Getting some Games Played!

So last week at club I took a night off gaming, I'd played a fair bit the week before and felt like doing some spectating. Its always good to browse some games as you absorb some of the rules from armies you haven't played yet.... Scouting! Club regular Morgan got in touch then about going to Firestorm Games in Cardiff for a game, so myself and Bam readily accepted. We played a nice big 3500 a side game, mine and Bams Space Marines against Morgans Eldar. We kept things simple and went for kill points, and deployed in table quarters. Theres some nice scenery on offer here, so if you're in the South Wales area I recommend! 

The game itself didn't go too bad, but we did have some bad luck. Eldar are buggers! Eldrad and his seer council were horrednously hard to kill, and wiped out a unit of assault termies with a chaplain and Bams captain (who falied three armour saves!) and vanguard sergeant in close combat. Ouch! We lost the game 14-10, Not too bad a performance, I still don't know how to play Eldar too well so we did alright.... Revenge would be mine! Which brings us onto the club nights game I played.....

My scheduled opponent Alun, failed to show with his daemons (fear of the Emporers Angels no doubt!) so Morgan suggest a game of planetstike. First, I'd attack. So I spent a good few minutes writing a list then Morg said he'd not got much attacking stuff with him.... Gimboid! Being a true gent (ha) I switched and became the defender. My list was roughly... Master of the Forge, 4 dreads, vindicator, land raider, assault termies and chaplain, 5 bikes, Korsarro Khan (yes I have bikes now, more to come in the week!) 2 tactical squads in rhinos, and 10 sternguard with stormbolters. Oh and a predator. 

The Eldar stormed onto the table and all I could muster was a repeated 'ouch'. I lost my Land Raider, Vindicator, 2 dreads, Master of the Forge was Mind War'red by Eldrad, a Bastion (there was 2) turned to moltan slag by fire dragons and the predator blown apart. Not good! Being a true astartes, the towel wasn't thrown in and I continued. Barely haha. I rolled for reserves, and the tactical squads and bikers all showed up... but not where I wanted! Making the best of the situation though, I charged in and managed to immobilise 2 falcons and help hinder the Eldar's strength of mobility. I was then charged in the arse by the howling banshees, and failed miserably to make any saves from the shooting that was aimed at my bikers and lost all except Kor' Sarro Khan(who'll be renamed for my chapter, and yes, I know I didnt wanna use named characters but... well FURIOUS CHARGE!!!) 

 

Anyway, using an escape hatch I was able to charge my Termies and chaplain into Eldrad, which worried me slightly as in the previous game from Thursday, it was Eldrad and his seer council that took my Termies apart. Not so this time! The termies ripped 4 apart, and made the pointy xenos run. Korsarro sliced through the 10 howling banshees who had charged him then run them down after they failed their leadership test, then took out a small fire dragon squad and 10 dire avengers. He later fell to falcon fire... although the apothecary has revived him and is healing well. Ahem. The Termies finished off the seer council, then the chaplain wiped out the 4 swooping hawks that a tactical squad had weakened, and helped crush another 10 man squad of dire avengers with halp from said tactical squad. My other tactical squad performed well taking a lot of abuse from some warp spiders after having shredded a squad of harlequins apart with rapid fireing boltguns. The avatar did crush my other two dreads, but this too was downed by fire after a krak attack took 3 wounds off when it deep striked. 

I had pulled off a win! I was pretty surprised at how well the space marines came back, and I think it just goes to show how good even the tactical squads are against anything. Probably my best win so far, so very proud of my Evandalists!

Elsewhere, its Bams Birthday today (1st May) so I'd bought him a razorback, and painted some flames on there as a base for him to practice on, and I've also been working on this Legion of the Damned Terminator too. It was mainly to have a go of flames as a practice for the Razorback, but it was looking pretty good and I felt like a change painting wise... so I cracked on! He seems happy so far and I've done a bit more since taking this picture. Will show more when its done=]

The Community.

On our clubs trip to Warhammer World, I had previously mentioned about a couple I met and got talking too. James and Angela Askins, a couple who live in Nottingham and are both incredibly embedded in the hobby, couldn't get rid of me for many minutes, and I apologise for keeping them from sculpting and painting! I think James gave me a wee present to get rid of me, and here it is.

