Lego Collectable Minifigure Series 5

So Lego has released their next batch of collectable minifigures, Series 5. Essentially each pack has 1 random minifigure from the series but you can get a good idea of what it is by just feeling the pieces in the package. I got interested in these last series when I went out and got my daughter the Geisha minifigure (or Asian Princess for her). She also wanted a figure skater which I failed to properly identify at the store (ended up with wolf man when opened) so I got her one on ebay.

Now the new series has come out and I knew she would want the Cleopatra figure since she loves ancient Egyptian stuff. So I went out feeling and came back with these three.


I was looking for a Cleopatra, Gladiator, and Evil Dwarf but ended up picking 2 gladiators. Not to bad since the gladiator is just awesome. Follows the style of a Murmillo pretty closely with the helmet, armor style, and gladius sword. Only problem is the circular shield which should be more of a traditional legionar style (curved rectangle).

Even his arm has scale style overlapping plates. I went back to get some more figures at my local target a week later but they had sold all of their shipment except for 1 packet. Turned out to be the Evil dwarf I was looking for earlier. I will still have to get some more of the figures since my daughter wants a few more of the female characters.

Blood Bowl: Dark Elves

This is my third edition Blood Bowl Dark Elf team. The second edition team has some great miniatures in it but they had several different uniform styles so the team does not have a cohesive appearance. This team does not have that problem. They certainly look like a team.

Like most of my stuff this is bare metal. Team box is 2 blitzers, 2 witch elves, 1 runner, and 7 linemen.


Here are the witch elves. I really do not like these figures.

Standard pretty planar line man. Three different models in the set.

Here we see the front and back of the runner. Ofcourse when the model was designed he was a thrower but they change the dark elf team since 3rd edition to make a significantly different from the other elves. The current dark elves run the option or triple option where the runner starts with dump off instead of the traditional throwing skills.

You can have 4 blitzers on the roster and you will want them eventhough they are expensive. Their biggest problem to being a real bashing team is that the blitzers do not have access to strength skills as a normal skills.

The last team members do not come in the box. Here we have my 2 assassin models I use. One is the star player model and the other is a warhammer model. Games Workshop did produce some other dark elves with blades for blood bowl but they are currently out of production and I do not have them in my collection.

Most Sought After Bit Currently?

What do people think the most sought after bit currently in 40K modeling? I can think of Cyclone missile launchers for deathwing and logan wing, or just the thunderhammer storm shield. Maybe it is the humble space marine missile launcher for your long fangs. Could it be razorback turrents?

What do you all think? Drop a comment.

Up on the Barter Bucket

I am looking for stuff on the Santa Cruz Warhammer Barter Bucket Again. I am essentially always looking for Blood Bowl and Epic stuff so if you have any unused and unwanted let me know. In Blood Bowl I am looking for second edition chaos players specifically the guy with the tentacle or the basic chaos players and a 2nd edition troll. Epic stuff, I am always on the look out for squat and eldar stuff to help flesh out those growing armies.

What do I have to offer?

Available for trade:

• Blood Bowl Nurgle's Rotter Team (NIB)
• Blood Bowl Individuals: Chaos Beastmen, Nurgle Beastmen, Nurgle Rotter, Khemri Mummies, Khemri Skeletons, High Elf Linemen, High Elf Blitzers
• Blood Bowl 2ed Miniatures: *Lots* Just ask about what you are looking for.
• assorted Space Marine Bits (Plain, Black Templars, Dark Angels, older SW, and Chaos Marine backpacks)
• Assault on Black Reach Orcs(2 Sets)
  
• WHFB Battle for Skull Pass (Whole Set): Most Models Primed Black
• WHFB Orcs and Goblin Army Book
• Dwarves Army Book
• assorted Metal WHFB Minis (year on model) as follows:
• x2 Witch Elves ('99, '00)
• x2 Metal Goblin Fanatics ('91)
• Dwarf Rune Priest ('96)
• Dwarf Engineer ('05)
• Troll Slayer Banner ('96)
• Troll Slayer Musician ('96)
• Troll Slayer Daemon Slayer ('96)
• x8 Troll Slayers
• Dwarf Character: The White Dwarf ('96)
• Deathwing assault cannon
• Terminator heavy flamer
• SM meltaguns
• Ravenwing TL assault cannons

Pics of some of the stuff:

Blood Bowl: Human Marauders Team

Here is the old GW human team sculpted at the dawn of 3rd edition of Blood Bowl. They have a newer team which is better sculpts but since I never play humans really I have not picked it up yet.


