Comics Mart Midvalley WH40k Mini-Mayhem Tournament!

I've just come back from a teeny tiny tourney. Really teeny tiny. 12 players, each with 750pt armies, playing on 3' x 4' boards. Each player plays 3 games against 3 other randomly determined players, with randomly determined missions drawn from the warped imagination of the organizer.

Here's the list I took:

HQ
Librarian with Shield of Sanguinius and Fear of the Darkness

Troops
5 man Assault Squad in a Razorback
- 1 meltagun
- Sgt has a powerfist
- Razorback has Lascannon and Twin-linked Plasmagun

5 man Assault Squad in a Razorback
- 1 meltagun
- Razorback has Lascannon and Twin-linked Plasmagun

5 man Assault Squad in a Razorback
- 1 flamer
- Razorback has Lascannon and Twin-linked Plasmagun

Heavy Support
Predator with Lascannon sponsons

And that's a total of 750pts on the nose.

How'd I do, well...

Game 1 - Vs Tau (CK)
Enemy list:
HQ
Shas'o with 2 shield drones, plasma rifle, missile pod and shield generator

Elites
3 Crisis suits, 3 with missle pods, then 1 fusion blaster, 1 plasma rifle and 1 with another missile pod, 2 shield drones, and something else I don't remember.

Troops
2 squads of 12 Firewarriors with photon grenades

Heavy Support
Broadside with multi-tracker

Mission - Wipe out the opposing player's Troops choices.

I moved first.

This game was a bit silly. I clumped my armour together, keeping my Librarian in a Razorback behind the other 2 Razorback. The terrain was pretty open, so I planned to slowly advance, using my lascannon to blast away the Shas'O and the Broadside he had attached himself to, then shred the Firewarriors at my leisure. My opponent opted to keep his Firewarriors back and close to his board edge, one squad on each flank, then intended to pounce when I got close. Things went pretty differently for both of us...

Turn one, I killed nothing but a blasted shield drone. He blew up a Razorback. 2 marines died in the explosion.

Turn two, I killed sodall. He blew up a Razorback. The Librarian's Razorback is still unscathed.

Turn three, I killed buggerall (I hate shield drones!!!). The Crisis Suits deep strike, and scatter right next to the now-footslogging and fairly angry Assault marines plodding behind my Librarian's Razorback. They blast away, but the cover afforded by the craters that used to be my Razorbacks meant only 1 marine got killed.

Turn four, the squad with the Librarian detaches, disembarks and all 3 Assault squads proceed to brutally maul the Crisis Suits. One survives and jetpacks away. Meanwhile, the Librarian darts forward in his Razorback, hops out (keeping out of sight of that wretched Broadside) and casts Fear of the Darkness on one squad of Firewarriors on my left. They run off the board. My some miracle, the Razorback survives the shooting from the retreating Crisis Suit, the Shas'O, the Broadside, and the remaining Firewarriors.

Turn five, the Librarian steps out from behind the Razorback, then casts Fear of the Darkness on the other squad of Firewarriors. They run off the board. The game is mine!


Game 2 - Vs Chaos Marines (Mark)
The enemy:
HQ
Daemon Prince with wings

Elites
Chaos Dreadnought with 2 close combat weapons

Troops
10 Plague Marines with 2 meltaguns and a champion with combimelta and power fist.

Heavy Support
1 Chaos Land Raider

Mission - a King of the Hill style game with a point awarded each turn to the player with a Troops choice within 3" of an objective in the center of the board. Also, if any player has lost all his Troops choices, on a die roll of 4+ at the beginning of his turn, he automatically loses.

Chaos moved first.

With a game like this, his plan was obvious: move the Land Raider up, then park his plague ridden hide on the objective, which happened to be sitting in the middle of a crater, commonly considered area terrain in this particular FLGS. He deployed his Raider in the open, right in the middle, with the Prince and Dreadnought hiding behind it.

Turn one, I got obscenely lucky, stole the initiave and immobilized his Land Raider in a volley of Lascannon fire! From then onwards, I whittled away at his Plague marines with my tanks, wiping them out. He then lost due to the No Troops Autolose on a 4+ rule, which is just as well, because his Prince was busily chewing up my Troops choices... Still, victory to me!


