Painting: On the Road

So my wife is thinking that she wants to buy an RV and drive around during the summer while I'm not teaching.

So this week we have rented a 37-foot RV to take out for a week and see if it is agreeable to us.

One of the things we are both worried about is taking enough things to do to keep me occupied for weeks on end. I figured this would be a good time to get some painting done, so I packed up some stuff and we headed out.

Podcasting: 40k Radio

I have been listening to Warhammer (40k and FB) podcasting for a couple years now. I started out with 40k radio as I was mainly interested in 40k at the time. I went from there to Worlds End Radio because they spent a good it of time talking about the 40k universe, if not 40k itself. As I got more into WHFB, I started listening to Podhammer. So here are some of my thoughts on the Games Workshop centered podcasts.

Mathhammer: Predator vs. Dark Eldar

 

So I have a friend of mine that has picked up the new DE book and is making himself an army. He has already warned me that he is looking at bringing 10 or so raider/ravagers. So I got to thinking about what I'm goinng to use to get rid of them. I'll probably take some Long Fangs, but I'm afraid they are going to die quickly to poisoned attacks wyches, so I was considering a Predator, but which one? People have been talking about the destructor as it has so many shots, but then other people have been saying the Autocannon LasCannon is the way to go. So I pulled out my excell spred sheet to check it out.

Have You Checked Out Avatars or War Lately?

I hadn't. I liked the idea of the Dire Wolf as a Fenrisian Wolf for my Space Wolves. The problem has always been price. With the new Space Wolf book, you could possibly run 15-20 wolves easily, and at $15 a pop, there was no way I was going to use the Dire Wolf model, no matter how cool it is, and it doesn't really look like it would mix and match with the sad little wolves I have from GW.

I really liked a couple of their sculpts for the Dwarfs including the Dwarf Berserker and the Dwarf Lord. I was always considering getting the Berserker as a champion for a Slayer Unit, or a Daemon Slayer if I ever choose to run one. I have been slowly collecting Slayers but they seem to be the kind of models that you want ever single one to be Unique. For that reason I have shied away from the box sets from GW. I am bought a few off of eBay but I really don't want to spend $8 a model for guys that I probably wont use that often.

Then I see this on the Avatars of War site! A box of 32-36 individual "Slayers" for about $45 US? Yes please! I can tell you I will be picking these up as soon as they become available!

Oh, and I saw they have a named Berserker model, and a new Standard Bearer!

More Updates? Wolf Banners

I guess this outta be more of a mini update. I finished up my Wolf Banners. I stole this idea from the Iron Wolves blog. These banners are removeable. There is a pin in the base of the banner, and a hole in the backpack. Slot it in at the begining of the fight, and pull them out when you pop your Wolf Banner. My only problem has been killing off the dude holding the banner, before I pop the banner, as the banner belongs to the squad and not to one dude. As I tend to play friendly games, it really isn't much of a big deal. Enjoy!

Finally an Update: Plasma Pistols

So I've had these four guys sitting on my desk 95% done for like 6 weeks. All I had left to do is the backpacks, but for some reason, I was having a hard time just finishing it. I would come home and I'd rather play a video game than do some painting, even if it was only four more backpacks.

Anywho, without further ado, here are four Plasma Pistoleers. These I made two as Grey Hunters, and the other two as Blood Claws.

Finishing up my banners next.

40k Tournaments: What is wrong wtih WAAC?

So over at BoLS, they have posted a little something about tournaments, and essentially, how to make them better.

So what happens is you have a tournament, you get a lot of WAAC (Win at all cost) players come to the tournament. That in and of itself is not bad. I don't believe that the image that name conjurs up (not the one to the right) is accurate of many WAAC players. I believe that most WAAC players will do everything within the rules to win. Yeah, sure there are some people that will cheat or slow-play in order to win, but I believe that those people are in the minority. A WAAC player, in my opinion, will be someone that min-maxes his army, uses current meta-game thinking to build an army that he thinks will tear up the compitition.

