1500pts battle report – Dark Angels v Tyranids!

I got a chance to pop round to Otty’s for a game and unusually I got to face his Tyranids, but using my Dark Angels. We were Playing a Maelstrom game and struggling to come to terms with a lot of the new FAQs in a bid to getting ready for when they’re official. Personally given the extent of the FAQs I actually feel we’d be better off with a new rulebook, loathe as I am to suggest 8th Edition but a lot of these things go beyond a simple clarification.

Anyway we set up opposite [as you do when you play 40k!]

I love this modular table that Otty made, it’s always packed full of realistic touches and surprisingly is quite forgiving for wobbly model syndrome [I know it doesn’t look it but honestly it really]

Army list wise I took the Cerastus, two Deathwing squads, Bastion and Devs, Dark Talon and 9 Tacticals with my Scouts and my Techmarine leading. Otty had two maxed out broods of Stealers, a maxed Hormagaunt brood, a couple of Venomthropes for cover, a Broodlord, a Tyranid Prime, Harpy, Tyrannofex, one Hive Guard and Mr Tickle – the Toxicrene.

Otty got first turn, and surged forwards. He only managed to kill one Devastator with Missile Launcher but I needed all my firepower to halt the surging horde. He tried to use most of his Warp Charge to cast Dominion on the Broodlord making everything under Synapse but I easily denied. Now with level 1 psykers only allowed to cast one power the rest of his warp charge was wasted [much like the vaunted Psychic phase!]

“These are Genestealers, you may be unfamiliar with them, they’re the ‘premier’ close combat unit in 40k”

My response was to meet him head on with the Lancer leading the way. My Devastators fragged the Hormagaunts, which broke and ran for the board. The Lancer fried some also. In Otty’s turn two the Harpy arrived, I managed to wound it two or three times with my Quad Gun, but he put two wounds on the Lancer. I was saving my Ion Shield for the Tfex and Hive Guard. The Hormagaunts rallied and by the end of the turn were 2 inches in front of where they’d been at the end of turn 1. The Stealers failed to negotiate the woods, clearly stalking their prey more effectively. The Tfex whiffed and the Hive Guard targeted the Devastators again!

The Stealers charged first, but it was through the difficult terrain of the trenches so would assault last. Mr Tickle and the Tfex also got in on the action.

Mr Tickle struck first, ordinarily his S5 would have meant nothing but with the Harpy having torn chunks from the lancer the Sentient Spore Cloud surrounding the beast found vulnerable spots in his armour resulting with seven Armourbane attacks!

Somehow the Lancer survived with one wound left. The Tfex failed to hit with his Smash and the Stealer couldn’t do enough damage.

In return the Lancer stomped on just a few Stealers. He was then torn apart by Mr Tickle in my turn blowing up and killing all but one Genestealer and the Prime. Mr Tickle and the Tfex just stood and watched, untouched by the catastrophic explosion! Meanwhile the Harpy swooped past the bastion but was unable to fire it’s Spore Cysts due to jinking in a previous turn. My Techmarine could only look on with horror as he arrived too late to try and repair the Knight

My dark Talon arrived but did very little, the Scouts could see their position was about to be over-run but perhaps it was already too late.

As my forces were being swept asunder I suddenly became captivated with this element of Otty’s Tyranid Bastion, the colours and effect was really quite outstanding.

Back to the carnage and the Genestealer managed to reach the Scouts, it was a bad day to be wearing red camo cloaks on a green battlefield!

Who couldn’t possible survive against such overwhelming odds [Lost Patrol anyone?]

Mr Tickle dispatched the now exposed Techmarine with ease, but in return I was able to take the Harpy down with my Dark Talon.

The Tyranid Prime and the lone Stealer assaulted the Tactical Squad defending their ammo reserves.

They lost the combat by two, failed their morale, broke and were over-run leaving the Objective in filthy Xenos hands. OK, I realised afterwards this did not happen, that ‘And they shall know no fear’ prevents Sweeping Advances but I’m still getting the hang of the rules, it was 1am and do you know what? They bloomin’ deserved to die given their pathetic performance.

End result was an 8:4 loss but an interesting game and it certainly allowed Otty to reconfigure his list – putting the Prime with the Hormagaunts would have prevented them breaking. And Mr Tickle was awesome, I could see him scything through unit of Terminators, or even a Vehicle Squadron if they’d taken a bit of damage. As it was he did the Knight in with ease, thanks to the Harpy damage. 

