Warhammer World and Battle Brothers

So today, I got the chance to go to Warhammer World with some of the Crow Valley Crusader lads, namely Byron, Shaun, Chris... And Mike. Bah Mike! He's never seen the Animated Transformers film, what a dork! Anyways, enough with why I want to beat him into a pulp, about today!

We got to Warhammer World unable to book a table due to an event. We took some minis up anyways just in case but to be honest, even without playing we had a pretty good time. The following images follow the day roughly, from the always must see trip upstairs in the miniature hall to bugmans bar for food and then I got the chance to chat and take some pictures of the Battle Brothers event. More on this later!

Its apparant that I'm either a Space Marine or an short Ogryn. I'm about the same height as this fellow and just as dangerous... although I need sleep a hell of a lot more!

Quality Jib Capture no.1

I was never a fan of these outrider bikes until I saw this amazing army today. They look so much better in person and I wouldn't mind getting one for a chapter master conversion... thing is you can only get three and its £45! Ouch. I love those attack bike conversions too. The chap who had this army was a great guy to chat too, he was telling me how the Battle Brothers events are always a good time and that he and his team mate had just lost against an Eldar/Dark Eldar coalition. 

And I think he meant these. I'm pretty sure just before I'd gone back into the gaming hall I chatted to this team, as they said they'd just won a close-ish game with Eldar and Dark Eldar. Stunning armies too, look really effective and I like the ying yang effect and backwards role. The Dark Eldar are the lighter colour and the Craftworld are much darker. Stunning armies! 

 

These Tau were really nice too, unmusual colour scheme and this picture doesn't do them justice!

Game of Thrones references are always good by me, especially when Hodor is mentioned. HODOR!

This was incredibly. A Necron monolith made to look like a sand castle. I don't know what to think! In one way its just too bezerk... but in another way its genius!

Quality Jib capture no. 2

I'm not even sure... 

These were also stunning, some amazing freehand work on these!

When a Titan needs its big bro....

Quality Jib Capture no.3

So today was a great day, I got some bits ordered for Bam and Alun from Forge World and the lads bought plenty themselves. I'm keeping my money back as I'm looking to start an Imperial Guard/Astra Militarum army. I've got a Banewolf almost finished and five more Cadians to do, and I've also sorted out a trade with a nice bloke swapping my Tau for some Guard bits, including the new Dex' and some other goodies. Looking forward to adding more to it! We're hoping that the next time we go to Warhammer World it'll be a joint trip with the Tredegar Reavers and the Crow Valley Crusaders, and have some nice chunky games. I also really want to organise a huge tank battle, will have to see how viable that is! 

One of the things for me though was seeing just how nice everyone was in the Battle Brothers event, and its made me really wanna have a go! Also playing against fully painted armies would be amazing, there were some stunning forces up there and to see them on the other side of the table would be a treat. Perhaps next year!

If you're in any of the images above or your models are, just leave a comment and a link if you wanna pinch it!

40k Batrep: The Decider

So the time had come. The big one. The decider. Crow Valley Crusaders vs Tredeager Reavers. Best of three, first two games split, only one left and everything to play for. Alun had informed me that we'd have 3k pts. Each. This would be a chunky game! Alun was taking Guard this time, using the Militarum codex that had been released just the week before. On one hand, it was fresh and Alun hadn't used Guard before, but on the other I don't think Mike or Shaun expected Guard... lets see how it goes. 

Upon arriving, Mike and Shaun tell us we'll be facing 4 Chapter Masters. Shocking!

I'd decided not to take one, and had plumped for Tigurius and a Captain (aka Squat Slayer). Alun had taken Stracken as his warlord, with Tiggy as mine. We got first turn and set up. Most of our units were on the right flank, which, in hindsight, not a good idea to bunch things up.

