The Hamster Boy prattles on about his hobbies.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Amera order arrives!

Following one of the billion terrain and figure links I seem to collect daily, I stumbled onto Amera Plastic Mouldings, a British company that seems to specialize in anything they can vacuuform.


They appeared to have a nice variety of reasonably priced, multi-part terrain pieces, and I couldn't resist ordering a few samples to see how they stood up to my scratch-built stuff.



The winner out of the box (so far) has been the Crater Set (£3.25). These look pretty good with little prep needed to deploy them on the battlefield. I am still going to tinker with them (i like the solid feel of a hardboard base) but they are already well worth the cost.



The structures that caught my eye were the Ruined Chapel (£4.95) and the City Block Ruins (£7.95), both of which I have made in the past from foamcore, pink insulation foam, etc.. with good, but labor-intensive results. As you can see, they are going to require much more prep work than the craters, but the details I can see through the packaging looks promising.


I will take pictures of all the components as I break them out and down so you can see how I assemble and paint everything.

I wanted to mention how cooperative and responsive the people manning their website are; they obviously check in on the weekends, and had a shipping quote and approximate currency exchange to me within 24 hours. I paid for them on 07MAR10, and they arrived today, 20MAR10, not bad for a trip across the ocean. The box was packed well, and everything arrived in good condition. The craters did not have "shelf ready" packaging like the other 2 pieces, but for my purposes, that's fine.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Possible production of Munchkin Card Shoe

I have a friend with a laser cutter, and I have piqued his interest by suggesting there is profit to be made on these shoes. We are still in the very early stages of negotiation and pre-production, but if the materials and labor are reasonable I will be looking for a way to buy thin cardboard boxes, and then attempting to sell these bad boys. Honestly, I am excited. I don't expect them to make me rich, but it would be nice to make a little scratch from a hobby item.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Brief 40K report - Orks vs Deathwing

I finally put figs-to-table and did an 1850 pt Warhammer 40K game on Tuesday night. Waaagh! Rockeeta (Orks) vs a Dark Angel Deathwing army. Scenario: Annihilation. I tend to field large, troop-heavy forces, and this was no exception. With what I had painted and assembled, combined with what I could proxy from my various parts bins, I was able to put about 145 Orks on the table - not too shabby. The Deathwing army, all Terminator Marines with one Land Raider, was maybe 30? models - very small, but relatively powerful. The smaller, elite army has the advantage in this scenario, though, as they have fewer units to destroy, and will never run off the table. I (of course) had lots of larger, flimsier units that could be torn apart like wet tissue paper and tend to get skittish as they shrink.

I haven't played much, and was using an untested list, so a loss was pretty much expected. I am much more focused on creating a balanced tournament list, and understanding how the various parts of my army work right now rather than racking up victories. Having a rudimentary knowledge of the 5th ed. rules, here is a short list of what I learned:

1) Large Ork units are totally worth it. The basic Ork is skilled in melee combat, and is resistant to damage due to its high toughness, but that doesn't begin to tell the story. 30 Orks, even with poor ballistic skill, will hit something. When they shoot, it is just a torrent of lead flying though the air. I assumed they not only wouldn't hit the Terminators (needing a 5 or better to hit), but if they did wouldn't be able to hurt them. Wrong. The Deathwing player still has to make armor rolls every time you wound him, and eventually he will roll a one. Terminators have one wound, just like everyone else, so I was surprised how quickly they fell. Melee was even better, as Furious Charge gave my Orks a better Initiative and Strength, so most Orks were getting 4 attacks at WS4 at ST4 in the first round of combat. if 20 Orks make it to your position you are looking at up to 80 attacks!

2) Mob Rule!'s hidden fee. While keeping da ladz from scooting off the battlefield, Mob Rule! has one little problem: extra casualties. Mob Rule! makes any boyz unit Fearless as long as it has 11 or more models. What I didn't know about fearless is the No Retreat rule: any time a unit will NOT flee due to morale modifiers (fearless, etc.) and LOSES combat, it gains as many wounds as they lose the combat by. These can be saved with additional armor rolls, but most of my Orks don't even wear much armor. Ultimately, this rule could DOUBLE my casualties if I am doing particularly bad in combat. Against normal infantry, or even regular Marines, it wouldn't have been so bad, but against terminators it was like watching waves crashing on the shore. I kill one guy, he kills 5, and then 4 more guys just up and get hurt. Stupid Orks... :)

3) The Deff Rolla is totally worth it. Starp it onto the front of a Battlewagon and get D6 St10 attacks on a unit, and now (thanks to the FAQ team) on an enemy vehicle. All for 20 points! This really goes to emphasize how important it is to specialize how you equip your vehicles. I made 2 Battlewagons, one for close combat (Deffrolla, 4 big shootas and an 18-man Gretchin unit inside) and one for ranged combat (killkannon, kannon, 4 big shootas) I had a looted vehicle out there, too, but only to soak up points. Don't Press Dat! was funny, but put the vehicle in a place i didn't want it to be.

4) Lootas are totally worth it. Great unit. Not skilled, but potentially firing a devastating hail of fire (D3 St7 shots for each model) completely across the table (48") Throw a Mek in there and you can deal with most light armor, too.

5) I need to be able to deal with armored units better. I am leery of the Tank Hunters. They just look... too random for me. We'll see how I feel after a few more games. Power Claw for every Nob would be a good alternative start. Yes, it strikes last, but unless your unit gets wiped it WILL strike, as the Boyz soak up the damage.

Generally, I am happy with my performance. I had some lucky breaks (one teleporting DW unit was lost to the warp, 3 Termies died from an exploding Battlewagon) and rolled pretty well. Ultimately I lost, but only by one "kill point" which is pretty close to a draw. I only left him with 2 termies and the Land Raider (unscathed, I might add,) but he killed/chased off more units than I did. It was a fun game, and I am excited to get to play again.