Wednesday Game - Tyranids vs. Vanila Marines (Crimson Fists)

This report is primarily from a foggy memory but here it goes...

2000 points of awesomeness. I brought along a Hive Tyrant with wings, Swarmlord, 1 unit of 20 Termagaunts, 1 unit of 20 Hormagaunts with Adrenal Glands, 1 unit of 8 Genestealers, 1 Tervigon, 6 Warriors with Scything Talons, and Deathspitters, 20 Gargoyles with Adrenal Glands, 3 Zoanthropes in a Pod, 1 Trygon, 2 units of 2 Hive Guard.

His list.... Force Commander in Terminator armor, Librarian, 7 Assault Terminators in a Land Raider Crusader (with Force Commander), 1 Dreadnought in a Pod, 10 Sternguard in a Pod, 1 tactical squad of 10, 1 tactical squad of 6 in a Razorback, 1 scout squad of 5, 2 Land Speeders, 3 Scout bikers, 2 Vindicators.... (I might be missing some here...)

Mission: We rolled Annihilation (Kill points) with Dawn of War setup. I won the roll off and let him deploy first. He opted to throw everything that wasn't in a Pod onto the table (dumb mistake on his part... more on that in a sec...). He stretched his forces out across his deployment zone with a small comfort zone from the table edges. I played everything minus the Zoans, Genestealers, Hormagaunts, and Trygon on the table. Put everything behind cover in fear of opening turn and Marine gunline.

Opponent won the roll off and opted to go first. Wanted more shooting.... bad idea.

Turn 1: Very little movement. Scout bikers turboboosted on the right flank supported by the Land Speeders. He advanced his Land Raider forward with his Razorback hidden behind to provide support on the right side as well. Popped some shots at my Tervigon with some Multi-Meltas/Lascannons/Assault Cannons.... wounded once.

My turn was a lot of movement... Gargoyles managed to assault the bikers killing them to a man with no casualties (I heart Gargoyles) with the Winged Hive Tyrant opening up with his 2x Twin Linked Devourers on the Land Speeders killing one and immobilizing the other. The rest of the swarm advanced straight ahead using cover as much as possible. Tervigon pooped out 13 more gaunts with no double rolls!!!

Turn 2: Reserve rolls (Sternguard/Dreadnought) were a no go. The Vindicators moved up and fired their Demo Cannons on my swarm scattering off their intended targets (the Warriors) and hitting some gaunts instead. Lost 15 or so gaunts due to gunfire and a Warrior from a Multi-Melta. Land Raider jumped forward and unleashed his guns on my Gargoyles... no surprise many fell... 12 died... Terminators jumped out and assaulted the remains of my Gargoyles. Gargoyles were wiped out but managed to knock out 1 in the process.

My turn was a massacre!!! All reserve rolls can in on a 2+!! With Swarmlord allowing re-roll of deployment edges my Genestealers and Hormagaunts appeared right were they needed to be. Hormagaunts struck the gun line and wiped out the tactical squad to a man. Genestealers popped out on the far side and assaulted the Terminators with the Winged Hive Tyrant. Killed 5 and wounded his Commander once. Lost a 3 stealers and Hive Tyrant was wounded once. Pod with Zoans popped out of the sky next to his Land Raider and was shot to pieces. Trygon plunged out of the ground in front of his gun line providing synapse and a nice target to be scared of. The rest of the swarm advanced and managed to knock out some Scouts from the Termagaunts/Warriors. Hive Guard opened up on the Vindicators destroying one and knocking out the main weapon on the other. Swarmlord proceeded to laugh at the carnage around him!!

Turn 3: His pods came soaring in and he put them right near the front lines. His sternguard opened up with their special ammo/combo meltas and wounded the Trygon 4 times. The Dread followed suit with another wound (1 wound remains). With the Trygon near death the rest of the marines turned their guns toward in hopes of dropping it. All shots were wasted until his last squad which finally got off their meltagun and proceeded to red mist the Trygon. 240 pts of gun magnet. Assault phase saw his Commander trade wounds with the Tyrant. The rest of the Genestealers didn't do anything.

