Friday 15 February 2019

March 2nd is Old Stuff Day


Just a heads up March 2nd is Old Stuff Day A few years ago now warhammer39999 wanted to join a movement to rediscover lost gems from the world of hobby blogs and it's still going strong today. To choose one or more of your own blogposts that you're most proud of, or may not have got the attention it deserved or any thing that may warrant some necromantic blogpost bothering. On top of that you are to share blogposts from other bloggers which you think deserves the same spotlight of attention before they're returned to their dark nightmare infested slumbers.

So if you have a blog don't forget to root through your old posts and rediscover those hidden gems. Feel free to use the Old Stuff Day poster by Firstkeeper from DeviantArt.

Monday 11 February 2019

Imperial Knights - House Corvus Twins in manufactorum pt11. Decals

Before the decals I had a little highlight to do on the black panels, a mix of stippling and drybrushing Incubi Darkness with the stippled on craft acrylic texture helping to make the lo-fi highlighting seem natural.


We all know drybrushing can look scruffy when compared with wet blending or even edge highlights but on rough texture it's ideal because the texture itself blends the roughness of the highlight. I think it says a lot that I was almost reluctant to add the decals after doing it!


But I forged on regardless because I really wanted to add a lot! Too much?


I liked how the Warglaives looked with their cogs on the black, back part of the shoulder pad.


But they were an absolute nightmare to position, you can see it's creased but I'll fix that with battle damage. I followed Duncan's guide again, but even with the dags around the rivets and some decal softener it was far from straightforward. This has been coated in Lahmian Medium too, which was a challenge as it initially looked like the gloss varnish was not making it stick but aside from the creases at least there are no glossy 'haloes' around the decal, so that worked.


The Gallant went with the white cog trim on the red panel. I was convinced the black on the Castellan would look better but again wanted to play around. Also having added the white pattern on the black above I went without on the Gallant because I still wasn't convinced about the lack of breathing space between the two decals. Although looking at it, if I just make that leading cog a little narrower so they don't overlap it might look like they are meant to mesh together like normal cogs...


While paints were drying I finally decided to look at the base again.


As much as I love it with the rust I need to match it up with pipes on the Gallant base. OK I don't need to, I want to.


Once again a quick sponge of Iyanden Dark Sun/Valejo Yellow get me this.


A bit more yellow perhaps than I originally envisaged but I'll be doing some additional rust/weathering on top so it should perhaps tone it back so there is more rust on show. That's the plan for the base and I've got weathering/damage on the Knights themselves next.


Meanwhile I've also created a checklist of elements to get most of the Knight done and by ticking off one or two a night it feels like steady progress, far more than I would expect or actually need at this point but it's all good.

Imperial Knights - House Corvus Twins in Manufactorum
Parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |

Friday 8 February 2019

2000pts battle report - Imperial Knights & Dark Angels v Iron Hands Space Marines - LCO 5

Last game of the tournament and I've got Robin Neill from Geeks Wargaming you can see the preview of his army list here. I think Otty might have been up against Iron Hands this weekend too [if not Neill himself] as I'd overheard something about their durability - apparently a 6+ Feel No Pain equivalent throughout.


I think I finished deploying first and despite going as far up the board as possible I still had a long way to go to reach the Astartes...


as Robin deployed well back in his zone, surrounding a big invul buffing Dreadnought with the rest of his Dread crew.


We rolled off and I won first turn for a 100% success for the weekend. With so far to go the Lancer had to Flank Speed [another obscene 10 or 11" advance] but had the bikes with him to score the objective. Actually I'm not sure what happened here as this is clearly Robin's end of movement phase. I'm guessing the Lancer did not make its charge as it's too far back but I did manage to kill something [I'm guessing a Dreadnought]. 


The Razorback couldn't get finished off and so it moved up the field to snatch the objective in the top left. I'd moved everything else up as much as possible but failed to take notice of the Bonus conditions for mission - have Characters on the objectives and so squandered a point with my Techmarine  beside the Predator when it could have been in those ruins.


Robin retaliated by focussing on the Dark Talon, taking it out, unfortunately I didn't even get chance to  Stasis Bomb anything this game [and Mortal Wounds would have been handy].


The Lancer got charged but I interrupted and speared his Leviathan, I might have also damaged the other Dread.


