Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Armies on Parade

So thinking about doing an Armies on Parade and I got blown away by the black library // harlequin scene done up by some mad genius. Way beyond my painting capabilities- all those free hand curve sided squares- nope, not doing that. At best, I can do a bad version of John Blanche: dirty, grimy, scary.

So playing to my strengths, and what I like to field, and following my nose from the slightly competitive int the pure fluffy, I'm thinking of an army based on the "House of Ash and Dust", dark heresy module from "Disciples of Dark Gods". The 2 rooms depicted in the scene- sort of back to back would be the great hall with the Haarlock's crypt as the wall and the auditorium where the auction is held. These rooms are not exactly adjacent in the "map" provided to run it but they are the places where most of the combat takes place... think of it as a stage... a bit of artistic license with scale and positioning to make it all fit.

The "furniture" is pretty epic. Black mausoleum carved with blasted spaceships and burning planets, aged house gun servitor, all brass, cogs and decrepit flesh, saint bearing brazier of volcanic fire aloft.

Maybe a PDF gun rack with the poor planetary defence mooks pulling their shoddy lasguns out.

The auditorium is statues, bookcases, maybe a void shield generator, display cases, a big black cat statue

Some of these items are an ageis defence line, others are objective markers, maybe 2 might be Archeotech artefacts as per the main 6th ed rules.

Will all this fit on a 24" by 24" board? Good question.

The army lit I have compiled represents the main characters in the module. Would they fight as allies of convenience against an outside force like dark eldar or space marines raiding in force? Maybe. the biggest, maybe not is the  Slaught Overseer. He's likely to kill anything within arms length.

The rest certainly would until it looked like there was a clear winner..or they worked out just what the rest of the combatants were doing.

Greel- head mourner + the Sorrowful guild. Big dude with scythe and cultists. (typhus- bit over spec but hey, plague zombies to represent panicked insanity or just normal cultists)
Provost Bland, Planetary Defence Force, Menials, Servitors (imperial guard platoon and cultists with guns)
The Gilded Widow- clockwork bound daemonic machine seeking blood (maulerfiend)
The Children of the Kingdom. Not quite humanoid ghouls. (plague zombies)
The last Haarlock- tough rogue trader//bounty hunter dude with tricks up his sleeve (guardsman marbo)
Inquisitor and hench-folk (Commissar, priest, engi-seer and platoon command squad)
Any artefacts that decide to come out and play- for example the Halo Device could be a fully manifest sci-fi cthulu/necronesque vampire with wings (winged daemon prince)
Slaught Overseer- worm that walks in human skin (could make it a chaos spawn with extra toughness to represent.. it's toughness and effective mindlessness)
Captain Rubio and his hangers on. More imperial guard or cultist level mooks. (bah- more cultists)

Anyway, its like 70 guys. Also having trouble fitting on a 2ft by 2ft board.

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Rage of Khorne

This is an attempt at a pure Khorne Daemon list.
It is probably not that great. It does have 4 Monstrous Creatures at 1500 points though. I have a feeling it would either wreck-face or plummet badly ....

1500 Pts - Chaos Daemons Roster

Total Roster Cost: 1500

HQ: Bloodthirster (1#, 250 pts)
   1 Bloodthirster, 250 pts

HQ: Skarbrand (1#, 225 pts)
   1 Skarbrand, 225 pts

Troops: Bloodletters of Khorne (10#, 120 pts)
   10 Bloodletters of Khorne, 120 pts = 10 * 10 (base cost 10) + DG: Instrument of Chaos 10 + DG: Icon of Chaos 10

Troops: Bloodletters of Khorne (16#, 195 pts)
   15 Bloodletters of Khorne, 180 pts = 15 * 10 (base cost 10) + DG: Instrument of Chaos 10 + DG: Banner of Blood 20
      1 Bloodreaper, 15 pts

Heavy Support: Daemon Prince (1#, 250 pts)
   1 Daemon Prince, 250 pts = (base cost 145 + DG: Daemonic Flight 40 + DG: Warp-forged Armour 20 + DR: Exalted Rewards 30) + DA: Daemon of Khorne 15

Heavy Support: Daemon Prince (1#, 240 pts)
   1 Daemon Prince, 240 pts = (base cost 145 + DG: Daemonic Flight 40 + DG: Warp-forged Armour 20 + DR: Greater Rewards x1 20) + DA: Daemon of Khorne 15

Heavy Support: Daemon Prince (1#, 220 pts)
   1 Daemon Prince, 220 pts = (base cost 145 + DG: Daemonic Flight 40 + DG: Warp-forged Armour 20) + DA: Daemon of Khorne 15

I'd really like to find a use for skarbrand. Not sure this is it, but... it's worth a try.

