Saturday 10 October 2015

40kaddict Towers - Inside the man cave

It's been a good few weeks now since the power was switched on and I started to move my stuff into the man cave. Sadly I haven't had opportunity to share the 'finished' results with you yet. This was pretty much after I moved about 65% of my junk into the shed, what's left in the back room has still to be sorted but although the shed look quite full it still needed another sift of what was needed, what could be chucked and a lot of the storage areas weren't filled or had not been optimised to their best. I'm still confident I'll get it all in but there's a lack of urgency now which is a bit worrying. I will endeavour to make the final transition this weekend and remove all my stuff from the back room so we can look at decorating/moving the dining table inside.


I have to say its a very weird feeling sitting in exactly the same environment but transplanted to a different location, it was so odd I asked my son to sit in the chair to see if he agreed, and he did!

So you can tell there's really no room to play a game in here but it's kind of cosy, I just need to sort out curtains or and tweek the door frame so it's more draft-proof. The weather has just started to turn autmnal, I've had a painting session which was cold but the little electric oil radiator I have warmed things up pretty quick. I'm looking forward to the first cold snap so I can see how chilly it actually gets.


Thursday 8 October 2015

Imperial Knight - Cerastus in manufactorum pt 7

I'm managing to get an hour or so here and there on the Lancer and although I went ahead and put my first set of highlights on it my confidence was immediately shaken by the results. My Vermilion didn't look good. I'd stippled it on and felt it was just not quite right. It certainly didn't sit well with the chevron stripes but they've not had the black added because I'm not 100% happy with the angle of the stripes towards the back of the carapace.


So filled with doubt I girded my loins and shifted my perspective on the results. Rather than be frozen by indecision I decided that the loss of the maroon Khorne Red was no loss and this new stippled Vermilion was exactly what I was after and I'll keep telling myself that until I damn well believe it.


Seriously though, I did realise that I would be applying additional shadow washes in much the same way as I apply them to the bonewhite on my nids. A sepia wash across the entirety and then a Devlan mud wash in all the edges and creases. This way I would blend the areas left Khorne red with the Vermilion and then the next set of Vermilion highlights would show up against the areas of Vermilion that had sepia applied. Then I could use my prepared Red Planet BASE! highlight colours to the pure Vermilion and build up the highlights naturally.


As the principles were the same I became confident again, there's a little part of me that will miss the dark red version that could have been but that exists in another dimension in the multi-verse so I'm sure another me is happy with those results, maybe regretting not going Vermilion but equally comfortable on his space yacht surrounded by his 67 wives, I love those other dimensions where I'm doing really well!


The chest and groin plate have also been brought up to scratch it's quite difficult to keep up with which bits have been done though as some parts will also need washes on the metallics and having not created a tick sheet for each component I'm trying to keep in my head what needs to be done next and which bits are still outstanding, perhaps that list would be handy and keep me on track?


I do like the stippled effect of this craft acrylic, it has rendered it to look a little like hammered iron which is pretty cool for a £1 tube of paint. I'm hoping it'll help with the highlights, making it less reliant on smooth blends but with an interesting finish.


Meanwhile I did see this Knight on facebook. Sadly I forgot the users name after I downloaded it, he was selling it anyway. But I love the finish, particularly on the white shoulder pads, this is also what I was hoping to emulate.


I may have gone a bit lighter on my metallics than this and will struggle with the decals thanks to the stippled texture but PeteB swears by MicroSol so I may get that hoping to mitigate the creases that can form.


It's really awesome though, so I just hope I can do something similar without getting too carried away with highlights as this relies more on shadows from oil washes to achieve depth and dimension rather than artificially highlighting the model which is the way I do things.


We'll have to see how it goes though...

Parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18

Tuesday 6 October 2015

1500pt battle report - Dark Angels v Orks, Game 3

The low down:
  • Vanguard strike
  • Emperor's Relice - 3 Objectives, your own [worth 5pts], centre [worth 10], opponents [worth 15]
  • No night fighting, lost deployment, deployed second, failed to steal the initiative.
  • Warlord Trait - Ezekiel - Fearless to all units within 12"
  • Psychic powers:
  1. Psychic Shriek
  2. Terrify
  3. Hallucination
  4. Shrouding
I know, I see it too, the absolute lack of cover on my side of the table, which is why I bring my own bastion! To be fair though I'd been on Ferron Proxima for the first two games and I had offered more terrain for this table [even though they had some] but everyone else had played on it and I really didn't think terrain would affect the outcome.


