Horus Heresy - Raven Guard Sergeant complete

Here is my first Raven Guard HH miniature completed as of last night.

I've done a freehand Raven Guard symbol on the kneepad, heavy weathering on the cloak and added a dusty look to the lower parts of the armour, a half green field on the shoulder to designate tactical squad and some wear on the Lightning Claw blades.

Did what I could to make what could be a very boring colour scheme to paint a bit more interesting. If I add the same simple weathering and damage to the rest of the tactical squad when I work on them, it should work well. Small additions like equipment pouches and grenades should break it up too.

Horus Heresy - Raven Guard serg WIP

Quick post updating my HH progress.

So before I get to play with any real Forge World models I've been working on this chap with the intention of using him as my sergeant. Pics just quick ones with the phone, I'll post better quality pics when completed.

Using the model from the previous post, I found a single MKIV head from the old Black Templar sprue(should have molded copies before I took to it with a knife for damage - doh!), lightning claw and a BT pistol.

The dirty black look is from an adeptus battlegrey base with multiple black and earthshade washes giving plenty of drying time between. Highlights are a combination of thunderhawk blue, fortress grey and stormvermin fur. I still have more work to do on the lightning claw and have only base coated the cloak in thunderhawk blue. I plan on weathering this marine heavily as they are on the run from traitor forces following the Dropsite Massacre.

HH Raven Guard - pre planning

Nice to see people jumping on board the Horus Heresy project with enthusiasm over at Fields of Blood. Welcome to 40K or should I say 30K for a few gamers including Sam at Hashuts Right Hand and John at Stumpy Heaven.

Looking at what my initial purchases from Forge World will be, has brought me to the following.
1 X Legion MKIV Maximus armour
1 X MKIV Maximus Armour
1 X Umbra Pattern Bolters

This will give me 10 marines in the appropriate armour for the Dropsite Massacre on Isstvan V. The Ravenguard primarily used the MKIV armour as they were outfitted later in the Great Crusade than some other Legions.

Once we move past the initial confrontations I will use a lot of MKVI Corvus pattern bodies as per Deliverance Lost. This wont be too bad on the wallet as they are a bit more abundant in the common plastic box sets.

Rummaging through my plentiful bits box of Marines stuff I found 3 of the 4 Marine characters from the Masters of the Chapter box set. This one in particular seems to have the appropriate armour so I thought I would do minor kitbashing and use him as the Sergeant in artificer armour. I plan on changing the head and both hands. Should be able to give him a bolt pistol and lightning claw(its suits the Raven Guard) without too much trouble.

Tale of X Gamers - Horus Heresy - Raven Guard

Pete over at Fields of Blood is setting up a Horus Heresy ongoing project and campaign. This is awesome and I encourage other gamers in the area to participate.

After throwing around the idea of Blood Angels losing the plot on Signus Prime or Imperial Fists defending Terra, I'm not going to do either of them. Instead looking at the early stages of the Heresy and the Dropsite massacre on Istvaan V in particular, I'm going to work on Raven Guard(thanks for the suggestion Pete).

The initial force will be based around the survivors on the run with Corax. No Rhino transports as they will have been destroyed by the traitors, just footslogging beat up Raven Guard marines. Thinking fairly desolate dark rocky bases, model a few marines crouching or in sparse cover.

With the next HH FW book hopefully containing the Massacre stuff I will get some special rules around the Raven Guard Hit and Run tactics and assault squads.

Other future possibilities include making some of the deformed 'talons' from Deliverance Lost as well. Could even sneak in a couple Alpha Legion.

Skitterleap 2012 - Wryth's View

Last weekend I went to the Skitterleap Fantasy tournament in Wellington. I took a dual Terrorgheist list with my usual Ghoul King and friends in a Ghoul block/bus.

Here is a brief summary of the games I had.

Game 1 - Dawn Attack - Mal Patel - Lizardmen
I faced the Death of a Thousand Cuts list early on. Mal's many many chaffy units arrayed themselves across from me and his Slaan managed to take out my Ghoul King in turn 2 with a powerful Final Transmutation, rolling a 6 with the expected "take it off!" Army wide immediate crumble softened my Terrorgheists and other units up while the baby Necro took over control. In hindsight I should have sat the two gheists in the back corner for point denial but I surged them up a flank to scream some chaff. With all the poisoned attacks they didn't last long. I did manage to claw some points back though with multiple charges on skink units causing them to flee. The Wight King ended up being the last survivor of the Ghoul unit not counting the Wraiths who went on skink hunting duties. In the end it was 15-5 to Mal. A thankyou to Mal for some advice during the game, eg multiple charges on the skinks. His list can be quite difficult to deal without some pointers.

Game 2 - Blood and Glory - Hagen/Pete - Lizardmen
With another tour of Lustria underway I faced Hagen's Death of 999 cuts! With just having faced a similar list I was better prepared for this game. Hagen sat back with his Slaan and a mixed unit of skinks, Kroxigors and a pair of Scar vets while the usual skink harrasment went on. I picked away at units with the Gheists, Wraiths and magic - the ruby ring on the baby Necro was fantastic all weekend - thanks for that advice Joel. My Ghoul King block slogged across the table and in the fifth turn managed a charge on the big mixed unit crushing it in one go. Pete had taken over play at this stage as Hagen had other commitments. Apparently Lizards were not where they were supposed to be which was fine by me. Game ended with a win for the VC 15-5 to me.

