Fire For Effect!

Today, after what seemed like hours and hours of struggling, I finished the last two mortar teams for the Darendaran X Mechanised. This now gives me 11 painted men... out of 88*. Next!

 Mortar squad, Red (1) Platoon, Yellow (3) Company, Black (2) Battalion, Darendaran X Mechanised.

And, of course, while photographing them, I realised I'd not painted the winged skull on the last mortar gold, nor had I added the Darendaran 'Imperator Aegis' patch on the left arm of the guardsman firing his lasrifle. Bah! Humbug! I shall rectify these errors... later. Probably around the time I go through the squads adding NCO stripes. For now, they can remain.

Next up will be Red Platoon's command squad. And maybe the combat egg. I should probably start counting painting points again actually - I'll start with the HQ group from earlier and carry on from there.

Painting Points:
This Week: 6
2014 Total: 11

* It'll end up being more than 88, I still need to get their priest and psyker. And (re)base an Inquisitor and her retinue.

Glorious Victory! The God-Emperor Protects!

So tonight was the first outing of my Imperial Guard with the new Codex. I rolled out troops that, in some cases, haven't seen action since 1996 and 2nd Edition. In fact, most of my figures and vehicles on the board were bought in the late 1990s!

I took:

Expeditionary Force LEAM:

Company HQ:
Captain Steiner with boltgun, power sword, carapace armour
4 Veterans with 2 sniper rifles, medi-pack
Chimera with 2x Heavy Bolters

Leman Russ Troop
Vanquisher with hull lascannon and storm bolter
Leman Russ with hull lascannon, sponson heavy bolters, hunter-killer rocket
Leman Russ with hull lascannon, sponson heavy bolters, storm bolter

Platoon HQ:
Lieutenant with laspistol and sword
4 Guardsmen with Plasmagun, medic, lascannon team
Chimera with multilaser, heavy bolter, heavy stubber.

1 Squad:
Sergeant with shotgun.
9 Guardsmen with flamer, rocket launcher
Chimera with multilaser, heavy bolter

2 Squad:
Sergeant with lasgun
9 Guardsmen with meltagun, heavy bolter
Chimera with multilaser, heavy bolter

3 Squad:
Sergeant with lasgun
9 Guardsmen with plasma gun, autocannon
Chimera with multilaser, heavy bolter

Veteran Squad:
Sergeant with power sword, laspistol
9 Veterans with plasma gun, autocannon
All have carapace armour
Chimera with multilaser, heavy bolter, storm bolter

My opponent, George, took:

Traitor Space Wolves:

Librarian with plasma pistol and force axe
5x Blood Claws (?) with various close combat weapons
5x Grey Hunters (?) with boltguns
5x Scouts, with meltagun
3x Thunderwolf Cavalry with 1 Thunder Hammer, all with Storm Shields
3x Thunderwolf Cavalry with 1 Thunder Hammer, all with Storm Shields
3x Thunderwolf Cavalry with 1 Thunder Hammer, all with Storm Shields
6x Long Fangs with 5x Rocket Launchers
6x Long Fangs with 5x Plasma Cannons

I was quite concerned about the Thunderwolf Cavalry; I've seen them in action. They are very, very, very dangerous!

So...

Space Wolf Deployment, taken from his left flank. In order, from closest to furthest: Thunderwolf Cav 1, 5x Blood Claws with Librarian, 6x Long Fangs with Rocket Launchers, Thunderwolf Cav 2, 6x Long Fangs with Plasma Cannons, 5x Grey Hunters, Thunderwolf Cav 3.

Guard Deployment, taken from my right flank. In order, closest to furthest: Squad 3 with Chimera, Platoon Command Chimera, Veteran Squad with Chimera, Platoon Command Squad, Leman Russ Troop, Company Command with Chimera, Squad 1 with Chimera, Squad 2 with Chimera. 25 men and three Chimeras on each flank, centre held by a Leman Russ troop!

We had Night Fighting on turn 1, and I lost the roll to see if I could seize the initiative and go first, which meant that...

