True Scale: Do we need it?

So the popularity of true scale in Warhammer 40K keeps cropping up, especially with 8th edition around the corner and the rumor of a new starter set.  But why?  Is it really something that we need?  Yes, it looks cool.  But here's one thing that most people might not understand.


First off, with any game, the pieces are a representation of the actual unit.  They are not made to scale because the board would not accomidate them; the board would be too big.


If true scale were used, the board would be ridiculously large and not feasible.


Here's an example:  Lets say a guardsman is already close to true scale (because we know a Space Marine isn't since they are the same size and Space Marines are supposed to be eight feet tall).  So we'll assume that he is about average height: six feet tall.  The model is a inch tall; therefore an inch is six feet.  Now if this is true scale, then that ratio must be applied to everything.


Now lets look at ranges.  If we use the same ratio (1:6), an inch along the battlefield would be six feet in real life.  A sniper rifle in the hands of an experienced shooter has a maximum effective range of 1000 yards, which is 3000 feet.  But according to the rule book, a sniper rifle's range is 36".  The maximum effective range of our model's rifle is only 216 feet!  That's not even 75 yards.

So what do you think?  Is true scale a passing fad or something that could change the game system?

When your OCD kicks in.

My son is adding to his Stormcast Eternals with a group of five Judicators.  He started building them and stopped, saying he was done for now.

I'm almost tempted to finish that last one.

Its only one pair of legs left!

Rough Riders are go!

So I finally started on Max' Rough Riders for his Astra Militarum army.  They're not in the codex, but they can still be fielded using the Index books.

The horses are Chaos Marauders' horses with all of the chaos'y bits taken off (either by cutting or filing them down).  The holes in the blankets are filled in using liquid green stuff so they appear smooth and not ratty.

The legs are from Victorian Miniatures.  They are designed to be used with the Empire horses which are smaller.  I cut them from the sprue, removed any flash and mold lines (there's not many), and threw them into a pot of boiling water for about 10 minutes.  Once they were soft, I took them out one by one and super glued them to the horses.

Now to start adding the bodies, heads, and arms.

More to come.

New Year, New Attitude

So after a long hiatus, I can finally get back into the thick of things.

What does this mean?  More posts, more games played, more terrain produced!

2018 will be a good year!

Max' Death Strikers Commissar

Finished his Lord Commissar.  Didn't take as long as I thought it would.  But still a lot of detail.

Lots of details.

Taurox Conversion Kit review

So my son wanted two Taurox to move his Veterans around but he didn't (like most) like the look of the front tracks.  He asked, "Where are the front tires?"  He didn't want tires for both front and back but he wanted a half-track instead.  So, after scouring various conversion kits, we settled on the this kit from "Blood and Skulls Industry" found on E-bay, called the Buffalo Half-track conversion kit.  There are other half-track kits with different types of bogeys and one with two rear tires.


The kit was only $16.00 and $3.00 shipping so we bought two kits at $33.00.  Not a bad price.  Delivery was also pretty fast with only a couple of days in between.  So here is what we got:




The full kit.

The outside.

The inside.

Looking from the top.  Notice the tabs on the tracks.  They should be facing up when installed.

As you can see, the parts are very well done with little to no filing or cutting.  You can tell they are 3D printed but most of the print lines have been smoothed down and are not easily noticeable.  The only drawback is there are no instructions that come with the kit.  This is a minor drawback since it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out how they go on.  But here are some pointers in case you want to try it.

Build your Taurox just as the instructions indicate.  But, do not build the track components (since you're replacing them anyways).  Build the suspension sections but do not put them on the chassis.  You will need to cut off the tabs that would normally go into the track sections and file them flush.  Do this for both the front and back sections. See the picture below:



Cut off the tabs circled in red.

File down the cut tabs flush.

Once you've done that, put together the kit pieces as shown in the picture below.  There really is no difference in the parts.  The only thing you may want to keep on eye out is which way the track links travel.  As you can see by the picture, the pieces that attach to the suspension has lipss on the them.  For the front wheels, the lip faces up.  Because they are resin, you will need to superglue them.  The track sections have a lip also but goes on the bottom.  The tabs above the axles should be facing up when installed.

Pay attention to the small lips when attaching.

If you put the tabs facing down, the tracks will be angled the wrong way and you get this:

If your tracks look this way, you've put them on upside down.

