Painting update

Alright, a couple new pictures to put up today now that I've finished painting on them.

First up on the list, my two Lunar Class Cruisers for Battle Fleet Gothic. So here are the Nemesis and Celestial Ignis(Heavenly Fire)

And while not a lot of difference between the two of them, here is each one by itself.
Nemesis:

Celestial Ignis:

And the final model for the day, my new Master of the Fleet.
With Flash:

And Without:

Battle Group Savanna

So today I got a set of Imperial Cruisers, for Battlefleet Gothic, in the mail and I have to say the kits are simple, but wonderful at the same time and even without paint on them I feel that they make a striking image.

As to why I ordered them, the group that I generally game with up here came to the consensus that it'd be fun to add another game to our playlist and most of us have been wanting to try this one, myself included, based on the coolness factor of controlling ships in a giant space battle.

So without further ado, here are the assembled cruisers, built to represent the Lunar Class Cruiser.

Hobby Update for the week

.:BEGIN TRANSMISSION:.
Alright everyone, so I got some hobbying done today and some done last week and figured I should get a post up before work tonight.

So here we go, first item on the list. When we were down at the BugEater GT a couple of weeks ago, I ended up buying myself another Valkyrie kit and on the way back home, those of us in the car came up with the idea to do a sort of flyer, epic battle the following Monday. So I was essentially required to build and at least prime my newest kit in about a week. Not too much of a challenge, I was able to get the kit together really quickly and managed to get most of the body painted in the last bit of my fortress grey, which sadly enough ran out before I could do the wings.

So, long story short, built, primed and paint started in about 2 days. I'm rather proud of that time schedule honestly.

Next up on the chopping block, alterations to some of my finished infantry. Now I didn't have time to add these before the BugEater, seeing as how I was kind of pushing it the way it went. So here we have six guys, divided between the three squads and the command of my 105th outflank platoon, with their fresh purity seals added.

All the purity seals are custom cut, with the exception of the actual seal, which comes from any GW purity seal I can get my hands on. The prayer strips are simply cut from medical gauze and painted over.

Finally a new model to my roster. I have painted up the old metal Cadian Senior officer that I had laying around and will be using him as my Master of the Fleet. Note, he is not finished, he still needs a wash and highlights, as well as a base.

That's all for the newest painted models in my army.

On the chopping block for future updates, I still have a pile of models waiting to be painted up and distributed. I recently just put 30 of my original guardsmen into Simple Green so that I can repaint them so that they match my current army style.

For my Rough Riders, I just finished drilling out all of their closed hands and found a thin, leather sinew cord that I will be using as reigns. I've also started pinning the remainder of my torsos together, no images as of yet.

That's all for now.
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Return from the BugEater GT Pt.2

Okay, so I was lazy yesterday and didn't get the post up, but here it is today.

0420012.M3(06/02/12 2:27PM)
Round 3: The third round's scenario was a Dawn of War deployment with Objectives as the primary, followed by table quarters and then kill points. In this round I was playing against regular Space Marines, played by Clint Beaver.  After both of us placed the objectives, he deployed first when I failed to seize and to gives myself a little more room against him, I deployed in the opposite corner.

On the first round, two of his drop pods came in right next to my deployment, with a dreadnaught and a Sternguard squad with Vulkan attached. His dreadnaught turned its flamer on my plasma vets, wittling them down to the last couple of men, while his Sternguard squad sent three flamer templates down by guard platoon, frying all 20 of them where they stood.

When my turn rolled around, I brought in my Russes to try and drive him from the corner. Shots from the regular Russes killed most of his Sternguard unit, while the Executioner failed to do anything and the Vanquisher took some ineffective shots at his Vindicators.

Turn two for him turned into wittling down my Russes, who continued to do nothing in return, either missing their shots or not breaking his armor. Both units of my reinforcements came in on turn three, the outflank platoon coming in on the corner that he had deployed into, while the Vendetta came in and dropped vets by his Vindicators and thunderfire cannon.

