Fighting to the last ham!

That title will make sense in a bit...

I was pleased to find that my Day'lth army really blended in quite well with the terrain!

Rather than the usual, multi-player free-for-all, this past weekend I played a more traditional 1 vs. 1 game of 40k vs. Rob. We fielded 900ish points each as I was fielding my Tau which are still unable to reach the 1k mark. Rob on the other hand was fielding his shenanigans-laden Death Guard as usual.

Triangular table end deployments, 4 objectives worth 5pts apiece, secondaries (like the Maelstrom cards, I don't much like these as the random draw can radically sway a game's VP total in one way or another, often with little rhyme or reason). 

Here's the recap.

Rob caught like a deer in the headlights! Death Guard are on the right, Tau the left. 

As my infantry horde is geared towards short-ranged firefights, turn one was more or less a general advance with limited firing.

The fan favorite (don't deny it) Hogzilaries advanced a whopping 12" a turn for the first two turns. Run little piggies run!

Typhus and the Death Shroud amble forth, confident in their own invincibility. 

Or at least they were until the Fire warriors killed one and wounded another after slinging 20 rounds down range!

Turn 2: Piranha deep strikes, shoots, (minorly wounds) the Dread, then dies. Moving on...

Curiously, nobody ever wandered in to view the Necron crystal garden. 

The Termies deep strike into my backfield, intent on killing the Pathfinders, or more specifically their rail rifles. 

The good ol' Pulse rifle equipped fire warriors dished out a respectable amount of fire all game.

The carbine equipped squad however, was pasted by Typhus' leprosy-something BS psychic power that SPAMs mortal wounds like nobody's business! 

The Swine take their first casualties, however after THREE games, they finally got to open fire, killing several of the pox walkers that were camped on an objective and racking up VPs without any effort. 

The Breachers double back, intent on defending the Pathfinders.

Rob jokingly said 'charge' and was surprised when Commander Firestorm did just that!

The hogs get all but obliterated by Typhus' OP spell! Seriously, WTF?

If you ever wanted to know what overkill looks like, this is it. 

Armed with his Thermoneutronic projector (flamer from hell that's usable in both ranged and melee combat) Firestorm drops the front rank of Plague Marines much to Rob's dismay. That said, he took a few licks as well. 

Massed combined fire starts to thin out, but not stop the Termies. 

Eventually the commander falls, Inspired by his sacrifice, the Hogzillary Soo'ey defiantly vows to fight on to the last ham! After a pained groan at that declaration, Rob's dread vaporized my last Hog with it's twin-lascannon!

The Termies charge the pathfinders and kill most of them. They stand their ground then fall back to allow the breachers to hose the 'em down. Deathguard termies in cover however, are all but impossible to shift.

Thus, a last turn suicide charge was in order, which took down one Termie though the fight was ultimately a draw.

I believe the final VP tally was something like 35-40 VPs for Rob, vs. my 25 or so VPs. Trying to shift Death Guard off of objectives with -1 to hit, -1 toughness to me if I get close, cover saves, armor of contempt, disgustingly resilient, etc., etc., is all but impossible. 

The armor of contempt really stings, for regular marines of most all stripes its alright, but T5 buffed all to hell and back marines? Why in the hell do they need that?!? Nerd rage aside, it's always fun to play Rob. 

Anyways, my Tau are a bit of a softball list, though some air support arrived in the mail today for 'em. Not going to call the remora drone a game changer, but rather more of an irritant. I got two, but in our usual 1K games, I can only field one. I may pick up some stealth suits eventually (or something) to finally round the points up to 1K.

One last note, whilst not actually in my army list, my Harbinger was seen wandering across the table side, but the pic I took was blurry as hell. 

My current works in-progress (for this past week)

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I have a bat rep to do from this weekend's game, but it is late in the evening I'm not feeling too motivated at this particular point in the day. Instead, I'm just going to post pics of the random smattering of projects on my desk that I've been working on this week. 

First up, I built this impulse buy that I bought from Models and Minis back around Christmas (it's a good kit, I recommend it). Having three separate little IG contingents (loyalist and otherwise) to fight with, don't expect this wheeled Russ to get painted anytime soon. 

