Category: Blog Page 50 of 51

First Steps in Airbrushing

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On 14th August 2016

In Blog

Well I got my airbrush stuff delivered this week, so today I gave it a go.

I had planned to go to a long gaming day at Heaton Game Society, but sadly Megan was not doing so good today after a bit of a nasty shock yesterday, so I stayed home to help her with her day.

And of course I used the time to wisely try out the airbrush. It’s not as easy as it looks on YouTube, I just stuck to the basic airbrush that came with the compressor, before I break out the expensive Iwata Neo I bought.

I base coated five Ultramarine Breachers, three Celestial Vindicator Liberators and Ragnar Blackmane and Njal Stormcaller in Power Armour. I discovered why airbrush painters prefer dropper bottles, some have been ordered, and that Russ Grey in the Citadel Air range is a completely different colour to Russ Grey in the layer range!

Tomorrow I plan to try out the primer and will be priming a Word Bearers Contemptor Dreadnouth and an Airdid European Fountain.

Second Day at Takaan-Reva: Drowned in Flames

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On 12th August 2016

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Last few days I have been a little ill, I picked up a bit of a bug in Cardiff and simply have been unable to shake it.

Anyway here is a summery of my last two games at Takaan-Reva: Drowned in Flames

Game Four
In game four I was assigned good old Graham Mills, whom I had travelled down with before. Well I had been assigned someone who else, but Graham and his opponent had already played so we swapped. We were playing mission one.

Graham’s list was Iron Warriors using the Armoured Breakthrough Rite of War, with a Fellblade, three Sicarans, a Sicaran Venator, two troop choices of Predators and a couple of Medusas.

In turn one the Venator destroyed one of Medusas, and the Sicaran which was the Master of Armour shoot one of my Rhino up and killed it. My Spartan came under fire from Graham’s Medusas taking off a hull point, and then his other two Sicarans fired at and took two hull points from my Fellblade. 

I retaliated by having my Volkite Caliver Tactical Support Squad kill a Rhino, as does my two Rapier Squads. My Mortis Contemptor Dreadnought then fired at one of the squads disembarking from a destroyed Rhino. My Medusas then immobilise the Sicaran Venator, and my Fellblade takes a Sicaran and Predator off the table.

Turn two began with Graham’s Lightning coming on and taking to hull points off a Medusa and a Predator destroying my last Rhino and pinning the squad inside. His Fellblade then destroyed a Medusa and reduced the last one to just a single hull point, his Medusas then destroyed my Spartan leaving the Terminators stuck in no mans land.

Shady I was rolling very badly and all I could do was kill all but two of a tactical squad with my Rapiers, Volkite Squad and Mortis Contemptor , and my Fellblade immobilised a Sicaran.

Graham then called down his Master of Signals Orbital Bombardment at the start of turn three, killing two of my Volkite Squad Ho were then further thinned out by Heavy Bolter shoots from the Fellblade. He then threw everything at my last Medusa, but miraculously it made all of its cover saves. The special mission geysers then actually did something in the game and destroyed a Sicaran and a Venator.

My Rapiers then took out a Tactical Squad, followed by my Mortis Contemptor Dreadnought and Medusa take a few more hull points off his Fellblade.

I’m In turn four, the Lightning finally takes out my last Medusa, and his Sicaran and Medusas kill three of my Terminators, his Fellblade then turns its attention to my Rapiers, but only manage to kill a single member of the crew, thank goodness for toughness 7 eh!

My Mortis Contemptor Dreadnought then takes a couple more hull points from the Fellblade and I then try to take out the Lightning with my Volkite Caliver Support Squad and Rapiers, but sadly for me he makes all his jink saves. I decided to now call down my Orbital Bombardment to try and take out a couple of Predators, but it only takes a hull point off each of them.

Turn five saw Graham concentration on killing troops so he could take my deployment zone, but he failed to kill any squads, however in his deployment zone he killed my Warlord and two more Terminators with his Sicaran

Graham then points out that I could still win the game by taking No Mans Land, by moving my Terminator back and killing his last two marines. So using indirect fire from my Rapier Quad Launcher Support Battery’s, I give it and try, and as expected, fail. I also failed to take out a Predator which was the only thing my Mortis Contemptor Dreadnought could see to shoot at.

And at that point we ran out of time and I lost the game 7-1, but regardless of it being a loss it was still an exciting and enjoyable game.

Game Five

After lunch I had the pleasure of playing Luke Grant and his Alpha Legion with Alpharius and two Leviathan Seige Dreadnoughts in Drop Pods.

