Coming Of the Black Knights?

With the release of the dark angels and with wryth taking them as his own me and my Grey Knights decided to go on the defense of incoming plasma spam.. maybe? Mostly from the Ravenwing Black Knights. With Twin linked guns on every bike my terminators were just abit concerned Iv yet to fight them yet but theres no harm in planing right?

My normal lists normally auto include Terminators and Dreadknights and lately Necron Allies for the up coming over the top tournament. So this List for me is very different might have to have a jam with it just for shits and giggles and see if it falls apart .

Grey Knight Inquisitor with needle pistol, power sword, plasma syphon, power armor, lvl1 psyker with divination to get prescience X2
Grey Knight Inquisitor with needle pistol, power sword, plasma syphon, power armor, lvl1 psyker
3 acolytes with plasma guns, 8 crusaders with power axes in a Chimera
3 acolytes with plasma guns, 8 crusaders with power axes in a Chimera
10 GKSS psybolts, 2 psycannons, rhino
10 GKSS psybolts, 2 psycannons, rhino
Dreadnought, psybolt, TL autocannom and TL lascannon
Dreadnought, psybolt, TL autocannom and TL lascannon

While trying to deal with the bikes the plain Jane GK strike squads also deal with deathwing terminator's quite well been able to cast warp quake to bugger up there DS if they want to get close or scatter in. So one Inquisitor in each Chimera the plasma syphon gives off a 12 inch bubble from the hull making all plasma guns BS1 while not a large bubble two helps :D also even tho the bikes are twin linked needing 6s and then re rolling 6s I think is still pretty good. While on my end if they do want to take the risk of double tapping within 12 inch's I can shot back and with prescience. The last thing ill say are the Dreadnoughts with lascannons With ap2 adding  +1 to the damage chart and av13 necrons and vindicator making a come back str 9 always helps.

 But at the end of the day this is me just buggering around ha but hey at least I'm posting something right??

Homecon III

This weekend I'm off to Wellington to take part in Homecon III, thank you very much for the invite Pete.

I will be using a list I have become very comfortable with over the last few months. Every event I have played at with the Vampire Counts has improved my playstyle with the list. Sometimes this has been advice from another player or seeing an opponent use a tactic or move on my army that I can simulate.

It will be lead by the Ghoul King as usual, really should name him as I have used the SGK with little variation since I first got this version of the book. I really like the defence that the Nightshroud Wight King brings as well. Cut the ghoul block down a little to get another 5 wolves. The baby Necro with Ruby Ring and Scroll has performed well since I began using him at last years events, I'll thank Joel for that useful little build. I see Ryan is using the same one too. Can't turn my back on Death magic from the level 4 Necro either as it gives me some ranged threat and the always welcome Doom and Darkness make those Terrorgheist scream all that much better.

Ghoul King, Red Fury, Beguile, Ogre Blade, Other Trickster's Shard, Dragonbane Gem
Master Necro, Level 4, Death magic

Necromancer, Level 1, Vampires, Dispel Scroll, Ruby Ring
Wight King, Heavy Armour, Shield, Nightshroud, Luckstone
Cairn Wraith
Cairn Wraith
cairn Wraith

5 Dire Wolves
5 Dire Wolves
31 Ghouls inc Ghast
20 Zombies, Standard, musician
20 Zombies, Standard
20 Zombies, Standard

8 Crypt Horrors
2 Fell Bats

Terrorgheist
Terrorgheist

Looking forward to 5 good tough games and looking at the first round draw here I get to tussle with the goblin hordes first off tomorrow!

Black Marines and Dark Marines?

With a busy Christmas over workwise and my wife having taken over use of the xbox and the new games 'we' got, its time to get focused back on some hobby projects.

I received my little box o goodness from Forge World today containing the 10 sets of mark IV armour and a pack of Umbra pattern bolters. Now these are of course for the Horus Heresy project and should be destined to be Raven Guard in the process of having the crap kicked out of them by Traitor forces, who I might add seem all the rage with other participants of the project... poor outnumbered loyalists...

Well in addition to this we have the new Dark Angel codex being released in less than a fortnight and fingers crossed, it has some competitive punch from Mr Skaven/Ogre Kingdom Vetock. Now I know some other vocal NZ gamers do not like the new DA range but I frakkin love it. The look is similar to what I was working towards with Cody's Grey Knights with personal heraldry and extra details on the armour. The new DA kits can take this to another level of gothic 'space knight' imagery.

