When the (mostly) unpainted hordes collide!

 o/

'TODAY IS A GOOD DAY TO DIE!'

The last words attributed to Chaplain Schaff of the Black Dragons

Screech and I got together for a game wednesday night, or rather we sorta did. We got a late start due eating out beforehand and that combined with having to work the next day meant we made it thru two measly turns. This likely also saved me from getting tabled. Nonetheless here are the highlights in lieu of a proper battle report. 

My army, that being the Black Dragons & Friends.

The 'friends' being the once thought to be extinct Incandescent Coyotes lead by Lt. Boughtflower.

Screech did his best to keep track of VPs and the scenario, however after a tactical blunder on my part turn one that I was unable to recover from, and quickly seeing which way the flames wind was blowing, I pretty much ignored all that and just tried to kill shit. 

The Salamanders in all of their unprimed glory (note: the one squad that is primed was gifted to Screech in that state). 

Whilst I did kill some stuff, due to the aforementioned blunder (and a few other errors, due to lack of gameplay), a lot more of my troops were getting killed instead. 

Oh by the way, no dreadnoughts were damaged in this engagement.

So what was my unrecoverable mistake you ask? Well, having the first go, I moved towards the Salamanders and their all weapons are assault and can advance and fire (often literally) with no ill effect detachment. AKA: the Firestorm Assault force.

Tactical error number one: Moving forward.

'But Sir, the odds of navigating a Firestorm Assault Force are approximately 3720:1!'

'NEVER TELL ME THE ODDS!'

I normally run the Dragons with the good ol' Gladius task force, but this time tried the Anvil Siege Force. What I should have done, was either stand still and ignore the lack of weapons in range, or better yet, move deeper into my own deployment zone on turn 1. 

These guys ought to have gone into reserve, rather than scouting directly into literal hell. 

Then, when the flaming banzai charge came at me, my troops could simply plant their feet and unleash hell! But, it is what it is, and at the start of Screech's first turn where EVERYTHING started to advance, I realized welp, that was dumb & I'm about to lose. 

The Incandescent Coyotes outflank to bolster my all but incinerated flank. After taking some wounds from the not so far off burna boys, a Terminator squad would deep strike in behind them, unload and...finish off a lone, wounded marine. Yeah, I'm still fine with not having any termies myself. 

I also forgot that when a Hellblaster dies, on a 4+ it gets a parting shot. No idea how I forgot this as they're my favorite type of Primaris marine. As cool as it is for every unit to have a special rule, it ultimately is a lot of crap to keep up with. Sure it is all there on the datasheet, but how much time in each game do we really want to spend reading the fine print?

Anyways, at the end of my turn 2, after the Reiver Sergeant waded thru 32 pyreblaster wounds, and some long ranged heavy intercessor shooting (losing his squad in the process), he decided to go out with just one word:

CHARGE!

Spess Mahreenz

 o/

Two more Incandescent Coyotes cross the finish line.

Well I hope all of my fellow Americans are all still fat, happy, and finally done with eating Thanksgiving leftovers. While it was nice having four days off (Sorry Zzzzz), I can't say that a whole lot of time was spent hobbying. 

Primer doesn't count buddy!

That said, I did at least manage to finish these two Coyotes above as well as get my third game of 10th ed. in, where I maintained my winning streak. Screech had to call the game due to time as he had a movie date to get to, though had we gone all 5 rounds...I'm not sure who would've won that one. Oh well, a win is a win.  

Lacking a black tactical arrow for the missile gunner, this rune will have to suffice.

Finally, a better view of the 2nd Company's pauldron markings.

With a mere three painted minis, my v2 Coyotes are already halfway to the v1 Coyote's total number of painted infantry!

Reinventing the wheel (again...)

 o/

Some armies will not go quietly into the night...

It seems that whenever I get rid of all of my Firstborn marines, somebody gives me their Firstborn marines. Indeed, I've gotten rid of virtually all of my Firstborn (barring a few buried stragglers) TWICE now. Yet, once again here we are. Rejoice Zzzzz, your boys are back!

Currently I have 4 of the 10 needed.

