1500pts battle report - Dark Angels/Knight v Tau

Liam and I haven't had a battle since Throne of Skulls, we never even finished that properly thanks to the early closing at Warhammer World. It's odd really as he lives only about 20 minutes away from the train station I get to work so as I'm half way there anyway I just take my stuff and go straight from work, he even made me tea - spaghetti and meatballs which was pretty awesome.

The low down:

• One of the Maelstrom missions - 3 cards per turn cannot discard numbered objectives, opponent can 'steal' them from you.
• Dawn of War
• Warlord Trait - +1 to Seize the Initiative, re-roll reserves
• Liam got a Maelstrom Warlord Trait that allowed him to discard even the numbered objectives
• I lost deployment and set up second but seized the initiative without need to use my Warlord Trait!
• No night fighting.

Initial deployment

Liam came unstuck, as battlescribe no longer gave him an option to take his Skyshield, of course a big ruined tower works exactly the same, near enough although my Dark Angels were the focus of a lot of scorn when they used cover ;) .

Like my Bastion, 'hiding' behind the ruins.

Having stolen the initiative Liam was convinced he was already doomed, banking on a first turn where he destroyed my Lancer. But for me it was all about the objectives and my Ravenwing managed to get objective 2 while my Tactical squad [not shown] next to the Bastion secured objective 3.

The Lancer got within range of the Stormsurge and I got 3 hull points on it. The Ravenwing went for the Tetra's

I managed to kill one Tetra and I think another was damaged. Liam's turn, despite his worst fears turned out really well. The bikes by the ruined tower got reduced to one and fled. He had the mission to get D3 VPs for holding three objectives, he also had to claim objective 2, which his ObSec Fire Warriors took with ease out from under the nose of my Ravenwing. They also shot them with everything they had but their Ravenwing Jink re-roll meant only one fell to the Xenos weapons [much to Liam's dismay]. With three objectives he got the full 3 VPs on his D3 roll, plus objective 2 so ended the turn 2:4 in the lead.

I rolled for reserves but rerolled a passed Deathwing to keep them off the board, hoping they'd be better off if I'd got an objective to capture in Liam's board half, which I didn't currently have in my hand. The Dark Talon Zoomed on though! Interceptor fire took 2 Hull Points off it, I didn't Jink to keep the Rift Cannon in play. Shooting-wise I think it shot the Tetras to pieces with Hurricane Bolters, the Rift Cannon doing very little. This won me First Blood and a VP for killing a unit in the shooting phase. More importantly it took out all but one of his Marker Lights which meant his Stormsurge would struggle to fire it's D-weapon missiles!

The Lancer had to make a decision though, take out the Storm Surge or assault the Fire Warriors. I was reluctant to do the latter as I thought I'd be tarpitted with hindsight I should have done that and hoped to remain locked in my turn [by not stomping at the least] and then win in Liam's releasing me to assault in my next go. Instead I went for the Storm Surge, it seemed the biggest threat but thanks to his saves I think only 1 or 2 more hull points went on him.

The remaining Ravenwing on my left flank shot at the fire Warriors, killing just one, the Bastion also took another. I was hoping to thin the numbers for assault and as I was only 1" away at the beginning of the turn didn't think it was risky. Then I assaulted and overwatch by them AND the Riptide lurking behind the ruin meant I needed a 10" charge roll through cover... Yep these guys did it, hence the Evel Knievel pose as they jumped to the first floor!

I won the combat by 2, the Tau broke and I over-ran them consolidating towards the centre of the board. I also claimed objective 4 for another VP

The XV-109 arrived, flying into position directly behind the Lancer. With no shield to protect his rear armour he got plasma-flamed to oblivion [everything else, including the Storm Surge missiles missing by miles]. 

The resulting explosion did no further damage to anyone else.
 This gave Liam D3 VPs for taking down a big walker, he got 2 VPs on the roll. He also gained a VP for holding objective 1.

The Riptide focused on the Ravenwing, I think he won, making the score at the end of turn 2 5:7 in Liam's favour.