Then 'IT' happened. One of the most devastating first turns I've ever seen. Unfortunately it was from Mike and Shaun who seized the initiative. 3 orbital bombardments later and 2 leman russ tanks, 2 chimeras and a vindicator were blown to pieces. Alun, who had also taken some Grey Knight allies, lost his Vindicare to an unlucky roll of '1' to save him. I think the boys said they had around 27 blasts to come down on the first turn. Needless to say, they got first blood. It did not look good. Shauns sternguard drop pod down beside my plasma cannon devastator squad and only a couple are lost.

Two of my drop pods entered play, and I attempted to assassinate Mikes Warlord. 10 combi grav shots later and I butcher the tactical squad he was accompanying but he loses just one wound... and gets it back later on from it will not die. Oh well, worth a go! Elsewhere we take a couple of hullpoints off a contemptor, stop one of the plasma preds from firing and I blow on of the other ones up, although this enrages a nearby contemptor who comes charging back to deal with my tactical squad in the next phase. The plasma cannon squad, lead by Tiggy take aim at the Imperial Fists Sternguard and wipe them out. Presciene and Perfect timing working incredibly well together!

Turn of the flyers! Most of the flyers enter play except for Shauns Fireraptor. We take more losses this turn, a combat squad is wiped out from Mikes huge terminator squad in the spartan, the Guardsmen behind the Aegis Defence Line take a hammering and the plasma cannon devs are reduced significantly. Not as bad as that first turn though!

Aluns surviving Leman Russ takes position to cover the Relic, its battle cannon threatening to any infantry looking to capture the objective. I drop pod nearby the Relic and attempt to run onto it to capture, but roll dismally and fail to reach it. After some concentrated fire, Shauns Warlord is left alone after his accompanying tactical squad were blown apart by rockets and battle cannon.  A missile launcher toting Krohmus Guard tactical member takes aim and looses off a krak missile. The missile hits home and Shaun fails his save, giving us a vital victory point. With the objective in the middle of a killing zone we realise that the objective wont be held by anyone and its via bonus VP's this game will be won. We'd already lost out on First Blood and Linebreaker looked likely to be held by both sides, so Slay the Warlords would be huge. 

More of the Iron Hands and Fists units deepstrike onto our right flank, and guardsmen are hit by fire, although not before a demolition charge is thrown at Shauns terminators, but Alun misses and only catches four in the explosion. My plasma cannon devs are wiped out, and Tiggy is left on one wound after fire from umpteen sources. Off he hides! Shauns Stormtalons are wiped out in retaliation and it seems the right flank is safe, despite not much being left. The Techmarine and Thunderfire weather the storm and are left on one wound. 

The Fireraptor also gets dealth with thankfully, although my Stormraven gets battered and left with one hullpoint. Aluns Inquisitor deepstrikes down and takes so much firepower yet still a few survive! And then get charged by a contemptor... Mikes Warlord hides in some ruins with another Tactical Squad, and this now is our prime target. Both of my Storm Talons swoop over and manage to kill a few of the squad. Aluns Valkyrie also flies over into a position to drop off his stormtroopers for a fusilade in the final turn. 

Becoming fed up of Mikes plamsa pred getting fixed up all the time the Stormraven destroys it before the thunderhammer termies assault wrecking the third and final one. Noll the Squat Cyber Slayer also launches himself into the other thunderfire cannon, easily dispatching the Techmarine. The heavy flamer dread torches three of the marines but leaves himself out of range when he assaults... oops! 

With both of our Warlords safe, the score stands at 2-2. Mikes Warlord is now the only thing we kill to earn us victory, the Relic seemingly secondry to killing people! The stormtalons go into hover mode as the Stormtroopers disembark and loose off a hail of fire, taking down the last few of the tactical squad guarding the (one of many HA) Chapter Masters. Alun also manages to take off a wound from the Warlord and the Stormtalons open up finally killing the stubborn sod! With that, we edge out a win 3-2, although I'm still not sure how after that first turn!

So what a game and what a way to end this best of three series against Mike and Shaun. Both were awesome opponents and I can't wait to play more games against this scheming duo. I'm sure many more interclub games will be held, if they're half as fun as these three games have been they'll have an awesome time playing! 

