Little and Large and everything in-between.

Hey Folks.....

Well its been a while, real life got busy for a bit. I still managed to get plenty of hobby in though. The last couple of topics have been about Warmachine and a few weekend I participated in my first Warmachine tournament, I have participated in many tournaments over the last ten years or so but never Warmachine. It was 50pts with Deathclock and as mentioned in the last entry I had never played either so wasn't expecting to place well and honestly winning one game was my target.

Well in the first game the pressure of the clock got to me straight away and I played like an absolute muppet. However it seemed that my mistakes actually affected the way my opponent played, plus he had a massive army and clocked himself out, so game 1 win and object achieved. I lost the next two mainly due to unfamiliarity with my opponents models and just not really knowing what to do and then I won my last game with a classic Buthcher3 Assassination. In the end I placed 8th out of 16 which for my first 50pt timed event I was very happy with.

I think for the next one I will stick with the same lists with maybe a few tweaks based on my experiences at the weekend, that way I know my own lists better and can concentrate on the things I needed to do better, but it was definitely a fun day.

Khador Demolisher

To my shame I had to play with some unpainted models just purely because I just didn't have the time to paint enough to get me to 50pts. I did a Demolisher though as you can't really play Warjacks that haven't been stuck together and it would have been a nightmare to paint after sticking to together. Looking at the Khador army on the shelf I realise that I have a lot of Jacks for them but as a faction I very rarely play more than one Jack in a game.

On the 40K side of things I have been painting some more Daemons, mainly Tzeentch. I was going to stick pure Nurgle but it did lack a little something so I am looking to add a unit of 9 Screamers, a unit of Horrors and a couple of Heralds. I have finished the Heralds and Screamers already and am starting on the Horrors. I have a scheme that is nice and easy to paint and actually looks really good. To make the heralds I purchased the Tzeentch Chariot kit, this kit is great purely because of the options it gives you. With two boxes I have made a Herald on Disc, a Herald in a Chariot and I will stick have enough bits over to make an Exalted Flamer Chariot and Exalted Flamer on foot. I think thats great value and they are fantastic kits as well. I also picked up the new Greater Daemon of Khorne. I take one of these to each game I play with Daemons just incase one of my Heralds gets the Power that enables me to summon Greater Daemons. As I normally have a GD of Nurgle on the table I tend to summon the Bloodthirster, they can fly around and are more mobile than the rest of my army - plus they hit like a freight train. The new plastic kit really is awesome and I hope that they other Greater Daemons will be just as good when they are released.

Herald in a Chariot

Screamers

Greater Daemon of Khorne

Inquisitor Thanorax

I have also painted an Inquisitor model for 40K. If you flip over to the Wynnjitsu page you can read all about him there.

We have also had Salute since I made the last entry, Salute is the biggest War-games show in the UK, if not the world. The really cool thing about Salute is that you get lots of vendors selling stuff that you can't normally get in a regular gaming store and you get to see models, games and accessories that you would never have otherwise known about. Some guys at my club in Brighton have recently been talking about doing some historical gaming. We are currently looking at a couple of options. I have some Hail Caesar models and we have played a game of that and found it very enjoyable but we also wanted to try some American Civil War. I was up for this bit wanted to try something a little different so we have opted to do this in 12mm. I have wanted to try something smaller scale for a while and whilst at Salute we found Kalistra Miniatures. They do some cracking 12mm ACW models and you could buy a basic army set for £40. I snapped some up and have painted one stand just to see how they look and I think they look great. The beauty of this scale is that it is relatively quick to paint and they look fantastic on the tabletop.

ACW Union 12mm

ACW Union 12mm

 As mentioned the other game we are playing at the moment is Hail Caesar, I have now painted up one unit of troops and a single stand of Cav. I stuck some other Infantry to bases just so we could get going with the game. We just played the starter set on a 4x4 to get a grip of the rules but I think it will be better played on a 6x4 with a bit of scenery on. It looks like one of those games where the movement and table tactics are more important that the actual fighting bit, hope to get some more games in soon.

