Man, I really wish I'd taken pics for a battle report Saturday.

o/

So, this past Sunday Da Long Wayz Dezert Groop was out in force, with a small allied contingent of the Fem Fa'Tau tagging along. Turn out at the FLGS was heavy, and there was a quick fight to divy out the terrain evenly. One table tried to snag the lion's share, but my GF started commandeering a significant portion of their terrain and scattered it around various other tables (not ours it ought to be said).

Regardless, we ended up with a decent if sparse smattering or terrain on our table, and luckily had brought along my Ork barricades to use as an Aegis defense line (having foreseen the terrain situation in advance). For an opponent, we had the dreaded Eldar, and I figured my beleaguered Orks and their ancient codex were in for a suicide charge.

It wasn't exactly the case as while the Orks did engage in said charge, it didn't turn out to be suicide! Turn two, the Nobs mob lead by Da Masta Cheef himself punched a hole straight thru the Eldar line! At that point the Eldar dice's morale was broken causing them to roll horribly and by turn four the Eldar raised the white flag, fleeing the field (those few that were left).

Usually I have a horde of vehicles careening across the table in a mad dash towards their doom. Barring of course the Matilda (Battlewagon) which trundles across the table in vain hopes that its Zzap gun will kill something. Instead, this time I had a few notable units that were outside my norm.

First up was a 30-strong mob of slugga boys. Lead by a nob with a power claw and having 3 big shootas. Sounds pretty standard except instead of opting for more boys, I made them Ard boys. Clocking in at about 350 points, it was a pricey unit. However they screened the shoota boys for a bit, and managed to weather most of the incoming shuriken fire. Sadly they never made it to HTH combat due to the retreating Eldar.

WAAAAAAAUGH!!!!

Next up was the decked out Nob's Mob. More or less a 'Deathstar', they had all the trimmings: Eavy armor, Cybork bodies, Painboy, Waaaugh Banner (2) big choppas, Da Masta Cheef and of course mounted in the Battlewagon which hauled ass forward! It worked spectacularly! Da Cheef even got an extra VP for the Legendary Fighter warlord trait by killing the enemy warlord (who was the Eldar ranger special character).

Another high point were my two big guns who took to the table for the first time in well over a year. The lobba was spot on for most of the game, only needing its ammo runt once (good thing as it only had one). More than that the kannon never once missed and was only thwarted in killing a night spinner in turn one due to cover saves. As it was, it managed 2 glancing hits. For 57 points total, they performed exceptionally well!

Also of note were the Fem Fa'Tau's drone squadron which killed half of the infernal Dark Reapers and pinned them for turn 2, allowing my nobs to survive after slaughtering their first unit of Eldar in HTH. The fire warriors killed a few Eldar, but sadly the enemy never really advanced into their range to make use of the Cadre Fireblade's addition to their firepower.

So, as you can see, the Orks had a great game though it does make me wonder why Neverness' Orks have so much trouble with the Eldar...

Tyrant's Legion vs. the Fem Fa'Tau Battle Report

Last night during dinner, my GF challenged me to a game of 40k, huzzah! Coming up with the idea on a whim and with neither side ready with army lists, nor was the table set up, we decided on a small 750 point game. This was also the first time my GF would be coming up with an army list on her own. With such a low point total, I was able to make this the battlefield debut of my slowly growing Tyrant's Legion army.

We used a standard sized table despite the limited point total. We rolled Crusade (3 objectives), standard set up, with the Tyrant's Legion setting up and going first. First turn was also night fight.

Still lacking Astral Claw models, a few Blood Eagles were happy to play the part.

Another Combat squad, deployed in the center, just behind the sentry gun, that would annoy the Tau for the game's duration...

My right flank had the basilisk which will need an eventual repaint, and Arch Centurion Carnac Commodus who was leading a squad of legion Auxilia. The Marauder Mercenaries were held in reserve to outflank.

Fire Warriors with a shield drone deployed in ruins on their right flank.

The rest of the Tau deployment. The Crises suit is the army commander, with a 2nd Crises suit in reserve, as well as a small squad of Stealth Suits.

Turn 1, Commodus leads the Auxilia into the ruins, and they quickly secure an objective! The Combat squads advanced, and the sentry gun killed a lone Pathfinder. The Tau's Turn one was likewise uneventful, with advances on the center, and killing a lone marine on my left flank. Annoyed at the Tau's shooting, my GF tossed some of her errant dice to the floor, much to our kitties' delight!

