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.

Talking about Tactics.

(image from Games Workshop)

So I've been thinking about some tactics recently... More specifically, Sternguard. I hink the special ammunition is a great option for them... but something else appeals to me more. Stormbolters. Why? 

2 shots and assault. Every time. A lot of people prefer the special ammo, or even combo-ing their guns with meltas, flamers etc. Boltguns are great, but they're rapid fire which means you can assault afterwards. Combi weapons are good, but a bit pricey when added up and they're all one shot per game. Stormbolters?

10 sterguard with 9 stormbolters and a power weapon... 19 shots, 3's to hit 4's to wound againts other marines. Probably kill about 3-4 marines going by probability. Then? Assault. 3 attacks each, plus four for the sarge who has a power weapon and bolt pistol... he'll kill one at least, plus with the 27 attacks you'll be hitting about 18, and wounding 9. If the enemy has a 3+ save they'll lose another 3 to those attacks plus the one from the sarge. Thats about 8 models in a ten man tactical squad dead. What I wanna try? Land Raider Crusader. Add the Hurricane Bolters to the above AND the assault cannon and you've got an enormous amount of anti infantry firepower. I've had boltguns take out bloodthirsters through sheer weight of firepower and this is similar in those terms. The problem? Costly! But I do love the idea of Stormbolter fire shredding enemies to bits and then assaulting whatevers left straight after! Imagine sticking a chaplain with these guys too to get the re-rolls to hit? Omnomnom!

Recently in a game we realised that you can no longer arrive from reserve and assault in the same turn. Is this good or bad? I think, its perhaps a good thing. Instead of keeping your units off the board and then counter attacking with a brutal assault you need to be more tactical by having them on from the start. This can be easy or difficult depending on transports, terrain etc. Towards the tail end of 5th edition I used Khan a few times and turned up in an outflank move and assaulted, well this can no longer be done! I now have to be more careful as to how I use him and his bikers, advance under cover? Park them up and let the enemy come? Well, not nessecarily.

Bikers now get Hammer of Wrath, which gives each of them an extra attack on the charge at initiative 10. The other good thing with 6th edition rules is the 'jink' ability. This gives all bikers who have moved, a 5+ cover save. This is extremely useful and when moving up the flank makes them almost as hard as Terminators. That can move 12" a turn. I think bikers are a much better unit now despite the restriction on asaualting from reserve. I never did get to try using Khan outflanking, escorted by a Storm Talon and then assaulting the survivors. Ho hum! 

I'm considering converting up a Librarian soon too, or even going for the Librarian in Terminator armour model. I've never used a psyker before so with the new rules it should provide an interesting lesson or twelve. 

In other news, I did some video editing! While exporting however my pc shut itself off. Turns out I need a bigger power pack to handle the exporting... so pennies need to be saved to get this upraded! Hopefully it won't take too long but money is a wee tight so we shall see. 

What tactics do you guys and gals like to use or what are you looking forward to trying?