Code40k A History

Hi All,

Today I'm going to do something of a memory lane post.....  To get some context to this post a brief history is required.  Code40k is simply our group name and came about from a campaign run back in 2006 run by Trevdog Howler.  On the back of this we set up a yahoo group which we use to communicate with each other to this day.  All of the contributors to this blog are in our group which continues to grow and migrate to other countries.... if you can use the word group essentially we just all share the same passion for model games.

The interesting thing about the yahoo group is it allows files and pictures to be uploaded to it which is useful when running a campaign between friends.  More importantly for this post it gives me the chance to go and grab some stuff from the archive and bring it back to life!

For the statos out there we have sent 8,058 messages to each other talking about this great hobby!!

Right on to some highlights of the group known as the CODE40K

The First Big Xmas game well at least the one I have photos of XMAS'06

This was I think pre apocalypse days and we came up with a flag scoring game using a massive city fight board.  You can see one such flag in picture 6.  Basically the side with control of the most buildings won.  Now if memory serves the conscript building using the ammo dump special rules caused mayhem in this game!  Also Honourary mention goes to LukoDakka for the plague ogryns in picture 3 they stole the show that day!  Also if you look closely you can see his face in the background of pic 4 which made me laugh!

This last shot shows the catachan jungle fighters hanging out in the big cathedral building we made for the event and I noticed on the yahoo group some work in progress shots of this beauty....

We put show much effort into this piece, alas we rarely used it as it was just too big!!  In the end I turned it into 3 seperate pieces so it could be used more often.  But for the first Xmas game it was the bomb!

As we moved in 2007 onwards Mr DarthDarlow, Hypaspist and Boss Bludtoof began to join us and we started to get bigger and crazier with our games.

DarthDarlow was the eldar Man and produce some great Biel Tan:

These were awesome although Darth to this day is the worlds best roller of 1's.  It got better on the vehicles where in a moment of sheer brilliance or madness Darth painted rose thorns on:

The thing that stikes me about this table is how devoid of terrain it is we certainly wouldn't do that these days!

2009 also saw the continuation of the ongoing war between my Space Wolves and Red Mists Khorne boys certainly a battle of the ages....

Love this photo really shows off the quality of Red Mists painting.  Don't fancy my Grey Hunters chances in this situation though!

2009 Also saw Hypaspist Stag Do....................... In a Battle Bunker yes a battle bunker remember them!

As with any stag do it wouldn't work without the obligatory T-Shirt

Action Shots

December 09 and we were at the big game antics again and this time Hypa had taken some great photos but also kindly captioned them which I shall re-create a few here....

The Setup

Who Let the Dogs Out

Never Trust A Grot With Paint

Beatifull!

 Faasans of Em

 Impenetrable Shield

The Scout Lines Up an Ambitious Shot.

Stonking Game!

Ok I could keep going but the post is quite long now and my wife requires my presence.  All I would like to say for all the moaning we do about this hobby it gives some great times with great people!!!!

Signing off

DOC

Warhammer Chapel Showcase

Hi All,

Doc here with a side shift into a small warhammer project.  Some time ago I picked up a plastic warhammer chapel off ebay on a bit of a whim.  Unfortunately it was extremely poorly put together with none of the sides lining up and the clock being stuck on upside down.  Also it had been put together with superglue.  Anyway I thought oh well live with it as it will probably break pulling it apart so I just started to paint it as it was!



If you look closely you will see the rail around the centre of the building doesn't line up at all!  In the end I simply couldn't live with it so I pulled it apart and luckily nothing broke! 



















Here are some shots of the finished building which I used as an opportunity to use to have a second go at OSL and practice a wet blend which I used on the cream stone affect on the walls.  Overall I'm pretty pleased with the result.  As always feedback is welcome.

Thats All Folks DOC out....

Code40k is Proud to Present Worcester War 2

Morning All,

DOC here back to announce CODE40k's second event aptly named Worcester War 2.  The event will be held on Saturday the 8th February 2014 so plenty of time to get painting and plotting.  The event gives players the opportunity to play 3 games of 40k at 1500pts.

