Anrakyr The Traveller

Just finished painting Anrakyr The Traveller, definitely one of my favourite Necron models so far. I actually used him in a game for the first time last night but i didnt really get chance to see what he can do as he got stuck in an assault from turn 2 onwards. Im thinking in future though that where I would normally choose an Overlord just to get access to a Royal Court I may well go for this guy instead as I dont think he really costs too much extra (when you factor in his wargear) and he offers some interesting opportunities with his Mind in the Machine special rule.

Anyway then, here he is...

Tournament Report

So, as mentioned in my previous post (40k Tournaments) I attended my first ever 40k tournament at the weekend. It was a doubles tournament organised by my local club (York Garrison), consisting of 1850 points per side. Overall it was a really fun day and very impressively run throughout by Peter (Mid-Table Obscurity) and Bennett (Damn Dice).

My partner, Ross, and I actually won the tournament, but I won't really dwell on that one too much as Ross is the one who deserves the credit for it (that really isn't just me trying to be modest as Ross was responsible for virtually every single tactical decision and manoeuvre that our team made). Still, I thoroughly enjoyed participating in it and I was able to learn a hell of a lot from playing alongside Ross as he is a very experienced 40k player, and a friendly bloke as well!


Both Ross and I were using Necrons and the list I played with was pretty much as follows:

40 Tournaments

It's now just over a year since I returned to 40k and pretty much a year exactly since I went down to my local club (York Garrison) for the first time. One of things that I quickly discovered were "tournaments", surprisingly these were actually a completely new concept to me (from a 40k point of view) at first as my previous experiences with 40k, and wargaming in general, pretty much took place on someone's dining room table and were often cut short by the need to return the dining room table to the purposes of food consumption. It became apparent straight away though that there are a hell of a lot of these that occur and that they are a huge part of the hobby now. It may well actually be that they were a huge part of the hobby in the early 90s as well but I certainly didnt know about them at the time.

Of the people I've met and played against over the last year there have been quite a few who seem to take these tournaments, and 40k in general, extremely seriously. To me 40k is a very casual game that I play because I enjoy it and I couldnt really care less whether I win the game or not, as long as it is fun. I know that sounds a bit cheesey but some of these people really do take it very, very seriously indeed. Not that there is anything wrong with that, its just that (in my very limited experience so far) quite a few of them also seem to be a very cliquey bunch who dont always have a lot of time or interest in those of us who's lives aren't quite so focused on 40k. Again, there isn't necessarily anything at all wrong with that but it has definitely turned me away from tournaments a bit really as some of these people have just been downright unfriendly and haven't in anyway inspired me to want to play a "fun" game against them.

This post isnt intended at all as an attack on tournament players (I've also met a lot of extremely friendly ones), Its pretty much just a ramble about how I have found things so far and the prompting for me to write it is that I have finally given in and decided to attend a tournament myself this saturday. It's a doubles tournament down at York Garrison and Im partnering up with another Necron player, quite curious to see how it all goes really and once its done I'll try and get something posted on here about it.


"Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that"        :-)

Project List - Update

Towards the end of October I wrote a post about some new rules that I was trying to work towards to try and get my model collection back under control. The post was inspired by one I found on The Responsible One's blog so I cant really claim the credit for thinking up any of it.

So, after writing the post I then created a Google spreadsheet and started documenting all the different projects I had on the go and then kept it up to date as I progressed through the month of November. Once Id finally found every project that I should have been working on the total number was 43. I managed to keep myself restrained in terms of new purchases and I got quite a bit of spare time to work on things and managed to complete 11 different projects during November.

 

Necron Monolith

I didn't have quite as productive a weekend this time, I did still manage to get a few things painted though and the first of them was my Necron Monolith. I've still not actually used a Monolith in a game yet but now that I've finished painting it I will definitely be giving it a go at some point soon.

Necron Lord

Just finished this one last night so thought I would post some pictures. I can finally see an end in sight to remaining unpainted Necrons, its still a long way off but it does look like an achievable task now. Next one up I think will be the Monolith as Im really keen to try it out in a game at some point soon.

Tomb Blades

My third, and final, bit of finished painting for the weekend is a squad of 6 Tomb Blades with Gauss. Again, apologies for the grainy photos.