End Space Wolf Turn 1: The first thing he did was move everything but his Long Fangs. The Thunderwolves were scarily fast, with unit 1 being in place for - if he rolled three 6s - a first turn charge on the Platoon Command Chimera! However he had to shoot first... so he did. 5 rockets launched at the Leman Russes, three hits, three sixes, three failed cover saves (shrouded by darkness you see) and that meant that, BOOM, Charlie Three went up in smoke! Arrrgh! Then, firing his plasma cannons, he scored no less than three direct hits on the five exposed models of Squad 1, causing 15 wounds, of which I failed 12 cover saves. Bye-bye Squad 1, and hello First Blood and 1 Victory Point (VP)! Eek. At least his Thunderwolves failed their charge. I was not feeling confident at this point, but I squared my shoulders and fought on (well, began to fight).

End Guard Turn 1: I didn't move, because I didn't want to get closer to the maniacs. Instead I opened fire on the approaching Cavalry, killing (!) two from Unit 1 and one from Unit 3. Squad 1's rocket launcher slotted a Long Fang with plasma cannon, exacting some small measure of revenge for their immolated mates in Squad 1. Note to self; 3+ invulnerable saves laugh at high-strength, single-shot weapons. Multi-lasers and lasguns, however...

End Space Wolf Turn 2: Again, everything but his Long Fangs moved. The shooting phase was (slightly) less violent; one hull point removed from Captain Count Geranium's Charlie One, and only seven dead from Squad 2; but they didn't break thanks to the Draconian Disciplinarian, Captain Steiner, yelling that to die for the Emperor was "...a Guardsman's greatest duty and highest glory!" Then the Thunderwolves hit. I mean, literally. Just running into the Chimeras caused them to both explode! The resulting blasts killed two men from Squad 3 and two men (including the plasma gunner) from the Veteran Squad, and didn't even scratch the grinning Space Wolves. Bah. Luckily for me, however, Thunderwolf Unit 3 had failed its charge, so the situation hadn't quite reached 'disaster' levels yet.

End Guard Turn 2: Well, it was time to move. The remnants of Squad 1 moved up, flamer first, between the wreck of their Chimera and the stationary form of Squad 2's Chimera. The Captain and his command team leapt into their Chimera, and the driver hightailed it away to the relative safety of the Leman Russ troop, which moved around a little bit so Charlie One wasn't the closest vehicle to the rocket launchers any more. Squad 2's Chimera put a wound onto Thunderwolf  Unit 3, while shooting from the Veterans and Squad 3 killed the last of Thunderwolf Unit 1. The Veteran Squad Chimera and Platoon Command Chimera blasted away at the Blood Claws in the building, killing three. Things were looking up (sort of), although all the fire I could throw at Thunderwolf Unit 2 did absolutely nothing. Flamed, shotgunned, battle cannon'd, all sorts. However...

Shot! Leutnant Hahn's anti-tank team have just vaporised a Blood Claw who made the foolish mistake of standing in the first floor window of the building in the centre of the picture. Medals all round! One shot, one kill! Also, my opponent, the good-natured George, bemoaning the loss of his fourth Blood Claw.

End Space Wolf Turn 3: The high water mark for the Space Puppies, really. Movement saw his Grey Hunters finally reach the building on his Right Flank that held an objective (the little ivory blocks in the pictures) and his Thunderwolves from Unit 3 smashed apart another Chimera by running into it. Squad 2 was reduced by Plasma Cannon fire to just one man. His Long Fang rockets knocked my Command Chimera down to one hull point, and I began to feel confident - his Thunderwolves from Unit 2 were now in the open, directly in front of all my guns...!

End Guard Turn 3: This is the turn where I won, basically. I dismounted my Company Command Squad, as I knew that the Chimera was a sitting duck and badly damaged, and those damn' Scouts would be turning up soon. I then moved my tanks to maximise the firepower I could bring to bear on his Thunderwolves... and blew them all away. 3 VPs to me, please! My infantry had been mauled, with 23 dead out of 50, but the tanks were still there, still threatening and keeping me in the fight.

