Moar Armies on Parade 2018

Armies on Parade 2018 has been and gone and as mentioned I couldn't actually get in store on the day due to family commitments. On Monday I nipped in to collect my figures and there was still this board on display so I had to get some pictures as it was absolutely stunning.

I think this might have come second overall and it's one of those armies that when you see it you think, yes I would love to play/have and army like that - even when you don't even play that game!

Such attention to detials and all the little touches, like the static grass, clumps of flowers and mushrooms.

From my social media browsing I felt AoP 2018 was a much more pleasant affair. Plenty of small scale Parades being celebrated alongside amazing dioramas. In fact I only really saw one negative comment because someone felt they'd been misled about the date being this weekend and so hadn't been able to Parade with a board they'd been making for more than a year or two. Not entirely sure why they couldn't now Parade it in 2019 but it seemed the hobby community was overwhelmingly enjoying the spirit of the event.

And that was confirmed by the staff at GW Manchester who couldn't have been happier to have had my army in-store. We had a nice long chat as I packed up where I promised to make the effort to be there next year.

I'm not sure what I'll be doing but hopefully it'll feature mostly things that have previously been unseen and although the board will be made of my gaming terrain I'll see what I can do to come up with a new a dynamic board that still tells a story.

I had thought at one point to take the Tyranids in their entirity as it's a new audience and whatnot but I think something new would be more appropriate this time and I can't imagine how I would transport all the nids. Regardless I may well have an Age of  Sigmar board with whatever Shadespire Warbands I complete...

Armies on Parade 2018

Everybody knows I'm a huge fan of Armies on parade so you'd be forgiven for assuming I wasn't entering this year as I've been unusually quiet. There's a number of reasons for this, firstly I'd written an article about AoP for the Warhammer Community team covering many of my previously expressed views on the essence of the event. Sadly it wasn't published but I'll keep on trying.

Secondly I haven't actually entered anything new. You may recall my local GW Southport closed down and last year the Free Radical Collective were my entry. This year they've ambushed the GW Manchester Arndale and this makes me feel rather odd. I'm genuinely disappointed I haven't anything 'new' to enter. I've been through this before when my third time with the 'nids was disparaged because it was their third time and it was deemed 'lazy'. Yep, we sensitive souls cut deep.

The fact is though this Army is Parading in front of a new audience and it is all about showcasing your army. I'll say it until I'm blue in the face [even at the risk of summary Inquisitorial execution as Xenos scum] AoP is about taking part and if I don't enter something that has been created new I don;t get to join in - simple as.

That said I really wanted to understand if this sort of multi-entry approach was somehow contravening accepted painting competition etiquette. So I contact this years Golden Demon Slayer Sword winner Paweł Makuch at Monstroys for his opinion on the subject:

Indeed I do take my works to as many comps that I can. I don't see why would that be wrong. You have spent a lot of time on a piece/army and would like to enter in two or more separate places and hopefully be rewarded. It's not that You are cheating, it's still the same work, that have costed X many hours to finish. For example I spend around 300-400 hours on one competition piece (sometimes even more), and I couldn't bring them to different places I probably wouldn't go at all, or would make 1 in a year, and not 3-4. I think it's both interesting for me (us painters) for the audience, and for the competition itself, that there are hundreds of quality works. Couple years back I probably wouldn't be so sure, but now, when I know how much effort and time is put in creating such stuff - I dont have any objections, in seeing same piece in more than one competition.

Indeed classic car competitions feature the same cars all the time. Someone doesn't lovingly restore an old Bentley, enter it in a Concourse, and then start again with a new Roller next time [some might but many stick to what they've got]. And it would appear Paweł is not the only world class painter with this view - multiple Golden Demon award winner Richard Gray entered his Cerastus Knight Lancer in both Golden Demon Classic 2017 [winning Forge World Best of Show] and Salute's Best of Show [both fully deserved],.

Bottom line I should stop feeling guilty about this - it's sharing the hobby and that's all that counts. :)

Anyway, unfortunately I can't actually be in-store today to join in the celebrations - I am however taking my son to Chester to look at their university so that should be fun and I'll catch up with all the gorgeous hobby on my return, check out the 40kaddict facebook group for some choice Parades I've already seen.

Deatwatch Overkillin'

When I went round to Liam's we had a game of Kill Team, with his son taking Skitarii and I used his Genestealer Cult. It was an interesting revision of the game I was particularly interested in the oversized tokens which could be streamlined a little bit to keep track of you actions.

