XV8(ish) Kroot Salvaged Suit

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XV8(ish) Kroot Salvaged Suit

I had an idea some ways back to make a Kroot-salvaged-crises suit commander, but put that on hold as the forth-coming Tau codex was rumored to include a Kroot HQ choice. No such luck (despite the interwebz drooling over the idea). GW, instead took an odd turn with the Kroot, making them into yet another shooting unit (because the Tau were obviously lacking in those...) and by doing so, all but completely eliminated any HTH ability for the Tau.

Nice. 

Further more, Kroot Mercs fighting for whomever, whilst fluffy as it is directly mentioned in the Kroot's fluff, can't be done in an actual game w/o a meddling Tau HQ tagging along: 'No, no, you're supposed to be fighting for the Greater Good, not profit. No, please stop eating the dead, its, its so…' (followed by the sounds of a Tau vomiting up his/her breakfast), etc. Ironically, the recent Tau Riptide/Broadside dataslate pimps the Tau out to anyone who will fork over the $$$ for all of those pricey kits.

Hrmph, that sounds kinda mercenary to me…

 

Anyways...recently RTVoril gifted us with a crises suit torso, that was sans-arms and weapons (the legs were partially supplied, albeit separately). He figured we could scrounge up/order the necessary bits to make it battle-worthy. Indeed I did just that, though not as he imagined I'm sure. Instead I ran my idea by my GF, she liked it and gave me the go-ahead and thus her Kroot now have an XV8(ish) Salvaged Suit!

I had to remove the head/sensor unit as a Kroot could never fit into such a tiny cockpit, no doubt that won't help with the missile pod's accuracy. I plan to paint around the Kroot body to make it look as though there's a hole cut in the top of the crises suit. Also, I couldn't get the one arm to fit right to the suit's top, hence he's holding a rifle ala' the IG's famous 'Drive closer so I can hit them with my sword!' cliche. As you can see, aside from the crises suit torso, IG & Ork parts were added to the suit to finish it out. I guess this Kroot was lucky enough to survive a game of the updated Carnage scenario in order to find such an array of parts laying around!

No doubt following the above mentioned carnage, the (soon-to-be) Kroot pilot first filled his stomach with some deliciously fresh Mek boy meat (with a side of grot oiler perhaps?), and thought 'Oi! Lets get some uv dat scrap an' fix it up good & propa!' Speaking of the Kroot eating habits, its best not to think of what happened to the suit's original pilot when this XV8 was lost in combat. Rather…well lets just say that this Kroot devoured the XV8's 'instruction manual' and we'll leave it at that!

I'll field this as a Shas'vre if only an elite, otherwise an HQ for an all Kroot allied contingent. Its armed with scavenged IG weaponry in the form of a missile pod and onager gauntlet. Not quite a Dreadnought CCW, but far better than what a Sentinel gets out of that saw blade! Also, considering the ramshackle amalgamation of parts, its probably not the safest thing to operate, especially amidst an on-going battle. So if the enemy gets a lucky hit on one of its myriad jury-rigged systems, then they may set off a chain reaction and…KABOOM! The resulting explosion would be much the same as say…a Failsafe Detonator, lol.

Other bits and bobs were added as well (probably making this thing a nightmare for me to paint). There's a searchli--um, I mean Blacksun Filter, Kroot stowage, including dinner cooking via the jetpack nozzles and best of all (no doubt in hopes of constructing yet more Kroot salvaged suits) a good ol' tow truck-like hook and chain.

I doubt this will be a game-changer by any means, but it'll be fun to use anyways, and will keep the Tau from having to fight for something other than their ideology which would be anything but fluffy...

The Grymn Dark v2, part 2 (the who is what)

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Well, my beloved Grymn didn't get their battlefield debut this weekend due to the weather. It snowed here (ironic as they're painted in winter colors) and whilst the roads were probably fine by gaming time, its better to be safe than sorry. By northern standards, the amount of snow was probably laughable, but the south isn't too well equipped to deal with the stuff. That and having learned to drive in Florida, I worse when driving in the snow than the locals.

Anyways, below is a breakdown of what minis I'm using as what.

First up, my Inquisitor. This little guy will be an Ordo Malleus Inquisitor equipped with power armor, power sword, Hell Rifle, and frag & krak grenades. I won't bother with the psyk-out grenades as they'd most likely offend the Grymn's Nicassar allies (more on them below). I really like this mini and will hopefully paint it up soon.