Aegis Defence Line with Comms Relay

I bought the Aegis Defence Line earlier on in the year when 6th edition 40k was released but I didn't really bother reading the rules for it and just pretty much ignored it until recently. However, I played a game a couple of weeks where I failed 5 out of 6 of my reserve rolls to bring on some Night Scythes full of large squads of Immortals and Warriors. Consequently I ended up losing a game quite badly due to 30 Warriors and the 2 Scythes they were in not even making it onto the table. So, the solution I decided upon was to add to my army lists an Aegis Defence Line with the upgrade of a Comms Relay (which allows you to re-roll any failed Reserve rolls), hopefully preventing something like this happening again.

I don't really want to just waste the ADL itself seen as it has cost a few points and can definitely be fairly useful. So, my current plan is to stick a squad of about 15 Warriors behind it and attach to the squad a Necron Lord with a Resurrection Orb. These guys can then just sit on an objective and should in theory be pretty tough to shoot off it, particularly with an added Annihilation Barge or two next to them for extra support. So far I've tried this tactic once and was pretty pleased with the result so will persist with it for a few more games to see how it goes.

As for the actual model itself and the painting of it, Im not really a big fan. There is nothing really wrong with it as such its just that it's not actually got anything to do with Necrons (other than their ability to pick it in army list these days) and as such I didnt really care all that much how it, or the Comms Relay, turned out so I kept the painting of both very simple. If I ever get the time and motivation in future I may come back to these and add a lot more detail to them but for the time being I am considering them to be finished.

Necron Overlord / Lord

I managed to get a few models finished over the weekend so here is the first of them, a Necron Overlord (/Lord). Apologies for the grainy photos, I was in a bit of a rush when I was taking them and didn't really have time to do a very good job. I'm hoping at some point in the near future to dust off the old SLR camera and take a load of decent pictures.

Necron Immortals with Gauss Blasters

So far I have mainly been using Warriors as my troop choices (with an occasional small unit of Tesla Immortals) but I'd like to try out some units of Immortals as well so I've just finished building ten of them, this time with Gauss instead of Tesla.

Next on the list after these is a unit of six Tomb Blades with Gauss, which are currently under way but may not be finished this week. I've also finally started to do a bit of painting on the Monolith that I built and base-coated many months ago.

Triarch Stalker #2 (Gauss Cannon)

I finished painting this one a few days ago but hadn't found time to post any pictures until today. It's very similar to the one I finished last week but this one has the Gauss Cannon fitted, rather than the heat ray.

Ghost Ark and Doomsday Ark

I've had quite a productive couple of days in terms of painting and have managed to finish both a Ghost Ark and a Doomsday Ark, in addition to the Triarch Stalker I finished on friday (seen lurking in the background in these pictures).

Next on the list I think will be my six Tomb Blades as I've never used these in a game and I think I might try them out at some point soon.

Triarch Stalker

Just finished painting another Necron model, this time it's a Triarch Stalker with Heat Ray. I'm still working on one with the twin linked Heavy Gauss Cannon.

I used this model in a game for the first time this week and it was actually a bit better than I expected so definitely one I may use more often. The Targeting Relay rule meant that I ended up with a 10 man squad of warriors rapid firing and getting twin linked in one particular turn.

Project List for November

***Update - I actually missed several projects off the list so the count for this month is actually 36, hopefully that will down to nearer 30 again though after this weekend***

So, as per my recent post about rules to try and follow to keep control of the amount of projects I have on the go at once I have now created a Google Spreadsheet to try and keep track of this.

The project count is currently at 30 and today is the 1st of the month (November) so I need to make sure that I'm trying to follow the rule of "Don't finish the month with more work than you started it". I don't currently have any plans to purchase anything new at the moment so Im actually quite confident that I can achieve this one. Not so sure about the "No miniatures without a storage solution" rule though, Im fairly well sorted for storage for all the Necrons but if I do actually finish any of the other items then I may well be paying a visit to www.krmulticase.com again.

If anyone is interested in a copy of the spreadsheet then just let me know, Ive added some custom functions to archive off each line into a different worksheet once all the columns have been set to "Yes" and it can also provide some statistics of current progress (as shown in the picture above). It's not really all that complicated (or impressive) so it should be fairly easy to share it out and then copy and customise it.