However, we also had a game of Deathwatch Overkill. We started off the first mission, which I still believe you have to be some kind of special unlucky to lose as the Marines. Unfortunately I seem to have misplaced Jetek Suberei and Garran Branatar so he was reduced to taking these guys:

• Ortan Cassius - Ultramarine Chaplain
• Rodricus Grytt - Imperial Fist, Frag Cannon
• Drenn Redblade - Space Wolf, chainsword
• Jensus Natorian - Blood Raven Librarian

Cassius is pretty tough though so I don't think there were any disadvantages to this choice. I think at this stage he's already killed a Neophyte on the left and two Acolytes on the right.

It became clear Liam had grasped the importance of controlling my ambush points with Redblade and Cassius securing most of the right one and Natorian the other, although there was room just for my an Aberrant and Acolyte to arrive. Another Aberrant and Acolyte came in from their deployment having. Mining Lasers and Neophytes rushed the Ultramarine and Space Wolf.

Who blasted them to pieces with area effect weapons.

The Librarian was only able to take out one cultist, luckily for him it was the Aberrant

I think I managed to wound Rodricus Grytt but he healed himself while Cassius came forward to offer support, killing the Acolyte and Abberant.

More Cultists arrived but Cassius had joined Redblade to prevent more ambushes from that entrance. In response the section was booby-trapped while my Cultists lurked offboard.

Having spotted the charges Cassius and Redblade were forced out of the ambush point but still managed to kill the two Acolytes nearby. Grytt and Natorian also killed two Acolytes on the other side of the board.

But the Blood Raven had overstretched himself and the two remaining Genestealers managed to find chinks in his armour and bring him low.

With righteous fury at the loss of his brethren Cassius crossed the board taking on 5 Neophytes that had just burst from the depths.

Thanks to a Gambit bringing on more Ambushes there were Cultists coming from everywhere.

But Cassius blasted the five Neophytes apart while Redblade took out two Acolytes.

A further Acolyte bit the dust which gave Liam the win.

As usual we still played out the turn, even though the game was decided and the mangy Space Pup bit the dust for my own satisfaction.

Once again a really fun game, of course it gets better when you have access to the extra models, both deathwatch and Cultists, use the bigger board set ups and have a bigger deck of cards to play with. I really like the game, it feels a lot easier and quicker to play than the likes of Space Hulk and the Broodmind deck offers just the right amount of tactics without being too complex and gamey. I'd love to play out all the missions one day.

Genestealer Cult - Abominants

Back when I was first building my Genestealer Cult models I realised that I might need an Iconward. Although the model was greta and all I had a plan to kitbash one. I had a spare Rat Ogre from the Island of Blood [?] set. I'd used the other one for my Skaven Blood Bowl team but I figured this one with two Genestealer heads might look like some über Abberant [Übberant?] that could double as an Iconward. Well they only went and made an Übberant, sorry, Abominant. Now you can see though that might still be value in my kitbash [once I attempt it] as that Rat Ogre is almost 'Primaris' scale to the Abominant.

Although I'm not about to mix my Astartes scales I'm quite happy to have a crack at doing this at some point, there'll be a scything talon arm underneath his bladed arm. Now I know things seem a bit random and hectic with all these things at the moment but what I need to do is prep a lot of stuff, get it based and primed ahead of the colder weather. Then I can focus on the Knights in a few weeks and when things get tough I've little projects like this to fall back on.

1750pts battle report - Genestealer Cult & Iron Hands v Death Guard & Ad Mech - game 1

Double Trouble 3 and Alex From the Fang's doubles tournament replacing Blog Wars. 875pts with random pairings but all match-ups are Battle Brothers. Once again my recollection is pretty hazy so for the most part enjoy the pictures, the commentary will be secondary ;)

I'm running my Genestealer Cult for the first time ever. I've got a Patriarch and 12 Genestealers, a Primus, 4 Abberants [2 picks & 2 hammers], 10 Acolytes, 11 Neophytes [with Grenade Launcher], 10 Neophytes [with Grenade Launcher] and my 2 Scout Sentinels [with Heavy Flamers and Chainswords].

I'm paired with John Purves and his Iron Hands - 2 Redemptor Dreads, 2 Venerable Dreads and 2 Techmarines to keep them healthy. The opposite side was Dave Irving [who I played at DT2] with Ad-Mech and Matty Longmore [who I played with at DT2] running Death Guard. Here was our table setup with some pretty decent terrain thanks to Element Games North West Gaming Centre.

I set up the Patriarch and Purestrains in ambush, the Primus and Aberrants also hiding together and the Acolytes too. This left me with the two squads of Neophytes to screen objectives and board control while John had his Venerable Dreadnoughts sit on our objectives and Redemptors prepare to push forward. Lastly my Sentinels prepared to Scout forwards to capture the objective behind the rock outcrop.

