Massilia campaign: Iron Warriors vs. Grey Knights

I had missed the official start of the campaign due to snow and then being out of town the following week, so this was the first mission I've been able to play.  It was 1250pts, my Iron Warriors vs. Josh M's Grey Knights.  The mission is called "Survivors", where the objectives represent injured warriors from the different factions you try to rescue/capture.  After setup you roll to see if they are Imperial, Chaos, or local xenos (basically eldar).  Objective for your faction is worth 2VP, opposing faction worth 3VP, xenos 1VP.  Could make for some interesting late-game choices I think.

Iron Warriors: WIP but mostly done

The Iron Warriors are pretty far along.  I still need to:

• arrange to pick up parts to finish some things - mk III missile launcher squad, techmarine servo harnesses, and jump packs for the assault marines
• When cleaning and organizing, I apparently lost the drill bit small enough for bolter barrels, so will need to wait for a new drill bit before doing those.  I did the meltas and flamers with a hobby knife, but would like to go deeper for the bolters
• Seal
• I will also make a jump pack captain and a squad of MkIII vanguard vets, but have not even started construction on those yet, but those are just extras.  Aside from the Mk III missile squad and the parts, the 2000pt core army is almost done

Scythiak Usurpation vs. Ultramarines, Iron Warriors progress, Massilla campaign prelude

Sonofsonsoftaurus and I played a game at home, his Ultra vs. my Chaos Guard, the Scythiak Usurpation.  2000pts, and I had him set up the terrain and scenario.  I am attacking the entrenched Ultramarines, having driven them out of the city (or did I?  Likely a feigned retreat to overextend the heretics) and am trying to break through to their landing areas.  We each get a point for each unit destroyed, and I get a point for every unit I get off the far table edge.  Ultras have to all start on the table, no reserves.

Iron Underneath

I did work on the GW scenic bases I'm going to use for the Iron Warriors, and am pretty happy with how they're turning out.  I didn't have quite enough 40mm and no 60mm, so I made one of each to throw in and use for my captain and the contemptor.

The figures I have at the moment are primed, so soon I will be slathering metallics and washes on. 

Iron Assembly Line

Most of the assembly is done for the Iron Warriors.  25 tacticals, 5 assault, 5 sternguard, 15 devastators, 11 terminators, two thunderfire cannons, dreadnought.  Still waiting on parts to do a Mk III missile launcher dev squad.  Most backpacks left off until after initial painting.

Sternguard, simple MKIII legion armor, bolters with box mags and scopes, Iron Hands heads for some extra bionics/upgrades.  Awaiting MKIII Iron Warrior pads.

The bases are temporary, I will be using the GW Sector Imperialis bases for them.  Now that they are assembled, when I get another warm day I'll prime them and get to work. 

I also picked up the Burning of Prospero set, pretty neat.  Love the plastic MkIII marines.  A little disappointed in them as a kit in that the only HW they have is a heavy bolter (Mk IVs had HB and ML) and no flamer as far as I can tell (have melta and plasma).  They do have a thunderhammer for the sgts, so I will forgive them a bit.

Iron Warriors: Cataphracti out of the bag

I had all these MkIV tactical marine bits in front of me, and thought that I should get started assembling those, as they would be the most useful, using the bodies for my tac squads and dev squads for lower point games.

So of course, my brain went SQUIRREL!  and I assembled the terminators instead.

Not the most practical early build, but progress is progress!

Iron Warriors begin, Shards of Anaris report

I got a small start on the Iron Warriors, assembling the captain and swapping out the bare head for a helmet.

Iron Within, Iron Without

I had always liked the idea of the Iron Warriors.  Siege warfare, trenches, ruthless application of logistics and firepower to achieve their goals.  I never got around to making them before, as I didn't really picture them as the standard Chaos Marine kits, even with the upgrade set GW released 3rd edition.  The extra ornamentation, horns and such always seemed to fit armies like Black Legion and the Word Bearers well, while the cult legions had their own aesthetics.  But it didn't fit Iron Warriors well to me.  Neither did regular marine kits, focused on Mk VI and VII armor with eagles and purity seals featured prominently.  So I waited.