Dark Angels Master of the 9th Company

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Well, I've now sold off all of the Dark Angels from the Dark Vengeance box with the exception of two models. The limited edition chaplain I gave to RTVoril, as his kids were wanting to learn how to play 40k with Dad (aww...) and he started them off with the easily available Dark Angels, and the Company Master which I've kept for myself. When i saw the forthcoming DV DA minis, I punted my existing DA tac. squad and Chaplain Bane from the 3rd Battle Company to the 6th Reserve Company.

Then I sold the new DV minis as they really made the old ones look bad, so I guess the point was moot. I didn't want to redo the company markings again, however I want a dev. squad for my DA allied contingent. So, I'll just paint them up as being from the 9th reserve company. And to lead them (when not using Bane) will be my newly painted 9th Company Master:

The whole purpose of this guy is for the excuse to use the 'Lion's Roar' which is a combi bolter-plasma cannon! Who better is there to wield that particular toy than the master of the devastator company? I'm not sure if there will be a command squad with the Banner of Devastation to go with him or not, as I may not end up with enough Dark Angels with bolters for it to be worth it. However I think an eventual command squad outfitted like my Chaos Havoc 'Plasma Death' squad is a possibility...

Initially I was going to add a decal of a '9' to his shoulder, but cutting a decal apart to fit around the stuff already on the shoulder, as well as being a curved surface was a bit off putting, so instead I took the easy way out and just painted the company marking on the shoulder instead. Also, despite carefully cutting the mini from the sprue, the two points of contact with the helmet wings ended up leaving little holes. I left them as is though figuring that if you're wearing as grandiose of a helmet as that, its bound to gain a few bullet holes during combat.

I'm going to get the DA codex this weekend, and will actually be fielding my DA as DA instead of dark green vanilla marines. However my devastators with their flakk missiles are not yet assembled, so the Company Master will not partake in combat. Instead, while he musters his troops, Chaplain Bane & his squad from the 6th will join the Storm Wardens with a whole lot of 'not that much' as my DA allied contingent currently weighs in at a mere 215 points. Such a small force asks the question of: why even bother?

Well...because I want to, that's why.

The Beastmen NEED MOAR DAKKA!!!

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Just a quick post this morning, as I'm kinda busy this morning, and I also slacked off on painting this weekend. Nor were any games played either. I did however remove the Vraks gunners from my quad heavy stubber Sabre platforms and replace them with Beastmen gunners. This really needed to be done as they were the last two 'total humans' left in the army.

Hey you! I'm talkin' to you!

One thing I rather liked about these was the way the gunners came out. The previous gunners were both just looking ahead, whereas with these two, one looks like he's looking ahead and ignoring the guy next to him. While the other is busy chewing him out. Really simple to do, but nonetheless gives the two of them a bit of character I think.

I'll try and get the third Sabre into the works this week.

They're Grymn, but not so dark...

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With the sudden onset of an actual winter (temperature wise) I figure that I ought to make a post involving some winter troops. I mentioned these a little ways back as a side project for which there is neither a rule set, nor even a background setting (that I know of at least). They're just cool minis consigned to a life on the shelf, and with that, I introduce you to the Grymn, the 'Space Dwarfs' (oh shut up Hive Angel!) produced by Hasselfree Miniatures.

Being primed and panted white, I switched to a blue back drop. To be honest, I think I like it more than the white one I use normally...

To me they're more like space midgets, or pygmies rather than the stereotypical GW dwarfs or squats (i.e.: they're properly proportioned, actually have visible knees and don't have beards down to their toes)

AHH! Its the blue screen of death!!! Seeing that means certain death on the battlefield!

This particular model is the first to catch my eye as I can't think of any other laptop toting sci-fi minis (the antenna came from an IG vox caster). Thus she's my Grymn's platoon/army commander. Rather than leading from the front, waving a sword in the air and looking all heroic in typical 40k fashion, she hangs back while coordinating from the rear.

I figure that she's receiving data/camera input from her various units, recon drones, and possibly even air/spacecraft, and using such information to issue her orders, call in air/orbital strikes and/or artillery support, and to communicate with other Grymn units. She's armed with an assault rifle (as small as the Grymn are, its more like a sub-machine gun), knife and all of the other wargear of the typical Grymn soldier. That said, I doubt she'd be using it for anything other than self-defense in the event that the battle takes a turn for the worst. Most likely because her laptop failed to reboot in time...

