Dark Angels – Deathwing Land Raider Redeemer – Mo’ Bone

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity I’ve been #paintingwarhammer Dark Angel Deathwing Land Raider Redeemer. If you recall I saw this video by Artis Opus showing how to paint a Rhino and said to myself – “why yes, that’s how I should approach the Land Raider”. The reality is I far from the results they achieved and although I was realistic in what I hoped to achieve and part way there I’m still feeling disappointed.

Now I know I shouldn’t judge it until it’s finished. I mean I’ve been here so often – salvaging models or shifting my perception as I add and refine elements.

This is still very much the scruffy stage and although there are some tones and textures I think have come out quite well I’m hung up on the fact I have drybrushed this in places. Now I know I shouldn’t look down on this technique – it can really work in places but usually I hide it with my texture paint.

But unfortunately I don’t have that crutch to rely on. The doors in particular don’t work for me, although they look far more yellow in the pics than they do in real life. I’m sure when I get onto the reds it’ll definitely help bring it all together.

As you can see I’d tried adding the red rivets above, but realised there wasn’t any point as then next set of highlights covered some of them up so this side hasn’t had them.

I’m sure once all this ‘messy’ stuff is out of the way I can clean it up with some proper white line highlights in places and pin washes to define all the elements.

Then tsponge on some battle damage to further break the panels up and that should stop the focus being how the bone was achieved because there’ll be the whole to consider.

And if all the red weapon casings look cool and they’ll be a bit tidier then it should even things out.

I had seen a Deathwing Land Raider with an offset diagonal company badge across the back and sides but I can’t find it now. It looked really cool and I was considering trying something similar but with the badges on the door and bronze engine it didn’t seem feasible. Perhaps it’s a blessing I couldn’t find it. Anyway, I’m going to go off and do something else until I get my head straight enough to move this on. Why do I get so bogged down with these projects, I wish they could be easier sometime.

Dark Angels – Deathwing Land Raider Redeemer

Afternoon #warmongers I’ve been #paintingwarhammer Dark Angel Deathwing Land Raider Redeemer. I keep chipping away at all these different projects – a little here, a little there. If we go back to the middle of April we’ll see a rather anemic looking tank that I was steadfastly trying to hang onto the original bone colour. But I don’t paint that way and I saw this video by Artis Opus showing how to paint a Rhino and said to myself – “why yes, that’s how I should approach the Land Raider”

So I washed the whole thing in sepia, managed to avoid most of the defects in the crevices and I ended up with a decent base to start with. You’ll also notes I did the red and white quartered heraldry on the front, both left and right and even got the highlights done on the relief sculpture.

There’s still some washes to do on the tracks, weapons and the red elements.

It’s a bit one dimensional in places, I saw an amazing Deathwing Land Raider a while back with a massive Deathwing symbol diagonally offset over the rear and sides . I really wish I’d done something like that but I’ll persevere with what I’ve got.

I’m still highly wary of the next step, but this is a much more comfortable starting point. I need to not think to hard about it as it doesn’t matter in the long run. I just wanted a painted tank, it doesn’t need to be perfect so just need to crack on with it!

Dark Angels – Deathwing Land Raider Redeemer

Afternoon #warmongers I’ve been #paintingwarhammer Dark Angel Deathwing Land Raider Redeemer [what a mouthful] and it’s a mess, but I think that’s what I was going for. I cranked out the dark umber art acrylic and stippled it into all the crevices. I think I know what I’m doing and will able to employ the same technique of stippling to get texture on it without the need for line highlights, although I will probably do some extreme line highlights but the texture will mean they don’t have to be perfect – at least that’s the theory.

There’s a lot of washes still to be done – the metallics in particular have had none and I’m hoping the sepia wash might blend some elements together and then a ‘strong’ wash might create the contrast I usually apply.

Then I think whatever the flat panels look like after stippled highlights I can always add weathering/battle damage to get it to a place I’m happy with.

