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.

My friend, my enemy!

Glorious news!

Yesterday I got called up by a friend of mine who I used to play Warhammer Fantasy Battles with who has once more gotten the bug of playing, only he is now interested in joining me in playing 40k. He is very interested in starting up an army of Imperial Guard and who can blame him? We've even discussed having a game sometime after Christmas so that should get me interested in starting to get this project properly back on track. I still lack time somewhat but I'll try.

I bought the Imperial Guard big box when they released new models a while after the Eye of Terror campaign so I have at somewhere around a 50 standard infantry men, a Chimera, some special weapons, a Sentinel, a Command Platoon, some junior officers, one or two Commisars and a couple of Heavy Weapons teams that I don't plan on using myself so that should set him up nicely as well if he wants to take some of them off my hands.

Fisting it to the Imperials

My favourite Legion out of the bunch is obviously the Word Bearers. But that doesn't preclude me being able to have a certain affection for other Legions or Chapters for that matter. I happen to appreciate in varying degrees almost all of the first founding. But I must confess that there is one unlikely candidate that I feel a certain bit more for that isn't the Word Bearers.

The unlikelyhood stems from a certain colour scheme. When I first saw models painted yellow I thought it was one of the most ghastly ways you could possibly paint a model outside Games Workshop's period when everything was painted in the most garish of colours. I speak of course of the Imperial Fists. But as with many things my averse position to the colour yellow was subject to change. I began to see it as a very characterful and most importantly a stand out quality. I dare say I even started to downright like the colour scheme. Reading the Index Astartes article for the Fists fleshed out knowledge about them and thus made them even more attractive. But whilst I do find the information on who, what, how and why the Imperial Fists are to be compelling, I'd be lying if I didn't say that the one thing that they are for me is the actual colour yellow. However I quite like the dogmatic stubborness, refusal to give in and their skills in fortification. In that they resemble my first army in the Warhammer family, the Dwarfs.

I've been toying with the idea of including a model or a squad from outside the Word Bearers for almost as long as I've been planning this army. I've gone back and forth between what Legion I'd use and what kind of unit would be represented. But seeing the picture of Rogal Dorn, the Arch-Betrayer, from the Dornian Heresy material found on the Bolter and Chainsword website, I immediately knew what needed doing.

Rogal Dorn the Arch-Betrayer from the excellent fan material 'the Dornian Heresy'

You see I've been a firm admirer of the Space Marines model for Captain Darnath Lysander for as long as its been out. He looks big, momentous and downright imposing. Obviously there is no such thing as a Thunderhammer or Storm shield in the Chaos Space Marine army list so they will have to go and instead be replaced with more suitable weaponry. I've decided to go with a Chainfist and Combi-melta, in homage to the Imperial Fists heritage. The Fists iconography will be staying and will alongside a mostly Imperial Fist colour scheme present both an homage to the Dornian Heresy and a giant raised middle finger to the Imperial cause.

I've gone ahead and ordered the model and am suitably excited. There is one thing that I am conscious of and that is not to lose the thing that I love about the model which is the momentum and that 'biggish' feel it has. It's hard to say how I am going to resolve this whilst not having the model but I am confident I can make it work.

I have a lot of stuff going on and can't seem to properly focus on one thing, not in life let alone in my army building. But I'll get there one day!

In the warp time flows differently

It's been well and truly long since I posted anything here and there has been next to no progress since last. This is mainly due to me mismanaging my time and being preoccupied with life. But there is another reason that I have felt it wasn't the prudent time to move forward. I know I posted a small 500pts force that I was going to start out with and build on, but I've come to the conclusion that I'd much rather have a standard 1500pts force that I can build towards in chunks. So I've been mulling over different things but haven't really gotten that much wiser. But I do have a list in mind, only problem is that I don't know if it is any good;

Warhost of the Boltgun Choir   1498pts

Headquarters     295pts

Daemon Prince – Ur-Ereshkigal (110)    140pts

Wings (20), Doombolt (10)

Chaos Lord – Khor Gaalen, Dark Apostle (90)   155pts
Terminator armour (30), Daemon weapon (25), Combi- flamer (5), Personal icon (5)

Elites      401pts

5 Chaos Terminators (150)    185pts
Power fist (10), 5xCombi-plasmaguns (25)
7 Chosen Chaos Space Marines (126)    216pts
Aspiring Champion (10), Power fist (25), 4xMeltaguns (40), Flamer (5)  Icon of Chaos Glory (10)

Troops      470pts

10 Chaos Space Marines (150)    240pts
Aspiring Champion (15), Power weapon (10), Icon of Chaos Glory (10), 2xMeltagun (20)
- Assigned Chaos Rhino transport (35)
10 Chaos Space Marines (150)    230pts
Aspiring Champion (15), Power weapon (10), 2xFlamer (10), Icon of Chaos Glory (10)
- Assigned Chaos Rhino transport (35)

Heavy support                 150pts

Obliterator (75)     75pts
Obliterator (75)     75pts

Summoned Daemons    182pts

7 Summoned Lesser Daemons (91)   91pts

7 Summoned Lesser Daemons (91)   91pts

I am happy with the kind of squads/units/models I'd be fielding with such a list. Daemon Princes are too cool for school, every Word Bearer force of any repute is going to need a Dark Apostle and some Daemons, Chaos Space Marines and their Rhinos add that disciplined army element (+tanks of sorts) I'm after whilst Terminators and Chosen add units with that special elite feel to the list with their special rules and equipment possibilities. The only thing I'm not too fond of are the Obliterators. Ideally I'd rather have a Predator, because I like tanks, but I feel Obliterators are too good to pass up on in comparison. But there's not a snowball's chance in Hell that I'm going to use their models (!). I'll figure something out.

I know it isn't what might pass for an effective Chaos Marines force if forums are to be believed, but it is a list I like the look of and with varied choices. I do fret a lot about the weapon choices I've made for my units though and whilst the rest of the list is pretty much what I think I want to go for, that bit really is up for discussion, internally as well as externally.