Raven Guard Dreadnought - Horus Heresy

Here is the Raven Guard Dreadnought I decided to do as a cheap option for the project.

It is simply the Dreadnought from Assualt on Black Reach on a nice Blasted Wetlands base. Not a competitive option but thats not what the Campaign project is about. The Raven Guard had to rely on Dreadnoughts for heavy support with their vehicles destroyed during the drop. I may build a couple arm options for the Dreadnought as well.

I have added some lichen and flock to the base and those of my marines as they were very dark and had little difference to the Raven Guard armour - Thanks for pointing it out James. The scenic effects break it up nicely now. Next is the Mark IV apothecary I got from Pete a couple weeks ago, if anyone needs medical assistance its the Raven Guard after the massacre.

With the release of the Recon marines from FW I will be making an order where I will get the Raven Guard transfer sheet as well. Then I can add the Legion symbols to the Dread and the Tactical marines I already have. Other suitable units for the fluff would be a couple heavy weapon and Assualt squads. With the Raven Guard not getting specific rules until the third book I'll just have to make some generic safe choices in the meantime.

New Mourkain - Dark Valley campaign

Last weekend I had a fantasic time at the House o Dunn playing in the now dubbed 'Dark Valley Campaign' ooh err.

As I had posted I took the Ghoul King led hordes to forge a new Undead home and I guess I was successful as I carved out my Northern corner in the mountains. You can see on the final campaign turn I'm the grey tiles. Cody - white, Pete - Blue, Ryan - Orange, Wil - Green, James - Purple, Joel - Red and Mike - Yellow. Cody might be in for some not so friendly games if I want to expand my kingdom.



With the start of the campaign opening in an mass land grab from Pete's Skaven forces and Ryan's Blood Dragon VC, I consolidated the North east mountains while Cody's Chaos took the North West. Wil's Ogres took the south west swamplands, Mikes Beastmen and Joel Wood Elves haggled over the southern coastal resorts and James skaven/Chaos had some western lands.

Over the two days I fought all the others except Ryan which makes sense as why would the Undead nation need to squabble... yet. Even though I ended 5th in Empire points - due to not being able to build cities in the mountains, see what do Dwarves know, I was very happy with the armies performance over all. I won vs both Chaos players, Ogres and Beastmen but lost to Skaven and Wood Elves. I took the following.

Ghoul King, Red Fury, Flying Horror, DBG, OTS, Ogre Blade
Master Necro, Level 4, Death

Vampire, Level 2, Forbidden Lore(Heavens), Aura of Dark Majesty, Heavy Armour, Shield, Hellstead, Dragonhelm, Sword of Swift Slaying
Necromancer, level 1 Vampires, Ruby Ring, Dispel Scroll
Wraith x3

40 Skeletons, FC, Banner of Swiftness
21 Zombies, standard
20 Zombies, standard
20 Zombies, standard
5 Direwolves
5 Direwolves
5 Direwolves
5 Direwolves

3 Vargheists
3 Fell Bats

Terrorgheist
Terrorgheist

Subtle I know, now I tryed out the Vampire with Forbidden Lore for Terrorgheist support and yes he did occasionally mean an additional screaming wound was caused but I think he got killed in 5 of the 6 games and gave up nearly 300 vp each time so he is going to be let go. We may see him rding a bus in the future...

The Terrorgheists did very well most of the time and I think my use of them is improving thanks to good Dire Wolf and Fell Bat placement. Pete's skaven did manage to smash both of the Terrorgheists on turn 1 with his warmachine and magical shenanigans while Joel whittled them down with his mass shooting but that's going to happen against some armies no matter what. They really proved themselves as usual against the both James and Cody's chaos forces. Targetting those elite units and bypassing the armour saves is gold for the VC.

Death magic was overall exceptionally useful, keeping the pressure on target characters with sniping and forcing through Doom and Darkness every turn for extra Screaming results.

Vargheists do what they always do, go bat shit and hopefully kill stuff, most of the time they earn their points back and are a great distraction unit.

Now there was some discussion on my use of Skeletons over the usual ghouls. I took the skeletons for their flexibilty and passive bonuses. With the Wraiths deployed in the same unit the Ghoul King can sit in the second rank happily most of the time and with Flying Horror can still launch out on opportune targets. The ability to swift reform was so nice to have and a simple banner and a couple parries did make a difference. I like the ghouls but the Ghoul King and Wraiths do all the damage and blocking so the ghouls were not getting used that well. I'll take extra bodies and maneuverabilty thanks.

Looking forward and still resisting the cut and paste bk bus build I will drop the solo flying Vampire and Flying Horror on the Ghoul King - I rarely use it and sometimes when I do it really does not pay off. In return I can add my 8 Crypt Horrors back in, thats 24 toughness 5 regenerating wounds! It should protect my Skeleton bus quite well and I do miss having them in there.

As a bonus everything is painted and all I need to do is magnetise a few zombie bases and thats the army I'm comfortable with all done for now. I did get a finecast mounted Manfred in excellent condition for a bargain from trademe a couple weeks ago so I may paint him for when I do buy thast bus ticket... helps to have a nice lord model ready to ride.

To build a new Mourkain

This coming weekend Cody, Ryan, Wil and I are all attending a fun Warhammer Fantasy campaign weekend in Wellington. It's a small group playing and we are using some simple Mighty Empire rules that proved successful at a Wellington campaign weekends a couple years ago.



Now I was going to bring back old Team Resplendant which was full of High Elven goodness that did it's very best to hold it's borders even going so far as to ally with the Dwarven team at the time! But the two shelves of painted Undead far outweighed the incomplete collection of Elves from Ulthuan so Vampire Counts it is.

I almost, almost decided to use the ever popular BK bus but no I shall persevere with my Ghoul King and his court. This is a campaign so it is my Ghoul Kings intention to wrestle the lands of the living from its weak lords and fashion it into a new Mourkain where his army of darkness shall restore the Strigoi name to its former glory. We have been told to have no alliances so I shall be wary of Ryan's Blood Dragons and any emmisaries. Cody is using the new Warriors of Chaos and Wil is commanding his successful Ogre forces. Intercepted communications tell of Skaven, Wood Elves and Beastmen in the area and I expect to see the new incarnation of Daemons invade the mortal realms.



With most of my models ready to go I have set upon some units needing a little attention to finish properly. Today I finished the Vargheists and mounted them on some left over Graveyard bases I had from my Titan forge Crypt Horrors. I painted them to match the GW ghouls I have in my army to unify the look. Now to repaint some infantry bases from the old goblin green of 4th and 5th ed to the steel legion drab I use now. Then my forces will be ready to fight for Ushoran and a new Mourkain!