The weekend before last, Neverenss and I were getting in our 2nd game of 10th ed and Rob swung by the shop and handed me another box of Orks and grots (3-4 sealed boxes of the latter), these being the last remnants of the horde he gave me last year. In the bottom of said box were some AoBR marines. In addition, I had a 2nd ed 40k missile marine that Kushial gave to me to pass on to Neverness. Instead Neverness suggested I keep it. 

1 of 10...sounds like a Borg name.

Neverness likes to give me hell about repeating armies and I certainly expect to hear such shenanigans again here. Curiously, I missed the Coyotes as soon as I got rid of them, though not their difficult paint scheme. Indeed, the Black Dragons were borne out of an attempt to reverse their colors, but to no avail.

The pauldron rim and tactical arrow are now in black, and the IV indicates the squad number.

Having a handful of firstborn again thanks to Rob, I thought I'd give my Coyotes another try, the marine above is the result. I ditched the infernal Gryph-Hound Orange contrast paint that caused me so much grief, and used Jokaero Orange instead.  Black, leadbelcher, a Vallejo brown for the leather and a sepia wash layer and there ya go, easy-peasy. 

Its not really visible here, but the chapter icon is the same.

The basing was also simplified with just sand glued to a bone colored base with some tufts. In addition to the slight color changes, and squad numbering, there is a "II" above the chapter icon on the pauldron, marking this marine out as a member of the 2nd company. 

Rob said he thought he had a few more of these, worst case I'm sure I can scrounge a few from Kushial (NO MORE ARMIES Kushial, just a few if Rob can't find 'em) to flesh out a single tac squad to add to one of my Primaris armies for variety's sake. 

Here be Dragons... (v.2)

 o/

Scary aren't they? No really, they are. Seriously!

They even have rules that say they are...

I'm sorry Zzzzz I tried, I really did. It just didn't work out. For those who aren't aware, Zzzzz is the one who named my Incandescent Coyotes chapter after seeing their initial paint jobs. As such he was rather fond of them and was somewhat appalled to have found out that they went the way of eBay. 

These were more or less no frills speed paints.

Simple & easy which bodes well for their future.

The Coyotes were all Firstborn marines, which outside of 30k are unsurprisingly going the way of the Dodo. Their color scheme was difficult and laborious to paint. Indeed the Gryph-Hound Orange contrast paint was the real culprit. Unlike the other contrast paints in my inventory with which I've had considerable success, I just could never get the Coyotes' orange right. 

I need to get some of the alien tufts which are red, blue &

hot pink as opposed to these which are just dead.

So, on a whim...I thought I'd try and resurrect the Coyotes with a Primaris reboot, reversing their color scheme of orange with black trim to a more manageable black with orange trim. All was going well until...I started fighting with the damned orange contrast on the pauldrons. Multiple coats to smooth it's appearance out, difficulty with the Coyote emblem on said pauldron again as well, and then...

I said: Fuck it. 

All black it is. Sorry Zzzzz, the Coyotes are lost to history. Looking at my decal sheets I found a considerable number of still unused Silver Drake decals and I instead revisited a chapter that I toyed with years ago: the Black Dragons. Rather than retell their appeal, you can just reread it in this old post here. 

Unlike that first foray which resulted in just one painted mini and several subsequent blog mentions, I now stand at a five-strong squad of reivers and had just enough black primer for a lieutenant before running out. With Battlescribe up and running again for 10th ed, after making a 1k list for the Smurfs I then syphoned off the rest of my marines for the Dragons.

The primer didn't go on too smoothly, likely due to the ridiculously hot & humid weather. This is most evident on their combat blades.

Currently the Dragons clock in at somewhere between 600-700 points depending on whether on not they inherit my Chaplain or not. Meaning you ought not expect to see them on the table top anytime soon.

Especially as we just returned from a vacation to Boston Massachusetts which left my bank accounts almost empty (frighteningly so), while additionally adding far too much to my credit card bill for my liking. It was well worth it though! Thus no purchases for this new army will be made for a good while.

*****

One last thing of note, and on a different subject:

Red & white stripes removed.

After being used as often as not as a captain rather than a lieutenant, Lt. Siph Horridus has been officially promoted to captain of my Ultramarines 3rd Battle company army. He received his helmet repaint just yesterday. Huzzah! 

How long does it take to build a squad of Hellblasters?

 o/

Most folks would agree that it takes just a few hours, and they would be right. In my case, it also took just a few hours though said hours were delayed by 15 or so months between the time of purchase and the removal of the box's shrink wrap. 