Daemonwake

The idea behind this army is to make use of the warpstorm table in a one-sided ... shenanigan..

You actually have a lot of scoring in this list, I just don't know if it brings enough hurt. You get to re-roll on the storm table, then re-roll 2 of the "to-hit" rolls. I Just don't know if 2 strikes per turn on average makes it worthwhile. It is sort of flexible. Not sure if it does the job of clearing the board though. There is some shooting, some psychic, some melee and big scoring. Oh, and you are pretty much immune to the bad side of the warpstorm hits, bar 3 units.

Chaos Daemons Roster
Total Roster Cost: 1750

Primary Detachement

HQ: Kairos Fateweaver (1#, 300 pts)
   1 Kairos Fateweaver, 300 pts

Troops: Daemonettes of Slaanesh (10#, 100 pts)
   10 Daemonettes of Slaanesh, 100 pts = 10 * 9 (base cost 9) + DG: Instrument of Chaos 10

Troops: Daemonettes of Slaanesh (10#, 100 pts)
   10 Daemonettes of Slaanesh, 100 pts = 10 * 9 (base cost 9) + DG: Instrument of Chaos 10

Allied Detachment

HQ: Fabius Bile (1#, 165 pts)
   1 Fabius Bile (HQ) [Chaos], 165 pts

Elite: Possessed (10#, 260 pts)
   9 Possessed (Elite) [Chaos], 234 pts = 9 * 26
      1 Possessed Champion [Chaos], 26 pts

Troops: Chaos Space Marines (20#, 315 pts) Enhanced Warriors
   19 Chaos Space Marines (Troops) [Chaos], 272 pts = 19 * 13 (base cost 13) + Meltagun 10 + Missile Launcher 15
      1 Aspiring Champion [Chaos], 43 pts = (base cost 23 + Melta Bombs 5 + Power Sword x1 15)

Troops: Chaos Cultists (35#, 150 pts)
   34 Chaos Cultists (Troops) [Chaos], 136 pts = 34 * 4
      1 Cultist Champion [Chaos], 14 pts

Fast Attack: Chaos Spawn (5#, 150 pts)
   5 Chaos Spawn (Fast) [Chaos], 150 pts = 5 * 30

Heavy Support: Obliterator (3#, 210 pts)
   3 Obliterator (Heavy) [Chaos], 210 pts = 3 * 70

Need.. 10 more cultists, 3 more chaos spawn, Fateweaver, both units of Daemonettes, re-do fabius bile,
a lot of wrok here- could also do with re-doing the chaos marines. But it overlaps with other armies.

Planned Minis- Chaos Marines Tattered Fates

So in the past, a mini plan has resulted in bupkis. Never the less I am doing it again. This time- 3 related armies I'm aiming for, which I have actually fielded, or at least similar, and have a few models for.

So the ideas are as follows-

Daemon-engines Will Not Die.
The core of the army here is a lot of AV 12 with "daemon" and "it will not die" At 1750 it doesn't have a lot of scoring, but it does pull some evil shenanigans. It is also not spammy, in the sense that each unit is different, and actually have quite different functions. There is no instant win button here, but a big toolbox of nasty.