Game 3 - Vs Vanilla Marines (Marcus)
The enemy:
HQ
Captain on a Bike with lotsa bells and whistles

Troops
2 full Bike Squads with all the melta that could be fit, with Powerfists on the Seargents for good measure

Fast Attack
Land Speeder Typhoon

Mission - Each player has an objective marker with 3 wounds and some other stats to make it fairly durable. The idea is to kill the opponent's objective marker, which could only be done in close combat. Each player could only deploy his marker 6" away or less from his table edge.

Biker horde got the first turn.

This game I got absolutely shredded. I clumped my armour together as usual, on my right, then left the objective about 6" to the left and the plan was to focus all my gunishment on one squad, then the other. What actually happened...

Both squads of bikers turbo boosted forward, one squad down each flank. My army encircled one group, disembarked, and fired every gun I had at my disposal... And caused nothing. 1 wound on a bemused Attack Bike and that was it. That was an obscene number of cover saves to make! That squad tied up my army in assault, the other assaulted my objective and that was that. Ah, well...

Looking back, though, I don't think there was much I could have done against an army like that, especially not on a 3' x 4' board and not with an army like mine. I was mildly vexed by the profound lack of decent carnage this game, but hey, a mission's a mission, eh?

And that's how my day went. On a side note, during the 2nd game of the day, I spotted the biker army not having quite so much fun against some Tyranids (which later went on to win the tourney):

The Emperor can only protect so many times, Brother Captain...

And that's that. Heap big thanks to Comics Mart for organizing this, much fun was had by all... except maybe for this poor devil with this really nice Tau army who apparently got so badly mauled in the first 2 games he didn't stick around for the 3rd...

Anyway, there's work to be done! Until next time...

A New Codex Looms: Necrons!

Saw this thread and I'm now fairly excited! Seriously, this is so awesome! I've been eyeballing the Necrons for ages and always had a soft spot for the fluff, but never got into them, mostly because the 4th Ed codex is rubbish, there're too many metal models (yuck!) and nothing about actually playing them as an army actually appealed to me. Now this!

Lotsa new models (PLASTICS!!! YEEEAAAAHH!!!) lotsa new rules and from the look of the rumours, the new Necrons will be playable as a horde army, which is absolutely up my alley. Looks like I've a lovely new project for 2012...

In other news, I've just sent off an order for some Blood Angel-y goodness. Am looking to complete 1750pts of all-jump goodness, then try out another list using an Assault Terminator death star. As such, my gaming expenditure will be on hold for a couple of months...

Some battle updates

Not quite batreps but just keeping track of some recent scraps my armies have had.

Chaos Space Marines

I've been using this army list quite a bit with, predictably, limited success. The thing is I've thrown this army together with models I just like using, and I generally refuse to touch two of the Ruinous Powers, that is, Slaanesh (because I don't like the daemonette models) and Nurgle (because they're disgustin'). The last 3 games I've had with them can be summarised as follows:

Vs Tau - Capture and Control, Pitched Battle. My Chaos army's first proper (if partially painted) outing. Vindicator and Defiler got blatted in the 2nd turn, but amazingly enough, the bikers picked up the slack, tearing across the board and smashing every Crisis and Broadside suit within reach. Daemon Prince turned up in turn 4, but was shredded my massed pulse rifle fire before he could do anything. The game ended as a draw.

Vs Mechanized Imperial Guard - Capture and Control, Dawn of War. Vindicator made itself useful, blowing up a Leman Russ Executioner with it's first shot. The bikers, however, were wiped out by the obscene firepower of Knight Commander Pask leading a squadron of 2 heavily kitted-out Leman Russ Exterminators. That squadron proceed to shred anything Pask laid his eyes on with near impunity, including the Daemon Prince, who failed EVERY reserve roll by 1 pip, then turned up on turn 5 to get obliterated by Pask. The game ended on Turn 5 as a draw, though I could quite easily have been wiped off the table during turn 6. I had one squad of Chaos Marines left on the board and nothing else, he had more than half his army.

Vs Blood Angels - Capture and Control, Dawn of War. Played against a list with 2 death star units each riding in a Stormraven, Assault Terminators in one, Death Company and a Furioso Dreadnought in the other. The Furioso Dread stomped around with Blood Talons, wiping out both my units of Chaos Space Marines, the Sanguinor killed all my Khorne Berzerkers. Oh, and for the first time in 4 games, the Chaos Biker Lord stabbed himself with his daemon weapon. He was obviously making up for lost time, because he did so twice. Game ended with the total annihilation of my army on Turn 6.

