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Wednesday 31 July 2013

Uphill Struggle (Blog Wars 6 is the Summit)



So after my complete and utter failure to attend the previous Blog Wars I am finally ready to vent and talk about it all. I have tried to keep the Blog ticking over- somewhat ineffectually though I must say. And so the time has come to let it all out and get stuck back in.

The Long and The Short of it all is- my Wife left me. It threw my life into complete disarray and (in the nicest possible way) a tournament was the last thing on my mind. I am now however ready for the challenge and have already purchased a Ticket for Blog Wars 6. I am however now needing an army (everything got packed up in the great move and I can't be bothered to go through everything sorting it out yet) and as such I am buying a brand-spanking new army. Anybody who has read the few posts I have put up recently will have noticed I reviewed the iCodex iTau iEmpire iBook iThing, and thus my decision is made. I'm hopping on the bandwagon (devilfish) and going to do an army of these fish-faced-freaks. Not just any army though, oh no, last night as Insomnia gripped me I purchased the iCodex: iFarsight iEnclave iBook and so I am going to take a Farsight Enclave army to Blog Wars 6.

What the army will contain I do not yet know but at writing this I have 93 days to purchase and paint 1850 points (20 points a day seems achievable lol!). Please stay tuned as I post my decisions and progress. I want this to become a regular thing and to get a sense of normality back in my life- so if anyone wants to follow (and dare I say it, support me!) then all would be appreciated!!


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May The Odds Be Ever In Your Favour (Unless You're Playing Me!)

Thursday 18 July 2013

Review: iCodex iTau iEmpire

Ok so my meteoric return to blogging has mostly been enabled by the selling of my soul and giving money to Apple Inc. so it seems only right that at some point I review a product that GW specifically released for the iPad. I speak, of course, of the iBook that is a Codex.



I decided to start my foray into these with the iCodex: Tau Empire because, with everything that was happening in my life at the time, the Tau somewhat passed me by. I am going to start out by saying that I am not disappointed at all by the iBook! It Fething Rocks!

For the price I am tempted to say it beats the hardbacks. They are wonderfully easy to work and the referencing is an absolutely fantastic feature. With a little getting used to I can now very quickly navigate the iBook and find anything I want very speedily.

Any piece of wargear or any weapon is easily referenced by clicking on it,bringing up a pop up box that gives you all necessary stats and rules for the applicable weapon/wargear, take a look;




My first game using the codex in a practical way won't be for a few weeks but once I actually get a game in I will definitely let you all know how it goes.

*edit* Ok so I left this entry as a draft at the end of the previous sentence. That evening I ended up having a few 500 point games using a Tau force. I was tempted to Bat-Rep them but for now I will stick to reviewing this iCodex. Simply put, absolutely brilliant! I simply kept it open on the glossary page and every time I needed to check something I just entered the first few letters in the search bar and Voila everything I ever needed! I honestly don't think I will be buying any more Hardback codices and all of mine in future will be iPurchases!!

We can only wait and see how quickly and efficiently the updates happen when GW releases FAQ's but for now I must say that I am one chuffed gamer!

May The Odds Be Ever In Your Favour (Unless You're Playing Me!)

Tuesday 9 July 2013

The End is Nigh: Goodbye Apocalypse

Ok so this Blog entry was mostly written on Sunday but I have just done some final editing and tweaking here now and finally posted it;

So I am sat on the train, on my way to help Matt from Ex Instinctu Imperatorto set up his Apocalypse game for the end of his campaign. As I write this I am aware that this is the final Saturday that GW will recognise and support the current edition (a more profitable edition is coming) and thought this Blog entry would be a great time to look at this day as it progresses. I want to capture any moments of pure awesome and say Goodbye to This Apocalypse (a potential autobiography title there!) in proper fashion, so bear with me as I take you through my day.

09:18- sat on train, drinking copious amounts of Relentless and recovering from last night. A 1am Mexican Pizza was definitely one of the better ideas that I had. As a side note, random band from the Nags Head- well done on last night. I went out for a quiet drink with my mate and you made the night into something awesome. Instead of just having a quiet drink and catching up with someone, we instead ended up being serenaded with Deff Leopard, AC/DC, Metallica, Iron Maiden and many more that I will file under mildly drunken miscellaneous blur. You did an awesome job and I am sorry that the 2 of us seemed to be the only ones appreciative of your contribution to the atmosphere!!!

9:22 Leicester is in site and that means walking a bit of a way. My legs complain.

9:46 the view from the gaming room is 


10:02 we have broken one of the 2 lifts to the 8th floor, good start! It is making the ominous grinding noise.

10:21 tables are set. All 3 of them

And here's our organiser;
This was the Most Flattering photo taken


10:41 the phrase "Yay Orgy!" was muttered

10:46 briefing has commenced, gaming to begin soon.

