My new Legiones Astartes - Age of Darkness book has arrived!

As you can see, its still in the shrink wrap...which is something of a travesty in and of itself! Sigh, its been a busy afternoon, and I've simply not had the time to open it, sprawl out on the couch and give it a good read-thru. Originally, I was going to do another kill team battle report for this post, but I'm tired, its late and...yeah. That'll just have to wait for Monday.

Thought for the day: Suffer not the shrink wrap to live!

The unit listing on the back cover includes all the recently added model/unit types, but it seems not the Legion specific rules/Rights of War. Oh well, I can just print off the half dozen (or so) pages that I need for the Alpha Legion and save myself $50+ that I'd spend on the other book otherwise.

Edit: This book has alternate Rights of War and there's one that fits my army perfectly!!! Which sounds like the makings of another blog post in the near future...

Ships lost in the warp...

When one fails to arrive, do you ever wonder if it is missed? Or is the Imperium too caught up in itself to even notice the absence?

The Outremar NEED MOAR DAKKA!!!

o/

As my Outremar lack the number needed to field an Infantry Fire Support squad of (5) twin-heavy stubber teams (whereas I only have 2), they're sorely lacking in massed firepower. The slow roaming cannon-fodder blob squad of 20 Outremar only have an 18" range with their auxilia rifles, and the grenadiers have bolters and grenade launchers which is better but still lacking. My Leman Russ does have a multi-laser and heavy stubber, but those are little more than an after thought as its main job will be tank-hunting with its vanquisher cannon.

True the Alpha Legion will be on the table too, but they'll be busy securing objectives, taking out enemy characters and other important targets. Hanging back and saturating the other end of table with massed fire is what the Outremar are for. Going the cheap route (rather than buying those 3 more Twin-Heavy stubber teams),  I opted for a Quad-Multilaser Rapier team.

A grymn for scale, though not one of the crew for it. I kinda like the fact that it looks a bit like a robot!

I say cheaper as I didn't buy the Forgeworld model, but rather an alternate model from Puppetswar. No guns were included with that, but they weren't needed as I already had 2, twin-gatling guns that were originally to go with this mini (which was given to a friend sans-gatling guns).

I put it on the base as to minimize the wear and tear on those little legs.

This little bugger (and its 2 crew) will give me 6, twin-linked strength 6, AP6, 36" shots per turn! Oh yes please, whether hosing down infantry squads or hull pointing rhinos to death, this little unit will bring some much needed dakka till the twin-heavy stubber squad can be brought to bear.

Zac n' Cheese!

o/

Zac 'n Cheese himself!

Wolfy and I got together with Mac and Zac at the FLGS to play a round of 40k's Kill team this past Saturday. Mac only plays with painted minis, so we opted to do so as well which really limited our options. Mac fielded his Red Corsairs, Zac had IG, Wolfy was running my Exodites, and I was using my 30k Alpha Legionnaires as 40k Sternguard. Being all brand new models, this would be their battlefield debut which is always a dangerous prospect in terms of their survival...

The valley of death, into which we were all about to enter.

Zac's kill team deploys inside the Chimera, offering a wall of AV:12 and heavy weapons. Neither myself nor Wolfy had encountered vehicles, much less TWO in a Kill Team game (no idea in regards to Mac) and we were all ill prepared for them...

Mac's Red Corsairs

Wolfy's Exodites. She'd only ever used them once before, and hadn't played 40k of any sort in close to 2 years, so throughout the game I did a lot of explaining 'who could do what' to her.

My Alpha Legion masquerading as Sternguard. I forgot about 'chapter tactics' entirely. 

Apparently having read Screech's treatise on the 'Fully Mechanized Parking Lot', Zac's 'team' simply pivoted and unloaded into Ma'c marines. Offering us little aside from reenacting Pickett's charge. With the Eldar obscured from the IG by terrain, Mac and I did our best but managed to inflict no damage while sustaining early losses we could not afford. 

Indeed, we were in the unenviable position of Pickett's Charge on one side, and the quickly advancing Shuriken nightmare on the other!

My casualties were quick to mount, starting with my Team leader and my specialist most likely to take out a tank beyond grenade throwing range...

My sacrificial lamb, intended to hold back the approaching Exodites. A thrown frag grenade killed two before he was blown away. 

Our best hope for killing the Chimera, instead Mac's Raptor with his meltagun suicidally outflanked into the Eldar flank. Rolling a '2' (typical) to hit, he charged the Exodite's Exarch leader. However the marine didn't survive beyond the next round. 

A rare foray outside the Chimera to dump overwhelming lasgun fire into an approaching Raptor (all of which was needed to kill it!). In the background it seems Rob's army didn't survive its 1st round of Warmahordes Mk III.

With the spirit of 'fun for all' somewhat in question, all three players negotiate a shaky alliance to crack the IG out of their little turtle shell in the corner. It would seem that we marine players were also trying to extend teams' lives as collectively, Mac and I had just three models left. 

Not wanting to show 'too much favoritism', my beloved Wolfy only has one guardian shoot at my last Legionnaire. Naturally she rolled a '6' to wound...

Unfortunately My Wolfy's bad back was in anything but the mood to move minis about the table (something Mac and I'd been doing quite a bit for her already), and so with my models all dead, she turned the Exodites over to me. With a crack of the knuckles, the Eldar banzai charge (sticking to cover where possible) commenced! Whilst there are no photos, the Exodite Exarch survived another close combat with a Raptor and it took two FULL turns of the Chimera throwing everything it had at the Exarch before he finally fell! 