Turn 3 and Deathwing arrive. I need yo kill their leader for D3 points to get me back in the game, it's at this point I'm regretting the Lancer not assaulting those Fire Warriors he's joined to.

I throw everything at them but a Warrior and the Leader survive to thwart my attempts. I do however score 2 VPs for gaining objectives 5 and 4, we've drawn even again.

The Deathwing assault at some point [presumably the turn after they arrive] with only three left, one being the sergeant with powers sword, another the Apothecary with Narthecium and the last being my 'big gun' with power fist I do little damage thanks to some upgrade that prevents me getting the extra attack on the charge. The Riptide would subsequently crush the three of them and controlling objective 1 elsewhere would take Liam into the lead by 1 VP.

My next turn saw the Dark Talon hover, so I can get a shooting attack on the Warlord and hope the Rift Cannon will double and take out the Storm Surge too. Unfortunately the cannon misses, deviates wildly and no doubles :( The Warlord survives the Hurricane Bolter by heroically throwing his bodyguard into the blessed bolter shells. Thanks to hovering I couldn't release the Stasis Bomb, so the mission and Slay the Warlord goes begging I get nothing this turn still 7:8

With the flyer vulnerable in hover mode the Storm Surge brought all it's weapons to bear.

Which were significant, with obvious results.

The Riptide roasts the Techmarine getting Slay the Warlord.

The other Riptide smashes the Bastion to pieces [has it ever survived?] Liam gets Line Breaker, completes another mission of being in my DZ, claims objective 3 AND gets D3 VPs for having twice as many objectives as I do. You guessed it Liam gets 3 VPs on the roll. So the maximum  5 VPs from all his Maelstrom cards, plus the 2 VPs for Slay the Warlord and Line Breaker resulted in a final score of 7:15. It was 12:30am so I called it there.

Before I look at any of my actions Liam was adamant that the battle report made something very clear - his dice rolling was appalling. Mine was ridiculously lucky but his was atrocious in his eyes and wanted everyone to know how bad it was. That said let look at how he beat me 7 VPs to 15!!! ;)

Bottom line I screwed up with the Lancer, I should have charged the Fire Warriors. Hindsight is always 20:20 and to be fair I did not realise the XV-109 could be so devastating, or in fact remember it was coming on!. Rergardless that exposed back is quite the weakness for the Lancer so I must remember that in future.

I was also impressed by the bikes and I'm looking forward to adding some more, they'd have definitely been more effective than the Deathwing. Another 8 bike would have been more shooty, more board control and more target saturation. I need to get more bikes done. I never imagined my Dark Angels being Ravenwing heavy but they are seriously effective [as has been observed by many] and playing with them I can see the appeal and if I can get to grips with how to use them I think I could really enjoy the fast hitting nature of bikes.

Anyway, it was a great game, one I casually threw away but I still see these as learning experiences so I'll try to be more aggressive next time with what I have at my disposal.

Deathwatch Overkillin'

A while back PeteB and I had a second Deathwatch Overkill night, he wanted to go through all the missions as a campaign so we started from scratch again.

This time around it was a bit better and we managed to get more rules right: 

• only rend weapons get to carry over shots onto other models [which makes the stealers a little more durable]
• and you can run if you don't attack [which makes things move a little quicker.

I guess it pays to make some attempt to read the rules.

Anyway, Pete still rattled through the first mission with ease, I think this is the second mission where I had to control something just out of shot on the left.

Instead of the painted cultists we used the undercoated game ones which has prompted an urge to crack on with them, an urge I'm currently ignoring!

Bottom line this was another night of casual fun gameplay. As the nid player I end up feeling like a GM, really just there to put obstacles in the Deathwatch's path for them to cut through, I quite like it.

Ultimately Pete ended up in the last room, with plenty of obstacles

Which were summarily destroyed for him to capture the tech I was guarding.

We've another game coming up this week we'll see how the campaing progresses.