What have I learnt from this? Not much that I wasn't previously aware of, truth be told. I know my unit of Bikers is the same as throwing 500pts into, at best, a liability, or at worst, a hole. I'd like to keep them, but man, at 33pts each, they are horrifically overcosted. I'll be putting the Chaos aside for a while to work on the Angels, but I'm well aware that if I want to win games, the bikers simply have to go. On the upside, I've now got a perfectly reasonable 1250pt list. Maybe the next time the Chaos Marine codex is updated, eh?

Blood Angels

I tried using a Descent of Angels list for the first time today, albeit a teeny tiny one, at 750pts:

750pts of DoA army really doesn't look like much...

HQ
Librarian with Jump pack, meltabombs, Shield of Sanguinius and Unleash Rage, 130 pts

Elites
2 Sanguinary Priests with jump packs, 150pts

Troops
2 10-man squads of Assault Marines, each with 2 meltaguns and a powerfist for the Sgt, 470pts

750pts on the nose, 100% WYSIWYG and mostly painted. :-)

I played them against Tau, Capture and Control, Dawn of War. Just played today, so I remember taking on a Shas'O with 2 shield drones, a squad of 3 Crisis Suits with twin-linked Missile Pods, 2 squads of 10 Firewarriors and 8 Pathfinders with their Devilfish.

I kept things simple, this being a small engagement on a small (3' x 4') board, with one priest attached to each 10-man squad and the Librarian attached to one of these identical squads. The whole army was in reserve, and I intended to drop in, maul anything on his objective then, if necessary, hop away back to my objective. What actually happened was:

Turn 1 - The Tau started first and shuffled onto the board and that was it.

Turn 2 - The Tau Crisis suits scooched closer to my objective, the Pathfinders, 1 squad of Firewarriors and the Shas'O camped around theirs. The Angels did not arrive.

Turn 3 - More Tau shufflin' about, the Tau not parked on their objective plod closer to mine. The Assault Marines without the Librarian arrive, shoot the Devilfish in the rear and immobilize it.

Turn 4 - The Pathfinders put 5 markerlights on the Assault Marines and the rest of the Tau army proceed to maul it with everything they have. The thing is, without any Railguns, Fusion Blasters or Plasmarifles, 750pts worth of Tau firepower inflicted only 4 casualties on the marines. The Librarian's squad arrived, then the first squad multi-charged the pathfinders and a squad of Firewarriors, wiping out the Pathfinders and grinding away some Firewarriors.

Turn 5 - The Tau shoot the Librarian's squad, killing 1. After my assault phase, in which the Librarian's squad multicharged the Shas'O and the remaining Firewarrior squad, we decided to call it a day, as the only Tau units left were a wounded Shas'O and 2 Firewarriors, both locked in combat, 3 Crisis Suits and the Devilfish.

This was quite an education as to the sheer staying power granted by Feel No Pain. That having been said, the Tau army didn't have a single weapon to negate FNP, so that can't have been fun for my opponent...

Anyway, no really deep thoughts for now. No time, there's work that needs doing. Maybe later...

Completely random and somewhat overdue update

Hokay, since last week's super heavy injection of plastic crack (i.e. the huge pile of Chaos stuff), I've kinda lost myself in lotsa building and painting and stuff. And of course an occasional game with the lovely Chaos army. Anyway, I won't bore you with the Chaos stuff, seeing as there's really nothing interesting there besides the Daemon Prince (who has still never gotten into assault) and the Biker Lord (who had a GLORIOUS time last game when he detached, rode his bike into a building and wiped out a unit each of Pathfinders and Firewarriors). Oh, there's the daemonically possessed Vindicator, I suppose... but that's in the car right now, and I can't be arsed to get it. Next post will the Vindicator, promise.

Anyway, while making the Chaos army happen, I looked at all my other WIP models and tallied up my armies:
1. Mechanized Blood Angels (LOTS of fun)
2. Grey Knights (small Draigowing, never seen action, on hold)
3. Chaos Space Marines (total self-denial of cheese, i.e. no Plague Marines, no Lash, no Obliterators. 500pts of BIKER FUN!)
4. ???