I have the very nice DA models from Dark Vengeance and have used them in the narrative campaign but now I have some little choices to make. I would have prefered to paint the Dark Angels in a preheresy colour scheme as I dont like the traditional dark green at all. However as I was going to play Raven Guard for 30k I dont want to be working on 2 black marine armies. Looking at successor chapters I like the Guardians of the Convenant the most, however I will darken the metal armour considerably similar the Grey Knights I have already worked on.

So do I paint my DA as Guardians of the Convenant and stay with ninja Raven Guard for Horus Heresy or roll it all into one and have a combined pre heresy Dark Angel force good for both systems? I do think they can both function fine as seperate armies and the Raven Guard can always be a vanilla marine army for 40k.

40k Campaign - Violent street fights in the Hub

So yesterday had some brutal small scale firefights in the depths of the Hub.

Some modifications and clarifications were made to the lists. Yes players could use special characters and the cultist or Imperial Guard unit could be used as their compulsory troop.

We all played the Battlefield recon mission from the back of the hardback 40k rulebook. It entails sides only having 1 objective each worth 2 points and the bonus points from warlord, first blood and linebreaker.

Round 1 - Ashen Angels vs Daemons
I took charge of the Ashen Angels as they made preperations to enter the sub levels. As they coordinated with PDF units holding an Imperial garrison, daemonic forces in league with cultists tore their way free of the warp.

The Tzeentchian fiends took the Marines by suprise and after a volley of warp spawned flame the tactical squad was seriously depleted. As the marines and guardsmen desperately attempted to hold the strongpoint Terminator reinforcements arrived from the left flank, pouring bolt rounds into the Flamers.

The Sorcerous leader of this coven raced down the barricaded streets flinging bolts of eldritch energy into the Terminators while gibbering horrors materialised to take hold of the now defenderless Imperial base.

After a heated firefight between the towering Imperial bastions the Terminators were reduced to a single man, though with Assualt cannon churning he failed to withstand the Sorcerers onslaught of magic. Having cleared the defenders from this key location the cultists who had observed the skirmish from the safety of a bastion headed off under the guidance of their daemonic lord.

Win to the Chaos side.

While we played that out Joel and Conan had a streetfight between Orks and Blood Angels in the sub industrial zones. Joel can report in more detail but I believe after the Orks failed to dislodge 2 guardsmen from their objective the control of the territory was a draw.

Round 2 - Ashen Angels vs Orks

The Orks seeking out their newly spawned kin happened upon a patrol of marines in a former habitation block which had fallen into disrepair. The marines entrenched themselves at the end of a clear thoroughfare sighting the mass of greenskins marching into the area.

With a whir of rotor blades the Orks copter swung through the tenemants spying the black armoured marines and hailing his fellows let fly with his rockets! A marine was torn apart as the missile hit its target and the Ork warboss encouraged by the prospect of a fight belted down the street with his warbike, swerving into the shelter of a ruined plaza as the Imperial guns attempted to fix on him.

Marines moved into the ruined apartments and let fly with bolter and plasma rounds at the Orks while the guardsmen failed to strike the warboss who now bore down on them. As the Ork boyz bustled down the street towards the Imperials, filling the air with rounds from their shootas, the warboss broke cover and crashed into the guardsmen. With dismay the humans flailed at the green warlord but with a bloody crunch of his powerclaw he easily broke the unit and ran down the survivors.

The marines retaliated and with concentrated fire brought the Warboss down. However the Shoota boyz were not be to discouraged and with a roar continued to advance adding more ammunition to the hail of fire from their crude firearms. After the early salvo the ork copta had harrased the power armoured marines but with little success had fallen back to a safer distance to add to the marines suppression.

With the green tide thinning and marines still falling the firefight ended in a stalemate. A handful of Tactical marines and the terminator sergeant hunkered down and the avenues end while Ork 'yoof's retrieved thier immature spores growing in the rubble.

While that was played out Aaron and Conan had a dispute over territory with the bedraggles Blood Angels coming under attack from Alien monstrosities. It seems a Xenos cult had been dormant within the labour forces and with the growing violence made their move against the Imperial establishment.

A massive Hive beast successfully spawned numerous 'gants' throughout the conflict, threatening to overwhelm the Imperial defenders numerous times. However as the local defence force held their stongpoint and the marines met the alien horrors out on the street, the imperial defenders eventually taken over by the Brood forces.

Round 3 - Ashen Angels vs Tyranids

With things not going well for the Imperial forces, the marine patrol moved to the industrial area where the greenskins and Blood Angels had come to blows. Picking their way through the metal works and catwalks the astartes came into contact with the reported xenos hive beasts. Taking position in a tall steel structure the Imperial Guard layed down long range fire as the marines moved out on the ground level to halt the xenos progress.

