Dad's Droid & some Cog Boys

 o/

#snodgrassart

At this mini's 70mm-ish scale, the large grassy tufts look like regular ones that you normally see on a 28mm mini's base. 

First up for this week I have a gone fishin' robot that I painted up for my dad, who's birthday is later this month. I got this in a subscription from snodgrassart.com. My dad loves to fish and this seemed perfect for him. I'm hoping he'll like it. 

The omnispex wielding grunt is in the middle, flanked by a pair of regulars. Note the dead tufts on their bases; clearly this is a result of their leaky radiation issues. 

Yeah, those unit decals are looking a little sketch. It's a good thing that they were killed before my Smurfs got a good look at them...

Next, I painted up a trio of Skitarii Vanguards for my little Ad mech allied contingent from the Expansionist Forgeworld of Hel. These three along with the rest of their little squad of six fought valiantly (albeit briefly) in a game that I played this past Friday. I'm hoping to have a bat rep for that up later in the week. 

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. 

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. 

Somethings are best left buried...

Papa Nurgle sends his regards!

With both the Incandescent Coyotes and Adeptus Mechanicus still smarting over their previous clash, both sides pulled back to lick their wounds and plot the next moves. The Coyotes kept a close eye on their adversaries, trying to discern their unseen motives. There appeared to be a techno-archeological operation in progress, and soon enough scout surveillance intercepted several garbled and seemingly frantic communications amongst the admech units.

Some things are best left buried...

It appeared as though combat was taking place within the dig site and so the Coyotes offered assistance in dealing with whomever the unseen assailants were. Having previously attacked Mechanicus forces unprovoked, the Mechanicus refused aid with a simple binary blurt that was translated to: Piss off!

Overflights of the excavation area spotted an unearthed temple of some sort and the legions of Nurgle battling over and around with Skitarii security detachments. Seeing traitors was all of the incentive needed, and their assistance wanted or not, the Coyotes entered the fray!

This game kind of came together at the last moment, and as such Mike & I were running carbon copy lists from our last game. That is, with the sole exception of him switching the useless assassin out for one of those ugly, admech chicken-walker things. Since this was to be a 3-player free-for-all this go round, we opted for a central objective (the center of the temple complex) as the objective. 

It would be worth 1 VP if controlled uncontested in the player's command phase. We also used random initiative for each round which jumbled the turn order around a bit. Lastly, we allowed shooting into hand-to-hand combat so long as your own troops weren't in said combat, with randomized hits. 

My deployment, with scouts and assault marines in reserve. 

Rob marshaling his forces of Nurgle.

Surprised at being photographed during our last battle, the Adeptus Mechanicus was a bit more camera-shy this week. 

turn 1 and the Rhino rush is on! 

BLARRGH! 

(I've been fighting against this bastard for more than a decade now)

Leading the charge Rob's daemon prince advances with all sorts of auras and shenanigans going on around him. Meanwhile the Nurgle/admech crossfire quickly took out my transports. In return my massed bolter fire maybe inflicted a mere wound or two on the approaching daemon prince. 

However, 2 Krak missiles later and he was down for the count!

The slowly advancing horde of Nurgle. I/we chewed up that dread a good bit, but never managed to take it down. 

Deep striking out of nowhere, the assault marines charge into the Nurgle lines from the rear! Whilst they died to a man while inflicting no actual damage in return (typical, this is why I haven't fielded assault marines in three or so editions of the game), they did at least draw the plague marines away from the objective. 

Helping me to capture the first victory point!

But then...the cheesy as fuck Night Shroud Terminators arrived on the scene. 

HOLD THE LINE!

Surprisingly they did...sorta.

Thru some sort of techno-magical chicanery, the marshal and Kataphron servitors teleported into the Nurgle backfield, and the previously distracted plague marines forgot about the central objective entirely (no doubt confident that the termies would be fine on their own). 

My LT & wounded apothecary joined the scrum up on the objective whilst the other tac. squad and scouts pummeled the little gribblies, reducing them down to just one.

Seems like a fair fight, right?

Yeah, not so much. The beleaguered sergeant held his ground though!

Not themselves involved in the scrum up on the objective, the Mechanicum decided to weigh in with some long-ranged fire support, killing my lone surviving marine sergeant and irritating the Termies. However Rob's turn was next up, and he gained a victory point thanks to the Admech's interference. Due to the vagaries of turn initiative, Rob would gain a 2nd VP for holding the objective as he was the last to go in one round, only to then start the next!

Elsewhere, having failed to kill that last little gribbly, the dead rose from the ground re-entered combat, only to all be cut down once again!

This extended slog in the backfield would slowly grind both sides down, though ultimately was an inconclusive draw.

In total, the Termies would grab 2 victory points before being gunned down in the crossfire. Having tore the last little gribbly to pieces, my troops consolidated back onto the objective, but alas it was the last turn and I wouldn't be able to claim another VP. 

Not that that mattered as long ranged fire from the Admech lines swept the objective clear of my marines, killing all eight of them! 

In the end, Rob's forces of Nurgle had two VPs, I had one and the Mike's Mechanicus had zero. Thus the only coarse of action left for my Coyotes, was board their transports and once departed order the strike cruiser to bombard the planet from orbit!