Hive Guard Outriders and Chimera Crane Conversion

Welcome back! Its been a slightly productive time since I last posted, the cavalry bases I had worked on now have the bikes on top! Theres four with Escher heads and four with Orlock heads, I did consider using some of the gang arms but the mining suits look so good I thought I'd keep them to enhance the mining side of gangs.

 The bases needed a little work afterwards to get the bikes to sit on them and then I added some gravel just so it looked like the bases had been out in the open or on the edge of the Hive for a little while

 Most of the heads fit fairly well onto the bodies but I did add a little ball of green stuff to make sure they fit better.

 Some of the Escher hair styles needed a trim mind!

 I plan on getting these finished in the next couple of weeks, I've got a lot of ideas I'm thinking of not just for 40k/Necromunda but D&D and the mind is constantly battling on what to think about!

 I'm also tempted to get three more boxes at some point so I can have 20 bikers, the Quads I'll use as sentinals and may use the spare two as utility vehicles.

 Speaking of utility vehicles....

I've got the Chimera Crane done, added a couple of little bits and I'm happy with how it looks. Its a little rough, but thats not a bad thing as it fits in with the 'urban survival' theme with Necromunda and making use of what you find.

 I added some plasticard underneath the crane itself and completely flattened the top of the Chimera to get a better fit.

This can be used for Necromunda, to theme a 40k board too in an industrial zone or where many containers may lie like a ship yard or storage facility. 

Thats pretty much what I've been working on for the last few days as well as some D&D writing.... some backstory for gods of all things! Coming up I'll have some D&D themed posts and more updates on 40k and Necromunda projects. I may even get some photos from Bam to show his orks off and some backstory to our upcoming campaign, which may wait until 9th is out as the Crusade ideas sound quite interesting so we shall see!

What have you fellow humans been working on? How do you feel about 9th edition Warhammer 40,000?

Jackals, Chimera Crane and WIPs

Welcome back for another wee update, I've been building more than painting this week, and first up I've got some bases almost built ready for some Atalan Jackals. I'm making them neutral to use with my Hive Guard force either as rough riders or just using the Atalan Jackal rules. It doesn't help that I now want loads and to recreate the Rohan cresting the hill scene from Return of the King and have them crashing into Ork lines.... We shall see!

I picked up the Galvanic Servohauler a couple months ago wondering how I can adapt it to some Necromunda terrain but then saw a few people attach it to a Leman Russ chassis. 'Thats cool' I thought, but debated whether there was a better chassis. After wondering if the lower bases Chimera chassis would be better I got hold of one and made this. Still bits to finish off but I'm quite happy with how that looks!I've flattened the top of the chimera off and then mounted the crane section onto some plasticard. Its not glued to the circular railing and I'm unsure whether to. It'll be sturdier but might be nice to be able to turn it... we shall see!

 I have paitned a little, firstly this guy I based from a leftover Genestealer Cultist from the Goliath kit mixed with some Orlock parts. Its what I'll be using predominently for the Atalan Bikers so had a little mess around with a colour scheme for them. I've retained the Thunderhawk blue main colour but used white on some of the armour and red casing for the gun. I'm unsure whether to stick with this for the bikers though, and may reverse it so the armour is thunderhawk blue.

 Little more done to the Exorcist too, having done some work to the Organists/rocket launcher firer. Theres a weird surface inside the Exorcist and I'm unsure how to paing this when I get to it, I can't make out if its stone or like a sheet covering something and the photo on the GW website isn't that clear either.

I also picked some other bits up with the Chimera, more Armoured Containers to go along with the three I already have, plus some Genestealer Cult characters to convert for the Hive Guard and Necromunda.

I grabbed these from The Outpost and they were quickly at my door to quench my hobby needs! The Alpus is such a cool model, and I love how theres very little to mark her as a Genestealer cult model. Easier for me to convert! She'll be getting an Escher head, as will the femala Atalan model in the main kit. The Nexos I'll probably use as a Master of Ordnance and the Clamavus either as a Voxcaster or even a standard bearer, I'm unsure yet but just liked the model enough to get! Also, both can be used for Necromunda too which is even better! 

So thats what I've been upto this week, what about you lot? Share any pictures below or maybe I've  sparked some ideas off for your own conversions? Either way keep safe and keep hobbying!

AS vs SW/BA 400 Power BatRep!

