2015 review and 2016 objectives

Overall 2015 was a pretty successful year for me doing hobby related activities.

I have managed to paint at least 1 squad a month and painted a lot of units that had been sat in boxes for quite some time.

My painting challenge (like doc, painting gives me money to spend) didn't really work out. Over the year I painted enough to spend £250, but spent a lot more that that. this is not too bad as I have a monthly budget as well which I stuck to successfully. This is a must for me as if I don't then I can get a massive back log of models to paint.

My current back log to do is:

5 TH/SS terminators

3*3 Centurions

Storm Eagle

Fire Raptor

2 Knights

Sammael on Speeder

2*5 Scouts

Bike squad

3*10 Tactical

2*10 Assault

2*10 Devastator

a few drop pods

There is nothing new on the horizon for my marines at the moment so I don't see this changing soon.

I have started one of the knights so hopefully i intend to show this off soon.

Unfortunately all my painting equipment has been moved over to my new house. My new house however has no water, heating, kitchen and needs decorating! we don't expect to have moved in and set everything up until the end of January. That means no hobby related things happening until at least February.

May this will give me time to post more of my thoughts about 40k and the hobby on hear during that time or get some better pictures of my brothers models.

Happy New Year to you all

Death Guard Progress - Ho Ho Ho Horus Heresy 2015

Good Afternoon All,

This is a bit of a catch all post.  I will update progress or lack of on the death guard, a small review of the year and my usual 2016 objectives.

Firstly my heresy progress which has been hampered by man flu and uni work.  However, I have worked out the recipe which I suggested in my last post.

It will be light grey primer (ab), wash (hand) 45 degree white (ab), paint other colours (hand) and finally weather (sponge).  This is so much quicker than my last method by hand!

Here is the progress I made on 5 tactical legionnaires:

Early days for this squad but I feel I have finally sorted the 'how' bit out two years later!  Comments are most welcome and I will show some fellow code players at the weekend on our new years game.

I also built for the weekend some additional bloodclaws.  I mixed up the parts and used new kit, plus older parts and some metal bloodclaw shoulder pads.  Nice to be back to the wolves for a bit.  Shame I havent had time to throw some paint at them!

Right last year (or actually very early this year lol) I set my self simple objectives and they were to complete some in progress projects.  I did manage a few things this year.  Memory test time:

1 Stormwolf

1 Forgeworld Space Wolf Dread

 ok failed already going back through blog posts!

1 Necron Artillery piece

1 Death Guard Graviton Rapier

5 Death Guard Marines

Blimey that is a terrible return compared to my normal output!  The reality is doing a masters at the same time as working full time and managing my health means I am not that upset.  So what about 2016?

2016 Objectives are (not all hobby related):

Spatial Planning Masters (2nd Year)

Adoption Match (my wife and I are approved fingers crossed at little one joins our family).

So the two above are going to slow down any hobby....

Necromunda Scenery

More Airbrush Practice

Story Campaign with Tweedy ahem (Boss Bludtoof)

Still record painting points but not against spend

Accurately record hobby spend

Log games played

Paint some death guard and space wolves.

All that remains to be said is Happy New Year to you all and I hope 2016 is fruitful, healthy and happy.

Peace Out

DOC

Review of the year....and obviously more marines

I’m going to discuss a little about my hobby experiences throughout the year.

Gaming: this year I have managed to play 12 games. I don’t think that 1 a month is too bad. I would like to play more, but I am not interested in playing at my local clubs and my usual local gamers like myself have very busy “normal” lives, so I don’t see this amount of games increasing next year.

I have now started to move house to a larger place. Hopefully in the course of the next few years I will be able to create a geek palace which allows me to have space for a permanent gaming area. My new place should offer slightly more space for my models but I think it is initially unlikely that they will have permanent place.

Painting/modelling: this year I have been pretty productive. I have managed to paint a range of squads and paint some of my terrain. I have been a member of a forums tale of painting which has focused me on painting at least 1 unit a month.