Ben had tonnes of Orks and I was pretty certain I was never going to be able to kill enough to pull a win out of this so I was resigned to sending the First legion out to their doom. I did however get to sneak my scouts behind the Ork enemy lines.


But as Ben took his first turn it would appear the Orks new exactly where they were, backed their trukk up to the edge of the building and jumped out, managing to shoot two of the squad with a third covering himself in his camo cloak to evade the incoming fire.


But by then it was too late, the Boyz had seen the scouts and charged in with a 12" charge, Hammer of Wrath killing the scout taking cover in his cloak as they rolled over him and the Ork boss butchering the remainder on his own.


With whoops of glee they promptly left the corpses before they'd even hit ground, turned back and got back to the trukk ready to drive off next turn to find more victims [oh we laughed!]. Ben scored First Strike for this.


With the other trukks holding the centre objective I used the opportunity to pour fire into their flanks.


Ghazghkull's trukk got wrecked and the other trukk lost it's gunner, so I made my First Strike but the impending shock of Orks on the WAAAAAGH! was less comforting.


I think one of the Tactical squads Bolters were responsible for the penetrating shot that killed the gunner. The Dark Angels really are blessed with some quality ammo - first Typhus, now an Ork Trukk!


Ben's Kommandos arrived behind me, Ghazghkull and his mob headed towards the Tactical squad in the lava crater and the other Nobz leapt from the trukk and went for the Tactical Squad in the centre of the board.


The Kommandos were kitted out with Burners and a Power Klaw. It was almost as if they'd known from the start they'd have to deal guys in cover and a Bastion. Suddenly the only thing I had some confidence in their durability was lost.


Ghazghkull's mob were keen to get to grips with my Dark Angels.


Which they managed to do.


Leaving only one Marine alive to hold the line.


Ghazghkull himself wanted to take on the biggest thing on the board, even if it wasn't moving...


and charged the Bastion.


With so many Power Klaw attacks the Bastion just couldn't stand and was destroyed


To make matters worse I then had to roll to try and save the five Devastators atop the battlements, the explosive debris was just sufficient to kill every last one of them.


 Ghazghkull was left hoping that Gork or Mork were pleased he'd destoyed the biggest Green thing on the board because it wasn't 'Orky'!


A Pain Boy and War Boss managed to charge the Plasma Cannon Combat Squad and would ultimately wipe them out.


The remaining Nobz multi-assaulted one Combat Squad of Tacticals and my Land Raider.


The Pain Boy was nigh unstoppable, partly because of his FnP and partly because my Marines were pretty ineffective.



I'm not sure this situation lasted for long, I think the Dark Angels were squashed eventually.


The Deathwing arrived, technically they mishapped and all died [they deviated within 1" of  Ghazghkull] but Ben was feeling generous [or just wanted more 'ummies to kill] and allowed them to teleport in anyways.


The other Terminators appeared in his Deployment Zone but that was not good news as due to the dodgy way artillery rules work all those Gretchin are technically T7, so I was never going to shift them off his objective, instead I had the boyz back up their trukk and surge forth.


Ezekiel and the Techmarine entered the fray. I've found Ezekiel to be quite handy in a fight, definitely a better choice than Asmodai but I really need to find a better way to work with him as the Land Raider doesn't allow him to cast any powers until he gets out. I also need to get the Techmarine's rules down so I can play him correctly.


The Mob in the crater finished off the last of the Tctical Squad and headed for the newly appeared Terminators.


Ghazghkull got there first though with the Kommandos a close second, so the mob stood and watched jeering on support from the sidelines.


All the Orks bundled in


Despite being the Dark Angels finest there was only one inevitable outcome


The same would hold true for the other Deathwing, but as it would have taken too long to play out the inevitable we decided to call it.


Ezekiel and the Techmarine wouldn't have broken their deadlock either.


The final score was something ridiculous like 22-2 although I'm pretty sure it would have been 33-2 because despite Ezekiel contesting that centre objective, he would not have survived losing me Slay the Warlord and the objective.

