Painting - Evil Greeblies

I have been having a lot of fun kitbashing a handful of evil minions, cultists and general greeblie fellows.  After seeing some fantastic cultists here I was inspired to make my own.  With all the role playing and wargames I play and host they certainly won't gather dust on the shelf.

So I bought a box of Plague Monks from STP and when they arrived rummaged through the left over bits from Cody's Plaguebearers.  Here are the first two completed(minus basing) results.

I was really impressed by all the parchments and tattered robes of the Skaven plague monks.  The first chap has a plaguebearer head, severed heads attached to the plague monk staff and then one of the multiple gleeful Nurglings sitting on the staves top.  The second has the removed tail reattached to the cut off face of a plaguemonk.  I left the bottom jaw in place and I think it works well.  I cut down the clawed feet slightly to give the impression of rag swaddled feet instead.

I have a parchment toting cultist almost finished and Joel, a regular gaming buddy from thebrushofdoom, has said I can have access to his many many Empire bits and pieces to craft more miscreants.

40k - Carthis Prime - Invasion

Last weekend I hosted a 40k get together with the local lads and some of the regular visitors.

It was a narrative team event where all victory points were added to a players team total.  This is the brief I sent out to the participating players.

Carthis Prime is a forgotten world on the fringe of the Ultima Segementum.  Carthis was once a populous world until disaster fell upon it's people. Overnight the cities of the world were torn apart, it's people vanished and the air itself was ruined with a toxic concoction causing it to be uninhabitable for centuries. 

Explorator teams from the Adeptus Mechanicus studied the world trying to divine what had caused this blight but if it was an attack or global disaster was never determined.  So Carthis was left abandoned for a very long time.  Eventually the Mechanicus installed massive atmosphere regulators on the surface.  Towering pieces of machinery which processed the trace toxins and finally brought Carthis back from its blighted torpor.

The Imperium has since deployed defence forces from the 'Hub' and installed minor fortifications on the surface and a Starport was built in orbit to sustain ships and troops moving through the region.

Now something on Carthis has attracted the attention of outside forces, be they xenos or human is unknown...

As we wanted to mix it up from the usual 1750 point games we play, each round was using different points and scenarios.

Some of the players were only available for certain rounds so I was to act as GM and fill in player where required.

So the Invading forces were

Ryan L - Tau

Aaron - Tau

Dan - Chaos Marines

Stu - Necrons

We figured the Chaos forces posing as Imperials would provoke the Tau into launching an attack on Carthis Prime.  Stu was available for the larger later game, so the Necrons reasons could be left up to the players.

The Defenders were

Ryan S - Space Marines

Alex - Space Marines

Cody - Grey Knights

All Imperial so a pretty straight forward alliance

KILL TEAM
Each player picks a force worth 200 points using the following FOC
0-1 Elite
0-2 Troops
0-1 Fast Attack

No unique units

SPECIALIST TROOPERS
Each player is allowed to pick 3 different models as being specialists.  Each player picks these models before the battle and assigns them a USR in the 40k rulebook.  For example Tank Hunter, Feel No Pain, Fearless, It Will Not Die etc  You may not duplicate special rules.

The 2 Tau forces commanded by Ryan and Aaron had very convincing wins against Alex's Marines and Dan's Chaos marines posing as Imperials.  That put the attacking forces well in the lead on campaign points.

GAME 2

SCOUR THE STARPORT
Its on page 350 of the hardcover rulebook if people have it, otherwise
Standard FOC 1000 points

 

Cody and Ryan S had then arrived for the Starfort Assault.  Both joined Alex on the defending team while Dan revealed his true allegiance and sided with the Tau.

All 3 starforts had areas of open space where only flyers or skimmers could move.  All to wound rolls of 6 were AP2 to represent explosive decompression.  All forts had a laser battery which a controlling unit could shoot instead of their own weapons, hitting either the planet or enemy fleet to score additional VP.

I allowed the teams to have a good look at the Starfort tables before hand and they independently decided who would play on which table.  I thought this was more interesting  than random table assignment as they could attempt to put their forces on suitable terrain and predict who they may end up playing.

Ryan L played Cody.  Ryan has kindly sent me a full report of his games including a couple quick snaps of the action.  I will share these soon.

 
Alex played Dan's CSM.  Dan's Helldrake was invaluable as it swept across the starport, purging the strongpoints and bastions of the defending marines.  Dan also took control of objective areas early and managed to hold onto them for a convincing win.  Alex had the laser battery and managed to score a hit on the enemy fleet.

Aaron played Ryan S.

Aaron deployed a lot of crisis suits and Broadsides in a central tower.  He did alright early on but the defending marines soon took control of the outlying asteroid objectives.  Ryan's bike star got stuck into the crisis suits and in the end the marines had a big win.

