Random Model Wednesday 5 - The random models that I've had to make for recent tournys

Do one eyed necrons have a monobrow?

 
For the last 2 tournaments I've tried new methods with my crons that required new models. I needed 2 Crypteks, Zahndrek, Obyron and a lord with a warscythe.

These models haven't been painted as nicely as they could have been but they're good enough for the table. I've been using a quick and easy method that I've developed recently due to having to make 25 extra warriors. I start with a coat of army painter silver spray. Paint on any other colours as base coats, like bronze for shoulders and weapons and red on their heads. Then dip the model in a huge pot of Vallejo black wash that I've added some matt medium and flow enhancer. Then just dry brush 1 or 2 highlight colours and I'm finished. I'm sure its more than halved the time it takes to paint my crons and I'm quite pleased with the results. I also don't paint the eyes any more as I think necrons looks spookier with dark eye sockets.

I had to rush to assemble and paint these before my gf got home and would want my attention.

My two cheapo crypteks have served me well so far.

This was the old metal lord that came with the Necron Warrior Phalanx but I replaced the warscythe to be more dynamic and less fragile.

The Final GoT 40k Tournament of 2012 and the Grand Champion announced

Last Sunday was the final battle in this year's Guardians of Tyr 40k championship. It was a big game with 2 teams which were randomly selected. Each player had 2000 points but no force org chart. We had 4 secret team objectives worth 30 points each and personal objectives that could total up to 40 points and these could be secret from your allies if you wished. There were lots of bonus points available for things like having a fully painted army or deepstriking or killing a warlord.

The game is limited to 4 turns....

I think the crazy rules for this game may have scared some players off as there were less than usual. We still had a great game though. 3 on each side. On my side we had Glenn Few's Red Scopion marines, myself with Necrons and Imperial guard with a Warhound Titan! Our opponents were Space marines, Ken's Salamanders and Ian (Duggie Dunlop)'s Grey Knights. There were 4 Land Raiders on the table! 2 of them directly opposite me!

The board was 3 6 foot by 4 foot tables and there were 12 objectives in three lines equally spaced. Out team objectives were 2 in the middle on out side and 2 in the middle on the opposition side. My personal objectives were to hold 2 on our side and one in the middle line.

I'm not going to go a full battle rep as it was a huge game and I can't actually remember it all. I'll do some highlights though.

I had to rush to paint Zahndrek and Obyron on the Friday before the game as Weyland games failed me and I had to go to a physical shop to get the models. Won't be ordering from them again!

My army:

Squad 1
Zahndrek
Cryptek with veil of darkness
20 warriors

Squad 2
Obyron
Lord with res orb and warscythe
20 warriors

Squad 3
Overlord with res orb, warscythe etc.
Cryptek with veil of darkness
20 warriors

5 warriors
4 night scythes

So I had a highly mobile, hard hitting and hard wearing force. Capable of hurting vehicles or infantry alike and hopefully capable of doing some damage if they get charged.

We get to deploy 2nd and fail to seize the initiative.

Ken's Gunline of Tanks

Glenn's Tanks

Turn 1, enemy drop pod lands. With the power of Zahndreks cheese I bring on all of my flyers in their turn. They promptly shoot 2 of them out of the sky before I've done anything with them. Fail on my part maybe?

I deep strike my 3 squads of warriors behind Ken's horde of tanks and take out a landraider and a land speeder.

Other damage ensues everywhere.

Turn 2. I deepstrike my stuff again. I plonk a squad next to Ian's land raider then forget to fire it, then get torched by AP3 flamers from a dreadknight but I messed up the armour saves, had to roll again and only took 1 wound on the overlord with all the warriors safe.

Kens other land raider and his vindicator get taken out. Glenn has terminators in his deployment area and a combat between his warlord and his opponents.

This combat seemed to last all game, the stubborn guard blob just wouldn't leave combat

I rolled a misplaced on the mishap table when my deep strike went wrong. Ken placed the squad in the far corner and then afterwards found out the two dreadnoughts were on his side and he'd plonked me in rapid fire range of both.

