1500pt battle report - nids vs nu-new Craftworld Eldar cash grab not wave serpent spam anymore, no! just some other cheese :P

This may actually be the first game PeteB and I have had this year, actually since before Blog Wars 8 last year! Having sold his Space Wolves and started back up on Eldar only to have his raison d'être - Wraithknight/Wave Serpent spam turned upside down by the new Craftworld Codex it was overdue we had a bash. This face off has been postponed a couple of times due to my illness, and Pete's new job but finally lets see what we've got.

I amended my list that I played Otty with, dropped the Children of Cryptus and a Carnifex and reintroduced a Bastion with Escape hatch and Quad Gun and the Broodlord Hunting Pack formation for the reserve shenanigans from buildings + Preferred Enemy

Psychic Powers Winged Tyrant W Winged Tyrant Tervigon Plain Tr Broodlord Onslaught Onslaught Psychic Scream The Horror The Horror Psychic Scream Dominion Dominion Dominion Dominion

The low down:

• Maelstrom game but based on the Blog Wars 9 rules - 3 Cards based on their amended maelstrom mission table - Dawn of War
• Warlord Trait - Move through Cover and Stealth in Ruins!
• Night fighting first turn, lost deployment, went second and failed to steal the initiative, yeah, that's right ones all round, where were you when I needed a darn Catalyst?!

I deployed with most of my high value items on the opposite flank to Pete's Wraithknight, Prism and Serpents I put the gaunts over on that flank to Objective Secure the objectives when contesting against his units.

I foolishly positioned the Flyrant for synapse that didn't take into account his units could move to get a bead on him round the corner of the Bastion for shooting! But we'd already chatted too long and we were down to 2 hours for the game!

The other flank really only had Striking Scorpions to worry about. Pete rolled his missions and got:

1. 1VP to destroy a vehicle or MC. 2 VP if 3 or more destroyed.
2. 1VP to destroy a unit in shooting phase. 2 VP if 3 or more destroyed.
3. 2VP if you control 3 objectives at the end of the turn

Pete was easily going to score mission 3 as he already had 2 objectives and only had to move to score the third.

Having got the angle on the Flyrant he took a wound, with only cover and night-fighting stopping it from being worse. Amusingly the Fire Prism immobilised itself which brought back memories of his old Rhino getting stuck on the weediest hedge you've ever seen. So Pete took the one VP for his mission as consolation and it was my go.

I didn't take any pics in my turn but rolled my missions and got:

1. 2VP to secure objective 5.
2. 1VP if a unit has Linebreaker, 2 VP if 3 or more units do.
3. 2VP if you destroy 3 units in your turn

Mission 1 was out, the Eldar had got Obj5 and I wouldn't be able to get the gaunts there to contest. I could get mission 2, thanks to reading up on the rules of FMC's and discovering they can actually still 'run' when they swoop. So I managed to get Onslaught off on my left Flyrant, 'ran' into his deployment Zone and also got to shoot at the Scorpions for little effect. Meanwhile the Warlord Flyrant targeted the Warp Spiders who disappeared out of sight behind the little watchtower as soon as he cast his baleful gaze in their direction! The Tervigon and Carnifex also surged forward with the Tervigon spawning 12 without doubles.

Pete's 2nd turn and he rolled to secure objective 5, which he could do with ease. I'm not quite sure what happened in his turn, mainly killing gaunts like it was a fashion trend and my Malanthrope helping to keep everything else alive. He also flew his Fire Dragon Wave Serpent across half the board to get close to my Bastion.

The pic below is actually Pete's turn two, but in my turn two only my Rippers arrived from reserve [lazy Stealers!], deep struck and deviated away from objective 5. Luckily the Termagants managed to steal objective 5 from the Warp Spiders and the Rippers would eventually run into scoring range too.

The Flyrant shot the back of the Wave Serpent, which was wrecked allowing my Warlord Flyrant to shoot the disembarked Dire Avengers with some success.

I contested objective 5 but shot at the Warp Spiders who jumped out of the way leaving me alone in the crater.

Pete got the Fire Dragons out and promptly turned my Bastion to sludge.

Warp Spiders managed to do some serious damage to my Termagants who end up outside of synapse range requiring a morale check. I passed on 6 and would subsequently pass all morale and Instinctive Behaviour checks on this unit on a 6 in various forms for the entire game!