Initially I'm going to model this straight out of the box as GW imagined them.. easy for folks to see what is going on. But at some point I want to build clockwork-bound-warp-engines, and fit this out as "The Red Cages", and erasmus haarlock's minions. (see tattered fates, sinophia, quaddis, xicarph)

Chaos Space Marines with Black Legion allied detachment : Total Roster Cost: 1500

Warlord
Scion of Haarlock (1#, 85 pts)
   1 Chaos Lord, 85 pts = (base cost 65 + Melta Bombs 5 + Power Sword x1 15)

Pilgrims of Hayte (17#, 83 pts)
   16 Chaos Cultists, 69 pts = 16 * 4 (base cost 4) + Flamer x1 5
      1 Heron Mask, 14 pts

Beast House Slavers  (14#, 83 pts)
   13 Chaos Cultists, 69 pts = 13 * 4 (base cost 4) + Autogun x12 12 + Heavy Stubber x1 5
      1 Jackal Mask, 14 pts

Fast Attack: Heldrake (1#, 170 pts)
   1 Heldrake, Baleflamer 170 pts

Fast Attack: Heldrake (1#, 170 pts)
   1 Heldrake, 170 pts

Heavy Support: Maulerfiend (1#, 135 pts)
   1 Maulerfiend, 135 pts = (base cost 125 + 2x Lasher Tendrils 10)

Heavy Support: Forgefiend (1#, 175 pts)
   1 Forgefiend, 175 pts

Heavy Support: Defiler (1#, 195 pts)
   1 Defiler, Extra Power Fist (remove autocannon) 195 pts

Allied Detachment

The Spider Bride (1#, 165 pts)
   1 Fabius Bile, 165 pts

Haarlock Venom-Bound (8#, 114 pts)
   7 Chaos Space Marines,  Bolt pistols, Enhanced Warriors, 91 pts = 7 * 13
      1 Aspiring Champion, 23 pts

Heavy Support: Maulerfiend (1#, 125 pts)
   1 Maulerfiend, 125 pts


So to complete this I need a forgefiend and a second maulerfiend and 2 heldrakes...



Painting Record


So this my paint it and buy another record, sort of incentive to keep painting. So I can buy most plastic crack...






Saturday, August 24, 2013

Painting Scheme record for Relic

The minis in relic come in grey..

So I've added colour. This is just ot keep track of those colours for later touch-ups.

Commissar: Brass Scorpion, Pallid Wych Flesh, Black, Blood Red
Inquisitor: Rakarth Flesh, Gehenna's God, Skull White
UltraMarine: Burnished Gold, Caledor Sky, -chainmail to give the burnished some depth
Soriatas: Daemonette Hide, Runelord Brass, Wash of Balthasar Gold to give depth, Cadian fleshtone +pallid wych for skin
Rogue Trader: Sunburst Yellow, Shining Gold brushed with boltgun metal, all washed with cassandra, Tallarn Flesh
Psyker: Warpstone Green, Dwarf Bronze, Bugman's Glow
Ratling: Steel Legion Drab, Sycorax Bronze, Cadian Flesh tone, hair- khemri brown, all washed in devlan mud
Adeptus Mechanicus: Mechandrite Red, Leadbelcher, carroburg crimson wash
Ogryn: Astronomican Grey, Kislev Flesh as a wash, dry brushed with ice blue/kislev and the white/kislev
Calidus: Black, runefang steel washed with leadbelcher, wild rider red and cassandra yellow


Sunday, August 18, 2013

Painting in the works.

So I painted some stuff so that I would have some nicely painted oppionents, and so I can field Lamenters, Carcharodons and Dark Angels as the mood strikes me. *whack*



And I finally got round to pinning and assembling a Lord of Slaneesh who has been the closet, I mean cupboard forever.


Friday, August 2, 2013

Campaign Structure

Campaign Structure
So a friend of mine suggested an escalating series of battles, something like an escalation campaign. I wasn't particularly a fan of the Dark Vengeance battles. Although they were fun, you could look at them and tell who would win..

What I have in mind is a variant using the "Fall of Orpheus"

These are the elements I want to blend in:
1. The armies fighting have an effect on the battle (Altar of War) rules
2. The landscape or zone they fight in has an effect- planet A, asteroid belt B, planet C (Orpheus)
3. The battles start small and get bigger
4. The opponents have some consistent components in their armies
5. Objectives and storyline have an impact on the terrain and the outcome of the campaign but not on the power levels of a given side
6. There are different battle types- Patrol/Skirmish, Mortalis Fight, Battle, Cityfight, Planetstrike
7. Never play the same battle twice, never play relic(ball)

Not sure how to roll this into one, but I was thinking- one player picks the realm, the other picks the battle type, or something..

