Exodite Shuriken Cannon WIP

Mornin,

Well, still flush with my Ork victory last weekend, I thought I'd stick with the Xenos & see if I could get back-to-back wins. A tall order I know, but worth a shot. I rarely use my Orks, and their wins are even rarer still. My Exodites are pretty much in the same boat, although Rogue.Trader.Voril is coming over to the tri-cities this weekend, and that's an easy win for anybody (...snicker...). So my odds look good...

Eww, look at that mold line!

When pulling out all of my futuristic Elves to make a list of Exodites allied with Corsairs, my last Guardian heavy weapon platform kept falling apart. It was only just kinda stuck together/dry fit. However that's rather annoying as every time you touch the model the gun falls off.

 Thus it became this week's painting project.  These photos were taken just prior to inking which darkens/dirties the model up considerably No, 'dirty Eldar' is not an oxymoron, its an Exodite. That mold line (or two) doesn't scream at you like it does in the photo, but will have to be remedied anyways. Cameras seem to add mistakes to minis like they add pounds to people.

What's the Exodite translation of: MOAR DAKKA?

My other two guardian platforms (EML & scatter laser) are in more or less the same exact pose, gunner & all, so with thus one I tried to make it look a bit different. Not only does the gunner have a different arm (holding a gun rather than pointing with the thought of 'shoot that one Mr. Warlock?') but I angled the cannon on the platform as well. There's not too much you can do with these, but hopefully it makes it a bit more dynamic looking.

While I ought to have made this a bright lance as my Exodites have a woeful lack of anti-tank weaponry (at least beyond the 12" range), I'd rather use the Farseer's 'guide' power on either the Dragon Knights (Wraithguard) or Avengers. So I opted for the cheapest option with this squad, as much for variety as anything else.

Hopefully I'll have this finished up this evening.

Green iz BEST when fightin' da oomies!

o/

I brought Da Long Wayz Dezert Groop down to the shop  for a game this weekend. Da boyz do need to to give a good krumpin every now and again. I tweaked my list to include the mega tank (no I still don't have any grot tanks, deal with it) as with the sudden demise of Morristown's game shop I could go for more of a fun list as i wouldn't be playing a tourney. Generally I just make a list for the weekend and would bring the same army to both shops. Turn out was light as it was just myself and Screech. Though Neverness did show up a little late and graciously offered to play combat cameraman, and for that I'm grateful as it was a glorious victory for Da Groop!

1500 points, short table edge to short table edge, Relic scenario with it being placed atop the Aztec-like pyramid at the center of the table (which just seemed appropriate). I had Orks, no allies, wiv da Ay-jis duhfense line and (still WIP) quad gun, vs IG/Tau also with an aegis line though no quad guns. You'll note below that some of the IG are in a bastion, it was just terrain that was already on the table when we got there. Below are some of the characters involved...

I know nuffing, NUFFING!!!

This is SHULTZ!!!!, my new slaver and Da Eleet Grot Mount'n Duvishun's standard bearer Kalashnikov, they were amongst the first to die. Despite this, da duhvushun was instrumental in securing victory as some mountaineering was required...

Shaso R'myr (or however that's spelled). I gave this as a present to Screech for graduating high school some years back (god it makes me feel old to say that...) and I was never able to replicate that dry brushing color. Though I did try on  my old Space Wolves to no avail. I forgot about R'myr's flechette discharger...that was a costly mistake.

My beloved old warbuggies. These only took part after I realized I had forgotten my Big Mek 'Fix-a-flat'. That said, they not only survived (minus one hull point) but made a good nuisance of themselves, especially to the Fire Warriors.

Anyways, to da krumpin!

Da boys deployed in a line (with a Deff Kopta, and Da Masta Cheef and his boys in da short bus outflanking due to the 'master of maneuver' warlord ability). Da Grots deployed in da fort (aegis) while the IG hid behind their aegis wall and the Tau settled into the woods.

these sections are the same approximate length as the aegis.

