February 2022 review

Welcome to March and let's take a look back on February. We're going to keep it strictly wargames related.

I continuted my work on my Chaos Blood Bowl team, the Mordheim Marauders. I'm currently preparing part 3 and in the middle of step 3 (partially done the highlights from that phase and a clean up of the bases). Guess another week or so, and I should have them finished. Already eyeing on the project after that.

The Rubicon novelties are more less stuck in Asia, and only a small stock arrived in Europe and a even smaller number got delivered to their whole traders / resellers. Thanks to my pre-order at Tabletopper.nl, Danny was kind enough to fulfill my order, even with the small stock he received, along with some of the magnificent tank crews sculpted by Paul Hicks. Already managed to build the kits, so expect some small insights which variants and so on I went for.

I wasn't aware that the Horus Heresy audiobooks (at least in German) were available on spotify. So I picked up those again. I read the first 2 or 3 books a long time ago (must have been more than 10 years), and now am already in False Gods, the second novel. Have to say, I'm really impressed on how well the character development and narrative was. Not just some cringe fan-fiction, but a proper novel on the lore of the grim dark Warhammer. The only annoying thing, is the rather random split by Spotify, you got around 300 tracks per book, and they are cut into ~3 min pieces, completely ignoring chapters and sentences. So chapter 3 just randomly starts in track 171 on 1:52. And spotify has a hard time keeping track where I stopped, when I switch from my phone / in my car to my computer and back. And due to the chaotic assortment, it is a bit hard to find the proper point to jump back in.

Anyhow, have to say, it is really makes you want more. To immerse into that, as it creates a much deeper experience compared to what a regular Codex provides. Already talked with some of the 30k community members, how there is a strong similarity between recreating a historic wargaming projects and building your Horus Heresy army. Where people look up sources, deep dive in Osprey books and such, for colour tables, information on the rules of engagement and such, the more engaged participants of 30k use the novels (more than 50 already released, just on the story arch of the rise of horus until the siege of terra) in addition to the already elaborate books by Forge World, incl. the rules and lore of the  different Space Marine legios and their units. I did actually do something similar, looking up frankish and alamannian names, that would provide my Imperial Fists with proper designations for the units and characters, to provide them with as much depth, as the novels do.

Talking Warhammer, in february we got new animated content on WarhammerTV - and it was good. Properly done, well mixed sound and an interesting story line so far. Well, almost 11 minutes of it. Unfortunately, Games Workshop dropped the ball here, by leaving us with the rather short episode and giving us a break right after that. Which wouldn't be much of a problem, if we didn't have a longer pause before that and not really a reliable schedule on when and over what amount of time, we will see that story unfold. So having roughly an hour split over 2 or 3 months, would be quite the bummer.

Not only the tank crews by Paul Hicks caught my eye in february. I continued the reduction of my collection, and took a close look upon my crusaders. What to do with them, keep them, making them fit for a certain rule set, reduce it to a skirmish or even sell them completely. But with the announcement of Outremer, covering the Crusades in an upcoming Barons War kickstarter, the die were cast - and I would add some Moors as a counter part for that project. As the Baron Wars range fit the Perry sculpts in size and proportions, that should work well.

Anyhow, that meant that other parts of the collection had to go. And I decided to reduce my Ancient Saga stock. The Celto-Iberians are already sold, the Germans and Romans (not pictured) are for sale.

And I managed to swap out a bigger piece in my collection. As I got my hand on a few middlehammer Bretonnians and dropped the Proto-Bretonnian project, based upon Claymore Castings. I wanted to replace Louen Leoncoeur with the original Bretonnian Big Boy. As a trade would be rather unlikely, I went out on eBay and got lucky and got a complete one (usually the shield is missing) that was stripped, at a reasonable price and was able to sell off my 6th edition model at a reasonable rate (I could have made more from it, but I don't want to participate in this price explosion madness).

Let us see what this new month will bring. I will be heading back over to the paint table and finish up that Blood Bowl team, write the text for some of drafts I have prepared. Stay tuned.

++ they just announced the second episode of The Exodite - excited ++