At which point I decided on the 4th army: Descent of Angels! So, after a bit of rummaging through the bits and the codex, I put together a 1750pt list which I am now slowly assembling and painting up. Some pics:
Tadah! All-plastic jump-pack librarian! Still painting in the final details. Staff, psychic hood and head from the Grey Knights kit, breastplate from the Baal Predator kit, legs, left shoulder pad and jump pack from the Death Company kit, right should pad from Sanguinary Guard, and bolt pistol from... I'm not sure where, but now that I look at this pic, I really should have been better about those mould lines. A couple more views:

I'll be looking to field Sanguinary Guard in my army, too, mainly because I just love the look of the models and I want a unit that really seriously stands way out above the others, next to the Honour Guard, of course. Here's a test model in progress:


The death masks are probably going to be the most significant piece of non-WYSIWYG-ness in the army. I just love the look of them but don't think it's worth paying 25pts for the ability. In any case, the other helmets in the Sanguinary Guard kit are all going to my kitbashed Honour Guard.

So, that's it for now. It's a beautiful Saturday morning and there is gaming to be done! Til next time...

WIP: Chaos, Vindicator, Defiler, Rhino, etc...

Bwahaha! Big honking pile of plastic crack arrived on Friday, which, after a little work, will mean my army stands at this 1750pt bundlle of joy:

HQ
Daemon Prince with wings and Warptime, 155pts
Chaos Lord of bike, with Mark of Khorne, Daemon Weapon and meltabombs, 175pts

Troops
10 Chaos Marines, with 2 meltaguns, Aspiring champion with powerfist and Rhino with Havoc Launcher, 260pts
10 Chaos Marines, with 2 meltaguns, Aspiring champion with powerfist and Rhino with Havoc Launcher, 260pts
8 Khorne Berzerkers, with 2 plasma pistols, Skull Champion with powerfist and Rhino, 273pts

Fast attack
7 Chaos Bikers with 2 meltaguns, Icon of Khorne, Biker Champion with powerfist and meltabombs, 326pts

Heavy support
Chaos Vindicator with Daemonic Possession, 145pts
Defiler with Havoc launcher, 155pts

Total: 1749pts

Anyway, some pics are in order I suppose:


From left to right, what you're seeing is 6 Chaos marines with Bolters, 1 with a meltagun, 2 Aspiring Champions with Powerfists, 1 Rhino with a Havoc Launcher and a Chaos Vindicator. Those 6 marines with bolters are actually these guys. I love 'em. They're just great for bulking out those CSM squads, letting me use the more detailed models for things like special weapons, icon bearers and Aspiring Champions. For the moment, I've got 2 full squads of CSMs, but I'm pretty much all set to expand with perhaps another 2 full squads.

My Aspiring Champions all use big freaky mutated arms from the Possessed Marines sprue. I figure they look a good deal more warped and Chaos-y. Besides, the Possessed came with the Battleforce, and seriously, I have no reason to actually field Possessed Marines...

I try to fit the Rhinos with Havoc Launchers when I can. In my first game (with quite a bit of proxying) using this list, they were a huge help, especially with 48" range and just enough shebang to seriously maul toughness 3 critters.

The Vindicator just had to have Daemonic Possession. When you're chucking out bigass blast markers, BS3 is not a problem, and it's a very small price to pay compared to the ability to ignore Stunned and Shaken results.

Anyway, here's one more pic, before I go and make some grey plastic black:


DEFFY!! Ah, I can't wait to stomp around the table with this baby... Of course, all those lovely big, flat panels of armour will be covered in script of some sort, all in good time. First, there's spraying to be done! Til next time...

Batrep: 1750pts, Blood Angels vs Tau

I am feeling chuffed! I've just tried out a new army list (which has sod-all to do with the Terminators and Assault Marines AND Sanguinary Priests whose pretty pics I've been posting, but oh, well... ) and it performed gloriously in a game yesterday against CK's Tau. Anyway, my list as it stands:

HQ - 100pts
Librarian with Shield and Lance

Troops - 780pts
5-man Assault Squad
- Meltagun
- Sgt Infernus Pistol
- Sgt Power Weapon
- Razorback w/ Lascannon + Twin-linked Plasmagun
5-man Assault Squad
- Meltagun
- Sgt Infernus Pistol
- Sgt Power Weapon
- Razorback w/ Lascannon + Twin-linked Plasmagun
5-man Assault Squad
- Meltagun
- Sgt Infernus Pistol
- Sgt Power Weapon
- Razorback w/ Lascannon + Twin-linked Plasmagun
5-man Assault Squad
- Meltagun
- Sgt Infernus Pistol
- Sgt Power Weapon
- Razorback w/ Twin-linked Assault Cannon

