike Squadron (1-4 bikes), Fast Skimmers, armed with Rail Rifles. Disruption Pod and Turbo Boost.

Vespids - add Hit and Run.

Gun Drones - Flechette Discharger or self-destruct facility on Gun Drones hit\destroyed in Close Combat.

Piranha - Piranhas with Fusion Blasters get concentrated power increase when all hit for squadron of 3+

Troops
Kroot -  Make kroot rifle an Assault weapon and new rule to compensate for loss of Fieldcraft
Give Kroot 6+ save for no cost
Better abilities for Shaper for the cost of 21 points!! Add benefit to rest of unit if Shaper is included.
Great Knarloc as an option to Kroot unit, rather than Heavy Support.

(new) Add new troop option (additional alien race)

Fire Warriors - more wargear and options.  The unit is too basic in variance.

Heavy Support

Hammerhead - Choice is 1-3 Hammerheads, a la IG Leman Russ Squadrons
Add other Hammerhead turret options (as per Forge World).
Allow target lock and multi-tracker as standard. wing-mounted weapons fire regardless like drone-intelligence and not included in usual Weapon Strength restrictions.

Sky Rays - Unlimited (or more than 6, at least!) Seeker missiles (makes sense that they would be loaded up from the cargo hull)

Sniper Drone Teams -Move to Elite slot
Sniper Drones dont need coherancy and can operate at x" distance from each other and the Spotter.

Transport

Devilfish - Better weapon options for Devilfish. Devilfish to be Fast. All Devilfish to have Marker Beacons for Deep Strike re-rolls.

GenericTroop\HQ\Elites - More characters for unit types to add unit benefits (e.g. Reknowned Pathfinder Shas'ui etc, to give benefits (as per Telion in SM Scout unit)

See, it's not asking the earth! ;-)  Tau need a good ramp up! 

Armies, Fleets and Crews...oh my!

Onto a prominent hobby and the reason for far too much expenditure and sapping of my time! After a number of changes over time, I now feel completely settled on my choice and collection of armies for the various wargames i'm involved in. Having gone through Imperial Guard, Space Marines, Wood Elves, Ogre Kingdoms, and finally the recently purged Dark Eldar, i'm now feeling clear and focused on my current (and final!) set of armies.

Warhammer Fantasy

Warriors of Chaos - This is my "elite" and "serious" army for Fantasy. I've completed all the models I need for the army, so have a good array of Marauders, Knights, and Chaos Warriors, as well as all the lords and heroes I could ever need. The War Mammoth is by far the most beautiful piece, however and towers above everything else. Nothing is painted yet, but once i'm settled on the method and paint schemes then i'm sure it will be relatively quick to paint up. So not a massive amount of models, but enough to play around decent-sized games...and they look mean as hell :-D

Orcs & Goblins - I've long been interested in this army, despite initially disregarding them as a "comical" aspect of the dark fantasy world of Warhammer. But now i've learnt to embrace the army and find them fun to play with (as a bit of relief from playing Warriors of Chaos, so they're the perfect counterpart). I love the look of the army and the variety of the units in both performance and looks. With the new Arachnarok spider, it really adds more to the Forest Goblins and expands that part of the army well. Some fantastic models throughout and have already painted up a few units, which i'm happy with. of course, this army is much larger than the Chaos army, so will take some time to paint up. I still have a fair few models (mostly metals) which I want to get in to complete the collection.

Warhammer 40,000

Tau Empire - What can I say about my Tau army?! I love this army above all others and it's by far my largest army and has received the most focus, both in painting and gaming. The number of points in total is huge now, even moreso with the addition of my long dreamt of model - the Manta! So I now have every model in the Tau army produced by GW and Forge World and have painted many units over the years. There's still a fair bit to paint but i'm more than comfortable with the tasks and keep focusing on painting units on a regular basis. There's nothing else I need for this army....at least until a revised codex is released (and hopefully more models :-) )

Grey Knights - My latest army! Always loved the old models; the intricate designs and shiny metal look, and the helmets and force weapons which hark back to Chivalric times. The lore behind this army is appealing too and with the release of the new models, it would also satisfy my missing need for a Space Marine army (and also mean I can have a Stormraven Gunship!) This will be an elite army too, so I won't need many models to have a good sized (point-wise) army. They should be quite quick and easy to paint too, just spraying in metal spray and then bringing out the details with gold etc.