My turn again was more mop up... The rest of the swarm moved into support position with my Swarmlord in position to charge! Shooting was fairly fruitful with my Hive Guard finishing off the Land Speeder and stunning the Vindicator. My Zoanthropes targeted the Dreadnought and blew it to pieces. The Tervigon pooped out 9 more guants which proceeded to charge the remains of the Sternguard. Thanks to Adrenal Glands/Toxin Sacs on my gaunts the Sternguard were wiped clean. The Warriors opened up on the remains of the Scouts and wiped them out as well. The Swarmlord then charged his Librarian and smacked his face into the dirt. The Hormagaunts jumped into the other tactical squad and again kicked butt wiping another unit from the table! The Wing Tyrant and Commander exchanged blows with no wounds.

At the end of the turn my opponent looked around and was very frustrated. He had a single Vindicator with no guns, 2 drop pods, a force commander with 1 wound left, and a Razorback. I lost my Trygon, Gargoyles, Genestealers and 1 unit of Termagaunts. Result Massacre. I think Kill Points were...

Tyranids: 9

Space Marines: 3

Thoughts: His deployment was terrible and allowed me to easily throw my units into his face really fast. He also underestimated a lot of the Tyranid synergy abilities and was openly mocking me for choosing Tyranids as an army at the beginning of the game. Apparently he had played against many Tyranid players but had always utterly slaughtered them. His ego was shattered by the end of turn 2. (HA you should have seen his face!!! It was priceless!!! "Your Swarmlord can do what!!!??) I love having 2 Tyrants (Swarmlord & Winged Tyrant). The Hive commander upgrade is sooo good combined with Swarmlord I can re-roll table edges for reserves! 2 units of Hive guard are nasty allowing you to target multiple units a turn and wipe them from the table. Gargoyles were amazing as always and again my Trygon died to enemy fire without killing a single thing (sigh). People need to not underestimate just how quickly Tyranids can get into your face!! Just because our armor save sucks and guns eat us for breakfast doesn't mean we don't bite back!

Saturday Game 2

The second game was a little more... weird given that I was fielding my proxied chaos army allied with a chaos marines army. The opponents were chaos marines and orks.

Set up was dawn of war (night fight first turn, something we promptly forgot about) with 2 objectives.

Turn 1
Orks and Chaos: Orks were of the horde variety. He rode into town with 3 units of 30 each unit had a nob with a power claw and boss pole. 3 Khans (think mini dreadnaughts), then a... I don't remember what they were called but the HQ choice with the custom force field that protects against shooting. OH! and he had about 10 lootas (orks with long range heavy weapons).

Chaos was set up like last time: possessed, and a bunch of rhinos full of different flavors of chaos marines.

The orks rushed forward and essentially screened the rhinos.

Demons and Chaos: I was allied with a khorne army. Given the ork horde he set up outside of his transports so he could rush them. The defiler was on the far left.

I had a soul grinder, pink horrors with bolt and the changeling, and plaguebearers as my intended first drop. I say intended because demons deploy all sorts of weird. I choose half of my army ahead of time then roll a dice. On a 3+ my intended selection deep strikes in. On a 1-2 the other half drops instead! I rolled a 4 so I got to deep strike my half. I chose to place the soul grinder near the lootas. There was a good chance he would be shot up by them BUT I would also get to drop my own shots first.

Learning point 1: when deep striking onto a friendly/enemy unit or UNPASSIBLE terrain you roll on the mishap table. On difficult terrain you count it as dangerous terrain and roll a D6, on a 1 you take damage. Otherwise you land normally!

I landed on difficult terrain and rolled on the mishap table of a 5 putting my grinder back in reserve. HAD that gone differently I would have landed right next to the lootas and had several shots at them. Oh well. The pink horrors dropped right where I wanted them near the far right objective and the plaguebearers next to them for protection duty (as pink horrors are poor in CC).

My khorne berserkers shot then rushed the orks, as did the defiler so all 3 units of 30 orks were tied up. The far left unit would tie up the defiler for the remainder of the battle. As nothing but the nob could wound it but he kept missing or never glancing enough. The defiler would kill 1-3 orks per turn and never mow through them enough to get through. The other units of berserkers killed off all of the other two units in one round. Suddenly the battlefield felt a lot less croweded!

Turn 2
Chaos and Orks: the khans rushed the berserkers, which was bad because the khans have better armor than the 'zerkers could penetrate! So it was a slow death for the 'zerkers as the khans tore them apart. Meanwhile the chaos rhinos rode up towards the two objectives.

