Tau Codex: Warlord Traits and Dreams

Hello everyone, my name is Jerry and today we will be talking Traits, my feelings on them and just a general review of them. Jon will be posting this for me but lets move on.

To start off, I would like to point out the “Named Character and Warlord Traits”. Of the six named characters, there are two from different Septs, the rest are T'au. So if we want to run a Battalion or Brigade from another Sept, we HAVE to have either a Fireblade or a Ethreal in it because of the COMMANDER limit. Already not a fan.

Another thing I would like to talk about is that we only really have three “types” of Warlord (excluding Longstrike and Darkstrider). We have the Ethreal, the Cadre Fireblade, and the COMMANDER. When looking at a lot of these traits, a lot of them seem to have been built for suits in mind. Precision of the Hunter, A Ghost Walks Among Us, and Examplar of the Mont'ka come to mind, but we have a limit to one per detachement

There is good too though. For example my favorite Trait thus far has been Through Unity, Devastation. This thing takes your average gunline and makes it a slightly more deadly or turns your Crisis Suits into Assassins. Say you have a Fireblade with this Trait and you've got fourteen Pulse Rifles that have a target within Volley Shot range. On average, with only re-rolls of 1, because that is all I use my Fireblade for is Markerlights, they are needing to save against sixteen shots, and of those about five are at -1. Now my math maybe a little suspect, but those Sixteen shots alone would usually kill any infantry in their way. But those Five -1's, when going up against stats like 2+/3++ *Cough*Custodes*Cough* give that little edge on possibly nicking more health off it. Hell, it helps against most MEQ in general and can even flat out kill some GEQ. The idea is that whether you're spamming pulse fire, or Ion cannons, it makes your dudes that much more lethal.

                                                            The Good

Through Unity, Devastation: Like I talked about above, this Trait gives all your 6+ wound rolls an additional AP when within 6” of the Warlord and against a single unit. Helps that gunline focus fire and annihilate more armored foes. Best part is it works on any toughness.

Academy Luminary: What's not to like? It increases the range of your three HQs abilities and gives you an additional CP. I personally haven't thrown it on anybody but Aun'Shi and a Kroot blob, but the thought of throwing it on a Commander, and advancing a gunline Via Mont'ka to cover a large swath of board without losing aim is great!

Precision of the Hunter: So this is one of those Traits I mentioned earlier that was meant more for a suit. I cannot think of a good reason a Fireblade or Ethreal are re-rolling 1's vs. MONSTERS and VEHICLES when most things that have that keyword they will be wounding on 4+ or worse. If it wasn't for the fact it is really, really good on a Anti-heavy 'Mander, this would be Bad. But when I get to re-roll wound rolls of 1 against things I am wounding on 4+ or better, yeah, really helps when my Fusionmander is burying 3 Blasters into a tank and really wants that gooey Marine or Guardsman inside.

Seeker of Perfection: Again another suit made Trait. For each 6+ hit roll, +1 to wound roll. The Fireblade is not pumping out enough shots to make this reliable and the Ethreal will most likely die before it can really see it's use with it's 5+ save in melee. Kinda in the same ballpark as Precision of the Hunter in the sense that it is great at making sure your shots go through, but feels more like it is built for large volumes of fire with weaker guns. Say for example a Coldstar decked with burst cannons and HBC. He is going to be wounding most things you wanna throw volume fire at on 3+ so adding 1 for every 6+ hit is kinda neat and it seems to stack with Overwatch. So it seems that every time you hit in Overwatch you get to add 1 to your wound as you need a 6 to hit in Overwatch as Bork'an Sept.

Hero of the Enclaves: This thing is awesome! Now T'au should never in their right minds get in melee, but when it comes to the Farsight Enclaves, sword range is where they like to be. And no Trait better emphasises this fact than by letting you Heroic intervention 6” and basically as long as you don't stay in melee you get to re-roll FAILED hit rolls. So even though average 'Mander is hitting in melee on 3+, that “all failed rolls” part makes you that much more of a Kung Fu badass. And with Fly, there is no reason you aren't making sure the conditions for the Trait aren't met. By far this Trait is the most reliable and possibly the most potent...as long as you have some Fusion blades because you still don't have melee weapons and still have AP 0, D1 fists.