I castle up in the corner, but he is able to infiltrate some Rapier Laser Destroyers, and then successfully seized the initiative. So on comes Alpharius and a squad of Veterans in a Dreadclaw Drop Pod landing next to my Spartan and right in my kill box, and a Leviathan drops right next to my Fellblade. His Orbital Bombardment then destroys a Medusa and his Vetrans with Alpharius take off two hull points from my Spartan. The Leviathan throws it’s Grav Fluxx Into my lines, killing a Rapier Quad Launcher and two crew men, before turning its Phosphex Lanucher on my Volkite Support Squad killing a few of them off.

I then turn everything I have on Alpharius and manage to just about kill him and his unit of Veterans, but also taking out three of my own Terminators who had gotten out of the Spartan, I was also able to immobilise a Rhino with my Rapiers.

In turn two, his second Leviathan dropped in, which then used its Grav Fluxx and Phosphex to take out the rest of my Volkite Support Squad. His first Leviathan then leaves it’s Drop Pod and charges my Fellblade taking it down to 1 hull point.

I then turn everything I have at the Leviathan to try and destroy it, before it can finish off my Fellblade, but miserably fail to do even a single hull point of damage, I do however manage to destroy both Drop Pods, forcing out the second Leviathan. My Warlord and last remaining Terminators then charge the Leviathan but fail to do any damage. 

Turn three begins with my Fellblade falling to a Rapier Laser Destroyers fire. A Leviathan then changes and kills my Spartan, in the combat between the Leviathan and Terminators, they all just flail around failing to hit each other.

I then get some revenge agains the Rapier Laser Destroyers and kill one of them. And then despite hitting it with a Mortis Contemptor Dreadnought, Medusa and Rapier Quad Launcher, am only able to take a single hull point from the Leviathan. The combat again fails to have anything happen

In turn four, his Rapier Quad Launcher Support Battery destroys my Mortis Contemptor Dreadnought and his Rapier Laser Destroyer take out a Medusa. His free Leviathan then shoots a Tactical Squad with its Grav cannon, killing half of it. The combat finally has something happen, sadly for me that’s my Warlord dying!

I then charged a Tactical Squad into combat with each Leviathan, but one failed to make it, the other manages to hit the Leviathan with a Melta Bomb, but it fails to damage it. My Medusa and Rapier Quad Launcher tried to take out the other Leviathan, but both failed to hit it, but they did manage to take a hull point off the Dreadclaw.

Turn five started with Luke’s Plasma Support Squad coming into play, they jumped out of their Rhino and killed several of a Tactical Squad. In the combat, I lost combat and my Terminator fled, while the Tactical Squad stayed locked I there. 

Turn six saw one of my Tactical Squads charged by the Leviathan not locked in combat, but my Sgt did manage to take off a hull point with his Power Fist, my sole fleeing Terminator was gunned down by the Plasma Support Squad.

My turn six was pretty poor, my Rapier Quad Launcher and remaining Medusa attacked the Plasma Support Squad, but we’re only able to kill two of them. My Rapiers killed two men from one of his Veteran Squads. The two combats were resolved pretty quickly when the first Leviathan killed both men in that combat and in the other combat a single one of my men died, but they did manage to stay in the combat instead of fleeing.

When we rolled to see if the game continued, the dice gods were merciful and a 1 came up, ending the game, but saw me lose 4-11.

Thoughts About The Weekend

I had a lot of fun at the weekend, the whole event was very well run and the games were very enjoyable, even the ones I lost. My only real criticism would be how the games were arranged, we had playing cards that were placed on the table for us, but if I have to be honest, it was a real faff-on to find our cards. 

I get that the idea was that the team captains would assign us games that made the best use of our individual armies, but I didn’t really know my team captain and I don’t think they knew my army, so it felt like my games were randomly assigned, and in truth they probably were. I personally use a Swiss style system to assign games so that opponents that are at appropriate power level for them. And at the same time allow players to find their tables with minimum of fuss.

But other than that minor issue I think Greg ran an amazing weekend, and I cannot wait until next year. 

First Day of Takaan-Reva: Drowned in Flames

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On 7th August 2016

In Blog

Cardiff is nice what we have seen of it, we arrived quite late so didn’t get to the airbrush worships which was a shame.

We ended up eating at a Falming Grill Pub where we all attempted the challenge burger, and we all failed. Upon mentioning this burgers existence to the Raiders, our November road trip now includes a visit to a Flaming Grill pub so we all experience the meat sweats!After our meal we went and saw Jason Bourne, which was a rather enjoyable, if a little predictable at times.

