The Road to TSHFT

These are the last few plastic Models I need to paint (plus an old-ass Ordo Malleus Inquisitor who I've been meaning to prime for ages, and it seemed amusing to include him with this lot) for my TSHFT list for next weekend. I also still need to build and paint my "Void Shield Generator", but that's going to be pretty easy. I'm just doing a big monolith-type thing with chaos symbols all over it that roughly fits the footprint and silhouette of a VSG. Most of the time needed for that is just going to be waiting for sealant and primer to dry. Should be doable over the next 8 days, given that I don't have much else putting demands on me in that time.

I've been kicking around and trying out a bunch of variations on the list since the Elvensword Ambassador Tournament (I never did get around to doing up a write-up. I ended up taking 5th in my bracket, narrowly losing two games to the clock (one of them, I literally only needed another 45 seconds), and roflstomping my other two opponents). I've finally decided on this:

Daemonkin CAD
190/190  -  Lord, Juggernaut, Gorethirster, Power Sword, 4++ (Warlord)
155/345  -  Lord, Bike, Axe of Ruin
160/505  -  2x8 Bloodletters
064/569  -  2x1 Chaos Spawn
390/959  -  3 MaulerFiends
125/1084  -  Void Shield Generator, 2 extra Shields


CSM Allied Detachment
170/1254  -  Chaos Lord, Mark of Khorne, Juggernaut, Axe of Blind Fury, 4++
050/1304  -  10 Culties

GorePack
111/1415  -  3 Bikers, 2xMelta, Combi-Melta, Meltabombs
096/1511  -  3 Bikers, 2xMelta
160/1671  -  2x5 Flesh Hounds
176/1847  -  11 Flesh Hounds

My Warlord goes with the big Unit of Flesh Hounds, the CSM Lord goes with the smaller one (As long as he's part of a DK Unit, his Unit kills count toward the Blood Tithe, tho he doesn't generate the extra points for kills in Challenges or his own death), the Biker Lord goes with the Bikers without the Champion gear.

The Void Shields should help a lot to mitigate some of the issues I've had with Alpha Strikes, while cutting the Spawn down to just solo Objective Grabbers and ditching the DK Culties and Possessed cuts down the model count and the number of extra steps dealing with random Attacks, random abilities, and extra Initiative steps, so that should save me some time. I also dropped the Helldrake, because it's really only proved great in one Game out of my last 10 with it. The limited fire arc makes it really awkward to use, and a couple of times it's ended up stuck in Reserves until Turn 4, which sucks.

I'm not in good enough practice to win the thing, but fast Assault MSU gives a lot of common Armies trouble, and there's a surprising amount of durability here, so I'm hoping to be able to go 4-2 for the weekend.

merr chrismas

Sorry for the lack of posting around here. Autumn probably wasn't the best time for me to try to start up this blog, the holidays always see things fall by the wayside. Next week, I'm going to get the Christmas decorations packed away, and then I'll have my full table available for the first time since July to set up a bunch of photoshoots of the stuff I've been working on over the last couple of months. Not much completed yet, but some WiP stuff that I'm pretty excited about, both Terrain and Units.

Y'all have a Merry Christmas if you celebrate it, and a happy Friday for those who don't!

Escalation Again

I dropped out of the Escalation League at the store, because November just got away from me on a number of levels (including blogging :P), and the way it was organized, players who were ahead had no incentive to accept challenges from players below them, meaning it ended up really static.

But now one of my regular Opponents has three co-workers who are interested in getting into the game, and with some help from a ridiculously good bargain on craigslist, we're helping them get started. We've got a simplified version of Planetary Empires set up, starting with them playing Kill Team or 500 Point Games against one of the more experienced players, and then after a couple of Games, they'll be in range to start going after each other or moving up in Points value, depending on whether they work along the edge or in toward the center.

I doubt they'll all stick around, but one of them has started making terrain already, and even one more player in the local pool would be pretty nice. Plus, I get a few games in with models that I don't usually use, since we've decided to handicap ourselves a bit in games against the newbies, so I'm going to get to do things like run CSM lists that actually involve Chaos Space Marines themselves instead of just Culties, Characters, Helldrakes, and MaulerFiends.