                                  The Bad

Exemplar of the Mont'ka: So let's start off with Mont'ka. Back in the Chapter approved, this rule read “Your Warlord can Advance and still shoot as if they hadn't moved this turn”. Frankly kinda busted because then my Darkstrider (who I got a tonne of use in Index) or Shadowsun could just run down the field and in Darkstrider and a Fireblade's case, Markerlight on 2+ still, and on Shadowsun she could bounce up to some tough guys with her min 9” move and blast them in the face with her Blasters. Now with the Codex out, Darkstrider no longer get's this, nor does Shadowsun and Fireblades are more prone to standing around with their gunline. I can see it's use on a non-Vior'la Fireblade keeping up with some Carbine warriors still wanting Markerlight, or maybe a COMMANDER that want's to save points instead of being a Coldstar but otherwise is overshadowed by Vior'la Tenant.

Through Boldness, Victory: Great if you didn't already hit on 2+ and usually is able to re-roll 1s's. Also doesn't work during Overwtach, which admittedly would be busted, and not when outside 12” which is when all other armies -1 to hit ability no longer applies. It's good when you no longer have re-rolls, and  when you have lost you mind and are allowing something to stay within 12” of your Warlord without being an Assassin or Meat Grinder. Risk is too great for a payout that you easily get already.

A Ghost Walks Among Us: Let's bring back Darkstrider because he gets this. Pretty good for him because he gets to be all zippy on the field with his 7” Vanguard, 7” move and now +6” advance. Other than that, not that great. Ethreal can get it, but only good thing I see coming out of it is keeping up with Kroot mob. Fireblade is prone to standing around and if he advances he can't shoot anything that turn anyway (unless Vior'la but even then only the rifle can be used) and when it comes to COMMANDERs, there is the Coldstar who has a better movement (though I am unsure if you can stack it with a Coldstar as the Trait says specifically when rolling a dice).  The point is that it seems the Units that would get the most use out of it are heading into melee, which we don't want our Warlord most of the time (see above, Hero of the Enclaves.) or have a unit that does this better for 18 points more.

                                  The Ugly

Strength of Belief: I hate this thing. It reminds me that T'au have no Psyker defense, have no reliable mortal wound generator (see Seeker missile) anymore, and the thing is useless anyway. First off it is put on our Tank Commander. Other than a handful of guns, there is nothing else but Psyker powers that dish mortal wounds. And most Psyker powers that do mortal wounds hit the closest unit. I don't know about you, but my Longstrike is far away from any Psyker unless it is Grey knights or some Eldar units that like to get close. Even then there is a unit in between Longstrike and that Psyker.When not on Longstrike, the only time I see it's use is from snipers, but sniper rifles and most other weapons are not reliable mortal wound generator to see it's use unless you opponent spams those things.

Overall I think when it comes to Traits, there are some that will see way more use than others, but overall I can't say we did terribly. Next time I will be Talking Tenants and kinda do an overview much like this for it.

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Tau Codex: 8th Edition Review

The Tau are back! March 17th saw Games Workshop release the first 8th edition codex for the Tau Empire and what a codex it was! New Sept Tenants, Stratagems and even a list building restriction found nowhere else in the game. Tau really did get it all. However after getting the codex, I decided that it was worth a look through. These will be first impressions from the codex between myself as a veteran Tau player and Jerry2die4 as a brand new Tau player. Each of us has written a segment of this article. We hope that both the veteran players and the new players see what has come out of the Eastern Fringe.

Jon's thoughts as a Veteran Tau Player

First off, the good. TAU SEPT TENANTS! Finally! This is something that I've wanted since 4th edition for the Tau. Now that we have six sept tenants, we have the ability to actually have some uses for certain units. Since my Jar'Kia sept is a world that was taken by the Bork'an Tau, I felt it was only natural for me to take the Bork'an Sept trait.