Today we arrived nice and promptly at Firestorm Games, which I have to say is an amazing venue, the shop is really well stocked and has lots of choice and the gaming area is simply fantastic. It’s everything I dreamed a gaming centre should be.

Game One

My first game was against Dan Williams from Wales and his Night Lords an army with two Leviathans and Cruze, and the rest was infantry, just the type of army my list will excel against. We played scenario five from the mission pack.

In the first turn not a lot happened, but indirect fire from my Quad Launchers and Medusas killed a few guys from his Terror Squads and took a wound off Cruze.

In turn two he infiltrated a Volkite Charger squad in next to my encampment, and then killed 7 of my 10 man Volkite Caliver Support Squad, I just couldn’t roll saves for the life of me. But my Fellblade did manage to take out a Leviathan.

In turn three, Dans terminators deep struck into my lines and ended up mishaping, and ended up back in ongoing reserves. But Cruze managed to get into assault range and killed a Rhino, and the other Rhino was killed by the second Leviathan. But I managed to kill Cruze by firing my Medusas, a tactical squad using Fury of the Legion, Mortis Contemptor and Quad Launchers. This did result in me killing a squad of tactical marines which had just gotten out a destroyed Rhino.

Turn four saw the last terror squad and the deep striking terminators take 6 hull points off the Fellblade, before it retaliated and and killed all but two of the terminators and all but one of the last of the Terror Squad. 

In turn five those last two terminators went on to finish off my Fellblade, and in turn my Mortis Contemptor Dreadnought finished them off with some rending shoots. The enemy Contemptor was taken out from behind by my Spartans Lascannons, which then turned its heavy bolters on the Terror Squad reducing that to squad to one Marine who was then finished off by the Master of Signals Orbital Bombardment.

I won that game, 22 points to 8.

Game Two

For my second game I played Jason Barlow of Wolverhampton and his Emperors Children, an army I had never faced before. They had in there Eidolon in a jump squad of Palatine Blades with a Chaplin and a Primus Medicae, two Vindicators and two Sicaran Venators. We played mission 4.

Before the game I managed to lose both roll offs, which did not bode well for me, and lo and behold, I lose the main gun off one Medusa to a Venator, and the other hits my Fellblade neutralising my main guns. The Vindicators then strip four more hull points from the Fellblade and a couple of Volkite guys.

Then my Medusas killed one of the Vindicators and took out the others gun, removing it from the game. My Mortis Contemptor Dreadnought then destroyed a Rhino and the Raper Quad Launcher Batteries killed a few of the Kakophoni that got out of it. My Terminators also charged up in their Spartan and destroyed another Rhino. And because I had troops in the right places I scored three points.

Turn two saw Jason immobilise one of his own Rhinos by rolling it over some debris, and the Venator failed to hit my Fellblade bringing it back into play. His other Veator proceeded to destroy the gunless Medusa with his Mortis Contemptor Dreadnought shaking another.

He then destroyed one of my Rhinos, forcing the Marines out to be fired upon by the Kakophoni who killed everyone but the squads Sargent. On the other side of the table Eidolon singlehandedly took out three of my Terminators, before his squad and a squad of veterans charged into them. Of course Eidolon issued a challenge, of course I accepted, and of course my Warlord died, along with the rest of his squad.

I then took out a squad of Kakophoni by firing my Rapier Quad Laucher Battery, Volkite Caliver Support Squad and the Demolisher and Accelerator cannons of my Fellblade. This allowed then my Rhino with a Tactical Squad in it to roll in and take the objective, giving me a running total of seven victory points to Jason’s 3.

In turn three, his Vetran Squad used Melta Guns kill my last Rhino, forcing the tactical squad out. The remainder of my Volkite Squad were then killed by a squad of Kakophoni and his Mortis Contemptor Dreadnought.

Eidolon and his Paletine Blades then charged my remaining Tactical Squad and wiped them off the table before they even had a chance to hit back. All my scoring units were dead so I couldn’t score anymore points, but neither did he, leaving it at 7 – 3.

Turn four started with Eidolon killing one of my Rapier Quad Launchers, and Jason moved his troops into objectives. Eidolon and his remaining Paletine Blades then disorderly charged into my Fellblade and remaining Rapier Quad Laucher, destroying the Rapier and reducing the Fellblade to 2 hull points.

The Fellblade then disengaged fro the assault and fired everything it had at Eidolon and his squad, killing them all with ease and getting me Slay the Warlord. My remaining Medusa which only had a heavy bolter left, killed a couple of Kakophoni and my Mortis Contemtor Dreadnought killed a Veteran Squad, thereby taking them off objectives and securing me a victory of 8 – 6.

