Sunday, March 31, 2013

We Need More Magnets!

Sunday and Monday nights are usually my nights to airbrush since I'm solo at work for most of the night but last night was spent assembling and magnetizing a Land Speeder Vengeance/Dark Shroud.

This model has received a lot of hate on the internet but I REALLY like the way it looks when it's all put together.  It builds really well and is pretty easy to magnetize to use it for either variation.


To do the Vengeance version I just put magnets on the sides of the turret where the plasma cannons go and dropped in a magnet on each cannon.

For the Dark Shroud variation I cut the tabs off the part that fits where the cannons go so it sits flush and added a magnet to the bottom of the statue then put another under the top of the turret so it's held in the center.

For the assault cannon/heavy bolter I just used a pin on the gunner's handle that goes into the gun and holds it in place.

So tonight I will be priming and base coating both of these so the owner can get started painting them.

Oh... and I bought this tonight from a guy that was very motivated to sell it for a great price.  Maybe I can get it done this year.

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Seriously, the Dice are Trying to Kill Me

Got in a game yesterday against my arch nemesis, Michael.  I was using a Dark Eldar Venom Spam list (Vect, Incubi (x4), True Born (x4 with 2 dark lances), Warriors (2x5 with 1 blaster each) and Wyches (4x5 with haywire grenades), 8 Venoms (dual splinter cannon) and 2 Razorwings(1 with dark lances and one with disintigrator cannons) against his CSM allied with Daemons 1 land raider, Abaddon, Kharne, Berzerkers, Daemon Prince, Bloodthirster, Bloodletters (2x10), Havocs (2x5 with lascannons) and Cultists (2x20 or so).

Overall I had a solid game plan and the poison with the splinter cannons should have done a lot of damage to his monstrous creatures and between six lance shots I should have been able to take out the land raider.

Nope... the dice hated me.  I did manage to take out the Daemon Prince in the first turn but it too me two more turns of shooting to kill the Bloodthirster due to stupidly bad dice.

Some fun (not so much) things that happened in the game...
4 Wyches assaulted the land raider with haywire grenades.  It moved so I needed 3+ to hit and 2+ to glance... I rolled four 2's to hit.  They died to shooting the next turn.
Vect decided to assault Abaddon (who was alone at that point).  Abaddon overwatched, got one hit and wounded... and I rolled a 1 for my save, negating my shadow field.  The game was lost before that assault, I just thought it would be fun to do... but with that I called it.

In the end of Turn 5, when I conceded, he held 3 objectives, had linebreaker, two points from killing heavies (Razorwings) and had we played it out he would have had Slay the Warlord (total 13 points) to me holding no objectives, first blood, one point for a heavy and linebreaker (total 3 points).  I had six models remaining on the table at the end of the game.

My dice were so bad that tonight I took my 36 count cube of Chessex dice and rolled the hell out of them.  I rolled all 36 dice fifty times and wrote down the totals.  I was actually surprised that they rolled ABOVE AVERAGE for the most part.

19 out of 50 rolls the majority was 1-3
20 out of 50 rolls the majority was 4-6
11 out of 50 rolls were even

On average, when you roll 36 dice 50 times each number should come up 300 times.
1 - 300
2 - 310
3 - 278
4 - 305
5 - 298
6 - 309

I'm actually going to sit down with my other 5 bricks of dice and do the same thing and see my results.

Yes, I am that crazy.

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Actually Getting Stuff Done

Tonight I finished up the Thunderwolf and the base for him as well as the two Guardians of the Covenant models.  I didn't do any basing on the Guardians because I'm not sure what the guy wants so I'll work with him on them later.
I'm really happy with the base on the wolf.


Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Thunderwolf and Arena Rex

Got a lot done on the Thunderwolf last night.  I'm still waiting on the paints for the Wolf Lord that goes with him though.  I'm pretty happy with the results so far.
I'm pretty much done with the wolf at this point and am almost done with the base.  I just need to do the gold highlights on the Thousand Son and a little bit of weathering to it and then do a few additions to the base to finish it all up.

One other thought, I'm very tempted to get into Arena Rex.  I think the models they have previewed look amazing and even if I never play it I would love to paint those models.  The one thing stopping me so far is the cost.  It looks like the models are going to average about $17 each.  If they are all as good as the Aquila sculpt, I'm definitely in but since they only have two models previewed at this point, I'm going to wait to see what else they show up.  With 25 more days to go, I'm hoping they can get a few more sculpts up before the close of the kickstarter.