Fast Attack - 470pts
Baal Predator w/ Heavy Bolter Sponsons
Baal Predator w/ Heavy Bolter Sponsons
2 Land Speeder Typhoons

Heavy Support - 400pts
5-man Devastator Squad w/ 4 Missile Launchers
Predator w/ Autocannon + Lascannon sponsons
Predator w/ Autocannon + Lascannon sponsons

Total - 1750pts

Tau Army (This is from memory, and I'm not that familiar with the Tau codex, so I'm assuming that this is about 1750pts)
HQ
Shas'O w/ Plasma Rifle, Missile Pods, ? and 2 Shield Drones

Elites
3 Crisis Suits with Plasma Rifle and Missle Pod
3 Crisis Suits with Twin-linked Missile Pods
6 Stealthsuits, all with Burst Cannons

Troops
8 Firewarriors
8 Firewarriors
8 Firewarriors

Fast Attack
8 Pathfinders w/ Devilfish

Heavy Support
Hammerhead w/ big honkin' Railgun
Skyray
3 Broadside Battlesuits


Terrain - Mostly open terrain, with a few buildings/ruins near the edges of the board and a ruin around the middle.

Mission - Sieze ground, 3 objectives. numbered as follows:
1 - On my left, about 18' from the left table edge and 4' closer to my side from the center.
2 - On my right, about 20' from the right table edge and 15' from his table edge.
3 - On my right, about 28' from the right table edge and 15' from my table edge.

Deployment - Dawn of War, Tau go first.

Tau Deployment
Shas'O and 2 teams of Firewarriors hunkered down in a building near objective 2. Stealthsuits outflank.

Blood Angel Deployment
Librarian in a Razorback with an assault squad hid in a ruin about a foot to my right from objective 1. Baal Predators outflank. There were no outbreaks of Red Thirst.

Turn 1
His army moved on the the table, all clustered around his Shas'O and ready to shred anything that came near objective 2, with the Crisis teams poised behind a ruin near the centre set to jump out next turn and lay down some gunishment. One Crisis team pushed further ahead with its jet packs, looking to use a crater to cover its advance, but took a wound in the process.

I moved up with my Librarian in his Razorback, and the other 3 Razorbacks surged up behind. The two combi-preds moved up on my right to take up firing positions, with the Devastators running into a ruin near my center. The Landspeeders turbo-boosted along my left table edge.

On seeing the layout of the board at this point, my strategy was clear in my mind:
1) The Razorbacks would surge towards objective 2, using the ruins, smoke, and the Librarian's Shield of Sanguinius as cover , then disembark and brutalize those Tau pansies with some chainsword love.
2) The combi-preds and Devastators would provide covering fire, hopefully hurting some of the Tau vehicles.
3) The Landspeeders would lend supporting fire to the Razorback advance in 1).
4) The rearmost Razorback's squad would disembark, claiming objective 1. Any spare Razorbacks from the advance in 1) would double back near the game's end to take objective 3.
5) The Baal Preds, when they came in, would lend harass the flanks as opportunity arose.

Because I'm too lazy to give a turn by turn account, I'm going to look at how the game went in relation to my Grand Planne laid out above:

1) Razorback advance - This went as planned, with the Razorback guns inflicting some casualties on the Crisis suits as they advanced. 1 squad disembarked to meltagun a Devilfish that tried to get in the way then went back to claim objective 1. The Librarian's squad was forced to disembark as their Razorback was wrecked about 3 inches from the the Tau positions. The Librarian's Shield proved invaluable on several occassions, and really made a big difference in making sure my Assault Squads reached the Tau lines. He also managed to skewer a couple of Crisis suits with his Lance, which was fun. Another squad hopped out to contest objective 2 and beat up some Firewarriors sitting on it. This squad was then assaulted by the Shas'O and another squad of Firewarriors, whom they beat in combat and sweeping advanced to death (huzzah!), leaving 3 survivors to sit comfortably on objective 2.