It was a difficult and hard fought game, at times frustrating, but very enjoyable.

Game Three

Game three saw me take on Sam Perkins from Bristol and his Sons of Horus, with the Warmaster himself, in a Stormeage with some Justaerin, a deployment for Horus I had never seen before. We were playing mission one from the rules pack and with a mostly static list a scenario I knew I would struggle with.

Sam started with four veteran squads on the table in Rhinos, I destroyed all of his Rhinos and wiped out two of the Veteran Squads, I felt bad after that. But any bad feeling was quickly lifted when in his dying moment, a Sargent with a power its killed my Warlord!

In turn two the Stormeagle came on and immediately took two hull points off the Mortis Contemptor Dreadnought, the only thing that could really threaten it. A talon of Cortus Contemptor Dreadnoughts then came on next to my Spartan and Terminators, one armed with a Kheres Assault Cannon killing three of them. A Veteran Squad then walked up to my Fellblade and reduced it to three hull points with Melta Bombs.

My Fellblade then destroys on Veteran Squad and reduces another to one man and my Terminators come to a bloody end at the fist of a Cortus Contemptor Dreadnought.

Turn three saw the arrival of a Sicaran Venator and some Javelin Attack Speeders with Missile Lauchers, arriving by outflank right in front of my Fellblade which they promptly killed. But at the cost of destroying one Attack Speeder, immobilising another and immobilising the Venator. Amid then a close combat Cortus Contemtor Dreadnought got into my lines and destroyed all my Medusas.

Turn four is where I lost the game, instead of driving up for points like I should have done, I decided that killing stuff was more fun, so I disembarked both my Tactical Squads from their Rhinos and set them to work. One squad teamed up with the Spartan and shot the close combat Cortus Contemptor Dreadnought in the back destroying it, the other began to make their way towards the Venator, with their Rhino killing a straggling single Veteran. I also fired my Mortis Contemptor a Dreadnought, my Rapier Quad Launcher Support Batteries and Volkite Caliver Squad at the Stormeagle to try and make it crash and burn to kill Horus, sadly Sam made so many Jink saves and it remained in the air.

As a result I only claimed my deployment zone and scored 1 point, whereas Sam scored 2. If I had forgot about killing stuff knowing that there no time for another turn, I could have driven the two Rhinos up the field and claimed No Mans Land and win the game, I didn’t and that cost me the game in the end, still it was bloody good fun.

A Long But Enjoyable Day

Me, Gragam and Christian were absolutely shattered after the day, so we hopped in a taxi back to the hotel and I introduced the boys to Five Guys which they loved, after which we walked along to the bay and enjoyed the fresh air, and had a cup of tea at Starbucks. There I was nicely sat in between four Pokestops all with lure modules attached and I caught myself a fair few decent Pokemon. After which we headed back to the hotel and sleep.

I really enjoyed myself today and once again, the venue is brilliant, it’s the type of place I dream of running myself one day, store, bar and gaming venue with food served all under one roof, just brilliant.

Here is hoping that tomorrow I can have two more games just as enjoyable as todays games. 

Here We Go

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On 5th August 2016

In Blog

I got picked up at an godly hour this morning by Christian before picked up Graham and we headed off to Cardiff for Takaan-Reva – Drowned in Flame, The Imperial Truths summer Horus Heresy event.

Yesterday I managed to get all of the little bits and bobs I needed to do, done, the only thing I need now is some superglue for spot repairs, but I am sure I can pick that up from the venue, Firestorm Games, I still have a pot of Army Painter superglue unopened, but I have always found that particular brand prone to blocking and the lid tends to become hard to put on very quickly.

Anyway here is my army in all its glory

Managed to get both of my full MKIII tactical squads shoulder pads sorted with Lahman Medium, leaving me with a few squads still left to sort out in my legion force overall. They do look a lot better now that’s been done mind.

Really looking forward to the weekend, now I am gonna kick back and enjoy a good book, Angels of Caliban by Gav Thorpe, which I have really been getting into.

Oh and I may have finished this off last night, take a look and tell me what you think!

Company of Legends – Horus Heresy Weekender Event Pack

 

Back From A Long Break

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On 4th August 2016

In Blog

Well its been a long time since I last posted, well time just got away from me and before I know it, here we are.

While I have been silent, I have been building a new version of my Ultramarines to take away to Takaan-Reva: Drowned in Flames, an event being run by the excellent The Imperial Truth podcast.