Unfortunately Dave and Matty got to do their Scout move first and the Dragoons captured the first objective before the game had even begun. They were going first but we stole the initiative though! The Sentinels went in for the kill, but their Heavy Flamers were ineffective.

Their Sentinel Chainswords even more so. Seriously they are not worth the 2 points, why do the Sentinels only have 1 attack? Surely 2 or 3 for something that size? Anyway, they did nothing and one of them was struck down but he blew up causing a Mortal Wound on the Dragoon and the remaining Sentinel. By the close of turn 1 we'd only managed to capture 2 objectives, and our other shooting had been pretty ineffective. 

In return Dave and Matty managed to blast one Redemptor to pieces with massed fire from the Kastellans and Kataphrons, plus the Blight Hauler.

The Dragoons continued to attack the last Sentinel and killed it, again it exploded in a ball of flames. I was beginning to think the Cult had jury-rigged it to blow up [that would be a cool stratagem, apparently Nurgle has something similar]. DG & AdMec turn one score 3 VPs.

My ambushes turn 2, the Aberrants and Primus arrive 9"+D6", getting a 4 so only 5" away from the Poxwalkers holding an objective 

I was struggling to fit the Genestealers in, with them coming in alongside the Dragoons but still 9" away.

Acolytes also appeared behind enemy lines, pincer manoeuvre for the Poxwalkers but out of range of Skitarii who get to overwatch things from reserve within 12"! I charged both my units in. As you can see the Poxwalkers had two lines double stacked but the Aberrants in particular were in luck as I got to employ Nick Nanavanti's consolidate tactics because you can see that they were quite spaced apart, with room for their bases to slip through, get past that first line and attack the back line, getting closer to the objective.

Five Poxwalkers remained at the end, which was when I found out the Primus buffed those Cult units within 6", something I would not forget afterwards but would have possibly made a difference in wiping out this unit. However, we scored 4 VPs this turn, with the Redemptor holding the other objective.

Unfortunately he was left exposed to the Blighthauler and was destroyed, together with support fir from half of one of the Kastellans, their robotic gaze swinging round to add 1.5 robot's worth of shooting at my Genestealers.

The Stealers were wiped out, serves them right for not making their charges on the Dragoons. The melee in the top was interrupted with the Poxwalkers killing a few Acolytes and replenishing their numbers. I would subsequently wipe them out and send the remaining Acolytes after the Skitarii Snipers in the hills and the Aberrants toward the last Kastellan, I think his twin destroyed by the Venerable Dreadnought. The Primus had to stay behind to hold the objective, meaning he couldn't give his buff. I think John used the last CP to reroll and kill the Kastellan which meant when my Aberrants go 4 for a 5" charge they had no options but to remain stranded and suffer destruction from the shooting of the Kastellan.

I'd retreated my Neophytes back to hold one objective while the others held the one the last Venerable Dreadnought had been shot off. Unfortunately Typhus made a 10" charge, he killed a lot of them but they held on for 2 turns I think, thanks to some lucky morale rolls. The Blighthauler, having wiped out the remaining Techmarines then went for the other Neopyhtes.

With the Aberrants gone, the Acolytes exposed after killing the Skitarii and the Primus on his own it did not take much for the Kastellan to eradicate the threat in their own deployment zone.

Typhus's Terminator bodyguards finally caught up to him and their foul infections spread through the Neophytes wiping them out too and finally capturing the objective.

This left us tabled and Dave and Matty in control of the centre of the board. Typhus had been a little overzealous, I think Dave forgot the game ends immediately meaning they lost the chance to hold the objectives for longer and score more points, unless he did know in which case he was playing fluffy instead of trying to rack up points for the overall win. 

But the game ended and somehow we'd actually won on VPs 13 to 12. Obviously we lost on Blood Points, I'm not even sure how many we killed, I forgot to take a picture of my scoresheet. Either way it was a good game, John had to take a lot of shooting while I sat off the board and sadly did not weather the firepower as well as Iron Hands are renowned for.

John, Matty, 40kaddict, David

Still, good game, great people, everything Double Trouble stands for.