Coming up is a game against Aluns Daemons that was again, incredibly close, and also some WIPs of projects I'm working on. This Saturday too I'm going to Warhammer World with a few of the CVC lads to the GCN EGM, so that should be a great day out and it'll be awesome to meet some of the people involved at the GCN. Its a shame I never got to meet Anthony Barnes who passed away recently, and was the president of the GCN. Whoever takes over has some big shoes to fill, but I'm sure they'll be upto the task. I'm also looking at perhaps a couple of Forge World additions....

Batrep and WIPS - Bikes/Ratskin

Ah tis the weekend, its sunny, and all I want to do is paint. Its been about a month since any real painting has been done, but recently I've got a few bits that have helped me get on with some projects. First of all however, me and Alun played a 2k game last monday, My Marines vs his Dark Eldar. My list was rather unusual, in that I took just two vehicles, being two storm talons. I had three tactical squads, assault squad, devastator squad, and two ten men squads of the legion of the damned. Mission was purge and deployment was lengthways. 

If ever a game of two halves, this was certainly one. In the first two turns I pummeled Aluns transports and troops, three vehicles going down in the first turn alone. With bad armour saves a lot of the troops died too, my 'only' loss was these...

I assaulted into a transport, blowing it up. However, a nearby Archon and incubi sliced my marines up. The captain survived...

But fell soon after as I assaulted back in with him. Archons are bad eldar! After Alun was beaten around at the start, the two, yes TWO archons had reached my lines and began to reap a heavy toll. 

For the most part the Stormtalons controlled the air against Alun's two flyers. The helped me get to the now hiding archons later in the game and I was able to finish one off. 

Despite the points being I think 16-9, it was a lot closer. Although neither of my Legion of the Damned squads had taking any casualties, they and the stormtalons were pretty much all I had left. Alun had a couple of troops left that I was out of range of but we ended the game there due to time. Such a good game though, I didn't think an infantry force would do well, but when you look at it not being in transports means you're shooting everyturn, and that weight of fire builds up. Had a couple more of Aluns squads survived I'd have been able to do nothing and may have lost badly. As it was, the firepower at the start of the game was immense and kept Alun at bay until the Archons came out to play. 

No Quarter was played, and Bam mentioned to me in the week about how he jumped one of his guys off onto an aligator and killed it, before one came from behind and ate him. I only took one or two pics but I did take a pic of this! 

Currently, my desk is a mess. I've bought another box of bikes, and having three already I needed to get them done. Quick look on ebay got me three bases so along with these I've got a drop pod being painted as well as a couple of pieces for an upcoming Necromunda project. 

This is how my biker collection is going so far, and I dare say its not over! I want to make a version of my Chapter Master on a bike, and possibly build them up to have 2 ten strong units with three attack bikes. I'd also like a couple more landspeeders. I have one but it needs repairing, but I will be getting this sorted soon. Ive got another game against Alun on Monday, although I'm not sure what he's taking, and its 4k each! Should be an awesome game!

The first of the Necromunda models is a Ratskin Shaman, I've had this guy for about 12 years and wanted something different to paint alongside my marines, and brown is different to red, blue and purple! Hes coming along nicely, got some highlighting to get done on his skin and a few other bits then basing. Really like this model fair play!

This is the second guy I've been working on for play in the Underhive. He's a catachan officer, but I think he looks awesome either as a scum, bounty hunter or ganger. I'm going to be making some characters up for people to hire before each game and pinning their stats on a noticeboard, should be good fun! 

And thats it for now, I've got a 4k list to write, the bikes to get done and a big roast chicken dinner to lie off. Also, if anyone is interested I've got some Tau, Transformers and Dwarf team from Blood Bowl I'm selling on my Ebay page. Money is going towards equipment for my new business so if interested please bid! Thanks for reading anyway, expect a post in the week about mondays game and possibly some more WIP pictures.