It’s an odd one and I keep nibbling away at it so once again, when I focus on it specifically I might be in a place where I’ve either resolved all the questions I have about the scheme and approach or I’ve reached a point where I can just get it done without worrying.

Dark Angels – Deathwing Land Raider Redeemer

Afternoon #warmongers and I am #paintingwarhammer Dark Angel Deathwing Land Raider Redeemer [what a mouthful]. I got this in a trade a few years back, I think it had been a Blood Angel ride but had been undercoated with the bone spray. It’s been sat on the shelf for years [nearly 5] and it just started to annoy me

I decided to paint over the green doors, they may have fit with my Deathwing Knights eventually but for some reason I wanted to reduce the palette just with the bone and red.

Out of curiosity I spent 10 minutes playing around with my cheap Burnt Umber art acrylic – stippling on, watering down, just having fun. I know a lot of people do this sort of thing with oil paints but I’m amazed at the effect I can get with this paint. 

There’s still questions about how further highights will look, or whether I should add the highlight first before I put the shading on. There’s some Army Painter Strong Tone been added in the deepest recesses too.

I added some more metallics. This is actually Army Painter Worn Iron – a Warplock Bronze equivalent and I have to say it is great. Lukes Aps did a review and advice on Army Painter paints as they admit they put too much of the acrylic medium in to make them better. However, that makes them slightly difficult to use straight out of the bottle. That said, this Worn Iron didn’t need any shaking and I still needed to thin it down so it would cover better – flow off the bristles and yet still be really opaque.

There are still some more bits to paint bronze, details, the heavy flamers, all of the track wheel end caps. Then I’ll be at a stage where I’ll be highlighting with Balthasar Gold. This will sync up with my Deathwing Knights – in a stroke of efficiency to do them both I’ve ended with the masochistic task of doing loads of brassy bronze metallics at once! However, I think the Knights will be the more laborious task. I am hoping that this will be quite a relaxed project – I have almost no expectation for the outcome, nothing has to be perfect – although I have added a few Dark Angel details since and some simple heraldry markings. But it’s going to be quite grunge, maybe a little battle damaged but overall just play around and sod the results – it’s very freeing.

Deathwatch/wing – Librarianism To Done!

I had the opportunity to catch up with some of my To Done! pics. Again a mixed bag of success on the photography, I’ve received some helpful comments, but if I’m going to rush through the picture taking process so I can get back to actually painting the figures then I have to be accept the results I get!

Most of these pics are actually off my phone anyway, so again there’s not much to justify any complaints. The Space Hulk Librarian was on my To Do List, so it was nice to actually just tick it off – a ‘quick win’ that had taken a long time to get done 😉

I’m pretty happy with the glow effects too, some of the lightning could be better  but for the most part I think I did a good job.

Not entirely sure if I’ll ever use him but if my Deathwing are deployed in force he’ll probably be a HQ option I might take.

I was very crude with removing the Blood Angel references, perhaps too crude as they’re still recognisable in some places but again the potential use out of the model is so limited it didn’t warrant any more effort than I actually put into it.

Happy with the lettering on the pages though.

Job done, so I gets me the Great Big Gamboge Stamp of Approval. More to come as I finish writing up some of my other successes so far this season.

1500pts battle report – Dark Angels v Necrons – game 3

Who do I get drawn against for game 3? Only Ben and his implacable Necrons! It’s over a week since Birthday Bash, I’m still playing catch-up so as usual my recollection of the game will be very sketchy.

The low down:

• One of the Maelstrom missions – 3 cards per turn
• Hammer and Anvil
• Warlord Trait – 3 enemy Units take pinning tests
• I set up second and failed to seize the initiative
• No night fighting. 

Ben puts his Necron defence wall across the road, presumably to stop foreign invaders!

The Ravenwing hold my near flank, Tactical Squad the far flank.

Scouts secure the ruins

Stalker, Scarabs and Spyder advance up the table. Don’t know what Bend did shooting wise but he came away with 2 VPs for Ascendancy and Supremacy.