Book Review: Giantslayer

So I've had a special place in my heart for Gotrek and Felix from the first time I read about the two. I really enjoyed the second Omnibus, but for some reason I found it hard to start on the third one.

Well this last holiday weekend, my wife and I went to Pennsylvania and I brought this book with me, and boy am I glad I did.

The first book in this omnibus is called Giantslayer. This story starts immediately after Vampireslayer. It was funny as I was saying to myself that Gotrek and Felix had been kicking around with Snorri and Max for quite a long time, and BAM! things get shaken up early in the book.

Book Review: The First Heretic

I was really looking forward to this book, as the Word Bearers were one of the original legions that I know very little about. My only previous experiance was with The Battle For the Abyss, and that wasn't really a Word Bearer book.

I enjoyed this book a great deal. It was different from many of the other Horus books in that we have a main character that isn't a stand out against the fall of his legion like Garro from the Death Guard, or even someone who is convinced he is doing what is good for the Imerium as Ahriman is in A Thousands Sons. Here we have a main characer and a whole legion that are sure that the Emperor is wrong, and they are hell bent on finding the true gods that the Emperor denies, even if those gods are the Chaos Gods that we all know and love.

Review: Bloodstorm

So I finally finished the second book of the Malus Darkblade series. The problem was that so many other good books came out that I kept putting it off and reading other stuff.

That is not to say that this isn't a good book. It is a very fun read, even for an avowed goodie goodie like me. Abnett and Lee do a good job of getting you to root for the bad guy! This book takes place not too long after the first one finishes. Malus is at the gates of Hag Graaf  after returning from the Chaos Wastes, so he steps up to the gates he is set upon yet again, will the guards help him, or will they wait until he is dead, chase off his attackers and then loot his body.

I'll give you a hint, he doesn't die. In fact, Malus, with the "help" of the daemon Tz'arkan not only survive, but thrive. Mainly because of the slick dealings of Malus.

Very Little Work

Well that's not entirely true. I am working, just not on minis. I'm working 50+ hours a week and I'm just too tired to work when I get home. I have four plasma pistol Wolves 95% done. I just have to put their backpacks on and paint the backpacks, but they've been almost done for almost a week. One of these days I'll get to them, but I'm not sure when. I'd like to get them done before Christmas because I'd like to start working on my vehicles over my Christmas break. We'll see.

Review: Blood Pact

So Dan Abnett and written yet another Gaunt's Ghosts book. This on is called Blood Pact. Now I have to admit, after reading Sabbat Worlds, I was a little worried about this one.

Damn you Dan Abnett (I love you Dan Abnett), just when I think I have gotten over you, you prove that I just can't quit you! I read this book in three days, and for me thats pretty quick. I usually sit down to read for about 30 minutes each night before I go to bed, with some books its difficult to plow through one chapter a night, with Blood Pact, I was worried about the lack of sleep I was getting. This book is excellent.

Review: Sabbat Worlds

OMG OMG OMG! Another book about the Sabbat Worlds crusade! Wait, let me back up. So about a year ago, Dan Abnett was writing like 30 books at the same time (the dude writes a BUNCH!), and it turned out he was sick. He wen't to the doctors and found out, in his words, that it was, "just epilepsy" his schedule slipped a bit. Prospero Burns, which was supposed to come out at the same time as A Thousand Sons, is now coming out this coming January. Also, the thirteenth Ghosts book (13, really?!) had its deadline missed. So in order to tide over all the 40k nerds, they decided to put this anthology together, so here it is.

The first story is called Apostle's Creed, by Graham McNeill. This story is an after-story from Double Eagle, which in my opinion is one of the best 40k books out there! We follow a squadron of Thunderbolt pilots that are the best of the best. The story here is not overly complecated, and I had figured out the plot in the first 5-10 pages. That being said, this was an excellent story! The combat was seat-of-your-pants good and the time in between the combat was very well paced. This was pretty much the best kinds of 40k short story. Brutal, fast, and didn't make me think too much (and I totally mean that as a complement).