At around this point I lost 'The Game' but this is the 'Tervigon Game', wherein I realised I had forgotten to spawn any Termagants in my 2nd turn which usually heralds the Tervigon's impending demise. You may recall the exact same thing happened in my last game with Otty. She'd already taken a couple of wounds from various other quarters, including the last Dire Avenger.

And then the Striking Scorpions happened, sallying forth from the building they occupied. She killed a few in overwatch but was chopped into bits, although I think only just losing those last two wounds - so close. I'm also pretty sure I'd hoped to charge the building with my Carnifex in my previous turn but failed the distance. It's almost as if the dice were against me!

Gaunts burst apart at her passing but the Malanthrope kept them in check. The Scorpions consolidated back behind the defensive walls. In my turn I would need to secure Obj 4 off to my left. The gaunts managed to just get into range with the Malanthrope taking cover to the left of the large Ferron Fire Fir. A brood of Stealers woke up in the ruins on the far right.

The Carnifex chased the Scorpions down. I killed 4 in shooting, leaving just 2 behind the walls. I charged and ended up suffering 2 wounds in overwatch thanks to their stupid little Shurikens. I only got 1 Hammer of Wrath off, squashing 50% of the remaining Eldar.

Only for the Exarch to slice and dice me like sushi with just 2 AP2 wounds removing the Carnifex from play!

The Fire Dragons [who were out of shot on the right of the Fir trees] shot at the Malanthrope. It had taken two wounds already but it's cover save was strong. However the Wraithknight jumped round the trees to get an unobscured view and blew it to pieces. It also took out some gaunts, possibly all of them.

This was the last turn as time had run out. I was 3 VPs behind. Both my Flyrants were surrounding objective 5 and I had missions to have 3 units in my own Deployment Zone, 2 VPs to kill 3 or more units and 1VP to kill his Warlord [which would also net me another VP for Slay the Warlord]. I got only one brood of Stealers come in from Reserve so I brought them onto my table edge now I needed two more units. I'd surrounded the Warp Spiders, killing most of them but the Autarch was in combat with the Termagants, with only the Rippers and 3 remaining Stealers from the ruins. I had the two flyrants to gain my DZ but would give up on the VPs for destroying 3 units and line breaker.

So I took a gamble. Warlord Flyrant flew for Line breaker. Stealers and Rippers bundled into the Warp Spiders. 2nd Flyrant went for the Fire Dragons - the only thing in range of my DZ and swooping turn. I was doubtful only one Flyrant could kill the Fire Dragons and I was proved right with the Exarch surviving on his own.

My Warlord Tyrant secured linebreaker and Destroyed the Fire Prism, thanks to its inability to jink. That lone Dire Avenger mocking me in the distance.

The melee on objective 5 came to a messy end for the Autarch, with the rending claws of the Stealers cutting him to pieces.

This secured me 2 VPs and two thirds of my objective to kill 3 units, but not quite enough.

Here's the score sheet, it's not quite correct as we think we included First Blood on Pete's side, although we couldn't remember what First Blood is. However, we realised there isn't any First Blood in BW9, it's First Strike - kill a unit in your first turn, which neither of us achieved. So the final score was 8 all and it was a really great game. Before the last turn I didn't even know what the score was, I wasn't even playing to win, just going from one mission to the next. It actually felt like I wasn't playing against Pete, just playing against these random set of conditions that were created each turn. It's actually a nice way to play.

We both had our fair share of misfortune - the Fire Prism being immobilised, the Carnifex getting shot before it could do anything and my useless Broodlord who never showed up. I realised afterwards I should have put him in the Bastion on turn one and have him come out of the Escape Hatch. At least he'd have been able to do something. I've gone a bit down on reserve rolls, without access to a Comms Relay [so I could take the only slightly useful Quad Gun - it actually shot really well considering it was on auto-fire] there's no way to raise those odds. But it was a great game with plenty to think abotu going forwards.

Dark Angels - Dark Vengeance Deathwing

Just a quick update as the alternative is no update. I've actually completed my Interrogator Chaplain Seraphicus but haven't taken any decent pics to showcase. Truth be known I'm a little disappointed with the gloss varnish I've added to his power armour as it's a bit thick in places so it plays merry hell with the sense of scale on the model, but I'll cover that in detail when I take the pics.

Meanwhile, I've got back onto doing the Deathwing and I've managed to go from two models with completed Bonwehite highlights to four. I'm really happy with how they've come along, they're lighter than my original AoBR models but that's down to how I'm highlighting the 'nids. It's slow going though, it takes about 60-90 minutes for me to do just one! Still it's the bulk of the model. I am however less impressed with some other colour choices. The black feathers still don't ring true to me but I'll see what a very fine grey highlight will do to differentiate the feathers. Also some of the reds are getting a bit samey, when I need different shades to represent different materials.