Chaos and Demons: I rolled to deploy the rest of my army. Rolled 1's and 2's for everything and then finally got my soul grinder to drop right next to the khans (to help save the day). I took shots at the rhinos but to no avail. My pink horrors shot at the rhinos, also didn't do anything.

Turn 3
Chaos and Orks: the khans finish off the 'zerkers and look at my plaguebearers. The chaos rhinos rode up and shot a melta gun into my soul grinder and killed it. Once again if you're not playing a flavor of SM, why are you playing 40K?

Chaos and Demons: I roll to deploy and get my fiends to drop behind some cover near the defiler-ork horde showdown but safe from the lootas. My pink horrors fail to do anything to the khans.

Turn 4
Chaos and Orks: the lootas move forward... for some reason. The rhinos unload possessed near my pink horrors. The khans hit my plaguebearers and kill them completely. A rhino begins to ride over towards the fiends and lootas.

Chaos and Demons: my fiends rush the lootas and wipe them out. My pink horrors kill some possessed. My Keeper of Secrets drops in on the far right near the objective behind the possessed and my teammate's terminators drop in and open fire on the possessed.

Turn 5
Chaos and Orks: the rhino unloads and manages to destroy all my fiends through shooting. Ugh, they were left out in the open. The possessed and khans rush the terminators and terminator lord. The terminator lord destroys and entire unit of chaos marines because he has some sword that gives him infinity-billion attacks but if he rolls any ones the owning player has to body slam the table or something like that. The possessed and khans kill the rest.

Chaos and Demons: and look who decided to join the party? My unit of 15 bloodletters! Who drop just short of the unclaimed far right objective. I try and run them to it, I need a 3, what do I roll? A 1! My keeper rushes the possessed (with Tzeentch lord, he's always been in there) and kills off 3 possessed and two wounds on the lord. My pink horrors continue to sit on top of their cover and basically do nothing.

Learning point 2: the changeling has an ability that makes an enemy shooting unit take a leadership test. If they fail I get to choose their target! I could have used this several times during the game but never remembered to. This might have saved my soul grinder.

Learning point 3: Khorne 'zerkers have krak gernades which are effective against enemy armor. They actually could have attacked the khans.

Learning point 4: pink horros may be BS3 but they are also assault 3!

Tie

I had a whole unit of CC monsters show up on the last turn and do nothing. 250+ points out of a 1000 point army that ALMOST didn't make the game. Additionally, my team mate did have icons (teleporting 6" of an icon means you don't scatter) but they were not in an areas I actually wanted to be in. So did my bloodletters and pink horrors but the pinks weren't in the best location and the bloodletters didn't make the game.

I was warned that demons were weird but I sort of like the unpredictability of them. So I think I will continue on my quest to make a scratch-built army in time for adeptacon.

Saturday - Game 1

This Saturday I played two (quasi) back-to-back games of 40K of 1000 points in teams of 2.

The first was Chaos-Chaos vs. Necron-Necron. My Necron forces were composed of lord with orb & veil with 5 immortals, 2x10 warriors, 4 scarabs with disruptor fields, and a monolith. My teammate had essentially the same set up but opted to pick more immortals and scarabs instead of the veil. The Chaos forces consisted of several rhinos full of possessed, plague marines, a few tac squads of chaos marines, a land raider with khorne berzerkers and some terminators who would teleport in.

Set up was opposite table edges with 5 objectives scattered around a large building. Other scenery lined the edges but really did not play a part in the whole game.

Turn 1
Necrons: the monoliths edging up on either side of the board with the scarabs boosting up onto the top of the building. Immortals moved up with my monolith. We each kept a unit of warriors in reserve.

Learning point 1: Necrons in reserve must declare at the beginning of the game how they are going to arrive: monolith or table edge. IF they choose monolith AND the monolith door is blocked or the monolith is destroyed then that reserve unit will NOT arrive and is considered destroyed for phase out and victory point purposes. Table edge choices come in as normal. (source: Necron FAQ)

Shooting: my monolith landed a hit on the land raider, exciting, I rolled a penetrating hit, breath taking, I rolled a god damn 2 for damage, DAMN IT!

Learning point 2: Ordinance weapons require tanks to remain stationary to shoot. Necron monoliths ignore this rule. (source: Necron rulebook)

Learning point 3: Ordinance weapons add +1 to their damage rolls. Which would have meant weapon destroyed, which is important because tanks can only move 6 and fire one weapon or stay stationary and fire everything. (source: main rulebook)
Everything else was out of range.

