Adeptus Titanicus - Titans in Manufactorum - Cerastus Knight Lancer

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've been #paintingwarhammer #AdeptusTitanics on my second Cerastus Knight Lancer. This had been built in August 2022 and I saw it as something of a palette cleanser

Base colours and the patterning are in place, metallics mostly finished off. Massive purity seal, which would obviously get stuck in the lance mechanism - which is why it's there!

The brassy bronze needs to be toned down a bit but the blessed verdigris will also help here.

Much more yellow and black stripes on this one

The press moulded vent on the floor isn't standing out particularly well so I need to find a way to make it more evident.

Lots of glow FX still to do, highlights and weathering.

Finished soon...

Adeptus Titanicus - Cerastus Knight Lancer - Big Build TO DONE!

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've quite a lot of content to try and fit into the blog, not specifically hobby, a few more #MESBG Battle Reports because we had a weekend of gaming at Otty's. Liam brought his finished titans for Adeptus Titanicus to have a practice game [see picture below]. In so doing he also got me a second Cerastus Knight Lancer as you can only take them in lances of 2, so I needed a second. So I built this fella up.

I also had a small vent that I'd press moulded in Milliput that I glued onto the base, it's slightly distorted shape perfect because a giant robot just stood on it! 

Don't know when I'll fit painting it into my schedule but wanted it logged before the end of the season and when I get to it I'll finish off my War Griffons.

 I think this is my last Great Big Big Build BLESSED VERDIGRIS Stamp of Approval for the Season. I have another finished item to add, but that will have to wait until after my review and I've had chance to write the blogpost and then we can get onto new badges!

 

#BattleReport - 1,500pts Imperial Knights v Astra Militarum

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity we've been playing #new40k Following our last game we felt upping the points and a bigger board might add the dimensions so far we'd felt lacking. Another 500pts got me a Crusader, which I felt needed the Rapid Fire Battle Cannon for the extra range I' didn't have with my previous games against Ben's Orks. However, he switched to his Astra Militarum, and tanks. Don;t worry he gave me fair warning and I knew a Thermal Cannon would serve me well against them, but I figured so would a Battle Cannon, plus, the range... we rolled The Four Pillars we took secondary objectives but *SPOILERS* there wasn't much point keeping track of score as it became apparent very quickly only one of us was scoring points 😔.

Deployment can feel like quite the disadvantage for Knights. As soon as you put your first model down you're committed. I very quickly surmised that I'd put the Lancer on the wrong side. Although it was a shorter distance to potential targets it was through cover, whereas the Questoris Knights had great field of fire but would be slower to get to Ben's backfield. 

But, I look at it now and realise I can't second guess this,because at the time there are few models on the board, so I've no idea where he's going to put stuff. It's easy to say they're in the wrong place, when you know what they're up against and where they're deployed. And, of course, you don't know who is getting first turn. Ben won the roll off and only moved the Leman Russ Demolisher.

As shooting started I used the Kolossi Eternal stratagem - My Preceptor blended his Ion Shield with the Crusader and Armiger so they all had 4+ invulnerable saves. Now he already had the Ion Bulwark of a 4+ but this would help the other 2 weather the incoming storm. Unfortunately, everything was just thrown at the Preceptor who did blow up but I used a re-roll to prevent any damage to the other Knights. Then with the Preceptor gone, the blended Ion shield fell and the two remaining Knights had to rely on their own shields. I think the Crusader took 2 wounds and the Armiger 4, the Lancer remained untouched.

My turn and the Warglaive focussed its attention on the Demolisher, with the shooting and assault combined it was able to bring it down to just 2 wounds, which felt like I was getting somewhere, although I'd hoped to destroy it. Similarly, I felt I made some conservative target priorities with the Crusader - it's Stubbers targeted one infantry squad doing enough damage to force a morale check, it's Ironstorm Missiles another squad for the same reason and Endless Fury and the Battle Cannon laid into Pask's Leman Russ to destroy him, but I think I only halved it's wounds or it was on 4 when the dust settled. The Lancer failed to charge the Bullgryns.

Ben moved his Techpriests up - one repaired Pask so he was back up to top tier. The other fixed the Demolisher and it also Jury Rigged itself for another repair so it was back to 6 wounds. Now in middle tier it didn't take much to destroy the Warglaive.

And with the smaller knight out of the way the weight of fire went into the Crusader, who had 15 wounds stripped off it!

Luckily I had the Machine Spirit Resurgent stratagem to be at top tier wounds on the Crusader. Once again putting all the big guns into Pask to try to kill him but I don't think I did. I then charged the Demolisher. I still couldn't stomp it to pieces. Meanwhile, the Lancer strode over the Bullgryns into the trees and assaulted them from behind, as well as the infantry squad. I'd wanted to take out the Leman Russ, but it was going to be a 10" charge, so went safe. I perfectly split the attacks to wipe out the Bullgryns and by the end there were only 3 Guardsmen left in the squad.

