*twitches* Must... Not.... RANT. They've been there forever chap, but they're the ones always used in games. I wanna see more Imperial Fists crushing skulls.
They've not been there forever, BRAWL. Relic went to Games Workshop with the idea for Dawn of War, originally based on one of the more popular Chapters, and GW said they would have more freedom if they designed their own Chapter. Relic went away and then came back with the Blood Ravens. They were designed specifically for Dawn of War and have been a firm favourite since then. Relic have put various connotations into their game about the history of the chapter, and this has been down to the sterling work done by two guys in Relic who spent the time with Games Workshop reading into the background of the Space Marines. So, why do you always see Blood Ravens as the antagonists of the Dawn of War series? Because they were designed for it.
Only time you dont see blood ravens is in winter assualt where its ultramarines helping the imperial guard if i'm remebering correctly
I've just entered the world of fantasy armies and other games using Games Workshop style figures last year. Before then I was doing Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay for about two years but with most of our group not being bothered to continue me and my colleague who was running the roleplay decided to hop over to a local games club to do some board based fun. At the moment my main interest is in playing the specialist game Mordheim (I've got, I've also had a bit of a dabble in Necromunda and have a fairly large Orlock gang. I've been collecting up a fairly large number of Orcs and Goblins for Fantasy Battles as well. For Mordheim I mainly use my Reiklander & Dark Elf gangs, but I also have Skaven, Dwarf and am currently in the process of making my own custom race gang. Not a big fan of 40K, though that's mostly due to the people playing it at our current club because they're all way to competitive and aggressive. Every time someone does a single move it results in someone contesting it and a mass rulebook reading sessions for the next 5 minutes. From an outsider perspective it's absolutely ridiculous! I might try a mini taster game in on the the Games Workshop stores sometime, it should be a bit more relaxed and let me actually enjoy it. Me and the group I play with are currently in the process of splitting away and forming our own club because the committee for the current one we're in are a bit aggressive and are more tournament focussed rather than looking to play for fun. Lots of work for me at the moment because the group nominated me to be the club's secretary which means I'm writing up all the club standards, rules, hunting for venues and all that malarkey. Looking to do a bit more Warhammer Fantasy RP and a bit of Call of the Cthulhu this year as well. I think we also have plans to break out some Flames of War for some classic military fun. Oh, on that note... anyone in the South-West area planning to go to PAW 2011 (Plymouth Association of Wargamers event) on February 5th?.. or even if you're not from the South-West, any plans to go there for the event?
But the book was out before the game was? Plus the Blood Ravens are supposed to be a secret chapter of the Thousand Sons, Now if we continue this chat, shall we go to PM's because otherwise we'll fill out this thread x 9000 chap.
Game came out September 2004. Novel came out November 2004 as a tie-in. They are hinted. There is no 100% positive proof.
Hmmm, I stand corrected sir! Will have to definatly send the Hereticus to annihlate you now. Bah, what more proof do you need? Remembrancer seeing "The raven that seeks knowledge that it cannot find" Excessive Psykers Ahriman mentions it somewhere about "Ravens looking for blood" It's like when you read between the lines of The Horus Heresy, you can tell the 2nd OR 11th Legion were merged with the Ultramarines, Dorn mentions it somewhere in the books! goddamn my lack of reference material. PM's... we'll flood a forum with this stuff.
After 2 years, this is still the only Orc I've painted (although hope to rectify that soon as I've bought/been given a few more models). I'll add some of my Fallen DA Marines led by Cypher or Necrons later on.
Custom jobbie based on the "Raptor Legion" that was in the 3rd ed Codex. Simple, but I like the camo green colouring. Just applied some basic squad allocation colours (Blue for devastators etc). The marine with the black helm was just a conversion I was dabbling with. Was going along the lines of a veteran squad and just issued them with stormbolter rules and 2 close combat weapons, ran out of parts to finish them. I would like to finish painting them all and hopefully will do so after my PhD. I want to replace the Razorback with the newer Forgeworld variant and get a Blasty Dreadnought (FW Ironclad torso with a MkIV Plasma Cannon and GW Ironclad dreadnought Close Combat weapon, but parts are hard to come by). Again, all this is dependant upon money Final Liberation was a great 40K-based game, but on a grander scale. I would love to see a mod made for Supreme Commander for the 40K universe, the opportunities there are immense! I always thought that Mech Commander was a perfect basis for some modding with 40K. A friend of mine, his brother had started to make a Battlefleet Gothic mod for Freespace 2, but he never got around to finishing it.
Necrons are a doddle to paint. Spray the sprue with black undercoat, then dry-brush the hell out of them. Adding detail is very easy as well since they all have well-defined edges, so it can be easy enough to make them stand out a little, or make certain models more prominent. I thought the Flayed Ones were a joy to paint actually, loads of little bits to them. Just looking at the models, they don't seem all that nasty, but when you fill in the detail and make the skin rags look nice and bloody, it gives them a fantastically macabre presence.
Here's a photo of my most recent piece of work. It was a one-off piece for a Deathwatch RPG we were doing. Each player played a single member of a Deathwatch squad. I was the special weapons specialist
You just cannot go wrong with a plasma weapon Nice model, good pose and nicely painted dude I still have a few pics to upload of some completed stuff I have, I'll get one or two up later if I get the chance. I had started to paint up my Kasrkin in winter camo, hopefully I'll finish them as well. That was always the annoying thing, you start something, then bought something new, got distracted by that and left the other one to the side
A couple of the wife's efforts (will post better ones later when i can take some decent photo's, these are horribly bright and kill the detail but give an impression) And not 40k obviously
While GW's costs have gone up for their models and books etc it is enoying but like anything everyones prices have risen can only absorb so much of a price increase. Still there are still gd deals within GW's range for saving money with the bundles/larger sets etc any hobby will cost money just how much you are prepared to pay. DOW series first did well to represent 40k the 2nd is poor as its gone away from what 40k is about- mass carnage not tiny little squads. The games are nice to bring the stories and background to life, still doesnt beat the table top and the books, there stores are gd as well for playing games painting tips etc.
Here's some of my early attempts at putting bits together and painting them: One of my Orlock Gangers: Some overly eager Orcs: Goblins! (plus some of the Wolves in the back to be put together for Wolf Riders in my Orc & Goblin Fantasy Army) Slowly learning the trade... I've never painted models before so this is a bit of an uphill climb for me, at present I'm terrible when it comes to doing faces and smaller details. :\
