Dark Angels - The Lion

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've been #PaintingWarhammer on The Lion. I've been working on him intermittently with the base part way done, just the broken tiles and Blessed Verdigris on the statuary. The Watchers have been shaded too.

Shade washes on the cloak. This is the outer cloak, inside and out.

The Lion himself, I was not happy with the shade wash here, but reminded myself it's far from finished and I'll be covering most of this up anyway.

I finally gave up on having the cloak on sprue. I realised I could paint it just as well and occasionally dry fit it in place. I want to be able to make use of some of the shading. There's no point putting highlight in where it will be in shadow.

So, having that option to make informed decisions, rather than guess really helps. I've also added  in the colours for the lion pelt and did the first set of highlights on the red cloak.

I was also working on the Ironsoul's Condemnors at the time so I got a good refresher on red fabric. Hopefully I can pull of the same on a much bigger surface area. I also tidied up all the black. So, I'm flitting to something else next, which will probably delay any further updates. Where I can I'll make a little bit of progress here and there. It's much better than it was, I just need to reach that tipping point where all I can think about is finishing it off.

#BattleReport - 1,000pts Imperial Knights v Chaos Knights

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've been playing TENTH! #New40k We're persevering, I think this is my 4th game of 10th edition now, which is double what I played of 9th. Anyway, I was taking my Knights [Lancer and 3 Warglaive] against Liam's Chaos Knights [Rampager, Desecrator and War Dog Carnivore]. We're still confused with setting up. We got Dawn of War, but the mission was the Ritual, where you deploy objectives in No Man's Land [that's all I read]. I won deployment and took the near side, trying to keep the terrain between me and Liam's big guys so I can put my objectives out of his reach. My secondary was 2VPs per unit killed [yeah right], while Liam had to defend his home objective for 3VPs per turn! I was so screwed

He won first turn and sent the Rampager up the board and deployed an objective. It was at this point I read the 'fine print' of the mission. You can only deploy an objective within 9" of an existing objective. So, as I'd moved the bulk of my army to the other side of the board, away from the only objective in my deployment zone I was utterly and completely screwed. One of the Warglaives weathered the opening salvo fromt he Desecrator with some fantastic saves. My turn I used the Lancers Bondsman ability on my Warglaive to Advance and Charge the Carnivore. I managed to get 6 wounds on it.

Then I discovered [as did Liam] how utterly brutal the Chaos equivalent is in combat as it ripped the Warglaive to pieces with absolute ease. The only bright side being it went overkill and the Warglaive blew up, but only did 1 more wound on the Carnivore. With the scent of blood in its nose it loped toward my second Warglaive.

And just mauled it to pieces. I was getting spanked at this stage. The complete failure in deployment had already left me 13pts adrift with no chance to perform and Ritual objective deployments and I'd lost 2 knights already.

Some good news though, the remaining Warglaive smashed through a walkway and got its sights on the Carnivore - managing to strip its remaining wounds, no explosion.

My Lancer bounded round the refinery, shot its Lance at the Desecrator with no damage. It had already taken 7 wounds thanks to the Desecrator. It then took a load more from this turn of shooting, I think there were 5 or 6 wounds left.

The Rampager Tank Shocked the Lancer and it stripped the remaining wounds. I used the fight on death strategy to get some attacks back. I think I got 12 wounds back on it, or strip most of its wounds off it.

We were close to calling it at a night at this stage. Despite the early success on the dice the deployment had destroyed any chance I had. My dice rolling had been shocking since. BUt I had my last Warglaive left and it's Melta Lance was still sufficient to bring the Rampager down

So we went another turn and amazingly the Warglaive did enough with Trophy Hunter I regained my only CP and if I could survive another turn I'd be getting an additional 3 for killing Liam's Warlord.

The Desecrator came in and I was once again able to weather the storm thanks to Rotating Ion Shields. I was also Honoured now, giving my a 5+ FNP. Liam just made it into combat.

