Plamo: The Inner Sphere Battle Lance (BattleTech, Catalyst Game Labs)

So, I started this one in November, but it had been sitting on the old pile for a good long while. I'd picked it up when my interest in BattleTech had just peaked, but I went onto other things. I think the absence of a local players group is what did it. I may have to have a go at founding one again. Another reason is that painting Battlemechs got a bit samey, at least with the level of skill and patience I have. Still, I quite enjoyed those urbies, and maybe I could use this opportunity to revamp my painting techniques?

So, let's have some context to tie this together. The Inner Sphere Battle Lance is a set with a deeply unimaginative name, but features favourites from the very start of the game. All four are part of the Unseen, designs subject to legal issues, which is fucking hysterical/tragic as two of these are meant to be super common in universe, and the other two being legitimately famous. Although, in the case of the Rifleman "infamy" might be a better word. Notably, all four originally hail from the anime Super Dimension Fortress Macross, have been around long enough to get a load of variants, and the larger two have been subjects of Tex Talks BattleTech videos. My basic approach here was to attempt my preferred green colour scheme, but to change the order and some accents. I drybrushed green over a brown first, then coming in with a dark grey and a gunmetal for things like weapons and feet. Once those were done, I washed the lot with Agrax Earthshade, drybrushed green again, and then stuff like the cockpit glass. These were idly painted over several evenings, so while I wasn't pushing myself here, it was relaxing.

The Wasp is the smallest of the four, and functions as an inoffensive little scout guy of unusually low cost. Canonically, its the first mech equipped with jumpjets, making it excel as a scout, although this absolutely isn't something you want doing actual fighting. Its a fine model, although its pose obscures its SRM2.

The Phoenix Hawk is something that exists mainly to bully Wasps and the like. By my understanding, this is an agile medium weight mech, capable of keeping pace with scouts and overpowering them. Its less good at punching up though, and it's one of those designs than dedicates space towards machine guns, a weapon I don't like. As a model, its got a nice pose and presence, but also a somewhat involved cockpit.

 

The Rifleman suffers in universe from various design flaws and doctrine issues. Its principally an anti-aircraft platform, but in its typical configuration runs hot, doesn't have much ammo, nor a lot of armour. This is a bad combination should the mech be in direct combat, and people did try that in a shortage of better ideas, although it does have its defenders. Personaly, I find it to be a machine that argues against its own existance. As a model this is alright, although I was initially unsure of where the chest lasers were.

 

The Warhammer, no-not-that-one, is my favourite design, although that's mainly because of Tex. Like a lot of the OG Battlemechs, the Warhammer has its eccentricities, but a pair of PPCs at a reasonable price has aged well. As a model, the recessed head is tricky, and that searchlight broke off at one point, but otherwise is the nicest sculpt.

Job’s a good ‘un.

Plamo: New Continent Machines Adventure (Alphamax)

I will admit to not really knowing what this was at purchase, and indeed, now. And that this article got pushed back a lot. In so far as I have been able to gather, New Continent Machines is an artist led project, a designer going by the name of Moi, featuring distinctive mecha of about half the size of a gunpla. The novelty of this is what attracted me; the art has maybe a bit of the Syd Mead about it. Its something I wouldn't find out of place in Turn-A Gundam, or the more esoteric bits of The Witch from Mercury. The Adventure is a stocky machine with a large torso, and proportionally skinny limbs. I suppose you could call it bird-like, especially in the legs. It also features a shield and gun, which gives it grunt vibes, and there's a parts-swap feature advertised in the box. I do like things that are that little bit different, while staying within genre.