Celts

Celt Geneal

Celt Cav

The Warmachine league continues at the Hemel Club. I am proud to say that I am currently on top of the rankings being the only play to be unbeaten at the moment. I have played all my games with Butcher3 and, unsurprisingly, won them all by assassination. You may think this is pretty cool, the downside is that I don't have any scenario points as I have not won any games on scenario, this means if I lose a game the players that have only lost one game generally have better scenario points. So I guess I just need to keep winning.

And finally - A new Space Marine codex has been released much to everyones surprise. Along with this an accessary sprue has been put out for each of the main chapters. As a devote Ultramarine player I grabbed on of these an painted up a new Sergeant with the new bits.

Ultramarine Sergeant.

Until next time...

Hobby Foo

Hi Folks

Well its been a while, not sure why. As the weather has been very good lately I seem to have been spending a lot more time outdoors and riding my bike (trying to shift a bit of weight pre-wedding). Talking of weddings, that seems to be taking up some time too, especially the dancing lessons. So whats been happening?

I have recently competed in the Hemel club 40K tourney and had some good results. It was 1500 pts and I was using my Marines along with a Knight.

The first game was against Ricks Nids, it was unfortunate but I think his army was perfect for the Knight which pretty much chomped through everything. The Sternguard also took out a few of the big hitters with their poison rounds and it was a very one sided game. Nids don't really have an answer to the Knight apart from keeping it engaged in combat but I took out the horde units pretty early on.

The second game was against Lee's Marines with a Knight. The armies were pretty much a mirror and as you can imagine it was a close game with me winning 4-3. The Knights just walked around the board taking out units but in the final turn I managed to knock out his Knight and then grab one of the objectives for the win.

Third was the Imperial Guard fielded by Alex, he had an amazing round of shooting knocking off 5 of the Knights hit points and it was a bit brown trousers time for me. I managed to knock out all the threats with my Devs and Marines and the Knight did enough damage on his troops before being taken out to allow me to take the game on objectives. It looked more one sided that it actually was when the game finished and Alex gets the glory of being the first person to take my Knight out.

Jim's Eldar were next and I was worried about his mobility and the firepower of a few of his units that could take out the Knight pretty easy. If that happened I was easy meat. It was the home and away mission so I made a solid firebase on my end and then sent the Knight and couple of units after his. I managed to take out his tanks pretty quick and thought I was home and dry but then his Jet Bike mounted HQ guy flew in on my base and basically smashed me up. In the end I had Jim's objective but not my own but with First Blood as well I managed to scrape a win. The Knight was vanquished in this game as well.

In the final group game I had Keith's Tau to contend with. I was more worried about Tau I think than most of the other armies due to their high strength and accurate guns. In the first few turns his Riptide was ripping through my army and putting lots of damge onto my Troops choices. Of course my Knight was doing the same. I actually did something on purpose in this game that paid of really well, I sent one small squad of Sterguard to take out his Riptide. I hoped that Keith wouldn't see them as a threat and they managed to get within 24" and put on a couple of wounds with poision rounds. Keith then shot them and I managed a couple of cover saves and in the next turn they Sterguard managed to finish off the Riptide. After that the Knight munched most of the other stuff and I hung on for victory.

In the first knock game I played Joe and his Orks. Going second in this one worked really well, Joe spread his massive army out over the width of the table, so I castled up in one corner and basically blew him away. This put me through to the final.

In the Final I faced up against Rick and his Nids again, the first game was a slaughter for me but I knew that had nothing to do with Ricks ability or army, it was all about scenario and it would be again this time. The scenario presented us with 5 objectives and I knew I would struggle and early turns proved this as I just could not get Ricks flyers down and his Mawlocs ripped me a new one. As the game progressed I was starting to make inroads into his army and the Knight really played a big part, the only way I could win was to try and kill all his troops and Warlord and scrap the win, well it nearly worked. I managed to kill all the troops but just could not get his Warlord. In the end it was a draw, I had First Blood and Line Breaker. Rick had Kill The Warlord and Line Breaker. The tournament pack gave Kill The Warlord as first tie-breaker and so Rick walked away the champion. Rick is great player and plays his army very well, I think I was lucky the first time and I knew this game was going to be hard. I think I did well to get it to a draw myself but was always on the back foot with the scenario just like Rick was in our first game. Well there is always next year.