I wish (and hopefully will soon have) a photography set up to take much more detailed pics so I could give this justice, but you can still probably see how awesome this looks. James (who is a member of The Dogs of War) was telling me that he'd had a tryout for a miniatures designing position at Games Workshop, and one of the things he was tasked with was to copy the Grimgor Ironhide model. This head is the decapitated head the Black Orc waves cheerily in his hand. As soon as he showed me it I was impressed, the slight sneer on his face, how you can sculpt that much detail I'll never know. However, seeing how impressed I was at this face James said I could keep it as a momento of the day. What an absolute gentleman! His partner Angela was also incredibly lovely, talking about painting, showing me her current project (which was looking sick!) and they both shared stories about the hobby, from Games Workshed to John Blanche and even vikings hanging out with Gandalf. Which is the subject of this post. 

As someone who has been into videogaming for a very long time, and seen the birth of online gaming, it often appalls me at how people act on there. Swearing and abusive comments being commonplace. Incredibly annoying I'm sure you'll agree. Well, experiences in wargaming, for myself, are very much the opposite. Everyone seems genuinely helpful, either to give tips, gaming advice etc. You only need to be on here to find this out. 

FTW, WhiteScars, Faeit 212, Sons of Isis, and Wargames and Migraines have all been incredibly helpful in any matter I have so wished help with or simply been amazingly friendly to talk too. It really shows just what a great hobby this is to be involved in. You only have to walk into a Games Workshop and fight the over friendly staff off to see what I mean! I've only been re-involved in the hobby for about 8 months and already I feel like I never left it for almost 10 years, the people at Tredegar Wargames Club have been so welcoming and helpful, and its an honour to say I'm now a part of this. Part of what we do at the club is to try and make it grow, from gaining new members to improving what we have to enhance the gaming aspect, everything is being looked at and its an honour to be able to help the club in this way. 

When I was young and was first shown the hobby by my brother in law, I felt that this was something I wanted to do in more than just a past time way. That feeling has started to resurface, hence why I'm blogging about it, and trying to get the club I'm a part of improve as much as possible. 

Cheers everyone I've mentioned and also to the people I may not have. 

The Second Battle for Fort Pain.

What follows is my attempt at writing a story about our apocalypse game which we played on the Fort Pain board at Warhammer World. This is pretty much the first draft, and I'll update it more when I can. Any feedback is appreciated!

Imperial Forces were alerted to a Chaos fleet coming out of warp space in the sector that carried the planet Gnosis, home of the legendary battle of Fort Pain. Whatever evil artefacts were being uncovered had remained on the planets surface, and it seemed the Chaos forces were intent on obtaining these technologies. A combined force of Space Wolves, Blood Angels, Black Templars, Ultramarines and newly found chapter the Evandalists were sent to oppose these Chaos forces. The traitors were found amassing troops near the fabled Fort Pain, and so the combined Chapters created their defence. As dawn approached Imperial forces could hear the rumbling of heretic marines, and it was soon apparent that Chaos were not alone. The Alpha Legion, Thousand Sons, Death Guard, Black Legion, and the World Eaters were all present, and they had somehow allied themselves with an Evil Sunz clan, Necrons, and the vile Tyranids. The Eldar architecture that had been partly uncovered was put under high level defence, as rumours are that Ahriman wishes to gain access to the Eldar's Black Library.

As the evil alliance were ready for their assault the Imperial forces burst out and attempted to catch the vile allies off guard. As Land Raiders of the Templars, Space Wolves and Evandalists sped out Draigo and a large amount of paladins joined the fray, looking to spill the blood of the ancient enemy. First blood was claimed by the Evandalists, whose force of dreadnoughts where able to attack behind the Alpha Legions lines were able to destroy the Alpha Legion dreadnought and sought to give more time to the Imperium forces to get into combat. The dreadnoughts soon found themselves assaulted on all sides by Ork speed freakz led by Wazdakka Gutzmek, and although helped to give precious time were ultimately stopped and destroyed.

