So, what to do with a non-Primaris space marine army?

The above is just a small portion of the Lions of Harlech Chapter. I do believe that there is somewhere in the realm of 4-5 fully painted companies of them.

It is a valid question as out of the blue, Kushial surprised me (stunned would be more accurate) with the gift of a large space marine army this past weekend! Approximately 2k worth in points via the old marine codex as I've yet to get the current one. 

The unpainted lions...

He hasn't played 40k in close to 2 years, and has no want to paint anymore of his beloved Lions of Harlech space marines, so he was selling off the unpainted portions of his army (dreadnoughts excluded as he has a love of dreads that borders on some kind of psychosis...). However, like myself when I sold off the handful of Rainbow Warriors and the other remnants of my non-primaris marine forces, he found that they were selling for a pittance. 

The whole lot of 'em!

So, if he was to give them away, he'd give them to someone he knew that would enjoy them, rather than a total stranger. So...where to go from here, as GW (apparently) no longer has any love for the 'regular' marines. 

Perusing the archives of this blog I thought that maybe I'd revisit one of the many, many chapters that I've fielded in the past and in doing so the Tyrant's Legion caught my eye. Based on Forgeworld's (now defunct) 6th ed list, the Tyrant's Legion was Lugft Huron's attempt to build the Astral Claws up into a space marine legion of old prior to the badab war. 

At that war's conclusion, the Astral Claw/Tyrant's Legion survivors fled into the maelstrom and became the Red Corsairs, which was another army given to me  out of the blue from the Gentleman's Ones (oh how I miss that blog, and then later given away to yet another blogger who did them proud.

An image of an Astral Claw from the of FW Badab war book. Ironically, it bears a strong resemblance in color to the otherwise totally unrelated Lions of Harlech!

Anyways, originally, the Astral Claws were a loyalist chapter, and rather than have an army in open rebellion again (built of a mix of loyalist and chaos bitz as i had previously), I'm thinking of doing an earlier version, just on the cusp of heresy. The lion's share (pun intended) of the minis in my new army are 30k Mk IV marines. Conveniently, the Astral Claws had raided stockpiles of obsolete, but still serviceable kit as they sought to bolster their forces in secret. 

So how to build this with longevity in mind you ask? Simple: I use the chaos space marine codex. However like the fallen, I'll just ignore all of the chaos gods' affiliated stuff, daemons, etc., and build 'em much as a generic loyalist army, but one diverging from the codex astartes, i.e.: over sized tac squads, with 2 heavy, or special weapons, etc. 

It'll carry some of the flavor of the old FW list, whilst being entirely legal, and devoid of primaris marines and any fear of obsolescence for the foreseeable future.  Some units won't be cross-compatible of course (hey Neverness, I gotta bunch of scout snipers for ya!), and I'll need to order some bitz to convert the Landraider redeemer back into a 'regular' one. But i think it'll work and hey-best of all, that color scheme is easy to paint!

Another Rainbow Warrior

o/

I finished up another Rainbow Warrior and made a minor change to the original one I had painted. My complaint with that mini was that there was little contrast between the blue armor and the scavenged Dark Angels green leg armor. That and I really didn't like the idea of the last of the Rainbow Warriors raiding other loyalist chapters.

Remind me again as to why I opted for such difficult chapter markings rather than the standard, mono-chromatic lightning bolt/rainbow chapter icon?

So, opting for red which has far more contrast I did a google image search on 'red space marine chapters images' and lo and behold, a pic from my own blog came up in the search. It was of Mac's Red Corsairs...that's perfect! Ironically though, the image was on Pinterest, not on this blog...

Anyways, what better source of supplies for a shattered Space Marine chapter that's been cut off from Imperial supply lines than to raid and scavenge them from one of the most notorious pirate/traitor space marine warbands?

Hmm, wonder if I used the wrong ink wash on the 2nd marine?

I'm guessing I'll have to arrange a specific game of Kill Team with mac as on the last few times I've had my Rainbow Warriors at the FLGS, either no games have been played, or else we've played Shadow War instead. No doubt the potential of losing to the lamely named Rainbow Warriors is a notion that one really wants to contemplate, lol!

Neverness NEEDS a challenge!!!

My buddy Neverness' blog has hit the 6 year mark (approximately) and he's giving away a Space Marine painted by him! Okay, so you can get it as is but where's the fun in that, right? He's a very talented painter (art school does that to you) and as such, I think what his post is really about, is the want of a new 'challenge' (aside from finishing a project in a timely manner, snicker...).