Neverness commented that its kindova plain looking sculpt, but its a nice change from GW's 'skull/spirit stone/glyph/whatever-on-every-surface' look. Its also a bit of a challenge to paint as I can't just slather him in a wash, then drybrush and call it done like I often do with all of my normally 'dirty' armies.

Next up, the venerable Grymn Prospectors themselves. These will be Acolytes with hot-shot lasguns. I have a little over a dozen of them (sadly only two are painted) and truth be told the Grymn would probably work best as IG. But for now I'll use them as the Inquisition as I'm not looking to buy anymore at the moment.

Now we come to my still favorite Grymn sculpt, the Grymn with a laptop, or in this particular case, the Jokero. The Jokero's WS & S is lower than that of the acolyte, that's easily explained by being weighed down/encumbered by her equipment. Truthfully, I only want the Jokero for the chance to roll a 5 on her chart, as these guys need a 5++ save. Small as they are, they disappear from the enemy's line of sight in ruins (the most common terrain we play in). The problem with that is these little guys do need to all but stand in the wide open in order to shoot anything. Also, if you think it isn't plausible for this chick to manifest a lascannon, multi-melta or heavy flamer out of thin air, just remember: a fucking orangutan doing that is even less so!

Hey, guess what? I found a use for this mini, as a Nicassar. For anyone who never fielded or faced the Tau in Battlefleet Gothic, that probably means little (so by all means click on the link). As such, this little guy/girl/it (and the two others I just bought) will be used as Inquisitorial Psykers.

Lastly, my little Info-bot which will work perfectly as a Servo-skull. I have three, and conveniently, an inquisitor can have up to 3. Rob mentioned the upcoming CSM supplement which will possibly bring back his all infiltrating Deathguard army. To which I replied by saying that three servo-skulls (totaling a mere 9 points) will keep him back almost in his deployment zone, negating that strategy for the most part. His stunned silence for the few moments that it lasted was hilarious!

So there they are, my little allied Grymn contingent and all of its constituent parts. Hopefully they'll fare better than they did as Tau, and if not, there's always the IG. Barring that, then possibly they'll fit into Beyond the Gates of Antares if that game ever makes it off of the ground. By the sounds of it, the Grymn could easily qualify as Pan-Humans.

The Grymn Dark v.2

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I'll save RTVoril the trouble and say right now: tl;dr. We'll see you next week, for anyone else with time on their hands though, read on.

Some ways back, I tried to shoehorn my beloved Grymn minis into 40k in the form of an allied race to the Tau (with fluff to justify it here). Well....that didn't work too well. Of course, any infantry (w/o anti-tank weaponry on hand) that has a Furioso drop pod into pointblank range and attack them, isn't going to fare too well either. I dunno, it just felt kinda forced, especially as I was fielding them as Tau with different weapons.

As such, they've spent their lives since on the shelf looking cool but...not much else (I still need to finish my Grymn Mawe Walker as well). Then, GW released the Inquisition codex, and once again I can field virtually anything in the form of one of my Inquisitorial Circus Side Shows (who are invariably allied to my GF's Tau).

Not wanting to just toss the old fluff and say 'they're inquisitors now' I instead opted to update my Grymn fluff to represent their change in wargear, stats, etc. Not to mention my new Grymn that I'll be using as my 'Prospector-General' (Counts-as-an-Inquisitor) which you can see here:

As much as I liked the Power Armored Grymn, the models just didn't look complete till they added the backpack bit. Speaking of, the 'railgun' (hell rifle) is perfect for my fluff!

So here is the Grymn's story, picking up right after the fluff linked above left off...

Recent sightings of the Grymn however have found them to often be at odds with their Tau allies. Indeed, they now only fight along side one another only in the most dire of circumstances. Even then both factions will keep their distance from one another whilst keeping a wary eye for treachery. It is unknown as to whether or not the Grymn are still considered a part of the Tau Empire or not. In an all out war, the Grymn would stand little chance against the Tau's numerical and technological superiority. However it is believed by some members of the Ordo Xenos that the Grymn may be trying to secede from the Empire.

As a result, notable changes to the Grymn's combat doctrines have been observed in recent years. In addition to keeping their distance from the Tau in general (as opposed to relying on the Tau for protection), the Grymn's weaponry has undergone a myriad of changes. The Grymn's carbine weaponry for example, no longer functions as little more than a pistol (by human standards). Now thru the use of improved ammunition technologies, their carbines are of comparable potency and function to an Imperial Guard issue hot-shot lasgun.