DreadTober: Just Under the Wire

It's still October here, so that counts, right? ;)

They all need massive amounts of touchup, more highlights on the red and gold, and snow on their bases, but that's not happening tonight. I didn't get all four to this point, even, but the one I ditched was the least impressive of them. I also didn't get around to doing the Leadbelcher at all, because I was looking at some of my other SW and realizing how little it stands out from the grey, and decided to focus on the stuff with more impact.

Somehow, despite taking twice as many shots of Bjorn as of the others, his pics came out worst. IDEK. I did find out that one of the issues I'd been having is that my camera has two different sets of modes, and it was in one from the other set that doesn't play well with macro mode. That seems to have helped with the other Dreads, but not with Bjorn for some reason. Maybe my hands were just shakier on his shots because I was more worried about getting good pics. Anyhow, here's the shinies:

I was torn on how to paint the Nid on the base. Leviathan makes the most sense, but Kraken is what the two local players who use official schemes have. I'm really happy with how the ice/glow effects came out on the Helfrost Cannon and TrueClaw. Unfortunately, I noticed while painting him that I screwed up the assembly on TrueClaw. The thumb-claw is in the wrong spot, which makes it look all wonky. Need to try to figure out how I can cut that apart without wrecking it.

Kvedulf IronHand is a homebrew Special Character of mine. No special Rules, but I'm in the process of building Models for him at all stages of his career, from young Fenrisian Warrior to Venerable Dread, as seen here. Again, really happy with the effect I got on the Axe.

Ulli SharpEyes doesn't really have much fancy detail on the sides, so I just did a front-on shot for him. I really like Mortis Dreads for SW, gives them some good Anti-Air without needing Flyers of their own.

And finally, a group shot:

I'm gonna keep working on these guys and hopefully get a completely finished post up sometime in November. For now, tho, I think they're actually sitting pretty nice here. Y'all have a good one, I'm gonna go watch some Scooby Doo and then crash :)

Thokt Awakens

I got my first two Games in the Escalation League in with my Necrons. Won the first one, and pulled a Draw in the second, ascending to the second tier of the Challenge Pyramid and then defending my place on it.

For the 500 Point week, I was running:
Nemesor Zahndrek
2x5 Immortals with Gauss
3 Tomb Blades with Particle Beamers
Annihilation Barge

Not mine, I haven't had time to take more pics. Just something I found on a google image search

- First Game was against Nids. The guy running them is planning on going through the various stages of a Tyranid Invasion, so he's running all Vanguard stuff right now:
DeathLeaper
2x8 Stealers
3 Lictors

I was pretty sure I had him outmatched here, so I was generous with the Cover Saves, playing a bunch of stuff as Ruins that most people just call rough ground. Unfortunately for him, a couple of bad rolls meant even that wasn't enough. Both his Reserves failed Turn 2, so I had two full Turns to pound away at the nearer Genestealer Brood with basically my whole force. Then when they did turn up, I got a bit jammy and he whiffed on a couple of Saves and I managed to gun down DeathLeaper. The final nail in the coffin was when Zahndrek, his retinue shorn away and on his last Wound, gleaned the knowledge of how to Hit and Run from the Lictors assailing him, passed the Init Test, and dashed 13" over to link up with the other Immortal Squad, who then joined with the Annihilation Barge in cutting down the Lictors who were left in the open.

- Second Game was much more of a challenge. Blood Angels with:
Librarian Dread
5 Tacs with a Meltagun in an Assault Cannon Razorback
5 Tacs with Meltabombs on the Sarge in a Lascannon Razorback

This one was a Maelstrom Mission. Started out with him shooting the Tesla Destructor off my Annihilation Barge (actually a screwup, I was looking in the wrong place and didn't realize it was open-topped, so it should have been Immobilized. This was actually in his favour, tho, since I never moved it anyhow, and failed all my Jink Saves with it, while it would have been Immobilized pointed right where he needed to run his Razorbacks through a gap in the Terrain.), but he didn't manage to kill it, and I got the Razorback in return, picking up First Blood and a point for a "Destroy a Unit" card.

The next couple of Turns featured some desultory firefights, finally Wrecking the Annihilation Barge, and each of us picking up a couple more Points for holding Objectives. I got an extra one by switching Zahndrek's Warlord Trait to one from the Tactical table that let me score double if he  or his Unit were holding an Objective I needed.

