Military of Ultramar

Out with the old and in with the new....

2011-06-28T20:22:00.000+01:00

No pictures today.

After almost 18 months of solid play I find that I have grown bored with my Deathwing. Dont get me wrong, I still love that army but it is stale at the moment. Every game feels the same. I am starting to deploy the same way every time and doing the same thing with my squads.

So I am moving back onto my first love, my Ultramarines 2nd Company. I have to say that its been an experience using them again after all this time. I have forgotten a few of the rules and I am seriously missing my 2+ armour save.

However all in all its been good. Played a few games with them though have yet to win a game. 2 close fought games vs Necrons and Orks which were good fun and a thrashing to GK which was not (my disgust with GK will form another post)

I have also starting the process of completing the company. I currently have 80% of it done with only 2 tactical squads left to paint. Of that the one tac squad is almost done. Just need to paint weapons and put on decals and it will be done.

Quite what I am going to do with 106 marines I dont know but it sure will look pretty when I am done :)

Kitbashing - fun for the whole family

2011-04-27T22:35:00.000+01:00

Recently, Ron over at FTW put up a post on converting your independent characters. (http://fromthewarp.blogspot.com/2011/04/converting-your-independent-characters.html) In it he talked about a number of ways to do this.

I want to talk about my favourite method which is kitbashing. With the plethora of plastics this makes things much easier than it used to be.

Because I am at the stage where my army is fully built I find myself spending much of my time making my IC's looking awesome. I am also on a drive to purge all metal from my Smurfwing army to make it as light and easy to transport as possible.

I enjoy kitbashing as you can get a great look without resorting to too much greenstuff or cutting. I love going through my bits box or perusing bits sites looking for inspiration for my next mini.

Anyways, on to my 3 IC's for my army. Captain, Librarian and Chaplain.

Captain:

First up. Captain Agemman of the First Company. I have previously posted this chap but I am going to explain a bit about how and what I used to build him.

Firstly, he is mostly based off the Chaos Terminator Lord. His legs, torso, arms and cloak come from that kit. Other bits come from: Tactical Marine Box, Venerable Dreadnought box, Dark Angels Veteran upgrade, Space Wolf Terminator box and forgeworld.

Firstly I greenstuffed in all the holes in his cloak to make it less tatty.I then cut away the chaos bits off his legs and replaced them with a DA terminator shoulder shield and a banner top.

Torso was made by cutting up the chaos torso and then cutting and fitting in the front of a venerable dreadnought. Some minor GS was used to make sure they blended into each other.

Apart from that everything is standard. So with a nights worth of cutting and GS I have made a very unique looking IC that looks good and that stands out.

Librarian.

When I saw the new GKT box I just knew I had to use the bits to make a librarian. They came with a ready made Hood for instance. I have also previously posted a model I made to use as a librarian and I admit that I used the arms off that model for the new one.

The majority of the chap is from the GKT box. However there are bits from the Sanguinary Guard, Assault Terminators and the DA veteran box. There was no cutting involved in making him and only a teeny bit of Greenstuff to cover up some of the GK iconography on the left leg and the hip guards.

Not much work but again, I am left with a unique and good looking librarian who stands out on the table top.

Chaplain

Now this guy is my pride and joy. I am so thrilled with how he came out. He actually has the most GS work done on him, primarily on the helmet. I used one of Rons tutorials for this(http://fromthewarp.blogspot.com/2010/11/chaplain-skull-helmet-conversion.html)
I learned that this takes a lot of effort for a novice like me so have commissioned him for a second helmet that is going onto another Chaplain that I have planned.

This guy has bits from all over. Torso came from from the Chaos Terminator Lord with the iconography removed and a random skill put in its place. Legs from the GKT kit. Shoulder pads from Forge world. Storm bolter arm from the Terminator Kit. Combat arm from the Chaos Lord kit and the horrifying flail bit from an Empire Flagellant. The skull that makes up his helmet came from one of the new Tomb King Boxes.

I wanted to make him as vicious looking as possible which is why didnt give him a traditional Crozius. This flail makes him look like he is bringing it down onto the bodies of the Emperors Enemies.

So there we go. Three IC's that have been built by kitbashing and looking good. Have a look in your bits box and see what you can come up with.

Upcoming minis

2011-04-20T21:34:00.000+01:00

Once again been awhile since my last post. Life has intevened a bit and time has been at a premium.

I have however, been able to kitbash a few new figures for my Smurfwing. Using the lovely new GKT kit I have made up a Librarian as well as started on a Chaplain.

The Librarian is painted and has already been used in a game to good effect. The chaplain is about 90% done except for a helmet. I want a nice skull helm but lack the skills to do it well. Thus I have, for the first time in my life, commissioned one from Ron of "From the Warp" Hopefully will be done in the next few weeks and I will have my Chaplain ready to go out and do battle.

Updated Banner Bearer

2011-02-08T18:46:00.000Z

My 40k Hiatus has ended. After almost 5 months I am back in the saddle and rearing to go. It was mostly caused by burnout and also having to go back to South Africa for 2 months to deal with some personal issues. I am currently working on getting my guard stuff painted so that I can maybe get a game in with them sometime later this year.

Anyways, one of the first things that I did on my return was to update the banner bearer of my First Company.Before he was just a plain terminator carrying the banner but I figured that the chap who carried the sacred banner of the First would be a grizzled old veteran, bedecked with honours etc.

Thus I took the banner off the old chap (who has since had a CML and stormbolter added in its place), hacked apart a Space Hulk terminator (also previously seen on this blog) and grafted the bits together.

And viola, a really good looking banner bearer.

My aim is to get the whole Deathwing "Command Squad" looking like this using the most ornate bodies I can find.

Last few results - using GKGM

2010-07-31T18:30:00.000+01:00

I have played 2 games @ 2000 points running my GKGM "counts as"

1st games was DW vs Sisters of Battle. I am actually pretty bitter about this game. I lost 8-4 on KP. HOWEVER that is with a major caveat. This was my second time in 3 years vs sisters so my knowledge of their rules is not great.

Since I am a trusting sort when I play armies I dont know I trust their owners to be honest. This did not occur in this game.

The majority of my opponents "creative" use of the rules came own to his cannoness with jump pack.

In his army the Blessed Weapon gave +2 strength as well as +2 initiative. The rules only give it +2 strength.
His inferno pistol became AP1 and the jump pack magically gave her "Hit and Run" and she somehow became WS 5.

Because of this I could not kill the cow, especially since she had a cloak St Aspira which gives her a 2++ invuln with a successful Spirit of the Matyr

Again, my fault that I didnt check up on him and I dont know if it would have changed the outcome of the game but I do think it would have been far closer.

If he had been playing properly my GKGM would have killed her on the first or 2nd round of combat as she would not have been able to "hit and run" away. So thats 1 KP extra to me. She would not have killed my Crusader (he got a 4 on the damage chart and because he was playing his inferno pistol as AP1 that went up to 5 - wrecked) So thats -1KP to him Suddenly its 7-5.

Crusader had full weapons and had a deamonhost with a single wound in its sights. May or may not have killed it. So potentially +1 to me.

GKGM was in range of an exorcist which he could have taken with his S6 so another potential +1 to me. All of a sudden its potentially 7-7.

Oh well, live and learn and I know for next time.

Second game was my DW vs Blood Angels at 2000 points. This was a much better game. Lost 6-5 on KP but was a tense and close game. Came down to a final combat with 2 of my terminators needing to kill 5 assault marines. Got 5 hits and then rolled 2 ones :( 2 survive and the game ends. Could have been a draw but as I said I really dont mind because of how fun it was.

Also, the GKTM who couldnt kill a single cannoness in the last game was able to, in 1 round of combat, behead his Sanguinor. My opponent was bitter when I pointed out that my Demonhunters Forceweapon negated Instant Death with its old "Slain Outright" rule <----Sometimes old codex's can be usefull

The GKGM was finally put down but he put down half an assault squad before that happened.

So 1 Sanguinor and 5 Assault marines vs not being able to kill a cannoness. Hmmmm

My Agemman (Counts as Belial) also put up a good show. Took out a full squad of Sanguinary priests before he died

Not a fan of the 3 fast Vindicators but they actually didnt accomplish much. Immobilised 1 LR and destroyed its 2 Lascannons and killed 3 terminators. That being said, they did absorb the combined fire power of said LR and my venerable TLLC dread with only 1 dying.

All in all I am quite happy with this current 2k list of mine. I prefer playing at 1750 but the extra 250 points allows me to play with extra toys.

Also think I am going to remove "Word of the Emperor" from the GKGM and give him Frag Grenades and a Melta Bomb instead which will make him more versatile as well as allowing him to charge into cover and strike at initiative.

