The End of an Era...

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Sunset? Or an orbital strike? You decide.

Fear not good readers, this is not the end of this here blog, I shall keep it going for all 5 or 6 of you who still peruse it's meagre offerings. That said, this will indeed be my last post made from this blog's birthplace: the Appalachian Subsector (aka: Tennessee). 

Since my last post, my wife found us a fantastic house in the Charleston, South Carolina burbs which we now have under contract. Damn near everything that has not been sold off on Facebook Marketplace, donated to Habitat for Humanity, or else given to/spoken for by friends and family has instead been boxed up in preparation for the impending move.

This includes virtually all of my hobby stuff. That said, the Black Dragons are still accessible, as are my (non-spray) paints and my hobby tools and brushes (though everything save the Dragons who reside in my game cart are also boxed, except said boxes aren't yet sealed up). 

This guy is the last mini to be assembled prior to the impending move.

Time for gaming though? Doubtful before I move, especially as my allergies feel like they're morphing into an illness of some sort for added inconvenience. Yay. That said, for my Tennessee friends and opponents, I will be back up here for the week of the 4th of July, perhaps sooner depending on whether or not work will have my laptop for working remote ready before the move (fingers crossed). 

As for the Gravis Captain above, he will take the place of the Eradicators' escort as the pretty looking, but damned near useless in my opinion, Apothecary Biologis has redeployed to far off battlefields, never to be seen again (by me). 

A Friday night brawl in the Appalachian Subsector

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If this doesn't qualify as a brawl, then I don't know what does.

I got to play another round of 40k this past weekend vs. my buddy Screech and his golden horde of Necrons. It was just the two of us in a 'standard' rather than multi-player game, and as such we upped the game size to 1500 points apiece. 

Three central objectives were used, approached by many, and taken by none. However, we'll get to that here in a bit...

My 1318 points of Smurfs (their maximum at this point) accompanied by a small Mechanicum contingent lead by Techno-Archeologist 

808-Linum and Ordo Mechanum Inquisitor MS-D05.

The golden Horde. Note: all of the warriors were being proxied as Immortals (gulp).

The Necron Deployment.

The Smurf Deployment with the Mechanicum off in the distance.

My first turn was disappointingly uneventful with the sole exception of my Firestrike Servo-turret removing a heavy destroyer from the other side of the table (it was perched atop the ork ruin in the distance). 

Displeased with this, his war-of-the-worlds walkers opened up on the Firestrike. The transhuman physiology stratagem was the only thing to keep said turret from being blown off of the table itself, though it came perilously close with but 1 wound remaining. 

I didn't get pics of the wraiths 1st turn charge, however my Smurfs were soon victorious and my close combat 'blob' advanced on the Necron line with another squad of Intercessors near by in support. The intercessors in back were meanwhile trading fire with that walker in the distance.

A better view of the close combat 'blob' consisting of assault intercessors, Reivers, a Chaplain and Lt. Horridus.

On the other side of the table, the combined fire of a third squad of intercessors and the Hellblasters dispatched a squad of Immortals who had done the same to my Skitarii the turn before. The Skitarii were arguably less of a target than the other two squads, however they out-shot all 16 marines combined, which slated them for immediate (and successful) removal.

After a short ranged fire fight, the Smurfs prepare to charge!

Or conversely, to take a charge on the other table end...

Overwatch got one!

And then the big 'crons killed two marines and wounded a third. 

After 3+ games in which every anti-tank weapon I've had has harmlessly bounced off of Screech's War-of-the-worlds walkers, the stalker bolt rifle equipped Intercessors of all things (with the aid of a stratagem or two) actually managed to take one down, huzzah!

Retreating to shoot again (its a Smurf thing). All while cursing the useless Inquisitor and Techno Archeologist 808-Linum for failing to do anything useful to the monster in their midst. 

Turn three, and practically everything I had left outside of the stalker equipped squad charged. 

Well, and Lt. Horridus who felt it prudent to hang back and buff those in combat with his Tactical Precision following his charge roll of a 2...

Turns out that a flag pole makes for a halfway decent close combat weapon!

Thinning 'em down but then...

...Necron chicanery fills their ranks with the undead Immortals once more! 

That has got to be one of the ugliest walkers in the whole 40k universe! 

After the Inquisitor failed to psychically dominate the Necron Lord's already dead mind, the beast charged yet again, taking down another marine!

