Long time no see

Wow, it's been ages since I last wrote something hasn't it? Been busy with life but now I'm back and going to get this show back on the road.

Had myself a game yesterday against my Imperial Guard buddy in an attempt for both of us to come more to grips with how the game works with me not having played that many games (certainly not in 5th edition) and him having only played a game of Kill Team against yours truly. So we were always likely to make mistakes.

Now my buddy isn't a slob like myself and has actually done a good deal more painting than I have. Which is good because it's really a lot more fun to play against painted models and thus it gives me a bit of incentive. Because I don't want to be the douche mooching off of his work. I want to give him something to look at as well. So I've got some motivation to sit down and start painting.

Anyways we had decided to do 750 points a side and we agreed to play 'Pitched Battle' as well as 'Annihilation' because that is what we are most familiar with having both played a lot of Warhammer Fantasy. We didn't have to concentrate on anything other than destroying eachother and learning the rules in the process. The armies were roughly:

Daemon Prince

Wings, Mark of Khorne

3 Terminators

Combi-meltas

10 Chaos Marines

Aspiring Champion with power fist, Icon of Chaos Glory, 2 x meltagun, Rhino

10 Chaos Marines

Aspiring Champion with power fist, 2 x meltagun, Rhino

VS his

Lord Commissar

Power fist

10 Veterans

Weapons team (Autocannon), 2 x plasmagun, Chimera

10 Veterans

Weapons team (Missile launcher), 2 x plasmagun, Chimera

1 Armoured Sentinel

Multilaser

1 Leman Russ Battle Tank

Battle cannon, Lascannon, Heavy bolter sponsons

1 Basilisk

Earthshaker cannon

At the end of the day the only glaring mistake we did ended up hugely affecting the game though. Not being able to find all the rules for firing Ordnance weapons we used Ballistic Skill to determine whether or not the shot hit. And since he missed all rolls for his Basilisk it ended up never getting a shot in during the entire game. Had we found the rules while playing and not five minutes directly after I'm sure the game would have looked a lot different. The Earthshaker is not to be trifled with.

But anyways yours truly did learn a few things about his army from this game. (1) Daemon Princes if left alone to do what they want can slice and dice their way through anything from a squad of guardsmen to a tank with inches thick hulls. Especially the thing with the tanks surprised me. I know I've read the rules many times but to actually see it in a live game is to truly appreciate what the rules mean. (2) Deep striking Terminators is not always a good idea. In the fluff terminators invariably arrive with inch-perfect precision breatinh down the neck of the intended target. My three man terminator unit on the other hand got too close to a Chimera, had to roll on the mishap table and were placed in a corner far removed from the fight and promptly did nothing the entire game. The dangers are not only scattering but also arriving too early (or too late). Still I reckon they can have their uses. Had they not scattered from where I played them initially, there would have been four juicy armoured targets to select from within range of the combi-meltas short range. Also the look of disbelief on my opponents face was amusing as he apparently hadn't realised that terminators can teleport and when I told him so I think he thought I was having a laugh.

I also think my opponent learned a few things with the main thing being that deploying troops out of their Chimera transports and awaiting the charge of a squad of Chaos Marines is a really bad idea.

I brought the cardboard buildings from Mordheim to give us a lot of terrain which was nice and also the first time I've used them. I bought the box several years ago as a birthday present for myself but never actually played the game despite making both a warband and giving each character in it a backstory. Whilst I don't recommend transporting cardboard buildings on train or bus it was nice to have those pieces of terrain on the board.

We're going to have another game one of these days and the challenge is to paint some models up for the next game. So time to roll up the shirt sleeves and get down to business!

To be Chosen

Just a placeholder post for getting pics of my Chosen up.

Kor Gaalen - Dark Apostle

Every force needs a leader, and every Word Bearer host needs a Dark Apostle. That's just the way it goes and I'm happy enough to oblige.

I've been mulling over how to do my Dark Apostle for ages and ages. I've been thinking of heavily converting with lots of green stuff and lots of parts from different models. I've been thinking of using a Storm of Chaos model for the Everchosen Archaon on foot. I've thought of using Space Marine Chaplain models which is very well suited given that is what Dark Apostles used to be.

