What's on my palette?

Bless me #warmongers for I have sinned, it's been over six weeks since my last confession! It's been Chrimblemas though so no bother. Now a lot of folk will be doing New Year's Hobby Resolutions, but I do things differently and already have my Hobby Season To Do List. That doesn't stop me just organising things a bit as 2022 roles around.

Long time readers may recall that I tend to suffer from a post-Christmas malaise that saps all my hobby mojo. Since returning to the hobby I always make something over the festive period, but then with those items built I just lack any motivation to press on. This year I think I'm going to buck that trend - I'm going 'off-list'. I received from my good friend Pete a Primaris Chaplin on motorbike - a fantastic gift as I could never justify buying such a figure for myself. I know it's Primaris and I don't do Primaris with my Dark Angels but I think Id make an exception for him as he's such a centrepiece model. I will hopefully use it alongside my eventual Primaris force, which I've decided will be Guardians of the Covenant.

Having built the Chaplin I also cleaned up 5 Tyranid Warriors and based them. The new Tyranid Crusher Stampede army of renown is based around big monsters, but for a Battalion detachment you still need 3 Troops and with only 5 painted Warriors I can't make the 3 broods of 3. So I'm painting those up, basing them and will look at updating the paint jobs on my original Warriors - they're showing their age. I'll also be updating the Primes, with colour schemes, and as they are now on 50mm bases, I'll be building these up so they're even bigger. I'm also going to swap out my kitbashed lash-whip/bonesword with a Tyrant Guard version. The arms are a bit chunkier but I don't mind.

With a dip back into 'nids, I haven't done any since May! I'm hoping to avoid the malaise, it's certainly helping me avoid my Ravenwing Talonmaster... ahem! I have primed [very badly] my Death Guard Kill Team too. So that may creep into my schedule. I've certainly got enough to keep me busy for January and should I get through it all there is the Ravenwing... Anyway, a few micro-blog Big Build TO DONE! posts to come over the next few days so you can see what I did with my festive period.

Hobby Spends 2021

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity Following on from previous year's spending record I've kept another log for 2021 [and will do so for 2022]. The final figure of just over £362 represents a huge increase on last years gross spend of £227, almost £137 more. I did sell the Necron half of Indomitus though, bringing in £46, but that's still £316 spent on the hobby, which is just over £25 a month. Here's the breakdown:



My figure purchases were up, but they were also due to magazine purchases - Imperium and Mortal Realms. The Halfling BB team, Helverins and Munitorum Containers were a treat for myself and I don't regret their purchase. But I'm still not convinced on why I bought Indomitus, although the Primaris figures are still an asset, should I be so inclined to offload them in the future. At the very least I would recoup my money. 

One reason for investing in Indomitus is I've played 9th edition a few times now and although I may love the Indomitus Big Rule Book, I do find it incredibly heavy and cumbersome. Whether I consider downgrading to the softback A5 version is debatable - it'd be much easier for gaming but so far we're undecided about 9th as an experience. We rationalised our way out of playing the latter part of 8th and in some ways 9th has, and it's an odd phrase, become more one dimensional. Despite all the secondary missions and the Crusade rules our experience has very much been everything dies and then the game is over and the objectives become almost irrelevant. We'll keep trying, but we haven't yet had the tactical experiences we had with 5-7th or even 8th. We'll press on.

Back to my spends - I spent £40 on Mortal Realms and the new Imperium magazine. I'm still not into Age of Sigmar but my wife got me an issue with one third of the Mortis Engine in so I had to get the others. I have an idea one day I will love painting all the ghosts I've accrued - they'll be something to paint purely for fun. Of course I have to paint the other things ahead of it that I NEED to paint before I can do that. Again, it's something I could sell on if I give up on the dream... nightmare?

So, 2021 has been an expensive year, bizarrely so given I've hardly played at all and even then it was Middle Earth, with figures I already owned [or added to in 2020]. But, the two previous years had been exceptionally frugal so there was bound to be a relapse eventually. It feels like a wake-up call though and I hope I won't be as spendthrift next year. Not only do I have plenty to keep my occupied, painting-wise, I feel they should be painted before I get any more [see above picture]. I've also got plenty of variety that should stave off boredom painting the same old nids or Dark Angels.

That said, the Malaceptor is all new hotness for Tyranids rules-wise, and I recently saw some floating kitbashed version of the actual kit that make it look really cool. But £40 for one model... 😖 We'll just have to see, a new Tyranid Codex will be due next year and all bets could be off!

HAPPY X-MAS

Good morning #warmongers and #warhammercommunity  and a merry X-Mas from Professor Egon Seuss and the rest of the Magos on Ferron Proxima. Additional felicitations from the guys and gals at the Vulcan Institute of Techno-Archaeology. May all your X-mas wishes be plastic [or resin]. 