Here's some suggestions that you can give him if you win:

How bout a marine painted in the original Tiger Claws' color scheme?

(((shudder)))

Or a marine painted up in chocolate chip or some other camo?

Yeah this would suck...

Or, if you really want to twist the screws, how bout one of his FAVORITE chapters: have him paint up an ANGRY MARINE!!!!

They're so angry, they don't even care about typos in their memes!

So head on over and fill up his comments section with your favorite of his posts and get entered into a fun little contest as well. Congrats Neverness!!

(Oh and uh...lol, you're welcome buddy!)

Another round of Kill Team Carnage

For the first time in a little over 2 months, my beloved Wolfy and I made it to game night at the FLGS. Looking to play Kill Team, we ended up with five players which is one too many for our usual combination of the old 40k Carnage scenario and Kill Team mixed together. I suggested Screech set up in the middle and everyone else's collective objective would be 'GET HIM!'.

Instead however, after 15-20 minutes of hemming, hawing and general confusion in regards to how to fit everyone into the game, Wolfy opted to bow out and just play peanut gallery and combat camerawoman.

All of the combatants in action! The central statue (of Alpharius?) was the objective.

I was fielding my Alpha Legion who were masquerading as the Blood Angels (or a successor chapter, purely so I could use a heavy flamer in a tac. squad.). My force was fully painted.

Mac was using the Red Corsairs (which I gave him a few years back and considering their phenomenal paint jobs, I still have no regrets about that). Unsurprisingly, Mac's force was fully painted.

Pay no attention to the Corsairs hiding in the corner. Mac was rolling so badly (havoc missile launcher aside), that Screech's die rolls were elevated up to being mediocre!

Bob was fielding the accursed Dark Angels. Bob's force was almost entirely painted.

Screech was fielding the Tyranids. The 'nids were mostly base coated and one warrior was painted. No credit goes to Screech on that though as he bought them in that condition. Well Screech, with your Germans out of the picture for the time being, its time to get to it pal!

Whilst she didn't play, Wolfy's Exodites were all painted as well.

Attack of the little gribblies...

Anyways...As Mac's force was opposite me, and thus farthest away, I never once shot at him. In fact most of my combat was directed towards Screech's bugs, though Bob and I did kill 2-3 of each other's models (fucking Dark Angel plasma guns...).

My MVP by far war the Heavy Flamer marine who outflanked on the far side, right in front of a horde of Gaunts. He torched 3 and wounded a warrior as they all charged in to chop him up into little bits! Screech however was rolling horribly, and my marine held on for three turns taking at least one more little gribbly with him. I think I only lost one other marine to Screech's other blob of gribblies.

My Heavy Bolter marine's view of the battlefield.

In the end, Bob held the objective when Screech failed the roll to continue the game into turn six.  

Zac n' Cheese!

o/

Zac 'n Cheese himself!

Wolfy and I got together with Mac and Zac at the FLGS to play a round of 40k's Kill team this past Saturday. Mac only plays with painted minis, so we opted to do so as well which really limited our options. Mac fielded his Red Corsairs, Zac had IG, Wolfy was running my Exodites, and I was using my 30k Alpha Legionnaires as 40k Sternguard. Being all brand new models, this would be their battlefield debut which is always a dangerous prospect in terms of their survival...

The valley of death, into which we were all about to enter.

Zac's kill team deploys inside the Chimera, offering a wall of AV:12 and heavy weapons. Neither myself nor Wolfy had encountered vehicles, much less TWO in a Kill Team game (no idea in regards to Mac) and we were all ill prepared for them...

Mac's Red Corsairs

Wolfy's Exodites. She'd only ever used them once before, and hadn't played 40k of any sort in close to 2 years, so throughout the game I did a lot of explaining 'who could do what' to her.

My Alpha Legion masquerading as Sternguard. I forgot about 'chapter tactics' entirely. 

Apparently having read Screech's treatise on the 'Fully Mechanized Parking Lot', Zac's 'team' simply pivoted and unloaded into Ma'c marines. Offering us little aside from reenacting Pickett's charge. With the Eldar obscured from the IG by terrain, Mac and I did our best but managed to inflict no damage while sustaining early losses we could not afford. 

Indeed, we were in the unenviable position of Pickett's Charge on one side, and the quickly advancing Shuriken nightmare on the other!