Ryan L had to head home after that and Stu soon arrived for the big Planetstrike game.  

GAME 3

PLANETSTRIKE - 1750 points per player
uses the basic planetstrike rules on page 8 in the PLANETSTRIKE book

Attackers FOC

Compulsory 1HQ... that is all
Optional - 2 HQ, 6 Troops, 6 Elites, 6 Fast Attack, 3 Heavy Support

Defenders FOC

Compulsory 1 HQ, 2 Troops

Optional - 2 HQ, 6 Troops, 3 Elites, 3 Fast Attack, 6 Heavy Support

They played over a 12'x 4' table with 5 bastions and fortifications set centrally by the defenders.  So each side had 5250 points in total.

The Defenders opted to leave a lot of stuff in reserve and crammed as much as they could under a central Skyshield and in the bastions.  After the fairly ineffectual firestorm the attackers came on in mass.  They took advantage of the central deployment and were able to concentrate fire on the entrenched defenders.  The defenders had bad luck and 3 of the 4 Land Raiders carrying some elite forces came on the most isolated board edge.  This allowed the attackers to easily take control of the fortress then hinder any reinforcements.  By turn 3/4 I think the attackers had destroyed every defending unit so a massive win to the Invasion force.

Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and look forward to continuing Carthis' plight.  I didn't end up playing at all, but that proved handy as I was able to remind and clarify the odd scenario rules during the rounds for the players.  It also kept the massive Planetstrike game running along in some sense of order.

So Carthis Prime has been lost to Xenos invaders, how will the Imperium react?  Did the late revelation of a Necron presence have something to do with its initial downfall?  Will the invaders maintain their uneasy alliance?

Painting - Finished Dark Angel Deathwing Land Raider Crusader

This afternoon I put the final touches on the Deathwing Land Raider Crusader. 

The recipient of the tank is very happy with the final product and there has already been talk of a second one to join it, though that can wait until after I get a couple things done for myself.  For now this gets packed up safely along with a techmarine and some L&P chocolate for swift transit across the Tasman to Sydney.

The next project on the painting station is a kitbashed Mortis Engine for my Vampire Counts army to join the official one I already have.

Painting - WIP DA Deathwing Land Raider Crusader

I haven't posted any painting updates in a while but that doesn't mean I haven't been putting paint on plastic.  In between work, gaming, husbandly duties, helping with my Sister's Wedding and a lot of distracting GTA V I have been working on this Land Raider for a good mate.

My friend wanted a Deathwing Land Raider Crusader with some chapter images on it.  So after applying the base coat - thank you army painter spray range - and going around all the rivets and line work with agrax earthshade, then looking at it for a couple weeks I got to work on the freehand.  I used the Company and Sacred standards from the Codex as a basis.  I worked up the Chapter Banner image on the left and the Fortitude image on the right with a partial Deathwing Standard image on the front.

After those images were sorted I felt the need to restrict myself less.  After skimming over the previous and current codices I found a couple images of Imperial cherubs I liked and began painting them in a more relaxed manner as if I was painting on paper or a canvas.  This is the part of freehand work I like the most, not having to worry if it lines up right or is in the right ratio. Its just getting a hopefully cool looking image on the miniature.  Luckily I sent my mate a pic of the images at an earlier stage and he loved it. 

Next I painted very thin lines with thinned Scorch Brown then used Pallid Wych flesh to give an edge to these painted cracks and fracture points.  Seeing as the top right felt a little bit empty I then painted the traditional Dark Angel robed figure in the space.

I have now just started some weathering on the hull and some real work on the weapons.  Some careful sponging of Scorched Brown on the hull edges is all I have managed so far but I intend to add some streaks from the rivets with weathering powders and scorch marks around vents and the engine.  This is all between heists with Franklin, Michael and Trevor of course.

Mordheim - Warband progress

So over the past few weekends we have continued to play a game or two of Mordheim.  I even bought some Helldorado miniatures from Slave to Painting to supplement the warband.  They are very nice metal miniatures with very little flash or mold lines present.  Once I get around to painting them I will share.

It is interesting how things begin to scale in it Mordheim.  Initially I was doing very well with my Tilean rogues but as the xp ticks over the more monstrous creatures of the cursed city begin to claw their way to the top of the heap.   We have enjoyed some massive terrain choked multi player games.  Dan's Possessed Carnival has gotten away with a massive amount of Wyrdstone due to the rest of engaging in combat with each other and being very wary of his leveled up pair of Possessed.

Dan's Dark Carnival and Aaron's Undead are bringing some intimidating warband members to the table.  Dan's possessed and mutants are maxing out their strength stats through good fortune on the advancement rolls and Aaron's Vampire boasting an increasing statline finally found his suit of Gromril armour.  Yes Aaron if you buy him a shield that's a 3+ armour save.  The 18" charge/run he has from the Sprint skill is the icing on the cake.

