Procrastination by Numbers

[cunningmatt]

Friday 23rd December 2011 – Procrastination by Numbers Forgotten Special Characters Advent Calendar



Remember people died for the vote, it would be disrespectful not to use it – so vote now for The 2011 Procrastination by Numbers Awards.

Here's Day 23:

[spoiler]
Friday 23rd: Lothlann the Brave

Name: Lothlann the Brave, Battle Standard Bearer

Original Points Cost: 158 points (including Standard of Athel Loren)

Background: Lothlann earned his nickname "the Brave" when he picked up the battle banner from the slain Athryn the Strong in the Battle of the Creaking Yew. He then rode into battle leading an inspiring charge against the Skaven who were then hunted out from Athel Loren. Since then Lothlann joined Rentokil and was presented with The Battle Standard Bearer of Athel Loren a magical banner woven from the hair of countless Elven maidens, which undoubtedly stank and was infested with nits.

Original Appearance: Warhammer Armies: Wood Elves - 4th Edition, no model released.



Last Appearance: Warhammer Armies: Wood Elves - 4th Edition

Special Rules: Lothlann has no special rules himself (other than being the Battle Standard Bearer). He bares the The Battle Standard of Athel Loren, any spell targeted (or template that drifts) within 12" of the banner (doesn't say just enemy player's spells), "fizzles out" on a D6 roll of 5+ (I think "fizzles out" means "is dispelled").



My Memories of the Character: None. I never had Warhammer Armies: Wood Elves - 4th Edition at the time of release (I bought it recently on ebay for the bargain price of £4 simply for this feature, aren't I good to you?). And as he was never released or featured in White Dwarf, I never knew of him.

Person most Reminds Me Of: A flag waving tit from Last Night of the Proms

Inclusion in 8th Edition: Go for it! There are similar magic items/special abilities out there (such as Morghur's immunity to spells), perhaps overprized if we say it includes both friendly and enemy spells. You'll need a model, you could use this Battle Standard available on the Games Workshop website...



...although he is supposed to be riding an Elven steed. Conversion work or get rid of the horse. Hmmmm... get rid of the horse would be a lot easier!

[/spoiler]

More special character fun over on the OG Games 2011 Advent Calendar? Click here now: http://ogforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=2697.msg38191;topicseen#msg38191

[cunningmatt]

Update 30 – Friday 23rd December 2011: The Third Great Trial of Christmas: Friends & Family

If you are looking for today's Advent Calendar entry, it's just above this post!

Here's my third and final moan about all the nice things about Christmas in an attempt to ruin the festive season for all.

The problem with Christmas is in a sense the whole point of it; you have to spend it with family and friends. Admittedly a Christmas spent on your own would be about as much fun as spending the festive season in the Fritzel's basement, but at least there wouldn't be the rows, awkwardness and general problems always associated with interacting with other people which are compounded during the holiday season.

Now before you get deeply offended early on in the post (there'll be plenty of time for that later), I want to say I love my friends and family – as much as my bitter and twisted cold heart will allow for anyway. But the problem is everyone has a different vision of what Christmas should be, from the full on Victorian traditional feast with the million friends and family around sharing well-thought gifts and cards over the ultimate meal, to a quiet one with only your closest, to avoiding every relative at all cost, like they were street based charity workers. If everyone had a same standard idea of what Christmas should be, at least we'd all know the bench mark.

Christmas Cards seem like such a simple idea, a brief message to say Merry Christmas in a card posted to a loved one. But nowadays do you bother? And if you do bother, who do you leave on or off the Christmas card list? It's a bit like a dry run for organising your wedding (were that ever to be likely – in my case I think this would be wasted practice), admittedly with smaller ramifications but still... if you send a card to one friend why aren't you sending a card to all your friends. It may seem like a small thing, but generally most friends don't like to find out that they've been segregated into a sub-friendship group within the rest of your friends, it's not considered polite. Cards sent around the office are even more problematic, as there's a lot more of an obvious opportunity to compare who received a card and who didn't, in a small office you can probably manage everyone but in a large office the line has to be drawn somewhere unless you want to spend December operating like a 17th century printing press. And then of course there's the awkward moment when you receive a card from someone who you haven't sent a card to, uh-oh potential festive disaster (unless you don't give a toss!), especially if it's now past the last posting date for Christmas, or you've run out of cards in your festive box consisting of 24 cards consisting of 4 designs – I mean I probably should send them a card, but it's not worth rushing out to buy a new box.