The first squad of these that I ordered (along with the Commander mini) were listed as an anti-tank squad. I couldn't figure out why just by looking at the squad sets (I hadn't looked at the minis' individual listings) and so didn't realize that they each had a LAW strapped to their backs.  In the second batch I ordered, I got the Grymn with the power axe, figuring he'd be a good Sgt. for them. In say, a boarding action, they could be breaching charges (and a boarding axe) while on the ground they'd be light ant-tank weapons. With the extra gear, they're more of an elite unit I figure, plus they still have the standard weaponry of the regular troops.

DON'T WORRY, THE GRYMN IS IN NO DANGER!!! (everyone knows SM scout snipers can't hit anything with a sniper rifle...)

As you can see, they're quite tiny compared to 'normal' 28mm minis. I don't really think there's any place for them in a 40k army, other than perhaps some IG vets. So long as no one minds them having the stat line of a bunch of ratlings armed with shotguns (closest thing to a submachine gun rules wise).

There's still hand full of them that I'd like to get, and possibly even the walker model that they have, but that's about it. There's no need to go investing heavily in something who's only battles will be against the Quar for the premium spaces on the shelf.

Upgradin' Da Boyz!!!

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Its been a few weeks, so its time for Da Boyz to grab the spotlight for a short bit on the blog that bears their name. No, they haven't fought since their last glorious victory over da weedy grey oomies, but they have acquired some new toys.

Da' noo Tank Bustas!

Weez takin' dis wagon!

Basking in the after glow of victory and reading the latest change on the tank bustas in the GW FAQ (What? I don't have to try and shoot that rhino that's 48" away anymore?), I thought I'd get me some tank bustas. Now, to be honest I really don't like the minis for them. However I already had two rokkit boyz who were more or less useless in a mob on their own. So i ordered the bitz to make a few more, and added an old freebooter/cybork nob with his power klaw for good measure.  No bombs squigs as of yet though.

Also this weekend, I finally ran into Madival, and passed on his vampire that I had gotten him for Christmas, as well as a pair of old Strighori Vampires that he was wanting. In return he gifted me with his old Ork battlewagon!

We kicked da tires and luckily none fell off!

True, it lacks the aesthetic of Da' Matilda (my old Ork BW that predates this model and his built on a WWII Matilda which can be seen in the top photo here). Neverness was quick to point out that it needed a Deff Rolla, and to that I say: 'Careful buddy, or I just might get one...'

I've railed against the '4 battlewagons with deff rollas and 2 big Meks with KFFs' net list for some time, and Neverness just happens to have those four battlewagons with deff rollas...in boxes...still in plastic...and probably never to be seen on the table top...ever.

...snicker...

Speaking of Neverness, why don't you go right now and check out his battle report of his Mon'keigh's latest encounter with my 'fluff bunny' Exodite/Saim-Hann army. My new Harlequins perfomed a little sub-par, but everything else did well enough that the veneer of just being a 'fluff bunny army' is starting to wear a little thin...

I haven't read his account of this engagement yet myself but will do so in a few moments, right after I post this.

Awesomness? No, Neverness...

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There wasn't a whole lot accomplished on the gaming front this week, really no excuse for it either as the weather has been abysmally rainy and going outside is generally to be avoided as much as possible.  That said I did manage to work on a few odds and ends. First up, my old school harlequins got themselves some bases:

Kicking it old school!

 Some ways back, I forgot a box (and the Swooping Hawks contained therein) when going to Morristown, and so RTVoril lent me his harlequins. With those Harlequins and the liberal use of the Eldar psychic power of 'DOOM!' I tabled a Nidzilla list with my fluff bunny Exodites. As such, they've been on my 'to get' list ever since. I'm not much of a fan of the new sculpts though, they look like they'll break too easily, especially a they're FAILcast minis, whereas the metal versions would instead fall over.

That problem is now solved as Neverness gifted me with 10 original Harlequins for Christmas! Some of the weapons fits are a little off from the current codex, but close enough. I'll try them out this Saturday night where I'll run two squads of five (which is why half are primered, to tell the squads apart).

...and on a totally different note...

BBQ Platoon!!!

We were set to play CBT last week, however the game was cancelled when Hive Angel fell ill. I've not heard from him since and can only assume that he's still wallowing in Nurgle's thrall. However I do have one thing to possibly cheer him up: the BBQ platoon finally has a their very own BBQ grill!

