Dreadball Part 2: Quick and Dirty
Ishibashi FoodCo
Everyone has to eat something and the Ishibashi Interstellar Food Conglomerate, often simply referred to as Ishibashi FoodCo, knows that. The company is specialized in serving the outer rim of the Co-Prosperity Sphere, as many of the regular suppliers are avoiding these zones. Now Ishibashi also wants to take root in the galactic core and wants to draw attention accordingly. What better way is there to do that than with a corporate Dreadball team?
And with this little intro I welcome you to the long-announced series of Dreadball articles. Last year, I introduced my Maurauders team and showed what can be done with a little bit of effort.
Necromunda Luther Pattern Excavation Automata Ambot
Another reincarnation of the Ambull is going to be released today, after the Dread Ambull, the Necromunda gang leaders can bulk up with some big buys, the Luther Pattern Ambots.
Back in April 2018, so almost a year ago, we saw the first artwork in a teaser by Forge World. So when the miniature(s) were introduced this January on the New Year's Open Day, it was a bit of a surprise, that the Ambot would be released as a plastic kit, available at Games Workshops and independent retailers, not as a resin kit (like the bounty hunters and such) exclusive through Forge World.
The Ambot is a mechanical recreation of the Ambull, using its instincts to claw and dig through soil, as a mining robot, or in high-gothic the Luther Pattern Excavation Automata "Ambot".
Warhammer 40,000 Kill Team Starn’s Disciples
Kill Team is an incredibly successful brand for Games Workshop and the supplements keep coming. So it is time to not just look at the very interesting Kill Zones, like Sector Fronteris or Sector Mechanicus, but one of the actual Kill Teams.
With the re-release of the Genestealer Cult back in 2016, the new Kill Team Starn's Disciples is one of the boxes that really caught my eye. The Kill Teams go hand in hand with a combatant, in this case the Mechanicus warband of Theta 7 Aquisitus and the matching Kill Zone, the mentioned above Sector Fronteris using the Ryza Pattern ruins.
Warhammer 40,000 Monopoly
With the Games Workshop licensing expanding, the brand of Warhammer comes to new products and merchandise. There is clothing, video games and even funko pops, and of course some classics like board games. But when you're thinking about Warhammer and board games, you're probably thinking of Heroquest or maybe one of the newer incarnations like Warhammer Quest. So Monopoly comes as a bit of a surprise. But here it is - Monopoly Warhammer 40,000.
Monopoly comes as a white label product for quite some time now. There are multiple localized variants of Monopoly, branding it with cities and replacing the well-known streets of Monopoly with those of the branded city. But the customizing doesn't stop there, so we now have Monopoly Game of Thrones, Walking Dead or Lord of the Rings, replacing the streets with matching places and the player figures with icons from the setting.
Blackstone Fortress – The Dreaded Ambull
The first supplement for Warhammer Quest Blackstone Fortress was released last weekend. It is called, The Dreaded Ambull, and covers a new scenario including matching upgrades and miniatures.
When Blackstone Fortress was released, it was already announced, that it wouldn't stay a single release and further supplements and additions would be released. It is once again, a blast from the past, bringing the Ambull from the Rogue Trader era of Warhammer 40,000 into today's releases. Therefore catching not only the attention as a new release, but from the "veterans" as well.
Tactica 2019 – Part 1
As teasered last week, I went to Tactica in Hamburg! As this was a prolonged weekend in the pearl of the north, my - better said our - trip started on friday late noon.
Tactica 2019 – Part 2
The coverage of Part 1 continues with the prominent guests of Tactica.
The twin brothers Michael and Alan Perry were at the show, sculpting, having a chat with the guests and even added one of the show miniatures. But they weren't alone, they had Aly Morrison (who sculpted the Great War Miniatures range) and Peter Dennis (artists of multiple box artworks, Osprey and Warlord Games published works, and of Peters Paperboys).
Oldhammer – The hunt
The journey through Oldhammer continues. I gave the introduction and the first part of choosing and preparing an retro-project. Next step, get yourself some old miniatures.
But before you start buying, make sure you know what you're looking for. I suggested SoLegends for their vast amount of catalogue pages and beyond that, there are dedicated pages like Collecting Citadel Miniatures, if you're looking primarely for rare or limited miniatures.
One important to thing, when you're buying second hand / used miniatures, especially multi-part, that you're aware that they are multipart. To stay with the example of my Imperial Guard project, it is not that useful to buy a cheap griffon without the crew or a Yarrick without his banner and then spending more money and time on looking for that missing bit. Therefore it makes more sense to buy the complete model and save yourself the hassle. But in somecases it is difficult to be aware, that there are missing pieces, for example with the commlink operators, often the commlink backpack is missing, or the turret armour of the hellhound.
Oldhammer – Choosing and preparing a project
To continue the Oldhammer series, introducing on how to tackle such a project. If we compare it to restoring an oldtimer / classic car, you would decide for a brand and car, narrowing it down which build and mark you are looking for. I suggest a similar approach to an Oldhammer project.
Especially for the beginning, it might make sense to narrow it down to a smaller core and later on extend the project. Of course Oldhammer isn't limited to 40k, you could do this with Warhammer Fantasy, Rogue Trader, Blood Bowl or any other game system that Games Workshop covered before 1992-98. One of the army bundles would be a solid starting ground, as they cover a determined and tractable number of miniatures, thus being not that costly (of course, varying what army you go for, Chaos Dwarves are a total different book than Space Marines).
I for example went with the Imperial Guard range from the 2nd edition, and focus on a squad of each of the regiments / units available during that period, using the old Codex supplement as a guide.
Warhammer 40.000 Killzone: Sector Fronteris
A bit unexpected a new Killzone was released, the Killzone Sector Fronteris. So far, the existing Killzones were based upon already released terrain kits and repacked them with a solid bargain. The Sector Fronteris makes use of the STC Ryza Pattern design, that were first introduced with the Realm of Battle Moon Base Klaisus and later in a smaller kit as the Ryza Pattern STC Ruins. The later I already covered in a review on here.
What does STC Ryza pattern mean in this case? A STC is a standard-template-construct, that enables the Construct Machines of the Empire to produce specific objects, to a certain standard, equally and easily all over the Empire with the local ressources. These STC aren't just covering buildings like the Ryza pattern, but vehicles, like the Rhino, generators or shelters.
This kit comes at the regular price tag of 65 EUR for the Killzones. It is a bit tricky to calculate the savings on this kit, the other kits usually have a value of at least 110 EUR. Beside the last before this one, the Wall of Martyrs, where the saving dropped by quite a bit. This box covers the large frame from the Moon Base twice, but none of the smaller ones (those were moved towards the Killteams Starn's Disciples and Theta 7), so a new sprue was added to the box. But more on that below.