More Marines for the XII

A rare, cautious World Eater Sergeant

In early June, alongside The Horus Heresy Tempest V, I ordered 5 Mk 3 & 10 Mark4 Space Marines, Mk4 Power Weapons kit, 10 Chainaxes, a set of Mk3 World Eaters shoulder pads, and some Ultramarines bits (for reasons).  I have a plan to get to 1,000 points of World Eaters, mostly geared towards Zone Mortalis games.   At the core of this list is two Tactical Squads, one with additional Close Combat weapons (chain bayonets) and the other with Chainaxes.

A Sergeant with a Power Fist leads the more standard Squad III, while his brother Sergeant with Lightning Claws leads the chainaxes equiped Squad V.  I have decided to go for a mix of armor marks in each squad.  The World Eaters do not seem like a Legion to focus on standardizing equipment, but instead rewarding those with combat prowess (thanks to my friend Colby for the suggestion).  More pictures follow.

Rebellious Danes

Completed pair of Farnir Class Airships

I have played two games of Dystopian Wars thus far; both against Prussian Empire fleets at 1,000 points.  The first game I won very well, despite not having a good understanding of the rules The second I lost because of my starter list put me in an untenable position.  I have been trying to get a better handle on my fleets rules and the rules in general.  All of this has led to a "next acquisition" plan and the development away from the Lindisfarne Battlegroup to the Jylland Battlegroup.

Dwarfs in Age of Sigmar

I mentioned in my first impressions of the Warhammer: Age of Sigmar rules, that I would take out my Dwarf collection and build some armies from the models I have.  I am going to focus on three ways of building an Age of Sigmar list.  The first I call the "Rule of Cool."  I went through my collection and pulled out some of what I think are the coolest models (and thus models that others will likely purchase).  The second will be fielding a War Scroll organization, maybe two!  The last I will walk through and build a list using the Azyr Composition guide put out there by the Louisville, Kentucky wargaming community.

In discussions with my local group, the opinion has been expressed that the old armies/modelsare likely to be under powered and even with well-intentioned carry-over rules are likely to not perform or be as fun as playing Age of Sigmar with models and forces designed for the game.  Initially, this really only is the Stormcast Eternals or Khrone Bloodbound. I suspect there will be a steady release of forces over the next six months.

Age of Sigmar: First Impressions Part 2

Last entry, I commented on the first two pages of the rules for Warhammer Age of Sigmar.  This covered the army selection, table setup, deployment, and victory conditions.  Now onto the actual game mechanics of models moving, hitting each other, etc.  But before we can even do that, there is the matter of figuring out who goes first each round.

Age of Sigmar: First Impressions Part 1

Looks epic!

Before even delving into the rules/changes, I am not enamored with the direction Games Workshop has taken the Warhammer Fantasy world.  I and others in the community felt the impending reset coming almost a year in advance and feared for the investment we had made in our armies.  I stopped working on Dwarfs as it became clear that a reset was coming.  Thus far the new rules are less than inspiring.

Add to this that I have watched what happens to Games Workshop ranges and systems when the company ceases supporting the models/game - it becomes incredibly niche and unplayed.  It is next to impossible to get a new player interested in a game that has near zero company support (see Epic, Battlefleet Gothic, Necromunda, Aeronautica Imperialis, Warmaster, etc).

All of this makes me incredibly skeptical of this direction.

Tempest Arrives

More models to Assemble and paint.

Last week, I received The Horus Heresy Book Five: Tempest from Forgeworld along with 15 Marine bodies and parts to assemble more World Eaters and even a few Ultramarines.  As always, I am thoroughly impressed by Forgewold's books and despite their high cost really enjoy the product they produce.  I got everything I need in this order to build out 10 more World Eaters, which leaves just 5 Butchers for a 1,000 pt Zone Mortalis list.  The Ultramarine buys were am indulgence to get me up to the £250 for free shipping.

