In unrelated news Beasts of War broke images of Games Workshop’s Necron Night Scythe on Turn 8 last week.

Their source previously appears to be a copy of White Dwarf. But now their source is someone who traces White Dwarf. Interesting. But that wasn’t the reason you should’ve been watching.

Tommie (of Golem Painting Studio notoriety) and I were being interviewed. This it what it looked like…

…or should’ve looked like. There was a weird camera hitch which meant there was only audio. That was a great shame as we’d spent a while organising Transformers and empty beer cans.

It’s an incredibly stale page – so much that the Aragorn model (from the Breaking of the Fellowship set) is now out of production. Not a great way to showcase your company.

So I rejoiced when I went to the page this week and found they’ve finally updated it!

Oh, no. Same 6-16 year old model range. But their exciting update yeah! This pop-up prevents you visiting the site unless you allow cookies, and click their tickbox.

“…continually offer you the best experience on games-workshop.com…” – my arse.

Avengers! Now! Go see it now!

The winner for her touching laugh-out-loudness is Gabby!  Congratulations, you’ll be emailed shortly to arrange your prize.

Apologies to anyone who saw this post as a series of repeated illustrations with no backgrounds, and thought they were reading Plastic Dudesmen.

Product Details

Softback A5 format
90 pages (mixture of full colour and high quality B&W)
ISBN 978-1-62050-34203
Printed in England
GBP £10 each

The first batch of pre-orders for the new Ninjabread book – Punishment of the Dice Gods – are arriving across the world. England, Ireland, Canada, America and even Greece have copies winging their way to them.

Copies are also available through discount bookmongers Amazon. I’ve had to supply author photos and a biography, which I think I managed to write without an epic egopuff.  If you’re the lucky owner of a pre-release copy, there’s a little place you can write review in.

Copies are offically released on Monday. If you’d like to buy them direct from Ninjabread, use the button below.

Announcing the release of the first Chronicle of Ninjabread – Punishment of the Dice Gods. Ninjabread can now manifest itself on your bookshelf so even in the event of a powercut you can delve into five years of satirical wargaming comics.

This top banana volume collects together strips from 2007 to the present day, digitally remastered especially for this print incarnation.

Exclusive to this collection is the five-page strip “Punishment of the Dice Gods”. What horrors lurk in Wargaming Hell for Eric Bell? Which Dark God lurks at centre of this Stygian realm? Who is pulling those strings?

“Curis takes you to the darker reaches of wargaming’s twisted psyche and the gibbering madness within. Then you find out he makes comics, which is pretty cool.”
Brian Solomon

Punishment of the Dice Gods will be released worldwide on Monday April 30th.

Pre-release copies will be available at the Ninjabread stand (TA19) at Salute 2012 on Saturday April 21st. Come and get your copy signed, and have a chat.

Product Details

Softback A5 format
90 pages (mixture of full colour and high quality B&W)
ISBN 978-1-62050-34203
Printed in England
GBP £10 each

The ExCel centre in London is a mahoosive venue you can drive articulated lorries around this inside of.  Hundreds of pounds of entrance fees had bought a pair of tables and two chairs.

And pow!  With the liberal application of boxes of comics, posters and glue the area had become a festival of all things Ninjabread.  Everything about the ExCel had changed, even the person standing to my left’s gender.

It was great to have so many people pop by for a chat, to buy a poster or a pre-release copy of Punishment of the Dice Gods.  Thanks to tweeps Domonet, Heresy_Andy, inrepose, J_Plays_Games, JohnnyHawkwind,  MarcUpdates,  peppermint_cat, pyroriffic,  Silent_Spectre, wartrader and yorkwargamer for their hellos.  Great to put names to faces, and hug some of you.

Andy “@yorkwargamer” Taylor popped by
and got me to sign a piece of gingerbread.
Maybe he hopes to eat around the signature
until only the ink remains?

Shirts (not at the show) are always available through the site here.

The Punishment of the Dice Gods book is available to the internet-going public not at Salute with the PayPal button below.  Orders will be dispatched on Monday April 30th, if not before.

Postage options

within Great Britain (+£1.50) £11.50 GBP outside Great Britain (+£2.50) £12.50 GBP

The Ninjabread caption contest winner will be announced later this week, and the coolest entries showcased.

This afternoon the Ninjabread Neoteroi are heading down to London – as it’s Salute 2012. Talented helper monkeys Mat and Amy and I will be manning the Ninjabread stand (TA19) and offering pre-release copies of the new Ninjabread book – Punishment of the Dice Gods.

