Tactical Squad WIP

o/

First off, as a native of New Jersey, I want to wish everyone in the northeast the best of luck in dealing with hurricane Sandy. My aunt-in-law who lives on the south Jersey coast commented on facebook last night that it was already getting ugly up there.  So, hope you've battened down the hatches & make it thru safely.

Notta whole lot to report on the gaming front from this past weekend. I gotta game in with Screech vs his Thousand Sons. He won by the 'first blood' KP. Collectively we had less than 10 models left of the table, so was a good game.  Like Murl, the Thousand Sons sorcerers with force weapons everywhere (and the fact that they have invul saves unlike my librarian) was a difficult threat to counter. Speaking of sorcerers, Ahriman's HQ protege paid for himself a good 3-4 times over, so Screech you need to paint that mini this week!!!! (oh wait, he never paints anything unless its just black primer, what was I thinking...lol.)

On the painting front, I cranked up the assembly line for some basic painting on my 2nd SW tac squad (no, not Space Wolves, the other SW's). Now they're pretty much ready for touch ups which is easiest to do working on them one at a time. Then decals, then a wash, then dry brushing, then highlights...doesn't seem like much till I list it out like that...ugh.

The Sgt. posing with his squad-to-be.

I also reread the sternguard rules & found I had them confused with vanguard vets & command squads. Meaning they can't have all the power weapons they want nor even all those chain swords that they're waving around. So the powerfist went away but I kept the chainswords (even on the newly added models). As they wanted to look like badasses, they exchanged their bolt pistols for chain swords meaning they can't shoot on the turn I charge with them. Seems an acceptable sacrifice to make for aesthetic appeal.

Also, Captain Erme of the Auroras after being exiled for gross negligence in scout training, has been accepted into the ranks of the sternguard (after a shoulder pad & backpack swap).  I'll try selling the aurora scouts off as individual squads now as they weren't wanted in bulk. Worst case scenario, I've threatened to give them to Screech for Christmas, lol.

Filling out the ranks

o7

First off, today is Hive Angel's Birthday, so everyone take a second to head on over to his blog wish him a good one! ;-)

Back to me, I skipped out on any games for this week. Three last week was certainly enough to fulfill that need. That and the weather and autumn foliage have been perfect so I've been all to happy to take my dog for a walk/hike every afternoon instead of gaming. I have been working on minis in the evenings though:

First up as you can see below these are my repurposed Sternguard. Four of these were previously in my Aurora command squad. Shoulder pads were swapped and a few arm/weapon modifications made.

Some much need punch for my army.

The Storm Wardens were created by Fantasy Flight for the Deathwatch RPG, and back when contemplating playing that game (may have to tweak that fluff as Ozwald apparently came back home), I made the Storm Warden DW marine you see here. At the time I had labeled them 'the lame chapter' as they were newly created when plenty already existed.  I never envisioned having an army of them...lol! The shade of blue is different than what I use now, the shoulder colors are reversed, it needs a wash, etc. However like the Auroras that switched armies, it shouldn't take too long to remedy those issues on him.

Again, the 5th ed. starter mini is the Sgt.

In last weekend's games, the Wardens still looked a lot like the Auroras (whom I may be stuck with). So many unpainted scouts and repainted...turncoats? (not the right word but don't know what else to call them) So I also started work on a second tactical squad to reduce my reliance on the 10th Co. I painted the Sergeant's helmet a little different than the last one, and kinda like this one better to be honest. Also, I got 2 old 2nd ed Flamer marines via ebay for basically the cost of shipping them. They will bring the two tac squads  up to 8 marines each and give them something other than just bolters to play with. Once those minis come in, they'll go straight into the Simple Green for some 'submersible training.'

Been wondering though about just how long I can go on these guys till (as usual) I get bored with the concept & something else gets shunted to the front of my painting queue...

Baptism of fire

o/

Well, this past weekend my Storm Wardens got their baptism of fire as did my bastion (normally its just inert terrain) and my small DA tac squad (run as vanilla marines). Coming out with a 2:1 record I'd say that they're off to a good start! Over the course of the weekend, the bastion worked well, especially for the scout squad within (at least till a ''7' was rolled on the building damage chart in game 3). No aircraft were encountered, however the Icarus lascannon killed quite a few things anyways, despite it needing a '5' to hit.