Here of late my poor marines have been finding themselves increasingly outgunned on the table top, with only my Hellblaster squad seemingly able to hold the line effectively. That said, I only had 6 of them making the squad both over-taxed and easily eliminated. However now that I have 16 ready for battle, I'm hoping that they'll even things out a bit for me. Only time will tell though...

These two combat squads will each gain 3 more marines

out of my pre-existing squad.

The Smurfs are now my only marine army with the Incandescent Coyotes (all 23 of them) currently redeploying to the Illy-Noise subsector. Their fully painted 'Woolly Bear' Razorback has taken up residence in my display cabinet, whereas the Coyotes' half-painted rhino was reprimed in anticipation of being (eventually) repainted in Ultramarine colors. 

Not many of the unpainted Coyotes were retained due to all of the Space Wolf Coyote accoutrements. Like the also defunct Silver Drakes, the remnants of the Coyotes were folded into the Smurfs making it a rather large army at this point. 

Full circles are painted models, empty are unpainted, and half circled are works in progress.

The Incandescent Coyotes & Votann meet their doom. Again. As usual...

 o/

Note the wounds to the Kratos sustained in just TWO turns...

I teamed up with my buddy Rob in what turned out to be yet another futile attempt to beat Screech's Necron horde last weekend. I was fielding my Incandescent Coyotes which rarely win, and was allied to Rob's Votann which have never won. No, it wasn't looking good from the outset. 

Tell the Chapter Master that this is just bullshit man! BULLSHIT!!

Screech was fielding 2k points of of his (official GW) Krylon gold & (3D printed) glowy yellow horde. The coyotes, unfortunately only clock in at about 700 points, so this week's 'allied contingent' was the Kratos which was wholly ineffective (will have to see if the Smurfs can have any better luck with it). 

The coyotes always need an allied something just to hit 1k points, and no matter what it is they usually come out on the losing end though they do have their moments (skip towards the end of that one).

These little guys pack a good wallop, but withered under the Necron onslaught.

Already a nightmare to paint and not looking to spend any more $$$ on them, I think it's time for the Coyotes to redeploy elsewhere (though the Razorback is likely to take up residence in my display case). 

Despite the poor showing all around, Rob's painted Votann nonetheless inspired me to paint one out of my own squad of them. After a bit of experimentation, this is what I came up with:

These guys are really just an excuse to base minis with the purple sand again.

Squad '6' I believe...

The unit is 'league affiliated' to Rob's Urani-Surtr Regulates.

Not too bad, I think I'll paint up the few more who are amongst the the horde of half painted and/or just primered minis that crowd my desk. 

Merry Kratos to all...

 ...and to all a Good Fight!

Y'all know you just LOVE 40k Christmas puns!

This is kinda like an Iggy Demolisher in that the big, intimidating gun hits like a truck, assuming it actually gets in range. Despite having a barrel that's 4.5" long, it only has a 36" range because reasons. Meanwhile heavy bolters aside, all of the other weapons can reach out to 4 feet. At 325 points, and costing a command point to field, you would think that GW would at least give it the range of the standard issue battle cannon. 

Oh well whatever. 

The sponson weapons will fit snugly enough that no magnets are required and you can them out for all of the options. Pro tip: Don't do a test fit until you're sure that the glue is dry, otherwise you'll feel like a dumbass and just be stuck with heavy bolters like me!

36" ranged weapon issues aside, the Kratos looks really good (even unpainted) and as was discussed in my prior post, my Smurfs are woefully under-gunned. I had bought this to go with my 30k Blood Angels who seem to reside permanently in my cabinet. I was thinking that maybe the Coyotes would then get it, however currently the Smurfs are claiming at least temporary ownership. For the time being it won't get painted meaning all of the above may field it (well, probably not the 9th Legion...).

An assembly-in-progress pic. By the way, I've (at least unofficially for now) dubbed this The Over-Compensator.

Happy Holidays folks!

And on turn two, everybody charged!

 o/

Yup, it's battle report time again folks. Rather than the usual multi-player menagerie, this time is was a more conventional 1 v 1 game with my buddy Rob who was fielding the Alpha Legion this time (of which only 1 mini is painted as he hasn't settled on a Legion yet). 