 In typical ork fashion (speed freaks especially) turn one was a direct frontal charge of vehicles with gunz blazing (to little effect) and da grots left da fort to start scaling da pyramid to get da relic.  In return, as is typical of the Tau/IG, nothing moved aside from R'myr and his crises suit bodyguards. First blood was da green trukk, and da stupid basilisk dropped an earthshaker round taking a hull point off of a Kan, and killing several grots including SHULTZ!!! and Kalashnikov. The grots didn't care though, they didn't like those guys much anyways.


Turn 2 saw da grots getting close to the top of the pyramid, while da deffkopta and da short bus arriving, one on each flank (again, gunz blazing and doing nothing). Da unpainted boys hopped out of da red trukk and charged da crises suits and were all but wiped out, with the last few getting run down. ...sigh... I remember when choppas actually were worth something... Da oomies also popped da Armorcast looted wagon and some shoota boys along with it.

Da oomies/Tau put a wound of da deff kopta and blew up da short bus. Despite his boss pole Da Masta Cheef and his boys were pinned with 2 rolls of 11! Pinned and staring at a basilisk and veterans in point blank range they were screwed. But then...da oomies made a mistake! Dey charged da boys!!!

I have no idea why (and later on Screech realized this was a mistake but it was already too late). Overwatch fire from the orks actually killed a few on the way in too. The vets were wiped out for the loss of just one ork and better yet, they were no longer pinned!

With confusion raging in da oomie backfield, I continued my armored push on my left, while the right was pummeled by Tau firepower. Da green trukks boys (what was left of them) were able to charge da crises suits and break them, and run them down. Meanwhile the kopta popped the hammerhead. Da grots also siezed da relic!

Firing a broadside looks cool, but (as usual) didn't accomplish much...

At this point it was starting to look like a rout. Da Masta Cheef split off to take out da basilisk while da boys went for da other vet squad (later wiping them out) and da fire warriors broke from shooting. Da kopta would later charge and wipe them out as well. Seeing his demize, da stupid oomie commanda had his team's lascannon fire & blow up Da Grot Spee purely out of spite! Bastard! The Valkeryie also arrived and suddenly it was the skies over Baghdad! With tracers blazing into the air and hitting nothing!

So unfair...and da looted wagon went BOOM!

Da grots almost had the relic back to da fort and I found myself with the good problem of running out of targets. Da Cheef meanwhile entered da bastion to get da oomies on da roof who were awaiting the valk for an EVAC.

Wiv da relic secured, da Cheef (who was oblivious to this fact) punched through the roof hatch, to find nobody! Da oomies had gotten into da valk and were getting away! He shot at it kinda like that scene in Star wars where Slave one flies off from Cloud City (except da oomies were shootin' back!).

All in all it was a good krumpin' of da oomies, after what initially looked to be another, typical reenactment of Pickett's Charge (for those not in America and have no idea what that reference means).  This is the first time I've won the relic scenario. The last time the orks tried this scenario resulted in 3 kans and a furioso fighting on top of the relic, and when the the boys arrived, the relic was little more than dust...

All in all everything either worked well, or it just didn't matter (i.e. Da grot spee and killa kans which did next to nothing but move around).  Still have no idea as to what Screech was thinking in charging da pinned boys as that kinda spelled his doom. I suppose da Blood God took hold of him or something.  It was a lot of fun though and once again my thanks goes to Neverness for taking all of these photos for me.

Victims Eternal

Mornin,

So, as one would expect given all of my various (if not endless) side projects, I'm having a lot of fun with the 6th ed allies system. The latest allied contingent that I'm adding to that list are Eldar Corsairs. I now have a copy of Forgeworld's Doom of something unpronounceable but starts with an 'M' and am rather liking the Corsair list within.  They ally the same as Craftworld Eldar and can ally with their Craftworld (or in my case Exodite) brethren.