Dreadnought drop pod arrives behind the defence wall, the Dread taking a shot at the Quad Gun to help keep the Dark Talons safe [eventually]. I swing the Land Speeder Typhoons round the Bastion to get a lock on the Triarch, they blast away.

And it is no more! First Blood.

This might be the reason why! [that’s 1/1296 BTW, I should have put a £1 on it]

My bikes get into combat with the Tomb Blades, or what remains of them thanks to my shooting.

He couldn’t survive those odds but the bikes don’t consolidate far and the enraged Spyder close by seeks revenge. First Blood, Objective 3 and Behind Enemy Lines get scored this turn.

The Scarabs manage to reach the Bastion and disassemble it with consummate ease before my Techmarine can even affect any repairs. This nets Ben a VP for Demolitions and leaves me just 3 surviving Devastators.

2nd Pod arrives, and I think the Dreadnought targets the Quad Gun again.

Just two bikes remain from the unit thanks to the predations of the Canoptek Spyders! I score no VPs

Flayed Ones that had infiltrated at the back of my DZ finally catch up with the Tactical Squad, killing them and leaving that flank with just a few Marines left from another combat squad. Ben captures Objective 6 for a VP.

The Land Speeders manage to insta-kill a few Scarabs but move out of range to leave the Techmarine to hold them in combat.

The Ravenwing must have been killed but their last known location is a beacon to the Dark Angel’s finest who appear in a flash of light.

Tactical Squad and Dreadnought assault the Necron Warriors, two survive, I still can’t score a VP.

Flayed Ones join up with the Scarabs against the Techmarine who his systematically smashing the Scarabs to pieces.

But he can’t hold back their numbers and succumbs giving Ben Assassinate [and Slay the Warlord].

The Scarabs catch up with the Speeders and I’m lucky to come away with only 1 Hull Point of damage.

My Drop Pod gets destroyed,

 and the Spyders take on the finest of the First!

Two fall… er I mean not fall, we don’t mention the Fallen, they die, that’s it, dead, no more. But the remaining unfallen take out a Spyder and the last is wounded. Ben scores another VP for Obj 4.

Finally the Dark Talon arrives, screaming up Main Street.

He blasts away with all his weapons.

Killing one measly Eternal! Grr!. The Deathwing kill the last Scarab getting me Big Game Hunter and I also get Blood and Guts for 2 VPs

That’s it, game over and it’s 10:8 [Ben scoring 8 plus Slay the Warlord and Linebreaker, while I scored 6 plus First Blood and Line Breaker].

Necrons triumphant yet again but no bother, we had a great day and a good laugh. We were both exhausted at the end, made me realise I do not look forward to another weekend tournament if I feel like this after one day! Three great game with three great people.

I have some pics of the best army nominees to share and wrap up next…

1500pts battle report – Dark Angels v Space Marines – game 2

Doogie Doyle was my game 2.

The low down:

• One of the Maelstrom missions – 3 cards per turn
• Dawn of War
• Warlord Trait – Move through cover and Stealth Ruins
• I set up second and seized the initiative
• No night fighting. 

His list had some similarities to mine, think it was an Imperial Fists faction with bikes, two units of scouts, two Whirlwinds, three Rapier Quad Guns, a Thnderfire Cannon and a bunch of bikes including a Chapter Master with all manner of upgrades and bonuses

This was my set up and I was lucky enought to steal the initiative.

This meant I got my drop-pod in and Brother Cask managed to destroy the missile launcher on one of the Whirlwinds. My Ravenwing managed to kill one of the bikers but the unit had all sorts of saves and re-rolls thanks to the Chapter Master it was nigh indestructable. Knowing how durable the Rapier Battery was and even the scouts I suddenly realised the task I had ahead of me. 