 

The actual build was a similarly odd mix of fresh and old fashioned. You get several nicely laid out sprues, with minimalist but concise instructions. There are no polycaps or mixed materials in general, but what was there worked effectively, with maybe a bit of the old Revoltech about it. A definite highlight is the included stand. There are however downsides. Its entirely cast in yellow, for example. While snapfit, the parts-fit isn't great, the outward shoulder joints are fixed/decorative, and there are reasons why this style of friction joint went out of fashion. Then it hit me. No, not the kit. A realisation. While this kit definitely has its charms, the deeply-disappointing Duel Gundam does the several things better than the Adventure here, while being bigger and in a comparable price bracket. And that one's outdated by at least fifteen years. This may be a function of a price point, economies of scale, or simply the company making it. As it turns out, Alphamax has done a few mecha things on occasion, including Optimus Prime at one point, but more normally does 18-rated waifu figures. Robots and finely engineered kits does not seem to be their bread and butter, but in fairness there’s merit here. It goes together quickly and easily. But its not great for posing, liking to separate when doing so, and then you need to paint it.

Realising that I was possibly too harsh in that comparison above, I decided to treat this more like a 28mm project and paint it like a tank. You can't really expect a more boutique example to match the market leader. I took a moment to fill the gaps, before breaking out the spraypaints and weathering techniques. These are simple tools, but they worked on this kit, and I think I’m pretty good with them now. Of course, the joints did not like this. Truthfully though, I didn't feel like doing anything fancy here

I want to like this model more than I do. I respect the look, and the whole artist-led aspect. Unfortunately, it sits in an awkward place where its too ambitious for its own good. I feel it would have been better off as a fixed pose kit that cost maybe 15% less, or maybe keep the price same but scrap the stand in favour of better fundamentals. Either way, I’ve built worse, but this Moi individual may have to rethink a few things.

New Year’s Special: The Chem-Dog Unit Review

So, I’ve been playing 40K again for a while now. Not something I ever really expected to do again, if I’m honest. And, inevitably this leads me to want to write about game tactics. That’s self-indulgent, I know, but I have a blog, and its added variety. Of course, I'm not a tournament player, but I suspect you aren't either. This is more of a summary of my experiences so far than The Art of War. All things considered, its been a bit of an up and down year too. Maybe I’m just getting old, but GW’s quarterly attempts to balance the game was an adjustment for me. Its much better than their historical habit of leaving a rulebook untouched for several editions, but I did start writing this way back in July, before eventually making it a new years thing. And then a huge update happened on December the 11^th, far too late for me to fully appreciate. And most likely my comments here will be invalidated by the forthcoming codex. That’s a bummer. Anyway, I’m gonna talk a bit about each unit I’ve fielded, before summing things up with some general advice at the end. I’ve even organised it into sections alphabetically. Enjoy.

HQ and Bigwigs

Commissars: An inexpensive but otherwise unimpressive character model I’ve proxied a couple of times. Whom is 30 points and thus can do mission stuff. I call him Commissar Action-Monkey. There, that’s the tone set.

Platoon Command Squads: Two topics here, the unit itself, and the whole matter of Capital O Orders. The unit itself is an adaptable support unit, providing a selection of modest but non-trivial buffs. You can certainly do worse than use one of these to add a Medpack and some guns to a battleline unit. Orders are a big picture thing, and Platoon Command Squads are competent and inexpensive and this regard. I am however trying to find the sweet spot with respects to how many orders I need and which are worth doing when. While Orders can benefit a lot of units, you can’t just spam them, Its more of a precision tool. The best one is probably Move! Move! Move! for objectives, closely followed by Take Aim! and maybe Duty & Honour! for more objective stuff. A Master Vox and Grand Strategist combo is largely mandatory here as a key link in your chain of command, although if you have several Officers you can vary things up. Yes, I am aware of Lord Solar Horse Lord, but I’m not that into special characters. I would not be surprised if this unit was retired with the new book, but honestly its not gonna be hard to make them the Cadian equivalent or whatever.

 

Tank Commander: This one was a bit of a white elephant when I started playing, and a little beyond the resources I had or the size of battle I played. It does the Order thing, and has access to all the weapons of the other variants, and thus is most commonly seen as a Leman Russ Demolisher. This struggled with some keyword oddities which meant it couldn’t order itself, or benefit from the Born Soldier rule, until the October Dataslate revamped it. If you’re going heavy on tanks, you’re gonna need at least one of these as a force multiplier, but its a quite capable fighter by itself. Its expensive though, possibly too expensive for the 1000 point games I usually play.