13567435_10153628296911860_4756901149768420236_nThe list I am building is inspired by the event only Praetor in Cataphractii Terminator Armour from Warhammer Fest whom is armed with a Combi-Volkite and thunderhammer. As soon as I saw him, I figured he would make an excellent Siege Breaker Consul, which is what I intend him to be.

The idea of my list is a siege gunline, designed to create a killing box directly in front of it behind an Aegis Defence Line, with a squad of three Legion Medusas killing high strength units and heavy armour combined with a Volkite Caliver Tactical Support Squad and Legion Rapier Quad Heavy Bolters to deal with infantry and light armour. I have also thrown my Fellblade in there, because I love the model and its awesome to use it. Anyway here is my list.

Faction: Loyalist
Army: Ultramarines

HQ — Legion Centurion, Consul – Master of Signal – 95
HQ — Legion Centurion, Cataphractii Terminator Armour, Combi-Weapon, Thunderhammer 102 (Warlord)

Elite — Contemptor-Mortis Dreadnought, Havoc Launcher, Two Kheres Pattern Assault Cannons 195
Elite — Legion Rapier Weapons Battery x 3 120
Elite — Legion Rapier Weapons Battery x 2, Quad Launcher Support Battery, Shatter Shells 140
Elite — Legion Terminator Squad, Cataphractii Terminator Armour, Chainfist, Heavy Flamer, 3 x Powerfist, Legion Spartan Armoured Assault Tank, Armoured Ceremite, Flare Shield 590

Troops — Legion Tactical Squad, Legion Rhino Armoured Carrier, Legion Vexilla, Take an additional Chainsword or Combat Blade, Artificer Armour (Sergeant Only), Plasma Pistol (Sergeant Only) 205
Troops — Legion Tactical Squad, Legion Rhino Armoured Carrier, Legion Vexilla, Take an additional Chainsword or Combat Blade, Artificer Armour (Sergeant Only), Powerfist (Sergeant Only) 205
Troops — Legion Tactical Support Squad, Volkite Calivers 225

Heavy Support — Legion Artillery Tank Squadron, Legion Medusa x 3 465

Lord of War — Legion Fellblade, Armoured Ceramite, Space Marine Legion Crew, Pintle-Mounted Heavy Bolter 580

Fortification — Aegis Defence Line, Ammunition Dump 70

Total Points – 2997

Yeah I dropped the Siege Breaker upgrade for the Terminator Centurion, but I did so to fit in Shatter Shells for the Legion Rapier Quad Launcher Support Battery, but still I think it fits the theme I am going for. I playtested it against Aidan’s Sons of Horus where it destroyed him by turn 3, but against Christian’s Dark Mechaniucm and Arran’s Salamanders, it was simply OK but losing, so I think I have hit the right level, good enough to not be bottom of the pack, but not overpowered as to be up there with the Mechanicum.

Today I have to put some Lahmian Medium on some shoulder pads to take the shine of the gloss varnish away, pop some transfers on the Legion Rapier Quad Launcher Support Battery crews, and drill and pin a Bolt pistol to the Sgt in the Fellblade.

Word Bearers

All I ever wanted was the truth. Remember those words as you read the ones that follow.

word_bearers_emblem_by_steel_serpent-d3acj5nWith my Ultramarine nearing completion, I have decided to start a small force of Word Bearers up, based around either the Primarch’s Chosen or Pride of the Legion Rites of War. It all kinda started when I swapped a bunch of Millitarium Tempestus Scions with Aidan for an unbuilt Spartan, so I decided, why not, I had a spare Betrayal at Calth lying around!

So I have got the following kits and bits with which to build my Word Bearers:

  • Betrayal at Calth
  • Mark IV Space Marines
  • Legion MKIV Heavy Support Squad
  • Legion Missile Launcher Set
  • Telerace Pattern Volkite Culverins Set
  • Contemptor Pattern Volkite Culverin x 2
  • Contemptor Pattern Kheres Assault Cannon x 2
  • Lorgar Primarch of the Word Bearers
  • Word Bearers Legion Gal Vorbak
  • Word Bearers Legion Ashen Circle
  • Word Bearers Legion Contemptor Dreadnought x 2
  • Word Bearers Legion Transfer Sheet
  • Word Bearers MKIV Upgrade Set – Torsos x 4
  • Word Bearers MKIV Upgrade Pack – Heads x 2
  • Word Bearers Land Raider Doors
  • Word Bearers Rhino Doors x 3
  • Leviathan Cyclonic Melta Lance
  • Leviathan Pattern Siege Dreadnought
  • Leviathan Siege Drill
  • Contemptor Cyclone Missile Launcher
  • Legion Plasma Gun Set

I still need to grab three Mars Pattern Rhinos and a Dreadnought Drop Pod, but I am pretty happy with what I have got and see it going towards a very assault based elite army towards the future. Anyway I am going to see about getting these done in the last quarter of the year, after I have tackled my road trip Tyranids first.

