Are those the Sisters you were looking for?

 Licking their wounds following multiple engagements, the Incandescent Coyotes strike cruiser Blazing One disappeared into the warp. However, shortly thereafter the Ultramarine's Strike Cruiser Self-Righteous Son exited the warp in roughly the same vicinity. 

Following astropathic echos in the void they began scanning for traitor activity. A quick scan of vox intercepts of the nearby planets revealed an order of Adeptus Sororitas whom had strayed from the Emperor's light (no doubt the very same ones the aforementioned Coyotes failed to locate). 

After a brief orbital bombardment revealed that the Sororitas' convent's void shields were unfazed, marines of the Ultramarines' 4th battle company under the command of Lt. Siph Horridus, along with a smaller detachment of the Silver Drakes' 7th company under the command of Lt. Warmonger deployed to cleanse these traitors the old fashioned way: with bolter and blade. 

Mike had originally expected Rob to be in attendance with Necrons, instead though Rob bailed at the last minute after being ensnared by an unexpected 'honey-do-this' barrage. We also had tried to coax Neverness out of his mountain lair to no avail.

 As it was just Mike and I by this point, we opted to just keep it simple, dispense with any objectives and just kill each other. Standard 12" straight across the table side deployment, with 1000 points per side.

No preliminary army pics this time as the lighting was poor and they looked atrocious. Pictured here are my Smurfs, consisting of Lt. Horridus, a Std. Bearer, 5 Hellblasters, a combat squadded Intercessor squad with bolt rifles and lastly 5 assault intercessors.

 

My center (nothing was deployed on my right flank) were the Silver Drakes. Fielding Lt. Warmonger, 9 Intercessors with Stalker bolt rifles, and the autocannon armed Servo-turret.  

Going first, the smurfs advanced enmasse, while blazing away at the immolator Proxy and retributors in the bunker to it's right. 

The assault intercessors advanced 11 inches, with pistols blazing (not that they accomplished anything). Hower remembering doctrines this time around, the Silver drakes pummeled the SoB squad in front of them.  

Apparently, Mike didn't like that and a new threat to my Drakes revealed itself...

His incinerator rolled 6 hits, and (4) 6's to wound (causing 4 mortal wounds), which along with standard wounds gutted my assault troops in one go!

Still, in my following turn they'd survive the overwatch fire and charge in to where nothing much happened for awhile. Apparently the 'armor of contempt' rules cuts both ways rendering a lot of weapons bonuses a moot point.

The Drakes were firing in earnest now, though to minimal effect. Only killing a sister or two and putting maybe as many wounds onto the tank. 

Withering fire sent the last surviving Retributor into hiding, and the Immolator proxy repositioned further away. Mike's prior round's shooting also whittled down my forward Intercessor combat squad. 

This round would see the Immolator finish them off!

I came around the table for a better pic only to learn that FUCK! There was another squad lurking unseen in the ruins!

Slowly grinding the squad down. Luckily that power maul was really just a chain sword. 

I believe this pic is supposed to be captioned: 'the Hellblasters want to get painted.'

Eight wounds in one volley of plasma fire means that they likely deserve it!

Finishing off the Sister superior, the assault marines consolidate 3" towards the next squad only to be summarily cut down by said squad. 

Alive only due to a command reroll, The Techmarine blazes away with twin-autocannons before finally succumbing to his fire fate. 

Indeed, casualties were starting to mount...

One last volley and the immolator proxy explodes, wounding the closest marine with fiery shrapnel. 

Avenging the turret and a few of their now more crispy brethren, the Drake intercessors hammer the tank with stalker fire! (that '1' represents the tank's last wound rather than it's first)

Curiously, the accompanying sisters pullback, as if anticipating an explosion...

...and explode it does, though luckily the Drakes are about half an inch outside of fiery death range.

On the other side of the field, the hellblasters do what they do best and erase the nearest SoB squad.

At the start of his turn 5 Mike ran up the white flag and we called it. There was little he could do had he played his round as his only viable targets were the Drakes whom had weathered considerable fire already in their hard cover. Glory to the Smurfs  and friends!

Somethings are best left buried...

Papa Nurgle sends his regards!

With both the Incandescent Coyotes and Adeptus Mechanicus still smarting over their previous clash, both sides pulled back to lick their wounds and plot the next moves. The Coyotes kept a close eye on their adversaries, trying to discern their unseen motives. There appeared to be a techno-archeological operation in progress, and soon enough scout surveillance intercepted several garbled and seemingly frantic communications amongst the admech units.

Some things are best left buried...

It appeared as though combat was taking place within the dig site and so the Coyotes offered assistance in dealing with whomever the unseen assailants were. Having previously attacked Mechanicus forces unprovoked, the Mechanicus refused aid with a simple binary blurt that was translated to: Piss off!