Meanwhile we also traded some bits, Otty had needed a metal Broodlord  to make some Purestrain Genestealers. He’s making an ‘organic’ genecult, making hybrids and Aberrants out of all sorts of donor models and the Broodlord is what he’s using for the Prince’s. He then discovered I was trading ‘Broodlord in a body warmer’. I think that didn’t quite sit right with him and so swamped me with bits and even gave me a metal Azrael and Watcher in the Dark, so I’ve got some really interesting stuff to play around with once I can get my other jobs done.

That said the next day I did a bad thing…

1500pts battle report – Dark Angels v Imperial Guard and their Skitarii mates.

I hadn’t intended writing this as a battle report but I think there are some pretty cool things that happened so it may well become one. My army was:

• Librarian [Psychic Scream & Hallucination]
• Techmarine
• Deathwing command squad with Apothecary
• Deathwing squad in Land Raider Redeemer
• 5 x Scout Snipers with camo cloaks
• 10 x Space marine Tactical squad, missile launcher and Flamer
• 8 x Space marine Tactical squad, Plasma Cannon
• 5 x  Devastators, 4 Missile Launchers
• Ravenwing Dark Talon
• Bastion

The low down:

• Cleanse and Control – Maelstrom missions – 3 cards. Vanguard Strike
• Warlord Trait – Bonus for Seize the Initiative, re-roll reserves
• No night fighting first turn, won deployment, went first, Ben failed to steal the initiative.

Compared to Ben’s army this didn’t feel like very much and as he’s got Leman Russ’s, Basilisk’s, Wyverns and Heavy Weapons Teams my army was pretty much outgunned.

Oh yeah, he also had a Quad gun, even though he didn’t know I had decided to take my unfinished Dark Talon!

I was more conservative than usual with my positioning of the scouts.

But they did look cool in the ruins.

First, turn and with Land Raider potentially falling in Ben’s turn I went flat out through the craters, passing the dangerous terrain test. Unfortunately I couldn’t do anything to the Quad gun so I concentrated on the Hellhound. The Devastators managed to get 2 hull points off it. The Tactical Squad Missile Launcher failed to glance and the Plasma Cannon missed. The bastion did pick off a Guardsman, and the Scouts took a few. My cards were pretty ropey, kill Ben’s Psyker, kill 1 or 3-5 or 6 units and I think to hold all the objectives, which I discarded.

The Hellhound got to kill the Scouts, it’s Flamer killing all but the one on top of the ruins, who was picked off by it’s hull mounted Heavy Bolter – First Blood. Ben’s Wyverns removed the Devastators 😦 Tactical squad in the woods get reduced to 2, fail their morals check and run off the board! Tactical squad in the Ruins have their Plasma Cannon marine shot off the board too.

The Leman Russ Targeted the Land Raider and it managed to survive with 2 Hull Points damage and a wrecked Assault Cannon. I feverishly consulted the rulebook… My turn 2 and the Dark Talon arrived [after Warlord Trait re-roll], the Deathwing also arrived [again after Warlord re-roll] but then mishapped after teleporting onto Ben’s psyker, who I’d laughingly suggested was a Fallen. Turns out they were very interested in him and managed to return to the orbiting strike cruiser to come back again next turn.

With the Dark Talon at risk from the Quad Gun I had only one option TANK SHOCK! I passed my dangerous terrain test to get off the craters, passed the next one to crash through the Aegis.

The guard scattered without injury but with the Quad Gun unable to move it was destroyed instantly – CRUNCH! [At least that was my/our interpretation, it’s not a vehicle so it isn’t rammed either]. Unfortunately, having used up so much speed I couldn’t do anything else. The Assault Cannon was gone, the Flamestorms can’t fire and the Terminators can’t get out. The Techmarine failed to repair the Hull Points.

Having avoided the Quad Gun the Dark Talon opened up the Rift Cannon on the Leman Russ Vanquishers. Rolled to scatter, got double two so it hit both tanks. Rolled to pen and got another two 2’s, then I remembered the main reason I wanted to use this afterall. Doubles on the scatter get me VORTEX! So the second roll becomes the Destroyer table rolls and I get two D3 hull Points on the Squadron, I get a 5 and 1, destroying the nearest tank.

Ben’s turn, the Vortex moves in front of the Aegis, killing one Guardsman [I love this]

The Dark Talon manages to evade all incoming fire, without even resorting to Jink.

The Basilisk takes aim at the Bastion [because I’d retreated the remains of my Tac Squad into it].

The Bastion collapses, leaving just two marines alive, they bolt and run back 8″ before regrouping.

My Turn 3 and the Deathwing arrive, this time safely in the woods deep in enemy territory.

I manage to get a couple of Hull Points off a Wyvern.

