Craftworld Iybraesil: Wraithguard

Hello everyone,

Its been a while since I have posted due to work and life commitments but I have still managed to get some hobby done during the blogging down time. I have managed to complete my Eldar Jetbikes a part from the bases but as I haven't showed anything for a while I thought I would show you the next unit I have started to work on the Wraithguard!

I have really enjoyed painting this model, even though there are some hard to reach areas behind the gun. I head isn't finished or glued in place yet so there is some trusty blue tack holding it on there for me!

There are other areas to finish too, such as the wraith cannon. I'm not quite happy with the lighter grey highlight you can see on the picture below, so that will probably be toned down a touch. I also need to complete the tubing and then the tip of the weapon.

I am also looking to improve my basing, so i''ll be trying out some new techniques. I just haven't quite decided yet!

8th Edition has definitely ignited some hobby progress in me, although I am happy to play both 40K or Horus Heresy when we can fit some games in. There has however been talk of a few of us doing an escalation campaign to accelerate our current projects, but this has only caused me to start some Bad Moon Orks! I'll show you the trukk i've been working on in my next post!

So expect to see some more Wraithguard soon, I have an Autarch and some Guardians to add after that to get the force up to the first 500 points. Although its slow progress I am happy with results after talking my time on the models. The Orks however, should be a lot quicker to finish!



Thanks again for reading,


Aveinus Kaane

Death Guard - Leviathan Talon

Hi all,

Last time I spoke about my tactical squads.  I figured this time I would talk about my favorite unit in my Death Guard army to date – a talon of two Leviathans.

They have become somewhat of a crutch and always outperform everything else in my army.  In true Death Guard fashion they always footslog up the board eschewing other means of deployment.  I was slightly skeptical about this tactic at first, as I know the meta is to go with Dreadnought Drop Pods.  I’ve never had a Leviathan blown up in the first time and they have always made their points back easily.  I’ve only ever had them nuked within a turn twice, both of which was due to the untimely appearance of a Lightning loaded to the gunnels with Kraken missile penetrators! 

I was originally going to go with two ranged weapons on each, but Ikthelion and Darien managed to persuade me against this. 

My first is armed with a storm cannon, siege drill, phosphex and volkites.

My second is armed with a grav-flux bombard, siege claw, phospex and heavy flamers.

I think my favorite weapon is probably the grav-flux bombard.  It absolutely eats Justaerin and Siege Tyrants, both of which I normally struggle to take out when facing my regular opponents.  I think if I were to build a third I would probably swap out the heavy flamers on the second build for volkites. 

I built both of them at the same time and found them a fun and relatively easy kit to build compared to some of the older Forgeworld models.  I painted mine in a slightly unsual style, in so much that I prepared each component, before drilling a hole into it and mounting it on a paperclip.  This allowed me to rapidly spray all the components and paint them without worrying about messing up the white.  I then assembled them, and weathered them once built. 

What are your experiences running Leviathans?  What load out do you go for?  They are easily one of my favorite models and units, so much so that I am rather tempted to add a talon to my fledgling Thousand Sons force. 

Zone Mortalis: Life Sustainers - Part 3

Hi all

Here is Part 3 of my Zone Mortalis Life Sustainers. 

This is a unit that I undercoated Mechanicum standard Grey. 

I edge chipped with a mix of dryad bark, Abaddon black and Warplock Bronze. 

It was washed all over with a mix of Agrax Earthshade, Nuln oil and Klear. 

Additional weathering was applied with the Forge World Weathering powder range (inc the green one for mossy grime streaks).  

A nice addition to the board. That is a total of 5 out of 8 possible objectives on the Life Sustainer mission. 

Drake Seta

Weekly Progress Report 18/06/2017

Hi all

Almost halfway through the year! So what have we all been working on?

I have been pushing to finish my Legio Mortis Warhounds this week, still a way to go but they are coming along nicely. 

Ikthelion has been diagnosed with a severe case of hobby butterfly, and for some reason has assembled and undercoated a squad of Grey Knight Terminators. Though treatment continues, doctors fear the condition may be terminal.

