Death of a New Era.

Well welcome, to Death By Die! Formally the Evandalists, but now with a new title to show how much more encompassing this blog is, or at the very least will be! Its coming up to two years of this blog being a breathing creature, and today it comes to adulthood with an almighty roar. Not on that, but in the coming weeks my Space Marine Chapter will also be renamed, but that is yet to be decided upon. As my army comes up close to the battle company level it seems like a good time to do so. The Evandalists, as they've been known as, was always a stand in name until I'd thought of something better. Only problem was, I'd forgotten to think of something! So keep an eye out for that.

First of all I need to pass on a huge thanks to Ieuan from Sons of Isis, the guy is a true Hero and deserves some Terminator honours for this tribute!

Last tuesday was my birthday, and Ieuan made me this especially, hes a classy lad fair play, hit his blog up to see his lovely looking army and purple hands!

Next up two weeks ago I took part in the first Apoc game using the new updated 6th edition rules, and had a hell of a blast. Theres a bit of narrative to sort out yet but the pictures are ready, so a post on this will happen fairly soon! All you need to know whoever was just how immense the game was.

There was 24k points in total, and had my marines teamed with Morgans Space Wolves vs the evil duo of Adam and Alun with their Nurgle Marines and Daemons with Traitor Guard. Cracking game and some good moments... more on that in the next week though! 

Next up that I need to tell you about, is this bad boy! Drop Zone is coming out as a boxed game, and I'm incredibly tempted if I can find the money aside from GTAV and the new Marines codex! 

Not only do you get everything you need, but the price is £60 rrp. How good is that?!! Well theres better... My good friend Adam who runs Putrid Painting, has it up on his site for a very nice £50, I'm not even kidding! We'll be getting a copy to try out at club and seeing what its like when its released at the end of September. 

So what else can you guys be expecting with this new name? Well the post I made about the Iyanden Craftworld from a scanned White Dwarf seemed popular, so I'll do this a little more often. I'll also be projecting my thoughts upon new releases, adding my own ideas etc. I'm also hoping to bring to you a new game thats being developed and sculpted by a new member to our club who lives just over the mountain, but that deserves its very own post. For now though I'll let all that and the new name sink in... 

Death By Die.

The Evandalists. Video and Pictures

Welcome all to an update on my Evandalists, They're out and ready to be inspected! Below is a Vlog update on Youtube and further down are some pictures of units from my army. Over the next two or three months I'm looking to update my army background too, so keep an eye out for that!

Rescue the Squat: Batrep.

"Thornarim nodded at his newest recruit and looked back at the target. The Chaos Marines standing nearby were so far unaware of the Squat and his scouts watching them. Thornarim and his unit had been sent to recon the area, reports of Chaos forces gathering meant a force of Evandalists and Imperial Guard were dispatched to take care of them, and the venerable old Squat had come to seek them out. He tiptoe'd over the window ledge, and noted 3 Chaos Marines in red bloodstained armour stood near a crossroads in what used to be a thriving city. The traitors were part of a patrol, and were soon moving on past the building the Scout squad were using as cover. "Shiori, They be here. We await your presence book keeper" he said into a small device. The scouts took up position in the building, weapons ready. All of a sudden the floor underneath them erupted with noise, a man screamed as bones could be heared snapping. Thornarim motioned for quiet, and slid over to a gap in the floor. He looked down and saw two Chaos Marines hold a man on the floor, his legs already seperated from his body. The man cried and babbled, then one of the traitors stamped on his head, crushing the mans skull beneath his armoured foot. The old Squat moved back gently, but heard something small fall across from him. Elrynd, the new recruit, had been looking through another gap, but as he moved away a few minor pieces of rubble had fallen off the edge and alerted the Chaos Marines that someone was above them. Three heretics presence was felt almost immediately as the bounded up the plascrete stairs and confronted the old Squat and his 4 scouts. The scouts fired off shots with their sniper rifles as the Bezerkers pounced on them, one tripped but quickly regained his balance as one sniper shot hit him in the thigh, while another was shot in the shoulder pad which did little to heed his haste. Thornarim leapt towards the third with his combat blade already drawn, dodging a chainaxe while planting the blade into the Bezerkers neck. The Chaos Marine slumped as blood streamed out of the gap between his helmet and torso armour, Thornarim turned to see how his scouts had faired. All four had quickly been dismembered by the other two Khorne worshippers, Thornarim felt confident against one, but the other had more scars across his face than a war torn world. As they lunged at him they suddenly changed direction, one fell to the floor with a gaping hole in his head, while the scarred brute slammed into the wall and collapsing it into the next room. Thornarim quickly remembered his time with the guardsmen. While drinking some of the ale the guardsmen had, some had mentioned rumours of an assassin in the vicinity. Could this be true? The halfling quickly searched for the Bezerker who'd gone through the wall, only to see him rise, dust himself off, and once again lunge at the Squat. As the Chaos fool jumped onto the Squat his chainaxe suddenly fell as another high velocity shot tore his arm off. It did nothing to slow him down as he landed on Thornarim, headbutted him and then started to throttle him with his one hand. The old scout sergeant found a large rock, and started to pound it on the Bezerkers skull. Blood starting pouring down from his wound, but did nothing to loosen the traitorsgrip. Thornarim could feel his fight quickly disappearing, his eyes beginning to fail and his breathing becoming hard. He felt himself falling unconscious, and his last sight was the Khorne Bezerker staring at him as its foreheard quickly exploded, brain matter and blood showering the room, then the world was black."