TDA Librarian / GKGM "Counts as"

2010-07-21T21:23:00.000+01:00

My latest creation is this fellow. He fullfills 2 rolls. He can either be a normal TDA librarian for my Ultrawing or normal C:SM army or he can fill the roll of a Grey Knight Grand Master counting as a suped up librarian.
In his role as the GKGM he gets a Hood and Icon of the Just (the storm shield counts as the icon since the actual Demon Hunters storm shield is awful - 4+ invuln in CC only vs a single attacker) for the 4+ invuln. He maintains his WYSIWYG by having his storm bolter mounted on his back.

If playing as a DW librarian then I ignore the Storm shield as a decoration and as a normal C:SM Librarian I ignore the storm bolter as decoration.

He is entirely plastic and only comes from 4 kits. Terminator Box, Assault Terminator Box, Sanguainary Guard and DA Veteran Box.

I am actually quite proud of his right shoulder pad as that required a bit of GS work since I had to break the book in half to make it bend backwards over the shoulder pad.

He has grey hair as he is a grizzled veteran, long versed in the use of the warp.

With this guy I now only need to make up a TDA Chaplain from bits and I will have a 100% plastic / resin army. No more heavy metal.

New Captain Agemman

2010-07-10T20:34:00.001+01:00

In the past I have been using the LC Space Hulk Termie as my Captain Agemman (Counts as Belial) but it just never seemed right. I have now finished putting together and painting my version of him.

I used the Chaos Terminator Lord as a base and the proceeded to hack away the various chaos bits and replace it with other stuff. I have tried to pay homage to the DA's by incorperating a DA bit or two into the model.

What you can see represents my upper limits of Green Stuff-fu and I dont think I did too badly.

Once again a serious kitbash and kudos to whomever can identify all the relevant parts.

I am hoping that this will appease the 40K Gods and finally alllow my captain to actualy be able to hit and kill something (yeah, my current dude couldnt kill the broadside of a barn)

Multi Chapter Kill Team

2010-06-13T20:33:00.000+01:00

In my previous post I asked what 10 different chapters had in common. The answer? A multi chapter kill team. I was going through my bits box and realised I had enough bits and bobs to make up 5 space marines. But what do make? I have every single type of unit out of the codex. I decided then that I would make up a 200 point kill teams and as each model is essentially an individual unit I decided to make each one from a different codex chapter, excluding my ultramarines. I was able to find decals. shoulder pads or free hand the chapter emblems for 9 of the marines. The Howling Griffin defeated me. I didnt have the skill to free hand it and the options for transfers (Brettonian or Space Wolf transfers that can be modified on Ebay or printing my own) were too pricey considering I need a single emblem.

I also bought a box of tacticals to make up the numbers. I was going to buy a combat squad but at £15 for 5 marines vs £22 for 10 marines with an upgrade sprue it would have been stupid to get just the combat squad.

Anyways, here is the squad.

Soul Drinker and Imperial Fist

Black Consul and Son of Orar

Howling Griffin and Iron Snake

Eagle Warrior and Salamander

White Scar and Mortifactor

Whats the connection? A mystery

2010-06-02T12:34:00.000+01:00

So what is the connection between the:

Eagle Warriors
Black Consuls
Dark Sons
Howling Griffens
Sons of Orar
White Scars
Soul Drinkers
Imperial Fists
Salamanders
Iron Snakes

???????

We have First Founding chapters, a chapter that has been destroyed, a chapter that has turned renegade.
There are chapters that protect people and others that are oblivious. Chapters that favour assault, fast attack, heavy weapons or tacticals.

What could be the common thread that connects these 10 chapters?

All shall be revealled in the next few weeks....

Clubbing a Baby Seal

2010-05-31T21:40:00.001+01:00

Played a game today, first game in over a month and it was kind of unsatisfying.

You see, the closest real life example would be of clubbing a helpless baby seal. I slaughtered the other player and it was one of the easiest things I have done.

It was a 2500 point game using a Battle Missions mission. I believe it was Dawn Raid from the Dark Eldar missions ( I dont have my book close at hand to check but was 1st mission from the DE section)

I was running a somewhat balanced Marine force that swung towards a gunline and he was running a very odd mish-mashed Chaos Marine force

Due to the size of the store we were forced to use a 4x4 table. I wasnt keen on using 2500 points but he wanted to test his list. Fair enough I guess.

His force from memory was.

Typhus
Demon Prince with wings
5 Terminators
Defiler
Dreadnought with TLLC
Squad of Possessed marines
Squad of Beserkers in rhino
Squad of Noise Marines
Squad of Thousand Sons
Squad of PLague Marines

Mine was:

Captain with Twin Lighting Claws
Command Squad (first outing for new squad)
Land Raider Godhammer
4 x Tactical Squads
2 x Rhinos
1 x Dreadnought with Plasma Cannon
Assault Squad
Land Speeder with HF, MM
Attack Bike with MM
Devestator Squad with 10 marines, 2 x LC, 2 x PC

The rules for the mission made his deployment pretty aweful as he ended up playing as the Dark Eldar which only allowed him to deploy Fast Attack (which he didnt have) and Troops in transports (only the beserkers)

I, on the other hand could only deploy Heavy Support and Troops.

Deployment was table quarters with 4 objectives.

I am not going to go into a detailed turn by turn, just the highlights.

His rhino and Beserkers were his only unit on the table when we started. They were both vaporised from all my heavy guns.

Most of his army came on 2nd turn and had to march across the table towards my quarter. His shooting was ineffective. My turn 2 saw his defiler fall the LR Godhammer and a few Thousand Sons die.

Turn 3. Rest of his army came on. He moved across the board some more towards objectives. He killed off 5 Assault marines with his noise marines. He assaulted my LR with his terminators and they failed to do anything. My turn saw the rest of my army come on. His demon Prince found itself in the sights of the Dev Squad as well as the LR. No more DP :) Plague marines ate a vindicator shell and PC from the dread

Turn 4 saw him assault my Land Speeder with his possessed and wrecking it. His terminators were hit with Lascannons, Plasma Cannons and a Vanquisher shell and were no more. I assaulted his TS with my command squad and killed them all.

Turn 5 only had a few possessed, noise marines dreadnought and typhus left. He assaulted my command Squad with his possessed and they got munched. Command Squad consolidated towards the noise marines. My turn saw Typhus die to massed fire, my command squad go through his noise marines like a knife through butter and the Attack bike melta his dreadnought into a blazing wreck.

Result: Massacre to me. I only lost 5 assault marines, company champion and a tactical marine who died to gets hot.

Not I dont know what this guys issue was. If he just lost interest after his poor deployment or if he was just a bad player but they way he marched his troops into my guns was just bad. Granted the deployment did not favour him but I could have done better with his army and I do not play Chaos. While I enjoyed winning, I took very little satisfaction out of the win.

Lessons learned: Gun Lines still have their place, especially with some of the Battle Mission missions. Also, despite many opinions to the contrary, Lascannons are still potent. S9 shot that can reach out across the table = win in my book.

Unit of the match: Its a toss up between the Captain with command squad and the Land Raider. The raider killed a rhino, defiler, took 2 wounds off a DP, killed 2 terminators and 1 Thousand Son. The Command Squad and Captain on the other hand mopped up 3 squads with only 1 loss.

Ultramarine Captain

2010-05-26T08:56:00.001+01:00

And here is the Captain that the new Command Squad will be attached too.

I have had him for about a year but have never had a decent looking squad to attach him too. That's changed now and I can see many a game where the lot of them slaughter the Enemies of Mankind

Ultramarine Command Squad

2010-05-25T21:55:00.000+01:00

The command squad is now finished. I must say that they came out rather well all in all. I was not altogether happy with the apothocary but I fixed him so he looks a bit better with the application of some grey for some shading. Used the grey as a bit of....I dont know what you would call it....low lighting maybe? Anyways I used it to break up the mass of white.

I really enjoyed building this unit. If you look closely you will find bits from 9 different boxes and 2 blisters.

Command Squad Box

Sanguinary Guard Box

Death Company Box

Assault Squad Box

Beserker Box

Old Space Wolf Box

New Wolf Pack Box

Venerable Dreadnought Box

Assault Terminator Box

Kudos to anyone who can identify what bit is on what model :)

The Banner is a photocopy from the Codex. I am not skilled enough yet to freehand that as yet.

Anyways, here they are:

The squad as a whole

Company Champion

Banner Bearer

Apothocary

Vet with Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield

Vet with Power Sword

How McRunty got his groove back

2010-05-21T13:09:00.000+01:00

I haven't posted for quite some time. This is mainly due to the fact that I was feeling very burned out on all things 40K.

I have actually spent the last 1.5 months playing PC games, reading or just chilling out. Didn't paint and barely played any games aside from Ultra meet 4. My water cup ran dry and my mini's languished in their cases.

