Choosing Titan Weapons, pt11 - The AML

The Apocalypse Missile Launcher

Some things never go out of style

The most common Reaver carapace weapon (due to being the only one currently in production by Forge World) it is fortunate that tha AML is a very good weapon.

It's main strengths are its ludicrous range (30 feet - just in case you need to kill someone in another game) and accuracy. The AML uses the Apocalypse Blast Template - this is the clover shaped one - and even when firing indirectly it does not scatter. The fall of the five large blast size shots are determined using the template.

There is a 2/6 chance of hitting the centre circle, and 1/6 for each of the four. The template is placed in any orientation, so it can provide very close support to friendly units without fear of it scattering onto them. It has a reasonable strength of 7, with AP3. It can't Instant Death T4 units, but with the multiple shots it cna stack up wounds very easily.

Targets with large bases are especially vulnerable, as it is possible to get three blasts overlapping on a large based target such as a Greater Daemon or Carnifex. However I would recomend using the AML as an anti-infantry weapon, targeting higher toughness multi-wound targets first (Wraithguard, Nobz, Destroyers etc) or high concentrations of light infantry (big ork mobz, guard platoons around an officer etc). Even if a unit is only under one template multiple wounds can easily be put on them to quite nasty effect.


The only real downside is that it has a minimum range indirectly of 24" and directly of 18" due to the Towering Monstrosity rule (remember G range weapons ignore the minimum when firing directly). This negates it's most useful potential for eliminating close in enemy targets and its use on smaller boards. However on larger boards it is a wonder for 'sniping' soft, but valuable, targets out of LoS (like valuable commanders who need to stay alive to give assets).

In a pinch it can be targeted on light vehicles, but the accuracy of the template isn't that reliable to generally warrant it. Lucky rolls could put five S7 hits on a target, but a bad ones could yield nothing. The only real vehicle target should be enemy artillery hiding out of sight, such as a squadron of Bassilisks, and then only if nothing else can do the job.

The only carapace systems I would consider aside from the AML are the Twin Turbo Lasers or Vortex Missile, and then only if they were guaranteed to be more uselful.

Review: Monolith Icon scenery

The Argonath

I recently recieved my two "King's Monuments" from Monolith Icon in the mail. These two bad boys are BIG - 37cm tall to be precise - representations of the Argonath monument from The Lord of the Rings.

The sculpture is taken from the movies, rather than the books (more on that later) and is a pretty close representation, though quite a bit smaller. They are cast from stone ceramics, so a quite heavy and feel a bit dusty to the touch. The detail is very good, though not as fine as a resin sculpture it is more than enough.

Click for larger

Again, Glorfindel for scale. Big.

You may also notice Anárion is lying down and Isildur is missing his hand. Well....



First off I must say this is in no way Monolith Icon's fault. The inside of each piece was packed out, each was individually bubble wrapped, put in foam with more bubble wrap and covered in fragile stickers.

They were packed head to toe so where Anárion is broken on his base is where Isildur lost his hand. I'd guess some dim-witted postal worker dropped something onto the box, breaking them. The breaks are all clean so a bit of epoxy and milliput will have them looking right as rain.


As for dealing with Monolith, they were incredibly helpful with dealing with PayPal's derpiness. My initial attempts to pay via PayPal were met with a gibberish error message, and when I finally got through to a human being they told me money couldn't be sent to Poland from Australia, but not why (WTF?). I emailed the Monolith team and they said they regularly got payments from Aus, and sent me anther request. Which worked.

In summary, Monolith:



Paypal:




But anyway, Monolith were a pleasure to deal with and kept me updated on the status of my order, and it arrived very quickly.

I rate these guys 9/10.

For a painted version you can check out CoolMini.


My only issue is with "historical" accuracy. You see the Argonath is a monument on the river Anduin to Isildur and Anárion, who were joint founders of Gondor with their father Elendil. Anárion founded Minas Anor (later Minas Tirith) and Isildur founded Minas Ithil (later Minas Morgul).
The statues were set at the north of Nen Hithoel, the northmost border of the kingdom of Gondor in a much later time (by Rómendacil II, roughly 1200 years after the death of Isildur and 1800 years before the fellowship passes by). The outstretched hands are a warning not to proceed further.

What is innacurate is that the statues are both described to carry axes, and shouldn't have beards due to their Númenorian blood (being part elvish [who don't have beards {except Círdan}] due to the blood of Idril and Tuor). Also one is significantly older than the other, and neither brother lived to be that old (Anárion slain at the siege of Barad Dúr, Isildur at Gladden Fields).