Kindova shame really. I had 10 of the FW Corsairs which I was using as Swooping Hawks, but thoroughly disappointed with them, I had sold 5 back well before 6th ed was released. Had I known allies were coming I may have kept all of them.  No matter, the jet packs are an option not a requirement. So for about $2 a model, I managed to get eight 2nd ed. guardians with lasguns (now lasblasters) to use as Corsairs. Currently they're slow boating their way here from England.

To get my Corsairs going, I painted up my chosen HQ choice this week, the Void Dreamer. I figure, as small a contingent as I'll be fielding, there's little need for the Prince to be bothered helping out his mud-slogging cousins. Instead one of the bridge-crew flunkies will lead the way. Void Dreamers are halfway between Farseers & Warlocks stat wise, and in the fluff are often the Helmsmen/Navigators of the Corsair vessels. So yes, like Star Trek, all of the important crew members leave the bridge to go to the planet below...

I got this old Farseer again from ebay for $10 or so, shipping included. His base is caked with glued on sand which was disappointing as I'd be basing over it, but I wasn't inclined to fight with cleaning it all off. Given that he's the navigator sort, I wanted to paint him to reflect that in some way, so opted for a black helmet with white gems representing a star field. Curiously, the gems alter their positions as he navigates the ship thru space, however only the Void Dreamer knows how they do this...

He Also has one hellova big sword slung across his back! I could just give him the standard old Witch Blade, but what good is wounding on a 2+ when it hits no harder than a right hook? Instead I'll have it be a Void Sabre, which confers +1 strength and has rending. So at least once in a while it'll be a worthwhile weapon. 

As always, I like to make up some fluff for my various units, and so while it'll have no real bearing on their use in game, I came up with the following :

Ben Franklin & Longshot are both inquisitors in my rarely used GK horde.

I've started some base coating of the corsairs with jet packs, not much to look at though right now. They're just black & purple...like a bad bruise, which is kinda fitting as they see themselves as 'victims' anyways...

12 SOLID HOURS of Battletech!!!

lol, not quite but close...

My ragged survivors...

Hive Angel came over Saturday and we played a very large battle which, we as usual didn't finish out because after 12ish hours we'd had enough. We did stop for dinner at one point, didn't try to rush, etc. , still makes for a long game though. I took a lot of photos and he took copious notes meaning give him a week or so and he ought to have a battle report up on his blog.

Of special note was my infantry company. Going for maximum units, two platoons ended up without transports. Thus they spent the ENTIRE time running across the desert, while carrying LRM launchers, and no doubt smelling 1st. plattoon's BBQ encampment ahead of them (such torture). As such, while never shot at, I would imagine that there were many losses suffered due to exhaustion, dehydration & heat stroke. They must've really fucked up somewhere to deserve such harsh treatment, that or they have a very harsh commanding officer...

Listed below is my TO&E for all of my inner sphere minis. I used everything (Legion of the Rising Sun) barring the 2 heavy APCs & the Catapult. Also, in case its difficult to read, the black hexes represent non-existent units within the lances.

Eventually, it'll be a slightly under strength, combined arms battalion.

It was a good game, much fun was had and much carnage was wrought. Can't wait for that battle report!

So do you celebrate a Liebster with a lobster dinner?

I'll eat the taters and maybe the garnish, but otherwise that lobster died in vain...

Boy I hope not, I really don't like lobster and that's an awfully expensive dinner that I won't like. I did have fish sticks last night though, does that count? Probably not, fish sticks are at best just mediocre...

Anyways, as you've no doubt already surmised, I 'won' a Liebster award compliments of Da Green Skins (cuz dems knows dat Green iz BEST!). Thus, I send many thanks for both the nomination and compliments posted on that blog. Now, what is a Liebster you ask? 'Liebster' is German for 'favorite' (at least as far as I can tell), and I have no idea where/when this started (but I'll assume it was somewhere in Germany), and its essentially the internet blogger's version of an 'atta boy' or pat on the back, etc. I first heard of the Liebster a year or so ago, and didn't much care for the concept for no other reason than I didn't get one. Well, now I have and think its pretty friggin'cool!