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

WWX

Got my survey for Wild West Exodus today and I am trying really hard not to go too crazy on this thing.  I love the Warrior Nation models (especially Sitting Bull and Geronimo) but I also really like the Outlaws.  Having so much on my plate I've had to decide to just go with the Warrior Nation for now.  Even limiting myself to that I've already almost doubled my $299 pledge in extra stuff.  Silly me, I'm a sucker for cool terrain and the stuff they are offering from Micro Art Studios looks really cool and should go well with the stuff I have coming from Impudent Mortal.

I'm looking forward to getting my hands on all this stuff in September.  Hopefully I'll have worked through enough of my backlog to get right into them.

I also got word that my Dreadball Season II stuff has shipped as well as my Impudent Mortal terrain so I'm going to be even busier than normal here real soon... and just before I go on vacation, too.

Speaking of vacation, I'll be in the states for about a month and will not be updating this blog for a while then.  I leave in mid May and return in mid June.  Of course, I'll keep you posted as I get closer to the actual dates.  Anyway, a couple of places I'll be hitting on my trip that have me excited are the Battlefoam Gaming Saloon where I hope to con Kyle, Rik or Romeo into a game (and get a look at the actual WWX models), Gamer's Haven in Colorado Springs, Co, which is my old stomping grounds (as well as the place that got me into 40K and is, in my opinion, the best game store in the country) and I'll be seeing my buddies from my LARP days (never told you about that, did I?) in West Texas.  I'll also be doing a little scouting in Austin, TX to figure out a good location for a game store.

Oh... and I get to get some more ink which will definitely include this

No hobby tonight but I'll be back at it tomorrow.

Monday, March 25, 2013

The Secret Life of a Wargamer in a War Zone

As most loyal readers know, I'm a government contractor working on a US Army base in Afghanistan.  I've been here for almost eight years now and a lot of people think I'm crazy and they just might be right (I am the Syko Wargamer after all) but what does my life really look like?

I admit, in some respects I've got it pretty good.  Free meals, lodging, free laundry service, my uber hawt wife is here with me, we both make pretty good money in a failing economy and I get to play with toy soldiers twice a week (plus I paint at work).

Sounds pretty cushy, huh?

Now let's look at the reality.

Free meals - We eat most of our meals in a DFAC (Dining Facility) that is much like a run down buffet.  The food is nothing to write home about but it fills you up and it's free.  There is also a Burger King and Pizza Hut on base but I rarely eat there because it's pretty nasty.  The highlight for me is when we get "take out" from the Thai place on another base.  We also have to present two forms of identification in order to get food from the DFAC.

Free Lodging - Since my wife and I are here together we get "married quarters" which is a major step up from the rest of the population.  Our room is 7'x16' (most single rooms are 7'x8' and some guys are living in 7'x16' with two other roommates) with indoor heat and air conditioning.  We don't have a window and have another married couple on one side and a Colonel on the other.  We can literally hear our neighbors fart.  As you can imagine, we have to be very quiet at all times.

Free Laundry Service - We can turn in laundry any day and have a 24 hour turn around.  Of course our clothes usually come back with new stains on them and are in no way clean.  Needless to say, we don't keep nice clothes here.

Internet - We are able to purchase wifi internet for $90 a month.  That package gets you a whopping 512k bandwidth.  That's so slow that it takes over an hour to download a 400mb video.

Travel - Ah the joys of travelling.  It is one of the perks of this job that I've been able to go places I likely never would have otherwise.  I've been to Uzbekistan, Kirghistan, Turkey, Germany, England, Ireland, Australia, Thailand and the UAE (Dubai).  Of course, that all comes with a price.  In order for us to leave here we have to pay $750 round trip just to get to Dubai.  From there we can buy a ticket anywhere in the world.  Our trip home in May is costing us $1500 each from Dubai.  So that's a total of $4500 in airfare for the two of us to get home and back.  That's quite a chunk of change.

Being civilians, we are basically third class citizens in the eyes of most military, especially those in charge.

I came up with an analogy the other day that can really break down how it is for us over here:

Imagine that your apartment is run by a group of transients who get to live there for six months to a year and get to make new rules.  You are completely at their mercy and they can evict you with no notice on a whim.  They are angry that they have to live in this dump and try to take it out on the residents as much as they can.