Painting Upgrade

For painting the Word Bearers, I am going to try something a bit different, I am going to airbrush them!

I have the airbrush, an Iwata Neo on order and in the meantime the accessories have all arrived bar the Airbrush Thinner as you can see in the below Instagram post. I am looking forward to getting this all set up and giving it a go, in fact if we arrive in Cardiff on time tomorrow, there are some airbrush tutorials going on, so hopefully I can pick up some hints and tips so I can do more than prime and base coat.

Looking quite forward to this because I have seen some of the amazing smooth coats that can be achieved with an Airbrush and frankly that is something I need help with when it comes to my Tyranids.

Other Projects

I have had the Age of Sigmar starter set since it went on sale, but other than test painting the free Stormcast Eternal that came with the launch White Dwarf, I have yet to actually do anything with it, but the Storm of Sigmar set has really got me very interested in getting these done.

I kinda went a bit out that day and have added these to my Starter Set and a Grand Alliance Order book that I picked up at Warhammer Fest, when they were offering £5 off any of them.

So I have started painting up the three Khorne Blood Warriors that come with the set, which is the first time I am using some new brushes, my Army Painter ones have come to the end of their life and with my FLGS no longer stocking them I needed a new regular brush, so I have decided to give the new Citadel range a try. I have to say so far, I am quite impressed, although mostly I am have only used the Small Layer Brush and the Small Drybrush so far as I found an unopened and unused Standard brush in my drawer.

IMG_8146I already have my Tyranids which are moving very very very slowly, I have kinda stopped them to finish my Ultramarines army for this weekend, but my first Hive Tyrant is mostly finished, I think I have just the base, and tongue left to do on it.

I have all the stuff from the Start Collecting Tyranids box built, and have played one game with them against Phil’s Tau, and the Hive Tyrant, basically wiped out his whole army on its own, its a fairly brutal unit.

Anyway, I think that is me done for now, I plan to be a lot better at posting, I am annoyed at what I have missed sharing, especially my trip to the UK Games Expo.

Our Horus Heresy Weekender Day 2

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On 15th March 2016

In Blog

img_7619.jpgI had to take a couple of days to recover before posting this, so sorry its a bit late, but I was absolutely shattered after the weekender.

I ended up going to bed relatively early on Saturday, but the rest of the guys for the most part carried on partying, the evidence of which Phil cleared up for us on Sunday morning because I ended up sleeping in. As a result I had to rush downstairs to put the sausages in the oven for the breakfast.

Aidan showed up after having to attend to his parents house being broken into, which was good news for me as it meant I got to play in the apocalypse game. So after breakfast myself and a few of the guys proceeded to rearrange the hall into two large tables for the games, one a 5 vs 5 and the other a 4 vs 4. Both games used the same scenario, the Loyalists were holding a building as a HQ on the planet and they had to keep the traitors from getting anyone into it.

img_7621.jpgMy team decided to make our deployment zone an absolute fortress as we knew our opponents had in their army, Horus himself, and his ability to deep strike without scattering is pretty powerful. However we discovered as we started turn two that one of our team had interpreted our advertising the day as an apocalypse style game as bring as many points as you want rather than sticking to 3500 points as it was supposed to be, he actually had 5000 points on the board.

One of our team did have to leave to go home at lunch time, his army was a Raven Guard army that was bar an initial couple of squads of terminators was all deep striking, so he ended up not deploying anything else, and I decided to not deploy my Storm Eagles filled with Terminators and Invictarus Suzerains, or my Fire Raptor, to try and compensate for the initial disparity in the points. So that was a bit of a sour note for the day, and the player in question did annoy a few people, but I guess it means that I need to be far more explicit in my descriptions of games.

I did enjoy the large game and it did flow OK, but it wasn’t as good as the doubles games which seemed to work so much better, so next year I don’t think we are going to do them and stick to doubles as the largest games.

img_7624.jpgThe narrative highlight to the day for me was Horus being killed by 10 Firedrakes, 15 Terminators and 6 Boarding Marines from the Salamanders and 10 Terminators from the Imperial Fists, it was quite an epic moment and was arguably the moment we won the game, that said it felt a little wrong considering the huge advantage our side started with.

