Why GW Must Hate Tau

Often, jokingly, people suggest that GW likes the two legged, more familiar race in 40K, also known as Space Marines, above other cloven footed race, known as the Tau.

An example of this could be when Aaron Demski-Bowden(sp?) was asked when novels would be written about the xenos. The answer? "When they rock as hard." A perfectly legitimate (and funny as hell) answer, IMHO. The same reason I gave to a tyranid player when he asked why my psychic hood worked on people in vehicles, and his didn't.

"Tyranids just don't rock as hard", I said. Ok.... I didn't say that... but it does appear that way. I can't think of another reason that Shadow in the Warp doesn't effect things in vehicles, but Runes of Warding and Psychic Hood does...

But let's move on to Tau, who definitely, in the world of "rocking"... don't. Three fingered hands... isn't their point in 40K to be the target of slaughter, and having their things blown up?

Apparently, if you look at the Tau's own packaging, it is!

I've always noticed when I purchased Tau Pirahna's that in the background art OF THE BOX THEY COME IN one of the piraha's is blowing up. It's as if GW has said, "go ahead, but understand that one of their prime purposes, is to be destroyed." You don't see them selling land raiders with one in the background blowing up.

So today, for some reason I don't understand, I had the chance to go look at all the tau boxed sets. On the Crisis Suit box, and the Sniper Drone squadron, they also have the units that you are purchasing, being shot.

Food for thought... why do they put Tau Empire stuff blowing up, on the cover of the products they want us to purchase? I don't think this was done on any other GW products.

Void Dragon Corsairs

So I am seriously considering starting a Dark Eldar army when they are released in a few months. I still have at least a thousand points of marines to paint (perhaps closer to 1500) but I can do those when I need a break.

And right now, I need a break from Marines!

Anyway, I am waiting for the codex before I pull any type of trigger about it. You can't say I haven't learned my lesson from the great Dark Angels debacle of 2008. (When I dropped the money for the codex and the army in one go... then read the codex and wanted to weep bitters tears of anquish)

At any rate I hear at the moment that the new Dark Eldar will cause me to "nerdgasm" and be amazing, and I expect since Phil "Glorious Eldar" Kelly is writing it... they won't suck.

My next problem is that... I really don't get behind masocistic slavers. Sorry, maybe it's the Southern in me, but slavery = not cool at all. Now.... they also are raiders and... dare I say... pirates... and that is something that I CAN get behind.

So whatever direction I choose to go with them, I am sure that they will be more raider/pirate themed like the Eldar Pirates of Rogue Trader then the True Kin of the Dark Eldar. I was doing a little research and stumbled upon a Forgeworld Model for the Void Dragon airplane, which is used by the Void Dragon Corsairs, a group of eldar pirates that work with Craftworld and Dark Eldar. They also have a bitching scheme (red dragon scales?! Sign me up!). In addition to working with Dark Eldar, I may be able to do enough conversions so that the army could work as either Dark Eldar for now, then perhaps later switch it over and work with Craftworld Eldar... depending on who has supplied their equipment recently.

I even had this idea for a board where the soldiers are playing cards and drinking rum, and maybe my Autarch/Dark Eldar leader has an eyepatch. Argggggg! Where's the Rum!

I've also considered doing a purple army as well, as I have never painted an army that color. Whatever I end up doing, I can promise you that I will make HEAVY use of my airbrush.

On a small note, I should be able to pick up my paint to finish my game room tonight and get it painted. I'll take some photo's of that.

40K Table - Lumber and Building Supplies

Well I was able to make it to Lowe's this weekend to purchase what I needed for the table. I got everything that I listed in the previous post and had Lowe's cut it for me. The only problem that I had was with the 4x4 that form the legs. They couldn't cut these, so I am going to have to use a hand saw to get these cut.

Something else I noticed in the plans, was that the table called for the legs to be about 48 inches tall. I thought about that, and measured it, but that is very tall for a table. I want it to be more bar level for stools, so I think my ine will be around 36 inches or so.

The supplies all in all cost me around $96.00. I hope to get the extra piece and assemble everything by this weekend.

In other new I started the weathering on the models I didn't quite finish for Wargames con. I will post up pictures for them later this week. They are as follows:

10x Thunder Hammer Terminators
2x Landspeeders
1 Thunderfire Cannon
5 Space Marines in Robes
1 Dreadnought

After those are finished (as in, sprayed and protected finished) I will start working on terrain and stuff for the table. For now, I will soon be done with my marines for a bit as I switch over to working on my 40K table for awhile. I will be trying to get that finished before Dark Eldar come out, which I will have a strong sense I will end up playing.

Weekend Warrior

No pictures today.... sorry.

So this weekend is the first breather that we have had while getting into the new house. I wasn't able to finish my room, as the paint I was using didn't last... that's what I get for not priming... I should have known better. Now the paint I want will not be in for several days.

However, I feel that this weekend is an excellent opportunity to get my table built. I have squirreled away some cash for it, so that sounds like a wonderful project. I'm also hanging curtains (yea....) and mowing grass and what not.

In other news, recently I got some Vallejo Weathering Pigments in. I've been doing my dirt and grime with standard pastel colors for a bit, so it will be interesting to use something that is built for the purpose for which I purchased it. I will report back on everything throughout the weekend. I am going after work to purchase the lumber necessary to start my building project. Here is what I figure that I need. I picked up a drill from Hudsons for $20 a few weeks ago (black and decker too!).

The following is what the Drunken Dwarf site suggests.

- 2 4×4″x8′ posts

- 6 2×6″x10′ boards

- 2 2×4″x10′ boards

- 1 2×4″x8′ board

- 32 1/4″ - 5.5″ long Carriage bolts

- 32 1/4″ nuts

- 32 washers

- 12 90* 1″ metal angle brackets AND at least 24 1″ pan head wood screws up to 48 preferred. The more the better.