We have taken the opportunity after the success of the first event to make things better!  Firstly the event will increase to 30 players.  Next we will put food on for the day following on from feedback from the first event.  There are some rule changes which will be discussed over the coming weeks after I have given people the chance to digest the rules pack.  Needless to say they are aimed at making the event easier to run and participate in.  Lastly and importantly we will have two organisers myself and Innermech to make it easier for us to help you guys enjoy your day. 

For this event we also have 2 sponsors Worcester Wargamers (many thanks to Andy the store owner) and Codedesignsuk both of which will be providing prizes for the event. 

Ok on to the pretty bit the poster:

Please feel free to share this :-)

Next the most important part the link to the rules pack and how you book your place is here:

Please post any questions you may have in the comments or send me an email, look forward to seeing you there.

DOC signing off.........

Playing 40k a Different Way - Return to Code40K Battle 2

Hi All,

Doc again this time with the next instalment of the Return to Code40k campaign that myself and Trev are running.  This is very much a slow burn and we jump back into it when time allows.  So if you are new to our narrative campaign or require a recap please see here and here.  After battle 1 the administrator barely escaped with Captain Kearosen Diritz and Enforcer Irongate was injured in action.  After the result of the first game which was in April!!  We thought about many story directions we could take and decided on........

Background to Battle 2

The Nikatur Industrial Farm (S33) incident – a.k.a. Horrors from below

Nikatur S33 is the southern Industrial Farm that has 15 sq kilometers of land for growing Taluneep which is one of the local food sources for the populace.  It is a hardy grain.  The plant is able to grow in tough soil conditions where a shallow root system is necessary.

The farming community had been attacked recently and replacement workers were being selected ready to take their places.  An early investigation lead by a team from the Head of Farming Collogica found that the farm workers had disappeared without trace.  

 

Unknown to all until now, was the fact that the rebels known as "the Church" had infiltrated the farm working community and were about to take control of the facility when an unexpected attack happened.

One of the rebels was able to send an emergency message back to base before they were all killed.  The Rebels from the main HQ have sent a force to investigate for themselves what happened to their comrades and to take control of the facility.

The Adepta Sororitas from the Order of the Blazing Prophet had captured three Rebels traveling to Nikatur S33 just before the incident happened.  Their interrogation revealed, to their surprise, the undercover schemes of the Rebels at the Industrial Farm.  But they were not able to extract the whereabouts of the Rebel base from their captives before they died.  Cannoness Aubrisha was not happy with the Hospitalers about this. So, she has ordered a force of her sisters to go to the Farm to find out more information.  She has informed the Governor and the Farming Collogica of this, who were grateful for her assistance.

Both the Sisters and Rebels were unaware the mysterious Eldar had committed the original raid.  The Eldar had foretold the awakening of the necroms for hundreds of years in advance and as such seek to stop it ever occurring.  Even they with the benefit of such foresight had not retrieved all of the necrontyr artefacts in the area yet and as the battle commenced were returning to the farm with haste.  

 

Battle 2 Horrors From Below! Game Mechanics

Battle starts with the Rebels of The Church already at the Farming facility.  The Adepta Sororitas arrive from one of two table edges randomly determined before the game starts

Primary Objective – Necron Artifact

There are 4 counters on the board.  One of them will be the location of the Necron object. It is worth 3vps and can be picked up and carried by any infantry model.  That model cannot move more than 6” each turn and cannot run.  The other counters are booby traps and when set off will release 1-3 bases of Scarabs.  Hand to hand combat will take place that turn with no one gaining the charge bonus.

Secondary Objective – Comms Relay

The Comms Relay is located in the main building in the centre of the board.  It is immoveable and is worth 2vps to the side that is within 3”.  Any infantry model can control the Comms Relay.  It grants a 5+ cover save.

Other objectives are; Slay the Warlord and First Blood.

The Eldar arrive on Turn 3 from a random table edge.  They will attack models controlling the Necron Artifact, or if the Necron Artifact is not revealed they will attempt to find it themselves and target nearest units to them.

Falling back.