And as it was almost 11:30 pm, that's basically where the game ended, with damned near everything in close combat and not an objective to be had by either side at any point. 

Not mentioned above but worth noting here: the Immortals toughness of 5, rerolls in addition to their we'll be back rolls and vast number of shots that they can dish out is down right frightening! Once again I had to question Rob's lack of wisdom in gifting this army to Screech when he arrived to play peanut gallery. 

We had fun though, so all was good even if the game only ended in a draw. 

Camo Smurf Intercessors WIP (Part 2)

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Target acquired...

With my 500pt. Smurf army clocking in at a whopping 18 models, it is now just shy of being 25% painted. True...that means I have a mere four models completed, but let's face it: I'm notorious for my short attention span when it comes to painting. So I'll boost my numbers anyway that I can.  

Here they are seen on a sweep and clear mission, somewhere in a suburban sprawl of the Appalachian Subsector. 

Their camo actually blends rather well with the concrete!

Aww fuck, what'd that guy on the right do, tackle a Salamander?

Looking at the third photo I saw  some unwanted green paint smeared on the pack of that right most marine. Oh well, twas' but a quick fix and once again all four are now complete. I've assembled an intercessor with an AGL and have started painting both it, the squad's last grunt as well as my Assault Intercessor Sergeant.

Fixed!

Tarellian Hog Soldiers

Yes, you read that correctly. 

No, 'Hog' is not a typo. 

Lurking deep in the wilds of the Appalachian Subsector...

Tarellian hog soldiers are sometimes employed as auxiliary forces of the Tau. Canon images are few and often conflicting. Likewise, inventing background for what is likely to be just a lone Tau auxiliary unit (not that I've never done that before) didn't really appeal to me at this time. Thus, they're Tarellians. 

Whilst the woodland camo does its job nicely...

These hired Swine will likely be deployed as Fire Warriors, only I was thinking of arming them with the humble lasgun, as their Tau-esque gun is a bit puny in comparison to actual Tau infantry weapons. 

...curiously the Fem Fa'Tau pauldron coloring blends in as well!

These 3D printed minis came with integrated 20mm bases. I tried to remove said base on this mini and instead broke the little guy's legs in several places. After gluing him back together I tried placing the base atop  a 25mm base, and green stuffing around the edges to blend it all in, but didn't like the look of it. So instead I inverted the 25mm base, glued the integrated one inside of it, and green-stuffed in the resulting gap. It works I think, even if it looks a bit wonky. 

Also of note the shoulder guard (do the Tau call them pauldrons too?) is on the wrong side. Several of these minis have been mirror imaged, during the 3D printing process, so the pauldron will go on whichever side doesn't have the little shoulder epaulet. 

I have 10 of these little guys, and enough pauldrons to field 20 if I decide to get more at some point. I also have a lone different sculpted hog that could pass as an Ethereal-stand it. Just not sure if it would be best called a Divine Swine, or rather the Hog Father...

Gettin Dirty Part 2 (The Hounds of Demos)

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I can't honestly say I have the new weathering washes, contrast paint, or even Agrellan Earth all figured out. However I've managed to get two Hounds of Demos marines to look both fairly similar and for the most part in the way I had originally envisioned (albeit via different routes). Now the trick is to maintain a consistent look without taking for bloody ever as these first two did...

Picking up from my last post, this is where i had left off from, with one marine washed and the other not.

I gave the marine on the left a very light dry brushing of bleached bone (or rather Vallejo's equivalent) prior to adding the wash. That apparently gave the surface enough grip for the wash to coat pretty evenly and as such I'll be using this method from here on out. 

The marine on the right was the previously washed, blended and sealed marine as seen in my prior post. So I just slathered on another coat and hoped for the best which as it turns out more or less ended up matching the other one.

After brushing/blending the excess dried wash off, I hit em with a quick layer of varnish before painted the bases. I then applied Agrellan Earth. I guess maybe I ought to have sealed the bases as well? Despite the solid coating, the Agrellan peeled up the base coat with itself revealing the white primer and excess orange contrast beneath. 

Then of course there's the issue of the Agrellan not even closely resembling the shade of the sand wash. So I gave the bases a quick, light inking which filled in the cracks covering the orange and white nicely. I then applied a light dry brush of bleached bone, but the tone still wasn't right, so I then added another layer of German yellow ochre and that matched the sand wash well enough to call the models 'done' pending a final coat of varnish. 