Doogie focussed on the Ravewing in his turn. Not sure how many got killed but they don;t appear in any other pictures so they may have succombed at some point, if not this turn maybe later. Doogie scores a VP for holding Objective 1.

Turn 2 the Dark Talon arrived and VORTEX!

Gotta love D weapons as Doogie’s bike squad gets sucked into the warp. Meanwhile my Drop Pod Tactical squad fired ont he Rapier Battery, to little effect. Doogie actually suggested I put the drop pod there to hamper his own shooting, so again the spirit of the event prevailed.

Brother Cask Melta’d the nearest Whirlwind to slag and then vaulted over it’s smouldering wreckage with a 12″ charge to go punch it’s squadron buddy, wrecking that too [First Blood?]! BEAST!

Doogie’s turn 2 and the Vortex is drawn to the Dreadnought, stripping a hull point off his sarcophagus. He picks up 2 VPs this turn – making it 3:1 in his favour.

My turn 3. Having targeted ground troops with the Quad Gun I remember skimmers are shot at full BS and there’s one sneaking up my flank – not for long!

His bikes followed up but with little weaponry strong enough to harm the Bastion they aimed at the Devastators instead.

They’d lost two already but they couldn’t survive the relentless attack. Doogie scores another 2 VPs for objectives 5 and 1 [because of the mission he could steal my objective card!]

I remembered the Deathwing this time, they mishap though and end up in the corner of the board – idiots!

What remained of my Plasma Cannon Tactical Squad entered the bastion with the Techmarine to take control of the building. I manage to score objective 5 for a VP.

What remains of the Chapter Masters bike squad ends my drop Pod and my Tactical Squad is killed too.

The final score is 4:7 to Doogie. I must work out how to tackle those artillery batteries, they were super tough and durable. The Chapter Master too was nigh unkillable with so many saves and bonuses, He’s someone you want in your army!

So, one win, one loss, who have I got for game 3…?

1500pts battle report – Dark Angels v Dark Angels – game 1

First game and I’m drawn against Hendrik from Germany. We’ve met at previous Blog Wars [where I played against his friend Tobias] and Double Trouble [where I faced his brother Kai-Uwe]. This was such a nice pairing as I’d really appreciated Hendrik’s support of the event and travelling all the way. Of course given recent GW news we entered into some good natured banter about who was the loyalist Dark Angels and who were obviously more loyalist 😉 He had a slight advantage bringing Azrael, he is their Chapter Master afterall, but I pointed out he could just as easily have been Cyper or an Alpha Legion guy in disguise. He did also bring a Deredeo dreadnought with Missile Launcher, a Land Raider Helios, two Razorbacks with tactical Squads, Azreal and Command Squad retinue in a pod and a Nephilim Jetfigther. So my air superiority was well and truly lost!

The low down:

• One of the Maelstrom missions – 3 cards per turn
• Vanguard Strike
• Warlord Trait – Warlord and 3 Units get Infiltrate
• Liam got a Maelstrom Warlord Trait that allowed him to discard even the numbered objectives
• I set up second and failed to seize the initiative
• No night fighting. 

The best thing about this game was that Hendrik, from the off, was not treating it like a competition. PeteB had said a number of times it should be like a Tuesday night round at your mates and this what it was. I think Hendrik realised his force was a little unconventional and I was inexperienced with the Dark Angels [which probably means they were too young for them to be Heretics 😉 So he was giving me advice about deployment and tactics. With my extra infiltrating units I deployed quite far forwards.

Hendrik’s line was centred on the Helios with the Deredeo holding the ‘high’ ground and flanked by Razorbacks.

His drop pod arrived to secure objective 4 [I think]

With Azrael and his honour gouard inside.

Although my Ravenwing were the most dangerous threat Azrael targetted the Tactical Squad. I lost either 2 or 3 and the broke and ran towards the perceived safety of my Bastion.

The Bikes would be next on Azrael’s list to hunt, but in the mean time had to jink to avoid shots from other quarters.

