colossal Colossals

Hey Folks,

The hobby station has been a busy place in the last few weeks or so, mainly as I have lots of "things" coming up that I want to get models painted for and also because the pile of stuff to get done seems to be getting bigger.

Ultramarine Scouts

The first thing I finished this week was the Scout squad for my Ultramarines, these guys sit in the Landspeeder Storm and either go for a vehicle that's giving me trouble or hide somewhere whilst a unit of Terminators deep strike in to deal with the enemy before they grab an objective. In the first couple of games they performed really well and I am very happy with them. This leaves me with just the Predator to paint to complete the list I am using in the 1500 tournement at the club.

So since I wrote the above paragraph I have played my last group game against Tom and his Imperial Guard. It was a really tough game which I was on the back foot from right from the beginning. We were playing the Relic scenario which I haven't played before, I had a plan against Tom's Guard and then I let the scenario change my plan to the extent that I screwed myself I think. Tom played really well and his army is brutal. My original plan was to get the Terminators into his back field to take out the big guns but instead I put everything into trying to get the Relic and Tom just sat there an blew me away. I nearly pulled off a draw towards the end but Tom's rate of fire was just too much and he took the game 6-0. I like playing Tom, our games are always really good fun and always end up going to the wire. Top two form the group go through to the Quarters and I should be in second, so will see who I have to face next round.

Also released this week is "Death from the Skies" the new GW book with updated flyer rules, this came a bit out of the blue but I instantly went out and purchased another StormRaven to add to my Ultramarines army. This will look really cool flying about with the StormTalons and also gives me lots of flyer options with the Grey Knights as allies. When I paint it I will do my Forge World StormEagle at the same time.

I also stuck together all the models from the Flames of War starter box game. The models are pretty cool, the detail on the infantry is awesome for such small models and the tank kits are also really great. I have painted up a few of the German tanks and a couple of squads of the infantry and I am really starting to like the look of them, they are also very quick to paint, I found that doing some base coats with a wash and then a highlight was enough to make them look good. the tanks need a bit more attention but with the camo scheme I used (based on the advice in the stater set) it still only took a couple of hours to get four tanks done. My mindset with these models was to get them done quickly to a good gaming standard, not spend ages on making them look awesome.

Zee Germans

At the Brighton club day this month we decided to have a bit of a Warmachine Colossal bash. Several of the guys have managed to get Colossal's painted up so we thought the best thing to do was to have a big four player game featuring all of them, so 70pts a side each with two of the mighty machines. Michael and I took to the table with Mercs/Cryx and we faced off against Andy with his Menoth and Achilles with his Cygnar. Three objectives were on table with one of them disappearing after the first turn. I made a brave alpha strike with the Kraken on the Menoth beast after the Merc Colossal had knocked a few boxes off with its guns. It was a brave move which would have been game changing but after the dust had settled the Menoth Colossal was left with one damage box, this allowed the Menoth Colossal to take out much of the Cryx army in its own turn including the Warcaster. Eventually the Menoth machine went down which left the Merc Galleon to take on the rest of the Menoth army and the Cygnar Colossal.

The Galleon is a beast of a jack and managed to take out the Cygnar caster and knocked the Cygnar Colossal down to its last couple of damage boxes before the unbelievable happened. A lone Merc Trencher with nothing better to do walked up to the Cygnar giant and with an un-boosted attack stabbed the giant machine with a stick, he must have hit something important in the foot of the machine as it proceeded to fall over in a heap and the Mercs found a new hero. The winner came down to the last dice roll of the game, Andy needed to do the Merc caster 18 damage which meant rolling three 6's on three dice. Andy tool the dice in hand and rolled....6......6..........5..... cries of anguish erupted and the game was won by the Cryx/Merc combo. It was an awesome game and playing with all those huge models was very cool.  

The Colossals add a really nice new challenge to the game without being too overpowered, I think PP have got the balance just right, they are awesome against infantry but can still be taken down with some heavy jacks or a charge from some Weapon Manager infantry. 

Below are a few pictures from the battle, they are a little blurry as the light isn't fantastic at Gambit HQ.

The Kraken and Galleon line up

Kraken and Galleon target the Judicator

Judicator and Stormwall

So whats next? Well I have lots going on at the moment, firstly I need to finish the Ultramarines Predator and an Ageis Defence line, this will complete my 1500 Ultramarines list for the Hemel 40K tourney. After this I have a whole pile of stuff to go through, sticking the Makifaux crew together might be next so I can at least try and get a few training games in. Warmachine wise I have a whole bunch of Khador stuff waiting as well as some Skorne for Hordes there is also an Ultramarines StormRaven and StormEagle waiting....... plus the new Daemons stuff coming out next week. 

What I could really do with is some extra days in the week...... 

Until next time...