Next comes the warlord traits and there are a lot of them. Tau got a few in 6th and 7th when the warlord traits first came out. However this edition has seen the number raise drastically. Each Sept is getting its own trait and this allows for the player to have a lot of say on how their warlord is run. I plan to have my commander running a triple Ion blaster and some shield drones. However, the 1 Tau Commander suit per detachment is kind of a bust. More on that later.

The Stratagems that  Tau got were really nice. We even got the return of the Doomsday bomb from 4th ed. A pleasant surprise for those long time tau fans. I think as a Tau veteran player, the most noticeable thing about the codex was a the number of options that it opens up. I like how each stratagem allows for the flexibility of play. A tau player should be able to pull of between 10 and 15 command points allowing many tactical options for the average player. Stratagems allow for the Tau player to be able to play his or her army with a lot of synergy. Whereas the Imperial Guard is about numbers, Tau is about fire power in the right spot at the right time. Each piece of war gear and stratagems allows a Tau Shas'o to be prepared for anything and everything.

Victory for the Tau over the Forces of Chaos

Now on the bad and the ugly....

First, Crisis suits are still very expensive. The base cost for a crisis suit is seemingly too high for the output of damage that it does. With the loss of Crisis suits being troops, the usefulness of the unit has gone down. This also damages Farsights ability to "Farsight Bomb" the enemy with crisis suits.  Secondly, the uselessness of the Tau Key word for Jetpack. When keywords first became a thing, it was hoped among many Tau players that this keyword would allow for us to Jump-Shoot-Jump. However in the codex, the Jetpack keyword was not given any abilities. In essence, its useless.
Riptides, although better priced are still very expensive and usually die very quickly. Other units like the forge world Barracuda went up in points and are not worth fielding. Another problem is that some of the Special Characters like Shas'O O'Ralia are unable to be fielded due to their specific Sept Keyword which is not in the codex. At the moment, taking O'Ralia is more of a hindrance to you than to the enemy.

Now the ugly. The elephant in the room. The only 1 Commander rule for Tau is a major hindrance to the army at the moment. With no other army facing this restriction, Tau seem to have been (un)fairly treated in the restriction of their main HQ unit. I never used the Commander Spam and I understand why it was removed. However, what we got in return put a hamper on the army as a whole. For those who like to run multiple commanders, the limitation is going to hurt. With the March FAQ coming soon, hopefully this issue will be addressed.

As the codex starts to gain some age, Tau players will have to adapt to the coming meta. Already many list are aiming for as many command points as possible. The Tau Septs with their special rules allow for players to have all types of play be it defensive or offensive. Time will tell where the codex falls in the power levels. As a long time Tau Veteran, I am both excited and hopeful to see the army recover from its index era and move onward into 8th.

Tau'va Shas'la!

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2018!: New Year and New Projects!

Hello and welcome to the 2018 edition of Behind the Lines Gaming.As a new year gets underway we look forward to the new start that a new year will bring. Like last year I will be attempting to post every other week but real life might  get in the way. As with last year, this is more a attempt to regulate myself than a true schedule or promise.

Projects for this year include finishing my Tanith 1st and only army as well as my Phantine and Pardus 8th Armored. Good progress has been made on this army and I can only hope 2018 sees to it that more good things are to come.

My Menoth forces will also continue to be worked on. This army is a small one and I am unsure if any more models will be added to it. Time will tell. What use to be a nice 50 point army is now somewhere in the 40 point range. These point changes, as well as the game going up to 75 points has left a sour taste in my mouth.

My Adeptus Mech forces might also grow some in 2018. I am planning to completely rebuild my list with a new force and build up my forces to 2000 points.

With the lack of a Tau codex for 8t Edition, The Tau Sept has been shelved until the codex hits. Once the codex comes out, I will see how Tau have transferred over to the new edition. 