Review: The Daemon's Curse

I've been into reading Warhammer Fantasy, even though I've had a hard time getting into the actual game (regardless of the fact that I have a fully painted Dwarf Army).

A buddy of mine let be barrow the first couple of Malus Darkblade Omnibus books, and I finished the first book, The Daemon's Curse, a while back.

I don't usually like the evil-oriented books, I'm pretty sure I'm Lawful-Good at heart. There have been some notable exceptions to this (Storm of Iron), but usually I just can't get behind the evil guys.

Newsflash! Ultramarines aren't ALL geriatrics!

Rune Priest #3!

Well I took some advice (read: completely stole) from the Space Wolves Blog on how to build a Rune Priest, and I'm pretty please with the conversion.

Deathwatch Has Arrived!

So I got my copy of Deathwatch on Friday, and I must say it is a very impressive looking book. I am having a good time reading through it. It seems very familiar after playing Dark Heresy a couple of times. There are a lot of cool toys in the book, and best of all, you get to play a friggin Space Marine. I hope that it is as much fun to play as it seems it should be.

The only gripe I have is that there are only six marine chapters represented, and no rules to create you own, but I totally understand why. Now they can get suckers like me to buy another book that has more chapters and perhaps a third book that will allow me to make my own chapter!

I really can't wait for them to come up with some campaign books and some supplements to the aliens (again, only a few times, Chaos, Tau and Tyrannids, but I'm sure those will be in later books that I will have to buy).

Awesomesauce.

Review: Fear the Alien Part II

So I actually finished this book soon after I posted the review of the first part, but I've been lazy so I didn't get around to writing a review until now.

The next story up was called, "Sanctified" by Mark Chapman. This was sort of unusual as it is told from the point of view of an Enginseer trying to thwart and alien boarding of his ship. I liked this because it was different. It was cool to see the Enginseer's cold calculating methods for taking down the aliens. Very enjoyable story.

After that there was, "Faces" by Matthew Farrer. I really wanted to like this story as I have just finished the first Arbitor Calpurnia novel and I liked that. I think the real reason I didn't like the story was because I just didn't get it. It was too weird for me, and I just don't know if I'm smart enough to get this story. I'm sure there are tons of people out there that liked it, but it was just too odd for me.

Hobbit says what?

Well this is a bit different. Tomorrow afternoon I will be rolling up a D&D character with a group of work buddies. Oh, did I mention that my wife will be playing with us? Shes the best. I guess we'll be playing D&D 3.5, and my wife decided that we needed the Players Handbook so she could get some background. Well after looking through a couple of Half Price Books, we couldn't find the book, so we went into a FLGS and she decided she wanted to buy herself a mini. Well I couldn't let her do that, so I had to buy myself one as well. I have decided to play Halfling rogue, and my wife started out wanting to play a caster, but then decided she wants to play a bard. Unfortunately her mini doesn't have a particularly bard-y look to her, but oh well.

Anywho, here are the minis we'll be playing with.

Mini-Love

So my WHFB mini-rulebook came in the mail today. Wow, what a nice little book. And by little I mean 184 pages! Oh, and its in color with a lot of the big splash pages from the BRB.

Now all I have to do is motivate myself to actually play the game. It sounds like my Dorfs are actually pretty deadly in 8th ed.

Oh, I got some dice, and a set of crappy templates. Not bad for $20!

PAINT FIGHT! Iron Priest

So Phil over at Space Wolf Grey helped to kick start me when it comes to painting up my Iron Priest. And seeing as he has challenged me, I really felt like painting this guy. Well I sat down last night and painted up the main body, and tonight I did his backpack.

