Distractions

I’ve been somewhat distracted this week.

Work has been a constant drain on my energies since I now work 6 days a week at both my graduation internship and McDonalds. In fact, it’s been such a strain that I’ve decided to quit working at McDonalds, even though it’s been my best part-time job ever and it’ll probably be rough times ahead without the extra income.

For my graduation internship I also have to travel back and forth for about 3 hours by train every day. This has had the nifty little side-effect that I now tear through my black library books like there’s no tomorrow. The First Heretic by Aaron Dembski-Bowden has been the first to fall.

Did I ever mention that I like chaos space marines? For those not in the know: The First Heretic is about the how the Word Bearers legion introduced the worship of Chaos to the imperium of man and set in motion the massive war of betrayal that was the Horus Heresy. This right here is also precisely why I love to read Horus Heresy books. Every book reads like it’s history in the making. It’s immensely fascinating to me how all these small coïncidences and decisions, usually motivated by very understandable human emotions, end up shaping these incredibly epic and apocalyptic events. The First Heretic has this stuff in spades.

Another thing I never fail to enjoy is a story that makes me sympathise with a vilain. Even regular space marines are a bunch of superhuman indoctrinated psychopaths who kill people with less emotion than I feel when making a sandwhich. Chaos Space Marines (and the Word Bearers in particular) do not only go around commiting horrible genocide around the universe, but are also the ones that come up with the brilliant idea to start worshipping daemons from hell and completely betray and murder their own brothers while they’re at it. It’s a testament to a story when you can not only be a witness to all of this, but still get that “I know that feel” moment in the midst of it.

Even chaos marines need a hug sometimes.

Then again, this is Aaron Dembski-Bowden we’re talking about here and, as he has proven with his excellent Night Lords series, chaos space marines and their inner workings are his expertise.

The only thing I felt was missing in this book were the absence of a single, continuous plotline. The main character in this book is the word bearers captain Argel Tal, but since this guy is ‘merely’ a captain and therefore not present at most of the plotting and scheming that goes on behind the scenes, I felt like I missed some important points from the main story. This is remedied to some extent by switching storytelling focus around a lot to the other characters, but this doesn’t actually achieve the ‘best of both worlds’ effect that it should. This is a problem with more heresy books though as I had kinda the same complaint while reading Fulgrim, for instance.

All in all, everyone who’s interested in 40k and the Horus Heresy in general should not miss this book. I highly reccomend it for a deeper understanding of the 40k universe if nothing else. 8 out of 10.

So, besides working and getting wierd looks from the people sitting beside me on the train, the rest of my week was spent getting together with friends, rehearsing/recording with the band (anyone know a good bass player near Eindhoven?) and playing Space Marine. I said in my last blog that I might give it a review this time, but I don’t really feel like it right now and there’s already loadsofgoodreviewsoutthere anyway.

As for the progres I made on the warband this week:

….

Get ready for it people…

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I assembled and basecoated 2 chaos sorcerers.


Now that’s there’s some good-ol’ fashioned metal.

Death to the False Emperor.

The Price of Progress

It’s been one hell of a holiday.

So much so that the time to write a decent blog entry has been desperately lost to me these past two months. However: I have returned with the last two Chaos Space Marine squads and their Rhino transports finished. Behold!

Apologies for the bad lighting on the pictures. The natural lighting in my room sucks and I’m too lazy to try anything semi-proffesional to fix it. Better luck next time I guess.

So it seems the warband is shaping up. I’m currently still working on the Defilers and a pair of Chaos Sorcerers though, so look out for some updates on these sometime soon.

In the meantime the 40k universe will be keeping me busy through Space Marine:

Damn that game is awesome! I’ve spent about 6 hours playing the campaign so far and it’s been all kinds of crazy. The weapons, the levels, the enemies, the flow of the game and even the story have positively surprised me at every turn. As long as the multiplayer doesn’t dissapoint I can see myself playing this game as enthusiastically as I did Gears of War when it came out. I might provide a full review in a couple of days, but so far my only gripes are the absense of co-op and splitscreen options and the imperial voice acting being a tad on the lame side (ork voices are as ace as always though).

Anyhow, this is where I’ll be leaving things for time being. Look more updates on the Shades of Tranquil and perhaps a review of Space Marine in the next blog. Also: holler in the comments if you’re enjoying this game as much I am. Beter yet, if you’re also playing on xbox live: leave your gamertag and meet up with DaanofWar online!

Death to the False Emperor!

Back in Black (and Blue)

Jep, you’re reading it right. Daan of War has restarted… again.
I’d rather not dwell on the motivations behind the deletion of the last one and the sudden decision to start anew, but instead focus on the stuff I have been doing during the last few months. Namely: Working on my Chaos Space Marine warband.

In an attempt to train my highlighting technique and improve my painting skills, those who have been following my old blog might remember that I’m in the process of repainting an entire 1700pts army of chaos space marines. The new colour scheme uses at least 4 times as many different pots of paints as the last one and looks a hell of a lot better if I may say so myself. Pics are later on in this post.

I’ve also been working on a name and background for the army, which is something they’ve never had before. I always like getting into the storytelling side of the hobby, but somehow it never really happened for this army and a couple of days ago (with some help from a /tg/ thread) I’ve come up with the following background:

9th Company of the Shadow Lords are all that is left of their chapter after their homeworld Tranquil had turned out to be a necron tomb world. Their captain, Darius Vyle, has called out for help to nearby space marine chapters many times since the necrons had emerged but recieved no replies. For a while now, Vyle has been haunted by the whispers of Tzeentch and, at his most desperate moment, agrees to a pact that will eliminate the necron threat from Tranquil and save what is left of his beloved company. In return he vows to serve the Changer of Ways as a daemon prince for the rest of eternity and hunt down the imperial scum that had refused to come to their aid.

Henceforth all imperial worlds in the sector that surrounds the now deserted ruins of a planet once named Tranquil, are being haunted and corrupted by the highly dangerous chaos warband that call themselves “The Shades of Tranquil”.

So, with that saucy bit of fluff out of the way, here are some pics of what I’ve completed so far:

The first squad. These guys are also probably the “horniest” members of my warband. *snort* Geddit?

The second squad. Although they’re not as “horny” as the first squad (I kill myself), they make up for it by whipping their hair around in a synchronised manner. Either that or they’re always standing in a really windy area. I guess the great Tzeentch blesses his children in mysterious ways.

My first finished rhino transport. I’m currently working on the second one. For those who remember my previous blog, I was having trouble with getting the blue tone right without having to wash the entire vehicle. Turns out the solution is Chaos Black and water, at a 1:3 ratio.

My termicide unit. Looking pimp as fuck. It’s a total shame that they’re really a suicide unit.

Darius Vyle, the Shadowcursed. Lord of the Shades of Tranquil. Giving you the finger.

Check out the mad conversion skills on these oblits baby! Daan of War once again proves that anything can look decent as long as you keep slapping on random bitz and greenstuff.

And finally, an inquisitorial henchmen I’ve been working on. I used him as an adept for a Dark Heresy campaign once but only recently finished painting him. His last in-game moment was ramming a truck into a line of heavy bolter emplacements. It was pretty epic.

And that concludes the first post of this newly reinstated wargaming blawg.

Thanks for reading!