Modest Magic Terrain - part 3

Just finished airbrushing the first piece of my new terrain, I decided to go for silver as I had plenty of it to spare

Canoptek Spyder - Finished

Despite spending most of the last day or two playing about with my new terrain Ive also managed to finish painting my first Canoptek Spyder as well. I've never actually used one of these in a game yet (and I've got three of them now) so might have to try them out at some point soon.

Pictures of Modest Magic Terrain

I managed to get my new terrain assembled yesterday, sort of.

This is how it arrived and I placed a miniature in one of the photos to give an idea of scale

New terrain from Modest Magic

I recently ordered the Alien Civilization Type 1 from Modest Magic and it just arrived this morning. I haven't had chance to take a proper look at it yet (still at work at the moment) but will do so later on and will hopefully get some pictures taken and uploaded of it all over the next few days.

Some new rules : "Rules to live your (painting) life by "

I came across this article: http://the-responsible-one.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/rules-to-live-your-painting-life-by.html earlier on in the week and I really liked it as Ive found myself in a similar conundrum in recent months. My ever-growing model collection is now getting to a point where Im starting to have issues remembering where I am up to with certain models/units and also where to store them. I would also like to keep a better rein on how much Im spending each month and where it is all going to be stored. My wife and I have a baby on the way in March so these are two very crucial things that I need to get under control.

So, inspired by this article (thanks very much to "The Responsible One" :-) ) I have now decided to try and implement some of these rules myself:

• No miniatures without a storage solution

This was something I was already trying hard to work towards anyway and so far pretty much all of my Necrons, and definitely all of the Ultramarines army that I started last year and never really finished, are able to be stored away in a stack of KR Multicase foam. I have bought a few of the new Chaos Space Marine models in recent weeks though so Im going to have to purchase some more foam very soon for those.
Also, at some point in the near future Im expecting the arrival of the first wave of Sedition Wars so these will also need some trays purchasing.
Hopefully sticking to this rule will help to stop the wife getting annoyed by the ever growing sprawl of miniatures that are currently spread across two different rooms in the house.

• Don't finish the month with more work than you started it

This isnt a rule Ive ever worked to before but its definitely something Im going to aim for from now on. At the moment I still have a bit of a backlog of stuff that still isn't even built (although I have been trying to rectify that this week) and absolutely loads of things to paint.
This is how The Responsible One (TRO) explains this rule on his blog:
"So, now I have a reserve project list. Each single model, unit or thing counts as a project. I can add projects at the start of a month, but it must be replacing an existing closed project."

I may add some additional rules to this as time goes on but the first thing I need to do is create a spreadsheet to keep track of what Im currently working on and what stage of progress it is at. Hopefully I will be able to stick to updating this on a regular basis and to abiding by these rules.

Tutorial - Textured Basing part 1

I've been asked a few times recently about how I've done the basing on my Necrons so I thought I would try my hands at writing a bit of a tutorial about it. I've pretty much done with basing most of my Necrons now but I've recently picked up a few of the new Chaos models I'll use one of those as an example.

The 'secret ingredient' that I use is the Vallejo Textures range. I picked up a couple of tubs of this stuff from Boyes in Scarborough a few months ago and I've used it ever since. The tubs are pretty big and only cost £6.25 each so they are much better value than the texture paints from GW.

Night Scythes & Doom Scythes

Here are the pictures of my recently finished Necron Flyers

Necron Progress Log Update

Most of the units that I still have left to paint are not ones that I am too likely to field in a game any time soon but hopefully I'll still get them all done before I move on to something else (I've already dropped a couple of hints to the Mrs that I may well need to start on a new army soon :-) )

Necron Flyers

I managed to finish off painting all 5 of the flyers that I currently own but I havent had access to my iPad this week so ive not been able to post any pictures. Hopefully on monday I'll get a few of them online.

When I first started to re-acquaint myself with this hobby, nearly a year ago now, and I decided that rather than just painting miniatures I was also going to actually play quite a bit of 40k I had the intention of not playing a game until my Space Marines were all fully painted.As Im sure some of you will be able to imagine this intention didnt last long and even by the time Id moved away from Marines and on to Necrons they were probably still less than half painted. At the time I started collecting Necrons I made a similar claim and for a few weeks I did keep playing games with the Marines and just modelling and painting the Necrons.

