30K Death Guard Update

Hey Folks

So a while back in September I posted about starting a 30K Death Guard army, I put the project on pause a bit because of all the rumours of plastic 30K models. The first units that I painted were Typhon and a unit of Deathshroud Terminators. I purchased a Sicaran Venator at the same time as the Terminators and that was the next thing that I painted up. I wasn't looking forward to assembling this fella, Forge World stuff can be tricky to assemble some times but this actually went together pretty well. It is heavy though which made painting it a bit more awkward than I anticipated. It is a really nice kit and looks great once painted up. I am pretty pleased with the results.

So it turns out the rumours were true and the Betrayal At Calth boxed set has dropped. This thing is amazing and for me came just at the right time. My next purchase was going to be my troop choices and this box comes with 30 Tactical Marines with a whole bunch of weapon options. I need to work it out but I want to build them so I can use them in 30K and 40K. I am seriously considering buying another box though because then I get the option of building Devastator squads etc. The box also comes with Terminators which won't go into the 30K army but I suspect will get some use in 40K. The first model I painted up from the box was the Contemptor Dreadnaught. The pose is a little static but with a bit of posing on rocks and a decent paint job it looks ok.

So next up are the troop choices. I have assembled the first five Tactical marines and will paint them up first to get the paint scheme down. 

Until next time...... 

500 points of trouble.

Hey folks.

So this post is going to take it back to basics a bit. There was a convention in my town a couple of weeks ago, just a very small affair with 50 or 60 people turing up. The organisers put on a little 40K tourney, nothing too serious. Standard Force Org (so HQ and 2 Troops min) and a 500 point limit. All well and good you think. 

I spent weeks trying to come up with a 500 point list that I liked, it took hours and hours and to be honest I am still not happy. The same guy is running a 500pt tourney again in a couple of weeks and my stress levels are through the roof. 

My first issue was what army to take, this meant that I started creating a zillion lists for all the armies I own just trying to find something I like the look of. My problem is that I could create a really good on the board army but if the list doesn't look right then I don't like it. What does "look right" mean I hear you ask..... I have no idea. I just know it when I see it. 

So in the end I went with Orks, some Truks and Boyz. I just went with bodies. Well I played two marine lists and they just generally blew away the Truks and then killed the Boyz. I won one game on scenario and lost the other to a White Scar list. 

The White Scar list was basically one massive unit of tooled up bikes and then two min squads of Tactical Marines. This highlighted to me that at 500 points Death-star lists are good and their only real weakness is being hit with something like a Vindicator etc. 

500 points is really difficult to build a list for that works against all other lists. You could build one kind of list that will slaughter a certain other type of list but then, in turn will itself get slaughtered by certain other lists. 

So far in my fairly limited experience I find 500pt games tend to end in a massacre, I suspect that this is because an Alpha strike in such a small game is usually terminal. Although saying that in the game I won by scenario the fact that I lost all my Truks on turn one meant that I just went to an object and went to ground the whole game, there was no way I was going to kill my opponents models. He only lost because he didn't move up the table to come get me. 

So thats my theory so far that hard hitting Deathstar units are the way to go. Although I might try a cheeky Daemon summoning list, its like an inverse Alpha strike, if I am able to summon a couple of units a turn one I am essentially increasing my armies pts by 25% which makes a big swing in a small game.

So I now have two lists in mind, of course one of them essentially involved me starting a new army (because thats something I would never do right). So first idea was Cult Mechanicus. This is going to be a very low body count army, 8 models in fact.

HQ = Tech Priest Dominus with Eradication Ray.
Troop 1 = 4 Destroyers (2 Plasma Culverin and 2 Heavy Grav-Cannon).
Troop 2 = 3 Breachers (3 Torsion Cannon).

Basically there is enough firepower in these units to wipe out an infantry unit a turn or a vehicle a turn. The Alpha strike potential here is off the chart. Downside - 8 models, T5 2W, but 8 models nonetheless. The models are freaking awesome and I have gone with a theme. Basically Forge World that has been lost in the warp for thousands of years where the Mechanicum have been corrupted by Nurgle. I have painted them in a Nurgle/30K Death Guard scheme. I have this whole thing going on now where I can tie in Knights, Mechanicum and Chaos (I suspect will be a feature of another post). It just means I can create a lot of different army configuration using these models.

Second idea is Daemons.
HQ = Great Unclean One (lvl3).
HQ = Herald of Nurgle (lvl2).
Troop 1 = 10 Plaguebearers.
Troop 2 = 3 Nurgling Bases.