So two weeks ago I wander into my local Warhammer dealer and browse around on the shelves just to pass the time. Then my eyes happen on a box of the Legion of the Damned and most specifically the guy in the middle of the pack. I though he looked a possible filler for the part of my Apostle and I took the box home with me (having paid for it of course). Labouring over it for a while the below pictures present the result:

The base model is the Legionnaire of course. The Accursed Crozius was made by clipping of the axe parts and supergluing on a small piece of green stuff and then gluing on an icon that I believe is from the Warriors of Chaos box although I'm not a hundred percent certain about its origins. The other arm has had the plasma pistol clipped off, filed a bit and had a book from the Chaos Terminator Lord box attached to it by way of green stuff and super glue. The "banner" on the back has had the Imperial Eagle wings at the top clipped off and on the sides I've attached a pair of "skull scrolls" that come from a Tomb King Skeletal Warriors box as part of a standard top. Super glue and green stuff make the attachments here as well. Finally the base is made with a lot of skulls cut in half taken from the same Skeletal Warriors box. The front foot is on top of a skull whilst the back foot has him attached directly to the base giving him a bit of a climbing feeling.

I'm quite happy with the result. Its an easy enough conversion using bits and pieces from here and there in my collection. In the end it might not be the most daring venture into making something unique. I like the momentum the model has as well as his Accursed Crozius which was always one of the things that I wanted to get just right. I do think the model should have been more imposing but I did manage to rectify that a bit with the extra height afforded him by way of standing on the skulls. I realise now I'm not entirely happy about the way he is holding the book. I might rectify that somehow. I hadn't planned on having a skull theme for this model but as I went along I found it more and more fitting. The model actually has a whooping twenty nine (29) skulls in different shapes and forms on it!

I've been working very loosely on the history of my Dark Apostle (and with him my Host) and whilst I am nowhere near completing it I can give a few hints on him. First of all he is an original Colchisian (i.e Pre Heresy Marine) and in his history and that of the Host one event termed the Divine Man Schism will play a major part.

PS. Got my new phone working again and it actually takes decent pictures so I should be getting a lot more pictures up over the coming week.

The Word Hammered Home

Once more another game of Kill Team, this time against my friend with the Imperial Guard. I rejigged my force from when I took a beating at the hand of the fiancé and went to town with nine Boltgun wielding Chaos Marines (one with Fleet) as well as one Heavy Bolter (Relentless) and one Lascannon Marine (Feel No Pain) each. I had the benefit of seeing what he was to field beforehand and saw that he was going to take a Chimera which is why I added the Lascannon because otherwise I'd have nothing capable of taking it out and that didn't seem right and proper. A bit unsporting though no doubt about that.

He fielded a Chimera, a Infantry Squad and six or seven Storm Troopers with the only extra for anything being a Storm Bolter for the Chimera.

Game was pretty straight forward. We only had access to six pieces of terrain, salvaged from the bowels of the apartment building from where they had been hiding since he moved a year or two ago. Instead of trying to move into close combat like I did in my first game against the Sisters of Battle I tried and succeeded in, much thanks to my opponent allowing me to, staying at 12"-24" range for most of the game relying on my superior strength and armour penetrating firepower as well as armour saves to keep my guys on their feet and the others tumbling down. At the end it was his force removed and two Boltgun wielding Marines from my force having been felled in return.

Main points:

• Some not so good to hit or to wound rolls from my opponent.
• Some quite successful armour saves from myself. 
• The Chimera and Feel No Pain infused Lascannoneer spent the entire game locked in a duel with the lascannon only hitting in the last round when it removed the Chimera as the final Imperial Guard model. Up until that point the Chimera had managed to penetrate the armour saves of the lone Marine on half a dozen occassions without felling him as his Daemon infused body refused to bow down.
• Two passed leadership tests at Ld 7 and Ld 6 from my opponent that showed remarkable courage from the guard in the face of the terrifying superiority of the Sons of Lorgar.