Welcome to the first Batrep in a while, a battle between Imperial factions no less. One consisting of 200 power of Astra Militarum commanded by myself and Mark, the other army a 100 power Blood Angels force commanded by Lewis with a 100 power Space Wolves detachment led by Adam aka Fuzz. It had been a little while since we played so we kept it reasonably simple with 6 objectives and drawing upto three cards a turn per side. Secondary objectives as usual, line breaker, slay the warlord and first blood. 

"Howls cried in the distance as the mist began to clear from the nights embrace. Morale was low, although the Cadian 193rd had tried their best to get the hive gangs spirit lifted in what would probably be the moment they meet death. Their home, Hive Probatious, had been obliterated by a crashed starship and the onsuing battles that came afterwards. Sightings of everything had been seen, from multilimbed aliens to power armoured giants and even green skins. War had come to the world of Corbel and what was left had to fight back to survive. Many of the gangs had fallen but each house still had some strength. Adelia's father had once been an officer in the Corbel Tank Regiment and his stories were better than any school for Adelia. The hum of the engines of this Leman Russ she now commanded made her feel comfortable, as if her father was at her side. She took a glance at the dataslate and could see the defences were all in place. The Escher had found an old factory and apprehended some Leman Russ tanks, a couple Chimera APCS and given the Goliath gang that still stood, aptly, a Goliath truck. The Cadians who stood with them also had several of their own tanks, more Leman Russ, Taurox and even a couple of the Basilish with their huge Earthshaker cannons. Hope filled Adelia that survival could be a possibility, until she heard the howls again. "

 

"The sun never shone that brightly on Corbel but with Give Probatious in ruins its rays crashed through the dome ceilings, bringing more light into what was left of the hive than it had ever seen. 'Defenders of Corbel, death is imminent, but what we take with us is not an option. You may face the most elite and fearsome enemies today but you shall stand and you shall fight". Adelia listened as Commander Creed took to the vox. She looked around as his voice filtered through, the infantry standing on edge taking some level of courage from Creeds inspiring words. "Your homeworld burns around you, but your spirits must burn like an inferno if we are to walk away with victory. Stand for your homeworld and your Emperor shall stand with you!" Cheers went up all around the lines as Creeds message hit home. 'So we're gonna die' said Ophelia, the driver of Adelias Leman Russ. 'Probably, but we have plenty of guns to try and kill them with, lets pound at least some of them into death before we get fucked up' Adelia replied. The vox flared again, and the ruff voice of Ghrox came into life. 'You heard this Creed, we aint got much chance of seeing this day through but we get to kill some of them Astartes bastards. Why they attack we dunno, but we make em pay.' The abhuman was a strange one Adeila was sure, but as different as he looked there was no doubt he was one fo them. A horned beast like head whose mouth always had a cigar smoking from it, Ghronx was a bounty hunter in the Underhive before the war came and had now become a leader of sorts in the defence force. Birim, one of the few Demiurgs had also become a figure of command and both were capable fighters she'd seen. "

I was using my hive gang guard for the first time, and had managed to get together a brigade to give our side 9 command points giving us 18 in total. Obviously we had to take the trait and relic that let us regain or steal command points. The armies were faced were much smaller but very elite. Adams Wulfen and Thunderwolf cavalry were scary, whereas Lewis' Terminators could hit us from anywhere via deepstrike and Land Raiders are always hard to damage. 

After both armies had deployed the BA/SW combo won the right to go first. I rolled to seize and rolled a 3. To command point or not? Ah go on, we had 18 command points to use so why not. What did I roll? Lets just say some Leman Russ tanks lumbered forward to get the first shots in! I rolled a six!

We managed to get first blood after the Hellhound burnt up some wolves but to be fair out first turn wasn't the most effective. Now we had some scary Astartes coming at us!

