Ninjabread

Archive for ‘Squats’

56 results.

Classic Squat Squad

by Curis on August 27, 2010 at 2:07 pm

Posted In: Squats

Though my Squats have been retired from the tournament circuit for years now, and I blogged at length about them for years, I don’t have that many photos of them finished. Time to remedy this.

40K Squat Tactical Squad

Working back through the iterations of 40K, this squad’s never game legal. In Rogue Trader the 10-strong squad would only get generated with one “special” weapon (then a catch-all term for special and heavy weapons). In the Rogue Trader Squat army list the Squat Combat Squad was 8-strong and everyone (yes, all eight of them) could have heavy weapons – but no Plasma Guns. In 2nd edition 40K the Combat Squad was split into Warrior, Attack and Thunderer squads (analogous to Tactical, Assault and Devestator squads) – but were 5-strong. Though everyone in a Thunderer Squad was entitled to special and heavy weapons.

And, looking at the squad now I realise I’ve paired off a Lascannon gunner with a Heavy Bolter loader. Oops.

I’m really quite fond of these blighters. I’m always tempted to strip them back and revisit them, but the models are so battered and worn and loved I don’t think they can be painted to a higher standard.

In other news, Ninjabread is now part of the House of Paincakes blog network, along with all the other awesome-cool kids like friend and co-Englishman Kapt. Von. Unlike some people, they don’t object to words like “cocking” and nobber”.

Very kindly, they published my 500-word essay on why I’m God’s gift to the Internet. Cocking nobbers.

└ Tags: 40K, Squat, warhammer

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Don’t matter which way we’re facing

by Curis on October 9, 2008 at 5:06 am

Posted In: Squats

One of the many true joys of my Squat army, is that they’re tiny models. They double up beautifully in the standard GW cases, rather than struggling one-to-a-space like my 40k Orks.

Pairing off, like teenage emos.

Means a whole 1750 point army can fit in a case, with a layer spare for my Cryx, and then some. Means games don’t entail logistics problems, or lugging cumbersome bags on train stations. It means they can be surreptitiously slid under my desk without attracting quizzical glances.

└ Tags: 40K, Squats

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Toy Soldier VII

by Curis on August 5, 2008 at 6:02 am

Posted In: Squats

My Squats have taken once again to the field of battle! As the sun has now set on 4th ed 40K, my Squats appeared at Toy Soldier VII in Preston to take on all-comers.

Squats! In fourth's dying days!

They were joined by their regular friend, Inquisitor “Hood” Hargen, helping bulk them out to the 1750 pts required and defending their minds with his titular Psychic Hood. As I was also fielding a Callidus, Hargen was promoted to Lord Inquisitor, and had a mandatory retinue of suitable oldskool models, inclusing this old Judge Dredd Ape Gangster Citadel produced under licence in the 1980s. Here he is failing to kill an Eversor with a banana.

Squats! In fourth's dying days!

Vikarius’s Battle Cannon mercilessly obliterating the Sister Troops choices. Although we were playing 4th edition, the missions were based on the 5th edition hearsay floating around at the time the rulespack was put together. That meant Troops were exterminated with extreme bias.

Squats! In fourth's dying days!

And here they are, fighting against some Classic Space Wolves. Old lead models with beards. Most of these Space Wolves were released in the Rogue Trader era. Lovely.

Squats! In fourth's dying days!

At the end of the tournament, they’d managed 1 win, 2 draws and 2 losses. That’s impressive for Squats. Have to reconfigure them for 5th ed now.

In site news, I fluffed up the end of my six-month hiatus by missing it by a whole 4 days. Oops. There’s been a bit of behind-the-scenes cleanup going on, and some changes will be coming int effect soon. Keep watching this space.

└ Tags: 2000AD, 40K, Squats, tournament, Toy Soldier

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A world of jackpots and corporate values

by Curis on May 15, 2008 at 9:31 am

Posted In: Squats

Sillily I gave all my bases to the club to base up the many many trees we have. This has left me without any 40mm round bases the stick my exo-armoured models on now I’m experimenting fielding them as Grey Knight terminators.