Another thing to keep in mind is the conversion kit does add some height to the Taurox, making it look a lot more beefier.  If you like the streamlined look of the original kit, this may not be want you want.  In the picture below, you can see the height difference between the two.

The conversion vs. the original.

The kit is well done and thought out.  The price is a real good deal and does not require a lot of cutting or filing making installation very easy.  My son is really happy with how they turned out.





Iggy & Max' 1st 40K Battle

So the boys and I finally were able to play our first official game of Warhammer 40K.

Iggy brought his Space Wolves at 532 pts and Max had 467 points of Astra Militarum including a Bastion for 999 points.  I obliged them with 1000 pts of Emperor's Children.

Iggy's list consisted of:

• Wolf Lord with Frost Sword and Storm Bolter
• 10 Grey Hunters with plasma gun, plasma pistol and Pack Leader with plasma pistol and power fist.
• 3 Thunderwolf Calvary with Pack Leader with Frost Axe and Storm Shield.

Max' list consisted of :

• Lord Commisar with Power Sword and Bolter
• 2 Veteran Squads with flamer, grenade launcher, and missile launcher.
• 5 Ratlings
• 1 Scout Sentinel with Autocannon and Hunter-Killer missile.
• A Bastion with Icarus Lascannon

My list:

• Chaos Lord with Mark of Slaanesh, plasma pistol and power sword.
• Hellbrute with plasma cannon
• 5 Noise Marines with sonic blasters; champion with power sword, plasma pistol, and doom siren.  Rhino.
• 10 Noise Marines with sonic blasters, 1 blastmaster; champion with power sword, plasma pistol, and doom siren.  Rhino.
• 10 Chaos Cultists with autoguns, 1 heavy stubber.  Champion with shotgun and close combat weapon.
• Defiler with heavy flamer and autocannon.

We played "By the Emperor's Will" scenario to capture the opposing players command post.  My command post was the Numinous Occulum while the boys command post was the Bastion.

Iggy targets my Noise Marines while Max shows off his champion of the match.

The boys rolled to go first but I stole the iniative and started moving my Rhinos, Cultists, and Hellbrute forward.  The Defiler took a shot at the Grey Hunters but only managed to kill one.  The Hellbrute took a shot at one of the Veterans and killed only three troopers.

Iggy moves his Wolf Lord.

The boys turn had them moving their troops either into the ruins or hanging back to fire their heavy weapons.  Max moved his Sentinel up to the ruin, only being able to see my Hellbrute's leg, fired his autocannon and immobilized it.  The Icarus Lascannon fired at the Rhino with my Lord and got a Crew Shaken result.  His other veteran squad fire his missile launcher into the Cultists and killed two of them.  His Ratlings then opened fire and killed another three.  Iggy fired his plasma gun at the other Rhino but was unable to scratch it.  That was the end of turn one.

Max immobilizes my Hellbrute with a well placed Autocannon shot from his Sentinel.

My Defiler targeted the Thunderwolf Calvary as they were getting too close but missed the shot entirely.  The Rhino on the left flank moved up, disembarked its 10 Noise marines and fired at the Wolf Lord, causing one wound.  The other Rhino move up and fired its bolter at the Veteran squad but missed both shots.  The Cultists moved up and fired at the Grey Hunters who were now in range.  They were able to take one out with their autoguns.  Since the Hellbrute was immobilized, it could not move to get a decent shot but tried anyways, rolling a 1 with its plasma cannon.

That's when things went bad.

Max fired at the Hellbrute with the Sentinel again but was unable to score a hit.  The Icarus Lascannon charged up and smaked the Rhino square in the front, destroying it in one shot.  All of the Noise Marines, including my Lord, jumped out but two were killed in the wreck.  The Ratlings took out the remaining three Marines with excellent shooting.  The Lord was then picked off by first the Bastion's heavy bolters, and then by a longshot from the Lord Commisar's bolter high atop the Bastion.

At this point we ran out of time so we ended the game on turn two.

Clearly the victory went to the joint forces of Iggy & Max.

The boys had a great time (as did I) and want to come back and play another game.  But first they want to expand their armies to up to 1000 points each.  Looks like I'll have to oblige them as they face off against me and 2000 points of Emperor's Children.