APOCALYPSE!!! 11K Batrep and Timelapse!

I say its a battle report, its more a whinge about how I got the shit blown out of me in the first turn. Yikes! So the game... we aimed for 10k each, and ended up with 11k each. As you can see, Aluns artillery was scary!

So yeah I had that to face, was not impressed! What did I have? 

This. Battle company and some bits! 

We bid for deployment and Alun went for 4 minutes and I went for 8 minutes 20 seconds. I rolled a 6 to steal the initiative... then Alun informed me Coteaz was in his force and I had to reroll. Swine! This would not go well! And it didn't...

Yeah theres my first turn killed pile except for the marines to the right. Alun used a stratagem that allowed his manticores (all four I think) to fire several times each causing a lot of dead tanks. Among the dead were a couple of land raiders, a couple of predators, and my line breaker formation. Ouch! I did not have much confidence... I did aim to get points though as thats what gets you prizes!

I managed to kill Aluns Shadowsword, and capture 5 of the six objectives to give me a 6-1 lead at the first break, where a mixed grill happened! Thats teh way to get some confidence. Stratagem wise I'd used my first in the first turn to deep strike everything with 'Precise Coordinates'. I had an Orbital Strike from the Battle Company and had chosen reinforcements to bring back a formation which I kept in case those points were needed. Aluns second turn wasnt as brutal as the first.

Assassins fought each other, fliers fought flier, troops ran out of broken transports to capture objectives. I think the key fights were the Legion of the Damned and some thunder hammer termies ganging up on a unit consisting of Coteaz, another inquisitor, Stracken, Deddog and Yarrick, another thunder hammer unit fighting an eversor, my callidus and librarian in termie armour taking on Aluns warmaster Creed, my squads getting amongst aluns tanks to do some damage helped immensely too. But would it be enough?

We had to end at turn three, and it seemed I'd managed a 19-8 win. Had it gone on longer I'm unsure whether I could have held on, I still had some units to use out of my storm raven, my chapter master hadn't exited his land raider yet either, but alun still had a lot of tanks! I think he'd have definitely closed the gap but I may have just edged it.

So my favourite moments include seeing Aluns force on the table, hes built a lot of tanks over the last week and did well to get so much done. Scariest army I've ever seen! 

The Legion of the Damned were amazing again. Using the formation from the Armageddon section they with a couple of other units decimated Aluns infantry heavy weapons platoon. They're just so cinematic too! 

Killing the Shadowsword and only rolling a 'one' was disappointing, I wanted to see more destruction! Alun only improved it a little blowing the Stormlord up by rolling a 'two'. Next time!

Assassins battling each other was fun, Als Callidus cropped up in my Bastion so I put my Eversor in there to butcher her, and I placed my Callidus in Als Bastion next to his Vindicare who was about to charge him before the Stormlord unleashed a torrent of fire at him, chewing him up leaving her able to assault the command squad with the Librarian. 

Conversion Beamers. I have NO LUCK with them! I even borrowed Bams (who I'll have to show off when hes painted) and they didn't do an awful lot. 

Actually rolling for Terminator saves was fun, even though I rolled more ones than I should it wasnt rolling as many as I usually do... my power armour saves were atrocious though, consistently rolling half instead of two thirds. 

There were so many things I've probably forgotten about and Al will shout at me for forgetting too! Anyways, theres a timelapse below so enjoy the speeded up action!

Chaos Lives! Chaos Lord and Hellbrute updates

Its not very often the forces of Chaos get a dedicated post on Death By Die... but today they have found their way in. At our gaming club, the Gwent Reavers we chatted about the expense of the hobby and perhaps if we had a small collection of 40k things here people could at least try before they buy. Thinking further about it, I realised that I had a small Chaos force. Very small. But its something. With the Assassinorum boxed set giving me 15 cultists, a Chaos Lord and 3 Chaos Marines along with the the 6 beastly based Chaos Marines I modelled a while ago, it was a start. I'd also won a Hellbrute a couple of years ago in a little competition held by friend Adam, where he gave it away on his old Nurgles Command video. 

Out came the glue and paint! What you see below are what I've done so far, along with other things its not much but the Chaos Lord looks pretty good and I'm happy with the colour scheme. Its Thunderhawk Blue highlighted with Lothern blue, which I'd previously used on my Millenium Falcon(more of that soon).

 I'm especially happy with how his cloak came out, I think the green tones look nice and compliment the blue pretty well.