Game 3 - Watchtower - Tom Dunn - Daemons
Daemons and Tom's no less had me a bit wary but it was Watchtower and I had a plan. Simple really, put the Ghouls and all the characters in the tower asap. Well suprisingly it actually worked. Tom had control of the tower but without an eligle unit to occupy it, it was left vacant. I walked my block up to it and held the Terrorgheists back sending zombies and chaff off to be a nuisance. Tom advanced both hordes of bloodletters around opposite sides of the tower while Billy the Bloodthirster neglected to come within scream range. I took out a fiend early on with the ruby ring and once I was in the tower proceeded to successfully death snipe the Khorne heralds. A Terrorgheist successfully beat some Screamers and a Bloodcrusher or was that reaper Tom ;) in combat on a flank due to thunderstomping the screamers. Tom had some very unlucky rolls for charges, his right side bloodletters failing three charges over successive turns vs zombies. The twin Gheists managed to Scream down his Tzeentch herald and Billy attacked the tower only to be fed poisonous ghouls. He declined any further assaults and with Death magic spewing Purple suns from the tower each turn he retreated to the far corner of the board. End of game with a surviving Terrorgheist on 1 wound in combat with Bloodletters I had won 14-6. I was pretty happy having held a lot of points back in the tower.

Day 2

Game 4 - Meeting Engagment - Sam Whitt - Dark Elves
With trepedation we started rolling for which units will have 'slept in' luckily for me it was simply some Zombies and bats while Sam had some Dark Riders and his Sorceress napping. With his extremely fast list lead by a Dragon riding Lord this was not a problem for him. This was to be a game which went back and forth with both sides working away on each other very evenly. With the first day pitting me against the MSU shooting Lizard lists this wasn't all that different as Sam had crammed in the maximum amount of shooting allowed, 90 shots I believe. The one saving grace of this though was the Dark Elf shots were not poisoned like thier Lustrian neighbours so Sam used a lot of shooting trying to whittle away at the Crypt Horrors. With all the shots that hit and failing to wound the Horrors would have looked like pin cushions by the end of the game. Sam did a very good job of outmaneuvering me and my zombie blocks and Wraiths mainly repositioned each turn to try and eventually net some shades or Dark Riders in. We both suffered from overzealous mages as Sam suffered miscasts 2 turns in a row killing his Sorceress with strength 6 hits and my Master Necromancer got a bit carried away with a Purple Sun(must have been all the successful casting against the Daemons) and got pulled into the Chaos wastes. This Purple sun would last the rest of the game floating about my main battleline and nicely keeping some of Sam's harder units like the Hydra at bay for an extra turn or two. With more turns of ring around the undead hordes, the generals finally clashed in the games final stages. Sam nicely charged my Ghoul bus with his Dragon Lord and Hydra after a turn in which he triple breath Weaponed them whittling down thier numbers. Sam issued challenges as this combat went on over a couple turns and the Ghoul King promptly threw in succession, the Ghast then Wight King in front of the Dark Elf Lord while he butchered the Hydra quite convincingly, though not without taking a wound in the process. Then in the very last rounds the Ghoul King after having killed the Dragon I believe went face to face with the Druchii Lord. With matched Initiatives and similtaneous dice rolls we rolled our hits, wounds and saves and with cries of entertainment our Lords managed to kill each other in the very last round! With a tally of the VPs we were only 35 points difference!(and in my favour - moral victory ;) a very well deserved 10-10 draw as it was without selling short any other opponents, one of the best games of any wargame I have played. Thanks Sam it was awesome.

Game 5 - Battleline - James Milner - High Elves
This was a very nice game to end the event on. James like Sam is on the NZTC team with Joel and myself. I also play High Elves so was familiar with the units used, however I will lament the Book of Hoeth and the many many irresistable spells that followed. James deployed well dropping Eagles and Archers while I set up mainly across from a large Elven tower complex. Opening shots had me move the Terrorgheists aggresively only to have James snipe one with Spirit Leech exploiting the horrific Leadership of the undead beasts. I certainly got a taste of my own medicine after running my Necro Death Sniper all weekend(should give him a rifle) as James used the spells to good effect. James placed winged speedbumps in the path of my Horrors and Ghoul bus and with a well timed soulblight nerfed my Crypt Horrors before unleashing the fury of the White Lion horde. Losing all the big fellas in one go hurt but I replied with the Ghoul King and co and took revenge. After a successful panic check on the Elf Mages unit which James was exceedingly thankful for, he moved them into the Elven tower and waited out the game. James won a deserved 13-7 and had some good advice for me in regards to exposing my big points Gheists to the Death magic. If I had held them bak it would have been a closer result.

In the end I finished middle of the pack and was quite pleased with that considering the caliber of opponent I faced. I played against some highly ranked players, fellow team members and... Hagen ;) - Hug?