I really like this army, I think if I could change one thing I would drop the Las Razorback and try to get a couple of Drop pods in for the Sternguard. 

I am in two minds on the Knight, it can totally dominate a game and it can go down very quick. In the first game against the Nids they didn't really have anything that could take it out so it was always going to be hard for him to win (especially with the scenario). Maybe 7th will change things. I still love the model though and I would love to have an army of them just because it would look so awesome, but I wonder how much I would use them if they are just going to crush everything. I have been on the receiving end of some of those armies that are just going to kick your ass and its not a good game. There isn't much point in playing if the other person isn't going to enjoy it. i'll wait till 7th drops to see how that affects the game, but on the other hand four Knights would just look awesome so I might do it anyway. I think overall the balance is right but if the opponent doesn't have an answer to it then it can cause trouble.

Sternguard

I am using a full 10 man Sternguard unit in this army so I painted up a box of the new models as I didn't have any with Grav-Guns so it was a good excuse to get a box. Its a great kit, you get so many options and left over bits for other units which is awesome. I suspect I will get another box at some point so I have a unit of 10 that all look the same. The new ones have the cloth on the legs where the old ones don't and the OCD part of my brain wants them to all look similar.

Sternguard Squad

Kings Champion

I also took part in the Lord of the Rings Throne of Skulls event recently. It was always one of my favorite games and I haven't played it in a long time. The ToS events for 40K etc can be a bit competitive but LotRs isn't like that at all. I didn't do very well in the end but thats just the fact that I am out of practice, it was a really cool event and will defiantly go next year. I took the Dwarves this time just because it was well painted, I had to get a couple more models for it but otherwise just went with it as it was. I think next time I will go a bit more Hero heavy.

Optifex Directive

Also this month I have managed to get most of my Convergence of Cyriss done  for Warmachine, I have a couple of lists that I like so once I finish all the models for those two lists I will put them aside for a bit. The final model I need to paint for them is their Colossal which I picked up at Salute.

Modulator and Corollary

Enigma Foundry

I also picked up the new Ork walker the day it came out. Unusually for me it was straight out of the box and onto the painting table. You could assemble it as either a Morkanaut or a Gorkanaut. The Mork version is more tank busting but can have a Kustom Force Field. The Gorka is more your big smashing monster. I went with the Gorkanaut as I think its damage output is a lot better. Take a big Mek as a HQ and give him the Force Field and he can go inside to give it some protection.

The new Codex is out soon and there are some nice new units and models so that could interfere with my painting schedule for a while.

My backlog of models seems to be building up again, but its not a bad problem to have.

And finally - one of the kits I picked up at Salute was some of the new Malifaux plastics, I intend on playing the game at some point but the models are so nice I grabbed some just to paint for the time being. This was the first - A Rotten Belle.

Rotten Belle

Until next time...

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...

Ultramarines go forth.....

Hello hobby fans.

Well its been a busy few weeks on the Gareth hobby scene. Firstly the UltraMarines have had two outings in the tournament currently underway at the game club I attend in Hemel. On both occasions I am pleased to have come away with two victories.

To answer the question I posed in a previous blog I made up my spare points with a Land-speeder Storm carrying a unit of Bolt-gun touting Scouts, this unit was picked out by my girlfriend because she thought "it looked cool" and I have to say they have been awesome. Maybe a new way to build army lists? Push your girlfriend into a GW store and just ask her to pick random boxes on models.... seems to work.

Land Speeder Storm

In the first game they took to the field against the Tau, it was a fairly one sided affair in the end as in the first turn I managed to take out the Quad Gun and the main battle tanks, after this it was just a case of teleporting in the Terminators to clean up and the Scouts to zoom in and nick the objectives.