Now imagine that at your job your management are the temps.  They come in on a year long contract with very little training and rely on you to fix everything, even though they are the ones who get the credit for it.  They are unhappy with their current job and really want to go back to their old job so they take out their anger at the regular employees who have been at their job for a few years.

Now, I'm not saying that I dislike the military because I don't.  If I didn't like them I wouldn't be here doing this job year in and year out.  I respect them and what they do but I do have to admit that I get a little fed up at times.

What does this have to do with war gaming?  Nothing.  I just wanted to give you a little glimpse of what it's like to be a war gamer in a war zone.

It Must Be My Magnetic Personality

I've been doing some work for a new guy here who is brand new to the hobby.  After reading a lot of the 40K lore he was drawn to the Dark Angels but didn't want to do what everyone else was doing so he went with Guardians of the Covenant.  We got him the Dark Vengeance set and quite a bit of other stuff to flesh out an army and he has been learning to model and paint and is doing pretty well at it (because I'm an awesome teacher).
Yesterday he brought in his Ravenwing Dark Talon so I could magnetize it for use as either a Dark Talon or Nephilim Jetfighter.  Initially I thought it would be an easy job but the more I looked at it the more I started to worry that it might be too much.  After about 10 hours of work, the magnetizing is done and it's ready for paint.
There are 24 magnetized parts on this thing and it's entirely interchangeable.  I'm actually kind of proud of the way it all came together.

Here it is in the Nephilim Jetfighter configuration:
And here is the Dark Talon configuration:

We just noticed this morning that the model has some Dark Angel iconography modeled on it and we are debating whether to shave it off or leave it.  I voted for shaving it but since some of his other models already have it we might just let it go.

I also have a deal I make with a lot of the guys here that if they want me to paint one of their HQ models for them I will do it for free just to get to paint some new stuff and try some new techniques.  I'm not a great painter but this is helping me get better.  Here are a couple of models I've been working on for him.  They are close to being done but I still have at least 10 hours to go on them.  This was my first go at SENMM (Sky-Earth Non-Metallic Metallic) and I'm fairly happy with the result.  I used a technique that Les from awesomepaintjob showed on his "How to Paint Space Wolves" video.

I'll be glad to be done with these so I can get back to my World Eaters (I know, I keep saying I'll do them) but there is also the matter of the Thunderwolf Lord I posted up the other day.  I started on the wolf the other night but am still waiting for the paints for the Wolf Lord himself.

As always, I have way too much to do and nowhere near enough time or skill to get it all done.

Thursday, March 21, 2013

The Cost of the Hobby US vs Australia

Last year Games Workshop implemented a trade embargo that basically said that retailers can only sell to their own country.  In the new trade agreement the embargo has been expanded a bit.  How will this affect people in Australia? 

Initially, when you look at the price of GW models in Australia vs the United States it seems like the folks down under are getting shafted.  But are they really?  Let's look a little deeper.

GW Product                     AUD Price                  US Price             
Dark Vengeance Set           $165                              $99
Stormraven Gunship          $110                               $82.50
Teminator Squad                $74                                $50
Dark Angel Codex             $83                                 $50
Imperial Guard Chimera    $55                                 $37.25
Ork Boyz                            $48                                $29


Those numbers are all over the place and represent a small portion of the model range available.  But does it tell the whole story?

According to Numbeo the difference is pretty much the same overall.

Product/Service                           AUD Price                      US Price
Meal, Inexpensive Restaurant      $17                                  $10
Domestic Beer (0.5L Draught)    $6                                     $3
Combo Meal at McDonalds         $8                                    $6
Milk (1 liter)                                 $1.50                               $1
Chicken Breast (1kg)                   $10                                   $6.61
Water (1.5 liter)                            $3                                    $1.75
Pack of Marlboro Cigarettes        $17                                  $6

So, for the above there is approximately a 50% increase in the cost between US prices and Australian prices.  Apples and oranges, you might say?  Ok, how about something closer to many gamer's hearts?

Video Game                                 AUD Price                     US Price
Halo 4                                           $88                                  $60
Crysis 3                                         $98                                  $60
Call of Duty Black Ops II            $98                                   $60
Bioshock Infinite                          $88                                  $60

It looks like video games average about 50% more as well.

So, while I'll admit that GW's prices being all over the place is bad, the average being a 50% increase (plus or minus) is something the Aussies should be used to.  Just because many people down under found a way to pay almost 50% less than their retail price by ordering from discount online stores doesn't mean that they were paying too much.  Infact, if you think about it they were paying much less than their American counterparts in the grand scheme of things.