And so the scene is set! Myself and Alun teamed up in an attempt to rescue my fallen Squat sergeant Thornarim Nafni, after Shiori Kiyoshi had received a comms from him but did not get another reply shortly after. We would be fighting the vile combination of Adam and Chris as they used Plague Marines and Khorne Bezerkers. 1500 points per player, Hammer and Anvil deployment!

Above you can see deployment, I had Shiori and a ten strong unit of Sterguard in the Crusader. Below, are Adams reserves, and the pitcure below that is my Stormtalon and Aluns Inquisitor and Grey Knights. 

My Crusader took a penetrating hit in the first turn stunning it, making it unable to move. This cause my lne to slow although Erasmus Torgeaz and his fellow bikers flew up the left flank, intent on destroying the Hellbrute and swinging back in to take down the Bezerkers Rhino that headed towards my lines.

Another unit of Khorne Bezerkers were quicly upon Thornarim, and bundled him into their rhino the turn after. This did not look good! 

Kharn and his fellow Bezerkers bounded out of their Rhino, intent on butchering the Guardsmen in front of them. Epistolory Shiori Kiyoshi and the Sternguard quickly disembarked out of the Crusader, its guns taking down the first few traitors, quickly followed by Shiori focusing his mind and unleashing a blast against them, killing another two. The Sternguards guns blazed away and Kharn fell as his armour was riddled with special-issus ammunition. One Bezerker stood, but was soon gunned down by the relieved guardsmen.

As Torgeaz aims his squad for the Hellbrute, the air grew warm as a unit of Nurgle Terminators teleported just 20ft to their right. Torgeaz motioned for the squad to continue as he steered straight for the Terminators, bellowing how his axe would be their end. Their champion stepped forward to meet the Space Marine captain, his chainfist buzzing away hungrily. It caught the side of Erasmus' arm and drew blood, but Torgeaz swung his axe around caught the Terminator in the head and cleaved his helmet in two. The other Terminators now strode forward, eager to prove their dominance, but none could outmatch the grizzled Captain as he took them down one by one. 

The biker unit set their eyes on the Hellbrute who had cripsed one of their number with its multi melta, and unleashed their own melta weapons at the beast/machine. The hot stream of melta tore straight through the Hellbrute and it slumped to the grounds, horrible screams coming from within its torso. As the Bikers veered around its huge carcuss, a greater target loomed into sight, a Defiler.