Elysians - These are a slow-burner and more of a "collector's" army. Partly as it's a Forge World army, so is expensive, as partly as it's Imperial Guard so takes a lot of models to get a legal, playable army together. The look and feel of the army is just what i'm looking for out of a Guard army; being drop troops and utilising Valkyries (one of my first love's from Forge World). So far i've only build the Command HQ but have a small number of other units waiting to be built. My intension is to build and paint a unit at a time, so as not to be stacked up with loads of daunting models. I've not yet decided upon the colours yet, but it will be a grey\blue scheme.

Lord of the Rings

Harad - My first and only army for LotR. Got a good size army of Haradrim and nothing else to collect despite being tempted by various offshoots such as the Corsairs Far Harad. There are other armies that appear for this system but I don't play the game very often so one army will suffice and I like the look and feel of the Haradrim (besides, they have the Mumak :-D ) Nothing is painted up, but due to the low focus on the army, the simple design and casting of the models and the methods I want to use, it should be relatively quick and easy yo complete. Using mainly just basecoats and washes (perhaps just using the "dip" from Army Painter for a quick job).

Battlefleet Gothic

Tau Fleet - Being a Tau loyalist, this was the obvious choice, and Forge World models are cool! The fleet is complete after I got a couple of extra Protectors, so just need to get it painted up.

Aeronautica Imperialis

Tau Air Cadre - Again, due to my love of Tau, I completed my collection of Tau aircraft, (which also means I have a BFG-scale Manta, AI-scale Manta and 40K-scale Manta), and just have to get them painted. I haven't decided on a colour scheme though, as i'm torn between using the usual ochre to match the rest of my Tau models, or to have a change to a different colour scheme.

Eldar Sky Host - Not done much with these. In fact, they're not even primed, but have a complete Sky Host for a battle. I got these models as I like the Eldar aircraft designs and to add a bit of variety to the game as well as Tau....and they're "Very Fast" manoueverability rating too!


Malifaux

Freikorps - The obvious initial choice which pulled me into this game... Von Schill and his team of Freikorps are all military style with good shooting abilities. The models look great and once I settle on the colours, i'll look forward to getting these finished.

Cult of December - I think it was the snowy scenes and colours that pulled me into these; with the whites and blues really appealing and the magic and wild aspect of the models. I picked up some snowy rock bases too for this crew so they all look pretty amazing and shouldn't take long to paint up. Just waiting for Wyrd Games to release the Snowstorm model and one other (which I can't recall the name of) and it's complete.

Viktorias - Liked the rules for these and the array of great looking models. I also added Rusty Alyce to the crew so may get a Steampunk Abomination to go alongside her. A good hard-hitting assault type of crew.

Dork's Den

I've now completed sorting and arranging the Gaming Room in the house. Being a garage converted into a proper windowed and floored room, it's now all kitted out as I want it. Obviously the bulk of the area is taken up by the 6x4 ft gaming table, which has the Realms of Battle boards laid out (including the new Forge World Imperial title). In one corner is the "hobby desk" which contains the paint station, paints, basing material and stuff. I may just put a couple of shelves above this to better hold stuff like paints. Next to that under the window are four drawer units for various model collections and bits, and across in the other corner is a shelving unit packed full of my complete Tau Empire collection. This was a DIY job, by building a shelving unit and then butchering up a second unit to double the shelving capacity. On the other side of the room is the same type of shelving unit for Warriors of Chaos, Orcs & Goblins and Grey Knights, and next to this is a larger bookcase for all my gaming rulebooks, 40K and Warhammer RPG books and novels. There's also an understairs storage through a door which has shelving for all my Cities of Death and Planetstrike terrain, as well as army cases and other bits. So everything has it's place now and is properly organised. Even got a wall clock and MP3 speaker dock for gaming nights ;-)

Well chuffed!