The Blood Angels forces combined Death Company proved highly effective against the Necrons, Death Guard and Tyranids, who were all slowly being wiped out by the Sons of Sanguinius. A huge Necron destroyer squadron were also destroyed by the Death Company, Dante himself was able to slay one of the dreaded C'tan, along with Necrons and Tyranids. Much of the Blood Angels force was able to relieve the beleaguered Grey Knights who were under attack from all sides but stubbornly refusing to give in.

As it looked like the Space Marines would carry the day, a Necron force teleported down in front of the gate, a monolith phalanx with none other than Imotekh the Stormlord leading a large number of Necron Warriors. Just as the Imperial Defenders started to concentrate fire on this new threat the Vile Nurgle Daemon Scabeiathrax the Bloated and the Khorne Daemon Ann'ggrath the Unbound materialised, and now it became clear just why the Grey Knights were present. They however had more pressing concerns.

Kharn the Betrayer and a sizeable force of World Eaters saw Draigo and charged into him and his paladins, and a huge fight erupted in the centre of the battlefield. Many paladins died but ultimately, Kharn was killed. Akos of the Faithless, part of the Alpha Legion warband involved in the battle, was able to kill a weakened Draigo, gaining revenge against Draigo from the Siege of Vraks.

The Despoiler himself looked to get into the fight, but a brave Ultramarines Chaplain was able to teleport nearby and threw one of the highly unstable but dangerous Vortex grenades, which stopped Abbadon for a short time as he looked to meed Logan Grimnar in combat. Abbadon looked out for a new target, and led his retinue craftily past the now swirling vortex grenade and was met by Marshal Darian of the Valican Crusade. The Black Templars held their own, and were then able to force Abbadon into retreat when Grey Knights assisted them and hurled back the Despoiler. With all his retinue dead, Abbadon teleported back to his ship. Horus' favoured knew that their mission was almost complete, and death would come to the Imperium soon enough.

A thick haze slowly rose amongst the Necron and Thousand Son's lines, where the fallen Warhound Titans head sat. The Chaos Marines looked to see where it had risen, but as the cloud became thicker out stormed Space Marines like ghosts, ethereal fire blazing across their armour and bolters spitting ghostly death. The whole of the Thousand lines and several squads of Necron Warriors diverted their attention to meet this new threat, and, after many vollys of bolter and guass fire, the squad of apparations slowly disappeared, the Sergeant laughing behind his skull-like helmet. Reports were scant about the Legion of the Damned being at Fort Pain, but it is believed a small number of the Blood Angels witnessed the mysterious Space Marines, with even Dante mentioning the Damned. It is said they only appear in the direst of times, was this battle something more serious than the Imperium could know about?

Behind the armoured walls of Fort Pain, several Chaos Dreadnoughts appeared, along with Death Guard and Alpha Legion forces. These were halted in advancing too far across the Imperial lines but then the ground tarted to tremor. It was here that a dread Bio-Titan entered play. Unable to stop the creature, the Space Marines tried to concentrate on the Chaos Forces and were able to deplete them, but the Bio-Titan was another matter. It stomped through the Imperial defence and slowly headed to the Eldar relics that were being excavated many years previous.

As Imotekh watched in horror as his monoliths were slowly being destroyed, Chapter Master of the Evandalists Vincent Eniko and his Terminator brethren launched into the Necrons with hate unseen. The Necron Warriors tried desperately to fight back but were all wiped out by the Evandalists, Eniko's own sword spearing the metallic form of Imotekh. Orneus Gyozo, one of the Chapters most venerated Chaplains lead another squad of Terminators into the Alpha Legion Lord and his Terminator retinue. The Chaos Lord laughed maniacally as his daemon sword hissed destruction, and Gyozo was brutally wounded.

Ahriman, leading his Thousand Sons at the rear of the enemy lines, seemed to be making sure one area of the battlefield was safe. A lone Space Wolves dreadnought caught the attention of the ancient psychic and knowing his men were too busy gaining control of whatever device or artefact they were ordered to take, he rushed in using a rare stasis power he had learnt from ancient texts. He kept himself and the dreadnought out of the battle until he knew his loyal follower had cemented control over whatever it was they were after.