Now, I don't own a miter saw (nor do I want to purchase one at this time). They say to cut the boards down to the sizes I am going to give you, but I am just going to have Home Depot (or Lowe's... whatever) cut them for me.

- 2 4×4″x8′ posts into 4 4×4″x39.5″ posts

- 6 2×6″x10′ boards into 4 2×6″x49″ boards and 4 2×6″x100″ boards

- 2 2×4″x10′ boards and 1 2×4″x8′ board into 3 2×4″x49″ board

Now, as I have mentioned the room I have really doesn't need an 8 foot table in there so the x100 inch board (8.3 feet) will be taken back 24 total inches to 76 inches. I'm also considering making the supports (the 4x4) into 2x4. I'm not sure this bad boy really needs to be sturdy enough to hold a TON, after all.

The last change I am making is that I will be putting a storage level on the first set of boards cut on the bottom level. This will hold terrain etc... I will then be painting the table black and protecting it from battle damage as much as I can.

I'll post what all this ends up costing me, as well as how the table goes throughout the weekend. I have about $200, but I hope that it ends up somewhere under $75. Check back for more!

Go 40K Table!

Old Table

I built this table several years ago for The Gamers Sanctuary in Hattiesburg. I thought it came out quite well. The tower and trees in the back were modular, but the rest was not.

I remember modeling it at the time after the battle for skull pass. I liked the table, and it was quite nice (part of the hill in the foreground came up, and a tunnel section with dwarven xxx beer was in there as well)

However, I had a few problems with it, in the sense that when you played on it, your tacticus to some degree were static.

The next table will be different, nice, but not quite so one dimensional.

I had to postpone working on it, as the room itself isn't finished. I am taking some pictures of that as it goes as well. I ran out of wall paint, so sadly it will be till this weekend that I get it finished. Then laborday weekend I will be painting cutting and laying shoe molding for all the concrete that I stained last month. Hopefully this weekend I will be able to purchase the lumber and get to it. I've been asked to run a tournament in H'burg in October, and I would like to have the board ready by then.

Deadlines are your friend... they make you do things.

I did however start on a single terrain piece for the table. I had decided I wanted some woods for my table, and had a bunch of trees laying around. A problem developed in my mind however the more I thought of it. The world that the Angels of Perdition do their recruiting from, and the table I am building, is much more of a mad max style wasteland that is only just recently coming back to life. I imagine the people that live there life in a Dune/Fremen style meets mad max wasteland.

There just wouldn't be random trees....

What I did think however is that my marines are in general, also keenly interested in breathing life back into the world. Perhaps they have set up wind catchers and water pumps to bring water back to the surface, and the trees could be around these locations. Each one acting as a peace grounds for the people that life there, small oasis areas for them. Each block of trees therefore would also have a small amount of open water, or water pumping station that worked in conjunction with them the ensure they got proper nutrition.

I'm also trying to put ome finishing touches off my marines. Toward that I ordered from BattleForge games some Vallejo Pigments for rust that I plan on learning how to use. I'll try to get some tutorials on that, once I figure out how they work!

40K Table - The Plans

Ok, so the room that will be my 40K room should be finished, so that will bring me to building my 40K table.

For years I have been jealous of the tables with sides so that your dice don't fall off, and storage below for extra terrain. I also want to slow paint some terrain to go with my new table.

The plans for the table itself will closely follow that of those at the Drunkendwarf website here:

Their's is eight foot by four feet, and that is a little large for (a) what I normally play and (b) my room. So I will be effectively cutting it down to a standard 6x4 tournament table. There will be a level underneath that has room for terrain and all the sides will have some fabric (probably black with a Imperial Eagle perhaps?) that goes around it. I've also considered doing my chapter colors black/bone with the red winged sword as well. At any rate, that part can come later.

Luckily a month or so ago when I was looking for home supplies at Lowe's I found a great piece of bord that is already textured to look sort of rocky. I will be painting that table, although with some changes. I used part of what they had to build my tournament display trey and it came off great I think. I modeled some tracks and mud in the stuff, and some grass and stones in other parts.

Some part of me always wants to build a board that is built to play on in one format, with all the terrain part of the table (or rivers modeled in). However I did that once for the Gamer's Sancutary and while I liked it, I found the inability to move terrain very annoying. My personal table should be about versatility.

To that effect I have about six terrain pieces that I want to work on for it.

(2) tree bases - I want to add a lot of details and not just have flat bases with trees on them. Any ideas on what I can add?

(2) hills - Ditto here

(2) ruined building of some type - These will be closer to ancient ruins of the planet that dirt and sand has partially swollowed.

Once this part is done, I plan on building some nice terrain for centerpieces. I'm definitely going to pick up the Honored Imperium set, The Fortress of Angels big thing and probably the starport and maybe a standard bastion set. In the long run I would like to pick up the Pegasus cathedral set as well.

Pictures forthcoming as the table comes together. This weekend I fill finish the room and upload photo's. By the next week I hope to have the table completed. I will probably work on terrain throughout the process.

Back

I know I've been gone since Wagmames Con... I've been busy, and I was 40K tapped out for a bit.

I also was doing home repair (three floors tained/sealed and four rooms painted) and working at my business.

At any rate my gaming room is nearing completion this week, at least the room is. I will need to work on the table, which I will be reporting on here.

Just a note on Wargames con, it was great, had a good time, that is it. I'll try to get around to posting some results later.

I, at least mentally, and especially here on the blog am going to start getting away from tournament prep articles till after christmas I think. I want to work on my table, finish my marines off, and build amazing terrain for my table as well to make it look like something out of White Dwarf.

Hopefully I will have the table built this weekend, expect pictures!