That seems to be coming to an end. I have recently gone back to my paint brush and am painting up a new command squad. I have stripped down my old one, scavenged it for bits and am using the new Sanguinary Guard box as a base.

I have been really happy at the results this far. I spent most of last Sunday painting up a test mini just to see if the whole "Muscled Torso" idea was viable with blue paint and it is. The test mini is below.

I will paint up the rest of the squad this weekend and should be able to post the full unit next week sometime.

Ultra Meet 4

Once again, this was a blast. We all went up to Warhammer World and this was the biggest meet yet. I think we had 14 players at one stage.

I played 6 games with my DeathWing and won 4. The 2 I lost were too Tyranids which I lost 2 - 1 on objectives and to Sisters of Battle where I was pretty much tabled. Never having played Sisters before I was unprepared for the nastiness that their Faith can bring.

The 4 games I won, I won pretty convincingly. I smote C'tan's necrons, crushed Alloyslayers 4th Co., burned GC08's pesky scouts out of the woods and destroyed Kernmists marines.

All in all a good weekend and another demonstration that Deathwing can win games if you play them right.

Ultrawing Complete

2010-04-02T10:55:00.000+01:00

God, its taken months to get done. Months of stripping minis and painting. Months of getting my army list right but now, finally, I have finished painting all units of my Ultramarine First Company army using the Deathwing rules.

I couldnt get a very good shot of the whole thing so this will have too do.

I have had really good results with this army. Its not one that the local gaming scene is used to so people dont quite know how to combat it. Also, the idea of 20 terminators seems to intimidate some players. I had one chap who bunched his whole army up in a corner because he was afraid of my "Deathwing Assault" I then walked my whole army across the board and took all 4 objectives with only the loss of a few terminators and a dreadnought.

The army list I play is pretty much as you see here though I have either the Chaplain OR theTLLC dread in it, not both as they dont fit into 1750 points.

New Venerable Dreadnought done

2010-03-20T09:54:00.000Z

Its taken me 2 weeks to paint this guy due to other commitments but here he is in all his glory.

Venerable Dreadnough "Will be Named Later" for your perusal. Only 1 little bit of kit bash on this chap. Can anyone tell me what?

Librarium Painting Challenge Complete

2010-03-16T14:31:00.000Z

I have once again taken part in the BolterandChainsword Librarium Painting Challenge and once again I have completed the task.

This year I put down for 5 units. A dreadnought and tactical company which I have posted previously as well as 4 terminators, Captain Sicarius and a unit of Scouts.

It actually took me quite a bit longer to get done than I expected. I blame a plethora of new PC games that came out for this. Mass Effect 2 was the main culprit but the new Dawn of War 2 played a part as well.

Anywho, onto the minis.

Terminators first. I have to say that I am not really all that happy with them except for the Space Hulk one. This is mostly because of how the helmets came out. They are the one part of terminators that I struggle with. Not with painting the white but with getting it defined nicely.

Then came Captain Sicarius. Now, even though I play 2nd Company Ultramarines I loath the character of Sicarius. I dont like how he has been pushed as this sort of "ideal" Ultramarine. I far prefer Agemman. However it is a really great model.

Last but not least are the scouts. I bought these chaps way back in the day when I first started 40k and before I had the rules or codex. The idea of hard core snipers appealed to me. That was before I found out how rubbish the were. Anyways, I stripped them down and decided to do a more covert style colour scheme for them while still retaining enough elements to identify them as Ultramarines.

The Postman Cometh....

2010-03-03T13:11:00.000Z

In a fortuitus chain of events I was at home today when a package arrived. In this overly large box was my new Venerable Dreadnought. It was not in my plans to build this today but once I got a look inside I just couldnt resist.

So in an orgy of plastic shavings and glue I put this chap together. One of my main issues was deciding how to make him as there are so many different bits you can fit him out with. In the end I went with what you see below. The only change I made to this guy was using a set of MK4 feet that I had left over from a Forgeworld Dreadnought which suits him very well.

I will put pics of him up once I have painted him up. That will have to wait to the weekend unfortunatly.

The Fleet Launches

2010-03-03T13:06:00.000Z

The first 2 ships of my Battlefleet Gothic Imperial Navy fleet have come out of the construction dock. I was really happy with how easy these were to put together and to paint.

I used a really simple scheme of drybrushing through various shades of grey up to white. Dwarf Bronze for the ornamentation and a black wash over that. Enchaned Blue was used for the Prow.

Unnamed Dominator Class Cruiser

Unnamed Gothic Class Cruiser

In the pipeline

2010-02-24T17:59:00.000Z

It is possible that I am going to have another interest very soon. And this interest is....

I have always been keen to try the game but have been put off by the lack of players. I only know 2 people who play the game and neither of them lives close enough to me to play.

However, that changed this week as I got a sudden urge to buy some ships and paint them up as display pieces. So I duely ordered the pack that comes with 2 cruisers in it which should arrive tomorrow.

The thing is, once I had bought them I got to thinking. What is the use in having models you do not use? So I downloaded the rules and have been poring over the internet for good fleet lists etc.

I will be going for an Imperial Navy fleet which will be painted to fit into my Ultramar forces. I think I will paint them in pale tones. Light grays and whites with burnished gold. I really am quite excited about it.

Next on the agenda is the new Venerable Dreadnought. I have placed my pre-order for it which means I will have it next weekend. I got to have a look at a completed one and the sprues at my local GW and it really is a lovely model. Very well done.

I have not painted or done anything 40k related for the last 2 weeks apart from order my dreadnought as I have been immersed in the world of Mass Effect 2. What an outstanding game. I havent been sucked in like this by a game for years. In fact the last time it happened was with Mass Effect 1. I was hooked so bad that I gave up the chance to get a game in at my store. Ok, the torrential rain didnt help but I dont think I would gave left the house even had it been sunny. I should finish it this weekend though so should get back to a decent 40k schedule.

January Painting

2010-02-18T18:29:00.001Z

So looking back at the last month and a half or so of posts all I see is a wall of text. To break it up and give people what they want I present to you all my January efforts at the painting table. These 2 units are actually part of my B&C Librarium Painting Challenge.

To begin we have Tactical Squad 4. The sergeant for this squad was shown earlier (the AOBR Sergeant conversion) and here are the rest of his buddies.

I have tried to make the squad as varied as possible with different helmets and bolter varients. The chap below has an old school bolter that was lurking in my bits box.

This fellow has a MK2 Helmet and belt fed bolter

Guy below has a Drum Fed Bolter

Guy below has some funky targetting gizmo on his helmet. Hopefully it will prevent this gets hot rolls

This fellow has an Iron Hands Bionic arm and attached bolter

This chap has a box fed bolter

I have to say I am really happy how the Multi-Melta guy came out. A different looking MK2 Helm made all the difference.

After that comes Brother Opis, 1st Company Dreadnought. I enjoyed making his base which has some nurgle elements to it. Corroded Icon and squashed nurglified guardsman. You cant see it in these pics but he has a helmet and a corroded lasgun.

The dreadnought itself is an AOBR dread with minor conversion. I cut the faceplate off and attached a different one and a forgewold bit (the plaque thingie) on his torso. Not much else done aside from that.

Later this month expect to see some of the other units I have done for the challenge. Namely Sicarius and a unit of scouts.

Deathwing vs Wolfwing Part 2

2010-02-09T13:38:00.002Z

know that there have been many, many comparisons done between the Deathwing and the Wolfwing. The pros and cons of each. I have even talked about some of them in an earlier post detailing why I chose DW over WW. There is a very good over all comparision between Deathwing and Wolfwing done by Ron at FTW and can be read HERE

This however will be a direct comparison between my current Deathwing list and the closest I can get to it using the Wolfwing.

THE LISTS:

My Death Wing - 1750

~Belial

~Interogator Chaplain in Termie armour

~Squad 1

3 x Lightning Claws

Apothocary with Stormbolter / Powerfist

Banner Bearer with Stormbolter / Power fist

~Squad 2

Power Weapon / Storm Bolter

Heavy Flamer with Chainfist

2 x Powerfist / Storm Bolter

Lightning Claws

~Squad 3

Power Weapon / Storm Bolter

Stormbolter / Chainfist

2 x Powerfist / Storm Bolter

Lightning Claws

~Squad 4

2 x TH/SS

Assault Cannon / Powerfist

2 x Powerfist / Stormbolter

~Dreadnought with Assault Cannon

~Dreadnought with Plasma Cannon

~Land Raider with Extra Armour

This gives me 2 IC, 20 terminators, 2 Dreads and a Land Raider.