The Vortex continues it’s merry way. I try to move the Land Raider and it becomes immobilised on the remains fo teh Quad Gun. The Deathwing sally forth with the Librarian. The libby psychically screams at a command unit of five Guardsman killing all of them. The Terminators manage to destroy the Basilisk with a perfect 7″ charge and another unit falls allowing me to get D3 VPs, getting 2, plus another one for claiming and objective. Meanwhile the Librarian gets killed assaulting the other Command squad, overwatch did not help.

The Chaos G.O.D.s are a capricious bunch as the Vortex scattered directly on top of the last remaining Vanquisher, but I only rolled a 1 on the Destroyer table meaning the leman Russ was left with a Vortex hat!

With the Land Raider wrecked by Haywire grenades from the Skitarii the Techmarine abandons it and takes out most of the Heavy Weapons squad. The Terminators scramble over the wrecked Vanquisher to assault the remaining tank only to be overzealous and the resulting pummelling from powerfists blows up two of their own!

On the other side the last remaining Terminator assaults the second Heavy Weapons squad but nobody does anything.

The final score was 14:4 to Ben, his Maelstrom cards were a damn sight more forgiving than my own but even so my army was pretty much outgunned and outmatched. The Dark Talon was pretty cool, but it was pointed out that with a tank killing S10 AP2 Rift Cannon and infantry killing double Hurricane Bolters you’re going to struggle to utilise both weapons on the same target, which is unfortunate. I love the Vortex though and although 160pts is quite expensive I’m sure I’ll be taking one just for the lolz. That said the Bastion was an utter waste but I really don’t have anything to replace it with points wise and at least it increased it’s unbroken record of not surviving a game.

A lot of things failed to perform, but most didn’t even get chance to as they were wiped out first turn – Scouts, Devastators. This is still a steep learning curve for me, every marine is valuable, I can’t sell them cheap like Termagants and they run away too! It amazes me they’re the ‘basic’ choice for beginners. It’s definitely making me look with fresh eyes at the nids and the things that do work but although I was ‘crushed in defeat’ I did really enjoy trying something different for a change.

‘nids part 186 – Termagants – baker’s dozen

Renewed vigour – there’s nothing like throwing these queue jumpers into the mix to make me feel guilty and desparate to get them done so I can get back to honest work. Funny thing is I’m no less busy than I was before it’s just a sense of urgency as I put the first coat of Vermilion on the bases.

Whilst I was at it I did the Deathwing Knights, no harm in getting these past the basing stage so I’ve a head start when the gaunts are done.

Two sets of highlights later and they’re all based. I also threw in some more work on the 30 Genestealers. I figured I could carry on bits and bobs there alongside the Gaunts and that might help speed things along too. It’d be really cool to add 30 Stealers, 13 Gaunts and all the other things on my table to my TO DONE! come August so that’s my arbitrary deadline in getting all these things achieved by then. It may change but if these, the Knight, the Deathwing, the Bikes and the Jetfighter got done [not to mention the VSG] I’d be a very happy bunny.

I followed up the bases with basecoast of Bahama Blue on the Chitin and red on the fleshy bits/weapons. Interestingly I realised while also adding blue to the Genestealers that I never allocated any time to the blue, just the Chitin highlights – 2 days/sessions which may have been ambitious. Still I’ve 10 Stealers to but the Bonewhite base on, 5 are untouched and the other five are half done. I may be able to do that in 3 sessions, bringing them along nicely too.

Another night and they all got Soft Tone washed. I actually think this is a fair bit darker than the old Gryphonne Sepia but it’ll do. The following day I managed to spend 15 minutes adding Strong Tone [Devlan Mud equivalent] ot all the Chitin and fleshy bits to make their shadows darker.

And now they’re ready for Chitin highlights. Once again I used my Anitas Craft Acrylic Turquoise but this time I tried to use one of the 3 bottles Evan got me and there must be something different in their formula as although it’s thicker the paint just does not have the same coverage as my 6 year old bottle, now down to 20% left.

So I switched back to my old bottle but may now consider the Miniature Paints Aquamarine. I’ve found my second highlight in the Decoart Turquoise often obscures about 80% of the first highlight anyway so colour matching is not the most important part, it’s coverage. If the Miniature Pants covers well it may work as a switch, and I can see if mixing it with the new Anita’s will make a closer matched but more opaque hybrid…

BASE – in your face

The queue jumpers all got based, tried to get some pieces of slate on their too so the notoriously unbalanced Hormagaunts were less tippable. Funnily enough I’ve just been looking at some of the other formations and realised that I need a few more Hormagaunts so I can try out the Endless Swarm formation and I may want to investigate more Gargoyles too, it’s about time I gave them another shot.