In the next three turns my Vendetta stunned a couple of his vehicles, while my melta vets pushed forwards, popping a rhino and a vindicator, before finally stunning the final one he had.

On the other side of the board, one of the outflank squads was cut down with bolter fire after blowing up a razorback and killing all but two of the marines within. The other two squads, blobbed up fired on one of the marine squads hunkering behind their barricades, before being assaulted by both squads. An assault that lasted three turns with both sides still holding in there.

Overall result, a win on all three conditions for my opponent, but was easily the funnest game that I played all weekend.

0421012.M3(06/02/12 5:13PM)
Round 4:  For scenario 4 it was another Pitched battle deployment, with primary being table quarters, then objectives and finally kill points. The game saw me facing off against another Guard player, who was running Mech Guard with a trio of Vendettas for support.

Going second again, he pushed his Chimeras forwards while his Vendettas fired on my own and didn't manage to do anything against it. On my turn my Russes fired and wrecked one of his Chimeras while my Vanquisher immobilized one of his Vendettas and my own wrecked another on the far end of the board.

 His Chimeras advanced farther , deploying a melta vet squad that destroyed my Vanquisher, while Marbo came in behind my tank line. Shifting my infantry blob, I gunned Marbo down with a ranked fire order, while my Russes took out another Chimera and my Executioner stunned another. Across the board, my Plasma vets charged forwards, melta bombing another of his Chimeras.

At turn 3 he took out my Russ squadron with his Melta vets and moved a couple of chimeras and flamers up to turn on my blob squad, killing all but the command unit. My plasma vets were also gunned down by combined fire from a Chimera and the squad from the vehicle they had just wrecked.  My reinforcements came in on this round, supporting my quickly crumbling flank and my remaining Russ. A quick ranked fire was enough to reduce one of his squads back away from the objective that they had grabbed. My Executioner used it's melta sponsons to blow up another chimera, while it's plasma rounds scattered to hit the rest of the squad that my infantry had fired on.

In the last round he blew up my remaining Russ, before the melta vets were finally killed by fire from my outflankers and my Vendetta managed to stop his remaining Vendetta from moving or shooting.

Ending on turn 4, he claimed the primary objectives, but I won in the secondary, holding the only objective of both of us and tied him just barely in kill points.  Overall, not the funnest game ever, I thought it could have played a little faster.

Well that was rounds 3 and 4. Rounds 5 and 6 will follow either later today or tomorrow.

Return from the BugEater GT Pt.1

Well, I'm back from the GT and I have to say that the tournament was an absolute blast! 6 games across two days and a bunch of awesome people, couldn't have had a better time.  While I went mainly with the want to just play a few fun games and just have a good time, on the ride down I set a goal for myself to get at least one win for my first GT and I did just that! Pulled out a 1 win to 5 losses, but the losses didn't feel bad. They were a great learning experience about how to play against armies and what to expect of them for the future.

While I won't write up full battle reports for each of the games, I will include a couple of pictures and a brief description of each, along with my impression of the armies that I faced.

First off though, here is the army I took down: The 422nd Valedor Consolidated

The list included: 1 Company Command Squad with Colonel Daniel Whitmoore (Senior officer), a 3 man Ratling unit, a 30 man outflanking infantry platoon with Captain Varen Contaire (Al'Rahem counts as), carrying 3 melta guns and melta bombs on the power sword Sgts. There was also a power sword Commissar attached. A 20 man infantry platoon and command squad, all 3 with Grenade launchers. Two veteran squads, one triple plasma with the demolition upgrade and a triple melta squad with Lt. Reginald Stelton (Bastone counts as).

For armor I brought a squadron of 2 regular Leman Russ Battle Tanks, with lascannon hulls. A Vanquisher variant with lascannon front and Commissar Maximillian Dren (Pask counts as) and an Executioner variant with lascannon hull and multi-melta sponsons.

Finally I brought a Vendetta Gunship to carry my Melta Vets.