I have a set monthly budget for models and this year I have stuck to it well.  I have purchased most of the stuff I want to with only a few odds and sods not yet purchased (new data cards for scars and raven guard). I tried to do a log like doc where painting models unlocks money for new ones. Using a pretty similar scoring system to him I only managed to paint 50% of the money I spent. Maybe I should just double the points for each model painted!

This year I have done 2 new things, I have started my first knight and painted from scratch a large marine vehicle (Stormraven). Both of these are great models and I feel more comfortable painting them now.

Anyway here are some pics:

Another squad (2/5) of centurions

Stormraven just awaiting transfers

The start of the knight

Looking ahead to 2016. Hopefully I can clear my back log of models. I did a reasonable job this year and managed to clear 30-40% of stuff I had at the beginning of 2015. I need to go back and tidy up my battle company with correct shoulder pad markings and chapter insignia. This may take a bit of time but I think it will be worth doing.

I’ll sign off now as I need to prepare for the Code's special December treat for you all.

Marine expansion

It’s been a while since my last post but I have been busy further expanding my chapter.

I have been working on this captain:

Some more terminators:

This now brings up a total of 30 of the ranged weapon type

My first squad of centurions:

I have loved the models so much I have just built another squad and have a few more in boxes!

I am currently working on this:

I still have a few of the details to do in it, but I am very pleased on how it has turned out.

 I am planning to get some custom water transfers for my marines and will decorate them with some of the chapter symbols, and re do the correct company/squad markings.

This may be a bit of a tedious job but I think it will be well worth it

Battle Report: Marines V Eldar

I am certainly getting good use out of my games board and scenery. Over the Easter weekend my dad came down with his steadily growing Eldar army.

He has only been collecting for about 1 year and has managed to get a fair bit of stuff. I recently purchased a job lot on Warseer for about 50% of cost which really boosted his collection


As this was his first game of 7th we kept the points low (1500)

His list (CAD)

Autarch
Spiritseer
4 dire avengers + exarch
4 fire dragons + exarch
5 Scorpians + exarch
10 Guardians
10 Guardians + missile launcher
10 Guardians + missile launcher
2 falcons
5 wraithguard in a wave serpent

My list was a pretty standard battle company (well as much as I could fit in)

Chapter Tactics: Ultramarines

Librarian in terminator armour
5 terminators with CML
10 tacts in rhino flamer missile
10 tacts in rhino plasmagun/cannon and pistol
5 scouts in a storm
Dakka predator
Landspeeder typhoon
10 Assault marines 2 flamers and a plasma pistol power sword
10 devastators with 3 missile and 1 lascannon

the army (without typhoon)

I tried to field a bit of everything as this was one of his first games and he still learning the rules. This would allow him to face most stuff and get an understanding of what he would be facing. We agreed no flyers as he did not have any.

We rolled for the mission and it was the escalation objective missions. Turn 1 – 1 objective, turn 2 – 2 objectives and so on.

Again I am not going to give a turn by turn report, but here are some of the main highlights.

• Forgetting I had a typhoon until turn 2, which it then stayed in reserves until turn 4! I could have done with it as in trying to get first blood I had a falcon left on 1HP and 2 missiles could have killed it.
• Forgetting about Chapter tactics: Ultramarines are not a permanent force “buff”. You have 3 doctrines to use throughout the game
• 1 round of shooting from a guardian squad taking out my terminators and librarian (turn 2)
• Spirit Seer psychic checks. Turn 1 perils looses a power, turn 2 perils rolls 6, turn 3 fails to cast warp charge 1 with 3 dice, turn 4 perils rolls 6 turn 5 perils rolls 6, turn 6 fails to cast with 3 dice.
• Scouts and storm were rubbish again (punishment for scouts not being painted and using a stand in model for storm?), combi melta failed to hit the falcon, storm gave up a VP for first blood.