If you think card giving for friends is tricky, consider how this problem is magnified within the realm of present buying. Whilst your said friend may not be that concerned if they've missed out on a well thought, but essentially cheap card, they may when actual cash value presents are taken into account start to get a bit miffed. But say a special friend has done something nice for you this year and so you want to thank them for it. Well do you need to buy every mutual friend, that you and the original friend share, gifts as well for fear of offending them? And then where does it stop? Sufficient extension of this logic results in the nightmare scenario where you end up having to get every person you've ever met a gift and that can be expensive, even for the socially retarded. The potential for absolute awkwardness for me doesn't end there, because what if you receive a present from someone you haven't actually got a return present for? Are they expecting something back? Will they be offended if you haven't got them anything? Are you supposed to rush out and get them something at the last possible moment?

In some ways worse than this can be the potential for gift mismatch, this is where you've both bought each other gifts but one person has way out spent the other. If you receive a luxury designer watch costing around £300, and in return you've got them a chocolate Santa and a soap in the shape of a reindeer, you can feel a little uncomfortable. Even worse because you've got them something, you can't play the "sorry I haven't had a chance to get you a present yet" card.

Still at least with friends you can shop in nice shops, after all they're likely to have similar interests and be a similar age to you. Whereas this luxury is not often afforded with family members, in the case of friends you can shop in nice clothes shops or look for fun music and DVDs. However involve family members and you'll be soon trawling through shops you feel about as comfortable at as a South Korean who is accidentally stumbled into Kim Jong-il's funeral service. Before you know it'll you'll be groping your way blindly through places you'd never normally go cross-stitch shops, Fishing Accessory World and worst Edinburgh Wool Mill.

The family gift buying trauma is also compounded by the fact that as you know family better you know what they'll do with your gift – more to the point if you buy them tat you know they are going to put it in the bin. You can pretend your friend will keep that awful Wall-mounted Singing Mackerel you found in the junk shop, your mother will not and you know it. You're going to have to get something thoughtful. Worse still my parents make rules on what I can and cannot buy them – no clothes as no room in the wardrobe, no toiletries as they never get used, no food as they're on a diet, and nothing that will take up any space as the house is full of junk. I mean what can you get them, a gift-wrapped skip for them to empty the spare room into?! Then you ask them what they would like and they reply "I don't really know" – well if they don't really know, what chance do I have. Instead I end up plodding up and down the high street so much the shop assistant in Boots thinks I'm stalking her just for her clubcard points.

To make matters worse, 10 years ago I foolishly suggested that wouldn't it make a nice change to use Make Your Own Crackers – these are crackers where you buy them unassembled and purchase your own gift to place inside. An ideal way to avoid the usual awful crap they put in crackers, which they might as well send straight to landfill now and save us all wasting 2 seconds of our life doing it. Anyway at the time the cracker idea seemed like a good one, but now it's been adopted as a family tradition this means having to hunt down another set of family presents obeying all the above rules but being small enough to fit within the inside of a cracker. Why did I ever suggest such a disastrous idea in the first place? Now a decade later I'm wandering through stores with a tape measure trying to see if gifts will fit in a cracker, desperately resisting the urge to form the bloody thing into a noose and end it all there.

The other problem with family, bar the rows and having to spend time with them – things I'll gloss over because surprisingly I actually get on with my family and so have nothing to add on this subject (An optimistic note?! Who'd have thought, well it is Christmas). Any how, the other problem with family is that they have a bizarre set of traditions that they insist you adhere to, being sent out to buy two jars of pickled onions and a Christmas table cloth on Christmas Eve because "otherwise Christmas will be ruined" I feel may be taking festive preparations a little too far. In fact let's sod the whole thing and have fish fingers and chips?! What do you reckon? Who could be unhappy with that?

Onto other things that people can be unhappy with, it's my Spearmen painting progress.

50 Spearmen in 50 Days – Day 45
There's some good news here, and there's some bad news. The good news is a Herculian effort over the weekend this week has got the end of the Spearmen in sight. The bad news is although I have 5 days to deadline, I am not going to get anything done over Christmas (family – see above), so tomorrow really is the final day of painting. Dur dur durrrrrrhhhh.