0420012.M3 (6/2/12 7:16am)
Round 1: In the first round, my guard were pitted against an excellently converted, counts as, Chaos Daemon army, with a dark Mechanicus theme, played by Richard Coles.

First off, I'd never played against a Daemon army before, so going into the game I didn't really know what to expect, but my opponent was a great person to play against and very willing to explain what his troops did when I had a question.

The scenario was played out with a pitched battle deployment with the objectives being primary, Kill points as a secondary and the 5 objectives as our tertiary.

With the Daemon's going first and his entire army deep striking into the battle, I consolidated into one corner of the board with the intention of keeping consolidated while he came in slowly, then using my own reserves to grab or contest table quarters and objectives.

The first couple turns for him, were mainly his lesser daemons coming into play, with his heavy hitters, the Blood Crushers and his Fate Weaver coming in near the 4th and 5th turns.  Though, his Fiends and horrors came in and advanced towards me, allowing me to range them out and score some early wounds before they managed to get in close enough.

At the bottom of turn 3, my outflank platoon came in on the edge I had consolidated on just in time to wipe out one of his Horror units that had been taking shots at my Russ line. While my Vendetta came in on the other side and engaged a unit of Plague Bearers on 4, allowing my to take the objective in that corner.

In the next two turns, he finished off my Russ Squadron and my Executioner, before piling the platoon holding the objective I had deployed on, killing most of them, before running them down. In the end, my Vanquisher was able to put one or two wounds on his Fate Weaver from across the board.

When the game ended on turn 6 it was a victory to him, taking the Primary of Table Quarters, 3 to 1. He also passed me on kill points, mopping up a large chunk of my army, while I managed to tie him on Objectives, with each of us ending with 1.

Overall, even though I'd lost, I had definitely enjoyed the game and would enjoy playing against him again just to have a good game.

0420012.M3 (6/2/12 10:07AM)
Round 2: The second round saw my Guard pitted against the Double Lash list of last year's winner, Tony Staub. Again, another codex that I really have no experience playing against, so I went in not knowing what to expect, but not worried about it.

Scenario in this round was setup for Spearhead deployment, with primary objective being kill points, followed by objectives and finally table quarters.

After setting up the objectives around the center building, I won the roll off to go first and set myself up on a small rise, positioning my armor to cover both flanks and give them as many fire lanes as possible.  His deployment was held back to a pair of Rhinos, both daemon princes and 2 pairs of Obliterators.

 The first round passed with not a lot happening. I advanced forwards with 2 of my tank squadrons and infantry, grabbing one objective and going towards another. On his turn, he lashed my plasma vets closer and obliterated them with a couple of plasma cannon shots from a unit of obliterators.

On turn two both of us got reinforcements in, with my Vendetta coming in on his corner of the table and my outflank platoon coming in on my side. I also wrecked one of his Rhinos with a shot from my Vanquisher, leaving a unit of plague marines back on his objective. With his reinforcements, he brought in a squad of berserkers to meet my outflank unit and brought the last obliterator unit in behind my Vendetta, blowing it up and leaving the remainder of the vets to be killed by one of his daemon princes. His berserkers locked in combat with my platoon, killing a good chunk of them, while they struck back and killed 8 and being held in combat by the commissar.

On the next turn I stunned one of his rhinos, but couldn't do anything more, while the executioner and my other platoon turned to aid in the combat against the berserkers. On his, he lashed my starting platoon in and heavy flamered them to the man, while his last unit of plague marines came in and helped the berserkers finish off my guardsmen.

Nothing more happened from here on, my executioner was immobilized, but only stunned by the plague marines and my russes and vanquisher were able to put three wounds on one of his daemon princes as it flew across the center obstruction.  The game ended on round 5 with a full win to the chaos marines, winning all three objectives.

All in all, a fun game with a definite moral victory for myself, by killing 8 berserkers, before my platoon was cut down.

That's where I'll end this blog for today. Tomorrow I'll post about the remainder of the games, or at least the next two.