Where does this leave the humans?  Well some expensive losses from henchman deaths and Esante getting robbed after a game! Have really knocked the Gankers about.  With the human statline capped earlier than the Chaos blessed and Vampires it's down to a good selection of skills to accumulate.

Esante got hit with a chest wound putting a permanent -1 on his toughness but I soon gained Resilience to count strength against him in melee at -1.  His good fortune with Step Aside and Parry rolls also means he is annoying as ever to my opponents, I'm sure my heavily accented commentary during the game has nothing to do with it.

Corrus my warband leader has 3 attacks now!  Thats a lot in Mordheim, with his paired swords he is quite formidable in combat.  The above image depicts Corrus, on the right about to tear Dan's Carnival mutant - Kissing Booth I think, a new one but with a fluff of the rolls my leading combine harvester got the smack down.  He then suffered a Head Injury, this could have been my chance to get Frenzy, stacking nicely with all the attacks.  But no, Corrus was struck with Stupidity like his rebellious swordsman Esante.  Here's hoping for a leadership boost next time.

The other heroes haven't really done anything to shine yet, though Tyro the promoted swordsman has done well with his random ballistic skill increase and a crossbow.  The rest just have to do their best to pick off vulnerable enemies and maintain distance before the inhuman monstrosities close in.  In our multi player games where your deployment zone is determined by a dice roll I seem to keep ending up next to the undead and that 18" charge.  As long as Esante is in the front the others shall be fine.

This weekend just been, we dusted off the original Necromunda rulebooks and had a couple games of that too.  It has been many many years since I played it but most of the mechanics from the pseudo 2nd ed 40k era came back to me.  In the two games that were played no one actually made it into melee, though I did intend too but you get so close with a plasma pistol and of course you are going to shoot it!.

So now we can skip between Fantasy and 40k settings too.  Good motivation to paint up some odd characterful miniatures for both systems.

Warpfire - The Undead finish 3rd!

On saturday Warpfire was held in Wellington.  It was a 1000 point no comp event and boy was it fun.

I don't know if it was the smaller games, the shared table space or the 5 games in one day but I don't think I have laughed so much at a wargaming event as I did at Warpfire - all for good reasons I might add.

So thankyou to all the chaps I talked too and played against.  As usual it was nice to catch up with players who I only see at Warhammer events.  Thanks to Pete Dunn for organising the event and subbing out due to odd numbers and big thank you to Locky for Umpiring the event and bringing back some meaning to painting scores.  For the post event rabble over the now and future painting markings have a look over here.  I for one was under the impression there always was a criteria and it had just been generously ignored over the last year or so.

Anyway if you having Dice problems I feel bad for you son, I got 99 problems but a 6 ain't one... well most of the time...

Game 1 - Jeff 'Pink Shirt' Kent - Orcs and Goblins... or was that dwarfs in disguise...
 Jeff had a large block of Savage Orcs, 2 Spear Chukkas, Rocklobba and Doom Diver lead by a Black Orc BSB and a Savage Orc Shaman Lord.  Jeff castled up on a hill and I enquired as to the where abouts of the Orcs stolen dwarf helms.  We got straight into it and things did not go well for Jeff.  Misfiring and inaccurate warmachine fire plagued him and I pushed through a couple Curse of Years and Gaze of Nagash over the 3 turns the game lasted.  The Savage Orcs got whittled down while my Dire Wolves and Crypt Horrors got rid of his warmachines.  In the turns remaining Jeff and I worked out I could claim the maximum bonus points netting me a big WIN.

Game 2 - James Millington - Warriors of Chaos, look an actual army.
I enjoy playing James and this time was no different.  James had a Hero on a Daemonic Mount, Tzeentch warriors, couple dog units, Trolls and Skullcrushers.  This game used the Fortitude rules so if I could kill the mounted Hero it would be a big plus for me.  The game quickly became a grind as my Crypt Horrors blocked up the Skullcrushers and Trolls while an ever growing Zombie block held up the Tzeentch warriors.  After a couple dud rolls the Banshee and Engine cleared their throats and did some decent scream damage swinging things in my favour and after James made an exceptional amaount of ward saves I broke his Hero in combat and ran him down giving me the win.  I did not get maximum bonus points and James did not have too many standards but I got a big WIN all the same.

