Tag: Ultramarines

Brain Damage and Games Exercise

On 2nd November 2016

2 1/2 years ago I suffered some brain damage, and since then my games have taken on much more meaning. They are one of the few things I can still do with friends. Im a fan of the bigger chunky games that take time to play and I’m just getting into playing solo games. All these mean I have to concentrate and act as a kind of exercise for my damaged brain.Games provide me with a chance to socialise, & provide health benefits. The theraputic value of this also helps with my depression.

Getting run over has really changed my life, and my whole aim of things now is to try and get me back into a position where I can work again. But having the issues I have currently, it’s not looking likely to happen anytime soon, which is shame, because for all I complained about work, I did enjoy feeling useful and doing something that contributed to society.

So yeah, games help me, but for various reason, I am not getting to play many games lately, and I can tell because my mental abilities are slipping and I find my ability to concentrate less. So I am not getting the brain exercise I need, and thus I am going to have to make a bigger effort to get to things like Newcastle Gamers so that I can give my brain the workout it desperately needs.

I am, money depended, going to be entering the Kill Team tournament at the Warhammer 40,000 Open Day on Saturday, but it’s very money dependent!

What I am Modelling

This past week and a bit I have decided to clear up some of the models on my painting table that have been started and not finished. I started by finishing off the Blood Angels Tactical Squad to form a basic Kill Team, they are now done and dusted.

I then moved onto the Blood Angels Terminator Librarian, and he was actually a lot nicer to paint than I had expected him to be. And I finally based a Word Bearers Contemptor Dreadnought

I am currently working on a Scout Squad that’s for Lost Patrol, a Word Bearers Jump Pack Chaplain and a Word Bearers Veteran.

What I am Reading

I read White Dwarf, but other than that I haven’t been pick my Kobo for over a week now, which is simply down to how drained and tired I have been feeling.

I have been listening to audio books when I paint still, I recently finished the Damnation of Pythos, a book which in my first reading of it, was ok, not amazing but ok. But after listening to it as an audiobook, my opinion of it worsened, and I now have to agree, it just feels out of place in the series.

What I am Playing

I played in a long afternoon playing Horus Heresy on Sunday, however opposite me on the table was Christian and his Mechanicum, so I spent most of the afternoon removing models without doing any damage to him at all, really need to figure out a better way of dealing with the Mechanicum.

I have a plan involving combining a Reconnaissance Squad with Sniper Rifles and a Heavy Support Squad with a Lascannons. I have bought some Lascannons when a friend did a Forgeworld order a while ago, but he keep forgetting to give them for me. But I have a promise from him to give me them at the Open Day on Saturday.

What I am Backing

I had backed Pretending to Grownup, a card game from Jason Anarchy of Drinking Quest fame, it’s an excellent looking game with some really cool looking art from Megan McKay.

And in a nice surprise, Quatermaster General 1914 arrived with me on the 31st, meeting it’s October delivery date, only had a brief look at it, but everything seems quite cool and I look forward to playing it.

What I am Spending

It’s coming up to Christmas, so too much, I have bought a few gifts for Lindsay and Megan as most of my nephews and nieces presents will be coming from the John Lewis account we put money into every month and the £200 of High Street Vouchers we have saved towards. I also have my nephews Max’s birthday coming up and I have paid for his birthday present.

That’s not to say I haven’t spent money, I did but myself the Burning of Prospero and then traded with a dude on Facebook for an extra two squads of MKIII Space Marines to add to my Word Bearers.

In a spate of depression I also placed a Forgeworld order and am now the proud owner of a Mhara Gal Tainted Dreadnought, which has reduced my money for the rest of the month.

First Steps in Airbrushing

By michael

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.

First Day of Takaan-Reva: Drowned in Flames

By michael

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

By michael

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

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Michael Botterill (@biggeordiegeek)

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

By michael

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.

The 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.

With 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.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Michael Botterill (@biggeordiegeek)

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.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Michael Botterill (@biggeordiegeek)

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.

I 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

By michael

On 15th March 2016

In Blog

I 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.

My 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.

The 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 received 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!

But 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!