When you take into account that, at the time of this writing the Australian dollar is worth almost $1.05 US dollar it seems a little skewed but then add in the fact that the minimum wage in Australia is almost $16 an hour compared to $8 in the United States it all makes sense.

So, the next time you hear a bloke from down under complaining about how they are getting screwed by GW, point out these numbers to them.  Maybe they'll get it.

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

This Makes Me Angry and a Bit Nervous



Earlier this week I heard rumors about GW's new trade agreement.  While I'm not in the least bit surprised, I'm very angry about this.

Now, I'm not angry because I'm a cheapskate who refuses to pay retail for my toys nor am I angry because it's going to hurt the online deep discounters.  I'm angry because I truly believe this is going to have a massive impact on the FLGS, the local retailers who work hard every day to provide a place for their customers and fans of these great hobbies to play.  I'm angry because I think if GW gets away with this, the next step will be to stop dealing with independent retailers altogether and that will not only kill a lot of FLGS it will also kill Games Workshop.  If that happens, then I'm in a world of hurt because I have plans in the works to open a FLGS in the next few years and I may have to open a bar instead.

I love this hobby.  Not just the Games Workshop hobby, which to me is only a small portion of what is out there, but the entire miniature war gaming hobby in general.  I may not play historicals and actually have a bit of disdain for Napoleonics but I respect a lot of the people that are fans of those games.  I love naval combat games and space combat games and skirmish games and mass army games.  I love painting and modelling and talking about games and painting and hobbying... I really love it all.  So when my dream of being a game store owner is in jeopardy because GW has decided they need to become Apple and have brand recognition and try to be the only game in town... man, I get mad.

So what do we as a community do?  How do we help out our brick and mortar FLGS?  How do we let GW know they are moving in the wrong direction?

I have disliked it in the past when podcasts like Dice Like Thunder have called for a GW boycott and I don't think that would really help since it will still hurt the FLGS so I propose that we, as a community declare this summer, June 1 - Aug 31 2013 to be the official "Don't Buy a Damned Thing From Games Workshop" summer.

From the first of June until the end of August, no one is to purchase a single item from GW online or their retail stores.  I want them to think their website might have some major issue.  I want them to hear the tumbleweeds rolling across the floors of their Battle Bunkers.  I want all the paints in their Hobby Centers to dry up.  I want their share holders to say. "WTF just happened, mate?".  I want them to know that we, the hobby community are mad.  If you really want to buy all those cool new Tau models, feel free... but buy them from your local game store.  Give your money to the people that make this hobby worthwhile.  Don't have a local store?  Go online and find one close by that will ship to you for a small charge.  Support local!  Kick the GW shareholders in their wallets.

Can I count on you or will you all be like football fans?  Sit around and complain about the new rules that make the game no fun to watch but continue to give them all your money?  Not me, Jack.  I'm done with these clowns.

I am a very angry Syko Wargamer right now.

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Not a Lot to Report

Sorry for the lack of posts the past few days.  I really don't have a whole lot to talk about right now because there's not a lot to report from here.  Things have been pretty quiet and I have a lot of half finished projects on my bench.

I spent night before last priming and base coating some Dark Angels and some Tau for a couple of guys.  I'm pretty happy with the way the Dark Angels turned out.  Now that I've seen the DA flier in person, I'm not impressed.  I really thought it might be a little bit bigger than it is.

Once the guy that owns these Dark Angels hit them with a green wash, they look great.  I did some pre-shading and pre-highlighting on them so with the added wash there is very little to do to the base green.

The Tau were just a basic white prime and a desert yellow color based over it.  I would have liked to have done some more to them but the guy that is painting them is a great painter so he just wanted them basic and he'll handle the rest.  Due to time constraints, I was only able to get 21 Fire Warriors done for him.  The four or five Devilfish chassis will have to wait until tomorrow.

Tonight I got a lot done on the Dark Vengeance Dark Angel Commander and Terminator Sergeant models that I had base coated the other night for another guy.  He's doing a Guardians of the Covenant theme and this is his first army and first foray into miniature painting.  I went ahead and started painting these two models because I thought they were pretty cool looking and it gives me a chance to try some new techniques on them.  I'll post some pics once I'm done with them.

Other than that, I'm really excited now that the Wild West Exodus kickstarter has finished up.  I know that I have to wait for September to get my models but I'm already planning out some paint schemes for the Warrior Nation.  Also, I got an email from the guy at Impudent Mortal yesterday letting me know that my building from his kickstarter would be cut and shipped in the next week or so.  Keep your eyes open for a review of these.