As mentioned though I did not completely abandon the Dark Angels, the Knights all got based too as I made a decision and chose not to add any stealer limbs on the bases, although the Thunder Hammer dude does have a Stealer skull.

I primed them all with Army Painter Skeleton Bone Primer which is really good, because it doesn’t pool in the crevices. In this lighting the coverage looked great but closer inspection did show some of the darker areas from the badly stripped old painted models. However, in this instance I’m happier with a thin prime than some thick blobby coat. Afterall there are going to be successive coats of paint on top too.

I started my Red Planet Basing with a coat of Vermillion, which wasn’t dry by the end of the evening. Army Painter Strong Tone is next but it seems like that’s going to be another night before I can begin to base them proper

1850pt battle report – Dark Angels v Orks

Ben asked me for a last minute game the other night so I took the opportunity to get some more practice in with the Dark Angels and this time borrowed his Cerastus so I could field my potential Blog Wars list

The low down:

• Hammer and Anvil
• Kill points
• Night fighting, won deployment, elected to deploy first and go first.
• Warlord Trait – Ezekiel – Fearless to all units within 12″
• Psychic powers:

1. Psychic Shriek
2. Terrify
3. Shrouding
4. Mental Fortitude

I had my Devastators in my Bastion, this time with an armorium cherub [the Watcher] which I never actually used.

I had Ezexiel taking cover in the wrecked Rhino from the blasted copse, we ‘Forged the Narrative’ that the Orks had blown up the tank prior to the game starting and the squad were abotu to leave it’s confines. The Cerastus had the lead, in front of the other Combat Squad and the scouts while the Plasma Cannon Tactical squad held the sacred shrine. There was only 7 in this squad as I had to drop a couple of member to fit the Cerastus in. One unit of Deathwing and the Techmarine were int he Land Raider the others were dee striking.

Ben’s set up, this time with a fair few tank busters.

I was able to wreck one of the Trukks thanks to the Devastators Missile Launchers but then was unable to use the Quad Gun because the target was no more. First strike to me.

Big Shootas managed to get some good field of fire from their vantage points but I’m not sure they did much damage in their first turn [certainly no First Strike] thanks to stupidly good cover saves helped by Ezekiel casting Shrouding and night fighting too. I think the Knight may have taken a Hull Point or two though.

My turn two and the Deathwing arrive and shoot up the back of one of the trukks but not sufficient to wreck it. Ezekiel leapt from cover and raced up behind the Land raider hoping to get in range for Psychic Scream, which he did but couldn’t hit!

The Painboys trukk had come down my left flank and the Scouts had not alternative but to assault. They were going to die in the Ork turn with only overwatch to reward their sacrifice, so I may as well assault and get twice my attacks at a better ‘to hit’ roll. Sadly they failed to do anything more than perhaps 1 wound and were promptly slaughtered.

My disembarked Terminators shot up the Orks nearest so I no longer could meet my charge roll. I also kept the Techmarine with them. which in Ben’s turn I realised was a mistake as he could have trekked over to the Knight and tried to fix his Hull Points. I think the Knight was able to wreck Ghazgkhull’s trukk though, but it may have taken far more fire than it should have done.

With their ride imobilised the Tank Busters set forth with a couple of Bomb Squigs adding a Hull Point or two to the Knight.

The Dakkajet turned up but I’m not sure he was particularly effective.

Which was irrelevant really as Ghazgkhull was bearing down on them.

Things were not going to end well.

Kommandos turned up and I immediately remembered their burners and just how useless that bolstered 3+ cover really was.

 

 But there was still plenty going on in the middle of the board.

 

Having killed the Scouts the Panboy and krew headed for the Tac squad

The get into Kombat and wreck face.

It seems the Dark Angels were sporting some Apprentice-crafted armour! So the four marines were chopped up with hardly a wound in return.

 

Orks consolidated onto the crashed Aquila.

Ghazgkhull got into combat having shot three of the Terminators. It’s one thing to have a full compliment of Deathwing in that assault but just three was never going to hold up against the Orks.

The Knight was charged by the Tank Busters who managed to get another 2 Hull Points on him through various means.

My other Deathwing were surrounded also with one Terminator being lost before the charge. The Techmarine was trapped in the assault too

Ghazgkhull finishes the Deathwing off with ease and moves back up the field.

The Tank Busters blow the Knight up which takes out all but two of their number.

With most everyone dead I decided to call it.

