Blood for the Blood God

I have weeks where I paint and weeks when I build. This was definitely the latter- sensory overload of forgeworld and a battleforce arrived which had me cutting and gluing my fingers most of the night. I have done some serious damage in the past, you would think I would start wearing thumb protection when I build.


I tried something new on these two deathguard, trying to keep the shoulder pads and just switch out the arms. So I can go for some plasma guns or just keep them normal. Seems to have worked but it takes a little more work to make it fit. I may try this on some of the terminators.



Went magnet happy as usual, trying to build a sorcerer. I was going to use the ravenguard figure, but I really don't think I want to tear up all the detail.

I may have found the right pieces after digging around through some bits. Will have a unit to go with him soon, I like the idea/theme for him and his unit, hopefully it turns out.



and I brought out the librarian I never finished painting so long ago. tore off the stormbolter and with the help of a plastic hand I pinned Lysanders shield on.



(side note- Yay GW for finally releasing a Nid FAQ!) also I may be up for a tournament soon.

Chaos on the loose!

So we had another battle today, Sean brought 1500 of marines. Similar list to his last, he dropped some items to try out some new. I brought out the chaos, and was rather losing my morale when I had them lined up on the table edge. I guess I'm used to orks or guard, heck even marines I manage to have a lot of units. Here I was outnumbered and outgunned as I looked across the table. I thought at least this would give Sean a victory, I figured I would be lucky to get halfway across the board.
I had:
Daemon prince, nurgle/warptime
sorcerer of slannesh- lash and a unit of chaos marines with meltas
berserkers in a Landraider
Plague marines
3 obliterators

Sean had:
Captain and tac squad w/ rhino
predator
whirlwind
dread w/ lascannon/missle
scout snipers

Reserves-
rhino/tac squad
vindicator
landspeeder w/hvy bolters
dread w/ plasma cannon/missle
assault squad


We ended up with capture and control with spearhead, chaos got to go first. My plan was to attack with the landraider of berserkers, prince and chaos marines with sorcerer. I left the plague marines out of sight below the objective in ruins , the oblit's stood high up on the obj with a clear shot of the table.

Amazingly the Landraider and prince got into the fray around his objective, the sorcerer managed to lash his tac squad out of cover. The chaos marines took heavy casualties getting across, they were down to a meltagun, champion and the sorceror. (I definitely need them in a rhino.) I ended up with 2 troops on his objective, the landraider still unscathed nearby, they made easy work of anything in the area.

On the other objective the obliterators took a pounding from most of the units that came in from reserves. Really the ruins should have collapsed around them with all that fire, the plague marines remained out of sight below. The oblits took out the vindicator, 5 assault marines, a rhino, then withstood a charge of the three remaining assault marines. Well worth the points, I lost one out of the three.

We pretty much called it at the end of 5, wasn't looking good for marines to get the objective.

Some highlights: Sean's Vindicator got to fire before blown into a firey wreck!! the daemonprince charging into combat to try and kill the captain (who was doing a fine job of slaying berserkers), who valiantly remained for a round or two after. Predator with autocannons and bolters shoot a unit of 11 down to 3 over several turns, only to fail to wound the last 3 for the rest of the game. A chaos marine managed to get within range with a melta and blow up a whirlwind. The berserkers managed to hit with 33 attacks on the round they assaulted, 24 of which wounded. I ended up killing 4 marines, two from the sergeant's power fist. Sean made a total of 14 saves.

I still don't see how I pulled this one off, I think most of the problem was Sean's rolls. I think if he concentrated more firepower on the Landraider, things wouldn't have been so bad on his objective. Putting half his force in reserve helped him get closer, but it also split his force and rounds of being able to shoot. As for taking my objective, he would have been better of just trying to contest it.

Overall I was amazed at the performance of the army, oblit's are a must. As are plague marines, hopefully next time they get to do something besides guard duty. I may have to squeeze in a rhino for that third troop to move faster. I felt like I managed to control the pace of the game, even tho I lacked numbers.

Lazy week

Not much done on the painting this week, side tracked with the Maiden concert and a game. Managed to get few more berserker/world eaters base coated. Started another objective marker, magnetized it if we ever bother to play Space hulk. I will probably finish up all the objective markers this weekend. If I don't get side tracked getting my FW stuff.

Marine on Marine Action

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So Sean headed over for another round of 40k using what I think was almost the same list as last week. I ended up going with the themed marine list of what I had left over. It was a scout heavy list, with some deep strikes thrown in for fun.
going off memory here:
1 captain in terminator armor with claws
5 thunder hammer/storm shield termi's
5 vanguard 1 power fist/ 4 power swords
2 dread's with multi meltas in a drop pod
2 5 man scouts in landspeeders
Telion and a unit if snipers and missle launcher
5 scouts with bolters w/ teleport homer

Sean's marines were almost the same as last week
1 chaplain in termi
7 termi's in a landraider
2 tac squads in rhinos
vindicator
whirlwind
predator with autocannons

We had some interesting outcomes, and some rather futile rolling as usual. It was 3 objectives, so I knew it was going to be a tactical game.
My dreads failed to shoot but did ok with assaults, my vanguard vets were outstanding, Landing on target and charging into some tac marines.
I had a unit of 5 scouts manage to hold off 10 tac marines for 3 turns before finally losing. Telion managed to help a missile launcher destroy the vindicator gun, and his rending shots took out a whirlwind. My camo cloak scouts were exceptional, going to ground for that bonus cover save.