This is now the second game in a row where my marines did not do anything great. They did a lot of nothing really. But yet again their versatility pulled off an unlikely win. At the end of turn 2 I was 7-2 down and had just lost my terminators and warlord about a 5th of the army, and yet after that my dad failed to score a VP despite getting more cards. We did manipulate the objective cards once or twice, blowing up a building and destroying a flyer we got rid of. Generally I say we play the deck and tough if you get a duff card, but that is the luck of the draw. In the end I won 16-7.

It was an interesting game where again sticking to plans and focusing on the objectives in hand were key to what I did. We tried to do that with my dad’s game plan too, but the elder just don’t have the versatility that marines do (when you are playing a non spammy list)


Pictures:

setup

 

Striking Scorpions (painted by my brother as a present for my dad)

In Game pictures

I see you

What is this snap fire rule........

I survived being hit bu teh aurtach in a challenge.......I hit back and all 3 attacks with teh power fist hit. 2's to kill........

Pictures towards the end of the game

Final positions

I have one more game tonight and then I will be back on expanding the chapter

Battle Report Marines V Tau

Battle report

7th edition has been out a while now and I have not yet tried using an Unbound list. I have read the usual whinging on the web that hey are over powered and cheese lists destined to bring the end of the universe, but I wanted to try them out for myself.

I think the first major thing was to let my opponent know what I was thinking, he agreed so he knew I was taking an unbound. We also agreed we would be playing maelstrom missions, as these I think are the best to play and would balance the unbound potential to take whatever I wanted to its lack of having objective secured.

My list was:
Chapter Tactics – Salamanders
BRAY'ARTH ASHMANTLE
5 Assault terminators (5*TH/SS)
5 Assault terminators (5*LC)
5 Assault terminators (1*TH/SS, 4*LC)
5 Terminators (no upgrades)
5 Terminators (Assault Cannon)
5 Terminators (Heavy Flamer)
5 Terminators (Cyclone Missile Launcher)
This was a venerable dread leading members of the 1st company in to battle, hopefully more Tesco cheddar than some Colston Basset Stilton.

My opponent (Wulfen_Kind) list was:
Dark Stider
4 *12 Firewarriors in Devilfish
Stealth Squad
Pathfinder Squad
2 Hammer heads with Ion Cannons
TAU XV107 R'VARNA BATTLESUIT

We played mission 1 where each turn we had to have 3 objectives to get, and the set up was diagonally. I won the roll and set up 3 squads and Ashmantle, the 3 Assault terminator squads and the heavy flamer squad went in to reserve (forgetting that they are not Deathwing and would not start coming in on turn 1)
Another slight hiccup in my plan was WK stealing the initiative and getting to start he shooting on my straight away.
I am only going to do highlights as I did not take detailed notes throughout the game

Turn 1 – I only lost 3 terminators to shooting, most of it was out of range, but one squad did kill 2 of the terminators. 2 1’2 on 3 dice rolled.....I had a horrible feeling 1s would haunt me all game! More importantly he picked up all his objectives. In my turn I was only able to achieve 1 of them. 3-1 WK

Turn 2- a stellar turn from WK. He drew objective 46 (control all objectives and gain 3+D3VP’s). He had enough objective secured stuff to sit next to my squads and still claim the objective. He got all of them, and 4 VPs in addition to the 2 other ones totalled 6 for that turn. This move did leave his forces spread out and close to my units. I only lost another 3 terminators, so still no first blood. In my turn all of the assault terminators turned up and dropped close to his lines. I got first blood, but managed to lose a remaining terminator in a squad to over-watch fire!  I got another bonus VP for Ashmantle killing a vehicle in close combat. The score was 9-3 to WK

At this point my big problem was covering the board (and on one turn I got a real duff objective or destroying a building) being able to collect the objectives if and when they came up. I changed tactics a bit and went for the kill. If I could kill enough and stop him scoring more I may be able to get objectives to kill thing and get lucky on being near an objective.

This was going to plan, and by the and o nturn 5 I corned his big battle suit and killed a drone in combat.....he failed the following break test and ran off the board! He only had a fleeing pathfinder, a Hammer Head and a devilfish (down to 1HP) left on the board. I still had 10 terminators and Ashamantle left, but the score was 12-8 WK. I could just do this with another turn.......YES!