All that said, I'm done with my hiatus from my gaming group, well rested and refreshed and ready to roll some dice.

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Crazy Night

Tonight was insane.
I do a lot of priming and base coating for the guys in my group because we can't get spray paint over here so I do it all with the airbrush.
Tonight I worked on the Dark Angels from the Dark Vengeance set for one of my guys.  He wants to do Guardians of the Covenant so I got to see how Vallejo Silver works in the Badger Rage.

So first I primed all the models black, then went back on the ones with robes and shot them with grey at an angle then hit the higher areas with white.  Next I started the silver... and that's where the headache began.  I had some major clogging issues with the Rage on the silver and I found that the Rage is a pain to get clogs cleared out.  I think I went through four bottles of water clearing the clogs out and I know I wasted a ton of paint.  I was thinning it at 50-50 water to paint and eventually I went to 70-30.  That fixed the clogs but it killed the color.  It went from silver to dull grey with that mix.

I finally got all the silver parts done and went back with Vallejo Italian Red on the robes.  This flowed really well and went pretty quick.  I then did the Librarian with Vallejo Blue.

I spent about 7 hours just on these models because of all the clogs with the silver and wasn't able to get to the stack of models I needed to work on.  Those will be done tonight.

Also I delivered the objective markers for my buddy and then realized I didn't take any pics of the finished product.  I'll try to get those in the next few days.

Here's some pics of the models I sprayed tonight.

I also remembered to get some pics of the Wolf Lord on Thunderwolf that I'm painting for one of the guys here.  I'm waiting for the paints I'm going to use to get here before I go any further on this project.

Needless to say... I'm busy.

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Random Thoughts

Broke out the Rage tonight and sprayed a ton of models with Vallejo Satin Varnish.  I have found that this is very difficult to spray through my Badger Velocity and was very interested in seeing how it went through the Rage.  After shooting my Dakkajet, 80 Zombies and the objectives I finished the other day, I have to say I was very pleased that there was little to no clogging issues.

I've also placed an order for the Badger Minitaire Paints which are back ordered through Amazon.  Hopefully I get them this year.  I've watched a lot of reviews for this paint line and am extremely psyched to get it in a try it out.

While I was clear coating the models I was listening to The Overlords Podcast.  They were discussing the rules and uses for buildings in 40K.  Apparently many people haven't used buildings in their normal games but here we use several building, bunkers and ruins on any given table.  We've gotten used to them and I really like the added elements they bring to the game.  Do any of you generally use buildings and how do you find them?

That's about all I have for tonight.  I'll be priming and base coating a Dark Vengeance set for one of my guys tonight so I'll try to get some pics of those up along with pics of the finished objective markers.

Oh... and I just read about GW telling retailers they can't sell bits anymore... WTF?!?  Is GW getting back into the bits game?  Are they just being jerks (GW? Never!)?


Thursday, March 14, 2013

A Couple of Objective Markers for a Friend

One of the guys here is going to be running a 40K game at Gencon this year.  In preparation for this he asked me to paint up these objective markers he got off ebay.

I wasn't incredibly impressed with the objective markers but he asked me to paint them so I finally got around to doing them tonight.  I honestly did a very basic job on them and still have a little to do to finish them but I'm pretty happy with them so far.


As you can see, I still need to clean up the paint around the edges and I'm going to add a little weathering powder to try to get some extra texture on them.

Product Review: Badger Renegade Rage Airbrush


A few days ago I got in my Badger Renegade Rage Airbrush and let me tell you, so far I like it a lot.  For the last few years I've been using a Badger Renegade Velocity but I've found that the paint flow on it is a little hit or miss.  The Velocity has a .22mm tip and it tends to get clogged pretty easy.  The Rage has a .33mm tip and so far I've had no problems with clogging.


Upon receiving the Rage the first thing I did was put a quick connect for the air hose.  I then had to do a little modification on the foam so it would fit.  I had to do the same thing with my Velocity so I was prepared for this.


The Rage is a siphon style airbrush, which can be a pain but for things like priming and base coating it works pretty well.  It comes with the airbrush, a cup and a bottle for $115 from Amazon.


As I said, it's a siphon style airbrush which is why I wouldn't suggest it for much more than priming and base coating unless you have a good system set up so you don't have to hold the model while you are working on it.  I'm so used to the top feed Velocity and being able to use it one handed, this is taking a little getting used to.

