Kingdom Death Monster - Olympus Finale

Long ago, ravenous beasts searched the darkness, using their keen senses to find their prey. In the distance, they saw a blooming pillar of light surrounded by tasty morsels bustling in their tiny industry.

Licking their chops, they approached. But the beasts halted mid-step. The wind carried a foul, menacing presence. Surely the busy creatures were harmless. Yet, the menacing warning persisted, felt in their very bones. Instinctively, the beasts turned away, seeking their meals elsewhere.

Four chosen survivors prepare the face their ultimate predator, the mysterious being that slumbers at the center of the vast chamber hidden within the lantern horde.

Artemis, master of the bow, wears the trusty old rawhide armor, along with a lucky charm, and carries a cat gut bow and a beacon shield.

Aphrodite, the sword master, wears the screaming armor, forsaker mask, and a lucky charm. She is armed with the steel sword and protected by the other beacon shield.

Hephaestus wears the suit of lantern armor, another lucky charm, and a monster tooth necklace and carries a deadly, but somewhat difficult to use, whistling mace.

Odysseus, who has nearly mastered the use of his twilight sword, wears a full suit of phoenix armor and has the additional protection of the man mask.

These chosen survivors are joined by the rest of the settlement's population gathering at the lantern hoard. Bracing themselves in anticipation of the terrifying unknown they must confront, the Olympians enter the chamber to face their destiny.

Kingdom Death Monster - Olympus Year 25

The Olympians still need several specific types of phoenix resource in order to complete a full set of phoenix armor. To increase their chances of acquiring the necessary resources, they decide to risk hunting an adult (level 2) phoenix. They know how risky such an encounter can be, and even how dangerous the search for such a monster can be, having experienced near disaster attempting it before. Artemis, Hera, Romulus, and Remus are chosen to undertake the perilous hunt.

Artemis wears the trusty rawhide armor and carries a cat gut bow, claw head arrow, and a beacon shield. She insist on going on the hunt because she feels that with just a little more experience, she will be able to completely master the art of the bow. Hera wears the phoenix helm, placart, and greaves, and carries a scrap sword and beacon shield. Romulus wears the screaming armor and cat eye circlet. He is armed with the counter-weighted axe and carries a first aid kit to bolster their survivability. Remus wears the suit of lantern armor and is armed with a whistling mace, the blunt weapon made much more effective with the additional weight of the armor behind every swing.

As prepared as they can be, the brave survivors depart on their hunt.

Kingdom Death Monster - Olympus Year 24

As The Hand approaches the outskirts of Olympus once again, the survivors prepare to endure the monster's test and hopefully gain the rewards of earning its respect. Zeus, Aphrodite, Artemis, and Odysseus choose their gear carefully, managing their affinities in order to draw The Hand's attention to Aphrodite and Artemis as much as possible. Aphrodite and Artemis carry the beacon shields. Aphrodite also applies copious amounts of monster grease, while Artemis is naturally quite evasive. The Olympians hope to entice The Hand into directing most of its attacks at Aphrodite and Artemis, who believe they can either dodge or block whatever the monster throws at them.

Zeus carries the steel shield and wears phoenix greaves to help him move faster, somewhat compensating for the effect of having to carry such a heavy shield. He also wears a rawhide headband which he will use to anticipate The Hand's attacks, allowing the survivors to draw The Hand toward Artemis and Aphrodite as much as possible. Odysseus has little to protect him if attacked, his only hope being the dried acanthus he carries possibly saving him from an otherwise fatal wound. He also wears the cat eye circlet, just in case the Olympians determine they can achieve some advantage from attacking The Hand. For the most part, they intend only to spread out and block with their shields, doing whatever they can to draw the monster's attacks toward Aphrodite and Artemis.

Kingdom Death Monster - Olympus Year 23

Knowing they will need more resources to prepare to faced the sinister presence in the lantern horde, the Olympians determine to risk hunting another mature (level 2) phoenix. They also want more of their recently born survivors to gain some valuable experience fighting monsters. So Artemis and Hephaestus will lead newcomers Remus Lanterna and Odysseus on the hunt.

