Clash of the Eldar and Imperials

Game on last night, 2,000 pts a piece saw an alliance of Imperial Guard and a Shrike like marine army (Varistat and The Silverfox) take on an Eldar army (Eddie Artillery and The BFG).

The mission was Dawn of War and Annihilation, the Imperials decided to go first and the Eldar decided to leave everything in reserve.

The Eldar raced on to the board on turn 1, here is a close up of the battle line with a refused left flank being the order of the day. We could see the Imperial lines arrayed in front of us, with the Vendetta on their right flank and a Leman Russ on their right, we agreed that the whole army going for their right would mean that some of their fire power might be out of range. As it turned out, the only thing out of range was their lasguns. The Wave Serpent carrying our Howling Banshees raced forward and took some heavy 4 shots at the Vendetta, this caused a Stunned result on the glance table, great we thought, that will be out for turn two! The rest of the Eldar forces tried in vain to penetrate the Landraider carrying 6 assault terminators and a Chaplain in Terminator armour, well we had to stop that right?

On our far right we had a lone unit of Pathfinders, which sprinted into cover, a 2+ cover save would ensure a good deal of winkling needed to get them out!

Turn 2, we all agreed was pretty much a non event for both sides, lots of missing and wailing and gnashing of teeth, none of the reserves turned up...the only thing that happened was the Avatar taking a wound from a Lascannon. Oh ans the fact that the Silverback called for an update and reiably informed us that the Vendetta had "extra armour" so the stun became a shaken! :-(

Turn 3, now this was a different kettle of rippers!! All the Imperial reserves and ours turned up! Shrike and his assault marines moved on to our left flank, eyeing up the Striking Scorpions and Eldrad....Sly Marbo appeared in the building in front of the Falcon and Dire Avengers, just as they had dismounted from it the turn before, he threw his demolition charge, which scattered a mighty 5" on to the poor assault marines with Shrike, killing 3 of them....ouch! So at this point the Guard had killed more Imperials than we had.

The Avatar took another 2 wounds and the Wraithlord was destroyed by a hail of Lascannon fore and the battle cannon of the Leman Russ Battle Tank. Ooh I almost forgot the chimera mounted vets that roared forward, de-bussed and opened up with some real nasty rapid fire!!! No overheats and 2 dead pathfinders later, they broke and fled the table!!

Sheesh, not looking good! The Termies assaulted the Guardians in our deployment zone from their Landraider and wiped them out!! Followed by our deep striking Spiders gunning 1 of them down in turn! That's okay we doomed them and we'll get the Avatar to exact vengeance....The falcon was destroyed as well and all the shots that the avengers put in to Marbo were saved by the cover, assault led to the avengers losing the combat and just hanging on!

Shrike leapt ino the Scorpions, which were in cover, Eldrad waded in with them and the result was a win to the Scorpions with only Shrike and a lone marine left! Well something was looking up, our wraithguard could toast the Termies before the Avatar got into them as well...... The Assault marine finally went down to Eldrad and the remaining Scorpions, however they did take four of the little green arachnids with them!

This turn also saw the poor wraithguard roll a wraithsight failure of a 1, leaving them flat footed in front of the Termies while the wave serpent carrying the Banshees got immobilised! That's okay the Avatar would deal with the Termies.....bloody invulnerable saves again! Ours didn't work though...sadly!

Turn 4 the Termies assaulted the poor inert Wraithguard and wiped them out, then swept on toward the Scorpions with Eldrad! The spiders suffered a deluge of fire and got all wiped out bar the exarch! Marbo drew the ongoing combat in both rounds! The scorpions and Eldrad assaulted the Termies and lost the combat, poor Eldrad rolling double 1 for wounds! With hind sight I think it might not have ma

ttered as they were making a lot of those 3+ inv saves....damn those storm shields!! the termies killed everyone except Eldrad! Our Falcon was also destroyed by one of the staunch guardsmen manning a Lascannon....it's not looking good!

Turn 5 Marbo finally succumbed to numbers, the Spider Exarch was sniped by some vets that had done the Pathfinders! and Eldrad succumbed to the storm shield thunder hammer combo!
Our only last ditch effort was the Dire Avengers pouring a "Bladestorm" into a platoon of Guardsmen, killing 3 however they held fast!