"Her thoughts started to shift to all the people standing with her. Aldreyus the Psyker, whom many still took wide berth of, his powers had saved many of her fellow Eschers and despite his dangerous skills they happily stood with him. Commissar Graven was a very old man as war had come to Corbel but had taken up his bolt pistol and uniform again after being saved by some of the local troops. Birim had got the last of the Demiurg on Corbel together and they hunched together in their Chimera ready to take the fight to the enemies wherever they need to be. The Goliaths had taken an astropath called Nelsium amongst them, their attempts to persuade some local Ogryns to the cause had failed however. The howls started to sound louder as the mist had almost cleared. Adelia realised that battle was upon them as the Cadian tanks engines roared into life, drowning out the wolves. The defences turned to offence, as the Cadian forces lurched forward cannons erupting towards the grey and red lines that opposed the defenders. The enemy opposite Adelias lines began advancing, and the battlefield lit up. Lasers streaked across the battlefield, cannon shells tore holes in both lines. A massively large giant lumbered towards the lines surrouded by huge wolves, warriors in both grey and red armour accompanying it. The Goliaths and one of Adeilas Escher gangs rode forwards in their APC's, autocannons blazing away at the lines but only killing the wolves. It would silence some of the fucking howling she thought as she commanded another tank to concentrate fire where Cadians were firing"

Fuzz'es Wulfen were slicing through a lot of Marks units on the right, but our tanks were making them pay. Logan Grimnar found his wounds cut down quickly but as he made it to combat it was hard to finish him off. The thunderwolf cavalry scared us a lot too, but we were slowly able to push them back.

"Reports on the right flank were that the grey armoured Astartes were advancing with great speed, some like bestial demons leapin forward with great speed, raking the Cadians tanks with claws and axes butchering the troops inside the Taurox. Others rode the backs of massive wolves, pistols firing wildly into the allies lines as they too tried to close the lines and wreak havoc with their own axes and thunder hammers. As Adelias Leman Russ fired she glanced out of the cupola to see the air shimmer and buzz, before 5 huge armoured marines appeared. 'Fucking terminators!' she cursed as they storm forward into the local defence troops, lightning claws tearing their bodes apart and hammers collpasing skulls. Just as Adelia was beginning to lose hope Birim and his fellow Squats disembarked and unleashed a fusilade intot he terminators alongside more of Adeilas fellow eschers. 3 fell as hundreds of lasgun shots bounced of their armoud. Aldreyus concentraded and from his hand another Terminator fell as energy surrounded it and made its armour collapse. One remained however and with a pack of wolves that had sprinted towards the defenders lines smashed its hammer into the Leman Russ Exterminator whos autocannons and heavy bolters had taken its toll on the enemy. The explosion took out most of the wolves, a few of the Demiurg were caught and even a sentinel looked to take some damage from the blow."
 

Marks lone Cadian sergeant surviving against all odds! Those odds don't include those terminators though that sluaghtered him

After a few of my infantry units and the Veteran Goliaths were able to take down Lewis' Terminator Captain I got duly charged by Bjorn. The battle ended before he did more damage thankfully but I did lose a few transports and a sentinel to him and a couple of meltaguns held by accompanying troops. 

After racing out to a 9 point lead in the first two turns our objectives became dry with some difficult ones to attempt. Make the Astartes fail morale and defend 2 objectives for two turns. Both were too far away! The Blood Angels and Space Wolves clawed their way back and on Turn five it was 10-9 to the Astartes. 

As turn 5 finished the Astra Miliatrum had managed to collect 11 points to the Astartes 13. It was a close game and if we'd have remembered a couple of things then who knows. Either way we had a cracking game! The amount of tanks that blew up was astounding despite sixes being needed and did a lot of damage. 

"The left flank however did seem to be keeping together, although the huge grey Dreadnought still advanced, with 5 of its smaller brethren and five of the blood red troops too. Another Terminator teleported nearby, this time one that looked to be a commander, its armour more ornate than the others that had come into play just moments earlier. Once more Commander Creed took to the vox. 'The Emperor will protect, the Emperor inspires, whatever is sent to destroy us will ultimately fail as our faith shall never fall!' Seconds later Commander Creed was dead, wolf like warriors tearing him and his command squad apart in an attack down the right flank. Scions had been killed, and the Basilisks were now being stalked. One of Adelias Leman Russ tanks had been charged by the wolf cavalry, but survived and reversed as the Executioner Leman Russ behind it levelled its weapons dropping some of them dead. A couple more died from the Cadian firepower, as a wolf pulled chariot that hovered above the ground flew foward into the Cadian lines butchering more of the guardsmen. More vox chatter came in, the Goliath gangers had levelled the Terminator Captain with some of the other troops on the left, but the Eschers nearby were torn apart by the Dreadnought. The red armoured troops had taken down more of the infantry but had also almost been wiped out by chimeras. The centre seemed to be holding but both flanks were collapsing. One of the Basilisks blew up, taking some of the enemy with it but it gave little solace. Wolf cavalry was wiped out by a combination of Leman Russ fire and infantry squads, and the wolf chariot was also blown out of the sky which seemed to anger and confuse the wolfen forces even more. Adelias tank fired again taking more of the red astartes down, but the battle was over. Both forces had taken a pummelling, the Cadian lines were almost wiped out, the Goliaths barely surviving. One of the Escher gangs had been wiped out and only half the Demiurg were left. The Astartes had suffered too, but whatever their mission it seemed to have been fulfilled. The rocky outcrop in the middle of the battlefield seemed to be a point of interest to the Astartes and Adelia could only hope it wouldn't be the end of their world. For now, the defence would rage on."
 

