Housekeeping...

Well school holidays (summer vacation) have begun down here southern hemisphere. That means that as a primary school teacher I am now off until the beginning of Feb. Between a few trips and a pile of odd jobs to accomplish I do hope to finish a new army for Cancon in Canberra (a little more that a month away). The player pack while still not out has been open for discussion this week and we are now getting guidelines for comp that rule my skaven (and dark elves) pretty much out of the running. BUMMER! That being said it does mean I will be forced to get another army done. (No sleep for the wicked)

For those wondering what I have been doing since Friday. The answer. Sleeping, making merry and cranking through the assembly of my Chaos Dwarf Liberation Army. That is not to say that I am building chaos dwarves. Here is some chaos dwarf fluff based on the original CD "armybook" put out ages ago:

The acquisition of slaves is extremely important, as Chaos Dwarfs are totally dependent upon captives to keep their city and industries going. Bands of Chaos Dwarfs will travel many hundreds of miles to raid Orc or Goblin strongholds in the Mountains of Mourn, and when they conquer a tribe they take as many prisoners back to their city as they can. The more captives they take the more successful the expedition is judged to have been. All wars of conquest are fought with the aim of taking slaves, as the Chaos Dwarfs are not interested in expanding their territories further. It is not uncommon for whole armies of Chaos Dwarfs to march against the Greenskin tribes, subduing one after another before returning laden with slaves. The Chaos Dwarfs will often trade slaves with the Goblin tribes to the west, choosing to use the Goblins as intermediaries rather than advance further into the Old World.

Many years ago in the history of the game, the Chaos Dwarf Sorcerers tried to breed their own Orc race, a race of slaves that could work in the most hostile parts of their realm. They already had thousands of Orc and Goblin slaves, but the Chaos Dwarfs found them unruly and inefficient because they would as is their habit often fight amongst themselves. Using evil magic and careful selection, the Chaos Dwarfs created a new type of Orc: stronger than an ordinary Orc but more loyal and not given to squabbling. The experiment worked at first, but the Black Orcs were still far too independent-minded to make good slaves. They were well organized, often starting rebellions and leading the other Orcs and Goblins into armed revolt. After several near disasters, the Chaos Dwarfs decided to drive them from the city forever and many Black Orcs escaped into the Mountains of Mourn where their descendants remain to this day, while others undertook the long journey to the west and eventually reached the Old World.

My army is one of these groups of rebellious green skins who have rebelled against their slave masters. The army is based around Black Orc characters leading a group of hardened, starving, freezing ex-slaves across desolate mountain passes in search of "greener" pastures. Some of the visual cues I am using to tie in with this theme are: a bound chaos dwarf sorcerer as my shaman, looted earth shaker cannons as rock lobbers, orcs wearing tattered clothes and heavy fur cloaks to survive the elements, hobgoblin crews supervised by ork bullies, etc... You get the idea.

The army is mostly assembled and I hope to finish grey/green stuffing this afternoon. Should have good pictures starting tomorrow.

In other news:

JUDGE DREDD!



It appears as though Hollywood is going to take another crack at the Judge Dredd franchise. Many of you remember the pain the a$$ version Stallone was involved in during the 90's. "I AM THE LAW!" Don't get me wrong as a huge fan of the comics in my younger days I was rapt when it came out. I actually think they got the grit and feel of the world right but Rob Schnider was a mistake as was taking off Dredd's Helmet 5 minutes into the film. The laundry list of complaints could go on from there BUT I will move on. The Dredd reboot will star Doom and Star Trek star Karl Urban. A few pictures have started to surface from filming. I am really excited... Hopefully more to follow.

MY PREVIOUS RANTS:

One of the Warmachine playing gentlemen from Orktoberfest contacted me regarding my previous posts about perceived pants behavior by some of the elites of the game when 8th came out.

I would like to address a few of my comments in lieu of this discussion. It seems like there were a few bad apples so to speak that posted things that distorted the facts as they presented themselves during the (what looked like) the mass exodus from Warhammer to Warmachine. Many "Veteran" players plan on returning next year to fantasy events. I for one am very glad to hear this as it means that the competition in events can only improve.

It is also the case that many of these players like 8th edition as it is and only a few people wish to change the rules.

The "holding court" in the middle of the fantasy event and playing Warmachine was not planned or intended and the players asked if they could set up tables elsewhere but were told by event coordinators just to play there. They were as surprised as we were to discover that those tables were assigned to fantasy games. My one suggestion is that when dealing with people you have just met it is not always the best plan to make jokes as my opponent and I felt as though we were the butt of the joke and took it badly which was not the intent at all.

I would like to thank this individual who went to great lengths to contact me and engage in well thought out conversation to address his and my issues. Good on ya mate! :)

It is good to know that the sky is not falling as living in another state sometimes all we see of other regions is doom and gloom put forward by some unfortunates online. I still think that there is too much hate running around on Australian internet forums that is mightily embarrassing to the community on a whole and that I am sure will be a discussion for another day.

Til tomorrow...

B