WIP Emperor's Children (30K)

 

A little work on the loyalist EC, testing things out on a few Tactical marines. Spray based in Army Painter Alien Purple. Other paints also Army Painter, including the black and gold with the Speedpaint 2.0 and they are pretty marvelous. Also a leather from them for the holsters and straps but don't see well in this picture. 

Tried a simple eye lens with silver base and Tamiya transparent green over top, but not really happy, will look at some alternatives.

I've also painted up all the bases for the guys I have so far (will need to make more later for assault squads). Started with gold and then muted and grimed up.  After this pic I also added some GW Reikland Fleshshade wash, which I find works pretty well with gold.

Reboot?

Well it's been a little bit.

How does this all work again?

Meet the Kill Team: Shears of Atropos

With the latest addition of Kill Team we've started into a campaign at one of the local stores.  Without a lot of lead time (got the book Saturday, started campaign Sunday) to make a team from scratch, I flipped through the book and looked at the models on hand, settling on a Chaos Marine team from my Endless Ones.  Above is the Leader, Abraxas.  In our opening game (a three-way against Ultramarines and Deathwatch) he took out the Ultramarines Leader in close combat to fulfill the mission objective.

Cheesestealer Cult progress plus Primaris Reivers

I've slowly been working on the first 498pts of my Cheesestealer Cult aka the "Nezu".  One mostly finished guy and a bunch with yellow down (using Minitaire's Golden Yellow ghost tint, just applying by brush instead of the intended airbrush).

sonofsonsoftaurus has also been busy, painting up his Reiver squad for his Ultramarines.  He still has washes and some details/basing to go.

Nezu Scavpack sighted!

Night vision glance of a Nezu Scavpack passing through a junction

Twenty one assembled, another ninety or so to go!

The basic Veer-myn shown here will serve as GSC Neophyte Hybrids, with lasguns, flamers and mining lasers.  The fancy guy in front will serve as a Primus.

Scythiak Vojaki Storm Troopers - painted

I finished painting the Anvil Industries squad I'll use as Scions for my Scythiak Usurpation army.  4+ armor!  They're invincible!

WIP Scythiak Vojaki Storm Troopers / Anvil Industry review

I recently was fortunate enough to win a Facebook contest for Anvil Industry and received a squad of figures from their Regiments range.  I just pulled the parts out of their bags and assembled four of them, pictured above.  They're destined to add to my 40K chaos guard army, the Scythiak Usurpation, as Storm Troopers/Scions.  A review follows - I did get the minis for free, but it was not contingent on doing a review or the content of any review.

I've gotten a few parts from Anvil in the past, but never a full squad, and nothing from their regiments line.  I am pretty impressed with the design and the quality.  A lot of thought went into these.  Anvil's site mentions that they are:

• User Friendly - Where possible components feature a peg assembly system for precise and easy dry fitting and assembly. 
• High Quality  - We've used the latest digital design methods and highest quality resin casting to achieve incredible levels of detail and quality.

Death!

Snowed in today, so getting some painting in.  Above is a test skeleton for an Age of Sigmar Death army. 

Workbench reorganization, Scythiak tanks

With the help of a bunch of fingernail polish racks I reorganized my paints and such to be more readily accessible, and hopefully put back where they belong.

Back to the workbench!

After a while of not doing much modelling or painting I'm getting back into the swing.  I picked up this fella on ebay and added the mask and axe and plan to use him as Lord Taurus, ascended leader of the Sons of Taurus renegade marines.  The listing said it was from Creature Caster, but I haven't been able to verify that.  Anyone recognize him and able to point me to some confirmation of origins?

I'm also bulking up the Scythiak Usurpation .  Above are my unimaginative Crusaders.  Very on the nose perhaps, but pretty much fit perfectly how they're supposed to be equipped (heavy armor, storm shield, power sword) and fit with the aesthetic already established with the marauder rough riders and use of fantasy chaos heads elsewhere.  I plan to put them and a priest in a twin heavy flamer Chimera and go try to fry and dice some loyalists.