Scabeiathrax and his plague bearers had found themselves their target, the Grey Knights, and made them pay dearly for their intervention, wiping them out. Ann'ggrath, looking for a skull worthy of his Lord Khorne was instead found by the Thunderwolf Lord Harald Deathwold, and a titanic combat ensued. Logan Grimnar and his Wolf Guard retinue were able to wipe out World Eaters, possessed, and an enormous scarab swarm, keeping them at bay with huge swings of axe and squashing the insectoid robots underfoot. A huge Obliterator Cult, which had been taking a toll on the Imperial force found themselves assaulted by a Wolf Priest, Blood Claws and Venerable Dreadnought, who managed to slay half of them until more bezerkers entered the fray and then destroyed those.

Kyrann Locke, the Evandalists Master of the Forge, controlled the combined Chapters devastators on the fortress gate and together they took a terrible toll on the enemy armour. Monoliths, Land Raiders and Rhinos all succumbed to the concentrated fire of the Space Marines heavy weapons. As the battle intensified, the combined Devastators turned to face the rampaging Bio-Titan. It had so far wiped out a huge number of the defenders and was on top of the excavation site, where it roared victoriously. Evandalists sergeant Yngbvar was able to break into one of the large excavating vehicles and while the devastators concentrated fire the Veteran was able to pierce its large body with the long arm that previously held up the Elder artefact, where it was eventually killed. Yngbvar was killed when the Bio-Titan exploded and covered the encroaching area with bio acid. His name shall be remembered in the Evandalists halls of remembrance, along with those who tried to stand in its way.

Much of the Chaos force was now defeated, Orks had turned tail, and Necrons had phased out. Scabeiathrax, whistling to himself, could see there was little else to do. The Grey Knights had been defeated and the Nurgle daemon was happy. He hummed a delightful tune as he and his retinue materialised back into the warp. The Blood Angels rampaged still through the Necron and Tyranid line, who, unable to stop the fury of the Sons of Sanguinius, now fled the field. The Chaos forces that had managed to sneak behind the fortress walls were slowly being taken out by Black Templars and Ultramarines, and the gateway was looking uncontested. The heretics were backing away under fire but the Imperial allies had suffered many casualties.

After the battle, each Chapter Master gathered, and it was discovered that the Thousand Sons were seen carrying something away on heretic transports while the Death Guard protected their rear. It seems whatever the Chaos Forces wanted, they had obtained. Was the Eldar architecture a feint and the true objective elsewhere? Inquisitor Silas, who himself battled a Chaos Dreadnought and won, asked questions of Dante about his sighting of the Legion of the Damned and was met with nothing but a cold look that he could feel through his Terminator armour.

The Allies knew this battle was possibly only the start of things to come. Whatever the Chaos forces had it could only mean destruction and menace for the Imperium.

The Second Battle for Fort Pain Gallery 

PlanetStrike and Gaming!

Well hello there! Monday night gaming this consisted of having a go at planetstrike for the first time, as the club bought the 40k expansion at its Warhammer World trip. Myself and Carl were to go against Alun, but Carl had to leave and so Morgans Space Wolves teamed with my Space Marines against Aluns Daemons, which included 5 daemon princes or greater daemons... Ouch!  We set up so each bastion was either side of the table, hoping to create a killing ground in the middle. Didn't work! Aluns Daemons, through clever (evil dickishly dastardly) use of icons in his units were able to deepstrike down very close to my forces whereas Morgan was fairly unmolested! The first turn and a DP took out a combat squad, luckily everything else was just out of range. My Captain and Termies charged in and butchered the daemon prince, score! Their consolidation was then a line up in front of two units of bloodletters, I could just imagine my termies and captain giving them the 'C'mon, charge us' looks. And they did!

