Audio Book Review: Garro: Oath of Moment

Here is another of one Black Library's audio book. This one if set in the Horus Heresy story arch and it is called Garro: Oath of Moment. This book takes place right after the fourth Horus Heresy book, Flight of the Eisenstein and lets us in on the fate of Garro.

I didn't know the fluff behind this. I didn't know that Garro was a known figure in 40k fluff before I read Eisenstein and I found out much later that people who hadn't read the HH book, knew who he was. Garro is a unique person during the Heresy. As far as I know, he is one of the only space marines to go against his Primarch when he turned from the Emperor. Right there, you gotta respect this guy.

Podcasting: Heelan Hammer

Last summer, I was finishing up my dwarf army and listening to Podhammer so I had something to listen to as I painted and pinned and what not. As summer began, I was running out of old episodes of Podhammer and was looking for something new. I don't remember exactly how I got to Heelan Hammer, I'm pretty sure Jeff from Podhammer was talking about it, but I did find it.

Dan Heelan and Wayne Kemp are Warhammer Fantasy Battle fanatics. They live in England and I really hate them because they go to Warhammer World to play quite often. Their podcast is similar to World End's Radio in that they are pretty clean. And again, it is nice to have some podcasts that are clean and some that aren't.

And Now For Something Completely Different

I've been feeling a bit discouraged lately with GW. I am really getting down on their release schedule. I've been a bit bored. I think someone was looking out for me because it seemed that almost all of the podcasts I listen to on a regular basis did some stuff with Warmachine all within the same month. The game seems pretty intriguing, but really, I'm just looking for something different.

Book Review: Savage Scars

This is the next book by Andy Hoare after his space marines battle book, Hunt for Voldorius. Like the previous book, this one deals with the White Scars, but like the last book, the White Scars are not the only players. In the last book it was the Raven Guard space marines, here it is imperial guard, and a whole host of other space marines.

This book tells the story of the beginning of the Damocles Gulf Crusade. A pretty hastily assembled crusade has been put together to put down the Tau incursion. This is one of the first times the Imperium has come into contact with the Tau after an initial discovery a couple thousand years ago, when the Tau were savages.

Well now things are different. The Tau are more advanced that expected and someone actually suggests that they may be more advanced technology-wise than the Imperium.

Book Review: Blood Gorgons

So I finished Blood Gorgons a few days ago, and I gotta say, its a good book!

I was kinda down on Henry's Zou's second book, "Flesh and Iron," and althought I haven't written a review for it, I thought his first book, "Emporer's Mercy," was kinda, "meh," but for me at least, third time really is the charm!

This book tells us about a Chaos Space Marine warband named the Blood Gorgons. These guys were founded and excommunicated all within one generation (not sure if that is human generation or Space Marine generation, which could be a really long time) and in the couple thousdand years since that time, they have been raiding the imperium.

So Much for Grey Knights

So I have been getting bored with my Space Wolves lately. I'm not bored of playing them (althought I am tired of hearing how overpowered they are) but just painting them. I really haven't painted anything for them since December. Recently I bought the Forge World Space Wolf Dreadnaught and I haven't even finished putting it together yet. I just feel, "meh" about putting them together and painting them.

Book Review: Courage and Honour

Here comes the latest Graham McNiell Ultramarine book, Courage and Honour. Uriel and Pasanius have been returned to Macragge after their adventures on Salinas. The two have been tested for the taint of Chaos and have been found (more or less) innocent.Uriel is given back the command of the 4th Company and is sent back to the world of Pavonis due to a threat from the Tau Empire. But everything is not at easy as that. Although Uriel is back in command, the veteran sergeant that has been in command of the company in his absence seems a little reluctant to hand the power back to Uriel. I really liked this. It gave some depth of character to the Ultramarines in general. They are supposed to be tradition and strictly adhere to the Codex Astartes, and yet, this sergeant does not want to give up the company he has held together for the past few years. It shows that the Ultramarines are not the cookie cutter "smurfs" that ever one thinks they are.

