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!

Busy February

As we near the end of the month I am looking forward to a quieter March.

Early in the month I attended Over the Top in Hamilton with Cody, Ryan and Wil. This involved painting up another Dreadknight and character for Cody as well as some weeapon modifications for my Wraithlords. As Ryan has already posted he and Wil played in the Fantasy event while Cody and I played 40k. I really enjoyed the tournament and played top notch blokes in all the games against Tyranids, Grey Knights, Dark Eldar, Tau, Space Marines and Orks. As I have been playing a lot more Fantasy I wanted to have a good look at the state of NZ 40k now that 6th ed has been out for a while. No shock to see fantastic use of allies, flyers, new psychic powers and larger troop units making up a lot of the armies. There is no messing around in the 40k scene which is awesome and the standard of armies on display was impressive too. The Eldar have been relegated to being the Psychic servants of a few armies most notably Tau with Divination amping up the Tau's considerable shooting capabilities. I took a heavy Wraith list lead by Eldrad and at 1500 and 2000 points being joined by a Wraithseer toting a D-cannon. I had a couple bad match ups(Dark Eldar) and a couple games could have gone past turn 5 for a better result in my favour but thems the breaks and I finished up with 24th of 38. I really enjoyed talking with other players and listening to their views and army construction ideas, it gives me plenty to think about going forward with 40K.

After a late but fun filled trip back home and only a couple hours sleep it was off to work cramming in paperwork before an early flight the following day to Queenstown to visit some the impressive Otago stone fruit orchards - I work in produce. After a couple full days around the primary Otago growing areas it was a late flight back home. After work the next day some quick base colouring was required on a couple Hellstead mounted Vampires as it was time for the NZTC!

I was a proud member of Team OMEN captained by Sam over at Hashut's Right Hand, I brought the chafftastic Vampire Count list rocking the dual Terrorgheists. I highly recommend checking out some of the Youtube clips we made. They may not be full of tactical inspiration but gamers should get a laugh out of some. Sporting our fine Yoda adorned team shirts we made our plays and faced 6 great teams including the 3 who placed. Day one was an incredibly long day of Warhammer not finishing until 10pm after 4 games! OMEN had a mix of results and I lamented the loss of my Ghoul King in a couple of key moments which resulted in my army shitting itself in spectacular fashion, I did get a couple big key wins though too so I was happy after the first day. Heading back to Ryan's place with Cody afterwards we watched some Top Gun and the Thing!? while having a couple beers. At some stage when I decided it was bedtime Ryan declared it was time to head into town - this resulted in a big 'F... off!' from me as it was well past my bedtime but as Ryan and Cody were about to head out the door I threw my blanket aside, donned appropriate attire and followed them into the capitals night.

Well after a noisey night or should that be early morning of more beer, music and dancing we staggered back and I got some sleep before the final couple rounds of NZTC. With a strained awakening and emulating my undead forces with a shambling trip to the bathroom I realised it was near game time so self cast Vanhels Danse Macarbe and hastened out the door with the others for the tournament.

Chugging down energy drink and water I faced off against Beastmen first and like my teammate James drinking on the first day it may have improved my play as I got a good win. We were sitting middle of the field after the 5th round with the opportunity to claw a little bit higher. Our fortunes were not to be realised and after facing off against NZ Hammered we tumbled back down the ranks to 7th. I again managed to turn what was looking to be a favourable result versus Warriors of Chaos into a big loss as the Ghoul King got Gatewayed inspite of mass dispel dice being thrown, thems the breaks in the hard game of Warhammer Fantasy folks. I would like to say a massive thank you to Pete Dunn for putting the event together and congratulations on his team the Von Trapps for winning. Also tankyou to Ryan and Locky for running the two days in a fine display of organisation. The team format was awesome and provided a format for using some different and riskier builds. This may not have been successful for us but Team OMEN will be back with a better selection of forces at our command.

Back to work for a few days then this weekend it was off to Brisbane for the Soundwave Rock festival. No gaming involved but my powers of finding a gaming store in a retail haystack worked when I randomly looked down an arcade to see GW signs much to my wifes amazement... or was it horror? No purchases made but it was a nice busy spacious store with men and women sitting around a busy paint station and a nice selection of terrain on the tables. I did find a good comic book store to spend some funds in though so that was ok.

Amongst all this the Monday night RPG group has embarked in playing 40k Rogue Trader at last. Proving a great change from good old D&D/Pathfinder as the players have to actually think again instead of slaughtering whatever they come across... though that idea doesn't seem to have reached Cody's highly intolerant Flamer carrying Arch Militant yet as some barbequed faux port officials can prove evidence too...

So as the month approaches it's end, its time to get some hobby and gaming focus again. After some good hobby chats with James at NZTC he suggested adding to the Raven Guard's bases to break up the dark colours. I couldn't have agreed more so have started adding some small pieces of modelling lichen and grass to the wetlands bases, so far its making an improvement and I will post some pictures soon. Runefang is the end of April so time to make some choices in regards to Fantasy. Give the Vampire counts a break? Maybe fix up the High Elves and run a Hoeth inspired list I put together or have a good look at Daemons as the new book drops on Saturday and make use of Stu's massive painted collection sitting idle on the shelves in my gaming room... that and help Cody get his very own Warriors of Chaos army up and running for Runefang.