I think I missed pics of Ben's turn here, all the tanks offl-oaded into the Lancer and killed it, with no CPs to give me any rerolls. The Demolisher, still in combat with the Crusader, fired point blank and stripped another 4 wounds off it so it was now left on 5 wounds. In my turn I used my command phase CP to use the Machine Spirit Resurgent stratagem again. I think I fell back 1", finally wiping out Pask with all my 'heavy' guns

Then I multi-charged the Demolisher and the other Leman Russ. I allocated 8 Titanic Feet attacks to the Demolisher with just 6 wounds to make and all I managed was 3 wounds! I think the other 4 stomps went on the other Leman Russ and didn't damage it! And there was me originally thinking I should have had the 8 on the 'fresh' tank and 4 on the damaged but I was adamant it had to go and still 8 attacks couldn't cut the mustard!

With only 5 wounds left it was easy pickings to bring the knight low for my 5th successive defeat.

So, what have we learned? Was this a better game? It felt like it, it felt like I was making intelligent decisions but losing first turn and losing the Preceptor, which had arguably the best ranged anti-tank weapon [and 2nd best melee weapon] in the lance, was a big blow. But when you think how long it took me to kill anything, in fact I only killed Pask, the 3 Bullgryns and a smattering of Guardsmen and yet I was deluded into thinking I was doing OK. It says a lot that whenever I tried to score Ben's VPs in the Command Phase he never even bothered to write them down. He knew the inevitable - that his gunline would persevere while my Knights would not.

Which still leaves us unsatisfied. No doubt we will try again, but I thin k with such a wealth of other options - Blood Bowl, Deathwatch Overkill, Blackstone Fortress, Middle Earth Battle Companies and our much paused MERP campaign I don't feel too bad if we just patiently hope 10th edition. Or, perhaps in the shorter term the next Knight or Tyranid codex will solve some of the shortcomings of 9th we're both experiencing. This isn't just me, Ben has won 5 times now and clearly there's no joy in it for him because it's just point and shoot. We're going to try Deathwatch Overkill next.

#BattleReport - 1,000pts Imperial Knights v Orks

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity we've been playing #new40k in our last game we'd rolled Divide and Conquer we didn't even bother to keep track of score for game two - we were just playing fast[er]. The only variable we changed was I went first.

I moved up to secure an objective, my shooting was relatively successful - killing the Wartrike at least. I'm not sure how I'd split my fire but I know I debated it ad nauseum. The Preceptor's Las Impulosr is relatively short range so I think it may have taken out the Trike. There is the Capacitor Charge Stratagem that makes it Heavy 6 instead of Heavy D6  and he would have been within 18".

Unfortunately one vehicle down just wasn't enough with Ben calling the Waaaaaargh! This time with Ghazgkhull leading the charge. The Lancer was down to 19 wounds going into combat

And then suffered another 14 taking it to just 5.

I'm not entirely sure what this roll is for - it could be Ghazgkhull's damage roll on my Preceptor, or it could have been a saving throw but as he can only take 4 wounds it wouldn't be hugely significant him passing most of them. 

Regardless, the Knight fell and I was just left with the Lancer and the Warglaive.

The Lancer did not last long and in an act of charity Ben suggested we finish with Ghazgkhull versus the Warglaive, based on the premise he had in fact suffered 4 wounds already. In which case the Warglaive had to cause 4 wounds in shooting and 4 in combat.

Which he just managed to do, even with Ben re-rolling his invulnerable save. Ghazgkhull was dead but the rest of the Orks butchered the Knight for its audacity killing their leader.

Tabled again. So much for my cockiness. We had quite the discussion afterwards about the game and the experience we've had of 9th edition so far. If you haven't gathered, it isn't particularly positive. We can't seem to pin down yet, what is making it feel so one dimensional. Is it the size of the games, the armies we've got, our inexperience [both of the rules and tactics], the discrepancy in age of Codex, the terrain setup or even the board size. It's a topic for a post on its own, when we've played a couple more games. We're planning a bigger game - 1,500pts in the hope that might change the dynamic a bit. We'll use the bigger table to do so, but I'm not sure how that will change anything as the 'no-man's' land is still the same distance. 

But we're going to persevere, but it says something that with 4 wins under his belt Ben does not feel happy about the outcome. We've had fun and plenty of exclamations and drama but when that is purely on the outcome of a lucky or unlucky dice roll why do we need the figures or terrain? We need to feel like tactical choices have had a bearing on the game. So far it's just me being swamped, but maybe that's how Orks play?