Game 3 - Hamish Gordon - Empire, well WoC masquerading as Empire right?
I was feeling good about this match up.  This was the kind of army my screams do well against.  Two units of 4 Demigryphs, block of knights and a couple characters.  Should be able to take this right... right?  So... I go first, have my movement phase then move onto magic.  I take 3 dice and attempt to cast Curse of Years I think?  It all gets a bit fuzzy here as my 6 comment above comes to haunt me.  There we go two 6s for an IF and the Master Necromancer yanks the chain the warp toilet, down the hole he goes...  So with the average leadership of my army being 2 my undead horde craps itself and pretty much falls apart.  Max win for Hamish. Hamish is gracious in victory and after we and our neighbouring players have a good laugh we play again for fun where he still wins but on less points and more bonus points for me.   LOSS for me.  Have to pay that VC tax sometimes.

Game 4 - Peter Williamson - Bretonnians, terrible list right?
I have played Peter before and know he is a cunning creature but looking at his list of knights, men at arms, archers, trebuchet and mounted yeoman I was feeling like the screams and regeneration of my army would stand strong against them.  Nope! I moved my Master Necromancer and his Zombie entourage into the Skullvane Manse that dominated the board and moved my other units into the 'box' where we would score bonus points.  I will point out now that the start of the game was delayed simply by all the terrible 'box' jokes from all the players along our stretch of the table, myself included.  I blame Joel and James ;P  Anyways through great application of Beast magic and maneuvering Peter slowly took my army apart.  I was still ok with this until his Men at arms unit and Prophetess charged the Manse where the moistened bint turned into a freakin Dragon!  Much gnashing and stomping of Zombies ensued and my Necromancer vanished from the table as did his control over my remaining undead forces.  I think Father Lukin the Necromancer simply hid really really well within the Manse, it was a Greater Fire Dragon that the Prophetess transformed into afterall and he wasn't having a bar of that.  LOSS

Game 5 - Neil Williamson - Bretonnians, time for revenge on the Williamson name.
Like Peter I have played Neil before and knew this would be a nice friendly game to end the day on.  Unlike his son Neil had gone for a simple theme, Knights, Knights, junior Knights and flying Knights!  Surely against all those armour saves the screams would power up?  The lack of magic in Neils army let me add many many zombies to my units and repeatedly cast Curse of Years on his main knight block only for him to throw all his dice at it in his own phase.  Neil did his best to out manuever the slow undead but I managed to hold him up with Wolves, Bats and Zombies.  Neil had one character with a Wyrmlance as well to ruin my regenerating day with and try as I might to block him up he did manage to charge out of his escorting knights through a gap and into the Crypt Horrors with a supporting unit.  I did manage to break a flanking unit of knights early on as my Banshee lurking in a zombie unit screamed like a champ and sent them packing.  Neil then charged the rear of that same zombie unit with his Pegasus knights and along with the central combats the game turned into a grind of hooves, lances and reanimated limbs.  About half way through the game we had attracted some spectators who reminded us that this game contained a curse box in the centre of the table, not only that but my Mortis Engine and banshee seemed to appreciate the crowd and performed for the masses.  After being left on a single wound and having no more zombies left to absorb bleeding CR the banshee let fly and double 6'd, screaming the peggy knights into oblivion.  I then screamed into the main knight block with the Mortis Engine and double 6'd there too!  Following this the ragged remains of the Bretonnians fled from the undead but not before taking a ridiculous amount of strength 1 wounds from the cursed box.  I followed this up the next turn by rolling an 11 to Neil's disbelief finishing off what he had left and ending on a big WIN.

So after packing up Locky whent through the results and to my confusion I had not been called out before hitting the top 5.  I ended up 3rd overall which I am extremely happy with and have my first Warhammer Fantasy podium position.  I did score well in the painting category and netting as many bonus points as I could really helped.  I also now have the Vampire Count Icon for the NZ rankings.  I dont think I will hold it for too long but having it currently in my dead clawed hands gives me some motivation for future events.

So again thankyou to all the fellas I played and caught up with and of course thanks to John Murrie for the ride home and Adam 'the people's champion' Richards for the entertaining conversation while doing so.

Warpfire - The Rise of the Necromancer

After enjoying a mix of Mordheim and 40k over the last three weekends, I will be heading to Wellington tonight.  This Saturday Warpfire is being played, a 1000 point one day Fantasy tournament.  There is no comp and you can check out some of the lists over on Fields of Blood.

Now I had this list worked out well before the 'veto' option got lifted, should be good for a fun days gaming with some different scenarios.

Master Necromancer, Level 3, Lore of Vampires, Seed of Rebirth

Tomb Banshee

5 Dire Wolves
25 Zombies, Standard
20 Zombies, Standard
20 Zombies, Standard

6 Crypt Horrors
2 Fell Bats

Mortis Engine

It is unsubtle and moves about as a large brick.  With a multitude of 1+ saves and low model counts to fight against I will be praying to Nagash to roll high on the two screams I have.

Tonight we also officially start a Dreadball league where I shall be coaching the Star Spangled Strikers in the debut season.