The Hounds' chapter icon. I had originally wanted to put the company number above it, but the decal application over that much of the pauldron's curve caused me to change my mind...

Like a vehicle heading down a dusty trail, the most grime collects on the rear. I guess there was some heavy/extended sprinting drills or something.

The finished doubly washed  battle brother.

A note on the other chapter markings: The white tactical arrow has been retained following the black arrow debacle. The right knee shows the company color, with the squad number below it on the greave armor. 

Oh, and I've since fixed that little white dot of missing paint on the right side marine's base.

Here are my first two Hounds of Demos. First squad, 5th battle company of the Hounds of Demos as photographed on the northern steppes of Backyardistan, Appalachian Subsector. 

I haven't formalized and fluff or backstory to go with this budding force yet, though I do have a few ideas percolating in the back of my mind...  

WAAAAUGH!!! in da Appalachun Subsektor

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My army gives the illusion of being fully painted from this (cropped) angle...

The elusive WAAAAUGH!!! Neverness came out of his mountain stronghold to bring the even more reclusive Long Wayz Dezert Groop to battle. Our semi-annual Ork vs. Ork games are always a hoot, and this one was no different.

Battlin' in da round! Deployment zones spilt the table in half (easily marked for us by the seam for the table leaf)

We went a little old school, playing at home on the dining room table instead of on a proper gaming board (which I gave to WaaarghPug as I no longer had room to store it). Digging out my rarely used terrain was something akin to an archeological expedition, and scrounging around for the various bits and bobs that make up my army was much the same. 

1k point patrol list of Da Long Wayz Dezert Groop. This is pretty much the entirety of my army these days. Whatever else I have are random odds and ends of partial units, and a now index-only not-so-big mek on awarbike. 

In the end though all but my lobba was present and accounted for, with a grot tank filling in as a proxy for the missing lobba. Also, as it turns out, my terrain is far better painted than any of my armies...which is kind of amusing as painting terrain is one of my least favorite things to do. 

The back window of my (dirty) real life trukk. 

Given the pic above, its a forgone conclusion that I was using the Deff Skulls Kultur for my Army. The scenario was 'the prize' (aka Capture the flag), and with all infantry in my army having Dis iz ours! Zog off! (objective secured), hanging onto said flag would be much easier, especially as I only had a single troops choice. 

Also, my army was a marginal 2 points lower in value than Neverness', giving me a 'twist' card. I drew the outflank card, meaning after deployment, I put my Grot Mega Tank into reserve in order to outflank on either turns 1 or 2.  That would prove quite fortuitous...

The following is my usual photo dump and running commentary which gives you a vague idea as to what was going on. Neverness has a bat rep of his own, so if you're get lost in this recap, there's likely a more coherent recounting on his blog.

All sides deployed and ready for a good krumpin'!

My left flank, with Krump & Pittance (my Warboss) and BOOM! (weird boy) bringing up the rear. 

My right flank, just before Da Grot Spee (mega tank) was put into reserves to outflank.

Having won the roll to deploy first, Neverness' Goffs deployed right on top of the objective, taking immediate control of it. Were he fielding Blood Axes, I'd have been in trouble. Luckily though he was using the Goff Kultur, meaning he would instead bring it closer to me!

Neverness' initial advance. That said, this pic is merely here to show off his impressive (though still WIP) Dakka Jet.

The Dakka jet, (the surprisingly dangerous) grots, lootas and shokk attack gun armed big mek all dumped into my boys mob, eviscerating it in preparation for the inevitable charge...

Da Goffs charge in, where their kultur essentially gives them the Dakka! Dakka! Dakka! rule in close combat! Honestly I have no idea how any of my boys survived this onslaught. Only their upgrade to ard boyz and the fact that we screwed up LD/morale tests in the first turn meaning they weren't wiped out at the get go. That wasn't intentional, but rather due to neither of us having played 40k in months... 

On the other side, my Matilda (battlewagon) was sorely missing its old AV:14, as the shoota boys tore into it with a vengeance, both in shooting and then hand-to-tread combat!

Surviving the 1st Goff turn, BOOM! cast warpath on my boys to help make up for their losses.  Then both BOOM!, and Krump & Pittance charged into the Goffs to even the odds vs my boys!