Three Objectives, worth 5 VPs apiece for whomever controlled them, plus random secondaries. Not too fond of the latter though this time around they did sorta save my ass. Anyways, 1k each, pretty much standard across the board deployment, and here's how it all went down:

My army, including an allied auxiliary support squad of Smurf Sternguard. 

Clearly the years have not been kind to ol' Alpharius....

Via some shenanigans, the warp talons managed a turn 1 charge into my devastators who were all but sitting on my table edge, wiping them out! Notta good start to the game...

In a repeat of last week, my painted tac squad slagged a pair of Raptors with meltagun fire before charging in for another grueling bout of close combat. 

Also like last week, the Apothecary failed his charge. 

Turn two and the Talons moved towards the Smurfs hidden in the ruins, the cultists took the center objective and the possessed moved to threaten my Rhino which was trundling across the middle of the board. 

Turn two also saw my scouts outflank and assault marines deep strike, though at 12" from the enemy due to more shenanigans. At this point everything but my APCs charged, though due to the distance the scouts and Assault marines failed to reach their target units.

Still whittling the Raptors down on the left flank...

Prior to charging, my razorback thinned out the possessed by two much to Rob's dismay.

Sternguard (equipped like regular tac marines) vs. Warp Talons is an unequal contest though the ragged survivors held their ground. 

My Lt. engaged the Sorcerer in what would be a multi-turn duel to the death!

Nothing to see here, move along...

Chaos chicanery resurrects a possessed and the Havocs dump into the Rhino that is blocking their view of the field. As the Alpha Legionnaires send a squad into support their middle, my tac marines delight in slaughtering the cultists almost to a man!

However, the Possessed prefer to be the ones doing the slaughtering!

Perhaps recalling their abysmal track record in close combat,the Havocs didn't overwatch my assault marines as they charged in...

The Raptors fell back out of combat, though in order to do so in a way that was away from the enemy, they actually retreated onto my side of the board! 

As such the tac squad slags two Legionnaires this time around before charging into the fray once more! The Scouts meanwhile had a good way to go before they could join into the fun. 

Slaughtering complete, the Smurfs and my central tac squad are no more. 

Meanwhile the Havocs were taking a pounding!

Having finally dispatched the sorcerer, my Lt. consolidates into the possessed, denying them the next turn's charge.

Not much left standing in this fight. 

In the backfield, the assault marines finish off the Havocs claiming both the objective and secondaries as well! 

These two snuggled down into terrain and started racking up more VPs for Rob. With cover and armor of contempt, it would take 2 turns of lascannon fire and a command reroll to dig them both out of there!

Disliking the notion of being consolidated into, the possessed tore my Lt. apart.

The scouts join the scrum!

The warp talons charge the assault marines, swiftly ending their brief reign of glory, likewise the possessed finish off the already battered Rhino, but not before it gunned down the last few surviving cultists. 

All outta tac marines, the Apothecary and 'chaff' (according to Rob) finish off the Legionnaires squad. 

At games' end, this was all that was left (that raptor was a casualty that I was passing across the table).

Well, that was both bloody and fun! I didn't keep note on who accrued how many VPs and when, but Rob had taken out an early lead to which I thought I'd never be able to catch up. However, I started clawing my way back and in the end, I pulled a rabbit out of my ass and somehow managed to tie the game up in the bottom of the last turn with 35 VPs each. Huzzah! Good thing the game ended As I'd likely get tabled had we gone another round!

I was pleased with my Razorback not only surviving unscathed, but also the amount of fire support it provided. Likewise this was the first game ever in which my assault squad actually killed something of note, the Havocs (not to mention racking up almost a 1/3 of my total VPs). Saving them from a probable eBay fate and possibly garnering them a layer of primer (they haven't earned any proper paint yet though).

That said my Lieutenant certainly did! Last week he led a charge that took down Fabius Bile in 1 turn and this week he single-handedly killed the chaos Sorcerer who was also Rob's warlord, and in both cases, he hasn't suffered a wound in either of those combats! Not that he survived the game or anything but still...

Another thing of note was the peanut gallery at the shop that accused me of being 'Meta' (with Firstborn Marines?). Not to mention that TWICE somebody walked up and exclaimed: 'Ooh! Chaos vs. Chaos!' Seriously, what the hell people?!?!