Mini-Update: Wolf Banner

So I've been hearing good things about the Wolf Banners so I decided to get a couple ready. I've used them twice now and both time I've been disappointed. Not in the Wolf Banner, in myself. The first time was when I assaulted a Daemon Prince, and forgot to pop it. In the second fight I played against Mech IG, and I the only thing I got to assault were vehicles that had moved less than 6 inches. So I'm still looking forward to tossing it out with a full squad.

Anywho, here is my first one. Done up in Red and Black for my first pack of Grey Hunters, the next one will be in Black and Red. I'm so original.

Next up on the bench, Iron Priest and Wulfen.

So two projects up on the workbench next. First is an Iron Priest with servitors. A while back my wife bought me the Techmarine with Servitors boxset. I have cut the heads off of the servitors and I have strapped on the wolf helm helmets from the Wolf Pack sprue. I have to adjust the heads a bit, because they look like they are staring at their feet, but I think they look pretty good.

Review: Fear the Alien Part I

So have you ever bit into something you expected to taste like chocolate but it tasted like strawberries instead? I mean, you like strawberries, and it tastes good, but you had your heart set on chocolate. That's how I feel about, "Fear the Alien."

For some reason I was expecting a book of stories written from the alien's point of view, and I was really excited about that. Now I don't know if I just made that up in my own head, or if I read somewhere that it was supposed to be all xenos.

It turns out that on 2 out of 10 stories were written from the xenos point of view. Now that being said, quite a few of these short stories are very, very good.

Mathhammer: Blood Claws Blah

Stolen from Big Jim on the
Space Wolves Blog.

Stolen from Lexicanum.

So I've been painting recently and just finished up 26 Blood Claws. Now It may be that this has been a waste of time because I just don't think Blood Claws are worth it in the new book which is a switch, because in the old 3rd ed. supplement, I felt the say way about Grey Hunters.

The main reason for taking the Blood Claws in the old 'dex was that they were 3 points cheaper, oh, and GHers had to pay a point to get BP and a CCW, oh, and you can get up to 3 PFs in a squad not counting a Wolf Guard Leader, and you can have up to 15 dudes which mean a lot of ablative wounds for the PFs, OH! and they get 4 attacks on the charge!

It's Been a Long Time Coming.

Well it's been a rough couple weeks getting back into the swing of work again, so my hobby has suffered. I've been working 10 hours a day and coming home and working a couple more hours.

This past weekend was a three day weekend so I actually got quite a bit done. What started out as 10 or so Blood Claws I had to do turned into 24 dudes I worked on. I didn't quite finish them before the weekend was over, but I did finish it this evening.

Review: Path of the Warrior

So this is a unusual book for The Black Library as it is from a xenos point of view, and they don't do that very often.

This book tells the tale of an eldar that, you guessed it, follows the path of the warrior. I enjoyed this book a lot, mainly because I learned a lot more about the background fluff of the eldar. I knew the basics, that they follow paths to keep their lives simple and basic, and to keep themselves from becoming too decident. We learn about a few of the paths other than the path of the warrior, the path of the sculpter, and my favorite, the path of the dreamer. If I were to be a dirty, dirty, space elf, I would totally follow the path of the dreamer.

I Choose YOU!

So I bought my Choosers yesterday, and I primed them last night. After walking the dogs this morning, I decided to paint them up. They were really quick to do. Its not my best painting, but I think they'll do fine as my Choosers of the Slain.

Impassible Terrain!

So I went down to one of the remaining FLGS this weekend in search of my choosers of the slain. They were having what looked like a 40k couples tournament. Goatboy was there playing his new daemons. Wow these models look crazy (In a good way!) Goatboy was playing with Darkwynn who appeared to be playing marines, perhaps of the chaos variety (edit: turns out they were also Blood Angels). There were only 4-5 tables going, like 16-20 people and it appeared there were 3-4 Blood Angles.

I did find the models I was looking for so I paid up and I was on my way out when I saw this, and I had to go back and take a picture.

