NOCF Ukraine Raffle Warlocks

o/

Well, these are pretty! I'm still thrilled that I actually won something (two somethings it turns out). While I no longer have any Iyanden painted Eldar minis of my own, I'm sure that these two will no doubt serve valiantly in my multi-colored Corsair horde at some future date. 

As I'm sure you've gathered, I've not done a whole lot of painting here of late. Typical summertime hobbying lull. It's daylight till almost 9pm, and usually the evening hours are the best time to be outside due to the heat. 

Despite a valiant packing job, the spear hand snapped off in shipping, though as you can see it was easily repaired.

My old Iyanden minis would have been ashamed were they ever to have stood too close to these guys.

That said, I have painted a very little, but I'll save those minis for my next post as these two simply put them to shame!

Skitarii Color scheme change and another Surprise!

 o/

As my IG Conscript platoon is/was starting to become a mind numbing slog, I decided to paint something else to break up the monotony. Pleased with the recent performance of my little Admech contingent's debut (before getting all but wiped off of the table), I thought I'd paint another mini up. 

The aura of radiation leakage is working wonders on that little tuft.

However one of the reasons I had stopped after painting just one and a half minis previously was the color scheme was both laborious and just kinda okay looking to me (sorry I don't have a 'finished' pic of that WiP mini handy). 

The mini above however I cranked out fairly quickly & easily once I'd painted over the prior, partial paint job in all black.  

That decal implies a questionable allegiance to the Imperium...

Its principally black, leadbelcher and brazen brass, with red for hoses and a handful of others for minor details which don't warrant any concern for consistency. I washed it lightly with Agrax Earthshade and drybrushed afterwards with bleached bone. It is simple but respectable look I think. 

It would appear that the IG heavy bolter or autocannon gunner died with his weapon...

The uncropped version of the first pic above which was photobombed by our 85lb Australian Shepard and his half deflated soccer ball in the background!

In other news, Saturday morning I was checking my email, saw the ubiquitous 'YOU ARE A WINNER!' and almost deleted the mail out of hand. Luckily my eye caught the NOCF and whoa wait a minute! Turns out I won a pair of Iyanden Warlocks (who's colors are the same as the Ukraine's) in this year's raffle! I've been entering for several yers now at about $20-$30 at a time without ever really expecting to win. 

It's always for a good cause and ya never know, there's always a chance. Well, apparently this year was my chance, huzzah! Here's the full winner's video here. I'll post pics when my new minis arrive which ought to be soon as I just received the shipping notification from the USPS. 

Cheese, Smelly Cheese & the Smurfs

 o/

This here is my blog, and if I want to call both of my opponents cheesy while claiming not to be myself, then you can just accept that as gospel and not some sort of Imperial propaganda. 

Just saying, lol. 

I met up again with Rob and Mike for another game of 40k, I tried to lure in Neverness, but he's still lost in the warp it seems. 1K each, central objective, (as it turned out, not so) random initiative and firing into enemy combats, just like the last time. 

The smurfs deployed in my center. Not pictured but on their right were 5 hellblasters, Captain Horridus and a 7-strong firstborn tactical squad from one of the reserve companies.  

On my left was my first ever deployment of the Adeptus Mechanicus. They're from one of the unnamed custom forge worlds and their bonus was +6" to their carbine's range. The painted one is Ordo Mechanum Inquisitor MS-D05, and to his left is Techno Archanologist 808-Linum, as well as an X-101 class servitor.

Mike as you can see brought the 3D printed cheese. The wraith guard with shield and spear is a proxied Farseer as he has yet to find a file for one of those. 

With his Necrons still snoozing away somewhere, Rob opted for his good ol' Nurgle psychic shenanigans list (though as we would later learn, the Eldar had shenanigans in spades as well).

Turn one and I made a general 6" advance with the assault intercessors advancing 11" right into range of the Wraithguard who summarily slaughtered them to a man!

The Legions of Nurgle reveal themselves enmasse (to me anyways, I'm sure Mike could see them all just fine from his side of the table).

The Marines decide to stay in place and just blaze away ineffectually at the wraith guard from afar, wounding 1 in exchange for another dead marine or two thanks to the wraith lord.