My casualties were quick to mount, starting with my Team leader and my specialist most likely to take out a tank beyond grenade throwing range...

My sacrificial lamb, intended to hold back the approaching Exodites. A thrown frag grenade killed two before he was blown away. 

Our best hope for killing the Chimera, instead Mac's Raptor with his meltagun suicidally outflanked into the Eldar flank. Rolling a '2' (typical) to hit, he charged the Exodite's Exarch leader. However the marine didn't survive beyond the next round. 

A rare foray outside the Chimera to dump overwhelming lasgun fire into an approaching Raptor (all of which was needed to kill it!). In the background it seems Rob's army didn't survive its 1st round of Warmahordes Mk III.

With the spirit of 'fun for all' somewhat in question, all three players negotiate a shaky alliance to crack the IG out of their little turtle shell in the corner. It would seem that we marine players were also trying to extend teams' lives as collectively, Mac and I had just three models left. 

Not wanting to show 'too much favoritism', my beloved Wolfy only has one guardian shoot at my last Legionnaire. Naturally she rolled a '6' to wound...

Unfortunately My Wolfy's bad back was in anything but the mood to move minis about the table (something Mac and I'd been doing quite a bit for her already), and so with my models all dead, she turned the Exodites over to me. With a crack of the knuckles, the Eldar banzai charge (sticking to cover where possible) commenced! Whilst there are no photos, the Exodite Exarch survived another close combat with a Raptor and it took two FULL turns of the Chimera throwing everything it had at the Exarch before he finally fell! 

Wary of the loss of hull points, the Guardsmen finally exit the tank and promptly lose 4 of their number (including their leader) to a thrown frag grenade!

Despite losing a bunch of Eldar to failed LD tests, the hail of shuriken fire into the vehicle sides and guardsmen slay all but one! However at the end of turn 6 all that remained were 3 models: 2 Exodites and one Guardsman. Victory points were totaled (I forget the breakdown) and it was 9-7 with Zac scoring the win!

Ah yes, another good ol' blood bath! In hindsight, I suppose I ought to have brought my Orks instead (stupidly, whilst list writing I'd forgotten my Tankbustas were all painted!). 10 Rokkits that are required to shoot the closest vehicle (since I still use the old codex) would have changed things up quite a bit I think! We also discussed reversing the Realm of battle tiles set up, thus creating a hill in the center rather than a valley. That ought to block some lines of fire for those unwilling to advance. Likewise, much like the Carnage scenario in 40k, I think we ought to have a center objective to hold rather than just going for kill points as we did here. 

Still, it was a fun game, and I look forward to playing it again. 

The next 'chapter' in the life of an old dreadnought...

If I recall correctly, approximately 20 years ago Brad, one of my 40k buddies in Florida worked at a resin casting company. Working the graveyard shift and under the guise of 'training' he cast multiple copies of his SM dreadnought (the multi-melta version), and gave several of us in the gaming group a copy. Forgeworld, whilst in existence wasn't producing dreadnoughts of their own yet, meaning all dreadnoughts were made of pewter! Indeed, when I moved to Tennessee this feather-light dread took many people by complete surprise when they picked it up to give it a look. 

I had to dig almost all the way back to the beginning of this blog just to find some good pics of this beast!

Last time I spoke to Brad in person, about five years or so ago whilst visiting in Florida, I mentioned that I still had one of his resin dreads in regular use. He'd long since left mini gaming himself, and was pleasantly surprised to find that any of his old dreads even existed anymore. As such it seems that this dread is the sole survivor!

Like many of my older minis, this Dread has fought in several past armies including the: Iron Hands, Silver Skulls, Chaos Undivided (up to and probably including the Red Corsairs prior to FW getting ahold of them), and The Blood Eagles (CSM Warband of my own creation and in who's colors you see above) just to name a few. 

Back in the day of fire frenzying dreadnoughts, I changed it's weapons loadout from the then equipped twin-lascannon and missile launcher to the current twin-heavy bolter (a FW piece), and a dreadnought CCW with heavy flamer to minimize my own casualties. That said, I distinctly remember it killing three of my own chaos marines during it's battlefield-debut with these new weapons.

Damnit.