#BattleReport - 1,000pts Imperial Knights v Orks

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity we've been playing #new40k [is that hashtag still valid?]. Ben and I decided to go for a bigger game this time - 1,000pts. However, an Incursion battle is still the small board, which looked very odd them's the rules. I brought some terrain and it may look like there is too much, in fact a lot of it is utterly redundant aside from it making the board difficult to traverse, which was the point. I thought it'd be interesting to have us forced into choke points, neutralising some of the advantages of my Knights and also the speed of the Orks - would it work that way though? We'd rolled Divide and Conquer as a mission and we spent ages choosing our Secondaries but I won't go into detail as we quickly abandoned any effort to keep track of score.

I had a Preceptor, my Lancer and a Warglaive. I thought I was really clever with my Heirlooms and traits. The Preceptor had Armour of the Sainted Ion for a 2+ save and Ion Bulwark for a 4+ Invulnerable save. The Lancer had Knight Seneschal for +1 Attack [giving him 6!] and Mark of the Omnissiah for minimum 2 Wounds back each turn thanks to the Sacristan Pledge. I was feeling pretty cocky and elected to go second.

Ben had got rid of the Boyz, had more units of Bikers, two more vehicles and a Wartrike and Ghazgkhull was behind the Sanctum Imperialis on the right.

Turn 1 and Ben called the Waaaaaargh! with Trikes and Bikes surging forward.

Everything fired at the Lancer, it even took 4 wounds off thanks to Shoota fire!

By the time the Trike got into combat the Lancer was down to 8 wounds from 26. The Bikes also multi-charged the Preceptor a muddy little combat may have taken place and I may have interrupted [I really should write these the day after].

As the dust settled the Lancer had fallen, despite rotating Ion Shields for a 3++ save in combat. Alongside, the Preceptor had taken 4 wounds. Only the boss of the Bikers remained of the Ork push.

But he couldn't survive, either by attack from the Knight or morale.

With the Orks gone the second wave of the green tide were free to push forward. Again, more shooting from the Scrapjet and other Speed Freeks whittled away my wounds and left the Knightsw even more vulnerable. Despite prioritising mostly defensive Relics and traits they just couldn't shrug off the weight of fire.

Even the Goffs incredibly bad shooting was eased by 6's causing two hits. Ghazgkhull himself has crazy rules with his guns that mean anything that fails to hit and wound can be re-rolled. Add to that he can take no more than 4 wounds per phase and there was no way i could kill him in a turn as I don't have any Psykers to dish out wounds in the Psychic phase - there's a point Imperial Knights need a Psychic unit - like a court mage. The Adeptus Titanicus have Psi-Titans why not Knights?

So, there we go, tabled again. At turn 2 it was 25:6 in Ben's favour but being dead it was all over for me anyway. It was relatively quick for a 1,000pt game so we had time to set it up again. I did have a Preceptor and 4 Armiger list instead, but the only variable we changed in game 2 would be I went first...

#BattleReport - 500pts Imperial Knights v Orks

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity it's been a long time since I've done a 40k battle report - February 2019 in fact at the Last chance Open and now here's two! Having had the Tyranids trounced I had brought some Armigers, I was able to fit two Helverin and a Warglaive list. There wasn't really time for a second battle, all I wanted to do was see what the two Helverins would have done against the bikes, so started to roll the dice, without the figures on the board... Next minute we had this!

 

We weren't playing any objectives, it was just kill everything. By this stage there was just the Nob biker left, my Warlord Helverin was down to 1 wound thanks to the Scrapjet and bikers and falling back, which left the last biker exposed and ultimately doomed. The Scrapjet fell to my Thermal Lance but the Warglaive was down to 5 wounds too.

The Weirdboy and Boyz set their sights on the Warglaive and undamaged Helverin.

Charging in, the Warglaive couldn't stand the weight of numbers and was cut down/smited before he got a chance to swing his chain cleaver. I think he did blow up though, wounding the Weirdboy and killing some of the Boyz. The Helverin was less successful. He did amazingly well with saving throws but just could not kill the Boyz because he doesn't have a dedicated melee weapon - it's why I prefer the Warglaive.

My last ditch was to charge the 1 wound Helverin into the fray but again he couldn't do very much thanks to his wounded state. I couldn't fall back to shoot as the Orks would catch me up and I didn't have the combat weapons to tip the balance

In return the Orks didn't have the strength and AP to damage me, but they had weight of numbers and we slowly chipped away at each other, with the Warlord Helverin falling to Smite.

The Weirdboy somehow got removed and all that was left was 5 Boyz and the Helverin on 5 wounds. I possibly should have the advantage for Toughness and saves but I think it was 15 attacks versus my 4...

and weight of numbers will out in the end. A somewhat disappointing outcome ultimately. I had hoped he'd survive and be rewarded for his tenacity but not to be.