This is Azwan (sp?), and she has been in Dragon's Lair for at least 10 years, and she is the real power behind DL. I asked the guys playing this game and they said, "Well she owns the store, we're counting her as impassible terrain."

Chooser of the Slain Dilemma

So in the last Space Wolf codex, the Chooser of the Slain was a piece of wargear that a Rune Priest could take. It counted as an additional CCW and prevented people from infiltrating near the Rune Priest. I made a Chooser for my Space Pups when I went to BoLScon. A friend of mine gave me a falcon from some WHFB empire set, and I turned it into a cyber-falcon.

Ultra-meh-rines: The Movie

So they have released a "so-called" trailer of the upcoming Ultramarines movie. The CGI bits of the trailer aren't too bad, but the fact that about 10 seconds of the 96 second trailer actually shows the CGI was disappointing to me.

I'm really excited about the voice actors they have, but I just don't like the fact the Space Marines look like my 97 year old grandpa on a bad day. I know that the Marines are supposed to be hundreds of years old, but I have never seen art from GW that shows a marine as geriatric as the ones on this trailer.

That being said, I'm sure I'll be pre-ordering the move, and I'll be watching it 10 times the first week.

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Poop on a Stick!

So last time I finished up my Grey Hunters. And for this week I was planning on getting my Blood Claws up to my new standard. Then I opened my Battlefoam case and realized that I have a TON of Blood Claws to finish up; six from one squad, four from another, and worst of all, I have another 5 dudes that I have to do from the ground up!

Before and After

So I initially painted my Space Wolves to go to BoLScon (now War Games Con). I painted most of 20 Grey Hunters, 25 Blood Claws, 2 Land Raiders, a Rune Priest, Dreadnought, 2 Wolf Guard and a Wolf Guard Battle Leader in about 2 months (pretty friggin fast for me.) My goal was to get to "table-top quality," and I think I did that.

So now, a year later, I am revisiting my painted Space Pups and setting the bar a little higher with their paint. I call in improved table-top quality! So I have highlighted the armor and bolt guns. The skin and armor got washes (different colors of course) and some basic clean-up of the painting all around.

I still haven't 100% decided what I am going to do with my right shoulder pads, so for these guys I have left them as-is.

So here is the before...

Rune Priest Plus More!

Well getting back into the swing of working has been tough. I actually finished these two models before the weekend was over, but I haven't really had the time to do anything since then.

I finished the Rune Priest and a ghetto-bashed missile launcher that came from scavenged parts.

I have six plasma pistol dudes sitting on my bench, but they just look too daunting to contemplate doing at this time. I think I may look into do a second pass at some of my Grey Hunters or Blood Claws left over from BoLScon last year, although I doubt I will have the energy to get to them before the weekend. Here's hoping.

Review: Nemesis

James Swallow seems to be a hit a miss author for me. I don't really care for many of his Blood Angles books, but I really enjoyed Flight of the Eisenstein. I believe that Mr. Swallow should stick with the Horus Heresy novels because Nemesis is a very good read.

The book feels like part detective novel and part Dirty Dozen. There is a serial killer that is being tracked down by local law enforcement on a sleepy little world that has largely untouched by the heresy. We also see the an execution force put together by all of the different sects or "clades" of assassins on Terra. These killers are sent to kill the Warmaster and stop his insurrection before it can continue any further.

Slooooooooooooow Down!

Well I started back to work on Wednesday afternoon and boy, its weird how tired I can get with just two and a half days of work! Thankfully I got most of my painting I wanted to get done before Wednesday and I was able to finish up the rest this morning. I anticipate a huge slow down once school starts, but once I get my teaching legs back, I hope to speed up again.

Anywho, here are the two Grey Hunters with power weapons I got done. I really like the fact that I have a power mace. It came off of the Dark Angles sprue, and I think its pretty unique. I already had a compliment on it, unpainted, at the Kill Team battle a couple of weeks ago.