Turn 6 – he got no more points and tried to manoeuvre stuff away from my guys. In my turn I drew objectives I was near and I had linebreaker, so the game was 12-12, but I was able to take out the last of his stuff and clear the table of Xenos scum.

In the end it turned out to be a very close game indeed.

What have I learnt?

1. Mobile units with eth objective secured rule are a must have!
2. Big expensive models don’t really get their points back. Both Ashmantle and the big suit killed a bit but were generally ignored and didn’t make their points back. Ashmantle could do with a drop pod but in the current marine codex that is unavailable for him without ally BA/SW shenanigans. He got a bonus VP and may have done more against a more aggressive army
3. Unbound can be fun and not necessarily chesses fests. They are hard to play with against Battle forged list and playing Maelstrom mission. They would probably be quite strong in the older Emperors Will games
4. Maelstrom missions are a great leveller, and I think they are the best part of 7th edition, to win games it is not about just killing the enemy (difficult to say when I won the game by killing all the enemy!) but other games that I have played have showed this. Previously all the other missions you would sit about killing each other for 4 turns then go grab an objective with what was left. Now form turn to turn things can change and you always need to be able to get around the whole board on any given turn.
Pictures

Battlefield

The Boys

The Enemy

 

 

Mid Game

 

Not sure how i won with dice rolling like this....

A close up of my current terrain project:

 

Must get on an finish off Ashmantle, and the terms, and scenery and......on and on and on.

Chapter Expansion

I have been reasonably productive this last month. My main 2015 objective is to clear the back log of models i have.

First up here are a Tactical Squad and a Drop Pod.

The tactical squad is my 10th for my chapter, and the 3rd for my drop pod company. It is made up from bits I bought in a job lot a while ago. I stripped them down and repainted them. The Sergeant is an old MkII veteran model. Originally he had a bolt pistol and chain sword. I have enough squad leaders’ armed like this and wanted something different. Initially I was going to give him a plasma pistol. Unfortunately I didn’t have any in the left hand only right handed ones. In the end I rummaged through my bits box and found suitable kit options for him, a Grav-pistol and a Power Fist.

 The other change is the blue cloak. I noticed on this model there was book. So it got me thinking why would he be carrying this item? The story I have for him is that he starting to show some psychic potential and so has started his training with the companies librarians. He has the honour of wearing a blue cloak as a result of this

 

The Drop Pod is another one of my cheap purchases. I got a load of pods about 4 years ago for about £10 a pod. Unfortunately they were painted already. Some of my paint has had difficulty covering it. Over all I am happy with it as a gaming piece, rather than any well painted model.

 

I have also been buying more Forgeworld goodies.

First is Bray’arth Ashmantle, the Salamander Venerable Dreadnaught. I have completed about 80% of him and am currently working on detailing him.

 

Next up is a Battle-Automata. I really like the model, but don’t see collecting an army of Ad-mec. I do see an inquisitor with close ties to the Ad-mec being given one as a body guard. That is how I will use him. Again he is about 80% complete with a bit more detailing and highlighting required.

 

Finally I have built up some more models I got in the job lot. In total I got 8 Assault marines, 30 Tactical marines, 5 Devs, 10 Terms  (AoBR) and 5 scouts, all for £30. This month I aim to do some terms and some scouts.

The terms I have converted to lightening claw ones. I had a full set of claws so I only needed to buy some shoulder pads. I was able to pick them up off eBay for £3.  Here they are all built up.

 

The scouts I wanted a close combat squad. They will eventually get a storm as transport. I think a good load out for them is close combat blade and bolt pistol. They were all armed like this. I wanted the sergeant to be armed with a combi melta and a power fist. I had loads of spare combi weapons from the sternguard squads I bought a while ago, and the fist came from the command squad set I got with Sevrin Loth.

 

Both of these squads have now been under coated and are on my painting table. The expansion contiues