In case you're not X-mas orientated please accept the following good wishes:

#BattleReport - 1,000pts Imperial Knights v Orks

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity we've been playing #new40k in our last game we'd rolled Divide and Conquer we didn't even bother to keep track of score for game two - we were just playing fast[er]. The only variable we changed was I went first.

I moved up to secure an objective, my shooting was relatively successful - killing the Wartrike at least. I'm not sure how I'd split my fire but I know I debated it ad nauseum. The Preceptor's Las Impulosr is relatively short range so I think it may have taken out the Trike. There is the Capacitor Charge Stratagem that makes it Heavy 6 instead of Heavy D6  and he would have been within 18".

Unfortunately one vehicle down just wasn't enough with Ben calling the Waaaaaargh! This time with Ghazgkhull leading the charge. The Lancer was down to 19 wounds going into combat

And then suffered another 14 taking it to just 5.

I'm not entirely sure what this roll is for - it could be Ghazgkhull's damage roll on my Preceptor, or it could have been a saving throw but as he can only take 4 wounds it wouldn't be hugely significant him passing most of them. 

Regardless, the Knight fell and I was just left with the Lancer and the Warglaive.

The Lancer did not last long and in an act of charity Ben suggested we finish with Ghazgkhull versus the Warglaive, based on the premise he had in fact suffered 4 wounds already. In which case the Warglaive had to cause 4 wounds in shooting and 4 in combat.

Which he just managed to do, even with Ben re-rolling his invulnerable save. Ghazgkhull was dead but the rest of the Orks butchered the Knight for its audacity killing their leader.

Tabled again. So much for my cockiness. We had quite the discussion afterwards about the game and the experience we've had of 9th edition so far. If you haven't gathered, it isn't particularly positive. We can't seem to pin down yet, what is making it feel so one dimensional. Is it the size of the games, the armies we've got, our inexperience [both of the rules and tactics], the discrepancy in age of Codex, the terrain setup or even the board size. It's a topic for a post on its own, when we've played a couple more games. We're planning a bigger game - 1,500pts in the hope that might change the dynamic a bit. We'll use the bigger table to do so, but I'm not sure how that will change anything as the 'no-man's' land is still the same distance. 

But we're going to persevere, but it says something that with 4 wins under his belt Ben does not feel happy about the outcome. We've had fun and plenty of exclamations and drama but when that is purely on the outcome of a lucky or unlucky dice roll why do we need the figures or terrain? We need to feel like tactical choices have had a bearing on the game. So far it's just me being swamped, but maybe that's how Orks play?

#BattleReport - 1,000pts Imperial Knights v Orks

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity we've been playing #new40k [is that hashtag still valid?]. Ben and I decided to go for a bigger game this time - 1,000pts. However, an Incursion battle is still the small board, which looked very odd them's the rules. I brought some terrain and it may look like there is too much, in fact a lot of it is utterly redundant aside from it making the board difficult to traverse, which was the point. I thought it'd be interesting to have us forced into choke points, neutralising some of the advantages of my Knights and also the speed of the Orks - would it work that way though? We'd rolled Divide and Conquer as a mission and we spent ages choosing our Secondaries but I won't go into detail as we quickly abandoned any effort to keep track of score.

I had a Preceptor, my Lancer and a Warglaive. I thought I was really clever with my Heirlooms and traits. The Preceptor had Armour of the Sainted Ion for a 2+ save and Ion Bulwark for a 4+ Invulnerable save. The Lancer had Knight Seneschal for +1 Attack [giving him 6!] and Mark of the Omnissiah for minimum 2 Wounds back each turn thanks to the Sacristan Pledge. I was feeling pretty cocky and elected to go second.

Ben had got rid of the Boyz, had more units of Bikers, two more vehicles and a Wartrike and Ghazgkhull was behind the Sanctum Imperialis on the right.

Turn 1 and Ben called the Waaaaaargh! with Trikes and Bikes surging forward.

Everything fired at the Lancer, it even took 4 wounds off thanks to Shoota fire!

By the time the Trike got into combat the Lancer was down to 8 wounds from 26. The Bikes also multi-charged the Preceptor a muddy little combat may have taken place and I may have interrupted [I really should write these the day after].

As the dust settled the Lancer had fallen, despite rotating Ion Shields for a 3++ save in combat. Alongside, the Preceptor had taken 4 wounds. Only the boss of the Bikers remained of the Ork push.

But he couldn't survive, either by attack from the Knight or morale.

With the Orks gone the second wave of the green tide were free to push forward. Again, more shooting from the Scrapjet and other Speed Freeks whittled away my wounds and left the Knightsw even more vulnerable. Despite prioritising mostly defensive Relics and traits they just couldn't shrug off the weight of fire.