End Space Wolf Turn 4: His last throw of the dice, really. With little left, his Scouts Outflanked onto the board, moving their meltagun up to try and assassinate Captain Count Geranium of Bigbush and Littletree in Charlie One, his Grey Hunters consolidated onto their objective, and his Blood Claw and Librarian moved up a bit more. His Scouts hit! then penetrated! then stunned the tank. Poor George! His Grey Hunters, however, did manage to shoot dead the last man from Squad 2 (incidentally, his last kill of the game). I'm still not sure why he didn't charge Charlie One and try to meltabomb it, but there we go. I think he forgot in the heat of the moment.

End Guard Turn 4: I moved the Chimeras on my Right Flank up to secure the 4VP objective and threaten the Blood Claw/Librarian, and shuffled the tanks around so that they weren't so threatened by the Rocket Launchers (his last real threat). Shooting from my Chimeras killed the last Blood Claw, while my Veterans double-timed it to the objective to hold it firm. My tanks opened up on the Long Fangs, doing nothing, and the Command Chimera had a pop at the Grey Hunters... doing nothing.

End Space Wolf Turn 5: This was all his movement. His Warlord cast Iron Armour on himself, making him Strength and Toughness 7, and moved to try and charge my Chimera. He failed. Again. His Long Fangs fired some rockets, but they didn't do anything to the tough armour of Charlie Three.

End Guard Turn 5: I moved my Company Command Squad up to try and get into a position where I could grab the 2 VP objective that was in my centre (now my Left Flank), and moved Charlie One up to take a shot at his Warlord. Shooting from the Chimeras did nothing to the old Wolf, but Leutnant Hahn's lascannon team came up trumps and knocked a wound off him with their second shot of the game, and then Captain Count Geranium's high-velocity, armour-piercing, discarding SABOT, anti-tank shell smashed him apart. After he'd withstood a blast from a HE shell from Charlie Three, that is! Hurrah! With that kill, I took the Slay the Warlord Victory Point, giving me a total of 8 VP to 2. My victory was assured, but the game rolled on for another turn...

End Space Wolf Turn 6: He did his best, but he passed up a chance to kill Captain Steiner with frag rockets in favour of trying to kill the Leman Russes. He didn't. He did, however, knock Charlie Three down to one Hull Point.

End Guard Turn 6: I moved my Company Command Squad to seize the centre objective, giving me another 2 Victory Points and an 8 point lead. Then everything that could shoot, did shoot. Hahn's anti-tank gun missed with a Precision Shot (of course), but between the Veterans, Chimeras and Leman Russes all five rocket-launcher-carrying Long Fangs died. The Command Chimera opened up (again) on the Grey Hunters but they passed all their saves, and with that, the game ended. A heroic victory for Expeditionary Force LEAM!

I couldn't resist taking a shot of the Space Wolf dead pile... I think this is probably one of my best showings with Guard against Marines of any sort, and a far cry from the days of 3rd Edition when I lost an entire 1500 point Guard army to a Marine force that lost one man. To his own overheating plasma gun.

 I was playing at the Leamington Games Club, and there were some other games going on, too.

On the table next to us, two people were playing a game of Warzone (published by Prodoss Games). The blue plastic-resin gives amazingly crisp and sharp models.

And across from us, these two fellows were playing a game of Flames of War, with a beautiful table

Iorek The Unconscious

Saturday was an eventful day. I picked up my copy of the new Codex: Imperial Guard (and Order cards, which will hopefully remind me that I have to give orders at the start of the shooting phase), and began to read it with glee. Then when I got home, it was time for Dragon Age again!

Run by AC, the party consists of Ferryman, an apostate mage, Widget, a city elf rogue-type, and myself, Iorek the Shamed, a dwarf from Kal Sharok who's determined to die a glorious death... and isn't above a spot of criminality, banditry and gold-gathering in the meantime.

We started off by having to try and negotiate a chasm. My first idea - to have Widget use her bow to fire a rope line across the 36 foot gap, then cross and secure it so we could all follow - failed. So then I cut down a tree, and, after falling off it myself (thank the ancestors for safety lines!), and securing it with chocks and ingenuity, we made it across in (mostly) one piece.