I did not suffer any crushing defeats though failed to gain that in victory too. With some thought on the list I will drop for ghouls and get another 5 dire wolves as a drop as I felt a little lite on chaff with the Wraiths being deployed as characters. I also must practice my Terrorgheist use a lot more, knowing when to commit them or retreat as seen against Mal and James. The Ghoul King is still awesome even though he lacks in defense(everyone passed their beguile checks) though his Wight king bodyguard made a big difference with Nightshroud.

Congratulations to Joe, Mike and Wil placing in order, Sam for best painted and Bo for Sportsanship. Cheers Pete, a great event and people as always.

First game against Skaven

Went for a quick game this morning at Petes place, my first encounter with Skaven so knew it was going to be a fun learning curve. I had a little idea about how they played, I had heard the A Bomb was nasty, lots of random effects, nasty warmachines and cheap troops. The last one in particular I was familiar with at least.

We rolled battle for the pass and hell's no we rolled again and got blood and glory. I like B&G because I have a ton of banners now in units I don't need to get in the front lines.

I took:

Vampire Lord, Lvl4 vampires, barded nightmare, HA, shield, dragonhelm, ogre blade, 4++, red fury, quickblood

Vampire, Lvl1 death, barded nightmare, HA, shield, sword of striking, enchanted shield, book of arkhan, red fury.

Necromancer, Lvl1 vampires, ruby ring of ruin, dispel scroll.

10 dire wolves, doom wolf.

10 dire wolves, doom wolf.

25 Zombies, standard bearer

25 Zombies, standard bearer

20 Zombies, standard bearer

20 Zombies, standard bearer

20 Zombies, standard bearer

20 Zombies, standard bearer

12 black knights, full command, lances, barding, banner of swiftness

2 Varghulfs

Terrorgheist

Pete had (from memory)

3 big blocks of slaves, clanrats with screaming bell, 2 units of gutter runners, hellpit abomination, doomwheel, warp lightning cannon and plague catapult, a unit of stormvermin and heaps of little characters all over the place.

I don't have many pictures as the battle was rather enthralling.

Pete took first turn and with shooting annihilated both dire wolf units down to the single doom wolf, and took the terrorgheist to 3 wounds. The warp lightning cannon got a flank shot (silly Ryan!) down my knight bus killing 5 or 6 and hitting the terrorgheist also! Thankfully I pulled out a timely 6 for my regen save. His doomwheel decided to shoot his own HPA but rolled a misfire, then got extra D6" movement as his "penalty". Magic only really hit the knights down a few more models, leaving me with only 5 BK before I moved!

In my turn Pete popped the banner of you can't fly or shoot very well, only affected my terrorghiest but that was enough. The storm drowned out his scream at the unit of gutter runners next to him who were peppering him with darts. I charged my knights into some skavenslaves to stop them getting shot, moved cautiously back with zombies and single dog caused an engineer to run from a charge. Magic was ineffectual but did draw the dispel scroll.

Turn 2 was me grinding down the slave block with knights, and chasing a whole unit of slaves down with 20 zombies as they only fleed 2". Omnomnom. My terrorgheist beat up the gutter runners that charged him thanks to no poisons and an impressive thunderstomp. A convenient plague catapult misfired over my knights and I got to place it over the slaves, enabling me to quickly take the unit down. 

Turn 3 I reformed my knights and  charged the screaming bell unit, got an epic magic phase giving me 5 knights back and a fully healed terrorgheist. Meanwhile my varghulfs were getting tons of poison shots and making tons of regen saves, chasing a unit of gutter runners down then heading for the warmachines. My vampire hero chewed through several skaven heroes that were thrown under the bus, and when he finally got a change to smash the grey seer he did one wound total, his horse did another, then he drank his potion of get all wounds back. So that's what that feels like from the other side.

And then then below happened.

Wider overview

I had a plan though, survive one round and then scream at the hellpit then finish him off with vampire lord. I did survive the first round, smacking lots of slaves up with the Lord to only lose combat by 1. Unfortunately in my turn the scream rolled a 3 on two dice and did one wound, and the vampire lord only made 1 wound on the hellpit thanks to an impressive 4 passed regen rolls by Pete. My vampire hero was still flailing around trying to beat the grey seer and failing. I lost combat really badly and the whole unit crumbled.

Hmmm. To complete the devastation a plague spell on one block of zombies in the next turn jumped into my necromancers unit and he failed his toughness test, 2 crumbles left me with a few dozen oblivious zombies and a single varghulf running into the distance to save some points.

All in all not bad. Learnt a lot and I did feel pretty confident at the bottom of turn 3. Pete mentioned the zombies clogging up the left flank was great, and the terrorgheist did well initially taken a warp lightning cannon hit then getting the gutter runners and doomwheel, but he let me down at the crucial point. Also as was pointed out to me I should of had the necro with ruby ring on the right flank throwing flames at the hellpit as soon as he emerged, would of made quite a difference. My level 1 death rolled aspect of the dreadknight, switched to spirit leach but never got the change to try it out.

Skaven are fun! Looking forward to the next match.