Artemis is protected by a full suit of lantern armor. She is armed with a cat gut bow, claw head arrow, and bone darts as backup. Hephaestus wears rawhide armor and carries a whistling mace and beacon shield. Remus wears screaming armor and wields the counter-weighted axe. Odysseus, son of Dionysus, wields his father's twilight sword, carries a beacon shield, and wears rawhide armor and the forsaker mask, allowing him to fight with incredible ferocity.

Beresinia Campaign Game 3 - Disrupt Supply Lines - Tyranids vs Adeptus Astartes

Count Xuvorov's adventurous spirit has led him to travel throughout the Imperium, and even beyond, over the years. Some of these journeys have taken him to forbidden locations and into illegal and heretical contact with vile xenos species. In fact, after Count Xuvorov's successful uprising to overthrow the imperial governor of Beresinia, imperial authorities might have simply looked the other way (provided tithes still were made on schedule) if not for the rumors of the Count's fascination with xenos and his frequent illegal explorations.

Count Xuvarov often returns from his journeys laden with rare xenos artifacts or ancient human archeotech. On one such unsanctioned journey, he returned to Beresinia with more than he bargained for. A small Tyranid organism stowed away on a landing shuttle and was brought aboard the count's ship back to Beresinia, where it made its escape. Alone and bereft of the guiding presence of the Hive Mind, being beyond the reach of the nearest hive fleet, the creature was left to follow its rudimentary instincts.

The creature set about devouring any biomass it could find, while avoiding contact with Beresinia's inhabitants. Eventually it found a suitable nesting location in a long abandoned ruin, and began to hibernate. Over time it metamorphosized into Tyranid warrior, emerging into the ruins of the city of St. Basilovsk, now an active warzone. At night the warrior would creep through the ruins gathering the biomass of stragglers or small groups of refugees. The local populace came to refer to the mysterious monster that hunted them as the Nightmare Slayer.

Kingdom Death Monster - Olympus Year 22

Aphrodite and Artemis prepare to take two other survivors, Romulus and Remus, out on their first hunt. They will seek out a young phoenix so they can start building up the resources needed to build a suit of phoenix armor. Aphrodite wears screaming armor and a forsaker mask, and carries the steel sword and a beacon shield. Artemis wears rawhide armor and is armed with a cat gut bow and claw head arrow. Romulus also wears rawhide armor. He also bears the cat eye circlet and carries a counter-weighted axe and beacon shield. Remus wears a full suit of lantern armor, giving him great confidence for his first hunt, and it armed with a whistling mace and some bone darts as backup.

As they begin their hunt, a creaky carriage approaches the survivors. Richly appointed in red and gold, the carriage is carved on every side with lurid faces. A massive eye adorns the front, while the door of the carriage is a waiting open mouth. Out of a small window, a gnarled hand beckons. The survivors decide not to risk entering the wagon. Upon entering the territory of the phoenix they are pursuing, the party is beset by a tunnel of gushing wind, but they lock arms and easily push through the gale.

Beresinia Campaign Game 2 - Assassinate

The unrest on Beresinia has attracted all kinds of unwanted attention to the otherwise pedestrian feudal world. Since the planet has been in open conflict with Imperial authorities, several warbands of heretic astartes are taking advantage of the situation to make trouble for the hated Imperium of Man. One such group is a small warband of Emperor's Children calling themselves the Song of the Primarch. These devout worshippers of Slaanesh have come to Beresinia to fulfil some inscrutable task known only to themselves and their obscene god. In pursuit of their divine goal, aspiring champion Abdelis Thest has lead the kill team of Emperor's Children into one of Beresinia's many active warzones. The heretics are now operating in and around the city of St. Basilovsk, where loyalist forces are currently engaged with some of the Beresinian rebels, including the private army of Count Xuvorov.