The Deathwatch force remains small while the Black Templar army I bought in 2017 has been stripped and primed. Im still not certain what I want to do with them at all. I might at some point sell them. 

2018 is going to be a exciting new year that we here at Behind the Lines gaming hope everyone will be excited for! Stay tuned for a much more to come!

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Mortian Battle Tank: A Review

Today I present to you a unscripted post. Mostly because its Here for only a limited time. The Mortian tank! A popular favorite with the Imperial Guard Community has returned and with it the limited chance to get a very nice tank.

I first encountered the Mortian tank in 2015. At the time, I was looking to get out of Game's workshop models and move onto 3rd party stuff. The Mortian tank instantly became a favorite while doing a casual search online. It had everything I wanted. The look of a Panzer with the proportions of a realistic looking tank.

However, I soon found that the designer of the tank had not had his stuff for sale since 2009. Nonetheless, I searched through google and found his site. In a desperate bid to get a trio of the tanks, I sold of my Leman Russes and ordered three Mortian. With  that done, I also found a 4th from a mutual acquaintance. This Mortian you see in the picture was the tank from the mutual acquaintance. When i received it, it was in harsh condition. I was able to fix it up and put it back together as best I could. Finally, I got it into a game against necron. I have pictures from that game but since it was so far back, I don't really remember the details. Needless to say, the model was a absolute delight to play. I soon primed it but then things took a turn for the worst. After 2 months, my orders had not come in yet. Digging deeper, I found that the site was down and with it my order had been lost. It seemed as if the company and the designer had dropped off the face of the earth. I was able to get a refund through PayPal and that was the end of my hopes for a trio of the Mortian. I sold off my Mortian on Ebay for next to nothing and pushed it from my mind. I was disappointed and sad. Mad Robot and Victoria Lamb both had tanks coming out soon I heard. So I waited.

Every so often I would look online at Leman Russ tanks and see the Mortian and remember that it was no longer available. I tried another route and bought three Leman Russes from Game's workshop but soon tired of those too and sold them off to a friend. However with the Mortian now back (Even as a kick starter) it hold a special place in my mind.

The model is beautiful, easy to put together and looks great on the table. For those of you who want a tank that will be sure to turn heads and get comments from people around the gaming table I would highly recommend ordering one (or three!) They really are worth it in the end, even for the rarity factor alone, I would suggest at least 1. They'll look great at any photo op!


Below are some battle report photos from the Battle i used it in back in 2015. I don't remember any of the turns so its best just to leave the photos here.

Until next time!

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Battle Report: Investigaton at Hive Felix (7th Edition)

"Foolish Mon-Keigh, thinking they can save this city. Let us show them the true meaning of Pain" - Archon Linnaeus before his raid into Hive Felix

Today I bring you another battle report from the front lines. This battle was between my brother's DE (Proxying with tau here) and my own Adeptus Mech forces of Metallica lead by my Female Magos with Inquisitional support. The mission was kill points with a extra point award to me for every Heavy support choice that i killed and claimed with my forces.

My brother and I rolled off and he claimed turn 1. Turn one saw him move up his forces and shot a bunch of my ruststalkers. He killed two. The raiders shot at my Onager but missed and the Ravager did as well. The Inquisitional Chimera was killed during this turn by a Raider. He also claimed two objectives during this turn.

My turn 1 saw my forces move up and claim a objective. My shooting however was ineffective and so I did very little damage to him.

His Turn 2 saw him move up again and fire upon my magos. Those shots went wide and missed mostly. The breachers were the next target and he got off some good shots. However the breachers made their saves and were able to tank the fire. His Raider had moved up and the warriors inside the raider fired upon my ruststalkers killing two of them. The incubi hide and held a objective in the back.

My turn 2 saw me move up again. Having lost most of my right flank, my forces were forced to close off that flank and leave it to the Dark Eldar. My Ruststalkers moved up and prepared for a charge against the Dark Eldar warriors. The breachers moved up and fired upon the warriors. Many warriors were killed by the breachers and Skitarii rangers. I was able to kill 2 of the Raiders on the left flank at this time but still the Dark eldar held. My ruststalkers charged into the Dark Eldar but failed to make their charge leaving them open to splinter fire.