Progress Log

Painted so far:

• 40 x Necron Warriors
• 6 x Canoptek Wraiths
• 10 x Scarabs
• 8 x Crypteks
• 1 x Catacomb Command Barge
• Nemesor Zahndrekh
• Vargard Obyron
• 8 x Immortals (Tesla)
• 5 x Deathmarks
• 1 x Destroyer Lord
• 2 x Annihilation Barge
• 1 x Catacomb Command Barge + Overlord (not finished the Overlord yet)
• 1 x Ghost Ark

Still to paint:

• 3 x Night Scythes
• 2 x Doom Scythes
• 2 x Destroyers
• 3 x Heavy Destroyers
• 10 x Lychguard (Blades and Shields)
• 2 x C'Tan
• 3 x Lords/Overlords
• Trazyn
• Imotekh
• Anrakyr
• 3 x Tomb Blades (Gauss)
• 1 x Ghost Ark
• 2 x Triarch Stalker
• 1 x Doomsday Ark
• 1 x Monolith

Posted with Blogsy

Destroyer Lord

Think I might use this guy in a game at some point soon so I wanted to make sure he was painted

 

 

Ghost Ark

Another Necron vehicle finished, this time a Ghost Ark. I can't really say that I particularly enjoyed painting this one as it was pretty slow going, still got one to do at some point soon though.

 

 

Annihilation Barges

Finished these two recently, might add a third at some point as they seem like a pretty decent unit from the games I've played so far

Necron painting progress

This is mainly for my benefit really, just so that I can see how Im progressing. Im currently working on the Night Scythes, Ghost Arks and Annihilation Barges but due to work and other commitments I think my progress will probably slow a bit over the next few weeks.

Painted so far:

• 40 x Necron Warriors
• 6 x Canoptek Wraiths
• 10 x Scarabs
• 8 x Crypteks
• 1 x Catacomb Command Barge
• Nemesor Zahndrekh
• Vargard Obyron
• 8 x Immortals (Tesla)
• 5 x Deathmarks

Still to paint:

• 3 x Night Scythes
• 2 x Doom Scythes
• 1 x Destroyer Lord
• 2 x Destroyers
• 3 x Heavy Destroyers
• 2 x Annihilation Barge
• 10 x Lychguard (Blades and Shields)
• 2 x C'Tan
• 3 x Lords/Overlords
• Trazyn
• Imotekh
• Anrakyr
• 3 x Tomb Blades (Gauss)
• 1 x Catacomb Command Barge + Overlord
• 2 x Ghost Arks
• 2 x Triarch Stalker
• 1 x Doomsday Ark
• 1 x Monolith

Vargard Obyron - Finished

I've decided to try a few games with the Nemesor Zahndrekh and Vargard Obyron HQ combination over the next few weeks so here is my take on Obyron.
I didnt follow the White Dwarf scheme directly for this one, I just sort of copied the styles I'd done for Zahndrekh and it seemed to work out okay

Immortals - Finished

Just a squad of 8 for the Immortals, although I may well add to this in the near future but for now I'll probably be favouring Warriors due to the fact that I have quite a lot of those fully painted already

Deathmarks - Finished

I've managed to get quite a bit of painting done recently so this should be the first of several posts today

Necrons still to paint...

I finally got round to tidying up and sorting out the assortment of models that I am currently working on at the weekend. All my Necrons are now built (except for three Tomb Blades) and have been undercoated and painted in a base colour (not done that bit for the C'Tan yet). So this is what the outstanding models to be painted currently looks like:

Nemesor Zahndrekh and Catacomb Command Barge

I finished painting Nemesor Zahndrekh and a Catacomb Command Barge a few days ago so thought Id upload some pictures. The CCB is the first Necron vehicle that Ive finished so far, should have plenty more done over the next few weeks though.

Catacomb Command Barge - Finished ...nearly

I've been working on painting lots of different Necron stuff recently and this has included my first few vehicles. I decided to base these loosely on the GW ones from the Codex, White Dwarf, etc but with a bit less of the green lining as its so bloody time consuming!

Wraiths - Finished

Just finished painting my Canoptek Wraiths so thought I'd upload a few photos. I've managed to make some good progress recently on painting the Necrons so hopefully there should more pictures following soon.

Crypteks now finished

Finally got these guys finished so here are a few pics...

 

First game of 6th edition

I played a 1500 point game of 6th edition last night, my Necrons vs an Imperial Guard army with a small detachment of Space Marines as allies. Surprisingly, I actually the won the game quite convincingly but both of us were playing this one more as an experimental game just to get a feel for the new rules.