 Turn 3 is a mulchy mess of combat and shooting. I loose my flyer that has 5 warriors in it and they come on from the edge.

He's bravely running away!

 Turn 4. The game breaker turn. Everyone manoeuvres to claim objectives. My 5 man warrior squad amble up to a team objective and nobody seems to notice hehe. I deepstrike one of my squads onto one of my personal objectives but scatter and land on the wrong one but luckily it still gives me points. I deepstrike a 2nd squad and hit the mark, claiming a 20 point objective. My 4th squad shoot the snot out of a squad of marines contesting and objective with myself and Glenn, while their overlord detaches and punches a tank to death.

End game.
At the end of the game none of us had a clue how well we did. Our objectives were secret and there were bonus points to add up too. Our side held to of our team objectives and the opponents held 1 and contested one. I managed to claim all 3 of my bonus objectives by accident due to the scatter.

There was a tense countdown from last place to first. I managed to get 1st with 169 points WOOO! I can't remember the rest of the scorings but because we held the 2 team objectives our side came in the top 3. Always remember the objectives.......

Things I've learnt that day.
Super heavies just don't die! That titan kept taking shots but barely noticed anything.
Huge squads of warriors that can deepstrike and have res-orbs are AWESOME!
Nightscythes aren't as awesome and scary as everyone makes out, in the last few times I've used them they haven't done much damage, but they are cheap so I'm not bothered. They make a good distraction.
Landraiders are laughable against lots of gauss fire, I feel bad when I kill the tanks so easily.

The Guardians of Tyr Warhammer 40,000 Grand Champion for 2012 is:
erm, me.  The only person that could have challenged me didn't come to this game.

Look at that smug bastard!

Blog Wars 4 Pics

Well, last weekend was Blog Wars 4 in Mansfield. I've been really busy all week with Christmas stuff happening and haven't gotten round to posting. This post will be picture heavy and not a lot of text. I'll probably get round to doing a detailed set of batreps at some point.

I had a great time at the event and met some players that I'd met before at Open War. To cut to the chase I came 6th out of 24 which was good for 1 minor loss, 1 minor victory and a tabling.

There was a real mix of armies at the event, some were really crazy. There was a full squat guard army, a Custodes Grey Knights army with a flying rhino and a Nurgle army with scratch built resin jetbikes!

My army for the day was:
Imotekh the cheeselord
Overlord with warscythe, res orb, mindshackle scarabs, sempiternal weave, tesseract labyrinth
Lord with warscythe, res orb, mss, semp weave
2x Crypteks with veil of darkness
Cryptek with chronometron
2 x 20 warriors
4 x 5 warriors
4 nightscythes (this made me feel dirty)

My idea was to have an ultra mobile force that could be wherever I wanted it and control the board this way.

MOAR WARRIORSSSSS!!!

Awesome scratch built jetbikes. I faced this army first with Epidemius below.

Dirty Matt Wardian alliance between Necrons and Blood Angels

SQUAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Custodes

We meet again Mr Lane

This lord just wouldn't die, he killed the gaunts then died while killing the big gribbly

4 Tesla Destructors to the Face!

I will get round to posting some actual written stuff at some point. I've got the Guardians of Tyr big game tournament on the 16th at Wargames workshop Northampton. I'm not using the same list as blog wars because they'll nerf Imotekh :( so I've got some other cheese up my sleeve instead.

Necron Harbingers of Despair Cryptek conversions

Now that the warmachine league is over I can get back to 40k. I've got lots of prep work to get my necrons ready for the Blog Wars 4 tournament and the final Guardians of Tyr tournament of the year. Both in December, I've got just under 2 weeks to get all my stuff ready for Blog Wars. 