Hector has done the foundation work for his Nurgle Chaos Knight. He's hoping to get a lot more done this week and potentially making a start on his Plague Marines too.

Darien has spent some more time playing 8th, finally getting some games in with his Harlequins. They preformed better than he expected! He has also found a some painting time and has continued work on his Gargantuan Squiggoth.

Ahmose spent this week finishing off his Blade Occult, before moving onto start a Xiphon and Whirlwind.  

He's got them washed and is in the process of gap filling.  He's hoping to have them built, primed and silver by next week.

Spectre is in Beer drinking Beer. No hobby time!

Atia has been working on Death Guard from the new Boxed Game. This week see's a Sorceror!

Drake Seta

8th Approaches

Hello!

We are fast approaching the 17th and the launch of 40k 8th Edition. Thanks to the Community Team at GW we were lucky enough to get previews of the all the new rules. You may have seen my initial thoughts here. 

I have been able to get in some more games and even managed to play a 3000 point game to see how the new rules scaled up (They scaled up well in my opinion). Overall I have really enjoyed the games I've played. For me it has given 40k a whole new lease of life! My two armies are still similar but have changed enough to give lots of options to explore. A lot of the units that I wanted to use before but just weren't very good, all have a place now as the abilities they get make them more useful. I have found the game is playing well and I like how it is still 40k but with less restrictions. 

I was sceptical of things like first turn reserves and being able to assault from any vehicle. However in practice they work well. Reserves coming in on turn 1 or whatever turn you want gives you some great tactical flexibility. It is balanced out by the more than 9" restriction, which can be a lot more difficult to find the space for some times than you might expect. 

Assaulting out of any vehicle had me concerned but I think the rules handle it well and if you need to be combat with melee units you can now more reliably deliver them where they need to be. This is particularly important given how easily troops can be shot off the table. 

It is really cool to be able to shoot whatever you like and then charge something completely different. I had a great moment in game yesterday where my Orks left 1 Necron Warrior alive in the Necron turn. In the shooting phase of my turn I used my pistols to shoot the unit I was in combat with killing the last 1! I was them able to charge another unit in the charge phase! Brilliant for combat armies and in my opinion much better game play. 

I made use of the matched played points for a 3000 point game. It took a while to work out but part of that is getting use to a new systems of paying for the bare model and then all the wargear separately. It worked well but part of me prefers Power Points as they are so easy to use! I still believe that the regular points will be main stay of the community. 

Characters are really good! They finally feel like they can make big differences on tabletop and the rules allow them act as you would except a hero to act! You will find them crucial to your army building and will be wishing for more space and points to get them in! 

Vehicles are much hardier now, they certainly don't go down easily. They do come with an increase in point cost though. They also have one of the new features I hope gets changed in the future, fire arcs. As it stands a vehicle can fire 360 degrees without worrying about line of sight from the weapon or firing through the vehicle. This is my least favourite change! 

I fully expect to see the minimum number of troops in units as this works out a lot in your favour. Given the benefits that they could open up with more command points potentially. I also think they will make your army survive the shooting phase better and t's very likely they will be riding in transports. It will be interesting to see if this pans out. 

I'm excited to get more games in and try out different combos! Below are some brief thoughts on my Orks and Harlequins. 

Orks have gained back some of the character that they had lost in the 6th Edition codex with some rules that make them feel a bit more orky! I have found Boyz die really easily though and foot slogging will mean going really heavy on the boy front. By that I mean 100 plus to give any of them a hope of making it across the table. Trukks, dreads, kans and gork/mork-anoughts are my early winners.

I have only managed to get 1 game in with the Harlequins and the died quickly! What  few of them did make it to combat kicked some serious Necron butt. They got shot to pieces after killing some stuff though. I am looking forward to trying out some different combos and getting the vehicles in to see if they make a difference. On paper they look better than in 7th however they still are a glass hammer! 

My local club is having a launch day gaming session so I will be getting in even more games! 

Happy hobby! 

Darien

Zone Mortalis: Servohauler 1

Hi all

I once again state that I love Games Workshop's scenery push at the moment. 

 So here is my first Servohauler. 