I still have a lot of detaill work to do, the odd skull, studs, helmet lenses and some more highlights on the Crux Terminatus to represent the Ferron stone it's mined from. I'm sure these will add quite a few more hours to the process but I'm getting there. With only one model to highlight I'm beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I've also realised something in that i started to add litanies to the AoBR Tactical squad but did not do any of that on the AoBR Terminators. That's not a problem, I can add them on at any time. I also want to include some of the native American elements as illustrated in the Space Hulk Deathwing supplement. Lame Bear's chevrons look particularly effective. I want a mix of both histories - feudal and native as Ferron Proxima is based firmly in this era of the Dark Angel histories and yet those prospective applicants to the Dark Angels will have been drawn from the Natives then trained in the Feudal ways of Caliban

I'm not so sure I'll include Totemic names but I'll be doing litanies at the least, I just want some opinions on choice of colour -

1. Black
2. Dark/rusty brown
3. Red
4. Caliban green

There's no right answer on this as I'll no doubt do units with different colours. Red I think is the obvious choice but opinions are most welcome.

Dark Angels - Asmodai - To Done!

Evidence that I have indeed been active, despite illness and lack of updates. In actuality this model doesn't look like it's had a lot done to it, I'm not sure the pictures capture some of the blending on the cloak and the problem with it being mainly black makes it look like its just undercoated but I assure you significant effort has gone into getting this completed.

However, because of the difficulty in capturing the progress let alone the completed miniature in all it's glory WiP pictures are difficult to record so the blog suffers. Sadly I'm not sure how to get around this at the moment so for the moment I'll be blogging as and when I have something of value to share. I suppose I could always throw in some 'nids to keep things ticking over.

Anyway, I was desperate for Asmodai to be completely black. I can't imagine the most infamous Chaplain to be anything other than ultra hardline legacy Dark Angel, Chaplains wear black anyway but this guy has got the first founding legions colours on show.

I was actually quite pleased with the incense smoke. It's just drybrushing really but from a distance is really effective. I think I started with my Turquoise highlight then added a Devlan Mud equivalent wash, mixed with some dark blue then Turquoise drybrush, then another highlight 50:50 mixed with white and a final white highlight.

The effect came out quite well and I did Seraphicus's smoke at the same time so there's consistency. I didn't add any litanies to this guys clothing, I wasn't so sure he would get things stitched on the cloak and this guy does not need to inscribe his armour with his beliefs because he's a living embodiment of them already! I've actually added a little tuft of yellow flock in the back of the base since this picture.

The bone effects came out really well, but then I've had the practice. It was just something to break up the blackness. As was the green Purity Seals and the Verdigris.

You should also be able to pick out that I gloss varnished the power armour. It's not a 100% what I was after as I think gloss varnish distorts the scale of the model but I was of the opinion this guy has a mirror gloss finish and it would also set the Power Armour apart from the cloth material. I probably should have considered a similar approach to the cloth as I did with Seraphicus's fabric but the cross-hatching/stippling didn't quite present itself as an option as I was painting, I don't know why.

The Power Armour was also highlighted differently, whereas the cloth was highlighted with Turquoise and softer blends then Power Armour used Bahama Blue acrylics and the highlights were sharper, up to white to help enhance the reflective nature that would be then glossed.

It's a small touch but it needed something to differentiate from the matt cloth. It may not be perfect but it's better because of it.

The only other concession colour wise was a green bolt-pistol holster, just to break up the blackness, the standard orange grenades.

There is a small amount of green on his left shoulder pad but I didn't even bother highlighting that in the end it was hardly visible amongst the patinated bronze.

As you can see that thin strip of green just above the two Purity Seals is so small it just didn't warrant highlighting.

I Tried a little bit of lighting on the eyes, it certainly looks like he's staring into your soul. I added a little dab of gloss varnish so it'll catch highlights naturally, that's if light can reach under his cowl!

I contemplated some Tamiya Clear Red X-27 to further enhance the lenses but didn't think it was necessary. I actually think these just look like demonic eyes as opposed to helmet lenses which suits me fine, almost like when the Scarecrow dons his mask in Batman, sure it's a mask but when you've got the fear from him it becomes the stuff of nightmares.

So whatever reservations I have of this model as a whole there are some elements that I'm really pleased with and it's a Dark Angel to boot!