The Crypt was all out of the bases, as was the local Games Workshop. I phoned every GW store in the area, and none of them had any. Word on the street is that they’re discontinuing the packs dedicated to just one base type and replacing them with blisters that give you a little bit of everything. Not very useful.

And while I’m moaning, it’s impossible to navigate to the store locator on the UK GW site. And when you do get there having to use your Google-Fu, they don’t even have the opening hours listed, so you have to phone. Not at all helpful.

Luckily, Glenn came to my rescue, kindly furnishing me with enough bases for the squad. Here he is forced into the bright daylight of a gorgeous Saturday morning

Cheers Glenn!

└ Tags: 40K, Squats

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More fire than the belly of the sun

by Curis on April 19, 2008 at 8:18 pm

Posted In: Squats

Tomorrow’s list.

Got to drop the extra armour on the Rhino and Russ as it’s not modelled on, and I can’t bring myself to blu-tac plasticard to their sides.

└ Tags: 40K, Squats

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Armageddon Bound

by Curis on December 23, 2007 at 3:49 pm

Posted In: Squats

This last month I’ve been playing an awful lot of Battle for Armageddon. It was one of the three “Wargame Series” boardgames released by Games Workshop in the early 90′s (the others being Horus Heresy and Doom of the Eldar).

But it’s not a proper copy, I downloaded it from Games Workshop’s site and printed it off. It was originally stuck up on the site back in 2000 as part of the hype surrounding the Third War for Armageddon campaign. But with the new Ork Codex round the corner Jerv’s drawn our attention back to the ability to download and print off our own copies. You can get it from Games Workshop here.

Battle for Armageddon by Games Workshop/ Let's you even fight as Squats.

It’s a bit of a bitch to assemble. Rather than put any thought into digitising the game, it was just scanned in warts and all. (One of the Ork Strategy Cards reads “BUILDING AND MOVMENT” – which I love.) Then, whichever bright spark chopped up the board made all the pieces different sizes. And cropped off some of the edges. And the counters don’t line up.

But hey, it was free. What do you expect?

It’s a great little tactical game, with a surprising amount of depth. You have to think ahead, like Gothic and Aeronautica. You choose Strategy cards detailing what four actions your counters will make in the coming turn, without knowing what your opponent’s are, or what who’ll play theirs first. It can also form the bases for a tightly-structured 40K and Epic campaign, which is interesting.

With my post-GT 40K funk it’s been a great game to bring along and play. As it’s just a folded card map and a bag of counters I’ll be keeping it in my gaming satchel for those nights I can’t find a board.

But that’s not the best bit. In the Chaos Attack supplement it lets you play as Squats. Corr!

└ Tags: 40K, Armageddon, Squats

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Apocalypse Then

by Curis on December 12, 2007 at 7:30 am

Posted In: Squats

I had my first game of Apocalypse over the weekend. I took my Squats, who took to the battle alongside Booker’s Wulfen (who deployed next to the Squats on account of them both having facial hair), Craig’s Cobra Commandoes and Ben’s Tank Company.

We faced off against Matt’s Night Lords, John’s Word Bearers, my loaned Thousand Sons, and Ben’s mighty Daemonic Warhound.

In game shot.

Warmaster Gorun attempted a daring manoeuvre to combat this Daemonic Warhound. He tunnelled directly behind it in the incredibly thin strip between the rear armour and the board edge. Luckily the scatter dice came up HIT. (Not so lucky was his lieutenant Magnus Ulthang, who attempted exactly the same tactic but scattered and ended up very dead). Gorun and his command squad were placed in a prime position to deliver a deadly payload!

Gorun versus the titan photo.

No, not Gorun’s trusty Boltgun.

No, not the squad’s flamer (which was, for the first time ever, in range).

No, not even his medic’s laspistol.

Gorun was toting a vortex grenade. How very retro.

With the Imperial forces stripping the engine of its void shields Warmaster Gorun threw his grenade with verve and gusto!