Then pretty much everything got stuck in combat. After several Turns of truly terrible Charge Rolls, his Librarian Dread managed to make it to Zahndrek's Squad and wipe them out, but not before I picked up a couple more Points for having two cards that required me to declare a Challenge. My last Tomb Blade Turbo-boosted across the board for Behind Enemy Lines, and then got gunned down by the surviving Razorback. The other Immortal Squad and the other Tac Squad just sat around playing cards or something. They were Locked in combat for like 3 full Game Turns without a single casualty on either side.

At the end, we each had 4 cards scored, he had Warlord and Linebreaker, while I had First Blood and the bonus point from the Warlord Trait I used for a draw.

- Zahndrek was key in both Games, using his special rules to get away from the Lictors and pick me up an extra VP by switching his Warlord Trait. I think I need to make up some cards with the Warlord Traits I'm likely to use for him, so it's easier to keep track and I don't have to keep my rulebook open to that page.

- For this week, I'm looking at adding a minimal Canoptek Harvest and upgrading my Tomb blades with Nebuloscopes, because that means the least screwing around with basing materials, since the crackle putty I use for my Necron bases takes forever to cure. I'm prepping up a bunch of bases to help things go more smoothly in future weeks, but right now, I kind of have to focus on stuff that doesn't need more basing done.

I May Have Bit Off More than I Can Chew

 Yes, I'm still alive! I spent the first third of the month frantically preparing for the Elvensword Ambassadorial Tournament (forgot my camera, so I don't have pics of the event, gonna try to do a write-up anyhow), most of the next week after recovering from it (4 games of 40K in one day is really pushing my limits), and then found out mid-day Monday that the Escalation League that I'd signed up for with my Necrons started that evening.

Now, the reason I'd signed up with my Necrons is that I hadn't painted any of them, and still hadn't even built most of them, and wanted some motivation to get me going. But I thought I had some more time than that. Fortunately, the League also includes the Thursday Game Night, so I slammed out these guys, and I'm hoping to get some more work done on them today and tomorrow before heading over to the store.

They ain't pretty, but they've got three colours and basing, they should clean up pretty nicely with a couple more hours work and a dip, and they comprise a 500 Point force. It's also fortunate that we're not locked into lists for this League, so if I end up regretting some of these choices, I'm not stuck with them for the whole thing.

I'm working on a bunch of Scarabs and a Tomb Spyder for most of my next 250 Points (due Monday!), and then I should be able to settle into a slightly more sedate pace, but getting 250 Points painted each week is definitely gonna be a fair bit of work.

Then there's DreadTober as well. I've only just got the first basecoat on Bjorn here, need to get cracking on him as well.

I'm hoping to also get his buddies there at least a bit further along, and hopefully finished. There's a 1250 Tournament in January that I want to take an All Dread list to, with a Champions of Fenris detachment plus a Fleshtearers Strike Force with Cassor as the mandatory Troops Choice.

Painting takes priority for my free time over the next few days, but hopefully I'll get well enough ahead that I can spend some more time with the camera as well, get pics of my new DK stuff with paint on as well as more Necron and DreadTober updates. Y'all have a good one!

Modeling Monday: WiP DaemonKin Bikes and JuggerLord

Got some substantial work done this past week, getting the two Bike Squads for my GorePack, and my new, even more ludicrously over the top JuggerLord together and ready to prime. I'll definitely have pics of the Bikes at least basically painted by next week, since I need them for a Tournament on Saturday. I may or may not get to the JuggerLord, since I have another I can use if necessary.

I'm disappointed that I couldn't manage better pics of this Squad, and particularly the Champion. Hopefully I'll be able to get some better ones once they're painted.

Better pics on these ones, but they're not as cool. The greenstuff on the dude on the left is a bit of an experiment, I'm going to try to make it look like he and the bike are gradually melding.

 And the JuggerLord. Based on the AoS Chaos Lord, with a Juggernaut body I picked up cheap somewhere, a Fex head because why not, and a few random bits to make him more Chaos Marine-ish. Really happy with this guy, hope I can do him justice when it comes to getting paint on.

Y'all have a good one!