And, here's the Red Stamp of Approval! This model is technically on my To Do List, although it only states 'Dark Angel Chaplain'. Of course I still have Seraphicus to do but he's almost complete too.

NEcron Nom Nom!

Things have been a bit disrupted this weekend [I know it's now Wednesday but fallout still surrounds me]. On Friday I thought I had a game with Ben but it transpired I'd not actually confirmed so he'd got Otty to fill in. Kindly he said I could pop along and watch so I arrived to witness potentially one of the most painful games ever. As you can see from Otty's deployment he was tooled up, with a Barbed Heirodule, two Fleshborer Hived Tyrannofex, two Tervigons and 30 Termagants [28 Devourers and 2 Spike Rifles] with 5 Dev Warriors and a few Zoanthropes to boot. Essentially he had a ton of firepower.

He lined up against Ben's Decurion detachment with Flayed Ones, a couple of units of Wraiths and Spyders and Scarabs. None of his usual Annihilation Barge shenanigans but instead what do we get 4+ Reanimation Protocols

Essentially Otty threw everything he could at these robots and just couldn't kill them. 5 would die and then 5 would reanimate, admittedly that's beating the odds but there were so many dice being rolled just none of it was ultimately productive.

Even playing the Maelstrom missions became pointless because he became bogged down with the highly mobile elements of the Necron force. It some became apparent that there was not a single element of Ben's army that wasn't useful and also durable, zero fat! Wraiths with their speed, invul saves and killing power, not to mention that gun they have that was only prevented from insta-killing Otty's MCs by some handy Paroxysm rolls stopping them shooting straight!

Even the Heirodule was a little ineffective, although that was more from deploying first and Ben then leaving it slightly out of position to actually making any meaningful effect on proceedings.

His 12 high strength low AP shots were still useless in the face of Reanimation protocol.

This was never going to end well, although it did take a few turns for the inevitable.

And I think it's even clearer where this was going

I found myself wondering if I could have done any different and I'm not sure I could. You can't hide from them, they're more mobile - they'll hunt you down. I haven't got as much firepower as Otty has and it aided him nought. Air superiority is an option but you lose out on securing objectives when you're swooping. You can't assault because you get overwatched and even then there are assault units that can be even more devastating than the Tyranids very own 'premiere assault unit'!

I was literally stunned by the one-sided nature of the whole thing. That's not to say Otty was tabled, far from it, it was just that he loads of stuff that worked really hard for no visible gain. Ultimately the game came to a close at 12:30am and I returned home with a bit of a head ache - lat night I thought. I then spent the entire weekend bed-ridden - nauseous, head aches, joint aches and a variety of other symptoms less appealing to discuss. I was dreaming/hallucinating flashes from the game and also Ingress it was truly horrible. Even today my head is still befuddled and stomach is upset. I had to cancel a short notice game with Ben tonight because I can't manage to stay up passed 10:30 without feeling exhausted. I don't know what it was, whether it was an uber migraine or some viral thing but sadly it's stopped me from any hobby progress. Hopefully there'll be something to follow, although my plan for the month is pretty much out the window - I'll be pleased with just completing the Deathwing or even just one of the characters!

Anyway, hope things return to normal soon, till then if you've faced a Decurion then share your pain. If you haven't you can always share the pain for your most recent illness ;)

Dark Angels progress, honest!

Ben has been on my case about the Dark Angels, so I've challenged myself to complete the foot troops from Dark Vengeance this month. Completing the Tac squad may be a bit beyond my capabilities, I'll get somewhere with them, just maybe not finished. But I currently have the five Deathwing Terminators on my painting table [pile of junk]. It's slow going because I keep flitting from one thing to another, having to backtrack on bits I've missed and changing my mind on things but so far two Terminators have reached the final Bonewhite highlights stages and for them it's just all the little bits that make it special left to do.

As you can see this guy sports a Cyclone Missile Launcher, it's from a Land Speeder Storm. I've still to neaten up the stripes and there's some more verdigris to add to the extra brass/bronze elements I added, not to mention the eye lenses, but I think I'll do all the lenses on the five together so they're consistent.

The other 'completed' terminator is the sergeant, still to do his sword, tweak the Raven feathers and some read highlights.

I'm not 100% happy on the Raven feathers. I did a quick drybrush with a purple, then added some reflective stripes with a little blue and then added in some turquoise for the highlight. I may add some very fine white reflections but these areas are going to be gloss varnished anyway.

