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.

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!

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, 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.

Megabattle pics

Some pictures from our recent megabattle - IG, Sisters/Inquisition and Dark Angels vs. Orks, Tyranids and Daemons.

Picture Dump: Merkan 76th IG vs. Orks

A few weeks ago I had a battle against Leonard's Orks as part of the lead up to our multi-player mega-battle coming up on the 19th.  It's been a while, so I won't do a blow by blow, just dump some pictures below and a brief commentary.  Between the lootas, morkonaut and grotzookas his shooting did a number on me, while he was able to make enough 5+ saves to keep hold of the center objective and win the game.  The good guys have lost every preliminary match, giving us a pretty steep climb for the megabattle, needing a blowout to win overall.

 

Endless Ones Heldrake, Merkan 76th vs. Hive Fleet Jumbo

Still needs a check for fixing visible goofs and sealing, but the heldrake for the Endless Ones is pretty complete.  Painting one of these already assembled is...annoying.  Thankfully, years ago some friends gave me an angled brush that came in very handy getting to spots where the wings overlap.

Combat Patrol: Fourth of July, Merka heck yeah!

Merkans ready to deploy.

Yesterday on the Fourth of July I attended a small Combat Patrol style event.  Given that it was the Fourth, I figured that the only choice to bring were the Merkan 76th.  I brought a platoon with two grenade launchers in the command squad, two infantry squads with plasma guns and autocannons, a vet squad with three plasma guns and a Chimera, an armored sentinel with plasma cannon, and an underpriced Wyvern.  Sonofsonsoftaurus also came along and served as Commissar, exhorting me to glory and recommending the more aggressive course of action whenever I was undecided.

Drop it! Silver Skulls vs. Scythiak Usuarpation

Scythiak deployment

This afternoon I got a game in with sonofsonsoftaurus.  He wanted to do a game with the high tech guys against the not so high tech guys, with both guys and tanks.  So we have an approximately 1000pt game with him running the Silver Skulls against the Scythiak.  4x4 map, no real mission beyond trash daddy's guys.  He set up the map with minimal guidance, mostly opening things up a bit to make his podding in easier.

Merkan 76th Imperial Guard vs. Sisters of Battle

The Thin Green Line

Got a game in with Doug's Sisters of Battle, 1850pts, Maelstrom of War mission.  Not a terribly tactical game, me shooting, moving up a bit towards some middle objectives but trying not to do so too early and get massacred, him moving units up to get his flamers and meltas into range while trying to knock out anti-air guns with his exorcists.  The mission we played had you start out with six cards and the max you could have went down one each turn.  In theory this would have you be very aggressive early, in practice it meant I scored a couple points for objectives I was on initially, then was stuck with cards for objectives across the table with no real prospect for changing them out.  Yay, Maelstrom.  This was certainly not the army build for a Maestrom game, especially when it ended up as hammer and anvil deployment.  Still had a fun time and had some good moments in-game, but after the first turn and seeing the cards we both had I was not expecting to do well.  Tels sont les jeux.

 

I set up first, and spread bodies along the flanks to keep outflanking immolators coming up on the sides of my tanks.

League Report: Scythiak Usurpation vs. Orks

League game against Leonard's orks, my 1400pts against his 1100.  While I had been getting pummeled by various marine armies Leonard has been on a good run, hence our point disparity (for those just joining us, for this league we started at 1000pts and when you lose a game you get +100pts).  We used missions James M had written up, and our combination led us to a very heavy board control mission, with objectives in each quadrant and quadrants as objectives themselves, plus the normal first blood, etc.

40K League: Scythiak vs. Dark Angels, Look up in the Sky! and Silver Skulls vs. Endless Ones!

While the Arch-heretic Astrakenor has been taken by the Dark Angels, the Scythiak don't let that interrupt their plans for conquest!  

Another league game with Mike S and his Dark Angels, with me at 1400pts, him at 1200.  With my point totals having crept upwards I figured it was time to break out the Ogryn.  So backed up by a psyker and two priests the big fellas took the field.  Mike brought along a dreadnought, the perfect tool for crunching Ogryn if it could get into combat, and a whirlwind, terror to hordes of light troops everywhere.  Could be rough!  We rolled up a game of Scouring with Vanguard Strike deployment.

40K League Reports: Scythiak vs. CSM and Dark Angels

Two league games completed last weekend, one against James' CSM and the second against Ben's Dark Angels, part 2 of the Hunt for Astrakenor!

40K League report: Scythiak vs. Dark Angels

Thankfully 40K has no rules for crossfire.

League game with Mike S and his Dark Angels.  For the DA I brought a tempting target, the Arch-Heretic Astrakenor, traitor marine cult instigator who was rumored to have once met a guy who may have seen a vid of someone in old black armor with a Calibani accent.  How armor has an accent, I don't know, but the interrogator-chaplains would like to find out!  Astrakenor runs with the rules for Col. Iron Hand Straken, who has great stats for a CSM champion.  We had 1100pts each and played the Scouring.

 

40K League Report: Scythiak vs. Eldar

I managed to get a league game in, this time against Josh's Eldar, my 1100pts vs. his undefeated 1000pts in a Relic match.  I reordered things a bit, changing my vets to stormtroopers/scions, dropping rough riders and a sentinel to pick up two priests and a Leman Russ Exterminator, and using my extra 100pts for an Aegis line with quad gun for more anti-skimmer shots.  

Scythiak vs. Space Wolves - Tooth and Nail

For our league day I...played something else.  Gotta get back in and catch up on league games next week!  Instead I played an 1850pt game against Scott's Space Wolves to help him prep for an event he plans to attend.  We ended up with a game of Relic.  I loaded up on Scythiak, breaking out the Ogryn with attached psyker and priests plus some daemon-summoning Wyrdvane squads.

40K League: Cult, meet Genestealer

Whew!  Tiring week.  Just got around to loading up pictures from last Sunday.  I had a game against a player returning to the game (Mike S) and his Dark Angels, and then a league game against Josh M and his Tyranids.

It's been a while so I won't get into a blow by blow, but here's some pictures:

40K League: Day One

We got our newest league started today, got a few games in and met some more prospective players.  All in all a productive gaming day!  Above Leonard's orks battle Joshua's Tyranids.

 

 

 Scott and I set up to play our first game of the league, his Space Wolves against the Scythiak Usurpation.  1000pts a side.  The Scythiak set up ready to move forward in the teeth of enemy fire.