 And heres the Hellbrute! Same colour scheme, and I went with a very brown skin as it would work against the blue by being a little warmer in colour and the pipes, exhausts and bones would contrast the browns too. Note the added Imperial Fist helmet, which, somehow innocently, is Bams chosen army... coincidences heh?

Mikes also brought over his Tzeetch Thousand Sons army over for me to scavange from, a lot of work needs to be done on some of the models but the Chaos Terminators and Lord look very usable, as well as a few other bits. Its coming along slowly! Some of the models won't look that great but if it means the club has an army then its all good. 

Now a little chat about the new Chaos Terrain for Age of Sigmar. To make up the whole thing its £600+. Wowsers, thats a lot of pennies! It does look spectacular though, and I think some of the smaller packages are pretty good too in terms of visuality. I did wonder how it would look for other Chaos forces though....

And I'm really digging it in blue! I've changed the saturation in photoshop to what Tzeentch and Nurgle fortresses may look and I think the blue one stands out really well. I think perhaps some Tomb Kings accessories would help give it a more Tzeentch flavour, and for nurgle lots of ooze, lots of browns on there too. Be interesting to see how people paint theirs when its released.

Theres also rumours of a september release for a new Chaos Codex for 40k, along with a new Daemon Engine. What could it be? Who knows, a Chaos sized Knight titan would be good thats not Forge World, but I'm expecting something a little different. Who knows! What do you think will be new in the Chaos Codex?

Assassins and GW/Warhammer Branding

So as promised, yet another post of models I've worked on over the last month, but also some news regarding Games Workshop. It would appear that Games Workshop stores across the world will become 'Warhammer' stores. Theres talk of pricing, and while it doesn't include the prices coming down, Rountree mentioned “be looking to offer a broader range of price points.” Thats certainly something a lot of hobbyists will welcome. 

I think its worth mentioned the rumours regarding the leaking images of the 30k plastic sprue. This has many people in excitement, as it could mean cheaper 30k armies and more plastics with which to get into the HH side of the game. The box set rumours itself sound really intriguing, a contemptor, tac squads, praetor, all being available int he box set. Apparently too it'll be a game in itself like Assassinorum and Space Hulk before it, boarding party was mentioned too so interesting side of 30k/40k could be shown. Perhaps the possibility to mix the space board with that of space hild and executionn force to create our own scenarios or even for 40k roleplaying? Anyways... onto the Assassins!

 First up is the Callidus, it took me a while to decide what colour to do her hair as its a big feature of the model and I'm happy with the choice. Her eyes I've left white, but these may get changed at some point... a model is rarely finished! Shes also great in game for doing some damage to a nearby infantry squad and taking a lot of attention off your main army.

 Next up the very strange Celexus. I've not used him in game yet but he seems a good prospect especially if your opponent is using a psyker. The model itself is quite a simple one until you get to the head, and I wonder if I should have done the head like the Eversors skull to make it stand out more. Perhaps I will in the future, its easier to paint bone than it is black!

 I'm quite proud with how the Eversor turned out, and its probably one of my better painted models! Another model I've yet to use in game, but I think if left unmolested he'd be an absolute beast in combat.

Finally is the most used Assassin for me, the Vindicare. Pretty versatile on the table, and perhaps one of the simple models of the execution force to paint too. Definitely recommend giving him a go in your games, he can sit out of the way and just take special weapons, characters and vehicles out leaving enemy squads easier for your own to take out. 

Next up I've got a couple of Chaos models intended for the clubs Chaos army (which will be a slow burner) and also my take on the Millenium Falcon.

Krohmus Guard Showcase

Despite my best efforts to post more regularly, I have failed...

But I am back with a vengeance! A new look, and also I've finally got around to using studio equipment to good effect and produced some much better quality pictures of some of my latest projects.

Here is my Captain/Chapter Master on the converted bike track unit. 

 

Heres a little Jump Pack Chaplain I kitbashed, Vanguard kit was used for most of this with a banner top and the spare head from the Reclusiam Command squad gifted to me ages ago by Bam. 

This is THE Chapter Master of the Krohmus Guard, Vincent Eniko. Burning Blade and Shield Eternal!

And finally a Captain/Vet Sergeant of sorts with a Jump Pack. I've enjoyed using assault marines lately and having a couple of characters to lead them has made a difference to their effectiveness. 

More photos coming soon, Assassins, couple of Chaos bits and my Millenium Falcon are all waiting to be posted!

Space Marine Tracked Bike Conversion and 40k Battle!