In the second game I faced a Marine Biker army, from my side of the table it looked pretty scary with all the T5 bikes zooming in. It got pretty messy but I managed to escape the worst of the shooting and a decent Vindicator hit on one squad and getting the Terminators into combat turned the game in my favour. The Tactical Squads were able to move onto the objectives whilst the Terminators cleaned up with help from the StormTalon and Predator. I also managed to get all the secondary missions (Line Breaker, First Blood etc...) Although the victory point count was high for me it could have gone the other way.

So I am pretty pleased so far, for your basic Marine list its performing pretty well. 6th Ed definatly seems to favour armies that can bring some firepower to the table, combat doesn't seem as much of an influence unless its being delivered by some 2+ save, power-fist carrying Terminators.

Painting wise I have been pretty busy, I like to play with fully painted armies if at all possible so I have been trying to get the list I am using in the tourney finished as I decided to use some new units. I have finished the Land Speeder Storm this week (although I need to do the crew still), that just leaves me with the Predator to finish and a unit of Scouts, they should be done before my next game. I also want to do a new Vindicator, the one I am using is the old Forgeworld kit and it's showing its age so once the army is done I might paint up a new one so it looks a bit better.

The Dreamer and Lord Choppy Bits

Its been a bit of a new games month as well, I have been wanting to get into Malifaux for a while so I have bought some models for that, you only need a few models to play a game so getting a "crew" ready for the table wont take long.

Flames of War is another system I have been looking at for a while, there are a lot choices when it comes to building an army which is a little daunting. But with the release of the starter set it makes getting into the game a lot easier. The box comes with enough models to build two armies to begin with so I have made the purchase and have painted up my first test model.




So here are the pictures....

Land Speeder Storm.

Flames of War. German Tank.

Until next time...

Tourney Tourment.

Hey Folks

The club I go to in Hemel is running a 40K tournament over the next few months, below is the army that I intend to take. I normally play games at 1850 and having to go down to 1500 was tough. 

My only concern is that I am a bit Troops light with only two Tactical Squads, of course they can combat squad to make four scoring units but only having units of five marines is risky. 

Firepower wise I think its pretty good and with the two Terminator units it has plenty of staying power. 

I have 145 points left to spend but not sure what to spend it on, its either: - 

1. Thunderfire Cannon and some Librarian upgrades. 
2. Defence Line with Quad Gun and some Librarian upgrades. 
3. Dreadnought with Las and Missile Launcher. 
4. Second Pred. 
5. Something else...... 


HQ: Space Marine Librarian in Power Armour (1#, 100 pts) 
1 Space Marine Librarian in Power Armour , 100 pts

Troops: Tactical Squad (10#, 170 pts)
9 Tactical Squad, 147 pts = 9 * 16 (base cost 16) + Sergeant 26
1 Sergeant, 23 pts

Troops: Tactical Squad (11#, 260 pts)
9 Tactical Squad, 162 pts = 9 * 16 (base cost 16) + Plasma gun 10 + Plasma Cannon 5 + Sergeant 26
1 Sergeant, 23 pts

1 Razorback, 75 pts = (base cost 40 + Twin-Linked Lascannon 35)

Fast Attack: Storm Talon Gunship (1#, 155 pts)
1 Storm Talon Gunship, 155 pts = (base cost 130) + Typhoon Missile Launcher 25

Elite: Terminator Squad (5#, 230 pts)
4 Terminator Squad, 190 pts = 4 * 40 (base cost 40) + Cyclone Missile Launcher 30
1 Sergeant, 40 pts

Elite: Terminator Squad (5#, 205 pts)
4 Terminator Squad, 165 pts = 4 * 40 (base cost 40) + Heavy Flamer 5
1 Sergeant, 40 pts

Heavy Support: Predator (1#, 120 pts)
1 Predator, 120 pts = (base cost 60 + Lascannon (each side) 60)

 Heavy Support: Vindicator (1#, 115 pts)
1 Vindicator, 115 pts 

Suggestions welcome........

A new HQ in town (and a plane).

Hi Folks.

I am off for a couple of weeks on a well deserved holiday so thought I would do a quick Blog before I go. I have managed to get a good few games in with the Ultramarines and am finding a build that I like. I have been playing with Grey Knight allies which have been performing well zooming onto the table in their StormRaven.