Turn 2 Started off with my Marauders outflanking right into point blank range of the fire warriors on my left flank...however for all of their shooting, they killed just 2 models, one of which was the shield drone.

Quickly my left flank turned into a mess as the Stealth suits outflanked behind my advancing Predator, whilst the Fire Warriors hammered the Marauders!

In the Center, the Tau brazenly contested the center objective, whilst hammering the combat squad of marines, though luckily their armor held true!

Turn 2 put my left into disarray as the Marauders broke (and they can't rally as dead mercs don't get paid), and my predator went BOOM! Granting the Tau 1st blood.

In the Center I sent the Fire warriors running after killing 2 in HTH, but foolishly I allowed them to flee and just consolidated on the objective instead.

Turn three saw the Crises suit deep strike in, whilst the Basilisk did a damned good job of hiding in that ruined building...

His squad gunned down around him, the Sgt. falls back into shelter of the Chaos ruins.

Meanwhile the crises suit rolled an impressive 20 for armor penetration with its twin-linked fusion blaster! Luckily though the ruins took all of that, sparing the Basilisk (whew!).

Taking anther casualty, the combat squad on the left breaks and my whole left flank collapses!

Luckily Astral Claws are still have ATSKNF and rally. Turning their guns on the stealth suits, they kill 2 at the cost of their plasma gunner who's gun exploded.

Valiantly my Sgt. retakes the center objective! Only to be gunned down shortly thereafter, sigh...

Moving around to where there's less cover, the Crises suit immobilises the Basilisk, whilst the Tau commander takes another hull point off of it from the front.

In an uncharacteristic move, the crises suit charges the immobilized Bassie which resulted in wrecking the tank!

Desperate, Carnac leaves the Auxilia in hopes of charging the drones and sweeping into one of the Crises suits beyond. However he fails to both shoot and charge the drones (by a damned 1/4 inch!).

The Auxilia looks at their advancing doom, whilst in the background, you can just make out the HTH combat of the Fire Warriors and 2 surviving Astral Claws on the left flank.

Due to the obesity of the Marauder's Brute, it took these guys almost the whole game to 'run' (more like walk) off of the table.

Having lost half their number to Tau shooting, and worse yet seeing Carnac vaporized via a fusion blaster proves too much, and the Auxilia flee off my last objective.

At that point, it was well past my normal bedtime, and the bottom of turn 5 so we called it. None of the objectives were held by either side, however the Fem Fa'Tau had 1st blood, Slay the Warlord, and Line Breaker, giving them a 3-0 victory. Not bad for one of her first runs w/o my assistance! Pretty soon I expect my GF's army will be going after the guys at the FLGS w/o my allied contingents tagging along. :-)

Rise of the Tyrant's Legion!

 
-->

Whilst sick last weekend, I started painting up some Astral Claws for a Tyrant's Legion army. Whilst really a simple color scheme for the most part though my pot of shining gold has gotten gloppy and hard to work with), I was able to crank thru 5 in short order. Its not that my other Marine armies have difficult to paint colors schemes, rather they're all old, 2nd ed. minis. Almost all of which are the same pose. These on the other hand are all different, and thus more of a joy to paint! Thus, I think it's time to dump the rest of the old and unpainted minis. Whether its via ebay, or Kushial and his building an entire chapter project is as yet to be determined.

As for the Tyrant's Legion list itself, I rather like it. More so than the CSM codex which feels a bit uninspired. I'll still use the latter as I have several random contingents of CSMs, and the Tyrant's Legion is very limited in whom it can ally with. Despite appearances, the Tyrant's Legion has a feel more of loyalist marines gone wrong with built in Imperial Guard units than it does of Chaos marines. To that end, most of the DV cultists ('Legion Auxilia') that I have painted, are in colors that will match this army! So no, this isn't a new idea of min

My army will look as though it comes from the later stages of the war (especially considering those cultist models!). Outnumbered, but continuing to desperately fight back against the Imperium, these marines/auxliliaries are beseeching whichever gods will listen for help in their attempts to secure victory. The resulting altered appearance of their wargear as these dubious alliances are made, is only now becoming apparent.