Subsequently I've had a bit more of a look at the Knight rules and thanks to them being spread over 3 books now there are additional stratagems that would have helped, although we weren't keeping too close a track on CPs. But I was also able to recoup a wound per turn, which might have made a minor difference. It's a learning experience though and failures like these force you to debrief and learn more about your army so you can do better next time. All in I think it took an hour to play this out and we'll look to have a 1,000pts next time, which I have two Knight armies I want to try out 😉 See if we can get two games in again.

Imperial Knight - Armiger Helverins TO DONE! White pics #Dreadtober part 10

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity it's the 'tenth' of #Dreadtober and it's the last of my #ImperialKnights Armiger Helverins. They're complete and here's the obligatory white background pictures.

This project started off so well and participating in Dreadtober is the sole reason I would have completed them. As the month wore on I got more tired, the weather got worse, I was disappointed at the priming fail and I was less inclined to paint.

 

That said, they weren't too hard really. They feel deceptively complex but they're not. It definitely helps to  note done what elements need toe be done and tick them off as you go along. It helps predict how long it'll take and how much effort you have to put in.

 

I do love the yellow chevron, I need to come up with names for all my Armigers and my Cerastus. This one may be Clatterbridge, I'll need to get a title for him. Do Armiger pilots get to be called 'Ser', I'll have to check the Codex.

I needed to fill that space on the red shoulder with those decals, it was so empty otherwise. But now it looks so cluttered! Ha, ha, I don't mind it's nice to have some busy models.

The number was a potential nightmare. When I had originally done the chevrons so they didn't match the carapace the number was going to go horizontal and would mostly fit in the yellow bit, I was going to outline the letters yellow where they strayed into the black. When I swapped the pattern I was worried it wouldn't work and it was only as I was adding it that I noticed it would fit diagonally inside the yellow stripe and it became my favourite bit on the model. In fact I now wish I could have had all the numbers angled like this.

The stripe on the Autcannon shields aren't angled the same but luckily when they're posed you don't notice. The Blessed verdigris on the carapace 'collar' is a bit ropey too.

I just love it so much. Sure it doesn't quite fit with the other three, but it definitely helps make it a standout model - a leader among the Armiger's which is what I was aiming for.

I had to make that left shoulder red as I'd already taken so much red off the model to make yellow and black. It's rather odd to see the white cog symbol on it, I'd have preferred a black; which is odd because when I did the Warglaives I was more keen to have white decals on the red and was disappointed when there were only black.

I did a slightly more simplified orange glow effect this time round. Usually I add some yellow into the mix but this time it's just a couple of oranges and white. It's actually more vibrant than the Warglaives so I may stick with that in the future.

I think this base could have done with a bit more debris - green panels and grey 'rebar' mesh like the Warglaives, that would have helped tie it in with them more. The shading at the base of the cliff was originally much darker but Vallejo Rust Model wash helped blend it more so its aligned better with the other bases.

Again, I love this resign base and raises the model up another centimetre.

 

The Blessed Verdigris on the debris worked really well and matches my Sanctum Imperialis. But that scale on the gravel is just too much. I should have added some of my own sand in places to level things out a bit.

I went with the yellow grab handles this time as I liked them on my Questoris knights. Also, my initial concerns about the chevrons on the carapace collar were perhaps unfounded as otherwise there would have been very limited yellow and black on this.

Of course that's a direct counterpoint to Ser Clatterbridge who is full of it, but even so it did need something to break up the red, black and white.

Nice Blessed Verdigris tide mark there on the left autocannon, but we can't win them all.  

I also added chevrons on the groin plate, Ser Clatterbridge has these mirrored.

I split a black cog decal for the other side of the plate and also added a mechanicum cog above it, as if it was connected. Random yellow arrow decal on the thigh plate too, just to break things up [as if the battle damage wasn't doing that]. It was surprisingly difficult to get that particular decal to stick in that spot.

And the tiled base. What do you think? I think it's redeemed itself in the end. But I actually think that's because the Army Painter Anti-shine has come out with a satin finish rather than the proper matt it can do. I really shook the bottle and did a second coat on it but it was still satin.

Close up of the Blessed Verdigris.

Here we have a comparison with one of the Warglaives and I'm overjoyed at how they're both consistent and yet very different. 

I think the red and the battle damage in particular match up very well and it's great I was able to pull that off despite such a long gap between painting these.

I really, really love Armigers. I would love and army of them led by my Preceptor but it's entirely daft and I won't do it. But, I do have a couple of Sentinels for my Genestealer Cult that may fill that itch although I see I never even included them in my TO DO LIST! Anyway, what next? I may have a bit of a break but I still have the Ravenwing Talonmaster and Attack Bikes. I also want to paint the yellow munitorum container using the gamboge effect I started on Ser Clatterbridge. I think that will be surprisingly swift to do - a week or so. And finish some of my Blood Bowl halflings. I just need to have a break and come back refreshed.