Before I give this tool a go or no go, I still need to run some thinned clear coat through it, which will happen on Sunday when I get to clear coat a few models I've finished lately.

So far, though, I really like it for what I'm using it for.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Taking a Much Needed Break

For the last four years I have been running our little wargaming group.  During that time, with the exception of  the twice a year when I'm on vacation I have been showing up every Tuesday and Saturday to set everything up for the games.  These are the only days I have off from work and I look forward to them but I sacrifice a lot to make it every time.

I work night shift, 1830-0630 five days a week (60 hours) so I basically get off work on the morning of my day off, get about three hours of sleep and then go set up and play (or don't play if we have an odd number) and stay up all night since I have to be able to sleep the next day.  It's a real drain on my physically and emotionally but I do it because I love the game and the group.

That said, I've decided that for my sanity and health, I'm taking a few days off from the group.  For the first time I have someone I can count on to run things in my absence who has access to all the stuff.

I'm not taking a a break from the hobby though.  that is going full tilt right now.  I've got a Wolf Lord on a Thunderwolf that is begging me for paint right now as well as all my ongoing project plus I've got an urge to finally get some paint on my Shaltari Tribes for Dropzone Commander, not that it will ever see the table over here.

Needless to say, I'm busy.  I'll try to get some images up of what I'm working on in the near future.

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Some More Podcast Suggestions

Hey cats and kittens.

I thought I would give a few more suggestions for things to listen to while you are hobbying or on a long commute.  This is a short list because I haven't really found much that is hobby related but I really felt like I should give these guys some attention.

First up is Meeples and Miniatures.  This show has been around for quite a while and is mainly centered around historical wargaming but they delve into other subjects periodically.  Their topics are usually quite entertaining, even though they tend to be monotone in their discourse.  Give them a listen and see what you think.

Speaking of Meeples and Miniatures, they have a new show out now called Talk Dreadball.  The first show is up and other than the fact that you can tell they are reading from a script, it's very entertaining.  If you are a fan of Dreadball, check it out.

Last but certainly not least is Boltgun's Battle Brothers.  Anyone that has listened to El Pee and the Man have heard Allen Blount and L. Parker Gibson.  In this show they have a subject and stick to it.  They are three episodes in and they are going strong.  I highly suggest this show as they not only talk about miniature games, they also give great hobby advice.

If there are any shows you think I should be listening to, leave a comment and I'll check them out.

Saturday, March 9, 2013

Warlord Traits for 5th Ed Codexes

Listening to Deepstrike Radio's coverage of the Dark Angels Codex tonight got me thinking.  Basically they were talking about Warlord Traits and how they can be completely useless for every 5th Edition Codex out there if you are rolling on the chart in the basic rule book.  Locally, we have a house rule that you roll your d6 and then pick one of the three options available on that roll.  After this show I'm thinking about proposing a new house rule to the group.

I'll be honest, nine out of ten times I don't even care what Warlord Trait I get because they do absolutely nothing for whatever army I'm playing but here's a possible way to make them worthwhile.

If you are playing a 6th Edition Codex (Chaos Space Marines, Dark Angels or Chaos Daemons) this will not apply to you since the same idea is already in place in each codex.

If you are playing a 5th Edition (or earlier) Codex and your Warlord is a named character, you can "pay" 15 or 20 points (need to nail that part down) to choose your Warlord Trait.  This will need to be done prior to the beginning of the game and before any dice are rolled.  You are still using the Warlord Traits from the basic rule book.

What this would do is allow for you to customize your Warlord to fit your army a little more.  Since only named characters in 6th Edition Codexes automatically come with a Warlord Trait, I figure it should only apply to named ones in the 5th Edition Codexes.

For example, prior to showing up I could choose to add 15 (or 20) points to the total cost of Asdrubal Vect for my Dark Eldar and give him Night Attacker, allowing him to cause Night Fight to automatically happen on turn 1.

I think the point addition would be fair.

You could, of course choose not to take the named character or not pay the extra points and roll for the Warlord Trait as normal but again, this decision needs to be made at the time you are building your list.

Let me know what you think of this and if you have any suggestions of how many points should be added to the total cost of the character model.

40K Project #4 - Bad Moons Orks Part 4

It's done!

I'm really happy with this model.  It went together really well and all my painting decisions (for the most part) worked the way I wanted.

So, without further ado... here it is