Tactics are just to try and summon as much as possible and win by attrition. With anything from 6 to 11 dice a turn I should in the physic phase I should be able to get some additional units on the table. If the Herald gets the 6 spell then later game I can potentially summon in a second Greater Daemon. Would need to be careful first two turns not to get blown away. I think this list has some merits but not sure, would need to try it out.

So these are the two lists I am going to run with at 500 for a bit, the Daemon list I have all the models for, the Mechanicus list involved me having to go out and get some models. I initially got the Dominus and one box of Destroyers when they were released just because I really liked them so all I needed was two more boxes (6 models, but I need only 4).

I undercoated black and then painted all over with silver. I then did my Bronze and Orange rust affect. I then painted the white bits (had to do three coats). After this applied a 50/50 mix of medium and Agthrax wash to the white bits. Once this was dry I stapled on the damage with a dark brown and then another 50/50 wash. Once dry washed the metal with Nuln Oil, after this had dried gave the metal areas a very gentle edge dry brush with a light silver. I think this looks pretty good, I will be doing a Knight in this scheme so it ties in with my 30K army and I can use it with my 40K Chaos army.

Tech Priest

Destroyers

Until next time......

Frostgrave.

Hey Folks...

A consistent theme through most of this Blog is my constant annoyance with myself for not focusing on one thing at a time and flitting from one project to another. I am currently making efforts to stop doing this and thats why I started a new game system this week........ mm.

So Frostgrave is a new game system published by Osprey publishing in the UK. I came to know about it through an article in War-games Illustrated. The thing with new games is that they need to attain a certain mass in players otherwise you end up buying stuff and then never using it. I believe this game is going to do ok and several members at both the games clubs I attend have the book and have started up warbands. Its a game with a low level of investment required which is a good thing.

The basic premise is Warband, frozen City - fight. Its very similar in concept to Mordheim from GW but simplier in the rules and campaign system. I loved Mordheim but the post game squence put me off as it was very intensive, this system still has that progress element but it is a lot more streamlined.

Everything revolves around your Wizard, he/she is the only one that will progress and everyone else is basically expendable. Your wizard picks their type and a bunch of spells, you select your warband and crack on. The only quibble I have is that there are a ton of spells and you have to select your list as you build your warband which means you really have to read through them all and then try and pick which ones will work. I read through them briefly and then picked ones I liked the sound of.

What I love about this game is that there isn't a set of models that you have to use so you can pretty much use what you want. I am sticking with GW models as thats what I have lying around and I have plenty of bits to make up a band of warriors, however saying that I did go and buy a few models once I had thought about character and fluff etc.

My Wizard (Traguard) is the Warlock model from the original Mordheim range. Its a pretty old model and it was sitting in a box unpainted. I bought a box of Empire Militia models as these can be assembled with a whole bunch of weapon options. This provided me with the very basic and cheapest troops - Archers and Thugs.

For my Apprentice Wizard I am using the Dark Elf Sorceress. Now I know what you are thinking - this model has very little clothing on and would surely freeze in the city of Frostgrave. Well yes - so my fluff is that she is a cold blooded Ice Elf. I think that just about covers it. I wanted to use this model because its just an awesome model.

As mentioned I used the Empire Militia for the rest of the group, after my first game I made some gold and was able to upgrade some of warband members. I made two purchases, firstly it was a Barbarian, for this character I used the plastic Dwarf Troll Slayer model. I also added a Ranger and for this I used the Wood Elf Waywatcher Lord model.

I have only had two games so far but I have really enjoyed them and am looking forward to more, hopefully the game will gather a following and there will be some expansions and continued support.

Here are some pictures of the models painted some far.

Traguard the Wizard

Barbarian, Wizard, Apprentice Wizard, Barbarian.

Dwarf Troll-Slayer Barbarian

Apprentice Wizard. 

So after two games I am really enjoying it. Its a fun game to kill off an hour or so and the fact that there is an uncomplicated campaign element is really nice. In both games there have been some really hysterical moments where my mental hard hitting Barbarian has failed to do anything but then an archer has managed to one shot someone from max range with a zillion minus modifiers. How you use your wizard in the game is a major factor, you can only cast one spell a turn so you really have to think about how yo utilise him but also making sure he doesn't get killed off.

We have just played very basic games so far so am looking forward to trying out some of the scenario games.

Until next time...