Games Day: Hutto

The other weekend I had some friends over. We got together to watch Ultramarines: The Movie, and for me to introduce them to Warhammer 40,000. 

Most of them had some idea of what the game was about, but for a few it was their first glimpse of the grim darkness of the 41st millenium. We started out, as I said, watching the Ultramarines movie. Now I haven't posted anything about the movie (I got it for Christmas), and I am sad to say it's pretty bad.

Podcasting: Podhammer

Back in November of 2009, I got bit by the Warhammer Fantasy Battle bug. I decided to build me a Dwarf army. That year all of my Christmas gifts were from GW and I must admit they were all pretty beardy. You can see some of the work I did here.

I set myself a goal. To paint an entire in five months. So I came home every night and painted for two to three hours. Now while I was painting, I liked to listen to something. Enter Podhammer.

Book Review: Flesh and Iron

Flesh and Iron is the second book from Henry Zou and the second book of the Bastion Wars series.  This is the story of the 88th Battalion of the 31st Riverine Regiment. They are on the world of Solo-Bastón to fight a Chaos uprising/incursion.

I have to give it to Mr. Zou, he writes a hell of a fight scene. He did it in Emperor's Mercy and he does it here. The are, however, many problems with this book as with the previous.

For one thing there were some overt anti-Vietnam war tones to this book. The vast strength of the Imperium against the indigenous fighters with covert help from Chaos. Add to that the terrible way that the indigenous peoples are treated by the Imperium and it looks a lot like southeast Asia to me. Add to that the fact that we have pretty much the oldest plot line in 40k, and probably fiction itself. Corrupt bureaucrats that are sending the noble warriors on an apparent suicide mission.

Book Review: Execution Hour

So for my birthday last year my wife bought me all of the available Print on Demand books from the Black Library. It has taken me a while (like nine months) but I have finally got to this one.

The Gothic War book, which is made up of the books Execution Hour and Shadowpoint are like many of the print on demand books in that they are old and out of print. Unlike some of the old Black Library books, these hold up pretty well as the years have past (at least Exection Hour has). There are no Landraiders that have Dreadnaught carrying capacity (I'm looking at you Crusade for Armageddon). I think this mainly has to do with the fact that it is mainly fleet-based combat, and not a single Space Marine in the book.

Battle Report: Space Wolves vs. Orks

So a buddy of mine threw down with a couple of 1500 point lists. He is just getting back into 40k, so we went for "fun" lists. I didn't want to take anything too face smashy. We rolled up the mission and we got a capture and control mission with Dawn of War deployment. The orks won the roll to go first, so he placed his objective left of center (from my point of view) behind some ruins. I placed mine middle left in some cover.

Book Review: The Purging of Kadillus

So I finished this book the other day. I must say, I am really enjoying the Space Marine Battles books. It could be because I am a huge Space Marine Fanboy, or it could be because they are excellent books. I'm betting its a little of both.

This story, like the others, centers around one major engagement for a Space Marine chapter (well the Hunt for Voldorius had two chapters, but I digress). This chapter being the Dark Angels. If I had picked up this book before I had picked up William King's Rangar books, I probably would have been a Dark Angels player, I've always thought they were a cool chapter.

Podcasting: World's End Radio

After I had been listening to 40k Radio a while, they started talking about this hobby network they had created. It had the D6 Generation, Podhammer, and this other site, 40k Radio. I didn’t really give D6 much of a chance, because I wasn’t much interested in general gaming. I didn’t give Podhammer much of a chance because I wasn’t much into Fantasy.
I did, however give World’s End Radio a chance because they were supposed to cover not only 40k, but Battle Fleet Gothic, and Epic 40k, both of which I was interested in. The first episode I listened to covered the rules of BFG and this game called Blood Bowl which appeared to be a cross between Fantasy, American Football and Rugby.

Bjorn is Back in Town!

So I got my copy of White Dwarf yesterday, and I was like, "blah, skaven, blah dark eldar, blah." Then I opened it up and what did I see?

BAM! Bjorn the Fell Handed is going to be re-released! Hes up for pre-order on the GW site right now, and he is supposed to ship on the 22nd of January!