2) The 2 combi-preds were marked for much ranged brutality by the Broadsides, the Skyray and the Hammerhead, and were predictably shredded by turn 2. This being my first time playing Devastators, I stupidly forgot to move them in turn 2, pretty much wasting a whole round of shooting. In turn 4, they managed to fire a salvo of frag missiles into a squad of Firewarriors, killing 4, but achieved nothing else. Though it doesn't look like they did much, the combi-preds did perform an extremely important function: distract the Tau big guns so my assault squads could do their dirty work.

3) The Landspeeders managed to let loose 1 salvo with Heavy Bolters and Krak missiles into a Crisis team. It did NOTHING. Stupid cover saves. Then 6 Stealthsuits outflanked right behind them and shredded them in turn 3.

4) See 1). That squad which headed back for objective 1 didn't have any Stealthsuit trouble from 3). Why? See 5)...

5) Both Baals chose to pop up on Turn 3, on the same side of the board as the Stealthsuits. Retribution! Or so I thought. I left 1 to maul the Stealthsuits and 1 puttered along, lending some dakka to the all-important Razorback advance. What happened in the subsequent turns made me facepalm... Turn 3 - 3 Stealthsuits killed at point-blank range. Turn 4 - Stealthsuits rally, then shoot the supporting Baal in the side, stunning it. I maul them, with the remaining Baal some more, reducing them to 1 lonely Stealthsuit, who keeps his nerve and continues the fight. Turn 5 - The Lone Stealthsuit hops behind my supporting Baal and wrecks it. I am not pleased. The other Baal terminates him with extreme prejudice, but the damage is done. 6 Stealthsuits have destroyed 2 Landspeeders, a Baal Predator and tied up another. My Fast Attack section has disappointed me greatly...

So, by the end of turn 5, all 3 objectives were mine. The game went on to Turn 6, but by the end of Tau Turn 6, it was very clear the Tau had no chance of winning, and I was rushing to finish the game in time for dinner with a nice lass, we shook hands and called it a day.

Afterthoughts
I am pleased. This game marked something of a departure from my usual way of playing my army. Usually I tend to keep my distance and pick at the enemy with my vehicles, which included 2 Stormravens. Here, I've swapped out the Stormravens in favour of 2 Landspeeder Typhoons, 1 Devastator Squad and a combi-pred, and was much more in-your-face with the Assault Squads. The newly-painted Librarian performed beautifully, and didn't blat himself with Perils of the Warp even once! All-in-all, the game went according to plan, and I am pleased.

That having been said, there were some clear errors on my opponent's part. Strategically, bunching up all 3 of his Troops in one place in an objectives game was a bad idea. Even if he had managed to get lucky and horribly maul my army with shooting, he'd never have been able to stop me from grabbing at least objectives 1 and 3 while all 3 of his troops choices sat on objective 2. Tactically, there was a point when he stuck a Devilfish in the face of my Razorbacks, hoping to block my advance. Unfortunately, all it did was give me cover from his shooting. But then again, I don't think he expected me to make quite as many 5+ cover saves as I did.

Anyway, in case I haven't mentioned it enough, I am pleased with how my Angels performed. Except for the Fast Attack section. And the Heavy Support, I suppose. But enough of this, my landspeeders need paint, because as we all know, nice paintjobs make the dice gods smile on you...

WIP: Blood Angel this, that and the other...

I swear, nothing highlights to me quite how scatterbrained I am as much as my painting habits... I've got a whole heap of stuff for this post, some done, some WIP and most ready for the tabletop. So, in no particular order:

Librarians

The Terminator Librarian on the left is one of the first I painted up. Still some way to go, but I never got round to finishing him. Doubt I will anytime soon. Every time I fielded him in battle he'd either get eaten up by Perils of the Warp, or end up as a smoking crater following an insane barrage of plasma cannon fire.

Axe and plasma pistol librarian in the middle is the one I've used most, though I never use the plasma pistol, thus making him the most regular culprit in the non-WYSIWYG-ness of my army to date. He and the terminator librarian have their armour done in simple Regal Blue with Ice Blue line highlights.

Book librarian is my most recent addition, having just been finished earlier this morning. I wanted a brighter blue so this one is actually Mordian Blue, then layered with Ultramarine Blue, washed with Asurmen Blue, and finally line highlighted with Ice Blue. I am pleased with this blue.

