Space Marines vs Eldar

Two games here, Both against Morgan and his Eldar. The first game was objectives, and the second was an almighty Planetstrike mission, with me defending and Morgan's Eldar attacking. So first of all, objectives! There were five objectives, and I was joined in this game by Bam and his Legion of the Damned who had 1500 points whereas I had 2000. This of course, gave Morgan 3500 points to play with. Ouch! The game itself was a few weeks ago, so some details are now lost to the inner depths of my memory. Perhaps an Inquisition probe would help.

Deployment I kept a lot of my forces off the table, with a view to bring them on later. Korsarro Khan, (who will be renamed so I can use him) was off so outflank was an option I made the most of. Bam lost his(mine really heh) Land Raider in the first turn when Morgan remembered about a falcon when his elbow nudged it, and promptly blew it up. Ouch!

 

The game continued as we were always on the backfoot, however Khan came on, wounded the avatar a couple of times, broke off, took out the death reapers and Eldar scouts, and then helped to rout a Dire Avenger unit that held an objective. This left one objective with anyone to have a chance of holding, I had 3 terminators and a tactical squad to try and take out Morgans other dire avenger squad to claim the last squad. The Eldar went first, focussing their attacks on my Termies. They wounded three times and I failed two basic armour saves! That was a nuisance as 3 termies or even two would have killed 2 at least, as it stood I killed one. The tactical squad then failed to do much damage and only killed 2, so I won the combat by one. One leadership test to keep the objective contested and make it a draw... and Morgan passed it. It would have been a huge steal as we barely had anything left, but we were a tad unlucky at the end. Oh well, amazing game and a hell of a laugh!

The second game was me defending a planetstrike vs the Eldar once again. In the first turn I lost my Land Raider (occurring theme) and a dreadnought, and one of the two Bastions. 

I continued to lose units to Morgans eldar, his avatar tore through another 2 dreadnoughts and he looked to be overwhelming my forces. I did not fancy my chances!

Then the tide turned! Khan came on and was able to munch through a couple of units, although again, the biker squad with him didn't last long. Banshees, fire dragons and dire avengers all dying before his wrath! My terminators and chaplain used an escape hatch to assault Eldrad and his large warlock squad, and managed to wipe them out after a few combats. My sternguard (legion of the damned mini's were used) defended the destroyed bastion by killing the other fire dragon squads and kept hold of the remains.

I managed to pinch the game and kill all the Eldar close enough to get the intact bastion to keep it from the xenos race. Score! Terminators with Thunderhammers are hard to kill, and I think I prefer to use these than lightening claws from now on, especially with a chaplain! Another fast and highly enjoyable game against Morgan, and another turnaround!

Gaming Update!

So I've been a wee slack with actual games lately, but theres this and another couple of updates due to come in the next day or so. This game however was from Monday night, and played against Andrew's Death Guard.

I recently found out two things that helped me choose my force. Vindicators can move 6" and shoot, and Legion of the Damned are relentless. Score. Taking both! 1800 pts a side! My basic list was Chaplain, termies, land raider, vindicator, two tactical squads in rhino's, devastator squad with 2 plasma cannon, dread, and a land speeder.

It was an objective based game so only two troops for four objectives, was going to make it tough against the hard to shift DG, but my opponent also only had two troops choices too so this was about grabbing one or two and contesting the rest!

First couple of turns, and to be fair the whole game went well for me. If it was kill points it would have been a slaughter! Our vindicators were pretty useless, although mine did finish off a DG squad later in the game. I was able to pretty much kill all of Andrews Termies, and there were 19 plus Typhus, who I also killed. My Land Speeder deep striked close to his land raider and took that out in one turn, which was lovely to see! My Legion of the Damned also showed up and caused a nuisance to his havocs and the aforementioned DG squad.

This game however, was not all about killing. My one TS were able to capture an objective, but my other weakened squad were just unable to hold one of the other objectives which Andrew did claim... so we ended with a draw when the game ended on turn 5. Damn! 

Had the game lasted one more turn I'd have got a win as I had enough there within range to contest the DG's objective, including my Land Raider. But it was not to be. I am however claiming it as a huge moral win as I killed quite a lot of Andrews troops and one of the Imperiums most hated advesaries, Typhus!

It was a great game though and we both enjoyed it immensely. I've only played Andrew twice, and both games now have been objective based and both games a draw! We shall be battling again, and we're both sat next to each other on our club table, Andrew just above me. I will take his spot by beating him!

40k. What I'd Like to See.

So the new edition is coming, and theres been rumours of rules and story flying everywhere. And flyers. But what would we all like to see?

Squats.

(image from here)

Every time I see something like this, I get a nerd-on. These look awesome, and I'd love to make some myself. I'd need faces and bears there though, but thats just me. Theres long been rumours that the Squats, or Demiurg, could appear in the next Tau codex, which could be out within the next 12 months. Nerd-on. Story rumours also mention about how the Emperor mentioned to some close to him that the Tau were uncorruptable by Chaos and should be protected. This could lead to Tau and Space Marine allies. So some maths here.

Tau(squats/demiurg) + Space Marines = Uber-nerd-on.

As I've mentioned before, I've decided that at some point, I'd like to include some Squats in my SM army. It seems like this could become reality. I'm awaiting the models first however, so plenty of time, but if I can convert them enough to make a few models to integrate into my existing Evandalists, I'll be very happy. Speaking of which, ALLIES!!!

I'd like to see some 'mysteries' solved too, or at least hinted at. I think its too early for missing Primarchs to come back, but perhaps some more hints as to where Vulkan and Leman Russ are could be good. Tease us GW TEASE US!!!! If not, then just keep enriching the fluff. The fluff feeds us inspiration, and in turn better more themed games.