Even with a Knight I feel utterly out-classed with the Dark Angels. I’m not sure if it’s early days getting to know them, the fact I have units that are sub-optimal, the wrong tactics or a tough opponent going up against hordes. Bottom line is that although this was a fun game, and we had a right old laugh, the fact it suddenly fell apart so spectacularly was not fun and the army is just painful to use at the moment.

Therefore, I cannot anticipate with any joy taking this current army list to BWX. Sure it’s a ‘non-competitive’ tournament so sub-optimal is fine but if it needs to be sub-optimal it will have to look cool and right now it’s neither. So, following this I’ve abandoned the Dangles for BWX, it will be nids again. I’m hoping to try a different list with more Monstrous Creatures but we’ll have to see.

1500pt battle report – Dark Angels v Orks, Game 3

The low down:

• Vanguard strike
• Emperor’s Relice – 3 Objectives, your own [worth 5pts], centre [worth 10], opponents [worth 15]
• No night fighting, lost deployment, deployed second, failed to steal the initiative.
• Warlord Trait – Ezekiel – Fearless to all units within 12″
• Psychic powers:

1. Psychic Shriek
2. Terrify
3. Hallucination
4. Shrouding

I know, I see it too, the absolute lack of cover on my side of the table, which is why I bring my own bastion! To be fair though I’d been on Ferron Proxima for the first two games and I had offered more terrain for this table [even though they had some] but everyone else had played on it and I really didn’t think terrain would affect the outcome.

Ben had tonnes of Orks and I was pretty certain I was never going to be able to kill enough to pull a win out of this so I was resigned to sending the First legion out to their doom. I did however get to sneak my scouts behind the Ork enemy lines.

But as Ben took his first turn it would appear the Orks new exactly where they were, backed their trukk up to the edge of the building and jumped out, managing to shoot two of the squad with a third covering himself in his camo cloak to evade the incoming fire.

But by then it was too late, the Boyz had seen the scouts and charged in with a 12″ charge, Hammer of Wrath killing the scout taking cover in his cloak as they rolled over him and the Ork boss butchering the remainder on his own.

With whoops of glee they promptly left the corpses before they’d even hit ground, turned back and got back to the trukk ready to drive off next turn to find more victims [oh we laughed!]. Ben scored First Strike for this.

With the other trukks holding the centre objective I used the opportunity to pour fire into their flanks.

Ghazghkull’s trukk got wrecked and the other trukk lost it’s gunner, so I made my First Strike but the impending shock of Orks on the WAAAAAGH! was less comforting.

I think one of the Tactical squads Bolters were responsible for the penetrating shot that killed the gunner. The Dark Angels really are blessed with some quality ammo – first Typhus, now an Ork Trukk!

Ben’s Kommandos arrived behind me, Ghazghkull and his mob headed towards the Tactical squad in the lava crater and the other Nobz leapt from the trukk and went for the Tactical Squad in the centre of the board.

The Kommandos were kitted out with Burners and a Power Klaw. It was almost as if they’d known from the start they’d have to deal guys in cover and a Bastion. Suddenly the only thing I had some confidence in their durability was lost.

Ghazghkull’s mob were keen to get to grips with my Dark Angels.

Which they managed to do.

Leaving only one Marine alive to hold the line.

Ghazghkull himself wanted to take on the biggest thing on the board, even if it wasn’t moving…

and charged the Bastion.

With so many Power Klaw attacks the Bastion just couldn’t stand and was destroyed

To make matters worse I then had to roll to try and save the five Devastators atop the battlements, the explosive debris was just sufficient to kill every last one of them.

 Ghazghkull was left hoping that Gork or Mork were pleased he’d destoyed the biggest Green thing on the board because it wasn’t ‘Orky’!

A Pain Boy and War Boss managed to charge the Plasma Cannon Combat Squad and would ultimately wipe them out.

The remaining Nobz multi-assaulted one Combat Squad of Tacticals and my Land Raider.

The Pain Boy was nigh unstoppable, partly because of his FnP and partly because my Marines were pretty ineffective.

I’m not sure this situation lasted for long, I think the Dark Angels were squashed eventually.

The Deathwing arrived, technically they mishapped and all died [they deviated within 1″ of  Ghazghkull] but Ben was feeling generous [or just wanted more ‘ummies to kill] and allowed them to teleport in anyways.

The other Terminators appeared in his Deployment Zone but that was not good news as due to the dodgy way artillery rules work all those Gretchin are technically T7, so I was never going to shift them off his objective, instead I had the boyz back up their trukk and surge forth.