Overflights of the excavation area spotted an unearthed temple of some sort and the legions of Nurgle battling over and around with Skitarii security detachments. Seeing traitors was all of the incentive needed, and their assistance wanted or not, the Coyotes entered the fray!

This game kind of came together at the last moment, and as such Mike & I were running carbon copy lists from our last game. That is, with the sole exception of him switching the useless assassin out for one of those ugly, admech chicken-walker things. Since this was to be a 3-player free-for-all this go round, we opted for a central objective (the center of the temple complex) as the objective. 

It would be worth 1 VP if controlled uncontested in the player's command phase. We also used random initiative for each round which jumbled the turn order around a bit. Lastly, we allowed shooting into hand-to-hand combat so long as your own troops weren't in said combat, with randomized hits. 

My deployment, with scouts and assault marines in reserve. 

Rob marshaling his forces of Nurgle.

Surprised at being photographed during our last battle, the Adeptus Mechanicus was a bit more camera-shy this week. 

turn 1 and the Rhino rush is on! 

BLARRGH! 

(I've been fighting against this bastard for more than a decade now)

Leading the charge Rob's daemon prince advances with all sorts of auras and shenanigans going on around him. Meanwhile the Nurgle/admech crossfire quickly took out my transports. In return my massed bolter fire maybe inflicted a mere wound or two on the approaching daemon prince. 

However, 2 Krak missiles later and he was down for the count!

The slowly advancing horde of Nurgle. I/we chewed up that dread a good bit, but never managed to take it down. 

Deep striking out of nowhere, the assault marines charge into the Nurgle lines from the rear! Whilst they died to a man while inflicting no actual damage in return (typical, this is why I haven't fielded assault marines in three or so editions of the game), they did at least draw the plague marines away from the objective. 

Helping me to capture the first victory point!

But then...the cheesy as fuck Night Shroud Terminators arrived on the scene. 

HOLD THE LINE!

Surprisingly they did...sorta.

Thru some sort of techno-magical chicanery, the marshal and Kataphron servitors teleported into the Nurgle backfield, and the previously distracted plague marines forgot about the central objective entirely (no doubt confident that the termies would be fine on their own). 

My LT & wounded apothecary joined the scrum up on the objective whilst the other tac. squad and scouts pummeled the little gribblies, reducing them down to just one.

Seems like a fair fight, right?

Yeah, not so much. The beleaguered sergeant held his ground though!

Not themselves involved in the scrum up on the objective, the Mechanicum decided to weigh in with some long-ranged fire support, killing my lone surviving marine sergeant and irritating the Termies. However Rob's turn was next up, and he gained a victory point thanks to the Admech's interference. Due to the vagaries of turn initiative, Rob would gain a 2nd VP for holding the objective as he was the last to go in one round, only to then start the next!

Elsewhere, having failed to kill that last little gribbly, the dead rose from the ground re-entered combat, only to all be cut down once again!

This extended slog in the backfield would slowly grind both sides down, though ultimately was an inconclusive draw.

In total, the Termies would grab 2 victory points before being gunned down in the crossfire. Having tore the last little gribbly to pieces, my troops consolidated back onto the objective, but alas it was the last turn and I wouldn't be able to claim another VP. 

Not that that mattered as long ranged fire from the Admech lines swept the objective clear of my marines, killing all eight of them! 

In the end, Rob's forces of Nurgle had two VPs, I had one and the Mike's Mechanicus had zero. Thus the only coarse of action left for my Coyotes, was board their transports and once departed order the strike cruiser to bombard the planet from orbit!  

WIP Ordo Hereticus Rhino

Nothing strikes fear into the hearts of the Imperium's enemies like....lavender?

This is the last of the Rhinos gifted (along with so much else) to me way back when by Kushial. This is the blue Rhino in the pic below (that Landraider can be seen here).  

The other two Rhinos went to my Incandescent Coyotes. All of those marines were divvied up between myself and Neverness, and have since been painted in a variety of colors.

Despite looking like this APC belongs to the Sisters of Battle, the Inquisitor to whom this will belong is of the Ordo Hereticus. No doubt the SoBs gifted this vehicle to her in recognition of valorous service or some such thing. 

Speaking of the Inquisitor, she (and possibly her retinue) will be painted later this year for Neverness' annual Inquisitorial conclave project. My recently painted guardsmen along with my camo smurfs, will all eventually tie into this project as well.  

A better look at the overhead view.

I've base coated it using GW's Daemonette Hide and trimmed in The Fang base paints, creating a bit of a muted pastel look, though when all is said (dirtied up) and done I'm hoping it'll have more of a pseudo-urban camo look to it. That said, I'm thinking that unlike the rest of the tank, that fleur-de-lis will be kinda flashy. Haven't quite settled on just how I'm going to achieve that just yet though.