Here are the actual box contents: One Thrower, Two Catchers, Three Blitzers, and Six Lineman.


Two sculpts for the catchers. Human catchers have the problem of being Str 2 but still only AG 3 so are a pretty weak link on the team so while a full roster can have 4 most players probably only field 2-3.

Three different blitzers. You are allowed 4 which you will want so you will have a double.

Three lineman also with probably like 7 on the team so every one will be doubled up at least once.

Only one thrower sculpt. I added one booster pack to this team which was 1 of each position which fills out the roster pretty well giving you 16 players at 2 throwers, 3 catchers, 4 blitzers, and 7 lineman.



I also have an older Mighty Zug model. He is just a thick human here. The new version is is almost Ogre sized.  Zug has been an active star player for almost 25 years but back when he was on the Reikland Reavers he wore a normal uniform.

Tactics in 40K?

This is a constant discussion in the veteran community about how tactical a game 40K is. Now remember when you talk about tactics it is purely about how you use the units on the table top. Anything involved in list building is not tactics that is strategics. Tactics is how you move and position your units, who you shoot with what, who assaults what so of course 40K involves some tactics to position units for firing lanes, blocking opponents paths, and positioning assault but how tactically complex is it really. The rules are very complex with all these special rules on units and in area of affects and this level just keeps growing with each new codex release.

Lets look at movement as a good example. What options does a unit have in movement? This is pretty much determined by the unit type during list building. An infantry unit is only going like 6 inches a turn without the random movement of running so for it to cross the board along the short axis it takes 8 turns if it can take a straight path. So both you and your opponent can pretty easily map out where that unit can go in a certain number of turns without assistance from a transport or special rule. Now compare that to a game that might allow the same unit to move 6 inches, 12 inches, or 18 inches in a turn depending on what else it does in the turn. All units in this second game are much more mobile allowing for a much more dynamic battlefield.

Now lets talk about positioning. In 40K your unit positions will determine what it can shoot (be shot by), what it can assault (be assaulted by), and whether it is claiming an objective (or contesting). Almost all of these interactions is pairwise (you and the target) since unit support is all in codex/list specific special rules. Now compare this to a game where if you get a unit on both sides of an opponent then shot with one you shooting is more deadly since they cannot effectively take cover from both units at the same time. Or if a unit near an assault but not actually involved can add some firepower to their side perhaps forcing the opponents heads down while there men move in for the kill. So in this other game you have to be paying attention to the multiple unit interactions not just to know how things will progress next turn but how that will affect this turn.

Now lets consider shooting. There are definately tactics in target selection that will carry over for any game matching weapons to targets they can hit so lets instead focus on how we keep track of damage and unit morale. 40K you lose models which affects a units combat effectiveness(unlike in the Mantic games) and if you lose enough you might have to make a leadership to go between a binary state of full control and combat ready or retreating (ignoring pinned which is a weapon special rule). Now consider a game that has a more graduated morale scale where getting shot at causes a point, watching members of the unit killed causes a point, etc. These points determine whether the unit will act as desired, how combat effective the remaining members are, and at some number they will uneffective. With this type of system deciding who to shot at might becomes more complex since you might be able to do more damage to unit x but 1 point to unit y it will be uneffective.

Now I will talk about 1 other thing. Turn structure. 40K is an all my units go then all your units go type of game. While you can sometimes use special rules in the opponents turn and get to fight in assualt (unlike Mantic games). At the end of each player turn you can look at the whole battle field and start mapping out all the movement and shooting for you units. Now compare this to a one unit at a time game. Now you have to decide an order to use you units and react to each action by your opponent. If he does X then I activate A but if he uses Y then I do B, instead of one big set at the start of the turn you are making the decision 10 times a turn. Add in the ability to try to take 2 unit actions in a row with a penalty for failure and the tactical complexity goes up another level.