So a little while since I last blogged, and with good real life reasons too that I shan't bore you with... but lets hope I can get into a bit more of a routine again soon! Today I show off my latest addition to the Krohmus Guard Chapter, a tracked bike conversion!

When I saw the Kataphron Servitor kit, I'll have to crudely admit, I had a boner. So many ideas flew into my mind and I hastily saved up some money to get a box. Ideas involve widening for a dreadnought, thunderfire cannon battery and also, a bike conversion. My Chaplain on bike conversion consisted of using a Ravenwing bike from the Dark Vengeance set, so I searched my bits to see what I had left. I found the bodies of two bikes, but no handlebars. Straight on ebay to order some! Looking at the Kataphron kit I made the tracks and noticed that turned around, the bike looked like it would fit on there with not too much filling needed. The saw came out and I cut the bike at an angle, and then glued it onto the tracks. On the bottom I cut a little sprue just to add some support to the join. With the handle bars arriving I could then add the arm to see how it looked.

Next, I filled in the joins and chose a weapon for the rider, who I wanted to be a captain/chapter master/Korsarro Khan model. While chatting to Bam, he mentioned he had a halberd from a GK set, and it seemed a good idea. Halberd taken! I had a scarred head from the sternguard kit left over with some nice shoulder pads, and the job was done!

Heres how he looked before paint, think the weapon works well!

View from the top, showing the bits I added to make an engine of sorts, mainly to cover the hole where the servitor body would be. 

This is the model based, I decided to put him on a base instead of standing freely, just thought it would fit the rest of my army more doing so. 

And here he is almost finished! I'm pretty chuffed with how he looks, and am now wondering whether to should make some attack bikes in a similar manner. I probably wont, but the previous ideas will likely happen, with the dreadnought being an Ironclad seeing as I don't have one yet!

The new addition was also built and painted in time to face Alun, who had come back from graduating at university! And also with a much larger collection of Imperial Guard... uh oh! 

Heres how things looked after deployment. We both had 3000pts of troops, I'd taken a battle company with a first company formation of three squads of terminators, two shooting units and one assault, and also three drop pods, three rhinos all being free because of the battle company. Always nice! In total, using the Ultramarins tactics, this gave me 2 Devastator Tactics, 2 Assault Tactics and 4 Tactical Doctrines to use. They proved rather useful too! 

 My main concerns about Aluns army was the two basilisks on my right flank, their range could cover the whole table and do a lot of damage, the Wyverns on the right were able to mush up troops if allowed, and the maount of heavy weapons teams controlling the centre. Pask in a Vanquisher wasn't a nice sight either! The plan was to strike as a space marine should, hard and fast!

Aluns first turn was a mix, I don't think he did as much damage as he'd have liked but two rhinos were destroyed or immobilised, my large biker unit was damaged quite a bit, and his assassin took a couple of my devastators out in the central bunker. It definitely hurt! Time to strike hard!

And then I drew objectives and the plan changed.... I had picked up the objective where if I controlled every objective I could gain S3+3 vps. This was too tempting.... Its a really hard card to acheive and I felt compelled even though it meant changing my plan. My predators moved up to get control of a central objective, as did my smaller biker unit who were just in 3" to claim. Next, my first two drop pods thundered down and landed well next to the objectives Alun had, and I was able to take his units off and claim them. Job done! I ended up with 8 vps on my first turn, but I wasn't able to target the units I wanted to go for and would now have to weather a very violent storm!

My bikers were soon depleted as was my newly built captain, but they did take a lot of attention away from other units. All rhinos were now destroyed, with 8 tactical marines sneaking up the left flank to support my scouts. Aluns Callidus assassin broke into the bastion controlled by my devs and tore into them, although one combat phase saw a stalemate as he failed to wound, bonus! A massive unit of conscripts entered my left flank, 50 I think in total with commissar and priest who were partly to blame for my lack of bikers. A couple of my predators were damaged by basilisk shots, ractical squad on my right advanced into a lot of fire and only a few survived the wyvern barrage. I was hurt badly, but did have some help on the way. 

Two of my terminator units came down, the thunder hammer unit in amongst the tanks on my left flank and a shooty one in Aluns deployment to threaten the centre and regain an objective. My third drop pod came in to support the thunder hammer terminators and shoot up a guard unit that had recently come on from Aluns table edge. One of my favourite moments was putting a flamer template onto Aluns Conscripts, giving me 20 hits. Beautiful! I also charged into combat with them, and  a long drawn out combat erupted between the large amount of conscripts and my remaining tactical marines on that flank. The young guardsmen eventually taking down the marines but they were held up for several combat phases doing so.