The 'new' guy is the squad sergeant.

First round was vs. RTVoril's Dark Eldar Saturday night. Not a whole lot of highlights to this round aside from the DE crumpling like the tinfoil that they are, my librarian insta-killing an Archon with his force sword (something I only seem to accomplish once every few years), and that this was the first game ever in which my unsupported drop pod dread survived a game!

Sunday Screech & I went to Morristown after some prodding from Voril so that he may exact his revenge upon me! As it turns out, I didn't face him leaving him to take out his anger on Screech's IG, and it was a bad day for the IG...

In my first game of the day, I faced a younger kid with Tau. However while he did try, the Greater Good was not the order of the day and he suffered heavily for it. the game can be best summed up by the exchange he had with one of his friends afterwards (and I quote):

'So, did you get raped?'

'In the ass...hard.'

'Me too!'

lol, well someone's taught these kids the 'proper' after action report terminology it seems...

Outflanking with shotguns, the ultimate cure for the Tau Broadside!

My second game I came up vs. the infamous Draigo wing. The Wardens took to the field with accusations of cheese (which were gleefully confirmed by the enemy)! During deployment however, the GK were fretfully pondering what to do about the AV14 on my side of the table, as hammers were their only option in that regard. As it turned out, that was more than adequate to the task...

 The drop pod dread in the backfield further made a mess of his plans and my mini-deathstar (captain, librarian, techmarine and the tac squad above loaded into a landraider crusader) put a fair bit of hurt on the GK initially! Indeed, Draigo, despite all kinds of attempted 'look out sirs!' & FNP rolls, was down to 1 wound by the time HTH was initiated. In the ensuing challenge my captain & Draigo killed each other! By killing Draigo with  a 'nobody' captain, I claimed moral victory, and that's all I claimed before being all but tabled (the predator survived at least...). It was a good game though and was going good to the Paladin mob's unbelievable HTH capabilities took their inevitable toll. The GK were given a bloody nose at least.

As I said above though, overall it was a good start for the army. As for the Aurora scouts (amusingly after putting them up on ebay, I still found myself painting another scout as seen above...),  apparently my rant last week carried thru onto ebay. So will go with the shameless plug suggesting you bid now & often, lol! Otherwise they'll be consigned to a dusty life on the shelf...

Operation Caliban Cantina

o7

As any student of military history of say...the last hundred years or so will know, the key to victory for any military offensive, is to assign an off the wall & distracting name for it. Thus, reaching into left field, I came up with: Operation Caliban Cantina!

This Saturday evening, gaming at the FLGS will recommence after a fairly long hiatus. When summer hits, all the college kids go home, everyone else goes outside, etc., and gaming ceases.  Then the FLGS moved to a new location (conveniently leaving the old one which is still leased to be used for indoor R/C racing & gaming). While its somewhat surprising that I haven't yet encountered aircraft in 40k yet when visiting Morristown, odds are good that I might this weekend, and so I figured I ought to counter this threat.

No Fortress of Redemption? Aww, sad Angels...

Planning on using my Storm Wardens the IG sabers were out as they're well & truly devotees of the Ruinous Powers, so that leaves my only option as the Icarus lascannon on my bastion. However that was on the sprue at the time I took this photo last night (since remedied). Speaking of sprues, there are still quite a few future Storm Wardens on them, so my lone squad of Dark Angels will be tagging along to beef up the Troops section a bit. They're not allies per se...as there's no incentive to get their soon to be replaced codex at this point, so they will just be used as vanilla marines.

However in a misguided act of diplomacy, the Wardens thought to both welcome and honor their mysterious brethren by naming this offensive after them. Relations between the two chapters however seem to have gotten of to a bad start...

Perhaps the Librarian misread his Emperor's Tarot when seeking an honorable moniker?

As for the Bastion, I gotta question for all of you Necron players out there: How does one transport a monolith sized hunk-o-plastic to the FLGS on a regular basis without worry of the little fiddly bits (heavy bolters mainly) breaking off? It sure as hell won't fit in a sabol tray, and I was hoping that there's a better option than 'just put it in the passenger seat and try to minimize the sharp turns'.