I'd love to say honours even but 8-4 on kill points doesn't cut it! Good win to the Imperials...well done Varistat and The Silverfox, commiserations to the BFG and Eddie Artillery.

Great game and a real, real laugh!

Update on Progress.

Well here's another timely update, I can never decide when is good to show the next stage, so I am going to put these up as and when time permits.
I have managed to add a nice version of the Eldrad Ulthran character which I have been painting for our Eldar joint force games. Originally I bought this figure to go with my Ulthwe strike force, however as that list is somewhat defunct now (see Eye of Terror Codex) I thought it best to include him in my generic Ulthwe force. My intent is to highlight the gemstones with a gloss varnish finish, once the artificial light effect is in place. I'm no expert however I'm gonna give it a go!
Another addition to my Eldar is the AVATAR, the Bloody Hand of Khaine, this dude with the Psychic power from the Farseer "Fortune" will ensure he sticks around for a very, very long time!! I cannot lay any claim to the paint job as my good friend the Silverback nicked it from under my nose one afternoon recently and then brought it back delightfully painted!! Thank you Sir! All I did was edge the base and texture it. This still looks a little glossy as it's wet, it'll dry a nice matt finish and I may drybrush for effect.
An awesome model, although somewhat small these days in comparison to most Monstrous Creatures, although with True Line of Sight rulings this could be a blessing!

Next off the paint station is the in progress Slaaneshie Terminators from my earlier post, these are coming along nicely I think and once I get the iconography on to the back banners and

shoulder pads this will lend a lot to the finished articles.

First up I have the Terminator Champion, this guy should be a real handful with initiative 5 and 5 attacks the turn he assaults, what's the Gimp mask all about!! Oh well that's Slaanesh for you I suppose!

The heavy weapon of choice for the squad is the Heavy flamer. I was unsure whether I should give the skull shoulder pad a metallic finish, however decided the bone finish looks far better...still that's down to personal taste at the end of the day! Complete with Chainfist he should be useful against vehicles as well as the hordes!

The rest of the squad comprise a couple of Terminators with Combi-bolters and one has a Tentacle...one of the blessings of their chosen Deity I guess! This will also double up as a Chainfist.

The way the tentacle has leather straps adds to the whole feel of the God of excess and pleasure! Or so I am told anyway!

The next Termie has a melta combi and a power weapon, again Initiative 5 should ensure I get the first hit and therefore reduce the amount of attacks coming back at them!

I really like the look of this guy! as he's striding over the rock face, the normal marine head is far better then the huge tuskers as well.

Last but not least another gimp mask guy!! Armed with Storm Bolter (Combi-Bolter) this guy will lend attacks to the champion, hopefully reducing the comeback again!!

Okay I am off to draft a list for tonights 2,000 pts game against the Silverfox and Varistat! Eddie Artillery is going to be bringing the big guns and all will be here on the blog in the next couple of days for your delectation.

'til then TTFN.

Additions to Chaos

This is the start of my Chaos Slaanesh Terminators, kindly exchanged by Varistat for my old Griffon, for his nasty Imperial Guard army...still more on that later I am sure!
When Varistat gave me these chaps, they were undercoated white and devoid of bases, Vari needed the original diorama bases for another project.

The squad comprises, Terminator Champion - Twin LC's, Heavy Flamer with chain fist, I will be using the Tentacles Terminator as a chainfist as well, 2 combi-Meltas and a Power weapon and Combi-Bolter.
I was just grateful to get these as a worthy addition to my Black Legion, I already have 8 Terminators, which are okay, however they still lacked something! I couldn't put my finger on it....until I got these, they have been successfully transformed through Vari's insight to a dynamic posed force, nice little touches, such as the use of a heavy flamer and a fuel tank from a vehicle, the addition of melta nozzles to combi-bolters. The use of Abbaddon's body and some old metal "Imperial" lightning claws just make the whole unit unique, subtle changes that really work! I understand that Varistat uses foil from champagne bottle tops for the seals on the shoulder pads! That explains a lot!
I am hoping that as I paint these I can do justice to the initial work. I decided on a black undercoat, old habits and all. Once I had them undercoated I drybrushed them white, now this isn't something I would ordinarily do, however, given that I wanted to dry brush the metal colour on after, this would go better on the white, my plan being to go back after and pick out the plate background in between the raised areas drybrushed! So on with the metal dry brush and next the "colouring" in of the other ares between the filigree and base relief of the models, I intend to post as I go along to show them as they develop, at least that's the plan!