Operating within the city deep behind enemy lines, Kutuzov's Rangers have been delayed in their mission to deliver vital intelligence to their army's high command. A kill team of the Adeptus Astartes caught up with them and blocked their path, forcing them to fall back. Having lost some territory to the space marines, the rangers are forced to seek another route to reach their destination. In the meantime, they have discovered the chaos-worshipping heretics of the Emperor's Children operating nearby. Knowing they are too dangerous to leave unchecked in their mysterious mission, Colonel Kutuzov sends Ensign Jimmy's kill team to strike directly at their leader, hoping to disrupt their (presumably) nefarious plans.

Beresinia Campaign Game 1 - Sweep and Clear

The feudal Imperial world of Beresinia is engulfed in war. Rebellious nobles have overthrown the rightful Imperial authorities, and now vie with each other for control of the world. Though the beleaguered Imperium of Man has little manpower to spare, some Imperial forces have arrived to attempt to restore order and reimpose Imperial rule on Beresinia. In one warzone, Count Xuvorov, one of the driving forces and leading conspirators in the rebellion, finds himself engaged with loyalist forces while trying to maintain alliances with other rebellious nobles and even forging relationships with several Xenos forces off-world. One of his army's light infantry regiments, colloquially knows as Kutuzov's Rangers, is currently operating deep behind enemy lines to sow confusion and disorder in the loyalist forces.

Kutuzov's Rangers have been operating in the field so long, sabotaging loyalist installations and ambushing loyalist forces, that they have "gone native". They operate far away from the main body of the Count's forces and have little contact with the rest of the army. Now, Colonel Kutuzov's men have uncovered some critical information about approaching Loyalist reinforcements. The dataslate containing the details of the approaching force must be delivered to Army high command so the best use can be made of this crucial intelligence. Kutuzov has assembled a hand-picked kill team to entrust with this vital mission.

The gung-ho Ensign Jimmy is chosen to lead the team, joined by his equally gung-ho order bellower (comms specialist) Rynsk. Polanski the Pious is chosen for his skills as a scout and brings his flamer. Ivanek is a crack shot (sniper specialist) with his meltagun, and puts his duty to his superiors above all, following every order to the letter. They depart on their mission with three other rangers (tempestus scions) and also five peasant conscripts (infantry squad guardsmen) to sacrifice to distract the enemy as needed.

Little do they know, a heavily armed kill team of Adeptus Astartes of the Salamanders chapter is already on Beresenia assisting the loyalists. The Salamanders have been scouting out the enemy factions, and are now on the trail of Ensign Jimmy's men. In order to get the dataslate of valuable intelligence back to army high command, Jimmy's men will have to fight their way through an active warzone while being hunted by the Adeptus Astartes kill team.

Warhammer 40,000 Kill Team - Renegade Astartes vs Salamanders

I was able to get in a game of the new Warhammer 40,000 Kill Team. I used my very old Chaos Marines, which meant I had very little choice in what to take because I only have one squad painted. I played against a co-works Salamanders Space Marines, with a mix of Primaris and "regular" marines. It was the first game for both of us and neither had managed to read through all the rules, but we wanted to give it a try and learn as we went. We played the basic Cover War mission that is included in the core rules, and skipped rolling on the scouting table. We also left out command points and tactics. Even though they are a big part of the game, for this first game we just wanted to try to get the basic rules down and not slow things down learning the different tactics.

For the Covert War mission, we each place an objective. We then roll for a victory condition. In our case, holding an objective in the enemy deployment zone was worth victory points, but holding your own was not. You hold an objective by having more of your models than enemy models within 2" of it at the end of the 5th battle round. In the event of a tie, the person without the strategic advantage would win a minor victory. I had the strategic advantage (as I won the roll off), so I could choose which side to deploy on.