To paint it I followed the guide on the rear of the box (substituting Vermin fur in instead of the brown they recommended). This was done at the low metal parts to represent aged rust. This was then drybrushed over With Leadbelcher then Ironbreaker on the edges. 

The Red was done as per the guide, but with a brown base, then drybrushed up with Mephiston red followed by an a Agrax Earthshade wash, further Mephiston red drybrush before going to kindleflame dry on the furthermost edges. 

Took me 1 evening start to finish. Lovely intermediate project. 

Drake Seta

Index: Imperium 1

Hi all,

I wanted to share some thoughts about the Index: Imperium 1 book that I’ve been reading through. Darien has done a great write up on the Xenos 1 and 2 books, which you can read here if you missed it. Sadly I’ve not managed to get any games in with the new rule set, but Darien’s post covers most of the changes and has generated a fair amount of discussion.

The book itself is really nicely laid out, and I quite like that they’ve included both the Power Ratings and the more conventional points system that we’re all used to. The simplicity of the Power Ratings is great as it allows you to quickly build a list on the fly to get a late-notice game in against an opponent. My only concern with the Power Ratings is that they could be open to some abuse, as you only appear to pay for models in most instances, not upgrades; a 10 man Space Marine Devastator Squad has a Power Rating of 11, regardless of whether they’re equipped with Heavy Bolters or Lascannons. I think this system will come into play more often for more friendly games than anything else, as you’ll be relying on your opponent not to be “that guy” who squeezes every little bit out of the rule set he can.

I think the community will mostly make use of the more conventional points system for pickup games; this is more granular than it ever has been before and actually requires a little bit of time to wrap your head round in the first instance. The points systems for models are not with their profiles – it took me a little bit of time to find them, especially as Index: Imperium 1 is such a big book! They’re all hidden away at the back of the book in an appendix. The majot change here seems to be that you’re buying your models naked now, and then need to apply any costs of the equipment they come with. For example, I want to field a Grey Knight Strike Squad. Each model is armed with a Storm Bolter, Nemesis Force Sword, Frag, Krak and Psyk-Out Grenades. Therefore I would need to pay the points a Strike Marine (19 points), and then pay the points costs for each item of his equipment as listed in the appendix; however, if I were to equip a Strike Marine with a Psycannon, then I wouldn’t need to pay for his Storm Bolter or Nemesis Force Sword. It’s going to take a bit of getting used to, but I quite like the way they’ve approached it.

I was really pleased to see that they’ve included entries for pretty much every Space Marine model they’ve ever produced in the book… Are you the owner of a now-defunct Tyrannic War Veterans Ultramarines army? Rejoice, for come the 17^th of June, you’ll have rules for your beloved models once again! Got a Terminus Ultra you converted back in the day? Fear not, it’s back (and it’s nasty!). The Fortress of Redemption even snuck into the Dark Angels section of the book!

The biggest bit for me from reading through the book and the core rule book is the freedom that Imperium Armies will have to create some themed lists (Sorry, Xenos!). Units now have multiple Faction Keywords and all units within a detachment must have a common Keyword. For example, an Ultramarines Captain will have the Keywords Imperium, Adeptus Astartes and <Chapter> (which would be replaced with Ultramarines in this instance). From what I’m reading, that means that you could field an army with Imperium being the common Faction Keyword for a Detachment, borrowing units from different Chapters, and even the Astra Militarum, all within one Detachment. This is balanced by the fact that most characters’ abilities will only affect units of their own more specific Faction, so the Captain has an ability that only affects models from his own <Chapter>; your Ultramarine Captain will not be buffing your Blood Angels Assault Marines (Why would they listen to a jumped up Ultrasmurf anyway?!), and your Astra Militarum Commissars will not be “inspiring” your Deathwatch Killteams.

So where does this leave things for me? Well, it allows me to recreate one of the armies that I used to play way back in 3^rd Edition – Daemonhunters! I can finally put together an Inquisiiton-led strike force of Grey Knights backed up by disposable… I mean… valued… Storm Troopers, without having to carry around 4 different Codices and make use of multiple detachments! I appreciate this will not really be the most powerful army going forwards, but it’ll look cool and I’ll be able to relive the glory days of 3^rd Edition!