Shifting Allegiances...

o/

Well, the Aurora Chapter Space Marine army has come to an end (or will shortly). I am just tired of having 9 scouts with sniper rifles and a missile launcher fail to kill anything! Even the Sgt. never rolls higher than a 2 (that photo caption is kinda prophetic in hindsight...) or barring that, failing to wound anything. The ML scout does fairly well, but only cause he is generally firing a frag missile. Screech commented 'it was a cool idea, but it really doesn't work.' 

Only my outflanking close combat scout squad really worked well, but the inability to outflank & charge in the same turn kinda kills that. So, if you're interested in an Aurora Captain & 15 (mostly painted) scouts, which would make for a nice allied contingent assuming your dice are more kind to them than mine have been, then check ebay later this week.

However I have so much unpainted SM stuff (much of it still on the sprue), that removing the painted Auroras, replacing them with my painted captain & tac squad of the Storm Wardens, and only a few minor shoulder pad & painting adjustments to a few other (now) former Auroras, and I basically have another SM army of roughly the same size (I'm such an addict...), just with more power armor this time (though I still have 2 scout squads remaining).

First up, my Librarian:

Ya gotta love Ork decals on Space Marines!

I still don't like any of the Librarian models, so I just gave him an arm swap as I didn't care for his old the GK style storm bolter. Now with a glowing plasma pistol, he looks less like a blue GK than he did before. The plasma glow didn't come out as good as the last one, and is a bit brighter/whiter meaning he'd best pull that trigger soon...

lol, its a 'counts as' Axe.

Then there is my favorite old Techmarine. This guy started life as a Red Corsair, who was a renegade from the Sons of Medusa, and has been painted a time or two since then. I really like the model & didn't want to get rid of him as I still use him frequently (even though basic Techmarines suck). Luckily his Aurora shoulder pad popped off easily & cleanly, allowing me to put a generic Mechanicum shoulder pad from the SM vehicle sprue on. Now bereft of chapter iconography, he'll outlive whichever SM army I decide to get/get rid of, plus he can go with either the Storm Wardens, or the Dark Angels (which I got enmass in the DV boxed set).

One problem is in all of the descriptions of power weapon types, there's no listing for 'circular power saw'. WHAT...THE...FUCK...GW?

...snicker...

I also wanted to keep my 'chaplain' drop pod dreadnought. That concept, while basically a suicide unit, works well enough and again, I liked the paint job. Luckily, having a chappy entombed within, the only thing that was green was the leg guard. The Hawk Turquoise that I use easily covered that, and a decal was applied. Conveniently, the Ork decal sheets have lightning bolts of all sorts of sizes though the one that fit best is in a black box. So I carefully cut around it so it just has a black outline. It works well enough I think.

The tac squad was next but I have no pics as of yet. The one time I've used the wardens previously, the Sgt. was hard to pick out as the only difference between him & the others was the color of his helmet. I have a few base coated 5th ed starter box tac marines though (former Alpha Legionnaires) and so will use one of those per squad as the Sgt., while the old one just got a helmet repaint. That mini is only half done so will post pics of that squad later.

Last week's recap (now that I have photos).

o/

As is so often the case with me, there was really no focus on the gaming front last week. Instead I did a little of this & a little of that. We're quickly heading into the best part of Autumn as well, so my time spent outdoors has spiked here of late as well. But anyways, here's what I got:

First off, I stripped, modified & repainted my Battletech APCs. Now painted as the 'local podunk militia'.  The bits added make them look a hellova lot better in my opinion. However the problem with that is, I only had enough to do 2 of the 5 that I have. I sent a parts query to Dream Pod 9 to see if I could get some more w/o buying another Bear/Mad Dog blister (that I don't need). So far there's been no response, so these may just be it for the podunks, will have to wait & see.

Secondly, I found & painted up my last Quar Royalist. When painting the others I belatedly realized I was missing one. He had gotten mixed into the pile of unassembled Crusaders (their arch enemies). Speaking of the Crusaders, I have 2 assembled and one half painted now. Wil see how that one comes out before I go any further I suppose.

Lastly, last Sunday Screech & I went to play in Morristown. I brought my Red Corsairs which were the only army of mine to not yet be fielded in 6th ed. Once again I got tabled, though to be honest it was a fairly close fought game. I was tabled by the same Nidzilla list that my 'Fluff Bunny Eldar' tabled some ways back, and when my last model fell, all that was left of the Nids were 2 Tervigons that had about 4 wounds between them (of which I think half had been regenerated). So yeah, was a good game.