It went horribly wrong, missed, scattered backwards and subsequently sucked the mighty Squat hero into the Warp. No getting back from that with bionics.

Despite that, the Imperial won the day, and much fun was had by all.

Matt’s put a full write-up on the Dice Not Blog. Have a read here.

└ Tags: 40K, Apocalypse, Chaos, Squats, Titan, Warhound

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Post Tournament Funk

by Curis on December 10, 2007 at 3:55 am

Posted In: Squats

There’ve been no news posts since Heat 3. I’ve even been getting phone calls from people desperate to know.

Photo of all the lovely tickets.

Turned up Friday afternoon after travelling down with Flame On, and ran straight into Team Ireland. If anyone would be in Bugman’s before Flame On it would have to be the Irish. We first met them back in Poland at the European Team Championships. Rog bears an uncanny resemblance to a number of my Squats…

Squat left, Roger right.

I was worried about going against Tau so I played a friendly against Craig with his 13 Crisis Suits. I’m still no clearer on how on Earth majority toughness, casualty removal and drones all mesh together but it was a fun game with a friend over a Guinness.

It was this social side of the tournament I enjoyed the most. Chilling en masse in the bar, playing Risk at Bugman’s, rocking out at Rock City stripped to the waist. The weekend was really two nights out interspersed with daytime 40K. As people wanted to qualify for the finals the atmosphere was tense, like an exam hall. Intense concentration with a time limit. Work hard, play hard. Well, er, play 40K hard, play hard.

The Saturday things were looking good, one win, one loss, one draw. I’d triumphed against the dreaded Lash of Submission thanks to Inquisitor Hood and his trusty Psychic Hood. Overnight I was scraping into the bottom of the qualification window and there was everything to play for. Importantly, 3 fun games. Intense, but fun.

Sunday morning. Started with Harelquins in a Holo-Falcon. I hate Holo-Falcons. Well, it actually started in Rock City, but nevermind. I’d managed to infiltrate my Veterans’ Lascannons within direct LoS of his stationary Falcons and would have shafted them had I got the first turn. Well, I didn’t and I lost horribly. I could no longer qualify. Game over man.

I don’t feel to great about my Squats any more. Perhaps I only have myself to blame. Somewhere along the way I destroyed my real Squat army by tuning and optimising the list to compete in the GT environment. Warmaster Gorun, my favourite Squat model ever was left at home with his command squad. My Techpriest Enginseer and his Chimera were left as neither were scoring units. My Mole Mortars Squadron were dropped as they weren’t AP3. My Rapier Laser Destroyers were replaced with standard lascannons for fear of being pulled up on WYSIWYG. The army was topped up with models painted in just 3 block colours to meet the minimum painting standard. I squeezed the life out the army, and refused to display it at lunchtimes as I was ashamed.

I had started to embrace the win-at-all-costs mentality, and then failed to win. It’s a dangerous path. My Squats will soon retire from the tournament circuit and be replaced with an army that won’t be corrupted by the tournament mentality. I’m not cut out for top-end tournament play.

Congratulations to Christian Bale for Best Army. He’s White Dwarf’s Graphic Designer so he’s turbo-cool.

└ Tags: 40K, Squats, tournaments

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I’ll be armed and ready

by Curis on November 22, 2007 at 1:48 pm

Posted In: Squats

Lot of last minute Heat 3 prep at the moment – painting and printing. Had my final two practice games for the GT this today and yesterday. One win at Dice Not, one draw at Flame On. Going down tomorrow morning, so the night’ll be spent basing Squats.

I drastically redesigned the entire army Sunday night, even choosing an entirely different set of doctrines. As such, the painting aspect has gone entirely out the window and my army will be a slight mishmash of models. But, as I decided I didn’t ever stand a chance of nominating, I’m fine with this. A little ashamed as I hate taking models that aren’t my best, but happy that my list is finally working. Glenn has come to my aid once again lending me some Daemonhunter Stormtroopers.

The rewrite included adding a pair of Sentinels with Autocannons. I’ve converted these up, here’s a WIP.

Squat sentinel baby - yeh!