On the other flank the Razorback advanced, disgorging troops btu they failed to get through the bolstered defences of the science station. Hendrik scored the maximum 2 VPs for the turn on objectives.

My turn and the Ravenwing skirted round the rock outcrop, they focussed on the Tactical squad, just five guys and so close to the board it could be an easy kill. Unfortunately Jink makes my shooting go awry and the unit survives.

My automatic drop pod turned up, sending Brother Cask forth to melta the Helios. Again Hendrik advised me on where to drop the pod, providing an obstruction to the Helios’s shooting/movement.

My Land Speeder Typhoons, Basiton, Devastators and regrouped Tactical squad shot at Azrael and his guard.

As the dust settled only Azrael and one marine was left standing.

Having killed the attached Librarian I take Witch Hunter and Overwhelming Firepower for 2 VPs, [First Blood too for that matter].

Hephilim arrives but cannot kill Cask. I think it took a Hull Point from my Quad Gun.

Azrael wreaks vengeance – Dark Vengeance on the Ravenwing.

Slaying them all!

My turn 2 and the Dark Talon zooms on. Out of the firing arc of the Deredeo’s cannons I boldly refuse to Jink from it’s missiles and survive.

In return fire up the Rift Cannon and BOOM!

Vortex! Sadly I only do 1 damage to the Dread.

I end the turn on another 2 VPs

The Nephilim enters into a dogfight with the Dark Talon, I think I was forced to Jink this time. Even so I think I was shaken.

One fo the Razorback’s picks up it’s squad and advances onto the landing pad.

My turn 2 and the second pod arrives, disgorging troops to try and secure Obj 2.

The shakend Dark Talon continued on it’s merry way, just staying on the board.

Typhoons redployed to target the Razorback on my right flank but could not destroy it. The Scouts had broken in the previous turn but regrouped without any target to shoot at.

1 VP for Obj 2.

Nephilim goes for the Scouts, but they’re just too hidden to fall, which cannot be said about the Dereadnought’s pod. Not sure when Brother Cask fell but looks like he will need to be interred again if we caan recover his remains.

Tactical squad charge what remains in the bunker and my Techmarine charges the Deredeo. Hendrik’s force is reduced to one and my Techmarine is stomped by the Deredeo. Thinking about it should I have got my 2+ save? Is a dreadnought only AP2 when it has a Dreadnought Close Combat weapon? Anyway, as my Warlord fell I did suddenly think didn’t I have something else with a 2+ save? And my eyes dropped to see the Deathwing Command Squad I’d not rolled to bring on all game! You have to laugh – Hendrik and I did…

I do however make 2 VPs for Behind Enemy Lines and the scouts holding Obj3

Next turn and this is the only picture I took – scoring a VP, either for the Nephilim or a Razorback, not sure which. I know the Terminators did come on, perhaps they shot the Razorback in the back?

This was the final score, although with First Blood and Linebreaker I should have been on 10 and Hendrik should have +1 for Slay the Warlord.

There wasn’t much left of my army. My notorious Bastion had survived a game, booking the trend but a lot had died and yet somehow I’d won – good cards I guess. It was the super-relaxed attitude from Hendrik that made the game for me though, I almost felt he’d been robbed of the victory, he definitely did not deserve to lose.

That also means, I believe this is the first time I’ve ever won game 1 of a tournament! Anyway, what matter is it was a good game and we invited Hendrik to the local curry house that night rather than leave him on his own. Birthday Bash really did it’s job well!

Armies on Parade board 2016

I have in my 18 draft blog posts one article about Armies on Parade that has been completed for nearly a year and I still can’t decide if I want to post it. But I have decided that I may feel differently about the situation after tomorrow, so instead I thought I’d share my test layout for my board.

As you can see it’s pretty much all my completed Dark Angels and their Knightly allies, I even included the crashed Aquila Lander.

The two bastions are a bit OTT, it perhaps might look better as a scene with just the one and the two knights in each corner but I can’t bring myself to drop them now.