Belial and the chaplain run with Squad 1. This gives them a total of 6 LC and 5 PW I5 WS5 attacks, 15 LC I4 W4 attacks and 8 I1 W4 Powerfist attacks on the charge. Rerolling to hit. Its pretty devastating when it hits. These chaps either DS or walk across the field. The apothecary gives them the ability to shrug off 1 non-instant death wound per turn as long as they are not in CC.

Squad 3 Rolls in the Raider. This means that they generally sit in the backfield protecting an objective while the raider snipes at vehicles.

Squad 2 and 4 walk across the field, each supported by a dreadnought.

This seems to work. I have not lost a 1v1 game yet using this configuration.

Now lets have a look at as close a list as I can come up with using WW

Wolf Wing – 1805 points

~Logan Grimnar

~Wolf Priest in Termie Armour

~Squad 1

3 x Wolf Claw

2 x Powerfist / Stormbolter

~Squad 2

Power Weapon/Storm Bolter

Heavy Flamer/Chain F ist

Wolf Claws

2 x Stormbolter/PowerFist

~Squad 3

Power Weapon/Storm Bolter

Wolf Claws

Stormbolter / Chainfist

2 x Stormbolter/PowerFist

~Squad 4

2 x TH/SS

Assault Cannon / Powerfist

2 x Powerfist / Stormbolter

~Dreadnought with Plasma Cannon

~Dreadnought with Assault Cannon

~Land Raider with extra armour

This is an exact model count duplicate.

My tactics would be slightly different here. I would run Grimnar with Squad 1 and the Wolf priest with Squad 4. This way, both of the squads would get preferred enemy.

Assuming he does not use his Living Legend rule, Grimnar gets 6 attacks on the charge, the Wolf Claw chaps would get 12 I4, WS4 attacks and I would choose for them to re-roll “to wound” and the Powerfists get 6 I1 WS4 attacks. Getting charged or charging this unit would be a very painful experience.

Squad 2 and 4 would be supported by a dreadnought each

Squad 3 would sit in the Raider, same as the Deathwing and Squad 4 would be walking.

COMPARISON:

The Wolfwing comes in at 55 points more costly. This can be solved by removing a single TH/SS termie from the list. This of course drops your unit count by 1.

Belial vs Grimnar is a no brainer. Grimnar utterly outclasses Belial in every way possible except price. He is more than double the cost of Belial.

Chaplain vs Wolf Priest. This one is a little more tough to call. The Wolf priest is 25 points cheaper and gives preferred enemy. However I would have to go with the Chaplain. He retains the old chaplain stats i.e. higher Initiative, more wounds and attacks and also allows you to re-roll hits on the charge. I think that is worth the 25 points.

Squad 1. The WW squad is cheaper but is missing out on the extra attack from the banner as well as the ignored wound from the apothecary. Do I think that makes a difference. Well, if Grimnar is attached I don’t think the extra attack matters but I think that being able to shrug off a wound is well worth the extra points. A Deathwing termie costs 53 points, the apothecary upgrade is 30. Save 1 wound and it has paid for itself. I think the Deathwing Squad comes out on top.

Squad 2 and 3 are almost identical in price so no real differences.

Squad 4. The WW squad is more expensive but overall is the better pick. You get the upgraded Storm shields so its more survivable and if you attach the Wolfpriest its going to be quite nasty in combat.

Dreadnoughts – roughly the same price so no real difference there. However the old style smoke makes them more survivable so I would choose the DW dreads.

Land Raider. Also a hard one to choose between. They cost the same but the WW version comes with the new POTMS. For a raider that is being used as a firebase I think this may be the better bet as it allows you to shoot with BS4 and split fire. However for a moving LR you really need the extra armour to stay mobile. While you can afford this in the DW list you won’t be able to get it in the WW list. In fact, with the old POTMS you can still go 6 inches without the extra armour if you are stunned plus shoot a weapon at BS2.

This, coupled with the old style smoke makes me choose the DW raider.

A few other army wide differences are the smoke launchers and the fact that Deathwing armies are all fearless. The smoke is an important issue. With the plethora of Melta around, the ability to make all penetrating hits glancing for a round is invaluable and has saved my bacon more than once. The pros and cons of fearless units are well documented so I wont rehash that except to say that I really like it.

CONCLUSION:

Its odd, when I started this I fully expected for the Wolfwing to come out on top. However, looking at it I would hazard that the Deathwing sneaks out in front. Now granted that this is a direct comparision and I doubt that a Wolfwing player would have a unit set up like this and is unlikely to have the same play style or tactics usage but I think the principles are sound. This is especially true since to get an army comparable to mine the Wolfwing has to compromise on number of models or wargear choices. It cant have both as it is just too pricey.

Ultra Meet 3

2010-02-03T10:53:00.001Z

Every 3 or 4 months member of the Ultramarine Sub forum of Bolterandchainsword.com gather together for a weekend of gaming and fun.

The first one was at Warhammer World in Nottingham and the second and third one at the GW store in Cambridge. This store is great. 8 tables in the basement with very helpful and friendly staff at hand.

Last weekend was the third meet and while it was small (only 6 of us managed to get down) it was a blast.

I used 3 separate lists. My First Company UltraWing, my 71 marine foot slogger list and a balanced list with various elements.

I got in 4 normal games and took part in the “Mega Battle” at the end. This was a 3 a side game using normal 40k rules and 1750 points per player.

My first game I used the Ultrawing. Standard 12 inch deployment with 4 control points. This game started off terribly for me as my Belial with attached Termie Chaplain and Squad managed to get Lost in the warp on his Deathwing Assault. Game not even started and I had lost a quarter of my troops and both IC’s. Still, in the end I managed to pull off a draw as we were both holding 1 point and contesting the others.

Second game used my footslogger list. 71 marines. 4 Tactical squads, an assault squad with chaplain and 2 full 10 man Devastator squads. Game was control points with Dawn of War Deployment. This did me no favours. In the end it was a loss to me as I just did not have the speed to get my guys to his point fast enough. If it had gone to turn 6 then I may just have managed to get close enough to contest his objective.

Game 3 I used the Ultrawing. Annihilation with Dawn of War again. To be honest I don’t remember much of this game. I know I managed to immobilize my opponents LR with my dreads Assault Cannon and then spent 3 turns doing nothing to it with the same dread in assault. In the end I won on Killpoints. It was a close call as I only had 2 terminators and Belial left alive.

Game 4 was vs Matt. I suppose I could be called his Nemesis as he has yet to beat me in 6 or 7 games. I ran a balanced list. I had 2 tacticals in rhinos, a plasma dread, ironclad, vindicator, LR, LC Captain and command squad and terminator squad . He was using 2 assault squads, 2 tacticals in rhinos, a dread and Calgar with Assault Termies in a LRC. Game was control points with table quarters.

I again started badly as both my dreads, my vindicator and a rhino were taken out after only 1 round of shooting. However I was able to lure away his Calgar and deep strike my termies in to claim his objective while holding onto my own. I think had the game gone another turn it would have been a draw but was a victory for me in the end.

The last game of the day was the mega battle. 1750 per player with 6 players for a total of over 10000 points. Game was annihilation with standard deployment. It was an all out slug fest. My guys did ok however once again my Belial and command squad played no part in the game. They had a deepstrike mishap and were placed by the opposition in the far corner of the table. In the end they managed to get off a whole 6 storm bolter shots in total.

Ultimately though, our side went down by 19KP to 16KP but it was great fun and I hope to be able to do something similar again.

A few highlights:

My Land Raider squaring off against Matts LRC. Alas, my lascannons were in effective vs his armour. The shots would have been better spent killing rhinos and pods.

Andrews Melta Dreadnought came down right next to my Land Raider and did...nothing. It was butchered by my terminators and managed to kill 2 of them when it exploded.

This was a vast melee in the middle of the field. In the end it included 7 different units.

The ethics and morality of cheating

2010-01-29T12:45:00.001Z

Right, so by now everyone has heard about the cheating problem that went down at the 2010 Indy GT Circuit: Seattle. I am not going to go into that as it has been widely posted.

What I am going to talk about is the ethical and moral aspects of cheating and how different people perceive it to be.

Wikipedia throws up this very good definition of cheating.

“Cheating is an act of lying, deception, fraud, trickery, imposture, or imposition. Cheating characteristically is employed to create an unfair advantage, usually in one's own interest, and often at the expense of others.”

The whole issue of cheating came up on a topic over at the B&C and it was interesting to see how people basically broke down into 2 camps. While all agreed that Nathaniel is an idiot who deserved everything he got, some seemed to think that he was an idiot because of the act of cheating while others thought he was an idiot because he was stupid enough to get caught.

Now before I go on let me state that I am very much a member of the former category. I loath anyone who intentionally cheats and this post will be biased to that viewpoint and I apologize if it seems like I am sermonizing.