Chaos: they move up. The land raider moves and takes a shot at my monolith, luckily nothing happens. One group of marines (with flamers?) assault the scarabs and wipe them out with combined flamer and regular beat-down technique.

Turn 2
Necrons: we decide to hold back with our 3 objectives and keep shooting from afar. The land raider is out of range. My teammate opens up on the marines and reduces them to a man. Being marines they don’t run for their lives (even robots take this ‘panic’ test to representing them making a tactical retreat. So does this mean space/chaos marines don’t have the wherewithal to make a tactical retreat?). My teammate pulls my warriors back through his monolith to keep them from being charged next turn.

Chaos: the rhinos move forward and the land raider opens both lascannons into my monolith and immobilize it. This is were learning point #3 would have been important because it was the second roll that the chaos player took me out. Had the weapons destroyed option happened I would have been free to float around. On the other side of the building the empty rhino moved up to essentially blockade the monolith as 6” skimmer movement is not enough to actually clear a rhino. The terminators teleport in a little ways from my monolith and immortals.
Rant point 1: why can’t skimmers end their turn on terrain pieces? It isn’t like they are LANDING on it! They are skimmers, when they end their turn they are still FLYING THROUGH THE AIR. If I want to park right over a damn building or tank or whatever, why the hell not? It would represent the flier flying over the enemy. This should apply to jet bikes too. /shrug

Turn 3
Necrons: my warriors come in and my immortals, monolith and my teammate’s immortals open up into the terminators and kill one of them. 22 BS4 S6 shots with 20 BS4 S4 shots into 6 guys and we kill 1. Sigh. My teammates monolith door is currently blocked by my warriors and he rolls for his own warriors to come in. See learning point 1. This is important because what if you have one monolith and roll for 2 warrior reserves to arrive? That would be lame if your own troops killed themselves so the FAQ states you can choose BUT at the beginning of the game. His troops come in on the table edge. We open into the rhinos with no effect. We pull back from the terminators to avoid being shot at. Remember my scarabs? They attempted to run off and pop one of the rhinos and failed.

Chaos: terminators open fire into my immortals and kill 4/5 (lord has a res orb). The land raider takes out my monolith (now 235 points of road block). By now chaos has the possessed out of the rhino and running at us. Meanwhile, on the other side of the board my warriors consolidate onto an objective while my teammate attempts to destroy things with his particle whip and misses. Scarabs get stomped, there were no survivors, we’ll play a robot dirge for them then recycle their bodies for new scarabs.

Turn 4
Necrons: ALL of my immortals get back up (because you can’t keep a good robot down). We all open fire into the possessed and terminators with a little more success this time. Monolith on the other side continues to be unable to hit anything. That rhino was the BANE of the monolith’s existence. Everything else consolidates their positions and get ready to be charged.

Chaos: terminators shoot and kill three of my immortals. Possessed charge into the warriors and my allies lord. The battle is really lackluster as he kills 2 and we kill 2. The land raider parks on top of an objective.

Turn 5
Necrons: my immortals fail to get back up this time and things look bleak for the robots: land raider on top of one objective, we have another with troops on it. Near the terminators and possessed is contested. Another near the monolith and rhino are contested. Far off on the other table edge is the last objective with that one marine from the squad that got wiped out and a rhino full of normal marines. Having no other choice I teleport my remaining 2 immortals with the lord out of combat and land them near the objective and open fire into the chaos marines and kill off a handful. Combat is lackluster again. If my unit survives we tie the game.

Chaos: combat is lackluster, chaos marines open up into my immortals and lord who miraculously fail all of their saves.

Victory chaos.

Aftermath:
Could the monolith have rammed the rhino? Without looking at the rulebook I recall you get +1 per 2” traveled, +1 for each point of armor. Rhinos are 12 on the side vs. 14 monolith moving 6” so that would be 8+D6. On a 4+ you would be penning… Then again I don’t think skimmers are allowed to ram? Food for thought really. I would have tried to fly over it and just take the damn dangerous terrain test. I mean just don’t roll a 1 and you’re fine.