I’ll be popping along tonight to set up as tomorrow I can only go later on in the day, presumably when all the voting has taken place.

I did see a post on GW Bolton’s Facebook page that showed their winners trophies, AND entrant pin-badges! Which I think is a really nice touch for those that are taking part. Fingers crossed they’re happening everywhere.

Part of me is really excited, I hope it can be a good day and exorcise the event for me and it to be an enjoyable experience. Any aspiration other than that is just the elusive bronze medal but I know I’ve done a grand job this time.

Everything on the board is new to AoP, the only hangover from previous years is the backdrop, the board itself is one of my Realm of Battle tiles [though I doubt folk would notice the difference].

I even included the old skool assault marines I rebased for Battle Brothers, why not?

Round about here I remembered to add the Techmarine!

So there we go, if you’re parading tomorrow I hope you have a good one, all the best.

1500pts battle report – Dark Angels/Knight v Tau

Liam and I haven’t had a battle since Throne of Skulls, we never even finished that properly thanks to the early closing at Warhammer World. It’s odd really as he lives only about 20 minutes away from the train station I get to work so as I’m half way there anyway I just take my stuff and go straight from work, he even made me tea – spaghetti and meatballs which was pretty awesome.

The low down:

• One of the Maelstrom missions – 3 cards per turn cannot discard numbered objectives, opponent can ‘steal’ them from you.
• Dawn of War
• Warlord Trait – +1 to Seize the Initiative, re-roll reserves
• Liam got a Maelstrom Warlord Trait that allowed him to discard even the numbered objectives
• I lost deployment and set up second but seized the initiative without need to use my Warlord Trait!
• No night fighting.

Initial deployment

Liam came unstuck, as battlescribe no longer gave him an option to take his Skyshield, of course a big ruined tower works exactly the same, near enough although my Dark Angels were the focus of a lot of scorn when they used cover 😉 .

Like my Bastion, ‘hiding’ behind the ruins.

Having stolen the initiative Liam was convinced he was already doomed, banking on a first turn where he destroyed my Lancer. But for me it was all about the objectives and my Ravenwing managed to get objective 2 while my Tactical squad [not shown] next to the Bastion secured objective 3.

The Lancer got within range of the Stormsurge and I got 3 hull points on it. The Ravenwing went for the Tetra’s

I managed to kill one Tetra and I think another was damaged. Liam’s turn, despite his worst fears turned out really well. The bikes by the ruined tower got reduced to one and fled. He had the mission to get D3 VPs for holding three objectives, he also had to claim objective 2, which his ObSec Fire Warriors took with ease out from under the nose of my Ravenwing. They also shot them with everything they had but their Ravenwing Jink re-roll meant only one fell to the Xenos weapons [much to Liam’s dismay]. With three objectives he got the full 3 VPs on his D3 roll, plus objective 2 so ended the turn 2:4 in the lead.

I rolled for reserves but rerolled a passed Deathwing to keep them off the board, hoping they’d be better off if I’d got an objective to capture in Liam’s board half, which I didn’t currently have in my hand. The Dark Talon Zoomed on though! Interceptor fire took 2 Hull Points off it, I didn’t Jink to keep the Rift Cannon in play. Shooting-wise I think it shot the Tetras to pieces with Hurricane Bolters, the Rift Cannon doing very little. This won me First Blood and a VP for killing a unit in the shooting phase. More importantly it took out all but one of his Marker Lights which meant his Stormsurge would struggle to fire it’s D-weapon missiles!

The Lancer had to make a decision though, take out the Storm Surge or assault the Fire Warriors. I was reluctant to do the latter as I thought I’d be tarpitted with hindsight I should have done that and hoped to remain locked in my turn [by not stomping at the least] and then win in Liam’s releasing me to assault in my next go. Instead I went for the Storm Surge, it seemed the biggest threat but thanks to his saves I think only 1 or 2 more hull points went on him.