Monday, July 22, 2013

Eight Armies to Go

This blog is about my Warhammer 40k games and armies. This primary post will always detail what I am working on.

Currently, 750 point armies.....

So what I have here is eight 750 point Warhammer 40k armies.
The miniatures are assembled and mostly painted.
There is a very wide range of armour values here but a tendency towards melee. What is missing is a true horde army and a heavy mechanised approach, which tend to be a bit rock-paper-scissors, and will be in a following post.
These armies are designed to be sub-competitive, purely flavour or fluff orientated. Under some circumstances they may pull off a win but they are quite limited and each is tactically one dimensional.

Codex: Space Marines Roster - Carcharodons

Codex: Chaos Space Marines Roster - Cultists and Daemon-Engines

Codex: Dark Angels Roster - Dark Angel Gunline

Codex: Dark Angels Roster - Deathwing

Tyranids Roster - Genestealers

Codex: Eldar Roster - Harlequin Troupe

Chaos Daemons Roster - Mark of Khorne

Codex: Chaos Space Marines Roster - Panoply of Chaos

750 Pts - Codex: Chaos Space Marines Roster - Panoply of Chaos

750 Pts - Codex: Chaos Space Marines Roster - Panoply of Chaos

HQ: Chaos Lord (1#, 90 pts)
   1 Chaos Lord, 90 pts = (base cost 65 + Mark of Khorne 10 + Power Sword x1 15)

HQ: Sorcerer (1#, 75 pts)
   1 Sorcerer, 75 pts = (base cost 60 + Mark of Tzeentch 15)

Elite: Noise Marines (5#, 149 pts)
   4 Noise Marines, 107 pts = 4 * 17 (base cost 17) + Blastmaster x1 30 + Sonic Blaster x3 9
      1 Noise Champion, 42 pts = (base cost 27) + Doom Siren 15

Elite: Plague Marines (5#, 135 pts)
   4 Plague Marines, 111 pts = 4 * 24 (base cost 24) + Flamer x1 5 + Meltagun x1 10
      1 Plague Champion, 24 pts

Troops: Khorne Berzerkers (6#, 127 pts)
   5 Khorne Berzerkers, 95 pts = 5 * 19
      1 Berzerker Champion, 32 pts = (base cost 29 + Chainaxe 3)

Troops: Thousand Sons (6#, 173 pts)
   5 Thousand Sons, 115 pts = 5 * 23
      1 Aspiring Sorcerer, 58 pts

750 Pts - Chaos Daemons Roster - Mark of Khorne

750 Pts - Chaos Daemons Roster - Mark of Khorne

HQ: Bloodthirster (1#, 250 pts)
   1 Bloodthirster, 250 pts

Troops: Bloodletters of Khorne (10#, 100 pts)
   10 Bloodletters of Khorne, 100 pts = 10 * 10

Troops: Bloodletters of Khorne (10#, 100 pts)
   10 Bloodletters of Khorne, 100 pts = 10 * 10

Fast Attack: Flesh Hounds of Khorne (5#, 80 pts)
   5 Flesh Hounds of Khorne, 80 pts = 5 * 16

Heavy Support: Daemon Prince (1#, 220 pts)
   1 Daemon Prince, 220 pts = (base cost 145 + DG: Daemonic Flight 40 + DG: Warp-forged Armour 20) + DA: Daemon of Khorne 15

750 Pts - Codex: Eldar Roster - Harlequin Troupe

750 Pts - Codex: Eldar Roster - Harlequin Troupe

HQ: Autarch (1#, 110 pts)
   1 Autarch, 70 pts
      1 Mantle of the Laughing God, 40 pts

Elite: Harlequin Troupe (10#, 254 pts)
   8 Harlequin Troupe, 178 pts = 8 * 18 (base cost 18) + Fusion Pistol x1 10 + Harlequin's Kiss x6 24
      1 Death Jester, 28 pts
      1 Shadowseer, 48 pts

Elite: Harlequin Troupe (10#, 270 pts)
   7 Harlequin Troupe, 156 pts = 7 * 18 (base cost 18) + Fusion Pistol x1 10 + Harlequin's Kiss x5 20
      1 Death Jester, 28 pts
      1 Troupe Master, 38 pts
      1 Shadowseer, 48 pts