Things Ive learned about 6th so far:

Cryptek conversions

Like a lot of other Necron players at the moment Im using quite a few Crypteks and the one and only model that GW has available just doesn't really suffice. Also, its Finecast so would cost a fair bit if you were to field several of them. So, I've had to convert them out of spares and other kits. I decided not to do anything too elaborate for my conversions, partially because I just can't be arsed as I've got loads of other stuff to paint already and partially because I've read in a few different places that Forgeworld will be bringing out some Crypteks and Lords at some point soon. Once the FW ones are available I'll probably purchase those so for now I've built 5 x Harbingers of Destruction with their standard Eldritch lances (and one with a solar pulse that sort of looks at the moment like he is holding an ice cream cone) and 2 x Harbingers of Despair. I have also got one of the standard GW Crypteks as well so Im using that as another Harbinger of Destruction (with a solar pulse) and I tried to make the Eldritch lances look like the weapon this guy is armed with.

Summary - Necrons vs Chaos Space Marines

So, I lost. Again. Not a big surprise really.

However, I did feel that the Necrons and I performed fairly well really and I actually gave my opponent (Chaos Space Marines) a fairly competitive game for once. I wont bother going in to too much detail but here is a brief summary of how I felt some of the units performed :

First attempt at a Necron army list - 1850 points

Ive got my first game of 40k for quite a few weeks coming up tomorrow. It will also be the debut of my Necron army so here is the list I am thinking of using :

Scarabs and general progress update

It took a bit longer than expected but all my remaining Scarab swarms are now finished. I now have 10 in total so I dont think I'll be adding anymore for a while. In the background of some of the pictures you can see a batch of Necron Warriors that are also nearly finished, there are 20 of them just waiting to have the green plastic rods attached to them. So, in total I now have the following models finished :

First Scarab base completely finished

The idea with this one was to try and create the impression of the Scarab swarm bursting out of the ground. Im fairly happy with how this one turned out, just another nine more to go now

 

 

 

Finished building my Scarabs

I didnt manage to make as much progress with my Necrons as I would have liked to over the last few days but I have managed to finish building the Scarab Swarms. I decided to stick with the standard 4 x GW Scarabs per each base and then padded those out with varying amounts of the resin ones I got from Puppetswar.

 

The photos dont entirely do these justice at the moment but hopefully once Ive finished painting them a lot of the details of what I was trying to achieve should become a bit clearer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Necron Scarabs

I was inspired by this post at From The Warp to turn my Scarab bases into more of a swarm style, rather than the standard four little GW scarabs all stuck up in the air on plastic pegs

So, these resin scarabs from Puppetswar arrived for me yesterday

I spent a while last night cleaning up the flash and then creating some bases for them. Hopefully there should be some more pics to upload later on today or tomorrow

 

Space Marines vs Orks - Summary

Normal service was resumed with this one, I lost quite badly.

Most of these units Ive used before, at some point or another, and due to how poorly I did I wont bother with a review of how each unit performed this time. Of the more experimental options that I went for the Predator did okay and is certainly something I would consider using again and the Whirlwind was actually surprisingly good as well. Ive heard a lot of negative comments about Whirlwinds before, which is probably why Ive never bothered using it previously, but I think its a unit that definitely has a place against armies like Orks (and possibly Imperial Guard) as it was able to do a fair bit of damage before they got anywhere near to it.

Oh yeah, and for the second game in a row my Land Raider was immobilised before I had even had my turn and therefore turned out to be of no use at all. Bit of a shame really but I have certainly learned the hard way that I need to pay more attention to where I position it in future.

Overall, Im actually starting to get a bit bored of Space Marines at the moment. My SM army has been rather neglected for a couple of months now and I could really do with buying a few additional units and options for it to make the most use of it (a second Vindicator for example as Ive been told several times that one on its own is a bit pointless as it always gets destroyed quickly), but I dont really want to spend anymore cash at the moment due to working on my new Necron army recently. I promised myself at the beginning of the Necron project that I wouldnt field any unit that wasnt completely assembled, painted and based but Ive put so much effort into them recently (mainly just with building them) that Im now very keen to get started with playing them.