Speaking of otherwise, I painted up my Rogue Primaris Pskyer from the Servants of the Abyss set this week. 

He could qualify as a Rogue Inquisitor, but I already have another mini in mind for that role. 

For my renegade Iggies, I'll be using the DKK regimental doctrines just so I can have this guy as my Warlord. He'll serve as a 'counts-as' Death Rider Squadron Commander (albeit with a lasgun rather than plasma pistol and power sword). The savage claws of the mount still applied, and in lieu of a hunting lance, this clearly has a hunting beak! 

Lastly, I finished literally rearming my Soul Drinkers contingent. These few will likely be allied to the renegade Iggies as an Imperial Fist successor chapter (which they are). Note the Lt. with the huge power maul. I'll have better pics of him in a future post. 

The Harbinger of the Old Ones

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Let's see...hmmm, theguide book says its best to bypass this particular planet due to a severe infestation of humanity. 

Here I go, bringing tourism of all things to the Grim Dark. 

While not a tourist per se, it may be more of just an interplanetary traveler perhaps? Regardless this critter is never seen in the same place for very long. Wandering the galaxy, from world to world, cataloging all that it sees for its final expeditionary report when it eventually makes its way back to...well, wherever it came from. 

Walking stick spear-check, fully filled, yet orderly backpack-check, cloak-check, gun-check, rope, clothing, power armor and bedroll-check, check, check, and check!

When asked and translation of languages is somehow achieved, it (I keep saying 'it' as the gender is unknown) ominously calls itself the Harbinger of the Old Ones. It says its task is to travel the galaxy taking stock of the current 'child' species who have risen to prominence in their absence. Inscrutable as this may be...so far, the only 'child' races this Harbinger has been known to have encountered have been the Eldar and the Tau. 

This critter will be used as a 'counts-as' Jokaero Weaponsmith in most of my armies. Fielded as an Auxiliary Support Detachment, costing me 2CPs and 'Battle-Forged' in most cases. 

In the case of the former, it first appeared in the hidden realm known as the Black Library. The vast majority of communications that it has had, has been with the Harlequins with whom the Harbinger has been witnessed to have held extensive conversations. It's language apparently known to the followers of the Laughing God.

In fitting with the background, I've created for it the Harbinger will have its own mission of simply getting off of the other side of the board. If left alone, it will return the favor. However, should one try and interfere with its plans, the Harbinger will fight back aggressively. One would be wise not to threaten it.

Since departing the Black Library, and traveling via the Webway with natural ease, the Harbinger has since had at least made passing contact with the Craftworlders, Exodites, Corsairs, Ynarri and the Dark kin as well. Indeed, the arrival and apparent mission of this Harbinger has caused quite a stir amongst the Farseer community. 

Taking its leave of the Eldar, the Harbinger next appeared within the Tau Empire. Welcomed with open arms as is the way of the Greater Good, the Ethereal Caste has been quite taken by, yet perplexed with this curious creature. It has traveled their Empire extensively, often as a passenger aboard Tau vessels, visiting the homeworlds, Orbital cities, the frontiers of the Empire, and most recently the battlezones along their border with the Imperium. 

Here it is standing atop it's Temple...for a selfie, as suggested by my bemused fiancé. 

The Tau have been trying to convince this traveler to stay within the Empire, no doubt in hopes of fostering relations with whomever The Old Ones are. However, the Harbinger is growing weary of their hospitality and will likely be soon on its way. Perhaps using the confusion of the battlefield to give its 'clingy' hosts the slip!

The battle of the greyish armies...

 o/

Ultramarines holding the line. 

I was able to get another (sort of) game in this past weekend with Mike and Screech. However, as we started late (9pm), the game ended the bottom of turn two. Three factions, variable initiative and a central objective that no one was ever able to get to (anything that got close was killed in short order). Here's how it all went down...

Mike's admech, supported by a 3D printed armiger that looks a bit large to me, though with no other knights on the board, what did it really matter?