The Rebels fall back to the nearest table edge.

The Adepta Sororitas fall back to the table edge they had as deployment.

The Eldar fall back to the table edge they had as deployment.

Turn order for when the Eldar arrive and when there are Scarabs roaming the board.  Suggest their moves etc take place at the beginning of the turn before either player starts their turn.

 

The forces we used consisted of: 500pts Sisters, 500pts Rebels (Siege of Vraks list) and the Eldar Force was Pre determined as Falcon with 5 Guardians with a Warlock and 3 Jetbikes. 

So this was our loose break down of how we wanted the game to run.  Like with many games of these type this was a fairly loose game and we were far more interested in the story arc than the actual result of the battle!!

The first 3 photos below show the Rebels set up and the sisters arriving from the far board edge.  Please note the 4 objectives are the white circle counters which were in a square set up around the hill top farm.  The Vox objective is in the main building in photo 2.

 

 

We had designed the game so whoever had the objective was likely to be the recipient of Eldar attack and or Scarab attack.  However in a stroke of luck or not as the case maybe the first counter the rebels searched turned out to be the objective this instantly meant no scarab attack was likely to take place.  However, it was also the closest objective to the sisters starting position and as such put the rebels on the back foot early on.

 

 

Sisters Turn 2 and the sisters go for it early, I'm guessing thinking they can grab it before the Eldar arrive.  The target of this unit of sisters being my Rabble Workers 14 strong before this attack and in control of the objective the effect of the attack....

 

 



 So the rabble workers sustain 11 casualties with the remaining 3 fleeing the field of battle never to be seen again.  So now me the rebel leader was already in an early dilemma if I marched out into the open with this small force was just going to be mowed down by bolter fire.  So the sneaky rebels chose a different route.....

 

So the rebels moved up from the other side of the hill and hid between the two buildings where they were mostly out of line of sight and decided to wait for the eldar which you can see are swooping around the top of this shot.  Risky manoeuvre letting the sisters have the objective but the rebels were aware the objective could move no more than 6" a turn so they had time!

The rebels did however, also move the chimera down the hill to block the sisters attacking from both sides of the farmstead.  This also managed to remove a hull point from the rhino with the multilaser this turn.

The sisters take the opportunity to move up and swamp around the objective.  At this point I was thinking oh jeeze how do I kill all this power armour with a few lasguns, Mortars and a Rocket Team which cant even see this part of the battlefield.  As it turns out the night was young!

The sisters move past the objective to intercept the incoming eldar attack and kill a jetbike rider.  Behind this sister squad the veteran sister leading this expedition  Julianne dismounts with her 2 celestian bodyguards to claim the objective.  The eldar meanwhile realise they are little far off  to make a direct assault this turn and so move to put a building between them and the rebels.  They do however start to return fire on the sisters.

Meanwhile the rebels....

Are also getting some sister wrath as the chimera is taken out in close assault with krak grenades!!  Unfortunately I didn't get a shot of it just before this the rebels used the heavy flamer on the chimera on the squad and killed 5 so it wasn't all bad!  Also the rebels had succeeded in bringing this sister squad away from the objective.

 So deliberately I have kept this out of shot until now for the last few turns this is how the rebels manoeuvred into position.  Red squad climbed the roof and started to pour fire down onto the sisters and transport the one plasma gun proving very handy!!  The Rebels command squad led by Enforcer Vorxic moved out of the large building leaving the vox unclaimed and went in the building.  In this shot they are on top for playing ease but they are actually inside the lean too.  We had decided this building was a 1 level building with 3 entrances.  Tatically this ended up keeping the rebels in the game.  In addition to this the Ogyrn Handler OX and his raging warhounds moved out of the building having again deciding the slow route was better than in the open!

Spring the trap...

The rebels sprung from the building flaming the sisters squad and charging the remaining sisters with the warhounds finishing them off in short order.  At present though this was not going to win the day as the sisters were still in charge of objective and using their rhino APC to block the path to the objective.