 
Sonofsonsoftaurus has also been busy, assembling mostly on his own (I did some trimming of flash and sprue remainders) a Primaris Apothecary and an Ultramarines herald/ancient.  The head on the herald is from a different heresy kit (MKIII command I believe).  Cape/backpack left off of the herald for painting.  That Apothecary has a bunch of tiny pieces.  If I get one myself I may have him and his small hands build it for me.

More to come!

8th edition 40K pre-game checklist

 

The new edition of 40K presents a lot of options on how to set up a game.  Of course we always had the option to play whatever kind of game we wanted, but having a number of options codified can make things easier (hey, let's pick one of these) but can also lead to confusion (what do you mean I can't use the same stratagem twice?) if players come with different expectations.  You should always have "the conversation" before a game to get on the same page. Perhaps something like this will make the conversation easier.

++Warhammer 40K 8^th edition pre-game checklist++

Who’s playing?

Where/When?

What time do we need to end by?

Do we need an extended break sometime in the middle (meal, etc.)? 

Will any player need to step away on a regular basis (smoke breaks, store owner to help customers, etc.)?

Who’s playing what?

Comfort level/experience of players?  Does any player need help? Does anything in any army need to be explained?

Is there a particular mission we are playing? (tournament test, custom narrative, special campaign mission, etc.?)

If not, what type of mission do we want? (Open War cards, War Without End? Crucible of War, Eternal War, Maelstrom of War, other?)

Battlezones?

             Night Fight? (p.252)

             Fire and Fury? (p.253)

             Psychic Maelstrom? (p.253)

             Planetstrike? (pp.254-7)

             Cities of Death? (pp.258-261)

             Stronghold Assault? (pp.262-265)

             Death from the Skies? (pp.266-269)

             Other?

Points or Power Level?  How many for each player?

Must armies be Battle-Forged?  Any restrictions on Detachments?

(Matched Play style restrictions)

Do armies need to allocate reinforcement points to summon daemons, etc.? (p214)

      

Psychic Focus? (other than Smite, each psychic power only once per turn) (p.215)

Strategic Discipline? (Same stratagem can only be used by same player once per phase.  Does not apply to those not used during a phase such as before the battle begins or at the end of a battle round) (p215)

Tactical Reserves?  (At least half of an army’s units must be set up on the table.  Any unit that has not arrived by the end of the third battle round counts as destroyed) (p215)

Sudden Death? (p.215)

Other Special Rules?

Any special terrain?

Is there anything we need to remember to track? (ex: for bonus tournament points or campaign effects)

Do we have everything we need? (models, books, dice, tape measures, terrain, etc.)

Any other questions/clarifications?

GAME ON!

Hot Chaos on Chaos action!

The Hell Hounds Word Bearers took the field against John's Nurgle Alpha Legion (Plague Hydras?  Infection Alpha?  There's a good name in there somewhere).  We played a Maelstrom mission, with us each having three cards a turn and corner deployment.  In the top right, two rhinos and the daemon prince Garm head to a critical objective while other forces hang back to secure our deployment zone.

Konor Weeks 4 and 6

Two more weeks of the Konor campaign, weeks 4 and 6.  The Word Bearers continue their erratic efforts in aid of the Death Guard's efforts in the system...or are they just pursuing their own goals?

Konor battles, new players, wacko chaos bike

After a few weeks on vacation, we made it back to the game store for some 40K and week 3 of the Konor campaign.  Here, 50PL of my Word Bearers try to make it past sonofsonsoftaurus' Ultramarines.

Terminators teleport in, fail to damage centurions with shooting, fail to charge, and soon fail to survive the Ultramarine return fire.

Garm and a squad of marines take out the Ultra terminators.

While Rhinos try to make it off the board.

One Rhino almost makes it before being torn apart by lascannons from the dreadnoughts.  I finish off the last centurion, giving me two points (terminators and centurions) but the loyalists ended with three (two rhinos and one CSM squad) and the win.