 

Battleline

Cadian Shock Troops: I recently fielded this unit for the purposes of this article. Yep. Nowt wrong with them, but they lack a compelling reason to take them versus the other battleline units. Hopefully the new codex will give them some spit and polish...

Catachan Jungle Fighters: OK, a theme of several units here will be how easily a change of 10 points shift dramatically the usefulness of a unit. For the vast majority of 10th edition, these guys seem to have been popular mainly for their Scout move and resulting board control shenanigans. I concur. Their melee rule doesn't seem to do much, and otherwise these found use as the most inexpensive of the battleline options. TBH, if any Guard unit is gonna get a complete rewrite, its these guys, although GW seems to have forgotten them. Guard battleline generally doesn’t do impressive things, they are disposable light infantry by and large, whose main talent is standing on objectives. Catachans stand as well as any, and their Scout move gets them to their objective faster than the other options. There’s also decent synergies with Scout Sentinels and Chimeras. These aren’t my first choice for holding the home objective, but their mobility and low cost kept them in my lists. BUT THEN: their price went up ten points, which isn’t unreasonable, but it makes them less of gimme. Sargent Harker isn’t bad either, but I’ve not used him enough to have an opinion.

Death Korps of Krieg: I’m gonna have to build more of these, aren’t I? Anyways, I came to these loonies relatively late, and I’m inclined to call these the best overall battleline unit, something that the December dataslate largely enforced. They do suffer from that “I’m a kill team with lots of awkward options” problem, but if you want to be aggressive with your armydudes, this is the way to go as they carry the most dakka. Their ability to regenerate versus their increasing lethality as the squad looses models is a very fun dynamic, and works well with big units. Downsides? Well, they still die like guardsmen, they invite the addition of characters that put their costs up, and they are rather fiddly.
 
Infantry Squads: This is probably the unit I was most wrong about, and had to do a major rethink on. I found myself struggling to reconcile my old school view of Guard with how the rules actually work. I kinda want multiple squads of 10 arranged for defence in depth. The functions of Orders and Stratagems however reward big blobs of about 23 models, and actual play has discouraged taking too many of them. Infantry Squads also tend to be more defensive in use than the other battleline choices, as they are the only one with heavy weapons, if at the cost of reduced access to special weapons versus the Cadians or Krieg. So, yes, an Infantry Squad with a lascannon in it is going to do work and demand a (likely terminal) response from your opponent, but everything else in the squad is gonna be incidental unless you are facing comparable T3 models. I find myself most often using these squads as deployment zone objective holders, using mortars to trigger stratagems like Fields of Fire. So, not something you necessarily want to spam, but you do need a few of these in your inventory, because, well, objectives. Have one with a mortar, add a Platoon Command with a mortar & Master Vox, consider making it a double size squad in larger games. At time of writing, these currently are cheapest battleline, which makes sense, but I strongly suspect this unit will be retired in the new codex, so... we’ll see.

“Infantry” Specialists

Field Ordnance Batteries: I’ve only used the Bombast Field Gun, but it does reliable dakka. The nearby presence of an Officer is however largely mandatory, in order to trigger its Sustained Hits ability. As mentioned, there’s been substantial changes to the functions of Indirect Fire this year, which makes artillery units like this more a harassment thing than a kill button, although Guard still do artillery better than most. Telling this unit to Take Aim! maxes out the possible accuracy, adds in Sustained Hits, and presents a threat to anything likely to be hiding from your guns or parked on an objective. It won’t do much to vehicles, mind you, the heavy lascannon might be good for that, but damage 2 will help cull targets with the Feel No Pain rule. Unfortunately, my models started leaking resin, and pending new models I’ve retired the unit.
 