In back you can see my original Astral Claw. He was a repaint of my disgraced Aurora Marines captain. His gun is black rather than blue, but its not enough to warrant a rework, especially as its a different design. My original intent was to use him as a Centurion, but he's since been busted down to a mere grunt. I have a new model in the works which will be used as Arch-Centurion Carnac Commodus. Though it might pose a bit of a fluff conflict as he didn't survive the war (leaving me with a technically short time frame for this army). Oh well, I guess that their 'soon-to-be-treacherous' allies, the Executioners who were possibly turning a blind eye to the obvious until Carnac's actions against their Salamanders POWs finally drove them over the edge…

Further adding to their varied appearance, I painted one as a Tiger Claw. The Tiger Claws, after being denied their right to rebuild, fled to their Promigenators (the Astral Claws) and fought alongside them under false colors thru-out the war. However I'm sure their were at least a few who chose to show their true chapter heraldry before the war's inevitable conclusion. Official word of this treacherous masquerade was only learned thru Inquisitorial interrogation of the a captured Legion apothecary during the war (who turned out to be a Tiger Claw himself). To be honest, I decided to paint this model more or less on a whim. I wanted the bionic arm to stand out, and didn't think it would do so on a silver armored model.

Currently I only four more to go and then they'll be a fieldable unit. Yes 10 is the minimum squad size for Legion Cohorts (not tactical squads) which top out at 20 models. Huron Blackheart had re-styled his chapter on the pattern of the Legions of old and was working on achieving that goal when the war started. I ordered some FW Astral Claw shoulder pads, and will add them to the new recruits to the cause. I have enough CSM bits I think to subtlety alter them accordingly.  I didn't order the FW decal sheet since I had trouble stomaching $20 for a decal sheet (WTF!?!?!). But that's an inevitable purchase I guess.

Regardless, I'm enjoying these guys which has been a first for any of my marine forces in a long time! Now the decision will be whether or not to make the Bikers that I got for Christmas into Storm Wardens as originally planned, or to instead paint them up for the Tyrant's Legion…

Converted Necron Lord is finished.

o/

Just a quick post this go round.

Amidst the painting of Astral Claws that I've started up on whilst being sick last weekend (still have a lingering friggin' cough, grumble, grumble...) I managed to finish up my Necron Lord. As stated previously, its a converted Triarch Praetorian, with a Res Orb on a wrist mount, and a converted Gauntlet of Fire.

I've dubbed him/her/it: 'Cyclops'.

My GF will give the allied 'Cron contingent a try this weekend when my Orks take to the field after last weekend's cancelled game. Rather than start in reserve, only to fail to show up in a timely manner (as the 'Crons did when i tried em out), they'll most likely deploy with the Orks. Especially as Orks make LOTS of noise, and no doubt will have woken the grumpy old guys up earlier than the Fem Fa'Tau did in the previous game...lol.

Its all in a wash...

o/

As you know, I'm running a day late on my weekly Monday post. Grandfather Nurgle stopped by for a visit last week, and we're still trying to recover from his attentions. Today I can function (for the most part), but the past three days, not so much. As a result, where I mentioned in my prior post that my Orks were going to take to the field this past weekend…well that didn't happen. Instead we warned away our opponent. My GF and I contemplated a game vs. each other, but neither of us felt up to it. We simply didn't have the energy, nor would the game be much fun with constant coughing fit interruptions. :-(

That said, whilst I was dead to the world, I did manage to get some painting done at least. I painted up a few Astral Claws for my Tyrant's Legion (previously I only had 1 painted TL marine). My models are a mix of loyalist and traitor marine parts. I figure my army will be from either the latter stages of the Badab war, or immediately following it, but before rebranding themselves as the Red Corsairs.

Before...

...after.

Their color scheme is really quite simple, and even kinda ugly prior to giving them a wash in Devlin Mud (sadly that invaluable pot is running low and I'll soon have to go with it's replacement(s)…). Slather on the wash (I know some think I use too much of the stuff, but I like grimy-looking minis). Then come back in an hour and all that's needed is a quick, light dry brushing of extra grime, a few touch ups, basing and then onto the clear coats (matte followed by 'Ard coat in select places). As such the progress I made on these guys seems trivial when compared to most out there, but considering I was half-dead at the time, it felt like good progress to me.

Its time for my first official 'Rant Post' of 2014.

o/

Yay.

We pick up about a dozen Necrons for use as an allied contingent, or possibly the beginnings of a second army for my girlfriend, and less than two weeks in I'm already annoyed with them. What? You say. What did they do wrong?

Such a glorious piece of artwork, no idea as to whom to give credit for it though. Gee, thanks for that Google...

Well, nothing actually.