Weekend Update

So it was a busy weekend of painting. I finished up my Long Fang Pack Leaders. I really like these guys mainly because I think I'm being clever with their backpacks. I like the skulls on top of the backpacks, they have a couple of wires and a augmetic eye. I am calling them the signum for the units. I don't care if the signum doesn't do anything anymore, I think it looks nifty! Plus this makes them look unique rather than just random dudes with bolt pistol and chain sword. I don't really expect to be taking anything other than a BP and CS as I expect my Long Fangs to be in the backfield raining missile-y death from range, and if someone outflanks into them, they are probably dead before they get to shoot.

Review: Crossfire

So this is the first of Matt Farrer's Arbitor Calpurnia series. In it we get to see an aspect of the Imperium not seen too much, one of the Adeptus Arbites. Arbitor Calpurnia has been moved to a new planet and pretty much as soon as she sets foot on the plant there is an attempt made on her life! The rest of the book follows her investigation.

This book isn't exactly what I was expecting. I was hoping for a detective story, but this book isn't like that which I dislike, but nevertheless it is a good read.

The book was a bit confusing to me in some places and while there where some good action, Calpurnia seemed to spend much of the book standing behind a group of arbites with riot shields.

This wouldn't be my first choice for a 40k book, but it isn't bad. I give it 3 shock mauls to the face out of 5!

Space Wolf Kill Team

Well I found out at noon that one of the FLGS is hosting a kill team event this evening at about 5pm. So I decided to pack up 500 points of space Wolves and give it a try.

I decided to try a Wolf Priest because I figured I can "prefer enemy" on infantry and be pretty safe seeing as we are only allowed an HQ and 2 Troops. So this kicked me in the ass to finish up my Ulrik the Slayer.

Tutorial: Quick and Easy Hair Part 1

Now I don't claim to be a very good painter, but after re-capitating all of my Space Wolves, I have a lot of hair that I have to paint. Now I got some practice painting my Dwarfs and I have, in my humble opinion, come up with a down and dirty way to paint a number of different hair colors.

Everyone started with just a black primer.

Mini-Update: Long Fang Pack Leader

So I finished my first Long Fang Pack Leader. I wasn't sure I was going to do him, so I wanted one fully completed before I did the other two.

Mathhammer: Coldblooded Leadership

So this week I was taking a look at coldblooded leadership. With this rule, whenever you take a leadership, you roll three dice and take the lowest two. Not surprising, this makes passing the leadership rolls much easier, but how much easier?

This was actually difficult for me to figure out with mathematics. The problem being, I can't just count up how many different ways there are for a person to roll a 6 on three d6 (33 different ways, fyi) but I had to count and differentiate the different rolls because 1,2,5 and 3,1,5 and 5,1,6 and 6,2,4 will all be the equivalent of a leadership roll of 6. I tried several different ways to make this easier on myself and I found that it was just a simple matter of listing out all 216 different ways you can roll three d6. Then I just went through them and figured out the sum of the two lowest dice.

WHFB 8th FAQ Checker from North West Warriors!

It may boggle the mind to find out that GW is actually putting out FAQs in a timely manner (but really, how long can we expect it to continue?) but they have already updated all of the army books and the main rule book within a very short span of time. Plus many of the army books have already had their new 8th ed. FAQs updated since the initial release.

Some inventive gentleman in England has created a script that scans the GW site for new FAQs and sends out an email to anyone that subscribes to his email list.

Jump on over to the North West Warriors forums to check it out!

War Games Con Weekend Wrap Up

So I took part in War Games Con's first working sessions and I had such a blast I don't even know where to begin!

I didn't play in the "couples" tournament because a) I'm a pussy and b) once I heard that Dave Taylor was doing a number of workshops I had a nerdgasm!

