Hold that Steward's Enquiry!

My lack of basing was called into question earlier with stewards queueing up! So in the interests of fair play here are this month's 30 troopers all based and ready to go...

Busy on here tonight isn't it?

The meeting of two Titans

Well that was the idea when Silver back and the BFG drove their respective armies on to the table. 1750 points of Imperial Guard versus the Mean Green!

Dawn of War with only two objectives in our setup zones. The first turn only saw the one Ork Trukk with crew facing an entire armoured division of the Steel Legion.

With only 1 HQ and up to 2 troop choices saw the Guard deploying in the middle of the field to deny the ORKs deployment ground. So two platoons of Guard with a flamer each and a command squad with a flamer took up advance posts, while the HQ with a Lascannon took cover to the rear. Turn one for the Guard saw everything running or cruising on to the table. The Guard could hear the Orks but could not see them and the rest of the first turn saw them running to positions in cover.

The Ork first turn saw Wazzdakka roar on to the table and placing a well aimed shot to the Demolisher turret prevented it firing in turn two.

The first trukk charged toward one of the platoons in cover at the middle of the table and charged into them, cutting them down to a man

Probably cos they were only undercoated....The writing seemed to be on the wall when the other platoon and it's comand squad suffered a similar fate, although the platoon did last until the thord turn when it's remaining flamer, the sole survivor rushed out to flame a whole mob of bikers and succeeded in just drawing attention to himself more than anything......it was at that point this guardsman soiled himself and went down under a hail of return fire from the big shoota's on the bikes.

Meanwhile the reserves deep struck right in to the danger zone! Promptly drawing the unwelcome attention from WazzDakka...Gulp!!

The poor sods didn't know what hit them when the Nobz mob opened up on them!

The next turn saw the Ork Deff Koptas roar on behind the Demolisher and after silencing it again, finally destroyed it!

One moment of grace came when the Rough riders gunned their engines and counter attacked the Nobz mob ked by WazzDakka, while inflicting 5 wonds on the squad including Wazzdakka himself, the entire squad was summarily wiped out!

The following turns saw the infantry get run down by the Ork trukk boyz and the armour get destroyed by the power klaw wielding Nobz on bikes....it was 'orrible!

The Armoured Fist were the only troops left desperately acting as a rearguard to the onslaught of the Orks, eventually all communication was lost with them, all presumed lost.....

Well back to the drawing board for the Guard, I have until the 24th April to get this in to some sort of competitive army! As we'll be using our GoG's up in Lenton that weekend.

The Guard just got meaner!

Well Boys...here we are again....crank up the docking station and play Thin Lizzies "BOYZ ARE BACK IN TOWN" Loud!!!!!

Nice little Chimera with a cargo of 5 Ogryn and a Bone 'Ead! Nork Deddog actually! "The Wild Bunch"!

I am hoping that the snippetts of the new IG Codex means that I will have a chance of winning a game with these fellas eventually!

This should add some real meat to the reserves for the poor bloody infantry....who are still dying horribly by the way!

Next month I intend to add the last of the infantry and the Elites, along with my fast attack option...the Terminator killers!!

Shock News Story - More Orks, but with different weapons

Well here we go, and just in the nick of time too.

This month brings you the delights of yet another Ork Trukk, but there is a twist, instead of the classic choppa slugga combination, these little beauties have shootas!! Why, well I have decided that having one squad with the 18" assault 2 S4 weapon, at the sacrafice of only 1 attack in CC gives me an alternative in dealing with horde armies. This lot come in at 151 pts, with the remainder of this months points being spent on 2 Deffkoptas with TL Rokkit launchers.

These have 2 wounds, act as jetbikes and Scout.

As you can see this trukk makes use of Eddie's white chocolate resin trakks for the back axle, making this trukk more like a ............ HanneOrk!!

Next month, well this month really, 2 Nob Bikers and 2 more Deffkoptas to finish it all off.

Yippee!

Here they are!

Only the 10 sister squad this month as I did more than enough last month with the Seraphim and sisters in a rhino.

Their rhino is nearly finished, but hasn't got any tracks on so i shall defer that until next week where I need to complete the rhino and a turret from an exorcist to get to 1,750.