What are your thoughts on the new edition?

Weekly Progress Report 11/06/2017

Hi all

8th edition is quite the attention grabber at the moment, and many of the Bunnies are working on the new models. 

Ikthelion has had a trying week at work and hasn't managed to progress any hobby at all. Reading the Imperium 1 book has gotten him fired up for 8th though, with a few army ideas coming to mind. Expect a post on it tomorrow.

Darien has spent his hobby time this week playing the new 8th Edition. He has enjoyed his game and on Thursday gone he posted up some of this thoughts. He has also managed to build a few more Emperors Children and should have his tacticals squads done in the next couple of days.

Atia used this week to start some Nurgle Death Guard. "Currently working through the basecoats, slowly. Can't wait for the weathering!"

Hector is making he was through converting a Glottkin into a knight titan. Still plenty of work to do: green stuff the gaps to blend the chainsword into the arm, magnetise the cannons, work out how to fit the knights armour over the horns (position for holes for horns) etc. More to come this week 🙂

Ahmose kept plodding along with his Blade Occult this week.  He's managed to get five coats of angron airbrushed on, and has started to block in the main colours.  The bases need drybrushing and they are pretty much finished as well.

Kaelo has started painting a small 500pt Primaris Marine Force. He has been playing around with some colour schemes. Here is a picture of a practice Lieutenant. He isn't sure if this will be his final scheme yet as he is never happy when it comes to his Ultramarines...

I have been on holiday, but once again my attention is being drawn back to my lovely Warhounds. I think I will be working towards getting them finished soon. 

What have you been up to?

Drake Seta

Hector Cephas; Dark Imperium Death Guard project ideas

Hi all,

I'm really looking forward to starting my 40k Death Guard project once I get my hands on the new Dark Imperium box set. The new models look amazing and its got my mind thinking about what else I can do to compliment the plague marines and poxwalkers.

The sprues from the Dark Imperium box are awesome (if you want to see more, visit our sister site: http://ageofwarhammer.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/warhammer-40000-dark-imperium-sprues.html) - I really like the updated plague marines and the blight drone, these have inspired me to do three things in particular:

1. Paint them in a pre-heresy Death Guard paint scheme - the plague marines are in MkIII plate, seems like a good excuse to try out the paint scheme.
2. Plague Terminators - using the Forge World upgrade kit, it'll be a simple addition to the box set.
3. Nurgle Knight Titan - more complicated but I'm going convert a Glottkin using the Forge World Chaos Knight resin parts to really go to town on the chaos corrupted armour.

Have you guys been inspired by the new 40k models to kick start a new project? I'm a sucker for new toys and projects though I really should finish them!

Until next time,

Hector Cephas

Play Testing 8th and Xenos 1 and 2

Hello! 

8th has landed at the Bunny camp, The Warhammer Community Team sent us out a copy of the Dark Imperium box set and all 5 of the army books. Drake provided his thoughts on the Chaos and Imperium 2 earlier in the week. The 2 Xenos books have come my way and I have been able to get a few games of 8th in. 

With the books in hand I set about organising some test games. It was an all Xenos affair with Orks, Necron's and some Harlequins. 

The Books

The Indexes are very functional books. All rules and little else. Each army gets a 1 or 2 page fluff summery and then a 1 page army wide rules summery. The art is good but I believe it is all stuff we have seen before. 

Xenos 1 covers all the Eldar now renamed to Aeldari and Drukhari. Harlequins and Ynnari are covered, along with the Necrons. The armies still have a very similar feel to what you will be familiar with but with some needed changes to fit in with the new rules. 

Xenos 2 is filled with Orks, Tau, Tyranids and Genestealer Cult. Again laid out in the same manor as 1. 

The books are functional and everything you need to play your current army is including. Profiles are familiar and easily usable to those experienced with the game. Those that aren't will pick them up quickly. Some changes to how you get certain options has changed, for instance the Ork Warboss no longer has a Warlike option instead we now have 2 profiles. 1 for a Warboss on foot and 1 for a Warboss on bike. I like the separation as it helps simplify making selections, with no need to manually add things like extra toughness and armour save that a bike provided before. Overall I'm more than happy with these books as a way to be able to play 8th on release day.