His turn 3 saw him move up and fire upon my forces again. The jetbikes moved up and the warriors fired upon my ruststalkers. The ruststalkers were killed to a man. More fire was placed upon the Magos and Onager. Both tanked the fire and refused to die. Two breachers were killed to splinter fire. At this time, he charged his forces into my Dunestrider. The dunestrider survived and was able to kill off one reaver jetbike.

My turn 3 saw me move up some of my rangers as well as my Magos and breachers. I was able to kill off a squad of warriors and seized a point in the middle away from his witches. On the left flank, the breachers killed off a few more warriors and tried to get in range to charge the jetbikes. They would ultimately fail to make the charge. However, the Rangers and the Inquisitor were able to make the charge and killed two jetbikes.

His Turn 4 saw his second witch squad move up as well as his warrior squads on the right flank which had fully collapsed for the Ad Mech. The Magos and Onager were fired upon again but tanked it and the Dark Eldar Archon let out a sigh as his forces failed to do any damage on the left flank to the dunestrider / Rangers / Inquisitor.

My turn 4 saw my forces move up and proceed to fire upon the remaining warriors. The warriors holding the middle point were finally killed off but the breachers had a lot of room to move up before they could capture the point. In the assault phase the Rangers / dunestrider / Inquisitor were able to kill off  the last of the jetbikes and secure the objective.

At this point the game had to end due to time. Dark Eldar had earned 19 points to the Ad Mech  15.  It was a significant Dark Eldar victory but the Ad Mech had proved that they would not let the xeno off without a fight. Hive Felix had been cleansed of all those who had lived there but the records would at least indicate that the civilians had not been killed but dragged off to a fate worst than death.

Archon Linnaeus looked out over the battle field. The slaves had already been captured and dragged back to the slave pits. Now with the mon'keigh forces broken he could escape. His forces had taken a serious hit but he knew at the end of the day his Kabal would gain wealth from the slaves. He smiled to himself, A victory such as this was one that he could celebrate back in the halls tonight. With that last though, he stepped through the webway portal and left the world behind.

Now on to some 8th Edition discussion. Since 8th Edition is coming this next weekend, we here at Behind the Lines Gaming are going to hold off on the blog posting till 8th drops. At that point we will resume with our bi monthly posting as well as give you all our first impressions of 8th Edition.

Stay tuned, Exciting things are happening and we hope to be your leading source for all the newest changes coming to 40k.

Till next time!

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2016: A Year in Review

Rolling for Happy New Year!

Still Secret Im Afraid 

Well here we are again! Seems like only yesterday we were starting another New Year. This year has seen a lot of changes in both myself and this blog. Every day brought something new this year and the world has kept on spinning. We here at Behind the Lines Gaming would like to wish you a Happy New Year. At the beginning of the year were had promised to promote big news to you all. That big news is still happening, even if things have been quiet, but we will tell you more in 2017. As always keep checking back for updates on that.


The Tanith and Allied guard have gotten a lot of attention this year. I can safely safe that most of those units have been painted. 2017 should see some additions to the armies.  The Tau as noted earlier will be getting reinforcements with the Riptide battlesuit and hopefully a few more surprises. The Adeptus Mechanicus army is growing with the additional purchase of a skitarii army pending at the moment. More news on that soon! Finally with MK III of warmachine out now, I have gotten into full swing of painting those miniatures. Hopefully i'll be able to take them out for a few games.

As always we plan to do a Top Three projects we have done this year. Located here, the Gallery is a page dedicated to the top work on completed models we've done each year.Give it a look and let us know what you think!