Ezekiel and the Techmarine entered the fray. I’ve found Ezekiel to be quite handy in a fight, definitely a better choice than Asmodai but I really need to find a better way to work with him as the Land Raider doesn’t allow him to cast any powers until he gets out. I also need to get the Techmarine’s rules down so I can play him correctly.

The Mob in the crater finished off the last of the Tctical Squad and headed for the newly appeared Terminators.

Ghazghkull got there first though with the Kommandos a close second, so the mob stood and watched jeering on support from the sidelines.

All the Orks bundled in

Despite being the Dark Angels finest there was only one inevitable outcome

 

The same would hold true for the other Deathwing, but as it would have taken too long to play out the inevitable we decided to call it.

Ezekiel and the Techmarine wouldn’t have broken their deadlock either.

The final score was something ridiculous like 22-2 although I’m pretty sure it would have been 33-2 because despite Ezekiel contesting that centre objective, he would not have survived losing me Slay the Warlord and the objective.

So, what have I learned? The Bastion didn’t survived in only 1 game, the Land Raider was equally unlucky. Whether adding in a Knight will take pressure off those units I don’t know but as I’ve already observed it only take one penetrating hit to be unlucky and lose a pivotal part of my army. I’m pretty sure a Knight will take a lot of fire, perhaps leaving the Land Raider, and more likely the Bastion unmolested. 

I was impressed with Ezekiel, he’s a much better choice, even without an invul save, but the 2+ armour is quite good and it matches up nicely with the Techmarine and other Terminators. How I better utilise his prodigious psychig ability is the greater mystery. I also went solely Telepathy which gave me a lot of options, sadly most of the powers I rolled were pretty dire. Psychic Scream is awesome as a Primaris, it’s just of little use when he’s locked in a box for a turn or two!

Ultimately I was just as torn between taking these to Blog Wars or nids as I was before. I still have to paint my Knight, still have to finish the Tactical Squad. The Bastion and Land Raider ‘will do’ but I’ll have to find a way to fit the Terminators in and currently that looks pretty tough without removing yet more upgrades from my units. I may have enjoyed the games more than I expected and managed to win one but I don’t imagine my BW opponents will be as kind. That’s not to say their uber competitive, but it’s a tournament afterall, even if it’s supposed to be fun first and foremost. Bottom line is given my army choices and the sacrifices I’ll have to make – paring down units etc. It wouldn’t take a beardy cheese list to do me over, any old opponent is going to make my day difficult. So the question is – am I comfortable with that or do I at least want fighting chance with a fully painted army I’m happy with?

We’ll have to see…

1500pt battle report – Dark Angels v Nurgle Chaos Space Marines, Game 1

Ben suggested we have a mini tournament the other week, using Blog Wars rules. I managed to get it down to 1500pts for convenience and Ben, Liam, PeteB and myself rocked up to see what we could do.We randomly rolled starting match ups and I got Liam

The low down:

• Hammer and Anvil
• Kill points
• No night fighting, won deployment, elected to deploy second and stole the initiative.
• Warlord Trait – Ezekiel – Fearless to all units within 12″
• Psychic powers:

1. Psychic Shriek
2. Terrify
3. Hallucination
4. Dominate

I set up diagonally opposite Liam, using plenty of cover for my Bastion. This was the first time he’d played the Nurgle marines since our pairing at Throne of Skulls but I wasn’t about to lose my Bastion turn one like last time! I did cruise the Land Raider forward, with Ezekiel, Techmarine and Deathwing squad inside.

I wasn’t able to score First Strike [kill a unit in your first turn] but I did kill 1 Chaos Spawn.

I also killed a zombie cultist.

But forgot to move my Scouts who were too well hidden in Liam’s back field that I didn’t see them at all!

Not much happened in Liam’s turn. I think he managed to kill a marine, but that was pretty much it.

My turn 2 and my second unit of Terminators teleported in. Unfortunately they deviated back towards my own lines instead of within cover of the trees, still, at least they didn’t mishap on the cultists who had somehow become aware of the well camouflaged Scouts in the wood – maybe they could smell BRAINS! The Deathwing were pretty rubbish shooting, even with twin-linked ‘to hit’ on Deep Strike. I must have kille donly one or two, it was pitiful.

Tactical squad in the tower managed to Kill and wound another couple of spawn.

Hell-flies both turned up which would result in a classic display of Liam’s ‘bad luck’. I intercepted this Hell-fly with my Quad Gun, hit twice, got one penetrating hit of a 6, then rolled and got another 6 for damage! He is cursed, and then I suggested it might have some daemonic save but if it did it failed and then the only thing that would keep it in the sky was a 3+ roll on the imobilised flyer table which he failed, of course! The only silver lining was the fly was punched out of the air backwards and landed on top of my Deathwing and killed one of them.