One of the things I've put in my army list for Blog Wars is a couple of Despair teks with veil of darkness. I don't like the Cryptek model that GW do and I can't even tell what type of tek its meant to be. As with my first tek I decided to make these out of normal warriors and odd bits and pieces I could find. I cast the heads with greenstuff from the mold I used last time. The staff is from the lychguard/triarch box and the weapony bits are from destroyers and the old metal spyder guns. To get the staff to hold together I had to pin it everywhere. One pin at either end and one for each hand. There was much cursing at the arms for not wanting to fit nicely to the warrior. I've put hoods on them because I like the idea of them being a bit spooky, being Harbingers of Despair. I'm not particularly good at sculpting so I hope they turn out ok after being painted. 

Now I just need to paint these guys up, along with a lord, a night scythe and 20 warriors, all before the 1st of December. AAAAaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh..........

Warmachine Journeyman League Final Week - Prizes for everyone!

Last Monday was the final week of the club Journeyman league. Only one game left and then results and awards at the end.

The battle was 35 points with no restrictions. I stuck with the starter box as the jacks work well but I changed the caster to have a play with the Witches Coven of Garlghast. The coven has some interesting abilities that I wanted to try, like making a unit have stealth or adding +2 speed, +2 mat and terror.

My opponent was Martin Copperwheat and his Khador. He used some bizarre caster that had to roll each turn to find out how much focus he had. His force had a fair amount of shooty stuff, with 2 squads of sniper things, a sniper solo and some heavy infantry with guns.

Martin was the home player so he got to setup first, he deployed everything in a long line in the pic above. I deployed in a deny flank formation putting everything in the right corner of the board. 

Martins first turn was just moving stuff up towards me.

On my first turn I cast stealth on the deathjack for laughs, infernal machine on my stalker jack, giving it +2 speed for a total of 9. The stalker then ran a whopping 18 inches! I also plonked a cloud aoe thing between my army and his shooters blocking LOS. 

Martin then moved up again right into my charge range, he tried some shooting at my chicken jack but its high def made the shots miss.

For a few turns we had various bundles of combat along the middle line of the board. Deathjack was chopping people to bits, at one point he had 4 focus that he generated himself with his skulls and with soul tokens giving me 13 focus on the board!

We were slowly chomping through each others army until the time was almost up. I frantically thought of a way to end the game quickly and found a way. The chicken on the left of death jack in the picture above was dead at this point. Deathjack was locked in combat with his heavy jack. With a crazy combo of spells I managed to get deathjack into combat with his caster with 5 focus on Deathy. I cast ghost walker on deathy, which allowed him to move out of combat without getting free struck, I then cast curse of shadows on his heavy infantry to make them almost incorporial, allowing me to move through them without penalty, I also cast infernal machine on deathy to give him +2 speed and +2 mat. Deathy then walked around the big jack, going through the infantry and into combat with his caster. After 2 boosted hits with deathjacks fists his caster was dead. Victory.

 After my game everyone's scores were tallied up for the award giving. Congrats to Ian Wardle for getting the most Journeyman points and hobby points with an overall score of 67, he was awarded badges for painting and overall points. I came second over all but first for game points so I got a little badge for it. Carl Sharman actually scored the same amount of game points as me but had painted less so the judge (Barrie) ruled that I beat him even though when the two of us actually played he beat me lol. 

Everyone who played received badges for the points they achieved and a league badge. 

Overall scores were:

 

	GP	HP	JP
Ian Wardle	21	46	67
Michael Towers	27	13	40
Barrie Wardle	24	13	37
Carl Sharman	27	6	33
Adam Eaton	23	0	23
David Copperwheat	17	5	22
Dave Bartley	21	0	21
Martin Copperwheat	16	0	16

  Thanks to Barrie of www.guardiansoftyr.com for organising the league.

Random Model Wednesday 4 - Vostroyan Baneblade

This week my random model is my Vostroyan Baneblade. A long time ago I ran an IG Tank company, back in the days when an army made entirely of vehicles was legal. I love the Vostroyan models but they're a real pain to paint, I've only got 1 painted squad of them but a big painted army of Vostroyan tanks with lots of Leman Russes of various variants, Basilisks and my 2 superheavies, the Baneblade and the Macharius Vulcan.