Meanwhile the other sister squad and command go toe to toe with the eldar incursion force.  The eldar guardians disembarking and killing a couple more sisters before losing three of their number in return and falling back behind the falcon.  Another jetbike rider was also killed not by the sisters but by the rocket team of the rebels.  The sisters numbers had started to drop now but all importantly they still controlled the objective. 

So at the end of approximately turn 7 (we had no turn limit we had decided to play until we reached a satisfactory end to the battle / story arc) this is how the few remaining sisters and rebels were positioned.  At this point the rebels (me) thought they were now in a strong position and so attacked with all they had....

The sisters wisely used the rhino to once again cover their retreat all the available rebels moved towards the objective and the OX and his warhounds charged the rhino wrecking it.  Meanwhile the eldar re grouped and mounted the falcon once more.

At this point in the game I got a little engrossed in the action and missed a complete turn without taking pictures (Mental note for next time I do this!) So the next shot shows the situation in the penultimate turn



The Hounds had easily killed the last sister squad and charged through to the last sisters still in action to the two celestians and veteran sister superior Julianne.  The hounds killed the celestians and indeed took the remaining wounds of Julianne.  However, we had agreed before the game that our two leaders could use the necromunda table to see what happened when they lost their last wound.  With this Julianne stumbled to her feet to carry on the fight.  In the meantime you can see the elder had used the best facet speed to interject on the fight destroying the command squad of the rebels and laying low Enforcer Vorxic who despite his roll on the necromunda table immediately bled out.  It was like being back at the start of the game once the rebels get on to an open field they die real quick!

 

This last photo shows the epic conclusion on a battle we think lasted ten turns!!  The Eldar joined the fight with the hounds and Julianne just about managing to win the day with only a warlock left.  The falcon meanwhile had made light work of the remaining rebels.  Although it was caught by the supporting rocket team losing another hull point.

This was a great game and giving yourself over to the story sometimes isn't a bad thing it created a great ending as did the first game playing this way.  Talking about the result as per the victory conditions we had laid down at the start didn't come in to the post battle discussion rather the next part of the story and what kind of battle we might play next.  I'm also intrigued to see if any of you canny readers out there have figured out which book some of this has been loosely based on? 

So what next has sister Julianne survived her wounds have the rebels sent further forces to the farm.  What will the governor and administrator do in response to the increasing elder and rebel threat.  Will the awakening gather pace? 

Until next time.... Hope you enjoyed the read

DOC out.

 

Introducing CODE DESIGNS UK

Hi All,

Doc back again with some information on a new venture here at the CODE.  Myself and Inner Mech with input from Red Mist and others have started up a new venture called CODE DESIGNS.  We have started producing bases and will be venturing out into small scenery pieces such as objective markers very soon.

For this new venture we have created a seperate blog which can be found here.  Please go on over and have a read of our start up post and please please follow us......

Thanks

DOC & INNERMECH

Sons of Horus - Abaddon & Loken

Another mini update
This time i've just finished assembling Abaddon & Loken.
On Abaddon, I went for the sword & not the TL Bolter as I think it just looks better, it also suits the scene a lot better in my opinion. They are excellent models and were easy to assemble with not a great deal of flash or air bubbles which the Justaerins suffered from. The hardest thing with these guys is making sure when you glue the heads they are in the right place, in terms of how they fit on the complete piece. The last thing you want is them engaging each other but looking in completely the wrong directions!
Hopefully I've managed to capture them staring lovingly into each others eyes!
Till next time
Luko Dakka

Sons of Horus Justaerin Terminators continued

A quick update on my Sons of Horus Terminators I've been working on. I've now cleaned them up, patched up a few air bubbles and smoothed out the armour where necessary. They are all assembled now and pinned to their bases ready for undercoating. Looking forward to painting these bad boys now. These guys will be Abaddon's bodyguard who I will be getting started on fairly soon.

Just some pics of them below.

Thunderbolts Master of the Forge on Bike with Conversion Beamer.