I also got inspiration for this model from a recent White Dwarf that should a similar conversation. I use this model as a Space Marine Captain in Terminator Armour (my HQ choice for the Space Marine part of the army) but I wanted a bit of a theme. I have converted and painted the model as an Inquisitor Lord the idea that he is leading an army of Ultramarines and Grey Knights on some mission for the Inquisition.

The model itself is based on a Space Wolf Terminator body, the Power Fist and Shoulders are from the Space Marine Venerable Dread kit. The right arm is the Bolter from the Chaos Lord kit with the Grey Knight Terminator Psy-Cannon stuck to the side. I snipped the end off and stuck on the muzzle from a Plasma Gun to give the model a massive Combi-Plasma gun. The head and icon are both from the GK Terminator kit as well.

I think it came out pretty good, its a little more static than I was hoping for but if I had put on legs that gave a sense of movement then the model would have looked top heavy. With the wide stance of the legs it balances out the shoulders and power fist a lot better.

I went for a faded gold colour scheme, the gold is to make him stand out from any other Terminator model on the table but also to give him a more archaic look.

Also this week I managed to finish the first of my Ultramarine StormTalons. I wasn't that keen on this model when it was released but its actually growing on me. They have been very good in the games I have used them in so far, although they do tend to get taken out but it's normally after then have caused some damage. With their special escorting rule I tend to have one of them coming on with the GK StormRaven, this looks really cool on the table and the combination of the two planes can wreck a unit. Also as the StormRaven has a Machine Spirit you have the option of directing the Melta weapon on a nearby vehicle - double threat. Its a really great combo.

So i'll leave you with some pictures of the StormTalon whilst I head off to a secluded beach in Brazil.... its a tough life.

Until next time...

Stuck to a StormEagle.

Hey Folks...

Quick update, I felt I must Blog after the last four hours.... So picture the scene, its cold and windy outside so I thought I would spend a nice afternoon watching the England V Wales Rugby League match whilst sticking together my new ForgeWorld StormEagle.

Well four rather stressful hours later, several incidents of gluing myself to other bits of myself I finally managed it. I love ForgeWorld stuff, but sometimes it really doesn't fit well together and its just a battle. This model was a total nightmare, I managed to get it together in the end but there are a few gaps that will need filling and the rear door really hasn't gone on well, but you can't really see it so not too much of an issue. I built it with Ultramarines doors as it will be fitting in with the blue fellas and transporting some Terminators into battle, overall it is a nice model and will look pretty intimidating on the battle field. In the future I was thinking about doing a complete Pre-Heresey army with another StormEagle, I might rethink :-)

I have also finished painting Draigo for the Salute army, He came out pretty nice, the only thing I don't like is the sword, as it's Finecast the sword is a little bent, and even trying to straighten it with some warm water didn't really help. But overall it's a great model with loots of detail and I really enjoyed painting him.

Ultramarines StormEagle.

Draigo.

Until next time...

Nice ride....

Hey folks,

Have been a bit quiet on the Blog front lately but fear not the brush has been busy. I have a few projects on the go at the moment, mainly 40K related as 6th Ed has really got the juices flowing. As I mention in a previous post I have extracted the Ultramarines from the draw they were living in and dusted them down to take to the table once again, they have had one outing so far which resulted in the Eldar getting a right good spanking. 6th is definitely more of a shooting game and my existing army was very much a shooting orientated build, all it needs is a few bits painted up and its fully done.

So all I had left to paint was: -

• One Razorback
• Two Storm Talons. 

I was going to go with 3 Storm Talons but in the end I decided to stick with two and switch the third one out for a Defence Line (with a Quad Autocannon) and a Scout Squad.  The reasoning behind this was that I thought I was a bit light on Troops choices and also the Defence line is great for sticking the Tactical and Heavy squads behind and I also have the benefit of the added air defence with the Quad gun. So this week I have managed to finish the Razorback to go alongside the other one in the army. I went with the Razorbacks over Rhinos as they give an extra couple of heavy guns and if I Combat Squad the Tac units the Heavy weapon half can stay behind the Defence line and the other half can jump in the Razorbacks to go after any objectives. I fitted both Razorbacks with the Ultramarine doors form Forge World as they just look awesome on the model and give some detail to the otherwise flat areas. 

