Tuesday, August 31, 2010

'Counts-as' Mephiston WIP



So this is the model I will be using as Mephiston with my Lamenters army. The idea behind him is that he is a Badab War-era Librarian who began using a demon weapon discovered in the Maelstrom. It made him incredibly powerful and utterly insane....etc.

Friday, August 20, 2010

Simple Free-Hand Step-by-Step

So at WargamesCon I saw Duke's Blood Angels and they have some absolutely bad ass free hand work. I've done some before, but I have always been pretty conservative. So he inspired to push a little more at it.

I picked a nice symbol from the Blood Angel Codex (I think Moriars banner) and added a little Lamenters flavor in the form of the bleeding heart. My first step was to draw the design in pencil. Obviously I filled in the blank space with checkers.


Next I block in the pencil lines with Chaos Black and start to add a little colour to the picture with the red.


Once the black is all filled in I used Bleached Bone to make a base colour for the chalice.


Here I added some Dheneb Stone to the chalice as a highlight and used Blood Red to bring out the heart and blood drop.


In my final stage I used Bubonic Brown as a shade and cleaned up all the checkers with Skull white.

All in all, extremely simple, done in under an hour, and looks great on the battlefield, especially when you have a lot of it...

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Lamenters Chapter Librarium circa 305997.M41



Brothers Fallas, Jordanes, and Marcellinus are all that remains of a once powerful cadre of psykers. After Badab, then Kraken, they were not spared the devastation that their Chapter felt.

Saturday, August 7, 2010

The Chupacabra




First in my unit of 'counts-as' Ygmarls. I really like how the Ripper ead' turned out...

Thursday, August 5, 2010

WargamesCon ala Aventine


WargamesCon this past weekend was a blast. You can see the list I played here. There were so many players at this tournament, over 150 all told, and the hall was intense. Not to mention the competition was fierce.

Game 1 'Let's Get It On' v. Tom A.'s Imperial Guard
*pict capture corrupted*

Objectives

Primary- Objectives placed in center and each deployment zone. Control 3 to get 20 points.
Secondary- Control more table quarters than your opponent, 13 points.
Tertiary- Control 3 or more terrain features, 9 points.
Bonus
+2 for having an HQ alive
+2 if you kill an opposing HQ
+1 if your opponent has no surviving Fast Attack
Spearhead Deployment

Tom's army consisted of Creed and Kell, a Primaris, some Psykers in a Chimera, a Harker Vet squad, another Vet squad, a foot Platoon, a Hellhound, a Manticore, and a Russ Squadron with Pask. My two 'Baals' made very aggressive scout moves towards the center objective after the Imperial Guard took first turn. Harker's unit infiltrated and tried to melta bomb one of the 'Baal's, but failed to, and got flame-stormed in return. My opponent focused a lot of fire power on my Land Raider (including all four Storm Eagle rockets) which allowed forward elements lead by The Sanguinor to capture the objective in his deployment zone. His Psykers were almost able to contest my objective with a late game push, but the Death Company I left in my deployment zone took care of them. 47/47.

Game 2 'Paradise by the Dashboard Light' v. Sean Williams' Fallen Angels (Space Wolves)

Objectives
Primary- Seize Ground
Secondary- If your opponent has no Elites left, 13 points.
Tertiary- Eliminate your opponents most expensive HQ, 9 points.
Bonus
+2 for having an HQ alive
+2 if you kill an opposing HQ
+1 if your opponent has no surviving Fast Attack
Pitched Battle Deployment


Up to table 9 for game two and a pretty gnarly 'counts-as' Space Wolves list. Three Lords on Wolves in a pack of wolves, 3 mech Grey Hunter units, a squad of Wolf Scouts, and 3 squads of missled out Long Fangs. I tried to lure the big squad into charge range with my scouting 'Baal's after he got first turn. It worked, as I got a first turn charge with a unit of Terminators and
The Sanguinor. Unfortunately that wasn't a good thing, and the wolves eat most of army. Late in this game my opponent made a huge rules error which cost him the game. He played the Fenris wolves without ATSKNF, and almost 800 points of Wolf Lord ran off the table. I got a tie on the Primary, as well as achieving the Secondary and Tertiary. 27/47.

Game 3 'American Pie' v. Joe C.'s Chaos Space Marines

Objectives
Primary- 3 Objectives
Secondary- Kill Points, 13 points max.
Tertiary- Keep your Elites alive, 9 points.
Bonus
+2 if your most expensive scoring unit is within 6" of the center of the board
+1 if you launch an assault or suffer a deep strike mishap
+1 if all of your HQ units are dead
+1 if all your opponents HQs are dead
Spearhead Deployment

Don't even want to remember this game despite my opponent being a great guy to play. He had Abaddon w/ Berserkers in a Land Raider, a Lash Prince, Slaanesh Terminators in a Land Raider, a Rhino squad, and 5 Obliterators. I couldn't do anything, Lash tore me up. I killed the Prince with The Sanguinor and had one model left. 2/47.