'Course, we've only got until the 24 April to finish them, but we'll be fine, right?......Right?!?!?!?

Lushall IV - Chaos v Wolves

Here's this week's update and a little different this time: pray silence for a battle report from the Planet of Lushall IV.

My son, henceforth called Evil Monkey, is collecting a Space Wolves army. Yes that's right; he's only 11 but has opted for the cheesiest, beardiest army out there :-)

He's been busy painting Blood Claws and as he's young his attention has wandered a bit so we decided to have a battle with what he has - keep the enthusiasm levels up as they say.

Totting up his painting, building and in boxes stuff we got to about 725 points:
Wolf Priest, Ven Dread (AssaultCann + DCCW), 10x Blood Claws in Drop Pod, 6x Grey Hunters in Razorback with T/L lascannon.

Up against this I put my Iron Warriors:
Lord with Khorne Daemon Weapon, 11x CSM las/plas, 9x CSM aspCh, Flamer in a Rhino, Vindicator.

And we set the scene as thus: The planet Lushall IV has recently repelled a Tyranid Invasion. Their scientists are studying these Tyranids in order to better understand and maybe breed their own. A Chaos insertion force has landed and is about to assault a small complex with a Storage Tank containing Tyranid Biomass. The nearby Space Wolf garrison has despatched a force to intercept and destroy the Chaos group.

The battle is fought on a 4' x 3' table. Take and Hold. Pitched Battle setup but only 6" deployment zone. Decided that if you have an unopposed troop choice with 1 man within 1" of the storage tank at the end of your turn you will gain 2 vp for each troop choice; if the objective is contested you will gain 1 vp for each troop choice.

Board looks like this:

Chaos wins deployment roll and sets up like this; opposite are a Razorback and Dreadnought - both hidden from view by the storage tank.
First turn and Chaos races forwards with the Rhino disgourging its troops by the objective (we also decided that troops had to be out of transports to claim as they're supposed to be trying to syphon or protect the contents). End of Chaos turn 2 vp.

Space Wolves turn and the Drop Pod scatters 11" back from the objective (it's the old Large Template below - honest). The Grey Hunters leap out of their Razorback by the objective and fire the meltagun at the Rhino; bang goes the Rhino. CSM who got out last time decide to warm their hands on the nice fire behind them.

End of Turn 1 below and Chaos 2vp; Wolves 1vp

Next turn and the Vindicator moves to line up a shot on the Grey Hunters; Lascannon CSM squad run over the wall to get to the objective. Vindie fires, hits all 6 Grey Hunters! I pick up the dice and Evil Monkey shouts "6 ones would be nice". I smile and throw... 3 ones. Bugger. The Hunters pass their morale check. 2 more vp for the Chaos boys.

His turn and now I realise that those damn Blood Claws that were hidden from my Vindie can actually reach the Lascannon CSM squad by stringing out Conga style. They can't be that good in assault though. Right?

28 dice later... yes only 7 of them reached my lines. 7! 28 dice! Beserk charge or some such nonsence! He then fires up the Power Fist, hits twice and rolls double-1! That'll teach him. I fail my leadership roll; he cheers; I say Chaos Glory; he boos; I pass the second attempt. End of Combat picture is below. Lots of Blood Claws still left...

End of Turn 2: Chaos 4vp ; Wolves 3vp

Turn 3 and my Khorne Lord charges into the Blood Claws. The rest of his unit have no space to charge in so elect to go Grey Hunter hunting. We fire at them and cause 5 wounds! He saves all 5. Heck.

Still my Khorne Lord on the charge will be fantastic. I end up with 12 attacks thanks to the Daemon Weapon. After the blade whirls lots we count up the dead Blood Claws; 2. I demand a recount! Still 2. Oh dear.

His Wolf Priest with Frost Blade has 5 attacks and kills 3. Oh dear. Again. We lose the combat even though his power fist missed this time. I check the rules on Fearless HQ with non-Fearless unit and discover he loses Fearless. Bugger. Luckily I pass morale. 0 vp for me cos the combat has taken my troops outside 1" and I've moved my assault squad too far away!!! D'Oh!