All I need to do now is finish off the two Storm Talons and the army is done. After this I'll build up some other units to switch in and add some variety but this will be after other projects are done, the main aim right now with the Ultramarines is to have a decent fully painted 6th Ed army, although I do have a Storm Eagle winging its way from Forge World which will no doubt take up some of my time in the next week or two. It's such an awesome model, it is 300 points (which is a lot) but is just too awesome not to use on occasion. To get it into the army I just need to drop one Storm Talon and the Dreadnought and thats bang on 300 points. The imagine of the Storm Eagle coming on to the table being escorted by the other Storm Talon is something to really look forward too. 

The other ride that has seen action recently is my Vendetta. I have been experimenting with some Guard allies for the Orks, as I had some "Chaos Guard" from a Lost and the Damned army I built years ago (See previous Blog Post) and thought they would fit in well. What the Guard provide is some much needed anti tank guns which is what my Ork build struggled with. A Vendetta is awesome for this with three twin-linked Las-Cannons zooming onto the board. My opponent then has the dilemma of either trying to take it down or worrying about the Ork horde that is about to punch him in the face. In the first game I tried it the Dakka-Jet and Vendetta both came on in the 2nd turn and just caused carnage. I am trying to get the second Dakka-Jet into the list as if they both come on in the same turn and I Waaargh them they can just remove whole units from the table. The Vendetta is painted up to match the Chaos Guard so its all brown with rusted metallics to show that it hasn't received much love from its owners. 

Until next time...

Back to Ultramar

So now I have played a few games of 6th Ed I beginning to see what is working and what isn't. From what I have seen and experienced Shooting is very much the way to go. 

With this in mind I have decided to go back and take a look at my UltraMarines, I became a fan of the 40K poster boys after reading the Graham McNeil novels and had a pretty kick ass army back in the days of 4th Ed. However when 5th Ed came out, and with it, a new Codex the basic Marines seemed to take a bit of a hit and Close Combat armies seemed to  be the new thing (thats when I started my Orks). But now 6th Ed is with us I think it might be time to bring out the Blue fellas again.

I am going to start with the list below mainly as I have all the models, except the fliers, so its going to be easy to get it up and running. The Libby is my HQ of choice, the new powers are pretty cool and can give the Marines a nice boost. The troops will be two basic Tactical Squads, these guys can dish out some nice anti-infantry shooting as well as some decent overwatch if charged and can split into Combat Squads if required to give 4 Troop units. They will both run with Razorbacks with twin-linked Las-Cannons, these can take out vehicles, MC's or move a Combat Squad around. The main attack unit will be the Terminators, tactical Terminators are the monkies nuts these days, with a 2+ save and power fists they can mash anything that comes close. They will be the main objective takers. The rest of the army is there for fire support, the Thunderfire Cannon can target large troop units, the fliers have both infantary and vehicle destroying abilities and the Devs can targat vehicles and MC's. The Dreadnought can also target vehicles and has some anti-infantary firepower also.

I think this army has enough to deal with most things, so all I need to get is the fliers and do some touchups and it should be ready to go.

1850 Ultramarines (Space_Marines)

HQ - 140
Space Marine Librarian (140)
Smite; Force Dome; bolt pistol; Terminator armour; storm shield.

Elites - 380
Dreadnought (145)
twin-linked lascannon; missile launcher.

5 Terminators (235)
assault cannon; chainfist.

Troops - 540
10 Tactical Marines (275)
plasma gun; plasma cannon.
• Razorback: twin-linked lascannon.

10 Tactical Marines (265)
meltagun; missile launcher.
• Razorback: twin-linked lascannon.

Fast Attack - 460
Stormtalon Gunship (155)
Typhoon missile launcher.

Stormtalon Gunship (155)
Skyhammer missile launcher.

Stormtalon Gunship (150)
twin-linked lascannon.

Heavy Support - 330
Thunderfire Cannon (100)

5 Devastators (230)
4× lascannon.

1,850 points