Cutting down Genestealers early on did little to halt the swarm and with some success the identified Tervigon added more to the infestation. As the small xeno forms swarmed through the girders and bracings a unique bioform floated into view. The marines held their distance as this 'Doom' pulsed out waves of psychic attacks but the marines managed to weaken it before it ruptured itself with a burst of psychic energy.

Eventually the Imperial forces were reduced to a solitary marine as the remaining guardsmen fled from the alien creatures. With any resisitance cleared from the area, the brood followers found an abandoned drinking establishment and sated themselves on the spoils while the hunter-slayers spawned by the brood mother stalked off in search of new prey.

Again a loss and Conan fared a similar defeat at the hands of the daemons. However a glimmer of hope appeared as Cody having arrived from work brought the cheese into play. With an Imperial Guard squad as minimum he used a Heavy incinerator Dreadknight and none other than Draigo himself. Needless to say things did not go well for Joel's Orks and a single victory point was gathered for the oppressed Imperial forces.

So it had been a very one sided day with the agents of disorder running rampant over the Imperial defenders, this would make it very difficult for the authorities to maintain their fragile hold on the deepest parts of the hab blocks.

With a grind of stressed servos the power armoured figure hauled himself atop the towering steel framework. Striding across the groaning steelwork he halted at the platforms edge and gazed out through crimson lenses at the foundation of his new domain. Gunfire barked out in the stygian gloom and this leader of traitors and murderers smiled within his horned helmet.

It mattered not that his blade had yet to be drawn here. It mattered not that his own chosen were veritably seething at their restraints to engage in the disorder. His agents had whispered their words into the ears of those dissident and they had acted against the Imperium with their own means, however alien or eldritch they may be. Screams of rage and terror alike joined the gunfires melody and the Lord of damned warriors was pleased, knowing that the corpse god's ignorant followers were being put to death.

Let them dispatch their pitiful guardsmen and feebly loyal Astartes to quell this chaos, the more they sent down here into the depths meant an easier climb upon the heap of their remains to the next fields of conquest.

Playing both sides - GM'ing the Campaign

This weekend I will be hosting some players for a variety of gaming. These will include the start of my narrative 40k campaign, some D&D(my regular players can use their Monday night characters) and NZTC practice with Warhammer Fantasy.

Joel and Conan have been kind enough to send in their backgrounds and Initial lists for the campaign so as GM I'd better point out what I'll be using. Now as GM I plan on using forces for both sides and filling in where needed.

"This is Henry Mackryn for the Chyrossian News Network, reporting from outside the Governor's Palace on Chyross Prime.

Chyrossian Governer Marcus Towerson has relayed his official apologies to Imperial institutions in the Sector, in regards to a decline in productivity on the IDCC/the Hub. His office has informed the numerous clients and dependants as to the investigation and ongoing performance management of high ranking staff running the IDCC. This aims to determine where the breakdown between the indentured population and the administration has occured. He has assured that the manufactorum facilities of the Adeptus Mechanicus will be unimpeeded by any delays in components or materials handled and distributed through the 'Hub'.

Governor Towerson has authorised the deployment of additional Defense Forces to the habitation blocks of the Hub and assures the public that the rumoured reports of Xenos and Astartes sightings are the ramblings of obscura addled vagrants. Our sources have been very specific in their descriptions of Astartes sightings. Red armoured marines in the sub manufactorum districts, engaging in street level firefights with criminals in green gang colours and tribal markings and the leak of pict captures showing a small strike craft of the Ashen Angels chapter docking in the PDF bays on the main Orbital defence array, portray Governor Towerson's comments as simple words to placate the affluant Chyrossian citizens on the Prime world.

This reporter thinks that a conflict on the Hub was inevitable. With a historical decline in housing and services for the working population and a massive increase in interstellar trade and the stresses in must be putting on the security systems and protocols something was bound to give in the bustling heart of our sector.

Back to you in the studio Jansah."

Since I bought Dark Vengeance as soon as it was released I thought I would use both forces included to form the basis of my campaign forces.

For the Dark Angels I will label them as the Ashen Angels, then I can nicely use the various Blood Angel models and parts with the Dark Angels and any new additions that may come out in the new year. For now I will use the Space Marine codex for simplicity.