No my annoyance stems from their #1 cheerleader (locally anyways) as his comments read like the typical: OMG CRONS R UNSTOPPABLE!!! sales pitch. I was going to reply to Edwin's last comment in my prior post, but it kept turning into a long-winded rant. How typical of me. Then I figured, its been awhile since I made a rant post which generally seem to amuse a goodly portion of my readership. So here it (the 'it' being some serious douchebaggery on my part) comes…

First I'll recap:



…sigh…

Where to start..I guess I'll just pick out the various points from within the list of Edwin's comments.

First off, Necrons play like Magic the Gathering?

 Ooh, now that's appealing. lol, Magic…isn't that the card game that thinks of itself as a competitive sport? Yet (according to the stereotype) is primarily played by those who are too far out of shape to actually play a sport? About the only amusement that I have ever gotten out of Magic was a recent gallery (WARNING folks, that link is probably not work appropriate) where a guy went to various Magic tourneys and had his photo taken with as many exposed butt cracks as he could find…so much for the aforementioned stereotype I guess.

Onto the Crons themselves…Let's see they have '0 risk', meaning you will always win…right? Uh huh. My counter arguments to this and the following highlights of the Necron Codex will be made via my GF's Tau army. So, let's see how Matt fucking Ward's robot death army stacks up against the Greater Good shall we?

Reanimation protocols now ignore instant death and low AP weapons, yet still doesn't happen if the unit runs away/is wiped out. If they do get to roll, unless there's a Res. Orb in the unit, the reanimation has been knocked back to a 5+, sounds like a wash to me at best.

'Gauss got more dumb.' How so? There's no more auto-wounding on a roll of a 6, and glancing vehicles into oblivion has been a Necron trademark since the last codex. Yawn.

Solar pulse? lol, lets pause for a moment whilst the the Dark Eldar players have a good laugh, as once again their prey confuse darkness with safety. While not having that army, all Tau suits come standard with blacksun filters, giving them night vision. On top of that, all of their vehicles and Pathfinder Sushi's (yes that's what I call them) can get them for 1 point a piece. Oh good, you've stymied the Fire warriors and Kroot at least for a little while. Well done.

Ah yes, then we have the lord who will wipe out everyone with his T5, 2+/3++ and 3 wounds. Well, ALL Tau guns will need a minimum of a 4+ to hurt that (and don't forget those Kroot snipers!), As Bob's DW Thundernators found out last weekend, sheer weight of fire will make short work of the 2+/3++ save. I'll get to the command barge in a second…

Mindshackle Scarabs? lolz, this is the Tau we're talking about here! We do have a single Onager gauntlet though if you're interested I guess…but that model explodes when killed in HTH, so be wary.

'If they can pick and choose their fights, they win almost hands down.'

This^^^ describes EVERY 40k army, and is thus meaningless.

Mobility is very frustrating? You can deep strike and have transports? Yay, so does everyone else, welcome to the club! Of course this would be where the vaunted 'Necron-Air' comes into conversation. Against most comers yes, this is still the unstoppable stupidity that the interwebz was raging at not too far back. However its sudden rise to preeminence came to just as sudden of a stop when the Tau codex was released.

Now EVERY suit has the option for Skyfire (though to be honest, its both dumb and cost prohibitive for stealth suits, so don't bother). Better yet they can choose to not use it when shooting at ground targets. On Commanders, Riptides, Broadsides and Crises suits (if you don't mind sacrificing some firepower) you can even get interceptor on all of them (broadsides will sacrifice sky fire for that though, so again, don't bother)! Combined with missile pods and the calliope Broadsides, the Tau will actually look like an anime movie with countless missiles streaking skyward! Then there's Skyrays, Aegis quad guns…etc., no we've not heard much about Cron-air since now have we?

As for their other transports and vehicles, there is little that a Hammerhead's railgun cannot kill with contemptuous ease. Indeed the first time I saw a monolith used when it was first released, a railgun took it out with a single shot. Living metal has been nerfed hard and quantum shielding are of little concern for rail guns unless of course the Tau's dice go into 'fuck you buddy' mode (sadly, an all too frequent occurrence).

So there we have it. The idea that the Crons are the ultimate army has once more been silenced by the inevitable march of codex creep. As for my personal collection of armies, Edwin's arguments may carry far more weight than vs. my GF's Tau army. Since currently, due to an erosion of forces my CSMs are in a shambles and my IG is virtually nonexistent. Thus reducing them to little, if any threat to anyone. My SMs and Exodites have little defense against eternal night fight and Cron-air, except for their 'Battle Brother Tau Allies' (rather convenient that is). Lastly, my beloved Orks struggle against virtually every opponent barring other Orks (a rare occurrence unfortunately), but will be out in force this weekend anyways...so: WAAAAUGH!!!