The force weapons on all three use the same colours for the blending. Mechrite Red, then Blood Red, then Blazing Orange, then finally Golden Yellow.

I look forward to many games with my librarian and his Book of Doom leading my army into battle... :-)


Land Speeder Typhoons

I'm currently looking to field two of these, mostly because I like how those lovely big Blood Angel crests from the Baal Predator kit fit so nicely on the hood of these things. Here you can see one of them just after spraying with Krylon Burgundy. I'll be waiting until I've got some more models ready before I move on to the next stage, i.e. spraying with Blood Red.

These days almost all my models get their heads sprayed seperately. Why? Well, pretty much every infantry model in my army is either an assault marine (yellow helmet), devastator marine (blue helmet), a veteran (golden helmet) or bare-headed. I suppose one of these days I might turn towards playing a more traditional, tactical marine heavy army, but not anytime soon, I don't think...


Sanguinary Priests

Almost done painting these. I felt the one on the left needed a more swish chainsword, so I gave him that little spirally pattern. Looks great at on the tabletop, and it's pretty easy to do, especially since Iyanden Darksun can go right onto black in a stroke.

All my Blood Angels without helmets (and with hair) are blonde. Those lovely locks are done with a base coat of Snakebite Leather, followed with streaks of Bubonic Brown, then touched with streaks of Golden Yellow.


Terminator Assault Squad

These guys are pretty much ready for the tabletop, but there are so many nice big open areas on their armour, I just have to fill it up with happy little details of some sort. Still haven't decided, but when it happens, it'll turn up on this blog.


Assault Marines
My third Razorback squad finally got their squad marking - a black blood drop on a yellow background. And one of these days, I'll finish up the 4th...

These are the sergeants for my 2 squads of marines with jump packs. I'm still 5 marines short of 2 full 10-man squads. And unfortunately, the sergeant on the left didn't get the memo when it was time for everyone to go blonde. I'll sort him out soon enough...

Sternguard VeteransFinally, my Sternguard veterans. There's still quite a bit to be done, but I'm liking how they're turning out. Just need to find bits for that 2nd heavy flamer. And of course arrange some suitable transport for them...


And that's it for today. Next up... pfft, who am I kidding? I don't plan that far ahead...

I am totally this guy...

This guy, right here:


And THIS especially strikes a chord with me:


I don't know... Maybe it's a little irrational, but I know first-hand that a LOT of effort can go into assembling and painting up an army, so it's just a little pet peeve of mine to see grey plastic on the table, or even a shamelessly shoddy paintjob, especially by the kind of player who's plays really competitively and just wants to win games...

Anyway, enough of that, there's painting to be done!

WIP: BA Assault Terminators and Assault Marines 3

Another progress check on the Assault Terminators and jump marines. Let's start with the terminators...

More or less acceptable on most tabletops...

I have to say, I'm feeling a bit ambiguous about this squad. On the one hand, it's all there, with a sergeant who, by virtue of the winged chalice perched (from the Sanguinary Guard set) over his head, very clearly looks like he's leading the squad. But on the other hand, Brother Claudio of Space Hulk fame...

GRAAAAARRRGGGHH!!!!

Brother Claudio seems a bit too swish for this squad. It's a very detailed model and I don't think any amount of painting on my part can help Claudio blend in - he's got more jewelly bits on him than most Eldar! Still, comparing him to my older models, I'm pretty pleased, because even as a work in progress, I think I'm seeing improvement in my painting skillz. Here's a pic of Deino and Claudio, judge for yourself:

Does the wee base give Claudio an unfair advantage?

Moving on, here's how my first full squad of jump marines is looking now:


I'm rather pleased with the mellow yellowness of those heads. I picked up the technique somewhere (I think the GW site) by some guy with an Imperial Fists army.

Protip: If you want to learn to paint a particular colour, best to get the technique off someone who has it as his chapter colours. e.g. Ultramarines for blue, Crimson Fists for dark blue, Salamanders for green, Dark Angels for dark green/bone white and so on and so forth.

Why? Because they paint a LOT of that colour and odds are they've gotten good at getting the right balance of quick, efficient and looks awesome.
I play Blood Angels, and I LOVE. MY. REDS!!!

Oh, anyway, how I did the mello-yello helmets:

1) Spray black. Not white, because those eyes are really better off left black.
2) Iyanden Darksun. It's a Foundation colour, so thin it down and use as many coats as necessary to have a good, solid ochre colour.
3) Devlan Mud wash into the recesses.
4) Layer and touch up with Golden Yellow.

