League Battle Report: Silver Skulls + IG vs. CSM + IG

Got my last league battle in today.  I had my Space Sharks done, which was my goal for the league, so I decided to bring a different force today.  Still a core of Space Marines, but this time using my Silver Skulls drop pod force, with some Imperial Guard backup.

Endless Ones: WIP Abyssal Reavers

Continuing with the Endless Ones, I've been trying to get some things together that I don't think will change too much with the new Chaos Marine codex.  Don't want to fool too much with magnets, and don't want to set up too many special/heavy weapon guys, champions and such until I actually see the book.  But Berzerkers should be pretty standard, pistol, axe and attitude!

Snapshot Review: Treacheries of the Space Marines

 

Hearing that Treacheries of the Space Marines, a new Black Library collection of 40K stories featuring various power-armored traitors and renegades, was out I hopped down to the local bookstore and picked it up.  With the new Chaos Space Marines codex out soon I was eager for some related reading material.

The stories themselves were mostly OK, nothing spectacular, but readable, and present different traitors in various situations, against each other as often as not.  The more disappointing part for me was that so many of the stories were reprints; ones I had read in The Best of Hammer and Bolter Volume One - which came out a mere three months ago.  If you've read that previous collection already, the value of Treacheries goes down significantly.  

The stories are:

• The Masters, Bidding
• The Carrion Anthem - from Hammer and Bolter collection
• Liberator
• The Long War
• Throne of Lies - text form of previous audio drama
• Bitter End - from Hammer and Bolter collection
• We are One - from Hammer and Bolter collection
• Torturer's Thirst
• Vox Dominus

So out of nine stories, three are from a prior collection and another is an older story in a different format.

There are a few stories of note I wanted to briefly mention, not especially for the stories themselves but more from a background perspective.

"The Masters, Bidding" by Matthew Farrer shows interactions between some members of various Legions, and demonstrates how not everyone in those legions, even prominent ones, are Horus Heresy leftovers.

"Liberator" by Jonathan Green, showcases the renegade Constantinus, who IIRC first surfaced in the last Chaos Marine codex.  Nothing especially new, but don't recall him featuring before.

"The Long War" by Andy Hoare is interesting for being the first to feature some things that Chaos Marine players only recently learned about - Mutilators, Forgefiends and Maulerfiends, new units in the upcoming codex.  I wouldn't be surprised if this piece was specially commissioned to feature them and has snippets appear in the new codex.

If you're a big Chaos fan and haven't read the other stories yet, might be worth picking up.  If you've read the previous stories, get it second-hand or borrow it.  If you don't care for Chaos, give it a pass.

Endless Ones: WIP Defiler and Predator

Some repaints on some secondhand Chaos Space Marine stuff for the Endless Ones. (background Part One, and Part Two)

Pretty much done, just need to seal them to keep the shiny!

Other view:

I still plan on getting the new CSM book, but I've been kind of disappointed with a lot of what I've been seeing, both model and rules-wise.  When I get the book I'll see how the Hell Hounds Word Bearers convert over, and how the Endless Ones and associated forces may end up looking. 

40K League Picture Dump 09/23/12

Only got one game in today at the league, against Patrick's Necrons.  As with last time, the horde of stacking tesla shots destroyed me.  Didn't help that I couldn't hit with 90% of my melta shots or powerfist attacks, and that assault marines apparently can't beat up basic necron warriors.  Ork Nobs and a Warboss, no problem.  Skinny robots, run away!  I may have to break down at our next points jump and just add in the bastion plus quad gun to shoot down flyers as they come in, plus an IG command squad with master of the fleet to slow their entry.

Chaos Marine leaks: Stuff you may have missed

Of course check out the main stuff, with more doubtless to come, over at Faeit 212.

A couple of things that are in the pics but weren't mentioned that I saw, so some may have overlooked them:

Endless Ones: Chaos Land Raider repaint

Redone Chaos Marine Land Raider for my Endless Ones.

 

Endless Ones: Updated Bloodletters

Shot of the Bloodletters after a fast bit of shading.  Ivory overbrush over most of the model followed by some washing, then matte sealer.

Picked up some daylight bulbs for my floor lamp per Dai's suggestion, seems to work well, though I may have overdone it with direct light, washing out some of the highlights.  C'est la vie.

And here's a shot showing them prior to the touch ups.

Music Kickstarter plugs

Just a couple of plugs for a couple low-budget projects that are quite different from each other musically, but similar in awesomeness.

In praise of 34

System Sciences sounded appropriate when talking about game design

I love the board game Diplomacy. 

It has so much going for it.  Secret orders, simple rules mechanics and a free wheeling player on player interaction where it gets its name from.

It has an aspect that I find both wonderfully amusing and that makes a terribly sad statement about the human condition.  You see, if everyone in the game works to their own best interests, no one would ever win.

Why?

Prepping for Chaos 6th

I had earlier decided that my long-serving Sons of Horus Chaos Marines would be repainted and rolled into the new Endless Ones and their associated forces.  So I've gone through the various boxes, set a few aside for now and piled the rest together along with some other secondhand figs that need stripping.  Here they are prior to dunking in the warpstorm, aka tub of Simple Green.

Finished Sharks and Orks

I polished off the Space Sharks landspeeder and assault squad, above.  The gloss varnish brushed on the decals prior to spraying did seem to help with the fuzzing issues I'd had before.

 

Thinking of naming the sarge "Edward" in tribute to his epic whomping of the Ork warboss William Waaagghace last weekend.

Also based and sealed the Ork walkers, below.

League Game: Space Sharks vs. Orks!

Had a game vs. Leonard's Orks today to break in the 1500pts, and final, level of our 40K league at Gaming Underground.  We rolled up the Big Guns Never Tire mission, making my Whirlwind and his Looted Wagon scoring and worth a VP if destroyed, and Hammer and Anvil (short edges) deployment.

Doing the Kan-Kan - WIP Ork walkers

I managed to get some painting in on the Ork walkers, so here's a group shot!

WIPs: Space Sharks speeder and STOMPINESS!

I've gotten some painting and gluing done, so here's some pics!  First is the Space Sharks land speeder typhoon, with some hull markings that double as a reminder.  When this is finished, that should do it for the Space Sharks for now.

Picture Dump: 40K League games

Game one setup vs. Landon's marines

Bunch of pics from my games today plus a few shots of others'.  

I got three games in for the last round of our 1250pt month.  In all three games things were pretty close for a while, and then my army collapsed.  Oh well.  Some things in the original army design just don't translate over well into 6th ed.