Typhus and his huge number of plague zombies had shambled slowly forward, overseeing the rest of the forces were carrying out his masters wishes. The Squat would be a good plague bearer, and papa Nurgle would smile wryly as one of the rare subhumans would bloat up and become a haven for flies and disease. Suddenly, Typhus became aware of a presence, and as he turned around the air fizzled as an Inquisitor and some Grey Knights appeared in front of the Chaos Champion. Their psycannons and storm bolters blazed into the walking dead and tore most of them to pieces as Typhus immediately strode towards them. Another Hellbrute noticed the Grey Knights and started to shift its enormous weight towards the terminators, eager to spill loyalist blood. 

The Grey Knights managed to evade most of the Hellbrutes blows, and planted a coupel of Krak grenades just under its torso. The first explosion did nothing and a maniacal laugh burst from within. It looked down upon them in pity as its giant mutated fist raised to deliver another blow, and the second krak grenade exploded turning its torso outwards and buckling the heretical machine. The Grey Knights quickly turned to see the Inquisitor lose his leg to Typhus, whose scythe swung through the Terminator armour the Inquisitor wore felling him. As Typhus turned his attention to the Grey Knights the Inquisitor swung his Hammer into the back of Typhus, the blow sending him spinning around and his scythe lunged intot he Inquisitors head. The blows from each force weapons taking the others lives, killing each other in one almight moment.

The Bezerkers Rhino had been wrecked, and now they carried their captive towards their lines where reinforcements laid wait. The form of a defiler was an easy target for aid, and the Chaos Marines headed towards the ancient daemonnic machine. As they did so, they were fire upon from all angles. Traitors fell as the guardsmen and Sternguard carefully aimed all their weapons at the Khorne followers, butchering them all as Thornarim was dropped to the floor. The Defiler saw the prize, and started to bound forward to capture it. 

The bikers took aim at the Defiler as its attention was turned elsewhere, the first Melta shot missing but the other hit the beast in the side. Feeling the superheated beam the Defiler turned around quickly unleashing a battle cannon shot at point blank range, killing three of the bikers and then swiped away the last with one of its gian crab like claws. 

The metal beast quickly turned its attention to the fallen Squat just as a Tactical Squad moving in to carry him. The Defiler leapt forwards to stop them but was blown out of the air as the Stormtalon swooped in, krak missiles taking out its claws and assault cannon churning into its body. The other Chaos Marines could see the battle was lost and much of their number had died. The retreated out of the building and were able to get away. Thornarim opened his eyes, feeling something wet upon his brow. Above him was a guardsman and Shiori Kiyoshi, Epistolary of the Evandalists. "Trouble?" asked the Librarian. Thornarim stared at the psyker intently, before letting himself smile. "Aye, any left?" "None that we're aware of, it looks like one unit got away that were station in that building." Thornarim spat as he rose to his feet, his body aching and cuts and bruises making him feel sore. 

"Those bastards are mine, I've got some laddies to avenge."

Sternguard and Terminators Update!

So its been a wee while since I've shown you much progress with my Evandalists, but this past week or so I've been busy on these beauties. I've always fancied Sternguard, the thought of the elite Marines from the 1st company still armed with power armour and (special ammo issued) boltguns made an evocative image and was something I needed. I scoured what I had, and trawled through Ebay. I had decided that as the Sergeant torso was reasonably distinctive with its high collar, ten of these were added to the shopping list. What else? Phobos pattern boltguns! I picked up 9 of these, and also a Ferrox pattern bolter for the sarge to make him stand out a bit more. Also added were parts from a command squad I bought at the Cwmbran GW and plenty of veteran shoulder pads!

 The colour scheme is much the same as my main army, although a few new things were done. With the Veteran pads I did them silver, and when painting the armour after everything was basecoated, I covered the entire model except the face with nuln oil. I wanted a bit of a dirty grimy look to them, and I'm pretty pleased with how they've turned out. So much so that I may revisit other squads and repeat this technique!

Heres two of the Sternguard, as you can see I went for a black skin tone with two of the guys and then a more white tone with the others. I think the black skin tones came out well, and I shall be doing some more! 

Heres the Sergeant with a Powerfist, armed to take out the trickier things these guys may come across that their ammo may not hurt. How I use these guys I don't know, either as a nice defensive unit using the Kraken bolts, or drop pod them down to take out power armoured enemies. I look forward to fielding them though!