I think I will try and persist with the Marines for a while longer, and its not that Im in any way saying that they are a poor army and responsible for my terrible performances. The blame for that lays solely with me unfortunately so I think the Marines deserve a bit more persevering with for the time being. From a blog point of view going forward I'll probably be focusing more on Necrons from now on though as I bought quite a lot of the recently released 2nd wave bits at the weekend and now have quite a formidable collection.....well, once its all built I will have.

Review : Modeller's Workstation

I purchased a Modellers/Painters Workstation from Sphere Hobby Products on eBay so thought Id write a quick review of it.

Description : Used for general modelling stuff such as cutting, painting etc.
Pros : Fits together really easily. Its a generic product that's aimed at a variety of different uses but its been pretty well thought through and laid out. The built-in cutting mat is particularly handy
Cons : The price. At £60 + £10 p&p it is rather expensive
Overall : I debated quite a long time about this as the £70 total price of it did put me off. However, now that Ive bought it Im really pleased with it as its extremely useful for keeping my work area a bit tidier (which has also pleased the Mrs as she was getting a bit annoyed with the mess it was previously in).
Rating : 6/10 for this one I think. If the price had managed to be more like £50 then this could easily have gone up a bit higher but Im still not quite sure its worth its price tag.

Space Marines vs Orks

Here is the list Im thinking of using tomorrow night. Im playing against Orks so I thought Id go for lots of shots and obviously Ive had to make use of the models I actually physically own (just realised that several of these listed on here arent even built yet so it looks like Ive got a busy evening ahead of me).

Im sure this list probably isnt the most competitive but Ive never used a Whirlwind, Assault Cannons or even the Heavy Bolter with the Scouts before so its pretty experimental for me really, just to see how some of those perform.

1800 Pts - Codex: Space Marines Roster

Total Roster Cost: 1800

HQ: Space Marine Captain in Power Armour (1#, 100 pts)
   1 Space Marine Captain in Power Armour, 100 pts

Troops: Tactical Squad (10#, 180 pts)
   9 Tactical Squad, 152 pts = 9 * 16 (base cost 16) + Meltagun 5 + Sergeant 31
      1 Sergeant, 28 pts = (base cost 23 + Melta Bombs 5)

Troops: Tactical Squad (10#, 180 pts)
   9 Tactical Squad, 152 pts = 9 * 16 (base cost 16) + Meltagun 5 + Sergeant 31
      1 Sergeant, 28 pts = (base cost 23 + Melta Bombs 5)

Troops: Scout Squad (5#, 135 pts)
   4 Scout Squad, 135 pts = 4 * 13 (base cost 13) + Heavy Bolter w/Hellfire Shells 10 + Sergeant Telion 50

Heavy Support: Whirlwind (1#, 85 pts)
   1 Whirlwind, 85 pts

Heavy Support: Vindicator (1#, 115 pts)
   1 Vindicator, 115 pts

Heavy Support: Predator (1#, 85 pts)
   1 Predator, 85 pts = (base cost 60 + Heavy Bolter (each side) 25)

Fast Attack: Land Speeder Squadron (2#, 180 pts)
   2 Land Speeder Squadron, 180 pts = 2 * 50 (base cost 50) + Typhoon Missile Launcher x2 80

Elite: Dreadnought (1#, 125 pts)
   1 Dreadnought, 125 pts = (base cost 105 + Heavy Flamer 10 + Assault Cannon 10)

Elite: Terminator Assault Squad (7#, 500 pts)
   5 Terminator Assault Squad, 200 pts = 5 * 40
      1 Sergeant, 40 pts
      1 Land Raider Crusader, 260 pts = (base cost 250 + Multi-melta 10)

Elite: Dreadnought (1#, 115 pts)
   1 Dreadnought, 115 pts = (base cost 105 + Assault Cannon 10)

Validation Report:
c-1. File Version: 1.44 For Bug Reports/www.ab40k.org; b-1. Roster Options: Named or Special Characters; a-1. Scenario: Normal Mission; 1. Chapter: Codex Chapter
Roster satisfies all enforced validation rules

Composition Report:
HQ: 1 (1 - 2)
Elite: 3 (0 - 3)
Troops: 3 (2 - 6)
Fast: 1 (0 - 3)
Heavy: 3 (0 - 3)

Created with Army Builder® - Try it for free at http://www.wolflair.com

I actually won a game!!