Then we hatched a plot with the NPC sorceress who's along for the ride to make some quick gold on top of the money we're going to get for the job we're doing at the moment - escorting some lordling's kiddiewinkies back home safe - and plunged on into, firstly, a Blight Owl, which is an owl the size of a bulldog with chainblades for a face, or something, I don't know, I was just shocked that it was dealing any appreciable damage to my armed and armoured dwarf; and then into a proper combat encounter between three Genlocks (demon footsoldiers), a Hurlock (bigger, tougher, angrier demonic footsoldier) and two Blight Wolves (demon wolves) on the one hand, and our party, two surviving bodyguards and the bloody children on the other.

Fighting the Blight Owl! L-R: Sorceress, Iorek, Ferryman, Widget (in a tree), Blight Owl*

Iorek, so far, has weathered the blows of Hurlocks, Genlocks, Blight Owls, mercenaries, bandits and even a wizard. Iorek has personally killed three Hurlocks, two Genlocks, three bandits, a dog, and a wizard, with his axe. I was feeling confident as I waded into combat with an injured Hurlock.

Then the damn thing smacked Iorek so hard in the face (triple 6 on 3d6 +3 damage = 21 damage, -5 for my armour - 16 damage) that I dropped to 0 hit points, and fell over, unconscious and dying!

Arrrrgh!

Luckily the sorceress managed to stabilise me and get me on my feet again, then Ferryman cast some magic and knitted my broken bones and shattered teeth back together, and I got my revenge by hacking a Genlock down and ending the combat.

But still. I'm even more keen than ever to get hold of that suit of better armour that's being made for me by the blacksmith back at Stenholm...

* Note: Blight Owl represented by a half-demon barbarian warrior with flaming sword. I suspect this is why it did so well.

Victory Over The Cylon

A couple of hectic days have prevented me from updating as often as I'd've liked, but it does mean extra pictures now, so there we go.

On Wednesday evening, the usual crowd (NV, NR, AC, S and I) gathered at mine for a game of Battlestar Galactica. I played Admiral Adama, NV was Starbuck, NR was Tom Zarek, S was Boomer and AC was President Roslin.

I was a Cylon from the off, and all was going well (and nuclear) until NV got to look at my loyalty card, and then spend the rest of the game advertising the fact that I was a Cylon. D'oh. I eventually came out as a Cylon, and then spent several turns being vaguely frustrated that the other Cylon wasn't revealing themselves. It turned out to be S, who exposed herself about three turns too late and we lost. Booo hiss, human victory!

 Admiral Adama reveals himself to be a Cylon after a counter-coup removes the Presidency from him. Oh well. At least he got to use the nuclear missiles!

The painted spaceships really added to the game, which was fantastic. Speaking of painted; I also finished the command squad for my Darendarans:

L-R: Medic (note green armband with winged double helix), vox-specialist, Captain Petretsenko Madupvitc (wearing part of his dress uniform - hussar's pelise and fur hat!); lascannon AT team.

Currently in the painting lineup are the rest of the mortar squad, and a Techpriest Engineseer.

Vorwarts!

Today was an interesting day. First of all, I'd barely been in work half an hour when the shopping centre's alarm sounded (AWOOOGAH, AWOOOGAH, in best Calvin & Hobbes tradition) followed shortly after by our own fire alarm system. So off we all trotted into the glorious early April sunshine, while I fretted about the very hard to replace stuff in my paint-kit that I take to work each day! It turned out to be a duff sprinkler unit, but the excitement didn't wear off for a few hours so that was good.

Then, when I was sat down at lunch happily painting my Darendaran command squad (Yellow Company, Black Battalion, Darendaran X Mech. if you must know), the area manager came in and looked at me somewhat askance. Ah well. It keeps me sane and harms no-one; although he seemed surprised to find me still painting the same figures when he came back 40 minutes later. Well... yes?

Anyway, on my way home, I nipped into the Leamington Games Club to try and pick up the turret heavy flamer that's missing from Blue Platoon Squad 4's Chimera, only to discover that the fellow I was swapping bits with had forgotten it! Ah well. I stopped to chat to Rob, who is one of the glorious lunatics behind Prodos Games, and Will, the manager of GW Leamington Spa. They were about to be engaged in a game of Flames of War, the GW-esque 15mm approach to WW2. I was quite taken by their forces, and when Rob said he wanted to play early war games, I - perhaps foolishly - volunteered to raise a German force to fight his Poles.