Heavy Weapon Squads: Definitely a bumpy ride with this one. For the most part these have suffered from being a fragile, high priority target. This is the reason why mortars are a popular choice for them, as this keeps them out of sight, but those aren’t spectacular weapons if I’m honest, especially after the changes to Indirect Fire. Their recent October price-drop made me experiment with them again, as it’s largely impossible to get more dakka for less. You either pair these with something scary to force dilemmas on your foe, or you use them as disposable blocking troops. They aren’t bad for overwatch, and its an easy way to spam lascannons, but don’t rely on these for ranged firepower. It will be interesting to see how those new Krieg versions compare.

Ogryns: These are a unit I want to like more than I do. There is an obvious appeal in a trio of beef mountains armed with automatic shotguns. But these chaps attract more attention than they can sustain. They may work better mechanised, or I just need more than 3.

Rough Riders: OK, these were the same basic experience as the Ogryns, i.e. a target. There is potential though, definitely. They are quick, have decent melee chops with lances, and actually end up as somewhat durable by guard standards. On the other hand, I’m not playing Guard to do melee. Melee is something I work around. I may come back to these, but I’m not prioritising them just now.

Tempestus Scions: A surprisingly necessary part of my forces, Scions are very useful for their deep strike rule. They are better equipped and more skilled than battleline options, but they are a precision tool. These have done solid and reliable work parachuting on to the mission objective, and are great value for 50 points. Now its 60, but that’s not bad value.

 

Vehicle Pool

Basilisk: I only started fielding one of these in November, and the initial comparison to Bombards was mixed. Basilisks do less damage overall at a higher price, but with a functionally unlimited range, the Earthshaker ability, atop a vehicle platform. Its much more of a technical/precision piece than the Bombards,as you use it slow down dangerous infantry as much as blow shit up. Its definitely worth having one along, especially in a vehicle-centric list, but I’d point to Bombards and/or Leman Russes as things you buy first. Artillery in general has a been a bit up & down with the changes to Indirect Fire, but the Basilisk is and was a classic for good reason.

Chimera: While I probably needed at least one more to get the benefit, my Chimera has proved to be reliable workhorse. Much like the Hellhound, its useful brick and HK missile caddy, with a grabbag of dakka. Its not especially durable, but its a lot more durable than the average dismount. Using one of these as a mobile bunker for a Platoon Command Squad also makes a lot of sense. Its not hard to see why the price went up. If I ever get more of these, I’d probably leave the multilasers at home in favour of two heavy bolters. This simplifies its attacks, and ties in well with the (current) Born Soldiers rule.

Hellhound: A fun modelling project that had initially struggled to find good targets in my local meta. The chassis is however sound, and there's a certain appeal to running several of these, possibly with melta weapons. Its a 2+ save brick, and you can use it to deny targets the benefits of cover. Time that right, lay a few Stratagems/Orders on, and even big nasties will suffer. Otherwise, it will happily burn things all day, acting as a de facto melee unit. It doesn’t gain much from the Born Soldiers rule if you’re gone for full arson, but that’s OK.

Leman Russ: Tanks are pretty important. Who knew? You need tanks to do the heavy killing, and take the damage. The Leman Russ is good at that sort of thing, and while obviously having the weaknesses common to tanks, the myriad variants are solid and well-priced. The vanilla russ, equipped with multimeltas, heavy stubber and HK missile, is my go-to. It benefits from Orders, but doesn’t need them. Its fairly flexible, and excels at killing foes on objective markers. There are other variants that do stuff better or cheaper, at least for now, but its hard to go wrong with this. Its self-contained in a way that a lot of guard units aren’t.

Leman Russ Demolisher: While I initially favoured the Demolisher, I find myself mainly using the basic Russ so far. The reroll-1s-sometimes-full-reroll rule the standard Russ has simply more varied applications at a lower price than the Demolisher, even if the latter is a pretty conclusive answer to most things that wander into range. And is largely unconcerned if something tries to engage it in melee. But, also counting against the Demolisher is the existence of the Tank Commander, which can have the same weapon fit.