Two units of bloodletters and a Blood thirster swept into my unit and caused devastation, but not before my captain wounded the bloodthirster earning its bloodthirsty respect. This wound was critical! The blood thirster then charged my land raider, and failed to dent it too much, so one plasma cannon and 8 bolters later the bloodthirster was dead, thanks to it having one less wound! Morgans guys were able to shoot at range until a Lord of Change started to rampage through his lines and destroy his bastion... but was then taken out eventually. I originally though defending against the daemons would be incredibly hard, but we had successfully stopped them. First game of planetstrike a win and a thoroughly enjoyable game!

Bam's Legion of the Damned and Chris' Khorne Bezerkers also played, and also looked like a bloody affair.

 Bam managed to get the winafter holding one objective and managing to either contest or wipe out the defendersof other objectives. Win for Bam!

We may be starting a campaign at the clob, small number of players so it will hopefully last. I however will be taking a backseat as I had an idea to run a smaller campaign to try and get some of the less experienced guys (myself included) more familiar with the rules. This will benefit us all as everyone starts to get to grips with the rules. Planning will be done for that! 

Painting wise I haven't done much since Warhammer World, a rest has been needed and Fez came out, which is an amazingly addictive game on the Xbox which tugged at my childhood... no, all time love for 2d Mario games. I am planning on getting my Terminators and assault squad more complete though as I intend to try out slightly more attacking forces in the future. 

Myself and Bam had a couple of games sunday, which gave me one draw and a win, and helped bam know a couple more of the rules for the game he played against Chris. Tuesday night I went to Jason, my Blood Angels nemesis! We played two games there, and surprisingly, I won both! I was able to prioritise targets well, my first round of shooting took out a dreadnought, and immobilised both his baal predator and the rhino carrying his expensive death company! After that I was able to handle what he could charge in. Second game was similar, dreadnought out in the first turn, and control taken by the third. Noice!

I'm hoping to write some fluff about the apocalypse game in Warhammer World soon too, especially as my Chapter Master seems to be doing pretty well for himself. He's slayed Imotekh, Astrogath and a fair few troops too, which for me is everything as I have purposefully chosen not to take a special character and create my own. He's creating a history already and will hopefully get to add plenty more!

Thats all for now, adios!

Warhammer World!

Well! Warhammer World has come and gone, and I can honestly say in my first apocalypse game, I had a blast! It was incredibly tiring, due to the amount of players we had it was stop start, but it was still awesome! I think in total we had about 42,000 points worth on the table, and 8 players on each side. Heres a few photos from the day!

For all the images I've taken please visit my flickr to see all 102 pictures!

Highlight for the day was my Chapter Master and 6 Thunder Hammer Terminators taking on Imotekh the StormLord and 20 Necron Warriors and wiping them out in a single turn, well happy! My dreads earned the first kill point for the game, but were'nt the most effective. Two tactical squads were wiped out by a bio titan, although one sergeant almost wounded it with a plasma pistol shot, and my chaplain and other terminators were butchered by a chaos warlord holding aloft a deamon weapon... 2d6 attacks... Ouch! 

Amazing day though, had a gutbusta and finished it, not even difficult! I'll be making another post either tonight or tomorrow, with hopefully a better account and a bit of a story to describe the day. Keep your eyes peeled!

Terminators and Texture Paints

Eugh. 

Probably not the best way to start a post but thats how I feel. I Woke up after an early night, after 3 hours sleep. I've been awake for 3 hours, and its currently 4:30am. Like I said.... Eugh.

Anyways, despite feeling a wee bit grim I thought I'd get a quick post up with my Terminators. Taking the pictures has shown me just how unfinished they are, so I'll be trying to do a bit to these tomorrow (aka today, but its not today til I've slept properly!)

Lightning claw terminators are awesome. Re-rolling those failed wounds in combat helps so much, especially, if like me, you team them with a Chaplain. Re-roll all failed to hits on the charge, and all failed wound rolls with the termies? Score! Can't be a bad thing!

Thunder hammer termies are a wee bit different. If you're the patient type who doesn't mind letting your opponent roll a load of dice before you do, these bad boys are your choice. Striking last can be a nuisence, but as long as they hit they kill! They're especially good against vehicles, which is why I usually employ a mixed squad of terminators in games. Hitting power comes from the claws, high strength from the thunder hammers.