That name started as a joke when a platoon camped out in a city once and never did anything as it was assumed a BBQ street party was in progress. Having one model break from this base, there was room to add a grill from a few little bits of sprue and paper clip. BBQ Platoon is now my premiere infantry unit in Battletech, which is something that my other two platoons (the OMG! & WTF? platoons respectively) are probably quite jealous of...

Stirland Watchtower WIP pt. 2

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If only they could afford guns...

I've still been slowly working on the watchtower and its more or less 'finished' (for now). What I really need to now is to cut out some foam board and draw out, measure, and cut out the earth works that will snuggle up to the tower, guard shack and form the base of the walls. Then, rather than just a mere watchtower, it'll be a glorified watchtower!

Once that's all laid out, it'll let me know whether or not there's room for the support braces and any other bits and bobs. I do have an Empire prisoner hanging from a hook to add, and the placement for it selected. However just whose colors he'll be painted in has yet to be determined. That and until there's a base under the whole thing, that piece will be in easy danger of snapping off due to being a decently sized part that'll be projecting out from one side.

As you can see, I repainted the larger bricks at the bottom to look like stonework. Given their size, it looks much better I think, and hopefully will reduce if not eliminate the 'Ye ol' McDonalds or Taco Bell' references...

I also decided against adding the giant and kinda goofy looking chimney, instead opting for two little ones poking out of the sides. One per enclosed level and with soot stains to match. It still needs something on the open wall space above the door, just not sure what. Trying not to overdecorate it to the point of gaudy (which is such a prevalent issue with Empire minis, just look at their dreadful war wagon/shrine things...bleh), but I'm not too fond of the little gargoyle bits that the kit comes with. Dunno, will figure out something I guess...

This probably won't be nearly as entertaining for you...

o/

Apparently, people like a good rant. My last post almost broke my one day page hit record set way back when I won Lo's contest to design her blog banner. 25 comments on one post is a record for this blog, though admittedly not all of them were serious comments...

So sorry to let you folks down, but as you can see, all that I have this time around are the WIP  pics of my WHFB watchtower.

WHFB is at about the bottom of my gaming priority list, which explains why I'm painting terrain for it, right?

Right.

I still have yet to add the battlements to the top level as they will need to be painted before assembly which will be far easier than painting them after its been assembled.  As such the roof piece is not yet glued in place. Plus there are the gubbins to add, though I'm not going to overboard and add all of them like the picture on the box. GW knows how to over do it, that's for sure. Sometimes simpler is better, especially in poor and impoverished Stirland.

One bit of flourish that I did add however was to the roof/floor. I just made a stencil, much like i did with my stolen Space Wolves Rhino, only just one color this time. When painting the green onto the roof which was primed brown, I opted not to fully cover the primer to give it a more worn look, and then did the same with the yellow over that.

The 'L' signifies that this tower is part of Leichburg's defense cordon. True, only the watchtower garrison and whatever monster swoops down to rain a fiery death upon them will see it, but it looks pretty good in my book.

Bitching my way to victory AGAIN! (but mostly just bitching...)

It's been awhile since I posted a good rant, so get ready as I'm about to remedy that...

I finished off 2012 with a narrow win over Screech, and started off 2013 with what would appear to be a strong 4-0 record. The devil is in the details though...

On the left is the guy who started it all...

This weekend I thought I'd give the Red Corsairs a go, along with trying out some Daemon allies now that Harold is painted. As I'm generally too lazy to make multiple lists for one weekend, and Morristown (now back up and running) was using a 1500 point tournament format, I made up a 1500 point Corsairs list with a small Daemon allied contingent. The Daemons came at cost of my vehicle contingent (that being a dirt cheap dakka pred, an all las pred, and a rhino).

My first game was Saturday night, vs. RTVoril's Craft World Eldar with a small contingent of DE allies. That came as a surprise as I was expecting the opposite. Hammer and Avnvil, Purge the alien (fittingly), and in general I pasted him. Granted, by the end I didn't have a whole lot let, but things pretty much went my way the whole game, that and the burning brand of Skalathrax has since become my new favorite toy. (SPOILER ALERT) He was to get his revenge less than 24 hours later. 