 Curiously, and quite at odds with the improvement of the individual Prospector's personal fire power, the Grymn' Prospector's body armor seems to be bereft of their trademark Iridium alloy. Instead it is built rom a composite weave of plastics and ceramics, to form a hard yet light weight shell. Whilst visually the same as their iridium armor of old, the newer materials have an overall reduced quality in terms of ballistic and impact protection. The Ordo Xenos has theorized that the Grymn's reserves of iridium alloys have either been depleted or else lost to Tau control (quite possibly causing the schism amongst the two races).

Despite this lack of personal protection, the Grymn have recently become a bit more aggressive in their willingness to engage in hand-to-hand combat. Whilst still not a particular threat in that method of warfare due to their small statures, they do fair better than the average Tau Fire Warrior (not that that's saying much). As such, another notable change in the Grymn's arsenal is the inclusion of power weaponry. Whether these weapons were reverse engineered from captured specimens, or wholly indigenous designs is unknown. Regardless, the Grymn no longer have any moral issues with engaging in close combat, unlike their former allies.

Another significant change is the Grymn commander's (who have been retitled as: 'Prospector-Generals') preference in battlefield equipment.  Power armor, rather than the heavier Mawe walkers of old are apparently now standard issue equipment. Instead of the bulky, and exceptionally heavy armor plating, as well as the short ranged barrage of vulcan cannons on the Mawe, Grymn power armor (the design of which this galaxy has never before witnessed) offers commanders improved mobility and versatility (at the expense of brute force). Lacking the black carapace of the Space Marines, Grymn power armor appears to be instead comparable to that of the Adeptus Sororitas.

Whilst the weapons load of power armored Prospector Generals varies according to personal tastes and/or mission requirements, usually it comprises of a power weapon, grenades of various types, and a new light railgun of apparent Grymn design. The railgun was no doubt created in emulation of their former Tau allies. When firing the railgun, the commander must remain still in order to maintain accuracy. This can temporarily limit the his/her mobility. It is capable of penetrating lightly armored vehicles, and Space marine power armor. Despite its mobility issues and low rate of fire,  this is a potent weapon that should not be underestimated.

Another sign that all is not well within the Tau Empire, is the apparent alliance among the Grymn and the previously rumored Xenos species called the Nicassar. There have been rare reports of Nicassar vessels working in conjunction with the Tau made by Rogue Traders, and even more rarely the Imperial Navy in the years following the Imperium's first encounter with the Tau Empire. It seems the Tau has gone to great lengths to hide this psychic species from the Imperium. Not so the Grymn. Via battlefield pict captures, there has been evidence of Grymn commanders conferring with small numbers of an unusual, semi-levitating, tentacled species. Whilst often armed with a small pistol or the like, these weapons are believed to be only for personal defense, if they're even used at all. Instead, this new form of vile Xenos appears to be highly evolved psychicly, and can wield potent magics against hostile forces.  Consorting with such a dangerous species is more than enough to warrant the Grymn's (and the aforementioned Tau) need for extermination!

Hey interwebz, you lied to me...

...you said the new Nid codex sucks! So tell me how Screech, in his first two games fielding the Nids EVER (and yes with the new codex), pasted the Deathguard and fought the so-called 'broken' Tau to a draw? lol, the vocal tournament minority, screaming for their Matt Wardian 'I-WIN!-button-units (because that's what tournaments are apparently about I guess...) has in its initial impression failed to see a good codex. I expect in 6 months or so opinions will be different...but who knows.

Anyways, my 'adopted little brother' Screech is shipping out to US Army boot camp this coming Tuesday. His family has taken (appropriately I suppose) all of his free time in his last few days of civilian life (though he's already gone to a few drills with the local National Guard unit). That said, Saturday's gaming at the FLGS was renamed 'Screech's 40k gaming extravaganza!' where we were to give him a proper 40k send off!

Below I have a few pics out our game, in which I still hate the Tervigon, even after getting beaten by the Nerf bat. The Fem Fa'Tau (with a handful of Arbitrators as counts-as-IG in support) hunkered down in a Pickett's charge like scenario. Neverness has more pics of the day's games here.

I swear we mowed down this horde of gribblies at least twice (thanks to the tervigon's efforts). Screech told me what unit was what, but they all look a like to me.

 

The Tau's fold-a-fort (aegis) drew many compliments during the night, and formed the anchor of the Tau's game long, static deployment.