I was rather enjoying the 24" ranged carbines (ineffective as they were against wraith guard), Mike however was not amused and removed that squad from the board. 

With bolters proving worthless, the hellblasters softened up the nearest squad of plague marines, before sending in the firstborn to finish them off. While a successful endeavor, this would be a multi-turn brawl that would take a marine or two of mine with them.

Rob had gotten to the objective (the ruined building in the middle) first, earning him a VP or two. It was also at this point that the Smurfs and plague marines pondered joining forces against the nigh unkillable Eldar. Mike's dice were rolling good and shrugging off most everything we threw at him. 

Realizing that the X-101 had a grav-gun meant it died next with the inquisitor taking 3 wounds as well. In fact, the only Inquisitorial thing that MD-D05 would do before dying was iron willing an Eldar psychic power off. 

After some more generally fruitless shooting, Rob's Daemon prince and the surviving death shrouds prepare to charge into melee...

...however the wraith guard overwatched and using some side-boarded 6's via the strands of fate of some such chicanery, they obliterated Rob's daemon prince!

The first born having finally dispatched the last plague marine advance and engage the stupid poxwalkers who all but one die as usual. The rest of my surviving army shoots at the lead wraith guard squad reducing them from 3 models to just 1. bleh!

I'm sure that the eradication pistol is a damned fine weapon when it's shooting at something that isn't toughness 8!

As the pox walkers pop up out of the ground like daisies to further bog down the firstborn, more terminators wade into the scrum on the other side of the objective. At least nobody was getting any points for it now. 

808-Linum charges in to meet his destiny...

...and suffers 2 wounds for if troubles. We later learned that had Mike read his rules properly, 808-Linum would instead have been reduced to a fine mist!

The plague marines and firstborn exchange a few potshots but little becomes of it. 

The wraith guard turn away from my smurfs to engage with the far more dangerous terminators in their midst. 

As usual, the entire surviving smurf contingent unloads on the wraith guard, killing the last one from the front squad and wounding another.  

Well that was fun despite feeling like I was totally outclassed! The all wraith guard list has always been the cheesiest in any edition when it has been available (the only time I've crushed it was with an IG armored company). 

That said, to his credit Mike only chose it because it looked cool rather than knowing how good it was. Had he actually read more than just their most basic rules and stats they would've been so much worse!

We weren't sure of the total VP count, Rob had 1 or 2, and neither of us had any so the point was moot, and the Plague marines claimed the victory. 

A little more meat for the grinder...

 o/

Their bases are decorated with the detritus left behind when Guard units that were far better trained and equipped than these schmucks were previously lost in battle. I'm sure that such realizations will work wonders for their morale...

I completed five more guardsmen over the weekend, four lasgrunts and their platoon sergeant. I'll be running the lasgrunts as conscripts, whereas sergeant Tharkins will serve as platoon commander. This whole lot is technically the palace guard of a Hasslefree Miniatures mini that I'll be using as an Imperial Noble  which will be fielded as a  'counts as' Commissar (I'll explain it all later in a future post), once I figure out where it's mini case is buried in the basement. Speaking of, the mountain o' boxes is dwindling, so hopefully you'll not hear me whining about that for much longer.

Sorry Zzzzz, they're still not carrying enough stuff for war. 

That said, with Tharkins at the helm, these (along with their still unpainted brethren) can for now serve as an allied but nameless local PDF combat patrol of whatever war torn world my Ultramarine army shows up to do battle on. Whilst I have three separate marine armies, these guys are based in the same manner as the Smurfs so will likely fight with them most of the time. I almost never remember to use marine doctrines, so adding in a little bit of allied cannon fodder technically won't cost me anything rules-wise. 

I plan to use the Disciplined Fire regimental doctrine (rapid fire at 18" rather than 12" as is normal) for these guys. However, due to their poor training and inexperience, I plan to relabel that in my army lists as Panic Fire. 

Also, before Neverness anybody asks: No, this will not be morphing into an army in its own right. Especially since I'm just a little bit past the halfway point of 21 guardsmen and it's already turning into a slog. Were I inclined to start a stand alone IG force, I have 30-40 Chaos cultists, Blackstone Fortress traitor IG and an unbuilt tank or two to form the basis of an army should the notion strike me.