Tabletop Teacher

First, things that keep me from blogging: DofE Expeditions Report Writing House Drama rehearsals School inspections during House Drama But the things that keep me blogging? "Reivers... they're like Space Marine ninjas." Jus' gonna sneak up on dis git 'ere... Ork snipers... We'z got da 'igh ground! Dat meanz our dakka 'urtz more! WAAAGGGHHH!!! Vicious fire fights Sniper rifles were meant for assault range... The inexorable approach of The Law... and Kau'yon ambushes. Hope you've got a permit for those pulse rifles, mate. And finally... the Light of the Emperor Cue the orchestral music Kill Team has been a fantastic thing for the school club, and I really hope to share all the stories falling out of it soon. Sorry for the lack of regular updates. Until next time. Thanks for reading. If you liked what you saw, and you want to help out, please leave a comment. Sharing this with your friends, a...

About a subtle as a brick to the face that title. It's been a mad week, with Duke of Edinburgh expeditions, new reporting systems and other events kicking off, hence the total lack of posts. I have been saving this for a while, at least until the Genestealer Cults investigation is complete. I'm unlikely to finish until next week though, so enjoy this small preview of my new "Space Wolf" Great Company colour scheme. Yes, this post and the piece I did on Magnus are two of the forms of suicide on Fenris. I do like how the base green came out, and unlike many similar guides didn't need anything apart from standard Citadel paints. A proper guide is incoming! Until next time! Hopefully! If I can avoid the Sons of Russ a few days longer... Thanks for reading. If you liked what you saw, and you want to help out, please leave a comment. Sharing this with your friends, and following me on Twitter , Facebook or Google+ would also be hugely appreciated. ...

Term has officially started, with all our boarders back this evening. The house is alive with the bumps and crashes of boys trashing their bed rooms. Great to be back in the wing of things! I will be continuing on with the analysi of the Adeptus Mechanicus in Kill Team, but I have a reader request to carry out first: Howdy, I am new to 40k and just staring out with my friends. I am interested in the Chaos Space Marines. I was wondering if you could recommend a good 500pt army that I could put together. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks. PS. I was thinking of either Black or Alpha Legion. Matthew Winning First of all Matthew, have you and your friends tried Kill Team yet? It’s a cheaper and quicker way to get started! Chaos Space Marines, now known as the Heretic Astartes, are in somewhat of a poor position for beginners. The models are getting rather dated now, unless you’re going Death Guard or Thousand Sons, and their classic Troops choice is mostly out-performed ...

Just a few pictures before the next post for the Complete Blood Angels Beginners Guide. Of all the Chaos Space Marine Legions, I'm most drawn to the Alpha Legion (with Sons of Horus being a close second), and I've tried a few times to do their colour scheme justice. Two weeks ago I managed to find a local supplier of Tamia paints, and I picked up some Metallic Blue. The colour is nice, but the paint dried really quickly, and separated out on the pallet extremely quickly as well. I added some thinner, and it seemed to work better. The highlights were done with Stormhost Silver, and then washed over with Waywatcher Green glaze. I also gave the model a pin wash of Drakenhoff Nightshade in the crevices of the armour. I like the effect, but I think the blue metallic paint is a bit of a waste. You can get a similar effect with just washing Drakenhoff Nightshade over Stormhost Silver. You might be able to get a more vibrant blue with Guilliman Blue glaze, but I haven...

WARNING: Contains philosophy and ideas from a Physics teacher. Treat with extreme scepticism (and pity). Warhammer 40K, and the creative sphere it creates, is predominantly a visual medium. Whilst there are models we can pick up, and abstract rules we can endlessly analyse, by far and away the most important aspect of the game is the things we see. This is why you like playing against a fully painted army as opposed to the Plastic Grey Marines. We understand on an instinctive level that people with un-painted armies are not playing the game properly. Since 40K is so heavily informed by visuals, it should come as no surprise that the symbols used are hugely important. I can guarantee that a number of new players are attractied to certain armies simply by the badge they wear, or the aesthetic of their icons. So it might be useful to know what the symbols mean as you go about making Your Dudes(TM). One of the most easily recognised symbols in Warhammer (both 40K and Age of Sigmar...

Absolutely rammed at the moment, which is why the blog is updating so sporadically. However, it does not mean nothing is happening (only that my statistics are steadily getting worse... grumble grumble). Here are a few shots of the first 40K skirmishes in the club, including a few from a quick starter match I ran for raw neophytes. All the painted models in these pictures are from student Initiates. The only ones left base coated are mine or club models... teacher needs to catch up on his painting! There was actually a game played with that last picture, but people forgot which models were theirs. It turned into an absolute mess, where random numbers of dice were being rolled, and unit cohesion was lost altogether. Cultists were flailing around randomly, with new cultists being brought to the field as players tried to work out what casualties should have stayed on the field. On the upside, I think I just created a mini-game to play out the Ork Mob-rule ...

It's been a very full on week, but we're finally through to Sunday. I know today is Saturday, but for me the next day starts when the last boarders door closes... baring any late night bed flipping. By the way, if you are a boarding student, don't flip your friend's bed. It's a pain, and we already know you've done it before you've even walked into the room to do it. In between shifts at the house at teaching lessons, I finally managed to finish off my Three Musketeers: They've all been converted to ride Discs of Tzeetnch. The only problem is, is that they're no longer the psychic power houses they were in 7th Edition. I'll need to try them out as a small force, but I don't think they'll do enough damage to make them viable. But they were always like that. Aramis, Athos, Porthos and D'Artagnan  have always been about taking on ridiculous odds and coming out on top! Until next time. Thanks for reading. If you l...

I received a comment on a now defunct 7th Edition Chaos Space Marine Starter list , asking what I'd do if I were to go nuts with creating a Chaos Space Marine starter army. This means no restrictions on using Starter kits, and just picking what I thought would be the most broken combinations. Here's the full comment from reader Grimtoof: Hello, I was looking for a 500 point escalation league list and came across your amazing post! So, two questions for you: 1. I'm not not limited to the box set or models owned (I own a bunch of stuff from playing in past editions). What other brutal 500 point list would you conceive without any limitations? 2. I'm also starting a escalation league this Friday and was wondering what other increasing point value lists would look like? (500 to 1500 points). Looking forward to hearing your thoughts and more Alpha legion posts! Thanks for commenting! The questions you raise uncovered a very big gap in my knowledge, and a cons...

More rules for the Death Guard have dropped , but before we get into it I just want to say a special thanks to Lemondish. Thanks to him my blog titles can only be mildly click baity, instead of flagrantly click baity. The Gardeners of Nurgle approach fresh growing grounds On to the Death Guard, with some rules with a few but significantly powerful rules. Here are the units they get from the vanilla codex: Chaos Lords, Sorcerers Chaos Cultists Helbrutes Possessed Chaos Spawn Chaos Land Raiders Defilers Chaos Predators Chaos Rhinos.  How these units interact with the rules will make or break this army, so let's dive in! Really quite good for. All your hell brutes and Infantry can now move and shoot without penalty, giving this army some rather quirky mobility. Although they're not the quickest at travel, they suffer nothing for doing so. So... quirky mobility. The rapid fire increase also gives them greater threat range, so mobility is ...