I've got time to kill, and I'm quite looking forwards to the idea of a unit of 1939 German Whermacht, with their Pz. Is and IIs, not to mention their 35t and 38t Czechoslovak tanks and other weird and wonderful bits of kit. Peter Pig will, I think, be my first port of call as the prices that Battlefront charge are a bit much in my opinion.

So, today, I discussed Men of Company B, Slaughterloo, Flames of War, and Warhammer 40,000. Today was a good day.

Oh, and here are those Chimeras:

A terrible photo (I really must take more care in future). I'll take a better one tomorrow.

And, just for fun...

...a comparison between an original Darendaran X trooper (left) and one with the newer uniform (right).

Part of my unpainted mountain:

On the left is the full-strength Red Platoon (plus company Commissar); on the right is the under-strength Blue Platoon (still awaiting three rocket launcher teams. Yellow Company Command and most of Red (Weapons) Squad #4 are currently either being painted or undercoated.

All told the Darendaran Tenth number some 90 figures supported by 11 AIFVs, three Sentinel walkers, two Demolisher infantry support tanks, and a Hellhound flame-tank. I'm hoping to get the whole lot painted, based and finished this year. If I only finish one army this year I want it to be the Tenth Mechanised.

Oh, and just for Al Front:

Undercoated!

Of Starbuck And Apollo

I am a notoriously slow painter. This rep has not been helped by my six-month-long possession of the figures for JY's Rackham boardgame (which we've still not played). So when, today, JY bet me his house that I wouldn't finish painting the Raptors, Vipers, Raiders and Heavy Raiders from the BSG boardgame - and bearing in mind I hadn't even undercoated them at this stage - I took him up on it.

Top-Bottom: Raptor scouts (Tau Sept Ochre over Chaos Black), Viper mk II fighters (Ceramite White and Mephiston Red over Chaos Black), Heavy Raiders and Raiders (Ironbreaker Metal? over Chaos Black, with Mephiston Red eyes on the Raiders).

I guess you owe me your house now JY...

In other news, I also gave the three Chimeras a bit of TLC, bringing them (almost) to the stage where I can paint them. I need to liberally coat them in stowage and a bit of camo netting to cover up some bits where the previous owner's been a bit happy with the glue, and the third one needs its turret gun - but I'm hoping to pick one up tomorrow from the Leamington Games Club, so that's not worrying me too much.

I'll supply pictures of those tomorrow. I also finally undercoated my lone Techpriest Engineseer in preparation for the new Codex (I'm probably going to put him in with the Darendarans, as they have a preponderance of vehicles), and undercoated the Company Command Squad and the rest of the Mortar Squad too. I'll be starting the Company Command Squad tomorrow on my lunchbreak.

One Long Weekend Later

So on Saturday I picked up (from work) a parcel containing three Chimeras for my second Darendaran platoon. Two small conversions are required to give two of them hull mounted heavy bolters. The third requires a bit more work - Forgeworld no longer sell the Chimera Heavy Flamer turret that they used to, so I'm going to have to convert one. Which is a bit of a pain. Ah well!

Pictures of those'll be up later I think. I've also paint stripped the company command squad and the rest of Red Platoon's mortar squad. I'm aiming to undercoat them today and try and start painting them too.

On Saturday it was International Tabletop Day, and I hosted a small games night after work - AC, his wife JC, JY and his brother OY, and our friend L all came over and we played Battlestar Galactica: The Boardgame, which the Cylons (who turned out to be AC, JC and OY) won comfortably. It's a very good game indeed, with lots of paranoia and double-bluffing and triple-guessing. I think we could have made a better showing as the humans if we'd picked our characters a bit more sensibly... and if we hadn't had the Armoury knocked out just as the Cylons got a boarding party of Centurions on board!

Early on - I think turn 1 probably. Not long after this was taken we sent President Baltar (JC) to the brig because we were pretty sure she was a Cylon. We were half-right; she turned out to be a Sympathiser. Damn toasters!