The other Hell-fly took revenge by burning out the Tactical squad in the tower.

Meanwhile Typhus and his retinue disembarked from the corrupt Land Raider and would set their sights on the Land Raider. The Terminators who’d just lost one of their number were targeted by the Obliterators and promptly obliterated, even sheathed in Tactical Dreadnought Armour.

Armed with melta weaponry the chaos Terminators made short work of Deathwing Land Raider, reducing it to molten slag.

Luckily all the occupants were too well protected to suffer any harm from the explosion.

With Dark Vengeance™ in their eyes they faced their traitorous foes.

 

What followed was an epic confrontation with Chaos terminators doing little to no damage on the Deathwing, who responded with killing most of them, the Techmarine finishing them off while Typhus and Ezekiel faced each other. As his traitorous bretheren fell one by one to the Dark Angel powerfists he fueled all his hatred into a might attack, killing Ezekiel, the Techmarine and all the remaining Terminators ro become last man standing but not without taking two wounds from Ezekiel as he crushed him underfoot.

The Chaos Spawn attempted to eat the tower but the remainign combat squad of Tactical marines had properly barricaded themselves in, preparing to seek flaming retribution from the firing ports int he door.

Tyrphus stood over the gore-soaked remains of his guard and the might of the First Legion.

But failed to notice the nearby Tactical Squad who managed to find a chink in his corrupt armour with a sanctified and blessed holy bolt shell. He succumbed to this one wound and fell where he stood, his traitorous endeavours forever to be expunged from Imperial records.

The zombies finally managed to catch the Scouts, killing the sergeant as he tried in vain to defend the corpses of his squad from the cannibalistic hunger of the appproaching horde.

 

The game came to a close. I’d lost 1,030 points and only managed 300-500 in return. Liam also got Slay the Warlord and Line Breaker so it was a pretty comprehensive win. However, I had to love those defining moment in the game: 

• stealing the initiative – always makes Liam sad
• one penetrating hit, one immobilised vehicle, one failed crash test on the Hell-fly
• Tyhpus losing his last wound to a bolter round

 So, on to game 2…

Dark Angels – Dark Vengeance Deathwing Terminator conversion

Another micro-blog. PeteB gave me some left-over bitz from his Space Wolf army so I was finally able to complete my Dark Vengeance Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield conversion.

I removed the head from this guy ages ago and slotted in a hooded Dark Angel Veteran head.

His Storm Shield also came from the upgrade sprue and the Thunder Hammer just had a couple of wolves on the side and a wolf tail to remove. There’s also a rune on the back hammer head, I’ll try and fill that in with liquid green stuff.

I’m going to consider putting this guy on some slate because if there’s one thing he needs to be is taller! I’m already struggling to work out how to transport these but no doubt I’ll find a solution – takeaway tubs?!

Dark Angels – Dark Vengeance and Assault on Black Reach Deathwing Hobby Porn

One could argue I’m scraping the barrel with this post but having photographed the completed Dark Vengeance Deathwing I thought it only fair to put them on my Honored Imperium broken aquila terrain piece and then share the limelight with their Assault on Black Reach bretheren. So enjoy the ‘atmospheric’ shots

Here old and new are mixed together with only the lightly darker AoBR colour scheme and higher contrast DV models being the noticeable differences.

Helmet lenses were a little more subtle in the light cast off them on the AoBR models.

Roman numerals were neater too.

Purity Seal is still the ‘gift’ that keeps on giving – it’s like they’ve been covered in dust for ages compared to the bright bases of the DV Deathwing. Just goes to show that spray varnish is cursed. I continue to paint on Army Painter Anti Shine. It’s a pain and if you manhandle it too soon after painting it can still be tacky, I’ve stripped paint off base edges with impatience recently. But that at least convinces me that it’s actually drying as a protective coating and however tedious it is to apply I’m never again going to ruin another model with spray.

A quick coating off the AoBR base edges with Vallejo Heavy Red should at least bring them in line with the current models. I’ve noticed alot of old Mechrite Red bases have faded a bit, I think this is more to do with me watering down some applications.

Heavy Red doesn’t have the greatest coverage [despite the name] but after a few coats it’s super-vibrant. Usually I apply a coat of my dwindling supply of Mechrite Red for coverage and then overcoat it with Heavy Red for vibrancy.

Anywa I hope you don’t mind me indulging these images

Dark Angels – Dark Vengeance Deathwing – TO DONE!