Game 4 'Stayin' Alive' v. Chris T.'s Imperial Guard
*pict capture corrupted*
Objectives
Primary- Hold more terrain pieces than your opponent
Secondary- Eliminate all the enemy TROOPS choices, 13 points.
Tertiary- Control more table quarters, 9 points.
Bonus
+1 for each FO slot you completely destroy
Pitched Battle Deployment

Chris had Creed, a couple huge Platoons made into a couple big blob squads, fifteen autocannon teams, a Harker Veteran squad, an Inquistitor Lord, an Inquisitor w/ Psycannons and a unit of Storm Troopers. He kind of turtled up in his deployment zone, pretty much ignoring the primary objective. I used my limited Troops to secure terrain pieces while the Terminators and HQ headed for the blob. The Sanguinor ate up sixty autocannon shots in the first two turns and did not take one single wound (thanks to the lone failed save being negated with Corbulo's re-roll). The game went seven turns, and it got close, but I secured everything but the Secondary. 32/47.


Game 5 'The Boys are Back in Town v. Will H.'s Salamanders
Objectives
Primary- Capture and Control. Double objective at the center of the board.
Secondary- Kill five enemy units, 13 points.
Tertiary- Have more units in your opponents deployment zone than they have in yours, 9 points.
Bonus
+2 if your HQ kills an enemy HQ.
+2 if your HQ is dead or in the opposing deployment zone.
+1 if your enemy has no TROOP choices alive
Dawn of War Deployment

That game 3 pasting had knocked me out of contention and into the consolation bracket, so my battle points were set back to zero. Time to try it again. In this game I deployed the Death Company in Rhino and The Sanguinor at mid-field. They quickly engaged a Tactical squad and Assault squad which were both killed for the loss of the Death Company. My 'Baal's outflanked and managed to kill an entire Tactical Squad and an entire Devastator Squad that were on his objective. Vulkan and his Terminators killed both my Terminator squads after my Drop Pod unit popped their Land Raider. My Land Raider managed to stay between Vulkan ,his boys, and my objective. I ended up with 10 on the Primary for holding 1-0 objectives. Got everything else. 34/47.

Game 6 'WAR' v. Ryan G.'s Blood Angels
Objectives
Primary- Score marks for holding the center of the board for entire game turns. Score more marks than your opponent.
Secondary- Have a mobile unit in every board quarter, 13 points.
Tertiary- Earn a point for every enemy unit you kill, 9 points max.
Bonus
+1 for every player turn you hold the center
Spearhead Deployment

Ryan had a really solid armour 13 wall with Mephiston, a Furioso Librarian, a Sanguinary Priest, two big Assault squads, two little Assault squads with Assault Cannon Razorbacks, with two 'Baal's, two Vindicators, and another Predator. My 'Baal's aggressively scouted and got punished for it, both destroyed turn 1, and things really swung in his favor early. That is, until my (apparently un-killable) Terminators hit his lines. I broke Mephiston and kept him out of the game for turn 4-5 or so. I managed to clear out the middle once, getting me 10 on the primary, plus the Secondary, and 7 on the Tertiary. 32/47.


Game 7 'Bad Bad Leroy Brown' v. Brent's Daemons of Chaos
Objectives
Primary- Capture and Control. Control both for 20, one for 10.
Secondary- Scaled Victory Points, 13 points max.
Tertiary-Kill more enemy units than they kill of yours, 9 points.
Bonus
+1 if you ever control the enemy objective
+1 if the enemy never contests your objective
+1 if your opponent has no surviving Elites
+1 if your opponent has no surviving Fast Attack
+1 if your opponent has no surviving Heavy Support
Dawn of War deployment

The final game of this marathon of a tournament was against Brent (of Strictly Average) and his versatile Daemons. First game of the tournament I got first turn, and I opted to go second. He had four Tzeentch Heralds on Chariots, max Fiends, minimum pairs of Plague Bearers and Horrors, and three shooty, walking Daemon Princes of Tzeentch. I again deployed my commander and the Death Company. The Sanguinor went out like a punk bitch in this game, taking a turn 1 wound from Horrors (even with Corbulo's re-roll!!), then taking another wound from dangerous terrain in the bottom of turn 1!! A Prince destroyed the Death Company Rhino but they were able to charge a different Prince along with The Sanguinor, who was eventually killed by it. Once more, it came down to my Storm Shield Terminators and their inability to fail saves. Also, the fragility of the majority of his units meant I was able to scrape back in (the Heralds in particular seemed like glass cannons). We ended up drawing the Primary, while I got 10 for the Secondary, and won the Tertiary. 31/47.

So with my very high soft scores and decent second day showing I pulled off 2nd Overall of the consolation bracket. But more important than that I had seven really fun games, many of which I would call great. All of them knowledgeable, competent players. Just a very high level of play in this tournament. Good times.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Quick update from WARgamesCon....


I'll have a more detailed report later, but for now you can know I got 2nd Best Overall of the consolation bracket... second best of the losers... :)