Such glorious hypocrisy!

With any such award/recognition there comes a bit of  responsibility.  You must link back to whom nominated you, and nominate 5 other blogs with less than 200 followers (two of my nominees below are in question I'm afraid as their followers aren't listed). Those with more than 200 are apparently already well known enough to be 'above' a Liebster, and will have to vie for a Bloggie and/or a BOB (and good luck with that as you're league with he likes of Postsecret who like BoLS got so big that he had to buy a domain).

Perusing my blog roll, it was kinda hard to single out just five (and I hope these aren't limited to gaming blogs as my list isn't), but I did so and thus (drum roll please) would like to nominate the following blogs (in no particular order) for a Liebster as well. Welcome my friends to our hallowed ranks (though considering the talented folks listed below, I'm still somewhat at a loss as to how I made it here...).

The Kingston Lounge. While not a frequent poster, when a post is made it is definitely worth the wait! The photography is stunning, the history of the photographed sites intriguing, and the hopes to have said sites restored to their former glory somewhat idealistic, but it leaves you hoping they are anyways (this one's follower count is hidden btw).

The Galactic Empire. Wow! And I thought my hobby was sometimes tedious...but still, how cool is it to be making your own CGI Star Destroyers and Federation star ships! And only 10 followers? WTF?!?  It also amuses me that he refers to the minute details on his ships as 'greebles'.

Bigtank armor 1/15 Scale. Okay here's another jaw dropper! Sometimes tedious to follow given the minute & exacting detail he goes into in his construction processes (it takes upwards of a year or so in building a model...from scratch!), but the final product is simply mindbogglingly good! Honestly, the first time I saw his blog, there was a British Mk! Landship at the top & I thought "wow, that's a good photo of one of those'. It wasn't till I scrolled down & saw him behind it that I realized it was a model not a real tank! Seriously, having seen many a model vehicle in the various Smithsonian museums on this past spring's trip to Washington DC,  Big Tanks' models put them ALL to shame! Just a word of note, Google's tanslator for Polish is a bit...off, which can often make for some unintentional hilarity...

Shut Up Internet. Mark Fender is one of the hosts of my favorite podcast 'Thac0' (or perhaps 'the host' as the podcasting equipment is his). I found his blog via their forums and its a daily read. Topics are all over the place, Legos, role playing games, Lady Gaga, lately his series on how well 90's music has aged (or not) is a new favorite. Go & check him out, and the podcast (this blog also has the follower count not listed).

4th Company Librarium. I would be remiss to not have a dedicated, 40k centric, mini gaming blog in my list. However far from the 'token addition' this one is a good read. I started following this one during his series recapping the various chapters in the Badab war books and his thoughts on them. He has a very well painted/converted Executioners army among many others, and even does some commission work as well. His armies also stick closely to the fluff which (as a fluff bunny myself) is very appealing.

So there you have it. Again my thanks to Da Green Skins for the award, and again to all of my follwers/readers who remarkably find my little portion of 'teh interwebz' to be of interest.

{:-)

My Dark Apostle FINALLY won a challenge!!!

It only took four games to do so...

He might get paint after this weekend.

Ya know, I really want the Dark Apostle to work, its a fluffy unit, and I love the chosen with power maul mini which I use for it (rather than the actual 'I just got toilet papered by some rotten kids' mini GW made for it). However, it seems I'm always faced with marines of some sort (negating his AP4 power maul), or as it was yesterday, LOTS of Tyranids which have a serious lack of 'characters' to challenge.

MOAR DAKKA!!!