The bikes were whittled down to the Sergeant but killed and Iron hand in return. The Lancer took something like 17 wounds so by the end of Robin's turn he'd secured 6VPs [with Titan Killer, Big Guns and Old School] to my 3.


The Lancer fell back but towards Robin's back line, this allowed the Warglaives to move into his position facing the Dreadnoughts. Euronymous moved to intercept the Razorback and as a characters secured that objective. My Chaplain secured the centre objective and my Techmarine moved over to the ruins to guarantee the Bonus point. This meant the Predator had to move up to secure a better view, but I think whiffed on the Land Raider. 


The Lancer multi-charged the Kheres pattern Contemptor, Techmarine, Librarian and Dreadnought. This allowed the Warglaives to get into combat, with one avoiding overwatch. Unfortunately I think Robin interrupted and his dread killed the Warglaive but it might have blown up [there seemed to be a lot of that this weekend]. My surviving Warglaive killed the other Dread.


Euronymous totally wiped out the Razorback and all but one of the Tactical Squad it had sent after the bikes was left.


The Land Raider deployed its squad and moved away from the titanic melee.


Concerted melta fire from the tac squad took down the Warglaive [he may have exploded too], leaving my 'spearhead' crumbling. Robin secured another 6 VPs but I was able to match him with 6 - I Killed 1, held an objective, held more objectives, the bonus and two Big Game Hunter kills.


Turn 3, the Lancer Fell Back and the Bald Headed Quad Rapier was shot to pieces to get me a Marked for Death point. The Deredeo was killed somehow, he might have been part of the multi-charge with the infantry who were also Marked for Death. Euronymous would not suffer the last Tactical Marine to leave and achieved a 10" charge to stomp all over it's metal corpse. It was overkill for sure but it was more about movement and getting into the fight, it left me short of the bonus objective having moved off it.


Most of the Tac squad got smooshed but the remainder either headed for Euronymous or hid in the Land Raider.


Everything shot at the Lancer who promptly exploded, wiping out the Techmarine, wounding the Librarian and putting some damage on the Land Raider. Euronymous was brought to 17 wounds but his Ion Shiled suddenly became unbeatable and I started making save after save against the solid shots from the quad Rapiers, the Melta-gun from the Tactical Squad and the Las Cannons from the Land Raider. I scored another 5 VPs but Robin scored 4.


My turn 4 and I just couldn't kill anything. Everything either missed or was just damage so my turn was pretty quick, aside from Euronymous moving to intercept the Land Raider. I think my Biker Sergeant managed to get into combat with the Librarian.


Unfortunately that just prompted it's passengers to disembark and shoot. He again made save after save but the Librarian had wounded it with Smite and eventually Euronymous was brought low through weight of fire but in typically belligerent mood blew up!


He took the Librarian, two Techmarines and a Tactical Marine with him. So despite not killing a single unit in my turn I'd somehow managed to kill more units in the Battle Round. I claimed another 5 VPs to Robin's 1 Kill VP. I'd finally overtaken him 19-17.


Turn 5 and things were going so quick because there was so little on the board. The Predator could do enough damage on the Land Raider and my Scouts got killed. I scored 2 VPs for hold 1 and hold more, Robin scored 1 VP for an objective.


The last turn I still couldn't kill anything, but Robin could which netted him Kill 1 and Kill more, plus hold 1 taking our scores to 22 to me and 21 to Robin. Which prompted us to make absolutely certain on our scores, so the recount gave us 22-22 and then it became apparent I hadn't added the Big Game Hunter points for all the Dreadnoughts I'd killed. So when all the dust settled I'd got 24 to Robin's 22


This was a really great game, the closest of the weekend, all 6 turns and despite getting first turn the Iron Hands famous resilience meant they easily overtook me at the beginning but I thankfully had enough strength in depth to claw it back. This felt like a tactical game though and granted I had an amazing run of Ion Shield saves on Euronymous he eventually fell but once again the Mortal Wounds from explosions was often my most potent weapon - they really need to FAQ the Noble Sacrifice Stratagem so it includes patterns of Knights beyond Armiger, Questoris and Dominus.