Ah Terminators! I've bought 5 ranged Terminators before, but they were the Assault on Black Reach ones and posing them isn't much of an option. I got myself a box of these at Firestorm Games in Cardiff and looked forward to fixing them up.

I posed the Assault Cannon Termie to look like he's balancing against the recoil, and I think its worked ok. Its so nice to have chainfists at last!

Two of the regular Termies. You'll note that I've not done the Chapter badge on these or the Sternguard, this will come when I've practiced it a little more! 

I'm quite happy with how the Sarge's face has come out. I love using Khemri Brown as a base, washing it and then adding little amounts of white 2-3 times to build up the highlights. 

Lastly is my other regular armed Termie, and I've posed this guy twisting as if reacting to a new threat. Needless to say its my favourite one, seeing such a bulky guy in a more dynamic pose is why I wanted to build some of these guys for myself! 

So there we go, some progress to show how the Chapter are growing. I'm still planning on getting some pics of the entire army set up, so eyes peeled for when I pluck up the courage to try and organise this. Don't forget, I'm having a giveaway to celebrate 20k views on my blog, so click here for details! I've got a couple of well known people in the world of gaming entering, so fingers crossed we should have a great gallery. So whats stopping you gettng a self portrait of yourself and your favourite miniature?

Blood Angels vs Space Marines BatRep 2000pts

So being a little late this week at club we pretty much got right into the game. I took a fairly different list this week. This is a rough list...

Captain on Bike, + 5 bikers and attack bike

Chaplain leading a tactical squad

2 other tactical squads, one in rhino

3 dreadnoughts, one in drop pod

2 dev squads, one all missile launchers and one all plasma cannons

storm talon with typhoon missile launcher

Mikes Blood Angels list is roughly...

Dante and 5 sanguinary guard

8 assault marines

10 death company in rhino

tactical squad

devastator squad, 2 plasma 2 lascannon

baal and autocannon predators

dreadnought

stormraven with 5 assault terminators

Mike won the roll off to deploy and go first, then I set up. I went for a static left flank and centre, and the right would advance aiming to take out the dakka pred. Otherwise we'd see what happened!

First turn, no first blood but a couple of models killed either way. I glanced the baal and DC rhino twice each but couldn't get the first blood, but if I could weather the second turn of incoming fire I could pick one of those off to get a vital bonus point!

Mikes storm raven comes in and adds fire against the bikes and devs but fails to really do anything. Mikes assault squad manages to make an 11" assault into my central tactical squad, and a combat erupts! In my turn, I'm able to destroy the Baal and the DC rhino. First Blood!

Also in my second turn, my bikers advance even further and fire all their melta weapons at the dakka predator, and promptly blow it up. Another victory point! 

Ouch! As you can see in the following pic, the assault termies come out of the Storm Raven and slam into my tacitcal squad... this won't last much longer! The Tactical squad makes it to my turn with just a sarge and chaplain left, but then they can hold on no longer. I start losing more too, with my dread dying in the centre of the field.

My storm talon comes on and shoots at the devs. I manage to kill 2, but they hold firm. As I mentioned the assault squad and termies butcher my chaplain and tactical squad and consolidate towards my left flank. My bikers advanced again however and melta spoke death to the dreadnought, melting it to slag. For their efforts however Dante is finally able to enter play and charges them with his sanguinary guard. My captain challanges Dante who accepts, and a very close fight erupts between the two Space Marines heroes! The bikers however are unable to hurt the sanguinary guard and all bikes are killed after two turns of combat.

 Last turn heroics needed! At this point neither of us knew the points, so we kept fighting and decided to count up after the battle ended. Mikes 3 assault troops leapt into my left most tactical squad, but overwatch took one out and then I killed another without a loss. The sarge retreated, and Mike was able to save himself a point as his last terminator charged in. In my previous turn I'd shot at his termies with a lot of firepower and killed four... So close! The termie however misses with all but on attack... then rolls a one to wound! I failed to penetrate his armour however until my dreadnought stomps in and deals the fatal blow. Termies killed! 

