Sometimes Nurgle speaks to me...(Pictures Part 2)

I forgot I had been working on a Warband insignia of sorts. I was going for the typical Nurgle symbol + scythes, as they're reapers and all.

I really want to like the symbol on the left mostly because the end points of the hafts could become the 3 circles to make the symbol of Nurgle, with the scythes being the warband's mark, but I couldn't get it rotated and centered the right way. I tried a number of different scythes, but I couldn't make it work. It's also going to be really tricky to model because the should pad insignias are sooooo small...

Sometimes Nurgle speaks to me...(Pictures)

I've had that Flesh Reaper idea for about a month now, but I forgot what set off the original post: the images I made in photoshop to test the whole "Winged Raptor w/scythe" theory:

I did some with jump packs, some without, varying numbers of wing segments. These obviously have no color or conversion work. The wings are the new plastic gargoyle wings. It's all in photoshop so I can actually turn the various wing segments, jump pack, and scythes on and off. It was pretty sweet.

Sometimes Nurgle speaks to me...

And everything else falls to the wayside. I have a bit of an obsession with Nurgle. I'm not really sure why. I don't like the Prince of Excess for his lack of self control. Tzeentch mutation bothers me; I don't like anything that corrupts the body. Khorne martial honor and simplistic purpose should appeal to me the most. But for some reason it's Nurgle, kind of corrupting the body...

I like Tau from a tactical and model perspective. I like the lore too, but I feel like it isn't represented well enough in the rules. Putting the rules together with the lore, it's as if the Tau said "Close combat is dishonorable, therefore we won't get into it. It will just simply never happen."

The XV-9 I think is a brilliant representation of "Close combat is dishonorable, and we will do all we can to avoid it, but sometimes it will happen." (They all have "hit and run" and defensive grenades; They can also sacrifice drones to auto-pass the initiative test for "hit and run")

I feel like every single Tau model should have defensive grenades and hit and run OR Combat Tactics. Combat Tactics (you can choose to auto-fail any morale test) makes brilliant sense to me from a Tau perspective. It represents the Space Marine discipline. The Tau fire caste lives for war. It's all they do. Their meaning in life. Their unit is so incredibly important to them that they have a ritual bonding to signify them as literal brothers and the members of the unit are the only ones who can call each other by name. It's like in all that time and training they just completely ignored that melee combat existed.

/EndRant

I'm not saying so much that it's a hole in the use-ability of the army, so much as it's a hole in the fluff-to-rules that bugs the living crap out of me.

I do feel like Nurgle is well represented in the rules though. Most mono-Nurgle armies are tough. Damn tough. And they approach like a slow plague that, once it grips you, drags you into a war of attrition that you're hard pressed to escape.

After writing that I kind of don't want to mention this idea, but /shrug.

I came up with a CSM Warband, the Flesh Reapers...
The idea would be that one of the CSM Sorcerers that knows the secrets of creating Plague Marines is traveling with a Daemon Prince or CSM Lord that is carrying a most interesting creation of Papa Nurgle. This creation is a wasting sickness that kills most, or leaves them begging Nurgle for salvation (for he possesses the cure for all diseases). These the Sorcerer converts to Plague Marines, bloating their bodies back out and outfitting them for battle to die for their "savior".

Those that survive the illness are withered, wretched things. The Sorcerer approaches them and offers them into the family of Father Nurgle. If they refuse, they are gathered up and carried on, kept alive until they their suffering bids them accept the offer. Once accepted, the Sorcerer brings them into Nurgle's love. Their bodies, though they remain withered, are infused with daemonic foulness. Their minds are warped, instilling a devotion to Lord Nurgle before all others. Their flesh rots, continuously, driving them to battle were they can harvest the flesh of their enemies to sustain their own bodies, that they might continue spread the plague Nurgle has bestowed upon them.


Representing this would be a core of Plague Marines, a Sorcerer and lord or daemon prince HQ, and maybe some tanks if I could find a way to like them. Maybe modeled like a carrier of those that haven't yet accepted the offer? I like the idea of modeling one or two tanks with large patches of their armour replaced with the skin of monstrous creatures the warband has taken down)


The real gem of it would be the Raptors and Bikers (rare choices for CSM player, overcosted, but eh). 

Raptors: Skeletal, winged, scythe wielding, monstrosities, with patchs of their slain enemies skin stretched across the gaps their disease bores through their power armour.


Bikers: Like the raptors, without wings. The skin would also be stretched across the armour of the bikes, with large containers attached to the back that leave a wake of filth, contaminating the very ground with the creation Nurgle bestowed upon them.

This is mostly for the fluff and modeling challenge, but I would really love to do it. My only real wish is that I could have Nurgle Daemons in the army and that CSM had some notion of Sternguard? Vanguard? whichever Space Marine veteran unit has jump packs... so that I could have more of a degree of freedom in modeling the power level of the various models in the raptor units (Leader, Veterans with power weapons, and normals with normal weapons. I wish there was a rending option, like a lesser power weapon. I don't want much :).

Either way I think this will be almost 100% on hold until their is a new CSM codex or I get the core of my Tau done. By "core" I mean the 1850 army I know I like and I know works. I Need 6 more FW, a Devilfish, 3 Broadsides, a Skyray/Hammerhead, and 4 Crisis Suits. Beyond the core would be things like Piranha's and XV-9s.

