Black Library Novels

I plan to write a review on those black library novels i get around to reading, or have previously read. A list of those books ive read so far include:

Warhammer Fantasy:
Gotrek and Felix omnibus 1 (Trollslayer, Skavenslayer, Daemonslayer)

Gotrek and Felix omnbius 2 (Dragonslayer, Beastslayer, Vampireslayer)

Gotrek and Felix omnibus 3 (Giantslayer, Orcslayer, Manslayer)

Gotrek and Felix omnibus 4 (Elfslayer, Shamanslayer, Zombieslayer)
Gotrek and Felix Anthology
Gotrek and Felix Road of Skulls
The Vampire Genevieve (Drachenfels, Genevieve Undead, Beasts in Velvet, Silver Nails)

Warhammer 40k:

Ragnar Blackmane saga omnibus 1-2

(Space Wolf, Ragnar's Claw, Grey Hunter, Wolf Blade, Sons of Fenris and Wolf's Honour)
Ravenor and Eisenhorn Trilogies (Ravenor, Ravenor Returned, Ravenor Rouge and Xenos, Malleus and Heretic as well as a number of short stories)
Ice Warrior

Horus heresy:

Horus Rising
False gods
Galaxy in Flames
Flight of the Einstein
Fulgrim
Legion

Time of legend:

Nagash trilogy (Nagash the Sorcerer, Nagash the unbroken, Nagash immortal)

Sigmar  Trilogy (Heldenhammer, Empire, God King)

The Great Betrayal. 

I've included Audio Books in this list because I plan to cover them as well. More like short stories, there are times where the atmosphere they create can be very enjoyable useful when your hands are busy painting.

Legion of One
Helion Rain
Lightning Tower
Thunder from Fenris
Dark King
Raven's Flight
Gotrek and Felix: Curse of the Everliving

Craftworld Eldar

Eldar were my first army. Before Space wolves, before Dwarves, before any other I bought Eldar. Back then Autarchs didn't exist, wave serpents hand to be modified from a falcon and wraithlords were a very heavy, awkward looking metal figurine.

I'm fairly certain my first model was a box of guardians.  Now seen as a great troop choice with improved statlines and better shuriken performance, their original quality left something to desire, and as troop choices they were mandatory. I remember reading a white dwarf with Phil Kelly's Ulthwé against chaos space marines.  Small guardian squads with starcannons can be the bane of marines, and so I followed the example with my troops.

Around the same time the expansion for craftsworld eldar came out. I think I love all 5 craftsworld in their own way, Alatoic ranger army has such an appeal, both visually and the idea of pinning whole sections of your opponents army due to the vast number of snipers. Iyanden, with the new models could be amazing, but back then I didn't want an army of the dead made exclusively out of heavy metal figurines. Saim-hann could be fantastic, but until they update the jetbike model a little I can't see me every going down that path.  Ulthwé. Army of psychers and guardians. Nowadays it has huge appeal, but I always worried about the glass cannon nature of a heavy psychic force with guardians who at the time where pretty poor to average. So Biel-Tan was left. I could care less for white and green armour. But an army of specialist aspect warriors, able to be fielded as troop choices. (Which you could do back then).

Since then it has changed a little, and I'm no longer able to field them as troops (though the potential Biel -Tan craftworlds  supplement may amend this). instead a balanced army featuring as many aspect warriors as I can, supported by some guardians, falcons and a small farseer+warlock combi/avatar for HQ support represents the bulk of my forces.

The vast majority of my army needs repainting, or at the vary least some touching up. As the blog goes along I'll hopefully post up updated photos of my squads or models.

Space wolves theme- Krakendoom, Ragnar or Logan

Trying to decide on which company to base my space wolves around has jumped a little over the ages. Orignally, back in 2nd edition, it was all about krakendoom. Back then very little detail about any of the leaders, let alone the great companies was available. All that defined krakendoom was his insignia of a sea-fairing wolf of sorts. So i attempted to establish his insigina on all my troops. I'll go on record now and say I don't have the most coordination with my painting, and even less when I was younger, and whilst I could just about manage waves, that was all I could manage.

With the relase of the 5th edition codex a significant amount of information was release for all the great companies. Hurray! only this is. The more they talked about the different companies, the more i found my personal unit preference leading to a different type of leader. After having read the 6 Ragnar series novels by Willaim King and Lee Lightner, I'd always had a soft spot for this leader, and only the lack of a suitably amazing model left me from diving headlong.

Logan Grimnar, probably the most respected and loved warrior in the whole galaxy. Not a bad lay to claim. Also doesn't take shit from Imperial authority or Chaos. He also strides quite menacingly with a giant axe and a suit a terminator armour. Sometimes it's nice for your leader to be some monstrous power cannon able to storm through anything. Normally that requires your leader to be biked/jetpacked/crisis suited up maximize it's impact. Personally I tend to like my leaders on their feet, or a best with a jump pack (aesthetically speaking at least, I don't undervalue the jetbike/bike etc). So then your leader should be able to help bolster your units. Well I like troops. Mechanised lists have massive appeal obviously, but for me often times the best armies are ones with interesting/entertaining/powerful troop choices. Space wolves (especially those lead by Grimnar), have that in spades. Grimnar can upgrade his unit with role specific skills, and also give every friendly unit within 18'' a +1 A once per game......with an army full of troops who like combat it can be a pretty impressive skill. But obviously he is pretty expensive.

Ultimately I've decided on Logan for the time being. I may still purchase a Ragnar model if they release a new one with the new space wolves codex whispered  for release mid 2014. But for me, for now, my company is that of the great wolf himself.

Malleus, xenos, hereticus oh my

I dont plan on doing news updates regularly on this blog. Naftka, belloflostsouls and a host of other sites do this more rigoursly and effectively than i ever will. But when something to exciting comes along i have to say a few (or not so few) words. So blacklibrary have released more information on the upcoming inquisitor codex. Now I think the previous codex grey knights is pretty cool, and the inquisitorial additions is one of the strongest drawing forcing to starting one up. But sometimes you just want the inquisitor without the grey knights.

All the information is up on the blacklibrary website http://www.blacklibrary.com/Blog/Nobody-expected-Codex-Inquisition.html. Naftka's site also has a good post about it. http://natfka.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/codex-inquisition-information-pages.html What stood out was "Most customisable".  That word is quite a big one for me. Partially because it brings back memories of the old 54mm scale inquisitor game, which was by definition infinitely customisable. The other is simply the range of modelling and customisable characters it could lead to.

Back when they released  the inquisitor game over a decade ago I had only been involved in the game for a few years. The hours spent pouring over character sheets, making individual and warband members, rolling an unusual d10 (Well for warhammer anyways) dice all in the name of customisation. Ultimately after a year or two it started to drift off the radar. Now specialist games are pretty much long gone, though a very nice 28mm scale inquisitor community exists, and recent articles in white dwarf by John Blanche are pretty inspiring.

So what does it all mean? Well it means I can start making an inquisitor warband close to what I had desired from my 54mm scale miniatures for my games of 40k. So I get to go back to my notepad and pencil. Minus the d10.