I managed to bring in the last landspeeder and take one objective, while the other 2 were both contested. we ended on turn 5, it may have been any ones game if we had rolled more turns.

Over all I like the scout army, Telion did ok but I will definitely try him again. Lack of troops to fire at really made him rather useless once I lost the missile launcher. I'm not sold on the terminators either, I will probably drop them for a different elite choice. I definitely need to roll better with my anti armor.
The hand to hand scouts did amazingly well against tac marines, the speeders were unimpressive with multi meltas but they got the scouts where they needed to be. I will definitely try this force again with some minor changes.
Thinking I will go up to the 4 drop pods, maybe try out some stern guard.

My chaos is close to hitting the table.... so close.

Chaos and ale.

After the game yesterday It reinvigorated my need for chaos, "shooty" is fun but I need some serious assaults! Once again the Legion has moved to the front of the desk and the paint is flowing. I think using chaos will be a more level playing field for us, or it could be the exact opposite.

Pretty much finished up the landspeeder storm, I will probably sneak some more marines in soon. Still taking my time with the prince, working on him in between things. Primed a landraider, finishing up a gunner for it , and the skull champ is almost done. I dug through some more of my bits and trades and started assembly some more units, forgot I had more berserkers.



The Legion is starting to take shape, with one last order from forgeworld and the brokenforge, I will easily have enough. I wanted a fantasy world look to them, only seems natural to combine my love of vikings and marines into chaos since I am not a space wolves fan. That square base above is Sven, the general of my viking army for WH ancients. I can only hope may chaos legion does half as well as they did.

Right Turn Clyde

So Sean loaded up a different marine list, and I brought out a mixed guard list for a fun but frustrating battle. We used an 8x4 table for capture and control, with dawn of war deployment.

Sean won first turn and picked his table side. The Marine objective was placed on the 4th floor near the center of the table. Scout snipers took positions around the dead marine objective. The commander, a tac squad, and rhino guarded the main floor.



I set up the Guard objective on my far left corner of the table, a unit surrounded the wounded guard objective with the HQ chimera sitting behind. On the far right I set up another guard squad in a building, its autocannon aimed right at the center building.



We ended up with a yin and yang effect, the marines came on in force on the left side with some in the middle. I brought my main force in the middle, with a small force on the left to hopefully hold the building.




The Marines entered to my left with a landraider full of termi's with a chaplain, a vindicator, and rhino full of marines. In the center two predators drove in to help defend the center.



I decided to split most of my force, just using two guardsmen units to back up the HQ and other unit for defense. In the center I deployed a vanquisher with Pask and leman russ, hoping to use the long ranges to my advantage. Along with them was a platoon commander in a chimera and some foot slogging troops.

My plan was to hopefully overpower the marines center position with sheer firepower, hoping to be able to walk in and take the objective with veterans in a vendetta without much work. The only hard part was my left side, was it strong enough to hold off a landraider full of terminators and the rest of his force?


The game ended up going 7 turns, much too long but it helped the guard slip in a late victory. I need to work on speeding up my troops and the timing, I cant always rely on a turn 6 or 7.

In the center it took much longer then I hoped to shoot most of the troops down. I killed the commander finally at round 6, with units able to finally run up to the objective by the turn 7. My tanks were less then stellar but they did lay down some damage. The vanquisher gun rolled 1's the entire battle(not even Pask can do much good with that.), thankfully the lascannon on the front made up for it.



On the left small arms fire pretty much dealt most of the tac marines and termi's. A late arrival of Marbo in turn 5 helped. His demo charge was a dud but his assault was rather vicious, not only did it slow the marines I think he cut their numbers down well.

I think Sean isn't sold on landraiders and termi's, they still died to the overwhelming flashlight shots. The vindicator failed to fire the game again, its ass was hanging out from cover and was hit by a Pask lascannon shot, losing its main gun.

Predators died without doing much good, they are definitly fragile units. They did have a hard time shooting through armor 14 tho. I think I will see more then one vindicator soon, and more heavy weapons for busting up Guard armor.

Detours Galore

I didn't get as much painting done as I wanted to, although I did get a lot of other things done in the end. I discovered another container of magnets so I went to work switching out my old dread arms for the new. I have all but one last metal dread to finish, and now I have some rather large powerful magnets left over. I may use then on a display board or find another use for them eventually. You can see the outline of the old magnet on the dread arm below, big difference.




Don't ask me why I am on a space marine unit of all things, I have chaos and Gaurd to do. Yet I love the landspeeder storm, and want to get at least one of the two finished. I threw a magnet on the hood, and some weapons and should be ready to go by next week.



Still lugging away at chaos, the skull champ is base coated and ready for washes and some highlights. The guard Veterans with shotguns are almost done with the remodelling. Hopefully next weekend is more painting and less crafting.