The people who considered him stupid for getting caught had a few arguments to justify why they seemed to condone cheating. Some players seemed to come from a cultural background where cheating is a part of every day life. Some folk maintained that if you are playing in tournaments for money and prizes and that forms part of your income then you are justified in trying to maximize your returns on investments. Some people even used the whole “if no one knows you are cheating then it isn’t hurting anyone”. One person even went so far as to recount a tale from his army days where cheating was used as a test to see who could “think outside the box” Another one was “if no one catches you then you weren’t actually cheating”

Looking at the above reasoning the only one I could ever possibly forgive is the cultural one. If that’s how you have been brought up and don’t know any better then its understandable that you would go into a tournament with a cheating mindset. But its only forgivable once. Once its been explained to you why cheating in the game is wrong then you have no excuse.

To the professional players who use tournaments as a form of income, well all I can say is that if you choose that as your profession you should be good enough not to have to cheat.

“Thinking outside the box”…well we have a name for that. It’s called “Rules Lawyering” The box you are trying to think outside of is there for a reason and is structured around a rule set. Trying to manipulate that for your own gain is just wrong in my book.

Now, as to the “if no one knows you are cheating then it isn’t hurting anyone” brigade all I have to say is this. You are just plain 100% wrong. A: Because people generally realize later on that they have been cheated. They go back and check their rule books, talk to their friends and sit and analyse the game seeing where they went wrong. And B: Because even if they don’t figure it out, you have stolen an experience from them. People paint up their armies and travel sometimes 1000’s of km to play our game and if they loose out because they happened to play a cheat then they are loosing out on the fun and excitement of the game and that is just wrong.

I know of people who have left the hobby because of experiences like that. I know people who will never go to a tournament again because of bad experiences with cheaters. This costs the hobby as a whole and by doing that it costs the cheaters themselves in the long run.

“If no one catches you then you aren’t actually cheating”…ummmmm. No, A thousand times NO. Whether or not you are caught, you are still a cheater. As I put it on the forum. If you drug and rape someone and they never realize due to the drugs, does that make them any less violated? No, they have still been violated and you are still a rapist.

Ultimately though, cheating is a betrayal of trust. We go into each game with an unspoken contract that we will play honestly and within the rules. Betray that trust too often and the game will become unplayable. And also think of this. Someone who is cheated against will come away with nothing from the game, he will have learned nothing except for the bitter taste of an unwarrented defeat.

In conclusion all I can say is that cheating is wrong, just plain wrong. There can be no justification for it, especially not in warhammer or any other voluntary hobby and even more especially if you have been caught and warned before. You are not going to die or starve if you don’t win and it is ultimately to the detriment of the hobby to do so. You choose to play the game and you should play it honour and honesty. I know that I personally would gain no enjoyment from a game if I won it via questionable means. I like to win because of my skill and knowledge.

And as for Nathanial, well his minis should be confiscated and he should be beaten with a rattan cane until the knowledge of what he has done wrong sinks into his head.

More Musings (Deathwing Vs Wolfwing + C:SM whinging)

2010-01-18T13:16:00.001Z

While trawling through a few of my forums I have come across a few topics that peaked my interest and I just want to delve into them a little bit. I do tend to ramble a little as thoughts come to me as I write so just bear with me.

One of the interesting things I have seen is that people want a lot more out of Codex: Space marines. I see talk about being able to make viable armies from 1-10th company. Which is fair enough I suppose since people want to mould their armies like they want.

The problem I see with that is it is just not realistic, in either the game or fluff. C:SM is meant to be a template for the typical Generic Marine Company deploying to a Typical Generic Scenario. This means mixed units. It means assault units supported by tactical and heavy units.

I think GW are doing rather well with how they have disbursed these specialized companies across various codii. If you want to do an Assault company then use the BA codex. 1st co then you can take Dark Angels Deathwing or the SW codex. A Crusade/Legion army then you have Black Templar to use.

I have seen people say that you could gain access to these companies via wargear options i.e. Want access to an Assault Company then giving your Captain a Jump Pack allows Assault Squads to be used as troops or give him Carapace Armour to make him into a scout captain or even arm him with a heavy weapon ala Davian Thule from DoW to make a devastator captain with devs as troops.

However this would dilute the specialness of the other chapters and make them less interesting. We have already seen some of this with Bike Captains being able to take bike squads as troops. This has had an impact with Ravenwing players (and there is no end to the bitching I have seen)

It also allows them to expand the fluff of various elements of the Space Marines. You would not get the reams of lovely stuff found in the DA codex if you were to have a unified Space Marine Codex.

So I see C:SM being very good for what it is. A generic codex for use by the majority of players which allows a fair amount of selection. If you want specialized companies then you need to use specialized codii.

The second is the debate when it comes to First Company and which codex to use. Dark Angels vs Space Wolves.

To be honest I don’t care much either way which codex people want to use. I am not a long time Dark Angels player (in fact I am not a DA player at all) but I do use their codex for the Deathwing rules to fun my Ultramarine First Company. I do have a few thoughts though.

I can see and understand why the DA players are getting pissed. They have had the 2 things that made their chapter unique taken away. i.e the ability to take Terminator and Bike units as troops. Without those they are just over priced marines with obsolete wargear. I am not going to look at the bike issue as it doesn’t effect me one bit.

I am a new comer to the whole Deathwing and have only had the codex for around 2 months. What this means is that I had a choice when it came to what codex to choose: SW or DA and I can tell you that the GW staff really tried hard to get me to buy the SW one. I had to sit and think long and hard about it and despite the fact that the SW codex was far stronger, had better wargear and more versatility I decided to go with the DA codex.

My reasoning for this (and I am sure that many people would disagree with me on this) is down purely to fluff and appearance. The Dark Angels are, baring a few bits and pieces, generally Codex adherent which means they are closer in rule set to the Ultramarines than the Space Wolves are. I also believe that the Deathwing rules represent a Codex 1^st Company far better than the Space Wolves do. The reasons they do are:

Wargear options are closer.
Led by a captain, not a Chapter Master.
Able to teleport.
Ability to take a “command squad” i.e. apothecary and banner bearer.
Can take Chaplains and Librarians in TDA. (I know that SW have the equivalent but it’s not the same)
I know many would not agree but I feel that the 4++ save in CC only of the DA Storm Shields is a far better representation than the 3++ always of the current C:SM and C:SW

While I know that there are some major issues with C:DA (like why on earth Belial is the only DA Captain not to have a 4+ Invulnerable) I feel that the good far outweighs the bad.

That being said, there are just as many reasons to have taken the SW option, they just weren’t the right reasons for me.

Why I dont like my Tau

2010-01-12T14:32:00.000Z

I am busy trying to finish up the final little bits of my Tau army which consist of a Devilfish's engines and drones as well as 6 shield drones and I am finding it a real struggle. Honestly I cant figure out why I even started this army as it leaves me uninspired and I just cant get into it.

I have had the army for around 2 years and I have used it exactly 3 times. 2 severe beat downs by marines and one of me shooting a DH army to death. This is not exactly a value for money army with a play rate like that.

I think the reason I dont like this army is not so much the codex or the rules but rather because of these 2 reasons.

A:) Its hard to transport. I have 4 devilfish models (well 2 devilfish and 2 hammerheads) and 3 piranhas. These just refuse to go into a case nicely and have to be transported via other methods.

B:) As I said before, its just an uninspiring army. There are so few conversion opportunity I feel. Your average Tau army that you see on the board all look the same. The models all look the same. I have grown really used to being able to manipulate my marines and make them unique. Not one of my sergeants or captains has not been cut up, green stuffed, repositioned or had limbs swapped out. Not very easy to do with Tau I find. This is not helped by the utter lack of goodies on the sprue. Even if you could convert them there is not that much to convert them with.

All this just makes me uninterested in the army which is sad since when I first started it I was more into it than I was with my Ultras. Sadly that passed and I am now seriously looking at selling it to finance getting my guard army up and running.

Sergeants

2010-01-10T18:10:00.001Z

2 of my newly painted Sergeants.

First we have the Sergeant of Assault Squad VIII armed with Power Axe and Bolt Pistol in Holster.

Followed by the Sergeant of Tactical Squad IV armed with Power Warhammer and Polt Pistol. I am very happy with how this fellow turned out. Using the AOBR Sergeant as a base I cut and filed him into submission. All in all there are bits from 6 different kits on this mini. Noddy Badge to whoever can identify them all...

I want....

2010-01-10T15:32:00.000Z

shinies!!!

By this I mean I want an upgrade sprue set for my Ultramarines. Black Templars and Dark Angels have them. Space Wolves have 2 whole damn box sets full of funky bits and pieces and I cannot imagine that the Blood Angels due out in April wont be jam packed with goodies.