Bit of a close up, and a wee look at the texture paint. More of this to come!

Heres a much better close up of the base. Astrogranite was the paint in the new range that made me jump with joy, an incredibly easy way to make an effective looking gaming base. Slap it on, wash with badab black (or whatever its now called) then highlight with administratum grey. I absolutely love the finished result, and am a big fan of these textured paints. Have a go of them if you can and let me know what you think!

So later on I'll be slapping a bit of paint on my termies, finishing my Legion of the Damned, and hopefully doing a wee bit more to my Land Raiders. I'm hopeful I'll be done, as I want an early night due to an early start wednesday morning for the big day. Club night was quiet but went quick as both teams discussed tactics, stragetic assets and whether Thunderwolves or Juggernauts of Khorne would taste better on a barbecue. I'm going to try and keep notes during the game, and take as many, if not more pictures than I did last time we went. May be hard as I'm playing for the first time but we shall see!

Texture Paints + Lack of Time = Awesomeness.

So this morning, I went down to Cwmbran Games Workshop and picked up a couple of pots of Astrogranite, the texture paint. Wow. I love the stuff! Slap it on, give it a while to dry, badab black it, then some of the new Administratum Grey drybrushed and you've got nice and easy bases, which with 4 days left before I go to Warhammer World is the best thing ever. And heres why. 

Today I managed to get all these based while painting some other things too.

 

A whole tactical squad based, 4 characters, and two dreads done. Along with making a kit bash techmarine, painting said techmarine, and adding some other details I think I've done pretty damn good today. This doesn't include taking into account the 2 hour nap I had this afternoon. Score!

 So the chaplain dread is coming along nicely, not much left to do I'm happy to say! Finally got some stuff on the base and its helped bring it out even more. The broken rhino hatch still needs some wear and tear and a bit of highlighting, but not much else

Assault of the Ancients anyone? Hence why I need a techmarine!

HQ choices, from left is Orneus Gyozo, Vincent Eniko, and Kyrann Locke. Really liking how everything looks together. 

This is my new techmarine, kitbashed from tactical sprue, devastator sprue, and the vehicle accessory sprue. Oh and a terminator thunder hammer for good measure! He's not great don't get me wrong, but he shall do! He'll be leading my dreads into battle, so fingers crossed he'll survive a turn.

Tomorrow, I'm aiming to get the terminators and another tactical squad based, and hopefully get the land raider a little more finished. Time will tell! Plus after a nice big sunday dinner I may not be able to sit upright. Tis a challange I'm relishing though!

Breaking out the Fluff

So my Evandalist Space Marine Chapter are coming along, but one thing I've not shown yet , is the background. I know a lot of people don't find background neccessary, and thats fair enough. Wargaming is one of those hobbies that encompasses so many aspects, from modelling, terrain, gaming, painting, fiction etc, that we, the hobbyists can give, take or even avoid what we wish. Some people just paint well enough to get their force onto the table and start rolling those dice, others prefer to avoid the numbered cubes and just spent their hobby time painting and modelling. Myself, I'm into a bit of everything.

It occured to me that after the first 10 or so games I'd played that little stories had been created. Certain sergeants had done well, and as new units were added more and more history was being made. I've always been a fan of the fluff and enjoy reading many of the Black Library books, so what better to honour my Chapter than to give it its own background. I've already mentioned a few choices previously about my direction for the Evandlists, but so far the actual fluff I've written has been unseen. Until now. It needs a lot of editing and work but its coming along. Any thoughts are welcome!



The Evandalists


Space Marines are the greatest defence against threats from within the Imperium or from xenos scum. While the number of Space Marines is incredibly low compared to the imnumerable forces of the Imperial Guard, new Chapters do appear and are always well met by members of the Imperium.  The Evandalists are one such chapter that has a relatively short but storied history.

The Chapter itself is thought to have been made from the gene-seed of the Ultramarines, although when created, officers from several Chapters were introduced to lead the young army. Hence the multitude of colours used by the Chapter in honour of its forefathers varied background. In battle the Evandalists are very methodical in how they fight. As a young chapter they usually enlist at least one unit of scouts in most battles to gain eperience for its recuits as often as possible. Because of this the chapter has less assault squads than other adeptus astartes, however their devastators are gaining a notoriety for their marksmenship due to the training given while in the 10th company.