Couple of Games and Some Painting

By michael

On 29th February 2016

In Blog

This week I have been mostly painting Ultramarines!

With our Horus Heresy Weekender now under two weeks away I stepped up my painting work for it. So I got on with and finished a Storm Eagle which completed my 3500pts for the weekend.

My list is now currently as follows using The Logos Lectora as a Rite of War

Captain Remus Ventanus
Master of Signals with Damocles Command Rhino

Troops

Legion Assault Squad with 9 Marines, Sgt in Artificer Armour with Plasma Psitol and Power Fist
Legion Tactical Squad with 18 Marines equiped with an additional Combat Blade, Vexilla and Nuncio-Vox, Sgt in Artificer Armour with Plasma Pistol
Legion Tactical Squad with 18 Marines equiped with an additional Combat Blade, Vexilla and Nuncio-Vox, Sgt in Artificer Armour with Power Fist

Elites

Apothecarion Detachment – 2 Apothecaries both with Artificer Armour
Invictarius Suzerain Squad
Legion Rapier Weapons Battery x 2 both with Quad Mortars

Fast Attack

Legion Storm Eagle Assault Gunship with Armoured Ceramite and two Twin-Linked Lascannons
Legion Storm Eagle Assault Gunship with Armoured Ceramite and two Twin-Linked Lascannons

Heavy Support

Deredeo Pattern Dreadnought with Armoured Ceramite and Aiolos Missile Launcher
Legion Fire Raptor Gunship with Armoured Ceramite and Reaper Autocannon Battery
Legion Sicaran Battle Tank with Armoured Ceramite and Lascannon Sponsons

Lord of War

Legion Fellblade with Space Marine Crew, Pintle Mounted Twin-Linked Bolter, and Armoured Ceramite

So lots of ways to mess around with the reserve rolls, but probably not a hugely competitive list, but its not about being competitive, the weekender is about fun, and some interesting narrative games, anyway we play as a team and we win or lose as a team!

I managed to get Leviathan Pattern Dreadnought painted up as well, a really nice model to paint, my ability simply doesn’t do it justice I am afraid.

I also got a the Corpuscarii Electro-Priests for my AdMech Escalation League army painted to the point of being about 95% finished and should get those finished at some point this week.

Games

I got two games in this week, the first was a 3500pt test game for the Heresy Weekender against Grahams Iron Warriors, a game I lost quite badly, Graham loves his tanks, and the Typhon is a very nasty tank to play against, and it did a lot of damage to me early in the game, and his Comms Relay negated the impact of my negative effects on his reserve rolls. Oh and there were lots of fliers on the board, 2 Storm Ealges and a Fire Raptor each, so there was some cool aerial combat going on.

But the game served its purpose, despite the pasting I took losing including losing my Assault Squad and Sicaran in the first turn, and stupidly sending my Suzerain up against a Leman Russ. I learnt some stuff, he learnt some stuff, when he played a game on Sunday, I saw he had taken the additional combat weapon that my marines always do and had dropped the Typhon for a Fellblade. All in all a very fun game.

Then yesterday I played in a 3 way apocalypse game with James and Arran, 4500 points each , which was a very fun silly game in which me and Arran used our Horus Heresy armies to take on James Chaos warband, we managed to play that game and near wipe out all 13500pts in 3 1/2 hours which was pretty good, a very very enjoyable game in which despite throwing absolutely everything at him, I failed to kill Vulcan, he really is a perpetual.

Its always fun to play a huge games now and then, its hard to get around to doing, but it makes me want to play another one sooner rather than later.

Audio Book

I personally find it really difficult to watch something when painting so I prefer to listen to a good audio book instead, and last week I got through Fallen Angels, the second of the Horus Heresy Dark Angels book, a huge improvement on the first book Descent of Angels. Anyway this book got me well on my way this week and was quite pleasant to listen to, though I do hope they return to finish off the story of Caliban because its been a number of years now and that part of the story feels a little neglected.

Anyway that is me for the week, hope you are all doing well and who knows what this week will bring eh.

Building up the AdMech and a Battle Report

By michael

On 19th February 2016

In Blog

OK so here is my first hobby post in a long time, but here goes!