I think this was his total whiff, with only 1 attack hitting home. In my turn I was on 4 CPs. We struggled a bit with the command phase as I had to take a Battle Shock test - failure would mean no stratagems. But Shoulder The Burden is used in the Command Phase and gives me +1 to Move, Toughness, Save, Leadership, OC and adds 1 to the Hit roll. We figured it worked, but if he failed the Battle Shock we'd take it off. Luckily he passed. But he was down to 2CP

I threw Squires Duty on for improved +1 Strength, AP and Damage, as well as Trophy Claim for +1 to the Wound Roll. I shot in combat with the Melta Lance - still hitting on 3's [due to modifiers] and rerolling a 1. Wounding on 2's [reroll a 1] and doing D6+5 damage. The Melta Gun, hit on 3's wound on 4's D6+3 damage. But not enough, the Desecrator survived and smooshed him real good for his temerity.

I'll say it again - deployment was flawed from the beginning, because I just hadn't read the mission properly. But aside from that this was the most fun game of 10th we've had, even if I did get slaughtered. Lesson's learned - the Carnivore is brutal, kill it from distance. Lancers need to charge, do not let it get charged. Read the mission rules properly! But that comes down to unfamiliarity. The more we play the more the missions will make sense. Having the cards really helped for us both, but there is still a lot of back and forth to the rules to understand, stratagems, terrain rules, battleshock, the mission and also the pre-game roll offs. All that previous knowledge is lost and we're not confident enough. Checking the rules repeatedly disrupts the flow and energy of the game, which is a shame. 

#BattleReport - 1,000pts Eldar v Tyranids

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've been playing TENTH! #New40k again, this is a while ago, so I'm not sure how much I remember but it was a chance for a few of us to get together. This was Scott's Aeldari versus Otty's Tyranids.

Scott and Liam had quite the array, with a Wraithknight, Avatar, Wave Serpent and some Wraithguard. 

Otty had some Carnifex, Tyrannofex, Zoanthropes, Hive Guard, Termagants and Genestealers/Broodlord

I think we got first turn and, as always, got as far up the board as possible. 

I'm pretty sure the Tfex got a really good shot on the Wave Serpent, but thanks to a stratagem was able to shrug off half its damage, keeping it alive. With hindsight I think this was a pivotal moment. If that Wave Serpent had have gone down it might have changed everything. We did however kill the Rangers in the Tyranid Capillary Towers... 

Which gave the Avatar the perfect launching point. Concentrated fire on the Tfex put it down, with the Wraithknight, Avatar and Wave Serpent taking out their biggest threat.

Scott and Liam had been able to make great progress, both in board control and damage to the Tyranids. We were already floundering. We were struggling to put any damage on those big 3.

And the Avatar stepped down from the Towers to wipe out the Zoanthropes.

I think we lost so much more after this and although I thought the game was a bit more 'fun' than previous attempts I know Otty was unimpressed. Our rolling was unspectacular, we were out-gunned and the constant rule checking didn't help the flow of the game. Not having the stats for the nids on cards I was constantly switching between the 2 Indexes giving the rules for both factions. It's not a great way to play. The actual game rules - if we played more and got the core rules down that might help but definitely having the faction rules to hand will be of benefit. I've a better report coming though with my Knights, so look out for that.

Battle Report - Middle Earth Moria Vs the Mighty Ents #MESBG

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've been playing MESBG again. I'll admit I wasn't 100% looking forward to this. Partly because of the last game, partly because we've played some other games inbetween and also, because we're going to a MESBG tournament at Warhammer World - this is competitive now. There's a responsibility to get it right, know the rules, use your Might and special rules at the right time. Normally I don't care and I've someone else to do the heavy lifting on tactics but now it matters. Which has removed the fun aspect somewhat. Anyway, here's my warband 

• Durbûrz
• 2 Goblin Captains
• 4 Goblin Prowlers
• 17 Goblins [of various loadouts]
• 3 Cave Trolls [2 with hammers, 1 with spear]

We were playing the Relic mission - 6 objectives, when in base contact you search it, roll D6, on a 6 it's the Relic. Anything else it's discarded and the others are checked until it's found or the last one is definitely the Relic. Liam had chosen Ents, instead of one of his Orc warbands, so another Fearless army where I couldn't see the potential of my Cave Trolls.