So, what have I learned? The Bastion didn't survived in only 1 game, the Land Raider was equally unlucky. Whether adding in a Knight will take pressure off those units I don't know but as I've already observed it only take one penetrating hit to be unlucky and lose a pivotal part of my army. I'm pretty sure a Knight will take a lot of fire, perhaps leaving the Land Raider, and more likely the Bastion unmolested. 

I was impressed with Ezekiel, he's a much better choice, even without an invul save, but the 2+ armour is quite good and it matches up nicely with the Techmarine and other Terminators. How I better utilise his prodigious psychig ability is the greater mystery. I also went solely Telepathy which gave me a lot of options, sadly most of the powers I rolled were pretty dire. Psychic Scream is awesome as a Primaris, it's just of little use when he's locked in a box for a turn or two!

Ultimately I was just as torn between taking these to Blog Wars or nids as I was before. I still have to paint my Knight, still have to finish the Tactical Squad. The Bastion and Land Raider 'will do' but I'll have to find a way to fit the Terminators in and currently that looks pretty tough without removing yet more upgrades from my units. I may have enjoyed the games more than I expected and managed to win one but I don't imagine my BW opponents will be as kind. That's not to say their uber competitive, but it's a tournament afterall, even if it's supposed to be fun first and foremost. Bottom line is given my army choices and the sacrifices I'll have to make - paring down units etc. It wouldn't take a beardy cheese list to do me over, any old opponent is going to make my day difficult. So the question is - am I comfortable with that or do I at least want fighting chance with a fully painted army I'm happy with?

We'll have to see...

Monday 5 October 2015

3000 - Arbitrary milestone of the week

Here it is! My most recent arbitrary milestone is 3,000 and as promised it's all about you, well mostly you, a bit of me and probably a few spammers - it's comments! Yes this little blog has generated 3,000 comments, from compliments to critique, rules debate to penis enlargers we've had it all.

I've always tried to answer comments, even if it's just to acknowledge receipt of a compliment [hence why I probably have so many comments]. I know recently it's taken a while to respond but that's access issues to the blog front end but I do get round to answering them all as soon as I can. My mate Ben mentioned how he no longer comments on blogs he doesn't get a response from so I appreciate your patience in waiting and I'll endeavour to still deliver comprehensive replies should your comment require it. Having a dialog with the readers helps to make this blog better and it reaffirms the value in continuing to publish posts.

I still get chance to comment on others blogs, sometimes it's easier than my own, I may not be as prolific as Greggles but I'm keen to practice what I preach and it's important to highlight credit where it's due. I think we're seing a little resurgence in quality blogging in the community at the moment so I'm glad we're making the hobby a better place. All the best.

Sunday 4 October 2015

1500pt battle report - Dark Angels v Craftworld Eldar, Game 2

Game 2 PeteB and his footdar

The low down:
  • Dawn of War
  • Kill points Blog Wars Maelstrom Rules
  • No night fighting, lost deployment, deployed second and stole the initiative :). Amusingly both games 1 and 2 for both tables resulted in stolen initiatives!
  • Warlord Trait - Ezekiel - Fearless to all units within 12"
  • Psychic powers:
  1. Psychic Shriek
  2. Dominate
  3. Invisibility
  4. Hallucination
As per most Maelstrom games I tried to cover as many objectives as possible in my Deployment. Being able to snatch a quick couple of points without having to slog all the way there first is handy. Anyway you should just be able to make out the 6 objectives - the numbered MDF discs.


Having stolen the initiative I drew Secure Objective 5 [2VP], destroy a unit in the assault phase and secure objective 2. I already had objective 5, it was in front of the Basiton but I also secured the centre objective, in case I drew that next time, and moved the Scouts on top of the man-made hill.


Which was an ill-thought out decision as they were promptly shot to pieces by the Warp Spiders, Camo Cloak and all! First Strike for PeteB


Pete drew - kill a character, secure objective 5 and secure objective 3. As I had all the odd numbered objectives he was going to have to dislodge me off them first. Karandras and his boys sprinted across the battlefield.


The Warp Spiders followed up their Scout slaughter with a little Warp jump, having killed the Sergeant in the Tactical squad Pete had also gained a VP for killing a character. The Fire Prism then turned it's sights on the Deathwing Land Raider.



And was able to pen and Explode it with only the Techmarine suffering a wound in the blast.