I dont want to sound whiney but since codex chapters make up the majority of chapters it seems wierd that we dont have something like that. Sure there are the odd bits scattered across different box sets but there is not that much.

I am talking stuff with eagles, skulls, cloaks, different weapons, different helmets, stuff for terminators etc etc. I am of the firm belief that if GW released something like that they would sell very well. Another thing you could put on that sprue is pieces from different armour marks. The pre-heresy army builders would love it and buy the thing in bulk. On pg 18-19 of Codex: Space Marines there is a graphic of the whole Ultramarines Second Company. If you look closely you can see that there are bits of different armour scattered through out. I see MK3 Torsos and Heads. I see MK5 Legs, MK2 Shoulder Pads. I see different patterns of bolters and its all combined with the current MK 6-8 stuff and it looks amazing. This is what a company should look like.

It sometimes also seems strange to me when I look at the decisions made at GW and Forge world. At my local GW store they recieved a set of Pre-Heresy Thousand Son Heads from Forge world the Prospero battle that took place at GD2009. Now they are really lovely bits and I would kill to have them. Turns out however, according to the guy who recieved them and painted the army, that FW are not going to produce them for the market. I think this is madness as once again, these are things that many many people would buy.

Anyways, rant over. Perhaps GW are going to release something like this in the future. I hope so. Now off to take some photos of some newly painted minis.

From the Painting Bench

2009-12-27T12:49:00.001Z

I hope everyone had a good and safe Christmas and that they have come away laden with Loot :)

Has been a quiet few weeks. Have painted up the Bolter element of a devestator squad which I am not going to post as really, they are bog standard blue marines.

I have also done up a new Terminator Sergeant. Special thanks to The Prophet for his quick tutorial on how to do the glaive. Also, just to make my friend Matt (aka greatcrusage08 on the B7C) happy I have given him the skull in U shoulder pad and even painted it red ;)

Also, a few weeks back I finished off some more Honour Guard for Marneus.

I recieved an Assault Squad box for Christmas which will be done up at some point. I have plans for them. Oh yes, plans.....

Ultrawing spanked by Wolves :(

2009-12-07T13:55:00.000Z

I have decided to use the DA Deathwing rules to run an Ultramarines First Co Army aka Ultrawing.

Played my Ultrawing for the first time yesterday against a fairly nasty Space Wolf Terminator army and got tabled by round 4.

Though my dice rolling was fairly horrible (And it was horrible, Belial killed 2 Blood Claws over 3 turns of Combat, Dreadnoughts hit nothing over 3 turns of combat etc etc) I believe the main issue that led to my defeat was :

A: I dont know how to play Deathwing properly yet. This will change as I get more games under my belt and peruse more forums etc. Its a radically different type of game style compared to how I usually run my Marine army.

B: This is related to the above but I have no idea what the ideal weapons mix is. I think I mixed my squads up far too much which made them ineffective in support or assault. Not enough shooty to kill from range and not assaulty enough to mix it up.

Reading through various topics on various forums seems to indicate that you should keep the squads in a full support or assault role with perhaps a single terminator in each squad equipped differently for wound allocation and versatility.

Do the Deathwing players out there agree with that or am I missing something.

The list I ran yesterday (and its pretty much every model I have) looked like this:

Belial with LC @ 130

Interrogator-Chaplain @ 145

Command Squad @ 300
• Banner Bearer
• Apothecary
• SB/PW Sergeant
• LC
• Assault Cannon

Squad 1 @ 225
• SB/PW Sergeant
• H/Flamer + Chain Fist
• SB/PF
• TH/SS
• LC

Squad 2 @ 220
• TH/SS Sergeant
• LC
• Chain Fist
• SB/PF
• TH

Squad 3 @ 220
• Chain fist
• LC Sergeant
• SB/PF
• TH/SS
• LC

Dread @ 130
• Heavy Flamer
• MM

Dread @ 125
• Plasma Cannon

Land Raider @ 250

Total: 1745

As stated before, its an entirely new dynamic playing this army. A total of 25 models including dreads and LR means you don't have the ability to absorb casualties like other builds.

I am hoping to be able to get another squad of terminators for christmas which will hopefully allow me to add some versatility into the army with additional HW's like AC's and CML's which I think will help.

Ultrawing Command Squad

2009-12-03T22:00:00.000Z

I have decided to take my terminators which I so rarely use and convert them to a "Deathwing" army or in this case an "UltraWing" Army. Have stripped down and repainted most of my termies and have now converted up a command squad, which can be seen below.

I have gone for an Old School look with the hazard stripes and the red bolters. Stripes are a bastard to paint and not as straight as I would like but they will do. I also like that every one in the squad is different which will be helpfull with wound allocation.

Sergeant

Banner Bearer

Apothacary

Assault Cannon

Chain Fist

Lack of Funding

2009-11-19T11:09:00.000Z

*sigh*

Due to my financial circumstances I am going to have to put my Imperial Guard Army on Indefinite Hiatus. Its not that I cant afford to expand the army, its that currently all my excess funds are earmarked for another project and this will be lasting for the next 20 months or so.

That is not to say that I wont be adding to the army, I will just be doing so very very slowly. Like a squad every 2 months, a Russ every quarter or something like that.

What that does mean though is that I am going to be going back and refurbishing a chunk of my Ultramarines. I have already stripped down and repainted about 70% of my army but now I am really going to focus on it. Specifically on my Terminators. I have enough Termies, dreads and Land Raiders to field a reasonable 1500 point "UltraWing" army. This will allow me to play a different style of army while still being able to use my current minis.

I have so far repainted or fresh painted 13 of the 24 Terminators I own. I have 6 tactical termies to completely redo and 4 Hammernators which all I need to alter is their Crux terminarus colour from silver and gold to white. Also have the Termie Libby to repaint.

At my current speed I should have them all done before Jan 30 which is when I am going up to Cambridge for the B&C Ultramarine sub-forum Ultra Meet No3. Good times for all.

Random Musings

2009-10-19T15:50:00.001+01:00

Not much going on at the moment with the hobby but just thought I would put a few random musings and happenings down.

Have finished a Chimera for my IG army. Only have to put the decals on and it will be 100% done.
Bought an old metal Cadian command squad off ebay for £12 that I have stripped down. Since the previous owner did not even use a basecoat the paint has come off beautifuly
Fairy Power Spray is my choice of stripper for both metal and plastic. It works like magic and doesnt harm the models at all. It also weakens the bonds of both super and plastic glue so they are easy to pull apart.
I HATE CAT FUR!!! I have a very fluffy cat and its fur gets everywhere. No matter how well I tidy and clean my area I find fur in my paint all the time. It floats in and gets on the brush, on the pallet, on the model itself while the paint is drying. Since I dont have my own private space I cannot thing of a single thing to combat this except for eternal vigilence.
I am busy stripping down and repainting one of my shooty terminator squads. I have decided to go old school with the paint scheme. Red Storm Bolters and Hazard stripes on the Power fists. It looks really nice when it all comes together.
Painting Hazard Stripes is a devil of a job. Had to strip down my first 2 attempts. My 3rd was acceptable and has gone onto a terminator, mostly because I didnt want to strip down that fist again. My 4th attempt actually turned out really well and I think I have my method now. Used a fine detail brush that had been chopped off square near the bottom. The bristles dont spread out and you get and nice even line. They are also the right width.
Played my buddies Orks and got raped. 1750 point lists. His army had 4 battlewagons, Ghazghull and 9 meganobs, a nob with custom forcefield, 2 squads of boys and a full squad of burners. My list was not able to deal with that and I got stomped. LC Termies vs Meganobs =/= win :(. Played a second time. Swapped out the LC termies with TH/SS termies and threw in Cassius. Got reamed again. my TH/SS termies destroyed his meganobs but they in turn killed the TH/SS termies. Ghazghull laughed off 27 assault marine attacks. Penetrated his wagons at least 5 times but could not roll higher than a 2 which also didnt help. Thrashed 7 - 2 on KP

And thats about it really. I am going to try and finish off the 3 termies I am working on before the end of the weekend. Next week I will be in Washington DC for a week which will be great fun.

Painter first, Gamer second

2009-10-07T17:31:00.002+01:00

There is no real point to this, just a rant on my part…

I am definitely a painter first and a gamer second. There really is nothing more relaxing for me than to put some music or background tv show on and paint / convert mini’s.

However I do like to play on occasion. The trouble is that over the last few months and for the next few months ahead, chances to play have been very few and far between.