Once the games were over with we did a little packing up and then had a small presentations ceremony. The final results were as follows:-

Winning Faction:- Loyalists – 507 Points
Losing Faction:- Traitors – 481 Points

Sportsmanship Award:- Jens Träff
Best Painted Army:- Steven Henry
Best Loyalist General:- Graham Campbell
Best Traitor General:- Steven Henry

So the Loyalists all receivedimg_7629.jpg a winners medal, (no expense spared!) whilst the Traitors collected the coveted Wooden Spoon.

We also had a little raffle to raise some money for the British Heart Foundation, which managed to raise £50, so well done to everyone, and a special thanks to the chap who kindly donated the top two prizes an almost complete set of Citadel Air Paints and a paint rack, he asked to remain anonymous, but I want to give that chap a hand none the less.

The guys were absolutely amazing and unbeknownst to me they had a whip round and got some flowers for the girls, which left them both in absolute tears they were that touched by the gesture.

So with that the majority of guests disappeared and went home, whilst myself and a few of the other Raiders, packed up the hall, and well, it felt sad leaving Moor House again, its a place with a lot of happy memories for me, but we will be there again soon for Kings of the North!

img_7627.jpgBut we had an amazing weekend, and the fact that people are asking to do it again next year shows me that it has been a real success.

Honestly I am still recovering a bit from it, and I am sort of hoping now that I have shown that its doable, that the club will take it on, and hopefully make next years event far better, already they are starting play testing of scenarios from Book 6 to try and find the perfect missions for it.

As for me and the girls, well we are having a short rest before I go do some demo work at the Newcastle Film and Comic Con, followed by hitting the ground with Kings of the North!

Our Horus Heresy Weekender Day 1

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On 12th March 2016

In Blog

The view of my first game, gulp!

Well we have been having an amazing weekend so far, I have played two very brutal and entertaining games. We had a bit of a delayed start because the guy with the mission packs arrived 25 minutes after the games were meant to start!

In game one I took on Harry’s Questoris Knights list, which consisted of two Cerastus Knight-Lancers, a Crusader, a Cerastus Knight-Atrapos, a Paladin and an Errant, oh and a Warhound Titan!

My game went ok, decided to put the Leviathan Seige Dreadnought in my list instead of a Deredeo, and that was a wise decision, after my Fellblade softener them up a little, the Leviathan was able to rip apart both Lancers. And that was about all I could do, after that it was simply a case of how long I could stay alive, the Fellblade and Leviathan both got taken out as soon as Harry realised what a threat they were, and my fliers failed to do anything but take a single hull point off the Atrapos.

My Poor Invictarus Suzerain

The game ended with a single Invictarus Suzerain being attacked by both the Atrapos and the Errant, he didn’t survive long at all.

My second game, which I don’t have photos of, because my phone was charging, but I played against Aidan’s Sons of Horus, and it was utterly brutal, I could have won in turn two because Aidan’s army was a drop pod army and, he landed 3 pods in his turn 1 after I moved my squads into optimal positions for claiming the objectives.

His plasma Reaver squads managed to kill half of themselves and then I finished off everything bar a Contemptor Dreadnought which was left with two hull points With Remus Ventanus and my Damocles Command Rhino, he had to roll 5+ to bring in his reserves, but alas he successfully brought in more Reavers a Fire Raptor and a Xiphon.

Christian Always Was a Poser!

My plan was to fly my two large tactical squads in Storm Eagles onto the objectives, however for one squad, the Fire Raptor caused thier Storm Eagle to crash and burn leaving only five men alive, the other squad ended up being charged by Horus and a unit of Justarian Terminators (using thier updated rules despite the new Red Book not having hit the shelves yet, but we can forgive him that), and ended up dying in huge numbers and being caught up in a sweeping advance by Horus.

At the end of the game, I had gotten First Blood and Linebreaker, and Aidan had one objective claimed by his Justarians, making me think I had managed to just get a draw, with the vast majority of most of the units in the game utterly destroyed, then Aidan pointed out that Maloghurst the Twisted made Reavers Troops rather than Elites, meaning, he actually had two objectives, turning my 2 all draw into a 4-2 loss.

Sadly after that game Aidan had to zoom off as someone had put his parents window out so he had to go to theirs and deal with that.

As a result I had to rearrange the doubles games and drop out myself, which was okay as I got to collect up all the dishes and cups and help the girls in the kitchen.

The games however looked amazing, and you can see some photos from the doubles games below in an Instagram post.