Even the Goffs incredibly bad shooting was eased by 6's causing two hits. Ghazgkhull himself has crazy rules with his guns that mean anything that fails to hit and wound can be re-rolled. Add to that he can take no more than 4 wounds per phase and there was no way i could kill him in a turn as I don't have any Psykers to dish out wounds in the Psychic phase - there's a point Imperial Knights need a Psychic unit - like a court mage. The Adeptus Titanicus have Psi-Titans why not Knights?

So, there we go, tabled again. At turn 2 it was 25:6 in Ben's favour but being dead it was all over for me anyway. It was relatively quick for a 1,000pt game so we had time to set it up again. I did have a Preceptor and 4 Armiger list instead, but the only variable we changed in game 2 would be I went first...

Terrain is everything - TT Combat Gothic Ruins MDF kit - Red ruined walls.

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity I've been #paintingwarhammer on my TT Combat Gothic Ruins. First up some simple first stage Red Planet BASE highlights all over - stippled/drybrushed on.

The advantage for having the same colour for your buildings as your battlefield is you have this technique and all it's colours ready to hand [although when I run out of the Home & Bargains Vermillion I'm stuffed!].

You can see I added some shading around the windows to make it look like the top rendering had fractured off round the window frames. I then added highlights to the cracks, just the same as my House Raven Imperial Knights - yet more transferrable skills!

I shaded the edges of the ruins with black - where they might have been damage by fire and smoke.

 

Inside I'd stippled on more Burnt Umber on the cream walls to give a grungy grimdark finish. 

On my Sanctum Imperialis I went on to add some bone highlights to tone this brown grime down, but I deliberately decided to leave this as is for a few reasons. Ordinarily I get to this stage and wish I could leave it but feel compelled to carry on painting, so for once I refused to be a slave to my compulsions. Also, it's quicker to leave it as is and as much as I like this terrain a quicker more slap-dash approach is fine.

Additionally, it would be useful to have something that didn't go all the way to the degree I did on the Sanctum Imperialis, just as a measure to compare when I do.

That's not to say I've rushed this, far from it. I thought I'd be really quick with it but I did far too much detail than I wanted to.

In my defence I always add far too much detail but I had hoped to fly through these and not worry but I think I settled somewhere inbetween, and this is just before the Blessed Verdigris was to be added!

I did discover this floor has bowed, which was quite a surprise. I think I stored it with something on top and it;s pushed it down by at least 5mm in the middle. I might look to try and weight it in the other direction.

I liked the floor like this, and probably should have left it. but there was going to be now way I couldn't add some more metallics and verdigris, so look forward to how I foolishly handle that in the next update.

Blessed Verdigris next...

#BattleReport - 500pts Imperial Knights v Orks

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity it's been a long time since I've done a 40k battle report - February 2019 in fact at the Last chance Open and now here's two! Having had the Tyranids trounced I had brought some Armigers, I was able to fit two Helverin and a Warglaive list. There wasn't really time for a second battle, all I wanted to do was see what the two Helverins would have done against the bikes, so started to roll the dice, without the figures on the board... Next minute we had this!

 

We weren't playing any objectives, it was just kill everything. By this stage there was just the Nob biker left, my Warlord Helverin was down to 1 wound thanks to the Scrapjet and bikers and falling back, which left the last biker exposed and ultimately doomed. The Scrapjet fell to my Thermal Lance but the Warglaive was down to 5 wounds too.

The Weirdboy and Boyz set their sights on the Warglaive and undamaged Helverin.

Charging in, the Warglaive couldn't stand the weight of numbers and was cut down/smited before he got a chance to swing his chain cleaver. I think he did blow up though, wounding the Weirdboy and killing some of the Boyz. The Helverin was less successful. He did amazingly well with saving throws but just could not kill the Boyz because he doesn't have a dedicated melee weapon - it's why I prefer the Warglaive.

My last ditch was to charge the 1 wound Helverin into the fray but again he couldn't do very much thanks to his wounded state. I couldn't fall back to shoot as the Orks would catch me up and I didn't have the combat weapons to tip the balance

In return the Orks didn't have the strength and AP to damage me, but they had weight of numbers and we slowly chipped away at each other, with the Warlord Helverin falling to Smite.

The Weirdboy somehow got removed and all that was left was 5 Boyz and the Helverin on 5 wounds. I possibly should have the advantage for Toughness and saves but I think it was 15 attacks versus my 4...

and weight of numbers will out in the end. A somewhat disappointing outcome ultimately. I had hoped he'd survive and be rewarded for his tenacity but not to be.

Subsequently I've had a bit more of a look at the Knight rules and thanks to them being spread over 3 books now there are additional stratagems that would have helped, although we weren't keeping too close a track on CPs. But I was also able to recoup a wound per turn, which might have made a minor difference. It's a learning experience though and failures like these force you to debrief and learn more about your army so you can do better next time. All in I think it took an hour to play this out and we'll look to have a 1,000pts next time, which I have two Knight armies I want to try out 😉 See if we can get two games in again.