Tactical Complexity comes down to how many different things you can choose to do with a unit in a turn and how much you have to consider about what other units are doing also. 40K has essentially move, shoot, assault actions and you can pretty much do them all with certain affects on each other (heavy/rapid fire weapons, having to assault unit shot). You do not really have a ton of choices for each unit which you might find in other games with different classes of movement or shooting ordering like shot then move or hold your fire for the enemy to approach within range.


Now this hypothetical game does seem to have a lot more tactical complexity than 40K. So 40K has some tactics but it is not hard to make a significantly more tactical game. This game seems complicated and must have really long rules but it is not and complete rules including flyers and orbitial barrages, and all army lists are pretty much the same size the the 40K core rulebook without all those codexs full of special rules. What is this game? Epic Armageddon. GW's real battle game in the 40K universe with Titans, Flyers, Space Ships, and everything we love about the universe without the over blown skirmish rules of 40K trying to play a battle game. Take a look the rules are free and armies are cheaper than 40K but given GW pricing in specialist games do not seem like values since everything is priced about twice what it would be for similar amount of material but that 30 dollar titan can be 1/3 rd of a full tournament army.

Lego Star Wars: B-Wing Starfighter

Here is my latest edition of the Lego Star Wars collection: B-Wing Starfighter. The b-wing was the heaviest armed of the rebel alliance star fighter designed to attacking larger targets like capital ships and installations as opposed to dog fighting with tie fighters.

This is a pretty cool set that comes as the fighter plus a maintenance deck which functions as a stand. I got it used on ebay missing a few not unique pieces which I filled in through bricklink to get a complete assembled ship.

Here are the two mini-figures. First is the generic b-wing pilot and the next in Ten Numb, the sullustan b-wing pilot. Both figures are technically unique to this set with the b-wing pilot being the same as the one in an earlier b-wing design but with the current flesh color compared to the older yellow head.


The ship can also lay on its side if you do not want to stand it up.

When swooshing the ship you clearly want the s-foils in attack position.

Here we see the back of the ship. My b-wing does not have many of the decorative stickers attached but that is fine with me.

The b-wing does not have any flick fire missiles but does have some rubber band power projectiles which are the little black globes in the engine input ducts. Mine do not do much when trying to fire them which might be the result of the bands being stretched out in the 4 years since this kit came out.


The base has holders for the missiles which is probably a better place for them since they just fall out of the ship otherwise. I did not take any good pictures of the base just a couple of the back side. Looks like a brick has fallen off so I will have to get one out of the parts bin to fix that. The set also comes with tools to repair ships which might make a nice addition to my home one hanger.




The ship has one other interesting play feature which goes back to the fluff for the ship.



The cockpit can have a fixed reference plane which the rest of the ship moves around it.

Blood Bowl Vampire Team

Here is the Games Workshop Blood Bowl Vampire Team box contents. The team comes with 4 vampires and 8 thralls. This team actually has a booster pack with 2 vampires and 2 thralls to get the team all the way up to 16 players.


Here are the 4 vampire sculpts with 1 vampire lord type, 2 male vampires and 1 female vampire. There is no game difference between these types in the game.


Four different thrall models which is pretty weak since you can have 10 of them in the full roster. They are also very flat and thin.


And what vampire team would be complete without the Count. Ofcourse this model from the dawn of 3rd edition does not really match this team.

Lego Star Wars: Home One Mon Calamari Star Cruiser

Today we take a look at the Lego Star Wars: Home One Mon Calamari Star Cruiser set. This set is not like the Tantive IV set which is a hybrid scale set capturing the shape of the capital ship but in a smaller scale which has some mini figure play areas. Home One is more of a playscape with 2 small parts of a larger ship. One is the iconic Rebel briefing room from Return of the Jedi and the other is a hanger bay which includes the green A-wing I showed earlier. This set comes with 6 minifigures Mon Mothma, General Lando, General Madine, Admiral Ackbar, A-wing Pilot, Mon Calamari Tech.

This is how I got my set built. You might notice that mine is bigger than the stock model. When this set went on clearance people bought a bunch and have been parting them out so I bought an extra set minus the minifigs and a-wing for like 30 dollars. This allowed me to expand the set essentially increasing the hanger surface area by 100%. Now lets look at my briefing room first.