Tiger Tank of the Imperium

#1 this year turned out to be a product review of the Gideon Tank done by MadRobot Miniatures! This review came in with nearly 1137 views! A huge thank you to Steve at MadRobot for putting up with me while I made the order. These models were a joy to put together and a joy to paint. The fact that I got 2 more waiting to be painted is only extra exciting to me! Once warmer weather hits Im going to break out my airbrush and start on its two siblings ASAP! In the future I hope to order potentially two more to add to the armored group. We'll have to see though.

12 Crisis Suits Plus 1 more

#2 this year was the Tau [Crisis Suit] Story. At 764 views this post was the second most viewed post of the year.  Once I had decided on a scheme for my Sept I set about painting it.This scheme was exteremly popular with the folks down at my LFGS and the models have seen a ton of play. I think the post was popular because of the amount of Tau crisis suits? Maybe it was just the amount of painted Tau? Whatever the case It has been a fun journey to show them off to you all and play with them on the table and against them. Trust me, Its not fun to face down 24 plasma rifles as guard. Still the modification to the models to make the XV-46 was one of my favorite changes to these stock models. Leave no model unconverted!

#3 this year was a twist. Pulling from our Dark Heresy game, Sister Hana and Krieger 18D became the third most popular post with 682 views. This project was being completed by my friend Bandogora and he has progressed well on both Hana and 18D. In the future he hopes to finish Hana and add in the rest of the party including our Tech Priest Magnus Nicodemus of Metallica and Interrogator Bo Terran. Time will tell if he can do it.  This project was a joy to watch come to completion. As our Dark Heresy season has ended for the year, I can fully say the party did not come away unscathed. Truths were revealed that injured the party and caused many angry emotions. Next season will show if the party and time has healed the wounds left by one party members betrayal.

As the year comes to a close I wish to thank my loyal readers and those who follow me. It makes writing these post easier knowing that some people read them and enjoy the content of them.If you like what you see please become a follower of the blog or leave a comment below! Every little bit helps

With that I wish you the best in this ending to 2016 and a happy start to 2017! Keep rolling those dice and stay tuned for many new exciting things to come in 2017! 

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Updates and Reviews: Tanith First and Only and Warmachine Cards

                          So what has been new with me? Well first off, I got a new job starting this month! Finally I am able to get some use out of my degree that I went to university for four years for. I also quit my old job and started looking towards getting a second Master's degree in order to shore up my current one. You might also notice the new look for the site. I felt it was time for a change so I have changed the site to a new theme. Enjoy and let me know what you think? Enough about me for the meantime though, lets get to some miniatures.

2016 Menoth Deck

A little while back I ordered the 2016 version of the Menoth Deck for Warmachine. This new deck for MK III really did come with a lot of new updates to the game. I even got a game in with the MK III rules. Needless to say I was caster killed but the list nonetheless allowed for me to better understand the new rules. I really enjoyed being about to get out and game for once in a long while. The deck came with enough cards for every model that I had and seemed to be fit to handle alot of new miniatures I hadnt even seen yet. Hopefully Soon I will be able to return to Warmachine and get a few more hours in.

Our local game store in the area has died leaving us that game with a problem. The nearest store is a hour and forty five minutes away, a distance that i dont feel like driving just to game for a few hours to turn around and drive home again. This has caused my ability to game to be lessened but my painting has also suffered because of my busy life and the lack of wanting to paint due to not playing as much. Nonetheless I have forced myself to paint and thats what I am wanting to show off to you all today!

As a running series, I usually try to place the header images with what the topic of the day will relate to. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Today, we will be covering the first five newly painted models of another Tanith First and Only Squad I started working on.

5 New Tanith ready to go!

This 5 man squad of Tanith was a welcome start to my painting again. The process took about a week to complete and each model was given special attention to make sure it was up to par. These lads are going to be a part of first platoon under Colonel Corbec. While no character names have been given yet, the models are now sitting besides there comrades in my case. Hopefully sometime soon I will finish the next five members of the squad and complete them. This army is mean
t to be my dream army and someday I hope to add in some more female models once they come on the market. The Tanith are on the march and my Sabbat Worlds Crusade army is growing.