I'd manage to whittle down the death company slowly but there was a couple left, so a vp denied. Dante and my captain was a close fought fight however, and the game ended with them still fighting. Captain Torgeaz had 2 wounds left, whereas Dante had one. Turn 5 was the last however, and we counted up victory points.

Counting up the points I'd won 7-6, first blood proving crucial! We knew it was a close game as we were playing, but that was incredible, I really like not knowing until after the battle and it proved an entertaining affair. Heck of a game fair dues, Mikes getting to know his army fairly well.

Elswhere at club a game of Gorkamorka went on, but I have no idea what happened apart from hearing much laughter from the table... must have been a good time!

Day of 40k. November style!

So another hugely satisfying day of 40k gaming for us at The Tredegar Reavers, 2 large games of 40k went on and Huws Pirate game made a splash too. This post however, is dedicated to the game I participated in, a nice chunky game of 40k.

We had two opposing sides, Imperium versus Chaos. The sides were;

Me/Big Kev - Evandalists Space Marines and Tau allies

Bam - His mysterious Space Marines

Iain - Space Wolves

Carl Grey Knights.

Louis - Alpha Legion and Traitor Guard

Chris - Khorne Bezerkers and Death Guard

Alun - Daemons of too many varieties! 

 It was amazing to finally see most of my army out on the board, although some of it was not used. I think we had between 18-20k in points total, and thankfully it wasn't as slow moving as the Apocalypse game we played at Warhammer World.... mainly because we didn't have 16 players in one game! For the mission we adapted two missions from the rulebook to meet the size of the game. We had 6 objectives, but also victory points could be gained as in Purge the Alien. This meant we had a lot of tactical choices to make when capturing objectives... especially when Alun suggested a special rule.... In addition to him deploying daemons in the normal way, if a Chaos unit held an objective for a turn he could bring his units in within 12" of it. This made holding the two objectives in our deployment zone a huge priority, and also the two in dead mans land would need to be kept clear. We felt we had a good gun line and so wanted to hold back and then surge forth in the closing couple of turns to claim the open two objectives.

We won the roll for deployment and went first. This is our Deployment below!

Grey Knights and Space Wolves held the right Flank, myself and Bam held the centre and then both me and Iain held the left too. The chaos forces deployed and prompty stole the initiative, even though Alun and his Daemons didn't want too! As a lot of the Chaos forces were off the board, we escaped only losing a couple of models and no victory points lost, we had a chance at the bonus of first blood... which was then captured as a Nurgle Land Raider was blown up. Good start! We managed to get a few more kills and that ended the first turn.

Turn two, and the Daemons turn up... Ouch! Them having to deepstrike basically meant kill them asap or be charged by a close combat elite force. In our deployment zone we found blood letters, lesser daemons, Slaaneshi riders, warp talons, and a Great Unclean One. Louis' Valkyrie made an appearence too... but I'd chatted to Bam when making our forces and had contingencies for this! We had taken two Bastions, Bams had a Quadgun and mine had the Icarus Lascannon. Manning mine however, was Telion(or at least my Squat Sniper, not decided on a name yet!). This meant I had a 96" range st9 sniper! The Valkyrie flew on and was promptly blown up by Bams Quadgun... I didn't even get to fire! Only two crew survived, one Veteran and a Comissar Lord. 

A combination of Bams Predator Executioner and Iains Plasma Long fangs wiped out the darmons threatening the right flank, while a Tactical squad belonging to Bam took out the Warp Talons. My own Plasma devastators and Tau fire warriors wiped out the bloodletters, and then firepower from 4 dreadnoughts managed leave the Great Unclean One with two wounds left, and my Snipers fire were able to finish it off. Not even Nurgle likes the toxins of the Imperium! 

Battle was soon met in the middle as the Grey Knights advanced and were soon caught up in a long protracted combat with the Chaos forces on the right flank. Chaos Champions were killed, and Abbadon and Draigo battled it out for a few turns of combat until Draigo eventually fell. 

 

Turn three saw the chaos forces advancing ever closer,  looking to capture the middle objectives so their daemon allies could safely join battle closer to our lines. They pushed up the flanks, while we kept the centre line of cultists and daemons at bay with concentrated fire.