A Very Drunk Dark Artisan

Last night was very messey, the guys played a few quite roucious games of Cards Against Humanity, I played Star Munchkin, and Harry Scarr (The Dark Artisan) got very very drunk as its his 30th birthday this week, but I suppose that is what people can do here, just chill out, knock away a few drinks and relax with some great gaming.

But the real heroes of this weekend have been the ladies in my life, Lindsay, Megan and Megan’s mum Jane. They have slaved away tirelessly in the kitchen to prepare our food, we had a delicious lunch of Hot Dogs and tonight they made us mince and dumplings which was absolutely delicious.

The Weekends Miracle Workers

I cannot express how grateful I am to them for helping us out, I must admit doing the food has been a constant worry, and the stress of making sure there was enough. The girls have done nothing but offer support and have really been the people to make this weekend happen, so girls, I thank you.

Tomorrow is the Apocalypse game, so let’s see how that goes.

All Arrived

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On 11th March 2016

In Blog

Everyone has arrived for the Weekender, including a guy who has flown all the way over from Sweden to play with us, and already some awesome games are going on. Me and Adam have made some simple Jungle terrain pieces, with him supplying the polystyrene bases and me supplying the aquarium plants.

Lindsay and Megan have been so helpful, I cannot thank them enough for cooking us an amazing dinner of bacon, spinach and tomato pasta.

The tables are for the most part set up and all we are waiting on now is Aidan with the mission packs. We currently have three games of Heresy going on, a game of Deathwatch Overkill and X-Wing.

I think tomorrow is going to be a really good day.

Food Disaster

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On 11th March 2016

In Blog

So this morning the plans for the weekender went a bit wrong, Asda sent me a text saying my food order had been cancelled, agggg!

So anyway we had to hop in the car run over to Stanley and do the shopping, on the plus side, we managed to save money on the coco pops and rice and got much better hot dogs.

Annoyingly by the time we got to Asda they had run out of finger rolls and the bread selection was pretty threadbare, so we had to make a run to Tesco in Chester-le-Street.

When we got home, piped the chilled and frozen stuff away and gasped at how much stuff we got the feed 20 people for the weekend ice we loaded the stuff we got on Monday in the car.

But we are all sorted now and on schedule, the food has been dropped off at Moor House, we had the site induction and now we are waiting to head along and get fully set up.

Gearing Up For The Weekend

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On 11th March 2016

In Blog

I write this as I am lying in bed shattered and a bit nervous about the forthcoming weekend.

It’s our Horus Heresy weekender and if all goes well the past five months of planning and work will result in an awesome weekend.

I started the week off with a trip to Costco to grab the pop and sweets I am going to be selling (trying to raise a little bit more cash so the event is not a financial loss for me), and we got a lot of stuff, ending up spending £90 on 168 cans of Pepsi Max, 12 cans of Monster, 40 packs of crisps, 32 Twix and 48 Mars Bars.

 With that done I set my mind to finishing off the last bit of terrain I had to paint, this time it was some stuff from Secret Weapons Minitures, three Imperial Generators and a Control Panel. The terrain is lovely and detailed but sadly Royal Mail got me on the customs and took £13 as thier ransom to let me have them.

They weren’t as big as I expected, for some reason I thought they would be twice the size, but they are lovely none the less, and I am very happy that Secret Weapon Minitures helped us out with this little bit of scenery sponsorship.

 I managed to get them painted up today, not my best ever paint job and I think a better painter would have got much better results from them, my biggest mistake was using too much Gulliman Blue on the plasma parts as I was in too much of a rush to finish them off.

I also received some aquarium plants that I had ordered quite some time ago not realising they were coming from China, anyway they were supposed to be 5 packs of 10, but what I actually had delivered were 5 individual plants, an eBay case was opened as soon as they arrived as I feel pretty ripped off and think a substation so refund is justified.

But the five plants I have will need to be put to use as Adam (writer of the event pack) has his heart set on a jungle table, luckily we have son coloured aquarium plants that were meant to go alongside these ones. Plan is that they will go on a green mat alongside my LotR terrain, which is painted up in a sandstone effect to try and stimulate a long abandoned settlement that the jungle has reclaimed.

Sadly we had one player drop out of the event this week, so I had to quickly press gang my friend Harry to play with his Knigjts, some borrow off a friend and a Warhound Titan to give him a nasty Questoris Knight army!

The weekend will be his first ever games of the Horus Heresy and I am playing him first, so should be interesting to see how it goes, I mean he has played his Knights in local 40k tournaments as an army and not performed fantastically so will be interesting to see how they play in 30k.

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