Hi All

Finally finished my Master of the Forge on bike, it's taken quite a while since I first started this model. I spent a lot of time deciding how I wanted to do this one, I knew I wanted to use an attack bike as his ride with the conversion beamer in the sidecar, I just didn't know how I wanted to represent the gun. Bear in mind that I wanted to do this model as soon as I'd read the 5th edition marine codex, that's a while ago now and back then there was no model for the conversion beamer available unless you could get hold of the very old metal version from the rogue trader era dreadnoughts. Way back in the mists of time!
So I've been umming and arring for a long time, never quite happy with any of the ideas I had, then lo and behold the Contemptor was released a couple of years ago, with a conversion beamer available; alas I don't much like it, it's a bit too small for the look I had in mind.
So I looked around a bit more, saw some dudes version on ebay, he'd used a pair of lascannons in the sidecar, didn't like that much either. Then I was rummaging through my bitz box a while back when I was building my quad autocannon dread and found the remnants of an ironclad kit, specifically the bits that make the seismic hammer. The penny dropped as they say and I finally had my eureka moment, several sensor bitz, targeting gubbinz and some chopping later and I had my unique conversion beamer.
I wanted it to look BIG, I feel it should be something he's been tinkering on for many years in the depths of the forge, using his position of authority to mess with potentially dangerous ancient archeotech for the benefit of the chapter and what he's developed is a unique beam weapon.
Anyway see what you think......

Overall I'm pleased with the model, the master of the forge himself is built from the legs of a marine biker, the torso and head from the iron warriors forge father I've used bits from in one of my earlier techmarines, a biker right arm and the left arm from a missile launcher devastator, vehicle crew shoulder guards and a basic plastic backpack. Originally I'd looked at using a techmarine figure but cutting off the legs without messing up all the cabling and other details proved too much and rather than have it look messy I plumped for this.

As ever feedback is welcome.

Bluddtoof

Code40k's Next Event: Thoughts on what that may look like.

Hi All,

Doc here, so a while back I promised to write some thoughts down on what it is like to run an event.  Well as per usual life has got in the way and it has taking me until now to get round to it.  Also its getting me round to the process of thinking about Worcester War II.

So after Worcester War we received quite a lot of positive feedback which was muchly appreciated!  However, like anything there were a few problems most notably I did not have a sound plan for when someone had to leave.  I ended stepping in to the breach...  this meant running and playing in the event.  This is not a good state of affairs and as such we will have two organisers in the next event to stop such a problem occurring again.

The other major cause of confusion was the scoring system using the old warhammer style victory points system.  This is where me the organiser playing was not good otherwise I could have gone to each table and helped the totting up process as they got to the end of the game. 

Ok, so the next train of thought is when will we play another WW and where will it be held?  Originally we thought along the lines of November.  Due to family commitments and such this is no longer an appropriate time.  So now the proposal will be end of Jan'14.  A geek weekend to get rid of post Christmas and the weather is shocking blues!

Proposed Changes

The main change I think needed to the event (and I promote comments) is to the scoring system to simplify it?  Last time we used a simple 10 for a win, 3 for a draw and 0 for loss.  This gave us a
basic ranking for the players.  Obviously many players would then have the same score and require the use of warhammer victory points to separate the players on the same score. 

I propose removing the warhammer points and using a bonus system to the points scored above:

+2pts for killing an independent character in a challenge.
+3pts for completing a secondary objective (these will be detailed in the rule pack but basically an extra little objective to go with the standard ones for the eternal war mission you will be playing)
+3pts for wiping out an opponent

-1pt for any unit which flees the battlefield (cowardice should not be rewarded!)
-3pts for being wiped out or conceding

This list isn't exhaustive thoughts people?

Another change I propose is to army composition to remove duplicate choices in elites, fast attack and heavy support sections.  I have read others thoughts around this particularly on from the fang who runs a successful blog wars event which is on to its 6th event now.  This will stop hell turkey lists amongst others and hopefully promote more varied army lists.  To coincide with this I will now ask for army lists to be sent prior to the event and approved. 

Ok, so these are my thoughts at present, feedback is always welcome especially as this is not set in stone.  The aim would to be have the rules pack, date and venue set by the end of October. 

In the meantime keep gaming people

DOC out.........