What we do ask is that if you’re a regular reader or internet friend who’s gonna swing by – please introduce yourself.  I’m looking forward to see you, but unless you use a photograph of yourself as an avatar I won’t recognise you.

Currently the mental image I have of you is…

If you’re not one of the eight-thousand people we’ll be smiling at tomorrow in our matching pink leather ties, you can get your copy of Punishment of the Dice Gods pre-ordered now with the handy PayPal button below.

Postage options

within Great Britain (+£1.50) £11.50 GBP outside Great Britain (+£2.50) £12.50 GBP

Have fun!

I set myself the challenge of avoiding the normal Marine crutch units – Warhound Titans, Thunderbolts and Terminators. I wanted to see if I could compete with a non-standard list. I still went Thunderhawk heavy though, I love Thunderhawks.

I also tried Scouts with Razorbacks – as I liked the idea of garrisoned twin-linked Lascannons. This necessitated lots of conversions using Ork battlewagon turrets glued together, as the classic SM2 era Razorbacks are super-rare.

Assault Marines – Supreme Commander
Assault Marines – Chaplain
Assault Marines – Chaplain

Devastators
Devastators
Devastators

Thunderhawk Gunship
Thunderhawk Gunship
Thunderhawk Gunship

Scouts – 4 Lascannon Razorbacks
Scouts – 4 Lascannon Razorbacks
Scouts – 3 Lascannon Razorbacks, 1 Rhino

Land Speeders

To battle!

With the tournament registration starting in Mansfield at 8:30am, we set off from Manchester at 8:29am thanks to Simon’s insistence on a heavy night out on Canal Street.

“These drinks are called bombs Simon! They’re 3BP each!”

Game 1 – Steve Gullick’s Biel-tan Eldar

Steve had a fairly similar strategy to me – with two sets of Aspects in Vampires that would aerially assault, while his ground formations sat around on overwatch on objectives. We romped through turns one and two in under ten minutes – which was fortunate as our late departure meant we were pushed for time.

The flying transports (each containing our BTSs) both landed turn 3, with the exception of my first laden Thunderhawk that was shot down in flames with no survivors.

I forced it to a Turn 4, but Steve obliterated my measly four-strong Assault Marines BTS and had a set of Aspects on my Blitz I was unable to approach let alone shift. 0-2 turn 4.

Game 2 – Jez Lock’s Codex Astartes Space Marines

Aha! A rematch against Jez’s Marines with a pair of Warhounds as its BTS. I’d played this last tournament – where I’d pounced on his Titanly BTS with all my Thunderhawks Turn 1, leaving one on 1DC. The hall had then witnessed howls of frustration as everything else I had fired at it hoping to finish it off only to watch it pass every 5+ reinforced save ever.

This game I forced corners, and attempted a similar Thunderhawk trick. At the critical moment Jez had advanced the bulk of his army up the board leaving the Warhounds behind unsupported. My first Thunderhawk approached this pair of cursed dogbots – only to be shot down on the approach. Again. Twice in two games.

I elected not to retain, and Jez doubled the Warhounds back to the safety of the main bulk of his force.

However, I still had two Thunderhawks left, and they did the classic one-two with the first dropping off its formations within 15cm to lay blast markers and add supporting fire for the engagement from the second. This wiped all the DC off both of them, and I got revenge.

However, this was a case of Captain Ahab getting his whale, as my obsession with the Warhounds meant the bulk of my army was in the open against Jez’s Marines. He won the initiative Turn 2 and destroyed all my Titan-hunters in turn, and went on for a 2-1 win Turn 3.

Game 3 – Tim Hunt’s Steel Legion Imperial Guard

Two losses under my belt, and the alleged swissing system now drew me against gaming supremo Tim Hunt. Argh! I’ve already faced one premier league player, I can’t manage two.

Tim expertly pulled my forces apart in short order, with my only real good tactical moves limited to onion-skinning my Blitz with formations from Thunderhawks to force a Turn 4. At least none of them were shot down on the approach.

Tim managed to assault some Razorbacks with his Deathstrikes, proving their worth as a front-line battletank.

So, three losses. Dismal outing for the experimental Warhoundless Marines.

Simon did similarly badly. However, he was using the same list to a previous tournament – and I was using a different Marine list to last tike (Codex Astartes and not White Scars) so I qualified for a bonus championship point – and pulled further ahead of him in the Championship. Epic win!