 

The Stealth Suits did try to gun down 'momma' but to no avail given its high toughness and heay armor. They died to the last whilst only inflicting 1 wound on the monster (and it survived the game, grrr...).

 

The new Chimera only advanced about 6" before dying to Hive guards (some things never change). Of course Screech did give me the Chapterhouse portion of this kit for Christmas, so I guess its appropriate he got the first kill on the finished model. My Arbitrators did a good, multi-turn, room-to-room, hand to hand combat with the little gribblies towards the end of the game. Tying up one of three objectives for the remainder of the game, and giving us the tie.

So it was a fun night and we wish Screech the best in the coming months of basic and AIT training ahead!



o7

My new wheeled Chimera is finished!

Huzzah!

I had a fair bit of time to paint last night, and was able to finish my Arbitrator's wheeled Chimera. Sitting on the table, it wobbles a bit meaning I didn't put something together right somewhere, but no matter as I'm rather pleased with it overall.

I stuck with Gretchin Green w/o any camouflage for the body. Like the Knarloc Green on my Imperial Forestry Service Rhino, Gretchin Green also looks like a typically bland shade of 'government issue green'. The guns are Stegadon scale green, or something like that. I rather like that color, and will use it on the arbitrators themselves I think. Honestly I was a little concerned, as it looked a bit too blah, even with the decals…but once I properly dirtied it up (as all tanks should be), it came out looking pretty good I think!

"Justus Extremis" was the all-but-required name for the vehicle.

The 3 vents on the fender were the closest approximation to an exhaust vent on the kit, and thus blackened up accordingly.

I added a bit of whatever boltgun metal is called now along the edges where paint would likely get scraped off via regular wear and tear. Aside from that though, this vehicle is decidedly lacking in battle damage when compared to my other Imperial vehicles.

From under the Christmas tree, to the tabletop.

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Unlike my usual (of late) posts where I haven't worked on hardly anything, I've actually done a fair bit of hobbying this week. Wanting to play with our new toys, I started with what we could easily fit into out preexisting lists. Thus, my GF's new inquisitor and her retinue!

Care of Hasselfree miniatures, you can see the Inquisitor on the left, 5 acolytes with carapace armor, (4) with hot-shot lasguns, the other with a pistol, and a psyker in the rear. The psyker was a freebee from Hasselfree, and mistakenly my GF referred to that model as the 'floater'. lol, she's tried to dissuade me from using that name, but to no avail...

During their battlefield debut, these ladies were riding around in another present this past weekend, my new Chimera with the Chapterhouse wheeled conversion kit...

Gunport shutters in lieu of lasguns, and made from the unused tank tracks.

 As you can see its still a WIP, and is sans-wheels (I claimed it to be a 'low rider' on Saturday). Like all new toys, a landraider killed it. At least it took down a marine or two, and the passengers took no losses, whilst inflicting a few themselves. That's about all I want to say about the game though other than wanting to toss our dice into the Holsten river as we drove over it on our way home...

Anyways, this will (eventually) be an Arbitrators Chimera, and I plan to buy a second chimera and conversion kit for the second squad that I have of them as well. I'm really liking it so far though, and enjoyed putting it together. Especially as I have no idea when it was that I last built a new tank.

History is written by the winners, as they say...

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This past Saturday, the Fem Fa'Tau were negotiating with a small Eldar delegation on taking the possession of a new world into their benevolent empire. Then...as usual, Humanity's so-called finest showed up, yelling about the Emperor's Will, and some other such nonsense. Preparing for battle, the Greater Good deployed via the preferred 'Tau Deployment' (short table edges), along with their Eldar allies (all 11 of them). Arrayed before them were those of the crumbling Imperium refer to as the 'Strike Force Neverness'. Seriously, how could they dare to oppose the Greater Good?

Note the bedraggled broadside on the left, a victim of the machinations of yet another Ultramarine player: Mac n' Cheese....

Arrayed and ready for battle, the Fem Fa'Tau and their Eldar Corsair allies wait to meet their uninvited guests...

The Emperor's Finest deploy for battle...

 Treachery! Some how the accursed Space Marines steal the initiative!!!

Despite the sudden assault, the Imperium's shooting was easily defeated by the (unseen) darkness, with a hammer head only being shaken. Sadly, the Tau's return fire wasn't much better.

Suddenly, in a blinding flash (which consequently brought light to the game table, no doubt witchery was involved!). A squad of Terminators lead by a Librarian deep struck into the Tau Backfield, and managed to dispatch a hammerhead tank, granting them 1st blood!