Screech's Cadians. His most notable 'action' of the night was to utter the line 'Mine's smaller so it fits in better!' (and no, I'm going to give you any context for that statement).

I had intended to field the Tau, but couldn't (and still can't) find my tau infantry case. 50+ minis short of an army, it was the Smurfs again, this time with my small, allied IG detachment, led by an inquisitor. I'll fill in the guard's full backstory at a later date, once they're all finally painted.

I won the initiative for turn one and the marines on my left flank advanced at speed. The hellblasters fired thru the terrain scaring the hell out of Screech's IG when those assault 3 plasma guns opened up! 

The conscript platoon 'took the hill' on their way towards the objective (the smurf container in the middle). Their platoon commander issued an order, but these blithering idiots were too terrified of actual combat to bother listening. Collectively I think my shooting killed one enemy guardsman on turn 1. 

Get a good look at these five who opened fire on the Mechanicus, getting their attention and summarily getting obliterated for their efforts. 

Screech's Chimera advances towards the objective and my conscripts.

Meanwhile his Valkyrie, supported by lascannons unload on the Armiger inflicting considerable damage.

Chimera? No, no that was a proxied Hellhound. The guy's been fielding Cadians for close to a decade and is still proxying tanks. Schmuck.  As you can see, in the end that conscripts were reduced to four broken individuals. They thought about running until one was executed which did nothing to help their cause. 

The mechanicus advance and unleash hell! Hammering the Valk, killing the 'hellhound' and wiping out my combat squad of Intercessors. 

The second round's initiative started with Screech and ended with me, not good for the Smurfs and friends. Here we see Screech's guard in their turn two pivot movement phase. 

The valk continues to strafe the mechanicus lines, and it, along with his lascannons finish off the armiger. Further tank fire would thin out my hellblasters, assault intercessors and drop one of Mike's chicken walker things. 

Mike's walkers punished Screech's tanks in return, taking out the Medusa. The Kataphron finished off the Valkyrie as well as my last few conscripts. 

In my last turn, the hellblasters took a few wounds off of the other proxied hellhound. Softening it up for the assault intercessors who dinged it up a bit more. 

Bereft of their conscripted meat shields, the Imperial noble (counts as lord commissar) and platoon commander were going to sneak off, that is until they turned to see Mr. Inquisitor right behind them. Instead they advanced in futility towards the objective, firing their laspistols to little effect. Whereas the inquisitor smote the nearest of Mike's walkers, taking 2 wounds off of the machine. 

At that point, it was damned near midnight and so we called it a draw. No VPs for anybody, but we were able to roll some dice, kill some stuff and have some fun, so it was all good. 

Soul Drinker Test Model

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Everyone's favorite heretical 'freedom fighters' fighting for and against both the Imperium and themselves (depending on which of Ben Counter's novels you're reading at the time).

No, no...this is not a new project. Rather its an old one that's finally getting some paint. Indeed, I started this one way back in 2019, and never really did much with them as I didn't like renegade marines armed with Goliath stub cannons (are they shotguns? are they bolters?) yeah that mainly. 

My can of primer clogged which adversely effected this a few other minis. Looks downright horrid in these pics but isn't so bad when viewed with the eye rather than the harsh magnification of the camera.

I liked the look of the conversions overall, just never the weaponry. I once tried them as actual stub cannons as well which is really a terrible gun in 40k (and rightly so for black market ganger weaponry). I didn't like the Relictors' color scheme on them either, also throwing them into their long hiatus.

I mean seriously, how can you not like purple armored marines? Given that that's my favorite color, it kinda baffles me that I've never really bothered painting any marines purple outside of one or two Emperor's Children models for 30k.

Recently however I discovered the Goliath Weapons Upgrade packs had bolters (2) as it turns out per box. I would need (3) and so I found one set of bolter arms and ordered them in amidst an order of other bitz for some of my pointless side projects that I'm so fond of. 

This now bolter equipped mini looks soooo much better me thinks. Thus, I'll get that upgrade box and kit out the other two bolter grunts in my squad of five. That and likely switch my heavy bolter gunner (who has SM scout arms) to have either the cool Goliath meltagun or flamer arm as well!