Troops: Dire Avengers (5#, 65 pts)
   5 Dire Avengers, 65 pts = 5 * 13

Troops: Windrider Jetbike Squad (3#, 51 pts)
   3 Windrider Jetbike Squad, 51 pts = 3 * 17

750 Pts - Tyranids Roster - Genestealers

750 Pts - Tyranids Roster - Genestealers

HQ: Tyranid Prime (1#, 80 pts)
   1 Tyranid Prime, 80 pts

Elite: Ymgarl Genestealer Brood (10#, 230 pts)
   10 Ymgarl Genestealer Brood, 230 pts = 10 * 23

Troops: Genestealer Brood (6#, 145 pts)
   5 Genestealer Brood, 70 pts = 5 * 14
      1 Broodlord, 75 pts = (base cost 60 + Implant Attack 15)

Troops: Genestealer Brood (6#, 147 pts)
   5 Genestealer Brood, 70 pts = 5 * 14
      1 Broodlord, 77 pts = (base cost 60 + Implant Attack 15 + Scything Talons 2)

Troops: Genestealer Brood (6#, 147 pts)
   5 Genestealer Brood, 70 pts = 5 * 14
      1 Broodlord, 77 pts = (base cost 60 + Implant Attack 15 + Scything Talons 2)

750 Pts - Codex: Dark Angels Roster - Deathwing

750 Pts - Codex: Dark Angels Roster - Deathwing

HQ: Belial (1#, 190 pts)
   1 Belial, 190 pts

Troops: Deathwing Terminator Squad (5#, 245 pts)
   4 Deathwing Terminator Squad, 245 pts = 4 * 44 (base cost 44) + Chainfist x1 5 + Assault Cannon x1 20 + Deathwing Terminator Sergeant 44

Troops: Deathwing Terminator Squad (5#, 255 pts)
   4 Deathwing Terminator Squad, 250 pts = 4 * 44 (base cost 44) + Thunder Hammer & Storm Shield x1 5 + Cyclone Missile Launcher x1 25 + Deathwing Terminator Sergeant 49
      1 Deathwing Terminator Sergeant, 5 pts + Thunder Hammer & Storm Shield 5

Fast Attack: Ravenwing Support Squadron (1#, 60 pts)
   1 Ravenwing Support Squadron, 60 pts = (base cost 50) + Multi-melta x1 10

750 Pts - Codex: Dark Angels Roster - Dark Angel Gunline

750 Pts - Codex: Dark Angels Roster - Dark Angel Gunline

HQ: Librarian (1#, 65 pts)
   1 Librarian, 65 pts

: Command Squad (5#, 180 pts)
   4 Command Squad, 95 pts = 4 * 20 (base cost 20) + Apothecary 35
      1 Apothecary, 20 pts
      1 Standard of Devastation, 65 pts

: Aegis Defence Lines (2#, 85 pts)
   1 Aegis Defence Lines, 50 pts
      1 Gun Emplacement, 35 pts = (base cost 0 + Icarus Lascannon 35)

Troops: Tactical Squad (10#, 160 pts)
   9 Tactical Squad, 146 pts = 9 * 14 (base cost 14) + Flamer 5 + Missile Launcher 15
      1 Sergeant, 14 pts

Troops: Tactical Squad (10#, 160 pts)
   9 Tactical Squad, 146 pts = 9 * 14 (base cost 14) + Flamer 5 + Missile Launcher 15
      1 Sergeant, 14 pts

Troops: Tactical Squad (5#, 100 pts)
   4 Tactical Squad, 61 pts = 4 * 14 (base cost 14) + Flamer 5
      1 Sergeant, 39 pts = (base cost 14 + Power Sword 15 + Upgrade to Veteran Sergeant 10)

750 Pts - Codex: Chaos Space Marines Roster - Cultists and Daemon-Engines

750 Pts - Codex: Chaos Space Marines Roster - Cultists and Daemon-Engines

HQ: Typhus (1#, 230 pts)
   1 Typhus, 230 pts

Troops: Chaos Cultists (20#, 110 pts)
   19 Chaos Cultists, 96 pts = 19 * 4 (base cost 4) + Autogun x10 10 + Flamer x1 5 + Heavy Stubber x1 5
      1 Cultist Champion, 14 pts