At my local gaming club, the Durham Raiders, we are running a little escalation league for Warhammer 40,000, you start at 500pts, then 850pts, followed by 1250pts, and finally 1850pts. we are doing this in order to encourage people who got a new army for Christmas, or might have a long term project that has sat on the shelf for a while unstarted.

I fall into the later category, when the Skitarii and later the Cult Mechanicus armies hit the shelves, I ended up buying a load of units for each, I had always wanted an Adeptus Mechanicus army, but like many things it got put on the shelf, though they did get further than most of my stalled projects in that they got built and primed, well all bar the Kastelan Robots which are still sealed in the box on my shelf.

And so they sat unloved in a box with just a few units getting painted, specifically the Kataphron Destroyers which ended up being used as allies to my Space Wolves in a cheesetastic list so that I got some Grav weapons in my list, and being the cheapskate I am, I just used the Magos Dominus with Rad-Cleanser from Forgeworld, from my on-again, off-again Mechanicum army for The Horus Heresy, rather than go out and buy the admittedly quite nice Tech-Priest Dominus in plastic.

So for the first month, I present my army!

So we have here a Tech-Priest Dominus, and two units of three Kataphron Destroyers, one with Heavy Grav-Cannons and Cognis Flamers and one with Plasma Culverins and Phosphor Blasters, and these all together come in at 470pts.

Played three games with them, one against Tyranids in which I was quite quickly beaten mostly by a flying Hive Tyrant and a Carnifex all on their own which was fairly brutal. My second game was against Dark Eldar, in which I pretty much dominated the game, despite losing the three Grav Kataphron Destroyers in turn two, I ended up tearing apart my opponents Archon, Kalibite Warriors, Raider and Venom in the following two turns.

My last game was one where they really shone, I fought against Space Marines, for which the army contained a Chapter Master, Sternguard Squad, Drop Pod, and two squads of Scouts, one with Sniper Rifles, again I lost two Kataphron Destroyers quite quickly, this time the Plasma ones, but after that my Grav Destroyers just rolled around the board sweeping up the rest of his army. I really felt bad about it, but there came a moment when he had an objective, I had none and we had to roll to continue the game, had it ended there I would have lost, but thankfully for my, the game continued which allowed me to clear the objective of that last troublesome Scout squad and claim victory for myself by tabling him.

So the games went well, and I still get the feeling that Cult Mechanicus is very much a glass hammer of an army, when it hits well, it hurts my opponents badly, but when it takes a lot of fire, it can struggle to stay in the game.

Moving Forwards to 850pts

For the next stage I am adding a unit each of Fulgurite Electro-Priests and Corpuscarii Electro-Priests as well as add a detachment of Skitarii with a unit of Vanguard and a unit of Rangers.

So onward with the painting and this week I started with getting the Fulgurite Electro-Priests painted up whilst I watched The Man in the High Castle on Amazon Prime.

I am not going to even pretend to be a great painter, or even a good painter, but I am rather pleased with these. And if you look in the background you can see the next unit, some Vanguard in various stages of completion. I had already completed 5 of the Vanguard in June last year and figured it would be easy enough to work on these and bring them up to full strength, so that is what I did, and I am pleased to say that I finished them tonight.

This unit of Vanguard have been equipped with an Enhanced Data Tether, Plasma Caliver and Arc Rifle, whilst the Vanguard Alpha has an Arc Maul and a Phosphor Blast Pistol. I know its not an optimal set-up, but I liked the way the bits looked on the models and for me that is quite important.

So that’s where I am at the moment, sitting on the painting tray right now I have an Ultramarines Storm Eagle, something I want to finish off for the Horus Heresy Weekender I am putting on in 3 weeks time, for which there are still two tickets available if anyone fancies coming along to it, you can find info on the event Facebook page here, or on the Folkvangr Events website here.

Oh and my Ultramarines were featured on a battle report by the Dark Artisan yesterday, which you can view below.

I picked the scenario for this one, purposefully giving myself a huge disadvantage, but it fitted the fluff of our game, and that’s something which I love, I don’t play Horus Heresy to win, I play it for fluffy narrative games, and this was a particularly good one.

Until Next Time