Kingdom Death Monster - Olympus Year 21

Dionysus, Aphrodite, Hera, and Athena II prepare to hunt an ancient (level 3) screaming antelope. Dionysus wears screaming armor, a forsaker mask, and a lucky charm. He is armed with his twilight sword and a beacon shield. Hera wears the lantern helm, cuirass, mail, and greaves. She also wears monster grease to make her harder to hit and carries dried acanthus to apply to any severe wounds. She is armed with a scrap sword, and wears a monster tooth necklace to increase the strength of her attacks. Aphrodite and Athena both wear full rawhide armor with monster grease applied and carry some dried acanthus. Aphrodite carries the adventure sword and a beacon shield, while Athena is armed with a counterweighted axe and is wearing a cat eye circlet.

Not far from Olympus, the survivors are struck by the scent of rotting meat wafting from a hulking corpse ahead. As they get closer they discover the corpse is that of a dead antelope, and are startled by the arrival of the antelope's killer, a massive (level 4) white lion! The lion doesn't spot them and the survivors are able to sneak up behind it. Unknown to them, this is a particularly ancient and rare white lion with golden eyes (lion gains +1 speed and +2 accuracy, and when survivors attack they suffer 3 brain damage unless in its blind spot). Though they prepared for a showdown with a screaming antelope, the survivors are unwilling to waste the opportunity before them and resolve to attack the lion.

Kingdom Death Monster - Olympus Year 20

Another butcher approaches Olympus from the darkness. Zeus gathers Hera, Hephaestus, and Artemis to defend their settlement from the monster. Zeus wears rawhide armor and a forsaker mask and carries the adventure sword. Hera carries a scrap sword and beacon shield and wears lantern helm, mail, greaves, and cuirass. Hephaestus wears the other set of rawhide armor and is armed with a cat gut bow and claw head arrow. He also carries bandages to use on any severe bleeding. Artemis wears a suit of screaming armor and a cat eye circlet, and will fight with the cleaver taken from the last butcher who tried to enter Olympus.

Kingdom Death Monster - Olympus Year 19

Dionysus, Helen (the green savior), Athena II and Aphrodite depart Olympus in search of a mature (Level 2) phoenix.

Dionysus wears full rawhide armor and carries his twilight sword and a beacon shield. Helen is still cursed with the regal gauntlets that can not be removed, and also wears a skull helm, lantern greaves, lantern mail, and lantern cuirass. She is armed with a counterweighted axe. Athena II wears screaming armor and a cat eye circlet, and is armed with the butcher's cleaver. Aphrodite wears full rawhide armor and the forsaker mask, and is armed with the adventure sword and beacon shield. Well armed and armored, they feel confident they can face whatever is in store for them.

Kingdom Death Monster - Olympus Year 18

Zeus, Athena II, Aphrodite, and Icarus depart Olympus on a quest to find a new monster unknown to them, the fabled phoenix (level 1). Uncertain of what to expect of the encounter, they are careful to leave behind any critical gear that the settlement wouldn't be able to recover from their corpses if things go badly.

Zeus wears rawhide armor and carries muramasa and a beacon shield, along with some bandages for the inevitable self-inflicted bleeding he will cause with the ridiculously sharp sword. Athena II wears the forsaker mask and cat eye circlet over a skull helm, and carries a counter-weighted axe and beacon shield. Aphrodite wears screaming armor and is armed with a scrap sword. Icarus, the red savior, wears rawhide armor and is armed with a cat gut bow and claw head arrow.

Nova Aetas Primaevi

I have been painting up the miniatures for the game Nova Aetas, which I pledged for on Kickstarter. I haven't played it yet because I want to have everything I need painted before I start the campaign. I've been trying to paint everything to match with the official art on the cards and in the rule book as much as possible. I have now completed painting all the miniatures for the Primaevi faction. Here are links to the official artwork that I was trying to approximate with my paint jobs:

Primaevi Faun
Primaevi Centaur

See the pictures below to see how the painted models turned out.

Kingdom Death Monster - Olympus Year 17

The Hand returns to Olympus. Apollo, Hera, Aphrodite, and Artemis gear up to face the being, who waits for them on the outskirts of the settlement. Apollo wears a full suit of screaming armor and a man mask, and wields a scrap sword and beacon shield. Hera wears rawhide armor and a forsaker mask and carries the other beacon shield. Aphrodite also wears rawhide armor and carries bandages and a founding stone. Artemis is armed with a cat gut bow and counterweighted axe, put a skull helm is her only armor. She also wears the cat eye circlet.

