Tendoria

Focus Project ; No

   Looking at the dates online, 23 years ago, Games Workshop released a plastic kit of Cadian shock troops at a show in London held at Alexander Palace that my mate and me went to*. There was quite a lot on our shopping lists but we had next to no money and this kit was what we both ended up buying instead. Thus my first Imperial Guard army was born.

*I can't remember what it was called (Conflict maybe?) but it was like a mini games day

   This army was painted in a winter scheme as we were working on winter scenery at the time, then they were repainted in black to be faux Gaunt's Ghost, before finally settling on a blue uniform and grey armour as the Tendorian 20th. The issue I had was this was both the era where I then went nuts and expanded the army in a big way and also when GW had a bad batch of plastic glue that failed over time, so one game I found half my army started falling apart as it came out of the foam and I very much lost interest in an army that couldn't be trusted to survive simple transportation**. Hence why my next Guard army was a metal army using the Steel Legion figures.

   The next issue was what this army's thing was - initially they were a regiment raised by a planet who thought it was effectively a hack to equip their cheapest commodity (people) with the cheapest equipment that could be bought and send them off into the stars instead of losing valuable goods to the tithe as most planets do***, but this is what my Hervictus guard became instead.

**one figure had the arms, legs, base and head all fall off as I picked it up

***because grim dark

   So the new fluff;

   Tendoria Prime is an Agri World in the neighbouring system to Hervictus itself. The planet's main export is edible produce but it has a martial history that it is keen to reinforce. There is a founding myth taught in every scholam on Tendoria that millennia ago the planet was colonised by demobbed Cadians and they are proud to have multiple regimental standards on Terra itself.

   Tendoria supplies the Imperium with highly trained, highly motivated shock troops trained in the Cadian style.

   When it came to painting this batch, I decided not to do the blue and grey uniform again - partly as the blue and grey has been subsumed into my other imperial armies, Hervictus got the grey armour and a really light blue trouser, while my Mechanicus have the bright blue. I also didn't want to paint a colour scheme I have elsewhere, so the traditional khaki uniform with green armour was a no go as my Tempestus Scions stole that too. So, I went for a light green uniform and brown armour to suggest a camouflage idea without committing to it.

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Winter WW2 US

 Focus Project; No

   Another post that has come as a surprise to both you and me. I bought a WW2 winter Americans a couple of years back when I was feeling flush and we were playing quite a bit of Bolt Action. Then Waylands closed their gaming centre and the 3rd edition of the rules came out and we just didn't pick the game back up.

   Now, however, my wife has a friend who it turns out is a gamer. He currently only plays LotR but he would like to get into Bolt Action, so I'm putting on a quick demo for him using the theatre that interests him - The Battle Of The Bulge - and it felt right to get the correct troops painted up.

   I've painted a real minimum platoon just to give him a feel for the rules - 2, hopefully, historically accurate squads of 12 men and a lieutenant with mates for some mobile punch.

   I'm also fairly sure I've got the base uniform slightly wrong - possibly the brown trousers by this point, but I'm happy with how they look.

Will the next post be the first focus project post of the year? Who knows.

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The Bullgryns

Focus Project; No

   I am very much still struggling with painting time - work is mental at the moment and a fair bit of my hobby time is fitted between jobs as a screen break - while the rest of my "not parenting time" is spent either running or at Wayland Games. At no point will you see me complain that I am now gaming again, but it has meant my backlog of painting isn't getting much better*.

*read as much much worse

   On that note, I have a game lined up for later this week where I plan to use my Imperial Guard. My opponent is going to be deep striking Terminators behind my line, so I wanted a unit to be able to deal with them, even if deal with just means a substantial speed bump. The idea I came up with was 6 Bullogryns - abhuman mutants that the Imperium uses for their sheer bulk. 

   I already had 3 from a past project that I repainted the trousers a few years back to match my Hervictus infantry but now I wanted a full 6 and to tidy them up properly.

   The Imperium is currently losing our campaign, so lets see if I can help or hinder their cause with my Guard.

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Desperate Times - Sword Edition

 It is with a heavy heart that we call forth our ancestors to battle once more.