...Although I got the feeling a couple of times that my opponent, was letting me off a bit lightly (and he even helped me with my tactics at times) :-)

Thought Id do a brief review of how the units performed :

HQ: Forgefather Vulkan He'stan (1#, 190 pts)

I didnt really get a lot of chance to use his special rules as pretty much all my meltas and flamers got wiped out or immobilised very early in the game. He was attached to the squad of Terminators and performed okay in combat but then was killed via an instant death shot due to not having the Eternal Warrior ability. I'll definitely have to try this guy out again as i know that given the right circumstances the melta/flamer thing can work out very well but overall for this performance he's going to have to get a 5/10

Troops: Scout Squad (6#, 148 pts)

All but one were wiped out very early on. In their defence they were being shot out by three different tanks. Overall though Ive tried this unit quite a few times and not been overly impressed so its another 5/10

Troops: Tactical Squad (11#, 240 pts)

Split into combat squads and pretty much wiped out early on. The Sergeant and melta did survive though and despite not killing much they hung around until the end and were claiming an objective. 6/10

Troops: Tactical Squad (11#, 225 pts)

One of the combat squads was still pretty much intact and also claiming an objective at the end. Limited offensive output though. 6/10

Fast Attack: Land Speeder Squadron (2#, 140 pts)

Proved to be very fragile against IG heavy weapons, not entirely surprising I suppose but it would have been nice if they had at least go within Melta/Flamer range. The surprising result of being immobilised mid-table was that they provided some nice cover for units behind them and they had at least caused a few wounds on some of the heavy weapons platforms. 6/10

Elite: Terminator Assault Squad (7#, 490 pts)

It took a while for the Terminators to get into the game due to the Land Raider being immobilised before it had even moved. Once they got within striking distance though they mashed through a couple of squads and absorbed quite a bit of heavy weapons fire afterwards. One remaining terminator at the end was contesting an objective, if the game had gone into another turn though he was about to get smashed to pieces. 9/10

Fast Attack: Assault Squad (11#, 245 pts)

Like the termies they suffered from having their transport crippled early in the game, again though once they got into striking distance they were pretty effective. I certainly wouldnt take them in every game but against IG they were excellent, despite some very unlucky dice rolls (lots of 1s) meaning that they got stuck trying to smash up a vehicle for several turns. 8/10

Fast Attack: Space Marine Bike Squad (3#, 120 pts)

Wiped out before doing anything useful at all, probably my fault for poor tactics though as i thought that going flat out and getting a 4+ cover save would stop them getting  killed too early on. In this case, that was not a good idea. 6/10


Summary

After having pretty much every single vehicle destroyed or immobilised before Id even fired a shot I was able to re-group fairly well. Connor was a great opponent to play against though and I suspect if I had been a more seasoned player he would have tried a lot harder to wipe out one or two squads. Im playing against him next week as well, Orks this time, and Ive got a feeling that he may not be quite so nice to my marines and that the result might turn out a bit differently :-) I definitely owe him a big thanks for helping me out a lot as we went along and for being a really fun bloke to play against.

Space Marines vs Imperial Guard

Im playing an 1800 point game this evening at York Garrison against Imperial Guard. Ive only played one game against IG so far and it actually went surprisingly well, I lost of course but if the game had gone to one more turn then Im pretty confident I would have won due to one objective in my territory being contested a single guardsman who was up against a ten man squad of tactical marines. I also had two terminators and a librarian in terminator armour who were about to capture the other objective but were just an inch out of range of contesting it as the game ended.

My previous game against IG was apparently slightly unusual in that the opposition fielded no tanks at all, just massed ranks of infantry, but Im expecting several tonight so I decided to go with a melta and flamer heavy armour and Vulkan as an HQ to make the most of these. It will be the first time that Ive fielded Vulkan and also the first time that I will have used a bike squad as well so Im quite curious to see how these will perform.