Lower gear

I haven't taken a full photo of the Guard since way back in 4Th edition, Since it was up to 3 storage shelves i thought I would get it all on the table for a group shot. Pictures aren't the greatest but the army is far from complete anyway.
I still have a ton left to do and finish up, this might be why switching armies is never a good thing.

Couldn't get a really good shot of the group but this worked out the best. The Baneblade is far from complete, I was hoping to get some actual led lights put in there for fun effects.



Most of the elite choices I haven't bothered with, can still see the ugly green 3rd edition era bases on the ogryns. Still need to get some more catachan rough riders done. Heck I think the ratlings are all thats complete.



2 full platoons, with 3 veteran teams, special weapons and heavy weapon teams. Couple more chimeras will do nice.






Here is some of the past commanders and commanders to be. Threw in the Inquisitors, baldy performed well in 4Th edition, slaying an eldar avatar was a nice career highlight. Not sure if my newest Inquisitor will get on the table before the new rules, but we'll see.

Check your mirrors.

Found my first GW model I ever painted, I'm guessing somewhere around 91-92. I think i used a mixture of oil and acrylic and sealed it with a rather glossy coat.
I had painted varios D&D mini's and some west end game star wars prior to this, but this was the beggining of a small eldar army for rogue trader and second edition.

Magnets

(If your a Juggalo, you may need to skip this due to the concept of magnets.)

I wanted my marines to have the ability to switch out weapons and use all those left over bits., so I went a little magnet happy over the years and moved on to using it on other armies. I have found some fun tricks that work and others that haven't.
ALWAYS pay attention to the polarity and what way you are gluing them in, if you do it wrong it will be obvious. Make sure you glue all the items in the same way to make them interchangeable.
Plastic and resin are your best bet, I have managed to use metal to some success. Weight of the pieces can be an issue and sometimes weapon will droop. I had this issue on a metal termi and even a plastic carnifex.

I found that drilling out the hole is better then just gluing the magnet in place, it provides a snug fit and wont need as much glue. You can practice on thick sprue pieces with your drill, find the right depth and mark your drill bit if needed. Marine arms are good to start with, you can cover up mistakes with the shoulder pads you apply later. If the hole is not lined up correctly, you can usually glue the shoulder pad into a position to cover it correctly if the arm is too low or if you manage to drill through the entire arm. Generally aim for the center and go slow watching the depth so you don't go too far. Being too far is better then too shallow, you can glue the magnet flush and it wont be a big deal.



Here we see the 1/8 drill bit lined up with the magnet. If you drill it smooth enough it will be a snug fit so you wont need much glue to hold it in place.

The easiest way I found is to take a stack of magnets and glue the first piece in, you slide the stack off so the glued one wont try and follow.

In this lower picture you can see the sizes of magnets I have used. The largest on the bottom are way too powerful and I have since stopped using them. From switching out large items like dread arms all the way down to infantry arms or even heads, there is not much you cant magnetize. If you can find contact points and get a drill in there, you can get it done. You can see a metal greyknight arm on the left, it seems to work pretty well for being metal.

for the small ones I use magcraft disc magnets, they come in packages of 100 sizes are 0.125 diam 0.063 thickness part number nsn0566 with a 1/8 drill bit.
http://www.rare-earth-magnets.com/c-9-disc-magnets.aspx
Sizes and use can very, the larger the magnet the more strength it will have to screw up the glue job.

Slight chance of rain.

Well so much for some great battles, was an odd day of games. Nothing was worthy of any detailed reports. Had a newcomer bring some bugs, even though I warned him to go easy on the list and he may be playing new players. Oh well, sometimes people just don't click with others. He seemed rather rushed and anxious, I just assumed he hadn't played a game in a while. He got a little defensive at times, and I pretty much saw him pull a few fast ones on Kim. I doubt we will have him back.

First up was bugs vs Dark Angels(scorpions are stunt doubles until the DA are painted.) They rolled annihilation, with a spearhead deployment.


The marines set up a little close for my liking.


The bugs ran pretty much straight at the marines, crushing anything in the way. I noticed some assaults through cover that were failed to go at initiative 1, and there were some other issues.I was feeling bad at this point, he was obviously out to win and wasn't going to give a new player much of a chance.



Above was probably the highlight of the game, scouting genestealers moved in, while 5 lone terminators had teleported in to guard that very flank. They easily repelled the xenos scum with a few rounds of shooting and lead a charge to finish them off.

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Next up was Darkhands vs orks, 5 objectives and another spearhead deployment. Sean tailored a list for my orks, and had some good target practice most of the game. Highlight of this game was 3 killa kans who managed to march down the length of the battle field. Losing 2, the last remaining one charged into a shooty dread and was finally stopped with tac marines with grenades. At one point both dreads were simply kicking at each other. As always, all my rokkits shot wild and failed to do much of anything when they did land.
The nobs took the far objective, everything else was clear and one contested.


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I am definitely bored with orks, love to paint them and occasionally stomp them across the field, but I need to get back to using some tactics. They are just too blunt. Also we tried out 3/4 of the new table, definitely need to finish it and get some terrain pieces made that aren't city fight stuff.