As the battle went on, more of my army was taken apart. at one point it looked like I might get tabled, especially after Aluns one wyvern took a shot at my central terminator unit, caused 0 wounds, to which I rolled 5 ones. I'm not even surprised at trolls like that anymore! My other terminator squad came down however with the librarian and was able to take out Aluns Warlord, and I managed to get at least one VP every turn, with Alun catching up with me as the game went on. Chronus' predator was taken out, and the remaining one was wrecked. They'd survived well but I didn't get enough damage out of them, although they had helped me to get the vps at the start by advancing onto the central most objective. My snipers, with BS4 now still missed a lot, but they did quieten a couple of Aluns heavy weapons teams throughtout the game. 

The game ended and I think the final score was 18-13 to me. No doubt if the game went on longer it would have been even closer, and I think Alun can claim a moral victory with how much damage he did to my army! 

So some thoughts about the Battle Company.

Free transports are a nice touch, and its making me want to mount everything in a drop pod. 

Tactical Doctines are definitely a good thing, being able to reroll so many bolter gun shots really helped, especially when I remembered to use them! 

As good as the battle company was however, you may get just as much efficiency from choosing other units that are more specialised over rerolls, say taking sternguard for example with their ammo over usual bolt guns. It was nice though that taking a battle company with less of the specialised units played to the fluff of Space Marines, being versatile and stick in the fight even if it looks grim. 

Predator squadrons are ok, although I forgot tank hunters. Oops! Like I mentioned I reduced their effectiveness after going for the big scoring objective on the first turn, which meant moving them forward but I think it was worth it. Three of them firing at an enemy tank squadron would have done a lot more damage  I'm sure! 

Basilisks get a bad rep, I don't see people use them much at all but I've always been intrigued with them and Aluns did pretty well, taking out several bikers, damaging my predators leaving them stunned or shaken and just being a terror! 

All in all a great game, and it was just nice to use a battle companies worth of marines in a regular, if larger than normal game of 40k. We're hoping to get a little campaign together, and we've also got a couple of new members who enjoy 40k so expect more battle reports in the future hopefully featuring orks and Iron Warriors. Plus we've got a small Chaos Force going in club that I'll slowly be painting, and I've just bought a Marauder bobmer thats in a roughed up condition that I'll making into terrain... so lots to come soon!

8k Batrep and Assassins Progress

Well hello there! Welcome to another Death By Die post, this time an update on the assassins from the Execution Force boxed game and a battle report! 

Heres how the assassins are looking so far, still some details to get done but they're almost there! 

Below is the Vindicare assassin, like I said some neatning up is needed but you get the general idea on how they'll look. I've yet to play the game but used this game in the following battlereport and he did well.

Heres the Eversor assassin, I wasn't sure whether to go for the traditional bone skull or go dark grey with the rest of the body suit, but thought the bone would stand out more. Can imagine an unsuspecting target seeing the skull floating int he air several feet away from him, only for it to zoom forward, claw lunging for their face and skull laughing like Skeletor! 

So the batrep was a doubles game, myself and Shaun with his Imperial Fists against a Death Guard/Khorne combo with Rhys and Chris. Chris also had his newly converted Khorne Knight with him, yikes! 2l points per army, so 8k in total! I used White Scars tactics, factoring I'd get close to whatever was coming at me and boltering/grav'ing my enemies to death. Then against Chaos I wondered if this was a good idea as they're better in combat! We dployed first, and I took the right while Shaun set up on the left, both of us sharing the middle.

The enemy answered with Chris' Knight deploying against Shaun, whose army consisted of mainly bolters, and my bikers found themselves against 10 Nurgle terminators with not only a Chaos Lord (represented by Mortarion) but Typhus too. Their central consisted of a strong force of Chaos Marines with 2 units of havocs with autocannons and some weapons platforms. I scouted forward and in the first turn took 7-8 terminators out due to a few bolt guns fiding the weak points in the armour and the gravs crumpling away the millenia old terminator armour. The Weapon platforms were destroyed before they could fire, and Shauns Honour Guard unit reupted from their Krohmus Guard borrowed Redeemer to leap into assault with infiltrating chaos marines, who were cut down by the verterans in yellow.