I've done all the main painting for Stage 4, the final stage, now. So all I need to get done today and tomorrow is gems (there's a lot of these), eyes (fiddly), flocking bases (messy) and a general tidy up – looking at them as I'm finishing there's odd flicks of rogue paint or bits that are still black as got missed in the first coat. Oh and the small matter of a banner!!! Nothing horrendous (bar the banner), but a bit time consuming, so fingers firmly crossed. Here's the current painting guide:

Stage 4a – High Elf Spearmen









Base: Drybrush Bleached Bone
Boots: *NO CHANGE*
White Cloth: Layer Skull White
Armour Trim and Plume: *NO CHANGE*
Silver Metal: *NO CHANGE*
Gold Metal: Highlight 5:1 Shining Gold : Mithril Silver
Wood: *NO CHANGE*
Flesh: Highlight Bleached Bone

Fingers crossed for tomorrow!!

[Dave]

And an early christmas present for you, something I found in bath.

[cunningmatt]

Saturday 24th December 2011 – Procrastination by Numbers Forgotten Special Characters Advent Calendar

And an early christmas present for you, something I found in bath.

Thank you so much Dave, very kind of you! Hope you enjoy your Christmas Shakeaway I look forward to picking up the one you undoubtedly got for me shortly!

This ladies and gentlemen is it, yep the final day in the Advent Calendar, I hope you've enjoyed this brand new set of old characters if that makes sense?! And what special choice have I picked for the final day? None in particular they were randomly assigned!!

Here's the final day, Day 24:

[spoiler]
Saturday 24th: Dechala

Name: Dechala, the Denied One



Original Points Cost: 355 points including the magic item Elixir of Damnation and the Chaos reward Many Arms.

Background: Dechala's origins are unknown, though legend as it she was once a High Elf Princess. Dechala has mutated beyond recognition sporting a tail and six arms. Dancing in combat her cha-cha-cha distracts the enemy turning them into her slave, whilst she herself craves nothing other than escape from all shackles of order. Once wounded by a Champion of Khorne she bares a scar on her face and a grudge the size of Croydon.

Original Appearance: Warhammer Armies: Champions of Chaos – 5th Edition



Last Appearance: Warhammer Armies: Champions of Chaos – 5th Edition



Special Rules: Dechala bears a Mark of Slaanesh and hates all those with a Mark of Khorne, or Khorne Daemons. She may not be included in your army if you include any Khornate characters, units or Daemons. At the beginning of the turn Dechala may pick one of the following dances to do until the start of your next turn The Praise of Slaanesh enemy suffer -1 to hit Dechala in shooting and hand-to-hand combat, Dance of Destruction Dechala is at +1 to hit in combat, Daggerdance Dechala may completely block up to three attacks from her opponents, at the beginning of the combat phase select how many attacks she would like to block and from which model(s) (in base-to-base contact) she wishes to block. Each block costs Dechala two of her own attacks. Elixir of Damnation any model that suffers an unsaved wound, but is not killed, by Dechala may never attack in combat, shoot at or cast a spell against Dechala for the rest of the game – Daemons and Undead models are unaffected. Many Arms Dechala gains +1A.

My Memories of the Character: When I returned to Warhammer in 7th edition I found her model on the Games Workshop website and couldn't work out where she came from or whether she was a Warriors or Daemons character (she is a Warriors character).

Person most Reminds Me Of: Theresa May, like any women her multiple arms make her an excellent multi-tasker, but her barbarous tail and hatred of anyone with red affiliation makes her perfect candidate for the current Home Secretary.

Inclusion in 8th Edition: Her model is still available:



Although she does feel a lot like the Daemons of Chaos character the Masque of Slaanesh. Most of her rules still feel applicable, though the Elixir of Damnation is evil allowing her to lock characters in combat and prevent them attacking her – though as most characters are fielding in units these days (including Dechala – I imagine) this would probably be less horrendous as other attacks could decide combat resolution and free trapped characters!

[/spoiler]

Of course there's another final character over on the OG Games 2011 Advent Calendar. Click here now: http://ogforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=2697.msg38226;topicseen#msg38226

[cunningmatt]

Update 31 – Saturday 24th December 2011: Merry Christmas

If you are looking for the final Advent Calendar entry, it's just above this post!