As for my Dozen Crons…I still need to finish painting the lord, but haven't touched him/her/it this week. Mainly as being told that they'll beat everyone just like a 'Blue Deck' has (as you now already know) annoyed the absolute shit out of me.

So thanks buddy. Now go away and leave me and my new toys alone.

Verminous mortals, GET OFF MY LAWN!!!

In a nutshell, this image fits my impression of the Necrons with their new, retconned fluff:

Well almost. I would have preferred him standing in front of an Airstream because...you know, the metal lives and all of that stuff...lol.

I had a Cron army some years back, but sadly don't have any photos of them. They were a solid army, and could win easily and do so without monoliths or C'tan (which were generally considered 'must haves' to win). That said, they kinda worked like a civil war styled army in terms of their infantry formations/tactcs. Needless to say I grew bored with them quickly, and sold 'em off (financing a generous portion of Christmas one year).

Despite all of the BS that Fucking Ward put into the new army (Mindshackle Scarabs anyone?), his new fluff was quite entertaining and a VAST improvement over the teenage fanfic-like crap in the GK codex (of which my copy just went the way of eBay). Likewise, while I have no intention to field any of the special characters, some of them sound like a hoot (fluffwise). Anyways, I've been pondering the Crons as a small allied contingent for my GF's Tau for awhile and bought a few for just that purpose.

Six immortals (5 painted decently) and a Triarch Praetorian (along with some bitz) to convert into a Necron Lord. Lord models are either 2nd hand metals, or finecrap. The only plastic one comes with the Command barge, and to get that one on eBay costs so much I may was well just buy the dumb barge itself. So this model (still a WIP) will work for me. Its equipped with a Res. Orb and Gauntlet of fire.

Whilst out and about last week, my GF bought me/us another box of immortals, giving me a full squad of 10 for their battlefield debut this past weekend (they did little other than camp an objective and kill a single termie). Whilst I'm content with what we now have as an allied contingent, my GF is pondering the Crons as a 2nd army. Dunno on that, but we shall see...

My first finished Immortal.

Subjuggators Librarian

As I've stated previously, I don't like any of the SM Librarian minis. So once again I ordered a single Grey Knight off of ebay and painted it blue. I made a few alterations, including the addition of a nemesis warding stave to use as a force staff, and I swapped the stormbolter arm with a standard arm and bolter. Not sure what model the helmet came from originally, I just found it in the bitz box.

A good portion of my unpainted marines were recently recruited by the Lions of Harlech along with their Captain. Basically I got tired of painting that same, single pose marine over and over again (though I still have several of them to finish painting, ...sigh...). With their number thus reduced, it seemed odd to have a captain armed with a venerated chapter relic to be leading a half dozen marines and a tank, so he also fell prey to the Lions' recruitment drive. To my troops they're presumed to be lost in combat, so this dirt cheap Libby will be taking over command of the Subjugators (dropping the Subjugators' total down to about 300 points).

In other news...lol, ever since my GF and her cats moved in last october, I've been hiding my light box from the kitties. However as you can see I wasn't quick enough in putting it away last night and Kiya decided to give it a try. lol, its just like a kitty-play-cube!

Da' 13th Dokta iz komplete!

o/

He came out pretty good I think. My only regret I guess is painting the big choppa red, as the 'Blood for the blood god!' paint doesn't show up too well on it (other than being shiny). Speaking of, he's covered in that paint! Looks like he's been thru a real blood bath...or, at least a bloody operashun.

Da' Dokta has learned over time to cultivate some of the galaxy's most venomous spiders. Just one bite and the venom reduces its victim to a state of agonizing paralysis (whilst still leaving them still quite awake). For an Ork's hardy constitution this lasts only a few hours, but is more than sufficient for conducting surgery and experiments on his patients (whether they need/want it or not). The spider meanwhile feasts on the juicy bits that have been discarded from the patient (helping with the cleanup!). So intense is the venom's pain that even on the field of battle, injured boys have been known to scoop their guts up and stagger away claiming they're fine. All in hopes to avoid da' Dokta's attention...

 ...thus, he grants his attached unit 'feel no pain' and the spider will function as his 'Grot Orderly'.