I should have kept moving up and opening into that land raider with my monolith and the immortals. I have castling up in a corner. I like walking slowly forward and mowing things down with Necrons. If I get caught in combat the monolith is there to teleport me out and allow me to rapid fire right back into you. Combined with my immortals tromping along with me I think I could have glanced/penned the land raider to death and claim that objective.

That would leave the terminators but those are the bane of our existence because we tomb spyders and heavy destroyers to combat those… and nothing else. Since I never take heavies and the tomb spyders only have WS2 S10 A3 I2 I’m not hitting much and the terminators still have a 5+ invulnerable save. What do you do? In a 1000 point army I’m very reluctant to bring any of the C’Tan to the table given that they would take up 1/3 of my points. Also we have been trying to play with adeptacon rules so you get 2 troops and only 1 of everything else. Then again a 300 point C’Tan would be pretty hard to beat, even against greater demons…

New High Elves confirmed, and Dark Eldar rumors...

So it appears that the High Elves are going to get more love.

Just when I thought that the Island of Blood would provide plenty of excitement for HE owners with the new Ellyrian Reavers, Swordmasters, and Seaguard, it appears that their are now 4 more plastic kits en route.

Say hello to new plastic Dragon Princes, Shadow Warriors, White Lions, and Pheonix Guard! Basically the entire HE model range will be (correct me if I'm wrong) plastic! That is awesome!!

I am jealous! Now the HE's have plenty of ways to convert/customize an army.

Also I have heard that the next big release coming October/November/December time frame is going to be Dark Eldar!!

I have heard that the entire model range is getting revamped with 6 new plastic kits and 2-3 new metal blisters. As far as rules go I hear 2 strong rumors that would appear to lean toward truth.

1) Poisoned weapons!! Pretty much all their weapons are rumored to be poisoned....... ......
2) The army will get stronger/receive benefits the more it kills on the battlefield.

That pretty much sums up the rumor mill.

Discuss...

New Army..... Oh Noes!!!!

So J's post got me thinking about if I were to start another 40k army (which I won't be doing anytime soon) what would I play?

When it comes down to it I would try to make an army list for precisely 2000 points and never change the list again. It would have to be able to operate at 1000, 1250, 1500, 1850 points respectively as well. So let the debate begin...

Top choices:

1) Tau - I honestly have always had a thing with the look of the Tau. They are very sleek and could have some neat color schemes (Red/Black tiger stripes, Blue/Black tiger stripes, Camouflage of some sort.... etc.). I think the army overall is a bit behind/outdated when it comes to rules. The 5th edition rules with more armies opting to go with deep strike/outflank the static gun line Tau aren't nearly as effective. That being said they are definitely a tactical army (much like my wood elves) with very few units that are thee worst melee combatants in 40k.

2) Chaos Marines - Lets face it I hate Space marines, but if I were to make some marines what better marines than their evil arch enemies! Conversions here would be fun too!! I would probably run a Terminator heavy Chaos army with Obliterators, a tank or two, with lots of core troopers.

3) Eldar/Necrons. My last choice came in as a tie. I gotta say though that although I like Eldar they need more plastic kits before I would consider them. Ditto for Necrons but they also need a rules revamp....

So in conclusion it looks like Tau might be my second army in 40k down the round, but we shall see.

Demons at Adeptacon?

Several new things to post today:

1. Went camping out in the Shenandoahs, lots of fun. There I found a completely intact, albeit dead, horned beetle! Given that I wanted to make a more scarab looking figure for my Tomb Spyders I think molding this guy and then adding bits and pieces will do the trick.

2. Adeptacon: the tournament scene where GW doesn’t have a strangle-hold on what you can and can not do. For example: not all of my figures have to be GW’s. I can scratch build an entire army and I won’t be thrown out the front door but rather I’d be praised for doing so. The particular tournament my camping friends want me to go to is team-based. 4 people each with 1000 points play in teams of 2. You get your standard 2 troops and HQ but only 1 fast, heavy, and elite.

So your army list is a little limited but you’re playing with someone who is supposed to coordinate with you. That said this particular group would like to do a themed army, chaos. I started throwing things. After I calmed down they said, ‘What about demons?’

‘Say what?’

…Demons… What about demons? 1000 points of demons is, what, 25 models? I could have that assembled and painted by April. I bet I could even learn how to play it quasi-effectively.