11:43 first casualty has happened. Perils took out a harlequin psyker before anything interesting happened at all!

12:30 LUNCH BREAK! MASS EXODUS TO SUBWAY!

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unfortunately my iPad decided to wipe everything from this point and so I have no more! Head over to Matts Blog though because he has put some further details up!

Friday 5 July 2013

Hobby Aids

Welcome to another Friday here at Something Wicked. I have decided to actually start planning my Blog entries and as such Sun/Mon will now feature my hobby updates (once a week is more than enough given the pace I work at sometimes) and then Friday's article will be on another Hobby Related Topic. So without further ado let me introduce the Topic of today's post; Hobby Aids in all their various forms and majestic glory.

This is a very interesting Topic and one that I recently discussed with Matt from over on Ex Instinctu Imperator. The reason I have chosen this topic is simple- I was prompted by the recent purchase of my iPad. Now I know I will suffer eternal damnation for willingly giving money to Apple, however I think it was worth it.

Of course the first thing any reasonable Hobbyists does once they have been assimilated by Apple (Resistance is Futile!) is to start looking at how this magnificent shiny device can improve their Hobbying! So for today I am just going to share a few of the pieces I have found.

First of all Quartermaster Army List Writer



This thing is amazing! The couple of quid it cost me are nothing and it is so easy and simple to find templates that have been put together. I already have put some of my more common Army Builds together in the favourite lists section for future use. To look at the product itself then. I like the interface, it is pretty self explanatory and easy to build units up with the wargear you want. Another function is the ability to just duplicate a unit you have already made (a spammers dream)!




Next we will look at something that is from Games Workshop. I spent a bit of time perusing what was available and then plumped for the How To Paint: Eldar guide.

 I was dubious because it is £10 but I must say that I am not disapponted. It covers various units (from memory it does Guardians, Wraithguard, Hemlock Wraithfighter, Wraithknight and Yriel) and each of these is done in a step by step guide. At the end of each section is a selection of other colour schemes along with all the paints that you would use following the methods covered (oh and Fire Dragons they are in there). I will definitely be looking at more of these in future, possibly the Tau one next. And the fact they are on my iPad just makes it easier for me as I am not flicking through countless pages hunting for that one specific bit.


This next one comes courtesy of Matt who,as I mentioned earlier, is running his own blog and we frequently have many a hobby related discussion (go follow that link to his Blog!). We also get the odd game in and this is something that will be looked at in future (the same battle report told from our respective sides). Anyway to get back to the current topic He mentioned how much he likes the psychic power cards. I completely agree with this one and in I am going to quote him-  "particularly for the Blessing/Malediction powers where you can just mark out the unit affected with the card". This is a perfect example of the versatility of the design, while a fantastic aid for reminding yourself what powers characters have, they can then double as markers for units that are being targeted by certain powers. It's makes me think maybe I should look into that Psychic Powers app that's out there...

Also on one final note, it would be remiss of me to not at least mention our old hobby faithful...


Monday 1 July 2013

Venturing into the Webway!

Welcome back to Something Wicked. After my last post on Friday detailing the list that I plan on working on I though I would now show you some of my WIP shots so far;

First or all lets have a look at the Jetbikes that I am working on. This is my first unit of 6 Windriders and includes 2 of the GW finecast Shuriken Cannon upgrade kits. Now I am going to go off on a tangent here because I frequently hear people harping on about finecast and complaining that it is terrible. This has not been my experience. These Shuriken Cannnons are, at first glance, flawless. Yes there is some flash that needs cleaning up, and mould lines will have to be removed but apart from the norm there are no actual failures of note. Here's a shot of some of my prepped pieces (some pieces get undercoated black, others get undercoated grey)- 


Once I got them built it was very easy to get them sprayed up and start airbrushing my basecoats on to them. I must say that even though these kits are quite old and dated they are still an absolute pleasure and definitely do not look out of place in the Eldar army also the fact that GW have just released the Shuriken Cannon upgrade pack in Finecast does not fill me with hope for new Jetbikes in the near future.

Unfortunately I ran out of time this weekend to sort everything out for this Blog entry and as such it is a little light. I will aim to get some better pictures up of everything I have achieved so far at some point to balance out the lack of pretty pictures in this entry.


I will leave you with this parting shot of some parts basecoated red!


That is all for now, I want to get this posted while I can!

Remember to check back in later in the week for another article.

DAMN THEM!

This is not a regular post. This is me venting!! Damn GW for emptying my wallet again! I have tried my hardest, but failed, to resist the Apocalypse goodness! so please enjoy this picture of Stephen Fry as it sums up my mindset in a quintessentially British manner.