Given the simplicity of Overkill and having sat through a rather tortuos Pokemon game with my youngest I 'forced' him to have a go one weekend. I knew he wouldn't be disappointed going Marines as every game they've won. I hoped it might prick his interest, he often wants to hang out with me so I figured he'd get that, we'd be doing something fun, just the two of us and he would be winning so much he'd get the appeal. Of course I was wrong, he was bored halfway through, wanted to stop and kill the remaining 12 Stealers the next day. I even caught him mouthing "help me" to his Mum when she walked in the kitchen! I guess that says it all.

In fairness he did play on to kill the 25, he wanted to stop as soon as he had but I fillowed the same rules as with PeteB and played until the end of the game turn, meaaning he'd killed 34 by the end of the game! It was certainly more fun than Pokemon but I think I've learned my lesson, this games just really for big kids ;)

The 2016/17 Hobby Season starts soon, join me!

The 2016/17 hobby season will be starting soon so for those alumni who joined in last year it might be cool to look back at your lists at what you've achieved , what might have slipped and those lovely unexpected successes that happened despite life getting in the way and loss of mojo - I speak from experience.

The original plan when I started with 'big stamps of approval' was that I wouldn't do multi-coloured stamps, just alternate between red and green but who was I kidding? So I give you the official 40kaddict 2016/17 Big Purple Stamp of Approval!

Or you can record your achievements with an 'unbranded' version.

And should you feel inclined todifferentiaite your efforts yet further here 's the major goal stamps

And minor goals.

Just a reminder of what it's about, in 2011 I made my first To Do List, amusingly it now looks like this:

• AoBR Tactical Squad
• AoBR Dreadnought
• AoBR Terminators
• Scout Squad
• Ravenwing bike squad
• Dark Angel Drop Pod
• Purity Seal all of my son's Tyranids
• Gloss Varnish all of my son's Tyranids
• Tyranid Prime
• Mycetic Spore
• Paint Vent Tower
• Paint defence platforms x4
• Complete pot pourri vegetation
• Complete future containers
• Complete 40k Cathedral tower
• STC Single story ruin
• STC Hex Defence platforms
• STC Targus Assault Blockade
• STC Vent tower
• STC Athena plateau
• STC Mercury plateau
• STC 40k Cathedral tower
• 60mm Dreadnought crater

So 5 things still haven't been done. The purpose was to try to focus my efforts to outline a list of things I'd love to do over a twelve month period and if I acheived any of them great, all of them, so much better. But more importantly I needed a structure to cling to when my efforts became aimless. That's not to say deviations from the list were forbidden it was more for when I went 'well what's next?'

It became an annual blog post to review what I'd done and set new tasks and throughout the year I would reveal my 'To Dones!' as completed items both on and off the list. Showcase posts ar enothing new to hobby blogs but again it was a structure to help build the identity of this blog. Then in 2014 I invited readers and passers-by of the blog to join in. Well, when you have a good idea why not share it around. I got about 10 people joining in and it looked like we were quite a supportive little bunch. I think over time steam ran out a little bit but last year folk joined in again and hopefully the same will ring true for 2016/17.

To help things out a bit I've created a Hobby Season Facebook group, it's here:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/278747245819138/

So, if you're joining in just ask and I'll add you in, that way you can share your blog posts or any efforts to those also joining in. I hope this platform will allow more interaction for those taking part and keep us all motivated.

I guess the last question is why 28th August as the start/end date, why not January 1st?
I think back in 2011 it was at that time I thought a structure needed to be in place and it was as good a time as any to post a To Do List, afterall the footy season starts around this time too, no one complains about that, do they?

Anyway, 28th August join me for the new Hobby Season :)

900,000

I ticked over 900,000 hits the other day but given the recent spate of Russian bots, or unemployed Olympians with time on their hands it's probably only right I don't immediately jump on the achievement.