Over the Top 2013

The Hamilton Immortals hosted the Over the Top 2013 tournament over the last weekend, and 2 Wellingtonians (Wil and myself) along with 2 Levin/ites/ers/ees (Cody and Glen) made the road trip to the city of the future. Wil and I went for the fantasy tournament while Glen and Cody slummed it in the (much larger) 40k tournament.

 Lake Taupo pre swim Codicus

Music selection for the road trip included a Nelly Furtardo CD so Wil could be in theme with his man eater army for the event. Brilliant weather on the road trip so we stopped at Lake Taupo for a quick dip then some pub grub and liquid refreshment. Much gaming discussion ensued. Old man O'clock (9:30pm) hit so I took over driving from Wil. Hit the supermarket for essential supplies (coffee, beer, bananas and muesli) then checked into the hotel once finally arrived in Hamilton.

Pub grub and liquid refreshment.

Day 1 was hectic for Wil and myself. 4 X 2400pt games of fantasy is a lot to fit into one day. Played a couple of Dark Elf armies first up, quite the learning experience for me getting 9-11 on the first and 19-1 on the second. I don't remember many details but enjoyed both outings, a tough army to face.

Epic VC bus fight in game 3 with my Terrorgheist charging in the rear while my bus hit the front and dogs hit side of Rory's bus. My Terrorgheist finally got a decent scream (double 5!) which killed 6 knights actually lost me the combat. My uber hero with anti heroes (7 X S8 ASF attacks) only could and only did kill one model, the unit champ, while the vampire lords killed each other and his heroes ripped my bus to pieces for lots of res and my side crumbled massively. Loss 6-14 with myself

Fun times while playing skaven last in day having a plague spell jump 5 times, affecting 3 each of our units but I think in the end killing more rats than deadites. Also the bell blowing up my safe watchtower victory turn 3 leading to a more interesting game. Ended 11-9.

I finished last amidst some hungry looks from the other three, so we all headed to kfc and bk to chow down. My brother had came down from Auckland so we all had a few drinks and some nerd conversation.

Day 2 faced wood elves, mission included special rule in turn 1/2 all units roll d6, roll a 1 and cannot march. hexwraiths and t gheist fail both turn 1 and 2. Yay. Hexies hid from archers who got magic attacks from hill. Managed to get across board and smashed through treeline, lost ~25 the ghouls to a kadon dragon flame and then overextended losing them on final turn. Failing to reform knight bus meant I missed out getting general+bsb+expensive archers. 7-13

Last game versus Bretonnians, screamed the pegasus knights to pieces, 3 units of dogs all charged one stack of peasant archers and all died to kill 3 of them (even with failed fear). Lost 4 knights to difficult terrain. Young Bret knights fail restrain, charge my bus and wipe out all the bk in one round. Bats tied up trebuchet after it one shot the Terrorgheist. hexies tried to hide from yet another terrain piece giving magic attacks, but caught by the grail knights. Ghouls had a grind against one big knight unit that the two vampire joined in to hide from shooting. They broke, ghouls failed to run down and vampires could not pursue as would put them in charge of big nasty unit so no points there. Finished 8-12.

So 60/120, 9th from 18 total, dead (pun fully intended) even. Not bad. Some more bk then truck stop food after another swim on the way home.

A Message to the NZTC from "Cut the Mustard"

Thanks everyone for relegating us at "Cut the Mustard" to being the bunnies. Now I am happy to admit this is an absolutely fair assessment of our lists and the sum total of our player ability compared to the rest.

However, one thing for you fools to think about is that we at "Cut the Mustard" hold the keys to your team reaching the podium.  WE (specifically Coldbane's Wood Elves and our other multitude of weaknesses) will likely determine the tournament winner. We can give you 60 points, but if you can't take 60 points from us then be aware that some other shark will. You have been warned!

And don't worry, we will be trying our damnest each round to try and take you out of contention. The fail team that only gets 12/8 11/9 10/10 20/0 from us will not podium and we will feast upon your failure as our victory. Almost wish we had Simon in our team...

Lastly, any team that fails to take more points from us than we take from them will have shown their own bunny credentials. We will have a special award for any who fail.

Wil Hoverd

(Disclaimer: only Wil Hoverd and Coldbane are members of "Cut the Mustard." Wryth is a member of Team Omen,  in no way do we intend to give Team Omen 60 points.... or do we?)

Horus Heresy Raven Guard

Here are some pics of my first Raven Guard Legion tactical squad for the Horus Heresy project.

Just have to get some Raven Guard transfers from FW and have some more water effects on the way to fill the bases a bit more. I will have to do a little work on the veteran sergeants base too as I had completed him before I got the blasted wetland bases.

As I will be painting Cody's Ultramarines as well throughout the project, the difference in armour patterns and colour schemes will mix it up nicely. Talking to him about what he plans to include in his 'Calth' force also means there won't be too much duplication in the units so I'll get to paint a variety.

What I intend to take for my overall Raven Guard force is dependant on what little information is provided in Raven's Flight and Deliverance Lost. As I want my force to comprise of the Raven Guard struggling for the 98 days on Isstvan V I won't be including the Raven Guard Raptor initiates yet. In Raven's Flight the Raven Guard engage with and armoured detatchment of Iron Warriors. When Corax issues the orders to his remaining forces it mentions tactical companies, bike units and assault squads. Once the fighting begins the Raven Guard attack with a lot of Missile Launcher and Lascannon fire as well. I can expand these units a little with the specifics in the FW Legion list and I may also include a Dreadnought or two as they are mentioned in Deliverance Lost, seems plausible they may have had one or two left after the initial massacre.