Leman Russ Vanquisher: I gave these a go in December, and while I used them quite badly against a vehicle-lite force, I do see the use. At present, it does most things less well than the stock Russ, but its notably cheaper, and can on occasion one-shot an opposing tank. If you just need the tank to A) be there, and B) be cheap firepower, the Vanquisher is great at that. I do however still prefer the stock Russ over this, as with the Demolisher. I may very well field these in future 2000 points lists alongside their kin, but I’m holding off to see how the codex treats them. I would not be shocked if these were overhauled so they are better at their stated job, and thus cost more...

Scout Sentinel: These do an awful lot, and were a regular feature of my lists, at least until I started experimenting with the Basilisk and Heavy Weapon Squads. Its good for buffing artillery, has a lot of keyword synergies, has a Scout move, and offers good infantry support. Its not necessarily brilliant by itself, but there’s usually something for it to do if you have the points spare. Give it a lascannon and HK missile it becomes a decent tank-hunter too. Put on the chainsaw just because.

Big Picture Stuff
If you find yourself putting together a 1000 point Astra Militarum force, possibly because you have a similar selection of brain worms to myself, I’d like to suggest a few basic tips so you don’t necessarily make the same kind of mistakes I did. New mistakes, ideally.

You need something that take objectives in the midfield: Look, the mission is gonna require you moving out from your deployment zone, and inevitably, there’s gonna be a bit of a brawl in the middle of the board. You are probably not going to be as good in that brawl as your foe, unless you are playing seriously against type with Bullgryns or Rough Riders or similar. You need to have a means to claim that objective, even if its just something like “blast them off, then run some guardsmen in.”.

You need something to take objectives in the backfield: OK, you may be sensing a theme here. A significant number of missions are gonna be about taking objectives, I.e. nearly all, and the vast majority of those aren’t gonna be on your side of the table. You need something that can cross that distance with some reliability. Deep strike units are your friend here, although anything with a scout move or a good movement characteristic can help. Remember you can put things in reserve and have then come on from other board edges...

You need something to anchor your deployment zone: While there are different styles of guard army, the overall theme is one of ranged firepower. Often, this will mean a solid wedge of something to hold your deployment zone while raining death on your opposition. Just lining up guns isn’t enough though, you aren’t a T’au player with no imagination. You need redundancy and the capability to move if you need to.

You need a lot of tanks, but not exclusively tanks, because infantry do the objective things: Given that the Guard tends towards fragile light infantry, the presence of various tanks is highly desirable. These focus the attention of the enemy, physically protecting the troops on foot, and that’s something worth having a few of. Tanks however can’t really hold objectives, tend to die in close combat, and feature diminishing returns against non-vehicles. That’s why you need infantry still.

Yes, you do still need some artillery: Yes, I keep mentioning that Indirect Fire got changed. The thing is though, the Astra Militatum is about ranged combat, and an efficient way for a foe to counter that is to simply stay out of sight. Artillery is a good answer to that problem, although this may be substituted with paradropping Scions and such if you like that better.

Wow, this was a long one. Bye for now.

3D Print: The Comet Self-Propelled Gun (Culverin Models)

 

One of the more annoying things to happen to me lately, was what happened to my Bombast Field Guns. These started leaking resin, resulting in a bit of a drama, and an eventual refund, no thanks to the seller. That matter is now closed, and while I think I've fixed the problem, I'm wanting to phase those out, hence today's subject. The Comet is another 3D print by Culverin models, purchased for use as a Basilisk proxy. 

 

As a model, the Comet is a WWII-adjacent design, that's slightly smaller than a chimera chassis, but not one that's obviously so. It comes with a selection of various guns for the turret, and a single twin gun for the hull. Its a good model, with its own character. These weapons are however insufficiently excessive for a 40k model, so I replaced those with bits I had spare. The heavy bolter is a straight swap, although I did kinda fuck up drilling out the barrel. Its replacement cannon was built up from water pistol bits and a pen lid, and predates the purchase of this model. I'd initially considered a full scratch build for this, i have done that sorta thing a lot, but I feared the outcome would be too orky. Its possibly too orky even now. The HK missile was originally a rejected piece for my last tank, but i tidied it up, and used it here. Much of my time was spent trying to remove artefacts from the printing process. It not as bad as the Ursa, but work and work-arounds needed to be done. Otherwise this was a matter of repeated spraypaints and careful weathering techniques so as not to highlight its origins. The main difficulties I had were of the user error variety, bloody waterslide transfers and an attack of clumsiness.