It was Valentine's Day this year when I last hit the 800,000 milestone, which was 5.5 months since I hit the 700,000, you can see that means my hits are just going up. Reality is I had a good few months with the 40kaddict Terrain Competition and Reddit contributions and since then it's reduced and flattened out again [aside from the bots]. Regardless folk are still coming to the blog, still putting up with my ramblings and still interested in the little models I'm painting. I'm humbled by your continued supprt

Recently Michael Corr discovered 40kaddict was the 2nd most popular result in a google search for 40k blog. Since then I've dropped behind Cadian Shock and Mike himself so forget humble I was second only to Faeit212 and above Goatboy and Spikeybits for a short while, how did that happen?!

I've been quite for a few days as I go through some issues with moving the Land Speeders forward until then I can only thank you all for the continued support. 

Dark Angels - Crashed Aquila Lander the cinematic shots!

Some phone shots of the Aquila Lander, thankfully not as blurred but they're a little darker than I'd like.

And the pilot "I'm sure I can buff this out"

Gotta love hazard stripes

"look it's still working"

Fingers crossed this project will help feed into my Bastions so I can get them done, maybe not in time for the end of the season but within the next couple of months.

Dark Angels - Crashed Aquila Lander TO DONE!

Firstly, I'll apologise for the 'good pics' I was in a bit of a rush and subsequently noticed they're a bit blurred. Still there should be sufficient to get you fix of my hobby goodness.

I must admit I was unusually concerned about the Tamiya Clear Red X-27. I'd liked the shading and highlights I'd already done and the initial coat stripped all of that effort away. So I ended up adding another coat of Army Painter Dark Tone [Badab Black] to shade the lower area even more then another coat of Tamiya Clear Red X-27 managed to bring the depth of colour I was after.

I also decided against Vergdigris, it just didn't seem necessary and rusting the damage was not going to work with so much orange 'dirt' already scattered on the debris.

I went with blue energy cell, it pays to practice these things ahead of doing them ;) 

Again the gloss varnish just to add a bit more highlight and 'glow' effect was circumspect but I think while it's on the board the occasional reflection off it will add something matt varnish does not.

The company marking came out particularly well I think.

And the glass too, eventually.The original intention was to do it Tamiya Clear Orange X-26, which is why I bought it, but given the Nephilim/Dark Talon I went red for consistency.

The glass turned out OK in the end.

And the rest of the crashed Lander.

Another slightly blurred shot of the energy cell, I still have to paint up the removable one that was an objective in the Macragge set. It was originally going to be embedded in the ground on a 20mm base but as it fits in the other engine bay perfectly it would make sense to leave as is.

A while back when we held a tournament amongst ourselves I took this terrain and my board to Ben's he asked me if the Lander was complete, which obviously at the time it was not. He said it was really not good enough to go on the board in the state it was in so it was consigned to the box. I hope it now meets his standard, it certainly gets the big green stamp of approval from me - TO DONE! 

Dark Angels - what next?!

So you probably thought I'd be back on the Ravenwing Land Speeders... well by now you know better than that. Somehow the 'crashed Aquila Lander' pricked my interest. I thought this would be a one week job, get it all green and some simple metallics a few wires and job done...

Having done a quick highlight with Caliban Green I did a second highlight with Waaagh Flesh. It's not really what I normally do with my Greenwing' but for this terrain piece I think it's fine.

I then used Vallejo Goblin Green as a highlight. Once again it's an extreme version compared to the more understated nature of the rest of my 'dark' greenwing.

But again, as a terrain piece and something that needs doing I'm happy with it.

I also went on to paint the windows, although all this gorgeousness will probably be covered up by Tamiya Clear Red X-27.

Now I'd done some sponged brown in places following Duncan's guide on WarhammerTV and then followed it up with Gun metal but although I thought it was pretty cool I splodged on some Typhus Corrosion to tone it down.

It may well have toned it down dramatically as I think only 15-20% of the metallic is still showing but I do think it's more realistic which is odd considering the rest of it is a bit cartoony.

Despite my idea that it was just a quick job I listed all these things to do [of which some were subsequently crossed off as shown]

It would still be within a week but it did seem so much still to do...