Action shot of the Battle for Hive Valediction

Just as a quick add, I posted this action shot from a blog post a while back. Thanks to Jayson Molyneux of the Facebook Astra Militrum / Imperial Guard group for making it look like it was taken in the heart of battle. Looks really nice and well done!

Keep Checking back for more!

Till next time.

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Hello 2016: A New Year,A New Start!

Hello and welcome to the 2016 edition of Behind the Lines! Like last year I will be attempting to blog about a new project every two weeks. This is not a promise by myself or anyone here to keep to that but we will strive to do so.  2016 hopefully will see many new and exciting works done and updates to the blog. Hope on and get ready, its going to be one hell of a ride.

First off, I will be continuing to paint up my Victoria Lamb Tanith army. This project remains my main goal and will be seen to completion. New Tanks and vehicles will also be joining the ranks as I expand my Imperial Guard army, Hopefully I will be able to keep up the momentum! Of course that all depends on what kind of time school and work allow.

Secondly, my Tau and Menoth armies will be shown here!  You all have seen my Tau before  but not the new scheme I have planned for it. The Menoth Army is a tougher choice on what I want to do with it and Im hoping to get some community feedback on it. Also in the works is a major new army! Yes, an Adeptus Mech from Forge World Metallica is joining the war in the Sabbat Worlds along with another new PC from our Dark Heresy Game! News on that to come!

Finally We have been talking about a big project all year long. This project is still on course and is due out this Year! Needless to say we are excited to show it off to all of you and hope that you all are as excited as we are. I apologize for the lack of information on this but we have been very busy with our real life  as well as preparing this for everyone.

2016 is going to be a major year of big news and exciting new items. Hopefully you all are ready!  Happy New Year Everyone!

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Wargaming and Attitude discussion

This has been a topic that I've been heavily considering writing on a for a while. In the course of painting models, a few topics came up the other day on one of my recent pictures posted online. The paint job in general was considered "unfinished" , "Just primer" and "Shit" by many that commented on it.

First off, let me make something clear. This is not a whining post! 

This is a discussion on how we as war gamers are not always welcoming to others that might wish to join in on our hobby of plastic soldiers (No matter the system!) When I posted the picture I never imaged the hatred I would receive from people that were looking to either boost their own egos or put down others. The worst part was that this was a group of gamers that I frequented often. This group has a wonderful membership but the fact remains that people will begin to feel uncomfortable posting their own models if they are only going to get told that their work sucks.

Over the course of the last few days I have been watching the group. In that time I've painted a few more models here and there. Detailed a few and enjoyed painting. However I am hesitant to show anyone my work. If I, a veteran painter and player am hesitant to post my work, how must a new player feel watching the community tear itself apart over one or two "bad" paint jobs. This is unacceptable.

Primer or Paint? Can you tell the difference?
side note: This was not the model in the discussion

The facts remain on those models. First off, it was not "just primer" or "unfinished". There were two coats of paint and two different washes on there for just the body alone. The rest of the model was covered in colors ranging from golds to grey. Secondly, anytime you call somebody's work "shit" or "unfinished", please realize that you are not adding anything to the conversation. A more helpful attitude would have been to suggest a way to better the model or talk about what the positives of the model were.  Thirdly, if the model in question is not one that you like or feel is to YOUR standards, instead of posting on it, leave it alone. It cost you nothing. I will be the first to admit that I am not a class A+ painter. However, this was shockingly below the average post quality of the group in question.


So what can we do to encourage people to post their work and not feel judged? Be welcoming for starters. Encourage people to show off your work and give helpful, good advice on what they can do. Be friendly, even if it is the internet, people still want to feel good about their models they put time into. "The Thin your paints!" and "My eyes drill your barrels" post are funny but tried memes at this point. Offer painting tips to new painters and new players alike. Finally, realize that people paint to their own standards. What might be "Unfinished" to your eyes might be a new timers "master piece".


I hope these ideas and topics encourage you to think about your own painting. If you got anything to add post in the comments below!

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