His turn 3 and let's head straight for the combat shall we? Khorne Lord rolls his 2 dice; a 3 and a... 1... oh bugger. Still he makes his invulnerable save. My remaining 4 csm prepare to survive the Wolf Priest who only has 5 attacks so 1 of them should survive. Right? Nope. All 4 are killed by the Priest. The remaining Blood Claws now pick on the Lord and down he goes... Power Fist Blood Claw hit but then rolled a 1 :-)

He consolidates right up to the objective!
End of Turn 3: Chaos 4vp; Wolves 5vp

Turn 4 and my CSM squad charge his Grey Hunters. My 6 man squad charge his 3 man squad. We lose. Yes. Lose!!! How many saves can he make? Apparently all of them is the answer. We hold and get 1vp.

His Turn 4 and the Blood Claws (missed by my Vindie) and his Dreadnought charge the CSM squad. This is going to hurt! After much munching all CSM are killed; we kill 1 Grey Hunter. 1. Now I have no troops left. Actually all I have is a Vindicator.

End of Turn 4: Chaos 5vp; Wolves 7vpTurn 5 the Vindicator scatters but still kills the last 2 Grey Hunters (yes they are the old terminators you can see! - the old style Immolator is a Razorback obviously)

His Dread charges the Vindie and immobilises it!
End of Turn 5: Chaos 5vp; Wolves 9vp

Turn 6 and the Vindie hits the Dread and blows the DCCW off! His turn 6 and nothing happens.
Game Ends! Final tally: Chaos 5vp; Wolves 11vp

Yes the Wolves have protected the precious Tyranid Biomass and so the experiments on Lushall IV can continue. Evil Monkey wins. Goddam Space Wolves....

Blitzing Daemons

It's been a very busy week; blitz painting the Daemons after someone said we'd need to bring forward the end event to April!!

So this week 30 models went from box/blister to painted and the Nurglings are nearly done: this will then give me 1750 points. Still not satisfied though so going to try and get 2 Bloodcrushers done to give me some variations.

So what 30 models did I do? Glad you asked...

Plaguebearers first. Dheneb Stone base coat; Khemri Brown blobs here and there; Thraka Green wash and Gryphonne Sepia wash over that. Simple and, I reckon, effective.

Up close and personal

Another 10 Daemonettes; little squad of 20 now possible.

And another 10 Bloodletters giving me a non-lethal squad of 20. Don't worry about this lot; please feel free to let the 20 of them charge you :-)
Anyway... now onto Bloodcrushers, Bloodthirster and other non GW games.

And the man at the back said "Everyone attack!"....

...And it turned into a Hobby Blitz...... A HOBBY BLITZ!

Right, on that rather dodgy song link I thought I'd post about the weekend I've just had and all the hobbying (is that a verb? It is now!) I've done in it. I said a while ago that I should post more about random things, and followed that up by not doing so, so this is an attempt to make amends.....

Recently I've actually been doing almost nothing to do with this slightly geeky hobby of ours other than play. Yes, I've been painting the odd sister squad and rhino for the Blog challenge, but that's been sporadic and half hearted at best for the last couple of months. To be honest, I'd even wondered if I was going off painting little figures I was that disinterested!

But fear not, something snapped on Friday. I don't know what it was..... Perhaps it was the thought of shifting the climactic GOG battles forward to about a month's time..... Perhaps it was the fact that I played a game of 40k last week and realised that every game I played used exactly the same scenery and grass mat, just shifted that scenery around a little each time..... Perhaps it was the fact that I have to spend 15 minutes clearing the garage before every game to even mean we could lay out that scenery.....

But something did snap. And a Hobby Blitz ensued....

I started off by finally finishing the half ar$ed job I'd done on some rather simple tank teeth thingies (you know, the things that stop tanks going over them). All I'd previously done was spray them with roughcoat and stick them to a board which I added sand to. I had only used them once, probably because they looked rubbish. So I added some flock, bushes and rusty old barbed wire to ensure it was clear that they were difficult ground and offered LoS blocking (and were impassable for tanks) and now I can't wait to use them.