Here is the concept art for the briefing room.

Here is my briefing room. I did not make many changes to this room. I just made the semi circle start farther from the entrance side.

Not a big change just 3 extra studs of stands on both sides. Allows for a little bit more room for the briefing.

Which I clearly need. I just added 2 new different rebel pilots who could be including in this since the photo was taken.

Above the briefing room you get a swivel chair for Admiral Ackbar to direct the fleet. You also get 2 more control seats. I would probably like to rebuild this part also to make the control area more interesting but I have not done so yet. Expanding it would increase my current lego star wars storage problems.

Here is a still of the matte painting plus live action cut-in's for the hanger of the ship with the briefing room. We see the falcon, captured shuttle, and numerous fighters.



The hanger has crane which can be used to remove the engine of the a-wing and normally 2 storage areas. It also has a refueling line which can connect to the ships.


I add a little extra detailing to the other 2 hatches in the deck. These pipes lead to the refueling line and includes a cut off switch.


This hatch up near the ship front holds a spare flick fire missile so is the ordnance access.


This photo shows why I wanted to increase the size of the hanger. To allow bigger ships. This Y-wing is clearly too long but can still be used for play. I am using the A-Wing crew sled and crew to load the pilot and astromech droid.

A funny side note. Both the hanger and briefing room were located on the head quarters frigate shown above not the more cigar shaped Mon Calamari Cruiser. So this is what the ship these meeting happened on actually looks like for any serious AFOL who want to MOC it.

Blood Bowl Nurgle Team

So today we look at my Blood Bowl Nurgle Chaos Team. Like essentially all of my teams this one is unpainted. For a long time there was a significant difference in what GW store said was a Nurgle Team and what the rules said the team was. The store sold a team based on earlier rules which was just a nurglized chaos team with rotters being very similar to chaos warriors and the remainder of the team being either normal or nurgle beastmen. The box set then had like 4 rotters, 4 chaos beastmen, and 4 nurgle beastmen while the rules had moved to make rotters more like zombies, added nurgle chaos warriors, and pesitgor beastmen in 8 rotters, 4 chaos warriors, 4 pestigors in a 16 man roster. GW has now added a proper team box to their website but I fear that new players would be confused. You want to buy the Nurgle Team not the Nurgle Rotters.

Back like 5-6 year ago GW had a offer with White Dwarf was that they would send you a random gift if you got a subscription worth like 15-20 dollars. You got to list your armies. As a specialist games player I said Blood Bowl and specialist games and might have listed Nurgle as a team I was interested in hoping to get some blisters.

I picked up the old style team box on ebay since it was before the new one was introduced. My mail man delivered it to someone else and I had to go complain at the post office. Luckily, this item is not something many people would want and he was able to recover it from the incorrect address he delivered it to. I built up the rotters and chaos warriors various ways to get a good team and then GW finally like 6-8 months after my white dwarf subscription shipped me a whole Nurgle Rotters team and a random inquisitor figure. Ofcourse I have no real use for this box since it is not a usable team and I am already set so it just sits their in my blood bowl box waiting for a trade or something. So if anyone out their needs some rotters, chaos beastmen, or nurgle beastmen and have something to offer in trade(Blood Bowl or Epic are my current interests if you have not noticed) drop a comment. Ok onto the minis.

Here are the 3 rotter minis which you generally will field 7 of total in your roster. Rotters are cheap and can be injury significantly with the decay rule but you can get new ones by killing opponents normal strength non stunty players.

Two Pestigor models where you need 4 for you team. These are you work horse ball carriers and scorers due to their speed compared to the rest of the team.

Chaos Warriors which you nurglize with paint job. Here are two of the three models available. I have all three variations in my chaos team.

Nurgle also gets a big guy. I have 2 choices for my Beast of Nurgle since I built up the team before the chaos daemons codex came out. When the Beats of Nurgle was redesigned I got one for the team.

This model is a monster to assemble. Only GW bister model where I go back to the pictures online to figure out how it went together.

Back side needs some green stuff love and a base.

Before I got the beast of nurgle I used a Chaos Spawn instead.

Pretty standard build except I added the mouth to the chest and green stuffed over the joint.