 

So, what's a Basilisk then? Besides a word I keep spelling wrong? It's the Guard's staple artillery piece, with a frankly ridiculous in game range of 240 inches. You don't need to measure with that. You might not even need to be in the same room. It also has the useful ability to de-buff the speed of its victims, which totally changes the math on charges. As its a vehicle unit, its definitely more self-contained than Bombards, although its not a linear upgrade. Bombards are cheaper and have more attacks, even if the range is a mere 48 and its more of an anti-infantry weapon. At time of building, the new codex was still unknown, which is why I only got one of these to build.

 

As for the Comet? Well, its another win for Culverin Models. I knew what I was getting into this time, and the result is both characterful and inexpensive. You still have to sand it a lot, but the problem was reduced here with the model using two types of resin. I'd happily recommend these alongside Ramshackle Games stuff, especially as Ramshackle has put its prices up since I last ordered. On the downside, I’ve not really liked the weapons they've come with, and CM isn't making strict, 1 to 1 proxies. A lot of their models can be an Astra Militarum model with modest kitbashing, and that's work I'm happy to put in, but you may not. You may instead wish to look into some other 3d print exercise, but they might cost upwards of 25% more. Its your call.

 

HOWEVER, I wrote all that when Culverin Models still actually existed. This week they suddenly announced they were closing down, so by the time you read this, the odds are you can't get this model any more. That's a real shame.

I've brought this article forwards because of this sad news. I've put in an order for something else of theirs, so this hopefully this won't be the last time I talk about Culverin Models. In the meantime, damn good model, damn shame.

Random: Mecha Sonic (Sonic the Hedgehog toyline, Jakks Pacific)

Mecha Sonic concept art, sourced from a wiki

I suppose not all childhood obsessions are remembered equally. Sonic the Hedgehog was something I had a fixation on as a child turning to teenager, hitting about the time Transformers was out and the console wars was in. As the typical content of this blog would imply, it wasn't something that stuck, and I think that's true for a lot of people. Sonic was a full-on zeitgeist moment, and one seemingly nailed to the 90's video game scene. Sega eventually crashed out of the console market, Sonic struggled to adapt to 3D, and thus the franchise became something of a joke for multiple console generations. He was a mascot without a console, one with a famously fractured, often strange, fanbase, and seemingly no good games. Still, as deeply weird as it is to my eyes, the wheel of nostalgia seems to be turning in the blue Hedgehog's favour. And Sega seems to have pulled this off by making the games less and less central to their efforts, in favour of films, cartoons, and merch. That makes a lot of sense for something with so many cartoon animal tropes, and with Sonic's origins as a marketing mascot, but honestly I don't think I'm in that target market. And that's fine, its something for actual kids, and maybe their parents. I think my connection is more of the time, and the playing of the 16 bit games, than anything recognisable as character or narrative. I did read a lot of comics back in day, but that didn't stick. But clearly, there is some connection for me, otherwise I wouldn’t be writing this.