This is the settlement's second time facing The Hand, and the survivors are planning a very different strategy this time. They will use their rawhide headbands to predict what the monster will do and try to control who it will attack. Apollo and Hera will try to absorb most of The Hand's attacks with their beacon shields. They will attempt to outlast The Hand, trying to survive his attacks as best they can until the creature tires of testing them and leaves. Most of their resources have been spent constructing the heavy beacon shields for just this purpose, and they hope it has been worth the effort.

Nova Aetas Heroes

I have been painting up the miniatures for the game Nova Aetas, which I pledged for on Kickstarter. I haven't played yet because I want to have everything I need painted before I start the campaign. I've been trying to paint everything to match with the official art on the cards and in the rule book as much as possible. I started with the four hero miniatures: The Squire, The Novice, The Apprentice, and The Scum. Have a look at the pictures below to see the results.

Kingdom Death Monster - Olympus Year 16

Artemis, Dionysus, Hera, and Hephaestus leave Olympus to hunt a mature (level 2) screaming antelope. They decide at the last minute not to try to go after an older antelope because they don't want to risk failing to return with badly needed resources that will be essential in preparing for the return of The Hand.

Artemis wears a skull helm and cat eye circlet and carries a cat gut bow (with claw head arrow) and counter-weighted axe. Dionysus wields his twilight sword and wears full rawhide armor and a lucky charm. Hephaestus also wears rawhide armor, but also wears the forsaker mask and carries the butcher cleaver. Hera wears screaming armor and is armed with a scrap sword.

Kingdom Death Monster - Olympus Year 15

Dionysus, Aphrodite, Athena II, and Artemis depart Olympus in search of a mature (level 2) screaming antelope. They want to gain as many resources as possible to replenish their recent losses. They also plan to harvest as much fresh acanthus as they can get their hands on so they can replace all the dried acanthus they expended in the fight against The Hand.

Dionysus wears a full suit of rawhide armor and the forsaker mask and as always carries his precious twilight sword, which he is finally getting good at wielding. Aphrodite also wears full rawhide armor and carries a scrap sword. Athena II wears the screaming armor and carries the counter-weighted axe. Artemis has only a skull helm to protect her, and is armed with a cat gut bow and claw head arrow. She also wears the cat eye circlet, which she can use to direct the survivors' attacks against the most vulnerable locations.

Kingdom Death Monster - Olympus Year 14

A group of survivors heads toward the outskirts of Olympus, where The Hand is perched nonchalantly atop a giant stone face, awaiting them. Icarus, the red savior, boldly leads the way. He wears a full suit of screaming armor and wields the counterweighted axe. The survivors hope that his super-human ability to always hit his opponent with every attack will allow them to defeat this mysterious threat. Apollo and Hades join him, both wearing full suits of rawhide armor. Apollo also wears the cat eye circlet, which he intends to use to predict the monster's behavior and avoid the worst of it, and is armed with a scrap sword. Hades carries a bone axe. The settlement having only enough armor for three, Hera is naked but for the skull of Ares she wears as a helmet. She carries the cat gut bow and a claw head arrow, along with a founding stone. If the situation gets desperate, she is prepared to attempt to finish the monster off or get one or two crucial wounds on it from a distance if necessary.

Not knowing what to expect, the survivors spread out and approach The Hand with great trepidation.

Bolt Action Battle Report: Winter War Meeting Engagement

I finally had my first game of Bolt Action recently, after years of wanting to give it a try. My friend Seamus agreed to show me the ropes using the Winter War forces I have painted. It worked out to about 630 points on each side, made up entirely of infantry. I fielded the Finns and Seamus commanded the inexperienced Soviet horde. We played the fairly straightforward Meeting Engagement scenario out of the rulebook. In this scenario, any forces not held in reserve would move onto the table in the first turn, and one victory point would be scored for each enemy unit destroyed. It turned out to be a pretty exciting and dramatic battle. Have a look below to see how it went.