It’s been nearly a year since I first posted about these guys and to finally have them complete in such a ‘short’ amount of time is good going for me, well for the Dark Angels at least. Once again I have mixed feelings, both of pride and disappointment. There are things I really like and they’re definitely improved on their Assault on Black Reach predecessors . But there are still elements that don’t quite sit right with me, especially when I see other Dark Angel forces that are more consistent uniform in their execution.

 However, I know these are far more complex, detailed and well executed than my Tyranids and if they don’t stand together quite as well as the nids do then at least the nids have something to be proud of.

I’m still dubious about the ‘enamaled’ crows raven feathers but I used a different gloss varnish which isn’t as thick so I get the reflection without the distortion of detail. The lightning effect is also both something I’m impressed with for it’s nebulous nature and disappointed with for it’s lack of crispness, I just cant win with myself!

They all came together as a unit though and overall I’m pleased with the results.

It’s not immediately evident but I reconciled my litanies/native markings dilemma. Compared to the AoBR Terminators these guys are riddled with extra detail. To add more elements would just make them even more busy.

So I tried to only add bits were appropriate, mainly on the back, which you’ll see later on.

I was also pleased with the green lenses. They’re a bit more vibrant than the AoBR ones and probably not true OSL effect but I was pleased with the results.

Assault Cannon, I wasn’t 100% happy with the black and white heraldry shield but there wasn’t too much space for extra details.

I added litanies on his backside armour, it seemed the best place on all the models, unobtrusive but sufficient to fit the theme I instigated with the Tacticals. He also got three tribal stripes on his left leg armour.

There were three tribal stripes on the side of his carapace, but they were so small and inconspicuous I added the leg stripes.

The Sergeant was a mixed success. I actually think the iridescent Raven feathers is quite effective but the blackness just look incongruous with the rest of the model. Even the Obsidian sword blade does little to tie this black colour into the rest of the model. 

He got 3 tribal stripes on top of his carapace, and I just noticed that spot of turquoise paint I need to touch up. I also painted the litanies to be like a very fine pen illustration, like you see all the ‘scribe work’ in the 40k rulebook. I was really chuffed with that.

And here you have the severed Chaos Space Marine head. I did ask if people could guess which traitor force it would be, did anyone imagine it would be the Alpha Legion? I’m not sure DA’s have a traditional arch-enemy like the Space Wolves/1000 Sons, Imperial Fists/Iron Warriors but I do know the Alpha Legion outwitted them a lot to keep them out of the Heresy.

They’re infiltration tactics also fit well with some Ferron Proxima fluff I’ve been thinking about for ages, just not had the chance to explore. 

I used a Land Speeder Storm Missile Launcher to represent my Cyclone Missile Launcher

I also added an old skool knife blade as a bayonet on the Storm Bolter. This was from the old metal Space Marines that had plastic arms, bolters and back packs. I’m not happy with the blade if I’m honest but c’est la vie.

More litany on his butt plate.

And the tribal markings on his leg. I know the bottom chevron tapers a little bit on the left hand side but I kind of like it, like it’s been daubed on but isn’t quite as neat as it could be, at least that’s what I’ll keep telling myself.

And the top view with added Ravenwing or Terminator badge

The Chainfist Terminator. He’s got three tribal stripes on his thigh plate and a single stripe on his Chainfist blade.

I did litanies on his butt plate too and a small 5th company badge to represent the company he was part of before ascending to the Deathwing.

I really liked the tribal stripes, subtle yet distinctive.

The severed cultist head. He’s decked out in the colours of the Free Radical Collective at this point you should be able to piece together some of the extra fluff. There’s no coincidence that their accent colour happens to mirror a certain traitorous legion also found on Ferron Proxima… or is it?

I was a little less happy about the First Legion numeral on his kneepad, it seems I can’t do neat and tidy lines and these pics look really distorted too 😦

This guy also shows his legacy company on his heraldry shield.

The added DA upgrade element on his carapace and heraldry shield was an additional touch to differentiate this from the other model that looks the same from the set, although the other one does have the Cyclone Missile Launcher too.

Big fat Roman numeral again 😦

He decorated his butt plate with sword artwork and litanies. There are also three tribal stripes on the left hand side of his back armour, you can just see the, as they come round the edge of the armours.

Here’s the Red Stamp of Approval and it’s on my list too! I’ve got Deathleaper up next for completion, just because and then my Azrael kitbash and even the AoBR commander who has been languishing for ages and is practically 90-95% complete. Then I’ve got to finish my Land Speeders [or at least one] and maybe do a bike squad.