Focus Project ; No

   In keeping with the last post, I have completely ignored the plan of focussing on a few projects and I've gone rogue*. I'm struggling a bit with free time to get stuff done at the moment and then doing very little in the time that does end up appearing, hence 28 days in to the new year and this is the second post, but it's a backlog kit which has to be some points in the right direction.

*in my defence I have some focus project models on the go

   GW did a preview stream a week or so ago - time feels like it is flowing strangely - where they showed off the new Eldar Corsairs coming out in the next few months and that is an army I would love to put on the table. However, I am trying to be good and work through my backlog and this inspired a look at getting my regular Craftworld Eldar onto the table instead. I've written a 1,000 point wraith list and I am going to chip away at it until I am able to play.

   This is the first new unit - Wraithblades which came on the combat patrol magazine a few months back. I've built them with the swords for sheer amount of dice and painted them in my normal scheme.

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Mister Frodo! Look! It's an Oliphant!

 No one at home will believe this

Focus Project ; No

   In keeping with my plan of focussing on a set number of projects to get them fully usable before moving on I have painted the following, oh wait.

   Lets try this again, with the new Wayland Games centre reopening and having gone mad and booked some actual games in, I was talking to one of my brothers about what we wanted to play and he suggested Lord of the Rings. Then the more I thought about that option, the more a bad idea came to mind - to finish one of my Mumaks and get it on the table.

   I have a really cheap one I bought from eBay that was always my plan A, but as I have been unable (so far) to repair it, I went with the plan B Mumak, one I bought in case plan A didn't work. I built this on the Friday night in front of the TV (and it is a dreadful kit), sprayed it Sunday between jobs and then aimed to give myself 3 days of painting, which turned into just about one day.

   The end result is a model that probably needs a bit more love to really tidy it up, but I'm tired and calling it done is better than calling it perfect.

   It has to be said, that the first game I played at the new Wayland Games centre in Brentwood, with a stupid model on the table, a beer in one hand and a bowl of cauliflower "wings" in Korean BBQ sauce in the other was just absolutely amazing. I'm starting to feel more positive about 2026. Oh and I have a game on Saturday too?!?

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That End Of Year Post - 2025 Edition

   Another year that didn't go as planned - although, I appreciate no year really sticks to how you expected it to go. My wargaming actually slowed down this year, with very little actual gaming, Wayland Games still not being open and my regular gaming friends being as hit by real life as I was. Less projects started but also fewer projects finished as my buying and painting were both down on previous years. I think the ultimate thing I will take from this year was that the lack of gaming really made my buying and painting disjointed - normally a new project will be put on the table fairly soon after either buying (so I rush to get it done) or once I have painted enough, I purposely organise a game to make sure I then finish it. Missing out that last step has really made a difference and not in a positive way, with at least 3 or 4 armies being finished and just not seeing the table top, and a couple of game projects not getting completed as I just lost momentum.

   But then towards the end of the year, I took up running, doing a 50km challenge for Cancer Research UK in October with no pre training (I ran 90km that month in the end) and getting medals for a pair of 10km runs - with more booked.

1. Play 20 games - keep it low - 19 games. Not a success but it could have been a lot worse. We have just had a date for Waylands reopening, so hopefully 2026 will be better

2. Complete 6 scenery projects - then for bonus points, play a game with each - Not even close

3. Finish the year with less models in my backlog than I started with - 3rd lowest year in terms of models bought/sold, which is pretty good. Then, somehow, 4th highest year in terms of models painted - but I suspect that was because I painted a lot of small scale figures in bulk early in the year. The end result is the backlog has substantially gone down but is still too high.

4. Play games with 10 armies that I've not used - 4/10, so another failure. This was not helped by the lack of games and how most of my games ended up last minute panics instead of planned and organised where I would have used newer collections

First game of the year in late January, doubles Space Marine combat patrols.

First game for my August Lions 1/10.

Little game of 15mm Napoleonics at the end of January using Rebels and Patriots.

A game of Star Trek Attack Wing using my Cardassians. This is a ruleset that is still my most played (keeping different editions of a game as separate games otherwise Bolt Action just beats it to the top) but had last been played in 2021 and last seriously in 2018. 

Our yearly game of D&D towards the end of March. I believe the young white dragon attacking the town we were staying wasn't supposed to be the whole session but here we are.