Kingdom Death Monster - Olympus Year 13

Athena II, Dionysus, Hades, and Apollo depart in search of a mature (level 2) screaming antelope. Athena wears the full suit of antelope armor and wields the counterweighted axe. Dionysus wears the skull helmet fashioned from the skull of Ares, along with the forsaker mask and cat eye circlet. He also wears a cloth draped around his waist. He wields his twilight sword and also carries a cat gut bow and claw head arrow. Hades and Apollo wear the suits of rawhide armor. Hades is armed with both the butcher's cleaver and bone axe, while Apollo carries the scrap sword.

The survivors immediately encounter a dead antelope, but find no signs of any living antelopes nearby. They next discover a huge, grimacing stone face with lava flowing from the eyes. Its gritted teeth appear to hold a worn sword. Athena braves the lava to grab the old sword, which they call the adventure sword. Then the survivors find themselves distracted by a dark crack in the stone face floor. Hades is unable to tear himself away and stoops to gaze into the depths until the other survivors drag him away. Whatever he glimpsed changes him forever (gain a random disorder), turning him into a rage-aholic.

Kingdom Death Monster - Olympus Year 12

Zeus, Demeter, Apollo, and Artemis depart Olympus in search of the legendary Beast of Sorrow, described in a story told by one of the elders of the settlement. They aren't even sure if the beast really exists, but if it does, they are determined to find it. They have prepared themselves for a potentially long hunt.

Zeus wears the screaming armor and forsaker mask and is armed with a counterweighted axe. Demeter and Apollo both wear full suits of rawhide armor, Demeter carrying a bone axe and butcher cleaver while Apollo is armed with a scrap sword. Artemis is protected only by a simple cloth around her waist, and the skull helmet fashioned from the skull of Areas. She carries the cat gut bow along with a claw head arrow, and also wears the cat eye circlet.

Painting Shadespire Bloodreavers

I've written up a step-by-step guide to how I painted the Bloodreavers in the Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire core set. These were the first Bloodreavers I've painted, and the first Khorne models of any kind really. I took pictures along the way, though they didn't turn out great. Hopefully you get the idea. Unless specified, all of the paints are out of production Citadel/Games Workshop paints from their previous (and now replaced) range.

The method I came up with ends up being pretty fast, and I think it would be good for painting up a bunch of models in large batches. There are a lot of steps, but most of them are easy and don't require careful painting, so they go quickly. The washes at the end really help obscure any mistakes. As you can see from the pictures, I don't worry too much as I go along about making mistakes or getting good coverage, especially on the early steps, because it will get fixed later. Each picture is the result of the several steps listed above. Have a look at my process below and let me know what you think of the results.

Kingdom Death Monster - Olympus Year 11

Artemis, Apollo, Hephaestus, and Athena II leave Olympus to search for an adult (level 2) screaming antelope. Artemis wears a full set of rawhide armor and is armed with the catgut bow and a special claw head arrow. Apollo also wears full rawhide armor and wields the scrap sword, with bone darts for ranged backup. Hephaestus wears only a cloth around his waist and a screaming horn helmet over his cat eye circlet. He carries both the butcher cleaver and the bone axe (as a backup, in case he chickens out of wielding the sentient cleaver). Athena II wears a screaming skirt, coat, and braces, along with the skull helm (the skull of the late Ares), and carries the counterweighted axe.

Immediately after departing, the hunters find evidence of a mass migration of antelopes (monster is moved 3 spaces away from the survivors). There is no trace of any remaining antelope populations anywhere they have found them before, and they resign themselves to a potentially long hunt. As they range farther from their settlement, suddenly the ground begins to shift beneath their feet, before rising into the air beneath them! The survivors find themselves on the back of a gigantic creature. They all hang on like their lives depend on it (which they very well may) as the massive creature begins to move. In a stroke of amazing luck, or perhaps destiny, the giant carries them to a far off plain full of grazing antelopes.