On another note  keep promising pictures! I have some of my fiancés Sisters of Battle and my own Chosen squad, but I am not happy with the way they've come out and so far have not been able to remedy it. Might have to bite the bullet and post them up even though they aren't quite up to scratch.

Modelling progress and a game of Kill Team!

Because I have been of a mind of late that I should get a small 'Kill Team' force ready to start gaming and getting to grips with the rules, well obviously I knew I'd need some models for the job. I have a special thing for Chosen, there is something about their Infiltrate special rule and the amount of special weapons they can take that tickles my fancy, not to mention their name. With that in mind I've fiddled with a list like this:

1 Aspiring Champion (Fleet), 1 Chosen with Flamer (Feel No Pain), 1 Chosen with Flamer, 1 Chosen with Heavy Bolter (Relentless), 5 Chosen with Bolters.

I've been building a few models here and there for a while but I couldn't find the inspiration and motivation to get my thumb out my arse. But today that finally changed as I assembled what I needed to make the entire team. I'll get the pictures up tomorrow (including the ones of my fiancés Witch Hunters force that I promised ages ago) alongside some comments.

Playing Kill Team: I fielded the above list and she did a not entirely legit list of 4 Seraphim (1 Veteran) and 9 Battle Sisters. The game itself was interesting, frustrating but ultimately fun. I had to check rules quite a few times and we did a few mistakes, most notably forgetting about rolling leadership tests for the Victory Conditions when reduced to half or less of starting number of models and when we realised we decided to just go total death match. The result? I lost, quite heavily I might add. I think she had 7 models left on the table when she mopped the floor with my last Chosen courtesy of the Flying Burrito Sisters (two remaining Seraphim).

Lessons learnt: Chosen, for what they do in games of 200 points aren't exactly cutting the mustard. Next time I think I'll drop them to normal Marines, drop a flamer and instead get in another two boltgun armed models. Firstly it'll give me more shooting and more bodies for when we remember to test for leadership when the models start dropping off. Flamers aren't that good to be honest but I like the idea of them.

A dark pledge

A new year has dawned on us and it is a readily available conclusion to make that the project has not gone entirely according to plan! The progress made has been a bit too slow for my liking. I knew it wasn't going to be the fastest pace ever but still, I am a bit disappointed.

But I am going to get organised in this our new year because I want to game and I want to game with models modelled and painted to the best of my abilities. I've got plans to play some Kill Team with my Imperial Guard touting buddy and also with my Sisters of Battle using fiancé. A good goal is thus to have that Kill Team ready and get a few games before the end of the month (January that is).

If I don't succeed in this I offer my soul to the Dark Gods!

Colour me thunderstruck!

When it comes to Warhammer I rant a lot to anyone willing to hear about it. Which is mainly just one person, i.e my fiancé. And I'm not too sure about the whole willing part. But anyways I did actually buy her some Sisters of Battle models a few years back and some time even before that I spent a fair amount of hours painting up a Seraphim model in her "likeness". I use the citation marks because to do otherwise would be to belie an ability with the brush that would impress. But she's had them for years.

But these last few months I have been speaking a lot more of 40k than usually because of my project and so today she asked me to get her the Witch Hunters Codex and find her models for her because she wanted to do something with them. 'Maybe we could even have a small game sometime?', was also a phrase that left her lips that had me slightly bamboozled. As I prepare to leave for class she pesters me about using my paints and brushes, something I eventually concede to. Of course I never concede in actual words. To do so would be to admit defeat and whilst defeat is a dime a dozen when it comes to the machinations of the she-devils, not admitting those defeats outright allows a veneer of male pride to exist. And so a semblance of stability is assured.

I go away to class for a couple of hours at the University only to have a look at my telephone as I prepare to leave. A text is there asking me to pick up a few paints on the way home. I oblige. I figure she's actually painted a wee bit to keep herself busy. But when I return she's actually done quite a bit! And now writing several hours later she's painted thirteen models to varying degress of completion!

If this doesn't get some bloody hot coals up my backside then I don't know what will?! Surely she can't feasibly beat me at everything? Can she?

Pictures to be supplied tomorrow.