I had discarded objective 2, it was in Pete's deployment zone and picked up secure objective 4 and 3. Swift was my retribution as the second squad of Terminators arrived and I was able to kill some of  the Warp Spiders. I also moved one member of the Tactical squad out of the watchtower to secure objective 3 in front of it.


Given their exposed position Ezekiel cast Invisibility on the Terminators, as they advanced to secure objective 4. I came away with 4VPs for both objectives.


Pete now had 3 objectives, rolling objective 4, as the new one and still had 5 and 3 to claim. The Swooping Hawks landed right behind the marine holding objective 3 and conveniently out of sight from my Quad Gun.


The ensuing firefight allowed them to secure the objective 3 and cinematically shoot and kill all the Marines standing above them on the grated floor, with only one surviving thanks to the intervening cover of the tower lift shaft.


Over on the far left I've managed to whittle all the Striking Scorpions down to Karandras and even he had not gone unscathed.


Undaunted my troops assaulted but he killed them with ease


consolidating out of sight behind the future container boxes. Now after the game we remembered that Karandras was ObSec [as per Blog Wars rules] so he could have claimed objective 5 at this point but we'll discuss the whys and wherefores at the end.


I now had secure objective 1, 2VPs if I hold any three objectives and still had destroy a unit in assault. The newly advanced War Walkers were just in range of my Storm Bolters and I was able to kill one. They still held objective 4, my remaining Tactical squad member held the centre objective 1 scoring me 2 VP and the Bastion had objective 5 so that was three objectives secured for another 2 VP


The other terminators and Ezekiel managed to wipe out the Fire Dragons in assault, I think they'd suffered in the previous turn due to the remaining numbers. This cleared me of all my Maelstrom missions and won 5 VPs in total.


Pete still had to secure objective 4, but those Invisible Terminators were proving difficult to remove from the board [I see Invisibility is no longer legal at Blog Wars so again that would have been different] He also still had to secure objective 5 and 1VP if he killed Ezekiel. Karandras launched himself at the surviving members of the Plasma Cannon combat squad, killing the remaining marines while spinning up and off the future container crate.


Karandras ended up just out of fire arc of the Bastion and it's occupants with the Swooping Hawk Exarch also supporting. Once again he'd have stolen this objective off me if we'd remembered the rules correctly but it's a bit difficult to work out what we would have done if that objective had already been scored.


My new set of objectives were - kill 1 enemy character, have 3 scoring units in your own DZ and none of your enemy's, and 2VPs if I hold2 objectives and at least twice as many as my opponent. Well I had the two objectives, Pete only controlled objective 6 in the ruins. But I was going to struggle to clear out my Deployemnt Zone as Karandras and the Exarch just wouldn't die. Meanwhile I think the Reapers and War Walker had done the business on my Terminators now that Ezekiel failed to be make them Invisible.


Karandras managed to punch apart the Bastion but my sole surviving Marine held the objective to contest. Once again this was incorrect as he's a Devastator Marine so if we'd remembered Karandras was ObSec objective 5 would have been Pete's.


My turn didn't amount to much, I rolled objective 6, which was under the War Walker and just didn't have enough models left to kill Karandras and the Exarch or have 3 scoring units to survive in my DZ. I think all I had left was Ezekiel, the Devastator Sergeant and possibly one Deathwing.
Pete's turn 5 and he was also able to kill the last of the Deathwing and finally secure objective 4. He also won objective 6 and Karandras killed the Dev Sergeant to secure objective 5 - 6 VPs


To cap it all Ezekiel stood exposed on the man-made hill.


And was picked off by the last two Warp Spiders giving Pete Slay the Warlord.


So the final score was 13 VPs to me and 11 to Pete. Of course if we'd played ObSec on Karandras we'd have had a different result potentially. We can see what Objectives Pete subsequently rolled, and when we tried to figure it out it still looked like 13-12, but we can't predict whether his actions on the board would have remained the same. Ultimately neither of us played our heroes with ObSec so that was consistent, the only real issue being I was contesting an objective when it would have been lost earlier in the game. Anyways, I was tabled so although I technically won it feels like I lost so I think we called it a draw in the end. It did show me this list was slightly more viable and mobile than I thought but I was really helped by the mission choices.

And on to Game 3