Shortly thereafter the Landraider destroyed the other hammerhead with the loss of their big guns! Things suddenly looked dire for the Tau!

The stealth suits arrive behind the Venerable Dreanought which had just been stunned and thus of no concern for the moment, allowing them to turn their attention on a devastator squad. 

With things looking grim, the Fem Fa' Tau boldly make a suicide charge right up the middle in hopes of blunting the Ultramarine advance!

Meanwhile EVERYTHING ELSE (barring the far flung stealth suits) turned their fire on the Terminators, wiping them out!

Sternguard, why does it always have to be Sternguard? Needless to say, it indeed was a suicide charge at that point...

 

Tank Shocking thru the Sternguard, the Devilfish and Stealth Suits catch the advancing tactical squad in a deadly crossfire...whilst the Stealth Suits, shot the dreadnought in the back repeatedly, destroying it.

Another view of the typical 'everything dying where the forces meet in the middle of the table' scenario that happens in most games...

The Tactical Marines charge the Devilfsh, but only do minimal damage to it. 

The Devilfish finally falls to repeated assaults. meanwhile the tactical marines pull back to engage and wipe out the drones which were shooting the Whirlwind in its rear armor.

In an exceedingly rare maneuver. The Sternguard are caught off guard when Tau commander charges them!

Had things ended on turn 5, the Tau would have gotten pasted. However it didn't, and due to some rather spectacular assault phase jet pack moves (boxcars everywhere!), the surviving devilfish's drones and the Stealth suits move in to contest the enemy objective.

Despite the endless pounding by that infernal whirlwind, the few surviving Fire Warriors, were able to recover from pinning to pounce on their potentially exploding objective!

The Broadsides finally finish off the landraider with a glancing hit. Somewhere along the line, the Eldar, using their usual witchery took 2 hull points off the beast, then failed a tank shock morale check, and were wiped out when they rolled box cars to recover from a subsequent Sternguard charge. I think that's what lead to the Tau commander's charge...

The game ended on turn 6. The tau had line breaker, slay the warlord, and their objective granting them 5 Vps, whereas the Ultramarines only had first blood, for 1 VP. That said, the points would have been almost the exact opposite had the game ended on turn 5. So it was really closer than the final tally would make it seem...

Crowd sourcing opinions for the Greater Good...

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Long time, no post. Sorry, the holidays are like that. Especially given that last week we spent most of the week in Florida for New years. However all is back to normal for the most part. The Christmas tree is down and the house is (mostly) undecorated, etc.. As such, we went to the FLGS for our first gaming night of 2014, and the gaming was indeed good (with luck, later on this week Neverness will do a battle report).

Copyright of Forgeworld.

For now though, Kushial came bearing Christmas presents for us! 

Huzzah! 

I received  a cool looking Reaper Griffon, and my GF was given yet more Tau Drones (we may try an endless-skeet-wave army for shits and giggles at some point) and a FW Hammerhead turret with missile pods and twin-linked, long barreled burst cannons. The turret can only use one option or the other, and I have a cool idea for those burst cannons, but like the griffon, that I'll save for a later post...

The Missile pod turret comes from the Taros campaign book and sadly, to my knowledge the rules haven't yet been updated. No idea when the rules will be either. The missile pods were 20pts. cheaper than a railgun under the old rules, and are Str 7, AP4, 36" range, Heavy 4. Basically the same as those on her Fem Fa'Tau commander. Hardly worthy on a main battle tank. I sent an inquiry to FW about ideas on an update, and was going to send my thoughts to house rule/update them via email to the gang that we play with. However a blog post will probably give me even more ideas/opinions on the subject for a house rule to use in the interim.

I was thinking to twin-link the missile pods for the same cost of the railgun/Ion cannon (as there's no difference in cost in the current codex).

 OR

(and preferably...)

For +10 points over the tank's current cost (the old railgun was 50pts, and the missile pod 30 points) have 2 missile pods mounted on the turret (thus 60 pts, vs. the railgun's 50), for 8 missile pod shots per turn. Whilst that sounds like the best option to me, it still leaves AV14 vehicles immune to the tank's shooting (unlike a railgun), and Marines (who are a dime a dozen 'round here) will still get their armor saves (except for scouts, who die like dogs anyways). Plus if the tank moves 6", one of those missile pods will have to snap fire. So its not nearly as scary as it sounds at first.

So lacking any official update from FW, how does that sound? Anyone have any better/other ideas, opinions?