I just needed to share :) My roommate isn't big on fluff, so it's all lost on him.

So it's been a few weeks...

So it's been a little while. The internet seemed to go into a bit of hiding for the past a few weeks month, with everyone coming out of the woodwork squinting into the day light over the past few days. By internet, I mean the community of blogs I, and several others, seem to all read daily.

The primary purpose of this blog is really just for me to ask other people with like interests for feedback, be it on ideas, painting, whatever. I really, really like that sort of verification that I'm not missing something stupid...because I do that...a lot. That being said:

Were do you do your...hobby stuff? Painting, converting, assembly, etc. I started this blog in anticipation of my very own "Warhammer Room". I would've gotten away with it to, if long time friends didn't suddenly need a place to live. Without it I'm finding all of my "WOOT! WARHAMMER TIME!" urges utterly squashed by the thought of pulling everything out, setting it up, doing the stuff I want to do, and then cleaning it up before the cat knocks it onto the floor for the dog to chew on. She doesn't eat the stuff, just chew it so that's it's just mutilated enough to require significant work to fix.

Really though: Where do you do it? How do you keep it organized if you don't have your own place with a door to keep it all? etc.

I hate that cat...

Lack of stuff

I have a deadline at work on Friday, so that basically means I'm working late every night. I'll be back next week.

Paintbrush Care

Good people of the internets, I beseech you; How do you keep your brush tips from curling? I have tried drying them like I would a bigger brush, Making sure the tips are formed, and on and on and on. Every guide I've found has failed me.

All of them are curled. After one or two uses, they're done. I've adapted my painting to it. I've even figured out uses for it. What am I doing wrong?

Tau Bastion

I'm working out the design here, but my friend and I are having trouble deciding on the weapons it should have.

The imperial/chaos bastions have 4 Heavy Bolters and a Lascannon on top (there is some variation, but let's just go with this). These are automated weapons, which means they fire at WS 2 if they aren't manned. For most of our games I imagine we'd ignore the automation and have it be more of a fight to take it over to utilize the weapons, but the automation was part of our dispute.

Heavy Bolter is |36"|S5|AP4| Heavy 3|
Lascannon is |48"|S9|AP2| Heavy 1|

We contemplated a Missle-Pod to replace the Heavy Bolter. Same range, +2S, 1 less shot. It seemed fair enough. The Lascannon seems obvious, Railgun. I liked the idea of the Ion cannon better, which he didn't mind. My thought was mostly on the sub-munition. It doesn't make sense for the Bastion not to house whatever it needs to power the submunition, but it's already flat-out better than a lascannon. I was thinking of doing a complete rules write-up with some options. Eh, I'll do it right now.


*~5 minutes pass*

Okay, so rules aren't that complicated...but here are thoughts:
I like AV13 over 14. Obviously 14 is better, but our Hammerhead is only 13 on it's best side and it just feels more right. I also think our firepower options are going to be a bit better, no matter the combination (there are some that are worse, but I was going for equal to or better than because the worse seems a lot worse and the better seems a bit better)

Weapon Combinations:
4 Long Barrel Burst Cannons (It's a Forgeworld varient; Just a Burst Cannon, but 36" range)
1 Railgun

4 Missle Pods
1 Ion Cannon

3 Missle Pods
1 Railgun

I was also contemplating some of the XV9 weapons, but they're all rather short range, so I'm not sure they make sense.

The problems:
I like the idea of 3 weapons as opposed to 4. It's going to be a round bastion, so they'd all have a wider arc of fire (120º insead of 90º). I also want them Twin-linked. I think it fits for Tau weapons. They're drone controlled (see paragraph about automated weapons in the Planetstrike rulebook). Tau drone technology is supposed to beat out everyone else.

My friend very much argues against the twin-linking. He agrees completely that it makes sense from a "But they're Tau!" perspective, but is "not going to give you a better bastion". The last time we talked about it, the idea of AV 13 hadn't occurred to me.

Now that I've babbled on about it for a bit, I think these configurations are all reasonable:

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Tau Bastion

AV 13 all around.
BS 2, Twin-linked automated weapons. (This means they are not twin-linked if manned, but do get to use the firer's BS.)

3 Long-barreled Burst Cannons
1 Ion Cannon

You can upgrade all three LB-Burst Cannons to Missle Pods for +18pts

You can upgrade the Ion Cannon to a Railgun for +35pts.

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The points were sort of thrown in (difference between TL-BC and TL-MP for a suit and difference between an Ion Cannon and a Railgun). I don't have a points cost for the whole thing, they're free in Planet Strike.../shrug.

I don't know how I feel about losing the TL when the gun is manned. It makes it so a unit of Fire Warriors in the bastion (BS 3) makes it worse, so it makes it only really useful for Stealth Suits to be inside. Maybe the spotter from a Sniper Drone team with the Drones on top firing their own weapons (but then they're vulnerable), but he could only man one gun. (It's probably worth noting that a bastion can be occupied without the guns being manned. If you want to use one of the gun ports as a fire point the gun can't fire as well, but 2 models can shoot through the port.

Basically it works really well as a turret, which I don't necessarily like. I was also going to put walls around the base, about 2" out, with a little "arm" showing that they were pulled in against the hull when it was dropped in. I've been working on it a bit, but I have four walls. If I go with three guns, four walls will look weird...hrm...thoughts?

Inspiration? Forgeworld: Tau Burst Cannon Turret