Hopefully more to come after this weekend as I work on things.

Korsor Squadron

Korsor Squadron 1

On Sunday, I spent the afternoon painting up these five ships as my test of the fundamental scheme for my Kingdom of Denmark Naval Battlegroup.  These first five have the basic scheme.  I have gone without metallic paint in thus far.   These ships are mix of wood and metal all over, so everything is painted to minimize the impact of the sea (water, salt, etc lead to rust).

I have yet to seal them, but other than maybe marking them with a bright green strip to indicate their Battlegroup, they are complete.

Below are the steps I took to paint them.

Danish Fleet & Magnets!

The box.

Everything that came in the box!

Before the start of last weekend, my Dystopian Wars Kingdom of Denmark Naval Battle Group arrived.  Over the past roughly two weeks, I cleaned up the miniatures, primed the small ships and aircraft, and made most of the turrets attach via magnets.

This was my first experience using magnets and thus I messed up on a ship, causing its turret to be "fixed-forward."  This is likely how most people model their ships.  Magnets allows the turrets to rotate through their full-fire arcs.  Lastly, for ships which are largely static, it adds to the model allowing it to better show what the ship is doing (should the player choose).

Eldar Rangers

Same five Rangers from different angles

This weekend's painting project was the last,  five Rangers for my Eldar.  For these five Rangers, I decided they would be from Craftworlds other than Aliatoc.  Saim-Hann, Ulthwe, Biel-tan, Lugganath, and Altansar each are represented.

This leaves 10 Banshees, a Shadowseer, a Deathjester, and Phoenix to complete for 1,850 pts of Eldar. I have multiple options to consider to bring it up to more than 2,000 pts - expansion of the Harelquins, adding Illic Nightspear, or a squad of Dark Reapers.  I am excited about nearing completion of the army, both for completing the project and I am getting excited about some future projects.

Codex Eldar: Craftworlds Discussion

Army for Armies on Parade

The new Codex Eldar: Craftworlds is interesting to say the least.  The armylist I have been working towards for about a year has become cheaper points wise.  I added Harlequins to fill out the list from ~1700 points (without Illic Nightspear) to 2000 points. Now, the army with the Codex Eldar: Harlequins Cast of Players formation is 1850 points!  Illic Nightspear will bring it back up to 2000 points. The list however has a not insignificant point sink in the Phoenix fighter-bomber.  All of this is a long way of saying that the new Eldar are cheaper and deadlier than before.

Second Storm, failing to match colors

Both completed, very different blues

This weekend, I decided to complete my second Landspeeder Storm for my Ultramarines Scout detachment.  It had been built and base coated months previously and was on the side waiting for completion.  However, I ran into an immediate problem.  Most of my Ultramarines were painted using the old paint range and in a very straightforward scheme.  I could not get the two to match, despite several different layer attempts.

Killer Space Fools!

Troupe leaping into the fight.

The Troupe for my Cast of Players is complete.  These models were really enjoyable to paint and practice/learn new techniques on. These were painted following the guide in Warriors of The Laughing God for the Veiled Path. I was very intimidated by the motley (the checker pattern).  I started it on small/mostly flat surfaces like the Master's coat and two knee pads.  I worked the straight leg first followed by the bent one.

More pics below.

Dystopian Wars: Kingdom of Denmark

As my local Games Workshop closes, I have been encouraged by other local gamers to look beyond the GW ranges.  The group I play with is getting heavily into both Dystopian Wars and Firestorm: Planetfall.  I asked which game they suggest starting with and they recommended Dystopian Wars (or Boats).

Looking through the list of potential fleets and what others were playing, I quickly settled on the minor-power of Denmark (surprise)!  The starting force (see picture) is roughly 1,000 pts, a good starting point.  The rules are free to download and based on watching a game of Planetfall Saturday night, the mechanics similar to Epic: Armageddon, a GW game I really enjoyed. More to come.