The second turn saw the Knight beocming a threat as it charged forward... but not quite far enough to attack Shauns lines. A chaos vindicator was finished off from a combined strike of my deepstriking dreadnought and some Imperial Fists supporting fire. Typhus, the Chaos lord and remaining terminators lurched forward, a plague wind killing a couple of my bikers who responded with more bolter/grav fire and then Khan (at least my version of him) charging in. Khan however took 2 wounds with Khan unable to wound the mighty Chaos general. The terminators were finished off however and the white scars retreated via their hit and run ability. 

With the Chaos Knight almost on Shaun a lot of fire was poured into it. Most of Shauns shooting proved ineffectual but my two lascannon armed predators were able to take a few hull points off, my storm talon adding to the weight of fire. IT was not enough however... and it stepped forward into the Honour Guard. 

My assault Squad failed to get into combat, and were then shot up by the Chaos Marines they were about to target and lef tme with my Captain wounded and one assault marine left. My Dreadnought was destroyed by Chris' Terminators who then pursued the Knight to back it up, but the Havocs entrenched on an objectiv were left with just he champion from the Fists suppressing fire. My bikers lined up the Chaos Lord and finished him off as my main unit revved around the landing pad to charge the unit that had initially been the target of my assault marines, wiping them out to a man. More Havocs were butchered, some by my captain and remaining assault marine others by the storm talon. 

Thats a lot of firepower for a chaos lord to withstand! 

The honour guard clinged on for life against the onslaught of the Knight, the captain unable to dent the machine with his power fist. The Chaos left flank had crumbled though, and Krohmus Guard were flooding over to support the Imperial Fists. 

With just a couple of the honour guard left along with their captain, my jump pack captain and shauns contemptor rushed in to aid the fists. The contemptor failed to dent the great machine, who aimed his attacks at the Imperial Fists commander who barely avoided the blow. As my woundeed captain was about to land a blow with his mighty thunder hammer the Chaos Knight staggered back the Fists Captain punching a great hole in the machines knee setting off a chain reaction of explosions. Then this happened.

Extreme pie plate moment! My captain was killed in the resultant ecxplosion, where everyone else survived... typical! haha. The Fists captain had finally delivered the blow he'd been unable too, and finished the machine off. 

I forget the final score but myself and Shaun had won by a good margin, and the field was ours. It was so good to have a nice sizeable game of 40k again though, its shown me how much I've missed playing the game. Fingers crossed at club we'll be able to get a club Chaos army, and when Aluns back I'm gonna see if he fancies doing a campaign or something. See how it goes anyways!

Now, IU couldn't leave without having a couple of pictures of Chris' Knight.

Apart from using some spare Chaos bits I think he said the head was taken from the new Bloodthirster model, and it fits it incredibly well. Such an evil looking beast!

Even though I did a lot of damage to it it took a hell of a beating to destroy, and it makes me fancy a Knight of my own to suppoert my Marines. Maybe in the future we'll see a Krohmus Guard Knight!

Scum and Villainy Progress

'This blog post is a wretched hive for scum and villainy. We must be cautious'

 Ah the Scum and Villany, the third faction for Xwing came out a little while ago yet failed to post my progress so far. I hadn't intended to add any weathering to the models but they looked to flat and as my highlighting skills aren't great weathering is a great way to add some edging to models... so out came the silver!

Let it be known, I'd pay plenty of Galactic Credits for some Scyk Interceptors. I didn't fancy these when I first saw the stats, but playing them they're so much fun. You can make them heavy therefore adding cannons, they're quite survivable especially if you take Serissu, who is the opposite of Howlrunner in which nearby ships get to reroll an evade dice and I just love flying them around the board. I've gone for a purple and light grey scheme, but I'm undecided yet whether I like the yellow for the canopies. I'm kinda tempted to go for a cherryish red.....

Heres the Starviper, a ship I've only run once but it didn't seem too bad. The only grey I've added on here was for the weapons and engine, I quite like the panels/wings plain as the metal contrasts nicely with the purple. 

And finally the IG. This ship is also incredibly fun to fly, and whiles its a big ship, you can't fly it like one, its just not quite as durable as the Slave, Falcon or certainly the Decimator. But it can do so many good things. I'd love to get another to try out some of the awesome combos that A, B, C and D can do, plus they look awesome. Its a cross between Galactus and Cyclonus. Don't know em? Google!

So thats how Scum looks so far, little touch ups and whether to redo the canopies and they'll be finished. I don't plan on adding much more as I can use a lot of my rebel ships with them if I wanted to play a big game but another IG might be nice.