I walked around the hall quite a few times and it was very busy. There was the 40k and WHFB couples tournament a well as Flames of War and Warmachine Tournaments on the first day and then the WHFB and 40k singles tournaments on Saturday and Sunday along with three narrative Appoc battles.

War Games Con 2010 Rules Quiz

So here is the 40K rules quiz they gave out this year at War Games Con, enjoy!

1) How many models must a 12-man unit of Chaos Space marines lose in one shooting phase in order to be required to take a morale test?

2) How close can a unit Scout towards an enemy unit?

3) Frag Grenades have what strength against vehicles?

4) A Leman Russ Battle Tank moves forward just over 8" to strike an Ork Battlewagon in the side. What is the strength of the Russ' ram against the Battlewagon?

5) An immobilized Space Marine Dreadnought, armed with the stock layout, has how many attacks in close combat?

6) What is the coherency distance for a War Walker squadron?

7) What is the coherency distance for an Attack Bike squadron?

8) What dice rolls normally result in Perils of the Warp?

9) Give three conditions that normally prevent regrouping.

10) The minimum cost of an Imperial Guard Infantry Platoon is how many points?

11) What are the name, strength and AP of the missiles fired by a Whirlwind?

12) A Wolf Lord armed with a Thunderhammer and Stormshield with the Saga of the Warrior Born destroys a Guardian squad, ending the enemy assault phase with 12 attacks. In his next turn, he charges a squad of warwalkers, inflicting 4 penetrating hits, 3 glancing hits, and 2 undamaging hits. How many attacks does the Wolf Lord get in the next round of close combat?

13) Without using psychic powers or near any friendly model, what is Mephiston's initiative on the charge?

14) A Wyche Archite with Combat Drug Dispenser, Agonizer, and Splinter Pistol get at most how many attacks on the charge?

15) What is the effect of Eldar Runes of Warding on a Psyker 25" away from the Farseer with the Runes?

16) What is the cost of a Grey Knight Justicar with Meltabombs, Frag Grenades, Sacred Incense, a Nemesis Force Weapon and Storm Bolter?

17) List the name of each Ork HQ Special Character in order of points cost.

War Games Con Day 2 Photos!

Four albums and 252 pictures from Day 2!

40k

WHFB

Narrative Campaign

Painting Competition 

War Games Con Day 1 Photos

99 photos from today here and here, plus the best team write up, right there

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ZOMG WAR GAMES CON STARTS TODAY!!!!!!1!11!!!!TWO!

I'm ready for a fun-tastic fun-filled fun-venture with Dave Taylor today. I plan on getting down there early so I can take pictures before the "couples" tournament starts.

Pictures this evening.

Audio Book Review: Heart of Rage

So I got my hands on another of Black Library's audio books. This time it is Heart of Rage by James Swallow.

The book details a Blood Angels squad entering a dead Tyranid hive ship in order to find an Adeptus Mechanicus team that had previously been sent in to the ship.

This book is read by Toby Longworth he reads all of the BL audio books and he does an excellent job. I was a little critical of some of his voices in Thunder from Fenris (because one of them sounded like a certain California Governor) but I really have no complaints in this one. He voices about 10 different people throughout the book and manages to make each of them pretty distinct.
As for the story itself, it is a little predictable, the Astartes are sent into the Tyranid ship which they are assured is dead, but lo and behold... not so much. Combat ensues... yadda yadda yadda. 

I don't want to sound like I am detracting the story. It is a bit predictable, but I think it is well done. Perhaps it is the sound effects that go along with the audio book, but it did a good job of keeping me interested.

My big complaint, as with Thunder from Fenris was the length. If this book were in written format, it would be a short story, and I believe that this book would fit in nicely with one of the many anthologies that BL has put out, but this is a stand alone story, and instead of coming in a large book for about $13, it is by itself for about $20. 

I went to the gym this morning, listen to the story while I worked out, and on the way home, I was done with it. Seems a bit too short for the money I spent.

I give the book three slaughtered Hive Tyrants out of five.