I work 60 hour weeks which mean that my gaming must be done on the weekend. Unfortunatly the GW stores near me run events etc on Saturdays which means no tables free. Sundays are spent with my wife doing domestic bits and pieces. I also am not fond of the majority of the people who frequent my local GW (5 minutes away by public transport). It’s also very small and cramped. The store I used to play at is in central London and takes me about 90 minutes to get to and that’s of the bloody train line isn’t being worked on. I don’t have a car so can not drive to the nearest working tube or train line and the bust takes almost 2 hours.

Playing at gaming clubs has much the same problem as going into London, it takes too damn long to get anywhere.

Another odd problem is this. I am a frequent poster on the Ultramarine sub-forum at Bolterandchainsword.com and recently all the Ultramarine players have gotten together and had games. This has spoiled me as everyone was nice, non argumentative, got along well with others, didn’t smell and were generally old enough to be married (which the majority were). So when I compare that to some of the local…ah…shall we say talent…I find myself quite reluctant to play them

All of which leads me back to the initial problem. I am desperate for a GOOD game of 40k. I am burned out of painting for a while, or at least I am burned out of blue marines and can’t afford to get new guard for a while.

I want to play a big points, non apocalypse game where time isn’t an issue and with a good opponent who challenges me and who I can actually talk to but baring that I just want to play a couple of decent games. Unfortunately, that’s unlikely to happen any time soon.

LC Terminators

2009-10-01T21:56:00.000+01:00

I know this blog is meant to be about my new IG but since I dont have any actual cash right now that has been put on hold. I do however have a backlog of Marines that need painting and this is just one such squad.

Bases will be done this weekend when I have some more time

Group Shot

Go Sergant!!

His Posse

Pick up game list

2009-09-17T10:17:00.000+01:00

I have played my Ultramarines for over 2 years and without trying to sound like bragging, I seem to win almost all of my games. In fact I tend to win by quite a large margin. One of the reasons for this is my list. My current list seems to be over powered for the groups I tend to play with.

So, in the interests of making it a little more interesting I am thinking of toning the list down. No more named special characters and I am going to remove a dreadnought.

The list I am thinking of running will look like this:

HQ
Captain in Terminator Armour with twin lightning claws.

Elite
Ironclad with H/F, Meltagun, Assault Launchers and Pod
Dreadnought with Plasma Cannon and H/F
5 x LC Assault Termies

Troops
Tactical squad with Fist, Flamer, ML and Rhino
Tactical squad with P/W, meltagun, H/Bolter and Rhino

Fast Attack
Assault Squad with Fist and 2 flamers

Heavy Support
LR with MM
Vindicator

This comes out to 1750 points.

I have not used this combination of units before so I am not sure of how effective it will be. I am sure thought that it is weaker than my older list. Now all I have to do is finish painting up the LC Termies and I will be good to go.

Ebay and the deviltry that plagues it...

2009-09-15T11:22:00.005+01:00

Ahh Ebay, once the happy hunting ground of many a bargain hunter. Now a cut-throat "Den of Iniquity" it is becoming increasingly difficult to get what you want at a reasonable price.

When I started this hobby over 2 years ago I managed to acquire alot of my army off ebay. There were deals and sprues to be had and the selection was quite good. However those days have gone it seems. With GW not allowing sprues to be sold by independent retailers and having raised their prices twice over the last while and with the recession on (despite what the government would have you believe) it is becoming very hard to get a decent deal.

Just having a quite look through today I saw horribly built and painted models going for just under or even the same as the retail price. Now I know there are many out there who would rather just get on with it and not have to bother with building and painting but surely there should be some kind of mark down on an old mini? I would possibly pay full price for a built model but only if it was unpainted and the seller included the left over sprues and the decal sheets. And to those silly people who pay more than retail price...well I just pity you, I really do.

Then there is the usual last second bidder. Nothing makes me more irked than to have someone outbid me with 2 seconds to go after I had been the high bidder for 9 bloody days and win the item for an additional 25p. I know its the name of the game but come on!!!

I am also taking issue with people charging excessive postage. Now I realise that is how some of them make their money but to charge £1.50 for a 50p bit seems a tad over the top.

Thats not to say that there are not some deals still out there. I recently acquired 2 IG Heavy Weapons teams that only cost me £4 with postage. However they are in such poor condition that I almost think it would have been better to buy them new since the effort required to put them right has been enormous and there is still much to do. I have also gotten a few marines etc off ebay that were brilliant deals but that has not happened for a long while now.

I guess I am just becoming jaded by my experiences. I hope and believe that many other people are getting the bargains that they want.

Ultramarine Space Hulk Terminator

2009-09-13T11:28:00.001+01:00

My latest effort: A modified Space Hulk Terminators in Ultramarine colours. A few modifications and a coat of paint and I now have a very nice Termie Captain / Veteran Sergeant.

Space Hulk Marine

2009-09-12T11:08:00.001+01:00

I could not afford (nor justify buying) Space Hulk however there was a mini that I just had to have from the box. So off to Ebay and BitsandKits.co.uk I went and managed to pick up the Lightning Claw Termie for a modest £6 including postage.

I have done a few minor modifications to make him fit into my Ultramarines. I was tempted to cover up the battle damage to his armour with GS but decided to leave it in place for effect. I am also leaving some of the BA teardrops in place which I will paint as normal gems. I wasnt too sure if I could remove those with completely messing up the mini.

As It arrived in the post

Minor Modifications Completed

Completed Squads

2009-09-12T11:02:00.002+01:00

his week I managed to complete my first squad of IG and I think they turned out quite nicely. I still need to come up with a way to paint them faster as they took me far too long. Still, I guess with my current budget thats fine as I will only be able to afford a squad a week.

First Squad of 1st Platoon

I also finally finished stripping down and repainting my Ultramarine Assault Squad. Its taken me a couple of months to do as I only stripped down 1 or 2 at a time to ensure that I always was able to have a viable squad.

7th Squad of 2nd Company Ultramarines

History and Organisation of the 768th

2009-09-10T17:40:00.003+01:00

This is what I have come up with so far about my new IG regiment. It is very much a work in progress and will be added to as I carry on with this army. I am going to try and weave the results of games that I play into the narrative.

History and Organization of the 768^th (Calths Own) Heavy Foot

The 768^th Heavy Foot Regiment has a short yet distinguished history. The Regiment was formed from elements of Calth PDF formations that were severely depleted during the Legendary “Battle of Macragge” in 745.M41.

Though none involved survived, there are elements that formed the backbone of the newly formed 768^th who can boast that their brothers-in-arms were there at the Polar Fortress and who fought and died alongside the Ultramarines First Company.

This pride at the achievement of their comrades and indeed the pride of the individual achievements of each trooper, squad, platoon and company ensured that there was an excellent “Esprit de Corps” when the new regiment was formed. This meant that the usual bickering and friction normally to be found between unassociated units at such regimental founding’s was not evident. There has since been an excellent rapport to be found within the regiment.

Since then the 768^th has seen action throughout the Segmentum Ultima and in one instance have even gone as far afield as the Segmentum Solar. Their prior experience and expertise gained against the Tyranid Hive make them a welcome addition to any force battling the scuttling monstrosities. The 768^th have also fought many, if not all of humanities most bitter enemies at one point or another.

The 768^th has been involved in some notable victories such as Ichor IV, 2^nd War for Armageddon and the Purgation of Cygnus III as well as numerous minor engagements.

Organisation

The regiment is almost pure infantry with only a single artillery battery within its structure. As such, there are not many Armoured Fighting Vehicles (AFV) in its inventory, though chimeras are assigned to those units that require them. Such as Command Squads, Psyker Battle Squads, Veterans and other special weapon and support teams.

The regimental structure is a traditional one with the regiment being broken down into 4 Battalions. Each battalion is in turn, broken down into an HQ, 3 rifle companies, a support company and an artillery company.

Each rifle company is then broken down into a Company HQ, 4 infantry platoons, a platoon of Veterans with chimeras. Pysker support is provided on a “as and when needed” basis. The psyker support can range from a single astropath relaying information right through to an entire choir depending on mission requirements.

The veterans primary role is that of Force Recon. They are tasked to range ahead of the company and gather intelligence about the Opfor and then use the speed, survivability and long range radio ability of their vehicles to return that intelligence to the HQ.

Each Infantry platoon is broken into a Command element of 5, 4 squads of 10 men and a heavy weapons squad which is traditionally composed of 3 weapons teams.

This gives the each regiment a total book manpower of roughly 4600. In reality however, this number is far larger as the regiment also has the usual group of cooks, MP’s, admin staff and camp followers who travel with the regiment. This group adds up to almost 1000 addition personal.

The 768th has traditionally fought alongside 2 other notable regiments from Calth. The 42^nd (Iron Fists) Mechanized Cavalry and the 6^th (Red Devils) Airborne. These 2 regiments provide armoured (MBT, Superheavy and sentinel) and storm trooper support when needed.