Another complaint, is that like IG sergeants, he can't have a bolter. Instead, if he's attached to a footslogging squad (primarily my 'Plasma-Death' havoc squad), he's useless till HTH is joined (and even then his odds generally don't improve). Instead just waving his mace in the air and screaming obscenities. The easy fix as you can see is I made the simple conversion of giving him a twin-bolter. Don't worry about how the bolt gets into the lower barrel's chamber, as this arrangement makes as little sense as that of the GK stormbolters.

I did get three games in this past weekend, and in my infinite wisdom I forgot to bring a camera to get photos of any of them. Typical. Its especially a shame as in my first game vs. Murl, we ended up with our usual HTH brawl involving 30+ models. During the game, my Nurgle lord, down to 1 wound achieved an Apotheosis! Whereas his Nurgle lord (and earlier a champion) were both 'spawned'! lol, one would ask what are the odds of that, well...it turns out, pretty good odds. It was a close fought game and ended in a draw.

My second game was Sunday in Morristown vs. Ben (who it seems I always end up playing out there). His Nidzilla vs. my CSMs. Games vs. Ben are always close fought slugfests, and this one (multiple objectives scenario, I forget which one) and this one was no different. It came down to turn 6, where my plague marine champion (my last 'troops' model) fought his last genestealer (and thus his last 'troops' model) over an objective, giving me the win. When its that close of a game, whomever won is kind of irrelevant. Its always a good game vs. Ben.  (oh, and my Apostle did nothing significant aside from making 4+ invul. saves like a madman!)

Game 2 yesterday was vs even more Nids (why is it that the CSMs are having to cleanse Morristown of Nid infestations?) Big guns never tire, short table edge deployment, and um...yeah, it was a blowout. The nids only had 2 shooting attacks, more or less making it a Pickett's charge kind of thing. He got first blood when a helbrute went nuts & charged the monstrous creature line solo, and then 2 tyrants and a carnie ganked the Plague marines. Beyond that, everything else went right for me.

I also found that tank shocking with destroyer blades gives a whole new life to the rhino, and yes FINALLY, the Apostle won a challenge killing off a Brood Lord. His boon of victory (rerolled as the first roll was an unworthy offering) was adamantium will (+1 to deny the witch). Having just killed the last enemy psyker on the board to get that, was just irony I guess (stupid, fickle chaos gods...).

With it close to 5pm and not wanting to wait to see who won the last game to go for a title of bragging rights only (and a 50/50 chance of fighting yet more nids), R.T.Voril & I decided it was 'chicken:30' (diner time) and quit the field. All in all it was a good weekend of gaming after my hiatus due to remodeling the bathroom (which came out great btw).

Return of the Greater Good...sorta.

o/

As I said a week or two back, I found half a crisis suit in my bitz box, and so I ordered the other half and painted it up last weekend. Here it is:

What's that? Looks like a plant, not a threat...

This will be my commander for my little Tau allied contingent. They'll fight alongside the Storm Wardens and Exodites. I've named him Commander Cold Shadow after a Tau story in the Best of Hammer and Bolter volume 1. In that story (written like a memoir) he used a modified stealth suit however that's not an option in the rulebook (it was a mission specific modification anyways).  It was a really good story and conveniently I read it about the time I found the suit bitz.

In truth, aside from a Gotrex & Felix  story towards the beginning (I never liked those) and 2-3 recycled stories (also towards the beginning) its actually one of the better story compilation books GW has produced. I've really enjoyed the majority of them, whereas usually its only half or so.

I have a half painted Devilfish, however I think I'm going to just get a Hammerhead turret sprue to upgrade it. Then all I'll need is a half dozen or so Fire Warriors, and it'll be a nice little contingent.  Being a lone commander, there's not much I can expect out of him, so I figured the twin-linked missile pod was the way to go.  No need to close with the enemy. The shield generator is for some survivability and the lens thingamabob on his other arm can stand in for a black sun filter and/or targeting array.