We were both really chuffed to end on such a good game hopefully I'll see Robin around again as Geeks Wargaming were supporting the LCO with their own terrain to help fill out the tables and I've seen them at Aceface's events before. The guys did a review of the tournament you can see my bit here:


Thursday 7 February 2019

2000pts battle report - Imperial Knights & Dark Angels v Deathwatch - LCO 4

Day 2, game 4, scenario 4: What's Your's is Mine. 5 objectives, 1 in the middle, 1 each in your deployment zone and 1 each in your opponents DZ. Bonus points to control both the objectives you placed. I'd be facing Rick Martin and his Deathwatch and thanks to the wonders of the Best Coast Pairings app I knew that the night before. My main concerns were his Corvus Blackstar, Mortis Dreadnought and Razorback. There was a smattering of Imperial Guard too, for bubble wrap and CPs but with the table setup below I deployed aggressively to close that gap as soon as possible. I won the first turn yet again and Rick was unable to steal the initiative.


The Lancer went straight down the line and thanks to the small 'no man's land' in the table quarters setup getting to that front lien was easy. A Warglaive joined it, while the other flanked the ruin to get an angle on the Razorback, as did the Predator. Meanwhile Euronymous went between the ruins to be up front and target the tank. The Dark Talon overflew the guard in the ruins, Stasis Bomb doing some damage.


Supported by Heacy Stubber and Bolter fire from the bikes the squad was wiped out. It might have done some damage on the Blackstar too. The Razorback got destroyed and when the dust settled just one Frag Cannon guy was left. The remaining guardsmen were wiped out in assault and the Dreadnought also took a few wounds.


Rick had taken quite a pounding in that first turn but actually it was a lot of low value troops that had gone, his Deathwatch still had some tricks. The Blackstar overflew my Tactical squad holding his objective in my DZ but wasn't half as effective as my Dartk Talon had been.


Rick's watch captain/Librarian [not sure] had some pretty lethal weaponry/powers. Not sure what damage it did but I knew I didn't want him around next turn. The Dreadnought came out from the ruins and I think I was particularly lucky with my invul saves.


He made the charge into my Warglaive but he was outmatched in combat. The Dreadnought was also Marked for Death as a secondary. 


The Warglaive sliced it to pieces. By the end of turn 1 I'd scored all 5 primary VPs to Rick's 1. It was probably around this point that I recalled Mike Corr's issues with Deathwatch Vs Knights and suddenly realised this might be come a very one-sided battle. To his credit Rick was incredibly calm and philosophical about the situation.


With Warglaive freed I flanked the ruins with the Dark Talon offering air support. The Lancer was going to tackle the squad of Veterans and the character.


Euronymous struggled to negotiate the tight ruins, leaving the Warglaive boxed in and the Ravenwing pushing ahead. The Frag Cannon vet would not survive the shooting phase.


This still gave firing lines to the Blackstar which was gunned down by the Predator and a load of small arms fire.


Lancer engaged the Vets, which allowed the Ravenwing a free charge for extra movement, which they made. The Warglaive appeared round the corner to assault the last of the Guard holding the objective in the ruins.


With most of the Vets dead the lone Terminator fell back leaving the Knight and bikers in the middle of his DZ.


But reinforcements were on the way as two Veteran squads materialised via teleportarium. 


There was a lot of fire thrown at the Lancer, I think there were some meltas in there and special bullets which brought it from 27 down to 9 wounds. I scored another max 5 VPs and Rick scored 1 again.


The Lancer charged the squads, while the Dark Talon strafed them. Euronymous closed up to offer support and hold the objective with the Ravenwing.


Despite inflicting heavy casualties the Vets managed enough wounds of their own to take the Lancer out and also two of my bikers in the process [yet another Knight explosion!].


Rick had a jump pack HW with Thunder Hammer who was able to destroy the Warglaive too. Despite my lead and overwhelming odds the Deathwatch had taken out half of my Knights. Euronymous was still whole though. Another 5VPs to 2 and in my turn I was able to table Rick.


A rather sad end in some respects, the tabling seemed a nail in the coffin, although I was really pleased Rick managed to take out the Lancer and Warglaive. With Big Game, Titan Hunter and Slay the Warlord from Old School Rick added 5 secondaries to his score of 9 but I maxxed out on 37VPs. Also annoying was I forgot to get a selfie with him as I had to put my army up for the painting comp.


But an absolute pleasure to play against and with Chapter Approved and the Bolter Beta I really think they might be a better prospect. The Honest Wargamer guys believe they are top tier, it just takes a special way to play them. Anyway, three loses and a win, on to game 5.