Anyways, skipping forward to the present, and this venerable model has begun the first stage of ritual cleansing in a bath of Simple Green. After a few weeks of that it'll be fully-stripped first of its paint, the old, skinny base as well as any incriminating CSM bits, before being refit for battle with loyalist marines once more. I'll be keeping the twin-heavy bolter, but given that dreads still suck in close combat, I'll be replacing the CCW arm with a missile launcher. This will relegate it to purely the role of fire support, but given that heavy firepower of any kind is generally lacking amongst the few survivors of my (now quite small) 40k armies these days, that'll be just fine I think.

And if it still sucks? Well...its a dread, so what did you expect from it anyways?

For the 1st time in my 20 years of gaming, I DON'T have a Space Marine army!

How did that happen?

Oh that's right: ebay.

Yes, this pic came from their ebay auction.

The most recent marines sold (the Storm Wardens) were ironically made up of almost all of the exact same models as I got 20 years ago in the 2nd ed 40k starter box. At my height (somewhere between 4th & 5th ed) I topped out at 19 40k armies! Don't ask where the hell I stored them all, because even now I can't figure that madness out. Currently, I have 3 (Orks & Eldar, both of which struggle to reach the 1500 point mark and my Grymn Militarum and friends who can't even reach 1k). Wolfy still has her Fem Fa'Tau though, which is easily the largest 40k army in the house.

What can I say, the twin travesties of 7th ed 40k and more recently the Age of Sigmeh have really strained my love of all things GW. However their redemption may possibly be in the near future. Ya see, unlike so many miniatures that have gone the way of ebay over the past year or so to keep the lights on, food on the table, credit cards at bay, etc., the Storm Wardens have a higher purpose. Their funds are going into a savings account, to await the day that plastic 30k arrives.

We've all seen the sprue pics, so we know its going to happen, the question is when. Luckily GW's marketing division likes to keep their customers completely in the dark, so who the hell knows. Right before Christmas is my guess. Regardless, I'm generally not in the position to make a triple-digit impulse buy (which often seems like GW's overall marketing scheme). Thus the Storm Wardens' funds will await that release. I may add to it in the intervening days/months/years as well...we'll see.

I do still have marines though. My current inventory of them is as follows:

Dark Hands/Subjugators: I have the periodically retired predator that I got an honorable mention with at Gamesday Atlanta some years ago, along with my Subjugators Librarian. Not sure why I kept him, I just like the mini I guess.

Exorcists: Yes, the accursed Matt Fucking Ward still exists, in my game room...I forgot about that model until just recently actually.

ANGRY MAHREENS!!!: Floyd Uberson is the only one I actually painted, and the only one I have left...and he's really fucking pissed off about it!!!

Aurora Chapter:  How in the FUCK can there still be a damned Aurora scout sniper left in this house?!?!?! I've sold them to Sweden (literally), given them away, repainted them and then given them away, and yet there's another half painted, headless one in the fucking mini case! Its like a god damned conspiracy or something...

Techmarine: He's a 'non-denominational' techmarine, meaning he's bereft of chapter iconography as I got tired of switching/repainting his shoulder pads (you can see him in Floyd Uberson's link above). He has 2 heavy bolter servitors that have been primed green for years now.

Blackshields: My former Emperor's Children, 30k contingent. Currently I have the recently painted Centurion and 5 recon marines (a.k.a. Scouts), a Techmarine with a conversion beamer along with a pair of Servo-Automata flunkies to serve as ablative wounds for him. I also have the now former Captain I killed Draigo (11th pic down, fighting some losers...), swimming in simple green who will be demoted to a mere grunt, an original rhino that's swimming with him, and my original predator which is the very first 40k model that I ever bought (in another year, that tank will of legal drinking age in this country!).

Storm Wardens: (3) bikers, of which only one is assembled and painted. These are the first minis my beloved Wolfy bought me, and thus they have sentimental value, yes even on the sprue.

Red Corsairs: with the demise of my Chaos marines, Centurion Niro has found himself retired to my Hall of Heros awaiting the day he can scratch the cowardly name of Tigurious off of his Murder Sword...

*****

I was going to further list the chapters I've fielded in the past as the number far exceeds the total number of marines listed above, but...I'm kinda tired and its getting late,  so screw it.

Maybe some other time.

6th ed redeux?

o/

As I said last week, this weekend I took my Spess Mahreenz to the FLGS for a game of 40k. Mac was there with the Red Corsair army I'd given him, along with some reinforcements he added, all of which looked amazing! Indeed, so much so that I tried to convince him it was a loan, and I wanted them back but as compensation he could 'borrow' my Storm Wardens and Angry Marines to paint for awhile.