Mecha Sonic sketches, sourced from a wiki

So, what's a Mecha Sonic then? Besides an obvious overlap with my other fixations? Well, its the penultimate boss enemy of the Mega Drive/Genesis game Sonic the Hedgehog 2. As the name implies, its a robot duplicate, one of a surprising number there of. One factoid I turned up during research was that the teams working on three different Sonic games, Sonic 2 16 bit, Sonic 2 8 bit, and Sonic CD, basically didn’t communicate and this some how resulted in three different evil robot versions of the hedgehog. Sources differ on specifics, but Segas America and Sega Japan were often at odds, and the Sonic games have had some well-documented drama, so its not hard to believe. Today’s is patterned after Mecha Godzilla, but is overshadowed by Metal Sonic, the more colourful one from the CD version. Anyways, Sonic 2 was arguably the absolute peak of the franchise in terms of sheer clout. It was more of an iterative sequel than anything, think Doom 2, offering more levels and gameplay improvements. The game also had the barest hints of a story, something which later games in the series would do better, but what it did do was effective in context. So, rather than actually talk about the merits of this toy, I'm gonna first spend a paragraph putting the experience of Mecha Sonic into words.

 

 

Its the last few levels of Sonic 2, and you are feeling it. Metropolis Zone was an endurance test, but at least that was followed by a breather level, wing-walking on a biplane. The penultimate level raises the stakes, your biplane immediately gets shot down with your little fox buddy Tails on it. You're on a flying fortress, and there's less and less margin for error. You encounter another boss, beat it, and the antagonist Dr Robotnik flees in a spaceship. Tails returns to help you catch up, and you enter a new level, the delightfully named "Death Egg Zone". There are no rings. There are no power-ups. There is no margin for error. There is only this fucker. A metal parody of your player avatar in silver. Twice the size, with not so much hedgehog quills and spikes on it as an audibly revving chainsaw. Its a rocket-powered bulldozer of a challenge. And after that, its the final boss, and he's worse.

I remember using cheat codes a lot.

 

So, about the toy? Well there wasn’t much on the box, so I had to do some digging. This is made by Jakks Pacific, whom seem to have the Sonic licence on lock, along with the Mario one too. While handling this toy, its articulation reminded me of the phrase “Springfield 5”, and yes, Jakks do the Simpsons too. Jakks stuff tends to get the look right, but articulation is a secondary concern. M.S here is therefore a bit basic in its posability, but that’s more acceptable on a 6cm toy with a neutral pose. The paintwork is bright and attractive, with the toy in general being big for its price point. It also amuses me that this design has a monoeye, I hadn’t quite realised that before, but in my defence, the classic Sonic design has weird conjoined eyes. A slight downside however is that the feet are slightly angled so you have to finagle it a bit for balance. There’s holes in the feet for a stand, but that seems to have been budgeted out. That said, its also an item I never really expected to exist...

If you’re looking for consumer advice? Well, its a fun little nostalgia hit, an inexpensive desk toy. Its not got a huge amount going on, and you could probably leave it in the package, if that’s your thing. Its got a nice window box. Still, six quid. I’ve spent a lot more to to get less.

 

State of the Blog post December 2024

Well, its that time of year again, when I ramble a bit about my mental state, and announce any changes to update schedule.

 

To start with the first one, there’s been some bumps, but I continue to be in a largely good place. Geopolitics makes me avoid the news at the moment, but I’ve felt good enough to start addressing bigger personal issues. I have changed my meds and I am currently reducing the frequency of my counselling sessions, feeling steady with both, and that’s good. Its continuing the trend of last year. I recently received the happy news that I would soon be someone’s (mad) uncle, so this made me think about careers and life in general. I'm trying more seriously to address the job situation and socialising, although I must admit a certain degree of flapping-about-aimlessly about both. I don’t know what I want. I’m trying to figure that out. And I’m trying not to get too angry with myself for not having done that already. My tastes and hobbies meanwhile have seen some substantial shifts. Project Chemdogs was a total success, which has actually got me playing 40K again. Its been a great creative thing, and its got me out of the house. One issue that has occurred with that however is how a new Astra Militarum codex is set for release early next year, and I’ve wanted to keep expanding my army. A new ruleset largely guarantees that something will be made obsolete, so I’m best off pausing until I know more. And from what I’m hearing, it might well be February before the new book is “live” for competitive play. I haven’t totally stopped, as you may have noticed, but I hope to do so in December. Come the new year, I plan to pick it up again with a modernisation/expansion, currently named “Project Draft-dodger”. My interests in Transformers has ebbed by comparison, which is odd as we had a rather good film this year. I’m not sure if that’s natural variation, the ageing process, or the brand itself. I’ve done plenty of Transformers posts this year, its just I’m not feeling it in the winter…. So we’ll see about that. I’ve also seen a declining interest in Orks and BeastBox, but I think that’s less concerning. I’ve taken those quite far, as is.