Wary of the loss of hull points, the Guardsmen finally exit the tank and promptly lose 4 of their number (including their leader) to a thrown frag grenade!

Despite losing a bunch of Eldar to failed LD tests, the hail of shuriken fire into the vehicle sides and guardsmen slay all but one! However at the end of turn 6 all that remained were 3 models: 2 Exodites and one Guardsman. Victory points were totaled (I forget the breakdown) and it was 9-7 with Zac scoring the win!

Ah yes, another good ol' blood bath! In hindsight, I suppose I ought to have brought my Orks instead (stupidly, whilst list writing I'd forgotten my Tankbustas were all painted!). 10 Rokkits that are required to shoot the closest vehicle (since I still use the old codex) would have changed things up quite a bit I think! We also discussed reversing the Realm of battle tiles set up, thus creating a hill in the center rather than a valley. That ought to block some lines of fire for those unwilling to advance. Likewise, much like the Carnage scenario in 40k, I think we ought to have a center objective to hold rather than just going for kill points as we did here. 

Still, it was a fun game, and I look forward to playing it again. 

Mordian7th stops by for a visit...

...and I'm sure that that headline will be as much of a surprise to him as it will to anyone else!

Lemme 'splain.

I needed a good reference for painting up a 30k Thousand Son marine, and where better to look for a painting guide than on the Mordian 7th Regiment blog? I mean seriously, he on his what-2nd? 3rd? Thousand Sons 30k army by now? And on that note, a serious hats off to you sir as painting just one those way-too-intricate helmets was more than enough for me! I can't imagine painting an army or two worth of them.

Don't worry, I have one marine with an Alpha Legion helmet on his base too. 

Speaking of those fancy helmets, that's all I needed to paint actually. The rest of the marine was...missing. Whilst a lone straggler was obviously an easy kill, I'd be loathe to set up on a table across from one of Mordian's 30k armies (skip to the bottom photo)! I'm sure he's a great guy to play, but that kind of firepower has me easily outclassed. Luckily the Alpha Legion prefers a good ol' knife to the throat of the unawares than they do a stand up fight...

My "Brexit" purchase

o/

Whilst the world reeled in shock at the unexpected voting result in the UK, and the value of the British pound dropped to its lowest point since 1978, I thought (as most everyone did): "how does this effect me?"

The answer:   FORGEWORLD'S ON SALE!!!!!!

lol, actually Hasslefree Miniatures has been all too happy to tout the low price of their products to foreign buyers in all of their news letters since the Brexit vote, so I'm not the only one to cash in on the event. Whilst that is tempting, I instead spent my $$$ on Forgeworld given I had recently gotten a bunch of Grymn anyways.

The nightmarishly frequent typos in the 'Tempest' FW book's Militia army list have been corrected in this tome.

Though still on a Grymn related note, I bought the Crusade Imperialis army list book. Now my Grymn-turned-Outremar Imperial Militia have an actual rulebook and not a hacked Russian PDF!

True to form for a legion that prefers a shroud of secrecy, their decal sheet was decidedly difficult to photograph. This photo is the best I could manage.

The Alpha legion weren't left out either, as I got their decal sheet. I'm waiting for the updated and combined into one volume HH Space marine 'red book' to come out and then I'll get that for my Alpha Legion as well. Shouldn't be long now since the 'special edition' of it sold out near-instantaneously!

Gaming is like porn...

o/
This is my first collaborative...or um, 'guest' post for this blog. My beautiful and amazing wife Wolfy hit me with the above revelation over the holiday weekend and rather than try and explain her thoughts, I turned the keyboard over to her and just let her go!

I'm sure you can imagine just how much porn I had to skim thru (tragedy) on a 'gamer porn images' google search to find something that wouldn't be 'offensive' as a thumbnail on other peoples' blog rolls!

So, in her words:

Gaming is like porn...
You have the wham, bam, thank you ma'am (guy porn) or you have the story line punctuated with hot hardcore sex scenes (girl porn).

Allow me to expound upon that a little.

The pizza delivery guy shows up and the girl immediately goes for his dick and BAM they go at it... and you have 5 more hours of the fuckfest where it's all about the money shot. This is guy porn. This is 40K, Bolt Action, (most) X-Wing, Warmahordes, etc. Guys walk in, pull out the minis and wham, bam there they go killing each other... Winner is the one who hits the money shot the hardest or has the biggest hardest throbbyingist (lol, is that even a word?!?! Who cares its hilarious!) thingies. Just like in porn the guys with the biggest thingies that handle the most silicone parts (as opposed to plastic or resin) are the winners. 
And this explains why I get bored with most games nowadays.

Now on the flip side you have RPG's.. they are like girl porn (think Pirates and Pirates 2 - yeah like you don't know about the most expensive pornos ever made...). There is a lead in, a story, some seriously hot and hardcore sex (action) throughout the entire thing. It's mental stimulation that leads to physical stimulation and satisfaction. Not to mention you can still use miniatures, maps and even terrain. 

Although I do have to be fair, X-wing can actually do both. It's one of the few games that can cross the barrier and excite as well as stimulate and satisfy. X-wing has scenarios... (she says 'objectives' based scenarios don't count) this is what makes things so much more fun! Like having amazing sex with someone that knows what they are doing with their thingies that leaves you weak kneed, dizzy and sated as opposed to leaving you sore and wondering why you even bothered.

With that last sentence, I like to think I'm the former rather than the latter, but be careful in asking her. Wolfy's anything but prude (as you may have already guessed) and any reply she makes will all too likely be TMI!!! lol, anyways...in a nutshell, I guess she's a 'narrative gamer' and uh yeah. We're really looking for a good GM and RPG group too.