Move forward to Sunday, and Round one was vs. a most hated of enemies....yes that's right, it was an almost fully PAINTED army of Red Corsairs vs. my virtually UNPAINTED army of Red Corsairs! Crusade (5 objectives), Hammer and Anvil again (as usual). This was a close one that went back and forth till the very end when I squeaked out a win by holding one objective while contesting two others (with the rest in no-man's land). I got first blood and Line breaker, he killed my warlord.

This was also my first encounter with dinobots. The big shooty one isn't to terribly impressive vs. marines, while the dragon on the other hand is cheese on a stick. Four schmucks with flak missiles had exactly one turn to kill it before being incinerated (and as they were incinerated, you know how well that went). The best I was able to do was take a hull point off of it with an oblit. which also locked its velocity, which was meaningless for all intents and purposes... VPs made it look like a solid win, while in truth it was a squeaker that down to the last turn. All and all though, it was a really good game.

Round two was whatever the 'new auto-tie' mission is called, Dawn of War deployment and worst of all, vs. the most hated of my foes, and the gloves were off as soon as it was announced. Having long since burned through the excuses of 'he's young, he's a new player, he's just learning' etc. He's a known cheater who's IG (while less than the norm) was still loaded with proxies (either Creed was on the adkins diet, or that was really just a regular IG officer being called Creed...).

I don't like him (most of us don't), he knows this, he's also been 'spoken to' by the T.O., and still he tries to pulls BS with the IG while claiming ignorance despite having been repeatedly corrected  multiple times by multiple people. He's basically every bad 'WAAC player' stereotype rolled into one. Lets face it he starts turn one, forgetting orders then wanting to go back and issue them (in friendly games that's fine, against him, no). Forgetting the orders  was preceded by (quote):

'I'm going to exploit a loophole I found in the rules. Any weapon fired after an ordinance round must be snap fired, so I'm going to fire the ordinance round last.'

Well yes. I guess that is a loophole, thanks for announcing your intent, now why are you looking surprised that I just told you that the gloves are off and no, you can't go back and issue orders?

The following is a selection of quotes from the game:

Orders are always at the beginning of the shooting phase, its the first thing you do. No Creed doesn't wound a CSM with a power sword on a 4+. No a chimera cannot cross a 3" deep trench like its open terrain just because there's water at the bottom of it. No an astropath doesn't have 2 wounds. No 'lumbering behemoth' doesn't mean you can ignore shaken. No Ratlings aren't toughness 3, firing the chimera's heavy flamer only to find it not in range is not 'pre-measuring' that's what a tape measure is for. No there are no defensive weapons anymore so your heavy stubber does not ignore snap firing. 

And yes there were more, but I can only recall so much BS in one game...

Turn two, my Raptors pulled off an impressive 11" charge through difficult terrain, and wiped out his command squad including Creed! The conversation following that was as follows:

Cool, I got your Warlord!
No you didn't, my warlord is in that Chimera over there.
What? Who the hell does Creed take orders from?
Yarrick.
You have Creed, Yarrick, AND Pask in a 1500point list?!?
And Marbo, he hasn't come in yet.
Overcompensate much?

(He just looked away at that...) RTVoril was later to dub it the 'Who's who of the Imperial Guard' army.

He couldn't understand how I had so many troops in a 1500 point list whereas I can't understand why he'd dump so many points into special characters. I can only imagine that Harker and Bastonne (or is he a Storm trooper character?) will be running the 2 vet squads (only troops he had, unsurprisingly) in the next tourney. At game's end, I had his objective, nobody had mine, he got my warlord, I had First Blood, and both line breaker, so another win for me. (I heard he got all but tabled in round three....) Oh, and a dozen flakk missiles fired resulting exactly NO damage to his friggin Valkyrie!

Round three, another multiple objective game (forget which one), Dawn of War deployment, vs. RTVorils' DE. I think bribery was used to get me as an opponent as this army was tailor made to wipe me out and did so in spectacular fashion! Knowing what I'd have ahead of time he brought his standard tourney list. Its all but the same as what pasted my exodites, except the ravagers were swapped out for two fighters. Anyone who thinks Rhinos are dead needs to play against this army, as between splinter cannons, and the rapid firing rifle schmucks in the back of each, virtually every one of my squads was getting hammered by 20-40 shots per round, with predictable results.

This 'glass cannon' army wasn't as he was still rolling box cars like a mad man like he was the night before. The only difference being this time he was rolling for flicker fields and to hit, rather than for leadership and how far to run away! The two fighters showed up and Calliopied into the havocs wiping them out. Because 4 weapons firing at normal BS, per flyer makes sense. Tanks can do that if they sit still, and have enough weapons, but then again you don't need 6s just to hit those...