Troops: Plague Zombies (25#, 110 pts)
   24 Plague Zombies, 96 pts = 24 * 4
      1 Plague Zombie Champion, 14 pts

Heavy Support: Maulerfiend (1#, 125 pts)
   1 Maulerfiend, 125 pts

Heavy Support: Forgefiend (1#, 175 pts)
   1 Forgefiend, 175 pts

750 Pts - Codex: Space Marines Roster - Carcharodons

750 Pts - Codex: Space Marines Roster - Carcharodons

HQ: Tyberos the Red Wake (IA) (1#, 190 pts)
   1 Tyberos the Red Wake (IA), 190 pts

Troops: Terminator Assault Squad (5#, 200 pts)
   4 Terminator Assault Squad, 160 pts = 4 * 40
      1 Sergeant, 40 pts

Troops: Tactical Squad (10#, 170 pts)
   9 Tactical Squad, 147 pts = 9 * 16 (base cost 16) + Sergeant 26
      1 Sergeant, 23 pts

Troops: Scout Squad (5#, 75 pts)
   4 Scout Squad, 65 pts = 4 * 13 (base cost 13) + Sergeant 23
      1 Sergeant, 10 pts

Fast Attack: Land Speeder Storm (1#, 50 pts)
   1 Land Speeder Storm, 50 pts

Heavy Support: Predator (1#, 65 pts)
   1 Predator, 65 pts = (base cost 60 + Dozer Blade 5)

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Tau Farsight Review

I got sucked in. I bought an electronic codex.. because it was easy. An impulse buy. I don't own any Tau, probably never will. I might run a "battle suit army", but that's very unlikely. I'm more likely to run Necron... anyway

It turns out it this codex is quite good. I thought Iyanden was a bit light on, not worth the money. But farsight is pretty good, plenty of material. Colour me impressed GW.

So a synopsis of "Farsight Enclaves- A Codex Tau Empire Supplement"
First I think this is a supplement in the same sense as a sports supplement. You don't need it to play and it might make you more competitive.
It does scratch an itch of only fielding "Mecha" style suits that has been floating around for awhile. Your Elite X88 suits are now troops.
I think this army will be a bit more rock-paper-scissor. IF you bring Str 6 AP 3 or cheap poisoned weapons in spades this army could collapse in short order. One of the interesting things is that the vanilla suits are only 22 points but doesn't come with weapons- giving them plasma and a flamer hits you for 43 points- as much as deathwing terminators but without the melee or 2+ armour.. and str 5 doesn't mean a lot if you are WS2 and without a close combat weapon.
Their advantage over terminators is that they are jump-pack infantry. They can move around a lot. And you can upgrade them to have everything from 4+ invulnerable saves to skyfire
So I think you field (5 units of) them because you have to as scoring units, make them reasonably tough, keep them mobile, use cover and let the riptides bring the pain.
Interestingly there is lots of detail on "cities of death" and "planetstrike" addons as well as Altar of Tau ..err sorry Battle missions. I thought Cities of Death was dead as a thing. It's 4th edition right? Planetstrike is a bit more recent..like 2009... anyway, it's 5th edition.  Needs an update I say.
There are also a bunch of new bits of war gear and special characters. Special in the sense of, you can't change them, so like "special bus" rather than "very special". If you find one of the "one click purchase" units fits exactly what you need, that's great, because- no discount! Otherwise steer clear. I do like the fluffyness however.
There are also a "nice pics" and "cool story bro" sections.