What is likely is that the film crew decided to make the other statue represent Elendil as he is shown in the prologue rather than complicating things by adding in Anárion. And of course it's more visually interesting to have two distinct visages.

Not that that really matters.

Cradle of Despair - progress & a sample page

Been working on basic page layout and such for the document - all 21 maps are complete, so the writing can now commence.

Here's a sample page, which is in no way a rock solid promise of what the finished product will look like (fonts etc).

Click for a much larger version

Under Golden Boughs

Finished basing up most of my SiSt trees:


The basing is green and brown sawdust scatter, giving it a nice crunchy texture. I built up some undulations on the bases with spakfilla so they weren't totally flat, painted them brown and glued on the scatter using watered down PVA.

The PVA was watered down so it was easier to paint on and wouldn't be streaky, as that can cause the flock to dry in the pattern of the brush strokes.

Glorfindel still has clearance under most of the trees, though a few will cause him to be under the canopy (like the weeping willows).

Next up in this project is to either make a bunch of hills, paint up my Zuzzy tree stumps, or finish up my wrecked Rhino. I'm also looking forward to the arival of my Argonath kit from Monolith to add to the board.

Blood Angels No More

Been working on my Space Hulk dudes the last couple of days, namely de-Blood Angelifying them. Most of them it is a simple matter of carefully chopping all the symbols off (the guy with the laser-guided powerfist was very simple, as was the dude in the dress).

Some of the fancier ones I've done are the Lightning Claw and Thunder Hammer troopers:




Trooper Jürgen "Curly" Ratna

I've used the torso from the Chainfist trooper, as I'm not overly enamoured of his pose, or the LC guys torso. The crossed chains are alright, except the broken one is just gone, not hanging loose or anything. However it did have his belt and codpiece attached.

I got a spare pair of regular terminator legs, cut the legs off at the hips. To get the piece off I used a razor saw, then fit it with some greenstuff and a fair bit of trimming. The replacement hat thingy is from a 2nd ed banner pole. Crux Terminatus pendants replaced the blood drops on the back of his claws.

I've also greenstuffed the armour damage back to normal. He still has a few touchups to go, like his right shin and the greenstuff, but he's mostly done.


Veteran Trooper Thu "T.V." Vukasan


This one was alot simpler than Ratna, the arm was repositioned with greenstuff, and the symbols cut off and replaced with Cruxes from the Terminator boxes and eagles from the Commander sprue. The head was cut out and a helmet stuck in. The blood drop on the left knee was cut down to be a round gem. Everything else was just cut off.


Rather amusingly when playing with a random name generator one of the first that came up was Ba'al... guess they didn't want to forget their heritage :)

Space Hulk Ambient Sounds

With all the Space Hulk goodness I present for your downloading pleasure an audio file I made some time ago:

http://www.box.net/shared/klv13e3t9o - 3.0MB, 2:09 runtime.


It is an ambient audio file, continuously looping, consisting of a constant sonar pulse, intemittent pings and the sound of a re-breather.

I like to imagine hulks as mostly airless, so the only sound a marine has is the pulsing of his sensors, the sound of his resperator, the dull reverb of his bolter, and the beating of his heart hammering in his ears...

Cradle of Despair - Preview

++ Star of Judgement confirming, auspex contact at CJG942-43. Moving to intercept and pursue. ++

++ Vessel not responding to hail. Scan commencing. ++

++ All units to red alert - identity of vessel is Cradle of Despair, known Genestealer carrier. ++

++ Dawn of Final Doom, Heart of Stone, and Relay-6 responding. Continuing pursuit. ++





21 mission tree style campaign, with 9 possible outcomes.

Coming soon(ish).

Angels of Light, pt 2

The Chosen Few

Jula groggily opened her eyes. She could feel it was not too late in the day, but she was still being woken up. It was Sun Day today, and she didn’t have chores to do or to go to the Schola. As a teenager (by seven weeks) she felt it was her right to sleep in.

A groan left her as she realised what all the commotion was about. “The list is up” she thought to herself. Every year she had eagerly awaited the posting of The List of the Rainbow Bridge, but as she grew older the chances of her name appearing grew smaller and smaller. Few were ever chosen over the age of twelve by the Spectral Knights, and as the years went on the excitement faded to agitation then to resignation.
“Jula! Jula!”
It was Marco Angosten, her friend and classmate, calling to her window from the street below. They had grown up together, being only five days apart in age (Jula the older, though it mattered little) and had both dreamed of the adventure and excitement of being a Spectral Knight. “He probably got through...” she groaned.