You can see here the use of tentacles from one of the chaos plastic sprues, with a different head.


The bases are simply slate stacked and then some larger grit positioned around, I will detail them after painting further, the figures are pinned in place though using my Como model drill and good old pins, they do lend a lot to the size and imposing feel of the models from a table top perspective, as these are the older metal Terminator bodies they are a little smaller than the later plastic ones. This image shows nice use of a Slaanesh shoulder pad!

So next stop colour!!

'Til then...T.T.F.N!

Games Day Wolf Lord Diorama

When we trukked up to Lenton last weekend, you know the story by now, loads to drink and hangovers on the Saturday, none of us noticed the "HUUUUUGE" diorama to the right of the entrance to Warhammer World....Luckily the Silverbacks mate Ian offered us the information on the Saturday night, so we got to see it!

All I can say is wow!! The scene is one of a last stand on a world defended by the Space wolf chapter. In the centre there is a procession of marines carrying the incapacitated Wolf Lord across the drawbridge, a squad of Long Fangs pour death into the tidal wave of living chitin pouring up the slopes.

There are loads of little individual dioramas all telling there own tale, just on the right of the first picture there is a Landspeeder Storm being dragged down by a Carnifex, Hormagaunts pouring up and over the monster and on to the Scouts, who are still desperately battling the inevitable.

Out of shot below the Landspeeder is a culvert which Genesstealers have found and are crawling into up the rock face from the river far below!

On the left a similair story with Genestealers crossing the same river, just their heads visible and then crawling the steep rock face.

Large explosions can be seen in the foreground of the slope, throwing Gaunts into the air!

On the right down hill of the Speeder a desperate battle unfolds with a Squad of Wolves falling back under assaults from Tyranid Warriors and yet more Gaunts! One image noted was the flexh hooks shooting out from a Warrior into a Space Wolf, who has then grasped these and appears to be dragging the Warrior to him, Thunder Hammer poised to bludgeon the monster.

All together a fantastic piece, the detail is immense, discarded bolter casings litter the snowy ground, along with dead from both sides!

There are all manner of choices from boh Codexes on display and all are in full "lifelike" pose as taken from a still photo shot.

Great Stuff!!

The only down side was that the pictures were taken with my Phone on the Sunday, as I didn't have my camera! :-(

Warhammer 40k Doubles 2010

Here is the second part of my post regarding the visit to Lenton and GW HQ. I had mentioned in my previous posts the painted armies in the running for best army and wanted to include some more of the Adeptus Mechanicua Army that was being used as a Chaos Demons army and the beautiful Eldar army. So again in no particular order.

The Wraithlord was converted into a lovely pose, I loved the way the Wraithblade was being employed as a two handed weapon.

Here the rest of the rangers and pathfinders can be clearly seen.

The Avatar isn't really done any justice from this photo, somehow

the guy had managed to get led's inside the model to really give it the look that it was flashing and glowing from inside!

There are some nice close ups of the rangers and their camo-cloaks.

The Greater Demon in the Pseudo-Adeptus Mechanicus army is exquisite.

The domed structure being a Chaos Herald I think.

These old "Epic " scale imperial knights were used as Bloodletters! A really interesting army with some great looking units!

These are some nice Plague Marines, every Chaos Lords favourites.

Unfortunately my camera ability has mean't that I missed the Demon Princes this guy had as they were out of focus!! Sorry guys! Here's one of them somewhat out of focus, but you get an idea of just what they were about, excellent idea!

I am off to the Rhonnda Tournie in February representing the GoG's and hope to regale you all on my adventures there!

B.F.G.