A Hat-Trick

Today, after posting some things, I went into GW Solihull and sat down to paint. I put the finishing touches to my three test Darendarans (and jolly nice they look too), and put the base coats onto two Borithan Mechanised Rifle Regiment troopers who will be accompanying my Rigellian LIX into battle.

Then, when I came home, I had a copy of Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game and Awesome Level 9000 waiting for me! I was quite overcome with glee, frankly.

And then my friends and fellow pen-and-paper roleplayers, NV and NR came over to engage in Episode III of my Star Wars D20 campaign, Operation: KHALID. They successfully escaped a Seperatist trap and learnt a few things about themselves that, perhaps, they'd rather not have done. Much fun was had by all.

In the foreground, Eris, Jedi Guardian, has just slain the Sith Acolyte Narshan with a vibrosword plunged through his heart! Unfortunately, Narshan was not, despite his terrifying reveal, the real danger...

Another Post?

Yes, something approaching normal service has begun. Today was Al Front's birthday; I got him a copy of David Beauchard's graphic novel Black Paths, about an ex-Arditi man in Fiume with D'Annunzio, and my partner got him an Airfix Gladiator I. Hopefully the Gladiator will show up on his blog in the future.

Today I received some more little metal soldiers in the post:

A Valhallan Heavy Bolter team (who were mint in blister when they arrived from Sweden!) courtesy of fellow Warseer forumite SDKFZ, now destined for the Darendaran X Mechanised.

A Valhallan sergeant from eBay, who'll soon have his bolt pistol replaced with an autopistol before he takes command of a squad of Darendarans.

And... from the foundries of Ground Zero Games... the last figures needed for my European Federation Armed Forces infantry platoon!

Oh, and I also finished painting my test models for the Darendarans. Well, I say finished - I need to paint the nosecone on the mortar shell red (for fragmentation) and I'm still umming and ahhing over whether or not to give them Medusa V patches. They fought well for me in Battle Zone Edethor during Op. Rolling Thunder (winning me the Macharian Cross and the Star of Terra), and I feel the need to commemorate their role in that with the patches - golden shields (Battle Group Imperators Aegis) with black swords (Army Group Gladius).

A few more models down; the lead mountain shrinks again...!

Photos!

OK, so this has been a long time coming.

I've painted a lot this year, but I haven't documented much, if any, of it. But that's alright, meine lieblings, as now - we begin anew!

Today I received in the post this fine little fellow in his egg-on-legs fighting machine:

 Sentinel scout walker with multi-laser (or assault cannon with the ammo feeding up from within the nose).

 With the platoon sergeant for scale.

Platoon medical officer with his shotgun. A conversion using modern tank crew arms, a Necromunda shotgun and the 1980s vintage medic figure!

This chap will go with my tiny Rogue Trader era Imperial Army force (the Syrtis 72nd/Mercian Yeomanry). I am hoping to bring it "up" to a tiny patrol force - 25 men, the sentinel, and perhaps a jetbike or even a landspeeder if I can find such a thing!

But, crazy long-term projects aside, the much-anticipated (at least by me) release of the 6th Edition Codex: Imperial Guard* has spurred me on to try and get at least one of my five Guard armies finished.

In order of 'completeness' they are:

FIBUA: Parvassian 9th Dragoons - "just" need painting,
Ice World: Darendaran 10th Mechanised - three rocket launcher teams, a vox-man, and a Demolisher to get (then paint),
Temperate: Rigellian 59th Motorised - four of the new Taurox APCs, and a hunt for my old RH1N0 to use as a command vehicle, plus a Chimera, are required for this lot,
Desert: Drokharan Taureg Legion, 7th Ashkar - not entirely sure what's needed, but painting them would help;
Jungle: 5th Amalgamated Regiment - the least developed of the lot! Needs lots of infantry, not to mention the Ogryns.

I also want a Valkyrie (to be assigned to whatever army needs it during games - it's Imperial Navy after all), and a squad of the new Stormtroopers too.

At the moment, because obviously working on the easiest to complete army is a damn fool thing to do, I'm developing a new paint scheme for the Darendarans. And, incredibly, I'm writing down the steps. Which means I can replicate it forever! Hurrah!

Now, it's very late, and I need to go to bed. So I will. Expect an update before the week's out, with pictures of Darendarans...