So let’s take a look at the demons line: huh, all of the HQ is metal, all but the elites but the bloodcrushers are metal, all of the fast attack but seekers are metal, all of Nurgle is metal. And do you know what metal means? BLOODY EXPENSIVE, that’s what it means. OR how about a soul grinder? $62. About $400 for 25 models or 1000 points.

The new question is now: could I scratch build a demon army and have it painted and ready to go by April?

Consider what it would take: how about 10 pink horrors, 10 bloodletters, 3 nurgling bases, 5 fiends, a soul grinder, and a keeper of secrets.

I’ve got my soldering iron due to arrive today. Even if the models don’t look 100% awesome, they are the perfect testers because they are demons! All I would really need to do is buy the bases (I tried to make my own but that ended in tears).

Hmm… maybe this would work?

Conversions for Though.

Instead of flooding your e-mail boxes with my rants I'm going to put them here as "Conversions for Thought."

Recall, brusidos, Final Fantasy Tactics. Remember summoners? They would bring a big ass monster into play to call down an attack and that was it. Then in FFX you could bring one in but then the rest of your party pretty much sat the battle out until the enemy died
of the summoned monster did.

Well, why couldn't this be applied to the warhammer world? Why is there no summoning magic? Overpowered perhaps? How could you run something like that? I thought it would be an interesting concept to look into for the future. Especially if you wanted to go out and convert/create some big monsters of your own that do not appear in the warhammer world. Which reminds me!

Ever look through the Lord of the Rings figures? Lots of nice pieces in there that would be ideal for conversion pieces for your own army. I could see myself using some of the elf models for my own high elf army. The wood elves (Lord of the Rings) actually come in large quantities if you're in the mood to convert them over. AND some of their undead models look particularly impressive and would look brilliant in a vampire counts army.

High elf production

As promised, the results of my kit:



My battle standard bearer mounted. The base is covered in spackle and sealed with glue. I thought it made it look windswept or like a lava flow or something. No idea what I was doing really but it seemed like a good idea at the time. We'll see how it turns out once painted.





Prince/Noble on foot. This one wears the Armor of Caledor or Silvered Steel giving him the 2+ armor save on foot, nothing to scoff at really. I gave him an axe and the head off of the White Lion Chariot kit making him look, well angry. I wanted a fierce leader and the other High Elf heads look... ridiculous with those ornate helmets. Ellyrian reavers at least make sense with all the feathers but the wings and the sculpted dragon is too much. The long hair and braided top knot with the yelling give him a more aggressive look.

Someday I'd like to pose him jumping forward, axe overhead, ready to swing down at the enemy!

This week: there will be no goals this week as I am going camping. Fear not! Provided bears don't eat me or anything my soldering iron should be waiting for me when I get back. SO! Next week will be to make a skeleton for the phoenix!

Level One of the Pagoda: the Plan!

Following some sage advice I made a list and then laid out everything I need to do it.

3000 points High Elves:

Prince 250
White Sword
Armor of Caledor
Guardian Phoenix
Talisman of Loec

Archmage
Level 4
Book of Hoeth
Lore of Shadows

Noble
BSB
Dragon Armor
Enchanted Shield
Talisman of Endurance

Mage
Level 2
Seerstaff of Sorcery
Lore of Life: Throne of Vines, Flesh to Stone

Lothern Sea Guard
19 full command

Spearguard 50
full command
War Banner

Phoenix Guard
30 full command
Gem of Courage
Banner of Sorcery

White Lions
18 full command
Banner of Swiftness
Ironcurse Icon

Swordmasters of Hoeth
12

Repeater Bolt Thrower
2

Great Eagle
1

The Prince and Noble BSB hang out with the White Lions and kick some heads in. The Phoenix Guard will provide power for my shadow irresistible force mage and generally act as an anchor. My spearguard will provide 50 ASF hits (first two rows, third for spears, fourth for citizen levy, and fifth for horde). The Seaguard will bunker the shadowmage while the spearguard get the life mage to boost their toughness. Swordmasters get flanking duty. Bolt throwers hit small units or big monsters and the eagle distracts/goes warmachine hunting.

A grainy picture of what I have so far. As you can (sort of) see I'm missing only 35 spearguard (of the new variety) and all of the Lothern Sea Guard. And the ongoing project of the phoenix (great eagle).

What will it take to get everything? One phoenix project and 3 boxes of High elf spearguard/LSG kits. All in good time.