The English are enveloped somewhere in northern France in a 100 years war game I played in very early April.

A couple of board games with my 4 year old the day after Salute. He always asks to play games but is a bit young for anything more than Snakes and Ladders (where if he doesn't win he gets sad). This wasn't the greatest success but I think he mostly enjoyed himself.

My middle brother gave me a game of Wingspan one night on my other brother's stag do in late May. This is a game I've heard a lot about but never managed to get in a game of.

My next wargames was in mid June when I tried out a new gaming club, the Hutton Hearthguards. I cobbled together a World Eater/Khorne Daemon army to take down and was utterly thrashed, but after nearly 2 months without a wargame at this point, it was just nice to get toys on the table again.

2/10

I got my mate back out for a game again and we played a game of combat patrol. I got absolutely slapped, but it was totally worth it.

I played a couple of games with my brothers in early July, one using our new knights (plus one of my older ones to make up numbers) and then a 3 way combat patrol below

3/10

My second game at the new club in July using my regular Chaos. I learnt a lot about from this game.

My next game wasn't until late September when the Necrons awoke and took on some space marines.

The first in a couple of October Games - ACW on a slightly too small table. 

We didn't actually play much of this game, spending the bulk of our time chatting, but it was still a fun evening.

Then the next week, I got a second game in with one of my brothers - two games in two weeks?

Another 2 month break until 3 games in December within a few days of each other.

My Beast Snagga Orks vs my brother's Orks

4/10

My Chaos Space Marines vs my other brother's Tau - this game was over in a turn and a half

My Chaos Space Marines vs my brother's Space Marines - this was a fun game

So what are my aims for 2026?

1. My first aim isn't wargaming - it's just to try and do a single organised run a month. These are mostly going to be 10kms but I do have a half marathon booked for the Spring and I have plans for a full marathon in mind for the Autumn. If I have something booked for every month, I can't let this new hobby slide, goes the theory.
2. Play 20 games - bringing this one back and keeping it a sensible number just so I don't overload myself with ambition. As I type this, table bookings have gone live for the new Wayland Games and I do have something booked, so fingers crossed.
3. Finish the year with less models in my backlog - another classic brought back as it really pushes what I would like to be achieving for my backlog.
4. Finish the year with less unplayed armies - modifying this yearly target to show the aim is to be playing older armies that haven't seen a table and not just be buying lots of new armies and using them instead
5. Play more historical games - I love putting historical armies on the table and I would just like to use more of my collections

Projects I'd like to focus on early this year;

• Tempestus Scions - this is a Combat Patrol sized force I started and finished this year, but I would like to grow it to a fuller army - 1k minimum and then make sure it sees the table
• Beast Snagga Orks - another Combat Patrol army that I kind of thought might be done, but one of my brothers bought me the centre piece unit for Christmas, so I want this to grow to 1k too. Ironically, I need to buy a second combat patrol to finish it . . .
• 15mm English Civil War - a project started years ago that I'm really close to being able to put on the table - it just seems daft not to finish it off when I am so close
• 15mm Feudal Japan - another project that I am just so close to finishing
• Dark Age Welsh - this one will take some more explaining and I'm just not going to here, but it's an achievable project to get on the table

Speed Freaks

   In my head, I have half a plan of doing about 1000 points of both Beast Snaggas and regular Orks so that there can be an Ork element to out campaign* with me still being able to play any side that needs covering. The Beast Snagga combat Patrol is done and the regular Ork one is being worked on**, so when the combat patrol magazine added a BoomDakka SnazzWagon as the extra kit to their magazine for a tenner, I knew I needed one***.

*as one brother has decided to focus on them

**the kopters are worrying me

***I bought 2 . . .

   The more I have thought these two models over in my head, the more I like the idea of a mini Speed Freaks army - only 500 points or so, but it will be able to be added to either Ork army that I am building to boost numbers without it being against the canon.

   With that thought in mind, the first one built had to be in the traditional Speed Freaks colours - red with touches of yellow with weird little details all over it. This was one of those models that I built, did the metal undercoat and then had a block on what to do as it felt like a big job. Once I got started blocking out the red and greens, it was really good fun to paint and I'm looking forward to doing the next one - I just need to work out how to make it look different.

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