Saturday, June 29, 2013

Warbecue

Pork Ribs

Molasses
Honey
Cayenne Pepper
Mustard Powder
Dark Brown Sugar
Lime Juice (or lemon)
Chili flakes (not much)
Ground pepper (heaps)
Minced Garlic
Worcestershire Sauce (or off the shelf bbq sauce)
Vinegar
Balsamic Vinegar
Spiced Rum

trying both "baby back" american ribs and "spare ribs"

Checked out some Carolina recipes, mashed, applied thumb

Photos to follow

Cooking as follows-
Marinade for an hour or two
Seal into foil in big heavy dish
Cook at 120c for 3.5 hours
Drain off juices and add extra sauce if required, boiling in a saucepan until thick
Baste ribs
Cook under grill until caramelised


Thursday, June 6, 2013

Imperial Armour Vol 12

This is a quick review of IA12. I'm doing it because this book has been a bit of a revelation to me and I almost didn't buy it. It seems a bit tricky to get people to agree to play against IA books in any formal setting so buying a big heavy glossy book of rules you'll never use seems redundant.

However. This book is more than just rules. It lends itself to informal play and does a really fine job at that. Note, I haven't played the missions/campaign yet.

So you get a bunch of fluff followed by campaign rules and then 3 army lists. -Death Kreig, Minotaurs and Mynark Necrons.

First the bad. I'm like the photographs and artwork in general, however I don't think the black (or almost black) background to the vehicle profiles is an improvement. Some of the necron vehicles looked ok, but none of them looked as good as the white backed images normally seen in forge world books. They are not bad, just not as good as the previous books- IA11 and Betrayal.
Maybe I'm biased, wanting diagrams for painting, in a sense, but I think showing detail is important, and this takes the edges off the art.
Secondly, I'm not convinced about the points values. I think a couple of models like the Hades drill at 50 points- down from 100 with 5 guys and the space marine sentry battery at 15 points each are a bit too cheap. Some of the units like kreig troops are more expensive but.. have pseudo fearless. I still get the feeling that Forgeworld put points costs on as an afterthought. I'm sure they don't but it's certainly not as finely grained as GW.
I don't mind paying a few points more and having a fluffy, underpowered army that looks awesome. It's if it's too cheap that the problem occurs.

I have 9,10,11 and Betrayal, all excellent but not as inspiring as this book for getting you to game- and in my case, build terrain. The difference here is that the battles in those books felt like one-off things you might do ..once.. whereas this campaign rules feel like something you could repeat and adapt for different races.

More later

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Landraider @ 500

So no sane or reasonable general would field a Landraider at 500 points.. so here's the not sane or reasonable list. Now blood angels codex is probably a long way out from being updated, I'd guess it will get as old as the current Black Templars eventually. So this rort may have legs. Cast Shield of Sanguinius on the librarian, affects all units in 6". When inside a transport measure the 6" from the vehicle. Form landraiders around librarian one blocking forward line of sight. Ally with Dark Angels and shroud to cause maximum frustration- 4 + cover save on landraiders...



HQ: Librarian in Power Armour (1#, 100 pts)


Troops: Assault Squad (6#, 315 pts)
   4 Assault Squad, 72 pts = 4 * 18
      1 Sergeant, 28 pts
      1 Land Raider, 215 pts

Troops: Scout Squad (5#, 85 pts)
   1 Scout Squad, 13 pts + Sergeant 23
      4 Scout, 62 pts = 4 * 13 (base cost 13) + Missile Launcher 10
      1 Sergeant, 10 pts


Skarbrand

For some reason, I really like Skarbrand. He's a cheap flightless bloodthirster that causes hatred and rage in ALL units within 12". That means if you want to get use out of him you need units that charge 1st and go 1st in close combat. I really don't know how you would do this. Slaanesh daemons is just more wrong than usual. Really big units of chaos space marines with mark of slaanesh in Storm Eagle or Spartan? Lots of little units of slaneesh chaos space marines with champions jumping out of dreadclaws and landraiders?
Anyway it's not very khorne-y. You could go for unmarked spacemarines and mutually assured destruction...
Possessed landraider with dirgecaster seems like throwing good points after bad.
 I had thought dark eldar but apparently they are just as scared of chaos as orks and necrons...

Anyway, getting the bloodthirster on the table at 500 points..