So my first outing with the Imperial Guard was a very enjoyable one! Compared to Space Marines they are a lot more varied in how well dice rolls do, as you're 50/50 compared to most Space Marine rolls where its 70/30. When you get those good rolls by Emperor you appreciate them! I can't wait to get more games in with them. I'm planning on a box or two of Orlocks to upgrade soe of my infantry, I love the Squat infantry but the models just don't fit in. I'll keep them around if needed but they will probably become retired in time, especially as new gangs are released for Necromunda. 

What else to add? I think a couple of heavy weapon units would be useful, and I'd like to try out my Vendetta and Stormlord at some point too just to see how they are in a game. I just love Leman Russ tanks though! I have another two to get painted up which will give me 5 plus the Tank Commander. The sentinels disappointed me although they were my most recent purchase so wasn't surprised. Psykers are fantastic, the power giving you +1 save was especially useful in cover to make my goliath veterans much more survivable. 

Hopefully my next game is soon to try out more combinations and remember those bloody stratagems! More soon on all the Necromunda info coming out of the HH Necromunda weekender with thoughts, hopes and holy Emperor fantasies for the game!

The fiction bit was written by myself and is probably terrible. Its been a while so I hope you weren't expecting much!

Progress: Terrain And Tanks!

So with Xmas and the New Yearhaving passed, I hope everyones had a good time and are cracking on with hobby projects! I've been pretty busy so taken some better photos of what I've been upto so here they are.

The armoured containers were nice and easy to build, and painting was similarly fun too. I undercoated them all with Rhinox Hide, then based with chosen colours on top. Red took two coats, orange took 3 with a bit of touching up, but green went on easily in one with some touch ups. Now I find weathering and bare metal work to add a great contrast to colours and it also helps unify models over different colours. Its also a great way alternative to highlighting so I went nuts on these!

I used some watered down Gorthor Brown to add rust drips, and some more Rhinox Hide to add as a backdrop to put the Leadbelcher on top to created the worn edges and patches were things were knocked against or perhaps gunfire ricocheted off. 

As you can see I also added a couple of transfers just to add some depth and make them stand out a little. 

I've also been cracking on with the Necromunda terrain and the smaller aspects of the containers box, getting some rust out on these has been fun as its been ages since I've used it. I've got loads more of these to do and these need finishing off also. I've got 6 barrels in orange with numbers on too for objective tokens that I'm adding drips too.

Also over Xmas I wanted to rework my Imperial Guard army. Having previously been painted (but never finished) in grey, they just looked unfinished as it was a similar tone to plastic. Thats no good! Some thinking soon provided me with an answer....

THUNDERHAWK BLUE!

While basing my tanks with Thunderhawk Blue I wondered what to do in terms of highlighting and/or camo. Lighter tones, darker tones, I just wasn't sure. Going back to my earlier terrain painting though I enjoyed playing with rust. That was it! 

I added plenty of rust to the tanks, not so much in a camo pattern but it certainly gives a similar effect. I've still got some last few bits to do to these but I also have another Chimera, a Vendetta and a mighty Stormlord to finish off too!

 

In terms of background with my intention to use some of the Necromunda gangs as infantry the idea is that with some sort of invasion to a hive world the old tanks were found then repurposed by the gangs and some of the Astra Militarum trying to get a defence in order to repel the enemies attacking. With the defence a success the rust was kept as a blessing to the Omnissah and now chemicals are added to the vehicles by Tech-Adepts to rust up in the name of the machine god. It works for me anyways!

So what have you guys been upto? Post photos or get in touch if you'd like your work showcased!

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!

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!