Maelstrom deployment, Liam put his 4 Ents in the top right. Durbûrz refused to turn up. The second warband came on bottom left, 

in the marsh. 

The last warband - Liam got to choose where it came on - top right the other side of the trees. A fair bit happened between now and the next pic. I won priority and went for this objective. It was not the Relic. I then started to move these Goblins back toward my table half, were some more objectives could searched and to join up with the rest of my Army. Durbûrz came on, again I think Liam chose and he put them on the left side, not far from the Warband already there, who'd moved up the board.

Liam had then moved one of his ents to the objective in the middle, it was not the Relic. I checked a couple more and eventually we were left with the drum middle right and a Daemon's head top left. I was debating what to do. If I let Liam search and fail I could secure the drum. Or I could search the drum and fail his lone ent would be out of position of hs other 3, with no support and the bulk of my army closing in. I went for the latter. I managed to snag all three Ents, including Quickbeam, did not find the Relic [meaning it was the Daemon's head] and Heroic marched Durbûrz and his gang to intercept the lone ent, who would come into posession of the Relic. Liam failed priority on a 1, I got the 5. Then he had to roll to see if he was transfixed by the dark powers of the Relic, this is his 1 to be transfixed!

With the ent rooted I sent Durbûrz forward. Quickbeam had managed to smash one of my tolls apart. I just had one remaining troll versus 3 ents who were bigger, stronger and higher fight. My only advantage was my ability to trap him with cheap Goblin bodies.

Bodies that I was positioning as a road block between his force and the Relic. Oh and my dice were running hot. Liam had not won a priority so far

And when it came to Duel rolls this was just after I said I "hadn't seen a 6 all night"! Invariably I was needing 6's to win the duels and he just kept rolling 1,2,3

Then my Troll managed to get 2 wounds on Quickbeam

And eventually I think it was just too much and he was felled.

But two healthy Ents were still in play. I was really lucky with Terror rolls and managed to keep snagging them. At this point I'd made a great play in surrounding the Relic ent with multiple units - he'd been transfixed for a second turn. I then trapped the ent in the middle with the troll and the other ent was trapped by one goblin in combat and 2 just out. I then screwed up. Otty went for a brew and I foolishly said we should play the least important battle - latter one. Liam rolled his duel dice and I realised my mistake. If he won the duel he could barge the goblins out of the way, join the fight on the middle ent, peel the troll out of it and I know longer had the trapped advantage. I screwed up, but Liam rolled a 5 and if I got a 6 I'd win the duel stopping the Ent barging - clearly I didn't which is why it's in base contact with the troll.

And it did not end well for it.

The Relic ent woke from it's stupor to barge everyone away 

But he did not do enough damage and despite having the higher fight he ended up trapped again in another duel where I needed 6 to win

The troll various Goblins and Prowlers got in there, by this time it had just 1 wound remaining.

With so many dice in play, even the Goblins could take that last wound on 6 and a 4.

The Relic was dropped and I picked it up, sending the rest of my force to intercept the last two ents. The Relic now asserted it's dark powers on my Goblins, with them being transfixed the following turn.

Liam/Otty managed to win a couple of priorities but I kept throwing cannon fodder at the ents, stopping them making any progress toward the Relic. Eventually my Goblin Captain managed to get a couple of wounds on an ent. He got a natural 6, then 3, which I mighted to a 4 and then I mighted a 5 to a 6, and got the wound on the follow up dice. 

I think the troll came in and after the brief reversal in priorities I was on fire again and the Relic was hoofing it across the board. At this stage Liam was fighting a lost cause and we called it a night. I made plenty of mistakes but I was helped immensely by the dice and how unlucky Liam was with both priority and becoming transfixed. I still have a lot to learn though.

Lastly, this is Otty's shed 2.0 that he's building - it's going to be a monster!