Led by Chapter Master Vincent Eniko they have proved themselves a valuable asset to the defence of the Imperium. Recent campaigns have included searching for an ancient weapon known only as Codename: Angel in the Scintilla System. This weapon is thought to pre-date the Imperium and is rumoured to contain immense power. Reports indicated that Choas and Necron forces were in the Callixis sector and a combined force of several Space Marine Chapters and Imperial Guard regiments are all hunting for the weapon so best to defend it from the vile enemies. Orks were also encountered in the system but lack of pattern seems to indicate that they're simply looking for a fight and have so far been contained.

While relatively young the Chapter itself is fast becoming well known and has competed in several campaigns already. One of its earlier actions saw the Chapter battling Chaos forces in the Eastern Fringe. A warband lead by the renegade Balekith the Banefist had been spotted jumping between Imperial and Tau space, and the Evandalists were sent to hunt them down and possibly find out why. Evandalist battle barges found a small chaos fleet anchored around a planet not recorded on Imperial records and hidden from the fleets navigators. As the Chapter's Battle Barges engaged the Chaos fleet Thunderhawk gunships were deployed with 3 companies of Space Marines to the surface to engage the foe. The majority of the enemy seemed to be focussing their attacks against an alien stronghold and looked to be breaking their way in. Evandalist Thunderhawks opened up with a barrage that caught the chaos forces off guard and then deployed their forces.The second and third companies were to engage directly with the warband while the fifth company looked to outflank the Chaos forces from the only route the enemy could escape..

As the traitors realised they were outnumbered and started to fall back the Fifth company launched their assualt. The battle lasted just 7 hours until the enemy was crushed. A small number of the heretics escaped, among them thought to be Balekith. The Evandalist's Second Company Captain Erasmus Torgeaz lead his force to march to the alien stronghold to discover what Balekith was after, and upon approaching the main entrance the huge metal gate slowly opened. What appeared were small ab-humans who seemed cautious, but relieved they had been saved from a terrible fate. These stuntied survivors were found to have been the once thought annihilated Squats, who had created a cloaking device which had kept their planet a secret and safe from xenos threat until one of their kind had turned traitor and alligned himself to Chaos. Balekith had wanted to enslave the Squats to convert their techology and attempt to incorporate it onto their ships to be able to launch invasions into Imperial systems without being detected until they had made planetfall.

The ancient cloaking device was developed shortly before the Horus Heresy broke out millenia ago, and was used to keep themselves hidden as much traitor activity began occuring in their sector. The Squat stronghold new that such a huge and bitter civil war would destroy them and so set upon the task of survival by using a device that made their planet invisible to any nearby ships. Such devices are incredbly rare and difficult to mantain, thus it is testament to the ab-humans ability to machine and technology working they had remaind hidden for so long.

With parts of their stronghold destroyed, the Squats now had nowhere safe to live. The Evandalists young Master of the Forge, Kyrann Locke, could see just how incredible the Squats skills with technology were. After meeting with firstly Vincent Eniko and then the leaders of the Squats, it was decided that the Squats would be taken to Mars and meet the Adeptus Mechanicus. There they could safely reside and share their wisdom to the Techpriests and learn of what the Imperium had become in the years since their hid away. A small number of the Squat clan petitioned themselves to be allowed to travel with the Evandalists while they campaign, so as to work within the Chapters Armouries where their skill could be put to use maintaining and creating new technolgy. Chapter Master Eniko was weary of such a thing, but Kyrann Locke persuaded him that their skill was too great to not take advantage of. The leader of this group of Squats, Thorod Thorlak proceeded to gift the chapter an ancient preheresy weapon. The weapon, which was a precurser to the Lascannons of today, was a mighty Conversion Beamer. Master of the Forge Kyrann Locke quickly learned to use the weapon and it has seen much use on the battlefield when ranged fire is needed.