As a SM player, and I'm sure other players would agree, special characters are used a lot but I'd love to be able to add abilities to standard characters to help enhance them not just on the battlefield but background wise too. I love continuing the story of my chapter and will hopefully be adding the last few missions to this very blog soon. I'm also upgrading camera soon too, an extra 8mp to play with and, wait for it, 1080p movie capture. Tech-bone!

Space Marine bikes. Please, please, PLEASE update these models. They're not bad looking, but they just look so dated. These have been around since around 1998, and I'd love to add more bikes to my army but until they make new ones I'll be just using the 6 I have.

I think thats the main things, I'm hoping the rules will still be accessible but a tad more in depth. Time shall tell! What would you ladies and gents like to see? Make a wishlist!

Thoughts on the Stormtalon

So the fliers have officially been announced and the models showcased. Its hard to get a real grasp of the Stormtalon until a game has been played with one, which I do intend on doing. First things first though, aesthetics.

I'm unsure as to how much these fit on with the current range of Space Marine vehicles. Its influened by the Stormraven obviously, but theres just something lacking for me about why it doesn't quite work. The Stormraven is markedly different but does have design details in common with other vehicles, such as the assault ramp, and the overall aesthetic of it looking like a baby Thunderhawk. But this just looks a wee out of place. I'm hoping someone covers one in chevrons so it'll look like a bee.

 

The side view shows the underneath boosters, which I do like, and also shows off the tail better. Its funny though how the Ork fliers look more aerodynamic than the Space Marine flier. 

Rules wise its quite an interesting prospect. AV 11 all around, which makes it a little more durable than landspeeders, getting them shot at by boltguns and suffereing glances isn't fun. Points wise its 130 basic with TLAC and TLHB, which isn't too bad when you factor in the great speed it has at its disposal and its ability to escort a unit. The Skyhammer Missile Lancher also seems like a nice prospect, 60" range givesit the ability to fire on most points of a battlefield if it somehow isn't fast enough to get there to use the assault cannons. Money wise, at £27.50 I don't think thats too bad when its a similar size to a dreadnought and in game terms costs more too. I'll be getting one on release and hopefully get a game in soon after to share my thoughts. 

(images from Games Workshop)

Special Post for Geek Pride Day

Its Geek Pride Day didn't you know? And to show it, two of my geek-loves come together as Optimus Prime helps finish off a Dreadnought. He loves my red, blue and purple colour scheme.

Club Showcase part 4

So here is the final part (for now) of Tredegar Wargames Club showcase. My Chapter Master, Vincent Enniko, joins the great work of Jason. Jason's reknowned for being a tad slow when it comes to painting, but the results speak for themselves! 

 Vincent Enniko. Chapter Master of the Evandlists by myself

 Ultramrines Dreadnought by Jason

 Dire Avenger by Jason

 Death Company by Jason

 Death Company Sergeant by Jason

Death Company by Jason

Previous Showcase posts; Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

I'm hoping to get another one in a couple of weeks done, as one of our members has an amazing looking Death Guard army, so expect to see this at some point.

Club Showcase part 3

Part 3 of Tredegar Wargames Club showcase is here! This post is all focussed on Owains mini's. Owain has a blog which you can find right here! As you can see the lad has some nice looking models, so I'll let you get your eyes into them.

 Wurrzag Orc Shaman

 Severina and Sevora Devout from Inquisitor

 Adeptus Arbites

 Slaanesh Noise Marines

 Lucius the Eternal

Slaanesh Chaos Lord/Sorceror. 

Previous club showcase posts can be found here for part 1, and here for part 2.

Club Showcase pt 2

Welcome again folks, here comes the Tredegar Wargames Club showcase... part 2!

 Tomb Kings by Venerable Mike

 Inquisitor scale scratch built Techpriest by venerable Mike

 Inquisitor by Alun

 Grey Knight by Alun

 Grey Knight by Alun

 Death Company by Scout Mike

Blood Angels Venerable Dreadnought by Scout Mike.

Part one is here

Club Showcase

Welcome again folks, a nice picture heavy post today! I've recently been taking more images and making more of an effort to get better quality pictures of my models. This has two effects.... Firstly, the better looking the images the better looking my miniatures will be. Secondly, I can see more mistakes and thus it will make me be a lot more careful of my painting! Todays post however is decicated to two club members, Morgan and Louis. We've got some good painters at Tredegar Wargames Club, and I felt it was about time to capture in better detail what we have.

 Morgans Space Wold Lord

Morgans Space Wolf Scouts

 Louis' Rough Rider Character. Note added aged effect, though it looked good!

 Another of Louis' mini's, can;t remember exactly what it is though. Possibly something that accompanies one of the inquisitors? Looks great though, the parchment especially eye catching.

 Louis' Alpha Legion Dreadnought. Note the scales on the armour!

Louis painted this Space Marine Chaplain for Bam, and it looks great. Bam was a happy Bam!

Thats it for now, but there'll be a few more of these coming up soon, perhaps today, perhaps over the next few days. Keep an eye out!

New Photographic Setup.

So I've finally attempted to sort out the photography, as I am a keen amatuer photographer, and made myself a little box to take pictures in. They're not perfect by anymeans, but the images are a lot brighter and the white backgrounds, after some photoshop work, help create much better images overall. Which isn't that good a thing as you can now see mroe of my painting imperfections!

 

Its definately been worth the effort, and if anyone wants I'll make a wee post about how I did it. It makes your blog look a lot better, and helps you see what you need to improve on miniature-wise.

Legion of the Damned Terminator Test Piece

In a previous post, you may have spotted this guy who was in a half way stage. Well he's pretty much done with just a couple of touch ups needed. So though it a good time to share!

I'm really happy with how he came out, and was a nice change painting wise. I don't think I'd wanna do a whole army of them though!