5 man Terminator Squad inc Serg with Power Sword, Assault Cannon and Chainfist

10 man Tactical Squad inc Serg with Plasma pistol, Plasma gun and Plasma Cannon

10 Imperial Guard inc Grenade Launcher and Autocannon

This will nicely represent an Astartes Strike Force allying with the resident defence force. I can combat squad the Tactical squad for flexibilty and the Terminator Sergeant will be the functioning Warlord until I include a real HQ choice.

For the Chaos side I came up with the following

Chaos Lord, Khorne, Plasma pistol, Axe(Sword)of Blind Fury, Sigil of Corruption, Vet of long war

5 Chosen inc Champ with Lightning Claws, Power axe, Power Fist, Vets of long war

10 Cultists inc Flamer
10 Cultists

Obliterator

Much more aggresive build with the Lord and Axe in there but they're Chaos and they're on the Hub to cause some serious trouble! Represents one of the Chaos Warlords who has infiltrated the Hub's Industrial levels and herded out some cultists to cause mayhem.

MIA Blood Angels - Hub campaign

Next campaign force to debut was sent in by Conan who will be playing on Saturday.

FIRST THERE WAS THE LIST.

Brother-Chaplain Tiberius (formerly Sergeant Tiberius).
- Make-shift Crozius Arcanum (really just a bloody big power-mace), Rosarius (an Iron Halo taken from the corpse of the former mission-commander and forged into a mask bearing the visage of Sanguinius) & an infernus pistol. [115 pts]

Tactical Squad 'Spada' (now in the grip of the Black Rage and practically Death Company).
- 5 Marines with bolters and close combat weapons. [100pts]

Squad Delta747 aka "McManus's Iron Weasels", "The Iron Weasels" or more commonly "those Weasel bastards..."
- Sergeant McManus, his latest 9 PDF recruits of questionable moral fibre & a rather handy flamer. [55pts]

Terminator Squad Invicta
- Sergeant Quintus & 4 Terminators with an assault cannon. [230]

Total: 500pts.

THEN THERE CAME THE FLUFF...

Several years before the current situation on Chyross IV aka "The Hub" a squad of Blood Angel marines were sent to assist with an Inquisitorial investigation. They never reported back and the Ordo Hereticus never disclosed their true purpose.
Recently reports of the rapidly escalating chaos on the planet reached a nearby Strike cruiser with sightings of black-armoured Space Marines claiming to be Blood Angels. The ship's commander ordered a swift response, despatching Terminator Squad 'Invicta' to deal with what could be brother-marines suffering from the Black Rage. They teleported to the planets surface to meet with the less-than-reliable witnesses, 'McManus's Iron Weasels' - a local PDF squad, who claimed to know the errant marines' whereabouts.

Finally tracking their objective to deep within the under-city, Squad Invictus were prepared for a bloody but brief confrontation. What they did not expect was fully-aware marines, holding on to their sanity and led by an unknown Chaplain. This 'Brother-Chaplain Tiberius' turned out to be the former sergeant of the squad, and went on to reveal that they have been fighting against the forces of Chaos - the influence of which is amplifying the effects of the Black Rage. He claimed that he had seen visions of Sanguinius, beseeching him to don the armour of a Chaplain that he might guide his battle-brothers away from madness.

Eventually convinced that the Chaplain's words were true, Squad Invictus joined forces with the remains of Squad Spada to invesitgate and combat the worshippers of Chaos. As "McManus's Iron Weasels" had a reputation for frequenting the less savoury districts of The Hub, they were ordered to assist and begrudgingly complied. Now this unlikely force, united by (somewhat) common goals ventures deeper into the bowels of a city gone mad. Who knows what horrors await them there...

Orks in the Hub!

Joel from The Brush of Doom sent me through his background to post for his campaign force.

In the depths of the Hub a community of orks has been growing from some spores that were accidently smuggled there by a a sushi chef. These "yoofs" are starting to shed there teef and become "da ladz" and the next generation is coming through. Meanwhile a Missionary warboss and his trusty copta buddy have found themselves on the planet having hijacked a transport ship. Working their way (read "speeding dangerously") through the lower levels causing havoc (humans are less tolerant of evangelical Gork followers than the average ork) they chanced across "da green gang" who became disciples of Gork and seek to spread the Waaagh whereever they go...once they figure out how to get out of the Hive.

Warboss: Warbike, Pklaw, Attack Squig, Cybork body 150

30 Shoota Boys: Nob-Pklaw, 'eavy armour, Bosspole,big shoota 230
10 Nurgle cultists "yoofs": flamer 75

RokkitCopta 45

500

This is a perfect example of what I want out of these early steps for the narrative campaign. Fantastic job Joel!