Shockingly, I wiped them out. BOOM! took da flag, and Krump & Pittance, always eager to beat on the little guys, turned thier sights on the nearby grot mob...

In the backfield of turn 1, Da Grot Spee emerged, and along with an impressive long ranged volley of big shoota fire from Da Matilda, succeeded in causing the Lootas to break and run, huzzah!

My weedy Kommados showed up as well, though they managed only a few pot-shots. 

Neverness' warboss, rode in his trukk up to flank da Matilda. However, My tankbustas frantically disembarked the quickly dying matilda, and did what they do best: shot the living shit out of his trukk! They'd have killed it too were it not for the ramshackle rule. Da Matilda's zzap gun tried to assist, but instead maintained its' streak of hitting nothing since the demise of the 3rd ed ork codex. Thus, the tankbustas charged in and finished it off, much to the warboss' dismay.

Faced with the hideous prospect of overwatch fire from a FULL unit of tankbustas, da boss instead shoots one in the head, and signals the Dakka Jet which wipes my unit off of the table! (yeah that fucker needed to die...).

Shortly there after, Da Matilda met its end, though not before grinding a few boys under it's treads. Neveress' boss and boys turned their sights on my big gunz. The Grot gunners prepared to sell themselves dearly...fire in a blind panic before hiding under their gunz! This tactic killed a few boys, but didn't prevent the inevitable. 

Meanwhile those sneaky Kommandos move into position for their favorite kind of charge: from behind!

Ya know, it only took close to a decade, but finally Da Grot Spee had it's chance to run amok and shine! Here, it had just killed  Neverness' Big mek w/shokk attack gun that was holed up in my old, 2nd ed. era White Dwarf pattern bunker! Indeed, the twin-Grotzooka is a terrifying weapon in this edition, averaging 14 shots per volley (though only a 3rd of those are effective).

Da shoota boys were sadly not caught flat footed, and killed 3 of the 5 Kommandos on the way in! The remaining two idiots badasses killed more than enough to make up for those losses, that said...

...their cause was of course lost. It did leave neverness' boys in da crater though, and he loves (minis sliding and falling off of) craters...

Back on the other side, Krump and my boyz (again with warpath cast on the latter) successfully slaughtered the grots, though 4 boyz were lost in the process. 

Enraged at the loss of his minions, the Runtherder attacks Krump! Yet once again, Krump beats the little guy down.

The remnants of my horde (now a mere 4 models) advances towards the enemy. BOOM! elects to hold beck with da flag, but tries to remain in da fight by casting Smite Spite. Instead he rolls a snake eyes, damned near killing himself instead!

Tired of the rampaging Grot Spee, Neverness' dakka jet uses the 'long, uncontrolled bursts' stratagem as it makes a strafing run on my grot mega tank, inflicting a half dozen or so wounds! In return the mega tank fills the sky with (quite ineffective) lead and scrap! To me, the exchange brings to mind a WWII naval engagement.

As the dakka jet completes its circuit of the little table in the backfield, Neverness' army moves to retake the flag and finish off my shattered army.

The two warbosses prepare to charge one another, Krump however was badly bleeding by this point (though I don't recall who gets credit for that). 

As such his cause was lost, with his last words proclaiming his demise as fake nooz!!

Da Grot Spee, warily eyes its next target...

The warboss passes the tank, looking for da' flag, and leaving the boys to finish it off. 

Da badly damaged Grot Spee manages to kill a few boys before suffering it's last wound and...uh...sinking into oblivion.

With nowhere to run, the Dakka Jet bearing down on him, BOOM! decids to go out with glory and casts...a fucking snake eyes! Daemons from the warp cast aside the worthless flag he was carrying and suck his soul into oblivion, denying Neverness the kill!

Out of both armies, these few are all that survived!

Well that was bloody and fun! Of the 150 or so orks + vehicles that started the game, all that survived was Neverness' Dakka Jet, Warboss, and 5 boyz! Yup, that's a good scrap in my books, even if I did get tabled! 

Ork vs. Ork games are prettymuch the only 40k games I can be coaxed into playing these days, though Neverness is keen to get in an Eldar vs. his...something rematch (hell, it was around 1:30am or so, you're lucky I remembered any of this at that hour). Perhaps I'll indulge him in a game of that, but for now my 40k bloodlust has been sated.