Actually, the Corsairs will translate rather well into 6th I think. Aside from a rhino & Predator that I've added, they have no other vehicles, just bulk infantry. They have a havoc squad of 4 missile launchers meaning I'll have anti-air capabilities whenever I get the funds to buy the $50 Chaos coffee table book (of all of the complaints of the old codex, I never heard anyone say: I wish they'd almost double the price of the new one).

Also the corsairs came with a fair number of Daemons. While I'm not especially fond of the idea of getting that book, I suppose I'll have to for an allied contingent, and they will be lead by a demon named 'Harold' (...snicker...). Also, I had a thought on the Strighori Vampire you see at left. The army came with a bunch of those which I presume were meant to be possessed. However given do you think anyone would mind them being used as Warp Talons (whose models I don't much care for)?

And that about covers everything. This evening Hive Angel and his supposedly 'veteran' battletech force will once again be invading the Taurian Concordat. My 3rd. Red Lancers & one of the Podunk APCs above (used as an LRM variant) shall be valiantly fending them off, or trying to anyways...

Da Eleet Grot Mountin Duvishun!

o/

It seems I forgot to take photos of my meager painted offerings from last week. So uh yeah...FAIL on my part. Just think, you get to look forward to that later in the week (guess I need to improve that sales pitch...)!

However the Newport TN crew are starting up an escalation league & while its too far away for me to take part in it, I've been perusing & pondering their starting 250 point list ideas. The few I've seen are more or less 'dickish' lists posted for hilarity & to get a rise out of their opponents. Flyers & allies tend to be the main 'WTF?' subjects to the comments that follow. The only requirement (aside from a preference for painted minis) is 1 troops choice. That's it. And it got me to thinking that I could actually field my Eleet Grot Mountin Duvishun as a grot army (at least until they scaled up to 500 points)!

An old (and bad) recycled photo.

First off, for those who don't know/remember, da eleet grot mountin duvishun got its name some ways back after my grot mob's valiant actions against the nids.  A brood lord & genestealers predictably outflanked, charged & wiped out my killa kan skwadrun. And to 'save' my flank I offered up a  grot speed bump while da rest of da boys fled.

The story that unfolded was that the: (to be named) Eleet Grot Mountin Duvishun repelled out of the bombed out manufactorum, gunz blazing (and as usual, hitting nothing) and charged the astonished genestealer brood! The brood lord taking wounds for its team, eventually fell to perils of the warp, and despite horrific casualties (from both the stealers & the Slaver's squig) three FULL turns later, a hormagaunt brood was redirected to save the last stealer from giving up a kill point! 

It was awesome. I vaguely recall my warboss, Da Masta Cheef doing something glorious on the other flank but who cares, this post is about grots.  So were I to field a 250 point grot army, I would use the following:

Da Eleet Grot Mount’n Divishun (11+ Slaver)                   Total: 43

Kan Skwadrun (3)                                                           105
    (1) Big Shoota, (1) Grotzooka, (1) Skorcha                   30
                                                                                     Total: 135
(2) Lobbas                                                                      Total: 50
(1) Kannon                                                                     Total: 20

But da grots will have to miss out I suppose...

...and now for some fluff bunny Eldar.

o/

4 in one week! (take note Hive Angel)

Last week in looking for something to paint, i decided to work on some Eldar. While not a neglected army, there's still quite a bit of it to paint (okay, truth be told, that describes all of my armies barring the Orks...).  Anyways, I painted and flocked a pair of rangers first and followed them up with a pair of exodites.

The rangers are of the older type and it didn't occur to me till I was almost done painting the Siam-Hann one, that his base is pretty beat up/melted/or something. But whomever glued him down, used a lot of the stuff & rather than have to start over, I left it as is.  Despite being outcasts, I usually see rangers only painted in the colors of their parent army (something I've always done in the past myself). Instead I'm opting for a more varied look. The majority of the squad (3 probably) will be painted for Siam-Hann and the other two for other craftworlds. The green one below is from Biel-Tan and I have to say, his armor blends soooo much better with his cloak than does his counterpart, lol!

Ironically, on my city table, the cloaks draw attention rather than hiding them...

Finishing those rather quickly, I then painted up the remaining two models of my Exodite Avengers. Nothing fancy or anything, just two more grunts to finish out the unit.