Over the course of the game I was able to glance one jet to death, and popped 2 venoms (one taking all passengers with it), but in general my army was outmaneuvered, out gunned, and evicerated in short order. The simple inclusion of rhinos would have negated half of the 20-odd shots per venom (collectively) as poisoned weapons can't do crap to them. Of course bolters needing 6s just to glance his vehicles (before saves), plus the needing 6s to hit the fighters, and then again to glance (with most of my shooting and again before saves), meant despite being a very good friend, this army sucked to play against and I summarily bitched my way thru it.

However, (and I'm making assumptions here as this was the case vs. my Exodites) he was stuck in the '5th ed mindset' of just wiping me out instead of playing for objectives, as his guys never exited the venoms unless they were destroyed. So despite getting my ass handed to me, I had one squad on an objective and line breaker. While he had first blood (my daemonettes committed suicide rather than deep strike nicely), and slay the warlord, but no objectives  (despite having venoms practically sitting on 3 of them).

So it was a 'technical win' that saw me as undefeated, and I won a $15 gift card toward future purchases. I hate technical wins, as like I said above, I got my ass handed to me and it was obvious.

Still ranting just in case you didn't get enough above...

Having now faced flyers in several games, rather than just going by the general sense of 'teh inerwebz' I still don't think they have a place in 40k. They're not broken per se (though why the fuck most xenos [those not being Matt Ward's pet projects] only have AV10, while Imperials & Chaos dragons are armored like tanks is beyond me), however the lack of air defense DOES make them broken!

Do I seriously have to SPAM flakk missiles, or spend $75 on a dragon that I don't want (and is better at killing ground targets anyways)? Nor do I want an Aegis line or bastion with AA guns in my non-Imperial armies. True my Orks are getting an aegis & quad gun, but I also had an orky substitute for the aegis, and da' gunz weren't to difficult to konvert. That said, it doesn't fit with my speed freaks at all! Yet I apparently 'have to have' them now because armies are starting to be built around the obvious power of flyers which is the obvious lack of realistic AA defense that most armies are faced with (the *new* CSM codex included).

I've commented previously that I don't want my 40k games to turn into reenactments of Pearl Harbor, and I think that statement still stands. However it's obviously GW's intent, to sell flyers rather than provide armies with a decent AA defense to balance things out. Matt Ward shows us all what GW thinks of 'balance'... For those who wish to argue that point on flyers, explain to me why the two latest flyer releases (the dragon and whatever the DA one is called) are priced at $75 a pop, when the earlier kits were a 'mere' $50 each.

Having to pay10 points a piece for flakk missiles is hardly an equalizer, nor is not releasing a non-Forgeworld hydra that was promised ages ago...

Do they have shotgun shacks in Stirland?

...lol, of course not, everyone knows my Stirlanders can't afford any guns...

o/

The 'Gate House'.

Notta whole lot of painting has been done here of late, but I'm slowly easing myself out from 'vacation' mode and back into 'normal every day' mode. So that ought to pick back up again. Well, sorta anyways as currently I'm working on a 'little' side project that like my Quar is destined to live on the shelf. Yes, once more I've purchased minis that have no applicable no game system nor local interest (as in the case of the Quar), but I'll get to that sometime later. Maybe in the next few weeks or so...

While in Florida for Christmas, I did stop by the GW store and picked up a few odds and ends, including the WHFB walls and fences. I've since been looking on how to make my Empire watch tower into a little roadside castle. In the end it'll be little more than a glorified watch tower really but in rural and impoverished Stirland, it'll still qualify.

The watchtower comes with the little shack you see here, and so I painted it up this past Sunday to test out colors and am rather pleased with the result. As usual, it was mainly an exercise in dry brushing, picking out the few details, and then dry brushing some more. I 'plan' (as bad as I am at finishing terrain projects means don't get your hopes up...) on using foam board to raise the walls up so that their tops are the head height to the average Empire mini, and will have a fighting step on the inside of the wall. There is a little gate in one of the wall sections (I suppose I'll need to make a ramp to access it), so the wall section next to it will be sawed off and replaced with this shack to make the gate house.

In my mind I think it'll all work out nicely, whereas in reality....who the hell knows.