As for the blog? Well, I do like the structure it provides, and the creative output it allows. I’m not quite writing enough to sustain two posts a week, but I’m running a month ahead currently. Once Project Draft-dodger gets going, I may go twice weekly again, but its hard to say. You will notice some variation of subject matter as I’ve tried to ease off on the armydudesmen, but hopefully that’s of interest for people. There will however be the usual chrimbo holiday. To summarise:

Sunday updates to cease on December 15^th.

There will be a New Years Special on January 1^st.

Normal Sunday posting resumes January 5^th.

See you soon.

Kitbash: Heavy Weapon Teams

OK, let me tell you how this blog works currently. I normally like to run a buffer of 4 weeks, alternating topics where possible. Circa October, this was looking more like 6 weeks, as I prepared to wind things down over December, my busy period at work. I mention this because A) it means I have a lot of inertia, and B) I don't try to be topical any more. That's why don’t see me writing much about GW's periodic Balance Dataslates, as I’m just not nimble enough to match a newscycle. With today's subject though, I have to acknowledge such things.

Heavy Weapon Teams are something I enthusiastically built when starting my Chem-Dogs, but slowly went off as I learned more and the rules changed. Running these in dedicated units of three was manifestly unwise, as not only were they priority targets, they had the durability of wet cardboard. The only time that worked was as mortar units, but that ploy lost some utility when the rules for indirect fire got overhauled. Most of my heavy weapons were then shuffled into regular infantry squads, not necessarily because this made for a brilliant ranged unit, but because it gave the infantry options and made killing the guns harder. Over time, this tactic became less of a mainstay for me as I experimented with other battleline units and enjoyed tanks. I still had a stockpile of guns awaiting assembly and/or kitbash, but no real inclination to use them. Then the October Dataslate and points changes landed, and this changed the equation. A squad of three guns was now 50 points, and its hard for anything to be cheaper than that in 40k currently. You can just throw them into the list, and as long they do their job adequately or otherwise add an element you lack, its worth it. That’s how I use my Scion units currently; bare-bones and disposable to do secondary mission objectives. So, I decided to build a few out of what I had spare. No rush, and even if the forthcoming codex changed how they worked, GW was unlikely to retire a unit with a kit they made for 9th edition and was still actively selling. The worst case outcome would be that I would have more options. And bar the bases, it was money I'd already spent.

 

This build was mainly a combination of three different kits, the old school plastic heavy weapons, the Cannon Fodder kit, and the Stargrave Mercenaries. Its basically the same job as those Cadians I did recently, just with kitbashed carriages for the guns, often featuring wheels off toy cars. In the name of simplicity, I went for pre-existing helmeted heads, but I still did green stuff rags and tarpaulins. The crew were painted separately before affixing them on to the bases, the colours slightly remixed. I was kind of burnt-out on infantry and had a few things on my mind, trying to stop myself from buying more models without finishing some others first, when there’s a new codex around the effing corner, so it took a while to get motivated, but once I got going the process was fairly quick.

The weapon selection here was dictated mainly by what I liked the look of versus what spares I had. This meant five lascannons and a heavy bolter, to be combined with existing models to make two anti-tank, and one anti-infantry squad. The rational here was to pair the lascannons with something scary to force dilemmas on people, while the heavy bolters could make good use of the unit's overwatch bonus. I did consider more mortars and missile launchers, but I'm not hugely into either, and I'm holding onto my spare autocannons for now. Actual gameplay performance? Well… in the first game, one died horribly without acheiving much but blocking, and the other over-performed against a land raider. The second saw them sniping the odd Custodes.

So, maybe there's something in it?