Play testing 8th

I have 3 games under my belt and several more planned in the coming days. My initial thoughts are that the basic rules have been tidied up but overall it still feels like the same game that we were playing before. Below are a breakdown of the 6 phases and my opinions on the play within these. 

Movement:

Lots of change but at the same time no change! What I mean by that is movement distances have changed a lot. Orks now go 5" and Harlequins 8" as standard movement but you still measure and move as before. The big difference in this phase is 'Advancing'. This is what we knew as running in 7th but now its 1D6 added to your movement value. Great simple fix that means less moving models.

Psychic phase: 

Huge improvement! It is the similar to the AoS system, and thats a good thing as it works really well. A lot less dice and bloat now. Deny the Witch is lot better as well. 

Shooting phase:

Shooting is very powerful, generally it seems that more shoots are coming your way. Expect shooting armies to continue to do very well in 8th. The restrictions that were in place for various weapons in 7th are now gone. You can move and shoot heavy weapons a lot more effectively. You can now charge after firing any type of weapon as well. Assault weapons have seen a change, as you can charge after firing any type of weapon they needed a change. So you can now 'Advance' and shoot an assault weapon at -1 to hit which will be useful for many armies. 

Charge phase:

Basically the same, you still need to declare the unit/units you are charging and roll 2D6. No more restrictions for charging through terrain though. The main difference is that you now only need to get to within 1" rather than to base contact. Note that this is WITHIN 1". So you cannot make a 9" charge by rolling 8" as you will be an inch away. You can make a 8.5" charge by rolling an 8 though which is great and removes some of that did you/didn't you make a critical charge. 

Fight phase:

Initiative has gone! All charging units fight first and then you alternate picking which units fight. Can lead to some tactical decisions with who fights in what order. Combat armies do very well in this phase. Flat numbers for hitting is a huge boost for some armies like Orks, now hitting on 3+ rather than 4's as it commonly was in 7th. Getting them into a fight can be tricky with the extra volume of shooting. No more sweeping advances either. 

Morale phase:

No more leadership checks in each phase, it is all rolled up into this one phase, which speeds things along. If you've lost a model at any point in the turn you need to take a morale check. You roll a D6 and add your loses to this, compare this to your leadership. Each point over your leadership means a model flees and is removed from the table. 

Vehicles:

Massive change in vehicles, a lot more powerful! No more dying to 1 shoot is great and they are so much more resilient. I liked armour values for different facings as this added in some tactical depth to moving your forces around to get the best shot. I am very unsure about being able to charge vehicles into combat and tie units up and vehicles then fighting back is odd! I can see it makes sense behind it but its a big change that doesn't feel natural yet. 

Characters:

Wow! Great improvements! A lot hardier with less ways to be killed in one shot or hit. They generally all provide a decent set of buffs to units that are nearby. I expect a lot of armies will be built around a characters buffs. Units that can ignore the no shooting characters unless they are the nearest model could become very useful now as getting rid of the extra buffs can make a big difference to the other army. 

Points:

2 points options now, I have only used Power Points which is a flat value for each unit based on how powerful it is on the battlefield. I really like this, so easy and quick to put an army together. The matched play points look ok but it looks like it will be harder work putting an army list together. 

Command points and force organisation:

It's really good to see formations gone as this was really the main problem with 7th in my opinion. The force orgs that they provide in the new rule set are great and provide a lot of flexibility while also being a bit more restrictive as well! They also look to encourage a lot troops which I think is good. The bonuses for being a Battle Forged army is command points, these are a good addition which help you to keep a unit alive, inflict some more damaged before it can happen to you, or get a curial re-roll. The can be game changers and something very different to think about and use. 

Overall:

I am impressed with the game so far. It still feels like 40k which was one of my concerns hearing the rules as they were being teased to us. It plays quicker and for the most part simpler. For me the best thing is all the new profiles for the armies. This is giving armies a complete new feel and for the first time in a long time it looks like most units have a place and will be affective on the table. It is exciting to try a lot of different things out. 

I'm looking forward to playing some more games! Something that I haven't really been fused about with 40k for a long while! 

Darien