As for line highlighting, I'm not sure what next. I'm thinking either Sunburst Yellow or Bleached Bone for a really exaggerated, eye-catching highlight.

There's one thing about this squad that I'm not really satisfied with but I'll let it slip coz these buggers are a Troops choice. Take a peek at the Sanguinary Priests:


How much Skull White was used in the making of these Priests? None. What you're seeing there is Codex Grey, layered with Space Wolf Grey.

The middle Priest is the most recent addition. His lovely glossy hair is what happens when you use Krylon Satin Finish on bare plastic. A wee bit too shiny, but it doesn't matter, I'll be making him blonde soon enough.

I do realize my priests look a little plain compared to some I've seen. This is because:

1) Brother Corbulo, Sanguinary High Priest, doesn't really look all that flashy himself; and
2) I've been a cheapskate and split the parts for 1 apothecary between my 3 priests.

In between painting, I've also been rummaging through the bits box for the next elements in my army:

- Devastator squad with 4 missile launchers (sprayed and ready)
- 2nd jump marine squad with 2 meltaguns and powerfist Sgt. (5 are WIP. Need 5 more, including 1 meltagun.)
- Devastator squad with 4 plasma cannons. (2 plasma cannons waiting for spraying. Not enough parts for the rest... :-(... )

Time to dig around e-bay for bits, I think...

WIP: BA Assault Terminators and Assault Marines 2

Spent chunks of the weekend catching up on painting. Assembly line painting is BORING, but at least it makes for consistent results:


I'm quite pleased with how the red turned out. Remember, this is the first time I'm using the Spray Gun on infantry models. Here's a pic of a couple of jump marines with a couple of my Razorback Marines for contrast:


Thanks to the new camera you can see I've some way to go. They should come to about the same shade of red when I'm done hightlighting. I'll be looking to field 2 10-man squads of jump marines (with 2 meltaguns and a powerfist, of course). Just assembled 5 today, out of my bits box, together with a converted Sternguard Veteran with heavy flamer and one more Sanguinary Priest.


Since the heads of ALL of them won't be in Blood Red, I'm doing them seperately. The Sternguard's Heavy Flamer was made by clipping off the end of a Multimelta, then just plugging on an appropriately clipped and filed nozzle from a Terminator Heavy Flamer.

I picked up a Terminator Squad over the weekend. Since I already had Lightning Claws left over, I built 2 more Lightning Claw termies, and one with a Cyclone Missile Launcher. The others will be saved for later. Drawing inspiration from the Blood Angel Supreme, Jawaballs, I've decided to field my Assault Terminator Death Star as follows:

1) 5-man Assault Terminator Squad. 4 with Lightning Claws, 1 with Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield.
2) 1 plain Librarian with Unleash Rage and Sanguine Sword (or whatever power I decide is fun, but Unleash Rage is a must).
3) 1 plain Sanguinary Priest.

That's 355 pts of pain right there, which, of course has to be delivered in a suitable brutal assault transport, like a Stormraven or a Land Raider Crusader. Here's a couple of them as they are now:



As for other elements in the army, I'll go through them item by item:

Sanguinary Priests:


I intend to have 3 in total. 1 plain one to hang with the Assault Terminators, and 2 jumpy ones to go with the Assault Marines. I was a little worried that splitting bits that were meant to make 1 Apothecary would "dilute" the look of the Sanguinary Priests and make it a little hard to spot on the battlefield, but after painting the white banding on the pauldrons, I'm pretty content with the Priests as they are.

Sternguard Veterans:
Here's a typical member of my Sternguard:


You may not have seen it in previous pictures of my Sternguard, but that little wing thing on the right pauldron is the unifying element to the look of my Sternguard. Anyway, I've fielded Sternguard once or twice, as a squad of 5 or 6 loaded with combi-weapons. They're great fun, but now I'm looking to try and play them as a squad of 5, with 2 Heavy Flamers, hurtling around the board in a Razorback armed with twin-linked heavy flamers. And combi-flamers for everyone else. I might have to call them Squad Trogdor.

I love Blood Angels. There are just so many things to try out! Not all of which are efficacious, obviously, but it's all fun...

Anyway, it's late, so that's it from me. Until next time...