I got the Baneblade when Apocalypse came out and there was excitement everywhere and multi-packs of tanks and such. I had to get the Baneblade, it was just so big and awesome compared to anything else available in 40k at the time. I do like using it but in total I think its been used about 5 or 6 times in the many years that I've had it. There isn't much appetite for Apocalypse where I play, there's usually 1 game at Christmas if I'm lucky.

The superheavy is painted up in the same colour scheme as the rest of my Vostroyan tanks. Firstly a base coat of vomit brown, then 5 progressive drybrush highlights up to rotting flesh. Then a coat of really watered down grey with a thicker wash of grey around the track areas. The metal areas were just boltgun metal with a blackish wash and the brass was brazen brass with brown wash and highlighted. 

The only modifications made to the tank are the extra 2 sponsons and the guitar string aerials. I had the original aerials but they snapped off, then I replaced them with brass rod, but these snapped off with the plastic they were attached to and I finally put guitar string in which will probably explode or something. 

This poor tank never gets used any more :(. My other armies are too much fun to use compared to my guard.

Kingdom Death Forsaker Unboxing

Today I got in the post my Forsaker from Kingdom Death. Some people will be familiar with Kingdom Death and some will not. It is a properly adult horror RPG (none of this PG13 crap that has creeped in everywhere) in development and they have released some limited edition models for it. Some of the models are a bit controversial like the very NSFW Wetnurse and the also NSFW Scribe. The models look highly detailed, spectacular and quite mindwarping. I couldn't resist the urge to buy something so I ordered the Forsaker as he looked cool and wasn't too expensive for a trial model.

It arrived today and I excitedly opened the box. Inside there was a lovely art card and a sort of limited edition certificate inside a protective sleeve. Underneath that there was the box with the model in it. The sturdy box has a print of the model on it. Inside the box there was yet another art card, with the head and torso of the forsaker on the reverse. Underneath that was the actual model.

The model itself looks very detailed. Its along the lines of a Forgeworld resin model, possibly a bit better as it seems a bit sturdier and has some very small details like the horns. So far I've only found a couple of tiny bubbles in the resin and they're in easy to fix places. Being resin I was worried that there might be missing bits of horn and such but I'm really impressed with their casting to get all the sharp tiny edges out and delivering it intact. The only warping that I can't find is in the sword but this should be easy enough to fix.

The base is a bit bizarre and I'm not entirely sure what to do with it. It is made of 2 discs, one with a lipped edge that a slightly smaller disc sits in. The larger disc has 30mm written on it in big letters on one side and a phoenix with 'I (heart) Poots' written on in on the other. I think I'll just glue the forsaker to the smaller disc and worry about the other one when the game comes out. 

Overall I'm very impressed with the combined product. The packaging is good and sturdy, the model is spectacular and the extras are a nice touch too. I just hope I can do the model justice when I paint it.

Warmachine Journeyman League week 5

This weeks restrictions: 35 points - Caster Swap Allowed - Game length 90 mins. 2 games to be  played.

This Sunday after a week of procrastination on the issue I started painting my Cryx starter box. With about 20 minutes to spare before I had to leave I had managed to finish it. Deneghra, Slayer, 3 death chickens all painted and based. I’ll probably put some finishing touches on them later though, like verdigris and the green glow of Cryx. So I’ve now got 13 hobby points putting me way out in first place for painting stuff……. Except for the fact that Ian Wardle has gone mental and obviously has far too much time on his hands, he’s somehow managed to paint up 30 points worth of trollbloods!!!!!1! Nerd rage ensued when I found this out checking the scores when I got home :( I would have to buy loads of cryx to equal this insane amount of painting and its not worth of for a sew on badge.

My army for the day, starter box, Deathjack, banethralls and mechanithralls

 

Before I start with the 2 games I played that night I should point out that Carl also pulled out some stops and had bought, assembled and almost finished painting the Cryx Colossal, the Kraken. Fortunately for me I didn’t have to play him that night and don’t have to play him in the final week either. Phew.