Transportation is provided the Munistorium and air support is via the Imperial Navy

Doctrine

Unlike the Ultramarines, who are said to have a fairly structured and rigid battlefield doctrine, the 768^th pride themselves on a tactical and strategic flexibility. Each commander, right down to individual squad sergeants are trained and expected to act on their own initiative – to size up each individual scenarios and act accordingly. Due to this, the 768^th has been able to accomplish all their missions far more efficiently than those units who favour quantity over quality.

It is also this approach that has ensured that in the whole history of the regiment it has never become combat ineffective due to loss of manpower.

Battle Report: Ultramarines vs Tau

2009-09-07T11:54:00.007+01:00

Yesterday I played a 2000 point game with my Ultramarines vs Tau.

It was an objectives based game with 5 objectives, deployment was standard table edges. I deployed first.

His force looked something like this

TAU:

Farsight, 2 body guards, 2 shield drones

Shas’o, 2 body guards, 2 drones

2 - 7 Man fire warrior teams – markerlight

broadside team with 2 broadsides and 2 shield drones

2 sniper teams

Hammer head

3 stealth suits - 1 fusion balster

2 piranha – fusion, seeker missiles

Kroot – 19 kroot, Shaper, 12 kroot hounds

Mine looked like this:

ULTRAMARINES

3 tactical squads

2 rhinos

Dreadnought with Plasma Cannon

Venerable Dreadnought with Plasma Cannon

Ironclad

Drop pod

Land Raider with MM

5 Vanguard (relic blade, 3 power weapons, TH)

Cassius

Khan

Vindicator

Speeder (MM, H/F)

Attack Bike – MM

Deployment
Marines in Blue. Tau in Red, objectives are the black circles. Ruins and cover are in grey and the green areas are hills.

First Turn

Marines -

I placed the 2 rhino with attached squads as well as the speeder in reserve. The Ironclad and pod came down and shoots at the piranha squadron with melta and heavy flamer. The melta destroys a fusion blaster and the flamer does nothing but catches some firewarriors that were in the flame path. The Land Raider moves behind cover and the Vindi angles itself so the hammerhead is hitting front armour. Attack bike moves up towards the hammerhead. Plasma shots from dreads prove ineffective.

Tau -

The ironclad is markerlighted and the Piranhas move up behind it before destroying it with a seeker missile. The Land Raider takes 2 marker light hits which reduces its cover to 6+. The 2 broadsides shoot at it, 1 shot manages to penetrate but I roll a 6 to pass the cover save. The venerable dread looses its plasma cannon to a glancing hit from a sniper squad. I forget to ask for the re-roll.

Battlefield at end of turn 1

Turn 2

Marines -

The 2 Rhinos come on, both on the left – Marines disembark near broadsides and rapid fire, killing a shield drone. The attack bike moves forward and kills the hammerhead with a MM shot. The LR moves forward and immobilizes a piranha which dies to the squadron rules. Vindi and Krak missile from the Tac Squad shoots at at the second piranha to no effect but it is then immobilised by the second dreads plasma cannon

Tau -

The Sniper teams shoot at the disembarked rhino squad and kill 4. They fail their leadership and fall back.. The immobilised Piranha fires seeker missile at dread but it bounces off the side armour. The Attack bike is killed by fire warriors and a Broadside kills The Venerable dread. Once again I forget to do the re-roll. His Shas'O team deepstrikes but scatters onto the LR and rolls a 1 on the mishap table – lost in warp. Farsight deepstrikes and scatters close to my lines. He the shoots and kills 2 marines.

Battlefield at end of turn 2

Turn 3

Marines -

The Land Speeder comes on - deepstrikes and scatters almost off board near his fire warriors. Flames 2 fire warriors. Falling back tac squad are less than 6" from the enemy and falls back some more. The Plasma dread, vindi and krak missile fire at piranha and again fail to do anything. Long range plasma cannon / gun fire from the second rhino's fire points as well as the rhino's stormbolter kill off one of the sniper teams.

The LR moves close to Farsight. Khan, Cassius and the Vanguard disembark. Shooting from the raider and from the squad take out the shield drones. They then assault and kill everything, loosing a single vanguard. Consolidate back towards the LR

Tau -

The Broadsides kill the Rhino on objective, I loose 2 marines to the explosion. The snipers kill more of the falling back tactical squad.

Battlefield at end of turn 3

Turn 4

Marines -

The Vanguard get back on board LR and the LR moves up board. The piranha is finally killed by a krak missile and its drones get off. The Tac squad rally and move back towards sniper squad. They shoot the squad the sniper squad, cause wounds and the sniper squad runs off the table. The Rhino next to his broadsides then tank shock the broadsides. One of them takes a Death or Glory shot, penetrates the rhino and destroys the Storm Bolter. The rhino squashes the Broadside. The land speeder moves and flames an entire firewarrior squad and kills them all. The Vindi moves up.

Tau -

The Gundrones close and shot down the land speeder. The second Broadside takes revenge and kills the rhino.

His Kroot come on and assault the tactical squad sitting on the bottom objective. 20 kroot and 12 kroot hounds gave him something like 65 attacks on the charge. He managed to kill 1 marine. I killed 5 kroot. he failed his leadership and I beat his initiative roll so my squad ran them all down and slaughtered them. It was a combat I should not have won.

Battlefield at end of turn 4

Turn 5

Marines -

The LR moves up and heavy bolters last fire warrior. The tac squad near the broadsides move up, shoot and then assault broadside. They remove a wound and the Broadside fails to wound but passes its leadership. My Vindi moves up.

Tau -

His Stealth team come on behind the Land Raider and fires afusion blaster at it but only manages to stun it. His Broadside dies to Tac squad.

Battlefield at end of turn 5

Turn 6

Marines -

Vanguard disembark and move towards stealth team

Vindi fires shot at stealth team and kills them all

Result: Massacre for me.

I think that this is the first time that I have ever tabled an opponent. I have had people concede when its been close before or have the game end with 2 minis on the table but never actually done it.

Lessons learned

- I don't normally use venerable dreadnoughts so I forgot to force the damage table re-rolls. I think if I had the dread would have lived a bit longer. As it is it made no difference in the end but had the game been close it could well have done so.

- I am not convinces yet about Khan and his outflank rule. It did come in useful this game but for some reason I find it a little gimmicky.

- I am also starting to think this army list is a little too strong for pick-up games. I may have to redesign it. Perhaps drop a dread and get rid of the special characters. It will still be strong but not quite so vicious.

Test subjects

2009-09-04T14:29:00.003+01:00

As previously mentioned I only have a few models done up at the moment. They currently consist of a 2nd hand Leman Russ that I picked up and the 5 guardsman from the clip together kit.

The Russ has undergone a minor conversion. I sliced off the end of the battle cannon, hacked apart a pen and made myself a Vanquisher. I like the look of the Vanquisher and think that with Pask on board it will make a very capable Tank Killer. Nothing quite beats S8 +2d6 from 72" away. Also, with Pask its BS4 and +1 to the damage chart so its essentially like having an extreme long range Multi-Melta.

Colour scheme is simple yet I think quite effective. I wanted something that looks nice but doesnt take ages to do. I settled for a basecoat of Codex Grey with a heavy dry brush of Astronomicon Grey.

The actual guardsman follow this simple scheme. Basecoat of Codex grey with a Bedab wash the highlight the raised areas with Codex grey. Flak vest and helmet in Enchanted Blue with a 50/50 Enchanted Blue / Skull White highlight. Lasgun is bestial brown with Bedab wash then highlighted with a lighter brown( I cant remember the name off hand). Boots are black with a 75/25 black/grey mix to highlight. This scheme means I can do a squad in a couple of hours which is great if you are dealing with lots and lots of troops.

First Post

2009-09-04T14:15:00.001+01:00

I am an avid Warhammer 40000 fan, enjoying both the tabletop war game as well as the Black Library literature. I have been reading the books now for over 4 years and have been into the game for a little over 2 years.

As can be seen from the Title of the blog I am a huge fan of the Ultramarines and currently posses over 5000 points of same. I also have 2k of Tau which will likely be mentioned from time to time on the page.

However the main focus of this blog will be the progress of my new guard army. For obvious reasons it will have an Ultramar base, primarily being elements of IG regiments from Calth.

The army is in its infancy as I only have 1 (2nd hand) Leman Russ painted and the 5 clip together guardsman. They have been my test bed to see if I like the army and also to get a colour scheme that works for me. This has now been done.

I am also currently working on the fluff and composition for my army. So far its going to be a combined army (with emphases on troops) with elements of the Calth 768th Heavy Foot and the 42nd Mechanised Cavalry.

Its going to slow process as I dont have access to much funding at the moment but I hope to add a unit or two each month.