Bloodthirster 250
Bloodletters x10 100
Bloodletters x15 150

or

Skarbrand 225
Daemonettes 90
Sorcerer 60
Cultists 50
Chaos Marines 75

or

no skarbrand, but 2 daemonprinces under 500 points lololol

Daemon Prince (slaanesh) 155
Daemon Prince (slaanesh) 155
Daemonettes 90 with instrument of chaos 10
Daemonettes 90

Allies is a bit hard at 500 points, so at 1000

Skarbrand
Daemonettes

Dark Vengeance painted, now on to 500pts


so my regular opponent wants to start on 500 points


I have some armies I'd like to test, a lot of them actually and at 500 points I have the models to field them all...

Deathwing-
At 500 pts you can't field 2 squads of terminators and the special character to unlock them as troops, but you can fit..



HQ: Belial (1#, 190 pts)

Troops: Deathwing Terminator Squad (5#, 245 pts)
   4 Deathwing Terminator Squad, 245 pts = 4 * 44 (base cost 44) + Chainfist x1 5 + Assault Cannon x1 20 + Deathwing Terminator Sergeant 44

Troops: Scout Squad (5#, 65 pts)
   4 Scout Squad, 48 pts = 4 * 12
      1 Sergeant, 17 pts = (base cost 12) + Melta Bombs 5

Is this a clever army? No. Could it be fun, yeh  maybe.



oor

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Tyranid Recipe

I may have finally sorted this

Pick a sort of organic dark colour, like charadon granite (dark)
Pick a not totally white highlight, like pallid wych flesh (light)
Have an alternate like black

Paint the black parts

Dry brush heavily /layer light

Wash black ink on edges that need seperating or defining

Wash a mix of light and dark over the whole area except the black

Brush heavily the light again, with different patterning

Wash in dark only - very watered down

Spray undiluted dark in random spots to create patina and dappling  if required

Lightly touch up with watered down light

Pick out edges in white

Go back and touch up black with watered down black

Make "gleam spots" in white

Coat in thinned black and gloss mix

Add water effect and dark to gooey areas

Do electrical effects if relevant

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Recipes

All too often I do some paint job and then.. forget what I did when I go back 2 days later.

So paint recipes. With examples.

Crux Terminatus:
Mix Adeptus Battle grey and Scorched brown to get a nice purpleish gey brown base coat.
Wash with black and brown mix
Line and dry brush 2 layers of grey and lighter grey
Touch of deneb stone on the corners

Lamenters: (WIP- may not be yellow enough)
Iyanden darksun (ID)
blackline
base coat black on guns, rakarth flesh on parchment, scrolls
watered sepia wash
over coat pallid wych flesh on helmets, wings, checker bases
touch up ID
Mix ID with deneb stone and edge or dry brush
wash pallid wych areas in sepia, then drybrush with white-scar
drybrush black with a dark grey/blue and then add leadbelcher to that brush until the edges of the black are metalic
gems in mehiston red+ orange
seals in khorne read, highlight with evil suns scarlet, wash with carroburg crimson


Great Industry

So after that spurt of great industry I then...
finally got round to starting my exodite eldar...

You know.. these guys...


What do you mean you have no idea what I'm babbling about? but but.. :))

Anyway, a few small purchases and a bit of a test model..

The legs look a bit goofy- I might use the supplied dark eldar ones for most of them. Small scale stirups are looking really hard to pull off well. I think the chair will look suitably majestic // crazy. They are meant to be purist eldar hill-billy princes and princesses, after all.

Happy with the guns
 So that is a counts as stormbolter and force halberd up the top and titansword with stormbolter down the bottom. Because, yes, this is Draigo-Wing. Then need a bit of filing and filling but the shapes and sizes work.

Dark Vengeance painted

The entire boxed set is now painted to tabletop fieldable quality.
Had a couple of games with it, the ones out of the box. Not bad. Chaos got done like a dinner in one mission :)
So I have
Cultists


Dark angel marines


Raven wing


Deathwing



Chaos chosen

Note, the chaos chosen and pretty badly painted, but I just would not field these guys. Way too expensive. I might use some of them as champions at some point, at which time they will get a repaint to go with the individual squad they lead.


And old models painted to go with them...
More Death-wing 

and more dark angel marines


None of these an army make...

Lots of Progress

1st of all
I have a new paint rack. Awesome laser cut acrylic from back to basics. Mine is in clear red and plain clear.




Very happy with this and couldn't recommend them more.
http://www.back2base-ix.com/