Louis' forgefiend proved effective, not so much in how much damaged it did, but how much we aimed at it to try and silence its deadly weapons. We failed in this!

Louis' maulerfiend, aka 'Buster' did some damage too, earning its weight in points back by quite a bit! I believe Bam took it out later in the game with a well aimed hunter killer missile. Phew!

Chris and Carl duel with the dice as Khorne meets Grey Knights. 

As the Chaos forces advanced, myself and Bam began our distraction tactic. Several of my Tau units, Legion of the Damned and a Drop Pod carrying a heavy flamer toting dread, and a couple of Bams units deepstriked onto the rear of the Chaos lines. Several of the dangerous chaos units had to turn back and deal with this new threat, giving our main line much more time to deal with the impending threats!

More daemons are found among our lines, including a Blood Thirster, two units of blood letters, while a gaggle of Greater Daemons advance up our left flank and take on the Space Wolves and two of my Tactical squads, including one Kairos Fatewaever. His ability of re-rolling failed armour and invun saves proved huge for the daemons, as they stubbornly refused to die as they killed our forces! 

Being unble to wipe out the bloodletter units and Blood Thirster at our rear they charged into the Grey Hunters holding our rear most objective. We had a healthy lead at this point, but if the daemons could capture this objective and a couple of the others they would close the gap sinificantly. After the assault just 2 grey hunters remained, and we would struggle to kill these. 

In the centre of the battlefield, battle was met between my Chapter Master, Chaplain and terminators and Kharn and his retinue of Bezerkers. One Bezerker and an untouched Kharn were left standing, and I lost three terminators after the first round of combat. My chapter master, Vincent Eniko was unable to catch Kharn off his guard, but then Orneus Gyozo stepped in with an almighty punch of his power fist that could have been the Emperors fist himself and crushed the mighty Traitors helmut. With the blow, one of the Imperiums biggest threats fell to the ground and my newly made chaplains first kill couldn't have been any bigger! The unit got back into the Land Raider and surged forth to claim an objective, Vincent Eniko being a scoring unit due to his Warlord Trait.

Iains wolf lord on thunderwolf was stuck in combat with this beast for a few turns! The decimator eventually ran the warrior down, crushing the wolf beneath its armoured feet and knocking the life out of the wolf.

In the closing moments, combined fire from 2 devastator squads, fire warriors, and a tactical squad managed to kill a blood letter squad that were standing before Second Company Captain Erasmus Torgeaz and his Bike riding squad. The stormed into the combat, impact hits killing the last couple of blood letters in combat with the grey hunters and my Captain challanged the Avatar of War. The Blood Thirster greedily accepted and struck at Torgeaz with daemonic speed, two hits getting through the Iron Halo. Bloodied and battered, Erasmus delivered furious blows that must have matched the visceral brutality of the Blood Thirster itself and took its last couple of wounds off him. A huge kill for Torgeaz, and objetive rescued!

So a great game, and I'm sure the other guys had some great moments too, due to my age I only remember mine though! Ha. The gamed ended 49 points to the Imperium and 32 to Chaos. A glorius victory and many honours earned. Orneus Gyozo, Erasmus Torgeaz and my Snipers being my own personal men of the battle. 

I'll do another post soon fleeting over the other two games that were played, one of which contain 2 biotitans, a harridan and an Eldar titan. It looked cracking fair play and was an incredibly close game! I'll be asking the guys for their moments to bring to you, along with some pictures of the pirates game Huw put on that some of the guys played.

Some great news too, we made enough money from the day that we shall soon be sending off our GCN application and the insurance money, so huge boost for the club! Makes me a very proud Chairman. We're now going to look at another all dayer over the Xmas period, as our club night falls on Xmas and New Years eve... so no club for 2 weeks? NO WAY!!! All dayer needed it seems! Andrew mentioned about perhaps doing a fast paced tournement style day, which I think would be cracking! So we'll get some planning done soon and see what we can do. All in all, a great day and some cracking moments for my Evandalists... expect not only another post on the day but also a video with some footage in and also I may do a little story based from the viewpoint of my Evandalists. For now though....

Fair well!