...sigh...

No, he didn't buy that line of bullshit but did offer to play against me at least. I did take several pics of the army but alas, I had shaky hands syndrome (can I blame my bronchitis for that?). As such quite a few photos were of no use. Thus I'm no sure how coherent the following bat rep will be (not that mine are ever the most coherent to begin with...).

1500 points, one of the old missions w/o the stupid cards...the one with 1 objective each. No psykers either, so really it was a rather enjoyable 6th ed game with a few minor tweaks to the vehicle damage chart, charging into terrain, and apparently rending is only AP2 now (making my Eldar snipers even worse than they were last week). Sorry, no pics of the deployments either, to be honest I think I just flat forgot to take any...

This was the only showcase pic that wasn't blurred all to hell. Here, the Cultists prepare to unleash the hounds (Spawn).

Unleashed they were, only to be charged by my Dreadnought on turn 1. The Spawn couldn't hurt the dread, and it settled into an oh-so-rare and happy state of winning in HTH...

Turn 2 and an already damaged Hellbrute Charged in, to try and save the hounds for some even rarer dread on dread combat!

1 Hull point lost and the hellbrute goes down, leaving my dread to return to his original targets!

My Captain lost his tactical combat squad to these Raptors with a mark of Slaanesh, though he did kill their champion in the challenge.

A turn or two later, the techmarine and another chewed up combat squad tried to save him, but his Relic blade succeeded in finishing off the Raptors, who finished him off in return. The rest of the I4 schleps could only watch in horror...

Having disembarked from their rhino, and wading thru all sorts of fire, the Angry Marines slaughter their way thru the cultist horde.

The Chaos Lord with the Axe of Blind Fury tries repeatedly to climb the wall and take my objective (in the tower one level above my tac squad), but to no avail. He would fall to overwatch fire before succeeding. That said, he did wipe out a Dark Hands' Sternguard Squad earlier, so he probably paid for himself at least.

Having wiped out the cultists, and run down the Obliterator, the few surviving Angry Marines spot what looks to be a beer cooler on the top level and advance to take it...

Here we have Mac, painter extraordinaire and heinous Chaos warlord who informed the triumphant Angry Marines that the objective only contained diet coke! Enraged they hurled endless obscenities in his direction!

I do believe my dread had found his happy place, as he never left this combat till the bottom of turn 7 when he finished off the last Spawn.

Bereft of its storm bolter, the Angry Marines rhino, after multiple turns of going flat out tank shocks a havoc squad out of its cover (pancaking one in a death or glory attempt)!

Unable to contain himself from the diet coke treachery, my Angry Marines leader: The Fist Fucker, calls out the Havocs and kills them all in glorious combat!

 End result: I had both objectives and had tabled Mac's beautiful army. Huzzah!

However as a parting note: before anyone comments that I only like 40k if I'm winning, after my game I dropped right back into my usual rant mode along with Bob, who was suffering under stupid psychic phase and it's near-impossible to deny-the-witch BS.

The Red Corsairs in all of their Glory!!!

So, as some of you may recall, a little over 2 years ago, I was given an amazingly converted Red Corsair army by one of my readers (a concept that still boggles my mind!). However aside from painting a model or two, I never did anything with it and eventually passed it off to Mac, one of my friends here locally. Mac is, at most maybe 19, and is easily the fastest the painter in our group. Likewise he's arguably the best painter we have as well. Indeed, if you'd like some of his painting tips, check this out.

Mac is a bit of an elitist in that he won't bring an army to the FLGS unless its fully painted, so we haven't seen the Corsairs till this past weekend. In their battlefield debut, he fielded 1k of them against my GF's FemFa'Tau (and was victorious in doing so). Here's a gallery of the minis:

You can see why this guy left the Space Wolves: he brushes his hair!

He added some Raptors to the army, and the flesh hounds function as spawn.

Looks like there's another Fallen Angel to add to the Dark Angels' list...

Love the way the red just pops on all of these guys!

Check out that free hand work!

The full 1k. He still has another 500 or so points to go!

Okay seriously, given the speed with which he paints these models, and considering the level of quality, I think Mac ought to look into starting a painting service in order to finance his hobby (at his age, this game is beyond his pay scale!). I mean, wouldn't you guys pay to have an army that looks like this???