Encouraged by this I started some entirely new terrain. For ages now (over a year?) I'd saved some interesting packaging that muffins for my weekend breakfasts came in. "They'll look great as some kind of tent" thought I. Not so when kept in a big cardboard box since then though. So out they came, out came some of the mountain of polystyrene that I've been keeping and some plasticard and voila, Imperial All Environment Survival Posts. The simple addition of doors (spare from rhinos), an Imperium Eagle (again spare from rhinos) and an exhaust fume (from a the first ever rhinos!) finished the modelling. I reasoned that they wouldn't need windows (might not work in the harsher environments) and if time and conditions permitted they would be built on a concrete base (mine were). This meant the building would block LoS or offer cover for vehicles and the concrete would offer saves for infantry. Just need to highlight the concrete and they're done.

Then I started on my last sisters squad. This is the one I need for April's painting. So here they are, stuck together with basecoats on half and basecoats and washes on the other half.

Next up was the pirate ship that's been sitting around getting in the way looking like a toy. Some conversion work on the masts and windows and sticking the thing all together (including adding some new decking, drilling new holes for the masts and adding a door) and then spraying it brown. Highlighting to do and then it'll be ready to challenge Master Shipwright Waple on the Seven Seas.

I even dug out all of the Armoured LotR Elves that I had lying around in anticipation for War of the Ring to work out how many I had. (Enough for 4 bases of eight warriors and 2 bases of eight archers if you're wondering). So I converted up a new banner bearer, cleaned up, based and undercoated all those not yet painted in anticipation of them being painted too.

And I even found time to add two coats of paint to the walls in our bedroom, watch two 6 nations games and the City game on Sky!

Apologies for the long post, but I'm just so chuffed to be back hobbying again! Really enjoyed the weekend and I have a new lease of life. It's good to be back :)

It's Dark and a little heretical...

....So it must be Dark Heresy!

Yes, we hurtled headlong into Roleplaying, with this rather dark and brooding role-player from Black Industries (originally) and Fantasy Flight games (who thankfully took it over and have accelerated the publishing schedule.

So, in the first roleplaying session, the players managed to severely annoy a fawning Ships purser ("take a +30% fellowship roll...... what's that? 93? Nope, I'm afraid he doesn't like you either) then got into some trouble with some thugs in an alleyway ("For the Hive! To me lads, To me! Chaaaaaaarge!...... Lads? Errr, lads, why are you hanging back there? Ouch! Ouch!")

Then they followed the Seer to the Cathedral (and only one of them fell on his ar$e whilst getting there) and they managed to get excited by a long dead trabesman with a massive cut and his eyes pecked out and a symbol burned into the ground....

Still, they did well investigating the hills though, take it away Nick......

Script: Gulley. Daylight. Dust and rocks fall gently down the slopes as our 4 intrepid travellers struggle through the rugged landscape.

Suddenly out leaps the most vile creature they have ever encountered. A dog shaped body covered in armour; the mouth is full of sharp, ragged teeth and it has no eyes.It growls menacingly...

Psyker: Emperor protect me! I'm feeling a little light headed...crumple. Pysker falls to the ground fainting dead away.
Guardsman: I've soiled my pants. Again.crumple. He sits on the ground, sticks pencils up his nose, a handkerchief on his head and says: Wibble.
Priest: Arggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhthe sound of screaming vanishes into the far distance, strangely the smell of old soiled boots disappears at the same time.
Scum: Zoiks! He's a big beastie. Right lads you distract him and I'll shoot the bugger.Looks around.
Scum: Lads? Oh FFS. Right Scooby feel this.
The shotgun goes off and the Hexalid is shredded into a thousand pieces.Scum looks well chuffed.
Scum: I'm chuffed with that. Lads look what I did.
Psyker: zzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Guardsman: wibble
Priest: ............aaaarrrggggghhhhhhhhhhh.......
Scum: I need a crap; where's the nearest boot?

And so they headed back to attend the service of consecration when the settlement was attacked!!!!!!! Will they fight?!?! Will they run screaming into the hills?!?!? Or will they faint dead away (again)?!?!?!?

Stay tuned and we'll see what the emperor's finest (third class) can do to solve the unusual goings on on Iocanthos......

The February Meldrew

So here are the votes of the Meldrew Jury

As we haven't heard from No Name since month 1 we've dropped him off for now; if anyone finds him please let us know!

Painting
3 Points - Everyone!

Gaming
Wins
3 Points - Silverback, Varistat, Silver Fox

Loss
1 Point - Eddy, BFG