Having painted these for my fluff bunny army, they then took to the field vs. Screech's Space Puppies Monday night. Predictably they lost (only 4 VPs to his 8), though they gave a good accounting for themselves in casualties inflicted (though not units destroyed, one grey hunter here, a few over there...).

We played 'Purge the Alien' (ironically enough) with the straight across the table deployment (forget what its called). We forgot about night fight in both the beginning and the end (someone remembered mid-game, but I guess that model died...). He stole the initiative, which makes for 3 consecutive games...forget it, if I win the set up roll, am just going to have my opponent go first, as they will be anyways!

While a few Exodite avengers died to that turn of events, it worked out well as the dragon knights were able to pop the landraider that was thundering across the table on turn 1 (giving me 1st blood). The 'deathstar' that fell out of it was not amused  & charged the knights and challenging their accompanying Warlock. However fighting against mere 'Mon'keigh' was beneath him and he declined (and later fled in panic when the knights were slaughtered).

That worked well cause rather than bother with the various psychic divinations, my farseer  demonstrated that guide and DOOM! still work just fine. Indeed, turn 2 and 30,000 shuriken rounds later, the deathstar was reduced to the wounded SW lord, the WG termie special character, and a lone grunt (who proceeded to wipe out that whole flank).

Oh well, such is the fate of fluff bunnies...

The rangers did well as their rending rules combined with precision shots took a heavy toll on the the puppies on their side of the board. I also had a very small allied contingent of Storm Wardens who got to kill a few puppies in their tabletop debut. I had used my dirt cheap Siam-Hann Autarch rather than my Exodite one on the griffon. The problem is, that at 1500 points, I only have one build with the Exodites. So unable to fill in the missing 60-odd points, I yanked the bare plastic guardian squad, and that left room for a fairly basic Storm Warden Captain and a 5-man tac squad (most of whom survived).

All in all it was fun, and Screech got to win in 6th ed, which ought to tone down his nerd raging about the new addition a little bit...I hope...

I was beaten by a girl!

Quite badly too and no, she didn't play Eldar!

Friday night I joined up with R.T.Voril and we went to me up with his gaming club out in the hinterlands of (not quite as) eastern Tennessee. There was a pretty good sized crowd there, and I'd already met about half of them from my forays out to Morristown. Only one 40k game was played while we were there (we had to duck out kinda early as its roughly an hour and a half drive home, as it was I didn't get back till 3am).  Still much fun was had.

Her avatar from a geek forum.

In that game I was declared the 'fresh meat' and thus the reigning champion Raven was required to fight me (champion of what I never did figure out). However considering just how the game went, champion was an apt term. I had made the comment 'hey, I might lose to a girl' which after turn 1 was changed to 'yes, I am going to get beaten by a girl' lol.  Dawn of war deployment, the scouring, 1k of my CSMs vs. her Demons.  My warlord was able to hold objectives, hers got a +1 to reserves. She then stole the initiative and i discovered just how bad ass Flamers of Tzeentch really were!  To be honest, while the Soul grinder killed several marines, the Blood Thirster killed two havocs with sweep attacks, and the demonette horde pulled down the last member of plasma death, the 9 flamers pretty much killed the remaining 80% of my army! At the end of turn 3, i had just a lascannon predator left, and while I could have fought to the end, it would be pointless to do so. So I raised the white flag of surrender. I did at least manage to gun down the Blood Thirster which in my book is a (vaguely) moral victory, as well as the soul grinder.

Its all good though. I've been playing 40k for close to 2 decades, and while I've dated gamer girls, played alongside them going all the way back to 2nd. ed., and lost other mini games to them, this was the first time I lost a 40k game to one. So, I guess that's another milestone reached?

On the painting front, last week I managed to finish up the first of my Dark Vengeance Chosen:

I'm rather pleased with him, and indeed prior to our game (where he was one of the first to die, typical of newly painted minis), my opponent's boyfriend was asking if I'd notice (or mind) if that mini went missing! lol!

I painted his tabard to look like it was torn from the hide of an Ork! Finding a worthy foe who's death would be one to remember removes any mere humans (or Space Wolves) from the list of potentials. Though after my last bout using the Ork vs. Hive Angel, they ought to be off of the list as well! My guess is that my game table was still strewn with Ork carcases and he skinned the one that had claimed to be Da' Warmasta which, is kinda fitting I suppose.