Sarah Harper the Priest from the Dale

Sarah Harper was the priest and impromptu leader of Barleydale, the small rural village where JADE's Arachnophobia campaign began.After separating for 20 games, the party encountered her and 3 other survivors from the Dale in the city of Darfield. They had traveled the 18 day journey six days after the party left; when the giant spiders attacked their village.

Since the party detoured for almost two weeks, Sarah Harper and the three other survivors arrived almost a week before they did, and only reunited with them by chance outside of Lord Kilgour's castle.

Whether or not Sarah Harper and her group will stay with the party is still undecided. Sarah will undoubtedly do what is best for her group, which will likely entail asking the Wizard of Darfield for refuge.

Written by: Andrew Gregory

8th Ed Warhammer 40k Plague Marines

Well it took me six months, but I finally finished my first squad of 8th Ed Plague Marines! And are they ever gorgeous models: a real treat (and challenge) to paint.

This squad is from the new Starter Kit (I just snagged the squad off of ebay.) These fellas are considered "easy builds" and I have to agree, they were very easy to assemble and glue. Now painting them on the other hand... I have no idea how any beginner would stand a chance against such detailed and complex models.

I have to say as a half-decent painter myself, these minis were just fantastic to work with. There is a lot of detail, and each mini is very unique. Honestly, it is like painting an HQ option each time.

Now that of course comes with it's own downsides. Each of these minis took me between 4-6 hours to paint. Keeping in mind that I don't paint quickly and like to take me time; gauge that for yourself.

A major difference between the new plague marines and the old plague marines is size. The new guys are quite a bit larger. Whether that is the difference between 28mm and 30-32mm as the newer figures seem to be, or they just envision them being larger than they were in the past, there is a noticeable size difference. Since I have a 3000pt Plague Marine army made up of mostly the old pewter figures, I am actually using these guys as a squad of Chosen Chaos Space Marine with Mark of Nurgle to account for the size difference.

There are a lot of nods and tips of the hat to the older miniatures in these figures designs well. Many of them wield their bolter in one hand, just like the old True Grit rule used to let you do. They also feature wood paneling on their weapons, many head shaped grenades to represent Blight grenades, etc. etc.

They have even included more bells, and the large spikes that you see on the Plaguebearer Demons. I think they are great touches and just make them look that much more horrendous.

There was also an interesting focus on their backpacks. They all have unique backpacks (ok two of them have the same one) all designed to resemble the older backpacks from 2nd/early 3rd ed in some way. It makes the minis look that much more ancient and I love it.

In the end if you are just getting started with Warhammer, then I wouldn't start with the Plague Marines. They are a difficult paint job, and it can be very frustrating. However, for the avid painter looking for a challenge this is the army for you!

Written by: Andrew Gregory

PAF Canadair Sabres (Green)

In further preparation for the Check Your 6! Jet Age Crisis in Kashmir Campaign, I painted these two additional Pakistani Canadair Sabres. I now have a force of four, which let's me handle most of the missions in the campaign.

Armed with Sidewinder Missiles these aircraft will see a lot of action in the games to come. The Canadair Sabre were Pakistan's primary Fighter in the 60's and thus flew a lot of combat missions. As I understand it though made in my homeland of Canada, these planes were actually sold to West Germany before then being resold to Pakistan.

The main difference between these two planes and my previous two is the green marker on the rudder. In Check Your 6! each pilot has a skill level (Green, Skilled, Veteran, and Ace). My first two were Skilled and have a black marking, while these two planes are for green pilots and have a green marking.

This skill level affects many aspects of the game and is an important feature to note on each plane. I think the colouring is a simple and attractive way to denote the difference. We will finally get theses Sabres armed with Sidewinders in our next game where we test out Missile Mechanics, and commanding up to four Aircraft at once. Should be a great fight, we might even throw in the Light AA Positions just to mix things up!

Written by: Andrew Gregory

Plaguebearer Daemons

When I started playing Warhmmer and 3rd Edition was just about to go out of style, it was common for Chaos Space Marine players to use Daemons in their army. In fact a warhammer veteran at my local game shop as a teen recommend that I include them in my army at the time. Daemon forces in the older game were summoned in and could quickly turn the tide of a battle with an overwhelming melee strike wherever they appeared.

Well as time went on, and 4th edition was released chaos Daemons got their own Codex and were being slowly phased out as a choice for Chaos Space Marine players. In the 4th ed codex they were relegated to a small section in the back, giving "generic" Daemon stats. By the Time the 6th edition codex was released they were gone entirely.

I had a Squad of Older Pewter Plaguebearer Daemons from my old army, and wanting to increase that number from 10-20, I figured I would get a set of the the newer and in my opinion far nicer looking Plaguebearer Daemons.

While these fellows will work as actual Daemons for the older version of Warhammer 40k, when playing the newer editions of the game I often use them as Chaos Cultists with the Mark of Nurgle, or full on Plague Zombies as the case may be. I found they work perfectly for that role while still keeping the aesthetic of my Plague Marine Army

Written by: Andrew Gregory