The remaining Ravenwing on my left flank shot at the fire Warriors, killing just one, the Bastion also took another. I was hoping to thin the numbers for assault and as I was only 1″ away at the beginning of the turn didn’t think it was risky. Then I assaulted and overwatch by them AND the Riptide lurking behind the ruin meant I needed a 10″ charge roll through cover… Yep these guys did it, hence the Evel Knievel pose as they jumped to the first floor!

I won the combat by 2, the Tau broke and I over-ran them consolidating towards the centre of the board. I also claimed objective 4 for another VP

The XV-109 arrived, flying into position directly behind the Lancer. With no shield to protect his rear armour he got plasma-flamed to oblivion [everything else, including the Storm Surge missiles missing by miles]. 

The resulting explosion did no further damage to anyone else.
 This gave Liam D3 VPs for taking down a big walker, he got 2 VPs on the roll. He also gained a VP for holding objective 1.

The Riptide focused on the Ravenwing, I think he won, making the score at the end of turn 2 5:7 in Liam’s favour.

Turn 3 and Deathwing arrive. I need yo kill their leader for D3 points to get me back in the game, it’s at this point I’m regretting the Lancer not assaulting those Fire Warriors he’s joined to.

I throw everything at them but a Warrior and the Leader survive to thwart my attempts. I do however score 2 VPs for gaining objectives 5 and 4, we’ve drawn even again.

The Deathwing assault at some point [presumably the turn after they arrive] with only three left, one being the sergeant with powers sword, another the Apothecary with Narthecium and the last being my ‘big gun’ with power fist I do little damage thanks to some upgrade that prevents me getting the extra attack on the charge. The Riptide would subsequently crush the three of them and controlling objective 1 elsewhere would take Liam into the lead by 1 VP.

My next turn saw the Dark Talon hover, so I can get a shooting attack on the Warlord and hope the Rift Cannon will double and take out the Storm Surge too. Unfortunately the cannon misses, deviates wildly and no doubles 😦 The Warlord survives the Hurricane Bolter by heroically throwing his bodyguard into the blessed bolter shells. Thanks to hovering I couldn’t release the Stasis Bomb, so the mission and Slay the Warlord goes begging I get nothing this turn still 7:8

With the flyer vulnerable in hover mode the Storm Surge brought all it’s weapons to bear.

Which were significant, with obvious results.

The Riptide roasts the Techmarine getting Slay the Warlord.

The other Riptide smashes the Bastion to pieces [has it ever survived?] Liam gets Line Breaker, completes another mission of being in my DZ, claims objective 3 AND gets D3 VPs for having twice as many objectives as I do. You guessed it Liam gets 3 VPs on the roll. So the maximum  5 VPs from all his Maelstrom cards, plus the 2 VPs for Slay the Warlord and Line Breaker resulted in a final score of 7:15. It was 12:30am so I called it there.

Before I look at any of my actions Liam was adamant that the battle report made something very clear – his dice rolling was appalling. Mine was ridiculously lucky but his was atrocious in his eyes and wanted everyone to know how bad it was. That said let look at how he beat me 7 VPs to 15!!! 😉

Bottom line I screwed up with the Lancer, I should have charged the Fire Warriors. Hindsight is always 20:20 and to be fair I did not realise the XV-109 could be so devastating, or in fact remember it was coming on!. Rergardless that exposed back is quite the weakness for the Lancer so I must remember that in future.

I was also impressed by the bikes and I’m looking forward to adding some more, they’d have definitely been more effective than the Deathwing. Another 8 bike would have been more shooty, more board control and more target saturation. I need to get more bikes done. I never imagined my Dark Angels being Ravenwing heavy but they are seriously effective [as has been observed by many] and playing with them I can see the appeal and if I can get to grips with how to use them I think I could really enjoy the fast hitting nature of bikes.

Anyway, it was a great game, one I casually threw away but I still see these as learning experiences so I’ll try to be more aggressive next time with what I have at my disposal.