Basing: Dragon Forge Desert Wasteland Bases

Hey all, Slick here. I recently ordered some DragonForge bases for my guard army. I went with the Desert Wasteland II bases and ordered a few flying bases and enough regular size bases to cover a platoon and some vet squads. The bases are all top quality with excellent detail. I can highly recommend DragonForge after this order and I'll be putting in another order to finish up my guard. I'll post some pics of finished squads with the new bases soon.

Dystopian Wars: Battle Pics

Hey all, Slick here. Here are some pics from a recent Dystopian Wars battle - Prussians vs Empire of the Blazing Sun.

Uncharted Seas: Battle Pics

Hello all, Slick here with some pics from our last Uncharted Seas tourney - this time it was a Team Tournament.

Dystopian Wars: Dreadnoughts Report

Hello all, Slick here with some updates on Dystopian Wars. We've gotten two games in using dreads - one average size game and a 1200 per person 4 player team battle with 3 dreads per side.

First game - fired two salvos at an FSA battleship, one at rb4 and then rb3. Nearly double-critted it both times on sub par rolls.

Game 2 - His fsa dread sales into rb 2 and manages to cause a damage (thanks shields!). My return fire sees the tesla broadsides cause a fusion leak and I rolled a 6, so a total of 8 dead crew. The primaries opened fire then and cause another fusion leak finishing off the rest of the fsa dread in one turn of action!

My 2nd dread along with a task force of 1 bb and destroyers put 6 damage, 4 crew, and half AD on his other dread.

Both my dreads had dual shield generators which worked fairly well, usually negating 2-3 hits.

Painting up my 3rd dread right now - it will be a bit different - going with dual tesla generators.

All in all, the dreads present a serious weapon in the game and can deal out massive amounts of damage. Dystopian Wars also scales up nicely as you go from fairly small skirmishes to major fleet engagements. Games will take quite a bit longer though so be prepared to have about 4-5 hours set aside for huge games, especially if newer players are present.

News: Salamanders Dreadnaught

Forgeworld has previewed the latest venerable dread this time for the Salamanders! Impressive work.
"Bray’arth Ashmantle – Salamanders Venerable Dreadnought

The armouriums of the Salamanders Chapter contain many ancient relics; some bearing proud histories of glory and honour while others are burdened with darker legends. Sokhar Bray’arth, once a Captain of the Salamanders 4th Company, is the current occupant of the ancient relic-Dreadnought known as the Iron Dragon, fashioned it is said by the hands of the revered Salamanders Primarch, Vulkan, himself.
Bray’arth was interred within this revered artefact after succumbing to the grievous wounds he suffered during the now infamous purging of the moons of Ymgarl of its Genestealer taint. His strength of will combined with the dark machine-spirit of the Dreadnought in which he is entombed make for a potent warrior on the battlefield.

Salamanders Venerable Dreadnought Bray’arth Ashmantle is a unique MkIV Ironclad Dreadnought, designed by Simon Egan and Will Hayes. The model is packed with intricate detail including ornately carved and segmented armour plates, symbols of the Promethean Cult, and even a jaw-droppingly detailed bas-relief on the Dreadnought’s shoulder armour of Bray’arth’s death duel with a horde of Ymgarl-strain Genestealers."

Dystopian Wars: Prussian Destroyers and Escorts Review

Hello Slick here again. Destroyers and Escorts are now available for all the factions so let's take a quick look at our two ships. In general I'm a bit disappointed with the ships - both the models and the rules. This isn't to say that I leave these ships out of my fleet. They'll both provide useful assets. My major gripe is that if you look closely on both ships you can clearly see tesla coil weapons on the hull (front on the escort, rear on the destoyer). Why sculpt these onto the model if neither ships includes them as a weapon type? One might argue it's for decoration... well sorry, but they just shouldn't be on there then. The other issue I have with the models, specifically the destroyer, is that it just seems undersized compared to the fsa/britannian ones. While it won't really have an impact in the game it would've been nice to see a slightly large model rather than one that is really just slightly bigger than a frigate. Other than that the details on both are the same high quality as the rest of the range.

On to the rules...

Our escorts are great so no gripes there.

Destroyers... again not bad at all, but having a secondary weapon system would have made our destroyers awesome which is why the tesla coil being on the actual model really is annoying. Pack hunter + rear tesla could have been an interesting and effective option. Raise the points accordingly to match the extra weapon. As it is, I would say the FSA and Brittanian Destroyers are the most impressive of the bunch (model & rules), especially the FSA destroyers. It is going to be tough to deal with the crazy amount of firepower properly positioned FSA destroyers can unleash.

We'll be testing out the new ships this week so look for a battle report! In the meantime, what do you guys think?

Finecast Review: Astorath

Hello all, Slick here with a review of a recent Finecast purchase. I picked up a Finecast Astorath recently and compared to the metal one I had I'm very impressed with the detail and ease of assembly on this one. There was quite a bit of flash and mold lines were kind of bad in parts but overall great quality and not too much prep work was involved.

Assembly was a breeze. No pinning necessary and ready to go in a few minutes. $20 ish is probably a bit high for something this size but so far I'm impressed with the Finecast. I've also picked up a Terminator librarian to replace an unopened metal one I had. No assembly yet but a quick inspection revealed no real flaws on the model. I'll be painting up this Astorath shortly.

What have your experiences been with Finecast?

News: Forgeworld Newsletter #278

Hello all, Slick here. Forgeworld's latest newsletter brings a brand new dreadnought type to the game! The Crusade/Heresy-era Contemptor Pattern towers over regular dreadnoughts and stacks up nicely to the GK Dreadknight. In fact, this seems to be FW's answer to the new GK kit as they're very similar in size. I'm also loving the fact that there appear to be chapter-specific variants! The price is also pretty good considering the size of the kit. This one is definitely worth adding if you're a marine player (or even Chaos marines). What do you think?

"Hi there,
In this week’s newsletter we have for you a fantastic new Space Marine Dreadnought – the Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought – along with the hotly-anticipated Carcharodons Transfer Sheet.

Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought
A true relic of the hallowed days of the Great Crusade, and of the heights of technological achievement once reached by the Imperium of Mankind, the Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought was a mainstay of the armoured might of the Astartes Legions of old. Larger and stronger than standard pattern Dreadnoughts, the Contemptor’s systems featured many examples of techno-arcana steeped in the sacred mysteries of the Legio Cybernetica.
Due to their spearhead assault role in the epic battles of the Great Crusade, losses were high amongst these potent war machines, and in the shadowed aftermath of the Heresy the ability to produce or maintain the Contemptor was all but lost. However, some Chapters still boast these war-relics amongst their ranks, and whenever the Contemptor takes to the field of battle it is an echo of the power of ancient days.

The Contemptor Pattern Dreadnought, designed by Will Hayes, is a detailed full resin kit that allows any Space Marine (or Chaos Space Marine) army to field one of these ancient war machines. Will has also designed two unique weapon options: a Contemptor Pattern Lascannon Arm and a Contemptor Pattern Close Combat Arm (Fist). These two weapons can be used on either side of the Dreadnought body, which is itself a fully poseable miniature.
Experimental rules for this storied and ancient Dreadnought are available to download now from the Forge World website, and this kit and its weapon arms are available to pre-order now for despatch in the week commencing 25th July."