You can see the colours a little clearer here. I've added black wash twice to tone down the colours. I think I've achieved what i wanted I'm just not sure it fits the model. I'll persevere with it until it's done, I can always chicken out later and redo them.

I'm also doing a number of character models alongside the Terminators, they're on my list, sort of, so that's OK. This is DV Interrogator Chaplain Seraphicus [maybe that's the new chaplain we're rumoured to be getting, would make economical sense GW]. He's really starting to come along now, the helmet in particular is far beyond my expectations. I'll probably be going with red lenses on these - scarier!

You can't see much of the highlights on the clock but I did them very rough and pointilised, to try and evoke a textile texture.

It's a bit more evident here, it's another 50:50 choice that I think 'wow I really like that effect and it's more fun to do than trying to get smooth blends'. Then I look at it and go 'that's rough as a anything, you should be ashamed'. Still I'll wait until it's done before I pass final judgement...

And Asmodai... another contentious decision, with the only DA green on his pistol holster. Originally I'd done the purity seals red too but thought it was too much. I'd ummed and ahhed over cloak colours and then decided this guy should be old skool all black. I'm hoping to reference the original colour scheme and that of the Consecrators, who got all the good, black, relic gear. I reckon Asmodai would be wearing some of the original archaic stuff, and super militant about the first Legions heritage, so he's going to be black and red throughout.

With obvious bone highlights. However it does stand out a bit compared with Seraphicus, again wait until I've added some highlights and see what it's like with Verdigris in place. Ultimately I chose Dark Angels many moons ago so I could represent Green Wing, Deathwing and Ravenwing. Having that variety to paint different coloured models, I shouldn't balk at the idea he looks different now.

And my Azrael kitbash. I finally sussed his colours, he's managing to show off all the wings. A Deathwing undercoat, with an original first Legion tabbard and then a DA green cloak over DA green armour.

I did the rough highlights again, this time managing to get a little bit of hatching going on to pick up the weave in the cloth. Here you can also see the Raven feathers pre-shade wash, again another colour may have helped them stand out a bit more but I'm sick of this idea that all these feathers should be white.

Anyway, apologies about the pictures but I'm just snapping progress. I'd rather have some record and some evidence I'm painting/progressing/alive than be put off posting for want of studio photography. Maybe when I get my man cave I can have a little setup in the corner for progress shots...

henry South's 4gotowar charity raffle

If you've never seen Henry South's blog, or even his models featured in White Dwarf then you really need to get over to 4gotowar.blogspot.co.uk straight away. It's not often you get to see the amazing skills of both an Oscar and Bafta award winner applied to your favourite hobby models.

Anyway, when the great Terry Pratchett passed away last month Henry went a little further than an obituary post on his blog, he set up a justgiving page and offered up a raffle of his very own Adeptus Mechanicus models that featured in John Blanche's Blanchjitsu in WD Visions issue 8.

Anyone who donates will be entered into the raffle, which will close on the 28th April. But it didn't end there as a number of other Blanchjitsu alumni offered up their models for the raffle too

But for me it was the fact that Henry is donating the proceeds to the Alzheimer's Society, the cruel disease that Terry suffered from. It's also what my own Dad was diagnosed with early signs. I still can't reconcile whether the fact he was taken from us before this disease robbed him of the dignity he was so proud of, was a hidden blessing. He was dreading the thought of what it would do to him and although his death was sudden and tragic it's difficult to imagine how he would have suffered. Terry himself did a documentary on assisted suicide no doubt thinking about how Alzheimer's would affect him as it progressed. Not for one minute do I wish my Dad wasn't here but I'm just glad he doesn't have to suffer his worst fears.

Edward Henry Weston, my Dad.

So, if you can share any donation to help combat this soul destroying disease please visit Henry's just giving page: www.justgiving.com/modelsForTerry

Red Planet BASE! Facebook Group

With Mechanicum armies a thing now there may be a fair few people wanting to bring forth the armies of the Red Planet. In which case you should head on over to the freshly forged, Omnissiah approved Red Planet BASE! Facebook group. As a big fan of Red Planet basing there's my own tips and tutorials but I'm looking forward to seeing how everyone else gets their martian homeworld effect.

So if you have a Red Planet Based army you want to share examples of or are contemplating creating one and need some advice on how to get this seasons hottest colour, then check it out: https://www.facebook.com/groups/808145659278562/

Alternatively [or additionally] you can still join the 40k addicts Facebook group in case you want to get your 40k fix via social media: https://www.facebook.com/groups/144564502354384