Game 1

My first game was against Adam Eaton’s Menoth. I was a bit nervous about this game as Adam was effectively undefeated up until this point. He had lost 2 games but this was down to him not being there that night. I had been defeated twice, so simple mathhammer told me I should loose this as Adam is a good player and I know he’s got loads of experience playing the game.

I was the home player so I got to go first.

 I moved my guys up cautiously. I managed to get my Mechanithralls and Deathjack within charge range of the roght flank. I expected to take some flak but thought I’d still have some thralls left and deathjack a bit damaged but I’d be able to put him in combat with squishy guys and heal the damage. I thought wrong. Adam killed all the mechanithralls in one go. I did manage to get deathy into combat and killed 1 man :( Adam then charged in his heavy jack into Deathjack after his choir and caster managed to increase the jacks hit and damage rolls by 3. Deathjack died to that one charge from a super buffed but otherwise normal heavy jack :( I was not a happy bunny.

His caster heroically hiding behind a wall of metal

My Banethralls went up the other flank and managed to get into combat with his other heavy jack. 3 Banes charged in and a 4^th just ran in to surround it and stop it doing the weird running away thing that Adam had planned. 3 charging Banes with 4d6 damage didn’t do anything to it at all.

I managed to get my acid belching death chicken into range of his caster and shot it, I killed one of the choir, did some damage to his caster and got corrosion on the caster and the big dude in front of him. The phase two of my evil plan, Deneghra cast venom 3 times through the death chicken. Yay for arc nodes! Didn't kill him though. He had 6 health afterwards.

Adam then popped his feat which stopped me from doing any focus generating for a turn. Bummer. Deneghra cast her feat and ran away from the enemy.

We didn't get much more done than that. We ran out of time. A draw by default is better than a loss. It was the first game Adam hasn't won in the league. Woo, I didn't die :D

Game 2 

David Copperwheat's Skorne again. This table had a nice pond and wall to hinder movement unless you have ghost walk, which Deneghra conveniently does. David was the home player and had first turn.

I deployed with my main bulk in the middle, my mechthralls on the right and my banethralls on the left. David had deployed his shooty stuff on my left so I put the banethralls there to take advantage of their stealth and negate his shooting a little.


On my turn I ran everything except the banes up the right hand side to hide behind the wall. 

David couldn't do much with all my stuff behind the wall. I managed to get the charge and sent in my Mechanithralls and Deathjack into his big infantry line, smooshing them in the process. 

Both sides ended up bundling into this combat. My acid spray chicken dealt dealth along a long line of infantry all bunched up, catching one of my other chickens but not damaging it.  

David then made a fatal error. He'd kept his caster too close to me and I popped my feat, catching all the skorne. I lowered almost all of their stats by 2. He'd also moved the big beast in front of his caster away from it into combat with my Mechanithralls. David popped his feat which stopped me from allocating any focus. I then finished the game by getting Deathjack and a chicken into combat with his unprotected caster. My jacks had no focus but Deathy deals and absolute ton of damage anyway and managed to pulverise him. Game won. There was only 3 minutes left on the clock, too close for comfort.

Deathjack perfoms the coup de grace.

 
By the end of the night I had won 1 game and drew 1. This put me in 2nd place for overall points and joint 1st for game points. Ian's insane painting spree means he's pretty much guaranteed to win overall unless someone else decides to go nuts. It won't be me that's for sure.

The league score's at the end of this week are:

 

		GP	HP	JP
1	Ian Wardle	20	30	50
2	Michael Towers	24	13	37
3	Barrie Wardle	22	7	29
4	Carl Shaman	24	0	24
5	Adam Eaton	22	0	22
6	Dave Bartley	19	0	19
7	David Copperwheat	14	5	19
8	Martin Copperwheat	15	0	15

Game Points: W3/D2/L1
Hobby Points: Newly Painted Models
Journeyman Points: GP + HP
 
 1 More game to play next week against Martin Copperwheat, will he avenge his father? I know he's using Khador so I'll plan accordingly.