Where in the world...

Warhammer World!

We take a brief reprieve from game play this week, as we didn't actually get any battling in.  What we did do though, was take a trip to Nottingham to check out the home of Warhammer.  First, though, I want to talk a little more about the addictive (for us anyway) drive to purchase more units. 

Reinforcements

For me, one of the appeals of Warhammer is not only the diversity of armies, but the diversity within those armies in the choice of units available.  Necrons have quite a selection, though still not close to some of the other armies, of 44 options.  There's plenty to invest in and multiple different approaches for most armies.  Ranged, heavy, close combat, infantry, vehicles or a smorgasbord of all of them.

Whilst participating in the Charge & Fight lesson at Games Workshop I covered last time I was chatting to the guys working there about Necrons and they pointed out that there were actually two options of 'Start collecting...' boxes available.  It resulted in me going back in the week and picking up the alternative to the first box I had, which came with;

• Triarch Stalker
• Necron Warriors
• Necron Overlord
• Canoptek Scarabs

Sometimes it really is too much of a temptation having Games Workshop on the route home from work!

The real addition to my army was the Triarch stalker, a cool looking model with some heavy firepower.  Again it has options for the weaponry and I chose a Heat Ray, which itself has two different firing options based on range.  

I was also happy with another unit of Warriors.  They have great value in being a meat shield with the possibility of the regenerative Reanimation Protocols whilst also rocking a nice -1 AP rapid fire gun.  Look at me, four posts into an 'amateur' blog and I'm dropping phrases like 'a nice -1 AP rapid fire gun'!!!

Bobby G

So I'm quite conscious that I've been writing a lot about my Necrons with the odd mention to the Eldar and Ultramarine armies I've had to face.  Now whilst my Eldar friend brought up quite a lot of units, that are still in his backlog to be built, my other friend has been more considered in his approach.  However one purchase he did feel was absolutely necessary to compliment his forces was a man we like to call 'Bobby G.'  However to the general Warhammer faithful, who will likely cringe at the name we've given him, he is known as Robute Guilliman, the Primarch of the Ultramarines chapter of Space Marines.

One thing I have slowly started to learn, and we tell each other from our own codexes, is the lore of Warhammer 40k, otherwise known as fluff.  Each army has their own back story and rivalries with different armies which adds a second level of the game.  One thing that I do want to build toward is some narrative play and developing our own campaigns between ourselves as to why the Space Marines might stumble across a Xenos war between newly awoken Necrons on a tomb world after being disturbed by some Eldar expedition.

We look forward to seeing Bobby G take the field, from what I've been told he's quite formidable and therefore quite a costly (in terms of points/power level) addition to an Ultramarine army.

After all, the only being alive to have conversed with the Emperor and carrying the Emperor's sword into battle is going to be quite an adversary.  It'll definitely be a toss up between whether it's the full brunt of a Necron army coming to bear on him before I think about my objectives, or just plain try and stay away from him.

Warhammer World

The highlight of this period was a trip to Warhammer World in Nottingham.  We wanted to go and check out the home of Warhammer and take in the exhibitions, not to mention the store and Forgeworld.

We decided to go on a Saturday morning and jumped in my car.  I picked up my friends and with some dubious playlist options and an hour or so later we arrived.  The first order of business was taking in breakfast in Bugman's Bar, the onsite restaurant.  Breakfast was huge and filled a hole for sure, if you've never been to Warhammer World I can certainly recommend a visit and leaving room for food.  It's worth a picture on it's own;

Next order of business was checking out the exhibitions.  All I can say is they are phenomenal, I have some pictures (below), but really they don't do any of it justice.  The scale of some of the dioramas, especially the final room, are phenomenal.  It takes a journey through the multiple incarnations of Warhammer including Age of Sigmar as well as 40k.  Here's just a few select sneak peaks, but really to truly appreciate it you need to see it in person;

With our minds blown it was time, perhaps not sensibly, to hit the store.  We all picked something up and some were more reserved than others.  I decided it was time to invest in a character and picked up Imotekh the Stormlord, also my first resin model.  In addition I invested in a Forgebane starter set as it included some Necron models I didn't yet have (Canoptek Wraiths & a Cryptek).  Having checked out the Knights in the store also I wasn't adverse to having Adeptus Mechanicus as my second army some day.  Mt Ultramarine friend settled for a tank whereas my Eldar friend came out, arms bursting with an entire army worth of units!  

One of the things on top of seeing a lot of cool dioramas was the inspiration to paint some of my own models and make them look better.  It really does help bring some battles to life, more so than marching an army of base grey plastic models across the battleground. 

Next time...

Given my complete inability to keep these coming out on a weekly basis, I've switched to 'Next time...'  Anyways, next time I'll cover our final session with Games Workshop for the 'Bring it all together' session as well as venturing out on our own and expansions to our armies. 

As ever, feel free to comment, ask any questions or let me know if there's any particulars you'd like me to cover.

Thanks
Steve