Conversion Gift Ideas

I got to thinking that I wanted to try my hand at converting some different figures and see what results I could come up with. Since both Eldar and Necrons have great imagery and models that I find interesting I was thinking I would give this a shot if you guys would be interested. Basically I am asking if you would want something converted what would it be? I have some ideas that I think would be neat to try out but feel free to provide your own opinion.

Eldar

Custom-made Warp Spiders = I know Brian that you already bought a small box of 6 of these buggers but those static poses are just ridiculous! I was thinking of kit bashing a Necron warrior kit (left over bitz to be used for possible Necron conversions) and the Eldar Guardian kit with some of those red plastic rods to replace the green ones. As far as the Jump Packs I don't know yet but I will find somesort of representation (Blood Angel jump packs might work).

Necrons

Custom-made Immortals = Okay in my opinion the Immortal should be much bigger than the current model. I think it should be roughly the size of a Tyranid Warrior (40mm base) and be 2x the size of a Necron Warrior. As far as converting these bad boys I haven't the foggiest yet but I want to try. I figured if I was going to be converting some Warp Spiders and using the guns from that kit that I would go ahead and use the leftovers to try and make some sort of Immortal squad. There are some Tyranid bitz that could be used that look somewhat mechanical so we shall see...

High Elves

Sorry J, I don't really have an interest here but.... the PHOENIX sounds awesome!!! I might try that sometime!

Vamps

Meh.....


So there are some thoughts. Let me know if there is something in particular you would like to see or try and we'll figure out a plan of attack.

Mud and leadership

This weekend was mostly spent at Run Amuck. And by that I mean mostly cleaning myself off afterwards. Being caked in mud gave me some interesting realizations. For instance ever notice how we (and by we I usually mean the royal we) paint something standing in the grass or dirt but their lower legs are unmolested by the ground they walk on?

For example, high elves in their ridiculous white robes usually do not have a spot of dirt on them! Naturally I intend to change this but that is an endeavor for another time. First I need to paint the buggers!

Last week I put together my prince on foot. I did not use the head pieces from the hero box because I think the big HE helmets are a little on the outrageous side. The wings/dragon helm looks neat but at the same time ridiculous in its size. Instead I found one of the extra heads from the white lion chariot kit. The hair is coiled and blowing in the breeze, the face is angry and he appears to be shouting in rage. I gave him an axe and left his right arm free. The pose is simple, he is gesturing with his axe and shouting a command. The look will go well with the white lions. I may even go as far as putting a white lion cape on him furthing the look and feel of a prince from Charce (or is it Charace? Wherever the white lions hail from).

The rest of the hero kit is going to be composed of the mounted battle standard bearer. Again, I don't intend to use the head-piece but everything else, including the lavish pre-made banner will be used. I wanted to do something different for the base so I took some spackle and using my fingers globbed some on the base and then pulled away creating a swept look to it. This created a jagged rocky appearence. After letting it dry I placed a little Elmer's Glue on as a seal. I know it isn't 100% consistent with the rest of my model's look for the base but I wanted to experiment a little. We'll see how it turns out once I mount the model on there.

Pictures to follow later today.


This week's goal: complete the wireframe for the phoenix (great eagle) and order a clear flying base for it. Additionally I may have miscalculated my army list so there might be room for 2 eagles. We shall see!

Workbench

Everyone needs a workbench, a place where they work on... whatever it is they work on. Mine is a walk-in closet in the guest bedroom along side the other random pieces of storage.



Complete with lava lamp, spice rack full of bits, lamp with built-in magnifying glass.

The Jolly Roger watches over me as I work.

Adding Images

To like pictures we have Picasa, Flickr, or Photobucket. For pure functionality purposes I say we use Picasa as it links through our Google accounts already.



For example:




I've added my Avatar of Quetzalcoatl linking through Picasa. Pretty easy. In addition I will be starting to make my own posts here. If we want to divide them into different sections over time, awesome, otherwise let's just start throwing things in here.

Also, pictures! Lots and lots of pictures!

Look and Feel???

Alrighty then.... time to get down to business.

As far as the layout of the blog I figured I would contribute to it by designing a crest for us. I should have a formal design by sometime this weekend.

As far as the rest of the layout and look of the blog I am at a loss. I guess I will try and play around with the settings sometime this week to see what I would prefer to see.

Otherwise HAZZAH!!!!

Woot!!!

First post!!!!