WIP HQ's, Chapter Master and Master of the Forge

More work in progress shots, this time of two of my characters. First up.... Vincent Eniko

He's coming along nicely, fell off his base the other morning and I almost cried, but a nice big blob of super glue saved the day! Added a lot more detailing since showing him the last time, and still a lot to do. The facial highlights I need to bring back a bit more, the sword I haven't even started, and of course, the base!

Kyrann Locker, Master of the Forge

My Master of the Forge is getting pretty much to the finishing line, the reason he doesn't look overly too techmarine-like is because the back story involves him being the youngest Master of the Forge to date for any chapter, and still has a lot of cybernetic implants to swap for his weak flesh. Or theres a lot of mechanical parts under the armour... Unsure yet! The weapon is my oen depiction of a conversion beamer cut and pasted from a lascannon, missile launcher, and a few other spare parts I had. Figuring the conversion beamer is a laser weapon I thought it would be cool to have it predating the laser weapons of now, hence the lasscannon parts. And it was all I had! 

I love the space marines sprues, they're absolutely amazing to convert and kitbash with, as I've seen on other blogs. If you have any interesting conversions please share with some links in the comment boxes! I'm always looking for more inspiration and reasons to get the knife and glue out for.

The Evandalists So Far....

The Evandalists as they are right now. This is about 4000 points, give or take.

I'm really happy with how they look collectively, and they're playable as they are. I would love to get them based before Warhammer World but unless I get some of that texture paint on saturday I very much doubt that happening! I've also got another 5 man assault squad, a couple of extra termies, plus a five man terminator squad with storm bolters and assault cannon. And about 15 tactical marines... so I'm looking at about 4500 points in total. 

So there we are. Gonna try and get the chapter badge onto what I'm taking, bit of a pain as I have to do it freehand but ah well, such is the price for individuality!

Chaplain Dread and Land Raider Crusader WIP's

So here is how things are looking so far. Land Raider Crusader needs to be pretty much done by next week for the apocalypse game at WW, so I've been working on that a lot today. As you can see she's looking pretty decent, I'm loving how well the checks work on the top. Still a fair bit to do but a chunk done, onto the detailing soon!

 Heres the other side, I'll be honest when I'm painting any model in my army, I have very little planned as to what colours go where, I just go for one and try to make sure they're all balanced, with a wee bit more prominence on red.

My Chaplain Dread is also coming on, I've highlighted the metal, and also the black armour. The next step will probably be the base, decide what colour to do the broken Rhino door, probably a contrasting colour to add variety as a chaplain doesn't give many options paint scheme wise! 

 Heres the plasma cannon, doesn't look to bad if only I could keep the lines a wee bit straighter! Oh well, I shouldnt expect so much so much from myself but its an awesome model. I kept the armour highlights simple, watered down skull white then washed over with Badab Black... may go over some parts again too just so its not so bright.

So things are coming along reasonably well, I've got two squads of terminators to try and get done, chaplain, dread to finish... oh and a techmarine of some sort... although I may use my squat techpriest. Also my rhino's and a couple of tactical squads to get done too. This is not gonna be easy!

Chaplain Dreadnought WIP

Another work in progress post, my Chaplain Dreadnought.

He's coming along slowly, I've mainly concentrated on the bones and skulls so far, and I'm pretty happy with how they look. I've built them up from a Dhenab Stone base and just added white gradually. I'm wondering whether to give them a wee wash to tie them together a little and then a final highlight... so far I'm 50/50! 

Since this picture I've done more of the metal work, and the wings look pretty good. I'll be finishing modelling the base soon, be covered in stones like my other dreads. I've also, for the first time, had a go at doing the plasma energy bit on the plasma cannon. I love the cold blue look for plasma weapons so got some ice blue. So far its not too bad, so we'll see how it goes and if successful I can start relaying that scheme to my other plasma weapons. 

Probably won't be doing much painting for the next two days as tonight is Wresltemaina, so me and a group of friends shall be enjoying that, and by the time I get up tomorrow it'll be club time so tourney game number 3! Its me and Alun with his BT, versus Carl and his GK's and Ryans SW's.... Ouch!