Yesterday I mentioned that given Christmas today is the last day to finish painting my Spearmen by, and how did I do...

50 Spearmen in 50 Days – Day 46
Well by completely ignoring the fact that my parents are en route to my house as we speak and could arrive in the next 15 minutes (literally!!!), and not doing any tidying or cleaning for their arrival I finished them just!! Even though this is a completely arbitrary deadline I set myself!!

Admittedly I did have to make a last minute visit to Games Workshop to pick up a new Fine Detail Brush (eyes are difficult with a brush with one hair on!!) and some Bleached Bone (need that colour for everything):



Oh no! How did the new Citadel Finecast Tyrion get into my shopping basket? For gods sake you turn your back for five minutes!

Well first up I finished off the 50 shields:



These we done using my usual colour scheme for the white, yellow and gold (no time to write them up parents coming!) with a blue central gem.

I also did the banners, rather frustratingly when in a hurry the Spearmen units have two banners:



These were painted using my trademark grid system to copy the symbol on the shields from the High Elf book. However copying geometric shapes can be particularly tricky, so I made sure to plot out the design in stages, using radial lines from the centre of the shield each point of the star. I then drew in each vertex (posh word for corner) that make up the rest of the design before drawing the lines to make the finished star. Then it was a simple case of filling in the colour.

So with banners and shields done, we were ready for assembly:



And here's the finished unit, yes finished!:

Stage 4b – High Elf Spearmen













Wow I didn't think I'd do it but there we go!!

So now fear me enemy players, because no one will ever win a game against me, primarily as it will take 2 hours to deploy this unit and the game will never get finished but there we go! Though I suspect I shouldn't field this unit until I've made a movement tray, that will annoy even the most patient of opponents!

With that, that's pretty much it for this year. I'll be back blogging in the New Year and allowing you to procrastinate during your working day, with my review of the year, New Year's resolutions update (how did I do for 2011 – awful probably) and The 2011 Procrastination by Numbers Awards, if you do get a chance to vote between Christmas and the New Year I would be very, very grateful – we've had a numbers votes in already with some amazing suggestions I hadn't even thought off so please keep PMing them to me. Remember here are the categories:

Category 1: Best Games Workshop Model Released 2011.

Category 2: Best Games Workshop Army Book/Supplement/Game Released 2011.

Category 3: Best Games System of 2011.

Category 4: Best Tournament of 2011.

Category 5: Best Forum Contributor of 2011.

Category 6: Best Forum Painting Blog of 2011.

Category 7: Best Forum Painted Model of 2011.

Category 8: Best Post from the Procrastinator of 2011.

Category 9: Best Painted model from the Procrastinator of 2011.

Category 10: Worst Games Workshop Model Released 2011.

Full details and rules for each category in Update 28.

All that remains for me to say is sorry I haven't had a chance to proof read or spell check this post!! And thank you sooooooooooooooo much for reading, I know it's sometimes a long task but it is appreciated, and particular thanks to those who send in comments they really, really help! Have an absolutely wonderful Christmas and the best 2012 you can imagine!

Ding Dong! What's that parents here? Best go, bye!!

Matt

[fatolaf]

A Great result there buddy, look forward to seeing that unit in action....

And another great advent calendar there, thank you sir...

[Dave]

Spearmen are looking good, nice turnaround time too.

[cunningmatt]

Cheers guys. Glad you enjoyed the calendar Ol.

Looking forward to sending my 50 Spearmen into battle, need that movement tray first! Hopefully sort though over the remnants of the festive period. Probably could have painted those Spearmen quicker without the run up to Christmas, will be that in mind if I do another 50 Days... Challenge.

Happy New Year to all. And if I can plead again for votes for The 2011 Procrastination by Numbers Awards, they would be most appreciated. Currently we don't have enough for a glittering award ceremony  . Have a great one whatever you're doing! See you in 2012!

[Dave]

Eek, being off work has prevented me from finding time to vote, might not get a chance until next week if work is crazy as expected.

[cunningmatt]

Eek, being off work has prevented me from finding time to vote, might not get a chance until next week if work is crazy as expected.

Don't worry between you and me, I may have to extend the deadline as we haven't had many votes yet. Perhaps now everyone's back at the work with minimum quotas of procrastination to fill people may get round to it!!