1800 Pts - Codex: Space Marines Roster

Total Roster Cost: 1798

HQ: Forgefather Vulkan He'stan (1#, 190 pts)
   1 Forgefather Vulkan He'stan, 190 pts

Troops: Scout Squad (6#, 148 pts)
   5 Scout Squad, 148 pts = 5 * 13 (base cost 13) + Missile Launcher 10 + Sergeant Telion 50

Troops: Tactical Squad (11#, 240 pts)
   9 Tactical Squad, 157 pts = 9 * 16 (base cost 16) + Meltagun 5 + Plasma Cannon 5 + Sergeant 51
      1 Sergeant, 48 pts = (base cost 23) + Power Fist x1 25
      1 Rhino, 35 pts

Troops: Tactical Squad (11#, 225 pts)
   9 Tactical Squad, 157 pts = 9 * 16 (base cost 16) + Meltagun 5 + Plasma Cannon 5 + Sergeant 36
      1 Sergeant, 33 pts = (base cost 23) + Combi-Meltagun x1 10
      1 Rhino, 35 pts

Fast Attack: Land Speeder Squadron (2#, 140 pts)
   2 Land Speeder Squadron, 140 pts = 2 * 50 (base cost 50) + Multi-melta x2 40

Elite: Terminator Assault Squad (7#, 490 pts)
   5 Terminator Assault Squad, 200 pts = 5 * 40
      1 Sergeant, 40 pts
      1 Land Raider Redeemer, 250 pts = (base cost 240 + Multi-melta 10)

Fast Attack: Assault Squad (11#, 245 pts)
   9 Assault Squad, 182 pts = 9 * 18 (base cost 18) + Flamer 10 + Flamer 10
      1 Sergeant, 63 pts = (base cost 28 + Melta Bombs 5) + Thunder Hammer x1 30

Fast Attack: Space Marine Bike Squad (3#, 120 pts)
   2 Space Marine Bike Squad, 65 pts = 2 * 25 (base cost 25) + Flamer x1 5 + Meltagun x1 10
      1 Sergeant, 55 pts = (base cost 40) + Power Weapon 15

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First batch of Necrons completed

I've recently finished painting my first batch of Necrons so thought Id post a few pictures. So far Ive completed 20 warriors with lots more to follow (hopefully) in the coming weeks and months.

 

 

 

Introduction

It didnt take me as long to recover my original post as I thought it would so here it is again (with a few edits and additions)...


This is my first proper post to the blog (hopefully it wont be my last but I guess only time will tell if I will bother to keep contributing). Ive written a very simple introduction to who I am, which should currently be listed over there to the right somewhere --->

I decided in late 2011 that it was definitely time to cut down on my weekly alcohol consumption and I came up with the bright idea of swapping the glass of beer that I usually had in my hand on an evening, preferably something Belgian (and no I dont mean crap like Stella!), with a paint brush instead. It took a little bit of effort to convince my wife that painting small plastic/metal figures wasn't overly nerdy or childish (Im still not totally sure she is convinced about that even now) but once that was taken care of I stepped in to my first Games Workshop since approximately '96. I didnt pick the greatest day to go in, a sunday morning, as it turned out that the place was extremely busy and, aside from the staff and my wife, I dont think there was anyone else in there who was even born in 1996. Still, I left with a few miniatures (Space Marines, no particular reason for picking them at the time) and a selection of paints and brushes and set to work on re-discovering a long lost hobby.

Initially I didnt have any intention at all of ever actually playing 40k again but after painting my first few Ultramarines and then buying a copy of Assault on Black Reach I thought I might as well give it a go. With a little bit of googling I discovered a local gaming club called York Garrison and started going there a few months ago to learn how to play.

So far my gaming record stands roughly as follows :

Played : about 7 or 8
Won : 1 (with rather a lot of tactical help from someone who happened to be watching)
Lost : all the others

Summary : Aside from the 1, somewhat dubious, victory Ive been well beaten (totally and utterly humped in most cases) in all the other games that Ive played and have still clearly got a hell of a lot to learn. So far its been good fun though and hopefully I'll be able to keep this blog updated with my progress over the coming weeks/months


....oh yeah, and the one plus side Ive discovered is that Im actually not too bad at all at painting the miniatures these days, so maybe I'll post a few pictures of my Ultramarines at some point soon....or maybe even my new army that Ive started working on recently

Lost in the warp

So, technically this is my second proper post but its going to appear to be my first one on here. The reason for this is that I was messing around with Blogger and Google+ last week and didnt really have a clue what I was doing, or how they integrated. I still dont really have a clue but I decided this morning to delete my Google+ account and it seems to have left the structure of this blog alone but deleted my first post, very annoying really.

I will attempt shortly to re-create the introduction that I wrote which explained a little about why I created this blog in the first place and also why I started playing Warhammer 40k (again).