The Ultramarines got into another game, vs. marauding orks. (Leonard)

They used the Open War cards, with deployment zones right in each other's faces and a plummeting objective that would show up on the third turn in a random location.

With these guys leading the way, the orks had a bad day.

Elsewhere, Necrons clashed with more orks. (Connor vs. Terry)

While these later games were going on, I hung out with new player Matt and returning (from a slight 17 year absence) player Will while they got a small practice game in.  Matt brought his Dark Imperium Death Guard and Will dusted off some Praetorian Imperial Guard.

They used the basic book scenario, and ended up with four end-of-game scoring objectives and extra points for slaying the warlord.

Along with his old school guardsmen, Will had some nice old school Ogryn.

"Sgt. Major sah!  'eretics at 100 yards!"

The Plague Drone took a lot of fire and killed off two squads before being finished off and exploding in a fountain of filth that covered the nearby troopers.  On the other side, Poxwalkers make a ton of Disgustingly Resilient rolls and move up towards Imperial lines.

A few manage to make it to combat, but with the Praetorians falling back the remaining Poxwalkers are gunned down.  The Death Guard pull back and claim two objectives and nearly shoot the IG off of one more.  Nearly.  The IG manage to squeak out a win with killing the Chaos warlord and narrowly making their final leadership roll.

John W.'s CSM also got a match in with Leonard's orks.  John's biker lord (or sorcerer?) caught my eye, a very over the top, very cool, very chaos conversion:

"Sorry sir, there were other bikers closer; we just couldn't pick the leader out."

"..."

I wonder if he was inspired by that recent Monster Trucks movie? 

Rise of the Primarch

I finished up the Guilliman model for sonofsonsoftaurus according to his specifications.  I will paint up the bare head later, but thankfully he has come around to liking the helmet.  I took a few cues from how he has been doing the ultras that he has been painting himself, so the blue is washed a little darker than I may have done on my own, and he's dulled down a little more than I would have done on my own.  Still, pretty happy wiht him and glad to have him wrapped up.

Fourth War for Armageddon: Planetfall

We had our next mission for our Armageddon campaign, a modified Planetfall mission (power level 75).  Chaos and Ork forces rain down from orbit upon the beleaguered Imperial defenders.  Above, some of sonsofsonsoftaurus' Ultramarines take up positions.

My early pictures of my own game seem to have disappeared.  I played against John W's Deathskulls. Bastion in the middle with a squad inside, squad and officer outside, squads and tanks spread out behind.  He brought an all infantry force aside from a dakkajet, and descended with a vengeance.

Fourth War for Armageddon - Escape!

After the initial surprises and setbacks from attacks against better prepared than expected orks and surprise assaults from traitor forces, the Imperial forces fall back towards Hive Acheron to regroup.  Unfortunately their foes have cut off most avenues of retreat, and small forces try to punch through where they can.

This week we were playing the Ambush mission from the new rulebook, with a few modifications to fit the intention better (restrictions on value you get from deep strikers or flyers escaping).  I played against Cory's orks.  Given the mission I took an armored spearhead (command russ, other russ, hellhound, armored sentinel, two chimeras with infantry squads and a platoon commander).  Cory was also all mounted, with warboss in batlewagon with boyz and a big mek, and two trukks with more boyz.  Power Level 50.

Fourth War for Armageddon, Day One

We started up our Fourth War for Armageddon campaign, with small (Power Level 25) games.  We played a modified Patrol mission, with the Imperial forces rolling out in clearing operations against resurgent Ork concentrations.  Along the way, many are ambushed by Chaos forces that have infiltrated on-world, as above.

8th ed test games picture dump

Over the past few weeks, like many around the world, our shop has been shaken by a plethora of 40k 8th edition games as people try things out.

Above vs. Bjorn as part of an epic rampage by the primarch in a three way game, smashing through a number of Space Wolves and Alpha Legionnaires, making a knight run away and being a general terror before finally succumbing to mass fire. 

This week we start up a campaign on Armageddon, stay tuned!