While she had started to sprout, he had not and she stood almost a head taller. The Knights seemed to select those who were yet to start to grow, so she had secretly been jealous that he might have one more year in him.
“What? I’m sleeping!” It was half into her pillow so she didn’t know if he heard, but the reply didn’t matter.
“We’re both on the list!”
If he said more she didn’t hear it, scrambling downstairs as the surge of excitement threw her awake. She burst out of the door and onto the cobbled streets, heedless that she was still in her nightgown and her hair was a mess. The voices of her parents vaguely reached her brain from the doorway, but she took no not of them. She saw Marco, his cheeks flushed red and his blond hair equally unkempt (and he was also in his bedclothes). Words came from his mouth, but to Jula’s brain they were just noise. All that mattered was seeing her name in the strange writing of the Knights.

The pair raced the short distance to the town square, where a great press of bodies stood in front of the bell tower’s gate. That was where the emissary of the Spectral Knights would affix the list ever Sun Day, just before dawn. Jula’s heart raced as she squeezed through the townsfolk. She heard Mrs Jarrit, the millers wife, give a yell of surprise, and Mr Lusow laugh but she didn’t care. After what seemed like an eternity she came to the doors, and the great piece of parchment nailed to them.

“Attention people of Kingsvale!


By the authority of The Emperor of Mankind the following youths of your village have been deemed strong enough to take the path to the Rainbow Bride to the Hall of Victors:

Alda, Vitor

Angosten, Marco

Davey, Petr

Faulkes, Nadia

Jiru, Ola

Nahid, Marcel

Saral, Cable

Timotheous, Allan

West, Jula


Should they prove worthy they will serve The Emperor and carry His light, the light of humanity, into the dark places.


The path lain before them is theirs and theirs alone to choose – such is the will of The Master of Mankind.”

A giddy smile crossed Jula’s lips, and she could see Marco was grinning too. Soon they would be alongside the great heroes of the past; Simin, Maella, Jarrit and more. She could imagine children in the Schola hearing of her and Marco’s great adventures, fighting the Oruks, Elfdar, and other creatures in far off lands. She could imagine wearing the Spectral Knight’s heraldry on her helm, a mighty sword in her hand...

She was struck from her reverie by a hand on her shoulder. She looked up and saw her father, his features hard as his eyes flicked back and forth across the script of the list. He looked down at her with what almost seemed like panic in his eyes. She smiled broadly, her dream finally coming true after so many years, and his hands tightened around her.

How I spent my 3 day weekend

Day 1 - Got some painting done. Almost finished one model, 3/4 through another, and three others half done.

Day 2 - Woke up, was suddenly incredibly ill and ended up in hospital.

yay


Day 3 - Didn't feel like doing anything much, so did a little work on my awesome trees from the aptly named The Model Tree Shop.

Vraks 3 arrived, and the slipcover was crushed due to it being protected from the rigours of international postage by a small cardboard instert and a thin sheet of bubble wrap.

Double yay. Book itself was fine though.


So not quite to plan. I had planned on finishing all those models (and hopefull more); and getting all my trees based, plastered, and flocked; making some hills to match and various other things. Very frustrating.

Not getting anything done because I choose not to is my own fault. Not getting anything done due to outside influence irritates me greatly. It was, even more infuriatingly, the first time my girlfriend and I had the same two days off in a row together for weeks.

Arglebargle rant rant rant.


But here's a pic of the mini that is almost finished:


Just got to finish up her face, she looks somewhat confused right now. The scalemail is greenstuff, as while I like the pose, her being in nothing but boots, a corset and combat thong was a bit cheesecakey for my liking. My one problem with Reaper minis - they tend to have a really great sculpt, then do something stupid like that to it. Ah well, that's what greenstuff's for I guess.

First a Dwarf, now an Elf. There are Barbarians and Wizards on the workbench... what could it mean..?


Here are the trees:


They are from the Twisted Wire series of trees. The one on the left is the Weeping Willow, the darker of the others is the Silver Birch, the lighter the Japanese Oak.

They are glued down to a 30 cent coaster from the craft section at a Clint's (or whatever it was). I plan to add some plaster to blend them into the base and then to add some darker flock (well, it's actually sawdust scatter - customs had to zap it in the gamma radiation chamber. I kid you not) so it matches Glorfindel's base somewhat.


The overall plan is to make a hilly wilderness board, using Zuzzy fallen trees (which I also have, and were on the list of things to work on)

So that is the sum total of my long weekend. Hopefully next weekend will be better.