If you're interested in any more of my Battle Reports, point your cogitators here: www.40kaddict.uk/p/battle-reports.html

Deatwatch Overkillin'

I finished all the Deathwatch Overkill boxset [except the 2 Purestrains] quite a while back but never had the chance to play since. Luckily I bullied Ben in to having a go, he really likes the Deathwatch Marines I did so I didn't have to twist his arm too much. We started off the first mission, which I still believe you have to be some kind of special unlucky to lose as the Marines. I think he chose a couple of guys at random and some just because he liked the models but his squad was:

• Jetek Suberei - White Scar biker
• Ennox Sorrlock - Iron Hands combi-melta
• Edryc Setorax - Raven Guard, jump pack and lightning claws
• Garran Branatar - Salamander Termintaor with Flamer, Melta-gun and power fist

The Free Radical Collective emerged from the bowls of the underhive.

Interestingly discovered these are open gantries, not enclosed rooms as PeteB and I always played - so no LoS blocking walls!

Deathwatch attack and I lose all but 3 hybrids in the middle of the board.

Jetek surges ahead to confront the cult deep in their territory.

But he had been lured into an ambush as two Abberants surged out of the gloom. Jetek struck one of them dead but couldn't kill them both.

I had a gambit that allowed models to strike twice, which was sufficient to put the White Scar down through weight of attacks.

Branatar and Setorax had struggled to keep up with their watch brother, covering their rear.

Having killed the biker the cultists advanced to add weight of number against the three remaining Marines.

And yet more cultists appeared from the hive.

The Kill team had to respond

Branatar's flamer immolating four in one blast of holy Promethium. Meanwhile an Abberant skulked off into the network of tunnels to ambush the squad when and where they least expected.

The cultists that survived continued to press the 3 marines in an attempt to swamp them. Two Abberants appeared next to Ennox Sorrlock and Setorax, but Setorax was attacked from his flank as a third Aberrant appeared from the tunnels.

Setorax was able to counter the newly arrived Abberant and further kills ensured that the Kill Team met their target of 30 dead cultists.

It's difficult to convey but this was in the balance at one stage. Although I hadn't played in a while I was quick to suss how some of the Gambits could work quite well and used them to great effect - overwhelming Jetek Suberei for instance but Ben brought it back at the end as my cultists sold their lives cheaply.

With his eye in we set up mission two to control the four vox devices oin the top right board. Ben chose a new Kill Team of:

• Garran Branatar - Salamander Termintaor with Flamer, Melta-gun and power fist
• Ortan Cassius - Ultramarine Chaplain
• Rodricus Grytt - Imperial Fist, Frag Cannon
• Drenn Redblade - Space Wolf, chainsword
• Zameon Gydrael - Dark Angel Plasma Pistol and Power Sword
• Antor Delassio - Blood Angel, Jump Pack, chainsword and hand flamer

With seven cards to draw and five to play my ambush looked pretty impressive first turn.

But the Kill Team was more than ready as they moved forward to secure their hive section.

All the ambushes in their deployment were wiped out.

But some long range speculative fire was able to take down Rodricus Grytt and remove the Frag Cannon from play.

The squad advanced deeper into the hive and on towards their objective.

The Vox Controls were guarded by two Aberrants and hybrids but I had to stall their advance and moved the Aberrants forward.

These beasts were backed up by a Purestrain Genestealer and yet more Hybrids as they attacked the squad, which had just leapt the chasm between the gantries [while Branatar arrived via teleport].

Further support moved into the Vox room to defend the controls. Meanwhile, a pair of Hybrids shadowed the Kill Team on the far side of the gantries and more cultists arrived from the Deathwatch deployment zone.

With brutal efficiency the Deathwatch purged the Xenos, Chaplain Cassius inciting new levels of violence in his squad.

With their path clear the Kill Team deployed into the Vox room. Two more Aberrants and two Purestrains rushed to prevent them controlling the Vox, they surged forward and the attack twice gambit allowed them to take down the Blood Angel.

But he was quickly replaced by Brannatar and all my heavy hitters were destroyed, with my next round of ambushes being mainly Elites - the Magus and Primus. The Magus managed to cast Dominion on Branatar, removing his potent flamer from combat. Meanwhile an Aberrant reached the fray thanks to a double move Gambit that put Drenn Redblade in the meat grinder.

With the third squad member dead there was no way Kill Team Cassius could complete their mission to control all four Vox and the game was over.

Ben was really unlucky to lose Rodricus Grytt so early on, without that casualty he would probably have made it. It's also worth noting when the 2 Purestrains came on I had another ambush for a third, now you only get 2 Purestrains in the box but obviously I've loads of Genestealers so we initially had the third one come on but their efficacy was unreal and would have wiped out two squad members in one turn, so it was easy enough to pretend it never happened, rewind and stick to the units you get in the box in future.

Anyway, Ben liked it so hopefully we'll continue the missions next time.